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diff --git a/17495.txt b/17495.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..98f407b --- /dev/null +++ b/17495.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9061 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Stolen Singer, by Martha Idell Fletcher +Bellinger, Illustrated by Arthur William Brown + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Stolen Singer + + +Author: Martha Idell Fletcher Bellinger + + + +Release Date: January 11, 2006 [eBook #17495] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STOLEN SINGER*** + + +E-text prepared by Al Haines + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 17495-h.htm or 17495-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/4/9/17495/17495-h/17495-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/4/9/17495/17495-h.zip) + + + + + +THE STOLEN SINGER + +by + +MARTHA BELLINGER + +With Illustrations by Arthur William Brown + + + + + + + +[Frontispiece: Miss Redmond detected a passage of glances between them.] + + + + + +Indianapolis +The Bobbs-Merrill Company +Publishers +Copyright 1911 +The Bobbs-Merrill Company + + + + + +TO + +MY HUSBAND + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + + I TWILIGHT IN THE PARK + II HAMBLETON OF LYNN + III MIDSUMMER MADNESS + IV MR. VAN CAMP MAKES A CALL + V MELANIE'S DREAMS + VI ON BOARD THE JEANNE D'ARC + VII THE ROPE LADDER + VIII ON THE BREAST OF THE SEA + IX THE CAMP ON THE BEACH + X THE HEART OF YOUTH + XI THE HOME PORT + XII SEEING THE RAINBOW + XIII ALECK SEES A GHOST + XIV SUSAN STODDARD'S PRAYER + XV ECHOES FROM THE CITY + XVI A FIGHTING CHANCE + XVII THE TURN OF THE TIDE + XVIII THE SPIRIT OF THE ANCIENT WOOD + XIX MR. CHAMBERLAIN, SLEUTH + XX MONSIEUR CHATELARD TAKES THE WHEEL + XXI JIMMY REDIVIVUS + XXII A MAN OF NO PRINCIPLE + XXIII JIMMY MUFFS THE BALL + XXIV AFTER YOU, MONSIEUR! + EPILOGUE + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + Miss Redmond detected a passage of glances between them . . . . . . + (Frontispiece) + + "That depends upon whether you are going to marry me." + + "It _does_ make one feel queer, you know." + + She stood over him looking down tenderly. + + "You shall not turn me down like this." + + + + +THE STOLEN SINGER + + +CHAPTER I + +TWILIGHT IN THE PARK + +"You may wait, Renaud." + +The voice was firm, but the lady herself hesitated as she stepped from +the tonneau. There was no answer. Holding the flapping ends of her +veil away from her face, she turned and looked fairly at the driver of +the machine. + +He seemed a businesslike, capable man, though certain minor details of +his chauffeur's rig were a bit unusual, and now that he had been +obliged, by some discomfort, to remove his goggles, his face appeared +pleasant and quite untanned. His passenger noted these things, +remarking: "Oh, it isn't Renaud!" + +"No, Mademoiselle; Renaud hadn't showed up at the office when you +telephoned, so they put me on in his place." + +"Ah, I see." Accent seemed to imply, however, that she was not quite +pleased. "The manager sent you. And your name is--?" + +"My name--rather odd name--Hand." + +The face half hidden behind the veil remained impassive. A moment's +hesitation, and then the lady turned away with a short, "You will wait?" + +"As mademoiselle wishes. Or shall I perhaps follow slowly along the +drive?" + +"No, wait here. I shall return--soon." + +The young woman walked away, erect, well-poised, lifting skirts +skilfully as she paused a moment at the top of the stone steps leading +down into the tiny park. The driver of the machine, free from +observation, allowed a perplexed look to occupy his countenance. "What +the devil is to pay if she doesn't return--_soon_!" + +The avenue lifts a camel's hump toward the sky in the space of fifteen +blocks, and on the top, secure as the howdah of a chieftain, stands the +noble portico of the old college. To the westward, as every one knows, +lie the river and the more pretentious park; on the east an abrupt +descent offers space for a small grassy playground for children, who +may be seen, during the sunny hours of the day, romping over the slope. + +As the gaze of the woman swept over the charming little pleasance, and +beyond, over the miles of sign-boards, roofs, chimneys, and +intersecting streets, the serious look disappeared from her face. +Summer haze and distance shed a gentle beauty over what she knew to be +a clamoring city--New York. Angles were softened, noises subdued, +sensational scenes lost in the dimmed perspective. To a chance +observer, the prospect would have been deeply suggestive; in the woman +it stirred many memories. She put back her veil; her face glowed; a +long sigh escaped her lips. Slowly she walked down the steps, along +the sloping path to a turn, where she sank down on a bench. A rosy, +tired child, rather the worse for mud-pies, and hanging reluctantly at +the hand of its nonchalant nurse, brought a bit of the woman's emotion +to the surface. She smiled radiantly at the lagging infant. + +The face revealed by the uplifted veil was of a type to accompany the +youthful but womanly figure and the spirited tread. Beautiful she +would be counted, without doubt, by many an observer; those who loved +her would call her beautiful without stint. But more appealing than +her beauty was the fine spirit--a strong, free spirit, loving honesty +and courage--which glowed like a flame behind her beauty. Best of all, +perhaps, was a touch of quaintness, a slightly comic twist to her lips, +an imperceptible alertness of manner, which revealed to the initiated +that she had a sense of humor in excellent running order. + +It was evident that the little excursion was of the nature of a +pilgrimage. The idle hour, the bit of holiday, became a memorial, as +recollection brought back to her the days of childhood spent down +yonder, a few squares away, in this very city. They seemed bright in +retrospect, like the pleasant paths of a quiet garden, but they had +ended abruptly, and had been followed by years of activity and colorful +experience in another country. Through it all what anticipations had +been lodged in her return to Home! Something there would complete the +story--the story with its secret ecstasies and aspirations--the story +of the ardent springs of youth. + +Withdrawing her gaze from the scene below, though with apparent +reluctance, she took from the pocket of her coat an opened envelope +which she regarded a moment with thoughtfulness, before drawing forth +the enclosures. There were two letters, one of which was brief and +written in bad script on a single sheet of paper bearing a legal head. +It was dated at Charlesport, Maine, and stated that the writer, in +conformity with the last wish of his friend and client, Hercules +Thayer, was ready to transfer certain deeds and papers to the late Mr. +Thayer's designated heir, Agatha Redmond; also that the writer +requested an interview at Miss Redmond's earliest convenience. + +Holding the half-opened sheets in her hand, the lady closed her eyes +and sat motionless, as if in the grasp of an absorbing thought. With +the disappearing child, the signs of life on the hillside had +diminished. The traffic of the street passed far below, the sharp +click-click of a pedestrian now and then sounded above, but no one +passed her way. The hum of the city made a blurred wash of sound, like +the varying yet steady wash of the sea. As she opened her eyes again, +she saw that the twilight had perceptibly deepened. Far away, lights +began to flash out in the city, as if a million fireflies, by twos and +threes and dozens, were waking to their nocturnal revelry. + +On the hill the light was still good, and the lady turned again to her +reading. The other letter was written on single sheets of thin paper +in an old-fashioned, beautiful hand. Wherever a double-s occurred, the +first was written long, in the style of sixty years ago; and the whole +letter was as easily legible as print. Across the top was written: "To +Agatha Redmond, daughter of my ward and dear friend, Agatha Shaw +Redmond"; and below that, in the lawyer's choppy handwriting, was a +date of nearly a year previous. As Agatha Redmond read the second +letter, a smile, half of sadness, half of pleasure, overspread her +countenance. It ran as follows: + + +"ILION, MAINE. + +"MY DEAR AGATHA: + +"I take my pen in hand to address you, the daughter of the dearest +friend of my life, for the first time in the twenty-odd years of your +existence. Once as a child you saw me, and you have doubtless heard my +name from your mother's people from time to time; but I can scarcely +hope that any knowledge of my private life has come to you. It will be +easy, then, for you to pardon an old man for giving you, in this +fashion, the confidence he has never been able to bestow in the flesh. + +"When you read this epistle, my dear Agatha, I shall have stepped into +that next mystery, which is Death. Indeed, the duty which I am now +discharging serves as partial preparation for that very event. This +duty is to make you heir to my house and estate and to certain +accessory funds which will enable you to keep up the place. + +"You may regard this act, possibly, as the idiosyncrasy of an +unbalanced mind; it is certain that some of my kinsfolk will do so. +But while I have been able to bear up under _their_ greater or less +displeasure for many years, I find myself shrinking before the +possibility of dying absolutely unknown and forgotten by you. Your +mother, Agatha Shaw, of blessed memory now for many years, was my ward +and pupil after the death of your grandfather. I think I may say +without undue self-congratulation that few women of their time have +enjoyed as sound a scheme of education as your mother. She had a +knowledge of mathematics, could construe both in Latin and Greek, and +had acquired a fair mastery of the historic civilization of the Greeks, +Egyptians and ancient Babylonians. While these attainments would +naturally be insufficient for a man's work in life, yet for a woman +they were of an exceptional order. + +"Sufficient to say that in your mother's character these noteworthy +abilities were supplemented by gracious, womanly arts; and when she +arrived at maturity, I offered her the honor of marriage. + +"It is painful for me to recall the scene and the consequences of your +mother's refusal of my hand, even after these years of philosophical +reflection. It were idle for a man of parts to allow a mere preference +in regard to his domestic situation to influence his course of action +in any essential matter, and I have never permitted my career to be +shaped by such details. But from that time, however, the course of my +life was changed. From the impassioned orator and preacher I was +transformed into the man of books and the study, and since then I have +lived far from the larger concourses of men. My weekly sermon, for +twenty years, has been the essence of my weekly toil in establishing +the authenticity, first, of the entire second gospel, and second, of +the ten doubtful verses in the fifteenth chapter. My work is now +accomplished--for all time, I believe. + +"From the inception of what I considered my life mission, I made the +resolve to bequeath to Agatha Shaw whatever manuscripts or other +material of value my work should lead me to accumulate, together with +this house, in which I have spent all the later years of my life. You +are Agatha Shaw's only child, therefore to me a foster-child. + +"Another reason, four years ago, led me to confirm my former testament. +From time to time I have informed myself concerning your movements and +fortunes. The work you have chosen, my dear Agatha, I can but believe +to be fraught with unusual dangers to a young woman. Therefore I hope +that this home, modest as it is, may tempt you to an early retirement +from the stage, and lead you to a more private and womanly career. +This I make only as a request, not as a condition. I bid you farewell, +and give you my blessing. + +"Faithfully yours, + +"HERCULES THAYER." + + +Agatha Redmond folded the thin sheets carefully. There was a mist in +her gaze as she looked off toward the distant city lights. + +"Dear old gentleman! His whole love-story, and my mother's, too, +perhaps!" Her quickened memory recalled childish impressions of a +visit to a large country house and of a solemn old man--he seemed +incredibly ancient to her--and of feeling that in some way she and her +mother were in a special relationship to the house. It was called "the +old red house," and was full of fascinating things. The ancient man +had bidden her go about and play as if it were her home, and then had +called her to him and laid open a book, leading her mind to regard its +mysteries. Greek! It seemed to her as if she had begun it there and +then. Later the mother became the teacher. She was nursed, as it +were, within sight of the windy plains of Troy and to the sound of the +Homeric hymns--and all by reason of this ancient scholar. + +There was a vivid picture in her mind, gathered at some later visit, of +a soft hillside, a small white church standing under its balm-of-gilead +tree, and herself sitting by a stone in the old churchyard, listening +to the strains of a hymn which floated out from the high, narrow +windows. She remembered how, from without, she had joined in the hymn, +singing with all her small might; and suddenly the association brought +back to her a more recent event and a more beautiful strain of music. +Half in reverie, half in conscious pleasure in the exercise of a facile +organ, she began to sing: + + "Free of my pain, free of my burden of sorrow, + At last I shall see thee--" + + +The song floated in a zone of silence that lay above the deep-murmuring +city. The voice was no more than the half-voice of a flute, sweet, +gentle, beguiling. It told, as so many songs tell, of little earthly +Love in the grasp of mighty Fate. Still she sang on, softly, as if +loving the entrancing melody. + +Suddenly the song ceased, and the reminiscent smile gave place to an +expression of surprise, as the singer became conscious of a deeper +shadow falling directly in front of her. She glanced up quickly, and +found herself looking into the face of a man whose gimlet-like gaze was +directed upon herself. + +Quickly as she rose, she could not turn into the path before the +gentleman, hat in hand, with a deep bow and clearly enunciated words, +arrested her impulse to flight. + +"Pardon, Mademoiselle, I am a stranger in the city. I was directed +this way to Van Cortlandt Hall, but I find I am in error, intrigued--in +confusion. Would mademoiselle be so good as to direct me?" + +The tones had a foreign accent. There was something, also, in their +bland impertinence which put Miss Redmond on her guard. He was a +good-sized, blond person, carefully dressed, and at least appeared like +a gentleman. + +Miss Redmond looked into the smooth, neat countenance, upon which no +record either of experience or of thought was engraved, and decided +fleetingly that he was lying. She judged him capable of picking up +acquaintances on the street, but thought that more originality might be +expected of him. + +Suddenly she wished that she had returned sooner to her car, for though +she was of an adventurous nature, her bravery was not of the physical +order; and she disliked to have the appearance of unconventionality. +After the first minute she was not so much afraid as annoyed. Her +voice became frigid, though her dignity was somewhat damaged by the +fact that she bungled in giving the desired information. + +"I think monsieur will find Van Cortlandt Hall in the College grounds +two blocks south--no, north--of the gateway yonder, at the upper end of +this walk." + +"Ah, mademoiselle is but too kind!" He bowed deeply again, hat still +in hand. "I thank you profoundly. And may I say, also, that this +wonderful picture--" here he spread eloquent hands toward the +half-quiescent city whose thousand eyes glimmered over the lower +distance--"this panorama of occidental life, makes a peculiar appeal to +the imagination?" + +The springs of emotion, touched potently as they had been by the +surging recollections of the last half-hour, were faintly stirred again +in Miss Redmond's heart by the stranger's grandiloquent words. +Unconsciously her features relaxed, though she did not reply. + +"Again I pray mademoiselle to pardon me, but only a moment past I heard +the song--the song that might be the sigh of all the daughters of +Italy. Ah, Mademoiselle, it is wonderful! But here in this so fresh +country, this youthful, boisterous, too prosperous country, that song +is like--like--like Arabian spices in a kitchen. Is it not so?" + +Miss Redmond was moving up the steps toward the entrance, hesitating +between the desire to snub her interlocutor and to avoid the appearance +of fright. The man, meanwhile, moved easily beside her, courteously +distant, discourteously insistent in his prattle. But the motor-car +was now not far away. + +The stranger looked appealingly at her, seemingly sure of a humorous +answering look to his pleasantry. It was not wholly denied. She +yielded to a touch of amusement with a cool smile, and hastened her +steps. The man kept pace without effort. Luckily, the car stood only +a few feet away, with Renaud, or rather Hand, at the curb, holding open +the door. A vague bow and a lifting of the hat, and apparently the +stranger went the other way. She felt a foolish relief, and at the +same instant noted with surprise that the cover of her car had been +raised. + +"Why did you raise the top?" + +"It appeared to me, Mademoiselle, that it was likely to rain." + +"Put it down again. It will not rain," Miss Redmond was saying, when, +from sidelong eyes, she saw that the stranger had not turned in the +other direction, after all, but was almost in her tracks, as though he +were stalking game. With foot on the step she said sharply, but in a +low voice, "To the Plaza quickly," then immediately added, with a +characteristic practical turn: "But don't get yourself arrested for +speeding." + +"No, Mademoiselle, with this car I can make--" Even as the chauffeur +replied, Miss Redmond's sharpened senses detected a passage of glances +between him and the stranger, now close behind her. + +She sprang into the tonneau and seized the door, but not before the man +had caught at it with a stronger hold, and stepped in close after her. +The chauffeur was in his seat, the car was moving slowly, now faster +and faster. Suddenly the bland countenance slid very near her own, +while firm hands against her shoulders crowded her into the farther +corner of the tonneau. + +"O Renaud--Hand!" she cried, but the driver made no sign. "Help, +help!" she shrieked, but the cry was instantly choked into a feeble +protest. A mass of something, pressed to her mouth and nostrils, +incited her to superhuman efforts. She struggled frantically, fumbled +at the door, tore at the curtain, and succeeded in getting her head for +an instant at the opening, while she clutched her assailant and held +him helpless. But only for a moment. The firm large hands quickly +overpowered even the strength induced by frenzy, and in another minute +she was lying unresisting on the soft cushions of the tonneau. + +The car careened through the streets, the figure of the unresponsive +Hand mocked her cries for help, the neat hard face of the stranger +continued to bend over her. Then everything swam in a maelstrom of +duller and duller sense, the world grew darker and fainter, till +finally it was lost in silence. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +HAMBLETON OF LYNN + +The Hambletons of Lynn had not distinguished themselves, in late +generations at least, by remarkable deeds, though their deportment was +such as to imply that they could if they would. They frankly regarded +themselves as the elect of earth, if not of Heaven, always, however, with +a becoming modesty. Since 1636 the family had pieced out its existence +in the New World, tenaciously clinging to many of its old-country habits. +It had kept the _b_ in the family name, for instance; it had kept the +name itself out of trade, and it had indulged its love of country life at +the expense of more than one Hambleton fortune. + +A daughter-in-law was once reported as saying that it would have been a +good thing if some Hambleton had embarked in trade, since in that case +they might have been saved from devoting themselves exclusively to an +illustration of polite poverty. She was never forgiven, and died without +being reconciled to the family. As to the spelling of the name, the +family claimed ancestral authority as far back as King Fergus the First. +Mrs. Van Camp, a relative by marriage--a woman considered by the best +Hambletons as far too frank and worldly-minded--informed the family that +King Fergus was as much a myth as Dido, and innocently brought forth +printed facts to corroborate her statement. One of the ladies Hambleton +crushed Mrs. Van Camp by stating, in a tone of deep personal conviction, +with her cap awry, "So much the worse for Dido!" + +A salient strength persisted in the Hambletons--a strength which retained +its character in spite of cross-currents. The Hambleton tone and the +Hambleton ideas retained their family color, and became, whether worthily +or not, a part of the Hambleton pride. More than one son had lost his +health or entire fortune, which was apt not to be large, in attempts to +carry on a country place. "A Hambleton trait!" they chuckled, with as +much satisfaction as they considered it good form to exhibit. In Lynn, +where family pride did not bring in large returns, this phrase became +almost synonymous with genteel foolishness. + +The Van Camp fortune, which came near but never actually into the family, +was generally understood to have been made in shoes, though in reality it +was drugs. + +"People say 'shoes' the minute they hear the word Lynn, and I'm tired of +explaining," Mrs. Van Camp put it. She was third in line from the +successful druggist, and could afford, if anybody could, to be +supercilious toward trade. But she wasn't, even after twenty years of +somewhat restless submission to the Hambleton yoke. And it was she who, +during her last visit to the family stronghold, held up before the young +James the advantages of a commercial career. + +"You're a nice boy, Jimsy, and I can't see you turned into a poor lawyer. +You're not hard-headed enough to be a good one. As for being a minister, +well--no. Go into business, dear boy, something substantial, and you'll +live to thank your stars." + +Jimsy received this advice at the time with small enthusiasm, and a +reservation of criticism that was a credit to his manners, at least. But +the time came when he leaned on it. + +Her own child, however, Mrs. Van Camp encouraged to a profession from the +first. "Aleck isn't smart enough for business, but he may do something +as a student," was Mrs. Van Camp's somewhat trying explanation; and Aleck +did do something as a student. Extremely impatient with any exhibition +of laziness, the mother demanded a good accounting of her son's time. +Aleck and Jim, who were born in the same year, ran more or less side by +side until the end of college. They struggled together in sports and in +arguments, "rushed" the same girl in turn or simultaneously, and spent +their long vacations cruising up and down the Maine coast in a +thirty-foot sail-boat. Once they made a more ambitious journey all the +way to Yarmouth and the Bay of Fundy in a good-sized fishing-smack. + +But when college was done, their ways separated. Mrs. Van Camp, in the +prime of her unusual faculties, died, having decorated the Hambleton +'scutcheon like a gay cockade stuck airily up into the breeze. She had +no part nor lot in the family pride, but understood it, perhaps, better +than the Hambletons themselves. Her crime was that she played with it. +Aleck, a full-fledged biologist, went to the Little Hebrides to work out +his fresh and salad theory concerning the nerve system of the clam. + +James, third son of John and Edith Hambleton of Lynn, had his eyes +thoroughly opened in the three months after Commencement by a +consideration of the family situation. It seemed to him that from +babyhood he had been burningly conscious of the pinching and skimping +necessary to maintain the family pride. The two older brothers were +exempt from the scorching process, the eldest being the family darling +and the second a genius. Neither one could rationally be expected, "just +at present," to take up the family accounts and make the income square up +with even a decently generous outgo. And there were the girls yet to be +educated. Jim had no special talent to bless himself with, either in art +or science. He was inordinately fond of the sea, but that did not help +him in choosing a career. He had good taste in books and some little +skill in music. He was, indeed, thrall to the human voice, especially to +the low voice in woman, and he was that best of all critics, a good +listener. His greatest riches, as well as his greatest charm, lay in a +spirit of invincible youth; but he was no genius, no one perceived that +more clearly than himself. + +So he remembered Clara Van Camp's advice, wrote the whole story to Aleck, +and cast about for the one successful business chance in the four +thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine bad ones--as the statistics have it. + +He actually found it in shoes. Foot-ball muscle and grit went into the +job of putting a superior shoe on an inferior foot, if necessary--at +least on some foot. He got a chance to try his powers in the home branch +of a manufacturing house, and made good. When he came to fill a position +where there was opportunity to try new ideas, he tried them. He +inspected tanneries and stockyards, he got composite measurements of all +the feet in all the women's colleges in the year ninety-seven, he drilled +salesmen and opened a night school for the buttonhole-makers, he made a +scientific study of heels, and he invented an aristocratic arch and put +it on the market. + +The family joked about his doings as the harmless experiments of a lively +boy, but presently they began to enjoy his income. Through it all they +were affectionate and kind, with the matter-of-course fondness which a +family gives to the member that takes the part of useful drudge. John, +the pet of the parents, married, and had his own eyes opened, it is to be +supposed. Donald, the genius, had just arrived, after a dozen years or +so, at the stage where he was mentioned now and then in the literary +journals. But Jim stuck to shoes and kept the family on a fair tide of +modest prosperity. + +Once, in the years of Jim's apprenticeship to life, there came over him a +fit of soul-sickness that nearly proved his ruin. + +"I can't stand this," he wrote Aleck Van Camp; "It's too hard and dry and +sordid for any man that's got a soul. It isn't the grind I mind, though +that is bad enough; it is the 'Commercial Idea' that eats into a man's +innards. He forgets there are things that money can't buy, and in his +heart he grows contemptuous of anything to be had 'without money and +without price.' He can't help it. If he is thinking of trade +nine-tenths of the time, his mind gets set that way. I'm ready any +minute to jump the fence, like father's old colt up on the farm. I'm not +a snob, but I recognize now that there was some reason for all our old +Hambleton ancestors being so finicky about trade. + +"Do you remember how we used to talk, when we were kiddies, about keeping +our ideals? Well, I believe I'm bankrupt, Aleck, in my account with +ideals. I don't want to howl, and these remarks don't go with anybody +else, but I can say, to you, I want them back again." + +Aleck did as a kiddie should do, writing much advice on long sheets of +paper, and illustrating his points richly, like a good Scotchman, with +scientific instances. A month or two later he contrived to have work to +do in Boston, so that he could go out to Lynn and look up Jimmy's case. +He even devised a cure by creating, in his mind, an office in the +biological world which was to be offered to James on the ground that +science needed just his abilities and training. But when Aleck arrived +in Lynn he found that Jim, in some fashion or other, had found a cure for +himself. He was deeper than ever in the business, and yet, in some +spiritual sense, he had found himself. He had captured his ideal again +and yoked it to duty--which is a great feat. + +After twelve years of ferocious labor, with no vacations to speak of, +James's mind took a turn for the worse. Physically he was as sound as a +bell, though of a lath-like thinness; but an effervescing in his blood +lured his mind away from the study of lasts and accounts and Parisian +models and sent it careering, like Satan, up and down the earth. +Romance, which had been drugged during the transition from youth to +manhood, awoke and coaxed for its rights, and whispered temptingly in an +ear not yet dulled to its voice. Freedom, open spaces, laughter, the +fresh sweep of the wind, the high bucaneering piracy of life and +joy--these things beglamoured his senses. + +So one day he locked his desk with a final click. The business was in +good shape. It is but justice to say that if it had not been, Romance +had dangled her luring wisp o' light in vain. Several of his new schemes +had worked out well, his subordinates were of one mind with him, trade +was flourishing. He felt he could afford a little spin. + +Jimsy's radiating fancies focussed themselves, at last, on the vision of +a trig little sail-boat, "a jug of wine, a loaf of bread" in the cabin, +with possibly the book of verses underneath the bow, or more suitably, in +the shadow of the sail; and Aleck Van Camp and himself astir in the +rigging or plunging together from the gunwale for an early swim. "And +before I get off, I'll hear a singer that can sing," he declared. + +He telegraphed Aleck, who was by this time running down the eyelid of the +squid, to meet him at his club in New York. Then he made short work with +the family. Experience had taught him that an attack from ambush was +most successful. + +"Look here, Edith,"--this was at the breakfast-table the very morning of +his departure. Edith was sixteen, the tallest girl in the academy, +almost ready for college and reckoned quite a queen in her world--"You be +good and do my chores for me while I'm away, and I'll bring you home a +duke. Take care of mother's bronchitis, and keep the house straight. +I'm going on a cruise." + +"All right, Jim"--Edith could always be counted on to catch the ball--"go +ahead and have a bully time and don't drown yourself. I'll drive the +team straight to water, mother and dad and the whole outfit, trust me!" + +Considering the occasion and the correctness of the sentiments, Jim +forbore, for once, from making the daily suggestion that she chasten her +language. By the time the family appeared, Jim had laid out a rigid +course of action for Miss Edith, who rose to the occasion like a soldier. + +"Mother'll miss you, of course, but Jack and Harold"--two of Edith's +admirers--"Jack and Harold can come around every day--stout arm to lean +upon, that sort of thing. You know mother can't be a bit jolly without +plenty of men about, and since Sue became engaged she really doesn't +count. The boys will think _they_ are running things, of course, but +they'll see my iron hand in the velvet glove--you can throw a blue chip +on that, Jimsy. And don't kiss me, Jim, for Dorothy Snell and I vowed, +when we wished each other's rings on--Oh, well, brothers don't count." + +And so, amid the farewells of a tender, protesting family, he got off, +leaving Edith in the midst of one of her monologues. + +There was a telegram in New York saying that Aleck Van Camp would join +him in three days, at the latest. Hambleton disliked the club and left +it, although his first intention had been to put up there. He picked out +a modest, up-town hotel, new to him, for no other reason than that it had +a pretty name, The Larue. Then he began to consider details. + +The day after his arrival was occupied in making arrangements for his +boat. He put into this matter the same painstaking buoyancy that he had +put into a dull business for twelve years. He changed his plans half a +dozen times, and exceeded them wholly in the size and equipment of the +little vessel, and in the consequent expense; but he justified himself, +as men will, by a dozen good reasons. The trig little sail-boat turned +out to be a respectable yacht, steam, at that. She was called the _Sea +Gull_. Neat in the beam, stanch in the bows, rigged for coasting and +provided with a decent living outfit, she was "good enough for any +gentleman," in the opinion of the agent who rented her. Jim was half +ashamed at giving up the more robust scheme of sailing his own boat, with +Aleck; but some vague and expansive spirit moved him "to see," as he +said, "what it would be like to go as far and as fast as we please." +While they were about it, they would call on some cousins at Bar Harbor +and get good fun out of it. + +The idea of his holiday grew as he played with it. As his spin took on a +more complicated character, his zest rose. He went forth on Sunday +feeling as if some vital change was impending. His little cruise loomed +up large, important, epochal. He laughed at himself and thought, with +his customary optimism, that a vacation was worth waiting twelve years +for, if waiting endowed it with such a flavor. Jim knew that Aleck would +relish the spin, too. Aleck's nature was that of a grind tempered with +sportiness. Jim sat down Sunday morning and wrote out the whole program +for Aleck's endorsement, sent the letter by special delivery and went out +to reconnoiter. + +The era of Sunday orchestral concerts had begun, but that day, to Jim's +regret, the singer was not a contralto. "Dramatic Soprano" was on the +program; a new name, quite unknown to Jim. His interest in the soloist +waned, but the orchestra was enough. He thanked Heaven that he was past +the primitive stage of thinking any single voice more interesting than +the assemblage of instruments known as orchestra. + +Hambleton found a place in the dim vastness of the hall, and sank into +his seat in a mood of vivid anticipation. The instruments twanged, the +audience gathered, and at last the music began. Its first effect was to +rouse Hambleton to a sharp attention to details--the director, the people +in the orchestra, the people in the boxes; and then he settled down, +thinking his thoughts. The past, the future, life and its meaning, love +and its power, the long, long thoughts of youth and ambition and desire +came flocking to his brain. The noble confluence of sound that is music +worked upon him its immemorial miracle; his heart softened, his +imagination glowed, his spirit stirred. Time was lost to him--and earth. + +The orchestra ceased, but Hambleton did not heed the commotion about him. +The pause and the fresh beginning of the strings scarcely disturbed his +ecstatic reverie. A deep hush lay upon the vast assemblage, broken only +by the voices of the violins. And then, in the zone of silence that lay +over the listening people--silence that vibrated to the memory of the +strings--there rose a little song. To Hambleton, sitting absorbed, it +was as if the circuit which galvanized him into life had suddenly been +completed. He sat up. The singer's lips were slightly parted, and her +voice at first was no more than the half-voice of a flute, sweet, gentle, +beguiling. It was borne upward on the crest of the melody, fuller and +fuller, as on a flooding tide. + + + "Free of my pain, free of my burden of sorrow, + At last I shall see thee--" + + +There was freedom in the voice, and the sense of space, of wind on the +waters, of life and the love of life. + +Jimsy was a soft-hearted fellow. He never knew what happened to him; but +after uncounted minutes he seemed to be choking, while the orchestra and +the people in boxes and the singer herself swam in a hazy distance. He +shook himself, called somebody he knew very well an idiot, and laughed +aloud in his joy; but his laugh did not matter, for it was drowned in the +roar of applause that reached the roof. + +Jim did not applaud. He went outdoors to think about it; and after a +time he found, to his surprise, that he could recall not only the song, +but the singer, quite distinctly. It was a tall, womanly figure, and a +fair, bright face framed abundantly with dark hair, and the least little +humorous twitch to her lips. And her name was Agatha Redmond. + +"Of course, she can sing; but it isn't like having the real +thing--'tisn't an alto," said Jimsy ungratefully and just from habit. + +The day's experience filled his thoughts and quieted his restlessness. +He awaited Aleck with entire patience. Monday morning he spent in small +necessary business affairs, securing, among other things, several hundred +dollars, which he put in his money-belt. About the middle of the +afternoon he left his hotel, engaged a taxicab and started for Riverside. +The late summer day was fine, with the afternoon haze settling over river +and town. He watched the procession of carriages, the horse-back riders, +the people afoot, the children playing on the grass, with a feeling of +comradeship. Was he not also tasting freedom--a lord of the earth? His +gaze traveled out to the river, with the glimmer here and there of a +tug-boat, a little steamer, or the white sail of a pleasure craft. The +blood of some seagoing ancestor stirred in his veins, and he thrilled at +the thought of the days to come when his prow should be headed offshore. + +The taxicab had its limitations, and Hambleton suddenly became impatient +of its monotonous slithering along the firm road. Telling the driver to +follow him, he descended and crossed to where Cathedral Parkway switches +off. He walked briskly, feeling the tonic of the sea air, and circled +the cathedral, where workmen were lounging away after their day's toil. +The unfinished edifice loomed up like a giant skeleton of some +prehistoric era, and through its mighty open arches and buttresses Jim +saw fleecy clouds scudding across the western sky, A stone saint, muffled +in burlap, had just been swung up into his windy niche, but had not yet +discarded his robes of the world. Hambleton was regarding the shapeless +figure with mild interest, wondering which saint of the calendar could +look so grotesque, when a sound drew his attention sharply to earth. It +was a small sound, but there was something strange about it. It was +startling as a flash in a summer sky. + +Besides the workmen, there was no living thing in sight on the hillside +except his own taxicab, swinging slowly into the avenue at that moment, +and a covered motor-car getting up speed a square away. Even as the car +approached, Hambleton decided that the strange sound had proceeded from +its ambushed tonneau; and it was, surely, a human voice of distress. He +stepped forward to the curb. The car was upon him, then lumbered heavily +and swiftly past. But on the instant of its passing there appeared, +beneath the lifted curtain and quite near his own face, the face of the +singer of yesterday; and from pale, agonized lips, as if with, dying +breath, she cried, "Help, help!" + +Hambleton knew her instantly, although the dark abundance of her hair was +almost lost beneath hat and flowing veil, and the bright, humorous +expression was blotted out by fear. He stood for a moment rooted to the +curb, watching the dark mass of the car as it swayed down the hill. Then +he beckoned sharply to his driver, met the taxicab half way, and pointed +to the disappearing machine. + +"Quick! Can you overtake it?" + +"I'd like nothing better than to run down one o' them Dook machines!" +said the driver. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +MIDSUMMER MADNESS + +The driver of the taxicab proved to be a sound sport. + +Five minutes of luck, aided by nerve, brought the two machines somewhat +nearer together. The motor-car gained in the open spaces, the taxicab +caught up when it came to weaving its way in and out and dodging the +trolleys. At the frequent moments when he appeared to be losing the +car, Hambleton reflected that he had its number, which might lead to +something. At the Waldorf the car slowed up, and the cab came within a +few yards. Hambleton made up his mind at that instant that he had been +mistaken in his supposition of trouble threatening the lady, and looked +momently to see her step from the car into the custody of those +starched and lacquered menials who guard the portals of fashionable +hotels. + +But it was not so. A signal was interchanged between the occupants of +the car and some watcher in the doorway, and the car sped on. +Hambleton, watching steadily, wondered! + +"If she is being kidnapped, why doesn't she make somebody hear? Plenty +of chance. They couldn't have killed her--that isn't done." + +And yet his heart smote him as he remembered the terror and distress +written on that countenance and the cry for help. + +"Something was the matter," memory insisted. "There they go west; west +Tenth, Alexander Street, Tenth Avenue--" + +The car lumbered on, the cab half a block, often more, in the rear, +through endless regions of small shops and offices huddled together +above narrow sidewalks, through narrow and winding streets paved with +cobblestones and jammed with cars and trucks, squeezing past curbs +where dirty children sat playing within a few inches of death-dealing +wheels. Hambleton wondered what kept them from being killed by +hundreds daily, but the wonder was immediately forgotten in a new +subject for thought. The cab had stopped, although several yards of +clear road lay ahead of it. The driver was climbing down. The +motor-car was nosing its way along nearly a block ahead. Hambleton +leaped out. + +"Of course, we've broken down?" he mildly inquired. Deep in his heart +he was superstitiously thinking that he would let fate determine his +next move; if there were obstacles in the way of his further quest, +well and good; he would follow the Face no longer. + +"If you'll wait just a minute--" the driver was saying, "until I get my +kit out--" + +But Hambleton, looking ahead, saw that the car had disappeared, and his +mind suddenly veered. + +"Not this time," he announced. "Here, the meter says four-twenty--you +take this, I'm off." He put a five-dollar bill into the hand of the +driver and started on an easy run toward the west. + +He had caught sight of smoke-stacks and masts in the near distance, +telling him that the motor-car had almost, if not quite, reached the +river. Such a vehicle could not disappear and leave no trace; it ought +to be easy to find. Ahead of him flaring lights alternated with the +steady, piercing brilliance of the incandescents, and both struggled +against the lingering daylight. + +A heavy policeman at the corner had seen the car. He pointed west into +the cavernous darkness of the wharves. + +"If she ain't down at the Imperial docks she's gone plump into the +river, for that's the way she went," he insisted. The policeman had +the bearing of a major-general and the accent of the city of Cork. +Hambleton went on past the curving street-car tracks, dodged a loaded +dray emerging from the dock, and threaded his way under the shed. He +passed piles of trunks, and a couple of truckmen dumping assorted +freight from an ocean liner. No motor-car or veiled lady, nor sound of +anything like a woman's voice. Hambleton came out into the street +again, looked about for another probable avenue of escape for the car +and was at the point of bafflement, when the major-general pounded +slowly along his way. + +"In there, my son, and no nice place either!" pointing to a smaller +entrance alongside the Imperial docks, almost concealed by swinging +signs. It was plainly a forbidden way, and at first sight appeared too +narrow for the passage of any vehicle whatsoever. But examination +showed that it was not too narrow; moreover, it opened on a level with +the street. + +"If you really want her, she's in there, though what'll be to pay if +you go in there without a permit, I don't know. I'd hate to have to +arrest you." + +"It might be the best thing for me if you did, but I'm going in. You +might wait here a minute. Captain, if you will." + +"I will that; more especially as that car was a stunner for speed and I +already had my eye on her. I'd like to see you fish her out of that +hole." + +But Hambleton was out of earshot and out of sight. An empty passage +smelling of bilge-water and pent-up gases opened suddenly on to the +larger dock. Damp flooring with wide cracks stretched off to the left; +on the right the solid planking terminated suddenly in huge piles, +against which the water, capped with scum and weeds, splashed fitfully. +The river bank, lined with docks, seemed lulled into temporary +quietness. Ferry-boats steamed at their labors farther up and down +the river, but the currents of travel left here and there a peaceful +quarter such as this. + +Hambleton's gaze searched the dock and the river in a rapid survey. +The dock itself was dim and vast, with a few workmen looking like ants +in the distance. It offered nothing of encouragement; but on the +river, fifty yards away, and getting farther away every minute, was a +yacht's tender. The figures of the two rowers were quite distinct, +their oars making rhythmical flashes over the water, but it was +impossible to say exactly what freight, human or otherwise, it carried. +It was evident that there were people aboard, possibly several. Even +as Hambleton strained his eyes to see, the outlines of the rowboat +merged into the dimness. It was pointed like a gun toward a large +yacht lying at anchor farther out in the stream. The vessel swayed +prettily to the current, and slowly swung its dim light from the +masthead. + +"They've got her--out in that boat," said Hambleton to himself, +feeling, while the words were on his lips, that he was drawing +conclusions unwarranted by the evidence. Thus he stood, one foot on +the slippery log siding of the dock, watching while the little drama +played itself out, so far as his present knowledge could go. His +judgment still hung in suspense, but his senses quickened themselves to +detect, if possible, what the outcome might be. He saw the tender +approach the boat, lie alongside; saw one sailor after another descend +the rope ladder, saw a limp, inert mass lifted from the rowboat and +carried up, as if it had been merchandise, to the deck of the yacht; +saw two men follow the limp bundle over the gunwale; and finally saw +the boat herself drawn up and placed in her davits. Hambleton's mind +at last slid to its conclusion, like a bolt into its socket. + +"They're kidnapping her, without a doubt," he said slowly. For a +moment he was like one struck stupid. Slowly he turned to the dock, +looking up and down its orderly but unprepossessing clutter. Dim +lights shone here and there, and a few hands were at work at the +farther end. The dull silence, the unresponsive preoccupation of +whatever life was in sight, made it all seem as remote from him and +from this tragedy as from the stars. + +In fact, it was impersonal and remote to such a degree that Hambleton's +practical mind, halted yet an instant, in doubt whether there were not +some plausible explanation. The thought came back to him suddenly that +the motor-car must be somewhere in the neighborhood if his conclusion +were correct. + +On the instant his brain became active again. It did not take long, as +a matter of fact, to find the car; though when he stumbled on it, +turned about and neatly stowed away close beside the partitioning wall, +he gave a start. It was such a tangible evidence of what had +threatened to grow vague and unreal on his hands. He squeezed himself +into the narrow space between it and the wall, finally thrusting his +head under the curtains of the tonneau. + +It was high and dry, empty as last year's cockleshell. Not a sign of +life, not a loose object of any kind except a filmy thing which +Hambleton found himself observing thoughtfully. At last he picked it +up--a long, mist-like veil. He spread it out, held it gingerly between +a thumb and finger of each hand, and continued to look at it +abstractedly. Part of it was clean and whole, dainty as only a bit of +woman's finery can be; but one end of it was torn and twisted and +stretched out of all semblance to itself. Moreover, it was dirty, as +if it had been ground under a muddy heel. It was, in its way, a +shrieking evidence of violence, of unrighteous struggle. Hambleton +folded the scarf carefully, with its edges together, and put it in his +pocket. Jimmy's actions from this time on had an incentive and a +spirit that had before been lacking. He noted again the number of the +car, and returned to the edge of the dock to observe the yacht. She +had steamed up river a little way for some reason known only to +herself, and was now turning very slowly. She was but faintly lighted, +and would pass for some pleasure craft just coming home. But Jim knew +better. He could, at last, put two and two together. He would follow +the Face--indeed, he could not help following it. In him had begun +that divine experience of youth--of youth essentially, whether it come +in early years or late--of being carried off his feet by a spirit not +himself. He ran like a young athlete down the dock to the nearest +workman, evolving schemes as he went. + +The dock-hand apathetically trundled a small keg from one pile of +freight to another, wiped his hands on his trousers, took a dry pipe +out of his pocket, and looked vacantly up the river before he replied +to Hambleton's question. + +"Queer name--_Jene Dark_ they call her." + +It was like pulling teeth to get information out of him, but Jim +applied the forceps. + +The yacht had been lying out in the river for two weeks or more, +possibly less; belonged to foreign parts; no one thereabouts knew who +its owner was; nor its captain; nor its purpose in the harbor of New +York. At last, quite gratuitously, the man volunteered a personal +opinion. "Slippery boat in a gale--wouldn't trust her." + +Hambleton walked smartly back, taking a look both at the yacht and the +motor-car as he went. The yacht's nose pointed toward the Jersey +shore; the car was creeping out of the dock. As he overtook the +machine, he saw that it was in the hands of a mechanic in overalls and +jumper. In answer to Hambleton's question as, to the owner of the car, +the mechanic told him pleasantly to go to the devil, and for once the +sight of a coin failed to produce any perceptible effect. But the +major-general, waiting half a block away, was still in the humor of +giving fatherly advice. He welcomed Jim heartily. "That's a hole I +ain't got no use for. 'Ow'd you make out?" + +"Well enough, for all present purposes. Can you undertake to do a job +for me?" + +"If it ain't nothing I'd have to arrest you for, I might consider it," +he chuckled. + +"I want you to go to the Laramie Club and tell Aleck Van Camp--got the +name?--that Hambleton has gone off on the _Jeanne D'Arc_ and may not be +back for some time; and he is to look after the _Sea Gull_." + +"Hold on, young man; you're not going to do anything out of reason, as +one might say?" + +"Oh, no, not at all; most reasonable thing in the world. You take this +money and be sure to get the message to Mr. Van Camp, will you? All +right. Now tell me where I can find a tug-boat or a steam launch, +quick." + +"O'Leary, down at pier X--2--O has launches and everything else. All +right, my son, Aleck Van Camp, at the Laramie. But you be good and +don't drown yourself." + +This last injunction, word for word in the manner of the pert Edith, +touched Jimmy's humor. He laughed ringingly. His spirit was like a +chime of bells on a week-day. + +The hour which followed was one that James Hambleton found it difficult +to recall afterward, with any degree of coherence; but at the time his +movements were mathematically accurate, swift, effective. He got +aboard a little steam tug and followed the yacht down the river and +into the harbor. As she stood out into the roads and began to increase +her speed, he directed the captain of the tug to steam forward and make +as if to cross her bows. This would make the pilot of the yacht angry, +but he would be forced to slow down a trifle. Jim watched long enough +to see the success of his manoeuver, then went down into the cuddy +which served as a cabin, took off most of his clothes, and looked to +the fastenings of his money belt. Then he watched his chance, and when +the tug was pretty nearly in the path of the yacht, he crept to the +stern and dropped overboard. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +MR. VAN CAMP MAKES A CALL + +Aleck Van Camp turned from the clerk's desk, rather relieved to find that +Hambleton had not yet made his appearance. Aleck had an errand on his +mind, and he reflected that Jim was apt to be impetuous and reluctant to +await another man's convenience; at least, Jim wouldn't perceive that +another man's convenience needed to be waited for; and Aleck had no mind +to announce this errand from the housetops. It was not a business that +pertained, directly, either to the _Sea Gull_ or to the coming cruise. + +He made an uncommonly careful toilet, discarding two neckties before the +operation was finished. When all was done the cravat presented a stuffed +and warped appearance which was not at all satisfying, even to Aleck's +uncritical eye; but the tie was the last of his supply and was, perhaps, +slightly better than none at all. + +Dinner at the club was usually a dull affair, and to Mr. Van Camp, on +this Monday night, it seemed more stupid than ever. The club had been +organized in the spirit of English clubs, with the unwritten by-law of +absolute and inviolable privacy for the individual. No wild or woolly +manners ever entered those decorous precincts. No slapping on the +shoulder, no hail-fellow greetings, no chance dinner companionship ever +dispelled the awful penumbra of privacy that surrounded even the humblest +member. A man's eating and drinking, his coming or going, his living or +dying, were matters only for club statistics, not for personal inquiry or +notice. + +The result of this habitual attitude on the part of the members of the +club and its servants was an atmosphere in which a cataleptic fit would +scarcely warrant unofficial interference; much less would merely mawkish +or absent-minded behavior attract attention. That was the function of +the club--to provide sanctuary for personal whims and idiosyncrasies; of +course, always within the boundaries of the code. + +On the evening in question Mr. Van Camp did not actually become silly, +but his manner lacked the poise and seriousness which sophisticated men +are wont to bring to the important event of the day. He was as near +being nervous as a Scotch-American Van Camp could be; and at the same +time he felt an unwonted flow of life and warmth in his cool veins. He +went so far as to make a remark to the waiter which he meant for an +affable joke, and then wanted to kick the fellow for taking it so +solemnly. + +"You mind yourself, George, or they'll make you abbot of this monastery +yet!" said Aleck, as George helped him on with his evening coat. + +"Yes, sir, thank you, sir," said George. + +He left word at the office that in case any one called he was to be +informed that Mr. Van Camp would return to the club for the night; then, +in his silk hat and generally shining togs, he set forth to make a call. +He was no stranger to New York, and usually he took his cities as they +came, with a matter-of-fact nonchalance. He would be as much at home on +his second day in London as he had ever been in Lynn; or he would go from +a friend's week-end house-party, where the habits of a Sybarite were +forced on him, to a camp in the woods and pilot-bread fare, with an equal +smoothness of temper and enjoyment. Since luxury made no impression on +him, and hardship never blunted his own ideals of politeness or pleasure, +no one ever knew which life he preferred. + +Choosing to walk the fifteen or twenty squares to the Archangel apartment +house, his destination, Van Camp looked about him, on this night of his +arrival, with slightly quickened perceptions. He cast a mildly +appreciative eye toward the picture disclosed here and there by the +glancing lights, the chiaroscuro of the intersecting streets, the +constantly changing vistas. For an unimpressionable man, he was rather +wrought upon. Nevertheless, he entered the charming apartment whither he +was bound with the detached and composed manner which society regards as +becoming. A maid with a foreign accent greeted him. Yes, Mademoiselle +Reynier was at home; Mr. Van Camp would find her in the drawing-room. + +The stiff and unrelaxed manner with which Mr. Van Camp bowed to Miss +Reynier a moment later was not at all indicative of the fairly +respectable fever within his Scotch breast. Miss Reynier herself was +pretty enough to cause quickened pulses. She was of noble height, +evidently a woman of the world. She gave Mr. Van Camp her hand in a +greeting mingled of European daintiness and American frankness. Her +vitality and abounding interest in life were manifest. + +"Ah, but you are very late. This is how you become smart all at once in +your New York atmosphere! But pray be seated; and here are cigarettes, +if you will. No? Very well; but tell me; has that amorphous +gill-slit--oh, no, the _branchial lamella_--has it behaved itself and +proved to be the avenue which shall lead you to fame?" + +Mr. Van Camp stood silent through this flippant badinage, and calmly +waited until Miss Reynier had settled herself. Then he thoughtfully +turned the chair offered him so as to command a slightly better view of +the corner where she sat, leaning against the old-rose cushions. +Finally, taking his own time, he touched off her greeting with his +precise drawl. + +"I'm not smart, as you call it, even in New York, though I try to be." +His eyes twinkled and his teeth gleamed in his wide smile. "If I were +smart, I'd pass by your error in scientific nomenclature, but really I +ought not to do it. If one can not be exact--" + +"That's just what I say. If one can not be exact, why talk at all?" +Miss Reynier caught it up with high glee. She had a foreign accent, and +an occasional twist of words which proved her to be neither American nor +Englishwoman. "That's my principle," she insisted. "Leave other people +in undisturbed possession of their hobbies, especially in conversation, +and don't say anything if you can't say what you mean. But then, _you_ +won't talk about your hobby; and if I have no one to inform me, how can I +be exact? But I'm the meekest person alive; I'm so ready to learn." + +Mr. Van Camp surveyed first the bantering, alluring eyes, then turned his +gaze upon the soft luxuries about them. + +"Are you ready to turn this bijou dream into a laboratory smelling of +alcohol and fish? Are you ready to spend hours wading in mudbanks after +specimens, or scratching in the sand under the broiling sun? Science +does not consult comfort." + +Miss Reynier's expression of quizzical teasing changed to one of rather +thoughtful inquiry, as if she were estimating the man behind the +scientist. Van Camp was of the lean, angular type, like Jim Hambleton. +He was also very manly and wholesome, but even in his conventional +evening clothes there was something about him that was unconventional--a +protesting, untamed element of character that resisted all rules except +those prescribed by itself. He puzzled her now, as he had often puzzled +her before; but if she made fun of his hobbies, she had no mind to make +fun of the man himself. A cheerful, intelligent smile finally ended her +contemplating moment. + +"Oh, no; no digging in the sand for me. I'll take what science I get in +another way--put up in predigested packages or bottled--any way but the +fishy way. But please don't give me up. You shed a good deal of light +on my mental darkness last winter in Egypt, and maybe I can improve still +more." She suddenly turned with friendly, confidential manner toward +Aleck, not waiting for replies to her remarks. "It's good to see you +again! And I like it here better than in Egypt, don't you? Don't you +think this apartment jolly?" + +The shaded lamps made a pretty light over Miss Reynier's cream-colored +silk flounces, over the delicate lace on her waist, over her glossy dark +hair and spirited face. As Aleck contemplated that face, with its eager +yet modest and womanly gaze, and the noble outline of her figure, he +thought, with an unwonted flowering of imagination, that she was not +unlike the Diana of classic days. "A domestic Diana," he added in his +mind. "She may love the woods and freedom, but she will always return to +the hearth." + +Aloud he said: "If you will permit me, Miss Reynier, I would like to +inform you at once of the immediate object of my visit here. You must be +well aware--" At this point Mr. Van Camp, who, true to his nature, was +looking squarely in the face of his companion, of necessity allowed +himself to be interrupted by Miss Reynier's lifted hand. She was looking +beyond her visitor through the drawing-room door. + +"Mr. Chamberlain and Mr. Lloyd-Jones," announced the servant. + +As Miss Reynier swept forward with outstretched hand to greet the +new-comers, Van Camp fixed his eyes on his hostess with a mingled +expression of masculine rage and submission. Whether he thought her too +cordial toward the other men or too cool toward himself, was not +apparent. Presently he, too, was shaking hands with the visitors, who +were evidently old friends of the house. Madame Reynier, the aunt of +mademoiselle, was summoned, and Van Camp was marooned on a sofa with +Lloyd-Jones, who was just in from the West. Aleck found himself +listening to an interminable talk about copper veins and silver veins, a +new kind of assaying instrument, and the good luck attendant upon the +opening of Lloyd-Jones' new mine, the Liza Lu. + +Aleck was the essence of courtesy to everything except sham, and was able +to indicate a mild interest in Mr. Lloyd-Jones' mining affairs. It was +sufficient. Lloyd-Jones turned sidewise on his end of the sofa, spread +out plump, gesticulating hands, and poured upon him an eloquent torrent +of fact, speculation and high-spirited enthusiasm concerning Idaho in +general and the future of the Liza Lu in particular. More than that, by +and by his cheerful, half-impudent manner threatened to turn poetic. + +"It's great, living in the open out there," he went on, by this time +including the whole company in his exordium. "You ride, or tramp, or dig +rock all day; and at night you lie down under the clear stars, thankful +for your blanket and your rock-bed and your camp-fire; and more than +thankful if there's a bit of running water near by. It's a great life!" + +Miss Reynier listened to him with eyes that were alternately puzzled and +appreciative. It was a discourse that would have seemed to her much more +natural coming from Aleck Van Camp; but then, Mr. Van Camp really did the +thing--that sort of thing--and he rarely talked about it. It had +probably been Mr. Lloyd-Jones' first essay in the world out of reach of +his valet and a club cocktail; and he was consequently impressed with his +achievement. It was evident that Miss Reynier and the amateur miner were +on friendly terms, though Aleck had not seen or heard of him before. He +had hob-nobbed with Mr. Chamberlain in London and on more than one +scientific jaunt. The slightest flicker of jealous resentment gleamed in +Aleck's eyes, but his speech was as slow and precise as ever. + +"I was just trying to convince Miss Reynier that outdoor life has its +peculiar joys," he said. "I was even now suggesting that she should dig, +though not for silver. Does Mr. Lloyd-Jones' lucre seem more alluring +than my little wriggly beasts, Miss Reynier?" + +If Aleck meant this speech for a trap to force the young woman to +indicate a preference, the trick failed, as it deserved to fail. Miss +Reynier was able to play a waiting game. + +"I couldn't endure either your mines or your mud-puddles. You are both +absurd, and I don't understand how you ever get recruits for your +hobbies. But come over and see this new engraving, Mr. Jones; it's an +old-fashioned picture of your beloved Rhine." + +Aleck, thus liberated from Mr. Lloyd-Jones and his mines, made his way +across the room to Madame Reynier. The cunning of old Adam, was in his +eye, but otherwise he was the picture of deferential innocence. + +Madame Reynier liked Aleck, with his inoffensive Americanisms and +unfailing kindliness; and with her friends she was frankness itself. +With two men on Miss Reynier's hands for entertainment, it seemed to +Aleck unlikely that either one could make any alarming progress. +Besides, he was glad of a tete-a-tete with the chaperone. + +Madame Reynier was a tall, straight woman, elderly, dressed entirely in +black, with gaunt, aristocratic features and great directness of speech. +She had the fine kind of hauteur which forbids persons of this type ever +to speak of money, of disease, of scandal, or of too intimate +personalities; in Madame Reynier's case it also restrained her from every +sort of exaggerated speech. She spoke English with some difficulty and +preferred French. + +Van Camp seated himself on a spindle-legged, gilt chair by Madame +Reynier's side, and begged to know how they were enduring the New York +climate, which had formerly proved intolerable to Madame Reynier. As he +seated himself she stretched out saving hands. + +"I can endure the climate, thank you; but I can't endure to see your life +endangered on that silly chair, my dear Mr. Van Camp. There--thank you." +And when he was seated in a solid mahogany, he was rewarded with Madame +Reynier's confidential chat. They had returned to their New York +apartment in the midst of the summer season, she said, "for professional +advice." She and her niece liked the city and never minded the heat. +Melanie, her aunt explained, had been enabled to see several old friends, +and, for her own part, she liked home at any time of the year better than +the most comfortable of hotels. + +"This is quite like home," she added, "even though we are really exiles." +Aleck ventured to hope that the "professional advice" had not meant +serious trouble of any sort. + +"A slight indisposition only." + +"And are you much better now?" Aleck inquired solicitously. + +"Oh, it wasn't I; it was Melanie," Madame smiled. "I became my own +physician many years ago, and now I never see a doctor except when we ask +one to dine. But youth has no such advantage." Madame fairly beamed +with benevolence while explaining one of her pet idiosyncrasies. Before +Aleck could make any headway in gleaning information concerning her own +and Melanie's movements, as he was shamelessly trying to do, Lloyd-Jones +had persuaded Miss Reynier to sing. + +"Some of those quaint old things, please," he was saying; and Aleck +wondered if he never would hang himself with his own rope. But +Lloyd-Jones' cheerful voice went on: + +"Some of those Hungarian things are jolly and funny, even though you +can't understand the words. Makes you want to dance or sing yourself." +Aleck groaned, but Melanie began to sing, with Jones hovering around the +piano. By the time Melanie had sung everybody's favorites, excluding +Aleck's, Mr. Chamberlain rose to depart. He was an Englishman, a +serious, heavy gentleman, very loyal to old friends and very slow in +making new ones. He made an engagement to dine with Aleck on the +following evening, and, as he went out, threw back to the remaining +gentlemen an offer of seats in his machine. + +"I ought to go," said Jones; "but if Van Camp will stay, I will. That +is," he added with belated punctiliousness, "if the ladies will permit?" + +"Thank you, Chamberlain, I'm walking," drawled Aleck; then turning to the +company with his cheerful grin he stated quite impersonally: "I was +thinking of staying long enough to put one question--er, a matter of some +little importance--to Miss Reynier. When she gives me the desired +information, I shall go." + +"Me, too," chirped Mr. Lloyd-Jones. "I came expressly to talk over that +plan of building up friendly adjoining estates out in Idaho; sort of +private shooting and hunting park, you know. And I haven't had a minute +to say a word." Jones suddenly began to feel himself aggrieved. As the +door closed after Chamberlain, Melanie motioned them back to their seats. + +"It's not so very late," she said easily. "Come back and make yourselves +comfortable, and I'll listen to both of you," she said with a demure +little devil in her eye. "I haven't seen you for ages, and I don't know +when the good moment will come again." She included the two men in a +friendly smile, waved a hand toward the waiting chairs, and adjusted a +light shawl over the shoulders of Madame Reynier. + +But Aleck by this time had the bit in his teeth and would not be coaxed. +His ordinarily cool eye rested wrathfully on the broad shoulders of Mr. +Lloyd-Jones, who was lighting a cigarette, and he turned abruptly to Miss +Reynier. His voice was as serious as if Parliament, at least, had been +hanging on his words. + +"May I call to-morrow, Miss Reynier, at about twelve?" + +"Oh, I say," put in Jones, "all of you come to luncheon with me at the +Little Gray Fox--will you? Capital place and all sorts of nice people. +Do come. About one." + +Van Camp could have slain him. + +"I think my proposition a prior one," he remarked with dogged precision; +"but, of course, Miss Reynier must decide." He recovered his temper +enough to add, quite pleasantly, considering the circumstances, "Unless +Madame Reynier will take my part?" turning to the older woman. + +"Oh, no, not fair," shouted Jones. "Madame Reynier's always on my side. +Aren't you, Madame?" + +Madame Reynier smiled inscrutably. "I'm always on the side of virtue in +distress," she said. + +"That's me, then, isn't it? The way you're abusing me, Mademoiselle, +listening here to Van Camp all the evening!" + +But Melanie, tired, perhaps, of being patiently tactful, settled the +matter. "I can't go to luncheon with anybody, to-morrow," she protested. +"I've had a touch of that arch-enemy, indigestion, you see; and I can't +do anything but my prescribed exercises, nor drink anything but distilled +water--" + +"Nor eat anything but food! We know," cried the irrepressible Jones. +"But the Little Gray Fox has a special diet for just such cases as yours. +Do come!" + +"Heavens! Then I don't want to go there!" groaned Aleck. + +Melanie gave Jones her hand, half in thanks and half in farewell. "No, +thank you, not to-morrow, but sometime soon; perhaps Thursday. Will that +do?" she smiled. Then, as Jones was discontentedly lounging about the +door, she did a pretty thing. Turning from the door, she stood with face +averted from everybody except Van Camp, and for an instant her eyes met +his in a friendly, half-humorous but wholly non-committal glance. His +eyes held hers in a look that was like an embrace. + +"I will see you soon," she said quietly. + +Van Camp said good night to Jones at the corner, after they had walked +together in silence for half a block. + +"Good night, Van Camp," said Jones; then he added cordially: "By the way, +I'm going back next week in my private car to watch the opening of the +Liza Lu, and I'd be mighty glad if you'd go along. Anything else to do?" + +"Thanks--extremely; but I'm going on a cruise." + +As Aleck entered the piously exclusive hall of the club his good nature +came to his aid. He wondered whether he hadn't scored something, after +all. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +MELANIE'S DREAMS + +Midnight and the relaxation of slumber could subtract nothing from the +high-browed dignity of the club officials, and the message that was +waiting for Mr. Van Camp was delivered in the most correct manner. +"Mr. Hambleton sends word to Mr. Van Camp that he has gone away on the +_Jeanne D'Arc_. Mr. Hambleton may not be back for some time, and +requests Mr. Van Camp to look after the _Sea Gull_." + +"Very well, thank you," replied Aleck, rather absent-mindedly. He was +unable to see, immediately, just what change in his own plans this +sudden turn of Jim's would cause; and he was for the moment too deeply +preoccupied with his own personal affairs to speculate much about it. +His thoughts went back to the events of the evening, recalled the +picture of his Diana and her teasing ways, and dwelt especially upon +the honest, friendly, wholly bewitching look that had flown to him at +the end of the evening. Absurd as his own attempt at a declaration had +been, he somehow felt that he himself was not absurd in Melanie's eyes, +though he was far from certain whether she was inclined to marry him. + +Aleck, on his part, had not come to his decision suddenly or +impulsively; nor, having arrived there, was he to be turned from it +easily. True as it was that he sincerely and affectionately desired +Melanie Reynier for a wife, yet on the whole he was a very cool Romeo. +He was manly, but he was calculating; he was honorably disposed toward +matrimony, but he was not reborn with love. And so, in the sober +bedroom of the club, he quickly fell into the good sleep induced by +fatigue and healthy nerves. + +Morning brought counsel and a disposition to renew operations. A note +was despatched to his Diana by a private messenger, and the boy was +bidden to wait for an answer. It came presently: + + +"Come at twelve, if you wish. + +"MELANIE REYNIER." + + +Aleck smiled with satisfaction. Here was a wise venture going through +happily, he hoped. He was pleased that she had named the very hour he +had asked for the night before. That was like her good, frank way of +meeting a situation, and it augured well for the unknown emergencies of +their future life. He had little patience with timidity and +traditional coyness in women, and great admiration for an open and +fearless spirit. Melanie's note almost set his heart thumping. + +But not quite; and no one understood the cool nature of that organ +better than Melanie herself. The ladies in the apartment at the +Archangel had lingered at their breakfast, the austerity of which had +been mitigated by a center decoration of orchids and fern, +fresh-touched with dew; or so Madame Reynier had described them to +Melanie, as she brought them to her with the card of Mr. Lloyd-Jones. +Miss Reynier smiled faintly, admired the blossoms and turned away. + +The ladies usually spoke French with each other, though occasionally +Madame Reynier dropped into the harsher speech of her native country. +On this morning she did this, telling Melanie, for the tenth time in as +many days, that in her opinion they ought to be going home. Madame +considered this her duty, and felt no real responsibility after the +statement was made. Nevertheless, she was glad to find Melanie +disposed to discuss the matter a little further. + +"Do you wish to go home, Auntie, or is it that you think I ought to go?" + +"I don't wish to go without you, child, you know that; and I am very +comfortable here. But his Highness, your cousin, is very impatient; I +see that in every letter from Krolvetz. You offended him deeply by +putting off your marriage to Count Lorenzo, and every day now deepens +his indignation against you. I don't like to discuss these things, +Melanie, but I suspect that your action deprives him of a very +necessary revenue; and I understand, better than you do, to what +lengths your cousin is capable of going when he is displeased. You +are, by the law of your country, his ward until you marry. Would it +not be better to submit to him in friendship, rather than to incur his +enmity? After all, he is your next of kin, the head of your family, +and a very powerful man. If we are going home at all, we ought to go +now." + +"But suppose we should decide not to go home at all?" + +"You will have to go some time, dear child. You are all alone, except +for me, and in the nature of things you can't have me always. Now that +you are young, you think it an easy thing to break away from the ties +of blood and birth; but believe me, it isn't easy. You, with your +nature, could never do it. The call of the land is strong, and the +time will come when you will long to go home, long to go back to the +land where your father led his soldiers, and where your mother was +admired and loved." + +Madame Reynier paused and watched her niece, who, with eyes cast down, +was toying with her spoon. Suddenly a crimson flush rose and spread +over Melanie's cheeks and forehead and neck, and when she looked up +into Madame Reynier's face, she was gazing through unshed tears. She +rose quickly, came round to the older woman's chair and kissed her +cheek affectionately. + +"Dear Auntie, you are very good to me, and patient, too. It's all +true, I suppose; but the prospect of home and Count Lorenzo +together--ah, well!" she smiled reassuringly and again caressed Madame +Reynier's gaunt old face. "I'll think it all over, Auntie dear." + +Madame Reynier followed Melanie into her sitting-room, bringing the +precious orchids in her two hands, fearful lest the fragile vase should +fall. Melanie regarded them a moment, and then said she thought they +would do better in the drawing-room. + +"I sometimes think the little garden pink quite as pretty as an orchid." + +"They aren't so much in Mr. Lloyd-Jones' style as these," replied +Madame Reynier. She had a faculty of commenting pleasantly without the +least hint of criticism. This remark delighted Melanie. + +"No; I should never picture Mr. Lloyd-Jones as a garden pink. But +then, Auntie, you remember how eloquent he was about the hills and the +stars. That speech did not at all indicate a hothouse nature." + +"Nevertheless, I think his sentiments have been cultivated, like his +orchids." + +"Not a bad achievement," said Melanie. + +There was an interval of silence, while the younger woman stood looking +out of the window and Madame Reynier cut the leaves of a French +journal. She did not read, however, and presently she broke the +silence. "I don't remember that Mr. Van Camp ever sent orchids to you." + +"Mr. Van Camp never gave me any kind of flower. He thinks flowers are +the most intimate of all gifts, and should only be exchanged between +sweethearts. At least, I heard him expound some such theory years ago, +when we first knew him." + +Madame smiled--a significant smile, if any one had been looking. +Nothing further was said until Melanie unexpectedly shot straight to +the mark with: + +"How do you think he would do, Auntie, in place of Count Lorenzo?" + +Madame Reynier showed no surprise. "He is a sterling man; but your +cousin would never consent to it." + +"And if I should not consult my cousin?" + +"My dear Melanie, that would entail many embarrassing consequences; and +embarrassments are worse than crimes." + +Melanie could laugh at that, and did. "I've already answered a note +from Mr. Van Camp this morning; Auntie. No, don't worry," she +playfully answered a sudden anxious look that came upon her aunt's +countenance, "I've not said 'yes' to him. But he's coming to see me at +twelve. If I don't give him a chance to say what he has to say, he'll +take one anywhere. He's capable of proposing on the street-cars. +Besides, I have something also to say to him." + +"Well, my dear, you know best; certainly I think you know best," was +Madame Reynier's last word. + +Mr. Van Camp arrived on the stroke of twelve, an expression of +happiness on his lean, quizzical face. + +"I'm supposed to be starting on a cruise," he told Melanie, "but luck +is with me. My cousin hasn't turned up--or rather he turned up only to +disappear instantly. Otherwise he would have dragged me off to catch +the first ebb-tide, with me hanging back like an anchor-chain." + +"Is your cousin, then, such a tyrant?" + +"Oh, yes; he's a masterful man, is Jimmy." + +"And how did he 'disappear instantly?' It sounds mysterious." + +"It is mysterious, but Jim can take care of himself; at least, I hope +he can. The message said he had sailed on the _Jeanne D'Arc_, whatever +that is, and that I was to look after our hired yacht, the _Sea Gull_." + +Melanie looked up, startled. "The _Jeanne D'Arc_, was it?" she cried. +"Are you sure? But, of course--there must be many boats by that name, +are there not? But did he say nothing more--where he was going, and +why he changed his plans?" + +"No, not a word more than that. Why? Do you know of a boat named the +_Jeanne D'Arc_?" + +"Yes, very well; but it can not matter. It must be another vessel, +surely. Meanwhile, what are you going to do without your companion?" + +Aleck rose from the slender gilt chair where, as usual, he had perched +himself, walked to the window and thrust his hands into his pockets for +a contemplative moment, then he turned and came to a stand squarely +before Melanie, looking down on her with his quizzical, honest eyes. + +"That depends, Melanie," he said slowly, "upon whether you are going to +marry me or not." + +[Illustration: "That depends upon whether you are going to marry me."] + +For a second or two Melanie's eyes refused to lift; but Aleck's +firm-planted figure, his steady gaze, above all, his dominating will, +forced her to look up. There he was, smiling, strong, big, kindly. +Melanie started to smile, but for the second time that morning her eyes +unexpectedly filled with tears. + +"I can't talk to you towering over me like that," she said at last +softly, her smile winning against the tears. + +Aleck did not move. "I don't want you to 'talk to' me about it; all I +want is for you to say 'yes.'" + +"But I'm not going to say 'yes;' at least, I don't think I am. Do sit +down." + +Aleck started straight for the gilt chair. + +"Oh, no; not that! You are four times too big for that chair. +Besides, it's quite valuable; it's a Louis Quinze." + +Aleck indulged in a vicious kick at the ridiculous thing, picked up an +enormous leather-bottomed chair made apparently of lead, and placed it +jauntily almost beside Miss Reynier's chair, but facing the other way. + +"This is much better, thank you," he said. "Now tell me why you think +you are not going to say 'yes' to me." + +Melanie's mood of softness had not left her; but sitting there, face to +face with this man, face to face with his seriousness, his masculine +will and strength, she felt that she had something yet to struggle for, +some deep personal right to be acknowledged. It was with a dignity, an +aloofness, that was quite real, yet very sweet, that she met this +American lover. He had her hand in his firm grasp, but he was waiting +for her to speak. He was giving her the hearing that was, in his +opinion, her right. + +"In the first place," Melanie began, "you ought to know more about +me--who I am, and all that sort of thing. I am, in one sense, not at +all what I seem to be; and that, in the case of marriage, is a +dangerous thing." + +"It is an important thing, at least. But I do know who you are; I knew +long ago. Since you never referred to the matter, of course I never +did. You are the Princess Auguste Stephanie of Krolvetz, cousin of the +present Duke Stephen, called King of Krolvetz. You are even in line +for the throne, though there are two or three lives between. You have +incurred the displeasure of Duke Stephen and are practically an exile +from your country." + +"A voluntary exile," Melanie corrected. + +"Voluntary only in the sense that you prefer exile to absolute +submission to the duke. There is no alternative, if you return." + +Melanie was silent. Aleck lifted the hand which he held, touched it +gently with his lips and laid it back beside its fellow on Melanie's +lap. Then he rose and lifted both hands before her, half in fun and +half in earnestness, as if he were a courtier doing reverence to his +queen. + +"See, your Highness, how ready I am to do you homage! Only smile on +the most devoted of your servants." + +Melanie could not resist his gentle gaiety. It was as if they were two +children playing at a story. Aleck, in such a mood as this, was as +much fun as a dancing bear, and in five minutes more he had won peals +of laughter from Melanie. It was what he wanted--to brighten her +spirits. So presently he came back to the big chair, though he did not +again take her hand. + +"I knew you were titled and important, Melanie, and at first I thought +that sealed my case entirely. But you seemed to forget your state, +seemed not to care so very much about it; and perhaps that made me +think it was possible for us both to forget it, or at least to ignore +it. I haven't a gold throne to give you; but you're the only woman +I've ever wanted to marry, and I wasn't going to give up the chance +until you said so." + +"Do you know also that if I marry out of my rank and without the +consent of Duke Stephen, I shall forfeit all my fortune?" + +"'Cut off without a cent!'" Aleck laughed, but presently paused, +embarrassed for the first time since he had begun his plea. "I, you +know, haven't millions, but there's a decent income, even for two. And +then I can always go to work and earn something," he smiled at her, +"giving information to a thirsty world about the gill-slit, as you call +it. It would be fun, earning money for you; I'd like to do it." + +Melanie smiled back at him, but left her chair and wandered uneasily +about the room, as if turning a difficult matter over in her mind. +Aleck stood by, watching. Presently she returned to her chair, pushed +him gently back into his seat and dropped down beside him. Before she +spoke, she touched her fingers lightly, almost lovingly, along the blue +veins of his big hand lying on the arm of the chair. The hand turned, +like a magnet spring, and imprisoned hers. + +"No, dear friend, not yet," said Melanie, drawing away her hand, yet +not very quickly after all. "There is much yet to say to you, and I +have been wondering how to say it, but I shall do it now. Like the +heroes in the novels," she smiled again, "I am going to tell you the +story of my life." + +"Good!" said Aleck. "All ready for chapter one. But your maid wants +you at the door." + +"Go away, Sophie," said Melanie. "Serve luncheon to Madame Reynier +alone. I shall wait; and you'll have to wait, too, poor man!" She +looked scrutinizingly at Aleck. "Or are you, perhaps, hungry? I'm not +going to talk to a hungry man," she announced. + +"Not a bite till I've heard chapter thirty-nine!" said Aleck. + +In a moment she became serious again. + +"I have lived in England and here in America," she began, "long enough +to understand that the differences between your people and mine are +more than the differences of language and climate; they are ingrained +in our habits of thought, our education, our judgments of life and of +people. My childhood and youth were wholly different from yours, or +from what an American girl's could be; and yet I think I understand +your American women, though I suppose I am not in the least like them. + +"But I, on the other hand, have seen the dark side of life, and +particularly of marriage. When I was a child I was more important in +my own country than I am now, since it seemed then that my father would +succeed to the throne. I was brought up to feel that I was not a +woman, but a pawn in the game of politics. When I had been out of the +convent for a year or more, I loved a youth, and was loved in return, +but our marriage was laughed at, put aside, declared impossible, +because he was of a rank inferior to my own. My lover disappeared, I +know not where or how. Then affairs changed. My father died, and it +transpired that I had been officially betrothed since childhood to Duke +Stephen's brother, the Count Lorenzo. The duke was my guardian, and +there was no one else to whom I could appeal; but the very week set for +the wedding I faced the duke and declared I would never marry the +count. His Highness raged and stormed, but I told him a few things I +knew about his brother, and I made him see that I was in earnest. The +next day I left Krolvetz, and the duke gave out that I was ill and had +gone to a health resort; that the wedding was postponed. I went to +France and hid myself with my aunt, took one of my own middle names and +her surname, and have been known for some time, as you know, as Melanie +Reynier." + +"I know you wish to tell me all these things, Melanie, but I do not +want you to recall painful matters of the past now," said Aleck gently. +"You shall tell me of them at another time." + +The color brightened in Melanie's face, her eyes glowed. + +"No, not another time; you must understand now, especially because all +this preface leads me to what I really want to say to you. It is this: +I do not now care for the man I loved at nineteen, nor for any of the +other men of my country who have been pleased to honor me with their +regard. But ever since those early days I have had a dream of a +home--a place different from Duke Stephen's home, different from the +homes of many people of my rank. My dream has a husband in it who is a +companion, a friend, my equal in love, my superior in strength." +Melanie's eyes lifted to meet Aleck's, and they were full of an almost +tragic passion; but it was a passion for comprehension and love, not +primarily for the man sitting before her. She added simply: "And for +my dream I'd give all the wealth, all the love, I have." + +The room was very still. Aleck Van Camp sat quiet and grave, his +forehead resting on his hand. He looked up, finally, at Melanie, who +was beside him, pale and quite worn. + +"Poor child! You needed me more than I thought!" was what he said. + +But Melanie had not quite finished. "No, that is not enough, that I +should need you. You must also need me, want what I alone can give +you, match my love with yours. And this, I think, you do not do. You +calculate, you remain cool, you plan your life like a campaign, and I +am part of your equipment. You are a thousand times better than Count +Lorenzo, but I think your principles of reasoning are the same. You do +not love me enough, and that is why I can not say yes." + +Aleck had taken this last blow standing. He walked slowly around and +stood before Melanie, much as he had stood before her when he first +asked her to marry him; and this time, as he looked down on her +fairness, there was infinite gentleness and patience and love in his +eyes. He bent over, lifted Melanie's two hands, and drew her bodily +out of her seat. She was impassive. Her quick alertness, her +vitality, her passionate seriousness, had slipped away. Aleck put his +arms around her very tenderly, and kissed her lips; not a lover's kiss +exactly, and yet nothing else. Then he looked into her face. + +"I shall not do this again, Melanie dear, till you give me leave. But +I have no mind to let you go, either. You and Madame Reynier are going +on a cruise with me; will you? Get your maid to pack your grip. It +will be better for you than the 'professional advice' which you came to +New York for." + +Aleck stopped suddenly, his practical sense coming to the surface. +"Heavens! You haven't had any lunch, and it's all times of the day!" +He rang the bell, begged the maid to fetch bread and butter and tea and +to ask Madame Reynier to come to the drawing-room. When she appeared, +he met her with a grave, but in no wise a cowed, spirit. + +"Madame Reynier, your niece refuses, for the present, to consider +herself engaged to me; I, however, am unequivocally betrothed to her. +And I shall be endlessly grateful if you and Miss Reynier will be my +guests on the _Sea Gull_ for as long a time as you find it diverting. +We shall cruise along the coast and put into harbor at night, if it +seems best; and I'll try to make you comfortable. Will you come?" + +Madame Reynier was willing if Melanie was; and Melanie had no strength, +if she had the will, to combat Aleck's masterful ways. It was soon +settled. Aleck swung off down the street, re-reading Jim's letter, +intent only on the _Sea Gull_ and the preparations for his guests. But +at the back of his mind he was thinking, "Poor girl! She needs me more +than I thought!" + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +ON BOARD THE JEANNE D'ARC + +If hard usage and obstacles could cure a knight-errant of his +sentiment, then Jimmy Hambleton had been free of his passion for the +Face. His plunge overboard had been followed by a joyous swim, a lusty +call to the yacht for "Help," and a growing amazement when he realized +that it was the yacht's intention to pass him by. He had swum +valiantly, determined to get picked up by that particular craft, when +suddenly his strength failed. He remembered thinking that it was all +up with him, and then he lost consciousness. + +When he awoke he was on a hard bunk in a dim place, and a sailor was +jerking him about. His throat burned with a fiery liquid. Then he +felt the plunging and rising of the boat, and came to life sufficiently +to utter the stereotyped words, "Where am I?" + +In Jim's case the question did not imply the confused groping back to +sense that it usually indicates, but rather an actual desire to know +whether or not he was on board the _Jeanne D'Arc_. Plainly his wits +had not been badly shattered by his experience overboard. But the +sailor who was attending him with such ministrations as he understood, +answered him with a sample of French which Jim had never met with in +his school-books, and he was not enlightened for some hours. + +It turned out, indeed, to be the _Jeanne D'Arc_, as Jim proved for +himself the next day, and he was lying in the seamen's quarters in the +fo'cas'le. By morning he felt much better, hungry, and prepared in his +mind for striking a bargain with one of the sailors for clothes. He +could make out their lingo soon, he guessed, and then he would get a +suit of clothes and fare on deck. Suddenly he grasped his waist, +struck with an unpleasant thought; his money-belt was gone! He was +wearing a sailor's blue flannel shirt and nothing else. He turned over +on his hard bunk, thinking that he would have to wait a while before +making his entrance on the public stage of the _Jeanne D'Arc_. + +And wait he did. Not a rag of clothing was in sight, and no cajolery +or promise of reward could persuade the ship's men into supplying his +need. He received consignments of food; short rations they would be, +he judged, for an able-bodied seaman. But inactivity and confinement +to the fo'cas'le soon worked havoc with his physique, so that appetite, +and even desire of life itself, temporarily disappeared in the gloom of +seasickness. + +In spite of difficulties, Jim tried to find out something about the +boat. The seamen were none too friendly; but by patching up his almost +forgotten French and by signs, he learned something. His sudden +failure of strength in the water had been due to a blow from a floating +spar, as a bruise on his forehead testified; "the old man," whom Jim +supposed to be the captain, was a hard master; Monsieur Chatelard was +owner, or at least temporary proprietor, of the yacht; and the present +voyage was an unlucky one by all the signs and omens known to the +seamen's horoscope. + +The sullenness of the men was apparent, and was not caused by the +enforced presence of a stranger among them. In fact, their bad temper +became so conspicuous that Jim began to believe that it might have +something to do with the mysterious actions of the man on shore. He +pondered the situation deeply; he evolved many foolish schemes to +compass his own enlightenment, and dismissed them one by one. He +grimly reflected that a man without clothes can scarcely be a hero, +whatever his spirit. Not since the days of Olympus was there any +record of man or god being received into any society whatever without +his sartorial shell, thought Jimmy. But in spite of his discomfort, he +was glad he was there. The intuition that had led him since that +memorable Sunday afternoon was strong within him still, and he never +questioned its authority. He believed his turn would come, even though +he were a prisoner in the fo'cas'le of the _Jeanne D'Arc_. + +As the violence of his sickness passed, Jim began to cast about for +some means of helping himself. Gradually he was able to dive into the +forgotten shallows of his French learning. By much wrinkling of brows +he evolved a sentence, though he had to wait some hours before there +was a favorable chance to put it to use. At last his time came, with +the arrival of his former friend, the sailor. + +"Oo avay-voo cashay mon money-belt?" he inquired with much confidence, +and with pure Yankee accent. + +The sailor answered with a shrug and a spreading of empty hands. + +"Pas de money-belt, pas de pantalon, pas de tous! Dam queer +Amayricain!" + +Jim was not convinced of the sailor's innocence, but perceived that he +must give him the benefit of the doubt. As the sailor intimated, Jim, +himself, was open to suspicion, and couldn't afford to be too zealous +in calumniating others. He fell to thinking again, and attacked the +next Frenchman that came into the fo'cas'le with the following: + +"Kond j'aytay malade don ma tate, kee a pree mon money-belt?" + +It was the ship's cook this time, and he turned and stared at Jimmy as +though he had seen a ghost. When he found tongue he uttered a volume +of opinion and abuse which Jimmy knew by instinct was not fit to be +translated, and then he fled up the ladder. + +On the fourth day, toward evening, James had a visitor. All day the +yacht had been pitching and rolling, and by afternoon she was laboring +in the violence of a storm and was listing badly. + +James was a fearless seaman, but it crossed his mind more than once +that if he were captain, and if there were a port within reach, he +would put into it before midnight. But he could tell nothing of the +ship's course. He turned the subject over in his mind as he lay on his +bunk in that peculiar state half-way between sickness and health, when +the body is relaxed by a purely accidental illness and the mind is +abnormally alert. He wished intensely for a bath, a shave, and a fair +complement of clothes. He longed also to go up the hatchway for a +breath of air, and was considering the possibility of doing this later, +with a blanket and darkness for a shield, when he became conscious of a +pair of neatly trousered legs descending the ladder. It was quite a +different performance from the catlike climbing up and down of the +sailors. + +Jimmy watched in the dim light until the whole figure was complete, +fantastically supplying, in his imagination, the coat, the shirt, the +collar and the tie to go with the trousers--all the things which he +himself lacked. Was there also a hat? Jimmy couldn't make out, and so +he asked. + +"Have you got on a hat?" + +A frigid voice answered, "I beg your pardon!" + +"I said, are you wearing a hat? I couldn't see, you know." + +"Monsieur takes the liberty of being impertinent." + +"Oh, excuse me--I beg your pardon. But it's so beastly hot and dark in +here, you know, and I've never been seasick before." + +"No? Monsieur is fortunate." The visitor advanced a little, drew from +a recess a shoe-blacking outfit, pulled over it one of the stiff +blankets from a neighboring bunk, and sat down rather cautiously. +Little by little James made out more of the look of the man. He was +large and rather blond, well-dressed, clean-shaven. He spoke English +easily, but with a foreign accent. + +"I wish to inquire to what unfortunate circumstances we are indebted +for your company on board the _Jeanne D'Arc_." The voice was cool, and +sharp as a meat-ax. + +"Why, to your own kind-heartedness. I was a derelict and you took me +in--saved my life, in fact; for which I am profoundly grateful. And I +hope my presence here is not too great a burden?" + +"I am obliged to say that your presence here is most unwelcome. +Moreover, I am aware that your previous actions are open to suspicion, +to express it mildly. You threw yourself off the tug; and as this as +not a pleasure yacht, but the vessel of a high official speeding on a +most important business matter, I said to the captain, 'Let him swim! +Or, if he wishes to die, why should we thwart him?' But the captain +referred to the 'etiquette of the line,' as he calls it, and picked you +up. So you have not me to thank for not being among the fishes this +minute." + +Jimmy pulled his blanket about and sat up on his bunk. The sarcastic +voice stirred his bile, and suddenly there boomed in his memory a +woman's call for help. The hooded motor-car, the muffled cry of +terror, the inert figure being lifted over the side of the yacht--these +things crowded on his brain and fired him to a sudden, unreasoning +fury. He leaned over, looking sharply into the other's face. + +"You damned scoundrel!" he said, choking with his anger. The blood +surged into his face and eyes; he was, for an instant, a primitive +savage. He could have laid violent hands on the other man and done him +to death, in the fashion of the half-gods who lived in the twilight of +history. + +The visitor in the fo'cas'le exhibited a neat row of teeth and no +resentment whatever at Jim's remark, But a sharp glitter shot from his +eyes as he replied suavely: + +"Monsieur has doubtless mistaken this ship, and probably its master +also, for some other less worthy adventurer on the sea. For that very +reason I have come to set you right. It may be that I have my quixotic +moments. At any rate, I have a fancy to give you a gentleman's chance. +Monsieur, I regret the necessity of being inhospitable, but I am forced +to say that you must quit the shelter of this yacht within twenty-four +hours." + +The thin, sarcastic voice and clean-cut syllables fanned the flame of +Jimmy's rage. He felt impotent, moreover, which never serves as a +poultice to anger. But he got himself in hand, though imitation +courtesy was not much in his line. He tuned his big hearty voice to a +pitch with the Frenchman's nasal pipe, and clipped off his words in +mimicry. + +"And to whom, pray, shall I have the honor to say farewell, at the +auspicious moment when I jump overboard?" + +"Gently, you American, gently!" said the other. "My friends, and some +of my enemies, know me as Monsieur Chatelard." As he paused for an +impressive instant, Jim, grabbing his blanket, stood up in derision and +executed an elaborate bow in as foreign a manner as he could command. +Monsieur Chatelard politely waved him down and continued: + +"But pray do not trouble to give me your card! I had rather say adieu +to Monsieur the Unknown, whose daring and temper I so much admire. But +I certainly misunderstood your violent remark a moment ago, did I not? +You can not possibly have any ground of quarrel with me." + +"I thought you stole my money-belt." + +Monsieur smiled and waved a deprecatory hand. "You have already +dismissed that idea, I am certain. A money-belt, between gentlemen! +Moreover, you should thank me for so much as recognizing the gentleman +in you, since you are without the customary trappings of our class." + +"Oh, I don't know," said Jim. But Monsieur Chatelard was now +imperturbable. He continued blandly: + +"Since you are fond of sea-baths, you will no doubt enjoy a +plunge--to-night possibly. As we have made rather slow progress, we +are really not so far from shore. Yes, on second thought, I would by +all means advise you to take your departure tonight. Swim back to +shore the way you came. In any case, your absence is desired. There +will be no room or provision or water for you on board the _Jeanne +D'Arc_ after to-night. Is my meaning clear?" + +Jim was watching, as well as he could, the immobile, expressionless +face, and did not immediately note that Monsieur Chatelard had drawn a +small, shiny object from his hip pocket and was holding it carelessly +in his lap. As his gaze focussed on the revolver, however, he did the +one thing, perhaps, which at that moment could have put the Frenchman +off his guard. He threw his head back and laughed aloud. + +But before his laugh had time to echo in the narrow fo'cas'le, Jim +leaped from his bunk upon his tormentor, like a cat upon a mouse, +seized his right hand in a paralyzing grip, and was himself thrown +violently to the floor. The struggle was brief, for the Frenchman was +no match for Jim in strength and scarcely superior to him in skill; but +it took one of Jim's old wrestling feints to get the better of his +opponent. He came out, in five seconds, with the pistol in his hand. +Monsieur Chatelard, a bit breathless, but not greatly discomposed, +peered out at him from the edge of the opposite bunk, where he sat +uncomfortably. His cynical voice capped the struggle like a streak of +pitch. + +"Pray keep the weapon. You are welcome, though your methods are +somewhat surprising. Had I known them earlier, I might have offered +you my little toy." + +"Oh, don't mention it," said Jimmy. "I thought you might not be used +to firearms, that's all." + +The varnished surface of Monsieur Chatelard's countenance gave no +evidence of his having heard Jim's remark. + +"Don't fancy that your abrupt movements, have deprived me of what +authority I may happen to possess on this vessel. My request as to +your future action still stands, unless you had rather one of my +faithful men should assist you in carrying out my purpose." + +Hambleton stood with legs wide apart to keep his balance, regarding the +weapon in his hand, from which his gaze traveled to the man on the +bunk. When it came to dialogue, he was no match for this sarcastic +purveyor of words. He wondered whether Monsieur Chatelard was actually +as cool as he appeared. As he stood there, the _Jeanne D'Arc_ pitched +forward until it seemed that she could never right herself, then slowly +and laboriously she rode the waves again. + +"You are a more picturesque villain than I thought," remarked James. +"You have all the tricks of the stage hero--secret passages, fancy +weapons, and--crowning glory--a fatal gift of gab!" + +Monsieur Chatelard arose, making his way toward the hatch. + +"Many thanks. I can not return the compliment in such a happy choice +of English," he scoffed, "but I can truthfully say that I have rarely +seen so striking and unique a figure as I now behold; certainly never +on the stage, to which you so politely refer." + +But James was too deeply intent on his next move to be embarrassed by +his lack of clothes. Not in vain had his gorge risen almost at first +sight of this man. He stepped quickly in front of Monsieur Chatelard, +blocking his exit up the ladder, while the revolver in his hand looked +straight between the Frenchman's eyes. + +Whatever Chatelard's crimes were, he was not a coward. He did not +flinch, but his eyes gleamed like cold steel as Jim cornered him. + +"Now," said Jim, "I have my turn." Wrath burned in his heart. + +"Captain Paquin! Antoine, Antoine!" called Chatelard. No one answered +the call of the master of the ship, but even as the two men measured +their force one against the other, they were arrested by a commotion +above. Voices were heard shouting, trampling feet were running back +and forth over the deck, and a moment later the ship's cook came +tumbling down the hatchway, screaming in terror. He glared unheeding +at the two men, and his teeth chattered. Fear had possession of him. + +Jim lifted his revolver well out of reach, and backed off from +Chatelard. For the first time during the interview between the +American and the Frenchman, the two now faced each other as man to man, +with the mask of their suspicions, their vanities and their hate cast +aside. + +"What is the matter? What is this fool saying?" Jim asked in loathing. + +At last Monsieur Chatelard looked at Jim with eyes of fear. His face +became so pale and drawn that it resembled a sponge from which the last +drop of water had been pressed. + +"He says the yacht is half full of water--that she is sinking," the +Frenchman said. + +"Sinking!" echoed Jim, bearing down again, with lowered revolver, on +his enemy. "Well and good! You're going to be drowned, not shot, +after all! And now you shall speak, you scamp! Your game's up, +whatever happens. Get up and lead the way, quick, and show me in what +part of this infernal boat you are hiding Agatha Redmond." + +Chatelard started toward the hatchway, followed sharply by Jim's +revolver, but at the foot of the ladder he turned his contemptuous, +sneering face toward Jim, with the remark: + +"Your words are the words of a fool, you pig of an American! There is +no lady aboard this yacht, and I never so much as heard of your Agatha +Redmond. Otherwise, I'd be pleased to play Mercury to your Venus." + +To Jim's ears, every syllable the Frenchman spoke was an insult, and +the last words rekindled the fire in his blood. + +"You shall pay for that speech here and now!" he yelled; and, +discarding his revolver, he dealt the Frenchman a short-arm blow. +Chatelard, trying to dodge, tripped over the base of the ladder and +went down heavily on the floor of the fo'cas'le. He had apparently +lost consciousness. + +As Jim saw his victim stretched on the floor, he turned away with +loathing. He picked up his revolver and went up the ladder. It was +already dark, and confusion reigned on deck. But through the clamor, +Jim made out something near the truth: the _Jeanne D'Arc_ was leaking +badly, and no time was to be lost if she, with her passengers and crew, +were to be saved. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE ROPE LADDER + +The near prospect of a conclusive struggle for life is a sharp tonic to +the adventurous soul. The actual final summons to that Other Room is +met variously. There is Earthly Dignity, who answers even this last +tap at the door with a fitting and quotable rejoinder; there is +Deathbed Repentance, whose unction _in momento mortis_ is doubtless a +comfort to pious relatives; and there are Chivalry and Valor, twin +youths who go to the unknown banquet singing and bearing their garlands +of joy. + +But with the chance of a fight for life, there is a sharp-sweet tang +that sends some spirits galloping to the contest. "Dauntless the +slughorn to his lips he set--" making ready for the last good run. + +When Jim descended the hatchway after reconnoitering on deck, Chatelard +was gone. The ship's cook was rummaging in a sailor's kit that he had +drawn from a locker. Jim mentally considered the situation. The +seamen had no doubt exaggerated the calamity, but without question +there was serious trouble. Were the pumps working? How far were they +from shore? If hopelessly distant from shore, were they in the course +of passing steamers? Would any one look after Miss Redmond's safety? +Monsieur Chatelard had said that she was not on board, but James did +not believe it. + +While these thoughts new through his mind, James had been absently +watching while the cook turned his treasures out upon his bunk, and +pawed them over with trembling hands. There were innumerable little +things, besides a stiff white shirt, a cheap shiny Bible, a stuffed +parrot and several wads of clothes. And among the mess Jim caught +sight of a piece of stitched canvas that looked familiar. + +"Hi, you there! That's my money-belt!" he cried, and jumped forward to +claim his own. But in his movement he failed to calculate with the +waves. The yacht gave another of her deep-sea plunges, and Jimmy, +thrown against his bunk, saw the cook grab his kit and make for the +ladder. He regained his feet only in time to follow at arm's length up +the hatchway. At the top he threw himself down, like a baseball runner +making his base, after the seaman's legs; but instead of a foot, he +found himself clutching one of the wads of clothes that trailed after +the cook's bundle. He caught it firmly and kept it, but the ship's +cook and the rest of his booty disappeared like a rabbit into its +burrow. + +Jim sat down at the top of the ladder and examined his haul. It was a +pair of woolen trousers, and they were of generous size. He spread +them out on the deck. Round him were unmistakable signs of +demoralization. The second officer was ordering the men to the pumps +in stern tones; the yacht was pitching wildly and growing darkness was +settling on the face of the turbulent waters. But in spite of it all, +Jimmy's spirit leaped forth in laughter as he thought of his brief, +frantic chase, and its result in this capture of the characteristic +vestiture of man. + +"What's money for, anyway!" he laughed, as he got up and clothed +himself once more. + +There followed hours of superhuman struggle to save the _Jeanne D'Arc_. +Her crew, sufficient in ordinary weather, was too small to cope with +the storm and the leaking ship. Ballast had to be shifted or flung +overboard. Repairs had to be attempted in the hold; the pumps had to +be worked incessantly, It transpired that the yacht had gone far out of +her course during the fog the night before, and had tried to turn +inshore, even before the leak was discovered. No one knew what waters +they were that lashed so furiously about the disabled craft. The storm +overhead had abated, but the rage of the sea was unquelled. Before +long the engine was stopped by the rising water, and then the hand +pumps were used. There was some hope that the leak had been discovered +and at least partly repaired. The captain thought that, if carefully +managed, the yacht might hold till daylight. + +Jimmy joined the gang and worked like a Trojan, helping wherever a man +was needed, shifting ballast, untackling the boats, handling the pump. +It was at the pump that he found himself, some time during the night, +working endlessly, it seemed. Not once had he lost sight of the real +purpose of his presence on the yacht. If Agatha Redmond were aboard +the unlucky vessel--and he had moments of curious perplexity about +it--he was there to watch for her safety. He pictured her sitting +somewhere in the endangered vessel. She could not but be terrified at +her predicament. Whether shipwreck or abduction threatened her, she +must feel that she had indeed fallen into the hands of her enemies. + +He worked his turn at the pump, then made up his mind to risk no +further delay, but to search the ship's cabins. She was in one of +them, he believed; frightened she must be, possibly ill. He had done +all that the furthest stretch of duty could demand in assistance to the +ship. He would find Agatha Redmond at any cost, if she were aboard the +_Jeanne D'Arc_. Again he thought to himself that he was glad he was +there. Whatever purpose her enemies had, he alone was on her side, he +alone could do something to save her. + +It was now long past midnight, but not pitch dark either on deck or on +the sea. The electric lights had gone out long before, but lanterns +had been swung here and there from the deck fixtures. As Jimmy came +up, he thought the men were preparing to lower the boats, but when he +asked about it in his difficult French, the sailor shook his head. +There were more people about than he supposed the yacht carried: +several seamen, three or four other men, and a fat woman sitting +apathetically on a pile of rope. He went from group to group, and from +end to end of the yacht, looking for one woman's face and figure. He +saw Monsieur Chatelard, examining one of the boats. He ran down the +saloon stairway, determined to search the cabins before he gave up his +quest. One moment he prayed that the words of Chatelard might be true, +and that she had never been aboard the yacht; the next moment he prayed +he might find her behind the next closed door. + +As James searched below deck, a house palatial disclosed itself, even +in the dim light of the little lanterns. Cabins roomy and comfortable, +furnishings of exquisite taste, all the paraphernalia of the cultured +and the rich were there. Some of the cabin doors were standing open, +and none was locked. Jimmy beat on them, called from room to room, +finding nothing. Every human occupant was gone. Sick at heart, he +again rushed on deck. Was he mistaken, after all? Or had they hidden +her in some secret part of the ship where he could not find her? + +When Jimmy got back to the deck he saw that the groups had gathered on +the port side. Sharp orders were being given. He crowded to the +railing, straining his eyes to see, and found that they were +transferring the ship's company to the boats, A rope ladder swung from +the deck to a boat beneath, which bobbed like a cork beside, the big, +plunging yacht. Two people were in the boat, a sailor standing at the +bow, and a large muffled figure of a woman sitting in the stern. Jimmy +at once knew her to be the apathetic fat woman he had seen a few +minutes before on deck. His eye searched the company crowded about the +top of the rope ladder, and suddenly his heart leaped. There she was, +at the edge of the deck, waiting for the captain to give the word for +her to descend to the boat below. As Jimmy's eyes grew accustomed to +the darkness, he saw her more and more plainly: a pale face framed in a +dark hood, a tall, cloaked figure waiting calmly to obey the word from +the superior officer. + +It was the third time Jimmy had seen her, but he felt as if he had +found one dearer than himself. His eyes dwelt on her. She was not +terrified; her nerves were not shaken. "I am ready," she said, turning +to the captain. It was the same fine, free voice, suggesting--Oh, what +did it not suggest! Never this dark, wild night of danger! Jimmy +thrilled to it again as he had thrilled to it once before. He waved +jubilant hands. "Agatha Redmond!" he called, across the space and +heads that divided them. + +Whether she heard his call he did not know. At that moment the word +was given, and she turned an almost smiling face to the captain in +reply. She knelt to the deck and got footing on the slippery rope. +Men above held it and helped as best they could, while the sailor below +waited to receive her into the little boat. She was steady and quick +as a woman in such a perilous position could be. As she descended, the +rowboat, insecurely held to the _Jeanne D'Arc_, slid sternward a few +feet; and while she waited in midair for the boat to be brought up +again, the _Jeanne D'Arc_ gave a mighty plunge. The captain shouted +from the deck, a sailor yelled, then another; the dipping sea tossed +the yacht so that for an instant the boat below and the woman on the +ladder were hidden from Jim's view. He climbed over the rail and edged +along the narrow margin of the deck until he was a few feet nearer the +rope, his heart thumping with fear of calamity. + +And even as the thought came, the thing happened. The wrenching of the +ropes, the insecurity of their fastenings, some blunder on the part of +the seamen--whatever it was, the rope loosened like a filament of +gauze, and, with its precious burden, dropped into the angry water. +Before a breath could be drawn, the black waves churned over her head. + +As, for the second time, Jim saw disaster engulf the Vision that had +such power over him, he was seized by a cold numbness. + +"Oh, you brutes!" he groaned aloud; but his groan had scarcely escaped +him when he heard loud altercation among the men, and in a moment the +nasal tones of Monsieur Chatelard commanding: "Never mind! Quick with +the boat on the other side!" + +The seamen rushed to the opposite side, now impatient to make the +boats. In the fear that was growing momently upon the men, there was +no one to give a thought to the vanished woman. Jimmy clung to the +rail for a second, peering over the water. With a cry of gladness he +saw her pale face rise to the surface of the water several feet away +and toward the bow. + +"Keep up a second! It's all right!" he shouted. Quick as thought he +snatched a life preserver from its place on the rail, and ran forward. +He called thrice, "Keep up, I'm coming!" then threw the cork swiftly +and accurately to the very spot where she floated. A second longer he +watched, to see if she gained it. It seemed that she did, and yet +something was wrong. She was not able to right herself immediately in +the water, but floundered helplessly. Jimmy knew that her clothes were +hampering her, or else that the rope ladder had entangled her feet. + +He turned and got his balance on the narrow ledge, pointed his hands +high above his head, and took a good breath. Then he dove toward the +floating face. When he came to the surface she was there, not ten +strokes away. He swam to her, placed firm hands under her arms, and +steadied her while she cleared her feet from the entangling rope. + +"Thank God!" he breathed. "I'll save you yet!" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +ON THE BREAST OF THE SEA + +"Can you keep afloat in this roughness?" + +"I think so, now that I have the life preserver. But the rope scared +me for a minute. It got wound about my feet." + +"I thought so. But we are drifting away from the boats, and should +swim back as fast as we can. Can you swim?" + +"Yes; better when I get rid of this cloak. Which way is the yacht? +I've lost my bearings." + +"Behind us over there. Put your hand on my shoulder and I'll take you +along until you get your breath. So!" + +The girl obeyed implicitly, "as if she were a good, biddable child," +thought Jim. There was none of the terrified clutching at a rescuer +which sometimes causes disaster to two instead of one. Miss Redmond +was badly shocked, it may be; but she was far from being in a panic. + +"Now for the boat. Can you swim a little faster? They'll surely come +back to pick us up," said Jim, with an assumption of confidence that he +did not feel. They could hear voices from the yacht, and could follow, +partially, what was going on. Miss Redmond cast loose her cloak, put a +hand on Jim's shoulder, and together they swam nearer. "Ahoy!" shouted +Jim. "Give us a hand!" But the boat with the large woman in it had +put about to the other side of the yacht. "Ahoy! This way!" shouted +Jim. "Throw us a rope!" he cried; but if any of the seamen of the +_Jeanne D'Arc_ heard, they paid no heed. + +"Come this way," said James to his companion. "We'll catch them on the +other side of the yacht." + +"I can't swim much in all these clothes," said Agatha. + +"Never mind, then. Hold on to the life preserver and to me, and we'll +make it all right." On the crests of the swelling waves they swam +round the dark bulk of the vessel, and heard plainly the clamor of the +men as they embarked in the small boats. Two of them seemed to be +fastened together, raft-like, on the starboard side of the yacht, and +were quickly filled with men. Prayers and curses were audible, with +the loose, wild inflexion of the man who is in the clutch of an +overmastering fear. As long as there had been work for them to do on +the ship, they had done it, though sullenly; they had even controlled +themselves until the attempt was made to place the two women in safety. +But after that their self-restraint vanished. The orders of the +officers were unheeded; the men leaped and scrambled and slid into the +boats, and in a minute more they had cut loose from the _Jeanne D'Arc_. + +James dimly perceived that the boats were moving away from them into +the darkness. Then he called, and called again, redoubling his speed +in swimming; but only the beat of the oars came back to him over the +water. The heart in him stood still with an unacknowledged fear. Was +it possible they were absolutely leaving them behind? Surely there +were other boats. He raised his voice and called again and again. At +last one voice, careless and brutal, called back something in reply. +Jim turned questioning eyes to the girl beside him, whose pale face was +clearly discernible on the dark water. + +"He says the boats are all full." + +"Then we must hurry and make for the yacht. Where is she?" + +The _Jeanne D'Arc_ had slipped away from them into the darkness. + +"She was this way, I thought. Yes, I am sure," said Agatha, pointing +into the night. But though they swam that way, they did not come upon +her. They turned a little, and then turned again, and presently they +lost every sense of direction. + +In all his life Jim was never again destined to go through so black an +hour as that which followed the abandonment of the _Jeanne D'Arc_. His +courage left him, and his spirit sank to that leaden, choking abyss +where light did not exist. Since the immediate object of saving the +ship, for which he had worked as hard as any other, had been given up, +the next in importance was to save the woman who, for some mysterious +reason, had been aboard. It was beyond his power of imagination to +suppose that any other motive of action could possibly prevail, even +among her enemies. That they should leave her to drown, while they +themselves fled to comparative safety in a boat, was more than he could +believe. + +"Surely they do not mean it; they must return, for you, at least." + +The girl beside him knew better, but she was conscious of the +paralyzing despair in her companion's heart, and made a show of being +cheerful. + +"When they find they are safe they may think of us," she said. "But +the men were already crazed with fear, even before the leak was +discovered. One of their mates on the voyage over was a +fortune-teller, and he prophesied danger to them all on their next +trip. After they had come into port, the fortune-teller himself died. +And who can blame them for their fear? They are all superstitious; and +as no one ever regarded their fears, now they have no regard for +anybody's feelings but their own." + +"But we are in the middle of the Atlantic, no one knows where. We may +drift for days--we may starve--the Lord only knows what will happen to +us!" + +Agatha, who had been floating, swam a little nearer and laid her hand +on Jim's shoulder, until he looked into her face. It was full of +strength and brightness. + +"'The sea is His also,'" she quoted gently. "Besides, we may get +picked up," she went on. "I'm very well off, for my part, as you see. +Can swim or rest floating, thanks to this blessed cork thing, and not +at all hurt by the fall from the rope. But I must get rid of my shoes +and some of my clothes, if I have to swim." + +It is awkward to kick off one's shoes and divest oneself of unnecessary +clothing in the water, and Agatha laughed at herself as she did it. +"Not exactly a bathing suit, but this one black skirt will have to do. +The others must go. It was my skirts that caused the mischief with the +rope at first. And I was scared!" + +"You had a right to be." Jim helped her keep afloat, and presently he +saw that, freed from the entanglement of so many clothes, she was as +much at home in the water as he. Suddenly she turned to him, caught by +some recollection that almost eluded her. + +"I don't think we are anywhere near the middle of the Atlantic," she +said thoughtfully. James was silent, eating the bitter bread of +despair, in spite of the woman's brave wish to comfort him. They were +swimming slowly as they talked, still hoping to reach the yacht. They +rose on the breast of the waves, paused now and then till a quieter +moment came, and always kept near each other in the pale blue darkness. + +"Old Sophie said something--that some one had tampered with the wheel, +I think. At any rate, she said we'd never get far from shore with this +crew." + +James considered the case. "But even suppose we are within a mile or +two, say, of the shore, could you ever swim two miles in this heavy +sea?" + +"It is growing calmer every minute. See, I can do very well, even +swimming alone. It must be near morning, too, and that's always, a +good thing." There was the shadow of a laugh in her voice. + +"Morning? That depends," growled Jim. He was being soothed in spite +of himself, and in spite of the direfulness of their situation. But +bad as the situation was, and would be in any case, he could not deny +the proposition that morning and daylight would make it better. + +"But aren't you tired already? You must be." James turned closer to +her, trying to read her face. "It was a long night of anxiety, even +before we left the boat. Weren't you frightened?" + +"Yes, of course; but I've been getting used to frights of late, if one +_can_ get used to them." Again there was the laugh in her voice, under +all its seriousness, even when she added: "I'm not sure that this isn't +safer than being on board the _Jeanne D'Arc_, after all!" + +It was characteristic of James that he forebore to take advantage of +the opening this speech offered. The possible reason of her abduction, +her treatment on board the yacht, her relation to Monsieur +Chatelard--it was all a mystery, but he could not, at that moment, seek +to solve it. Her remark remained unanswered for a little time; at last +he said: "Then the _Jeanne D'Arc_ must have been pretty bad." + +"It was," she said simply. + +Jim wondered whether she knew more about the crime of which she was the +victim than he knew, or if she had discovered aught concerning it while +she was a prisoner on the yacht. Granting that her person was so +valuable that a man of Monsieur Chatelard's caliber would commit a +crime to get possession of it, why should he have abandoned her when +there was plainly some chance of safety in the boats? He could not +conceive of Monsieur Chatelard's risking his neck in an affair of +gallantry; cupidity alone would account for his part in the drama. +James went over and over the situation, as far as he understood it, but +he did none of his thinking aloud. It flashed on his mind that Miss +Redmond must already have separated him, in her thoughts, from the +other people on the yacht; though perhaps her trust was instinctive, +arising from her own need of help. How could she know that he had +risked his neck twice, now, to follow the Vision? + +Swimming slowly, with Agatha's hand at times on his shoulder, James +turned his mind sharply to a consideration of their present position. +They had been alternately swimming and floating, hoping to come upon +the yacht. The darkness of the night was penetrable, so that they +could see a fairly large circle of water about them, but there was no +shadow of the _Jeanne D'Arc_. Save for the running surge of the +waters, all was silence. The pale forerunners of dawn had appeared. +Their swim after the boats of the _Jeanne D'Arc_ had warmed their +blood, so that for a while they were not conscious of the chill of the +water. But as the minutes lengthened, one by one, fatigue and cold +numbed their bodies. It was a test of endurance for a strong man; as +for the girl, Jim wondered at her strength and courage. She swam +superbly, with unhurried, steady strokes. If she grew chatteringly +cold, she would start into a vigorous swim, shoulder to shoulder with +James. If she lost her breath with the hard exercise, she would take +his hand, "so as not to lose you," she would say, and rest on the +breast of the waves. The wind dropped and the sea grew quiet, so that +they were no more cruelly buffeted, but rocked up and down on its +heaving bosom. + +Once, while they were "resting" on the water, Agatha broke a long +silence with, "I wonder--" but did not at once say what she wondered +at. Jim said nothing, but she knew he was waiting and listening. + +"Suppose this should be the Great Gateway," she said at last, very +slowly, but quite cheerfully and naturally. "I am wondering what there +is beyond." + +"I've often wondered, too," said Jim. + +"I've sometimes thought, and I've said it, too, that I was crazy to +die, just to see what happens," Agatha went on, laughing a little at +her own memories. "But I find I'm not at all eager for it, now, when +it would be so easy to go under and not come up again. Are you?" + +"No, I've never felt eager to die; least of all, now." + +Agatha was silent a while. + +"What do you think death means? Shall we be we to-morrow, say, +provided we can't keep afloat?" she asked by and by. + +"Why, yes, I think so," said Jim. "I don't know why or how, but I +guess we go on somewhere; and I rather think our best moments here--our +moments of happiness or heroism, if we ever have any--are going to be +the regular thing." Jim laughed a little, partly at his own lame +ending, and partly because he felt Agatha's hand closing more tightly +over his. He didn't want her to get blue just yet, after her brave +fight. + +But Agatha wasn't blue. She answered thoughtfully: "That isn't a bad +idea," and then cheerfully turned to a consideration of the +possibilities of a rescue at dawn. + +James had evolved a plan to wait till enough light came to enable them +to reach the _Jeanne D'Arc_, if she was still afloat; then to climb +aboard and hunt for provisions and life preservers or something to use +for a raft. If he could do this, then they would be in a somewhat +better plight, at least for a time. He prayed that the _Jeanne D'Arc_ +might still be alive. + +The two talked little, leaving silences between them full of wonder. +The details of life, the ordinary personalities, were blotted out. +Without explanation or speech of any kind, they understood each other. +They were not, in this hour, members of a complex and artificial +society; they were not even man and woman; they were two souls stripped +of everything but the need for fortitude and sweetness. + +At last came the dawn. Slowly the blue curtain of night lifted, +lifted, until it became the blue curtain of sky, endlessly far away and +far above. A twinkling star looked down on the cup of ocean, glimmered +a moment and was gone. The light strengthened. A pearly, iridescent +quiver came upon the waters, repeating itself wave after wave, and +heralded the coming of the Lord Sun over the great murmuring sea. As +the light grew, they could see a constantly widening circle of ocean, +of which they were the center. As they rose and fell with the waves, +the horizon fell and rose to their vision, dim and undefined. Hand in +hand they floated in vaporous silver. + +"The day has come at last, thank God!" breathed James. + +"Yes, thank God!" answered the girl. + +"Are you very cold?" + +"The sun will soon warm us." + +"Where did you learn to swim?" + +"In England, mostly at the Isle of Wight, but I'm not half such a +dolphin as you are." + +"Oh, well, boys have to swim, you know, and I was a boy once," Jim +answered awkwardly. Presently he asked, and his voice was full of awe: +"Have you ever seen the dawn--a dawn like this--before?" + +"Never one like this," she whispered. + +When daylight came, they found they had not traveled far from the scene +of the night's disaster; or, if they had, the _Jeanne D'Arc_ had +drifted with them. She was still afloat, and just as the sun rose they +saw her, apparently not far away, tossing rudderless to the waves. +There was no sign of the ship's boats. + +At the renewed miracle of light, and at sight of the yacht, Jimmy's +hopes were reborn. His spirit bathed in the wonder of the day and was +made strong again. The night with its horrors of struggle and its +darkness was past, forgotten in the flush of hope that came with the +light. + +Together they struck out toward the yacht, fresh with new courage. Now +that he could see plainly, Jim swam always a little behind Agatha, +keeping a watchful eye. She still took the water gallantly, nose and +closed mouth just topping the wave, like a spaniel. An occasional +side-stroke would bring her face level to the water, with a backward +smile for her companion. He gloried in her spirit, even while he +feared for her strength. + +It was a longer pull to the yacht than they had counted upon, a heavy +tax on their powers of endurance. Jim came up to find Agatha floating +on her back and put his hand under her shoulders, steadying her easily. + +"Now you can really rest," he said. + +"I've looked toward the horizon so long, I thought I'd look up, way up, +for a change," she said cheerfully. "That's where the skylarks go, +when they want to sing--straight up into heaven!" + +"Doesn't it make you want to sing?" + +She showed no surprise at the question. + +"Yes, it does, almost. But just as I thought of the skylarks, I +remembered something else; something that kept haunting me in the +darkness all night-- + + "'Master in song, good-by, good-by, + Down to the dim sea-line--' + +I thought something or somebody was surely lost down in 'the dim +sea-line' last night." + +"Who can tell? But I had a better thought than yours: Ulysses, like +us, swimming over the 'wine-dark sea'! Do you remember it? 'Then two +days and two nights on the resistless waves he drifted; many a time his +heart faced death.'" + +"That's not a bit better thought than mine; but I like it. And I know +what follows, too. 'But when the fair-haired dawn brought the third +day, then the wind ceased; there came a breathless calm; and close at +hand he spied the coast, as he cast a keen glance forward, upborne on a +great wave.' That's it, isn't it?" + +"I don't know, but I hope it is. 'The wine-dark sea' and the +'rosy-fingered dawn' are all I remember; though I'm glad you know what +comes next. It's a good omen. But look at the yacht; she's acting +strange!" + +As the girl turned to her stroke, their attention was caught and held +by the convulsions of the _Jeanne D'Arc_. There was a grim fascination +in the sight. + +It was obvious that she was sinking. While they had been resting, her +hull had sunk toward the water-line, her graceful bulk and delicate +masts showing strange against ocean and sky. Now she suddenly tipped +down at her stern; her bow was thrown up out of the water for an +instant, only to be drawn down again, slowly but irresistibly, as if +she were pulled by a giant's unseen hand. With a sudden last lurch she +disappeared entirely, and only widening circles fleetingly marked the +place of her going. + +The two in the water watched with fascinated eyes, filled with awe. +When it was all over Agatha turned to her companion with a long-drawn +breath. Jim looked as one looks whose last hope has failed. + +"I could never have let you go aboard, anyway!" He loved her anew for +that speech, but knew not how to meet her eyes. + +"Well, Ulysses lost his raft, too!" he managed to say. + +"He saw the sunrise, too, just as we have seen it; and he saw a distant +island, 'that seemed a shield laid on the misty sea.' Let's look hard +now, each time the wave lifts us. Perhaps we also shall see an island." + +"We must swim harder; you are chilled through." + +"Oh, no," she laughed. "I shivered at the thought of what a fright I +must look. I always did hate to get my hair wet." + +"You look all right to me." + +They were able to laugh, and so kept up heart. They tried to calculate +the direction the yacht had taken when she left port, and where the +land might lie; and when they had argued about it, they set out to swim +a certain way. In their hearts each felt that any calculation was +futile, but they pretended to be in earnest. They could not see far, +but they created for themselves a goal and worked toward it, which is +of itself a happiness. + +So they watched and waited, ages long. Hope came to them again +presently. James, treading water, thrust up his head and scented the +air. + +"I smell the salt marsh, which means land!" He sniffed again. "Yes, +decidedly!" + +A moment later it was there, before their vision--that "shield laid on +the misty sea" which was the land. Only it was not like a shield, but +a rocky spit of coast land, with fir trees farther back. James made +for the nearest point, though his heart shrank to see how far away it +was. Fatigue and anxiety were taking their toll of his vigor. Neither +one had breath to spare even for exultation that the land was in sight. +Little by little Agatha grew more quiet, though not less brave. It +took all her strength to fight the water--that mighty element which +indifferently supports or engulfs the human atom. If she feared, she +made no sign. Bravely she kept her heart, and carefully she saved her +strength, swimming slowly, resting often, and wasting no breath in talk. + +But more and more frequently her eyes rested wistfully on James, mutely +asking him for help. He watched her minute by minute, often begging +her to let him help her. + +"Oh, no, not yet; I can go on nicely, if I just rest a little. +There--thank you." + +Once she looked at him with such pain in her eyes that he silently took +her hands, placed them on his shoulder and carried her along with his +stronger stroke. She was reassured by his strength, and presently she +slipped away from him, smiling confidently again as she swam alongside. + +"I'm all right now; but I suddenly thought, what if anything should +happen to you, and I be left alone! Or what if I should get panicky +and clutch you and drag you down, the way people do sometimes!" + +"But I shan't leave you alone, and you're not going to do that!" + +Agatha smiled, but could only say, "I hope not!" + +She forged ahead a little, and presently had another moment of fright +on looking round and finding that Jim had disappeared. He had suddenly +dived, without giving her warning. He came up a second later, puffing +and spitting the bitter brine; but his face was radiant. + +"Rocks and seaweed!" he cried. "The land is near. Come; I can swim +and take you, too, easily. And now I know certainly just which way to +go. Come, come!" + +Agatha heard it all, but this time she was unable to utter a word. Jim +saw her stiff lips move in an effort to smile or speak, but he heard no +voice. + +"Keep up, keep up, dear girl!" he cried. "We'll soon be there. Try, +_try_ to keep up! Don't lose for a moment the thought that you are +near land, that you are almost there. We _are_ safe, you _can_ go +on--only a few moments more!" + +Poor Agatha strove as Jim bade her, gallantly, hearing his voice as +through a thickening wall; but she had already done her best, and more. +She struggled for a few half-conscious moments; then suddenly her arms +grew limp, her eyes closed, and her weight came upon Jim as that of a +dead person. Then he set his teeth and nerved himself to make the +effort of his life. + +It is no easy thing to strain forward, swimming the high seas, bearing +above the surface a load which on land would make a strong man stagger. +One must watch one's burden, to guard against mishap; one must save +breath and muscle, and keep an eye for direction, all in a struggle +against a hostile element. + +The goal still seemed incredibly far, farther than his strength could +go. Yet he swam on, fighting against the heartbreaking thought that +his companion had perhaps gone "down to the dim sea-line" in very +truth. She had been so brave, so strong. She had buoyed up his +courage when it had been fainting; she had fought splendidly against +the last terrible inertia of exhaustion. + +"Courage!" he told himself. "We must make the land!" But it took a +stupendous effort. His strokes became unequal, some of them feeble and +ineffective; his muscles ached with the strain; now and then a strange +whirring and dizziness in his head caused him to wonder dimly whether +he were above or below water. He could no longer swim with closed +lips, but constantly threw his head back with the gasp that marks the +spent runner. + +Holding Agatha Redmond in front of him, with her head well above the +water and her body partly supported by the life preserver, he swam +sometimes with one hand, sometimes only with his legs. He dared not +stop now, lest he be too late in reaching land or wholly unable to +regather his force. The dizziness increased, and a sharp pain in his +eyeballs recurred again and again. He could no longer see the land; it +seemed to him that it was blood, not brine, that spurted from nose and +mouth; but still he swam on, holding the woman safe. He made a +gigantic effort to shout, though he could scarcely hear his own voice. +Then he fixed his mind solely on his swimming, counting one stroke +after another, like a man who is coaxing sleep. + +How long he swam thus, he did not know; but after many strokes he was +conscious of a sense of happiness that, after all, it wasn't necessary +to reach land or to struggle any more. Rest and respite from +excruciating effort were to be had for the taking--why had he withstood +them so long? The sea rocked him, the surge filled his ears, his limbs +relaxed their tension. Then it was that a strong hand grasped him, and +a second later the same hand dealt him a violent blow on the face. + +He had to begin the intolerable exertion of swimming again, but he no +longer had a burden to hold safe; there was no burden in sight. +Half-consciously he felt the earth once more beneath his feet, but he +could not stand. He fell face forward into the water again at his +first attempt; and again the strong hand pulled him up and half-carried +him over some slimy rocks. It was an endless journey before the strong +hand would let him sit or lie down, but at last he was allowed to drop. + +He vaguely felt the warmth of the sun drying his skin while the sea +hummed in his ears; he felt distinctly the sharp pain between his eyes, +and a parching thirst. He groped around in a delirious search for +water, which he did not find; he pressed his head and limbs against the +earth in an exquisite relief from pain; and at last his bruised feet, +his aching bones and head constrained him to a lethargy that ended in +sleep. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE CAMP ON THE BEACH + +Sunset of the day that had dawned so strangely and wonderfully for +those two wayfarers of earth, James and Agatha, fell on a little camp +near the spit of coast-land toward which they had struggled. The point +lifted itself abruptly into a rocky bank which curved in and out, +yielding to the besieging waves. Just here had been formed a little +sandy cove partly protected by the beetling cliff. At the top was +verdure in abundance. Vines hung down over the face of the wall, +coarse grasses and underbrush grew to its very edge, and sharp-pointed +fir trees etched themselves against the clear blue of the sky. Below, +the white sand formed a sickle-shaped beach, bordered by the rocky +wall, with its sharp point dipping far out to sea. High up on the sand +a small rowboat was beached. There was no path visible up from the +shingle, but it was evident that the ascent would be easy enough. + +Nevertheless, the campers did not attempt it. Instead, they had made a +fire of driftwood on the sand out of reach of the highest tide. Near +the fire they had spread fir boughs, and on this fragrant couch James +was lying. He was all unconscious, apparently, of the primitive nature +of his surroundings, the sweetness of his balsam bed, and the watchful +care of his two nurses. + +Jim was in a bad way, if one could trust the remarks of his male nurse, +who spoke to an invisible companion as he gathered chips and other bits +of wood from the beach. He was a young, businesslike fellow with a +clean, wholesome face, dressed only in gauze shirt, trousers, and boots +without stockings; this lack, of course, was not immediately apparent. +The tide had just turned after the ebb, and he went far down over the +wet sand, sometimes climbing over the rocks farther along the shore +until he was out of sight of the camp. + +Returning from one of these excursions, which had been a bit longer +than he intended, he looked anxiously toward the fire before depositing +his armful of driftwood. The blaze had died down, but a good bed of +coals remained; and upon this the young man expertly built up a new +fire. It crackled and blazed into life, throwing a ruddy glow over the +shingle, the rocks behind, and the figure lying on the balsam couch. +James's face was waxen in its paleness, save for two fiery spots on his +cheeks; and as he lay he stirred constantly in a feverish unrest. His +bare feet were nearest the fire; his blue woollen trousers and shirt +were only partly visible, being somewhat covered by a man's tweed coat. + +The fire lighted up, also, the figure of Agatha Redmond. She was +kneeling at the farther end of Jim's couch, laying a white cloth, which +had been wet, over his temples. Her long dark hair was hanging just as +it had dried, except that it was tied together low in the back with a +string of slippery seaweed. Her neck was bare, her feet also; her +loose blouse had lost all semblance of a made-to-order garment, but it +still covered her; while a petticoat that had once been black satin +hung in stiff, salt-dried creases from her waist to a little below her +knees. She had the well-set head and good shoulders, with deep chest, +which make any garb becoming; her face was bonny, even now, clouded as +it was with anxiety and fatigue. She greeted the young man eagerly on +his return. + +"If you could only find a little more fresh water, I am sure it would +help. The milk was good, only he would take so little. I think I +shall have to let you go this evening to hunt for the farm-house." + +"Yes, Mademoiselle," the young man replied. He had wanted to go +earlier in the day, but the man was too ill and the woman too exhausted +to be left alone. He went on speaking slowly, after a pause. "I can +find the farm-house, I am sure, only it may take a little time. +Following the cattle would have been the quickest way; but I can find +the cowpath soon, even as it is. If you wouldn't be uneasy with me +gone, Mademoiselle!" + +"Oh, no, we shall be all right now, till you can get back!" As she +spoke, Agatha's eyes rested questioningly on the youth who, ever since +she had revived from her faint of exhaustion, had teased her memory. +He had seen them struggling in the sea, and had swum out to her aid, +she knew; and after leaving her lying on a slimy, seaweed-covered rock, +he had gone out again and brought in her companion in a far worse +condition than herself. The young man, also, was a survivor of the +_Jeanne D'Arc_, having come from the disabled craft in the tiny rowboat +that was now on the beach. More than this she did not know, yet +something jogged her memory every now and then--something that would +not shape itself definitely. Indeed, she had been too much engrossed +in the serious condition of her companion and the work necessary to +make the camp, to spend any thought on unimportant speculations. + +But now, as she listened to the youth's respectful tones, it suddenly +came back to her. She looked at him with awe-struck eyes. + +"Oh, now I know! You are the new chauffeur; 'queer name, Hand!' Yes, +I remember--I remember." + +"What you say is true, Mademoiselle." + +He stood before her, a stubbornly submissive look on his face, as a +servant might stand before his betrayed master. It was as if he had +been waiting for that moment, waiting for her anger to fall on him. +But Agatha was speechless at her growing wonder at the trick fate had +played them. Her steady gaze, serious and earnest now, without a hint +of the laughter that usually came so easily, dwelt on the young man's +eyes for a moment, then she turned away as if she were giving up a +puzzling question. She looked at James, whose stubbly-bearded face was +now quiet against its green pillow, as if seeking a solution there; but +she had to fall back, at last, on the youth. + +"Do you know who this man is?" she asked irrelevantly. + +"No, Mademoiselle. He was picked up in New York harbor, the night we +weighed anchor. I have not seen him since until to-day." + +"'The night we weighed anchor!' What night was that?" + +"Last Monday, Mademoiselle; at about six bells." + +"And what day is to-day?" + +"Saturday, Mademoiselle; and past four bells now." + +"Monday--Saturday!" Agatha looked abstractedly down on Jimmy asleep, +while upon her mind crowded the memories of that week. This man who +had dragged her and her rescuer from the water, who had made fire and a +bed for them, who had got milk for their sustenance, had been almost +the last person her conscious eyes had seen in that half-hour of terror +on the hillside. Her next memory, after an untold interval, was the +rocking of the ship, an old woman who treated her obsequiously, a man +who was her servile attendant and yet her jailer--but then, suddenly, +as she knelt there, mind and body refused their service. She crumpled +down on the soft sand, burying her head in her arms. + +Hand came nearer and bent awkwardly over her, as if to coax her +confidence. + +"It's all right now, Mademoiselle. Whatever you think of me, you can +trust me to do my best for you now." + +"Oh, I'm not afraid of you now," Agatha moaned in a muffled voice. +"Only I'm so puzzled by it all--and so tired!" + +"'Twas a fearful strain, Mademoiselle. But I can make you a bed here, +so you can sleep." + +Agatha shook her head. "I can sleep on the sand, just as well." + +"I think, Mademoiselle, I'd better be going above and look for help +from the village, as soon as I've supplied the fire. I'll leave these +few matches, too, in case you need them." + +"Yes, you'd better go, Hand; and wait a minute, until I think it out." +Agatha sat up and pressed her palm to her forehead, straining to put +her mind upon the problem at hand. "Go for a doctor first, Hand; then, +if you can, get some food--bread and meat; and, for pity's sake, a +cloak or long coat of some kind. Then find out where we are, what the +nearest town is, and if a telegraph station is near. And stay; have +you any money?" + +"A little, Mademoiselle; between nine and ten dollars." + +"That is good; it will serve for a little while. Please spend it for +me; I will pay you. As soon as we can get to a telegraph station I can +get more. Get the things, as I have said; and then arrange, if you +can, for a carriage and another man, besides yourself and the doctor, +to come down as near this point as possible. You two can carry +him"--she looked wistfully at James--"to the carriage, wherever it is +able to meet us. But you will need to spend money to get all these +things; especially if you get them to-night, as I hope you may." + +"I will try, Mademoiselle." The ex-chauffeur stood hesitating, +however. At last, "I hate to leave you here alone, with only a sick +man, and night coming on," he said. + +"You need not be afraid for me," replied Agatha coldly. Her nerves had +given way, now that the need for active exertion was past, and were +almost at the breaking point. It came back to her again, moreover, how +this man and another had made her a prisoner in the motor-car, and at +the moment she felt foolish in trusting to him for further help. It +came into her mind that he was only seeking an excuse to run away, in +fear of being arrested later. A second time she looked up into his +eyes with her serious, questioning gaze. + +"I don't know why you were in the plot to do as you did--last Monday +afternoon," she said slowly; "but whatever it was, it was unworthy of +you. You are not by nature a criminal and a stealer of women, I know. +And you have been kind and brave to-day; I shall never forget that. Do +you really mean now to stay by me?" + +Hand's gaze was no less earnest than her own; and though he flinched at +"criminal," his eyes met hers steadily. + +"As long as I can help you, Mademoiselle, I will do so." + +At his words, spoken with sincerity, Agatha's spirit, tired and +overwrought as it was, rose for an instant to its old-time buoyancy. +She smiled at him. + +"You mean it?" she asked. "Honest true, cross your heart?" + +Hand's businesslike features relaxed a little. "Honest true, cross my +heart!" he repeated. + +"All right," said Agatha, almost cheerfully. "And now you must go, +before it gets any darker. Don't try to return in the night, at the +risk of losing your way. But come as soon as you can after daylight; +and remember, I trust to you! Good-by." + +Hand already, earlier in the day, had made a path for himself up the +steep bank through the underbrush, and now Agatha went with him to the +edge of the thicket. She watched and listened until the faint rustling +of his footsteps ceased, then turned back to the camp on the beach. +She went to the fire and stirred up its coals once more before +returning to James. He was sleeping, but his flushed face and +unnatural breathing were signs of ill. Now and then he moved +restlessly, or seemed to try to speak, but no coherent words came. She +sat down to watch by him. + +After Agatha and James had been brought ashore by the capable Mr. Hand, +it had needed only time to bring Agatha back to consciousness. Both +she and James had practically fainted from exhaustion, and James had +been nearly drowned, at the last minute. Agatha had been left on the +rocks to come to herself as she would, while Hand had rubbed and +pummeled and shaken James until the blood flowed again. It had flowed +too freely, indeed, at some time during his ordeal; and tiny trickles +of blood showed on his lips. Agatha, dazed and aching, was trying to +crawl up to the sand when Hand came back to her, running lightly over +the slippery rocks. They had come in on the flowing tide, which had +aided them greatly; and now Hand helped her the short distance to the +cove and mercifully let her lie, while he went back to his work for +James. + +Later he had got a little bucket, used for bailing out the rowboat, and +dashed hurriedly into the thicket above after some tinkling cowbells. +Though she was too tired to question him, Agatha supposed he had tied +one of the cows to a tree, since he returned three or four times to +fill the pail. What a wonderful life-giver the milk was! She had +drunk her fill and had tried to feed it to James, who at first tasted +eagerly, but had, on the whole, taken very little. He was only partly +awake, but he shivered and weakly murmured that he was cold. Agatha +quickly grew stronger; and she and Hand set to work to prepare the fire +and the bed. Almost while they were at this labor, the sun had gone +down. + +Sitting by Jim's couch, Agatha grew sleepy and cold, but there were no +more coverings. Hand's coat was over Jim, and as Agatha herself felt +the cold more keenly she tucked it closer about him. Alone as she was +now, in solitude with this man who had saved her from the waters, with +darkness and the night again coming on, her spirit shrank; not so much +from fear, as from that premonition of the future which now and then +assails the human heart. + +As she knelt by Jim's side, covering his feet with the coat and heaping +the fir boughs over him, she paused to look at his unconscious face. +She knew now that he did not belong to the crew of the _Jeanne D'Arc_; +but of his outward circumstances she knew nothing more. Thirty she +guessed him to be, thereby coming within four years of the truth. His +short mustache concealed his mouth, and his eyes were closed. It was +almost like looking at the mask of a face. The rough beard of a week's +growth made a deep shadow over the lower part of his face; and yet, +behind the mask, she thought she could see some token of the real man, +not without his attributes of divinity. In the ordeal of the night +before he had shown the highest order of patience, endurance and +courage, together with a sweetness of temper that was itself lovable. +But beyond this, what sort of man was he? Agatha could not tell. She +had seen many men of many types, and perhaps she recognized James as +belonging to a type; but if so, it was the type that stands for the +best of New England stock. In the centuries back it may have brought +forth fanatics and extremists; at times it may have built up its narrow +walls of prejudice and pride; but at the core it was sound and manly, +and responsive to the call of the spirit. + +Something of all this passed through Agatha's mind, as she tried to +read Jim's face; then, as he stirred uneasily and tried to throw off +the light boughs that she had spread over him, she got up and went to +the edge of the water to moisten afresh the bandage for his forehead. +Involuntarily she shuddered at sight of the dark water, though the +lapping waves, pushing up farther and farther with the incoming tide, +were gentle enough to soothe a child. + +She hurried back to Jim's couch and laid the cooling compress across +his forehead. The balsam boughs about them breathed their fragrance on +the night air, and the pleasant gloom rested their tired eyes. +Gradually he quieted down again; his restlessness ceased. The long +twilight deepened into darkness, or rather into that thin luminous blue +shade which is the darkness of starlit summer nights. The sea washed +the beach with its murmuring caress; somewhere in the thicket above a +night-bird called. + +In a cranny of the rocks Agatha hollowed out the sand, still warm +beneath the surface here where the sun had lain on it through long +summer days, and made for herself a bed and coverlet and pillow all at +once. With the sand piled around and over her, she could not really +suffer; and she was mortally tired. + +She looked up toward the clear stars, Vega and the jeweled cross almost +in the zenith, and ruddy Antares in the body of the shining Scorpion. +They were watching her, she thought, to-night in her peace as they had +watched her last night in her struggle, and as they would watch after +all her days and nights were done. And then she thought no more. +Sleep, blessed gift, descended upon her. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE HEART OF YOUTH + +"Agatha Redmond, can you hear me?" + +She caught the voice faintly, as if it were a child's cry. + +"I'm right here, yes; only wait just a second." She could not +instantly free herself from her sandy coverings, but she was wide awake +almost at the first words James had spoken. Faint as the voice had +been, she recognized the natural tones, the strongest he had uttered +since coming out of the water. + +The night had grown cold and dark, and at first she was a trifle +bewildered. She was also stiff and sore, almost beyond bearing. She +had to creep along the sand to where Jim lay. The fire had burned +wholly out, and the sand felt damp as she crawled over it. When she +came near, she reached out her hand and laid it on Jim's forehead. He +was shivering with cold. + +"You poor man! And I sleeping while I ought to be taking care of you! +I'll make the fire and get some milk; there is still a little left." + +As she tried to make her aching bones lift her to her feet, she became +aware that the man was fumbling at his coverings and trying to say +something. + +She bent down to hear his words, which were incredibly faint. + +"I don't want any fire or any milk. I only wanted to know if you were +there," he said diffidently, as if ashamed of his childishness. + +She leaned over him, speaking gently and touching his head softly with +her firm, cool hands. + +"You're a little better now, aren't you, after your sleep? Don't you +feel a little stronger?" + +"Yes, I'm better, lots better," he whispered. "I must have been +sleeping for ages. When I woke up I thought I had a beastly chill or +something; but I'm all right now; only suddenly I felt as if I must +know if you were there, and if it _was_ you." + +He smiled at his own words, and Agatha was reassured. + +"I think you'll be still better for a little milk," she said, and crept +away to get the pail, which had been hidden on a shelf of rock. When +she came back with it, James tried manfully to sit up; but Agatha +slipped an arm under his neck, in skilful nurse fashion, and held the +bucket while he drank, almost greedily. As he sank back on his bed he +whispered: "You are very good to take care of me." + +"Oh, no; I'm only too glad! And now I'm going to build up the fire +again; your hands are quite cold." + +"No, don't go," he pleaded. "Please stay here; I'm not cold any more. +And you must go to sleep again. I ought not to have wakened you; and, +really, I didn't mean to." + +"Yes, you ought. I've had lots of sleep; I don't want any more." + +"It's dark, but it's better than it was that other night, isn't it?" +said James. + +"Much better," answered Agatha. + +James visibly gathered strength from the milk, and presently he took +some more. Agatha watched, and when he had finished, patted him +approvingly on the hand, "Good boy! You've done very well," she cried. + +"I was so thirsty, I thought the whole earth had run dry. Will you +think me very ungrateful if I say now I wish it had been water?" + +"Oh, no; I wish so, too. But Mr. Hand could only get us a little bit +from a spring, for there isn't any other pail." + +It was some time before Jim made out to inquire, "Who's Mr. Hand?" + +"He's the man that helped us--out of the water--when we became +exhausted." + +Agatha hesitated to speak of the night's experience, uncertain how far +Jim's memory carried him, and not knowing how a sick man, in his +weakness, might be affected. Still, now that he seemed almost himself +again, save for the chill, she ventured to refer to the event, speaking +in a matter-of-fact way, as if such endurance tests were the most +natural events in the world. James' speech was quite coherent and +distinct, but very slow, as if the effort to speak came from the depths +of a profound fatigue. + +"Hand--that's a good name for him. I thought it was the hand of God, +which plucked me, like David, or Jonah, or some such person, out of the +seething billows. But I didn't think of there being a man behind." +Then, after a long silence, "Where is he?" + +"He's gone off to find somebody to help us get away from here: a +carriage or wagon of some sort, and some food and clothes." + +Something caused Jim to ejaculate, though quite feebly, "You poor +thing!" And then he asked, very slowly, "Where is 'here'?" + +"I don't know; and Mr. Hand doesn't know." + +"And we've lost our tags," laughed Jim faintly. + +Agatha couldn't resist the laugh, though the weakness in Jim's voice +was almost enough to make her weep as well. + +"Yes, we've lost our tags, more's the pity. Mr. Hand thinks we're +either on the coast of Maine, of on an island somewhere near the coast. +I myself think it must at least be Nova Scotia, or possibly +Newfoundland. But Hand will find out and be back soon, and then we'll +get away from here and go to some place where we'll all be comfortable." + +Agatha stole away, and with much difficulty succeeded in kindling the +fire again. She tended it until a good steady heat spread over the +rocks, and then returned to James. She curled up, half sitting, half +lying, against the rocks. + +Clouds had risen during the recent hours, and it was much darker than +the night before had been. The ocean, washing its million pebbles up +on the little beach, moaned and complained incessantly. In the long +intervals between their talk, Agatha's head would fall, her eyes would +close, and she would almost sleep; but an undercurrent of anxiety +concerning her companion kept her always at the edge of consciousness. +James himself appeared to have no desire to sleep. He was trying to +piece together, in his mind, his conscious and unconscious memories. +At last he said: + +"I guess I haven't been much good--for a while--have I?" + +Agatha considered before replying. "You were quite exhausted, I think; +and we feared you might be ill." + +"And Handy Andy got my job?" She laughed outright at this, as much for +the feeling of reassurance it gave her as for the jest itself. + +"Handy Andy certainly _had_ a job, with us two on his hands!" she +laughed. + +"I bet he did!" cried James, with more vigor than he had shown before. +"He's a great man; I'm for him! When's he coming back?" + +"Early in the morning, I hope," said Agatha, swallowing her misgivings. + +"That's good," said James. "I think I'll be about and good for +something myself by that time." + +There was another long pause, so long that Agatha thought James must +have gone to sleep again. He thought likewise of her, it appeared; for +when he next spoke it was in a careful whisper: + +"Are you still awake, Agatha Redmond?" + +"Yes, indeed; quite. Do you want anything?" + +"Yes, a number of things. First, are you quite recovered from the +trouble--that night's awful trouble?" He seemed to be wholly lost as +to time. "Did you come off without any serious injury? Do you look +like yourself, strong and rosy-cheeked again?" + +Agatha replied heartily to this, and her answer appeared to satisfy +James for the moment. "Though," she added, "here in the dark, who can +tell whether I have rosy cheeks or not?" + +"True!" sighed James, but his sigh was not an unhappy one. Presently +he began once more: "I want to know, too, if you weren't surprised that +I knew your name?" + +"Well, yes, a little, when I had time to think about it. How _did_ you +know it?" + +James laughed. "I meant to keep it a secret, always; but I guess I'll +tell, after all--just you. I got it from the program, that Sunday, you +know." + +"Ah, yes, I understand." She didn't quite understand, at first; for +there had been other Sundays and other songs. But she could not weary +him now with questions. + +As they lay there the slow, monotonous susurrus of the sea made a deep +accompaniment to their words. It was near, and yet immeasurably far, +filling the universe with its soft but insistent sound and echoes of +sound. At the back of her mind, Agatha heard it always, low, +threatening, and strong; but on the surface of her thoughts, she was +trying to decide what she ought to do. She was thinking whether she +might question her companion a little concerning himself, when he +answered her, in part, of his own accord. + +"You couldn't know who I am, of course: James Hambleton, of Lynn. Jim, +Jimmy, Jimsy, Bud--I'm called most anything. But I wanted to tell +you--in fact, that's what I waked up expressly for--I wanted to tell +you--" + +He paused so long, that Agatha leaned over, trying to see his face. +The violence of the chill had passed. His eyes were wide open, his +face alarmingly pale. She felt a sudden qualm of pain, lest illness +and exhaustion had wrought havoc in his frame deeper than she knew. +But as she bent over him, his features lighted up with his rare +smile--an expression full of happiness and peace. He lifted a hand, +feebly, and she took it in both her own. She felt that thus, hand in +hand, they were nearer; that thus she could better be of help to him. + +"I wanted to tell you," he began again, "that whatever happens, I'm +glad I did it." + +"Did what, dear friend?" questioned Agatha, thinking in her heart that +the fever had set his wits to wandering. + +"Glad I followed the Face and the Voice," he answered feebly. Agatha +watched him closely, torn with anxiety. She couldn't bear to see him +suffer--this man who had so suddenly become a friend, who had been so +brave and unselfish for her sake, who had been so cheerful throughout +their night of trouble. + +"I told old Aleck," James went on, "that I'd have to jump the fence; +but that was ages ago. I've been harnessed down so long, that I +thought I'd gone to sleep, sure enough." Agatha thought certainly that +now he was delirious, but she had no heart to stop his gentle +earnestness. He went on: "But you woke me up. And I wouldn't have +missed this last run, not for anything. 'Twas a great night, that +night on the water, with you; and whatever happens, I shall always +think _that_ worth living for; yes, well worth living for." + +James's voice died away into incoherence and at last into silence. +Agatha, holding his hands in hers, watched him as he sank away from her +into some realm whither she could not follow. Either his hour of +sanity and calmness had passed, and fever had taken hold upon his +system; or fatigue, mental and physical, had overpowered him once more. +Presently she dropped his hand gently, looked to the coverings of his +couch, and settled herself down again to rest. + +But no more sleep came to her eyes that night. She thought over all +that James had said, remembering his words vividly. Then her thoughts +went back over the years, recalling she knew not what irrelevant +matters from the past. Perhaps by some underlying law of association, +there came to her mind, also, the words of the song she had sung on the +Sunday which James had referred to-- + + "Free of my pain, free of my burden of sorrow, + At last I shall see thee--" + + +What ages it was since she had sung that song! And this man, this +James Hambleton, it appeared, had heard her sing it; and somehow, by +fate, he had been tossed into the same adventure with herself. + +Unconsciously, Agatha's generous heart began to swell with pride in +James's strength and courage, with gratitude for his goodness to her, +and with an almost motherly pity for his present plight. She would +admit no more than that; but that, she thought, bound her to him by +ties that would never break. He would always be different to her, by +reason of that night and what she chose to term his splendid heroism. +She had seen him in his hour of strength, that hour when the overman +makes half-gods out of mortals. It was the heart of youth, plus the +endurance of the man, that had saved them both. It had been a call to +action, dauntlessly answered, and he himself had avowed that the +struggle, the effort, even the final pain, were "worth living for!" +Thinking of his white face and feeble voice, she prayed that the high +gods might not regard them worth dying for. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE HOME PORT + +The darkness of the night slowly lifted, revealing only a gray, leaden +sky. There was no dawn such as had gladdened their hearts the morning +before, no fresh awakening of the day. Instead, the coldness and gloom +of the night seemed but to creep a little farther away, leaving its +shadow over the world. A drizzling rain began to fall, and the +wanderers on the beach were destined to a new draft of misery. Only +Agatha watched, however; James gave no sign of caring, or even of +knowing, whether the sun shone or hid its face. + +He had slept fitfully since their hour of wakefulness together in the +night, and several times he had shown signs of extreme restlessness. +At these periods he would talk incoherently, Agatha being able to catch +only a word now and then. Once he endeavored to get up, bent, +apparently, upon performing some fancied duty far away. Agatha soothed +him, talked to him as a mother talks to a sick child, cajoled and +commanded him; and though he was restless and voluble, yet he obeyed +her readily enough. + +As the rain began to descend, Agatha bethought herself earnestly as to +what could be done. She first persuaded James to drink a little more +of the milk, and afterward took what was left herself--less than half a +cupful. Then she set the bucket out to catch the rain. She felt +keenly the need of food and water; and now that there was no one to +heed her movements, she found it difficult to keep up the show of +courage. She still trusted in Hand; but even at best he might yet be +several hours in returning; and cold and hunger can reduce even the +stoutest heart. If Hand did not return--but there was no answer to +that _if_. She believed he would come. + +The soft rain cast a pall over the ocean, so that only a small patch of +sea was visible; and it flattened the waves until the blue-flashing, +white-capped sea of yesterday was now a smooth, gray surface, touched +here and there by a bit of frothy scum. Agatha looked out through the +deep curtain of mist, remembering the night, the _Jeanne D'Arc_, and +her recent peril. Most vividly of all she heard in her memory a voice +shouting, "Keep up! I'm coming, I'm coming!" Ah, what a welcome +coming that had been! Was he to die, now, here on her hands, after the +worst of their struggle was over? She turned quickly back to James, +vowing in her heart it should not be; she would save him if it lay in +human power to save. + +Her hardest task was to move their camp up into the edge of the +brushwood, where they might have the shelter of the trees. There was a +place, near the handle of the sickle, where the rock-wall partly +disappeared, and the undergrowth from the cliff reached almost to the +beach. It was from here that Hand had begun his ascent; and here +Agatha chose a place under a clump of bayberry, where she could make +another bed for James. The ground there was still comparatively dry. + +She coaxed James to his feet and helped him, with some difficulty, up +to the more sheltered spot. He was stronger, physically, now in his +delirium than he had been during his period of sanity in the night. +She made him sit down while she ran back to gather an armful of the fir +boughs to spread out for his bed; but she had scarcely started back for +the old camp before James got to his feet and staggered after her. She +met him just as she was returning, and had to drop her load, take her +patient by the arm, and guide him back to the new shelter. He went +peacefully enough, but leaned on her more and more heavily, until at +last his knees weakened under him and he fell. Agatha's heart smote +her. + +They were near the bayberry bush, though entirely out from its +protection. As the drizzling rain settled down thicker and thicker +about them, Agatha tried again. Slowly she coaxed James to his knees, +and slowly, she helped him creep, as she had crept toward him in the +night, along between the stones and up into the sheltered corner under +the bayberry. It was only a little better than the open, and it had +taken such prodigies of strength to get there! + +Agatha made a pillow for James's head and sat by him, looking earnestly +at his flushed face; and from her heart she sighed, "Ah, dear man, it +was too hard! It was too hard!" + +It was a long and weary wait for help, though help of a most efficient +kind was on the way. Agatha had been looking and listening toward the +upper wood, whither Hand had disappeared. She had even called, from +time to time, on the chance that she could help to guide the assisting +party back to the cove. At last, as she listened for a reply to her +call, she heard another sound that set her wondering; it was the +p-p-peter-peter of a motor-boat. She looked out over the small expanse +of ocean that was visible to her, but could see nothing. Nevertheless +the boat was approaching, as its puffing proclaimed. It grew more and +more distinct, and presently a strong voice shouted "Ahoy! Are you +there?" + +Three times the shout came. Agatha made a trumpet of her hands and +answered with a call on two notes, clear and strong. "All right!" came +back; and then, "Call again! We can't find you!" And so she called +again and again, though there were tears in her eyes and a lump in her +throat for very relief and joy. When her eyes cleared, she saw the +boat, and watched while it anchored well off the rocks; then two men +put ashore in a rowboat. + +"And where are our patients?" came a deep, steady voice from the rocks. + +"This way, sir. I think mademoiselle has moved the camp up under the +trees," was the reply, unmistakably the voice of Mr. Hand. + +And there they found Agatha, kneeling by James and trying to coax him +to his feet. "Quick, they have come! You will be cared for now, you +will be well again!" she was saying. She saw Hand approach and heard +him say: "This way, Doctor Thayer. The gentleman is up here under the +trees," and then, for the first time in all the long ordeal, Agatha's +nerves broke and her throat filled with sobs. As the ex-chauffeur came +near, she reached a hand up to him, while with the other she covered +her weeping eyes in shame. + +"Oh, I'm so glad you've come! I'm so glad you've come!" she tried to +say, but it was only a whisper through her sobs. + +"I'm sorry I was gone so long," said Hand, touching her timidly on the +shoulder. + +"Tell the doctor to take care of him," she begged in the faintest of +voices; and then she crept away, thinking to hide her nerves until she +should come to herself again. But Hand followed her to the niche in +the rocks where she fled, covered her with something big and warm, and +before she knew it he had made her drink a cup that was comforting and +good. Then he gave her food in little bits from a basket, and sweet +water out of a bottle. Agatha's soul revived within her, and her heart +became brave again, though she still felt as if she could never move +from her hard, damp resting-place among the rocks. + +"You stay there, please, Mademoiselle," adjured Mr. Hand. "When we get +the boat ready, I'll come for you." Then, standing by her in his +submissive way, he added a thought of his own: "It's very hard, +Mademoiselle, to see you cry!" + +"I'm not crying," shrieked Agatha, though her voice was muffled in her +arms. + +"Very well, Mademoiselle," acquiesced the polite Hand, and departed. + +Two men could not have been found who were better fitted for managing a +relief expedition than Hand and Doctor Thayer. Agatha found herself, +after an unknown period of time, sitting safe under the canvas awning +of the launch, protected by a generous cloak, comforted with food and +stimulant, and relieved of the pressing anxiety, that had filled the +last hours in the cove. + +She had, in the end, been quite unable to help; but the immediate need +for her help was past. Doctor Thayer, coming with his satchel of +medicines, had at first given his whole attention to James, examining +him quickly and skilfully as he lay where Agatha had left him. Later +he came to Agatha with a few questions, which she answered clearly; but +James, left alone, immediately showed such a tendency to wander around, +following the hallucinations of his brain, that the doctor decided that +he must have a sedative before he could be taken away. The needle, +that friend of man in pain, was brought into use; and presently they +were able to leave the cove. Doctor Thayer and Mr. Hand carried James +to the rowboat, and the engineer, who had stayed in the launch, helped +them lift him into the larger boat. "No more walking at present for +this man!" said the doctor. + +They were puffing briskly over the water, with the tiny rowboat from +the _Jeanne D'Arc_ and the boat belonging to the launch cutting a long +broken furrow behind them. Mr. Hand was minding the engine, while the +engineer and owner of the launch, Little Simon--so-called probably +because he was big--stood forward, handling the wheel. Jim was lying +on some blankets and oilskins on the floor of the boat, the doctor +sitting beside him on a cracker-box. Agatha, feeling useless and +powerless to help, sat on the narrow, uncomfortable seat at the side, +watching the movements of the doctor. She was unable to tell whether +doubt or hope prevailed in his rugged countenance. + +At last she ventured her question; but before replying Doctor Thayer +looked up at her keenly, as if to judge how much of the truth she would +be able to bear. + +"The hemorrhage was caused by the strain," he said at last, slowly. +"It is bad enough, with this fever. If his constitution is sound, he +may pull through." + +Not very encouraging, but Agatha extracted the best from it. "Oh, I'm +so thankful!" she exclaimed. Doctor Thayer looked at her, a deep +interest showing in his grim old face. While she looked at James, he +studied her, as if some unusual characteristic claimed his attention, +but he made no comment. + +Doctor Thayer was short in stature, massively built, with the head and +trunk of some ancient Vulcan. His heavy, large features had a rugged +nobility, like that of the mountains. His face was smooth-shaven, +ruddy-brown, and deeply marked with lines of care; but most salient of +all his features was the massively molded chin and jaw. His lips, too, +were thick and full, without giving the least impression of grossness; +and when he was thinking, he had a habit of thrusting his under jaw +slightly forward, which made him look much fiercer than he ever felt. +Thin white hair covered his temples and grew in a straggling fringe +around the back of his head, upon which he wore a broad-brimmed soft +black hat. + +Doctor Thayer would have been noticeable, a man of distinction, +anywhere; and yet here he was, with his worn satchel and his +old-fashioned clothes, traveling year after year over the country-side +to the relief of farmers and fishermen. He knew his science, too. It +never occurred to him to doubt whether his sphere was large enough for +him. + +"I haven't found out yet where we are, or to what place we are going. +Will you tell me, sir?" asked Agatha. + +"You came ashore near Ram's Head, one of the worst reefs on the coast +of Maine; and we're heading now for Charlesport; that's over yonder, +beyond that next point," Doctor Thayer answered. After a moment he +added: "I know nothing about your misfortunes, but I assume that you +capsized in some pesky boat or other. When you get good and ready, you +can tell me all about it. In the meantime, what is your name, young +woman?" + +The doctor turned his searching blue eyes toward Agatha again, a +courteous but eager inquiry underneath his brusque manner. + +"It is a strange story, Doctor Thayer," said Agatha somewhat +reluctantly; "but some time you shall hear it. I must tell it to +somebody, for I need help. My name is Agatha Redmond, and I am from +New York; and this gentleman is James Hambleton of Lynn--so he told me. +He risked his life to save mine, after we had abandoned the ship." + +"I don't doubt it," said Doctor Thayer gruffly. "Some blind dash into +the future is the privilege of youth. That's why it's all recklessness +and foolishness." + +Agatha looked at him keenly, struck by some subtle irony in his voice. +"I think it is what you yourself would have done, sir," she said. + +The doctor thrust out his chin in his disconcerting way, and gave not +the least smile; but his small blue eyes twinkled. + +"My business is to see just where I'm going and to know exactly what +I'm doing," was the dry answer. He turned a watchful look toward +James, lying still there between them; then he knelt down, putting an +ear over the patient's heart. + +"All right!" he assured her as he came up. "But we never know how +those organs are going to act." Satisfying himself further in regard +to James, he waited some time before he addressed Agatha again. Then +he said, very deliberately: "The ocean is a savage enemy. My brother +Hercules used to quote that old Greek philosopher who said, 'Praise the +sea, but keep on land.' And sometimes I think he was right." + +Agatha's tired mind had been trying to form some plan for their future +movements. She was uneasily aware that she would soon have to decide +to do something; and, of course, she ought to get back to New York as +soon as possible. But she could not leave James Hambleton, her friend +and rescuer, nor did she wish to. She was pondering the question as +the doctor spoke; then suddenly, at his words, a curtain of memory +snapped up. "My brother Hercules" and "Charlesport!" + +She leaned forward, looking earnestly into the doctor's face. "Oh, +tell me," she cried impulsively, "is it possible that you knew Hercules +Thayer? That he was your brother? And are we in the neighborhood of +Ilion?" + +"Yes--yes--yes," assented the doctor, nodding to each of her questions +in turn; "and I thought it was you, Agatha Shaw's girl, from the first. +But you should have come down by land!" he dictated grimly. + +"Oh, I didn't intend to come down at all," cried Agatha; "either by +land or water! At least not yet!" + +Doctor Thayer's jaw shot out and his eyes shone, but not with humor +this time. He looked distinctly irritated. "But my dear Miss Agatha +Redmond, where _did_ you intend to go?" + +Agatha couldn't, by any force of will, keep her voice from stammering, +as she answered: "I wasn't g-going anywhere! I was k-kidnapped!" + +Doctor Thayer looked sternly at her, then reached toward his medicine +chest. "My dear young woman--" (Why is it that when a person is +particularly out of temper, he is constrained to say My _Dear_ So and +So?) "My dear young woman," said Doctor Thayer, "that's all right, but +you must take a few drops of this solution. And let me feel your +pulse." + +"Indeed, Doctor, it is all so, just as I say," interrupted Agatha. +"I'm not feverish or out of my head, not the least bit. I can't tell +you the whole story now; I'm too tired--" + +"Yes, that's so, my dear child!" said the doctor, but in such an +evident tone of yielding to a delirious person, that he nearly threw +her into a fever with anger. But on the whole, Agatha was too tired to +mind. He took her hand, felt of her pulse, and slowly shook his head; +but what he had to say, if he had anything, was necessarily postponed. +The launch was putting into the harbor of Charlesport. + +Even on the dull day of their arrival, Charlesport was a pleasant +looking place, stretching up a steep hill beyond the ribbon of street +that bordered its harbor. Fish-houses and small docks stood out here +and there, and one larger dock marked the farthest point of land. A +great derrick stood by one wharf, with piles of granite block near by. +Little Simon was calling directions back to Hand at the engine as they +chugged past fishing smacks and mooring poles, past lobster-pot buoys +and a little bug-lighthouse, threading their way into the harbor and up +to the dock. Agatha appealed to the doctor with great earnestness. + +"Surely, Doctor Thayer, it is a Providence that we came in just here, +where people will know me and will help me. I need shelter for a +little while, and care for my sick friend here. Where can we go?" + +Doctor Thayer cast a judicial eye over the landscape, while he held his +hat up into the breeze. "It's going to clear; it'll be a fine +afternoon," said he. Then deliberately: "Why don't you go up to the +old red house? Sallie Kingsbury's there keeping it, just as she did +when Hercules was alive; waiting for you or the lawyer or somebody to +turn her out, I guess. And it's only five miles by the good road. You +couldn't go to any of these sailor shacks down here, and the big summer +hotel over yonder isn't any place for a sick man, let alone a lady +without her trunk." + +Agatha looked in amazement at the doctor. "Go to the old red house--to +stay?" + +"Why not? If you're Agatha Redmond, it's yours, isn't it? And I guess +nobody's going to dispute your being Agatha Shaw's daughter, looking as +you do. The house is big enough for all creation; and, besides, +they've been on pins and needles, waiting for you to come, or write, or +do something." The doctor gave a grim chuckle. "Hercules surprised +them all some, by his will. But they'll all be glad to see you, I +guess, unless it is Sister Susan. She was always pretty hard on +Hercules; and she didn't approve of the will--thought the house ought +to go to the Foundling Asylum." + +Agatha looked as if she saw the gates of Eden opened to her. "But +could I really go there? Would it be all right? I've not even seen +the lawyer." There was no need of answers to her questions; she knew +already that the old red house would receive her, would be a refuge for +herself and for James, who needed a refuge so sorely. + +The doctor was already making his plans. "I'll drive this man here," +indicating James, "and he'll need some one to nurse him for a while, +too. You can go up in one of Simon Nash's wagons; and I'll get a nurse +up there as soon as I can." + +The launch had tied up to the larger dock, and Hand and Little Simon +had been waiting some minutes while Agatha and the doctor conferred +together. Now, as Agatha hesitated, the businesslike Hand was at her +elbow. "I can help you, Mademoiselle, if you will let me. I have had +some experience with sick men." Agatha looked at him with grateful +eyes, only half realizing what it was he was offering. The doctor did +not wait, but immediately took the arrangement for granted. He began +giving orders in the tone of a man who knows just what he wants done, +and knows also that he will be obeyed. + +"You stay here, Mr. Hand, and help with this gentleman; and Little +Simon, here, you go up to your father's livery stable and harness up, +quick as you can. Then drive up to my place and get the boy to bring +my buggy down here, with the white horse. Quick, you understand? Tell +them the doctor's waiting." + +Agatha sat in the launch while the doctor's orders were carried out. +Little Simon was off getting the vehicles; Doctor Thayer had run up the +dock to the village street on some errand, saying he would be back by +the time the carriages were there; and Hand was walking up and down the +dock, keeping a watchful eye on the launch. James was lying in the +sheltered corner of the boat, ominously quiet. His eyes were closed, +and his face had grown ghastly in his illness. Tears came to Agatha's +eyes as she looked at him, seeing how much worse his condition was than +when he had talked with her, almost happily, in the night. She herself +felt miserably tired and ill; and as she waited, she had the sensation +one sometimes has in waiting for a train; that the waiting would go on +for ever, would never end. + +The weather changed, as the doctor had prophesied, and the rain ceased. +Fresh gusts of wind from the sea blew clouds of fog and mist inland, +while the surface of the water turned from gray to green, from green to +blue. The wind, blowing against the receding tide, tossed the foam +back toward the land in fantastic plumes. Agatha, looking out over the +sea, which now began to sparkle in the light, longed in her heart to +take the return of the sunshine as an omen of good. It warmed and +cheered her, body and soul. + +As her eyes turned from the sea to the village tossed up beyond its +highest tides, she searched, though in vain, for some spot which she +could identify with the memories of her childhood. She must have seen +Charlesport in some one of her numerous visits to Ilion as a child; but +though she recalled vividly many of her early experiences, they were in +no way suggestive of this tiny antiquarian village, or of the rocky +hillside stretching off toward the horizon. A narrow road wound +athwart the hill, leading into the country beyond. It was steep and +rugged, and finally it curved over the distant fields. + +But the old red house was the talisman that brought back to her mind +the familiar picture. She wondered if it lay over the hill beyond that +rugged road. She closed her eyes and saw the green fields, the mighty +balm-of-gilead tree, the lilac bushes, and the dull red walls of the +house standing back from the village street, not far from the +white-steepled church. She could see it all, plainly. The thought +came to her suddenly that it was home. It was the first realization +she had of old Hercules Thayer's kindness. It was Home for her who had +else been homeless. She hugged the thought in thankfulness. + +"Now, Miss Agatha Redmond, if you will come--" + +The eternity had ended; and time, with its swift procession of hours +and days, had begun again. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +SEEING THE RAINBOW + +A few days on a yacht, with a calm sea and sun-cool weather, may be +something like a century of bliss for a pair of lovers, if they happen +to have taken the lucky hour. The conventions of yacht life allow a +companionship from dawn till dark, if they choose to have it; there is +a limited amount of outside distraction; if the girl be an outdoor +lass, she looks all the sweeter for the wind rumpling her hair; and on +shipboard, if anywhere, mental resourcefulness and good temper achieve +their full reward. + +Aleck had been more crafty than he knew when he carried Melanie and +Madame Reynier off on the _Sea Gull_. Almost at the last moment Mr. +Chamberlain had joined them, Aleck's liking for the man and his +instinct of hospitality overcoming his desire for something as near as +possible to a solitude _a deux_ with Melanie. + +They could not have had a better companion. Mr. Chamberlain was +nothing less than perfect in his position as companion and guest. He +enjoyed Madame Reynier's grand duchess manners, and spared himself no +trouble to entertain both Madame Reynier and Melanie. He was a hearty +admirer, if not a suitor, of the younger woman; but certain it was, +that, if he ever had entertained personal hopes in regard to her, he +buried them in the depths of his heart by the end of their first day on +the _Sea Gull_. He understood Aleck's position with regard to Melanie +without being told, and instantly brought all his loyalty and courtesy +into his friend's service. + +Madame Reynier had an interest in seeing the smaller towns and cities +of America; "something besides the show places," she said. So they +made visits ashore here and there, though not many. As they grew to +feel more at home on the yacht, the more reluctant they were to spend +their time on land. Why have dust and noise and elbowing people, when +they might be cutting through the blue waters with the wind fresh in +their faces? The weather was perfect; the thrall of the sea was upon +them. + +The roses came into Melanie's cheeks, and she forgot all about the +professional advice which she had been at such pains to procure in New +York. There was happiness in her eyes when she looked on her lover, +even though she had repulsed him. As for Mr. Chamberlain, he breathed +the very air of content. Madame Reynier, with her inscrutable grand +manner, confessed that she had never before been able precisely to +locate Boston, and now that she had seen it, she felt much better. +Even Aleck's lean bulk seemed to expand and flourish in the atmosphere +of happiness about him. His sudden venture was a success, beyond a +doubt. The party had many merry hours, many others full of a quiet +pleasure, none that were heavy or uneasy. + +If Aleck's outer man prospered in this unexpected excursion, it can +only be said that his spiritual self flowered with a new and hitherto +unknown beauty. It was a late flowering, possibly--though what are +thirty-four years to Infinity?--but there was in it a richness and +delicacy which was its own distinction and won its own reward. + +Melanie's words, spoken in their long interview in the New York home, +had contained an element of truth. There was a poignant sincerity in +her saying, "You do not love me enough," which touched Aleck to the +center of his being. He was not niggardly by nature; and had he given +stintingly of his affection to this woman who was to him the best? His +whole nature shrank from such a role, even while he dimly perceived +that he had been guilty of acting it. If he had been small in his gift +of love, it was because he had been the dupe of his theories; he had +forsworn gallantry toward women, and had unwittingly cast aside warmth +of affection also. + +But such a condition was, after all, more apparent than real. In his +heart Aleck knew that he did love Melanie "enough," however much that +might be. He loved her enough to want, not only and not mainly, what +she could give to him; but he wanted the happiness of caring for her, +cherishing her, rewarding her faith with his own. She had not seen +that, and it was his problem to make her see it. There was only one +way. And so, in forgetting himself, forgetting his wants, his +comforts, his studies and his masculine will--herein was the blossoming +of Aleck's soul. + +Melanie instinctively felt the subtle change, and knew in her heart +that Aleck had won the day, though she still treated their engagement +as an open question. Aleck would read to her in his simple, unaffected +manner, sometimes with Madame Reynier and Mr. Chamberlain also for +audience, sometimes to her alone. And since they lived keenly and +loved, all books spoke to them of their life or their love. A line, a +phrase, a thought, would ring out of the record, and each would be glad +that the other had heard that thought; sometime they would talk it all +over. They learned to laugh at their own whimsical prejudices, and +then insisted on them all the harder; they learned, each from the +other, some bit of robust optimism, some happiness of vision, some +further reach of thought. + +After they had read, they would play at quoits, struggling sternly +against each other; or Chamberlain would examine Melanie in nautical +lore; or together, in the evening, they would trace the constellations +in the heavens. During their first week they were in the edge of a +storm for a night and a day; but they put into harbor where they were +comfortable and safe, and merry as larks through it all. + +So, day by day, Aleck hedged Melanie about with his love. Was she +thoughtful? He let her take, as she would, his thoughts, the best he +could give from his mature experience. Was she gay? He liked that +even better, and delighted to cap her gaiety with his own queer, +whimsical drolleries. Whatever her mood, he would not let her get far +from him in spirit. It was not in her heart to keep him from her; but +Aleck achieved the supermundane feat of making his influence felt most +keenly when she was alone. She dwelt upon him in her thoughts more +intensely than she herself knew; and that intenseness was only the +reflection of his own thought for her. + +They had been sailing a little more than a week, changing the low, +placid Connecticut fields for the rougher northern shores, going +sometimes farther out to sea, but delighting most in the sweet, +pine-fringed coast of Maine. There were no more large cities to visit, +only small villages where fishermen gathered after their week's haul or +where slow, primitive boat-building was still carried on. Most of the +inhabitants of the coast country appeared to be farmers as well as +fishermen, even where the soil was least promising. The aspect of the +shores was that of a limited but fairly prosperous agricultural +community. Under the shadow of the hills were staid little homes, or +fresh-painted smart cottages. Sometimes a bold rock-bank formed the +shore for miles and miles, and the hills would vanish for a space. +Here and there were headlands formed by mighty boulders, against which +the waves endlessly dashed and as endlessly foamed back into the sea. + +Such a headland loomed up on their starboard one evening when the sun +was low; and as the plumes of spray from the incoming waves rose high +in the air a rainbow formed itself in the fleeting mist. It was a +fairy picture, repeating itself two or three times, no more. + +"That's my symbol of hope," said Aleck quite impersonally, to anybody +who chose to hear. + +Mr. Chamberlain turned to Aleck with his ready courtesy. "Not the only +one you have received, I hope, on this charming voyage." + +Madame Reynier was ready with her pleasant word. "Aren't we all +symbols for you--if not of hope, then of your success as a host? We've +lost our aches and our pains, our nerves and our troubles; all gone +overboard from the _Sea Gull_." + +"You're all tremendously good to me, I know that," said Aleck, his slow +words coming with great sincerity. + +Melanie kept silence, but she remembered the rainbow. + +The headland was the landward end of a small island, one part of which +was thickly wooded. A large unused house stood in a clearing, +evidently once a rather pretentious summer residence, though now there +were many signs of delapidation. The pier on the beach had been almost +entirely beaten down by storms, and a small, flimsy slip had taken its +place, running far down into the water. A thin line of smoke rose from +the chimney of one of the outbuildings; and while they looked and +listened the raucous cry of a peacock came to them over the still +water. Presently Chamberlain suggested: + +"I feel it in my bones that there'll be lobsters over there to be had +for the asking. I heard your man say he wanted lobsters, Van; and I +believe I'll row over there and see. I'm feeling uncommonly fit and +need some exercise." + +"All right, I'll go too," said Aleck. + +"I'll bet a bouquet that I beat you rowing over--Miss Reynier to +furnish the bouquet!" was Chamberlain's next proposition. "Do you +agree to that, my lady?" + +"And pray, where should I get a bouquet?" + +"Oh, the next time we get on land. And we won't put up with any old +bouquet of juniper bushes and rocks, either. We want a good, +old-fashioned round bouquet of garden posies, with mignonette round the +edge and a rose in the middle; a sure-enough token of esteem--that kind +of thing, you know. Is it a bargain, Miss Reynier?" + +"Very well, it is a bargain," agreed Melanie; "but I shall choose +bachelors' buttons!" + +So they took the tender and got off, with a great show of exactness as +to time and strictness of rules. Madame Reynier was to hold the watch, +and Aleck was to wave a white handkerchief the minute they touched +sand. Mr. Chamberlain was to give a like signal when they started +back. The yacht slowed down, and held her place as nearly as possible. + +Chamberlain pulled a great oar, and was, in fact, far superior to Aleck +in point of skill; but his stroke was not well adapted to the choppy +waves inshore. He had learned it on the sleepy Cam, where the long, +gliding blade counts best. The men stayed ashore a long time, +disappearing entirely beyond the clump of trees that screened the +outbuildings. When they reappeared, an old man was with them, +following them down to the boat. Then the white handkerchief appeared, +and the boat started on its return. + +Aleck profited by Chamberlain's work, and made the boat leap forward by +a shorter, almost jerky stroke. He came back easily with five minutes +to spare. + +"Good work!" said Mr. Chamberlain. "You have me beaten, and you'll get +the bachelors' buttons; but you had the tide with you." + +"Nonsense! I had the lobsters extra!" asserted Aleck. + +"Well, if you had been born an Englishman, we'd make an oarsman out of +you yet!" + +"Huh!" said Aleck. + +But they had news to tell the ladies, and while they were having their +dinner their thoughts were turned to another matter. The island, it +appeared, had for some years been abandoned by its owner, and its only +inhabitant was a gray and grizzly old man, known to the region as the +hermit. His fancy was to keep a light burning always by night in the +landward window of his cabin, so as to warn sailors off the dangerous +headland. There was no lighthouse in the vicinity, and by a kindly +consent the people on the neighboring islands and on the mainland +opposite encouraged his benevolent delusion, if delusion it might be +called. They contrived to send him provisions at least once a week; +and they had supplied him with a flag which, it was understood, he +would fly in case he was in actual need. So, alone with his cow and +his fowls, the old hermit spent his days, winter and summer, tending +his lamp when the dark came on. + +Aleck and Mr. Chamberlain had picked up some of this information at the +last port which the _Sea Gull_ made; but what was of new and real +interest to them now was the story which the old man told them of a +castaway on the island a few days before. + +"All hands had abandoned the yacht just before she went down, it +appears. The owner was robbed by his own men and marooned on the +hermit's island--that's the gist of it," said Aleck. + +"The hermit said the man wouldn't eat off his table," went on Mr. +Chamberlain; "but asked him for raw eggs and ate them outdoors. Said +that except when he asked for eggs he never spoke without cursing. At +least, the hermit couldn't understand what he said, so he thought it +was cursing. And while the old man was talking," added Chamberlain +resentfully, "that blooming peacock squawked like a demon." + +"The yacht that went down, according to the man, was the _Jeanne +D'Arc_," said Aleck, who had been grave enough between all their +light-hearted talk. "I didn't tell you, Chamberlain, that my cousin, +my old chum, went off quite unexpectedly on a boat called the _Jeanne +D'Arc_. Where he went or what for, I don't know. Of course, it may +have been another _Jeanne D'Arc_; it probably was. But it troubles me." + +Melanie was instantly aroused. "Oh, I had an uncanny feeling when you +first mentioned the _Jeanne D'Arc_!" she cried. "But could you not +find out more? What became of the man that was marooned?" + +"He got off the island a day or two ago," said Aleck. "The people that +brought provisions to the old man took him to the mainland, to +Charlesport." + +"The beggar left without so much as thanking the old man for his eggs," +added Chamberlain. + +"We'll put into Charlesport to-night, if you don't mind," said Aleck. +"If I can find the man that was marooned, I may be able to learn +something about Jim, if he really was on the yacht. You can all go +ashore, if you like. There's a big summer hotel near by, and it's a +lovely country." + +"We'll stay wherever it's most convenient for you to have us," said +Melanie, looking at Aleck; for once, with more than a friendly interest +in her eyes. + +"And perhaps I can help you, Van; two heads, you know," said +Chamberlain. + +Aleck, troubled as he was, could not help being grateful to his +friends. So the _Sea Gull_, turned suddenly from her holiday mood, +headed into the harbor of Charlesport. + +The village still rang, if so staid a community could be said to ring, +with reports of the event of the week before. Doctor Thayer had been +sphinx-like, and Little Simon had been imaginative and voluble; and it +would have been difficult to say which had teased the popular curiosity +the more. Aleck found a tale ready for his ears about the launch and +its three passengers, with many conflicting details. Some said that a +great singer had been wrecked off Ram's Head, others that it was the +captain and mate of the _Jeanne D'Arc_, others that it was a daughter +of old Parson Thayer's sweetheart and two sailors that came ashore. +Little or nothing was known about the island castaway. Aleck followed +the only clue he could find, thinking to get at least some inkling of +the truth. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +ALECK SEES A GHOST + +Little Simon drove leisurely up the long, rugged hill over which Agatha +and James had so recently traveled, and drew rein in the shade at a +distance of a long city block from his destination. He pointed with +his whip while he addressed Aleck, his sole passenger. + +"Yonder's the old red house, Mister. The parson, he hated to have his +trees gnawed, and Major here's a great horse for gnawing the bark offer +trees. So I never go no nearer the house than this." + +"All right, Simon; you wait for me here." + +Aleck walked slowly along the country road, enjoying the fragrant +fields, the quiet beauty of the place. It was still early in the day, +for he had lost no time in following the clues gathered from the +village as to the survivors of the _Jeanne D'Arc_. The air was fresh +and clean, with a tang of the distant salt marshes. + +A long row of hemlocks and Norway spruce bordered the road, and, with +the aid of a stone wall, shut off from the highway a prosperous-looking +vegetable garden. Farther along, a flower garden glowed in the +fantastic coloring which gardens acquire when planted for the love of +flowers rather than for definite artistic effects. Farther still, two +lilac bushes stood sentinel on either side of a gateway; and behind, a +deep green lawn lay under the light, dappled shade of tall trees. It +was a lawn that spoke of many years of care; and in the middle of its +velvet green, under the branches of two sheltering elms, stood the old +red house. It looked comfortable and secure, in its homely simplicity; +something to depend on in the otherwise mutable scenes of life. Aleck +felt an instantaneous liking for it, and was glad that his errand, sad +as it might possibly be, had yet led him thither. + +Long French windows in the lower part of the house opened upon the +piazza, and from the second story ruffled white curtains fluttered to +the breeze. As the shield-shaped knocker clanged dully to Aleck's +stroke, a large, melancholy hound came slowly round the corner of the +house, approached the visitor with tentative wags of the tail, and +after sniffing mildly, lay down on the cool grass. It wasn't a house +to be hurried, that was plain. After a wait of five or ten minutes +Aleck was about to knock again, when a face appeared at one of the +side-lights of the door. Presently the door itself opened a few +inches, and elderly spinsterhood, wrapped in severe inquiry, looked out +at him. + +"Can I see the lady, or either of the gentlemen, who recently arrived +here from the yacht, the _Jeanne D'Arc_?" + +Aleck's voice and manner were friendly enough to disarm suspicion +itself; Sallie Kingsbury looked at him for a full second. + +"Come in." + +Aleck followed her into the wide, dim hall, and waited while she pulled +down the shade of the sidelight which she had lifted for observation. +Then she opened a door on the right and said: + +"Set down in the parlor while I go and take my salt risin's away from +the stove. I ain't had time to call my soul my own since the folks +came, what with callers at all times of the day." + +Sallie's voice was not as inhospitable as her words. She was mildly +hurt and grieved, rather than offended. She disappeared and presently +came back with a white apron on in place of the colored gingham she had +worn before; but it is doubtful if Aleck noticed this tribute to his +sex. Sallie looked withered and pinched, but more by nature and +disposition than by age. She stood with arms akimbo near the +center-table, regarding Aleck with inquisitiveness not unmixed with +liking. + +"You can set down, sir," she said politely, "but I don't know as you +can see any of the folks. The man, he's up-stairs sick, clean out of +his head; and the young man, he's nursing him. Can't leave him alone a +minute, or he'd be up and getting out the window, f'rall I know." + +Aleck listened sympathetically. "A sad case! And what is the name, if +I may ask, of the young man who is so ill?" + +"Lor', I don't know," said Sallie. "The new mistress, her name's +Redmond; some kin of Parson Thayer's, and she's got this house and a +lot of money. The lawyer was here yesterday and got the will all fixed +up. She's a singer, too--one of those opery singers down below, she +is." + +Sallie made this announcement as if she was relating a bewildering blow +of Providence for which she herself was not responsible. Aleck, who +began to fear that he might be the recipient of more confidences than +decorum dictated, hastily proffered his next question. + +"Can I see the lady, Miss Redmond? Or is it Mrs. Redmond?" + +Sallie gave a scornful, injured sniff. + +"_Miss_ Redmond, sir, though she's old enough to be a Mrs. I wouldn't +so much mind her coming in here and using the parson's china that I +always washed with my own hands if she was a Mrs. But what can she, an +unmarried woman and an opery singer, know about Parson Thayer's ways +and keeping this house in order, when I've been with him going on +seventeen years and he took me outer the Home when I was no more than a +child?" + +Aleck's heart would have been stone had he resisted this all but +passionate plea. + +"You have been faithfulness itself, I am sure. But do you think Miss +Redmond would see me, at least for a few minutes?" + +Sallie recovered her dignity, which had been near a collapse in tears, +and assumed her official tone. "I don't know as you can, and I don't +know _as_ you can. She's sick, too; fell overboard somehow or other, +offer one of those pesky boats, and got neuralagy and I don't know what +all. But I'll go and see how she's feeling." + +"Stay, wait a minute," said Aleck, seized with a new thought. "I'll +write a message to Miss Redmond and then she'll know just what I want. +If you'll be so good as to take it to her?" + +"Why, certainly, of course I will," Said Sallie Kingsbury. "Only you +needn't take all _that_ trouble. I can tell her what you want myself." +Sallie was one of those persons who regard the pen as the weapon of +last resort, not to be used until necessity compels. But Aleck +continued writing on a blank leaf of his note-book. The message was +this: + +"Can you give me any information concerning my cousin, James Hambleton, +who was thought to be aboard the _Jeanne D'Arc_?" + +He tore the leaf out, extracted a card from his pocketbook, and handed +leaf and card to Sallie. "Will you please give those to Miss Redmond?" + +Sallie wiped her hands, which were perfectly clean, on her white apron, +took the card and bit of paper and departed, sniffing audibly. When +she returned, it was to say, with a slightly more interested air, that +Miss Redmond wished to see him up-stairs. She stood at the bottom of +the wide stairway and pointed to a corner of the upper floor. "She's +in there--room on the right!" and so she stalked off to the kitchen. + +Aleck Van Camp sought the region indicated by Sallie's gaunt finger +with some misgivings; but he was presently guided further by a clear +voice. + +"Come in this way, Mr. Van Camp, if you please!" + +The voice led him to an open door, before which he stood, looking into +a large, old-fashioned bedroom, from whose windows the white curtains +fluttered in the breeze. Miss Redmond was propped up with pillows on a +horsehair-covered lounge, which stood along the foot of a monstrous +bed. She was clothed in some sort of wool wrapper, and over her feet +was thrown a faded traveling rug. By her side stood a chair on which +were writing materials, Aleck's note and card, and a half-written +letter. Agatha sat up as she greeted Aleck. + +"I am glad to see you, Mr. Van Camp. Will you come in? I ask your +pardon for not coming downstairs to see you, but I have been ill, and +am not strong yet." + +She was about to motion Aleck to a chair, but stopped in the midst of +her speech, arrested by his expression. Aleck stood rooted to the +door-sill, with a look of surprise on his face which amounted to actual +amazement. Thus apparently startled out of himself, he regarded Agatha +earnestly. + +"Will you come in?" Agatha repeated at last. + +"Pardon me," he said finally in his precise drawl, "but I confess to +being startled. You--you bear such an extraordinary resemblance to +some one I know, that I thought it must really be she, for a moment." + +Agatha smiled faintly. "You looked as if you had seen a ghost." + +Aleck gazed at her again, a long, scrutinizing look. "It _does_ make +one feel queer, you know." + +[Illustration: "It _does_ make one feel queer, you know."] + +"But now that you are assured that I'm not a ghost, will you sit down? +That chair by the window, please. And I can't tell you how glad I am +to see you; for James Hambleton, your cousin, if he is your cousin, is +here in this house, and he is ill--very ill indeed." + +Aleck's nonchalance had already disappeared, in the series of +surprises; but at Agatha's words a flush of pleasure and relief +overspread his face. He strode quickly over toward Agatha's couch. + +"Oh, I say--old Jim--I thought, I was afraid--" + +Agatha was touched by the evidences of his emotion, and her voice +became very gentle. "I fancy it is the same--James Hambleton of Lynn?" +Aleck nodded and she went on: "That's what he told me, the night we +were wrecked." + +Agatha looked at Aleck, as if she would discover whether he were +trustworthy or not, before giving him more of her story. Presently she +continued: + +"He's a very brave, a very wonderful man. He jumped overboard to save +me, after I fell from the ladder; and then they left us and we swam +ashore. But long before we got there I fainted, and he brought me in, +all the way, though he was nearly dead of exhaustion himself. He had +hemorrhage from overexertion, and afterward a chill. And now there is +fever." + +Agatha's voice was trembling. Aleck watched her as she told her tale, +the flush of happiness and joy still lighting up his face. As she +finished relating the meager facts which to her denoted so many +heart-throbs, a sob drowned her voice. As Aleck followed the story, +his own eyes wavered. + +"That's Jim, down to the ground. Good old boy!" he said. + +There was silence for a minute, then he heard Agatha's voice, grown +little and faint. "If he should die--!" + +Aleck, still standing by Agatha's couch, suddenly shook himself. +"Where is he? Can I see him now?" + +Agatha got up slowly and led the way down the hall, pointing to a door +that stood ajar. It was evident that she was weak. + +"I can't go in--I can't bear to see him so ill," she whispered; and as +Aleck looked at her before entering the sick-room, he saw that her eyes +were filled with tears. + +Agatha went back to her couch, feeling that the heavens had opened. +Here was a friend come to her from she knew not where, whose right it +was to assume responsibility for the sick man. He was kind and good, +and he loved her rescuer with the boyish devotion of their school-days. +He would surely help; he would work with her to keep death away. +Whatever love and professional skill could do, should be done; there +had been no question as to that, of course, from the beginning. But +here was some one who would double, yes, more than double her own +efforts; some one who was strong and well and capable. Her heart was +thankful. + +Before Aleck returned from the sick-room, Doctor Thayer's step sounded +on the stairs, followed by the mildly complaining voice of Sallie +Kingsbury. Presently the two men were in a low-voiced conference in +the hall. Agatha waited while they talked, feeling grateful afresh +that Doctor Thayer's grim professional wisdom was to be reinforced by +Mr. Van Camp's resources. When the doctor entered Agatha's room, her +face had almost the natural flush of health. + +"Ah, Miss Agatha Redmond"--the doctor continued frequently to address +her by her full name, half in affectionate deference and half with some +dry sense of humor peculiar to himself--"Miss Agatha Redmond, so you're +beginning to pick up! A good thing, too; for I don't want two patients +in one house like the one out yonder. He's a very sick man, Miss +Agatha." + +"I know, Doctor. I have seen him grow worse, hour by hour, ever since +we came. What can be done?" + +"He needs special nursing now, and your man in there will be worn out +presently." + +"Oh, that can be managed. Send to Portland, to Boston, or somewhere. +We can get a nurse here soon. Do not spare any trouble. Doctor. I +can arrange--" + +Doctor Thayer squared himself and paced slowly up and down Agatha's +room. He did not reply at once, and when he did, it was with one of +his characteristic turns toward an apparently irrelevant topic. + +"Have you seen Sister Susan?" he inquired, stopping by the side of +Agatha's couch and looking down on her with his shrewd gaze. It was a +needless question, for he knew that Agatha had not seen Mrs. Stoddard. +She had been too weak and ill to see anybody. Agatha shook her head. + +"Well, Miss Agatha Redmond, Susan's the nurse we need for that young +gentleman over there. It's constant care he must have now, day and +night; and if he gets well, it will be good nursing that does it. +There isn't a nurse in this country like Susan, when she once takes +hold of a case. That Mr. Hand in there is all right, but he can't sit +up much longer night and day, as he has been doing. And he isn't a +woman. Don't know why it is, but the Lord seems bent on throwing sick +men into women's hands--as if they weren't more than a match for us +when we're well!" + +Agatha's humorous smile rewarded the doctor's grim comments, if that +was what he wanted. + +"No, Doctor," she said, with a fleeting touch of her old lightness, +"we're never a match for you. We may entertain you or nurse you or +feed you, or possibly once in a century or two inspire you; but we're +never a match for you." + +"For which Heaven be praised!" ejaculated the doctor fervently. + +Agatha watched him as he fumbled nervously about the room or clasped +his hands behind him under his long coat-tails. The greenish-black +frock-coat hung untidily upon him, and his white fringe of hair was +anything but smooth. She perceived that something other than medical +problems troubled him. + +"Would your sister--would Mrs. Stoddard--be willing to come here to +take care of Mr. Hambleton?" she ventured. + +"Ask me _that_," snapped the doctor, "when no man on earth could tell +whether she'll come or not. She says she won't. She's hurt and she's +outraged; or at least she thinks she is. But if you could get her to +think that it was her duty to take care of that poor boy in there, +she'd come fast enough." + +Agatha was puzzled. She felt as if there were a dozen ways to turn and +only one way that would lead her aright; and she could not find the +clue to that one right way. At last she attacked the doctor boldly. + +"Tell me, Doctor Thayer," she said earnestly, "just what it is that +causes Mrs. Stoddard to feel hurt and outraged. Is it simply because I +have inherited the money and the house? She can not possibly know +anything about me personally." + +The old doctor thrust his under jaw out more belligerently than ever, +while turning his answer over in his mind. He took two lengths of the +room before stopping again by Agatha's side and looking down on her. + +"She says it isn't the money, but that it's the slight Hercules put +upon her for leaving the place, our old home, out of the family. +That's one thing; but that isn't the worst. Susan's orthodox, you +know, very orthodox; and she has a prejudice against your +profession--serving Satan, she calls it. She thinks that's what +actresses and opera singers do, though how she knows anything about it, +I don't see." The grim smile shone in the doctor's eyes even while he +looked, half anxiously, to see how Agatha was taking his explanation of +Mrs. Stoddard's attitude. Agatha meditated a moment. + +"If it's merely a prejudice in the abstract against my being an opera +singer, I think she will overcome that. Besides, Mr. Hambleton is +neither an actor nor an opera singer; he isn't 'serving Satan.'" + +"Well--" the doctor hesitated, and then went on hastily with a great +show of irritation, "Susan's a little set in her views. She +disapproves of the way you came here; says you shouldn't have been out +in a boat with two men, and that it's a judgment for sin, your being +drowned, or next door to it. I'm only saying this, my dear Miss +Agatha, to explain to you why Susan--" + +But Agatha was enlightened at last, and roused sufficiently to cause +two red spots, brighter than they had ever been in health, to burn on +her cheeks. She sat up very straight, facing Doctor Thayer's worried +gaze, and interrupted him in tones ringing with anger. + +"Do you mean to tell me, Doctor Thayer, that your sister, the sister of +my mother's lifelong friend, sits in her house and imagines scandalous +stories about me, when she knows nothing at all about the facts or +about me? That she thinks I was out in a boat alone with two men? +That she is mean enough to condemn me without knowing the first thing +about this awful accident? Oh, I have no words!" And Agatha covered +her burning face with her hands, unable, by mere speech, to express her +outraged feelings. Doctor Thayer edged uneasily about Agatha's couch, +with a manner resembling that of a whipped dog. + +"Why, my dear Miss Agatha, Susan will come round in time. She's not so +bad, really. She'll come round in time, only just now we haven't any +time to spare. Don't feel so badly; Susan is too set in her views--" + +"'Set!'" cried Agatha. "She's a horrid, un-Christian woman!" + +"Oh, no," remonstrated the doctor. "Susan's all right, when you once +get used to her. She's a trifle old-fashioned in her views--" + +But Agatha was not listening to the doctor's feeble justification of +Susan. She was thinking hard. + +"Doctor Thayer," she urged, "do you want that woman to come here to +take care of Mr. Hambleton? Isn't there any one else in this whole +countryside who can nurse a sick man? Why, I can do it myself; or Mr. +Van Camp, his cousin, could do it. Why should you want her, of all +people, when she feels so toward us?" + +The moment his professional judgment came into question Doctor Thayer +slipped out from the cloud of embarrassment which had engulfed him in +his recent conversation, and assumed the authoritative voice that +Agatha had first heard. + +"My dear Miss Agatha Redmond, that is foolish talk. You are half sick, +even now; and it requires a strong person, with no nerves, to do what I +desire done. Mr. Van Camp may be his cousin, but the chances are that +he wouldn't know a bromide from a blister; and good nurses don't grow +on bushes in Ilion, nor in Charlesport, either. There isn't one to be +had, so far as I know, and we can't wait to send to Augusta or +Portland. The next few days, especially the next twenty-four hours, +are critical." + +Agatha listened intently, and a growing resolution shone in her eyes. + +"Would Mrs. Stoddard come, if it were not for what you said--about me?" +she asked. + +"The Lord only knows, but I think she would," replied the poor, +harassed doctor. "She's always been a regular Dorcas in this +neighborhood." + +"Dorcas!" cried Agatha, her anger again flaring up. "I should say +Sapphira." + +"Oh, now, Susan isn't so bad, when you once know her," urged the doctor. + +Agatha got up and went to the window, trailing her traveling rug after +her. "She shall come--I'll bring her. And sometime she shall mend her +words about me--but that can wait. If she will only help to save James +Hambleton's life now! Where does she live?" Suddenly, as she stood at +the window, she saw her opportunity. "There's Little Simon down there +now under the trees; and his buggy must be somewhere near. Will you +stay here, Doctor Thayer, with Mr. Hambleton, while I go to see your +sister?" + +"Hadn't I better drive you over to see Susan myself?" feebly suggested +the doctor. + +"No, I'll go alone." There was anger, determination, gunpowder in +Agatha's voice. + +"But mind you, don't offer her any money," the doctor warned, as he +watched her go down the hall and disappear for an instant in the +bedroom where James Hambleton lay. She came out almost immediately and +without a word descended the wide stairway, opened the dining-room +door, and called softly to Sallie Kingsbury. + +Doctor Thayer returned to the sick-room. Ten minutes later he heard +the wheels of Little Simon's buggy rolling rapidly up the road in the +direction of Susan Stoddard's place. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +SUSAN STODDARD'S PRAYER + +There was a wide porch, spotlessly scrubbed, along the front of the +house, and two hydrangeas blooming gorgeously in tubs, one on either +side of the walk. The house looked new and modern, shiny with paint +and furnished with all the conveniences offered by the relentless +progress of our day. + +Little Simon had informed Agatha, during their short drive, that Deacon +Stoddard had achieved this "residence" shortly before his death; and +his tone implied that it was the pride of the town, its real treasure. +Even to Agatha's absorbed and preoccupied mind it presented a striking +contrast to the old red house, which had received her so graciously +into its spacious comfort. She marveled that anything so fresh and +modish as the house before her could have come into being in the old +town. It was next to a certainty that there was a model laundry with +set tubs beyond the kitchen, and equally sure that no old horsehair +lounge subtly invited the wearied traveler to rest. + +A cool draft came through the screen door. Within, it was cleaner than +anything Agatha had ever seen. The stair-rail glistened, the polished +floors shone. A neat bouquet of sweet peas stood exactly in the center +of a snow-white doily, which was exactly in the middle of a shiny, +round table. The very door-mat was brand new; Agatha would never have +thought of wiping her shoes on it. + +Agatha's ring was answered by a half-grown girl, who looked scared when +she saw a stranger at the door. Agatha walked into the parlor, in +spite of the girl's hesitation In inviting her, and directed her to say +to Mrs. Stoddard that Miss Redmond, from the old red house, wished +particularly to see her. The girl's face assumed an expression of +intelligent and ecstatic curiosity. + +"Oh!" she breathed. Then, "She's putting up plums, but she can come +out in a few minutes." She could not go without lingering to look at +Agatha, her wide-eyed gaze taking note of her hair, her dress, her +hands, her face. As Agatha became conscious of the ingenuous +inspection to which she was subjected, she smiled at the girl--one of +her old, radiant, friendly smiles. + +"Run now, and tell Mrs. Stoddard, there's a good child! And sometime +you must come to see me at the red house; will you?" + +The girl's face lighted up as if the sun had come through a cloud. She +smiled at Agatha in return, with a "Yes" under her breath. Thus are +slaves made. + +Left alone in the cool, dim parlor, so orderly and spotless, Agatha had +a presentiment of the prejudice of class and of religion against which +she was about to throw herself. Susan Stoddard's fanaticism was not +merely that of an individual; it represented the stored-up strength of +hardy, conscience-driven generations. The Stoddards might build +themselves houses with model laundries, but they did not thereby +transfer their real treasure from the incorruptible kingdom. If they +were not ruled by aesthetic ideals, neither were they governed by +thoughts of worldly display. This fragrant, clean room bespoke +character and family history. Agatha found herself absently looking +down at a white wax cross, entwined with wax flowers, standing under a +glass on the center-table. It was a strange piece of handicraft. Its +whiteness was suggestive of death, not life, and the curving leaves and +petals, through which the vital sap once flowed, were beautiful no +longer, now that their day of tender freshness was so inappropriately +prolonged. As Agatha, with mind aloof, wondered vaguely at the +laborious patience exhibited in the work, her eye caught sight of an +inscription molded in the wax pedestal: "Brother." Her mind was +sharply brought back from the impersonal region of speculation. What +she saw was not merely a sentimental, misguided attempt at art; it was +Susan Stoddard's memorial of her brother, Hercules Thayer--the man who +had so unexpectedly influenced Agatha's own life. To Susan Stoddard +this wax cross was the symbol of the companionship of childhood, and of +all the sweet and bitter involved in the inexplicable bond of blood +relationship. Agatha felt more kindly toward her because of this mute, +fantastic memorial. She looked up almost with her characteristic +friendly smile as she heard slow, steady steps coming down the hall. + +The eyes that returned Agatha's look were not smiling, though they did +not look unkind. They gazed, without embarrassment, as without pride, +into Agatha's face, as if they would probe at once to the covered +springs of action. Mrs. Stoddard was a thick-set woman, rather short, +looking toward sixty, with iron-gray hair parted in the middle and +drawn back in an old-fashioned, pretty way. + +It was to the credit of Mrs. Stoddard's breeding that she took no +notice of Agatha's peculiar dress, unsuited as it was to any place but +the bedroom, even in the morning. Mrs. Stoddard herself was neat as a +pin in a cotton gown made for utility, not beauty. She stood for an +instant with her clear, untroubled gaze full upon Agatha, then drew +forward a chair from its mathematical position against the wall. When +she spoke, her voice was a surprise, it was so low and deep, with a +resonance like that of the 'cello. It was not the voice of a young +woman; it was, rather, a rare gift of age, telling how beautiful an old +woman's speech could be. Moreover, it carried refinement of birth and +culture, a beauty of phrase and enunciation, which would have marked +her with distinction anywhere. + +"How do you do, Miss Redmond?" + +Agatha, standing by the table with the cross, made no movement toward +the chair. She was not come face to face with Mrs. Stoddard for the +purpose of social visitation, but because, in the warfare of life, she +had been sent to the enemy with a message. That, at least, was +Agatha's point of view. Officially, she was come to plead with Mrs. +Stoddard; personally, she was hot and resentful at her unjust words. +Her reply to her hostess' greeting was brief and her attitude unbending. + +"I have come to ask you, Mrs. Stoddard," Agatha began, though to her +chagrin, she found her voice was unsteady--"I have come personally to +ask you, Mrs. Stoddard, if you will help us in caring for our friend, +who is very ill. Your brother, Doctor Thayer, wishes it. It is a case +of life and death, maybe; and skilful nursing is difficult to find." + +Agatha's hand, that rested on the table, was trembling by the time she +finished her speech; she was vividly conscious of the panic that had +come upon her nerves at a fresh realization of the wall of defense and +resistance which she was attempting to assail. It spoke to her from +Mrs. Stoddard's calm, other-worldly eyes, from her serene, deep voice. + +"No, Miss Redmond, that work is not for me." + +"But please, Mrs. Stoddard, will you not reconsider your decision? It +is not for myself I ask, but for another--one who is suffering." + +Mrs. Stoddard's gaze went past Agatha and rested on the white cross +with the inscription, "Brother." She slowly shook her head, saying +again, "No, that work is not for me. The Lord does not call me there." + +As the two women stood there, with the funeral cross between them, each +with her heart's burden of griefs, convictions and resentments, each +recoiled, sensitively, from the other's touch. But life and the burden +life imposes were too strong. + +"How can yon say, Mrs. Stoddard, 'that work is not for me,' when there +is suffering you can relieve, sickness that you can cure? I am asking +a hard thing, I know; but we will help to make it as easy as possible +for you, and we are in great need." + +"Should the servants of the Lord falter in doing His work?" Mrs. +Stoddard's voice intoned reverently, while she looked at Agatha with +her sincere eyes. "No. He gives strength to perform His commands. +But sickness and sorrow and death are on every hand; to some it is +appointed for a moment's trial, to others it is the wages of sin. We +can not alter the Lord's decrees." + +Agatha stared at the rapt speaker with amazed eyes, and presently the +anger she had felt at Doctor Thayer's words rose again within her +breast, doubly strong. The doctor had given but a feeble version of +the judgment; here was the real voice hurling anathema, as did the +prophets of old. But even as she listened, she gathered all her force +to combat this sword of the spirit which had so suddenly risen against +her. + +"You are a hard and unjust woman, to talk of the 'wages of sin.' What +do you know of my life, or of him who is sick over at the red house? +Who are you, to sit in judgment upon us?" + +"I am the humblest of His servants," replied Susan Stoddard, and there +was no shadow of hypocrisy in her tones. She went on, almost +sorrowfully: "But we are sent to serve and obey. 'Keep ye separate and +apart from the children of this world,' is His commandment, and I have +no choice but to obey. Besides," and she looked up fearlessly into +Agatha's face, "we _do_ know about you. It is spoken of by all how you +follow a wicked and worldly profession. You can't touch pitch and not +be defiled. The temple must be purged and emptied of worldliness +before Christ can come in." + +Agatha was baffled by the very simplicity and directness of Mrs. +Stoddard's words, even though she felt that her own texts might easily +be turned against her. But she had no heart for argument, even if it +would lead her to verbal triumph over her companion. Instinctively she +felt that not thus was Mrs. Stoddard to be won. + +"Whatever you may think about me or about my profession, Mrs. +Stoddard," she said, "you must believe me when I say that Mr. Hambleton +is free from your censure, and worthy of your sincerest praise. He is +not an opera singer--of that I am convinced--" + +Susan Stoddard here interpolated a stern "Don't you know?" + +"Listen, Mrs. Stoddard!" cried Agatha in desperation. "When the yacht, +the _Jeanne D'Arc_, began to sink, there was panic and fear everywhere. +While I was climbing down into one of the smaller boats, the rope +broke, and I fell into the water. I should have drowned, then and +there, if it had not been for this man; for all the rest of the ship's +load jumped into the boats and rowed away to save themselves. He +helped me to come ashore, after I had become exhausted by swimming. He +is ill and near to death, because he risked his life to save mine. Is +not that a heaven-inspired act?" + +Mrs. Stoddard's eyes glistened at Agatha's tale, which had at last got +behind the older woman's armor. But her next attack took a form that +Agatha had not foreseen. In her reverent voice, so suited to +exhortation, she demanded: + +"And what will you do with your life, now that you have been saved by +the hand of God? Will you dedicate it to Him, whose child you are?" + +Agatha, chafing in her heart, paused a moment before she answered: + +"My life has not been without its tests of faith and of conscience, +Mrs. Stoddard; and who of us does not wish, with the deepest yearning, +to know the right and to do it?" + +"Knowledge comes from the Lord," came Mrs. Stoddard's words, like an +antiphonal response in the litany. + +"My way has been different from yours; and It is a way that would be +difficult for you to understand, possibly. But you shall not condemn +me without reason." + +"Are you going to marry that man you have been living with these many +days?" was the next stern inquiry. + +A stinging blush--a blush of anger and outraged pride as much as of +modesty--surged up over Agatha's face. She was silent a moment, and in +that moment learned what it was to control anger. + +"I have not been 'living with' this man, in any sense of the term, Mrs. +Stoddard. I will say this once for all to you, though I never would, +in any other conceivable situation, reply to such a question and such +an implication. You have no right to say or think such things." + +"Wickedness must be rebuked of the Lord," intoned Mrs. Stoddard. + +"Are you His mouthpiece?" said Agatha scornfully. But she was rebuked +for her scorn by Mrs. Stoddard's look. Her eyes rested on Agatha's +face with pleading and patience, as if she were a world-mother, +agonizing for the salvation of her children. + +"It is His command to pluck the brand from the burning," said Susan +Stoddard. "Ungodly example is a sin, and earthly love often a snare +for youthful feet." + +As Agatha listened to Mrs. Stoddard's strange plea, the instinct within +her which, from the first moment of the interview, had recoiled from +this fanatical but intensely spiritual woman, found its way, as it +were, into the light. Such was the power of her sincerity, that, in +spite of the extraordinary character of the interview, Agatha's heart +throbbed with a new comprehension which was almost love. She stepped +closer to Susan Stoddard, her tall figure overtopping the other's +sturdy one, and took one of her strong, work-hardened hands. + +"Mrs. Stoddard, this man has never spoken a word of love to me. But if +I ever marry, it will be a man like him--a plain, high-hearted +gentleman. There! You have a woman's secret. And now come with me, +and help us to save a life. You can not, you must not, refuse me now." + +The subtle changes of the mind are hard to trace and are often obscure +even to the eye of science; but every day those changes make or mar our +joy. Susan Stoddard looked for a long minute up into the vivid face +bending over hers, while her spirit, even as Agatha's had done, pierced +the hedge which separated them, and comprehended something of the +goodness in the other's soul. Finally she laid her other hand over +Agatha's, enclosing it in a strong clasp. Then, with a certain +pathetic pride in her submission, she said: + +"I have been wrong, Agatha; I will come." Agatha's grateful eyes dwelt +on hers, but the strain of the interview was beginning to count. She +sank down in the chair that Mrs. Stoddard had offered at the beginning +of their meeting, and covered her eyes with one hand. The elder woman +kept the other. + +"We will not go to our task alone," she said, "we will ask God's help. +The prayer of faith shall heal the sick." Then falling to her knees by +Agatha's side, with rapt, lifted face and closed eyes, she made her +confession and her petition to the Lord. Her ringing voice intoned the +phrases of the Bible as if they had been music and bore the burden of +her deepest soul. She said she had been sinful in imputing +unrighteousness to others, and that she had been blinded by her own +wilfulness. She prayed for the stranger within her gates, for the sick +man over yonder, and implored God's blessing on the work of her hands; +and praise should be to the Lord. Amen. + +"And now, Angie," she said practically, as she rose to her feet, +addressing the girl who instantly appeared from around the doorway, "go +and tell Little Simon to drive up to the horse-block. Agatha, you go +home and rest, and I'll get hitched up and be over there almost as soon +as you are. Angie will help me get the ice-bag and all the other +things, in case you might not have them handy. Come, Agatha!" + +But they paused yet a moment, stopping as if by a common instinct to +look at the white cross. Susan Stoddard gazed down on it with a grief +in her eyes that was the more heartbreaking because it was +inarticulate. Agatha remembered the doctor's words, and understood +something of the friction that could exist between this evangelistic +sister and the finer, more intellectual brother. + +"I've never been inside the old red house since he died," said Mrs. +Stoddard. + +"I'm sorry!" cried Agatha. "It is hard for you to come there, I know." + +"He maketh the rough places plain," chanted Susan Stoddard. "Hercules +was a good brother and a good man!" + +Agatha laid her arm about the older woman's shoulder, and thus was led +out to Little Simon's buggy. Susan helped her in, and Agatha leaned +back, with closed eyes, indifferent to the beauty of early afternoon on +a cool summer's day. Little Simon let her ride in quiet, but landed +her in the dust on the opposite side of the road from the lilac bushes. + +"Those trees!" said Doctor Thayer's voice, as he came out to meet her. +"How did you make out with Susan?" + +"She's coming," said Agatha. "Is your patient any better?" + +"I don't think he's any worse," answered the doctor dubiously, "but I'm +glad Susan's coming. I'd be glad to know how you got round her." + +Agatha paused a moment before replying, "I wrestled with her." + +The doctor smiled grimly, "I've known the wrestling to come out the +other way." + +"I can believe that!" said Agatha. + +"Well, it's fairly to your credit!" And perhaps this was as near +praise as his New England speech ever came. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +ECHOES FROM THE CITY + +Sallie Kingsbury, unused to psychological analysis, could not have +explained why Mr. Hand was so objectionable to her. He was no relative +of the family, she had discovered that; and, accustomed as she was to +the old-fashioned gentility of a thrifty New England town, instinct +told her that he could not possibly be one of its varied products. He +might have come from anywhere; he talked so little that he was +suspicious on that ground alone; and when he did speak, there was no +accent at all that Sallie could lay hold of. Useful as he was just now +in taking care of that poor young man up-stairs, he nevertheless +inspired in her breast a most unholy irritation. Her attitude was that +of a housemaid pursuing the cat with the broom. + +Mr. Hand was not greatly troubled by Sallie's tendency to sweep him out +of the way, but whenever he took any notice of her he was more than a +match for her. On the afternoon following Agatha's visit to Mrs. +Stoddard, he appeared to show some slight objection to being treated +like the cat. He ate his luncheon in the kitchen--a large, delightful +room--while Aleck Van Camp stayed with James. Hand was stirring broth +over the stove, now and then giving a sharp eye to Sallie's preparation +of her new mistress' luncheon. + +"You haven't put any salt or pepper on mademoiselle's tray, Sallie," +said he, as the maid was about to start up-stairs. + +"_Miss_ Sallie, I should prefer, Mr. Hand," she requested in a mournful +tone of resignation. "And Miss Redmond don't take any pepper on her +aigs; I watched her yesterday." + +"Well, she may want some to-day, just the same," insisted Mr. Hand in a +lordly manner, putting a thin silver boat, filled with salt, and a +cheap pink glass pepper-shaker side by side on the tray. Sallie +brushed Hand away in disgust. + +"That doesn't go with the best silver salt-cellar; that's the kitchen +pepper. And, you can say _Miss_ Sallie, if you please." + +"No, just Sallie, if _you_ please! I've taken a great fancy to you, +Sallie, and I don't like to be so formal," argued Hand. "Besides, I +like your name; and I'll carry the tray to the top of the stairs for +you, if you'll be good." + +"I wouldn't trouble you for the world, Mr. Hand," she tossed back. +"You'd stumble and break Parson Thayer's best china that I've washed +for seventeen years and only broke the handle of one cup. She wouldn't +drink her coffee this morning outer the second-best cups; went to the +buttery before breakfast and picked out wunner the best set, and poured +herself a cup. She said it was inspiring, but I call it wasteful--and +me with extra work all day!" + +Sallie disappeared, leaving a dribbling trail of good-natured complaint +behind her. Mr. Hand continued making broth--at which he was as expert +as he was at the lever or the launch engine. He strained and seasoned, +and regarded two floating islands of oily substance with disapproval. +While he was working Sallie joined him again at the stove, her +important and injured manner all to the front. + +"Says she'll take another aig," she explained. "Only took one +yesterday, and then I had two all cooked." + +"What did I tell you?" jeered Hand. + +"You didn't tell me anything about aigs, not that I recollect," Sallie +replied tartly. + +"Well, the principle's the same," asserted Hand. After a moment his +countenance assumed a crafty and jocose expression, which would have +put even Sallie on her guard if she had looked up in time to see it. +"You won't have so much extra work when mademoiselle's maid arrives," +he said slyly. "_She'll_ wait on mademoiselle and attend to her tray +when she wants one, and you won't have to do anything for mademoiselle +at all." + +Sallie became slowly transfixed in a spread-eagle attitude, with the +half of a thin white egg-shell held up in each hand. + +"A maid! When's she coming?" + +"Ought to be here now, she's had time enough. But women never can get +round without wasting a lot of time." Sallie's glance must have +brought him to his senses, for he added hastily, "City women, I mean." + +"Hm! She won't touch Parson Thayer's china--not if I know myself!" +Sallie disappeared with Miss Redmond's second egg. When she returned, +she delivered a message to the effect that Miss Redmond wished to see +Mr. Hand when he had finished his luncheon. He was off instantly, +calling, "Watch that broth, Sallie!" + +It was a different Hand, however, who entered Miss Redmond's room a +moment later. His half impudent manner changed to distant respect, +tinged with a sort of personal adoration. Agatha felt it, though it +was too intangible to be taken notice of, either for rebuke or reward. +Agatha was sitting in a rocking-chair by the window, sipping her tea +out of the best tea-cup, her tray on a stand in front of her. She +looked excited and flushed, but her eyes were tired. + +"Can I do anything for you, Mademoiselle?" Hand inquired courteously. + +"Yes, please," answered Agatha, and paused a moment, as if to recall +her thoughts in order. Hand was very presentable, in negligee shirt +which Sallie must have washed while he was asleep. He was one of those +people who look best in their working or sporting clothes, ruddy, clean +and strong. He would have dwindled absolutely into the commonplace in +Sunday clothes, if he was ever so rash as to have any. + +"I wish to talk with you a little," said Agatha. "We haven't had much +opportunity of talking, so far; and perhaps it is time that we +understand each other a little better." + +"As mademoiselle wishes," conceded Hand. + +"In the first place," Agatha went on, "I must tell you that Mrs. +Stoddard is coming to help nurse Mr. Hambleton. You have been very +good to stay with us so long; and if you will stay on, I shall be glad. +But Doctor Thayer thinks you should have help, and so do I. Especially +for the next few days." + +"That is entirely agreeable to me, Mademoiselle." + +"Will you tell me what--what remuneration you were receiving as +chauffeur?" + +"Pardon me, but that is unnecessary, Mademoiselle. If you will allow +me to stay here, either taking care of Mr. Hambleton or in any outdoor +work, for a week or as long as you may need me, I shall consider myself +repaid." + +Agatha was silent while she buttered a last bit of toast. Hand's +reticence and evident secretiveness were baffling. She had no +intention of letting the point of wages go by in the way Hand +indicated, but after deliberation she dropped it for the moment, in +order to take up another matter. + +"I was wondering," she began again, "how you happened to escape from +the _Jeanne D'Arc_ alone in a rowboat, and what your connection with +Monsieur Chatelard was. Will you tell me?" + +A perfectly vacant look came into Hand's face. He might have been deaf +and dumb. + +At last Agatha began again. "I am grateful, exceedingly grateful, Mr. +Hand, for all that you have done for us since this catastrophe, but I +can't have any mystery about people. That is absurd. Did you leave +the _Jeanne D'Arc_ when the others did--when I fell into the water?" + +This time Hand consented to answer. "No, Mademoiselle; I did not know +you had fallen into the water until I brought you ashore in the +morning." + +"Then how did you get off?" + +"Well, it was rather queer. The men were all tired out working at the +pumps, and Monsieur Chatelard ordered a seaman named Bazinet and me to +relieve two of them. He said he would call us when the boats were +lowered, as the yacht was then getting pretty shaky. Bazinet and I +worked a long time; and when finally we got on deck, thinking the +_Jeanne D'Arc_ was nearly done for, the boats had put off. We heard +some one shouting, and Bazinet got frightened and jumped for the boat. +He thought they'd wait for him. It was too dark for me to see whether +he made it or not. I stayed on the yacht for some time, not knowing +anything better to do--" Hand allowed himself a faint smile--"and at +last, after a hunt, I found that extra boat, stowed away aft. It was +very small, and it leaked; probably that was why they did not think of +using it. But it was better than nothing. I found some putty and a +tin bucket, and got food and a lot of other things, though the boat +filled so fast that I had to throw most everything out. But I got +ashore, as you know. I didn't even wait to see the last of the _Jeanne +D'Arc_." + +Agatha's eyes shone. Hand's story was perfectly simple and plausible. +But the other question was even more important. She hesitated before +repeating it, however, and rewarded Hand's unusual frankness with a +grateful look. + +"That was a night of experience for us all," she said, with a little +sigh at the memory of it. + +"But tell me--" Agatha looked up squarely at Hand, only to encounter +his deaf and dumb expression. + +"If you will excuse me, Mademoiselle," said Hand deferentially, "I +think Mr. Hambleton's broth is burning." + +"Ah, well, very well!" said Agatha. And in spite of herself she smiled. + +Hand found Mrs. Stoddard installed in James Hambleton's room. Doctor +Thayer and Aleck had gone, both leaving word that they would return +before night. Mrs. Stoddard had smoothed James's bed, folded down the +sheet with exactness, noted her brother's directions for treatment, and +sat reading her Bible by the window. Mr. Hand stood for a moment, +silently regarding first the patient, then his nurse. + +"By the grace of God, he will pull through, I firmly believe!" +ejaculated Mrs. Stoddard. + +As the first words came in that resonant deep voice, Hand thought that +the new nurse was swearing, though presently he changed his mind. + +"Yes, ma'am," he replied with unwonted meekness. Then, "I'll sleep an +hour or two, if that is agreeable to you, ma'am." + +"Perfectly!" heartily responded Mrs. Stoddard, and Mr. Hand disappeared +like the mist before the sun. + +It was to be an afternoon of excitement, after all, though Agatha +thought that she would apply herself to the straightening out of much +necessary business. But after an hour's work over letters at Parson +Thayer's desk, there occurred an ebullition below which could be +nothing less than the arrival of Lizzie, Agatha's maid, with sundry +articles of luggage. She was a small-minded but efficient city girl, +clever enough to keep her job by making herself useful, and +sophisticated to the point of indecency. No woman ought ever to have +known so much as Lizzie knew. Agatha was to hear how she had been +relieved by the telegram several days before, how she had nearly killed +herself packing in such haste, how she thought she was traveling to the +ends of the earth, coming thus to a region she had never heard of +before. + +Big Simon, who had been instructed to watch for Lizzie and bring her +and her baggage out, presently arrived with the trunks, having sent the +maid on ahead in the buggy with his son. Big Simon positively declined +to carry the two trunks to the second floor, saying he thought they'd +like it just as well, or better, if he left them in the hall +down-stairs. Lizzie was angrily hesitating whether to argue with him +or use the persuasion of one of her mistress' silver coins, when Agatha +interfered, and saved her from making the mistake of her life. It is +doubtful if she could have lived in Ilion after having been guilty of +tipping one of its foremost citizens. And even if she had, she would +not have got the trunks taken up-stairs. + +The prospect of discarding Sallie Kingsbury's makeshifts and wearing a +dress which belonged to her had more comfort in it than Agatha had ever +believed possible; and the reality was even better. She made a toilet, +for the first time in many days, with her accustomed accessories, +dressed herself in a white wool gown, and felt better. + +"Are these the relatives you were visiting, Miss Redmond?" inquired +Lizzie, eaten up with curiosity, which was her mortal weakness. + +Agatha paused, struck with the form of the maid's question; but, +knowing her liking for items of news, she answered cautiously: + +"Not relatives exactly. The Thayers were old friends of my mother." + +Lizzie shook out a skirt and hung it in the wardrobe in the far corner +of the room. She was bursting to know everything about Miss Redmond's +sudden journey, but knew better than to appear anxious. + +"The message at the hotel was so indefinite that I didn't know at all +what I should do. After the excitement quieted down a little, I went +out to visit my cousin Hattie, in the Bronx." + +"What sort of excitement?" + +"Oh, newspaper men, and the manager, and Herr Weimar, of the orchestra, +and a lot of other people who came, wanting to see you immediately. +They seemed to think I was hiding you somewhere." + +Agatha smiled. She could imagine Lizzie in her new-fledged importance, +talking to all those people. + +"You spoke of a message--" ventured Agatha. + +"Yes; the one you sent the day you left, Miss Redmond. The hotel clerk +said you had suddenly left town on a visit to a sick relative." + +"Oh, yes." + +Lizzie's quick scent was already on the trail of a mystery, but Agatha +was in no mood just then to give her any version of the events of that +Monday afternoon. + +"Was there any other message, Miss Redmond? Some word for me, which +the clerk forgot to deliver?" + +"No, nothing else." + +"Mr. Straker came Tuesday morning with some contracts for you to sign. +He said that you had an appointment with him, and he was nearly crazy +when he found you had gone away without leaving your address." + +Agatha smiled more and more broadly, to Lizzie's disgust, but she could +not help it. "I don't doubt he was disturbed. Did he come again?" + +"Come again, Miss Redmond!" Lizzie hung a blue silk coat over its +hanger, held it carefully up to the light, and turned toward her +mistress with the mien of a person who isn't to be bamboozled. "He +came twice every day to see if I had any word from you; and when I went +to Cousin Hattie's he called me up on the 'phone every morning and +evening. Most unreasonable, Mr. Straker was. He said there wasn't a +singer in town he could get to fill your engagements, and he was losing +a hundred dollars a day. He's very much put out, Miss Redmond." + +"Well, I was, too," said Agatha, but somehow her tone failed to satisfy +the maid. To Agatha the thought of the dictatorial manager fluttering +about New York in quest of a vanished singer--well, the picture had its +humorous side. It had its serious side, too, for Agatha, of course, +but for the moment she put off thinking about that. Lizzie, however, +had borne the brunt of Mr. Straker's vexation, and, in that lumber-box +she called her mind, she regarded the matter solely as her personal cue +to come more prominently upon the stage. + +"Then your accompanist came every morning, as you had directed, Miss +Redmond; and Madame Florio sent word a dozen times about those new +gowns." Lizzie, with the memory of her sudden importance, almost took +up the role of baffled innocence. "I declare, Miss Redmond, I didn't +know what to do or say to those people. The whole thing seemed so +irregular, with you not leaving any word of explanation with me." + +"That is true, Lizzie; it was irregular, and certainly very +inconvenient. And it is serious enough, so far as breaking my +engagements is concerned. But the circumstances were very unusual +and--pressing. Some one else gave the message at the hotel, and, as +you know, I had no time even to get a satchel." + +"That's what I said when the reporters came--that you were so worried +over your sick relative that you did not wait for anything." + +Agatha groaned. "Did--did the papers have much to say about my leaving +town?" + +"They had columns, Miss Redmond, and some of them had your picture on +the front page with an announcement of your elopement. But Mr. Straker +contradicted that; he told them he had heard from you, and that you +were at the bedside of a dying relative. Besides that, Miss Redmond, +the difficulty in getting up an elopement story was the lack of a +probable man. Your manager and your accompanist were both found and +interviewed, and there wasn't anybody else in New York except me who +knew you. Your discretion, Miss Redmond, has always been remarkable." + +Agatha was suddenly tired of Lizzie. + +"Very well, Lizzie, that will do. You may go and get your own things +unpacked. We shan't return to New York for several days yet." + +"You've heard from Mr. Straker, of course, Miss Redmond?" + +"No, but I have written to him, explaining everything. Why?" + +"Oh, nothing; only when I sent him word that I had heard from you, he +said at first that he was coming here with me. Some business prevented +him, but he must have telegraphed." + +"Maybe he has; but it takes some time, evidently, for a hidden person +to be discovered in Ilion." + +As soon as the words were off her lips, Agatha realized that she had +made a slip. One has to look sharp when talking to a sophisticated +maid. + +"But were you hiding, Miss Redmond?" Lizzie artlessly inquired. + +"Oh, no, Lizzie; don't be silly. The telegram probably went wrong; +telegrams often do." + +"Not when Mr. Straker sends them," proffered Lizzie. "But if his +telegrams have gone wrong, you may count on his coming down here +himself. He is much worried over the rehearsals, which begin early in +the month, he said. And he got the full directions you sent me for +coming here; he would have them." + +Agatha knew her manager's pertinacity when once on the track of an +object. Moreover, the humor of the situation passed from her mind, +leaving only a vivid impression of the trouble and worry which were +sure to follow such a serious breaking up of well established plans. +She was rarely capricious, even under vexation, but she yielded to a +caprice at this moment, and one, moreover, that was very unjust toward +her much-tried manager. The thought of that man bursting in upon her +in the home that had been the fastidious Hercules Thayer's, in the +midst of her anxiety and sorrow over James Hambleton, was intolerable. + +"If Mr. Straker should by any chance follow me here, you must tell him +that I can not see him," she said, and departed, leaving Lizzie wrapped +in righteous indignation. + +"Well, I never!" she exclaimed, after her mistress had disappeared. +"Can't see him, after coming all this way! And into a country like +this, too, where there's only one bath-tub, and you fill that from a +pump in the yard!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +A FIGHTING CHANCE + +The dining-room of the old red house was cool, and fragrant from the +blossoming heliotrope bed below its window. The twilight, which is +long in eastern Maine, shed a soft glow over the old mahogany and +silver, and an equally soft and becoming radiance over the two women +seated at the table. After a sonorous blessing, uttered by Mrs. +Stoddard in tones full of unction, she and Agatha ate supper in a +sympathetic silence. It was a meal upon which Sallie Kingsbury +expended her best powers as cook, with no mean results; but nobody took +much notice of it, after all. Mrs. Stoddard poured her tea into her +saucer, drinking and eating absent-mindedly. Her face lighted with +something very like a smile whenever she caught Agatha's eyes, but to +her talk was not necessary. Sallie hovered around the door, even +though Lizzie had condescended to put on a white apron and serve. But +Agatha sent the city maid away, bidding her wait on the people in the +sick-room instead. + +Mr. Hand had been left with the patient and had acquiesced in the plan +to stay on duty until midnight, when Mrs. Stoddard was to be called. +Agatha had spent an hour with James, helping Mrs. Stoddard, or watching +the patient while the nurse made many necessary trips to the kitchen. +The sight of James's woeful plight drove every thought from her mind. +Engagements and managers lost their reality, and became shadow memories +beside the vividness of his desperate need. He had no knowledge of +her, or of any efforts to secure his comfort. He talked incessantly, +sometimes in a soft, unintelligible murmur, sometimes in loud and +emphatic tones. His eyes were brilliant but wandering, his movements +were abrupt or violent, heedless or feeble, as the moment decreed. He +talked about the dingy, nasty fo'cas'le, the absurdity of his not being +able to get around, the fine outfit of the _Sea Gull_, the chill of the +water. He sometimes swore softly, almost apologetically, and he +uttered most unchristian sentiments toward some person whom he +described as wearing extremely neat and dandified clothes. + +After the first five minutes Agatha paid no heed to his words, and +could bear to stay in the room only when she was able to do something +to soothe or comfort him. She was not wholly unfamiliar with illness +and the trouble that comes in its train, but the sight of James, with +his unrecognizing eyes and his wits astray, a superb engine gone wild, +brought a sharp and hitherto unknown pain to her throat. She stood +over his bed, holding his hands when he would reach frenziedly into the +air after some object of his feverish desire; she coaxed him back to +his pillow when he fancied he must run to catch something that was +escaping him. It took nerve and strength to care for him; unceasing +vigilance and ingenuity were required in circumventing his erratic +movements. + +And through it all there was something about his clean, honest mind and +person that stirred only affectionate pity. He was a child, taking a +child's liberties. Mrs. Stoddard brooded over him already, as a mother +over her dearest son; Mr. Hand had turned gentle as a woman and gave +the service of love, not of the eye. His skill in managing almost +rivaled Mrs. Stoddard's. James accepted Hand's ministrations as a +matter of course, became more docile under his treatment, and watched +for him when he disappeared. Indeed, the whole household was taxed for +James; and Agatha, deeply distressed as she was, throbbed with +gratitude that she could help care for him, if only for an hour. + +Thus it was that the two women, eating their supper and looking out +over Hercules Thayer's pleasant garden, were silent. Mrs. Stoddard was +thinking about the duties of the night, Agatha was swallowed up in the +miseries of the last hour. Mrs. Stoddard was the first to rise. She +was tipping off on her fingers a number of items which Agatha did not +catch, saying "Hm!" and "Yes!" to herself. Despite her deep anxiety, +Mrs. Stoddard was in her element. She had nothing less than genius in +nursing. She was cheerful, quick in emergencies, steady under the +excitements of the sick-room, and faithful in small, as well as large, +matters. Moreover, she excelled most doctors in her ability to +interpret changes and symptoms, and in her ingenuity in dealing with +them. Her two days with James had given her an understanding of the +case, and she was ready with new devices for his relief. + +Agatha finished her tea and joined Mrs. Stoddard as she stood looking +out into the twilight, seeing things not visible to the outward eye. + +"Yes, that's it," she ended abruptly, thinking aloud; then including +Agatha without any change of tone, she went on: "I think we'd better +change our plans a little. I'm going up-stairs now to stay while your +Mr. Hand goes over to the house for me. There are several things I +want from home." + +Agatha had no conception of having an opinion that was contrary to Mrs. +Stoddard's, so completely was she won by her tower-like strength. + +"You know, Mrs. Stoddard," she said earnestly, "that I want to be told +at once, if--if there is any change." + +"I know, child," the older woman replied, with a faraway look. "We are +in the Lord's hands. He taketh the young in their might, and He +healeth them that are nigh unto death. We can only wait His will." + +Agatha was the product of a different age and a different system of +thought. But she was still young, and the pressure of the hour revived +in her some ghost of her Puritan ancestral faith, longing to become a +reality in her heart again, if only for this dire emergency. She +turned, eager but painfully embarrassed, to Mrs. Stoddard, detaining +her by a touch on her arm. + +"But you said, Mrs. Stoddard," she implored, "that the prayer of faith +shall heal the sick. And I have been praying, too; I have tried to +summon my faith. Do you believe that it counts--for good?" + +Mrs. Stoddard's rapt gaze blessed Agatha. Her faith and courage were +of the type that rise according to need. She drew nearer to her +sanctuary, to the fountain of her faith, as her earthly peril waxed. +Her voice rang with confidence as she almost chanted: "No striving +toward God is ever lost, dear child. He is with us in our sorrow, even +as in our joy." Her strong hand closed over Agatha's for a moment, and +then her steady, slow steps sounded on the stairs. + +Agatha went into the parlor, whose windows opened upon the piazza, and +from there wandered down the low steps to the lawn. It was growing +dusk, a still, comfortable evening. Over the lawn lay the +indescribable freshness of a region surrounded by many trees and acres +of grass. Presently the old hound, Danny, came slowly from his kennel +in the back yard, and paced the grass beside Agatha, looking up often +with melancholy eyes into her face. Here was a living relic of her +mother's dead friend, carrying in his countenance his sorrow for his +departed master. Agatha longed to comfort him a little, convey to him +the thought that she would love him and try to understand his nature, +now that his rightful master was gone. She talked softly to him, +calling him to her but not touching him. Back and forth they paced, +the old dog following closer and closer to Agatha's heels. + +Back of the house was a path leading diagonally across to the wall +which separated Parson Thayer's place from the meeting-house. The dog +seemed intent on following this path. Agatha humored him, climbed the +low stile and entered the churchyard. As the hound leaped the stile +after her, he wagged his tail and appeared almost happy. Agatha +remembered that Sallie had told her, on the day of her arrival, of the +dog, and how he was accustomed to walk every evening with his master. +Doubtless they sometimes walked here, among the silent company +assembled in the churchyard; and the minister's silent friend was now +having the peculiar satisfaction of doing again what he had once done +with his master. Thus the little acre of the dead had its claim on +life, and its happiness for throbbing hearts. + +Agatha called the old dog to her again. This time he came near, rubbed +hard against her dress, and, when she sat down on a flat tombstone, +laid his head comfortably in her lap, wagging his tail in satisfaction. + +Danny was a companion who did not obstruct thought, but encouraged it; +and as Agatha sat resting on the stone with Danny close by, in that +quiet yard full of the noiseless ghosts of the past, her thoughts went +back to James. His unnatural eyes and restless spirit haunted her. +She thought of that other night on the water, full of heartbreaking +struggle as it was, as a happy night compared to the one which was yet +to come. She recalled their foolish talk while they were on the beach, +and smiled sadly over it. Her courage was at the ebb. She felt that +the buoyancy of spirit that had sustained them both during the night of +struggle could never revisit the wasted and disorganized body lying in +Parson Thayer's house--her house. A certain practical sense that was +strong in her rose and questioned whether she had done everything that +could be done for his welfare. She thought so. Had she not even +prayed, with all her concentration of mind and will? She heard again +Susan Stoddard's deep voice: "No striving toward God is ever lost!" In +spite of her unfaith, a sense of rest in a power larger than herself +came upon her unawares. Danny, who had wandered away, came back and +sat down heavily on the edge of her skirt, close to her. "Good Danny!" +she praised, petting him to his heart's content. + +It was thus that Aleck Van Camp found them, as he came over the stile +from the house. His tones were slower and more precise than ever, but +his face was drawn and marked with anxiety. He had a careful thought +for Agatha, even in the face of his greater trouble. + +"You have chosen a bad hour to wander about, Miss Redmond. The evening +dews are heavy." + +"Yes, I know; Danny and I were just going home. Have you been into the +house?" + +"Yes, I left Doctor Thayer there in consultation with the other +physician that came to-day. They sent me off. Old Jim--well, you know +as well as I do. With your permission, I'm going to stay the night. +I'll bunk in the hall, or anywhere. Don't think of a bed for me; I +don't want one." + +"I'm glad you'll stay. It seems, somehow, as if every one helps; that +is, every one who cares for him." + +"Doctor Thayer thinks there will be a change tonight, though it is +difficult to tell. Jim's family have my telegram by this time, and +they will get my letter to-morrow, probably. Anyway, I shall wait +until morning before I send another message." + +The tension of their thoughts was too sharp; they turned for relief to +the scene before them, stopping at the stile to look back at the +steepled white church, standing under its spreading balm-of-Gilead tree. + +"It seems strange," said Agatha, "to think that I sat out there under +that big tree as a little girl. Everything is so different now." + +"Ilion, then, was once your home?" + +"No, never my home, though it was once my mother's home. I used to +visit here occasionally, years and years ago." + +Aleck produced his quizzical grin. "A gallant person would protest +that that is incredible." + +"I wasn't angling for gallantry," Agatha replied wearily. "I am +twenty-six, and I haven't been here certainly since I was eight years +old. Eighteen years are a good many." + +"To youth, yes," acquiesced Aleck. "Which reminds me, by contrast, of +the hermit; he was so incredibly old. It was he who unwittingly put me +on Jim's track. He said that the owner or proprietor of the _Jeanne +D'Arc_ was dropped ashore on his island." + +"Monsieur Chatelard?" cried Agatha. + +"I don't know his name." + +"If it was Monsieur Chatelard," Agatha paused, looking earnestly at +Aleck, "if it was he, it is the man who tricked me into his motor-car +in New York, drugged me and carried me aboard his yacht while I was +unconscious." + +Aleck turned a sharp, though not unsympathetic, gaze upon Agatha. "I +have told no one but Doctor Thayer, and he did not believe me. But it +is quite true; the wreck saved me, probably, from something worse, +though I don't know what." + +If there had been skepticism on Aleck's face for an instant it had +disappeared. Instead, there was deep concern, as he considered the +case. + +"Had you ever seen the man Chatelard before?" + +"Never to my knowledge." + +"Did he visit you on board the yacht?" + +"Only once. I was put into the charge of an old lady, a Frenchwoman, +Madame Sofie; evidently a trusted chaperon, or nurse, or something like +that. When I came to myself in a very luxurious cabin in the yacht, +this old woman was talking to me in French--a strange medley that I +could make nothing of. When I was better she questioned me about +everything, saying '_Mon Dieu!_' at every answer I made. Then she left +me and was gone a long time; and when she came back, that man was with +her. I learned afterward that he was called Monsieur Chatelard. They +both looked at me, arguing fiercely in such a furious French that I +could not understand more than half they said. They looked as if they +were appraising me, like an article for sale, but Madame Sofie held out +steadily, on some point, against Monsieur Chatelard, and finally it +appeared that she converted him to her own point of view. He went away +very angry, and I did not see him again, except at a distance, until +the night of the wreck." + +"Did you find out where they were going, or who was back of their +scheme?" + +"No, nothing; or very little. There was money involved. I could tell +that. But no names were mentioned, nor any places that I can remember. +You see, I was ill from the effects of the chloroform, and frightened, +too, I think." + +"I don't wonder," said Aleck, wrinkling his homely face. He remained +silent while he searched, mentally, for a clue. + +"I found out, through my maid, who arrived today, that some one of the +kidnapping party had been clever enough to send a false message to the +hotel, explaining my sudden departure." + +"I see, I see," said Aleck, going over the story in his mind. And +presently, "Where does Hand come in? And how did Jim happen to be +aboard the _Jeanne D'Arc_?" + +"Hand was some sort of henchman to Monsieur Chatelard, I believe. And +he told me that your cousin was picked up in New York harbor, swimming +for life, it appeared. No one seemed to know any more." + +Aleck stopped short, looked at Agatha, pursed his lips for a whistle +and remained silent. They had arrived at the porch steps, and were +tacitly waiting for the doctors to descend and give them, if possible, +some encouragement for the coming night. But the story of the _Jeanne +D'Arc_ had grown more complicated than Aleck had anticipated, and much +was yet to be explained. Aleck was slow, as always, in thinking it +through, but he figured it out, finally, to a certain point, and +expressed himself thus: "That's the way with your steady fellows; +they're all the bigger fools when they do jump." + +"Pardon me, I didn't catch--" + +"Oh, nothing," said Aleck, half irritably. "I only said Jim needed a +poke, like that heifer over in the next field." + +Agatha understood the boyish irritation, cloaking the love of the man. +"You may be able to get more information about your cousin from Mr. +Hand," she said. "He would be likely to know as much as anybody." + +"Well, however it happened, he's here now!" + +"Though if it had not been for his fearful struggle for me, he would +not have been so ill," said Agatha miserably. Aleck, with one foot on +the low step of the piazza, stopped and turned squarely toward her. +His face was no less miserable than Agatha's, but behind his +wretchedness and anxiety was some masculine reserve of power, and a +longer view down the corridors of time. He held her eye with a look of +great earnestness. + +"I love old Jim, Miss Redmond. We've been boys and men together, and +good fellows always. But don't think that I'd regret his struggle for +you, as you call it, even if it should mean the worst. He couldn't +have done otherwise, and I wouldn't have had him. And if it's to be +a--a home run--why, then, Jim would like that far better than to die of +old age or liver complaint. It's all right, Miss Redmond." + +Aleck's slow words came with a double meaning to Agatha. She heard, +through them, echoes of James Hambleton's boyhood; she saw a picture of +his straight and dauntless youth. She held out to Aleck a hand that +trembled, but her face shone with gratitude. + +Aleck took her hand respectfully, kindly, in his warm grasp. +"Besides," he said simply, "we won't give up. He's got a fighting +chance yet." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE TURN OF THE TIDE + +Lights in a country house at night are often the signal of birth or +death, sometimes of both. The old red house threw its beacon from +almost every window that night, and seemed mutely to defy the onslaught +of enveloping darkness, whether Plutonic or Stygian. Time was when +Parson Thayer's library lamp burned nightly into the little hours, and +through the uncurtained windows the churchyard ghosts, had they +wandered that way, could have seen his long thin form, wrapped in a +paisley cloth dressing-gown, sitting in the glow. He would have been +reading some old leather-bound volume, and would have remained for +hours almost as quiet and noiseless as the ghosts themselves. Now he +had stepped across his threshold and joined them, and new spirits had +come to burn the light in the old red house. + +Agatha, half-dressed, had slept, and woke feeling that the night must +be far advanced. The house was very still, with no sound or echo of +the incoherent tones which, for now many days, had come from the room +down the hall. She lit a candle, and the sputtering match seemed to +fill the house with noise. Her clock indicated a little past midnight. +It was only twenty minutes since she had lain down, but she was wide +awake and refreshed. While she was pinning up her hair in a big mass +on the top of her head, she heard in the hall slow, steady steps, firm +but not heavy, even as in daytime. Susan Stoddard did not tiptoe. + +Agatha was at the door before she could knock. + +"You had better come for a few minutes," Mrs. Stoddard said. The tones +were, in themselves, an adjuration to faith and fortitude. + +"Yes, I will come," said Agatha. They walked together down the dimly +lighted hall, each woman, in her own way, proving how strong and +efficient is the discipline of self-control. + +In the sick-room a screen shaded the light from the bed, which had been +pulled out almost into the middle of the room. Near the bed was a +table with bottles, glasses, a covered pitcher, and on the floor an +oxygen tank. Doctor Thayer's massive figure was in the shadow close to +the bed, and Aleck Van Camp leaned over the curved footboard. James +lay on his pillow, a ghost of a man, still as death itself. As Agatha +grew accustomed to the light, she saw that his eyes were closed, the +lips under the ragged beard were drawn and slightly parted; his +forehead was the pallid forehead of death-in-life. Neither the doctor +nor Aleck moved or turned their gaze from the bed as Agatha and Mrs. +Stoddard entered. The air was still, and the profound silence without +was as a mighty reservoir for the silence within. + +Agatha stood by the footboard beside Aleck, while Mrs. Stoddard, +getting a warm freestone from the invisible Mr. Hand in the hall, +placed it beneath the bedclothes. Aleck Van Camp dropped his head, +covering his face with his hands. Agatha, watching, by and by saw a +change come over the sick man's face. She held her breath, it seemed, +for untold minutes, while Doctor Thayer reached his hand to the +patient's heart and leaned over to observe more closely his face. + +"See!" she whispered to Aleck, touching his shoulder lightly, "he is +looking at us." When Aleck looked up James was indeed looking at them +with large, serious, half-focussed eyes. It was as if he were coming +back from another world where the laws of vision were different, and he +was only partially adjusted to the present conditions. He moved his +hands feebly under the bedclothes, where they were being warmed by the +freestone, and then tried to moisten his lips. Agatha took a glass of +water from the table, looked about for a napkin, but, seeing none, wet +the tips of her fingers and placed them gently over James's lips. His +eyes followed her at first, but closed for an instant as she came near. +When they opened again, they looked more natural. As he felt the +comfort of the water on his lips, his features relaxed, and a look of +recognition illumined his face. His eyes moved from Agatha to Aleck, +who was now bending over him, and back to Agatha. The look was a +salute, happy and peaceful. Then his eyes closed again. + +For an hour Agatha and Aleck kept their watch, almost fearing to +breathe. Doctor Thayer worked, gave quiet orders, tested the +heartbeats, let no movement or symptom go unnoticed. For a time James +kept even the doctor in doubt whether he was slipping into the Great +Unknown or into a deep and convalescent sleep. By the end of the hour, +however, Jimsy had decided for natural sleep, urged thereto, perhaps, +by that unseen playwright who had decreed another time for the curtain; +or perhaps he was kept by Doctor Thayer's professional persuasions, in +defiance of the prompter's signal. However the case, the heart slowly +but surely began to take up its job like an honest force-pump, the face +began to lose its death-like pallor, the breathing became more nearly +normal. Doctor Thayer, with Mrs. Stoddard quiet and efficient at his +elbow, worked and tested and worked again, and finally sat moveless for +some minutes, watch in hand, counting the pulsations of James's heart. +At the end of the time he laid the hand carefully back under the +clothes, put his watch in his pocket, and finally got up and looked +around the room. + +Mrs. Stoddard was pouring something into a measuring glass. Agatha was +standing by the window, looking out into the blue night; and Aleck +could be seen through the half-open door, pacing up and down the hall. +Doctor Thayer turned to his sister. + +"Give him his medicine on the half-hour, and then you go to bed. That +man Hand will do now." Then he went to the door and addressed Aleck. +"Well, Mr. Van Camp, unless something unexpected turns up, I think your +cousin will live to jump overboard again." + +Offhand as the words were, there was unmistakable satisfaction, +happiness, even triumph in his voice, and he returned Aleck's +hand-clasp with a vise-like grip. His masculinity ignored Agatha, or +pretended to; but she had followed him to the door. As the old man +clasped hands with Aleck, he heard behind him a deep, "O Doctor!" The +next instant Agatha's arms were around his neck, and the back of his +bald head was pressed against something that could only have been a +cheek. Surprising as this was, the doctor did not stampede; but by the +time he had got clear of Aleck and had reached up his hand to find the +cheek, it was gone, and the arms, too. Susan Stoddard somehow got +mixed up in the general _Te Deum_ in the hall, and for the first time, +now that the fight was over, allowed her feminine feelings--that is, a +few tears--to come to the surface. + +Aleck, however, went to pieces, gone down in that species of mental +collapse by which deliberate, judicial men become reckless, and strong +men become weak. He stepped softly back into the bedroom and leaned +again over the curved footboard, his face quite miserable. He went +nearer, and held his ear down close to the bedclothes, to hear for +himself the regular beating of the heart. Slowly he convinced himself +that the doctor's words might possibly be true, at least. He turned to +Hand, who had come in and was adjusting the shades, and asked him: "Do +_you_ believe he's asleep?" in the tone of one who demands an oath. + +"Oh, yes, sir; he's sleeping nicely, Mr. Van Camp. I saw the change +the moment I came in." + +Aleck still hesitated to leave, fearful, apparently, lest he might take +the blessed sleep away with him. As he stood by the bed, a low but +distinct whistle sounded outside, then, after a moment's interval, was +repeated. Aleck lifted his head at the first signal, took another look +at James and one at Hand, then light as a cat he darted from the room +and down the stairs, leaving the house through one of the tall windows +in the parlor. Mr. Chamberlain was standing near the lilac bushes, his +big figure outlined dimly in the darkness. + +"Shut up!" Aleck whispered fiercely, as he ran toward him. "He's just +got to sleep, Chamberlain; gone to sleep, like a baby. Don't make an +infernal racket!" + +"Oh, I didn't know. Didn't mean to make a racket," began Chamberlain, +when Aleck plumped into him and shook him by the shoulders. + +"He's asleep--like a baby!" he reiterated. And Chamberlain, wise +comrade, took Aleck by the arm and tramped him off over the hill to +settle his nerves. They walked for an hour arm in arm over the road +that lay like a gray ribbon before them in the night, winding up +slantwise along the rugged country. + +Dawn was awake on the hills a mile away, and by and by Aleck found +tongue to tell the story of the night, which was good for him. He +talked fast and unevenly, and even extravagantly. Chamberlain listened +and loved his friend in a sympathy that spoke for itself, though his +words were commonplace enough. By the time they had circled the +five-mile road and were near the house again, Aleck was something like +himself, though still unusually excited. Chamberlain mentioned +casually that Miss Reynier had been anxious about him, and that all his +friends at the big hotel had worried. Finally, he, Chamberlain, had +set out for the old red house, thinking he could possibly be of +service; in any case glad to be near his friend. + +"And, by the way," Chamberlain added; "you may be interested to hear +that accidentally I got on the track of that beggar who ate the +hermit's eggs. Took a tramp this morning, and found him held up at a +kind of sailor's inn, waiting for money. Grouchy old party; no wonder +his men shipped him." + +Aleck at first took but feeble interest in Chamberlain's discoveries; +he was still far from being his precise, judicial self. He let +Chamberlain talk on, scarcely noticing what he said, until suddenly the +identity of the man whom Chamberlain was describing came home to him. +Agatha's story flashed back in his memory. He stopped short in his +tracks, halting his companion with a stretched-out forefinger. + +"Look here, Chamberlain," he said, "I've been half loony and didn't +take in what you said. If that's the owner or proprietor of the +_Jeanne D'Arc_--a man known as Monsieur Chatelard, French accent, +blond, above medium size, prominent white teeth--we want him right +away. He kidnapped Miss Redmond in New York, and I shouldn't wonder if +he kidnapped old Jim and stole the yacht besides. He's a bad one." + +Mr. Chamberlain had the air of humoring a lunatic. "Well, what's to be +done? Is it a case for the law? Is there any evidence to be had?" + +"Law! Evidence!" cried Aleck. "I should think so. You go to Big +Simon, Chamberlain, and find out who's sheriff, and we'll get a warrant +and run him down. Heavens! A man like that would sell his mother!" + +Chamberlain looked frankly skeptical, and would not budge until Aleck +had related every circumstance that he knew about Agatha's involuntary +flight from New York. He was all for going to the red house and +interviewing Agatha herself, but Aleck refused to let him do that. + +"She's worn out and gone to bed; you can't see her. But it's straight, +you take my word. We must catch that scoundrel and bring him here for +identification--to be sure there's no mistake. And if it is he, it'll +be hot enough for him." + +Chamberlain doubted whether it was the same man, and put up objections +seriatim to each proposition of Aleck's, but finally accepted them all. +He made a point, however, of going on his quest alone. + +"You go back to the red house and go to bed, and I'll round up Eggs. I +think I know how the trick can be done." + +Aleck was stubborn about accompanying Chamberlain, but the Englishman +plainly wouldn't have it. He told Aleck he could do it better alone, +and led him by the arm back to the old red house, where the kitchen +door stood hospitably open. Sallie was at work in her pantry. The +kettle was singing on the stove, and the milk had already come from a +neighbor's dairy. + +Sallie's temper may not have been ideal, but at least she was not of +those who are grouchy before breakfast. She served Aleck and +Chamberlain in the kitchen with homely skill, giving them both a +wholesome and pleasant morning after their night of gloom. + +"You can't do anything right all day if you start behindhand," she +replied when Aleck remarked upon her early rising. "Besides, I was up +last night more than once, watching for Miss Redmond. The young man's +sleeping nicely, she says." + +She went cheerfully about her kitchen work, giving the men her best, +womanlike, and asking nothing in return, not even attention. They took +her service gratefully, however, and there was enough of Eve in Sallie +to know it. + +"By the way, Chamberlain," said Aleck, "we must get a telegram off to +the family in Lynn." He wrote out the address and shoved it across +Sallie's red kitchen tablecloth. "And tell them not to think of +coming!" adjured Aleck. "We don't want any more of a swarry here than +we've got now." Chamberlain undertook to send the message; and since +he had contracted to catch the criminal of the _Jeanne D'Arc_, he was +eager to be off on his hunt. + +"Good-by, old man. You go to bed and get a good sleep. I'll stop at +the hotel and leave word for Miss Reynier. And you stay here, so I'll +know where you are. I may want to find you quick, if I land that +bloomin' beggar." + +"Thanks," said Aleck weakly. "I'll turn in for an hour or so, if +Sallie can find me a bed." + +Mr. Chamberlain made several notes on an envelope which he pulled from +his pocket, gravely thanked Sallie for her breakfast and lifted his hat +to her when he departed. Aleck dropped into a chair and was stupidly +staring at the stove when Sallie returned from a journey to the pump in +the yard. + +"You'll like to take a little rest, Mr. Van Camp," she said, "and I +know just the place where you'll not hear a sound from anywhere--if you +don't mind there not being a carpet. I'll go up right away and show +you the room before I knead out my bread." So she conducted Aleck to a +big, clean attic under the rafters, remote and quiet. He was +exhausted, not from lack of sleep--he had often borne many hours of +wakefulness and hard work without turning a hair--but from the jarring +of a live nerve throughout the night of anxiety. The past, and the +relationships of youth and kindred were sacred to him, and his pain had +overshadowed, for the hour at least, even the newer claims of his love +for Melanie Reynier. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE SPIRIT OF THE ANCIENT WOOD + +Agatha's first thought on awakening late in the forenoon, was the +memory of Sallie Kingsbury coaxing her to bed and tucking her in, in +the purple light of the early morning. She remembered the attention +with pleasure and gratitude, as another blessing added to the greater +one of James Hambleton's turn toward recovery. Sallie's act was mute +testimony that Agatha was, in truth, heir to Hercules Thayer's estate, +spiritual and material. + +She summoned Lizzie, and while she was dressing, laid out directions +for the day. During her short stay in Ilion, Lizzie had been diligent +enough in gathering items of information, but nevertheless she had +remained oblivious of any impending crisis during the night. Her +pompadour was marcelled as accurately as if she were expecting a +morning call from Mr. Straker. No rustlings of the wings of the Angel +of Death had disturbed her sleep. In fact, Lizzie would have winked +knowingly if his visit had been announced to her. Her sophistication +had banished such superstitions. She noticed, however, that Agatha's +candles had burned to their sockets, and inquired if Miss Redmond had +been wakeful. + +"Mr. Hambleton was very ill. Everybody in the house was up till near +morning," replied Agatha rather tartly. + +"Oh, what a pity! Could I have done anything? I never heard a sound," +cried Lizzie effusively. + +"No, there was nothing you could have done," said Agatha. + +"It's very bad for your voice, Miss Redmond, staying up all night," +went on Lizzie solicitously. "You're quite pale this morning. And +with your western tour ahead of you!" + +Agatha let these adjurations go unanswered. It occurred to Lizzie that +possibly she had allied herself with a mistress who was foolish enough +to ruin her public career by private follies, such as worrying about +sick people. Heaven, in Lizzie's eyes, was the glare of publicity; and +since she was unable to shine in it herself, she loved to be attached +to somebody who could. Her fidelity was based on Agatha's celebrity as +a singer. She would have preferred serving an actress who was all the +rage, but considered a popular singer, who paid liberally, as the next +best thing. + +There was always enough common sense in Lizzie's remarks to make some +impression, even on a person capable of the folly of mourning at a +death bed. Agatha's spirits, freshened by hope and the sleep of +health, rose to a buoyancy which was well able to deal with practical +questions. She quickly formed a plan for the day, though she was wise +enough to withhold the scheme from the maid. + +Agatha drank her coffee, ate sparingly of Sallie's toast, and, leaving +Lizzie with a piece of sewing to do, went first to James Hambleton's +room. After ten minutes or so, she slowly descended the stairs and +went out the front way. She circled the garden and came round to the +open kitchen door. Sallie was kneeling before her oven, inspecting +bread. Agatha, watched her while she tapped the bottom of the tin, +held her face down close to the loaf, and finally took the whole baking +out of the oven and tipped the tins on the table. + +"That's the most delicious smell that ever was!" said Agatha. + +Sallie jumped up and pulled her apron straight. + +"Lor', Miss Redmond, how you scared me! Couldn't you sleep any longer?" + +"I didn't want to; I'm as good as new. Tell me, Sallie, where all the +people are. Mr. Hand is in Mr. Hambleton's room, I know, but where are +the others?" + +"I guess they're all parceled round," said Sallie with symptoms of +sniffing. "I don't wanter complain, Miss Redmond, but we ain't had any +such a houseful since Parson Thayer's last conference met here, and not +so many then; only three ministers and two wives, though, of course, +ministers make more work. But I wouldn't say a word, Miss Redmond, +about the work, if it wasn't for that young woman that puts on such +airs coming and getting your tray. I ain't used to that." + +Sallie paused, like any good orator, while her main thesis gained +impressiveness from silence. It was only too evident that her feelings +were hurt. + +Agatha considered the matter, but before replying came farther into the +kitchen and touched the tip of a finger to one of Sallie's loaves, +lifting it to show its golden brown crust. + +"You're an expert at bread, Sallie, I can see that," she said heartily. +"I shouldn't have got over my accident half so well if it hadn't been +for your good food and your care, and I want you to know that I +appreciate it." She was reluctant to discuss the maid, but her cordial +liking for Sallie counseled frankness. "Don't mind about Lizzie. I +thought you had too much to do, and that she might just as well help +you, but if she bothers you, we won't have it. And now tell me where +Mrs. Stoddard and the others are." + +Sallie's symptoms indicated that she was about to be propitiated; but +she had yet a desire to make her position clear to Miss Redmond. "It's +all right; only I've taken care of the china for seventeen years, and +it don't seem right to let her handle it. And she told me herself that +anybody that had any respect for their hands wouldn't do kitchen work. +And if her hands are too good for kitchen work, I'm sure I don't want +her messing round here. She left the tea on the stove till it +_boiled_, Miss Redmond, just yesterday." + +Agatha smiled. "I'm sure Lizzie doesn't know anything about cooking, +Sallie, and she shall not bother you any more." + +Sallie turned a rather less melancholy face toward Agatha. "It's been +fairly lonesome since the parson died. I'm glad you've come to the red +house." The words came from Sallie's lips gruffly and ungraciously, +but Agatha knew that they were sincere. She knew better, however, than +to appear to notice them. In a moment Sallie went on: "Mrs. Stoddard, +she's asleep in the front spare room. Said for me to call her at +twelve." + +"Poor woman! She must be tired," said Agatha. + +"Aunt Susan's a stout woman, Miss Redmond. She didn't go to bed until +she'd had prayers beside the young man's bed, with Mr. Hand present. I +had to wait with the coffee. And I guess Mr. Hand ain't very much used +to our ways, for when Aunt Susan had made a prayer, Mr. Hand said, +'Yes, ma'am!' instead of Amen." + +There was a mixture of disapprobation and grim humor which did not +escape Agatha. She was again beguiled into a smile, though Sallie +remained grave as a tombstone. + +"Mr. Hand will learn," said Agatha; and was about to add "Like the rest +of us," but thought better of it. Sallie took up her tale. + +"Mr. Van Camp and his friend came in just after I'd put you to bed, +Miss Redmond, and ate a bite of breakfast right offer that table; and +'twas a mercy I'd cleared all the kulch outer the attic, as I did last +week, for Mr. Van Camp he wanted a place to sleep; and he's up there +now. Used to be a whole lot er the parson's books up there; but I put +them on a shelf in the spare room. The other man went off toward the +village." + +Agatha, looking about the pleasant kitchen, was tempted to linger. +Sallie's conversation yielded, to the discerning, something of the rich +essence of the past; and Agatha began to yearn for a better knowledge +of the recluse who had been her friend, unknown, through all the years. +But she remembered her industrious plans for the day and postponed her +talk with Sallie. + +"I remember there used to be a grove, a stretch of wood, somewhere +beyond the church, Sallie. Which way is it--along the path that goes +through the churchyard?" + +"No, this way; right back er the yard. Parson Thayer he used to walk +that way quite often." Sallie went with Agatha to another stile beyond +the churchyard, and pointed over the pasture to a fringe of dark trees +along the farther border. "Right there by that apple tree, the path +is. But don't go far, Miss Redmond; the woods ain't healthy." + +"All right, Sallie; thank you. I'll not stay long." She called Danny +and started out through the pasture, with the hound, sober and +dignified and happy, at her heels. + +The wood was cool and dim, with an uneven wagon road winding in and out +between stumps. Enormous sugar-maples reared their forms here and +there; occasionally a lithe birch lifted a tossing head; and, farther +within, pines shot their straight trunks, arrow-like, up to the canopy +above. + +Farther along, the road widened into a little clearing, beyond which +the birch and maple trees gave place entirely to pines and hemlocks. +The underbrush disappeared, and a brown carpet of needles and cones +spread far under the shade. The leafy rustle of the deciduous trees +ceased, and a majestic stillness, deeper than thought, pervaded the +place. At the clearing just within this deeper wood Agatha paused, sat +down on a stone and took Danny's head in her lap. The dog looked up +into her face with the wistful, melancholy gaze of his kind, +inarticulate yet eloquent. + +The sun was nearly at zenith, and bright flecks of light lay here and +there over the brown earth. As Agatha grew accustomed to the shade, it +seemed pleasant and not at all uncheerful--the gaiety of sunlight +subdued only to a softer tone. The resolution which had brought her +thither returned. She stood up under the dome of pines and began +softly to sing, trying her voice first in single tones, then a scale or +two, a trill. At first her voice was not clear, but as she continued +it emerged from its sheath of huskiness clear and flutelike, and liquid +as the notes of the thrushes that inhabited the wood. The pleasure of +the exercise grew, and presently, warbling her songs there in the +otherwise silent forest, Agatha became conscious of a strange +accompaniment. Pausing a moment, she perceived that the grove was +vocal with tone long after her voice had ceased. It was not exactly an +echo, but a slowly receding resonance, faint duplications and +multiplications of her voice, gently floating into the thickness of the +forest. + +Charmed, like a child who discovers some curious phenomenon of nature, +Agatha tried her voice again and again, listening, between whiles, to +the ghostly tones reverberating among the pines. She sang the slow +majestic "Lascia ch'io pianga," which has tested every singer's voice +since Haendel wrote it; and then, curious, she tried the effect of the +aerial sounding-board with quick, brilliant runs up and down the full +range of the voice. But the effect was more beautiful with something +melodious and somewhat slow; and there came to her mind an +old-fashioned song which, as a girl, she had often sung with her mother: + + "Oh! that we two were maying + Down the stream of the soft spring breeze." + +She sang the stanza through, softly, walking up and down among the +pines. Danny, at first, walked up and down beside her gravely, and +then lay down in the middle of the path, keeping an eye on Agatha's +movements. Her voice, pitched at its softest, now seemed to be +infinitely enlarged without being made louder. It carried far in among +the trees, clear and soft as a wave-ripple. Entranced, Agatha began +the second part of the song, just for the joy of singing: + + "Oh! that we two sat dreaming + On the sward of some sheep-trimmed down--" + +when suddenly, from the distance, another voice took up the strain. +Danny was instantly up and off to investigate, but presently came back +wagging and begging his mistress to follow him. + +In spite of her surprise in hearing another voice complete the duet, +Agatha went on with the song, half singing, half humming. It was a +woman's voice that joined hers, singing the part quite according to the +book: + + "With our limbs at rest on the quiet earth's breast + And our souls at home with God!" + +The pine canopy spread the voices, first one and then the other, until +the wood was like a vast cathedral filled with the softest music of the +organ pipes. + +There was nobody in sight at first, but as Agatha followed the path, +she presently saw a white arm and skirt projecting from behind the +trunk of a tree. Danny, wagging slowly, appeared to wish to make +friends, and before Agatha had time to wonder, the stranger emerged and +came toward her with outstretched hand. + +"Ah, forgive me! I hid and then startled you; but I was tempted by the +song. And this forest temple--isn't it wonderful?" + +Agatha looked at the stranger, suddenly wondering if she were not some +familiar but half-forgotten acquaintance of years agone. She was a +beautiful dark woman, probably two or three years older than herself, +mature and self-poised as only a woman of the cosmopolitan world can +be. It might be that compared to her Agatha was a bit crude and +unfinished, with the years of her full blossoming yet to come. She had +no words at the moment, and the older woman, still holding Agatha's +hand, explained. + +"I did not mean to steal in upon you; but as I came into the grove I +heard you singing Haendel, and I couldn't resist listening. Your voice, +it is wonderful! Especially here!" As she looked into Agatha's face, +her sincere eyes and voice gave the praise that no one can resist, the +tribute of one artist to another. + +"This is, indeed, a beautiful hall. I found it out just now by +accident, when I came up here to practice and see if I had any voice +left," said Agatha. She paused, as it suddenly occurred to her that +the visitor might be James Hambleton's sister and that she was being +delinquent as a hostess. "But come back to the house," she said. +"This is not a hospitable place, exactly, to receive a guest." + +The stranger laughed gently. "Have you guessed who I am, then? No? +Well, you see I had the advantage of you from the first. You are Miss +Redmond, and I followed you here from the house, where your servant +gave me the directions. I am Miss Reynier, Melanie Reynier, and I am +staying at the Hillside. Mr. Van Camp--" and to her own great +surprise, Melanie blushed crimson at this point--"that is, we, my aunt +and I, were Mr. Van Camp's guests on board the _Sea Gull_. When he +heard of the wreck of the _Jeanne D'Arc_ we put in to Charlesport; +though he has probably explained all this to you. It was such a relief +and pleasure to Mr. Van Camp to find his cousin, ill as he was; for he +had feared the worst." + +Agatha had not heard Miss Reynier's name before, but she knew vaguely +that Mr. Van Camp had been with a yachting party when he arrived at +Charlesport. Now that she was face to face with Miss Reynier, a keen +liking and interest, a quick confidence, rose in her heart for her. + +"Then perhaps you know Mr. Hambleton," said Agatha impulsively. "The +fever turned last night. Were you told that he is better?" + +"No, I don't know him," said Melanie, shaking her head. "Nevertheless, +I am heartily glad to hear that he is better. _Much_ better, they said +at the house." + +They had been standing at the place where Agatha had first discovered +her visitor, but now they turned back into the clearing. + +"Come and try the organ pipes again," she begged. They walked about +the wood, singing first one strain and then another, testing the +curiously beautiful properties of the pine dome. They were quickly on +a footing of friendliness. It was evident that each was capable of +laying aside formality, when she wished to do so, and each was, at +heart, frank and sincere. Melanie's talent for song was not small, yet +she recognized in Agatha a superior gift; while, to Agatha, Melanie +Reynier seemed increasingly mature, polished, full of charm. + +They left the wood and wandered back through the pasture and over the +stile, each learning many things in regard to the other. They spoke of +the place and its beauty, and Agatha told Melanie of the childhood +memories which, for the first time, she had revived in their living +background. + +"How our thoughts change!" she said at last. "As a child, I never felt +this farm to be lonely; it was the most populous and entertaining place +in all the world. I much preferred the wood to anything in the city. +I love it now, too; but it seems the essence of solitude to me." + +"That is because you have been where the passions and restlessness of +men have centered. One is never the same after that." + +"Strangely enough, the place now belongs to me," went on Agatha. +"Parson Thayer, the former owner and resident, was my mother's guardian +and friend, and left the place to me for her sake." + +"Ah, that is well!" cried Melanie. "It will be your castle of retreat, +your Sans-Souci, for all your life, I envy you! It is charming. +Pastor--Parson, do you say?--Parson Thayer was a man of judgment." + +"Yes, and a man of strange and dominating personality, in his way. +Everything about the house speaks of him and his tastes. Even Danny +here follows me, I really believe, because I am beginning to appreciate +his former master." + +Agatha stooped and patted the dog's head. Youth and health, helped by +the sympathy of a friend, were working wonders in Agatha. She beamed +with happiness. + +"Come into the house," she begged Melanie, "and look at some of his +books with me. But first we'll find Sallie and get luncheon, and +perhaps Mr. Van Camp will appear by that time. Poor man, he was quite +worn out. Then you shall see Parson Thayer's books and flowers, if you +will." + +They strolled over the velvet lawn toward the front of the house, where +the door and the long windows stood open. Down by the road, and close +to the lilac bushes that flanked the gateway, stood a large +silver-white automobile--evidently Miss Reynier's conveyance. The +driver of the machine had disappeared. + +"I mustn't trespass on your kindness for luncheon to-day, thank you," +Melanie was saying; "but I'll come again soon, if I may." Meantime she +was moving slowly down the walk. But Agatha would not have it so. She +clung to this woman friend with an unwonted eagerness, begging her to +stay. + +"We are quite alone, and we have been so miserable over Mr. Hambleton's +illness," she pleaded quite illogically. "Do stay and cheer us up!" + +And so Melanie was persuaded; easily, too, except for her compunctions +about abusing the hospitality of a household whose first care must +necessarily be for the sick. + +"I want to stay," she said frankly. "The house breathes the very air +of restfulness itself; and I haven't seen the garden at all!" She +walked back over the lawn, looked admiringly out toward the garden, +with its purple and yellow flowers, then gazed into the lofty thicket +above her head, where the high elm spread its century-old branches. +Agatha, standing a little apart and looking at Melanie, was again +struck by some haunting familiarity about her face and figure. She +wondered where she could have seen Miss Reynier before. + +Aleck Van Camp, appearing round the corner of the house, made elaborate +bows to the two ladles. + +"Good morning, Miss Redmond!" He greeted her cordially, plainly glad +to see her. "I slept the sleep of the blest up there in your fragrant +loft. Good morning, Miss Reynier!" He walked over and formally took +Melanie's hand for an instant. "I knew it was decreed that you two +should be friends," he went on, in his deliberate way. "In fact, I've +been waiting for the moment when I could have the pleasure of +introducing you myself, and here you have managed to dispense with my +services altogether. But let me escort you into the house. Sallie +says her raised biscuits are all ready for luncheon." + +Agatha, looking at her new friend's vivid face, saw that Mr. Van Camp +was not an unwelcome addition to their number. She had a quick +superstitious feeling of happiness at the thought that the old red +house, gathering elements of joy about its roof, was her possession and +her home. + +"I've promised to show Miss Reynier some queer old books after +luncheon," she said. + +Aleck wrinkled his brow. "I'll try not to be jealous of them." + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +MR. CHAMBERLAIN, SLEUTH + +Unbeknown to himself, Mr. Chamberlain possessed the soul of a +conspirator. Leaving Aleck Van Camp at the crisp edge of the day, he +fell into deep thought as he walked toward the village. As he reviewed +the information he had received, he came more and more to adopt +Agatha's cause as his own, and his spirit was fanned into the glow +incident to the chase. + +He walked briskly over the country road, descended the steep hill, +turning over the facts, as he knew them, in his mind. By the time he +reached Charlesport, he regarded his honor as a gentleman involved in +the capture of the Frenchman. His knowledge of the methods of legal +prosecutions, even in his own country, was extremely hazy. He had +never been in a situation, in his hitherto peaceful career, in which it +had been necessary to appeal to the law, either on his own behalf or on +that of his friends. + +Legal processes in America were even less known to him, but he was not +daunted on that account. He remembered Sherlock Holmes and Raffles; he +recalled Bill Sykes and Dubosc, dodging the operations of justice; and +in that romantic chamber that lurks somewhere in every man's make-up, +he felt that classic tradition had armed him with all the preparation +necessary for heroic achievement. He, Chamberlain, was unexpectedly +called upon to act as an agent of justice against chicanery and +violence, and it was not in him to shirk the task. His labors, which, +for the greater part of his life, had been expended in tracing the +evolution of blind fish in inland caves, had not especially fitted him +for dealing with the details of such a case as Agatha's; but they had +left him eminently well equipped for discerning right principles and +embracing them. + +Chamberlain's first move was to visit Big Simon, who directed him to +the house of the justice of the peace, Israel Cady. Squire Cady, in +his shirt-sleeves and wearing an old faded silk hat, was in his side +yard endeavoring to coax the fruit down gently from a flourishing pear +tree. + +"You wait just a minute, if you please, until I get these two plump +pears down, and I'll be right there," he called courteously, without +looking away from his long-handled wire scoop. + +Mr. Chamberlain strolled into the yard, and after watching Squire +Cady's exertions for a minute or two, offered to wield the pole himself. + +"Takes a pru-uty steady hand to get those big ones off without bruising +them," cautioned the squire. + +But Chamberlain's hand was steadiness itself, and his eyesight much +keener than the old man's. The result was highly satisfactory. No +less than a dozen ripe pears were twitched off, just in the nick of +time, so far as the eater was concerned. + +"Well, thank you, sir; thank you," said Squire Cady. "That just goes +to show what the younger generation can do. Now then, let's see. Got +any pockets?" + +He picked out six of the best pears and piled them in Chamberlain's +hands, then took off his rusty, old-fashioned hat and filled it with +the rest of the fruit. Chamberlain carefully stowed his treasures into +the wide pockets of his tweed suit. + +"Now, sir," Squire Cady said heartily, "we'll go into my office and +attend to business. I'm not equal to Cincinnatus, whom they found +plowing his field, but I can take care of my garden. Come in, sir, +come in." + +Chamberlain followed the tall spare old figure into the house. The +squire disappeared with his pears, leaving his visitor in the narrow +hall; but he returned in a moment and led the way into his office. It +was a large, rag-carpeted room, filled with all those worsted +knickknacks which women make, and littered comfortably with books and +papers. + +Squire Cady put on a flowered dressing-gown, drew a pair of spectacles +out of a pocket, a bandana handkerchief from another, and requested +Chamberlain to sit down and make himself at home. The two men sat +facing each other near a tall secretary whose pigeonholes were stuffed +with papers in all stages of the yellowing process. Squire Cady's face +was yellowing, like his papers, and it was wrinkled and careworn; but +his eyes were bright and humorous, and his voice pleasant. Chamberlain +thought he liked him. + +"Come to get a marriage license?" the squire inquired. Chamberlain +immediately decided that he didn't like him, but he foolishly blushed. + +"No, it's another sort of matter," he said stiffly, + +"Not a marriage license! All right, my boy," agreed Squire Cady. +"'Tisn't the fashion to marry young nowadays, I know, though 'twas the +fashion in my day. Not a wedding! What then?" + +Then Chamberlain set to work to tell his story. Placed, as it were, +face to face with the law, he realized that he was but poorly equipped +for carrying on actual proceedings, even though they might be against +Belial himself; but he made a good front and persuaded Squire Cady that +there was something to be done. The squire was visibly affected at the +mention of the old red house, and fell into a revery, looking off +toward the fields and tapping his spectacles on the desk. + +"Hercules Thayer and I read Latin together when we were boys," he said, +turning to Chamberlain with a reminiscent smile on his old face. "And +he licked me for liking Hannibal better than Scipio." He laughed +heartily. + +The faces of the old sometimes become like pictured parchments, and +seem to be lighted from within by a faint, steady gleam, almost more +beautiful than the fire of youth. As Chamberlain looked, he decided +once more, and finally, that he liked Squire Cady. + +"But I got even with Hercules on Horace," the squire went on, chuckling +at his memories. "However," he sighed, as he turned toward his desk +again, "this isn't getting out that warrant for you. We don't want any +malefactors loose about Charlesport; but you'll have to be sure you +know what you're doing. Do you know the man--can you identify him?" + +"I think I should know him; but in any case Miss Redmond at the old red +house can identify him." + +"We don't want to arrest anybody till we're sure we know what we're +about--that's poor law," said Squire Cady, in a pedagogical and +squire-ish tone, as if Chamberlain were a mere boy. But the Englishman +didn't mind that. + +"I think I can satisfy you that we've got the right man," he answered. +"If I find him and bring him to the old red house this afternoon, so +that Miss Redmond can identify him, will you have a sheriff ready to +serve the warrant?" + +"Yes, I can do that." + +"Very well, then, and thank you, sir," said Chamberlain, moving toward +the door. "And I'm keen on hearing how you got even with Mr. Thayer on +the Horace." + +The light behind the squire's parchment face gleamed a moment. + +"Come back, my boy, when you've done your duty by the law. Every +citizen should be a protector as well as a keeper of the law. So come +again; the latch-string is always out." + +It was mid-morning before the details connected with the sheriff were +completed. By this time Chamberlain's heavy but sound temperament had +lifted itself to its task, gaining momentum as the hours went by. His +next step was to search out the Frenchman. The meager information +obtained the day before was to the effect that the marooned yacht-owner +had taken refuge in one of the shacks near the granite docks in the +upper part of the village. He had persuaded the caretaker of the +Sailors' Reading-room to lend him money with which to telegraph to New +York, as the telegraph operator had refused to trust him. + +It was not difficult to get on his trade, even though the village +people were constitutionally reluctant to let any unnecessary +information get away from them. A mile or so farther up the shore, +beyond the road that ran like a scar across the hill to the granite +quarry, Chamberlain came upon a saloon masquerading as a grocery store. +A lodging house, a seaman's Bethel and the Reading-room were grouped +near by; the telegraph office, too, had been placed at this end of the +town; obviously for the convenience of the operators of the granite +quarry. The settlement had the appearance of easy-going and pleasant +industry peculiar to places where handwork is still the rule. + +Chamberlain applied first at the grocery store without getting +satisfaction. The foreign looking boy, who was the only person +visible, could give him no information about anything. But at the +Reading-room the erstwhile yacht-owner was known. Borrowing money is a +sure method of impressing one's personality. + +The Frenchman had been in the neighborhood two or three days, latterly +becoming very impatient for a reply to his New York telegram. A good +deal of money had been applied for, was the opinion of the +money-lender. This person, caretaker and librarian, was a tall, +ineffective individual, with eyes set wide apart. His slow speech was +a mixture of Doctor Johnson and a judge in chancery. It was +grandiloquent, and it often took long to reach the point. He informed +Chamberlain, with some circumlocution, that the Frenchman had been +extremely anxious over the telegram. + +"I tried to persuade him that it was useless to be impatient over such +things," said he. "And I regret to say that the man allowed himself to +become profane." + +"I dare say." + +"But it would appear that he has received his telegram by this time," +continued the youth, "for it is now but a short time since he was +summoned to the station." + +Chamberlain, thinking that the sooner he got to the telegraph station +the better, was about to depart, when the placid tones of the librarian +again casually broke the silence. + +"If I mistake not, the gentleman in question is even now hastening +toward the village." He waved a vague hand toward the open door +through which, a little distance away, a man's figure could be seen. + +"Why don't you run after him and get your money?" asked Chamberlain; +but he didn't know the youth. + +"What good would that do?" was the surprising question, which +Chamberlain could not answer. + +But the Englishman acted on a different principle. He thanked the +judge in chancery and made after the Frenchman, who was casting a +furtive eye in this and that direction, as if in doubt which way he +ought to go. Nevertheless, he seemed bent on going, and not too +slowly, either. + +The Englishman swung into the road, but did not endeavor to overtake +the other. They were traveling toward the main village, along a road +that more or less hugged the shore. Sometimes it topped a cliff that +dropped precipitately into the water; and again it descended to a sandy +level that was occasionally reached by the higher tides. + +Near the main village the road ascended a rather steep bluff, and at +the top made a sudden turn toward the town. As Chamberlain approached +this point, he yielded more and more to the beauty of the scene. The +Bay of Charlesport, the rugged, curving outline of the coast beyond, +the green islands, the glistening sea, the blue crystalline sky over +all--it was a sight to remember. + +Not far from the land, at the near end of the harbor, was the _Sea +Gull_, pulling at her mooring. A stone's throw beyond Chamberlain's +feet, a small rocky tongue of land was prolonged by a stone breakwater, +which sheltered the curved beach of the village from the rougher waves. +Close up under the bluff on which he was standing, the waters of the +bay churned and foamed against a steep rock-wall that shot downward to +unknown depths. It was obviously a dangerous place, though the road +was unguarded by fence or railing. Only a delicate fringe of goldenrod +and low juniper bushes veiled the treacherous cliff edge. It was +almost impossible for a traveler, unused to the region, to pass across +the dizzy stretch of highway without a shuddering glance at the +murderous waves below. + +On the crest of this cliff, each of the two men paused, one following +the other at a little distance. The first man, however, paused merely +for a few minutes' rest after the steep climb. Chamberlain, hardened +to physical exertions, took the hill easily, but stood for a moment +lost in speculative wonder at the scene. He kept a sharp eye on his +leader, however; and presently the two men took up their Indian file +again toward the village. + +Some distance farther on, the road forked, one spur leading up over the +steep rugged hill, another dropping abruptly to the main village street +and the wharves. A third branch ran low athwart the hill and led, +finally, to the summer hotel where Chamberlain and the Reyniers had +been staying. At this division of the road Chamberlain saw the other +man ahead of him sitting on a stone. He approached him leisurely and +assumed an air of business sagacity. + +"Good day, sir," said Chamberlain, planting himself solidly before the +man on the stone. He was rather large, blond, pale and unkempt in +appearance; but nevertheless he carried an air of insolent mockery, it +seemed to Chamberlain. He glanced disgustedly at the Englishman, but +did not reply. + +"Rather warm day," remarked Chamberlain pleasantly. No answer. The +man sat with his head propped on his hands, unmistakably in a bad +temper. + +"Want to buy some land?" inquired Chamberlain. "I'm selling off lots +on this hill for summer cottages. Water front, dock privileges, and a +guaranty that no one shall build where it will shut off your view. +Terms reasonable. Like to buy?" + +"_Non_!" snarled the other. + +Chamberlain paused in his imaginative flight, and took two luscious +yellow pears from his bulging pockets. + +"Have a pear?" he pleasantly offered. + +The man again looked up, as if tempted, but again ejaculated "_Non_!" + +Chamberlain leisurely took a satisfying bite. + +"I get tired myself," he went on, "tramping over these country roads. +But it's the best way for me to do business. You don't happen to want +a good hotel, do you?" + +Coarse fare and the discomforts of beggars' lodgings had told on the +Frenchman's temper, as Chamberlain had surmised. He looked up with a +show of human interest. Chamberlain went on. + +"There's a fine hotel, the Hillside, over yonder, only a mile or so +away. Best place in all the region hereabouts; tip-topping set there, +too. Count Somebody-or-Other from Germany, and no end of big-wigs; so +of course they have a good cook." + +Chamberlain paused and finished his second pear. The man on the stone +was furtive and uneasy, but masked his disquiet with the insolent +sneering manner that had often served him well. Chamberlain, having +once adopted the role of a garrulous traveling salesman, followed it up +with zest. + +"Of course, a man can get a good meal, for that matter, at the Red +House, a little way up yonder over the hill. But it wouldn't suit a +man like you--a slow, poky place, with no style." + +The man on the stone slowly turned toward Chamberlain, and at last +found voice for more than monosyllabic utterances. + +"I was looking for a hotel," he said, in correct English but with a +foreign accent, "and I shall be glad to take your advice. The +Hillside, you say, is in this direction?" and he pointed along the +lower road. + +"Yes," heartily assented Chamberlain, "about two miles through those +woods, and you won't make any mistake going there; it's a very good +place." + +The man got up from the stone. + +"And the other inn you spoke of--where is that?" + +"The Red House? That's quite a long piece up over the hill--this way. +Straight road; house stands near a church; kept by a country woman +named Sallie. But the Hillside's the place for you; good style, +everything neat and handsome. And fine people!" + +"Very well, thanks," cut in the other, in his sharp, rasping tones. "I +shall go to the Hillside." + +He slid one hand into a pocket, as if to assure himself that he had not +been robbed by sleight-of-hand during the interview, and then started +on the road leading to the Hillside. Chamberlain said "Good day, sir," +without expecting or getting an answer, and turned down the hill toward +the village. + +As soon as he had dropped from sight, however, he walked casually into +the thick bushes that lined the road, and from this ambush he took a +careful survey of the hill behind him. Then he slowly and cautiously +made his way back through the underbrush until he was again in sight of +the cross-roads. Here, concealed behind a tree, he waited patiently +some five or ten minutes. At the end of that time, Chamberlain's mild +and kindly face lighted up with unholy joy. He opened his mouth and +emitted a soundless "haw-haw." + +For there was his recent companion also returning to the cross-roads, +taking a discreet look in the direction of the village as he came +along. Seeing that the coast was clear, he turned and went rapidly up +the road that led over the hill to the old red house. + +When Chamberlain saw that the man was well on his way he stepped into +the road and solemnly danced three steps of a hornpipe, and the next +instant started on a run toward the village. He got little Simon's +horse and buggy, drove into the upper street and picked up the sheriff, +and then trotted at a good rattling pace around by the long road toward +Ilion. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +MONSIEUR CHATELARD TAKES THE WHEEL + +Sallie Kingsbury would have given up the ghost without more ado, had +she known what secular and unministerial passions were converging about +Parson Thayer's peaceful library. As it was, she had a distinct +feeling that life wasn't as simple as it had been heretofore, and that +there were puzzling problems to solve. She was almost certain that she +had caught Mr. Hand using an oath; though when she charged him with it, +he had said that he had been talking Spanish to himself--he always did +when he was alone. Sallie didn't exactly know the answer to that, but +told him that she hoped he would remember that she was a professor. +"What's that?" inquired Hand. + +"It's a Christian in good and regular standing, and it's what you ought +to be," said Sallie. + +And now that nice Mr. Chamberlain, whom she had fed in the early +morning, had dashed up to the kitchen door behind Little Simon's best +horse, deposited a man from Charlesport, and then had disappeared. The +man had also unceremoniously left her kitchen. He might be a minister +brought there to officiate at the church on the following Sabbath, +Sallie surmised; but on second thought she dismissed the idea. He +didn't look like any minister she had ever seen, and was very far +indeed from the Parson Thayer type. + +Hercules Thayer's business, including his ministerial duties, had +formed the basis and staple of Sallie's affectionate interest for +seventeen years, and it wasn't her nature to give up that interest, now +that the chief actor had stepped from the stage. So she speculated and +wondered, while she did more than her share of the work. + +She picked radishes from the garden for supper, threw white screening +over the imposing loaves of bread still cooling on the side table, and +was sharpening a knife on a whetstone, preparatory to carving thin +slices from a veal loaf that stood near by, when she was accosted by +some one appearing suddenly in the doorway. + +"Is this the Red House?" It was a cool, sharp voice, sounding even +more outlandish than Mr. Hand's. Sallie turned deliberately toward the +door and surveyed the new-comer. + +"Well, yes; I guess so. But you don't need to scare the daylights +outer me, that way." + +The stranger entered the kitchen and pulled out a chair from the table. + +"Give me something to eat and drink--the best you have, and be quick +about it, too." + +Sallie paused, carving-knife in hand, looking at him with frank +curiosity. "Well, I snum! You ain't the new minister either, now, are +you?" + +The stranger made no answer. He had thrown himself into the chair, as +if tired. Suddenly he sat up and looked around alertly, then at +Sallie, who was returning his gaze with interest. + +"Where are you from, anyway?" she inquired. "We don't see people like +you around these parts very often." + +"I dare say," he snarled. "Are you going to get me a meal, or must I +tramp over these confounded hills all day before I can eat?" + +"Oh, I'll get you up a bite, if that's all you want. I never turned +anybody away hungry from this door yet, and we've had many a worse +looking tramp than you. I guess Miss Redmond won't mind." + +"Miss Redmond!" The stranger started to his feet, glowering on Sallie. +"Look here! Is this place a hotel, or isn't it?" + +"Well, anybody'd think it was, the way I've been driven from pillar to +post for the last ten days! But you can stay; I'll get you a meal, and +a good one, too." + +Sallie's good nature was rewarded by a convulsion of anger on the part +of the guest. "Fool! Idiot!" he screamed. "You trick me in here! +You lie to me!" + +"Oh, set down, set down!" interrupted Sallie. "You don't need to get +so het up as all that! I'll get you something to eat. There ain't any +hotel within five miles of here--and a poor one at that!" Thus +protesting and attempting to soothe, Sallie saw the stranger make a +grab for his hat and start for the door, only to find it suddenly shut +and locked in his face. Mr. Chamberlain, moreover, was on the inside, +facing the foreigner. + +"If you will step through the house and go out the other way," Mr. +Chamberlain remarked coolly, "it will oblige me. My horse is loose in +the yard, and I'm afraid you'll scare him off. He's shy with +strangers." + +The two men measured glances. + +"I thought you traveled afoot when pursuing your real estate business," +sneered the stranger. + +"I do, when it suits my purposes," replied Chamberlain. + +"What game are you up to, anyway, in this disgusting country?" inquired +the other. + +"Ridding it of rascals. This way, please;" and Chamberlain pointed +before him toward the door leading into the hall. As the stranger +turned, his glance fell on Sallie, still carving her veal loaf. +"Idiot!" he said disgustedly. + +"Well, I haven't been caught yet, anyhow," said Sallie grimly. + +Chamberlain's voice interrupted her. "This way, and then the first +door on the right. Make haste, if you please, Monsieur Chatelard." + +At the name, the stranger turned, standing at bay, but Chamberlain was +at his heels. "You see, I know your name. It was supplied me at the +Reading-room. Here--on the right--quickly!" + +The hall was dim, almost dark, the only light coming from the open +doorway on the right. Whether he wished or no, Monsieur Chatelard was +forced to advance into the range of the doorway; and once there, he +found himself pushed unceremoniously into the room. + +It was a large, cool room, lined with bookcases. Near the middle stood +an oblong table covered with green felt and supporting an old brass +lamp. Four people were in the room, besides the two new-comers. Aleck +Van Camp was on a low step-ladder, just in the act of handing down a +book from the top shelf. Near the step-ladder two women were standing, +with their backs toward the door. Both were in white, both were tall, +and both had abundant dark hair. One of the French windows leading out +on to the porch was open, and just within the sill stood the man from +Charlesport. + +"Here's a wonderful book--a rare one--the record of that famous Latin +controversy," Aleck was saying, when he became conscious of the +entrance of Chamberlain and a stranger. + +"Ah, hello, Chamberlain, that you?" he cried. Agatha and Melanie, +turning suddenly to greet Chamberlain, simultaneously encountered the +gimlet-gaze of Chatelard. It was fixed first on Melanie, then on +Agatha, then returned to Melanie with an added increment of rage and +bafflement. But he was first to find tongue. + +"So!" he sneered. "I find you after all, Princess Auguste Stephanie of +Krolvetz! Consorting with these--these swine!" + +Melanie looked at him keenly, with hesitating suspicions. "Ah! Duke +Stephen's cat's-paw! I remember you--well!" But before the words were +fairly out of her mouth, Agatha's voice had cut in: + +"Mr. Van Camp, that is he! That is he! The man on the _Jeanne D'Arc_!" + +"We thought as much," answered Chamberlain. "That's why he is here." + +"We only wanted your confirmation of his identity," said the man who +had been standing by the window, as he came forward. "Monsieur +Chatelard, you are to come with me. I am the sheriff of Charlesport +County, and have a warrant for your arrest." + +As the sheriff advanced toward Chatelard, the cornered man turned on +him with a sound that was half hiss, half an oath. He was like a +panther standing at bay. Aleck turned toward Melanie. + +"It seems that you know this man, Melanie?" + +"Yes, I know him--to my sorrow." + +"What do you know of him?" + +"He is the paid spy of the Duke Stephen, my cousin. He does all his +dirty work." Melanie laughed a bit nervously as she added, turning to +Chatelard: "But you are the last man I expected to see here. I suppose +you are come from my excellent cousin to find me, eh? Is that the +case?" + +Chatelard's eyes, resting on her, burned with hate. "Yes, your +Highness. I am the humble bearer of a message from Duke Stephen to +yourself." + +"And that message is--?" + +"A command for your immediate return to Krolvetz. Matters of +importance await you there." + +"And if I refuse to return?" + +Chatelard's shoulders went up and his hands spread out in that insolent +gesture affected by certain Europeans. Chamberlain stepped forward +impatiently. + +"Look here, you people," he began, "you told me this chap was a +bloomin' kidnapper, and so I rounded him up--I nabbed him. And here +you are exchangin' howdy-do. What's the meaning of it all?" + +As he spoke, Chamberlain's eyes rested first on Melanie, then on +Agatha, whom he had not seen before. "By Jove!" he ejaculated. + +"Whom did he kidnap?" questioned Melanie. + +"Why, _me_, Miss Reynier," cried Agatha. "He stole my car and drugged +me and got me into his yacht--Heaven knows why!" + +"Kidnapped! You!" cried Melanie. + +"Just so," agreed Aleck. "And now I see why--you scoundrel!" He +turned upon Chatelard with contemptuous fury. "For once you were +caught, eh? These ladies _are_ much alike--that is true. So much so +that I myself was taken aback the first time I saw Miss Redmond. You +thought Miss Redmond was the princess--masquerading as an opera singer." + +"Her Highness has always been admired as a singer!" cut in Chatelard. + +"No doubt! And even you were deceived!" Aleck laughed in derision. +"But when you take so serious a step as an abduction, my dear man, be +sure you get hold of the right victim." + +"She was even singing the very song that used to be a favorite of her +Highness!" remarked Chatelard. + +"Your memory serves you too well." + +But Chatelard turned scoffingly toward Agatha. "You sang it well, +Mademoiselle, very well. And, as this gentleman asserts, you deceived +even me. But you are indiscreet to walk unattended in the park." + +Agatha, unnerved and weak, had grown pale with fear. + +"Don't talk with him, Mr. Van Camp, he is dangerous. Get him away," +she pleaded. + +"True, Miss Redmond. We only waste time. Sheriff--" + +Again the sheriff advanced toward Chatelard, and again he was warned +off with a hissing oath. At the same moment a shadow fell within the +other doorway. As Chatelard's glance rested on the figure standing +there, his face gleamed. He pointed an accusing forefinger. + +"There is the abductor, if any such person is present at all," said he. +"That is the man who stole the lady's car and ran it to the dock. He +is your man, Mister Sheriff, not I." + +The accusation came with such a tone of conviction on the part of the +speaker, that for an instant it confused the mind of every one present. +In the pause that followed, Chatelard turned with an insolent shrug +toward Agatha. "This lady--" and every word had a sneer in it--"this +lady will testify that I am right." + +Agatha stared with a face of alarm toward the doorway, where Hand stood +silent. + +"If that is true, Miss Redmond," began the sheriff. + +"No--no!" cried Agatha. + +"He had nothing to do with it?" questioned the sheriff. + +As he waited for her answer, Agatha suddenly came to herself. Her +trembling ceased; she looked about upon them all with her truthful +eyes; looked upon Hand standing unconcernedly in the doorway, upon +Chatelard in the corner gleaming like an oily devil. + +"No--he had nothing to do with it," she said. + +Chatelard's laugh beat back her words like a bludgeon. + +"Liars, all liars!" he cried. "I might have known!" + +But Chamberlain was impatient of all this. "And now, Monsieur +Kidnapper, you can walk off with this gentleman here. And you can't go +one minute too soon. The penitentiary's the place for you." + +Chatelard turned on him with another laugh. "You need not feel obliged +to hold on to me, Mister Land-Agent. I know when I'm beaten--which you +Englishmen never do. Got another of those pears you offered me this +morning?" + +Before Chamberlain could make reply, or before the sheriff and his +prisoner could get to the door, there was the chug of an automobile. A +second later urgent and loud voices penetrated the room, first from the +steps, then from the hall. One was the hearty voice of a man, the +other was Lizzie's. + +"Can't see her! Tell me I can't see her after I've run a hundred miles +a day into the jungle on purpose to see her! The idea! Where is she? +In here?" And in stalked Mr. Straker, with cap, linen duster, and high +gaitered boots. He was pulling off his goggles. "Well, what's this? +A family party? Where's Miss Redmond?" + +"Mr. Straker--" cried Agatha. + +"That's me! Oh, there you are! Why don't you open up and get some +light? I can't see a thing." + +"Wait a minute, Mr. Straker--" Agatha was saying, when suddenly the +attention of everybody in the room was drawn outside. + +When Chamberlain had told Chatelard that his horse was loose in the +yard, it happened to be the truth; now, excited by fear of the strange +machine that had just arrived, the horse, with flying bridle-rein, was +snorting and prancing on his way to the vegetable garden. It was +almost beyond masculine power to resist the impulse of pursuit. Aleck +and Chamberlain sprang through the window, the sheriff went as far as +the lawn after them, and in that instant Chatelard slipped like an eel +through the open door and out to the gate to Straker's machine, still +chugging. The sheriff saw him as he jumped in. + +"Hey, there!" he shouted, and made a lively run for the gate. But +before he reached it, Chatelard had jerked open the lever, loosened the +brake, and was passing the church at half speed. + +"Hey, there, quick!" called the sheriff. "He's got away!" + +But Mr. Hand had already thought what was best to be done. + +"Come on, here's another machine. We'll chase him!" he cried, as he +went for the white motorcar, standing farther back under the trees. It +had to be cranked, which required some seconds, but presently they were +off--Hand and the sheriff, in hot pursuit after Straker's car. + +Chamberlain and Aleck, triumphantly leading the horse, came back in +time to see the settling cloud of dust. + +"Mr. Chamberlain--Mr. Van Camp!" cried Agatha. "They've gone! They've +got away!" + +"Who's got away?" demanded Chamberlain. + +"All of them!" groaned Agatha, as she sank down on the piazza steps. + +"Jimminy Christmas!" ejaculated Mr. Straker. "This beats any +ten-twenty-thirty I ever saw. Regular Dick Deadwood game! And he's +run off with my new racer!" + +"What!" yelled Chamberlain. "Did that bloomin' sheriff let that +bloomin' rascal get away?" + +"He isn't anybody I'd care to keep!" chuckled Straker. "But you know +that new racer's worth something." + +"Did Chatelard go off in that machine?" again inquired Chamberlain +slowly and distinctly of the two women. + +"Precisely," said Melanie, while Agatha's bowed head nodded. + +"By Jove, that sheriff's a duffer! Here, Van, give me the horse." And +with the words Chamberlain grabbed Little Simon's best roadster, +mounted him bareback, and turned his head up the road. + +"I'll catch him yet!" he yelled back. + +But he didn't. Three miles farther along he came upon the wreck. The +racer was lying on its side in a ditch which recent rains had converted +into a substantial volume of mire and mud. The white machine was drawn +cosily up under a spreading hemlock farther on, but Mr. Hand and the +sheriff were nowhere in sight. + +As Chamberlain stopped to gaze on the overturned car, he heard the +crashing of underbrush in the woods near by. The steps came nearer. +It was evident the chase was up; they were off the scent and obliged to +return. + +"Humph!" grunted Chamberlain, and for once the clear springs of his +disposition were made turbid with satire. "We're all a pack of +bloomin' asses--that's what we are. What in hell's the matter with us!" + +While he was tying the horse to a tree, Hand appeared, silent, with an +unfathomable disgust written on his countenance. As usual, he who was +the least to blame came in for the hottest of the censure; and yet, +there was a sort of fellowship indicated by Chamberlain's extraordinary +arraignment of them both. He was scarcely known ever to have been +profane, but at this moment he searched for wicked words and +interspersed his speech with them recklessly, if not with skill. It is +the duty of the historian to expurgate. + +"I don't know just how you happen to be in this game," pronounced +Chamberlain hotly, "but all I've got to say is you're an ass--an +infernal ass." + +Hand, rolling up his sleeves, remained silent. + +"I suppose if you'd had a perfectly good million-dollar bank-note, +you'd have let it blow away--piff! right out of your hands!" he fumed. +"Or the title deed to Mount Olympus--or a ticket to a front seat in the +New Jerusalem. That's all it amounts to. Catch an eel, only to let +him slip through your fingers--eh, you!" + +Mr. Hand made no answer. Instead, he waded into the ditch-stream and +placed a shoulder under the racing-car. Chamberlain's instinct for +doing his share of work caused him to roll up his trousers and wade in, +shoulder to shoulder with Hand, even while he was lecturing on the +feebleness of man's wits. + +"Good horse running loose into barb-wire fences had to be caught, but +it didn't need a squadron of men and a forty-acre lot to do it in. +Might have known he'd give us the slip if he could--biggest rascal in +Europe!" And so on. Chamberlain, usually rather a silent man, blew +himself empty for once, conscious all the time that he, himself, was +quite as much to blame as Hand could possibly have been. And Hand knew +that he knew, but kept his counsel. Hand ought to be prime minister by +this time. + +When the racing-car was righted, he went swiftly and skilfully to work +investigating the damage and putting the machine in order, as far as +possible. Chamberlain presently became impressed with his mechanical +dexterity. + +"By Jove, you can see into her, can't you!" Hand continued silent, and +left it to his companion to put on the finishing verbal touches. + +"Tow her home and fill her up and she'll be all right, eh?" said +Chamberlain, but Hand kept on tinkering. The sudden neighing and +plunging of Little Simon's poor tormented horse gave warning of the +sheriff, crashing from the underbrush directly into the road. + +He was voluble with excuses. The fugitive had escaped, leaving no +traces of his flight. He might be in the woods, or he might have run +to the railroad track and caught the freight that had just slowly +passed. He might be in the next township, or he might be-- + +"Oh, go to thunder!" said Chamberlain. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +JIMMY REDIVIVUS + +If the occupants of the old red house felt over-much inclined to draw a +long breath and rest on their oars after their anxiety and recent +excitement, Agatha's manager was able to supply a powerful antidote. +He was restlessness incarnate. + +He was combining a belated summer holiday with what he considered to be +good business, "seeing" not only his prima donna secluded at Ilion, but +other important people all the way from Portland to Halifax. When he +heard that the man who ran off with his racing-car was also responsible +for the mysterious departure of Miss Redmond, his excitement was great. + +"You mean to say that you were picked up and drugged in broad daylight +in New York?" he demanded of Agatha. + +"Practically that." + +"And you escaped?" + +"The yacht foundered." + +"And that scamp walked right into your hands and you let him go?" + +Agatha forced a rueful smile. "I confess I'm not much used to catching +criminals." + +Mr. Straker paused, lacking words to express his outraged spirit + +"I don't mean you, of course. This whole outfit here--what are they +doing? Think they're put on in a walking part, eh? Don't they know +enough to go in out of the rain?" Getting no reply to his fuming, he +came down from his high horse, curiosity impelling. "What'd he kidnap +you for--ransom?" + +"No. It seems that he mistook me for Miss Reynier--the lady out there +on the lawn talking with Mr. Van Camp." + +Mr. Straker bent his intent gaze out of the window. + +"I don't see any resemblance at all." His crusty manner implied that +Agatha, or somebody, was to blame for all the coil of trouble, and +should be made to pay for it. + +"Even I was puzzled," smiled Agatha. "I thought she was some one I +knew." + +"Nonsense!" growled Mr. Straker. "Anybody with two eyes could see the +difference. She's older, and heavier. What did the scoundrel want +with her?" + +"I don't know. She's a princess or something." + +Mr. Straker jumped. "She is!" he cried. "Lord, why didn't you tell +me?" + +"I'm trying to." + +"Advertising!" he shouted joyfully. "Jimminy Christmas! We'll make it +up--all this time lost. Princess who? Where from? I guess you do +look like her, after all. I see it all now--head-lines! 'Strange +confusion of identity! Which is the princess?' It'll draw +crowds--thousands." + +Agatha escaped, leaving Mr. Straker to collect from others the details +of his advertising story, which he did with surprising speed and +accuracy. By the next morning he had pumped Sallie, Doctor Thayer and +Aleck Van Camp, and had extracted the promise of an interview from Miss +Reynier herself. + +The only really unsatisfactory subject of investigation was Mr. Hand, +whom Straker watched for a day or two with growing suspicion. Straker +had sputtered, good-naturedly enough, over the "accident" to his +racing-car, and had taken it for granted, in rather a high-handed +manner, that Mr. Hand was to make repairs. His manner toward the +chauffeur was not pleasant, being a combination of the patron and the +bully. It was exactly the sort of manner to precipitate civil war, +though diplomacy might serve to cover the breach for a time. + +But the racing-car, ignominiously towed home by Miss Reynier's white +machine, stood undisturbed in one of the open carriage sheds by the +church. Eluded by Hand for the space of twenty-four hours, and finding +that the injury to the car was far beyond his own mechanical skill to +repair, Mr. Straker sent peremptory word to Charlesport and to the +Hillside for the services of a mechanician, without satisfaction. +Little Simon thought the matter was beyond him, but informed Mr. +Straker that perhaps the engineer at the quarry--a native who had "been +to Boston" and qualified as chauffeur--would come and look at it. + +"Then for Heaven's sake, Colonel, get him to come and be quick about +it," adjured Mr. Straker. "And tell him for me that there's a +long-yellow for him if he'll make the thing right." + +"He'll charge you two dollars an hour, including time on the road," +solemnly announced Little Simon, unimpressed by any mention of the +long-yellow. Had Little Simon "liked," he could probably have mended +the car himself, but Mr. Straker's manner, so effective on Broadway, +was not to the taste of these country people. He thought of them in +their poverty as "peasants," but without the kindliness of the born +gentleman. What Aleck Van Camp could have got for love, Mr. Straker +could not buy; and he was at last obliged to appeal to Hand through +Agatha's agency. + +"I'll look at it again," Hand replied shortly, when Agatha addressed +him on the subject. + +The car being temporarily out of commission, it was necessary for Mr. +Straker to adopt some other means of making himself and everybody about +him extremely busy. He took a fancy for yachting, and got himself +diligently instructed in an art which, of all arts, must be absorbed +with the mother's milk, taken with the three R's and followed with +enthusiastic devotion. In Mr. Straker every qualification for +seamanship was lacking save enthusiasm, but as he himself never +discovered this fact, his _amour propre_ did not suffer, and his +companions were partly relieved of the burden of his entertainment. +Presently he made up his mind that it was time for him to see Jimmy. +His nose, trained for scenting news, led him inevitably to the chief +actor in the unusual drama which had indirectly involved his own +fortunes, and he saw no reason why he should not follow it at once. + +"You'd better wait a while," cautioned Doctor Thayer. "That young man +pumped his heart dry as a seed-pod, and got some fever germs on top of +that. He isn't fit to stand the third degree just yet." + +"I'm not going to give him any third degree, not a bit of it. 'Hero! +Saved a Princess!' and all that. That's what's coming to him as soon +as the newspapers get hold of it. But I want to know how he did it, +and what he did it for. Tell him to buck up." + +Jimmy did buck up, though Mr. Straker's message still remains to be +delivered. He gathered his forces and exhibited such recuperative +abilities as to astonish the old red house and all Ilion. Doctor +Thayer and each of his nurses in turn unconsciously assumed credit for +the good work, and Sallie Kingsbury took a good share of pride in his +satisfactory recovery. + +"Two aigs regular," she would say, with all a housekeeper's glory in +her guests' enjoyment of food. + +There was enough credit to go round, indeed, and Jimmy presently became +the animated and interesting center of the family. He might have been +a new baby and his bedroom the sacred nursery. He was being spoiled +every hour of the day. + +"Did he have a good night?" Agatha would anxiously inquire of Mr. Hand. + +"Can't tell which is night; he sleeps all the time," would be the tenor +of Mr. Hand's reply. Or Sallie would ask, as if her fate depended on +the answer, "Did he eat that nice piece er chicken, Aunt Susan?" And +Mrs. Stoddard would say, "Eat it! It disappeared so quick I thought +he'd choke. Wanted three more just like it, but I told him that +invalids were like puppy-dogs--could only have one meal a day." + +"Well, how'd he take that?" asked the interested Sallie. + +"He said if I thought he was an invalid any longer I had another guess +coming. Says he'll be up and into his clothes by to-morrow, and is +going to _take care of me_. Says I'm pale and need a highball, +whatever that is." + +"Never heard of it," said Sallie. + +"He's a good young man, if he did get pitched overboard," went on Mrs. +Stoddard. "But he doesn't need me any more, and I guess I'll be going +along home." + +"I don't know but what the rest of us need you," complained Sallie. +"It's more of a Sunday-school picnic here than you'd think, what with a +New York press agent and a princess, to say nothing of that Mr. Hand." + +"He certainly knows how to manage a sick man," said Susan. + +"He don't talk like a Christian," said Sallie. + +Mrs. Stoddard made her way to Agatha in the cool chamber at the head of +the stairs. Agatha, in a dressing-sack, with her hair down, called her +in and sent Lizzie away. + +"You're not going, are you, Mrs. Stoddard?" She took Susan's two hands +and held them lovingly against her cheek. "It won't seem right here, +without you." + +"You've done your duty, Agatha, and I've done mine, as I saw it. I'm +not needed here any more, but I'll send Angie over to help Sallie with +the work, after I get the crab-apples picked." + +Agatha held Mrs. Stoddard's hands closely. "Ah, you have been good to +us!" + +"There is none good but One," quoted Mrs. Stoddard; nevertheless her +eyes were moist with feeling. "You'll stay on in the old red house?" + +"I don't know; probably not for long. But I almost wish I could." + +"I've learned a sight by you, Agatha. I want you to know that," said +Susan, struggling with her reticence and her impulse toward confession. + +"Oh, don't say that to me, Mrs. Stoddard. I can only remember how good +you've been to us all." + +But Susan would not be denied. "I thought you were proud and vain +and--and worldly, Agatha. And I treated you harsh, I know." + +"No, no. Whatever you thought, it's all past now, and you are my +friend. You'll help me to take care of this dear old place--yes?" + +"The Lord will establish the work of your hands, my child!" She +suddenly turned with one of her practical ideas. "I wouldn't let that +new city man in to see Mr. Hambleton just yet, if I were you." + +"Is Mr. Straker trying to get in to see Mr. Hambleton?" + +"Knocked at the door twice this morning, and I told him he couldn't +come in. 'Why not?' said he. 'Danger of fever,' said I. Then Mr. +Hambleton asked me who was there, and I said, 'I don't exactly know, +but it's either Miss Redmond's maid's beau or a press agent,' and then +Mr. Hambleton called out, as quick and strong as anybody, 'Go 'way! I +think I've got smallpox.' And he went off, quicker'n a wink, and +hasn't been back since." Mrs. Stoddard's grim old face wrinkled in a +humorous smile. "I guess he'll get over his smallpox scare, but Mr. +Hambleton don't want to see him, not yet. He wants to see you." + +"I'm going in to see him soon, anyway," said Agatha. + +But still she waited a little before going in for her morning visit +with James. It meant so much to her! It wasn't to be taken lightly +and casually, but with a little pomp and ceremony. Each day since the +night of the crisis she had paid her morning call, and each day she had +seen new lights in Jimmy's eyes. In vain had she been matter-of-fact +and practical, treating him as an invalid whose vagaries should be +indulged even though they were of no importance. He would not accept +her on those terms. Back of his weakness had been a strength, more and +more perceptible each day, touching her with the sweetest flattery +woman ever receives. It was the strength of a lover's spirit, looking +out at her from his eyes and speaking to her in every inflection of his +voice. Moreover, while he stoutly and continuously denied his +fever-sickness, he took no trouble to conceal this other malady. As +soon as he could speak distinctly he proclaimed his spiritual madness, +though nobody but Agatha, and possibly Mrs. Stoddard, quite understood. + +"I'm not sick; don't be an idiot, Hand. And give me a shave, for +Heaven's sake. Anybody can get knocked on the head--that's all the +matter with me. Give me some clothes and you'll see." Even Hand had +to give in quickly. Jimmy's resilience passed all expectations. He +came up like a rubber ball; and now, on a fine September morning, he +was getting shaved and clothed in one of Aleck's suits. Finally he was +propped up in an easy chair by a window overlooking the towering elm +tree and the white church. + +"Er--Andy--couldn't you get me some kind of a tie? This soft shirt +business doesn't look very fit, does it, without a tie?" coaxed Jim. + +"If you ask me, I say you look fine." + +"Where'd you get all your good clothes, I'd like to know?" inquired Jim +sternly, looking at Hand's immaculate linen. + +"Miss Sallie washes 'em after I go to bed in the morning," confessed +Hand. + +"Oh, she does, does she!" jeered Jimmy. "Well, you'll have to go to +bed at night, like other folks, now. And then what'll you do?" + +"I guess Miss Sallie'll have to sit up nights," modestly suggested +Hand, when a slipper struck him in the back. "Good shot! What d'you +want now--an opera hat?" he inquired derisively. + +"Andy!" ejaculated Jim, dismay settling on his features. "I've just +thought! Do you s'pose I'm paying hotel bills all this time at The +Larue?" + +Hand grinned unsympathetically. "If you engaged a room, sir, and +didn't give it up, I believe it's the custom--" + +"That'll do for now, Handy Andy, if you can't get up any better answer +than that. Lord, what's that!" Jim suddenly exclaimed, as if he hadn't +been waiting, all ears, for that very step in the passage. + +"I guess likely that'll be Miss Redmond," replied the respectful Hand. +And so it was. + +Agatha, fresh as the morning, stood in the doorway for a contemplative +moment, before coming forward to take Jim's outstretched hand. + +"Samson--shorn!" she exclaimed gaily. "I hardly know you, all fixed up +like this." + +"Oh, I look much better than this when I'm really dressed up, you +know," Jim asserted. Agatha patted his knuckles indulgently, looked at +the thinness and whiteness of the hand, and shook her head. + +"Not gaining enough yet," she said. "That isn't the right color for a +hand." + +"It needs to be held longer." + +"Oh, no, it needs more quiet. Fewer visitors, no talking, and plenty +of fresh milk and eggs." + +Jimmy almost stamped his foot. "Down with eggs!" he cried. "And milk, +too. I'm going to institute a mutiny. Excuse me, I know I'm visiting +and ought to be polite, but no more invalid's food for me. Handy Andy +and I are going out to kill a moose and eat it--eh, Andy?" + +But Hand was gone. Agatha sat down in a big rocker at the other +window. "In that case," she said demurely, "we'll all have to be +thinking of Lynn and New York and work." + +Jim shamelessly turned feather. "Oh, no," he cried. "I'm very ill. +I'm not able to go to Lynn. Besides, my time isn't up yet. This is my +vacation." + +He looked up smiling into Agatha's face, ingenuous as a boy of seven. + +"Do you always take such--such venturesome holidays?" she asked. + +"I never took any before; at least, not what I call holidays," he said. +"If you don't come over here and sit near me, I shall get up and go +over to you. And Andy says I'm very wobbly on my legs. I might by +accident drop into your lap." + +Agatha pushed her chair over toward James, and before she could sit +down he had drawn it still closer to his own. "The doctor says my hand +has to be held!" he assured her, as he got firm hold of hers. + +"For shame!" she cried. "Mustn't tell fibs." + +"Tell me," he begged, "is this your house, really'n truly?" It +brought, as he knew it would, her ready smile. + +"Yep," she nodded. + +"And is that your tree out there?" + +"Yep." + +"Ah!" he sighed. "It's great! It's Paradise. I've dreamed of just +such a heavenly place. And Andy says we've been here two weeks." + +"Yes--and a little more." + +"My holiday half gone!" His mood suddenly changed from its jocund and +boyish manner, and he turned earnestly toward Agatha. + +"I don't know, dear girl, all that has happened since that night--with +you--on the water. Hand shuts me off most villainously. But I know +it's Heaven being here, with Aleck and every one so good to me, and +you! You've come back, somehow, like a reality from my dreams. I +watch for you. You're all I think of, whether I'm awake or asleep." + +Agatha earnestly regarded his frank face, with its laughing, true eyes. +"Jimmy," she said--he had begged her to call him that--"it seems as if +I, too, had known you a long time. More than these little two weeks." + +"It is more; you said so," put in Jim. + +"Yes; a little more. And if it hadn't been for you, I shouldn't be +here, or anywhere. I often think of that." + +"You see!" he cried. "I had to have you, even if I followed you +half-way round the globe; even if I had to jump into the sea. +Kismet--you can't escape me!" + +But Agatha was only half smiling. "No," she protested, "it is not +that. I owe--" + +Jim put his fingers on her lips. "Tut, tut! Dear girl, you owe +nothing, except to your own courage and good swimming. But as for me, +why, you know I'm yours." + +"James," Agatha could not help preaching a bit, "just because we happen +to be the actors in an adventure is no reason, no real reason, why we +should be silly about each other. We don't have to end the story that +way." + +"Oh, don't we! We'll see!" shouted Jim. "And I'm not silly, if some +other people are. I don't see why I should be cheated out of a +perfectly good climax, if you put it that way, any more than the next +fellow. Agatha, dearest--" + +But she wouldn't listen to him. "No, no," she protested, slowly but +earnestly. "Look here, Mr. James Hambleton, of Lynn! I promise to do +anything, or everything, that you honestly want, after you get well. +I'll listen to you then. But I'm not going to let a man who is just +out of a delirium make love to me." + +"But I'm not just out. I only had a whack on the head, and that's +nothing. I'm strong as an ox. I'm saner than anybody. Do listen to +me, Agatha." + +"No--no, I mustn't." + +"But tell me, dear. You're free? You're not--" he searched for the +word that suited his mood--"you're not plighted?" + +She smiled. "No, I'm not plighted." + +"Ah!" he chortled, and seized both her hands, putting them to his lips. +She stood over him, looking down tenderly. + +[Illustration: She stood over him, looking down tenderly.] + +"Time for your broth, Mr. Hambleton, and Mr. Straker wants to know if +he can see you," interrupted Mr. Hand. + +"Can't see him, Andy. I'm very busy," began Jim; then added, "By the +way, who is Mr. Straker?" + +"Tell him he may come in for a few minutes, Mr. Hand," directed Agatha. +Presently the manager was being introduced in the properest manner to +the invalid. Agatha, knowing James would need protection from +quizzing, stayed by. + +"Now, tell me," wheedled Mr. Straker, "the whole story just exactly as +it happened to you, please. It's very important that I should know all +the details." + +So Jimmy, aided now and then by Agatha, delivered a Straker-ized +version of the wreck and the arrival at Ilion. + +"But before that," questioned the manager. "How did you happen to be +on the _Jeanne D'Arc_?" + +For the first time James hesitated. Not even Agatha knew that part of +the story. "I was picked up by the _Jeanne D'Arc_ in New York harbor," +he replied slowly. + +Mr. Straker frowned. "How--picked up?" + +"Out of the water." + +"What were you in the water for?" + +"I had just dropped off a tug." + +"What for?" + +"Because I wanted the yacht to pick me up." + +At this point Mr. Straker directed a commiserating look at Agatha. It +said "Crazy" as plain as words. + +"What were you on the tug for?" + +"I had followed the yacht." + +"What for?" + +The pause before James's next answer was apparent. When it came, there +came with it that same seven-year-old look of smiling ingenuousness. +"I just wanted to see what they were going to do with Miss Redmond." + +"Jimminy Christmas!" exploded Mr. Straker. "Any more kinks in this +story? How'd you know they'd stolen Miss Redmond?" + +And so Jimmy had to tell it all, with the abominable Straker growing +more and more excited every minute, and Agatha standing mute and +awe-struck, looking at him. It was plain that Jimmy, for the moment, +had the upper hand. "And that's about all!" he laughed. + +"What on earth, man, is the matter with you?" fumed Straker. "Didn't +you know there were a hundred chances to one the yacht wouldn't pick +you up?" + +Jimmy nodded, unabashed. "One chance is good enough for me. Nothing +can kill me this trip, I tell you. I'm good for anything. Lucky +star's over me. I knew it all the time." + +Straker turned a disgusted face toward Agatha. "He's crazy as a loon! +Isn't he?" he questioned glumly. But Jimmy knew his man. + +"No, not crazy, Mr. Straker. Only a touch o' sun! And it's glorious, +isn't it, Miss Redmond?" + +She loved him for his boyish laughter, for the rollicking spirit in his +voice, but her eyes suddenly filled as she pondered the meaning back of +his extraordinary story. With Mr. Straker gone at last, it was she who +came to Jim with outstretched hands. + +"You mean you heard me call for help, there on the hill?" + +"Yep," he answered, suddenly sheepish. + +"And you followed to rescue me if you could?" + +"Yep--of course." + +"Ah, James! Why did you do it?" + +Jim's small-boy expression beamed from his eyes. "I followed the Voice +and the Face--as I told you once before. Don't you remember?" + +"I remember. But why?" + +His seven-year-old mood was suddenly touched with poetic dignity. "I +could naught else," he said, looking into her face. It was all +tenderness; and she did not resist when he drew her gently down, till +her lips touched his. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +A MAN OF NO PRINCIPLE + +Monsieur Chatelard's disappearance was as complete as though he had +dropped off the earth. The sheriff, with his warrant in his pocket, +hid his chagrin behind the sugar and flour barrels whose sale occupied +his time when he wasn't losing malefactors. Chamberlain, having once +freed his mind to the grave-like Hand, maintained absolute silence on +the subject, so far as the audience at the old red house was concerned. +But he went into consultation with Aleck, and together they laid a +network of police inspection about Ilion and Charlesport. + +"It won't do any good," grumbled Chamberlain. "We'll have to catch him +and choke him with our own hands, if it ever gets done." + +Nevertheless, they left nothing to chance. Telegraph and telephone +were brought into requisition, and within twenty-four hours after the +disappearance every station on the railroad, as well as every village +along the coast, was warned to arrest the fugitive if he came that way. +Mr. Chamberlain took the white motor and went off on long, mysterious +journeys, coming back only to go into secret conclave with Aleck, or +mysteriously to rush off again. + +Aleck Van Camp stayed at home, keeping a dog-watch on Melanie and +Madame Reynier, whether they were at the Hillside or at the old red +house. Now that the purposes of the Frenchman had been made clear, and +since he was still at large, the world was no safe place for unattended +women. Aleck pondered deeply over the situation. + +"Is your amiable cousin's henchman a man to be scared off by our recent +little encounter, do you think?" he asked of Melanie. + +She considered. "He might be scared, easily enough. But I know well +that he has a contempt for the usual machinery of the law. He has +evaded it so many times that he thinks it an easy matter." + +Aleck smiled whimsically. "I don't wonder at that, if he has had many +experiences like the last." + +"He boasts that he can bribe anybody." + +"Ah, so! But how much rope would the duke give him, do you think, on a +pinch?" + +"All the rope he cares to take. Stephen's protection is all-powerful +in Krolvetz; and elsewhere Chatelard depends, as I have said, on his +wits." + +"But there must be some limit to the duke's stretch of conscience!" + +Melanie's eyes took on their far-away look. "Perhaps there is," she +said at last, "but who can guess where that limit is? Besides, all he +asks of his henchmen is results. He never inquires as to methods." + +"Well, what do you think is the exact result Duke Stephen wants, in +this case?" + +"He wants me either to return to Krolvetz and marry his brother, or--" + +Melanie's hesitation was prolonged. + +"Or--what?' + +"Or to disappear so completely that there will be no question of my +return. You see, it's a peculiar case. If I marry without his +consent--" + +"Which you are about to do--" cut in Aleck. + +"I simply forfeit my estates and they go into the public treasury, +where they will be strictly accounted for. But if I marry Lorenzo--" + +"Which is impossible--" + +"Then the money goes into the family, of course, as my dot. Or--or, if +I should die--in that case Stephen inherits the money. And there is no +doubt but that Stephen needs money." + +Aleck pondered for several minutes, while grave shadows threatened his +face. But presently his smiling, unquenchable good temper came to the +surface, and he gleefully tucked Melanie's hand under his arm. + +"As I said before, you need a husband very badly." + +"Oh, I don't know," she laughed. + +The result of Aleck's moment of grave thought came a few days later, +with the arrival of two quietly-dressed, unostentatious men. He told +Melanie that one man was her chauffeur for the white machine, and the +other was an extra hand he had engaged for the return trip on the _Sea +Gull_. The chauffeur, however, for one reason or another, rarely took +the wheel, and could have been seen walking at a distance behind +Melanie whenever she stirred abroad. The extra hand for the _Sea Gull_ +did just the same as the chauffeur. + +From the day of the arrival of the manager, Mr. Hand's rather +mysterious but friendly temper underwent a change for the worse. He +not only continued silent, which might easily be counted a virtue, but +he became almost sulky, which could only be called a crime. There was +no bantering with Sallie in the kitchen, scarcely a friendly smile for +Agatha herself. Mr. Hand was markedly out of sorts. + +On the morning following Mr. Straker's request that Hand should repair +the car, the manager found him tinkering in the carriage shed near the +church. The car was jacked up on a horse-block, while one wheel lay +near the road. Mr. Hand was as grimy and oily as the law allows, +working over the machinery with a sort of vicious earnestness. Mr. +Straker hovered around for a few moments, then addressed Hand in that +tone of pseudo-geniality that marks a certain type of politician. + +"Look here, Colonel, I understand you were in the employ of that French +anarchist." + +It was an unlucky moment for attack, though Mr. Straker did not at once +perceive it. Hand carefully wiped the oil from a neat ring of metal, +slid down on his back under the car and screwed on a nut. As Mr. +Straker, hands in pockets and feet wide apart, watched the mechanician, +there came through the silence and the sweet air the sound of thrushes +calling from the wood beyond. Mr. Straker craned his head to look out +at the church, then at the low stone wall, as if he expected to see the +songsters performing on a stage before a row of footlights. He turned +back to Mr. Hand. + +"That's right, is it? You worked for the slippery Mounseer?" + +"Uh-m," Hand grumbled, with a screw in his mouth. "Something like +that." + +"What'd you do?" + +"I've found where she was wrenched in the turn-over. Got to have a new +pin for this off wheel before she goes much farther." + +"All right, I'll order one by telegraph to-day. What 'd you do, I +asked." + +Hand wriggled himself out from under the car and got on his feet. He +thrust his grimy hands deep into his pockets, stood for a moment +contemplative and belligerent, as if undecided whether to explode or +not, and then silently walked away. + +As Mr. Straker watched his figure moving slowly toward the kitchen, he +started a long low whistle, expressive of suspicion and doubt. Midway, +however, he changed to a lively tune whose title was "I've got him on +the run"--a classic just then spreading up and down Broadway. He took +a few turns about the car, looked at the gearing with a knowing air, +and then went into the house. + +If he had been a small boy, his mother would have punished him for +stamping through the halls; being a grown man and a visitor, he may be +described as walking with firm, bold tread. Finally he was able to run +down Agatha, who was conferring with Sallie in the library. + +Sallie sniffed in scorn of Mr. Straker, whom she disliked far worse +than Mr. Hand; nevertheless, as she left the room she twisted up her +gingham apron and tucked it into its band in a vague attempt at company +manners. Mr. Straker lost no time in attacking Agatha. + +"What d'you know about that chauffeur-nurse and general roustabout +that's taking care of your young gentleman up-stairs?" he inquired +bluntly. + +Innocent of subtlety as Mr. Straker was, he was nevertheless keen +enough to see that Agatha's instincts took alarm at his words. Indeed, +one skilled in reading her face could have detected the nature of the +uneasiness written there. She could not lie again, as she had +unhesitatingly lied to the sheriff; neither could she abandon her +position as protector to Mr. Hand. She wished for cleverness of the +sort that could throw her manager off the scent, but saw no way other +than the direct way. + +"Nothing--I know almost nothing about him." + +"Comes from N'York?" + +"I fancy so." + +"Well, take it from me, the sooner you get rid of him the better. +Chances are he's a man of no principle, and he'll do you." + +Agatha was silent. Meantime Mr. Straker got his second wind. + +"Of course he knows what he's about when it comes to a machine," the +manager continued, "but mark me, he knows too much for an honest man. +Looks to me as if there wasn't anything on this green earth he can't +do." + +"Green ocean, too--he's quite as much at home there," laughed Agatha. + +"Humph!" Mr. Straker grunted in disgust. "Let me assure you, Miss +Redmond, that it's no joking matter." + +Tradition to the contrary, Agatha was content to let the man have the +last word. Mr. Straker turned to some business matters, wrote out +telegraphic material enough to occupy the leisurely Charlesport +operator for some hours, and then disappeared. + +Agatha was impressed by the manager's words somewhat more than her +manner implied. She had no swift and sure judgment of people, and her +experience of the world, short as it was, had taught her that +recklessness is a costly luxury. She was meditating as to the wisest +course to pursue, when the ex-chauffeur appeared. + +Hand wore his accustomed loose shirt and trousers without coat or +waistcoat, and it seemed as if he had never known a hat. His thick +hair was tumbled back from the forehead. His hands were now spotless, +and his whole appearance agreeably clean and wholesome. He even looked +as if he were going to be frank, but Agatha knew that must be a +delusion. It was impossible, however, not to be somewhat cajoled--he +was so eminently likable. Agatha took a lesson from his own book, and +waited in silence for him to speak. + +"Mademoiselle?" His voice had an undertone of excitement or +nervousness that was wholly new. + +"Well, Mr. Hand?" + +He remained standing by the door for a moment, then stepped forward +with the abrupt manner of a stripling who, usually inarticulate, has +suddenly found tongue. + +"Why did you do it, Mademoiselle?" + +"Do what, my friend?" + +"Back me up before the sheriff. Give me a slick walkout like that." + +Agatha laughed good-humoredly. + +"Why should I answer your questions, Mr. Hand, when you so persistently +ignore mine?" + +Hand made a gesture of impatience. + +"Mademoiselle, you may think me all kinds of a scamp, but I'm not idiot +enough to hide behind a woman. Don't you know me well enough to know +that?" he demanded so earnestly that he seemed very cross. + +Agatha looked into his face with a new curiosity. He was very young, +after all. Something in the way of experience had been grinding +philosophy, of a sort, into him--or out of him. Wealth and position +had been his natural enemies, and he had somehow been led to an +attitude of antagonism that was, at bottom, quite foreign to his nature. + +So much Agatha could guess at, and for the rest, instinct taught her to +be kind. But she was not willing now to take him quite so seriously as +he seemed to be taking himself. She couldn't resist teasing him a bit, +by saying, "Nevertheless, Mr. Hand, you did hide behind me; you had to." + +He did not reply to her bantering smile, but, in the pause that +followed, stepped to the bookcase where she had been standing, gingerly +picked up a soft bit of linen and lace from the floor and dropped it +into her lap. Then he faced her in an attitude of pugnacious +irritation. For a brief moment his silence fell from him. + +"I didn't have to," he contradicted. "I let it go because I thought +you were a good sport, and you wouldn't catch me backing out of your +game, not by a good deal! But there's a darned sight,--pardon me, +Mademoiselle!--there's too much company round here to suit me! _You_ +know me, _you_ know you can trust me, Mademoiselle! But what about +Tom, Dick and Harry all over this place--casting eyes at a man?" + +Agatha, almost against her will, was forced to meet his seriousness +half-way. "I don't know what you mean," she said. + +"Tell 'em!" he burst out. "Tell 'em the whole story. Tell that blamed +snoopin' manager that I'm a crook and a kidnapper, and then he'll stop +nosing round after me. I'll have an hour's start, and that's all I +want. Dogging a man--running him down under his own automobile!" Hand +permitted himself a dry smile at his own joke, but immediately added, +"It goes against the grain, Mademoiselle!" + +Agatha's face brightened, as she grasped the clue to Hand's wrath. +"I've no doubt," she answered gravely. She knew the manager. "But why +should I tell him, as you suggest?" + +"Why?" Hand stopped a moment, as if baffled at the difficulty of +putting such obvious philosophy into words. "Why? Because that's the +way people are--never satisfied till they uncover and root up every +blamed thing in a man's life. Yes, Mademoiselle, you know it's true. +They'll always be uneasy with me around." + +Agatha was aware that when a man utters what he considers to be a +general truth, it is useless to enter the field of argument. + +"Suppose you do have 'an hour's start,' as you express it. Where would +you go?" + +"Oh, I'll look about for a while. After that I'm going to Mr. +Hambleton in Lynn. He's going to have a new car." + +"Ah!" Agatha suddenly saw light. "Then there's only one thing. Mr. +Hambleton must know the truth. It can concern no one else. Will you +tell him?" + +Mr. Hand produced his dry smile. "Nobody has to tell Mr. Hambleton +anything. He looked straight into my face that day on the hill, as we +were leaving the park." + +"And he remembers?" + +Something strange in Hand's expression arrested Agatha's attention, +long before he found tongue to answer. It was a look of happiness and +pride, as if he owned a treasure. "He remembers very well, +Mademoiselle." + +"And what--?" + +"You can't help but be square with him, Mademoiselle. But as for these +gentlemen of style--" + +Hand paused in his oratory, his slow anger again burning on the +surface. Before Agatha knew what he was about, he had picked up the +handkerchief from her lap between thumb and forefinger, and was holding +it at arm's length. + +"You can't squeeze a man's history out of him, as you squeeze water out +of a handkerchief, Mademoiselle," he flared out. "And you can't drop +him and pick him up again, nor throw him down. You can't do that with +a man, Mademoiselle!" + +He tossed the flimsy linen back into her lap. "And I don't want any +dealings with your Strakers--nor gentlemen of that stamp." + +"Nor Chatelards?" + +"He's slick--slick as they make 'em. But he isn't an inquisitive +meddler." + +Agatha laughed outright; and somehow, by the blessed alchemy of +amusement, the air was cleared and Mr. Hand's trouble faded out of +importance. But Agatha could not let him go without one further word. +She met his gaze with a straightforward look, as she asked: "Tell me, +have I failed to treat you as a friend, Mr. Hand?" + +"Ah, Mademoiselle!" he cried; and there was a touch of shame and +compunction in his voice. As he stood before Agatha, she was reminded +of his shamed and cowed appearance in the cove, on the day of their +rescue, when he had waited for her anger to fall on him. She saw that +he had gained something, some intangible bit of manliness and dignity, +won during these weeks of service in her house. And she guessed +rightly that it was due to the man whom he had so ungrudgingly nursed. + +"I'm glad you are going to Lynn, to be with Mr. Hambleton," she said at +last. "As long as he is your friend, I shall be your friend, too, and +never uneasy. You may count on that. And now will you do me another +kindness?" + +"I'll put that old racing-car in order, if that's what you mean. Of +course." + +"As soon as possible. But it would seem that from now on you are +accountable to no one but Mr. Hambleton." + +"I'm his man," said Mr. Hand simply. "I'd do anything for him." He +turned away with his old-time puzzling manner, half deferential, half +indifferent. + +And so Mr. Straker was ready to depart for New York at last, leaving +Agatha, much against his will, to "complete her recovery" at Ilion. At +least, that was the way he felt in duty bound to put it. + +"You have found a substitute now," Agatha urged. "It is only fair to +let her have a chance. A week, more or less, can not make any +difference, now that I've broken so many engagements already. I'll +come back later and make a fresh start." + +"You stay up here and New York'll forget you're living!" growled Mr. +Straker. + +"Not if you continue to be my manager," said Agatha. + +"If I'm to be your manager, I ought never to let you out of my sight +for a minute. It's too dangerous." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +JIMMY MUFFS THE BALL + +It will sometimes happen that young gentlemen, skipping confident, even +under their lucky star, will get a fall. Fortune had been too constant +to Jimmy not to be ready to turn her fickle face away the moment he +wasn't looking. But such is the rashness born of success and a +bounding heart, that young blood leaps to its doom, smiling, as it +were, on the faithless lady's back. + +Jimmy had no forebodings, but rioted gorgeously in returning health, in +a whole pack of new emotions, and in what he supposed to be his lady's +favor. Aleck, more philosophical, took his happiness with a more quiet +gusto, not provoking the frown of the gods. But for Jim the day of +reckoning was coming. + +One day Aleck joined him, walking up and down the porch. Jim was in +one of his boyish, cocksure moods. + +"I know what you're going to say," he began, before Aleck could spring +his news. "You're going to marry the princess." + +"Just so," said Aleck. "How'd you know? Clairvoyance?" + +"Nope." + +"Well, you needn't look so high and mighty about it, old man. Why +don't you do the same thing yourself? Then we'll have a double +wedding." + +"I've thought of that," said Jim. + +As the two men talked, Agatha and Melanie, both dressed in white, +strolled side by side down the garden path toward the wall. They were +deep in conversation, their backs turned toward the veranda. + +"I don't see that they look so much alike," announced Jim, who had but +recently learned all the causes and effects of the Chatelard business. +Aleck's eyes gleamed. + +"Which one, as they stand there now, do you take to be Miss Redmond?" +he asked. + +"One on the left," answered Jim promptly. + +Aleck gave a signaling whistle which caused both the women quickly to +turn. Agatha was on the right. + +Aleck grinned broadly. "So that Yahoo of a Frenchman wasn't so stupid +after all." + +"I'd like to get my hands on him!" muttered Jim. + +"Frenchman or not, there's going to be a wedding right here in the old +red house on Wednesday," said Aleck. + +"Hoopla! I knew that was it!" + +"And then Melanie and I are going to cruise back to New York. Awfully +sorry--but you're not invited." + +"You couldn't get me aboard any gilt-edged yacht that floats!" + +At Jimmy's words--wholly untrue, by the way--Aleck's happy mood +suddenly dimmed, as he thought of the dangers and anxieties of the past +month. He turned and laid an arm, boy-fashion, over Jim's shoulder, +pulling his hair as his hand went by. + +"You're a fool of a kid!" he said, choking. + +When Jim looked into his cousin's face, he knew. "Oh, I say, old man, +it wasn't so bad as all that." + +Aleck stiffened up. "Who said anything about its being bad? You'd +better get some togs to wear at the wedding. I'm going to need these +clothes myself." + +It turned out, actually enough, that the wedding was to come off on a +certain Wednesday in September. + +"Would you like New York and a bishop and a big church better than the +old red house and the Charlesport minister?" Aleck anxiously asked of +Melanie. + +"Oh, no," she protested; and Aleck knew she was sincere. So they +prepared to terminate their holidays by celebrating the wedding in the +pine grove. Melanie spent the intervening days happily with Agatha, or +walking with Aleck, or with the delightful group that foregathered in +Parson Thayer's library. Jimmy made extravagant and highly colored +verses to the bride-to-be, to Sallie Kingsbury, and even to himself. +His feet were often lame, but he solemnly assured the company that it +was entirely due to circumstances over which he had no control. A +wedding was a wedding, said he, and should have its bard; also its +dancers and its minstrels. + +"We'll have all our friends in Ilion, anyway," said Aleck. They +counted up the list. Besides the occupants of the house and those from +the Hillside, there would be Doctor Thayer, Susan Stoddard and Angie, +Big and Little Simon, and the lawyer. + +"And they're all going to dance with the bride," announced Jim. "After +me. I'm first choice." + +"A dance led, so to speak, by the elusive Monsieur Chatelard?" + +The name alone made Jimmy wroth. "It's a dance for which he will pay +the fiddler yet!" he prophesied. + +"Oh, he's gone this time. Scared out of the country for keeps!" was +Aleck's expressed opinion. But that it might or might not be so, was +what they all secretly thought. + +The day before the wedding was a jewel of a day, such as New England at +her best can fling into the lap of early autumn. A wind from the sea, +flocks of white cloud scudding across the sapphire sky, and a sun all +kindness--such was the day. It was never a "weather breeder" either; +but steady, promising good for the morrow. + +Many times during the week James and Chamberlain and Agatha had their +heads together, planning surprises for the bridal pair. The result was +that on Tuesday Jim and Chamberlain borrowed the white motor-car, +loaded it down with a large variety of junk, such as food from Sallie's +kitchen, flowers and so on, and started for Charlesport. They ran down +to the wharf, transferred their loot to the rowboat, and pulled out to +the _Sea Gull_, swinging at her mooring in deep water. + +A half-hour of work, and the yacht was dressed for festival. There +were strings of flags to stretch from bow to masthead and to stern; +pennants for topmasts; the Stars and Stripes in beautiful silk for a +standard, and a gorgeous banner with an embroidered A and M +intertwined, for special occasions. Flowers were placed in the cabins, +and food in the lockers. The seamen had been aboard, made the yacht +clean and shipshape as a war vessel on parade, and had got permission +to leave for their last night ashore. Everything was in readiness, +even to the laying of the fire in the engine hold. + +The bride and groom were to come aboard the next day about noon, and +cruise down the coast leisurely, as weather permitted. Hand, in charge +of the white motor-car, with Madame Reynier, Chamberlain, Agatha and +Jimmy, were to start for New York, touring as long as their inclination +lasted. The sophisticated Lizzie was to travel to what was, for her, +the center of the universe, by the fastest Pullman. + +Jimmy and Chamberlain, on the way home from their visit to the _Sea +Gull_, came very near being confidential. + +"I want to say, Mr. Hambleton, that I shall never forgive myself for +bungling about that Chatelard business." + +"As I understand the matter, it wasn't your bungling, but the +sheriff's." + +"It's all the same," conceded Mr. Chamberlain mournfully. "And in my +opinion, the Frenchman's not done with his tricks yet. He's a +dangerous character, Mr. Hambleton." + +Jim laughed, remembering certain incidents on the _Jeanne D'Arc_. + +"Do you know," Chamberlain continued, "I'm convinced the bloomin' +beggar is hiding about here somewhere. I'm glad Aleck is getting away." + +"I thought the evidence favored the theory that Chatelard had made +straight for New York." + +"Not a bit of it. Aleck and I let you all believe that, for the sake +of the ladies. But the evidence is all the other way. We would surely +have caught him if he had been on any of the New York trains. I +believe he's about here and means mischief yet." + +"If he's about here, there's no doubt about the mischief." + +"I'm going down to-night to bunk on the _Sea Gull_. Aleck let the men +off, to go to a sailor's dance over on one of the islands. They'll +probably be at it all night, so I'm going back." + +"Why not let me go? I'm fine as a fiddle. You've had your full share +of nasty detective work." + +"Not at all. I'm booked to see this thing through." + +"All right!" laughed Jimsy. "But if you change your mind, let me know." + +Arriving at the house, the men found it deserted. Windows were open +and doors unlatched, but no one, not even Danny, responded to Jim's +call. Chamberlain started for the Hillside in the car, and Jim +wandered about lonesomely, wondering where everybody was. With Jim, as +in most cases, everybody meant one person; and presently Sallie, +appearing slowly from the upper regions, gave him his clue. He started +nimbly for the pine wood. + +The wagon road stretched alluringly into the sunflecked shade of the +grove. A hush like that of primeval day threw its uncanny influence +over the world. Jim felt something tugging at his spirit that was +unfamiliar, disquieting. He began to whistle just for company, and in +a moment, as if at a signal call, Danny came along the path, sedately +trotting to meet him. + +"Hullo, old pardner! So this is where you are." + +Danny said yes, and led Jim into the clearing and up to a pine stump, +where everybody sat, quite alone, chin propped on hand. No singing, no +book, and--or did Jimmy imagine it?--a spirit decidedly quenched. Her +eyelids were red and her face was pale. + +"So, dear lady, I have found you. But I was listening for the song." + +"There is no song to-day." Agatha's manner resembled an Arctic breeze. + +"May one ask why?" + +"One can not always be singing." + +"No? Why not? I could--_if_ I could." + +Agatha was obliged to relax a trifle at Jimmy's foolishness, but only +to reveal, more and more distinctly, a wretchedness of spirit that was +quite baffling. It was not feminine wretchedness waiting for a +masculine comforter, either, as James observed with regret; it was a +stoical spirit, braced to meet a blow--or to deal one. + +Jimmy was not used to being snubbed, and instinctively prepared for +vigorous protest. He began with a little preliminary diplomacy. + +"You haven't inquired what I'm going to do with the remainder of my +holiday," he remarked. + +"I supposed you would return soon to Lynn. Shall we walk back to the +house?" + +The unkind words were spoken in a rare-sweet voice, courteously enough. +Jim looked at the speaker a moment, then emphatically said "No!" + +"It is quite time I was returning." + +"Have you anything there to do that is more important than listening to +me for fifteen minutes?" + +Agatha did not pretend not to understand him. She turned toward him +with unflinching eyes. + +"Truth to say, yes, Mr. Hambleton, I have. I don't wish to listen +to--anything." + +"Oh--if you feel like that! Your 'Mr. Hambleton' is enough to strike +me dumb." + +"Believe me, it is the best way." + +"Again, may one ask why?" + +"You are going back to your own people, to your own work. And I to +mine." + +"But that's the very point. My idea was to--to combine them." + +"I guessed it." + +Jimmy smiled his ingenuous smile as he suavely asked, "And don't +you--er--like the idea?" + +Agatha turned her wretched white face toward him. Into it there had +come a grim determination that left Jimmy quite out in the cold. + +"I have no choice in liking or disliking it," she said quite evenly. +"But there are plenty of reasons why I can't think of it. And you +shouldn't think of it any more. I assure you, you are making a +mistake." + +She got up as if ready to walk away, her face averted. + +"Agatha!" + +At the name she turned to Jim, as much as to say she would be quite +reasonable if he would be. But her face suddenly flushed gloriously. + +"Agatha, dear, hear me. I did not intend to tell you all my secret +to-day; not until I should be on neutral ground, so to speak. But I +can't let you leave me this way." + +"You will have to. I am going back to the house." + +Up to this point, James had merely been playing tag, as it were. The +game wasn't really on. A little skirmishing on either side was in +order. But Agatha's last words were the call to action. They roused +the ghost of some old Hambleton ancestor who meant not to be beaten. +Jim squared himself in the middle of the path, touched Agatha's +shoulder with the lightest, most respectful finger, and requested: "But +I would ask you, as a special favor, to stay a few minutes longer." + +Jim's tone left Agatha no choice. She sat down again on the pine +stump, but she could not meet Jimmy's eyes. He stood a few feet away +from her. When he spoke, his voice was firm and steady, ringing with +earnestness. There was no doubt now but that he was in the game for +all he was worth. + +"Agatha, you shall not turn me down like this. Wait until you know me +better, and know yourself better. You've had no time to think this +matter over, and it involves a good deal, I admit. But we have lived +through a good deal together in these few weeks. I'm here; I'm here to +stay. You can't say now, dear, that you care nothing for me--can you?" + +[Illustration: "You shall not turn me down like this."] + +"What is the use of all this, I ask! You will always be my friend, my +rescuer, to whom I am eternally grateful." + +Jimmy emitted a sound halfway between "Shucks" and "Damn" and swung +impatiently clean round on his heels. + +"Grateful be hanged! I don't want anybody to be grateful. I want you +to love me--to marry me. Why, Agatha," he argued boyishly, his hopes +rising as he saw her face soften a little, "you're mine, for I plucked +you out of the sea. I had to have you. I guess I knew it that Sunday, +only it was 'way off, somewhere in the back of my brain. You're a +dream I've always loved. Just as this old house is. You're the woman +I could have prayed for. I'll do, I'll be, anything you wish; I'll +change myself over, but oh, don't say you won't have me. Agatha, +Agatha, you don't know how much you mean to me!" + +Before this speech was finished, James, according to the good old +fashion, was down on his knees before his lady, and had imprisoned one +of her hands. Stoic she was, not to yield! Her eyes had a suspicious +moistness, as she shook her head. + +"You will always be the most gallant, unselfish friend I have ever +known. But--" + +"But--what?" + +"Marry you I can not." + +"Why not?" + +"I can not marry anybody." + +Then Jimsy said a disgraceful thing. "You kissed me once. Will you do +it again?" + +At this impudence, she neither got angry nor changed her mind--a bad +sign for Jimmy. She put his hand away, saying, "You must forgive me +the kiss." + +Jimmy jumped to his feet with another inarticulate sound, every whit as +bad as an oath, and stood before her. + +"Agatha Redmond, will you marry me?" + +"No." + +Jim turned in his tracks and left the wood. + + +Two hours later, at supper, Jim was inquired for. + +"Our last supper together, and Mr. Hambleton not here!" mourned +Chamberlain. + +Agatha felt guilty, but could scarcely confess it. "You are all +invited for next year, you know," she said. + +"And we're all coming," announced Melanie. "But poor Mr. Hambleton +will miss his supper tonight." + +The "poor Mr. Hambleton" struck Agatha. "I think Mr. Hambleton is +doing very well indeed. I saw him start off for a walk this afternoon." + +"Jim's a chump. Give him a cold potato," jeered Aleck. + +But after supper was over, and the twilight deepened into darkness, +Agatha sought Aleck where she could speak with him alone. + +"I--I think Mr. Hambleton was troubled when he left here this +afternoon," she said. "Can you think where he would be likely to go? +He is not strong enough to bear much hard exercise yet." + +Aleck looked at her keenly. + +"If he went anywhere, I think he'd go straight to the yacht." + +"I feel a little anxious, someway," confessed Agatha. + +Chamberlain's voice broke in upon them. "Anybody ready to take me down +to the _Sea Gull_ in the car?" + +As Aleck started for the machine, the anxiety in Agatha's face +perceptibly lightened. "And may I go with you?" she asked eagerly. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +AFTER YOU, MONSIEUR? + +Jim had no desire to create a sensation among his friends at the old +red house; but as he left the pine grove all his instincts led him to +flee in another direction. He did not fully realize just what had +happened to him, but he was conscious of having received a very hard +jolt, indeed. The house, full of happy associations as it was, was +just now too tantalizing a place. Aleck had won out, and he and +Melanie were radiating that peculiar kind of lover's joy which shines +on the eve of matrimony. Jim wished them well--none better--but he +also wished they wouldn't make such a fuss over these things. Get it +done and out of the way, and the less said about it the better. In +fact, Jim's buoyant and sunny spirit went into eclipse; he lost his +holiday ardor, and trudged over the hill and into the shore road in a +state of extreme dejection. + +But he lingered on the way, diverted almost against his will by the +sight of fishing smacks putting into harbor, an island steamer rounding +a distant cliff, and the _Sea Gull_ lying motionless just within the +breakwater. Women may be unkind, but a ship is a ship, after all. One +can not nurse the pain even of a shattered heart when running before a +stiff wind with the spinnaker set and an open sea ahead. + +The thought decided him. The sea should be his bride. Jim did not +stop to arrange, at the moment, just how this should be brought about, +but his determination was none the less firm. He became sentimental to +the extent of reflecting, vaguely, that this was but philosophic +justice. The sea had not conquered him--far from it; neither should +She conquer him. He would follow the sea, the path of glamour, the +home of the winged foot and the vanishing sail, the road to alien and +mysterious lands-- + +Thus Jimmy, in reaction from the Arctic douche to which his emotional +self had been subjected. He was, figuratively speaking, blue with the +cold, but trying valiantly to warm himself. + +As he gazed at the _Sea Gull_, asleep on the flood tide, cutting a +gallant figure in the glowing sunset, he felt an overmastering longing +to be aboard. He would stay on the yacht until Chamberlain came, at +least; possibly all night. + +Having made up his mind on this point, James persuaded himself that he +felt better. Philosophy is a friend in need, after all. Why should +one failure in getting one's desires crush the spirit? He would make a +right-about-face, travel for a year on a sailing vessel, see the world. +That was it. Hang the shoe business! + +Immersed in mental chaos such as these fragments of thought suggest, +Jim did not perceive that he was being overtaken, until a slow greeting +came to his ears. + +"Good evening, friend." It was the deliberate, wide-eyed youth of the +Reading-room. + +"Ah, good evening." + +"If you are on your way to the Sailors' Reading-room, I wish to inform +you that I have been obliged to lock up for to-night, on account of an +urgent errand at the village." Jimmy stared vacantly for a moment at +the pale, washed-out countenance of his interlocutor. "I thought I'd +tell you," the youth went on in his copy-book style, "so as to save +your taking the long walk. I am the librarian of the Reading-room." + +"Ah, thank you. But I wasn't going to the Reading-room to-night. I am +on my way to the village." + +"Well, there's a large majority of people do go to the Reading-room, +first and last," the youth explained with pride. "And some of them are +not worthy of its privileges. I am on my way now to prevent what may +be a frightful accident to one who has enjoyed the benefits of our +work." + +Jim gazed at the youth. "A frightful accident! Then why in Heaven's +name don't you hurry?" + +The youth exhibited a slightly injured air, but did not hasten. + +"I was just about to continue on my way," he said, "when it occurred to +me that you might be interested to know." + +"That's good of you. But what is it all about?" + +"Some time ago, a very profane and impatient gentleman, waiting for +money to be telegraphed to him from New York--" + +"Well, man, go on! Where is he?" + +"I know nothing about the movements of this ungodly person, but it +appears that to-day, for the first time in its history, the quarry up +yonder has been robbed. Circumstances lead the manager to suspect that +this same gentleman was the perpetrator of the theft, and I am on my +way to further the ends of justice." + +"No need to be so particular about calling him a gentleman. But what +is the 'accident' likely to be?" + +"It is feared that the thief may not be aware of the nature of the +article he has stolen, and it is very dangerous." + +"What on earth is it?" + +"It is a fairly large-sized stick of dynamite." + +The youth might have been discussing a fancy dance, so suave and polite +was he. Jim interrupted rudely. + +"Dynamite, is it? Good. If it's old Chatelard, he ought to blow up. +Serve him right." + +"I'm surprised and pained at your words, my dear friend. No soul is +utterly--" + +"Yes, it is. Which way did he go? Where is he?" + +"I don't know. The manager sent me to inform the sheriff." + +"It won't do any good. But you'd better go, all the same." + +The judge in chancery went on his dignified way. He would not have +hurried if he had heard Angel Gabriel's trump. The news he had brought +was in the class to be considered important if true, but there was +nothing in it to alter Jimmy's plans. He took the shortest cut to the +shore, found a fiat-bottomed punt that was regarded by the village as +general property, and pushed off. + +The _Sea Gull_ was a tidy craft, and looked very gay with even the half +of her festival flags on view. But the gaiety did not beguile Jim's +dampened spirits. He went aboard feeling that he'd like to rip the +idiotic things down; but the yacht, at least, offered a place where he +could think. The sunset light on the water blazed vermilion--just the +color that Jim all at once discovered he hated. He looked down the +companionway, but finally he decided to stretch out on deck for a few +minutes' rest. He was very tired. + +Off in the stern was a vague mass which proved to be a few yards of +canvas carefully tented on the floor. Some gimcrack belonging to the +ship's ornamentation had been freshly gilded and left to dry, protected +by an old sail-cloth. This, weighted down by a rusty marlinespike, +spread couchwise along the taffrail, and offered to Jim just the bed he +longed for. + +He lay down, face to the sky, and gave himself up to thoughts that were +very dark indeed. He had been thrown down, unexpectedly and quite +hard, and that was all there was to it. Agatha, lovely but +inexplicable maid, was not for him. She had been deceptive--yes, that +was the word; and he had been a fool--that was the plain truth. He +might as well face it at once. He had been idiot enough to think he +might win the girl. Just because they had been tossed together in +mid-ocean and she had clung to him. The world wasn't an ocean; it was +a spiritual stock-exchange, where he who would win must bid very high +indeed for the prizes of life. And he had so little to bid! + +Communing thus with his unhappiness, Jim utterly lost the sense of +time. The shameless vermilion sunset went into second mourning and +thence to nun's gray, before the figure on the sail-cloth moved. Then, +through senses only half awake, Jim heard a light sound, like a +scratch-scratch on the hull of the yacht. Chamberlain, no doubt, just +rubbing the nose of his tender against the _Sea Gull_. Jim was in no +hurry to see Chamberlain, and remained where he was. The Englishman +would heave in sight soon enough. + +But though Jim waited several minutes, with half an eye cocked on the +stairway, nobody appeared. The wind was still, the sea like glass; not +a sound anywhere. Struck by something of strangeness in the uncanny +silence, Jim sat up and called "Ahoy, Chamberlain!" There was no +answer. But in the tense stillness there was a sound, and it came from +below--the sound of a man's stealthy tread. + +Jim sprang to his feet and made the companionway at a bound. He +listened an instant to make sure that he heard true, cleared the steps, +and landed in the darkness of the ship's saloon. As he groped along, +reaching for the door of the principal cabin, the blackness suddenly +lighted a little, and a dim shadow shot out and up the stairway. Jim's +physical senses were scarcely cognizant of the soft, quick passing, but +his thumbs pricked. He dashed after the shadow, up the stairs, out on +deck, and aft. There he was--Chatelard, armed, facing his enemy once +more, cool but not smiling, desperately at bay. Below him, riding just +under the stern of the yacht, was the tender whose scratch-scratch had +awakened Jim. A man, oars in hand, was holding the boat close to the +_Sea Gull_. + +Jim saw all this during the seconds between his turning at the +stair-top and his throwing himself plump against the figure by the +railing. He was quick enough to pass the range of the weapon, whose +shot rang out in the clear air, but he was not quick enough to get +under the man's guard. Chatelard was ready for him, holding his weapon +high. + +As he pressed forward, Jim felt something under his foot. He ducked +quickly, as if to dodge Chatelard's hand, and on the downward swing he +picked up the rusty marlinespike. It was a weapon of might, indeed. +Jim's blow caused Chatelard's arm to drop, limp and nerveless. But in +gaining his enemy's weapon, Jim was forced to drop his own. He put a +firm foot upon the spike, however, while he held Chatelard at arm's +length and looked into his face. + +"So we meet once more, after all!" he cried. "And once more I have the +pistol." Even as Jim spoke, his adversary made a spring that almost +enabled him to seize the weapon again. Jim eluded his clutch, and +quick as thought threw the gun overboard. It struck far out on the +smooth water. + +It was a sorry thing to do, as it proved, for Chatelard, watching his +chance, stooped, wrenched the spike from under Jim's foot, and once +more stood defiantly at bay. And at this point, he opened his thin +lips for one remark. + +"You'll go to hell now, you pig of an American!" + +"But after you, Monsieur!" Jim cried, and with the words, his arms were +about the other in a paralyzing grip. + +Had Jim been as strong as when the two men measured forces weeks +before, in the fo'cas'le of the _Jeanne D'Arc_, the result might have +been different. But the struggle was too long, and Jim's strength +insufficient. Chatelard freed himself from his antagonist sufficiently +to wield the spike somewhere about Jim's head, and there came over him +a sickening consciousness that he was going down. He dropped, hanging +like a bulldog to Chatelard's knees, but he knew he had lost the game. +He gathered himself momentarily, determined to get on his feet once +more, and had almost done it, when sounds of approaching voices mingled +with the scuffle of their feet and their quick breathing. Before Jim +could see what new thing was happening, Chatelard had turned for one +alert instant toward the port side, whence the invading voices came. +He was cut off from the stairway, caught in the stern of the yacht, his +weapon gone. He gave a quick call in a low voice to the boat below, +stepped over the taffrail and then leaped overboard. + +Propped up on an elbow, dazed and half blinded, blood flowing down his +cheek, Jim stretched forward dizzily, as if to follow his disappearing +enemy. He heard the splash of the water, and saw the rowboat move out +from under the stern, but he saw no more. He thought it must have +grown very dark. + +"Blest if he didn't jump overboard hanging on to that marlinespike!" +said Jim stupidly to himself. And then it became quite dark. + + +When Jimsy regained sight and consciousness, which happened not more +than three minutes after he lost them, he found himself supported +affectionately against somebody's shoulder, and a voice--the Voice of +all voices he most loved--was in his ears. + +"Here I am, dear. Do not die! I have come--come to stay, if you want +me, James, dearest!" And bending over him was a face--the very Vision +of his dream. "Look at me, speak to me, James, dear!" + +The voice was a bit hysterical, but the face was eloquent, loving, +adoring. It was too good to be true, though Jim was disposed to let +the illusion prolong itself as far as possible. He put up his hand and +smoothed her face gently, in gratitude at seeing it kind once more. +Then he smiled foolishly. + +"It's great, isn't it!" he remarked inanely, before thinking it +necessary to remove his head. Her face was still the face of +tenderness, full of yearning. It did not change. She took a +handkerchief from her pocket and carefully pressed it to his cheek and +chin. When she took it away, he saw that it was red. + +"Lord, what a mess I'm making!" he exclaimed, trying at last to sit up. +As he did so, it all came back to him--the flying shadow, the gun, the +struggle. He leaned over to peer again through the crossed wires of +the deck railing, down into the water. He turned back with an amazed +expression. + +"_Did_ he jump overboard, honest-true, hanging on to that spike?" + +Neither Aleck nor Agatha could say, nor yet Mr. Chamberlain, who had +been searching the yacht. Wherever it was, the rusty marlinespike had +disappeared. The rowboat, too, had gone into the darkness. Jim got +up, dazedly thinking for a moment that it was necessary for him to give +chase, but he quickly sat down on the sail-cloth again, overcome with +faintness and a dark pall before his eyes. + +"You are not hurt badly?" The voice was still tender, and it was all +for him! As Jim heard it, the pall lifted, and his buoyant spirit came +back to its own. He laughed ringingly. + +"Lord, no, not hurt. But--" + +"But what? What did you wish to say?" + +"Is it true? Are you here, by me, to stay?" + +For answer she pressed his hand to her lips. + +Aleck and Chamberlain, once assured that Jim was safe, went below to +make a search, and Jim and Agatha were left together on the sail-cloth. +As they sat there, a young moon shone out delicately in the west, and +dropped quickly down after the lost sun. + +"It's the first moon we've seen together!" said Jim. + +"But we've watched the dawn." + +"Ah, yes; and such a dawn!" + +Little by little, as they sat together, the story of the fight came +out. Jim told it bit by bit, not eager. When it was done, Agatha was +still puzzled. "Why should he come here? What could he do here?" + +"I don't know, though we shall probably find out soon enough. But I +don't care, now that you are here." + +"James, dear, will you forgive me for this afternoon?" + +"I'll forgive you if you'll take it all back, hide, hoofs and horns, +for ever 'n ever, amen." + +"I take it back. I never meant it." + +"Then may one ask why--" + +"Oh, James, I don't know why." + +Anybody could have told them that it was only a phase of feminine panic +in the face of the unknown, necessary as sneezing. But, as Jim said, +it didn't matter. + +"Never mind. Only I don't want you to marry me because you found me +here all bluggy and pitied me." + +"James! To talk like that! You know it wasn't--" + +"Then, what was it?" Jim, suddenly grown serpent-like in craft, turned +his well-known ingenuous and innocent expression upon her. + +"The moment you left me, up there in the pine grove, I knew I couldn't +do without you." + +"How did you know?" + +"Because--" + +"Yes, because--" Jim prompted her. + +"Oh, Jimsy, you know." + +"No, I don't." + +Agatha, loving his teasing, but too deeply moved, too generous and +sincere to play the coquette, turned to him again a face shining with +tenderness. Her eyes, like stars; her lips, all sweetness. + +"Only love, James, dear--" + +Something rose again in Jimmy's soft heart, choking him. As he had +thrilled to the unknown ecstasy in Agatha's song, many days before, so +now he thrilled to her voice and face, eloquent for him alone. Love +and its power, life and its meaning, the long, long thoughts of youth +and hope and desire--these held him in thrall. Agatha was in his arms. +Time was lost to him, and earth. + + + + +EPILOGUE + +No one ever knew whether the accomplished Frenchman reached shore, +ultimately, in the rowboat, or descended to Sabrina beneath the waves. +If that last hasty exit from the deck of the _Sea Gull_ was also his +final exit from life, certain it is that his departure into the realm +of shades was unwept and unsung. The stick of dynamite was found, +after a gingerly search, lying on one of the berths in the large cabin, +where it had been dropped by the Frenchman in his flight. + + +Jimmy Hambleton did not let the shoe business entirely go to +destruction, though his taste for holidays grew markedly after he +brought his bride home with him to Lynn. One year, when the babies +were growing up, he ordered a trim little yacht to be built and put +into her berth at Charlesport. She was named the _Sea Gull_. Jimmy's +chauffeur, called Hand, was her captain. + +Sometimes, when James and Agatha were alone, in the zone of stillness +that hung over the listening water, there would rise a song, clear and +birdlike: + + "Free of my pain, free of my burden of sorrow, + At last I shall see thee--" + +and again Jimmy's heart would rise buoyant, free, happy--the heart of +unquenchable youth. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STOLEN SINGER*** + + +******* This file should be named 17495.txt or 17495.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/4/9/17495 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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