"Dear Mr. Kent,"Peter and I were married yesterday morning, and have taken an apartment in Java, New Jersey. You will be glad to hear that Peter's cough is ever so much better. The lawyers have given Peter his money without the least demur."We both feel that your analysis was simply wonderful. Peter says he doesn't know where he would be without it."Very sincerely,"Alice Kelly."P.S.—I forgot to mention to you that Isaw Peter in the billiard-room. But your analysis was marvellous just the same."
"Dear Mr. Kent,"Peter and I were married yesterday morning, and have taken an apartment in Java, New Jersey. You will be glad to hear that Peter's cough is ever so much better. The lawyers have given Peter his money without the least demur.
"We both feel that your analysis was simply wonderful. Peter says he doesn't know where he would be without it.
"Very sincerely,
"Alice Kelly.
"P.S.—I forgot to mention to you that Isaw Peter in the billiard-room. But your analysis was marvellous just the same."
* * * * *
That evening Kent sat with Throgton talking over the details of the tragedy.
"Throgton," he said, "it has occurred to me that there were points about that solution that we didn't get exactly straight somehow."
"So do I," said Throgton.
VBROKEN BARRIERSOR, RED LOVE ON A BLUE ISLAND(The kind of thing that has replaced the good Old Sea Story)
(The kind of thing that has replaced the good Old Sea Story)
It was on a bright August afternoon that I stepped on board the steamerPatagoniaat Southampton outward bound for the West Indies and the Port of New Orleans.
I had at the time no presentiment of disaster. I remember remarking to the ship's purser, as my things were being carried to my state-room, that I had never in all my travels entered upon any voyage with so little premonition of accident. "Very good, Mr. Borus," he answered. "You will find your state-room in the starboard aisle on the right." I distinctly recall remarking to the Captain that I had never, in any of my numerous seafarings, seen the sea of a more limpid blue. He agreed with me so entirely,as I recollect it, that he did not even trouble to answer.
Had anyone told me on that bright summer afternoon that our ship would within a week be wrecked among the Dry Tortugas, I should have laughed. Had anyone informed me that I should find myself alone on a raft in the Caribbean Sea, I should have gone into hysterics.
We had hardly entered the waters of the Caribbean when a storm of unprecedented violence broke upon us. Even the Captain had never, so he said, seen anything to compare with it. For two days and nights we encountered and endured the full fury of the sea. Our soup plates were secured with racks and covered with lids. In the smoking-room our glasses had to be set in brackets, and as our steward came and went, we were from moment to moment in imminent danger of seeing him washed overboard.
On the third morning just after daybreak the ship collided with something, probably either a floating rock or one of the dry Tortugas. She blew out her four funnels, the bowspritdropped out of its place, and the propeller came right off. The Captain, after a brief consultation, decided to abandon her. The boats were lowered, and, the sea being now quite calm, the passengers were emptied into them.
By what accident I was left behind I cannot tell. I had been talking to the second mate and telling him of a rather similar experience of mine in the China Sea, and holding him by the coat as I did so, when quite suddenly he took me by the shoulders, and rushing me into the deserted smoking-room said, "Sit there, Mr. Borus, till I come back for you." The fellow spoke in such a menacing way that I thought it wiser to comply.
When I came out they were all gone. By good fortune I found one of the ship's rafts still lying on the deck. I gathered together such articles as might be of use and contrived, though how I do not know, to launch it into the sea.
On my second morning on my raft I was sitting quietly polishing my boots and talking to myself when I became aware of an objectfloating in the sea close beside the raft. Judge of my feelings when I realized it to be the inanimate body of a girl. Hastily finishing my boots and stopping talking to myself, I made shift as best I could to draw the unhappy girl towards me with a hook.
After several ineffectual attempts I at last managed to obtain a hold of the girl's clothing and drew her on to the raft.
She was still unconscious. The heavy lifebelt round her person must (so I divined) have kept her afloat after the wreck. Her clothes were sodden, so I reasoned, with the sea-water.
On a handkerchief which was still sticking into the belt of her dress, I could see letters embroidered. Realizing that this was no time for hesitation, and that the girl's life might depend on my reading her name, I plucked it forth. It was Edith Croyden.
As vigorously as I could I now set to work to rub her hands. My idea was (partly) to restore her circulation. I next removed her boots, which were now rendered useless, as I argued, by the sea-water, and began to rub her feet.
I was just considering what to remove next, when the girl opened her eyes. "Stop rubbing my feet," she said.
"Miss Croyden," I said, "you mistake me."
I rose, with a sense of pique which I did not trouble to conceal, and walked to the other end of the raft. I turned my back upon the girl and stood looking out upon the leaden waters of the Caribbean Sea. The ocean was now calm. There was nothing in sight.
I was still searching the horizon when I heard a soft footstep on the raft behind me, and a light hand was laid upon my shoulder. "Forgive me," said the girl's voice.
I turned about. Miss Croyden was standing behind me. She had, so I argued, removed her stockings and was standing in her bare feet. There is something, I am free to confess, about a woman in her bare feet which hits me where I live. With instinctive feminine taste the girl had twined a piece of seaweed in her hair. Seaweed, as a rule, gets me every time. But I checked myself.
"Miss Croyden," I said, "there is nothing to forgive."
At the mention of her name the girl blushed for a moment and seemed about to say something, but stopped.
"Where are we?" she queried presently.
"I don't know," I answered, as cheerily as I could, "but I am going to find out."
"How brave you are!" Miss Croyden exclaimed.
"Not at all," I said, putting as much heartiness into my voice as I was able to.
The girl watched my preparations with interest.
With the aid of a bent pin hoisted on a long pole I had no difficulty in ascertaining our latitude.
"Miss Croydon," I said, "I am now about to ascertain our longitude. To do this I must lower myself down into the sea. Pray do not be alarmed or anxious. I shall soon be back."
With the help of a long line I lowered myself deep down into the sea until I wasenabled to ascertain, approximately at any rate, our longitude. A fierce thrill went through me at the thought that this longitude was our longitude, hers and mine. On the way up, hand over hand, I observed a long shark looking at me. Realizing that the fellow if voracious might prove dangerous, I lost but little time—indeed, I may say I lost absolutely no time—in coming up the rope.
The girl was waiting for me.
"Oh, I am so glad you have come back," she exclaimed, clasping her hands.
"It was nothing," I said, wiping the water from my ears, and speaking as melodiously as I could.
"Have you found our whereabouts?" she asked.
"Yes," I answered. "Our latitude is normal, but our longitude is, I fear, at least three degrees out of the plumb. I am afraid, Miss Croyden," I added, speaking as mournfully as I knew how, "that you must reconcile your mind to spending a few days with me on this raft."
"Is it as bad as that?" she murmured, her eyes upon the sea.
In the long day that followed, I busied myself as much as I could with my work upon the raft, so as to leave the girl as far as possible to herself. It was, so I argued, absolutely necessary to let her feel that she was safe in my keeping. Otherwise she might jump off the raft and I should lose her.
I sorted out my various cans and tins, tested the oil in my chronometer, arranged in neat order my various ropes and apparatus, and got my frying-pan into readiness for any emergency. Of food we had for the present no lack.
With the approach of night I realized that it was necessary to make arrangements for the girl's comfort. With the aid of a couple of upright poles I stretched a grey blanket across the raft so as to make a complete partition.
"Miss Croyden," I said, "this end of the raft is yours. Here you may sleep in peace."
"How kind you are," the girl murmured.
"You will be quite safe from interference,"I added. "I give you my word that I will not obtrude upon you in any way."
"How chivalrous you are," she said.
"Not at all," I answered, as musically as I could. "Understand me, I am now putting my head over this partition for the last time. If there is anything you want, say so now."
"Nothing," she answered.
"There is a candle and matches beside you. If there is anything that you want in the night, call me instantly. Remember, at any hour I shall be here. I promise it."
"Good night," she murmured. In a few minutes her soft regular breathing told me that she was asleep.
I went forward and seated myself in a tar-bucket, with my head against the mast, to get what sleep I could.
But for some time—why, I do not know—sleep would not come.
The image of Edith Croyden filled my mind. In vain I told myself that she was a stranger to me: that—beyond her longitude—I knew nothing of her. In some strange way this girlhad seized hold of me and dominated my senses.
The night was very calm and still, with great stars in a velvet sky. In the darkness I could hear the water lapping the edge of the raft.
I remained thus in deep thought, sinking further and further into the tar-bucket. By the time I reached the bottom of it I realized that I was in love with Edith Croyden.
Then the thought of my wife occurred to me and perplexed me. Our unhappy marriage had taken place three years before. We brought to one another youth, wealth and position. Yet our marriage was a failure. My wife—for what reason I cannot guess—seemed to find my society irksome. In vain I tried to interest her with narratives of my travels. They seemed—in some way that I could not divine—to fatigue her. "Leave me for a little, Harold," she would say (I forgot to mention that my name is Harold Borus), "I have a pain in my neck." At her own suggestion I had taken a trip around the world. On my return she urged me to go round again. I was goinground for the third time when the wrecking of the steamer had interrupted my trip.
On my own part, too, I am free to confess that my wife's attitude had aroused in me a sense of pique, not to say injustice. I am not in any way a vain man. Yet her attitude wounded me. I would no sooner begin, "When I was in the Himalayas hunting the humpo or humped buffalo," than she would interrupt and say, "Oh, Harold, would you mind going down to the billiard-room and seeing if I left my cigarettes under the billiard-table?" When I returned, she was gone.
By agreement we had arranged for a divorce. On my completion of my third voyage we were to meet in New Orleans. Clara was to go there on a separate ship, giving me the choice of oceans.
Had I met Edith Croyden three months later I should have been a man free to woo and win her. As it was I was bound. I must put a clasp of iron on my feelings. I must wear a mask. Cheerful, helpful, and full ofnarrative, I must yet let fall no word of love to this defenceless girl.
After a great struggle I rose at last from the tar-bucket, feeling, if not a brighter, at least a cleaner man.
Dawn was already breaking. I looked about me. As the sudden beams of the tropic sun illumined the placid sea, I saw immediately before me, only a hundred yards away, an island. A sandy beach sloped back to a rocky eminence, broken with scrub and jungle. I could see a little stream leaping among the rocks. With eager haste I paddled the raft close to the shore till it ground in about ten inches of water.
I leaped into the water.
With the aid of a stout line, I soon made the raft fast to a rock. Then as I turned I saw that Miss Croyden was standing upon the raft, fully dressed, and gazing at me. The morning sunlight played in her hair, and her deep blue eyes were as soft as the Caribbean Sea itself.
"Don't attempt to wade ashore, Miss Croyden," I cried in agitation. "Pray do nothing rash. The waters are simply infested with bacilli."
"But how can I get ashore?" she asked, with a smile which showed all, or nearly all, of her pearl-like teeth.
"Miss Croyden," I said, "there is only one way. I must carry you."
In another moment I had walked back to the raft and lifted her as tenderly and reverently as if she had been my sister—indeed more so—in my arms.
Her weight seemed nothing. When I get a girl like that in my arms I simply don't feel it. Just for one moment as I clasped her thus in my arms, a fierce thrill ran through me. But I let it run.
When I had carried her well up the sand close to the little stream, I set her down. To my surprise, she sank down in a limp heap.
The girl had fainted.
I knew that it was no time for hesitation.
Running to the stream, I filled my hat with water and dashed it in her face. Then I tookup a handful of mud and threw it at her with all my force. After that I beat her with my hat.
At length she opened her eyes and sat up.
"I must have fainted," she said, with a little shiver. "I am cold. Oh, if we could only have a fire."
"I will do my best to make one, Miss Croyden," I replied, speaking as gymnastically as I could. "I will see what I can do with two dry sticks."
"With dry sticks?" queried the girl. "Can you light a fire with that? How wonderful you are!"
"I have often seen it done," I replied thoughtfully; "when I was hunting the humpo, or humped buffalo, in the Himalayas, it was our usual method."
"Have you really hunted the humpo?" she asked, her eyes large with interest.
"I have indeed," I said, "but you must rest; later on I will tell you about it."
"I wish you could tell me now," she said with a little moan.
Meantime I had managed to select from the driftwood on the beach two sticks that seemed absolutely dry. Placing them carefully together, in Indian fashion, I then struck a match and found no difficulty in setting them on fire.
In a few moments the girl was warming herself beside a generous fire.
Together we breakfasted upon the beach beside the fire, discussing our plans like comrades.
Our meal over, I rose.
"I will leave you here a little," I said, "while I explore."
With no great difficulty I made my way through the scrub and climbed the eminence of tumbled rocks that shut in the view.
On my return Miss Croyden was still seated by the fire, her head in her hands.
"Miss Croyden," I said, "we are on an island."
"Is it inhabited?" she asked.
"Once, perhaps, but not now. It is one of the many keys of the West Indies. Here, inold buccaneering days, the pirates landed and careened their ships."
"How did they do that?" she asked, fascinated.
"I am not sure," I answered. "I think with white-wash. At any rate, they gave them a good careening. But since then these solitudes are only the home of the sea-gull, the sea-mew, and the albatross."
The girl shuddered.
"How lonely!" she said.
"Lonely or not," I said with a laugh (luckily I can speak with a laugh when I want to), "I must get to work."
I set myself to work to haul up and arrange our effects. With a few stones I made a rude table and seats. I took care to laugh and sing as much as possible while at my work. The close of the day found me still busy with my labours.
"Miss Croyden," I said, "I must now arrange a place for you to sleep."
With the aid of four stakes driven deeply into the ground and with blankets strung uponthem, I managed to fashion a sort of rude tent, roofless, but otherwise quite sheltered.
"Miss Croyden," I said when all was done, "go in there."
Then, with little straps which I had fastened to the blankets, I buckled her in reverently.
"Good night, Miss Croyden," I said.
"But you," she exclaimed, "where will you sleep?"
"Oh, I?" I answered, speaking as exuberantly as I could, "I shall do very well on the ground. But be sure to call me at the slightest sound."
Then I went out and lay down in a patch of cactus plants.
* * * * *
I need not dwell in detail upon the busy and arduous days that followed our landing upon the island. I had much to do. Each morning I took our latitude and longitude. By this I then set my watch, cooked porridge, and picked flowers till Miss Croyden appeared.
With every day the girl came forth from her habitation as a new surprise in her radiantbeauty. One morning she had bound a cluster of wild arbutus about her brow. Another day she had twisted a band of convolvulus around her waist. On a third she had wound herself up in a mat of bulrushes.
With her bare feet and wild bulrushes all around her, she looked as a cave woman might have looked, her eyes radiant with the Caribbean dawn. My whole frame thrilled at the sight of her. At times it was all I could do not to tear the bulrushes off her and beat her with the heads of them. But I schooled myself to restraint, and handed her a rock to sit upon, and passed her her porridge on the end of a shovel with the calm politeness of a friend.
Our breakfast over, my more serious labours of the day began. I busied myself with hauling rocks or boulders along the sand to build us a house against the rainy season. With some tackle from the raft I had made myself a set of harness, by means of which I hitched myself to a boulder. By getting Miss Croyden to beat me over the back with a stick, I found that I made fair progress.
But even as I worked thus for our common comfort, my mind was fiercely filled with the thought of Edith Croyden. I knew that if once the barriers broke everything would be swept away. Heaven alone knows the effort that it cost me. At times nothing but the sternest resolution could hold my fierce impulses in check. Once I came upon the girl writing in the sand with a stick. I looked to see what she had written. I read my own name "Harold." With a wild cry I leapt into the sea and dived to the bottom of it. When I came up I was calmer. Edith came towards me; all dripping as I was, she placed her hands upon my shoulders. "How grand you are!" she said. "I am," I answered; then I added, "Miss Croyden, for Heaven's sake don't touch me on the ear. I can't stand it." I turned from her and looked out over the sea. Presently I heard something like a groan behind me. The girl had thrown herself on the sand and was coiled up in a hoop. "Miss Croyden," I said, "for God's sake don't coil up in a hoop."
I rushed to the beach and rubbed gravel on my face.
With such activities, alternated with wild bursts of restraint, our life on the island passed as rapidly as in a dream. Had I not taken care to notch the days upon a stick and then cover the stick with tar, I could not have known the passage of the time. The wearing out of our clothing had threatened a serious difficulty. But by good fortune I had seen a large black and white goat wandering among the rocks and had chased it to a standstill. From its skin, leaving the fur still on, Edith had fashioned us clothes. Our boots we had replaced with alligator hide. I had, by a lucky chance, found an alligator upon the beach, and attaching a string to the fellow's neck I had led him to our camp. I had then poisoned the fellow with tinned salmon and removed his hide.
Our costume was now brought into harmony with our surroundings. For myself, garbed in goatskin with the hair outside, with alligator sandals on my feet and with whiskers at least six inches long, I have no doubt that Iresembled the beau ideal of a cave man. With the open-air life a new agility seemed to have come into my limbs. With a single leap in my alligator sandals I was enabled to spring into a coco-nut tree.
As for Edith Croyden, I can only say that as she stood beside me on the beach in her suit of black goatskin (she had chosen the black spots) there were times when I felt like seizing her in the frenzy of my passion and hurling her into the sea. Fur always acts on me just like that.
It was at the opening of the fifth week of our life upon the island that a new and more surprising turn was given to our adventure. It arose out of a certain curiosity, harmless enough, on Edith Croyden's part. "Mr. Borus," she said one morning, "I should like so much to see the rest of our island. Can we?"
"Alas, Miss Croyden," I said, "I fear that there is but little to see. Our island, so far as I can judge, is merely one of the uninhabited keys of the West Indies. It is nothing butrock and sand and scrub. There is no life upon it. I fear," I added, speaking as jauntily as I could, "that unless we are taken off it we are destined to stay on it."
"Still I should like to see it," she persisted.
"Come on, then," I answered, "if you are good for a climb we can take a look over the ridge of rocks where I went up on the first day."
We made our way across the sand of the beach, among the rocks and through the close matted scrub, beyond which an eminence of rugged boulders shut out the further view.
Making our way to the top of this we obtained a wide look over the sea. The island stretched away to a considerable distance to the eastward, widening as it went, the complete view of it being shut off by similar and higher ridges of rock.
But it was the nearer view, the foreground, that at once arrested our attention. Edith seized my arm. "Look, oh, look!" she said.
Down just below us on the right hand wasa similar beach to the one that we had left. A rude hut had been erected on it and various articles lay strewn about.
Seated on a rock with their backs towards us were a man and a woman. The man was dressed in goatskins, and his whiskers, so I inferred from what I could see of them from the side, were at least as exuberant as mine. The woman was in white fur with a fillet of seaweed round her head. They were sitting close together as if in earnest colloquy.
"Cave people," whispered Edith, "aborigines of the island."
But I answered nothing. Something in the tall outline of the seated woman held my eye. A cruel presentiment stabbed me to the heart.
In my agitation my foot overset a stone, which rolled noisily down the rocks. The noise attracted the attention of the two seated below us. They turned and looked searchingly towards the place where we were concealed. Their faces were in plain sight. As I looked at that of the woman I felt my heart cease beating and the colour leave my face.
I looked into Edith's face. It was as pale as mine.
"What does it mean?" she whispered.
"Miss Croyden," I answered, "Edith—it means this. I have never found the courage to tell you. I am a married man. The woman seated there is my wife. And I love you."
Edith put out her arms with a low cry and clasped me about the neck. "Harold," she murmured, "my Harold."
"Have I done wrong?" I whispered.
"Only what I have done too," she answered. "I, too, am married, Harold, and the man sitting there below, John Croyden, is my husband."
With a wild cry such as a cave man might have uttered, I had leapt to my feet.
"Your husband!" I shouted. "Then, by the living God, he or I shall never leave this place alive."
He saw me coming as I bounded down the rocks. In an instant he had sprung to his feet. He gave no cry. He asked no question. Hestood erect as a cave man would, waiting for his enemy.
And there upon the sands beside the sea we fought, barehanded and weaponless. We fought as cave men fight.
For a while we circled round one another, growling. We circled four times, each watching for an opportunity. Then I picked up a great handful of sand and threw it flap into his face. He grabbed a coco-nut and hit me with it in the stomach. Then I seized a twisted strand of wet seaweed and landed him with it behind the ear. For a moment he staggered. Before he could recover I jumped forward, seized him by the hair, slapped his face twice and then leaped behind a rock. Looking from the side I could see that Croyden, though half dazed, was feeling round for something to throw. To my horror I saw a great stone lying ready to his hand. Beside me was nothing. I gave myself up for lost, when at that very moment I heard Edith's voice behind me saying, "The shovel, quick, the shovel!" The noble girl had rushed back to our encampmentand had fetched me the shovel. "Swat him with that," she cried. I seized the shovel, and with the roar of a wounded bull—or as near as I could make it—I rushed out from the rock, the shovel swung over my head.
But the fight was all out of Croyden.
"Don't strike," he said, "I'm all in. I couldn't stand a crack with that kind of thing."
He sat down upon the sand, limp. Seen thus, he somehow seemed to be quite a small man, not a cave man at all. His goatskin suit shrunk in on him. I could hear his pants as he sat.
"I surrender," he said. "Take both the women. They are yours."
I stood over him leaning upon the shovel. The two women had closed in near to us.
"I suppose you areherhusband, are you?" Croyden went on.
I nodded.
"I thought you were. Take her."
Meantime Clara had drawn nearer to me. She looked somehow very beautiful with hergolden hair in the sunlight, and the white furs draped about her.
"Harold!" she exclaimed. "Harold, is it you? How strange and masterful you look. I didn't know you were so strong."
I turned sternly towards her.
"When I was alone," I said, "on the Himalayas hunting the humpo or humped buffalo——"
Clara clasped her hands, looking into my face.
"Yes," she said, "tell me about it."
Meantime I could see that Edith had gone over to John Croyden.
"John," she said, "you shouldn't sit on the wet sand like that. You will get a chill. Let me help you to get up."
I looked at Clara and at Croyden.
"How has this happened?" I asked. "Tell me."
"We were on the same ship," Croyden said. "There came a great storm. Even the Captain had never seen——"
"I know," I interrupted, "so had ours."
"The ship struck a rock, and blew out her four funnels——"
"Ours did too," I nodded.
"The bowsprit was broken, and the steward's pantry was carried away. The Captain gave orders to leave the ship——"
"It is enough, Croyden," I said, "I see it all now. You were left behind when the boats cleared, by what accident you don't know——"
"I don't," said Croyden.
"As best you could, you constructed a raft, and with such haste as you might you placed on it such few things——"
"Exactly," he said, "a chronometer, a sextant——"
"I know," I continued, "two quadrants, a bucket of water, and a lightning rod. I presume you picked up Clara floating in the sea."
"I did," Croyden said; "she was unconscious when I got her, but by rubbing——"
"Croyden," I said, raising the shovel again, "cut that out."
"I'm sorry," he said.
"It's all right. But you needn't go on. Isee all the rest of your adventures plainly enough."
"Well, I'm done with it all anyway," said Croyden gloomily. "You can do what you like. As for me, I've got a decent suit back there at our camp, and I've got it dried and pressed and I'm going to put it on."
He rose wearily, Edith standing beside him.
"What's more, Borus," he said, "I'll tell you something. This island is not uninhabited at all."
"Not uninhabited!" exclaimed Clara and Edith together. I saw each of them give a rapid look at her goatskin suit.
"Nonsense, Croyden," I said, "this island is one of the West Indian keys. On such a key as this the pirates used to land. Here they careened their ships——"
"Did what to them?" asked Croyden.
"Careened them all over from one end to the other," I said. "Here they got water and buried treasure; but beyond that the island was, and remained, only the home of the wild gull and the sea-mews——"
"All right," said Croyden, "only it doesn't happen to be that kind of key. It's a West Indian island all right, but there's a summer hotel on the other end of it not two miles away."
"A summer hotel!" we exclaimed.
"Yes, a hotel. I suspected it all along. I picked up a tennis racket on the beach the first day; and after that I walked over the ridge and through the jungle and I could see the roof of the hotel. Only," he added rather shamefacedly, "I didn't like to tell her."
"Oh, you coward!" cried Clara. "I could slap you."
"Don't you dare," said Edith. "I'm sure you knew it as well as he did. And anyway, I was certain of it myself. I picked up a copy of last week's paper in a lunch-basket on the beach, and hid it from Mr. Borus. I didn't want to hurt his feelings."
At that moment Croyden pointed with a cry towards the sea.
"Look," he said, "for Heaven's sake, look!"
He turned.
Less than a quarter of a mile away we couldsee a large white motor launch coming round the corner. The deck was gay with awnings and bright dresses and parasols.
"Great Heavens!" said Croyden. "I know that launch. It's the Appin-Joneses'."
"The Appin-Joneses'!" cried Clara. "Why, we know them too. Don't you remember, Harold, the Sunday we spent with them on the Hudson?"
Instinctively we had all jumped for cover, behind the rocks.
"Whatever shall we do?" I exclaimed.
"We must get our things," said Edith Croyden. "Jack, if your suit is ready run and get it and stop the launch. Mrs. Borus and Mr. Borus and I can get our things straightened up while you keep them talking. My suit is nearly ready anyway; I thought some one might come. Mr. Borus, would you mind running and fetching me my things, they're all in a parcel together? And perhaps if you have a looking-glass and some pins, Mrs. Borus, I could come over and dress with you."
* * * * *
That same evening we found ourselves all comfortably gathered on the piazza of the Hotel Christopher Columbus. Appin-Jones insisted on making himself our host, and the story of our adventures was related again and again to an admiring audience, with the accompaniment of cigars and iced champagne. Only one detail was suppressed, by common instinct. Both Clara and I felt that it would only raise needless comment to explain that Mr. and Mrs. Croyden had occupied separate encampments.
Nor is it necessary to relate our safe and easy return to New York.
Both Clara and I found Mr. and Mrs. Croyden delightful travelling companions, though perhaps we were not sorry when the moment came to say good-bye.
"The word 'good-bye,'" I remarked to Clara, as we drove away, "is always a painful one. Oddly enough when I was hunting the humpo, or humped buffalo, of the Himalayas——"
"Do tell me about it, darling," whispered Clara, as she nestled beside me in the cab.
VITHE KIDNAPPED PLUMBERA TALE OF THE NEW TIME(Being one chapter—and quite enough—-from the Reminiscences of an Operating Plumber)
(Being one chapter—and quite enough—-from the Reminiscences of an Operating Plumber)
"Personally," said Thornton, speaking for the first time, "I never care to take a case that involves cellar work."
We were sitting—a little group of us—round about the fire in a comfortable corner of the Steam and Air Club. Our talk had turned, as always happens with a group of professional men, into more or less technical channels. I will not say that we were talking shop; the word has an offensive sound and might be misunderstood. But we were talking as only a group of practising plumbers—including some of the biggest men in the profession—would talk. With the exception of Everett, who had a national reputation as a Consulting Barber, and Thomas, who was a vacuum cleaner expert, I think we all belonged to the same profession. We had been holding a convention, and Fortescue, who had one of the biggest furnace practices in the country, had read us a paper that afternoon—a most revolutionary thing—on External Diagnosis of Defective Feed Pipes, and naturally the thing had bred discussion. Fortescue, who is one of the most brilliant men in the profession, had stoutly maintained his thesis that the only method of diagnosis for trouble in a furnace is to sit down in front of it and look at it for three days; others held out for unscrewing it and carrying it home for consideration; others of us, again, claimed that by tapping the affected spot with a wrench the pipe might be fractured in such a way as to prove that it was breakable. It was at this point that Thornton interrupted with his remark about never being willing to accept a cellar case.
Naturally all the men turned to look at the speaker. Henry Thornton, at the time of which I relate, was at the height of his reputation. Beginning, quite literally, at the bottomof the ladder, he had in twenty years of practice as an operating plumber raised himself to the top of his profession. There was much in his appearance to suggest the underlying reasons of his success. His face, as is usual with men of our calling, had something of the dreamer in it, but the bold set of the jaw indicated determination of an uncommon kind. Three times President of the Plumbers' Association, Henry Thornton had enjoyed the highest honours of his chosen profession. His book onNut Coalwas recognized as the last word on the subject, and had been crowned by the French Academy of Nuts.
I suppose that one of the principal reasons for his success was his singular coolness and resource. I have seen Thornton enter a kitchen, with that quiet reassuring step of his, and lay out his instruments on the table, while a kitchen tap with a broken washer was sprizzling within a few feet of him, as calmly and as quietly as if he were in his lecture-room of the Plumbers' College.
"You never go into a cellar?" asked Fortescue. "But hang it, man, I don't see how one can avoid it!"
"Well, I do avoid it," answered Thornton, "at least as far as I possibly can. I send down my solderist, of course, but personally, unless it is absolutely necessary, I never go down."
"That's all very well, my dear fellow," Fortescue cut in, "but you know as well as I do that you get case after case where the cellar diagnosis is simply vital. I had a case last week, a most interesting thing—" he turned to the group of us as he spoke—"a double lesion of a gas-pipe under a cement floor—half a dozen of my colleagues had been absolutely baffled. They had made an entirely false diagnosis, operated on the dining-room floor, which they removed and carried home, and when I was called in they had just obtained permission from the Stone Mason's Protective Association to knock down one side of the house."
"Excuse me interrupting just a minute," interjected a member of the group who hailed from a distant city, "have you much troubleabout that? I mean about knocking the sides out of houses?"
"No trouble now," said Fortescue. "We did have. But the public is getting educated up to it. Our law now allows us to knock the side out of a house when we feel that we would really like to see what is in it. We are not allowed, of course, to build it up again."
"No, of course not," said the other speaker. "But I suppose you can throw the bricks out on the lawn."
"Yes," said Fortescue, "and sit on them to eat lunch. We had a big fight in the legislature over that, but we got it through."
"Thank you, but I feel I am interrupting."
"Well, I was only saying that, as soon as I had made up my mind that the trouble was in the cellar, the whole case was simple. I took my colleagues down at once, and we sat on the floor of the cellar and held a consultation till the overpowering smell of gas convinced me that there was nothing for it but an operation on the floor. The whole thing was most successful. I was very glad, as it happened thatthe proprietor of the house was a very decent fellow, employed, I think, as a manager of a bank, or something of the sort. He was most grateful. It was he who gave me the engraved monkey wrench that some of you were admiring before dinner. After we had finished the whole operation—I forgot to say that we had thrown the coal out on the lawn to avoid any complication—he quite broke down. He offered us to take his whole house and keep it."
"You don't do that, do you?" asked the outsider.
"Oh no, never," said Fortescue. "We've made a very strict professional rule against it. We found that some of the younger men were apt to take a house when they were given it, and we had to frown down on it. But, gentlemen, I feel that when Mr. Thornton says that he never goes down into a cellar there must be a story behind it. I think we should invite him to relate it to us."
A murmur of assent greeted the speaker's suggestion. For myself I was particularly pleased, inasmuch as I have long felt thatThornton as araconteurwas almost as interesting as in the rôle of an operating plumber. I have often told him that, if he had not happened to meet success in his chosen profession, he could have earned a living as a day writer: a suggestion which he has always taken in good part and without offence.
Those of my readers who have looked through the little volume of Reminiscences which I have put together, will recall the narrative ofThe Missing Nutand the little tale entitledThe Blue Blow Torchas instances in point.
"Not much of a story, perhaps," said Thornton, "but such as it is you are welcome to it. So, if you will just fill up your glasses with raspberry vinegar, you may have the tale for what it is worth."
We gladly complied with the suggestion and Thornton continued:
"It happened a good many years ago at a time when I was only a young fellow fresh from college, very proud of my Plumb. B., and inclined to think that I knew it all. I had donea little monograph onChoked Feed in the Blow Torch, which had attracted attention, and I suppose that altogether I was about as conceited a young puppy as one would find in the profession. I should mention that at this time I was not married, but had set up a modest apartment of my own with a consulting-room and a single manservant. Naturally I could not afford the services of a solderist or a gassist and did everything for myself, though Simmons, my man, could at a pinch be utilized to tear down plaster and break furniture."
Thornton paused to take a sip of raspberry vinegar and went on:
"Well, then. I had come home to dinner particularly tired after a long day. I had sat in an attic the greater part of the afternoon (a case of top story valvular trouble) and had had to sit in a cramped position which practically forbade sleep. I was feeling, therefore, none too well pleased, when a little while after dinner the bell rang and Simmons brought word to the library that there was a client in the consulting-room. I reminded the fellowthat I could not possibly consider a case at such an advanced hour unless I were paid emergency overtime wages with time and a half during the day of recovery."
"One moment," interrupted the outside member. "You don't mention compensation for mental shock. Do you not draw that here?"
"We donow" explained Thornton, "but the time of which I speak is some years ago and we still got nothing for mental shock, nor disturbance of equilibrium. Nowadays, of course, one would insist on a substantial retainer in advance.
"Well, to continue. Simmons, to my surprise, told me that he had already informed the client of this fact, and that the answer had only been a plea that the case was too urgent to admit of delay. He also supplied the further information that the client was a young lady. I am afraid," added Thornton, looking round his audience with a sympathetic smile, "that Simmons (I had got him from Harvard and he had not yet quite learned his place)even said something about her being strikingly handsome."
A general laugh greeted Thornton's announcement.
"After all," said Fortescue, "I never could see why an Ice Man should be supposed to have a monopoly on gallantry."
"Oh, I don't know," said Thornton. "For my part—I say it without affectation—the moment I am called in professionally, women, as women, cease to exist for me. I can stand beside them in the kitchen and explain to them the feed tap of a kitchen range without feeling them to be anything other than simply clients. And for the most part, I think, they reciprocate that attention. There are women, of course, who will call a man in with motives—but that's another story. I must get back to what I was saying.
"On entering the consulting-room I saw at once that Simmons had exaggerated nothing in describing my young client as beautiful. I have seldom, even among our own class, seen a more strikingly handsome girl. She wasdressed in a very plain and simple fashion which showed me at once that she belonged merely to the capitalist class. I am, as I think you know, something of an observer, and my eye at once noted the absence of heavy gold ear-rings and wrist-bangles. The blue feathers at the side of her hat were none of them more than six inches long, and the buttons on her jacket were so inconspicuous that one would hardly notice them. In short, while her dress was no doubt good and serviceable, there was an absence ofchic, a lack of noise about it, that told at once the tale of narrow circumstances.
"She was evidently in great distress.
"'Oh, Mr. Thornton,' she exclaimed, advancing towards me, 'do come to our house at once. I simply don't know what to do.'
"She spoke with great emotion, and seemed almost on the point of breaking into tears.
"'Pray, calm yourself, my dear young lady,' I said, 'and try to tell me what is the trouble.'
"'Oh, don't lose any time,' she said, 'do, do come at once.'
"'We will lose no time' I said reassuringly, as I looked at my watch. 'It is now seven-thirty. We will reckon the time from now, with overtime at time and a half. But if I am to do anything for you I must have some idea of what has happened.'
"'The cellar boiler,' she moaned, clasping her hands together, 'the cellar boiler won't work!'
"'Ah!' I said soothingly. 'The cellar boiler won't work. Now tell me, is the feed choked, miss?'
"'I don't know,' she exclaimed.
"'Have you tried letting off the exhaust?'
"She shook her head with a doleful look.
"'I don't know what it is,' she said.
"But already I was hastily gathering together a few instruments, questioning her rapidly as I did so.
"'How's your pressure gauge?' I asked. 'How's your water? Do you draw from the mains or are you on the high level reservoir?'
"It had occurred to me at once that it mightbe merely a case of stoppage of her main feed, complicated, perhaps, with a valvular trouble in her exhaust. On the other hand it was clear enough that, if her feed was full and her gauges working, her trouble was more likely a leak somewhere in her piping.
"But all attempts to draw from the girl any clear idea of the symptoms were unavailing. All she could tell me was that the cellar boiler wouldn't work. Beyond that her answers were mere confusion. I gathered enough, however, to feel sure that her main feed was still working, and that her top story check valve was probably in order. With that I had to be content.
"As a young practitioner, I had as yet no motor car. Simmons, however, summoned me a taxi, into which I hurriedly placed the girl and my basket of instruments, and was soon speeding in the direction she indicated. It was a dark, lowering night, with flecks of rain against the windows of the cab, and there was something in the lateness of the hour (it was now after half-past eight) and the nature of my mission which gave me a stimulating senseof adventure. The girl directed me, as I felt sure she would, towards the capitalist quarter of the town. We had soon sped away from the brightly lighted streets and tall apartment buildings among which my usual practice lay, and entered the gloomy and dilapidated section of the city where the unhappy capitalist class reside. I need not remind those of you who know it that it is scarcely a cheerful place to find oneself in after nightfall. The thick growth of trees, the silent gloom of the ill-lighted houses, and the rank undergrowth of shrubs give it an air of desolation, not to say danger. It is certainly not the place that a professional man would choose to be abroad in after dark. The inhabitants, living, so it is said, on their scanty dividends and on such parts of their income as our taxation is still unable to reach, are not people that one would care to fall in with after nightfall.
"Since the time of which I speak we have done much to introduce a better state of things. The opening of day schools of carpentry, plumbing and calcimining for the children ofthe capitalist is already producing results. Strange though it may seem, one of the most brilliant of our boiler fitters of to-day was brought up haphazard in this very quarter of the town and educated only by a French governess and a university tutor. But at the time practically nothing had been done. The place was infested with consumers, and there were still, so it was said, servants living in some of the older houses. A butler had been caught one night in a thick shrubbery beside one of the gloomy streets.
"We alighted at one of the most sombre of the houses, and our taxi-driver, with evident relief, made off in the darkness.
"The girl admitted us into a dark hall, where she turned on an electric light. 'We have light,' she said, with that peculiar touch of pride that one sees so often in her class, 'we have four bulbs.'
"Then she called down a flight of stairs that apparently led to the cellar:
"'Father, the plumber has come. Do come up now, dear, and rest.'
"A step sounded on the stairs, and there appeared beside us one of the most forbidding-looking men that I have ever beheld. I don't know whether any of you have ever seen an Anglican Bishop. Probably not. Outside of the bush, they are now never seen. But at the time of which I speak there were a few still here and there in the purlieus of the city. The man before us was tall and ferocious, and his native ferocity was further enhanced by the heavy black beard which he wore in open defiance of the compulsory shaving laws. His black shovel-shaped hat and his black clothes lent him a singularly sinister appearance, while his legs were bound in tight gaiters, as if ready for an instant spring. He carried in his hand an enormous monkey wrench, on which his fingers were clasped in a restless grip.
"'Can you fix the accursed thing?' he asked.
"I was not accustomed to being spoken to in this way, but I was willing for the girl's sake to strain professional courtesy to the limit.
"'I don't know,' I answered, 'but if you will have the goodness first to fetch me a littlelight supper, I shall be glad to see what I can do afterwards.'
"My firm manner had its effect. With obvious reluctance the fellow served me some biscuits and some not bad champagne in the dining-room.
"The girl had meantime disappeared upstairs.
"'If you're ready now,' said the Bishop, 'come on down.'
"We went down to the cellar. It was a huge, gloomy place, with a cement floor, lighted by a dim electric bulb. I could see in the corner the outline of a large furnace (in those days the poorer classes had still no central heat) and near it a tall boiler. In front of this a man was kneeling, evidently trying to unscrew a nut, but twisting it the wrong way. He was an elderly man with a grey moustache, and was dressed, in open defiance of the law, in a military costume or uniform.
"He turned round towards us and rose from his knees.
"'I'm dashed if I can make the rotten thing go round,' he said.
"'It's all right, General,' said the Bishop. 'I have brought a plumber.'
"For the next few minutes my professional interest absorbed all my faculties. I laid out my instruments upon a board, tapped the boiler with a small hammer, tested the feed-tube, and in a few moments had made what I was convinced was a correct diagnosis of the trouble.
"But here I encountered the greatest professional dilemma in which I have ever been placed. There was nothing wrong with the boiler at all. It connected, as I ascertained at once by a thermo-dynamic valvular test, with the furnace (in fact, I could see it did), and the furnace quite evidently had been allowed to go out.
"What was I to do? If I told them this, I broke every professional rule of our union. If the thing became known I should probably be disbarred and lose my overalls for it. It was my plain professional duty to take a large hammer and knock holes in the boiler with it, smash up the furnace pipes, start a leak ofgas, and then call in three or more of my colleagues.
"But somehow I couldn't find it in my heart to do it. The thought of the girl's appealing face arose before me.
"'How long has this trouble been going on?' I asked sternly.
"'Quite a time,' answered the Bishop. 'It began, did it not, General, the same day that the confounded furnace went out? The General here and Admiral Hay and I have been working at it for three days.'
"'Well, gentlemen,' I said, 'I don't want to read you a lesson on your own ineptitude, and I don't suppose you would understand it if I did. But don't you see that the whole trouble isbecauseyou let the furnace out? The boiler itself is all right, but you see, gents, it feeds off the furnace.'
"'Ah,' said the Bishop in a deep melodious tone, 'it feeds off the furnace. Now that is most interesting. Let me repeat that; I must try to remember it; it feedsoffthe furnace. Just so.'
"The upshot was that in twenty minutes we had the whole thing put to rights. I set the General breaking up boxes and had the Bishop rake out the clinkers, and very soon we had the furnace going and the boiler in operation.
"'But now tell me,' said the Bishop, 'suppose one wanted to let the furnace out—suppose, I mean to say, that it was summer-time, and suppose one rather felt that one didn't care about a furnace and yet one wanted one's boiler going for one's hot water, and that sort of thing, what would one do?'
"'In that case,' I said, 'you couldn't run your heating off your furnace: you'd have to connect in your tubing with a gas generator.'
"'Ah, there you get me rather beyond my depth,' said the Bishop.
"The General shook his head. 'Bishop,' he said, 'just step upstairs a minute; I have an idea.'
"They went up together, leaving me below. To my surprise and consternation, as they reached the top of the cellar stairs, I saw the General swing the door shut and heard a keyturn in the lock. I rushed to the top of the stairs and tried in vain to open the door. I was trapped. In a moment I realized my folly in trusting myself in the hands of these people.
"I could hear their voices in the hall, apparently in eager discussion.
"'But the fellow is priceless,' the General was saying. 'We could take him round to all the different houses and make him fix them all. Hang it, Bishop, I haven't had a decent tap running for two years, and Admiral Hay's pantry has been flooded since last March.'
"'But one couldn't compel him?'
"'Certainly, why not? I'd compel him bally quick with this.'
"I couldn't see what the General referred to, but had no doubt that it was the huge wrench that he still carried in his hand.
"'We could gag the fellow,' he went on, 'take him from house to house and make him put everything right.'
"'Ah, but afterwards?' said the Bishop.
"'Afterwards,' answered the General, 'why kill him! Knock him on the head and buryhim under the cement in the cellar. Hay and I could easily bury him, or for that matter I imagine one could easily use the furnace itself to dispose of him.'
"I must confess that my blood ran cold as I listened.
"'But do you think it right?' objected the Bishop. 'You will say, of course, that it is only killing a plumber; but yet one asks oneself whether it wouldn't be just aleetlebit unjustifiable.'
"'Nonsense,' said the General. 'You remember that last year, when Hay strangled the income tax collector, you yourself were very keen on it.'
"'Ah, that was different,' said the Bishop, 'one felt there that there was an end to serve, but here——'
"'Nonsense,' repeated the General, 'come along and get Hay. He'll make short work of him.'
"I heard their retreating footsteps and then all was still.
"The horror which filled my mind as I satin the half darkness waiting for their return I cannot describe. My fate appeared sealed and I gave myself up for lost, when presently I heard a light step in the hall and the key turned in the lock.
"The girl stood in front of me. She was trembling with emotion.
"'Quick, quick, Mr. Thornton,' she said. 'I heard all that they said. Oh, I think it's dreadful of them, simply dreadful. Mr. Thornton, I'm really ashamed that Father should act that way.'
"I came out into the hall still half dazed.
"'They've gone over to Admiral Hay's house, there among the trees. That's their lantern. Please, please, don't lose a minute. Do you mind not having a cab? I think really you'd prefer not to wait. And look, won't you please take this?'—she handed me a little packet as she spoke—'this is a piece of pie: you always get that, don't you? and there's a bit of cheese with it, but please run.'
"In another moment I had bounded from the door into the darkness. A wild rushthrough the darkened streets, and in twenty minutes I was safe back again in my own consulting-room."
Thornton paused in his narrative, and at that moment one of the stewards of the club came and whispered something in his ear.
He rose.
"I'm sorry," he said, with a grave face. "I'm called away; a very old client of mine. Valvular trouble of the worst kind. I doubt if I can do anything, but I must at least go. Please don't let me break up your evening, however."
With a courtly bow he left us.
"And do you know the sequel to Thornton's story?" asked Fortescue with a smile.
We looked expectantly at him.
"Why, he married the girl," explained Fortescue. "You see, he had to go back to her house for his wrench. One always does."
"Of course," we exclaimed.
"In fact he went three times; and the last time he asked the girl to marry him and she said 'yes.' He took her out of her surroundings[**missing comma?] had her educated at a cooking school, and had her given lessons on the parlour organ. She's Mrs. Thornton now."
"And the Bishop?" asked some one.
"Oh, Thornton looked after him. He got him a position heating furnaces in the synagogues. He worked at it till he died a few years ago. They say that once he got the trick of it he took the greatest delight in it. Well, I must go too. Good night."