Classic Audiobook Collection - The Harbor of Doubt by Frank Williams ~ Full Audiobook [mystery]

Starting point is 00:00:00 the harbor of doubt by frank williams chapter one maliciously accused let them think what they like if i had died i would have been a hero because i lived i suppose there is nothing in the history of crime that i have not committed young captain kodd schofield sprang out of the deep luxurious chair and began to pace up and down before the fire he did not cast as much as a glance at the woman near him his mind was elsewhere he had heard strange things in this talk with her well captain you know how it is on an island like this the tiny thing of everyday life becomes a subject for a day's discussion that affair of six months ago was like dropping a tombstone in a mud puddle everything is profoundly stirred but no one gets spattered except the one who dropped it, in this case, yourself. Scofield stopped in his tracks and regarded his hostess with a look that was mingled surprise and uneasiness. She lay back in a chaise lounge, her hands clasped behind her head, smiling up at the young man. The great square room was dark, except for the firelight, and her yellow dress, gleaming fitfully in it,

Starting point is 00:01:26 showed the curving lissomness of her young body mrs mallaby he said when you say clever things like that i don't know what to do i'm not used to it he laughed as though half ashamed of the confession appreciate them she directed shortly with a fleeting glance from her great dark eyes do you demand all my time he asked and flushed the well-turned compliment caught her unawares and she admitted to herself that perhaps she had underrated this briny youth, who was again beginning to interest her extremely. But with the sally, he seemed to have forgotten it and recommenced pacing the floor, his hands in his pockets and his brows knit. His mind had gone off again to this other vastly important thing.

Starting point is 00:02:19 She noticed it with a twinge of vexation. She vastly preferred the personal. What was it, old woman? Jed Martin said to you this afternoon, he asked. That if the opinions of old sailors were of any account, Nat Burns could get up a pretty good case against you for the loss of the May Schofield. I suppose he meant his own opinion.

Starting point is 00:02:45 He's an old sailor now, but if he lives to be a hundred and fifty, he'll never be a good one. I could beat his vessel if I was on a two-by-four with a pillowcase for a mainsail. i can't understand why he is turned against me it isn't only he it's i know it he burst out passionately it's the whole island of grande mignon from frekirk head to southern cross not a man nor woman but has turned against me since that awful day great god what do they think that i wrecked the poor old may for the fun of the thing that i enjoyed fighting for my life in that sea, and seeing the others drown with my very eyes? Don't they suppose I will carry the remembrance of that all my life?

Starting point is 00:03:37 My heaven, Elsa, that was six months ago, and I have just begun to sleep nights without the nightmare of it riding me. Poor boy! Her voice calmed him like a touch on a restive horse, and yet he unconsciously resented the fact that it did. i haven't been blind code and i have heard and seen this thing growing it is hard for a fisherman to lose his ship and not suffer for it afterward at the hands of inferior sailors i've known you all my life code and i believe in you now just as i did that day in school you took the whipping i should have got for passing you a note you haven't heard the last of the may schofield and you won't until you lay the ghost that has come out of its grave but whatever you do or wherever you are i want you to remember that i stand ready to help you in every way i can

Starting point is 00:04:40 all this she swept her arm about the richly furnished room is worthless to me now that jim is gone unless i can do some good for those i like please code will you feel free to call on me if you need help the flush that had receded returned with a flood of color that made his face beneath its fair hair appear very dark really elsa he stammered that's awfully handsome of you, but I hope things won't go so far as that. I can never forget what you have said. Elsa Malaby had always been like that to him. Even when she married Hard Luck Jim Malaby, she had always seemed to regard Code Schofield

Starting point is 00:05:30 as the one man in Freakirk head. But Jim, being too busy with his strange affairs, had not noticed. Jim, it was who, after twenty years of horrible poverty and ill luck, had caught the largest halibut ever taken off the banks, and made thousands of dollars exhibiting it alive. And it was this same Jim who, for the remaining ten years of his life, turned to gold everything he touched.

Starting point is 00:06:00 Malabee House was his real monument, for here, on the great green hill that overlooked the harbor, he had erected a mansion that made his name famous up and down the Bay of Fundy. And here, seven years ago, he had brought Elsa Fuller as his bride, Elsa Fuller, who was the bell of Freakirk Head, and had been to Boston to boarding school. It was to Malaby House that Codd Schofield had come to dinner this night. He had not wanted to come and had only agreed when she bribed him with a promise, of something very important she might reveal.

Starting point is 00:06:39 The revelation was hardly a pleasure. Nothing had been a pleasure to him since that day six months ago when his old schooner, dismasted and leaking in a gale, had foundered near the wolves, two sharp-toothed islands near Grande Mignon. Four islanders had been lost that day, and he alone had lived through the surf.

Starting point is 00:07:05 What else did he? old Jed Martin say, Elsa, he asked suddenly. She knitted her brows and stared into the fire. Why would he always go back to that? He said that the May Schofield should have been able to live out that gale easily if she had been handled right, old as she was. She was pretty old, wasn't she?

Starting point is 00:07:31 Fifty years. She was twenty when Dad got her. He sailed her. 28, and I had her for two. You got a good deal of insurance out of her, didn't you code? $10,000, her full value. And you bought the charming lass with that, didn't you? Yes, that, and two thousand the dad had saved. Why?

Starting point is 00:07:59 Old Jed Martin said something about that, too. "'Scofield's face paled slightly, "'and his mouth closed tightly, "'exhibiting the salience of his jaw. "'So that's it, huh? "'Thinks I ran her under for the insurance, "'the old barnacle. "'Is that around the island, too?'

Starting point is 00:08:21 "'I guess it must be, "'or I shouldn't have heard about it. "'You didn't, of course, did you code?' "'I hardly expected you would ask that, Elsa. Why, I loved that old schooner like I love, well, my mother. I believe you, code, you don't need to ask that. I just wanted to hear you deny it. But you know, there were some queer things about her sinking just then, when she was supposed to be in good condition. Nat Burns, ha, so he's in it too. What does he say?

Starting point is 00:08:59 He says that her insurance policy was just about to run out. Is that so? Yes. There was a tone of defiance in his answer that caused her to look up at him quickly. His blue eyes were narrowed and his face hard. And it wasn't such a hard gale, was it? No, I've weathered lots worse with the May. I can't explain what.

Starting point is 00:09:29 why she sank. And Michael Burns, who was aboard of her, was the insurance inspector, wasn't he? Yes, the reply was more agron than a spoken word. He laughed harshly. I can see Nat Burns's hand in all this, he cried. Why didn't I think of it before? He will dog me till I die because his father lost his life aboard my schooner. oh i had no idea it was as bad as this he sank down into the chair again and stared gloomily into the fire i'm glad i came to-night he said at last i didn't know all these things how long has this talk been goin round not long code her voice was all sympathy it is simply the result of brooding among our people who have had so little in their lives i'm sorry what will you do go away somewhere else he looked at her quickly scorn written upon his face go away he repeated and admit my own guilt well hardly i'll stay here and see this thing through if i have to do it in the face of all of them

Starting point is 00:10:54 splendid code she cried clapping her hands just what i knew you would say and remember i will help you all i can and whenever you need me he looked at her gratefully and she thrilled with triumph at last there was something more in his glance than the purely impersonal he had awakened at last she thought to what she might mean to him there followed one of those pauses that often occur when two people are thinking intensely on different subjects for perhaps five minutes the cheerful fire crackled on uninterrupted then suddenly recollecting himself code sprang to his feet and held out his hand half-past ten he said glancing at the mahogany chime clock on the mantelpiece i must really go it has been kind of you to have me up to-night and tell me all these inner secrets of your own life that you never suspected before she laughed exactly you have done me a service like the good friend you always were she took his hand and he noticed that hers was a trifle cold they started toward the hallway from the broad veranda of malaby house the view extended a dozen miles to see beneath the hill on which the mansion stood the village of freak herkhead nestled against the green now the dim yellow lights of its many lamps glowed in the darkness and edged the crescent of stony beach where washed the green washed the cold waters of Flagg's Cove.

Starting point is 00:12:40 To the left at one tip of the crescent, the flash of swallow-tail light glowed and died, like the fire in a gigantic cigarette. To the right, at the other, could be seen the faint lamps of Castalia, three miles away. For a minute they stood drinking in the superb beauty of it all. Then Elsa left him with the conventional word, and Schofield heard the great front door closed softly behind her.

Starting point is 00:13:11 Silently he descended the steps, when suddenly from the town below came the hideous, raucous shriek of a steam whistle. He stood for a minute, astonished, for the whistle was that of the steamer Grand Mignon, that daily plied between the island and the mainland. Now the vessel lay at her dock, and code, as well as all the island,

Starting point is 00:13:35 knew that her wild signaling at such an hour foreboded some dire calamity swiftly buttoning his coat he started on a run down the winding rocky path that led from malabee house he cast one more glance toward the roofs of the village before he plunged among the pine and tamarack and in that instant caught a red glow from the general direction of the fish wharfs end of chapter one recording by roger maline chapter two of the harbor of doubt this libervox recording is in the public domain recording by roger maline the harbor of doubt by frank williams chapter two the red peril five minutes of plunging and slipping brought him down to the main road that gleamed dim gray in the blackness a quarter of a mile east lay the wharfs the general store and some of the best dwain to the best dwain to the darkness a quarter of a mile east lay the wharfs the general store and some of the best dwellings in Freikirk head. Ahead of him in the road he could see lanterns bobbing and the illuminated legs of the men who carried them running. Behind he heard the muffled pound of boots in thick dust

Starting point is 00:14:58 and the hoarse panting of others racing toward the scene of the trouble. The frantic screeching of the steamer's whistle that was not yet silent had done its work well. Freakirk head was up in arms. instinctively and naturally code schofield ran just as he had run from his father's house since he was ten years old his long easy stride carried him quickly over the ground and he passed two or three of those ahead with lanterns they shouted at him hey what's the trouble panted one know anything about it no but it might be the wharfs he replied without stopping he veered out to the edge of the road so as to avoid any more quarries he looked with suspicion now on all these men who of them he wondered was not in his heart convicting him of those things elsa melaby had mentioned his straightforward nature revolted against the hypocrisy in men that bade them treat him as they had done all his life and yet think of him only as a criminal

Starting point is 00:16:10 suddenly the dull red that had glowed dimly against the sky burst into rosy bloom a great tongue of fire leaped up and licked the heavens while floating down the brisk breeze came the distant mingling of men's shouts as he passed a white wooden gate he heard a woman on the porch crying and a child's voice in impatient question then for the first time he lost sight of his own distress and thought of the misery of his whole people it was august and the indians should soon be coming from the mainland to spear porpoises the daltz pickers on the back of the island reported a good yield from the rocks at low tide but outside of these few there was wretchedness from anthony's nose to southern cross the fish had failed a hundred years and more had the grand mignon fishermen gone out with net and hand-line and trawl and for that length of time the millions in the sea had fed clothed and housed the thousand on the island when prices had been good there were even luxuries and history tells of men who-whoed the men who in one hall from a weir, have made their twenty-five thousand dollars in an hour. This was all gone now. The fish had failed. Day after day since early spring, the men had put to sea in their sloops and motor dories, trawling and hand-lining from twenty miles out in the Atlantic

Starting point is 00:17:47 to four and a half fathoms off Dutch edge. The result was the same. The fish were poor and few. Even at Bulkhead Rip, where the sixty-pounders played among the racing tides, there was scarcely a bite. A fisherman lives on luck, so for a month there was no remark upon the suddenly changed condition. But after that, as the days passed and not a full dory raced up to Bill Bowdoin's fish stand, muttered whispers and old tales went up and down the island. it was recalled that the fish left a certain norwegian coast once for a period of fifty years and that the whole occupation of the people of that coast was changed was that to be the fate of grande mignon if so what could they do extensive farming on the rocky island was impossible and not one ship had ever been built there for the trade where would things end so it had gone until now in the middle of august the people of freikirk head seal cove and great harbor the main villages along the front or atlantic side of the island were face to face with the question of actual life or death

Starting point is 00:19:13 so far the season's catch was barely up to that of a good month in normal times credit was low and salting and drying were almost useless for the people ate most of their own catch things were at a standstill and now the fire on top of it all captain code schofield thought of all these things as he ran along the king's road toward the fire now he was almost upon it and could see that the fish stand and wharf of the two wealthiest men in the village were burning furiously the roar of the flames came to him a hundred yards back from the water stood bill boughton's general store and next it in a row dwellings typical white fisherman's cottages with green blinds and a flower-filled dory in the front yard the king's road divided at bill boughton's store the branch leading down to the wharfs while the main road went on to swallowtail light schofield plunged down the branch into the branch into the branch into the wharfes scoffield plunged down the branch into the full glare of the fire where a crowd of men had already gathered as good luck would have it there was not a vessel tied up to the stand the whole fleet being made fast to its moorings in the bay code's first duty when he started running had been to make sure that his laughing lass was riding safely at her anchorage the burning wharf's faced south the brisk Breeze was southeast and bore a promise of possible rain.

Starting point is 00:20:56 The steamer, Grand Mignon, after giving the first warning, had steamed away from her perilous dockage to a point half a mile nearer the entrance to the bay, and now lay there shrieking until the frowning cliffs and abrupt hills echoed with the hideous noise. How did it happen? asked Schofield of the first man he met. don't know exactly calculates some tanks in the oil room caught first can't do much with them wharfs i guess who's in charge of things here the squire schofield hurried away in search of squire hardy head man of the village and local justice of the peace he found him working like a trojan his white whiskers ruffled into a circle about his face lend us a hand here code yelled the squire who with three other men was attempting to get a great circular horse trough under a huge pump with a handle long enough for three men to lay hold of schofield fell to with a will and helped move the trough into place the squire set the three men to the task of filling it and then went to code any chance to save those wharfs d'ye think

Starting point is 00:22:17 no squire better leave them in the fish houses and work on bouton's store and the cottages they're right in path of the wind it'll be tough on naylor and thomas to lose their stand in houses but you know what'll happen if the fire gets into the dwellings i thought so all along curse me if i didn't yelled the judge and then turning toward a crowd of men who are looking apprehensively here and there he shouted shouted all hands with the buckets now lively suddenly the basement doors of bouton's store were thrown open and a huge black-bearded man with a great voice appeared there buckets this way he bellowed in a tone that rose clearly above the roar and crackle of the fire as the men reached him he handed out the implements from great stacks at his feet rubber buckets wooden buckets tin and iron buckets new old rusty and galvanized it was pete ellenwood the fire-martial of the village and custodian of the apparatus because in the hundred or more years of its existence there has never been water pressure in grand mignon the fighting of a fire there with primitive means has become an exact and beautiful science a few bold spirits had disputed the wisdom of squire hardy's orders to let the wharf and fish-house burn and had attempted to give them a dousing in less than five minutes they had retreated singed and hairless due to a sudden explosion of a drum of oil play on bill bouton's store came the order already an iron ladder reached to the eaves of the building two men galloped

Starting point is 00:24:13 up its length, dragging behind them another ladder with a pair of huge hooks at the end. Clinging like monkeys, they worked this up over their heads and up the shingles, until the hooks caught squarely across the ridge pole of the house. Then, on hands and feet, they trotted up this and sat astride the ridge pole. One of these was Code Schofield. Other men now swarmed up the ladders until there was one, one on every rung from the ground to the top of the house. Below, a line of men extended from the foot of the ladder to the great circular horse trough.

Starting point is 00:24:54 Another line extended from the opposite side of the store also to the horse trough, where three men worked the great pump. Back twenty yards, along the king's road, a white-faced row of women and children stood, ready to rush home and move their furniture into the fields. Code, looking down, made out his mother and returned her friendly wave. Their house was across the road not a hundred feet away. With a muffled roar, another drum on the pier exploded.

Starting point is 00:25:30 A great wave of molten fire shot out in the breeze, and the shingles on Bill Boughton's store, parched with the drought of a month, burst into quick-furt. flame. The squire ran back to the water-trop. Dip! he yelled. Big Pete Ellenwood, with the piles of buckets beside him, seized one and twitched it full. Pass! screamed the squire as it came up dripping. Ellenwood's great arm swung forward to meet the arm of the man a yard away. The bucket changed hands and went forward without losing a drop.

Starting point is 00:26:10 Up it went swiftly, from one to another, to the eaves, to the two men at the top. Now the fire sent branches out from the burning wharf along the low frames where some of the season's miserable catch was drying in the open air after salting. The fish curled and blackened in the fierce heat. Only two men were not in the bucket brigade. They were Nailer and Thomas. who stood watching the destruction of their whole property they knew the squire had done well in saving the village rather than their own buildings it was the tacit understanding in frekirk head that a few should lose rather than the many code schofield from his perch on the bouten roof tree looked down again to where he had last seen his mother once more he distinguished the tall figure with its white face

Starting point is 00:27:08 looking anxiously up at him, and he waved his hand reassuringly. Then his eye was caught by two other figures that lurked in the first shadows farther up the king's road. A moment later he made sure of their identity. They were Nellie Tanner and Nat Burns. For years there had been a dislike between the Burns's and the Schofields. Old Jasper Schofield, Code's father, and Michael Burns had become enemies over the same girl a quarter of a century before, and the breach had never been healed. Old Captain Jasper had won, but he had never forgotten, and Michael had never forgiven. Quite unconsciously the feud had been passed on to the children of both, for Michael had married within a few years, and from school days,

Starting point is 00:28:06 code and nat had been the leaders of rival gangs when they became young men they matched their season's catches and raced their father's schooners they were the two natural leaders of the freakirk had young bloods but they were never on the same side of an argument schofield wondered why nat burns was not at the fire as usual attempting to make himself leader of the battle without a doing much of the work, and now the reason was apparent. He preferred to pursue his courting under the eyes of the village rather than to obey the unwritten law of service, and he was with Nellie Tanner. Unlike most youths, there had never been a time in Codes' life when he had passed the favor of his affections around. Since the time they were both five, Nellie Tanner had seen.

Starting point is 00:29:06 supplied in full all the feminine requirements he had ever desired. And she did at this moment. But Nat Burns had seen a great deal of her in the last three months, he remembered, taking advantage of Codes' desperate search for fish. Once in this train his thoughts bore him on and on. Memories, speculations, and desires crowded his mind, and he forgot that beneath him the roof of Boughton's store was burning more and more briskly. Suddenly, the man beside him on the ridge pole shook his arm.

Starting point is 00:29:47 Say, code, he cried. What's that burning over there? I didn't know the fire had gone across the street. Schofield looked up quickly and followed the direction of the other's arm that pointed through the trees to the opposite side of King's Road and a little to westward. Good Lord, he cried excitedly. It's my own place, and my mother is all alone down there. Quick, send somebody up here. I'm going. End of chapter two. Recording by Roger Maline.

Starting point is 00:30:30 Chapter 3 of the Harbor of Doubt. This LeBrovoc's recording is in the public domain. Recording by Roger Maline. The Harbor of Doubt by Frank williams chapter three the test the man behind him climbed to the ridge pole and code began the descent necessarily slow and careful because the ladders were loaded with men passing buckets when he reached the ground he started for home on the run opposite bouton's general store was another shop that made a specialty of fishermen's oilers boots and overalls two houses to the westward of that was the old schofield place a low white house surrounded by a rickety fence and covered with ivy once he reached the middle of the road code saw that he had been mistaken in the location of the fire for his mother's place was intact the flame was coming however from the next house but one by jonah tanner's place a crowd was gathering in the yard that was overgrown with dusty wire grass and the squire was pushing his way through to take charge

Starting point is 00:31:47 code knew that only two days before captain by jonah and his wife had sailed on the rosanne to st john's for lumber leaving nelly alone in charge of the three small tanners he wondered where they all were now he found his mother on the edge of the crowd that was helping to save the furniture and learned that nellie and young burns had already arrived and were doing what they could from the first it was apparent that the place was doomed for although there were plenty of men eager to form a bucket brigade the supply of water was limited and most of the buckets were at the larger fire but the squire was working wonders and enlisted code to help him in fifteen minutes the whole roof and attic were ablaze and the men turned their attention to wetting down the near walls of the houses on each side all the valuables and most of the simple furniture had been saved at the earliest moment schofield escaped from the squire and sought out nelly he found her hysterical surrounded by a group of women and hovered over by nat burns with each hand she held a child close to her byge where is little byge she was crying as code came up tom and marry are here but i've lost byge oh nat where is byge bless me if i know stammered burns weakly last i saw her him he was under that cherry tree where you told him to stay until you got the others it wasn't more than five minutes ago i seen him there he must be around somewhere's i'll look

Starting point is 00:33:42 without another word he hurried off in a frantic search looking to left and right behind every bush and among the crowd bellowing the boy's name at the top of his voice code walked up to the frantic girl and went straight to the point hello nelly he said where do you calculate little bide might be i hear you've lost him yes i have code i stood him under that cherry tree and told him not to move when i got back he was gone he was seven and just old enough to run around by himself and investigate things oh i'm so afraid he's gone listen code's sharp masterful tone put a sudden end to her sobbing was there anything in the house he valued much suddenly she drew in her breath sharply yes yes she cried his mechanical train he asked me if i had got it and i said i had he must have gone over to the furniture and found it hadn't been brought down oh code code what's the matter nelly it was nat burns's hard voice as he elbowed roughly past code and bent solicitously over the girl he had heard her last words and the pleading in them and his brow was dark with question and anger did you find him nat queried nellie in an agony of suspense no i don't know where the little beggar can be he replied i've the girl screamed and fainted.

Starting point is 00:35:26 What's the matter here? shouted Burns. What's the matter with her? The boy went back into the house for his toy engine and hasn't come out again, said Code, facing the other and regarding him with a level eye. There was a dramatic pause. After Nat's proprietary interest in Nellie and her affairs, it was distinctly his place to make the next move.

Starting point is 00:35:53 everybody felt it and code subconsciously realizing this said nothing it required another moment for the situation to become clear to burns then when he realized what alternatives he faced he gradually grew pale beneath his deep tan and looked defiantly from one to another of the group about him rot he cried suddenly the boy can't have gone back it wasn't five minutes ago i saw him under the cherry tree i haven't looked in this direction wait i'll be back in a minute and again he was off in his frantic search his voice rising above the roar of the fire code waited no longer snatching up a blanket from the ground he raced toward the burning house the lower floor was still almost intact but the upper floor and the roof were practically consumed the danger lay not in entering the house but in remaining in it for although the roof had fallen in yet the second floor had not burned through and was in momentary danger of collapse the spectators did not know what was in code schofield's mind until he had burst into the danger zone then with the blanket wound about his arm and shielding his face he plunged toward the open doorway it was as though he stood suddenly before the open door of a vast furnace the blast of heat seemed an impenetrable force and he struggled against it with all his strength one more look a mighty effort and he was in the temporary shelter of the doorway he drew a long breath and plunged forward

Starting point is 00:37:45 he knew the plan of the tanner house as he knew his own and he remembered that in the rear was a room where the children played the hall ran straight back to the door of this room but there was no egress from the rear except through the kitchen which adjoined the play-room the heat that beat down upon his head made him dizzy and he could not see for the smoke that filled the hall instinctively he went down on his hands and knees discarding the blanket and crawled toward the rear he had scarcely reached the closed door of the playroom when with a thunderous roar the ceilings at the front of the house fell in cutting off any escape in that quarter he knew that at any moment the rest of the ceilings would collapse half strangled with the increasing smoke he staggered to his feet and lunged against the door forcing it open the dim light from the one square-paned window showed a small form huddled on the floor the mouth open and a tiny locomotive gripped in one hand a rush of smoke and flame followed the violent opening of the door and code felt himself growing giddy a swift glance behind a swift glance behind a quick and flame followed the violent opening of the door and code felt himself growing giddy a swift glance behind showed a wall of fire where the wall had once been and for the first time he realized the seriousness of the task he had taken upon himself but there was no fear rather there came a sense of gladness that a fighter feels when the battle has at least come to close grips he swept the small form of bige up into his arms and leaped to the window that was built low in the wall and without weights to raise it and manipulate the catch was out of the question with all his strength he swung his foot against the panes squarely in the middle pains and frames splintered outward leaving the casement intact except for a few jagged edges of glass

Starting point is 00:39:50 then suddenly as he dropped the boy to the ground outside there came a blast of fire on the back draft created by the opening singed in strangled and strangled with the last desperate effort he threw himself outward and fell on his shoulders beside little bige men who had heard the crash of glass when the window went out rushed forward and dragged man and boy to safety a quarter of an hour later his head and neck bandaged with sweet oil code made his way weakly to where nellie sat among her belongings cradling in her arms the boy whom the doctor had just brought back to consciousness. He's all right, is he? asked Schofield. She smiled up at him through her tears. Yes, the doctor says it was just too much smoke. Oh, Code, how can I thank you for this?

Starting point is 00:40:50 And you are hurt. Is it bad? Can't I do anything? She struggled to her feet, solicitude written on her face, for the moment even forgetting little bide, who had begun to howl. "'No,' said Schofield, "'you can't do anything. It isn't much.

Starting point is 00:41:10 I'm only glad I succeeded. Don't think anything about it.' "'Father and mother will never forget this, and I'm sure we'll do what they can to make it right with you.' He looked at her as though she had struck him. Never in his life had she used that tone. Before the mute query of his eyes, she turned her head away. "'What do you mean by that?' he faltered, hardly knowing what he said.

Starting point is 00:41:41 "'Nothing, code, only—' She could not finish. "'What has happened, Nellie?' he began, and then halted. His gaze riveted upon her hand. A single diamond glittered from the dirt and grime that soiled her finger. "'That?' he gasped, stunned by a feeling of misery and helplessness. "'Nat and I are engaged,' she said in a low voice without answering his question. "'Just since last night.'

Starting point is 00:42:17 There was nothing more to be said. The banal wishes for happiness would not rise to his lips. he looked at her intently for a moment saw her eyes again drop and walked away he was suddenly tired and wanted to go home and rest the reaction of his nervous and physical strain had set in the hundred yards to his own gateway was a triumphal procession but he scarcely realized it somehow he answered the acclamations that were heaped upon him he smiled he smiled but he did not know how at the gate someone was waiting for him at first he thought it was his mother but he suddenly saw that it was elsa malaby he told himself that she must have come down to the village to watch the fire and wondered why she was in that particular place code she cried her face flushed with glad pride you were splendid that was the bravest thing ever heard of in my life. I knew you would do it." He smiled mechanically, thanked her, and passed on while she gazed after him, hurt and struck silent by the cold misery in his face.

Starting point is 00:43:40 "'I wonder,' she said to herself slowly, whether something besides what I told him has happened to him to-night. End of Chapter 3. Recording by Roger Maline. of the Harbor of Doubt. This Lip-Ox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Roger Maline. The Harbor of Doubt by Frank Williams. Chapter 4. Refugees. It was almost 1 o'clock in the morning

Starting point is 00:44:21 when Cod went into the parlor of his mother's cottage and sank down upon the ancient plush sofa. His eyes ate and the back of his head and neck where the fire had singed him, were throbbing painfully. There was apparently no one at home. Even little Josie, the orphan that helped his mother, seemed to have been drawn out into the road by the excitement of the night, and the house, except for a single lamp burning on the table, was in darkness.

Starting point is 00:44:54 He thought of going upstairs to bed, but remembered that his mother was not in, and decided he would rest a little while, and then go out and find her. Suddenly it seemed very luxurious and grateful to be able to stretch at full length after so much labor, and within a few minutes this sense of luxury had become a pleasant oblivion.

Starting point is 00:45:17 Voices and a bright light woke him up. Dazed and alarmed, he struggled to a sitting posture, but a gently firm hand pushed him down again and he heard his mother's voice. lay down again code she said you must be pretty well beat out with all you've done to-night we've just got some friends for the night poor boy let me see your burns scoffield who had guided schooners for years through the gales and shoals of the bay of fundy without a qualm became red and ashamed at his mother's babying rubbing his sleepy eyes he sat up again determinedly and made an effort to greet the company who he knew had come into the room with his mother across the room near the old melodian sat nelly tanner holding little bige and smiling wanly at him The other two children leaned against her, asleep on either side.

Starting point is 00:46:21 "'Don't get up, Cod,' she said. "'You've earned your rest more than any man in Freakirk head tonight. I'm afraid, though, we're going to make more trouble for you. Ma Schofield wouldn't let me go anywhere else but here till the Roseanne gets back from St. John's. Oh, I hate to think of their coming. they'll sail around flagpoint and look for the kitties waving in front of the house and they won't even see any house but thanks to you code they'll see the kitties he knew by the tense strained tone of her voice that she was very near the breaking point and his whole being yearned to comfort her and try to make her happy cursing himself for a lazy dolt he sprang up and walked over toward her now you just let me handle this nellie he said and we'll soon have tommy and mary and vige all curled up on that sofa like three kittens

Starting point is 00:47:23 with a sigh of ineffable relief she resigned the dead weight in her weary arms to him and he stepping softly and holding him gently as a woman soon had the boy more comfortable than he had been for hours mary and tommy followed and then nellie free of her responsibility at last bent forward put her elbows on her knees and wept code racked and embarrassed looked around for his mother but that mainstay was nowhere in sight he thought of whistling so as to appear unconscious of her tears but concluded that would be merely rude to take up a paper or book and read it in the face of a woman's weeping appeared hideous although for the first time in many months he felt irresistibly drawn to the ancient and dusty volumes in the glass-dored bookcase he compromised by turning his back on the affecting sight thrusting his hands in his pockets and studying the remarkably straight line formed by the abrupt junction of the wall and the ceiling do you mind if i cry c code sobbed the girl apparently realizing their position for the first time no go right ahead he cried as heartily as though someone had asked for a match he was intensely happy that the matter was settled between them now the harder she cried the more he liked it for they understood one another so she cried and he walked softly about his hands in his pockets and his lips puckered for the whistle that he did not dare permit himself ma schofield interrupted this near domestic scene by her arrival carrying a tray on which were several glasses covered with

Starting point is 00:49:18 the film of frost and out of which appeared little green forests. Code ceased to think about whistling. Oh, Ma Schofield, what have you done? cried Nellie, her tears for the moment forgetting to flow as her widening eyes took in the delights of the frosted glasses and piles of cake behind them. "'Don!' queried Ma. "'I haven't done anything but what my conscience tells me ought be done. if yours calculates to disturb you some you can go right on up to your room lamb for you must be dead with lugging them children around nellie's tears disappeared not to return she shook her head

Starting point is 00:50:04 no ma she said my conscience is just like them children sleeping so hard it would take gabriel's trumpet to wake em up it's more tired than i am all right said ma with finality we will now proceed to refresh ourselves it was two o'clock before they separated for the remainder of the night code's room with its big mahogany double bed was given over to nellie and the children while he gladly resigned himself to the humpy plush sofa by this time they had received news from half a dozen neighbors that bill boughton's general store had been only half destroyed and that the contents had all been saved the wharfs and fish-houses were at last burning and property on the leeward side of the flames was declared to be safe a general exodus began along the king's road men who had galloped up from great harbor with an axe in one hand and a bucket in the other mounted their horses and rode away others from hayward's cove and castalia who had driven in buggies and buckboards collected their families and departed the king's road was the scene of a long procession as though the people of frekirk head were evacuating the town a detachment of men under squire hardy's orders remained about the danger zone ready to check any further advance of the flames or to rouse the town to further resistance should this become necessary but for the most part the people of the village returned to their homes wide awake and nervous schofield lay open-eyed upon the couch while unbidden thoughts raced through his brain

Starting point is 00:52:03 the very fact of his sleeping on the plush couch was enough to bring to his mind the memory of one whom he had irretrievably lost on this memorable night was she not at this moment under his own roof miserable and nearly destitute he knew that as long as he might live his humble room upstairs would never be the same again it had been made a place sweet and full of wonder by the very fact that she was in it never again he knew could he enter it without its being fairly fragrant of her who all his life he had considered the divinest created thing on earth by her presence she had sanctified it and made of it a shrine for his meditative and wakeful hours ever since they had gone to school together hand in hand the names of nelly tanner and code schofield had been linked in the mouths of grandmignon busy bodies living all their lives two doors away they had grown up in that careless intimacy of constant association that is unconscious of its own power until such intimacy is removed to-night the shock had come it was not that code had taken for granted that nelly would marry him never in his life had he told her that he loved her it is not the habit of men who rove the seas to keep those they love constant supplied with literature or confectionery or to waste too many words in the language of devotion he admitted frankly to himself that he had always hoped to marry her when he had acquired the quarter interest in bill boughton's fish-stand that had been promised him but he had not told her so nor did he know that she would accept him the idea had been one to be thought of only at times of quietness and confidence in his future

Starting point is 00:54:06 such as come to every man. But he had not reckoned on Nat Burns. He had not realized quite to what an extent Burns had made progress. He recalled, now that it was brought forcibly home to him, that Nat had been constantly at the Tanners for the last four or five months. But Codd had thought nothing of this, for Nat had paid similar court at times to others of the girls of Free Kirk head. He was, in fact, considered the village beau, and Nellie herself had told him nothing. There had been a modest shyness about her in their relations that had kept him at an exasperating and picket distance. Well, everything was over now, he told himself. He could take his defeat since Nellie did not care for him. Then he suddenly recalled Burns's actions,

Starting point is 00:55:04 and manner of speaking during the harrowing moments of the fire. I wonder if Nat really loves her, he asked himself. And if not, why did he become engaged? End of Chapter 4. Recording by Roger Maline. Chapter 5 of The Harbour of Doubt This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Roger Maline.

Starting point is 00:55:40 The Harbor of Doubt, by Frank Williams Chapter 5 Startling News The homecoming of Captain by Jonah Tanner and his wife did not provide the thrill looked for by the more morbid inhabitants of Freakirkhead. In the excitement of the fire,

Starting point is 00:56:00 all hands had forgotten that cable communication between Mignon and the mainland was unbroken. The operator, in the pursuance of his duty, had sent word of the fire to Eastport, and then concocted some cable despatches for boston and portland papers that left nothing to be desired from the viewpoint of sensationalism in his zeal for filling space and eking out his slender income the operator left nothing standing on grand mignon except the eternal rocks on the lighthouse it was such an account that by jonah tanner fed upon that morning in the tiny cabin of the rosanne and half an hour after he had read it he was under way special mention had been made of code schofield's rescue of little bige with a sentence added that the tanner place had been wiped out with their minds filled with the desperate scenes of cataclysm and ruin the tanners raced the complaining rosanne around flagpoint six hours later only to fall upon one another and dance for joy at the sight of the village nestling as the town

Starting point is 00:57:13 as of yore against the green mountains and gleaming white in the descending sun an acrid smell and a smudge of smoke told of what had really been and a black heap of ruins where the familiar house had stood for so long confirmed their fears for their own property but to see the village content and smiling except for a poor building or two was joy enough to overbalance the personal loss so those who expected a tearful and emotional home-coming were disappointed code met the dory that rode ashore after by jonah had made fast to his mooring in the little cove that was the roadstead for the fishing fleet he had half expected to share the duty with nat burns since the recent change in his relations to the tanners but burns did not put in an appearance although it was three o'clock in the afternoon by jonah shook hands with him and ma tanner kissed him the latter ceremony being a baptism of happy tears that all were safe and alive by jonah cleared his voice and pulled hard at his beard understand you're quite a hero code he ventured bluffly careful to conceal any emotion but resolved to give the occasion it's due oh rot captain said code equally bluffly and the ceremony was over but not so with ma tanner she wept and laughed over the preserver of her offspring and called him so many exulting names that he was glad to turn her over to nellie and his mother at the schofield gate hut and flushed with the notoriety she had given him along the main road he retired to the corner shop

Starting point is 00:59:09 and drank wonderful cold ginger beer out of a white stone jug until his temperature had returned to normal. But later he returned to the house and found the tanners about to depart. The widow Sprague, near the Oddfellow's Hall, who lived, as she expressed it, all deserted and alone, had agreed to take the family into her rambling cottage. Luke Fraser had brought his truck card up alongside the rescued Tanner belongings, and they were already half-loaded. "'Can you come down to the witty-night, Code?' asked by Jonah. "'I've got something to tell ye that ought to interest ye considerable.'

Starting point is 00:59:55 "'Yes, I'll be there about eight,' was the reply as Schofield joined in loading the truck. He found the captain that night smoking a pipe. on the low front porch of the widow Sprague's cottage, evidently very much at home. By Jonah motioned him to a chair and proffered a cigar with a slightly self-conscious air. Inside the house, Code could hear the sound of people moving about

Starting point is 01:00:25 and the voice of a woman singing low, as though to a child. He told himself without question that this was Nellie getting the kiddies to sleep. a feller hears queer things over in st john sometimes announced by jonah suddenly sucking at his pipe yes and this time i heard something about you me i don't know three people in st john's guess i met one of the three then where how who was it by jonah by jonah tanner coughed and shifted uneasily in his chair well he said i was taking a little turn along the waterfront just a little turn as the wife will tell you when i dropped into a-or that is a rum-shop and heard three men at the table next to mine talking about you schofield smiled broadly in the darkness

Starting point is 01:01:33 by jona's little turns along the water-front of st john's or any other port had been the subject for much prayer and supplication in the hearts of many devout persons thoroughly interested in their neighbor's welfare and of late years ma tanner had been making trips with him to supply stimulus to his conscience what were they talking about so far from being suspicious code was merely idly curious of the gossip about him my boy said tanner suddenly grave i was the best friend your father had for forty years and i'm going to try and be as good a friend to his son but you mustn't mind what i tell you i won't captain go ahead said code his interest awakening well them man was talking about the loss of the old may schofield and one of em in particular allowed as how he didn't think it should have foundered when it did what do you think of that schofield had stiffened in his chair as though undergoing a spasm of pain the sentences smote him between the eyes of his sensibilities had it come to this that his name was being bandied dishonorably about the bar-rooms of st john's if so how and why then i suppose you've heard the talk in grand mignon before this yes code i have and i have and i've called every man a liar that said any one anything definite against you. I'm getting old, but there ain't very many men here able enough

Starting point is 01:03:25 to shove that name back down my throat, and I notice none of them tried. It's all idle talk, that's all, and there ain't a soul that can prove a single thing against you, even cowardice. And that's more and can be said of some men in this village. Code was grateful, and he said so. It was something to find a friend so staunch and loyal that suspicion had never even found soil in his mind where it might take root. Two such he had now, Elsa Malaby and by Jonah Tanner. What else did those men say? he asked in conclusion.

Starting point is 01:04:09 If I remember right, and I was perfectly clear at the time, this is what one said. "'Fellers,' says he to the other two. "'He says, "'Fellers, that young Captain Schofield and Free Kirk Head is going on the rocks, "'or I don't hear what's going on in my office.' "'Then they're going to sue him to recover part of his insurance "'on the old schooner, May Schofield?' asked the second.

Starting point is 01:04:39 "'If I didn't hear the chief say that this morning, "'you can shoot me on sight,' the first answers. and then for a while i couldn't hear any more and you can bet i was watching the door something awful for fear ma would come in and spoil it all by dragging me off but who were these men asked code whom did they mean by the chief i was just gettin to that after a while from a little bit here and a little there i made out that the first young feller was private secretary to the president of the marine insurance company that's the firm that carried the old may isn't it yes i thought so they've got my rosanne too though i wish mightily now that they hadn't this feller is the private secretary to the president and the other two are clerks or something in the office they may have been up to something crooked and then again they may have just been talking things over as young fellows often do when they're interested in their work anyway there's enough in what they said to set you thinking i calculate "'Yes,' said Code slowly and grimly.

Starting point is 01:06:03 "'It is. "'I've only known that the island was talking since last night, "'and now I find St. John's is, too. "'It's spreading pretty fast, it seems, "'and I wonder where it'll end.' "'He pondered silently for a while. "'If they sue to recover, what'll you do?' ventured Tanner hesitatingly.

Starting point is 01:06:29 "'God knows,' answered Schofield, and laughed bitterly. "'I haven't got a thing on earth but the charming lass, and this year I haven't caught enough fish to pay for my new mainsail. My credit is still good at Bill Bouton's, but that's all.' "'But the cottage—' "'That is my mother's, and they could never get that. If they sue and I lose, they must take the lass, and after they've subtracted the judgment from the sale price, I suppose I'll get the rest, maybe enough to buy a second-hand sloop.

Starting point is 01:07:09 Yes, but that isn't the worst part of it, Code. As soon as they bring suit, they will attach the schooner, so that even if the trial doesn't come up for weeks, you still can't use her, and we'll have to sit around, or go hand-lining in your dory, and you know what that means with winter coming on. I know. He had seen hard winters that had tried the resources of the village to the utmost, but he had never faced one that promised to be like the next. Well, what would you advise me to do, Captain? Get out, snapped Tanner. Get a crew and take the last to see.

Starting point is 01:07:53 there's one thing sure a lawyer can't serve you with a summons or anything else if he has to look for you on the atlantic ocean schofield smiled the remedy called for was heroic truly but was it honorable i wonder if they can do that anyway he asked after the may was lost the insurance people settled without a complaint can they rake up that matter again now by jove that reminds me them fellows discussed that very thing and the secretary said that if the law had been broke at the time of the sinkin i mean if the schooner wasn't fit or had been tampered with that it was within the law but of course somebody's got to make the complaint that's just it cried code springing up and throwing away the stump of his cigar somebody has got to make the complaint well now from what i can see somebody's made it all this talk could not have gone on in the island unless it started from somewhere and the question is where they were interrupted by the sound of footsteps in the darkness the figure of a man appeared approaching the house a moment later the newcomer stepped on the low veranda and both men recognized him it was nat burns is nellie here he asked without the formality of the usual greetings i calculate she is nat replied tanner rising to his feet wait a minute and i'll call her but he had not reached the door before the girl herself stepped out on the porch she ran out eagerly but stopped short when she saw code in the darkness

Starting point is 01:09:56 their meeting was obviously reserved in the interim tanner walked to where schofield stood silent i calculate i can give you a pretty good idea where all this trouble started from he grieve growled in a low tone. But before he could go on, Nellie interrupted him. "'Father,' she said, coming forward with Nat, "'I want to tell you something that we've all been too busy to discuss before this. Nat and I are engaged. He gave me the ring night before last when you were in St. John's. I hope you are pleased, Father.' by jonah tanner remained silent for a moment plainly embarrassed by the duty before him between most men who follow the sea and their daughters there is much less intimacy than with those who are in other walks of life long absences and the feeling that a mother is responsible for her girls are reasons for this while in the case of boys who begin to putter round the paternal

Starting point is 01:11:09 schooner from their earliest youth, a much closer feeling exists. Tanner could not bridge the chasm between himself and his daughter. Did you tell your mother? he asked finally. Yes. And was she satisfied? Yes, indeed. She was very happy about it, and told me to come right down and tell you. Well, if it suits her, it suits me. me was the dry conclusion.

Starting point is 01:11:43 I hope you'll be happy. You've got a fine gal there, Nat. I know I have, Captain, said Burns, warmly, and I'll try to make her happy. All right, grunted by Jonah, and sank back into his chair. Between praising one man who saved his youngest boy and congratulating another who was to marry his eldest girl, Captain Tanner's day had been over-full of ceremonial. Face to face with the inevitable, Code Schofield offered sincere but embarrassed congratulations. And he was secretly glad that when opportunity offered for him to shake Nat Burns' hand, that young gentleman was busy lighting a cigarette. The lovers went

Starting point is 01:12:38 inside, and Code stood dejectedly, leaning against the railing. Tanner removed his pipe and spat over the railing. It's too blamed bad, he muttered. What? asked Cod, almost unconsciously. It's too bad, I say. I used to think that maybe Nellie would like you, Cod. I've counted on it considerable all my life. But it's too bad, but it's too bad, you. late now young burns'll have to be one of the family from now on thanks captain said schofield with forced cheerfulness i had hoped so too but that's all passed now

Starting point is 01:13:24 by the way who was it you thought started all this trouble i'd like to know that one of the family muttered tanner his thoughts still busy then recollecting Schofield's question, he appeared about to speak, hesitated, and at last said, "'Bless my soul and body if I know.' "'No, I wouldn't want to say what I thought, Cod. I never was one to run down any man behind his back.' Cod looked in amazement at the old man, but not for long. A moment's thought concerning Tanner's recently acquired relation made his suspicion doubly sure that Nat Burns's name had been on by Jonah's tongue.

Starting point is 01:14:14 He immediately dropped the subject, and after a little while, took his departure. End of Chapter 5, recording by Roger Moline. Chapter 6 of the Harbour of Doubt This Librevox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Roger Maline. The Harbor of Doubt by Frank Williams. six the island decides in frekirk head next morning painted signs nailed to telegraph poles at intervals along the king's road as far as castalia read mass meeting to-night odd fellows hall eight o'clock all come who had issued this pronunciationmento what it signified and what was the reason for a town meeting nobody knew and as the man

Starting point is 01:15:15 Trudged down to their dories drawn up on the stony beach near the burned wharf Discussion was intense. Finally, the fact became known that a half-dozen of the wealthiest and best-educated men in the village, including Squire Hardy and the Reverend Adelbert Bish, Rector of the Church of England Chapel, had held a secret conclave the night before at the squire's house. It was believed that the signs were the result, and intimated in certain obscure quarters that Pete Ellenwood, who had always claimed literary aspirations, had printed them.

Starting point is 01:15:55 Odd Fellows Hall was the biggest and most pretentious building in Freakirk Head. It was of two-story's height, and on its gray-painted front bore the three great gilt lengths of the society. To one side of it stood a wreck of a former factory, and behind it was the tiny village. lockup. It marked the spot where the highway turned south at right angles on its wild journey southwest, a journey that ended in a leap into space from the 300-foot cliffs of gull-haunted perpendicular southern head. The interior of the hall was in its gala attire. Two rows of huge oil lamps extended down the middle from back to front. Others were in brackets down the side walls, and three more above the low rostrum at the far end the chairs were in place the windows open and the two young fishermen who acted as janitors of the hall stood at the rear greeting those that arrived with familiar jocularity

Starting point is 01:17:03 into the hall meant to accommodate two hundred three hundred people were packed the men in their rusty black the women in their simple white or flowered dresses, the children brushed and pigtailed, had all brought their Sunday manners and serious attentive faces. On the low platform presently appeared the Reverend Adelbert Bish and Squire Hardy. The rector was a young man with a thin, ascetic face. His mouth was pursed into a small line, and he wore large, round spectacles to aid his faded blue eyes. his clerical garb could not conceal the hesitating awkwardness of his manner and the embarrassment his hands and feet caused him seemed to be his special cross in life when the audience had become quiet he rose and took his stand before them lowering his head and peering over his glasses friends he said we have gathered here to-night to discuss the welfare of grande mignon island and the village of free currant head. A look of startled uncertainty swept over the simple weather-beaten faces in front of him.

Starting point is 01:18:23 You know that I am not exaggerating, he continued, when I say that we are face to face with the gravest problem that has ever confronted us. It has pleased God in his infinite providence so to direct the finny tribes that the denizens of the deep have altered the location of their usual fishing grounds. Day after day you men have gone forth with nets and lines like the fishers of old. Day after day, also like some of the fissures of old, you have returned empty-handed. The salting bins are not filled. The drying frames are bare. The shipments to St. John's have practically ceased. I do not need to tell you that this spell is. I do not need to tell you that this spells destitution. This island depends on its fish, and since Cod and Hake and Pollock have left us,

Starting point is 01:19:23 we must cast about for other means of support. This meeting, then, after due deliberation last night, and earnest supplication of the Almighty for guidance, has been called to determine what course we shall pursue. Mr. Bish, warm now and perspiring freely, retired to his seat, and mopped his face. Across the audience, which had listened intently, there swept a murmur of low speech. It is not given to most fisherfolk to know any more than the bare comforts of life. Theirs is an existence of ceaseless toiling, ceaseless danger, and very poor reward. Hardship is their daily lot, and it requires a great incentive to bring them to a full stop in consideration of their future.

Starting point is 01:20:18 Here, then, in Free Kirk Head, were three hundred fishermen with their backs against the wall, mutely brave because it is bred in the bone, quietly preparing for a final stand against their hereditary enemies, hunger and poverty. The low murmur of awestruck conversation suddenly stopped, for squire hardy with his fringe of white whiskers violently must had risen to speak mr bish has just about got the lobster in the pot he declared but i want to say one thing more things were bad enough up to a week ago but since the fire they have been a great deal worse mr naylor and mr thomas who owned the fish stand that burned have been cleaned out they gave employment to about twenty of you men those men are now without any work at all because the owners of the other fish stands have all the trawlers and doris them they need. Even if they didn't have, there are hardly enough fish to feed all hands on the island. More than that, and now I hope you won't mind what I am going to say, for we've all

Starting point is 01:21:38 been in the same boat one time or another, Mr. Boughton can't be our last hope much longer. You and I and all of us have got long-standing credit at his store for supplies we've paid for later from our fishing. The fire of the other night cost Mr. Boughton a lot, and as most of his money is represented in outstanding credit, he cannot advance any more goods. Mr. Boughton is not here himself, for he told me he would never say that word to people that he has always trusted and lived with all his life. But I am saying it for him, because I think I ought to, and you can can see for yourselves how fair it is. Now, that's about all I've got to add to what Mr. Bish has said to you.

Starting point is 01:22:32 Yes, there's one thing more. Great Harbor and Seal Cove below us here are as bad, if not worse off, than we are. We cannot look for help in that direction, and I will be a lot thinner man than I am now before I ever appeal to the government. We're not paupers. and we don't want city newspapers starting subscription lists for us.

Starting point is 01:22:57 So, as Mr. Bish has said, the only thing for us to do is to get our eyes out of the heavens and see what we can do for ourselves. The squire sat down, pulling at his whiskers and looking apprehensively at the rector, of whose polished periods he stood in some awe. The audience was silent now. The squire had to be aftor.

Starting point is 01:23:22 brought home to these men and women some bald hard facts that they had scarcely as yet admitted even to themselves there was scarcely one among them whose account with bill boughton was fully satisfied and now that this mainstay was gone the situation took on an entirely different aspect for some minutes no one spoke then an old man bearded to the waist got upon his feet i've seen some pretty hard times on this island he said but none like this here i've thought it over some and i'd like to make a suggestion my son will is over on the back of the island pick and dulce the market for that is good he's even got ten cents a pound this summer this is the month of august and winter is considerable ways off how about all hands turnin to and picking dolls this idea was received in courteous silence there were men there who had spent their summers reaping the harvest of salty brown kelp from the rocks at low tide and they knew how impractical the scheme was although the island exported yearly fifteen thousand dollars worth of the strange stuff it was plain that should all the men devote themselves to it was that should all the men devote themselves to it was that should all the men devote themselves to it was but that it was to it was to it was, it, the return would by no means measure up to the labor. One after another, then, the fishermen got to their feet and discussed this project. In this cause of common existence, embarrassment was forgotten, and tongues were loosed that had never before addressed a public

Starting point is 01:25:10 gathering. A proposition was put forward that the islanders should dispute the porpoise-spearing monopoly of the quaddi Indians that were already sailing across the channel for their annual summer sport, but this likewise met with defeat. A general exodus of men to the sardine canning factories in Lubeck and Eastport was suggested, and met with some favor, until it was pointed out that the small sardine herring had fallen off vastly in numbers and that the factories were hard put to it to find enough work for their regular employees self-consciousness and restraint were forgotten in this struggle for the common preservation and above the buzz of general intense discussion there rose always the voice of some speaker with an idea or suggestion code schofield had come to the meeting with pete ellenwood and jimmy thomas both dory mates at different times they sat fairly well forward and code glancing around during the proceedings had caught a friendly greeting from elsa malaby who with some of her old girlhood friends sat farther back

Starting point is 01:26:31 the solemn occasion for and spirit of the meeting had made a deep impression on him but as the time passed and those supposedly older and wiser delivered themselves merely of useless schemes a plan that had come into his mind early in the evening began to take definite shape as he sat there he pondered the matter over until it seemed to him the only really feasible idea finally after almost two hours of discussion with no conclusion reached a pause occurred and code to the amazement of his companions got upon his feet as he did so he flushed for he wondered how many of those eyes suddenly fixed upon him were eyes of hostility or doubt the thought stung him to a greater determination i don't want to be considered bold after so many older men have spoken he said looking at the squire but i have a suggestion to make go ahead make it bellowed the squire cordially i wish more young men would give us their ideas thinking it over i have come to this conclusion proceeded schofield there is only one thing the men in this island do perfectly and this thing the men in this island do perfectly and the thing the men in this island do perfectly and the thing that is the one thing the island do perfectly and the that is fish. Therefore, it seems only common sense to me that they ought to go on fishing. A ripple of laughter ran around the room that was now hot and stuffy from the glare and smell of

Starting point is 01:28:10 the great oil lamps. Code heard the laugh, and his brows drew down into a scowl. Of course, they cannot go on fishing here. But there are any number of places north and east of us where they can go on. I mean the Grand Banks and the Cape Shore in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. We have schooners and sloops, we have dories and men, and can get provisions on credit, I should think, for such a cruise. That, then, is my idea, that the captains of Grand Mignon fit out their vessels, hire their crews on shares, and go out on the banks for fit. like the Gloucester men and Frenchmen. If we do it, we're going against the best in the world,

Starting point is 01:29:02 but I don't believe there is a fisherman here who doesn't believe we can hold our own. Suddenly, far back in the room, a woman arose. She was young, and her face showed that once it might have been beautiful. Her frame was large and angular, and her rusty black clothes sat awkwardly about it. sat awkwardly upon it but youth and beauty and girlish charm had gone from her long since as it does with those whose men battle with the sea she was a widow and a little girl clung sleepily to her dress code schofield she cried what about the women you ain't goin off to leave us fight the winter all alone are you ye ain't goin to sail them winter gales on the shoals are you you? How many of you do you suppose will come back? She shook off those near her who tried to pull her down

Starting point is 01:30:02 into her seat. Last year they lost a hundred and five out of Gloucester, and every year they make widders by the dozen. If it was set in India's coral strand, you'd know it was a fishing town by its widders, and Freakirk Hettle be just like it. I lost my man in a gale. Her voice broke, and she paused, Do you want us all to be widders? How can you go and leave us? It's the women the sea kills with misery, not the men.

Starting point is 01:30:38 What can we do when you're gone? There ain't any money nor much food. If there comes a fire, we'd all be cleaned out, for what could we do? If you'll only think of us a little, us women, maybe you won't go. she sank down amid a profound silence poor thing rumbled peed ellenwood she shouldn't have come al green was her man sobbing sounded in another quarter of the hall and the men looked at one another disconcerted still no one spoke the matter hung in the balance for all saw instantly that could the women be provided

Starting point is 01:31:24 for this was the solution of the problem. Though taken aback, Code stood to his guns and remained on his feet. Suddenly, in the middle of the hall, another woman rose. Her motion was accompanied by the rustle of silk, and instantly there was silence, for Elsa Malaby commanded considerable respect. Code saw her with surprise, as he turned. She noted his puzzled.

Starting point is 01:31:54 expression and flashed him a dazzling smile that was not lost, even in that thrilled and excited crowd. He answered it. I consider that Captain Schofield has solved the problem, she said in a clear, level tone. There is no question but that the men of Grand Mignon should fit out their ships and fish on the banks. There is also no question but that the objection Mrs. Green raised makes such a a thing impossible. Now I want to tell you something. I belong in Free Kirk Head, and you have all known me since I was little. Hard luck Jim Malaby belonged in Freakirkhead and made his money out of the island. Jim's money is mine now, and you can rest assured that while the men are away fishing,

Starting point is 01:32:49 no woman or child on Grand Mignon shall go hungry while I am alone. live to hear of it. Some people hate me because I live in a big house and have everything. It is only natural, and I expect it, but ever since Jim left me, I have wondered how I could do the most good with his money here. I would like to give it, but if you won't have that, you can borrow it on a long-time loan without interest or security. Now I will go out, and you can talk it over freely. With a companion, she walked up the aisle and to the door, but before she reached it, Codescofield was standing on a chair,

Starting point is 01:33:36 his hat and his hand. Three cheers for Mrs. Malaby, he yelled, and the very building shook with the tumultuous response. It was five minutes before the squire, purple with shouting for order, could be heard above the noise. then with hand upraised he shouted all in favor of schofield's plan say aye and the i was the greatest vocal demonstration ever given in fre kirk head end of chapter six recording by roger maline chapter seven of the harbor of doubt this librivox recording is in the public domain recording by roger maline

Starting point is 01:34:32 the harbour of doubt by frank williams chapter seven a stranger the ensuing week was one such as the village had never beheld a visitor to the island might have thought that war had been declared and that a privateering expedition was being fitted out on the railroad near flag point there was always some vessel being scraped or painted supplies brought over from st john's by the steamer grand mignon were stowed in lazarets and below rigging was overhauled canvas patched or renewed and bright tawny rope substituted for the old ones in sheet and tackle every low tide was a signal for great activity among the vessels made fast alongside the wharfs for the rise of the water was nearly twenty feet and when it receded it receded to the sea of the water was nearly twenty feet and when it receded the ships stood upright on their keels and exposed their bottoms to scraper, cocking mallet, and paintbrush. In every house where father or son was expecting soon to sail,

Starting point is 01:35:42 the women were busy with clothing and general outfit. There was a run on the store carrying oil skins, sea boots, oil lamps, stoves, and general paraphernalia. All these things were gotten on credit, for there is no such thing as a vessel returning empty-handed from the banks, and Bill Bouton stood sponsor for most of them. The owners of vessels divided their time between provisioning and overhauling their ships and the securing of crews.

Starting point is 01:36:14 One rainy afternoon, when work had been generally suspended, a number of the men gathered inside Bill Bouton's store to wait for a let-up in the downpour, and the subject of crews was broached. "'How you coming with your crew, Bige?' asked a tall, lanky man of Captain Tanner. "'First rate. Got a dozen men now, and that's about all the Rosanne can take care of. At that, somebody'll have to sleep in a locker, I calculate.' "'You're doing well, Baj. I hear Jed Martin can't round up more than eight, and he's been as far south as Great Harbor.'

Starting point is 01:36:53 "'Do you wonder?' put in a third. "'Jet ain't never set up grub that a shark would eat. "'I sailed with him once five year ago, and that was enough for me.' "'Twelve men ain't much,' put in Tanner. "' Them Gloucester men sail with sixteen or eighteen ride along, "'and I've heard a one feller put out of T-Warf, Boston, carrying twenty-eight dories. "'Of course them fellers lays to fill up quick "'and make short trips for the fresh market.

Starting point is 01:37:23 "'Ain't many of them briners. don't believe there's anybody'll carry sixteen men out of here is they came a voice from over in the corner sure the rumble and bellow of the reply denoted pete ellenwood where he sat on a cracker box his six and a half feet of length sprawled half-way from one counter to the other there's nat burns's heady bee she'll carry sixteen and so will code schofield's laughing lass maybe more huh yes if he can get em sneered a voice get em of course he'll get him why not demanded ellenwood turning upon the other belligerently well replied the other they do say there's men in this village and farther south too that wouldn't sail with code, not for a thousand dollars and all fund. Them that says it are fools, declared Ellenwood. And liars, cut in by Jonah Tanner hotly. Why won't they sail with a lad?

Starting point is 01:38:35 He can handle a schooner as well as you, Bert, and better. Yes, said the other contemptuously. Nobody's ever forgot the way he handled the old May Schofield. better not play with fire bide or you'll get your hands burned pete ellenwood got upon his feet deliberately he was the biggest and most powerful man in the village despite his forty-five years and his ableness in a discussion physical or otherwise was universally respected look here you bert and all the rest of you fellers i've got something to say for considerable time now i've heard dirty talk about code and the may schofield dirty talk and nothing more now if any of you can prove that code did anything but try and save the old schooner let's hear you do it If not, shut up. I don't want to hear no more of that talk.

Starting point is 01:39:37 There was silence for a while, as all hands sought to escape the gray, accusing eye that wandered slowly around the circle. Then from back in the shadow somewhere, a voice said sneeringly, What axe you got to grind, Pete? A laugh went around, for it was common talk that,

Starting point is 01:39:58 since the death of Jasper Schofield, Pete had expressed his admiration for Moss, Schofield, in more than one way. "'I got this axe to grind, Andrew,' replied Ellenwood calmly, "'that I'm signed on as mate and the charmin lass, "'and I believe the boy is as straight and as good a sailor as anybody on the island.' This was news to the crowd, and the men digested it a minute in silence. "'How many men ye got sailing with you?' asked one who had not spoken before five outside the skipper and me was the reply and i calculate we'll fill her up in a day or so seven men can sail her like a witch but they won't fill her hold very quick

Starting point is 01:40:46 she'll take fifteen hundred crinnell easy or i judge her wrong a prolonged whistle from outside interrupted the discussion and one man going to the door announced that it had stopped raining all hands got up and prepared to go back to work only by jonah tanner remained to buy some groceries from bouton steamers early to-day said the storekeeper glancing at his watch she's bringing me a lot of salt from st john's and i guess i can get it into the shed to-night having satisfied tanner he went out of the store the back way and left the captain alone filling his pipe a short short Blast of the whistle told him that the steamer was tied up, and idly he lingered to see who had come to the island. The passengers, to reach the King's Road, were obliged to go past the corner of the general store, and by Jonah stood on the low wooden veranda, watching them. Some two dozen had gone when his eye was attracted by a pale, thin youth in a light gray suit and Panama hat. He thought nothing of him at first except to remark his clothes,

Starting point is 01:42:03 but as he came within short vision, Tanner gave a grunt of astonishment and bit through the reed-stem of his corn-cob pipe. He recognized the youth as the one he had seen in St. John's, and had referred to as the secretary to the president of the Marine Insurance Company. Instantly, the old man's mind flashed back to what he had heard only a week before, which he had told Code. He stood looking after the stranger as though spellbound, his slow mind groping vainly for some explanation of his presence in Freakirk head.

Starting point is 01:42:40 He felt instinctively that it must be in connection with the case of Code Schofield and the May, and his feeling was corroborated a moment later, when, from behind the trunk of a big pine tree, Nat Byrne stepped forward and greeted the other. They had apparently met before, for they shook hands cordially and continued westward along the King's Road. A few steps brought them opposite the gate to the Schofield Cottage, and by Jonah, following their motions like a hawk, saw Nat jerk his thumb in the direction of the house as they walked past. That was enough for Tanner. He was convinced now that the insurance man had come to carry out the threat made in St. John,

Starting point is 01:43:25 and that Nat Burns was more intimately connected with the scheme than he had at first supposed. By Jonas set down his package of groceries on the counter inside and turned away toward the wharf, where the charming lass was tied up for a final trimming. She already had her salt aboard and most of her provisions, and was being given her final touches by Pete Ellenwood, Jimmy Thomas, and the other members of the crew that had signed on to sailor. in her. Tanner hailed Ellenwood from the wharf, and beckoned so frantically that the big man swarmed up the rigging to the dock as though he were going aloft to reef a topsil and a half a gale.

Starting point is 01:44:09 "'Code's in a pile of trouble,' said the old man, and went on briefly to narrate the whole circumstance of the insurance company's possible move. That feller came on the steamer this afternoon, and if he serves code with the summons or attachment or whatever it is, it's my idea that the lass will never round the swallowtail for the banks. Where is the boy? Went up to Castalia to see a couple of men who he thought he might get for the crew. But I don't think Burns or anyone else knows it. He wanted to make the trip on the quiet

Starting point is 01:44:45 and get them without anybody's knowing it if he could. But what do you calculate to do, by the great snood i don't know declared tanner helplessly well said pete reassuringly you just let me handle this little trouble myself we'll have the skipper safe and clear if we have to commit murder to do it now byge you just keep your mouth shut and don't worry no more i'll do the rest feeling the responsibility to be in capable hands and secretly glad to escape events that might be too much for his years, Captain Tanner walked back to the road, secured his package of groceries at the store, and made his way home to the widow Sprague's house. For five minutes, Pete Ellenwood lounged indolently against a spile and grossed in thought. Then he put on his coat and crossed the king's road to the Schofield cottage. He had hardly opened the gate when a strange youth in a greener,

Starting point is 01:45:51 gray suit and Panama hat came out of the front door and down the path. Pete recognized the newcomer from St. John's, and the newcomer evidently recognized him. Ha! Captain Code Schofield, I presume, he announced, thrusting his hands nervously into his pocket and bringing out a fistful of papers. So eager and excited was he that, unnoticed, he dropped one flimsy sheet, many times folded, into the grass. No, I'm not Scofield, rumbled Ellenwood from the depths of his mighty chest. Get along with you now! Please accept service of this paper, Captain Schofield, said the other,

Starting point is 01:46:37 extending a legal-looking document and shrugging his shoulders as though to say the Pete's denial of identity was, of course, only natural, but could hardly be indulged, i'm not schofield bellowed pete outraged my name's ellenwood and anybody'll tell you so i won't take your durned paper if you want scofield find em the young man drew back nonplussed but might have continued his attentions had not a passer-by come to pete's rescue and sworn to his identity only then did the young lawyer for he was that as well as private secretary, withdraw with short and grudged apologies. Pete, growling to himself like a great bear, was starting forward to the house when his eye was caught by the folded paper that had dropped from the packet in the lawyer's hand.

Starting point is 01:47:35 He stooped, picked it up, and, with a glance about, to prove that the other was out of sight, opened it. As he read, his eyes widened and his jaw dropped with astonishment. twice he slowly spelled out the words before him and then with a low whistle and a gigantic wink thrust the paper carefully into his pocket and pinned the pocket that will be news to the lad sure enough he said continuing on his way toward the house the little orphan girl josie admitted him he found mrs schofield on the verge of tears she had just been through a long and painful interview with the newcomer and had barely recovered from the shock of what he had to tell code since learning of what was in the air had not told his mother for he did not wish to alarm her unnecessarily and was confident he would get away to the banks before the slow-moving st john firm took action pete smitten mightily by the distress of the calmly middle-aged widow melted to a little-aged widow melted to a a misery of unexpressible tenderness and solicitude.

Starting point is 01:48:52 In his words and actions of comfort, he resembled a great, loving St. Bernard Dog, who had accidentally knocked down a toddling child and his desirous of making amends. Ma Schofield took note of his desire to lighten her burden and presently permitted it to be lightened. Then they talked over the situation, and Pete finally said,

Starting point is 01:49:17 i'm sending jimmy thomas down to castalia in his mortar dory to find code of course the skipper took his own dory and we may meet him coming back what we want to do is hit him off and keep him away from here now there's no tellin how long he might have to stay away and i've been figuring that perhaps if you was to take him a bundle of clothes it wouldn't go amiss i'll do it announced ma sturdily just you tell jimmy to wait a quarter of an hour and i'll be along now pete ellenwood listen here what scheme have you got in your mind i can see by your eyes that there is one may cried pete reproachfully how could i have anything in my mind without telling you nevertheless when he walked out of the cottage door it was to chuckle enormously in his black beard and call himself names that he had to deceive may he called jimmy thomas up from the duties of the paint-pot and brush and gave him instructions as to what to do they talked rapidly in low tone tones until Mrs. Schofield appeared. Then Jimmy helped her into the motor dory, and both men pushed off. I calculate I'll have it all worked out when you come back, Jim, said Pete, as the engine caught the spark and the dory moved away. Mrs. Schofield turned around and fixed her sharp blue eyes upon the giant ashore.

Starting point is 01:50:56 Peter, she cried. I knew there was some scheme. when i get back but the rest was lost for distance had overcome her voice ellenwood stood and grinned benignly at his goddess then he slapped his thigh with an eleven-inch hand and made a noise with his mouth like a man clucking to his horse sprightly as a gal she is he allowed dumbed if she ain't end of chapter seven Recording by Roger Maline. Chapter 8 of the Harbure of Doubt This Libravox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Roger Maline. The Harbure of Doubt by Frank Williams.

Starting point is 01:51:52 Chapter 8. Jimmy Thomas's strategy. On a chart, the island of Grande Mignon bears the same relation to surrounding islands that a mother ship bears to a flock of submarines. westward her coast is rocky and forbidding being nothing but a succession of frowning headlands that rise almost perpendicularly from the sea it is one of the most desolate stretches of coast in moderate latitudes for no one lives there nor has ever lived there except a few hermit dulc pickers during the summer months along the east coast that looks across the atlantic are strung the villages nestled in bays and coves and it is out from this coast that the dozen little islands lie first and partially across the mouth of the bay where the fishing fleet lies is long island then comes high duck low duck and big duck farther south there are rosses whitehead and bigwood islands not to mention spits points and ledges of rock innumerable and all honored with names

Starting point is 01:53:10 it was the fact of so many treacherous ledges and reefs to be navigated safely in a four-knot tide that was agitating the half-dozen guests at miss shannon's boarding-house it need hardly be said that miss shannon was a widow but her distinction lay in being called miss instead of ma she made a livelihood by putting up the runners who made periodical trips with their sample cases for the benefit of the local tradesmen and took in occasional rusticators or summer tourists who had courage enough to dare the passage of the strait in the tiny steamer the principal auditor of the harrowing tails that were flying about the table over the fish chowder was mr aubrey templeton the young lawyer from st john's who had arrived on the steamer that afternoon just opposite to mr templeton at the table sat jimmy thomas who being a bachelor had made his home with miss shannon for the last three years and it was jimmy who had held the table spellbound with his tales of danger and narrow escapes he had just concluded a yarn told in all seriousness of how a shark had leaped over the back of a dory in wail cove and the two men in the dory had barely escaped with their lives and i know the two men had happened to he concluded or i know one of em the other's dead old jasper schofield never got over the scare he got that day the lawyer sat bolt upright in his chair do you know the schofields he demanded of thomas guess i ought to i've been dory mate with code when the old man was skipper a finer young feller ain't on this island do you happen to know where he is

Starting point is 01:55:10 asked Templeton. I came to Grandmignon on several important matters, and one of them was to see him. I've tried to locate the fellow, but he seems to have disappeared. Why, I've seen him today myself in Castalia, cried Thomas. He's up there hiring men to ship with him, said he was going to stay all night.

Starting point is 01:55:35 I know the very house he's in. You do? Yes. do you think i could get there to-night you might jimmy looked at his watch the seal cove mail wagons gone long ago but i'll take you down in my mortar dory if you'll come right now templeton did not even wait to finish his supper but went out with thomas immediately a few minutes walk brought them to the little beach where the dory was drawn up and they were soon on their way but before they left templeton scribbled a message on a piece of paper and left it with mrs shannon to be given to nat burns who he said was to call for him at half-past seven thomas kept the nose of his dory pointed to the lights of several houses that gleamed across the bay they were not however the lights of castalia which were almost invisible farther south but templeton who had never been on grand mignon before sat blissfully ignorant of this circumstance later however he remembered that his accommodating guide had chuckled inexplicably during most of the trip

Starting point is 01:56:53 twenty minutes ride in the chill night air brought them to a long low pier that extended out into the black water above on the hillside the windows of the big fishing settlement on long island gleamed comfortable and yellow. Thomas ran his dory close to the landing stage and then reversed the engine so that at the time most convenient for Templeton to step off the boat had lost all motion. The lawyer landed,

Starting point is 01:57:24 but Jimmy did not shut off his engine. Instead, he turned it on full speed and backed away from the dock. Hey, you, where are you going? called Templeton, vaguely alarmed. for the first time. Back to the village, answered Thomas, sending his motor into the forward speed.

Starting point is 01:57:45 I got something very important to do there. But in which house is Schofield? cried the other. You said you would show me. There was no reply, and it is possible that, due to the noise of the engine, Thomas had not heard the protest at all. Nat Burns arrived at Shannon's border,

Starting point is 01:58:08 how slightly in advance of the time named and read templeton's note saying that he had gone to castalia to nab code while he had the chance who did templeton go with he asked fearfully of the landlady mr thomas replied that worthy my god wrapped out burns in such a tone of disgust and defeat that she shrank from him with uplifted hands but he did not notice her instead he rushed out of the house and along the road toward freikirk head the boarding-house was a full half-mile from the wharfs of the village and after a hundred yards burned slowed down into a rapid walk the fool took the bait like a dog-fish he snarled lord knows where he is by this time i'll bet schofield is at the bottom of this he had not as yet found out where code was and his first step when he reached the village was to go to the schofield cottage and verify templeton's note josie the orphan girl was there alone and was on the point of tears with having been left alone so long with night coming on when questioned the girl admitted readily enough that mrs schofield had taken a bundle of cody's clothing and gone to castelia in the afternoon she having overheard the conversation that took place between her mistress and pete ellenwood when he had gained this information burns hurried from the house and toward the spot on the beach between the wharfs where his dory lay he had not the remotest idea what had become of templeton but he was reasonably sure that if thomas had taken him to castalia schofield was no longer there

Starting point is 02:00:06 what thomas had really done did not occur to him and his one idea was to get to the neighboring village as soon as possible and ascertained just what had taken place his dory was beached alongside the pier where the charming lass had lain for the past week now as he approached it he suddenly stopped rooted in his tracks the charming lass was gone end of chapter eight recording by roger maline chapter nine of the harbor of doubt this livervox recording is in the public domain recording by roger maline the harbor of doubt by frank williams chapter nine on the course all dory's aboard all hands set topsils jimmy thomas ease your main sheet now boys all together together yo sway em flat yo once more yo fine stand by to said balloon jib it was broad daylight and the early sun lighted the newly painted slanting deck of the charming lass as she snored through the gentle sea on every side the dark gray expanse stretched unbroken to the horizon except on the starboard bow there a long, gray flatness separated itself from the horizon, the coast of southern Nova Scotia. There was a favorable following wind, and the clean, new schooner seemed to express her joy at being again

Starting point is 02:02:00 in her element by leaping across the choppy waves like a live thing. While the crew of ten leaped to the orders, Code Schofield stood calmly at the wheel, easing her on her course so as to give them the least trouble. Under the vociferous bellow of Pete Ellenwood, the crew were working miracles in swiftness and organization. The sun had been up two hours, and now, as Schofield glanced back at the wake that foamed and bubbled behind them,

Starting point is 02:02:35 his eyes fell upon the white sails of a vessel far astern. Even at the distance it was plain that she was of school, her rig and probably a fisherman. Wonder who she is, asked Code, pointing her out to Ellenwood. Don't know. Thought perhaps you'd seen her before, Skipper. I've had my eye on her for an hour. Fisherman, likely. You'll see him in all directions every day if we're through. The explanation was simple and obvious, and it satisfied Schofield. He promptly forgot her, as did everyone else aboard the lass.

Starting point is 02:03:16 And reason enough, the cook, sticking his head out of the galley, bawled, Mug up, first table! And the first table made a rush below. When the five men sat down, it was the first time they had been able to relax since the evening before,

Starting point is 02:03:35 when, without lights, and under head sails only, the charming lass had stolen out between the reefs of Freakirkhead to sea. "'Well, boys, I calculate we're safe,' ejaculated Ellenwood with great satisfaction. "'The lass is doing her ten knots steady, and I guess we'll have left Cape Sable astern before the sleepy heads at home find out what's become of us.

Starting point is 02:04:03 "'You saved the day, Pete. "'If it hadn't been for you, I would never have got beyond St. John's.' it was code who spoke and you pretty near spoiled what i did do rumbled pete how's that interrupted thomas interestedly i don't know everything that happened to you fellers i was busy at the time given a friend of ours a joy ride tell me about it it wasn't me that nearly broke up the show pete protested code it was mother of course when jimmy was taking her over to castelia in his dory he told her what was in the wind they found me at the pembroke place and we all went into pembroke's ice-house where i was to stay until after dark then ma started in to find out everything she allowed it wasn't honorable for me to run away when the officer or lawyer was after me she said it proved that i was guilty and thought i ought to stay and be served with this paper if i wasn't guilty of anything it could be proven easily enough she said poor honest mother she forgot that the whole matter would take weeks if not months and that all the whole matter would take weeks if not months and that all that time I would be idle and discontented and spending most of my time before boards of inquiry.

Starting point is 02:05:31 I suppose it will look queer to a lot of people at the head because I've gone. They'll say right off, just as we thought, all this talk that has been going around is true, and put me down for a criminal that ought to go to jail. That's what mother said, and the worst part of leaving her now is that she will have to stay and face the talk. and the looks that are worse than talk. But Jimmy, I couldn't do it. Grand Mignon is in too bad a hole. She needs every man who owns a schooner or a sloop or a dory

Starting point is 02:06:09 to go out and catch fish and bring them home. The old islands gutter back against the wall, and I felt that when all the trouble and danger were over for her, I would go to St. John's and let those people try and prove their case. They can't prove anything, but that doesn't say they won't get a judgment. I'm poor and unknown and ignorant of law. The company is a big corporation with lawyers and plenty of money. If somebody there is after me, I haven't a chance, and they will gouge me for all they can get.

Starting point is 02:06:48 You, Jimmy, and Pete know that this is so, and it was for all these reasons that I wouldn't stand my ground and let that feller serve me ma is dependent on me and when i have sold fifteen hundred kennels of fish she will have enough to carry her along until that trouble is over so i'm going out after the fifteen hundred kennels now that's my story we've heard jimmies but how did you manage everything so well pete ellenwood was flattered and coughed violently over the last of his vittles. Hey! yelled some hungry member of the second half. If you fellows eat any more, you'll sink the ship. Get up out of there and give your betters a chance.

Starting point is 02:07:39 Ellenwood rolled a forbidding eye toward the companion way. Some clam-spitter on deck don't seem to know that in this here packet the youth and beauty is always considered first, he rumbled ominously. No reply being forthcoming, he turned to code. When old Bige Tanner come to me, shaking like a leaf, and said there was a feller on the steamer that would attach your schooner and all ye had, because of some business about the sinkin of the old May,

Starting point is 02:08:12 I says to myself, says I, Pete, I says, we don't allow nothing like that to spoil our crews and keep the skipper ashore. Now, Mignon isn't very big, and I knew he would get you in a day or two if you didn't go back into the forest and hide. But I calculated you wouldn't want to do that, and so I figured the only way to beat that lawyer was to fool him before he got fair started on his search. I knowed you was in Castalia, and so I thought your mother better get you some clothes and bring him there. I found out that Nat Burns had taken the fellow to Miss Shannon's boarding house, and knowing that Jimmy was living there, I got an idea.

Starting point is 02:08:58 Jimmy's told about that already. The fellow bit, and that was the end of him. But that wasn't the worst of it. I knew we had to get out the same evening, if we was to get out at all. So what did I do, but get Bill Rockwell here to hitch up the big double buck-buck-box? board and go out after the five men that weren't on the job he had to drive clear at a great harbor for one but he got back with all hands about seven o'clock everybody in town was at supper and didn't see us when we clumb aboard the lass when it was pitch black we cast off the lines and she drifted out on the ebb tide which just there runs easy a knot and a half then we got up our headsail so as to get steerage way on her and bless my soul if the blocks made a creak might have been pulling silk thread through a firm mittin for all the noise i was afraid for a minute that the flash a swalletail light would catch her topmasts but it didn't and after an hour we were outside and laying in sixteen fathom off big duck

Starting point is 02:10:14 the tide there runs three knot and with our headsils and the light air o wind we just managed to hold her even of course you fellers know the rest as soon as jimmy landed his passenger on long island he came out and straight south to where we was i had told jimmy to tell code in the afternoon where to meet us and so when it was black enough the skipper got into his motor dory and came out too when they climbed aboard we got up sail and laid a south-west course to round nova scotie and here we are near in cape race all already and dumb proud of ourself if i do say it proud of you pete you old fox said schofield getting up from the table with a sigh of immense relief come on let the second half in all right skipper said pete rising to his great height and wiping his mouth with the back of his huge hand but wait i almost forgot this he unpinned the pocket of his waistcoat and drew forth the flimsy sheet of paper that he had picked up when Templeton had mistakenly tried to serve him. Briefly, he told the skipper its history and handed it to him. Schofield's eyes opened wide as he saw that the paper was that of the Dominion Cable

Starting point is 02:11:44 office in Freakirk Head, and he read, To A. Templeton, Marine Insurance Company, St. John's New Brunswick. come at once with summons for cody albert scoffield and attachment for schooner charming lass as per former arrangements bernet for a moment the signature puzzled him and ellenwood grinning stood watching his puzzled efforts to solve it skipper if it was a mule that would kick you in the face he remarked if you can't see nat burns in that i can and now you've got an idea just who's at the bottom of this thing code schofield went aft to his cabin companionway and prepared to go below and open his log kent took the wheel and ellenwood lurched about with a critical eye upon the lashings sheets and general appearance of the deck schofield remembering the schooner that had attracted his eye before looked astern for her she had gained rapidly upon them in the half-hour he had been below now he could see her graceful black hull the shadows and the great sails and the tiny men here and there upon her deck what a sailor he cried in involuntary admiration she must be an american

Starting point is 02:13:22 it was clear that the other schooner even in that moderate breeze must be making the better side of twelve knots schofield gave her a final admiring glance and went below end of chapter nine recording by roger maline chapter ten of the harbor of doubt this librivox recording is in the public domain recording by roger maline the harbor of doubt by frank williams chapter ten a mystery august twenty ninth clear wind west south-west canting to west moderate breeze knots log to twelve noon one fifty three position twenty miles south a little east of cape sable end of this day code closed the dirty and thumb-worn paper-covered ledger that was the log of the charming lass and had been the log of the old may scoffield for ten years before she went down it was the one thing he had saved he had been on deck taken his sextant observation and just completed working out his position as he closed the old log his eye was caught by a crudely penned name near the bottom of the peasant observation and just completed working out his position as he closed the old log his eye was caught by a crudely penned name near the bottom of the paper cover. The signature was Nellie Tanner's, and he remembered how, a dozen years ago, while they were playing together in the cabin of the old May, she had pretended she was captain

Starting point is 02:15:11 and owned the whole boat so that Code would have to obey her orders. As he looked, he caught the almost obliterated marks of a pencil beneath Nellie's name, and, looking closer, discovered Natt Burns in boyish letters. For a moment he scowled blackly at the audacious words, and then, laughing at his foolishness, threw the book from him. Then slowly the scowl returned, and he asked himself seriously why Nat hated him so. That there had always been an instinctive dislike between them as boys,

Starting point is 02:15:50 everybody in Freakirk head knew, and several vicious fights to a finish had emphasized. it. But since coming to Manhood's estate, Code had left behind him much of the rancor and intolerance of his early youth, and had considered Nat Burns merely as a disagreeable person to be left heartily alone. But Burns had evidently not arrived at this mature point of self-education. In fact, Burns was a good example of a youth brought up without those powers of self-control that are absolutely necessary to anyone who expects to take a reasonable position in society, even as simple as that of Free Kirk Head.

Starting point is 02:16:33 Code remembered that Nat and his father had always been inseparable companions, and that it was due to this father more than anyone else that the boy had been spoiled and indulged in every way. Michael Burns had risen to a position of considerable power in the humble life of the island, from a successful trawler he had become a successful fish packer and shipper then he had felt a desire to spread his affluent wings gone in for politics and been appointed the squire or justice of the peace in this position he was commissioned by the marine insurance company of st john's as its agent and inspector on grand mignon island in his less successful days he had been a boat builder in gloucester and bath and knew much of ship construction for more than half a year now code had been unable to think of michael burns or the old may schofield without a shudder of horror but now that nat was suddenly hot on the trail of revenge he knew he must look at matters squarely and prepare to meet any trap which might be laid for him

Starting point is 02:17:50 it seemed evident that the first aim in nat's mind was the hounding of the man who had been the cause of his father's death for that death had occurred at a most opportune time for the schofields the heavy insurance on the fifty-year-old may was about to run out and it was almost a certainty that burns would not recommend its renewal except at a vastly increased premium as a matter of fact on a hurried trip that code had taken he had picked up burns himself at st john's the inspector coming for the purpose of examining the schooner while under sail in a fairly heavy seaway all the island knew this and all the island knew that code was the only one to return alive the inference was not hard to deduce especially as the gale encountered had been one son such as the may had lived out a dozen times had not all these things been enough to fire the impulsive passionate burns with a sullen hatred the next events would have been for code received his insurance without a dispute and not long afterward while in boston for the purpose had picked up the almost new charming lass from a gloucester skipper who had run into debt code now saw to what nat's uncontrolled brooding had brought him and he realized that the battle would be one of wits he got up to go on deck he had only turned to the companion way when the great voice of pete ellenwood rumbled down to him come on deck skipper and look over this schooner astern of us there's something queer about her i don't like her actions

Starting point is 02:19:45 code took the steps at a jump and a moment later stood beside ellenwood the lass was snoring along under full sail the stranger which at eight o'clock had been five miles astern was now at noon less than a mile away code instinctively shot a quick glance at the compass the schooner was running dead east what's this ellenwood demanded the skipper sharply you're away off your course yes sir and on purpose replied the mate i've been watching that packet for a couple of hours back and it seemed to me she was a little bit too close on our track for comfort what if she's from st john's i says to myself then there'll be the devil to pay for the skipper so after you'd got your observation and went below i'd just put the wheel down a trifle i hadn't been gone away from her five minutes when she followed. It's very plain, code, that she's trying to catch us. A sudden feeling of alarm took possession of Schofield. That she was a wonderful speedcraft she had already proven by overhauling the last so easily. The thought immediately came to him that Nat Burns, on discovering his absence, had sent the lawyer with the summons to St. John's,

Starting point is 02:21:17 hired a fast schooner and set out in pursuit maybe it was only an accident he said she may be on the course to sable island give her another trial come about and head for halifax stand by to come about bawled ellenwood two young fellows raced up the rigging others stood by to prevent jiving and the mate put the wheel hard a lee the schooner's head swung sharply there was a thunder and rattle of canvas a patter of reef points and the great boom swung over the wind caught the sails the charming lass healed and bore away on the new course the men in the stern watched the movements of the stranger anxiously ten minutes had hardly elapsed when she also came about and headed directly into the wake of the lass. Schofield and Ellenwood looked at each other blankly. Are you going to run for it, Skipper? asked the mate. I'll have the balloon jib and stasles set in five minutes, if you say so.

Starting point is 02:22:33 Code thought for a minute. It's no use, he said. They'd catch us anyway. Let them come up and we'll find out what they want. Take in your topsils. There's no use wasting time. time on the wrong course. Under reduced sail, the last slowed, and the pursuing vessel overhauled them rapidly. With a great smother of foam at her bows, she ducked into the choppy sea and came like a racehorse. In half an hour she was almost abreast on the port quarter. A man with a megaphone

Starting point is 02:23:12 appeared on her poop deck and leveled the instrument at the little group by the wheel. heave too he bawled we want to talk with you heave too ordered cole and the charming lass came up into the wind just as the stranger accomplished the same maneuver They were now less than 50 yards away, and the man again leveled his megaphone. "'Is that the charming lass out of Freakirkhead?' he shouted. "'Yes.' "'Captain Codd Schofield in command?' "'Yes.' "'Bound to the banks on a fishing cruise?'

Starting point is 02:23:54 "'Yes.' "'All right, that's all I wanted to know,' said the man, and set down the megaphone. he gave some rapid orders to the crew and his vessel swung around so as to catch the wind again code and ellenwood looked at one another blankly hey there shouted schofield at the top of his voice who are you and what do you want the skipper of the other schooner paid no attention whatever and scoffield repeated his question this time angrily he might as well have shouted at the wind the stranger's head fell off her canvas caught the breeze and she forged ahead a minute later and she was out of earshot look for her name on the stern commanded code he plunged below into the cabin and raced up again with his glasses the mysterious schooner was now nearly a quarter of a mile away but within easy range of vision code fixed his gaze on her stern where her name should be and saw with astonishment that it had carefully been painted out then he swung his glasses to cover the dories nested amid ships and found that on them too new paint had obscured the name

Starting point is 02:25:19 he lowered the glasses helplessly do you recognize her pete he asked i know most of the schooners out of fre kirk head and st john's but i never saw her before me neither admitted the mate with conviction i wonder what all this means code could not answer end of chapter ten recording by roger maline chapter eleven of the harbour of doubt. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Roger Maline. The Harbor of Doubt by Frank Williams. Chapter 11. In the fog bank. Squid ho! Squid ho! Tumble up, all hands! Rod Kent, the old salt, who had for the past hour, been experimenting over the side,

Starting point is 02:26:24 leaned down the main cabin hatch and woke the port watch. behind him on the deck a queer marine creature squirmed in a pool of water and sought vainly to disentangle itself from the apparatus that had caught it the shout brought all hands on deck stupid with sleep but eager to join in the sport the squid is a very small addition of the giant devilfish or octopus it has ten tentacles a tapered body about ten inches long and is armed with the usual defense of an extensive ink sack by means of which it squirts a cloud of black fluid at a pursuing enemy escaping in the general murk how d'ye catch em cried all hands for the advent of squid was the most welcome news the men and the charming lass had had since leaving home four days before it meant that this favorite and succulent bait of the roaming cod had arrived on the banks and that the catches would be good jigged him replied kent laconically he disengaged the struggling squid from the apparatus and examined the latter carefully it was made of a single cork through the lower edge of which pins had been thrust and bent back like the flukes of an anchor to it was fastened a small shred of red flannel the whole being attached to a line with a sinker in five minutes code had unearthed from an old shoe-box in his cabin enough jigs to supply all hands and presently both rails were lined with men hauling up the bait as fast as it was lured to close proximity by the color of the red flannel

Starting point is 02:28:11 once the creatures had wrapped themselves around the cork a sharp jerk impaled them on the pins and up they came but not without resistance just as they left the water they discharged their ink sacks at their captors and the men on the decks of the lass were kept busy weaving their heads from side to side to avoid the assault it was near evening of the second day after the mysterious schooner had hailed them and sailed away since that time they had forged steadily northeast along the coast of nova scotia at last they had left cape breton at the tip of cape britton at the tip of cape britton at the tip of cape britton at the tip of cape Breton Island behind them, and approached the southern shores of Newfoundland, and that wonderful stretch of shoals called the Grand Banks. Southeast, for 300 miles from Newfoundland, extends this undersea flooring of rocky shelves that run from 90 to five fathoms, being most shallow at virgin rocks. In reality, this is a great submarine mountain chain that is believed at one time to have

Starting point is 02:29:20 belong to the continent of North America. The outside edge of it is in the welter of the shoreless Atlantic, and from this edge there is a sheer drop into almost unsounded depths. These depths have got the name of the whale hole, and many a fishing skipper has dropped his anchor into this abyss and earned the laughter of his crew when he could find no ground. Along the top and sides of this mountain range grow vegetable substances and small enamecules

Starting point is 02:29:53 that provide excellent feeding for the vast hosts of cod that yearly swim across it. For 400 years the cod have visited these feeding grounds and been the prey of man, yet their numbers show no falling off. To them is due the wealth of Newfoundland, the Mickelon Islands, Nova Scotia, and prince edward island the first manifestation of the annual visit is the arrival of enormous schools of caplin a little silvery fish some seven inches long that invades the bays in the open sea

Starting point is 02:30:34 close upon them follow the cod feeding as they come the capplin lasts six weeks and disappear to be superseded in august by the squid of which the cod are very fond up until fifty years ago mackerel were caught on the banks and large quantities of halibut but the mackerel disappeared suddenly never to return and the halibut became constantly more rare until at last only the cod remained aboard the charming lass the squid jigging went on for a couple of hours then suddenly the school passed and the sport ended abruptly but the deck of the schooner was a mass of the bait and the tubs of salt clams brought from frekirk head could be saved until later rockwell who had been looking out forward suddenly called code's attention to a flock of sea-pigeons floating on the water a mile ahead as the skipper looked he saw the fowl busily diving and upending and he knew they had struck the edge of the banks for waterfowl will always dive in shoal water and a skipper sailing to the banks from a distance always looks for this sign an hour later when the cook had sent out his call for the first half code made ellenwood stay on deck and bring the schooner to an anchorage after sounding the sounding lead is a long slug something like a window weight at the bottom of which is a saucer-shaped hollow the leadsman a young fellow from frekirk head took his place on the schooner's rail outside the fore-rigging the lead was attached to a line and as the schooner forged slowly ahead close hauled the youth swung the lead in ever-widening semicircles

Starting point is 02:32:36 let your pigeon fly cried pete and the lead swung far ahead and fell with a sudden plop into the dark blue water the line ran out until it suddenly slackened just under the leadsman he fingered a mark forty fathoms he called five minutes later another sounding was taken and proved that the water was gradually shoaling at thirty fathoms pete ordered the anchor let go and a last sounding taken before the lead flew he rubbed a little tallow into the saucer and this when it came up was full of sand mud and shells telling the sort of bottom under the schooner pete called code and together they read it like a book favorable fishing-ground though not the best while the second half ate the first half took in all canvas and reefed it with the exception of the mainsail this was unbent entirely and stowed away in its place was bent on a riding sail for until their salt was all wet there would be very little occasion for any sort of sailing their only progress being as they ambled leisurely from birth to birth dory's oversight sung out code starboard first a rope made fast to a mainstay and furnished with a hook at its end was slipped into a rope made fast to a mainstay and furnished with a hook at its end was slipped into a side a loop of rope at one end of the dory. A similar device caught a similar loop at the other end.

Starting point is 02:34:20 One strong pull and the dory rose out of the nest of four others that lay just aft of the mainmast. A hand swung her outboard and she was lowered away until she danced on the water. Jimmy Thomas leaped into her, received a tub of briny squid, a dinner horn, and a beaker of water. besides his rectangular reels with their heavy cords, leads, and two hooks. Overside, Port Dory, came the command, and Kent was sent on his way. Thus, one after another, the men departed until on board the lass, there remained only the cook and a boy helper. Code, as well as Ellenwood, had gone out, for they wished to test the fishing.

Starting point is 02:35:11 These dories were entirely different propositions from the heavy motor boats that the men used almost entirely near the island. They were light, compact, and properly big enough for only one man, although they easily accommodated two. The motor dories of Thomas and Cod were on board, nested forward, but they were of little use here, where only short distances are covered, and those by rowing. the nine dories drew away from the schooner each in a different direction until they were a mile or more apart code threw over his little three-fluked anchor then he baited his two hooks with bits of tentacle and threw them overboard with the big rectangular reel in his left hand he unwound as the leads drew down until they fetched bottom and the line sagged unreeling a couple more fathoms of line he cast the reel aside then he hauled his leads up until he judged them to be some six feet off the bottom and waited almost instantly there was a sharp jerk and code with the skill of the trained fisherman instantly responded to it with a savage pull on the line and a rapid hand over hand as he looped it into the dory the fish had struck struck on the tough cord sung against the gunwale and at times it was all the skipper could do to bring up his prize for the great cod darted here and there dove rushed and struggled to avert the end

Starting point is 02:36:55 thirty fathoms is a hundred and eighty feet and with a huge and desperate fish disputing every inch of the way it becomes a seemingly endless labor but at last code strange his eyes over the side, caught a glimpse of quick circles of white in the green, and reached for the mall that was stuck under a thwart. Two more heaves, and the cod, open-mouthed, thrashed on the surface. A smart wrap on the head with the mall, and he came into the door quietly. There were little pink crabs sticking to him, and he did not seem as fat as he should, although he topped the fifty-pound mark. Lousy, said Cod, lousy and hungry, it's good fishing.

Starting point is 02:37:47 With a short, stout stick at hand, he wrenched the hook out of the cod's mouth, baited up, and cast again. The descending bait was rushed and seized. This time both hooks bore victims. When there were no speckled cod on the hooks, there were silvery hake, velvety black pollock beautiful scarlet sea perch that look like little old men and an occasional ugly dogfish with his chinese jade eyes

Starting point is 02:38:18 when the dogfish came the men pulled up their anchors and rode a mile or so away for where the dogfish pursues all others fly he has the shape and traits of his merciless giant brother the tiger shark with the added men of a horn full of poison in the middle of his back instead of a dorsal fin an evil curved horn the thrust of which can be nearly fatal to a man the bottom of the dory became covered with a flooring of liquid silver bodies that twined together and rolled with the roll of the dory at five o'clock code wound his line on the reel he usually used two at a time but one had been plenty with such fishing and started to pull for the distant charming lass he was now fully five miles from her and his nearest neighbor was bill kent three miles away all hands were drawing in toward her for they knew they must take a quick mug-up and then dressed down until the last cod lay in his shroud of salt the schooner lay to the northeast of schofield and as he bent to his work he he did not see a strange, level mass of gray that advanced slowly toward him. From a distance to the lay observer, this mass would have looked like an ordinary cloud bank, but the experienced eyes of a fisherman would have discerned its ghastly gray hue and its flat contour.

Starting point is 02:39:57 All the afternoon there had been a freshening breeze, and now Schofield found himself rowing against a head sea that occasionally slapped over the high bow of the dory, and ran aft over the half-ton of fish that lay under his feet. He had not pulled for fifteen minutes, when the whole world about him was suddenly obscured by the thick, woolly fog that swirled past on the wind. It was as though an impenetrable wall had been suddenly built up on all sides, a wall that offered no resistance to his progress, and yet no egress. he immediately stopped rowing and rested his oars listening no sound came to him except the slap of the increasing waves and the occasional flap of a wet fish in its last struggles

Starting point is 02:40:51 he carried no pocket compass and the light gave no hint or the direction of the sun in the five minutes that he sat there the head of his dory swung around and even had he known the exact compass direction of the chart last before the fog he would have been unable to find it the situation did not alarm him in the least for he had experienced it often before reaching into the bow he drew out the dinner-horn that was part of the equipment of the dory and sent an ear-splitting blast out into the fog it seemed as though the opaque walls about him held in the sound as heavy curtains might in a large room it fell dead on his own ears without any of the reverberant power that sound has in travelling across water once more he listened he knew that the schooner being at anchor would be ringing her bell but he hardly hoped to catch a sound of that instead he listened for the answering peal of a horn in one of the other dories straining his ears he thought he caught a faint toot ahead of him into starboard he seized his oars and rode hard for several minutes in the direction of the sound then he stopped and rising to his feet sent another great blast brawling forth into the fog once more he listened and again it seemed as though an answering horn sounded in the distance but it was fainter this time a gust of wind rougher than the others swirled the fog about him in great ghostly sheets turning and twisting it like the clouds of greasy smoke from a fire of wet leaves

Starting point is 02:42:45 the dory rolled heavily and code losing his balance sprawled forward on the fish the horn flying from his hand overboard as he tried to save himself for a moment only it floated and then as he was frantically swinging the dory to draw alongside it disappeared beneath the water with a low gurgle the situation was serious he was unable to attract attention and must depend for his salvation upon hearing the horns of the other dories as they approached the schooner rowing hard all the time with frequent short pauses he strained his ears for the welcome sound sometimes he thought he caught a faint mellow call but he soon recognized that these were deceptions produced in his ears by the memory of what he had heard before impatiently he rode on after a while he stopped since he could not get track of any one it was foolish to continue the effort for every stroke might take him farther and farther out of hearing on the other hand if he were headed in the right direction another dory trying to find the schooner, might cross his path or come within earshot. He was still not in the least worried by the situation.

Starting point is 02:44:15 Men in much worse ones had been rescued from them without thinking anything of them. But the rising wind and sea gave him something to think of. The waves found it a very easy matter to climb aboard the heavily laden dory, and occasionally he had to bail with the can and the boughs provided for. for the purpose. An hour passed, and at the end of that time he found that he was bailing almost constantly. There was only one thing to do under the circumstances. The gaff lay under his hand. This is a piece of broom handle, to the end of which a stout, sharp hook is attached, and the instrument is used in landing fish which are too heavy to swing inboard on the slender

Starting point is 02:45:02 fishing line. Code took the gaff and commenced to throw the fish over the side one at a time. He hated the waste of splendid cod, but things had now got to a pass where his own comfort and safety were at stake. Once the fish were gone, with the cleanliness of long habit, he swabbed the bottom and sides of the dory with an old rag and rinsed them with water which he afterward bailed out. The dory now rose high and dry on the waves, but Code found it increasingly difficult to row because the water tended to crab his oars and twist them suddenly out of his hands. To keep his head to the wind he paddled slowly, listening for any sound of a boat.

Starting point is 02:45:55 Another hour passed and darkness began to come down. The pearly gray fog lost its color and became black, like smoke from a burning oil tank. He knew the sun was below the horizon. He wondered if any of the other men had been caught. If none were gone but himself, he reasoned, the schooner would have come in search of him. So, from listening for the horn of Adori, he tried to catch the hoarse voice of a patent fog-horn that would be grinding on the forecastle head. By this time the wind was a gale,

Starting point is 02:46:34 and he knew it was driving him astern, despite his rowing. The waves were no longer the little choppy seas that the lass had encountered since leaving Freakirk head, but hustling, slopping hills that attacked him, in endless and rapid succession. His progress was a continuous climb to one summit,

Starting point is 02:46:57 followed by a dizzying swoop into the following depth. Each climb was punctuated at the top by a gallon or so of water slopped into the dory from the crest of the wave. These influxes became so frequent that he was obliged to bail very often. Consequently, he unshipped one oar, and, crawling to the stern, shipped the other in the notch of the stern board. here he sculled with one hand so as to keep the dory's head to the wind and bailed with the other being aft his weight caused the water to run down to him and he could thus perform the two operations at the same time

Starting point is 02:47:42 when pitch blackness had come he knew that he was out of reach of the schooner's horn his only chance lay in the fog's lifting or the passing of some schooner his principal concern was for the wind it was just the time of year for those three-day nor'esters that harry the entire coast of north america when the first excitement of his danger passed he was assailed by the fierce hunger of nervous and physical exhaustion but there was no food aboard the dory he had of course the breaker of water that was part of his regular equipment but this was more for the food aboard the dory he had of course the breaker of water that was part of his regular equipment but this was more for for use during a long day of fishing than for the emergency of being lost at sea he took a hearty drink and prepared for the long watch of the night by a wax match several hours later he found that it was midnight his struggle with wind and sea had now become unequal he found it impractical to remain longer in the stern attempting to skull so very cautiously he set him about his last defensive measure taking the two oars and the anchor as well as the thwarts he bound them together securely with the anchor roading this drag he hold from the bow of the dory and it swung the boat's head into the wind schofield with the bailer in one hand lay flat in the bottom with the increasing sea water splashed steadily over the sides so that it his exertions never ceased. The chill of the night penetrated his soaked garments, and this,

Starting point is 02:49:33 with his exhaustion, produced a stupor. The whistle of the wind and the hiss of foaming crests became dream sounds. End of Chapter 11. Recording by Roger Maline. Chapter 12 of the Harbour of Doubt This Libervox recording is in the public domain. The Harbour of Doubt by Frank Williams Chapter 12 Out of Freakirk Head Oh, I wouldn't think of such a thing for a minute! Captain by Jonah Turner waved his hand with an air of finality

Starting point is 02:50:22 and favored his daughter with a glare, meant to be pregnant with parental authority. But father, listen to reason, cried Nellie. Here is a mother to take care of the three small children. and here am I with nothing whatever to do. Be sensible and let me go along. I certainly ought to be able to help in some way. But, expostulated the captain, girls don't go on fishing trips.

Starting point is 02:50:53 Suppose the cook should fall sick or be hurt, then I would come in handy, wouldn't I? But all this is not the real point. Things are different with us than they have ever been before, We have no home, and mother and the children have to board with Ma Sprague. If I stayed here, I should be a burden, and I couldn't stand that,' by Jonah scratched his head and looked at the girl helplessly. He had yet to score his first victory over her in an argument. "'Have you asked your mother?' he queried at last, seeking his time-worn refuge.

Starting point is 02:51:34 "'Yes,' said she, brightly. at the imminence of victory, and she says she thinks it'll be just the thing. All right, said by Jonah weakly. Come along, then. But mind, you'll find things different. Your mother is boss of any land she puts her foot on. But once I get the Roseanne past swallow-tail, my word goes. All right, Daddy, dear, laughed the girl.

Starting point is 02:52:04 I know you'll be just the finest captain I ever seen. sailed with. She kissed him impulsively and ran upstairs to tell her mother the good news. The departure of the fleet from Grand Mignon was a sad day in the history of the island. The sun had hardly shone red and dripping from the sea when all the inhabitants were astir. Men from as far south as Seal Cove and Great Harbor clattered up the King's Road in rickety vehicles, accompanied by their families and their dunnage. In Freakirk Head alone, less than ten men would be left ashore. Of these, one was Bill Boughton, the storekeeper,

Starting point is 02:52:49 who was to arrange for the disposal of the catch. But the others were either incapacitated, sick, or old. The five-aged fishermen, who subsisted on the charity of the town, formed a delegation on one string piece to waive the fleet farewell. Altogether, there were fifteen boats, ten schooners and five sloops, carrying in all more than a hundred and twenty-five men. The whole resource of the island had been expended

Starting point is 02:53:23 to provide tubs of bait and barrels of salt enough for all these, let alone the provisions. The men either shipped on shares, or, if they were fearful of chance, at a fixed monthly wage, and all found, to be paid after the proceeds of the voyage were realized. There was not a cent of Grand Mignon credit left in the world, and there was no child too small to realize that on the outcome of this venture hung the fate and future of the island. It was a brilliant day with a glorious blue sky overhead and a bracing breeze out of the east. Just beyond Long Island, a low stratum of miasmic gray was the only shred of the usual fog to be seen on the whole horizon. In the little roadstead, the vessels, black, hauled or white, rode eagerly and gracefully at their moorings,

Starting point is 02:54:23 the bright sun bringing out the red yellow green blue and brown of the dories nested amid ships at seven o'clock the steamer grand mignon blew a great blast of her whistle cast off her lines and cleared for st andrews and st stephens tooting a long last salute she rolled out into fundy and out of sight around the point for these men breakfast was long long long long last salute she rolled out into fundy and out of sight around the point for these men breakfast was long passed but there were the myriad last details that could not be left undone and it was fully eight o'clock before the last dory was swung aboard and the last barrel stowed then there came the clicking of many windlasses and the strain of many ropes and to the women and girls who lined the shore these noises were as the beatings of the executioner's hand upon the cell door of a condemned man for the first time they seemed to realize what was the one of the executioner's hand upon the cell door of a condemned man for the first time they seemed to realize what was about to happen the young girls and the brides wept but those with children at their skirts looked stonily to the vessel that bore their loved ones for they were hardened in the fear of death and bereavement and had become fatalists the old women shook their heads and if tears rolled down their faces they were the tears of dotage and were shed perhaps for the swift and fleeting beauty of brides under the strain of their first long separation of these last one stood apart a shawl over her gray hair and her hands folded as though obedient to a will greater than her own in all the color and pageant of departure may schofield wondered where her son might be the son whom she felt had run away from his just responsibilities

Starting point is 02:56:27 two nights ago he had gone and since that time the little cottage had seemed worse than deserted somehow the story of the solicitor and his visit went swiftly around the village and since that time code's mother had been the shrinking object of a host of polite but evidently pointed inquiries to most of these there was really no adequate reply and the good woman had grown more hurt and more shrinking with every hour of the day now with little orphan josie at her side she came out to see the departure of the fleet suddenly there came the squeaking of blocks and the rattle and scrape of rings as forsels were rushed up at peak and throat head-sails raced into position and with the anchors cat-headed the vessels with their captains at the wheels or tillers swung into the wind and began to crawl ahead behind them as they forged toward the passage lay the great cimitar of stony beach half a mile long beyond it were the white contented-looking cottages built along the road and back of all rose the vivid green mountains covered with pine tamarack and silver birch above whose tops at the line of the summit there appeared three terrific puffy thunderheads as they moved toward flag-point the gaily colored crowds moved with them past the post-office the stores the burned wharfs and the fish stands

Starting point is 02:58:18 captain by jonah tanner by right of signority led the way in the rosanne as commodore of the fleet he stood to his tiller like a graven image looking neither to right nor left but gripping his pipe with all the strength of his remaining teeth he hoped that his triumph would not be lost upon his wife nor was it for it was a month afterward before the neighbors ceased to hear how her bige was the best captain that ever sailed out of frekirk head at swallowtail by jonah rounded the point gave one majestic wave of his hat in farewell and put the rosanne over on the starboard tack for the course was southeast and followed practically the one way of his hat and farewell and put the roseanne over on the starboard tack for the course was southeast and followed practically the wake of Code Schofield. One after another, the schooners and sloops, closely bunched, came about as smartly as their crews could bring them, and the smartest of them all was Nat Burns's Nettie B. Nellie Tanner, jealous for her father's prestige, could not but admire the splendid discipline and tactics that whipped the Nettie about on the tack and sent her flying ahead of the Roseanne

Starting point is 02:59:40 like a great sea bird. Once Swallowtail was passed, the voyage had begun, and the lead belonged to anyone who could take it. At last, the knife-like edge of Long Island shut them out completely, and seemed at the same instant to cut the last bonds and ties

Starting point is 03:00:01 that had stretched from one to another as long as vision lasted. The men felt as released from a spell. One idea rushed into their minds suddenly and became an obsession. Fish! End of Chapter 12. Recording by Roger Maline. Chapter 13 of the Harbor of Doubt.

Starting point is 03:00:34 This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Roger Maline. The Harbor of Doubt by Frank Williams. Chapter 13. Nat Burns shows his hand. Off Cape Sable, the fleet was overhauled by a half-dozen schooners bound the same way, which displayed American flags at their main trucks as they came up. Gloucesterman, said Nat Burns at the wheel of the Nettie B.

Starting point is 03:01:08 Set balloon jib and stasel, and we'll give them a try-out. The men jumped to the orders, and the Nettie gathered headway as the American schooners came up. but the gloucester craft crept up passed and with an ironical dip of their little flags raced on to the banks cape sable was not yet out of sight when a topmast on the rosanne broke off short in a sudden squall by jonah tanner immediately laid her to and sat all hands to work stepping his spare spar as he would not think of returning to a shipyard nat burns when he noticed the accident laid two in turn and announced his intention of standing by the rosanne until she was ready to go on as these were among the fastest vessels in the fleet the others proceeded on their way and nat said that they were among the fastest vessels in the fleet the other proceeded on their way and nat said sees the opportunity of the repairs to pay his fiance a visit and remain to supper on the rosanne he found nelly radiant and more beautiful than he had ever seen her protected from the cool breeze by a freeze overcoat she stood bareheaded by the fore-rigging her cheeks red her brown eyes bright like stars and her soft brown hair blowing about her face in alluring wisps he took her in a strong embrace she struggled free after a moment her cheeks flooded with color don't nat she cried before all the men too please behave yourself

Starting point is 03:02:55 this last a little nervously as she saw the gleam in his eyes suddenly for her all the day seemed to have lost its exhilaration she was always always a little nervously as she saw the gleam in his eyes suddenly for her all the day seemed to have lost its exhilaration she was always glad to see nat but his insistent use of his fiance rights under all circumstances grated on the natural delicacy that was hers his ardor dampened by this rebuke the gleam in nat's eye became one of ugliness at his humiliation before the crew of the rosam he scowled furiously and stood by her side without saying a word it was in this unfortunate moment that nellie seized on the general topic of the day guess you'll have to get off and push the nettie b before you can beat those gloucesterman nat she said teasing him say i've heard about all i want to hear about that he snarled suddenly losing control of himself as they walked back to the little cabin the girl looked at him in hurt amazement never in all her life had a man spoken to her in such a tone it was inconceivable that the man she was going to marry could address her so if he even pretended to love her possibly you have she returned not without a touch of asperity but you know as well as i do that you will have to deal with a gloucester-built schooner before you are through with this voyage in her efforts to placate him she had touched upon his sorest spot his defeat by the american fisherman had been hard for his pride i suppose you mean that crooked schofield's boat he flashed back his face darkening what do you mean by that

Starting point is 03:04:56 they were below now in her father's little cabin and she turned upon him with flashing eyes just what i said he returned sullen only. You say things, then, that have no foundation in fact," she retorted vigorously. You have no right to say a thing like that about Code Schofield. I haven't, huh? he sneered, furious. Since when have you been taking his side against me? No facts, eh? I'll show him and you and everybody else whether there's any foundation in fact.

Starting point is 03:05:37 what do you suppose the insurance company is after him for if he isn't a crook like all the people in frekirk head nellie had heard some of the rumors concerning code's possible part in the sinking of the may schofield nat for reasons of his own had carefully refrained from enlarging on those to her and in the absorption of her wooing by him she had let them go by unnoticed Now, for the first time, the consequences they might have in Code's life were made clear to her. I... I don't know, she faltered, unable to reply to his direct question. But I know this, that all his life, Cod has been an honest man and one of my best friends. I grew up with him just as I did with you, and I received. present such talk about him as much as i would if it were about you yes he sneered he has been entirely too much of a good friend what was he always over to your place for i'd like to know and even after he knew we were engaged what was he doing down at moss sprague's that night i called and what did you go to his place for after the fire when i tried to get you to come to mom

Starting point is 03:07:07 the last question he roared out at the top of his voice and the girl now afraid of him shrank back against the wall of the cabin she knew it was useless to say that she in code had been like brother and sister all their lives and that may scoffield was a second mother to her all reason was hopeless in the face of this unreasoning jealousy after a moment she found her speech I guess Nat, she said. You had better go back to your schooner until you were in a different mood. Afraid to answer, ain't you? he cried. When I face you down, you're afraid to answer and tell me I'd better go away. Well, now let me tell you something. You're entirely too friendly with that crook, and I won't have it.

Starting point is 03:08:05 you're engaged to me and what i say goes and let me tell you something else the insurance company is after him because he sunk the mace gofield on purpose but that ain't the worst of the things he did what do you mean she flashed at him you'll find out quick enough and so will he he snarled i'm not saying what is going to happen to him, but when I'm through, we'll see if your hero is such a fine specimen. From fear to anger her spirit had gone, and now, under the lash, it turned to cold disdain. With a swift motion of her right hand over her left, she drew off the diamond ring he had given her and held it out to him. "'Take this, Nat,' she said, so coldly that for once his, his rage was checked. He looked stupidly at the glittering emblem of her love, and suddenly

Starting point is 03:09:12 became aware of the extent to which he had driven her. The reaction was as swift as the rage. "'Please, Nellie, dear,' he begged, "'don't do that! Take it back!' "'Forgive me. Everything is piled up so today that I lost my temper. Please don't do that. but he had gone too far he had shown her a new side to his character no nat she said calmly but still with that icy inflection of disdain this has gone too far take this ring some time when you have made amends for this afternoon i may see you again i won't take it he replied doggedly please nellie forgive take it she flashed or i will throw it into the ocean she had unconsciously submitted him to a final test he was about to let her carry out her threat if she saw fit when his cupidity came over him he reached out his hand and she dropped the ring into it she stood silent pale and cold waiting for him to go he moved away he had reached the foot of the companionway when he turned back he has brought me to this he said so slowly and evilly that each word seemed to

Starting point is 03:10:50 drop of venom. But I'll make him pay. I'm going to St. John's, and when I get back, it'll be the sorriest day in his life, and yours too. His life won't be worth the thread it hangs on. With that, he went up the companion way, and, not noticing the greeting of Captain Tanner, dropped into his yellow dory that swung and bumped against the Roseanne's side. swiftly he rode to the nettie b and clambered aboard bellowing orders to get up sail in fifteen minutes the schooner was on the back track under every stitch of canvas she carried by jonah tanner stared blankly after the retreating nettie then knowing that his daughter had been with nat dropped down into the little cabin he found nelly seated in his little cabin he found nellie seated in the chair by the little table and weeping end of chapter thirteen recording by roger maline chapter fourteen of the harbor of doubt this libervox recording is in the public domain recording by roger maline the harbor of doubt by frank williams chapter fourteen a discovery taken aback as he is in the public domain

Starting point is 03:12:26 as he had been by the strange doings of Nat Schooner, his dismay then was a feeble imitation of the panic that smote him now. It had long been a favorite formula of by Jonas that, A schooner's, a gal you can understand, she goes where you send her, and you know she'll come back when you yell her to. She's a snug, trusting kind of critter, and she's man's best friend because she ain't got a grain of sense,

Starting point is 03:12:56 But woman! Here, by Jonah always ended, his hands, his voice, and his sentence suspended in mid-air. Now he was baffled completely. Here was a girl who was deeply in love, crying. He tiptoed cautiously to the deck again and stole forward to the galley,

Starting point is 03:13:20 as though he had been detected in a suspicious action. After a while, the sandsaued, storm passed, and Nellie sat up, red-eyed and red-nosed, but with a measure of her usual tranquility restored. Idiot! she told herself. To howl like that over him! Nellie finally regained her poise of mind and remembered that she had been at the point of writing a letter to her mother, to be mailed by the first vessel bound to a port, when Nat had

Starting point is 03:13:55 interrupted her. The table at which she sat was a rough square one of oak with one drawer that extended its whole width. She opened the drawer and found it stuffed with an untidy mass of paper, envelopes, newspapers, clippings, books, ink, and a mucilage pot that had foundered in the last gale and spread its contents over everything. Such was her struggle to find too clean, sheets of paper into pen, that she finally dumped the contents of the drawer in top of the table and went to the task seriously. The very first thing that came under her hand was a heavy packet. Turning it face up, she read, with surprise, a large feminine handwriting which said, Mr. Codd Schofield, kindness of Captain B. Tanner. Letter enclosed.

Starting point is 03:14:55 At the right-hand side of the envelope was this. Five tens, ten-fives, fifty-ones, one hundred and fifty dollars. Nelly Tanner stared at the envelope. It was the handwriting that held her. She had seen it before. She had once been honorary assistant treasurer of the Church of England Chapel, and it suddenly came to her that this was the handwriting that it adorned Elsa Malaby's checks and subscriptions.

Starting point is 03:15:31 She knew she had solved the problem the instant the answer came. Elsa had been to Boston to school, and the fact was very evident. She sat and stared at the black letters, flexing the packet filled with bills. Why should Elsa Malaby be sending money to Code Schofield? Everybody in Freakirk had knew that Code Scofeefeel. went up to Elsa Malabees to dinner occasionally. So did other people in the village, but not so often as he. There had been a little gossip concerning the two of them,

Starting point is 03:16:12 but while Cod was an excellent enough fellow, it was hardly probable that a rich widow like Elsa would throw herself away on a poor fisherman. They forgot that she had done so the first time she married, and that she had the sea in her business. blood. These shreds of gossip returned to Nellie now with a crude interest, and she began to believe in the theory of fire being behind smoke. She also remembered the night of the mass meeting in the Odd Fellows Hall when Code had made his suggestion of going to the banks. There had flashed between Elsa's velvet-dark eyes and Codes' blue ones, a message of intimacy of which the town had

Starting point is 03:16:58 the town knew nothing. Everyone saw the look, and nearly everyone talked about it. But they did not know that, only a couple of nights before, Elsa had been the one to put coat on guard against his enemies, and that he was more than grateful. I'd just like to know what's in that letter so as to tease him the next time we meet, she said gaily to herself. She was now out of all mood for writing her letter home,

Starting point is 03:17:30 and, stuffing the contents of the drawer back into place, she returned the ladder to the table and went on deck. The sea was running higher. The new top mist was up, and within half an hour, the Roseanne healed to the wind and plowed her way northward after the remainder of the fleet. End of Chapter 14. Recording by Roger Maline.

Starting point is 03:18:06 Chapter 15 of the Harbor of Doubt. this librivox recording is in the public domain recording by roger maline the harbor of doubt by frank williams chapter fifteen the catch of the rosanne at the forecastle head of the rosanne stood a youth tolling the ship's bell the windlass grunted and whined as the schooner came up on her hawser with a thump and overhead a useless jib slatted and rattled the youth could scarcely see aft of the formist because of the thickness of the weather but he could hear what was going on there was a thump a slimy slapping of wet fish and a voice counting monotonously as its owner forked his forenoon's catch into the pen amid ships forty-nine said the voice all right boys swing her in and a moment later the dory hauled high dropped down into her nest immediately there was a slight bump against the side of the schooner and the slapping and counting would begin again eighty-seven and high line at that said the next man i'll bet that's the only halibut on the banks and he's two hundred if he's an ounce the great flat fish was raised to the deck by means of the topping-hall that swung in the dories by jonah tanner who stood by the pen watching the silver stream as it flowed over the side into the pen musted his beard and shook his head

Starting point is 03:19:55 the fish were fair but not what should be expected at this time a year he would sail along to another favorable anchorage this was his first day on the banks and two days after nilly discovery of Elsa's packet. It was only noon, but by Jonah was speculating, and when he saw the fog bank coming, he refused to run any risk with his men and recalled them to the schooner by firing a shotgun, until they all replied to the signal by raising one oar upright. It must not be thought that it was the fog that induced by Jonah to do this.

Starting point is 03:20:38 Doryman almost always fitted. when a fog comes down and trust to their good fortune in finding the schooner by jonah wanted to look over the morning's catch and get in tune with the millions under his keel by the time the last dory was in the pile of fish in the pen looked like a heap of molten silver the men stretched themselves after their cramped quarters and greeted the cook's announcement with delight you feller's fixed tables for dressing down while the fuss half mugs up said tanner everybody lively now i calculate to move just a little bit the bottom here don't suit me yet he went down from the poop and walked the deck listening between clangings of the bell for any sound of an approaching vessel the crew worked swiftly at dressing and salting the catch haul up anchor he ordered when the work was done the watch laid hold the windlass poles and hauled the vessel forward directly above her hook then there was a concerted heave and the ground tackle broke loose and came up with a rush under headsails and riding sail the rosanne swung into the light air that stirred the fog and began to crawl forward while the men were still cat-heading the anchor the youth who had been ringing the bell now substituted the patent fog-horn as marine law requires when vessels are under way with his eyes on the compass turner guided the ship himself

Starting point is 03:22:24 they seemed to move through an endless gray world for an hour they sailed the only sounds being the flap of the canvas the creaking of the tiller ropes and the drip of the fog tanner was about to give the word to let go the anchor when without warning they suddenly burst clear of the fog and came out into the vast gray welter of the open sea tanner suddenly straightened up and slipping the wheels swiftly into the becket he ran to the taffrail and looked over the side good god he cried what's this not fifty feet away lay a blue dory heavy and loggy with water and in the bottom the unconscious figure of a man a second look at the face of the man and tanner cried wheelin and markle overside with the starboard dory here's code schofield adrift lively now there was a rush aft but tanner met the crew and drove them to the nested boats amid ships over i say he roared the men obeyed him and weelan and markle were soon pulling madly to the blue dory astern when they reached it one man clambered to the man clambered to the bow and cut the drag rope that code in his extremity had thrown over nearly two days before then fastening the short painter to athwart on their own craft they hauled the blue dory and its contents alongside the rosam code schofield lay with his eyes closed pale as wax and seemingly dead in his right hand he still gripped convulsively the baling

Starting point is 03:24:24 can he had used until consciousness left him. Man, boat, and all, the dory was hauled up and let gently down on the deck. Then the eager hands lifted Schofield from the water and laid him on the oiled boards. Take him into my cabin, ordered Tanner. Johnson, bring hot water and rags. Cookie, make some strong soup. If there's any life in him, we'll be. Bring it back. On the jump there.

Starting point is 03:24:59 Well, said one man, when code had been carried below, I thought my halibut was high line today, but the skipper beat me out in the end. End of Chapter 15. Recording by Roger Maline. Chapter 16 of the Harbor of Doubt. The Sliberbox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Roger Maline.

Starting point is 03:25:32 The Harbour of Doubt by Frank Williams Chapter 16 A Staggering Blow Here is something my father just asked me to give you Nellie held out to Cod the packet that she had discovered in the skipper's drawer several days before. Code seated on the roof of the cabin in the only loose chair aboard the Roseanne and wrapped in blankets took the sealed bundle, curiously. He looked at the round, feminine handwriting across the envelope, and failed to evince any flash of guilt or intelligence. It was three days after Codes' rescue by the Roseanne,

Starting point is 03:26:20 and the first that he had felt any of his old strength coming back to him. For the first twenty-four hours after being revived he did nothing but sleep, and awoke to find Nellie Tanner beside. his bunk nursing him since then it had been merely a matter of patience until his exhausted body had recuperated from the shock for once nellie had command of the rosanne and everything stood aside for her patient the delicacies that issued from the galley after she had occupied at an hour and that went directly to code almost had the result of inciting a mutiny among all hands, terms of settlement being the retirement of the old cook and installation of this new find. Code ripped open the packet. He stared in amazement at the yellow bills. Then he discovered the letter and began to read it. Despite the healthy red of his weather-beaten face, a tide of color surged up over it. nellie turned her head away and looked over the oily gray sea to where the men of the rosanne were toiling in their dories in the distance there was a sail here and there for the rosanne was slowly overhauling the fleet from frekirk head

Starting point is 03:27:49 code stole a swift glance at her and forgot to read his letter as he studied the fresh roundness and beauty of her face he vaguely felt that there was a reserved manner between them the letter is from mrs mallaby he said yes that's interesting the girl's cool level eyes met his and he blushed again she has a good heart he stumbled on and always thinks of others yes she has agreed the girl without enthusiasm and code dropped the subject how did your father happen to have this for me he asked after a pause well you know you surprised everybody by leaving the head before the rest of the fleet elsa had it in mind to give you this packet she says before you left but when you went so suddenly she asked father to give it to you she said she expected the rosanne would catch the lass on the banks at least this is the yarn dad told me she seems to know considerable about the banks and the ways of fishermen he said with an unconscious ring of enthusiasm in his tone yes you'd think she pulled her own dory instead of being the richest woman in new brunswick code looked at his old sweetheart in amazement he had never seen her so disagreeable his eye fell upon her left hand for a moment his mind did not register an impression then all of a sudden it flashed upon him that her ring was gone

Starting point is 03:29:43 oh that explains everything he said to himself she has either lost it or quarrelled with nat and it's no wonder she is unhappy nellie was saying to herself the letter must have been very personal or he would have told me about it he never acted like this before there is something between them suddenly a stern of them sounded the flap of sails rattle of blocks and shouted orders they turned in time to see a schooner come up into the wind all standing she was clothed in canvas from head to foot with a balloon jib and stasel added and made her position less than a hundred yards away schofield gazed at the schooner curiously then he's then he leaned forward his eyes alight there were certain points about her that were familiar with a fisherman's skill he had catalogued her every point he looked at the trail-board along her bows and where the name should have been there was a blank painted-out space it was the mystery schooner once more all the fears that it assailed code's mind at her first appearance returned he was certain that there was mischief in this but he sat quiet as the vessel drifted down upon the anchored rosam as he looked her over his eyes were drawn aloft to a series of wires strung between her topmasts other wires ran down the foremast to a little cubbyage

Starting point is 03:31:34 just after it. By the great squid, they've got wireless, he said. This beats me. At fifty yards, the familiar man with the enormous megaphone made his appearance. Ahoy there! he roared. Anyone aboard the Roseanne scene or heard anything of Captain Codd Schofield? Of the Grand Mignon schooner charming lass? "'Code rose out of his chair,

Starting point is 03:32:07 "'took off his hat ironically, "'and swung it before him as he made a low bow. "'At your service!' he shouted. "'I was picked up three days ago, adrift in my dory. "'What do you want with me?' "'This sudden avowal created a half panic "'aboard the mysterious schooner, "'and the man astern exchanged his megaphone

Starting point is 03:32:31 "'for field glasses. After a long scrutiny, he went back to the megaphone. Congratulations, Captain, came the bellow. When are you going to rejoin the lass? As soon as the Roseanne catches her, replied Code, and then, exasperated by the unexpected maneuvers of this remarkable vessel, he cried, Who are you, and what do you want that you chase me all over the sea?

Starting point is 03:33:04 instantly the man put down the megaphone and gave orders to the crew and in five minutes she was on her way north into the very heart of the fleet i don't know who she is or why she is or who is aboard her he told nellie after recounting to her the previous visitation of the schooner she reminds me of a nervous old hen keeping track of a stray chick pretty soon i won't be able to curse the weather without being afraid my guardian will hear me i say guardian and yet i don't know whether she is friendly or merely fixing up some calamity to break all at once you know i have enemies she may be working for them the girl could offer no solution nor could by jonah tanner who had witnessed the incident from the forecastle-head where he was smoking and anticipating the wishes of the cod beneath him he had walked aft and the three discussed the mystery ever see her before captain asked code if there was any man who knew schooners that had fished the banks or the bay of fundy it was by jonah tanner don't calculate i ever did i've never saw just that set to a foregaff nor just that cut of a jumbo jib before. Tanner watched the schooner as she scudded away.

Starting point is 03:34:41 Mighty big hurry, I allow, he remarked. But, Jiminy, doesn't she sail? There ain't hardly an air of wind stirring, and yet look at her go. She's a mighty, able vessel. It was about four o'clock the next afternoon that the Roseanne crept up in the middle of the fishing fleet. she had made a long berth over night dressed in excellent morning's catch and knocked off half a day because by jonah did not feel it right to keep code longer away from his vessel and tanner managed the thing with a good eye to the dramatic when he reached the rear guard of the fleet he began to work his vessel gracefully in and out among the sloops and schooners

Starting point is 03:35:32 code seated in his chair on the cabin roof did not realize what was going on until the triumphal procession was well under way through the fleet they went a fleet that was wearing crape for him and from every vessel received a volley of cheers the charming lass greeted him with open arms pete ellenwood swung him up from the transferring dory with a great bellow of dory with a great bellow of delight, and he was passed along the line until battered, joyous, and radiant, he arrived exhausted by the wheel, where he sat down. When they all had drunk to the reunion from a rare old bottle, heavily cobwebbed, Code told his story. Then, while the men dressed down, he walked about, looking things over and counting the crew on his fingers. pete he called suddenly and the mate left the fish pen where's erie duncan well skipper i didn't want to tell you for fear you had enough on your mind already but arry never come back the same day you was lost my god another one i wondered how many would get caught that day and that ain't all he had your motor dory one-and that ain't all he had your motor-dory one with him, the one you caught us with out of Castalia.

Starting point is 03:37:07 How did he have that? I gave orders. The mortar dories weren't to be used. Well, cookie and the boy, they was the only ones aboard. Tell it this way. Erie, he struck a heavy school first time he lets his dory rodden go, and most of his fish topped forty pound in an hour his dory was full and it was a three-mile pull back when he got in he argued them others into giving him the motor dory cause it holds so much more they helped him swing it over and that's the last they see of him but if he had an engine you'd think he could have made it back here or run foul of somebody or somethin yes you would think so but he didn't the more peace to him was ellenwood's reply the poor feller said code i'm sorry for his wife anything else happened while i was gone pete now let me think the mate scratched his head. Oh, yes! Curse me! I nearly forgot it! You know that queer schooner that chased us down one day and asked the fool questions about you?

Starting point is 03:38:32 Yes, I saw that same schooner again yesterday. She asked more fool questions. You did, cried Ellenwood in amazement. I didn't see her, but I heard her, and I got a message from her, you. It was night when they come up on us and hailed. They said they had news of you, and would we send a dory over? Would we? They was about six over in as many minutes, but they wouldn't let us aboard. No, sir, kept us off with poles, and asked for me. When I got in close, they told me the Roseanne had found you, and handed me an up. envelope with a message inside of it.

Starting point is 03:39:21 Just as I was going away, there came the most awful clicking and flashing amid ships I ever saw. Wireless, said Code. Well, I've heard of it, but I never see it before. And I come away as quick as I could. And the message? asked Code, curiously. pete laboriously unpinned a waistcoat pocket and produced an envelope which he handed to code it was sealed and the skipper tore away the end the mystery and interest of the thing played upon his mind until he was in a tremble of nervous excitement at last he would know what the schooner was and why eagerly he opened the message it was typewritten on absolutely plain paper and unsigned further baffling his curiosity after a moment he read captain schofield

Starting point is 03:40:29 yesterday at st andrews suit was filed against you for murder in the first degree upon the person of michael burns late of frekirk head grande mignon island plaintiff nathaniel burns son of the deceased there is an order out for your arrest this is a friendly warning and no more you are now for armed end of chapter sixteen recording by roger maline chapter seventeen of the harbor of doubt this librovoc's recording is in the public domain recording by roger maline the harbor of doubt by frank williams chapter seventeen trawlers schofield stood as one stupefied staring blankly at the fateful words murder in the first degree had it not been for his thorough knowledge of nat burns's character he would have laughed at the absurdity of the thing and thrown the message over the side but now he remained like one fast in the clutch of some horrible nightmare unable to reason unable to think coherently unable to do anything but attempt to sound the depths of the hatred such as this for heaven's sake what is it skipper asked ellenwood code passed the message to his mate without a word his men might as well know the worst at once ellenwood read slowly rot he snarled in his great rumbling voice murder how does he get murder out of it

Starting point is 03:42:32 if i sank the old may schofield for her insurance money which is what every one believes then i deliberately caused the death of the men with me didn't i pete this is a pretty serious thing i didn't care when they set the insurance money i didn't care when they set the insurance company on me, but this is different. If it goes beyond this stage, I will carry the disgrace of jail and a trial all my life. That devil has nearly finished me." Codes' voice broke, and the tears of helpless rage smarted in his eyes. "'Steady on now,' counseled Pete, looking with pity at the young Skipper he worshipped. "'He's done for you true this time.' but the end of things is a tarnel long ways off yet, and don't you go losing your spunk. But what have I ever done to him that he should start this against me? cried Schofield.

Starting point is 03:43:35 Pete could not answer. What do they do when a man is accused of murder? asked Codd. Why, arrest him, I guess. Pete scratched his chin reminiscently. there was that bulwer case he recounted it in detail yes he went on they can't do nothin until the man accused is arrested after that he gets a preliminary hearing and if things seem plain enough then the grand jury indicts him after that he's tried by a regular jury so the first thing they've got to do is arrest you darn it they shan't i'll sail to africa first snarled code his eyes blazing he strode up and down the deck you say the word skipper rumbled pete loyally and we crack on every stitch for the north pole code smiled curse me if i don't like to see a man smile when he's in trouble announced pete roundly

Starting point is 03:44:49 skipper you'll do you're young and these things come hard but i calculate we'll drop all this talk about sailing away to foreign parts now there's just two courses left for you to sail either we go on fishing and dodge the gunboat that brings the officer after you or we go on fishing and let him get you when he comes i'll stand by you either way you've got you your mother to support, God bless her, and you've got a right to fill your hold with fish, so she can live when they're sold. That's one way of looking at it. The other's plain sailing. No, Pete, this is too serious. I guess the mother'll have to suffer this time, too. If they send a man after me, I'll be here and I'll go back and take my medicine. I'll make you Skipper, and you can select your mate. You'll get a Skipper's share, and you can pay Mother the regular amount for hiring the lass.

Starting point is 03:45:59 She'll get Skipper's share, if I have to lick every hand aboard, growled Ellenwood, and you can rest easy on that. That's fine, said Code gently. And I don't know what I'd do without you, Pete. you ain't supposed to do without me what in thunder do you suppose i shipped with you fur if it wasn't to look after you eh the men had finished dressing down and were cleaning up the decks several of them noticing that something momentous was being discussed were edging nearer pete observed this skipper he said we've got four or five shots of trawl line to pick suppose you and I go out and do the job. Then we can talk in peace. Feel able? Never better in my life. Get my dory over. That blue one? Never again. That's bad luck for you. Take mine. All right, anything you say.

Starting point is 03:47:10 Several hands made the dory ready. Into it they put three or four tubs or half. half casks, in which was coiled hundreds of fathoms of stout line furnished with a strong hook every two or three feet. Each hook was baited with a fat salt clam, for the early catch of squid had been exhausted by the dory fishing. There was also a fresh tub of bait, boyes, and a lantern. A youth aboard clambered up to the cross trees, gave them the direction of the trawl buoy light, and they started. It was a clear starlit night with only a gentle sea running and no wind to speak of. There was not a hint of fog. The charming lass lay now in the Atlantic approximately along the 46th parallel, near its intersection with the 55th of Meridian, or 80 to a hundred miles southwest of Cape Race, Newfoundland,

Starting point is 03:48:15 and almost in equal distance southeast of the Mickelan Island, France's sole remaining territorial possession in the new world. Cod and Ellenwood easily found their trawl boy by the glimmer of the light across the water. They immediately began to plant the trawl lines in the tubs aboard the dory. The big boy for the end of the line they first anchored to the bottom with dory-roading. then as ellenwood rode slowly code paid the baited trawl line out of the tubs as there are hooks every few feet so are their big wooden buoys so that the whole length of the line sometimes twenty five hundred feet is floated near the surface when the last had been paid out a second anchor and large buoy was fixed and their trawl was set

Starting point is 03:49:15 next they turned their attention to picking the trawl already in the water as the line came over the starboard gunwale coad picked the fish off the hooks passing the hooks to pete who baited them and threw them over the port gunwale thus they would work their way along the whole of the line many of the hooks that came to code's hands still had the bait with which they were set must be the bait he told ellenwood the fish won't touch it this is no catch for five shots of trawl but pete could not cast any light on the subject it was certainly true that the catch from the trawl line was small enough to be remarkable but the men were helpless to explain the reason for two hours they worked along the great line there's a bare chance that the message from the unknown schooner might be a fake although i can't imagine why said code as they were returning but if it is not and the canadian gunboat comes after me she'll find me here willing to go back to st andrews and answer all charges no escape and no dodging this time and let me tell you something pete if nothing comes out of this-and-of-this one-and-a-oh you something pete if nothing comes out of this except ugly rumor that I have to suffer for, I'm going to quit minding my own business, and I'll dig up something that'll drive Nat Burns out of Freakirk Head forever.

Starting point is 03:50:54 A man of his character and nature has certainly got something he doesn't want known, and I shall bring it to light and make it so public that he'll wish he had never heard the name Schofield. By heaven, I've reached the end of my patience. if there was anything pete ellenwood loved it was a fight and at this declaration of war he roared encouragement you'll do skipper you'll do get after him climb his frame put him out of business and let me help you that's all i want everything in good time pete grinned code first we've got to find out how much of this is in the wind and how much is not arrived at the schooner they pitched their fish into the pen for the first watch to dress and rolled aft for the night code took off his coat and drew forth a packet that elsa had given him looked at it for a moment and threw it upon the table why in time did she send me that he asked himself his voice very near disgust it must have looked mighty strange to nell for me to be getting money from elsa malaby he stopped short in the midst of pulling off one boot the idea had never struck him forcibly before now it seemed evident that nellie's reserve might have been due to the letter

Starting point is 03:52:32 what a fool i was not to tell her about it he cried with one boot off he reached across to the packet under the swinging lamp and drew the letter out of it and read dear partner here is something that captain by jona will hand to you when he catches the lass there are supposed to be one hundred and fifty dollars in this packet i never was much of a counter as you know now dear friend this isn't all for you unless you need it it is simply a small reserve fund for the men of the fleet if they should need anything a new gaff for instance or a jib or grub it isn't much but you never can tell when it might come in handy it was your good scheme that sent the men off fishing and you left the way open for me to do my little part here at the head now i want to do just this much more for the sailors of the fleet and i am asking you to be my treasurer when you hear of a needy case just give him what you think he needs and say it is a loan from me if he won't take a gift if this is a trouble to you i am sorry but we are all working for the good name and the good times of grandmignon and i hope you won't mind good fishing to the charming lass high line and topping full may you wet your salt early and come home again to those who are longing to see you this is all done on the spur of the moment so i have no time to ask your mother to enclose a line but i know she sends her love it has been a little hard for her here since you left bless her heart but she has been as brave as a soldier and helped me very much we see a great deal of each other we see a great deal of each other

Starting point is 03:54:38 and you can rest assured, I shall look after her. Always, your old friend, Elsa! As Code read the last paragraph, his eyes softened. It was white of Elsa to look after his mother, particularly now when there would be much for her to face regarding himself. And it was white of her to send the money for the sailors of the fleet. Even she did not know, as Code did, how nearly destitute some of the dorymen were.

Starting point is 03:55:13 He would be glad to do what little work there might be in dispersing the sum. Sorry, Nellie didn't seem interested when I began to talk about Elsa, he said to himself. I suppose I should have told her anyway, so there wouldn't be any misunderstanding. Well, I'll do it next time. He turned the lamp low and rolled into his bunk. End of Chapter 17. Recording by Roger Maline. Chapter 18 of the Harbor of Doubt.

Starting point is 03:55:55 This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Roger Maline. The Harbor of Doubt by Frank Williams. Chapter 18. Treachery. Next morning at breakfast, about four o'clock, Code told his crew the situation. He knew his men thoroughly, and,

Starting point is 03:56:17 and had been friends with most of them all his life. There's likely to be trouble, and I may be taken away, but if that happens, Pete will tell you what to do. Don't sight swallowtail until your salt is all wet. Bring home a topping load, and you'll share topping. Code did not go out that morning. Instead, he tried to shake off his troubles long enough to study the fish, which was his job on the charming lass.

Starting point is 03:56:50 While not a by Jonah Tanner, code bade fair to be his equal at by Jonah's age. He came of a father with an instinct for fish, and he had inherited that instinct fully. Under Jasper he had learned much, but it was another matter to have someone on hand to read the signs, rather than being cast upon his own resources.

Starting point is 03:57:14 The fish, from the trawl line and Pete's reports of dory work, had been running rather big. This pleased him, but he knew it could not last, and he sat with his old charts spread out before him on the deck, a chart edged with his father's valuable penciled notes. Suddenly, while in the almost subconscious state that he achieved one very fishy, the persistent voice of the cook broke through the wall of unconsciousness. Smoke on the port quarter, Skipper! Smoke on the port quarter, Skipper! The phrase came with persistent repetition

Starting point is 03:57:54 until Code was fully alive to its meaning and glanced over his left shoulder. About the line of dark blue that was the ocean and in the light blue that was the sky was etched a tree-shaped brown smudge. steamer smudges were not an unusual sight for not fifty miles east was the northern track of the great ocean steamers a track which they were gradually approaching as they made their berths but a steamer smudge over the port quarter with the lass's bow headed due north was an entirely different thing code went below and brought up an ancient fire-arm this he discharged while the cook ran a trawl tub to the truck it was the prearranged signal for pete ellenwood to come in as code waited he had no doubt that smoke was from a revenue cutter or cruiser from halifax with his arrest warrant

Starting point is 03:58:56 there was a stiff westerly breeze and code glancing up at the cloud formations saw that there would be a beautiful racing half gale on by noon what a chance to run for it he thought but resolutely put the idea from his mind pete came in with a scowl on his face cursing everything under the sun and especially a fisherman's life when told of the smoke smudge he evinced comparatively little interest we'll find out what she is when she gets here what i'd like to know is what's the matter with our bait bait gone wrong again asked code anxiously his brows knitting that stuff on the trawl wasn't the only bad bait then no everybody's complaining this morning not only can't catch fish but you can't hardly string the stuff on the hooks and that ain't all it has a funny smell that i never found in any other clam bait i ever used why what's the matter with your hands pete cried code pointing ellenwood had removed his nippers and the skin of his fingers and palms was a queer white and beginning to shred off as if immersed long in hot white water. By the great sain, rumbled the mate, looking at his hands in consternation. Code made a trumpet of his hands. Here, Cookie, roll up a tub of that bait, lively. I want to look

Starting point is 04:00:38 at it, and fetch the hammer. A suspicion based upon a long-forgotten fact had suddenly leaped into his mind. When the cook hove the tub of bait on deck, Code knocked. off the top boards with the hammer and dipped up a handful of the clams. Instead of the firm, fat shellfish that should have been in the clean brine, he found them loose and rotten. This time he himself detected a faint, acrid odor, quite different from the usual clean, salty smell. Again, he dipped to make sure the whole tub was ruined. Then he looked at Ellenwood in despair. "'It's acid, Pete,' he said.

Starting point is 04:01:27 "'My father told me about this sort of thing being done sometimes "'in a close race among bankers for the last load of fish. "'If they're all like this, we're done for until we can get more.' Ellenwood looked at him in amazement, his jaw sagging. "'Well, who in thunder would do this?' code laughed bitterly there's only one man i can think of and that is the fellow who got my motor dory under false pretences you remember how he made the cook and the boy help him get it over the side well her gasoline tank was full and her batteries new she was ready to go two hundred miles on a minute's notice but why should he do that oh think pete think don't you remember he's one of the men i went up to castelia to get the time that lawyer came to free kirk head and he's the only man in the whole crew i don't know well

Starting point is 04:02:34 i see it all now he sent me a note the night before asking to ship on the lass and i went to get him before any of the other skippers got wind of it you don't suppose he did this thing on his own account do you easy skipper easy what's he got against you he's got nothing against me cried code passionately but he is working for the man who has do you think that stupid ox would have sense enough to work a scheme like this never nat burns is behind this and i'll bet my schooner on it scoffield dumped the bait tub over the deck and rolled it around examining it suddenly he stopped and peered closely look here he cried here's proof with a splitting knife that he snatched out of a cleat he pried loose a tiny plug in one at the bottom boards that had been replaced so carefully that it almost defied detection the whole thing is simple enough he turned the tub upside down cut out this plug and inserted the acid then he refitted the plug and set it right side up again it's as plain as the nose on your face by thunder i believe you're right skipper said ellenwood solemnly the dirty dog cookie run that tub up to the truck again we'll have to call the men in on this oh he was foxy that one said code bitterly going out in the fog that way so all hands would think he was lost

Starting point is 04:04:28 i never remembered until this minute that the motor dory could be run i guess she went all right and that scoundrel is ashore by this time had a bad name in castelia didn't he oh a little more or less that i heard of but what's that and a fisherman when the men come in have them go through all the bait pete fired the old rifle and the crew at work began to pull in through the choppy sea hello cried the mate looking behind him there's something goin to be doing here in a minute it's the cutter from halifax all right code his former danger forgotten for the time glanced up the smudge of smoke had quickly resolved itself into a stubby gray steam vessel with a few bright brass guns forward and a black cloud belching from her funnel she was still some five miles away but apparently coming at top speed three miles before her with all sails set including stasel and balloon job raced a fishing schooner there was a fresh ten-knot wind blowing a little south of west a wind that favored the schooner and she was putting her best foot forward taking the green water over her bows and a smother of foam Heavens! Look at her go!' The exclamation was one of pure delight in the speed.

Starting point is 04:06:08 "'Maybe she's an American that's been caught inside the three-mile limit and is pulling away from the gunboat,' remarked Pete. That she was pulling away there was little doubt. In the fifteen minutes that elapsed after her discovery she had widened the gap between herself and her pursuer. She was now within a mile of the lass. Why doesn't she shoot? As Codes spoke, a puff of white smoke thrust out from the blunt boughs of the cutter,

Starting point is 04:06:43 and the ball ricocheted from wavetop to wavetop to fall half a mile astern of the schooner. Out of range now, and if the wind holds, she'll be out of sight, by nightfall said pete who was moved to great excitement and enthusiasm by the contest wonder who she is he plunged down to the companionway to the cabin and emerged a moment later with code's powerful glasses but code did not need any glasses to tell him who she was his eye had picked out her points before this and the only thing that interested him was the fact that he had been her wireless was down. It was the mysterious schooner. He had never seen her equal for traveling, and he knew that she must be making a good fourteen knots, for the cutter was capable of twelve. She had reached her closest point of contact with Codes' vessel, and had begun to bear away when Pete leveled his glasses. It was on Schofield's tongue to reveal the identity of the pursuit,

Starting point is 04:07:55 when Ellenwood yelled, "'Good heavens! Skipper! She has Charmin'Lass printed in new gold letters under her counter.' "'What?' "'As I live, Cod, Charmin Lass, as plain as day. "'What's happening here today? What is this?'

Starting point is 04:08:19 Cod snatched the glasses from Pete's hand, and then level them, trembling at the flying skis. gooner. For time the foam and whirl of her wake obscured matters, but all at once, as she plunged down into a great hollow between waves, her stern came clear and pointed to heaven. There, in bright letters that glinted in the sun and were easily visible at a much greater distance, was printed the name, charming lass of Freakirk Head No wonder she's going, yelled Pete, almost beside himself with excitement. No wonder she's going, but let her go.

Starting point is 04:09:05 More power to her. Yeah. Code stood with the glasses to his eyes and watched the mysterious schooner and the pursuing vessel disappear. End of Chapter 18. recording by roger maline chapter nineteen of the harbor of doubt this liverbox recording is in the public domain recording by roger maline the harbor of doubt by frank williams chapter nineteen ellenwood takes a hand there were two things for code to do one was to sail north into placentia bay newfoundland set sains and and catch the herring that were then schooling the other was to run sixty miles or so north-east to st pier michelon and by bait under ordinary circumstances he would not have hesitated it would have been placentia bay without question but his situation was now decidedly out of the ordinary he was in a hurry to fill his hold with cod before the other men out of freekirk head

Starting point is 04:10:27 first for the larger prices he would get and secondly because he yearned to come to grapples with nat burns to seine for herring would lose him upward of a week to buy it would take less than three days including the round trip to st pierre but the money code knew that in the french island herring seldom went below three dollars a barrel and that the sum of the money code knew that in the french island herring seldom went below three dollars a barrel and that the smallest amount he ought to buy would be twenty-five barrels later on if the fishing was good he might send out a party to set the sains but not now he must buy but the money then he thought of the packet of money elsa malaby had sent him the cash was meant for any sailor who came to need it and the men with him were willing to fight to the last ditch and to take their lot ungrumblingly as fishermen early learned to do if he starved they starved so he decided he would not hesitate to use elsie's money when a dozen men and their families were dependent upon him and the success of the crews thus the matter was settled and the order roared down the decks said every stitch for st pierre we're going to bathe up there lively now st pierre michelon is one of the quaintest towns in all of picturesque french canada it is on the island of the same name there are three michelon islands which is in itself a bold chunk of granite sticking up out of the ocean at its island of the same name there are three michelon islands which is in itself a bold chunk of granite sticking up out of the ocean at its ocean at its island

Starting point is 04:12:15 distance of some ten miles southwest of may point newfoundland rough and craggy with few trees sparse vegetation and a very thin coating of soil there is no agriculture and the whole glory of the island is centered in the roaring city on its southeast side it is a strange city lost in the midst of busy up-to-date canada with french roofs narrow tilting streets and ever the smell of fish there is a good harbor and there are wharfs where black-faced men with blue stockings caps and gold earrings chatter the patois and smoke their pipes in the busy time of year there are ten thousand men in the town and it is a scene of constant revelry and wildness the charming lass touched the port at the height of it season, early September, and because of the shallowness of the harbor close in, anchored in the bay amid a crowd of old high-pooped schooners, filled with noisy, happy Frenchmen. There were other nationalities, too, in the Cosmopolitan Bay, Americans setting a new spar, or Nova Scotians in on a good time.

Starting point is 04:13:40 The charming lass cast her anchor shortly before six o'clock, having made the run in five and a half hours with a good breeze behind code and ellenwood immediately went over the side in the brown dory of the mate and pulled for the custom-house wharf the rest of the crew were forbidden off the decks except to sleep under them for it was intended as soon as the bait was lighter aboard to make sail to the banks again the bait industry in st pierre is one more or less open to examination it is the delight of certain french dealers to go inside the english three-mile limit load their vessels with barrels of herring and return to st pierre here they sell them at magnificent profit to frenchmen englishmen and americans and as the british coat of arms is not stamped on herring as the british coat of arms is not stamped on herring as birth no one can prove that they were not legally procured but let a canadian revenue cutter catch a frenchman or american either for that matter dipping herring in any out-of-the-way inlet and the owner not only pays a heavy fine but he often loses his schooner and his men go to jail for trying to hoist sail and escape at the last minute code had not reached shore before he had been a costed by fully half a dozen of these bait pirates but he passed them and tying his dory at the wharf went up on the street to a legitimate firm immediately the business was finished code and pete ellenwood started back to the wharf the main street was ablaze with lights cafes saloons music halls catchpenny places in fact every

Starting point is 04:15:42 device known to separate sailors from their wages was in operation. The sidewalks were crowded with men, jabbering madly in their different dialects of their home provinces, for many come here from France yearly. "'Queer lot, these frog-eaters,' said Pete, going into the street so as to avoid a thick, pushing crowd. "'Yes, they would come to a knifing over a count of fish, and yet give their schooners to a friend in trouble. Too bad they ain't better fishermen. Yeah, ain't it? Among Canadians and Americans, the Frenchmen are held in contempt on account of their hooks, which are of soft metal and can be re-bent and used again.

Starting point is 04:16:33 The fish often get away with them, however, and these hidden hooks slit many a finger in dressing down. The two comrades loitered along, watching the changing crowds, gay with their colored caps and scarfs. Some men were already in liquor, and all seemed to be headed in that general direction. Suddenly, as Cod was about to urge Pete along, he gave an exclamation and stopped short. "'What's the matter, Skipper?' "'I wonder where he is now.' code's eyes were searching the crowd i saw him right over there he pointed to a certain spot who what are you crazy code erie duncan the traitor that ruined our bait i'd have sworn i saw him it came all of a sudden and went away again but i guess it couldn't have been anything but a close resemblance he

Starting point is 04:17:41 he laughed nervously gave me the creeps for a minute though lord shivered pete who had all the superstitions of the sea at his fingers ends maybe he's chasing us around for wrongly accusing em they do that sometimes you know he's probably dead and that's his spirit hauntin us oh rot pete growled code in his most force manner come along now or you'll be sidling into one of these doors and the lass won't get out of port for a week my soul and body look at that frenchie biggest i ever saw code they had returned to the sidewalk and pete forgot that he himself rose fully as high above the crowds as this stranger in fact nearly every one turned to take a look at the huge eye Islander, who, in reality, stood six feet four, barefoot. They were pushing down street against the tide and making rather heavy going of it. Code maneuvered so as to pass well to leeward of the big man,

Starting point is 04:18:58 who he could see plainly, was just tipsy. But somehow the eyes of the two giants met, and the Frenchman seemed to crush his way through the crowd in Ellenwood's direction. come on pete get out of here before there's any trouble commanded code he knew the mate's weakness for fighting the big frenchman who wore tremendous earrings a bright scarlet cap with a blue tuft and a gay sash lurched through the crowd and against pete ellenwood with a malice only too plain but his effort was attended with failure not only did pete stand like a rock but he thrust the other violently back with his shoulder so that he recoiled upon those behind him earning their loud-voiced curses miltoner bellowed the frenchman you insult me cauchon canadienne canadian canadian pig the half of sidewalk is mine eh you push me off eh you fight eh eh eh

Starting point is 04:20:10 code urged ellenwood along and interceded personally knowing that the big man would not touch him but the frenchman would not be appeased he was just drunk enough to become obsessed with the ugly idea that pete had laid a trap to insult him and regardless of code kept after the mate by this time of course a huge crowd had gathered and was following pete's retreat yelling to both men to fight it out many of the mob knew a few english words and their taunts reached ellenwood's ears he and code had not entreated a block before the mate suddenly swung around on his tormentors i won't stand for that code did you hear what that big devil called me he demanded What do you care what he called you? Get along to the ship. What chance have we got with these men? Code grabbed Pete's arm and kept him moving away. Beneath his hand, he could feel the muscles as hard as iron. But every foot the Canadians retreated brought the big Frenchman nearer, bawling with triumph. At an opportune moment, so close was the person.

Starting point is 04:21:33 press, he slipped his foot between Ellenwood's legs and gave him a push. Pete stumbled, almost fell, and recovered himself, raging. Get back, you, he bawled, sending half a dozen men spinning with sweeps of his great arms. I'll fight this Frenchie. Just let me at him. Code saw the rage in Pete's eyes and recognized that he could do nothing more. to avert the trouble. His part would have to be confined to seeing that his man got a fair deal. He and Pete were unarmed, except for their huge clasped knives, much better kept out of sight under the circumstances. The crowd fell back, and the two giants stripped off their coats and shirts.

Starting point is 04:22:27 The Frenchman danced up and down, beating his great fists together in a fine frenzy, but Pete pete half crouched stepped forward on his toes his hands hanging loose and ready at his sides allay don't it was the starting word and jean leaped in pete met him with a crashing right to the ribs and dodged out of reach of the clutching hands that reached for his throat they circled around a moment and again the frenchman came this time in one great leap on the instant ellenwood jumped in to meet him there was a swift flying of arms a pounding of the great fists and pete suddenly shot back from the millet and landed on his back in the dirt one of the frenchman's great swings had landed but he was up in an instant and went after his opponent again jean saw now that he had another man to deal with unlike a frenchman's great swings had landed but he was up in an instant and went after his opponent again jean saw now that he had another man to deal with unlike a frenchman an anglo-saxon cannot fight without sufficient provocation now all the battle was aroused in ellenwood for aside from the shame of his downfall the crowd was yelling at the top of its voice jean began to run away circling round and round the ring of spectators pete after him suddenly he made a stand but the mate was ready for him dodging the straight left pete hurled himself forward and seized the burly frenchman in his arms then with a tug and a wrench as though he were uprooting a tree he lifted his opponent and crashed him down to the earth

Starting point is 04:24:19 jean stunned and with a broken arm sought to get up he gained his feet and game to the last staggered toward ellenwood pete started to run in again but some one on the edge of the crowd thrust a foot out and the big islander stumbled code saw the man who interfered and his blood boiling leaped for him at the same instant there came a cry of police police but code did not hesitate he plunged into the crowd after his man and in an instant found himself surrounded and fighting the whole mob. For a moment it lasted. There was a rain of heavy blows that blinded him, and then something that was hard and dull struck him on the head. Everything began to whirl,

Starting point is 04:25:19 and he found he could not lift his arms. Dimly he heard a voice near him shout, "'This way!' in English, and felt himself gathered up by men and borne swiftly away. Then consciousness left him. End of Chapter 19. Recording by Roger Maline.

Starting point is 04:25:50 Chapter 20 of the Harbor of Doubt. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Roger Maline. The Harbor of Doubt by Frank Williams. Chapter 20. Among the Home Folks. The village of Freakirk Head was a changed place no longer of early mornings did the resounding pop pop pop of motor dories ring back from the rocks and headland as the trawlers and handliners put to sea

Starting point is 04:26:26 no longer did the groups of weary fishermen gather on the store steps for an evening pipe and chat or the young blood's chuck horseshoes at the foot of the chapel hill it was a village of women true squire hardy being too old to fish had remained at home and bill boughton who was completing details for the immediate and profitable sale of the season's catch was behind the counter of his general store he dealt out supplies to the women and children and wrote down against their father's shares the amount of credit extended but others day after day found nothing set against them and this was due to the promise of help that elsa malaby kept it's useless to charge supplies to those who have nothing now with the idea of getting it back from their fishing profits she said what they earn will just about pay for it and then there they are back where they started with nothing better let me pay for everything until the men get back then they will have something definite ahead to go on no one but adelbert bisch the rector bill bowton and elsa malaby herself knew exactly how much she paid out weakly toward the maintenance of the village but all knew it to be an enormous sum as reckoned on the island and daily the worship of hard luck jim's widow grew until she occupied a place in frekirk head parallel to a patron saint of the middle ages but elsa malaby was intensely human and no one knew it better than herself as one late afternoon she sat at her mahogany table looking absently over the

Starting point is 04:28:28 stubs in her check-book. She saw that she had dispersed a great deal of money, more perhaps than she would have under any other circumstances, but she frankly acknowledged that she did not mind that, if only she achieved the end toward which she was working. For Elsa, more than anyone on Grand Mignon, was a person of ways and means. She was one of those women who seemed to find nothing in self-communion. Hers was a nature destined for light and gaiety and happiness. To sit in a splendid palace and mope over what had happened was among the last thing she cared to contemplate.

Starting point is 04:29:17 Being of the pure Grandmignon stock, she looked no farther for a husband than among the men of Freakirk head, good, honest, able men, all of them. And her eye fell with favor upon Captain Codd Schofield of the schooner charming lass, old schoolfellow, playmate, and lifelong friend. The money she had mailed to him had only been an excuse to write a letter.

Starting point is 04:29:48 The favors to Ma Scofield were, in great part, to help further her plan. The whole business of helping support Freakirk Head was a flash of dramatic display, calculated to bring her ineradicably before Code's eyes, and everyone else's. As she sat near the window and saw the sunset glow die over the mountain ridge, she asked herself what she had achieved. Apparently, very little. She felt the futility of human endeavor and desire.

Starting point is 04:30:24 to her knowledge code was in love with nobody although rumor had for years linked his name with nelly tanners that was exploded now for nelly was engaged to nat burns why did he not respond slowly her smile returned he would respond when he had heard certain other things then he would forget anyone else but her, if there was anyone else. Her heart leaped at the thought. As it became dark, she rang the bell. Light the candles in the drawing-room, she said to the servant who entered. You remember that Mrs. Tanner is coming for dinner. Yes, madam.

Starting point is 04:31:20 Very well, that is all. The servant withdrew. There was nothing unusual in the fact of Mrs. Tanner coming for dinner in the evening to the big house. Elsa simply could not eat all her meals alone, and her old friends at the village were constantly receiving invitations. Mrs. Tanner arrived at half-past six. It was her first visit since the departure of the fleet several weeks before, and there was plenty to talk about. but ma tanner wisely reserved her conversation until after the meal for the victuals of malaby house were famous the whole length of the new brunswick coast afterward when they had retired to elsa's pink and gray boudoir the eternal envy of grand mignon womanhood the talk flowed freely it's this way elsa declared ma confidentially

Starting point is 04:32:24 i think nelly is pretty well took care of now young nat burns as you know is pretty well off as the sayin goes on the island he really wouldn't have to fish if he didn't want to his father didn't neglect him when his time come ma tanner did not see the change in elsa's expression the pupils of her magnificent black eyes expanded and the delicate brows drew together over the bridge of her nose the close mouth with its ugly set would not have been recognized by any but lifelong friends and nat's about good as any boy went on ma boys is terrible hard to fetch up so they don't disgrace you and send you to the grave with gray head bowed in sorta as the poet says nat ain't bad he speaks sharp to his mother once in a while but la what boy don't i think he'll treat nelly right and be a good man to her ma said elsa and her voice was quiet and intense as though she were keeping herself well in hand that's what every one thinks about nat burns well asked the older woman slightly resentful don't you think so what i think has nothing whatever to do with the question but what i know might have i don't want nellie's life ruined that's all look here elsa what are you driving at ma turner was becoming rot up

Starting point is 04:34:19 she knew there must be something behind these hints or elsa would never venture on such thin ice with her ye bein't by any means jealous o nelly be ye she asked peering through her spectacles heavens no cried elsa so convincingly that mrs tanner was satisfied once and for all walt what's all the fuss then any girl would ruin her life that threw herself away on nat burns he's got a fine solid gold case but his works are very poor indeed ma tanner don't go talkin educated or i can't follow ye do you mean he's all show and nothing in his mind or heart of christian goodness yes i mean that and i mean more besides he doesn't stop by being merely not good he is actively and busily downright bad they's several kinds of bad elsie malaby well i mean the kind that makes a girl break her engagement and keep it broken and that drives a man out of a decent village there was a long and pregnant pause while ma turner got everything straight in her mind you don't mean that he has she inquired her little mouth a thin hard line yes i do exactly that-that I knew the case myself in this very village before Jim died.

Starting point is 04:36:07 There are some men who instinctively take the correct course in a matter of that kind, others who don't care two pins, as long as they get out of it with the whole skin. Nat Burns was that kind. Then you mean he ought already to be married? Yes, or in jail. why isn't he it was entirely up to the girl and she refused to act god my poor nelly the servant knocked and upon receiving permission to enter handed elsa a telegram evidently just delivered from the village telegraph office unconsciously the girl reached into a glass-covered bookcase and drew forth a paper-vine then she tore open the message and commenced to read it with the aid of the book mrs tanner did not notice her she sat staring into the future with a leaden heart

Starting point is 04:37:16 such a thing as elsa hinted at was unheard of in freakirk head and she was overwhelmed suddenly she asked why do you hate nat burn so you couldn't have told me that if you hadn't hated him elsa looked up from her book impatiently quite oblivious to the wound she had caused because i was very fond of that girl she said and went back to the translation of the message suddenly she sprang to her feet with a little cry of dismay and rang the bell annette she cried annette the maid rushed in frightened from the adjoining room tell charles i'm going to st john's to-morrow and to have the carriage at the door at half-past six pack my steamer trunk immediately grey guns why isn't there a night-boat the maid flew out of the room and elsa still doubtful re-translated the message mrs tanner taken aback by these sudden activities rose hurriedly to go this sudden flurry was inexplicable to her since the departure of the fleet elsa had not as much as hinted leaving frekirk head now in a moment she was beside herself to go i hope it isn't bad news elsa she faltered well it is ma it is-but but only in a business way a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit more a little bit more a little bit more A little trip will straighten it up, I think.

Starting point is 04:39:06 And she was courteous, but indefatigable in hastening the departure of her guest. End of Chapter 20. Recording by Roger Maline. Chapter 21 of the Harbor of Doubt This Librevox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Roger Maline. The Harbor of Doubt by Frank Williams. Chapter 21 A Prisoner

Starting point is 04:39:42 When Code Schofield came to himself, his first sensation was one of oppression, such as as felt after sleeping in an unventilated room. It seemed difficult for him to breathe, but his body was quite free and uninjured, as he found by moving himself carefully in all directions, before he even opened his eyes. Presently the air became familiar, it was a perfect mixture of flavors oil skins stale tobacco smoke brine burned grease tar and as a background fish

Starting point is 04:40:23 his ears almost immediately detected water noises running close by and he could feel the pull of stout oak timber that formed the inner wall of where he lay folk-sul of a fishing schooner he announced and then opened his eyes to prove that he was correct he looked out into a three-cornered room occupied by a three-cornered table and that ran as far back as the foremest above fastened to a huge square beam hung a chain lamp so swiveled that it kept itself level however much the schooner kicked and wriggled on the table swinging his legs sat a large unpleasant-looking man well how are ye asked this latter seeing his charge had recovered consciousness never having seen the man before code did not consider it necessary to answer so he wriggled to find out if any bones were broken and in the end discovered a tender knob on the right side of his head he soon recalled the visit to st pierre the purchase of the bait pete ellenwood's fight the general mix-up and the blow on the head that had finished him he sat up suddenly look here what ship is this he demanded you'll find out soon enough when you go on deck hungry i got orders to feed you you bet i'm hungry didn't have any dinner last night in st pierre two nights ago said the other beginning to fry salt pork nigh thirty-six hours you've laid here like a log

Starting point is 04:42:21 coad doubted it but did not argue he was trying to puzzle out the situation if this was a fishing schooner the men ought to be over the side fishing and she would be at anchor instead feeling the long steady heel to leeward and had to half recovered to windward, he knew she was flying on a course. Breakfast swallowed, he made his way on deck. As he came up the companion way, a man stood leaning against the rail. With a feeling of violent revulsion, Code recognized Nat Burns. A glance at a nearby Dory showed the lettering, Nettie B, and Schofield at once recognized his position. He was Nat Burns's prisoner. Morning, said Burns, curtly.

Starting point is 04:43:18 Thought you were going to sleep forever. It's a hang in a fence putting anyone to sleep that long, retorted Code cheerfully. Luck was with you, and I woke up. You're hardly in a position to joke about hanging offenses, remarked Nat venomously. Why not? Cod had gone a sickly pallor that looked hideous through his tam. "'Because you're going home to St. Andrews to be tried for one!' Cod glanced over his left shoulder. The sun was there. The schooner was headed almost directly southwest.

Starting point is 04:44:02 Nat had spoken the truth. They were headed homeward. "'Where's your warrant?' Cod could feel his teeth getting. on edge with rage as he talked to this captor who bore himself with such insolence. Don't need a warrant for murder cases, and I'm a constable at Free Kirk Head, so everything is being done according to law. The gunboat didn't find you, so I thought, as long as you were right to hand, I'd bring you along. Then you knew I was in St. Pierre? Yes, saw you come in.

Starting point is 04:44:41 if it hadn't been so dark you'd have recognized the nettie not far away code remembering the time of night they arrived knew this to be impossible for it is dark at six in september he had barely been able to make out the lines of the nearest schooners a man was standing like a statue at the wheel and as he put the vessel over on the port tack his face came brightly into the sun it was arry duncan code had not been wrong then in thinking that he had seen the man's face in st pierre fine trader you've got there at the wheel said schofield he'll do you brown some day i don't think so just because he did you doesn't prove anything he was in my employ all the time and getting real money for his work so it was all a plot huh said code dejectedly i give you credit burns for more brains than i ever supposed you had what's become of pete ellenwood and the lass pete is back on the schooner and she's gone out to fish you needn't worry about them at the proper time they'll be told you're safe and unhurt code said nothing for a while with hands rammed into his pockets he stood watching the white and blue sea whirl by in those few minutes he touched the last depth of failure and despair for a brief space he was minded to leap overboard he shivered as one with an ague and shook off the deadly influence of the idea had he no more grit he asked himself

Starting point is 04:46:39 had he come this far only to be beaten was this insolent young popinjay to win at last no then he listened for nat was speaking if you give your word of honor not to try and escape you can have the run of the decks and to go anywhere you like on the schooner if not you will be locked up and go home a prisoner it was the last straw the final piece of humiliation code stiffened as a soldier might to rebuke a deadly dull anger surged within him and took possession of his whole being such an anger as can only come to one who amiable and upright by nature is driven to inevitable revolt look here burns he said his voice low but intense with the emotion that mastered him i'll give no word of honor regarding anything between you and me there is a lot to be settled you have almost ruined me and by heaven before i get through with you you'll rue it i shall make every attempt to escape from this schooner and if i do escape look out if i do not escape and you press these charges against me i'll hunt you down for the rest of my life, or if I go to prison, I will have others do it for me. Now you know what to expect, and you also know that when I say a thing, I mean it.

Starting point is 04:48:21 Now do what you like with me. Burns looked at Schofield's tense white face. His eyes encountered those flaming blue ones and dropped sullenly. Whether it was the tremendous force of the threat or whether it was a tremendous force of the threat or whether it was a guilty conscience working, no one but himself knew, but his face grew gradually as pallid as that of his captive. Suddenly he turned away.

Starting point is 04:48:51 Boys! he called to the crew who were working near. Put Schofield in the old storeroom! And one of you watch it all the time. He says he will escape if he can, so I hold you responsible. code followed the men to a little shanty seemingly erected against the foremest it was of stout heavy boards about long enough to allow a cot being set up in it it had formerly been used for storing provisions and had never been taken down when the padlock snapped behind him code took in his surroundings there were two windows in the little cubby one looking forward and the other to starboard neither was large enough to provide a means of escape he judged at the foot of the cot was a plain wooden arm-chair both pieces of furniture being screwed to the floor for exercise there was a strip of bare deck planking

Starting point is 04:49:56 about six feet long beside the bed, where he might pace back and forth. Both the cot and the chair appeared to be new. Had the room all ready for me, said Code to himself. The one remaining piece of furniture was a queer kind of bookshelf nailed against the wall. It was fully five feet long and protruded a foot out above his bed. in its thirty-odd pigeon-holes was jammed a collection of stuff that was evidently the accumulation of years there were scores of cheap paper-bound novels concerning either high society or great detectives old tobacco boxes broken pipes string wrapping paper and all the what-not of a general depository with hours on his hands and nothing whatever to occupy occupy him, Code began to sort over the lurid literature with a view to his entertainment.

Starting point is 04:51:03 He hauled a great dusty bundle out of one pigeonhole and found among the novels some dusty exercise books. He inspected them curiously. On the stiff board cover of one was scrawled, Log Schooner, M. C. Burns. M. C. Burns, Master. the novels were forgotten with the appearance of this old relic the m c burns was the original burns schooner when nat's father was still in the fish business at frekirk head it was the direct predecessor of the nettie b which was entirely nat's on the death of the elder burns when the may scofield went down the m c burns had been sold to realize immediate cash and here was her log code looked over pages that were redolent of the events in his boyhood for michael was a ready writer and made notes regularly even when the m c was not on a voyage he had spent an hour in this way when he came to this entry on one of the very last pages june thirtieth this day clear with strong east-south-east wind

Starting point is 04:52:26 This day, Nat, in the M.C. Burns, raced Codd-Scofield in the May Schofield, from Quadi Head to Moorings in Freakirk Head Harbor. My boy had the worst of it all the way. I never saw such luck as that young Schofield devil has. He won by half an hour. Poor Nat is heartbroken and swore something awful. he says he'll win next time or know why just like old man burns thought code pities and spoils his rascal of a son but the boy loved him code had not thought of that race in years how well he remembered it now there had been money up on both sides and the rules were that no one in either schooner should be over twenty

Starting point is 04:53:26 except the skippers what satisfaction it had been to give nat a good trimming in the fifty-year-old may he could still feel an echo of the old proud thrill he turned back to the log july first cloudy this day hot light southwest breeze nat tells me another race will be sailed in just a week swears he will win it. Poor boy, what with losing yesterday, and Carolyn Fuller's leaving the head to work in Lubeck, he is hardly himself. I'm afraid the old MC won't show much speed till she is thoroughly overhauled. Note. Steamer May Schofield's policy runs out July 20th.

Starting point is 04:54:21 See about this, sure. There was very little pertaining to the next room. race until the entry for June 6th, two days before the event. Then he read, Nat is quite happy. Says he can't lose day after tomorrow. I told him he must have fitted the MC with wings, but he only grinned. Take the steamer to St. John tomorrow to look after policies, including May Schofields. She's so old her rates will have to go up won't be back till day after the race but nat says he'll telegraph me wonder what business that boy's got up his sleeve that makes him so sure he will win oh he's a clever one that boy here the chronicle ended little did michael burns know he would never write in it again he went to st john's as he had said and completed his business in it again he went to st john's as he had said and completed his business

Starting point is 04:55:27 time to return home the day of the race instead of the day after. The second race was never sailed, for Code Schofield received a telegram from St. John's, offering him a big price for a quick lighterage trip to Grand Mignon, St. John being accidentally out of schooners and the trip urgent. Though loath to lose the race by default, the money offered was too good to pass by, and code had made the trip and loaded up by nightfall it was then that he had met michael burns and burns had expressed his desire to go home in the may so as to watch her actions in the moderate sea and gale neither he nor the may ever saw dry land again only code of the whole ship's company struggled ashore on the wolves bruise and half dead from exposure the end of the old log before him was full of poignant tragedy to code the tragedy of his own life for it was the unwritten pages from then on that should have told the story of a fiendishly planned revenge upon him

Starting point is 04:56:44 who was totally innocent of any wrongdoing the easy weak indulgence of the father had grown a crop of vicious and cruel deeds in the sun end of chapter twenty one recording by roger maline chapter twenty two of the harbor of doubt this librivox recording is in the public domain recording by roger maline the harbor of doubt by frank williams chapter twenty two a recovered treasure for five days code yawned or rushed through the greater part of nat's stock of lurid literature it was the one thing that kept him from falling into the black pit of brooding sometimes he felt as though he must go insane if he allowed himself to think he had not the courage to tear inside the veil of dull pain that covered his heart heart and look at the bleeding reality. He was afraid of his own emotions. It was impossible for him to go lower in the scale of physical events. Nat was about to triumph, and Cod himself was forced to admit that the triumph was mostly due to Nat's own wits. First, he had stolen Nellie Tanner, Code had thought a lot about that ring missing from Nellie's hand.

Starting point is 04:58:20 Then he had attached the charming lass in the endeavor to take away from him the very means of his livelihood. Then something had happened. Schofield did not know what it was, but something evidently very serious. For the next thing he knew, Nat had crushed his pride and manhood under a brutal and technical charge of murder. but this was not all his victim escaping him with the schooner and the means of livelihood burns had employed a traitor in the crew to poison the bait and force him to come ashore to replenish his tubs once ashore the shanghying was not difficult code had no doubt whatever that the whole plan commencing with the disappearance of the man in the motor dory and ending with his abduction from st pierre was part and parcel of the same scheme in this his crowning achievement of skill and cunning burns had showed himself an admirable plodder playing upon human nature as he did to effect his ends for it was nothing but a realization of peter ellenwood's weakness in the matter of his size and fighting ability that resulted in his codes easy capture

Starting point is 04:59:45 schofield had no shadow of a doubt but that the big frenchman had been hired to play his part and that in the howling throng that surrounded the fighters the crew of the nettie b were waiting to seize the first opportunity to make the duel a meal and effect their design and the confusion their opportunity came when the frenchman tried to trip pete ellenwood after big jean had fallen and code rushed into the fray with the ferocity of a wild cat someone raised the yell police he was surrounded by his enemies someone wrapped him over the head with a blackjack and the job was done it was clever business and despite the helplessness of his position code could not but admire the brilliance of such a scheming brain while at the same time deploring that it was not employed in some legitimate and profitable cause now he was in the enemy's hands and st andrews was less than a dozen hours away st andrews with its jail its grand jury and its pen life aboard the nettie b had been a dead man on the foremest above code's prison hung the bell that rang the watches so that the passage of every half-hour was dinged into his ears three times a day he was given food and twice a day he was allowed to pace up and down the deck a man holding tightly to each arm the weather had been propitious with the moderate sea and a good-quartering wind the netty had footed

Starting point is 05:01:31 it properly, and Codes' experienced eye had, on one occasion, seen her log her twelve knots in an hour. The fact had raised his estimation of her fifty percent. It must not be supposed that as Codes sat in his hard wooden chair he forgot the diary that he had read the first afternoon of his incarceration. Often he thought of it, and often he drew it out from its place and re-read those last entries swears he will win second race says he can't lose day after to-morrow i wonder what the boy has got up his sleeve that makes him so sure he will win at first code merely ascribed these recorded sayings of nat burns to youthful disappointment and a sportsman-like determination to do better next time but not for long he remembered as though had been yesterday the look with which Nat had favored him when he finally came ashore beaten, and the sullen resentment with which he greeted any remarks concerning the race.

Starting point is 05:02:44 There was no sportsmanlike determination about him. Code quickly changed his point of view. How could Nat be so sure he was going to win? The thing was ridiculous on the face of it. The fifty-year-old May had limped in, half an hour ahead of the 30-year-old M.C. Burns after a race of 15 miles. How, then, could Nat swear with any degree of certainty that he would win the second time? It was well known that the M.C. Burns was especially good in heavy weather, but how could Nat ordain that there would be

Starting point is 05:03:24 just the wind and sea he wanted? The thing was absurd on the face of it, and besides, silly braggad if not actually malicious and even if it were malicious code thanked heaven that the race had not been sailed and that he had been spared the exhibition of nat's malice he had escaped that much anyway however from motives of general caution code decided to take the book with him nat had evidently forgotten it and he felt sure he would get off the ship with it in his possession now as he drew near to st andrews he put it for the last time inside the lining of his coat and fastened that lining together with pins of which he always carried a stock under his coat-lapel as schofield had not forgotten the old log of the m c burns neither had he forgotten the threat he made to nat that he would try his best to escape and would defy his authority at every turn he had tried to fulfil his promise to the letter twice he had removed one of the windows before the alert guard detected him and once he had nearly succeeded in cutting his way through the two-inch planking of his ceiling before the chips and sawdust were discovered and he was deprived of his clasp-knife every hour of every day his mind had been constantly on this business of escape even during the reading to which he fled to protect his reason it was the motive of every chapter and he would drop off in the middle of a page into a reverie

Starting point is 05:05:11 and grow inwardly excited over some wild plan that mapped itself out completely in his feverish brain now as they approached st andrews his determination was as strong as ever but his resources were exhausted double guarded and without weapons he found himself helpless the fevered excitement of the past four days had subsided into a dull apathy of hurt in which his brain was as delicate and alert as the mainspring of a watch he was resigned to the worst if it came but was ready like a panther in a tree to spring at the slightest false move of his enemies now for the last time he went over his little eight by ten prison he examined the chair as though it were some instrument of the inquisition he pulled the bed to pieces and handled every inch of the frame he emptied every compartment of the queer hanging cabinet that had been stuffed with books and miscellanies he examined every article in the room he had done this a dozen times before but some instinct drove him to repeat the process there was always hope of the undiscovered and besides he needed the physical action and the close application of his mind so mechanically and doggedly he went over every inch of his little prison but in vain the roof and walls were of heavy planking and were old they were full of knicks as well as wood-knots and the appearance of some of the former gave code an idea he went carefully over the boards sticking his thumb-nail into them and lifting or pressing down as the shape of the nick warranted

Starting point is 05:07:12 for they resembled very much the depressions cut in sliding covers on starch boxes whereby such covers can be pushed in their grooves at any other time he would have considered this the occupation of a madman but now it kept him occupied and held forth the faint gleam of hope by which he now lived suddenly something happened he was lying across his immovable cot fingering the boards low down in the right rear corner when he felt something give beneath his thumb a flash of hope almost stifled him and he lay quiet for a moment to regain command of himself. Then he put his thumb again in the niche and lifted up. With all his strength he lifted, and, all at once, a panel rushed up and stuck, revealing a little box, perhaps a foot square, that had been built back from the rear wall of the old storeroom.

Starting point is 05:08:17 That was all, except for the fact that something was in the box, a package done up in paper. For a while he did not investigate the package, but devoted his attention to sounding the rest of the nearby planks with the hope that they might give into a larger opening and furnish a means of egress. For half an hour he worked and then gave up. He had covered every inch of wall and every niche,

Starting point is 05:08:46 and this was all. At last he turned to the country, of the box that he had uncovered. Removing the package, he slid the cover down over the opening, for fear that his guard, looking in a window, might become aware of what he had discovered. Then, sitting on the bed, he unwrapped the package. It was a beautiful, clear mirror bound with silver nickel and fitted with screw attachments as though it were intended to be fastened to something. At first, this unusual discovery meant nothing whatever to him.

Starting point is 05:09:26 Then, as he turned the object listlessly in his hands, his eyes fell upon three engraved letters, C-A-S, and a date, 1908. Then he remembered. When he was twenty years old, his father had taught him the science of navigation, so that if anything happened, Code might sail the old May Schofield. Because of the fact that a position at sea was found by observing the heavenly bodies,

Starting point is 05:10:01 code had become interested in astronomy and had learned to chart them on a sky map of his own. The object in his hand was an artificial horizon, a mirror attached to the sextant which could be fixed at the exact angle of the horizon, should the real horizon be obscured this valuable instrument his father had given him on his twenty-first birthday because the old man had been vastly pleased with his interest in a science of which he himself knew little or nothing code remembered that for a year or two he had pursued this hobby of his with deep interest and considerable success and that his great object in life had been to some day have a small telescope of his own by which to learn more of the secrets of the heavens but after his father died he had been forced to take up the active support of the family and had let this passion die but how did it happen that the mirror was here he recalled that the rest of his paraphernalia had gone to the bottom with the may scoffield it was true that he had not overhauled his equipment for some time and that it had been a drawer in the maize cabin but that drawer had not been opened

Starting point is 05:11:27 he pursued the train of thought no farther his brain was tired and his head ached with the strain of the last five days his last hope of escape had only resulted in his finding a forgotten mirror and his despair shut out any other considerations he had not even the fire to resent the fact that it was in burns's possession and concealed it was his he knew and without further thought of it he thrust it into his pocket just as he heard the men outside his little prison talking together excitedly by george she looks like a gunboat said one i wonder what she wants yes there's her colors yes there's her colors yes can see the sun shining on her brass guns forward there she's signalling i wonder what she wants code walked idly to his windows and peered out but could not see the vessel that the men were talking about she wants us to heave too boys sang out nat suddenly stand by to bring her up into the wind hard down with your wheel john as this The schooner's head veered, Code caught a glimpse of a schooner-rigged vessel, half a mile away, with uniformed men on her decks, and two gleaming brass cannon forward.

Starting point is 05:12:59 Then she passed out a vision. She's sending a cutter aboard, said one man. End of Chapter 22. Recording by Roger Maline. Chapter 23 of the Harbor of Doubt This Libravox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Roger Maline. The Harbor of Doubt by Frank Williams.

Starting point is 05:13:33 Chapter 23. Surprises Fifteen minutes later, a small boat, rode smartly by six sailors in white canvas, came alongside the midship's ladder of the Nettie B. At a word from the officer, the six oars rose as one, vertically into the air. and the bowman staved off the cutter so that she brought up without a scratch. A young man in dark blue sprang out of the stern sheets upon the deck. "'Neddie B., a Freakirkhead?' he asked.

Starting point is 05:14:10 "'Captain Burns, commanding?' "'Yes,' said Nat, stepping forward. "'I am Captain Burns. What do you want?' "'I come from the gunboat albatross,' said the officer. and represent captain foraker you have on board have you not a man named code schofield also of fre kirkhead under arrest for the murder of a man or men on the occasion of the sinking of his schooner nat scowled yes he said i arrested him myself in st pierre mccalum i am a constable in freerkerkhead just as we understood remarked the officer blandly captain foraker desires me to thank you for your prompt and efficient work in this matter though i can tell you on the side captain burns that the old man has rather put out that he didn't get the fellow himself we chased up and down the banks looking for him but we never got within sight of as much as his main truck sticking over the horizon and the petrel that's our steamer you know well sir maybe he didn't make a fool of her

Starting point is 05:15:27 payson on the petrel is the ugliest man in the service and when this fellow schofield led him a chase of a hundred and fifty miles and then got away among the islands of placentia bay they say payton and nearly had apoplexy. So you're getting him ought to be quite a feather in your cap. I consider that I did my duty. But would you mind telling me what you have signaled before? Burns resented the gossip of this young whippersnapper of the service, who seemed, despite his frankness, to have something of a patronizing air.

Starting point is 05:16:07 Certainly! Captain Forrecker desires me to tell you that he wished the prisoner transferred to the elephant, albatross. We know that you are not provided with an absolutely secure place to keep the prisoner, and as we are on our way to St. Andrews on another matter, the skipper thinks he might just as well take the fellow in and hand him over to the authorities. Well, I don't agree with your skipper, snapped Burns. I got Schofield, and I'm going to deliver him. He's safe enough, don't you worry. When you go back, you can

Starting point is 05:16:43 tell Captain Foraker that Schofield is in perfectly good hands. The pleasant, amiable manner of the subaltern underwent a quick change. He at once became the stern, business-like representative of the government. I am sorry, Captain Burns, but I shall deliver no such message, and when I go back, I shall have the criminal with me. Those are my orders, and I intend to carry them out. He turned to the six sailors sitting quietly in the boat, their oars still in the air. Unship oars! he commanded. The sweeps fell away, three on each side.

Starting point is 05:17:27 Squad, on deck! The men scrambled up the short ladder and lined up in two rows of three. At his belt, each man carried a revolver and cutlasses swung at their sides. Now, requested the officer, amiably, Will you please lead me to the prisoner? Nat's face darkened into a scowl of black rage, and he cursed under his breath. It was just his luck, he told himself, that when he was about to triumph,

Starting point is 05:18:00 some of these government loafers should come along and take the credit out of his hands. For a moment he thought of resistance. all his crew were on deck drawn by curiosity but he saw they were vastly impressed by the discipline of the visitors and by their decidedly warlike appearance if he resisted there would be blood spilt and he did not like the thought of that he finally admitted to himself that the young officer was only carrying out orders and orders that were absolutely just well come along he snarred ungraciously and started forward. The officer spoke a word of command, and the squad marched after him

Starting point is 05:18:48 as he, in turn, followed Nat. Of all this, Cod had been ignorant, for the conversation had taken place too far aft for him to hear. His first warning was when the sailors marched past the window, and Nat reluctantly opened the door of the old storeroom. Officers are here.

Starting point is 05:19:09 to get you, Schofield, said the skipper of the Nettie B. Come out. Wonderingly, Codes stepped into the sunlight and open air and saw the officer with his escort. With the resignation that he had summoned during his five days of imprisonment, he accepted his fate. I am ready, he said. Let's go as soon as possible. Captain Schofield, said the subaltern. you are to be transferred and i trust you will deem it advisable to go peaceably catching sight of the six armed sailors code could not help grinning there's no question about it he said i will form cordon ordered the officer and the sailors surrounded him two before two beside and two behind in this order they marched to the cutter code was told to get in first and take a seat looking aft he did so and the officer dropped into the stern sheets so as to face his prisoner

Starting point is 05:20:20 the sailors took their position shipped their oars smartly and the cutter was soon under way to the gunboat arrived at the accommodation ladder and on deck code found a vessel with white decks glistening brasswork and discipline that shamed naval authority the subaltern saluting reported to the deck officer that his mission had been completed and the latter after questioning code ordered that he be taken to confinement quarters these quarters unlike the pen on the nettie b were below the deck but were lighted by a porthole the room was larger had a comfortable bunk a small table loaded with magazines a chain and a sanitary porcelain washstand. The luxury of the appointments was a revelation. There was no question of his escaping from this room, he very soon discovered. The door was of heavy oak and locked on the outside. The walls were of solid, smooth timber,

Starting point is 05:21:32 and the porthole was too small to admit the possibility of his escaping through it. The roof was formed of the deck planks. he had hardly examined his surroundings when he heard a voice in sharp command on deck and the running of feet creaking of blocks and straining of sheets as sail was got on the vessel his room presently took an acute angle to starboard and he realized that with the fair gale on the quarter they must be crowding her with canvas he could tell by the look of the water as it flew past his port that the remainder of the trip to st andrews would not take long he knew the course there from his present position must be north a little west across the bay of fundy the nettie b when compelled to surrender her prisoner had rounded nova scotia and was on the home stretch toward quaddy roads she was in fact less than thirty miles away from grand mignon island and code had thought with a great and bitter homesickness of the joy just a sight of her would be he longed for the white swallow-tailed lighthouse with its tin swallow above for the tumbled green-clothed granite of the harbor approaches for the black sharp-toothed reefs that showed on the half-water near the can buoy

Starting point is 05:23:02 and for the procession of stately headlands to north and south fading from sight in a mantle of purple and gray but most of all for the crescent of stony beach the nestle of white cottage along the king's road and the green background of the mountain beyond with malaby house in the very heart of it this had been his train of thought when burns had opened the door to deliver him up to the gunboat and now it returned to him as the staunch vessel under him winged her way across the blue afternoon sea he wondered if the albatross would pass close enough inshore for him to get a glimpse of mignon's tall and for forbidding fog-wreathed headlands. Just a moment of this familiar sight would be bombed to his bruised spirit. He felt that he could gather strength from the sight of home. He had been among aliens so long. But no nearer than just a glimpse.

Starting point is 05:24:07 He made a firm resolution never to push the prow of the lass into Flag Cove until he stood clear of the charges against him. he admitted that it might take years but his resolution was none the less strong his place of confinement was on the starboard side of the albatross and he was gratified after a few minutes to see the sun pouring through his porthole despair had left him now and he was quietly cheerful with something akin to pleasure that the struggle was over and that events were out of his hands for the time being he settled down in his chair and picked up a magazine he had hardly opened it when a thought occurred to him if the course was north a little west how did it happen that the sun streamed into his room which was on the east side of the ship on that course he sprang to the port and looked out the sun smote him full in the face he strained his eyes against the horizon that was unusually clear for this foggy sea and would have sworn that along its edge was a dark line of land the conclusion was a conclusion was a very clear for this foggy sea and would have sworn that along its edge was a dark line of land the conclusion was inevitable the albatross was flying directly south as fast as her whole spread of canvas could take her

Starting point is 05:25:34 schofield could not explain this phenomenon to himself nor did he try the orders that a man-of-war sailed under were none of his affair and if the captain chose to institute a hunt for the north pole before delivering a prisoner in port naturally he had a perfect right to do so it was possible code told himself that another miserable wretch was to be picked up before they were both landed together whatever course captain foraker intended to lay in the future his present one was taking him as far as possible away from grand mignon st andrews and st john's and for this meager comfort code schofield was thankful the sun remained above the horizon until six o'clock and then suddenly plumped into the sea the early september darkness rushed down and as it did so a big tungsten light in the ceiling of code's room sprang into a brilliant glow the iron cover to the porthole being shut at the same instant a few moments later the door of his cell was unceremoniously opened and a man entered bearing an arm full of fresh clothing. Captain Schofield, he said with the deference of a servant. The captain wishes your presence at dinner.

Starting point is 05:27:04 The ship's barber will be here presently. Etiquette provides that you wear these clothes. I will fix them and lay them out for you. If you care for a bath, sir, I will draw it. Say, look here, exclaimed our hero, with a sudden, and unexpected touch of asperity. If you're trying to kid me, old side-whiskers, you're due for the licking of your life.

Starting point is 05:27:33 He got deliberately upon his feet and removed the fishing coat which he had worn uninterruptedly since the night at St. Pierre. I thought I'd read about you in that magazine or something and had fallen asleep, but here you are still in the room. I'm going to see whether you're alive or not. no one can mention a bath to me with impunity he made a sudden grab for the servant who stood with mouth open uncertain as to whether or not he was dealing with a lunatic

Starting point is 05:28:07 before he could move code's hard strong hands closed upon his arms in a grip that brought a bellow of pain in deadly fear of his life he babbled protests apologies and pleadings in his own an incoherent medley that would have satisfied the most tough and skeptic. Code released him, laughing. Well, I guess you're real all right, he said. Now, if you're in earnest about all this, draw that bath quick. Then I'll believe you. Half an hour later, Code, bathed, shaved, and feeling like a different man, was luxuriating and fresh

Starting point is 05:28:53 linen and a comfortable suit. "'Look here, Martin,' he said to the valet. "'Of course I know that this is no more the gunboat albatross than I am. The Canadian government isn't in the habit of treating prisoners in exactly this manner. What boat is this?' Martin coughed a little before answering. In all his experience, he had never before been asked to dress the skipper of a fishing vessel. i was told to say sir in case you asked that you were aboard the mystery schooner sir what the mystery schooner that led the steamer that chase yes sir

Starting point is 05:29:40 well by the great trawl-hook and i didn't know it no sir remember we came up behind the nettie b and when you were transferred you were transferred you were made to sit facing away from this ship so you would not recognize her then all the guns were fakes and the whole business of a man-of-war as well cried code astonished almost out of his wits by this latest development in his fortunes yes sir the appearances were false but as for the steamship sir this vessel could not do what she does were it not for the strict training of her, sir. I'll wager our lads can outmanoeuvre and out-sail any schooner of her tonnage on the seas, blastermen included. The Navy is easy compared to our discipline. But what holds the men to it if it's so hard? Double wages and loyalty to the captain. Captain Forrecker? Yes, sir. There, sir, that tie is beautiful. Now, the waistcoat and coat. If you will permit me, sir, you look, as I might say, Anselm, begging your pardon. Code flushed and looked into the glass that hung against the wall of his cabin. He barely recognized the clean-shaven, clear-eyed, broad-shouldered youth

Starting point is 05:31:17 he saw there as the rough, salty skipper of the schummer, charming lass. he wondered with a chuckle what pete ellenwood would say if he could see him and now sir if you're ready just come with me sir dinner is at seven and it is now a quarter to the hour stunned by the wonders already experienced and vaguely hoping that the dream would last forever code followed the bewiskered valet down a narrow passage carpeted with a stuff so thick that it permitted no sound martin passed several doors the passage was lighted by small electrics and finally paused before one on the right-hand side here he knocked and apparently receiving an answer peered into the room for a moment withdrawing his head he swung the door open and turned to schofield go right in sir he said and code eager for new wonders stepped past him. The room was a small sitting-room, lighted softly by inverted bowl-shaped globes of glass so colored as to bring out the full value of the pink velors and satin brocades with which the room was hung and the furniture covered. For a moment he stared without seeing

Starting point is 05:32:44 anything, and then a slight rustling in a far corner diverted his attention. He looked sharply, and saw a woman rise from a lounge and come toward him with outstretched hands. She was Elsa Malaby. End of Chapter 23. Recording by Roger Maline. Chapter 24 of the Harbor of Doubt This Libravox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Roger Maline.

Starting point is 05:33:26 The Harbor of Doubt by Frank Williams. Chapter 24. siren. He saw the glad smile on her lips, the light in her great lustrous dark eyes, and the beauty of her faultless body, and yet they all faded to nothing beside the astounding and inexplicable fact that she was in the mystery schooner. "'You here!' he gasped, taking her hands in his big rough ones and gripping them tight. The impulse to draw her to him in an embrace was almost almost. irresistible for not only was she lovely in the extreme but she was from Freakirk head and home and his soul had been starved with loneliness and the ceaseless repetition of his own thoughts

Starting point is 05:34:18 yes she replied in her gentle voice I am here you are surprised that hardly expresses it he returned so many things have happened today that I expect anything now. Come, let us go in, she said, and led him through a doorway that connected with an adjoining room. In the center of it was a small table, laid with linen and furnished with glittering silver and glass. Are you hungry? she asked.

Starting point is 05:34:54 You know fishermen well enough not to ask that, he laughed, and they sat down. Elsa did not make any tax upon his game. conversational powers. It was Code himself who first put a pertinent question. I take for granted your being here and you're living like this, he said, but I am bursting with curiosity. How do you happen to be in this schooner? It is my schooner. Why shouldn't I be in it? She smiled. Yours! He was mystified. But why should you have a vessel? like this. You never used one before that I know of.

Starting point is 05:35:38 True, Code, but I have always loved the sea, and it amuses me. You remember that sometimes I have been away from Freakirkhead for a month at a time. I have been cruising in this schooner. Once I went nearly as far as Iceland, but that took longer. A woman in my position must do something. I can't sit up in that great big house alone all the time. The intensity with which she said this put a decidedly new face on the matter. It was just like her to be lonely without Jim, he thought. Naturally, a woman with all her money must do something. But Elsa, he protested,

Starting point is 05:36:25 you're having the schooner for your own use is all right enough. But why has it always? turned up to help me when I needed help most. Really, if I had all the money in the world, I could never repay the obligations that you have put me under this summer. I don't want you to repay me, she said quietly. Just the fact that I have helped you and that you appreciate it is enough to make me happy. He looked steadily into her brown eyes for a few moments. Then her gaze dropped, and a dull flush mounted from her neck until it suffused her face. He had never seen her look so beautiful. The wealth of her black hair was coiled

Starting point is 05:37:12 about the top of her head like a crown, and held in its depths a silver butterfly. Her gown was quaker gray in color, and of some soft clinging material that enhanced the lines of her figure. it was an evening gown and cut just low enough to be at the same time modest and beautiful code without knowing why admired her taste and told himself that she erred in no particular her mode of life was at the same time elegant and feminine exactly suited her you are easily made happy he remarked referring to her last sentence "'No, I'm not,' she contradicted him seriously. "'I am the hardest woman in the world to make happy.' "'And helping me, does it?' "'Yes.'

Starting point is 05:38:12 "'You are a good woman,' he said gratefully, "'and always seem to be doing for others. "'No one will ever forget how you offered to stand by the women of Grand Mignon "'while the men went fishing.' Again, Elsa blushed, but this time the color came from a different source. Little did he know that her philanthropy was all a part of the same plan, to win his favor. And the things I know you must have done for my mother, he went on. Those are the things that I appreciate more than any.

Starting point is 05:38:51 It is not every woman who would even think of them, let alone do them. Why would he force her into the... this attitude of perpetual lying, she thought. It was becoming worse and worse. Why was he so straightforward and so blind? Could he not see that she loved him? Was he one of those cold and passionless men upon whom no woman ever exerts an intense influence? Though she did not know it, she expressed the whole fault in her system.

Starting point is 05:39:26 A man reared in a more complex community than a fishing village would have divined her scheme, and the result would have been a prolonged but most delightful duel of wits and hearts. But Code, by the very directness of his honesty and simplicity of his nature, cut through the gauzy wrappings of this delectable package and went straight to its heart. And there he found nothing, because what little of the deeply genuine there lay in this woman's restless nature was disguised and shifted at the will of her caprice. When Codd had experienced the pleasure of lighting a genuine clear Havana cigar

Starting point is 05:40:11 after many months of abstinence, she leaned across the table to him, her hands clasped before her. "'Code, what does loneliness represent to you?' she asked. "'Oh, I don't know. He temporized, taken aback. I don't go in for loneliness much, but when I do, why all I want is, well, let me see. A good game of coits with the boys in front of the church,

Starting point is 05:40:45 or a talk with my mother about how rich we are going to be someday when I get that partnership in the fish stand. I'm too busy to be lonely. and I'm too lonely to be busy. He looked at her, unbelievingly. You, he cried. Why, you have everything in the world. You can go anywhere, do anything,

Starting point is 05:41:12 have the people about you that you want. You, lonely? I don't understand you. Well, I'll put it another way. Did you ever want something so hard, that it hurt and couldn't get it?" "'Yes, I wanted my father back after he died,' said Code simply. "'And I wanted Jim after he died,' added Elsa.

Starting point is 05:41:41 "'Those things are bad enough, but one gets used to them. What I mean especially is something we see about us all the time and have no chance of getting.' "'Did you ever want something like that?' so that it nearly killed you and couldn't get it code was silent the one rankling hurt of his whole life after seemingly being healed broke out afresh the engagement of nat burns and nelly tanner he suddenly realized that since seeing elsa he had not as much as remembered nellie's existence when usually her mental presence was not far from him elsa with all her luxury and alluring feminine charms seemed to cast a spell that bound him helpless like the music and the fairy stories he liked the spell and after all she had done he confessed to an extraordinary feeling for the enchantress now had come the memory of nelly dear frank-eyed open-hearted nelly tanner and the thought that her fresh wholesomeness was pledged to make glad the life of nat burns seared his heart a cloud settled down on his brow but in a moment he recalled himself

Starting point is 05:43:11 his hostess had asked him a question he must answer it yes i have wanted something and couldn't get it yes said elsa slowly a thing is bad enough but it seems to me that the most hopeless thing in the world is to want a person in that way her voice was dreamy and retrospective its peculiar vibrant timber thrilled him with the thought that perhaps there was some hidden tragedy in her life that he had never suspected any unpleasant sense that she was curious was overcome by the manner in which she spoke Yes, it is, he answered solemnly. She looked up in astonishment at the sincerity of his tone, her heart tingling with a new emotion of delicious uncertainty. What if, after all, he had wanted someone in the way she wanted him? What if the someone were herself, and he had been afraid to aspire to a woman of her wealth and position?

Starting point is 05:44:25 she asked this without any feeling of conceit for one who loves always dreams he sees signs of favor in the one beloved then you have wanted some one all her manner her voice her eyes expressed sympathy she was the soul of tact and no mean actress at the same time code still in the depth of reminiscence and averted happiness scarcely heard her but he answered yes i have then coming to full realization of the confession he colored and laughed uneasily but let's not talk of such personal things any more he added you must think me very foolish to be moaning about like this can i help you she asked half suffocated by the question perhaps there might be something i could do that would bring the one you want to you it was the crucial point in the conversation she held her breath as she awaited his answer she knew he was no adept at the half-meanings and near confessions of flirtation and that she could depend upon his words and actions to be genuine He looked at her calmly without the additional beat of a pulse. His color had died down and left him pale.

Starting point is 05:45:58 He was considering. You have done much for me, he said at last, and I shall never forget it, but in this matter even you could not help me. Only the Almighty could do it by direct intervention, and I don't believe he works that way in this century. code smiled faintly as for elsa she felt the grip as of an icy hand upon her heart it was some one else that he meant was it possible that all her carefully planned campaign had come to this miserable failure had she come this far only to lose all the expression of her features did not change and she sought desperately to control her emotion but she could not prevent two great tears from welling up in her eyes and slowly rolling down her cheeks

Starting point is 05:46:57 code sat startled and nonplussed only once before in his life had he seen a woman cry and that was when nellie broke down in his mother's house after the fire but the cause for that was evident and the very fact of her tears had been a relief to him now apparently without rhyme or reason elsa melaby was weeping the sight went to his heart as might the scream of a child in pain he wondered with a panicky feeling whether he had hurt her in any way i say elsa he cried what's the matter Don't do that. If I've done anything! He was on his feet and around the little table in an instant. He took her left hand in his left and put his right on her shoulder, speaking to her in broken, incoherent sentences. But his words, gentle and almost endearing,

Starting point is 05:48:04 emphasized the feeling of miserable self-pity that had taken hold of her and she suddenly sobbed aloud. "'Elsa, dear,' he cried beside himself with uncertainty. "'What is it? Tell me. You've done so much for me. Please let me do something for you if I can.' "'You can't, code,' she said, "'unless it's in your heart.'

Starting point is 05:48:32 And then she bowed her beautiful head forward upon her bare arms and wet. After a while the storm passed, and she leaned back. He kissed her suddenly. Then he abruptly turned to the door and went out. Schofield had suddenly come to his senses and disengaged himself from Elsa's embrace. End of Chapter 24. Recording by Roger Maline.

Starting point is 05:49:15 Chapter 25 of the Harbor of Doubt. This Liber Vox recording is in the public. domain. Recording by Roger Maline. The Harbor of Doubt by Frank Williams. Chapter 25. The guilt fixed. It was the following afternoon before Code Schofield ventured on deck. When he did so, it was to find that all naval uniforms had been laid aside, the imitation brass guns forward had been removed, and the schooner so altered,

Starting point is 05:49:51 that she would scarcely have been recognized as the albatross the wireless had been erected again and now the apparatus was spitting forth an almost constant series of messages the crew spotless in dungarees and without a vestige of a weapon manoeuvred the schooner as code had never in his life seen a vessel handled at a word from the officer of the watch they jumped as one man every order was executed on the run and all sails were swayed as flat and taut as boards code found elsa ensconced with a book under the awning amid ships big comfortable wicker chairs were about and the deck so lately cleared for action had an almost home-like look did you sleep well asked the girl with an entire lack of self-consciousness as though the episode of the night before had never occurred. Code was very thankful for her tact and much relieved. It was evident that their relations for the remainder of the four days' journey north were to be impersonal, unless he chose to make them otherwise. This he had no intention of doing, after his morning's battle with himself. "'Like a top when I got started,' he replied. "'And you?'

Starting point is 05:51:20 "'Bendedly, thanks. And you should have seen the breakfast I ate. I am a shameful gourmand when I am at sea.' He took a chair and filled his pipe. "'By the way, how long have you been out on this cruise? You weren't aboard, were you, the time the mystery schooner led the revenue steamer such a chase?' "'No,' she replied, "'but I wish I had been. I nearly died when I heard about that.' It was so funny. I have only been aboard about four days. I'll tell you the history of it.

Starting point is 05:51:59 I was having a very delightful dinner up at Malaby House with Mrs. Tanner, Nellie's mother, you know. She looked unconcernedly out to see. When I got a message, part wireless and part telegram, saying that Nat Burns had nabbed you in St. Pierre, and was racing with you. to St. Andrews. Well, I've sworn all along that you shouldn't come to any harm through him,

Starting point is 05:52:27 so I just left Free Kirk Head the next morning on the steamer, took a train to Halifax, and had the schooner pick me up there. Off Halifax they told me that the Nettie B was six hours ahead of us and going hard, so we had to wing it out for all there was in this one. I had provided all the naval fixings before, realizing that we would probably have to use them sometime, and that's all there is to it. Well, Elsa, I'll say this,

Starting point is 05:53:01 that I don't believe that there was ever a schooner built that could out game and out-sail this one. She's a wonder. For a while they talked of trite and inconsequential things. It was very necessary that they become firmly grounded on their new footing of genuine friendship before departing into personalities. And so, for two days, they avoided any but the most casual topics. As the weather was exceptionally warm, with a spicy salt breeze that seemed to bear the very germ of life in its midst,

Starting point is 05:53:39 they had breakfast and luncheon on deck, dining below in the rosy little dining room. thirty-six hours before they expected to catch the fishing fleet it had been manoeuvred so that code should be restored to the charming lass after dark elsa opened the subject of code's trouble with nat burns it was morning and his recent days of ease and mental refreshment had made him see things clearly that had before been obscured by the great strain under which he labored code told her the whole thing from beginning to end leaving out only that part of nat's cumulative scheme that had to do with nelly tanner he showed elsa how his enemy had left no stone on turn to bring him back home a pauper a criminal and one who could never again lift his head among his own people even though he escaped years in prison it was a brief and simple story but he could see elsa's face change as emotions swept over it her remarks were few but he suddenly became aware that she was harboring a great and lasting hatred against nat he did not flatter himself that it was on his own account nor did he ask the reason for it but the knowledge that such a hatred existed came to him as a decided surprise when he had finished his narrative she sat for some little time silent and you think then she asked at last that his motive for all this is revenge because his father happened to meet death on the old may

Starting point is 05:55:27 so far it has seemed to me that that can be the only possible reason what else but now wait a moment while i think he went below into his room secured the old log of the m c burns and the artificial horizon together they read the entries that michael burns had made now elsa said code by way of explanation it was a dead sure thing that nat could never have beaten me in his schooner and for two reasons first the may was a naturally faster boat than the old MC, although Nat would never admit it. That is what really started our racing. Secondly, I am only telling the truth when I say that I can out-sail Nat Burns in any wind from a zephyr to a typhoon. He is the kind of chap, in regard to sailing, who doesn't seem to have the feel of the thing. There is a certain instinct of forces and balance that is either natural or or acquired. Nats is acquired. Why, I can remember just as well when I was eight years old, my father used to let me

Starting point is 05:56:48 take a short trick at the wheel in good weather, and I took to it naturally. Once on the banks in a gale when I was only eighteen, the men below said that my trick at the wheel was the only one when they got any sleep. Now, those two things being the case, Elsa, How did Nat Burns expect to win the second race from the May? I don't know. It doesn't seem possible that he could win. Of course it doesn't, and yet his father writes here that Nat swears he can't lose. Well, now, you know, a man that swears he can't lose is pretty positive. Did he try to bet with you for the second race? asked Elsa.

Starting point is 05:57:38 did he i had five hundred dollars at the bank and he tried to bet me that i never bet because i've never had enough money to throw it around a good deal changed hands on the first race but none of it was mine i raced for sport and not for money and i told nat so when he tried to bet with me if i had raced for money i couldn't have withdrawn that day and gone to st John Piccargo the way I did. Then it seems to me that he must have known he couldn't lose, or he would not have tried to bet. Exactly. But how could he know it? That is what I would like to find out.

Starting point is 05:58:29 Code absently thrust his hand into his coat pocket and encountered the mirror he had found aboard the Nettie B. He drew it out and he had found. polished its bright surface with his handkerchief. Elsa was immediately interested, and Code told her of its unexpected discovery. And he had it, she cried, laughing. Of all things!

Starting point is 05:58:55 Yes, and he always wanted it. I remember when Father first gave it to me, and I was working out little problems in astronomy, Nat used to take the thing and handle it and admire it. you see the back and edges are silver-plated and it is really quite valuable he tried to get his father interested but so far as i know never succeeded it was a strange thing but that simple mirror appealed to nat tremendously and you know how that would act on a man of his nature he is and always has been utterly selfish and if there was any object he wanted and could not have it increased his desire but how did he get it i wonder asked the girl taking the object and heliographing the bright sun's rays from the polished surrographing the bright sun's rays from the polished surroghirt surface. When did you have it last?"

Starting point is 05:59:55 Code knitted his brows and thought back carefully. He had an instinctive feeling that, perhaps in this mirror, lay the key to the whole situation, just as often in life the most unexpected and trivial things or events are pregnant with great moment. "'I had it,' he said slowly, thinking hard. let me see. The last time I remember it was the day after my first race with Nat. In the desk that stood in the cabin of the old May, I kept the log, my sextant, and a lot of other things of that kind. In a lower drawer was this mirror, and the reason I saw it was this. When I had made fast to my moorings in the harbor, I immediately went below to me. make the entry in the log about the race.

Starting point is 06:00:53 Naturally, I couldn't leave that undone. I remember I looked in the top drawer for the book, but didn't find it. So then I looked in the other drawers, and, in doing so, opened the one containing the mirror. I distinctly remember seeing it, for the lamp was lighted, and the glass flashed a blinding glare into my eyes.

Starting point is 06:01:18 You see, we rinked. raced in about the worst winter weather there was, and the lamp had to be lighted very early. The logbook wasn't there, and I found it somewhere or other later, but that hasn't anything to do with the case. I never saw the mirror after that, in fact, never looked for it. I took for granted it had gone down with the May, along with all my other things, except the logbook, which I saved and used now aboard the, the lass." "'And you didn't take it out or give it to anybody?' "'No, I am positive of that. I didn't touch it after seeing it that once.'

Starting point is 06:02:03 "'Then it is very plain, Code, that if Nat Burns came into possession of it, he must have taken it himself. He was very angry with you for winning, wasn't he?' "'Terribly!' for once i thought he might be dangerous and kept out of his way until the thing had worn off a little just like him said elsa in that tone of bitter hatred that code had heard her use before when speaking of burns he must have gone aboard the may and taken it because you prized it so much a fine revenge yes but we don't do those things in freerkhead elsa you know that we don't steal from one another's trawl lines and we don't prowl about other men's schooners i can't understand his doing a thing like that perhaps not but if not explain how he got it you're right code admitted after a moment's thought that's the only way they were silent for a while pondering over this new development and trying to discover where it might lead under sharp commands the crew brought the schooner about on the starboard tack for the wind was on the bow and set a stasel between the fore and the mainmasts

Starting point is 06:03:37 the splendid ship seemed to skim over the surface of the sea touching only the tops of the waves no it's no good broke out code suddenly much as i hate nat burns i don't believe he would come aboard my schooner just for the purpose of stealing a silver-plated mirror that isn't like him he's too clever to do anything like that and besides what kind of a revenge would that be for having lost the race well what can you suggest how else did he get it elsa was frankly sceptical and clung to her own theory he might have come aboard for something else mightn't he and picked up the mirror just incidentally he might have yes but what else would bring him there code sat rigid for a few minutes he had such a thought that he scarcely dared consider it himself it's all clear to me now he said in a low hoarse voice nat came aboard to damage the schooner so that he would be sure to win the second race code the cry was one of involuntary horror as elsa remembered the tragedy of the may hate nate though she might this was an awful charge to lay at his door then he killed his own father if what you say is true she added breathlessly oh the poor wretch the poor wretch

Starting point is 06:05:25 yes that solves it went on code who had hardly heard her that solves the entries that michael burns made in his ship's log before he went to st john on his last business trip nat swore he could not lose and the old man who was honest enough himself must have wondered what his son was up to this mirror proves that nat must have been aboard the schooner secretly what he told his father and his eagerness to bet with me on a proposition that seemed foolhardy on the face of it clench the thing in my mind the misguided fool that elsa is an example of how low a man will go who has been spoiled and brought up without the slightest idea of self-control why you're preaching to me code laughed the girl and he joined her but she sobered in a moment this is all very fine theory she said and i half believe it myself but it's worthless you haven't a good enough yet you haven't grain of proof tell me have you ever thought over the details of the sinking of the may only once groaned and i-i hate to do it elsa i'd rather not every time i think of that awful day i sweat with sheer horror every incident of it is engraved on my brain but listen code you must think about it for one once and think about it with all your mind tell me everything that happened it is vital to our case it may save the whole thing from being worthless even if we get nothing you must make the effort

Starting point is 06:07:27 code knew that what else has said was true with an effort he focused his mind back on that awful day and began there was a good sea that day he said and more than half a gale out of the north-east if it had been any other day i shouldn't have taken the old may out at all because she was loaded very deep but the whole trip was a hurry call and they wanted me to get back to mignon with the salt as soon as i could old burns saw me on the wharf and asked me if he could go along his passenger i said he could and we started early in the morning now that day wasn't anything unusual elsa i've been in a lot worse gales in the may but not with her so deep but i didn't think anything unusual elsa i've been in a lot worse gales in the may but not with her so deep but i didn't think anything would happen. Everything went all right for three hours, with the wind getting fresher all the time, and the vessel under four lowers, which was a pretty big strain on any schooner. As I say, she should have stood it, but all of a sudden, on a big lurch, the four topmiss

Starting point is 06:08:46 that hadn't a rag on her broke off short and banged down, hanging by the guys. With one swipe it smashed the foregaff to splinters, and half the canvas hung down flapping like a great wing. I couldn't understand it. I knew the topmast was in a weakened condition, but not as rotten as punk, and I supposed my foregaff was as solid a piece of timber as ever went into a vessel.

Starting point is 06:09:19 But listen, as Elsa started to speak, That isn't all. The flapping canvas, with part of the gaff, pounded around like the devil let loose for the ten seconds before we couldn't loosen the halliards and lower away the wreckage. But in that time, it had parted the mainstay in two like a woman snipping a thread. Mind that, Elsa, a steel mainstay, an inch thick. I never heard of one parting in my life. before. Things were happening so fast that I couldn't keep track of them, and now, just at the crucial minute, the old maid jibed, fell off from the wind, and went into the trough of the sea. A great wave came then, ripped her rudder off, I found this as soon as I tried to use the wheel, and swept the decks, taking one man. Meanwhile, the mainmast, with one stay gone, was whipping from side to side like a great loose stick. I put the wheel in the becket and in one jump released the mainsail throat halyards, while another fellow released the peak.

Starting point is 06:10:39 The sail came down on the run in the lazy jacks, and the men jumped on it and began to crowd it into some kind of a furl. i jumped back to the wheel and tried to bring her up into the wind but i might as well have tried to steer an ocean liner with a sculling sweep not only was her rudder gone but the tiller ropes were parted on each side it was damaged beyond repair once i read in school the funny poem of an american named holmes it was called the one hushche and it told about an old shez that after a hundred years of service suddenly went to pieces all at the same time and the same place even in that time of danger the memory of the one hushche came to me and i think that time of danger the memory of the one hoss shay came to me and i think that time of the one hushay came to me and i think that time thought that the May Schofield was doing exactly the same thing, although only half is old. And then what happened? asked Elsa, who had sat breathless through Code's narrative. There's not much more to tell, he said, with an involuntary shudder. It was too much for the old

Starting point is 06:11:58 girl, with that load in her. She began to wallow and drive toward the wolves that I had caught a glimpse of through the scud. She hadn't got halfway there when the mainmast came down, bringing nearly everything with it, and hung over the starboard quarter, dragging the vessel down like a stout hanging to a duck's leg.

Starting point is 06:12:23 After that, it was easy to see she was doomed. We chopped away at the tangle of wreckage whenever we got a chance, but that wasn't often, because, in her present, position, the waves raked her every second, and we had to hang on for dear life. And then she began to go to pieces, which was the beginning of the end. All hands knew it was to be every man for himself.

Starting point is 06:12:53 We had no life preservers, and our one big dory had been smashed when the wreckage came down. Code's face was working with suppressed emotion, and Elsa reached out her hand. and touched his. "'Don't tell me any more,' she said. "'I know the rest. Let's talk about the present.' "'Thanks, Elsa,' he said gratefully. "'How long have you thought that the schooner was a second, one hush-shea?'

Starting point is 06:13:27 "'Until this talk with you. I would never have thought anything else. It's the logical thing to think, isn't it?' all my neighbors at freakirk head except those who believe the evil they hear have told me half a dozen times that that is what must have happened to the may she had lived her life and that last great strain combined with the race the week before was too much for her i simply could not explain those things happening yes but you can now can't you she asked coolly. Reluctantly he faced the issue, but he faced it squarely.

Starting point is 06:14:14 Yes, I can. Nat expected me to sail the May in a race, so he weakened my topmast and mainstay. Of course, when there is sport in it, you set every kite you've got in your lockers, and, you know, Elsa, I never took my mainsail in yet while there was one standing in the fleet.

Starting point is 06:14:36 even ordinary fishing days. I know it. You've scared me half to death a dozen times with your sail carrying. And mind, Elsa, I've been warned by all the wise acres in Freakirk head that my sticks would carry away sometime in a gala wind. Nat banked on that, too, and it shows how clever he was. For ever since the May sank, I've been. had men tell me I shouldn't have carried four lowers that day. He planned to weaken me where I needed

Starting point is 06:15:13 sail most, and he succeeded. Why, Elsa, that topmist must have been sawed a quarter of the way through, and that mainstay is much again. I don't really believe he did anything to the foregaff. It appeared to be the natural result of the topmust falling, but the damage he did resulted in the wreck of the schooner. And the death of his own father. Yes, Code, we've got him where he is probably the wretchedest man in the world. Fury and hurt pride made him injure the may, so he would be sure to win the second time. And instead of that, fate intervened, sent you on the cargo voyage, and killed his father. Now it is perfectly plain to me, why he is charging you with all these crimes.

Starting point is 06:16:10 Why? Nat is a weak nature, because uncontrolled, and when weak natures do wrong, they suffer agonies of fear that they will be found out. Nat committed this double crime in a momentary passion. Then as the weeks passed by, and the village talked of nothing else, he finally began to fear that he would be found out.

Starting point is 06:16:39 There was no one who could have found him out, but there was that haunting terror of the weak nature. Somebody spoke a word, perhaps in jest, that you must have wanted a new schooner since the May's policy was to run out so soon, and he seized the thought in a frenzy of joy and began to spread rumors. This grip on you gave him courage.

Starting point is 06:17:07 He remembered that his revenge against you was still unsatisfied, and it became clear to him that perhaps, after all, he could get one much more complete. Code, the pitcher of that man's mind is a terrible one to me. He may have hated you before, but just think how he must have hated you after knowing how he had wronged. and was going to ruin you. It is only the one of two people who does the injury,

Starting point is 06:17:40 whose hatred grows. An injured person who is sensible in regard to such matters, as you have been with Nat all your life, throws them off and thinks nothing more about them. So Nat's hatred of you and the fear of discovery, preying on his mind, finally urged him into the course he had taken, And he went into it with open eyes, rejoined Cod, for his plans were perfect.

Starting point is 06:18:12 He pays his crew double wages, and they asked no questions. Had it not been for you, on two occasions, I should have been in jail long before this. Yes, but now that is past. No, interrupted Cod, it isn't, Elsa. he has just as much power over me as he ever had. I am still a criminal at large to be arrested, and you can wager your last dollar that if he can bring it about, I will be picked up by the first gunboat that finds me.

Starting point is 06:18:49 But after all this? Yes, after all this. We have made a beautiful case against him, and it fits, but, Elsa, there's one thing we haven't got, and that is a single word of proof. We haven't enough to even bring a charge against him. Do you realize that? The girl sat back, unable to reply. Code had expressed the situation in a sentence. Despite all they had pieced together, he, Code, was still the man against whom the burden of circumstance.

Starting point is 06:19:30 central evidence rested. Nat was, and always could go scot-free. "'Code, this is terrible,' she said. "'But there may be a way out yet. No man with the right on his side has ever failed to triumph, however black things looked.' "'But how?' he cried despairingly. "'I have racked my brains for some means of closing the net about him, but there seems no way. Now there is not, she returned.

Starting point is 06:20:08 But, Code, you can rest assured, that I will do everything I can. God bless you, he said, taking her hand. You are the best friend a man ever had. End of Chapter 25. Recording by Roger Maline. of the harbor of doubt this librivox recording is in the public domain recording by roger maline the harbor of doubt by frank williams chapter twenty six wetting their salt pete ellenwood alone except for the cook who sat peeling potatoes just outside the galley paced the quarter-deck of the charming lass he seemed to be an older man than that night when goaded beyond enduring by the taunts of the big Frenchman, he had fought a fight that would long be remembered in the streets of the roaring town of St. Pierre.

Starting point is 06:21:24 He felt that he had broken his promise to Ma Schofield that he would keep guard over her boy. Now, for all he knew, that boy was lying in jail at St. Andrews, or was perhaps defending his life in the murderer's pen. The night of the fight had been a wild one for Ellenwood. At the cry of police, the crowd had seemed to melt away from him like the bank fog at the sweep of a breeze. A dozen comrades had seized the prostrate Jean and hurried him away, and Pete, with the instinct of self-preservation, had snatched up his clothes and dodged down a dark alley toward the dirty drinking shops along the waterfront. There, as he dressed himself, he first asked him,

Starting point is 06:22:14 the question, where is code? Then, in a frenzy of remorse, he returned to the street and began a wild and fruitless search all night. Then he accidentally learned that the Nettie B had been in port two days, and that her crew had been ashore on the night of the fracas. Sorrowful, bedraggled, and bruised, he rode out to the charming lass, just as the whole crew was setting out for shore to search for Code and himself. During the night, the barrels of fresh bait had been lightered to the lass, and there was nothing for it but to make sale and get back on the banks as soon as possible, leaving Code to his fate, but carrying on the work he had begun.

Starting point is 06:23:03 In accordance with Code's instructions, Pete automatically became the skipper of the schooner, and he selected Jimmy Thomas as his mate. by nightfall they had picked up the fleet and early the next morning the dories were out then for eight days it had been nothing but fish fish fish never in all his experience had pete seen such schools of cod they were evidently herding together in thousands and had found but scanty food for such great hosts for they bit almost on the bare hook now as he looked around the still sea the white or yellow sails of the fishing fleet showed on all sides in a vast circle not five miles away was the rosanne and to the southward of her the herringbone with mean old jed martin aboard but jonah tanner had tried his best to shake martin but the hard-fisted old skipper knowing and recognizing tanner's nose for fish had clung like a leech and profited by the other sagacity nor was this all the grand mignon fleet there were gloucestermen among it the champion fishers of the world who spent their spare time in drifting past the english boats and hurling salty wit at which pastime they often came off second best there were frenchmen too from the mickland islands who worked in colored caps and wore sheath knives in belts around their waists

Starting point is 06:24:46 pete often looked over their dirty decks and wondered if his late enemy were among them there were also vessels called toothpicks that did an exclusive trawling business never using dories except to rye's underrun the trawls or to set them out. These vessels were built on yacht lines, and because they filled their holes quickly, made quick runs to port with their catches, thus getting in several trips in a season. Also, there were the steam trawlers, the most progressive of the fleet, owned and operated by huge fish firms in Boston or Portland. These were not dependent on the vagaries of the wind and steamed wherever their skippers divined that fish might be. Last of all were the sainers after herring and mackerel, schooners mostly, and out of Gloucester or Nova Scotia ports, who secured their catch by encircling schools of fish that played

Starting point is 06:25:49 atop of the water, with nets a quarter of a mile long, and pursued them in by drawstrings much as a man closes a tobacco pouch. This was the cosmopolitan city that lived on the unmarked lanes of the ocean and preyed upon the never-failing supplies of fish that moved beneath. Among the Grand Mignon boats there was an intense rivalry. In the holds the layers of salted fish rose steadily under the phenomenal fishing. The salt barrels were emptied and crowded out by the cod, hake, and pollock. it was these boats that ellenwood watched with the eye of a hawk for back in free kirk head he knew that bill boughton stood ready to pay a bonus for the first cargo to reach port

Starting point is 06:26:41 now was the time when the advance orders from the west indies were coming up and because of the failure of the season on the island itself these orders stood unfilled one or two of the smallest sloops had already wet their salt and weighed anchor for home, taking letters and messages. But these, Pete knew, could only supply an infinitesimal portion of the demand. What Boughton looked for was a healthy load of fifteen hundred to two thousand quintals all ready for drying. Night and day the work went on. With the first signs of daylight, the dories were swung outboard, and the men took their positions. A catch of two hundred good-sized cod was now considered the usual thing for a hand-liner,

Starting point is 06:27:35 and night after night the piles of silver fish in the pens amid ships seemed to grow in size. Now they dressed down under lantern light, sometimes aided by the moon, and the men stood to the tables until they fell asleep on their feet and split their fingers instead of the fish. then after buckets of hot coffee they would fall to again and never stop until the last wet body had been laid atop of its thousands of brothers the men were constantly on the trawls sometimes they did nothing all day but pick the fish and rebate finding after a trip to the schooner to unload that a thousand others had struck on the long lines of sagging hooks while they were gone it was fast and feverish work and it seemed as though it would never end the situation had resolved itself into a race between the schooners and ellenwood was of no mind to come off second best like a jockey before a race he watched his rivals he knew that foxy by jonah tanner who sometimes looked like an old humpbacked cod himself was his most dangerous rival. Tanner said nothing, but his boats were out early and in late, and the lanterns on his

Starting point is 06:29:05 deck over the dressing-pens could sometimes be seen as late as ten o'clock at night. Visits among the fleet had now ceased, both because there was no time for it, and because a man from another schooner was looked upon as a spy. At the start of the season, it had been expected that Nat Burns, in the Nettie B, would prove a strong contender for Premier honors, but, because of his ceaseless efforts to drive home his revenge, Nat had done very little fishing and therefore could not possibly be in the market. Other Freakirk headmen shrugged their shoulders at this. Nat had the money and could act that way if it pleased him, they said.

Starting point is 06:29:54 But nevertheless, he lost his own. favor with a great many of his former friends for the reason that the whole fishing expedition had been a concerted movement to save the people and credit of the island, and not an exploitation of individual desires. Burns had, with his customary indifference to others, made it just exactly such an exploitation, and the sentiment that had been strong for him at the outset of the cruise was now turning decidedly the other way, although he little guessed this or would have been influenced had he done so. In reality, then, the race for fish was keenest between the charming lass, the Roseanne, and the

Starting point is 06:30:40 herringbone, with three other schooners very close on their heels. At the end of the nine days there was little space beneath the deck planks of the charming lass, but every night Pete would come up slapping his hands free of salt and say well boys i guess we can crowd another day's work into her and the exhausted men would gather themselves for another great effort as they rolled forward into their bunks every twenty-four hours they did crowd another day's work into her so that she carried nearly a hundred and fifty tons and the dripping brine had to be pumped out of the hold. It was the night of the day that opened this chapter. The lanterns by which the men had dressed down had been lifted from their supports, the cod-livers dumped into the gurry-butt and the tables removed from the rails. The two men on the first watch were sharpening the splitting knives on a tiny grindstone

Starting point is 06:31:47 and walking forward occasionally to see that the anchor and trawl-boy lights were burning. the still air resounded with the snores of the exhausted men forward in the forecastle silently out of the darkness a dory came toward the schooner pulled by the brawny arms of two men in the stern of the oncoming boat sat a solitary figure who strained his eyes toward his destination the dory was within fifty yards of the lass before the men on deck became aware of it approach. Then, fearing some evil work in connection with the last desperate days of fishing, they rushed to the bulwarks and challenge the newcomers. They did not see, a mile away, a schooner without lights, gently rising and falling on the oily sea. "'Who is that?' demanded one man, but he received no answer except, "'A friend!'

Starting point is 06:32:51 and the boat continued its stealthy approach it drew alongside the ladder in the waist and the man in the stern sheets rose kent of the lass's crew leaned over the side and threw the light of his lantern upon the man by god he cried like one who has seen a ghost it's the skipper end of chapter twenty six recording by roger maline chapter twenty seven of the harbor of doubt this librivox recording is in the public domain recording by roger maline the harbor of doubt by frank williams chapter twenty seven the reward of evil the nettie bee was surging north nearing cape breton nat burn sat moodily on the top of the house and watched the schooner take em green over her bows within the last day a fog with a wind behind it had drifted across the lead-colored ocean and now although the fog was gone the wind was still howling and bringing with it a rising sea the equinoxes were not far off and all skippers had a weather eye out and paid a special attention to the stoutness of lashings and patched canvas never had burns ben in a blacker mood and never had he better cause he was three days from st andrews and there he had become acquainted with several fats the first was that no canadian gunboat by the name of albatross had called at said port and left any prisoner by the name of code schofield in fact such gunboat had not called at all

Starting point is 06:34:57 investigation at the admiralty office proved to nat that the real albatross had reported from st john's newfoundland on the very day he supposed he had met her as the waters near st andrews and st john's are several hundred of miles apart nat was not long informing the opinion that he had been duped fuming with rage he began to investigate gradually he learned the story from sailors and wine-shops and general hearsay of the mysterious schooner that had twice saved code schofield from actual capture and had aided him on one or two other occasions one man said he had heard of a retired naval officer named foraker who was supposed to be in command as a matter of fact there was a captain foraker aboard the schooner who had heard of a captain foraker aboard the schooner who was supposed to be in command as a matter of fact there was a captain foraker aboard the schooner who navigated her and instilled the run and jump discipline that had so excited code's admiration outside of this vague fact nat's knowledge was scant he was ignorant of who owned the swift vessel he would never have connected elsa malaby with her in ten years of hard thinking all he did know was that some unknown agency was suddenly at work in behalf of the man he hated he notified the admiralty that a strange schooner had impersonated the gunboat of h i m george the fifth and gave a very accurate description of her as this was a new offense for the vessel that had already interfered with justice twice the skippers of all the revenue cutters along the coast bent the

Starting point is 06:36:47 their energies to capturing or sinking this semi-paradical craft upon the receipt of radiograms to that effect. Not only had Nat set the machinery of the law in motion against the mystery schooner, but he had provided against any future dabbling with his constabulary powers by the simple expedient of having with him an officer of the law who was empowered to bring the accused murderer of Michael Burns before the bar of justice without transfer. When the supposed gunboat had removed the prisoner from his deck and borne away, for a while, on the course to St. Andrews, Nat, relieved of responsibility, ran over to Grand Mignon and into the harbor of Freakirk Head.

Starting point is 06:37:39 His purpose in this was twofold, and treacherous in both cases. First, he lost no time in spreading the details of how Code Schofield had been captured in a drunken brawl at St. Pierre and was fighting the jailers in St. Andrews. Secondly, he had a long private interview with Bill Boughton, in which he tried to get the storekeeper to sign a contract for his, Burns's, fish at a certain price. while the former was a meanness of a hideous kind this latter move was one of treachery against the men of frekirk head the worst part of it was that nat had about a hundred quintals of splendid-looking cod every pound he had caught in his hold and these he handed over to boughton as a sample of what was to come from him very shortly bouton was hard up for fish for none had come from the banks and bought them at a big price but as to the signing of the contract he demurred when nat could not explain why he had caught so few fish in such a long time the storekeeper became wary and refused to commit himself finally he agreed to the price if nat would deliver a thing thousand quintals before any of the rest of the fleet arrived home consequently it was up mainsail and sway em flat and a fast run north for the nettie b during his day's stay in free kirk head he had received a great bag of mail for the men of the fleet from their women-folk at home and this he had in his cabin now all distributed and tied into bundles one for each schooner

Starting point is 06:39:38 so that they could be easily sorted and thrown aboard as he met them burns caught the fleet of a thursday morning just as they had dropped anchors after making a night berth and the dories were out sampling the ground and the fish it was just three days after code had arrived aboard the charming lass again as nat worked his way in and out among the vessels throwing their mail aboard attached to pieces of coal he kept an eye out for the rosan one very important piece of business that had brought him north was a reconciliation with nelly tanner and he meant while his men were out in the dories to accomplish this first at last he sighted her near the very front line of the fleet the charming lass he could not see for code had taken a different direction from the rosan and was one of the score of sails scattered around the horizon but nat was in no great hurry to get him on the minute if the mystery schooner were attended to then it would be merely a matter of time until the capture of code he ranged up astern at the rosanne with a cheery yell and let go his anchor ordering the dories over the side in the same breath but his aspirations received a chilling setback from none other than by jonah tanner himself the old man had been sleepless for a week trying to nose out the last for the top hall of the fleet and here was a young scapegrace who came and cast anchor within a hundred yards of his chosen ground nat laughed carelessly at the storm of abuse that rattled over the stern of the rosan and rode over to the rosean and rode over to the

Starting point is 06:41:33 over to her in his dory with a package of mail. "'Forget it, Papa,' he said, easily insolent, as he climbed over the rail in the teeth of a broadside. "'We're not going to foul your rodent or steal your fish. I've just come to make a call and tell you the news from home.' He handed by Jonah a couple of letters and a package containing those of the men. Two others he kept in his hand. For a few moments he chatted with the old man,

Starting point is 06:42:08 telling him what had happened in Freakirkhead. Then he asked for Nellie, whom he had not seen. As he asked, she came up out of the cabin, having just finished breakfast. She was dressed in white this morning, a white canvas blouse, with a broad blue collar and V-neck held to mutter. a stricture by a flowing blue tie, a white duck skirt and whitened shoes, a costume that set off

Starting point is 06:42:38 her pink cheeks and bright eyes. Since the violent emotions of the fire at the head, her courtship and her self-analization since her split with Nat, she had seemed to become more of a woman. Nat had not the slightest doubt but that Nellie by this time would have recovered from her angry pet of their last interview. He was very certain that their ruction had only been temporary. Nellie was unfainly glad to see him. He stretched out his arms to her impulsively, but she refused him, and he laughed the rebuff off good-naturedly. "'Oh, did you bring any letters for me?' she cried eagerly. He held out the two he had kept in his hand.

Starting point is 06:43:29 oh goodness nat only from mamma and ludy basle you excited me so he spread a tarpaulin amid the clutter amid ships and they sat down she excused herself and began to read her letters first opening the one from the girl friend which as such letters usually do contained nothing of importance then she opened the one from her mother it was long and she settled back to the pleasure of deciphering it nat smoked and whistled and looked out to sea waiting for her to finish therefore he did not observe the changes that passed across her face near the middle of the letter the color rose to her forehead in a hot wave but at the end it had receded leaving her pale methodically she folded the letter and returned it to its envelope well dearest he said cheerfully all through now i want to talk to you he reached for her hand but she withdrew it beyond his reach and looked at him with the steady brown eyes whose level gaze he hated come on now nelly he said impatiently stung by her relentlessness you ain't goin to be mad forever about that other time are you i was out of temper and said things mother was up to malaby house for dinner a little while ago interrupted nelly as though she had not heard him yes that's good fine place ain't it as i was saying i forgot myself they talked about us too mother says that's nearly all they talked about about

Starting point is 06:45:26 must have been short a conversation and i want to say nelly that i'll try never to speak like that to you again i mother says she learned things about you that she never had imagined before persisted nellie with quiet insistence but again nat did not seem to have heard her with an awkward motion he drew from his pocket the little glazed paper box that contained the engagement ring please he said i want you to take this again he was in earnest it's strange elsa malaby should be able to tell mother things about you nat lost his patience he had tried his best to make peace and the girl was only baiting him for her own amusement what the deuce is all this about that malaby woman he asked i should think you'd listen to me nelly if you will listen to me first then i'll listen to you as long as you like i agree he said thrusting the ring by the ring by the first then i'll listen to you as long as you like i agree he said thrusting the ring by box back into his pocket. Only make it short, will you, little girl?' "'Yes, I will,' she promised, without smiling. "'I merely said that Mother and Mrs. Malaby had discussed you and me, and our marriage,

Starting point is 06:47:03 and that Mrs. Malaby had said some things about you.' "'Well, lots of people do that,' he smiled. "'Yes.' but they haven't said just this thing nat what was that i'm going to let you think just suppose that mrs mallaby hated you very much and wanted to do you harm what would she tell my mother the girl pale and on the verge of an hysterical outburst watched his face out of her mask of self-control the blood beneath his tan receded and was replaced by a sickly greenish hue that flash had brought its memory a memory that had lain buried beneath the events of his later life did she know how could she know to the girl watching him there was a girl watching him there was a memory that had lain buried beneath the events of his later life did she know how could she know to the girl watching him there was confirmation enough she was suddenly filled with inexpressible distaste for this man who had in days past smothered her with caresses and dinned into her ears speeches concerning a passion that he called love i see it is all true she said quietly

Starting point is 06:48:29 this is all i have to say now i will listen to what you are going to tell me a few minutes ago that is if you still wish to say it nat read his doom in those few calm words the things that had been in his mind to say rose and choked his throat the thought of the ring in his pocket seemed like profanation he gulped twice and tried to speak but the thing he gulped twice and tried to speak but the thought of the ring in his pocket seemed like profanation he gulped twice and tried to speak but the the words clotted on his tongue. Still, she sat quietly looking at him, politely ready to listen. With the horrible croaking sound he got to his feet, looked irresolutely at her for a moment, and then went to the side where his dory lay. She next saw him rowing dazedly to the Nettie B, and then she turned her face from the sight of him. and suddenly into her mind long prepared came the thought of code schofield amid the chaos of her shattered ideals his face and figure rose more desirable than all the earth

Starting point is 06:49:44 oh heaven give him to me some time she breathed in a voice of humble prayer nat burns went back to his schooner squarely defeated for the first time in his life. Humbolded and cringing like a whipped dog, he made his dory fast to the Nettie's rail and slunk aft to the solitude of his cabin. He was glad that even the cook was looking the other way. She has flouted me, and the whole of Grand Mignon will know it, he said to himself. Then they will want to know why, but that is a little of Grand Mignon will is easy enough to lie about. Hang, that Maliby woman! Who would ever think she'd squeal? Yes, and Schofield, the smug crook.

Starting point is 06:50:40 They're the two that are doing the damage to me. Nat's lifelong knowledge of Codes and Nellie's affection returned to him now, with a more poignant pang of memory than he had ever experienced. With the hopeless ego of a totally selfish nature. He laid his calamity in love to activity on Code's part. He was pretty well aware of Elsa's extravagant favoritism of Code, and he immediately figured that Code had enlisted Elsa on his side to the ruin of Nat. "'So, I've got to beat him all now, have I?' he asked grimly, his jaw setting with an ugly click.

Starting point is 06:51:26 "'Scofield and Malaby, and, yes, while I'm about it, Tanner, too. "'The old man never liked me. The girl hates me, "'and I wouldn't mind giving him a dig along with the rest. "'Just to show him that I'm not so easy and peaceful as I look. "'But how?' "'For a considerable space of time he sat there, his head low on his breast and his eyes half closed as his brain went over scheme after scheme the detective that nat had brought from st andrews stuck his head down the cabin and remarked look here captain i want to arrest my man and get back why don't you hunt up that ship and let me finish i've got something a lot better on hand dirky remarked nat with the

Starting point is 06:52:25 grin, rising from his chair, a plan having leaped full-blown into his mind. Just stick along with me, and you'll get your men all right. He went outside and called the men in with a revolver shot and a trawl tub run to the masthead. It was about noon when they came in, and after eating, three o'clock passed before they had finished dressing down. Any of you boys run across a dory from the Nighthawk? asked Nat as the men came inboard with their shower of fish. Yes, said a youth.

Starting point is 06:53:06 I've found one of them, and he told me the hawk's luck was Jonah this trip. Where's the packet lion? About twelve miles southeast near the edge of the bank. Nat went to the wheel himself. up jib and forsel he song out and sway em flat mainsails and topsails after that raymond overhaul the balloon stasles and tracel maybe we'll drive her a little forward through burns found the nighthawk in a patch of sea by herself more or less deserted by the other schooners because of the jonah report that had gone abroad concerning her her dories were just coming in from the day's work partially loaded with fish hello bald nat is billy stetson aboard billy was the skipper yes you want to see em yes send em along over it's mighty important but i ain't goin aboard no jonah boat tell him he'll be glad he came presently stephenly stephen

Starting point is 06:54:22 and the two retired into the cabin of the Nettie B. End of Chapter 27. Recording by Roger Maline. Chapter 28 of the Harbor of Doubt. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Roger Maline. The Harbor of Doubt by Frank Williams. Chapter 28. The Race.

Starting point is 06:54:57 It was dawn of a heavy, dark day. there was a mighty sea-rolling and a forty-mile wind off the cape shore that promised a three-day ruction the charming lass at her anchor reared and plunged like a nervous horse weighty with fish she struggled heroically up the great walls of water only to plump her sharp boughs into the hollow with a force that half buried her between times she wriggled and capered like a dancing elephant and jerked at her cable until it seemed as though she would take her windless out in the midst of all this code schofield struggled aft and began hauling forth the mainsail that at the first edge of the bank had been relegated in favor of the triangular riding sail pete ellenwood saw him and in a great voice bawled down the hatchway to the forecastle salt's wet boys the skipper's hauling out the mainsail at which there broke forth the most extravagant sounds of jubilation and all hands tumbled up to help bend it on the crew of the last did not know it but by jonah tanner and the rosanne had actually been gone twelve hours having stolen away from the fleet before dressing down the night before when darkness had fallen and so successfully had jed martin stolen by jona's thunder that he had left but three hours later when the fish had been dressed schofield was honest with himself and he waited until morning to see if the great stack of fish would not settle enough to allow of another day's work to be crowded in but when he saw that space above the fish was very small he waited no longer

Starting point is 06:56:47 four men heaved on the windless brakes and the others got sail on her as fast as they could haul halliards she started under jib jumbo fore and mainsail with the wind a little on her port quarter and every fiber of her yearning to go when the sails were apparently flat as boards schofield made ellenwood rig pulleys leading to the middle of the halliards so that the men could sway on them she was fit as a racing yacht her load was perfectly distributed and she trimmed to a hairbread an hour later they snored down upon the night hawk the last vessel at the edge of the fleet better hurry megaphone stetson tickled with himself burns cleared six hours ago for fre kirk head with a thousand quintal he's got boutin sued up to buy him too bring her to snarled code and the lass groaning and complaining at the brutality whirled up into the wind enough to take her sticks out burns is goin home you say and with fish Where'd he get him? From me. I sold him my whole load at a better price than I would have got if I had waited to fill the hawk's belly and then gone home.

Starting point is 06:58:14 Gave me cash and threw in a lot of bait, so I'll stay right out here and get another load. Pretty good for a Jonah, what? Ha! The man roared exasperatingly. Damnation, rapped out Schofield. "'Lively now. Topsel's honor, and two of you stay aloft to shift tax if we should need to come about.' "'Hey, you,' bawled Stetson, as the last began to heal to the great sweep of the wind. "'There's two ahead of him, by Jonah Tanner and Jed Martin. Better hurry if you're going to catch the market.'

Starting point is 06:58:54 "'Hurry, is it?' growled code to himself. "'I'll hurry so some people won't know who it is.' it was the first time that code had occasion to drive the lass for the mignon fishermen heretofore had confined their labor to the shoals near home or at farthest on the nova scotia coast the present occasion was different between where he lay and the friendly sight of swallow-tail light was more than eight hundred and fifty miles of wallowing tumbling ocean treacherous shoals under ran it biting rocks pierced up in sawtoothed reefs the bitterest gales of all the seas swept in leaden wastes it was a cutthroat business this mighty pull for the market but upon it not only depended the practical consideration of the highest market prices but the honor and glory of owning the fastest schooner out of free kirk head the task of the charming lass was delightful in its simplicity but fearful in its arduousness jimmy thomas came aft and stood by the wheel on the port side it took two men to handle her now for the vast dead weight in her hold flung her forward and sidewise despite the muscular clutch on the wheel and when she rolled down she came up sluggishly

Starting point is 07:00:27 isn't she a dog though code exclaimed jimmy in admiration look at that now rose to it like a duck see her now just a playin with them waves just a playin oh she's a dog skipper a dog i tell ye driver she loves it i'll drive her jimmy don't you worry before i get through some fellows i know wish they'd never heard of driving he motioned pete ellenwood aft with a free hand tell the boys said code that what sleepin they do between here and home will be on their feet for i want all hands ready to jump to orders they can mug up all day and night but let nobody get his boots off ay ay sir replied pete involuntarily this bright-eyed firm-mouthed skipper was a different being from the cheerful careless boy he had been familiar with for years there was the ring of confidence and command in his voice that inspired respect look out there jump for it the head of the lass went down with a sickening swoop and the sickening swoop and the side of the sands sound of thunder. Our great, gray-and-white wall boiled and raced over her boughs. Ellenwood leaped for the weather-rigging, and the other two clutched the wheel, as they stood waist-deep in the surge that roared over the taff-rail and to leeward.

Starting point is 07:02:04 "'Pass the lifelines, Pete,' ordered Code, and all hands passed stout ropes from rigging to house to rail, forward and astern, so that there might be something to leap for when the lass was boarded by a Niagara. Ellenwood got out two stout lines and made one fast around Codes' waist, leading it to the starboard bit. The other fastened Jimmy to the port bit, so that if they were washed overboard, they might be hauled back to safety and life again. "'Looks like she was blowing up a little,' remarked Pete. later in the day as the last rolled down to her sheer poles in a sudden rain squall better take in them topsils hadn't he skipper take in nothing snapped code across the cabin table any canvas that comes off this vessel between here and freakirk head blows off unless we have passed all those schooners ahead of us haven't raised any of em have you

Starting point is 07:03:11 not yet skipper but we ought to by night said ellenwood as though he felt he was personally to blame but let me tell you something skipper it's all right to carry sail but if you get your sticks ripped out you won't be able to get anywhere at all if my sticks go let em go i'll take my medicine but i'll tell you this much pete that nobody is going to beat me home while i've got a stick to carry canvas unless they have a better packet than the charming lass which i know well they haven't that's the spirit skipper ye'll Ellenwood, secretly pleased. There is no telling exactly what speed certain fishing schooners have made on their great drives from the banks. Some men go so far as to claim that the old China tea clippers have lost their laurels both for daily runs and for passages up to four thousand miles. One ambitious man hazards his opinion, and he is one who ought to know, that a fishing schooner has done her eighteen knots or upward for numerous individual hours for fishermen even on record passages fail to haul the log sometimes for half a day at a time

Starting point is 07:04:33 scofield however took occasion to have the log hauled for one especially squally mile and the figures showed that the lass had covered fifteen knots in the hour seventeen and a half land miles she was booming along now seeming to leap from one great crest to the next like a giant projectile driven by some irresistible force she was canted at such an angle that her lee rail was invisible under the boiling white and her deck planks seemed a part of the sea the course was almost exactly southwest and that first day the lass roared down the atlantic passing the wide mouth of cabot strait that leads between newfoundland and nova scotia into the gulf of st lawrence they passed one of the quebec and montreal liners and took pleasure shooting the schooner under her flaring boughs the next morning at seven twenty-four hours out found them three hundred and fifty miles on their course but what was better than all showed three sails ahead then did the crew of the charming lass rejoice climbing into the spray-last rigging and yelling wildly against the tumult of the waters nor did the wind subside it had gone to forty-five miles an hour over night and in landlocked harbors the skippers of big steel passenger vessels shook their heads and refused to venture out into the gale as well as could be judged the nettie b roseanne and herringbone were nearly on even terms twenty miles ahead all with every stitch set and flying like leaves before a wind

Starting point is 07:06:28 bend on balloon gib snapped schofield when he had considered the task before him pete ran joyfully to execute the order but some of the men hesitated up with her roared pete and up she went a great concave hollow of white like the half of a pair the lass's head went down and now instead of attempting to go over the waves she went through them without argument tons of divided water crashed down upon her decks and roared off over the rails the men at the wheel were never less than knee-deep the sheet's the sheets strained the timbers creaked and the sails roared and back of all were the wind and the north atlantic in hot pursuit by noon it could be seen that the three vessels ahead were commencing to come back but with terrible slowness code lashed in the weather rigging studied them for more than an hour through his glasses then he leaped to the deck hell's bells no wonder we can't catch em burns has got stasles set and i think tanner has too couldn't see martin set stasles all hands under the driving of ellenwood the stasel was set and from then on the charming lass sailed on her side at every roll her sheer poles were buried and it seemed an open question whether she would ever come up or not it was at this time that tip o'neill a daring young buck of frekirk head performed the highly dangerous feat of walking from her main to her fore-rigging along the weather run

Starting point is 07:08:23 which fact shows there was foothold on her uppermost side for a man crazy enough to desire it that ellenwood and the daring jimmy thomas were thoroughly in accord with schofield's preposterous sail-carrying was a foregone conclusion but others of the crew were not of the same mind an hour more here or there seemed a small matter to them as compared to the chance of drowning and leaving a family unprotected and unprovided for. Schofield sensed this feeling immediately it had manifested itself, and he called his lieutenants to him. He wished to provide against interference. How's the halyaid's aloft? he commanded, and at this even those two daring souls stood aghast,

Starting point is 07:09:16 for it meant that whatever the emergency, no sale could be taken off the charming lass. with the end of the halliards aloft no man could reach them in time to avert a catastrophe you're sure driving her skipper roared pete in amazed admiration up them halliards go oh lord but she's a dog and she'll stand it so up the halliards went and with them went a warning that whoever jumped to loosen them would get a gaff-hook in his breeches and be hauled down ignominously this time when the log was hauled for the hour from three to four in the afternoon it showed a total of seventeen knots or a fraction under twenty miles for the hour and best of all the three flying schooners had come back five miles by ten o'clock that night code judged they had come back five more and knew that the next day would bring the test they were not in over-deep water here for the coast of nova scotia is extended for miles out under the sea in excellent fishing shoals and banks at artiman bank they switched their course to westward so as to pass inside of sable island and around cape sable in the shoelest water possible down across western they roared and almost to la abe before midnight came

Starting point is 07:10:56 Now it is one thing to sail like the flying Dutchman with the sun up and one's eyes to use, but it is another to career through the night without taking in a stitch of canvas, trusting to luck and the providence that watches over fishermen, that the compass is good and that no blundering coasters will get in the way. When dawn broke wild and dirty, the charming lass was reeling through the water less than a quarter of a quarter of a mile astern of the Roseanne and the herringbone. Through the murk, Code could see the Nettie B three miles ahead.

Starting point is 07:11:35 An hour, and she had drawn abreast of her two rivals. Another hour, and she had left them astern. Day had fully broken now, and Cod, grinning over his shoulder at the defeated schooners, gave a cry of surprise. For no longer were there two only. another plunging through the mist had come into view far back she was but carrying a spread of canvas that gave indications enough of her speed but code spent little time looking back he gripped the wheel set his teeth and urged the last forward after the nettie with every faculty of his power after that terrible night the crew had lost their fear and worked with enthusiasm some hands were always at the pumps when they could be worked for besides the brine from the fish gathering below

Starting point is 07:12:34 code feared the vessel had spewed some oakum and was taking a little water forward now too the horrible stench of riled bilge water floated over all compared to which an aged egg is a bouquet of roses at eight o'clock that morning they rounded cape sable at the tip of nova scotia and laid a course a trifle west of north for the final beat home there was a hundred miles to go and by bern still held his three-mile lead by herself and loaded only with ballast the nettie was a better sailor in a beating game for she was older and heavier than the charming lass but now she had but a thousand quintal of fish compared to the sixteen hundred of her rival this difference gave the lass much needed stability without which she could never have hoped to win from the burn schooner the two were therefore about equally matched and it was evident that the contest would resolve itself into one of sail-carrying seamanship and nerve that other feller's comin up fast said pete ellenwood and code looked back to see the strange schooner looming larger and larger in his wake he knew that no vessel in the grandmignon fleet could ever have caught the lass the way he had been driving her and yet she was not near enough for him to get a good view of her if she's a fisherman said code i'll pull the lass out of water before she beats us in it was killing work the last beat home heartily would come the command and some men would

Starting point is 07:14:29 go down into the smother of the lee rail and haul in or slack away sheets while others at the mastheads would shift top and stasel tacks her head would swing there would be a minute of thrashing and roaring of gear and the gale would leap into her sails and bend her down on her side again then away she would go the station of those on deck was a good two-handed grip on the ring bolts under the weather rail where so great was the slope of the deck they clung desperately for fear of sliding down and into the swirling torrent hour after hour the netty and the lass fought it out and hour after hour the gale increased hurricane warnings had been issued all along the coast and not a vessel ventured out but these staunch fishing vessels cared not a whit it was evident however that something must give human ingenuity had not constructed a vessel that could stand such driving even pete ellenwood began to lose his heartiness as the lass went down and stayed down longer with each vicious squall shut up pete said code when the mate started to speak no sails comes off but what blows off and while there's all sail on the netty i carry all sail if i heave her down for it watch him he'll break burns is yellow the words were a prophecy he had hardly uttered them when down came the great balloon jib of the nettie b at once the lass began to gain in great leaps and bounds

Starting point is 07:16:22 they were fifty miles from home and two miles only separated them but fortune had not finished with code half an hour later there came a great sound of tearing like the volley of small arms and the lass's balloon jib ripped loose and soared to heaven like some gigantic wounded bird let it go curse it growled code anyway i didn't take it down the loss of her big jib was the only thing that saved the lass from being hoved down completely for two hours later the gale had reached its height and she was laboring like a drunken man under her stasel topsail and four lowers twenty miles from home and the two schooners were abreast tacking together on the long leeward reaches and the short windward ones as they made across the bay of fundy look at her comin like a race-horse cried ellenwood again and this time code recognized the vessel that was pursuing them it was the mystery schooner and in all his life at sea code had never seen a ship fly as that one was flying then wonder what she's up to now he asked vaguely but he gave no further thought to the matter for the nettie b claimed all his attention suddenly from between the masts of the burns schooner a great flutter of white appeared as though some one had hung a huge sheet from her stay ha i told you he was yellow shouted code in glee somebody's cut away one edge of the stasel now we've got em and they had for within a quarter of an hour they left the nitty bee astern finally defeated nat burns's last act of treachery gone for nothing

Starting point is 07:18:25 but the mystery schooner would not be denied though the lass made her seventeen knots the wonderful malaby schooner did her twenty with everything spread in that gait and when the white lighthouse of swallow-tail point was in plain sight through the murk she swept by like a magnificent racer and beat the charming last moorings by twenty minutes half an hour behind schofield came the burns boat but in that time code schofield had already hurried ashore in his dory and clinched his sail price with bill boughton who also assured him of the bonus offered for the first vessel in like code the first thing nat did when his schooner had come up into the wind with jib and forsel on the run was to take a dory ashore in it besides himself was a man these two encountered code just as he came out of bouton's store the second who was tall and broad-shouldered threw back his coat and displayed a government shield. Then he laid his hand on Code's arm. Captain Schofield, he said, you are under arrest. End of Chapter 28. Recording by Roger Maline. Chapter 29 of the Harbor of Doubt. This Livervox recording is in the

Starting point is 07:20:08 public domain. Recording by Roger Maline. The Harbor of Doubt by Frank Williams. Chapter 29 A Fatal Letter For the last of many days the lighthouse-keeper had watched from his airy for the coming of the fleet, and had not been disappointed. His horse and buggy stood by the tower doorstep, and into it he leaped, whipping up the horse with the same motion. Then down the road he had flown like Paul Revere rousing the villagers,

Starting point is 07:20:43 and followed by an excited, half-historical procession. of women and children. So thick had been the murk and scud that he had only caught sight of the approaching leader while she was a bare two miles off the point. And even when Nat had landed, the crowd was momentarily being augmented from all the houses along the King's Road

Starting point is 07:21:06 and as far south as Castalia. When the officer of the law laid his hand on Codes' arm and spoke the words that meant imprisonment and disgrace in the verse, heart of the village festival, a groan went up that caused the officer to look sharply about him. Despite the work Nat had done on his brief stop at the head, Code was the hero of the day, for he had come in with the first cargo of fish and had won the distinction of being the first to affect the salvation of the island.

Starting point is 07:21:42 Oh, let him go, said a voice. He ain't going to run away! nat standing behind his captive turned sharply upon the offender no you bet he ain't he snapped he'd been doin that too long already he's got somethin to answer for this time into the harbor at that moment swept the tanner's rosan and abreast of her the steamer from st john's five minutes behind came jed martin's herringbone and the first of the fleet was safely end. As the discontented and muttering mob followed code toward the little jail back of the odd fellows' hall, none noticed that the lovely schooner that had led the procession in

Starting point is 07:22:33 was stealing quietly out again into the thick of the gale. And those who did notice it thought nothing of it in the excitement of the moment, probably judging her to be some coaster who had run, in to look for a leak. She had been tied up just ten minutes at the Malaby Wharf. As the sorry procession passed the Schofield cottage, Codd's mother ran out, sobbing, and threw herself upon him. She had not seen her son before, although Orphan Josie had told her the lass was in, for Cod had been closeted with Boughton, and now her first glimpse of him was as an accused criminal. But regardless of watching eyes and public opinion, she walked all the way to the

Starting point is 07:23:25 jail with him and went inside, and the two were absolutely oblivious to their surroundings, so overjoyed were they to see each other and so intimate was their companionship. Along the edge of the crowd, great Pete Ellenwood slouched, looking with dimmed eyes at mother and son. ain't she the mother though he said to himself just like a girl she is not a day past thirty by her looks the jailer who was regularly employed as janitor of the free baptist church opened the little house for his unexpected guest it consisted of a room fitted for sleeping and a cell these were not connected but were not connected but were side by side facing the passage that ran through from front to back of the building code was taken to the cell and only his mother and pete stayed with him to talk over the situation it was determined to have squire hardy come over in the evening as it was now five o'clock and give his opinion on the legal situation ma schofield went home and prepared her boy's supper her herself and brought it with her own hands for him to eat code was in the best of spirits at his success of the afternoon and had no fear whatever as to the outcome of his present situation

Starting point is 07:24:59 pete had gone away for an hour and moscowfield had taken the dishes back home when the detective came in saying that a little girl who called herself josie had come with a message code asked to see her and the great-eyed dark little thing wept bitterly over him for to her fourteen years he represented all the heroes of romance even as she passed him the message she knew that she could never love again and that she would shortly die of a broken heart code kissed her promptly forgot her presence and opened the note it was from elsa we'll be down to see you to-night at eight have sent a note to nat in your name telling him to be there too i think we have him on the hip so be sure and have the squire and the officer present code wondered vaguely how they had nat on the hip as he had been unable to find a single iota of proof to push home the case he and elsa had built up against him the note brought him stark awake and eager for the conference he had begun to drowse after a good home dinner and sixty hours without sleep but this acted like an electric shock he was keen and alert for he knew that this was the night of his destiny either he should triumph as he had in the grueling race or he should have to face the ignominy of transfer and legal proceedings at st andrews's at half-past seven squire hardy his round red face fringed by snowy whiskers came in he dragged a chair into the passageway in front of the bar

Starting point is 07:26:57 and was beginning a long and laborious law opinion when the detective who had been to miss shannon's boarding-house for dinner returned the two began to fight the matter out between them when at a quarter to eight now nat came in dressed in his best clothes and smoking a land cigar well what do you want of me schofield he asked you sent for me but you needn't try to beg off i won't listen to it now go ahead on the instant a feminine voice was heard outside and a moment later elsa malaby stepped into the little four-foot passage oh how many there are here she said in a surprised voice perhaps code i had better wait until later hey roscoe sung out code hardly able to control his desire to grin bring mrs mallaby a chair roscoe obeyed and added two more so that all were placed within a small compass just outside code's cell from elsa melaby's first entrance nat had observed her with a certain flicker of fear and hatred in his eyes she on the other hand greeted him with the same formal cordiality she had used toward the others though utterly incongruous in such surroundings she seemed absolutely at her ease and instantly assumed command of the situation excuse me said nat who had not sat down and shifted from one foot to the other but schofield sent for me and i would like to find out what he wants i've got to go along

Starting point is 07:28:55 scofield didn't send for you i sent for you there are several things about this imprisonment of code that don't look right to me and we may as well settle the whole business once and for you for all while we are here together now mr dirkey she said turning to the detective would you mind telling me what the charge is against captain schofield to tell you the truth ma'am said he respectfully there are two charges out against him one by the insurance company sues for recovery of money paid on the schooner may scoffield and charges that the said schooner was sunk intentionally. First, because Schofield wanted a newer boat, and second, because the policy of the May was to expire in a few days and could not have been renewed except at a much advanced rate. And the other charge?

Starting point is 07:30:02 Is for murder in the first degree, growing out of the intentional sinking of the schooner. captain burns is the complainant thank you she flashed one of her radiant smiles at him and made him a friend for life that was a great race to-day she remarked irrelevantly but with enthusiasm how much did you beat the nettie b code a half an hour he replied mystified at the turn of the conversation well that is a coincidence she looked from one to the other it's exactly the same amount of time he beat you seven months ago when he raced the old may against the m c burns isn't it her glance shot to nat why i believe it is mrs mallaby he stammered the quick transition to that painful and dangerous period had caught him off his guard. "'That was a great race, too,' she said cheerfully. "'And it's too bad you never sailed the second one,

Starting point is 07:31:18 especially after you wanted to bet so much. You thought you would win the second race, didn't you, Nat?' She was sweetness itself. "'Why, yes, I thought so,' he admitted guardedly. "'But I don't see what all this has got to do—' it hasn't very much, she said deprecatingly, but I was just interested. What made you so sure you would win that second race that you tried to bet? Oh, I don't know, he answered easily. I just had confidence. In what, Nat Burns? Your schooner had easily been beaten the first time,

Starting point is 07:32:04 and she was notoriously slower than the May. every one in the island knows that you can't sail a vessel like code schofield can and that you are afraid to carry sail to-day proved it anybody with half an eye could see that that stasel was cut with a knife and didn't blow off all these things being so what made you so sure that you would win that second race seven months ago nat looked at her steadily his nervousness had gone apparently and he was his old crafty self once more that is none of your business mrs mallaby he said insolently and now if you'll let me pass i'll keep an engagement mr dirkey she said please keep mr burns here until we have entirely finished yes ma'am i will said the hypnotized man and nat after a glare around upon the unsympathetic audience slumped down into a chair and smote sullenly steady as she goes my friend broke in squire hardy looking at nat answer the lady's question what made you think you would win i refuse to answer to answer, said Elsa.

Starting point is 07:33:39 I will answer for him. Code, kindly, let me have the log of the M.C. Burns? Schofield drew the old book from his pocket and handed it through the bars. Then, Elsa, opening it to the last pages, read aloud the few entries that Code had discovered that day when he was a prisoner

Starting point is 07:34:03 aboard the Nettie B. As she read it, read the silence was intense but all eyes were upon nat who startled at the sudden appearance of this document he had so long forgotten chewed savagely upon his dead cigar his face had grown pale and his rough hands were clasped tightly together you see said elsa when she had finished that burns had determined upon the winning of his next race it is perfectly clear is it not the breathless circle nodded it was a strange setting for the working out of the drama overhead a suspended oil lamp flamed and smelled outside the crash of surf against the rocks came to them and the wind whistled about the eaves of the little stone building now the mirror she said to code and still wondering he handed the trinket to her tell about this she directed him with a smile and a long look from her deep dark eyes and code told them he told of the time his father first gave it to him of his experiments in astronomy and of gnats coveting the mirror he told of that night after the first race when he had looked for the log-book of the may and had seen the mirror in its drawer

Starting point is 07:35:38 he told of its final discovery in the secret box of the store-room on the nettie as he talked the memory of the wrongs against him flamed in his breast and he directed his story at nat who sat silent and immovable in the corner if i found this aboard the nettie it proves that he must have come and got it he cried he boarded the old may but it was not for this that he came what then asked hardy to damage the schooner so that she would break down under the strain of the next race flared code facing nat dramatically burns only clenched his jaws tighter on his cigar you don't believe this perhaps squire but listen and i'll tell you how the old may sank and once again he described the crashing calamity aboard the overloaded boat as she struggled home to frekirk head with the last of her strength you squire you've sailed your boats in your time you know that never could have happened even to the old may unless something had been done and something was done burns had weakened the topmist and the mainstay all eyes were fixed on nat but he did not move he was very pale now but apparently self-possessed suddenly with a hand that appeared firm he removed the cigar from his mouth and cast it on the floor that he said with deadly coolness is a bluish blasted fine plot that you have all worked out together, but every word of it is a lie,

Starting point is 07:37:35 for the whole thing is without a single foundation in fact. Prove it! I'll give you a last chance, Burns, said Elsa, in a level voice that contained all the concentrated hatred that Code had detected in her before. Dismiss these charges against Code. Never! The word was catapulted from him, as though by a muscular convulsion. He murdered my father, and he shall pay for it. Without a word, Elsa rose from her chair and walked back into the adjoining room. A moment later, she reappeared, leading a beautiful girl who was perhaps twenty years old.

Starting point is 07:38:24 The effect was electric. The people in the little girl. group seemed frozen into the attitudes they had last assumed. Only in Nat Burns was there a change. He seemed to have shrunk back into his clothes until he was but a little, wizened man. His face was ghastly and clammy perspiration glittered on his forehead in the lamplight. "'Caroline!' he cried in a hoarse voice that did not rise above a whisper.

Starting point is 07:38:58 yes caroline said elsa her black eyes flashing fire you had forgotten her hadn't you you had forgotten the girl who loved you that you drove away from the island you had forgotten the girl that gave you everything and got nothing but that has come back upon you now and these people are here to see it even your father in his log-book mentioned when my sister left grandmignon apparently to work in the factory at lubac as though my sister should ever work in a factory so this explains why she went that time said squire hardy gently we all wondered at it elsa we all wondered at it and well you might but he is the cause and he wouldn't marry her i have waited for this chance of revenge and now he shall pay caroline fuller who was even more beautiful than her sister looked at nat in a kind of daze suddenly there was a spasmodic working of her features oh that i could ever have loved him she said in a faint voice here elsa read it to them all from under her cloak she drew a crumpled envelope which she passed to her sister with a snarl like that of a wild animal nat leaped from his chair toward the girl but dirky struck him violently and he reeled back into it

Starting point is 07:40:47 you swore you burned them all muttered nat you swore it you swore it yes and she did the innocent child all but this one that she had mislaid in a book you once sent her cried elsa but i found it burns where do you think i've been all this while at st john's where she lives with my aunt and do you think there was no reason for that letter being saved god takes care of things like this and now you've got to pay nat burns i knew there would come a time i knew there would she was still standing and she drew the letter out of the envelope look squire code any of you who know is this nat's writing yes they all declared as the letter passed from hand to hand read it said the squire forcing caroline fuller to sit down in his chair i'll spare him hearing the first of it said elsa it is what men write to women they love or feign to love and it belongs to my sister but here she turned the first sheet inside out listen to this involuntarily they all leaned forward all except dirky who went over and stood beside nat the latter gave no sign except a dry rattling sound in his throat as he swallowed involuntarily i've got him caroline i've got him she read he'll beat me again will he well not if i know it everybody in the head seems tickled to death that he's got him

Starting point is 07:42:48 he won, but you know how little that means to me. It is simply another reason why I should beat him the next time. Dearest little girl, it's the easiest thing in the world. I've just come back from going over the May. It's midnight, and the thing looks good. You know Schofield is a great hand to carry sail. Well, when you hear about the race, maybe you'll hear that his fore-topmast came down on a squall. If you don't, I'll be much surprised, for I've attended to it myself,

Starting point is 07:43:28 and I don't think it will take much of a squall. Maybe you'll hear, too, that his mainstay snapped, and his sticks went into the water, all because he carried too much sail. I shouldn't be surprised. I've attended to that, too. so i guess with his foretopmast cracked off and his mainstay snapped the old m c ought to romp home an easy victor if she is an old ice wagon i tried to get schofield to bet but he's so tight with his cash he wouldn't shake down a five-cent piece good thing for him though he doesn't know it

Starting point is 07:44:13 nothing would do me more good than to get his role the virtuous old deacon she stopped reading as a rumble of mirth went around the circle code in the role of a virtuous deacon was a novelty even the hard lines of elsa's face relaxed and she smiled albeit a trifle grimly that's all she said folding up the letter and putting it back into the envelope the rest is personal and not ours now mr dirky if you still care to consider captain schofield as the defendant in those two suits i want your arguments i don't mrs mallaby said the detective and called the frekirk head jailer but i know who is going to take schofield's place he glared at nat burns who cowered silent and miserable in his corner despite his sailing as nat's guest he had never brought himself to like the man and now he was glad to be well rid of him code stepped out a free man and his first action was to take both of elsa's hands and try to thank her her eyes dropped and she blushed when he had stammered through his speech he turned to caroline fuller and repeated it but the sad smile she gave him tore at his heart i came because elsa asked me to save a friend she said not because i wished to revenge myself on nat i am glad it was you for i would do anything on earth for elsa

Starting point is 07:46:07 code turned mystified eyes upon mrs mallaby i thought you did this to revenge yourself on nat he half whispered i did partly she resumed she resided replied. She lifted her eyes to his, and he saw something in them that startled him, something that, in all his association with her, he had never seen before. He stood silent, amazed, overwhelmed, while she turned her face away. End of Chapter 29, recording by Roger Maline. Chapter 30 of the Harbor of Doubt This Librivox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Roger Maline.

Starting point is 07:47:03 The Harbor of Doubt by Frank Williams. Chapter 30. Elsa's triumph Code Schofield's appearance at his schooner the next morning to help the crew unload was the signal for a veritable native sum demonstration. Not only had the story of Code's sudden liberation, and gnat's as sudden imprisonment spread like wildfire cleared his southern head light twenty miles away but the tale was hailed with joy for nat had come into his own in the hatred of his town folk among the fleet he was heartily unpopular because he had not fished all season and then had tried to catch the first market with the purchased cargo merely to revenge himself on code in the

Starting point is 07:47:55 the tanners. Throughout his conduct had been utterly selfish, whereas others had worked for the island and for its salvation. With the landing of the two schooners from the fleet, the women folk were soon apprised of Nat's action, and had it not been for Elsa's sensational disclosures in the little jail that made him the sudden occupant of a cell, there is no question but that the women of Marblehead would have been equaled by the women of Freakirk head, and Skipper Ierson would not have ridden down history alone in Terry glory. But now, since Code was free, the whole town exulted, and there was a steady procession to the jail to look in upon the first real criminal the village had mustered in years.

Starting point is 07:48:46 Code, after checking the scale tally all morning, as his stalwart men swung the baskets of salted fish out of the hold, went along the road to Squire Hardy's house after dinner and interviewed that worthy man. You've got him where you want him, said the squire, but you can't get much except damages. I don't want even damages, said Cod. I want him to take all his things and go away from here and never come back. Since he didn't do any real damage to anybody, I don't care what becomes of him so long as he leaves here. Well, all you must do is to withdraw your charges against him. They were put in your name so that Mrs. Malabies would not have to appear.

Starting point is 07:49:41 But even if I do, won't the state take it up? you know a murder case yes my boy but this is no murder case now on the face of it nat did not set out to murder his father he did not set out really to sink your schooner merely to disable it the proof is indisputable and self-evident by his own confession and letter well now in a private racing agreement between gentlemen if the man Both vessels are registered and rated seaworthy. Nothing that happens to one can be laid to the other, unless, as in the present case, one deliberately damages the other. The principal punishment is a moral one administered by the former friends of the dishonest man, but the victim can collect money damages.

Starting point is 07:50:38 Naturally, the insurance company will change its charge so as to accuse Nat instead of you. they have a proven case against him already and he will have to pay them nearly all they gave you so that in the end he really pays you for the damage he did that day then i understand he is going to pay an amount to the family of each man who lost his life in the may on condition that they will never sue him whew whistled code when he gets through he will he won't have much money left, I guess. No, I guess he won't, agreed the judge. And it serves him right. He'll probably have to sell his schooner and start life over again somewhere else. I hope he starts honestly this time.

Starting point is 07:51:36 Then you won't take any action against him, code? Me? Oh, no, said Schofield. I've nothing against him. him now. Let him go. But I'll tell you one thing, squire. He had better be smuggled away tonight quietly, because if the crowd gets hold of him, it might not be good for his health. The squire agreed, and Code went back to his work. Late that afternoon, Pete Ellenwood swung the last basket of the catch to the scales,

Starting point is 07:52:11 and Cod completed his tally. 1,670 Quintel, he announced, and 43 pounds. At 100 pounds a quintal, that makes 167,078 pounds, and at three cents a pound totals to $5,012.34. Not bad for a two-month's cruise, but my soul and body, Bill Bouton, how the fish did run. It's a good catch, Code, and fine fish, answered Bouton, who had been writing. How will you have the money, in a lump or individual checks?

Starting point is 07:53:00 Separate checks. Bouton went back to his glass-surrounded desk to write them. Code, being the sole owner of the charming lass, took $2,000 as his share, and the rest was divided almost equally among the other nine men, a trifle extra going to Pete Ellenwood for his services as mate. It was a topping-haul, declared Pete jovially, slapping his well-filled pocket after a visit to the bank. And the rest of them poor devils won't get over two and a half a pound,

Starting point is 07:53:40 some of them only two, when there's lots of fish. Half a cent a pound is a pretty good bonus. Code had dinner with his mother that night, and appeared for it carefully dressed. What was his surprise to see his mother in her one silk dress? I'm going up to Malaby House, he said in answer to her inquiring look. But you? What's all this gaiety, mother? I am going to hear an example.

Starting point is 07:54:13 account of how you behaved yourself on your voyage code she said attempting severity by an eyewitness visions of ellenwood painfully arrayed danced in his head yes oh well i won't be home until late then because it's a long story you rascal said his mother and kissed him on the way to malaby house it was up the old familiar path that he had raced down so recklessly the night of the great fire he thought over the thing that his eyes had seen for an instant the night before in the jail elsa loved him he knew now and she had always loved him he cursed himself for a stupid fool and that it had taken him so long to find out but he was relieved to know at last upon what footing to me meet her. She was no longer a baffling and alluring creature of a hundred chameleon moods. She was a lonely girl. Martin, who had been his body servant while aboard the mystery schooner, opened the door and bowed with decided pleasure at seeing his temporary master. He ventured congratulations that Schofield was free of the law's shadow.

Starting point is 07:55:44 Mrs. Malaby is upstairs, sir, he said, taking Codes hat. Just step into the drawing-room, sir, and I'll call her. It was a sample of Elsa's taste that she illuminated all her rooms with the soft flame of candles, or the mellow light of lamps. The mahogany furniture, much of it very old and historic among the island families, gleamed in the warm lights there were built-in shelves of books against one wall splendid engravings etchings and a few-colored prints of the daughters of louis the fifteenth presently elsa came down the broad staircase her hair was parted simply in the middle and done into two wheels one over each pink ear her dress was a plain one of china silk with a square dutch neck it fitted her splendid figure beautifully never had she appeared to code so fresh and simple

Starting point is 07:56:57 the great lady was gone the keen advocate had disappeared the austere arbiter of frekirk head's destinies was no more she seemed a girl he arose and took her hand awkwardly i am glad you came so soon she said but aren't you neglecting other people i'm sure there must be friends who would like to see you perhaps so but this time they must wait until i have paid my respects to you as far as actions go you are the only friend i have you are getting quite adept at turning afraid she said smiling not as adept as you in turning heaven and earth to liberate an innocent man i have no answer to that she replied but seriously code i hope you didn't come up to thank me again to-night please don't it embarrasses me we know each other well enough i think to do little things without the endless social practice that should accompany them. You've been a dear, he cried, and took one of her hands in his. She did not move.

Starting point is 07:58:26 Elsa, I want you for my wife. What can I say? She began in a low voice. You are noble and good, Code, and I know what has actuated you to say this to me. Some women would be resentful at your own. offer, but I am not. A week ago, even yesterday, I should have accepted it gladly and humbly, but today, no. Since last night I have thought, and somehow things have come clearer to me. I have tried to do too much. I have always loved you, Cod, but I can see now that you were not

Starting point is 07:59:14 meant for me. I tried to win you because of that love, not considering you or others, only myself. And I defeated my own end. I overshot the mark. I don't understand, said Code. Perhaps not, but I will tell you. In the first place, I deliberately managed so that Nat Burns and Nellie could never be manned. married. I know now that they have separated for good. I hated Burns for her part in my sister's life, and I resolved to wreck his happiness, if his engagement to Nellie was happiness. So now she is free, and you can have her, I think, for the asking. But, cried Schofield in protest, I have never said, you did not need to say that you loved someone.

Starting point is 08:00:16 she told him with a faint smile. That night at dinner on the schooner with me proved it. I have talked to your mother since I came home, and she told me what Nat's engagement meant to you so that I know Nellie is the girl you have always loved. Isn't it so? Yes, he replied gently. Now, is it plain to you how I have undone my own

Starting point is 08:00:48 my own plans? Two things I desired more than anything else on earth. You and Burns' ruin. I ruined Burns and paved the way for the loss of you, for unscrupulous as I am in some things, I could never marry you when Nellie was free and you loved her. I have wanted happiness so hard, code that when I see others who have it within their grasp I cannot stand in their way but I don't mind now I really don't that was all in the past and it's over now if you want to make me happy be happy yourself I see there are forces that guide our lives that must have their will whatever our own private plans may be and having a learned that lesson, I feel that perhaps now I shall be happier somehow than I ever would have been if my own selfishness had triumphed. Code lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it. What a splendid woman you are! I know that happiness and joy will come to you. One who has done what you have done cannot fail to realize it. This hour will

Starting point is 08:02:16 always be a very sweet one in my memory, and I shall never forget it. Nor I, she said softly. For through you, I have begun to find myself. End of Chapter 30, recording by Roger Maline. Chapter 31 of the Harbor of Doubt. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Roger Maline. the harbor of doubt by frank williams chapter thirty one peace and prosperity the village of freakirk head prospered once code schofield by jonah tanner and jed martin had started the ball rolling

Starting point is 08:03:15 inside a week another large consignment of fish arrived boughton was ready for it and for all that could come he said in the next two months this was music to the ears of code schofield and the crack crew of the charming lass and nine days after they had picked up their mooring in the little crescent harbor they were off again salt and bait laden for the banks expecting to do a little haddocking if they failed to load down with cod before they disappeared in october seven schooners sailed with him that day and at the end of nine weeks, the last weighed anchor and charged home with the first halibut that had come into Freakirkhead in years. On this trip, when he was left in peace, Code displayed all the remarkable nose for fish that his father had had before him. And when he had weighed out the last of his halibut, Bill Boughton led him into the little office of the fish stand and offered him a quarter interest in the business.

Starting point is 08:04:27 Thereafter, Code was to make only such trips as he could spare time for, and Pete was to have charge of the lass on other occasions. He had proved himself worth his salt in the eyes of the whole village, and Boughton needed someone to do the heavy work while he collected most of the profits. This business future, and $3,000 in the bank, led to the money. code one day to send to St. John's for an architect and to haggle with Al Green concerning the cost of a piece of land overlooking the Blue Bay. The very night that Code and Elsa had their last talk, Nat Burns was smuggled aboard a motor sloop lying in Whale Cove and taken over to Eastport,

Starting point is 08:05:18 where he was turned loose in the United States. Half of the value of the Netty was, was eaten up by his debts and damaged settlements, and so, the better to clear the whole matter up, he sold her at auction inside a week, and departed with the remnants of his cash to parts unknown. Since that time, not a word or trace of him has been heard in Freakirkhead except once. That was when the St. John's paper printed a photograph of an automobile that made a trip across the Hudson Bay country. Beside the machine stood a man in furs who was claimed by all who saw the picture to be Nat Burns. Was he running a trap line in the wilds with the Indians? Or was he a passenger in the car under an assumed name? Elsa Malaby did not even wait for the departure of the charming lass

Starting point is 08:06:19 on her second voyage before she acted on a determination that had come to her. She shut up Malaby House entirely, and with Caroline as her companion, started on a trip around the world, promising to be back in three years. But she did not go on the mystery schooner, nor did anybody ever see or hear of it again. It soon developed that the government of officials were hard after the boat that had impersonated a gunboat and would make it very hot both for owners and crew elsa knew this the day she made her final triumphant dash into freerkirk head and that was the reason that the ship only stayed ten minutes so quietly and skillfully was the whole thing managed that in the excitement of code's arrest every one thought elsa and her sister had come on the evening boat from st john's not three men in the island would have connected her with this strange craft and two of those weren't sure enough of anything to speak above a whisper the third was code schofield captain foraker took the mystery schooner outside the harbor pointed her nose straight south by the compass and held her there for a matter of ten days

Starting point is 08:07:48 at the end of that time he was in danger of pushing haiti off the map so he went to porto prince and sold the schooner at a bargain to the government which at that time happened to need a first-class battleship then captain foraker and the crew divided the money by elsa's orders and returned to the states it was only after the return from his second cruise that code paid attention to nelly tanner something in him that respected her trouble and elsa's confession at the same time had kept his lips sealed during that short stay at home but one sunday after the second trip they climbed to the crest of the mountain back of the closed malabee house and code told her what had been in his heart all these years for a while she said nothing the sun was setting over the distant main coast and the clouds all round the horizon were wonderful masses of short-lived rainbow texture the sea was the pink and greenish blue of floating oil you get me a trifle shop warned she said at last laughing uncertainly then i get you he had turned toward her with a flash of boyish eagerness one look at her radiant face and shining eyes found the answer shopworn he said after a while well so am i a trifle but not in the way you mean if having the down knocked off one and seeing things truer and better for it is being shop-worn then thank god for the wearing

Starting point is 08:09:45 it has been a roundabout way for us little girl but at last our paths have met and from now on god willing they shall go together come i want to show you something they walked through the woods until they found the place where the surveyors had laid out the foundation plan for the little house there they found an interested couple gravely discussing a nearby excavation with the aid of a blueprint presently the couple turned around and the lovers clutched each other in amazement bless me gasped code if it isn't ma and pete ellenwood the end of chapter thirty one end of the harbor of doubt by frank williams

Classic Audiobook Collection - The Harbor of Doubt by Frank Williams ~ Full Audiobook [mystery]

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.