The story
“College and three years in New York had changed Miriam Starr. Randolph Eagan, as they sat on the rim of his oyster boat, talking over the old days, felt the change all too keenly. And yet, she was the same, too. The same great, frank, laughing eyes looked into his. Little wisps of hair, bronzy-gold in the sun, escaped from under her close-fitting, chic, little hat, and danced in the breeze against her cheeks—exactly as years ago her curls had been wont to fly out from under a pink checked sun- bonnet. Her laugh was the same. She gave him her confidence still. The only real difference was, she had faced the world—and made good. She was a successful, self-reliant young woman. The little girl he had championed as a boy now was able to take care of herself. They were talking that day—and laughing a great deal—over an incident of a dozen years before, when Randolph had whipped Jim Moran for teasing Miriam. Moran was a judge now, and the richest man in Brynport. The following afternoon he saw Miriam. The girl’s beauty stirred in him anew all the old admiration. In less than a week he laid at her feet his name and his fortune. But the judge’s money and position meant nothing to Miriam. When she frankly told him so, the spark of jealousy in his heart was fanned to a raging fire of hate.
“One evening, two strangers arrived in the village. Mr. Battles, quiet and unassuming, found a lodging with Miriam’s Aunt Jane. The other, a man whose very glance was an insult, went straight to the office of the judge. A few days later, Moran caused a circular to be sent out by the Secret Service Bureau offering a reward of $5,000 for the capture of certain opium smugglers. He carried the circular, and photograph which he had received from his out-of-town visitor, to Randolph Eagan. Randolph took up the matter eagerly. With $2,500 a head—his share of the reward—he would dare ask Miriam to marry him. ‘And the reward money is virtually in our hands,’ said Moran. ‘I have learned through secret sources that a shipment of opium is to be left tonight tied to the buoy at Saw-tooth Reef. The smugglers will come to get it, and their capture will be easy.’ An hour before dawn, the judge and Eagan put to sea in the big power boat of the Brynport magnate. When they were within a few hundred yards of the buoy, Moran pointed out cans tied to the float. ‘But I dare not steer closer,’ he said, ‘The boat would go to pieces on the shoals.’
“’I can swim the rest!’ cried Eagan—and disdaining the offer of the life boat, he plunged into the sea. When he reached the buoy, he turned and was surprised to see the motor boat scudding back to port. Moran had an important bit of work to do before the townspeople should be stirring. When he had concealed certain forbidden goods behind a secret panel in his office, he sought the quiet stranger at Aunt Jane’s. Battles listened gravely to the judge’s story of how he had pursued the smugglers, one of whom he had left clinging to the buoy on Saw-tooth Reef. They set out together for the float. Half way across, another power boat, piloted by a figure in oilskins, shot past. Before their eyes the man on the buoy was rescued. Moran, enraged, gave pursuit. But the fugitives were lost among the many small boats in the harbor.
“When the judge and Battles entered the former’s office, a scant half hour later, there, calmly smoking, at the judge’s desk, sat Randolph Eagan. Near the secret panel a figure in oilskins was waiting. Moran started back. Fate had delivered into his hands the longed-for opportunity for vengeance! He laid a heavy hand on young Eagan’s arm. ‘I declare this man under arrest,’ said the judge—and held out a pair of handcuffs to Battles. The fetters closed with a snap, and simultaneously, at a touch of the oil-skinned stranger’s hand, the secret panel slid back. In the vault lay stores of smuggled opium.
“Miriam dropped the oilskin coat and flung off her helmet. ‘I was hidden in the life-boat at dawn this morning,’ she said calmly. ‘I saw and heard everything. Randolph saved me from you years ago—and today I have returned the service. Mr. Battles and I have been in league ever since he came to Brynport. We were both sent out officially—for I, too, am one of the sinews in the long arm of the Secret Service.’
“A cloud passed over the glow of love and pride on Eagan’s face. She had triumphed. Independently of him, Miriam had won the reward which he had dreamed of earning for her sake. More, she had saved his life. He had nothing in the world to offer her, save love. ‘Nothing—only love!’ she laughed, with a little catch in her voice, when at last they were alone together. ‘But that is just the one thing I lack’—she lifted her imploring eyes. Randolph caught her in his arms.”
Summary from Reel Life · 9 October 1915
