Many people, perhaps most, do not believe in ghosts, but Mermaid1 did and so did her Dad. Uncle Ho was well acquainted with the principal ghosts peopling the beach. Keturah Hand ridiculed2 the idea of their existence. In general, those who had lived on the beach for any length of time were believers or of open mind; those whose visits to the beach had been confined chiefly to all-day picnics thought the legends nonsense.
“Captain Kidd,” stated Keturah, “may have buried a chest of treasure in the bald-headed dune3 with the very steep slope. I know my father used to tell of people digging there to recover it. Kidd was certainly round about here in the Quedagh Merchant or the Antonio; and everybody knows that he stopped at Gardiner’s Island and got supplies and presented Mrs. Gardiner with a bolt of—calico, wasn’t it? If he buried[160] a chest in that dune over there, he, or his crew, certainly may have killed a gigantic negro, spilling his blood over the chest so that his wraith4 would guard the treasure. I think it likely that the crew did it. Seamen5 are always so superstitious6.” Here she looked pointedly7 at her husband, an ex-sailor. “Hosea here, just because they used to cut a cross in the mast to bring a fair wind, started carving8 the bedpost the other day so the wind would blow from the southwest instead of the north. Kidd was, or had been, too much of a gentleman to entertain such low ideas; and if his crew killed the negro and spilled his blood I fancy he washed his hands of it.”
“Of the blood?” interpolated Ho Ha, innocently. His wife looked at him sharply and, without answering, went on:
“But when it comes to that negro’s spirit guarding the treasure, and when it comes to dark, swarthy Spanish ghosts with rings in their ears; and drowned sailors in flapping dungaree trousers, and ghosts of old sea captains, lost passengers, and Heaven knows who else, I, for one, don’t take the least stock in them.”
“Don’t you believe in the Duneswoman, Aunt Keturah?” inquired Mermaid.
“No, not in a Dunesman, nor in the Dunes9 children, unless you mean those eighteen children of old Jacob Biggles that were named after wrecks10 and ragged11 as ghosts,” Mrs. Hand retorted.
[161]“But, Aunt, I’ve seen the Duneswoman,” protested Mermaid. “So has Dad.”
“All you’ve seen is a face and an arm,” corrected Mrs. Hand. “And I can’t find any one else who has seen as much as that. A face and an arm are not a ghost. They’re a—I don’t know what,” she finished.
“A hallucination,” Mermaid offered.
“A hallelujah. That’s what you say when you see one. You say ‘Hallelujah!’” came from Ho Ha.
“When I see one I may say something even more remarkable,” his wife responded, grimly.
It was several nights later when she awoke and uttered a long-drawn scream of terror.
“Hosea!” she cried, clutching her pillow. “Hosea, there’s someone at the window!”
Ho Ha leaped up manfully, went to the window, stuck his head through the netting which was tacked12 on as a screen, and drew it in again.
“Nonsense, Keturah,” he said, gently. “No one in sight except Captain Vanton standing13 on the dune in front of his house.” The Vanton cottage was a dune away, but a valley lay between. “You—why, you must have seen a ghost. Oh, ho-ho-ho!”
He communicated the nature of the disturbance14 to Mermaid in the next room, and when Cap’n Smiley, who slept at the station, came over for breakfast next morning, there was some chaffing about the ghost Keturah had seen.
[162]“I certainly saw something,” said Mrs. Hand, emphatically. “And if it was a ghost it was the ghost of a live man. It had sidewhiskers exactly like Captain Vanton! You all know he prowls around at night. There’s something mighty15 queer about it; but then, everything about that man is queer. When it comes to his looking in my bedroom window, though, I think I shall do something.”
“Oh, pshaw, Keturah,” said her brother. “Vanton may be a peculiar16 fellow, but it’s not likely he walks by your windows. At two in the morning, anyway.”
“You seem to think I have nothing he might covet17, John, but I have a few trinkets that anybody would set a value to!”
“Is that why you hugged your pillow?” inquired her husband, innocently. Keturah gave a little jump and looked about her nervously18, a performance entirely19 contrary to her nature. As if she realized that she had betrayed herself she said, finally: “Well, I wasn’t going to say anything about it but I did bring my stones over here. I felt it wasn’t safe to leave ’em in Blue Port, and of course I sleep with ’em under my head.”
“Stones?” exclaimed Mermaid in mystification. “You don’t mean jewels, do you, Aunt Keturah?”
“Of course I mean jewels,” replied Mrs. Hand, with some asperity20. “I’ve never told you anything about them—young people get their heads turned with such things—but I have every one of the stones that belonged[163] to my aunt, Keturah Hawkins, Captain Hawkins’s wife; and I also have the stones that belong in settings in the curios and things in our parlour. There’s quite a lot of them, and if I weren’t used to a hard pillow I daresay I’d not be able to sleep a wink21.”
“Oh, Aunt, may I see them?”
“I suppose you may, though it’s a lot of trouble to get them out. It’s risky22, too, for some of the littler ones might roll away and get lost,” commented Mrs. Hand.
After breakfast she brought out her pillow and exposed the contents to the two men and the girl. John Smiley had seen the jewels, though not for many years. Ho Ha knew of their existence, but had never seen them and had supposed them secreted23 in Blue Port. To Mermaid their very existence was a revelation, and their beauty a greater one.
All kinds of jewels seemed to be represented, and there were also Eastern stones which none of the four could name. Sapphires24 were especially abundant, very large ones, of darkest blue. They had been Keturah Hawkins’s favourites, but Mermaid worshipped the emeralds which she knew she could have worn in her hair, and the diamonds which would have been no more brilliant than her blue eyes. There were wonderful pearls which needed to be worn to regain25 their finest lustre26, and there were rubies27 of as dark a hue28 as the blood that must have been shed for them. The majority[164] of the gems29 were loose; the pearls were roped, however, and there were a few bracelets30 and other simple ornaments31. All the settings were old and Eastern, suggestive of bare arms and bare necks—bare ankles, too. At least one of the ornaments was an anklet, they conjectured32. Where Captain Hawkins had got them Keturah Hand was unable to say. He had, she supposed, picked them up at various times and in many places. He had visited, in his career, every port from Bombay to Tientsin; Ceylon, Madagascar, and South Africa; Peru he had touched at more than once. And he had sometimes done business by barter33.
After they had admired the jewels Keturah, with Mermaid’s help, checked them off on a list she had and restored them to their hiding place.
The next night, after they had spent the day on the bay in Cap’n Smiley’s small sailboat, pillow and all were gone.
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1
mermaid
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| n.美人鱼 | |
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ridiculed
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| v.嘲笑，嘲弄，奚落( ridicule的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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dune
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| n.(由风吹积而成的)沙丘 | |
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wraith
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| n.幽灵；骨瘦如柴的人 | |
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seamen
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| n.海员 | |
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superstitious
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| adj.迷信的 | |
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pointedly
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| adv.尖地，明显地 | |
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8
carving
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| n.雕刻品，雕花 | |
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dunes
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| 沙丘( dune的名词复数 ) | |
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wrecks
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| n.沉船( wreck的名词复数 )；（事故中）遭严重毁坏的汽车（或飞机等）；（身体或精神上）受到严重损伤的人；状况非常糟糕的车辆（或建筑物等）v.毁坏[毁灭]某物( wreck的第三人称单数 )；使（船舶）失事，使遇难，使下沉 | |
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ragged
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| adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的 | |
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tacked
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| 用平头钉钉( tack的过去式和过去分词 )； 附加，增补； 帆船抢风行驶，用粗线脚缝 | |
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13
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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disturbance
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| n.动乱，骚动；打扰，干扰；(身心)失调 | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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covet
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| vt.垂涎；贪图(尤指属于他人的东西) | |
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nervously
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| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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asperity
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| n.粗鲁，艰苦 | |
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wink
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| n.眨眼，使眼色，瞬间；v.眨眼，使眼色，闪烁 | |
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risky
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| adj.有风险的，冒险的 | |
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secreted
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| v.（尤指动物或植物器官）分泌( secrete的过去式和过去分词 )；隐匿，隐藏 | |
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24
sapphires
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| n.蓝宝石，钢玉宝石( sapphire的名词复数 )；蔚蓝色 | |
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25
regain
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| vt.重新获得，收复，恢复 | |
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lustre
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| n.光亮，光泽；荣誉 | |
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rubies
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| 红宝石( ruby的名词复数 )； 红宝石色，深红色 | |
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hue
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| n.色度；色调；样子 | |
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gems
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| growth； economy； management； and customer satisfaction 增长 | |
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bracelets
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| n.手镯，臂镯( bracelet的名词复数 ) | |
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31
ornaments
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| n.装饰( ornament的名词复数 )；点缀；装饰品；首饰v.装饰，点缀，美化( ornament的第三人称单数 ) | |
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32
conjectured
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| 推测，猜测，猜想( conjecture的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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33
barter
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| n.物物交换，以货易货，实物交易 | |
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