THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 GIFT 
 
 IN MEMORY OF 
 
 PROFESSOR WILLIAM MERRILL 
 
 AND 
 MRS. IMOGENE MERRILL 
 

 
"Oh, you re alive!" she cried. "You re alive!" 
 
 [PAGE 358] 
 
EXTRICATING 
 O BAD I AH 
 
 By JOSEPH C. LINCOLN 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 "Mary Gusta," "Thankful s Inheritance, 
 "Kent Knowles, Quahaug," Etc. 
 
 With Frontispiece 
 By WALT LOUDERBACK 
 
 A. L. BURT COMPANY 
 Publishers New York 
 
 Published by arrangement with D. APPLETON & COMPANY 
 
r 
 
 COPYWGHT, IQI7, BY 
 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 
 
 Printed in the United States of America 
 
qer 
 
 L131 
 
 .* 
 
 EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 DINNER at the Mansion House was over. The 
 smells of fried "plaice-fish," fried potatoes, fried 
 onions, fried doughnuts and fried "turnovers" 
 were a trifle less pervasive in the parlor, now that the 
 dining room door was shut. On the porch the aroma 
 had changed to that of strong tobacco smoked in stronger 
 pipes. From the direction of the kitchen came the sound 
 of washing dishes. 
 
 Yes, dinner at the Mansion House was over. Mrs. 
 Euphemia Hobbs, hostess of the establishment, declared 
 to Miss Ethelinda Doane, who washed dishes and waited 
 on the table, that she was thankful for it. "I m always 
 thankful," said Mrs. Hobbs, "when another meal s done 
 with and out of the way." Miss Doane said that she, 
 too, was thankful. 
 
 "I try to be thankful for whatever comes along in 
 this world," she added, "but sometimes a person s thank 
 fulness gets an awful jolt. I ve always been thankful 
 that I had a pretty name. I think Ethelinda s real sort 
 of cute and pretty, don t you, Mis 5 Hobbs? Um-hm. 
 Well, t other day I happened to hear Mr. Clifford talkin 
 at the table and he said every person s name meant some- 
 
 I 
 
 MC36V98 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 thin ; twas took from some furrin language and had a 
 meanin . I asked him what Ethelinda meant and he said 
 if I looked where it said Names of Women in the back 
 of the big dictionary I could find out ; said the language 
 twas took from would be in what he called brackets 
 right alongside of it. So I went and looked in your dic 
 tionary in the parlor I know you wouldn t care, Mis 
 Hobbs and, sure enough, I found it. I kind of hoped 
 it might mean lovely or beautiful or true, or some- 
 thin like that; there was a lot of em that did. But 
 what d you suppose it did mean?" 
 
 "I don t know, I m sure," said the landlady, absently. 
 "Look out for that platter, Linda ; you ll have it onto the 
 floor in a minute." 
 
 "No, no, I shan t neither. I m hangin onto it just as 
 careful. Well, I guess you don t know what that name 
 meant, Mis Hobbs! \Vhen I see it I pretty nigh give 
 up. It means noble snake/ " 
 
 "Noble which?" 
 
 "Noble snake. My-y soul! And for anybody hatin* 
 snakes the way I do! If I see one a mile off a body 
 could hear me yell to glory. But to be named after one, 
 and a noble one, too. My-y soul ! But there twas, right 
 in black and white. And the language twas took from 
 was the Tee-utt language." 
 
 "The what language, for mercy sakes?" 
 
 "The Tee-utt language. Any way that s how it was 
 spelt inside them brackets T-E-U-T. / never heard of 
 it, did you, Mis Hobbs?" 
 
 "No, I m sartin sure I never did." 
 
 "Neither did I. Sounds like some kind of Indian talk 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 to me. But to be called after a noble snake! Noble 
 that means a critter about nine foot long, I presume 
 likely. Ain t that the worst! I m goin to ask Mr. Clif 
 ford about that Tee-utt language soon s ever I get a 
 chance. . . . Oh, my land! did that plate break? Why, 
 I put it down just as easy. Must have been awful ten 
 der, seems to me. I m so sorry, but twan t my fault, 
 was it, Mis Hobbs? Findin out you re named for a 
 snake makes anybody terrible nervous. You don t car- 
 late Mr. Clifford knew Ethelinda meant noble snake/ 
 do you, Mis Hobbs?" 
 
 Lack of breath caused Miss Doane to pause just here, 
 which afforded her employer an opportunity to express 
 her opinion of the plate breaking and of Ethelinda s care 
 lessness in general. Ethelinda replied, of course; if she 
 had failed to reply at any time and to any remark those 
 who knew her well would have been tempted to send 
 for the doctor. Mrs. Hobbs was, herself, by no means 
 taciturn, so the subject was most effectually changed, and 
 neither the "noble snake" nor Mr. Clifford was again 
 mentioned during the dish washing. 
 
 Meanwhile, the gentleman responsible for the re 
 search in "Tee-utt" nomenclature was standing on the top 
 step of the porch, smoking an after-dinner cigar. Upon 
 one point he was in perfect agreement with the landlady 
 and her helper he, too, was glad that dinner was over. 
 He had been as glad when breakfast was at an end ; he 
 knew he should be equally pleased when supper was fin 
 ished. The conclusion of a meal at the Mansion House 
 was, to Irving Clifford, a time for mild rejoicing; it 
 
 3 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 was a satisfaction to feel that he would not be called 
 upon to face another for several hours at least. 
 
 He stood there upon the porch smoking and thinking. 
 It was a fine October day, clear and cool. The sky was 
 blue, the sea a deeper blue, the fields and hills brown 
 or gray in their autumn dressing. In summer they were 
 green, but now the grass was dead, the leaves of the bay- 
 berry and beach-plum bushes fallen, the reeds at the edges 
 of the ponds broken and rusty. Only the clumps of 
 pines, scattered here and there over the knolls behind 
 the houses bordering Trumet s main street, flared green 
 and bright, defying the coming winter. The street itself 
 was almost empty of life. In July and August Trumet 
 was a gay village and at this time of day the sidewalks 
 would have been decorated with groups of summer peo 
 ple, radiant in flannels and sport suits, bound for the 
 post office and the noon mail. Now there was no one, 
 or at the most only an occasional someone. The group 
 of two or three "regular boarders" seated on the Man 
 sion House porch behind Mr. Clifford carefully noted 
 each passer-by. It was not often that they could enjoy 
 the privilege of sitting on the piazza in October. Cape 
 Cod Octobers are usually too chilly for that. 
 
 Captain Ezekiel Penniman, retired shipmaster, now 
 selectman and person of consequence, leaned forward 
 in his chair and looked, as he would have said, a point 
 or two up to wind ard. 
 
 "Who s that comin along?" he demanded, addressing 
 the company in general. "Some of you young folks with 
 deadlights that s fit to see through tell me who that is." 
 
 The only young person on the porch was Mr. Clifford. 
 
 4 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 The others, besides Captain Penniman himself, were old 
 Mr. Laban Bassett, commonly called "Uncle Labe," and 
 Mr. Peleg Bearse, the fish peddler. Their "deadlights" 
 were no more reliable than the captain s. 
 
 "Don t ask me, Zeke," said Uncle Labe. "My eyes 
 ain t no good more n ten foot off nowadays. Ask Peleg, 
 maybe he can tell you." 
 
 "Huh!" grunted Mr. Bearse, disgustedly, "don t ask 
 me nothin just now. I busted my spectacles yesterday 
 and since then I ve sold my fish by guess and by god- 
 freys more n I have by sight. I can tell a plaice-fish 
 from a cod cause they ain t the same shape, but when 
 it comes to tellin a cod from a haddock, there you ve 
 got me. All I can see is that somebody s comin up 
 street two somebodys, nigh s I can make out. Who 
 be they, I wonder ?" 
 
 Mr. Clifford, thus addressed, looked in the direction 
 indicated. 
 
 "One of them," he said, "is Mr. Griggs Mr. Balaam 
 Griggs. The other is a stranger to me." 
 
 "Eh? A stranger?" Captain Penniman leaned for 
 ward ; so, too, did "Uncle Labe" and Peleg. 
 
 "A stranger, eh?" exclaimed the latter. "I want to 
 know! What sort of a lookin feller is he, I wonder? 
 Never mind, they ll be abreast here in a minute. Then 
 I can see for myself." 
 
 The stranger, on closer inspection, proved to be a little 
 man, dressed in what was obviously a brand-new suit 
 of clothes, topped by a brand-new hat. He walked be 
 side Mr. Griggs, looking up into the latter s face and 
 talking eagerly. Mr. Griggs was long-legged and thin 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 and his companion s gait was almost a trot in the effort 
 to keep up. As the pair came abreast the Mansion 
 House Mr. Griggs was speaking. 
 
 "You leave it to me, Mr. Burgess," he was heard to 
 say. "You leave it to me, sir. I take a pride in such 
 things and it won t be no trouble at all for me to do 
 it for you. You just leave :t to me and " 
 
 They passed out of hearing. Captain Penniman 
 nodded. 
 
 "Ya-as," he drawled, "you leave it to him and you 
 won t have much left yourself, I cal late. Who in time 
 has Balaam got in tow now?" 
 
 Uncle Labe shook his head. "Burgess Burgess," he 
 repeated. "Where have I heard that name lately? 
 Humph ! Burgess ?" 
 
 "Say!" Mr. Bearse evidently had an idea. "Say," 
 he cried, "I wonder if tain t the feller that owns the 
 Badscom place downtown there, the one that lives up 
 to Wapatomac and has had that place willed onto him. 
 Seems to me I heard he was expected down most any 
 day now, and Mirandy Hedge s girl has been in there 
 cleanin house. I wouldn t wonder if twas him, I 
 snum if I would! Mirandy give out that that feller s 
 name was Birdgrass or some such foolishness, but she 
 never gets nothin straight. Burgess humph! I ll bet 
 that s who tis." 
 
 Captain Zeke sniffed. "Well," he observed, "if Bale 
 Griggs has got him in his claws, he won t have nothin 
 much but his name in a week or so. Of all the con- 
 trivin schemin old What are you kickin me for, 
 Labe? Can t you keep your feet to home?" 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "II wasn t kickin you, Zeke," protested Mr. Bassett, 
 hastily. "I was was just crossin my knees, that s all." 
 
 "Crossin* your knees! Crossin telegraph poles! 
 What was your knees doin way over here in the next 
 county? 1 Eh? Oh!" 
 
 Both Uncle Labe and Mr. Bearse had winked ex 
 pressively and jerked their heads in the direction of 
 Irving Clifford. Captain Zeke saw a light. 
 
 "Urn yes, yes," he said slowly. "It s a nice day, 
 ain t it. Coin back on the job so soon, are you, Irve? 
 Back to the cold-storage so quick?" 
 
 Clifford, who was at the foot of the steps, turned as 
 he answered. 
 
 "I m not going directly back to the storage plant, Cap 
 tain," he said. "I have an errand over at the machine 
 shop in South Trumet. I had at first intended asking 
 Seth Bailey to take me over in his car, but the fine 
 weather has tempted me and I think I shall walk." 
 
 The three "regular boarders" stared at him in amaze 
 ment. 
 
 "Walk?" repeated Captain Penniman. 
 
 "Walk!" exclaimed Uncle Labe. "Why, how you 
 talk!" 
 
 "Walk !" cried Peleg. "Man alive, don t you know it s 
 all of three mile?" 
 
 Clifford laughed. 
 
 "You fellows down here might almost as well have 
 no feet," he said. "You never use them to take you 
 anywhere. You ride, if it is only to call on a neighbor." 
 
 Captain Zeke shook his head. "Well," he observed, "I 
 cal late I wouldn t have no feet if I walked six miles on 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 em in one afternoon; cal late I d wear my legs down to 
 stubs, if I did that. However, don t let my legs inter 
 fere with yours. Heave ahead and walk your six mile, 
 if you want to." 
 
 The young man laughed again. 
 
 "Evidently you don t believe in exercise, Captain/ he 
 said. 
 
 "Yes, I do for other folks. Why don t you walk 
 another six mile for me and Labe and Peleg? That 
 kind of exercise might do us good ; eh, boys ?" 
 
 The fish peddler and his companion doubled up in 
 hilarious appreciation, and Irving Clifford waved his 
 hand in farewell and strode away down the path to 
 the gate. Uncle Labe peered after him. 
 
 "Humph!" he grunted. "He s goin to the east ard, 
 ain t he? How s he cal latin to get to South Trumet 
 that way?" 
 
 Mr. Bearse answered. "Wa-al," he drawled, "he can 
 get there that way by goin around the lower road, I 
 presume likely." 
 
 "The lower road ! Yes, so can a feller get to the 
 North Pole by goin south, I cal late, but he d have to 
 travel clear around the world to do it. Why, the lower 
 road s another three-quarters of a mile, good, out of his 
 way." 
 
 Captain Zeke grinned. "Maybe so," he observed, "but 
 if he went straight, same as you and I d go, Labe, Ba 
 laam Griggs house would be three-quarters of a mile 
 out of that way, wouldn t it?" 
 
 Peleg chuckled and looked wise. Uncle Labe rubbed 
 his chin. 
 
 8 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "I see," he said. "Yes, yes, I see. Mary Barstow, 
 eh?" 
 
 "Sartin sure. Can t you remember the time, Uncle 
 Labe, when it took more n three-quarters of a mile of 
 walkin to keep you from your girl ? I can, if you can t." 
 
 "I can remember that all right, Zeke Penniman, old 
 as I be. But how do you know there s anythin in all 
 this talk? Why should a smart, likely, promisin young 
 engineer feller like Irve Clifford be hangin around 
 Balaam Griggs stepdarter? Tain t for money; Mary, nor 
 nobody else, 11 ever get a cent of that, long s Balaam 
 lives. For gettin cash and hangin onto it he beats any 
 body ever 7 see." 
 
 The captain nodded. 
 
 "I wouldn t trust Bale Griggs spirit on the golden 
 streets up aloft," he observed ; "not if the pavement was 
 anyways loose, I wouldn t. But Irve Clifford ain t after 
 no Griggs money. If he s after anything of Balaam s, 
 it s the stepdaughter. Mary Barstow s pretty and she s 
 a mighty nice, smart, able girl. If Irve gets her for a 
 wife, he ll get a good one. I don t know s he wants her, 
 or she him, but there s been consider ble town talk lately." 
 
 "One thing makes me think there may be somethin in 
 it," put in Bearse, "is the way Balaam acts. He s as 
 cranky as all get-out. All you ve got to do is heave out 
 a hint about Irvin Clifford takin consider ble many 
 walks down the lower road lately and away goes Balaam 
 up in the air, hollerin out that it s all a passel of lies. 
 What makes him so anxious to call it a lie if it ain t 
 the truth ? Most of his own truth is lies, I know that." 
 
 Mr. Bassett borrowed a match from Captain Zeke* 
 
 9 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 relit his pipe and said: "You can t tell much by that, 
 Peleg. Balaam acts the same way whenever anybody 
 gets beauin around Mary. You d think he d want to get 
 her married and off his hands, she bein a stepdarter and 
 with no money fur s anybody knows ; but he don t act as 
 if he did. Just mention Mary Barstow s name along 
 with some feller s and Balaam gets sorer n a stubbed 
 toe. I can t understand it, and neither can a whole pile 
 of folks. But I ll tell him this for his own good he 
 won t find any better young chap than Irvin Clifford. 
 He s one chance in a thousand, that s what he is." 
 
 At that moment Mr. Clifford, quite unconscious that 
 he and his most personal feelings and aspirations were 
 subjects of discussion, was turning from the main road 
 into the lower road. The corner of the main and lower 
 roads is Trumet s business center. Snow s "Dry Goods, 
 Notions and General Store" is there, and Lathrop s 
 "Drugs, Toilet Articles, Ice Cream, Soda and Cigars," 
 and Wixon s "Boots, Shoes, Rubbers, Corn, Hay and 
 Feed." The post office used to be there before the change 
 of administration switched it from Mr. Hezekiah 
 Wixon s lingering grasp and bestowed it upon Philander 
 Cahoon a half mile to the "west ard." 
 
 In summer the corner is a busy place, but in October 
 it, like the rest of the town, is quiet and almost deserted. 
 Irving Clifford saw no one as he turned into the lower 
 road, but at least four pairs of eyes saw him, eyes peer 
 ing from the windows of the various stores, and four 
 tongues made sarcastic observations concerning his 
 probable destination. It may be true that Love is blind ; 
 it seems to be equally true that all the rest of creation 
 
 10 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 has its eyes wide open to watch the sightless god upon 
 his way. 
 
 The lower road, at first bordered by the usual story- 
 and-a-half Cape Cod houses, with thick red chimneys and 
 green blinds, curves away to the south and southwest 
 until, after about a mile of curving, it rejoins the main 
 road again at Eldridge s Corner at the western end of 
 the village. For the most part its way lies over the hills 
 and along the bluffs bordering the bay, and land on the 
 bay front, once worthless except for pasture, is now val 
 uable as the site of summer homes. 
 
 Irving Clifford strode briskly along the lower road 
 until he reached the foot of the slight eminence known 
 locally as "Knowles Hill." At the crest of this hill on 
 the landward side stood a good-sized white house, sur 
 rounded by a picket fence, and with two big silver-leaf 
 trees in its front yard. A dingy sign attached to the 
 picket fence read: "Balaam H. Griggs. Real Estate, 
 Insurance, Money Loaned on Mortgages, etc., etc. Gen 
 uine Antiques Bought and Sold." At the bottom of this 
 sign a pasteboard placard was nailed, upon which was 
 lettered in black crayon the words: "FRONT DOOR 
 LOCKED. Come Round Back." 
 
 It might have been noticed in fact, it was noticed by 
 Miss Sarepta Hatch, nearest neighbor on the right, and 
 Mrs. Elvira Ginn, nearest neighbor on the left that, 
 as Mr. Clifford approached the foot of Knowles Hill, 
 his hitherto brisk stride became a trifle slower. It 
 slowed still more as he climbed the hill until, when he 
 reached the center of the sidewalk before the house with 
 the white picket fence, it had become very slow indeed. 
 2 ii 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 Also it might have been and was noticed that the 
 young man s glance seemed to rest wistfully, almost 
 hopefully, upon the side door of the white house. And 
 then that door opened and a young woman came out. 
 
 She did not appear to be aware of Mr. Clifford s 
 proximity; in fact, she was almost at the gate in the 
 picket fence when she raised her eyes and saw him. And 
 she was, plainly, very much surprised to see him. And 
 it was equally plain that he was very much surprised to 
 see her. 
 
 "Why, Miss Barstow!" he exclaimed. "Good after 
 noon !" 
 
 Miss Barstow was just a little confused, but she smiled 
 an operation distinctly not unpleasant to witness and 
 held out her hand. 
 
 "Why, good afternoon, Mr. Clifford," she said. "You 
 did decide to do it, after all, then?" 
 
 Clifford shook hands with her and opened the gate. 
 
 "Yes," he said, closing it after she had come out, "I 
 decided to walk. It was such a beautiful day I couldn t 
 resist the temptation. I came around this way because 
 er because it made the walk a little longer, you see. 
 And you you were going for a walk, too?" 
 
 They fell into step and, quite oblivious of the fact that 
 a window pane in Miss Sarepta Hatch s residence and 
 one in the front hall of the house occupied by Mrs. 
 Elvira Ginn were flattening the noses of eager watchers, 
 walked onward together. Miss Barstow s eyes were 
 brown and their lashes were long and brown, and the 
 cool breeze from the bay fluttered a strand of her brown 
 hair so that the October sunlight shining through it made 
 
 12 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 it look like spun silk, or threads of gold, or something 
 else equally shining and fascinating and pretty. All of 
 which Irving Clifford may or may not have noticed. 
 
 "Yes," she said, answering his question, "I couldn t re 
 sist the day, either. I had that errand up at the dress 
 maker s and, although Mr. Griggs told me I had better 
 harness the horse, I decided to walk. You remember I 
 told you I thought I might." 
 
 "Oh, yes, so you did. I remember you said something 
 about it." 
 
 "Yes, I did. And you spoke of walking all the way 
 to South Trumet. But of course I didn t think you 
 meant it." 
 
 Now that very morning, after breakfast, at the post 
 office, these two young people had met by chance, and 
 there Miss Barstow had spoken of her errand to the 
 dressmaker s and of her intention of walking instead of 
 riding, and that she should probably start for the walk 
 about half-past one that afternoon. And Mr. Clifford 
 had suddenly discovered that it was a beautiful day for 
 walking and that he might walk to South Trumet that 
 same afternoon. And, although neither of them men 
 tioned it, both were aware that Miss Carrie Cahoon, the 
 dressmaker, lived on the South Trumet road about half 
 a mile from the village. And now, when all this con 
 versation had, according to the admissions of both sides, 
 been, if not forgotten, at least not taken seriously, they 
 had met almost at the hour named, half -past one, and 
 were walking together. Amazing coincidence. 
 
 They talked of the weather, of course, and of other 
 equally safe and sane topics. Miss Barstow asked how 
 
 13 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 the work at the new cold-storage plant was progressing. 
 She supposed they would be installing the engines pretty 
 soon. Mr. Clifford said that only portions of the en 
 gines had arrived as yet, and that the installation would 
 not begin for at least a fortnight. 
 
 "How long will it take?" asked the young lady. 
 
 "I don t know," was the answer. "I presume it will be 
 necessary for me to be here in Trumet for nine or ten 
 months more, perhaps. Ten months should finish the 
 plant and give me time enough to test it, I should say." 
 
 "Oh, and then where will you go?" 
 
 "I don t know. Wherever the firm sends me, I sup 
 pose. I m not anxious to go anywhere. If the railroad 
 people lost the engines in transit and it took a year to 
 find them, I should bear up under it." 
 
 "Really ! Why ? Don t you like your work, Mr. Clif 
 ford?" 
 
 "Like it? I m crazy about it. I wouldn t do anything 
 else for any amount of money. I didn t mean what I 
 said exactly, Miss Barstow. Of course, I shouldn t want 
 the engines to be lost and I do mean to get my job here 
 finished on time, but " 
 
 "But what?" 
 
 "I m not very anxious to leave Trumet, that s all." 
 
 This remark seemed to put a stop to conversation for 
 a moment. When Miss Barstow next spoke it was con 
 cerning a different subject. They had reached the next 
 hill on the lower road. It was a higher hill than 
 "Knowles ," and from its top there was an expansive 
 view of bay and shore, stretching for miles in either di 
 rection. Upon the water side of the road, standing in 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 a good-sized plot of ground, was an old-fashioned, ram 
 bling house, much out of repair. It had been in its day 
 a very roomy, comfortable house, and the possibilities 
 for comfort were in and about it even yet ; but the white 
 wash was peeling from the shingle^, the shingles them 
 selves, some of them, were dropping off, here and there 
 a blind hung on one hinge, and the dead grass and weeds 
 in the yard were a foot high. The house looked as if it 
 had been shut up for years, as, in fact, it had. But now 
 a door and several windows were open and smoke was 
 rising from the kitchen chimney. 
 
 "It will seem good to see that house open," said Mary 
 Barstow. "It has been closed ever since I came here to 
 Trumet to live. When I was a little girl I used to be 
 frightened to go by it at night, it looked so deserted and 
 spooky. But as I grew older I came to like it, rather. 
 It seems so so what shall I say? homey, or as if it 
 ought to be made a home again. I like the way it is 
 spread out, long and low, you know ; and the way all the 
 ells and extensions and barns and henhouses cuddle up 
 to it. I am ever so glad it is going to be opened and 
 lived in. I only hope the new owner won t improve it 
 too much, not enough to spoil it, anyway/* 
 
 "Who is the new owner?" asked Clifford. 
 
 "His name is Burgess ; and his Christian name is as 
 queer as well, almost as queer as my stepfather s. It is 
 Obadiah Obadiah Burgess. Haven t you heard of his 
 falling heir to the old Badscom place and coming here to 
 live?" 
 
 Irving nodded. "Yes," he said, "I have. I heard 
 something about it, although I paid little attention. But 
 
 15 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 I think I saw Mr. Burgess. A little chap, isn t he ; with 
 a sort of round, red, moony face and grayish hair?" 
 
 "That is Mr. Burgess. Did you meet him ? He came 
 only yesterday." 
 
 "No, I didn t meet Aim. I saw him on the street just 
 now. At least Mr. Peleg Bearse said it was he. He was 
 with Mr. Griggs your father/ 
 
 Again there was a momentary silence. It seemed to 
 Clifford as if his companion looked troubled; but she 
 said: "Yes, I believe Mr. Griggs is attending to some 
 business matters for him. Isn t this a wonderful after 
 noon ? See how clear everything is. See that schooner s 
 sails, so clean-cut against the sky, and yet her hull is 
 below the horizon." 
 
 But Irving Clifford did not mean to be sidetracked by 
 the clearness of the atmosphere or the beauty of the 
 view. The dressmaker s house, Miss Barstow s destina 
 tion, was not so far ahead they had passed the corner 
 and were now on the main road and there was some 
 thing he wished to say before they reached there. So he 
 summoned his courage and began : 
 
 "Miss Barstow," he said, "I hope you ll forgive me 
 for saying this, but it has troubled me a little, and I 
 determined to ask you about it. It may be my fancy, 
 but it has seemed to me of late that your father doesn t 
 doesn t well, as if he had a sort of prejudice against 
 me. Almost as if he disliked me. Have you noticed it?" 
 
 For just a moment she hesitated. Then she said: "I 
 am not sure that I know what you mean, Mr. Clifford. 
 I didn t think you and my father were well acquainted/ 
 
 "Why, we re not, you know, not very well acquainted. 
 
 16 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 I we ll, to be frank, he doesn t seem to care for my ac 
 quaintance. On the last two or three occasions when we 
 have met he has scarcely spoken to me. I couldn t im 
 agine how I had offended him. I can t yet Can you, 
 Miss Barstow?" 
 
 Again she was silent for a moment; then she said: 
 
 "Mr. Griggs is somewhat peculiar, as perhaps you have 
 noticed or heard." 
 
 He had heard at least that. In fact, of all the stories 
 of Balaam Griggs, his characteristics, manners and meth 
 ods he had heard since he came to Trumet, not one was 
 to Balaam s credit. And he knew she must, to some ex 
 tent, be aware of this. Yet he tried to make his answer 
 as diplomatic as possible. 
 
 "I have heard," he said, "that he was er eccentric." 
 
 "Yes, he is. He has few friends ; says he doesn t care 
 for them." 
 
 "Humph ! that s odd ; I m sorry." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 "Yes, why? Do you wish to become a friend of his?" 
 
 This was a direct question, certainly. Irving Clifford 
 was surprised and rather embarrassed. But he would 
 not help smiling. 
 
 "Well," he answered, "since you ask me so very 
 plainly, I don t know that I do, particularly. If Mr. 
 Griggs wishes to dodge my acquaintance he has that 
 privilege, I suppose. But I do value your friendship, 
 Miss Barstow, and because I do and hope that it may 
 continue I shall be sorry if your father s eccentricity 
 takes the form of dislike to me." 
 
 17 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 They had reached the whitewashed fence, the gate of 
 which supported the sign: "Miss Caroline Cahoon, 
 Modiste and Dressmaker. Plain and Fancy Sewing 
 Done Here or Out by the Day." Mary paused, her hand 
 on the gate. She seemed to be considering, to be mak 
 ing up her mind. When she spoke it was evident that 
 that mind was made up. 
 
 "Mr. Clifford," she said, quietly, "you know, of course, 
 that Mr. Griggs is not my own father, my real father." 
 
 "Yes ; yes, I knew that he was your stepfather. I had 
 been told so." 
 
 "He is. My own father died when I was a little girl. 
 My mother married Mr. Griggs while I was away at 
 school, and I remained at that school until just before 
 her death, four years ago. During her last illness I 
 came here to her home Mr. Griggs home and I have 
 been here ever since. My mother asked me to stay here 
 with him, for a time at least, and I have done as she 
 asked. 
 
 "I am telling you this," she added, "because I want 
 to make plain to to all my friends that my stepfather s 
 personal prejudices do not influence me in any way, 
 either in my feelings or my acts. Mother asked me to 
 stay here with him and make him a home as long as I 
 felt it right to do so. That I have done and am doing, 
 but my friendships are my own. Good afternoon, Mr. 
 Clifford. I have enjoyed the walk ever so much." 
 
 She entered the dressmaker s yard. Irving Clifford 
 resumed his walk, his head high and his spirits equally 
 so. What did he care for the eccentricities or preju 
 dices of Balaam Griggs? If he had met the dealer in 
 
 18 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 real estate, insurance and mortgages just then he would 
 have felt like snapping his fingers in the latter s face. 
 
 So he walked on, increasing his pace and whistling 
 cheerfully. As he left Trumet behind him the houses 
 were more widely scattered and there were stretches of 
 woods, pines and scrub oaks. The road became more 
 winding and crooked and the hills and hollows more fre 
 quent. In summer, particularly on Saturday or Sunday, 
 there would have been a procession of automobiles on 
 that road ; now, in October, there were very few. 
 
 He had covered perhaps two of the three miles sepa 
 rating South Trumet from its parent town when he 
 heard the raucous squawk of a motor horn. The sound 
 seemed to come from beyond the summit of the hill on 
 the road before him. The hill was rather high and long, 
 for a Cape Cod specimen, and the road, curving gently 
 upward to its top, disappeared behind a clump of sturdy 
 old pines, their foliage feathery and green against the 
 afternoon sky. At the foot of the slope, beside and to 
 the left of the road and almost opposite where Clifford 
 was walking at that moment, was a hollow and a little 
 pond, the latter perhaps fifty yards in width. Between 
 the road and the pond was a stretch of rickety rail fence. 
 
 The squawking of the motor horn was so loud and in 
 sistent that Clifford looked up the slope with some inter 
 est, wondering what sort of vehicle might be attached to 
 that horn and why its progress was announced with such 
 preliminary trumpetings. He expected to see at least a 
 seven-passenger limousine shoot from behind the clump 
 of pines and descend the hill at a speed of seventy miles 
 an hour. 
 
 19 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 But the car which did appear was not a limousine. It 
 was a runabout containing a single passenger. The pas 
 senger, who was also the driver, was a man, and he was 
 humped over the steering wheel, his elbows well out and 
 his hat on the back of his head. Clifford had little time 
 to observe what the man looked like; his attention was 
 centered on the car itself. The latter was small and 
 "tinny," also it glittered in the sunshine as only a very 
 new car can glitter. It turned the corner by the pines 
 to the accompaniment of brazen squawkings and came 
 down the hill, gathering speed as it came. It edged over 
 toward the right-hand side of the road until the watcher 
 at the foot of the hill feared he might be crowded off the 
 highway altogether. Then with a violent jerk it shot 
 diagonally across to the left, where in turn it was yanked 
 from the very edge of destruction and sent to the right 
 again. 
 
 Clifford, standing in the middle of the road below, was 
 very anxious to get out of the way of this erratic 
 equipage, but there was some difficulty in knowing which 
 way to jump. If he went to the left, the car was just 
 as likely to go there too, and the right was equally dan 
 gerous. However, a sudden swoop of the approaching 
 motor to the right decided him, and to the left he sprang, 
 shouting a warning as he did so. 
 
 The shout reached the ears of the driver, apparently, 
 for he looked up from the macadam directly at the end 
 of the radiator, the spot upon which his gaze had hith 
 erto been fixed as if glued, and saw the fellow human 
 in his path. Then he, too, shouted, or roared, or bel 
 lowed, and, twisting his body to one side, turned the 
 
 20 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 steering wheel with it. The runabout swerved sharply 
 to the left, Clifford leaping out of its way just in time, 
 crossed the road, smashed headlong through the rickety 
 rail fence and splashed hub deep into the little pond, 
 where it stopped short. 
 
 Irving, as soon as his bewildered senses were able to 
 grasp the situation at all, jumped over the splintered 
 ruins of the fence and ran to the rescue. The auto, sur 
 rounded by agitated rings of mud and water, seemed to 
 be safe enough. At any rate, it was standing on its 
 four wheels. As for its driver, he, too, appeared to be 
 safe and sound. Clifford, who unheedingly had run 
 ankle deep into the mud and water himself, voiced his 
 anxiety in a hail : 
 
 "Are you hurt?" he asked. 
 
 The man in the auto turned a red and somewhat dazed 
 face in his direction. It was a big face, for he was a 
 big man, and there were strands of iron-gray hair tum 
 bled across the forehead, and a gray-sprinkled, pointed 
 chin beard and mustache. It was a strong face, one 
 which looked as if it had faced many climates, many 
 weathers and many different kinds of human beings. 
 Clifford, of course, noted all this later; just then he no 
 ticed very little except that the man himself appeared to 
 be uninjured. 
 
 "Eh?" gasped the stranger in the auto. 
 
 "I say, are you hurt?" repeated Irving. 
 
 "Eh? Hurt? No, I guess I ain t, but I ain t sartin. 
 I wouldn t swear to nothin definite just this minute. 
 You re the feller that was there in the road off my bows, 
 v/an t you? Are you hurt?" 
 
 21 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "Not a bit. I m sorry I startled you. I yelled and 
 tried to get out of your way, but " 
 
 That s all right; that s all right." He looked Mr. 
 Clifford over and a smile twitched the corner of his lip. 
 "As for gettin out of my way," he added, "your inten 
 tions was all right, son, but your judgment was bad. 
 You d ought to have stayed right in the middle of the 
 channel. I ve hit most everywhere since I left Province- 
 town in this dratted thing, but I ain t hit the middle of 
 the road yet. Where am I, anyhow?" 
 
 He peered over the side of the car. Then he shook 
 his head. 
 
 "Water, ain t it?" he demanded. "Blessed if it ain t 
 water ! Tut ! tut ! Son, is there any other pond or water 
 hole within two mile of here?" 
 
 Clifford laughed; he could not help it. "So far as I 
 know this is the only one," he said. 
 
 "/ bet you ! And I got into it ! If there s any water, 
 salt or fresh, on top of this earth anywhere you can 
 most generally cal late on my gettin in it or on it. 
 Twas some prophet in our family that named me Noah. 
 . . . Well, son," he added, after another look over the 
 side of the auto, "what do you think? Is the Ark 
 stranded for keeps here on Ararat; or can I kedge 
 her off?" 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 THE term "kedge her off" did not convey a great 
 deal of meaning to Irving Clifford s mind, but 
 he had spent sufficient time in Captain Zeke Penni- 
 man s society to realize that nautical phraseology con 
 tained many terms non-understandable to a landsman. 
 And it was, of course, plain that the man in the runabout 
 was, or had been, a sailor. "Sea captain, active or re 
 tired," was written all over him. So Mr. Clifford took a 
 chance. 
 
 "I think we can get the car out/ he said. "We must 
 be prompt, that s all, before it settles into the mud. You 
 sit where you are, sir, and I ll wade in and see how much 
 damage is done." 
 
 He stepped back to dry land and bent to the laces of 
 his dripping shoes. The man in the car roared a protest. 
 
 "You shan t do nothin of the kind," he declared. 
 "You stay ashore there and keep dry. You ve had 
 enough trouble on account of me, as tis. I pretty nigh 
 run over you ; tain t likely I m goin to drown you, is it? 
 You stay right there, I tell you, and keep your feet dry." 
 
 Clifford laughingly shook his head. "I couldn t keep 
 them dry if I wanted to/ he replied. "My shoes and 
 
 23 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 stockings are soaked through already. You sit there and 
 I ll Oh, great Scott ! what did you do that for ?" 
 
 The question was uttered in a tone of protest and 
 amazement. The man had quietly opened the car door, 
 stepped out, and was now standing in the pond, the 
 muddy water reaching his knees. 
 
 "What did you do that for?" repeated Clifford. 
 
 "Well, you said we d have to be prompt, or she d set 
 tle. This was the promptest way to be prompt I could 
 think of. She wouldn t have stopped settlin any quicker 
 with my two hundred and fifty pounds roostin on deck. 
 Besides, I wan t any good there ; I may possibly be some 
 here." 
 
 "But why in the world didn t you take off your shoes 
 and stockings?" 
 
 "Son, when you get to my age and tonnage you ll 
 realize that, when it comes to makin a choice between 
 gettin wet and takin off your shoes and socks in a 
 two by four space like the cockpit of that automobile, 
 you ll get em wet every time. There! now we re both 
 in the briny deep, as the feller said. What do you think 
 of her? Know anything about that kind of craft, do 
 you?" 
 
 Clifford had waded in and was standing beside him. 
 "Yes," he answered. "A little. But the first thing is 
 to see if we can push it back out of this mud hole. If 
 we can t we shall have to hunt up some one with a 
 horse; and there isn t a house, as far as I know, for a 
 mile either way." 
 
 "To say nothin of a barn, eh? I cal late we can shove 
 her, if she ain t too deep in. Don t weigh much more n 
 
 24 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 a termatter can, she don t. That s what I told the feller 
 I bought her of : If she springs a leak/ I says, I can 
 put her in my pocket and take her down to the tinsmith s 
 to be soldered/ There! now I ll shove one stern wheel 
 and you the other. Got everything fixed, have you ? Say 
 when you re mad ! Now ! Heave and she goes !" 
 
 Clifford having adjusted the clutch as best he could, 
 they "heaved" together, and the light little car pulled out 
 of the mud and bumped and wallowed and splashed to 
 the shore. They ran it back until the forward wheels 
 were clear of the water. Then they stopped for breath. 
 
 "Whew !" panted the big man, rubbing his coat sleeve 
 across his forehead. "Say, I m glad the tinsmith ain t 
 hollerin for her now. Perhaps he is, though; him or 
 the undertaker. Land knows how her engines are after 
 that souse. Better take off the hatches and have a look, 
 hadn t we? Not that I d know any more after I had 
 looked; but you said you would know, eh, Mister?" 
 
 "Yes. I am an engineer. Looking after engines of 
 various sorts is my business." 
 
 "You don t say! Well, well! Every man to his job, 
 as the tipsy feller said to the snake charmer. So you re 
 an engineer, eh? Well, son, I have showed a little mite 
 of judgment in this fool business, after all, ain t I? I 
 knew who not to run over. How does she look? Any 
 chance short of the scrap heap?" 
 
 The young man had removed the hood and was in 
 specting the engine. His examination was brief but 
 thorough. 
 
 "She is not badly hurt," he said, after two or three 
 minutes of testing and peering. "That is, she is not in- 
 
 25 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 jured seriously. If you hadn t gone into that pond quite 
 so far she wouldn t have been hurt at all." 
 
 "Sho, sho ! And I was thinkin twas lucky I hadn t 
 gone in all under. She is hurt some, I judge. What s 
 the damage?" 
 
 "Well, that cold water has cracked one of your cylin 
 ders." 
 
 "The devil !" 
 
 "Oh, that isn t such a dreadful thing." 
 
 "Ain t it? I didn t know. I just said the devil on 
 the chance. Then tain t very bad, eh ?" 
 
 "It s bad enough. With a big car it might be very 
 bad ; but with this little one, of this particular make, you 
 have only to wire the Boston agents, and new parts will 
 be here in a day or so." 
 
 "Humph ! A day or so ! What ll I be doin while I m 
 waitin ; settin here on the edge of this pond whistlin 
 for hornpouts to swim in for supper?" 
 
 "Ha, ha ! Not unless you want to. I think I can get 
 your car going so that it will limp on three cylinders as 
 far as South Trtimet. There s a good garage there 
 where you can leave it and it will be well looked after. 
 I ll go with you, if you wish; I was bound there, any 
 way. Unless, of course, my company will inconvenience 
 you." 
 
 "Humph! Yes, twill inconvenience me about as 
 much as a square meal would inconvenience a starvin 
 man. I don t know how I m goin to thank you for all 
 this, Air. Mr. " 
 
 "Clifford is my name, Irving Clifford." 
 
 "Mine s Newcomb Noah Newcomb. Well, Mr. Clif- 
 
 26 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 ford, I won t waste time tellin you I m pleased to meet 
 you, because I hope you ve seen enough of me by this 
 time to give me credit for havin a teaspoonful of com 
 mon sense. In spite of the way I handled that auto 
 mobile just now, I give you my word that there s times 
 when I m as rational as other folks. I m mightily 
 obliged to you, Mr. Clifford, I am so. Now what s the 
 first thing you want me to do? I warn you right now 
 you ll find me about as handy at this job as a clam is at 
 climbin a tree." 
 
 Clifford, who was finding his new acquaintance rather 
 amusing, replied that there was nothing for him to do 
 at the moment. "Just sit down and watch me, Mr. 
 Newcomb," he said. "Or should I say Captain New- 
 comb ?" 
 
 The big man grinned. "Smell the tar on me strong as 
 all that, can you?" he inquired. "Yes, you can call me 
 Cap n, if you want to. Most folks do, I notice. I ain t 
 done much seafarin for quite a spell, but for pretty nigh 
 twenty years at a stretch I got my livin on salt water. 
 Last part of it I commanded one of the Clay Line boats, 
 runnin to Porto Rico." 
 
 Clifford was interested at once. "Porto Rico?" he re 
 peated. "I know Porto Rico pretty well, myself. I was 
 at San Juan for nearly two years installing the engines 
 and setting up the plant of a big sugar company." 
 
 "You don t say! Why, I know San Juan same as I 
 know Portland, Maine, and Portland s where I ve been 
 livin for the past twelve year or more, ever since I gave 
 up steamboatin . So you ve been to Porto Rico, eh? 
 Well, well ! I want to know !" 
 
 3 27 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 There was little doubt that he did want to know, also 
 that he intended to find out. While the young man 
 busied himself with the engine of the automobile, Cap 
 tain Newcomb, hands in pockets and apparently quite 
 oblivious of the fact that his garments from the knees 
 down were soaked through, walked up and down asking 
 questions. Having learned that Irving Clifford was a 
 mechanical engineer, that his home was in Ohio, that he 
 had been educated at Cornell, and that his reason for 
 being on Cape Cod was the installing of the mechanical 
 equipment at the new fish freezing and storing- plant at 
 Trumet, the captain proceeded to impart a little infor 
 mation about himself. 
 
 Irving learned that his companion was a Cape Codder 
 by birth, having been born in that very town, Trumet. 
 That he left school and went to sea when he was four 
 teen. That his sister, whose name, it appeared, was Dor 
 cas, and who married a man named Cornelius Dilling- 
 ham, had lived at Ostable until her husband s death, 
 which occurred some time in the early nineties. 
 
 "I used to come down and visit em every once in a 
 great while in the old days," explained Captain Noah. 
 "Used to call Cape Cod my home then. Twas as much 
 my home as any place. Fellers that go sailorin and 
 steamboatin don t have any home, rightly speakin , and 
 I was in the Pacific trade then, mate on a tramp freighter. 
 No, I never went square-riggin , that was afore my time, 
 but I ve schoonered and steamboated from here to Glory 
 and back. Well, Dorcas had a lot of trouble here on 
 the Cape ; her baby died and then Cornelius got drowned 
 fishin on the shoals down by Orham. So Dorcas begged 
 
 28 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 me to take her away somewhere. I was with the Clay 
 Line folks then, in active service, so I took her to Bos 
 ton and she lived there a spell. Then they made me port 
 commander of their line of steamers runnin from Port 
 land to the West Indies, and my sister and I moved to 
 Portland and we lived there ever since." 
 
 "Is your sister there now?" asked Clifford absently. 
 He had heard very little of his new acquaintance s chat 
 ter; the engine was occupying most of his attention. 
 
 "She s dead. Died last spring; pneumonia twas that 
 took her finally, but she d been ailin a long spell. After 
 she died I didn t seem to care to hang around there much 
 longer, so I settled up my affairs and got out. I d laid 
 by a little bit, had some lucky investments and one thing 
 a nother, and I cal late I ve got enough to last me through. 
 I ve got to put in one more winter at Portland I prom 
 ised the Clay Line folks I d stay with em while they 
 broke in a new man but after that well, after that 
 your Uncle Noah s goin to cruise on his own hook." 
 
 "Where?" 
 
 "Eh?" 
 
 "Where are you planning to cruise, Captain ?" 
 
 "I don t know. Anywhere I take a notion, I guess; 
 so long as it don t cost too much." 
 
 "You want to look out for the fences and ponds." 
 
 "Eh? Ho, ho! you re right, son, so I do. Well, I 
 presume likely you re wonderin what I am doin down 
 in these latitudes in a craft I don t know any more about 
 than I do that one ; eh ?" 
 
 "Well, I I confess I did wonder a little. This is a 
 brand-new car, isn t it?" 
 
 29 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "It was yesterday noon, when I took command of it. 
 My buyin that auto is quite a yarn. Show s that you 
 can t judge much by the looks of a feller s outside. Any 
 body to look at me would say I was fairly strong and 
 able, wouldn t they ?" 
 
 "They certainly would." 
 
 "Yup. Well, they d make a mistake. I m feeble un 
 der the hat and the right kind of man can toll me along 
 with soft soap until I do most anything. Oh, it s so, I ve 
 just proved it. Four days ago I hadn t any more idea 
 of buyin an automobile than I had of puttin pepper 
 mint and molasses on my head and sellin it for a cough 
 drop. I was up in Boston and I met a feller I used to 
 know, a feller that used to live in Portland. I asked him 
 where he was livin now and he told me down to Prov- 
 incetown here, on the Cape. Well, of course, anything 
 about the Cape interests me I was a boy here and I 
 always did like it better than anywhere else on earth 
 and we talked and talked a long spell. He was goin 
 back the next mornin on the boat and I m blessed if, 
 the first thing I knew, he hadn t coaxed me into promisin 
 to go along with him, just for the trip. I didn t have 
 anything particular to do, you understand, and the Old 
 Harry finds some mischief still for lazy folks to run 
 afoul of, as the Good Book says. 
 
 "So down to Provincetown I went, just to look around. 
 Stopped at this feller s house his name was Ryder, by 
 the way over night. Next day he took me down to 
 his place of business, and it turned out he was in the 
 automobile trade. I rode around town some with him 
 and then he says, Noah, he says, you ought to have 
 
 30 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 one of these things/ Yes/ I says, I know. And I 
 ought to have a sealskin sack and a diamond breast 
 pin, but I ain t got either of em. They don t cost much 
 of anything/ says he. A car like this now, why, they 
 almost give it away. If they did give it away/ I told 
 him, twouldn t help me any ; I couldn t pilot it. Yes, 
 yes, you could/ he says ; of course you could. It s as 
 simple as A B C. Why, just you look here. I looked 
 and Ho, ho! Well, what s the use of pickin the 
 funeral all to pieces? That was the first day; the next 
 day I bought the car." 
 
 "Well, I think that was pretty good judgment, Cap 
 tain Newcomb. I m sure you ll get a lot of fun out 
 of it." 
 
 "Eh? Land, yes! I ve got a shipload of fun out of 
 it already. The same kind of fun the boy had that 
 thumped the hornets nest to see if twas holler. I car- 
 late he got stung, and I know I did. And yet, by time, 
 I did learn to run that auto! I run it all around Prov- 
 incetown this very mornin ." 
 
 "Well, Captain, if you can do that you should be able 
 to run it anywhere. To run a car through those narrow 
 streets is quite a feat." 
 
 "Yes, but I run it all right. Only, son and here s 
 where the difference comes in that Ryder man was 
 right at my elbow all the time. Twas the difference 
 between goin into a strange harbor with a pilot and 
 goin in without one. This noon, when I left Province- 
 town, I had a chip on each shoulder. I was perfectly 
 sartin I could navigate that automobile to China, if twas 
 necessary. Well, ho, ho! I made a try at it. If that 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 pond had been deep enough to reach clear through, I d 
 have fetched up in Hong Kong, I shouldn t .wonder." 
 
 "What was the matter? What set you to going 
 wrong?" 
 
 "Everything, son; everything and every livin critter I 
 met on the road. The further along I got the wider I 
 turned out to pass. When I was runnin through Prov- 
 incetown yesterday I wouldn t have given a cow more 
 than six inches clearance room. This afternoon I was 
 liable to give a cat half a mile. I did think all the nerves 
 I had had been washed out of me by Pacific Ocean 
 typhoons, but I guess I ve grown a new set. When I got 
 to navigatin this last string of hills and hollers I knew 
 my finish was just ahead somewheres. I had so many 
 different things to think of, that was the trouble. Ho, 
 ho ! I had to think of what to do with my hands, and 
 with my feet, and with my eyes, and about the brake 
 and the clutch and the whistle and and land knows 
 what else. And then, every time she d strike a steep 
 place, I d get to thinkin about my past life, because the 
 way I looked at it I d soon be landed where I d have to 
 give an account of it. Ho, ho! ... Good godfreys 
 mighty! What s she doin that for?" 
 
 Clifford had at last reached the point where he was 
 ready to attempt starting the engine. He had been 
 "cranking" for a minute or more. Now his efforts were 
 rewarded by a series of gasping barks and explosions. 
 
 "Fsst! hoo-hoo! Fsst! hoo-hoo!" 
 
 "Got the phthysic, ain t it?" queried the car s owner, 
 anxiously. "Sounds like somethin catchin . Liable to 
 do that long, think?" 
 
 32 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "Until we get to the garage, I m afraid. Jump in, 
 Captain, and we ll see how she goes." 
 
 She went, but that was all that might be truthfully 
 said concerning her progress. She crept barking and 
 spitting up the hills and spitting and barking down the 
 slopes. Clifford had taken the steering wheel and Cap 
 tain Newcomb sat beside him on the seat. After a few 
 minutes the latter spoke. 
 
 "Would it be doin anything unsafe or sacrilegious," 
 he asked, "to let you and me change places? Don t 
 think Fm altogether loony," he added, apologetically. 
 The only thing is I I hate to give up. I started in 
 to learn this car and I do hate to have the thing lick me. 
 I m goin to run her afore I get through or die a-tryin . 
 Sounds foolish, don t it, for a grown up man to be so 
 sot and childish, but I can t help it, it s the way I m 
 made. Will it be all right for me to take the wheel 
 now?" 
 
 Irving laughingly assured him that it would be all 
 right, and the change was made. From that moment 
 until they reached the door of the South Trumet garage 
 conversation was dispensed with. Captain Noah s ener 
 gies were otherwise employed. 
 
 The garage man received the little car cheerfully and 
 philosophically, as garage men usually welcome the crip 
 pled fish which come to their net. 
 
 "Well, tain t so bad as it might be," was his optimis 
 tic observation, after inspection of the damage. "Noth- 
 in s so bad but w r hat it might be wuss. We mustn t for 
 get that; eh, Mister?" 
 
 Captain Noah regarded him with eager interest. 
 
 33 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "Thank you, Commodore, thank you," he said sol 
 emnly. "I m much obliged to you for remindin me. 
 Nothings so bad but what it might be worse/ That s 
 a wonderful comfort, that is. That, and Birds of a 
 feather gather no moss/ and It s an ill wind that blows 
 nobody blows nobody s whiskers/ or whatever tis, 
 that s the kind of talk that reconciles us to everything, 
 Commodore; you re dead right. Thanks. I ll do as 
 much for you some day. Now about how soon might I 
 reasonably expect to have this craft back again?" 
 
 The proprietor of the garage stared at his customer 
 as if he had strong doubts of the latter s sanity. The 
 captain, however, was so mild and bland that the bewil 
 dered business man decided to chance a reply. 
 
 "If we have luck," he said, "them new parts ought to 
 be down here tomorrow night. Then you can have her, 
 maybe, two afternoons after that." 
 
 "Um-m. Yes, yes. Well, I tell you, Commodore, you 
 just help that luck along all you can, will you? Remem 
 ber, A burnt child dreads the er pain-killer. I ll be 
 here sharp day after day after tomorrow afternoon. 
 Well, son," turning to Clifford, "what do you say ? Shall 
 we be cruisin along?" 
 
 Irving explained that his errand in South Trumet had 
 been to that very machine shop and garage. "It will 
 delay me only a minute, however, Captain Newcomb," 
 he said. The captain said he would wait and, taking his 
 handbag from beneath the seat of ihe runabout, strolled 
 outside, where, at the corner, Clifford found him soon 
 afterward. The big man was chuckling quietly to him 
 self. 
 
 34 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "I cal late," he observed, with a backward jerk of his 
 head, "that feller in there thinks I m all ready for the 
 asylum, don t he?" 
 
 His companion laughed. 
 
 "Well," he replied, "he did ask me how long you had 
 been this way." 
 
 "Ho, ho! I bet you! Well, son, I don t know why 
 tis, but proverbs and sayin s and such always kind of 
 stir me up the wrong way. I ask that chap in there 
 how bad the auto is hurt and he looks wise as a cross 
 between King Solomon and a cage full of owls, and tells 
 me not to forget that nothin s so bad but what it might 
 be worse ! Muttonhead ! However, I gave him one or 
 two proverbs of my own, didn t I ? Ho, ho ! Well, if 
 he thinks I m crazy now he wants to look out for me 
 when I come back. If that car ain t done on time Til 
 be violent . . . and in the meantime, son, is there a 
 hotel in this place?" 
 
 Clifford shook his head. "No," he said, "there isn t. 
 But there is one, such as it is, at Trumet, and that is 
 only three miles away." 
 
 "Um. Such as it is, eh? You know somethin about 
 that hotel, I take it." 
 
 "I ought to. I put up there myself." 
 
 "So? Well, you look pretty toler ble husky. I cal 
 late I can stand it for a couple of days, anyhow. Sup 
 pose likely they ll have room for me?" 
 
 "I m pretty sure they will." 
 
 "Good enough. Let s heave ahead for Trumet. Twill 
 seem like real old times, stoppin in Trumet will." 
 
 The young engineer had used so much time in adjust- 
 
 35 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 ing the auto after its bath in the pond and in getting it 
 to the garage that he felt obliged to give up his contem 
 plated walk home. Moreover, his new friend was not 
 at all in favor of walking. "Iron s cheaper n leather 
 these hard times," was the way he put it. "No use 
 wearin out our own shoes when we can coax a horse to 
 wear out his for us." 
 
 They were not obliged to "coax" a horse, for the 
 owner of the garage agreed to drive them in his own 
 car to Trumet for two dollars. As they entered the vil 
 lage Captain Noah s interest grew more and more keen. 
 The town hall was new to him, so was the grammar 
 school, but the Congregationalist meeting-house received 
 the greeting of an old friend. The Mansion House was 
 new, of course, having been built within the past ten 
 years. He was introduced to Mrs. Hobbs and shown 
 to his room by Ethelinda. Afterward he sat between 
 Mr. Clifford and Captain Ezekiel Penniman at the sup 
 per table. When the meal was over he confided to the 
 former that he had "struck another old acquaintance." 
 
 "Captain Penniman?" asked Clifford. 
 
 "No, no; never met him afore. It s that apple pie 
 I m talkin about. If I ain t awful mistaken I had a 
 slice off that same apple pie the night afore I left my 
 granddad s house in this town and run away to sea. 
 Twas one of the things made me run. Course it may 
 not be the same pie," he added, "but if tain t then the 
 children s children take after the old folks amazin . No, 
 I ll gamble it s the same one; the crust is a little mite 
 tougher, but age would account for that. I m tougher n 
 I was, myself." 
 
 36 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 He asked Irving what the "main excitement of the 
 evenin " might be about town. 
 
 "Don t want to risk anything too wild-eyed and divil- 
 ish," he explained, "but I should like to do somethin to 
 make me forget that pie. Is there anything to go to? 
 Any time at the town hall or anything?" 
 
 "No, Captain, I m afraid not. There are moving 
 pictures here twice a week now, but this is not one of 
 the nights. The mail gets in about eight o clock and 
 almost every one goes to the post office. If your system 
 craves excitement, I imagine that is where you are most 
 likely to find it. It s not so fevered as to be dangerous." 
 
 "Well, that s a comfort. I remember twan t what 
 you d call delirious in the old days. My, my ! how long 
 ago it seems since I lived here. I cal late I will go to 
 the post office. I might meet somebody there I remem 
 ber, though that ain t hardly likely. Won t come along, 
 will you?" 
 
 But the engineer had work to do that evening. He 
 therefore excused himself and went to his room. Cap 
 tain Newcomb lit a cigar and strolled slowly toward the 
 post office, staring about him as he walked and trying 
 to pick out places or buildings which he remembered. 
 But it was too dark to see plainly, and his attempts at 
 seeing only caused him to walk into posts or off the 
 edge of the sidewalk. In fact, he almost collided with 
 a pair of pedestrians just ahead of him, a couple too 
 deeply absorbed in their own conversation to notice his 
 approach. They were both men, and all the captain 
 noticed concerning them, except their imminent prox 
 imity, was that one was tall and the other short. He 
 
 37 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 pulled up just in time to avoid bumping into the taller 
 one, and stepped off the sidewalk to pass. As he did so 
 he heard the other, the short man, say : 
 
 "Well, I don t care, you know. I I I don t care 
 much. A dollar or so more or less d-d-don t make much 
 difference. If you say it s all r-r-right, I d just as soon 
 go ahead and b-b-buy it." 
 
 That was all Captain Noah heard. The tall man, 
 suddenly aware of the stranger at his elbow, drew aside 
 and pushed his companion further toward the fence at 
 the inner edge of the walk. The captain moved on, but, 
 as he moved, the scrap of conversation which had 
 reached his ears kept ringing in them like an echo from 
 the past. Not the subject matter, not what had been 
 said, but the voice which said it. That voice, its high 
 pitch and the funny little stutter, seemed oddly familiar. 
 When had he heard that voice, or one very much like it, 
 before? Sometime, somewhere, a voice like that had 
 been familiar to him ; somewhere he had known some 
 one who squeaked and stuttered in just that way. Some 
 one he had once known, in the village of Trumet, of 
 course, it must be, but who? And why should the voice 
 seem so very familiar? He felt as if he must have 
 known the speaker very well indeed. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 NOT until he reached the lowest step of the post 
 office platform did the solution of the puzzle 
 come to him, and then he smiled disgustedly. 
 The solution was not a solution at all. He remembered 
 now who squeaked and stuttered in just that way, but 
 the person who did so had never lived in Trumet, nor, so 
 far as he knew, had ever been within a hundred miles of 
 the place. The similarity of voices was a coincidence, 
 that was all. 
 
 However, it was a satisfaction to have run down and 
 located the memory, the fancied echo of which had so 
 tantalized him, and Captain Noah entered the post office 
 with the feeling of contentment possessed by one who has 
 guessed a riddle. He glanced about at the faces of the 
 crowd, but, if there were any there whom he had once 
 known, the years had changed them beyond his recog 
 nition. And no one appeared to recognize him. 
 
 The mail was "in," but it was not yet sorted. Inter 
 est seemed to center about a counter at the rear of the 
 office where the evening newspapers had just been put 
 on sale. The captain bought a Boston Herald and, with 
 it in his hand, retired to a corner to read. There was a 
 
 39 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 chair in that corner and, for a wonder, it was unoccu 
 pied. He sat down, his bulky form squeezed between 
 the corner of the shelf, which was offered the public as 
 a substitute for a writing desk, and a peach crate, which 
 did duty as a waste basket. There he unfolded his news 
 paper and essayed to read. 
 
 By and by the raising of the postmaster s little win 
 dow made evident the fact that the mail was sorted. 
 The crowd pushed forward, some to get in line at the 
 window, others to unlock private letter boxes. Captain 
 Noah, who, naturally, expected no letters, remained 
 where he was. His toes were trodden upon rather 
 often, and his nose had more than one narrow escape as 
 a hurried discarder of circular or paper wrapper took a 
 flying shot at the waste basket. But the captain read 
 on. The editorial he was reading flayed the Democratic 
 party in a thoroughly satisfactory way, and he wished 
 to follow the process to its tormenting finish. 
 
 But the cuticle had not been entirely removed when 
 his reading was interrupted. Just before him and not 
 much higher than his head, as he sat in the chair, he 
 heard again the squeaky voice which he had heard on 
 his walk to the office. 
 
 "All right, Mr. G-G-Griggs," it stammered. "I ll wait 
 right here. You get your mail, if you w-want to. I 
 ain t exp-p-pectin none." 
 
 The captain looked up. As he did so the man who 
 had just spoken looked down. He had a round, cherubic 
 little face he was a little man with a tuft of gray 
 beard on the chin and a clean-shaven upper lip. His 
 eyes were a light, watery blue, and as he stared down 
 
 40 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 into the captain s face they opened wide and wider. 
 Then his mouth opened also. 
 
 "Wh-wh-wh " he panted, like a toy engine getting 
 up steam; and then exploded with a "Why! Cap n Noah 
 Newcomb !" 
 
 Captain Noah threw down his paper and rose to his 
 feet. He towered above the little man like a floating 
 derrick above a tug boat. His big hand closed over the 
 other s small one and swallowed it up. 
 
 "I declare to man!" he cried, in huge astonishment. 
 "Obadiah Burgess ! Then twas you I heard when I was 
 comin along down. What in the world are you doin* 
 here in Trumet?" 
 
 Mr. Burgess did not seem to grasp, even if he heard, 
 the question. He was staring up into the captain s face 
 with an expression of huge astoniskment coupled with 
 delighted reverence. 
 
 "Cap n Noah Newcomb !" he repeated. "Cap n Noah ! 
 Well, I snum! And I don t know s I ever expected to 
 see you again. I m awful glad, I am so !" 
 
 "Much obliged, Obe. I m glad, too. I don t know s 
 I never expected to see you again, but I sartinly never 
 expected to see you here. When I heard that voice out 
 yonder just now, thinks I : That sounds natural, that 
 voice does/ And then afterwards I remembered twas 
 your voice it sounded like. But here in Trumet! You 
 don t live here, do you?" 
 
 "No, sir, I don t. That is, I do. Anyhow, I ain t; 
 but I mean I m g-g-goin to." 
 
 Captain Noah shook his head. "You don t and you 
 do and you ain t but you re goin to. Little mite foggy, 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 that is, ain t it, Obe? Cal late I ll have to have a chart 
 if I m goin to navigate through that. Do you mean you 
 haven t been livin here, but you re goin to now?" 
 
 "Th-th-that s it, sir. You know about my gettin the 
 place and the money, don t you? About Aunt Sarah s 
 willin em to me, sir?" 
 
 "Never mind the sir/ Obadiah. We ain t on board 
 the old Flyaway now. Goodness gracious, how long 
 ago that seems and is! So somebody s willed you a 
 place and money, eh?" 
 
 Yes, sir. Yes, Cap n. I thought likely you d heard 
 of it. Twas put in the newspapers." 
 
 The captain repressed a smile. Mr. Burgess pride in 
 the fact that the news of his good fortune had been 
 "put in the newspapers" was so very evident. 
 
 "I must have missed the paper that day, Obe," he 
 said. "But tell me about it. How much was it? Who 
 was your Aunt Sarah? How did you come to be here 
 in Trumet? Is the place you re talkin about here?" 
 
 "Yes, sir yes, Cap n, I mean/ 
 
 "Call me Noah. Never mind the handles." 
 
 "All r-r-right, sir Cap n Noah, I mean. Yes, the 
 place is here. You see, Aunt Sarah, she " 
 
 "Wait a minute, Obe. Heave to. This ain t a very 
 good place for us to talk, is it? Too much competition. 
 Come on round to my room at the hotel. We can talk 
 there in comfort. Come ahead." 
 
 But Mr. Burgess hung back. 
 
 "I can t, Cap n Noah," he said. "I forgot. Mr. 
 Griggs is here w-with me. He s round here some- 
 wheres. Oh, here he is ! Mr. Griggs !" 
 
 42 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 The captain turned and looked over his shoulder. A 
 tall, thin man was standing in the corner by the chair 
 he had just vacated, reading a letter. He was a long- 
 legged, stoop-shouldered individual, whose sharp-fea 
 tured face was sparsely decorated with a scattering pair 
 of sidewhiskers, and whose long nose supported a pair 
 of spectacles worn not more than half an inch from the 
 tip. The expression on the sharp-featured face was not 
 at the moment a pleasant one. Something in the letter 
 seemed to annoy its reader. As Captain Newcomb 
 looked at him he tore the letter into strips and dashed 
 the pieces savagely in the direction of the waste basket. 
 
 "Mr. Griggs !" called Mr. Burgess once more. 
 
 The tall man turned, looked over the spectacles, and, 
 seeing who had called, nodded and smiled. 
 
 "I m a-comin , Mr. Burgess," he said. "Shan t keep 
 you waitin* another minute. Had a little mail to look 
 over, that s all." 
 
 "Mr. Griggs," said Mr. Burgess, excitedly, "I want 
 to make you known to Cap n Noah Newcomb, of of 
 Where are you livin now, Cap n ?" 
 
 "Portland was my last home port, Obadiah." 
 
 "Yes, yes. Portland, Maine. I ve been there. Cap n 
 Newcomb used to be my skipper when I use to go sea- 
 cookin . I went many as seven v yages with him, didn t 
 I, Cap n? And I cooked to s-s-suit you, if I do say it; 
 eh, Cap n Noah ?" 
 
 "You sartinly did, Obe," agreed the captain, cheer 
 fully. "And this is Mr. Griggs, I take it." 
 
 "Yes, sir; yes, Noah, I mean. Mr. Ba-Ba-Bub-Bub- 
 Bub " 
 
 4 43 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "Balaam," put in Mr. Griggs himself. "Balaam 
 Griggs, my name is. It s a kind of hard name to say. 
 Pleased to make your acquaintance, Cap n Newcomb. 
 Any friend of Mr. Burgess is a friend of mine, right 
 off." 
 
 "That s good." Captain Noah and Mr. Griggs shook 
 hands. "And you re another old chum of Obadiah s, I 
 judge, Mr. Griggs." 
 
 Mr. Griggs seemed a little disconcerted, but he rallied 
 promptly. "No, not that not exactly an old one. Hey, 
 Mr. Burgess? He! He! But I hope him and I are 
 goin to be chums, as you call it. If we ain t twon t be 
 my fault." 
 
 "Mr. Griggs has been awful generous and obligin since 
 I got here," put in Obadiah. "Yes, even afore I come. 
 Why, I d-d-don t know how I d got along with all there 
 was to bu-bu-buy and hire around that new house of 
 mine if it hadn t been for him. No, sir-ee, I don t!" 
 
 Captain Noah gave Mr. Griggs an appraising glance. 
 He decided that the thin man s looks must belie him. 
 There \vere, certainly, no exterior indications of either 
 the obliging nature or the generosity. 
 
 "You in business here, Mr. Griggs ?" he asked. 
 
 Balaam nodded and fumbled in his vest pocket, pro 
 ducing a battered memorandum book, from between the 
 pages of which he took a printed card. 
 
 "Real Estate and Insurance, etcetery and so on," he 
 said, handing the captain the card. "Wasn t thinkin of 
 buyin and settlin amongst us, was you, Cap n New- 
 comb? You might do worse. Trumet s a growin 
 town." 
 
 44 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 The captain shook his head. "No," he said, "not this 
 minute. Just now I m mighty interested to find out all 
 about Obe here and his good luck. I judge likely there s 
 quite a yarn and I want to hear it. Can t you come round 
 to the hotel now, Obadiah?" 
 
 Obadiah hesitated. Mr. Griggs looked doubtful. 
 "Course I wouldn t interfere with your plans for nothin , 
 Mr. Burgess," he said ; "but if you was cal latin to look 
 over that bedroom set, tonight would be an awful good 
 time to do it. I told John we d most likely be down 
 this evenin , so he ll probably wait in for us. However, 
 don t let nothin I do put you out. No, no." 
 
 Mr. Burgess looked troubled. "I d like awful well to 
 come round and see you, Cap n Noah," he said. "You 
 and me have got a lot t-t-to t-t-talk over, all these years. 
 But, you see, Mr. Griggs here is helpin me buy some 
 furniture for the house, and and we ve got an appoint 
 ment, kind of. How long you goin to s-stay, Cap n?" 
 
 "Couple of days, I guess. That s all right, Obe, come 
 and see me tomorrow. No, hold on! I ll come and call 
 on you. Give me a chance to see this property of yours 
 as well as yourself. On the lower road, you say? All 
 right, I ll find it. Be down pretty soon after breakfast. 
 Good night, Obe. Good night, Mr. Mr. Briggs no, 
 Griggs." 
 
 He glanced at the Griggs business card. "Balaam," 
 he read. "Say, that s a good old Scriptur name, ain t it? 
 We re a kind of Scriptural bunch, come to think of it. 
 Obadiah and Noah and Balaam ! Ho, ho, ho !" 
 
 His laugh caused the postmaster to look out of his 
 little window. 
 
 45 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "Obadiah and Noah and Balaam," repeated the cap 
 tain. "That s Old Testament for you! Ho, ho! You d 
 have to hunt some ways to get a fourth name to match 
 up with them ; eh ? Ho, ho ! Well, good night, good 
 night. See you tomorrow, Obe. You, too, maybe, Mr. 
 Griggs. Good night." 
 
 After they had gone Captain Noah turned back to 
 the corner, picked up the Herald from the top of the 
 waste basket where he had thrown it when he rose to 
 greet Mr. Burgess, crumpled it up, stuffed it into his 
 pocket and walked back to the hotel. 
 
 In his room he took off his coat, vest and shoes, lit 
 a fresh cigar and settled back in a rocking chair to finish 
 the editorial. As he unfolded the Herald a piece of 
 paper fluttered to the floor. He stooped and picked it up. 
 
 It was an oblong strip of cheap note paper, evidently 
 torn, from the bottom of a letter. There was writing 
 upon it. Scarcely realizing what he did the captain read 
 these words: 
 
 sending you every cent ju 
 
 omptly as ever I can. For 
 
 d s sake remember how hard it 
 
 n t put Joash, poor boy, in states prison 
 
 Captain Noah turned the bit of paper over. The other 
 side was blank. He wondered where in the world it 
 had come from. Then he remembered that his news 
 paper had lain across the top of the post office waste- 
 paper basket and, doubtless, someone had torn up the 
 letter of which this was a part and tossed the frag 
 ments, as he or she supposed, into the basket, but really 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 on the paper. When he picked up his Herald he picked 
 up the fragment with it. 
 
 He was about to throw it down again when the name 
 "Joash" caught his eye. He laughed aloud. His re 
 mark concerning Old Testament names had been to the 
 effect that one would have to hunt some to find a fourth 
 name to compare with "Obadiah" and "Noah" and 
 "Balaam." Now, without hunting at all, here was a still 
 more odd name brought to his attention within the half 
 hour. 
 
 "Joash!" He repeated it aloud. Then he laughed 
 uproariously and, going over to the hook upon which he 
 had hung his coat, took his pocketbook from the inside 
 pocket and put the bit of note paper inside. The name 
 "tickled" him immensely. He had never heard it be 
 fore. He knew where, in the Bible, to look for "Noah" 
 and for "Balaam" ; he would not have dispaired of find 
 ing "Obadiah." But where to find "Joash" he had not 
 the slightest idea. But, as this was New England, and 
 Cape Cod in particular, he would have been willing to 
 bet that "Joash" was a Scriptural name. He meant to 
 "stump" the minister with it, after his return to Port 
 land. Whatever else was written upon that bit of paper 
 he had forgotten already, but that name he did not 
 intend to forget. 
 
 "Joash! Ho, ho!" 
 
 So he put the piece of paper in his pocketbook as a 
 reminder. And, therefore, having shifted responsibility 
 from his memory to his pocket, he, naturally, proceeded 
 to forget all about both paper and name. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 CAPTAIN NOAH had hoped to meet his new ac 
 quaintance, Irving Clifford, at the breakfast table 
 and ask a few questions concerning Balaam 
 Griggs. But when he entered the dining room the next 
 morning he found that Mr. Clifford had already break 
 fasted and gone. Mr. Laban Bassett explained that the 
 young man had a habit of leaving the table earlier than 
 the rest of the boarders. 
 
 "This mornin he didn t eat scarcely no breakfast at 
 all," declared Uncle Labe. "Hardly ever has but one 
 cup of coffee, but this mornin he didn t drink more n 
 half a cup. A body d think twan t good, the way he 
 went off and left it." 
 
 Captain Noah tasted the slate-colored beverage in his 
 own cup. "A feller must be crazy that goes off and 
 leaves coffee like that," he observed, hastily putting the 
 cup down again. 
 
 Uncle Labe nodded. "That s what I tell him," he 
 affirmed. "Especially this mornin . Why, today s 
 Wednesday, and Mis Hobbs makes it fresh every 
 Wednesday and Saturday. Don t catch me leavin none 
 of mine settin* round." 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 The captain rose. "That s right," he said. "We can t 
 be too careful; some child or innocent person might get 
 hold of it. Well, so long." 
 
 He walked out of the dining room, leaving the puzzled 
 Mr. Bassett to ask Ethelinda, when that young lady ap 
 peared to clear the table, who that "big, hulkin critter 
 that Newcomb one " was, anyhow. 
 
 "I dunno," replied Ethelinda, cheerfully. "Mr. Clif 
 ford fetched him here last night, and he s got the room 
 Mr. Moses Tidditt died in. That s all I know about 
 him." 
 
 Uncle Labe looked doubtful. "Well," he said, "maybe 
 he ain t touched in the head, but he talks mighty queer 
 for a sane person. Asked Cap n Zeke how long he d 
 been boardin here, and, when Zeke told him three years, 
 he wanted to know if he was cal latin to get anything 
 off for good conduct. I can t make no sense out of that; 
 can you, Linda?" 
 
 "No, I m sartin sure I can t, Mr. Bassett. He talks 
 the same way to everybody, though. I think he s loony 
 myself, but I suppose tain t none of my business, long s 
 he pays his board." 
 
 The captain, whistling blithely if not tunefully, walked 
 along the main road to the corner, where he turned into 
 the lower road, just as Clifford had done the previous 
 afternoon. He looked about him with interest as he 
 walked, for the morning was a fine one and, in spite of 
 the Hobbs coffee, he was in good spirits. He found him 
 self rather enjoying his enforced stay in the village of 
 his boyhood. That village had changed greatly, it is true, 
 but its location had not changed; the sea and the air 
 
 49 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 and the sky had not changed, and more and more of the 
 old places became familiar to him as his memory brought 
 them forward through the years. Along that lower road 
 his bare feet had stubbed many and many a time on the 
 way to the bay and the "swimming place." In that house 
 there it had no dormer windows then and the porch was 
 new had lived the girl who was his "first choice" at 
 parties. The gray, tumble-down abandoned shanty back 
 in the field yonder had been the home of old Captain 
 Joshua Phinney, who, when himself a twelve-year-old, 
 had been cabin boy on a ship boarded by pirates. That 
 barn over there was new, but on the very spot where it 
 stood, behind the clump of willows that used to be there, 
 he and Abe Cole, the minister s son, had fought over a 
 stolen watermelon. And he had blackened Abe s eye. 
 He wondered where Abe was now ; wondered if he was 
 living; if he felt as kindly toward his old enemy, Noah 
 Newcomb, as that one time enemy now felt toward him. 
 
 The view of the bay from the slope of Knowles Hill 
 was distinctly satisfying. It was much as he remembered 
 it. The summer places along the shores and on the 
 knolls were new, of course, and the boats at anchor were, 
 for the most part, of the motor instead of the sail va 
 rieties. But, generally speaking, Trumet Bay looked as 
 it used to look, as he felt it ought to look. 
 
 It must be somewhere along there that Obadiah Bur 
 gess property, that of which he was in search, was lo 
 cated. He decided that he had better stop at rome house 
 on the way and ask particulars concerning that location. 
 Then, as he reached the crest of the hill, he saw the name 
 
 50 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "Balaam Griggs" on the sign topping the white picket 
 fence, and decided to ask Balaam himself. 
 
 Following instructions given by the placard at the bot 
 tom of the sign he did not knock at the locked front door, 
 but went "round back" as directed. There were several 
 doors there, but the farthest had chalked upon its upper 
 panels the words "Genuine Antiques Here," so Captain 
 Noah, although he had no desire to buy any antiques, 
 thought it possible that Mr. Griggs might be with his 
 , stock and rapped on that panel. 
 
 The person who answered the knock was decidedly not 
 an antique, genuine or otherwise. On the contrary she 
 was a very attractive young woman, with a dust cloth 
 in her hand and a sweeping cap upon her brown hair. 
 In answer to the captain s question she said, in a voice 
 as pleasant as her appearance : 
 
 "No, Mr. Griggs is not in just now. He has gone over 
 to the village, I believe. Is there anything I can do for 
 you? I am his daughter." 
 
 Captain Noah asked for and received directions con 
 cerning the location of Mr. Burgess* legacy, the "Bad- 
 scorn place." 
 
 "I can point it out to you from the other window, the 
 one at the back here," said the young woman. "Won t 
 you step in?" 
 
 The captain stepped in and followed his guide through 
 a tangled maze of scarred bureaus and seatless chairs 
 and crippled tables to a window which commanded a view 
 of the bay and the further windings of the lower road. 
 
 "That is the Badscom place," said the young woman, 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 pointing. "The old, low, whitewashed house at the top of 
 the hill." 
 
 "Thank yon, thank you very much, Miss Griggs," said 
 the captain. Then, as he picked his way through the 
 leggy tangle of chairs and tables, he added, "My ! you ve 
 got a lot of old things here, ain t you ! Sell consider ble, 
 I presume likely, in the course of a year; eh?" 
 
 He was sorry the moment after he said it, realizing 
 that he had himself opened the way to a dissertation on 
 "antiques" and a probable attempt to display choice 
 pieces. But his forebodings were groundless. The 
 young woman did not appear even interested. 
 "Mr. Griggs sells a good deal," she answered. 
 "Mostly to the summer folks, I suppose?" 
 "I presume so. I know very little about it." 
 She was obviously so anxious to avoid the topic, and 
 her attitude was so decidedly unlike that which one would 
 have expected a daughter s attitude toward her father s 
 business to be, that Captain Noah was puzzled and curi 
 ous. He tried again. 
 
 "That s a fine-lookin old old er bureau," he ob 
 served, pointing to a battered and blackened relic before 
 him. "How much is that worth now ?" 
 
 She shook her head. "I don t know," she said. "You 
 will have to see Mr. Griggs about that." 
 
 "Yes, yes, of course. But I don t know when I ve seen 
 a bureau like that. Kind of a unusual er specimen, 
 ain t it?" 
 
 She looked at the "specimen" and then at him. 
 "It would be if it was a bureau," she answered, "but 
 I m afraid it s a sideboard." 
 
 52 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 Her eyes twinkled. The captain put back his head and 
 laughed heartily. 
 
 "Kind of gettin out of soundin s that time, wan t I ?" 
 he observed. "Well, it don t make much difference, 
 long s you can t tell me what it s worth." 
 
 They had reached the door by this time. 
 
 "I can t," she said, her hand on the latch. "But if you 
 can come back in an hour or two, I am sure Mr. Griggs 
 will be glad to tell you what it sells for." 
 
 She closed the door. Captain Noah walked out of the 
 yard, a broad grin on his face. Balaam Griggs daughter 
 was strikingly unlike her father, so it seemed to him, un 
 like him in every way. The long-legged dealer in real es 
 tate and "antiques" had not impressed him over favorably 
 at their meeting the night before. But :o the daughter, 
 in spite of her deficiency or indifference as a saleswoman, 
 he had taken a fancy at first sight. He had his own opin 
 ion of the "antique" business, as too often conducted, and 
 he believed this young woman s opinion was much like 
 his. The slight hesitation between the "you" and the 
 "what" in her last sentence had not escaped his notice. 
 He was still chuckling over it when he entered the gate 
 of the "Badscom place" and found its new owner await 
 ing him on the threshold. 
 
 That Obadiah was glad to see him there was no doubt ; 
 also there was no doubt of the little man s tremendous 
 pride in his new possessions. He refused to sit down or 
 to tell the story of his good fortune until he had shown 
 his former skipper over the house, from its queer circu 
 lar, cemented pit of a cellar to the long, dark attic with 
 the rows of old chests and trunks under the eaves. The 
 
 53 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 captain liked the old house exceedingly. The bedrooms, 
 with their sloping ceilings, so convenient for head-bump 
 ing; the parlor, with its quaint wall paper, the "spatter 
 painted" floor of the dining room all these reminded 
 him of the house where he had lived as a boy. And the 
 view from the windows overlooking the bay was really 
 exceptionally fine. 
 
 "You ve got a tip-top place here, Obe," he said, heart 
 ily. "You ll be as snug and comf table here as a moth in 
 a flannel shirt. All you need is a piazza out back here 
 to pace the quarter-deck on, and a whale-walk and a spy 
 glass on the roof, and I don t see but you re fixed for 
 life." 
 
 Mr. Burgess cherubic face beamed. 
 
 "That s what I say," he declared. "That s what I tell 
 Mr. Griggs. There may be b-b-better places on top of 
 the airth, says I. Them Rockyfellers you read about, 
 and the Old Doctor Bellows Bitters man that built the 
 castle over t-t-to Wapatomac, may have more f-f- fancy 
 houses and grounds, but / wouldn t swop with em. No 
 sir-ee/ says I, I wouldn t, not if they come beggin me to 
 on their b-b-bended knees/ " 
 
 "That s the way to talk, Obe. I ll warn any millionaire 
 that asks me tain t any use wearin out the knees of his 
 trousers on your account. I don t wonder you re tickled. 
 This is better n the galley of the old Flyaway, I will 
 give in. But I want to hear all about how you got it. 
 Can t we come to anchor somewheres now, and talk?" 
 
 They "came to anchor" in a pair of rocking-chairs in 
 the sitting room. Captain Newcomb reached into his 
 pocket for his pipe, but his host prevented his filling it. 
 
 54 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "When you come to my house, C-C-Cap n Noah," he 
 said, proudly, "you have to smoke m-m-my cigars." 
 
 He produced a box of cigars, large, fat cigars, gaudily 
 banded and with the likeness of a robust young woman 
 patriotically clad in the Stars and Stripes on the inside 
 of the cover. The captain took one of the cigars and 
 eyed it respectfully. 
 
 "I didn t know you smoked cigars, Obadiah," he said. 
 "You didn t used to when you sailed with me." 
 
 "C-couldn t afford to," was the prompt reply. "Now 
 I can. I m worth t-t-twelve thousand dollars and this 
 house and land. That s better n bein cook on a three- 
 masted schooner, even on one of your schooners, Cap n 
 Noah. Ain t it, now? He, he! Light up and I ll tell 
 you all about Aunt Sarah s willin it onto me." 
 
 Captain Noah lit up, as ordered, and the fortunate lega 
 tee proceeded to tell his story. 
 
 For seven voyages Obadiah had, as he told Balaam 
 Griggs at the post office, sailed as cook and steward on 
 the three-masted schooner Flyaway under Captain Noah 
 Newcomb. During that time he had learned to almost 
 worship his big skipper, certainly to reverence and re 
 spect him beyond all other men. And the captain, for 
 his part, liked the little man, although he, of course, 
 realized the very obvious fact that his cook was far from 
 being a Solomon. 
 
 "Obe s head rattles a little mite," he used to say, "and 
 the rattle gets into his talk, as maybe you ve noticed. He 
 ain t anybody s fool exactly, but it ain t so very hard to 
 fool him. His best gifts are cookin and stut-terin ; I d 
 back him to cook and stutter with anybody. And another 
 
 55 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 thing, he s clear grit, as nobody knows better n me. If it 
 hadn t been for Obe Burgess I wouldn t be here now." 
 
 Which was a reference to the time when, in a Central 
 American port, Captain Noah was seized with yellow 
 fever and, when his mates and crew having run away, he 
 was nursed back to health by loyal Obadiah, who could 
 not be coaxed to leave him. 
 
 After Captain Newcomb gave up command of sailing 
 vessels and had entered the employ of the Clay Line, he 
 and his former cook had drifted apart. Obadiah had 
 cooked on a number of coasters and fishermen, had 
 worked in a restaurant on Atlantic Avenue in Boston, 
 had cooked for two winters in a Maine lumber camp, 
 and then, at his Aunt Sarah Badscom s solicitation, had 
 gone to live with her at her house in a Boston suburb, 
 where he took care of the lawn in the summer and the 
 furnace in the winter and acted as a sort of general 
 housekeeper for the old lady, who was his mother s half- 
 sister. 
 
 "Then," explained Obadiah, "Aunt Sarah she went to 
 work and c-c-caught pneumony and up and died. Course 
 she d been tellin me she was goin to p-p-pup-provide for 
 me all right, but I never thought nothin of it. I knew 
 she was well off, but I cal lated her Cousin Nathan Dan 
 iels, that lives d-d-down to Augusty, Maine, would get 
 everything. Well, he did get the heft of it, but Aunt 
 Sarah she willed me this old house, that belonged to 
 B-B-Bethuel Badscom, her husband, and his dad afore 
 him, and she left me twelve thousand along with it. 
 Well, sir ! don t talk ! you never see such an upset critter 
 in your born days as I was when that lawyer told me. I 
 
 56 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 recollect it was a consider ble spell afore I d believe he 
 hadn t made a mistake and that twan t twelve dollars in 
 stead of t-t-twelve thousand. But, by mighty, twas so, 
 twas so, Cap n Noah ! And here I be, with a house of 
 my own and rich b-b-besides. Here, have another cigar, 
 won t ye? That one s gone out, ain t it?" 
 
 His guest looked at the stump of the cigar between his 
 fingers. He had not been smoking it for some time. 
 
 "No, no more, Obe, thank you," he said, hastily. 
 
 "Better have another, hadn t you ? Take another , take 
 a couple. I can afford em. I ain t sea-cookin any more 
 these days. Ho, ho! Smoke right up, Cap n. I like to 
 see you. Good cigars, ain t they? The Liberty Maid/ 
 that s what they call J em. Balaam Griggs says there 
 ain t no better five-cent cigar made. He buys em for me. 
 Ever smoke a Liberty Maid afore, Cap n?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 "Sure? Balaam says they re awful popular; maybe 
 you ve forgot." 
 
 The captain shook his head. "No," he said, emphat 
 ically, "if I d smoked one afore I shouldn t have forgot 
 it. So this Griggs man buys your cigars for you, does 
 he, Obe?" 
 
 "Land sakes, yes! He knows how, you see; I never 
 had no experience buyin cigars. Nor not much else 
 neither. Never had much of n-n-nothin to buy with. 
 But Mr. Griggs he s helped me out somethin wonderful. 
 I don t know what I d done if it hadn t been for him. 
 He s been a real friend, he has." 
 
 "So? Well, real friends are scarce. You want to hang 
 
 57 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 on to em after you re good and sure that they are real. 
 Known him a long while, have you?" 
 
 "No, only a little spell. That s what makes his kind 
 ness so wonderful, you understand. He see in the 
 p-p-pup-paper about Aunt Sarah willin me the house and 
 the money and all and he wrote me a letter. Said he was 
 down here in T-T-Trumet, right on the ground, as you 
 might say, and if there was anything he could do to help 
 me here as a neighbor, you understand he d be glad 
 to do it. I wrote him I was oc-comin down to look her 
 over and he met me at the depot. I d-don t know what 
 he ain t done for me. Hired a woman to clean house 
 here and b-bought dishes for me and f-f-furniture 
 and " 
 
 "Wasn t the house furnished?" 
 
 "Only part. Hadn t anybody lived in it for years and 
 years. There was lots and lots of stuff needed. Balaam 
 he bought most of it for me." 
 
 "Where dhegetit?" 
 
 "Oh, I don t know. Some he had himself, part of it 
 was. You know he sells antiques and such to the sum 
 mer folks. Some of his best t-t-tables and bureaus and 
 things that he was holdin for high p-p-prices he let me 
 have at cost." 
 
 "Did, eh? How do you know twas cost?" 
 
 "He told me so, himself. That come straight enough, 
 didn t it ? And what he didn t have himself he went out 
 and hunted up for me. Last night, now, after I met you 
 at the p-p-post office, Cap n, him and me went up to 
 John Bangs and bought a bedroom set for forty-two dol 
 lars that Mr. Griggs says couldn t be duplicated for less n 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 < 
 
 a hundred and eighteen. Solid black walnut, tis, same as 
 Aunt Sarah had in her spare room, and the only way 
 you d know twan t brand-new is that one of the cut-out 
 bunches of grapes on the bow end of the bedstead is 
 ^nicked s-s-some and there s a leetle mite of a crack in 
 the m-m-marble top of the commode. Balaam Griggs 
 says that ain t nothin ; he says he can show me grave 
 stones right here in the Trumet cemetery that are cracked 
 more n that commode, and in the b-b-best lots, too." 
 
 Captain Newcomb laughed aloud. "You couldn t ask 
 anything better n that, Obadiah," he said. "Where is 
 that set? Has it come down yet?" 
 
 "No, but I expect it most any time. Balaam s gone 
 up with his team to get it. He helped me out there, too. 
 He says twould cost me two dollars to hire a horse and 
 truck wagon at the livery stable and he ll take his horse 
 and borrow a wagon and twon t cost me but a dollar and 
 a half. That s the kind of friend to have, ain t it, Cap n 
 Noah? I tell you I m thankful I run afoul of him the 
 way I did. I only wisht you knew him better." 
 
 "Humph! I m beginnin to wish I did, myself. I 
 stopped at his house just now to ask the way here. That 
 daughter of his is a mighty pretty and nice-appearin 
 girl." 
 
 "She ain t his real daughter. She s the daughter of his 
 second wife ; her name s Mary Barstow. I m afraid she s 
 a kind of trial to him." 
 
 "So? She don t look it. I could find a schooner load 
 of men in an hour that would be glad to take the trial off 
 his hands, I shouldn t wonder. What s the matter with 
 her?" 
 
 6 59 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "Oh, nothin special, I cal late, only she s kind of spiled 
 and sot in her ways, I judge. Mr. Griggs don t want 
 young fellers hangin around her yet awhile. She s too 
 young for that, he thinks." 
 
 "He does, eh? I don t believe he d want to leave that 
 question to a referee. She s twenty-one, ain t she?" 
 
 "Just about, I cal late. That young cold-storage engi 
 neer, Clifford his name is, would like to keep company 
 with her now, I cal late if her pa would let him." 
 
 "So? Irving Clifford, the young chap that has rooms 
 at the Mansion House ? I ve met him." 
 
 "That s the one. Mr. Balaam he says he s afraid that 
 young man ain t much account." 
 
 "Humph ; I want to know ! I liked what I d seen of 
 him first-rate. Your friend Balaam must be particular. 
 Well, Obe, tell me a little more about yourself. Made 
 any plans about what you re goin to do down here, have 
 you?" 
 
 Obadiah crossed his knees. "Well," he said, with a 
 self-satisfied smirk, "I don t know s I m goin to do any 
 thing special. I cal late I m as well f-f-fixed as ever I 
 want to be; enough sight more n I ever expected to be, 
 I know that. Nice house and land, p-p-plenty of money, 
 2nd my health. What more do I want?" 
 
 "Yes, I know. You ve got enough to keep you if you 
 keep it. Who s goin to take care of your house for 
 you?" 
 
 "Cal latin to do it myself. May have a woman come 
 in once a week or so to do the scrubbin up. Mr. Griggs 
 he thinks that would be a good idea. He cal lates he can 
 
 60 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 coax this same woman, this Hedge one, to do it for a 
 spell." 
 
 "Um-hm, I see. He ll do the hirin as well as the 
 coaxin , I presume likely, won t he?" 
 
 "Yes. He saves me a lot of trouble. I don t know 
 how I ll ever pay him back." 
 
 "I wouldn t worry about that much. Is this twelve 
 thousand of yours pretty well invested, Obadiah?" 
 
 "Six per cent. Seven hundred and twenty a year I get 
 out of it. Gosh t mighty ! I ve "worked many s the year 
 for enough sight less n that. And now I just set down 
 and they come and hand it t-t-to me, as you might say." 
 
 "Yes. Well, you take my advice and let em keep on 
 handin it. Don t get ambitious and help yourself to more 
 out of the principal. And don t let anybody talk you 
 into doin it, either." 
 
 "Oh, I shan t. I wouldn t touch that principal for 
 nothin that is, except to buy a little furniture for the 
 house, you know; I had t-t-to do that, of course. No, 
 I m goin to be savin as ever I was, Cap n Noah ; don t 
 you worry about me. But s-s-s-sorne day I m goin to 
 travel. A sea-cook don t get no chance t-t-to see nothin 
 of the world except the wet places in it, and I mean to 
 go everywhere Niagary and M-M-Mum-Mammoth 
 Cave and White Mountains and Syracuse, New York." 
 
 "Syracuse ? What in the nation do you want to go to 
 Syracuse for?" 
 
 "Cause I ve heard so much about it; what an elegant 
 p-p-place twas and all. After I left you, Cap n Noah, I 
 sailed along of a second mate that hailed from Syracuse 
 and he was always talkin about what a fust-class t-t-town 
 
 61 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 twas. Always goin b-b-back there end of every cruise, he 
 was. I guess likely he would only he spent all his money 
 for rum and p-p-pup-police fines and never had enough 
 left to pay fare. He why, you ain t goin , be you, Cap n ? 
 Don t go. I was kind of hopin you d give up the hotel 
 and come down and visit long with me for a spell." 
 
 "I d like to, Obe, but I can t just now. I may have to 
 go over to South Trumet this afternoon and see how the 
 Commodore s gettin on with that automobile of mine. 
 But I ll see you again afore I go. Yes, I promise that. 
 . . . Hello ! here comes your self-sacrificin friend with 
 the new second-hand bedroom set. Is that the horse he 
 rented to you for a dollar and a half? Why didn t you 
 pay him a dollar more and buy the critter?" 
 
 "Eh? B-b-Zwy him? Wh-what kind of talk s that? 
 You can t buy a horse for t-t-two dollars and a half? 
 N-n-not unless it s a dead one." 
 
 "Can t you? Well, maybe you re right, Obe. And 
 that one ain t much more n half dead, is he? Well, so 
 long. Hello, Mr. Griggs! Good mornin !" 
 
 The Griggs welcome was effusive. Balaam had had 
 the opportunity to talk with Mr. Burgess concerning the 
 latter s nautical friend, and Obadiah had spoken largely 
 of the friend s wisdom and ability and wealth and in 
 fluential connections. The wealth was largely imaginary, 
 but this Mr. Griggs did not know. 
 
 "How do you do, Cap n Newcomb, sir?" he cried, his 
 tone and handshake exuding cordiality. "How do you 
 do, sir? Been lookin over Mr. Burgess property, have 
 you? Some property, I call it, sir some property." 
 
 62 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "Yes, seems to be; some property and the rest sand. 
 Good day, Mr. Griggs. So long, Obe ; see you later." 
 
 On the way out of the yard he paused for a moment to 
 inspect the "solid walnut bedroom set" which Obadiah 
 had been able to purchase, through the help of his agent, 
 at such a bargain. Whatever he thought of the bargain, 
 he said nothing. Mr. Burgess, himself) came running 
 from the house. 
 
 "Gosh!" he panted, "I most forgot. Have another 
 "Liberty Maid to smoke on your way along. Light right 
 up. I b-b-brought the matches." 
 
 Captain Noah appeared to hesitate momentarily. Then 
 he took the proffered cigar, bit off the end, lighted the 
 other end, and with a "Thanks, Obe," strode up the road, 
 puffing like a tugboat. The puffing continued until he 
 was out of sight from the house. Then he tossed the 
 "Liberty Maid" into a ditch, made a face, and walked on. 
 It was evident, from his preoccupied manner, that he was 
 thinking deeply and that his thoughts troubled him a bit. 
 
 He did not, of course, go to South Trumet and the 
 garage that afternoon, but that evening he did telephone 
 to his proverb-quoting acquaintance, the "Commodore," 
 and learned with satisfaction that the needed "parts" had 
 arrived on the night train. The car would be ready two 
 days later, as promised. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 HE spent the next day and a half in wandering 
 about Trumet. At Irving Clifford s urgent invi 
 tation he accompanied the latter to the scene of 
 his labors, the half -completed cold-storage warehouse. 
 Clifford took him over the big building, explained where 
 the engines were to be placed, how the ammonia pipes 
 were set and arranged, and described quite thoroughly 
 the equipment ami the process used in freezing fish. The 
 captain was much interested. 
 
 "Humph!" he grunted, musingly. "Just freeze em 
 and keep em forever and ever, amen ; eh ?" 
 
 "Pretty nearly that, Captain." 
 
 "Yes, I presume likely now if I should drift into one 
 of these rooms after you got her started and laid down 
 and went to sleep I d freeze up same as a herriri , eh ?" 
 
 "Much the same, I imagine." 
 
 "Sho ! And, if nobody disturbed me for a hundred year 
 or so, my great-grandchildren, if I had any, could step 
 in any time and see what the old man looked like. That s 
 a queer thing to think about, ain t it?" 
 
 "Ha, ha! Yes, it certainly is." 
 
 "Um-hm. Say, son, I believe I ve met and talked with 
 
 64 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 folks that have had somethin like that happen to em. 
 They must have been froze for a couple of generations 
 and only just woke up. That would explain why they re 
 walkin around here in nineteen hundred and so on and 
 thinkin and reasonin back in eighteen hundred and 
 forty. I ve always wondered why it was, and now I 
 know, they ve been in cold-storage. It s a great comfort 
 to strike on a -satisfy in explanation, ain t it?" 
 
 Clifford, much amused, said it certainly was. 
 
 "I bet you ! I ve been to more n one church in my time 
 and had to listen to a cold-storage sermon." 
 
 He and Clifford spent the evenings together. The engi 
 neer enjoyed his new friend s society and wished he were 
 going to stay longer. Congenial male friends the young 
 man had found rather scarce in Trumet and, although he 
 had known Noah Newcomb so short a time, he liked him. 
 There was a marked difference in their ages, Clifford not 
 yet thirty and the captain just past the half-century mark, 
 but so far as spirit was concerned one was not more 
 youthful than the other. And if there were any physical 
 deterioration in the big frame of the older man, no evi 
 dences were visible. They had occasion to row across 
 the bay on the morning of the third day and Captain 
 Noah insisted on handling the oars. There was a strong 
 head tide, but when they reached the wharf at the other 
 side the captain s breathing was as full and regular as 
 when they started. 
 
 He asked a good many questions concerning people and 
 village affairs, but he asked none concerning Balaam 
 Griggs or his stepdaughter. None of Clifford, that is, 
 but at the Mansion House Captain Zeke Penniman and 
 
 65 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 Uncle Labe Bassett were systematically "pumped," al 
 though they themselves were quite unconscious of the 
 process. One item picked up from Mr. Bearse, the fish 
 peddler, was also of interest. Captain Noah had led the 
 conversation to the subject of "antiques." Peleg waxed 
 sarcastic and profane. 
 
 "I ain t got no patience with the whole d n foolish 
 ness !" he declared. "If I had my way I d have the law 
 onto it; I d put a stop to it some way. The way them 
 summer folks spend money on on old busted crockery 
 and chairs with the shakin palsy is sinful yes, sir, sin 
 ful! Why, I had a old blue platter that my wife used to 
 keep soap fat in out in the woodshed. Bale Griggs he 
 see it one day and he says, That s a good-sized platter, 
 ain t it/ he says. I been wantin a platter like that to 
 feed my hens on/ To feed your hens on! I sung out. 
 Do you feed your hens on Chiny dishes, for the Lord 
 sakes? I don t mean my hens, my big hens/ says he. 
 I mean my little chickens; I ve got slathers of little 
 chickens this spring. Want to sell that old platter, do 
 you? I don t know s I do/ says I. It s kind of handy 
 to have round. What ll you give for it? Oh/ he says, 
 I don t know s I ain t crazy to give anything for the old 
 thing, but maybe I d give twenty cents or a quarter, 
 maybe/ Well, we haggled around some and finally I let 
 it go for forty cents, figgered I was in about thirty-eight 
 and a half cents at that. And a month later, by godf reys ! 
 just one month later, blessed if he didn t sell that same 
 platter to a Chicago loon that was stoppin down at the 
 big hotel, for twelve dollars. Twelve dollars! My god- 
 freys! Wan t that a crime? Wouldn t you think he d 
 
 66 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 have been ashamed? Eh, Cap n Newcomb, now wouldn t 
 you ?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "So would I. And what makes me so mad is that I 
 knew that Chicago man just as well as he did and, more n 
 likely, I could have sold the platter for twelve dollars to 
 that same feller if I d only known he or anybody else 
 would have paid it. But Balaam Griggs knew all right. 
 You bet he knew! 
 
 "He s always snoopin round buyin things to sell 
 again," went on the irate Peleg. "Why, I see John Bangs 
 day afore yesterday and he told me he was cal latin* to 
 sell Balaam a black walnut bedroom set he had up garret. 
 Said Bale had offered him twelve-fifty for it, but he was 
 holdin out for fifteen. Yesterday mornin I see Balaam 
 drivin down along with a bedstead and a bureau and 
 commode in his cart, so I cal late him and John made a 
 dicker. I ll bet you Griggs sticks some poor trustin idiot 
 twenty dollars or more for that same set." 
 
 Captain Noah rubbed his chin. 
 
 "I shouldn t wonder," he said, slowly. "I shouldn t 
 wonder a bit and then some." 
 
 But neither of this nor of other information gathered 
 from the regular boarders at the Mansion House did the 
 captain speak during his next call upon Mr. Burgess. It 
 was a short call ; he had received word from the garage 
 that his car was ready, and that afternoon he was to start 
 to start, he emphasized the word strongly when stating 
 his intention to Clifford for Boston in it. And in ac 
 cordance with his promise, he came once more before 
 leaving to the old house on the hill. 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 Obadiah and he shook hands and said good-by at the 
 gate. 
 
 "Well, Cap n Noah," said the little man, "I m awful 
 glad I had the chance to see you this much, but I m awful 
 sorry you can t stay longer. If you d only stay and make 
 a little visit along with me I d be tickled. But I ve asked 
 you and asked you and you keep on sayin you won t." 
 
 The captain shook his head. "You re wrong, Oba 
 diah," he answered; "I keep on sayin I can t not this 
 time. But I tell you, some of these days I m comin back 
 to Trumet again, and when I do maybe I ll make that 
 little visit you ve said so much about." 
 
 "Well, I hope you will, but I don t know. A busy man 
 as you are ain t likely to find much in Trumet to interest 
 him." 
 
 "Oh, I don t know. I can see one or two things de- 
 velopin here now that are liable to be pretty interestin 
 afore they finish. I cal late you ll see me, Obe ; sooner n 
 you expect, maybe. And now let me tell you this: 
 There s my address on that card I gave you. A letter or 
 a telegram or anything sent to me there will reach me 
 sooner or later. If ever you need me, Obe that is to 
 say, if you re in trouble or in a tight place and don t know 
 how to get out, if you want help or advice or anything 
 why, don t you hesitate to send for me. Don t you hesi 
 tate a minute. If I m on top of this earth anywheres 
 I ll come." 
 
 The ex-cook looked up into his former skipper s face 
 with the old expression of doglike regard and reverence. 
 
 "That s awful kind of you, Cap n," he said ; "it is so. 
 I thank you a thousand times. But tain t likely I shall 
 
 68 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 need any of them things. Looks to me as if I wan t 
 liable to get into any trouble; way I figger I m out of it 
 for k-k-keeps and twill be smooth sailin for me to the 
 end of the v yage." 
 
 "I know, but you can t always tell, Obe. Sometimes 
 there are rocks and shoals that ain t down on the chart. 
 Remember now, if you want me just give me a hail. 
 Promise." 
 
 "Land yes, I ll promise, Cap n Noah. You re just as 
 good-hearted as you used to be, ain t you. I never could 
 see why you was so good to a little no-account sort of 
 critter like me. I can t see it n-n-now, either." 
 
 "Can t you, Obe ? Well, maybe you ve forgot the time 
 when that same little no-account stuck by me when every 
 other hand afloat or ashore skipped out and left me to 
 fight Yellow Jack alone. I say maybe you ve forgotten 
 it, but I ain t and I ain t likely to. Well, so long, Obe. 
 Good luck and a fair wind. So long." 
 
 That afternoon Irving Clifford robbed the cold-storage 
 company of time sufficient to accompany the captain to 
 South Trumet and to ride back as far as the Mansion 
 House in the little car. During the three-mile ride he 
 had given the owner of that car all the advice in his 
 power, advice concerning driving, steering, stopping and 
 even slight repairing. At the walk in front of the hotel 
 he alighted, rather reluctantly it must be confessed. 
 
 "I must leave you, Captain Newcomb," he said, "and, 
 to be honest, I hate to do it. I hate to see you start fer 
 Boston." 
 
 The captain chuckled. 
 
 "I know you do," he said. "I can see it in your face. 
 
 69 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 Well, now, I m goin to tell you this, son : I m not only 
 goin to start for Boston in this craft, but I m goin to get 
 there in her some time or other. She and I may go in 
 swimmin together two or three times more, if there s 
 ponds enough handy, but never mind, when we get to 
 Portland I ll be boss of the ship. I ve handled a ten thou 
 sand ton steamboat in my day, and no tin dingey on 
 wheels is goin to beat me, if I know it. And all this 
 doesn t mean that I ain t more obliged to you than I can 
 tell, Mr. Clifford. I am, and I hope you know it. I m 
 sorry I can t stop and have you give me more lessons in 
 pilotin , but I can t, haven t the time. Don t you worry 
 about me, though. I ll drop you a line from whatever 
 port I make tonight and so on as I navigate up the coast." 
 
 Clifford smiled. "I m not greatly worried about your 
 safety," he said. "I m pretty sure you ll get through 
 without trouble. But I do hate to have you leave Trumet. 
 My offer to give you lessons in driving wasn t entirely 
 unselfish, you see. I have enjoyed your society very 
 much and I wanted more of it, that was all. I hate to 
 lose you, Captain." 
 
 Captain Noah was plainly much pleased. He leaned 
 from the car and shook the young man s hand. 
 
 "Well, now, I m much obliged to you," he declared, 
 heartily. "And it s the same here and many of em. But 
 you ain t got rid of me yet. It s about a hundred to one 
 shot that some of these days you ll see me comin down 
 here again. Well, it s time to cast off, I cal late. All 
 ashore that s goin ashore! So long, son." 
 
 The little car buzzed down the main road. It disap- 
 
 70 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 peared, taking a wide sweep around the bend. Clifford, 
 watching it, wondered if he should ever see it or its driver 
 again. He hoped so, certainly. He had meant what he 
 .said he hated to lose Captain Noah Newcomb. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE following day he received a post card from 
 a town midway between Trumet and Boston. 
 The little car and its driver had reached that 
 point the previous night without, so Captain Noah wrote, 
 "running on the rocks or sinking any of the channel 
 traffic." The captain hoped and expected to make the 
 city before another nightfall. That he had done so, a 
 second post card proved. There came a third, this time 
 from Portland. "Safe, sound and considerable aston 
 ished on account of it," wrote Noah. Clifford wrote a 
 note in reply. That ended the correspondence. No 
 more letters came from the Maine metropolis, and in 
 Trumet the engineer s time was, between work and purely 
 personal interests, fully occupied. He did not forget 
 his salty pupil in the art of auto piloting; he thought of 
 him occasionally and wondered where he might be, even 
 resolved to write and find out, but being very busy at 
 the storage plant and somewhat worried by the personal 
 interest just mentioned, his resolutions never became per 
 formances. And the winter passed, spring came and 
 went, and summer was at hand. 
 
 It was a beautiful June forenoon when the little car 
 
 72 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 once more appeared on Trumet s main street. And, as 
 on the occasions of its former appearances, Captain 
 Noah Newcomb was at the helm. But now he did not 
 crouch over the wheel, his hands bent in a petrified 
 clutch at its circumference and his eyes glaring at the 
 road just ahead. Indeed, no. The captain leaned back 
 against the upholstery and his clutch upon the wheel 
 was light but confident. He did not glare at the road; 
 he smoked a cigar and looked easily about him. And in 
 the wake left in the dust by the tires of that little car 
 there was not to be discerned one nervous "jiggle." It 
 was plain that Captain Noah had become, as he had 
 sworn to become, "boss of the ship." 
 
 He sailed down the main road at a twenty mile an 
 hour clip, and as he passed the platform of the Mansion 
 House he looked hopefully up at it. But the only per 
 son visible was Ethelinda, who was dusting the piazza 
 chairs. Her glance was fixed upon the manly beauty of 
 Izzy Thacher, the grocer s boy, who was delivering a 
 basket at Mrs. Copeland s across the street, and she had 
 eyes for no one else. However, the captain paused long 
 enough to hail. 
 
 "Hello! Hi !" he shouted. "Is Mr. Clifford on board, 
 do you know, sis?" 
 
 Ethelinda heard him, but it suited her t0 pretend that 
 she did not. The grocer s boy was looking on and 
 Ethelinda felt that she had a dignity to maintain. She 
 went on with her dusting. 
 
 "Hi!" shouted the captain again. "Hi, you er 
 what s your name Shindy ? Windy ? Oh, Lindy ; that s 
 
 73 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 it. Say, Lindy, do you know whether Mr. Clifford s 
 inside there or not?" 
 
 Linda, nose in air and conscious that Izzy across the 
 road was grinning broadly, condescended to reply. 
 
 "Was you speakin to me?" she drawled, crushingly. 
 
 Captain Noah looked at her with eager interest. "Yes, 
 I was," he said. "You guessed it the very first time. 
 My, but you re a smart girl ! Now see if you can guess 
 what I asked you." 
 
 Izzy burst into a delighted "Haw, haw!" Ethelinda 
 flounced into the hotel to inform Mrs. Hobbs that that 
 crazy man that was here last fall had come back again 
 and was ravin worse than ever. The captain, quite un 
 perturbed, turned to Mr. Thacher and asked the latter 
 if he knew where Mr. Clifford might be found. 
 
 "Down to the cold-storage, I cal late," replied Izzy. 
 "He was a spell ago, anyhow, cause I see him." 
 
 So to the cold-storage plant went the little car, piloted 
 by Captain Newcomb. The plant, now almost ready to 
 open for business, was situated on a point at the mouth 
 of Trumet Bay on the southern shore. Several work 
 men were busy on the roof of the engine-house exten 
 sion searching for a leak which had developed during the 
 winter s storm-beating. The captain pulled up in front 
 of the building and alighted. 
 
 "Mr. Clifford around?" he asked, hailing the work 
 men on the roof. 
 
 "Don t know," was the careless answer. Ain t seen 
 him lately. Maybe he s inside somewheres." 
 
 The captain entered the engine room. The engines 
 were in place now and the room seemed ready for occu- 
 
 74 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 pancy. Even the big fire hose connected with the pres 
 sure tank hung coiled on the wall. There was no sign of 
 Clifford, however, and Captain Noah, after a look around, 
 emerged from the building to find another visitor stand 
 ing by his automobile and regarding it with an expres 
 sion of amused condescension. 
 
 This visitor was evidently not a Trumet "native." In 
 fact, he looked as much out of place down there on the 
 beach amid the bundles of seaweed rolled in by the win 
 ter tides, the clam shells and the defunct "horsefoot" 
 crabs, to say nothing of the shavings and chips and build 
 ers debris, as an orchid might have looked in a potato 
 patch. He was a rather undersized, slim person, with 
 a closely trimmed, waxed mustache, a fancy waistcoat, 
 spats and a bamboo walking-stick. He was smoking a 
 cigarette in a meerschaum holder. As Captain Noah ap 
 proached he languidly lifted one gaitered foot to the 
 hub of the auto s wheel and tapped the radiator with 
 his cane. 
 
 "Who owns this er Panhard?" he asked, address 
 ing the workmen on the roof. "Clifford hasn t been go 
 ing in for jewelry, has he?" 
 
 One of the workmen replied. It was the same fellow 
 who had answered the captain s inquiry, and now, as he 
 spoke, he was unaware that the captain himself was 
 standing in the doorway beneath him. "No, tain t Clif 
 ford s," he said. "Belongs to a feller that came here 
 lookin for him. Some flivver, ain t it, Mr. Wentworth ? 
 Got her dolled up regardless, ain t he?" 
 
 The slim gentleman deigned to smile. "Rather," he 
 admitted, and tapped the radiator again. 
 
 6 75 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 Now the glistening varnish on that car was the pride 
 of its owner s heart. During the trying period of his 
 initiation into the science of driving it had received 
 some severe scratches and humps, but these scars had all 
 been covered, the nickel was polished each morning and 
 no mud was permitted to cake upon the wheels. Vari 
 ous improvements the captain had added during the win 
 ter electric lights, a self-starter and a clock were some 
 of these. And now to see this lofty stranger carelessly 
 thumping upon the hood, upon the polished shirt-front, 
 so to speak, of his pet was a little too much. Captain 
 Noah uttered a mild protest. 
 
 "Excuse me, Mister/ he said, coming forward, "but 
 perhaps you wouldn t mind hittin not quite so hard. 
 That paint on there s kind of fresh I had her revar- 
 nished a little spell ago and so I Well, you see, I m 
 kind of fussy. Excuse me, won t you?" 
 
 The stranger turned and looked him over. So far as 
 consideration for the captain s feelings went he might 
 have been inspecting a wooden image. 
 
 "You see," went on the latter, "I I er well, per 
 haps you ll think I m too particular about that car, but 
 
 The slim person interrupted. "Where s Clifford?" he 
 demanded, addressing the workmen on the roof. 
 
 "I don t know, Mr. Wentworth. Ain t he inside? I 
 thought he was. He," pointing to Noah, "was in there 
 just now lookin* for him. Did you find him, Mister ?" 
 
 "No, didn t seem to be there. Hi! Whose dog s 
 this?" 
 
 76 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 A brindle bull terrier had suddenly made his appear 
 ance and was sniffing hungrily at the captain s ankles. 
 
 "Hi! get out!" commanded Noah, uneasily. "Say, 
 whose dog is this, anyhow ?" 
 
 The person addressed as Mr. Wentworth smiled 
 slightly. The captain s uneasiness appeared to amuse 
 him, 
 
 "He s mine, I believe," he drawled. 
 
 "He is, eh? Well, does he bite?" 
 
 "Sometimes." 
 
 "I want to know! Well, do you cal late he ll bite 
 
 "I hope not, but you can t always tell. Sometimes he 
 isn t very particular." 
 
 A smothered giggle came from the roof. Captain 
 Noah, glancing up, saw that the workmen had stopped 
 hammering and were enjoying the tableau below. 
 
 "Call the critter off," he commanded, sharply. Mr. 
 W 7 entworth languidly snapped his fingers. 
 
 "Here, Sport!" he said. The dog left off sniffing at 
 the captain s ankles and trotted to his master, wagging 
 an abbreviated tail. Noah smiled, apologetically. "Al 
 ways makes me nervous to have a strange dog smellin 
 around my legs," he observed. " Tain t likely he meant 
 anything, you know, but er What kind of a dog is 
 he? What you might call a watchdog, eh?" 
 
 Mr. Wentworth smiled again. His was a queer smile, 
 a lazy smile, a sort of tired smile, which lifted one cor 
 ner of his mouth but did not disturb the rest of his 
 countenance. The countenance as a whole looked tired 
 also ; it was pouched a bit under the eyes and lined from 
 
 77 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 the nostril to the corner of the jaw; a sophisticated, 
 weary sort of face, one which looked as if it might have 
 seen a great deal of life some kinds of life. 
 
 "Why, yes," drawled Mr. Wentworth, "I presume you 
 might call him that if you cared to. He s a pretty good 
 watcher, at that. If I told him to watch anything I 
 rather think he d watch it." 
 
 "You don t say!" 
 
 "Yes, I do. For instance." He strolled over and 
 rapped the step of the automobile with his cane. 
 
 "Guard, Sport," he said. Sport trotted over to the 
 car and sat down by the step. 
 
 "Guard," said Mr. Wentworth again. Then he turned 
 on his heel and walked to the corner of the building, 
 where, pausing for an instant, he looked up at the group 
 on the roof and dropped his left eyelid significantly. 
 Then, whistling a popular melody and cutting the tops 
 of the beachgrass clumps with his cane, he turned the 
 corner and disappeared. 
 
 Captain Noah did not see the wink at the corner; in 
 fact, he did not notice the disappearance. The prompt 
 ness with which the dog had obeyed pleased him and he 
 was regarding the animal with a growing respect. 
 
 "Sho!" he exclaimed. "Takes orders like a second 
 mate, don t he? I declare, he s more of a dog than I 
 thought he was. Had him quite a spell, have you, Mis 
 ter?" Then, hearing no reply, he turned. "Why, 
 where s he gone to?" he demanded. 
 
 The talkative workman answered. "Gone to hunt up 
 Mr. Clifford, I guess likely," he said. 
 
 "Sho! Why, I told him Mr. Clifford wasn t there." 
 
 78 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 He ran over to the corner and called: "Hi, Mr. 
 What s-your-name Mr. Wentworth!" But Mr. Went- 
 worth was out of sight and, apparently, out of hearing. 
 So he returned to the front again. 
 
 "Say," he said, addressing the group on the roof, "I 
 can t wait any longer. If Mr. Clifford comes back afore 
 dinner time tell him Cap n Newcomb, Cap n Noah New- 
 comb, was here and will see him at the hotel. Get the 
 name straight, now Noah Newcomb. He ll remember, 
 I cal late. I Here, you dog, get out of my way, will 
 you?" 
 
 But the dog seemed to have no idea whatever of get 
 ting out of his way. As the captain approached the car 
 the animal stood in front of him. The captain stepped 
 to one side and the dog stepped likewise. Captain Noah 
 raised his foot to put it upon the auto s step. The dog 
 raised his head and opened his mouth, displaying a beau 
 tiful set of teeth. 
 
 "Why, what ails the critter?" demanded Noah. "Hey, 
 you, Sport ! Clear out, will you ?" 
 
 Sport s answer was a further display of teeth. From 
 behind the teeth came a menacing rumble, like the sound 
 of moving something heavy in a cellar. 
 
 "Well, I swan to man!" exclaimed the captain. "I 
 do believe he ain t goin to let me get in my own car. 
 Here, Mr. " 
 
 He had turned and had raised his voice, intending to 
 summon the dog s owner. But just then another giggle 
 came from the roof. And that giggle brought enlight 
 enment to his mind. 
 
 Wentworth had ordered the dog to "guard" the car. 
 
 79 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 After giving that order he had walked away. The dog 
 was guarding the car. The group of workmen on the 
 roof had stopped working and were watching. Nine 
 chances out of ten Wentworth also was watching some 
 where. The joke was on him, Noah Newcomb, and they 
 were watching to see the fun. 
 
 Captain Noah looked at Sport and rubbed his chin. 
 Sport showed his teeth and growled. Another giggle 
 sounded above. 
 
 For perhaps a minute the captain stood there seeking 
 ways and means. He could go into the building, find 
 Wentworth and make the latter call off his dog that 
 he could do, of course; and, also, he inwardly vowed, 
 that he would not do. Slowly he rubbed his chin. 
 
 Then, suddenly turning, he walked to the open door 
 of the engine room and entered. When he came out he 
 was holding the nozzle of the fire hose in his hands and 
 the hose itself was unwinding from the reel as he walked. 
 He walked on until the hose was unwound its entire 
 length. Then he laid the nozzle upon the ground and 
 turned again toward the door of the engine house. The 
 group on the roof had watched this performance with 
 astonished interest. 
 
 "Hi!" cried one, the one who had done all the talk 
 ing. "Hi, Mister, what are you goin to do with that 
 hose?" 
 
 Captain Noah, who was humming a hymn, looked up. 
 
 "I was just noticin how dusty my auto d got this 
 morninV he cried. "Cal late I ll wash off a little of it; 
 twon t do any harm." 
 
 80 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 He walked into the engine house, humming. "Land 
 ahead, its fruits are wavin ." 
 
 A moment later the water spurted from the nozzle of 
 the hose, tearing a hole in the sand and sending the 
 pebbles flying. The captain reappeared. Stooping, he 
 picked up the nozzle; the force of water was so great 
 that he was obliged to hold on with all his strength. 
 
 " Drop the anchor, furl the sail/ " hummed Captain 
 Noah. He turned the stream of water in the direction 
 of his car. It struck the road just behind the rear 
 wheels. The flying mud and spray spattered about 
 Sport s clipped ears. The dog closed his mouth and 
 swallowed uneasily; nevertheless, he still maintained his 
 position. 
 
 " Drop the anchor, furl the sail/ " sang the captain. 
 The stream of water from the hose moved close to the 
 rear tires. 
 
 Then a window on the second story of the cold-storage 
 building was thrown up and a voice called: 
 
 "Here! What are you doing?" 
 
 Captain Noah did not appear to hear. He sang on: 
 " We are safe within the vail/ " 
 
 "Here ! D nation ! What are you doing ? Don t 
 
 turn that hose on my dog. You ll kill him." 
 
 The captain turned his head. "Eh?" he queried. 
 "Who s that? Oh, it s you, Mr. What s-your-name. 
 Yes, yes. Been lookin over the plant, have you? In- 
 terestin kind of place, ain t it?" 
 
 Mr. Wentworth s usually placid countenance was now 
 anything but that. 
 
 81 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "What the devil are you doing?" he demanded. "Do 
 you want to kill my dog ?" 
 
 "Kill your dog? What dog?" 
 
 "What dog! Why, my dog there. Haven t you got 
 any sense? If that water hits him there s force enough 
 to kill him." 
 
 "Oh, no, no! I guess not. I was just cal latin to 
 wash my car. He d get out of the way afore the water 
 hit him. You just watch now and see if he wouldn t." 
 
 "Stop! Don t point it at him." 
 
 "Well, just as you say. Better call him off, then, 
 hadn t you? He s right in the way and accidents do 
 happen, sometimes." 
 
 Someone on the roof burst into a roar of laughter. 
 Mr. Wentworth looked as if he would have enjoyed 
 murdering a certain individual. The captain, serenely 
 innocent and unconscious, began another hymn. 
 
 " These are they that have come out of great tribu 
 lation. " 
 
 "Sport," ordered Wentworth, "come here." 
 
 Sport, who had been eyeing the hose with sidelong 
 glances, needed no second command. He left his sentry 
 post before the auto s step and dashed over beneath the 
 window from which his master leaned. 
 
 "Come here, you fool !" shouted Wentworth. The dog 
 ran around the corner of the building. Captain Noah 
 sighed. 
 
 "After all," he said aloud, "I don t know s tain t 
 kind of foolish for me to wash this car. Might just as 
 well have it done at the garage." 
 
 82 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 He tossed the streaming nozzle from him, climbed 
 into the car and pressed the starting button. 
 
 "Just shut that water off, one of you, please," he said, 
 "when you get time. Don t forget to tell Mr. Clifford 
 I was here. Good mornin . Mornin , Mr. Wentworth." 
 
 During the ride up to the village he chuckled more 
 than once. When he entered the front hall of the Man 
 sion House he was still chuckling. Mrs. Hobbs, in spite 
 of Ethelinda s unflattering opinion of the captain s sanity, 
 was glad to see him. 
 
 "Real glad to have you back, Cap n Newcomb," she 
 said. "Are you goin to stay with us for a spell ? Would 
 you like your old room ? It s empty." 
 
 Captain Noah replied that he didn t know how long he 
 should stay. "Maybe quite a spell, maybe only this 
 afternoon," he said. "If, with that understanding you d 
 be willin to give me a room I d like to have it fust-rate. 
 Where s Mr. Clifford; is he round?" 
 
 It developed that Mr. Clifford had left the hotel only 
 a few minutes before Captain Newcomb s arrival. He 
 had been down at the cold-storage plant in the morning, 
 as usual, but had come back unexpectedly, asked for and 
 eaten an early luncheon, and had taken the eleven o clock 
 train for Provincetown, Mrs. Hobbs believed. 
 
 The captain was disappointed; he had wished to see 
 Clifford. However, as he could not see him until eve 
 ning, he decided to make the best of it and asked to be 
 shown to his room. 
 
 "You tell em to leave my car right out front here," 
 he said. "I ll most likely be usin it again pretty soon." 
 
 83 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 Alone in his room, he took from his pocket a crum 
 pled envelope containing a letter. Adjusting his spec 
 tacles he read the letter for the fourth or fifth time. 
 
 CAPTAIN NOAH NEWCOMB. 
 
 DEAR FRIEND: I take my Pen in hand hoping these few 
 Lines will find you the same. When you was Here you 
 said if I neded you to Write. I don t know wether I nede 
 you or not but sometimes seems as if I did. I have got 
 some things on my Mind. I would like to of had a Chance 
 to talk to you if you was Here but I guess likely you 
 are to Busy to come. So I shant ask you. I Hope you 
 are first rate as to Helth. I am to. We dident have much 
 Snow here this Winter and the spring is coming in Good. 
 Yours truly, 
 
 OBADIAH B. BURGESS. 
 
 The letter was dated six weeks previously. After read 
 ing it he sat for a moment in thought, then, shaking his 
 head as one who gives up trying to guess a conundrum, 
 he put it back in his pocket, and, shortly afterward, went 
 down to luncheon. Again he regretted Irving Clifford s 
 absence. Before calling upon his former cook the cap 
 tain had hoped, by asking some judicious questions, to 
 learn a little of what had transpired at the "Badscom 
 place" during his absence. By getting an outside opin 
 ion concerning these happenings and then hearing Oba- 
 diah s own story of them Captain Noah believed he 
 might be in a better position to judge that which Mr. 
 Burgess himself seemed unable to decide namely, 
 whether or not the latter needed his friend s counsel and 
 help. And the captain, having some knowledge of char- 
 
 84 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 acter, believed Irving Clifford s opinion would have been 
 the best obtainable. He had a mind to wait for that 
 opinion, even if waiting entailed delaying his call upon 
 Obadiah until the following morning. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 BUT before luncheon was over he changed his mind. 
 The only one of the regular boarders present at 
 that meal was Mr. Laban Bassett. A conversa 
 tion between EtheLnda and "Uncle Labe" attracted the 
 captain s attention. 
 
 "I see Joe Kenney goin down street a spell ago, Mr. 
 Bassett," said Ethelinda. "He had his paintin tools 
 with him. Guess likely he s goin to make another pic 
 ture of somebody s cow or somethin . He, he!" 
 
 Uncle Labe sniffed disgust. 
 
 "Pesky foolishness !" he declared. "If I was his aunt 
 I wouldn t let him waste his time that way. If he wants 
 to paint why don t he paint houses or whitewash fences 
 or somethin ? There d be some sense to that." 
 
 Ethelinda tossed her head. Her opinion of art and 
 artists was much like Mr. Bassett s, but she liked to 
 tease the old man. 
 
 "Oh, I don t know," she said; "some of the things 
 Joe Kenney paints are awful pretty. I saw a picture of 
 the bay that he done t other day and twas fine. So bright 
 and gay, sort of. Hang one of them pictures up on the 
 wall and you couldn t look at nothin else." 
 
 86 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "Humph! I cal late you couldn t; lookin at that 
 would put your eyes out. And as for the crayon en 
 largements he does my soul! Did you see the one he 
 done of Obadiah Burgess himself? Well, I did. Frank 
 Hammond had it down in his store, puttin a frame onto 
 it. Didn t look no more like Burgess than than a mon 
 key does or I do or anything. A sight, I called it. 
 And why Mr. Burgess lets him live there everybody says 
 is a mystery. Great hulkin feller like him. I hear he 
 don t pay a cent of board." 
 
 "Why should he? He s Mrs. Mayo s nephew, and 
 they tell me he s lived with her ever since his ma died. 
 So when she came to live along of Mr. Burgess and 
 keep house for him twas natural enough for Joe to 
 come, too. Seems that way to me, anyhow." 
 
 "Well, what did Obadiah Burgess need a housekeeper 
 for, anyway? Wan t nobody to housekeep for but just 
 he, himself." 
 
 Before Ethelinda could reply Captain Noah asked a 
 question. 
 
 "What Burgess is this you re talkin about ?" he asked. 
 "The one that had the what do you call it? Badscom 
 place left him?" 
 
 "That s the one. Know him, do you, Cap n?" 
 
 "Yes, pretty well. You say he s got a housekeeper? 
 A reg lar one, that stays there all the time?" 
 
 "Sartin. And her nephew, Joe Kenney, stays there, 
 too." 
 
 "What sort of woman is she? Come from round here, 
 did she?" 
 
 "No; somebody Balaam Griggs fetched from down 
 
 87 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 Cape Ann way. She s some relation of Balaam s, they 
 tell me. As for the sort of woman she is well, she 
 seems to be a good enough sort. I never heard nothin 
 against her, as I know of." 
 
 "She s real sort of good-lookin , I think," put in 
 Ethelinda. " Course she s old " 
 
 "She ain t neither," interrupted Uncle Labe. "Ain t 
 more n forty, I bet you." 
 
 "Forty! Well, ain t that old, for mercy sakes?" 
 
 "Old! Is the gal crazy? I m sev Well, I m more n 
 forty, and I don t call myself old yet." 
 
 "How long has Obe Mr. Burgess, I mean had this 
 housekeeper woman there?" asked the captain, who was 
 not particularly interested in the age question. Ethelinda 
 answered. 
 
 "Oh, most two months now," she said. "Folks don t 
 know but he may be cal latin to marry her; good many 
 rich folks do marry their housekeepers, you know. And 
 they say Mr. Burgess has got lots of money." 
 
 Captain Noah somehow seemed not to like this re 
 mark. "Humph !" he grunted, and frowned. 
 
 "She and that Joe Kenney nephew of hers came to 
 Burgess s just afore Mr. Wentworth did," went on Uncle 
 Labe. "When Burgess told Balaam that Mr. Wentworth 
 was comin to live with him " 
 
 "Who was comin ?" The captain turned in his chair. 
 "Who was comin to live with Obe Burgess?" he de 
 manded. 
 
 "Why, Mr. Wentworth, Mr. Calvin Wentworth, of 
 New York. He s some sort of relation cousin or some- 
 thin of Obadiah s, seems so. Seems he s been ailin for 
 
 88 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 a long spell and the doctors said Fifth Avenue and the 
 like of that would be the death of him if he stayed there 
 and he d have to go to the country. So " 
 
 "So he came," finished Ethelinda, evidently greatly 
 excited at the mention of the Wentworth name. "Mr. 
 Griggs says he s awful rich and he s goin to leave every 
 thing to Mr. Burgess when he dies and he s liable to 
 die most any time. I heard him tell Mis Hobbs he was 
 expectin it any minute. And " 
 
 "What sort of a lookin feller is he?" interrupted 
 Noah. 
 
 "Oh, he s an awful fine man. He s just my idea of a 
 gentleman, same as you read about in books. He s got a 
 mustache just like that Count Somebody-or-other that 
 was in the movin pitchers last week. And he talks so 
 sort of slow and and and proud, as you might say. 
 And he most generally carries a cane ; and " 
 
 "Heave to a minute. Does he own a dog; a kind of 
 pepper-and-salt critter, with a jaw like a muskrat trap?" 
 
 "He s got a full-breeded Boston bull terrier. Its name 
 is Sport. I just love that dog." 
 
 "Humph ! so do I. And this Wentworth man is livin 
 at Obe Burgess ; livin there for keeps ?" 
 
 "Um-hm. . . . Why, where you goin ? You ain t 
 through, are you? You ain t had your pie yet." 
 
 But Captain Noah did not wait for pie. He strode 
 out of the room. A few minutes later he was on his 
 way to the Badscom place. 
 
 The house and its surroundings were much improved 
 since he saw them last. The missing shingles had been 
 replaced, the loose blinds rehung and the house and out- 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 buildings whitewashed. The fence had its full comple 
 ment of pickets and it, too, was spotlessly white. The 
 captain entered the front gate and walked around to the 
 side door. Being a Cape Codder by birth and early 
 breeding, he had an instinctive repugnance to front 
 doors. 
 
 The door was opened, in answer to his knock, by a 
 woman. She was a rather plump, matronly sort of 
 woman, plainly dressed and wearing a white apron. The 
 apron was spotlessly clean. She looked the captain over 
 and waited for him to speak. 
 
 "Good afternoon, ma am/ he said. "This is where 
 Mr. Burgess lives, ain t it?" 
 
 He knew it was, of course, but the intentness of the 
 woman s gaze disconcerted him the least bit, which was 
 unusual, for, generally speaking, it took a good deal to 
 disconcert Captain Noah Newcomb. 
 
 The woman nodded. 
 
 "Yes," she said ; "Mr. Burgess lives here." 
 
 Captain Noah waited for her to say whether or not 
 Obadiah was in. As she did not, nor in fact anything 
 more, he was obliged to ask. 
 
 "Is er is he to home?" he inquired. 
 
 "No." 
 
 "Sho ! Liable to be gone long, do you think, ma am ?" 
 
 "I can t tell you. He didn t say how long he d be 
 gone." 
 
 The captain shifted his feet uneasily. He was getting 
 replies to his questions, but he was not getting anything 
 more. On the whole, he felt inclined to give it up for 
 the present. 
 
 90 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "Humph! Well, all right, ma am," he said, turning 
 away. "I ll see him later, I presume likely." 
 
 The woman still looked at him intently. She seemed 
 to be inwardly debating some question or other. He 
 had taken perhaps three steps toward the corner when 
 she spoke again. 
 
 "Just a minute, if you don t mind," she said. "Of 
 course this isn t really any of my affairs, but Mr. Bur 
 gess asked my opinion about it and I gave it to him. To 
 be real up and down honest, I think he s gone out so as 
 not to see you when you came." 
 
 Captain Noah stared at her in amazement. 
 
 "Gone out?" he repeated. "He s gone out so as not 
 to see me?" 
 
 "Yes. He didn t say so, but I imagine that s it. He 
 has made up his mind not to take it." 
 
 "Not to take it? Take what?" 
 
 "Why, the land the property, whatever it is you ve 
 got. He says he told you he d got all the property he 
 wanted, says he told you that at the very beginnin . I 
 suppose it s a part of your business to keep on tryin , 
 but, honest, it does put me out of patience sometimes to 
 see how you people pester and torment the poor man. 
 Between agents and peddlers and promoters and " 
 
 "Now now now," broke in the captain, incoherent in 
 his astonishment. "Now now hold on a minute, 
 ma am, if you ll just please. I ain t a peddler. I ain t 
 got any land to sell. I m an old friend of Obadiah s 
 and I ve come here to see him, that s all. That s all, I 
 give you my word." 
 
 7 91 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 Her gaze was just as intent as ever, but there was a 
 shade of doubt in her voice when she spoke. 
 
 "Ain t you the man from the Indian Hill Develop 
 ment Company over at Mashpee?" she asked. 
 
 "Not guilty. Never heard of the what is it? Injun 
 Hill crowd in my life. I m an old shipmate of Mr. Bur 
 gess . He used to sail cook for me one time. My name s 
 Newcomb Noah Newcomb and " 
 
 But now the woman interrupted him. Her expression 
 changed entirely. 
 
 "Not Cap n Noah Newcomb of Portland?" she cried. 
 
 "That s the one, ma am." 
 
 "Mercy on us ! And I ve been talkin* to you as if I d 
 caught you breakin into the henhouse! I don t know 
 what you must think of me. Come right in, Cap n New- 
 comb. I m sure Mr. Burgess ll be back pretty soon. 
 Yes, come right in and wait. I m Mrs. Mayo, the house 
 keeper. Dear ! dear ! and how I did talk to you !" 
 a Two minutes later the captain was seated in the 
 rocker in the Burgess sitting room. Mrs. Mayo, the 
 housekeeper, was still apologizing. 
 
 "I ought to have known, I suppose," she said, "but 
 maybe I had a little mite of excuse. I hope I did, any 
 how. YouVe no idea, Cap n Newcomb, how Mr. Bur 
 gess is plagued and pestered by people who want him to 
 buy somethin or take shares in something or subscribe 
 to somethin . You ve no idea of it, you can t have." 
 
 Captain Noah nodded. 
 
 "I can imagine it," he said. "Where the carcass is 
 the er er dogfish are gathered together. I don t 
 
 92 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 know s dogfish is the right word, exactly, but maybe 
 you understand what I mean, ma am." 
 
 There was just a hint of extra emphasis in the last 
 sentence, but the housekeeper did not seem to notice it. 
 
 "Yes, I know what you mean," she said. "The papers 
 here on the Cape have had a lot to say about Mr. Bur 
 gess fallin heir to this place and a lot of money, and 
 consequently there s a perfect swarm of those dogfish, 
 as you call em, schoolin around the poor man about 
 every minute of the day. If Mr. Burgess would only 
 say no once in a while if he d only put his foot down 
 and keep it down but I m afraid he don t know how to 
 do that very well. It s so easy to take advantage of him." 
 
 "Is it?" asked the captain, innocently. He would like 
 to have added, "Do you find it so?" but he thought it 
 better policy to wait. Besides, this woman puzzled him. 
 She was not the sort of woman he expected to find 
 there, not the sort he would have expected Balaam Griggs 
 to provide. That is, she did not look like that sort of 
 woman. She looked and spoke like a sensible, straight 
 forward New England matron, comfortable, competent, 
 honest and aboveboard. She did not act or appear like 
 a schemer, nor an agent of schemers. Appearances, how 
 ever, are often deceitful, and the captain, being a bach 
 elor, was especially distrustful of feminine appearances. 
 And there was one point in which Ethelinda was right; 
 Mrs. Mayo was good-looking for her age. This, of 
 itself, was suspicious. 
 
 The lady went on. "I hope you won t think I m talk 
 ing about Mr. Burgess behind his back," she said. "I 
 don t mean to run him down, that s sartin. He s as 
 
 93 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 good-hearted, well-meanin a soul as ever I saw in my 
 life. It s because he is so good and kind that I hate to 
 see him taken advantage of and I try to save him from 
 it all I can. Last night he was tellin me he met a man 
 this Indian Hill development man down street some- 
 wheres, at the club or the post office or some such place 
 and the man got after him to buy some land the com 
 pany had. Mr. Burgess didn t want to buy the land, 
 he didn t want even to hear about it, but the man kept 
 talkin and talkin and finally said he d be around here 
 after dinner today to talk some more. Mr. Burgess was 
 real worried, said he didn t want to see him and how 
 could he get out of it and all that, so I told him I d help 
 him out. Says I, You go and take a walk and when 
 the man comes I ll send him to the right-about-face in 
 a hurry. What s he look like? Well, he said he was a 
 big man with a beard, and so when you came knockin 
 at the door, I Well, I do hope you ll forgive me, 
 Cap n Newcomb." 
 
 "Oh, I ll forgive you, Mrs. Mrs. " 
 
 "Mayo. Melissa Mayo, my name is." 
 
 "Yes, yes, I remember you said twas Mayo. So 
 you re keepin house for Obadiah now; eh, ma am?" 
 
 "Yes. I m here nearly two months." 
 
 "Did you use to live on Cape Cod; after you came 
 here, I mean?" 
 
 "No, my home used to be on Cape Ann, down near 
 Pigeon Cove. I lived there when my husband was alive 
 and, after that, with my sister and her boy. She was a 
 widow, too." 
 
 "Pigeon Cove. Yes, yes. That s quite a ways off 
 
 94 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 from Trumet. How did you happen to hear of Obadiah s 
 needin a housekeeper? Used to know him afore, did 
 you?" 
 
 For the first time the housekeeper s pleasant, whole 
 some face clouded. It was but a slight cloud, neverthe 
 less Captain Noah, who was on the lookout for weather 
 symptoms, noticed it. 
 
 "No," she said, "I never knew Mr. Burgess before I 
 came here." She paused, and then added, "I got the 
 position through Mr. Griggs Mr. Balaam Griggs, here 
 in Trumet. Mr. Griggs is a sort of relation, a second 
 cousin of mine." 
 
 "I see, I see. I met this Mr. Griggs last time I was 
 down here. He and Obadiah are great friends, I under 
 stand." 
 
 The cloud upon the housekeeper s face had not lifted. 
 
 "Yes," she said, simply, but made no further com 
 ment. A moment later she added, "Perhaps you ll ex 
 cuse me now, Cap n Newcomb. I ve got some bakin* in 
 the oven and I presume likely I ought to look at it. 
 Make yourself right at home. Mr. Burgess ll be here in 
 a little while, I m sure." 
 
 Without waiting to receive his permission she left the 
 room. Captain Noah, rising, walked about the apart 
 ment on a tour of inspection. It was neatness itself, no 
 dust anywhere, windowpanes shiningly transparent, no 
 lint or threads upon the carpet, no crumpled newspapers 
 upon the table, each picture hanging perfectly straight. 
 
 Speaking of pictures, there was one which the visitor 
 found interesting. It was a crayon portrait of of 
 yes, of Obadiah Burgess himself. The captain decided 
 
 95 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 it must be intended for Obadiah, because he could think 
 of no one else whose likeness it could be. And, besides, 
 there was a sort of far-off resemblance to the ex-cook in 
 the petrified image hemmed in by the ornate gilt frame. 
 If Obadiah had undergone a long, wasting illness and 
 had then slowly and painfully ossified he might look 
 like this, perhaps. The name of the criminal responsible 
 for the outrage was printed in the corner of the canvas 
 and Captain Noah, bending to read, read, "J. Kenney, 
 Trumet." Then he remembered; "J. Kenney" must be 
 "Joe Kenney," the housekeeper s nephew, the young fel 
 low who, so Uncle Labe and Ethelinda had said, was 
 living with his aunt at the Badscom place. Mr. Bassett 
 had spoken of a "crayon enlargement." 
 
 He was still looking at the picture when he heard 
 someone enter the room behind him. Turning he faced 
 Mr. Burgess himself. And the Burgess eyes and mouth 
 opened as they had that night at the post office. 
 
 "Why why, Cap n Noah !" gasped Obadiah. 
 
 The captain put out his hand. 
 
 "Yes, Obe," he said; "here I am. Told you all you 
 had to do was set the distress signal and I d get here 
 soon as I could. I d have been here a month ago only 
 I didn t get your letter. Went down to Porto Rico on 
 a sort of farewell business trip and only been home a 
 fortni t. Had to settle up matters with the old Clay 
 Line and then I came to you. I m through with em 
 for keeps now; retired millionaire, I am, like yourself. 
 Only one thing lackin to make me so that s the million. 
 . . . Well, Obe, what s the matter 2 Ain t you glad to 
 see me?" 
 
 96 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 Mr. Burgess, who had been standing staring at his 
 former skipper, a curious expression on his face, seemed 
 suddenly to wake up. He took the proffered hand and 
 shook it. 
 
 "Yes, yes, course I m glad to see you, Cap n Noah," 
 he declared. "Course I b-b-be. Tain t likely I wouldn t 
 be glad to see you, is it ? Sit d-down, won t you ?" 
 
 Captain Noah grinned. 
 
 "Why, yes," he said, "I think maybe I will set down, 
 long as you re so pressin about it. Considerin that I ve 
 been cruisin all the way from the State of Maine to see 
 you, I guess likely I ll set a spell after I ve got here. 
 Better set down yourself, hadn t you ?" 
 
 Obadiah, thus urged, sat. His friend looked at him. 
 
 "Well, Obe," he said, "you sent for me and I have 
 come, as the feller in the old theater show used to say. 
 What s the matter? What s wrong?" 
 
 Mr. Burgess shuffled his feet. "Why why, Cap n," 
 he said, "I guess there ain t nothin wrong. I guess likely 
 there ain t. I m real glad t-t-to see you, I am so. Coin 
 t-t-to stay a spell, be you ? How s things up to P-P-Port- 
 land?" 
 
 The captain smiled. "Things up to Portland are up 
 there," he said. "Suppose we don t bother em for the 
 present. There s enough down here in Trumet for us 
 to talk about, I should think. Come, come, Obe! you 
 wrote me you needed me. What do you need me for?" 
 
 More foot shufflings. Obadiah seemed oddly embar 
 rassed. His friend s questions and scrutiny were evi 
 dently making him very uneasy. 
 
 "Why why why, Cap n Noah," he said, "I guess I 
 
 97 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 don t want you for nothin . That is, I mean I don t 
 need you. You see you see " 
 
 "Oh, yes, I see. You don t need me and that s why 
 you wrote you did. That s about as plain to see as a 
 flea s eyebrow is to a blind man." 
 
 Obadiah s uneasiness increased. "I I didn t write 
 you that that I needed you for sartin," he said. "Course 
 I m awful glad to see you, you know that, Cap n Noah. 
 Tain t that I ain t glad to see you, b-b-but but " 
 
 The captain held up his hand. "Never mind, Obe," 
 he said. "Let it stand for a minute. Tell me about 
 yourself and your doin s here. You ve got a house 
 keeper, I see. Seems like a capable woman. How long 
 have you had her? Where d she come from?" 
 
 The ex-cook, evidently glad of the opportunity to 
 evade further questioning concerning his letter, began to 
 talk volubly of the housekeeper. She was a "real smart" 
 woman, she was lively as a cricket, there was no shift- 
 lessness where she was, she could cook 
 
 Captain Noah interrupted. 
 
 "I thought you was goin to do your own cookin , 
 Obadiah," he said. "And most of your own housework ; 
 that s what you told me the last time I was down here." 
 
 Obadiah coughed, cleared his throat, and shuffled his 
 feet again. 
 
 "Well, I was," he said, "but but, you see, after we 
 heard Well, after I got word Calvin was comin , 
 Balaam he thought we d need somebody, so " 
 
 We d need somebody? Who was we ; you and who 
 else?" 
 
 98 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "\Vhy why, nobody. Just me and and Balaam, 
 that s all." 
 
 "Balaam? Balaam Griggs doesn t live here, does he?" 
 
 "No no, he d-d-don t live here, exactly, but but he 
 comes in so often and helps me out so much that that 
 seems almost as if he was one of the family. I don t 
 know s you ll understand that, Cap n Noah, but " 
 
 "Yes, yes, I guess I can understand that much with 
 out callin in the schoolteacher. Who s Calvin ?" 
 
 "Why, why, he s Calvin Wentworth, my cousin from 
 New York. I guess most likely you ain t heard about 
 him, Cap n Noah, have you? * 
 
 "No, I ain t heard much about him, but I saw a little 
 of him this forenoon, unless I m mistaken. Tell me 
 about him. How did he come here ?" 
 
 Calvin Wentworth was a third cousin of Obadiah s. 
 His father had made money in some lucky ventures 
 many years before, had moved to New York and made 
 more. He died, reported to be worth a good many thou 
 sand dollars, and Calvin was his only heir. Obadiah and 
 he were utter strangers. The lives the two lived were 
 as wide apart as the poles. Calvin was reported to be a 
 New York "swell." Obadiah was a sea-cook. 
 
 "Land sakes !" exclaimed Obadiah, "I never thought 
 of seein him. I d almost forgot there was such a rela 
 tion of mine in creation. And then and then, by god- 
 freys! right out of a clear sk-sk-sky, as you might say, 
 sprouted up this letter of his sayin he was all alone in 
 the world except me, and his health was debilitated 
 whatever in time that was he couldn t live but a year 
 or two longer, anyhow, and he wanted to come d-d-down 
 
 99 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 to Trumet and die on me, so to speak. Did you ever 
 hear such a thing in your life? What did I want any 
 body d-d-d-dyin on me for? I wasn t no hospital, was 
 I ? No, nor no graveyard, neither. 
 
 "Soon s I fetched my breath I took the letter over to 
 Balaam. No, come to think of it, he was here when I 
 got it. He most always is here, somehow. The amount 
 of meals I ve provided for " 
 
 He stopped, looking rather foolish and startled as if 
 he had said more than he intended. Then he went on 
 with his story. 
 
 "I showed the letter to Balaam," he said, "and when 
 he read it he showed me a part, a postage no, a post 
 script part that I hadn t read. In the postscript Calvin 
 says he d made up his mind, he bein all alone in the 
 world, providin I let him come and d-d-die on my 
 hands same as he said, to make a will in my favor, leav- 
 in all he had to me, his only relation and dear cousin. 
 
 "Well, sir! somehow or nother that postscript made 
 a turrible impression on Balaam. He asked more n a 
 deck load of questions about how rich I cal lated Cal 
 vin was and all. I didn t know how rich he was, but I 
 said thirty or forty thousand anyhow. He ought to be 
 worth that, even if he s b-b-blowed in a thousand every 
 year of the fifteen years since his pa died. Then/ says 
 Balaam, all het up and excited, you must t-t-take him 
 in and let him die onto you. It ll be dum good business 
 to do it/ I won t/ says I, right up and down. By god- 
 freys, I won t! S pose I m goin to cook his meals? 
 Didn t I g-g-give up goin to sea just on purpose not to 
 cook meals for other folks? But he won t last more n 
 
 100 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 a year or two, feeble as he is, says he, and then we 
 you, I mean 11 get the thirty thousand. And as for 
 cookin you needn t cook. You get a housekeeper and 
 let her d-d-do it. By time! I ll get one for you. I ve 
 been thinkin of that very thing. I know just the woman 
 for you. I ll write her today. 
 
 "I vowed he shouldn t, but he did. And that s how 
 Mrs. Melissa Mayo came here. She s a relation of his; 
 you see " 
 
 "Yes, I know ; she said she was. She s got a nephew, 
 I hear. He s livin here, too, ain t he?" 
 
 "Yes, yes. Who told you that? Did she?" 
 
 "No. I heard somethin about it up to the hotel. 
 What sort of a man is the nephew?" 
 
 "He ain t a man, just a boy, that s all. Ain t eighteen 
 yet." 
 
 "What does he do for a livin ? What s he workin 
 at?" 
 
 "Well- well, he ain t er he ain t exactly workin at 
 anything, as you m-m-mum-might say. Not just now, he 
 ain t. He s a-a painter, a hand painter." 
 
 "Hand painter? What kind of a critter s that?" 
 
 "Why, he paints things with his hands, you know." 
 
 "With his hands? Don t he use a brush?" 
 
 "Course he does. I don t mean that. I mean he he 
 hand-paints. You ve heard of hand-paintin , Cap t Noah ; 
 hand-painted dishes and such. Like that, he is, only he 
 d-d-don t paint dishes ; he paints folks faces." 
 
 The captain burst into a laugh. 
 
 "I always cal lated that folks who had paint on their 
 faces generally put it there themselves," he said. "Never 
 
 101 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 mind, Obe, I guess I know what you mean. He did that, 
 didn t he?" pointing to the crayon enlargement" on the 
 wall. 
 
 Mr. Burgess regarded the "enlargement" with com 
 placency, not to say pride. 
 
 "Yes," he answered, "Joe done that. It s pretty fine, 
 too, most folks think. Know who tis, don t ye, Cap n? 
 What do you say to that for a picture, eh ?" 
 
 Captain Noah regarded the work of art solemnly. 
 "I wouldn t dare say anything to it, Obe," he answered, 
 with feeling. "Does er this Joe Kenney, whatever 
 his name is, pay you much board ?" 
 
 "Board? No. Course he d-d-don t pay board. He s 
 Melissa s nephew ; didn t I tell you ?" 
 
 "Yes, you told me. . . . Humph ! And this other fel 
 ler your Cousin Calvin he don t pay any board either, 
 does he?" 
 
 "No. I told you about his bein sick and comin down 
 here to " 
 
 "Yes, you told me. Balaam Griggs don t pay for the 
 meals he gets here either, does he?" 
 
 "Pay for em! Why, how you talk, Cap n! Why 
 should he pay for em? I ain t runnin a boardin -house." 
 
 "Ain t you? Well, maybe you ain t, Obe, maybe you 
 ain t. . . . And now do you want to tell me why you 
 wrote you rather guessed you needed me ?" 
 
 The troubled look returned to Mr. Burgess* face. He 
 tried to change the subject. 
 
 "Land sakes!" he exclaimed, "I ain t asked you to 
 have a smoke. What was I thinkin of? Got a new 
 box of them Liberty M-M-Maids, Cap n." 
 
 102 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "Keep em," ordered Noah, hastily. I ve sworn off 
 smokin until after supper today I have, anyhow. 
 Come, Obadiah, come ! What was it you wanted to 
 talk to me about?" 
 
 "Why why, twan t nothin , Cap n. For a spell I I 
 thought I thought . . . but tain t nothin . I m sorry 
 I done it. Course I m real glad to see you, though," he 
 added, hurriedly. 
 
 "Thanks. Did you write me because this Wentworth 
 man was comin ?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 "Or because the housekeeper and her hand-painted 
 nephew was comin ?" 
 
 "No. No, twan t nothin , Cap n Noah, honest !" 
 
 "And you re not in trouble at all? Haven t been in 
 any and ain t in any now ?" 
 
 It took longer for the ex-cook to answer this question. 
 When he did answer it he was looking out of the win 
 dow, not at the questioner. 
 
 "No," he said, after a moment, "there ain t any 
 trouble ; I m all right." 
 
 Cap n Noah rose. 
 
 "Well, I m glad of it," he said, heartily. "I m real 
 glad of it, Obe. Now I can go back to er Boston, or 
 wherever I want to go; and have nothin to worry 
 about." 
 
 Obadiah turned from the window. 
 
 "You re goin away?" he demanded. 
 
 "Why, yes. I came down here cause I thought you 
 needed me. Now you say you don t need me." 
 
 103 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 Again Obadiah hesitated. Then he said, "No, I I 
 No, of course I don t need you, only " 
 
 He did not finish the sentence, but turned and looked 
 out of the window again. Captain Noah, stepping 
 quietly to a position where he could see the little man s 
 face with the afternoon sunlight upon it, regarded him 
 intently. Then he reached over and laid a hand upon 
 his shoulder. 
 
 "Lord love you, Obe," he said, heartily, "what an in 
 nocent you are ! Tain t any fun to fool you, it s too 
 easy. I ain t goin away. I m goin up to the hotel and 
 I m goin to stay there over night ; but tomorrer mornin 
 I m comin down here bag and baggage. Didn t you 
 ask me over and over again, when I was here last fall, 
 to come and make you a visit ? Course you did ! Course 
 you did, old man ! Well, I ve come to do it. That goin 
 away talk was just foolin . You couldn t drive me 
 away. Tomorrer mornin I m comin here to stay for 
 a good long spell, just as you asked me to. There ! 
 Now ain t you glad ?" 
 
 Obadiah did look glad, really glad. But he also looked 
 troubled and, so it seemed to his former skipper, 
 frightened. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THAT evening Captain Newcomb and Irving Clif 
 ford sat on the Mansion House porch until nearly 
 midnight, smoking and talking. The smoking was 
 done by both, but the captain did most of the talking. 
 Clifford was very glad indeed to see his friend of the pre 
 vious fall and especially glad to learn that the latter had 
 decided to stay in Trumet for some weeks at least. 
 
 "Might just as well," explained Noah. "I m a kind of 
 wanderer on the face of the earth just now. No home, 
 no job, no nothin but my health and a tin automobile. 
 I used to like Trumet when I was a little shaver ; I liked 
 it just as well when I was down last October. Now I m 
 goin to give it a real try-out and, if I keep on likin it, 
 I may settle down here for keeps. Got to have some kind 
 of moorin s to tie up to when you get too old to cruise in 
 deep water." 
 
 He said nothing to Clifford about the summons he had 
 received from Obadiah Burgess. He thought it best to 
 keep that a secret at present, even from Irving, whose 
 judgment he regarded highly. He did ask some round 
 about questions concerning Mr. Burgess and his affairs, 
 but the engineer seemed to know little *about either. 
 
 105 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 Everyone spoke well of Mrs. Mayo, he said. He had met 
 her once or twice and liked her. 
 
 "How did she impress you, Captain Newcomb?" he 
 asked. 
 
 "Why why, she impressed me fust-rate," was the an 
 swer. "Yes, fust-rate. I couldn t find any fault any 
 wheres. That s the Humph ! Well, never mind. 
 How about her nephew? I ain t met him." 
 
 "Young Kenney? Oh, he s all right enough. He ll 
 never set the river afire, I guess. Rather visionary and 
 dreamy, they say; his artistic temperament, no doubt. 
 He paints; did you know that?" 
 
 The captain grinned. "Um-hm," he said. "Have you 
 seen the picture he made of Obe, Burgess, I mean?" 
 
 "No. Was it a good likeness ?" 
 
 His companion s grin became a chuckle. He rubbed 
 his knees. 
 
 "I don t know s you d call it a good likeness, exactly," 
 he said. "If you put it behind bars in a dark room the 
 average child would hanker to feed it peanuts. All it 
 needs is fingers on its feet and a tail. Ho, ho ! But Obe 
 thinks it beautiful. How about this other feller the one 
 that wears the wristers on his ankles?" 
 
 "The what?" 
 
 "Garters or gaiters, I believe they call em. I mean 
 the feller that sharpens the ends of his mustache with a 
 file. The one with the sportin* guard dog, or the guardin 
 sport dog Wentworth, how about him?" 
 
 Clifford laughed aloud. The captain had told him of 
 his adventure at the cold-storage plant that morning; he 
 had heard the carpenters version also. 
 
 106 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "Mr. Calvin Wentworth is well, he is something of 
 an enigma," he observed. 
 
 "Somethin of a what? You don t mean to say he s 
 got colored blood in him? I d never have guessed it." 
 
 "Ha, ha! No, indeed. You misunderstood me, Cap 
 tain. I say he is something of a riddle a puzzle. It 
 seems strange that a city swell like him should be content 
 to live here in Trumet the year round ; not here on busi 
 ness either, but just existing, that s all. When I knew 
 him in New York he showed no fondness for a rural life, 
 the reverse, rather." 
 
 "When you knew him in New York? You used to 
 know him there then?" 
 
 "Yes, slightly. Shortly after I left college I was in 
 New York for a time. I belonged to a rather good club 
 then ; reckless extravagance on my part, of course, but I 
 was young and foolish. Wentworth belonged to the same 
 club ; he resigned afterwards." 
 
 "What made him resign?" 
 
 "I don t know. Too tame an organization, perhaps. 
 He had the reputation of being rather a high roller in 
 those days. I certainly was surprised when I met him 
 here in Trumet. He says his health is poor and that is 
 why he is here. I never should have guessed that he was 
 an invalid." 
 
 "Humph! What did he used to do for a livin when 
 you knew him over to New York? What was he work- 
 in at?" 
 
 "I don t know. I never inquired. He and I were never 
 friendly slightly acquainted, that s all. You seem very 
 much interested in him, Captain Newcomb." 
 8 107 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "Do I? Well, maybe I am. When you ve got a line 
 out for herrin and hook on to a goldfish, it s enough to 
 interest the average feller, seems to me. How did you 
 fust meet this Calvin man; somebody at the club intro 
 duce you, did they?" 
 
 Clifford s expression changed. His answer was curt, 
 almost sharp. 
 
 "No," he said. 
 
 But Captain Noah was persistent. "You met him 
 somewheres else then?" he said. 
 
 For an instant the young man hesitated. Then he said : 
 "I met him at the home of a mutual er acquaintance. 
 I hadn t seen him for years until he came down to the 
 cold-storage plant a month or more ago. He calls there 
 occasionally, just as he did this morning, to smoke and 
 chat. I presume he finds it dull here in the village at this 
 season of the year. I should think he might. I should 
 die if I had no work to do." 
 
 "Humph ! Well, maybe he d die if he had. His health s 
 bad, you know. This house where you met him ; belonged 
 to a friend of yours, you say? * 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "This friend, then, he was a friend of Wentworth s, 
 eh?" 
 
 "She was an acquaintance, I presume, like myself. 
 Suppose we change the subject, Captain. You won t 
 mind, will you?" 
 
 "Mind ? No, no, course I shan t. Look here, son, have 
 I been makin a nuisance of myself, askin questions when 
 I hadn t no business? I snum I m sorry! I ask your 
 pardon." 
 
 108 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "No necessity for apology, none in the least. There 
 are some unpleasant memories connected with that period 
 of my life and I dislike to speak of it, that s all. That s 
 why I suggested changing the subject." 
 
 Captain Noah nodded. "It s a good suggestion, too," 
 he agreed, heartily. "I ve had about enough of friend 
 Wentworth myself for now. He s a kind of a hothouse 
 plant, judgin by the looks of him, and the air in a hot 
 house never did agree with me for long at a stretch. 
 What ll we change the subject to? If twan t that I might 
 be afraid of gettin my foot in it again, Fd be tempted to 
 ask how that nice girl was, the one who wouldn t sell me 
 a sideboard for a bureau. What was her name? Mary 
 Barstow, that s it. I liked her fust-rate. Is she pretty 
 smart?" 
 
 Irving looked at him quickly. The captain s face was 
 innocence itself. 
 
 "Miss Barstow is well, I believe," replied Clifford. 
 
 "So? That s good. Don t know when I ve seen a 
 young woman I took a shine to so quick. Good thing for 
 the young sparks in this town that I m a hundred and 
 eighty instead of twenty-five. Speakin of age and an 
 tiques and such, how s old Leviticus, her step-pa? Ba 
 laam, how s he?" 
 
 "He s all right. At least I haven t heard that he was 
 not." 
 
 "See much of him, do you?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 There was a finality about this which caused the cap 
 tain to change the subject again. It was quite evident 
 that Irving Clifford was no more desirous of discussing 
 
 109 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 Balaam Griggs than he had been of recalling memories 
 of his New York sojourn. 
 
 The talk thereafter dealt with a variety of topics. Just 
 before they separated for the night the younger man said : 
 
 "So you have come down here just to make us a visit, 
 Captain Newcomb." 
 
 "Ye-es, I guess likely. To make my old shipmate 
 and you a visit. Ain t you glad to see me?" 
 
 "Of course I am." 
 
 "Um-m. But you have your doubts, eh?" 
 
 "Doubts? Why, did you did I say " 
 
 "You didn t say anything, son except just to make a 
 visit/ You think maybe I ve got some other reason up 
 my sleeve, eh ? Well, perhaps I have, perhaps I have." 
 
 Clifford was confused and embarrassed. 
 
 "Captain Newcomb," he said, "I beg your pardon. I 
 certainly did not mean to imply that I doubted your 
 word. Of course your reason for coming here is not in 
 the least my business. It was only that something you 
 said your manner led me to infer I beg your par 
 don." 
 
 Captain Noah laid a hand on his knee. "That s all 
 right, son," he said, heartily, "that s all right. No need 
 of beggin pardons between us, I hope. Some of these 
 days I ll most likely tell you more about my reasons for 
 comin here. Just now I " 
 
 He stopped, and remained silent for a moment, puffing 
 at the stump of his cigar. Then he rose from his chair. 
 
 "Son," he said, again, "do you remember that yarn in 
 the Bible about the feller that went down to to some 
 where or nother and fell amongst thieves ?" 
 
 no 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "Yes, certainly, I remember it, Captain." 
 "Um-hm. What happened then? The thieves sprung 
 up and choked him, didn t they?" 
 
 "Why, not exactly, I believe. The " 
 
 "Yes, yes, all right. I was gettin my parables snarled 
 up together, wan t I? Ho, ho! Anyhow this feller that 
 fell amongst the thieves was in bad shape till another 
 chap that was cruisin in those latitudes came along and 
 helped him out." 
 
 "Yes ; the good Samaritan." 
 
 "That s the feller." He drew two or three more big- 
 puffs and then tossed the stump of the cigar over the 
 porch railing. "I caFlate everybody has to be a Samari 
 tan once in a while," he said. "Good night, son." 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE next forenoon, "bag and baggage," according 
 to his promise to Obadiah, he arrived at the Bad- 
 scom place and the visit began. Mr. Burgess 
 welcomed him effusively; if he still felt the doubt and 
 uneasiness of the previous night he concealed the feel 
 ing. Mrs. Mayo also seemed glad to see him, and 
 although he suspected that her gladness was a pretense, 
 her manner and behavior furnished no excuse for the 
 suspicion. His room was a good-sized one overlooking 
 the bay and, like the rest of the house, it was neatness 
 itself. The housekeeper might be, and probably was, 
 acting with an ulterior motive, but she could keep house, 
 even Noah was obliged to admit that. 
 
 And she could cook, also. Dinner that noon was the 
 best meal the captain had had for many a day. At that 
 meal he met for the first time Joe Kenney, Melissa 
 Mayo s nephew, he of the "artistic temperament." Young 
 Kenney was a freckle-faced youth with a blue eye and a 
 healthy appetite. Joe seemed to be rather bashful, said 
 little during dinner and, after bolting his share of the 
 dessert, hurried off. In answer to the captain s question 
 
 112 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 he explained that he was over at Mr. Griggs that day 
 helping the latter "pack up some stuff." 
 
 "Does your nephew work for Mr. Griggs, ma am?" 
 asked Noah, addressing the housekeeper. The question, 
 innocent enough, seemed to embarrass the lady some 
 what. 
 
 "Why why," she stammered, "he doesn t exactly 
 work for him. Not all the time, that is. He does some 
 times, like today." 
 
 "Good, strong, healthy lookin boy," said Captain Noah. 
 "I suppose he s plannin to do consider ble in this world, 
 ma am." 
 
 Mrs. Mayo seemed more confused than ever. "Yes 
 yes," she said, "J oe y plans a good many things. He 
 wants to go West awfully. He s a great reader and he s 
 read a lot about the West." 
 
 "So? I had an idea maybe he was cal latin to be a 
 picture painter. Obe, here, showed me the picture he did 
 of him." 
 
 "Oh, he likes to do pictures, too, but he does those 
 mostly for fun. If he could have his way he d like to go 
 out West and work on a ranch, a cattle place, you know." 
 
 "I should think he d go, then. He ain t so young but 
 what he can take a chance. At his age I wasn t doin 
 much but takin chances." 
 
 "I know, but but he can t go, just yet." 
 
 "Oh, he can t, eh? I see, I see. That s too bad. Ah, 
 how do you do, Mr. Wentworth. Glad to see you again, 
 sir." 
 
 Mr. Calvin Wentworth, debonair as ever, had just 
 strolled into the dining room. He was very late for din- 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 ner, in fact the others had almost finished, but he ap 
 peared not in the least perturbed. One might have sur 
 mised that it took much more than tardiness to perturb 
 Mr. Wentworth. But he was capable of astonishment, 
 and Captain Noah s presence in that house and at that 
 table evidently astonished him hugely. 
 
 "Eh?" he exclaimed. "Why who " 
 
 "Newcomb," exclaimed the captain. "Noah Newcomb, 
 my name is. Met you down to the cold-storage plant 
 yesterday mornin . Glad to see you again. How s that 
 smart dog of yours? That s as good a watchdog as I 
 cal late I ever saw. Coin to guard that automobile of 
 mine till doomsday, he was. Ho, ho!" 
 
 Mrs. Mayo and Mr. Burgess looked at each other. 
 
 "Why!" exclaimed the former. "Was it your car Mr. 
 Wentworth s dog was guardin , Cap n Newcomb? Now 
 ain t that funny! Mr. Wentworth was tellin us about 
 that last night. Wasn t you, Mr. Wentworth?" 
 
 "Yes," put in Obadiah. "Cousin Calvin said that if he 
 hadn t t-t-took pity on the old g-g-guy that owned the car 
 and called Sport off, that auto would have been out of 
 commission yet. But we didn t know twas your auto, 
 Cap n Noah." 
 
 The captain nodded. 
 
 "I was the guy," he said, simply. 
 
 The housekeeper, looking first at Noah and then at 
 Mr. Wentworth, smiled slightly and her eyes twinkled. 
 Obadiah went on. 
 
 "That Sport is s-s-some dog," he declared, "some dog. 
 When he sets out to guard anything he s like a mud 
 t-t-turtle he won t let go till it thunders. I cal late you 
 
 114 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 was glad, Cap n Noah, when Cousin Calvin took p-p-pity 
 on you. Tain t thundered yet, you know, now has it?" 
 
 The captain s eyes met Mr. Wentworth s and the cap 
 tain smiled. It was evident that, in his story-telling the 
 previous evening, Cousin Calvin had omitted to mention 
 the fire hose. 
 
 "You re right, Obe," said Noah, with a nod. "It ain t 
 thundered, but well, there was one spell when Mr. 
 Wentworth seemed to think twas goin to rain. Even the 
 dog seemed to think so, didn t he, Mr. Wentworth?" 
 
 Cousin Calvin nodded, muttered something or other, 
 and sat down at table. The housekeeper, who had kept 
 his dinner warm in the kitchen, served it deftly and 
 promptly. Evidently she was used to his habits. He did 
 not thank her. He paid little attention to anyone ; some 
 thing, possibly the memory of the fire hose, had put a 
 damper on his powers of conversation. Mr. Burgess in 
 troduced his friend and former skipper, and paid glowing 
 tributes to the latter s character and his skill as a seafar 
 ing man. Mr. Wentworth nodded acknowledgment of 
 the introduction and managed to restrain his enthusiasm 
 when told that Captain Newcomb was to be, for some 
 weeks at least, a member of the household. When the 
 captain, who was urbanity and politeness personified, ad 
 dressed him, he answered with chilling hauteur. 
 
 But before the day was over he found an opportunity 
 to get his Cousin Obadiah aside and question him con 
 cerning the new arrival. 
 
 "Who is the old card?" he inquired. "Where does he 
 come from? What is he doing here?" 
 
 Mr. Burgess answer was fluent and lengthy. Cousin 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 Calvin gathered from the mass of information one or two 
 items which seemed to interest even his bored metropoli 
 tan mind. 
 
 "So he s got the stuff, has he?" he asked. "Well fixed, 
 eh? A million, should you say?" 
 
 Obadiah, who had not the slightest ground for estimat 
 ing his friend s fortune, nor even for assuming that there 
 was such a fortune, other than the fact of the captain s 
 retiring from business, admitted that there most likely 
 wasn t quite a million. 
 
 "Half a million?" 
 
 "Wa-al, maybe not quite " 
 
 "Gad, I thought he must be a Rockefeller, you were 
 so reverent when you mentioned his money. What has 
 the old guy got; a hundred thousand?" 
 
 Obadiah, making a loyal guess, opined that he shouldn t 
 wonder a mite. 
 
 "Huh ! Well, does he ever let go of it ? Is he a tight 
 wad?" 
 
 Mr. Burgess, whose education in up-to-date slang had 
 been neglected, but who judged that a tightwad was an 
 undesirable person, stoutly declared that his friend was 
 not that. 
 
 "No sir-ee !" he affirmed. "I ve seen him out of sight 
 of land for a week at a time and he wasn t never no 
 t-t-tightwad." 
 
 Cousin Calvin strolled away, hands in pockets, and a 
 meditative expression upon his face. At supper that 
 evening he unbent toward Captain Noah ; was, in a con 
 descending way, almost genial. 
 
 Mr. Balaam Griggs dropped in for supper; "just hap- 
 
 116 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 pened to be goin along by," he said. Balaam had heard 
 the news of the visitor at the Badscom place. He greeted 
 the captain like an old friend returned after a long and 
 agonizing separation, and the captain s greeting of Mr. 
 Griggs was, if not as effusive, still very cordial and 
 friendly. 
 
 The next day Obadiah underwent another questioning 
 concerning Captain Noah. This time Mr. Griggs was the 
 questioner. He asked, not directly, of course, but by 
 various roundabout methods, the size of the captain s for 
 tune, his past and probable future and, more than all, his 
 reasons for coming to Trumet and staying there. 
 
 Now, as it happened, before retiring the night before 
 Noah and Obadiah had had a long chat and the captain, 
 usually rather reticent when dealing with his own plans 
 and intentions, had seemed willing, almost anxious, to tell 
 his host about those plans. They were rather vague 
 plans, not defined as yet, but they centered about the idea 
 of buying Trumet real estate as an investment. "Got to 
 put my money somewheres," said Captain Noah, "and, 
 the way I feel now, Trumet real estate looks good to me. 
 Course I came down here really just to see you, Obe, but 
 there is no harm in lookin around while I m down here, 
 is there?" 
 
 All of which, Balaam, by judicious questioning, man 
 aged to extract from Mr. Burgess. And Mr. Burgess 
 confessed as much to Captain Noah lat^r on. 
 
 "They re all awful curious about you, Cap n," he said, 
 proudly. "Makes a feller feel g-g-good to have a visitor 
 all hands takes such an interest in. And they like you, 
 too. Why, I ain t seen Cousin Calvin so social and folksy 
 
 117 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 with anybody sence he s been here as he is along of you." 
 
 "Well, well, I want to know ! I ought to be real flat 
 tered, hadn t I, Obe?" 
 
 "Why, yes, I suppose you had," was the answer, given 
 very seriously. "Cousin Calvin has been used to livin 
 amongst the highest k-k-kind of society, he says so him 
 self, and it means somethin to have him t-t-take a shine 
 to you. There ain t many he does, I tell you that." 
 
 "Um-hm. Well, I must try not to get too sot up about 
 it." 
 
 "And Balaam, he thinks you re a fine man. Says he 
 don t know when he s seen such a able, fine-spoken man. 
 Him and Calvin has asked more n a thousand questions 
 about you !" 
 
 "Hum ! Well, I shall get stuck up if I don t look out. 
 lAnd this Mrs. Mayo now; I cal late she s asked a lot 
 about me, too eh?" 
 
 "Why why, no, she ain t." 
 
 "Aint, eh?" 
 
 "No. She likes you, I guess, but she don t ask me 
 questions about you and about how much you re worth 
 and all, same as the others do. G-g-guess likely that s 
 cause she is a woman ; women ain t interested in how 
 much m-m-money a feller s got, same as men are." 
 
 "Oh, ain t they?" 
 
 "No, stands to reason they ain t. And Melissy she 
 don t ask hardly rny questions about you. Just kind of 
 seems to t-t-take you for granted, as you might say." 
 
 Captain Noah had no comment to make on this state 
 ment, but a week or so later when, during a call upon 
 Irving Clifford at the cold-storage plant, Irving happened 
 
 118 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 to ask him how he enjoyed his visit at the Burgess home, 
 he made this enigmatical answer, if it can be called an 
 answer : 
 
 "Son," he said, "did you ever do one of them cut-out 
 picture puzzles, same as young folks like to play with 
 nowadays ? Um-hm. Dorcas, my sister, she wan t what 
 you d call young, but she liked to fuss with those things 
 and I used to tackle em occasionally. Sometimes you 
 got a piece that wouldn t seem to fit in anywheres. Seems 
 almost as if it didn t belong in the puzzle. I m havin 
 that kind of trouble just now. Most of the pieces in my 
 puzzle fit all right I ve got their number, as the boys 
 say but there s one that don t, I can t seem to make her 
 it, I mean fit. Seems almost as if that piece had got 
 in by mistake." 
 
 Clifford, who did not understand, except vaguely, was 
 tempted to question, but he judged it wisest not to do so. 
 His acquaintanceship with Captain Newcomb had pro 
 gressed sufficiently to teach him that the captain told what 
 he wished of his affairs, and that it was poor policy to 
 press for more. 
 
 "Perhaps the piece did get in by mistake," he ventured. 
 
 Captain Noah shook his head. 
 
 "I don t believe it," he said, "I don t believe it. It s 
 just that I ain t got the right way of lookin* at it yet. It 
 must be it must be, or else what s it doin !n with the 
 bunch? But but, I snum, son, it s got me so fur." 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 IT continued to "get" him more and more as the days 
 and weeks passed. He was now a prime favorite at 
 the Burgess home. Balaam Griggs, whose calls and 
 little friendly "droppings in" for meals were at least as 
 frequent as ever, now addressed him by his Christian 
 name and slapped him on the back when they met. 
 Balaam had confidentially taken the captain into his con 
 fidence concerning two or three exceptional bargains in 
 Trumet land which he, Balaam, alone knew of, but which 
 knowledge, owing to his love for his new friend, he was 
 willing to impart to the latter provided "nobody said 
 nothin ." 
 
 Captain Noah was tremendously interested in these 
 bargains. He accompanied Balaam on tours of inspection 
 during which Mr. Griggs invariably spoke in a whisper 
 and kept looking cautiously about for fear someone might 
 see them looking at the land together, "smell a rat" and 
 seize the wonderful opportunity before the captain did. 
 The fates were kind in this respect, the opportunity re 
 mained unseized, although Mr. Griggs declared that he 
 woke up each morning "cal latin* to find them lots 
 snapped up ahead of us." 
 
 120 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 They spoke of other investments also, of business mat 
 ters in general. The captain usually led the conversation 
 in this direction and Balaam followed the lead. They 
 discussed the "antique" business, and Mr. Griggs, after 
 the friendship had developed sufficiently to warrant a de 
 gree of confidence on his part, mentioned a few good 
 trades he had made. He did not mention the chamber set 
 which Obadiah had acquired through his "kindness"; 
 that he neglected entirely. 
 
 From all these interviews and talks Captain Noah gath 
 ered enough information concerning Mr. Burgess "best 
 friend" to strengthen the impression he had already 
 gained concerning the latter s character. And he assisted 
 Balaam in confirming the idea that he, Noah, was a man 
 of means, guileless, trustful and decidedly worth culti 
 vating. 
 
 Mr. Calvin Wentworth, of New York, was an abso 
 lutely different proposition. Cousin Calvin did not slap 
 the captain on the back, nor hail him by his Christian 
 name. His manner toward the former skipper of the 
 Flyaway was still lofty and condescending, but he un 
 bent sufficiently to joke with him, to smoke his cigars 
 and, on one or two occasions, to borrow small sums of 
 money. Trifling accommodations, these were, until his 
 dividend checks arrived, so he said. Captain Noah 
 seemed so eager, almost grateful fo r the opportunity of 
 forestalling the "dividend check" that Wentworth s 
 amusement was scarcely repressed. The "old card" was 
 certainly queer, although a convenience. He was in such 
 good humor that, in answer to Noah s inquiries concern 
 ing New York life, he told a few anecdotes of his own 
 
 121 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 adventures in the metropolis. To these the captain lis 
 tened with awe-stricken admiration. He made mental 
 notes as he listened, and, later on, in the quiet of his own 
 room, he transferred these notes from his mind to paper. 
 Also he wrote a letter to his nephew in New York City. 
 In this letter the Wentworth name was mentioned more 
 than once. 
 
 So, in doing his "picture puzzle" the parts labeled 
 "Calvin Wentworth" and "Balaam Griggs" were, in the 
 captain s mind, coming into place satisfactorily. He be 
 lieved that he was, as he told Clifford, "getting their 
 numbers." But the pieces of the puzzle which he was 
 finding it hard to put where they belonged were the two 
 which should, it would seem, have been easiest ; they were 
 Mrs. Melissa Mayo and Obadiah Burgess himself. 
 
 The idea of there being any mystery connected with 
 meek, stammering, peaceful little Obadiah seemed absurd 
 on the face of it. The idea that Obadiah could keep a 
 secret long enough to cover up a mystery was just as ab 
 surd. But apparently he was doing it. Captain Noah 
 was more than ever convinced that his former cook had 
 not told him the whole truth, that he was keeping back 
 the real reason, the real trouble, which had caused him to 
 write asking his friend and ex-skipper to come to Trumet. 
 Obadiah insisted that this was not so, that he had written 
 because he was "kind of worried about the Cousin Calvin 
 business, whether to have him die on me or not," and had 
 wanted his friend s advice. This explanation was plausi 
 ble enough, so far as it went, but it did not go far enough. 
 It did not explain why Mr. Burgess appeared so guilty 
 and embarrassed when Captain Noah mentioned the let- 
 
 122 
 
EXTRICATING UBADIAH 
 
 ter, why he seemed so uncomfortable, even wretched, 
 when questioned concerning it, and least of all did it ex 
 plain why the captain so often found him moping alone 
 in his room or on the bluff by the shore, with an expres 
 sion of abject, hopeless misery on his face. That queer, 
 round little face had so shone with pride and happiness 
 when Noah saw it during his first visit to Trumet that 
 the contrast was particularly disturbing. 
 
 The captain had come to the Burgess home with a 
 fairly well-defined idea in his head, an idea which, he 
 believed, would prove the solution of this part of his puz 
 zle. He had believed that Obadiah s odd behavior and 
 embarrassment were due to the fact that he and his 
 housekeeper were entangled in some sort of matrimonial 
 engagement, that he had proposed to her, or, which would 
 be more likely, she had proposed to him and they were 
 to be married. He surmised that, after this had hap 
 pened, Obadiah had lost his nerve and had written for 
 help in order to break off the relationship. Captain Noah, 
 knowing that Griggs had been responsible for the hiring 
 cf Mrs. Mayo as housekeeper, summoning her all the way 
 from Cape Ann to take the position, had, even before he 
 saw her, labeled her a clever, designing woman who, like 
 the rest, was after the Burgess money. 
 
 His first impression had, in spite of this prejudice, been 
 a favorable one. This favorable impression upon fur 
 ther acquaintance had deepened. If things had not been 
 as they were, if he were not perfectly sure she was pur 
 suing some underhand plan or other that she must be, 
 there could be no other explanation of her presence, she, 
 a relative and protegee of Balaam Griggs if he were not 
 9 125 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 so stubbornly determined that this must be so, he would 
 have declared long ago that he liked and respected her. 
 He did give up the idea of there being any love affair 
 between her and Obadiah. It was perfectly evident there 
 was not. There were no signs of it on Obadiah s part, 
 and she treated him with the same good-humored, man 
 aging sort of kindness with which she treated her nephew, 
 young Kenney. There was nothing sentimental in her 
 manner, nor was she kinder to her employer, or more 
 attentive, than to any other member of the household. 
 
 So the captain gave up the idea that she was planning 
 to marry Obadiah. And, as the time passed and he and 
 she became better acquainted, he found his other suspi 
 cions wavering. She was capable, she was good-humored, 
 she enjoyed a joke almost as well as he did. She could 
 be sympathetic, and, when Cousin Calvin s dog, Sport, 
 got into a fight and came home, limping on three legs, 
 a badly chewed canine, her bandaging and nursing of 
 the suffering creature seemed to prove that she had a 
 kind heart. And she possessed a wonderful fund of 
 Noah s most prized faculty, New England common-sense. 
 
 He and she would have been the best of friends by this 
 time, were it not for his feeling that no relative of Ba 
 laam Griggs could be honest. Even in spite of this he 
 found himself liking her against his will, but, with cus 
 tomary "sotness" he tried all the harder to discover some 
 underhand reason for her being there. And, at last, he 
 believed he had discovered something, a straw showing 
 which way the wind blew. He discovered that Obadiah 
 had with customary easy-going carelessness intrusted the 
 buying of the household supplies to his housekeeper and 
 
 124 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 that she was buying them of Mr. Griggs, who seemed 
 to be acting as a sort of broker a broker who exacted a 
 liberal commission, the captain had no doubt. 
 
 One of the local grocers gave him the hint which led 
 to this discovery. The grocer asked Captain Noah what 
 they lived on down at the Badscom place. "Must be east 
 wind puddin with fresh air sass," declared the man. 
 "Nigh s I can find out Burgess nor his housekeeper don t 
 buy much of anything of anybody. Not in this town 
 they don t, anyway." 
 
 So the captain investigated and learned from the sta 
 tion agent that Balaam was receiving a good many pack 
 ages and bundles by express from Boston grocers and 
 provision dealers. He questioned Obadiah and found that 
 the latter knew little or nothing about the matter. "Me- 
 lissy, she does the buyin ," explained Obadiah. 
 
 "Does she do the payin , too?" inquired Noah, tartly. 
 
 "Eh? Yes, sartin she does. She tells me how much 
 money she needs every week and I g-g-give it to her. It s 
 the easiest way ; saves me a lot of trouble." 
 
 Captain Noah shook his head. That afternoon he 
 waited his chance until the housekeeper was alone in the 
 kitchen. Then he went in and sat down in the chair by 
 the window. The lady was standing by the kitchen table 
 rolling pie crust. 
 
 "Mrs. Mayo," said the captain, suddenly, "how much 
 trade do you give Crowell Brothers in the course of a 
 week, do you think likely?" Crowell Brothers was the 
 name of Trumet s leading grocery firm. 
 
 The housekeeper looked at him. 
 
 "Not very much/ she said. 
 
 125 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "Oh, I want to know ! Trade with Solon Baxter, I sup 
 pose, eh?" 
 
 "No; or, at any rate, no more than I do with Crowell 
 Brothers." 
 
 "Sho! Is that so? Send way over to Bayport, do you? 
 That s a pretty long way to go, seems to me." 
 
 "I don t trade at Bayport, Cap n Newcomb." 
 
 "Then " 
 
 Ever since his first question she had been watching him 
 intently and now she interrupted him. 
 
 "Just a minute, Cap n Newcomb," she said. "You ve 
 found it out, haven t you ? I wondered how long twould 
 be before you did." 
 
 Captain Noah stared at her. 
 
 "Found it out? Found what out? I don t know what 
 you mean, Mrs. Mayo." 
 
 "Oh, yes you do. I mean youVe found out that my 
 cousin, Balaam Griggs, sells me about everything in the 
 way of supplies that comes into this house. He does. 
 Now what else have you found out; anything?" 
 
 The captain swallowed hard. This was decidedly not 
 the way he had expected Mrs. Mayo to act. He had ex 
 pected to lead up to his discovery of her dealings with 
 Balaam and then listen to a variety of explanations and 
 excuses. To have her answer his question before it was 
 asked and then ask one of her own along the same line 
 was a staggerer. 
 
 "Why why " he stammered, "I " 
 
 She wiped the flour from her hands with her apron 
 and, crossing the room, sat down in a chair facing him. 
 Her expression was very grave, and the captain noticed 
 
 126 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 that her hands, now folded in her lap, trembled just a 
 little. She seemed to be fighting something, agitation, 
 distress, alarm something of the sort. Yet her tone was 
 calm enough. 
 
 "Cap n Newcomb," she said, "you re a great friend 
 of Mr. Burgess s, ain t you?" 
 
 "Eh? Why, yes, I suppose I am. I like him and he 
 seems to like me pretty well." 
 
 "Likes you! My soul and body! He thinks you re a 
 sight bigger man than the President, and he worships 
 the ground you tread on." 
 
 "Oh, now, Mrs. Mayo, don t " 
 
 "Cap n Newcomb, don t let s waste words. I ain t got 
 any to waste just now and I don t feel like complimentin 
 anybody ; you can be sure of that. You know what I just 
 said is true. Now then, if you are such a friend of his, 
 why do you let things go on as they are? Why do you?" 
 
 "Why why I don t just get what you mean, Mrs. 
 Mayo? I don t understand." 
 
 "Don t you ? Well, if you don t, then you re a lot more 
 stupid than I give you credit for bein . Cap n Newcomb, 
 do you know what I thought, or more than half thought, 
 when you came to this house to live? I thought maybe 
 you, bein such a good friend of Obadiah Burgess, had 
 come here on purpose to try and help him out of his trou 
 ble. That s what I thought. Did you come for that ?" 
 
 Captain Noah stared at her in amazed silence. Before 
 he could decide how to answer, or even to answer at all, 
 she went on. 
 
 "Well, never mind tellin* me," she said. "If you did 
 come for that you wouldn t want to tell me anyhow, I 
 
 127 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 suppose ; and if you didn t, why well then it don t make 
 any difference. But that was what I thought, anyway, 
 I m sure of one thing, though, and that is that you re an 
 honest man. And if you are an honest man and an hon 
 est friend of Mr. Burgess, why don t you help him? 
 Why do you stand by and see the poor thing imposed on 
 and and cheated yes, and robbed, for that s what it 
 amounts to? Why do you do it?" 
 
 Her agitation was suppressed no longer. She had risen 
 to her feet and her eyes were snapping. The captain 
 breathed heavily and shook his head. 
 
 "I declare!" he exclaimed, "if this ain t- - Look here, 
 Mrs. Mayo, if you don t mind, suppose you answer me 
 this : Who is it that s imposin and cheatin and and 
 murderin or whatever tis? Who?" 
 
 He smiled, but the housekeeper did not smile. 
 
 "You know who," she asserted. "Why do you ask 
 that? Are you blind?" 
 
 "Well, I never thought I was, but but And it s 
 Obadiah that s bein murdered, you say?" 
 
 "He s bein swindled, done out of his money, imposed 
 on. Don t tell me you don t see it; you must. You ve 
 known him all your life, Cap n Newcomb. You know he 
 ain t much more than a good, kind-hearted, innocent, 
 simple sort of child. Anybody can get the best of him ; 
 anybody can impose on him; hell trust anybody, and 
 swallow anything they say for gospel truth. You know 
 it you must know it. He s had a little money left him ; 
 not very much, I guess, but some. However much it was 
 or is now he won t have it long. Can t you see he 
 won t?" 
 
 128 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 Captain Noah pulled his beard, and looked up at her 
 from under his brows. 
 
 "Humph !" he grunted. "Well, supposin I can see it 
 or guess it, which is the next best thing, what would 
 you expect me to do about it?" 
 
 1 Do ? Stop it. Tell him what s goin on. Prove it to 
 him." 
 
 "Um-hm. And who shall I tell him is doin the er 
 swindlin ?" 
 
 "Everyone. This Wentworth man for one." 
 
 "Sho! Cousin Calvin? Mercy, how you talk, Mrs. 
 Mayo ! Why, Cousin Calvin is an invalid. He s sick and 
 down here for his health, Cousin Calvin is." 
 
 "Sick ! I ve done consider ble nursin in my time, Cap n 
 Newcomb, and if he s sick, then you and I are in the last 
 stages ourselves. He eats as much as both of us together. 
 Sick! He s sick of lookin out for himself, maybe, but 
 Oh, you know he isn t sick !" 
 
 "Well, he says he is. And, besides, he s goin to leave 
 Obe all his money when he dies." 
 
 "He won t. Mr. Burgess ll die forty years ahead of 
 him." 
 
 The captain laughed. "But your own relation, Balaam 
 Griggs, was dead set on Obe s gettin him here," he said. 
 
 "I know it. But that makes no difference. My rela 
 tion," with bitter emphasis on the word, "is responsible 
 for lots of things, but that don t make em right. He s 
 responsible for my buyin the groceries and things from 
 him instead of from the stores, and payin half again as 
 much, for all I know I haven t tried to find out. And 
 here am I spongin my livin and my nephew s livin 
 
 129 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 from Mr. Burgess. Oh, Cap n Newcomb, why don t you 
 do it ? Get rid of the Wentworth man, get rid of Balaam, 
 get rid of me get rid of us all. We re all cheats and 
 swindlers all but Joe, and he doesn t realize, poor boy. 
 Pitch us all out, neck and crop ; it s what we deserve." 
 
 She paused, her bosom heaving. Then she turned 
 away. 
 
 "There!" she said, "I guess I ve said too much, more 
 than I d ought to, I m sure. There s times when a body 
 can t hold in any longer. I don t know what you think 
 of me but it doesn t make any difference. Nothin* 
 makes much difference, so far as I can see." 
 
 She turned and, leaving her pie crust unfinished, 
 walked toward the door of the dining room. Captain 
 Noah, rising from his chair, strode after her. 
 
 "Just a minute, Mrs. Mayo," he said. "You have said 
 a good deal, I will give in. Some of what youVe said I 
 understand, caFlate I ve been understandin it better 
 every day I ve been here. But some I don t. You tell 
 me you re here spongin your livin off Obadiah. I can t 
 see what you mean by that. You re housekeeper here and 
 I hope you won t mind my sayin that you re a good one, 
 as good a one as ever I saw. You earn your wages, what 
 ever they are. Now why do you call that spongin ? " 
 
 She turned quickly. 
 
 "Because it is," she said, fiercely. "Not now, perhaps, 
 with all this tribe in the house, but it would be if they 
 weren t here. Obadiah meant to live here alone, he s told 
 me so, himself, more than once. He can cook; it used 
 to be his trade. He doesn t need a housekeeper; all he 
 needs is a woman to come in twice a week or so and help 
 
 130 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 with the cleanin . He can t afford to pay me or I don t 
 believe he can. And I m sartin sure he can t afford to 
 feed and lodge Mr. Wentworth and me and Joe, to say 
 nothin of Balaam one meal out of every three." 
 
 "And me/ put in Noah. 
 
 "You ain t permanent, same as we are. And you ain t 
 here for business," with scornful emphasis. "You re 
 clean and aboveboard and honest. Oh ! why don t you 
 get rid of us all? Throw us all out and wash your 
 hands afterwards ? . . . There, please don t say any more 
 to me. Please don t!" 
 
 But the captain would not let her go. 
 
 "Only one more thing, Mrs. Mayo," he said ; "just one. 
 If you feel that you ain t needed here, what makes you 
 stay? When you found you wan t needed, or really 
 needed, why didn t you leave them? If you think you re 
 spongin a livin that was your own name for it, not 
 mine why don t you quit the ship this minute? Just 
 hop overboard and go? Why not?" 
 
 And now it was she who hesitated. And when she 
 answered it was without looking at him. 
 
 "I I you mustn t ask me, Cap n Newcomb," she 
 said, with a choke in her voice. "There are some things 
 we can t There! please don t talk to me any more." 
 
 She hastened into the dining room. The captain, a 
 greatly disturbed and thoroughly puzzled individual, 
 stood in the middle of the kitchen floor, tugging at his 
 chin whisker, and muttering exclamations indicative of 
 mental disturbance. A minute or two later, he tiptoed 
 to the door of the dining room and looked in. 
 
 The housekeeper was sitting in the rocker by the win- 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 dow. The afternoon sun was shining in through the 
 panes and the light glistened upon her wet cheeks. She 
 had been crying. Something, pity or sympathy or some 
 other strong feeling, gave a tremendous twist to the cap 
 tain s heartstrings. He felt an unreasonable but almost 
 uncontrollable desire to walk in and tell her not to cry, 
 that everything was going to be all right for her, that he 
 would see that it was. 
 
 Of course he did not do anything of the kind. What 
 he did was to step back and knock at the panel of the 
 half-opened door. The housekeeper turned her head. 
 
 "I I just wanted to say I was goin down street a 
 spell," stammered Noah. "I ll be home long about sup 
 per time. And and er er Mrs. Mayo " 
 
 "Yes?" wearily. 
 
 "You you needn t worry about what you said to me ; 
 it s all right. !And I m mighty glad you and me had 
 this talk." 
 
 It was a considerably disturbed and troubled Captain 
 Noah Newcomb who walked thoughtfully down to the 
 village. Before reaching the Corners he turned to the 
 right and, with hands in his pockets, walked on along the 
 Bay road to the cold-storage plant. Just before he 
 reached the new building he saw a man striding rapidly 
 toward him. As they approached each other he recog 
 nized Mr. Balaam Griggs. 
 
 "Afternoon, Balaam," said the captain. 
 
 Mr. Griggs response was a brief nod and morose 
 grunt, as different from his usual suave greeting as could 
 be imagined. He was scowling savagely and he strode 
 
 132 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 on without waiting to shake hands or exchange a word. 
 Captain Noah could not understand it. 
 
 He found Irving Clifford standing by the door of the 
 engine room at the cold-storage plant. Irving, himself, 
 looked a trifle ruffled. 
 
 "Humph!" exclaimed the captain, after a look at his 
 friend; "you and Balaam been passin the compliments 
 of the season, have you ?" 
 
 Clifford stared at him in astonishment. 
 
 "How in blazes did you know ?" he demanded. 
 
 "Oh, I just put this and that together, same as the old 
 woman made the mince pie," was the answer. "I met 
 Balaam a minute ago and I noticed his face had turned 
 sour, and when I got here I found yours was some cur 
 dled. So I judged maybe you and he had been swappin 
 regards." 
 
 "Humph ! Well, you are right, we have. That is, he 
 has given me his. What is the matter with the old 
 fellow; is he crazy?" 
 
 "No-o, no. Whatever else Balaam Griggs is he ain t 
 crazy. Crazy folks are apt to do things that haven t got 
 any reason in em. And whenever our old messmate Ba 
 laam does anything you can bet your hull and cargo 
 there s a reason for it and most generally it s a reason 
 that you can get interest on. What ailed him this after 
 noon? Of course," he added, hastily, "if it s anything 
 that ain t any of my business, why just tell me to clap 
 on hatches and heave ahead to Jericho. I ain t tryin to 
 shove my jibboom into your affairs; I hope you under 
 stand that." 
 
 The young man colored a little and looked rather em- 
 
 -33 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 barrassed. "Of course I understand that, Captain New- 
 comb," he said. "And and Oh, well, I don t know 
 why I shouldn t tell you. I suppose you ve guessed it, 
 anyway. Mr. Griggs and I disagreed concerning my 
 visits to his house. He doesn t seem to care for my 
 society." 
 
 "Or he doesn t care for his stepdaughter to care for it, 
 eh? ... And I know that ain t any of my business, 
 either. Excuse me, will you, Irve? I have a habit of 
 talkin too much, even when I m asleep." 
 
 "That s all right, Captain. It s no secret, I imagine. 
 It s pretty hard to keep a secret in Trumet. Yes, Mr. 
 Griggs disapproves of my calling upon or even speaking 
 with Miss Barstow." 
 
 "Told you so just now, did he?" 
 
 Clifford smiled. "He did," he said. "He told me at 
 least that." 
 
 "Sho! I want to know! And what did you tell him? 
 If that ain t askin* too much." 
 
 There was a crisp sharpness in the tone of the young 
 man s answer, although he was smiling still. 
 
 "I told him," he said, "that so far as calling at his house 
 was concerned I should not, of course, do so in the fu 
 ture ; but that I should continue to meet and speak with 
 Miss Barstow until the young lady herself told me not 
 to." 
 
 Captain Noah grinned. 
 
 "That must have been as soothin to him as a dose of 
 blue vitriol tea," he observed. 
 
 "It was. He said a good many more things then." 
 
 "Shouldn t wonder. And you?" 
 
 134 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "I didn t say so many. The conversation was rather 
 one-sided." 
 
 He ceased speaking r.nd looked off across the bay. The 
 captain, after a glance at his face, made another remark, 
 
 "Say, son," he queried, "how bad would you damage 
 my hull and standin riggin if I should ask you some- 
 thin that was less my business than anything I ve asked 
 yet?" 
 
 Clifford laughed shortly. "I should probably not at 
 tempt damaging it at all," he replied. "After my success 
 in holding in during my recent conversation with Griggs, 
 I have considerable confidence in my powers of suppres 
 sion. Ask whatever you please, Captain. I don t prom 
 ise to answer. " 
 
 "That s right, that s right. Don t never sign articles 
 till you know where the ship s bound. I ve got a reason 
 for askin , and whatever you say, if you do answer, will 
 never get out from under my decks. I may talk a good 
 deal, but when it s needful I ve got as good a keep-stiller 
 as any man you ever saw." 
 
 "That s all right. I know you fairly well by this time, 
 Captain Newcomb. Ask your question." 
 
 "Well er well, son, is is there anything serious be 
 tween you and Mary Barstow? I mean are you just 
 friends and cal latin to be, or or Lord! It sounds 
 more cheeky to say out loud than it was to think. Don t 
 you answer a word, Irve ; just tell me to shut up and then 
 forget I said it." 
 
 The engineer was silent for a moment, still gazing out 
 across the bay. But his answer, when he gave it, was 
 conclusive enough. 
 
 135 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "If Miss Barstow will have me," he said, quietly, "I 
 mean to marry her." 
 
 The captain nodded. "Bully for you, son!" he said. 
 "Judgin from the little I ve seen and the lot I ve heard 
 you re goin to get a mighty fine young woman. I sartin 
 do congratulate you." 
 
 "You d better wait. I haven t got her yet." 
 
 "Well, then, I ll wait. But I ll tell you why I asked. 
 First, though, I ll ask another question. Does Balaam 
 know how you feel?" 
 
 "I told him just now." 
 
 "And twas after that that he blew the safety gauge 
 clean off his biler, I presume likely." 
 
 "It seemed to make him absolutely furious." 
 
 "Um-hm. Now why? You re a respectable young 
 man barrin that you keep company with me, of course. 
 And your wages are good, and your prospects better. 
 You can support a wife, can t you?" 
 
 "In moderate comfort, I hope yes." 
 
 "Humph! As much comfort as she s liable to get in 
 Balaam s Windsor Castle, I shouldn t wonder. Now 
 then, why don t Balaam want you to marry her?" 
 
 "I don t know. Doesn t like me, I suppose." 
 
 "No reason why he shouldn t. And besides you ain t 
 the only one he hasn t liked. Don t you flatter yourself, 
 young feller, that you re the only young male critter 
 that s been tryin to keep company with Mary Barstow. 
 Nigh s I can learn you re the only one she d look at 
 more n once, but there s been others fishin on the Griggs 
 shoals. And Balaam had the same row with each one 
 of them that he s had with you. There ain t anything 
 
 136 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 personal in it; he ain t got anything special against you. 
 It seems to be that he don t want his stepdaughter to 
 marry anybody. Now why don t he?" 
 
 "Don t know, I m sure. Probably he doesn t want to 
 give her up." 
 
 "Don t you believe it ! Balaam never had anything yet 
 that he wouldn t give up for money. He d sell his under- 
 flannels and try to grow wool on his shoulder-blades if 
 you paid him enough for it. He s always complainin 
 about what an expense Mary is and how cheap he could 
 keep house if he didn t have her. Anybody, knowin 
 him, would naturally cal late he d be tickled to death to 
 have a nice, promisin young chap like you take her off 
 his hands. But he ain t. Why?" 
 
 "Oh, don t ask me, Captain Newcomb. I tell you I 
 think he s crazy." 
 
 "Then your thoughts are sprung out of plumb, my 
 son. Balaam ain t crazy, don t you think he is. No, 
 there s a nigger in that woodpile, too, same as there is in 
 the one I m anchored alongside of. That pile of mine 
 is full of em, a darky to every stick. And just as I think 
 I ve got hold of the foot of one of em I I find I ain t 
 at all. Just now, for instance, I had a "Look here, 
 son ; you ve been tellin me some of your private affairs. 
 Do you want to hear some of mine? I ve just got to 
 talk em over with somebody. Do you want to have me 
 tell you just why I m down here in Trumet; the real 
 reason; the whole of it? All right, then, you listen, and 
 if you see any light in the darkness, sailor, as the hymn 
 tune used to say, for thunder mighty s sake, sing out. 
 I m lost in the fog ahead and astern." 
 
 137 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 He began and told the whole story. Of Obadiah s let 
 ter, of the ex-cook s mysterious reticence and evident 
 trouble, of Balaam and Cousin Calvin, then of his own 
 suspicions of Mrs. Mayo, and finally of the interview he 
 had just had with that lady, the impersonal parts of it, 
 that is. 
 
 "So you see," he said, in conclusion, "here I am worse 
 off than I started. I figgered, naturally, that she must 
 be crooked and, like the rest of em, was there to work 
 poor old Obe out of his last cent. And, just as I was 
 congratulatin myself that the puzzle was most done 
 She was the piece that wouldn t fit; the one I spoke to 
 you about, remember Well, just as I was pattin my 
 self on the back that I d got her at last where she be 
 longed, she turns to and upsets the whole checkerboard 
 again. She orders me to do what I ve been workin to 
 do from the beginning chuck the whole crew of em over 
 the side, herself along with the rest. Orders me to do it 
 she does! Why? I ask you why?" 
 
 Clifford shook his head. "It s a queer business," he 
 said. 
 
 "Ain t it now? It s as queer as old man Patterson s 
 cat, and that slept in the chicken coop and barked like a 
 dog. Don t you see, Irve? Don t you see? I ve been 
 all wrong about her, I mean. She ain t crooked at all. 
 She never did act anything but honest and I used to 
 think that was funny or else just her smartness. But it 
 wan t either; twas just her natural way of actin . She 
 is honest ! I ll bet my mittens and wear my hands bare 
 footed if it ain t so. She s an honest, square woman, 
 and a mighty fine one. She knows Obe is bein skinned ; 
 
 138 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 she believes she s helpin skin him. And yet and yet, 
 by thunder mighty, she stays right there! She won t 
 quit, but she tells me to put her out. Why ? Why ? Why ? 
 Oh, this shakes my confidence, this does. A little more 
 of it and I ll go back to Porto Reek and climb a palm 
 tree and swop my head for a cocoanut. Tut! tut!" 
 
 Irving slapped his friend on the back. 
 
 Cheer up, Captain," he said. "You ll get the answer 
 by and by. It s a good thing for your friend Burgess 
 that you are his friend ; that s evident. And," he added, 
 reflectively, "have you thought that well, she is related 
 to Griggs; he brought her to fill the position of house 
 keeper there. Have you thought that possibly he that 
 there may be something " 
 
 Noah interrupted him. "Have I thought?" he re 
 peated. "Son, I ve thought my upper deck loose and 
 started the plankin in the hold. But in my opinion 
 you ve put your finger on the right button and it s got 
 Balaam Griggs lettered on it. Maybe it ll jingle some 
 day or other when I press it the right way. But don t 
 it beat all," he added, "how deceivin appearances are 
 sometimes? Here s this little single-sticked, cat-rigged 
 town of Trumet; you d never think a mystery could be 
 hid anywheres aboard of it, could you? And I ve been 
 here only a month or so and I ve bumped into no less 
 than three already. Three and a half, you might say. 
 
 "The first," he went on, "is Obe himself. What s he 
 got up his sleeve? What s his trouble and why is he 
 hidin it from me? Number two is the Mayo woman. 
 She s honest, she s capable, she knows she shouldn t be 
 workin Obe or workin for him. Then why don t she 
 
 10 139 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 quit? Is Balaam makin her stay there? She ain t the 
 kind, or don t act like the kind, to be scared of him or 
 anybody else. And number three is this queer business 
 of Balaam s along of his stepdaughter. Why don t he 
 want her to get married? There s a nice netful of pic 
 ture puzzles, ain t it? Let s see you put em together, 
 son." 
 
 Clifford laughed. Then he said: "You spoke of three 
 and a half mysteries, Captain. What is the half?" 
 
 "The half? Oh, Cousin Calvin is the half. Why 
 should a swell club feller like him be down here in Tru- 
 met loafin around, towin a dog on a chain? His health ? 
 Bosh ! Oh, well, he don t fret me any. I ll have his meas 
 ure most any time I want to take it, I cal late. There, 
 son," he added, drawing a long breath, "let s forget the 
 whole three and a half for a spell. You re through work 
 for the afternoon, ain t you? Good! Let s go up to the 
 garage and get that car of mine, that What was it 
 Wentworth called her first time he saw her? Pancake? 
 No, Panhard, that was it. Let s go get the Panhard and 
 take a ten-mile cruise around the roads. Maybe twill 
 blow some of Balaam s fog out of our heads. What do 
 you say?" 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 IT was on the morning following this discussion be 
 tween Captain Noah and the engineer that two of 
 the people discussed, namely, Mr. Balaam Griggs 
 and Miss Mary Barstow, had a conversation of their 
 own. It was a spirited conversation on Balaam s part 
 and a provokingly cool and determined statement of fact 
 on the part of the young lady. 
 
 "You ll do as I tell you!" shouted Griggs. "You 
 won t see nor speak to that feller again." 
 
 His stepdaughter did not answer. She was clearing 
 away the breakfast dishes and did not even glance in 
 the direction of the irate Balaam. 
 
 "Do you hear?" repeated the latter, angrily. 
 
 No reply. 
 
 "Do you hear, I say?" roared Mr. Griggs. 
 
 Mary went on collecting the dishes on the table. 
 
 "Yes," she said,, calmly, "I hear. So do the neigh 
 bors, I should imagine." 
 
 "Darn the neighbors ! That s what I say about them." 
 
 Miss Barstow smiled slightly. "I wonder if you ever 
 heard what they say about you," she observed. 
 
 Balaam choked and, figuratively speaking, clawed the 
 
 141 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 air, seeking to grasp a satisfactory retort. Failing to lay 
 hands upon such a one he changed his tactics. After 
 all, it was best not to quarrel. 
 
 "Now now, Mary," he pleaded, "why don t you act 
 nice and not so cross-grained and unlikely? Why do 
 you always want to do just what I don t want you to 
 do?" 
 
 Mary, having carried the silverware and dishes to the 
 kitchen, paused momentarily in the doorway. 
 
 "Why do you always want me not to do what I wish 
 to ?" she asked. 
 
 "I don t! I don t! You can do anything you want 
 to anything in reason, that is. All I ask is that you 
 just just do same as I want you to, that s all. That s 
 all I want." 
 
 The young lady laughed, merrily. The laughter served 
 to bring back all of Balaam s irritation. His florid face 
 blazed redder than ever. 
 
 "Laugh, will you?" he demanded. "Laugh?" 
 
 "I certainly shall when you make such ridiculous 
 speeches." 
 
 "I want to know! Well, the last time I see that Clif 
 ford er er sculpin he wan t laughin . I told him 
 what I thought of him. I told him if I ever see him 
 hangm around this house and tryin to coax you into 
 marryin him I d " 
 
 "You didn t!" 
 
 Miss Barstow was not laughing now. She had entered 
 the room and was facing her stepfather. Her eyes when 
 they met Balaam s seemed to promise anything but 
 humor. 
 
 142 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "You didn t say that!" she repeated. "You didn t 
 say that to him !" 
 
 Balaam was a bit nervous, but his anger was so great 
 that it overbore his prudence for the moment. 
 
 "Yes, I did, too !" he shouted. " Twas last night I 
 said it to him. Says I, / don t want you round there 
 and my daughter she don t and " 
 
 Miss Barstow interrupted, and her tone was so cold 
 and clear that each syllable falling upon Mr. Griggs tor 
 rid temper should have sizzled like a water-drop on a 
 hot stove. 
 
 "I think you and I may as well have a final and com 
 plete understanding/* she said. "It is evidently quite 
 time. I have been keeping house for you, as you know, 
 because my mother asked me to, asked me when she 
 was very ill, just before she died. I have tried to make 
 you comfortable, or as comfortable as I could with the 
 means you provided." 
 
 "Yes, yes, that s all right, Mary, I ain t sayin " 
 
 "Wait. I have put up, for Mother s sake, with a 
 great deal of annoyance and humiliation. You have as 
 sumed a sort of of guardianship over me which I do 
 not recognize in the least " 
 
 "Guardian! Why, Mary, if I ain t your guardian, 
 who is?" 
 
 "No one now. I am twenty-one." 
 
 "Don t make no difference. I m your father, ain t I ?" 
 
 "No, you are not. And you have no control over my 
 actions or my friendships. I shall do exactly as I please 
 and I shall see and speak with whom I please. This 
 house, I know, is yours. My only right here is that you 
 
 143 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 have begged me to stay. Now I think it best that I 
 should go." 
 
 "Go? Go where?" 
 
 "I don t know. To Boston, perhaps." 
 
 "To to Boston! What for? What what ll you 
 live on?" 
 
 A disinterested listener might have noticed a note of 
 eager anxiety, almost of fear, in Mr. Griggs tone as he 
 asked this question. 
 
 "What have you got to live on, in Boston or any 
 wheres else?" he repeated. 
 
 "Why, nothing." 
 
 "I guess nothing!" The note changed to triumphant 
 relief. 
 
 "But I can earn my living. I have friends there who 
 will help me to find employment. I think I should enjoy 
 working there; it would, at least, be a pleasant change 
 from this sort of thing. I think we may as well con 
 sider it settled. I shall go." 
 
 She turned and walked into the kitchen. Balaam 
 glowered after her and stood in the middle of the dining 
 room floor tugging at his whiskers. He was evidently 
 thinking hard and his thoughts were disturbing. After 
 a few moments of thought and whisker pulling he shuf 
 fled over to the kitchen door. 
 
 "Say, Mary," he said, "I I m sorry I said that about 
 young Clifford. I guess maybe I was a little mite hasty 
 there. You ain t goin to leave me and go up to no Bos 
 ton, course you ain t." 
 
 Mary, busy at the sink, answered without looking at 
 him. 
 
 144 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "I am," she said. 
 
 "No, no, you ain t. What ll I do if you go? Didn t 
 your ma make you promise you d stay here and look 
 after me? She thought a sight of me, your ma did. 
 She used to say to me, Balaam, she d say, Mary s a 
 good girl; she ll look after you in your old age. She 
 knew what a turrible lot of store I set by you, Mary." 
 
 "Yes, that is very evident." 
 
 "Well, now, tis. That s the reason I can t bear to 
 think of your gettin married to Irve Clifford, or any 
 body else. I can t bear to have you go off and leave me, 
 Mary. If your ma knew if she s where she can see us 
 and knows you re cal latin to leave me, she " 
 
 "Oh, don t!" wearily. 
 
 "Well, twould break her heart, same as the very idee 
 of it is breakin mine. You think it over now, Mary. 
 And and as for this Clifford feller well, we won t 
 talk about him." 
 
 "No, we will not," with decision. 
 
 "If if you want to see him once in a while " 
 
 "I shall see whom I wish, when I wish." 
 
 "Yes, yes. Well, we won t fight, anyhow. And you 
 won t go to Boston and leave your poor old dad here 
 alone. Your mother, she " 
 
 "Stop ! If you don t stop I shall go now." 
 
 "All right, I ll stop. Er er Mary, I m going to 
 Ostable today. Got some business over there. I shan t 
 be back for dinner. You be a good girl now, won t 
 you? Don t do nothin foolish, nothin you ll be sorry 
 for later on." 
 
 145 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 His stepdaughter s answer was brief but, from his 
 viewpoint, scarcely satisfying. 
 
 It will not be necessary," she said, dryly. "I have 
 enough to be sorry for now." 
 
 Balaam emerged from the house, angry through and 
 through. As, swearing under his breath, he slammed the 
 door behind him, a whiff of cigarette smoke tickled his 
 nostrils and, turning, he saw Mr. Calvin Wentworth 
 seated on the washbench below and to the right of the 
 kitchen window. Cousin Calvin was, as usual, a miracle 
 of raiment and savoir faire. His appearance would 
 have struck envy to the souls of the young men pictured 
 in the ready-made clothing advertisements. 
 
 "Morning," observed Mr. Wentworth, cheerfully. 
 
 Griggs grunted. He wondered how long the immacu 
 late New Yorker had occupied the washbench. The 
 kitchen window was open and the recent conversation 
 with his stepdaughter had been of a somewhat personal 
 nature. He looked suspiciously at Cousin Calvin, and 
 the latter gentleman regarded him with languid self- 
 possession. 
 
 It was Mr. Wentworth who spoke next. He blew a 
 ring of cigarette smoke into the air and observed : "Sorry 
 I haven t my card with me. I seem to remember my 
 name; is your face familiar?" 
 
 Balaam s lower jaw dropped. "Eh?" he demanded. 
 "What are you sayin ? What kind of talk I don t 
 know s I just understood you, Mr. Wentworth." 
 
 Cousin Calvin rose from the bench. "Oh, you do re 
 member me, then!" he drawled. "Charmed, I m sure." 
 
 "Remember you!" stammered the bewildered Griggs, 
 
 146 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "Course I remember you ! Why shouldn t I remember 
 you, for the land sakes ? Twas only last night I see you. 
 What are you doin ; havin fun with me, or what?" 
 
 Mr. Wentworth rose and tossed away his cigarette. 
 "Judging by your face, old scout," he said, "I couldn t 
 have fun with you; you wouldn t go halves. You look 
 peeved, Uncle, peeved. What is it; the usual morning 
 dark-brown ? Hang-over from the Trumet Midnight 
 Frolic, aM all that sort of thing?" 
 
 Mr. Griggs smiled sourly. "You re a funny feller, 
 ain t you ?" he said. "Got up airly, didn t you ? Thought 
 you was goin to meet me down to Ziby s?" 
 
 "I was, but I rose with the lark this morning. Double 
 up, Lucy, the sun is in the sky and that sort of thing. 
 I strolled down to the gentle Ziba s holy smoke, what 
 a name! laid violent hands on his new benzine bus and 
 here I am. Shall we start?" 
 
 "Sho ! Got the car already, have you ?" 
 
 The car was Mr. Ziba Rogers . Balaam, who had 
 business at his lawyer s in Ostable, had arranged to 
 borrow it for the day. The automobile was almost new 
 and Ziba had not been keen for lending it. But Mr. 
 Griggs, along with his other antiques, possessed a mort 
 gage on the Rogers homestead. Therefore Ziba s disin 
 clination to lend yielded under discretionary pressure. 
 Having secured the car, Balaam found himself in need 
 of a driver. Mentioning that need in the Burgess sitting 
 room an evening or two before he had been somewhat 
 surprised when Cousin Calvin volunteered his services. 
 Wentworth had driven and owned numberless cars, so 
 he gave the company to understand ; he fancied he might 
 
 147 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 rather enjoy taking a flier on the road again. Captain 
 Newcomb solicitously asked if he cal lated his health 
 would stand it. Cousin Calvin opined that it would. 
 
 The car was now standing in the road by the Griggs 
 front gate. Mr. Wentworth led the way toward it and 
 Balaam followed. The pair climbed to the seat, Cousin 
 Calvin took the wheel, pressed the starting button, and 
 they began to move. In three minutes they were mov 
 ing much faster, in five faster still, in ten 
 
 "Hold on !" protested the alarmed Mr. Griggs. " What 
 in time are you doin ; tryin to fly ? Don t ! Hold on, I 
 tell you !" 
 
 The car whizzed up a hill, turned a corner on two 
 wheels, and shot along the next level. 
 
 "Hold on !" roared Balaam again. "Don t you hear 
 me ? I say, hold on !" 
 
 Mr. Wentworth took one hand from the wheel in 
 order to find and open his cigarette case. "Good ad 
 vice," he drawled. "I am holding on, rather. Are 
 you?" 
 
 Lighting the cigarette necessitated a momentary pause 
 in the car s cyclonic progress. The passenger availed 
 himself of the opportunity; he opened the door. 
 
 "By godfrey s domino!" he panted, mopping a per 
 spiring forehead, "don t you dare to start up that thing 
 again. You hold still now till I get " 
 
 He paused, his foot groping for the step. His driver 
 regarded him with interest. 
 
 "Get where?" he asked. 
 
 "Out!" roared Balaam, throwing off the laprobe and 
 standing erect. "Out of this everlastin machine !" 
 
 148 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "What are you getting out for? Tired of riding?" 
 
 "I m tired of ridin with a crazy lunatic. My godfrey s 
 domino ! Why, we never missed that last fence-post by 
 more n two inches !" 
 
 "So? Well, it Isn t your fence, is it?" 
 
 "Ain t my fence! Ain t my By time, you are 
 
 crazy!" 
 
 He turned and strode off. Cousin Calvin indulged in 
 a quiet chuckle and then called after him. 
 
 "Here! . . . Uncle! . . . Griggs!" he shouted. "Wait! 
 Come back!" 
 
 Balaam answered over his shoulder. "You go to the 
 devil!" he snarled. 
 
 Wentworth s foot pressed the accelerator; in a mo 
 ment the car was beside its former passenger. 
 
 "Better go there with me, hadn t you?" suggested 
 Cousin Calvin. "What s the use of walking to the devil 
 when you can go in up-to-date fashion, with bells on? 
 There, there! don t bend your face like that, it might 
 crack. Jump in ! I was only trying the machine out a 
 bit. I ll slow down, of course. Anything to oblige." 
 
 Balaam hesitated and was inclined to argue, but as 
 his companion solemnly promised not to drive faster 
 than twenty miles an hour and offered to let the passen 
 ger guess the speed himself, he reluctantly consented to 
 try another short stretch. "Just to see whether you re 
 permanent loony, or only by spells," he explained. 
 
 Apparently the lunacy was merely temporary, for the 
 car s progress for the next five miles was at a perfectly 
 safe and sane rate of speed. Balaam was too nervous 
 and apprehensive to offer anything in the way of con- 
 
 149 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 versation, and Mr. Wentworth, although unruffled and 
 debonair as always, was not loquacious. It was not until 
 they entered the four mile stretch of woods between 
 Bayport and Denboro that he became talkative. 
 
 "Uncle," he observed, cheerfully, "I m sorry to say it, 
 but I m disappointed in you, I am, really/ 
 
 "Eh? What s that? What s comin now, more crazi- 
 ness ? How have I disappointed you, for mercy sakes ?" 
 
 "You have. Uncle " 
 
 "I ain t your uncle, nor no other relation, as I 
 know of." 
 
 "Aren t you? Gad, that s a blow! Well, never mind; 
 you ve disappointed me, uncle or not. I thought you 
 were a dead-game sport, and I m afraid you are a four- 
 flusher." 
 
 "A what? Now look here, Mr. Wentworth, you ve 
 been callin me names all the mornin . A joke s a joke, 
 but " 
 
 Wentworth calmly interrupted. "I thought you were 
 a sport," he went on, "and you re not, not for a minute. 
 I speed up this tin Lizzie here a bit and you want to get 
 out and walk. For a man who is supposed to hunt the 
 wild antique in its lair, as you have the reputation of 
 doing, I well, I m shocked." 
 
 Most of this airy persiflage passed high over the Griggs 
 head, but a little of it flew low enough to make a slight 
 impression. Balaam looked rather foolish. 
 
 "Well, I tell you, Mr. Wentworth," he said, apologet 
 ically, "maybe I am a little mite extry nervous this 
 mornin . That that daughter of mine, she does rile me 
 when she sets out to. She and I had a a little mite 
 
 150 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 of a difference of opinion just now that What are 
 you laughin at?" 
 
 Cousin Calvin was smiling. "Oh," he replied, care 
 lessly, "nothing in particular, except that Well er 
 when you and she have a real row I wish you d let me 
 know, will you? I should like an orchestra chair; the 
 performance should be interesting/ 
 
 His passenger regarded him sourly. His suspicions 
 concerning the open kitchen window and the washbench 
 were confirmed. He had a huge respect for the New 
 Yorker, or rather for the large fortune which the latter 
 was supposed to possess; but there were limits to the 
 liberties which even a rich man might take especially 
 on this particular morning. 
 
 "Humph!" he grunted. "So you heard the fuss, did 
 you? Listening I presume likely." 
 
 "No, it wasn t necessary. I could have heard it if I 
 had been asleep. I could have heard some of it if I had 
 been dead." 
 
 He chuckled. Balaam gritted his teeth. "Humph!" 
 he observed, tartly; "sounded funny to you, I presume 
 likely. Other folks business is liable to sound queer to 
 to folks that ain t got no business with it." 
 
 This shot glanced harmlessly from the Wentworth ar 
 mor. Cousin Calvin calmly steered the car between a 
 vegetable peddler s wagon and cart loaded with stove 
 wood, missing each by a scant three inches. During the 
 accomplishment of this feat, which called forth spirited 
 and personal comments from the drivers of each ve 
 hicle, the condescending smile did not once leave his 
 face. 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "Peeved again, Unc So sorry Griggs, I mean. 
 Peeved again, eh?" he observed. "Very foolish, very 
 foolish. No use in getting fussed, my boy; although I 
 admit you did have a good excuse. She surely did make 
 you look like a lead dime, and when a dime is good it 
 isn t worth but a third of thirty cents. I m afraid you 
 haven t had much experience with women, old scout." 
 
 "I want to know !" sarcastically. "And you have, eh?" 
 
 "Oh, a bit, here and there." 
 
 "Is that so ! Well, you never had no experience with 
 one like that Mary Barstow, leastways / never did, and 
 I ve been married twice." 
 
 "What s the matter with her? She s a clever girl; 
 seems to have a mind of her own. And she s a good 
 looker. She s the nearest approach to the blue ribbon 
 winner in the peach exhibit that I ve seen in this county 
 fair. You can t drive a girl like that, Griggs. Your 
 only hope would be to coax her, or to work the diplo 
 matic racket somehow. Well, you won t be troubled 
 with her much longer, I imagine. Your responsibility 
 in that direction will be relieved." 
 
 If the latter portion of these remarks had been in 
 tended as an additional irritant to the already raw tem 
 per of Mr. Griggs, they achieved their aim. 
 
 "What?" snarled Balaam. "Won t be troubled ? Re 
 sponsibility ? What do you mean ? What are you talkin 
 about?" 
 
 Wentworth glanced at him from the corners of his 
 eyes. 
 
 "Oh," he observed, lightly, "I meant simply what I ve 
 heard what everyone says, you know. You know what 
 
 152 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 I mean; you and she were discussing it in that little 
 family er difference of opinion you mentioned. From 
 all I can gather she ll be taken off your hands soon. Our 
 cold-storage friend er Clifford, you know he " 
 
 He got no further. Mr. Griggs proceeded to express 
 his opinion of Irving Clifford, volubly, forcibly and at 
 length. His companion listened until the typhoon had 
 spent a little of its force, then he broke in to ask another 
 question. 
 
 "What s the matter with Clifford?" he asked. "He 
 seems a decent enough chap for a burg like this. Why 
 have you got it in for him ?" 
 
 That didn t make any difference. Irving Clifford was 
 a etcetera, etcetera. And he should not marry Mary 
 Barstow. 
 
 "Why not?" inquired the blandly persistent Went- 
 worth. "She s bound to marry someone some day. Gad, 
 man, you can t expect to keep her always, you know. 
 Not her variety not on your life, not any. Why not 
 Clifford as well as the next in line? Why not the cold- 
 storage candidate?" 
 
 Mr. Griggs proceeded to give other reasons. They 
 were noisy but not very convincing. Boiled down, the 
 objections seemed to center less on any particular suitor 
 than on suitors in general. Cousin Calvin noted this. 
 
 "I see," he said; "I m on. You don t want the girl 
 to get away from you at all; want her to stay at home 
 with you and do the clinging vine and sturdy oak busi 
 ness, prop of your declining years and all that. I see; 
 yes, yes. Old scout, you lose; you can t win." 
 
 153 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "Why? Why? Ain t I givin her all the comforts 
 and and clothes and " 
 
 "Back up. Clifford will give her all the clothes and 
 comforts, I imagine glad of the chance. Say," turn 
 ing with a whimsical grin in his passenger s direction, 
 "this is a revelation to me, Griggs, really it is. I didn t 
 know you were such a fond parent. Just dying to sac 
 rifice your all for the girl, eh? My ducats for my 
 daughter! Gad, the young lady doesn t seem thrilled 
 with your self-sacrifice. Judging by some of the jslts 
 she handed you this morning " 
 
 "Damn her!" 
 
 "Eh?" 
 
 "Damn her, I say! She s a sassy, impudent, money- 
 spendin critter. I wish she was to thunder and gone! 
 I " 
 
 "Whew ! Wait ! I don t just get you. I was all set 
 to catch a blessing and you toss over a damn. You wish 
 she was where?" 
 
 Balaam told where he wished his stepdaughter might 
 be transported,, shouted it, in fact. His rage had boiled 
 over at last and he was forgetting everything in the joy 
 of expression. 
 
 "I see. Well, why don t you give her to Clifford and 
 tell him to take her there? It would be less expensive, 
 wouldn t it? Of course, when I thought you loved her 
 so devoutly I " 
 
 "Loved nothin ! If twan t for that darned will she 
 could take Clifford or anybody else and go to Joppa for 
 all I care. / wouldn t shed no tears." 
 
 He paused, out of breath. Wentworth waited almost 
 
 154 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 a minute before he spoke again. When he did his tone 
 was very quiet. 
 
 "What will?" he asked, gently. 
 
 Balaam started. All at once he seemed to realize that 
 his anger had gotten the better of his discretion. The 
 red slid down from his forehead and cheeks ; for an in 
 stant he was almost pale. He glanced apprehensively at 
 his driver, but the latter was innocently scanning the 
 road ahead. 
 
 "Oh, nothing nothin ," stammered Mr. Griggs. "There, 
 there!" he added, testily, "let s change the subject, for 
 godfrey s sakes. I m sick of talkin about women s fool 
 ishness." 
 
 So the subject was changed. Only indirectly, and 
 then only when they were within a few miles of Ostable, 
 was Miss Barstow s name again mentioned. Cousin Cal 
 vin, who had done most of the talking during the lat 
 ter part of the journey, had been inquiring concerning 
 the old families of Trumet. The Griggs family, so bril 
 liantly represented by its present head, was one of the 
 oldest. Balaam knew every cousin, second, third or 
 fourth, for two generations, and had much to say, gen 
 erally of an unpleasant nature, concerning each. 
 
 "Your wife, too, came of an old Trumet family, didn t 
 she?" asked Wentworth. 
 
 "My first wife did, she was a Bassett, same tribe as 
 Uncle Labe Bassett. My second wife, though, Mary s 
 ma, she wasn t a Trumeter. She belonged up to Wapa- 
 tomac, all her folks came from there." 
 
 "How did you happen to meet her? Are you ac 
 quainted in Wapatomac?" 
 
 11 155 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "Ain t now, much. I used to be. I knew her husband 
 that was." 
 
 "Miss Barstow s father, you mean?" 
 
 "Sartin, Ira Barstow; I knew him fust-rate. Done 
 some real estate tradin with him. Good while ago that 
 was." 
 
 "Did he ever live in Trumet?" 
 
 "No, no. Lived in Wapatomac most all his life. Died 
 there, too. I helped his widow straighten out seme of 
 the real estate deals he had that was his business, you 
 see. She and I get acquainted then. Twas five year 
 afterwards we got married, though. The Barstows 
 wan t Trumet, not a bit of em. But the Pennimans, 
 there s another old family. Why " 
 
 He discoursed concerning the Pennimans until they 
 turned into the Ostable main street and stopped before 
 his lawyer s door. 
 
 "I ll be in here for quite a spell," he informed his 
 companion. "Got a lot of fussin and red tape about 
 foreclosin a mortgage. Want to come in and wait, do 
 you ? I guess likely you can, if you want to, but twould 
 be kind of stupid for you, I should say." 
 
 Cousin Calvin declined this cordial invitation. He 
 would walk about the town and see the lions, he said. 
 Balaam informed him that the "nighest things to lions 
 or any other menagerie critters in Ostable are them two 
 cast-iron deers up on Judge Baxter s grounds." Mr. 
 Wentworth said no doubt they would do and strolled 
 away. 
 
 He did not visit the Baxter grounds, however. In 
 stead, he walked up the main street until he reached the 
 
 156 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 County Court House. Entering the building, he sought 
 the office of the Clerk of Probate. The clerk was out, 
 but the young man in charge was willing to oblige. 
 
 "You keep the records here, don t you?" asked Mr. 
 Wentworth. "Deeds and copies of wills, and so on? I 
 thought so. Well, I m from the er from the West, 
 you see, and I am looking up some old family records. 
 I am interested in the Barstow family ; the branch which 
 used to live in Wapatomac, I believe. There was a John 
 Barstow and a an Edward Barstow and and a oh, 
 yes, an Ira Barstow. It occurred to me if I could look 
 over some of the Barstow wills it might help me to 
 trace " 
 
 And so on, smiling, urbane and graciously polite. The 
 youthful representative of the Clerk of Probate felt quite 
 flattered to be on such friendly terms with so distin 
 guished a visitor. When that visitor handed him a cigar 
 one Captain Newcomb had given him, Wentworth, that 
 very morning he was ready to turn the entire records 
 of the county over for inspection. 
 
 "The only thing is," he said, "these kind of things are 
 all dated. If you knew about what years some of these 
 Barstow folks died, Mister, I guess we could locate em." 
 
 Mr. Wentworth did a little mental arithmetic. Mary 
 he had heard her say so was twenty-one. He had 
 heard from other sources that she was but a young girl 
 when her mother married Balaam Griggs. He added, 
 substracted, and then took a flying shot. 
 
 "Suppose we begin by looking up one of them," he 
 said. "John No, he would be too far back. Edward 
 would come later, but No, we ll see if we can find 
 
 157 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 Ira. Please try and find the will of Ira Barstow of Wap- 
 atomac, who died in well, in 1905 or 6 or 7, or there 
 abouts." 
 
 When Cousin Calvin emerged from the Court House 
 he was smiling and there was a satisfied look on his face. 
 He had inspected Ira Barstow s will, also the will of 
 Martha Briggs, formerly Martha Barstow. He had been 
 unable to locate the wills of several other Barstows, John 
 and Edward among them, but he bore these disappoint 
 ments bravely. He was in serene good-humor when he 
 returned to the spot where he had left the motor car and 
 found Mr. Griggs waiting for him on the lawyer s steps. 
 
 Balaam, too, was in good-humor. The business at the 
 lawyer s had been entirely satisfactory. He had secured 
 a desirable piece of property at a small cost to himself 
 and, if the former owners would be obliged to give up 
 what had been the family home for two generations, 
 that, obviously, was not Mr. Griggs fault. 
 
 He and Mr. Wentworth boarded the car again and 
 they moved out of Ostable once more. Then, on the 
 Bayport road, the driver slowed down to a surprisingly 
 moderate rate of speed and began to talk. 
 
 "Griggs," he said, "are you really serious in your ob 
 jection to Clifford s marrying your stepdaughter?" 
 
 "Eh ? Am I serious ? Good godfrey s domino ! Have 
 I been talkin as if I was enjoyin it? Am I serious! 
 What in the nation?" 
 
 "Oh, all right! Keep your kimono on, Uncle. You d 
 like to break off the intimacy between them, then?" 
 
 "Would I ? You show me how to do it and then see !" 
 
 "It shouldn t be so very hard." 
 
 158 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "Oh, shouldn t, eh? Humph! Talk s cheap. Any 
 kind of a job s soft to the feller that don t have to do it." 
 
 "Yes, and nothing s much harder than a bonehead. If 
 it were up to me I d guarantee that she tied the can to 
 our friend Clifford inside of a month." 
 
 "I want to know ! Huh ! Well, then, I wish twas up 
 to you, that s all I ve got to say. How would you do it ?" 
 
 "Oh, I d do it." 
 
 "Yes, you would like a hen !" 
 
 "I beg your pardon?" 
 
 "Eh ! What for ? You ain t done nothin to me^ have 
 you? I said you wouldn t do what you said you d do, 
 that s all." 
 
 "No, you didn t. You said I would do it like a like 
 a chicken, wasn t it? What on earth did you mean by 
 that?" 
 
 "Eh? I said like a hen. That means you wouldn t 
 do it at all." 
 
 Cousin Calvin shook his head. "Griggs," he observed, 
 "your conversation is scrambled. I could do it. Would 
 you like to make a sporting proposition of it ? What will 
 you bet that the er friendship between Miss Barstow 
 and Clifford isn t ended inside of a month? Come, now, 
 be a dead game one. Name your figure." 
 
 Baalam regarded him with suspicion. 
 
 "You re foolin again, ain t you?" he asked. 
 
 "Not a bit of it. What will you bet?" 
 
 Mr. Griggs scratched his chin. 
 
 "I don t never bet," he said, after a moment s reflec 
 tion. "I don t believe in it, tain t moral." 
 
 His companion laughed heartily. "Griggs," he ex- 
 
 159 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 claimed, "you re a wonder. You re too good to be real; 
 there ain t no such animal. Do you know, just for that 
 I m inclined to help you out of your scrape. Do you 
 want to get rid of Clifford very much ?" 
 
 You bet your life I do!" 
 
 "Here, here! Careful! Betting isn t moral. Well, 
 then, I ll Yes, I ll get rid of him for you." 
 
 "You will? You will? Humph! What for?" 
 
 "Oh, just for love. Who could help loving you, old 
 scout? None knew him but to love him, none named 
 him but to " 
 
 "Aw, shut up your foolin ! What are you goin to 
 help me get rid of Irve Clifford for ?" 
 
 "What for? ... Oh, you mean for what?" 
 
 "For what? For how much? That s what I mean." 
 
 "For nothing." 
 
 Mr. Griggs sniffed disdainful unbelief. "I know a 
 dum sight better," he declared. "Nobody in this world 
 does anything for nothin . What do you want for doin* 
 it? Takin it for granted you can do it at all," he 
 added, "which I doubt." 
 
 Wentworth whistled a few notes of a popular song, 
 "I don t want anything," he said, "except " 
 
 "Ah, ha! Yes except " 
 
 "Except the fun of doing it. Perhaps I don t love 
 brother Irving myself perhaps." 
 
 "You don t! I thought you and him was kind of 
 chummy. You go to see him down to the cold-storage, 
 and all." 
 
 "I have to go and see someone, occasionally; and in 
 this God-forsaken hole choice is limited. But I knew 
 
 160 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 him in New York and Well, never mind that. Do 
 you want me to can him for you?" 
 
 "Yes, sir-ee !" 
 
 "Good ! It s a deal. Shall we shake on it?" 
 
 He took one hand from the steering wheel and ex 
 tended it in his passenger s direction. Mr. Griggs huge 
 paw reached forth and surrounded it. 
 
 "And now," demanded the owner of the paw, "how 
 are you goin to do it, eh?" 
 
 . Cousin Calvin whistled another verse of the song. 
 Then he said : 
 
 "That, my old college chum, is my business for the 
 present. Yours is to keep quiet and wait. When it is 
 your turn to jump I ll pull the string." 
 
 Balaam nodded. 
 
 "All right/ he agreed. "I ll be quiet, don t you fret. 
 But but I wish I knew what in time you are settin 
 out to do this for." 
 
 His driver sang a line of the song he had been 
 whistling. 
 
 " It is you, my darling, it is you/ " he hummed, 
 sweetly. 
 
 That evening he wrote a letter and, the next morning s 
 posted it. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 MR. BURGESS threw down the book in disgust. 
 "Well, I snum !" he exclaimed. "If that don t 
 beat all ! Advertise from Dan to Beersheby that 
 when you read one of these b-b-bub-books you ll know 
 more n Dan l Webster and Moses and the Ten Com 
 mandments rolled into one, and yet and yet, by cu-cuk- 
 cracky, the fust word I go to look up ain t in it at all." 
 
 Captain Newcomb, sitting in the rocker by the window 
 and looking out over the bay, rosy with the after-sunset 
 glow, turned and regarded the little man. 
 
 "What book s that you re heavin round so reckless, 
 Pbe?" he asked. 
 
 Obadiah kicked at the discarded volume. 
 
 "Encyclopedy," he replied, crossly. "Cost much as two 
 or three dollars a p-p-piece, them books do, they tell me, 
 and there s about forty of em in a set ; come in schools, 
 they do, like b-b-bluefish. And there ain t nothin in 
 em ! By cracky, it does m-m-make a feller mad the way 
 he s skinned out of his money." 
 
 He gave the book anothf thrust with his foot. 
 
 "Humph!" observed Noah. "There s lots of things in 
 this world that cost money but ain t much use. A good 
 
 162 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 many rich men s sons would fill that bill. But I wouldn t 
 kick the thing, if I was you ; playin football with a three- 
 dollar book seems to me kind of an expensive game. 
 
 Mr. Burgess sniffed. "Oh, tain t my book," he said. 
 "I b-b-borrowed it off the Methodist minister." 
 
 However, he stooped and picked it up. 
 
 "What word was you lookin for?" asked the captain. 
 
 "Copper. That s a common enough word, ain t it? 
 Ought to be in any decent cyclopedy, hadn t it?" 
 
 "It sartin had. I guess likely tis, too. Let s see that 
 book. Humph! tis the C. one. I thought maybe you 
 was huntin for it under K." 
 
 Obadiah s feelings were hurt. "K! the idee!" he ex 
 claimed. "I guess I shouldn t hunt for c-c-copper under 
 no K. I ve been to school same as you have, Cap n 
 Noah." 
 
 His companion nodded. "Cal late that s so, Obe," he 
 said. "However, I judge you didn t hunt very far for 
 it under C. Anyhow, here tis, two or three pages of it." 
 
 Mr. Burgess rose and looked over his friend s shoul 
 ders. "Why, it s got two p s in it!" he declared, with 
 evident astonishment. "Sho!" 
 
 He took the book from the captain s hands and sat 
 down to read. Noah watched the process, a slow and 
 apparently painful one, for a few moments. Then he 
 chuckled quietly and asked : "Obe, what set you to readin 
 up about copper?" 
 
 Obadiah absently raised his head. 
 
 "Eh?" he queried. 
 
 "What are you studyin up about copper for ? Cal latin 
 
 163 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 to buy a few mines, was you ? Or have you been specu- 
 latin heavy in stock lately?" 
 
 These questions were intended as jokes, but Mr. Bur 
 gess did not laugh, nor even smile. On the contrary, he 
 straightened in his chair, the book slipped from his knees 
 to the floor, and he sat there, pallid, and staring at his 
 friend as if the latter s harmless and rather feeble at 
 tempt at humor had been a pistol shot fired at his head. 
 
 Captain Noah in return stared at him. 
 
 "What in the world?" he demanded. 
 
 Obadiah s chin quivered. He essayed to speak. 
 
 "II What What?" he faltered. 
 
 The captain sprang to his feet. 
 
 "He s got a shock!" he cried. "He s had a stroke! 
 Mrs. Mayo! Mis Melissy!" 
 
 But Obadiah waved both hands in frantic protest. 
 
 "Don t!" he begged. "Don t don t holler! I 
 I I " 
 
 "Holler! I ll do more n holler." 
 
 He was on his way toward the kitchen, but Obadiah 
 seized his coat tail. 
 
 "Don t ! Don t !" he commanded. " Tain t nothin . 
 I m all right! I be, honest! I " 
 
 "All right f Why, you re white as my shirt this min 
 ute. You re sick ! Anybody can see that. What is it ? 
 Where does it hurt you?" 
 
 He was bending over his friend, hastily trying to un 
 button the latter s waistcoat. Obadiah pushed him away. 
 
 "It don t hurt me," he protested. "There ain t nothin 
 to h-h-hurt. I m all right." 
 
 "You are, eh ?" Noah stopped and looked into his face. 
 
 164 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "Humph!" he grunted, after a brief inspection; "well, 
 you do seem to be little mite more human and less like a 
 a jelly fish. What in the nation set you off that way?" 
 
 Burgess was obviously struggling to get control of 
 himself. He reached for his handkerchief and mopped 
 his perspiring forehead. 
 
 " Tain t nothin ," he explained, avoiding his compan 
 ion s eye. "It s just a a a kind of of a spell as you 
 might say. I m I m s-s-subject to em." 
 
 "Oh, you are !" Captain Noah regarded him with sus 
 picion. "Subject to em, are you? Well, Obe, if / was 
 subject to anything like that I d get a doctor or a keeper 
 or somethin . How long have you been subject to 
 em ? This is the first attack you ve had since I ve been 
 here." 
 
 Mr. Burgess, still dabbing at his forehead with the 
 handkerchief, explained that he hadn t had none lately. 
 "It s it s somethin I eat," he added. "Don t talk about 
 it. Hearin you makes me nervous." 
 
 "Want to know ! Well, seeiri you makes me nervous. 
 What did you swallow that set you to shakin like that 
 an earthquake? There, there, don t go. I won t pester 
 you. Stay where you are." 
 
 Obadiah stayed, although, judging from his manner, 
 he would have preferred to go. He picked up the ency 
 clopedia once more and pretended to read, although the 
 deepening dusk made reading more and more impossible. 
 Captain Noah filled and lit his pipe and, leaning back in 
 his chair, regarded the little man steadily. At last the 
 latter spoke again. 
 
 "Cap n," he said, fidgeting with the leaves of the vol- 
 
 165 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 time in his lap, " er er what made you ask me that 
 question ?" 
 
 "What question?" 
 
 "Why why, that question about my b-b-buyin stocks 
 or such foolishness ? That was a f-f-f unny thing to ask, 
 seemed to me." 
 
 "Urn. Yes, I could see it seemed awful funny to you, 
 Obe. I never saw anybody get so much fun out of any 
 thing as you did out of that." 
 
 "Ha, ha!" Obadiah s laugh was rather forced. "I 
 know," he went on, "but I didn t mean f-f-funny, I meant 
 queer. Queer you should ask me if I d bought stocks. 
 Who told you such a thing as that?" 
 
 "Told me ! Nobody told me, of course. I was just 
 foolin with you, that s all." 
 
 "W r as you?" Mr. Burgess seemed to doubt the state 
 ment. "Was you ? Yes, I presume likely you was. But 
 but co-cuk-copper stock, that was a queer thing to 
 think of. Who put that silly notion in your head ?" 
 
 "Nobody. It came there of itself ; saw there was a loft 
 to let and moved in, I shouldn t wonder. By the way, 
 you haven t answered my question. What set you to 
 lookin up copper in that book?" 
 
 "Nothin , nothin . I just took a notion, that s all." He 
 put down the encyclopedia and rose. "I caFlate I won t 
 read any more," he said, hastily. "Guess likely I ll go 
 go down to the p-p-post office or somewheres." 
 
 "Shall I go along with you, Obe?" suggested the cap 
 tain. 
 
 Obadiah apparently did not hear ; at all svents he made 
 no answer. 
 
 166 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 For a few minutes after he had gone Captain Noah sat 
 there, puffing at his pipe. Then he stood up, put the pipe 
 in his pocket and walked briskly to the kitchen. Mrs. 
 Mayo was just wiping the last of the supper dishes. 
 
 "Obadiah s gone to the post office, ain t he ?" asked the 
 captain. "Notice which way he went?" 
 
 Joe Kenney came into the kitchen just then and it was 
 he who answered the question. 
 
 "I don t think he s gone to the office, Cap n Newcomb," 
 he said. "I saw him walkin along the path back of the 
 barn just now." 
 
 The path behind the barn skirted the edge of the bluff 
 above the bay. It was a short cut to the beach and the 
 fish houses, but it most certainly did not lead to the post 
 office. Captain Noah climbed the low fence by the pigsty 
 and set off along the path. It was quite dark now and 
 very quiet. The ripples splashed and chuckled on the 
 shore below, and except for the barking of a distant dog, 
 there were no other sounds. 
 
 The captain walked briskly on. He meant, if possible, 
 to overtake his friend before the latter reached the vil 
 lage. He climbed another fence, descended a little hill,, 
 and there stopped short. At the top of the knoll before 
 him, where the path wound close to the cliff edge, some 
 one, a summer resident probably, had at some time or 
 other erected a rustic seat. On that seat, his huddled 
 form silhouetted against the evening sky, was a man. 
 And as Noah stood there, looking and listening, he heard 
 the sound of a groan. 
 
 The captain tiptoed carefully up the little hill, bent over 
 
 167 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 the figure on the rustic bench, and gently laid a hand on 
 its shoulder. 
 
 "It s all right, Obe," he said, quietly. "Don t be scared. 
 It s just me; it s all right." 
 
 Mr. Burgess was scared, or at least tremendously 
 startled. He would have fallen from the seat and, as 
 likely as not, over the edge of the bluff, had not the cap 
 tain s big hand held him fast. 
 
 "Steady, Obe, steady," said Noah. "Set right where 
 you are. I was in hopes I d catch you afore you got too 
 fur, and now that I have, I ain t goin to let you go. Set 
 still, shipmate. It s high time you and me had a talk." 
 
 Obadiah gasped and stammered. He had been in a 
 highly nervous state before his friend s unexpected ap 
 pearance ; now he was on the verge of collapse. 
 
 "Steady as she is, Obe," ordered the captain. "As I 
 say, it s high time you and me had a talk. Twas plain 
 enough you had a load of trouble under your hatches, 
 but you would persist in keepin those hatches closed. 
 Now that I ve got one peek at your cargo you might as 
 well let me go over the whole manifest. What kind of 
 copper stocks have you been buyin and how much money 
 have you lost?" 
 
 Obadiah turned, stared at him, and then, before his 
 companion realized what he was about, leaped to his feet 
 and started to run. Fortunately for Captain Noah s 
 plans, made during the recent few minutes of meditation 
 in the sitting room, he did not get entirely free. The cap 
 tain pulled him back, forced him down upon the seat and 
 held him there. 
 
 "No use, Obe," he said. "I ain t been towin my rheu- 
 
 168 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 matiz so fur across these damp fields just to start it after 
 you on another lap. You set still and tell me all about 
 it. Set still, you little shrimp ! I swan to man, you ve got 
 more wiggles to you than an eel in a barrel of sweet ile! 
 Hold still ! don t be so foolish." 
 
 Mr. Burgess held still, that is, he was held, but his pro 
 tests were voluble. For the first time during their ac 
 quaintance, as Captain Noah said afterwards, he did not 
 have time to remember to stutter. 
 
 Let me go," he ordered. "Let me go, Cap n Noah. 
 What have you been followin me this way for? What 
 are you hangin onto me for? Let me go, I tell you." 
 
 His captor was imperturbable. "Sorry I can t oblige, 
 Obe," he said. "I don t know as it s really soaked down 
 through your main deck yet, but I m doin my best to be 
 your friend. That s what I came to Trumet to be, and 
 it s the job I ve had on my hands ever since. I m goin 
 to find out what sort of a scrape you re in, and then, if I 
 can, I m goin to help you out of it. Seems to me that 
 now s as good a time as any for you to tell me the yarn. 
 What do you think?" 
 
 Whether this appeal to reason had the desired effect or 
 not is immaterial, for something did. Mr. Burgess 
 ceased struggling and began to groan. 
 
 "I I know you think I m a p-p-plaguey fool," he 
 wailed. "I know you do. I I s pose Balaam told you 
 about my buyin it and and " 
 
 "Sshh! Balaam told me? Balaam Griggs ain t told me 
 anything. What s he got to do with it ?" 
 
 "He sold it to me. He must have told you, else how 
 did you know? I never said " 
 
 169 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "Wait a minute ! Heave to ! What was it Balaam Griggs 
 sold you?" 
 
 "Why, the copper stock, the hundred shares Ostrich 
 Minin and Smeltin of Lake Superior Company. Fifty 
 dollars a share I paid and and he said twas liable to 
 go to a hundred and f-f-fifty most any minute." 
 
 "Did, eh? Um-hm. Well, maybe twill if it don t 
 get off the course. Sometimes those sure-tning clippers 
 run on the rocks." 
 
 "Eh ? On the rocks ! Oh, don t talk so, Noah ! Don t ! 
 I I put five thousand dollars into that stock. Five thou 
 sand! You don t cal late anything s goin to happen to 
 it, do you ? My my Lord above, if it does, what ll I do ? 
 I don t sleep none nights thinkin of it. I got scared soon 
 as I done it. That was why I sent for you. Oh, Cap n 
 Noah, I I can t get along and p-p-pup-pay my bills as 
 tis; I m runnin astern every minute. If I lose that 
 money O, o-oh!" 
 
 He wrung his hands. The captain patted his shoulder. 
 
 "There, there, Obe !" he said. "You ain t on any rocks 
 yet, maybe ; perhaps you ain t goin to be. You may be 
 on your way to millions, for all I know. There, there! 
 stop wavin your flippers and spin me the yarn ; tell me 
 the whole of it from stem to stern." 
 
 So Obadiah told it. The telling took a good while, 
 owing to the narrator s tendency to stammer and his 
 fondness for repetition and ejaculation. It seems that 
 the purchase of stock had been made about a month be 
 fore Noah received the letter summoning him to Trumet. 
 Mr. Burgess and his friend Griggs had discussed finan 
 cial matters, incomes, dividends and the like. "We talked 
 
 170 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 about them kind of things pretty often," explained Oba- 
 
 diah. "Balaam he had money and he knew I had, 
 , 
 
 "Knew how much you had, I presume likely?" inter 
 rupted the captain. 
 
 "Sartin. I told him. Bein wuth twelve thousand and 
 more ain t nothin to be a-sh-sh-shamed of, is it?" 
 
 "No, no. Long as you are worth it, it ain t. Heave 
 ahead with your yarn." 
 
 When Mr. Griggs learned that his friend was receiving 
 only six per cent interest on his money he was shocked 
 and pained, particularly when told that Mr. Burgess 
 never was tempted to do what he, Balaam, termed "turn 
 it over." 
 
 "He said he was always turnin his money over," de 
 clared Obadiah. "Never let it lay idle, as you might say. 
 He just kept her busy, turnin over and turnin over, and 
 whenever he see a g-g-good investment he turned it into 
 that. Understand what he meant, don t you, Cap n?" 
 
 The captain nodded. "Um-hm," he said. "I cal late 
 I understand what he meant. Go on." 
 
 "I m a-goin . Well, of course, hearin all that talk made 
 me kind of of uncontented myself. I kind of got to 
 hankerin to t-t-tut-turn over some of my capital." 
 
 "Some of your what?" 
 
 "Some of my ca-ca-capital. That s what Balaam calls 
 it, means money and and such, you know. He says 
 rich folks never call their money money, always call it 
 capital." 
 
 Obadiah had yearned for the "turning over" of his 
 capital, also for the eight, ten and twelve per cent divi- 
 12 171 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 dends his financial mentor spoke of as so plentiful pro 
 vided one was, like himself, "in on the know." Then he 
 spoke of lucky turns in the stock market, of doubling 
 one s investment, of mines and, at last, of the Ostrich 
 Copper and Smelting Company of Lake Superior. "If 
 a feller had the ready money to put into it/ whispered 
 Mr. Griggs, in the strictest confidence, "and could get a 
 holt of say fifty or a hundred shares of that Ostrich 
 Minin Whew! But," he added, sadly, "it s turrible 
 scarce and hard to get a holt of." 
 
 He showed Burgess clippings from New York papers 
 stating that it was rumored in the Street that wealthy 
 and influential parties were negotiating for the Ostrich 
 property. He showed him records of sales on the Curb. 
 Those sales recorded the advance of Ostrich Common 
 from thirty to fifty yes, even sixty dollars a share. 
 And at last he came to joyfully whisper the news when 
 speaking of money or its equivalent Mr. Griggs was ac 
 customed to whisper reverently that he believed he 
 could "get a-holt" of one hundred of Ostrich Common at 
 fifty. 
 
 "He said twas a chance wouldn t come more n once 
 in a lifetime," went on Obadiah. "He d been just dyin 
 for me to h-h-have such a chance and here twas. He d 
 done it just out of friendship." 
 
 "Oh, he wan t goin to buy no er Zebra Ostrich, or 
 whatever tis, then?" the captain broke in to ask. 
 
 "No, he couldn t. His money was all tied up where 
 twas gettin such big interest he dasent disturb it. But 
 he d h-h-heard of the chance and thought of m-m-me 
 
 and " 
 
 172 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "Yes, yes, I see. Well, you bought it and paid five 
 thousand for it. Where d you get the money?" 
 
 "Sold some of the stocks Aunt Sarah left me. They 
 wan t p-p-payin but six, you see." 
 
 He named some of the securities he had sold. Captain 
 Noah groaned when he heard their names. 
 
 "Don t tell me any more," he said. "You ve got your 
 your Spread-Eagle Mackerel Gull your Ostrich, I 
 mean? Got the certificate, have you?" 
 
 Yes, Mr. Burgess had that at home. He would be glad 
 to show it to his friend. 
 
 "It s all made out, Cap n," he declared. "Got my 
 name on it and all, it has. It s a awful pretty c tif cate." 
 
 Noah grinned. "Well, I m glad to hear that," he said. 
 "That s a great comfort. If you d paid five thousand dol 
 lars for a homely certificate my heart would have been 
 broke. Well, Obe, I ve heard so much, but I ain t heard 
 why you sent for me. Wanted me to help spend the ex- 
 try cash you ve made, was that it?" 
 
 It was rather cruel sarcasm. Poor Obadiah almost 
 wept. "I I I ain t made none," he faltered. "That is, 
 I don t know s I ain t, but I don t know as I have. I 
 I I don t know nothin about it. You see, I I ve been 
 lookin in the papers every day, in the p-p-pup-places 
 Balaam showed me, but it ain t there." 
 
 "What ain t there ; your profits ?" 
 
 "No. Nothin ain t there. Ostrich ain t. Fur s I can 
 make out by them newspapers nobody ain t buyin any 
 Ostrich, nor sellin of it neither." 
 
 "Humph! That s funny. You say there was sales in 
 the paper." 
 
 173 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "Sartin! Every day there was. Balaam, he showed 
 me em." 
 
 "Sho ! Did you er notice the dates of the papers he 
 showed you? Whether they was that day s papers or 
 last year s?" 
 
 "No, I never noticed that. Oh, Cap n Noah, you don t 
 cal late " 
 
 "I don t cal late anything yet, Obe. Any sort of worth 
 while cal latin takes time. You ain t heard a a squawk 
 from your Ostrich, you say? Got any dividends?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 "Humph! What s Balaam say about it? A man that s 
 in on the know the way he figgers to be ought to give 
 you news right straight from the Ostrich er roost, so 
 to speak. What kind of comfort does he give you?" 
 
 "Why, he says he cal lates it s goin to come out all 
 right. Give it time, he says. Takes time for them big 
 d-d-deals to go through. He keeps tellin me to keep 
 c-c-cuk-cool and not to say a word about it to a soul." 
 
 "Especially me, eh? Ever mention not tellin me?" 
 
 "Well, he did just happen to say that that maybe 
 I d better not worry you with it." 
 
 "My, I m grateful to him. Anyhow, your conscience is 
 clear ; you didn t tell me ; I guessed. But you ain t told 
 me why you sent for me." 
 
 And then Obadiah s remnant of self-control left him. 
 The tears which he had thus far held back rolled unre 
 strained down his cheeks. He sobbed forth his woes. 
 He was worried almost to death. His income would not 
 half meet his expenses ; he was running into debt ; he 
 didn t know what would become of him. 
 
 174 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "It was hard enough to get along afore I sold my other 
 stocks," he wailed. "Even then, the way things cost now 
 adays, I I I couldn t hardly see my way clear. Not 
 after Cousin Calvin came I couldn t, and Melissy and 
 Joe and and " 
 
 "And me," finished Noah. 
 
 "But but you re different. I sent for you. I thought 
 twould be a good notion havin C-C-Calvin come, cause 
 he was a invalid and s-s-so rich and liable to die and all. 
 Then I had to have a housekeeper to t-t-tut-take care of 
 the tribe of us and I had to have her nephew cause she 
 wouldn t come unless he did. But Calvin he d-d-didn t 
 d-d-die and I d-d-dud-d " 
 
 The succession of d s was too much for him ; the final 
 "didn t" proved a hurdle which seemed likely to throw 
 him altogether. Noah came to the rescue. 
 
 "Sound as if you was runnin with your cut-out open, 
 Obe," he said. "Let me sing the rest of the tune for you. 
 You couldn t get along on what you had not with all 
 creation signed to sail with you so when Balaam told 
 you about this Hummin Bird this Ostrich, I mean 
 you thought you saw a chance to make a lot more. Then 
 after you d bought it you got cold feet, got scared you d 
 done the wrong thing, and wrote to me to come and tell 
 you you hadn t. Then, after I had come, you got cold 
 feet again, got scared to tell me for fear I d tell you that 
 you d made a fool of yourself. That s about it, ain t it?" 
 
 Mr. Burgess nodded, miserably. "That s it," he 
 groaned. "I don t see how you knew it, though." 
 
 "Oh, I m awful smart, Obe. My middle name ought 
 
 175 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 to have been Solomon. Well, twas pretty much as I 
 suspected ; I knew there was somethin up. . . . Humph !" 
 
 He paused, evidently reflecting. Obadiah looked fear 
 fully up at him. 
 
 "Have I?" he faltered. 
 
 "Have you what?" 
 
 "Made a f-f-fool of myself, same as you said ?" 
 
 The captain started to speak and then evidently thought 
 better of it. A moment later he said : 
 
 "Obe, my dad used to tell about old man Jotham Hal- 
 lett that lived somewheres down this way. Jotham and 
 his wife used to squabble six days in the week and every 
 other Sunday. One time he took the cover off the cistern, 
 so s to see how much water there was in it, and fell in. 
 His wife heard the splash and came runnin . There was 
 Jotham standin on tiptoe with just his face above water. 
 "Why, you old numskull! she says. Td like to know 
 how you ever got in there/ Jotham blew the water away 
 from his mouth and sputtered back: Don t you worry 
 about how I got in, woman/ he says. It s goin to strain 
 what little brains you ve got to know how to get me out 
 That s the way I feel about this Ostrich business of yours, 
 Obe that and the rest of it. We know you re in, that s 
 sartin. What we ll worry about now is gettin you out." 
 
 "But but Cap n Noah " 
 
 "Ss-sh ! There, there ! Don t get yourself all worked up 
 again. Your beloved messmate, Griggs, gave you one 
 good piece of advice, no matter what the heft of his coun 
 sel may amount to. He told you to keep cool, didn t he? 
 Um-hm. All right, you keep cool, Obe; cool and quiet. 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 Don t you mention one single word to a soul about havin 
 this talk with me. If you do I ll I ll I swan I ll clear 
 out and leave you the minute I hear of it." 
 
 "Oh, I won t, Cap n. You know I won t. I ll swear 
 it on the Bible. I " 
 
 "Never mind that. There won t be any swearin* 
 done unless I think it s necessary and then I m afraid 
 twill be another kind. Now you heave ahead to the post 
 office, or wherever you want to go. I m goin up to my 
 room and think. Thinkin is a kind of hard exercise for 
 me and I need elbow room to do it in. See you later, 
 maybe. Good night." 
 
 "But but Cap n Noah, you ain t told me about that 
 Ostrich stock. You don t think " 
 
 "Yes, I do, but I try not to talk until I have thought. 
 So long, Obe." 
 
 The little man made one more attempt. 
 
 "Oh, Noah," he pleaded, "you will try to help me, 
 won t you?" 
 
 The captain s patience was plainly at an end. He 
 turned quickly. But when he saw the simple childish 
 face upturned to his, he relented somewhat. He shook 
 his head. 
 
 "Obe," he said, with elaborate gentleness, "I m sorry 
 I didn t tell you that I meant to have told you that 
 when I left you last fall I told you I d help you any time 
 you needed help. And I likewise meant to have told you 
 that about every day since I came back here I ve been 
 tellin you I d come to help you. It s too bad I ain t told 
 you how much I ve told, isn t it ? Well, I ll tell you now. 
 
 172 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 You want to know if I m goin to try to help you, do you? 
 Good ! Listen and I ll whisper it." 
 
 He stooped, put his lips close to Obadiah s ear, and 
 shouted "Yes" at the top of his lungs. Then he strode 
 down the hill and back to the house. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 UPSTAIRS in his room and with the door shut he 
 sat down to do what he had told Burgess he 
 intended doing that is, think. His temper was 
 still rather ruffled. Not that he had been greatly sur 
 prised at the nature of his former cook s trouble; he 
 had from the first suspected something of the sort. He 
 had told Clifford in one of their conversations that Oba- 
 diah Burgess was about as fit to be trusted with money 
 as a year-old child was with the front parlor lookin - 
 glass and a hammer. But having one s forebodings 
 realized is not necessarily pleasing. He was irritated to 
 think Obadiah had been such an idiot, and furiously 
 angry with Balaam Griggs for taking such a mean ad 
 vantage of the little man. 
 
 There was, of course, no doubt in his mind that such 
 advantage had been taken. The Ostrich mining stock 
 was, in all human probability, worth little or nothing. 
 If it had been very valuable Balaam would have kept it 
 himself instead of procuring it for his "friend." How 
 ever, there was a chance that it might not be entirely 
 worthless, and the first thing to do, he decided, was to 
 find out what it was worth or likely to be worth, to find 
 
 179 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 out, in fact, the history and probable future of the 
 Ostrich Mining and Smelting Company of Lake Supe 
 rior. Having that information he could better decide 
 what to do for Mr. Burgess and to Balaam Griggs. 
 
 He had a relative in New York, a second cousin, who 
 was a broker downtown. This cousin, whose name was 
 Chase, had helped him before with advice concerning 
 financial matters. Noah had always consulted him when 
 making his own investments. He took from his bureau 
 drawer pen, ink and paper and sat down at the table to 
 write a letter. 
 
 DEAR GEORGE: [he began] I want to know something. 
 There are times when even as clever a feller as one of your 
 relations comes to realize that he is off his course and has 
 to speak for his latitude and longitude. I want you to tell 
 me what you know about a copper stock called Ostrich 
 Mining and Smelting. I have a notion that last name 
 ought to be "Smelling" because, unless I am a whole lot 
 mistaken, one deal that has been put through in it is pretty 
 rank fishy. You need not telephone the asylum, George, 
 because I ain t the one that was in the deal. But 
 
 He had written so much when there came a knock at 
 the bedroom door. 
 
 "Cap n Newcomb," said Mrs. Mayo, "Mr. Clifford is 
 downstairs and he says he d like awful to see you. He 
 says if you ve gone to bed " 
 
 "To bed! Land sakes, no! I ain t gone to bed yet. 
 What does he think I am, a pullet? Course I ll see him, 
 glad to." 
 
 "Then I ll tell him you ll be right down?" 
 
 180 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "No, you tell him to come up aloft here, if you d just 
 as soon." 
 
 When Irving entered the room the captain greeted 
 him with a broad grin. 
 
 "Glad to see you, son," he said. "I was just thinkin 
 I d have somethin to tell you when I did see you. Looks 
 as if I d fitted in another piece of that puzzle of mine. 
 I. ... Eh? Why, you look as if you had somethin to 
 tell me. What s the matter, Irve?" 
 
 The young man certainly did look as if he had some 
 thing to tell and as if that something was anything but 
 pleasant. He threw himself into the chair his friend 
 pushed forward, but waved aside a proffered cigar. 
 
 "No, thanks, Captain," he said, gloomily, "I don t 
 feel like smoking." 
 
 "Don t, eh? Well, now, don t you think if you tried 
 it you d feel more like it? My troubles are kind of like 
 a ham or a herrin , they re better smoked. Perhaps 
 yours ll be." 
 
 Clifford smiled in recognition of the pleasantry, but 
 the smile was a faint one. However, he took the cigar, 
 gripped it between his teeth and, having lighted it, puffed 
 savagely. 
 
 "Bad news?" asked Noah, after a short silence on the 
 part of both men. 
 
 Clifford shook his head. "I don t know that one could 
 call it news exactly," he said, "but it s bad enough." 
 
 "Humph! Nobody dead, but somebody ought to be. 
 Is that it?" 
 
 "That s it. Or part of it." 
 
 "Sho ! Feel like tellin me who?" 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "Can t tell you. I don t know. If I only did I d 
 
 His fists clenched. The captain regarded him sympa 
 thetically, but asked no more questions. It was Clifford 
 himself who resumed the conversation. 
 
 "Captain," he said, "you re a good fellow, did you 
 know it? Nobody but you would have let me lug my 
 grouch in here and behave in this way without worrying 
 me to death to find out what it was all about. The rea 
 son I haven t told you yet is is " 
 
 "There, there, Irve! You ain t got to tell me, you 
 know." 
 
 "I know, but I m going to. That s what I came here 
 for; I ve got to talk it over with somebody. I can t go 
 away tomorrow, to Chicago, and leave things as they are, 
 without a word to anyone. I can t ! I won t !" 
 
 Captain Noah was surprised. "You re goin to Chi 
 cago tomorrow?" he cried. 
 
 "Yes. I told you I should have to go soon, you re 
 member." 
 
 "Sartin, but I didn t think twas as soon as all that. * 
 
 "Neither did I until I got the telegram this morning. 
 Yc, I must go, and I shall probably be there for some 
 time. The firm has a big contract there and the chap 
 who has been in charge is ill with typhoid. So they sent 
 for me. The work here can be left all right. I shouldn t 
 mind going ordinarily, but now " 
 
 He did not finish his sentence, but relapsed again into 
 silence. His expression was proof sufficient that his 
 trouble, whatever it might be, was serious. 
 
 "Well/ he resumed, a moment later. "I may as well 
 begin, I suppose. It s confoundedly hard to tell. It 
 
 182 
 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 isn t a thing a fellow would tell, ordinarily, unless it 
 might be to his father or brother or someone like that. 
 However, my father is dead and my only brother is in 
 Frisco. And you well, I haven t known you very long, 
 but but " 
 
 The captain helped him out. "Why don t you adopt 
 me as as a well, as sort of a step-uncle, Irve?" he sug 
 gested. "That is, if you re needin relations just now, as 
 you say you are. I ll be proud and you won t be obliged 
 to tell anybody, you know." 
 
 Clifford laughed shortly. "I ll accept," he said, "all 
 but the step part of it. I ve just had an experience 
 with a stepfather, and that s sufficient." 
 
 Noah nodded. "Um, I see," he said. "Balaam 
 again." 
 
 "He is only part of it. If he were all But there, 
 I ll tell you and get it over with." 
 
 That afternoon while he was at the cold-storage plant 
 a boy had brought him a note the contents of which sur 
 prised him greatly. It was from Balaam Griggs, and re 
 quested him to call at the Griggs house immediately, as 
 the writer had something important to say to him. Con 
 sidering that Balaam had forbidden him the house and 
 he had not been there for a fortnight, the invitation 
 seemed strange. However, he went. 
 
 Balaam had received him in the sitting room. Mary, 
 too, was there. 
 
 Griggs looked very severe and self-righteous ; his step 
 daughter angry and indignant. Before the former could 
 say a word the young lady burst out with a denial that 
 she had had any part in summoning him, Clifford, there. 
 
 183 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "I want you to understand, Irving," she said, "that I 
 do not believe a word of it, that I know it is not true 
 and that I am sure the whole thing is merely a ridiculous 
 attempt on Mr. Griggs part to bring about a quarrel be 
 tween you and me." 
 
 Here Clifford, having told so much, reddened a little, 
 appeared confused and then blurted out : "You see, Cap 
 tain Newcomb, I Well, perhaps I ought to say ought 
 to tell you that since our former talk on this subject 
 JVIiss Barstow Mary and I have had had had well, 
 we had reached an understanding, and she she " 
 
 The captain waited to hear no more. He sprang from 
 his chair and, smiling broadly, extended a hand. 
 
 "Good enough, son!" he cried,, heartily. "I congratu 
 late you ! Shake !" 
 
 But his visitor refused to shake. Instead, he frowned 
 and said gloomily : "Better keep your congratulations un 
 til you hear the rest of the story. Thank you just the 
 same, of course." 
 
 Mary s declaration had stirred Balaam to high indig 
 nation. He scorned her base insinuations, not in those 
 words, of course, but in his own. When she announced 
 her intention of leaving the room he commanded her not 
 to do so. 
 
 "I tell you to stay right here," he said. "You don t 
 believe what this letter says is true, eh ?" 
 
 "I know it s not," scornfully. 
 
 "No, you don t. Why, you ain t read it yet. And we 
 don t either of us know it is true, neither, but we d 
 ought to know. All I want is for this young feller him- 
 
 184 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 self to tell me whether tis or not. That s the first thing 
 I want. If he says tain t true, then " 
 
 Irving had interrupted here. "Look here, Mr. Griggs," 
 he said, crisply, "perhaps we might get on faster if, in 
 stead of preaching a sermon beforehand, you told me 
 the text. Apparently that letter has something to say 
 about me. What is it ? Don t go, Mary ; I want you to 
 stay." 
 
 So Mary stayed. And Balaam, after loftily proclaim 
 ing that he might read the letter aloud, but he wouldn t 
 "demean" himself to do so, handed it to Clifford, with 
 the command that he read it in that manner. 
 
 "Read it right out loud," he ordered. "It s about you, 
 and I m givin you the chance to see all the testimony 
 and prove yourself not guilty if you can. And let me 
 tell you, young feller," he declared, " tain t every father 
 would do that. Now you read." 
 
 Here Captain Noah s visitor seemed to find the tell 
 ing of the story particularly hard. His embarrassment 
 increased and he picked nervously at the table-cloth as 
 he proceeded. 
 
 "So I took the letter," he went on, "and well, as soon 
 as I looked at it I recognized the handwriting. And I 
 guessed, or I partially guessed, what was coming. It 
 was a surprise to me, of course, and I was angry any 
 way, and and Well, confound it, I imagine I must 
 have looked and seemed like a crook caught with the 
 goods. For a minute I just held the letter and stared 
 and stuttered and turned red. . . . Oh, hang it all, Cap 
 tain ! the telling of this thing is pretty nearly as hard as 
 the thing itself." 
 
 185 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "Don t tell unless you want to, Irve," cautioned Cap 
 tain Noah, sympathetically. 
 
 "But I do want to. I came here to tell, to see if you 
 couldn t help me out. I took the letter and. . . . Well, 
 after a while I began to read it. It was from a woman 
 in New York, a woman I used to know, to know well, 
 and she she had written it to Griggs because, so she 
 said, it had just come to her ears that I was contem 
 plating marriage with his daughter and she felt both the 
 young lady and her father should know me as I *vas, see 
 me in my true colors, and all that sort of melodramatic 
 rot. She went on to say that I had. . . . Well, what s 
 the use ? I can t tell you all the stuff in detail. It makes 
 me furious now, it made me that and more then. And 
 the consciousness that I was standing there, with Griggs 
 gloating over my confusion and Mary looking at me as 
 if as if Oh, hang it, Captain! I threw the letter 
 down before I had finished it." 
 
 "You did, eh?" 
 
 "Yes, I did. I wish now I hadn t, but I did. And I 
 turned to Mary and I asked her if she believed it." 
 
 "What did she say?" 
 
 "Nothing then. Before she could answer that con 
 founded Griggs asked me why I hadn t read it through. 
 There was more of it, he said, and if it wasn t true why 
 was I afraid to read it. He would read it for me, now 
 that he had given me the first chance and I had refused. 
 He did read it, too. It accused me of having been en 
 gaged to marry this woman, of breaking off the engage 
 ment, of deserting her, of of about every dishonorable 
 thing you can think of, or, if it did not actually accuse, it 
 
 1 86 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 intimated. The old man read it all. Then he turned to 
 me and he said : 
 
 " Now, young feller, rs what she says true ? 
 "Of course, if I had had time to think, if I had had 
 time to decide, I should have answered him fully then. 
 But I was so angry and so anxious to relieve Mary s 
 mind, or to relieve my mind concerning her attitude, that 
 I didn t answer him at all. Instead, I asked her again 
 if she believed what the letter said." 
 
 "Sho ! I want to know ! What did she say ?" 
 
 "She said of course not. But but " 
 
 "But all the same you could see she sort of did. Well, 
 son, I ain t surprised. Mary Barstow s a mighty good 
 girl and a sensible one, cordin to all accounts, but good 
 and sensible women are like the other kinds in one way : 
 they ll stick to a man through thick and thin, they ll 
 see him accused of murder or houseburnin or piracy or 
 anything else, and with all the evidence in creation 
 against him they won t believe a word of it, they ll hold 
 him innocent against the world. But when there s an 
 other woman mixed up with him, no matter if the yarn 
 of the mixin is so thin and slimpsy that a Nauset marsh 
 muskeeter could fly through it anywheres and not foul 
 a wing, then then, my son, look out for squalls. I ve 
 never had a wife, but I ve had an only sister. So Mary 
 said no but looked yes, eh?" 
 
 "She looked doubtful and disturbed, or so it seemed 
 to me. Then Griggs began to cross-question. He asked 
 if I knew the woman. I was obliged to say I did, of 
 course. Then he asked me if I was engaged to her. I 
 said I was getting more angry every minute I said, 
 
 13 187 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 finally, yes, I was engaged to her at one time. And next 
 he asked if I had told Mary that." 
 
 Captain Noah interrupted with a whistle of involun 
 tary admiration. 
 
 "Whew!" he exclaimed. "That was a shot in the 
 biler ! I didn t know Balaam was so spry a cross-ex 
 aminer. Sounds almost as if somebody had put him up 
 to that. I er presume likely you hadn t told her?" 
 
 "No, I had not. Of course I should have done so, at 
 some time or other. There was no reason why I should 
 not. Look here, Captain," he added, sharply, as the 
 thought occurred to him, "of course you thoroughly un 
 derstand there was nothing I might have told which was 
 in any way a reflection upon me in the matter. * 
 
 "Oh, sartin, sartin ! Never thought for a minute there 
 was, Irve." 
 
 "There was not. I had not told Mary simply because 
 I hadn t, there was no other reason. But Griggs ques 
 tion sounded as if well, it put me in the light of delib 
 erately keeping something hidden from her, something I 
 was ashamed to tell." 
 
 "I see, I see. And of course you realized that and 
 that made you act and look as if you was ashamed." 
 
 "Precisely. And because there was no reason to be 
 ashamed the whole affair made me angrier than ever 
 with myself, with Griggs, and yes with Mary for 
 looking a doubt even if she hadn t expressed it in words." 
 
 "I understand. Well, how did the whole business 
 end?" 
 
 "It ended pretty so^n after that. Griggs repeated his 
 question. I answered pretty sharply that I had not told 
 
 188 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 Mary because I hadn t thought the affair of sufficient 
 consequence." 
 
 "Humph! And then ?" 
 
 "Then Mary spoke. You have told me so many things 
 concerning your past life, Irving, she said. Some that 
 seem, to me at least, of no more consequence than this. 
 Why did you keep this from me ? 
 
 "I think I should have answered in a fairly temperate 
 spirit if it had not been for Griggs. He nodded his head 
 and sneered. Find that a kind of hard question to an 
 swer, I judge; eh, young feller? he said. 
 
 "Then then I lost my temper completely. I told him 
 I objected strongly to his tone and manner. I was not a 
 criminal on trial and I did not propose to be treated like 
 one. I should answer no more questions. He might 
 believe what he chose, that made little difference to me." 
 
 "So? Well, that was er plain, if not very judg 
 matical. And how about Mary? Say anything to her, 
 did you?" 
 
 "Why, yes, I did. I told her that I thought she should 
 have sufficient confidence in me to require no explana 
 tions." 
 
 "Um. Well, I don t know s what I said about your 
 remark to Balaam wouldn t fit that, too. What did she 
 say?" 
 
 "She said she said she had had such confidence. But 
 now she could not help wondering. I had kept one secret 
 from her. Were there others? 
 
 "I said of course there were no others. 
 
 But there was this/ she said. And then her No, 
 I won t call him her father Griggs broke in again. 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 And he ain t told you, Mary, he said, why he broke off 
 bein engaged to this New York woman. She s told us, 
 but he ain t/ 
 
 " Will you tell me, Irving ? Mary asked. 
 
 "And then, Captain Newcomb Well, then I made a 
 fool of myself. I realize it now, but then all I could 
 think was that, in spite of my asking her to trust me, 
 she was still questioning, she still did not believe. I m 
 a, pig-headed idiot at times ; I was one then. I stiffened, 
 I suppose, like a ridiculous wooden Indian, and told her 
 I would tell her nothing under compulsion ; she must 
 take me on trust, or words to that effect. She looked at 
 me for a minute without speaking. Then she said, I am 
 sorry, Irving. Good-by/ and left the room. Old Balaam 
 brayed joyfully, like a modern edition of the animal that 
 spoke to the Balaam in the Bible, and I hurried out for 
 fear I should be tempted to knock him down, old as he is. 
 That s the story; an inspiring thing, isn t it?" 
 
 He relit his cigar and scowled vindictively at the car 
 pet. Captain Noah nodded in sympathy. 
 
 "Tut, tut, tut !" he said. "Sho ! so you and she have 
 squabbled and parted company, eh? Humph! Well, 
 tain t so bad but what it can be mended, I guess likely. 
 There s always tomorrow, you know." 
 
 "Tomorrow, and for a good many tomorrows, I shall 
 be a thousand miles from here." 
 
 "That s so, so you will. That does complicate matters 
 some, don t it? Well, what did you do after you left 
 Balaam s?" 
 
 "I went back to the storage plant, but I couldn t work, 
 so I went to my room at the Mansion House. I ve been 
 
 190 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 there ever since thinking and thinking. And the more 
 I think the more puzzled I get and the more angry at 
 myself. I can see now that I did the worst thing pos 
 sible, but now it is too late." 
 
 "Ye-es. Well, son, I will say this you did swim into 
 the net head, gills and back fin." 
 
 "You think it was a trap, then?" 
 
 "Sartin sure. And pretty well set, too. Our dearly 
 beloved Balaam may have been the only hand that set it, 
 but I have my doubts." 
 
 "Who could have helped him?" 
 
 "Suppose we take that up a little later. You haven t 
 told me why you came to me." 
 
 "Because I had to come to some one, and you are the 
 one, here in Trumet, whom I seem naturally to go to 
 with my troubles. Captain, I can t give Mary up. I 
 won t. If I were to remain here I should see her, I 
 should make her see me and listen to me. But she 
 wouldn t see me now tonight, and Griggs is there to 
 prevent it as well. Tomorrow I go on the early train. 
 I can write I shall, but will she receive and read my 
 letters? I don t know. Sometimes I think I will wire 
 the firm I will not go to Chicago. Then I ll stay here 
 and fight it out. If they discharge me Well, there 
 are other firms, I suppose." 
 
 "So there are, but I wouldn t give this one its clear 
 ance papers just yet. Let s take an observation first, 
 anyhow. Humph ! I don t wonder it looks pretty thick 
 ahead to you, son, but there never was a night so thick 
 but what a feller could see a light if he got nigh enough 
 to it." 
 
 191 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "Perhaps, but I don t see any." 
 
 "Don t you? Well, maybe I don t, either, but it does 
 seem as if there was a spark yes, sir, a glimmer of a 
 spark. Whether it s a lighthouse or a lightnin -bug re 
 mains to be seen. Son, long s you ve told me so much 
 would you mind tellin me a little more? Would you 
 mind tellin me the whole story not the Griggs letter 
 one, but the true one about this New York woman you 
 was engaged to? Oh, tain t just curiosity, I ve got my 
 reasons for askin . I m kind of hopin it ll fetch us a 
 little nigher that light I think I sight in the offin ." 
 
 Clifford waited some time before replying. It was 
 very evident he did not relish the idea of telling the story. 
 At last, however, he seemed to make up his mind. 
 
 "Oh, all right, Captain," he said, "I ll tell it. It s un 
 pleasant but not disgraceful to me, at least. And, as 
 you say, I ve told so much that a little more won t hurt. 
 I knew this woman when I was a young fellow just 
 out of college. I was in New York then and I met her 
 at a concert given by some acquaintances of mine. Her 
 name was Emmons, Madeline Emmons, and she was a 
 widow about five years older than I. Her husband had 
 been in the navy, I believe." 
 
 "You believe? Don t you know?" 
 
 "I believed it then, because she said so. I would have 
 believed anything then. He was a naval officer, so she 
 said, and died abroad. She lived in a pleasant apartment 
 uptown and seemed to have many friends. I got in the 
 habit of calling there. We became more intimate and, 
 later on, we were engaged. That s about all, isn t it?" 
 
 192 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 Captain Noah s eyes twinkled. "Yes," he said, "that s 
 about all, except the way you got disengaged." 
 
 His friend frowned. 
 
 "It was a miserable business," he said. "I hate to 
 speak of it because it makes me appear so like a simple 
 idiot. I was just that, a simple, innocent young cub, and 
 she Oh, she used me and made a fool of me, that s 
 all. I found out, after a while, that she had been play 
 ing with me, that she never had really cared two straws 
 for me, that I had money to spend and lend and she 
 needed money and so Oh, it s plain enough, isn t it?" 
 
 "Does seem to be, that s a fact. So you give her the 
 go-by, eh?" 
 
 "Yes. If it had been the money alone I shouldn t have 
 cared. It left me head over heels in debt, but that was 
 nothing. I found out other things, things about other 
 men that Well, that s all. I don t care to say any 
 more. Just forget it, will you, Captain?" 
 
 "Sartin, sartin. But afore we forget it altogether, son, 
 seems as if we d ought to clear the fog a little mite, if 
 we can. You and she quarreled, of course ? She didn t 
 bear you any good-will, naturally ?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 "No. And she d be rather glad to do you a bad turn, 
 if she could?" 
 
 "I suppose so. Considering what she has done we 
 might take that for granted, I should say." 
 
 "Um-hm. But how did she know how to get at you 
 to do it ? You never told her you were comin to Trumet 
 to work?" 
 
 193 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "No, certainly not. I have neither seen her nor writ 
 ten her for six years at least." 
 
 "So? But her letter was addressed to Balaam and she 
 knew all about you and Mary. Humph! There s been 
 a mutual friend at work somewheres, that s sure. Can t 
 guess who tis, can you, son?" 
 
 The young man s fists clenched. "I cannot," he 
 affirmed. "If I could, that friend and I would have an 
 interview." 
 
 "That so ? Well, Irve, here s another thing : When we 
 was talkin tother day you told me you first had the 
 honor of makin Cousin Calvin Wentworth s acquaintance 
 at the home of a friend, in New York. That friend 
 didn t happen to be this Emmons lady, did it?" 
 
 He received no reply in words, but he needed none. 
 The expression upon Irving Clifford s face was suffi 
 cient. Captain Noah burst into a laugh. 
 
 "Irve," he said, "that spark of light I thought I sighted 
 a spell ago is gettin brighter every minute, ain t it ? We ll 
 begin to see how to steer pretty soon, I cal late." 
 
 His companion rose to his feet. "Wentworth !" he 
 exclaimed. "Wentworth! He would know, of course. 
 If I thought he did But why should he?" 
 
 The captain shook his head. "Why, that s the sticker, 
 I give in," he admitted. "Nine and three-quarters 
 chances out of a scant ten he s the swab that put Balaam 
 up to this. But why should he? that s the question. 
 Here ! W T here are you goin ?" 
 
 Clifford was on the way to the door. "I m going to 
 see him and find out," he said, with savage determination. 
 
 "No, no! Here, heave to, Irve! Don t be foolish. 
 
 194 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 Can t you see that s just the way not to find out? All 
 he ll do is deny everything and make you look like a 
 fool. You can t prove anything on him now. Wait 
 until you can. That s it; you think it over. Here! set 
 down again. You can think better that way." 
 
 The young man reluctantly sat down in the chair he 
 had just vacated. It was quite evident that postponing 
 the interview with Wentworth appealed more to his 
 judgment than his inclination. 
 
 "The blackguard!" he exclaimed. "If I were only 
 sure ! But I can t believe it. He s been friendly enough 
 down here. Why should he do such a thing ?" 
 
 "That s it, why should he ? Well, let s see. How was 
 it in New York; were you good chums there?" 
 
 "We weren t chums at all. I knew him, but very 
 slightly." 
 
 "He wasn t one of the fellers you hinted at in connec 
 tion with your ex-lady friend?" 
 
 "No-o, no. That is, he appeared to know her well, 
 but " 
 
 "All right. I only meant there was no reason why he 
 should be jealous of you or anything like that?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 "No. And you and he never had any row, or quarrel 
 or fuss or anything?" 
 
 "No. We disagreed once or twice, and once I de 
 clined to second the proposal of the name of a friend of 
 his for club membership. I was frank enough about it, 
 told him I didn t know the chap well enough to second 
 him. As a matter of fact, Captain, I didn t like Went- 
 
 195 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 worth or his set very well, although I tried not to show 
 my feelings." 
 
 "Humph! Yes, yes, I see. Maybe you didn t try 
 quite hard enough, son. However, even if he don ? t love 
 you like a brother, his comin to call on you a dozen 
 times or so down at the cold-storage proves he don t 
 hate you. If he s responsible for sickin the Emmons 
 woman onto you and I ll bet he is there must be some 
 better reason than just a halfway grudge. Of course, 
 there s Mary. If we thought he would like to get her for 
 himself, why then But he don t." 
 
 "Of course he doesn t. Why, he scarcely knows her." 
 
 "That ain t the reason. Once get you out of the way 
 and he could get to know her quick enough, especially 
 if he stands in with Balaam. But, unless I m way, way 
 off in my reckoning Cousin Calvin won t ever marry 
 unless he can feather his nest. If Mary had money then 
 I should say we had the answer, but she ain t, has she ?" 
 
 "No. She told me once that she was dependent upon 
 her stepfather, while she lived here at least. But Went- 
 worth doesn t need money ; he s wealthy." 
 
 "Is he?" 
 
 "Everyone says he is." 
 
 "Yes, I know, but However, there s no use guessin 
 when waitin will give us a sartinty. I expect a letter 
 most any day that will settle Cousin Calvin s ratin . But 
 this I ll stand pat on : He ain t the kind to marry for love, 
 and if Mary Barstow won t bring him any money then 
 it ain t her he s after. So why does he help Balaam get 
 rid of you?" 
 
 "I give it up. I don t believe he is doing it." 
 
 196 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "Don t you? I do. For one thing, he and Balaam 
 have been pretty thick lately. I ve noticed it, and so has 
 Obadiah. I cal late Calvin s in it, Irve, but why I own 
 up I can t see. And I can t for the life of me see why 
 Griggs don t want his stepdaughter to get married. Find 
 that out and we might find out all the rest. And we will 
 find it out; we will. It may take time, but " 
 
 "But in the meantime I go to Chicago to stay for 
 months." 
 
 "Eh? So you do, so you do. That does make it 
 harder, as the boy said when he made up a riddle and 
 put in a lot of extra questions that had nothin to do 
 with it. But, Irve, I m goin to stay by the ship, you 
 know, and if you want to let me play stevedore, why 
 why I ll do my best to look after your property and I ll 
 undertake to say that nobody Wentworth or anybody 
 else runs off with it. That ain t much comfort to you, 
 maybe, but it s about all I can say just now." 
 
 Clifford seemed to find a little cheer in it. He thanked 
 his friend cordially. Then, with an obvious effort, he 
 attempted to change the subject. 
 
 "Captain," he said, "when I first came in here you 
 said you had something to tell me, something about your 
 puzzles, I think it was. I ve been filling you full of my 
 worries and haven t shown the slightest interest in yours. 
 But I am interested, I am really. What was it you had 
 to tell me?" 
 
 Noah smiled. "Why, nothin , Irve," he said. "That 
 is, nothin except that I ve fitted in one little piece in 
 one of my picture puzzles, that s all. I ain t at liberty 
 
 197 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 to tell you what tis ; all I can say is that it fits. By and 
 by I ll tell you more." 
 
 His visitor said good night shortly after this. His 
 tone, as he said it, was anything but hopeful. The cap 
 tain laid a hand on his shoulder. 
 
 "Brace up, son," he counseled. "Mary s a good girl, 
 a sensible girl. She s a little mite put out with you now, 
 but when she comes to think it over she ll feel different. 
 You write her a good, straight, honest letter, tell her 
 the whole truth and nothin but the truth. Then you ll 
 see." 
 
 Irving still looked dubious. 
 
 "I doubt if she ever gets my letters," he said. "I 
 imagine old Griggs will see that she doesn t." 
 
 "He will, eh? Well, you put em inside another en 
 velope and address that envelope to me. Then I ll see 
 that she does. And I ll see you tomorrow mornin before 
 you start for the train. Maybe I ll Why, yes, I will: 
 I ll take you up to the depot in my Pancake/ We ll 
 both have slept on our troubles by that time and they 
 may not seem so hard. Good night, son. Much obliged 
 to you for comin and tellin me about it." 
 
 After his visitor had gone Captain Noah sat down 
 once more beside the table. He took up the letter to 
 his New York cousin, that which he had been writing 
 when Irving s coming interrupted him. He read what 
 he had written, reflected, then tore the letter up and 
 began a fresh one. This one was long. It ended as 
 follows : 
 
 And so here is what I want you to find out for me 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 Number one Find out all you can about Ostrich Mining 
 and Smelting Company. 
 
 Number two Find out all you can about Calvin Went- 
 worth, who used to belong to the New Amsterdam Club. 
 I wrote asking about him once before and I did not get 
 a peep out of you. If you don t hurry up and answer I will 
 transfer my business to another broker next time I invest 
 a couple of hundred dollars. I hate to be cruel as all that 
 but I have got to get a letter out of you somehow. 
 
 Number three Find out all you can about a widow 
 woman name of Madeline Emmons. She was a friend of 
 this Wentworth fellow s and lived 
 
 Here the captain paused, remembering that he had not 
 asked Clifford where Mrs. Emmons lived when he knew 
 her. He decided to wait, get this information from the 
 young man when he took him to the station in the morn 
 ing, and finish his letter afterward. 
 
 He blew out the lamp, moved his chair over beside 
 the open window, and sat there looking out. It was a 
 fine starlit night, and there was little wind. The lights 
 in the houses across the bay were for the most part ex 
 tinguished, but the distant lighthouse was a fiery spark, 
 and on the horizon a pinprick of fire marked the posi 
 tion of a tug or schooner. 
 
 Captain Noah leaned back in his chair, crossed his 
 knees and meditated upon his curious position there in 
 Trumet. If anyone had told him, two years before, that 
 he was destined to spend so much time and mental energy 
 trying to solve the difficulties of people not related to him 
 in any way, he would have laughed at the idea. And now 
 here he was, neck deep in those difficulties, like old 
 
 199 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 Jotham Hallett in the cistern. And, as if Obadiah s 
 troubles were not sufficient, here was young Clifford in 
 a tangle, which he, Noah, had undertaken to straighten. 
 
 At the Clifford tangle, however, he was inclined to 
 smile. A lover s quarrel, with Balaam and Wentworth 
 as its fomentors, so he appraised the affair. But the sit 
 uation would require tact and careful handling. As for 
 Obadiah s investment in copper stock, that was likely to 
 be more serious. Poor Obadiah! his Aunt Sarah s leg 
 acy had not been an unmixed blessing. One fact was 
 shaping itself clearer and clearer with each new develop 
 ment, that was that Mr. Balaam Griggs was a good deal 
 of a scoundrel as well as a sharp trader. Curious that 
 a woman like Melissa Mayo should be helping him in 
 his schemes. No, of course she was not helping him, 
 for she had more than hinted her disapproval of those 
 schemes. But why was she mixed up in them, or why 
 did she remain as housekeeper when Oh, hang the 
 "picture puzzles" ! they were altogether too disturbing 
 to the mind. And, after Clifford had gone, there would 
 be no one to confide in, no one to help discuss or con 
 jecture. For the first time since he came to Trumet 
 Captain Noah felt lonely. 
 
 A window in the ell opposite his own lit up. It was 
 the housekeeper s room. A moment later the window 
 shade was raised and the captain saw Mrs. Mayo stand 
 ing by the window, looking out. He was in the dark, of 
 course, so she did not see him, but the light from the 
 lamp which she held in her hand shone full upon her 
 face. It was a kind face, a wholesome, comely face. 
 ITo a woman with a face like that one might or ought 
 
 200 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 to turn for counsel, for help, for comradeship, for stead 
 fast, cheerful courage through the shadows as well as 
 the sunshine. If things were other than as they were, 
 if she were not a part of the mystery he was trying to 
 solve, how natural it would seem to go to her for advice 
 in the solving. But she was a part of it. And, so far at 
 least, it was such a mean, mercenary mystery. A group 
 of people conspiring to cheat an innocent, guileless fel 
 low-mortal out of his few dollars. 
 
 Captain Noah, leaning back in the dark behind his 
 open window, gazed across at Melissa Mayo s face in 
 the lamplight and once more vowed, mentally, his belief 
 in her honesty. She was honest, she was true and square 
 and above board. He would stake his last cent on it 
 But she was in trouble, deep trouble. She looked sad 
 and careworn. Again the captain felt that strong desire 
 to help her, to comfort her, to 
 
 Just here Mrs. Mayo pulled down her window-shade. 
 Captain Noah suddenly came out of his reverie, rose, lit 
 his own lamp, pulled down his window-curtain and pre 
 pared for bed. 
 
 It was high time, he decided. Sitting in the dark 
 made one think foolish things. He was past fifty and 
 at that age a man s thoughts should be sane and his head 
 hard. If the thoughts were foolish and ridiculous it 
 was, probably, a sign that the head was in danger of 
 softening and needed the restorative of rest. 
 
 So Captain Noah went to bed. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 NEXT morning, true to his promise, he called in 
 the little motor car to take Irving to the railway 
 station. Not to the Trumet station ; that, the cap 
 tain declared, was "too nigh a port." He had turned out 
 early, he said, in order to have time enough for a good 
 talk with his friend before the latter boarded the train, 
 and as that train might be boarded just as well at Bay- 
 port as Trumet, and as Bayport was a ten-mile ride, to 
 Bayport they went. 
 
 During the run over, the Griggs-Barstow-Wentworth 
 situation was thoroughly rediscussed. The captain was 
 just as certain as he had been the previous evening that 
 Cousin Calvin was responsible for the Emmons woman s 
 letter to Balaam. Clifford was inclined to agree with 
 him, but was not so sure. The reason why Wentworth 
 was helping Griggs in the latter s schemes, if helping he 
 was, was still a mystery. 
 
 "I ve guessed till I ve strained a plank in my guesser," 
 declared Noah, "but the right answer is always round 
 the next p int and out of sight when I get there. And 
 then there s the other question : Why don t Balaam want 
 Mary to marry? Well, maybe when we get one answer 
 
 202 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 we ll get the other. They may be strung on together, like 
 herrin s on a stick. Anyhow, son, I ll keep my weather 
 eye on Cousin Calvin and the antiquer. Don t you worry 
 about that." 
 
 Irving did his best to appear cheerful as they stood on 
 the station platform waiting for the train, but his best was 
 not a huge success. Their interview was interrupted by 
 an acquaintance of Clifford s, a Mr. Philander Badger. 
 Mr. Badger was a lawyer, with an office in Ostable, but 
 he occasionally visited Trumet on professional business. 
 While in the latter village he was accustomed to make his 
 headquarters at the Mansion House, and it was there that 
 Irving had met him. 
 
 He was not especially delighted to meet him now, but 
 Badger, quite unaware of this, chatted, laughed, was in 
 troduced to Captain Noah, and generally gave evidence 
 of a determination not to go elsewhere for the present at 
 least. He had come down to Bayport the day before and 
 was awaiting the arrival of the "down" train. 
 
 "Got to go over to Harniss," he explained. "A half 
 hour s business over there and I have to wait an hour and 
 a half for a train to put me where I can do it. My auto s 
 in the repair shop or I shouldn t be marking time on this 
 depot platform. However, what can t be cured must be 
 endured ; so why worry ? Isn t that good logic, Cap n 
 Newcomb ?" 
 
 "Sartin is," observed Noah. "Only it s a pretty good 
 idea to make sure there s no cure in sight afore you start 
 the endurin . Now in your case, Mr. Badger, I ve got a 
 prescription. My car s right out yonder, and soon s I ve 
 put this young feller aboard the train, I m goin to head 
 
 14 203 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 for Trumet. I can go by way of Harniss just as well 
 as not, and if you want to Eh ? Who said the days of 
 miracles was past? Here s the up train a-comin and 
 she s on time!" 
 
 He accompanied his friend to a seat in the car, shook 
 hands with him once more and then stooped and whis 
 pered in his ear. 
 
 "Irve," he whispered, "send those letters right along, 
 those you and me spoke about last night. I ll see she gets 
 em, every last one. And don t you fret yourself a single 
 mite, son; everything s goin to come out fine." 
 
 Clifford smiled dubiously. "I wish I had more of your 
 optimism," he said. "However, I won t give up hope." 
 
 "You bet you won t ! Neither will I. We may get those 
 two schemers fingers squeezed in the jaws of the jib yet. 
 And if we do we won t slack up the tackle in a hurry, 
 neither. Now you write me, won t you ? I know you ll 
 write other places, but Eh? Oh, all right, conductor, 
 I m a-comin . So long, Irve. Fair wind, safe passage and 
 a quick v yage home again. Good-by." 
 
 He stood on the platform watching the train until it 
 was out of sight. Badger touched him on the shoulder. 
 He started and turned. 
 
 "Oh!" he exclaimed. "Land sakes, Mr. Badger, I for 
 got all about you." 
 
 The lawyer grinned. "So I thought," he said, "but I 
 hadn t forgotten about you. Anyone who offers to save 
 me an hour s wait in this fag-end of creation and give me 
 an automobile ride besides on a morning like this is too 
 precious to be forgotten. Hope you haven t repented of 
 your bargain, Cap n." 
 
 204 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "Nary a bit. Ready, are you? That little satchel all 
 the dunnage you got? Sho! you travel pretty nigh as 
 light as old Barney Gould used to, eh? Folks down this 
 way when I was a boy, visitin , used to say that the only 
 change Barney made was to put on a heavier coat of sun 
 burn in the summer. Here s my nine-cylinder dust-dis 
 turber. All aboard." 
 
 There was a good deal of conversation on the way to 
 Harniss, but only just as the car was entering that village 
 did Mr. Badger make a .emark which particularly im 
 pressed his pilot. The talk immediately leading up to this 
 remark was as follows : 
 
 "I can t tell you how much obliged I am to you for this 
 lift, Cap n Newcomb," said the lawyer. "Now the next 
 time you come to Ostable you call and see me, will you? 
 I want you to meet Mrs. Badger and have dinner with 
 us." 
 
 The captain thanked him, but observed that he was 
 afraid he should not get to Ostable very soon; it was a 
 good way from Trumet. 
 
 "Oh, not so far ! People with cars don t count twenty- 
 odd miles nowadays. Why, a couple of your Trumet 
 neighbors were over there in a car only a fortnight ago. 
 Mr. Griggs Balaam Griggs was one. Know him, do 
 you?" 
 
 Noah nodded. "Um-hm," he said. "I know him." 
 
 Badger chuckled at the tone. "I judge you know him 
 well," he said. "He was over at Judge Baxter s fore 
 closing a mortgage. The Judge told me that if Griggs had 
 a mortgage on an island in the brimstone lake at the bot 
 tom of perdition, he believed the old fellow would put on 
 
 205 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 asbestos gloves and try to collect the interest. The Judge 
 doesn t often talk that way about his clients, but I imagine 
 he would shed mighty few tears if Griggs hired another 
 lawyer." 
 
 Captain Noah laughed. His companion laughed also, 
 and continued. 
 
 "Who was the chap he had with him, I wonder?" he 
 asked. "Do you know him, Cap n? A slim, citified fel 
 low with a little black mustache and a sort of smooth, 
 smart- Aleck way. A good de-1 of a dude. I saw him 
 getting out of the car he and Griggs came over in, and 
 if he and Balaam weren t a contrast then I never saw 
 one." 
 
 The captain nodded. "That," he observed, gravely, 
 "was the Honorable Calvin Wentwortb of New York 
 City. Balaam likes to ride in automobiles when he can 
 get somebody to drive em free and he s usin somebody 
 else s gas and ile. Cousin I mean the Honorable Cal 
 vin he likes the fun of drivin em, I cal late. That s 
 how the combination hitched up together, I believe. Some 
 color scheme, though, them two, eh? Match up like a 
 pogy scow and a steam yacht." 
 
 The lawyer seemed to find the comparison amusing. 
 "Ha, ha! that s good, Cap n," he said. "So our citified 
 friend is from New York. Humph! then young Baker 
 at the Probate office must have* made a mistake. He 
 said the fellow came from the West somewhere and was 
 looking up his family records, old wills and that sort of 
 thing." 
 
 This was the remark before referred to, that which 
 made a particular impression upon the captain s mind. 
 
 206 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 For a moment he made no answer at all. Then he said: 
 
 "What was that, Mr. Badger? You say Wentworth 
 give out that he was from the West and was down to the 
 Clerk of Probates lookin up old wills?" 
 
 "So young Baker told me. He said this man It cer 
 tainly was the one you call Wentworth, that is, if Went 
 worth came in the car with Griggs that day." 
 
 "He did. I know it for a fact. And Balaam himself 
 told somebody afterwards that Calvin had drove him to 
 Ostable in Ziby Rogers auto Balaam borrowed it off 
 Zibe and that he d never seen such hair-raisin drivin 
 in his life." 
 
 "Yes, well, Baker told me that this swell Western man 
 came in to the Probate office while he was there alone 
 and gave him a good cigar and then spent fifteen or 
 twenty minutes looking over old wills, wills of people 
 who had lived in Wapatomac, I believe. He was tracing 
 familv records, he gave Baker to understand. But I told 
 you that, didn t I ?" 
 
 "Um yes yes, I believe you did. Lookin up wills of 
 Wapatomac folks, eh? Um yes, yes. You don t hap 
 pen to remember whether the Baker chap said whose 
 wills, do you?" 
 
 "Yes, I think he did say. I think he said let me see 
 Why, yes, he said they were the wills of some of the Bar- 
 stows who used to live over that way. Ira Barstow and 
 his wife and that lot. ... Eh? Did you speak, Cap n?" 
 
 If Captain Noah had spoken he did not speak again. 
 In fact, for the last five minutes of their ride together 
 he was remarkably quiet. Only when the car drew up 
 before the door of the Harniss residence, which was Mr. 
 
 207 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 Badger s destination, did he offer more than a mono 
 syllabic grunt. Then, in answer to his passenger s 
 thanks and repeated invitation to call upon him at Osta- 
 ble, he said : 
 
 "Well well, you can t tell, Mr. Badger, I may get over 
 there sooner than I expected. When I do I d kind of 
 like to go down to that Probate office and have you intro 
 duce me to that Baker feller. Had you just as soon? 
 Thanks, thanks. Don t say a word. Pleasure s been all 
 mine. Mighty glad to have had your company. So 
 long." 
 
 All the way home he sat at the wheel of the little car 
 preoccupied and thoughtful. When he ran the car into 
 the Burgess barn there was a twinkk in his eye and a 
 smile at the corner of his lip. He looked more confident 
 and satisfied with himself than he had for some time. 
 
 Two days later he received a reply to the letter he had 
 written his New York cousin. The broker wrote that 
 he was having an investigation made of the Ostrich Min 
 ing Company and its affairs and would send those par 
 ticulars a little later. But in the present letter he gave 
 some other information which Captain Noah seemed to 
 find interesting and satisfying. The day after receiving 
 this letter he left the house in his car soon after break 
 fast and remained away until supper time. The follow 
 ing day he was gone quite as long. When Obadiah, the 
 ever curious, asked him where he had been, he said : 
 
 "Been? I been out takin* the air, Obe. Been soakin 
 in the ozone. Cruisin round through the scenery and 
 doin picture puzzles. You d ought to try it some time, 
 
 208 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 Obe ; strengthens the lungs, lights, liver and appetite, like 
 old Doctor So-and-So s Spring Bitters." 
 
 Obadiah grunted. "How you do talk, Cap n Noah," 
 he said. "Doin picture puzzles ridin round in a a-a-au- 
 automobile !" 
 
 "Sure thing. Best way to do em in the world; any 
 how I seem to get better results that way. Obe, have a 
 cigar, won t you? By the way, seems to me I ain t seen 
 you burnin up so many Liberty Maids lately." 
 
 Mr. Burgess groaned. "I can t afford em," he said. 
 "Them nor no other kinds. I m on my way to the poor- 
 house, I cal late, and p-p-pup-paupers don t smoke 
 cigars." 
 
 Noah clapped him on the back. "Cheer up, Obe," he 
 said. Then, as a hen cackled loudly behind the barn, he 
 added: "Hark! there s one of your Shanghai ostriches 
 laid an egg ; maybe that other Ostrich of yours ll lay one, 
 too, some of these days. Hello! I just noticed how 
 dressed up you are. Ain t goin to be married tonight, 
 are you?" 
 
 Obadiah s expression of discouragement was succeeded 
 by one of disgust. 
 
 "Married!" he repeated. "Married! What do you 
 think I be, a d-d-d-dud " 
 
 "Don t say it, Obe. There s no fun in swearin when 
 it takes as long as that." 
 
 "Swearin ! I wan t cal latin to swear. I was askin 
 you if you took me for a d-d-dud-dud-dumbhead. There ; 
 I got it out finally. I ve got my Sunday clothes on cause 
 me and Balaam are goin down to lodge meetin tonight. 
 Coin* to put a couple of new candidates through, they 
 
 209 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 be. It ll be a lively doin s, I cal late, cause one of em s 
 Ezra Paine and he ain t very p-p-pop-pop lar, Ez ain t." 
 
 Captain Noah reflected "Humph !" he grunted "So 
 Balaam s goin with you, is he? Sure of that?" 
 
 "Sartin. He s goin to call for me on his way along." 
 
 "How long ll you be puttin those poor victims through, 
 think?" 
 
 "Couple of hours, anyhow; more likely three." 
 
 "I see. Well, Obe, I hope you enjoy their sufferin s." 
 
 Obadiah nodded with gloomy satisfaction. "I m cal - 
 latin to," he affirmed. "A feller s bound to get a little 
 comfort out of life." 
 
 Mr. Griggs called for him just before eight o clock 
 and they walked away together. Captain Noah watched 
 them go. Then he, too, left the Burgess premises, al 
 though his walk was in the opposite direction. It was a 
 short walk, merely to the Griggs front gate and along 
 the path to the side door. Upon that door he knocked 
 and Mary Barstow opened it. 
 
 The young lady looked, so it seemed to the captain, 
 rather pale and careworn. However, she smiled when 
 she recognized the bulky figure on the stone step. 
 
 "Why, good evening, Captain Newcomb," she said. 
 "I m awfully sorry, but Mr. Griggs isn t in. He has gone 
 to the meeting of the lodge, I believe." 
 
 Noah nodded, cheerfully. "There s one p int where 
 I ve got the advantage of you, Mary," he observed. "You 
 only believe he s gone and I know it. I saw him go. Fact 
 is, I was waitin for him to go afore I came around to 
 see you. Thank you, I guess likely I will come in, seein 
 as you re so pressin ." 
 
 210 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 Mary laughed. She and the captain had become pretty 
 well acquainted during the month just past and she was 
 getting used to his eccentricities. 
 
 "I don t know that I ought to invite you in after such 
 an outrageous speech as that," she declared. "However, 
 I suppose I must this time. Do come in and sit down. 
 That s it ; now let me take your hat." 
 
 The captain relinquished the hat with apparent misgiv 
 ing. 
 
 "Don t take it too far off, Mary," he cautioned. "It s 
 a kind of touchy and particular business I ve come about 
 and er well, there s no tellin* how soon you ll be 
 showin me through that door again. I d feel easier in 
 my mind if that hat was where I could grab it in a hurry." 
 
 The young lady was plainly puzzled by her caller s 
 manner. She looked at him questioningly. 
 
 "Touchy and particular business?" she repeated. "I 
 don t understand. Oh, I know ! it s about the lodge sup 
 per. I told Mr. Burgess that I would bake a cake, but 
 I couldn t do anything more, I was too busy. So if he 
 has sent you to ask me, Captain Newcomb " 
 
 "He ain t, he ain t. I didn t come beggin* cold vittles 
 this time, Mary, not even for the lodge. I m more of a 
 postman than I am a tramp. I ve got a letter for you." 
 
 He took the letter from his pocket and handed it to 
 her. 
 
 "A letter for me?" she repeated. "A let Oh!" 
 
 There was a sharp change in her tone as she saw and 
 recognized the handwriting. Noah, in writing of the in 
 terview to Clifford, declared: "Right there the glass fell 
 
 211 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 from Fair and Sunshine to Clouds, Squalls and Ice 
 bergs/ * She handed back the letter unopened. 
 
 Thank you," she said, coldly. "I don t wish to see 
 it." 
 
 "What ? Don t wish to see it ? Ain t you goin to even 
 look and see what s inside?" 
 
 "No." She rose from her chair. "If the particular 
 business you mentioned," she said, "has to do with the 
 writer of that letter, then I think " 
 
 She did not finish the sentence, but Captain Noah fin 
 ished it for her. 
 
 "Then you think I d better be reachin* for that hat you 
 took away just now," he suggested. "Well, all right, 
 Mary ; I get you, as the boys say, but I ain t goin not 
 yet. The only way you can coax me out of this house 
 for the next fifteen or twenty minutes is to fire me out 
 by main strength, and I know you re too much of a kind- 
 hearted lady to do that. You are, ain t you? You 
 wouldn t lay violent hands on an old derelict like me, I m 
 sure." 
 
 His expression and tone were so anxiously solemn that 
 Mary, disturbed and irritated as she was, could not re 
 press a smile. 
 
 "Please don t be absurd," she said. "I don t feel in the 
 least like joking on that subject, and if Mr. Clifford sent 
 you to me " 
 
 The captain held up his hand. "Just a minute, Mary," 
 he said. "Don t take too much of the channel for 
 granted; better wait for the pilot. Irve Clifford didn t 
 send me to you. He don t know I m here. He didn t 
 know that I intended comin* here." 
 
 212 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "But he sent that letter by you." 
 
 "He sent it in my care because I asked him to. I knew 
 he d want you to get it, or any letters he might write. 
 And if those letters wan t sent care of me, or somebody 
 else he could trust, there was a pretty fair chance you 
 never would get em." 
 
 Miss Barstow did not answer. She was gazing at him 
 intently, evidently trying to make up her mind whether 
 or not he was serious. He went on, slowly and earnestly. 
 
 "Mary," he said, "I m responsible for Irve s sendin 
 that letter inside another envelope with my name on it. 
 I didn t want that letter to get in the hands of the gang 
 that are tryin to keep you two apart." 
 
 She had been standing during the last few minutes; 
 now she sank slowly into her chair again. 
 
 "The gang?" she repeated. "The gang who are trying 
 to keep Captain Newcornb, what are you talking 
 about?" 
 
 Noah shook his head. "I ain t any more crazy than 
 I ve always been, Mary," he vowed, answering her 
 thought rather than her words; "I know I m talkin like 
 a movin -picture play, gangs and plots and all that. 
 Course I don t mean that anybody s lay In schemes to 
 murder you or kidnap you and such. But I do mean that 
 there s a plan on to keep you from marryin Irve Clif 
 ford." 
 
 Once more the young lady rose. "I think you had bet 
 ter go, Captain Newcomb," she said, firmly. "To be very 
 frank, I consider that you are attempting to interfere 
 with matters which are my own and personal. I shall 
 not talk of those matters with you or anyone else." 
 
 213 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 She took a step toward the door, but her visitor re 
 mained seated, imperturbable and determined as ever. 
 
 "If you will not go," observed Miss Barstow, crisply, 
 "then I shall. Good night." 
 
 "Mary," he commanded, "you stay here. Stay here 
 and listen to what I ve got to say. If you go and don t 
 hear it you ll be sorry all the days of your life. You can 
 take my word for that: All the days of your life you ll 
 be sorry. Now will you come back here and sit down, 
 like a good, sensible girl, and listen? I m old enough to 
 be your father; I haven t got any ax to grind, for myself 
 or anybody else ; I ve found out some things you ought to 
 know, that s all. Will you listen while I tell you what 
 they are?" 
 
 His tone and words made an impression this time, as 
 he intended they should. She hesitated, then she slowly 
 came back and took her seat once more. 
 
 "I will listen," she said. 
 
 "Good enough ! I knew you had common sense. Mary, 
 I haven t known Irvin Clifford so very long, but I ve 
 known men all my days, made it my business to know em 
 and judge em. I liked young Clifford when I first met 
 him; I ve been likin him better ever since. If I know 
 anything, I know that young feller couldn t do a mean, 
 dishonorable thing to anybody, man or woman. He hasn t 
 been dishonorable to you; he wasn t to that other 
 woman." 
 
 Her eyes flashed. "It is evident," she said, scornfully, 
 "that Mr. Clifford has made you his confidant. I don t 
 care to discuss his character, nor that of his friends. If 
 this is all you have to say " 
 
 214 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 *It ain t. It s only the beginnin . But it s leadhV up 
 to what I ve got to say. Yes, Irve did tell me about the 
 trouble between you and him. The poor chap was all 
 upset and torn to ravelin s about it; he didn t have any 
 body but me to go to, he was leavin town the next day, 
 and well, he came to me and spun his yarn and asked 
 my advice. I didn t have much to give him, but I said 
 I d try and find out some things and I did tell him to 
 write you care of me. Then at least the letters would 
 have a fair chance, which," with strong emphasis, "they 
 might not have had if they d been sent direct to this 
 house. 
 
 "After he d gone/ continued the captain, "I set down 
 and wrote to my cousin in New York. He s a broker and 
 one of them society fellers the papers tell about. Also 
 and this was about as important as anything I knew he 
 was a member of a club Irvin used to belong to there 
 in the city. I thought likely he might know somethin 
 about Clifford and this Mrs. Emmons, the widow. I 
 asked him about her and about Irve and about some 
 body else I was interested in. His answer came yesterday 
 mornin . It s pretty interestin . Maybe you d like to 
 read it. Here it is." 
 
 He took it from his pocket and would have handed it 
 to her, but she made no move to accept it. He looked 
 disappointed, but he laid it on the table beside him and 
 went on. 
 
 "Perhaps you ll feel different about lookin at it by and 
 by," he said. "I kind of hope you will. But whether 
 you do or not hasn t anything to do with the rest of what 
 I ve got to tell you. Mary, has it ever struck you as 
 
 215 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 funny the prejudice your stepdad has against your geltin* 
 married ?" 
 
 She made no reply, but it was evident the question 
 aroused her curiosity. 
 
 "Has it?" repeated Noah. "Not to Clifford alone, I 
 don t mean, but isn t it true that Balaam has been dead 
 set against you havin young men friends at any time? 
 Hasn t he been more or less insultin to those you have 
 had and done his best to keep em away from here and 
 from you?" 
 
 Mary reflected. "Why, yes," she said, "he has seemed 
 to object to my having such friends, but his objections 
 have not influenced my friendships. I do not consider 
 myself under obligation to Mr. Griggs." 
 
 "Sho, sho! course you don t, course you don t. But 
 it s kind of funny he should be so anxious to keep you 
 from meetin* and knowin young men. You might say 
 twas because he didn t want you to marry and go and 
 leave him, but but he could get another housekeeper for 
 at least as little as your clothes and upkeep cost him, and 
 as for his lovin you well, you ll excuse me, but your 
 stepfather don t bear the reputation of bein an over- 
 sentimental man." 
 
 Miss Barstow smiled faintly. "He isn t," she said. 
 "And yet when I told him of my intention of going to 
 Boston and earning my living he objected strongly and 
 told me how much he cared for me." 
 
 "Did, eh? Humph! Was that after you and Irvin* 
 parted company or before? Excuse me for askin , but 
 it s all part of what Fin on the track of. M 
 
 216 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 The answer was not given immediately, and when given 
 was briefness itself. 
 
 "Before/ said Mary. 
 
 "Yes, yes, I see. And and what made you tell him 
 you thought of leavin him ? Course you needn t tell any 
 of this unless you want to. It ain t just nosiness, honest 
 it ain t." 
 
 "I told him because well, because he attempted to 
 order me to break off my acquaintanceship with Mr. Clif 
 ford/ 
 
 "I bet you ! It all fits in. Yes, sir, it all fits in. He 
 didn t like the idea of your goin to Boston, either, did 
 he?" 
 
 "No. But, really, Captain Newcomb " 
 
 "Just a minute now, just a minute. Gettin clearer 
 every minute. We ll be out of the fog pretty soon. Now, 
 Mary, here s another somethin for you to think of. How 
 did your stepdad come to know of this Emmons woman ? 
 Please don t get mad. I won t talk very much about her, 
 I promise you. How did he come to know ?" 
 
 "She wrote him. Surely Mr. Clifford must have told 
 you that/ 
 
 "Yes, but why did she write him ? Who told her there 
 was such a person as Balaam Griggs? Or such a girl 
 as you ? Or that Irve Clifford was here in Trumet ? He 
 hadn t seen her or heard of her for six years. Who gave 
 her all these particulars? Have you thought of that, 
 Mary?" 
 
 Her expression showed that she thought of it, and that 
 it had puzzled her. She was interested now; her gaze 
 
 217 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 did not leave his face. He noticed this and chuckled 
 triumphantly. 
 
 "Curious, to say the least, her writin , wan t it?" he 
 said. "Balaam didn t know her, nor of her. He never 
 mentioned her afore he got that letter, did he ?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 "No. Looks almost as if somebody who did know her 
 and had known Irvin had given both Balaam and her the 
 tip. Eh? Looks that way to me. And it looks, too, as 
 if that somebody might be helpin your stepdad to get rid 
 of Clifford. Don t that sound kind of reasonable ? Think, 
 Mary, think." 
 
 Mary was thinking, there was no doubt of that. 
 
 "But who ?" she said, slowly. "Who ? You know more 
 than you have told me, Captain Newcomb. Who was it ?" 
 
 The captain s eyes snapped. "Mary," he asked, "has 
 Mr. Calvin Wentworth been a little mite more neighborly 
 here lately than he used to be?" 
 
 Mary slowly leaned back in her chair. 
 
 "Mr. Calvin Wentworth?" she repeated. 
 
 Captain Noah nodded. "Um-hm," he said, "Mr. Cal 
 vin Wentworth, late of New York City, dog fancier, 
 gaiters wearer and general lily of the field. Hasn t he 
 been a little mite thicker with your stepdad than he used 
 to be? Ain t he been a little mite more er contagious, 
 as you might say, in these latitudes durin the last week 
 or so? What do you think about it?" 
 
 Instead of answering his question she asked one. 
 
 "Captain Newcomb," she demanded, "what do you 
 mean? What reason have you for thinking Mr. Went 
 worth has has " 
 
 218 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 The captain broke in without waiting for her to finish. 
 
 "I tell you my reasons in just a minute, Mary," he said, 
 "but first you just please te 1 ! me: Hasn t Wentworth been 
 more er numerous, prevalent whatever you want to 
 call it round here durin the last week?" 
 
 Mary reflected. "Why, yes," she replied, somewhat 
 doubtfully, "I I think he has. I have seen him with 
 Mr. Griggs several times recently; he has called here 
 twice this week. He was here last evening for an hour 
 or so, but " 
 
 "Just a minute, Mary ; just a minute. Has he been er 
 well, a little mite more sociable with er excuse me, 
 with you with you than he was?" 
 
 "With me? What do you mean?" 
 
 "Well, it s kind of hard to make it plainer without run- 
 nin the risk of havin to grab for that hat of mine. What 
 I mean is, has it occurred to you that that possibly 
 Cousin Calvin might be a candidate for for well, for 
 Irve s er vacant chair, as you might say?" 
 
 The color rose in Miss Barstow s cheeks. 
 
 "Captain Newcomb," she said, "you are really, you 
 are " 
 
 "Yes yes, Mary, I know I am. But, honest, I can t 
 help it, I ve got to be now. Has he shown a willin ness 
 to be more folksy and companionable with you? Has he, 
 now you come to think it over?" 
 
 "No," indignantly ; "of course he hasn t. That is, he 
 Well, he called last evening, and one or two evenings be 
 fore, but it was to see Mr. Griggs. Of course it was. 
 Why, I scarcely know Mr. W r entworth." 
 
 "Sartin. I understand that, but unless I m so far off 
 15 219 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 soundin s that I couldn t get bottom with the Atlantic 
 cable, he means you shall know him better afore long. 
 Mary, I may as well tell you now that I ve had my eye 
 on Cousin Calvin that s what Obe Burgess calls him, 
 you know ever since I landed here. And he s been 
 somethin of a mystery. He s an invalid, so he says, but 
 he don t act or eat like one. He s a New York society 
 high-roller, cordin to his accounts, but he s spendin his 
 summers and winters rollin in this little sand pile. He s 
 rich as Aunt Tabby Small s Sunday dinner puddin , and 
 that was made out of a half cup of flour and the rest 
 shortenin*. Yet rich as he s supposed to be, he don t 
 spend a cent, unless he can borrow it, and when he bor 
 rows it the only way you can tell the loan from a present 
 is by sewin a tag on it. Now why should a rich man and 
 a society man, even if he is an invalid, pick out Trumet 
 to die in and Obadiah Burgess to die on ? I couldn t see 
 why, for the life of me I couldn t. And because I was a 
 friend of Obe s and because I owed the little feller my 
 life, as you might say, I set in to find out. 
 
 "In that letter from the broker cousin of mine the 
 one I told you about, Mary there s considerate inter- 
 estin information about Cousin Calvin. Information that 
 
 clears the skyline considerable. He " 
 
 The young lady interrupted. 
 
 "Captain Newcomb," she said, "unless you can prove 
 to me that Mr. Wentworth s personal affairs have some 
 bearing upon mine I can t see why I should be told their 
 details. [Admitting that he is a mysterious person what 
 of it? !A"s I told you, I scarcely know him." 
 "And as I told you, you re in a fair way to know him 
 
 220 
 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 a whole lot better. Now if you ll let me read you this 
 broker feller s letter " 
 
 "I can t see that that is necessary." 
 
 "Can t, eh ? Well, then I ll have to prove to you that 
 tis. We ll leave that letter one side for another little 
 spell and instead of tellin you what I ve found out, I ll 
 tell you first what I guessed. As I said, if Wentworth 
 was rich and a society pet and all, then I couldn t make 
 him fit down here. But if he wan t rich and only a has- 
 been, a gone-to-seed sunflower, so to speak, who was too 
 lazy to work, but havin heard of relation Obadiah s 
 cornin into house and money, got the idea of spongin 
 a soft and easy livin by pretendin to be a well-off invalid 
 who was goin to will Obe every cent when he died, then 
 I could make him fit like a tender foot in an old shoe. 
 And that s the way I had him entered in my log waitin 
 information from my broker cousin, of course when 
 this new development, this one with you and Balaam and 
 Irve Clifford in it, bobbed up to stump me. 
 
 "When Irvin come to me in his trouble, poor chap, and 
 told me of your stepdad s facin him with the letter from 
 the Emmons woman, it was plain enough that somebody 
 else, some cleverer critter than Balaam, had had a hand 
 in it. And suspicion p inted right off to Cousin Calvin 
 because he was from New York, had known Irve over 
 there, and was in a position to know something very 
 likely, of Irve s bein engaged to the woman and all the 
 rest of it. But, as you yourself said when I first hinted 
 at it, why should he want to make trouble between you 
 and Clifford? 
 
 "With a different man to deal with there might have 
 221 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 been two or three answers. He might have hated Irve, 
 had a grudge against him or something, and wanted to 
 get even. Well, in a small way maybe he has, but Irve s 
 perfectly sure it ain t a big enough grudge to make as 
 lazy a man as Wentworth go out of his way to square it. 
 He might you ll have to excuse me, Mary have fell 
 in love with you and wanted to get you for his own." 
 
 "Captain Newcomb!" 
 
 "Sartin, he might. I should be tempted myself if I 
 was a hundred and odd year younger. However, knowin 
 Cousin Calvin, I didn t believe that was it. No matter 
 how much he might be in love with you or anybody else, 
 he was too much in love with his precious self to under 
 take to care for and work for a wife. If that wife was 
 liable to bring him money, even if twan t a very great 
 deal of money, then again I could see. But you, I under 
 stood, weren t wealthy in your own right ; eh, Mary ?" 
 
 Miss Barstow smiled faintly. 
 
 "Scarcely," she said. 
 
 "Excuse me for askin , but have you any money of 
 your own?" 
 
 "A few dollars in the savings-bank, that is all." 
 
 "And you never have had any, or never was told that 
 you was liable to have any?" 
 
 "Of course not. What do you mean ?" 
 
 The captain s only reply was a satisfied nod. 
 
 "So that seemed to settle that answer to the riddle," 
 he said. "But on the other side, there was Calvin and 
 your stepdad chummin round together more and more, 
 thick as well, perhaps we won t say thick as thieves 
 cause that wouldn t hardly be polite, but thick as hasty- 
 
 222 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 puddin , anyhow. What made em so thick all at once? 
 They ain t any more alike than a clam and a hummin - 
 bird. I couldn t see any reason, and yet all the time I 
 was sartin there was one. Well, Mary, today I found 
 the reason." 
 
 Mary gasped, "You found what?" she cried. 
 
 "I found out the reason why Calvin Wentworth should 
 want to get you away from Irvin Clifford. Not only 
 that, but I cal late I ve found out why Balaam Griggs is 
 so dead sot against the idea of your marryin at all. As 
 I kind of suspected, both of the reasons hang together. 
 Eh ? Now what do you say to that ?" 
 
 She did not say anything, in words, but her eyes asked 
 all sorts of questions. The captain chuckled. 
 
 "I don t suppose you d care to hear what those reasons 
 was, would you?" he inquired. "Long s you didn t want 
 to read that broker s letter, why " 
 
 "Captain Newcomb!" 
 
 "Oh, all right! all right! Don t look at me that way, 
 I ve got weak nerves. The way I found out, Mary 
 or, rather, what put me on the track of findin out was 
 just dumb luck. I met a feller named Badger, a lawyer 
 from Ostable he is, and somethin he said gave me ths 
 end of the string." 
 
 "What was it? What did he say?" 
 
 "Why, he told me that your stepfather and our friend 
 Wentworth had been over to Ostable ten days or so ago, 
 together, in an automobile." 
 
 "Was that all? Why, I could have told you that; Mr. 
 Griggs borrowed Mr. Rogers car and Mr. Wentworth 
 offered to drive it for the fun of doing so. There was 
 
 223 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 no secret about their going. Mr. Griggs had some busi 
 ness there, something about a mortgage." 
 
 "Um-hm, so Badger said. But Cousin Calvin found 
 some other kind of business to keep him busy while your 
 stepdad was mortgagin . He went perusin down to the 
 Probate Clerk s office and put in his time pretendin to be 
 a t ravelin Westerner interested in the wills of dead 
 folks." 
 
 "Wills? Mr. Wentworth was interested in wills? 
 What wills?" 
 
 "Well, now, that s what I asked, Mary, and the answer 
 I got sent me to Ostable will chasin . I went over there 
 yesterday in my Pancake my auto, I mean. I found the 
 will Calvin was so interested in and I made a copy of it. 
 Here is the copy." 
 
 He took a folded sheet of paper from his coat pocket. 
 Mary stared at the paper and at his face. 
 
 "But what is it, Captain Newcomb?" she begged. 
 "What is it? Has it anything to do with me?" 
 
 The captain nodded solemnly. "Um-hm," he said, "it 
 has a whole lot to do with you. It s Ira Barstow s will, 
 Ira Barstow that used to live in Wapatomac." 
 
 "My father? Is that my father s will?" 
 
 "It s a copy of your father s will, or of a part of it." 
 
 "But but are you sure? I never knew that he left 
 a will." 
 
 " Pears that he did. At any rate I found this one re 
 corded over there to Ostable. Here it is, Mary. I warn 
 you," he added, solemnly, "that it s goin* to surprise you 
 some. Leastways it did me." 
 
 She took the paper from his hand and, wonderingly, 
 
 224 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 began to read what was written upon it. She read on for 
 a few lines and then uttered an exclamation. 
 
 "Oh !" she cried. "Why " 
 
 Captain Noah grinned. "That s what I said/ he ob 
 served, "and then some." 
 
 Mary read the writing through to the end. Her face, 
 when she looked up, was pale. 
 
 "Why why !" she stammered. "It it can t be, Cap 
 tain Newcomb! It isn t true, is it?" 
 
 "True as preachin , I believe," he said, with a brisk 
 nod, "and a good deal easier to prove true than somv 
 preachin . That s a copy of your father s will, Mary. 
 When he died he left you that much money in trust to be 
 yours when you come of age or married. Twenty-five 
 thousand ain t enough to buy a fleet of ocean liners, I 
 give in to that, but it is enough to keep the wolf away 
 from the door and even out of sight from the upstairs 
 windows." 
 
 She put her hand to her forehead. "But are you sure, 
 Captain Newcomb?" she pleaded. "Are you sure? Did 
 father ever have any such sum to leave? I never heard 
 that he did. My mother would hare told me, wouldn t 
 she? Isn t it possible that father was was mistaken 
 was " 
 
 "Was crazy, or somethin like that, you mean? Well, 
 Mary, that s one of the first things that run across my 
 mind after I see the will. And so today the Pancake and 
 I took another cruise, to Wapatomac this time. I asked 
 some questions around and made it my business to meet 
 some of the folks that used to know your folks when they 
 lived there. I found out that your dad was generally 
 
 225 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 reported to be quite comfortably off, to have made some 
 money and saved it. I found out, too, that you was the 
 apple of his eye, so twas natural enough that he should 
 take care to provide for you when he died." 
 
 "But but why was I never told of this money? If 
 there is any such sum, or ever was, why did my mother 
 never speak of it?" 
 
 "That s a good, sensible question. You d have made 
 a first-rate lawyer, Mary. The answer to that, I cal late, 
 is in another part of that will, one I didn t take the pains 
 to make a copy of. In that will the persons your twenty- 
 five thousand was put in trust with was your mother and 
 Mr. Balaam Griggs of Trumet, Mass. They was joint 
 executors so named." 
 
 "Mr. Griggs! Mr. Griggs was executor?" 
 
 "Yes. Seems he and your father had been tradin in 
 real estate together. Balaam s business shrewdness, I 
 cal late, had made considerable impression on your pa. 
 Probably he thought twould be a good idea to have a 
 business man s advice to help your mother in her man- 
 agin , and where could a body find a better business chap 
 than Brother Griggs? See, don t you?" 
 
 Mary evidently did not see clearly. 
 
 "But why didn t Mother tell me?" she repeated. 
 
 "That was Balaam, as I look at it. You were a little 
 girl then, and, naturally enough, they wouldn t tell you 
 of money that would be yours when you was twenty-one 
 or got married. Either happenin seemed a long ways 
 off then. And Balaam s influence over the family prob 
 ably kept gettin stronger and stronger. Five years later 
 
 226 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 twas strong enough to get the widow to marry him. 
 What twas after that you know better n I do, Mary." 
 
 Mary, leaning forward, her chin on her hand, was 
 thinking hard. 
 
 "She was almost his slave," she said, slowly. "He 
 seemed to have the faculty of making her do anything he 
 wished." 
 
 "Um-hm. Sartin, so I judged. He told her, probably, 
 never to mention will or money to you and so she never 
 did." 
 
 "I remember once, during her last sickness, she told 
 me that she was happy knowing that I was so well pro 
 vided for. I thought she meant provided with a home 
 and," bitterly, "Mr. Griggs society. She may have meant 
 this." 
 
 "Don t doubt she did, poor woman. Course Balaam 
 had told her he should turn over the money to you soon 
 as you came of age." 
 
 Miss Barstow drew a long breath. Some of her color 
 had returned, but she was still agitated and excited. 
 
 "It doesn t seem as if it could be true," she declared. 
 "Perhaps it isn t true now. Perhaps the money has gone, 
 has been spent or lost in speculation. Perhaps that is 
 why he has never told." 
 
 Noah shook his head. 
 
 "Don t you believe it," he said. "No, it ain t been 
 spent, Balaam Griggs wouldn t spend twenty-five thou 
 sand dollars, not in twenty-five lifetimes I was goin to 
 say. And the only speculatin in any deal he goes into 
 is just a speculation as to how much the other feller 
 loses. No, he s got it safe and sound." 
 
 227 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 Then you think he means to steal it. He must, for 
 my twenty-first birthday was nearly a year ago." 
 
 "He wouldn t call it stealin . If you taxed him with 
 it he d most likely say he was just keepin it for you. 
 And the longer you don t know about it the longer he 
 can keep it and the five or six or seven per cent interest 
 along with it. And you see now why he s been so dread 
 fully anxious you shouldn t marry, don t you?" 
 
 "I I don t know that I do." 
 
 "Sartin sure you do. The minute a husband comes 
 along there s a new and mighty dangerous figure in the 
 cal latin . That husband, for one thing, takes you out 
 from under your stepfather s wing, out where you may 
 hear somethin or learn somethin about this will any day. 
 Or the husband may learn. And the said will puts a 
 double knot in the halliard where it says the money shall 
 be yours when you marry. Balaam ll shave the wind ard 
 side of the law close enough to blister the paint on his 
 plankin , but he don t enjoy takin a double risk of jail 
 any more than anybody else. The single comin of age 
 risk is enough to keep him worried, I rather guess. Now 
 you see, don t you?" 
 
 Mary did not answer, although the expression of her 
 face proved that she saw and understood. If Mr. Griggs 
 had seen that expression, he, too, might have understood 
 and trembled. 
 
 "And Mr. Wentwcrth?" she asked, after a moment. 
 
 "Yes, indeed ; mustn t forget Cousin Calvin. How he 
 got on the track of the will I don t know. Very likely 
 Balaam dropped a hint and he picked it up. But that 
 don t make any real difference ; we know he went to the 
 
 228 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 Probate Court and saw the will, and we know, too, that 
 not very long after that your stepfather got the letter 
 from the Emmons woman. If you was a poor girl, real 
 poor, it probably wouldn t have been worth the Honor 
 able Calvin s while to interfere along of you and Irvin . 
 But twenty-five thousand, although it ain t a kerosene ile 
 fortune, is good enough for " 
 
 "Stop i stop ! don t say any more, please. I can t bear 
 it. Captain Newcomb, you said you had a letter from a 
 friend of yours in New York which gave some informa 
 tion concerning this this man we have just been speak 
 ing of." 
 
 "Cousin Calvin? Yes, indeed; tells a lot about him." 
 
 "May I see the letter?" 
 
 Considering that it had been offered her twice already, 
 the question was rather superfluous. However, Captain 
 Noah made no mention of the offers nor her refusals. 
 Instead, he handed her Mr. Chase s letter with satisfac 
 tion and alacrity. Others than Calvin Wentworth were 
 mentioned in that letter, and this the captain, wily man, 
 knew. 
 
 Mary read the letter through, her companion watching 
 her intently as she did so. Then she rose to her feet. 
 Her face was pale no longer. Now there was a crimson 
 flush on her cheeks and an ominous flash in her eyes. 
 
 "Well, Mary," queried Captain Noah, "what are you 
 cal Iatin to plan to do?" 
 
 She turned and faced him. "Do?" she cried, fiercely. 
 "I don t know what I shall do now. But tomorrow morn 
 ing I shall tell my stepfather what I think of him and 
 
 229 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 leave his house forever. After that I shall consult a law 
 yer concerning the recovery of my money, I suppose." 
 
 The captain shook his head. 
 
 "I hope you won t, Mary," he said, quietly. "Won t 
 go away from here, I mean. I know you want to, I 
 know twill be a trial to you to stay ; but I m hopin you 
 will stay for a little while longer anyhow." 
 
 She looked at him scornfully, incredulously. 
 
 "Stay here?" she repeated. "Stay here, with that man? 
 Captain Newcomb, what do you think I am?" 
 
 "I think you re a sensible girl. I think you ll want 
 to do the right thing, right for all hands. And I think, 
 Mary, that maybe, after you ve come to think it over, 
 you ll be willin to put yourself out a little mite for well, 
 if for no other reason than just because I ask it as a per 
 sonal favor/ 
 
 Her expression changed. She held out her hands to 
 him impulsively. 
 
 "Please forgive me, Captain Newcomb," she begged. 
 "I haven t even thanked you. You have taken so much 
 trouble for me and " 
 
 "Now, now, now, Mary, don t make any mistake. What 
 I ve been findin out wan t entirely on your account. I m 
 mighty glad I did find it out, if only for you ; but I had 
 other reasons for wantin to learn the workin s of the 
 Griggs and Wentworth combination. I m tryin to help 
 poor little Obe Burgess out of his troubles, you remem 
 ber. Yes, and er there s another friend of mine, a 
 young feller that I believe has been pretty badly used. 
 Not by you," hastily. "No, no, no, not by you, of course ; 
 you just misunderstood. But by that same combination. 
 
 230 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 Now, as I told you in the beginning Mary, I ve got a let 
 ter from that young feller in my pocket and it s got your 
 name on the envelope. If " 
 
 But she interrupted. 
 
 "What was your reason for asking me to stay here?" 
 she asked. "What was the personal favor you wished 
 me to do for you ?" 
 
 Captain Noah, whose hand was in the pocket contain 
 ing the letter he had just mentioned, looked a trifle dis 
 appointed. However, he made the best of the inevitable, 
 withdrew the hand empty, and began to talk, earnestly 
 and at some length. Miss Barstow listened, at first with 
 mild interest, then with apparent resentment and indig 
 nation, but at last with amusement and a faint smile. 
 
 "I see," she said, when he had finished. "It would help 
 your plans, of course. And I certainly owe you all the 
 help I can give. But," with a shiver of disgust, "it would 
 be very hard for me." 
 
 "So twould, so twould. But, in a way, knowin what 
 you know, twould have a little mite of fun in it. And 
 if it did work out right, there d be what the minister calls 
 a righteous -etribution comin for them that deserved 
 it, eh? Yes, I know twill be hard for you, Mary, but 
 twill keep everything quiet and unsuspicious while I m 
 workin at the rest of my picture puzzles. As I see it, 
 there mustn t either of those swabs excuse me; gentle 
 men, I should say get a hint that I m anything but the 
 most innocent green cabbage head in the back garden. 
 And there s still another reason for my hopin you ll stay 
 here, a reason that s pretty important to me and some 
 body else you won t let me name, I suppose. . . . Oh,. 
 
 231 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 well, all right, all right. Now what do you say, Mary? 
 Will you stay?" 
 
 Her answer was not entirely satisfactory. 
 
 "I will think it over," she said, "and let you know to 
 morrow. And, oh, Captain Newcomb, you will forgive 
 me if I don t thank you as I should. The fact is I am so 
 so disturbed and agitated I have had such a shock 
 and surprise But I am grateful, I really am." 
 
 At the door in the hall the captain stopped to shake 
 hands and say good night. And there, where it was so 
 dark that he could not see her face plainly, he received 
 an agreeable surprise. 
 
 "Captain," she said, hesitatingly, "there is one one 
 thing which which might help me in reaching that de 
 cision I am to give you tomorrow." 
 
 Captain Noah turned. 
 
 "Eh?" he cried. "Eh? You don t say! What is it, for 
 mercy sakes ? If I can get it for you, you shall have it, 
 I swan to man. What is it, Mary ?" 
 
 "It is well, it is that letter you have in your pocket. 
 Not the one from the broker, the the other." 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 IT was, perhaps, a week later that is, the week fol 
 lowing that in which Captain Noah and Mary Bar- 
 stow had their long and important interview, that 
 Miss Sarepta Hatch first began to notice that Mr. Calvin 
 Wentworth was calling more and more frequently at the 
 Griggs home. Miss Sarepta, it will be remembered, was 
 Balaam s next-door neighbor on the right as Mrs. El 
 vira Ginn was on the left. And there were few happen 
 ings in their vicinity which one or the other, or both, 
 of these ladies did not notice. 
 
 In this case the discovery was probably simultaneous,, 
 although it was Miss Hatch who first mentioned it. She 
 happened in at Mrs. Ginn s to return the cupful of sugar 
 she had borrowed the month before. 
 
 "Well, Elviry," she said, knowingly, "I suppose you ve 
 noticed it, ain t you?" 
 
 Mrs. Ginn just then was noticing the fact that al 
 though Sarepta had borrowed a coffee-cupful of sugar 
 she was returning a teacupful. So her reply was given 
 rather absently. 
 
 "Eh?" she said. "Noticed? Noticed what?" 
 
 "What s been goin on to the next house. Looks as 
 
 233 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 if twas a case of Get up, Jack ; John, sit down to me." 
 
 " John sit down ? John who ?" 
 
 "Oh, that s just a sayin . It don t mean nobody spe 
 cial. I mean it looks as if twas a case of When the 
 cat s away the mice ll play/ Don t you think so?" 
 
 "What s cat s away? Balaam Griggs s? If you mean 
 that ola raveled-eared tomcat of his, it ain t away be 
 cause I see it no later n yesterday eatin a chicken out 
 back of the woodshed." 
 
 "Eatin a chicken! Land sakes alive! What did you 
 do to it, Elviry?" 
 
 "I didn t do nothin to it. It didn t kill the chicken 
 itself. Twas one that that Mr. Wentworth, who s stop- 
 pin up to Obadiah Burgess s, run over with his automo 
 bile when he came to take Mary Barstow out to ride. 
 And twas one of Balaam s chickens anyhow, not yours 
 nor mine, Sarepta." 
 
 "Well, that s a comfort, although I bet Balaam would 
 be mad if he knew it. So you see Mr. Wentworth take 
 the Barstow girl out ridin , did you?" 
 
 "Yes, I see him. I stood behind my front-door blinds 
 in the hall and I could see and hear em, too. Twas 
 Cap n Newcomb s auto they had, wan t it?" 
 
 "Looked like it to me. You don t know where they 
 went, though, I guess." 
 
 "No," with reluctance, "I can t say s I do. And I 
 guess likely you don t, neither." 
 
 "Yes, I do. They went down to the village, and she 
 done some errands, and then they stopped in to La- 
 throp s and he treated her to ice-cream. It s the second 
 
 234 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 time he s bought ice-cream for her and she s let him, 
 too. Don t that look kind of significant to you?" 
 
 Although she tried very hard to appear indifferent, 
 Mrs. Ginn s envy at her friend s superior information 
 showed itself in her tone as she said : 
 
 "Oh, yes, I suppose you might call it kind of signifi 
 cant if you re sure it s so." 
 
 "Oh, I m sure. Evelina Dodge told me herself and 
 you know her Joshua is clerkin to Lathrop s this sum 
 mer." 
 
 Elvira could not successfully contradict such authen 
 tic information, so she merely sniffed. 
 
 " Twas Mr. Wentworth and Mary I meant when I 
 said the mice would play," went on Miss Hatch. "Irv- 
 in Clifford s gone West, to Omaha I think tis " 
 
 Elvira interrupted. "No, it tain t, it s Saint Louis. 
 Ethelinda Doane down to the Mansion House told me 
 twas Saint Louis. And she ought to know cause Mr. 
 Clifford boarded there all the time he was in Tru- 
 met." 
 
 "Well, I don t care if he did. Peleg Bearse was 
 round here yesterday peddlin fish and you know as well 
 as I do, Sarepta, that Peleg boards to the Mansion 
 House just the same as Mr. Clifford did. And Peleg 
 he says Mr. Clifford s gone to Omaha to work on 
 some kind of a sawmill engyne or somethin . I think 
 twas a sawmill engyne he said; anyhow I know twas 
 Omaha." 
 
 "Well, all s I know is that Lindy Doane told me 
 he d gone to Saint Louis to help put up machines for 
 16 235 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 makin ice, or rice, or somethin . Hello! Who s that 
 comin down the road?" 
 
 It was Captain Noah in his little car, a fact which 
 Mrs. Ginn, running to the window, proclaimed the next 
 moment. 
 
 "He ll know," she cried. "Him and the Clifford man 
 was great chums. He ll know where he s gone." 
 
 She ran to the front door, followed by Miss Hatch. 
 
 "Cap n Newcomb !" she screamed. "Cap n New- 
 comb !" 
 
 The captain, who had already gotten a short dis 
 tance past the house, heard the hail and turned. When 
 he saw the two ladies standing in the Ginn doorway 
 he slowed down the car, but did not stop. His sojourn 
 in Trumet had not been a long one, but it had been 
 long enough to make him wary of Sarepta and El 
 vira. 
 
 "What is it?" he shouted. 
 
 "We want to ask you somethin*," screamed Mrs. Ginn. 
 "Where s Irvin Clifford gone to?" 
 
 The car rolled slowly on. Captain Noah looked back 
 over his shoulder. 
 
 "Eh?" he cried again. 
 
 Miss Hatch raised her voice. It was no shriller than 
 Elvira s, but she prided herself on its carrying power. 
 
 "Where s Irvin Clifford gone to?" she screamed. 
 
 The captain took his left hand from the wheel, made 
 a speaking trumpet of his fist, and shouted through it. 
 
 "He s gone away," he shouted. Then he put on 
 speed and the little car shot down Knowles Hill. Mrs. 
 Ginn and Miss Hatch returned to the house, where 
 
 236 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 for twenty minutes they discussed the doings of their 
 fellow townspeople, male and female, paying particular 
 attention to Miss Mary Barstow, Mr. Calvin Went- 
 worth and Mr. Irving Clifford. They agreed that Mr. 
 Clifford s sudden departure looked very suspicious, as 
 if he had received his dismissal from the young lady; 
 also that Mr. Wentworth s more and more frequent 
 calls, coupled with the auto rides, ice-cream treats and 
 the like, were very significant. 
 
 "If it s so I mean if anything comes of it," declared 
 Sarepta, "she can call herself mighty lucky, that s all 
 I ve got to say." 
 
 It was not all she had to say, by a good deal, for she 
 went on to dilate upon Mr. Calvin Wentworth s good 
 points fluently and at length. "He s so polite/ she said, 
 "and so so sort of superior and genteel. Anybody can 
 see he s a gentleman. Course Irvin Clifford was polite 
 enough, far s that goes, but " 
 
 "But," put in her friend, "there s a difference be 
 tween buildin cold-storage houses to freeze fish inta 
 and bein so rich you don t have to pump water to wash 
 your hands. No ; what Mr. Wentworth can see in Mary 
 Barstow the dear land knows, but if she gets him she ll 
 be a lucky girl, as you say, Sarepta. But how will 
 Balaam take it, I wonder ?" 
 
 A good many people wondered that very thing dur 
 ing the next few weeks. Mr. Griggs prejudice against 
 marriage, when it involved his stepdaughter, was known 
 from one end of Trumet to the other. The Hatch-Ginn 
 conversation was but one of many similar discussions. 
 Had there been a quarrel between Clifford and Miss 
 
 237 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 Barstow ? Was the said quarrel the reason for the engi 
 neer s sudden departure for Omaha, or Saint Louis, or 
 Salt Lake City, or Jericho, or Jerusalem or wherever 
 he had gone? And was Mr. Calvin Wentworth a can 
 didate for the vacant place in the young lady s affec 
 tions ? And how, provided he was such a candidate, and 
 a successful one, would stepfather Balaam accept the 
 new development? These were Trumet s questions. 
 
 Clifford, although by no means unpopular in the vil 
 lage, had made no especial effort to achieve popularity. 
 Nor had public curiosity at any time centered upon him 
 as it had upon the mysterious and romantic invalid, 
 Mr. Calvin Wentworth. Everyone in town knew of Mr. 
 Wentworth s "debilitated" health, of his wealth reputed 
 to be a million at least of his Fifth Avenue clothes 
 and his highly genteel manners. Cousin Calvin was 
 languidly polite and chatty with the Trumet fair sex, 
 old and young. With its males he was condescendingly 
 familiar. Mr. David Weeks, the village lawyer and 
 director in the Harniss Bank, found it enjoyable and 
 flattering to be consulted by the former frequenter of 
 Wall Street concerning which stocks might be consid 
 ered "good buys" at present. And Hannibal Thayer, who 
 kept the billiard and pool parlor, liked to have Mr. 
 Wentworth drop in, casually, to try a few fancy carom 
 shots on the newest table. The prevailing opinion was 
 that the ex-New Yorker was "a real swell and perfect 
 gentleman, but not a mite stuck-up." 
 
 So the majority of Trumet was inclined to believe 
 that, provided the affair ever reached the point where 
 marriage was seriously considered by Calvin and Mary, 
 
 238 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 Mr. Griggs would not permit his long-cherished and 
 deep-rooted prejudice to stand in the way. 
 
 "It s one thing." declared Ethelinda, standing, dish- 
 towel in hand, gazing out of the Mansion House win 
 dow. "It s one thing to be down on her niarryin the 
 common run of everyday Cape Codder, like them that s 
 been tryin to get her and she wouldn t look at, let 
 alone Mr. Griggs. And it s the same one thing or 
 or next door to it although after all, it is a different 
 thing, ain t it, Mis Hobbs, to be down on her marryin 
 even a nice young cold-storage man like Mr. Clifford. 
 But when it comes to heavin out objections to her tak- 
 in up with a perfect millionaire nobleman like Mr. 
 Wentworth well, that would be another thing, wouldn t 
 it, Mis Hobbs?" 
 
 Mrs. Hobbs, looking across the road where the "mil 
 lionaire nobleman," leaning nonchalantly against a post, 
 watched Sport chase a neighbor s cat up a tree that 
 is, the cat went up the tree while Sport fretted and 
 pawed below Mrs. Hobbs, watching the easy grace and 
 perfect poise of the gentleman, sighed. Cousin Calvin 
 had a habit of dropping in at the Mansion House occa 
 sionally, where he sat and smoked on the veranda and 
 chatted affably with Mr. Bearse and Uncle Labe or 
 herself. Captain Penniman seldom took part in these 
 conversations. The captain had the bad taste not to 
 like Mr. Wentworth, referred to him contemptuously as 
 a * darned dude." 
 
 "That would be another thing, wouldn t it, Mis 
 Hobbs ?" repeated Ethelinda. 
 
 "What would be?" 
 
 239 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "Why, what I said. I said her marryin Mr. Clif 
 ford would be one thing and Mr. Wentworth s mar 
 rying her would be another thing. And for Mr. Griggs 
 to be set against her marryin Mr. Clifford would be 
 a different thing from his bein* set I mean her bein 
 set against her marryin him I mean him marryin 
 her Mr. Griggs, I mean." 
 
 "Who marryin Mr. Griggs? What are you talkin 
 about, Linda?" 
 
 "Nobody. Why, what an idea ! I guess nobody d want 
 to marry old Balaam. It was Mr. Wentworth I was talk- 
 in about. I do think he s just too lovely ! Don t you, 
 Mis Hobbs?" 
 
 "Sshh ! Don t talk silly, Linda." 
 
 "That ain t silly, it s sense. I think he s too good for 
 her, don t you, Mis Hobbs?" 
 
 "Nonsense, Linda," rather sharply. "You mustn t 
 make such remarks. Very likely he hasn t the slightest 
 idea of marryin her. Probably he is just friendly, as 
 he is with with us, for instance." 
 
 Well, maybe so, but Oh, there she comes now! 
 Look! look, Mis Hobbs! See! There she comes now. 
 Now we ll see how they act together." 
 
 Miss Barstow came down the street, evidently on a 
 shopping expedition. Mr. Wentworth saw her, pushed 
 himself away from the supporting post, raised his hat 
 and stepped forward. The young lady saw him and 
 appeared to hesitate. Ethelinda noticed the hesitation. 
 
 "Humph !" she sniffed. "She don t act so terrible glad 
 to see him, does she now? Maybe there ain t nothin 
 in it, after all. Hello! ain t that Mr. Balaam Griggs 
 
 240 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 standin in the door of the barber shop over there? 
 Yes, tis, I snum if it ain t ! Don t he look sort of ugly 
 to you, Mis Hobbs?" 
 
 It was Balaam, sure enough, and he looked anything 
 but pleased. His stepdaughter saw him, caught his eye 
 and no longer hesitated. She turned, smiling, toward 
 the advancing Wentworth. 
 
 "Why, how do you do?" she said. "This is a sur 
 prise. Isn t it a beautiful afternoon ?" 
 
 Mr. Wentworth admitted the beauty of the afternoon 
 and, whistling to Sport, sauntered on by the young lady s 
 side. Mr. Griggs stepped from the barber s doorway. 
 
 "Say, Mary," he hailed. 
 
 Mary turned. "Oh, it is you," she said. "Well, what 
 is it ?" 
 
 Balaam did not seem to know exactly what it was, 
 at all events he seemed to find it difficult to speak. 
 
 "Yes, Mr. Griggs?" repeated the young lady, sweetly. 
 "What was it you wanted?" 
 
 "Why er why er " stammered Balaam; "I was 
 just wonderin* where you were goin , that s all." 
 
 "Oh, I m just going to do a few errands. At La- 
 throp s and Snow s. Then I may take a walk, it is such 
 a beautiful day." 
 
 Mr. Griggs scratched his chin. "Umph !" he grunt 
 ed. "Well, maybe I ll go with you." 
 
 His stepdaughter seemed surprised. 
 
 "You?" she cried. "Why, Mr. Griggs, you scarcely 
 ever take a walk a long walk." 
 
 "Um-hm, I know. But maybe twill do me good. 
 Come ahead." 
 
 241 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 Miss Barstow shook her head. 
 
 "I am so sorry," she said. "If I had only known. 
 But, you see, Mr. Wentworth here " 
 
 "How do, Griggs," observed Cousin Calvin, casually. 
 
 "Mr. Wentworth has asked me to go with him. It 
 was he that suggested the walk. You won t mind, will 
 you ? Another time, you know. Or you might walk by 
 yourself. Good-by." 
 
 They strolled on together around the corner and out 
 of sight. Balaam swore aloud. The barber came out 
 of his shop. 
 
 "Say, Balaam," he observed, grinning. "What s hap- 
 penin there?" with a jerk of his head toward the de 
 parting couple. "Young Clifford s bein cut out, ain t 
 he? Say, first thing you know you ll have a son-in-law 
 whether you want one or not. Eh ? How about that ?" 
 
 Mr. Griggs turned and snarled at the speaker as 
 Sport had snarled at the cat. 
 
 " You mind your own dum business," he ordered. Then 
 he strode off in the opposite direction from that taken by 
 Mary and Mr. Wentworth. 
 
 If, instead, he had followed them he might have no 
 ticed that the "walk" did not materialize. Apparently 
 Mary changed her mind. In fact, after rounding the cor 
 ner, where her stepfather could no longer see them, her 
 manner toward her escort was by no means as cordial 
 and intimate. And when, as they came out of Snow s 
 "general store," Captain Newcomb drew tip to the curb 
 in his little car, she promptly accepted his invitation to 
 ride home and whizzed away, leaving the "millionaire 
 nobleman" to walk by himself if he chose. 
 
 242 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 That evening Mr. Griggs was obliged to attend an 
 other lodge meeting, but he made it a point to leave 
 early. He reached his house about nine o clock and, 
 before opening the door, peeped in under the sitting 
 room curtain. What he saw made him grind his teeth. 
 Mr. Wentworth was there, seated in the most com 
 fortable rocker ; Mary was with him and they were chat 
 ting familiarly and pleasantly. 
 
 Balaam entered softly and, tiptoeing in, stood silently 
 in the doorway of the sitting room regarding the pair. 
 There was a mirror upon the wall opposite the door 
 way and it is just possible that Miss Barstow looked 
 at it. At any rate her manner toward Mr. Wentworth 
 became even more confidential and pleasant. 
 
 "Oh, yes, Calvin," she said. Then, with a coquettish 
 little laugh, she added, "I am calling you Calvin be 
 cause you asked me to, you know. And, after all, 
 somehow it does seem as if we were old friends, doesn t 
 it?" 
 
 Mr. Wentworth smiled. "Indeed it does," he said. 
 "And may I call you Mary? Now that we are old 
 friends, of course. Mary," he repeated, softly. "The 
 dear old-fashioned names, how I love them." 
 
 Mr. Griggs could contain his feelings no longer. They 
 expressed themselves in an explosion which was a com 
 bination groan, grunt and snort. Both Miss Barstow 
 and her visitor startled and turned. 
 
 "Oh," cried the young- lady. "What was that? Oh, 
 it is you!" with a sigh of relief. Then she asked, "Why 
 why, when did you come in?" 
 
 It seemed to Balaam that she appeared embarrassed 
 
 243 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 as well as startled. The lamplight in the room was 
 rather dim, so he could not see whether or not she 
 changed color. But he was willing to believe that she 
 did ; at all events if she did not he was sure she should. 
 He glowered at her angrily. 
 
 "Evening, Griggs," observed Mr. Wentworth. "How 
 was the gathering of the Grand Exalted Brethren of 
 the Double Cross this evening? How many new victims 
 did you hot-foot over the blistering sands this time?" 
 
 Balaam transferred the glower from his stepdaughter 
 to her caller. 
 
 "I don t know what you re talkin about," he growled. 
 "I ve been to the Red Men s meetin ." 
 
 "Woof, woof! Big Injun!" remarked Cousin Calvin, 
 the imperturbable. There was no embarrassment on his 
 part, not the slightest. 
 
 "But, Mr. Griggs, why did you come in so quietly?" 
 asked Mary. "I m sure I didn t hear you open the 
 door, and I think Mr. Wentworth did not?" 
 
 "Not a sound," affirmed the gentleman. "He came 
 in with the catlike tread of the untutored child of the 
 forest. He has been on the warnath tonight, Mary. 
 The noble red man has buckled on his tomahawk. Let 
 the pale face tremble for his scalp." 
 
 Mary laughed merrily. Her stepfather did not even 
 smile. 
 
 " Tain t no wonder you didn t hear me come in," he 
 said. "You was too sociable for that." 
 
 Mary looked in puzzled fashion from him to Mr. 
 Wentworth. 
 
 "What does he mean?" she inquired, addressing the 
 
 244 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 latter. "Sociable ? Why shouldn t we be sociable ? We 
 are not enemies, are we ?" 
 
 Mr. Griggs laughed. "Oh, no !" he exclaimed, loud 
 ly. "No, no, you ain t enemies. Anybody could see 
 that. No, no ! Enemies ! that s a good one." 
 
 Cousin Calvin shook his head. "The child of the for 
 est has been scorched by the firewater, I should say," 
 he observed. "That is, I should say if I didn t know 
 what a moral person he was. Your stepfather and I, 
 Mary," he went on, "had a discussion concerning mor 
 als during our motor ride a week or two ago. I was 
 much impressed. Mr. Griggs is a highly moral man 
 in spots," he added, with a chuckle. 
 
 Balaam may have felt that the subject of that motor 
 ride was not one to be discussed in his stepdaughter s 
 company. Or it may have dawned upon him that he 
 was not likely to have the last of it in a game of repar 
 tee with Mr. Calvin Wentworth. At any rate, his next 
 remark dealt with another subject. He drew forth his 
 watch and looked at it. 
 
 "What!" he exclaimed, with great and most obvious 
 astonishment, "almost ten o clock ! Well, I swan to 
 man ! Who d have thought it was as late as that ?" 
 
 Mary rose to her feet. "Ten o clock!" she repeated. 
 "Why, I can scarcely believe it." 
 
 Cousin Calvin looked at his own watch. 
 
 "No wonder you can t believe it," he said. "It will 
 be ten o clock in exactly twenty-seven minutes. Mr. 
 Griggs watch is running with the throttle open, I should 
 imagine." 
 
 Balaam shook his timepiece and held it to his ear. 
 
 245 
 
EXTRICATING OBAD1AH* 
 
 "She s runnin fine," he declared. "That watch of yours 
 is slow, Mr. Wentworth. It s a New York watch, I 
 judge, and it ain t got acclimationed yet." 
 
 "Accli- which ?" 
 
 "Acclimationed used to the climate we have down 
 here. When it gets that way it ll run smoother, same 
 as mine." 
 
 Before the owner of the New York watch could 
 speak again in its defense, Miss Barstow put in a word. 
 
 "Well, it is nearly ten, at all events," she said, "and 
 I think, if you gentlemen will excuse me, I will leave 
 you now. I am rather tired and " She hesitated, and 
 then with a twinkle in her eye, added, "I have a letter 
 to write before I go to bed." 
 
 Mr. Wentworth looked disappointed. 
 
 "Oh, don t go yet," he protested. 
 
 "Who are you writin letters to?" demanded Balaam, 
 suspiciously. 
 
 Mary smiled and shook her head at him. 
 
 "You are so forgetful," she said. "Didn t you ask 
 me to write to that man in Boston about the land he 
 was looking at?" Then turning to Wentworth she 
 added: "Really I must go. As I said I am rather tired, 
 and, besides, I am sure you and Mr. Griggs have many 
 things to talk about. Good night, Mr. Griggs. Good 
 night er Calvin." 
 
 She gave the couple in the sitting room one final 
 glance and then, with the twinkle in her eyes more 
 pronounced than ever, hurried out and up the stairs. 
 Mr. Griggs looked after her and then, tiptoeing over, 
 
 246 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 quietily closed the door. Cousin Calvin watched the door- 
 shutting with a languid smile. 
 
 "Why the deep secrecy, Uncle?" he inquired. 
 
 Balaam came back to the chair Mary had just va 
 cated and sat down upon it. He did not answer his 
 visitor s question, but instead asked one of his own. 
 
 "Say," he demanded, sullenly, "what are you up to, 
 anyway ?" 
 
 Mr. Wentworth s smile broadened. "Well, Uncle," 
 he began. 
 
 "I told you once I wasn t your uncle/ broke in 
 Balaam, pettishly. "I don t see as you ve got no call 
 to call me out of my name." 
 
 "So? Tastes differ, that s a fact. If I had a name 
 like yours I d much rather be called out of it than in 
 it. Let s see, what is your name? Jeremiah? Nebu 
 chadnezzar? Jonah? Why, of course, that s it Jonah." 
 
 Mr. Griggs frowned. "No, tain t Jonah neither," he 
 snapped. "And you know it well s I do. Look here, 
 I don t care for any of your funny talk just now. I 
 don t feel like laughin . What I want you to do is to 
 tell me what you re up to?" 
 
 "Up to? Well, Uncle Beg pardon Well, Jonah- 
 Pardon again Well er Rain-in-the-Face, Chief of 
 the Wampanoags " 
 
 "What in time ? " 
 
 "What is your Indian name, Uncle? What do they 
 call you around the camp fire up at the taown hall ? 
 Eh?" 
 
 "Look here! I don t want no funny talk, I tell you. 
 You come here to my house and everybody says you re 
 
 247 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 callin on my stepdaughter. You ve took her out rid- 
 in in Newcomb s car all hands seen you. You buy ice 
 cream for her, and more n once, too. This very after 
 noon you and she went walkin together right down the 
 main road. More n five million folks have been heavin* 
 out hints about your cuttin out Irve Clifford and keep- 
 in company along with Mary. I m sick of it, I be. 
 Now what do you mean by it ? I ask you again : What 
 are you up to?" 
 
 Cousin Calvin took a silver case from his pocket and 
 selected and lighted a cigarette. 
 
 "Join me?" he asked, proffering the case to Griggs. 
 "No? Too effeminate for the lips of a warrior, I imag 
 ine. Only squaws should smoke such things. Righto, 
 Sitting Bull. But you don t mind if I do? Good." 
 He crossed his legs, leaned back in his chair, took a 
 puff or two and then said: 
 
 "What am I up to? Well, Uncle, I have heard it 
 said that I was pretty nearly up to the minute. Of 
 course I am too modest to say as much myself, but " 
 He languidly waved the cigarette and beamed upon his 
 companion. 
 
 Balaam s teeth snapped together and he struck the 
 arm of his chair with his fist. 
 
 "Say," he growled, "this thing s got to stop, do you 
 hear?" 
 
 "Bless me! Is it possible? What thing?" 
 
 "You know what well as I do. This thing of your 
 carryin* on with my stepdaughter and and sittin* up 
 with her and buyin ice-cream for her and " 
 
 Mr. Wentworth laughed. "The ice-cream portion has 
 
 248 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 already stopped," he observed. "Twice she and I have 
 eaten the frozen cornstarch and glucose they prescribe 
 at the local drug store and it is sufficient, quite. Not 
 any no more thank you kindly a genteel suffi 
 ciency." 
 
 Mr. Griggs grunted. "Yes, and all the rest of it s 
 got to stop, too. Why, the whole town s sayin now 
 Do you know what they re sayin ? Eh, do you?" 
 
 "Sorry, old scout, but I do not." 
 
 "They re sayin you are goin to marry her, now." 
 
 Cousin Calvin blew a ring of smoke, watched it ex 
 pand and widen, and then deftly blew another through 
 it. 
 
 "How do you know I m not?" he asked, gently. 
 
 Balaam s jaw fell and his eyee opened. 
 
 "How do I know?" he gasped. "How do I Why 
 why, you " 
 
 "There! there! Don t explode. Yes, how do you 
 know? Mary seems to Well, she doesn t spurn my 
 society, exactly. In fact," with a slight smirk of self- 
 satisfaction, "she actually appears to er like it. She s 
 a pretty girl, a mighty pretty girl. She would make a 
 very creditable wife for any man. Perhaps I am plan 
 ning to marry her. Why shouldn t I ?" 
 
 Mr. Griggs bounced from his chair. His face was 
 flaming red and his fists clenched. 
 
 "Why shouldn t you?" he repeated. "Why shouldn t 
 you ? I ll tell you why you shouldn t. Cause I say no, 
 that s why." 
 
 "Is that all?" 
 
 "All? Ain t it enough? Didn t I tell you I wouldn t 
 249 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 have her marry ? Didn t you and me talk that over go- 
 in to Ostable and back? Ain t we talked it over a 
 dozen times since? Wasn t it your scheme that got 
 rid of Irve Clifford? Eh, wasn t it?" 
 
 Mr. Wentworth did not affirm or deny. He merely 
 smiled, and upon Balaam Griggs watching that smile 
 a great light suddenly burst. 
 
 "Eh?" cried Balaam. "Eh? by godfrey s domino, I 
 believe Did you help me get rid of him so you could 
 so you could get her yourself? Did you?" 
 
 His visitor laughed quietly. Griggs swore aloud. 
 
 "Well, you won t get her," he declared, savagely. 
 "Indeed and indeed you won t." 
 
 "Won t I? Dear me!" 
 
 "I guess twill be dear me. Why, you dum idiot, do 
 you cal late I ll have her marryin you any more n I 
 would him? I guess not." 
 
 Cousin Calvin tossed the stump of his cigarette into the 
 flower pot on the window sill. 
 
 "Aren t you rather loose in your reasoning, Griggs?" 
 he asked. "Excuse my mentioning it, but has it oc 
 curred to you that Clifford is er one sort of person 
 and I another?" 
 
 The effect of this speech upon Mr. Griggs was some 
 what surprising. Instead of awing and impressing him 
 it seemed to do the exact opposite. He laughed loudly 
 and sarcastically. 
 
 "Haw, haw!" he roared. "You re another all right. 
 I cal late that s so, sure enough. Irve Clifford is earn- 
 in good wages, or all hands say he is, and you you, 
 by time, you ain t earnin nothin ." 
 
 250 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 Possibly I don t need to, Uncle." 
 
 "Um hm, possibly you don t. Long s Obe Burgess is 
 fool enough to eat you and sleep you, and him and Noah 
 Newcomb to lend you money, I don t know s you do 
 need to work. But they don t know and I do." With 
 a significant nod, "/ do" 
 
 Wentworth looked at him keenly. 
 
 "What do you mean by that?" he asked. "What do 
 you know?" 
 
 "I know about you. I ve been kind of suspicious 
 ever since you borrored that forty dollars off Obe six 
 weeks ago when your dividend check didn t come. Haw, 
 haw! a mighty good reason why it never come. Wait- 
 in for it yet, I cal late, ain t you? Yes, and I cal late 
 you re liable to be for one spell. Dividend check! 
 Haw, haw!" 
 
 "What do you know?" demanded Wentworth, 
 sharply. 
 
 "I know all about you, my fine feller, how much 
 you re worth and all. I know how much Obe is liable 
 to get when you die. Huh! I bet I do. I got sus 
 picious, same as I said " 
 
 "Figured that I might be asking you for a loan, I 
 suppose." 
 
 "What if I did? Stranger things than that might 
 happen. I ve got it to loan, if I want to, I guess." 
 
 "I guess you have. I never heard that you lent any, 
 except on a mortgage, but perhaps I don t realize how 
 openhanded you are. They call you a tightwad down 
 here, Uncle, but probably they re wrong. I was just 
 thinking that I might ask you to help me out a bit finan- 
 
 17 251 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 cially just till those dividend checks come in, you know/* 
 
 "You was? You was, eh? Well, young feller " 
 
 "Thanks for the compliment." 
 
 "Shut up! I m goin to tell you what I done when I 
 got suspicious of you. I ve got a friend who keeps store 
 over to Bayport and he subscribes to Bradstreets . I 
 asked him to have your standin looked up and he 
 done it. I got the Bradstreets folks answer from him 
 a couple of days ago. Ah, ha ! Ah, ha ! I thought that 
 might make you look kind of sick. 
 
 The thought was erroneous. Instead of looking sick, 
 Mr. Wentworth, after a momentary pause, burst into 
 a hearty laugh. Balaam, who was not expecting laugh 
 ter, stared at him in utter amazement. 
 
 "Ha, ha!" laughed Cousin Calvin. "Looked me up 
 in Bradstreets , eh? Well done, old scout! Bully for 
 you !" 
 
 "Bully for me? Be you crazy?" 
 
 "Not a bit. Neither are you. You re as sharp as you 
 are reported to be. So you looked me up, eh? I 
 wouldn t have believed anyone in this burg had so much 
 business sense. And what did you find?" 
 
 "I found out what you was worth or what you 
 wan t worth, and that comes to the same thing. Oh, 
 you needn t look scared, I shan t say nothin to Obe 
 Burgess nor Newcomb nor the rest " 
 
 "I know you won t." 
 
 "Is that so! I want to know! Well, you better let 
 me finish. I shan t say nothin about what I ve found 
 out to them fellers nor nobody else, partly because tain t 
 
 252 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 none of their business, and partly because I don t want 
 to be too hard on you " 
 
 "Thanks, awfully." 
 
 "Be still, I tell you. I shan t say it to them if if, 
 mind you you stop callin on my daughter or seein her 
 or havin anything to do with her. Just drop her right 
 off this minute and I keep mum otherwise No." 
 
 He thumped the table to emphasize the "No." 
 Cousin Calvin leaned back in his chair, put his hands 
 in his trousers pockets and whistled softly. 
 
 "Sorry, Uncle," he said, quietly, "but it can t be 
 done." " 
 
 "Can t be done? What can t?" 
 
 "The dropping Mary game, not on those terms it 
 can t. She s a nice girl, I like her. As to marrying her 
 well, I haven t made up my mind about that yet, 
 but " 
 
 "Ain t made up your mind ? Well, I ve made up mine. 
 You you, struttin round playin the millionaire, when 
 you re only a good-for-nothin , next door to poverty- 
 struck, seedy " 
 
 His companion waved a protesting hand. "Easy, easy, 
 old scout," he said. "Let s let it stand at seedy. Seedy 
 is a word that interests me just now. I am a trifle seedy 
 around the edges, I ll admit ; I need some new togs 
 and a general touching up and revarnishing. Suppose 
 you let me have until the dividend checks show up, of 
 course say, two hundred dollars. With that I ll take 
 a little flyer to New York and " 
 
 "I let you have two hundred dollars! 7 let you have 
 it! By godfrey domino! you be loony. Here, you get 
 
 253 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 out of my house ! Get right out ! And don t you let 
 me see you nigh Mary again." 
 
 "Dear me! But suppose you do see me near her; 
 what then?" 
 
 "Then I ll tell her how you was the one that sicked 
 the Emmons woman onto Irve Clifford." 
 
 "If you do then she may send for Clifford again. * 
 
 "No, she won t. She s down on him for keeps. And 
 tellin her ain t the only thing I ll do. I ll tell Obe 
 Burgess and Newcomb about the Bradstreets report. 
 I ll tell it all around town. I ll show you up, my fine 
 feller." 
 
 Mr. Wentworth smilingly shook his head. "Oh, no, 
 you won t," he said. 
 
 "Won t, eh ? I want to know ! Why won t I ?" 
 
 "Because you will be afraid to, Uncle, dear. Because 
 you will know that the minute I hear of your telling any 
 one anything about me I shall call upon your Mary 
 our Mary and read her this bit of literature." 
 
 He took a folded paper from his pocket. 
 
 " But provided, " he read, " my daughter, the said 
 Mary Barton Barstow, comes of age or marries, the 
 said trust held by her mother, my wife, and Balaam 
 Griggs, my joint executor, shall terminate and the said 
 twentyrfive thousand dollars shall be hers, the said 
 Mary Barton Barstow s, without let or hindrance/ 
 Neat little sentiment, don t you think? I copied it my 
 self at the Probate Clerk s office in Ostable. ... Eh? 
 Why, Uncle, you look ill ! Does the child of the forest 
 need his medicine man?" 
 
 254 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 Balaam had collapsed into a rocking chair. He did 
 look ill, very ill, indeed. 
 
 "No, old scout," went on Cousin Calvin, sweetly, 
 "you won t tell anyone anything, I m sure. And, pro 
 vided you behave like a nice old dear, I won t tell any 
 one anything either. And when you lend me that two 
 hundred, as I can see by your eyes you are going to, I 
 will run away to Broadway and be gone two whole long 
 weeks. Isn t that a pleasant prospect? And perhaps 
 during that two weeks I shall decide not to marry Mary 
 at all. There, it s your bedtime, Uncle dear, so I 
 must be trotting. So long, Jonah. By-by, Sitting Bull. 
 Good night, old scout. I ll call tomorrow; meanwhile 
 you think it over. Good night." 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 CAPTAIN NOAH was getting rather anxious and 
 very impatient. Another fortnight had passed, 
 full two weeks since he received the first letter 
 from the New York broker, and each day of those two 
 weeks he had gone to the post office with the hope of 
 finding a second letter, a letter which should give him 
 the information he desired concerning the Ostrich Min 
 ing and Smelting Company. But each day he had been 
 disappointed no letter came. 
 
 Obadiah was getting anxious also, not because of the 
 non-arrival of the letter he knew nothing of the New 
 York correspondence but because Captain Noah had 
 not as yet performed some miracle which should either 
 get back his five thousand, or, better still, prove that in 
 turning over his capital under Mr. Griggs guidance he 
 had made a wise investment. The captain so far had 
 done neither of those things; in fact, he had scarcely 
 mentioned the subject since their momentous interview 
 that night at the edge of the bluff. And each time that 
 Obadiah mentioned it his friend and mentor either 
 treated the affair as a joke or bade him keep on the 
 
 256 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 course and say nothing until he knew whether it was land 
 or a fogbank he was headed for. 
 
 On the most recent of these occasions the little man 
 had ventured to protest. "But, Cap n Noah," he de 
 manded, "how am I goin to n-nun-nun-know which 
 tis until I can see? There ain t nothin ahead, not even 
 f-f-fog, yet." 
 
 "Don t let that worry you, Obe," observed the cap 
 tain, cheerfully. "There ain t anything astern but fog, 
 is there? So if there s fog ahead you re no worse off, 
 and when you do sight somethin solid, provided you do 
 sight it, twill look all the better to you." 
 
 Obadiah looked puzzled. "Nothin astern but fog?" 
 he repeated. "I can t see what you m-m-mean by that. 
 There was twelve thousand dollars astern of me once 
 yes, and abreast of me, too. What s that got to do with 
 
 fog?" 
 
 Noah laughed. "The twelve thousand wasn t exactly 
 what I meant, Obe," he answered. "I meant your in 
 vestment in that Ostrich stuff was a sort of foggy trans 
 action, seemed to me. You took Balaam s word for 
 everything and set sail for where he told you, no matter 
 whether you could see five fathom ahead of your jib- 
 boom or not." 
 
 "Well, I don t see as I m seein further now," ob 
 served Mr. Burgess, rather peevishly. "I did cal late 
 you was goin to help me. You said you would. And 
 all you do is talk about fog. I don t give a d-d-dum 
 about fog. I want to know about my mon^y. The five 
 thousand I put in was solid cold c-c-cash." 
 
 "Sartin. Ice is solid and cold enough, too, but hot air 
 
 257 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 blowin over it turns it into fog right off. Same way 
 with your cold cash, Obe. Balaam he got his hot air 
 to playin on it and " 
 
 "Aw, now, let up, won t ye? I don t feel f-f -funny 
 one bit. My Lord above! What ll I do? What ll I 
 do?" 
 
 He was wringing his hands, but the captain put his 
 own big hand upon them. "There, there, Obe," he said, 
 kindly, "what s this all about, anyway ? You don t know 
 any more about this er poultry investment of yours 
 than you did at the beginning do you ?" 
 
 "No, course I don t. I " 
 
 "Sshh! And you thought twas a good investment 
 then, didn t you?" 
 
 "Sartin I did." 
 
 "Of course you did. Well, if the last you thought 
 you knew was somethin good what are you wishin for 
 sometHn bad?" 
 
 "No, no, course I ain t. Tain t likely I be, is it? But 
 I want to know somethin , and I want to know it pretty 
 soon. If I don t I I I swan to man, Cap n Noah, I 
 believe I ll go ravin* d-d-distracted." 
 
 "No, no, you won t. Well, / want to know somethin , 
 too, Obe ; you and me are just alike fur s that goes. But 
 there s this difference between us I m workin hard to 
 find out somethin . And I cal late to find out afore long. 
 You just set still and hold your hair on hold what 
 there is left of it on, at any rate. You just wait, same 
 as I m doiiz . There s nothin to be gained by frettin ." 
 
 But in spite of this philosophical preachment the cap 
 tain did fret a good deal. He more than once sat down 
 
 258 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 to write his cousin another letter, but each time gave it 
 up. He was asking a favor, and he had no right to 
 hurry the person asked. No doubt there was a good rea 
 son why Mr. Chase had not written but, why hadn t he? 
 
 Other letters came regularly enough. Of these the 
 most recent from Chicago contained news which brought 
 a broad grin to Captain Noah s face. He made it a 
 point to see Mary Barstow soon afterward, and found 
 that young lady in a state of mind which, so the captain 
 opined, might lead a well-informed person like himself 
 to infer that she, too, was hearing regularly from Chi 
 cago. She seemed quietly, blissfully happy, and said not 
 a word concerning her recently expressed determina 
 tion to leave her stepfather s home. In fact, she said 
 that she would remain there, for the present at least. 
 
 She and Noah conversed on several subjects of mutual 
 interest. Mr. Calvin Wentworth s name was among 
 those mentioned; in fact, Cousin Calvin was mentioned 
 a great many times. 
 
 "Did you know that he was going to New York?" 
 asked Mary. 
 
 "Coin to New York?" repeated the captain. "Who 
 is? Not Cousin Calvin?" 
 
 "Yes. And he is going soon, on the Saturday morn 
 ing train, so he told me." 
 
 Captain Noah whistled. "On the train?" he repeated. 
 "On the passenger train or the freight?" 
 
 "Why, the passenger train, I presume. He doesn t 
 look like a person who would travel on the freight." 
 
 "No, he don t, that s a fact. He s the kind of critter 
 who, if he d had a cabin passage on the Ark, would have 
 
 359 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 kicked at bein aboard a cattle boat. No, he ll go fust- 
 class if he goes, I cal late. But it costs money to go to 
 New York or it used to when I was goin there reg lar 
 and where does the Honorable get the wherewithal? 
 That s what puzzles me. He ain t borrowed any from 
 me lately, and Obadiah ain t let him have any, cause I 
 warned him not to." 
 
 "Perhaps he has enough of his own. He can t be 
 entirely without means." 
 
 "He isn t, I cal late. You saw what Chase wrote 
 that his dad left him a good deal, but that he d run 
 through about everything. I imagine he has a little in 
 come^ just about enough to buy him smokes and a few 
 clothes and such down here, provided he can live on Obe 
 and pay nothin for room rent or eats. But goin to 
 New York is different. He must have had a windfall 
 somewheres. How long is he goin to be gone; did he 
 say?" 
 
 "A week or so, I think he said." 
 
 "Humph! Well, as the old woman said when her 
 grandson told her the white rooster had laid an egg, 
 that s interestin if true. I can t hardly believe he s goin , 
 though. Well, if he should stay a couple of weeks in 
 stead of one he might be some surprised when he got 
 back, eh?" 
 
 Mary blushed, smiled, and admitted that that was true. 
 
 "Although I haven t actually made up my mind yet," 
 she said. 
 
 "No, no, course you ain t. But I kind of hope you 
 will, for it does seem to me the most sensible not to 
 say pleasantest way of settlin things. And it will set- 
 
 260 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 tie em, too, that s a fact. Ho, ho! And twill pretty 
 nigh settle old Humph! speakin of the Old Scratch, 
 are Balaam and Calvin as thick as they was there one 
 time?" 
 
 "Mr. Wentworth is here a good deal," with a mis 
 chievous smile. "Perhaps he might be here more if 
 if I were more more friendly. But, oddly enough, Mr. 
 Griggs doesn t seem to like to have him here now ; in 
 fact, whenever I mention his name he is as cross as can 
 be. At times he is scarcely civil to him, it seems to me." 
 
 "So? Well, probably he don t want him trespassin 
 around you any more n he did Irve. I wonder if he 
 knows Calvin read that will. No, tain t likely he does. 
 The Honorable would be likely to keep that quiet till 
 he s made sure of you. We ll see if he does go away 
 Saturday. I can t scarcely believe he will." 
 
 But he did. Everyone at the Burgess house was sur 
 prised when on Friday he announced his departure the 
 next morning, everyone but Captain Noah, of course, 
 and he pretended to be. But, oddly enough, it was Joe 
 Kenney, Mrs. Mayo s nephew, who seemed the most sur 
 prised. Joe seemed really anxious and perturbed about 
 it, and the captain, noticing this, asked the reason. 
 
 He and the boy were together in the yard that Sat 
 urday morning, after breakfast. Young Kenney was 
 working for Balaam Griggs in the afternoon of each day, 
 but the forenoons he was supposed to have to himself. 
 However, Balaam was quite as likely to be over about 
 eleven loudly demanding the young fellow and intimat 
 ing that the latter was cheating him of hours for which 
 he had duly and liberally paid. The captain noticed that, 
 
 261 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAK 
 
 on such occasions, Joe made his appearance, usually, from 
 the woodshed. He idly wondered what the boy found in 
 that shed to keep him busy, but Joe, when questioned, 
 seemed reluctant to talk on the subject, and his aunt 
 frankly said she did not know. 
 
 "He s up to something" she said, during one of her 
 conversations with Captain Noah which conversations, 
 by the way, were becoming more and more frequent. 
 "He s up to somethin , some secret or other. He don t 
 want to tell, I can see that, and long s he don t I ain t 
 goin to pry. I know tain t anything bad. He s a good- 
 hearted boy, Joe is, and he s all the relation I ve got in 
 the world. His mother was my only sister, and when 
 she died I promised her I d bring her son up as if he was 
 mine. And I have tried to, I certainly have. If she 
 could have foreseen " 
 
 She did not finish that sentence, nor did she refer to 
 her dead sister again. The captain idly wondered what 
 it might be that the latter had not foreseen. Something 
 unpleasant, apparently, judging by the look of distress 
 upon the housekeeper s face. Noah did not like to see 
 that look there, nor did he like to hear her sigh. He re 
 sented both look and sigh. Somehow or other he had 
 come to feel a sort of proprietary interest in Melissa 
 Mayo, and any trouble which she might be in he was 
 inclined to accept as a personal affroat. When she 
 sighed he felt, as he might have expressed it, as if he 
 wanted to lick somebody. This was a most absurd feel 
 ing, of course, and he probably would not have admitted 
 its existence, but it did exist, nevertheless. 
 
 That Saturday morning, the morning of Mr. Went- 
 
 262 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 worth s departure for New York, Joe and the captain- 
 were in the yard together, having finished breakfast aj 
 the same time. The captain was strolling leisurely toward 
 the front gate when he heard his name uttered in a soft 
 of shouted whisper. Turning, he saw Joe tiptoeing 
 across the yard toward him. As he looked, the boy 
 beckoned with one hand and flapped the other up and 
 down, a pantomime which Captain Noah accepted to 
 mean a desire for silence. 
 
 "Well, Joe, what is it?" he inquired. 
 
 Young Kenney tiptoed toward him. "Sshh!" he said. 
 "I I just wanted to ask you somethin , Cap n Newcomb, 
 and I didn t want Aunt Melissy nor Mr. Burgess to hear, 
 that s all. Cap n Newcomb," anxiously, "do you know 
 how long Mr. Wentworth s liable to be gone? How 
 long he s figgerin to stay ?" 
 
 The captain shook his head. "Why, no, Joe, I don t," 
 he replied. "He never said nothin to me. However, I 
 understand he told somebody else he was cal latin to be 
 gone a week, anyhow. If he goer to New York, as he 
 says he is, he may like it well enough to stay a fortni t, 
 twouldn t surprise me a mite." 
 
 Joe s face fell. He looked much disappointed. "And 
 today s the seventeenth," he said, more to himself than 
 to his companion. "If he stays two weeks it will come 
 while he s away. It s the twenty-sixth, and that s a week 
 from day after tomorrer." 
 
 "What is?" asked Noah. "What s a week from day 
 after tomorrer, Joe?" 
 
 "Why," absently, "his birthday. Gee! that ll be too 
 bad." 
 
 ,63 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "What will?" 
 
 "Eh?" Joe seemed to come out of his trance. "Oh, 
 nothin , nothing" he said, hastily. "I was just thinkin 
 of something that s all." 
 
 "So I judged. You was thinkin of somethin that 
 was nothin , eh? Well, all right, Joe, you ain t lone 
 some. A good many folks in this world think nothin 
 most of the time." 
 
 He turned away, but again the lad spoke. 
 
 "Say, Cap n Newcomb," he whispered. "Say, Cap n 
 Newcomb." 
 
 "Yes, Joe. Overboard with it. What s troublin you ?" 
 
 Joe shifted from one foot to the other, plainly hesitat 
 ing between inclination and prudence. Inclination won. 
 
 "Say, Cap n Newcomb/ he said, "if if I was to show 
 you somethin would would you promise not to tell any 
 body?" 
 
 "Sure thing, Joe. Give you my word." 
 
 "And if I asked your opinion you d tell me just what 
 you thought?" 
 
 "You bet! Tellin s what I think is one of my strong 
 p ints or my weak ones." 
 
 "Then then you come with me." 
 
 He led the way and the captain followed, into the 
 woodshed, out of it via the side door, into the barn, into 
 the carriage room of the barn, and then up the ladder 
 to the empty loft over the carriage room. This loft was, 
 in the days when there was a horse on the premises, a 
 storage place for hay. Now it was a receptacle for 
 empty boxes, crippled shovels and broken rakes, a dis 
 carded bed spring, all sorts of odds and ends. There 
 
 264 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 was a good-sized window at the northern end of the 
 room, and by it was a chair without a back ind an ob 
 viously homemade easel. Upon the easel was something 
 covered with one of Mrs. Mayo s calico aprons. Joe 
 carefully closed the trapdoor at the head of the ladder by 
 which they had ascended. Then he threw back the 
 apron. 
 
 "There, Cap n Newcomb !" he declared, his tone a mix 
 ture of diffidence and triumph, "I ve been workin on it 
 for pretty nigh a month now. What do you think of it? 
 Pretty good likeness, seems to me." 
 
 The captain stared at the thing on the easel. Among 
 the luxuries which Obadiah Burgess had purchased in 
 the first flush of prosperity following his coming into 
 possession of his Aunt Sarah s legacy was a camera. 
 With this camera Obadiah had, until the novelty wore 
 off, snap-shot almost everything of consequence, ani 
 mate and inanimate, about the place. On one occasion 
 he had "shot" Mr. Calvin Wentworth. The shot was 
 anything but a bull s-eye if grace of attitude and beauty 
 of pose were to be considered, but as a caricature of the 
 ex-metropolite s languid manner and self-satisfied smirk 
 it was a huge and glorious success. It was a bit out of 
 focus, too, which made Cousin Calvin s thin, knicker- 
 bockered legs appear thinner and his nose longer. 
 
 With this photograph as a foundation Joe had pro 
 ceeded to lovingly build a "crayon enlargement." In his 
 desire to "get the likeness" he had copied the snap-shot 
 with painstaking exactness. And, in a measure, he had 
 got it, the enlargement was an unmistakable portrait of 
 Mr. Wentworth ; anyone having met the gentleman more 
 
 265 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 than once or twice would be sure to recognize it. But 
 in the process of enlargement the photograph s peculiari 
 ties were likewise enlarged and unwittingly caricatured 
 a caricature of a caricature, so to speak. And, in 
 order to add a final killing touch to this outbreak of 
 genius and probably also to insure against any possibility 
 of mistake as to identity, the artist had drawn, from 
 memory this time, a portrait of Sport, the Wentworth 
 dog, lying at his master s feet. Sport, in the crayon en 
 largement, looked as if he had been badly stuffed by an 
 amateur taxidermist, also as if the stuffing process had 
 hurt exceedingly. 
 
 The young Raphael who had produced this masterpiece 
 gazed upon it for a full minute without speaking. As 
 Captain Noah said afterward, "You could almost see the 
 pride oozin out around his collar he was swellin so 
 with it." Then he drew a deep, satisfied breath and 
 said: "Well, what do you think of it?" 
 
 Hearing no answer, he turned to find the captain reach 
 ing for his handkerchief. His face was red, and he 
 seemed to be struggling with emotion, admiration 
 doubtless. 
 
 "What s the matter?" demanded Joe. "You feel sick? 
 Eh ? You ain t langhin , are you ?" 
 
 Noah shook his head violently. Producing the hand 
 kerchief he wiped his forehead, blew his nose vigorously 
 and replied: "Laughin ? What is there to laugh about? 
 It s pretty hot up aloft here, that s all. Whew !" 
 
 "Um-hm. I suppose tis pretty hot, but I m generally 
 so busy while I m here that I don t mind it. What do 
 
 266 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 you think of it, Cap n Newcomb? Know who tis, don t 
 you ?" 
 
 "I sartin do. I d know it if I sighted it through a 
 thick fog." 
 
 "Um-hm/ with the pride of the conscientious work 
 man, "it seemed to me I d caught the likeness pretty 
 well. And that dog, now? What do you think of that 
 dog ? I did him free hand ; tried to get him to stay still 
 long enough for me to draw him, but he wouldn t. 
 Pretty good, ain t he ?" 
 
 Noah gazed reverently at the crayoned quadruped. 
 "He s a wonder," he said, with feeling. 
 
 "Glad you like him. And now, honest, Cap n New- 
 comb, how do you like that as a as a picture of Mr. 
 Wentworth ?" 
 
 The captain waited a moment before replying; he was 
 trying to frame an answer which should be both truth 
 ful and satisfying. Then he said, solemnly: "Joe, if I 
 had wanted to pay to have a picture of Calvin Went 
 worth painted I couldn t have got one that satisfied me 
 the way that one does. Not for no money I couldn t. 
 It s just the way I d like to have him painted. There! 
 does that satisfy you? Now," he added, hastily, "tell 
 me all about it. How long have you been to work on 
 her? What are you cal latin to do with her? Tell me 
 the whole thing." 
 
 So Joe told. He had been at work on the portrait for 
 
 nearly six weeks, in his spare time, of course. The idea 
 
 of making a crayon enlargement of Mr. Wentworth had 
 
 occurred to him quite suddenly, had come as a real in- 
 
 13 267 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 spiration. He had kept it a secret because he intended 
 it to be a surprise to the gentleman. 
 
 "I was goin to give it to him on his birthday," he said. 
 "And now he s liable to be in New York when his birth 
 day comes. Ain t that too bad! I don t know what to 
 do with it now ; whether to send it to him or wait till he 
 comes back, or what ? That s why I got you out here and 
 told you about it, Cap n Newcomb. What would you do 
 if you was me?" 
 
 The captain, still staring, as if fascinated, at the por 
 trait, was seized with another heat attack. He mopped 
 his forehead and eyes, choked once or twice and then 
 asked: "What was you goin to make him a birthday 
 present of it for, Joe? What was the idea? Love him 
 as much as all that, do you?" 
 
 "Why no, I don t love him exactly, as I know of. But 
 he s rich, you know " 
 
 "Oh, he is, eh?" 
 
 "Well, ain t he? Everybody says he s awful rich, got 
 loads of money. I thought I d make this enlargement of 
 him and perhaps he d he d let me have somethin 
 somethin I want." 
 
 "Somethin you want? What do you want?" 
 
 "Well, I want some money, a lot of money." 
 
 "You want money? For that? I thought you was 
 goin to give it to him." 
 
 "So I am ; that s what I planned to do. But I thought 
 Well, you see I thought maybe he d be pleased with 
 it. You think he will be pleased, don t you, Cap n New- 
 comb?" 
 
 Captain Noah rubbed his chin. "I know I d be pleased 
 268 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 if you gave it to me," he said. "But go ahead, Joe ; sup 
 pose he is pleased, what then?" 
 
 "Why then I thought I thought I d ask him to lend 
 me the money. I could pay it back a little at a time, I 
 guess. Anyhow I d try awful hard." 
 
 There was a look of determination on the lad s face 
 which the captain had not seen there before. He had 
 considered the young fellow a listless, almost lazy speci 
 men, but at this particular moment he appeared eager and 
 energetic enough. Noah was interested. 
 
 "What do you want the money for?" he asked. 
 
 Joe hesitated. He glanced at the closed trapdoor, then 
 at his questioner and then at the floor. 
 
 "I can t tell you what I want it for," he said, soberly. 
 "I I need it, that s all. Do you suppose likely he ll let 
 me have it? Gee! I wish he would." 
 
 "But what do you need it for, Joe ? Goin to buy some- 
 thin , was you ?" 
 
 "No, I m goin to pay somethin . And and," with 
 another burst of the same fierce eagerness, "then I m 
 goin away. I m goin out West somewheres. That s 
 where I want to be. Gee! I m sick of stayin around 
 here, livin on Aunt Melissy and and doin for for 
 him. I m goin out West. I want to be on a ranch or 
 somethin like that. And I ll be there, too. I will, you 
 see if I don t" 
 
 The captain s interest had increased mightily. This 
 sudden outbreak on the part of Mrs. Mayo s nephew sur 
 prised him. Now he remembered that early in their 
 acquaintance the housekeeper had said that the lad s am- 
 
 269 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 bition was to go West and work on a cattle ranch. He 
 had paid little attention to the statement at the time. 
 
 "Humph! so you want to be a cowboy, do you, Joe?" 
 he asked. "I thought you was cal latin to be a painter." 
 
 Joe shook his head. "I like to paint first-rate," he 
 said, "but I don t figger to make my whole livin doin it. 
 You have to be awful good to do that, everybody says. 
 I can do crayon enlargements pretty well, but that s about 
 all, I guess. Anyhow, tain t what I want to do. I want 
 to go West and work my way up on a ranch or somethin 
 till I come to one of my own." 
 
 "How do you know you ll like it?" 
 
 The boy s eyes flashed. "I know," he declared. "You 
 bet I know! Gee! I dream about it nights." 
 
 Captain Noah reflected. "Hum," he mused. "I know 
 two or three fellers out West there, men I used to meet 
 in the old shippin days in Frisco. One of em in par 
 ticular was a good friend of mine is yet, I shouldn t 
 wonder. I presume likely if I wrote " 
 
 He paused. The lad s gaze was fixed upon his face. 
 
 "You re in earnest in this, are you, Joe?" he asked. 
 "Would you go right off if you had the job? Provided 
 your aunt was willing I mean?" 
 
 "You bet I would !" 
 
 "Um-hm. But what s this money you want to borrow 
 from Mr. Wentworth? You re goin to pay somethin 
 with it, you say? What somethin ?" 
 
 The fire died in the lad s eyes. The frightened look 
 returned. 
 
 "I can t tell you," he muttered. 
 270 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "Why not ? Don t you want me to write to my friend 
 out West there?" 
 
 "Yes, yes, I do. But but I can t tell you." 
 
 "Can t, eh? Well, I m sorry. I doubt if I d feel like 
 recommendin a young chap who borrowed money to pay 
 to pay somethin he didn t like to tell of. Eh? How 
 about that?" 
 
 Joe did not answer. He stared sullenly at the floor of 
 the loft. 
 
 "Does your Aunt Melissy know about this money you 
 want to pay?" 
 
 The boy looked up. Don t you tell her/ he begged. 
 "Don t you tell her a word. You promised me you 
 wouldn t tell anybody anything. You know you did. 
 Don t you tell." 
 
 "I shan t; I ll keep my word, Joe. Only I m kind of 
 sorry. I d like to have tried to help along that ranch 
 proposition of yours." 
 
 Joe looked down again. There was a little choke in 
 his voice as he answered. "I know," he said; "and I m 
 ever so much obliged to you, Cap n Newcomb. But but 
 I can t tell, honest I can t. Thank you, just as much." 
 
 Somehow or other Captain Noah felt conscience- 
 stricken. He laid a hand on the boy s sleeve. 
 
 "Say, Joe," he said, "let me suggest somethin else to 
 you, will you? Don t send that picture to Mr. Went- 
 worth in New York. You don t know his address there, 
 anyway, so you couldn t very well send it if you wanted 
 to. And don t give it to him here in Trumet nor ask him 
 to lend you that money till you ve come to me and told 
 me you re ready to do it. Promise me that, will you, 
 
 271 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 Joe? It s your good I m thinkin of and nothin else. 
 Will you promise ?" 
 
 The eager look had gone from Joe s face and the old 
 listless, almost sullen, one returned. However, he prom 
 ised. The captain lifted the trapdoor. 
 
 "I must be goin ," he observed. "Got to take another 
 cruise up to the post office after that letter I ve been ex- 
 pectin for the last land-knows-how-long. I never seem 
 to get it, but I m always expectin ." 
 
 He was descending the ladder when an exclamation 
 from Toe caused him to stop and look up. The boy was 
 fumbling in his jacket pocket. 
 
 "What s the matter?" demanded Captain Noah. Joe 
 continued to fumble. Then from the pocket he produced 
 an assortment of crumpled papers, and from among them 
 an envelope. 
 
 "I got it up to the post office three days ago," he stam 
 mered, confused and crestfallen. " Twas in our box and 
 I took it to bring home to you. I ve been so busy with 
 that," pointing to the portrait, "and and all the rest that 
 I must have clean forgot it. I don t know when I d have 
 thought of it if you hadn t said letter/ Gee! I hope it 
 ain t anything important." 
 
 The captain took the envelope. One glance at the 
 handwriting, to say nothing of the printed name and ad 
 dress in the corner, was sufficient. It was the letter from 
 Chase, the New York broker, the letter he had been await 
 ing so long. 
 
 "Humph !" he grunted. " Tis kind of important, that s 
 a fact. How long have you had it in storage, did you say, 
 Joe? Three days, was it?" 
 
 272 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "Yes. I m awful sorry. I guess," with a sigh, "you 
 won t think I m liable to be much good, out West or any 
 wheres else, after this. Well, maybe I ain t. Sometimes 
 I think I m just no good and that s all." 
 
 Seventeen-year-old brains should not think in that 
 fashion. Captain Noah protested. 
 
 "Sho, sho!" he cried. "Mustn t talk that way, boy. 
 I ll forgive your forgettin the letter. You put it in your 
 pocket, and that s pretty nigh fatal, that is. Once let a 
 letter, whether it ought to be mailed or delivered, get 
 into a man s pocket and you ve got a combination that s 
 been responsible for more family rows than there have 
 been wrecks in the Atlantic Ocean. I ll forgive you, Joe ; 
 I m only too glad to get the thing finally and at last." 
 
 With the letter in his hand he crossed the yard and en 
 tered the back door of the house. Mrs. Mayo was in the 
 kitchen, busy as always. She looked up from her ironing 
 as he entered. 
 
 "Hello!" she exclaimed. "Back again, eh? You must 
 have used your car, I guess. Don t tell me you ve walked 
 to the post office and back so soon." 
 
 "I shan t think of tellin you any such thing for two 
 reasons the first is that twould be a lie, and the second 
 is that you wouldn t believe it. There ain t a mite of use 
 in lyin when you can t get your lie believed. That s al 
 ways been my motto, Melissy one of em, anyhow." 
 
 Just when the housekeeper and he had begun address 
 ing each other by their Christian names it is doubtful if 
 either of them could have told. The use of such names 
 early in acquaintance is a pleasant Cape Cod custom, and 
 they had adopted it as their acquaintanceship ripened into 
 
 273 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 friendship. The captain called all his friends, no matter 
 of what rank in life, by their Christian names, and he had 
 come to consider Mrs. Mayo a very good friend indeed. 
 She was a mysterious friend and still the one refractory 
 bit that would not fit into his "picture puzzle," but mys 
 teries are always fascinating. And either Captain Noah s 
 inclinations or reasoning, or both, had convinced him 
 that, whatever Mrs. Mayo s part in the mystery might be, 
 there was nothing disgraceful about it. No, indeed ! It 
 was odd how thoroughly convinced he was of that. 
 
 The lady looked at him and smiled. 
 
 "I wonder if you ever told a real lie in your life, 
 Noah," she observed. "I don t believe you ever did." 
 
 The captain stared at her in bewildered amazement. 
 
 "For the land sakes, why?" he demanded. 
 
 "Because you don t look as if you ever did or ever 
 could." 
 
 "My soul ! Well, I m much obliged. George Washin - 
 ton would have to shove over on that marble horse-block 
 of his up to the Boston Public Garden and make room 
 for me, wouldn t he, if that was true. He s safe from 
 crowdin for a spell yet, I cal late. Never told a lie ! If 
 you knew how many Tut, tut, tut ! But, say, Melissy, 
 what s become of all those breakfast dishes?" 
 
 "Become of em? Why, what do you mean?" 
 
 "I mean what did you do with em ? When I went out 
 of this kitchen a spell ago you was all walled in with 
 dishes, like a scallop-opener in a heap of shells. Now 
 they re all out of sight and here you are ironin . What 
 did you do with em?" 
 
 274 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "Do with em? Why, I washed em, of course, and 
 put em away in the pantry." 
 
 "You didn t! Not all of em, all by yourself?" 
 
 "Of course I did. There weren t so many." 
 
 The captain shook his head. "My, my, my!" he said, 
 admiringly. "Well, long as you and George Washin ton 
 are such chums I suppose I ve got to believe it, but I tell 
 you this, Melissy: If ever I go to sea again I m goin to 
 ship you as crew. I won t need anybody else. You could 
 handle ship, stand all the watches, and have spare time 
 enough left to cook in, besides." 
 
 The housekeeper laughed and declared he was talking 
 nonsense, but she looked pleased, nevertheless. A mo 
 ment later, however, her expression changed and she was 
 grave enough when she asked: 
 
 "Noah, are you responsible for so many of our gro 
 ceries and supplies comin from Boston now?" 
 
 Captain Noah, who had not been expecting this, was 
 rather flustered for the moment. 
 
 "Why why," he stammered, "they have been comin ? 
 from Boston for quite a spell, haven t they ? That is, the 
 heft of em." 
 
 "You know what I mean. I don t mean comin from 
 Boston to Balaam Griggs and then here; I mean comin 
 here direct. Obadiah tells me he orders direct now, but 
 I m pretty sure he didn t have gumption enough all by 
 himself to think of doin it. It was you, wasn t it?" 
 
 The captain pulled his beard. "Well, Melissy," he said,, 
 "maybe you ll recollect one time when you and I had a 
 little talk and you said that is, you gave me to under 
 stand " 
 
 275 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "I know what I said. I m not likely to forget it." 
 
 "Well er naturally then, bein a friend of Obe s, I 
 But say, you don t feel bad because they come direct in 
 stead of through Balaam s commission agency, do you?" 
 
 "No, you know I don t." 
 
 "How about Balaam? How does he feel?" 
 
 Mrs. Mayo turned away. 
 
 "He doesn t like it," she answered, shortly. 
 
 "Don t, eh? What does he say?" 
 
 Her answer was brief, but its tone conveyed much to 
 Noah s mind. 
 
 "He says Oh, well, we won t talk about it," she said. 
 
 The captain s fist came down upon the kitchen table 
 with a bang. 
 
 "Yes, we will talk about it," he declared. "It s high 
 time we talked about it. What right has he got to " 
 
 She held up a hand. "Please, please," she begged. 
 
 "But, Melissy, by thunder, it s " 
 
 "Noah, do you want me to be very unhappy; to be in 
 more trouble?" 
 
 "No, course I don t." 
 
 "Then then don t talk about about certain things, 
 and don t ask questions. I can t answer them. I told 
 you long ago what you should do; you should tell your 
 friend the plain truth and have him get rid of the whole 
 lot of us, of Balaam and that Wentworth man and Joe 
 and me. That s what you should do." 
 
 "Well, I shan t. Not of you and Joe, at any rate. * 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 "Because I don t believe there s any reason why I 
 should. I don t care what you say, Melissy Mayo, I 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 know you re a good woman. I ve knocked around some 
 in this world and I ve learned to judge folks. I know 
 you re straight. And if Balaam Griggs -" 
 
 "Sshh ! shh ! Don t say any more, please. I mustn t let 
 you. You don t know anything of the kind you don t 
 know anything about me about us, at all. Some of 
 these days, when all this is through with, if it ever is, and 
 I ve gone away, I perhaps I ll write you and tell you the 
 whole truth. I should like to have you think well of me, 
 as well as anyone can, that is." 
 
 "Think well of you! Think well of you? Melissy 
 Mayo, I I I swear I don t hardly dast to say what 
 I ... Here! Melissy!" 
 
 But she had gone into the dining room and closed the 
 door. He drew his hand across his forehead and sud 
 denly became aware that he was still holding in the other 
 hand the letter young Kenney had given him. He turned, 
 walked from the kitchen and up the stairs to his room. 
 There, with the door closed, he sat down, tore open the 
 envelope and began to read. 
 
 The letter was a long one, typewritten of course. Mr. 
 Chase had much to say concerning the Ostrich Mining 
 and Smelting Company of Lake Superior. Noah read on 
 and on with increasing interest. At one time the property 
 had promised great things. Then there was promise of 
 a railroad being built to open up that section of the coun 
 try, the ore could be promptly and cheaply gotten out to 
 market, and so on. But the railroad was not built, the 
 company lacked sufficient capital to go on, a period of 
 stagnation set in, operations were discontinued, and for 
 
 277 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 a long time Ostrich Mining and Smelting was, to all in 
 tents and purposes, dead. 
 
 But recently [wrote Mr. Chase], early last fall in fact, 
 there was a sort of resurrection and revival of the thing. 
 A big and powerful syndicate became interested in other 
 properties near there and it was reported, and with reason, 
 that they intended taking over the Ostrich holdings. There 
 was quite a little flurry on the Curb for a week or so. The 
 stock was sold, a number of blocks of it, for from thirty 
 to fifty, one small lot even as high as sixty. For the Os 
 trich property is really valuable, or would be, were it not 
 for the prohibitive cost of transportation. Then the syn 
 dicate decided not to buy, the deal fell through, and Ostrich 
 fell dead again. Lots of people would like to sell, I presume, 
 but of course no one wants to buy. There has not been 
 a share sold on the Curb since last October. I had one of 
 my men look into the matter and he tells me that there 
 have been but one hundred shares transferred on the com 
 pany s books since that time. Those hundred shares have 
 been transferred twice and here is where the odd part 
 comes in the three names involved in the transactions are 
 those of people down in that heap of salt and sand where 
 you are now, Trumet, Mass. On April fourth one Balaam 
 Griggs How s that for a name to be wished on an innocent 
 child ? transferred one hundred shares to one Obadiah Bur 
 gess And there s another name, if you like ! And on 
 the same day one Melissa Mayo transferred a hundred 
 shares to said Balaam Griggs. Of course it was the same 
 hundred. Melissa owned the stuff first and she sold or 
 gave it to Balaam and he unloaded it on to Obadiah. But 
 why on earth Obadiah should want it more than I 
 
 Captain Noah read no further. He leaned back in his 
 chair and stared helplessly at the wall paper on the oppo 
 site side of the room. 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "Melissa Mayo! Melissa " 
 
 He had been practically sure that Obadiah s wonderful 
 "investment" was nothing but a swindle, a bit of sharp 
 dealing on Griggs part. And of course that was what it 
 was, the modus operandi was childishly simple. Balaam 
 had known his cousin, Mrs. Mayo, possessed this prac 
 tically worthless stock; he had seen and grasped the op 
 portunity to sell it at a high figure to his trusting friend 
 and victim. All this was plain enough. But how much 
 had Mrs. Mayo known? How deeply was she involved 
 in the shady, contemptible transaction? That was the 
 question Noah Newcomb asked himself over and over 
 again. 
 
 "I should like to have you think well of me " 
 
 She had said that; they were the last words he had 
 heard her say. And as he sat there staring at the wall 
 paper, the certainty was borne in upon him that he had 
 come to think well of her, altogether too well for his peace 
 of mind. 
 
 If she was a party to this 
 
 He struck the table with his fist and rose to his feet. 
 
 "No, by the Lord, she ain t," he said aloud. A moment 
 later he was on his way downstairs. 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 MRS. MAYO was in the kitchen, still busy with 
 her ironing, when he entered. Her expression, 
 as she bent over the table, was grave, almost 
 sad, and she did not look up as he came in. Captain 
 Noah hesitated, walked to the door, and then, pulling 
 forward a wooden chair which stood by the window, sat 
 down. 
 
 "Well, Melissy," he observed, "still hard at it, I see." 
 
 The housekeeper nodded. 
 
 "Yes," she said. 
 
 "Too busy to talk a minute or two, are you?" 
 
 "No, I guess not." And, then, looking at him for 
 the first time, she added: "If it s anything important 
 you want to talk about." 
 
 The captain pulled at his head. "Why, I don t know s 
 tis," he said, "and I don t know s tain t." 
 
 "Well, if you don t, I don t know who does." 
 
 "So? Well, I didn t know but you might. Do you 
 know anything about stock, Melissy?" 
 
 "Why, a little mite, perhaps. My father kept a dozen 
 cows or so when I was young. He used to sell milk. 
 
 If it s that kind of stock you mean ?" 
 
 280 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "No, tain t. The stock I mean has more to do with 
 lambs than it has with cows. I mean stock exchange 
 stocks, stocks and bonds and that sort of thing. Do 
 you know anything about them?" 
 
 "No, precious little. I never was sociable enough 
 with em to know a great deal. I should think that was 
 more in your line than twas in mine, Cap n Noah. You 
 own some, don t you? Seems to me I remember 
 your tellin me about some investments you had." 
 
 "Oh, yes, I ve got some. Not enough to lame my 
 wrists cuttin off coupons, nor even enough to limber 
 em up on the job but some." 
 
 "Then why in the world do you ask me ?" 
 
 "Because the kind of stock I was cal latin to ask 
 about wasn t the kind I ve ever bought or sold. It s a 
 minin stock, and minin stocks are somethin I ve al 
 ways steered clear of. I should be well to wind ard 
 of this partic lar one only a friend of mine has put some 
 of his money into it and has been askin my advice." 
 
 "Oh, I see. What kind of a mine is it?" 
 
 The captain looked up at her from under his brows. 
 "It s a copper mine," he said. 
 
 Mrs. Mayo s interest deepened. She put down her 
 iron on the stand and turned toward her companion. 
 
 "A copper mine?" she repeated. "Why, isn t that 
 funny !" 
 
 "What s funny?" 
 
 "Why, your askin me about it. Copper minin stock 
 is the only kind of stock I do know anything about. 
 And I don t know much about that; only I did own 
 
 281 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "You did, eh? Then I ve come to the right port to 
 load up with information, I should say. So you owned 
 some copper stock, eh?" 
 
 "Yes. And for a good many years I thought it wasn t 
 goin to be worth ten cents a barrel. Then at last I sold 
 it and got quite a little money for it not anywhere 
 near what it cost of course, but a good deal more than 
 I ever expected. So it shows you can t always tell. Per 
 haps it ll work that way with your friend; although he 
 may know his is all right," she added. 
 
 The captain smiled. "He thought he knew when he 
 bought it," he observed. "Now he ain t so sure." 
 
 "Oh, I m so sorry. What is the name of the stock?" 
 
 Noah looked at her more "ntently than ever. "The 
 Ostrich Minin and Smeltin Company of Lake Supe 
 rior," he said, slowly. 
 
 She looked surprised, very much surprised, but she 
 did not look guilty or even embarrassed. The captain 
 drew a long breath of well, if not of relief, certainly of 
 satisfaction. To possess a conviction is one thing, to 
 have that conviction strengthened is another. Noah had 
 been practically sure that Melissa Mayo had been mere 
 ly an innocent participant in Obadiah Burgess s copper 
 deal, now he was still more sure. 
 
 The housekeeper gazed at him. 
 
 "Ostrich Minin and Smeltin !" she repeated. "Why, 
 Noah Newcomb !" 
 
 "My name," admitted the captain, cheerfully. "What s 
 the matter, Melissy?" 
 
 "Matter? Do you mean to tell me that your friend 
 has bought Ostrich Minin stock?" 
 
 282 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "Yes/ 
 
 "Why, that s the strangest thing I ever heard of!" 
 
 "You don t say ! I don t see anything so very strange 
 about it. Folks are buyin stocks like that every hour 
 of every day, I suppose." 
 
 "That isn t what I mean. I mean it s so strange your 
 askin my advice about it. It s the one stock I do 
 know anything about. It was Ostrich Minin and Smelt- 
 in I was tellin you about, the stock I had so long and 
 sold." 
 
 Captain Noah did not seem greatly astonished. "I 
 want to know!" was all he said. 
 
 "You want to know! Is that all you ve got to say? 
 It seems to me the queerest thing goin that you should 
 come and ask me about that stock; and yet you sit there 
 and say I want to know, as if you d been expectin it 
 all along." 
 
 The captain made no comment on this statement. In 
 stead he asked: "How many shares did you own, Me- 
 lissy?" 
 
 "A hundred. Why?" 
 
 " Twas one hundred shares my friend bought." 
 
 Mrs. Mayo, who had been standing by the ironing 
 table during the conversation so far, slowly crossed the 
 room and stood before him. 
 
 "Noah Newcomb," she demanded, "what are you driv- 
 in at?" 
 
 "Who? Me?" 
 
 "Yes, you. What is all this talk leadin up to; all 
 this about those hundred shares of stock, my stock, and 
 your friend. Who is your friend?" 
 
 19 283 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 The captain smiled. "Someone you know," he said. 
 
 "Someone I know? Tain t you, yourself?" 
 
 "No. I don t often call myself my own friend, Melissy. 
 I ain t so sure I like myself as all that comes to." 
 
 "Then who is it? ... Oh, I see! You ve been foolin 
 me all this time. Balaam told you about his buyin it, 
 I suppose." 
 
 "Balaam? Balaam Griggs you mean? Was it Balaam 
 that you sold your Ostrich to, Melissy?" 
 
 "Of course it was, and you knew it was. You and 
 your yarns about your friend ! But why did he tell 
 you? Did he want you to buy it of him?" 
 
 "No. Balaam wasn t the friend I was mentionin , Me 
 lissy. You may find it hard to believe, but I ain t any 
 surer that I like him than I am that I like myself. And 
 he never mentioned Ostrich stock to me. Fact is, he d 
 sold his afore I came here to live permanent." 
 
 "He sold it? Balaam had sold the stock he bought 
 of me? And before you came here? Why, he must 
 have sold it right off after he bought it of me." 
 
 "I shouldn t wonder. Er Melissy, would you mind 
 answerin a kind of personal question? Mind teilin 
 me how much Balaam gave you for that Ostrich stuff 
 of yours?" 
 
 She shook her head. "I m sorry, Noah," she an 
 swered. "I wish I could tell you, but I can t. You see, 
 I promised Balaam I wouldn t. Fact is, the stock, he 
 and I both agreed, wasn t much account anyhow and he 
 just bought it as a a kind of favor to me, as you might 
 
 say. I owed him Well, never mind that. I told 
 
 him I wouldn t mention the thing at all, and I shouldn t 
 
 284 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 only only you kind of fooled me into it. What made 
 you? Who is this friend of yours always provided 
 there is one at all?" 
 
 "There sartin is. Well, long s you can t tell me what 
 Balaam paid for it, maybe you d like to hear what he 
 sold it for. He sold it for fifty dollars a share." 
 
 Mrs. Mayo groped for a chair and sat heavily down 
 upon it. The color left her face. 
 
 "Fifty dollars a share !" she repeated, slowly. "Cap n 
 Newcomb, are you foolin again ?" 
 
 "No, Melissy." 
 
 "Then then you must be crazy." 
 
 "I ain t, and neither was Balaam. The other party in 
 the deal might stand a chance of bein convicted on a 
 charge of softness of the skull that is the feller that 
 paid the fifty per." 
 
 "Whc^-who was it?" 
 
 "Obadiah Burgess." 
 
 The effect of this name was to render her speechless 
 for a moment. She grew paler even than before. 
 
 "Obadiah Obadiah Burgess!" she repeated. "He 
 sold it to Obadiah Burgess for for fifty dollars a 
 share ! That s that s five thousand dollars, isn t it ? He 
 took five thousand dollars from him! Oh, Noah, you 
 ain t foolin , are you?" 
 
 He shook his head. 
 
 "No, Melissy," he said, gravely, "I ain t foolin . He 
 sold it to Obe let him have it as a particular favor to 
 him for five thousand cash." 
 
 "Oh ! Oh ! Oh ! Noah, he he paid me five dollars 
 285 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 a share for it. There ! I have broken my word, but 1 
 don t much care." 
 
 The captain leaned back in his chair. He whistled, 
 long and shrilly. 
 
 "Whew !" he exclaimed. "If that ain t " He paused, 
 laughed, and then added: "Well, in some respects I ll 
 take off my hat to Balaam Griggs. In his line he s 
 pretty hard to beat. Buy it for five hundred of you, 
 his own relation and then sell it for five thousand to 
 his particular friend. Tut ! tut ! tut ! That s some trad- 
 in !" 
 
 "But, Noah, are you sure he did it? I can t hardly 
 believe he could." 
 
 "He did. And, Melissy, I cal late he had as good as 
 sold it to Obadiah before he bought it of you. The 
 transfers of stock in the books were all together, you to 
 Balaam and Balaam to Obe. I guess there ain t much 
 doubt that he had made the dicker and fixed the five 
 thousand price afore he actually paid you the five hun 
 dred. Let s see, you re his first cousin, ain t you ? It s a 
 good thing you ain t his sister, or you mightn t have got 
 but two hundred and fifty." 
 
 She was silent, thinking, her fingers twisting in her 
 lap. 
 
 "Noah," she asked, "is the stock worth anything?" 
 
 "Why yes, something I cal late. Anywheres from 
 five to seven dollars a share might be a fair price, I 
 should think, to a person who was willin to take a gam 
 bler s chance and wait." 
 
 "But I can t see Noah, how did he get Mr. Burgess 
 to pay so much for it?" 
 
 286 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 The captain sniffed. 
 
 "Melissy," he answered, "have you cruised along with 
 Obe Burgess for the last four or five months and not 
 come to know that he d pay any price for anything, if 
 the right person talked him into it? I d undertake to 
 sell Obe a dentist s license to fit false teeth into a hay- 
 rake, if I could have a couple of days time and a pack 
 age of throat lozenges. And I m a deef and dumb per 
 suader compared to your Cousin Balaam." 
 
 He went on to tell of the reports of sales in the 
 papers of the previous fall, expressing the opinion that 
 it was those papers which had been shown Mr. Bur 
 gess. 
 
 "Obe thought he d made a high old investment at 
 first," he continued. "Then he got scared and wrote for 
 me to come and help him out. After I did come he 
 was scared to tell me, for fear of findin out he had 
 made an idiot of himself, and twas only a little spell 
 ago I wormed the yarn out of him. He s mighty nerv 
 ous, Obe is, and no wonder. His Aunt Sarah s legacy 
 is fadin away like a night s frost in a mornin sun. 
 About half of it s gone already, I judge." 
 
 She wrung her hands. "The poor man !" she cried. 
 "The poor man! And I" Then, as if the thought 
 had occurred to her for the first time, she turned to 
 him and asked anxiously: "Noah, you don t think I 
 knew of this, do you? You don t think I was a a 
 partner in in sellin him that stock?" 
 
 Captain Noah put back his head and laughed heartily. 
 "I knew you weren t from the first, Melissy. I ve told 
 you more n once that I ve learned to estimate folks, and 
 
 287 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 I made my estimate of you long ago. Here! My soul 
 and body! Don t do that, Melissy! Don t!" 
 
 She had put her apron to her eyes and was crying 
 softly. He sprang from his chair and came towards 
 her, but she dropped the apron and motioned him away. 
 
 "Don t mind me," she said. "It it ain t anything. 
 I don t know why I cried, unless unless it was because 
 you said you trusted me. I don t see how you can." 
 
 "I don t see how I couldn t. If you ain t a good, 
 straight, honest woman, Melissy Mayo, then there ain t 
 any made." 
 
 She smiled pitifully. "And yet you know I ve been 
 helpin cheat poor Mr. Burgess," she said. 
 
 "You ain t, neither. You ain t responsible for Ba 
 laam s " 
 
 "I ve kept still while Balaam sold him the household 
 supplies at big prices. I ve stayed on here when I knew 
 he couldn t afford to keep me." 
 
 This speech the captain found it hard to answer. He 
 made a brave effort, but the right words were not 
 within hailing distance. She watched him grow red in 
 the face and sighed. 
 
 "You know it s true," she said. "But I ain t goin 
 to let you think I knew what was goin to become of 
 that Ostrich stock when I let Balaam have it. I didn t 
 My husband bought those shares afore he died ; we was 
 livin* in Gloucester then and Joe s mother, my only 
 sister she was, and her baby was livin with us. John, 
 my husband, had some friends up there in Michigan 
 and they thought high of the Ostrich property and gave 
 John a tip to get in on the ground floor. So he got 
 
 288 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 in, though," with a shrug, "it was more like the cellar 
 than the ground floor, I m afraid. But up to the time 
 of his death he had confidence in it and kept sayin* 
 he was goin to hold on. I d most forgot the stuff 
 through all the years since he died, and lately," she 
 sighed and looked wearily out of the window, "lately 
 I ve had other things to keep me thinkin . But along 
 that time in April Balaam came to me and said he un 
 derstood I still had those shares. I said yes, I believed 
 I had, and he said, as a favor to me, he d be willin to 
 take em over as part payment. So I thought twas a 
 wonderful chance and I sold em. That s all the story. 
 Of course if I d known what he meant to do with em 
 cheat that poor, simple, good-hearted man out of his 
 money I d have cut my hand off before I let him have 
 em, debt or no debt." 
 
 Her fingers clenched in her lap and her eyes flashed. 
 Noah said quietly, "So there s a debt, eh? I thought as 
 much." 
 
 She turned on him in alarm. "You thought as 
 much?" she repeated. "What do you mean? What 
 did you think?" 
 
 "I thought there was some reason why Balaam had 
 you workin here, where you felt you hadn t ought to be, 
 and kept you here against your will. And the only 
 reason I could think of was that, somehow or other, 
 you d come to owe him money. I know he d rub his 
 own grandmother through a sieve if the old lady had 
 swallowed a ten-cent piece, and I know if, by hook or 
 crook, he got you under his thumb, he d stop at precious 
 close to nothin to keep you there. You owe him money, 
 
 289 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 Melissy. You just the same as said so. Will you tell 
 me how much it is?" 
 
 She shook her head. She looked worried, almost 
 frightened. 
 
 "No, no," she cried, hurriedly. "I didn t say I owed 
 him anything. You mustn t ask me, Noah. Please." 
 
 "I shouldn t ask you if I wasn t your friend, Melissy. 
 And I ain t askin for curiosity, either. How much do 
 you owe Balaam Griggs? Come now, tell me." 
 
 But she would not tell. He tried again. 
 
 "Of course it ain t of my business, Melissy," he be 
 gan. She interrupted him. 
 
 "It isn t that, Noah," she said. "I don t mind you 
 askin a bit. I know you re doin it just because you re 
 interested and friendly. But I can t tell you, truly I 
 can t." 
 
 "Why not ? It can t be such a Scargo Hill of money 
 that I d be afraid to sight it through a spyglass. Would 
 you mind tellin me what you owe it for?" 
 
 This question seemed to trouble and alarm her more 
 than the other. 
 
 "Oh, no, no !" she cried. "Please don t ask me, Noah. 
 Please !" 
 
 He came close to her. 
 
 "Melissy," he said gently, "I hate to torment you. 
 I hate to keep askin . I m doin it not just because I m 
 interested and friendly, as you say, but for a bigger 
 reason than that. I know you re in some sort of 
 trouble, deep trouble, and I believe I could help you out. 
 I m sartin I could. I m goin to, if you ll give me the 
 chance." 
 
 290 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 The tears were in her eyes again, but she still shook 
 her head. 
 
 "No, Noah/ she said, "you re awful kind and good and 
 I m I don t dare tell you how grateful I am to you for 
 wantin to help ; but you can t help, nobody can." 
 
 "I can, and I m goin to." 
 
 "You can t. It s a trouble I must get out of myself. 
 I will, I hope and trust, give me time." 
 
 She was trying to be brave and to pretend a confidence 
 she did not feel. The captain recognized the effort and 
 realized also the discouragement behind it. He swal 
 lowed hard. 
 
 "Melissy," he persisted, "you needn t tell me what 
 you owe this money for, if you don t want to. All I ll 
 ask you is to tell me how much it is. Look here, you 
 know I ve got some money of my own. Course I ain t 
 any Commodore Vanderbilt or anything like that, but 
 I ain t liable to have to ship afore the mast in the poor- 
 house, neither. You tell me how much you owe Ba 
 laam; then I ll lend you enough to pay him. After 
 that " 
 
 "No, no, Noah. No." 
 
 "After that you can pay me a little at a time. Mighty 
 little and any time. Come now, let me do this, won t 
 you? It ll just be a pleasure for me, honest." 
 
 He bent forward and tried to look in her face, but 
 she turned away. It was a moment before she spoke. 
 
 "You are a good man, Noah Newcomb," she said, 
 quietly. "You re a good man." 
 
 "Who? Me? Rubbish! I m just a a capitalist, 
 that s what I am, I m a capitalist, same as Obadiah cal - 
 
 291 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 lated he was, and I m hankerin to turn over my capital. 
 Only/ he added, hastily, "I pick my investments more 
 careful than he does his, that s all. Now, Melissy, we ll 
 just call it settled. You tell me how much " 
 
 She turned to him now and, after one glance at her 
 face, he knew that it was settled, and settled against him. 
 She looked up into his face and once more shook her 
 head. 
 
 "No, Noah," she said, quietly but firmly. "No, I can t 
 do it and you mustn t think of it. If I had to borrow 
 money I think I d rather borrow it of you than anyone 
 I know, but I can t borrow. That wouldn t help me 
 any." 
 
 "Why not? I tell you I don t need " 
 
 "Hush ! Don t tell me any more. Just let me re 
 member what you have told me. Be sure I ll never, 
 never forget it. And thank you." 
 
 He was still rebellious. "But why not, Melissy?" he 
 demanded. "All I want to do is to see you happy just 
 once, that s all." 
 
 She smiled, although her eyes were brimming. 
 
 "I am happier than I have been for a good while," 
 she said. "And you ve made me so." 
 
 "And you can t tell me how you come to be in Ba 
 laam s debt?" 
 
 "No, Noah. Perhaps if it was my own story alto 
 gether I could, but it isn t, it s somebody else s, too ; so 
 you see I can t tell." 
 
 Noah clenched his fists. 
 
 "I ve a good mind to grab the old landshark," he 
 growled, "and choke it out of him." 
 
 292 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 This frightened her. She seized his arm. 
 "Oh, no," she pleaded. "Noah, you won t do any 
 thing to him, or say anything to him about it, will you ? 
 For my sake you won t do that? It wouldn t do any 
 good and would only make more trouble. Please prom 
 ise you won t." 
 
 And just then, as one more justification of the old 
 "Speak of angels" proverb, they heard the voice of 
 the very person they were discussing. Mr. Balaam 
 Griggs, somewhere on the premises, was shouting for 
 his young relative. 
 
 "Joe ! Joe Kenney !" he shouted. "Jo-o-e ! Where be 
 you?" 
 
 Mrs. Mayo shivered at the sound. "He ll be in here 
 in a minute," she whispered. "And I I don t feel as 
 if I could see him just now." 
 
 The captain grunted. "I m dum sure I don t want 
 to see him, either," he muttered. "It might be too hard 
 to put off that chokin program if I did. I ll clear out, 
 Melissy, up street or somewheres. Guess likely I ll go 
 for a cruise in the Pancake my car, I mean. You and 
 me ll have another talk pretty soon. I ain t given up 
 yet. You think that notion of mine over; do now. It 
 won t be the least mite of trouble and " 
 
 Balaam went by the window, still roaring for young 
 Kenney. 
 
 "Joe !" he shouted. "Joe ! Joash Kenney, where in time 
 are you, you good for nothin loafer ? Jo-ash !" 
 
 Captain Noah turned to Mrs. Mayo. 
 
 "What did he call him?" he asked. But Mrs. Mayo 
 had gone; the door leading to the back stairs was just 
 
 293 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 closing. The captain picked up his hat and headed for 
 the dining room and the front hall, but before he could 
 escape from the kitchen Mr. Griggs entered it. The 
 dealer in antiques and copper stocks was decidedly not 
 in a good humor. 
 
 "Seen anything of that everlastin young relation of 
 mine?" he sputtered, red-faced and out of breath. 
 
 Captain Noah filled and lighted his pipe. Balaam re 
 peated his question. 
 
 "I say, have you seen anything of that Joe Kenney 
 round here?" he asked. 
 
 The captain scratched a match. "That wan t what I 
 heard you callin him a minute ago," he observed, be 
 tween puffs. 
 
 "What wan t?" 
 
 "Joe. You were yellin the shingles loose callin him 
 some other name, wan t you?" 
 
 "Eh? Other name? I called him a good for nothing 
 everlastin " 
 
 " Twan t those I meant. You were callin him 7 
 Jo somethin or other." 
 
 "Humph ! I called him Joash. That s his name." 
 
 "Jo what? I thought his name was Joseph." 
 
 " Tain t. It s Joash. Did you ever hear such a name 
 in your life? He hates to be called by it, and no wonder; 
 but it was christened onto him just the same. Have you 
 seen him ? I want him to do some cratin and cartin over 
 to my place and he s always off somewheres where I can t 
 lay hands on him, lazy good for nothin . ... Eh ? What 
 are you lookin at me so funny for?" 
 
 The captain was staring at Mr. Griggs with a puzzled 
 
 294 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 expression on his face. He seemed to be trying to re 
 member something. 
 
 "What did you say that boy s name was?" he asked 
 again. 
 
 "Joash." 
 
 "Spell it." 
 
 Balaam spelt it, and added : "Have you seen him, I ask 
 you ?" 
 
 Captain Noah did not answer. He walked briskly out 
 of the kitchen, out of the yard and down to the garage 
 where he kept the little automobile. 
 
 His ride was neither very long nor very enjoyable. He 
 narrowly escaped running down several indignant citi 
 zens, afoot or in wagons, because he seemed to be quite 
 absent-mindedly unaware of their proximity. It was not 
 until he had progressed as far as the forks of the road 
 leading to South Trumet that the puzzled frown left his 
 face. He suddenly leaned back in the driver s seat and 
 whistled. 
 
 "That s it !" he exclaimed aloud. "Sure enough, that s 
 it!" 
 
 He turned the car about and, at a thirty-mile an hour 
 gait, whizzed back to Trumet and the Burgess front gate. 
 Before that gate he brought the automobile to a stand 
 still, sprang out, opened the door softly and went upstairs 
 to his room. Then, having locked the door, he opened 
 one of the small upper drawers of his bureau. The 
 drawer was more than half full of papers, memoranda, 
 newspaper clippings and the like. The captain had a way 
 of loading his pocketbook with such things and then, 
 when it became too corpulent for comfortable transpor- 
 
 295 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 tation, unloading it into his bureau drawer or a compart 
 ment in the tray of his trunk. The contents of this 
 drawer represented almost a year s accumulation in trunk 
 tray and pocketbook. 
 
 He emptied the heap upon his table and, sitting down 
 before it, began looking the papers over, one by one. It 
 was some time before he found what he was looking for, 
 but at last he held it in his hand. An oblong strip of 
 cheap note paper, evidently torn from the bottom of a 
 letter. Upon it was written: 
 
 sending you every cent ju 
 
 omptly as ever I can. For 
 
 d s sake remember how hard it 
 
 n t put Joash, poor boy, in state s prison. 
 
 Leaning back in his chair the captain tried to remem 
 ber how that slip of paper had come into his possession. 
 It had fallen from the copy of the Herald he was read 
 ing on that first night of his first visit to Trumet first in 
 recent years, that is. And in accounting for its presence 
 between the Herald s pages he saw himself again sitting 
 in the corner of the crowded Trumet post office, beside 
 the peach crate waste basket, while Mr. Balaam Griggs 
 savagely tore a letter into pieces and tossed the fragments 
 in the direction of the waste basket. 
 
 He rose, walked over to the bureau, and returned with 
 another slip of paper, a note written by Mrs. Mayo as a 
 shopping guide when he had offered to do an errand for 
 her in Wellmouth a few days before. Again sitting 
 down at the table, he took this note and the other frag 
 ment and compared the handwriting upon each. And, 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 as he did so, slowly an expression of triumphant and 
 complete satisfaction began to dawn upon his face. He 
 struck the table top a mighty slap with his open hand 
 and rose to his feet. 
 
 No wonder he looked triumphant. The long, worri 
 some "picture puzzle" was, he believed, solved at last. 
 The last troublesome fragment was fitting into place. 
 Leaving the litter of papers upon the table, he hurried 
 downstairs and out of doors. 
 
 He circuited the house and approached the barn from 
 the rear, in order that no one in the kitchen might see 
 him. He entered the carriage room and, softly ascending 
 the ladder, rapped lightly upon the under side of the trap 
 door. He heard a startled exclamation and the sound of 
 a chair being scraped along the floor. Then a voice, Joe 
 Kenney s voice, said quaveringly: "Who is it?" 
 
 "It s me, Cap n Newcomb," whispered the captain. 
 "Let me up, Joe." 
 
 A weight was removed from the trap-door and the lat 
 ter was lifted. Captain Noah came up into the loft and 
 closed the trap after him. The crayon enlargement of 
 Mr. Wentworth was still upon the easel, and the artist s 
 fingers, not to mention his nose, were smeared with cfr alk ; 
 so it was easy to see how he had occupied his time since 
 the captain s former visit. 
 
 "Been hard at it, haven t you, Joe ?" observed the cap 
 tain, with a nod toward the easel. "Too busy to hear 
 Cousin Balaam bellowin after you like a bull of Bashan, 
 eh?" 
 
 Joe looked frightened. "Was he ?" he asked, fearfully. 
 "I didn t hear him. Gee! honest I didn t." 
 
 297 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "Course not, course not. Well, don t let that trouble 
 you any. Time enough for him to find you when he does, 
 I guess likely. But, Joe, I ve come up here to ask you 
 a question and I want you to answer it. Will you ?" 
 
 "Why, yes, sir, I I guess so. Course I will if if it 
 ain t " 
 
 "And if you do answer it, will you answer it honest 
 and straight?" 
 
 "Yes, sir." 
 
 "All right. Joe, what has Balaam Griggs got on you 
 that would put you in state s prison? ... Eh! Good 
 Lord above! Here, here, boy, brace up; don t act that 
 way!" 
 
 For Joe, after a gasp and a momentary stare at his 
 questioner, had gone suddenly white and collapsed side 
 ways upon a heap of empty boxes. Captain Noah pulled 
 him to his feet, but he seized the captain by the arm and 
 broke into a torrent of pleadings and protestations. 
 
 "I didn t," he cried, "I didn t. It wasn t my fault, 
 Cap n Newcomb, I swear it wasn t. I lost it; I didn t 
 steal it. Don t let him put me in prison. I didn t do it, 
 Cap n Newcomb, I " 
 
 Noah put a hand on the boy s trembling shoulder and 
 patted it soothingly. 
 
 "There, there, Joe," he said. "There, there! Buck 
 up ; be a man. I don t doubt you didn t do it, whatever 
 it was, and I ain t accusin you of anything. I m here to 
 help you, and so I want you to tell me the truth, that s 
 all, just the truth and nothin else. There s nothin to be 
 afraid of. For all we know, this may be the first tack 
 
 298 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 towards that ranch of yours. Anyhow, it ain t towards 
 prison, I give you my word for that. I m goin to be 
 your friend, Joe, if you ll give me the chance. Come on, 
 now ; spin your yarn." 
 
 And after a time, and little by little, Joe spun it. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 MISS BARSTOW had not exaggerated in telling 
 Captain Noah Newcomb that her stepfather was 
 "cross." For a period of several weeks Ba 
 laam had been as ugly as sin and woe betide the un 
 lucky individual upon whom he could safely vent his 
 spite and ill humor. During those weeks he had almost 
 entirely given over his habit of dropping in at the Bur 
 gess house for a meal, and he and Captain Newcomb 
 had seen comparatively little of each other. Their talks 
 concerning Trumet real estate had almost entirely 
 ceased. The captain had not seen fit to purchase any 
 of the "bargains" pointed out to him by his enterpris 
 ing friend, and the latter had about reached the con 
 clusion that he never intended doing so. But he had 
 not entirely given up hope ; Balaam seldom did give up 
 all hope where a trade was involved. 
 
 During the period of his "crossness" that immedi 
 ately preceding and following the departure of Mr. Cal 
 vin Wentworth for New York Mr. Griggs had avoided 
 the captain s society just as he avoided that of Obadiah 
 Burgess and other business "friends." He was in the 
 depths of gloom. The knowledge that the debonair 
 Wentworth shared his secret concerning Ira Barstow s 
 
 300 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 will, and the forebodings which that knowledge entailed, 
 prevented his enjoying companionship. Cousin Calvin 
 had already "borrowed" two hundred dollars on the 
 strength of that secret. Balaam foresaw a dismal fu 
 ture replete with similar borrowings. His money was 
 as much a part of him as his skin, and to be skinned 
 a little at a time was an exceedingly painful process. He 
 had felt the first pangs already in reality. He was feel 
 ing the others in anticipation. No wonder he was de 
 spondent and out of sorts. 
 
 But when another week began and Mr. Wentworth 
 did not return from the metropolis Balaam s spirits be 
 gan to revive. There was no real reason for this revival, 
 in his moments of serious reflection he realized that 
 there was not; but he was more optimistic and began to 
 cherish a faint hope. As the week drew on to its close 
 and still there was no sign of the missing society leader 
 the hope became stronger. Something might have hap 
 pened, some accident perhaps. Balaam had been in New 
 York but twice during his lifetime, but his memories 
 of the Broadway throngs were acute. He knew that 
 he, himself, had been in momentary fear of being run 
 over; perhaps Cousin Calvin had been run over. At the 
 thought his countenance was contorted with emotion, 
 which may or may not have been grief. Perhaps this 
 was another happy supposition perhaps the missing one 
 had committeed some crime, such, for instance, as re 
 quisitioning two hundred dollars from the earnings of a 
 hard-working, frugal man, and had been arrested. Or 
 But never mind Balaam s other guesses and hopes, there 
 were several, but the sum of each and all was that, for 
 
 301 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 a reason unknown, Calvin Wentworth might might be 
 permanently detained in New York. Of course, common 
 sense told him this was not in the least likely to be 
 true, but he dared to hope and to feel more cheerful. 
 
 Another reason for his improving temper was the fact 
 that his stepdaughter was giving him so little trouble. 
 He had expected grief, tears and deep despondency when 
 Irving Clifford was "exposed" and sent about his 
 business. For a day or two Mary had been very pale 
 and quiet, but only for a day or two. After that she had 
 perked up amazingly and had been as merry and, to all 
 appearances, as happy as she had ever been. Then 
 Cousin Calvin came and went. While he was here she 
 had seemed to enjoy his society, but now that he had 
 gone she was not mourning for him, that was evident. 
 Balaam was forced to believe that she really cared noth 
 ing for him, that she had cared little or nothing for 
 Clifford, that she was, in short, a heart-free young lady, 
 which, according to his view, was precisely what a step 
 daughter with twenty-five thousand dollars in his care 
 and unaware of it, should be. And, to add to his satis 
 faction, not once during the past fortnight or more had 
 she mentioned the idea of going to Boston to earn her 
 own living. 
 
 This particular morning she appeared to be in the high 
 est spirits, singing at her housework in the kitchen and 
 rattling the dishes with brisk cheerfulness. Balaam, out 
 in the shed, rubbing with oil the battered panels of an 
 antique dresser, heard her and grinned. The dresser 
 was a new purchase ; he had paid four dollars and a half 
 for it and believed he could sell it for thirty at least, 
 
 302 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 so he felt that he could afford to grin. Incidentally Mary s 
 cheerfulness was a happy augury. If that Wentworth 
 fellow did come back; or, at the worst, when he came 
 back, he might find all his society wiles useless. Plainly 
 Miss Barstow did not care two cents for him. Of course 
 this did not change the distressing fact that Wentworth 
 knew of the Barstow will, but well, it was some com 
 fort, nevertheless. 
 
 Mary s singing suddenly ceased. So did the rattle of 
 the dishes. A few minutes later Balaam, through the 
 shed window, saw her coming across the yard. Her eyes 
 were shining, her cheeks were flushed and she seemed 
 elated and excited about something. Incidentally, a sus 
 ceptible person Irving Clifford, for instance might 
 have thought her wonderfully pretty. Balaam did not 
 notice; he was not susceptible. 
 
 She came to the open door of the shed. 
 
 "Mr. Griggs !" she called. "Oh, there you are ! Cap n 
 Newcomb is here. He wants to see you." 
 
 Balaam looked at her, questioningly. "Who? Noah 
 Newcomb?" he repeated. "What does he want to see 
 me for?" 
 
 "He didn t say, except that it was a matter of busi 
 ness." 
 
 "Business, eh? What business?" 
 
 "He didn t say, I tell you. Aren t you going to see 
 him?" 
 
 Mr. Griggs reflected. The only business Captain New- 
 comb could possibly wish to discuss with him would be 
 that involving those real estate "bargains." Perhaps 
 
 303 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 yes, doubtless the captain had decided to trade at last. 
 He threw down the oil rag and turned to the door. 
 
 "I ll be right out," he said. "Where is he?" 
 
 "At the front gate. He is in his car. I asked him to 
 get out, but he wouldn t." 
 
 "Humph! All right." Then, watching for the first 
 time the young lady s manner, he asked : "What are you 
 so lively and chirky about? Look as if you d had good 
 news. W T hat is it ; anybody left you a million ?" 
 
 This last was a slip of the tongue, for any mention of 
 a legacy was decidedly dangerous. But of this danger 
 Miss Barstow was, of course, quite unaware. She 
 laughed merrily. 
 
 "Oh, no," she replied; "nothing like that I am en 
 joying this weather, that is all. Did you ever see such 
 a marvelous day? It is as if it were made on purpose." 
 
 "On purpose for what?" demanded Balaam. She 
 seemed startled and oddly confused for an instant, then 
 laughed again and said: 
 
 "Oh, for nothing in particular, I suppose; just for us 
 all. But you must hurry. Cap n Newcomb is waiting." 
 
 The captain was on the seat of the "Panhard." He 
 hailed Mr. Griggs cheerfully. 
 
 "Morning Balaam," he said. "Busy this forenoon, are 
 you?" 
 
 Balaam looked at him over his spectacles. 
 
 "I m most generally busy, or cal late to be," he ob 
 served. "But I ain t too busy to talk with my friends, 
 especially such a friend as you be, Cap n. What can I 
 do for you today?" 
 
 Captain Noah smiled genially. "Well, I was kind of 
 
 304 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 hopin you d feel like takin a cruise along with me in the 
 Pancake here," he replied. "Eh? How about it?" 
 
 Mr. Griggs looked doubtful. "I m pretty busy, same 
 as I said," he declared. "I like automobile ridin first- 
 rate you know that, Cap n Newcomb." 
 
 The captain nodded. "Wentworth said you was crazy 
 about it," he observed. 
 
 Balaam glanced suspiciously at the speaker. "Oh, he 
 told you I went along with him, did he?" he asked. 
 
 "Yes, he happened to mention it. Said you and he 
 went over to Ostable together, I believe." 
 
 "He did, eh? I want to know! Did he tell you any 
 particulars about the trip?" 
 
 The question was asked with an elaborate air of inno 
 cence, and it was answered with one just as childlike and 
 bland. 
 
 "No," said the captain. "I believe he did say some- 
 thin about your havin the time of your life." 
 
 "Is that so!" with righteous indignation. "Do tell! 
 The time of my life ! I tell you right now a few more 
 of them times and I wouldn t have any life. You never 
 see such divilish fool drivin in all your born days. 
 Crazy, reckless lunatic! Says I, You never missed that 
 post by more n two inches/ What of it? says he. 
 Tain t your post, is it ? Did you ever hear such loony 
 talk in your life? What in time did I care whose post 
 twas?" 
 
 Captain Noah laughed heartily. "I shan t drive you 
 that way, Balaam," he said. "Better come along with 
 me. I ve got a little matter of business I want to talk 
 over with you." 
 
 305 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 Mr. Griggs appeared to consider. "Business, eh?" he 
 repeated. "Where was you cal latin to ride to, Capn ?" 
 
 " Oh, I don t know. Down Trumet Neck way, I 
 shouldn t wonder." 
 
 The real estate "bargains" were, some of them, located 
 at Trumet Neck. Balaam twisted a side whisker reflec 
 tively. "Wa-al," he drawled, "I presume likely I could 
 go. Little mite of time off wouldn t do me no harm, as I 
 know of. I er Why, yes, Cap n, I ll go, seein a-s 
 it s you." 
 
 He hurried into the house for his hat. Captain Noah 
 regarded the center of the wind-shield and, apparently, 
 found something amusing there, for he smiled. 
 
 The little car buzzed through Trumet and off along 
 the South Trumet road to the junction of the road lead 
 ing to Trumet Neck. This thoroughfare was merely 
 "oiled" not macadamed, and was therefore somewhat 
 bumpy, but it was an asphalted parkway for smooth 
 ness compared to the byway into which they presently 
 turned. This was a narrow rutted lane through the 
 woods and wound and twisted on through a desolate 
 wilderness of scrub pines, beach plum brushes and sandy 
 nothingness. Balaam, who had never traveled its jolty 
 windings before, rattled loose a question. 
 
 "Wha wha what are you tu-turn Ugh! God 
 freys, what a bump that was? What are you tur 
 Ugh ! turnin in here for ? This don t go to the Ugh ! 
 Neck, does it?" 
 
 "Short cut," replied the captain. "Hang on, Balaam. 
 Tis kind of rough over the rips here, ain t it." 
 
 It surely was. Mr. Griggs few remaining teeth bade 
 
 306 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 fair to leave him before that ride was at an end. And 
 the road, or roads for the captain kept turning from 
 one to the other of the narrow overgrown tracks seemed 
 to have no end. Half a dozen times the passenger started 
 to ask where on earth they were bound, but each time 
 his pilot merely grunted "Short cut" or "You ll see 
 pretty soon," and centered all his energies on the steer 
 ing. Griggs gave it up finally, but he mentally vowed 
 to add at least ten dollars to the price of whichever bar 
 gain Captain Newcomb decided to buy, as a salve for his 
 own bruised feelings and person. 
 
 At last the car jounced out of the woods and into a 
 small clearing. There was a house in the clearing, a low 
 shingled building, evidently unoccupied. Between the 
 pines behind the house shone a gleam of sunlit water. 
 
 Balaam stared at the house and its surroundings. 
 "Where in time are we?" he demanded in astonishment. 
 This ain t the Neck, is it? I don t remember no place 
 like this at the Neck." 
 
 Captain Noah laughed. "The Neck?" he repeated. 
 "We ain t within five miles of the Neck. This is Howell 
 Winslow s shootin camp over at East Wellmouth. That s 
 the bay you see out yonder. His duck blinds are over 
 at the pond a hundred yards in the other direction. You d 
 never do to go to sea without a compass, Balaam, if you 
 can t guess your latitude any nigher than to call this 
 place the Neck." 
 
 Mr. Griggs continued to stare. "But you said you was 
 goin to the Neck," he declared in bewilderment. "What 
 in time did you lug me way over here for?" 
 
 The captain grinned, "I told you I might go to the 
 
 307 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 Neck," he said, "but I came here instead. Howell left 
 the key to this place with Irve Clifford last spring and 
 told Irve to use it if he wanted to. Irve turned the keys 
 over to me when he went away, and so I thought I d 
 have a look. I ve only been here once before, with Irve, 
 but I found my way pretty well, don t you think ? Come 
 on, Balaam, let s go inside." 
 
 He sprang out of the automobile and slowly his pas 
 senger followed him. Mr. Griggs disappointment was 
 keen. 
 
 "I thought you said you wanted to talk business with 
 me," he grumbled. "I didn t know you was goin to 
 cruise way over here just to look at a shootin camp. I 
 told you I was pretty busy to home and " 
 
 Noah interrupted. "There, there," he said. "Who 
 said we weren t goin to talk business? Not me, sartin. 
 This camp s for sale. You knew that, didn t you, Ba 
 laam?" 
 
 Mr. Griggs had known it, but had forgotten. Now, 
 as the fact was called to his attention, his spirits revived. 
 Perhaps Newcomb was thinking of buying the Winslow 
 camp, and had brought him along as a consulting expert. 
 In his mind s eye Balaam saw a prospective liberal com 
 mission to be paid him by Mr. Winslow. 
 
 "Let s go inside and look her over," he said, blithely. 
 "Pretty fancy lookin buildin outside, seems to me. 
 Feller that bought this outfit at a reasonable rigger 
 wouldn t make no mistake. No sir-ee, he wouldn t." 
 
 His companion did not answer, but led the way over 
 to the building. It was not "fancy" exactly, but it was 
 pleasant and summery in a rough way, although the shut- 
 
 308 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 ters were up at the windows and the doors locked. The 
 captain took a key from his pocket, unlocked the door 
 and went in. A moment later he reappeared, having 
 loosened the fastenings of two of the shutters, and pro 
 ceeded to swing those shutters open. 
 
 "There," he said. "Now we can see something 1 car- 
 late. Come in, Balaam." 
 
 He and Mr. Griggs entered the living room of the 
 camp. Balaam, staring about him at the big fireplace, 
 the heavy table and chairs, did not notice what his com 
 panion was doing. Therefore he did not see the latter 
 lock the door on the inside and put the key in his pocket. 
 
 The captain walked over to the big table, took a 
 (memorandum book and a small packet of papers from 
 inside his coat and tossed them on the table before him. 
 Then he sighed contentedly and produced and lighted a 
 cigar. 
 
 "Have one, Balaam?" he inquired. "Sho! No, 
 course you won t. I forgot you was too moral to smoke. 
 Well, here we are, snug and quiet and where nobody can 
 interrupt us. What do you say if we talk business?" 
 
 There was an odd note in his voice which Mr. Griggs 
 did not understand. He looked at the captain s face, then 
 at the papers on the table. 
 
 "What s them?" he demanded. 
 
 Captain Noah smiled. "Those are part of the busi 
 ness I brought you over here to talk about," he said. 
 "It s liable to be a pretty long talk, so sit down, Ba 
 laam." 
 
 Balaam looked at the captain s face and then at the 
 papers once more. 
 
 309 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "What s them, I ask you?" he repeated. 
 
 "Sit down and I ll tell you. Sit down." 
 
 Mr. Griggs sat. The captain took up one of the slips 
 of paper and glanced at it. 
 
 "Balaam," he said, "as nigh as I can figger it out you 
 claimed Melissa Mayo or Joe Kenney, which is the same 
 thing owed you twelve hundred and fifty dollars in the 
 beginning didn t you?" 
 
 Balaam s eyes and mouth opened. He leaned back in 
 his chair, his face white and red by turns. 
 
 "That s what twas, twelve hundred and fifty, wan t 
 it?" repeated Noah, calmly. "Twelve hundred and fifty 
 was the amount Joe collected for you in Gloucester that 
 time and then lost." 
 
 Balaam s lips moved, but he did not say anything. 
 The captain continued. 
 
 "The way I got the yarn from Joe," he said, "it hap 
 pened about like this I wish you d tell me if I m wrong 
 anywhere: Two years ago or more you owned some 
 shares in a fishin* vessel and sold em out to a feller in 
 Gloucester. He was to give you his check on a certain 
 day and you was goin up to Gloucester and get it and 
 close up the deal. A week afore that day came you was 
 sick in bed with rheumatism sshh ! don t interrupt for 
 a minute. If I m wrong you tell me afterwards so, 
 bein sick, you wrote to Melissa Mayo, your cousin up 
 to Pigeon Cove, and asked her to go over and see this 
 Gloucester man on the day appointed and get the check 
 or the money, whichever twas to be. She couldn t go 
 so she sent Joe. Joe went and the feller paid him cash. 
 
 Then somehow or other Joe lost the money " 
 
 310 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 Balaam s face was no longer pale. It was a flaming 
 red. He sprang to his feet. 
 
 "Lost it!" he shouted. "He stole it, and he knows 
 darned well he did. . . . But that don t make no differ 
 ence, not to you it don t. What are you talkin to me 
 about Joe Kenney s thievin for? Did you cart me over 
 here to talk about that?" 
 
 The captain blew a cloud of cigar smoke and nodded. 
 
 "Um-hm," he said, "that and some other things." 
 
 "You did? You did? Was that the business 7 you 
 had along of me?" 
 
 "Um-hm. That and the rest of it." 
 
 Mr. Griggs stared at him suspiciously. "Is this is 
 this some kind of a comical joke or somethin ?" he de 
 manded. 
 
 "Nary a comic, Balaam. I brought you over here on 
 purpose to talk about your dealin s with Melissy her 
 and some other folks." 
 
 Balaam started for the door. 
 
 "You go to thunder," he snarled. 
 
 "Maybe I will later on. Where are you cal latin to 
 go just now? You won t go far that way, the door s 
 locked." 
 
 It was locked, and so Mr. Griggs found. He hastened 
 to the two remaining doors leading from the room and 
 found them locked also. 
 
 "Don t waste your time, Balaam," counseled Noah, 
 serenely. "You won t get out of here until you and I 
 have had this talk. That s why I brought you over here, 
 five mile away from the rest of creation, so we could 
 have it without anybody s else buttin in or you re but- 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 tin out. Now sit down like a sensible man and listen. 
 Ill hurry all I can." 
 
 "By godfreys, Newcomb, you unlock that door!" 
 
 "I ll unlock it pretty soon, Balaam. Soon as you and 
 me have finished this business talk." 
 
 "I ll I ll have you took up. I ll have you put in jail 
 for this." 
 
 "All right. But while we re waitin for the constable 
 let s have our talk out. Coin on with my story now: 
 Joe, he lost the twelve hundred and fifty " 
 
 "That s a lie. He stole it and then run away." 
 
 "He says he lost it and then ran away because he was 
 afraid to tell you he had lost it." 
 
 "He lies. Besides, it ain t none of your affairs, Noah 
 Newcomb. You open that door." 
 
 "Pretty soon, pretty soon. Even if I did open it you 
 wouldn t gain any time. The only way to get out of 
 here, except in my car, is to walk, and twould take you 
 lots longer to walk six or seven mile home than our 
 little talk ll take. Now suppose we don t argue about 
 this not bein my affairs. I know it ain t as well as you 
 do, but you can t have lived in Trumet all your life 
 without realizin it s human nature to love to talk about 
 other folk s private business. Eh? Ho, ho!" 
 
 He chuckled. Balaam did not chuckle. He looked as 
 if he could have committed murder cheerfully, provided 
 it could be committed without danger to himself. 
 
 "Regardin that question of stealin ," continued the cap 
 tain, scratching a match on the sole of his shoe and re 
 lighting his cigar, "I wrote to the chief of police up to 
 Gloucester and he writes me that there wasn t a particle 
 
 312 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 of real evidence that Joe took it. The boy did run away, 
 but he was scared pretty nigh to death, and when they 
 caught him he hadn t a cent on him. The chief seems 
 to think the most likely thing is that some of the tough 
 gang around the wharves knew Joe had been paid the 
 money and that the youngster s pocket was picked. He 
 says he told you that, but that you wouldn t have it so. 
 You was all for havin the poor chap put in prison. 
 Now " 
 
 Mr. Griggs interrupted. He turned away from the 
 door, strode back to the table, jerked the chair to its 
 feet again and sat down. Then, looking Captain Noah 
 straight in the eye, he said, defiantly: "Well, what of 
 it?" 
 
 "What of it? What of what?" 
 
 "What if I was goin to have him put in prison? 
 What if it s all true except that about his losin the 
 money? What if he did steal twelve hundred and fifty 
 dollars from me? What of it? You ve got me here 
 tinder false pretenses ; you re keepin me shut up here 
 against my will ; I m goin to sue you for damages. All 
 that I know is goin to happen. What I don t know is 
 what is all this stuff about Joe Kenney s thievin is lead- 
 in up to?" 
 
 He emphasized his points with thumps of his fist. 
 The captain was absolutely serene. 
 
 "Well," he observed, "it s leadin up to two or three 
 things. To begin with you made Mrs. Mayo and Joe 
 think you could put the boy in prison and would unless 
 the money was paid back to you. Ain t that so?" 
 
 "None of your business." 
 
 313 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "And so she agreed to pay you, and has been payin* 
 you two dollars a week for a period of say about thirty 
 tmonths or, we ll call it, one hundred and twenty-five 
 weeks ; that s two hundred and fifty dollars. She s paid 
 that on the principal, ain t she or about that? Eh?" 
 
 "None of your business." 
 
 "Besides that she s been payin you, I understand, ten 
 per cent interest on the whole amount, payin it right 
 along, not takin out any for what principal she s paid. 
 Is that so?" 
 
 "None of your business, I told you. If that fool- 
 head Melissy Mayo has been tellin lies about me " 
 
 "She ain t. And," the captain s voice did not rise, 
 but there was a new and icy quality in it, "if I was you, 
 Balaam, I wouldn t call that lady names. For one rea 
 son they ain t deserved and for another they might not 
 be well, healthy for you. I hope you understand that. 
 I d like to have this talk of ours just a quiet, sociable er 
 argument. I m goin to keep my part of it that way if 
 I possibly can. But but you must do your part. If 
 you ve got to call somebody names call me ; I don t mind 
 much." 
 
 He chuckled, his good humor apparently restored. Ba 
 laam glowered at him, but said nothing. 
 
 "She s paid you the ten per cent on the whole amount 
 for thirty months," went on Noah. "That s three hun 
 dred and twelve dollars and a half, there or thereabouts, 
 as I make it. Just check me up as I go along, won t 
 you, please." 
 
 Mr. Griggs did not answer. If he wars "checking up" 
 he displayed no external evidence of the process. 
 
 314 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "That s five hundred and sixty-two dollars and fifty 
 cents actual cash she s paid you so far," continued the 
 captain. "It s come pretty hard to pay, too, I guess 
 likely. Hard afore you made her come down here to 
 do housework for Obe Burgess and help you skin 
 him " 
 
 "By godfreys, Noah Newcomb, if there s any law in 
 this state I ll have it onto you." 
 
 "There s law, Balaam, plenty of it. Maybe we ll talk 
 about it later on. However, just now we ll talk about 
 this money business between you and Melissy Mayo. 
 And hard after she come, as I was just goin to say. 
 A spell ago you wanted to know what all this was leadin 
 up to. Perhaps now is as good a time as any to tell you. 
 I m cal latin , provided you and I can make a reasonable 
 dicker, to take over this Melissy Mayo debt, as you 
 call it." 
 
 Mr. Griggs certainly had not expected this. His eyes 
 opened. 
 
 "Take it over?" he repeated. "Take what over?" 
 
 "This debt you claim Melissy owes you. Cause I doubt 
 if she owes you anything, and I m pretty sure you couldn t 
 prove anything against Joe Kenney. But all this time 
 you ve been scarin the two of em almost to death with 
 threats of state s prison, and rather than have that go 
 on any further I ll take over the balance of the debt." 
 
 "You ll take it over? You will? You mean you ll pay 
 me the rest of it?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "For thunder sakes, why?" 
 
 21 315 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "Oh, just because. That s as good a reason as I can 
 give you." 
 
 Balaam shook his head. "Tut, tut, tut !" he exclaimed. 
 "If this don t ! Do you mean you ll pay the twelve 
 hundred and fifty to me and and do it as a favor to 
 her?" 
 
 "Not exactly. I ll pay the balance of your claim, get 
 your receipt for it free and clear, and then well, then 
 Melissy, or Joe, can owe it to me instead of you." 
 
 "I want to know ! I cal late you think they d rather 
 owe it to you than me, eh?" 
 
 "Shouldn t wonder." 
 
 "Huh! Say, what s the matter with you? Are you 
 gettin stuck on Melissy? Cal latin to marry her, are 
 you?" 
 
 Captain Noah s face was by nature florid, now it was 
 more than that. His chin quivered, but he seemed to 
 find speaking difficult. Balaam laughed raucously. 
 
 "Haw, haw !" he crowed. "Well, there s no fool like an 
 old fool. If this don t " 
 
 "Shut up !" The captain s command was given with a 
 crisp crack like the snap of a whip. "Balaam," he said, 
 "I d hate to make that figgerhead of yours any uglier, but 
 you take my advice and shut up. . . . I m helpin Mrs. 
 Mayo out," he went on, after a moment, "just as I d be 
 glad to help any decent, self-respectin person out of the 
 claws of a feller like you. You knew she thought as 
 much of that nephew of hers as if he were her own. You 
 knew she promised her sick sister that she d look out for 
 him. You knew it and yet you could take advantage of 
 jt to But there, we must stick to our argument and not 
 
 316 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 get complimentary. I d just love to pay you compliments 
 for the rest of the afternoon, but I haven t got time. I ve 
 got to get back home by noon or thereabouts. I ve got a 
 particular engagement. Some friends of mine are goin 
 to be married over in Bayport and I ve promised to be 
 there." 
 
 He chuckled as he said it. "I wouldn t miss that wed- 
 din for anything," he added. "Not even for the pleas 
 ure of your company, Balaam." 
 
 Mr. Griggs scowled. "My time s a little mite valu 
 able, too," he sneered. "I ain t hankerin to sit here 
 and listen to your hot air. What have you got to say 
 to me? What offer have you got to make? Mind I 
 don t say I ll take it, but I ll hear it." 
 
 " Specially as the door s locked, eh ? All right. 
 You ve had two hundred and fifty of the twelve fifty. 
 Melissy s paid you that on the principal. That leaves 
 a thousand. You acknowledge that?" 
 
 "I don t acknowledge nothin ; but she paid it to me." 
 
 "Yes well, that s almost as good as an acknowledg 
 ment. Then she s paid you three hundred and twelve- 
 fifty interest. I might quibble about payin interest on 
 the whole amount when she was payin it off every week, 
 but we ll let that go. But ten per cent ten per cent, 
 Balaam, is too much, just four per cent over the law 
 ful rate. So we ll deduct that extra four, call it one 
 hundred and twenty-five extra she s paid on the prin 
 cipal, bringin* the debt down to eight hundred and sev 
 enty-five." 
 
 Mr. Griggs laughed again. "Oh, we ll do that, will 
 we?" he sneered. "Well, we won t, I tell you that." 
 
 317 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 The captain paid no attention to the interruption, but 
 went serenely on. 
 
 "That s eight seventy-five left owin ," he said, "or you 
 pretend it s owin . Then there s the other five hundred, 
 that you agreed to allow her when you took over the 
 hundred shares of Ostrich copper stock." 
 
 Balaam gasped. "Did did she tell you about that, 
 too?" he sputtered. 
 
 Captain Noah shook his head. "She didn t tell me 
 much of anything," he said, "although she did speak 
 of the copper stock when we was talkin one time. But 
 she don t know that I know all about the whole miser 
 able business, and she don t know I m havin this little 
 social chat with you. If she did I m afraid she d feel 
 bad, so it s well she doesn t, eh, Balaam? Well, to get 
 along : We ll take off the five hundred ; that leaves three 
 hundred and seventy-five of the twelve hundred and 
 fifty. I ll give you my check for three hundred and sev 
 enty-five in exchange for your name at the bottom of 
 this." 
 
 He selected a paper from those upon the table and 
 handed it to his companion. 
 
 "What s this?" demanded the latter. 
 
 "Read it and find out." 
 
 Mr. Griggs adjusted his spectacles and, holding the 
 paper with fingers that shook a little, read what was 
 written upon it. It was a statement to the effect that 
 he, Balaam Griggs, having been paid twelve hundred and 
 fifty dollars, the entire amount which his nephew, Joash 
 Kenney, had lost while collecting for him in Gloucester 
 upon a date named, acknowledged receipt of that sum 
 
 318 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 and relinquished all monetary claim upon Joash Kenney 
 or Melissa Mayo. Also he expressed his belief in Joash 
 Kenney s complete innocence in the affair and that the 
 latter had lost the money and not stolen it. 
 
 "If you ll put your John Hancock at the foot of that," 
 said the captain, "I ll make out the check for three sev 
 enty-five." 
 
 Balaam s answer was to toss the slip of paper con 
 temptuously back upon the table and tip back in his 
 chair. 
 
 "You go to thunder," he said defiantly. 
 
 "Meanin you won t ^ign? If I was you I would, Ba 
 laam, I would honest. It s the best proposition I m goin 
 to give you this forenoon. The next one won t be so 
 good, I warn you." 
 
 "You warn me? You warn me! I warn you to open 
 that door and let me out of here. As I told you afore, 
 Neah Newcomb, you re meddlin with what ain t none 
 of your affairs aad your keepin m here is a actionable 
 matter." 
 
 "Then you won t talk trade with me? Dear, dear!" 
 Captain Noah seemed disappointed. 
 
 Mr. Griggs noted the disappointment and grew more 
 triumphant. "I M talk business with any man, when it 
 is business," he said. "What Melissy Mayo owes me 
 is my. affair, and she ain t goin 5 to gain nothin by sick- 
 in* you onto me. Not much she ain t. I ain t at all 
 particular about eellin out that debt. It s pretty safe, 
 long s I ve got my eye on the two of em, and it pays 
 good interest." 
 
 " Good is good," broke in the captain dryly. 
 
 319 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "However," went on Balaam, ignoring the interrup 
 tion, Til always sell anything if I get enough for it, 
 that s a a motto, as you might say, of mine. You give 
 me your check for a thousand dollars that s the twelve 
 fifty less the two fifty principal she s paid and I ll call 
 it square. Cause I won t sign no such durn fool thing 
 as that," with a jerk of the thumb towards the paper 
 he had just thrown down, "but I ll call the debt paid. 
 After all, Melissy and Joe are relations of mine, I sup 
 pose, and I d like to do the fair thing by em." 
 
 Captain Noah gazed at him in a sort of reverent admi 
 ration. Then he slowly shook his head. "By the ever- 
 lastin , Balaam," he exclaimed, "you are a wonder. You 
 ought to be framed and kept on the parlor whatnot, you 
 had. Folks would pay money to see you if they knew 
 what I know. And most of em that see much of you 
 do pay, now that I come to think of it. Eh?" 
 
 He smiled, shook his head once more, and picked up 
 the paper. 
 
 "So you won t sign this?" he queried. 
 
 "No, told you I wouldn t. I make it a practice not to 
 sign much. Folks get into trouble signin things." 
 
 "That s right, so they do. And sometimes they get 
 into trouble by not signin em when they have the chance. 
 And you won t take off the four per cent interest, so as 
 to bring it down to a lawful six?" 
 
 "I sartin won t. Why should I?" 
 
 "Well, anything above six is against the law, so they 
 tell me." 
 
 "Runnin off with stolen money s against the law, too. 
 And folks go to prison for it just whenever the charge 
 
 320 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 is seen fit to be pressed against em. And in spite of 
 other nosey folks buttin in, too," he added, venomously. 
 
 "And how about that five hundred you was goin to 
 allow for the Ostrich stock? Wouldn t you take that 
 off?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 But you told Melissy you would." 
 
 "I told her I might. And maybe I will yet to her. 
 But I shan t do it to you, nor any other outsider. That 
 Ostrich stock ain t worth nothin anyhow. I only took 
 it off her hands as a kindness, a favor, as you might 
 say." 
 
 "And then you sold it to Obe Burgess for five 
 thousand dollars. That was another favor, I presume 
 likely." 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 R. GRIGGS was taken aback, even embarrassed, 
 but he recovered quickly. As a matter of fact, 
 he had guessed what was coming. If Captain 
 Noah knew of the purchase of the Ostrich stock he 
 probably knew of its sale. So Balaam was, in a measure, 
 prepared. But his voice shook a little as he answered. 
 
 "Maybe twas, maybe twan t," he said, defiantly. 
 "Anyhow, that ain t your affairs no more than the other." 
 
 The captain looked doubtful. "You re wrong there, 
 Balaam," he said. "This is my affair; fact is, it s the 
 affair that brought me to Trumet. Obe Burgess and I 
 are pretty good friends. He promised to call to me for 
 help if he ever got into trouble. He called and I came. 
 That s why I m here." 
 
 Balaam looked surprised and rather discomfited at this 
 piece of news, but he rallied bravely. 
 
 "I want to know !" he sneered. "So Burgess got cold 
 feet and hollered for you, did he? You re helpin him 
 same as you be Melissy and Joe, eh? You seem to be 
 kind of a general helper round here, seems to me." 
 
 Noah nodded. "Just about that," he admitted cheer 
 fully. "As I told a friend of mine a spell ago I seem 
 
 322 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 to have signed articles as the Good Samaritan. An old 
 shipmate of mine, that s Obadiah, had gone down into 
 a fur country, like the feller in the Bible, and fell 
 amongst thieves, so " 
 
 "Thieves! Thieves? Who do you mean by thieves, 
 Noah Newcomb?" 
 
 Well er I don t know as I mean anybody. I real 
 ize you re a moral man, Balaam, so of course you 
 wouldn t steal ; but buyin chamber sets for ten or twelve 
 dollars and sellin em for forty, and buyin groceries and 
 house supplies for half again what you sell em for, and 
 buyin good-for-nothin stocks for five hundred dollars, 
 on credit, and sellin em for five thousand cash well, of 
 course that ain t stealin , maybe, but if I was the feller 
 in a free country I d about as soon fall amongst thieves 
 as I would amongst them kind of friends. What do 
 you think?" 
 
 Mr. Griggs leaned over the table. "I tell you what 
 I think," he snarled. "I think you re a fresh nosey, 
 same as I said in the beginnin . I did sell Obe Burgess 
 them chamber sets and things. If I bought em cheap 
 and sold em high, what of it? Ain t that my job? Ain t 
 that what I m in business for? If I see a chance to get 
 that stock for little or nothin ard sell it for er more, 
 what of it again? Ain t that what s done in the stock 
 exchanges every day? If your precious chum of an 
 Obe Burgess is a soft-headed fool is that my fault? I 
 know what I ve done and what I ain t done, Noah New- 
 comb, maybe better than you do. I m a good, sharp 
 business man, if I do say it. I ll make a profit in a 
 trade every chance I get. That s all I ve done now, and 
 
 3 2 3 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 I stump you to lay one finger on anything I ve done that 
 ain t legal. I stump you to. You and Burgess and Me- 
 lissy Mayo and all the rest of em can go to thunder. 
 Now you open that door and let me out." 
 
 He was out of breath when he finished and trembling 
 with nervous rage. Captain Noah, at the other side of 
 the table, was still perfectly calm. But now he dropped 
 his bantering drawl and spoke quick and sharp. 
 
 "Balaam," he said, "I won t argue about the legal end 
 of it. I know you re a slippery old eel and a shrewd one. 
 I believe I could get you found guilty of usury afore a 
 jury, but I shan t try. I know if I did you d tell every 
 body that Joe Kenney was a thief and probably ruin his 
 chances and drive his aunt out of town. So we won t 
 press the ten per cent interest matter, not in public not 
 now." 
 
 Griggs laughed. "I cal lated you wouldn t," he ob 
 served. 
 
 "No, but we ll settle it on my terms, those I named to 
 you. And, as for the Ostrich stock deal, you might be 
 able to squeeze by in a court even on that, although I d 
 risk but what I could get you for obtainin money under 
 false pretenses, showin year-old newspapers for new 
 ones and the like of that. But, unless it s necessary, we 
 won t go to law about the Ostrich trade." 
 
 Balaam laughed aloud. "You remind me of a loon," 
 he declared. "A loon hollers like time, makes a dickens 
 of a noise, and then ducks under. I admire the way 
 you duck, Newcomb." 
 
 "Thanks. Well, I won t name the critter you remind 
 me of, but folks that are so unlucky as to have any deal- 
 
 324 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 in s with it generally bury their clothes when the inter 
 view s over. But we wasn t goin to pass compliments, 
 was we." He looked at his watch and added : "It s time 
 we was gettin down to tacks, because I can t keep that 
 weddin waitin much longer. Here," he took up the 
 written statement which Balaam had discarded so con 
 temptuously ; "you re goin to sign that," he said. "And 
 here," taking a large envelope from his pocket, "is the 
 certificate for one hundred shares Ostrich Minin and 
 Smeltin . There is a power of attorney signed by Obe 
 Burgess fastened to it, so it s all ready for transfer back 
 to you. And here," taking another paper from the table, 
 "is a blank check on the Trumet National Bank. I want 
 you to fill that in for five thousand dollars and sign it. 
 When you do that I ll hand you the certificate." 
 
 Balaam glared at the certificate, the check, and the 
 speaker in wrathful amazement. 
 
 "Are you plumb crazy?" he demanded. 
 
 "No." 
 
 "And you cal late I ll buy back that Ostrich stock and 
 pay five thousand for it?" 
 
 "Yup." 
 
 "I ll see you in hell first." 
 
 "Um-hm. Well, if I ever get there you ll be about 
 the first one I shall expect to see. Now weVe talked 
 enough. I believe I could get you in any court for pay- 
 in and obtainin money under false pretenses. I know 
 you could be jailed on a criminal charge for cheatin Mary 
 Barstow out of the twenty-five thousand her father left 
 her, and that you d ought to have turned over to her 
 when she came of age two years ago. And, so sure as 
 
 325 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 I live and breathe, I ll go to Mary and back her in put- 
 tin you behind the bars unless you come to my terms 
 right here and now." 
 
 Mr. Griggs, who had risen to his feet and was shaking 
 his fist, dropped back into the chair again. The red left 
 his face. As Noah said afterwards he turned, not merely 
 white, but blue. He gurgled in his throat. 
 
 "Well?" snapped the captain. "What do you say?" 
 
 Balaam, when he could say anything, made no at 
 tempt to deny the fact of the legacy and the will. The 
 captain spoke with an absolute certainty which carried 
 conviction with it and the uselessness of denial was up 
 permost. But he did attempt to deny criminal intent. 
 
 "I I I wasn t cheatin her," he stammered. "I I 
 was just keepin it for her. I I was cal latin to give 
 it to her. I was all ready to give it to her. She she " 
 he swallowed, rubbed his hand across his wet forehead 
 and added, "She could have had it by askin . I I just 
 forgot to tell her, that s all." 
 
 And then Captain Noah, for the first time during the 
 long interview, made use of what our foreign friends 
 call the great American asset "bluff." His next re 
 mark was merely a guess, but he made it as if it were 
 based upon absolute knowledge. 
 
 "You forgot to tell her," he repeated. "And so that s 
 why you paid Calvin Wentworth blackmail so he d for 
 get to tell her, too, I presume likely." 
 
 Plainly this man knew everything. It was useless to 
 fight him longer. Balaam groaned, collapsed, and sur 
 rendered. 
 
 Not that it was a complete and unconditional surrender 
 
 326 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 in the beginning. The defeated one fought for every 
 point in the negotiations. When the Mayo paper of set 
 tlement had been signed the argument concerning the 
 stock transfer began. Balaam almost wept when the 
 blank check was placed before him. 
 
 "I can t do it, Cap n Newcomb," he whined. "I can t. 
 Besides," as a bright idea occurred to him, " tain t likely 
 I keep a five thousand dollar balance in the Trumet bank 
 every day, is it?" 
 
 The captain smiled. "Not every day, I know you 
 don t, Balaam," he said. "But I know, too, that you ve 
 got it there today because yesterday you deposited the 
 money you got from sellin that Ostable property." 
 
 Mr. Griggs s anger blazed up again. 
 
 "Who told you that?" he demanded. "If them bank 
 folks have been tattlin about my account I ll " 
 
 "There, there! nobody told. I was right astern of 
 you in the line at the teller s window. You didn t no 
 tice me, I cal late, "but I saw you and the deposit slip, 
 too. I d been waitiri for that money to come in, Balaam. 
 I knew you was expectin it, and so I was anxious to get 
 hold of you this morm n afore you could invest it again." 
 
 Balaam glared, growled, groaned and picked up the 
 check. 
 
 "I I think you re mighty hard on me, Cap n," ke 
 said. "I never thought you could be so hard on any 
 body that s been as friendly to you as I have." 
 
 Noah laughed delightedly. "That s it, Balaam," he 
 cried; "keep it up. I was expectin somethin like that 
 from you, and I d have been disappointed if you hadn t 
 lived up to my hopes. You ought to be gilded and 
 
 227 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 framed, same as I told you. Considerin how soft and 
 tender you ve been to Melissy and Obe, not to mention 
 Joe and a hundred other poor critters you ve had business 
 dealings with, I Here, you seem to find it tough to 
 make out that check. I ll do it for you." 
 
 He took the fountain pen his own from his com 
 panion s fingers and rapidly filled in the five thousand 
 dollar check. 
 
 "There!" he exclaimed. "Now all you ve got to do 
 is sign." 
 
 "But, Cap n Noah, I " 
 
 "Sign. That weddin party s waitin ." 
 
 "I By thunder, I won t !" 
 
 "All right. Balaam, was you ever in the Ostable jail? 
 They say it s a nice cool place in summer, and the food 
 ain t rich enough to give you dyspepsy. There s visitin 
 days every once in a while. I ll be over to look at 
 you through the bars and I ll fetch the minister and 
 f Ah, thanks." 
 
 Mr. Griggs had signed the check and thrown the pen 
 savagely into the fireplace. The captain calmly stooped 
 and picked it up. 
 
 "And here s your certificate for the Ostrich stock," 
 he said. "Oh, yes, wait a minute, here s my check for 
 the balance of Melissy s account." 
 
 He wrote the check and handed it to Balaam. The 
 latter glanced at it and then shouted a protest. 
 
 "This ain t but three hundred and seventy-five," he 
 cried. 
 
 "Well, that s what it ought to be, hadn t it, cordin to 
 the figgers as I gave em to you?" 
 
 328 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "No. You ve took off five hundred for that dum Os 
 trich Minin ." 
 
 "I know, but you ve got the stock, power of attorney 
 and all." 
 
 "I don t want it. It ain t no good. It belongs to Me- 
 lissy Mayo." 
 
 "Oh, no, it don t. It belongs to you. You bought it. 
 And, so far from bein no good, it s a great buy, and the 
 feller that get s it at fifty to say nothin of five is 
 mighty lucky. I know that s true, for you said so your 
 self to Obe Burgess. And you wouldn t lie, Balaam, 
 you re too moral." 
 
 A moment later he unlocked and opened the door. At 
 the threshold he turned, the key in his hand, and ad 
 dressed Mr. Griggs, who was following him. 
 
 "Balaam," he said, "I hope you like this shootin 
 camp." 
 
 "Like it! No, by godfreys, I don t like it! And I 
 tell you, Noah Newcomb " 
 
 "Yes, yes, I know. Well, I m sorry you don t like it, 
 because " 
 
 "Because what?" 
 
 "Because I m goin to leave you in it a spell." 
 
 Before Balaam could reach him he had stopped out 
 side and slammed and locked the door behind him. His 
 next remark was shouted through the crack. 
 
 "Don t be scared, Balaam," he roared. "I ll be back 
 for you by and by. Fact is, I think maybe I d better 
 cash that check of yours afore you change your mind 
 and have payment stopped on it. I ll drop in at the 
 bank as I go by. Make yourself comfortable as you 
 
 329 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 can. I wish I could open a window for fresh air for 
 you, but I can t, they re all nailed. So long." 
 
 He hurried away to the car. Even above the roar of 
 the starting engine he could hear bellowed pleadings and 
 threats issuing from behind the closed door of the camp. 
 The language was, from a moral person, somewhat sur 
 prising. 
 
 Captain Noah drove at a good clip back to Trumet. 
 He smiled as he drove and occasionally laughed aloud. 
 He made a short stop at the bank and then, instead of 
 turning in at the gate of the Burgess home, kept on 
 and stopped before the residence of the gentleman with 
 whom he had spent the forenoon, namely, Mr. Balaam 
 Griggs. Another car was waiting at that gate. 
 
 The captain went around to the side door of the house 
 and knocked. Miss Barstow opened the door. She was 
 very becomingly and prettily dressed in a new street 
 costume and a new hat, and her blush, as she greeted 
 her visitor, was very pretty and becoming also. 
 
 "Oh, here you are!" she exclaimed. "We were be 
 ginning to fear you weren t going to get home after all." 
 
 "Wouldn t have missed it for money," declared Cap 
 tain Noah. "Now where s the other party to this under 
 handed, nee-farious piece of piracy and kidnappin ?" 
 
 The other party appeared at that moment. It was 
 Irving Clifford, and he and the captain pretty nearly 
 shook each other s arms off. 
 
 "How are you, anyway?" demanded Noah. "And 
 how s Chicago? And are you prepared to sign away 
 your rights as a free man and a bachelor for the privi- 
 
 330 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 lege of buyin this young lady s bunnits and shawls the 
 rest of your life?" 
 
 Irving laughed. "First rate to the first two questions," 
 he answered, "and yes and glad of the chance to the last. 
 And how are you, Captain?" 
 
 "I m pretty fit, thank you. What I make believe is 
 my mind is a little mite water-logged from doin picture 
 puzzles, but now that I ve got the last one done, I m in 
 hopes it ll dry out again." 
 
 Mary put in a word. "Where is Mr. Griggs?" she 
 asked. 
 
 "Yes, jvhere is the old rascal?" asked Irving. 
 
 Noah grinned. "Told you I d get him out of the way, 
 and keep him there, didn t I ; eh, Mary ?" he inquired. 
 
 The young lady nodded. "Yes, you did," she ad 
 mitted. 
 
 "But you doubted if I could keep my promise ? Well, 
 I did. Balaam is a sportin 5 man just now. He s spend- 
 in 5 the day in a shootin camp at East Wellmouth." 
 
 "A shooting camp?" repeated Clifford. "What do you 
 mean? What is he going to shoot?" 
 
 The captain s grin became a chuckle. "Well," he said, 
 "if he had anything to do it with I cal late he d like to 
 take a shot at me. I ll tell you about it by and by, if 
 I get a chance; if not, I ll write. Speaking of writin ," 
 he added, "I see you ve left him a note." 
 
 There was an envelope propped against the lamp on the 
 center table. It was addressed to Mr. Balaam Griggs. 
 
 Mary nodded. "Yes," she said, "I wrote that Irving 
 and I had gone to be married " 
 
 "At Bayport? Did you say at Bayport?" 
 22 331 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "Yes, I believe I did. Why?" 
 
 "Oh, nothin . I happened to mention that I was tear- 
 in myself away from his company on account of havin 
 to go to a weddin at Bayport. I m afraid he s liable to 
 guess whose weddin twas. Dear, dear! Well, I ll face 
 the music. I cal late twill be a lively jig tune; he was 
 tunin up for it when I left him. What else did you 
 write, Mary?" 
 
 "I wrote that after we were married we were going 
 to Chicago to live. I said that I knew all about the 
 money Father left me, and that I should expect it to be 
 turned over to me at once. If this was done within a 
 month I would not prosecute, nor would I tell anyone 
 what he had done. Then I said good-by, that was prac 
 tically all." 
 
 "Humph! That note ll be somethin of a shock to 
 him, won t it?" 
 
 "Yes, I m afraid it will. He is a scamp, I m afraid, 
 and he has treated me abominably in some ways, but 
 I can t help feeling a little sorry for him." 
 
 Captain Noah nodded. "I understand," he said. "Ba 
 laam s meaner than a vinegar pie and he d cheat his deef 
 aunt out of her ear trumpet. He s gettin only about half 
 what he deserves, and he d ought to be put in jail. I let 
 him off easy this mornin but, consarn him, I m sort of 
 sorry for him, too, and my conscience has been troublin 
 me ever since I left him. If I didn t have any more 
 sense than my conscience has I d apply for a berth at 
 the Idiots Home. 
 
 "But there," he added, "here we are floatin around 
 these moorin s and there s that Bayport parson waitin 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 with his watch in one hand and his empty pocketbook 
 in t other. Is this your satchel, Mary? Good! All 
 aboard for the rites of padlock, as the feller said." 
 
 A few moments later two automobiles, one containing 
 Irving, Mary and various suitcases and bundles and the 
 other Captain Newcomb, left the Griggs gate and buzzed 
 up Knowles Hill and on toward Bayport. 
 
 Miss Sarepta Hatch and Mrs. Elvira Ginn who, with 
 noses pressed flat against their respective front windows, 
 saw them go, had enough to talk about even for them 
 to talk about during the rest of that day and for sev 
 eral days thereafter. 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 WHEN Captain Noah returned to the Burgess 
 home that afternoon he was in a state of mind 
 which might perhaps be described as divided. 
 He had said good-by to Mary no longer Mary Barstow 
 and to Irving, and the thought that he should see 
 neither of them for some time was not altogether pleas 
 ant. They were not very old friends; he had known 
 them but a few months, but somehow or other they had 
 grown into his affections astonishingly. He and they 
 had promised to write and he had half promised to visit 
 them at Chicago in that vague future popularly known 
 as "some of these days." 
 
 They had been quietly married at the house of the 
 Congregational minister at Bayport, and the captain had 
 been the only witness of the ceremony. He had seen 
 them aboard the train at the Bayport station and had 
 waved his hat until the last car disappeared in the dis 
 tance. Then he climbed into his own automobile and 
 headed for the shooting camp and the rescue of the in 
 carcerated Balaam. The other car, that in which Mary 
 and Irving had journeyed to Bayport, was to be taken 
 back to Trumet by one of the garage hands. 
 
 334 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 Mr. Griggs was voluble and threatening when Cap 
 tain Noah unlocked the door of the camp and let him 
 out. The captain listened to the torrent of vituperation 
 for perhaps a mile of their trip homeward. Then he put 
 in a few words of his own. 
 
 "That s all right, Balaam/ he said ; "go as far as you 
 like. Have the law onto me, have me taken up, sue me 
 for damages, do anything you want to. Only and I 
 want you to nail this to your main truck so twill stick 
 there and you ll never forget it don t you dare say one 
 word to a livin soul about Joe Kenney s stealin that 
 money or his aunt s backin* him in it. That lie s got to 
 die a quick death and a quiet one, and there mustn t be 
 any preachin over the remains. And don t you ever 
 dare hound another cent out of Melissy, either. As I 
 say, go as far as you like with me for shuttin you up in 
 that camp this forenoon. Sue me, if you feel like it, and 
 cal late you can risk the fireworks that suit ll start up. 
 But you let Melissy Mayo and her nephew alone ; d you 
 hear?" 
 
 Balaam ground his teeth. "Suppose I don t let em 
 alone ?" he growled. "What ll you do ? You won t dast 
 to go to no court with it." 
 
 His companion turned his head and regarded him 
 steadily. "I cal late with that signed statement of yours 
 I could have a pretty good time even in court," he de 
 clared. "But I shouldn t go to any court. I d come 
 straight to you and inside of ten minutes I d " 
 
 "What?" 
 
 "Drown you," said the captain. "Now let s change 
 
 335 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 the subject. Looks as if there was a breeze springin* 
 up ; maybe we ll have rain tomorrow, eh ?" 
 
 So, between sorrow at parting from Mary and Irving 
 and satisfaction at the complete overthrow of Mr. 
 Griggs, Captain Noah s emotions were, as has been said, 
 divided. But there was no division in those of Obadiah 
 Burgess when, after supper, his friend took him up to 
 his room and there restored to him the five thousand 
 which he had considered lost forever. 
 
 "But, Cap n Noah," begged the little man, after his 
 first spasms of incoherent exclamations and thanks had 
 spent themselves, "for the d-dear land sakes how 
 d-d-dud-did you d-d-dud " 
 
 "Cut-out s open again, Obe," interrupted the captain, 
 with a smile. "How did I do it that was what you 
 had your popgun loaded with then, wan t it? Um-hm. 
 Well, I ll tell you. I says to Balaam, Balaam, says I, 
 *I know you wouldn t take advantage of another human 
 critter for anything in this world, not knowin ly you 
 wouldn t. Obe has a kind of feelin that he d rather 
 have his five thousand than he would that pretty stock 
 certificate you sold him. I know you d love to oblige 
 him by tradin back/ And Balaam, he bust out cryin 
 and said he hadn t been able to sleep nights for fear 
 he might have charged you fifty cents more than that 
 stock was worth and " 
 
 Mr. Burgess interrupted. "Go long! 5 he exclaimed. 
 "He didn t feel as bad as all that, did he?" 
 
 Noah looked at him long and solemnly. Then he 
 slowly shook his head. "Obe," he observed, "do you 
 know why a blind man never reads a comic paper?" 
 
 336 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "No, course I don t. What s that got to do" 
 
 "Well, the answer is, because he can t see a joke/ 
 
 "Can t see one! Course he can t! Can t see nothin* 
 if he s blind, can he? I don t call that very sensible 
 t-t-talk." 
 
 "Don t you? I m surprised. Then let s be sensible. 
 You know what Scriptur says somethin about Come, 
 let us reason together ? Um-hm. Well, that s what 
 I said to Balaam. And Balaam, he came and we rea 
 soned." 
 
 "Sho ! I was kind of afraid he wouldn t listen t-t-to 
 reason much as all that comes to." 
 
 "He did. And it came to five thousand, which is a 
 pretty reasonable total, too. Are you satisfied?" 
 
 "Satisfied? Oh, Cap n Noah, I don t know what to 
 say to you. I don t know how t-t-to thank you. I swan 
 to man, I " 
 
 He was pretty close to tears and the captain saw it. 
 
 "There, there !" he cried, hastily. "I don t want any 
 thanks. I haven t done anything except live on you 
 free gratis for nothin all summer. Don t talk any more 
 about it. Let s talk about yourself and your plans. 
 Now that you ve got your five thousand back, how 
 much of your Aunt Sarah s windfall is there left?" 
 
 They estimated and figured for some time. When 
 the last estimate was made and the last figure set down 
 it was a certainty that Obadiah s twelve thousand had 
 shrunk below ten and that if he continued to live and 
 maintain his present establishment it would ultimately 
 shrink to nothing. The little man was again in a state of 
 nervous despair and woe. 
 
 337 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "I don t know how I done it, Cap n Noah," he wailed. 
 "I snum I don t know how I d-d-dud-done it. I never 
 meant to spend none of the principal, but she kept 
 a-dribblin away here and a d-d-dud-dribblin away there, 
 a leetle mite at a time, and and, oh, my godfrey s 
 domino, now look!" 
 
 He was wringing his hands as he had that night when 
 the captain wormed from him the secret of his invest 
 ment in Ostrich Mining and Smelting. Noah slapped 
 him cheerily on the back. 
 
 "Brace up, Obe," he ordered. "You haven t got any 
 thing to sound distress signals for now. You re pretty 
 nigh out of the fog, as I see it. Know how it hap 
 pened? How it happened is as plain to see as a piece 
 of white stickin -plaster on a red nose. You ve been 
 tryin to float all creation without the wherewithal to do 
 it with, and nobody s got away with that proposition 
 since Noah my namesake hove anchor for the last 
 time. You ve got to cut down your livin expenses, 
 that s all." 
 
 "Yes, yes. I cal late most likely I have, but how ll I 
 do it?" 
 
 "Well, for one thing, Cousin Calvin won t be with you 
 much more. He ll leave you pretty soon, I shouldn t 
 wonder." 
 
 "He will? He will? Then then what s g-g-goin to 
 become of all the m-m-money he ll leave when he dies ?" 
 
 "It ll go to buy water sieves to strain wind through, 
 I cal late. Don t set up nights thinkin how you ll 
 spend Cousin Calvin s leavin s, Obe." 
 
 338 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 He told what he had discovered concerning Mr. 
 Wentworth. Mr. Burgess listened, his mouth open. 
 
 "Well, I snum !" he exclaimed, aghast. "Then then 
 his comin t-t-to die cmto me was just a scheme t-t-to 
 live onto me, that s all." 
 
 "Just about." 
 
 Obadiah clenched his fists. "By by godfreys," he ex 
 claimed, "you just wait till he gets back from New York 
 or wherever tis he s gone, I ll f-f-fix him. I ll g-g-give 
 him somethin he ll remember." 
 
 Noah grinned. "What ll you do to him, Obe?" he 
 asked. 
 
 Mr. Burgess reflected. "I I won t speak to him," 
 he declared. "If he c-c-comes to the d-dinner table I ll 
 get right up and go off and leave him." 
 
 He could not in the least understand why, at the an 
 nouncement of this dreadful threat, the captain put back 
 his head and shouted with laughter. But when his 
 laugh was over Noah settled down to sober considera 
 tion of the problems involved. 
 
 "To be real honest with you, Obe," he said, "I m 
 afraid you haven t got enough income to carry on this 
 place of yours. I cal late twould break your heart to 
 sell it, eh?" 
 
 Obe did not look broken-hearted at the idea. 
 
 "I don t know s twould," he replied. "I I ve been 
 thinkin* maybe I might sell it. Fact is, Cap n Noah, it s 
 got to be a a kind of c-c-cuk-care on my shoulders, 
 lately, and I m kind of sick of it, as you might say. If 
 I sold it I could travel, I cal late, and you know I t-t-told 
 you I just loved to travel." 
 
 339 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 His friend smiled. "Um yes/ he said, dryly. "Well, 
 Obe. I wouldn t travel too fur, not if you ever wanted 
 to get back, I wouldn t. But suppose you did sell; who 
 would you sell to? * 
 
 Obadiah looked knowing. "Oh, I ve had offers," he 
 boasted. "Them Bay Shore Land Company folks of 
 fered me twenty-five hundred cash only last July. I told 
 you then, but you thought t-t-t wan t enough." 
 
 "It wasn t. This house and land, with this view, is 
 worth every cent of four thousand for just a summer 
 place. I wouldn t swear but what you could get five for 
 it, if the right feller came along." 
 
 Mr. Burgess did some more reflecting. Then he ven 
 tured, timidly, "You wouldn t want to buy it, yourself, 
 would you, Cap n? You know you ve told me a good 
 many times how much you liked it." 
 
 Cap n Noah laughed. "What on earth would I want 
 of it, an old hulk like me, driftin round from Dan to 
 Beersheba, and no home port in sight?" he asked. "I ll 
 be haulin out of here pretty soon, Obe, now I ve got 
 you out of your snarl, and then land knows where I ll 
 be. But," with a wistful look out of the window at the 
 bay, a-shimmer in the starlight, "if I was figgerin to 
 make fast and settle down I don t know of any snug 
 harbor that would suit me better n this. I could have 
 consider ble fun fixin this place up and spendin money 
 on it." 
 
 Obadiah had a brand-new proposition to offer. "Cap n 
 Noah," he said, "I presume likely you wouldn t want 
 t-t-to t-t-take care of my money for me, would you ? I 
 ain t fit to take care of it by myself and I know it. 
 
 340 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 C-c-couldn t you kind of k-k-keep it for me and let me 
 have it, little at a time, like reg lar wages, say ? Maybe 
 I could m-make it last then/ he suggested, hopefully. 
 
 The captain shook his head. " Fraid that might be 
 too big a responsibility for me, Obe," he answered. 
 
 Obadiah nodded. "Course I realize twould be con- 
 sider ble," he observed, "on account of the income bein 
 so small now. But," eagerly, "what s the reason I 
 c-c-cuk-couldn t make some more; b-buy some stocks, 
 or somethin ?" 
 
 His friend whirled in his chair to stare at him. 
 
 "Buy stocks?" he repeated. "You buy stocks! For 
 thunder mighty sakes, haven t you had enough stock 
 buyin to last you one spell?" 
 
 Mr. Burgess was unconvinced. "Well," he declared, 
 stubbornly, "I got out of that all right. I got my money 
 back. I d-d-didn t lose nothin ." 
 
 Captain Noah was silent for a full minute. Then he 
 rose from his chair. "You go to your room and turn 
 in, Obe," he commanded. "I ll think over that takin 
 care of your money notion. And say," he added, as the 
 little man obediently turned to the door, "you don t 
 walk in your sleep, do you ?" 
 
 "No," indignantly, "course I don t." 
 
 "Well, all right. Then you probably won t get up and 
 try to turn over any of your capita] afore mornin . Good 
 night, Obe." 
 
 Mr. Burgess went to his room and to bed, but the 
 captain did not retire, not then. He looked at his watch, 
 found it to be only nine o clock, and then descended the 
 stairs to the sitting room. Joe or Joash had gone 
 
 341 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 out. The housekeeper was sitting alone by the center 
 table, mending stockings. She looked up, nodded and 
 smiled when he entered, but she did not speak. Captain 
 Noah took a chair and, after regarding her for a few 
 moments in silence, went straight to his subject. 
 
 "Melissy," he began, "I ve got somethin to tell you 
 somethin important." 
 
 She dropped the stocking in her lap and turned to 
 gaze at him. 
 
 "Somethin important ?" she repeated, slowly. "Oh, 
 it isn t it isn t bad news, is it?" 
 
 "I hope it ain t. I m kind of hopin it ll be good news 
 for you. The only thing that makes me hesitate about 
 tellin* it is for fear you ll think I ve been interferin 
 where I hadn t any business, meddlm where it s none 
 of my affairs. Part of it was my affairs, twas really 
 what I came here to Trumet to do, but t trther part 
 your part was just well, I just felt I d got to do it, 
 no matter what you said. The truth had come to me 
 little by little and it made me so bilin mad that I 
 that I " 
 
 Mrs. Mayo interrupted. "Cap n Noah," she broke in, 
 quickly, "what are you talkin about ? Don t explain or 
 apologize any more; tell me what you mean." 
 
 So the captain told .icr, told of his receiving Obadiah s 
 letter of appeal, df his coming to Trumet, of his dis 
 covery that his former coofc was being systematically 
 cheated, of his own suspicions and beliefs in the begin 
 ning, and then of his gradual unearthing of the trufli. 
 Then he went on to tell of his interview with Balaam 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 Griggs that forenoon and of the "settlement" between 
 them. 
 
 "I hope," he said, earnestly, in conclusion, "that you 
 won t blame Joe for tellin me about losin the money 
 up to Gloucester and the way Balaam was squeezin you 
 for it. Twan t Joe s fault for tellin , really twan t. I 
 had the ends of the strings all in my hands and I just 
 scared the yarn out of him, I guess. The fact is, Me- 
 lissy, I I just had to know it, that s all. Twas plain 
 as day that Balaam was grindin you somehow or other ; 
 I ve watched you sufferin under it ever since I came 
 here, and as I came to know you better and better the 
 harder twas to watch. I swore to myself that I d stop 
 it, and the only way I could stop it was by findin out 
 the whole truth. So there tis ; it s done. I hope you ll 
 forgive me for doin it, but whether you do or not, as 
 I say, it s done it s stopped. Eh? Did you say any 
 thing?" 
 
 She had not said anything, nor did she speak now. 
 She was leaning forward, one elbow upon the arm of her 
 rocking chair and her head upon her hand. Her face 
 was in the shadow and he could not see it. He looked 
 at her expectantly, waited a moment, and then went on. 
 
 "Here s the agreement I had him sign," he said, tak 
 ing it from his pocket and laying it in her lap. "You ll 
 notice it s a settlement in full and that he swears he be 
 lieves Joe never stole the money. As fur as I can see, 
 Melissy, he can t ever make any more trouble for you." 
 
 Still she did not answer, nor did she even look at the 
 paper in her lap. He rose to his feet. 
 
 "Well/ he said, "I cal late that s about all there is to 
 
 343 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 you can hardly realize what these last two and a half 
 years have been to us both." 
 
 She went on to tell of her life since her husband s 
 death; of her sister, whom she had loved so dearly; of 
 the latter s death and the leaving of her only son in Me 
 lissa s charge. 
 
 "She loved him even more than most mothers love 
 their sons, always seemed to me," said the housekeeper. 
 "And when she died she charged me to keep him and 
 bring him up same as she would if she d lived. Well, 
 I ve tried to do it. And Joe s a good boy, too, and a 
 bright one. He d do well at what he liked, I m sure. 
 But that awful scare he had when he lost Balaam s 
 money, and the thoughts of state s prison always hangin 
 over him, kind of broke his ambition, as you might say. 
 He ain t been the same since." 
 
 "He ll be all right now," declared Captain Noah, 
 heartily. "I ve got some plans of my own for him. I ll 
 tell you about em in a day or two, after I get em a little 
 better worked out. Joe ll be all right, I ll bet on it. But 
 what I want from you, Melissy," he added, earnestly, 
 "is to hear you say that I did right in takin your affairs 
 into my hands and doin as I did with Balaam." 
 
 Her eyes brimmed again at the words. 
 
 "Oh, haven t I told you ?" she whispered. "I I want 
 to thank you, but but I can t not now." 
 
 "No, no, you don t. Nothin to thank me for; I 
 just " 
 
 "There is everything to thank you for. Noah New- 
 comb, I think you are the best man I ever knew." 
 
 He laughed aloud. "Your acquaintance has been 
 
 345 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 say. I hope, after you ve thought it over, you ll come 
 to realize that I did it just out of er friendship, that s 
 all. I d ought to have asked your permission to do it, 
 I suppose likely, but, you see, I well, I was pretty sure 
 you d say no if I did ask. I thought it ought to be done 
 and I haven t changed my mind. Er good night, 
 Melissy." 
 
 He turned to the door. But now she raised her head 
 and spoke. 
 
 "Wait, Cap n Noah," she said. "Please don t go- 
 yet." 
 
 He turned back. Then he saw that her eyes were wet. 
 It was the second time he had seen them so, and, as on 
 the first occasion, the sight stirred him to a fierce resent 
 ment. This woman must not cry, not only for her own 
 sake, but for his. And yet now it was he, Noah New- 
 comb, who had made her cry. 
 
 "Melissy," he pleaded, "I m terrible sorry if I ve done 
 what I shouldn t. I I hope you won t feel too hard 
 towards me." 
 
 She looked at him in wonder. 
 
 "Hard towards you?" she repeated. "7 feel hard to 
 wards you? What can you mean?" 
 
 "Well well, you ve been cryin and I I thought " 
 
 She smiled through her tears. "You didn t make me 
 cry," she said; "at least if you did it was only because 
 you have been so good to me and and I couldn t help 
 cryin . Oh, Noah, what shall I say to you? What can 
 I say? And Joe, too, poor boy! You ve lifted a load 
 that s been a heavy one, I can tell you. I don t believe 
 
 344 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 kind of limited, I m afraid, Melissy," he said. "Here, 
 where are you goin ?" 
 
 She had risen and was on her way to the stairs. 
 
 "I am goin to my room," she said. If if you don t 
 mind I d like to be alone a little while. Some other 
 time tomorrow, perhaps we can talk about the money 
 I owe you " 
 
 "Owe me? You don t owe me anything." 
 
 "Of course I do. I owe you the money you paid 
 Balaam when you took over the debt. I owe that and I 
 certainly shall pay it, every cent of it. It may take some 
 time, for after I leave here I may not be able to earn 
 much right away, but " 
 
 Captain Noah interrupted. 
 
 "After you leave here?" he repeated. "You ain t 
 goin to leave here, are you?" 
 
 "Of course I am." 
 
 "But what for?" 
 
 "What for? You know what for. You know that 
 Obadiah Burgess doesn t need a housekeeper any more 
 than he needs that Wentworth man to live on him. I 
 suppose you ll get rid of Mr. Wentworth pretty soon, 
 Cap n ; you seem to be able to do most anything. Well, 
 you won t have to get rid of me and Joe. We shall go 
 of our own accord." 
 
 "Melissy !" 
 
 "There, there! I didn t mean it, Cap n Noah. I 
 know you don t want to get rid of us. It s we ourselves 
 that will feel we ought to go. Thank you. I I wish 
 I could thank you enough, but I can t and I mustn t 
 try ; if I do I shall cry again. Tomorrow, perhaps, we ll 
 
 346 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 talk it all over. I m happier tonight than I ve been for 
 most three years and and you Good night." 
 
 "But, hold on ! Melissy ! I ain t " 
 
 She had closed the door and he heard her going up 
 the back stairs to her room. Soon afterwards he went 
 up the front stairs to his own. He did not sleep well 
 that night ; his mind was a curious jumble of thoughts, 
 some pleasant, some otherwise, some wildly absurd. 
 He lay awake for hours, idly wondering and planning 
 concerning his own future. Of course, now that the 
 "picture puzzles" were done, now that Obadiah was ex 
 tricated from his difficulties, he, Noah, would probably 
 soon be leaving Trumet. There was nothing to keep 
 him there. And yet he had come to like the quaint little 
 old village. It seemed more like home to him than any 
 other place on earth. But he had no home. What a 
 useless, shiftless, shifting life his was, anyhow ! And so 
 on, and so on, until long after midnight. And when he 
 awoke the next morning his first conscious thought was 
 that Melissa Mayo was going away and going soon. And 
 the idea was no more pleasant or reconcilable to him 
 then than it had been i.he night before. 
 
 As was his custom when perplexed or troubled, he 
 went for a ride in his auto that morning. He returned 
 at dinner time to find Joash at the foot of the table where 
 the housekeeper usually sat. 
 
 "Melissy s gone to Bayport," explained Obadiah. 
 "She s been cal latin to go for most a week. Wanted 
 to do some shoppin over there at the hardware store, 
 some kitchen things for the house, you know. Snow, 
 up to the Comers here, don t keep no stock the way 
 
 23 347 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 they d-d-do over to Bayport. She went on the mornin 
 t-t-train and she s comin back on t-t-tonight s. What 
 makes you look so surprised, Cap n Noah? Don t you 
 know she said d-d-d-day afore yesterday she cal lated 
 to go today?" 
 
 She had said so, but the captain had forgotten it. The 
 table looked particularly uninviting and lonely without 
 her. After dinner was over he went outside to smoke 
 his pipe. Obadiah joined him, a broad smile upon his 
 face, and a gaudily wrapped box in his hand. 
 
 "H-h-have one, Cap n?" he inquired, opening the box 
 and extending it proudly. 
 
 Noah regarded the box and the row of fat, banded 
 cigars with surprise and some suspicion. 
 
 "What in the nation?" he demanded. 
 
 "Fresh box of Liberty Maids," explained Mr. Bur 
 gess, proudly. "First I ve had for a long spell. Now 
 I ve g-g-got my money back, kind of thought I c-c-could 
 afford to celebrate a little mite. And Balaam didn t buy 
 em for me, neither," he added. 
 
 The captain accepted one of the "Liberty Maids," not 
 because he wanted one, far from it, but because he did 
 not wish to hurt his friend s feelings. He delayed in 
 lighting it, however. Not so Obadiah, who began to 
 puff like a tugboat and to smell like a burning carpet 
 factory. 
 
 "Cap n Noah," he observed, from the midst of the 
 fumes, "do you know what I was thinkin after I 
 t-t-turned in last night?" 
 
 Noah shook his head. "No," he replied, "but I hope 
 
 348 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 for your sake your thoughts wan t as er promiscu s 
 as mine was." 
 
 Mr. Burgess did not know what "promiscuous" meant, 
 but he did not let that fact trouble him. 
 
 "No," he said, "they wan t. I ain t subject to er 
 them things very much. But I got t-t-to thinkin after 
 I turned in, and the more I thought the more it 
 s-s-seemed a p-p-pup-pity to me that you wan t goin to 
 be the one to own this house." 
 
 The captain smiled. 
 
 "I know, Obe," he said, "but, the way I look at it, it 
 would be more of a pity if I did own it. What would I 
 do with it?" 
 
 "Why, live in it, of course. That s what folks gener 
 ally d-d-do with houses, ain t it ?" 
 
 "Not if they re all alone in the world, the way I am." 
 
 "Why not? I m all alone just as much as you be and 
 I ve been 1-1-livin here, ain t I?" 
 
 His friend s smile broadened. 
 
 "I shouldn t say that you d been livin alone exactly, 
 Obe," he observed. "And now that there s a prospect 
 of all hands of us clearin* out, you want to go, too." 
 
 Mr. Burgess nodded. "That s cause I m so dead sot 
 on travelin ," he declared. "It s different with you. You 
 t-t-told me more n once that you d like nothin better 
 than to spend the rest of your d-d-days right here in 
 Trumet in this very house." 
 
 "But not alone, Obe, not alone." 
 
 "All right, and that brings me up alongside of what 
 I was thinkin last night. I was thinkin why didn t you 
 g-g-get married? Yon ain t old that is, you ain t so 
 
 349 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 d-d-darned old. Why don t you get married, Cap n 
 Noah. Then you could buy this house and live in it and 
 you wouldn t be alone. . . . What are you lookin at me 
 like that for? There ain t n-n-nothin the matter with 
 me, is there?" 
 
 For the captain was staring at him in bewildered and 
 blank amazement. Slowly he shook his head. "I don t 
 know," he muttered, "I declare I don t know whether 
 there is or not. You ain t a spirit medium or a mind 
 reader or anything like that, are you, Obe ?" 
 
 "Eh? I ain t what?" 
 
 "A mind reader? One of those fellers who can tell 
 what another feller s thinkin" about?" 
 
 "One of them town hall, Now what do I hold in my 
 hand, critters? No, course I ain t." 
 
 "Umph! And yet you was thinkin that fool thing 
 after you turned in-! Humph !" And then, with a side 
 long glance at Hie little man s face, he axlded: "Didn t 
 go so far as to pick out somebody for me to marry, did 
 you, Obe ?" 
 
 Obadiah looked important and wise. "Why yes, I 
 did," he said. *I rim over quite a number of names. 
 Finally, though, I kjnd of settled down to one, as you 
 m>m-might say." 
 
 "Oh, you did, eh? Well er who s the lucky one? * 
 
 "Why, Miss Sarepty Hatch down the road here. She 
 ain t never been married and I shouldn t wondej if. ... 
 Here ! What did you do that for ? W r here you goin ?" 
 
 For Captain Noah at the mention of Miss Hatch s 
 name had risen, stared at his friend as if to make sure 
 the latter was serious, and had then, after kribcking Mr.. 
 
 350 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 Burgess s hat over his eyes, walked briskly off, his 
 shoulders shaking. And he would not come back, al 
 though Obadiah shouted several urgent invitations. 
 
 But he did return later on, however. The ex-cook 
 was in the woodshed chopping up pine boughs for kind 
 ling, when the captain looked ir at the window. 
 
 "Say, Obe," he asked, and he seemed embarrassed, 
 "think it s goin to rain, do you?" 
 
 It was a cloudless afternoon. Mr. Burgess was, natu 
 rally, surprised at the question. 
 
 "Rain? No," he snorted, disgustedly. "Course tain t 
 g-g-goin to rain. What " 
 
 "Er what time does that down train get here this 
 evenin , d you know?" 
 
 "Same time it generally does, I cal late. That s half- 
 past seven, if it s on time. But you knew that. 
 What " 
 
 "Humph! Bout a twenty minutes run from Bay- 
 port, ain t it? That would make it leave there about 
 7:10. And it s only half-past four now. That would 
 give me time enough, lots more than enough." 
 
 "What ails you, Cap n Noah? What are you mum- 
 blin to yourself about?" 
 
 But the captain did not answer. A moment later Oba 
 diah, peering from the woodshed door, saw him climk 
 into his automobile, which had been standing by the 
 gate, and drive away. 
 
 Mrs. Melissa Mayo, her shopping finished, was sitting 
 upon the jackknife-scarred bench adorning the platform 
 of the Bayport railway station. She was waiting for the 
 train which was to take her back to Trumet, and the wait 
 
 351 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 was likely to be a long one, for it was scarcely half- 
 past five. She was thinking deeply when her medita 
 tions were disturbed by the sound of her name. And 
 the voice which called that name was, oddly enough, 
 that of the very person of whom she had been thinking. 
 
 "Melissy !" shouted Captain Noah. "Hi, Melissy !" 
 
 He was seated in the little car, and when he saw that 
 he had attracted her attention he opened the door and 
 stepped down to the road. Then he beckoned to her. 
 
 "All aboard, Melissy," he said. "Heave ahead ! Boat s 
 waitin at the dock." 
 
 She rose and, picking up her bundles, walked toward 
 the car. He hastened to take them from her. 
 
 "Why, Cap n Newcomb !" she exclaimed. "What in 
 the world are you doin way over here? * 
 
 The captain s embarrassment, so apparent when he 
 questioned Mr. Burgess through the woodshed window, 
 was still with him. 
 
 "Why why," he stammered, "I I was just over here 
 and and I happened to see you sittin there and " 
 
 "Happened to see me! You couldn t have seen me 
 when you first called. You hadn t come past the corner." 
 
 "Hadn t I? Sho! I want to know! Well er I 
 didn t mean I happened to see you, exactly. I meant I 
 knew you was over here to Bayport " 
 
 "Oh, Obadiah told you, I suppose." 
 
 "Eh? Oh, yes, sartin, Obe told me. And so I I 
 er I was out for a ride didn t have anything else to 
 do, you understand and I just thought I d hunt you 
 up and see if you didn t want to ride home along with 
 me. This er Pancake of mine ain t quite so big as 
 
 352 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 a train of cars, but it can go about as fast as some of the 
 trains down here, and when you cal late it s goin to be 
 at a sartin place at a sartin time it s most generally 
 there. Which you can t always say of trains our trains, 
 anyhow. Eh, now? Eh? What?" 
 
 "Mercy on us, Noah !" exclaimed the housekeeper. 
 "How fast you do talk today!" 
 
 "Do I ? Want to know ! Must be a little mite nerv 
 ous, I guess likely." 
 
 "Nervous ! I didn t know you could be nervous." 
 
 "Didn t you? So did I. I mean well, never mind. 
 What do you say, Melissy? Goin to get aboard and 
 take a cruise in the good ship Pancake, are you?" 
 
 She smiled. "Why, of course I am," she replied. 
 "And I m ever so glad of the chance. I was gettin 
 dreadful tired of sittin on that depot platform. It s real 
 kind of you to think of me, Cap n Noah." 
 
 The captain did not answer. He stowed the pack 
 ages, Mrs. Mayo s purchases, in various places about the 
 car, helped her in, climbed to his own seat beside her 
 and put his foot upon the button of the self-starter. The 
 engine started, so did the car, and they soon left Bay- 
 port behind. 
 
 Mrs. Mayo chatted a good deal as they whirred along 
 through the stretch of woods between Bayport and 
 South Trumet, but her companion said very little. He 
 seemed very much preoccupied and, as he had said 
 although it was a most unusual condition for him nerv 
 ous. After a time the housekeeper, getting no answers, 
 or very absent-minded ones, to her questions and re 
 marks, also lapsed into silence. Occasionally she, glanc- 
 
 353 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 ing at the captain s face, saw his lips moving. He 
 seemed, so she thought, to be practicing some speech, 
 rehearsing something, learning it by heart. She could 
 not understand his manner, which was decidedly 
 strange. 
 
 They passed through the hamlet of South Trumet, 
 by the garage in which the "Pancake" had received its 
 overhauling after the accident which led to Noah s first 
 meeting with Irving Clifford, and entered the last three- 
 mile stretch of hilly, curvy road separating them from 
 Trumet itself. The last house in South Trumet had 
 been left behind and there were pine groves on both 
 sides of the road, dusky, shadowy pine groves in which 
 the early September twilight was already deepening-, 
 when Noah suddenly spoke. 
 
 "Melissy," he said, "I ve been thinkin* over what you 
 told me last night and I can t have it so." 
 
 "Can t have what ? What do you mean, Cap n Noah ?" 
 
 "Can t have you haulin up anchor and leavin Obe s 
 house and and all of us for good. You mustn t do it." 
 
 "But I must. You know I must. Surely you 
 wouldn t have me sponge my livin , and Joe s livin , 
 from Mr. Burgess any longer." 
 
 "Ain t any question of Joe s livin . I ve got some 
 plans about Joe and his livin . Don t you remember I 
 told you I had ? They may work out or they may not 
 although I think they will but anyhow Joe ll be looked 
 after. It s you I m thinkin about, Melissy." 
 
 She smiled a trifle sadly. "You needn t worry about 
 me, Cap n Noah/ she said. "Earnin my own livin is 
 
 354 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 no new trick for me. I ve had to do it almost all my life. 
 Don t you worry about me ; I shall be all right." 
 
 "Well, then, how about me ?" 
 
 "You? Why, what do you mean?" 
 
 "I mean what I say. Look here, Melissy, how am I 
 well, what s goin to become of me? That s what I want 
 to know." 
 
 She did not seem to understand. "Become of you ?" 
 she repeated. "Why, you you will be no different 
 from what you were when you came here, so far as I 
 can see." 
 
 He shook his head. "Then you can t see very fur," 
 he said, with decision. "I m as different as a china nest 
 egg is from the real article ; they loth look somethin the 
 same outside, but that s as far as the likeness goes. 
 When I come h^re I was a sort of easy-goin , happy-go- 
 lucky feller, who had made his pile not a very big one, 
 but enough and all I was figgerin on was sort of 
 driftin around from one port to another until I foun 
 dered. But ever since I got here to Trumet I ve been 
 changin and my notions and ideas have been changing 
 too. My notion of happiness used to be no owners and 
 no responsibilities, nothin to own and nothin to care 
 for. Do you know what my notion of happiness is now, 
 Melissy?" 
 
 Her attention had been attracted by the eccentric 
 course of the car, which was veering from side to side 
 of the narrow road as its pilot, in his growing agitation, 
 jerked the steering wheel back and forth. So her answer 
 was given rather absent-mindedly. 
 
 355 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "No, I m sure I don t," she said. "But- but, Noah, 
 what makes us jiggle around so? Be careful, do." 
 
 The captain did not answer her question nor hear or 
 heed her caution. He had reached the point he had 
 been leading up to now, and nothing short of an earth 
 quake could have diverted his attention from that point. 
 The "jiggling around" continued and so did Captain 
 Noah. 
 
 "I ll te!l you what my notion of happiness is now," he 
 said, earnestly. "It s to own that house and land that 
 Obe Burgess owns now. To own it and furnish it new 
 mostly, and fix up the grounds and have a garden, make 
 a home of it, you understand. And and this is the real 
 important part, Meliss r to have you to live in it along 
 with me. That s my idea of bein happy. Do do you 
 cal late you could could help me to get that happi 
 ness?" 
 
 He had rehearsed this speech, or the substance of it, 
 a good many times in the last few hours. And now, to 
 his chagrin, he saw that she did not wholly understand. 
 
 "Me?" she repeated. "You want me you want me 
 to keep house for you?" 
 
 The captain gave a jerk at the wheel that sent the 
 car almost into the sandbank at the side of the road. 
 He jerked it savagely in the other direction and the 
 automobile shot over the brow of a long hill and began 
 the descent. 
 
 "Housekeep be darned!" roared Captain Noah. "I 
 want you to be my wife. Will you, Melissy?" 
 
 "Oh!" she exclaimed, faintly, and that was all. 
 
 "Will you, Melissy?" pleaded the captain. 
 
 356 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 Still she did not speak. 
 
 "For the Almighty s sake, don t say you won t ! If 
 you say that I I swan I don t know what I ll do." 
 
 "Oh, Noah, how can I ? ... Oh, look out 1" 
 
 The last was a faint scream. If it had been a very loud 
 one there was excuse sufficient. For Noah, in his eager 
 ness to hear her answer, had permitted the car, as it ran 
 down the long slope of the hill, to approach close to the 
 bank on the left ; and now, in his stress of feeling caused 
 by that answer, he had jerked the wheel half around and 
 the auto was shooting directly into the ruins of what, 
 on the right of the road, had once been a rail fence. Mrs. 
 Mayo was conscious of the splintering and cracking of 
 wood, then of a succession of rockings and bumpings. 
 She was also dimly conscious of the fact that her com 
 panion was no longer on the seat beside her, but was 
 standing partially erect. Then came a final bump, a 
 smash of glass, and a tremendous splash. 
 
 When the housekeeper recovered from the shock suffi 
 ciently to care where she was, or to realize that she was 
 anywhere, this is what she saw : The car, with its wind 
 shield smashed to flinders, and its nose pointing back 
 in the direction from which it had come, was standing 
 with its broadside at the very edge of a little pond. The 
 waters of this pond, black and forbidding in the evening 
 dusk, were violently agitated. As for Captain Noah 
 Newcomb, he was nowhere in sight. 
 
 Melissa was a woman of considerable presence of 
 mind. She was not prone to hysterics and she seldom 
 lost her head. As soon, therefore, as she could be sure 
 
 357 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 that that head was not, literally, lost, she sprang to her 
 feet and called her companion s name. 
 
 "Noah!" she cried. "Noah, where are yon?" 
 
 There was no answer. The waters of the pond still 
 rocked and splashed amongst the reeds on the edge, 
 that was all. 
 
 Mrs. Mayo sprang from the car. She leaped out upon 
 the side furthest from the pond, but she ran around to 
 the other side. 
 
 "Noah!" she cried. "Oh, Noah!" 
 
 There was no answer, but then she saw him. He was 
 lying in the water amid the reeds and he was lying very 
 still. She ran in beside him. The water was shallow, 
 fortunately, and his head was not below the surface. 
 
 How she ever did it she often wondered afterward, 
 for he was a big man, but she managed to drag him 
 ashore. Then she bent over him and tried to see where 
 he was hurt. 
 
 "Noah !" she begged, distractedly. "Oh, Noah! Oh, 
 my dear, my dear!" 
 
 She had his head in her lap, and now from that head 
 came a faint voice. 
 
 "Say that again/ it said. She was so overjoyed to 
 find that he was not dead that she scarcely noticed or 
 understood the words. 
 
 "Oh, you re alive !" she cried. "You re alive !" 
 
 The voice made answer. 
 
 "You bet!" it said. "Say that again, Melissy." 
 
 "Say what, Noah? What do you mean? Where are 
 you hurt?" 
 
 358 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 The head in her lap moved, turned, and slowly Cap n 
 Noah sat up. 
 
 "I ain t hurt anywheres to amount to nothin , Melisey," 
 he said. "I I yanked the Pancake around so sudden 
 to keep it from goin into that pond that it hove me 
 out and cracked my head on the mudguard. Knocked 
 me out of time for a jiffy, that s all." 
 
 He struggled to his feet. She protested. 
 
 "Oh, you mustn t do that/ she cried. "You re hurt" 
 
 "Tell you I ain t hurt at all," he declared. "I ve got 
 worse knocks than that fifty times a v yage when I went 
 to sea. But," with an attempt at a smile, "I hope I m a 
 better navigator on sea than I am on land. That s twice 
 I ve drove this auto of mine into a pond." 
 
 He stopped and stared about him. 
 
 "And, by the everlastin , it s the very same pond!" 
 he exclaimed, in wonderment. "It s the same pond I 
 dove into when I met Irve Clifford the first time. Well, 
 I swan ! Humph !" And then he added, fervently, "It s 
 a lucky pond for me." 
 
 She had risen and was standing 1 beside him. She was 
 still fearful that he had been hurt more than he knew. 
 
 "Lucky!" she repeated. "What do you mean? Un 
 lucky, I should say." 
 
 H put his arms about her. "Then you d say wrong, 
 my lady," he cried, exultantly. "The first time I took 
 thte Pancake in swimmin* here Irve Clifford fished her 
 out. And Irve s come to be one of my very best 
 friends. And now twas you that fishe ti me out, and you 
 well, you re goin to be somethin more than a friend ; 
 you re goin to be Mrs. Noah Newcomb." 
 
 359 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 She tried to draw away from him. 
 
 "No, Noah," she protested, "I haven t said that I 
 tnujtn t say it. Don t you see I mustn t think of it ? I 
 I m poor and I m not young any more and and you d 
 just have me to take care of, and it " 
 
 He laughed aloud. "There, there, that ll do, Melissy," 
 he said. "We ll argue all that out after we re married. 
 You called me your dear just now and that s all I was 
 waitin to hear. That settled everything so fur as you 
 and me are concerned, my girl, or if it didn t this will." 
 
 And he stooped and kissed her. 
 
 The remainder of the homeward run of the "Pancake" 
 that evening was straighter, but considerably slower 
 than that which had gone before. 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 
 A GOOD many happenings may take place in ten 
 days, and Captain Noah was thinking that very 
 thing as he leaned over the front fence of the 
 Burgess place ten days after he and Mrs. Mayo rode 
 home from Bayport together. 
 
 To begin with, the Burgess place was the Burgess 
 place no longer. And it was not the "Badscom place," 
 either, as it had been called when he first knew it. It 
 was the Newcomb place now, for he and Obadiah had 
 closed a deal and he had purchased that portion of Aunt 
 Sarah Badscom s legacy for four thousand dollars. Both 
 parties to the transaction were delighted, for the captain 
 had a home at last and the home he most desired, and 
 Mr. Burgess had in actual cash about fourteen thousand 
 dollars, a sum which looked like a De Rothschild fortune 
 to him. As a matter of fact, it was likely to be nearer 
 fifteen thousand, for Captain Noah and Melissa would 
 probably purchase the greater part of his furniture. 
 
 Obadiah had put the captain in charge of the said for 
 tune. Noah had hesitated about accepting the responsi 
 bility, but had finally decided to do so. He realized that 
 
 361 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 if his former cook himself took charge of it there would 
 soon be another letter summoning him to help extricate 
 the little man from new tangles. There were plenty 
 more helpful "friends" of the Balaam Griggs type in the 
 world, and the captain had worked out all the "picture 
 puzzles" he craved for the present. 
 
 Obadiah himself recognized the danger and strongly 
 urged that his friend act as his financial guardian. 
 
 "You take care of it, Cap n Noah," he said. "You 
 t-t-take care of it and hang onto it for me. There s 
 about eight hundred dollars a year interest c-c-comin 
 to me now, and that ought to be enough for any single 
 feller like me. A man that wants more than that is a 
 d-d-dum hog, the way I look at it. See here, Cap n, you 
 send me that interest at such and such t-t-times reg lar, 
 and if I write in between times and ask you for more you 
 tell me to go to t-t-thunder, will you?" 
 
 Captain Noah laughed. "Suppose you come yourself 
 and say you want it, Obe," he suggested. "What then ?" 
 
 Obadiah did not hesitate. 
 
 "Have me p-p-put in the crazy asylum," he said. 
 "That s where I d b-b-belong if I did that." 
 
 So it was arranged. And now Mr. Burgess, the first 
 installment of his interest in his pocket, had gone up to 
 Boston for what he called a "little vacation." It was not 
 likely to be a long vacation, for his supply of funds was 
 limited ; but it was the first of the "travels" which he 
 was planning to take. The captain had urged him to 
 consider his former house as a sort of headquarters, a 
 haven to which he might return whenever the joys of 
 traveling grew stale or the traveling wherewithal scarce. 
 
 362 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "You can call it your home just the same as ever k 
 Obe," he said. "I ll be glad to see you and so ll Me- 
 lissy, when she comes to be skipper aboard this craft." 
 
 Melissa, accompanied by her nephew, had gone back 
 to their former home at Pigeon Cove for a few days 
 stay. There were affairs to be settled there before Mrs. 
 Mayo left for good, furniture to be taken out of storage, 
 and similar matters. When she came back she and Noah 
 were to be quietly married, although no one outside the 
 immediate household shared that secret yet. 
 
 So Captain Noah was temporarily left alone in Trumet 
 and was sleeping 1 in his own home and eating at the 
 Mansion House. Just now it was Sunday he was con 
 sidering going down to that hostelry for dinner. It was 
 not a prospect to which he looked forward with eager 
 ness, but he knew it was time, because he had heard the 
 train whistle at the station a few minutes before, and 
 that meant twelve-thirty at least. 
 
 He leaned over the fence, puffing lazily at his cigar 
 which, by the way, was not a "Liberty Maid" when he 
 became aware that someone was approaching along the 
 road ; a man, obviously not a Trumet "native" and yet 
 someone whose walk was familiar, very familiar. The 
 man drew nearer, swinging his cane, and languidly 
 strolling on, and the captain whistled between his teeth. 
 The languid gentleman with the cane was the missing 
 invalid, he who had left Trumet to be gone a possible 
 two weeks but had been gone nearly five Mr. Caivin 
 Wentworth. 
 
 Cousin Calvin was a sight to gratify a taste not too 
 subdued nor yet too florid. His clothes were new, his 
 24 363 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 hat was new, so were his shoes and socks. His waist 
 coat was a cheerful check, his tie a dream of beauty. 
 Altogether it was quite evident that he had availed him 
 self of the opportunity which his visit to the metropolis 
 afforded and had been, as he told Balaam Griggs he in 
 tended to be, "touched up and revarnished." 
 
 Captain Noah noted all those things and smiled. Mr. 
 Wentworth, becoming aware of the captain s presence, 
 smiled also. There was a touch of conscious superiority 
 in the Wentworth smile. The Newcomb smile might 
 have meant almost anything, or nothing in particular. 
 
 "Afternoon, Newcomb," hailed Cousin Calvin, with 
 languid graciousness. 
 
 "Hello, Mr. Wentworth !" exclaimed the captain. 
 "Well, well ! Back again, eh?" 
 
 Mr. Wentworth admitted that he was back again. 
 Also he deigned to inquire concerning the captain s 
 health. 
 
 "First rate, thank you," declared Noah, heartily. 
 "Feelin fine, I am. And you ?" 
 
 "Top hole, old chap." And then, with the first ap 
 pearance of real interest he had shown, he asked: 
 "How s Sport?" 
 
 Captain Noah repeated the name. 
 
 "Sport?" he repeated. "Sport? I don t seem to 
 What s his first name ?" 
 
 "First name? I say, what ? I m talking about 
 Sport my dog, you know." 
 
 Then the captain seemed to comprehend. 
 
 "Oh, your dog!" he exclaimed. "The yellow and 
 black one with the stepped-on face. Sartin, I recollect 
 
 364 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 now. Why, he s all right, I presume likely. Seems to 
 me he was last time I saw him." 
 
 A little of Cousin Calvin s languor disappeared. He 
 looked at Captain Noah with a new expression, not of 
 suspicion exactly, but as if he were beginning to realize 
 there was something peculiar in the latter s manner. 
 
 "Last time you saw him?" he repeated, slowly. You 
 speak as if you hadn t seen him for some time. Aren t 
 you living here now?" 
 
 The captain nodded, genially. "Oh, sartin," he said; 
 "I m livin here, all right, livin here right along." 
 
 "Then don t you see the dog every day?" 
 
 "No, not every day." 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 "Don t know. Don t get down his way so very often, 
 maybe." 
 
 "Down his way? . . . See here, what are you doing, 
 stringing me ? Isn t the dog here ?" 
 
 Captain Noah smiled in innocent surprise. "My, my !" 
 he exclaimed. "I thought you knew that. But I sup 
 pose you didn t. Tain t likely you would know, come 
 to think of it, because " 
 
 "Know? Know what?" 
 
 "Why, know that your dog was down to the Mansion 
 House. They re takin care of him down there. It s all 
 right. Mrs. Hobbs says she thinks a sight of dogs, and 
 as for Ethelinda " 
 
 "Who sent my dog to the Mansion House ?" 
 
 Mr. Wentworth s composure was, for him, unusually 
 ruffled. Captain Noah was mild and calm as a foggy 
 morning in mid-summer. 
 
 365 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 Why, I did/ he answered, cheerfully. 
 
 You did? You did? Say, look here, what- 
 
 "Yes, you see, I tell you : He was a good enough dog" 
 of his kind, I presume likely, though he was so ever- 
 lastin 7 homely. Course he couldn t help that, poor crit 
 ter, but " 
 
 "What in the devil are you talking about?" 
 
 "About your dog. I m tryin to tell you. You see, I 
 could have put up with his homeliness, but he did eat so 
 like the nation that I couldn t stand it any longer, 
 and " 
 
 "You couldn t stand it? You couldn t?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 "What business was it of yours ? Did you have to pay 
 for what he ate ?" 
 
 "Why, yes." 
 
 "You did? Are you off your head? You don t own 
 this house, do you?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 The answer was given in the same quiet, cheerful, 
 conversational tone, but it seemed to knock the returned 
 invalid completely off his mental pins for the moment. 
 He stared at the speaker, at the house, and back again. 
 His mouth opened and shut several times, but he did 
 not say anything. Captain Noah did not say anything, 
 either ; he continued to smoke and to look cheerfully in 
 terested and anxious to please. At length the Went- 
 worth mouth managed to form words. 
 
 "You own this house?" he demanded. "You own it? 
 Do you know what you re talking about?" 
 
 "Yes, generally speakin ." 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "You own this house! How long since?" 
 
 " Bout a week/ 
 
 "You mean you you bought it of Burgess?" 
 
 "Um-hm." 
 
 Cousin Calvin stared long and hard at the imperturb 
 able and cheerful visage before him. And as he gazed, 
 an uncomfortable conviction that what he had just heard 
 was the truth began to steal upon him. If it was the 
 truth 
 
 "Where s Burgess ?" he demanded. 
 
 "Gone travelin ." 
 
 "Traveling? Traveling where?" 
 
 "Don t know. Just traveling I guess. Always wanted 
 to travel, you know, Obe did, so now I guess he s just 
 er travelin ." 
 
 "When is he coming back?" 
 
 "Don t know." 
 
 Mr. Wentworth seemed to reflect. Then he stepped 
 forward and put his hand upon the gate. The captain, 
 leaning upon that gate, and pretty effectually blocking 
 it, did not move. 
 
 "Excuse me," said Cousin Calvin. 
 
 "Oh, sartin sure, I ll excuse you. I could see you 
 didn t know I d bought the place. I ll excuse you; no 
 hard feelin s at all." 
 
 Wentworth laughed, uneasily. "I meant excuse me, 
 will you, and let me open the gate," he observed. 
 
 Still the man blocking the gate did not move. 
 
 "Wanted to go in, did you?" he inquired. 
 
 "Why why, yes, naturally I did." 
 
 "Um-hm. What for?" 
 
 367 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 "What for?" 
 
 "Um-hm. What for?" 
 
 "Why, to go to my room," hotly. "I ve been on the 
 road since twelve last night and I m tired." 
 
 "That s too bad. Don t blame you for wantin to go 
 to your room. I d go if I was you." 
 
 "Thanks. Then suppose you let me go." 
 
 "I wouldn t hinder you for nothin . But you ain t 
 goin the right way. Your room s down to the Man 
 sion House, I suppose. If it ain t there I don t know 
 where tis. There s where your trunk and the rest of 
 your dunnage was sent" 
 
 The invalid gasped. "You ve sent my trunk to the 
 Mansion House!" he shouted, wrathfully. "What for?" 
 
 "Didn t know where else to send it," was the mild 
 reply. "Obadiah and I didn t know what you d want 
 done with it, so we made the best guess we could. Then 
 again you d been gone so long we didn t know but you d 
 decided to stay in New York altogether." 
 
 "Stay there altogether! What would I want to stay 
 there altogether for? You chaps were pretty damned 
 fresh, if you ask me." 
 
 "Thanks. I ll remember in case I ever ask you. Why 
 would you want to stay in New York altogether ? That s 
 just what I said to Obe. No man with so many debts 
 around New York as he s got/ I said, would want to 
 stay there all the time/ You see, Mr. Wentworth, we d 
 looked up your record quite a long spell ago. How so 
 many of those New York store folks ever trusted you 
 beats me. It beat them, too, didn t it?" he added, with 
 a quiet chuckle. 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 Cousin Calvin s fists clenched. "By gad!" he cried, 
 
 "Yup. Well, Obe kind of thought you might have 
 married the Emmons woman and settled down. Cord- 
 in to all accounts, says Obe, he and she were thick 
 enough to be married. Look at the game the two of em 
 put on Irve Clifford. Eh? What say?" 
 
 But Mr. \Ventworth had not said anything. His usu 
 ally rather pale face was a bright red and he was per 
 spiring freely. Also he seemed to be tongue-tied, a con 
 dition in which very few people had ever seen him. 
 
 Captain Noah tossed away the stump of his cigar. 
 
 "So, you see, Mr. Wentworth," he went on, "we didn t 
 know where to send your things, and just took a chance 
 and sent em to the Mansion House. Tain t the Copley 
 Piazza hotel exactly, but a healthy man can live there 
 with practice. I m eating there myself just now, and I m. 
 fairly healthy." He turned away from the gate and 
 then turned back again. "In case you ain t got in those 
 dividend checks you were always expectin when you 
 borrowed of me," he added, "maybe you could make 
 some such arrangements as you made with Obe fix it to 
 put the Mansion House in your will, you know. So long, 
 Mr. Wentworth. Maybe I ll see you again some time." 
 
 He strolled up the path and entered the house. Cousin 
 Calvin, his face redder than ever, watched him go. For 
 a minute longer the returned invalid stood there in the 
 road, clutching his cane and swearing between his 
 clenched teeth. Then, suddenly recollecting that he might 
 be watched, and that it would be decidedly wiser not to 
 advertise his discomfiture throughout Trumet, he turned 
 
 369 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 and walked back toward the village. He had no definite 
 idea as to where he should go, but he instinctively headed 
 toward the Mansion House. His baggage was there and 
 his dog was there, and it seemed to him that he might 
 as well join them. 
 
 Trumet s main street on a Sunday afternoon in autumn 
 is not a crowded thoroughfare. Nevertheless, in front of 
 Snow s drygoods and general store there were several 
 people standing. They seemed to be looking in at the 
 window. As .ie passed it seemed to Mr. Wentworth that 
 these people looked at him, then in at the window, and 
 then at him again. And they whispered among them 
 selves. So he looked in at the window, too. 
 
 What he saw there, prominently displayed in the very 
 center of the show window, was a large "crayon enlarge 
 ment" in a gorgeous, not to say flamboyant frame. It, 
 the "enlargement," was a portrait of a two-legged clothes 
 pin with a wooden face, its lower extremities clad in 
 thunder and lightning knickerbockers, standing above a 
 four-legged object which Inoked as much like a dog as 
 it did like anything else. Both man and dog appeared 
 to have frozen stiff and then warped out of shape while 
 thawing. 
 
 The new arrival from the metropolis gazed at this ex 
 hibit and gasped, gazed again and felt a shiver run up 
 and down his back. For, in spite of the atrocious color 
 and bad drawing, the likeness was there. The face of 
 the clothespin was a caricature of his own. And, to 
 avoid all possibility of mistake, beside the frame was a 
 large placard with the inscription: "Crayon Portrait of 
 Mr. Calvin Wentworth of New York. Done by J. Ken- 
 
 370 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 ney, Artist. Orders for Similar Work Received Here." 
 Mr. Wentworth stared and stared. Then he made a 
 dash for the door of the store. It being Sunday that 
 door was locked, of course. What the irate original of 
 that crayon portrait might have done next if left undis 
 turbed is a subject for conjecture, he might have broken 
 the window perhaps. But before this rash deed could 
 be perpetrated a hand was laid upon his sleeve and a 
 voice, the voice of Uncle Labe Bassett, cried : 
 
 "Well, well, well! I do vum if it ain t Mr. Went 
 worth himself ! When did you come back, Mr. Went 
 worth? Glad to see ye, sir. Say now, say, ain t that 
 fine? Somethin of a surprise to you, ain t it? I bet 
 you! Cap n Noah Newcomb had Joe Kenney put that 
 in there for folks to see. The cap n cal lated that all 
 hands would want to look at it, and, by gracious me, 
 they do! I never cared much for Joe s paintin afore 
 I see this, I m free to give in that I didn t, but when I 
 see that there says I : That boy s a wonder, that s what 
 he is, a wonder ! Look at it now ; the very image of -you, 
 Mr. Wentworth. How many times I ve seen you look 
 like that. I says to Balaam Griggs t other day, says 
 
 Cousin Calvin never learned what Mr. Bassett said 
 to Balaam Griggs. He tore his sleeve from Uncle Labe s 
 detaining grasp without even explaining that he was 
 obliged to go. Instead he told the old gentleman where 
 he might go. He broke through the little group by the 
 window and strode up the street, lashing the weeds be 
 side the road with his cane and devoutly wishing that 
 each decapitated burdock stalk was Noah Newcomb. 
 24* 371 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 But, as he strode on, out of the jumble of his thoughts 
 a new idea began to shape itself, an idea suggested by 
 a name uttered by Uncle Labe. 
 
 "Balaam Griggs." 
 
 Balaam Griggs! Why, of course, Balaam Griggs! 
 There was his refuge. There was his Sunday dinner, 
 his night s lodging. Why not his board and lodgings 
 for many days and nights ? He took out his pocketbook, 
 made sure that a certain paper was within it, and then, 
 his frown succeeded by a confident smile, walked briskly 
 along the lower road toward the Griggs domicile. 
 
 Balaam was a moral man, as he occasionally stated in 
 public. Also he was a pious, church-going man at times. 
 But, like some other pious men, he seldom permitted piety 
 and morality to interfere with his business. The day be 
 fore he had come into possession of an old chair which 
 had originally been painted a bright green. On the mor 
 row, Monday, a prospective customer was coming to in 
 spect that chair. Therefore Mr. Griggs now, although 
 it was Sunday, was renewing the green paint which in 
 places had been knocked from the chair. 
 
 The door behind him opened. Balaam, mentally scold 
 ing himself for not having locked it, turned, dripping 
 paint brush in hand. His mouth and eyes opened and 
 he gasped audibly. 
 
 "Ah, old scout," observed Mr. Wentworth, blithely, 
 "improving the shining hour as usual, I see, eh?" 
 
 Mr. Griggs did not answer. 
 
 Cousin Calvin stepped into the room, glanced about 
 over the crowded huddle of "antiques," and perched, 
 whistling, upon the corner of an ancient or reproduction 
 
 372 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 of an ancient table, having first dusted it with a spot 
 less handkerchief. 
 
 "Still the busy bee, Uncle," he remarked. That s 
 the boy. Well, is there any honey in the hive today?" 
 
 Balaam, still clinging to the brush, which dripped ooz- 
 ily upon the floor, spoke. 
 
 "Where did you come from?" he demanded. 
 
 "From the broadest spot on Broadway, old scout." 
 
 "Huh! Been havin a good time on my money. I 
 cal late." 
 
 "Your caFlations are well cal lated. I have." 
 
 "And what did you come back here for?" 
 
 "I came," Mr. Wentworth airily tapped his new shoe 
 with his cane, "I came," he said, "because I could no 
 longer stay away from you, Uncle, dear. I thought of 
 you so often. Your bright smile haunted me still, so to 
 speak." 
 
 He grinned as he said it, for Mr. Griggs countenance 
 was something to see, although there were no bright 
 smiles visible upon it. 
 
 "Ugh !" grunted Balaam. 
 
 "I agree with you. Have you missed me? I m sure 
 you have. Well, you ll not miss me any more because 
 Oh, by the way, is it true that that Newcomb fellow has 
 bought out Burgess, house and all?" 
 
 Mr. Griggs grunted again. 
 
 "Yes, darn him, I guess he has," he said. 
 
 "Darn him by all means. Darn him and repeat, I m 
 with you. But, as I was going to say, you won t miss 
 me any more, Uncle, dear. I m going to stay here 
 
 373 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 Balaam leaned forward. 
 
 "You re goin to what?" he cried. 
 
 "I m goin to stay here, live here, spend my days and 
 nights here. You ll take me in, of course you will. 
 How can you refuse? Eh? A man with as tender a 
 heart as yours is." 
 
 ^Mr. Griggs made no answer. The hand holding the 
 dripping paint brush tightened a little, that was all. 
 
 Mr. Wentworth reached into the pocket of his new- 
 coat and drew forth his pocketbook. Opening the pocket- 
 book he extracted a paper. 
 
 "I love to read this, Uncle dear," he said. "It s my 
 meal ticket, my permanent meal ticket, so to speak. 
 Want to hear it again? Do let me refresh your mem 
 ory. But provided my daughter, the said Mary Barton 
 Barstow, comes of age or marries, the said trust held 
 by her mother, my wife, and Balaam Griggs, my joint 
 executor, shall terminate and the said twenty-five thou 
 sand dollars shall be hers without " 
 
 He got no further. The dripping paint brush, flung 
 by the Griggs hand, struck squarely in the middle of his 
 chest, just at the lower point of the V in the new checked 
 waistcoat. It struck, and spattered much and stickily. 
 
 Then Mr. Griggs reached for the paint pot itself. 
 
CHAPTER XXII 
 
 ABOUT a year after the Sunday upon which Mr. 
 Griggs threw the paint brush Mr. and Mrs Irving 
 Clifford, still residing in Chicago, received the 
 following letter from Captain Noah. They had received 
 many from the same source. The letter began : 
 
 DEAR IRVE AND MARY: I haven t written you for a good 
 while, but that isn t all my fault. Melissa kept saying she 
 was going to write and so I didn t, waiting for her. Of 
 course she says she didn t write because / kept saying / 
 was going to and she was waiting for me, but you mustn t 
 pay too much attention to her. 
 
 Above this last sentence was written in Melissa s hand 
 writing : 
 
 And I hope you know him too well by this time to pay 
 much attention to him. 
 
 The letter continued: 
 
 I don t know as there s much news to write. Things 
 here in Trumet are pretty much the same. Melissa and 
 me are well, and I tell her she gets younger and handsomer 
 every day. Of course it is natural she should, being lucky 
 enough to have me for a husband. 
 
 375 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 Another interpolation here in Mrs. Newcomb s hand 
 writing : 
 
 More of his nonsense. Besides, I tell him somebody in 
 the family ought to be good-looking. 
 
 The captain went on: 
 
 We are busy cleaning house and getting the decks scrubbed 
 and things lashed down and stowed aloft and alow for win 
 ter. We have built on a new ell on the port side of the 
 house and, besides an extra stateroom upstairs, there is a 
 new room on the main deck that / say is a smoking room. 
 Melissa she says it is a sewing room, and so far it does 
 seem to be, but some of these days I tell her I am going 
 to bust loose and smoke in it if it turns out to be the last 
 puff I draw. A six-foot-three man has to have some rights, 
 ain t he? He can t be browbeat and pounded around all the 
 time by a five-foot-three woman. However, joking to one 
 side, the new rooms are tiptop, and Melissa and me get a 
 heap of comfort out of them. 
 
 Joe s letters from out West keep coming all the time, and 
 are as full of hurrahs and enthusiasm as ever. I calcu 
 late he has to work pretty hard there on Mr. Snowden s 
 ranch, but it don t seem to sicken him o~ the job. I am 
 real grateful to Mr. Snowden for giving him the chance. 
 He did it to oblige me, of course, and my wife and I appre 
 ciate it. If we ever take that Grand Canon, orange grove, 
 Frisco cruise we ve been talking about so long we mean 
 to make port there at the ranch and see Joe and thank 
 Snowden personal. But I do really believe the boy is 
 making good. His boss wrote me that he was, and his own 
 letters seem to bear out the statement. So long as he 
 don t try to crayon enlarge any of the cowboys and get 
 shot up on account of it I calculate he will do pretty well. 
 I tell Melissa that I do hope he won t take a notion to 
 
 376 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 paint a picture of any of the steers. He is liable to be 
 tossed over the main truck if he does. No self-respecting 
 beef-critter would stand one of Joe s portraits for a minute. 
 
 Speaking of Joe and his pictures reminds me of Cousin 
 Calvin naturally. I have got some news to tell you about 
 him, but I ll keep it for the last, and tell you about Balaam 
 first. The old scalawag is about the same as ever. I met 
 Captain Zeke Penniman down the road the other day and 
 he had a new yarn to spin about Balaam and his antiques. 
 Seems the old rascal had been to an auction over to Well- 
 mouth. He never misses an auction, you know. Well, he 
 had been to this one and he d bought a lot of junk and 
 some old silver and plated ware amongst it. Soon as he 
 got the plunder home and stowed away between decks in 
 his robbers roost, the shed where he keeps his antiques, 
 out he goes and hunts up Mrs. Ann Eldridge, who has got 
 money and hopes she is a collector. Ann says she simply 
 does love old curiosities and old things and she never lets 
 one get away from her if she can help it. Probably that s why 
 she married old Abner Eldridge, for if he ain t a genuine 
 antique, and a curiosity at that, I never laid eyes on one. 
 Well, anyhow, Balaam hunted her up and dragged her 
 down to his thief s den to see the wonderful old silver he d 
 got a hold of. He had an old tablespoon there that he 
 got up on his hind legs and fairly cried over. Said twas 
 one of a set that Noah used aboard the Ark, or some such 
 matter used to feed little Japhet his porridge with it, he 
 understood. Words to that effect anyhow. 
 
 Well, Ann she cried over it, too, until she turned it over; 
 then she saw what Balaam hadn t noticed, or at least 
 hadn t said anything about; that was the words "Ocean 
 House" stamped in fine letters way up on the handle. It 
 was a spoon that came from the hotel at South Bayport, 
 the one that was burned down four or five years ago. But 
 do you suppose Balaam was fussed when she pointed the 
 name out to him? Not a fuss. Any other swindler would 
 
 377 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 have been tongue-tied, but Papa Griggs never turned a 
 hair. Instead he pretended to be more vainglorious than 
 ever. That proved it was one of Noah s spoons, didn t it? 
 "Ocean House" would be just the name the old chap would 
 call the Ark. 
 
 There was another interpolation by Mrs. Newcomb: 
 
 I do hope you won t believe all this. Part of that spoon 
 story is true, that about Ann s finding the name, but all that 
 Noah s Ark part is just more of Captain Newcomb s jokes. 
 I have got used to his jokes by this time, but I m always 
 afraid other folks won t understand. 
 
 The captain continued: 
 
 So you see Balaam hasn t changed much. For months 
 and months he didn t speak to me when he met me on 
 the road, but day afore yesterday he came beating up to 
 windward of me and asked me if it was true I was thinking 
 of buying Solomon David s pasture land down on the lower 
 bay front. Said he heard I was, and if it was so he hoped 
 I d buy it through him, because I knew what heavy losses 
 he had lately and how much he needed the commission 
 money. I calculate the losses was the twenty-five thousand 
 of Mary s money that he had to pay over to her. What 
 do you think of that? Balaam will get on in this world, 
 I shouldn t wonder, if he lasts long enough and the world 
 lasts. But I think the world is taking chances by associat 
 ing with him. 
 
 Obadiah is off again on another traveling cruise. He has 
 gone to Providence this time. He won t stay long, because 
 I didn t let him have but forty dollars to go with, and 
 you can t stay very long anywhere on that these days. 
 He is usually about ten dollars ahead of his drawing ac 
 count and, so far as I can see, Melissa and I will always 
 have him as a sort of permanent charge on our hands. 
 
 378 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 We don t care much, though. If it hadn t been for him 
 I shouldn t be here alive today and, besides, I rather like 
 to have him around and hear him talk. He sets off a bunch 
 of fire< "ackers with every sente.ice, and when he gets real 
 excited he talks like a corn-popper. But he is a good- 
 hearted little soul as ever lived, and I think the world of 
 him. 
 
 Did I write you in my last letter that he had been to 
 Syracuse? You remember he always used to say he wanted 
 to go on account of that second mate he sailed along with 
 once. That mate used to get tight, you recollect, and then 
 sing "Home, Sweet Home," to the tune of Syracuse. So Obe 
 has been set on going to Syracuse ever since. Well, he 
 went last month and came back some disappointed. He 
 said it was a nice place, but it wasn t nigh so big as he 
 expected, said it didn t seem to him any bigger than Bos 
 ton. Seems that mate had given him the notion that Syra 
 cuse covered two-thirds of creation and had a building 
 option on the other third. 
 
 And now I must tell the news about Cousin Calvin Went- 
 worth. The yarn that is going about Trumet just now is 
 that he s going to be married. Yes, sir, married. What 
 do you think of that? I wrote you how he had been living 
 at the Mansion House ever since he left here. Well, he 
 has been star boarder there, too. Course he can t have paid 
 any board, for I know perfectly well he hasn t got any 
 thing to pay it with. I imagined that he had worked the 
 invalid game and the leaving everything in his will trick 
 on Mrs. Hobbs, same as he had on Obe, but now I ain t 
 so sure. Nigh as I can find out Mrs. Hobbs and Ethelinda 
 and all the rest of the females at the Mansion House fell 
 down and worshiped him when they first saw him. That 
 high-toned way of his and his city clothes and that waxed 
 mustache was too much for em. And he can be mighty 
 convincing and persuading when he takes the trouble to 
 set that oily tongue of his running. 
 
 379 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 Anyhow, they say he is going to marry Lavinia Hobbs. 
 Sarepta Hatch told me, and she said Captain Penniman 
 told her this very morning. I asked her what else Captain 
 Zeke said, and she said she d be ashamed to tell me, said 
 his language was enough to bring a judgment on him. So 
 I calculate the captain s bearings must have been pretty hot. 
 Well, it is enough to make a decent man swear, the idea 
 that any grown-up woman can be such a fool, but that 
 kind of thing happens all the time, so perhaps it ain t so 
 wonderful. He ll have a soft snap, a home, and somebody 
 to work and support him. She ll have I don t know what, 
 something to put on the parlor whatnot maybe, for Cousin 
 Calvin is ornamental, I will give in. I wonder if he ll send 
 wedding cards to the Emmons woman in New York. But 
 say, if he is married I ve got a wedding present to give 
 Lavinia. I ve got that crayon tintype that Joe did of 
 Wentworth, and as sure as I sit here writing this I shall 
 send it to the bride on the wedding day. I don t know how 
 pleased she ll be, but I know her husband will be delighted. 
 They say he wanted to murder Snow, the storekeeper, for 
 exhibiting it in his show window. 
 
 There, folks, I guess I ve written the longest letter on 
 record or thereabouts. Melissa and I talk about you pretty 
 often, and some of these days we may be coming out to 
 Chicago to see you. And of course we are counting on 
 your spending at least a month of next summer with us 
 here at home. We want to see you, you may be sure of 
 that, but we especially want to see that new Clifford. Judg 
 ing by his picture he must be considerable of a fellow. Tell 
 him to hurry up and grow because I want to ship him as 
 second mate aboard that new catboat I am planning to 
 have next summer. 
 
 Melissa says she knows I have written you a pack of 
 nonsense, and that she shall look it over before she lets me 
 mail it. I expect she will, for she looks me over pretty 
 careful afore I do much of anything. Well, I never took 
 
EXTRICATING OBADIAH 
 
 her advice yet that it didn t turn out to be a good thing, 
 so I am not complaining. She sends a shipload of love 
 and good wishes ana so do I. Take care of yourselves, 
 both of you, and of that second mate of mine. And write 
 
 Yours right straight along, 
 
 No A ii NEWCOMB. 
 
 THE END 
 
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