“Fetch him a cup, Kipper,” Pa said.
When Kipper returned with the water, Pa thrust a folded blanket under the Captain’s head, and Kipper held the cup to his lips.
“Thankee!” the Captain whispered hoarsely. Then after several deep, painful breaths, he said, “Be she here—the child, Emily Luccock?”
“Right here, Cap’n,” said Kipper. He motioned to Emily to draw nearer the bunk so the Captain might see her.
Emily gathered every ounce of courage she had to cross the room again, this time under the piercing gaze of the stranger standing motionless as a tombstone in the dark corner.
With great difficulty, the Captain turned his head to stare at her hard and long. “Aye, she be the one. And—and the other, fishmonger, be he here, too?”
“Here too, Cap’n,” replied Pa, but he made no move to invite the stranger to the bunk.
“Good! Good! And did ee bring the papers, son?”
“Here, Cap’n.” Kipper thrust the sheaf of papers into Captain Scurlock’s outstretched hand.
“Thankee! Thankee! Now, give me a moment to rest before I speak again.” The Captain’s eyes drifted shut, and for several moments he lay so still it seemed that he had died. But at length his eyes opened once more. With trembling hands he lifted the papers and read wordlessly.
“These be the ones, all right. These be the papers from the lawyer firm of Dowling, Dowling, and Fairwell, stating that Emily Luccock’s pa died a rich man. And Emily’s ma being also dead, all the money being stolen by Plumly and Meeching, Inc. belongs rightfully to the child, Emily. Here!” Captain Scurlock lay his head back with a groan. “Read ’em!”
Kipper took the papers from his hands and parcelled them out to Emily and Pa. After that, the room was silent as they read, except for an occasional “Wheeoo!” from Kipper or Pa. Finally, Kipper looked at Emily. His eyes were huge.
“Dingus, Emily, you’re a hairess!”
“Ain’t any question ’bout that,” said Pa.
“But—but I don’t understand,” stammered Emily. “Why did Aunt Twice tell me Papa died a pauper?”
“Is the Aunt Twice ee speaks of the same as Mrs. William Dorcas Luccock?” the Captain asked weakly.
Emily nodded.
“Well, child, the reason for that is because she received a letter as to that fact.”
“A-a letter?”
“Forgery!” gasped Captain Scurlock. “All letters received by her—forgeries. All letters sent by her, likewise, after being stolen by the earlier mentioned Plumly and Meeching, Inc.”
Emily looked with questioning eyes at Pa and Kipper and turned back to Captain Scurlock. “Why—why are you telling me all these things now?”
“Because I ain’t got long to live, child, and I don’t want more murders on my soul!” groaned the Captain.
“Murders!” Pa blurted out. “In what way murders, Cap’n?”
“So happens, fishmonger, if anything goes amiss with the child, Emily, then all falls to her Aunt Twice. Plumly and Meeching, Inc., courtesy of another forgery, are seeing to it that if anything goes amiss with the child’s Aunt Twice, all falls to them. Ee can pretty well figure out the rest!”
Emily and Aunt Twice to be murdered! Certainly there was no question now that Emily must run away, and with Aunt Twice, if possible.
“But—but what about the old people?” Emily asked. “What is to happen to them?”
“The old people are a sad cover for a very ugly book, child. But far as I know, nought worse will happen to them than has already happened. It was only the above-mentioned murders that caused the fight that did me in. Smuggling and stealing all that loot was one thing, but murder o’ Emily Luccock and her aunt I wanted nought to do with. My first mate Sneed, he wasn’t so particular, so he sided up with Plumly and Meeching, Inc., and I got the business end o’ his knife in my chest!” Moaning with pain, the Captain paused. “Now, for the benefit o’ some in this room, what I say next had best be put in writing. So if someone will take up pen and a piece o’ paper, writing while I speak, I’d be much obliged.”
Kipper ran to the chest at once for pen, ink, and paper, as Pa said, “Kipper, our handwriting ain’t such as most folks can rightly read it. Mayhap Emily best take pen in hand for the Cap’n.”
So it was Emily who knelt down on the floor beside the dying Captain, and by the trembling light of the small brass lantern on the bedpost put down the words that he spoke.
“I, Captain Zacheus Zachariah Scurlock, being o’ sound mind, if not sound body, do hereby confess that Seaman William Dorcas Luccock, o’ the ship Silver Sea, never did commit the murder o’ one Bellamy Q. Biggs, o’ the same ship, five years past after a gambling quarrel, but instead was drugged and had placed in his hand one o’ the bloody knives used to kill the same by Prunella Blossom Plumly, Theodosia Sly Meeching and I, the above-mentioned Captain Scurlock. Whether mine was the one o’ the three knives that finished Bellamy Q. Biggs, I know not, but I cannot go to my maker with it upon my conscience, and I cannot go likewise without proclaiming the innocence o’ William Dorcas Luccock.
“These long years have Plumly, Meeching, and Scurlock, Inc. held the threat of the hangman’s noose over his head, keeping his wife in fear and terror for his life, and taking over the great mansion of Sugar Hill Hall, which by rights belongs to him, though he lost all else by gambling and a wild life, long since regretted.” The Captain took a deep, agonizing breath, gathering strength to continue. “Now quickly, child, for my life is fast fading, give me the pen and paper and let me put my name to it.”
With shaking fingers, Emily placed the pen in the gnarled hand, and the paper under it.
Uncle Twice really alive! Uncle Twice the one all along whom Aunt Twice had been protecting! Uncle Twice, whose very life had hung on her being a prisoner of
