The frantic sacrifice was about to bound away again, when Captain Eri caught him by the arm.
“I'll tell you what,” he said, “we'll scoot for Eldredge's shanty and hide there till she gits tired and goes away. P'raps she won't come, anyhow.”
The deserted fish shanty, property of the heirs of the late Nathaniel Eldredge, was situated in a hollow close to the house. In a few moments the three were inside, with a sawhorse against the door. Then Captain Eri pantingly sat down on an overturned bucket and laughed until the tears came into his eyes.
“That's it, laff!” almost sobbed Captain Jerry. “Set there and tee-hee like a Bedlamite. It's what you might expect. Wait till the rest of the town finds out about this; they'll do the laffin' then, and you won't feel so funny. We'll never hear the last of it in this world. If that darky comes down here, I'll--I'll drown her; I will--”
“I don't blame Jerry,” said Perez indignantly. “I don't see much to laff at. Oh, my soul and body there she comes now.”
They heard the rattle of a heavy carriage, and, crowding together at the cobwebbed window, saw the black shape of the “depot wagon” rock past. They waited, breathless, until they saw it go back again up the road.
“Did you lock the dining-room door, Perez?” asked Captain Eri.
It was a rather senseless question. Nobody locks doors in Orham except at bedtime.
“Humph!” grunted Captain Eri. “She'll see the light in the dining room, and go inside and wait, more 'n likely. Well, there's nothin' for us to do but to stay here for a while, and then, if she ain't gone, one of us 'll have to go up and tell her she won't suit and pay her fare home, that's all. I think Jerry ought to be the one,” he added mischievously. “He bein' the bridegroom, as you might say.”
“Me!” almost shouted the frantic Captain Jerry. “You go to grass! You fellers got me into this scrape, and now let's see you git me out of it. I don't stir one step.”
They sat there in darkness, the silence unbroken, save for an occasional chuckle from the provoking Eri. Perez, however, was meditating, and observed, after a while:
“Snow! That's a queer name for a darky, ain't it?”
“That colored man up at Barry's place was named White,” said Captain Jerry, “and he was black as your hat. Names don't count.”