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Newburyport. Perhaps the ornaments bad, after all, come from some strange
island; and possibly the wild stories were lies of the bygone Obed himself
rather than of this antique toper.
I handed Zadok the bottle, and he drained it to the last drop. It was curious
how he could stand so much whiskey, for not even a trace of thickness had come
into his high, wheezy voice. He licked the nose of the bottle and slipped it
into his pocket, then beginning to nod and whisper softly to himself. I bent
close to catch any articulate words he might utter, and thought I saw a
sardonic smile behind the stained bushy whiskers. Yes - - he was really
forming words, and I could grasp a fair proportion of them.
"Poor Matt - - Matt he allus was agin it - - tried to line up the folks on his
side, an' had long talks with the preachers - - no use - - they run the
Congregational parson aout o' taown, an' the
Methodist feller quit - - never did see Resolved Babcock, the Baptist parson,
agin - - Wrath 0'
Jehovy - - I was a mightly little critter, but I heerd what I heerd an, seen
what I seen - - Dagon an' Ashtoreth - - Belial an' Beelzebub - - Golden Caff
an' the idols o' Canaan an' the
Philistines - - Babylonish abominations - - Mene, mene, tekel, upharisn - -."
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He stopped again, and from the look in his watery blue eyes I feared he was
close to a stupor after all. But when I gently shook his shoulder he turned on
me with astonishing alertness and snapped out some more obscure phrases.
"Dun't believe me, hey? Hey, heh, heh - - then jest tell me, young feller, why
Cap'n Obed an'
twenty odd other folks used to row aout to Devil Reef in the dead o' night an'
chant things so laoud ye cud hear 'em all over taown when the wind was right?
Tell me that, hey? An' tell me why
Obed was allus droppin' heavy things daown into the deep water t'other side o'
the reef whar the bottom shoots daown like a cliff Iower'a ye kin saound? Tell
me what he done with that funny-
shaped lead thingumajig as Walakea give him? Hey, boy? An' what did they all
haowl on May-Eve, an, agin the next Hallowe'en? An' why'd the new church
parsons - - fellers as used to he sailors - -
wear them queer robes an' cover their-selves with them gold-like things Obed
brung? Hey?"
The watery blue eyes were almost savage and maniacal now, and the dirty white
beard bristled electrically. Old Zadok probably saw me shrink back, for he
began to cackle evilly.
"Heh, heh, heh, heh! Beginni' to see hey? Mebbe ye'd like to a ben me in them
days, when I seed things at night aout to sea from the cupalo top o' my
haouse. Oh, I kin tell ye' little pitchers hev big ears, an' I wa'n't missin'
nothin' o' what was gossiped abaout Cap'n Obed an' the folks aout to the reef!
Heh, heh, heh! Haow abaout the night I took my pa's ship's glass up to the
cupalo an' seed the reef a-bristlin' thick with shapes that dove off quick
soon's the moon riz?
Obed an' the folks was in a dory, but them shapes dove off the far side into
the deep water an'
never come up . . .
Haow'd ye like to be a little shaver alone up in a cupola a-watchin' shapes as
wa'n't human shapes? . . .Heh? . . . Heh, heh, heh . . ."
The old man was getting hysterical, and I began to shiver with a nameless
allarm. He laid a gnarled claw on my shoul-der, and it seemed to me that its
shaking was not altogether that of mirth.
"S'pose one night ye seed somethin' heavy heaved offen Obed's dory beyond the
reef' and then learned next day a young feller was missin' from home. Hey!
Did anybody ever see hide or hair o'
Hiram Gilman agin. Did they? An' Nick Pierce, an' Luelly Waite, an' Adoniram
Saouthwick, an' Henry
Garrison Hey? Heh, heh, heh, heh . . . Shapes talkin' sign language with their
hands . . . them as had reel hands . . .
"Wal, Sir, that was the time Obed begun to git on his feet agin. Folks see his
three darters a-
wearin' gold-like things as nobody'd never see on 'em afore, an' smoke stared
comin' aout o' the refin'ry chimbly. Other folks was prosp'rin, too - - fish
begun to swarm into the harbour fit to kill' an' heaven knows what sized
cargoes we begun to ship aout to Newb'ry-port, Arkham, an'
Boston. T'was then Obed got the ol' branch raitrud put through. Some
Kingsport fishermen heerd
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abaout the ketch an' come up in sloops, but they was all lost. Nobody never
see 'em agin. An' jest then our folk. organised the Esoteric Order 0' Dagon,
an' bought Masoic Hall offen Calvary
Commandery for it . . . heh, heh, heh! Mart Eliot was a Mason an' agin the
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sellin', but he dropped aout o' sight jest then.
"Remember, I ain't sayin' Obod was set on hevin' things jest like they was on
that Kanaky isle.
I dun't think he aimed at fust to do no mixin', nor raise no younguns to take
to the water an'
turn into fishes with eternal life. He wanted them gold things, an' was
willin' to pay heavy, an'
I guess the others was satisfied fer a while . . .
"Come in'forty-six the taown done some lookin' an' thinkin' fer itself. Too
many folks msssin' - -
too much wild preachin' at meetin' of a Sunday - -too much talk abaout that
reef. I guess I done a bit by tellin' Selectman Mowry what I see from the
cupalo. They was a party one night as follered Obed's craowd aout to the reef,
an' I heerd shots betwixt the dories. Nex' day Obed and thutty-two others was
in gaol, with everybody a-wonderin' jest what was afoot and jest what charge
agin 'em cud he got to holt. God, ef anybody'd look'd ahead . . . a couple o'
weeks later, when nothin' had ben throwed into the sea fer thet long . . . [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]