Humph! I'm the one's who's wasting the time. How are you? I don't mean how would you like to be or how do your fool friends and the doctor tell you you are—but how are you?"
Captain Sears smiled. It had been a long, long time since any one had talked to him like this. Not since he relinquished a mate's rating for that of a master. But he did not resent it; he, too, was sick of pretending.
"I'm in bad shape, Judge," he said. "My legs are better and I can hobble around on 'em, as you saw when I hobbled in here. But as to whether or not they will ever be fit for sea again I—well, I doubt it. And I rather guess the doctor doubts it, too. I don't say so to many, haven't said it to any one but you, but it looks to me as if I were on a lee shore. I may get out of the breakers some day—or I may just lay there and rot and drop to pieces. … Well, as you say, what's the use of wastin' time talkin' about me?"
"I've got a reason for talking about you, Cap'n. So you're not confined to your bed. And your head is all right, eh?"
Kendrick hesitated. He could not make out what in the world the man was driving at.
"Eh?" repeated the judge.
"Yes, as right as it ever was, I presume likely. Sometimes I think that may not be sayin' much."
"When a man thinks that way it is a favorable symptom, according to my experience. From what I've heard and know, Cap'n Kendrick, your head will do very well. Now there's another question. Have you got all the money you need?"
The captain leaned back in his chair. He did not answer immediately. From the head upon the pillow came a rasping chuckle.
"Go on," observed Judge Knowles, "ask it."
Kendrick stared at him. "Ask what?" he demanded.
"The question you had in mind. If I hadn't been a man with one foot in the grave you would have asked me if I considered the amount of money you had any of my damned business. Isn't that right?"
Sears hesitated. Then he grinned. "Just about," he said.
"I thought so. Well, in a way it is my business, because, if you have all the money you need, fifteen hundred a year for the next two or three years won't tempt you any. And I want to tempt you, Cap'n."
Again the captain was silent for an interval.
"Fifteen hundred a year?" he repeated, slowly.
"Yes."
"For what?"
"For services to be rendered. I've been looking for a man with time on his hands, who has been used to managing, who can be firm when it's necessary, has had enough experience of the world to judge people and things and who won't let a slick tongue get the better of him. And he must be honest. I think you fill the bill, Cap'n Kendrick."
The visitor tugged at his beard.
"Look here, Judge Knowles," he said crisply, "what are you talkin' about? What's the joke?"
"It isn't a joke."
"Well, then what is it? You'll have to give me my bearin's, I'm lost in the fog. Do I understand you to mean that you are offerin' me a berth, a job where I can earn—no, I won't put it that way, where I will be paid fifteen hundred a year?"
"I am, and," with another sardonic chuckle, "I rather think you'll earn all you get. Of course fifteen hundred dollars a year isn't a large salary, it isn't a sea captain's wage and share—not such a captain as you've been, Kendrick. But, as I see it, you can't go to sea for a year or two at least. You are planning to stay right here in Bayport. Well, while you are here this thing I am offering you will," there was another chuckle, "keep you moderately busy, and you will be earning something. It may be that fifteen hundred won't be enough to be worth your while. Perhaps I shouldn't venture to offer it if I hadn't heard—hadn't heard——"
Sears interrupted.
"What you heard was probably true," he said crisply. "True enough, at any rate. Fifteen hundred a year looks like a lot to me now. But what am I to do to get it, that's the question. I'm a cripple, don't forget that."
"I should remember it if I thought it necessary. You won't handle this job with your legs. It is your head I want. Cap'n Kendrick, I want you to take charge—take command, if you had rather we used seafaring lingo, of that establishment next door to where you are living now. I want you to act as—well, we'll call it captain of the Fair Harbor."
Captain Sears's eyes and mouth opened. His chair creaked as he leaned forward and then slowly leaned back again.
"You—you—" he gasped, "you want me to—to manage that—that old women's home?"
"Yes."
"Me?"
"Yes. … Here! where are you going?"
The visitor had risen.
"Stop!" shouted Judge Knowles. "Where are you going?"
The captain breathed heavily.
"I'm goin' to send for the doctor," he declared. "One of us two needs him."
Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.
Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».
Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.
Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.
