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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/18668-8.txt b/18668-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e28652e --- /dev/null +++ b/18668-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10239 @@ +Project Gutenberg's In Search of the Unknown, by Robert W. Chambers + +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: In Search of the Unknown + +Author: Robert W. Chambers + +Release Date: June 23, 2006 [EBook #18668] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN SEARCH OF THE UNKNOWN *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Jeannie Howse and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + * * * * * + + +--------------------------------------------------------------+ + | Transcriber's Note: | + | | + | Inconsistent hyphenation matches the original document. | + | | + | A number of obvious typographical errors have been corrected | + | in this text. For a complete list, please see the bottom of | + | this document. | + | | + +--------------------------------------------------------------+ + + * * * * * + + + + + +[Illustration: SHE STARTED TOWARD THE DOOR] + + + + +IN SEARCH OF THE +UNKNOWN + + + +BY +ROBERT W. CHAMBERS + +AUTHOR OF "THE MAIDS OF PARADISE" "THE MAID-AT-ARMS" +"CARDIGAN" "THE CONSPIRATORS" ETC. + + + + +NEW YORK AND LONDON +HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS +1904 + + + + +Copyright, 1904, by ROBERT W. CHAMBERS. + +_All rights reserved._ +Published June, 1904. + + + + + TO + MY FRIEND + E. LE GRAND BEERS + + MY DEAR LE GRAND,--You and I were early drawn together by a + common love of nature. Your researches into the natural + history of the tree-toad, your observations upon the + mud-turtles of Providence Township, your experiments with the + fresh-water lobster, all stimulated my enthusiasm in a + scientific direction, which has crystallized in this helpful + little book, dedicated to you. + + Pray accept it as an insignificant payment on account for all + I owe to you. + + THE AUTHOR. + + + + +PREFACE + + +It appears to the writer that there is urgent need of more "nature +books"--books that are scraped clear of fiction and which display only +the carefully articulated skeleton of fact. Hence this little volume, +presented with some hesitation and more modesty. Various chapters +have, at intervals, appeared in the pages of various publications. The +continued narrative is now published for the first time; and the +writer trusts that it may inspire enthusiasm for natural and +scientific research, and inculcate a passion for accurate observation +among the young. + + THE AUTHOR. + + _April 1, 1904._ + + + + + Where the slanting forest eaves, + Shingled tight with greenest leaves, + Sweep the scented meadow-sedge, + Let us snoop along the edge; + Let us pry in hidden nooks, + Laden with our nature books, + Scaring birds with happy cries, + Chloroforming butterflies, + Rooting up each woodland plant, + Pinning beetle, fly, and ant, + So we may identify + What we've ruined, by-and-by. + + + + +IN SEARCH OF THE UNKNOWN + + +I + + +Because it all seems so improbable--so horribly impossible to me now, +sitting here safe and sane in my own library--I hesitate to record an +episode which already appears to me less horrible than grotesque. Yet, +unless this story is written now, I know I shall never have the +courage to tell the truth about the matter--not from fear of ridicule, +but because I myself shall soon cease to credit what I now know to be +true. Yet scarcely a month has elapsed since I heard the stealthy +purring of what I believed to be the shoaling undertow--scarcely a +month ago, with my own eyes, I saw that which, even now, I am +beginning to believe never existed. As for the harbor-master--and the +blow I am now striking at the old order of things--But of that I shall +not speak now, or later; I shall try to tell the story simply and +truthfully, and let my friends testify as to my probity and the +publishers of this book corroborate them. + +On the 29th of February I resigned my position under the government +and left Washington to accept an offer from Professor Farrago--whose +name he kindly permits me to use--and on the first day of April I +entered upon my new and congenial duties as general superintendent of +the water-fowl department connected with the Zoological Gardens then +in course of erection at Bronx Park, New York. + +For a week I followed the routine, examining the new foundations, +studying the architect's plans, following the surveyors through the +Bronx thickets, suggesting arrangements for water-courses and pools +destined to be included in the enclosures for swans, geese, pelicans, +herons, and such of the waders and swimmers as we might expect to +acclimate in Bronx Park. + +It was at that time the policy of the trustees and officers of the +Zoological Gardens neither to employ collectors nor to send out +expeditions in search of specimens. The society decided to depend upon +voluntary contributions, and I was always busy, part of the day, in +dictating answers to correspondents who wrote offering their services +as hunters of big game, collectors of all sorts of fauna, trappers, +snarers, and also to those who offered specimens for sale, usually at +exorbitant rates. + +To the proprietors of five-legged kittens, mangy lynxes, moth-eaten +coyotes, and dancing bears I returned courteous but uncompromising +refusals--of course, first submitting all such letters, together with +my replies, to Professor Farrago. + +One day towards the end of May, however, just as I was leaving Bronx +Park to return to town, Professor Lesard, of the reptilian department, +called out to me that Professor Farrago wanted to see me a moment; so +I put my pipe into my pocket again and retraced my steps to the +temporary, wooden building occupied by Professor Farrago, general +superintendent of the Zoological Gardens. The professor, who was +sitting at his desk before a pile of letters and replies submitted for +approval by me, pushed his glasses down and looked over them at me +with a whimsical smile that suggested amusement, impatience, +annoyance, and perhaps a faint trace of apology. + +"Now, here's a letter," he said, with a deliberate gesture towards a +sheet of paper impaled on a file--"a letter that I suppose you +remember." He disengaged the sheet of paper and handed it to me. + +"Oh yes," I replied, with a shrug; "of course the man is +mistaken--or--" + +"Or what?" demanded Professor Farrago, tranquilly, wiping his glasses. + +"--Or a liar," I replied. + +After a silence he leaned back in his chair and bade me read the +letter to him again, and I did so with a contemptuous tolerance for +the writer, who must have been either a very innocent victim or a very +stupid swindler. I said as much to Professor Farrago, but, to my +surprise, he appeared to waver. + +"I suppose," he said, with his near-sighted, embarrassed smile, "that +nine hundred and ninety-nine men in a thousand would throw that letter +aside and condemn the writer as a liar or a fool?" + +"In my opinion," said I, "he's one or the other." + +"He isn't--in mine," said the professor, placidly. + +"What!" I exclaimed. "Here is a man living all alone on a strip of +rock and sand between the wilderness and the sea, who wants you to +send somebody to take charge of a bird that doesn't exist!" + +"How do you know," asked Professor Farrago, "that the bird in question +does not exist?" + +"It is generally accepted," I replied, sarcastically, "that the great +auk has been extinct for years. Therefore I may be pardoned for +doubting that our correspondent possesses a pair of them alive." + +"Oh, you young fellows," said the professor, smiling wearily, "you +embark on a theory for destinations that don't exist." + +He leaned back in his chair, his amused eyes searching space for the +imagery that made him smile. + +"Like swimming squirrels, you navigate with the help of Heaven and a +stiff breeze, but you never land where you hope to--do you?" + +Rather red in the face, I said: "Don't you believe the great auk to be +extinct?" + +"Audubon saw the great auk." + +"Who has seen a single specimen since?" + +"Nobody--except our correspondent here," he replied, laughing. + +I laughed, too, considering the interview at an end, but the professor +went on, coolly: + +"Whatever it is that our correspondent has--and I am daring to believe +that it _is_ the great auk itself--I want you to secure it for the +society." + +When my astonishment subsided my first conscious sentiment was one of +pity. Clearly, Professor Farrago was on the verge of dotage--ah, what +a loss to the world! + +I believe now that Professor Farrago perfectly interpreted my +thoughts, but he betrayed neither resentment nor impatience. I drew a +chair up beside his desk--there was nothing to do but to obey, and +this fool's errand was none of my conceiving. + +Together we made out a list of articles necessary for me and itemized +the expenses I might incur, and I set a date for my return, allowing +no margin for a successful termination to the expedition. + +"Never mind that," said the professor. "What I want you to do is to +get those birds here safely. Now, how many men will you take?" + +"None," I replied, bluntly; "it's a useless expense, unless there is +something to bring back. If there is I'll wire you, you may be sure." + +"Very well," said Professor Farrago, good-humoredly, "you shall have +all the assistance you may require. Can you leave to-night?" + +The old gentleman was certainly prompt. I nodded, half-sulkily, aware +of his amusement. + +"So," I said, picking up my hat, "I am to start north to find a place +called Black Harbor, where there is a man named Halyard who possesses, +among other household utensils, two extinct great auks--" + +We were both laughing by this time. I asked him why on earth he +credited the assertion of a man he had never before heard of. + +"I suppose," he replied, with the same half-apologetic, half-humorous +smile, "it is instinct. I feel, somehow, that this man Halyard _has_ +got an auk--perhaps two. I can't get away from the idea that we are on +the eve of acquiring the rarest of living creatures. It's odd for a +scientist to talk as I do; doubtless you're shocked--admit it, now!" + +But I was not shocked; on the contrary, I was conscious that the same +strange hope that Professor Farrago cherished was beginning, in spite +of me, to stir my pulses, too. + +"If he has--" I began, then stopped. + +The professor and I looked hard at each other in silence. + +"Go on," he said, encouragingly. + +But I had nothing more to say, for the prospect of beholding with my +own eyes a living specimen of the great auk produced a series of +conflicting emotions within me which rendered speech profanely +superfluous. + +As I took my leave Professor Farrago came to the door of the +temporary, wooden office and handed me the letter written by the man +Halyard. I folded it and put it into my pocket, as Halyard might +require it for my own identification. + +"How much does he want for the pair?" I asked. + +"Ten thousand dollars. Don't demur--if the birds are really--" + +"I know," I said, hastily, not daring to hope too much. + +"One thing more," said Professor Farrago, gravely; "you know, in that +last paragraph of his letter, Halyard speaks of something else in the +way of specimens--an undiscovered species of amphibious biped--just +read that paragraph again, will you?" + +I drew the letter from my pocket and read as he directed: + + "When you have seen the two living specimens of the great auk, + and have satisfied yourself that I tell the truth, you may be + wise enough to listen without prejudice to a statement I shall + make concerning the existence of the strangest creature ever + fashioned. I will merely say, at this time, that the creature + referred to is an amphibious biped and inhabits the ocean near + this coast. More I cannot say, for I personally have not seen + the animal, but I have a witness who has, and there are many + who affirm that they have seen the creature. You will + naturally say that my statement amounts to nothing; but when + your representative arrives, if he be free from prejudice, I + expect his reports to you concerning this sea-biped will + confirm the solemn statements of a witness I _know_ to be + unimpeachable. + + "Yours truly, BURTON HALYARD. + + "BLACK HARBOR." + +"Well," I said, after a moment's thought, "here goes for the +wild-goose chase." + +"Wild auk, you mean," said Professor Farrago, shaking hands with me. +"You will start to-night, won't you?" + +"Yes, but Heaven knows how I'm ever going to land in this man +Halyard's door-yard. Good-bye!" + +"About that sea-biped--" began Professor Farrago, shyly. + +"Oh, don't!" I said; "I can swallow the auks, feathers and claws, but +if this fellow Halyard is hinting he's seen an amphibious creature +resembling a man--" + +"--Or a woman," said the professor, cautiously. + +I retired, disgusted, my faith shaken in the mental vigor of Professor +Farrago. + + + + +II + + +The three days' voyage by boat and rail was irksome. I bought my kit +at Sainte Croix, on the Central Pacific Railroad, and on June 1st I +began the last stage of my journey _via_ the Sainte Isole broad-gauge, +arriving in the wilderness by daylight. A tedious forced march by +blazed trail, freshly spotted on the wrong side, of course, brought me +to the northern terminus of the rusty, narrow-gauge lumber railway +which runs from the heart of the hushed pine wilderness to the sea. + +Already a long train of battered flat-cars, piled with sluice-props +and roughly hewn sleepers, was moving slowly off into the brooding +forest gloom, when I came in sight of the track; but I developed a +gratifying and unexpected burst of speed, shouting all the while. The +train stopped; I swung myself aboard the last car, where a pleasant +young fellow was sitting on the rear brake, chewing spruce and reading +a letter. + +"Come aboard, sir," he said, looking up with a smile; "I guess you're +the man in a hurry." + +"I'm looking for a man named Halyard," I said, dropping rifle and +knapsack on the fresh-cut, fragrant pile of pine. "Are you Halyard?" + +"No, I'm Francis Lee, bossing the mica pit at Port-of-Waves," he +replied, "but this letter is from Halyard, asking me to look out for a +man in a hurry from Bronx Park, New York." + +"I'm that man," said I, filling my pipe and offering him a share of +the weed of peace, and we sat side by side smoking very amiably, until +a signal from the locomotive sent him forward and I was left alone, +lounging at ease, head pillowed on both arms, watching the blue sky +flying through the branches overhead. + +Long before we came in sight of the ocean I smelled it; the fresh, +salt aroma stole into my senses, drowsy with the heated odor of pine +and hemlock, and I sat up, peering ahead into the dusky sea of pines. + +Fresher and fresher came the wind from the sea, in puffs, in mild, +sweet breezes, in steady, freshening currents, blowing the feathery +crowns of the pines, setting the balsam's blue tufts rocking. + +Lee wandered back over the long line of flats, balancing himself +nonchalantly as the cars swung around a sharp curve, where water +dripped from a newly propped sluice that suddenly emerged from the +depths of the forest to run parallel to the railroad track. + +"Built it this spring," he said, surveying his handiwork, which seemed +to undulate as the cars swept past. "It runs to the cove--or ought +to--" He stopped abruptly with a thoughtful glance at me. + +"So you're going over to Halyard's?" he continued, as though answering +a question asked by himself. + +I nodded. + +"You've never been there--of course?" + +"No," I said, "and I'm not likely to go again." + +I would have told him why I was going if I had not already begun to +feel ashamed of my idiotic errand. + +"I guess you're going to look at those birds of his," continued Lee, +placidly. + +"I guess I am," I said, sulkily, glancing askance to see whether he +was smiling. + +But he only asked me, quite seriously, whether a great auk was really +a very rare bird; and I told him that the last one ever seen had been +found dead off Labrador in January, 1870. Then I asked him whether +these birds of Halyard's were really great auks, and he replied, +somewhat indifferently, that he supposed they were--at least, nobody +had ever before seen such birds near Port-of-Waves. + +"There's something else," he said, running, a pine-sliver through his +pipe-stem--"something that interests us all here more than auks, big +or little. I suppose I might as well speak of it, as you are bound to +hear about it sooner or later." + +He hesitated, and I could see that he was embarrassed, searching for +the exact words to convey his meaning. + +"If," said I, "you have anything in this region more important to +science than the great auk, I should be very glad to know about it." + +Perhaps there was the faintest tinge of sarcasm in my voice, for he +shot a sharp glance at me and then turned slightly. After a moment, +however, he put his pipe into his pocket, laid hold of the brake with +both hands, vaulted to his perch aloft, and glanced down at me. + +"Did you ever hear of the harbor-master?" he asked, maliciously. + +"Which harbor-master?" I inquired. + +"You'll know before long," he observed, with a satisfied glance into +perspective. + +This rather extraordinary observation puzzled me. I waited for him to +resume, and, as he did not, I asked him what he meant. + +"If I knew," he said, "I'd tell you. But, come to think of it, I'd be +a fool to go into details with a scientific man. You'll hear about the +harbor-master--perhaps you will see the harbor-master. In that event I +should be glad to converse with you on the subject." + +I could not help laughing at his prim and precise manner, and, after a +moment, he also laughed, saying: + +"It hurts a man's vanity to know he knows a thing that somebody else +knows he doesn't know. I'm damned if I say another word about the +harbor-master until you've been to Halyard's!" + +"A harbor-master," I persisted, "is an official who superintends the +mooring of ships--isn't he?" + +But he refused to be tempted into conversation, and we lounged +silently on the lumber until a long, thin whistle from the locomotive +and a rush of stinging salt-wind brought us to our feet. Through the +trees I could see the bluish-black ocean, stretching out beyond black +headlands to meet the clouds; a great wind was roaring among the trees +as the train slowly came to a stand-still on the edge of the primeval +forest. + +Lee jumped to the ground and aided me with my rifle and pack, and then +the train began to back away along a curved side-track which, Lee +said, led to the mica-pit and company stores. + +"Now what will you do?" he asked, pleasantly. "I can give you a good +dinner and a decent bed to-night if you like--and I'm sure Mrs. Lee +would be very glad to have you stop with us as long as you choose." + +I thanked him, but said that I was anxious to reach Halyard's before +dark, and he very kindly led me along the cliffs and pointed out the +path. + +"This man Halyard," he said, "is an invalid. He lives at a cove called +Black Harbor, and all his truck goes through to him over the company's +road. We receive it here, and send a pack-mule through once a month. +I've met him; he's a bad-tempered hypochondriac, a cynic at heart, and +a man whose word is never doubted. If he says he has a great auk, you +may be satisfied he has." + +My heart was beating with excitement at the prospect; I looked out +across the wooded headlands and tangled stretches of dune and hollow, +trying to realize what it might mean to me, to Professor Farrago, to +the world, if I should lead back to New York a live auk. + +"He's a crank," said Lee; "frankly, I don't like him. If you find it +unpleasant there, come back to us." + +"Does Halyard live alone?" I asked. + +"Yes--except for a professional trained nurse--poor thing!" + +"A man?" + +"No," said Lee, disgustedly. + +Presently he gave me a peculiar glance; hesitated, and finally said: +"Ask Halyard to tell you about his nurse and--the harbor-master. +Good-bye--I'm due at the quarry. Come and stay with us whenever you +care to; you will find a welcome at Port-of-Waves." + +We shook hands and parted on the cliff, he turning back into the +forest along the railway, I starting northward, pack slung, rifle over +my shoulder. Once I met a group of quarrymen, faces burned brick-red, +scarred hands swinging as they walked. And, as I passed them with a +nod, turning, I saw that they also had turned to look after me, and I +caught a word or two of their conversation, whirled back to me on the +sea-wind. + +They were speaking of the harbor-master. + + + + +III + + +Towards sunset I came out on a sheer granite cliff where the sea-birds +were whirling and clamoring, and the great breakers dashed, rolling in +double-thundered reverberations on the sun-dyed, crimson sands below +the rock. + +Across the half-moon of beach towered another cliff, and, behind this, +I saw a column of smoke rising in the still air. It certainly came +from Halyard's chimney, although the opposite cliff prevented me from +seeing the house itself. + +I rested a moment to refill my pipe, then resumed rifle and pack, and +cautiously started to skirt the cliffs. I had descended half-way +towards the beech, and was examining the cliff opposite, when +something on the very top of the rock arrested my attention--a man +darkly outlined against the sky. The next moment, however, I knew it +could not be a man, for the object suddenly glided over the face of +the cliff and slid down the sheer, smooth lace like a lizard. Before I +could get a square look at it, the thing crawled into the surf--or, at +least, it seemed to--but the whole episode occurred so suddenly, so +unexpectedly, that I was not sure I had seen anything at all. + +However, I was curious enough to climb the cliff on the land side and +make my way towards the spot where I imagined I saw the man. Of +course, there was nothing there--not a trace of a human being, I mean. +Something _had_ been there--a sea-otter, possibly--for the remains of +a freshly killed fish lay on the rock, eaten to the back-bone and +tail. + +The next moment, below me, I saw the house, a freshly painted, trim, +flimsy structure, modern, and very much out of harmony with the +splendid savagery surrounding it. It struck a nasty, cheap note in the +noble, gray monotony of headland and sea. + +The descent was easy enough. I crossed the crescent beach, hard as +pink marble, and found a little trodden path among the rocks, that led +to the front porch of the house. + +There were two people on the porch--I heard their voices before I saw +them--and when I set my foot upon the wooden steps, I saw one of them, +a woman, rise from her chair and step hastily towards me. + +"Come back!" cried the other, a man with a smooth-shaven, deeply lined +face, and a pair of angry, blue eyes; and the woman stepped back +quietly, acknowledging my lifted hat with a silent inclination. + +The man, who was reclining in an invalid's rolling-chair, clapped both +large, pale hands to the wheels and pushed himself out along the +porch. He had shawls pinned about him, an untidy, drab-colored hat on +his head, and, when he looked down at me, he scowled. + +"I know who you are," he said, in his acid voice; "you're one of the +Zoological men from Bronx Park. You look like it, anyway." + +"It is easy to recognize you from your reputation," I replied, +irritated at his discourtesy. + +"Really," he replied, with something between a sneer and a laugh, "I'm +obliged for your frankness. You're after my great auks, are you not?" + +"Nothing else would have tempted me into this place," I replied, +sincerely. + +"Thank Heaven for that," he said. "Sit down a moment; you've +interrupted us." Then, turning to the young woman, who wore the neat +gown and tiny cap of a professional nurse, he bade her resume what she +had been saying. She did so, with deprecating glance at me, which made +the old man sneer again. + +"It happened so suddenly," she said, in her low voice, "that I had no +chance to get back. The boat was drifting in the cove; I sat in the +stern, reading, both oars shipped, and the tiller swinging. Then I +heard a scratching under the boat, but thought it might be +sea-weed--and, next moment, came those soft thumpings, like the sound +of a big fish rubbing its nose against a float." + +Halyard clutched the wheels of his chair and stared at the girl in +grim displeasure. + +"Didn't you know enough to be frightened?" he demanded. + +"No--not then," she said, coloring faintly; "but when, after a few +moments, I looked up and saw the harbor-master running up and down the +beach, I was horribly frightened." + +"Really?" said Halyard, sarcastically; "it was about time." Then, +turning to me, he rasped out: "And that young lady was obliged to row +all the way to Port-of-Waves and call to Lee's quarrymen to take her +boat in." + +Completely mystified, I looked from Halyard to the girl, not in the +least comprehending what all this meant. + +"That will do," said Halyard, ungraciously, which curt phrase was +apparently the usual dismissal for the nurse. + +She rose, and I rose, and she passed me with an inclination, stepping +noiselessly into the house. + +"I want beef-tea!" bawled Halyard after her; then he gave me an +unamiable glance. + +"I was a well-bred man," he sneered; "I'm a Harvard graduate, too, but +I live as I like, and I do what I like, and I say what I like." + +"You certainly are not reticent," I said, disgusted. + +"Why should I be?" he rasped; "I pay that young woman for my +irritability; it's a bargain between us." + +"In your domestic affairs," I said, "there is nothing that interests +me. I came to see those auks." + +"You probably believe them to be razor-billed auks," he said, +contemptuously. "But they're not; they're great auks." + +I suggested that he permit me to examine them, and he replied, +indifferently, that they were in a pen in his backyard, and that I was +free to step around the house when I cared to. + +I laid my rifle and pack on the veranda, and hastened off with mixed +emotions, among which hope no longer predominated. No man in his +senses would keep two such precious prizes in a pen in his backyard, I +argued, and I was perfectly prepared to find anything from a puffin to +a penguin in that pen. + +I shall never forget, as long as I live, my stupor of amazement when I +came to the wire-covered enclosure. Not only were there two great +auks in the pen, alive, breathing, squatting in bulky majesty on their +sea-weed bed, but one of them was gravely contemplating two newly +hatched chicks, all bill and feet, which nestled sedately at the edge +of a puddle of salt-water, where some small fish were swimming. + +For a while excitement blinded, nay, deafened me. I tried to realize +that I was gazing upon the last individuals of an all but extinct +race--the sole survivors of the gigantic auk, which, for thirty years, +has been accounted an extinct creature. + +I believe that I did not move muscle nor limb until the sun had gone +down and the crowding darkness blurred my straining eyes and blotted +the great, silent, bright-eyed birds from sight. + +Even then I could not tear myself away from the enclosure; I listened +to the strange, drowsy note of the male bird, the fainter responses of +the female, the thin plaints of the chicks, huddling under her breast; +I heard their flipper-like, embryotic wings beating sleepily as the +birds stretched and yawned their beaks and clacked them, preparing for +slumber. + +"If you please," came a soft voice from the door, "Mr. Halyard awaits +your company to dinner." + + + + +IV + + +I dined well--or, rather, I might have enjoyed my dinner if Mr. +Halyard had been eliminated; and the feast consisted exclusively of a +joint of beef, the pretty nurse, and myself. She was exceedingly +attractive--with a disturbing fashion of lowering her head and raising +her dark eyes when spoken to. + +As for Halyard, he was unspeakable, bundled up in his snuffy shawls, +and making uncouth noises over his gruel. But it is only just to say +that his table was worth sitting down to and his wine was sound as a +bell. + +"Yah!" he snapped, "I'm sick of this cursed soup--and I'll trouble you +to fill my glass--" + +"It is dangerous for you to touch claret," said the pretty nurse. + +"I might as well die at dinner as anywhere," he observed. + +"Certainly," said I, cheerfully passing the decanter, but he did not +appear overpleased with the attention. + +"I can't smoke, either," he snarled, hitching the shawls around until +he looked like Richard the Third. + +However, he was good enough to shove a box of cigars at me, and I took +one and stood up, as the pretty nurse slipped past and vanished into +the little parlor beyond. + +We sat there for a while without speaking. He picked irritably at the +bread-crumbs on the cloth, never glancing in my direction; and I, +tired from my long foot-tour, lay back in my chair, silently +appreciating one of the best cigars I ever smoked. + +"Well," he rasped out at length, "what do you think of my auks--and my +veracity?" + +I told him that both were unimpeachable. + +"Didn't they call me a swindler down there at your museum?" he +demanded. + +I admitted that I had heard the term applied. Then I made a clean +breast of the matter, telling him that it was I who had doubted; that +my chief, Professor Farrago, had sent me against my will, and that I +was ready and glad to admit that he, Mr. Halyard, was a benefactor of +the human race. + +"Bosh!" he said. "What good does a confounded wobbly, bandy-toed bird +do to the human race?" + +But he was pleased, nevertheless; and presently he asked me, not +unamiably, to punish his claret again. + +"I'm done for," he said; "good things to eat and drink are no good to +me. Some day I'll get mad enough to have a fit, and then--" + +He paused to yawn. + +"Then," he continued, "that little nurse of mine will drink up my +claret and go back to civilization, where people are polite." + +Somehow or other, in spite of the fact that Halyard was an old pig, +what he said touched me. There was certainly not much left in life for +him--as he regarded life. + +"I'm going to leave her this house," he said, arranging his shawls. +"She doesn't know it. I'm going to leave her my money, too. She +doesn't know that. Good Lord! What kind of a woman can she be to stand +my bad temper for a few dollars a month!" + +"I think," said I, "that it's partly because she's poor, partly +because she's sorry for you." + +He looked up with a ghastly smile. + +"You think she really is sorry?" + +Before I could answer he went on: "I'm no mawkish sentimentalist, and +I won't allow anybody to be sorry for me--do you hear?" + +"Oh, I'm not sorry for you!" I said, hastily, and, for the first time +since I had seen him, he laughed heartily, without a sneer. + +We both seemed to feel better after that; I drank his wine and smoked +his cigars, and he appeared to take a certain grim pleasure in +watching me. + +"There's no fool like a young fool," he observed, presently. + +As I had no doubt he referred to me, I paid him no attention. + +After fidgeting with his shawls, he gave me an oblique scowl and asked +me my age. + +"Twenty-four," I replied. + +"Sort of a tadpole, aren't you?" he said. + +As I took no offence, he repeated the remark. + +"Oh, come," said I, "there's no use in trying to irritate me. I see +through you; a row acts like a cocktail on you--but you'll have to +stick to gruel in my company." + +"I call that impudence!" he rasped out, wrathfully. + +"I don't care what you call it," I replied, undisturbed, "I am not +going to be worried by you. Anyway," I ended, "it is my opinion that +you could be very good company if you chose." + +The proposition appeared to take his breath away--at least, he said +nothing more; and I finished my cigar in peace and tossed the stump +into a saucer. + +"Now," said I, "what price do you set upon your birds, Mr. Halyard?" + +"Ten thousand dollars," he snapped, with an evil smile. + +"You will receive a certified check when the birds are delivered," I +said, quietly. + +"You don't mean to say you agree to that outrageous bargain--and I +won't take a cent less, either--Good Lord!--haven't you any spirit +left?" he cried, half rising from his pile of shawls. + +His piteous eagerness for a dispute sent me into laughter impossible +to control, and he eyed me, mouth open, animosity rising visibly. + +Then he seized the wheels of his invalid chair and trundled away, too +mad to speak; and I strolled out into the parlor, still laughing. + +The pretty nurse was there, sewing under a hanging lamp. + +"If I am not indiscreet--" I began. + +"Indiscretion is the better part of valor," said she, dropping her +head but raising her eyes. + +So I sat down with a frivolous smile peculiar to the appreciated. + +"Doubtless," said I, "you are hemming a 'kerchief." + +"Doubtless I am not," she said; "this is a night-cap for Mr. +Halyard." + +A mental vision of Halyard in a night-cap, very mad, nearly set me +laughing again. + +"Like the King of Yvetot, he wears his crown in bed," I said, +flippantly. + +"The King of Yvetot might have made that remark," she observed, +re-threading her needle. + +It is unpleasant to be reproved. How large and red and hot a man's +ears feel. + +To cool them, I strolled out to the porch; and, after a while, the +pretty nurse came out, too, and sat down in a chair not far away. She +probably regretted her lost opportunity to be flirted with. + +"I have so little company--it is a great relief to see somebody from +the world," she said. "If you can be agreeable, I wish you would." + +The idea that she had come out to see me was so agreeable that I +remained speechless until she said: "Do tell me what people are doing +in New York." + +So I seated myself on the steps and talked about the portion of the +world inhabited by me, while she sat sewing in the dull light that +straggled out from the parlor windows. + +She had a certain coquetry of her own, using the usual methods with an +individuality that was certainly fetching. For instance, when she lost +her needle--and, another time, when we both, on hands and knees, +hunted for her thimble. + +However, directions for these pastimes may be found in contemporary +classics. + +I was as entertaining as I could be--perhaps not quite as entertaining +as a young man usually thinks he is. However, we got on very well +together until I asked her tenderly who the harbor-master might be, +whom they all discussed so mysteriously. + +"I do not care to speak about it," she said, with a primness of which +I had not suspected her capable. + +Of course I could scarcely pursue the subject after that--and, indeed, +I did not intend to--so I began to tell her how I fancied I had seen a +man on the cliff that afternoon, and how the creature slid over the +sheer rock like a snake. + +To my amazement, she asked me to kindly discontinue the account of my +adventures, in an icy tone, which left no room for protest. + +"It was only a sea-otter," I tried to explain, thinking perhaps she +did not care for snake stories. + +But the explanation did not appear to interest her, and I was +mortified to observe that my impression upon her was anything but +pleasant. + +"She doesn't seem to like me and my stories," thought I, "but she is +too young, perhaps, to appreciate them." + +So I forgave her--for she was even prettier than I had thought her at +first--and I took my leave, saying that Mr. Halyard would doubtless +direct me to my room. + +Halyard was in his library, cleaning a revolver, when I entered. + +"Your room is next to mine," he said; "pleasant dreams, and kindly +refrain from snoring." + +"May I venture an absurd hope that you will do the same!" I replied, +politely. + +That maddened him, so I hastily withdrew. + +I had been asleep for at least two hours when a movement by my bedside +and a light in my eyes awakened me. I sat bolt upright in bed, +blinking at Halyard, who, clad in a dressing-gown and wearing a +night-cap, had wheeled himself into my room with one hand, while with +the other he solemnly waved a candle over my head. + +"I'm so cursed lonely," he said--"come, there's a good fellow--talk to +me in your own original, impudent way." + +I objected strenuously, but he looked so worn and thin, so lonely and +bad-tempered, so lovelessly grotesque, that I got out of bed and +passed a spongeful of cold water over my head. + +Then I returned to bed and propped the pillows up for a back-rest, +ready to quarrel with him if it might bring some little pleasure into +his morbid existence. + +"No," he said, amiably, "I'm too worried to quarrel, but I'm much +obliged for your kindly offer. I want to tell you something." + +"What?" I asked, suspiciously. + +"I want to ask you if you ever saw a man with gills like a fish?" + +"Gills?" I repeated. + +"Yes, gills! Did you?" + +"No," I replied, angrily, "and neither did you." + +"No, I never did," he said, in a curiously placid voice, "but there's +a man with gills like a fish who lives in the ocean out there. Oh, you +needn't look that way--nobody ever thinks of doubting my word, and I +tell you that there's a man--or a thing that looks like a man--as big +as you are, too--all slate-colored--with nasty red gills like a +fish!--and I've a witness to prove what I say!" + +"Who?" I asked, sarcastically. + +"The witness? My nurse." + +"Oh! She saw a slate-colored man with gills?" + +"Yes, she did. So did Francis Lee, superintendent of the Mica Quarry +Company at Port-of-Waves. So have a dozen men who work in the quarry. +Oh, you needn't laugh, young man. It's an old story here, and anybody +can tell you about the harbor-master." + +"The harbor-master!" I exclaimed. + +"Yes, that slate-colored thing with gills, that looks like a +man--and--by Heaven! _is_ a man--that's the harbor-master. Ask any +quarryman at Port-of-Waves what it is that comes purring around their +boats at the wharf and unties painters and changes the mooring of +every cat-boat in the cove at night! Ask Francis Lee what it was he +saw running and leaping up and down the shoal at sunset last Friday! +Ask anybody along the coast what sort of a thing moves about the +cliffs like a man and slides over them into the sea like an otter--" + +"I saw it do that!" I burst out. + +"Oh, did you? Well, _what was it?_" + +Something kept me silent, although a dozen explanations flew to my +lips. + +After a pause, Halyard said: "You saw the harbor-master, that's what +you saw!" + +I looked at him without a word. + +"Don't mistake me," he said, pettishly; "I don't think that the +harbor-master is a spirit or a sprite or a hobgoblin, or any sort of +damned rot. Neither do I believe it to be an optical illusion." + +"What do you think it is?" I asked. + +"I think it's a man--I think it's a branch of the human race--that's +what I think. Let me tell you something: the deepest spot in the +Atlantic Ocean is a trifle over five miles deep--and I suppose you +know that this place lies only about a quarter of a mile off this +headland. The British exploring vessel, _Gull_, Captain Marotte, +discovered and sounded it, I believe. Anyway, it's there, and it's my +belief that the profound depths are inhabited by the remnants of the +last race of amphibious human beings!" + +This was childish; I did not bother to reply. + +"Believe it or not, as you will," he said, angrily; "one thing I know, +and that is this: the harbor-master has taken to hanging around my +cove, and he is attracted by my nurse! I won't have it! I'll blow his +fishy gills out of his head if I ever get a shot at him! I don't care +whether it's homicide or not--anyway, it's a new kind of murder and it +attracts me!" + +I gazed at him incredulously, but he was working himself into a +passion, and I did not choose to say what I thought. + +"Yes, this slate-colored thing with gills goes purring and grinning +and spitting about after my nurse--when she walks, when she rows, when +she sits on the beach! Gad! It drives me nearly frantic. I won't +tolerate it, I tell you!" + +"No," said I, "I wouldn't either." And I rolled over in bed convulsed +with laughter. + +The next moment I heard my door slam. I smothered my mirth and rose to +close the window, for the land-wind blew cold from the forest, and a +drizzle was sweeping the carpet as far as my bed. + +That luminous glare which sometimes lingers after the stars go out, +threw a trembling, nebulous radiance over sand and cove. I heard the +seething currents under the breakers' softened thunder--louder than I +ever heard it. Then, as I closed my window, lingering for a last look +at the crawling tide, I saw a man standing, ankle-deep, in the surf, +all alone there in the night. But--was it a man? For the figure +suddenly began running over the beach on all fours like a beetle, +waving its limbs like feelers. Before I could throw open the window +again it darted into the surf, and, when I leaned out into the +chilling drizzle, I saw nothing save the flat ebb crawling on the +coast--I heard nothing save the purring of bubbles on seething sands. + + + + +V + + +It took me a week to perfect my arrangements for transporting the +great auks, by water, to Port-of-Waves, where a lumber schooner was to +be sent from Petite Sainte Isole, chartered by me for a voyage to New +York. + +I had constructed a cage made of osiers, in which my auks were to +squat until they arrived at Bronx Park. My telegrams to Professor +Farrago were brief. One merely said "Victory!" Another explained that +I wanted no assistance; and a third read: "Schooner chartered. Arrive +New York July 1st. Send furniture-van to foot of Bluff Street." + +My week as a guest of Mr. Halyard proved interesting. I wrangled with +that invalid to his heart's content, I worked all day on my osier +cage, I hunted the thimble in the moonlight with the pretty nurse. We +sometimes found it. + +As for the thing they called the harbor-master, I saw it a dozen +times, but always either at night or so far away and so close to the +sea that of course no trace of it remained when I reached the spot, +rifle in hand. + +I had quite made up my mind that the so-called harbor-master was a +demented darky--wandered from, Heaven knows where--perhaps shipwrecked +and gone mad from his sufferings. Still, it was far from pleasant to +know that the creature was strongly attracted by the pretty nurse. + +She, however, persisted in regarding the harbor-master as a +sea-creature; she earnestly affirmed that it had gills, like a fish's +gills, that it had a soft, fleshy hole for a mouth, and its eyes were +luminous and lidless and fixed. + +"Besides," she said, with a shudder, "it's all slate color, like a +porpoise, and it looks as wet as a sheet of india-rubber in a +dissecting-room." + +The day before I was to set sail with my auks in a cat-boat bound for +Port-of-Waves, Halyard trundled up to me in his chair and announced +his intention of going with me. + +"Going where?" I asked. + +"To Port-of-Waves and then to New York," he replied, tranquilly. + +I was doubtful, and my lack of cordiality hurt his feelings. + +"Oh, of course, if you need the sea-voyage--" I began. + +"I don't; I need you," he said, savagely; "I need the stimulus of our +daily quarrel. I never disagreed so pleasantly with anybody in my +life; it agrees with me; I am a hundred per cent. better than I was +last week." + +I was inclined to resent this, but something in the deep-lined face of +the invalid softened me. Besides, I had taken a hearty liking to the +old pig. + +"I don't want any mawkish sentiment about it," he said, observing me +closely; "I won't permit anybody to feel sorry for me--do you +understand?" + +"I'll trouble you to use a different tone in addressing me," I +replied, hotly; "I'll feel sorry for you if I choose to!" And our +usual quarrel proceeded, to his deep satisfaction. + +By six o'clock next evening I had Halyard's luggage stowed away in the +cat-boat, and the pretty nurse's effects corded down, with the newly +hatched auk-chicks in a hat-box on top. She and I placed the osier +cage aboard, securing it firmly, and then, throwing tablecloths over +the auks' heads, we led those simple and dignified birds down the path +and across the plank at the little wooden pier. Together we locked up +the house, while Halyard stormed at us both and wheeled himself +furiously up and down the beach below. At the last moment she forgot +her thimble. But we found it, I forget where. + +"Come on!" shouted Halyard, waving his shawls furiously; "what the +devil are you about up there?" + +He received our explanation with a sniff, and we trundled him aboard +without further ceremony. + +"Don't run me across the plank like a steamer trunk!" he shouted, as I +shot him dexterously into the cock-pit. But the wind was dying away, +and I had no time to dispute with him then. + +The sun was setting above the pine-clad ridge as our sail flapped and +partly filled, and I cast off, and began a long tack, east by south, +to avoid the spouting rocks on our starboard bow. + +The sea-birds rose in clouds as we swung across the shoal, the black +surf-ducks scuttered out to sea, the gulls tossed their sun-tipped +wings in the ocean, riding the rollers like bits of froth. + +Already we were sailing slowly out across that great hole in the +ocean, five miles deep, the most profound sounding ever taken in the +Atlantic. The presence of great heights or great depths, seen or +unseen, always impresses the human mind--perhaps oppresses it. We were +very silent; the sunlight stain on cliff and beach deepened to +crimson, then faded into sombre purple bloom that lingered long after +the rose-tint died out in the zenith. + +Our progress was slow; at times, although the sail filled with the +rising land breeze, we scarcely seemed to move at all. + +"Of course," said the pretty nurse, "we couldn't be aground in the +deepest hole in the Atlantic." + +"Scarcely," said Halyard, sarcastically, "unless we're grounded on a +whale." + +"What's that soft thumping?" I asked. "Have we run afoul of a barrel +or log?" + +It was almost too dark to see, but I leaned over the rail and swept +the water with my hand. + +Instantly something smooth glided under it, like the back of a great +fish, and I jerked my hand back to the tiller. At the same moment the +whole surface of the water seemed to begin to purr, with a sound like +the breaking of froth in a champagne-glass. + +"What's the matter with you?" asked Halyard, sharply. + +"A fish came up under my hand," I said; "a porpoise or something--" + +With a low cry, the pretty nurse clasped my arm in both her hands. + +"Listen!" she whispered. "It's purring around the boat." + +"What the devil's purring?" shouted Halyard. "I won't have anything +purring around me!" + +At that moment, to my amazement, I saw that the boat had stopped +entirely, although the sail was full and the small pennant fluttered +from the mast-head. Something, too, was tugging at the rudder, +twisting and jerking it until the tiller strained and creaked in my +hand. All at once it snapped; the tiller swung useless and the boat +whirled around, heeling in the stiffening wind, and drove shoreward. + +It was then that I, ducking to escape the boom, caught a glimpse of +something ahead--something that a sudden wave seemed to toss on deck +and leave there, wet and flapping--a man with round, fixed, fishy +eyes, and soft, slaty skin. + +But the horror of the thing were the two gills that swelled and +relaxed spasmodically, emitting a rasping, purring sound--two gasping, +blood-red gills, all fluted and scolloped and distended. + +Frozen with amazement and repugnance, I stared at the creature; I felt +the hair stirring on my head and the icy sweat on my forehead. + +"It's the harbor-master!" screamed Halyard. + +The harbor-master had gathered himself into a wet lump, squatting +motionless in the bows under the mast; his lidless eyes were +phosphorescent, like the eyes of living codfish. After a while I felt +that either fright or disgust was going to strangle me where I sat, +but it was only the arms of the pretty nurse clasped around me in a +frenzy of terror. + +There was not a fire-arm aboard that we could get at. Halyard's hand +crept backward where a steel-shod boat-hook lay, and I also made a +clutch at it. The next moment I had it in my hand, and staggered +forward, but the boat was already tumbling shoreward among the +breakers, and the next I knew the harbor-master ran at me like a +colossal rat, just as the boat rolled over and over through the surf, +spilling freight and passengers among the sea-weed-covered rocks. + +When I came to myself I was thrashing about knee-deep in a rocky pool, +blinded by the water and half suffocated, while under my feet, like a +stranded porpoise, the harbor-master made the water boil in his +efforts to upset me. But his limbs seemed soft and boneless; he had no +nails, no teeth, and he bounced and thumped and flapped and splashed +like a fish, while I rained blows on him with the boat-hook that +sounded like blows on a football. And all the while his gills were +blowing out and frothing, and purring, and his lidless eyes looked +into mine, until, nauseated and trembling, I dragged myself back to +the beach, where already the pretty nurse alternately wrung her hands +and her petticoats in ornamental despair. + +Beyond the cove, Halyard was bobbing up and down, afloat in his +invalid's chair, trying to steer shoreward. He was the maddest man I +ever saw. + +"Have you killed that rubber-headed thing yet?" he roared. + +"I can't kill it," I shouted, breathlessly. "I might as well try to +kill a football!" + +"Can't you punch a hole in it?" he bawled. "If I can only get at +him--" + +His words were drowned in a thunderous splashing, a roar of great, +broad flippers beating the sea, and I saw the gigantic forms of my two +great auks, followed by their chicks, blundering past in a shower of +spray, driving headlong out into the ocean. + +"Oh, Lord!" I said. "I can't stand that," and, for the first time in +my life, I fainted peacefully--and appropriately--at the feet of the +pretty nurse. + + * * * * * + +It is within the range of possibility that this story may be doubted. +It doesn't matter; nothing can add to the despair of a man who has +lost two great auks. + +As for Halyard, nothing affects him--except his involuntary sea-bath, +and that did him so much good that he writes me from the South that +he's going on a walking-tour through Switzerland--if I'll join him. I +might have joined him if he had not married the pretty nurse. I wonder +whether--But, of course, this is no place for speculation. + +In regard to the harbor-master, you may believe it or not, as you +choose. But if you hear of any great auks being found, kindly throw a +table-cloth over their heads and notify the authorities at the new +Zoological Gardens in Bronx Park, New York. The reward is ten thousand +dollars. + + + + +VI + + +Before I proceed any further, common decency requires me to reassure +my readers concerning my intentions, which, Heaven knows, are far from +flippant. + +To separate fact from fancy has always been difficult for me, but now +that I have had the honor to be chosen secretary of the Zoological +Gardens in Bronx Park, I realize keenly that unless I give up writing +fiction nobody will believe what I write about science. Therefore it +is to a serious and unimaginative public that I shall hereafter +address myself; and I do it in the modest confidence that I shall +neither be distrusted nor doubted, although unfortunately I still +write in that irrational style which suggests covert frivolity, and +for which I am undergoing a course of treatment in English literature +at Columbia College. Now, having promised to avoid originality and +confine myself to facts, I shall tell what I have to tell concerning +the dingue, the mammoth, and--something else. + +For some weeks it had been rumored that Professor Farrago, president +of the Bronx Park Zoological Society, would resign, to accept an +enormous salary as manager of Barnum & Bailey's circus. He was now +with the circus in London, and had promised to cable his decision +before the day was over. + +I hoped he would decide to remain with us. I was his secretary and +particular favorite, and I viewed, without enthusiasm, the advent of a +new president, who might shake us all out of our congenial and +carefully excavated ruts. However, it was plain that the trustees of +the society expected the resignation of Professor Farrago, for they +had been in secret session all day, considering the names of possible +candidates to fill Professor Farrago's large, old-fashioned shoes. +These preparations worried me, for I could scarcely expect another +chief as kind and considerate as Professor Leonidas Farrago. + +That afternoon in June I left my office in the Administration Building +in Bronx Park and strolled out under the trees for a breath of air. +But the heat of the sun soon drove me to seek shelter under a little +square arbor, a shady retreat covered with purple wistaria and +honeysuckle. As I entered the arbor I noticed that there were three +other people seated there--an elderly lady with masculine features and +short hair, a younger lady sitting beside her, and, farther away, a +rough-looking young man reading a book. + +For a moment I had an indistinct impression of having met the elder +lady somewhere, and under circumstances not entirely agreeable, but +beyond a stony and indifferent glance she paid no attention to me. As +for the younger lady, she did not look at me at all. She was very +young, with pretty eyes, a mass of silky brown hair, and a skin as +fresh as a rose which had just been rained on. + +With that delicacy peculiar to lonely scientific bachelors, I modestly +sat down beside the rough young man, although there was more room +beside the younger lady. "Some lazy loafer reading a penny dreadful," +I thought, glancing at him, then at the title of his book. Hearing me +beside him, he turned around and blinked over his shabby shoulder, and +the movement uncovered the page he had been silently conning. The +volume in his hands was Darwin's famous monograph on the monodactyl. + +He noticed the astonishment on my face and smiled uneasily, shifting +the short clay pipe in his mouth. + +"I guess," he observed, "that this here book is too much for me, +mister." + +"It's rather technical," I replied, smiling. + +"Yes," he said, in vague admiration; "it's fierce, ain't it?" + +After a silence I asked him if he would tell me why he had chosen +Darwin as a literary pastime. + +"Well," he said, placidly, "I was tryin' to read about annermals, but +I'm up against a word-slinger this time all right. Now here's a +gum-twister," and he painfully spelled out m-o-n-o-d-a-c-t-y-l, +breathing hard all the while. + +"Monodactyl," I said, "means a single-toed creature." + +He turned the page with alacrity. "Is that the beast he's talkin' +about?" he asked. + +The illustration he pointed out was a wood-cut representing Darwin's +reconstruction of the dingue from the fossil bones in the British +Museum. It was a well-executed wood-cut, showing a dingue in the +foreground and, to give scale, a mammoth in the middle distance. + +"Yes," I replied, "that is the dingue." + +"I've seen one," he observed, calmly. + +I smiled and explained that the dingue had been extinct for some +thousands of years. + +"Oh, I guess not," he replied, with cool optimism. Then he placed a +grimy forefinger on the mammoth. + +"I've seen them things, too," he remarked. + +Again I patiently pointed out his error, and suggested that he +referred to the elephant. + +"Elephant be blowed!" he replied, scornfully. "I guess I know what I +seen. An' I seen that there thing you call a dingue, too." + +Not wishing to prolong a futile discussion, I remained silent. After a +moment he wheeled around, removing his pipe from his hard mouth. + +"Did you ever hear tell of Graham's Glacier?" he demanded. + +"Certainly," I replied, astonished; "it's the southernmost glacier in +British America." + +"Right," he said. "And did you ever hear tell of the Hudson Mountings, +mister?" + +"Yes," I replied. + +"What's behind 'em?" he snapped out. + +"Nobody knows," I answered. "They are considered impassable." + +"They ain't, though," he said, doggedly; "I've been behind 'em." + +"Really!" I replied, tiring of his yarn. + +"Ya-as, reely," he repeated, sullenly. Then he began to fumble and +search through the pages of his book until he found what he wanted. +"Mister," he said, "jest read that out loud, please." + +The passage he indicated was the famous chapter beginning: + + "Is the mammoth extinct? Is the dingue extinct? Probably. And + yet the aborigines of British America maintain the contrary. + Probably both the mammoth and the dingue are extinct; but + until expeditions have penetrated and explored not only the + unknown region in Alaska but also that hidden table-land + beyond the Graham Glacier and the Hudson Mountains, it will + not be possible to definitely announce the total extinction of + either the mammoth or the dingue." + +When I had read it, slowly, for his benefit, he brought his hand down +smartly on one knee and nodded rapidly. + +"Mister," he said, "that gent knows a thing or two, and don't you +forgit it!" Then he demanded, abruptly, how I knew he hadn't been +behind the Graham Glacier. + +I explained. + +"Shucks!" he said; "there's a road five miles wide inter that there +table-land. Mister, I ain't been in New York long; I come inter port a +week ago on the _Arctic Belle_, whaler. I was in the Hudson range when +that there Graham Glacier bust up--" + +"What!" I exclaimed. + +"Didn't you know it?" he asked. "Well, mebbe it ain't in the papers, +but it busted all right--blowed up by a earthquake an' volcano +combine. An', mister, it was oreful. My, how I did run!" + +"Do you mean to tell me that some convulsion of the earth has +shattered the Graham Glacier?" I asked. + +"Convulsions? Ya-as, an' fits, too," he said, sulkily. "The hull blame +thing dropped inter a hole. An' say, mister, home an' mother is good +enough fur me now." + +I stared at him stupidly. + +"Once," he said, "I ketched pelts fur them sharps at Hudson Bay, like +any yaller husky, but the things I seen arter that convulsion-fit--the +_things I seen behind the Hudson Mountings_--don't make me hanker +arter no life on the pe-rarie wild, lemme tell yer. I may be a Mother +Carey chicken, but this chicken has got enough." + +After a long silence I picked up his book again and pointed at the +picture of the mammoth. + +"What color is it?" I asked. + +"Kinder red an' brown," he answered, promptly. "It's woolly, too." + +Astounded, I pointed to the dingue. + +"One-toed," he said, quickly; "makes a noise like a bell when +scutterin' about." + +Intensely excited, I laid my hand on his arm. "My society will give +you a thousand dollars," I said, "if you pilot me inside the Hudson +table-land and show me either a mammoth or a dingue!" + +He looked me calmly in the eye. + +"Mister," he said, slowly, "have you got a million for to squander on +me?" + +"No," I said, suspiciously. + +"Because," he went on, "it wouldn't be enough. Home an' mother suits +me now." + +He picked up his book and rose. In vain I asked his name and address; +in vain I begged him to dine with me--to become my honored guest. + +"Nit," he said, shortly, and shambled off down the path. + +But I was not going to lose him like that. I rose and deliberately +started to stalk him. It was easy. He shuffled along, pulling on his +pipe, and I after him. + +It was growing a little dark, although the sun still reddened the tops +of the maples. Afraid of losing him in the falling dusk, I once more +approached him and laid my hand upon his ragged sleeve. + +"Look here," he cried, wheeling about, "I want you to quit follerin' +me. Don't I tell you money can't make me go back to them mountings!" +And as I attempted to speak, he suddenly tore off his cap and pointed +to his head. His hair was white as snow. + +"That's what come of monkeyin' inter your cursed mountings," he +shouted, fiercely. "There's things in there what no Christian oughter +see. Lemme alone er I'll bust yer." + +He shambled on, doubled fists swinging by his side. The next moment, +setting my teeth obstinately, I followed him and caught him by the +park gate. At my hail he whirled around with a snarl, but I grabbed +him by the throat and backed him violently against the park wall. + +"You invaluable ruffian," I said, "now you listen to me. I live in +that big stone building, and I'll give you a thousand dollars to take +me behind the Graham Glacier. Think it over and call on me when you +are in a pleasanter frame of mind. If you don't come by noon to-morrow +I'll go to the Graham Glacier without you." + +He was attempting to kick me all the time, but I managed to avoid him, +and when I had finished I gave him a shove which almost loosened his +spinal column. He went reeling out across the sidewalk, and when he +had recovered his breath and his balance he danced with displeasure +and displayed a vocabulary that astonished me. However, he kept his +distance. + +As I turned back into the park, satisfied that he would not follow, +the first person I saw was the elderly, stony-faced lady of the +wistaria arbor advancing on tiptoe. Behind her came the younger lady +with cheeks like a rose that had been rained on. + +Instantly it occurred to me that they had followed us, and at the same +moment I knew who the stony-faced lady was. Angry, but polite, I +lifted my hat and saluted her, and she, probably furious at having +been caught tip-toeing after me, cut me dead. The younger lady passed +me with face averted, but even in the dusk I could see the tip of one +little ear turn scarlet. + +Walking on hurriedly, I entered the Administration Building, and found +Professor Lesard, of the reptilian department, preparing to leave. + +"Don't you do it," I said, sharply; "I've got exciting news." + +"I'm only going to the theatre," he replied. "It's a good show--Adam +and Eve; there's a snake in it, you know. It's in my line." + +"I can't help it," I said; and I told him briefly what had occurred in +the arbor. + +"But that's not all," I continued, savagely. "Those women followed us, +and who do you think one of them turned out to be? Well, it was +Professor Smawl, of Barnard College, and I'll bet every pair of boots +I own that she starts for the Graham Glacier within a week. Idiot that +I was!" I exclaimed, smiting my head with both hands. "I never +recognized her until I saw her tip-toeing and craning her neck to +listen. Now she knows about the glacier; she heard every word that +young ruffian said, and she'll go to the glacier if it's only to +forestall me." + +Professor Lesard looked anxious. He knew that Miss Smawl, professor of +natural history at Barnard College, had long desired an appointment +at the Bronx Park gardens. It was even said she had a chance of +succeeding Professor Farrago as president, but that, of course, must +have been a joke. However, she haunted the gardens, annoying the +keepers by persistently poking the animals with her umbrella. On one +occasion she sent us word that she desired to enter the tigers' +enclosure for the purpose of making experiments in hypnotism. +Professor Farrago was absent, but I took it upon myself to send back +word that I feared the tigers might injure her. The miserable small +boy who took my message informed her that I was afraid she might +injure the tigers, and the unpleasant incident almost cost me my +position. + +"I am quite convinced," said I to Professor Lesard, "that Miss Smawl +is perfectly capable of abusing the information she overheard, and of +starting herself to explore a region that, by all the laws of decency, +justice, and prior claim, belongs to me." + +"Well," said Lesard, with a peculiar laugh, "it's not certain whether +you can go at all." + +"Professor Farrago will authorize me," I said, confidently. + +"Professor Farrago has resigned," said Lesard. It was a bolt from a +clear sky. + +"Good Heavens!" I blurted out. "What will become of the rest of us, +then?" + +"I don't know," he replied. "The trustees are holding a meeting over +in the Administration Building to elect a new president for us. It +depends on the new president what becomes of us." + +"Lesard," I said, hoarsely, "you don't suppose that they could +possibly elect Miss Smawl as our president, do you?" + +He looked at me askance and bit his cigar. + +"I'd be in a nice position, wouldn't I?" said I, anxiously. + +"The lady would probably make you walk the plank for that tiger +business," he replied. + +"But I didn't do it," I protested, with sickly eagerness. "Besides, I +explained to her--" + +He said nothing, and I stared at him, appalled by the possibility of +reporting to Professor Smawl for instructions next morning. + +"See here, Lesard," I said, nervously, "I wish you would step over to +the Administration Building and ask the trustees if I may prepare for +this expedition. Will you?" + +He glanced at me sympathetically. It was quite natural for me to wish +to secure my position before the new president was elected--especially +as there was a chance of the new president being Miss Smawl. + +"You are quite right," he said; "the Graham Glacier would be the +safest place for you if our next president is to be the Lady of the +Tigers." And he started across the park puffing his cigar. + +I sat down on the doorstep to wait for his return, not at all charmed +with the prospect. It made me furious, too, to see my ambition nipped +with the frost of a possible veto from Miss Smawl. + +"If she is elected," thought I, "there is nothing for me but to +resign--to avoid the inconvenience of being shown the door. Oh, I wish +I had allowed her to hypnotize the tigers!" + +Thoughts of crime flitted through my mind. Miss Smawl would not remain +president--or anything else very long--if she persisted in her desire +for the tigers. And then when she called for help I would pretend not +to hear. + +Aroused from criminal meditation by the return of Professor Lesard, I +jumped up and peered into his perplexed eyes. "They've elected a +president," he said, "but they won't tell us who the president is +until to-morrow." + +"You don't think--" I stammered. + +"I don't know. But I know this: the new president sanctions the +expedition to the Graham Glacier, and directs you to choose an +assistant and begin preparations for four people." + +Overjoyed, I seized his hand and said, "Hurray!" in a voice weak with +emotion. "The old dragon isn't elected this time," I added, +triumphantly. + +"By-the-way," he said, "who was the other dragon with her in the park +this evening?" + +I described her in a more modulated voice. + +"Whew!" observed Professor Lesard, "that must be her assistant, +Professor Dorothy Van Twiller! She's the prettiest blue-stocking in +town." + +With this curious remark my confrère followed me into my room and +wrote down the list of articles I dictated to him. The list included a +complete camping equipment for myself and three other men. + +"Am I one of those other men?" inquired Lesard, with an unhappy smile. + +Before I could reply my door was shoved open and a figure appeared at +the threshold, cap in hand. + +"What do you want?" I asked, sternly; but my heart was beating high +with triumph. + +The figure shuffled; then came a subdued voice: + +"Mister, I guess I'll go back to the Graham Glacier along with you. +I'm Billy Spike, an' it kinder scares me to go back to them Hudson +Mountains, but somehow, mister, when you choked me and kinder walked +me off on my ear, why, mister, I kinder took to you like." + +There was absolute silence for a minute; then he said: + +"So if you go, I guess I'll go, too, mister." + +"For a thousand dollars?" + +"Fur nawthin'," he muttered--"or what you like." + +"All right, Billy," I said, briskly; "just look over those rifles and +ammunition and see that everything's sound." + +He slowly lifted his tough young face and gave me a doglike glance. +They were hard eyes, but there was gratitude in them. + +"You'll get your throat slit," whispered Lesard. + +"Not while Billy's with me," I replied, cheerfully. + +Late that night, as I was preparing for pleasant dreams, a knock came +on my door and a telegraph-messenger handed me a note, which I read, +shivering in my bare feet, although the thermometer marked eighty +Fahrenheit: + + "You will immediately leave for the Hudson Mountains via + Wellman Bay, Labrador, there to await further instructions. + Equipment for yourself and one assistant will include + following articles" [here began a list of camping utensils, + scientific paraphernalia, and provisions]. "The steamer + _Penguin_ sails at five o'clock to-morrow morning. Kindly find + yourself on board at that hour. Any excuse for not complying + with these orders will be accepted as your resignation. + + "SUSAN SMAWL, + "President Bronx Zoological Society." + +"Lesard!" I shouted, trembling with fury. + +He appeared at his door, chastely draped in pajamas; and he read the +insolent letter with terrified alacrity. + +"What are you going to do--resign?" he asked, much frightened. + +"Do!" I snarled, grinding my teeth; "I'm going--that's what I'm going +to do!" + +"But--but you can't get ready and catch that steamer, too," he +stammered. + +He did not know me. + + + + +VII + + +And so it came about that one calm evening towards the end of June, +William Spike and I went into camp under the southerly shelter of that +vast granite wall called the Hudson Mountains, there to await the +promised "further instructions." + +It had been a tiresome trip by steamer to Anticosti, from there by +schooner to Widgeon Bay, then down the coast and up the Cape Clear +River to Port Porpoise. There we bought three pack-mules and started +due north on the Great Fur Trail. The second day out we passed Fort +Boisé, the last outpost of civilization, and on the sixth day we were +travelling eastward under the granite mountain parapets. + +On the evening of the sixth day out from Fort Boisé we went into camp +for the last time before entering the unknown land. + +I could see it already through my field-glasses, and while William was +building the fire I climbed up among the rocks above and sat down, +glasses levelled, to study the prospect. + +There was nothing either extraordinary or forbidding in the landscape +which stretched out beyond; to the right the solid palisade of granite +cut off the view; to the left the palisade continued, an endless +barrier of sheer cliffs crowned with pine and hemlock. But the +interesting section of the landscape lay almost directly in front of +me--a rent in the mountain-wall through which appeared to run a level, +arid plain, miles wide, and as smooth and even as a highroad. + +There could be no doubt concerning the significance of that rent in +the solid mountain-wall; and, moreover, it was exactly as William +Spike had described it. However, I called to him and he came up from +the smoky camp-fire, axe on shoulder. + +"Yep," he said, squatting beside me; "the Graham Glacier used to +meander through that there hole, but somethin' went wrong with the +earth's in'ards an' there was a bust-up." + +"And you saw it, William?" I said, with a sigh of envy. + +"Hey? Seen it? Sure I seen it! I was to Spoutin' Springs, twenty mile +west, with a bale o' blue fox an' otter pelt. Fust I knew them geysers +begun for to groan egregious like, an' I seen the caribou gallopin' +hell-bent south. 'This climate,' sez I, 'is too bracin' for me,' so I +struck a back trail an' landed onto a hill. Then them geysers blowed +up, one arter the next, an' I heard somethin' kinder cave in between +here an' China. I disremember things what happened. Somethin' throwed +me down, but I couldn't stay there, for the blamed ground was runnin' +like a river--all wavy-like, an' the sky hit me on the back o' me +head." + +"And then?" I urged, in that new excitement which every repetition of +the story revived. I had heard it all twenty times since we left New +York, but mere repetition could not apparently satisfy me. + +"Then," continued William, "the whole world kinder went off like a +fire-cracker, an' I come too, an' ran like--" + +"I know," said I, cutting him short, for I had become wearied of the +invariable profanity which lent a lurid ending to his narrative. + +"After that," I continued, "you went through the rent in the +mountains?" + +"Sure." + +"And you saw a dingue and a creature that resembled a mammoth?" + +"Sure," he repeated, sulkily. + +"And you saw something else?" I always asked this question; it +fascinated me to see the sullen fright flicker in William's eyes, and +the mechanical backward glance, as though what he had seen might still +be behind him. + +He had never answered this third question but once, and that time he +fairly snarled in my face as he growled: "I seen what no Christian +oughter see." + +So when I repeated: "And you saw something else, William?" he gave me +a wicked, frightened leer, and shuffled off to feed the mules. +Flattery, entreaties, threats left him unmoved; he never told me what +the third thing was that he had seen behind the Hudson Mountains. + +William had retired to mix up with his mules; I resumed my binoculars +and my silent inspection of the great, smooth path left by the Graham +Glacier when something or other exploded that vast mass of ice into +vapor. + +The arid plain wound out from the unknown country like a river, and I +thought then, and think now, that when the glacier was blown into +vapor the vapor descended in the most terrific rain the world has ever +seen, and poured through the newly blasted mountain-gateway, sweeping +the earth to bed-rock. To corroborate this theory, miles to the +southward I could see the débris winding out across the land towards +Wellman Bay, but as the terminal moraine of the vanished glacier +formerly ended there I could not be certain that my theory was +correct. Owing to the formation of the mountains I could not see more +than half a mile into the unknown country. What I could see appeared +to be nothing but the continuation of the glacier's path, scored out +by the cloud-burst, and swept as smooth as a floor. + +Sitting there, my heart beating heavily with excitement, I looked +through the evening glow at the endless, pine-crowned mountain-wall +with its giant's gateway pierced for me! And I thought of all the +explorers and the unknown heroes--trappers, Indians, humble +naturalists, perhaps--who had attempted to scale that sheer barricade +and had died there or failed, beaten back from those eternal cliffs. +Eternal? No! For the Eternal Himself had struck the rock, and it had +sprung asunder, thundering obedience. + +In the still evening air the smoke from the fire below mounted in a +straight, slender pillar, like the smoke from those ancient altars +builded before the first blood had been shed on earth. + +The evening wind stirred the pines; a tiny spring brook made thin +harmony among the rocks; a murmur came from the quiet camp. It was +William adjuring his mules. In the deepening twilight I descended the +hillock, stepping cautiously among the rocks. + +Then, suddenly, as I stood outside the reddening ring of firelight, +far in the depths of the unknown country, far behind the +mountain-wall, a sound grew on the quiet air. William heard it and +turned his face to the mountains. The sound faded to a vibration which +was felt, not heard. Then once more I began to divine a vibration in +the air, gathering in distant volume until it became a sound, lasting +the space of a spoken word, fading to vibration, then silence. + +Was it a cry? + +I looked at William inquiringly. He had quietly fainted away. + +I got him to the little brook and poked his head into the icy water, +and after a while he sat up pluckily. + +To an indignant question he replied: "Naw, I ain't a-cussin' you. +Lemme be or I'll have fits." + +"Was it that sound that scared you?" I asked. + +"Ya-as," he replied with a dauntless shiver. + +"Was it the voice of the mammoth?" I persisted, excitedly. "Speak, +William, or I'll drag you about and kick you!" + +He replied that it was neither a mammoth nor a dingue, and added a +strong request for privacy, which I was obliged to grant, as I could +not torture another word out of him. + +I slept little that night; the exciting proximity of the unknown land +was too much for me. But although I lay awake for hours, I heard +nothing except the tinkle of water among the rocks and the plover +calling from some hidden marsh. At daybreak I shot a ptarmigan which +had walked into camp, and the shot set the echoes yelling among the +mountains. + +William, sullen and heavy-eyed, dressed the bird, and we broiled it +for breakfast. + +Neither he nor I alluded to the sound we had heard the night before; +he boiled water and cleaned up the mess-kit, and I pottered about +among the rocks for another ptarmigan. Wearying of this, presently, I +returned to the mules and William, and sat down for a smoke. + +"It strikes me," I said, "that our instructions to 'await further +orders' are idiotic. How are we to receive 'further orders' here?" + +William did not know. + +"You don't suppose," said I, in sudden disgust, "that Miss Smawl +believes there is a summer hotel and daily mail service in the Hudson +Mountains?" + +William thought perhaps she did suppose something of the sort. + +It irritated me beyond measure to find myself at last on the very +border of the unknown country, and yet checked, held back, by the +irresponsible orders of a maiden lady named Smawl. However, my salary +depended upon the whim of that maiden lady, and although I fussed and +fumed and glared at the mountains through my glasses, I realized that +I could not stir without the permission of Miss Smawl. At times this +grotesque situation became almost unbearable, and I often went away by +myself and indulged in fantasies, firing my gun off and pretending I +had hit Miss Smawl by mistake. At such moments I would imagine I was +free at last to plunge into the strange country, and I would squat on +a rock and dream of bagging my first mammoth. + +The time passed heavily; the tension increased with each new day. I +shot ptarmigan and kept our table supplied with brook-trout. William +chopped wood, conversed with his mules, and cooked very badly. + +"See here," I said, one morning; "we have been in camp a week to-day, +and I can't stand your cooking another minute!" + +William, who was washing a saucepan, looked up and begged me +sarcastically to accept the _cordon bleu_. But I know only how to cook +eggs, and there were no eggs within some hundred miles. + +To get the flavor of the breakfast out of my mouth I walked up to my +favorite hillock and sat down for a smoke. The next moment, however, I +was on my feet, cheering excitedly and shouting for William. + +"Here come 'further instructions' at last!" I cried, pointing to the +southward, where two dots on the grassy plain were imperceptibly +moving in our direction. + +"People on mules," said William, without enthusiasm. + +"They must be messengers for us!" I cried, in chaste joy. "Three +cheers for the northward trail, William, and the mischief take +Miss--Well, never mind now," I added. + +"On them approachin' mules," observed William, "there is wimmen." + +I stared at him for a second, then attempted to strike him. He dodged +wearily and repeated his incredible remark: "Ya-as, there +is--wimmen--two female ladies onto them there mules." + +"Bring me my glasses!" I said, hoarsely; "bring me those glasses, +William, because I shall destroy you if you don't!" + +Somewhat awed by my calm fury, he hastened back to camp and returned +with the binoculars. It was a breathless moment. I adjusted the lenses +with a steady hand and raised them. + +Now, of all unexpected sights my fate may reserve for me in the +future, I trust--nay, I know--that none can ever prove as unwelcome as +the sight I perceived through my binoculars. For upon the backs of +those distant mules were two women, and the first one was Miss Smawl! + +Upon her head she wore a helmet, from which fluttered a green veil. +Otherwise she was clothed in tweeds; and at moments she beat upon her +mule with a thick umbrella. + +Surfeited with the sickening spectacle, I sat down on a rock and tried +to cry. + +"I told yer so," observed William; but I was too tired to attack him. + +When the caravan rode into camp I was myself again, smilingly prepared +for the worst, and I advanced, cap in hand, followed furtively by +William. + +"Welcome," I said, violently injecting joy into my voice. "Welcome, +Professor Smawl, to the Hudson Mountains!" + +"Kindly take my mule," she said, climbing down to mother earth. + +"William," I said, with dignity, "take the lady's mule." + +Miss Smawl gave me a stolid glance, then made directly for the +camp-fire, where a kettle of game-broth simmered over the coals. The +last I saw of her she was smelling of it, and I turned my back and +advanced towards the second lady pilgrim, prepared to be civil until +snubbed. + +Now, it is quite certain that never before had William Spike or I +beheld so much feminine loveliness in one human body on the back of a +mule. She was clad in the daintiest of shooting-kilts, yet there was +nothing mannish about her except the way she rode the mule, and that +only accentuated her adorable femininity. + +I remembered what Professor Lesard had said about blue stockings--but +Miss Dorothy Van Twiller's were gray, turned over at the tops, and +disappearing into canvas spats buckled across a pair of slim +shooting-boots. + +"Welcome," said I, attempting to restrain a too violent cordiality. +"Welcome, Professor Van Twiller, to the Hudson Mountains." + +"Thank you," she replied, accepting my assistance very sweetly; "it is +a pleasure to meet a human being again." + +I glanced at Miss Smawl. She was eating game-broth, but she resembled +a human being in a general way. + +"I should very much like to wash my hands," said Professor Van +Twiller, drawing the buckskin gloves from her slim fingers. + +I brought towels and soap and conducted her to the brook. + +She called to Professor Smawl to join her, and her voice was +crystalline; Professor Smawl declined, and her voice was batrachian. + +"She is so hungry!" observed Miss Van Twiller. "I am very thankful we +are here at last, for we've had a horrid time. You see, we neither of +us know how to cook." + +I wondered what they would say to William's cooking, but I held my +peace and retired, leaving the little brook to mirror the sweetest +face that was ever bathed in water. + + + + +VIII + + +That afternoon our expedition, in two sections, moved forward. The +first section comprised myself and all the mules; the second section +was commanded by Professor Smawl, followed by Professor Van Twiller, +armed with a tiny shot-gun. William, loaded down with the ladies' +toilet articles, skulked in the rear. I say skulked; there was no +other word for it. + +"So you're a guide, are you?" observed Professor Smawl when William, +cap in hand, had approached her with well-meant advice. "The woods are +full of lazy guides. Pick up those Gladstone bags! I'll do the guiding +for this expedition." + +Made cautious by William's humiliation, I associated with the mules +exclusively. Nevertheless, Professor Smawl had her hard eyes on me, +and I realized she meant mischief. + +The encounter took place just as I, driving the five mules, entered +the great mountain gateway, thrilled with anticipation which almost +amounted to foreboding. As I was about to set foot across the +imaginary frontier which divided the world from the unknown land, +Professor Smawl hailed me and I halted until she came up. + +"As commander of this expedition," she said, somewhat out of breath, +"I desire to be the first living creature who has ever set foot +behind the Graham Glacier. Kindly step aside, young sir!" + +"Madam," said I, rigid with disappointment, "my guide, William Spike, +entered that unknown land a year ago." + +"He _says_ he did," sneered Professor Smawl. + +"As you like," I replied; "but it is scarcely generous to forestall +the person whose stupidity gave you the clew to this unexplored +region." + +"You mean yourself?" she asked, with a stony stare. + +"I do," said I, firmly. + +Her little, hard eyes grew harder, and she clutched her umbrella until +the steel ribs crackled. + +"Young man," she said, insolently; "if I could have gotten rid of you +I should have done so the day I was appointed president. But Professor +Farrago refused to resign unless your position was assured, subject, +of course, to your good behavior. Frankly, I don't like you, and I +consider your views on science ridiculous, and if an opportunity +presents itself I will be most happy to request your resignation. +Kindly collect your mules and follow me." + +Mortified beyond measure, I collected my mules and followed my +president into the strange country behind the Hudson Mountains--I who +had aspired to lead, compelled to follow in the rear, driving mules. + +The journey was monotonous at first, but we shortly ascended a ridge +from which we could see, stretching out below us, the wilderness +where, save the feet of William Spike, no human feet had passed. + +As for me, tingling with enthusiasm, I forgot my chagrin, I forgot the +gross injustice, I forgot my mules. "Excelsior!" I cried, running up +and down the ridge in uncontrollable excitement at the sublime +spectacle of forest, mountain, and valley all set with little lakes. + +"Excelsior!" repeated an excited voice at my side, and Professor Van +Twiller sprang to the ridge beside me, her eyes bright as stars. + +Exalted, inspired by the mysterious beauty of the view, we clasped +hands and ran up and down the grassy ridge. + +"That will do," said Professor Smawl, coldly, as we raced about like a +pair of distracted kittens. The chilling voice broke the spell; I +dropped Professor Van Twiller's hand and sat down on a bowlder, aching +with wrath. + +Late that afternoon we halted beside a tiny lake, deep in the unknown +wilderness, where purple and scarlet bergamot choked the shores and +the spruce-partridge strutted fearlessly under our very feet. Here we +pitched our two tents. The afternoon sun slanted through the pines; +the lake glittered; acres of golden brake perfumed the forest silence, +broken only at rare intervals by the distant thunder of a partridge +drumming. + +Professor Smawl ate heavily and retired to her tent to lie torpid +until evening. William drove the unloaded mules into an intervale full +of sun-cured, fragrant grasses; I sat down beside Professor Van +Twiller. + +The wilderness is electric. Once within the influence of its currents, +human beings become positively or negatively charged, violently +attracting or repelling each other. + +"There is something the matter with this air," said Professor Van +Twiller. "It makes me feel as though I were desperately enamoured of +the entire human race." + +She leaned back against a pine, smiling vaguely, and crossing one knee +over the other. + +Now I am not bold by temperament, and, normally, I fear ladies. +Therefore it surprised me to hear myself begin a frivolous _causerie_, +replying to her pretty epigrams with epigrams of my own, advancing to +the borderland of badinage, fearlessly conducting her and myself over +that delicate frontier to meet upon the terrain of undisguised +flirtation. + +It was clear that she was out for a holiday. The seriousness and +restraints of twenty-two years she had left behind her in the +civilized world, and now, with a shrug of her young shoulders, she +unloosened her burden of reticence, dignity, and responsibility and +let the whole load fall with a discreet thud. + +"Even hares go mad in March," she said, seriously. "I know you intend +to flirt with me--and I don't care. Anyway, there's nothing else to +do, is there?" + +"Suppose," said I, solemnly, "I should take you behind that big tree +and attempt to kiss you!" + +The prospect did not appear to appall her, so I looked around with +that sneaking yet conciliatory caution peculiar to young men who are +novices in the art. Before I had satisfied myself that neither William +nor the mules were observing us, Professor Van Twiller rose to her +feet and took a short step backward. + +"Let's set traps for a dingue," she said, "will you?" + +I looked at the big tree, undecided. "Come on," she said; "I'll show +you how." And away we went into the woods, she leading, her kilts +flashing through the golden half-light. + +Now I had not the faintest notion how to trap the dingue, but +Professor Van Twiller asserted that it formerly fed on the tender tips +of the spruce, quoting Darwin as her authority. + +So we gathered a bushel of spruce-tips, piled them on the bank of a +little stream, then built a miniature stockade around the bait, a foot +high. I roofed this with hemlock, then laboriously whittled out and +adjusted a swinging shutter for the entrance, setting it on springy +twigs. + +"The dingue, you know, was supposed to live in the water," she said, +kneeling beside me over our trap. + +I took her little hand and thanked her for the information. + +"Doubtless," she said, enthusiastically, "a dingue will come out of +the lake to-night to feed on our spruce-tips. Then," she added, "we've +got him." + +"True!" I said, earnestly, and pressed her fingers very gently. + +Her face was turned a little away; I don't remember what she said; I +don't remember that she said anything. A faint rose-tint stole over +her cheek. A few moments later she said: "You must not do that again." + +It was quite late when we strolled back to camp. Long before we came +in sight of the twin tents we heard a deep voice bawling our names. It +was Professor Smawl, and she pounced upon Dorothy and drove her +ignominiously into the tent. + +"As for you," she said, in hollow tones, "you may explain your +conduct at once, or place your resignation at my disposal." + +But somehow or other I appeared to be temporarily lost to shame, and I +only smiled at my infuriated president, and entered my own tent with a +step that was distinctly frolicsome. + +"Billy," said I to William Spike, who regarded me morosely from the +depths of the tent, "I'm going out to bag a mammoth to-morrow, so +kindly clean my elephant-gun and bring an axe to chop out the tusks." + +That night Professor Smawl complained bitterly of the cooking, but as +neither Dorothy nor I knew how to improve it, she revenged herself on +us by eating everything on the table and retiring to bed, taking +Dorothy with her. + +I could not sleep very well; the mosquitoes were intrusive, and +Professor Smawl dreamed she was a pack of wolves and yelped in her +sleep. + +"Bird, ain't she?" said William, roused from slumber by her weird +noises. + +Dorothy, much frightened, crawled out of her tent, where her +blanket-mate still dreamed dyspeptically, and William and I made her +comfortable by the camp-fire. + +It takes a pretty girl to look pretty half asleep in a blanket. + +"Are you sure you are quite well?" I asked her. + +To make sure, I tested her pulse. For an hour it varied more or less, +but without alarming either of us. Then she went back to bed and I sat +alone by the camp-fire. + +Towards midnight I suddenly began to feel that strange, distant +vibration that I had once before felt. As before, the vibration grew +on the still air, increasing in volume until it became a sound, then +died out into silence. + +I rose and stole into my tent. + +William, white as death, lay in his corner, weeping in his sleep. + +I roused him remorselessly, and he sat up scowling, but refused to +tell me what he had been dreaming. + +"Was it about that third thing you saw--" I began. But he snarled up +at me like a startled animal, and I was obliged to go to bed and toss +about and speculate. + +The next morning it rained. Dorothy and I visited our dingue-trap but +found nothing in it. We were inclined, however, to stay out in the +rain behind a big tree, but Professor Smawl vetoed that proposition +and sent me off to supply the larder with fresh meat. + +I returned, mad and wet, with a dozen partridges and a white +hare--brown at that season--and William cooked them vilely. + +"I can taste the feathers!" said Professor Smawl, indignantly. + +"There is no accounting for taste," I said, with a polite gesture of +deprecation; "personally, I find feathers unpalatable." + +"You may hand in your resignation this evening!" cried Professor +Smawl, in hollow tones of passion. + +I passed her the pancakes with a cheerful smile, and flippantly +pressed the hand next me. Unexpectedly it proved to be William's +sticky fist, and Dorothy and I laughed until her tears ran into +Professor Smawl's coffee-cup--an accident which kindled her wrath to +red heat, and she requested my resignation five times during the +evening. + +The next day it rained again, more or less. Professor Smawl complained +of the cooking, demanded my resignation, and finally marched out to +explore, lugging the reluctant William with her. Dorothy and I sat +down behind the largest tree we could find. + +I don't remember what we were saying when a peculiar sound interrupted +us, and we listened earnestly. + +It was like a bell in the woods, ding-dong! ding-dong! ding-dong!--a +low, mellow, golden harmony, coming nearer, then stopping. + +I clasped Dorothy in my arms in my excitement. + +"It is the note of the dingue!" I whispered, "and that explains its +name, handed down from remote ages along with the names of the +behemoth and the coney. It was because of its bell-like cry that it +was named! Darling!" I cried, forgetting our short acquaintance, "we +have made a discovery that the whole world will ring with!" + +Hand in hand we tiptoed through the forest to our trap. There was +something in it that took fright at our approach and rushed +panic-stricken round and round the interior of the trap, uttering its +alarm-note, which sounded like the jangling of a whole string of +bells. + +I seized the strangely beautiful creature; it neither attempted to +bite nor scratch, but crouched in my arms, trembling and eying me. + +Delighted with the lovely, tame animal, we bore it tenderly back to +the camp and placed it on my blanket. Hand in hand we stood before it, +awed by the sight of this beast, so long believed to be extinct. + +"It is too good to be true," sighed Dorothy, clasping her white hands +under her chin and gazing at the dingue in rapture. + +"Yes," said I, solemnly, "you and I, my child, are face to face with +the fabled dingue--_Dingus solitarius_! Let us continue to gaze at it, +reverently, prayerfully, humbly--" + +Dorothy yawned--probably with excitement. + +We were still mutely adoring the dingue when Professor Smawl burst +into the tent at a hand-gallop, bawling hoarsely for her kodak and +note-book. + +Dorothy seized her triumphantly by the arm and pointed at the dingue, +which appeared to be frightened to death. + +"What!" cried Professor Smawl, scornfully; "_that_ a dingue? Rubbish!" + +"Madam," I said, firmly, "it is a dingue! It's a monodactyl! See! It +has but a single toe!" + +"Bosh!" she retorted; "it's got four!" + +"Four!" I repeated, blankly. + +"Yes; one on each foot!" + +"Of course," I said; "you didn't suppose a monodactyl meant a beast +with one leg and one toe!" + +But she laughed hatefully and declared it was a woodchuck. + +We squabbled for a while until I saw the significance of her attitude. +The unfortunate woman wished to find a dingue first and be accredited +with the discovery. + +I lifted the dingue in both hands and shook the creature gently, until +the chiming ding-dong of its protestations filled our ears like sweet +bells jangled out of tune. + +Pale with rage at this final proof of the dingue's identity, she +seized her camera and note-book. + +"I haven't any time to waste over that musical woodchuck!" she +shouted, and bounced out of the tent. + +"What have you discovered, dear?" cried Dorothy, running after her. + +"A mammoth!" bawled Professor Smawl, triumphantly; "and I'm going to +photograph him!" + +Neither Dorothy nor I believed her. We watched the flight of the +infatuated woman in silence. + +And now, at last, the tragic shadow falls over my paper as I write. I +was never passionately attached to Professor Smawl, yet I would gladly +refrain from chronicling the episode that must follow if, as I have +hitherto attempted, I succeed in sticking to the unornamented truth. + +I have said that neither Dorothy nor I believed her. I don't know why, +unless it was that we had not yet made up our minds to believe that +the mammoth still existed on earth. So, when Professor Smawl +disappeared in the forest, scuttling through the underbrush like a +demoralized hen, we viewed her flight with unconcern. There was a +large tree in the neighborhood--a pleasant shelter in case of rain. So +we sat down behind it, although the sun was shining fiercely. + +It was one of those peaceful afternoons in the wilderness when the +whole forest dreams, and the shadows are asleep and every little +leaflet takes a nap. Under the still tree-tops the dappled sunlight, +motionless, soaked the sod; the forest-flies no longer whirled in +circles, but sat sunning their wings on slender twig-tips. + +The heat was sweet and spicy; the sun drew out the delicate essence +of gum and sap, warming volatile juices until they exhaled through the +aromatic bark. + +The sun went down into the wilderness; the forest stirred in its +sleep; a fish splashed in the lake. The spell was broken. Presently +the wind began to rise somewhere far away in the unknown land. I heard +it coming, nearer, nearer--a brisk wind that grew heavier and blew +harder as it neared us--a gale that swept distant branches--a furious +gale that set limbs clashing and cracking, nearer and nearer. Crack! +and the gale grew to a hurricane, trampling trees like dead twigs! +Crack! Crackle! Crash! Crash! + +_Was it the wind?_ + +With the roaring in my ears I sprang up, staring into the forest +vista, and at the same instant, out of the crashing forest, sped +Professor Smawl, skirts tucked up, thin legs flying like +bicycle-spokes. I shouted, but the crashing drowned my voice. Then all +at once the solid earth began to shake, and with the rush and roar of +a tornado a gigantic living thing burst out of the forest before our +eyes--a vast shadowy bulk that rocked and rolled along, mowing down +trees in its course. + +Two great crescents of ivory curved from its head; its back swept +through the tossing tree-tops. Once it bellowed like a gun fired from +a high bastion. + +The apparition passed with the noise of thunder rolling on towards the +ends of the earth. Crack! crash! went the trees, the tempest swept +away in a rolling volley of reports, distant, more distant, until, +long after the tumult had deadened, then ceased, the stunned forest +echoed with the fall of mangled branches slowly dropping. + +That evening an agitated young couple sat close together in the +deserted camp, calling timidly at intervals for Professor Smawl and +William Spike. I say timidly, because it is correct; we did not care +to have a mammoth respond to our calls. The lurking echoes across the +lake answered our cries; the full moon came up over the forest to look +at us. We were not much to look at. Dorothy was moistening my shoulder +with unfeigned tears, and I, afraid to light the fire, sat hunched up +under the common blanket, wildly examining the darkness around us. + +Chilled to the spinal marrow, I watched the gray lights whiten in the +east. A single bird awoke in the wilderness. I saw the nearer trees +looming in the mist, and the silver fog rolling on the lake. + +All night long the darkness had vibrated with the strange monotone +which I had heard the first night, camping at the gate of the unknown +land. My brain seemed to echo that subtle harmony which rings in the +auricular labyrinth after sound has ceased. + +There are ghosts of sound which return to haunt long after sound is +dead. It was these voiceless spectres of a voice long dead that +stirred the transparent silence, intoning toneless tones. + +I think I make myself clear. + +It was an uncanny night; morning whitened the east; gray daylight +stole into the woods, blotting the shadows to paler tints. It was +nearly mid-day before the sun became visible through the fine-spun web +of mist--a pale spot of gilt in the zenith. + +By this pallid light I labored to strike the two empty tents, gather +up our equipments and pack them on our five mules. Dorothy aided me +bravely, whimpering when I spoke of Professor Smawl and William Spike, +but abating nothing of her industry until we had the mules loaded and +I was ready to drive them, Heaven knows whither. + +"Where shall we go?" quavered Dorothy, sitting on a log with the +dingue in her lap. + +One thing was certain; this mammoth-ridden land was no place for +women, and I told her so. + +We placed the dingue in a basket and tied it around the leading mule's +neck. Immediately the dingue, alarmed, began dingling like a cow-bell. +It acted like a charm on the other mules, and they gravely filed off +after their leader, following the bell. Dorothy and I, hand in hand, +brought up the rear. + +I shall never forget that scene in the forest--the gray arch of the +heavens swimming in mist through which the sun peered shiftily, the +tall pines wavering through the fog, the preoccupied mules marching +single file, the foggy bell-note of the gentle dingue in its swinging +basket, and Dorothy, limp kilts dripping with dew, plodding through +the white dusk. + +We followed the terrible tornado-path which the mammoth had left in +its wake, but there were no traces of its human victims--neither one +jot of Professor Smawl nor one solitary tittle of William Spike. + +And now I would be glad to end this chapter if I could; I would gladly +leave myself as I was, there in the misty forest, with an arm +encircling the slender body of my little companion, and the mules +moving in a monotonous line, and the dingue discreetly jingling--but +again that menacing shadow falls across my page, and truth bids me +tell all, and I, the slave of accuracy, must remember my vows as the +dauntless disciple of truth. + +Towards sunset--or that pale parody of sunset which set the forest +swimming in a ghastly, colorless haze--the mammoth's trail of ruin +brought us suddenly out of the trees to the shore of a great sheet of +water. + +It was a desolate spot; northward a chaos of sombre peaks rose, piled +up like thunder-clouds along the horizon; east and south the darkening +wilderness spread like a pall. Westward, crawling out into the mist +from our very feet, the gray waste of water moved under the dull sky, +and flat waves slapped the squatting rocks, heavy with slime. + +And now I understood why the trail of the mammoth continued straight +into the lake, for on either hand black, filthy tamarack swamps lay +under ghostly sheets of mist. I strove to creep out into the bog, +seeking a footing, but the swamp quaked and the smooth surface +trembled like jelly in a bowl. A stick thrust into the slime sank into +unknown depths. + +Vaguely alarmed, I gained the firm land again and looked around, +believing there was no road open but the desolate trail we had +traversed. But I was in error; already the leading mule was wading out +into the water, and the others, one by one, followed. + +How wide the lake might be we could not tell, because the band of fog +hung across the water like a curtain. Yet out into this flat, shallow +void our mules went steadily, slop! slop! slop! in single file. +Already they were growing indistinct in the fog, so I bade Dorothy +hasten and take off her shoes and stockings. + +She was ready before I was, I having to unlace my shooting-boots, and +she stepped out into the water, kilts fluttering, moving her white +feet cautiously. In a moment I was beside her, and we waded forward, +sounding the shallow water with our poles. + +When the water had risen to Dorothy's knees I hesitated, alarmed. But +when we attempted to retrace our steps we could not find the shore +again, for the blank mist shrouded everything, and the water deepened +at every step. + +I halted and listened for the mules. Far away in the fog I heard a +dull splashing, receding as I listened. After a while all sound died +away, and a slow horror stole over me--a horror that froze the little +net-work of veins in every limb. A step to the right and the water +rose to my knees; a step to the left and the cold, thin circle of the +flood chilled my breast. Suddenly Dorothy screamed, and the next +moment a far cry answered--a far, sweet cry that seemed to come from +the sky, like the rushing harmony of the world's swift winds. Then the +curtain of fog before us lighted up from behind; shadows moved on the +misty screen, outlines of trees and grassy shores, and tiny birds +flying. Thrown on the vapory curtain, in silhouette, a man and a woman +passed under the lovely trees, arms about each other's necks; near +them the shadows of five mules grazed peacefully; a dingue gambolled +close by. + +"It is a mirage!" I muttered, but my voice made no sound. Slowly the +light behind the fog died out; the vapor around us turned to rose, +then dissolved, while mile on mile of a limitless sea spread away +till, like a quick line pencilled at a stroke, the horizon cut sky and +sea in half, and before us lay an ocean from which towered a mountain +of snow--or a gigantic berg of milky ice--for it was moving. + +"Good Heavens," I shrieked; "it is alive!" + +At the sound of my crazed cry the mountain of snow became a pillar, +towering to the clouds, and a wave of golden glory drenched the figure +to its knees! Figure? Yes--for a colossal arm shot across the sky, +then curved back in exquisite grace to a head of awful beauty--a +woman's head, with eyes like the blue lake of heaven--ay, a woman's +splendid form, upright from the sky to the earth, knee-deep in the +sea. The evening clouds drifted across her brow; her shimmering hair +lighted the world beneath with sunset. Then, shading her white brow +with one hand, she bent, and with the other hand dipped in the sea, +she sent a wave rolling at us. Straight out of the horizon it sped--a +ripple that grew to a wave, then to a furious breaker which caught us +up in a whirl of foam, bearing us onward, faster, faster, swiftly +flying through leagues of spray until consciousness ceased and all was +blank. + +Yet ere my senses fled I heard again that strange cry--that sweet, +thrilling harmony rushing out over the foaming waters, filling earth +and sky with its soundless vibrations. + +And I knew it was the hail of the Spirit of the North warning us back +to life again. + + * * * * * + +Looking back, now, over the days that passed before we staggered into +the Hudson Bay outpost at Gravel Cove, I am inclined to believe that +neither Dorothy nor I were clothed entirely in our proper minds--or, +if we were, our minds, no doubt, must have been in the same condition +as our clothing. I remember shooting ptarmigan, and that we ate them; +flashes of memory recall the steady downpour of rain through the +endless twilight of shaggy forests; dim days on the foggy tundra, +mud-holes from which the wild ducks rose in thousands; then the +stunted hemlocks, then the forest again. And I do not even recall the +moment when, at last, stumbling into the smooth path left by the +Graham Glacier, we crawled through the mountain-wall, out of the +unknown land, and once more into a world protected by the Lord +Almighty. + +A hunting-party of Elbon Indians brought us in to the post, and +everybody was most kind--that I remember, just before going into +several weeks of unpleasant delirium mercifully mitigated with +unconsciousness. + +Curiously enough, Professor Van Twiller was not very much battered, +physically, for I had carried her for days, pickaback. But the awful +experience had produced a shock which resulted in a nervous condition +that lasted so long after she returned to New York that the wealthy +and eminent specialist who attended her insisted upon taking her to +the Riviera and marrying her. I sometimes wonder--but, as I have said, +such reflections have no place in these austere pages. + +However, anybody, I fancy, is at liberty to speculate upon the fate of +the late Professor Smawl and William Spike, and upon the mules and the +gentle dingue. Personally, I am convinced that the suggestive +silhouettes I saw on that ghastly curtain of fog were cast by +beatified beings in some earthly paradise--a mirage of bliss of which +we caught but the colorless shadow-shapes floating 'twixt sea and +sky. + +At all events, neither Professor Smawl nor her William Spike ever +returned; no exploring expedition has found a trace of mule or lady, +of William or the dingue. The new expedition to be organized by +Barnard College may penetrate still farther. I suppose that, when the +time comes, I shall be expected to volunteer. But Professor Van +Twiller is married, and William and Professor Smawl ought to be, and +altogether, considering the mammoth and that gigantic and splendid +apparition that bent from the zenith to the ocean and sent a +tidal-wave rolling from the palm of one white hand--I say, taking all +these various matters under consideration, I think I shall decide to +remain in New York and continue writing for the scientific +periodicals. Besides, the mortifying experience at the Paris +Exposition has dampened even my perennially youthful enthusiasm. And +as for the late expedition to Florida, Heaven knows I am ready to +repeat it--nay, I am already forming a plan for the rescue--but though +I am prepared to encounter any danger for the sake of my beloved +superior, Professor Farrago, I do not feel inclined to commit +indiscretions in order to pry into secrets which, as I regard it, +concern Professor Smawl and William Spike alone. + +But all this is, in a measure, premature. What I now have to relate is +the recital of an eye-witness to that most astonishing scandal which +occurred during the recent exposition in Paris. + + + + +IX + + +When the delegates were appointed to the International Scientific +Congress at the Paris Exposition of 1900, how little did anybody +imagine that the great conference would end in the most gigantic +scandal that ever stirred two continents? + +Yet, had it not been for the pair of American newspapers published in +Paris, this scandal would never have been aired, for the continental +press is so well muzzled that when it bites its teeth merely meet in +the empty atmosphere with a discreet snap. + +But to the Yankee nothing excepting the Monroe Doctrine is sacred, and +the unsopped watch-dogs of the press bite right and left, unmuzzled. +The biter bites--it is his profession--and that ends the affair; the +bitee is bitten, and, in the deplorable argot of the hour, "it is up +to him." + +So now that the scandal has been well aired and hung out to dry in the +teeth of decency and the four winds, and as all the details have been +cheerfully and grossly exaggerated, it is, perhaps, the proper moment +for the truth to be written by the only person whose knowledge of all +the facts in the affair entitles him to speak for himself as well as +for those honorable ladies and gentlemen whose names and titles have +been so mercilessly criticised. + +These, then, are the simple facts: + +The International Scientific Congress, now adjourned _sine die_, met +at nine o'clock in the morning, May 3, 1900, in the Tasmanian Pavilion +of the Paris Exposition. There were present the most famous scientists +of Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia, Italy, Switzerland, and the +United States. + +His Royal Highness the Crown-Prince of Monaco presided. + +It is not necessary, now, to repeat the details of that preliminary +meeting. It is sufficient to say that committees representing the +various known sciences were named and appointed by the Prince of +Monaco, who had been unanimously elected permanent chairman of the +conference. It is the composition of a single committee that concerns +us now, and that committee, representing the science which treats of +bird life, was made up as follows: + +Chairman--His Royal Highness the Crown-Prince of Monaco. Members--Sir +Peter Grebe, Great Britain; Baron de Becasse, France; his Royal +Highness King Christian, of Finland; the Countess d'Alzette, of +Belgium; and I, from the United States, representing the Smithsonian +Institution and the Bronx Park Zoological Society of New York. + +This, then, was the composition of that now notorious ornithological +committee, a modest, earnest, self-effacing little band of workers, +bound together--in the beginning--by those ties of mutual respect and +esteem which unite all laborers in the vineyard of science. + +From the first meeting of our committee, science, the great leveller, +left no artificial barriers of rank or title standing between us. We +were enthusiasts in our love for ornithology; we found new inspiration +in the democracy of our common interests. + +As for me, I chatted with my fellows, feeling no restraint myself and +perceiving none. The King of Finland and I discussed his latest +monograph on the speckled titmouse, and I was glad to agree with the +King in all his theories concerning the nesting habits of that +important bird. + +Sir Peter Grebe, a large, red gentleman in tweeds, read us some notes +he had made on the domestic hen and her reasons for running ahead of a +horse and wagon instead of stepping aside to let the disturbing +vehicle pass. + +The Crown-Prince of Monaco took issue with Sir Peter; so did the Baron +de Becasse; and we were entertained by a friendly and marvellously +interesting three-cornered dispute, shared in by three of the most +profound thinkers of the century. + +I shall never forget the brilliancy of that argument, nor the modest, +good-humored retorts which gave us all a glimpse into depths of +erudition which impressed us profoundly and set the seal on the bonds +which held us so closely together. + +Alas, that the seal should ever have been broken! Alas, that the +glittering apple of discord should have been flung into our +midst!--no, not flung, but gently rolled under our noses by the gloved +fingers of the lovely Countess d'Alzette. + +"Messieurs," said the fair Countess, when all present, excepting she +and I, had touched upon or indicated the subjects which they had +prepared to present to the congress--"messieurs mes confrères, I have +been requested by our distinguished chairman, the Crown-Prince of +Monaco, to submit to your judgment the subject which, by favor of the +King of the Belgians, I have prepared to present to the International +Scientific Congress." + +She made a pretty courtesy as she named her own sovereign, and we all +rose out of respect to that most austere and moral ruler the King of +Belgium. + +"But," she said, with a charming smile of depreciation, "I am very, +very much afraid that the subject which I have chosen may not meet +with your approval, gentlemen." + +She stood there in her dainty Parisian gown and bonnet, shaking her +pretty head uncertainly, a smile on her lips, her small, gloved +fingers interlocked. + +"Oh, I know how dreadful it would be if this great congress should be +compelled to listen to any hoax like that which Monsieur de Rougemont +imposed on the British Royal Society," she said, gravely; "and because +the subject of my paper is as strange as the strangest phenomenon +alleged to have been noted by Monsieur de Rougemont, I hesitate--" + +She glanced at the silent listeners around her. Sir Peter's red face +had hardened; the King of Finland frowned slightly; the Crown-Prince +of Monaco and Baron de Becasse wore anxious smiles. But when her +violet eyes met mine I gave her a glance of encouragement, and that +glance, I am forced to confess, was not dictated by scientific +approval, but by something that never entirely dries up in the +mustiest and dustiest of savants--the old Adam implanted in us all. + +Now, I knew perfectly well what her subject must be; so did every man +present. For it was no secret that his Majesty of Belgium had been +swindled by some natives in Tasmania, and had paid a very large sum of +money for a skin of that gigantic bird, the ux, which has been so +often reported to exist among the inaccessible peaks of the Tasmanian +Mountains. Needless, perhaps, to say that the skin proved a fraud, +being nothing more than a Barnum contrivance made up out of the skins +of a dozen ostriches and cassowaries, and most cleverly put together +by Chinese workmen; at least, such was the report made on it by Sir +Peter Grebe, who had been sent by the British Society to Antwerp to +examine the acquisition. Needless, also, perhaps, to say that King +Leopold, of Belgium, stoutly maintained that the skin of the ux was +genuine from beak to claw. + +For six months there had been a most serious difference of opinion +among European ornithologists concerning the famous ux in the Antwerp +Museum; and this difference had promised to result in an open quarrel +between a few Belgian savants on one side and-all Europe and Great +Britain on the other. + +Scientists have a deep--rooted horror of anything that touches on +charlatanism; the taint of trickery not only alarms them, but drives +them away from any suspicious subject, and usually ruins, +scientifically speaking, the person who has introduced the subject for +discussion. + +Therefore, it took no little courage for the Countess d'Alzette to +touch, with her dainty gloves, a subject which every scientist in +Europe, with scarcely an exception, had pronounced fraudulent and +unworthy of investigation. And to bring it before the great +International Congress required more courage still; for the person +who could face, in executive session, the most brilliant intellects in +the world, and openly profess faith in a Barnumized bird skin, either +had no scientific reputation to lose or was possessed of a bravery far +above that of the savants who composed the audience. + +Now, when the pretty Countess caught a flash of encouragement in my +glance she turned rosy with gratification and surprise. Clearly, she +had not expected to find a single ally in the entire congress. Her +quick smile of gratitude touched me, and made me ashamed, too, for I +had encouraged her out of the pure love of mischief, hoping to hear +the whole matter threshed before the congress and so have it settled +once for all. It was a thoughtless thing to do on my part. I should +have remembered the consequences to the Countess if it were proven +that she had been championing a fraud. The ruffled dignity of the +congress would never forgive her; her scientific career would +practically be at an end, because her theories and observations could +no longer command respect or even the attention of those who knew that +she herself had once been deceived by a palpable fraud. + +I looked at her guiltily, already ashamed of myself for encouraging +her to her destruction. How lovely and innocent she appeared, standing +there reading her notes in a low, clear voice, fresh as a child's, +with now and then a delicious upward sweep of her long, dark lashes. + +With a start I came to my senses and bestowed a pinch on myself. This +was neither the time nor the place to sentimentalize over a girlish +beauty whose small, Parisian head was crammed full of foolish, brave +theories concerning an imposition which her aged sovereign had been +unable to detect. + +I saw the gathering frown on the King of Finland's dark face; I saw +Sir Peter Grebe grow redder and redder, and press his thick lips +together to control the angry "Bosh!" which need not have been uttered +to have been understood. The Baron de Becasse wore a painfully neutral +smile, which froze his face into a quaint gargoyle; the Crown-Prince +of Monaco looked at his polished fingernails with a startled yet +abstracted resignation. Clearly the young Countess had not a +sympathizer in the committee. + +Something--perhaps it was the latent chivalry which exists imbedded in +us all, perhaps it was pity, perhaps a glimmering dawn of belief in +the ux skin--set my thoughts working very quickly. + +The Countess d'Alzette finished her notes, then glanced around with a +deprecating smile, which died out on her lips when she perceived the +silent and stony hostility of her fellow-scientists. A quick +expression of alarm came into her lovely eyes. Would they vote against +giving her a hearing before the congress? It required a unanimous vote +to reject a subject. She turned her eyes on me. + +I rose, red as fire, my head humming with a chaos of ideas all +disordered and vague, yet whirling along in a single, resistless +current. I had come to the congress prepared to deliver a monograph on +the great auk; but now the subject went overboard as the birds +themselves had, and I found myself pleading with the committee to give +the Countess a hearing on the ux. + +"Why not?" I exclaimed, warmly. "It is established beyond question +that the ux does exist in Tasmania. Wallace saw several uxen, through +his telescope, walking about upon the inaccessible heights of the +Tasmanian Mountains. Darwin acknowledged that the bird exists; +Professor Farrago has published a pamphlet containing an accumulation +of all data bearing upon the ux. Why should not Madame la Comtesse be +heard by the entire congress?" + +I looked at Sir Peter Grebe. + +"Have _you_ seen this alleged bird skin in the Antwerp Museum?" he +asked, perspiring with indignation. + +"Yes, I have," said I. "It has been patched up, but how are we to know +that the skin did not require patching? I have not found that ostrich +skin has been used. It is true that the Tasmanians may have shot the +bird to pieces and mended the skin with bits of cassowary hide here +and there. But the greater part of the skin, and the beak and claws, +are, in my estimation, well worth the serious attention of savants. To +pronounce them fraudulent is, in my opinion, rash and premature." + +I mopped my brow; I was in for it now. I had thrown in my reputation +with the reputation of the Countess. + +The displeasure and astonishment of my confrères was unmistakable. In +the midst of a strained silence I moved that a vote be taken upon the +advisability of a hearing before the congress on the subject of the +ux. After a pause the young Countess, pale and determined, seconded my +motion. The result of the balloting was a foregone conclusion; the +Countess had one vote--she herself refraining from voting--and the +subject was entered on the committee-book as acceptable and a date set +for the hearing before the International Congress. + +The effect of this vote on our little committee was most marked. +Constraint took the place of cordiality, polite reserve replaced that +guileless and open-hearted courtesy with which our proceedings had +begun. + +With icy politeness, the Crown-Prince of Monaco asked me to state the +subject of the paper I proposed to read before the congress, and I +replied quietly that, as I was partly responsible for advocating the +discussion of the ux, I proposed to associate myself with the Countess +d'Alzette in that matter--if Madame la Comtesse would accept the offer +of a brother savant. + +"Indeed I will," she said, impulsively, her blue eyes soft with +gratitude. + +"Very well," observed Sir Peter Grebe, swallowing his indignation and +waddling off towards the door; "I shall resign my position on this +committee--yes, I will, I tell you!"--as the King of Finland laid a +fatherly hand on Sir Peter's sleeve--"I'll not be made responsible for +this damn--" + +He choked, sputtered, then bowed to the horrified Countess, asking +pardon, and declaring that he yielded to nobody in respect for the +gentler sex. And he retired with the Baron de Becasse. + +But out in the hallway I heard him explode. "Confound it! This is no +place for petticoats, Baron! And as for that Yankee ornithologist, +he's hung himself with the Countess's corset--string--yes, he has! +Don't tell me, Baron! The young idiot was all right until the Countess +looked at him, I tell you. Gad! how she crumpled him up with those +blue eyes of hers! What the devil do women come into such committees +for? Eh? It's an outrage, I tell you! Why, the whole world will jeer +at us if we sit and listen to her monograph on that fraudulent bird!" + +The young Countess, who was writing near the window, could not have +heard this outburst; but I heard it, and so did King Christian and the +Crown-Prince of Monaco. + +"Lord," thought I, "the Countess and I are in the frying-pan this +time. I'll do what I can to keep us both out of the fire." + +When the King and the Crown-Prince had made their adieux to the +Countess, and she had responded, pale and serious, they came over to +where I was standing, looking out on the Seine. + +"Though we must differ from you," said the King, kindly, "we wish you +all success in this dangerous undertaking." + +I thanked him. + +"You are a young man to risk a reputation already established," +remarked the Crown-Prince, then added: "You are braver than I. +Ridicule is a barrier to all knowledge, and, though we know that, we +seekers after truth always bring up short at that barrier and +dismount, not daring to put our hobbies to the fence." + +"One can but come a cropper," said I. + +"And risk staking our hobbies? No, no, that would make us ridiculous; +and ridicule kills in Europe." + +"It's somewhat deadly in America, too," I said, smiling. + +"The more honor to you," said the Crown-Prince, gravely. + +"Oh, I am not the only one," I answered, lightly. "There is my +confrère, Professor Hyssop, who studies apparitions and braves a +contempt and ridicule which none of us would dare challenge. We +Yankees are learning slowly. Some day we will find the lost key to the +future while Europe is sneering at those who are trying to pick the +lock." + +When King Christian, of Finland, and the Crown-Prince of Monaco had +taken their hats and sticks and departed, I glanced across the room at +the young Countess, who was now working rapidly on a type-writer, +apparently quite oblivious of my presence. + +I looked out of the window again, and my gaze wandered over the +exposition grounds. Gilt and scarlet and azure the palaces rose in +every direction, under a wilderness of fluttering flags. Towers, +minarets, turrets, golden spires cut the blue sky; in the west the +gaunt Eiffel Tower sprawled across the glittering Esplanade; behind it +rose the solid golden dome of the Emperor's tomb, gilded once more by +the Almighty's sun, to amuse the living rabble while the dead +slumbered in his imperial crypt, himself now but a relic for the +amusement of the people whom he had despised. O tempora! O mores! O +Napoleon! + +Down under my window, in the asphalted court, the King of Finland was +entering his beautiful victoria. An adjutant, wearing a cocked hat and +brilliant uniform, mounted the box beside the green-and-gold coachman; +the two postilions straightened up in their saddles; the four horses +danced. Then, when the Crown-Prince of Monaco had taken a seat beside +the King, the carriage rolled away, and far down the quay I watched it +until the flutter of the green-and-white plumes in the adjutant's +cocked hat was all I could see of vanishing royalty. + +I was still musing there by the window, listening to the click and +ringing of the type-writer, when I suddenly became aware that the +clicking had ceased, and, turning, I saw the young Countess standing +beside me. + +"Thank you for your chivalrous impulse to help me," she said, frankly, +holding out her bare hand. + +I bent over it. + +"I had not realized how desperate my case was," she said, with a +smile. "I supposed that they would at least give me a hearing. How can +I thank you for your brave vote in my favor?" + +"By giving me your confidence in this matter," said I, gravely. "If we +are to win, we must work together and work hard, madame. We are +entering a struggle, not only to prove the genuineness of a bird skin +and the existence of a bird which neither of us has ever seen, but +also a struggle which will either make us famous forever or render it +impossible for either of us ever again to face a scientific audience." + +"I know it," she said, quietly "And I understand all the better how +gallant a gentleman I have had the fortune to enlist in my cause. +Believe me, had I not absolute confidence in my ability to prove the +existence of the ux I should not, selfish as I am, have accepted your +chivalrous offer to stand or fall with me." + +The subtle emotion in her voice touched a responsive chord in me. I +looked at her earnestly; she raised her beautiful eyes to mine. + +"Will you help me?" she asked. + +Would I help her? Faith, I'd pass the balance of my life turning +flip-flaps to please her. I did not attempt to undeceive myself; I +realized that the lightning had struck me--that I was desperately in +love with the young Countess from the tip of her bonnet to the toe of +her small, polished shoe. I was curiously cool about it, too, although +my heart gave a thump that nigh choked me, and I felt myself going red +from temple to chin. + +If the Countess d'Alzette noticed it she gave no sign, unless the pink +tint under her eyes, deepening, was a subtle signal of understanding +to the signal in my eyes. + +"Suppose," she said, "that I failed, before the congress, to prove my +theory? Suppose my investigations resulted in the exposure of a fraud +and my name was held up to ridicule before all Europe? What would +become of you, monsieur?" + +I was silent. + +"You are already celebrated as the discoverer of the mammoth and the +great auk," she persisted. "You are young, enthusiastic, renowned, and +you have a future before you that anybody in the world might envy." + +I said nothing. + +"And yet," she said, softly, "you risk all because you will not leave +a young woman friendless among her confrères. It is not wise, +monsieur; it is gallant and generous and impulsive, but it is not +wisdom. Don Quixote rides no more in Europe, my friend." + +"He stays at home--seventy million of him--in America," said I. + +After a moment she said, "I believe you, monsieur." + +"It is true enough," I said, with a laugh. "We are the only people who +tilt at windmills these days--we and our cousins, the British, who +taught us." + +I bowed gayly, and added: + +"With your colors to wear, I shall have the honor of breaking a lance +against the biggest windmill in the world." + +"You mean the Citadel of Science," she said, smiling. + +"And its rock-ribbed respectability," I replied. + +She looked at me thoughtfully, rolling and unrolling the scroll in her +hands. Then she sighed, smiled, and brightened, handing me the scroll. + +"Read it carefully," she said; "it is an outline of the policy I +suggest that we follow. You will be surprised at some of the +statements. Yet every word is the truth. And, monsieur, your reward +for the devotion you have offered will be no greater than you deserve, +when you find yourself doubly famous for our joint monograph on the +ux. Without your vote in the committee I should have been denied a +hearing, even though I produced proofs to support my theory. I +appreciate that; I do most truly appreciate the courage which prompted +you to defend a woman at the risk of your own ruin. Come to me this +evening at nine. I hold for you in store a surprise and pleasure which +you do not dream of." + +"Ah, but I do," I said, slowly, under the spell of her delicate beauty +and enthusiasm. + +"How can you?" she said, laughing. "You don't know what awaits you at +nine this evening?" + +"You," I said, fascinated. + +The color swept her face; she dropped me a deep courtesy. + +"At nine, then," she said. "No. 8 Rue d'Alouette." + +I bowed, took my hat, gloves, and stick, and attended her to her +carriage below. + +Long after the blue-and-black victoria had whirled away down the +crowded quay I stood looking after it, mazed in the web of that +ancient enchantment whose spell fell over the first man in Eden, and +whose sorcery shall not fail till the last man returns his soul. + + + + +X + + +I lunched at my lodgings on the Quai Malthus, and I had but little +appetite, having fed upon such an unexpected variety of emotions +during the morning. + +Now, although I was already heels over head in love, I do not believe +that loss of appetite was the result of that alone. I was slowly +beginning to realize what my recent attitude might cost me, not only +in an utter collapse of my scientific career, and the consequent +material ruin which was likely to follow, but in the loss of all my +friends at home. The Zoological Society of Bronx Park and the +Smithsonian Institution of Washington had sent me as their trusted +delegate, leaving it entirely to me to choose the subject on which I +was to speak before the International Congress. What, then, would be +their attitude when they learned that I had chosen to uphold the +dangerous theory of the existence of the ux. + +Would they repudiate me and send another delegate to replace me? Would +they merely wash their hands of me and let me go to my own +destruction? + +"I will know soon enough," thought I, "for this morning's proceedings +will have been cabled to New York ere now, and read at the +breakfast-tables of every old, moss-grown naturalist in America before +I see the Countess d'Alzette this evening." And I drew from my pocket +the roll of paper which she had given me, and, lighting a cigar, lay +back in my chair to read it. + +The manuscript had been beautifully type-written, and I had no trouble +in following her brief, clear account of the circumstances under which +the notorious ux-skin had been obtained. As for the story itself, it +was somewhat fishy, but I manfully swallowed my growing nervousness +and comforted myself with the belief of Darwin in the existence of the +ux, and the subsequent testimony of Wallace, who simply stated what he +had seen through his telescope, and then left it to others to identify +the enormous birds he described as he had observed them stalking about +on the snowy peaks of the Tasmanian Alps. + +My own knowledge of the ux was confined to a single circumstance. +When, in 1897, I had gone to Tasmania with Professor Farrago, to make +a report on the availability of the so-called "Tasmanian devil," as a +substitute for the mongoose in the West Indies, I of course heard a +great deal of talk among the natives concerning the birds which they +affirmed haunted the summits of the mountains. + +Our time in Tasmania was too limited to admit of an exploration then. +But although we were perfectly aware that the summits of the Tasmanian +Alps are inaccessible, we certainly should have attempted to gain them +had not the time set for our departure arrived before we had completed +the investigation for which we were sent. + +One relic, however, I carried away with me. It was a single greenish +bronzed feather, found high up in the mountains by a native, and sold +to me for a somewhat large sum of money. + +Darwin believed the ux to be covered with greenish plumage; Wallace +was too far away to observe the color of the great birds; but all the +natives of Tasmania unite in affirming that the plumage of the ux is +green. + +It was not only the color of this feather that made me an eager +purchaser, it was the extraordinary length and size. I knew of no +living bird large enough to wear such a feather. As for the color, +that might have been tampered with before I bought it, and, indeed, +testing it later, I found on the fronds traces of sulphate of copper. +But the same thing has been found in the feathers of certain birds +whose color is metallic green, and it has been proven that such birds +pick up and swallow shining bits of copper pyrites. + +Why should not the ux do the same thing? + +Still, my only reason for believing in the existence of the bird was +this single feather. I had easily proved that it belonged to no known +species of bird. I also proved it to be similar to the tail-feathers +of the ux-skin in Antwerp. But the feathers on the Antwerp specimen +were gray, and the longest of them was but three feet in length, while +my huge, bronze-green feather measured eleven feet from tip to tip. + +One might account for it supposing the Antwerp skin to be that of a +young bird, or of a moulting bird, or perhaps of a different sex from +the bird whose feather I had secured. + +Still, these ideas were not proven. Nothing concerning the birds had +been proven. I had but a single fact to lean on, and that was that the +feather I possessed could not have belonged to any known species of +bird. Nobody but myself knew of the existence of this feather. And now +I meant to cable to Bronx Park for it, and to place this evidence at +the disposal of the beautiful Countess d'Alzette. + +My cigar had gone out, as I sat musing, and I relighted it and resumed +my reading of the type-written notes, lazily, even a trifle +sceptically, for all the evidence that she had been able to collect to +substantiate her theory of the existence of the ux was not half as +important as the evidence I was to produce in the shape of that +enormous green feather. + +I came to the last paragraph, smoking serenely, and leaning back +comfortably, one leg crossed over the other. Then, suddenly, my +attention became riveted on the words under my eyes. Could I have read +them aright? Could I believe what I read in ever-growing astonishment +which culminated in an excitement that stirred the very hair on my +head? + + "The ux exists. There is no longer room for doubt. Ocular + proof I can now offer in the shape of _five living eggs_ of + this gigantic bird. All measures have been taken to hatch + these eggs; they are now in the vast incubator. It is my plan + to have them hatch, one by one, under the very eyes of the + International Congress. It will be the greatest triumph that + science has witnessed since the discovery of the New World. + + [Signed] "SUSANNE D'ALZETTE." + +"Either," I cried out, in uncontrollable excitement--"either that girl +is mad or she is the cleverest woman on earth." + +After a moment I added: + +"In either event I am going to marry her." + + + + +XI + + +That evening, a few minutes before nine o'clock, I descended from a +cab in front of No. 8 Rue d'Alouette, and was ushered into a pretty +reception-room by an irreproachable servant, who disappeared directly +with my card. + +In a few moments the young Countess came in, exquisite in her silvery +dinner-gown, eyes bright, white arms extended in a charming, impulsive +welcome. The touch of her silky fingers thrilled me; I was dumb under +the enchantment of her beauty; and I think she understood my silence, +for her blue eyes became troubled and the happy parting of her lips +changed to a pensive curve. + +Presently I began to tell her about my bronzed-green feather; at my +first word she looked up brightly, almost gratefully, I fancied; and +in another moment we were deep in eager discussion of the subject +which had first drawn us together. + +What evidence I possessed to sustain our theory concerning the +existence of the ux I hastened to reveal; then, heart beating +excitedly, I asked her about the eggs and where they were at present, +and whether she believed it possible to bring them to Paris--all these +questions in the same breath--which brought a happy light into her +eyes and a delicious ripple of laughter to her lips. + +"Why, of course it is possible to bring the eggs here," she cried. "Am +I sure? Parbleu! The eggs are already here, monsieur!" + +"Here!" I exclaimed. "In Paris?" + +"In Paris? Mais oui; and in my own house--_this very house_, monsieur. +Come, you shall behold them with your own eyes!" + +Her eyes were brilliant with excitement; impulsively she stretched out +her rosy hand. I took it; and she led me quickly back through the +drawing-room, through the dining-room, across the butler's pantry, and +into a long, dark hallway. We were almost running now--I keeping tight +hold of her soft little hand, she, raising her gown a trifle, hurrying +down the hallway, silken petticoats rustling like a silk banner in the +wind. A turn to the right brought us to the cellar-stairs; down we +hastened, and then across the cemented floor towards a long, +glass-fronted shelf, pierced with steam-pipes. + +"A match," she whispered, breathlessly. + +I struck a wax match and touched it to the gas-burner overhead. + +Never, never can I forget what that flood of gas-light revealed. In a +row stood five large, glass-mounted incubators; behind the glass doors +lay, in dormant majesty, five enormous eggs. The eggs were +pale-green--lighter, somewhat, than robins' eggs, but not as pale as +herons' eggs. Each egg appeared to be larger than a large hogs-head, +and was partly embedded in bales of cotton-wool. + +Five little silver thermometers inside the glass doors indicated a +temperature of 95° Fahrenheit. I noticed that there was an automatic +arrangement connected with the pipes which regulated the temperature. + +I was too deeply moved for words. Speech seemed superfluous as we +stood there, hand in hand, contemplating those gigantic, pale-green +eggs. + +There is something in a silent egg which moves one's deeper +emotions--something solemn in its embryotic inertia, something awesome +in its featureless immobility. + +I know of nothing on earth which is so totally lacking in expression +as an egg. The great desert Sphinx, brooding through its veil of sand, +has not that tremendous and meaningless dignity which wraps the +colorless oval effort of a single domestic hen. + +I held the hand of the young Countess very tightly. Her fingers closed +slightly. + +Then and there, in the solemn presence of those emotionless eggs, I +placed my arm around her supple waist and kissed her. + +She said nothing. Presently she stooped to observe the thermometer. +Naturally, it registered 95° Fahrenheit. + +"Susanne," I said, softly. + +"Oh, we must go up-stairs," she whispered, breathlessly; and, picking +up her silken skirts, she fled up the cellar-stairs. + +I turned out the gas, with that instinct of economy which early +wastefulness has implanted in me, and followed the Countess Suzanne +through the suite of rooms and into the small reception-hall where she +had first received me. + +She was sitting on a low divan, head bent, slowly turning a sapphire +ring on her finger, round and round. + +I looked at her romantically, and then-- + +"Please don't," she said. + +The correct reply to this is: + +"Why not?"--very tenderly spoken. + +"Because," she replied, which was also the correct and regular answer. + +"Suzanne," I said, slowly and passionately. + +She turned the sapphire ring on her finger. Presently she tired of +this, so I lifted her passive hand very gently and continued turning +the sapphire ring on her finger, slowly, to harmonize with the cadence +of our unspoken thoughts. + +Towards midnight I went home, walking with great care through a new +street in Paris, paved exclusively with rose-colored blocks of air. + + + + +XII + + +At nine o'clock in the evening, July 31, 1900, the International +Congress was to assemble in the great lecture-hall of the Belgian +Scientific Pavilion, which adjourned the Tasmanian Pavilion, to hear +the Countess Suzanne d'Alzette read her paper on the ux. + +That morning the Countess and I, with five furniture vans, had +transported the five great incubators to the platform of the +lecture-hall, and had engaged an army of plumbers and gas-fitters to +make the steam-heating connections necessary to maintain in the +incubators a temperature of 100° Fahrenheit. + +A heavy green curtain hid the stage from the body of the lecture-hall. +Behind this curtain the five enormous eggs reposed, each in its +incubator. + +The Countess Suzanne was excited and calm by turns, her cheeks were +pink, her lips scarlet, her eyes bright as blue planets at midnight. + +Without faltering she rehearsed her discourse before me, reading from +her type-written manuscript in a clear voice, in which I could +scarcely discern a tremor. Then we went through the dumb show of +exhibiting the uxen eggs to a frantically applauding audience; she +responded to countless supposititious encores, I leading her out +repeatedly before the green curtain to face the great, damp, darkened +auditorium. + +Then, in response to repeated imaginary recalls, she rehearsed the +extemporaneous speech, thanking the distinguished audience for their +patience in listening to an unknown confrère, and confessing her +obligations to me (here I appeared and bowed in self-abasement) for my +faith in her and my aid in securing for her a public hearing before +the most highly educated audience in the world. + +After that we retired behind the curtain to sit on an empty box and +eat sandwiches and watch the last lingering plumbers pasting up the +steam connections with a pot of molten lead. + +The plumbers were Americans, brought to Paris to make repairs on the +American buildings during the exposition, and we conversed with them +affably as they pottered about, plumber-like, poking under the +flooring with lighted candles, rubbing their thumbs up and down musty +old pipes, and prying up planks in dark corners. + +They informed us that they were union men and that they hoped we were +too. And I replied that union was certainly my ultimate purpose, at +which the young Countess smiled dreamily at vacancy. + +We did not dare leave the incubators. The plumbers lingered on, hour +after hour, while we sat and watched the little silver thermometers, +and waited. + +It was time for the Countess Suzanne to dress, and still the plumbers +had not finished; so I sent a messenger for her maid, to bring her +trunk to the lecture-hall, and I despatched another messenger to my +lodgings for my evening clothes and fresh linen. + +There were several dressing-rooms off the stage. Here, about six +o'clock, the Countess retired with her maid, to dress, leaving me to +watch the plumbers and the thermometers. + +When the Countess Suzanne returned, radiant and lovely in an evening +gown of black lace, I gave her the roses I had brought for her and +hurried off to dress in my turn, leaving her to watch the +thermometers. + +I was not absent more than half an hour, but when I returned I found +the Countess anxiously conversing with the plumbers and pointing +despairingly at the thermometers, which now registered only 95°. + +"You must keep up the temperature!" I said. "Those eggs are due to +hatch within a few hours. What's the trouble with the heat?" + +The plumber did not know, but thought the connections were defective. + +"But that's why we called you in!" exclaimed the Countess. "Can't you +fix things securely?" + +"Oh, we'll fix things, lady," replied the plumber, condescendingly, +and he ambled away to rub his thumb up and down a pipe. + +As we alone were unable to move and handle the enormous eggs, the +Countess, whose sweet character was a stranger to vindictiveness or +petty resentment, had written to the members of the ornithological +committee, revealing the marvellous fortune which had crowned her +efforts in the search for evidence to sustain her theory concerning +the ux, and inviting these gentlemen to aid her in displaying the +great eggs to the assembled congress. + +This she had done the night previous. Every one of the gentlemen +invited had come post-haste to her "hotel," to view the eggs with +their own sceptical and astonished eyes; and the fair young Countess +and I tasted our first triumph in her cellar, whither we conducted Sir +Peter Grebe, the Crown-Prince of Monaco, Baron de Becasse, and his +Majesty King Christian of Finland. + +Scepticism and incredulity gave place to excitement and unbounded +enthusiasm. The old King embraced the Countess; Baron de Becasse +attempted to kiss me; Sir Peter Grebe made a handsome apology for his +folly and vowed that he would do open penance for his sins. The poor +Crown-Prince, who was of a nervous temperament, sat on the +cellar-stairs and wept like a child. + +His grief at his own pig-headedness touched us all profoundly. + +So it happened that these gentlemen were coming to-night to give their +aid to us in moving the priceless eggs, and lend their countenance and +enthusiastic support to the young Countess in her maiden effort. + +Sir Peter Grebe arrived first, all covered with orders and +decorations, and greeted us affectionately, calling the Countess the +"sweetest lass in France," and me his undutiful Yankee cousin who had +landed feet foremost at the expense of the British Empire. + +The King of Finland, the Crown-Prince, and Baron de Becasse arrived +together, a composite mass of medals, sashes, and academy palms. To +see them moving boxes about, straightening chairs, and pulling out +rugs reminded me of those golden-embroidered gentlemen who run out +into the arena and roll up carpets after the acrobats have finished +their turn in the Nouveau Cirque. + +I was aiding the King of Finland to move a heavy keg of nails, when +the Countess called out to me in alarm, saying that the thermometers +had dropped to 80° Fahrenheit. + +I spoke sharply to the plumbers, who were standing in a circle behind +the dressing-rooms; but they answered sullenly that they could do no +more work that day. + +Indignant and alarmed, I ordered them to come out to the stage, and, +after some hesitation, they filed out, a sulky, silent lot of workmen, +with their tools already gathered up and tied in their kits. At once I +noticed that a new man had appeared among them--a red-faced, stocky +man wearing a frock-coat and a shiny silk hat. + +"Who is the master-workman here?" I asked. + +"I am," said a man in blue overalls. + +"Well," said I, "why don't you fix those steam-fittings?" + +There was a silence. The man in the silk hat smirked. + +"Well?" said I. + +"Come, come, that's all right," said the man in the silk hat. "These +men know their business without you tellin' them." + +"Who are you?" I demanded, sharply. + +"Oh, I'm just a walkin' delegate," he replied, with a sneer. "There's +a strike in New York and I come over here to tie this here exposition +up. See?" + +"You mean to say you won't let these men finish their work?" I asked, +thunderstruck. + +"That's about it, young man," he said, coolly. + +Furious, I glanced at my watch, then at the thermometers, which now +registered only 75°. Already I could hear the first-comers of the +audience arriving in the body of the hall. Already a stage-hand was +turning up the footlights and dragging chairs and tables hither and +thither. + +"What will you take to stay and attend to those steam-pipes?" I +demanded, desperately. + +"It can't be done nohow," observed the man in the silk hat. "That New +York strike is good for a month yet." Then, turning to the workmen, he +nodded and, to my horror, the whole gang filed out after him, turning +deaf ears to my entreaties and threats. + +There was a deathly silence, then Sir Peter exploded into a vivid +shower of words. The Countess, pale as a ghost, gave me a +heart-breaking look. The Crown-Prince wept. + +"Great Heaven!" I cried; "the thermometers have fallen to 70°!" + +The King of Finland sat down on a chair and pressed his hands over his +eyes. Baron de Becasse ran round and round, uttering subdued and +plaintive screams; Sir Peter swore steadily. + +"Gentlemen," I cried, desperately, "we must save those eggs! They are +on the very eve of hatching! Who will volunteer?" + +"To do what?" moaned the Crown-Prince. + +"I'll show you," I exclaimed, running to the incubators and beckoning +to the Baron to aid me. + +In a moment we had rolled out the great egg, made a nest on the stage +floor with the bales of cotton-wool, and placed the egg in it. One +after another we rolled out the remaining eggs, building for each its +nest of cotton; and at last the five enormous eggs lay there in a row +behind the green curtain. + +"Now," said I, excitedly, to the King, "you must get up on that egg +and try to keep it warm." + +The King began to protest, but I would take no denial, and presently +his Majesty was perched up on the great egg, gazing foolishly about at +the others, who were now all climbing up on their allotted eggs. + +"Great Heaven!" muttered the King, as Sir Peter settled down +comfortably on his egg, "I am willing to give life and fortune for the +sake of science, but I can't bear to hatch out eggs like a bird!" + +The Crown-Prince was now sitting patiently beside the Baron de +Becasse. + +"I feel in my bones," he murmured, "that I'm about to hatch something. +Can't you hear a tapping on the shell of your egg, Baron?" + +"Parbleu!" replied the Baron. "The shell is moving under me." + +It certainly was; for, the next moment, the Baron fell into his egg +with a crash and a muffled shriek, and floundered out, dripping, +yellow as a canary. + +"N'importe!" he cried, excitedly. "Allons! Save the eggs! Hurrah! Vive +la science!" And he scrambled up on the fourth egg and sat there, arms +folded, sublime courage transfiguring him from head to foot. + +We all gave him a cheer, which was hushed as the stage-manager ran in, +warning us that the audience was already assembled and in place. + +"You're not going to raise the curtain while we're sitting, are you?" +demanded the King of Finland, anxiously. + +"No, no," I said; "sit tight, your Majesty. Courage, gentlemen! Our +vindication is at hand!" + +The Countess glanced at me with startled eyes; I took her hand, +saluted it respectfully, and then quietly led her before the curtain, +facing an ocean of upturned faces across the flaring footlights. + +She stood a moment to acknowledge the somewhat ragged applause, a calm +smile on her lips. All her courage had returned; I saw that at once. + +Very quietly she touched her lips to the _eau-sucrée_, laid her +manuscript on the table, raised her beautiful head, and began: + +"That the ux is a living bird I am here before you to prove--" + +A sharp report behind the curtain drowned her voice. She paled; the +audience rose amid cries of excitement. + +"What was it?" she asked, faintly. + +"Sir Peter has hatched out his egg," I whispered. "Hark! There goes +another egg!" And I ran behind the curtain. + +Such a scene as I beheld was never dreamed of on land or sea. Two +enormous young uxen, all over gigantic pin-feathers, were wandering +stupidly about. Mounted on one was Sir Peter Grebe, eyes starting from +his apoplectic visage; on the other, clinging to the bird's neck, hung +the Baron de Becasse. + +Before I could move, the two remaining eggs burst, and a pair of huge, +scrawny fledglings rose among the débris, bearing off on their backs +the King and Crown-Prince. + +"Help!" said the King of Finland, faintly. "I'm falling off!" + +I sprang to his aid, but tripped on the curtain-spring. The next +instant the green curtain shot up, and there, revealed to that vast +and distinguished audience, roamed four enormous chicks, bearing on +their backs the most respected and exclusive aristocracy of Europe. + +The Countess Suzanne turned with a little shriek of horror, then sat +down in her chair, laid her lovely head on the table, and very quietly +fainted away, unconscious of the frantic cheers which went roaring to +the roof. + + * * * * * + +This, then, is the _true_ history of the famous exposition scandal. +And, as I have said, had it not been for the presence in that audience +of two American reporters nobody would have known what all the world +now knows--nobody would have read of the marvellous feats of bareback +riding indulged in by the King of Finland--nobody would have read how +Sir Peter Grebe steered his mount safely past the footlights only to +come to grief over the prompter's box. + +But this _is_ scandal. And, as for the charming Countess Suzanne +d'Alzette, the public has heard all that it is entitled to hear, and +much that it is not entitled to hear. + +However, on second thoughts, perhaps the public is entitled to hear a +little more. I will therefore say this much--the shock of astonishment +which stunned me when the curtain flew up, revealing the +King-bestridden uxen, was nothing to the awful blow which smote me +when the Count d'Alzette leaped from the orchestra, over the +footlights, and bore away with him the fainting form of his wife, the +lovely Countess d'Alzette. + +I sometimes wonder--but, as I have repeatedly observed, this dull and +pedantic narrative of fact is no vehicle for sentimental soliloquy. It +is, then, merely sufficient to say that I took the earliest steamer +for kinder shores, spurred on to haste by a venomous cable-gram from +the Smithsonian, repudiating me, and by another from Bronx Park, +ordering me to spend the winter in some inexpensive, poisonous, and +unobtrusive spot, and make a collection of isopods. The island of Java +appeared to me to be as poisonously unobtrusive and inexpensive a +region as I had ever heard of; a steamer sailed from Antwerp for +Batavia in twenty-four hours. Therefore, as I say, I took the +night-train for Brussels, and the steamer from Antwerp the following +evening. + +Of my uneventful voyage, of the happy and successful quest, there is +little to relate. The Javanese are frolicsome and hospitable. There +was a girl there with features that were as delicate as though +chiselled out of palest amber; and I remember she wore a most +wonderful jewelled, helmet-like head-dress, and jingling bangles on +her ankles, and when she danced she made most graceful and poetic +gestures with her supple wrists--but that has nothing to do with +isopods, absolutely nothing. + +Letters from home came occasionally. Professor Farrago had returned to +the Bronx and had been re-elected to the high office he had so nobly +held when I first became associated with him. + +Through his kindness and by his advice I remained for several years in +the Far East, until a letter from him arrived recalling me and also +announcing his own hurried and sudden departure for Florida. He also +mentioned my promotion to the office of subcurator of department; so I +started on my homeward voyage very much pleased with the world, and +arrived in New York on April 1, 1904, ready for a rest to which I +believed myself entitled. And the first thing that they handed me was +a letter from Professor Farrago, summoning me South. + + + + +XIII + + +The letter that started me--I was going to say startled me, but only +imaginative people are startled--the letter, then, that started me +from Bronx Park to the South I print without the permission of my +superior, Professor Farrago. I have not obtained his permission, for +the somewhat exciting reason that nobody knows where he is. Publicity +being now recognized as the annihilator of mysteries, a benevolent +purpose alone inspires me to publish a letter so strange, so +pathetically remarkable, in view of what has recently occurred. + +As I say, I had only just returned from Java with a valuable +collection of undescribed isopods--an order of edriophthalmous +crustaceans with seven free thoracic somites furnished with fourteen +legs--and I beg my reader's pardon, but my reader will see the +necessity for the author's absolute accuracy in insisting on detail, +because the story that follows is a dangerous story for a scientist to +tell, in view of the vast amount of nonsense and fiction in +circulation masquerading as stories of scientific adventure. + +I was, therefore, anticipating a delightful summer's work with pen and +microscope, when on April 1st I received the following extraordinary +letter from Professor Farrago: + + + "IN CAMP, LITTLE SPRITE LAKE, + + "EVERGLADES, FLORIDA, _March 15, 1902._ + + "MY DEAR MR. GILLAND,--On receipt of this communication you + will immediately secure for me the following articles: + + "One complete outfit of woman's clothing. + "One camera. + "One light steel cage, large enough for you to stand in. + "One stenographer (male sex). + "One five-pound steel tank, with siphon and hose attachment. + "One rifle and ammunition. + "Three ounces rosium oxyde. + "One ounce chlorate strontium. + + "You will then, within twenty-four hours, set out with the + stenographer and the supplies mentioned and join me in camp on + Little Sprite Lake. This order is formal and admits of no + delay. You will appreciate the necessity of absolute and + unquestioning obedience when I tell you that I am practically + on the brink of the most astonishing discovery recorded in + natural history since Monsieur Zani discovered the + purple-spotted zoombok in Nyanza; and that I depend upon you + and your zeal and fidelity for success. + + "I dare not, lest my letter fall into unscrupulous hands, + convey to you more than a hint of what lies before us in these + uncharted solitudes of the Everglades. + + "You must read between the lines when I say that because one + can see through a sheet of glass, the glass is none the less + solid and palpable. One can see _through_ it--if that is also + seeing it; but one can nevertheless hold it and feel it and + receive from it sensations of cold or heat according to its + temperature. + + "Certain jellyfish are absolutely transparent when in the + water, and one can only know of their presence by accidental + contact, not by sight. + + "_Have you ever thought that possibly there might exist larger + and more highly organized creatures transparent to eyesight, + yet palpable to touch?_ + + "Little Sprite Lake is the jumping-off place; beyond lie the + Everglades, the outskirts of which are haunted by the + Seminoles, the interior of which have never been visited by + man, as far as we know. + + "As you are aware, no general survey of Florida has yet been + made; there exist no maps of the Everglades south of + Okeechobee; even Little Sprite Lake is but a vague blot on our + maps. We know, of course, that south of the eleven thousand + square miles of fresh water which is called Lake Okeechobee + the Everglades form a vast, delta-like projection of thousands + and thousands of square miles. Darkest Africa is no longer a + mystery; but the Everglades to-day remain the sombre secret of + our continent. And, to-day, this unknown expanse of swamps, + barrens, forests, and lagoons is greater than in the days of + De Soto, because the entire region has been slowly rising. + + "All this, my dear sir, you already know, and I ask your + indulgence for recalling the facts to your memory. I do it for + this reason--the search for _what I am seeking_ may lead us to + utter destruction; and therefore my formal orders to you + should be modified to this extent:--do you volunteer? If you + volunteer, my orders remain; if not, turn this letter over to + Mr. Kingsley, who will find for me the companion I require. + + "In the event of your coming, you must break your journey at + False Cape and ask for an old man named Slunk. He will give + you a packet; you will give him a dollar, and drive on to Cape + Canaveral, and you will do what is to be done there. From + there to Fort Kissimmee, to Okeechobee, traversing the lake to + the Rita River, where I have marked the trail to Little + Sprite. + + "At Little Sprite I shall await you; beyond that point a + merciful Providence alone can know what awaits us. + + "Yours fraternally, + + "FARRAGO. + + "P.S.--I think that you had better make your will, and suggest + the same idea to the stenographer who is to accompany you. + + F." + +And that was the letter I received while seated comfortably on the +floor of my work-room, surrounded by innocent isopods, all patiently +awaiting scientific investigation. + +And this is what I did: Within twenty-four hours I had assembled the +supplies required--the cage, the woman's clothing, tank, arms and +ammunition, and the chemicals; I had secured accommodations, for that +evening, on the Florida, Volusia, and Fort Lauderdale Railway as far +as Citron City; and I had been interviewing stenographers all day +long, the result of an innocently worded advertisement in the daily +newspapers. + +It was now very close to the time when I must summon a cab and drive +to the ferry; and yet I was still shy one stenographer. + +I had seen scores; they simply would not listen to the proposition. +"Why does a gentleman in the backwoods of Florida want a +stenographer?" they demanded; and as I had not the faintest idea, I +could only say so. I think the majority interviewed concluded I had +escaped from a State institution. + +As the time for departure approached I became desperate, urging and +beseeching applicants to accompany me; but neither sympathy for my +instant need nor desire for salary moved them. + +I waited until the last moment, hoping against hope. Then, with a +groan of despair, I seized luggage and raincoat, made for the door and +flung it open, only to find myself face to face with an attractive +young girl, apparently on the point of pressing the electric button. + +"I'm sorry," I said, "but I have a train to catch." + +She was noticeably attractive in her storm-coat and pretty hat, and I +really was sorry--so sorry that I added: + +"I have about twenty-seven seconds to place at your service before I +go." + +"Twenty will be sufficient," she replied, pleasantly. "I saw your +advertisement for a stenographer--" + +"We require a man," I interposed, hastily. + +"Have you engaged him?" + +"N-no." + +We looked at each other. + +"You wouldn't accept, anyway," I began. + +"How do you know?" + +"You wouldn't leave town, would you?" + +"Yes, if you required it." + +"What? Go to Florida?" + +"Y-yes--if I must." + +"But think of the alligators! Think of the snakes--big, bitey snakes!" + +"Gracious!" she exclaimed, eyes growing bigger. + +"Indians, too!--unreconciled, sulky Seminoles! Fevers! Mud-puddles! +Spiders! And only fifty dollars a week--" + +"I--I'll go," she stammered. + +"Go?" I repeated, grimly; "then you've exactly two and three-quarter +seconds left for preparations." + +Instinctively she raised her little gloved hand and patted her hair. +"I'm ready," she said, unsteadily. + +"One extra second to make your will," I added, stunned by her +self-possession. + +"I--I have nothing to leave--nobody to leave it to," she said, +smiling; "I am ready." + +I took that extra second myself for a lightning course in reflection +upon effects and consequences. + +"It's silly, it's probably murder," I said, "but you're engaged! Now +we must run for it!" + +And that is how I came to engage the services of Miss Helen Barrison +as stenographer. + + + + +XIV + + +At noon on the second day I disembarked from the train at Citron City +with all paraphernalia--cage, chemicals, arsenal, and stenographer; an +accumulation of very dusty impedimenta--all but the stenographer. By +three o'clock our hotel livery-rig was speeding along the beach at +False Cape towards the tall lighthouse looming above the dunes. + +The abode of a gentleman named Slunk was my goal. I sat brooding in +the rickety carriage, still dazed by the rapidity of my flight from +New York; the stenographer sat beside me, blue eyes bright with +excitement, fair hair blowing in the sea-wind. + +Our railway companionship had been of the slightest, also absolutely +formal; for I was too absorbed in conjecturing the meaning of this +journey to be more than absent-mindedly civil; and she, I fancy, had +had time for repentance and perhaps for a little fright, though I +could discover traces of neither. + +I remember she left the train at some city or other where we were held +for an hour; and out of the car-window I saw her returning with a +brand-new grip sack. + +She must have bought clothes, for she continued to remain cool and +fresh in her summer shirt-waists and short outing skirt; and she +looked immaculate now, sitting there beside me, the trace of a smile +curving her red mouth. + +"I'm looking for a personage named Slunk," I observed. + +After a moment's silent consideration of the Atlantic Ocean she said, +"When do my duties begin, Mr. Gilland?" + +"The Lord alone knows," I replied, grimly. "Are you repenting of your +bargain?" + +"I am quite happy," she said, serenely. + +Remorse smote me that I had consented to engage this frail, +pink-and-ivory biped for an enterprise which lay outside the suburbs +of Manhattan. I glanced guiltily at my victim; she sat there, the +incarnation of New York piquancy--a translated denizen of the +metropolis--a slender spirit of the back offices of sky-scrapers. Why +had I lured her hither?--here where the heavy, lavender-tinted +breakers thundered on a lost coast; here where above the dune-jungles +vultures soared, and snowy-headed eagles, hulking along the sands, +tore dead fish and yelped at us as we passed. + +Strange waters, strange skies--a strange, lost land aquiver under an +exotic sun; and there she sat with her wise eyes of a child, +unconcerned, watching the world in perfect confidence. + +"May I pay a little compliment to your pluck?" I asked, amused. + +"Certainly," she said, smiling as the maid of Manhattan alone knows +how to smile--shyly, inquiringly--with a lingering hint of laughter in +the curled lips' corners. Then her sensitive features fell a trifle. +"Not pluck," she said, "but necessity; I had no chance to choose, no +time to wait. My last dollar, Mr. Gilland, is in my purse!" + +With a gay little gesture she drew it from her shirt-front, then, +smiling, sat turning it over and over in her lap. + +The sun fell on her hands, gilding the smooth skin with the first tint +of sunburn. Under the corners of her eyes above the rounded cheeks a +pink stain lay like the first ripening flush on a wild strawberry. +That, too, was the mark left by the caress of wind and sun. I had had +no idea she was so pretty. + +"I think we'll enjoy this adventure," I said; "don't you?" + +"I try to make the best of things," she said, gazing off into the +horizon haze. "Look," she added; "is that a man?" + +A spot far away on the beach caught my eye. At first I thought it was +a pelican--and small wonder, too, for the dumpy, waddling, +goose-necked individual who loomed up resembled a heavy bottomed bird +more than a human being. + +"Do you suppose that could be Mr. Slunk?" asked the stenographer, as +our vehicle drew nearer. + +He looked as though his name ought to be Slunk; he was digging coquina +clams, and he dug with a pecking motion like a water-turkey mastering +a mullet too big for it. + +His name was Slunk; he admitted it when I accused him. Our negro +driver drew rein, and I descended to the sand and gazed on Mr. Slunk. + +He was, as I have said, not impressive, even with the tremendous +background of sky and ocean. + +"I've come something over a thousand miles to see you," I said, +reluctant to admit that I had come as far to see such a specimen of +human architecture. + +A weather-beaten grin stretched the skin that covered his face, and he +shoved a hairy paw into the pockets of his overalls, digging deeply +into profound depths. First he brought to light a twist of South +Carolina tobacco, which he leisurely inserted in his mouth--not, +apparently, for pleasure, but merely to get rid of it. + +The second object excavated from the overalls was a small packet +addressed to me. This he handed to me; I gravely handed him a silver +dollar; he went back to his clam-digging, and I entered the carriage +and drove on. All had been carried out according to the letter of my +instructions so far, and my spirits brightened. + +"If you don't mind I'll read my instructions," I said, in high +good-humor. + +"Pray do not hesitate," she said, smiling in sympathy. + +So I opened the little packet and read: + + "Drive to Cape Canaveral along the beach. You will find a gang + of men at work on a government breakwater. The superintendent + is Mr. Rowan. Show him this letter. + + "FARRAGO." + +Rather disappointed--for I had been expecting to find in the packet +some key to the interesting mystery which had sent Professor Farrago +into the Everglades--I thrust the missive into my pocket and resumed a +study of the immediate landscape. It had not changed as we progressed: +ocean, sand, low dunes crowned with impenetrable tangles of wild bay, +sparkleberry, and live-oak, with here and there a weather-twisted +palmetto sprawling, and here and there the battered blades of cactus +and Spanish-bayonet thrust menacingly forward; and over all the +vultures, sailing, sailing--some mere circling motes lost in the blue +above, some sheering the earth so close that their swiftly sweeping +shadows slanted continually across our road. + +"I detest a buzzard," I said, aloud. + +"I thought they were crows," she confessed. + +"Carrion-crows--yes. + + "'The carrion-crows + Sing, Caw! caw!' + +--only they don't," I added, my song putting me in good-humor once +more. And I glanced askance at the pretty stenographer. + +"It is a pleasure to be employed by agreeable people," she said, +innocently. + +"Oh, I can be much more agreeable than that," I said. + +"Is Professor Farrago--amusing?" she asked. + +"Well--oh, certainly--but not in--in the way I am." + +Suddenly it flashed upon me that my superior was a confirmed hater of +unmarried women. I had clean forgotten it; and now the full import of +what I had done scared me silent. + +"Is anything the matter?" asked Miss Barrison. + +"No--not yet," I said, ominously. + +How on earth could I have overlooked that well-known fact. The hurry +and anxiety, the stress of instant preparation and departure, had +clean driven it from my absent-minded head. + +Jogging on over the sand, I sat silent, cudgelling my brains for a +solution of the disastrous predicament I had gotten into. I pictured +the astonished rage of my superior--my probable dismissal from +employment--perhaps the general overturning and smash-up of the entire +expedition. + +A distant, dark object on the beach concentrated my distracted +thoughts; it must be the breakwater at Cape Canaveral. And it was the +breakwater, swarming with negro workmen, who were swinging great +blocks of coquina into cemented beds, singing and whistling at their +labor. + +I forgot my predicament when I saw a thin white man in sun-helmet and +khaki directing the work from the beach; and as our horses plodded up, +I stepped out and hailed him by name. + +"Yes, my name is Rowan," he said, instantly, turning to meet me. His +sharp, clear eyes included the vehicle and the stenographer, and he +lifted his helmet, then looked squarely at me. + +"My name is Gilland," I said, dropping my voice and stepping nearer. +"I have just come from Bronx Park, New York." + +He bowed, waiting for something more from me; so I presented my +credentials. + +His formal manner changed at once. "Come over here and let us talk a +bit," he said, cordially--then hesitated, glancing at Miss +Barrison--"if your wife would excuse us--" + +The pretty stenographer colored, and I dryly set Mr. Rowan +right--which appeared to disturb him more than his mistake. + +"Pardon me, Mr. Gilland, but you do not propose to take this young +girl into the Everglades, do you?" + +"That's what I had proposed to do," I said, brusquely. + +Perfectly aware that I resented his inquiry, he cast a perplexed and +troubled glance at her, then slowly led the way to a great block of +sun-warmed coquina, where he sat down, motioning me to do the same. + +"I see," he said, "that you don't know just where you are going or +just what you are expected to do." + +"No, I don't," I said. + +"Well, I'll tell you, then. You are going into the devil's own country +to look for something that I fled five hundred miles to avoid." + +"Is that so?" I said, uneasily. + +"That is so, Mr. Gilland." + +"Oh! And what is this object that I am to look for and from which you +fled five hundred miles?" + +"I don't know." + +"You don't know what you ran away from?" + +"No, sir. Perhaps if I had known I should have run a thousand miles." + +We eyed one another. + +"You think, then, that I'd better send Miss Barrison back to New +York?" I asked. + +"I certainly do. It may be murder to take her." + +"Then I'll do it!" I said, nervously. "Back she goes from the first +railroad station." + +In a flash the thought came to me that here was a way to avoid the +wrath of Professor Farrago--and a good excuse, too. He might forgive +my not bringing a man as stenographer in view of my limited time; he +never would forgive my presenting him with a woman. + +"She must go back," I repeated; and it rather surprised me to find +myself already anticipating loneliness--something that never in all my +travels had I experienced before. + +"By the first train," I added, firmly, disliking Mr. Rowan without any +reason except that he had suddenly deprived me of my stenographer. + +"What I have to tell you," he began, lighting a cigarette, the mate to +which I declined, "is this: Three years ago, before I entered this +contracting business, I was in the government employ as officer in the +Coast Survey. Our duties took us into Florida waters; we were months +at a time working on shore." + +He pulled thoughtfully at his cigarette and blew a light cloud into +the air. + +"I had leave for a month once; and like an ass I prepared to spend it +in a hunting-trip among the Everglades." + +He crossed his lean legs and gazed meditatively at his cigarette. + +"I believe," he went on, "that we penetrated the Everglades farther +than any white man who ever lived to return. There's nothing very +dismal about the Everglades--the greater part, I mean. You get high +and low hummock, marshes, creeks, lakes, and all that. If you get +lost, you're a goner. If you acquire fever, you're as well off as the +seraphim--and not a whit better. There are the usual animals +there--bears (little black fellows) lynxes, deer, panthers, +alligators, and a few stray crocodiles. As for snakes, of course +they're there, moccasins a-plenty, some rattlers, but, after all, not +as many snakes as one finds in Alabama, or even northern Florida and +Georgia. + +"The Seminoles won't help you--won't even talk to you. They're a +sullen pack--but not murderous, as far as I know. Beyond their inner +limits lie the unknown regions." + +He bit the wet end from his cigarette. + +"I went there," he said; "I came out as soon as I could." + +"Why?" + +"Well--for one thing, my companion died of fright." + +"Fright? What at?" + +"Well, there's something in there." + +"What?" + +He fixed a penetrating gaze on me. "I don't know, Mr. Gilland." + +"Did you see anything to frighten you?" I insisted. + +"No, but I felt something." He dropped his cigarette and ground it +into the sand viciously. "To cut it short," he said, "I am most +unwillingly led to believe that there are--creatures--of some sort in +the Everglades--living creatures quite as large as you or I--and that +they are perfectly transparent--as transparent as a colorless +jellyfish." + +Instantly the veiled import of Professor Farrago's letter was made +clear to me. He, too, believed that. + +"It embarrasses me like the devil to say such a thing," continued +Rowan, digging in the sand with his spurred heels. "It seems so--so +like a whopping lie--it seems so childish and ridiculous--so cursed +cheap! But I fled; and there you are. I might add," he said, +indifferently, "that I have the ordinary portion of courage allotted +to normal men." + +"But what do you believe these--these animals to be?" I asked, +fascinated. + +"I don't know." An obstinate look came into his eyes. "I don't know, +and I absolutely refuse to speculate for the benefit of anybody. I +wouldn't do it for my friend Professor Farrago; and I'm not going to +do it for you," he ended, laughing a rather grim laugh that somehow +jarred me into realizing the amazing import of his story. For I did +not doubt it, strange as it was--fantastic, incredible though it +sounded in the ears of a scientist. + +What it was that carried conviction I do not know--perhaps the fact +that my superior credited it; perhaps the manner of narration. Told in +quiet, commonplace phrases, by an exceedingly practical and +unimaginative young man who was plainly embarrassed in the telling, +the story rang out like a shout in a cañon, startling because of the +absolute lack of emphasis employed in the telling. + +"Professor Farrago asked me to speak of this to no one except the man +who should come to his assistance. He desired the first chance of +clearing this--this rather perplexing matter. No doubt he didn't want +exploring parties prowling about him," added Rowan, smiling. "But +there's no fear of that, I fancy. I never expect to tell that story +again to anybody; I shouldn't have told him, only somehow it's worried +me for three years, and though I was deadly afraid of ridicule, I +finally made up my mind that science ought to have a hack at it. + +"When I was in New York last winter I summoned up courage and wrote +Professor Farrago. He came to see me at the Holland House that same +evening; I told him as much as I ever shall tell anybody. That is all, +Mr. Gilland." + +For a long time I sat silent, musing over the strange words. After a +while I asked him whether Professor Farrago was supplied with +provisions; and he said he was; that a great store of staples and tins +of concentrated rations had been carried in as far as Little Sprite +Lake; that Professor Farrago was now there alone, having insisted upon +dismissing all those he had employed. + +"There was no practical use for a guide," added Rowan, "because no +cracker, no Indian, and no guide knows the region beyond the Seminole +country." + +I rose, thanking him and offering my hand. He took it and shook it in +manly fashion, saying: "I consider Professor Farrago a very brave man; +I may say the same of any man who volunteers to accompany him. +Good-bye, Mr. Gilland; I most earnestly wish for your success. +Professor Farrago left this letter for you." + +And that was all. I climbed back into the rickety carriage, carrying +my unopened letter; the negro driver cracked his whip and whistled, +and the horses trotted inland over a fine shell road which was to lead +us across Verbena Junction to Citron City. Half an hour later we +crossed the tracks at Verbena and turned into a broad marl road. This +aroused me from my deep and speculative reverie, and after a few +moments I asked Miss Barrison's indulgence and read the letter from +Professor Farrago which Mr. Rowan had given me: + + "DEAR MR. GILLAND,--You now know all I dared not write, + fearing to bring a swarm of explorers about my ears in case + the letter was lost, and found by unscrupulous meddlers. If + you still are willing to volunteer, knowing all that I know, + join me as soon as possible. If family considerations deter + you from taking what perhaps is an insane risk, I shall not + expect you to join me. In that event, return to New York + immediately and send Kingsley. + + "Yours, F." + +"What the deuce is the matter with him!" I exclaimed, irritably. "I'll +take any chances Kingsley does!" + +Miss Barrison looked up in surprise. + +"Miss Barrison," I said, plunging into the subject headfirst, "I'm +extremely sorry, but I have news that forces me to believe the journey +too dangerous for you to attempt, so I think that it would be much +better--" The consternation in her pretty face checked me. + +"I'm awfully sorry," I muttered, appalled by her silence. + +"But--but you engaged me!" + +"I know it--I should not have done it. I only--" + +"But you did engage me, didn't you?" + +"I believe that I did--er--oh, of course--" + +"But a verbal contract is binding between honorable people, isn't it, +Mr. Gilland?" + +"Yes, but--" + +"And ours was a verbal contract; and in consideration you paid me my +first week's salary, and I bought shirt-waists and a short skirt and +three changes of--and tooth-brushes and--" + +"I know, I know," I groaned. "But I'll fix all that." + +"You can't if you break your contract." + +"Why not?" + +"Because," she said, flushing up, "I should not accept." + +"You don't understand--" + +"Really I do. You are going into a dangerous country and you're afraid +I'll be frightened." + +"It's something like that." + +"Tell me what are the dangers?" + +"Alligators, big, bitey snakes--" + +"Oh, you've said all that before!" + +"Seminoles--" + +"And that too. What else is there? Did the young man in the sun-helmet +tell you of something worse?" + +"Yes--much worse! Something so dreadfully horrible that--" + +"What?" + +"I am not at liberty to tell you, Miss Barrison," I said, striving to +appear shocked. + +"It would not make any difference anyway," she observed, calmly. "I'm +not afraid of anything in the world." + +"Yes, you are!" I said. "Listen to me; I'd be awfully glad to have you +go--I--I really had no idea how I'd miss you--miss such pleasant +companionship. But it is not possible--" The recollection of Professor +Farrago's aversion suddenly returned. "No, no," I said, "it can't be +done. I'm most unhappy over this mistake of mine; please don't look as +though you were ready to cry!" + +"Don't discharge me, Mr. Gilland," she said. + +"I'm a brute to do it, but I must; I was a bigger brute to engage you, +but I did. Don't--please don't look at me that way, Miss Barrison! As +a matter of fact, I'm tender-hearted and I can't endure it." + +"If you only knew what I had been through you wouldn't send me away," +she said, in a low voice. "It took my last penny to clothe myself and +pay for the last lesson at the college of stenography. I--I lived on +almost nothing for weeks; every respectable place was filled; I walked +and walked and walked, and nobody wanted me--they all required people +with experience--and how can I have experience until I begin, Mr. +Gilland? I was perfectly desperate when I went to see you, knowing +that you had advertised for a man--" The slightest break in her clear +voice scared me. + +"I'm not going to cry," she said, striving to smile. "If I must go, I +will go. I--I didn't mean to say all this--but--but I've been so--so +discouraged;--and you were not very cross with me--" + +Smitten with remorse, I picked up her hand and fell to patting it +violently, trying to think of something to say. The exercise did not +appear to stimulate my wits. + +"Then--then I'm to go with you?" she asked. + +"I will see," I said, weakly, "but I fear there's trouble ahead for +this expedition." + +"I fear there is," she agreed, in a cheerful voice. "You have a rifle +and a cage in your luggage. Are you going to trap Indians and have me +report their language?" + +"No, I'm not going to trap Indians," I said, sharply. "They may trap +us--but that's a detail. What I want to say to you is this: Professor +Farrago detests unmarried women, and I forgot it when I engaged you." + +"Oh, is that all?" she asked, laughing. + +"Not all, but enough to cost me my position." + +"How absurd! Why, there are millions of things we might +do!--millions!" + +"What's one of them?" I inquired. + +"Why, we might pretend to be married!" Her frank and absolutely +innocent delight in this suggestion was refreshing, but troubling. + +"We would have to be demonstrative to make that story go," I said. + +"Why? Well-bred people are not demonstrative in public," she retorted, +turning a trifle pink. + +"No, but in private--" + +"I think there is no necessity for carrying a pleasantry into our +private life," she said, in a perfectly amiable voice. "Anyway, if +Professor Farrago's feelings are to be spared, no sacrifice on the +part of a mere girl could be too great," she added, gayly; "I will +wear men's clothes if you wish." + +"You may have to anyhow in the jungle," I said; "and as it's not an +uncommon thing these days, nobody would ever take you for anything +except what you are--a very wilful and plucky and persistent and--" + +"And what, Mr. Gilland?" + +"And attractive," I muttered. + +"Thank you, Mr. Gilland." + +"You're welcome," I snapped. The near whistle of a locomotive warned +us, and I rose in the carriage, looking out across the sand-hills. + +"That is probably our train," observed the pretty stenographer. + +"_Our_ train!" + +"Yes; isn't it?" + +"Then you insist--" + +"Ah, no, Mr. Gilland; I only trust implicitly in my employer." + +"We'll wait till we get to Citron City," I said, weakly; "then it will +be time enough to discuss the situation, won't it?" + +"Yes, indeed," she said, smiling; but she knew, and I already feared, +that the situation no longer admitted of discussion. In a few moments +more we emerged, without warning, from the scrub-crested sand-hills +into the single white street of Citron City, where China-trees hung +heavy with bloom, and magnolias, already set with perfumed candelabra, +spread soft, checkered shadows over the marl. + +The train lay at the station, oceans of heavy, black smoke lazily +flowing from the locomotive; negroes were hoisting empty fruit-crates +aboard the baggage-car, through the door of which I caught a glimpse +of my steel cage and remaining paraphernalia, all securely crated. + +"Telegram hyah foh Mistuh Gilland," remarked the operator, lounging at +his window as we descended from our dusty vehicle. He had not +addressed himself to anybody in particular, but I said that I was Mr. +Gilland, and he produced the envelope. "Toted in from Okeechobee?" he +inquired, listlessly. + +"Probably; it's signed 'Farrago,' isn't it?" + +"It's foh yoh, suh, I reckon," said the operator, handing it out with +a yawn. Then he removed his hat and fanned his head, which was +perfectly bald. + +I opened the yellow envelope. "Get me a good dog with points," was the +laconic message; and it irritated me to receive such idiotic +instructions at such a time and in such a place. A good dog? Where the +mischief could I find a dog in a town consisting of ten houses and a +water-tank? I said as much to the bald-headed operator, who smiled +wearily and replaced his hat: "Dawg? They's moh houn'-dawgs in Citron +City than they's wood-ticks to keep them busy. I reckon a dollah 'll +do a heap foh you, suh." + +"Could you get me a dog for a dollar?" I asked;--"one with points?" + +"Points? I sholy can, suh;--plenty of points. What kind of dawg do yoh +requiah, suh?--live dawg? daid dawg? houn'-dawg? raid-dawg? hawg-dawg? +coon-dawg?--" + +The locomotive emitted a long, lazy, softly modulated and thoroughly +Southern toot. I handed the operator a silver dollar, and he presently +emerged from his office and slouched off up the street, while I walked +with Miss Barrison to the station platform, where I resumed the +discussion of her future movements. + +"You are very young to take such a risk," I said, gravely. "Had I not +better buy your ticket back to New York? The north-bound train meets +this one. I suppose we are waiting for it now--" I stopped, conscious +of her impatience. + +Her face flushed brightly: "Yes; I think it best. I have embarrassed +you too long already--" + +"Don't say that!" I muttered. "I--I--shall be deadly bored without +you." + +"I am not an entertainer, only a stenographer," she said, curtly. +"Please get me my ticket, Mr. Gilland." + +She gazed at me from the car-platform; the locomotive tooted two +drawling toots. + +"It is for your sake," I said, avoiding her gaze as the far-off +whistle of the north-bound express came floating out of the blue +distance. + +She did not answer; I fished out my watch, regarding it in silence, +listening to the hum of the approaching train, which ought presently +to bear her away into the North, where nothing could menace her except +the brilliant pitfalls of a Christian civilization. But I stood +there, temporizing, unable to utter a word as her train shot by us +with a rush, slower, slower, and finally stopped, with a long-drawn +sigh from the air-brakes. + +At that instant the telegraph-operator appeared, carrying a dog by the +scruff of the neck--a sad-eyed, ewe-necked dog, from the four corners +of which dangled enormous, cushion-like paws. He yelped when he beheld +me. Miss Barrison leaned down from the car-platform and took the +animal into her arms, uttering a suppressed exclamation of pity as she +lifted him. + +"You have your hands full," she said to me; "I'll take him into the +car for you." + +She mounted the steps; I followed with the valises, striving to get a +good view of my acquisition over her shoulder. + +"That isn't the kind of dog I wanted!" I repeated again and again, +inspecting the animal as it sprawled on the floor of the car at the +edge of Miss Barrison's skirt. "That dog is all voice and feet and +emotion! What makes it stick up its paws like that? I don't want that +dog and I'm not going to identify myself with it! Where's the +operator--" + +I turned towards the car-window; the operator's bald head was visible +on a line with the sill, and I made motions at him. He bowed with +courtly grace, as though I were thanking him. + +"I'm not!" I cried, shaking my head. "I wanted a dog with points--not +the kind of points that stick up all over this dog. Take him away!" + +The operator's head appeared to be gliding out of my range of vision; +then the windows of the north-bound train slid past, faster and +faster. A melancholy grace-note from the dog, a jolt, and I turned +around, appalled. + +"This train is going," I stammered, "and you are on it!" + +Miss Barrison sprang up and started towards the door, and I sped after +her. + +"I can jump," she said, breathlessly, edging out to the platform; +"please let me! There is time yet--if you only wouldn't hold me--so +tight--" + +A few moments later we walked slowly back together through the car and +took seats facing one another. + +Between us sat the hound-dog, a prey to melancholy unutterable. + + + + +XV + + +It was on Sunday when I awoke to the realization that I had quitted +civilization and was afloat on an unfamiliar body of water in an open +boat containing-- + + One light steel cage, + One rifle and ammunition, + One stenographer, + Three ounces rosium oxide, + One hound-dog, + Two valises. + +A playful wave slopped over the bow and I lost count; but the pretty +stenographer made the inventory, while I resumed the oars, and the dog +punctured the primeval silence with staccato yelps. + +A few minutes later everything and everybody was accounted for; the +sky was blue and the palms waved, and several species of dicky-birds +tuned up as I pulled with powerful strokes out into the sunny waters +of Little Sprite Lake, now within a few miles of my journey's end. + +From ponds hidden in the marshes herons rose in lazily laborious +flight, flapping low across the water; high in the cypress yellow-eyed +ospreys bent crested heads to watch our progress; sun-baked +alligators, lying heavily in the shoreward sedge, slid open, glassy +eyes as we passed. + +"Even the 'gators make eyes at you," I said, resting on my oars. + +We were on terms of badinage. + +"Who was it who shed crocodile tears at the prospect of shipping me +North?" she inquired. + +"Speaking of tears," I observed, "somebody is likely to shed a number +when Professor Farrago is picked up." + +"Pooh!" she said, and snapped her pretty, sun-tanned fingers; and I +resumed the oars in time to avoid shipwreck on a large mud-bar. + +She reclined in the stern, serenely occupied with the view, now and +then caressing the discouraged dog, now and then patting her hair +where the wind had loosened a bright strand. + +"If Professor Farrago didn't expect a woman stenographer," she said, +abruptly, "why did he instruct you to bring a complete outfit of +woman's clothing?" + +"I don't know," I said, tartly. + +"But you bought them. Are they for a young woman or an old woman?" + +"I don't know; I sent a messenger to a department store. I don't know +what he bought." + +"Didn't you look them over?" + +"No. Why? I should have been no wiser. I fancy they're all right, +because the bill was eighteen hundred dollars--" + +The pretty stenographer sat up abruptly. + +"Is that much?" I asked, uneasily. "I've always heard women's clothing +was expensive. Wasn't it enough? I told the boy to order the +best;--Professor Farrago always requires the very best scientific +instruments, and--I listed the clothes as scientific accessories--that +being the object of this expedition--_What_ are you laughing at?" + +When it pleased her to recover her gravity she announced her desire to +inspect and repack the clothing; but I refused. + +"They're for Professor Farrago," I said. "I don't know what he wants +of them. I don't suppose he intends to wear 'em and caper about the +jungle, but they're his. I got them because he told me to. I bought a +cage, too, to fit myself, but I don't suppose he means to put me in +it. Perhaps," I added, "he may invite you into it." + +"Let me refold the gowns," she pleaded, persuasively. "What does a +clumsy man know about packing such clothing as that? If you don't, +they'll be ruined. It's a shame to drag those boxes about through mud +and water!" + +So we made a landing, and lifted out and unlocked the boxes. All I +could see inside were mounds of lace and ribbons, and with a vague +idea that Miss Barrison needed no assistance I returned to the boat +and sat down to smoke until she was ready. + +When she summoned me her face was flushed and her eyes bright. + +"Those are certainly the most beautiful things!" she said, softly. +"Why, it is like a bride's trousseau--absolutely complete--all except +the bridal gown--" + +"Isn't there a dress there?" I exclaimed, in alarm. + +"No--not a day-dress." + +"Night-dresses!" I shrieked. "He doesn't want women's night-dresses! +He's a bachelor! Good Heavens! I've done it this time!" + +"But--but who is to wear them?" she asked. + +"How do I know? I don't know anything; I can only presume that he +doesn't intend to open a department store in the Everglades. And if +any lady is to wear garments in his vicinity, I assume that those +garments are to be anything except diaphanous!... Please take your +seat in the boat, Miss Barrison. I want to row and think." + +I had had my fill of exercise and thought when, about four o'clock in +the afternoon, Miss Barrison directed my attention to a point of palms +jutting out into the water about a mile to the southward. + +"That's Farrago!" I exclaimed, catching sight of a United States flag +floating majestically from a bamboo-pole. "Give me the megaphone, if +you please." + +She handed me the instrument; I hailed the shore; and presently a man +appeared under the palms at the water's edge. + +"Hello!" I roared, trying to inject cheerfulness into the hollow +bellow. "How are you, professor?" + +The answer came distinctly across the water: + +"_Who_ is that with you?" + +My lips were buried in the megaphone; I strove to speak; I only +produced a ghastly, chuckling sound. + +"Of course you expect to tell the truth," observed the pretty +stenographer, quietly. + +I removed my lips from the megaphone and looked around at her. She +returned my gaze with a disturbing smile. + +"I want to mitigate the blow," I said, hoarsely. "Tell me how." + +"I'm sure I don't know," she said, sweetly. + +"Well, _I_ do!" I fairly barked, and seizing the megaphone again, I +set it to my lips and roared, "My fiancée!" + +"Good gracious!" exclaimed Miss Barrison, in consternation, "I thought +you were going to tell the truth!" + +"Don't do that or you'll upset us," I snapped--"I'm telling the truth; +I've engaged myself to you; I did it mentally before I bellowed." + +"But--" + +"You know as well as I do what engagements mean," I said, picking up +the oars and digging them deep in the blue water. + +She assented uncertainly. + +A few minutes more of vigorous rowing brought us to a muddy landing +under a cluster of tall palmettos, where a gasoline launch lay. +Professor Farrago came down to the shore as I landed, and I walked +ahead to meet him. He was the maddest man I ever saw. But I was his +match, for I was desperate. + +"What the devil--" he began, under his breath. + +"Nonsense!" I said, deliberately. "An engaged woman is practically +married already, because marriages are made in heaven." + +"Good Lord!" he gasped, "are you mad, Gilland? I sent for a +stenographer--" + +"Miss Barrison is a stenographer," I said, calmly; and before he could +recover I had presented him, and left them face to face, washing my +hands of the whole affair. + +Unloading the boat and carrying the luggage up under the palms, I +heard her saying: + +"No, I am not in the least afraid of snakes, and I am quite ready to +begin my duties." + +And he: "Mr. Gilland is a young man who--er--lacks practical +experience." + +And she: "Mr. Gilland has been most thoughtful for my comfort. The +journey has been perfectly heavenly." + +And he, clumsily: "Ahem!--the--er--celestial aspect of your journey +has--er--doubtless been colored by--er--the prospect of +your--er--approaching nuptials--" + +She, hastily: "Oh, I do not think so, professor." + +"Idiot!" I muttered, dragging the dog to the shore, where his yelps +brought the professor hurrying. + +"Is _that_ the dog?" he inquired, adjusting his spectacles. + +"That's the dog," I said. "He's full of points, you see?" + +"Oh," mused the professor; "I thought he was full of--" He hesitated, +inspecting the animal, who, nose to the ground, stood investigating a +smell of some sort. + +"See," I said, with enthusiasm, "he's found a scent; he's trailing it +already! Now he's rolling on it!" + +"He's rolling on one of our concentrated food lozenges," said the +professor, dryly. "Tie him up, Mr. Gilland, and ask Mrs. Gilland to +come up to camp. Your room is ready." + +"Rooms," I corrected; "she isn't Mrs. Gilland yet," I added, with a +forced smile. + +"But you're practically married," observed the professor, "as you +pointed out to me. And if she's practically Mrs. Gilland, why not say +so?" + +"Don't, all the same," I snarled. + +"But marriages are made in--" + +I cast a desperate eye upon him. + +From that moment, whenever we were alone together, he made a target of +me. I never had supposed him humorously vindictive; he was, and his +apparently innocent mistakes almost turned my hair gray. + +But to Miss Barrison he was kind and courteous, and for a time +over-serious. Observing him, I could never detect the slightest +symptom of dislike for her sex--a failing which common rumor had +always credited him with to the verge of absolute rudeness. + +On the contrary, it was perfectly plain to anybody that he liked her. +There was in his manner towards her a mixture of business formality +and the deferential attitude of a gentleman. + +We were seated, just before sunset, outside of the hut built of +palmetto logs, when Professor Farrago, addressing us both, began the +explanation of our future duties. + +Miss Barrison, it appeared, was to note everything said by himself, +making several shorthand copies by evening. In other words, she was to +report every scrap of conversation she heard while in the Everglades. +And she nodded intelligently as he finished, and drew pad and pencil +from the pocket of her walking-skirt, jotting down his instructions as +a beginning. I could see that he was pleased. + +"The reason I do this," he said, "is because I do not wish to hide +anything that transpires while we are on this expedition. Only the +most scrupulously minute record can satisfy me; no details are too +small to merit record; I demand and I court from my fellow-scientists +and from the public the fullest investigation." + +He smiled slightly, turning towards me. + +"You know, Mr. Gilland, how dangerous to the reputation of a +scientific man is any line of investigation into the unusual. If a man +once is even suspected of charlatanism, of sensationalism, of turning +his attention to any phenomena not strictly within the proper pale of +scientific investigation, that man is doomed to ridicule; his +profession disowns him; he becomes a man without honor, without +authority. Is it not so?" + +"Yes," I said. + +"Therefore," he resumed, thoughtfully, "as I do most firmly believe in +the course I am now pursuing, whether I succeed or fail I desire a +true and minute record made, hiding nothing of what may be said or +done. A stenographer alone can give this to the world, while I can +only supplement it with a description of events--if I live to +transcribe them." + +Sunk in profound reverie he sat there silent under the great, smooth +palm-tree--a venerable figure in his yellow dressing-gown and carpet +slippers. Seated side by side, we waited, a trifle awed. I could hear +the soft breathing of the pretty stenographer beside me. + +"First of all," said Professor Farrago, looking up, "I must be able to +trust those who are here to aid me." + +"I--I will be faithful," said the girl, in a low voice. + +"I do not doubt you, my child," he said; "nor you, Gilland. And so I +am going to tell you this much now--more, I hope, later." + +And he sat up straight, lifting an impressive forefinger. + +"Mr. Rowan, lately an officer of our Coast Survey, wrote me a letter +from the Holland House in New York--a letter so strange that, on +reading it, I immediately repaired to his hotel, where for hours we +talked together. + +"The result of that conference is this expedition. + +"I have now been here two months, and I am satisfied of certain facts. +First, there do exist in this unexplored wilderness certain forms of +life which are solid and palpable, but transparent and practically +invisible. Second, these living creatures belong to the animal +kingdom, are warm-blooded vertebrates, possess powers of locomotion, +but whether that of flight I am not certain. Third, they appear to +possess such senses as we enjoy--smell, touch, sight, hearing, and no +doubt the sense of taste. Fourth, their skin is smooth to the touch, +and the temperature of the epidermis appears to approximate that of a +normal human being. Fifth and last, whether bipeds or quadrupeds I do +not know, though all evidence appears to confirm my theory that they +walk erect. One pair of their limbs appear to terminate in a sort of +foot--like a delicately shaped human foot, except that there appear to +be no toes. The other pair of limbs terminate in something that, from +the single instance I experienced, seemed to resemble soft but firm +antennæ or, perhaps, digitated palpi--" + +"Feelers!" I blurted out. + +"I don't know, but I think so. Once, when I was standing in the +forest, perfectly aware that creatures I could not see had stealthily +surrounded me, the tension was brought to a crisis when over my face, +from cheek to chin, stole a soft something, brushing the skin as +delicately as a child's fingers might brush it." + +"Good Lord!" I breathed. + +A care-worn smile crept into his eyes. "A test for nerves, you think, +Mr. Gilland? I agree with you. Nobody fears what anybody can see." + +There came the slightest movement beside me. + +"Are you trembling?" I asked, turning. + +"I was writing," she replied, steadily. "Did my elbow touch you?" + +"By-the-way," said Professor Farrago, "I fear I forgot to congratulate +you upon your choice of a stenographer, Mr. Gilland." + +A rosy light stole over her pale face. + +"Am I to record that too?" she asked, raising her blue eyes. + +"Certainly," he replied, gravely. + +"But, professor," I began, a prey to increasing excitement, "do you +propose to attempt the capture of one of these animals?" + +"That is what the cage is for," he said. "I supposed you had guessed +that." + +"I had," murmured the pretty stenographer. + +"I do not doubt it," said Professor Farrago, gravely. + +"What are the chemicals for--and the tank and hose attachment?" + +"Think, Mr. Gilland." + +"I can't; I'm almost stunned by what you tell me." + +He laughed. "The rosium oxide and salts of strontium are to be dumped +into the tank together. They'll effervesce, of course." + +"Of course," I muttered. + +"And I can throw a rose-colored spray over any object by the hose +attachment, can't I?" + +"Yes." + +"Well, I tried it on a transparent jelly-fish and it became perfectly +visible and of a beautiful rose-color: and I tried it on rock-crystal, +and on glass, and on pure gelatine, and all became suffused with a +delicate pink glow, which lasted for hours or minutes according to the +substance.... Now you understand, don't you?" + +"Yes; you want to see what sort of creature you have to deal with." + +"Exactly; so when I've trapped it I am going to spray it." He turned +half humorously towards the stenographer: "I fancy you understood long +before Mr. Gilland did." + +"I don't think so," she said, with a sidelong lifting of the heavy +lashes; and I caught the color of her eyes for a second. + +"You see how Miss Barrison spares your feelings," observed Professor +Farrago, dryly. "She owes you little gratitude for bringing her here, +yet she proves a generous victim." + +"Oh, I am very grateful for this rarest of chances!" she said, shyly. +"To be among the first in the world to discover such wonders ought to +make me very grateful to the man who gave me the opportunity." + +"Do you mean Mr. Gilland?" asked the professor, laughing. + +I had never before seen Professor Farrago laugh such a care-free +laugh; I had never suspected him of harboring even an embryo of the +social graces. Dry as dust, sapless as steel, precise as the magnetic +needle, he had hitherto been to me the mummified embodiment of science +militant. Now, in the guise of a perfectly human and genial old +gentleman, I scarcely recognized my superior of the Bronx Park +society. And as a woman-hater he was a miserable failure. + +"Heavens," I thought to myself, "am I becoming jealous of my revered +professor's social success with a stray stenographer?" I felt mean, +and I probably looked it, and I was glad that telepathy did not permit +Miss Barrison to record my secret and unworthy ruminations. + +The professor was saying: "These transparent creatures break off +berries and fruits and branches; I have seen a flower, too, plucked +from its stem by invisible digits and borne swiftly through the +forest--only the flower visible, apparently speeding through the air +and out of sight among the thickets. + +"I have found the footprints that I described to you, usually on the +edge of a stream or in the soft loam along some forest lake or lost +lagoon. + +"Again and again I have been conscious in the forest that unseen eyes +were fixed on me, that unseen shapes were following me. Never but that +one time did these invisible creatures close in around me and venture +to touch me. + +"They may be weak; their structure may be frail, and they may be +incapable of violence or harm, but the depth of the footprints +indicates a weight of at least one hundred and thirty pounds, and it +certainly requires some muscular strength to break off a branch of +wild guavas." + +He bent his noble head, thoughtfully regarding the design on his +slippers. + +"What was the rifle for?" I asked. + +"Defence, not aggression," he said, simply. + +"And the camera?" + +"A camera record is necessary in these days of bad artists." + +I hesitated, glancing at Miss Barrison. She was still writing, her +pretty head bent over the pad in her lap. + +"And the clothing?" I asked, carelessly. + +"Did you get it?" he demanded. + +"Of course--" I glanced at Miss Barrison. "There's no use writing down +everything, is there?" + +"Everything must be recorded," said Professor Farrago, inflexibly. +"What clothing did you buy?" + +"I forgot the gown," I said, getting red about the ears. + +"Forgot the gown!" he repeated. + +"Yes--one kind of gown--the day kind. I--I got the other kind." + +He was annoyed; so was I. After a moment he got up, and crossing to +the log cabin, opened one of the boxes of apparel. + +"Is it what you wanted?" I inquired. + +"Y-es, I presume so," he replied, visibly perplexed. + +"It's the best to be had," said I. + +"That's quite right," he said, musingly. "We use only the best of +everything at Bronx Park. It is traditional with us, you know." + +Curiosity pushed me. "Well, what on earth is it for?" I broke out. + +He looked at me gravely over the tops of his spectacles--a striking +and inspiring figure in his yellow flannel dressing-gown and +slippers. + +"I shall tell you some day--perhaps," he said, mildly. "Good-night, +Miss Barrison; good-night, Mr. Gilland. You will find extra blankets +on your bunk--" + +"What!" I cried. + +"Bunks," he said, and shut the door. + + + + +XVI + + +"There is something weird about this whole proceeding," I observed to +the pretty stenographer next morning. + +"These pies will be weird if you don't stop talking to me," she said, +opening the doors of Professor Farrago's portable camping-oven and +peeping in at the fragrant pastry. + +The professor had gone off somewhere into the woods early that +morning. As he was not in the habit of talking to himself, the +services of Miss Barrison were not required. Before he started, +however, he came to her with a request for a dozen pies, the +construction of which he asked if she understood. She had been to +cooking-school in more prosperous days, and she mentioned it; so at +his earnest solicitation she undertook to bake for him twelve +apple-pies; and she was now attempting it, assisted by advice from me. + +"Are they burned?" I asked, sniffing the air. + +"No, they are not burned, Mr. Gilland, but my finger is," she +retorted, stepping back to examine the damage. + +I offered sympathy and witch-hazel, but she would have none of my +offerings, and presently returned to her pies. + +"We can't eat all that pastry," I protested. + +"Professor Farrago said they were not for us to eat," she said, +dusting each pie with powdered sugar. + +"Well, what are they for? The dog? Or are they simply objets d'art to +adorn the shanty--" + +"You annoy me," she said. + +"The pies annoy me; won't you tell me what they're for?" + +"I have a pretty fair idea what they're for," she observed, tossing +her head. "Haven't you?" + +"No. What?" + +"These pies are for bait." + +"To bait hooks with?" I exclaimed. + +"Hooks! No, you silly man. They're for baiting the cage. He means to +trap these transparent creatures in a cage baited with pie." + +She laughed scornfully; inserted the burned tip of her finger in her +mouth and stood looking at me defiantly like a flushed and bright-eyed +school-girl. + +"You think you're teasing me," she said; "but you do not realize what +a singularly slow-minded young man you are." + +I stopped laughing. "How did you come to the conclusion that pies were +to be used for such a purpose?" I asked. + +"I deduce," she observed, with an airy wave of her disengaged hand. + +"Your deductions are weird--like everything else in this vicinity. +Pies to catch invisible monsters? Pooh!" + +"You're not particularly complimentary, are you?" she said. + +"Not particularly; but I could be, with you for my inspiration. I +could even be enthusiastic--" + +"About my pies?" + +"No--about your eyes." + +"You are very frivolous--for a scientist," she said, scornfully; +"please subdue your enthusiasm and bring me some wood. This fire is +almost out." + +When I had brought the wood, she presented me with a pail of hot water +and pointed at the dishes on the breakfast-table. + +"Never!" I cried, revolted. + +"Then I suppose I must do them--" + +She looked pensively at her scorched finger-tip, and, pursing up her +red lips, blew a gentle breath to cool it. + +"I'll do the dishes," I said. + +Splashing and slushing the cups and saucers about in the hot water, I +reflected upon the events of the last few days. The dog, stupefied by +unwonted abundance of food, lay in the sunshine, sleeping the sleep of +repletion; the pretty stenographer, all rosy from her culinary +exertions, was removing the pies and setting them in neat rows to +cool. + +"There," she said, with a sigh; "now I will dry the dishes for you.... +You didn't mention the fact, when you engaged me, that I was also +expected to do general housework." + +"I didn't engage you," I said, maliciously; "you engaged me, you +know." + +She regarded me disdainfully, nose uptilted. + +"How thoroughly disagreeable you can be!" she said. "Dry your own +dishes. I'm going for a stroll." + +"May I join--" + +"You may _not_! I shall go so far that you cannot possibly discover +me." + +I watched her forestward progress; she sauntered for about thirty +yards along the lake and presently sat down in plain sight under a +huge live-oak. + +A few moments later I had completed my task as general bottle-washer, +and I cast about for something to occupy me. + +First I approached and politely caressed the satiated dog. He woke up, +regarded me with dully meditative eyes, yawned, and went to sleep +again. Never a flop of tail to indicate gratitude for blandishments, +never the faintest symptom of canine appreciation. + +Chilled by my reception, I moused about for a while, poking into boxes +and bundles; then raised my head and inspected the landscape. Through +the vista of trees the pink shirt-waist of the pretty stenographer +glimmered like a rose blooming in the wilderness. + +From whatever point I viewed the prospect that pink spot seemed to +intrude; I turned my back and examined the jungle, but there it was +repeated in a hundred pink blossoms among the massed thickets; I +looked up into the tree-tops, where pink mosses spotted the palms; I +looked out over the lake, and I saw it in my mind's eye pinker than +ever. It was certainly a case of pink-eye. + +"I'll go for a stroll, too; it's a free country," I muttered. + +After I had strolled in a complete circle I found myself within three +feet of a pink shirt-waist. + +"I beg your pardon," I said; "I had no inten--" + +"I thought you were never coming," she said, amiably. + +"How is your finger?" I asked. + +She held it up. I took it gingerly; it was smooth and faintly rosy at +the tip. + +"Does it hurt?" I inquired. + +"Dreadfully. Your hands feel so cool--" + +After a silence she said, "Thank you, that has cooled the burning." + +"I am determined," said I, "to expel the fire from your finger if it +takes hours and hours." And I seated myself with that intention. + +For a while she talked, making innocent observations concerning the +tropical foliage surrounding us. Then silence crept in between us, +accentuated by the brooding stillness of the forest. + +"I am afraid your hands are growing tired," she said, considerately. + +I denied it. + +Through the vista of palms we could see the lake, blue as a violet, +sparkling with silvery sunshine. In the intense quiet the splash of +leaping mullet sounded distinctly. + +Once a tall crane stalked into view among the sedges; once an unseen +alligator shook the silence with his deep, hollow roaring. Then the +stillness of the wilderness grew more intense. + +We had been sitting there for a long while without exchanging a word, +dreamily watching the ripple of the azure water, when all at once +there came a scurrying patter of feet through the forest, and, looking +up, I beheld the hound-dog, tail between his legs, bearing down on us +at lightning speed. I rose instantly. + +"What is the matter with the dog?" cried the pretty stenographer. "Is +he going mad, Mr. Gilland?" + +"Something has scared him," I exclaimed, as the dog, eyes like lighted +candles, rushed frantically between my legs and buried his head in +Miss Barrison's lap. + +"Poor doggy!" she said, smoothing the collapsed pup; "poor, p-oor +little beast! Did anything scare him? Tell aunty all about it." + +When a dog flees _without yelping_ he's a badly frightened creature. I +instinctively started back towards the camp whence the beast had fled, +and before I had taken a dozen steps Miss Barrison was beside me, +carrying the dog in her arms. + +"I've an idea," she said, under her breath. + +"What?" I asked, keeping my eyes on the camp. + +"It's this: I'll wager that we find those pies gone!" + +"Pies gone?" I repeated, perplexed; "what makes you think--" + +"They _are_ gone!" she exclaimed. "Look!" + +I gaped stupidly at the rough pine table where the pies had stood in +three neat rows of four each. And then, in a moment, the purport of +this robbery flashed upon my senses. + +"The transparent creatures!" I gasped. + +"Hush!" she whispered, clinging to the trembling dog in her arms. + +I listened. I could hear nothing, see nothing, yet slowly I became +convinced of the presence of something unseen--something in the forest +close by, watching us out of invisible eyes. + +A chill, settling along my spine, crept upward to my scalp, until +every separate hair wiggled to the roots. Miss Barrison was pale, but +perfectly calm and self-possessed. + +"Let us go in-doors," I said, as steadily as I could. + +"Very well," she replied. + +I held the door open; she entered with the dog; I followed, closing +and barring the door, and then took my station at the window, rifle in +hand. + +There was not a sound in the forest. Miss Barrison laid the dog on the +floor and quietly picked up her pad and pencil. Presently she was deep +in a report of the phenomena, her pencil flying, leaf after leaf from +the pad fluttering to the floor. + +Nor did I at the window change my position of scared alertness, until +I was aware of her hand gently touching my elbow to attract my +attention, and her soft voice at my ear-- + +"You don't suppose by any chance that the dog ate those pies?" + +I collected my tumultuous thoughts and turned to stare at the dog. + +"Twelve pies, twelve inches each in diameter," she reflected, +musingly. "One dog, twenty inches in diameter. How many times will the +pies go into the dog? Let me see." She made a few figures on her pad, +thought awhile, produced a tape-measure from her pocket, and, kneeling +down, measured the dog. + +"No," she said, looking up at me, "he couldn't contain them." + +Inspired by her coolness and perfect composure, I set the rifle in the +corner and opened the door. Sunlight fell in bars through the quiet +woods; nothing stirred on land or water save the great, yellow-striped +butterflies that fluttered and soared and floated above the flowering +thickets bordering the jungle. + +The heat became intense; Miss Barrison went to her room to change her +gown for a lighter one; I sat down under a live-oak, eyes and ears +strained for any sign of our invisible neighbors. + +When she emerged in the lightest and filmiest of summer gowns, she +brought the camera with her; and for a while we took pictures of each +other, until we had used up all but one film. + +Desiring to possess a picture of Miss Barrison and myself seated +together, I tied a string to the shutter-lever and attached the other +end of the string to the dog, who had resumed his interrupted +slumbers. At my whistle he jumped up nervously, snapping the lever, +and the picture was taken. + +With such innocent and harmless pastime we whiled away the afternoon. +She made twelve more apple-pies. I mounted guard over them. And we +were just beginning to feel a trifle uneasy about Professor Farrago, +when he appeared, tramping sturdily through the forest, green umbrella +and butterfly-net under one arm, shot-gun and cyanide-jar under the +other, and his breast all criss-crossed with straps, from which +dangled field-glasses, collecting-boxes, and botanizing-tins--an +inspiring figure indeed--the embodied symbol of science indomitable, +triumphant! + +We hailed him with three guilty cheers; the dog woke up with a +perfunctory bark--the first sound I had heard from him since he yelped +his disapproval of me on the lagoon. + +Miss Barrison produced three bowls full of boiling water and dropped +three pellets of concentrated soup-meat into them, while I prepared +coffee. And in a few moments our simple dinner was ready--the red +ants had been dusted from the biscuits, the spiders chased off the +baked beans, the scorpions shaken from the napkins, and we sat down at +the rough, improvised table under the palms. + +The professor gave us a brief but modest account of his short tour of +exploration. He had brought back a new species of orchid, several +undescribed beetles, and a pocketful of coontie seed. He appeared, +however, to be tired and singularly depressed, and presently we +learned why. + +It seemed that he had gone straight to that section of the forest +where he had hitherto always found signs of the transparent and +invisible creatures which he had determined to capture, and he had not +found a single trace of them. + +"It alarms me," he said, gravely. "If they have deserted this region, +it might take a lifetime to locate them again in this wilderness." + +Then, very quietly, sinking her voice instinctively, as though the +unseen might be at our very elbows listening, Miss Barrison recounted +the curious adventure which had befallen the dog and the first batch +of apple-pies. + +With visible and increasing excitement the professor listened until +the very end. Then he struck the table with clinched fist--a +resounding blow which set the concentrated soup dancing in the bowls +and scattered the biscuits and the industrious red ants in every +direction. + +"Eureka!" he whispered. "Miss Barrison, your deduction was not only +perfectly reasonable, but brilliant. You are right; the pies are for +that very purpose. I conceived the idea when I first came here. Again +and again the pies that my guide made out of dried apples disappeared +in a most astonishing and mysterious manner when left to cool. At +length I determined to watch them every second; and did so, with the +result that late one afternoon I was amazed to see a pie slowly rise +from the table and move swiftly away through the air about four feet +above the ground, finally disappearing into a tangle of jasmine and +grape-vine. + +"The apparently automatic flight of that pie solved the problem; these +transparent creatures cannot resist that delicacy. Therefore I decided +to bait the cage for them this very night--Look! What's the matter +with that dog?" + +The dog suddenly bounded into the air, alighted on all fours, ears, +eyes, and muzzle concentrated on a point directly behind us. + +"Good gracious! The pies!" faltered Miss Barrison, half rising from +her seat; but the dog rushed madly into her skirts, scrambling for +protection, and she fell back almost into my arms. + +Clasping her tightly, I looked over my shoulder; the last pie was +snatched from the table before my eyes and I saw it borne swiftly away +by something unseen, straight into the deepening shadows of the +forest. + +The professor was singularly calm, even slightly ironical, as he +turned to me, saying: + +"Perhaps if you relinquish Miss Barrison she may be able to free +herself from that dog." + +I did so immediately, and she deposited the cowering dog in my arms. +Her face had suddenly become pink. + +I passed the dog on to Professor Farrago, dumping it viciously into +his lap--a proceeding which struck me as resembling a pastime of +extreme youth known as "button, button, who's got the button?" + +The professor examined the animal gravely, feeling its pulse, counting +its respirations, and finally inserting a tentative finger in an +attempt to examine its tongue. The dog bit him. + +"Ouch! It's a clear case of fright," he said, gravely. "I wanted a dog +to aid me in trailing these remarkable creatures, but I think this dog +of yours is useless, Gilland." + +"It's given us warning of the creatures' presence twice already," I +argued. + +"Poor little thing," said Miss Barrison, softly; "I don't know why, +but I love that dog.... He has eyes like yours, Mr. Gilland--" + +Exasperated, I rose from the table. "He's got eyes like holes burned +in a blanket!" I said. "And if ever a flicker of intelligence lighted +them I have failed to observe it." + +The professor regarded me dreamily. "We ought to have more pies," he +observed. "Perhaps if you carried the oven into the shanty--" + +"Certainly," said Miss Barrison; "we can lock the door while I make +twelve more pies." + +I carried the portable camping-oven into the cabin, connected the +patent asbestos chimney-pipes, and lighted the fire. And in a few +minutes Miss Barrison, sleeves rolled up and pink apron pinned under +her chin, was busily engaged in rolling pie-crust, while Professor +Farrago measured out spices and set the dried apples to soak. + +The swift Southern twilight had already veiled the forest as I +stepped out of the cabin to smoke a cigar and promenade a bit and +cogitate. A last trace of color lingering in the west faded out as I +looked; the gray glimmer deepened into darkness, through which the +white lake vapors floated in thin, wavering strata across the water. + +For a while the frog's symphony dominated all other sounds, then +lagoon and forest and cypress branch awoke; and through the steadily +sustained tumult of woodland voices I could hear the dry bark of the +fox-squirrel, the whistle of the raccoon, ducks softly quacking or +whimpering as they prepared for sleep among the reeds, the soft +booming of bitterns, the clattering gossip of the heronry, the +Southern whippoorwill's incessant call. + +At regular intervals the howling note of a lone heron echoed the +strident screech of a crimson-crested crane; the horned owl's savage +hunting-cry haunted the night, now near, now floating from infinite +distances. + +And after a while I became aware of a nearer sound, low-pitched but +ceaseless--the hum of thousands of lesser living creatures blending to +a steady monotone. + +Then the theatrical moon came up through filmy draperies of waving +Spanish moss thin as cobwebs; and far in the wilderness a cougar fell +a-crying and coughing like a little child with a bad cold. + +I went in after that. Miss Barrison was sitting before the oven, knees +gathered in her clasped hands, languidly studying the fire. She looked +up as I appeared, opened the oven-doors, sniffed the aroma, and +resumed her attitude of contented indifference. + +"Where is the professor?" I asked. + +"He has retired. He's been talking in his sleep at moments." + +"Better take it down; that's what you're here for," I observed, +closing and holding the outside door. "Ugh! there's a chill in the +air. The dew is pelting down from the pines like a steady fall of +rain." + +"You will get fever if you roam about at night," she said. "Mercy! +your coat is soaking. Sit here by the fire." + +So I pulled up a bench and sat down beside her like the traditional +spider. + +"Miss Muffitt," I said, "don't let me frighten you away--" + +"I was going anyhow--" + +"Please don't." + +"Why?" she demanded, reseating herself. + +"Because I like to sit beside you," I said, truthfully. + +"Your avowal is startling and not to be substantiated by facts," she +remarked, resting her chin on one hand and gazing into the fire. + +"You mean because I went for a stroll by moonlight? I did that because +you always seem to make fun of me as soon as the professor joins us." + +"Make fun of you? You surely don't expect me to make eyes at you!" + +There was a silence; I toasted my shins, thoughtfully. + +"How is your burned finger?" I asked. + +She lifted it for my inspection, and I began a protracted examination. + +"What would you prescribe?" she inquired, with an absent-minded glance +at the professor's closed door. + +"I don't know; perhaps a slight but firm pressure of the +finger-tips--" + +"You tried that this afternoon." + +"But the dog interrupted us--" + +"Interrupted _you_. Besides--" + +"What?" + +"I don't think you ought to," she said. + +Sitting there before the oven, side by side, hand innocently clasped +in hand, we heard the drumming of the dew on the roof, the night-wind +stirring the palms, the muffled snoring of the professor, the faint +whisper and crackle of the fire. + +A single candle burned brightly, piling our shadows together on the +wall behind us; moonlight silvered the window-panes, over which +crawled multitudes of soft-winged moths, attracted by the candle +within. + +"See their tiny eyes glow!" she whispered. "How their wings quiver! +And all for a candle-flame! Alas! alas! fire is the undoing of us +all." + +She leaned forward, resting as though buried in reverie. After a while +she extended one foot a trifle and, with the point of her shoe, +carefully unlatched the oven-door. As it swung outward a delicious +fragrance filled the room. + +"They're done," she said, withdrawing her hand from mine. "Help me to +lift them out." + +Together we arranged the delicious pastry in rows on the bench to +cool. I opened the door for a few minutes, then closed and bolted it +again. + +"Do you suppose those transparent creatures will smell the odor and +come around the cabin?" she suggested, wiping her fingers on her +handkerchief. + +I walked to the window uneasily. Outside the pane the moths crawled, +some brilliant in scarlet and tan-color set with black, some +snow-white with black tracings on their wings, and bodies peacock-blue +edged with orange. The scientist in me was aroused; I called her to +the window, and she came and leaned against the sill, nose pressed to +the glass. + +"I don't suppose you know that the antennæ of that silvery-winged moth +are distinctly pectinate," I said. + +"Of course I do," she said. "I took my degree as D.E. at Barnard +College." + +"What!" I exclaimed in astonishment. "You've been through Barnard? You +are a Doctor of Entomology?" + +"It was my undoing," she said. "The department was abolished the year +I graduated. There was no similar vacancy, even in the Smithsonian." + +She shrugged her shoulders, eyes fixed on the moths. "I had to make my +own living. I chose stenography as the quickest road to +self-sustenance." + +She looked up, a flush on her cheeks. + +"I suppose you took me for an inferior?" she said. "But do you suppose +I'd flirt with you if I was?" + +She pressed her face to the pane again, murmuring that exquisite poem +of Andrew Lang: + + "Spooning is innocuous and needn't have a sequel, + But recollect, if spoon you must, spoon only with your equal." + +Standing there, watching the moths, we became rather silent--I don't +know why. + +The fire in the range had gone out; the candle-flame, flaring above a +saucer of melted wax, sank lower and lower. + +Suddenly, as though disturbed by something inside, the moths all left +the window-pane, darting off in the darkness. + +"That's curious," I said. + +"What's curious?" she asked, opening her eyes languidly. "Good +gracious! Was that a bat that beat on the window?" + +"I saw nothing," I said, disturbed. "Listen!" + +A soft sound against the glass, as though invisible fingers were +feeling the pane--a gentle rubbing--then a tap-tap, all but inaudible. + +"Is it a bird? Can you see?" she whispered. + +The candle-flame behind us flashed and expired. Moonlight flooded the +pane. The sounds continued, but there was nothing there. + +We understood now what it was that so gently rubbed and patted the +glass outside. With one accord we noiselessly gathered up the pies and +carried them into my room. + +Then she walked to the door of her room, turned, held out her hand, +and whispering, "Good-night! A demain, monsieur!" slipped into her +room and softly closed the door. + +And all night long I lay in troubled slumber beside the pies, a rifle +resting on the blankets beside me, a revolver under my pillow. And I +dreamed of moths with brilliant eyes and vast silvery wings harnessed +to a balloon in which Miss Barrison and I sat, arms around each other, +eating slice after slice of apple-pie. + + + + +XVII + + +Dawn came--the dawn of a day that I am destined never to forget. Long, +rosy streamers of light broke through the forest, shaking, quivering, +like unstable beams from celestial search-lights. Mist floated upward +from marsh and lake; and through it the spectral palms loomed, +drooping fronds embroidered with dew. + +For a while the ringing outburst of bird music dominated all; but it +soon ceased with dropping notes from the crimson cardinals repeated in +lengthening minor intervals; and then the spell of silence returned, +broken only by the faint splash of mullet, mocking the sun with +sinuous, silver flashes. + +"Good-morning," said a low voice from the door as I stood encouraging +the camp-fire with splinter wood and dead palmetto fans. + +Fresh and sweet from her toilet as a dew-drenched rose, Miss Barrison +stood there sniffing the morning air daintily, thoroughly. + +"Too much perfume," she said--"too much like ylang-ylang in a +department-store. Central Park smells sweeter on an April morning." + +"Are you criticising the wild jasmine?" I asked. + +"I'm criticising an exotic smell. Am I not permitted to comment on the +tropics?" + +Fishing out a cedar log from the lumber-stack, I fell to chopping it +vigorously. The axe-strokes made a cheerful racket through the woods. + +"Did you hear anything last night after you retired?" I asked. + +"Something was at my window--something that thumped softly and seemed +to be feeling all over the glass. To tell you the truth, I was silly +enough to remain dressed all night." + +"You don't look it," I said. + +"Oh, when daylight came I had a chance," she added, laughing. + +"All the same," said I, leaning on the axe and watching her, "you are +about the coolest and pluckiest woman I ever knew." + +"We were all in the same fix," she said, modestly. + +"No, we were not. Now I'll tell you the truth--my hair stood up the +greater part of the night. You are looking upon a poltroon, Miss +Barrison." + +"Then there was something at your window, too?" + +"Something? A dozen! They were monkeying with the sashes and panes all +night long, and I imagined that I could hear them breathing--as though +from effort of intense eagerness. Ouch! I came as near losing my nerve +as I care to. I came within an ace of hurling those cursed pies +through the window at them. I'd bolt to-day if I wasn't afraid to play +the coward." + +"Most people are brave for that reason," she said. + +The dog, who had slept under my bunk, and who had contributed to my +entertainment by sighing and moaning all night, now appeared ready for +business--business in his case being the operation of feeding. I +presented him with a concentrated tablet, which he cautiously +investigated and then rolled on. + +"Nice testimonial for the people who concocted it," I said, in +disgust. "I wish I had an egg." + +"There are some concentrated egg tablets in the shanty," said Miss +Barrison; but the idea was not attractive. + +"I refuse to fry a pill for breakfast," I said, sullenly, and set the +coffee-pot on the coals. + +In spite of the dewy beauty of the morning, breakfast was not a +cheerful function. Professor Farrago appeared, clad in sun-helmet and +khaki. I had seldom seen him depressed; but he was now, and his very +efforts to disguise it only emphasized his visible anxiety. + +His preparations for the day, too, had an ominous aspect to me. He +gave his orders and we obeyed, instinctively suppressing questions. +First, he and I transported all personal luggage of the company to the +big electric launch--Miss Barrison's effects, his, and my own. His +private papers, the stenographic reports, and all memoranda were tied +up together and carried aboard. + +Then, to my surprise, two weeks' concentrated rations for two and +mineral water sufficient for the same period were stowed away aboard +the launch. Several times he asked me whether I knew how to run the +boat, and I assured him that I did. + +In a short time nothing was left ashore except the bare furnishings of +the cabin, the female wearing-apparel, the steel cage and chemicals +which I had brought, and the twelve apple-pies--the latter under lock +and key in my room. + +As the preparations came to an end, the professor's gentle melancholy +seemed to deepen. Once I ventured to ask him if he was indisposed, and +he replied that he had never felt in better physical condition. + +Presently he bade me fetch the pies; and I brought them, and, at a +sign from him, placed them inside the steel cage, closing and locking +the door. + +"I believe," he said, glancing from Miss Barrison to me, and from me +to the dog--"I believe that we are ready to start." + +He went to the cabin and locked the door on the outside, pocketing the +key. + +Then he backed up to the steel cage, stooped and lifted his end as I +lifted mine, and together we started off through the forest, bearing +the cage between us as porters carry a heavy piece of luggage. + +Miss Barrison came next, carrying the trousseau, the tank, hose, and +chemicals; and the dog followed her--probably not from affection for +us, but because he was afraid to be left alone. + +We walked in silence, the professor and I keeping an instinctive +lookout for snakes; but we encountered nothing of that sort. On every +side, touching our shoulders, crowded the closely woven and +impenetrable tangle of the jungle; and we threaded it along a narrow +path which he, no doubt, had cut, for the machete marks were still +fresh, and the blazes on hickory, live-oak, and palm were all wet with +dripping sap, and swarming with eager, brilliant butterflies. + +At times across our course flowed shallow, rapid streams of water, +clear as crystal, and most alluring to the thirsty. + +"There's fever in every drop," said the professor, as I mentioned my +thirst; "take the bottled water if you mean to stay a little longer." + +"Stay where?" I asked. + +"On earth," he replied, tersely; and we marched on. + +The beauty of the tropics is marred somewhat for me; under all the +fresh splendor of color death lurks in brilliant tints. Where painted +fruit hangs temptingly, where great, silky blossoms exhale alluring +scent, where the elaps coils inlaid with scarlet, black, and saffron, +where in the shadow of a palmetto frond a succession of velvety black +diamonds mark the rattler's swollen length, there death is; and his +invisible consort, horror, creeps where the snake whose mouth is lined +with white creeps--where the tarantula squats, hairy, motionless; +where a bit of living enamel fringed with orange undulates along a +mossy log. + +Thinking of these things, and watchful lest, unawares, terror unfold +from some blossoming and leafy covert, I scarcely noticed the beauty +of the glade we had entered--a long oval, cross-barred with sunshine +which fell on hedges of scrub-palmetto, chin high, interlaced with +golden blossoms of the jasmine. And all around, like pillars +supporting a high green canopy above a throne, towered the silvery +stems of palms fretted with pale, rose-tinted lichens and hung with +draperies of grape-vine. + +"This is the place," said Professor Farrago. + +His quiet, passionless voice sounded strange to me; his words seemed +strange, too, each one heavily weighted with hidden meaning. + +We set the cage on the ground; he unlocked and opened the steel-barred +door, and, kneeling, carefully arranged the pies along the centre of +the cage. + +"I have a curious presentiment," he said, "that I shall not come out +of this experiment unscathed." + +"Don't, for Heaven's sake, say that!" I broke out, my nerves on edge +again. + +"Why not?" he asked, surprised. "I am not afraid." + +"Not afraid to die?" I demanded, exasperated. + +"Who spoke of dying?" he inquired, mildly. "What I said was that I do +not expect to come out of this affair unscathed." + +I did not comprehend his meaning, but I understood the reproof +conveyed. + +He closed and locked the cage door again and came towards us, +balancing the key across the palm of his hand. + +Miss Barrison had seated herself on the leaves; I stood back as the +professor sat down beside her; then, at a gesture from him, took the +place he indicated on his left. + +"Before we begin," he said, calmly, "there are several things you +ought to know and which I have not yet told you. The first concerns +the feminine wearing apparel which Mr. Gilland brought me." + +He turned to Miss Barrison and asked her whether she had brought a +complete outfit, and she opened the bundle on her knees and handed it +to him. + +"I cannot," he said, "delicately explain in so many words what use I +expect to make of this apparel. Nor do I yet know whether I shall have +any use at all for it. That can only be a theoretical speculation +until, within a few more hours, my theory is proven or disproven--and," +he said, suddenly turning on me, "my theory concerning these invisible +creatures is the most extraordinary and audacious theory ever +entertained by man since Columbus presumed that there must lie +somewhere a hidden continent which nobody had ever seen." + +He passed his hand over his protruding forehead, lost for a moment in +deepest reflection. Then, "Have you ever heard of the Sphyx?" he +asked. + +"It seems to me that Ponce de Leon wrote of something--" I began, +hesitating. + +"Yes, the famous lines in the third volume which have set so many wise +men guessing. You recall them: + +"'_And there, alas! within sound of the Fountain of Youth whose waters +tint the skin till the whole body glows softly like the petal of a +rose--there, alas! in the new world already blooming_, THE ETERNAL +ENIGMA _I beheld, in the flesh living; yet it faded even as I looked, +although I swear it lived and breathed. This is the Sphyx_.'" + +A silence; then I said, "Those lines are meaningless to me." + +"Not to me," said Miss Barrison, softly. + +The professor looked at her. "Ah, child! Ever subtler, ever surer--the +Eternal Enigma is no enigma to you." + +"What is the Sphyx?" I asked. + +"Have you read De Soto? Or Goya?" + +"Yes, both. I remember now that De Soto records the Syachas legend of +the Sphyx--something about a goddess--" + +"Not a goddess," said Miss Barrison, her lips touched with a smile. + +"Sometimes," said the professor, gently. "And Goya said: + +"'_It has come to my ears while in the lands of the Syachas that the +Sphyx surely lives, as bolder and more curious men than I may, God +willing, prove to the world hereafter_.'" + +"But what is the Sphyx?" I insisted. + +"For centuries wise men and savants have asked each other that +question. I have answered it for myself; I am now to prove it, I +trust." + +His face darkened, and again and again he stroked his heavy brow. + +"If anything occurs," he said, taking my hand in his left and Miss +Barrison's hand in his right, "promise me to obey my wishes. Will +you?" + +"Yes," we said, together. + +"If I lose my life, or--or disappear, promise me on your honor to get +to the electric launch as soon as possible and make all speed +northward, placing my private papers, the reports of Miss Barrison, +and your own reports in the hands of the authorities in Bronx Park. +Don't attempt to aid me; don't delay to search for me. Do you +promise?" + +"Yes," we breathed together. + +He looked at us solemnly. "If you fail me, you betray me," he said. + +We swore obedience. + +"Then let us begin," he said, and he rose and went to the steel cage. +Unlocking the door, he flung it wide and stepped inside, leaving the +cage door open. + +"The moment a single pie is disturbed," he said to me, "I shall close +the steel door from the inside, and you and Miss Barrison will then +dump the rosium oxide and the strontium into the tank, clap on the +lid, turn the nozzle of the hose on the cage, and spray it +thoroughly. Whatever is invisible in the cage will become visible and +of a faint rose color. And when the trapped creature becomes visible, +hold yourselves ready to aid me as long as I am able to give you +orders. After that either all will go well or all will go otherwise, +and you must run for the launch." He seated himself in the cage near +the open door. + +I placed the steel tank near the cage, uncoiled the hose attachment, +unscrewed the top, and dumped in the salts of strontium. Miss Barrison +unwrapped the bottle of rosium oxide and loosened the cork. We +examined this pearl-and-pink powder and shook it up so that it might +run out quickly. Then Miss Barrison sat down, and presently became +absorbed in a stenographic report of the proceedings up to date. + +When Miss Barrison finished her report she handed me the bundle of +papers. I stowed them away in my wallet, and we sat down together +beside the tank. + +Inside the cage Professor Farrago was seated, his spectacled eyes +fixed on the row of pies. For a while, although realizing perfectly +that our quarry was transparent and invisible, we unconsciously +strained our eyes in quest of something stirring in the forest. + +"I should think," said I, in a low voice, "that the odor of the pies +might draw at least one out of the odd dozen that came rubbing up +against my window last night." + +"Hush! Listen!" she breathed. But we heard nothing save the snoring of +the overfed dog at our feet. + +"He'll give us ample notice by butting into Miss Barrison's skirts," I +observed. "No need of our watching, professor." + +The professor nodded. Presently he removed his spectacles and lay back +against the bars, closing his eyes. + +At first the forest silence seemed cheerful there in the flecked +sunlight. The spotted wood-gnats gyrated merrily, chased by +dragon-flies; the shy wood-birds hopped from branch to twig, peering +at us in friendly inquiry; a lithe, gray squirrel, plumy tail +undulating, rambled serenely around the cage, sniffing at the pastry +within. + +Suddenly, without apparent reason, the squirrel sprang to a +tree-trunk, hung a moment on the bark, quivering all over, then dashed +away into the jungle. + +"Why did he act like that?" whispered Miss Barrison. And, after a +moment: "How still it is! Where have the birds gone?" + +In the ominous silence the dog began to whimper in his sleep and his +hind legs kicked convulsively. + +"He's dreaming--" I began. + +The words were almost driven down my throat by the dog, who, without a +yelp of warning, hurled himself at Miss Barrison and alighted on my +chest, fore paws around my neck. + +I cast him scornfully from me, but he scrambled back, digging like a +mole to get under us. + +"The transparent creatures!" whispered Miss Barrison. "Look! See that +pie move!" + +I sprang to my feet just as the professor, jamming on his spectacles, +leaned forward and slammed the cage door. + +"I've got one!" he shouted, frantically. "There's one in the cage! +Turn on that hose!" + +"Wait a second," said Miss Barrison, calmly, uncorking the bottle and +pouring a pearly stream of rosium oxide into the tank. "Quick! It's +fizzing! Screw on the top!" + +In a second I had screwed the top fast, seized the hose, and directed +a hissing cloud of vapor through the cage bars. + +For a moment nothing was heard save the whistling rush of the perfumed +spray escaping; a delicious odor of roses filled the air. Then, +slowly, there in the sunshine, a misty something grew in the cage--a +glistening, pearl-tinted phantom, imperceptibly taking shape in +space--vague at first as a shred of lake vapor, then lengthening, +rounding into flowing form, clearer, clearer. + +"The Sphyx!" gasped the professor. "In the name of Heaven, play that +hose!" + +As he spoke the treacherous hose burst. A showery pillar of +rose-colored vapor enveloped everything. Through the thickening fog +for one brief instant a human form appeared like magic--a woman's +form, flawless, exquisite as a statue, pure as marble. Then the +swimming vapor buried it, cage, pies, and all. + +We ran frantically around, the cage in the obscurity, appealing for +instructions and feeling for the bars. Once the professor's muffled +voice was heard demanding the wearing apparel, and I groped about and +found it and stuffed it through the bars of the cage. + +"Do you need help?" I shouted. There was no response. Staring around +through the thickening vapor of rosium rolling in clouds from the +overturned tank, I heard Miss Barrison's voice calling: + +"I can't move! A transparent lady is holding me!" + +Blindly I rushed about, arms outstretched, and the next moment struck +the door of the cage so hard that the impact almost knocked me +senseless. Clutching it to steady myself, it suddenly flew open. A +rush of partly visible creatures passed me like a burst of pink +flames, and in the midst, borne swiftly away on the crest of the +outrush, the professor passed like a bolt shot from a catapult; and +his last cry came wafted back to me from the forest as I swayed there, +drunk with the stupefying perfume: "Don't worry! I'm all right!" + +I staggered out into the clearer air towards a figure seen dimly +through swirling vapor. + +"Are you hurt?" I stammered, clasping Miss Barrison in my arms. + +"No--oh no," she said, wringing her hands. "But the professor! I saw +him! I could not scream; I could not move! _They_ had him!" + +"I saw him too," I groaned. "There was not one trace of terror on his +face. He was actually smiling." + +Overcome at the sublime courage of the man, we wept in each other's +arms. + + * * * * * + +True to our promise to Professor Farrago, we made the best of our way +northward; and it was not a difficult journey by any means, the voyage +in the launch across Okeechobee being perfectly simple and the trail +to the nearest railroad station but a few easy miles from the +landing-place. + +Shocking as had been our experience, dreadful as was the calamity +which had not only robbed me of a life-long friend, but had also +bereaved the entire scientific world, I could not seem to feel that +desperate and hopeless grief which the natural decease of a close +friend might warrant. No; there remained a vague expectancy which so +dominated my sorrow that at moments I became hopeful--nay, sanguine, +that I should one day again behold my beloved superior in the flesh. +There was something so happy in his last smile, something so artlessly +pleased, that I was certain no fear of impending dissolution worried +him as he disappeared into the uncharted depth of the unknown +Everglades. + +I think Miss Barrison agreed with me, too. She appeared to be more or +less dazed, which was, of course, quite natural; and during our return +voyage across Okeechobee and through the lagoons and forests beyond +she was very silent. + +When we reached the railroad at Portulacca, a thrifty lemon-growing +ranch on the Volusia and Chinkapin Railway, the first thing I did was +to present my dog to the station-agent--but I was obliged to give him +five dollars before he consented to accept the dog. + +However, Miss Barrison interviewed the station-master's wife, a +kindly, pitiful soul, who promised to be a good mistress to the +creature. We both felt better after that was off our minds; we felt +better still when the north-bound train rolled leisurely into the +white glare of Portulacca, and presently rolled out again, quite as +leisurely, bound, thank Heaven, for that abused aggregation of sinful +boroughs called New York. + +Except for one young man whom I encountered in the smoker, we had the +train to ourselves, a circumstance which, curiously enough, appeared +to increase Miss Barrison's depression, and my own as a natural +sequence. The circumstances of the taking off of Professor Farrago +appeared to engross her thoughts so completely that it made me uneasy +during our trip out from Little Sprite--in fact it was growing plainer +to me every hour that in her brief acquaintance with that +distinguished scientist she had become personally attached to him to +an extent that began to worry me. Her personal indignation at the +caged Sphyx flared out at unexpected intervals, and there could be no +doubt that her unhappiness and resentment were becoming morbid. + +I spent an hour or two in the smoking compartment, tenanted only by a +single passenger and myself. He was an agreeable young man, although, +in the natural acquaintanceship that we struck up, I regretted to +learn that he was a writer of popular fiction, returning from Fort +Worth, where he had been for the sole purpose of composing a poem on +Florida. + +I have always, in common with other mentally balanced savants, +despised writers of fiction. All scientists harbor a natural antipathy +to romance in any form, and that antipathy becomes a deep horror if +fiction dares to deal flippantly with the exact sciences, or if some +degraded intellect assumes the warrantless liberty of using natural +history as the vehicle for silly tales. + +Never but once had I been tempted to romance in any form; never but +once had sentiment interfered with a passionless transfer of +scientific notes to the sanctuary of the unvarnished note-book or the +cloister of the juiceless monograph. Nor have I the slightest approach +to that superficial and doubtful quality known as literary skill. +Once, however, as I sat alone in the middle of the floor, classifying +my isopods, I was not only astonished but totally unprepared to find +myself repeating aloud a verse that I myself had unconsciously +fashioned: + + "An isopod + Is a work of God." + +Never before in all my life had I made a rhyme; and it worried me for +weeks, ringing in my brain day and night, confusing me, interfering +with my thoughts. + +I said as much to the young man, who only laughed good-naturedly and +replied that it was the Creator's purpose to limit certain intellects, +nobody knows why, and that it was apparent that mine had not escaped. + +"There's one thing, however," he said, "that might be of some interest +to you and come within the circumscribed scope of your intelligence." + +"And what is that?" I asked, tartly. + +"A scientific experience of mine," he said, with a careless laugh. +"It's so much stranger than fiction that even Professor Bruce +Stoddard, of Columbia, hesitated to credit it." + +I looked at the young fellow suspiciously. His bland smile disarmed +me, but I did not invite him to relate his experience, although he +apparently needed only that encouragement to begin. + +"Now, if I could tell it exactly as it occurred," he observed, "and a +stenographer could take it down, word for word, exactly as I relate +it--" + +"It would give me great pleasure to do so," said a quiet voice at the +door. We rose at once, removing the cigars from our lips; but Miss +Barrison bade us continue smoking, and at a gesture from her we +resumed our seats after she had installed herself by the window. + +"Really," she said, looking coldly at me, "I couldn't endure the +solitude any longer. Isn't there anything to do on this tiresome +train?" + +"If you had your pad and pencil," I began, maliciously, "you might +take down a matter of interest--" + +She looked frankly at the young man, who laughed in that pleasant, +good-tempered manner of his, and offered to tell us of his alleged +scientific experience if we thought it might amuse us sufficiently to +vary the dull monotony of the journey north. + +"Is it fiction?" I asked, point-blank. + +"It is absolute truth," he replied. + +I rose and went off to find pad and pencil. When I returned Miss +Barrison was laughing at a story which the young man had just +finished. + +"But," he ended, gravely, "I have practically decided to renounce +fiction as a means of livelihood and confine myself to simple, +uninteresting statistics and facts." + +"I am very glad to hear you say that," I exclaimed, warmly. He bowed, +looked at Miss Barrison, and asked her when he might begin his story. + +"Whenever you are ready," replied Miss Barrison, smiling in a manner +which I had not observed since the disappearance of Professor Farrago. +I'll admit that the young fellow was superficially attractive. + +"Well, then," he began, modestly, "having no technical ability +concerning the affair in question, and having no knowledge of either +comparative anatomy or zoology, I am perhaps unfitted to tell this +story. But the story is true; the episode occurred under my own +eyes--within a few hours' sail of the Battery. And as I was one of the +first persons to verify what has long been a theory among scientists, +and, moreover, as the result of Professor Holroyd's discovery is to +be placed on exhibition in Madison Square Garden on the 20th of next +month, I have decided to tell you, as simply as I am able, exactly +what occurred. + +"I first told the story on April 1, 1903, to the editors of the _North +American Review_, _The Popular Science Monthly_, the _Scientific +American_, _Nature_, _Outing_, and the _Fossiliferous Magazine_. All +these gentlemen rejected it; some curtly informing me that fiction had +no place in their columns. When I attempted to explain that it was not +fiction, the editors of these periodicals either maintained a +contemptuous silence, or bluntly notified me that my literary services +and opinions were not desired. But finally, when several publishers +offered to take the story as fiction, I cut short all negotiations and +decided to publish it myself. Where I am known at all, it is my +misfortune to be known as a writer of fiction. This makes it +impossible for me to receive a hearing from a scientific audience. I +regret it bitterly, because now, when it is too late, I am prepared to +prove certain scientific matters of interest, and to produce the +proofs. In this case, however, I am fortunate, for nobody can dispute +the existence of a thing when the bodily proof is exhibited as +evidence. + +"This is the story; and if I tell it as I write fiction, it is because +I do not know how to tell it otherwise. + +"I was walking along the beach below Pine Inlet, on the south shore of +Long Island. The railroad and telegraph station is at West Oyster Bay. +Everybody who has travelled on the Long Island Railroad knows the +station, but few, perhaps, know Pine Inlet. Duck-shooters, of course, +are familiar with it; but as there are no hotels there, and nothing +to see except salt meadow, salt creek, and a strip of dune and sand, +the summer-squatting public may probably be unaware of its existence. +The local name for the place is Pine Inlet; the maps give its name as +Sand Point, I believe, but anybody at West Oyster Bay can direct you +to it. Captain McPeek, who keeps the West Oyster Bay House, drives +duck-shooters there in winter. It lies five miles southeast from West +Oyster Bay. + +"I had walked over that afternoon from Captain McPeek's. There was a +reason for my going to Pine Inlet--it embarrasses me to explain it, +but the truth is I meditated writing an ode to the ocean. It was out +of the question to write it in West Oyster Bay, with the whistle of +locomotives in my ears. I knew that Pine Inlet was one of the +loneliest places on the Atlantic coast; it is out of sight of +everything except leagues of gray ocean. Rarely one might make out +fishing-smacks drifting across the horizon. Summer squatters never +visited it; sportsmen shunned it, except in winter. Therefore, as I +was about to do a bit of poetry, I thought that Pine Inlet was the +spot for the deed. So I went there. + +"As I was strolling along the beach, biting my pencil reflectively, +tremendously impressed by the solitude and the solemn thunder of the +surf, a thought occurred to me--how unpleasant it would be if I +suddenly stumbled on a summer boarder. As this joyless impossibility +flitted across my mind, I rounded a bleak sand-dune. + +"A girl stood directly in my path. + +"She stared at me as though I had just crawled up out of the sea to +bite her. I don't know what my own expression resembled, but I have +been given to understand it was idiotic. + +"Now I perceived, after a few moments, that the young lady was +frightened, and I knew I ought to say something civil. So I said, 'Are +there many mosquitoes here?' + +"'No,' she replied, with a slight quiver in her voice; 'I have only +seen one, and it was biting somebody else.' + +"The conversation seemed so futile, and the young lady appeared to be +more nervous than before. I had an impulse to say, 'Do not run; I have +breakfasted,' for she seemed to be meditating a flight into the +breakers. What I did say was: 'I did not know anybody was here. I do +not intend to intrude. I come from Captain McPeek's, and I am writing +an ode to the ocean.' After I had said this it seemed to ring in my +ears like, 'I come from Table Mountain, and my name is Truthful +James.' + +"I glanced timidly at her. + +"'She's thinking of the same thing,' said I to myself. + +"However, the young lady seemed to be a trifle reassured. I noticed +she drew a sigh of relief and looked at my shoes. She looked so long +that it made me suspicious, and I also examined my shoes. They seemed +to be in a fair state of repair. + +"'I--I am sorry,' she said, 'but would you mind not walking on the +beach?' + +"This was sudden. I had intended to retire and leave the beach to her, +but I did not fancy being driven away so abruptly. + +"'Dear me!' she cried; 'you don't understand. I do not--I would not +think for a moment of asking you to leave Pine Inlet. I merely +ventured to request you to walk on the dunes. I am so afraid that your +footprints may obliterate the impressions that my father is studying.' + +"'Oh!' said I, looking about me as though I had been caught in the +middle of a flower-bed; 'really I did not notice any impressions. +Impressions of what?' + +"'I don't know,' she said, smiling a little at my awkward pose. 'If +you step this way in a straight line you can do no damage.' + +"I did as she bade me. I suppose my movements resembled the gait of a +wet peacock. Possibly they recalled the delicate manoeuvres of the +kangaroo. Anyway, she laughed. + +"This seriously annoyed me. I had been at a disadvantage; I walk well +enough when let alone. + +"'You can scarcely expect,' said I, 'that a man absorbed in his own +ideas could notice impressions on the sand. I trust I have obliterated +nothing.' + +"As I said this I looked back at the long line of footprints +stretching away in prospective across the sand. They were my own. How +large they looked! Was that what she was laughing at? + +"'I wish to explain,' she said, gravely, looking at the point of her +parasol. 'I am very sorry to be obliged to warn you--to ask you to +forego the pleasure of strolling on a beach that does not belong to +me. Perhaps,' she continued, in sudden alarm, 'perhaps this beach +belongs to you?' + +"'The beach? Oh no,' I said. + +"'But--but you were going to write poems about it?' + +"'Only one--and that does not necessitate owning the beach. I have +observed,' said I, frankly, 'that the people who own nothing write +many poems about it.' + +"She looked at me seriously. + +"'I write many poems,' I added. + +"She laughed doubtfully. + +"'Would you rather I went away?' I asked, politely. 'My family is +respectable,' I added; and I told her my name. + +"'Oh! Then you wrote _Culled Cowslips_ and _Faded Fig-Leaves_ and you +imitate Maeterlinck, and you--Oh, I know lots of people that you +know;' she cried, with every symptom of relief; 'and you know my +brother.' + +"'I am the author,' said I, coldly, 'of _Culled Cowslips_, but _Faded +Fig-Leaves_ was an earlier work, which I no longer recognize, and I +should be grateful to you if you would be kind enough to deny that I +ever imitated Maeterlinck. Possibly,' I added, 'he imitates me.' + +"She was very quiet, and I saw she was sorry. + +"'Never mind,' I said, magnanimously, 'you probably are not familiar +with modern literature. If I knew your name I should ask permission to +present myself.' + +"'Why, I am Daisy Holroyd,' she said. + +"'What! Jack Holroyd's little sister?' + +"'Little?' she cried. + +"'I didn't mean that,' said I. 'You know that your brother and I were +great friends in Paris--' + +"'I know,' she said, significantly. + +"'Ahem! Of course,' I said, 'Jack and I were inseparable--' + +"'Except when shut in separate cells,' said Miss Holroyd, coldly. + +"This unfeeling allusion to the unfortunate termination of a +Latin-Quarter celebration hurt me. + +"'The police,' said I, 'were too officious.' + +"'So Jack says,' replied Miss Holroyd, demurely. + +"We had unconsciously moved on along the sand-hills, side by side, as +we spoke. + +"'To think,' I repeated, 'that I should meet Jack's little--' + +"'Please,' she said, 'you are only three years my senior.' + +"She opened the sunshade and tipped it over one shoulder. It was +white, and had spots and posies on it. + +"'Jack sends us every new book you write,' she observed. 'I do not +approve of some things you write.' + +"'Modern school,' I mumbled. + +"'That is no excuse,' she said, severely; 'Anthony Trollope didn't do +it.' + +"The foam spume from the breakers was drifting across the dunes, and +the little tip-up snipe ran along the beach and teetered and whistled +and spread their white-barred wings for a low, straight flight across +the shingle, only to tip and run and sail on again. The salt sea-wind +whistled and curled through the crested waves, blowing in perfumed +puffs across thickets of sweet bay and cedar. As we passed through the +crackling juicy-stemmed marsh-weed myriads of fiddler crabs raised +their fore-claws in warning and backed away, rustling, through the +reeds, aggressive, protesting. + +"'Like millions of pygmy Ajaxes defying the lightning,' I said. + +"Miss Holroyd laughed. + +"'Now I never imagined that authors were clever except in print,' she +said. + +"She was a most extraordinary girl. + +"'I suppose,' she observed, after a moment's silence--'I suppose I am +taking you to my father.' + +"'Delighted!' I mumbled. 'H'm! I had the honor of meeting Professor +Holroyd in Paris.' + +"'Yes; he bailed you and Jack out,' said Miss Holroyd, serenely. + +"The silence was too painful to last. + +"'Captain McPeek is an interesting man,' I said. I spoke more loudly +than I intended. I may have been nervous. + +"'Yes,' said Daisy Holroyd, 'but he has a most singular hotel clerk.' + +"'You mean Mr. Frisby?' + +"'I do.' + +"'Yes,' I admitted, 'Mr. Frisby is queer. He was once a bill-poster.' + +"'I know it!' exclaimed Daisy Holroyd, with some heat. 'He ruins +landscapes whenever he has an opportunity. Do you know that he has a +passion for bill-posting? He has; he posts bills for the pure pleasure +of it, just as you play golf, or tennis, or squash.' + +"'But he's a hotel clerk now,' I said; 'nobody employs him to post +bills.' + +"'I know it! He does it all by himself for the pure pleasure of it. +Papa has engaged him to come down here for two weeks, and I dread it,' +said the girl. + +"What Professor Holroyd might want of Frisby I had not the faintest +notion. I suppose Miss Holroyd noticed the bewilderment in my face, +for she laughed and nodded her head twice. + +"'Not only Mr. Frisby, but Captain McPeek also,' she said. + +"'You don't mean to say that Captain McPeek is going to close his +hotel!' I exclaimed. + +"My trunk was there. It contained guarantees of my respectability. + +"'Oh no; his wife will keep it open,' replied the girl. 'Look! you can +see papa now. He's digging.' + +"'Where?' I blurted out. + +"I remembered Professor Holroyd as a prim, spectacled gentleman, with +close-cut, snowy beard and a clerical allure. The man I saw digging +wore green goggles, a jersey, a battered sou'wester, and hip-boots of +rubber. He was delving in the muck of the salt meadow, his face +streaming with perspiration, his boots and jersey splashed with +unpleasant-looking mud. He glanced up as we approached, shading his +eyes with a sunburned hand. + +"'Papa, dear,' said Miss Holroyd, 'here is Jack's friend, whom you +bailed out of Mazas.' + +"The introduction was startling. I turned crimson with mortification. +The professor was very decent about it; he called me by name at once. +Then he looked at his spade. It was clear he considered me a nuisance +and wished to go on with his digging. + +"'I suppose,' he said, 'you are still writing?' + +"'A little,' I replied, trying not to speak sarcastically. My output +had rivalled that of 'The Duchess'--in quantity, I mean. + +"'I seldom read--fiction,' he said, looking restlessly at the hole in +the ground. + +"Miss Holroyd came to my rescue. + +"'That was a charming story you wrote last,' she said. 'Papa should +read it--you should, papa; it's all about a fossil.' + +"We both looked narrowly at Miss Holroyd. Her smile was guileless. + +"'Fossils!' repeated the professor. 'Do you care for fossils?' + +"'Very much,' said I. + +"Now I am not perfectly sure what my object was in lying. I looked at +Daisy Holroyd's dark-fringed eyes. They were very grave. + +"'Fossils,' said I, 'are my hobby.' + +"I think Miss Holroyd winced a little at this. I did not care. I went +on: + +"'I have seldom had the opportunity to study the subject, but, as a +boy, I collected flint arrow-heads--" + +"'Flint arrow-heads!' said the professor coldly. + +"'Yes; they were the nearest things to fossils obtainable,' I replied, +marvelling at my own mendacity. + +"The professor looked into the hole. I also looked. I could see +nothing in it. 'He's digging for fossils,' thought I to myself. + +"'Perhaps,' said the professor, cautiously, 'you might wish to aid me +in a little research--that is to say, if you have an inclination for +fossils.' The double-entendre was not lost upon me. + +"'I have read all your books so eagerly,' said I, 'that to join you, +to be of service to you in any research, however difficult and +trying, would be an honor and a privilege that I never dared to hope +for.' + +"'That,' thought I to myself, 'will do its own work.' + +"But the professor was still suspicious. How could he help it, when he +remembered Jack's escapades, in which my name was always blended! +Doubtless he was satisfied that my influence on Jack was evil. The +contrary was the case, too. + +"'Fossils,' he said, worrying the edge of the excavation with his +spade--'fossils are not things to be lightly considered.' + +"'No, indeed!' I protested. + +"'Fossils are the most interesting as well as puzzling things in the +world,' said he. + +"'They are!' I cried, enthusiastically. + +"'But I am not looking for fossils,' observed the professor, mildly. + +"This was a facer. I looked at Daisy Holroyd. She bit her lip and +fixed her eyes on the sea. Her eyes were wonderful eyes. + +"'Did you think I was digging for fossils in a salt meadow?' queried +the professor. 'You can have read very little about the subject. I am +digging for something quite different.' + +"I was silent. I knew that my face was flushed. I longed to say, +'Well, what the devil are you digging for?' but I only stared into the +hole as though hypnotized. + +"'Captain McPeek and Frisby ought to be here,' he said, looking first +at Daisy and then across the meadows. + +"I ached to ask him why he had subpoenaed Captain McPeek and Frisby. + +"'They are coming,' said Daisy, shading her eyes. 'Do you see the +speck on the meadows?' + +"'It may be a mud-hen,' said the professor. + +"'Miss Holroyd is right,' I said. 'A wagon and team and two men are +coming from the north. There's a dog beside the wagon--it's that +miserable yellow dog of Frisby's.' + +"'Good gracious!' cried the professor, 'you don't mean to tell me that +you see all that at such a distance?' + +"'Why not?' I said. + +"'I see nothing,' he insisted. + +"'You will see that I'm right, presently,' I laughed. + +"The professor removed his blue goggles and rubbed them, glancing +obliquely at me. + +"'Haven't you heard what extraordinary eyesight duck-shooters have?' +said his daughter, looking back at her father. 'Jack says that he can +tell exactly what kind of a duck is flying before most people could +see anything at all in the sky.' + +"'It's true,' I said; 'it comes to anybody, I fancy, who has had +practice.' + +"The professor regarded me with a new interest. There was inspiration +in his eyes. He turned towards the ocean. For a long time he stared at +the tossing waves on the beach, then he looked far out to where the +horizon met the sea. + +"'Are there any ducks out there?' he asked, at last. + +"'Yes,' said I, scanning the sea, 'there are.' + +"He produced a pair of binoculars from his coat-tail pocket, adjusted +them, and raised them to his eyes. + +"'H'm! What sort of ducks?' + +"I looked more carefully, holding both hands over my forehead. + +"'Surf-ducks and widgeon. There is one bufflehead among them--no, two; +the rest are coots,' I replied. + +"'This,' cried the professor, 'is most astonishing. I have good eyes, +but I can't see a blessed thing without these binoculars!' + +"'It's not extraordinary,' said I; 'the surf-ducks and coots any +novice might recognize; the widgeon and buffleheads I should not have +been able to name unless they had risen from the water. It is easy to +tell any duck when it is flying, even though it looks no bigger than a +black pin-point.' + +"But the professor insisted that it was marvellous, and he said that I +might render him invaluable service if I would consent to come and +camp at Pine Inlet for a few weeks. + +"I looked at his daughter, but she turned her back. Her back was +beautifully moulded. Her gown fitted also. + +"'Camp out here?' I repeated, pretending to be unpleasantly surprised. + +"'I do not think he would care to,' said Miss Holroyd, without +turning. + +"I had not expected that. + +"'Above all things,' said I, in a clear, pleasant voice, 'I like to +camp out.' + +"She said nothing. + +"'It is not exactly camping,' said the professor. 'Come, you shall see +our conservatory. Daisy, come, dear! You must put on a heavier frock; +it is getting towards sundown.' + +"At that moment, over a near dune, two horses' heads appeared, +followed by two human heads, then a wagon, then a yellow dog. + +"I turned triumphantly to the professor. + +"'You are the very man I want,' he muttered--'the very man--the very +man.' + +"I looked at Daisy Holroyd. She returned my glance with a defiant +little smile. + +"'Waal,' said Captain McPeek, driving up, 'here we be! Git out, +Frisby.' + +"Frisby, fat, nervous, and sentimental, hopped out of the cart. + +"'Come,' said the professor, impatiently moving across the dunes. I +walked with Daisy Holroyd. McPeek and Frisby followed. The yellow dog +walked by himself. + + + + +XVIII + + +"The sun was dipping into the sea as we trudged across the meadows +towards a high, dome-shaped dune covered with cedars and thickets of +sweet bay. I saw no sign of habitation among the sand-hills. Far as +the eye could reach, nothing broke the gray line of sea and sky save +the squat dunes crowned with stunted cedars. + +"Then, as we rounded the base of the dune, we almost walked into the +door of a house. My amazement amused Miss Holroyd, and I noticed also +a touch of malice in her pretty eyes. But she said nothing, following +her father into the house, with the slightest possible gesture to me. +Was it invitation or was it menace? + +"The house was merely a light wooden frame, covered with some +waterproof stuff that looked like a mixture of rubber and tar. Over +this--in fact, over the whole roof--was pitched an awning of heavy +sail-cloth. I noticed that the house was anchored to the sand by +chains, already rusted red. But this one-storied house was not the +only building nestling in the south shelter of the big dune. A hundred +feet away stood another structure--long, low, also built of wood. It +had rows on rows of round port-holes on every side. The ports were +fitted with heavy glass, hinged to swing open if necessary. A single, +big double door occupied the front. + +"Behind this long, low building was still another, a mere shed. Smoke +rose from the sheet-iron chimney. There was somebody moving about +inside the open door. + +"As I stood gaping at this mushroom hamlet the professor appeared at +the door and asked me to enter. I stepped in at once. + +"The house was much larger than I had imagined. A straight hallway ran +through the centre from east to west. On either side of this hallway +were rooms, the doors swinging wide open. I counted three doors on +each side; the three on the south appeared to be bedrooms. + +"The professor ushered me into a room on the north side, where I found +Captain McPeek and Frisby sitting at a table, upon which were drawings +and sketches of articulated animals and fishes. + +"'You see, McPeek,' said the professor, 'we only wanted one more man, +and I think I've got him--Haven't I?' turning eagerly to me. + +"'Why, yes,' I said, laughing; 'this is delightful. Am I invited to +stay here?' + +"'Your bedroom is the third on the south side; everything is ready. +McPeek, you can bring his trunk to-morrow, can't you?' demanded the +professor. + +"The red-faced captain nodded, and shifted a quid. + +"'Then it's all settled,' said the professor, and he drew a sigh of +satisfaction. 'You see,' he said, turning to me, 'I was at my wit's +end to know whom to trust. I never thought of you. Jack's out in +China, and I didn't dare trust anybody in my own profession. All you +care about is writing verses and stories, isn't it?' + +"'I like to shoot,' I replied, mildly. + +"'Just the thing!' he cried, beaming at us all in turn. 'Now I can see +no reason why we should not progress rapidly. McPeek, you and Frisby +must get those boxes up here before dark. Dinner will be ready before +you have finished unloading. Dick, you will wish to go to your room +first.' + +"My name isn't Dick, but he spoke so kindly, and beamed upon me in +such a fatherly manner, that I let it go. I had occasion to correct +him afterwards, several times, but he always forgot the next minute. +He calls me Dick to this day. + +"It was dark when Professor Holroyd, his daughter, and I sat down to +dinner. The room was the same in which I had noticed the drawings of +beast and bird, but the round table had been extended into an oval, +and neatly spread with dainty linen and silver. + +"A fresh-cheeked Swedish girl appeared from a farther room, bearing +the soup. The professor ladled it out, still beaming. + +"'Now, this is very delightful--isn't it, Daisy?' he said. + +"'Very,' said Miss Holroyd, with a tinge of irony. + +"'Very,' I repeated, heartily. + +"'I suppose,' said the professor, nodding mysteriously at his +daughter, 'that Dick knows nothing of what we're about down here?' + +"'I suppose,' said Miss Holroyd, 'that he thinks we are digging for +fossils.' + +"I looked at my plate. She might have spared me that. + +"'Well, well,' said her father, smiling to himself, 'he shall know +everything by morning. You'll be astonished, Dick, my boy.' + +"'His name isn't Dick,' corrected Daisy. + +"The professor said, 'Isn't it?' in an absent-minded way, and relapsed +into contemplation of my necktie. + +"I asked Miss Holroyd a few questions about Jack, and was informed +that he had given up law and entered the consular service--as what, I +did not dare ask, for I know what our consular service is. + +"'In China,' said Daisy. + +"'Choo Choo is the name of the city,' added her father, proudly; 'it's +the terminus of the new trans-Siberian railway.' + +"'It's on the Pong Ping,' said Daisy. + +"'He's vice-consul,' added the professor, triumphantly. + +"'He'll make a good one,' I observed. I knew Jack. I pitied his +consul. + +"So we chatted on about my old playmate, until Freda, the red-cheeked +maid, brought coffee, and the professor lighted a cigar, with a little +bow to his daughter. + +"'Of course, you don't smoke,' she said to me, with a glimmer of +malice in her eyes. + +"'He mustn't,' interposed the professor, hastily; 'it will make his +hand tremble.' + +"'No, it won't,' said I, laughing; 'but my hand will shake if I don't +smoke. Are you going to employ me as a draughtsman?' + +"'You'll know to-morrow,' he chuckled, with a mysterious smile at his +daughter. 'Daisy, give him my best cigars--put the box here on the +table. We can't afford to have his hand tremble.' + +"Miss Holroyd rose and crossed the hallway to her father's room, +returning presently with a box of promising-looking cigars. + +"'I don't think he knows what is good for him,' she said. 'He should +smoke only one every day.' + +"It was hard to bear. I am not vindictive, but I decided to treasure +up a few of Miss Holroyd's gentle taunts. My intimacy with her brother +was certainly a disadvantage to me now. Jack had apparently been +talking too much, and his sister appeared to be thoroughly acquainted +with my past. It was a disadvantage. I remembered her vaguely as a +girl with long braids, who used to come on Sundays with her father and +take tea with us in our rooms. Then she went to Germany to school, and +Jack and I employed our Sunday evenings otherwise. It is true that I +regarded her weekly visits as a species of infliction, but I did not +think I ever showed it. + +"'It is strange,' said I, 'that you did not recognize me at once, Miss +Holroyd. Have I changed so greatly in five years?' + +"'You wore a pointed French beard in Paris,' she said--'a very downy +one. And you never stayed to tea but twice, and then you only spoke +once.' + +"'Oh!' said I, blankly. 'What did I say?' + +"'You asked me if I liked plums,' said Daisy, bursting into an +irresistible ripple of laughter. + +"I saw that I must have made the same sort of an ass of myself that +most boys of eighteen do. + +"It was too bad. I never thought about the future in those days. Who +could have imagined that little Daisy Holroyd would have grown up into +this bewildering young lady? It was really too bad. Presently the +professor retired to his room, carrying with him an armful of +drawings, and bidding us not to sit up late. When he closed his door +Miss Holroyd turned to me. + +"'Papa will work over those drawings until midnight,' she said, with a +despairing smile. + +"'It isn't good for him,' I said. 'What are the drawings?' + +"'You may know to-morrow,' she answered, leaning forward on the table +and shading her face with one hand. 'Tell me about yourself and Jack +in Paris.' + +"I looked at her suspiciously. + +"'What! There isn't much to tell. We studied. Jack went to the law +school, and I attended--er--oh, all sorts of schools.' + +"'Did you? Surely you gave yourself a little recreation occasionally?' + +"'Occasionally,' I nodded. + +"'I am afraid you and Jack studied too hard.' + +"'That may be,' said I, looking meek. + +"'Especially about fossils.' + +"I couldn't stand that. + +"'Miss Holroyd,' I said, 'I do care for fossils. You may think that I +am a humbug, but I have a perfect mania for fossils--now.' + +"'Since when?' + +"'About an hour ago,' I said, airily. Out of the corner of my eye I +saw that she had flushed up. It pleased me. + +"'You will soon tire of the experiment,' she said, with a dangerous +smile. + +"'Oh, I may,' I replied, indifferently. + +"She drew back. The movement was scarcely perceptible, but I noticed +it, and she knew I did. + +"The atmosphere was vaguely hostile. One feels such mental conditions +and changes instantly. I picked up a chess-board, opened it, set up +the pieces with elaborate care, and began to move, first the white, +then the black. Miss Holroyd watched me coldly at first, but after a +dozen moves she became interested and leaned a shade nearer. I moved a +black pawn forward. + +"'Why do you do that?' said Daisy. + +"'Because,' said I, 'the white queen threatens the pawn.' + +"'It was an aggressive move,' she insisted. + +"'Purely defensive,' I said. 'If her white highness will let the pawn +alone, the pawn will let the queen alone.' + +"Miss Holroyd rested her chin on her wrist and gazed steadily at the +board. She was flushing furiously, but she held her ground. + +"'If the white queen doesn't block that pawn, the pawn may become +dangerous,' she said, coldly. + +"I laughed, and closed up the board with a snap. + +"'True,' I said, 'it might even take the queen.' After a moment's +silence I asked, 'What would you do in that case, Miss Holroyd?' + +"'I should resign,' she said, serenely; then, realizing what she had +said, she lost her self-possession for a second, and cried: 'No, +indeed! I should fight to the bitter end! I mean--' + +"'What?' I asked, lingering over my revenge. + +"'I mean,' she said, slowly, 'that your black pawn would never have +the chance--never! I should take it immediately.' + +"'I believe you would,' said I, smiling; 'so we'll call the game +yours, and--the pawn captured.' + +"'I don't want it,' she exclaimed. 'A pawn is worthless.' + +"'Except when it's in the king row.' + +"'Chess is most interesting,' she observed, sedately. She had +completely recovered her self-possession. Still I saw that she now had +a certain respect for my defensive powers. It was very soothing to me. + +"'You know,' said I, gravely, 'that I am fonder of Jack than of +anybody. That's the reason we never write each other, except to borrow +things. I am afraid that when I was a young cub in France I was not an +attractive personality.' + +"'On the contrary,' said Daisy, smiling, 'I thought you were very big +and very perfect. I had illusions. I wept often when I went home and +remembered that you never took the trouble to speak to me but once.' + +"'I was a cub,' I said--'not selfish and brutal, but I didn't +understand school-girls. I never had any sisters, and I didn't know +what to say to very young girls. If I had imagined that you felt +hurt--' + +"'Oh, I did--five years ago. Afterwards I laughed at the whole thing.' + +"'Laughed?' I repeated, vaguely disappointed. + +"'Why, of course. I was very easily hurt when I was a child. I think I +have outgrown it.' + +"The soft curve of her sensitive mouth contradicted her. + +"'Will you forgive me now?' I asked. + +"'Yes. I had forgotten the whole thing until I met you an hour or so +ago.' + +"There was something that had a ring not entirely genuine in this +speech. I noticed it, but forgot it the next moment. + +"Presently she rose, touched her hair with the tip of one finger, and +walked to the door. + +"'Good-night,' she said. + +"'Good-night,' said I, opening the door for her to pass. + + + + +XIX + + +"The sea was a sheet of silver tinged with pink. The tremendous arch +of the sky was all shimmering and glimmering with the promise of the +sun. Already the mist above, flecked with clustered clouds, flushed +with rose color and dull gold. I heard the low splash of the waves +breaking and curling across the beach. A wandering breeze, fresh and +fragrant, blew the curtains of my window. There was the scent of sweet +bay in the room, and everywhere the subtle, nameless perfume of the +sea. + +"When at last I stood upon the shore, the air and sea were all +a-glimmer in a rosy light, deepening to crimson in the zenith. Along +the beach I saw a little cove, shelving and all a-shine, where shallow +waves washed with a mellow sound. Fine as dusted gold the shingle +glowed, and the thin film of water rose, receded, crept up again a +little higher, and again flowed back, with the low hiss of snowy foam +and gilded bubbles breaking. + +"I stood a little while quiet, my eyes upon the water, the invitation +of the ocean in my ears, vague and sweet as the murmur of a shell. +Then I looked at my bathing-suit and towels. + +"'In we go!' said I, aloud. A second later the prophecy was +fulfilled. + +"I swam far out to sea, and as I swam the waters all around me turned +to gold. The sun had risen. + +"There is a fragrance in the sea at dawn that none can name. +Whitethorn a-bloom in May, sedges a-sway, and scented rushes rustling +in an inland wind recall the sea to me--I can't say why. + +"Far out at sea I raised myself, swung around, dived, and set out +again for shore, striking strong strokes until the necked foam flew. +And when at last I shot through the breakers, I laughed aloud and +sprang upon the beach, breathless and happy. Then from the ocean came +another cry, clear, joyous, and a white arm rose in the air. + +"She came drifting in with the waves like a white sea-sprite, laughing +at me, and I plunged into the breakers again to join her. + +"Side by side we swam along the coast, just outside the breakers, +until in the next cove we saw the flutter of her maid's cap-strings. + +"'I will beat you to breakfast!' she cried, as I rested, watching her +glide up along the beach. + +"'Done!' said I--'for a sea-shell!' + +"'Done!' she called, across the water. + +"I made good speed along the shore, and I was not long in dressing, +but when I entered the dining-room she was there, demure, smiling, +exquisite in her cool, white frock. + +"'The sea-shell is yours,' said I. 'I hope I can find one with a pearl +in it.' + +"The professor hurried in before she could reply. He greeted me very +cordially, but there was an abstracted air about him, and he called me +Dick until I recognized that remonstrance was useless. He was not +long over his coffee and rolls. + +"'McPeek and Frisby will return with the last load, including your +trunk, by early afternoon,' he said, rising and picking up his bundle +of drawings. 'I haven't time to explain to you what we are doing, +Dick, but Daisy will take you about and instruct you. She will give +you the rifle standing in my room--it's a good Winchester. I have sent +for an 'Express' for you, big enough to knock over any elephant in +India. Daisy, take him through the sheds and tell him everything. +Luncheon is at noon. Do you usually take luncheon, Dick?' + +"'When I am permitted,' I smiled. + +"'Well,' said the professor, doubtfully, 'you mustn't come back here +for it. Freda can take you what you want. Is your hand unsteady after +eating?' + +"'Why, papa!' said Daisy. 'Do you intend to starve him?' + +"We all laughed. + +"The professor tucked his drawings into a capacious pocket, pulled his +sea-boots up to his hips, seized a spade, and left, nodding to us as +though he were thinking of something else. + +"We went to the door and watched him across the salt meadows until the +distant sand-dune hid him. + +"'Come,' said Daisy Holroyd, 'I am going to take you to the shop.' + +"She put on a broad-brimmed straw hat, a distractingly pretty +combination of filmy cool stuffs, and led the way to the long, low +structure that I had noticed the evening before. + +"The interior was lighted by the numberless little port-holes, and I +could see everything plainly. I acknowledge I was nonplussed by what I +did see. + +"In the centre of the shed, which must have been at least a hundred +feet long, stood what I thought at first was the skeleton of an +enormous whale. After a moment's silent contemplation of the thing I +saw that it could not be a whale, for the frames of two gigantic, +batlike wings rose from each shoulder. Also I noticed that the animal +possessed legs--four of them--with most unpleasant-looking webbed +claws fully eight feet long. The bony framework of the head, too, +resembled something between a crocodile and a monstrous +snapping-turtle. The walls of the shanty were hung with drawings and +blue prints. A man dressed in white linen was tinkering with the +vertebrae of the lizard-like tail. + +"'Where on earth did such a reptile come from?' I asked at length. + +"'Oh, it's not real!' said Daisy, scornfully; 'it's papier-maché.' + +"'I see,' said I; 'a stage prop.' + +"'A what?' asked Daisy, in hurt astonishment. + +"'Why, a--a sort of Siegfried dragon--a what's-his-name--er, Pfafner, +or Peffer, or--' + +"'If my father heard you say such things he would dislike you,' said +Daisy. She looked grieved, and moved towards the door. I +apologized--for what, I knew not--and we became reconciled. She ran +into her father's room and brought me the rifle, a very good +Winchester. She also gave me a cartridge-belt, full. + +"'Now,' she smiled, 'I shall take you to your observatory, and when we +arrive you are to begin your duty at once.' + +"'And that duty?' I ventured, shouldering the rifle. + +"'That duty is to watch the ocean. I shall then explain the whole +affair--but you mustn't look at me while I speak; you must watch the +sea.' + +"'This,' said I, 'is hardship. I had rather go without the luncheon.' + +"I do not think she was offended at my speech; still she frowned for +almost three seconds. + +"We passed through acres of sweet bay and spear grass, sometimes +skirting thickets of twisted cedars, sometimes walking in the full +glare of the morning sun, sinking into shifting sand where +sun-scorched shells crackled under our feet, and sun-browned sea-weed +glistened, bronzed and iridescent. Then, as we climbed a little hill, +the sea-wind freshened in our faces, and lo! the ocean lay below us, +far-stretching as the eye could reach, glittering, magnificent. + +"Daisy sat down flat on the sand. It takes a clever girl to do that +and retain the respectful deference due her from men. It takes a +graceful girl to accomplish it triumphantly when a man is looking. + +"'You must sit beside me,' she said--as though it would prove irksome +to me. + +"'Now,' she continued, 'you must watch the water while I am talking.' + +"I nodded. + +"'Why don't you do it, then?' she asked. + +"I succeeded in wrenching my head towards the ocean, although I felt +sure it would swing gradually round again in spite of me. + +"'To begin with,' said Daisy Holroyd, 'there's a thing in that ocean +that would astonish you if you saw it. Turn your head!' + +"'I am,' I said, meekly. + +"'Did you hear what I said?' + +"'Yes--er--a thing in the ocean that's going to astonish me.' Visions +of mermaids rose before me. + +"'The thing,' said Daisy, 'is a thermosaurus!' + +"I nodded vaguely, as though anticipating a delightful introduction to +a nautical friend. + +"'You don't seem astonished,' she said, reproachfully. + +"'Why should I be?' I asked. + +"'Please turn your eyes towards the water. Suppose a thermosaurus +should look out of the waves!' + +"'Well,' said I, 'in that case the pleasure would be mutual.' + +"She frowned and bit her upper lip. + +"'Do you know what a thermosaurus is?' she asked. + +"'If I am to guess,' said I, 'I guess it's a jelly-fish.' + +"'It's that big, ugly, horrible creature that I showed you in the +shed!' cried Daisy, impatiently. + +"'Eh!' I stammered. + +"'Not papier-maché, either,' she continued, excitedly; 'it's a real +one.' + +"This was pleasant news. I glanced instinctively at my rifle and then +at the ocean. + +"'Well,' said I at last, 'it strikes me that you and I resemble a pair +of Andromedas waiting to be swallowed. This rifle won't stop a beast, +a live beast, like that Nibelungen dragon of yours.' + +"'Yes, it will,' she said; 'it's not an ordinary rifle.' + +"Then, for the first time, I noticed, just below the magazine, a +cylindrical attachment that was strange to me. + +"'Now, if you will watch the sea very carefully, and will promise not +to look at me,' said Daisy, 'I will try to explain.' + +"She did not wait for me to promise, but went on eagerly, a sparkle of +excitement in her blue eyes: + +"'You know, of all the fossil remains of the great batlike and +lizard-like creatures that inhabited the earth ages and ages ago, the +bones of the gigantic saurians are the most interesting. I think they +used to splash about the water and fly over the land during the +carboniferous period; anyway, it doesn't matter. Of course you have +seen pictures of reconstructed creatures such as the ichthyosaurus, +the plesiosaurus, the anthracosaurus, and the thermosaurus?' + +"I nodded, trying to keep my eyes from hers. + +"'And you know that the remains of the thermosaurus were first +discovered and reconstructed by papa?' + +"'Yes,' said I. There was no use in saying no. + +"'I am glad you do. Now, papa has proved that this creature lived +entirely in the Gulf Stream, emerging for occasional flights across an +ocean or two. Can you imagine how he proved it?' + +"'No,' said I, resolutely pointing my nose at the ocean. + +"'He proved it by a minute examination of the microscopical shells +found among the ribs of the thermosaurus. These shells contained +little creatures that live only in the warm waters of the Gulf Stream. +They were the food of the thermosaurus.' + +"'It was rather slender rations for a thing like that, wasn't it? Did +he ever swallow bigger food--er--men?' + +"'Oh yes. Tons of fossil bones from prehistoric men are also found in +the interior of the thermosaurus.' + +"'Then,' said I, 'you, at least, had better go back to Captain +McPeek's--' + +"'Please turn around; don't be so foolish. I didn't say there was a +live thermosaurus in the water, did I?' + +"'Isn't there?' + +"'Why, no!' + +"My relief was genuine, but I thought of the rifle and looked +suspiciously out to sea. + +"'What's the Winchester for?' I asked. + +"'Listen, and I will explain. Papa has found out--how, I do not +exactly understand--that there is in the waters of the Gulf Stream the +body of a thermosaurus. The creature must have been alive within a +year or so. The impenetrable scale-armor that covers its body has, as +far as papa knows, prevented its disintegration. We know that it is +there still, or was there within a few months. Papa has reports and +sworn depositions from steamer captains and seamen from a dozen +different vessels, all corroborating one another in essential details. +These stories, of course, get into the newspapers--sea-serpent +stories--but papa knows that they confirm his theory that the huge +body of this reptile is swinging along somewhere in the Gulf Stream.' + +"She opened her sunshade and held it over her. I noticed that she +deigned to give me the benefit of about one-eighth of it. + +"'Your duty with that rifle is this: if we are fortunate enough to see +the body of the thermosaurus come floating by, you are to take good +aim and fire--fire rapidly every bullet in the magazine; then reload +and fire again, and reload and fire as long as you have any cartridges +left.' + +"'A self-feeding Maxim is what I should have,' I said, with gentle +sarcasm. 'Well, and suppose I make a sieve of this big lizard?' + +"'Do you see these rings in the sand?' she asked. + +"Sure enough, somebody had driven heavy piles deep into the sand all +around us, and to the tops of these piles were attached steel rings, +half buried under the spear-grass. We sat almost exactly in the centre +of a circle of these rings. + +"'The reason is this,' said Daisy; 'every bullet in your cartridges is +steel-tipped and armor-piercing. To the base of each bullet is +attached a thin wire of pallium. Pallium is that new metal, a thread +of which, drawn out into finest wire, will hold a ton of iron +suspended. Every bullet is fitted with minute coils of miles of this +wire. When the bullet leaves the rifle it spins out this wire as a +shot from a life-saver's mortar spins out and carries the life-line to +a wrecked ship. The end of each coil of wire is attached to that +cylinder under the magazine of your rifle. As soon as the shell is +automatically ejected this wire flies out also. A bit of scarlet tape +is fixed to the end, so that it will be easy to pick up. There is also +a snap-clasp on the end, and this clasp fits those rings that you see +in the sand. Now, when you begin firing, it is my duty to run and pick +up the wire ends and attach them to the rings. Then, you see, we have +the body of the thermosaurus full of bullets, every bullet anchored to +the shore by tiny wires, each of which could easily hold a ton's +strain.' + +"I looked at her in amazement. + +"'Then,' she added, calmly, 'we have captured the thermosaurus.' + +"'Your father,' said I, at length, 'must have spent years of labor +over this preparation.' + +"'It is the work of a lifetime,' she said, simply. + +"My face, I suppose, showed my misgivings. + +"'It must not fail,' she added. + +"'But--but we are nowhere near the Gulf Stream,' I ventured. + +"Her face brightened, and she frankly held the sunshade over us both. + +"'Ah, you don't know,' she said, 'what else papa has discovered. Would +you believe that he has found a loop in the Gulf Stream--a genuine +loop--that swings in here just outside of the breakers below? It is +true! Everybody on Long Island knows that there is a warm current off +the coast, but nobody imagined it was merely a sort of backwater from +the Gulf Stream that formed a great circular mill-race around the cone +of a subterranean volcano, and rejoined the Gulf Stream off Cape +Albatross. But it is! That is why papa bought a yacht three years ago +and sailed about for two years so mysteriously. Oh, I did want to go +with him so much!' + +"'This,' said I, 'is most astonishing.' + +"She leaned enthusiastically towards me, her lovely face aglow. + +"'Isn't it?' she said; 'and to think that you and papa and I are the +only people in the whole world who know this!' + +"To be included in such a triology was very delightful. + +"'Papa is writing the whole thing--I mean about the currents. He also +has in preparation sixteen volumes on the thermosaurus. He said this +morning that he was going to ask you to write the story first for some +scientific magazine. He is certain that Professor Bruce Stoddard, of +Columbia, will write the pamphlets necessary. This will give papa time +to attend to the sixteen-volume work, which he expects to finish in +three years.' + +"'Let us first,' said I, laughing, 'catch our thermosaurus.' + +"'We must not fail,' she said, wistfully. + +"'We shall not fail,' I said, 'for I promise to sit on this sand-hill +as long as I live--until a thermosaurus appears--if that is your wish, +Miss Holroyd.' + +"Our eyes met for an instant. She did not chide me, either, for not +looking at the ocean. Her eyes were bluer, anyway. + +"'I suppose,' she said, bending her head and absently pouring sand +between her fingers--'I suppose you think me a blue-stocking, or +something odious?' + +"'Not exactly,' I said. There was an emphasis in my voice that made +her color. After a moment she laid the sunshade down, still open. + +"'May I hold it?' I asked. + +"She nodded almost imperceptibly. + +"The ocean had turned a deep marine blue, verging on purple, that +heralded a scorching afternoon. The wind died away; the odor of cedar +and sweet-bay hung heavy in the air. + +"In the sand at our feet an iridescent flower-beetle crawled, its +metallic green-and-blue wings burning like a spark. Great gnats, with +filmy, glittering wings, danced aimlessly above the young golden-rod; +burnished crickets, inquisitive, timid, ran from under chips of +driftwood, waved their antennæ at us, and ran back again. One by one +the marbled tiger-beetles tumbled at our feet, dazed from the exertion +of an aërial flight, then scrambled and ran a little way, or darted +into the wire grass, where great, brilliant spiders eyed them askance +from their gossamer hammocks. + +"Far out at sea the white gulls floated and drifted on the water, or +sailed up into the air to flap lazily for a moment and settle back +among the waves. Strings of black surf-ducks passed, their strong +wings tipping the surface of the water; single wandering coots whirled +from the breakers into lonely flight towards the horizon. + +"We lay and watched the little ring-necks running along the water's +edge, now backing away from the incoming tide, now boldly wading after +the undertow. The harmony of silence, the deep perfume, the mystery of +waiting for that something that all await--what is it? love? death? or +only the miracle of another morrow?--troubled me with vague +restlessness. As sunlight casts shadows, happiness, too, throws a +shadow, an the shadow is sadness. + +"And so the morning wore away until Freda came with a cool-looking +hamper. Then delicious cold fowl and lettuce sandwiches and champagne +cup set our tongues wagging as only very young tongues can wag. Daisy +went back with Freda after luncheon, leaving me a case of cigars, with +a bantering smile. I dozed, half awake, keeping a partly closed eye on +the ocean, where a faint gray streak showed plainly amid the azure +water all around. That was the Gulf Stream loop. + +"About four o'clock Frisby appeared with a bamboo shelter-tent, for +which I was unaffectedly grateful. + +"After he had erected it over me he stopped to chat a bit, but the +conversation bored me, for he could talk of nothing but bill-posting. + +"'You wouldn't ruin the landscape here, would you?' I asked. + +"'Ruin it!' repeated Frisby, nervously. 'It's ruined now; there ain't +a place to stick a bill.' + +"'The snipe stick bills--in the sand,' I said, flippantly. + +"There was no humor about Frisby. 'Do they?' he asked. + +"I moved with a certain impatience. + +"'Bills,' said Frisby, 'give spice an' variety to nature. They break +the monotony of the everlastin' green and what-you-may-call-its.' + +"I glared at him. + +"'Bills,' he continued, 'are not easy to stick, lemme tell you, sir. +Sign-paintin's a soft snap when it comes to bill-stickin'. Now, I +guess I've stuck more bills onto New York State than ennybody.' + +"'Have you?' I said, angrily. + +"'Yes, siree! I always pick out the purtiest spots--kinder filled +chuck full of woods and brooks and things; then I h'ist my paste-pot +onto a rock, and I slather that rock with gum, and whoop she goes!' + +"'Whoop what goes?' + +"'The bill. I paste her onto the rock, with one swipe of the brush for +the edges and a back-handed swipe for the finish--except when a bill +is folded in two halves.' + +"'And what do you do then?' I asked, disgusted. + +"'Swipe twice,' said Frisby, with enthusiasm. + +"'And you don't think it injures the landscape?' + +"'Injures it!' he exclaimed, convinced that I was attempting to joke. + +"I looked wearily out to sea. He also looked at the water and sighed +sentimentally. + +"'Floatin' buoys with bills onto 'em is a idea of mine,' he observed. +'That damn ocean is monotonous, ain't it?' + +"I don't know what I might have done to Frisby--the rifle was so +convenient--if his mean yellow dog had not waddled up at this +juncture. + +"'Hi, Davy, sic 'em!' said Frisby, expectorating upon a clam-shell and +hurling it seaward. The cur watched the flight of the shell +apathetically, then squatted in the sand and looked at his master. + +"'Kinder lost his spirit,' said Frisby, 'ain't he? I once stuck a bill +onto Davy, an' it come off, an' the paste sorter sickened him. He was +hell on rats--once!' + +"After a moment or two Frisby took himself off, whistling cheerfully +to Davy, who followed him when he was ready. The rifle burned in my +fingers. + +"It was nearly six o'clock when the professor appeared, spade on +shoulder, boots smeared with mud. + +"'Well,' he said, 'nothing to report, Dick, my boy?' + +"'Nothing, professor.' + +"He wiped his shining face with his handkerchief and stared at the +water. + +"'My calculations lead me to believe,' he said, 'that our prize may be +due any day now. This theory I base upon the result of the report from +the last sea-captain I saw. I cannot understand why some of these +captains did not take the carcass in tow. They all say that they +tried, but that the body sank before they could come within half a +mile. The truth is, probably, that they did not stir a foot from their +course to examine the thing.' + +"'Have you ever cruised about for it?' I ventured. + +"'For two years,' he said, grimly. 'It's no use; it's accident when a +ship falls in with it. One captain reports it a thousand miles from +where the last skipper spoke it, and always in the Gulf Stream. They +think it is a different specimen every time, and the papers are +teeming with sea-serpent fol-de-rol.' + +"'Are you sure,' I asked, 'that it will swing into the coast on this +Gulf Stream loop?' + +"'I think I may say that it is certain to do so. I experimented with a +dead right-whale. You may have heard of its coming ashore here last +summer.' + +"'I think I did,' said I, with a faint smile. The thing had poisoned +the air for miles around. + +"'But,' I continued, 'suppose it comes in the night?' + +"He laughed. + +"'There I am lucky. Every night this month, and every day, too, the +current of the loop runs inland so far that even a porpoise would +strand for at least twelve hours. Longer than that I have not +experimented with, but I know that the shore trend of the loop runs +across a long spur of the submerged volcanic mountain, and that +anything heavier than a porpoise would scrape the bottom and be +carried so slowly that at least twelve hours must elapse before the +carcass could float again into deep water. There are chances of its +stranding indefinitely, too, but I don't care to take those chances. +That is why I have stationed you here, Dick.' + +"He glanced again at the water, smiling to himself. + +"'There is another question I want to ask,' I said, 'if you don't +mind.' + +"'Of course not!' he said, warmly. + +"'What are you digging for?' + +"'Why, simply for exercise. The doctor told me I was killing myself +with my sedentary habits, so I decided to dig. I don't know a better +exercise. Do you?' + +"'I suppose not,' I murmured, rather red in the face. I wondered +whether he'd mention fossils. + +"'Did Daisy tell you why we are making our papier-maché thermosaurus?' +he asked. + +"I shook my head. + +"'We constructed that from measurements I took from the fossil remains +of the thermosaurus in the Metropolitan Museum. Professor Bruce +Stoddard made the drawings. We set it up here, all ready to receive +the skin of the carcass that I am expecting.' + +"We had started towards home, walking slowly across the darkening +dunes, shoulder to shoulder. The sand was deep, and walking was not +easy. + +"'I wish,' said I at last, 'that I knew why Miss Holroyd asked me not +to walk on the beach. It's much less fatiguing.' + +"'That,' said the professor, 'is a matter that I intend to discuss +with you to-night.' He spoke gravely, almost sadly. I felt that +something of unparalleled importance was soon to be revealed. So I +kept very quiet, watching the ocean out of the corners of my eyes. + + + + +XX + + +"Dinner was ended. Daisy Holroyd lighted her father's pipe for him, +and insisted on my smoking as much as I pleased. Then she sat down, +and folded her hands like a good little girl, waiting for her father +to make the revelation which I felt in my bones must be something out +of the ordinary. + +"The professor smoked for a while, gazing meditatively at his +daughter; then, fixing his gray eyes on me, he said: + +"'Have you ever heard of the kree--that Australian bird, half parrot, +half hawk, that destroys so many sheep in New South Wales?' + +"I nodded. + +"'The kree kills a sheep by alighting on its back and tearing away the +flesh with its hooked beak until a vital part is reached. You know +that? Well, it has been discovered that the kree had prehistoric +prototypes. These birds were enormous creatures, who preyed upon +mammoths and mastodons, and even upon the great saurians. It has been +conclusively proved that a few saurians have been killed by the +ancestors of the kree, but the favorite food of these birds was +undoubtedly the thermosaurus. It is believed that the birds attacked +the eyes of the thermosaurus, and when, as was its habit, the mammoth +creature turned on its back to claw them, they fell upon the thinner +scales of its stomach armor and finally killed it. This, of course, is +a theory, but we have almost absolute proofs of its correctness. Now, +these two birds are known among scientists as the ekaf-bird and the +ool-yllik. The names are Australian, in which country most of their +remains have been unearthed. They lived during the Carboniferous +period. Now, it is not generally known, but the fact is, that in 1801 +Captain Ransom, of the British exploring vessel _Gull_, purchased from +the natives of Tasmania the skin of an ekaf-bird that could not have +been killed more than twenty-four hours previous to its sale. I saw +this skin in the British Museum. It was labelled, "Unknown bird, +probably extinct." It took me exactly a week to satisfy myself that it +was actually the skin of an ekaf-bird. But that is not all, Dick,' +continued the professor, excitedly. 'In 1854 Admiral Stuart, of our +own navy, saw the carcass of a strange, gigantic bird floating along +the southern coast of Australia. Sharks were after it, and before a +boat could be lowered these miserable fish got it. But the good old +admiral secured a few feathers and sent them to the Smithsonian. I saw +them. They were not even labelled, but I knew that they were feathers +from the ekaf-bird or its near relative, the ool-yllik.' + +"I had grown so interested that I had leaned far across the table. +Daisy, too, bent forward. It was only when the professor paused for a +moment that I noticed how close together our heads were--Daisy's and +mine. I don't think she realized it. She did not move. + +"'Now comes the important part of this long discourse,' said the +professor, smiling at our eagerness. "'Ever since the carcass of our +derelict thermosaurus was first noticed, every captain who has seen it +has also reported the presence of one or more gigantic birds in the +neighborhood. These birds, at a great distance, appeared to be +hovering over the carcass, but on the approach of a vessel they +disappeared. Even in mid-ocean they were observed. When I heard about +it I was puzzled. A month later I was satisfied that neither the +ekaf-bird nor the ool-yllik was extinct. Last Monday I knew that I was +right. I found forty-eight distinct impressions of the huge, +seven-toed claw of the ekaf-bird on the beach here at Pine Inlet. You +may imagine my excitement. I succeeded in digging up enough wet sand +around one of these impressions to preserve its form. I managed to get +it into a soap-box, and now it is there in my shop. The tide rose too +rapidly for me to save the other footprints.' + +"I shuddered at the possibility of a clumsy misstep on my part +obliterating the impression of an ool-yllik. + +"'That is the reason that my daughter warned you off the beach,' he +said, mildly. + +"'Hanging would have been too good for the vandal who destroyed such +priceless prizes,' I cried out, in self-reproach. + +"Daisy Holroyd turned a flushed face to mine and impulsively laid her +hand on my sleeve. + +"'How could you know?' she said. + +"'It's all right now,' said her father, emphasizing each word with a +gentle tap of his pipe-bowl on the table-edge; 'don't be hard on +yourself, Dick. You'll do yeoman's service yet.' + +"It was nearly midnight, and still we chatted on about the +thermosaurus, the ekaf-bird, and the ool-yllik, eagerly discussing the +probability of the great reptile's carcass being in the vicinity. That +alone seemed to explain the presence of these prehistoric birds at +Pine Inlet. + +"'Do they ever attack human beings?' I asked. + +"The professor looked startled. + +"'Gracious!' he exclaimed, 'I never thought of that. And Daisy running +about out-of-doors! Dear me! It takes a scientist to be an unnatural +parent!' + +"His alarm was half real, half assumed; but, all the same, he glanced +gravely at us both, shaking his handsome head, absorbed in thought. +Daisy herself looked a little doubtful. As for me, my sensations were +distinctly queer. + +"'It is true,' said the professor, frowning at the wall, 'that human +remains have been found associated with the bones of the ekaf-bird--I +don't know how intimately. It is a matter to be taken into most +serious consideration.' + +"'The problem can be solved,' said I, 'in several ways. One is, to +keep Miss Holroyd in the house--' + +"'I shall not stay in,' cried Daisy, indignantly. + +"We all laughed, and her father assured her that she should not be +abused. + +"'Even if I did stay in,' she said, 'one of these birds might alight +on Master Dick.' + +"She looked saucily at me as she spoke, but turned crimson when her +father observed, quietly, 'You don't seem to think of me, Daisy!' + +"'Of course I do,' she said, getting up and putting both arms around +her father's neck; 'but Dick--as--as you call him--is so helpless and +timid.' + +"My blissful smile froze on my lips. + +"'Timid!' I repeated. + +"She came back to the table, making me a mocking reverence. + +"'Do you think I am to be laughed at with impunity?' she said. + +"'What are your other plans, Dick?' asked the professor. 'Daisy, let +him alone, you little tease!' + +"'One is, to haul a lot of cast-iron boilers along the dunes,' I said. +'If these birds come when the carcass floats in, and if they seem +disposed to trouble us, we could crawl into the boilers and be safe.' + +"'Why, that is really brilliant!' cried Daisy. + +"'Be quiet, my child. Dick, the plan is sound and sensible and +perfectly practical. McPeek and Frisby shall go for a dozen loads of +boilers to-morrow.' + +"'It will spoil the beauty of the landscape,' said Daisy, with a +taunting nod to me. + +"'And Frisby will probably attempt to cover them with bill-posters,' I +added, laughing. + +"'That,' said Daisy, 'I shall prevent, even at the cost of his life.' +And she stood up, looking very determined. + +"'Children, children,' protested the professor, 'go to bed--you bother +me.' + +"Then I turned deliberately to Miss Holroyd. + +"'Good-night, Daisy,' I said. + +"'Good-night, Dick,' she said, very gently. + + + + +XXI + + +"The week passed quickly for me, leaving but few definite impressions. +As I look back to it now I can see the long stretch of beach burning +in the fierce sunlight, the endless meadows, with the glimmer of water +in the distance, the dunes, the twisted cedars, the leagues of +scintillating ocean, rocking, rocking, always rocking. In the starlit +nights the curlew came in from the sand-bars by twos and threes; I +could hear their querulous call as I lay in bed thinking. All day long +the little ring-necks whistled from the shore. The plover answered +them from distant, lonely inland pools. The great white gulls drifted +like feathers upon the sea. + +"One morning towards the end of the week, I, strolling along the +dunes, came upon Frisby. He was bill-posting. I caught him red-handed. + +"'This,' said I, 'must stop. Do you understand, Mr. Frisby?' + +"He stepped back from his work, laying his head on one side, +considering first me, then the bill that he had pasted on one of our +big boilers. + +"'Don't you like the color?' he asked. 'It goes well on them black +boilers.' + +"'Color! No, I don't like the color, either. Can't you understand that +there are some people in the world who object to seeing +patent-medicine advertisements scattered over a landscape?' + +"'Hey?' he said, perplexed. + +"'Will you kindly remove that advertisement?' I persisted. + +"'Too late,' said Frisby; 'it's sot.' + +"I was too disgusted to speak, but my disgust turned to anger when I +perceived that, as far as the eye could reach, our boilers, lying from +three to four hundred feet apart, were ablaze with yellow-and-red +posters extolling the 'Eureka Liver Pill Company.' + +"'It don't cost 'em nothin',' said Frisby, cheerfully; 'I done it fur +the fun of it. Purty, ain't it?' + +"'They are Professor Holroyd's boilers,' I said, subduing a desire to +beat Frisby with my telescope. 'Wait until Miss Holroyd sees this +work.' + +"'Don't she like yeller and red?' he demanded, anxiously. + +"'You'll find out,' said I. + +"Frisby gaped at his handiwork and then at his yellow dog. After a +moment he mechanically spat on a clam-shell and requested Davy to +'sic' it. + +"'Can't you comprehend that you have ruined our pleasure in the +landscape?' I asked, more mildly. + +"'I've got some green bills,' said Frisby; 'I kin stick 'em over the +yeller ones--' + +"'Confound it,' said I, 'it isn't the color!' + +"'Then,' observed Frisby, 'you don't like them pills. I've got some +bills of the "Cropper Automobile" and a few of "Bagley, the Gents' +Tailor"--' + +"'Frisby,' said I, 'use them all--paste the whole collection over your +dog and yourself--then walk off the cliff.' + +"He sullenly unfolded a green poster, swabbed the boiler with paste, +laid the upper section of the bill upon it, and plastered the whole +bill down with a thwack of his brush. As I walked away I heard him +muttering. + +"Next day Daisy was so horrified that I promised to give Frisby an +ultimatum. I found him with Freda, gazing sentimentally at his work, +and I sent him back to the shop in a hurry, telling Freda at the same +time that she could spend her leisure in providing Mr. Frisby with +sand, soap, and a scrubbing-brush. Then I walked on to my post of +observation. + +"I watched until sunset. Daisy came with her father to hear my report, +but there was nothing to tell, and we three walked slowly back to the +house. + +"In the evenings the professor worked on his volumes, the click of his +type-writer sounding faintly behind his closed door. Daisy and I +played chess sometimes; sometimes we played hearts. I don't remember +that we ever finished a game of either--we talked too much. + +"Our discussions covered every topic of interest: we argued upon +politics; we skimmed over literature and music; we settled +international differences; we spoke vaguely of human brotherhood. I +say we slighted no subject of interest--I am wrong; we never spoke of +love. + +"Now, love is a matter of interest to ten people out of ten. Why it +was that it did not appear to interest us is as interesting a question +as love itself. We were young, alert, enthusiastic, inquiring. We +eagerly absorbed theories concerning any curious phenomena in nature, +as intellectual cocktails to stimulate discussion. And yet we did not +discuss love. I do not say that we avoided it. No; the subject was +too completely ignored for even that. And yet we found it very +difficult to pass an hour separated. The professor noticed this, and +laughed at us. We were not even embarrassed. + +"Sunday passed in pious contemplation of the ocean. Daisy read a +little in her prayer-book, and the professor threw a cloth over his +type-writer and strolled up and down the sands. He may have been lost +in devout abstraction; he may have been looking for footprints. As for +me, my mind was very serene, and I was more than happy. Daisy read to +me a little for my soul's sake, and the professor came up and said +something cheerful. He also examined the magazine of my Winchester. + +"That night, too, Daisy took her guitar to the sands and sang one or +two Basque hymns. Unlike us, the Basques do not take their pleasures +sadly. One of their pleasures is evidently religion. + +"The big moon came up over the dunes and stared at the sea until the +surface of every wave trembled with radiance. A sudden stillness fell +across the world; the wind died out; the foam ran noiselessly across +the beach; the cricket's rune was stilled. + +"I leaned back, dropping one hand upon the sand. It touched another +hand, soft and cool. + +"After a while the other hand moved slightly, and I found that my own +had closed above it. Presently one finger stirred a little--only a +little--for our fingers were interlocked. + +"On the shore the foam-froth bubbled and winked and glimmered in the +moonlight. A star fell from the zenith, showering the night with +incandescent dust. + +"If our fingers lay interlaced beside us, her eyes were calm and +serene as always, wide open, fixed upon the depths of a dark sky. And +when her father rose and spoke to us, she did not withdraw her hand. + +"'Is it late?' she asked, dreamily. + +"'It is midnight, little daughter.' + +"I stood up, still holding her hand, and aided her to rise. And when, +at the door, I said good-night, she turned and looked at me for a +little while in silence, then passed into her room slowly, with head +still turned towards me. + +"All night long I dreamed of her; and when the east whitened, I sprang +up, the thunder of the ocean in my ears, the strong sea-wind blowing +into the open window. + +"'She's asleep,' I thought, and I leaned from the window and peered +out into the east. + +"The sea called to me, tossing its thousand arms; the soaring gulls, +dipping, rising, wheeling above the sandbar, screamed and clamored for +a playmate. I slipped into my bathing-suit, dropped from the window +upon the soft sand, and in a moment had plunged head foremost into the +surf, swimming beneath the waves towards the open sea. + +"Under the tossing ocean the voice of the waters was in my ears--a +low, sweet voice, intimate, mysterious. Through singing foam and +broad, green, glassy depths, by whispering sandy channels atrail with +sea-weed, and on, on, out into the vague, cool sea, I sped, rising to +the top, sinking, gliding. Then at last I flung myself out of water, +hands raised, and the clamor of the gulls filled my ears. + +"As I lay, breathing fast, drifting on the sea, far out beyond the +gulls I saw a flash of white, and an arm was lifted, signalling me. + +"'Daisy!' I called. + +"A clear hail came across the water, distinct on the sea-wind, and at +the same instant we raised our hands and moved towards each other. + +"How we laughed as we met in the sea! The white dawn came up out of +the depths, the zenith turned to rose and ashes. + +"And with the dawn came the wind--a great sea-wind, fresh, aromatic, +that hurled our voices back into our throats and lifted the sheeted +spray above our heads. Every wave, crowned with mist, caught us in a +cool embrace, cradled us, and slipped away, only to leave us to +another wave, higher, stronger, crested with opalescent glory, +breathing incense. + +"We turned together up the coast, swimming lightly side by side, but +our words were caught up by the winds and whirled into the sky. + +"We looked up at the driving clouds; we looked out upon the pallid +waste of waters, but it was into each other's eyes we looked, +wondering, wistful, questioning the reason of sky and sea And there in +each other's eyes we read the mystery, and we knew that earth and sky +and sea were created for us alone. + +"Drifting on by distant sands and dunes, her white fingers touching +mine, we spoke, keying our tones to the wind's vast harmony. And we +spoke of love. + +"Gray and wide as the limitless span of the sky and the sea, the winds +gathered from the world's ends to bear us on; but they were not +familiar winds; for now, along the coast, the breakers curled and +showed a million fangs, and the ocean stirred to its depths, uneasy, +ominous, and the menace of its murmur drew us closer as we moved. + +"Where the dull thunder and the tossing spray warned us from sunken +reefs, we heard the harsh challenges of gulls; where the pallid surf +twisted in yellow coils of spume above the bar, the singing sands +murmured of treachery and secrets of lost souls agasp in the throes of +silent undertows. + +"But there was a little stretch of beach glimmering through the +mountains of water, and towards this we turned, side by side. Around +us the water grew warmer; the breath of the following waves moistened +our cheeks; the water itself grew gray and strange about us. + +"'We have come too far,' I said; but she only answered: + +"'Faster, faster! I am afraid!' The water was almost hot now; its +aromatic odor filled our lungs. + +"'The Gulf loop!' I muttered. 'Daisy, shall I help you?' + +"'No. Swim--close by me! Oh-h! Dick--' + +"Her startled cry was echoed by another--a shrill scream, unutterably +horrible--and a great bird flapped from the beach, splashing and +beating its pinions across the water with a thundering noise. + +"Out across the waves it blundered, rising little by little from the +water, and now, to my horror, I saw another monstrous bird swinging in +the air above it, squealing as it turned on its vast wings. Before I +could speak we touched the beach, and I half lifted her to the shore. + +"'Quick!' I repeated. 'We must not wait.' + +"Her eyes were dark with fear, but she rested a hand on my shoulder, +and we crept up among the dune-grasses and sank down by the point of +sand where the rough shelter stood, surrounded by the iron-ringed +piles. + +"She lay there, breathing fast and deep, dripping with spray. I had no +power of speech left, but when I rose wearily to my knees and looked +out upon the water my blood ran cold. Above the ocean, on the breast +of the roaring wind, three enormous birds sailed, turning and wheeling +among one another; and below, drifting with the gray stream of the +Gulf loop, a colossal bulk lay half submerged--a gigantic lizard, +floating belly upward. + +"Then Daisy crept kneeling to my side and touched me, trembling from +head to foot. + +"'I know,' I muttered. 'I must run back for the rifle.' + +"'And--and leave me?' + +"I took her by the hand, and we dragged ourselves through the +wire-grass to the open end of a boiler lying in the sand. + +"She crept in on her hands and knees, and called to me to follow. + +"'You are safe now,' I cried. 'I must go back for the rifle.' + +"'The birds may--may attack you.' + +"'If they do I can get into one of the other boilers,' I said. 'Daisy, +you must not venture out until I come back. You won't, will you?' + +"'No-o,' she whispered, doubtfully. + +"'Then--good-bye.' + +"'Good-bye,' she answered, but her voice was very small and still. + +"'Good-bye,' I said again. I was kneeling at the mouth of the big +iron tunnel; it was dark inside and I could not see her, but, before I +was conscious of it, her arms were around my neck and we had kissed +each other. + +"I don't remember how I went away. When I came to my proper senses I +was swimming along the coast at full speed, and over my head wheeled +one of the birds, screaming at every turn. + +"The intoxication of that innocent embrace, the close impress of her +arms around my neck, gave me a strength and recklessness that neither +fear nor fatigue could subdue. The bird above me did not even frighten +me. I watched it over my shoulder, swimming strongly, with the tide +now aiding me, now stemming my course; but I saw the shore passing +quickly, and my strength increased, and I shouted when I came in sight +of the house, and scrambled up on the sand, dripping and excited. +There was nobody in sight, and I gave a last glance up into the air +where the bird wheeled, still screeching, and hastened into the house. +Freda stared at me in amazement as I seized the rifle and shouted for +the professor. + +"'He has just gone to town, with Captain McPeek in his wagon,' +stammered Freda. + +"'What!' I cried. 'Does he know where his daughter is?' + +"'Miss Holroyd is asleep--not?' gasped Freda. + +"'Where's Frisby?' I cried, impatiently. + +"'Yimmie?' quavered Freda. + +"'Yes, Jimmie; isn't there anybody here? Good Heavens! where's that +man in the shop?' + +"'He also iss gone,' said Freda, shedding tears, 'to buy papier-maché. +Yimmie, he iss gone to post bills.' + +"I waited to hear no more, but swung my rifle over my shoulder, and, +hanging the cartridge-belt across my chest, hurried out and up the +beach. The bird was not in sight. + +"I had been running for perhaps a minute when, far up on the dunes, I +saw a yellow dog rush madly through a clump of sweet-bay, and at the +same moment a bird soared past, rose, and hung hovering just above the +thicket. Suddenly the bird swooped; there was a shriek and a yelp from +the cur, but the bird gripped it in one claw and beat its wings upon +the sand, striving to rise. Then I saw Frisby--paste, bucket, and +brush raised--fall upon the bird, yelling lustily. The fierce creature +relaxed its talons, and the dog rushed on, squeaking with terror. The +bird turned on Frisby and sent him sprawling on his face, a sticky +mass of paste and sand. But this did not end the struggle. The bird, +croaking horridly, flew at the prostrate bill-poster, and the sand +whirled into a pillar above its terrible wings. Scarcely knowing what +I was about, I raised my rifle and fired twice. A scream echoed each +shot, and the bird rose heavily in a shower of sand; but two bullets +were embedded in that mass of foul feathers, and I saw the wires and +scarlet tape uncoiling on the sand at my feet. In an instant I seized +them and passed the ends around a cedar-tree, hooking the clasps +tight. Then I cast one swift glance upward, where the bird wheeled, +screeching, anchored like a kite to the pallium wires; and I hurried +on across the dunes, the shells cutting my feet and the bushes tearing +my wet swimming-suit, until I dripped with blood from shoulder to +ankle. Out in the ocean the carcass of the thermosaurus floated, claws +outspread, belly glistening in the gray light, and over him circled +two birds. As I reached the shelter I knelt and fired into the mass of +scales, and at my first shot a horrible thing occurred--the +lizard-like head writhed, the slitted yellow eyes sliding open from +the film that covered them. A shudder passed across the undulating +body, the great scaled belly heaved, and one leg feebly clawed at the +air. + +"The thing was still alive! + +"Crushing back the horror that almost paralyzed my hands, I planted +shot after shot into the quivering reptile, while it writhed and +clawed, striving to turn over and dive; and at each shot the black +blood spurted in long, slim jets across the water. And now Daisy was +at my side, pale and determined, swiftly clasping each tape-marked +wire to the iron rings in the circle around us. Twice I filled the +magazine from my belt, and twice I poured streams of steel-tipped +bullets into the scaled mass, twisting and shuddering on the sea. +Suddenly the birds steered towards us. I felt the wind from their vast +wings. I saw the feathers erect, vibrating. I saw the spread claws +outstretched, and I struck furiously at them, crying to Daisy to run +into the iron shelter. Backing, swinging my clubbed rifle, I +retreated, but I tripped across one of the taut pallium wires, and in +an instant the hideous birds were on me, and the bone in my forearm +snapped like a pipe-stem at a blow from their wings. Twice I struggled +to my knees, blinded with blood, confused, almost fainting; then I +fell again, rolling into the mouth of the iron boiler. + + * * * * * + +"When I struggled back to consciousness Daisy knelt silently beside +me, while Captain McPeek and Professor Holroyd bound up my shattered +arm, talking excitedly. The pain made me faint and dizzy. I tried to +speak and could not. At last they got me to my feet and into the +wagon, and Daisy came, too, and crouched beside me, wrapped in +oilskins to her eyes. Fatigue, lack of food, and excitement had +combined with wounds and broken bones to extinguish the last atom of +strength in my body; but my mind was clear enough to understand that +the trouble was over and the thermosaurus safe. + +"I heard McPeek say that one of the birds that I had anchored to a +cedar-tree had torn loose from the bullets and had winged its way +heavily out to sea. The professor answered: 'Yes, the ekaf-bird; the +others were ool-ylliks. I'd have given my right arm to have secured +them.' Then for a time I heard no more; but the jolting of the wagon +over the dunes roused me to keenest pain, and I held out my right hand +to Daisy. She clasped it in both of hers, and kissed it again and +again. + + * * * * * + +"There is little more to add, I think. Professor Bruce Stoddard's +scientific pamphlet will be published soon, to be followed by +Professor Holroyd's sixteen volumes. In a few days the stuffed and +mounted thermosaurus will be placed on free public exhibition in the +arena of Madison Square Garden, the only building in the city large +enough to contain the body of this immense winged reptile." + + * * * * * + +The young man hesitated, looking long and earnestly at Miss Barrison. + +"Did you marry her?" she asked, softly. + +"You wouldn't believe it," said the young man, earnestly--"you +wouldn't believe it, after all that happened, if I should tell you +that she married Professor Bruce Stoddard, of Columbia--would you?" + +"Yes, I would," said Miss Barrison. "You never can tell what a girl +will do." + +"That story of yours," I said, "is to me the most wonderful and +valuable contribution to nature study that it has ever been my fortune +to listen to. You are fitted to write; it is your sacred mission to +produce. Are you going to?" + +"I am writing," said the young man, quietly, "a nature book. Sir Peter +Grebe's magnificent monograph on the speckled titmouse inspired me. +But nature study is not what I have chosen as my life's mission." + +He looked dreamily across at Miss Barrison. "No, not natural +phenomena," he repeated, "but unnatural phenomena. What Professor +Hyssop has done for Columbia, I shall attempt to do for Harvard. In +fact, I have already accepted the chair of Psychical Phenomena at +Cambridge." + +I gazed upon him with intense respect. + +"A personal experience revealed to me my life's work," he, went on, +thoughtfully stroking his blond mustache. "If Miss Barrison would care +to hear it--" + +"Please tell it," she said, sweetly. + +"I shall have to relate it clothed in that artificial garb known as +literary style," he explained, deprecatingly. + +"It doesn't matter," I said, "I never noticed any style at all in your +story of the thermosaurus." + +He smiled gratefully, and passed his hand over his face; a far-away +expression came into his eyes, and he slowly began, hesitating, as +though talking to himself: + + + + +XXII + + +"It was high noon in the city of Antwerp. From slender steeples +floated the mellow music of the Flemish bells, and in the spire of the +great cathedral across the square the cracked chimes clashed discords +until my ears ached. + +"When the fiend in the cathedral had jerked the last tuneless clang +from the chimes, I removed my fingers from my ears and sat down at one +of the iron tables in the court. A waiter, with his face shaved blue, +brought me a bottle of Rhine wine, a tumbler of cracked ice, and a +siphon. + +"'Does monsieur desire anything else?' he inquired. + +"'Yes--the head of the cathedral bell-ringer; bring it with vinegar +and potatoes,' I said, bitterly. Then I began to ponder on my +great-aunt and the Crimson Diamond. + +"The white walls of the Hôtel St. Antoine rose in a rectangle around +the sunny court, casting long shadows across the basin of the +fountain. The strip of blue overhead was cloudless. Sparrows twittered +under the eaves the yellow awnings fluttered, the flowers swayed in +the summer breeze, and the jet of the fountain splashed among the +water-plants. On the sunny side of the piazza the tables were vacant; +on the shady side I was lazily aware that the tables behind me were +occupied, but I was indifferent as to their occupants, partly because +I shunned all tourists, partly because I was thinking of my +great-aunt. + +"Most old ladies are eccentric, but there is a limit, and my +great-aunt had overstepped it. I had believed her to be wealthy--she +died bankrupt. Still, I knew there was one thing she did possess, and +that was the famous Crimson Diamond. Now, of course, you know who my +great-aunt was. + +"Excepting the Koh-i-noor and the Regent, this enormous and unique +stone was, as everybody knows, the most valuable gem in existence. Any +ordinary person would have placed that diamond in a safe-deposit. My +great-aunt did nothing of the kind. She kept it in a small velvet bag, +which she carried about her neck. She never took it off, but wore it +dangling openly on her heavy silk gown. + +"In this same bag she also carried dried catnip-leaves, of which she +was inordinately fond. Nobody but myself, her only living relative, +knew that the Crimson Diamond lay among the sprigs of catnip in the +little velvet bag. + +"'Harold,' she would say, 'do you think I'm a fool? If I place the +Crimson Diamond in any safe-deposit vault in New York, somebody will +steal it, sooner or later.' Then she would nibble a sprig of catnip +and peer cunningly at me. I loathed the odor of catnip and she knew +it. I also loathed cats. This also she knew, and of course surrounded +herself with a dozen. Poor old lady! One day she was found dead in her +bed in her apartments at the Waldorf. The doctor said she died from +natural causes. The only other occupant of her sleeping-room was a +cat. The cat fled when we broke open the door, and I heard that she +was received and cherished by some eccentric people in a neighboring +apartment. + +"Now, although my great-aunt's death was due to purely natural causes, +there was one very startling and disagreeable feature of the case. The +velvet bag containing the Crimson Diamond had disappeared. Every inch +of the apartment was searched, the floors torn up, the walls +dismantled, but the Crimson Diamond had vanished. Chief of Police +Conlon detailed four of his best men on the case, and, as I had +nothing better to do, I enrolled myself as a volunteer. I also offered +$25,000 reward for the recovery of the gem. All New York was agog. + +"The case seemed hopeless enough, although there were five of us after +the thief. McFarlane was in London, and had been for a month, but +Scotland Yard could give him no help, and the last I heard of him he +was roaming through Surrey after a man with a white spot in his hair. +Harrison had gone to Paris. He kept writing me that clews were plenty +and the scent hot, but as Dennet, in Berlin, and Clancy, in Vienna, +wrote me the same thing, I began to doubt these gentlemen's ability. + +"'You say,' I answered Harrison, 'that the fellow is a Frenchman, and +that he is now concealed in Paris; but Dennet writes me by the same +mail that the thief is undoubtedly a German, and was seen yesterday in +Berlin. To-day I received a letter from Clancy, assuring me that +Vienna holds the culprit, and that he is an Austrian from Trieste. +Now, for Heaven's sake,' I ended, 'let me alone and stop writing me +letters until you have something to write about.' + +"The night-clerk at the Waldorf had furnished us with our first clew. +On the night of my aunt's death he had seen a tall, grave-faced man +hurriedly leave the hotel. As the man passed the desk he removed his +hat and mopped his forehead, and the night-clerk noticed that in the +middle of his head there was a patch of hair as white as snow. + +"We worked this clew for all it was worth, and, a month later, I +received a cable despatch from Paris, saying that a man answering to +the description of the Waldorf suspect had offered an enormous crimson +diamond for sale to a jeweller in the Palais Royal. Unfortunately the +fellow took fright and disappeared before the jeweller could send for +the police, and since that time McFarlane in London, Harrison in +Paris, Dennet in Berlin, and Clancy in Vienna had been chasing men +with white patches on their hair until no gray-headed patriarch in +Europe was free from suspicion. I myself had sleuthed it through +England, France, Holland, and Belgium, and now I found myself in +Antwerp at the Hôtel St. Antoine, without a clew that promised +anything except another outrage on some respectable white-haired +citizen. The case seemed hopeless enough, unless the thief tried again +to sell the gem. Here was our only hope, for, unless he cut the stone +into smaller ones, he had no more chance of selling it than he would +have had if he had stolen the Venus of Milo and peddled her about the +Rue de Seine. Even were he to cut up the stone, no respectable gem +collector or jeweller would buy a crimson diamond without first +notifying me; for although a few red stones are known to collectors, +the color of the Crimson Diamond was absolutely unique, and there was +little probability of an honest mistake. + +"Thinking of all these things, I sat sipping my Rhine wine in the +shadow of the yellow awnings. A large white cat came sauntering by and +stopped in front of me to perform her toilet, until I wished she would +go away. After a while she sat up, licked her whiskers, yawned once or +twice, and was about to stroll on, when, catching sight of me, she +stopped short and looked me squarely in the face. I returned the +attention with a scowl, because I wished to discourage any advances +towards social intercourse which she might contemplate; but after a +while her steady gaze disconcerted me, and I turned to my Rhine wine. +A few minutes later I looked up again. The cat was still eying me. + +"'Now what the devil is the matter with the animal,' I muttered; 'does +she recognize in me a relative?' + +"'Perhaps,' observed a man at the next table. + +"'What do you mean by that?' I demanded. + +"'What I say,' replied the man at the next table. + +"I looked him full in the face. He was old and bald and appeared +weak-minded. His age protected his impudence. I turned my back on him. +Then my eyes fell on the cat again. She was still gazing earnestly at +me. + +"Disgusted that she should take such pointed public notice of me, I +wondered whether other people saw it; I wondered whether there was +anything peculiar in my own personal appearance. How hard the creature +stared! It was most embarrassing. + +"'What has got into that cat?' I thought. 'It's sheer impudence. It's +an intrusion, and I won't stand it!' The cat did not move. I tried to +stare her out of countenance. It was useless. There was aggressive +inquiry in her yellow eyes. A sensation of uneasiness began to steal +over me--a sensation of embarrassment not unmixed with awe. All cats +looked alike to me, and yet there was something about this one that +bothered me--something that I could not explain to myself, but which +began to occupy me. + +"She looked familiar--this Antwerp cat. An odd sense of having seen +her before, of having been well acquainted with her in former years, +slowly settled in my mind, and, although I could never remember the +time when I had not detested cats, I was almost convinced that my +relations with this Antwerp tabby had once been intimate if not +cordial. I looked more closely at the animal. Then an idea struck +me--an idea which persisted and took definite shape in spite of me. I +strove to escape from it, to evade it, to stifle and smother it; an +inward struggle ensued which brought the perspiration in beads upon my +cheeks--a struggle short, sharp, decisive. It was useless--useless to +try to put it from me--this idea so wretchedly bizarre, so grotesque +and fantastic, so utterly inane--it was useless to deny that the cat +bore a distinct resemblance to my great-aunt! + +"I gazed at her in horror. What enormous eyes the creature had! + +"'Blood is thicker than water,' said the man at the next table. + +"'What does he mean by that?' I muttered, angrily, swallowing a +tumbler of Rhine wine and seltzer. But I did not turn. What was the +use? + +"'Chattering old imbecile,' I added to myself, and struck a match, for +my cigar was out; but, as I raised the match to relight it, I +encountered the cat's eyes again. I could not enjoy my cigar with the +animal staring at me, but I was justly indignant, and I did not intend +to be routed. 'The idea! Forced to leave for a cat!' I sneered. 'We +will see who will be the one to go!' I tried to give her a jet of +seltzer from the siphon, but the bottle was too nearly empty to carry +far. Then I attempted to lure her nearer, calling her in French, +German, and English, but she did not stir. I did not know the Flemish +for 'cat.' + +"'She's got a name, and won't come,' I thought. 'Now, what under the +sun can I call her?' + +"'Aunty,' suggested the man at the next table. + +"I sat perfectly still. Could that man have answered my thoughts?--for +I had not spoken aloud. Of course not--it was a coincidence--but a +very disgusting one. + +"'Aunty,' I repeated, mechanically, 'aunty, aunty--good gracious, how +horribly human that cat looks!' Then, somehow or other, Shakespeare's +words crept into my head and I found myself repeating: 'The soul of my +grandam might haply inhabit a bird; the soul of--nonsense!' I +growled--'it isn't printed correctly! One might possibly say, speaking +in poetical metaphor, that the soul of a bird might haply inhabit +one's grandam--' I stopped short, flushing painfully. 'What awful +rot!' I murmured, and lighted another cigar. The cat was still +staring; the cigar went out. I grew more and more nervous. 'What rot!' +I repeated. 'Pythagoras must have been an ass, but I do believe there +are plenty of asses alive to-day who swallow that sort of thing.' + +"'Who knows?' sighed the man at the next table, and I sprang to my +feet and wheeled about. But I only caught a glimpse of a pair of +frayed coat-tails and a bald head vanishing into the dining-room. I +sat down again, thoroughly indignant. A moment later the cat got up +and went away. + + + + +XXIII + + +"Daylight was fading in the city of Antwerp. Down into the sea sank +the sun, tinting the vast horizon with flakes of crimson, and touching +with rich deep undertones the tossing waters of the Scheldt. Its glow +fell like a rosy mantle over red-tiled roofs and meadows; and through +the haze the spires of twenty churches pierced the air like sharp, +gilded flames. To the west and south the green plains, over which the +Spanish armies tramped so long ago, stretched away until they met the +sky; the enchantment of the after-glow had turned old Antwerp into +fairy-land; and sea and sky and plain were beautiful and vague as the +night-mists floating in the moats below. + +"Along the sea-wall from the Rubens Gate all Antwerp strolled, and +chattered, and flirted, and sipped their Flemish wines from slender +Flemish glasses, or gossiped over krugs of foaming beer. + +"From the Scheldt came the cries of sailors, the creaking of cordage, +and the puff! puff! of the ferry-boats. On the bastions of the +fortress opposite, a bugler was standing. Twice the mellow notes of +the bugle came faintly over the water, then a great gun thundered from +the ramparts, and the Belgian flag fluttered along the lanyards to the +ground. + +"I leaned listlessly on the sea-wall and looked down at the Scheldt +below. A battery of artillery was embarking for the fortress. The +tublike transport lay hissing and whistling in the slip, and the +stamping of horses, the rumbling of gun and caisson, and the sharp +cries of the officers came plainly to the ear. + +"When the last caisson was aboard and stowed, and the last trooper had +sprung jingling to the deck, the transport puffed out into the +Scheldt, and I turned away through the throng of promenaders; and +found a little table on the terrace, just outside of the pretty café. +And as I sat down I became aware of a girl at the next table--a girl +all in white--the most ravishingly and distractingly pretty girl that +I had ever seen. In the agitation of the moment I forgot my name, my +fortune, my aunt, and the Crimson Diamond--all these I forgot in a +purely human impulse to see clearly; and to that end I removed my +monocle from my left eye. Some moments later I came to myself and +feebly replaced it. It was too late; the mischief was done. I was not +aware at first of the exact state of my feelings--for I had never been +in love more than three or four times in all my life--but I did know +that at her request I would have been proud to stand on my head, or +turn a flip-flap into the Scheldt. + +"I did not stare at her, but I managed to see her most of the time +when her eyes were in another direction. I found myself drinking +something which a waiter brought, presumably upon an order which I did +not remember having given. Later I noticed that it was a loathsome +drink which the Belgians call 'American grog,' but I swallowed it and +lighted a cigarette. As the fragrant cloud rose in the air, a voice, +which I recognized with a chill, broke, into my dream of enchantment. +Could _he_ have been there all the while--there sitting beside that +vision in white? His hat was off, and the ocean-breezes whispered +about his bald head. His frayed coat-tails were folded carefully over +his knees, and between the thumb and forefinger of his left hand he +balanced a bad cigar. He looked at me in a mildly cheerful way, and +said, 'I know now.' + +"'Know what?' I asked, thinking it better to humor him, for I was +convinced that he was mad. + +"'I know why cats bite.' + +"This was startling. I hadn't an idea what to say. + +"'I know why,' he repeated; 'can you guess why?' There was a covert +tone of triumph in his voice and he smiled encouragement. 'Come, try +and guess,' he urged. + +"I told him that I was unequal to problems. + +"'Listen, young man,' he continued, folding his coat-tails closely +about his legs--'try to reason it out: why should cats bite? Don't you +know? I do.' + +"He looked at me anxiously. + +"'You take no interest in this problem?' he demanded. + +"'Oh yes.' + +"'Then why do you not ask me why?' he said, looking vaguely +disappointed. + +"'Well,' I said, in desperation, 'why do cats bite?--hang it all!' I +thought, 'it's like a burned-cork show, and I'm Mr. Bones and he's +Tambo!' + +"Then he smiled gently. 'Young man,' he said, 'cats bite because they +feed on catnip. I have reasoned it out.' + +"I stared at him in blank astonishment. Was this benevolent-looking +old party poking fun at me? Was he paying me up for the morning's +snub? Was he a malignant and revengeful old party, or was he merely +feeble-minded? Who might he be? What was he doing here in +Antwerp--what was he doing now?--for the bald one had turned +familiarly to the beautiful girl in white. + +"'Wilhelmina,' he said, 'do you feel chilly?' The girl shook her head. + +"'Not in the least, papa.' + +"'Her father!' I thought--'her father!' Thank God she did not say +'popper'! + +"'I have been to the Zoo to-day,' announced the bald one, turning +towards me. + +"'Ah, indeed,' I observed; 'er--I trust you enjoyed it.' + +"'I have been contemplating the apes,' he continued, dreamily. 'Yes, +contemplating the apes.' + +"I tried to look interested. + +"'Yes, the apes,' he murmured, fixing his mild eyes on me. Then he +leaned towards me confidentially and whispered, 'Can you tell me what +a monkey thinks?' + +"'I cannot,' I replied, sharply. + +"'Ah,' he sighed, sinking back in his chair, and patting the slender +hand of the girl beside him--'ah, who can tell what a monkey thinks?' +His gentle face lulled my suspicions, and I replied, very gravely: + +"'Who can tell whether they think at all?' + +"'True, true! Who can tell whether they think at all; and if they do +think, ah! who can tell what they think?' + +"'But,' I began, 'if you can't tell whether they think at all, what's +the use of trying to conjecture what they _would_ think if they _did_ +think?' + +"He raised his hand in deprecation. 'Ah, it is exactly that which is +of such absorbing interest--exactly that! It is the abstruseness of +the proposition which stimulates research--which stirs profoundly the +brain of the thinking world. The question is of vital and instant +importance. Possibly you have already formed an opinion.' + +"I admitted that I had thought but little on the subject. + +"'I doubt,' he continued, swathing his knees in his coat-tails--'I +doubt whether you have given much attention to the subject lately +discussed by the Boston Dodo Society of Pythagorean Research.' + +"'I am not sure,' I said, politely, 'that I recall that particular +discussion. May I ask what was the question brought up?' + +"'The Felis domestica question.' + +"'Ah, that must indeed be interesting! And--er--what may be the Felis +do--do--' + +"'Domestica--not dodo. Felis domestica, the common or garden cat.' + +"'Indeed,' I murmured. + +"'You are not listening,' he said. + +"I only half heard him. I could not turn my eyes from his daughter's +face. + +"'Cat!' shouted the bald one, and I almost leaped from my chair. 'Are +you deaf?' he inquired, sympathetically. + +"'No--oh no!' I replied, coloring with confusion; 'you were--pardon +me--you were--er--speaking of the dodo. Extraordinary bird that--' + +"'I was not discussing the dodo,' he sighed. 'I was speaking of cats.' + +"'Of course,' I said. + +"'The question is,' he continued, twisting his frayed coat-tails into +a sort of rope--'the question is, how are we to ameliorate the present +condition and social status of our domestic cats?' + +"'Feed 'em,' I suggested. + +"He raised both hands. They were eloquent with patient expostulation. +'I mean their spiritual condition,' he said. + +"I nodded, but my eyes reverted to that exquisite face. She sat +silent, her eyes fixed on the waning flecks of color in the western +sky. + +"'Yes,' repeated the bald one, 'the spiritual welfare of our domestic +cats.' + +"'Toms and tabbies?' I murmured. + +"'Exactly,' he said, tying a large knot in his coat-tails. + +"'You will ruin your coat,' I observed. + +"'Papa!' exclaimed the girl, turning in dismay, as that gentleman gave +a guilty start, 'stop it at once!' + +"He smiled apologetically and made a feeble attempt to conceal his +coat-tails. + +"'My dear,' he said, with gentle deprecation, 'I am so +absent-minded--I always do it in the heat of argument.' + +"The girl rose, and, bending over her untidy parent, deftly untied the +knot in his flapping coat. When he was disentangled, she sat down and +said, with a ghost of a smile, 'He is so very absent-minded.' + +"'Your father is evidently a great student,' I ventured, pleasantly. +How I pitied her, tied to this old lunatic! + +"'Yes, he is a great student,' she said, quietly. + +"'I am,' he murmured; 'that's what makes me so absent-minded. I often +go to bed and forget to sleep.' Then, looking at me, he asked me my +name, adding, with a bow, that his name was P. Royal Wyeth, Professor +of Pythagorean Research and Abstruse Paradox. + +"'My first name is Penny--named after Professor Penny, of Harvard,' he +said; 'but I seldom use my first name in connection with my second, as +the combination suggests a household remedy of penetrating odor.' + +"'My name is Kensett,' I said, 'Harold Kensett, of New York.' + +"'Student?' + +"'Er--a little.' + +"'Student of diamonds?' + +"I smiled. 'Oh, I see you know who my great-aunt was,' I said. + +"'I know her,' he said. + +"'Ah--perhaps you are unaware that my great-aunt is not now living.' + +"'I know her,' he repeated, obstinately. + +"I bowed. What a crank he was! + +"'What do you study? You don't fiddle away all your time, do you?' he +asked. + +"Now that was just what I did, but I was not pleased to have Miss +Wyeth know it. Although my time was chiefly spent in killing time, I +had once, in a fit of energy, succeeded in writing some verses 'To a +Tomtit,' so I evaded a humiliating confession by saying that I had +done a little work in ornithology. + +"'Good!' cried the professor, beaming all over. 'I knew you were a +fellow-scientist. Possibly you are a brother-member of the Boston +Dodo Society of Pythagorean Research. Are you a dodo?' + +"I shook my head. 'No, I am not a dodo.' + +"'Only a jay?' + +"'A--what?' I said, angrily. + +"'A jay. We call the members of the Junior Ornithological Jay Society +of New York, jays, just as we refer to ourselves as dodos. Are you not +even a jay?' + +"'I am not,' I said, watching him suspiciously. + +"'I must convert you, I see,' said the professor, smiling. + +"'I'm afraid I do not approve of Pythagorean research,' I began, but +the beautiful Miss Wyeth turned to me very seriously, and, looking me +frankly in the eyes, said: + +"'I trust you will be open to conviction.' + +"'Good Lord!' I thought. 'Can she be another lunatic?' I looked at her +steadily. What a little beauty she was! She also, then, belonged to +the Pythagoreans--a sect I despised. Everybody knows all about the +Pythagorean craze, its rise in Boston, its rapid spread, and its +subsequent consolidation with mental and Christian science, theosophy, +hypnotism, the Salvation Army, the Shakers, the Dunkards, and the +mind-cure cult, upon a business basis. I had hitherto regarded all +Pythagoreans with the same scornful indifference which I accorded to +the faith-curists; being a member of no particular church, I was +scarcely prepared to take any of them seriously. Least of all did I +approve of the 'business basis,' and I looked very much askance indeed +at the 'Scientific and Religious Trust Company,' duly incorporated and +generally known as the Pythagorean Trust, which, consolidating with +mind-curists, faith-curists, and other flourishing salvation +syndicates, actually claimed a place among ordinary trusts, and at the +same time pretended to a control over man's future life. No, I could +never listen--I was ashamed of even entertaining the notion, and I +shook my head. + +"'No, Miss Wyeth, I am afraid I do not care to listen to any reasoning +on this subject.' + +"'Don't you believe in Pythagoras?' demanded the professor, subduing +his excitement with difficulty, and adding another knot to his +coat-tails. + +"'No,' I said, 'I do not.' + +"'How do you know you don't?' inquired the professor. + +"'Because,' I said, firmly, 'it is nonsense to say that the soul of a +human being can inhabit a hen!' + +"'Put it in a more simplified form!' insisted the professor. 'Do you +believe that the soul of a hen can inhabit a human being?' + +"'No, I don't!' + +"'Did you ever hear of a hen-pecked man?' cried the professor, his +voice ending in a shout. + +"I nodded, intensely annoyed. + +"'Will you listen to reason, then?' he continued, eagerly. + +"'No,' I began, but I caught Miss Wyeth's blue eyes fixed on mine with +an expression so sad, so sweetly appealing, that I faltered. + +"'Yes, I will listen,' I said, faintly. + +"'Will you become my pupil?' insisted the professor. + +"I was shocked to find myself wavering, but my eyes were looking into +hers, and I could not disobey what I read there. The longer I looked +the greater inclination I felt to waver. I saw that I was going to +give in, and, strangest of all, my conscience did not trouble me. I +felt it coming--a sort of mild exhilaration took possession of me. For +the first time in my life I became reckless--I even gloried in my +recklessness. + +"'Yes, yes,' I cried, leaning eagerly across the table, 'I shall be +glad--delighted! Will you take me as your pupil?' My single eye-glass +fell from its position unheeded. 'Take me! Oh, will you take me?' I +cried. Instead of answering, the professor blinked rapidly at me for a +moment. I imagined his eyes had grown bigger, and were assuming a +greenish tinge. The corners of his mouth began to quiver, emitting +queer, caressing little noises, and he rapidly added knot after knot +to his twitching coat-tails. Suddenly he bent forward across the table +until his nose almost touched mine. The pupils of his eyes expanded, +the iris assuming a beautiful, changing, golden-green tinge, and his +coat-tails switched violently. Then he began to mew. + +"I strove to rouse myself from my paralysis--I tried to shrink back, +for I felt the end of his cold nose touch mine. I could not move. The +cry of terror died in my straining throat, my hands tightened +convulsively; I was incapable of speech or motion. At the same time my +brain became wonderfully clear. I began to remember everything that +had ever happened to me--everything that I had ever done or said. I +even remembered things that I had neither done nor said; I recalled +distinctly much that had never happened. How fresh and strong my +memory! The past was like a mirror, crystal clear, and there, in +glorious tints and hues, the scenes of my childhood grew and glowed +and faded, and gave place to newer and more splendid scenes. For a +moment the episode of the cat at the Hôtel St. Antoine flashed across +my mind. When it vanished a chilly stupor slowly clouded my brain; the +scenes, the memories, the brilliant colors, faded, leaving me +enveloped in a gray vapor, through which the two great eyes of the +professor twinkled with a murky light. A peculiar longing stirred +me--a strange yearning for something, I knew not what--but, oh! how I +longed and yearned for it! Slowly this indefinite, incomprehensible +longing became a living pain. Ah, how I suffered, and how the vapors +seemed to crowd around me! Then, as at a great distance, I heard her +voice, sweet, imperative: + +"'Mew!' she said. + +"For a moment I seemed to see the interior of my own skull, lighted as +by a flash of fire; the rolling eyeballs, veined in scarlet, the +glistening muscles quivering along the jaw, the humid masses of the +convoluted brain; then awful darkness--a darkness almost tangible--an +utter blackness, through which now seemed to creep a thin, silver +thread, like a river crawling across a world--like a thought gliding +to the brain--like a song, a thin, sharp song which some distant voice +was singing--which I was singing. + +"And I knew that I was mewing! + +"I threw myself back in my chair and mewed with all my heart. Oh, that +heavy load which was lifted from my breast! How good, how satisfying +it was to mew! And how I did miaul and yowl! + +"I gave myself up to it, heart and soul; my whole being thrilled with +the passionate outpourings of a spirit freed. My voice trembled in the +upper bars of a feline love-song, quavered, descended, swelling again +into an intimation that I brooked no rival, and ended with a +magnificent crescendo. + +"I finished, somewhat abashed, and glanced askance at the professor +and his daughter, but the one sat nonchalantly disentangling his +coat-tails, and the other was apparently absorbed in the distant +landscape. Evidently they did not consider me ridiculous. Flushing +painfully, I turned in my chair to see how my grewsome solo had +affected the people on the terrace. Nobody even looked at me. This, +however, gave me little comfort, for, as I began to realize what I had +done, my mortification and rage knew no bounds. I was ready to die of +shame. What on earth had induced me to mew? I looked wildly about for +escape--I would leap up--rush home to bury my burning face in my +pillows, and, later, in the friendly cabin of a homeward-bound +steamer. I would fly--fly at once! Woe to the man who blocked my way! +I started to my feet, but at that moment I caught Miss Wyeth's eyes +fixed on mine. + +"'Don't go,' she said. + +"What in Heaven's name lay in those blue eyes? I slowly sank back into +my chair. + +"Then the professor spoke: 'Wilhelmina, I have just received a +despatch.' + +"'Where from, papa?' + +"'From India. I'm going at once.' + +"She nodded her head, without turning her eyes from the sea. 'Is it +important, papa?' + +"'I should say so. The cashier of the local trust has compromised an +astral body, and has squandered on her all our funds, including a lot +of first mortgages on Nirvana. I suppose he's been dabbling in futures +and is short in his accounts. I sha'n't be gone long.' + +"'Then, good-night, papa,' she said, kissing him; 'try to be back by +eleven.' I sat stupidly staring at them. + +"'Oh, it's only to Bombay--I sha'n't go to Thibet +to-night--good-night, my dear,' said the professor. + +"Then a singular thing occurred. The professor had at last succeeded +in disentangling his coat-tails, and now, jamming his hat over his +ears, and waving his arms with a batlike motion, he climbed upon the +seat of his chair and ejaculated the word 'Presto!' Then I found my +voice. + +"'Stop him!' I cried, in terror. + +"'Presto! Presto!' shouted the professor, balancing himself on the +edge of his chair and waving his arms majestically, as if preparing +for a sudden flight across the Scheldt; and, firmly convinced that he +not only meditated it, but was perfectly capable of attempting it, I +covered my eyes with my hands. + +"'Are you ill, Mr. Kensett?' asked the girl, quietly. + +"I raised my head indignantly. 'Not at all, Miss Wyeth, only I'll bid +you good-evening, for this is the nineteenth century, and I'm a +Christian.' + +"'So am I,' she said. 'So is my father.' + +"'The devil he is,' I thought. + +"Her next words made me jump. + +"'Please do not be profane, Mr. Kensett.' + +"How did she know I was profane? I had not spoken a word! Could it be +possible she was able to read my thoughts? This was too much, and I +rose. + +"'I have the honor to bid you good-evening,' I began, and reluctantly +turned to include the professor, expecting to see that gentleman +balancing himself on his chair. The professor's chair was empty. + +"'Oh,' said the girl, smiling, 'my father has gone.' + +"'Gone! Where?' + +"'To--to India, I believe.' + +"I sank helplessly into my own chair. + +"'I do not think he will stay very long--he promised to return by +eleven,' she said, timidly. + +"I tried to realize the purport of it all. 'Gone to India? Gone! How? +On a broomstick? Good Heavens,' I murmured, 'am I insane?' + +"'Perfectly,' she said, 'and I am tired; you may take me back to the +hotel.' + +"I scarcely heard her; I was feebly attempting to gather up my numbed +wits. Slowly I began to comprehend the situation, to review the +startling and humiliating events of the day. At noon, in the court of +the Hôtel St. Antoine, I had been annoyed by a man and a cat. I had +retired to my own room and had slept until dinner. In the evening I +met two tourists on the sea-wall promenade. I had been beguiled into +conversation--yes, into intimacy with these two tourists! I had had +the intention of embracing the faith of Pythagoras! Then I had mewed +like a cat with all the strength of my lungs. Now the male tourist +vanishes--and leaves me in charge of the female tourist, alone and at +night in a strange city! And now the female tourist proposes that I +take her home! + +"With a remnant of self-possession I groped for my eye-glass, seized +it, screwed it firmly into my eye, and looked long and earnestly at +the girl. As I looked, my eyes softened, my monacle dropped, and I +forgot everything in the beauty and purity of the face before me. My +heart began to beat against my stiff, white waistcoat. Had I +dared--yes, dared to think of this wondrous little beauty as a female +tourist? Her pale, sweet face, turned towards the sea, seemed to cast +a spell upon the night. How loud my heart was beating! The yellow moon +floated, half dipping in the sea, flooding land and water with +enchanted lights. Wind and wave seemed to feel the spell of her eyes, +for the breeze died away, the heaving Scheldt tossed noiselessly, and +the dark Dutch luggers swung idly on the tide with every sail adroop. + +"A sudden hush fell over land and water, the voices on the promenade +were stilled; little by little the shadowy throng, the terrace, the +sea itself vanished, and I only saw her face, shadowed against the +moon. + +"It seemed as if I had drifted miles above the earth, through all +space and eternity, and there was naught between me and high heaven +but that white face. Ah, how I loved her! I knew it--I never doubted +it. Could years of passionate adoration touch her heart--her little +heart, now beating so calmly with no thought of love to startle it +from its quiet and send it fluttering against the gentle breast? In +her lap her clasped hands tightened--her eyelids drooped as though +some pleasant thought was passing. I saw the color dye her temples, I +saw the blue eyes turn, half frightened, to my own, I saw--and I knew +she had read my thoughts. Then we both rose, side by side, and she was +weeping softly, yet for my life I dared not speak. She turned away, +touching her eyes with a bit of lace, and I sprang to her side and +offered her my arm. + +"'You cannot go back alone,' I said. + +"She did not take my arm. + +"'Do you hate me, Miss Wyeth?' + +"'I am very tired,' she said; 'I must go home.' + +"'You cannot go alone.' + +"'I do not care to accept your escort.' + +"'Then--you send me away?' + +"'No,' she said, in a hard voice. 'You can come if you like.' So I +humbly attended her to the Hôtel St. Antoine. + + + + +XXIV + + +"As we reached the Place Verte and turned into the court of the hotel, +the sound of the midnight bells swept over the city, and a horse-car +jingled slowly by on its last trip to the railroad station. + +"We passed the fountain, bubbling and splashing in the moonlit court, +and, crossing the square, entered the southern wing of the hotel. At +the foot of the stairway she leaned for an instant against the +banisters. + +"'I am afraid we have walked too fast,' I said. + +"She turned to me coldly. 'No--conventionalities must be observed. You +were quite right in escaping as soon as possible.' + +"'But,' I protested, 'I assure you--' + +"She gave a little movement of impatience. 'Don't,' she said, 'you +tire me--conventionalities tire me. Be satisfied--nobody has seen +you.' + +"'You are cruel,' I said, in a low voice--'what do you think I care +for conventionalities?' + +"'You care everything--you care what people think, and you try to do +what they say is good form. You never did such an original thing in +your life as you have just done.' + +"'You read my thoughts,' I exclaimed, bitterly. 'It is not fair--' + +"'Fair or not, I know what you consider me--ill-bred, common, pleased +with any sort of attention. Oh! why should I waste one word--one +thought on you?' + +"'Miss Wyeth--' I began, but she interrupted me. + +"'Would you dare tell me what you think of me?--Would you dare tell me +what you think of my father?' + +"I was silent. She turned and mounted two steps of the stairway, then +faced me again. + +"'Do you think it was for my own pleasure that I permitted myself to +be left alone with you? Do you imagine that I am flattered by your +attention?--do you venture to think I ever could be? How dared you +think what you did think there on the sea-wall?' + +"'I cannot help my thoughts!' I replied. + +"'You turned on me like a tiger when you awoke from your trance. Do +you really suppose that you mewed? Are you not aware that my father +hypnotized you?' + +"'No--I did not know it,' I said. The hot blood tingled in my +finger-tips, and I looked angrily at her. + +"'Why do you imagine that I waste my time on you?' she said. 'Your +vanity has answered that question--now let your intelligence answer +it. I am a Pythagorean; I have been chosen to bring in a convert, and +you were the convert selected for me by the Mahatmas of the +Consolidated Trust Company. I have followed you from New York to +Antwerp, as I was bidden, but now my courage fails, and I shrink from +fulfilling my mission, knowing you to be the type of man you are. If I +could give it up--if I could only go away--never, never again to see +you! Ah, I fear they will not permit it!--until my mission is +accomplished. Why was I chosen--I, with a woman's heart and a woman's +pride. I--I hate you!' + +"'I love you,' I said, slowly. + +"She paled and looked away. + +"'Answer me,' I said. + +"Her wide, blue eyes turned back again, and I held them with mine. At +last she slowly drew a long-stemmed rose from the bunch at her belt, +turned, and mounted the shadowy staircase. For a moment I thought I +saw her pause on the landing above, but the moonlight was uncertain. +After waiting for a long time in vain, I moved away, and in going +raised my hand to my face, but I stopped short, and my heart stopped +too, for a moment. In my hand I held a long-stemmed rose. + +"With my brain in a whirl I crept across the court and mounted the +stairs to my room. Hour after hour I walked the floor, slowly at +first, then more rapidly, but it brought no calm to the fierce tumult +of my thoughts, and at last I dropped into a chair before the empty +fireplace, burying my head in my hands. + +"Uncertain, shocked, and deadly weary, I tried to think--I strove to +bring order out of the chaos in my brain, but I only sat staring at +the long-stemmed rose. Slowly I began to take a vague pleasure in its +heavy perfume, and once I crushed a leaf between my palms, and, +bending over, drank in the fragrance. + +"Twice my lamp flickered and went out, and twice, treading softly, I +crossed the room to relight it. Twice I threw open the door, thinking +that I heard some sound without. How close the air was!--how heavy and +hot! And what was that strange, subtle odor which had insensibly +filled the room? It grew stronger and more penetrating, and I began +to dislike it, and to escape it I buried my nose in the half-opened +rose. Horror! The odor came from the rose--and the rose itself was no +longer a rose--not even a flower now--it was only a bunch of catnip; +and I dashed it to the floor and ground it under my heel. + +"'Mountebank!' I cried, in a rage. My anger grew cold--and I shivered, +drawn perforce to the curtained window. Something was there, outside. +I could not hear it, for it made no sound, but I knew it was there, +watching me. What was it? The damp hair stirred on my head. I touched +the heavy curtains. Whatever was outside them sprang up, tore at the +window, and then rushed away. + +"Feeling very shaky, I crept to the window, opened it, and leaned out. +The night was calm. I heard the fountain splashing in the moonlight +and the sea-winds soughing through the palms. Then I closed the window +and turned back into the room; and as I stood there a sudden breeze, +which could not have come from without, blew sharply in my face, +extinguishing the candle and sending the long curtains bellying out +into the room. The lamp on the table flashed and smoked and sputtered; +the room was littered with flying papers and catnip leaves. Then the +strange wind died away, and somewhere in the night a cat snarled. + +"I turned desperately to my trunk and flung it open. Into it I threw +everything I owned, pell-mell, closed the lid, locked it, and, seizing +my mackintosh and travelling-bag, ran down the stairs, crossed the +court, and entered the night-office of the hotel. There I called up +the sleepy clerk, settled my reckoning, and sent a porter for a cab. + +"'Now,' I said, 'what time does the next train leave?' + +"'The next train for where?' + +"'Anywhere!' + +"The clerk locked the safe, and, carefully keeping the desk between +himself and me, motioned the office-boy to look at the time-tables. + +"'Next train, 2.10. Brussels--Paris,' read the boy. + +"At that moment the cab rattled up by the curbstone, and I sprang in +while the porter tossed my traps on top. Away we bumped over the stony +pavement, past street after street lighted dimly by tall gas-lamps, +and alley after alley brilliant with the glare of villanous all-night +café-concerts, and then, turning, we rumbled past the Circus and the +Eldorado, and at last stopped with a jolt before the Brussels station. + +"I had not a moment to lose. 'Paris!' I cried--'first-class!' and, +pocketing the book of coupons, hurried across the platform to where +the Brussels train lay. A guard came running up, flung open the door +of a first-class carriage, slammed and locked it after I had jumped +in, and the long train glided from the arched station out into the +starlit morning. + +"I was all alone in the compartment. The wretched lamp in the roof +flickered dimly, scarcely lighting the stuffy box. I could not see to +read my time-table, so I wrapped my legs in the travelling-rug and lay +back, staring out into the misty morning. Trees, walls, +telegraph-poles flashed past, and the cinders drove in showers against +the rattling windows. I slept at times, fitfully, and once, springing +up, peered sharply at the opposite seat, possessed with the idea that +somebody was there. + +"When the train reached Brussels I was sound asleep, and the guard +awoke me with difficulty. + +"'Breakfast, sir?' he asked. + +"'Anything,' I sighed, and stepped out to the platform, rubbing my +legs and shivering. The other passengers were already breakfasting in +the station café, and I joined them and managed to swallow a cup of +coffee and a roll. + +"The morning broke gray and cloudy, and I bundled myself into my +mackintosh for a tramp along the platform. Up and down I stamped, +puffing a cigar, and digging my hands deep in my pockets, while the +other passengers huddled into the warmer compartments of the train or +stood watching the luggage being lifted into the forward +mail-carriage. The wait was very long; the hands of the great clock +pointed to six, and still the train lay motionless along the platform. +I approached a guard and asked him whether anything was wrong. + +"'Accident on the line,' he replied; 'monsieur had better go to his +compartment and try to sleep, for we may be delayed until noon.' + +"I followed the guard's advice, and, crawling into my corner, wrapped +myself in the rug and lay back watching the rain-drops spattering +along the window-sill. At noon the train had not moved, and I lunched +in the compartment. At four o'clock in the afternoon the +station-master came hurrying along the platform, crying, 'Montez! +montez! messieurs, s'il vous plaît'--and the train steamed out of the +station and whirled away through the flat, treeless Belgian plains. At +times I dozed, but the shaking of the car always awoke me, and I would +sit blinking out at the endless stretch of plain, until a sudden +flurry of rain blotted the landscape from my eyes. At last a long, +shrill whistle from the engine, a jolt, a series of bumps, and an +apparition of red trousers and bayonets warned me that we had arrived +at the French frontier. I turned out with the others, and opened my +valise for inspection, but the customs officials merely chalked it, +without examination, and I hurried back to my compartment amid the +shouting of guards and the clanging of station bells. Again I found +that I was alone in the compartment, so I smoked a cigarette, thanked +Heaven, and fell into a dreamless sleep. + +"How long I slept I do not know, but when I awoke the train was +roaring through a tunnel. When again it flashed out into the open +country I peered through the grimy, rain-stained window and saw that +the storm had ceased and stars were twinkling in the sky. I stretched +my legs, yawned, pushed my travelling-cap back from my forehead, and, +stumbling to my feet, walked up and down the compartment until my +cramped muscles were relieved. Then I sat down again, and, lighting a +cigar, puffed great rings and clouds of fragrant smoke across the +aisle. + +"The train was flying; the cars lurched and shook, and the windows +rattled accompaniment to the creaking panels. The smoke from my cigar +dimmed the lamp in the ceiling and hid the opposite seat from view. +How it curled and writhed in the corners, now eddying upward, now +floating across the aisle like a veil! I lounged back in my cushioned +seat, watching it with interest. What queer shapes it took! How thick +it was becoming!--how strangely luminous! Now it had filled the whole +compartment, puff after puff crowding upward, waving, wavering, +clouding the windows, and blotting the lamp from sight. It was most +interesting. I had never before smoked such a cigar. What an +extraordinary brand! I examined the end, flicking the ashes away. The +cigar was out. Fumbling for a match to relight it, my eyes fell on the +drifting smoke-curtain which swayed across the corner opposite. It +seemed almost tangible. How like a real curtain it hung, gray, +impenetrable! A man might hide behind it. Then an idea came into my +head, and it persisted until my uneasiness amounted to a vague terror. +I tried to fight it off--I strove to resist--but the conviction slowly +settled upon me that something was behind that smoke-veil--something +which had entered the compartment while I slept. + +"'It can't be,' I muttered, my eyes fixed on the misty drapery; 'the +train has not stopped.' + +"The car creaked and trembled. I sprang to my feet and swept my arm +through the veil of smoke. Then my hair rose on my head. For my hand +touched another hand, and my eyes had met two other eyes. + +"I heard a voice in the gloom, low and sweet, calling me by name; I +saw the eyes again, tender and blue; soft fingers touched my own. + +"'Are you afraid?' she said. + +"My heart began to beat again, and my face warmed with returning +blood. + +"'It is only I,' she said, gently. + +"I seemed to hear my own voice speaking as if at a great distance, +'You here--alone?' + +"'How cruel of you!' she faltered; 'I am not alone.' At the same +instant my eyes fell upon the professor, calmly seated by the farther +window. His hands were thrust into the folds of a corded and tasselled +dressing-gown, from beneath which peeped two enormous feet encased in +carpet slippers. Upon his head towered a yellow night-cap. He did not +pay the slightest attention to either me or his daughter, and, except +for the lighted cigar which he kept shifting between his lips, he +might have been taken for a wax dummy. + +"Then I began to speak, feebly, hesitating like a child. + +"'How did you come into this compartment? You--you do not possess +wings, I suppose? You could not have been here all the time. Will you +explain--explain to me? See, I ask you very humbly, for I do not +understand. This is the nineteenth century, and these things don't fit +in. I'm wearing a Dunlap hat--I've got a copy of the New York _Herald_ +in my bag--President Roosevelt is alive, and everything is so very +unromantic in the world! Is this real magic? Perhaps I'm filled with +hallucinations. Perhaps I'm asleep and dreaming. Perhaps you are not +really here--nor I--nor anybody, nor anything!' + +"The train plunged into a tunnel, and when again it dashed out from +the other end the cold wind blew furiously in my face from the farther +window. It was wide open; the professor was gone. + +"'Papa has changed to another compartment,' she said, quietly. 'I +think perhaps you were beginning to bore him.' + +"Her eyes met mine and she smiled. + +"'Are you very much bewildered?' + +"I looked at her in silence. She sat very quietly, her hands clasped +above her knee, her curly hair glittering to her girdle. A long robe, +almost silvery in the twilight, clung to her young figure; her bare +feet were thrust deep into a pair of shimmering Eastern slippers. + +"'When you fled,' she sighed, 'I was asleep and there was no time to +lose. I barely had a moment to go to Bombay, to find papa, and return +in time to join you. This is an East-Indian costume.' + +"Still I was silent. + +"'Are you shocked?' she asked, simply. + +"'No,' I replied, in a dull voice, 'I'm past that.' + +"'You are very rude,' she said, with the tears starting to her eyes. + +"'I do not mean to be. I only wish to go away--away somewhere and find +out what my name is.' + +"'Your name is Harold Kensett.' + +"'Are you sure?' I asked, eagerly. + +"'Yes--what troubles you?' + +"'Is everything plain to you? Are you a sort of prophet and +second-sight medium? Is nothing hidden from you?' I asked. + +"'Nothing,' she faltered. My head ached and I clasped it in my hand. + +"A sudden change came over her. 'I am human--believe me!' she said, +with piteous eagerness. 'Indeed, I do not seem strange to those who +understand. You wonder, because you left me at midnight in Antwerp and +you wake to find me here. If, because I find myself reincarnated, +endowed with senses and capabilities which few at present possess--if +I am so made, why should it seem strange? It is all so natural to me. +If I appear to you--' + +"'Appear?' + +"'Yes--' + +"'Wilhelmina!' I cried; 'can you vanish?' + +"'Yes,' she murmured; 'does it seem to you unmaidenly?' + +"'Great Heaven!' I groaned. + +"'Don't!' she cried, with tears in her voice--'oh, please don't! Help +me to bear it! If you only knew how awful it is to be different from +other girls--how mortifying it is to me to be able to vanish--oh, how +I hate and detest it all!' + +"'Don't cry,' I said, looking at her pityingly. + +"'Oh, dear me!' she sobbed. 'You shudder at the sight of me because I +can vanish.' + +"'I don't!' I cried. + +"'Yes, you do! You abhor me--you shrink away! Oh, why did I ever see +you?--why did you ever come into my life?--what have I done in ages +past, that now, reborn, I suffer cruelly--cruelly?' + +"'What do you mean?' I whispered. My voice trembled with happiness. + +"'I?--nothing; but you think me a fabled monster.' + +"'Wilhelmina--my sweet Wilhelmina,' I said, 'I don't think you a +fabled monster. I love you; see--see--I am at your feet; listen to me, +my darling--' + +"She turned her blue eyes to mine. I saw tears sparkling on the curved +lashes. + +"'Wilhelmina, I love you,' I said again. + +"Slowly she raised her hands to my head and held it a moment, looking +at me strangely. Then her face grew nearer to my own, her glittering +hair fell over my shoulders, her lips rested on mine. + +"In that long, sweet kiss the beating of her heart answered mine, and +I learned a thousand truths, wonderful, mysterious, splendid; but when +our lips fell apart, the memory of what I learned departed also. + +"'It was so very simple and beautiful,' she sighed, 'and I--I never +saw it. But the Mahatmas knew--ah, they knew that my mission could +only be accomplished through love.' + +"'And it is,' I whispered, 'for you shall teach me--me, your husband.' + +"'And--and you will not be impatient? You will try to believe?' + +"'I will believe what you tell me, my sweetheart.' + +"'Even about--cats?' + +"Before I could reply the farther window opened and a yellow +night-cap, followed by the professor, entered from somewhere without. +Wilhelmina sank back on her sofa, but the professor needed not to be +told, and we both knew he was already busily reading our thoughts. + +"For a moment there was dead silence--long enough for the professor to +grasp the full significance of what had passed. Then he uttered a +single exclamation, 'Oh!' + +"After a while, however, he looked at me for the first time that +evening, saying, 'Congratulate you, Mr. Kensett, I'm sure,' tied +several knots in the cord of his dressing-gown, lighted a cigar, and +paid no further attention to either of us. Some moments later he +opened the window again and disappeared. I looked across the aisle at +Wilhelmina. + +"'You may come over beside me,' she said, shyly. + + + + +XXV + + +"It was nearly ten o'clock and our train was rapidly approaching +Paris. We passed village after village wrapped in mist, station after +station hung with twinkling red and blue and yellow lanterns, then +sped on again with the echo of the switch-bells ringing in our ears. + +"When at length the train slowed up and stopped, I opened the window +and looked out upon a long, wet platform, shining under the electric +lights. + +"A guard came running by, throwing open the doors of each compartment, +and crying, 'Paris next! Tickets, if you please.' + +"I handed him my book of coupons, from which he tore several and +handed it back. Then he lifted his lantern and peered into the +compartment, saying, 'Is monsieur alone?' + +"I turned to Wilhelmina. + +"'He wants your ticket--give it to me.' + +"'What's that?' demanded the guard. + +"I looked anxiously at Wilhelmina. + +"'If your father has the tickets--' I began, but was interrupted by +the guard, who snapped: + +"'Monsieur will give himself the trouble to remember that I do not +understand English.' + +"'Keep quiet!' I said, sharply, in French. 'I am not speaking to +you.' + +"The guard stared stupidly at me, then, at my luggage, and finally, +entering the car, knelt down and peered under the seats. Presently he +got up, very red in the face, and went out slamming the door. He had +not paid the slightest attention to Wilhelmina, but I distinctly heard +him say, 'Only Englishmen and idiots talk to themselves!' + +"'Wilhelmina,' I faltered, 'do you mean to say that that guard could +not see you?' + +"She began to look so serious again that I merely added, 'Never mind, +I don't care whether you are invisible or not, dearest.' + +"'I am not invisible to you,' she said; 'why should you care?' + +"A great noise of bells and whistles drowned our voices, and, amid the +whirring of switch-bells, the hissing of steam, and the cries of +'Paris! All out!' our train glided into the station. + +"It was the professor who opened the door of our carriage. There he +stood, calmly adjusting his yellow night-cap and drawing his +dressing-gown closer with the corded tassels. + +"'Where have you been?' I asked. + +"'On the engine.' + +"'_In_ the engine, I suppose you mean,' I said. + +"'No, I don't; I mean _on_ the engine--on the pilot. It was very +refreshing. Where are we going now?' + +"'Do you know Paris?' asked Wilhelmina, turning to me. + +"'Yes. I think your father had better take you to the Hôtel Normandie +on the Rue de l'Échelle--' + +"'But you must stay there, too!' + +"'Of course--if you wish--' + +"She laughed nervously. + +"'Don't you see that my father and I could not take rooms--now? You +must engage three rooms for yourself.' + +"'Why?' I asked, stupidly. + +"'Oh, dear--why, because we are invisible.' + +"I tried to repress a shudder. The professor gave Wilhelmina his arm, +and, as I studied his ensemble, I thanked Heaven that he was +invisible. + +"At the gate of the station I hailed a four-seated cab, and we rattled +away through the stony streets, brilliant with gas-jets, and in a few +moments rolled smoothly across the Avenue de l'Opéra, turned into the +Rue de l'Échelle, and stopped. A bright little page, all over buttons, +came out, took my luggage, and preceded us into the hallway. + +"I, with Wilhelmina on my arm and the professor shuffling along beside +me, walked over to the desk. + +"'Room?' said the clerk. 'We have a very desirable room on the second, +fronting the Rue St. Honoré--' + +"'But we--that is, I want three rooms--three separate rooms!' I said. + +"The clerk scratched his chin. 'Monsieur is expecting friends?' + +"'Say yes,' whispered Wilhelmina, with a suspicion of laughter in her +voice. + +"'Yes,' I repeated, feebly. + +"'Gentlemen, of course?' said the clerk, looking at me narrowly. + +"'One lady.' + +"'Married, of course?' + +"'What's that to you?' I said, sharply. 'What do you mean by speaking +to us--' + +"'Us!' + +"'I mean to me,' I said, badly rattled; 'give me the rooms and let me +get to bed, will you?' + +"'Monsieur will remember,' said the clerk, coldly, 'that this is an +old and respectable hotel.' + +"'I know it,' I said, smothering my rage. + +"The clerk eyed me suspiciously. + +"'Front!' he called, with irritating deliberation. 'Show this +gentleman to apartment ten.' + +"'How many rooms are there!' I demanded. + +"'Three sleeping-rooms and a parlor.' + +"'I will take it,' I said, with composure. + +"'On probation,' muttered the clerk, insolently. + +"Swallowing the insult, I followed the bell-boy up the stairs, keeping +between him and Wilhelmina, for I dreaded to see him walk through her +as if she were thin air. A trim maid rose to meet us and conducted us +through a hallway into a large apartment. She threw open all the +bedroom-doors and said, 'Will monsieur have the goodness to choose?' + +"'Which will you take,' I began, turning to Wilhelmina. + +"'I? Monsieur!' cried the startled maid. + +"That completely upset me. 'Here,' I muttered, slipping some silver +into her hand; 'now, for the love of Heaven, run away!' + +"When she had vanished with a doubtful 'Merci, monsieur!' I handed the +professor the keys and asked him to settle the thing with Wilhelmina. + +"Wilhelmina took the corner room, the professor rambled into the next +one, and I said good-night and crept wearily into my own chamber. I +sat down and tried to think. A great feeling of fatigue weighted my +spirits. + +"'I can think better with my clothes off,' I said, and slipped the +coat from my shoulders. How tired I was! 'I can think better in bed,' +I muttered, flinging my cravat on the dresser and tossing my +shirt-studs after it. I was certainly very tired. 'Now,' I yawned, +grasping the pillow and drawing it under my head--'now I can think a +bit.' But before my head fell on the pillow sleep closed my eyes. + +"I began to dream at once. It seemed as though my eyes were wide open +and the professor was standing beside my bed. + +"'Young man,' he said, 'you've won my daughter and you must pay the +piper!' + +"'What piper?' I said. + +"'The Pied Piper of Hamelin, I don't think,' replied the professor, +vulgarly, and before I could realize what he was doing he had drawn a +reed pipe from his dressing-gown and was playing a strangely annoying +air. Then an awful thing occurred. Cats began to troop into the room, +cats by the hundred--toms and tabbies, gray, yellow, Maltese, Persian, +Manx--all purring and all marching round and round, rubbing against +the furniture, the professor, and even against me. I struggled with +the nightmare. + +"'Take them away!' I tried to gasp. + +"'Nonsense!' he said; 'here is an old friend.' + +"I saw the white tabby cat of the Hôtel St. Antoine. + +"'An old friend,' he repeated, and played a dismal melody on his +reed. + +"I saw Wilhelmina enter the room, lift the white tabby in her arms, +and bring her to my side. + +"'Shake hands with him,' she commanded. + +"To my horror the tabby deliberately extended a paw and tapped me on +the knuckles. + +"'Oh!' I cried, in agony; 'this is a horrible dream! Why, oh, why +can't I wake!' + +"'Yes,' she said, dropping the cat, 'it is partly a dream, but some of +it is real. Remember what I say, my darling; you are to go to-morrow +morning and meet the twelve-o'clock train from Antwerp at the Gare du +Nord. Papa and I are coming to Paris on that train. Don't you know +that we are not really here now, you silly boy? Good-night, then. I +shall be very glad to see you.' + +"I saw her glide from the room, followed by the professor, playing a +gay quick-step, to which the cats danced two and two. + +"'Good-night, sir,' said each cat as it passed my bed; and I dreamed +no more. + +"When I awoke, the room, the bed had vanished; I was in the street, +walking rapidly; the sun shone down on the broad, white pavements of +Paris, and the streams of busy life flowed past me on either side. How +swiftly I was walking! Where the devil was I going? Surely I had +business somewhere that needed immediate attention. I tried to +remember when I had awakened, but I could not. I wondered where I had +dressed myself; I had apparently taken great pains with my toilet, for +I was immaculate, monocle and all, even down to a long-stemmed rose +nestling in my button-hole. I knew Paris and recognized the streets +through which I was hurrying. Where could I be going? What was my +hurry? I glanced at my watch and found I had not a moment to lose. +Then, as the bells of the city rang out mid-day, I hastened into the +railroad station on the Rue Lafayette and walked out to the platform. +And as I looked down the glittering track, around the distant curve +shot a locomotive followed by a long line of cars. Nearer and nearer +it came, while the station-gongs sounded and the switch-bells began +ringing all along the track. + +"'Antwerp express!' cried the sous-chef de gare, and as the train +slipped along the tiled platform I sprang upon the steps of a +first-class carriage and threw open the door. + +"'How do you do, Mr. Kensett?' said Wilhelmina Wyeth, springing +lightly to the platform. 'Really it is very nice of you to come to the +train.' At the same moment a bald, mild-eyed gentleman emerged from +the depths of the same compartment, carrying a large, covered basket. + +"'How are you, Kensett?' he said. 'Glad to see you again. Rather warm +in that compartment--no, I will not trust this basket to an +expressman; give Wilhelmina your arm and I'll follow. We go to the +Normandie, I believe?' + +"All the morning I had Wilhelmina to myself, and at dinner I sat +beside her, with the professor opposite. The latter was cheerful +enough, but he nearly ruined my appetite, for he smelled strongly of +catnip. After dinner he became restless and fidgeted about in his +chair until coffee was brought, and we went up to the parlor of our +apartment. Here his restlessness increased to such an extent that I +ventured to ask him if he was in good health. + +"'It's that basket--the covered basket which I have in the next room,' +he said. + +"'What's the trouble with the basket?' I asked. + +"'The basket's all right--but the contents worry me.' + +"'May I inquire what the contents are?' I ventured. + +"The professor rose. + +"'Yes,' he said, 'you may inquire of my daughter.' He left the room, +but reappeared shortly, carrying a saucer of milk. + +"I watched him enter the next room, which was mine. + +"'What on earth is he taking that into my room for?' I asked +Wilhelmina. 'I don't keep cats.' + +"'But you will,' she said. + +"'I? Never!' + +"'You will if I ask you to.' + +"'But--but you won't ask me.' + +"'But I do.' + +"'Wilhelmina!' + +"'Harold!' + +"'I detest cats.' + +"'You must not.' + +"'I can't help it.' + +"'You will when I ask it. Have I not given myself to you? Will you not +make a little sacrifice for me?' + +"'I don't understand--' + +"'Would you refuse my first request?' + +"'No,' I said, miserably, 'I will keep dozens of cats--' + +"'I do not ask that; I only wish you to keep one.' + +"'Was that what your father had in that basket?' I asked, +suspiciously. + +"'Yes, the basket came from Antwerp.' + +"'What! The white Antwerp cat!' I cried. + +"'Yes.' + +"'And you ask me to keep that cat? Oh, Wilhelmina!' + +"'Listen!' she said. 'I have a long story to tell you; come nearer, +close to me. You say you love me?' + +"I bent and kissed her. + +"'Then I shall put you to the proof,' she murmured. + +"'Prove me!' + +"'Listen. That cat is the same cat that ran out of the apartment in +the Waldorf when your great-aunt ceased to exist--in human shape. My +father and myself, having received word from the Mahatmas of the Trust +Company, sheltered and cherished the cat. We were ordered by the +Mahatmas to convert you. The task was appalling--but there is no such +thing as refusing a command, and we laid our plans. That man with a +white spot in his hair was my father--' + +"'What! Your father is bald.' + +"'He wore a wig then. The white spot came from dropping chemicals on +the wig while experimenting with a substance which you could not +comprehend.' + +"'Then--then that clew was useless; but who could have taken the +Crimson Diamond? And who was the man with the white spot on his head +who tried to sell the stone in Paris?' + +"'That was my father.' + +"'He--he--st--took the Crimson Diamond!' I cried, aghast. + +"'Yes and no. That was only a paste stone that he had in Paris. It +was to draw you over here. He had the real Crimson Diamond also.' + +"'Your father?' + +"'Yes. He has it in the next room now. Can you not see how it +disappeared, Harold? Why, the cat swallowed it!' + +"'Do you mean to say that the white tabby swallowed the Crimson +Diamond?' + +"'By mistake. She tried to get it out of the velvet bag, and, as the +bag was also full of catnip, she could not resist a mouthful, and +unfortunately just then you broke in the door and so startled the cat +that she swallowed the Crimson Diamond.' + +"There was a painful pause. At last I said: + +"'Wilhelmina, as you are able to vanish, I suppose you also are able +to converse with cats.' + +"'I am,' she replied, trying to keep back the tears of mortification. + +"'And that cat told you this?' + +"'She did.' + +"'And my Crimson Diamond is inside that cat?' + +"'It is.' + +"'Then,' said I, firmly, 'I am going to chloroform the cat.' + +"'Harold!' she cried, in terror, 'that cat is your great-aunt!' + +"I don't know to this day how I stood the shock of that announcement, +or how I managed to listen while Wilhelmina tried to explain the +transmigration theory, but it was all Chinese to me. I only knew that +I was a blood relation of a cat, and the thought nearly drove me mad. + +"'Try, my darling, try to love her,' whispered Wilhelmina; 'she must +be very precious to you--' + +"'Yes, with my diamond inside her,' I replied, faintly. + +"'You must not neglect her,' said Wilhelmina. + +"'Oh no, I'll always have my eye on her--I mean I will surround her +with luxury--er, milk and bones and catnip and books--er--does she +read?' + +"'Not the books that human beings read. Now, go and speak to your +aunt, Harold.' + +"'Eh! How the deuce--' + +"'Go; for my sake try to be cordial.' + +"She rose and led me unresistingly to the door of my room. + +"'Good Heavens!' I groaned; 'this is awful.' + +"'Courage, my darling!' she whispered. 'Be brave for love of me.' + +"I drew her to me and kissed her. Beads of cold perspiration started +in the roots of my hair, but I clenched my teeth and entered the room +alone. The room was dark and I stood silent, not knowing where to +turn, fearful lest I step on my aunt! Then, through the dreary +silence, I called, 'Aunty!' + +"A faint noise broke upon my ear, and my heart grew sick, but I strode +into the darkness, calling, hoarsely: + +"'Aunt Tabby! It is your nephew!' + +"Again the faint sound. Something was stirring there among the +shadows--a shape moving softly along the wall, a shade which glided by +me, paused, wavered, and darted under the bed. Then I threw myself on +the floor, profoundly moved, begging, imploring my aunt to come to +me. + +"'Aunty! Aunty!' I murmured. 'Your nephew is waiting to take you to +his heart!' + +"At last I saw my great-aunt's eyes shining in the dark." + +The young man's voice grew hushed and solemn, and he lifted his hand +in silence: + +"Close the door. That meeting is not for the eyes of the world! Close +the door upon that sacred scene where great-aunt and nephew are united +at last." + + * * * * * + +A long pause followed; deep emotion was visible in Miss Barrison's +sensitive face. She said: + +"Then--you are married?" + +"No," replied Mr. Kensett, in a mortified voice. + +"Why not?" I asked, amazed. + +"Because," he said, "although my fiancée was prepared to accept a cat +as her great-aunt, she could not endure the complications that +followed." + +"What complications?" inquired Miss Barrison. + +The young man sighed profoundly, shaking his head. + +"My great-aunt had kittens," he said, softly. + + * * * * * + +The tremendous scientific importance of these experiences excited me +beyond measure. The simplicity of the narrative, the elaborate +attention to corroborative detail, all bore irresistible testimony to +the truth of these accounts of phenomena vitally important to the +entire world of science. + +We all dined together that night--a little earnest company of +knowledge-seekers in the vast wilderness of the unexplored; and we +lingered long in the dining-car, propounding questions, advancing +theories, speculating upon possibilities of most intense interest. +Never before had I known a man whose relatives were cats and kittens, +but he did not appear to share my enthusiasm in the matter. + +"You see," he said, looking at Miss Barrison, "it may be interesting +from a purely scientific point of view, but it has already proved a +bar to my marrying." + +"Were the kittens black?" I inquired. + +"No," he said, "my aunt drew the color-line, I am proud to say." + +"I don't see," said Miss Barrison, "why the fact that your great-aunt +is a cat should prevent you from marrying." + +"It wouldn't prevent _me_!" said the young man, quickly. + +"Nor me," mused Miss Barrison--"if I were really in love." + +Meanwhile I had been very busy thinking about Professor Farrago, and, +coming to an interesting theory, advanced it. + +"If," I began, "he marries one of those transparent ladies, what about +the children?" + +"Some would be, no doubt, transparent," said Kensett. + +"They might be only translucent," suggested Miss Barrison. + +"Or partially opaque," I ventured. "But it's a risky marriage--not to +be able to see what one's wife is about--" + +"That is a silly reflection on women," said Miss Barrison, quietly. +"Besides, a girl need not be transparent to conceal what she's +doing." + +This observation seemed to end our postprandial and tripartite +conference; Miss Barrison retired to her stateroom presently; after a +last cigar, smoked almost in silence, the young man and I bade each +other a civil good-night and retired to our respective berths. + +I think it was at Richmond, Virginia, that I was awakened by the negro +porter shaking me very gently and repeating, in a pleasant, monotonous +voice: "Teleg'am foh you, suh! Teleg'am foh Mistuh Gilland, suh. 'Done +call you 'lev'm times sense breakfass, suh! Las' call foh luncheon, +suh. Teleg'am foh--" + +"Heavens!" I muttered, sitting up in my bunk, "is it as late as that! +Where are we?" I slid up the window-shade and sat blinking at a flood +of sunshine. + +"Telegram?" I said, yawning and rubbing my eyes. "Let me have it. All +right, I'll be out presently. Shut that curtain! I don't want the +entire car to criticise my pink pajamas!" + +"Ain' nobody in de cyar, 'scusin yo'se'f, suh," grinned the porter, +retiring. + +I heard him, but did not comprehend, sitting there sleepily unfolding +the scrawled telegram. Suddenly my eyes flew wide open; I scanned the +despatch with stunned incredulity: + + + "ATLANTA, GEORGIA. + + "We couldn't help it. Love at first sight. Married this + morning in Atlanta. Wildly happy. Forgive. Wire blessing. + + "(Signed) HAROLD KENSETT, + "HELEN BARRISON KENSETT." + +"Porter!" I shouted. "Porter! Help!" + +There was no response. + +"Oh, Lord!" I groaned, and rolled over, burying my head in the +blankets; for I understood at last that Science, the most jealous, +most exacting of mistresses, could never brook a rival. + + + +THE END + + + * * * * * + + +--------------------------------------------------------------+ + | Typographical errors corrected in text: | + | | + | Page 86: beautful replaced with beautiful | + | Page 180: Magazin replaced with Magazine | + | Page 206: sun-sorched replaced with sun-scorched | + | | + +--------------------------------------------------------------+ + + * * * * * + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's In Search of the Unknown, by Robert W. 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Chambers + +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: In Search of the Unknown + +Author: Robert W. Chambers + +Release Date: June 23, 2006 [EBook #18668] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN SEARCH OF THE UNKNOWN *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Jeannie Howse and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="img"> +<img border="0" src="images/cover.jpg" width="45%" alt="Book Cover" /><br /> +</div> + + +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> + +<div class="tr"> +<p class="cen" style="font-weight: bold;">Transcriber's Note:</p> +<br /> +<p class="noin">Inconsistent hyphenation matches the original document.</p> +<p class="noin">A number of obvious typographical errors have been corrected in this text.<br /> +For a complete list, please see the <a href="#TN">bottom of this document</a>.</p> +<p class="noin">A Table of Contents has been added for the convenience of the reader.</p> +</div> + +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> + +<div class="img"> +<a href="images/frontis.jpg"> +<img border="0" src="images/frontis.jpg" width="45%" alt="She Started Toward the Door" /></a><br /> +<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">SHE STARTED TOWARD THE DOOR</p> +</div> + +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> + +<h1> +IN SEARCH OF THE<br /> +UNKNOWN</h1> + +<br /> +<br /> + +<h3>BY</h3> +<h2>ROBERT W. CHAMBERS</h2> + +<h4>AUTHOR OF "THE MAIDS OF PARADISE" "THE MAID-AT-ARMS"<br /> +"CARDIGAN" "THE CONSPIRATORS" ETC.</h4> + +<br /> + +<div class="img"> +<img border="0" src="images/deco.png" alt="publisher's deco" /><br /> +</div> + + +<br /> +<br /> + +<h5>NEW YORK AND LONDON<br /> +HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS<br /> +1904</h5> + +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h5>Copyright, 1904, by <span class="sc">Robert W. Chambers</span>.</h5> + +<h6><i>All rights reserved.</i><br /> +Published June, 1904.</h6> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="toc" id="toc"></a><hr /> +<br /> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="30%" summary="Table of Contents"> + <tr> + <td><h3>Contents</h3></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="100%"><a href="#I">Chapter I</a><br /> + <a href="#II">Chapter II</a><br /> + <a href="#III">Chapter III</a><br /> + <a href="#IV">Chapter IV</a><br /> + <a href="#V">Chapter V</a><br /> + <a href="#VI">Chapter VI</a><br /> + <a href="#VII">Chapter VII</a><br /> + <a href="#VIII">Chapter VIII</a><br /> + <a href="#IX">Chapter IX</a><br /> + <a href="#X">Chapter X</a><br /> + <a href="#XI">Chapter XI</a><br /> + <a href="#XII">Chapter XII</a><br /> + <a href="#XIII">Chapter XIII</a><br /> + <a href="#XIV">Chapter XIV</a><br /> + <a href="#XV">Chapter XV</a><br /> + <a href="#XVI">Chapter XVI</a><br /> + <a href="#XVII">Chapter XVII</a><br /> + <a href="#XVIII">Chapter XVIII</a><br /> + <a href="#XIX">Chapter XIX</a><br /> + <a href="#XX">Chapter XX</a><br /> + <a href="#XXI">Chapter XXI</a><br /> + <a href="#XXII">Chapter XXII</a><br /> + <a href="#XXIII">Chapter XXIII</a><br /> + <a href="#XXIV">Chapter XXIV</a><br /> + <a href="#XXV">Chapter XXV</a><br /> + </td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> + +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h4>TO<br /> +MY FRIEND<br /> +E. LE GRAND BEERS</h4> + +<div class="block1"><p><span class="sc">My dear Le Grand,</span>—You and I were early drawn +together by a common love of nature. Your researches into the +natural history of the tree-toad, your observations upon the +mud-turtles of Providence Township, your experiments with the +fresh-water lobster, all stimulated my enthusiasm in a +scientific direction, which has crystallized in this helpful +little book, dedicated to you.</p> + +<p>Pray accept it as an insignificant payment on account for all +I owe to you.</p> + +<p class="right sc">The Author.</p> +</div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h3>PREFACE</h3> +<br /> + +<p>It appears to the writer that there is urgent need of more "nature +books"—books that are scraped clear of fiction and which display only +the carefully articulated skeleton of fact. Hence this little volume, +presented with some hesitation and more modesty. Various chapters +have, at intervals, appeared in the pages of various publications. The +continued narrative is now published for the first time; and the +writer trusts that it may inspire enthusiasm for natural and +scientific research, and inculcate a passion for accurate observation +among the young.</p> + +<p class="right sc">The Author.</p> + +<p><i>April 1, 1904.</i></p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Where the slanting forest eaves,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shingled tight with greenest leaves,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sweep the scented meadow-sedge,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let us snoop along the edge;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let us pry in hidden nooks,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Laden with our nature books,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Scaring birds with happy cries,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Chloroforming butterflies,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rooting up each woodland plant,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pinning beetle, fly, and ant,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So we may identify<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What we've ruined, by-and-by.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="I" id="I"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span><br /> + +<h2>IN SEARCH OF THE UNKNOWN</h2> +<br /> + +<h3>I<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>Because it all seems so improbable—so horribly impossible to me now, +sitting here safe and sane in my own library—I hesitate to record an +episode which already appears to me less horrible than grotesque. Yet, +unless this story is written now, I know I shall never have the +courage to tell the truth about the matter—not from fear of ridicule, +but because I myself shall soon cease to credit what I now know to be +true. Yet scarcely a month has elapsed since I heard the stealthy +purring of what I believed to be the shoaling undertow—scarcely a +month ago, with my own eyes, I saw that which, even now, I am +beginning to believe never existed. As for the harbor-master—and the +blow I am now striking at the old order of things—But of that I shall +not speak now, or later; I shall try to tell the story simply and +truthfully, and let my friends testify as to my probity and the +publishers of this book corroborate them.</p> + +<p>On the 29th of February I resigned my position under the government +and left Washington to accept an offer from Professor Farrago—whose +name he kindly <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span>permits me to use—and on the first day of April I +entered upon my new and congenial duties as general superintendent of +the water-fowl department connected with the Zoological Gardens then +in course of erection at Bronx Park, New York.</p> + +<p>For a week I followed the routine, examining the new foundations, +studying the architect's plans, following the surveyors through the +Bronx thickets, suggesting arrangements for water-courses and pools +destined to be included in the enclosures for swans, geese, pelicans, +herons, and such of the waders and swimmers as we might expect to +acclimate in Bronx Park.</p> + +<p>It was at that time the policy of the trustees and officers of the +Zoological Gardens neither to employ collectors nor to send out +expeditions in search of specimens. The society decided to depend upon +voluntary contributions, and I was always busy, part of the day, in +dictating answers to correspondents who wrote offering their services +as hunters of big game, collectors of all sorts of fauna, trappers, +snarers, and also to those who offered specimens for sale, usually at +exorbitant rates.</p> + +<p>To the proprietors of five-legged kittens, mangy lynxes, moth-eaten +coyotes, and dancing bears I returned courteous but uncompromising +refusals—of course, first submitting all such letters, together with +my replies, to Professor Farrago.</p> + +<p>One day towards the end of May, however, just as I was leaving Bronx +Park to return to town, Professor Lesard, of the reptilian department, +called out to me that Professor Farrago wanted to see me a moment; so +I put my pipe into my pocket again and retraced my steps to the +temporary, wooden building occupied by <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span>Professor Farrago, general +superintendent of the Zoological Gardens. The professor, who was +sitting at his desk before a pile of letters and replies submitted for +approval by me, pushed his glasses down and looked over them at me +with a whimsical smile that suggested amusement, impatience, +annoyance, and perhaps a faint trace of apology.</p> + +<p>"Now, here's a letter," he said, with a deliberate gesture towards a +sheet of paper impaled on a file—"a letter that I suppose you +remember." He disengaged the sheet of paper and handed it to me.</p> + +<p>"Oh yes," I replied, with a shrug; "of course the man is +mistaken—or—"</p> + +<p>"Or what?" demanded Professor Farrago, tranquilly, wiping his glasses.</p> + +<p>"—Or a liar," I replied.</p> + +<p>After a silence he leaned back in his chair and bade me read the +letter to him again, and I did so with a contemptuous tolerance for +the writer, who must have been either a very innocent victim or a very +stupid swindler. I said as much to Professor Farrago, but, to my +surprise, he appeared to waver.</p> + +<p>"I suppose," he said, with his near-sighted, embarrassed smile, "that +nine hundred and ninety-nine men in a thousand would throw that letter +aside and condemn the writer as a liar or a fool?"</p> + +<p>"In my opinion," said I, "he's one or the other."</p> + +<p>"He isn't—in mine," said the professor, placidly.</p> + +<p>"What!" I exclaimed. "Here is a man living all alone on a strip of +rock and sand between the wilderness and the sea, who wants you to +send somebody to take charge of a bird that doesn't exist!"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span>"How do you know," asked Professor Farrago, "that the bird in question +does not exist?"</p> + +<p>"It is generally accepted," I replied, sarcastically, "that the great +auk has been extinct for years. Therefore I may be pardoned for +doubting that our correspondent possesses a pair of them alive."</p> + +<p>"Oh, you young fellows," said the professor, smiling wearily, "you +embark on a theory for destinations that don't exist."</p> + +<p>He leaned back in his chair, his amused eyes searching space for the +imagery that made him smile.</p> + +<p>"Like swimming squirrels, you navigate with the help of Heaven and a +stiff breeze, but you never land where you hope to—do you?"</p> + +<p>Rather red in the face, I said: "Don't you believe the great auk to be +extinct?"</p> + +<p>"Audubon saw the great auk."</p> + +<p>"Who has seen a single specimen since?"</p> + +<p>"Nobody—except our correspondent here," he replied, laughing.</p> + +<p>I laughed, too, considering the interview at an end, but the professor +went on, coolly:</p> + +<p>"Whatever it is that our correspondent has—and I am daring to believe +that it <i>is</i> the great auk itself—I want you to secure it for the +society."</p> + +<p>When my astonishment subsided my first conscious sentiment was one of +pity. Clearly, Professor Farrago was on the verge of dotage—ah, what +a loss to the world!</p> + +<p>I believe now that Professor Farrago perfectly interpreted my +thoughts, but he betrayed neither resentment nor impatience. I drew a +chair up beside his <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span>desk—there was nothing to do but to obey, and +this fool's errand was none of my conceiving.</p> + +<p>Together we made out a list of articles necessary for me and itemized +the expenses I might incur, and I set a date for my return, allowing +no margin for a successful termination to the expedition.</p> + +<p>"Never mind that," said the professor. "What I want you to do is to +get those birds here safely. Now, how many men will you take?"</p> + +<p>"None," I replied, bluntly; "it's a useless expense, unless there is +something to bring back. If there is I'll wire you, you may be sure."</p> + +<p>"Very well," said Professor Farrago, good-humoredly, "you shall have +all the assistance you may require. Can you leave to-night?"</p> + +<p>The old gentleman was certainly prompt. I nodded, half-sulkily, aware +of his amusement.</p> + +<p>"So," I said, picking up my hat, "I am to start north to find a place +called Black Harbor, where there is a man named Halyard who possesses, +among other household utensils, two extinct great auks—"</p> + +<p>We were both laughing by this time. I asked him why on earth he +credited the assertion of a man he had never before heard of.</p> + +<p>"I suppose," he replied, with the same half-apologetic, half-humorous +smile, "it is instinct. I feel, somehow, that this man Halyard <i>has</i> +got an auk—perhaps two. I can't get away from the idea that we are on +the eve of acquiring the rarest of living creatures. It's odd for a +scientist to talk as I do; doubtless you're shocked—admit it, now!"</p> + +<p>But I was not shocked; on the contrary, I was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span>conscious that the same +strange hope that Professor Farrago cherished was beginning, in spite +of me, to stir my pulses, too.</p> + +<p>"If he has—" I began, then stopped.</p> + +<p>The professor and I looked hard at each other in silence.</p> + +<p>"Go on," he said, encouragingly.</p> + +<p>But I had nothing more to say, for the prospect of beholding with my +own eyes a living specimen of the great auk produced a series of +conflicting emotions within me which rendered speech profanely +superfluous.</p> + +<p>As I took my leave Professor Farrago came to the door of the +temporary, wooden office and handed me the letter written by the man +Halyard. I folded it and put it into my pocket, as Halyard might +require it for my own identification.</p> + +<p>"How much does he want for the pair?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Ten thousand dollars. Don't demur—if the birds are really—"</p> + +<p>"I know," I said, hastily, not daring to hope too much.</p> + +<p>"One thing more," said Professor Farrago, gravely; "you know, in that +last paragraph of his letter, Halyard speaks of something else in the +way of specimens—an undiscovered species of amphibious biped—just +read that paragraph again, will you?"</p> + +<p>I drew the letter from my pocket and read as he directed:</p> + +<div class="block2"><p>"When you have seen the two living specimens of the great auk, +and have satisfied yourself that I tell the truth, you may be +wise enough to listen without prejudice to a statement I shall +make concerning the existence of the strangest creature ever +fashioned. I will merely say, at this time, that the creature +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span>referred to is an amphibious biped and inhabits the ocean near +this coast. More I cannot say, for I personally have not seen +the animal, but I have a witness who has, and there are many +who affirm that they have seen the creature. You will +naturally say that my statement amounts to nothing; but when +your representative arrives, if he be free from prejudice, I +expect his reports to you concerning this sea-biped will +confirm the solemn statements of a witness I <i>know</i> to be +unimpeachable.</p> + +<p class="right">"Yours truly, <span class="sc">Burton Halyard.</span></p> + +<p class="sc">"Black Harbor."</p> +</div> + +<p>"Well," I said, after a moment's thought, "here goes for the +wild-goose chase."</p> + +<p>"Wild auk, you mean," said Professor Farrago, shaking hands with me. +"You will start to-night, won't you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, but Heaven knows how I'm ever going to land in this man +Halyard's door-yard. Good-bye!"</p> + +<p>"About that sea-biped—" began Professor Farrago, shyly.</p> + +<p>"Oh, don't!" I said; "I can swallow the auks, feathers and claws, but +if this fellow Halyard is hinting he's seen an amphibious creature +resembling a man—"</p> + +<p>"—Or a woman," said the professor, cautiously.</p> + +<p>I retired, disgusted, my faith shaken in the mental vigor of Professor +Farrago.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="II" id="II"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>II<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>The three days' voyage by boat and rail was irksome. I bought my kit +at Sainte Croix, on the Central Pacific Railroad, and on June 1st I +began the last stage of my journey <i>via</i> the Sainte Isole broad-gauge, +arriving in the wilderness by daylight. A tedious forced march by +blazed trail, freshly spotted on the wrong side, of course, brought me +to the northern terminus of the rusty, narrow-gauge lumber railway +which runs from the heart of the hushed pine wilderness to the sea.</p> + +<p>Already a long train of battered flat-cars, piled with sluice-props +and roughly hewn sleepers, was moving slowly off into the brooding +forest gloom, when I came in sight of the track; but I developed a +gratifying and unexpected burst of speed, shouting all the while. The +train stopped; I swung myself aboard the last car, where a pleasant +young fellow was sitting on the rear brake, chewing spruce and reading +a letter.</p> + +<p>"Come aboard, sir," he said, looking up with a smile; "I guess you're +the man in a hurry."</p> + +<p>"I'm looking for a man named Halyard," I said, dropping rifle and +knapsack on the fresh-cut, fragrant pile of pine. "Are you Halyard?"</p> + +<p>"No, I'm Francis Lee, bossing the mica pit at Port-of-Waves," he +replied, "but this letter is from Halyard, asking me to look out for a +man in a hurry from Bronx Park, New York."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span>"I'm that man," said I, filling my pipe and offering him a share of +the weed of peace, and we sat side by side smoking very amiably, until +a signal from the locomotive sent him forward and I was left alone, +lounging at ease, head pillowed on both arms, watching the blue sky +flying through the branches overhead.</p> + +<p>Long before we came in sight of the ocean I smelled it; the fresh, +salt aroma stole into my senses, drowsy with the heated odor of pine +and hemlock, and I sat up, peering ahead into the dusky sea of pines.</p> + +<p>Fresher and fresher came the wind from the sea, in puffs, in mild, +sweet breezes, in steady, freshening currents, blowing the feathery +crowns of the pines, setting the balsam's blue tufts rocking.</p> + +<p>Lee wandered back over the long line of flats, balancing himself +nonchalantly as the cars swung around a sharp curve, where water +dripped from a newly propped sluice that suddenly emerged from the +depths of the forest to run parallel to the railroad track.</p> + +<p>"Built it this spring," he said, surveying his handiwork, which seemed +to undulate as the cars swept past. "It runs to the cove—or ought +to—" He stopped abruptly with a thoughtful glance at me.</p> + +<p>"So you're going over to Halyard's?" he continued, as though answering +a question asked by himself.</p> + +<p>I nodded.</p> + +<p>"You've never been there—of course?"</p> + +<p>"No," I said, "and I'm not likely to go again."</p> + +<p>I would have told him why I was going if I had not already begun to +feel ashamed of my idiotic errand.</p> + +<p>"I guess you're going to look at those birds of his," continued Lee, +placidly.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span>"I guess I am," I said, sulkily, glancing askance to see whether he +was smiling.</p> + +<p>But he only asked me, quite seriously, whether a great auk was really +a very rare bird; and I told him that the last one ever seen had been +found dead off Labrador in January, 1870. Then I asked him whether +these birds of Halyard's were really great auks, and he replied, +somewhat indifferently, that he supposed they were—at least, nobody +had ever before seen such birds near Port-of-Waves.</p> + +<p>"There's something else," he said, running, a pine-sliver through his +pipe-stem—"something that interests us all here more than auks, big +or little. I suppose I might as well speak of it, as you are bound to +hear about it sooner or later."</p> + +<p>He hesitated, and I could see that he was embarrassed, searching for +the exact words to convey his meaning.</p> + +<p>"If," said I, "you have anything in this region more important to +science than the great auk, I should be very glad to know about it."</p> + +<p>Perhaps there was the faintest tinge of sarcasm in my voice, for he +shot a sharp glance at me and then turned slightly. After a moment, +however, he put his pipe into his pocket, laid hold of the brake with +both hands, vaulted to his perch aloft, and glanced down at me.</p> + +<p>"Did you ever hear of the harbor-master?" he asked, maliciously.</p> + +<p>"Which harbor-master?" I inquired.</p> + +<p>"You'll know before long," he observed, with a satisfied glance into +perspective.</p> + +<p>This rather extraordinary observation puzzled me. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span>I waited for him to +resume, and, as he did not, I asked him what he meant.</p> + +<p>"If I knew," he said, "I'd tell you. But, come to think of it, I'd be +a fool to go into details with a scientific man. You'll hear about the +harbor-master—perhaps you will see the harbor-master. In that event I +should be glad to converse with you on the subject."</p> + +<p>I could not help laughing at his prim and precise manner, and, after a +moment, he also laughed, saying:</p> + +<p>"It hurts a man's vanity to know he knows a thing that somebody else +knows he doesn't know. I'm damned if I say another word about the +harbor-master until you've been to Halyard's!"</p> + +<p>"A harbor-master," I persisted, "is an official who superintends the +mooring of ships—isn't he?"</p> + +<p>But he refused to be tempted into conversation, and we lounged +silently on the lumber until a long, thin whistle from the locomotive +and a rush of stinging salt-wind brought us to our feet. Through the +trees I could see the bluish-black ocean, stretching out beyond black +headlands to meet the clouds; a great wind was roaring among the trees +as the train slowly came to a stand-still on the edge of the primeval +forest.</p> + +<p>Lee jumped to the ground and aided me with my rifle and pack, and then +the train began to back away along a curved side-track which, Lee +said, led to the mica-pit and company stores.</p> + +<p>"Now what will you do?" he asked, pleasantly. "I can give you a good +dinner and a decent bed to-night if you like—and I'm sure Mrs. Lee +would be very glad to have you stop with us as long as you choose."</p> + +<p>I thanked him, but said that I was anxious to reach <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span>Halyard's before +dark, and he very kindly led me along the cliffs and pointed out the +path.</p> + +<p>"This man Halyard," he said, "is an invalid. He lives at a cove called +Black Harbor, and all his truck goes through to him over the company's +road. We receive it here, and send a pack-mule through once a month. +I've met him; he's a bad-tempered hypochondriac, a cynic at heart, and +a man whose word is never doubted. If he says he has a great auk, you +may be satisfied he has."</p> + +<p>My heart was beating with excitement at the prospect; I looked out +across the wooded headlands and tangled stretches of dune and hollow, +trying to realize what it might mean to me, to Professor Farrago, to +the world, if I should lead back to New York a live auk.</p> + +<p>"He's a crank," said Lee; "frankly, I don't like him. If you find it +unpleasant there, come back to us."</p> + +<p>"Does Halyard live alone?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Yes—except for a professional trained nurse—poor thing!"</p> + +<p>"A man?"</p> + +<p>"No," said Lee, disgustedly.</p> + +<p>Presently he gave me a peculiar glance; hesitated, and finally said: +"Ask Halyard to tell you about his nurse and—the harbor-master. +Good-bye—I'm due at the quarry. Come and stay with us whenever you +care to; you will find a welcome at Port-of-Waves."</p> + +<p>We shook hands and parted on the cliff, he turning back into the +forest along the railway, I starting northward, pack slung, rifle over +my shoulder. Once I met a group of quarrymen, faces burned brick-red, +scarred <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span>hands swinging as they walked. And, as I passed them with a +nod, turning, I saw that they also had turned to look after me, and I +caught a word or two of their conversation, whirled back to me on the +sea-wind.</p> + +<p>They were speaking of the harbor-master.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="III" id="III"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>III<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>Towards sunset I came out on a sheer granite cliff where the sea-birds +were whirling and clamoring, and the great breakers dashed, rolling in +double-thundered reverberations on the sun-dyed, crimson sands below +the rock.</p> + +<p>Across the half-moon of beach towered another cliff, and, behind this, +I saw a column of smoke rising in the still air. It certainly came +from Halyard's chimney, although the opposite cliff prevented me from +seeing the house itself.</p> + +<p>I rested a moment to refill my pipe, then resumed rifle and pack, and +cautiously started to skirt the cliffs. I had descended half-way +towards the beech, and was examining the cliff opposite, when +something on the very top of the rock arrested my attention—a man +darkly outlined against the sky. The next moment, however, I knew it +could not be a man, for the object suddenly glided over the face of +the cliff and slid down the sheer, smooth lace like a lizard. Before I +could get a square look at it, the thing crawled into the surf—or, at +least, it seemed to—but the whole episode occurred so suddenly, so +unexpectedly, that I was not sure I had seen anything at all.</p> + +<p>However, I was curious enough to climb the cliff on the land side and +make my way towards the spot where <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span>I imagined I saw the man. Of +course, there was nothing there—not a trace of a human being, I mean. +Something <i>had</i> been there—a sea-otter, possibly—for the remains of +a freshly killed fish lay on the rock, eaten to the back-bone and +tail.</p> + +<p>The next moment, below me, I saw the house, a freshly painted, trim, +flimsy structure, modern, and very much out of harmony with the +splendid savagery surrounding it. It struck a nasty, cheap note in the +noble, gray monotony of headland and sea.</p> + +<p>The descent was easy enough. I crossed the crescent beach, hard as +pink marble, and found a little trodden path among the rocks, that led +to the front porch of the house.</p> + +<p>There were two people on the porch—I heard their voices before I saw +them—and when I set my foot upon the wooden steps, I saw one of them, +a woman, rise from her chair and step hastily towards me.</p> + +<p>"Come back!" cried the other, a man with a smooth-shaven, deeply lined +face, and a pair of angry, blue eyes; and the woman stepped back +quietly, acknowledging my lifted hat with a silent inclination.</p> + +<p>The man, who was reclining in an invalid's rolling-chair, clapped both +large, pale hands to the wheels and pushed himself out along the +porch. He had shawls pinned about him, an untidy, drab-colored hat on +his head, and, when he looked down at me, he scowled.</p> + +<p>"I know who you are," he said, in his acid voice; "you're one of the +Zoological men from Bronx Park. You look like it, anyway."</p> + +<p>"It is easy to recognize you from your reputation," I replied, +irritated at his discourtesy.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span>"Really," he replied, with something between a sneer and a laugh, "I'm +obliged for your frankness. You're after my great auks, are you not?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing else would have tempted me into this place," I replied, +sincerely.</p> + +<p>"Thank Heaven for that," he said. "Sit down a moment; you've +interrupted us." Then, turning to the young woman, who wore the neat +gown and tiny cap of a professional nurse, he bade her resume what she +had been saying. She did so, with deprecating glance at me, which made +the old man sneer again.</p> + +<p>"It happened so suddenly," she said, in her low voice, "that I had no +chance to get back. The boat was drifting in the cove; I sat in the +stern, reading, both oars shipped, and the tiller swinging. Then I +heard a scratching under the boat, but thought it might be +sea-weed—and, next moment, came those soft thumpings, like the sound +of a big fish rubbing its nose against a float."</p> + +<p>Halyard clutched the wheels of his chair and stared at the girl in +grim displeasure.</p> + +<p>"Didn't you know enough to be frightened?" he demanded.</p> + +<p>"No—not then," she said, coloring faintly; "but when, after a few +moments, I looked up and saw the harbor-master running up and down the +beach, I was horribly frightened."</p> + +<p>"Really?" said Halyard, sarcastically; "it was about time." Then, +turning to me, he rasped out: "And that young lady was obliged to row +all the way to Port-of-Waves and call to Lee's quarrymen to take her +boat in."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span>Completely mystified, I looked from Halyard to the girl, not in the +least comprehending what all this meant.</p> + +<p>"That will do," said Halyard, ungraciously, which curt phrase was +apparently the usual dismissal for the nurse.</p> + +<p>She rose, and I rose, and she passed me with an inclination, stepping +noiselessly into the house.</p> + +<p>"I want beef-tea!" bawled Halyard after her; then he gave me an +unamiable glance.</p> + +<p>"I was a well-bred man," he sneered; "I'm a Harvard graduate, too, but +I live as I like, and I do what I like, and I say what I like."</p> + +<p>"You certainly are not reticent," I said, disgusted.</p> + +<p>"Why should I be?" he rasped; "I pay that young woman for my +irritability; it's a bargain between us."</p> + +<p>"In your domestic affairs," I said, "there is nothing that interests +me. I came to see those auks."</p> + +<p>"You probably believe them to be razor-billed auks," he said, +contemptuously. "But they're not; they're great auks."</p> + +<p>I suggested that he permit me to examine them, and he replied, +indifferently, that they were in a pen in his backyard, and that I was +free to step around the house when I cared to.</p> + +<p>I laid my rifle and pack on the veranda, and hastened off with mixed +emotions, among which hope no longer predominated. No man in his +senses would keep two such precious prizes in a pen in his backyard, I +argued, and I was perfectly prepared to find anything from a puffin to +a penguin in that pen.</p> + +<p>I shall never forget, as long as I live, my stupor of amazement when I +came to the wire-covered enclosure. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span>Not only were there two great +auks in the pen, alive, breathing, squatting in bulky majesty on their +sea-weed bed, but one of them was gravely contemplating two newly +hatched chicks, all bill and feet, which nestled sedately at the edge +of a puddle of salt-water, where some small fish were swimming.</p> + +<p>For a while excitement blinded, nay, deafened me. I tried to realize +that I was gazing upon the last individuals of an all but extinct +race—the sole survivors of the gigantic auk, which, for thirty years, +has been accounted an extinct creature.</p> + +<p>I believe that I did not move muscle nor limb until the sun had gone +down and the crowding darkness blurred my straining eyes and blotted +the great, silent, bright-eyed birds from sight.</p> + +<p>Even then I could not tear myself away from the enclosure; I listened +to the strange, drowsy note of the male bird, the fainter responses of +the female, the thin plaints of the chicks, huddling under her breast; +I heard their flipper-like, embryotic wings beating sleepily as the +birds stretched and yawned their beaks and clacked them, preparing for +slumber.</p> + +<p>"If you please," came a soft voice from the door, "Mr. Halyard awaits +your company to dinner."</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="IV" id="IV"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>IV<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>I dined well—or, rather, I might have enjoyed my dinner if Mr. +Halyard had been eliminated; and the feast consisted exclusively of a +joint of beef, the pretty nurse, and myself. She was exceedingly +attractive—with a disturbing fashion of lowering her head and raising +her dark eyes when spoken to.</p> + +<p>As for Halyard, he was unspeakable, bundled up in his snuffy shawls, +and making uncouth noises over his gruel. But it is only just to say +that his table was worth sitting down to and his wine was sound as a +bell.</p> + +<p>"Yah!" he snapped, "I'm sick of this cursed soup—and I'll trouble you +to fill my glass—"</p> + +<p>"It is dangerous for you to touch claret," said the pretty nurse.</p> + +<p>"I might as well die at dinner as anywhere," he observed.</p> + +<p>"Certainly," said I, cheerfully passing the decanter, but he did not +appear overpleased with the attention.</p> + +<p>"I can't smoke, either," he snarled, hitching the shawls around until +he looked like Richard the Third.</p> + +<p>However, he was good enough to shove a box of cigars at me, and I took +one and stood up, as the pretty nurse slipped past and vanished into +the little parlor beyond.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span>We sat there for a while without speaking. He picked irritably at the +bread-crumbs on the cloth, never glancing in my direction; and I, +tired from my long foot-tour, lay back in my chair, silently +appreciating one of the best cigars I ever smoked.</p> + +<p>"Well," he rasped out at length, "what do you think of my auks—and my +veracity?"</p> + +<p>I told him that both were unimpeachable.</p> + +<p>"Didn't they call me a swindler down there at your museum?" he +demanded.</p> + +<p>I admitted that I had heard the term applied. Then I made a clean +breast of the matter, telling him that it was I who had doubted; that +my chief, Professor Farrago, had sent me against my will, and that I +was ready and glad to admit that he, Mr. Halyard, was a benefactor of +the human race.</p> + +<p>"Bosh!" he said. "What good does a confounded wobbly, bandy-toed bird +do to the human race?"</p> + +<p>But he was pleased, nevertheless; and presently he asked me, not +unamiably, to punish his claret again.</p> + +<p>"I'm done for," he said; "good things to eat and drink are no good to +me. Some day I'll get mad enough to have a fit, and then—"</p> + +<p>He paused to yawn.</p> + +<p>"Then," he continued, "that little nurse of mine will drink up my +claret and go back to civilization, where people are polite."</p> + +<p>Somehow or other, in spite of the fact that Halyard was an old pig, +what he said touched me. There was certainly not much left in life for +him—as he regarded life.</p> + +<p>"I'm going to leave her this house," he said, arranging <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span>his shawls. +"She doesn't know it. I'm going to leave her my money, too. She +doesn't know that. Good Lord! What kind of a woman can she be to stand +my bad temper for a few dollars a month!"</p> + +<p>"I think," said I, "that it's partly because she's poor, partly +because she's sorry for you."</p> + +<p>He looked up with a ghastly smile.</p> + +<p>"You think she really is sorry?"</p> + +<p>Before I could answer he went on: "I'm no mawkish sentimentalist, and +I won't allow anybody to be sorry for me—do you hear?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'm not sorry for you!" I said, hastily, and, for the first time +since I had seen him, he laughed heartily, without a sneer.</p> + +<p>We both seemed to feel better after that; I drank his wine and smoked +his cigars, and he appeared to take a certain grim pleasure in +watching me.</p> + +<p>"There's no fool like a young fool," he observed, presently.</p> + +<p>As I had no doubt he referred to me, I paid him no attention.</p> + +<p>After fidgeting with his shawls, he gave me an oblique scowl and asked +me my age.</p> + +<p>"Twenty-four," I replied.</p> + +<p>"Sort of a tadpole, aren't you?" he said.</p> + +<p>As I took no offence, he repeated the remark.</p> + +<p>"Oh, come," said I, "there's no use in trying to irritate me. I see +through you; a row acts like a cocktail on you—but you'll have to +stick to gruel in my company."</p> + +<p>"I call that impudence!" he rasped out, wrathfully.</p> + +<p>"I don't care what you call it," I replied, undisturbed, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span>"I am not +going to be worried by you. Anyway," I ended, "it is my opinion that +you could be very good company if you chose."</p> + +<p>The proposition appeared to take his breath away—at least, he said +nothing more; and I finished my cigar in peace and tossed the stump +into a saucer.</p> + +<p>"Now," said I, "what price do you set upon your birds, Mr. Halyard?"</p> + +<p>"Ten thousand dollars," he snapped, with an evil smile.</p> + +<p>"You will receive a certified check when the birds are delivered," I +said, quietly.</p> + +<p>"You don't mean to say you agree to that outrageous bargain—and I +won't take a cent less, either—Good Lord!—haven't you any spirit +left?" he cried, half rising from his pile of shawls.</p> + +<p>His piteous eagerness for a dispute sent me into laughter impossible +to control, and he eyed me, mouth open, animosity rising visibly.</p> + +<p>Then he seized the wheels of his invalid chair and trundled away, too +mad to speak; and I strolled out into the parlor, still laughing.</p> + +<p>The pretty nurse was there, sewing under a hanging lamp.</p> + +<p>"If I am not indiscreet—" I began.</p> + +<p>"Indiscretion is the better part of valor," said she, dropping her +head but raising her eyes.</p> + +<p>So I sat down with a frivolous smile peculiar to the appreciated.</p> + +<p>"Doubtless," said I, "you are hemming a 'kerchief."</p> + +<p>"Doubtless I am not," she said; "this is a night-cap for Mr. +Halyard."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span>A mental vision of Halyard in a night-cap, very mad, nearly set me +laughing again.</p> + +<p>"Like the King of Yvetot, he wears his crown in bed," I said, +flippantly.</p> + +<p>"The King of Yvetot might have made that remark," she observed, +re-threading her needle.</p> + +<p>It is unpleasant to be reproved. How large and red and hot a man's +ears feel.</p> + +<p>To cool them, I strolled out to the porch; and, after a while, the +pretty nurse came out, too, and sat down in a chair not far away. She +probably regretted her lost opportunity to be flirted with.</p> + +<p>"I have so little company—it is a great relief to see somebody from +the world," she said. "If you can be agreeable, I wish you would."</p> + +<p>The idea that she had come out to see me was so agreeable that I +remained speechless until she said: "Do tell me what people are doing +in New York."</p> + +<p>So I seated myself on the steps and talked about the portion of the +world inhabited by me, while she sat sewing in the dull light that +straggled out from the parlor windows.</p> + +<p>She had a certain coquetry of her own, using the usual methods with an +individuality that was certainly fetching. For instance, when she lost +her needle—and, another time, when we both, on hands and knees, +hunted for her thimble.</p> + +<p>However, directions for these pastimes may be found in contemporary +classics.</p> + +<p>I was as entertaining as I could be—perhaps not quite as entertaining +as a young man usually thinks he is. However, we got on very well +together until I asked <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span>her tenderly who the harbor-master might be, +whom they all discussed so mysteriously.</p> + +<p>"I do not care to speak about it," she said, with a primness of which +I had not suspected her capable.</p> + +<p>Of course I could scarcely pursue the subject after that—and, indeed, +I did not intend to—so I began to tell her how I fancied I had seen a +man on the cliff that afternoon, and how the creature slid over the +sheer rock like a snake.</p> + +<p>To my amazement, she asked me to kindly discontinue the account of my +adventures, in an icy tone, which left no room for protest.</p> + +<p>"It was only a sea-otter," I tried to explain, thinking perhaps she +did not care for snake stories.</p> + +<p>But the explanation did not appear to interest her, and I was +mortified to observe that my impression upon her was anything but +pleasant.</p> + +<p>"She doesn't seem to like me and my stories," thought I, "but she is +too young, perhaps, to appreciate them."</p> + +<p>So I forgave her—for she was even prettier than I had thought her at +first—and I took my leave, saying that Mr. Halyard would doubtless +direct me to my room.</p> + +<p>Halyard was in his library, cleaning a revolver, when I entered.</p> + +<p>"Your room is next to mine," he said; "pleasant dreams, and kindly +refrain from snoring."</p> + +<p>"May I venture an absurd hope that you will do the same!" I replied, +politely.</p> + +<p>That maddened him, so I hastily withdrew.</p> + +<p>I had been asleep for at least two hours when a movement by my bedside +and a light in my eyes awakened me. I sat bolt upright in bed, +blinking at Halyard, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span>who, clad in a dressing-gown and wearing a +night-cap, had wheeled himself into my room with one hand, while with +the other he solemnly waved a candle over my head.</p> + +<p>"I'm so cursed lonely," he said—"come, there's a good fellow—talk to +me in your own original, impudent way."</p> + +<p>I objected strenuously, but he looked so worn and thin, so lonely and +bad-tempered, so lovelessly grotesque, that I got out of bed and +passed a spongeful of cold water over my head.</p> + +<p>Then I returned to bed and propped the pillows up for a back-rest, +ready to quarrel with him if it might bring some little pleasure into +his morbid existence.</p> + +<p>"No," he said, amiably, "I'm too worried to quarrel, but I'm much +obliged for your kindly offer. I want to tell you something."</p> + +<p>"What?" I asked, suspiciously.</p> + +<p>"I want to ask you if you ever saw a man with gills like a fish?"</p> + +<p>"Gills?" I repeated.</p> + +<p>"Yes, gills! Did you?"</p> + +<p>"No," I replied, angrily, "and neither did you."</p> + +<p>"No, I never did," he said, in a curiously placid voice, "but there's +a man with gills like a fish who lives in the ocean out there. Oh, you +needn't look that way—nobody ever thinks of doubting my word, and I +tell you that there's a man—or a thing that looks like a man—as big +as you are, too—all slate-colored—with nasty red gills like a +fish!—and I've a witness to prove what I say!"</p> + +<p>"Who?" I asked, sarcastically.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span>"The witness? My nurse."</p> + +<p>"Oh! She saw a slate-colored man with gills?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, she did. So did Francis Lee, superintendent of the Mica Quarry +Company at Port-of-Waves. So have a dozen men who work in the quarry. +Oh, you needn't laugh, young man. It's an old story here, and anybody +can tell you about the harbor-master."</p> + +<p>"The harbor-master!" I exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"Yes, that slate-colored thing with gills, that looks like a +man—and—by Heaven! <i>is</i> a man—that's the harbor-master. Ask any +quarryman at Port-of-Waves what it is that comes purring around their +boats at the wharf and unties painters and changes the mooring of +every cat-boat in the cove at night! Ask Francis Lee what it was he +saw running and leaping up and down the shoal at sunset last Friday! +Ask anybody along the coast what sort of a thing moves about the +cliffs like a man and slides over them into the sea like an otter—"</p> + +<p>"I saw it do that!" I burst out.</p> + +<p>"Oh, did you? Well, <i>what was it?</i>"</p> + +<p>Something kept me silent, although a dozen explanations flew to my +lips.</p> + +<p>After a pause, Halyard said: "You saw the harbor-master, that's what +you saw!"</p> + +<p>I looked at him without a word.</p> + +<p>"Don't mistake me," he said, pettishly; "I don't think that the +harbor-master is a spirit or a sprite or a hobgoblin, or any sort of +damned rot. Neither do I believe it to be an optical illusion."</p> + +<p>"What do you think it is?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"I think it's a man—I think it's a branch of the human race—that's +what I think. Let me tell you <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span>something: the deepest spot in the +Atlantic Ocean is a trifle over five miles deep—and I suppose you +know that this place lies only about a quarter of a mile off this +headland. The British exploring vessel, <i>Gull</i>, Captain Marotte, +discovered and sounded it, I believe. Anyway, it's there, and it's my +belief that the profound depths are inhabited by the remnants of the +last race of amphibious human beings!"</p> + +<p>This was childish; I did not bother to reply.</p> + +<p>"Believe it or not, as you will," he said, angrily; "one thing I know, +and that is this: the harbor-master has taken to hanging around my +cove, and he is attracted by my nurse! I won't have it! I'll blow his +fishy gills out of his head if I ever get a shot at him! I don't care +whether it's homicide or not—anyway, it's a new kind of murder and it +attracts me!"</p> + +<p>I gazed at him incredulously, but he was working himself into a +passion, and I did not choose to say what I thought.</p> + +<p>"Yes, this slate-colored thing with gills goes purring and grinning +and spitting about after my nurse—when she walks, when she rows, when +she sits on the beach! Gad! It drives me nearly frantic. I won't +tolerate it, I tell you!"</p> + +<p>"No," said I, "I wouldn't either." And I rolled over in bed convulsed +with laughter.</p> + +<p>The next moment I heard my door slam. I smothered my mirth and rose to +close the window, for the land-wind blew cold from the forest, and a +drizzle was sweeping the carpet as far as my bed.</p> + +<p>That luminous glare which sometimes lingers after the stars go out, +threw a trembling, nebulous radiance over <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span>sand and cove. I heard the +seething currents under the breakers' softened thunder—louder than I +ever heard it. Then, as I closed my window, lingering for a last look +at the crawling tide, I saw a man standing, ankle-deep, in the surf, +all alone there in the night. But—was it a man? For the figure +suddenly began running over the beach on all fours like a beetle, +waving its limbs like feelers. Before I could throw open the window +again it darted into the surf, and, when I leaned out into the +chilling drizzle, I saw nothing save the flat ebb crawling on the +coast—I heard nothing save the purring of bubbles on seething sands.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="V" id="V"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>V<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>It took me a week to perfect my arrangements for transporting the +great auks, by water, to Port-of-Waves, where a lumber schooner was to +be sent from Petite Sainte Isole, chartered by me for a voyage to New +York.</p> + +<p>I had constructed a cage made of osiers, in which my auks were to +squat until they arrived at Bronx Park. My telegrams to Professor +Farrago were brief. One merely said "Victory!" Another explained that +I wanted no assistance; and a third read: "Schooner chartered. Arrive +New York July 1st. Send furniture-van to foot of Bluff Street."</p> + +<p>My week as a guest of Mr. Halyard proved interesting. I wrangled with +that invalid to his heart's content, I worked all day on my osier +cage, I hunted the thimble in the moonlight with the pretty nurse. We +sometimes found it.</p> + +<p>As for the thing they called the harbor-master, I saw it a dozen +times, but always either at night or so far away and so close to the +sea that of course no trace of it remained when I reached the spot, +rifle in hand.</p> + +<p>I had quite made up my mind that the so-called harbor-master was a +demented darky—wandered from, Heaven knows where—perhaps shipwrecked +and gone mad from his sufferings. Still, it was far from pleasant <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span>to +know that the creature was strongly attracted by the pretty nurse.</p> + +<p>She, however, persisted in regarding the harbor-master as a +sea-creature; she earnestly affirmed that it had gills, like a fish's +gills, that it had a soft, fleshy hole for a mouth, and its eyes were +luminous and lidless and fixed.</p> + +<p>"Besides," she said, with a shudder, "it's all slate color, like a +porpoise, and it looks as wet as a sheet of india-rubber in a +dissecting-room."</p> + +<p>The day before I was to set sail with my auks in a cat-boat bound for +Port-of-Waves, Halyard trundled up to me in his chair and announced +his intention of going with me.</p> + +<p>"Going where?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"To Port-of-Waves and then to New York," he replied, tranquilly.</p> + +<p>I was doubtful, and my lack of cordiality hurt his feelings.</p> + +<p>"Oh, of course, if you need the sea-voyage—" I began.</p> + +<p>"I don't; I need you," he said, savagely; "I need the stimulus of our +daily quarrel. I never disagreed so pleasantly with anybody in my +life; it agrees with me; I am a hundred per cent. better than I was +last week."</p> + +<p>I was inclined to resent this, but something in the deep-lined face of +the invalid softened me. Besides, I had taken a hearty liking to the +old pig.</p> + +<p>"I don't want any mawkish sentiment about it," he said, observing me +closely; "I won't permit anybody to feel sorry for me—do you +understand?"</p> + +<p>"I'll trouble you to use a different tone in addressing me," I +replied, hotly; "I'll feel sorry for you if I choose <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span>to!" And our +usual quarrel proceeded, to his deep satisfaction.</p> + +<p>By six o'clock next evening I had Halyard's luggage stowed away in the +cat-boat, and the pretty nurse's effects corded down, with the newly +hatched auk-chicks in a hat-box on top. She and I placed the osier +cage aboard, securing it firmly, and then, throwing tablecloths over +the auks' heads, we led those simple and dignified birds down the path +and across the plank at the little wooden pier. Together we locked up +the house, while Halyard stormed at us both and wheeled himself +furiously up and down the beach below. At the last moment she forgot +her thimble. But we found it, I forget where.</p> + +<p>"Come on!" shouted Halyard, waving his shawls furiously; "what the +devil are you about up there?"</p> + +<p>He received our explanation with a sniff, and we trundled him aboard +without further ceremony.</p> + +<p>"Don't run me across the plank like a steamer trunk!" he shouted, as I +shot him dexterously into the cock-pit. But the wind was dying away, +and I had no time to dispute with him then.</p> + +<p>The sun was setting above the pine-clad ridge as our sail flapped and +partly filled, and I cast off, and began a long tack, east by south, +to avoid the spouting rocks on our starboard bow.</p> + +<p>The sea-birds rose in clouds as we swung across the shoal, the black +surf-ducks scuttered out to sea, the gulls tossed their sun-tipped +wings in the ocean, riding the rollers like bits of froth.</p> + +<p>Already we were sailing slowly out across that great hole in the +ocean, five miles deep, the most profound <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span>sounding ever taken in the +Atlantic. The presence of great heights or great depths, seen or +unseen, always impresses the human mind—perhaps oppresses it. We were +very silent; the sunlight stain on cliff and beach deepened to +crimson, then faded into sombre purple bloom that lingered long after +the rose-tint died out in the zenith.</p> + +<p>Our progress was slow; at times, although the sail filled with the +rising land breeze, we scarcely seemed to move at all.</p> + +<p>"Of course," said the pretty nurse, "we couldn't be aground in the +deepest hole in the Atlantic."</p> + +<p>"Scarcely," said Halyard, sarcastically, "unless we're grounded on a +whale."</p> + +<p>"What's that soft thumping?" I asked. "Have we run afoul of a barrel +or log?"</p> + +<p>It was almost too dark to see, but I leaned over the rail and swept +the water with my hand.</p> + +<p>Instantly something smooth glided under it, like the back of a great +fish, and I jerked my hand back to the tiller. At the same moment the +whole surface of the water seemed to begin to purr, with a sound like +the breaking of froth in a champagne-glass.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter with you?" asked Halyard, sharply.</p> + +<p>"A fish came up under my hand," I said; "a porpoise or something—"</p> + +<p>With a low cry, the pretty nurse clasped my arm in both her hands.</p> + +<p>"Listen!" she whispered. "It's purring around the boat."</p> + +<p>"What the devil's purring?" shouted Halyard. "I won't have anything +purring around me!"</p> + +<p>At that moment, to my amazement, I saw that the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span>boat had stopped +entirely, although the sail was full and the small pennant fluttered +from the mast-head. Something, too, was tugging at the rudder, +twisting and jerking it until the tiller strained and creaked in my +hand. All at once it snapped; the tiller swung useless and the boat +whirled around, heeling in the stiffening wind, and drove shoreward.</p> + +<p>It was then that I, ducking to escape the boom, caught a glimpse of +something ahead—something that a sudden wave seemed to toss on deck +and leave there, wet and flapping—a man with round, fixed, fishy +eyes, and soft, slaty skin.</p> + +<p>But the horror of the thing were the two gills that swelled and +relaxed spasmodically, emitting a rasping, purring sound—two gasping, +blood-red gills, all fluted and scolloped and distended.</p> + +<p>Frozen with amazement and repugnance, I stared at the creature; I felt +the hair stirring on my head and the icy sweat on my forehead.</p> + +<p>"It's the harbor-master!" screamed Halyard.</p> + +<p>The harbor-master had gathered himself into a wet lump, squatting +motionless in the bows under the mast; his lidless eyes were +phosphorescent, like the eyes of living codfish. After a while I felt +that either fright or disgust was going to strangle me where I sat, +but it was only the arms of the pretty nurse clasped around me in a +frenzy of terror.</p> + +<p>There was not a fire-arm aboard that we could get at. Halyard's hand +crept backward where a steel-shod boat-hook lay, and I also made a +clutch at it. The next moment I had it in my hand, and staggered +forward, but the boat was already tumbling shoreward among the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span>breakers, and the next I knew the harbor-master ran at me like a +colossal rat, just as the boat rolled over and over through the surf, +spilling freight and passengers among the sea-weed-covered rocks.</p> + +<p>When I came to myself I was thrashing about knee-deep in a rocky pool, +blinded by the water and half suffocated, while under my feet, like a +stranded porpoise, the harbor-master made the water boil in his +efforts to upset me. But his limbs seemed soft and boneless; he had no +nails, no teeth, and he bounced and thumped and flapped and splashed +like a fish, while I rained blows on him with the boat-hook that +sounded like blows on a football. And all the while his gills were +blowing out and frothing, and purring, and his lidless eyes looked +into mine, until, nauseated and trembling, I dragged myself back to +the beach, where already the pretty nurse alternately wrung her hands +and her petticoats in ornamental despair.</p> + +<p>Beyond the cove, Halyard was bobbing up and down, afloat in his +invalid's chair, trying to steer shoreward. He was the maddest man I +ever saw.</p> + +<p>"Have you killed that rubber-headed thing yet?" he roared.</p> + +<p>"I can't kill it," I shouted, breathlessly. "I might as well try to +kill a football!"</p> + +<p>"Can't you punch a hole in it?" he bawled. "If I can only get at +him—"</p> + +<p>His words were drowned in a thunderous splashing, a roar of great, +broad flippers beating the sea, and I saw the gigantic forms of my two +great auks, followed by their chicks, blundering past in a shower of +spray, driving headlong out into the ocean.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span>"Oh, Lord!" I said. "I can't stand that," and, for the first time in +my life, I fainted peacefully—and appropriately—at the feet of the +pretty nurse.</p> + +<hr style='width: 15%; padding-top: 1.25em; padding-bottom: 1.25em;' /> + +<p>It is within the range of possibility that this story may be doubted. +It doesn't matter; nothing can add to the despair of a man who has +lost two great auks.</p> + +<p>As for Halyard, nothing affects him—except his involuntary sea-bath, +and that did him so much good that he writes me from the South that +he's going on a walking-tour through Switzerland—if I'll join him. I +might have joined him if he had not married the pretty nurse. I wonder +whether—But, of course, this is no place for speculation.</p> + +<p>In regard to the harbor-master, you may believe it or not, as you +choose. But if you hear of any great auks being found, kindly throw a +table-cloth over their heads and notify the authorities at the new +Zoological Gardens in Bronx Park, New York. The reward is ten thousand +dollars.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="VI" id="VI"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>VI<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>Before I proceed any further, common decency requires me to reassure +my readers concerning my intentions, which, Heaven knows, are far from +flippant.</p> + +<p>To separate fact from fancy has always been difficult for me, but now +that I have had the honor to be chosen secretary of the Zoological +Gardens in Bronx Park, I realize keenly that unless I give up writing +fiction nobody will believe what I write about science. Therefore it +is to a serious and unimaginative public that I shall hereafter +address myself; and I do it in the modest confidence that I shall +neither be distrusted nor doubted, although unfortunately I still +write in that irrational style which suggests covert frivolity, and +for which I am undergoing a course of treatment in English literature +at Columbia College. Now, having promised to avoid originality and +confine myself to facts, I shall tell what I have to tell concerning +the dingue, the mammoth, and—something else.</p> + +<p>For some weeks it had been rumored that Professor Farrago, president +of the Bronx Park Zoological Society, would resign, to accept an +enormous salary as manager of Barnum & Bailey's circus. He was now +with the circus in London, and had promised to cable his decision +before the day was over.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span>I hoped he would decide to remain with us. I was his secretary and +particular favorite, and I viewed, without enthusiasm, the advent of a +new president, who might shake us all out of our congenial and +carefully excavated ruts. However, it was plain that the trustees of +the society expected the resignation of Professor Farrago, for they +had been in secret session all day, considering the names of possible +candidates to fill Professor Farrago's large, old-fashioned shoes. +These preparations worried me, for I could scarcely expect another +chief as kind and considerate as Professor Leonidas Farrago.</p> + +<p>That afternoon in June I left my office in the Administration Building +in Bronx Park and strolled out under the trees for a breath of air. +But the heat of the sun soon drove me to seek shelter under a little +square arbor, a shady retreat covered with purple wistaria and +honeysuckle. As I entered the arbor I noticed that there were three +other people seated there—an elderly lady with masculine features and +short hair, a younger lady sitting beside her, and, farther away, a +rough-looking young man reading a book.</p> + +<p>For a moment I had an indistinct impression of having met the elder +lady somewhere, and under circumstances not entirely agreeable, but +beyond a stony and indifferent glance she paid no attention to me. As +for the younger lady, she did not look at me at all. She was very +young, with pretty eyes, a mass of silky brown hair, and a skin as +fresh as a rose which had just been rained on.</p> + +<p>With that delicacy peculiar to lonely scientific bachelors, I modestly +sat down beside the rough young man, although there was more room +beside the younger <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span>lady. "Some lazy loafer reading a penny dreadful," +I thought, glancing at him, then at the title of his book. Hearing me +beside him, he turned around and blinked over his shabby shoulder, and +the movement uncovered the page he had been silently conning. The +volume in his hands was Darwin's famous monograph on the monodactyl.</p> + +<p>He noticed the astonishment on my face and smiled uneasily, shifting +the short clay pipe in his mouth.</p> + +<p>"I guess," he observed, "that this here book is too much for me, +mister."</p> + +<p>"It's rather technical," I replied, smiling.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he said, in vague admiration; "it's fierce, ain't it?"</p> + +<p>After a silence I asked him if he would tell me why he had chosen +Darwin as a literary pastime.</p> + +<p>"Well," he said, placidly, "I was tryin' to read about annermals, but +I'm up against a word-slinger this time all right. Now here's a +gum-twister," and he painfully spelled out m-o-n-o-d-a-c-t-y-l, +breathing hard all the while.</p> + +<p>"Monodactyl," I said, "means a single-toed creature."</p> + +<p>He turned the page with alacrity. "Is that the beast he's talkin' +about?" he asked.</p> + +<p>The illustration he pointed out was a wood-cut representing Darwin's +reconstruction of the dingue from the fossil bones in the British +Museum. It was a well-executed wood-cut, showing a dingue in the +foreground and, to give scale, a mammoth in the middle distance.</p> + +<p>"Yes," I replied, "that is the dingue."</p> + +<p>"I've seen one," he observed, calmly.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span>I smiled and explained that the dingue had been extinct for some +thousands of years.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I guess not," he replied, with cool optimism. Then he placed a +grimy forefinger on the mammoth.</p> + +<p>"I've seen them things, too," he remarked.</p> + +<p>Again I patiently pointed out his error, and suggested that he +referred to the elephant.</p> + +<p>"Elephant be blowed!" he replied, scornfully. "I guess I know what I +seen. An' I seen that there thing you call a dingue, too."</p> + +<p>Not wishing to prolong a futile discussion, I remained silent. After a +moment he wheeled around, removing his pipe from his hard mouth.</p> + +<p>"Did you ever hear tell of Graham's Glacier?" he demanded.</p> + +<p>"Certainly," I replied, astonished; "it's the southernmost glacier in +British America."</p> + +<p>"Right," he said. "And did you ever hear tell of the Hudson Mountings, +mister?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," I replied.</p> + +<p>"What's behind 'em?" he snapped out.</p> + +<p>"Nobody knows," I answered. "They are considered impassable."</p> + +<p>"They ain't, though," he said, doggedly; "I've been behind 'em."</p> + +<p>"Really!" I replied, tiring of his yarn.</p> + +<p>"Ya-as, reely," he repeated, sullenly. Then he began to fumble and +search through the pages of his book until he found what he wanted. +"Mister," he said, "jest read that out loud, please."</p> + +<p>The passage he indicated was the famous chapter beginning:</p> + +<div class="block2"><p>"Is the mammoth extinct? Is the dingue extinct? Probably. And<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> +yet the aborigines of British America maintain the contrary. +Probably both the mammoth and the dingue are extinct; but +until expeditions have penetrated and explored not only the +unknown region in Alaska but also that hidden table-land +beyond the Graham Glacier and the Hudson Mountains, it will +not be possible to definitely announce the total extinction of +either the mammoth or the dingue."</p></div> + +<p>When I had read it, slowly, for his benefit, he brought his hand down +smartly on one knee and nodded rapidly.</p> + +<p>"Mister," he said, "that gent knows a thing or two, and don't you +forgit it!" Then he demanded, abruptly, how I knew he hadn't been +behind the Graham Glacier.</p> + +<p>I explained.</p> + +<p>"Shucks!" he said; "there's a road five miles wide inter that there +table-land. Mister, I ain't been in New York long; I come inter port a +week ago on the <i>Arctic Belle</i>, whaler. I was in the Hudson range when +that there Graham Glacier bust up—"</p> + +<p>"What!" I exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"Didn't you know it?" he asked. "Well, mebbe it ain't in the papers, +but it busted all right—blowed up by a earthquake an' volcano +combine. An', mister, it was oreful. My, how I did run!"</p> + +<p>"Do you mean to tell me that some convulsion of the earth has +shattered the Graham Glacier?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Convulsions? Ya-as, an' fits, too," he said, sulkily. "The hull blame +thing dropped inter a hole. An' say, mister, home an' mother is good +enough fur me now."</p> + +<p>I stared at him stupidly.</p> + +<p>"Once," he said, "I ketched pelts fur them sharps at Hudson Bay, like +any yaller husky, but the things I seen arter that convulsion-fit—the +<i>things I seen behind the</i> <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span><i>Hudson Mountings</i>—don't make me hanker +arter no life on the pe-rarie wild, lemme tell yer. I may be a Mother +Carey chicken, but this chicken has got enough."</p> + +<p>After a long silence I picked up his book again and pointed at the +picture of the mammoth.</p> + +<p>"What color is it?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Kinder red an' brown," he answered, promptly. "It's woolly, too."</p> + +<p>Astounded, I pointed to the dingue.</p> + +<p>"One-toed," he said, quickly; "makes a noise like a bell when +scutterin' about."</p> + +<p>Intensely excited, I laid my hand on his arm. "My society will give +you a thousand dollars," I said, "if you pilot me inside the Hudson +table-land and show me either a mammoth or a dingue!"</p> + +<p>He looked me calmly in the eye.</p> + +<p>"Mister," he said, slowly, "have you got a million for to squander on +me?"</p> + +<p>"No," I said, suspiciously.</p> + +<p>"Because," he went on, "it wouldn't be enough. Home an' mother suits +me now."</p> + +<p>He picked up his book and rose. In vain I asked his name and address; +in vain I begged him to dine with me—to become my honored guest.</p> + +<p>"Nit," he said, shortly, and shambled off down the path.</p> + +<p>But I was not going to lose him like that. I rose and deliberately +started to stalk him. It was easy. He shuffled along, pulling on his +pipe, and I after him.</p> + +<p>It was growing a little dark, although the sun still reddened the tops +of the maples. Afraid of losing him in the falling dusk, I once more +approached him and laid my hand upon his ragged sleeve.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span>"Look here," he cried, wheeling about, "I want you to quit follerin' +me. Don't I tell you money can't make me go back to them mountings!" +And as I attempted to speak, he suddenly tore off his cap and pointed +to his head. His hair was white as snow.</p> + +<p>"That's what come of monkeyin' inter your cursed mountings," he +shouted, fiercely. "There's things in there what no Christian oughter +see. Lemme alone er I'll bust yer."</p> + +<p>He shambled on, doubled fists swinging by his side. The next moment, +setting my teeth obstinately, I followed him and caught him by the +park gate. At my hail he whirled around with a snarl, but I grabbed +him by the throat and backed him violently against the park wall.</p> + +<p>"You invaluable ruffian," I said, "now you listen to me. I live in +that big stone building, and I'll give you a thousand dollars to take +me behind the Graham Glacier. Think it over and call on me when you +are in a pleasanter frame of mind. If you don't come by noon to-morrow +I'll go to the Graham Glacier without you."</p> + +<p>He was attempting to kick me all the time, but I managed to avoid him, +and when I had finished I gave him a shove which almost loosened his +spinal column. He went reeling out across the sidewalk, and when he +had recovered his breath and his balance he danced with displeasure +and displayed a vocabulary that astonished me. However, he kept his +distance.</p> + +<p>As I turned back into the park, satisfied that he would not follow, +the first person I saw was the elderly, stony-faced lady of the +wistaria arbor advancing on tiptoe. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span>Behind her came the younger lady +with cheeks like a rose that had been rained on.</p> + +<p>Instantly it occurred to me that they had followed us, and at the same +moment I knew who the stony-faced lady was. Angry, but polite, I +lifted my hat and saluted her, and she, probably furious at having +been caught tip-toeing after me, cut me dead. The younger lady passed +me with face averted, but even in the dusk I could see the tip of one +little ear turn scarlet.</p> + +<p>Walking on hurriedly, I entered the Administration Building, and found +Professor Lesard, of the reptilian department, preparing to leave.</p> + +<p>"Don't you do it," I said, sharply; "I've got exciting news."</p> + +<p>"I'm only going to the theatre," he replied. "It's a good show—Adam +and Eve; there's a snake in it, you know. It's in my line."</p> + +<p>"I can't help it," I said; and I told him briefly what had occurred in +the arbor.</p> + +<p>"But that's not all," I continued, savagely. "Those women followed us, +and who do you think one of them turned out to be? Well, it was +Professor Smawl, of Barnard College, and I'll bet every pair of boots +I own that she starts for the Graham Glacier within a week. Idiot that +I was!" I exclaimed, smiting my head with both hands. "I never +recognized her until I saw her tip-toeing and craning her neck to +listen. Now she knows about the glacier; she heard every word that +young ruffian said, and she'll go to the glacier if it's only to +forestall me."</p> + +<p>Professor Lesard looked anxious. He knew that Miss Smawl, professor of +natural history at Barnard College, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span>had long desired an appointment +at the Bronx Park gardens. It was even said she had a chance of +succeeding Professor Farrago as president, but that, of course, must +have been a joke. However, she haunted the gardens, annoying the +keepers by persistently poking the animals with her umbrella. On one +occasion she sent us word that she desired to enter the tigers' +enclosure for the purpose of making experiments in hypnotism. +Professor Farrago was absent, but I took it upon myself to send back +word that I feared the tigers might injure her. The miserable small +boy who took my message informed her that I was afraid she might +injure the tigers, and the unpleasant incident almost cost me my +position.</p> + +<p>"I am quite convinced," said I to Professor Lesard, "that Miss Smawl +is perfectly capable of abusing the information she overheard, and of +starting herself to explore a region that, by all the laws of decency, +justice, and prior claim, belongs to me."</p> + +<p>"Well," said Lesard, with a peculiar laugh, "it's not certain whether +you can go at all."</p> + +<p>"Professor Farrago will authorize me," I said, confidently.</p> + +<p>"Professor Farrago has resigned," said Lesard. It was a bolt from a +clear sky.</p> + +<p>"Good Heavens!" I blurted out. "What will become of the rest of us, +then?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know," he replied. "The trustees are holding a meeting over +in the Administration Building to elect a new president for us. It +depends on the new president what becomes of us."</p> + +<p>"Lesard," I said, hoarsely, "you don't suppose that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span>they could +possibly elect Miss Smawl as our president, do you?"</p> + +<p>He looked at me askance and bit his cigar.</p> + +<p>"I'd be in a nice position, wouldn't I?" said I, anxiously.</p> + +<p>"The lady would probably make you walk the plank for that tiger +business," he replied.</p> + +<p>"But I didn't do it," I protested, with sickly eagerness. "Besides, I +explained to her—"</p> + +<p>He said nothing, and I stared at him, appalled by the possibility of +reporting to Professor Smawl for instructions next morning.</p> + +<p>"See here, Lesard," I said, nervously, "I wish you would step over to +the Administration Building and ask the trustees if I may prepare for +this expedition. Will you?"</p> + +<p>He glanced at me sympathetically. It was quite natural for me to wish +to secure my position before the new president was elected—especially +as there was a chance of the new president being Miss Smawl.</p> + +<p>"You are quite right," he said; "the Graham Glacier would be the +safest place for you if our next president is to be the Lady of the +Tigers." And he started across the park puffing his cigar.</p> + +<p>I sat down on the doorstep to wait for his return, not at all charmed +with the prospect. It made me furious, too, to see my ambition nipped +with the frost of a possible veto from Miss Smawl.</p> + +<p>"If she is elected," thought I, "there is nothing for me but to +resign—to avoid the inconvenience of being shown the door. Oh, I wish +I had allowed her to hypnotize the tigers!"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span>Thoughts of crime flitted through my mind. Miss Smawl would not remain +president—or anything else very long—if she persisted in her desire +for the tigers. And then when she called for help I would pretend not +to hear.</p> + +<p>Aroused from criminal meditation by the return of Professor Lesard, I +jumped up and peered into his perplexed eyes. "They've elected a +president," he said, "but they won't tell us who the president is +until to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"You don't think—" I stammered.</p> + +<p>"I don't know. But I know this: the new president sanctions the +expedition to the Graham Glacier, and directs you to choose an +assistant and begin preparations for four people."</p> + +<p>Overjoyed, I seized his hand and said, "Hurray!" in a voice weak with +emotion. "The old dragon isn't elected this time," I added, +triumphantly.</p> + +<p>"By-the-way," he said, "who was the other dragon with her in the park +this evening?"</p> + +<p>I described her in a more modulated voice.</p> + +<p>"Whew!" observed Professor Lesard, "that must be her assistant, +Professor Dorothy Van Twiller! She's the prettiest blue-stocking in +town."</p> + +<p>With this curious remark my confrère followed me into my room and +wrote down the list of articles I dictated to him. The list included a +complete camping equipment for myself and three other men.</p> + +<p>"Am I one of those other men?" inquired Lesard, with an unhappy smile.</p> + +<p>Before I could reply my door was shoved open and a figure appeared at +the threshold, cap in hand.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span>"What do you want?" I asked, sternly; but my heart was beating high +with triumph.</p> + +<p>The figure shuffled; then came a subdued voice:</p> + +<p>"Mister, I guess I'll go back to the Graham Glacier along with you. +I'm Billy Spike, an' it kinder scares me to go back to them Hudson +Mountains, but somehow, mister, when you choked me and kinder walked +me off on my ear, why, mister, I kinder took to you like."</p> + +<p>There was absolute silence for a minute; then he said:</p> + +<p>"So if you go, I guess I'll go, too, mister."</p> + +<p>"For a thousand dollars?"</p> + +<p>"Fur nawthin'," he muttered—"or what you like."</p> + +<p>"All right, Billy," I said, briskly; "just look over those rifles and +ammunition and see that everything's sound."</p> + +<p>He slowly lifted his tough young face and gave me a doglike glance. +They were hard eyes, but there was gratitude in them.</p> + +<p>"You'll get your throat slit," whispered Lesard.</p> + +<p>"Not while Billy's with me," I replied, cheerfully.</p> + +<p>Late that night, as I was preparing for pleasant dreams, a knock came +on my door and a telegraph-messenger handed me a note, which I read, +shivering in my bare feet, although the thermometer marked eighty +Fahrenheit:</p> + +<div class="block2"><p>"You will immediately leave for the Hudson Mountains via +Wellman Bay, Labrador, there to await further instructions. +Equipment for yourself and one assistant will include +following articles" [here began a list of camping utensils, +scientific paraphernalia, and provisions]. "The steamer +<i>Penguin</i> sails at five o'clock to-morrow morning. Kindly find +yourself on board at that hour. Any excuse for not complying +with these orders will be accepted as your resignation.</p> + +<p class="right">"<span class="sc" style="margin-right: 2em;">Susan Smawl,</span><br /> +"President Bronx Zoological Society."</p> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span>"Lesard!" I shouted, trembling with fury.</p> + +<p>He appeared at his door, chastely draped in pajamas; and he read the +insolent letter with terrified alacrity.</p> + +<p>"What are you going to do—resign?" he asked, much frightened.</p> + +<p>"Do!" I snarled, grinding my teeth; "I'm going—that's what I'm going +to do!"</p> + +<p>"But—but you can't get ready and catch that steamer, too," he +stammered.</p> + +<p>He did not know me.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="VII" id="VII"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>VII<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>And so it came about that one calm evening towards the end of June, +William Spike and I went into camp under the southerly shelter of that +vast granite wall called the Hudson Mountains, there to await the +promised "further instructions."</p> + +<p>It had been a tiresome trip by steamer to Anticosti, from there by +schooner to Widgeon Bay, then down the coast and up the Cape Clear +River to Port Porpoise. There we bought three pack-mules and started +due north on the Great Fur Trail. The second day out we passed Fort +Boisé, the last outpost of civilization, and on the sixth day we were +travelling eastward under the granite mountain parapets.</p> + +<p>On the evening of the sixth day out from Fort Boisé we went into camp +for the last time before entering the unknown land.</p> + +<p>I could see it already through my field-glasses, and while William was +building the fire I climbed up among the rocks above and sat down, +glasses levelled, to study the prospect.</p> + +<p>There was nothing either extraordinary or forbidding in the landscape +which stretched out beyond; to the right the solid palisade of granite +cut off the view; to the left the palisade continued, an endless +barrier of sheer cliffs crowned with pine and hemlock. But the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span>interesting section of the landscape lay almost directly in front of +me—a rent in the mountain-wall through which appeared to run a level, +arid plain, miles wide, and as smooth and even as a highroad.</p> + +<p>There could be no doubt concerning the significance of that rent in +the solid mountain-wall; and, moreover, it was exactly as William +Spike had described it. However, I called to him and he came up from +the smoky camp-fire, axe on shoulder.</p> + +<p>"Yep," he said, squatting beside me; "the Graham Glacier used to +meander through that there hole, but somethin' went wrong with the +earth's in'ards an' there was a bust-up."</p> + +<p>"And you saw it, William?" I said, with a sigh of envy.</p> + +<p>"Hey? Seen it? Sure I seen it! I was to Spoutin' Springs, twenty mile +west, with a bale o' blue fox an' otter pelt. Fust I knew them geysers +begun for to groan egregious like, an' I seen the caribou gallopin' +hell-bent south. 'This climate,' sez I, 'is too bracin' for me,' so I +struck a back trail an' landed onto a hill. Then them geysers blowed +up, one arter the next, an' I heard somethin' kinder cave in between +here an' China. I disremember things what happened. Somethin' throwed +me down, but I couldn't stay there, for the blamed ground was runnin' +like a river—all wavy-like, an' the sky hit me on the back o' me +head."</p> + +<p>"And then?" I urged, in that new excitement which every repetition of +the story revived. I had heard it all twenty times since we left New +York, but mere repetition could not apparently satisfy me.</p> + +<p>"Then," continued William, "the whole world kinder <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span>went off like a +fire-cracker, an' I come too, an' ran like—"</p> + +<p>"I know," said I, cutting him short, for I had become wearied of the +invariable profanity which lent a lurid ending to his narrative.</p> + +<p>"After that," I continued, "you went through the rent in the +mountains?"</p> + +<p>"Sure."</p> + +<p>"And you saw a dingue and a creature that resembled a mammoth?"</p> + +<p>"Sure," he repeated, sulkily.</p> + +<p>"And you saw something else?" I always asked this question; it +fascinated me to see the sullen fright flicker in William's eyes, and +the mechanical backward glance, as though what he had seen might still +be behind him.</p> + +<p>He had never answered this third question but once, and that time he +fairly snarled in my face as he growled: "I seen what no Christian +oughter see."</p> + +<p>So when I repeated: "And you saw something else, William?" he gave me +a wicked, frightened leer, and shuffled off to feed the mules. +Flattery, entreaties, threats left him unmoved; he never told me what +the third thing was that he had seen behind the Hudson Mountains.</p> + +<p>William had retired to mix up with his mules; I resumed my binoculars +and my silent inspection of the great, smooth path left by the Graham +Glacier when something or other exploded that vast mass of ice into +vapor.</p> + +<p>The arid plain wound out from the unknown country like a river, and I +thought then, and think now, that when <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span>the glacier was blown into +vapor the vapor descended in the most terrific rain the world has ever +seen, and poured through the newly blasted mountain-gateway, sweeping +the earth to bed-rock. To corroborate this theory, miles to the +southward I could see the débris winding out across the land towards +Wellman Bay, but as the terminal moraine of the vanished glacier +formerly ended there I could not be certain that my theory was +correct. Owing to the formation of the mountains I could not see more +than half a mile into the unknown country. What I could see appeared +to be nothing but the continuation of the glacier's path, scored out +by the cloud-burst, and swept as smooth as a floor.</p> + +<p>Sitting there, my heart beating heavily with excitement, I looked +through the evening glow at the endless, pine-crowned mountain-wall +with its giant's gateway pierced for me! And I thought of all the +explorers and the unknown heroes—trappers, Indians, humble +naturalists, perhaps—who had attempted to scale that sheer barricade +and had died there or failed, beaten back from those eternal cliffs. +Eternal? No! For the Eternal Himself had struck the rock, and it had +sprung asunder, thundering obedience.</p> + +<p>In the still evening air the smoke from the fire below mounted in a +straight, slender pillar, like the smoke from those ancient altars +builded before the first blood had been shed on earth.</p> + +<p>The evening wind stirred the pines; a tiny spring brook made thin +harmony among the rocks; a murmur came from the quiet camp. It was +William adjuring his mules. In the deepening twilight I descended the +hillock, stepping cautiously among the rocks.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span>Then, suddenly, as I stood outside the reddening ring of firelight, +far in the depths of the unknown country, far behind the +mountain-wall, a sound grew on the quiet air. William heard it and +turned his face to the mountains. The sound faded to a vibration which +was felt, not heard. Then once more I began to divine a vibration in +the air, gathering in distant volume until it became a sound, lasting +the space of a spoken word, fading to vibration, then silence.</p> + +<p>Was it a cry?</p> + +<p>I looked at William inquiringly. He had quietly fainted away.</p> + +<p>I got him to the little brook and poked his head into the icy water, +and after a while he sat up pluckily.</p> + +<p>To an indignant question he replied: "Naw, I ain't a-cussin' you. +Lemme be or I'll have fits."</p> + +<p>"Was it that sound that scared you?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Ya-as," he replied with a dauntless shiver.</p> + +<p>"Was it the voice of the mammoth?" I persisted, excitedly. "Speak, +William, or I'll drag you about and kick you!"</p> + +<p>He replied that it was neither a mammoth nor a dingue, and added a +strong request for privacy, which I was obliged to grant, as I could +not torture another word out of him.</p> + +<p>I slept little that night; the exciting proximity of the unknown land +was too much for me. But although I lay awake for hours, I heard +nothing except the tinkle of water among the rocks and the plover +calling from some hidden marsh. At daybreak I shot a ptarmigan which +had walked into camp, and the shot set the echoes yelling among the +mountains.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span>William, sullen and heavy-eyed, dressed the bird, and we broiled it +for breakfast.</p> + +<p>Neither he nor I alluded to the sound we had heard the night before; +he boiled water and cleaned up the mess-kit, and I pottered about +among the rocks for another ptarmigan. Wearying of this, presently, I +returned to the mules and William, and sat down for a smoke.</p> + +<p>"It strikes me," I said, "that our instructions to 'await further +orders' are idiotic. How are we to receive 'further orders' here?"</p> + +<p>William did not know.</p> + +<p>"You don't suppose," said I, in sudden disgust, "that Miss Smawl +believes there is a summer hotel and daily mail service in the Hudson +Mountains?"</p> + +<p>William thought perhaps she did suppose something of the sort.</p> + +<p>It irritated me beyond measure to find myself at last on the very +border of the unknown country, and yet checked, held back, by the +irresponsible orders of a maiden lady named Smawl. However, my salary +depended upon the whim of that maiden lady, and although I fussed and +fumed and glared at the mountains through my glasses, I realized that +I could not stir without the permission of Miss Smawl. At times this +grotesque situation became almost unbearable, and I often went away by +myself and indulged in fantasies, firing my gun off and pretending I +had hit Miss Smawl by mistake. At such moments I would imagine I was +free at last to plunge into the strange country, and I would squat on +a rock and dream of bagging my first mammoth.</p> + +<p>The time passed heavily; the tension increased with <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span>each new day. I +shot ptarmigan and kept our table supplied with brook-trout. William +chopped wood, conversed with his mules, and cooked very badly.</p> + +<p>"See here," I said, one morning; "we have been in camp a week to-day, +and I can't stand your cooking another minute!"</p> + +<p>William, who was washing a saucepan, looked up and begged me +sarcastically to accept the <i>cordon bleu</i>. But I know only how to cook +eggs, and there were no eggs within some hundred miles.</p> + +<p>To get the flavor of the breakfast out of my mouth I walked up to my +favorite hillock and sat down for a smoke. The next moment, however, I +was on my feet, cheering excitedly and shouting for William.</p> + +<p>"Here come 'further instructions' at last!" I cried, pointing to the +southward, where two dots on the grassy plain were imperceptibly +moving in our direction.</p> + +<p>"People on mules," said William, without enthusiasm.</p> + +<p>"They must be messengers for us!" I cried, in chaste joy. "Three +cheers for the northward trail, William, and the mischief take +Miss—Well, never mind now," I added.</p> + +<p>"On them approachin' mules," observed William, "there is wimmen."</p> + +<p>I stared at him for a second, then attempted to strike him. He dodged +wearily and repeated his incredible remark: "Ya-as, there +is—wimmen—two female ladies onto them there mules."</p> + +<p>"Bring me my glasses!" I said, hoarsely; "bring me those glasses, +William, because I shall destroy you if you don't!"</p> + +<p>Somewhat awed by my calm fury, he hastened back <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span>to camp and returned +with the binoculars. It was a breathless moment. I adjusted the lenses +with a steady hand and raised them.</p> + +<p>Now, of all unexpected sights my fate may reserve for me in the +future, I trust—nay, I know—that none can ever prove as unwelcome as +the sight I perceived through my binoculars. For upon the backs of +those distant mules were two women, and the first one was Miss Smawl!</p> + +<p>Upon her head she wore a helmet, from which fluttered a green veil. +Otherwise she was clothed in tweeds; and at moments she beat upon her +mule with a thick umbrella.</p> + +<p>Surfeited with the sickening spectacle, I sat down on a rock and tried +to cry.</p> + +<p>"I told yer so," observed William; but I was too tired to attack him.</p> + +<p>When the caravan rode into camp I was myself again, smilingly prepared +for the worst, and I advanced, cap in hand, followed furtively by +William.</p> + +<p>"Welcome," I said, violently injecting joy into my voice. "Welcome, +Professor Smawl, to the Hudson Mountains!"</p> + +<p>"Kindly take my mule," she said, climbing down to mother earth.</p> + +<p>"William," I said, with dignity, "take the lady's mule."</p> + +<p>Miss Smawl gave me a stolid glance, then made directly for the +camp-fire, where a kettle of game-broth simmered over the coals. The +last I saw of her she was smelling of it, and I turned my back and +advanced towards the second lady pilgrim, prepared to be civil until +snubbed.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span>Now, it is quite certain that never before had William Spike or I +beheld so much feminine loveliness in one human body on the back of a +mule. She was clad in the daintiest of shooting-kilts, yet there was +nothing mannish about her except the way she rode the mule, and that +only accentuated her adorable femininity.</p> + +<p>I remembered what Professor Lesard had said about blue stockings—but +Miss Dorothy Van Twiller's were gray, turned over at the tops, and +disappearing into canvas spats buckled across a pair of slim +shooting-boots.</p> + +<p>"Welcome," said I, attempting to restrain a too violent cordiality. +"Welcome, Professor Van Twiller, to the Hudson Mountains."</p> + +<p>"Thank you," she replied, accepting my assistance very sweetly; "it is +a pleasure to meet a human being again."</p> + +<p>I glanced at Miss Smawl. She was eating game-broth, but she resembled +a human being in a general way.</p> + +<p>"I should very much like to wash my hands," said Professor Van +Twiller, drawing the buckskin gloves from her slim fingers.</p> + +<p>I brought towels and soap and conducted her to the brook.</p> + +<p>She called to Professor Smawl to join her, and her voice was +crystalline; Professor Smawl declined, and her voice was batrachian.</p> + +<p>"She is so hungry!" observed Miss Van Twiller. "I am very thankful we +are here at last, for we've had a horrid time. You see, we neither of +us know how to cook."</p> + +<p>I wondered what they would say to William's cooking, but I held my +peace and retired, leaving the little brook to mirror the sweetest +face that was ever bathed in water.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>VIII<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>That afternoon our expedition, in two sections, moved forward. The +first section comprised myself and all the mules; the second section +was commanded by Professor Smawl, followed by Professor Van Twiller, +armed with a tiny shot-gun. William, loaded down with the ladies' +toilet articles, skulked in the rear. I say skulked; there was no +other word for it.</p> + +<p>"So you're a guide, are you?" observed Professor Smawl when William, +cap in hand, had approached her with well-meant advice. "The woods are +full of lazy guides. Pick up those Gladstone bags! I'll do the guiding +for this expedition."</p> + +<p>Made cautious by William's humiliation, I associated with the mules +exclusively. Nevertheless, Professor Smawl had her hard eyes on me, +and I realized she meant mischief.</p> + +<p>The encounter took place just as I, driving the five mules, entered +the great mountain gateway, thrilled with anticipation which almost +amounted to foreboding. As I was about to set foot across the +imaginary frontier which divided the world from the unknown land, +Professor Smawl hailed me and I halted until she came up.</p> + +<p>"As commander of this expedition," she said, somewhat out of breath, +"I desire to be the first living <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span>creature who has ever set foot +behind the Graham Glacier. Kindly step aside, young sir!"</p> + +<p>"Madam," said I, rigid with disappointment, "my guide, William Spike, +entered that unknown land a year ago."</p> + +<p>"He <i>says</i> he did," sneered Professor Smawl.</p> + +<p>"As you like," I replied; "but it is scarcely generous to forestall +the person whose stupidity gave you the clew to this unexplored +region."</p> + +<p>"You mean yourself?" she asked, with a stony stare.</p> + +<p>"I do," said I, firmly.</p> + +<p>Her little, hard eyes grew harder, and she clutched her umbrella until +the steel ribs crackled.</p> + +<p>"Young man," she said, insolently; "if I could have gotten rid of you +I should have done so the day I was appointed president. But Professor +Farrago refused to resign unless your position was assured, subject, +of course, to your good behavior. Frankly, I don't like you, and I +consider your views on science ridiculous, and if an opportunity +presents itself I will be most happy to request your resignation. +Kindly collect your mules and follow me."</p> + +<p>Mortified beyond measure, I collected my mules and followed my +president into the strange country behind the Hudson Mountains—I who +had aspired to lead, compelled to follow in the rear, driving mules.</p> + +<p>The journey was monotonous at first, but we shortly ascended a ridge +from which we could see, stretching out below us, the wilderness +where, save the feet of William Spike, no human feet had passed.</p> + +<p>As for me, tingling with enthusiasm, I forgot my chagrin, I forgot the +gross injustice, I forgot my mules. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span>"Excelsior!" I cried, running up +and down the ridge in uncontrollable excitement at the sublime +spectacle of forest, mountain, and valley all set with little lakes.</p> + +<p>"Excelsior!" repeated an excited voice at my side, and Professor Van +Twiller sprang to the ridge beside me, her eyes bright as stars.</p> + +<p>Exalted, inspired by the mysterious beauty of the view, we clasped +hands and ran up and down the grassy ridge.</p> + +<p>"That will do," said Professor Smawl, coldly, as we raced about like a +pair of distracted kittens. The chilling voice broke the spell; I +dropped Professor Van Twiller's hand and sat down on a bowlder, aching +with wrath.</p> + +<p>Late that afternoon we halted beside a tiny lake, deep in the unknown +wilderness, where purple and scarlet bergamot choked the shores and +the spruce-partridge strutted fearlessly under our very feet. Here we +pitched our two tents. The afternoon sun slanted through the pines; +the lake glittered; acres of golden brake perfumed the forest silence, +broken only at rare intervals by the distant thunder of a partridge +drumming.</p> + +<p>Professor Smawl ate heavily and retired to her tent to lie torpid +until evening. William drove the unloaded mules into an intervale full +of sun-cured, fragrant grasses; I sat down beside Professor Van +Twiller.</p> + +<p>The wilderness is electric. Once within the influence of its currents, +human beings become positively or negatively charged, violently +attracting or repelling each other.</p> + +<p>"There is something the matter with this air," said Professor Van +Twiller. "It makes me feel as though <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span>I were desperately enamoured of +the entire human race."</p> + +<p>She leaned back against a pine, smiling vaguely, and crossing one knee +over the other.</p> + +<p>Now I am not bold by temperament, and, normally, I fear ladies. +Therefore it surprised me to hear myself begin a frivolous <i>causerie</i>, +replying to her pretty epigrams with epigrams of my own, advancing to +the borderland of badinage, fearlessly conducting her and myself over +that delicate frontier to meet upon the terrain of undisguised +flirtation.</p> + +<p>It was clear that she was out for a holiday. The seriousness and +restraints of twenty-two years she had left behind her in the +civilized world, and now, with a shrug of her young shoulders, she +unloosened her burden of reticence, dignity, and responsibility and +let the whole load fall with a discreet thud.</p> + +<p>"Even hares go mad in March," she said, seriously. "I know you intend +to flirt with me—and I don't care. Anyway, there's nothing else to +do, is there?"</p> + +<p>"Suppose," said I, solemnly, "I should take you behind that big tree +and attempt to kiss you!"</p> + +<p>The prospect did not appear to appall her, so I looked around with +that sneaking yet conciliatory caution peculiar to young men who are +novices in the art. Before I had satisfied myself that neither William +nor the mules were observing us, Professor Van Twiller rose to her +feet and took a short step backward.</p> + +<p>"Let's set traps for a dingue," she said, "will you?"</p> + +<p>I looked at the big tree, undecided. "Come on," she said; "I'll show +you how." And away we went into the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span>woods, she leading, her kilts +flashing through the golden half-light.</p> + +<p>Now I had not the faintest notion how to trap the dingue, but +Professor Van Twiller asserted that it formerly fed on the tender tips +of the spruce, quoting Darwin as her authority.</p> + +<p>So we gathered a bushel of spruce-tips, piled them on the bank of a +little stream, then built a miniature stockade around the bait, a foot +high. I roofed this with hemlock, then laboriously whittled out and +adjusted a swinging shutter for the entrance, setting it on springy +twigs.</p> + +<p>"The dingue, you know, was supposed to live in the water," she said, +kneeling beside me over our trap.</p> + +<p>I took her little hand and thanked her for the information.</p> + +<p>"Doubtless," she said, enthusiastically, "a dingue will come out of +the lake to-night to feed on our spruce-tips. Then," she added, "we've +got him."</p> + +<p>"True!" I said, earnestly, and pressed her fingers very gently.</p> + +<p>Her face was turned a little away; I don't remember what she said; I +don't remember that she said anything. A faint rose-tint stole over +her cheek. A few moments later she said: "You must not do that again."</p> + +<p>It was quite late when we strolled back to camp. Long before we came +in sight of the twin tents we heard a deep voice bawling our names. It +was Professor Smawl, and she pounced upon Dorothy and drove her +ignominiously into the tent.</p> + +<p>"As for you," she said, in hollow tones, "you may <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span>explain your +conduct at once, or place your resignation at my disposal."</p> + +<p>But somehow or other I appeared to be temporarily lost to shame, and I +only smiled at my infuriated president, and entered my own tent with a +step that was distinctly frolicsome.</p> + +<p>"Billy," said I to William Spike, who regarded me morosely from the +depths of the tent, "I'm going out to bag a mammoth to-morrow, so +kindly clean my elephant-gun and bring an axe to chop out the tusks."</p> + +<p>That night Professor Smawl complained bitterly of the cooking, but as +neither Dorothy nor I knew how to improve it, she revenged herself on +us by eating everything on the table and retiring to bed, taking +Dorothy with her.</p> + +<p>I could not sleep very well; the mosquitoes were intrusive, and +Professor Smawl dreamed she was a pack of wolves and yelped in her +sleep.</p> + +<p>"Bird, ain't she?" said William, roused from slumber by her weird +noises.</p> + +<p>Dorothy, much frightened, crawled out of her tent, where her +blanket-mate still dreamed dyspeptically, and William and I made her +comfortable by the camp-fire.</p> + +<p>It takes a pretty girl to look pretty half asleep in a blanket.</p> + +<p>"Are you sure you are quite well?" I asked her.</p> + +<p>To make sure, I tested her pulse. For an hour it varied more or less, +but without alarming either of us. Then she went back to bed and I sat +alone by the camp-fire.</p> + +<p>Towards midnight I suddenly began to feel that strange, distant +vibration that I had once before felt. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span>As before, the vibration grew +on the still air, increasing in volume until it became a sound, then +died out into silence.</p> + +<p>I rose and stole into my tent.</p> + +<p>William, white as death, lay in his corner, weeping in his sleep.</p> + +<p>I roused him remorselessly, and he sat up scowling, but refused to +tell me what he had been dreaming.</p> + +<p>"Was it about that third thing you saw—" I began. But he snarled up +at me like a startled animal, and I was obliged to go to bed and toss +about and speculate.</p> + +<p>The next morning it rained. Dorothy and I visited our dingue-trap but +found nothing in it. We were inclined, however, to stay out in the +rain behind a big tree, but Professor Smawl vetoed that proposition +and sent me off to supply the larder with fresh meat.</p> + +<p>I returned, mad and wet, with a dozen partridges and a white +hare—brown at that season—and William cooked them vilely.</p> + +<p>"I can taste the feathers!" said Professor Smawl, indignantly.</p> + +<p>"There is no accounting for taste," I said, with a polite gesture of +deprecation; "personally, I find feathers unpalatable."</p> + +<p>"You may hand in your resignation this evening!" cried Professor +Smawl, in hollow tones of passion.</p> + +<p>I passed her the pancakes with a cheerful smile, and flippantly +pressed the hand next me. Unexpectedly it proved to be William's +sticky fist, and Dorothy and I laughed until her tears ran into +Professor Smawl's coffee-cup—an accident which kindled her wrath to +red heat, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span>and she requested my resignation five times during the +evening.</p> + +<p>The next day it rained again, more or less. Professor Smawl complained +of the cooking, demanded my resignation, and finally marched out to +explore, lugging the reluctant William with her. Dorothy and I sat +down behind the largest tree we could find.</p> + +<p>I don't remember what we were saying when a peculiar sound interrupted +us, and we listened earnestly.</p> + +<p>It was like a bell in the woods, ding-dong! ding-dong! ding-dong!—a +low, mellow, golden harmony, coming nearer, then stopping.</p> + +<p>I clasped Dorothy in my arms in my excitement.</p> + +<p>"It is the note of the dingue!" I whispered, "and that explains its +name, handed down from remote ages along with the names of the +behemoth and the coney. It was because of its bell-like cry that it +was named! Darling!" I cried, forgetting our short acquaintance, "we +have made a discovery that the whole world will ring with!"</p> + +<p>Hand in hand we tiptoed through the forest to our trap. There was +something in it that took fright at our approach and rushed +panic-stricken round and round the interior of the trap, uttering its +alarm-note, which sounded like the jangling of a whole string of +bells.</p> + +<p>I seized the strangely beautiful creature; it neither attempted to +bite nor scratch, but crouched in my arms, trembling and eying me.</p> + +<p>Delighted with the lovely, tame animal, we bore it tenderly back to +the camp and placed it on my blanket. Hand in hand we stood before it, +awed by the sight of this beast, so long believed to be extinct.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span>"It is too good to be true," sighed Dorothy, clasping her white hands +under her chin and gazing at the dingue in rapture.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said I, solemnly, "you and I, my child, are face to face with +the fabled dingue—<i>Dingus solitarius</i>! Let us continue to gaze at it, +reverently, prayerfully, humbly—"</p> + +<p>Dorothy yawned—probably with excitement.</p> + +<p>We were still mutely adoring the dingue when Professor Smawl burst +into the tent at a hand-gallop, bawling hoarsely for her kodak and +note-book.</p> + +<p>Dorothy seized her triumphantly by the arm and pointed at the dingue, +which appeared to be frightened to death.</p> + +<p>"What!" cried Professor Smawl, scornfully; "<i>that</i> a dingue? Rubbish!"</p> + +<p>"Madam," I said, firmly, "it is a dingue! It's a monodactyl! See! It +has but a single toe!"</p> + +<p>"Bosh!" she retorted; "it's got four!"</p> + +<p>"Four!" I repeated, blankly.</p> + +<p>"Yes; one on each foot!"</p> + +<p>"Of course," I said; "you didn't suppose a monodactyl meant a beast +with one leg and one toe!"</p> + +<p>But she laughed hatefully and declared it was a woodchuck.</p> + +<p>We squabbled for a while until I saw the significance of her attitude. +The unfortunate woman wished to find a dingue first and be accredited +with the discovery.</p> + +<p>I lifted the dingue in both hands and shook the creature gently, until +the chiming ding-dong of its protestations filled our ears like sweet +bells jangled out of tune.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span>Pale with rage at this final proof of the dingue's identity, she +seized her camera and note-book.</p> + +<p>"I haven't any time to waste over that musical woodchuck!" she +shouted, and bounced out of the tent.</p> + +<p>"What have you discovered, dear?" cried Dorothy, running after her.</p> + +<p>"A mammoth!" bawled Professor Smawl, triumphantly; "and I'm going to +photograph him!"</p> + +<p>Neither Dorothy nor I believed her. We watched the flight of the +infatuated woman in silence.</p> + +<p>And now, at last, the tragic shadow falls over my paper as I write. I +was never passionately attached to Professor Smawl, yet I would gladly +refrain from chronicling the episode that must follow if, as I have +hitherto attempted, I succeed in sticking to the unornamented truth.</p> + +<p>I have said that neither Dorothy nor I believed her. I don't know why, +unless it was that we had not yet made up our minds to believe that +the mammoth still existed on earth. So, when Professor Smawl +disappeared in the forest, scuttling through the underbrush like a +demoralized hen, we viewed her flight with unconcern. There was a +large tree in the neighborhood—a pleasant shelter in case of rain. So +we sat down behind it, although the sun was shining fiercely.</p> + +<p>It was one of those peaceful afternoons in the wilderness when the +whole forest dreams, and the shadows are asleep and every little +leaflet takes a nap. Under the still tree-tops the dappled sunlight, +motionless, soaked the sod; the forest-flies no longer whirled in +circles, but sat sunning their wings on slender twig-tips.</p> + +<p>The heat was sweet and spicy; the sun drew out the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span>delicate essence +of gum and sap, warming volatile juices until they exhaled through the +aromatic bark.</p> + +<p>The sun went down into the wilderness; the forest stirred in its +sleep; a fish splashed in the lake. The spell was broken. Presently +the wind began to rise somewhere far away in the unknown land. I heard +it coming, nearer, nearer—a brisk wind that grew heavier and blew +harder as it neared us—a gale that swept distant branches—a furious +gale that set limbs clashing and cracking, nearer and nearer. Crack! +and the gale grew to a hurricane, trampling trees like dead twigs! +Crack! Crackle! Crash! Crash!</p> + +<p><i>Was it the wind?</i></p> + +<p>With the roaring in my ears I sprang up, staring into the forest +vista, and at the same instant, out of the crashing forest, sped +Professor Smawl, skirts tucked up, thin legs flying like +bicycle-spokes. I shouted, but the crashing drowned my voice. Then all +at once the solid earth began to shake, and with the rush and roar of +a tornado a gigantic living thing burst out of the forest before our +eyes—a vast shadowy bulk that rocked and rolled along, mowing down +trees in its course.</p> + +<p>Two great crescents of ivory curved from its head; its back swept +through the tossing tree-tops. Once it bellowed like a gun fired from +a high bastion.</p> + +<p>The apparition passed with the noise of thunder rolling on towards the +ends of the earth. Crack! crash! went the trees, the tempest swept +away in a rolling volley of reports, distant, more distant, until, +long after the tumult had deadened, then ceased, the stunned forest +echoed with the fall of mangled branches slowly dropping.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span>That evening an agitated young couple sat close together in the +deserted camp, calling timidly at intervals for Professor Smawl and +William Spike. I say timidly, because it is correct; we did not care +to have a mammoth respond to our calls. The lurking echoes across the +lake answered our cries; the full moon came up over the forest to look +at us. We were not much to look at. Dorothy was moistening my shoulder +with unfeigned tears, and I, afraid to light the fire, sat hunched up +under the common blanket, wildly examining the darkness around us.</p> + +<p>Chilled to the spinal marrow, I watched the gray lights whiten in the +east. A single bird awoke in the wilderness. I saw the nearer trees +looming in the mist, and the silver fog rolling on the lake.</p> + +<p>All night long the darkness had vibrated with the strange monotone +which I had heard the first night, camping at the gate of the unknown +land. My brain seemed to echo that subtle harmony which rings in the +auricular labyrinth after sound has ceased.</p> + +<p>There are ghosts of sound which return to haunt long after sound is +dead. It was these voiceless spectres of a voice long dead that +stirred the transparent silence, intoning toneless tones.</p> + +<p>I think I make myself clear.</p> + +<p>It was an uncanny night; morning whitened the east; gray daylight +stole into the woods, blotting the shadows to paler tints. It was +nearly mid-day before the sun became visible through the fine-spun web +of mist—a pale spot of gilt in the zenith.</p> + +<p>By this pallid light I labored to strike the two empty tents, gather +up our equipments and pack them on our <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span>five mules. Dorothy aided me +bravely, whimpering when I spoke of Professor Smawl and William Spike, +but abating nothing of her industry until we had the mules loaded and +I was ready to drive them, Heaven knows whither.</p> + +<p>"Where shall we go?" quavered Dorothy, sitting on a log with the +dingue in her lap.</p> + +<p>One thing was certain; this mammoth-ridden land was no place for +women, and I told her so.</p> + +<p>We placed the dingue in a basket and tied it around the leading mule's +neck. Immediately the dingue, alarmed, began dingling like a cow-bell. +It acted like a charm on the other mules, and they gravely filed off +after their leader, following the bell. Dorothy and I, hand in hand, +brought up the rear.</p> + +<p>I shall never forget that scene in the forest—the gray arch of the +heavens swimming in mist through which the sun peered shiftily, the +tall pines wavering through the fog, the preoccupied mules marching +single file, the foggy bell-note of the gentle dingue in its swinging +basket, and Dorothy, limp kilts dripping with dew, plodding through +the white dusk.</p> + +<p>We followed the terrible tornado-path which the mammoth had left in +its wake, but there were no traces of its human victims—neither one +jot of Professor Smawl nor one solitary tittle of William Spike.</p> + +<p>And now I would be glad to end this chapter if I could; I would gladly +leave myself as I was, there in the misty forest, with an arm +encircling the slender body of my little companion, and the mules +moving in a monotonous line, and the dingue discreetly jingling—but +again that menacing shadow falls across my page, and truth bids <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span>me +tell all, and I, the slave of accuracy, must remember my vows as the +dauntless disciple of truth.</p> + +<p>Towards sunset—or that pale parody of sunset which set the forest +swimming in a ghastly, colorless haze—the mammoth's trail of ruin +brought us suddenly out of the trees to the shore of a great sheet of +water.</p> + +<p>It was a desolate spot; northward a chaos of sombre peaks rose, piled +up like thunder-clouds along the horizon; east and south the darkening +wilderness spread like a pall. Westward, crawling out into the mist +from our very feet, the gray waste of water moved under the dull sky, +and flat waves slapped the squatting rocks, heavy with slime.</p> + +<p>And now I understood why the trail of the mammoth continued straight +into the lake, for on either hand black, filthy tamarack swamps lay +under ghostly sheets of mist. I strove to creep out into the bog, +seeking a footing, but the swamp quaked and the smooth surface +trembled like jelly in a bowl. A stick thrust into the slime sank into +unknown depths.</p> + +<p>Vaguely alarmed, I gained the firm land again and looked around, +believing there was no road open but the desolate trail we had +traversed. But I was in error; already the leading mule was wading out +into the water, and the others, one by one, followed.</p> + +<p>How wide the lake might be we could not tell, because the band of fog +hung across the water like a curtain. Yet out into this flat, shallow +void our mules went steadily, slop! slop! slop! in single file. +Already they were growing indistinct in the fog, so I bade Dorothy +hasten and take off her shoes and stockings.</p> + +<p>She was ready before I was, I having to unlace my <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span>shooting-boots, and +she stepped out into the water, kilts fluttering, moving her white +feet cautiously. In a moment I was beside her, and we waded forward, +sounding the shallow water with our poles.</p> + +<p>When the water had risen to Dorothy's knees I hesitated, alarmed. But +when we attempted to retrace our steps we could not find the shore +again, for the blank mist shrouded everything, and the water deepened +at every step.</p> + +<p>I halted and listened for the mules. Far away in the fog I heard a +dull splashing, receding as I listened. After a while all sound died +away, and a slow horror stole over me—a horror that froze the little +net-work of veins in every limb. A step to the right and the water +rose to my knees; a step to the left and the cold, thin circle of the +flood chilled my breast. Suddenly Dorothy screamed, and the next +moment a far cry answered—a far, sweet cry that seemed to come from +the sky, like the rushing harmony of the world's swift winds. Then the +curtain of fog before us lighted up from behind; shadows moved on the +misty screen, outlines of trees and grassy shores, and tiny birds +flying. Thrown on the vapory curtain, in silhouette, a man and a woman +passed under the lovely trees, arms about each other's necks; near +them the shadows of five mules grazed peacefully; a dingue gambolled +close by.</p> + +<p>"It is a mirage!" I muttered, but my voice made no sound. Slowly the +light behind the fog died out; the vapor around us turned to rose, +then dissolved, while mile on mile of a limitless sea spread away +till, like a quick line pencilled at a stroke, the horizon cut sky and +sea in half, and before us lay an ocean from which <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span>towered a mountain +of snow—or a gigantic berg of milky ice—for it was moving.</p> + +<p>"Good Heavens," I shrieked; "it is alive!"</p> + +<p>At the sound of my crazed cry the mountain of snow became a pillar, +towering to the clouds, and a wave of golden glory drenched the figure +to its knees! Figure? Yes—for a colossal arm shot across the sky, +then curved back in exquisite grace to a head of awful beauty—a +woman's head, with eyes like the blue lake of heaven—ay, a woman's +splendid form, upright from the sky to the earth, knee-deep in the +sea. The evening clouds drifted across her brow; her shimmering hair +lighted the world beneath with sunset. Then, shading her white brow +with one hand, she bent, and with the other hand dipped in the sea, +she sent a wave rolling at us. Straight out of the horizon it sped—a +ripple that grew to a wave, then to a furious breaker which caught us +up in a whirl of foam, bearing us onward, faster, faster, swiftly +flying through leagues of spray until consciousness ceased and all was +blank.</p> + +<p>Yet ere my senses fled I heard again that strange cry—that sweet, +thrilling harmony rushing out over the foaming waters, filling earth +and sky with its soundless vibrations.</p> + +<p>And I knew it was the hail of the Spirit of the North warning us back +to life again.</p> + +<hr style='width: 15%; padding-top: 1.25em; padding-bottom: 1.25em;' /> + +<p>Looking back, now, over the days that passed before we staggered into +the Hudson Bay outpost at Gravel Cove, I am inclined to believe that +neither Dorothy nor I were clothed entirely in our proper minds—or, +if we were, our minds, no doubt, must have been in the same <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span>condition +as our clothing. I remember shooting ptarmigan, and that we ate them; +flashes of memory recall the steady downpour of rain through the +endless twilight of shaggy forests; dim days on the foggy tundra, +mud-holes from which the wild ducks rose in thousands; then the +stunted hemlocks, then the forest again. And I do not even recall the +moment when, at last, stumbling into the smooth path left by the +Graham Glacier, we crawled through the mountain-wall, out of the +unknown land, and once more into a world protected by the Lord +Almighty.</p> + +<p>A hunting-party of Elbon Indians brought us in to the post, and +everybody was most kind—that I remember, just before going into +several weeks of unpleasant delirium mercifully mitigated with +unconsciousness.</p> + +<p>Curiously enough, Professor Van Twiller was not very much battered, +physically, for I had carried her for days, pickaback. But the awful +experience had produced a shock which resulted in a nervous condition +that lasted so long after she returned to New York that the wealthy +and eminent specialist who attended her insisted upon taking her to +the Riviera and marrying her. I sometimes wonder—but, as I have said, +such reflections have no place in these austere pages.</p> + +<p>However, anybody, I fancy, is at liberty to speculate upon the fate of +the late Professor Smawl and William Spike, and upon the mules and the +gentle dingue. Personally, I am convinced that the suggestive +silhouettes I saw on that ghastly curtain of fog were cast by +beatified beings in some earthly paradise—a mirage of bliss of which +we caught but the colorless shadow-shapes floating 'twixt sea and +sky.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span>At all events, neither Professor Smawl nor her William Spike ever +returned; no exploring expedition has found a trace of mule or lady, +of William or the dingue. The new expedition to be organized by +Barnard College may penetrate still farther. I suppose that, when the +time comes, I shall be expected to volunteer. But Professor Van +Twiller is married, and William and Professor Smawl ought to be, and +altogether, considering the mammoth and that gigantic and splendid +apparition that bent from the zenith to the ocean and sent a +tidal-wave rolling from the palm of one white hand—I say, taking all +these various matters under consideration, I think I shall decide to +remain in New York and continue writing for the scientific +periodicals. Besides, the mortifying experience at the Paris +Exposition has dampened even my perennially youthful enthusiasm. And +as for the late expedition to Florida, Heaven knows I am ready to +repeat it—nay, I am already forming a plan for the rescue—but though +I am prepared to encounter any danger for the sake of my beloved +superior, Professor Farrago, I do not feel inclined to commit +indiscretions in order to pry into secrets which, as I regard it, +concern Professor Smawl and William Spike alone.</p> + +<p>But all this is, in a measure, premature. What I now have to relate is +the recital of an eye-witness to that most astonishing scandal which +occurred during the recent exposition in Paris.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="IX" id="IX"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>IX<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>When the delegates were appointed to the International Scientific +Congress at the Paris Exposition of 1900, how little did anybody +imagine that the great conference would end in the most gigantic +scandal that ever stirred two continents?</p> + +<p>Yet, had it not been for the pair of American newspapers published in +Paris, this scandal would never have been aired, for the continental +press is so well muzzled that when it bites its teeth merely meet in +the empty atmosphere with a discreet snap.</p> + +<p>But to the Yankee nothing excepting the Monroe Doctrine is sacred, and +the unsopped watch-dogs of the press bite right and left, unmuzzled. +The biter bites—it is his profession—and that ends the affair; the +bitee is bitten, and, in the deplorable argot of the hour, "it is up +to him."</p> + +<p>So now that the scandal has been well aired and hung out to dry in the +teeth of decency and the four winds, and as all the details have been +cheerfully and grossly exaggerated, it is, perhaps, the proper moment +for the truth to be written by the only person whose knowledge of all +the facts in the affair entitles him to speak for himself as well as +for those honorable ladies and gentlemen whose names and titles have +been so mercilessly criticised.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span>These, then, are the simple facts:</p> + +<p>The International Scientific Congress, now adjourned <i>sine die</i>, met +at nine o'clock in the morning, May 3, 1900, in the Tasmanian Pavilion +of the Paris Exposition. There were present the most famous scientists +of Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia, Italy, Switzerland, and the +United States.</p> + +<p>His Royal Highness the Crown-Prince of Monaco presided.</p> + +<p>It is not necessary, now, to repeat the details of that preliminary +meeting. It is sufficient to say that committees representing the +various known sciences were named and appointed by the Prince of +Monaco, who had been unanimously elected permanent chairman of the +conference. It is the composition of a single committee that concerns +us now, and that committee, representing the science which treats of +bird life, was made up as follows:</p> + +<p>Chairman—His Royal Highness the Crown-Prince of Monaco. Members—Sir +Peter Grebe, Great Britain; Baron de Becasse, France; his Royal +Highness King Christian, of Finland; the Countess d'Alzette, of +Belgium; and I, from the United States, representing the Smithsonian +Institution and the Bronx Park Zoological Society of New York.</p> + +<p>This, then, was the composition of that now notorious ornithological +committee, a modest, earnest, self-effacing little band of workers, +bound together—in the beginning—by those ties of mutual respect and +esteem which unite all laborers in the vineyard of science.</p> + +<p>From the first meeting of our committee, science, the great leveller, +left no artificial barriers of rank or title <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span>standing between us. We +were enthusiasts in our love for ornithology; we found new inspiration +in the democracy of our common interests.</p> + +<p>As for me, I chatted with my fellows, feeling no restraint myself and +perceiving none. The King of Finland and I discussed his latest +monograph on the speckled titmouse, and I was glad to agree with the +King in all his theories concerning the nesting habits of that +important bird.</p> + +<p>Sir Peter Grebe, a large, red gentleman in tweeds, read us some notes +he had made on the domestic hen and her reasons for running ahead of a +horse and wagon instead of stepping aside to let the disturbing +vehicle pass.</p> + +<p>The Crown-Prince of Monaco took issue with Sir Peter; so did the Baron +de Becasse; and we were entertained by a friendly and marvellously +interesting three-cornered dispute, shared in by three of the most +profound thinkers of the century.</p> + +<p>I shall never forget the brilliancy of that argument, nor the modest, +good-humored retorts which gave us all a glimpse into depths of +erudition which impressed us profoundly and set the seal on the bonds +which held us so closely together.</p> + +<p>Alas, that the seal should ever have been broken! Alas, that the +glittering apple of discord should have been flung into our +midst!—no, not flung, but gently rolled under our noses by the gloved +fingers of the lovely Countess d'Alzette.</p> + +<p>"Messieurs," said the fair Countess, when all present, excepting she +and I, had touched upon or indicated the subjects which they had +prepared to present to the congress—"messieurs mes confrères, I have +been requested <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span>by our distinguished chairman, the Crown-Prince of +Monaco, to submit to your judgment the subject which, by favor of the +King of the Belgians, I have prepared to present to the International +Scientific Congress."</p> + +<p>She made a pretty courtesy as she named her own sovereign, and we all +rose out of respect to that most austere and moral ruler the King of +Belgium.</p> + +<p>"But," she said, with a charming smile of depreciation, "I am very, +very much afraid that the subject which I have chosen may not meet +with your approval, gentlemen."</p> + +<p>She stood there in her dainty Parisian gown and bonnet, shaking her +pretty head uncertainly, a smile on her lips, her small, gloved +fingers interlocked.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I know how dreadful it would be if this great congress should be +compelled to listen to any hoax like that which Monsieur de Rougemont +imposed on the British Royal Society," she said, gravely; "and because +the subject of my paper is as strange as the strangest phenomenon +alleged to have been noted by Monsieur de Rougemont, I hesitate—"</p> + +<p>She glanced at the silent listeners around her. Sir Peter's red face +had hardened; the King of Finland frowned slightly; the Crown-Prince +of Monaco and Baron de Becasse wore anxious smiles. But when her +violet eyes met mine I gave her a glance of encouragement, and that +glance, I am forced to confess, was not dictated by scientific +approval, but by something that never entirely dries up in the +mustiest and dustiest of savants—the old Adam implanted in us all.</p> + +<p>Now, I knew perfectly well what her subject must be; so did every man +present. For it was no secret that his <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span>Majesty of Belgium had been +swindled by some natives in Tasmania, and had paid a very large sum of +money for a skin of that gigantic bird, the ux, which has been so +often reported to exist among the inaccessible peaks of the Tasmanian +Mountains. Needless, perhaps, to say that the skin proved a fraud, +being nothing more than a Barnum contrivance made up out of the skins +of a dozen ostriches and cassowaries, and most cleverly put together +by Chinese workmen; at least, such was the report made on it by Sir +Peter Grebe, who had been sent by the British Society to Antwerp to +examine the acquisition. Needless, also, perhaps, to say that King +Leopold, of Belgium, stoutly maintained that the skin of the ux was +genuine from beak to claw.</p> + +<p>For six months there had been a most serious difference of opinion +among European ornithologists concerning the famous ux in the Antwerp +Museum; and this difference had promised to result in an open quarrel +between a few Belgian savants on one side and-all Europe and Great +Britain on the other.</p> + +<p>Scientists have a deep—rooted horror of anything that touches on +charlatanism; the taint of trickery not only alarms them, but drives +them away from any suspicious subject, and usually ruins, +scientifically speaking, the person who has introduced the subject for +discussion.</p> + +<p>Therefore, it took no little courage for the Countess d'Alzette to +touch, with her dainty gloves, a subject which every scientist in +Europe, with scarcely an exception, had pronounced fraudulent and +unworthy of investigation. And to bring it before the great +International Congress required more courage still; for the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span>person +who could face, in executive session, the most brilliant intellects in +the world, and openly profess faith in a Barnumized bird skin, either +had no scientific reputation to lose or was possessed of a bravery far +above that of the savants who composed the audience.</p> + +<p>Now, when the pretty Countess caught a flash of encouragement in my +glance she turned rosy with gratification and surprise. Clearly, she +had not expected to find a single ally in the entire congress. Her +quick smile of gratitude touched me, and made me ashamed, too, for I +had encouraged her out of the pure love of mischief, hoping to hear +the whole matter threshed before the congress and so have it settled +once for all. It was a thoughtless thing to do on my part. I should +have remembered the consequences to the Countess if it were proven +that she had been championing a fraud. The ruffled dignity of the +congress would never forgive her; her scientific career would +practically be at an end, because her theories and observations could +no longer command respect or even the attention of those who knew that +she herself had once been deceived by a palpable fraud.</p> + +<p>I looked at her guiltily, already ashamed of myself for encouraging +her to her destruction. How lovely and innocent she appeared, standing +there reading her notes in a low, clear voice, fresh as a child's, +with now and then a delicious upward sweep of her long, dark lashes.</p> + +<p>With a start I came to my senses and bestowed a pinch on myself. This +was neither the time nor the place to sentimentalize over a girlish +beauty whose small, Parisian head was crammed full of foolish, brave +theories <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span>concerning an imposition which her aged sovereign had been +unable to detect.</p> + +<p>I saw the gathering frown on the King of Finland's dark face; I saw +Sir Peter Grebe grow redder and redder, and press his thick lips +together to control the angry "Bosh!" which need not have been uttered +to have been understood. The Baron de Becasse wore a painfully neutral +smile, which froze his face into a quaint gargoyle; the Crown-Prince +of Monaco looked at his polished fingernails with a startled yet +abstracted resignation. Clearly the young Countess had not a +sympathizer in the committee.</p> + +<p>Something—perhaps it was the latent chivalry which exists imbedded in +us all, perhaps it was pity, perhaps a glimmering dawn of belief in +the ux skin—set my thoughts working very quickly.</p> + +<p>The Countess d'Alzette finished her notes, then glanced around with a +deprecating smile, which died out on her lips when she perceived the +silent and stony hostility of her fellow-scientists. A quick +expression of alarm came into her lovely eyes. Would they vote against +giving her a hearing before the congress? It required a unanimous vote +to reject a subject. She turned her eyes on me.</p> + +<p>I rose, red as fire, my head humming with a chaos of ideas all +disordered and vague, yet whirling along in a single, resistless +current. I had come to the congress prepared to deliver a monograph on +the great auk; but now the subject went overboard as the birds +themselves had, and I found myself pleading with the committee to give +the Countess a hearing on the ux.</p> + +<p>"Why not?" I exclaimed, warmly. "It is established <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span>beyond question +that the ux does exist in Tasmania. Wallace saw several uxen, through +his telescope, walking about upon the inaccessible heights of the +Tasmanian Mountains. Darwin acknowledged that the bird exists; +Professor Farrago has published a pamphlet containing an accumulation +of all data bearing upon the ux. Why should not Madame la Comtesse be +heard by the entire congress?"</p> + +<p>I looked at Sir Peter Grebe.</p> + +<p>"Have <i>you</i> seen this alleged bird skin in the Antwerp Museum?" he +asked, perspiring with indignation.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I have," said I. "It has been patched up, but how are we to know +that the skin did not require patching? I have not found that ostrich +skin has been used. It is true that the Tasmanians may have shot the +bird to pieces and mended the skin with bits of cassowary hide here +and there. But the greater part of the skin, and the beak and claws, +are, in my estimation, well worth the serious attention of savants. To +pronounce them fraudulent is, in my opinion, rash and premature."</p> + +<p>I mopped my brow; I was in for it now. I had thrown in my reputation +with the reputation of the Countess.</p> + +<p>The displeasure and astonishment of my confrères was unmistakable. In +the midst of a strained silence I moved that a vote be taken upon the +advisability of a hearing before the congress on the subject of the +ux. After a pause the young Countess, pale and determined, seconded my +motion. The result of the balloting was a foregone conclusion; the +Countess had one vote—she herself refraining from voting—and the +subject was entered on the committee-book as acceptable and a date set +for the hearing before the International Congress.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span>The effect of this vote on our little committee was most marked. +Constraint took the place of cordiality, polite reserve replaced that +guileless and open-hearted courtesy with which our proceedings had +begun.</p> + +<p>With icy politeness, the Crown-Prince of Monaco asked me to state the +subject of the paper I proposed to read before the congress, and I +replied quietly that, as I was partly responsible for advocating the +discussion of the ux, I proposed to associate myself with the Countess +d'Alzette in that matter—if Madame la Comtesse would accept the offer +of a brother savant.</p> + +<p>"Indeed I will," she said, impulsively, her blue eyes soft with +gratitude.</p> + +<p>"Very well," observed Sir Peter Grebe, swallowing his indignation and +waddling off towards the door; "I shall resign my position on this +committee—yes, I will, I tell you!"—as the King of Finland laid a +fatherly hand on Sir Peter's sleeve—"I'll not be made responsible for +this damn—"</p> + +<p>He choked, sputtered, then bowed to the horrified Countess, asking +pardon, and declaring that he yielded to nobody in respect for the +gentler sex. And he retired with the Baron de Becasse.</p> + +<p>But out in the hallway I heard him explode. "Confound it! This is no +place for petticoats, Baron! And as for that Yankee ornithologist, +he's hung himself with the Countess's corset—string—yes, he has! +Don't tell me, Baron! The young idiot was all right until the Countess +looked at him, I tell you. Gad! how she crumpled him up with those +blue eyes of hers! What the devil do women come into such committees +for? Eh? It's an outrage, I tell you! Why, the whole world will <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span>jeer +at us if we sit and listen to her monograph on that fraudulent bird!"</p> + +<p>The young Countess, who was writing near the window, could not have +heard this outburst; but I heard it, and so did King Christian and the +Crown-Prince of Monaco.</p> + +<p>"Lord," thought I, "the Countess and I are in the frying-pan this +time. I'll do what I can to keep us both out of the fire."</p> + +<p>When the King and the Crown-Prince had made their adieux to the +Countess, and she had responded, pale and serious, they came over to +where I was standing, looking out on the Seine.</p> + +<p>"Though we must differ from you," said the King, kindly, "we wish you +all success in this dangerous undertaking."</p> + +<p>I thanked him.</p> + +<p>"You are a young man to risk a reputation already established," +remarked the Crown-Prince, then added: "You are braver than I. +Ridicule is a barrier to all knowledge, and, though we know that, we +seekers after truth always bring up short at that barrier and +dismount, not daring to put our hobbies to the fence."</p> + +<p>"One can but come a cropper," said I.</p> + +<p>"And risk staking our hobbies? No, no, that would make us ridiculous; +and ridicule kills in Europe."</p> + +<p>"It's somewhat deadly in America, too," I said, smiling.</p> + +<p>"The more honor to you," said the Crown-Prince, gravely.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I am not the only one," I answered, lightly. "There is my +confrère, Professor Hyssop, who studies <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span>apparitions and braves a +contempt and ridicule which none of us would dare challenge. We +Yankees are learning slowly. Some day we will find the lost key to the +future while Europe is sneering at those who are trying to pick the +lock."</p> + +<p>When King Christian, of Finland, and the Crown-Prince of Monaco had +taken their hats and sticks and departed, I glanced across the room at +the young Countess, who was now working rapidly on a type-writer, +apparently quite oblivious of my presence.</p> + +<p>I looked out of the window again, and my gaze wandered over the +exposition grounds. Gilt and scarlet and azure the palaces rose in +every direction, under a wilderness of fluttering flags. Towers, +minarets, turrets, golden spires cut the blue sky; in the west the +gaunt Eiffel Tower sprawled across the glittering Esplanade; behind it +rose the solid golden dome of the Emperor's tomb, gilded once more by +the Almighty's sun, to amuse the living rabble while the dead +slumbered in his imperial crypt, himself now but a relic for the +amusement of the people whom he had despised. O tempora! O mores! O +Napoleon!</p> + +<p>Down under my window, in the asphalted court, the King of Finland was +entering his beautiful victoria. An adjutant, wearing a cocked hat and +brilliant uniform, mounted the box beside the green-and-gold coachman; +the two postilions straightened up in their saddles; the four horses +danced. Then, when the Crown-Prince of Monaco had taken a seat beside +the King, the carriage rolled away, and far down the quay I watched it +until the flutter of the green-and-white plumes in the adjutant's +cocked hat was all I could see of vanishing royalty.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span>I was still musing there by the window, listening to the click and +ringing of the type-writer, when I suddenly became aware that the +clicking had ceased, and, turning, I saw the young Countess standing +beside me.</p> + +<p>"Thank you for your chivalrous impulse to help me," she said, frankly, +holding out her bare hand.</p> + +<p>I bent over it.</p> + +<p>"I had not realized how desperate my case was," she said, with a +smile. "I supposed that they would at least give me a hearing. How can +I thank you for your brave vote in my favor?"</p> + +<p>"By giving me your confidence in this matter," said I, gravely. "If we +are to win, we must work together and work hard, madame. We are +entering a struggle, not only to prove the genuineness of a bird skin +and the existence of a bird which neither of us has ever seen, but +also a struggle which will either make us famous forever or render it +impossible for either of us ever again to face a scientific audience."</p> + +<p>"I know it," she said, quietly "And I understand all the better how +gallant a gentleman I have had the fortune to enlist in my cause. +Believe me, had I not absolute confidence in my ability to prove the +existence of the ux I should not, selfish as I am, have accepted your +chivalrous offer to stand or fall with me."</p> + +<p>The subtle emotion in her voice touched a responsive chord in me. I +looked at her earnestly; she raised her beautiful eyes to mine.</p> + +<p>"Will you help me?" she asked.</p> + +<p>Would I help her? Faith, I'd pass the balance of my life turning +flip-flaps to please her. I did not attempt to undeceive myself; I +realized that the lightning had <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span>struck me—that I was desperately in +love with the young Countess from the tip of her bonnet to the toe of +her small, polished shoe. I was curiously cool about it, too, although +my heart gave a thump that nigh choked me, and I felt myself going red +from temple to chin.</p> + +<p>If the Countess d'Alzette noticed it she gave no sign, unless the pink +tint under her eyes, deepening, was a subtle signal of understanding +to the signal in my eyes.</p> + +<p>"Suppose," she said, "that I failed, before the congress, to prove my +theory? Suppose my investigations resulted in the exposure of a fraud +and my name was held up to ridicule before all Europe? What would +become of you, monsieur?"</p> + +<p>I was silent.</p> + +<p>"You are already celebrated as the discoverer of the mammoth and the +great auk," she persisted. "You are young, enthusiastic, renowned, and +you have a future before you that anybody in the world might envy."</p> + +<p>I said nothing.</p> + +<p>"And yet," she said, softly, "you risk all because you will not leave +a young woman friendless among her confrères. It is not wise, +monsieur; it is gallant and generous and impulsive, but it is not +wisdom. Don Quixote rides no more in Europe, my friend."</p> + +<p>"He stays at home—seventy million of him—in America," said I.</p> + +<p>After a moment she said, "I believe you, monsieur."</p> + +<p>"It is true enough," I said, with a laugh. "We are the only people who +tilt at windmills these days—we and our cousins, the British, who +taught us."</p> + +<p>I bowed gayly, and added:</p> + +<p>"With your colors to wear, I shall have the honor of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span>breaking a lance +against the biggest windmill in the world."</p> + +<p>"You mean the Citadel of Science," she said, smiling.</p> + +<p>"And its rock-ribbed respectability," I replied.</p> + +<p>She looked at me thoughtfully, rolling and unrolling the scroll in her +hands. Then she sighed, smiled, and brightened, handing me the scroll.</p> + +<p>"Read it carefully," she said; "it is an outline of the policy I +suggest that we follow. You will be surprised at some of the +statements. Yet every word is the truth. And, monsieur, your reward +for the devotion you have offered will be no greater than you deserve, +when you find yourself doubly famous for our joint monograph on the +ux. Without your vote in the committee I should have been denied a +hearing, even though I produced proofs to support my theory. I +appreciate that; I do most truly appreciate the courage which prompted +you to defend a woman at the risk of your own ruin. Come to me this +evening at nine. I hold for you in store a surprise and pleasure which +you do not dream of."</p> + +<p>"Ah, but I do," I said, slowly, under the spell of her delicate beauty +and enthusiasm.</p> + +<p>"How can you?" she said, laughing. "You don't know what awaits you at +nine this evening?"</p> + +<p>"You," I said, fascinated.</p> + +<p>The color swept her face; she dropped me a deep courtesy.</p> + +<p>"At nine, then," she said. "No. 8 Rue d'Alouette."</p> + +<p>I bowed, took my hat, gloves, and stick, and attended her to her +carriage below.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span>Long after the blue-and-black victoria had whirled away down the +crowded quay I stood looking after it, mazed in the web of that +ancient enchantment whose spell fell over the first man in Eden, and +whose sorcery shall not fail till the last man returns his soul.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="X" id="X"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>X<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>I lunched at my lodgings on the Quai Malthus, and I had but little +appetite, having fed upon such an unexpected variety of emotions +during the morning.</p> + +<p>Now, although I was already heels over head in love, I do not believe +that loss of appetite was the result of that alone. I was slowly +beginning to realize what my recent attitude might cost me, not only +in an utter collapse of my scientific career, and the consequent +material ruin which was likely to follow, but in the loss of all my +friends at home. The Zoological Society of Bronx Park and the +Smithsonian Institution of Washington had sent me as their trusted +delegate, leaving it entirely to me to choose the subject on which I +was to speak before the International Congress. What, then, would be +their attitude when they learned that I had chosen to uphold the +dangerous theory of the existence of the ux.</p> + +<p>Would they repudiate me and send another delegate to replace me? Would +they merely wash their hands of me and let me go to my own +destruction?</p> + +<p>"I will know soon enough," thought I, "for this morning's proceedings +will have been cabled to New York ere now, and read at the +breakfast-tables of every old, moss-grown naturalist in America before +I see the Countess d'Alzette this evening." And I drew from my pocket +the roll of paper which she had given me, and, lighting a cigar, lay +back in my chair to read it.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span>The manuscript had been beautifully type-written, and I had no trouble +in following her brief, clear account of the circumstances under which +the notorious ux-skin had been obtained. As for the story itself, it +was somewhat fishy, but I manfully swallowed my growing nervousness +and comforted myself with the belief of Darwin in the existence of the +ux, and the subsequent testimony of Wallace, who simply stated what he +had seen through his telescope, and then left it to others to identify +the enormous birds he described as he had observed them stalking about +on the snowy peaks of the Tasmanian Alps.</p> + +<p>My own knowledge of the ux was confined to a single circumstance. +When, in 1897, I had gone to Tasmania with Professor Farrago, to make +a report on the availability of the so-called "Tasmanian devil," as a +substitute for the mongoose in the West Indies, I of course heard a +great deal of talk among the natives concerning the birds which they +affirmed haunted the summits of the mountains.</p> + +<p>Our time in Tasmania was too limited to admit of an exploration then. +But although we were perfectly aware that the summits of the Tasmanian +Alps are inaccessible, we certainly should have attempted to gain them +had not the time set for our departure arrived before we had completed +the investigation for which we were sent.</p> + +<p>One relic, however, I carried away with me. It was a single greenish +bronzed feather, found high up in the mountains by a native, and sold +to me for a somewhat large sum of money.</p> + +<p>Darwin believed the ux to be covered with greenish <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span>plumage; Wallace +was too far away to observe the color of the great birds; but all the +natives of Tasmania unite in affirming that the plumage of the ux is +green.</p> + +<p>It was not only the color of this feather that made me an eager +purchaser, it was the extraordinary length and size. I knew of no +living bird large enough to wear such a feather. As for the color, +that might have been tampered with before I bought it, and, indeed, +testing it later, I found on the fronds traces of sulphate of copper. +But the same thing has been found in the feathers of certain birds +whose color is metallic green, and it has been proven that such birds +pick up and swallow shining bits of copper pyrites.</p> + +<p>Why should not the ux do the same thing?</p> + +<p>Still, my only reason for believing in the existence of the bird was +this single feather. I had easily proved that it belonged to no known +species of bird. I also proved it to be similar to the tail-feathers +of the ux-skin in Antwerp. But the feathers on the Antwerp specimen +were gray, and the longest of them was but three feet in length, while +my huge, bronze-green feather measured eleven feet from tip to tip.</p> + +<p>One might account for it supposing the Antwerp skin to be that of a +young bird, or of a moulting bird, or perhaps of a different sex from +the bird whose feather I had secured.</p> + +<p>Still, these ideas were not proven. Nothing concerning the birds had +been proven. I had but a single fact to lean on, and that was that the +feather I possessed could not have belonged to any known species of +bird. Nobody but myself knew of the existence of this feather. And now +I meant to cable to Bronx Park for it, and to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span>place this evidence at +the disposal of the beautiful Countess d'Alzette.</p> + +<p>My cigar had gone out, as I sat musing, and I relighted it and resumed +my reading of the type-written notes, lazily, even a trifle +sceptically, for all the evidence that she had been able to collect to +substantiate her theory of the existence of the ux was not half as +important as the evidence I was to produce in the shape of that +enormous green feather.</p> + +<p>I came to the last paragraph, smoking serenely, and leaning back +comfortably, one leg crossed over the other. Then, suddenly, my +attention became riveted on the words under my eyes. Could I have read +them aright? Could I believe what I read in ever-growing astonishment +which culminated in an excitement that stirred the very hair on my +head?</p> + +<div class="block2"><p>"The ux exists. There is no longer room for doubt. Ocular +proof I can now offer in the shape of <i>five living eggs</i> of +this gigantic bird. All measures have been taken to hatch +these eggs; they are now in the vast incubator. It is my plan +to have them hatch, one by one, under the very eyes of the +International Congress. It will be the greatest triumph that +science has witnessed since the discovery of the New World.</p> + +<p class="right">[Signed] "<span class="sc">Susanne d'Alzette</span>."</p> +</div> + +<p>"Either," I cried out, in uncontrollable excitement—"either that girl +is mad or she is the cleverest woman on earth."</p> + +<p>After a moment I added:</p> + +<p>"In either event I am going to marry her."</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="XI" id="XI"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>XI<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>That evening, a few minutes before nine o'clock, I descended from a +cab in front of No. 8 Rue d'Alouette, and was ushered into a pretty +reception-room by an irreproachable servant, who disappeared directly +with my card.</p> + +<p>In a few moments the young Countess came in, exquisite in her silvery +dinner-gown, eyes bright, white arms extended in a charming, impulsive +welcome. The touch of her silky fingers thrilled me; I was dumb under +the enchantment of her beauty; and I think she understood my silence, +for her blue eyes became troubled and the happy parting of her lips +changed to a pensive curve.</p> + +<p>Presently I began to tell her about my bronzed-green feather; at my +first word she looked up brightly, almost gratefully, I fancied; and +in another moment we were deep in eager discussion of the subject +which had first drawn us together.</p> + +<p>What evidence I possessed to sustain our theory concerning the +existence of the ux I hastened to reveal; then, heart beating +excitedly, I asked her about the eggs and where they were at present, +and whether she believed it possible to bring them to Paris—all these +questions in the same breath—which brought a happy light into her +eyes and a delicious ripple of laughter to her lips.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span>"Why, of course it is possible to bring the eggs here," she cried. "Am +I sure? Parbleu! The eggs are already here, monsieur!"</p> + +<p>"Here!" I exclaimed. "In Paris?"</p> + +<p>"In Paris? Mais oui; and in my own house—<i>this very house</i>, monsieur. +Come, you shall behold them with your own eyes!"</p> + +<p>Her eyes were brilliant with excitement; impulsively she stretched out +her rosy hand. I took it; and she led me quickly back through the +drawing-room, through the dining-room, across the butler's pantry, and +into a long, dark hallway. We were almost running now—I keeping tight +hold of her soft little hand, she, raising her gown a trifle, hurrying +down the hallway, silken petticoats rustling like a silk banner in the +wind. A turn to the right brought us to the cellar-stairs; down we +hastened, and then across the cemented floor towards a long, +glass-fronted shelf, pierced with steam-pipes.</p> + +<p>"A match," she whispered, breathlessly.</p> + +<p>I struck a wax match and touched it to the gas-burner overhead.</p> + +<p>Never, never can I forget what that flood of gas-light revealed. In a +row stood five large, glass-mounted incubators; behind the glass doors +lay, in dormant majesty, five enormous eggs. The eggs were +pale-green—lighter, somewhat, than robins' eggs, but not as pale as +herons' eggs. Each egg appeared to be larger than a large hogs-head, +and was partly embedded in bales of cotton-wool.</p> + +<p>Five little silver thermometers inside the glass doors indicated a +temperature of 95° Fahrenheit. I noticed that there was an automatic +arrangement connected with the pipes which regulated the temperature.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span>I was too deeply moved for words. Speech seemed superfluous as we +stood there, hand in hand, contemplating those gigantic, pale-green +eggs.</p> + +<p>There is something in a silent egg which moves one's deeper +emotions—something solemn in its embryotic inertia, something awesome +in its featureless immobility.</p> + +<p>I know of nothing on earth which is so totally lacking in expression +as an egg. The great desert Sphinx, brooding through its veil of sand, +has not that tremendous and meaningless dignity which wraps the +colorless oval effort of a single domestic hen.</p> + +<p>I held the hand of the young Countess very tightly. Her fingers closed +slightly.</p> + +<p>Then and there, in the solemn presence of those emotionless eggs, I +placed my arm around her supple waist and kissed her.</p> + +<p>She said nothing. Presently she stooped to observe the thermometer. +Naturally, it registered 95° Fahrenheit.</p> + +<p>"Susanne," I said, softly.</p> + +<p>"Oh, we must go up-stairs," she whispered, breathlessly; and, picking +up her silken skirts, she fled up the cellar-stairs.</p> + +<p>I turned out the gas, with that instinct of economy which early +wastefulness has implanted in me, and followed the Countess Suzanne +through the suite of rooms and into the small reception-hall where she +had first received me.</p> + +<p>She was sitting on a low divan, head bent, slowly turning a sapphire +ring on her finger, round and round.</p> + +<p>I looked at her romantically, and then—</p> + +<p>"Please don't," she said.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span>The correct reply to this is:</p> + +<p>"Why not?"—very tenderly spoken.</p> + +<p>"Because," she replied, which was also the correct and regular answer.</p> + +<p>"Suzanne," I said, slowly and passionately.</p> + +<p>She turned the sapphire ring on her finger. Presently she tired of +this, so I lifted her passive hand very gently and continued turning +the sapphire ring on her finger, slowly, to harmonize with the cadence +of our unspoken thoughts.</p> + +<p>Towards midnight I went home, walking with great care through a new +street in Paris, paved exclusively with rose-colored blocks of air.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="XII" id="XII"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>XII<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>At nine o'clock in the evening, July 31, 1900, the International +Congress was to assemble in the great lecture-hall of the Belgian +Scientific Pavilion, which adjourned the Tasmanian Pavilion, to hear +the Countess Suzanne d'Alzette read her paper on the ux.</p> + +<p>That morning the Countess and I, with five furniture vans, had +transported the five great incubators to the platform of the +lecture-hall, and had engaged an army of plumbers and gas-fitters to +make the steam-heating connections necessary to maintain in the +incubators a temperature of 100° Fahrenheit.</p> + +<p>A heavy green curtain hid the stage from the body of the lecture-hall. +Behind this curtain the five enormous eggs reposed, each in its +incubator.</p> + +<p>The Countess Suzanne was excited and calm by turns, her cheeks were +pink, her lips scarlet, her eyes bright as blue planets at midnight.</p> + +<p>Without faltering she rehearsed her discourse before me, reading from +her type-written manuscript in a clear voice, in which I could +scarcely discern a tremor. Then we went through the dumb show of +exhibiting the uxen eggs to a frantically applauding audience; she +responded to countless supposititious encores, I leading her out +repeatedly before the green curtain to face the great, damp, darkened +auditorium.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span>Then, in response to repeated imaginary recalls, she rehearsed the +extemporaneous speech, thanking the distinguished audience for their +patience in listening to an unknown confrère, and confessing her +obligations to me (here I appeared and bowed in self-abasement) for my +faith in her and my aid in securing for her a public hearing before +the most highly educated audience in the world.</p> + +<p>After that we retired behind the curtain to sit on an empty box and +eat sandwiches and watch the last lingering plumbers pasting up the +steam connections with a pot of molten lead.</p> + +<p>The plumbers were Americans, brought to Paris to make repairs on the +American buildings during the exposition, and we conversed with them +affably as they pottered about, plumber-like, poking under the +flooring with lighted candles, rubbing their thumbs up and down musty +old pipes, and prying up planks in dark corners.</p> + +<p>They informed us that they were union men and that they hoped we were +too. And I replied that union was certainly my ultimate purpose, at +which the young Countess smiled dreamily at vacancy.</p> + +<p>We did not dare leave the incubators. The plumbers lingered on, hour +after hour, while we sat and watched the little silver thermometers, +and waited.</p> + +<p>It was time for the Countess Suzanne to dress, and still the plumbers +had not finished; so I sent a messenger for her maid, to bring her +trunk to the lecture-hall, and I despatched another messenger to my +lodgings for my evening clothes and fresh linen.</p> + +<p>There were several dressing-rooms off the stage. Here, about six +o'clock, the Countess retired with her maid, to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span>dress, leaving me to +watch the plumbers and the thermometers.</p> + +<p>When the Countess Suzanne returned, radiant and lovely in an evening +gown of black lace, I gave her the roses I had brought for her and +hurried off to dress in my turn, leaving her to watch the +thermometers.</p> + +<p>I was not absent more than half an hour, but when I returned I found +the Countess anxiously conversing with the plumbers and pointing +despairingly at the thermometers, which now registered only 95°.</p> + +<p>"You must keep up the temperature!" I said. "Those eggs are due to +hatch within a few hours. What's the trouble with the heat?"</p> + +<p>The plumber did not know, but thought the connections were defective.</p> + +<p>"But that's why we called you in!" exclaimed the Countess. "Can't you +fix things securely?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, we'll fix things, lady," replied the plumber, condescendingly, +and he ambled away to rub his thumb up and down a pipe.</p> + +<p>As we alone were unable to move and handle the enormous eggs, the +Countess, whose sweet character was a stranger to vindictiveness or +petty resentment, had written to the members of the ornithological +committee, revealing the marvellous fortune which had crowned her +efforts in the search for evidence to sustain her theory concerning +the ux, and inviting these gentlemen to aid her in displaying the +great eggs to the assembled congress.</p> + +<p>This she had done the night previous. Every one of the gentlemen +invited had come post-haste to her "hotel," to view the eggs with +their own sceptical and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span>astonished eyes; and the fair young Countess +and I tasted our first triumph in her cellar, whither we conducted Sir +Peter Grebe, the Crown-Prince of Monaco, Baron de Becasse, and his +Majesty King Christian of Finland.</p> + +<p>Scepticism and incredulity gave place to excitement and unbounded +enthusiasm. The old King embraced the Countess; Baron de Becasse +attempted to kiss me; Sir Peter Grebe made a handsome apology for his +folly and vowed that he would do open penance for his sins. The poor +Crown-Prince, who was of a nervous temperament, sat on the +cellar-stairs and wept like a child.</p> + +<p>His grief at his own pig-headedness touched us all profoundly.</p> + +<p>So it happened that these gentlemen were coming to-night to give their +aid to us in moving the priceless eggs, and lend their countenance and +enthusiastic support to the young Countess in her maiden effort.</p> + +<p>Sir Peter Grebe arrived first, all covered with orders and +decorations, and greeted us affectionately, calling the Countess the +"sweetest lass in France," and me his undutiful Yankee cousin who had +landed feet foremost at the expense of the British Empire.</p> + +<p>The King of Finland, the Crown-Prince, and Baron de Becasse arrived +together, a composite mass of medals, sashes, and academy palms. To +see them moving boxes about, straightening chairs, and pulling out +rugs reminded me of those golden-embroidered gentlemen who run out +into the arena and roll up carpets after the acrobats have finished +their turn in the Nouveau Cirque.</p> + +<p>I was aiding the King of Finland to move a heavy <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span>keg of nails, when +the Countess called out to me in alarm, saying that the thermometers +had dropped to 80° Fahrenheit.</p> + +<p>I spoke sharply to the plumbers, who were standing in a circle behind +the dressing-rooms; but they answered sullenly that they could do no +more work that day.</p> + +<p>Indignant and alarmed, I ordered them to come out to the stage, and, +after some hesitation, they filed out, a sulky, silent lot of workmen, +with their tools already gathered up and tied in their kits. At once I +noticed that a new man had appeared among them—a red-faced, stocky +man wearing a frock-coat and a shiny silk hat.</p> + +<p>"Who is the master-workman here?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"I am," said a man in blue overalls.</p> + +<p>"Well," said I, "why don't you fix those steam-fittings?"</p> + +<p>There was a silence. The man in the silk hat smirked.</p> + +<p>"Well?" said I.</p> + +<p>"Come, come, that's all right," said the man in the silk hat. "These +men know their business without you tellin' them."</p> + +<p>"Who are you?" I demanded, sharply.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'm just a walkin' delegate," he replied, with a sneer. "There's +a strike in New York and I come over here to tie this here exposition +up. See?"</p> + +<p>"You mean to say you won't let these men finish their work?" I asked, +thunderstruck.</p> + +<p>"That's about it, young man," he said, coolly.</p> + +<p>Furious, I glanced at my watch, then at the thermometers, which now +registered only 75°. Already I could hear the first-comers of the +audience arriving in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span>the body of the hall. Already a stage-hand was +turning up the footlights and dragging chairs and tables hither and +thither.</p> + +<p>"What will you take to stay and attend to those steam-pipes?" I +demanded, desperately.</p> + +<p>"It can't be done nohow," observed the man in the silk hat. "That New +York strike is good for a month yet." Then, turning to the workmen, he +nodded and, to my horror, the whole gang filed out after him, turning +deaf ears to my entreaties and threats.</p> + +<p>There was a deathly silence, then Sir Peter exploded into a vivid +shower of words. The Countess, pale as a ghost, gave me a +heart-breaking look. The Crown-Prince wept.</p> + +<p>"Great Heaven!" I cried; "the thermometers have fallen to 70°!"</p> + +<p>The King of Finland sat down on a chair and pressed his hands over his +eyes. Baron de Becasse ran round and round, uttering subdued and +plaintive screams; Sir Peter swore steadily.</p> + +<p>"Gentlemen," I cried, desperately, "we must save those eggs! They are +on the very eve of hatching! Who will volunteer?"</p> + +<p>"To do what?" moaned the Crown-Prince.</p> + +<p>"I'll show you," I exclaimed, running to the incubators and beckoning +to the Baron to aid me.</p> + +<p>In a moment we had rolled out the great egg, made a nest on the stage +floor with the bales of cotton-wool, and placed the egg in it. One +after another we rolled out the remaining eggs, building for each its +nest of cotton; and at last the five enormous eggs lay there in a row +behind the green curtain.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span>"Now," said I, excitedly, to the King, "you must get up on that egg +and try to keep it warm."</p> + +<p>The King began to protest, but I would take no denial, and presently +his Majesty was perched up on the great egg, gazing foolishly about at +the others, who were now all climbing up on their allotted eggs.</p> + +<p>"Great Heaven!" muttered the King, as Sir Peter settled down +comfortably on his egg, "I am willing to give life and fortune for the +sake of science, but I can't bear to hatch out eggs like a bird!"</p> + +<p>The Crown-Prince was now sitting patiently beside the Baron de +Becasse.</p> + +<p>"I feel in my bones," he murmured, "that I'm about to hatch something. +Can't you hear a tapping on the shell of your egg, Baron?"</p> + +<p>"Parbleu!" replied the Baron. "The shell is moving under me."</p> + +<p>It certainly was; for, the next moment, the Baron fell into his egg +with a crash and a muffled shriek, and floundered out, dripping, +yellow as a canary.</p> + +<p>"N'importe!" he cried, excitedly. "Allons! Save the eggs! Hurrah! Vive +la science!" And he scrambled up on the fourth egg and sat there, arms +folded, sublime courage transfiguring him from head to foot.</p> + +<p>We all gave him a cheer, which was hushed as the stage-manager ran in, +warning us that the audience was already assembled and in place.</p> + +<p>"You're not going to raise the curtain while we're sitting, are you?" +demanded the King of Finland, anxiously.</p> + +<p>"No, no," I said; "sit tight, your Majesty. Courage, gentlemen! Our +vindication is at hand!"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span>The Countess glanced at me with startled eyes; I took her hand, +saluted it respectfully, and then quietly led her before the curtain, +facing an ocean of upturned faces across the flaring footlights.</p> + +<p>She stood a moment to acknowledge the somewhat ragged applause, a calm +smile on her lips. All her courage had returned; I saw that at once.</p> + +<p>Very quietly she touched her lips to the <i>eau-sucrée</i>, laid her +manuscript on the table, raised her beautiful head, and began:</p> + +<p>"That the ux is a living bird I am here before you to prove—"</p> + +<p>A sharp report behind the curtain drowned her voice. She paled; the +audience rose amid cries of excitement.</p> + +<p>"What was it?" she asked, faintly.</p> + +<p>"Sir Peter has hatched out his egg," I whispered. "Hark! There goes +another egg!" And I ran behind the curtain.</p> + +<p>Such a scene as I beheld was never dreamed of on land or sea. Two +enormous young uxen, all over gigantic pin-feathers, were wandering +stupidly about. Mounted on one was Sir Peter Grebe, eyes starting from +his apoplectic visage; on the other, clinging to the bird's neck, hung +the Baron de Becasse.</p> + +<p>Before I could move, the two remaining eggs burst, and a pair of huge, +scrawny fledglings rose among the débris, bearing off on their backs +the King and Crown-Prince.</p> + +<p>"Help!" said the King of Finland, faintly. "I'm falling off!"</p> + +<p>I sprang to his aid, but tripped on the curtain-spring. The next +instant the green curtain shot up, and there, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span>revealed to that vast +and distinguished audience, roamed four enormous chicks, bearing on +their backs the most respected and exclusive aristocracy of Europe.</p> + +<p>The Countess Suzanne turned with a little shriek of horror, then sat +down in her chair, laid her lovely head on the table, and very quietly +fainted away, unconscious of the frantic cheers which went roaring to +the roof.</p> + +<hr style='width: 15%; padding-top: 1.25em; padding-bottom: 1.25em;' /> + +<p>This, then, is the <i>true</i> history of the famous exposition scandal. +And, as I have said, had it not been for the presence in that audience +of two American reporters nobody would have known what all the world +now knows—nobody would have read of the marvellous feats of bareback +riding indulged in by the King of Finland—nobody would have read how +Sir Peter Grebe steered his mount safely past the footlights only to +come to grief over the prompter's box.</p> + +<p>But this <i>is</i> scandal. And, as for the charming Countess Suzanne +d'Alzette, the public has heard all that it is entitled to hear, and +much that it is not entitled to hear.</p> + +<p>However, on second thoughts, perhaps the public is entitled to hear a +little more. I will therefore say this much—the shock of astonishment +which stunned me when the curtain flew up, revealing the +King-bestridden uxen, was nothing to the awful blow which smote me +when the Count d'Alzette leaped from the orchestra, over the +footlights, and bore away with him the fainting form of his wife, the +lovely Countess d'Alzette.</p> + +<p>I sometimes wonder—but, as I have repeatedly observed, this dull and +pedantic narrative of fact is no vehicle for sentimental soliloquy. It +is, then, merely <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span>sufficient to say that I took the earliest steamer +for kinder shores, spurred on to haste by a venomous cable-gram from +the Smithsonian, repudiating me, and by another from Bronx Park, +ordering me to spend the winter in some inexpensive, poisonous, and +unobtrusive spot, and make a collection of isopods. The island of Java +appeared to me to be as poisonously unobtrusive and inexpensive a +region as I had ever heard of; a steamer sailed from Antwerp for +Batavia in twenty-four hours. Therefore, as I say, I took the +night-train for Brussels, and the steamer from Antwerp the following +evening.</p> + +<p>Of my uneventful voyage, of the happy and successful quest, there is +little to relate. The Javanese are frolicsome and hospitable. There +was a girl there with features that were as delicate as though +chiselled out of palest amber; and I remember she wore a most +wonderful jewelled, helmet-like head-dress, and jingling bangles on +her ankles, and when she danced she made most graceful and poetic +gestures with her supple wrists—but that has nothing to do with +isopods, absolutely nothing.</p> + +<p>Letters from home came occasionally. Professor Farrago had returned to +the Bronx and had been re-elected to the high office he had so nobly +held when I first became associated with him.</p> + +<p>Through his kindness and by his advice I remained for several years in +the Far East, until a letter from him arrived recalling me and also +announcing his own hurried and sudden departure for Florida. He also +mentioned my promotion to the office of subcurator of department; so I +started on my homeward voyage very <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span>much pleased with the world, and +arrived in New York on April 1, 1904, ready for a rest to which I +believed myself entitled. And the first thing that they handed me was +a letter from Professor Farrago, summoning me South.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="XIII" id="XIII"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>XIII<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>The letter that started me—I was going to say startled me, but only +imaginative people are startled—the letter, then, that started me +from Bronx Park to the South I print without the permission of my +superior, Professor Farrago. I have not obtained his permission, for +the somewhat exciting reason that nobody knows where he is. Publicity +being now recognized as the annihilator of mysteries, a benevolent +purpose alone inspires me to publish a letter so strange, so +pathetically remarkable, in view of what has recently occurred.</p> + +<p>As I say, I had only just returned from Java with a valuable +collection of undescribed isopods—an order of edriophthalmous +crustaceans with seven free thoracic somites furnished with fourteen +legs—and I beg my reader's pardon, but my reader will see the +necessity for the author's absolute accuracy in insisting on detail, +because the story that follows is a dangerous story for a scientist to +tell, in view of the vast amount of nonsense and fiction in +circulation masquerading as stories of scientific adventure.</p> + +<p>I was, therefore, anticipating a delightful summer's work with pen and +microscope, when on April 1st I received the following extraordinary +letter from Professor Farrago:</p> + +<div class="block2"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span> +<p class="right">"<span class="sc">In Camp, Little Sprite Lake</span>,<br /> +"<span class="sc">Everglades, Florida</span>, <i>March 15, 1902.</i></p> + +<p>"<span class="sc">My Dear Mr. Gilland</span>,—On receipt of this +communication you will immediately secure for me the following +articles:</p> + +<p class="noin" style="margin-left: 1em;">"One complete outfit of woman's clothing.<br /> +"One camera.<br /> +"One light steel cage, large enough for you to stand in.<br /> +"One stenographer (male sex).<br /> +"One five-pound steel tank, with siphon and hose attachment.<br /> +"One rifle and ammunition.<br /> +"Three ounces rosium oxyde.<br /> +"One ounce chlorate strontium.</p> + +<p>"You will then, within twenty-four hours, set out with the +stenographer and the supplies mentioned and join me in camp on +Little Sprite Lake. This order is formal and admits of no +delay. You will appreciate the necessity of absolute and +unquestioning obedience when I tell you that I am practically +on the brink of the most astonishing discovery recorded in +natural history since Monsieur Zani discovered the +purple-spotted zoombok in Nyanza; and that I depend upon you +and your zeal and fidelity for success.</p> + +<p>"I dare not, lest my letter fall into unscrupulous hands, +convey to you more than a hint of what lies before us in these +uncharted solitudes of the Everglades.</p> + +<p>"You must read between the lines when I say that because one +can see through a sheet of glass, the glass is none the less +solid and palpable. One can see <i>through</i> it—if that is also +seeing it; but one can nevertheless hold it and feel it and +receive from it sensations of cold or heat according to its +temperature.</p> + +<p>"Certain jellyfish are absolutely transparent when in the +water, and one can only know of their presence by accidental +contact, not by sight.</p> + +<p>"<i>Have you ever thought that possibly there might exist larger +and more highly organized creatures transparent to eyesight, +yet palpable to touch?</i></p> + +<p>"Little Sprite Lake is the jumping-off place; beyond lie the +Everglades, the outskirts of which are haunted by the +Seminoles, the interior of which have never been visited by +man, as far as we know.</p> + +<p>"As you are aware, no general survey of Florida has yet been +made; there exist no maps of the Everglades south of +Okeechobee; even Little Sprite Lake is but a vague blot on our +maps. We know, of course, that south of the eleven thousand +square <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span>miles of fresh water which is called Lake Okeechobee +the Everglades form a vast, delta-like projection of thousands +and thousands of square miles. Darkest Africa is no longer a +mystery; but the Everglades to-day remain the sombre secret of +our continent. And, to-day, this unknown expanse of swamps, +barrens, forests, and lagoons is greater than in the days of +De Soto, because the entire region has been slowly rising.</p> + +<p>"All this, my dear sir, you already know, and I ask your +indulgence for recalling the facts to your memory. I do it for +this reason—the search for <i>what I am seeking</i> may lead us to +utter destruction; and therefore my formal orders to you +should be modified to this extent:—do you volunteer? If you +volunteer, my orders remain; if not, turn this letter over to +Mr. Kingsley, who will find for me the companion I require.</p> + +<p>"In the event of your coming, you must break your journey at +False Cape and ask for an old man named Slunk. He will give +you a packet; you will give him a dollar, and drive on to Cape +Canaveral, and you will do what is to be done there. From +there to Fort Kissimmee, to Okeechobee, traversing the lake to +the Rita River, where I have marked the trail to Little +Sprite.</p> + +<p>"At Little Sprite I shall await you; beyond that point a +merciful Providence alone can know what awaits us.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 15%;">"Yours fraternally,</p> + +<p class="right sc">"Farrago.</p> + +<p>"P.S.—I think that you had better make your will, and suggest +the same idea to the stenographer who is to accompany you. + F."</p> +</div> + +<p>And that was the letter I received while seated comfortably on the +floor of my work-room, surrounded by innocent isopods, all patiently +awaiting scientific investigation.</p> + +<p>And this is what I did: Within twenty-four hours I had assembled the +supplies required—the cage, the woman's clothing, tank, arms and +ammunition, and the chemicals; I had secured accommodations, for that +evening, on the Florida, Volusia, and Fort Lauderdale Railway as far +as Citron City; and I had been interviewing <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span>stenographers all day +long, the result of an innocently worded advertisement in the daily +newspapers.</p> + +<p>It was now very close to the time when I must summon a cab and drive +to the ferry; and yet I was still shy one stenographer.</p> + +<p>I had seen scores; they simply would not listen to the proposition. +"Why does a gentleman in the backwoods of Florida want a +stenographer?" they demanded; and as I had not the faintest idea, I +could only say so. I think the majority interviewed concluded I had +escaped from a State institution.</p> + +<p>As the time for departure approached I became desperate, urging and +beseeching applicants to accompany me; but neither sympathy for my +instant need nor desire for salary moved them.</p> + +<p>I waited until the last moment, hoping against hope. Then, with a +groan of despair, I seized luggage and raincoat, made for the door and +flung it open, only to find myself face to face with an attractive +young girl, apparently on the point of pressing the electric button.</p> + +<p>"I'm sorry," I said, "but I have a train to catch."</p> + +<p>She was noticeably attractive in her storm-coat and pretty hat, and I +really was sorry—so sorry that I added:</p> + +<p>"I have about twenty-seven seconds to place at your service before I +go."</p> + +<p>"Twenty will be sufficient," she replied, pleasantly. "I saw your +advertisement for a stenographer—"</p> + +<p>"We require a man," I interposed, hastily.</p> + +<p>"Have you engaged him?"</p> + +<p>"N-no."</p> + +<p>We looked at each other.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span>"You wouldn't accept, anyway," I began.</p> + +<p>"How do you know?"</p> + +<p>"You wouldn't leave town, would you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, if you required it."</p> + +<p>"What? Go to Florida?"</p> + +<p>"Y-yes—if I must."</p> + +<p>"But think of the alligators! Think of the snakes—big, bitey snakes!"</p> + +<p>"Gracious!" she exclaimed, eyes growing bigger.</p> + +<p>"Indians, too!—unreconciled, sulky Seminoles! Fevers! Mud-puddles! +Spiders! And only fifty dollars a week—"</p> + +<p>"I—I'll go," she stammered.</p> + +<p>"Go?" I repeated, grimly; "then you've exactly two and three-quarter +seconds left for preparations."</p> + +<p>Instinctively she raised her little gloved hand and patted her hair. +"I'm ready," she said, unsteadily.</p> + +<p>"One extra second to make your will," I added, stunned by her +self-possession.</p> + +<p>"I—I have nothing to leave—nobody to leave it to," she said, +smiling; "I am ready."</p> + +<p>I took that extra second myself for a lightning course in reflection +upon effects and consequences.</p> + +<p>"It's silly, it's probably murder," I said, "but you're engaged! Now +we must run for it!"</p> + +<p>And that is how I came to engage the services of Miss Helen Barrison +as stenographer.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="XIV" id="XIV"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>XIV<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>At noon on the second day I disembarked from the train at Citron City +with all paraphernalia—cage, chemicals, arsenal, and stenographer; an +accumulation of very dusty impedimenta—all but the stenographer. By +three o'clock our hotel livery-rig was speeding along the beach at +False Cape towards the tall lighthouse looming above the dunes.</p> + +<p>The abode of a gentleman named Slunk was my goal. I sat brooding in +the rickety carriage, still dazed by the rapidity of my flight from +New York; the stenographer sat beside me, blue eyes bright with +excitement, fair hair blowing in the sea-wind.</p> + +<p>Our railway companionship had been of the slightest, also absolutely +formal; for I was too absorbed in conjecturing the meaning of this +journey to be more than absent-mindedly civil; and she, I fancy, had +had time for repentance and perhaps for a little fright, though I +could discover traces of neither.</p> + +<p>I remember she left the train at some city or other where we were held +for an hour; and out of the car-window I saw her returning with a +brand-new grip sack.</p> + +<p>She must have bought clothes, for she continued to remain cool and +fresh in her summer shirt-waists and short outing skirt; and she +looked immaculate now, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span>sitting there beside me, the trace of a smile +curving her red mouth.</p> + +<p>"I'm looking for a personage named Slunk," I observed.</p> + +<p>After a moment's silent consideration of the Atlantic Ocean she said, +"When do my duties begin, Mr. Gilland?"</p> + +<p>"The Lord alone knows," I replied, grimly. "Are you repenting of your +bargain?"</p> + +<p>"I am quite happy," she said, serenely.</p> + +<p>Remorse smote me that I had consented to engage this frail, +pink-and-ivory biped for an enterprise which lay outside the suburbs +of Manhattan. I glanced guiltily at my victim; she sat there, the +incarnation of New York piquancy—a translated denizen of the +metropolis—a slender spirit of the back offices of sky-scrapers. Why +had I lured her hither?—here where the heavy, lavender-tinted +breakers thundered on a lost coast; here where above the dune-jungles +vultures soared, and snowy-headed eagles, hulking along the sands, +tore dead fish and yelped at us as we passed.</p> + +<p>Strange waters, strange skies—a strange, lost land aquiver under an +exotic sun; and there she sat with her wise eyes of a child, +unconcerned, watching the world in perfect confidence.</p> + +<p>"May I pay a little compliment to your pluck?" I asked, amused.</p> + +<p>"Certainly," she said, smiling as the maid of Manhattan alone knows +how to smile—shyly, inquiringly—with a lingering hint of laughter in +the curled lips' corners. Then her sensitive features fell a trifle. +"Not pluck," she said, "but necessity; I had no chance to choose, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span>no +time to wait. My last dollar, Mr. Gilland, is in my purse!"</p> + +<p>With a gay little gesture she drew it from her shirt-front, then, +smiling, sat turning it over and over in her lap.</p> + +<p>The sun fell on her hands, gilding the smooth skin with the first tint +of sunburn. Under the corners of her eyes above the rounded cheeks a +pink stain lay like the first ripening flush on a wild strawberry. +That, too, was the mark left by the caress of wind and sun. I had had +no idea she was so pretty.</p> + +<p>"I think we'll enjoy this adventure," I said; "don't you?"</p> + +<p>"I try to make the best of things," she said, gazing off into the +horizon haze. "Look," she added; "is that a man?"</p> + +<p>A spot far away on the beach caught my eye. At first I thought it was +a pelican—and small wonder, too, for the dumpy, waddling, +goose-necked individual who loomed up resembled a heavy bottomed bird +more than a human being.</p> + +<p>"Do you suppose that could be Mr. Slunk?" asked the stenographer, as +our vehicle drew nearer.</p> + +<p>He looked as though his name ought to be Slunk; he was digging coquina +clams, and he dug with a pecking motion like a water-turkey mastering +a mullet too big for it.</p> + +<p>His name was Slunk; he admitted it when I accused him. Our negro +driver drew rein, and I descended to the sand and gazed on Mr. Slunk.</p> + +<p>He was, as I have said, not impressive, even with the tremendous +background of sky and ocean.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span>"I've come something over a thousand miles to see you," I said, +reluctant to admit that I had come as far to see such a specimen of +human architecture.</p> + +<p>A weather-beaten grin stretched the skin that covered his face, and he +shoved a hairy paw into the pockets of his overalls, digging deeply +into profound depths. First he brought to light a twist of South +Carolina tobacco, which he leisurely inserted in his mouth—not, +apparently, for pleasure, but merely to get rid of it.</p> + +<p>The second object excavated from the overalls was a small packet +addressed to me. This he handed to me; I gravely handed him a silver +dollar; he went back to his clam-digging, and I entered the carriage +and drove on. All had been carried out according to the letter of my +instructions so far, and my spirits brightened.</p> + +<p>"If you don't mind I'll read my instructions," I said, in high +good-humor.</p> + +<p>"Pray do not hesitate," she said, smiling in sympathy.</p> + +<p>So I opened the little packet and read:</p> + +<div class="block2"><p>"Drive to Cape Canaveral along the beach. You will find a gang +of men at work on a government breakwater. The superintendent +is Mr. Rowan. Show him this letter.</p> + +<p class="right sc">"Farrago."</p> +</div> + +<p>Rather disappointed—for I had been expecting to find in the packet +some key to the interesting mystery which had sent Professor Farrago +into the Everglades—I thrust the missive into my pocket and resumed a +study of the immediate landscape. It had not changed as we progressed: +ocean, sand, low dunes crowned with impenetrable tangles of wild bay, +sparkleberry, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span>live-oak, with here and there a weather-twisted +palmetto sprawling, and here and there the battered blades of cactus +and Spanish-bayonet thrust menacingly forward; and over all the +vultures, sailing, sailing—some mere circling motes lost in the blue +above, some sheering the earth so close that their swiftly sweeping +shadows slanted continually across our road.</p> + +<p>"I detest a buzzard," I said, aloud.</p> + +<p>"I thought they were crows," she confessed.</p> + +<p>"Carrion-crows—yes.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"'The carrion-crows<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Sing, Caw! caw!'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class="noin">—only they don't," I added, my song putting me in good-humor once +more. And I glanced askance at the pretty stenographer.</p> + +<p>"It is a pleasure to be employed by agreeable people," she said, +innocently.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I can be much more agreeable than that," I said.</p> + +<p>"Is Professor Farrago—amusing?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"Well—oh, certainly—but not in—in the way I am."</p> + +<p>Suddenly it flashed upon me that my superior was a confirmed hater of +unmarried women. I had clean forgotten it; and now the full import of +what I had done scared me silent.</p> + +<p>"Is anything the matter?" asked Miss Barrison.</p> + +<p>"No—not yet," I said, ominously.</p> + +<p>How on earth could I have overlooked that well-known fact. The hurry +and anxiety, the stress of instant preparation and departure, had +clean driven it from my absent-minded head.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span>Jogging on over the sand, I sat silent, cudgelling my brains for a +solution of the disastrous predicament I had gotten into. I pictured +the astonished rage of my superior—my probable dismissal from +employment—perhaps the general overturning and smash-up of the entire +expedition.</p> + +<p>A distant, dark object on the beach concentrated my distracted +thoughts; it must be the breakwater at Cape Canaveral. And it was the +breakwater, swarming with negro workmen, who were swinging great +blocks of coquina into cemented beds, singing and whistling at their +labor.</p> + +<p>I forgot my predicament when I saw a thin white man in sun-helmet and +khaki directing the work from the beach; and as our horses plodded up, +I stepped out and hailed him by name.</p> + +<p>"Yes, my name is Rowan," he said, instantly, turning to meet me. His +sharp, clear eyes included the vehicle and the stenographer, and he +lifted his helmet, then looked squarely at me.</p> + +<p>"My name is Gilland," I said, dropping my voice and stepping nearer. +"I have just come from Bronx Park, New York."</p> + +<p>He bowed, waiting for something more from me; so I presented my +credentials.</p> + +<p>His formal manner changed at once. "Come over here and let us talk a +bit," he said, cordially—then hesitated, glancing at Miss +Barrison—"if your wife would excuse us—"</p> + +<p>The pretty stenographer colored, and I dryly set Mr. Rowan +right—which appeared to disturb him more than his mistake.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span>"Pardon me, Mr. Gilland, but you do not propose to take this young +girl into the Everglades, do you?"</p> + +<p>"That's what I had proposed to do," I said, brusquely.</p> + +<p>Perfectly aware that I resented his inquiry, he cast a perplexed and +troubled glance at her, then slowly led the way to a great block of +sun-warmed coquina, where he sat down, motioning me to do the same.</p> + +<p>"I see," he said, "that you don't know just where you are going or +just what you are expected to do."</p> + +<p>"No, I don't," I said.</p> + +<p>"Well, I'll tell you, then. You are going into the devil's own country +to look for something that I fled five hundred miles to avoid."</p> + +<p>"Is that so?" I said, uneasily.</p> + +<p>"That is so, Mr. Gilland."</p> + +<p>"Oh! And what is this object that I am to look for and from which you +fled five hundred miles?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know."</p> + +<p>"You don't know what you ran away from?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir. Perhaps if I had known I should have run a thousand miles."</p> + +<p>We eyed one another.</p> + +<p>"You think, then, that I'd better send Miss Barrison back to New +York?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"I certainly do. It may be murder to take her."</p> + +<p>"Then I'll do it!" I said, nervously. "Back she goes from the first +railroad station."</p> + +<p>In a flash the thought came to me that here was a way to avoid the +wrath of Professor Farrago—and a good excuse, too. He might forgive +my not bringing a man as stenographer in view of my limited time; he +never would forgive my presenting him with a woman.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span>"She must go back," I repeated; and it rather surprised me to find +myself already anticipating loneliness—something that never in all my +travels had I experienced before.</p> + +<p>"By the first train," I added, firmly, disliking Mr. Rowan without any +reason except that he had suddenly deprived me of my stenographer.</p> + +<p>"What I have to tell you," he began, lighting a cigarette, the mate to +which I declined, "is this: Three years ago, before I entered this +contracting business, I was in the government employ as officer in the +Coast Survey. Our duties took us into Florida waters; we were months +at a time working on shore."</p> + +<p>He pulled thoughtfully at his cigarette and blew a light cloud into +the air.</p> + +<p>"I had leave for a month once; and like an ass I prepared to spend it +in a hunting-trip among the Everglades."</p> + +<p>He crossed his lean legs and gazed meditatively at his cigarette.</p> + +<p>"I believe," he went on, "that we penetrated the Everglades farther +than any white man who ever lived to return. There's nothing very +dismal about the Everglades—the greater part, I mean. You get high +and low hummock, marshes, creeks, lakes, and all that. If you get +lost, you're a goner. If you acquire fever, you're as well off as the +seraphim—and not a whit better. There are the usual animals +there—bears (little black fellows) lynxes, deer, panthers, +alligators, and a few stray crocodiles. As for snakes, of course +they're there, moccasins a-plenty, some rattlers, but, after all, not +as many snakes as one finds in Alabama, or even northern Florida and +Georgia.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span>"The Seminoles won't help you—won't even talk to you. They're a +sullen pack—but not murderous, as far as I know. Beyond their inner +limits lie the unknown regions."</p> + +<p>He bit the wet end from his cigarette.</p> + +<p>"I went there," he said; "I came out as soon as I could."</p> + +<p>"Why?"</p> + +<p>"Well—for one thing, my companion died of fright."</p> + +<p>"Fright? What at?"</p> + +<p>"Well, there's something in there."</p> + +<p>"What?"</p> + +<p>He fixed a penetrating gaze on me. "I don't know, Mr. Gilland."</p> + +<p>"Did you see anything to frighten you?" I insisted.</p> + +<p>"No, but I felt something." He dropped his cigarette and ground it +into the sand viciously. "To cut it short," he said, "I am most +unwillingly led to believe that there are—creatures—of some sort in +the Everglades—living creatures quite as large as you or I—and that +they are perfectly transparent—as transparent as a colorless +jellyfish."</p> + +<p>Instantly the veiled import of Professor Farrago's letter was made +clear to me. He, too, believed that.</p> + +<p>"It embarrasses me like the devil to say such a thing," continued +Rowan, digging in the sand with his spurred heels. "It seems so—so +like a whopping lie—it seems so childish and ridiculous—so cursed +cheap! But I fled; and there you are. I might add," he said, +indifferently, "that I have the ordinary portion of courage allotted +to normal men."</p> + +<p>"But what do you believe these—these animals to be?" I asked, +fascinated.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span>"I don't know." An obstinate look came into his eyes. "I don't know, +and I absolutely refuse to speculate for the benefit of anybody. I +wouldn't do it for my friend Professor Farrago; and I'm not going to +do it for you," he ended, laughing a rather grim laugh that somehow +jarred me into realizing the amazing import of his story. For I did +not doubt it, strange as it was—fantastic, incredible though it +sounded in the ears of a scientist.</p> + +<p>What it was that carried conviction I do not know—perhaps the fact +that my superior credited it; perhaps the manner of narration. Told in +quiet, commonplace phrases, by an exceedingly practical and +unimaginative young man who was plainly embarrassed in the telling, +the story rang out like a shout in a cañon, startling because of the +absolute lack of emphasis employed in the telling.</p> + +<p>"Professor Farrago asked me to speak of this to no one except the man +who should come to his assistance. He desired the first chance of +clearing this—this rather perplexing matter. No doubt he didn't want +exploring parties prowling about him," added Rowan, smiling. "But +there's no fear of that, I fancy. I never expect to tell that story +again to anybody; I shouldn't have told him, only somehow it's worried +me for three years, and though I was deadly afraid of ridicule, I +finally made up my mind that science ought to have a hack at it.</p> + +<p>"When I was in New York last winter I summoned up courage and wrote +Professor Farrago. He came to see me at the Holland House that same +evening; I told him as much as I ever shall tell anybody. That is all, +Mr. Gilland."</p> + +<p>For a long time I sat silent, musing over the strange <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span>words. After a +while I asked him whether Professor Farrago was supplied with +provisions; and he said he was; that a great store of staples and tins +of concentrated rations had been carried in as far as Little Sprite +Lake; that Professor Farrago was now there alone, having insisted upon +dismissing all those he had employed.</p> + +<p>"There was no practical use for a guide," added Rowan, "because no +cracker, no Indian, and no guide knows the region beyond the Seminole +country."</p> + +<p>I rose, thanking him and offering my hand. He took it and shook it in +manly fashion, saying: "I consider Professor Farrago a very brave man; +I may say the same of any man who volunteers to accompany him. +Good-bye, Mr. Gilland; I most earnestly wish for your success. +Professor Farrago left this letter for you."</p> + +<p>And that was all. I climbed back into the rickety carriage, carrying +my unopened letter; the negro driver cracked his whip and whistled, +and the horses trotted inland over a fine shell road which was to lead +us across Verbena Junction to Citron City. Half an hour later we +crossed the tracks at Verbena and turned into a broad marl road. This +aroused me from my deep and speculative reverie, and after a few +moments I asked Miss Barrison's indulgence and read the letter from +Professor Farrago which Mr. Rowan had given me:</p> + +<div class="block2"><p>"<span class="sc">Dear Mr. Gilland</span>,—You now know all I dared not +write, fearing to bring a swarm of explorers about my ears in +case the letter was lost, and found by unscrupulous meddlers. +If you still are willing to volunteer, knowing all that I +know, join me as soon as possible. If family considerations +deter you from taking what perhaps is an insane risk, I shall +not expect you to join me. In that event, return to New York +immediately and send Kingsley.</p> + +<p class="right">"Yours, + F."</p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span>"What the deuce is the matter with him!" I exclaimed, irritably. "I'll +take any chances Kingsley does!"</p> + +<p>Miss Barrison looked up in surprise.</p> + +<p>"Miss Barrison," I said, plunging into the subject headfirst, "I'm +extremely sorry, but I have news that forces me to believe the journey +too dangerous for you to attempt, so I think that it would be much +better—" The consternation in her pretty face checked me.</p> + +<p>"I'm awfully sorry," I muttered, appalled by her silence.</p> + +<p>"But—but you engaged me!"</p> + +<p>"I know it—I should not have done it. I only—"</p> + +<p>"But you did engage me, didn't you?"</p> + +<p>"I believe that I did—er—oh, of course—"</p> + +<p>"But a verbal contract is binding between honorable people, isn't it, +Mr. Gilland?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, but—"</p> + +<p>"And ours was a verbal contract; and in consideration you paid me my +first week's salary, and I bought shirt-waists and a short skirt and +three changes of—and tooth-brushes and—"</p> + +<p>"I know, I know," I groaned. "But I'll fix all that."</p> + +<p>"You can't if you break your contract."</p> + +<p>"Why not?"</p> + +<p>"Because," she said, flushing up, "I should not accept."</p> + +<p>"You don't understand—"</p> + +<p>"Really I do. You are going into a dangerous country and you're afraid +I'll be frightened."</p> + +<p>"It's something like that."</p> + +<p>"Tell me what are the dangers?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span>"Alligators, big, bitey snakes—"</p> + +<p>"Oh, you've said all that before!"</p> + +<p>"Seminoles—"</p> + +<p>"And that too. What else is there? Did the young man in the sun-helmet +tell you of something worse?"</p> + +<p>"Yes—much worse! Something so dreadfully horrible that—"</p> + +<p>"What?"</p> + +<p>"I am not at liberty to tell you, Miss Barrison," I said, striving to +appear shocked.</p> + +<p>"It would not make any difference anyway," she observed, calmly. "I'm +not afraid of anything in the world."</p> + +<p>"Yes, you are!" I said. "Listen to me; I'd be awfully glad to have you +go—I—I really had no idea how I'd miss you—miss such pleasant +companionship. But it is not possible—" The recollection of Professor +Farrago's aversion suddenly returned. "No, no," I said, "it can't be +done. I'm most unhappy over this mistake of mine; please don't look as +though you were ready to cry!"</p> + +<p>"Don't discharge me, Mr. Gilland," she said.</p> + +<p>"I'm a brute to do it, but I must; I was a bigger brute to engage you, +but I did. Don't—please don't look at me that way, Miss Barrison! As +a matter of fact, I'm tender-hearted and I can't endure it."</p> + +<p>"If you only knew what I had been through you wouldn't send me away," +she said, in a low voice. "It took my last penny to clothe myself and +pay for the last lesson at the college of stenography. I—I lived on +almost nothing for weeks; every respectable place was filled; I walked +and walked and walked, and nobody <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span>wanted me—they all required people +with experience—and how can I have experience until I begin, Mr. +Gilland? I was perfectly desperate when I went to see you, knowing +that you had advertised for a man—" The slightest break in her clear +voice scared me.</p> + +<p>"I'm not going to cry," she said, striving to smile. "If I must go, I +will go. I—I didn't mean to say all this—but—but I've been so—so +discouraged;—and you were not very cross with me—"</p> + +<p>Smitten with remorse, I picked up her hand and fell to patting it +violently, trying to think of something to say. The exercise did not +appear to stimulate my wits.</p> + +<p>"Then—then I'm to go with you?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"I will see," I said, weakly, "but I fear there's trouble ahead for +this expedition."</p> + +<p>"I fear there is," she agreed, in a cheerful voice. "You have a rifle +and a cage in your luggage. Are you going to trap Indians and have me +report their language?"</p> + +<p>"No, I'm not going to trap Indians," I said, sharply. "They may trap +us—but that's a detail. What I want to say to you is this: Professor +Farrago detests unmarried women, and I forgot it when I engaged you."</p> + +<p>"Oh, is that all?" she asked, laughing.</p> + +<p>"Not all, but enough to cost me my position."</p> + +<p>"How absurd! Why, there are millions of things we might +do!—millions!"</p> + +<p>"What's one of them?" I inquired.</p> + +<p>"Why, we might pretend to be married!" Her frank and absolutely +innocent delight in this suggestion was refreshing, but troubling.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span>"We would have to be demonstrative to make that story go," I said.</p> + +<p>"Why? Well-bred people are not demonstrative in public," she retorted, +turning a trifle pink.</p> + +<p>"No, but in private—"</p> + +<p>"I think there is no necessity for carrying a pleasantry into our +private life," she said, in a perfectly amiable voice. "Anyway, if +Professor Farrago's feelings are to be spared, no sacrifice on the +part of a mere girl could be too great," she added, gayly; "I will +wear men's clothes if you wish."</p> + +<p>"You may have to anyhow in the jungle," I said; "and as it's not an +uncommon thing these days, nobody would ever take you for anything +except what you are—a very wilful and plucky and persistent and—"</p> + +<p>"And what, Mr. Gilland?"</p> + +<p>"And attractive," I muttered.</p> + +<p>"Thank you, Mr. Gilland."</p> + +<p>"You're welcome," I snapped. The near whistle of a locomotive warned +us, and I rose in the carriage, looking out across the sand-hills.</p> + +<p>"That is probably our train," observed the pretty stenographer.</p> + +<p>"<i>Our</i> train!"</p> + +<p>"Yes; isn't it?"</p> + +<p>"Then you insist—"</p> + +<p>"Ah, no, Mr. Gilland; I only trust implicitly in my employer."</p> + +<p>"We'll wait till we get to Citron City," I said, weakly; "then it will +be time enough to discuss the situation, won't it?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, indeed," she said, smiling; but she knew, and I <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span>already feared, +that the situation no longer admitted of discussion. In a few moments +more we emerged, without warning, from the scrub-crested sand-hills +into the single white street of Citron City, where China-trees hung +heavy with bloom, and magnolias, already set with perfumed candelabra, +spread soft, checkered shadows over the marl.</p> + +<p>The train lay at the station, oceans of heavy, black smoke lazily +flowing from the locomotive; negroes were hoisting empty fruit-crates +aboard the baggage-car, through the door of which I caught a glimpse +of my steel cage and remaining paraphernalia, all securely crated.</p> + +<p>"Telegram hyah foh Mistuh Gilland," remarked the operator, lounging at +his window as we descended from our dusty vehicle. He had not +addressed himself to anybody in particular, but I said that I was Mr. +Gilland, and he produced the envelope. "Toted in from Okeechobee?" he +inquired, listlessly.</p> + +<p>"Probably; it's signed 'Farrago,' isn't it?"</p> + +<p>"It's foh yoh, suh, I reckon," said the operator, handing it out with +a yawn. Then he removed his hat and fanned his head, which was +perfectly bald.</p> + +<p>I opened the yellow envelope. "Get me a good dog with points," was the +laconic message; and it irritated me to receive such idiotic +instructions at such a time and in such a place. A good dog? Where the +mischief could I find a dog in a town consisting of ten houses and a +water-tank? I said as much to the bald-headed operator, who smiled +wearily and replaced his hat: "Dawg? They's moh houn'-dawgs in Citron +City than they's wood-ticks to keep them busy. I reckon a dollah 'll +do a heap foh you, suh."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span>"Could you get me a dog for a dollar?" I asked;—"one with points?"</p> + +<p>"Points? I sholy can, suh;—plenty of points. What kind of dawg do yoh +requiah, suh?—live dawg? daid dawg? houn'-dawg? raid-dawg? hawg-dawg? +coon-dawg?—"</p> + +<p>The locomotive emitted a long, lazy, softly modulated and thoroughly +Southern toot. I handed the operator a silver dollar, and he presently +emerged from his office and slouched off up the street, while I walked +with Miss Barrison to the station platform, where I resumed the +discussion of her future movements.</p> + +<p>"You are very young to take such a risk," I said, gravely. "Had I not +better buy your ticket back to New York? The north-bound train meets +this one. I suppose we are waiting for it now—" I stopped, conscious +of her impatience.</p> + +<p>Her face flushed brightly: "Yes; I think it best. I have embarrassed +you too long already—"</p> + +<p>"Don't say that!" I muttered. "I—I—shall be deadly bored without +you."</p> + +<p>"I am not an entertainer, only a stenographer," she said, curtly. +"Please get me my ticket, Mr. Gilland."</p> + +<p>She gazed at me from the car-platform; the locomotive tooted two +drawling toots.</p> + +<p>"It is for your sake," I said, avoiding her gaze as the far-off +whistle of the north-bound express came floating out of the blue +distance.</p> + +<p>She did not answer; I fished out my watch, regarding it in silence, +listening to the hum of the approaching train, which ought presently +to bear her away into the North, where nothing could menace her except +the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span>brilliant pitfalls of a Christian civilization. But I stood +there, temporizing, unable to utter a word as her train shot by us +with a rush, slower, slower, and finally stopped, with a long-drawn +sigh from the air-brakes.</p> + +<p>At that instant the telegraph-operator appeared, carrying a dog by the +scruff of the neck—a sad-eyed, ewe-necked dog, from the four corners +of which dangled enormous, cushion-like paws. He yelped when he beheld +me. Miss Barrison leaned down from the car-platform and took the +animal into her arms, uttering a suppressed exclamation of pity as she +lifted him.</p> + +<p>"You have your hands full," she said to me; "I'll take him into the +car for you."</p> + +<p>She mounted the steps; I followed with the valises, striving to get a +good view of my acquisition over her shoulder.</p> + +<p>"That isn't the kind of dog I wanted!" I repeated again and again, +inspecting the animal as it sprawled on the floor of the car at the +edge of Miss Barrison's skirt. "That dog is all voice and feet and +emotion! What makes it stick up its paws like that? I don't want that +dog and I'm not going to identify myself with it! Where's the +operator—"</p> + +<p>I turned towards the car-window; the operator's bald head was visible +on a line with the sill, and I made motions at him. He bowed with +courtly grace, as though I were thanking him.</p> + +<p>"I'm not!" I cried, shaking my head. "I wanted a dog with points—not +the kind of points that stick up all over this dog. Take him away!"</p> + +<p>The operator's head appeared to be gliding out of my range of vision; +then the windows of the north-bound <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span>train slid past, faster and +faster. A melancholy grace-note from the dog, a jolt, and I turned +around, appalled.</p> + +<p>"This train is going," I stammered, "and you are on it!"</p> + +<p>Miss Barrison sprang up and started towards the door, and I sped after +her.</p> + +<p>"I can jump," she said, breathlessly, edging out to the platform; +"please let me! There is time yet—if you only wouldn't hold me—so +tight—"</p> + +<p>A few moments later we walked slowly back together through the car and +took seats facing one another.</p> + +<p>Between us sat the hound-dog, a prey to melancholy unutterable.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="XV" id="XV"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>XV<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>It was on Sunday when I awoke to the realization that I had quitted +civilization and was afloat on an unfamiliar body of water in an open +boat containing—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">One light steel cage,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One rifle and ammunition,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One stenographer,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Three ounces rosium oxide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One hound-dog,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Two valises.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>A playful wave slopped over the bow and I lost count; but the pretty +stenographer made the inventory, while I resumed the oars, and the dog +punctured the primeval silence with staccato yelps.</p> + +<p>A few minutes later everything and everybody was accounted for; the +sky was blue and the palms waved, and several species of dicky-birds +tuned up as I pulled with powerful strokes out into the sunny waters +of Little Sprite Lake, now within a few miles of my journey's end.</p> + +<p>From ponds hidden in the marshes herons rose in lazily laborious +flight, flapping low across the water; high in the cypress yellow-eyed +ospreys bent crested heads to watch our progress; sun-baked +alligators, lying <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span>heavily in the shoreward sedge, slid open, glassy +eyes as we passed.</p> + +<p>"Even the 'gators make eyes at you," I said, resting on my oars.</p> + +<p>We were on terms of badinage.</p> + +<p>"Who was it who shed crocodile tears at the prospect of shipping me +North?" she inquired.</p> + +<p>"Speaking of tears," I observed, "somebody is likely to shed a number +when Professor Farrago is picked up."</p> + +<p>"Pooh!" she said, and snapped her pretty, sun-tanned fingers; and I +resumed the oars in time to avoid shipwreck on a large mud-bar.</p> + +<p>She reclined in the stern, serenely occupied with the view, now and +then caressing the discouraged dog, now and then patting her hair +where the wind had loosened a bright strand.</p> + +<p>"If Professor Farrago didn't expect a woman stenographer," she said, +abruptly, "why did he instruct you to bring a complete outfit of +woman's clothing?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know," I said, tartly.</p> + +<p>"But you bought them. Are they for a young woman or an old woman?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know; I sent a messenger to a department store. I don't know +what he bought."</p> + +<p>"Didn't you look them over?"</p> + +<p>"No. Why? I should have been no wiser. I fancy they're all right, +because the bill was eighteen hundred dollars—"</p> + +<p>The pretty stenographer sat up abruptly.</p> + +<p>"Is that much?" I asked, uneasily. "I've always heard women's clothing +was expensive. Wasn't it enough? I told the boy to order the +best;—Professor <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span>Farrago always requires the very best scientific +instruments, and—I listed the clothes as scientific accessories—that +being the object of this expedition—<i>What</i> are you laughing at?"</p> + +<p>When it pleased her to recover her gravity she announced her desire to +inspect and repack the clothing; but I refused.</p> + +<p>"They're for Professor Farrago," I said. "I don't know what he wants +of them. I don't suppose he intends to wear 'em and caper about the +jungle, but they're his. I got them because he told me to. I bought a +cage, too, to fit myself, but I don't suppose he means to put me in +it. Perhaps," I added, "he may invite you into it."</p> + +<p>"Let me refold the gowns," she pleaded, persuasively. "What does a +clumsy man know about packing such clothing as that? If you don't, +they'll be ruined. It's a shame to drag those boxes about through mud +and water!"</p> + +<p>So we made a landing, and lifted out and unlocked the boxes. All I +could see inside were mounds of lace and ribbons, and with a vague +idea that Miss Barrison needed no assistance I returned to the boat +and sat down to smoke until she was ready.</p> + +<p>When she summoned me her face was flushed and her eyes bright.</p> + +<p>"Those are certainly the most beautiful things!" she said, softly. +"Why, it is like a bride's trousseau—absolutely complete—all except +the bridal gown—"</p> + +<p>"Isn't there a dress there?" I exclaimed, in alarm.</p> + +<p>"No—not a day-dress."</p> + +<p>"Night-dresses!" I shrieked. "He doesn't want <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span>women's night-dresses! +He's a bachelor! Good Heavens! I've done it this time!"</p> + +<p>"But—but who is to wear them?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"How do I know? I don't know anything; I can only presume that he +doesn't intend to open a department store in the Everglades. And if +any lady is to wear garments in his vicinity, I assume that those +garments are to be anything except diaphanous!... Please take your +seat in the boat, Miss Barrison. I want to row and think."</p> + +<p>I had had my fill of exercise and thought when, about four o'clock in +the afternoon, Miss Barrison directed my attention to a point of palms +jutting out into the water about a mile to the southward.</p> + +<p>"That's Farrago!" I exclaimed, catching sight of a United States flag +floating majestically from a bamboo-pole. "Give me the megaphone, if +you please."</p> + +<p>She handed me the instrument; I hailed the shore; and presently a man +appeared under the palms at the water's edge.</p> + +<p>"Hello!" I roared, trying to inject cheerfulness into the hollow +bellow. "How are you, professor?"</p> + +<p>The answer came distinctly across the water:</p> + +<p>"<i>Who</i> is that with you?"</p> + +<p>My lips were buried in the megaphone; I strove to speak; I only +produced a ghastly, chuckling sound.</p> + +<p>"Of course you expect to tell the truth," observed the pretty +stenographer, quietly.</p> + +<p>I removed my lips from the megaphone and looked around at her. She +returned my gaze with a disturbing smile.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span>"I want to mitigate the blow," I said, hoarsely. "Tell me how."</p> + +<p>"I'm sure I don't know," she said, sweetly.</p> + +<p>"Well, <i>I</i> do!" I fairly barked, and seizing the megaphone again, I +set it to my lips and roared, "My fiancée!"</p> + +<p>"Good gracious!" exclaimed Miss Barrison, in consternation, "I thought +you were going to tell the truth!"</p> + +<p>"Don't do that or you'll upset us," I snapped—"I'm telling the truth; +I've engaged myself to you; I did it mentally before I bellowed."</p> + +<p>"But—"</p> + +<p>"You know as well as I do what engagements mean," I said, picking up +the oars and digging them deep in the blue water.</p> + +<p>She assented uncertainly.</p> + +<p>A few minutes more of vigorous rowing brought us to a muddy landing +under a cluster of tall palmettos, where a gasoline launch lay. +Professor Farrago came down to the shore as I landed, and I walked +ahead to meet him. He was the maddest man I ever saw. But I was his +match, for I was desperate.</p> + +<p>"What the devil—" he began, under his breath.</p> + +<p>"Nonsense!" I said, deliberately. "An engaged woman is practically +married already, because marriages are made in heaven."</p> + +<p>"Good Lord!" he gasped, "are you mad, Gilland? I sent for a +stenographer—"</p> + +<p>"Miss Barrison is a stenographer," I said, calmly; and before he could +recover I had presented him, and left them face to face, washing my +hands of the whole affair.</p> + +<p>Unloading the boat and carrying the luggage up under the palms, I +heard her saying:</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span>"No, I am not in the least afraid of snakes, and I am quite ready to +begin my duties."</p> + +<p>And he: "Mr. Gilland is a young man who—er—lacks practical +experience."</p> + +<p>And she: "Mr. Gilland has been most thoughtful for my comfort. The +journey has been perfectly heavenly."</p> + +<p>And he, clumsily: "Ahem!—the—er—celestial aspect of your journey +has—er—doubtless been colored by—er—the prospect of +your—er—approaching nuptials—"</p> + +<p>She, hastily: "Oh, I do not think so, professor."</p> + +<p>"Idiot!" I muttered, dragging the dog to the shore, where his yelps +brought the professor hurrying.</p> + +<p>"Is <i>that</i> the dog?" he inquired, adjusting his spectacles.</p> + +<p>"That's the dog," I said. "He's full of points, you see?"</p> + +<p>"Oh," mused the professor; "I thought he was full of—" He hesitated, +inspecting the animal, who, nose to the ground, stood investigating a +smell of some sort.</p> + +<p>"See," I said, with enthusiasm, "he's found a scent; he's trailing it +already! Now he's rolling on it!"</p> + +<p>"He's rolling on one of our concentrated food lozenges," said the +professor, dryly. "Tie him up, Mr. Gilland, and ask Mrs. Gilland to +come up to camp. Your room is ready."</p> + +<p>"Rooms," I corrected; "she isn't Mrs. Gilland yet," I added, with a +forced smile.</p> + +<p>"But you're practically married," observed the professor, "as you +pointed out to me. And if she's practically Mrs. Gilland, why not say +so?"</p> + +<p>"Don't, all the same," I snarled.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span>"But marriages are made in—"</p> + +<p>I cast a desperate eye upon him.</p> + +<p>From that moment, whenever we were alone together, he made a target of +me. I never had supposed him humorously vindictive; he was, and his +apparently innocent mistakes almost turned my hair gray.</p> + +<p>But to Miss Barrison he was kind and courteous, and for a time +over-serious. Observing him, I could never detect the slightest +symptom of dislike for her sex—a failing which common rumor had +always credited him with to the verge of absolute rudeness.</p> + +<p>On the contrary, it was perfectly plain to anybody that he liked her. +There was in his manner towards her a mixture of business formality +and the deferential attitude of a gentleman.</p> + +<p>We were seated, just before sunset, outside of the hut built of +palmetto logs, when Professor Farrago, addressing us both, began the +explanation of our future duties.</p> + +<p>Miss Barrison, it appeared, was to note everything said by himself, +making several shorthand copies by evening. In other words, she was to +report every scrap of conversation she heard while in the Everglades. +And she nodded intelligently as he finished, and drew pad and pencil +from the pocket of her walking-skirt, jotting down his instructions as +a beginning. I could see that he was pleased.</p> + +<p>"The reason I do this," he said, "is because I do not wish to hide +anything that transpires while we are on this expedition. Only the +most scrupulously minute record can satisfy me; no details are too +small to merit record; I demand and I court from my fellow-scientists +and from the public the fullest investigation."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span>He smiled slightly, turning towards me.</p> + +<p>"You know, Mr. Gilland, how dangerous to the reputation of a +scientific man is any line of investigation into the unusual. If a man +once is even suspected of charlatanism, of sensationalism, of turning +his attention to any phenomena not strictly within the proper pale of +scientific investigation, that man is doomed to ridicule; his +profession disowns him; he becomes a man without honor, without +authority. Is it not so?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," I said.</p> + +<p>"Therefore," he resumed, thoughtfully, "as I do most firmly believe in +the course I am now pursuing, whether I succeed or fail I desire a +true and minute record made, hiding nothing of what may be said or +done. A stenographer alone can give this to the world, while I can +only supplement it with a description of events—if I live to +transcribe them."</p> + +<p>Sunk in profound reverie he sat there silent under the great, smooth +palm-tree—a venerable figure in his yellow dressing-gown and carpet +slippers. Seated side by side, we waited, a trifle awed. I could hear +the soft breathing of the pretty stenographer beside me.</p> + +<p>"First of all," said Professor Farrago, looking up, "I must be able to +trust those who are here to aid me."</p> + +<p>"I—I will be faithful," said the girl, in a low voice.</p> + +<p>"I do not doubt you, my child," he said; "nor you, Gilland. And so I +am going to tell you this much now—more, I hope, later."</p> + +<p>And he sat up straight, lifting an impressive forefinger.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Rowan, lately an officer of our Coast Survey, wrote me a letter +from the Holland House in New <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span>York—a letter so strange that, on +reading it, I immediately repaired to his hotel, where for hours we +talked together.</p> + +<p>"The result of that conference is this expedition.</p> + +<p>"I have now been here two months, and I am satisfied of certain facts. +First, there do exist in this unexplored wilderness certain forms of +life which are solid and palpable, but transparent and practically +invisible. Second, these living creatures belong to the animal +kingdom, are warm-blooded vertebrates, possess powers of locomotion, +but whether that of flight I am not certain. Third, they appear to +possess such senses as we enjoy—smell, touch, sight, hearing, and no +doubt the sense of taste. Fourth, their skin is smooth to the touch, +and the temperature of the epidermis appears to approximate that of a +normal human being. Fifth and last, whether bipeds or quadrupeds I do +not know, though all evidence appears to confirm my theory that they +walk erect. One pair of their limbs appear to terminate in a sort of +foot—like a delicately shaped human foot, except that there appear to +be no toes. The other pair of limbs terminate in something that, from +the single instance I experienced, seemed to resemble soft but firm +antennæ or, perhaps, digitated palpi—"</p> + +<p>"Feelers!" I blurted out.</p> + +<p>"I don't know, but I think so. Once, when I was standing in the +forest, perfectly aware that creatures I could not see had stealthily +surrounded me, the tension was brought to a crisis when over my face, +from cheek to chin, stole a soft something, brushing the skin as +delicately as a child's fingers might brush it."</p> + +<p>"Good Lord!" I breathed.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span>A care-worn smile crept into his eyes. "A test for nerves, you think, +Mr. Gilland? I agree with you. Nobody fears what anybody can see."</p> + +<p>There came the slightest movement beside me.</p> + +<p>"Are you trembling?" I asked, turning.</p> + +<p>"I was writing," she replied, steadily. "Did my elbow touch you?"</p> + +<p>"By-the-way," said Professor Farrago, "I fear I forgot to congratulate +you upon your choice of a stenographer, Mr. Gilland."</p> + +<p>A rosy light stole over her pale face.</p> + +<p>"Am I to record that too?" she asked, raising her blue eyes.</p> + +<p>"Certainly," he replied, gravely.</p> + +<p>"But, professor," I began, a prey to increasing excitement, "do you +propose to attempt the capture of one of these animals?"</p> + +<p>"That is what the cage is for," he said. "I supposed you had guessed +that."</p> + +<p>"I had," murmured the pretty stenographer.</p> + +<p>"I do not doubt it," said Professor Farrago, gravely.</p> + +<p>"What are the chemicals for—and the tank and hose attachment?"</p> + +<p>"Think, Mr. Gilland."</p> + +<p>"I can't; I'm almost stunned by what you tell me."</p> + +<p>He laughed. "The rosium oxide and salts of strontium are to be dumped +into the tank together. They'll effervesce, of course."</p> + +<p>"Of course," I muttered.</p> + +<p>"And I can throw a rose-colored spray over any object by the hose +attachment, can't I?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span>"Well, I tried it on a transparent jelly-fish and it became perfectly +visible and of a beautiful rose-color: and I tried it on rock-crystal, +and on glass, and on pure gelatine, and all became suffused with a +delicate pink glow, which lasted for hours or minutes according to the +substance.... Now you understand, don't you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; you want to see what sort of creature you have to deal with."</p> + +<p>"Exactly; so when I've trapped it I am going to spray it." He turned +half humorously towards the stenographer: "I fancy you understood long +before Mr. Gilland did."</p> + +<p>"I don't think so," she said, with a sidelong lifting of the heavy +lashes; and I caught the color of her eyes for a second.</p> + +<p>"You see how Miss Barrison spares your feelings," observed Professor +Farrago, dryly. "She owes you little gratitude for bringing her here, +yet she proves a generous victim."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I am very grateful for this rarest of chances!" she said, shyly. +"To be among the first in the world to discover such wonders ought to +make me very grateful to the man who gave me the opportunity."</p> + +<p>"Do you mean Mr. Gilland?" asked the professor, laughing.</p> + +<p>I had never before seen Professor Farrago laugh such a care-free +laugh; I had never suspected him of harboring even an embryo of the +social graces. Dry as dust, sapless as steel, precise as the magnetic +needle, he had hitherto been to me the mummified embodiment of science +militant. Now, in the guise of a perfectly human and genial old +gentleman, I scarcely recognized my <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span>superior of the Bronx Park +society. And as a woman-hater he was a miserable failure.</p> + +<p>"Heavens," I thought to myself, "am I becoming jealous of my revered +professor's social success with a stray stenographer?" I felt mean, +and I probably looked it, and I was glad that telepathy did not permit +Miss Barrison to record my secret and unworthy ruminations.</p> + +<p>The professor was saying: "These transparent creatures break off +berries and fruits and branches; I have seen a flower, too, plucked +from its stem by invisible digits and borne swiftly through the +forest—only the flower visible, apparently speeding through the air +and out of sight among the thickets.</p> + +<p>"I have found the footprints that I described to you, usually on the +edge of a stream or in the soft loam along some forest lake or lost +lagoon.</p> + +<p>"Again and again I have been conscious in the forest that unseen eyes +were fixed on me, that unseen shapes were following me. Never but that +one time did these invisible creatures close in around me and venture +to touch me.</p> + +<p>"They may be weak; their structure may be frail, and they may be +incapable of violence or harm, but the depth of the footprints +indicates a weight of at least one hundred and thirty pounds, and it +certainly requires some muscular strength to break off a branch of +wild guavas."</p> + +<p>He bent his noble head, thoughtfully regarding the design on his +slippers.</p> + +<p>"What was the rifle for?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Defence, not aggression," he said, simply.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span>"And the camera?"</p> + +<p>"A camera record is necessary in these days of bad artists."</p> + +<p>I hesitated, glancing at Miss Barrison. She was still writing, her +pretty head bent over the pad in her lap.</p> + +<p>"And the clothing?" I asked, carelessly.</p> + +<p>"Did you get it?" he demanded.</p> + +<p>"Of course—" I glanced at Miss Barrison. "There's no use writing down +everything, is there?"</p> + +<p>"Everything must be recorded," said Professor Farrago, inflexibly. +"What clothing did you buy?"</p> + +<p>"I forgot the gown," I said, getting red about the ears.</p> + +<p>"Forgot the gown!" he repeated.</p> + +<p>"Yes—one kind of gown—the day kind. I—I got the other kind."</p> + +<p>He was annoyed; so was I. After a moment he got up, and crossing to +the log cabin, opened one of the boxes of apparel.</p> + +<p>"Is it what you wanted?" I inquired.</p> + +<p>"Y-es, I presume so," he replied, visibly perplexed.</p> + +<p>"It's the best to be had," said I.</p> + +<p>"That's quite right," he said, musingly. "We use only the best of +everything at Bronx Park. It is traditional with us, you know."</p> + +<p>Curiosity pushed me. "Well, what on earth is it for?" I broke out.</p> + +<p>He looked at me gravely over the tops of his spectacles—a striking +and inspiring figure in his yellow flannel dressing-gown and +slippers.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span>"I shall tell you some day—perhaps," he said, mildly. "Good-night, +Miss Barrison; good-night, Mr. Gilland. You will find extra blankets +on your bunk—"</p> + +<p>"What!" I cried.</p> + +<p>"Bunks," he said, and shut the door.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="XVI" id="XVI"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>XVI<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>"There is something weird about this whole proceeding," I observed to +the pretty stenographer next morning.</p> + +<p>"These pies will be weird if you don't stop talking to me," she said, +opening the doors of Professor Farrago's portable camping-oven and +peeping in at the fragrant pastry.</p> + +<p>The professor had gone off somewhere into the woods early that +morning. As he was not in the habit of talking to himself, the +services of Miss Barrison were not required. Before he started, +however, he came to her with a request for a dozen pies, the +construction of which he asked if she understood. She had been to +cooking-school in more prosperous days, and she mentioned it; so at +his earnest solicitation she undertook to bake for him twelve +apple-pies; and she was now attempting it, assisted by advice from me.</p> + +<p>"Are they burned?" I asked, sniffing the air.</p> + +<p>"No, they are not burned, Mr. Gilland, but my finger is," she +retorted, stepping back to examine the damage.</p> + +<p>I offered sympathy and witch-hazel, but she would have none of my +offerings, and presently returned to her pies.</p> + +<p>"We can't eat all that pastry," I protested.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span>"Professor Farrago said they were not for us to eat," she said, +dusting each pie with powdered sugar.</p> + +<p>"Well, what are they for? The dog? Or are they simply objets d'art to +adorn the shanty—"</p> + +<p>"You annoy me," she said.</p> + +<p>"The pies annoy me; won't you tell me what they're for?"</p> + +<p>"I have a pretty fair idea what they're for," she observed, tossing +her head. "Haven't you?"</p> + +<p>"No. What?"</p> + +<p>"These pies are for bait."</p> + +<p>"To bait hooks with?" I exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"Hooks! No, you silly man. They're for baiting the cage. He means to +trap these transparent creatures in a cage baited with pie."</p> + +<p>She laughed scornfully; inserted the burned tip of her finger in her +mouth and stood looking at me defiantly like a flushed and bright-eyed +school-girl.</p> + +<p>"You think you're teasing me," she said; "but you do not realize what +a singularly slow-minded young man you are."</p> + +<p>I stopped laughing. "How did you come to the conclusion that pies were +to be used for such a purpose?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"I deduce," she observed, with an airy wave of her disengaged hand.</p> + +<p>"Your deductions are weird—like everything else in this vicinity. +Pies to catch invisible monsters? Pooh!"</p> + +<p>"You're not particularly complimentary, are you?" she said.</p> + +<p>"Not particularly; but I could be, with you for my inspiration. I +could even be enthusiastic—"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span>"About my pies?"</p> + +<p>"No—about your eyes."</p> + +<p>"You are very frivolous—for a scientist," she said, scornfully; +"please subdue your enthusiasm and bring me some wood. This fire is +almost out."</p> + +<p>When I had brought the wood, she presented me with a pail of hot water +and pointed at the dishes on the breakfast-table.</p> + +<p>"Never!" I cried, revolted.</p> + +<p>"Then I suppose I must do them—"</p> + +<p>She looked pensively at her scorched finger-tip, and, pursing up her +red lips, blew a gentle breath to cool it.</p> + +<p>"I'll do the dishes," I said.</p> + +<p>Splashing and slushing the cups and saucers about in the hot water, I +reflected upon the events of the last few days. The dog, stupefied by +unwonted abundance of food, lay in the sunshine, sleeping the sleep of +repletion; the pretty stenographer, all rosy from her culinary +exertions, was removing the pies and setting them in neat rows to +cool.</p> + +<p>"There," she said, with a sigh; "now I will dry the dishes for you.... +You didn't mention the fact, when you engaged me, that I was also +expected to do general housework."</p> + +<p>"I didn't engage you," I said, maliciously; "you engaged me, you +know."</p> + +<p>She regarded me disdainfully, nose uptilted.</p> + +<p>"How thoroughly disagreeable you can be!" she said. "Dry your own +dishes. I'm going for a stroll."</p> + +<p>"May I join—"</p> + +<p>"You may <i>not</i>! I shall go so far that you cannot possibly discover +me."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span>I watched her forestward progress; she sauntered for about thirty +yards along the lake and presently sat down in plain sight under a +huge live-oak.</p> + +<p>A few moments later I had completed my task as general bottle-washer, +and I cast about for something to occupy me.</p> + +<p>First I approached and politely caressed the satiated dog. He woke up, +regarded me with dully meditative eyes, yawned, and went to sleep +again. Never a flop of tail to indicate gratitude for blandishments, +never the faintest symptom of canine appreciation.</p> + +<p>Chilled by my reception, I moused about for a while, poking into boxes +and bundles; then raised my head and inspected the landscape. Through +the vista of trees the pink shirt-waist of the pretty stenographer +glimmered like a rose blooming in the wilderness.</p> + +<p>From whatever point I viewed the prospect that pink spot seemed to +intrude; I turned my back and examined the jungle, but there it was +repeated in a hundred pink blossoms among the massed thickets; I +looked up into the tree-tops, where pink mosses spotted the palms; I +looked out over the lake, and I saw it in my mind's eye pinker than +ever. It was certainly a case of pink-eye.</p> + +<p>"I'll go for a stroll, too; it's a free country," I muttered.</p> + +<p>After I had strolled in a complete circle I found myself within three +feet of a pink shirt-waist.</p> + +<p>"I beg your pardon," I said; "I had no inten—"</p> + +<p>"I thought you were never coming," she said, amiably.</p> + +<p>"How is your finger?" I asked.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span>She held it up. I took it gingerly; it was smooth and faintly rosy at +the tip.</p> + +<p>"Does it hurt?" I inquired.</p> + +<p>"Dreadfully. Your hands feel so cool—"</p> + +<p>After a silence she said, "Thank you, that has cooled the burning."</p> + +<p>"I am determined," said I, "to expel the fire from your finger if it +takes hours and hours." And I seated myself with that intention.</p> + +<p>For a while she talked, making innocent observations concerning the +tropical foliage surrounding us. Then silence crept in between us, +accentuated by the brooding stillness of the forest.</p> + +<p>"I am afraid your hands are growing tired," she said, considerately.</p> + +<p>I denied it.</p> + +<p>Through the vista of palms we could see the lake, blue as a violet, +sparkling with silvery sunshine. In the intense quiet the splash of +leaping mullet sounded distinctly.</p> + +<p>Once a tall crane stalked into view among the sedges; once an unseen +alligator shook the silence with his deep, hollow roaring. Then the +stillness of the wilderness grew more intense.</p> + +<p>We had been sitting there for a long while without exchanging a word, +dreamily watching the ripple of the azure water, when all at once +there came a scurrying patter of feet through the forest, and, looking +up, I beheld the hound-dog, tail between his legs, bearing down on us +at lightning speed. I rose instantly.</p> + +<p>"What is the matter with the dog?" cried the pretty stenographer. "Is +he going mad, Mr. Gilland?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span>"Something has scared him," I exclaimed, as the dog, eyes like lighted +candles, rushed frantically between my legs and buried his head in +Miss Barrison's lap.</p> + +<p>"Poor doggy!" she said, smoothing the collapsed pup; "poor, p-oor +little beast! Did anything scare him? Tell aunty all about it."</p> + +<p>When a dog flees <i>without yelping</i> he's a badly frightened creature. I +instinctively started back towards the camp whence the beast had fled, +and before I had taken a dozen steps Miss Barrison was beside me, +carrying the dog in her arms.</p> + +<p>"I've an idea," she said, under her breath.</p> + +<p>"What?" I asked, keeping my eyes on the camp.</p> + +<p>"It's this: I'll wager that we find those pies gone!"</p> + +<p>"Pies gone?" I repeated, perplexed; "what makes you think—"</p> + +<p>"They <i>are</i> gone!" she exclaimed. "Look!"</p> + +<p>I gaped stupidly at the rough pine table where the pies had stood in +three neat rows of four each. And then, in a moment, the purport of +this robbery flashed upon my senses.</p> + +<p>"The transparent creatures!" I gasped.</p> + +<p>"Hush!" she whispered, clinging to the trembling dog in her arms.</p> + +<p>I listened. I could hear nothing, see nothing, yet slowly I became +convinced of the presence of something unseen—something in the forest +close by, watching us out of invisible eyes.</p> + +<p>A chill, settling along my spine, crept upward to my scalp, until +every separate hair wiggled to the roots. Miss Barrison was pale, but +perfectly calm and self-possessed.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span>"Let us go in-doors," I said, as steadily as I could.</p> + +<p>"Very well," she replied.</p> + +<p>I held the door open; she entered with the dog; I followed, closing +and barring the door, and then took my station at the window, rifle in +hand.</p> + +<p>There was not a sound in the forest. Miss Barrison laid the dog on the +floor and quietly picked up her pad and pencil. Presently she was deep +in a report of the phenomena, her pencil flying, leaf after leaf from +the pad fluttering to the floor.</p> + +<p>Nor did I at the window change my position of scared alertness, until +I was aware of her hand gently touching my elbow to attract my +attention, and her soft voice at my ear—</p> + +<p>"You don't suppose by any chance that the dog ate those pies?"</p> + +<p>I collected my tumultuous thoughts and turned to stare at the dog.</p> + +<p>"Twelve pies, twelve inches each in diameter," she reflected, +musingly. "One dog, twenty inches in diameter. How many times will the +pies go into the dog? Let me see." She made a few figures on her pad, +thought awhile, produced a tape-measure from her pocket, and, kneeling +down, measured the dog.</p> + +<p>"No," she said, looking up at me, "he couldn't contain them."</p> + +<p>Inspired by her coolness and perfect composure, I set the rifle in the +corner and opened the door. Sunlight fell in bars through the quiet +woods; nothing stirred on land or water save the great, yellow-striped +butterflies that fluttered and soared and floated above the flowering +thickets bordering the jungle.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span>The heat became intense; Miss Barrison went to her room to change her +gown for a lighter one; I sat down under a live-oak, eyes and ears +strained for any sign of our invisible neighbors.</p> + +<p>When she emerged in the lightest and filmiest of summer gowns, she +brought the camera with her; and for a while we took pictures of each +other, until we had used up all but one film.</p> + +<p>Desiring to possess a picture of Miss Barrison and myself seated +together, I tied a string to the shutter-lever and attached the other +end of the string to the dog, who had resumed his interrupted +slumbers. At my whistle he jumped up nervously, snapping the lever, +and the picture was taken.</p> + +<p>With such innocent and harmless pastime we whiled away the afternoon. +She made twelve more apple-pies. I mounted guard over them. And we +were just beginning to feel a trifle uneasy about Professor Farrago, +when he appeared, tramping sturdily through the forest, green umbrella +and butterfly-net under one arm, shot-gun and cyanide-jar under the +other, and his breast all criss-crossed with straps, from which +dangled field-glasses, collecting-boxes, and botanizing-tins—an +inspiring figure indeed—the embodied symbol of science indomitable, +triumphant!</p> + +<p>We hailed him with three guilty cheers; the dog woke up with a +perfunctory bark—the first sound I had heard from him since he yelped +his disapproval of me on the lagoon.</p> + +<p>Miss Barrison produced three bowls full of boiling water and dropped +three pellets of concentrated soup-meat into them, while I prepared +coffee. And in a few <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span>moments our simple dinner was ready—the red +ants had been dusted from the biscuits, the spiders chased off the +baked beans, the scorpions shaken from the napkins, and we sat down at +the rough, improvised table under the palms.</p> + +<p>The professor gave us a brief but modest account of his short tour of +exploration. He had brought back a new species of orchid, several +undescribed beetles, and a pocketful of coontie seed. He appeared, +however, to be tired and singularly depressed, and presently we +learned why.</p> + +<p>It seemed that he had gone straight to that section of the forest +where he had hitherto always found signs of the transparent and +invisible creatures which he had determined to capture, and he had not +found a single trace of them.</p> + +<p>"It alarms me," he said, gravely. "If they have deserted this region, +it might take a lifetime to locate them again in this wilderness."</p> + +<p>Then, very quietly, sinking her voice instinctively, as though the +unseen might be at our very elbows listening, Miss Barrison recounted +the curious adventure which had befallen the dog and the first batch +of apple-pies.</p> + +<p>With visible and increasing excitement the professor listened until +the very end. Then he struck the table with clinched fist—a +resounding blow which set the concentrated soup dancing in the bowls +and scattered the biscuits and the industrious red ants in every +direction.</p> + +<p>"Eureka!" he whispered. "Miss Barrison, your deduction was not only +perfectly reasonable, but brilliant. You are right; the pies are for +that very purpose. I conceived the idea when I first came here. Again +and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span>again the pies that my guide made out of dried apples disappeared +in a most astonishing and mysterious manner when left to cool. At +length I determined to watch them every second; and did so, with the +result that late one afternoon I was amazed to see a pie slowly rise +from the table and move swiftly away through the air about four feet +above the ground, finally disappearing into a tangle of jasmine and +grape-vine.</p> + +<p>"The apparently automatic flight of that pie solved the problem; these +transparent creatures cannot resist that delicacy. Therefore I decided +to bait the cage for them this very night—Look! What's the matter +with that dog?"</p> + +<p>The dog suddenly bounded into the air, alighted on all fours, ears, +eyes, and muzzle concentrated on a point directly behind us.</p> + +<p>"Good gracious! The pies!" faltered Miss Barrison, half rising from +her seat; but the dog rushed madly into her skirts, scrambling for +protection, and she fell back almost into my arms.</p> + +<p>Clasping her tightly, I looked over my shoulder; the last pie was +snatched from the table before my eyes and I saw it borne swiftly away +by something unseen, straight into the deepening shadows of the +forest.</p> + +<p>The professor was singularly calm, even slightly ironical, as he +turned to me, saying:</p> + +<p>"Perhaps if you relinquish Miss Barrison she may be able to free +herself from that dog."</p> + +<p>I did so immediately, and she deposited the cowering dog in my arms. +Her face had suddenly become pink.</p> + +<p>I passed the dog on to Professor Farrago, dumping it viciously into +his lap—a proceeding which struck me as <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span>resembling a pastime of +extreme youth known as "button, button, who's got the button?"</p> + +<p>The professor examined the animal gravely, feeling its pulse, counting +its respirations, and finally inserting a tentative finger in an +attempt to examine its tongue. The dog bit him.</p> + +<p>"Ouch! It's a clear case of fright," he said, gravely. "I wanted a dog +to aid me in trailing these remarkable creatures, but I think this dog +of yours is useless, Gilland."</p> + +<p>"It's given us warning of the creatures' presence twice already," I +argued.</p> + +<p>"Poor little thing," said Miss Barrison, softly; "I don't know why, +but I love that dog.... He has eyes like yours, Mr. Gilland—"</p> + +<p>Exasperated, I rose from the table. "He's got eyes like holes burned +in a blanket!" I said. "And if ever a flicker of intelligence lighted +them I have failed to observe it."</p> + +<p>The professor regarded me dreamily. "We ought to have more pies," he +observed. "Perhaps if you carried the oven into the shanty—"</p> + +<p>"Certainly," said Miss Barrison; "we can lock the door while I make +twelve more pies."</p> + +<p>I carried the portable camping-oven into the cabin, connected the +patent asbestos chimney-pipes, and lighted the fire. And in a few +minutes Miss Barrison, sleeves rolled up and pink apron pinned under +her chin, was busily engaged in rolling pie-crust, while Professor +Farrago measured out spices and set the dried apples to soak.</p> + +<p>The swift Southern twilight had already veiled the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span>forest as I +stepped out of the cabin to smoke a cigar and promenade a bit and +cogitate. A last trace of color lingering in the west faded out as I +looked; the gray glimmer deepened into darkness, through which the +white lake vapors floated in thin, wavering strata across the water.</p> + +<p>For a while the frog's symphony dominated all other sounds, then +lagoon and forest and cypress branch awoke; and through the steadily +sustained tumult of woodland voices I could hear the dry bark of the +fox-squirrel, the whistle of the raccoon, ducks softly quacking or +whimpering as they prepared for sleep among the reeds, the soft +booming of bitterns, the clattering gossip of the heronry, the +Southern whippoorwill's incessant call.</p> + +<p>At regular intervals the howling note of a lone heron echoed the +strident screech of a crimson-crested crane; the horned owl's savage +hunting-cry haunted the night, now near, now floating from infinite +distances.</p> + +<p>And after a while I became aware of a nearer sound, low-pitched but +ceaseless—the hum of thousands of lesser living creatures blending to +a steady monotone.</p> + +<p>Then the theatrical moon came up through filmy draperies of waving +Spanish moss thin as cobwebs; and far in the wilderness a cougar fell +a-crying and coughing like a little child with a bad cold.</p> + +<p>I went in after that. Miss Barrison was sitting before the oven, knees +gathered in her clasped hands, languidly studying the fire. She looked +up as I appeared, opened the oven-doors, sniffed the aroma, and +resumed her attitude of contented indifference.</p> + +<p>"Where is the professor?" I asked.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span>"He has retired. He's been talking in his sleep at moments."</p> + +<p>"Better take it down; that's what you're here for," I observed, +closing and holding the outside door. "Ugh! there's a chill in the +air. The dew is pelting down from the pines like a steady fall of +rain."</p> + +<p>"You will get fever if you roam about at night," she said. "Mercy! +your coat is soaking. Sit here by the fire."</p> + +<p>So I pulled up a bench and sat down beside her like the traditional +spider.</p> + +<p>"Miss Muffitt," I said, "don't let me frighten you away—"</p> + +<p>"I was going anyhow—"</p> + +<p>"Please don't."</p> + +<p>"Why?" she demanded, reseating herself.</p> + +<p>"Because I like to sit beside you," I said, truthfully.</p> + +<p>"Your avowal is startling and not to be substantiated by facts," she +remarked, resting her chin on one hand and gazing into the fire.</p> + +<p>"You mean because I went for a stroll by moonlight? I did that because +you always seem to make fun of me as soon as the professor joins us."</p> + +<p>"Make fun of you? You surely don't expect me to make eyes at you!"</p> + +<p>There was a silence; I toasted my shins, thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>"How is your burned finger?" I asked.</p> + +<p>She lifted it for my inspection, and I began a protracted examination.</p> + +<p>"What would you prescribe?" she inquired, with an absent-minded glance +at the professor's closed door.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span>"I don't know; perhaps a slight but firm pressure of the +finger-tips—"</p> + +<p>"You tried that this afternoon."</p> + +<p>"But the dog interrupted us—"</p> + +<p>"Interrupted <i>you</i>. Besides—"</p> + +<p>"What?"</p> + +<p>"I don't think you ought to," she said.</p> + +<p>Sitting there before the oven, side by side, hand innocently clasped +in hand, we heard the drumming of the dew on the roof, the night-wind +stirring the palms, the muffled snoring of the professor, the faint +whisper and crackle of the fire.</p> + +<p>A single candle burned brightly, piling our shadows together on the +wall behind us; moonlight silvered the window-panes, over which +crawled multitudes of soft-winged moths, attracted by the candle +within.</p> + +<p>"See their tiny eyes glow!" she whispered. "How their wings quiver! +And all for a candle-flame! Alas! alas! fire is the undoing of us +all."</p> + +<p>She leaned forward, resting as though buried in reverie. After a while +she extended one foot a trifle and, with the point of her shoe, +carefully unlatched the oven-door. As it swung outward a delicious +fragrance filled the room.</p> + +<p>"They're done," she said, withdrawing her hand from mine. "Help me to +lift them out."</p> + +<p>Together we arranged the delicious pastry in rows on the bench to +cool. I opened the door for a few minutes, then closed and bolted it +again.</p> + +<p>"Do you suppose those transparent creatures will smell the odor and +come around the cabin?" she suggested, wiping her fingers on her +handkerchief.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span>I walked to the window uneasily. Outside the pane the moths crawled, +some brilliant in scarlet and tan-color set with black, some +snow-white with black tracings on their wings, and bodies peacock-blue +edged with orange. The scientist in me was aroused; I called her to +the window, and she came and leaned against the sill, nose pressed to +the glass.</p> + +<p>"I don't suppose you know that the antennæ of that silvery-winged moth +are distinctly pectinate," I said.</p> + +<p>"Of course I do," she said. "I took my degree as D.E. at Barnard +College."</p> + +<p>"What!" I exclaimed in astonishment. "You've been through Barnard? You +are a Doctor of Entomology?"</p> + +<p>"It was my undoing," she said. "The department was abolished the year +I graduated. There was no similar vacancy, even in the Smithsonian."</p> + +<p>She shrugged her shoulders, eyes fixed on the moths. "I had to make my +own living. I chose stenography as the quickest road to +self-sustenance."</p> + +<p>She looked up, a flush on her cheeks.</p> + +<p>"I suppose you took me for an inferior?" she said. "But do you suppose +I'd flirt with you if I was?"</p> + +<p>She pressed her face to the pane again, murmuring that exquisite poem +of Andrew Lang:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Spooning is innocuous and needn't have a sequel,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> But recollect, if spoon you must, spoon only with your equal."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Standing there, watching the moths, we became rather silent—I don't +know why.</p> + +<p>The fire in the range had gone out; the candle-flame, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span>flaring above a +saucer of melted wax, sank lower and lower.</p> + +<p>Suddenly, as though disturbed by something inside, the moths all left +the window-pane, darting off in the darkness.</p> + +<p>"That's curious," I said.</p> + +<p>"What's curious?" she asked, opening her eyes languidly. "Good +gracious! Was that a bat that beat on the window?"</p> + +<p>"I saw nothing," I said, disturbed. "Listen!"</p> + +<p>A soft sound against the glass, as though invisible fingers were +feeling the pane—a gentle rubbing—then a tap-tap, all but inaudible.</p> + +<p>"Is it a bird? Can you see?" she whispered.</p> + +<p>The candle-flame behind us flashed and expired. Moonlight flooded the +pane. The sounds continued, but there was nothing there.</p> + +<p>We understood now what it was that so gently rubbed and patted the +glass outside. With one accord we noiselessly gathered up the pies and +carried them into my room.</p> + +<p>Then she walked to the door of her room, turned, held out her hand, +and whispering, "Good-night! A demain, monsieur!" slipped into her +room and softly closed the door.</p> + +<p>And all night long I lay in troubled slumber beside the pies, a rifle +resting on the blankets beside me, a revolver under my pillow. And I +dreamed of moths with brilliant eyes and vast silvery wings harnessed +to a balloon in which Miss Barrison and I sat, arms around each other, +eating slice after slice of apple-pie.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="XVII" id="XVII"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>XVII<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>Dawn came—the dawn of a day that I am destined never to forget. Long, +rosy streamers of light broke through the forest, shaking, quivering, +like unstable beams from celestial search-lights. Mist floated upward +from marsh and lake; and through it the spectral palms loomed, +drooping fronds embroidered with dew.</p> + +<p>For a while the ringing outburst of bird music dominated all; but it +soon ceased with dropping notes from the crimson cardinals repeated in +lengthening minor intervals; and then the spell of silence returned, +broken only by the faint splash of mullet, mocking the sun with +sinuous, silver flashes.</p> + +<p>"Good-morning," said a low voice from the door as I stood encouraging +the camp-fire with splinter wood and dead palmetto fans.</p> + +<p>Fresh and sweet from her toilet as a dew-drenched rose, Miss Barrison +stood there sniffing the morning air daintily, thoroughly.</p> + +<p>"Too much perfume," she said—"too much like ylang-ylang in a +department-store. Central Park smells sweeter on an April morning."</p> + +<p>"Are you criticising the wild jasmine?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"I'm criticising an exotic smell. Am I not permitted to comment on the +tropics?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span>Fishing out a cedar log from the lumber-stack, I fell to chopping it +vigorously. The axe-strokes made a cheerful racket through the woods.</p> + +<p>"Did you hear anything last night after you retired?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Something was at my window—something that thumped softly and seemed +to be feeling all over the glass. To tell you the truth, I was silly +enough to remain dressed all night."</p> + +<p>"You don't look it," I said.</p> + +<p>"Oh, when daylight came I had a chance," she added, laughing.</p> + +<p>"All the same," said I, leaning on the axe and watching her, "you are +about the coolest and pluckiest woman I ever knew."</p> + +<p>"We were all in the same fix," she said, modestly.</p> + +<p>"No, we were not. Now I'll tell you the truth—my hair stood up the +greater part of the night. You are looking upon a poltroon, Miss +Barrison."</p> + +<p>"Then there was something at your window, too?"</p> + +<p>"Something? A dozen! They were monkeying with the sashes and panes all +night long, and I imagined that I could hear them breathing—as though +from effort of intense eagerness. Ouch! I came as near losing my nerve +as I care to. I came within an ace of hurling those cursed pies +through the window at them. I'd bolt to-day if I wasn't afraid to play +the coward."</p> + +<p>"Most people are brave for that reason," she said.</p> + +<p>The dog, who had slept under my bunk, and who had contributed to my +entertainment by sighing and moaning all night, now appeared ready for +business—business in his case being the operation of feeding. I +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span>presented him with a concentrated tablet, which he cautiously +investigated and then rolled on.</p> + +<p>"Nice testimonial for the people who concocted it," I said, in +disgust. "I wish I had an egg."</p> + +<p>"There are some concentrated egg tablets in the shanty," said Miss +Barrison; but the idea was not attractive.</p> + +<p>"I refuse to fry a pill for breakfast," I said, sullenly, and set the +coffee-pot on the coals.</p> + +<p>In spite of the dewy beauty of the morning, breakfast was not a +cheerful function. Professor Farrago appeared, clad in sun-helmet and +khaki. I had seldom seen him depressed; but he was now, and his very +efforts to disguise it only emphasized his visible anxiety.</p> + +<p>His preparations for the day, too, had an ominous aspect to me. He +gave his orders and we obeyed, instinctively suppressing questions. +First, he and I transported all personal luggage of the company to the +big electric launch—Miss Barrison's effects, his, and my own. His +private papers, the stenographic reports, and all memoranda were tied +up together and carried aboard.</p> + +<p>Then, to my surprise, two weeks' concentrated rations for two and +mineral water sufficient for the same period were stowed away aboard +the launch. Several times he asked me whether I knew how to run the +boat, and I assured him that I did.</p> + +<p>In a short time nothing was left ashore except the bare furnishings of +the cabin, the female wearing-apparel, the steel cage and chemicals +which I had brought, and the twelve apple-pies—the latter under lock +and key in my room.</p> + +<p>As the preparations came to an end, the professor's <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span>gentle melancholy +seemed to deepen. Once I ventured to ask him if he was indisposed, and +he replied that he had never felt in better physical condition.</p> + +<p>Presently he bade me fetch the pies; and I brought them, and, at a +sign from him, placed them inside the steel cage, closing and locking +the door.</p> + +<p>"I believe," he said, glancing from Miss Barrison to me, and from me +to the dog—"I believe that we are ready to start."</p> + +<p>He went to the cabin and locked the door on the outside, pocketing the +key.</p> + +<p>Then he backed up to the steel cage, stooped and lifted his end as I +lifted mine, and together we started off through the forest, bearing +the cage between us as porters carry a heavy piece of luggage.</p> + +<p>Miss Barrison came next, carrying the trousseau, the tank, hose, and +chemicals; and the dog followed her—probably not from affection for +us, but because he was afraid to be left alone.</p> + +<p>We walked in silence, the professor and I keeping an instinctive +lookout for snakes; but we encountered nothing of that sort. On every +side, touching our shoulders, crowded the closely woven and +impenetrable tangle of the jungle; and we threaded it along a narrow +path which he, no doubt, had cut, for the machete marks were still +fresh, and the blazes on hickory, live-oak, and palm were all wet with +dripping sap, and swarming with eager, brilliant butterflies.</p> + +<p>At times across our course flowed shallow, rapid streams of water, +clear as crystal, and most alluring to the thirsty.</p> + +<p>"There's fever in every drop," said the professor, as I <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span>mentioned my +thirst; "take the bottled water if you mean to stay a little longer."</p> + +<p>"Stay where?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"On earth," he replied, tersely; and we marched on.</p> + +<p>The beauty of the tropics is marred somewhat for me; under all the +fresh splendor of color death lurks in brilliant tints. Where painted +fruit hangs temptingly, where great, silky blossoms exhale alluring +scent, where the elaps coils inlaid with scarlet, black, and saffron, +where in the shadow of a palmetto frond a succession of velvety black +diamonds mark the rattler's swollen length, there death is; and his +invisible consort, horror, creeps where the snake whose mouth is lined +with white creeps—where the tarantula squats, hairy, motionless; +where a bit of living enamel fringed with orange undulates along a +mossy log.</p> + +<p>Thinking of these things, and watchful lest, unawares, terror unfold +from some blossoming and leafy covert, I scarcely noticed the beauty +of the glade we had entered—a long oval, cross-barred with sunshine +which fell on hedges of scrub-palmetto, chin high, interlaced with +golden blossoms of the jasmine. And all around, like pillars +supporting a high green canopy above a throne, towered the silvery +stems of palms fretted with pale, rose-tinted lichens and hung with +draperies of grape-vine.</p> + +<p>"This is the place," said Professor Farrago.</p> + +<p>His quiet, passionless voice sounded strange to me; his words seemed +strange, too, each one heavily weighted with hidden meaning.</p> + +<p>We set the cage on the ground; he unlocked and opened the steel-barred +door, and, kneeling, carefully arranged the pies along the centre of +the cage.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span>"I have a curious presentiment," he said, "that I shall not come out +of this experiment unscathed."</p> + +<p>"Don't, for Heaven's sake, say that!" I broke out, my nerves on edge +again.</p> + +<p>"Why not?" he asked, surprised. "I am not afraid."</p> + +<p>"Not afraid to die?" I demanded, exasperated.</p> + +<p>"Who spoke of dying?" he inquired, mildly. "What I said was that I do +not expect to come out of this affair unscathed."</p> + +<p>I did not comprehend his meaning, but I understood the reproof +conveyed.</p> + +<p>He closed and locked the cage door again and came towards us, +balancing the key across the palm of his hand.</p> + +<p>Miss Barrison had seated herself on the leaves; I stood back as the +professor sat down beside her; then, at a gesture from him, took the +place he indicated on his left.</p> + +<p>"Before we begin," he said, calmly, "there are several things you +ought to know and which I have not yet told you. The first concerns +the feminine wearing apparel which Mr. Gilland brought me."</p> + +<p>He turned to Miss Barrison and asked her whether she had brought a +complete outfit, and she opened the bundle on her knees and handed it +to him.</p> + +<p>"I cannot," he said, "delicately explain in so many words what use I +expect to make of this apparel. Nor do I yet know whether I shall have +any use at all for it. That can only be a theoretical speculation +until, within a few more hours, my theory is proven or disproven—and," +he said, suddenly turning on me, "my theory concerning these invisible +creatures is the most <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span>extraordinary and audacious theory ever +entertained by man since Columbus presumed that there must lie +somewhere a hidden continent which nobody had ever seen."</p> + +<p>He passed his hand over his protruding forehead, lost for a moment in +deepest reflection. Then, "Have you ever heard of the Sphyx?" he +asked.</p> + +<p>"It seems to me that Ponce de Leon wrote of something—" I began, +hesitating.</p> + +<p>"Yes, the famous lines in the third volume which have set so many wise +men guessing. You recall them:</p> + +<p>"'<i>And there, alas! within sound of the Fountain of Youth whose waters +tint the skin till the whole body glows softly like the petal of a +rose—there, alas! in the new world already blooming</i>, <span class="sc">The Eternal +Enigma</span> <i>I beheld, in the flesh living; yet it faded even as I +looked, although I swear it lived and breathed. This is the Sphyx</i>.'"</p> + +<p>A silence; then I said, "Those lines are meaningless to me."</p> + +<p>"Not to me," said Miss Barrison, softly.</p> + +<p>The professor looked at her. "Ah, child! Ever subtler, ever surer—the +Eternal Enigma is no enigma to you."</p> + +<p>"What is the Sphyx?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Have you read De Soto? Or Goya?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, both. I remember now that De Soto records the Syachas legend of +the Sphyx—something about a goddess—"</p> + +<p>"Not a goddess," said Miss Barrison, her lips touched with a smile.</p> + +<p>"Sometimes," said the professor, gently. "And Goya said:</p> + +<p>"'<i>It has come to my ears while in the lands of the Syachas</i> <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span><i>that the +Sphyx surely lives, as bolder and more curious men than I may, God +willing, prove to the world hereafter</i>.'"</p> + +<p>"But what is the Sphyx?" I insisted.</p> + +<p>"For centuries wise men and savants have asked each other that +question. I have answered it for myself; I am now to prove it, I +trust."</p> + +<p>His face darkened, and again and again he stroked his heavy brow.</p> + +<p>"If anything occurs," he said, taking my hand in his left and Miss +Barrison's hand in his right, "promise me to obey my wishes. Will +you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," we said, together.</p> + +<p>"If I lose my life, or—or disappear, promise me on your honor to get +to the electric launch as soon as possible and make all speed +northward, placing my private papers, the reports of Miss Barrison, +and your own reports in the hands of the authorities in Bronx Park. +Don't attempt to aid me; don't delay to search for me. Do you +promise?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," we breathed together.</p> + +<p>He looked at us solemnly. "If you fail me, you betray me," he said.</p> + +<p>We swore obedience.</p> + +<p>"Then let us begin," he said, and he rose and went to the steel cage. +Unlocking the door, he flung it wide and stepped inside, leaving the +cage door open.</p> + +<p>"The moment a single pie is disturbed," he said to me, "I shall close +the steel door from the inside, and you and Miss Barrison will then +dump the rosium oxide and the strontium into the tank, clap on the +lid, turn the nozzle of the hose on the cage, and spray it +thoroughly. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span>Whatever is invisible in the cage will become visible and +of a faint rose color. And when the trapped creature becomes visible, +hold yourselves ready to aid me as long as I am able to give you +orders. After that either all will go well or all will go otherwise, +and you must run for the launch." He seated himself in the cage near +the open door.</p> + +<p>I placed the steel tank near the cage, uncoiled the hose attachment, +unscrewed the top, and dumped in the salts of strontium. Miss Barrison +unwrapped the bottle of rosium oxide and loosened the cork. We +examined this pearl-and-pink powder and shook it up so that it might +run out quickly. Then Miss Barrison sat down, and presently became +absorbed in a stenographic report of the proceedings up to date.</p> + +<p>When Miss Barrison finished her report she handed me the bundle of +papers. I stowed them away in my wallet, and we sat down together +beside the tank.</p> + +<p>Inside the cage Professor Farrago was seated, his spectacled eyes +fixed on the row of pies. For a while, although realizing perfectly +that our quarry was transparent and invisible, we unconsciously +strained our eyes in quest of something stirring in the forest.</p> + +<p>"I should think," said I, in a low voice, "that the odor of the pies +might draw at least one out of the odd dozen that came rubbing up +against my window last night."</p> + +<p>"Hush! Listen!" she breathed. But we heard nothing save the snoring of +the overfed dog at our feet.</p> + +<p>"He'll give us ample notice by butting into Miss Barrison's skirts," I +observed. "No need of our watching, professor."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span>The professor nodded. Presently he removed his spectacles and lay back +against the bars, closing his eyes.</p> + +<p>At first the forest silence seemed cheerful there in the flecked +sunlight. The spotted wood-gnats gyrated merrily, chased by +dragon-flies; the shy wood-birds hopped from branch to twig, peering +at us in friendly inquiry; a lithe, gray squirrel, plumy tail +undulating, rambled serenely around the cage, sniffing at the pastry +within.</p> + +<p>Suddenly, without apparent reason, the squirrel sprang to a +tree-trunk, hung a moment on the bark, quivering all over, then dashed +away into the jungle.</p> + +<p>"Why did he act like that?" whispered Miss Barrison. And, after a +moment: "How still it is! Where have the birds gone?"</p> + +<p>In the ominous silence the dog began to whimper in his sleep and his +hind legs kicked convulsively.</p> + +<p>"He's dreaming—" I began.</p> + +<p>The words were almost driven down my throat by the dog, who, without a +yelp of warning, hurled himself at Miss Barrison and alighted on my +chest, fore paws around my neck.</p> + +<p>I cast him scornfully from me, but he scrambled back, digging like a +mole to get under us.</p> + +<p>"The transparent creatures!" whispered Miss Barrison. "Look! See that +pie move!"</p> + +<p>I sprang to my feet just as the professor, jamming on his spectacles, +leaned forward and slammed the cage door.</p> + +<p>"I've got one!" he shouted, frantically. "There's one in the cage! +Turn on that hose!"</p> + +<p>"Wait a second," said Miss Barrison, calmly, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span>uncorking the bottle and +pouring a pearly stream of rosium oxide into the tank. "Quick! It's +fizzing! Screw on the top!"</p> + +<p>In a second I had screwed the top fast, seized the hose, and directed +a hissing cloud of vapor through the cage bars.</p> + +<p>For a moment nothing was heard save the whistling rush of the perfumed +spray escaping; a delicious odor of roses filled the air. Then, +slowly, there in the sunshine, a misty something grew in the cage—a +glistening, pearl-tinted phantom, imperceptibly taking shape in +space—vague at first as a shred of lake vapor, then lengthening, +rounding into flowing form, clearer, clearer.</p> + +<p>"The Sphyx!" gasped the professor. "In the name of Heaven, play that +hose!"</p> + +<p>As he spoke the treacherous hose burst. A showery pillar of +rose-colored vapor enveloped everything. Through the thickening fog +for one brief instant a human form appeared like magic—a woman's +form, flawless, exquisite as a statue, pure as marble. Then the +swimming vapor buried it, cage, pies, and all.</p> + +<p>We ran frantically around, the cage in the obscurity, appealing for +instructions and feeling for the bars. Once the professor's muffled +voice was heard demanding the wearing apparel, and I groped about and +found it and stuffed it through the bars of the cage.</p> + +<p>"Do you need help?" I shouted. There was no response. Staring around +through the thickening vapor of rosium rolling in clouds from the +overturned tank, I heard Miss Barrison's voice calling:</p> + +<p>"I can't move! A transparent lady is holding me!"</p> + +<p>Blindly I rushed about, arms outstretched, and the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span>next moment struck +the door of the cage so hard that the impact almost knocked me +senseless. Clutching it to steady myself, it suddenly flew open. A +rush of partly visible creatures passed me like a burst of pink +flames, and in the midst, borne swiftly away on the crest of the +outrush, the professor passed like a bolt shot from a catapult; and +his last cry came wafted back to me from the forest as I swayed there, +drunk with the stupefying perfume: "Don't worry! I'm all right!"</p> + +<p>I staggered out into the clearer air towards a figure seen dimly +through swirling vapor.</p> + +<p>"Are you hurt?" I stammered, clasping Miss Barrison in my arms.</p> + +<p>"No—oh no," she said, wringing her hands. "But the professor! I saw +him! I could not scream; I could not move! <i>They</i> had him!"</p> + +<p>"I saw him too," I groaned. "There was not one trace of terror on his +face. He was actually smiling."</p> + +<p>Overcome at the sublime courage of the man, we wept in each other's +arms.</p> + +<hr style='width: 15%; padding-top: 1.25em; padding-bottom: 1.25em;' /> + +<p>True to our promise to Professor Farrago, we made the best of our way +northward; and it was not a difficult journey by any means, the voyage +in the launch across Okeechobee being perfectly simple and the trail +to the nearest railroad station but a few easy miles from the +landing-place.</p> + +<p>Shocking as had been our experience, dreadful as was the calamity +which had not only robbed me of a life-long friend, but had also +bereaved the entire scientific world, I could not seem to feel that +desperate and hopeless grief which the natural decease of a close +friend might <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span>warrant. No; there remained a vague expectancy which so +dominated my sorrow that at moments I became hopeful—nay, sanguine, +that I should one day again behold my beloved superior in the flesh. +There was something so happy in his last smile, something so artlessly +pleased, that I was certain no fear of impending dissolution worried +him as he disappeared into the uncharted depth of the unknown +Everglades.</p> + +<p>I think Miss Barrison agreed with me, too. She appeared to be more or +less dazed, which was, of course, quite natural; and during our return +voyage across Okeechobee and through the lagoons and forests beyond +she was very silent.</p> + +<p>When we reached the railroad at Portulacca, a thrifty lemon-growing +ranch on the Volusia and Chinkapin Railway, the first thing I did was +to present my dog to the station-agent—but I was obliged to give him +five dollars before he consented to accept the dog.</p> + +<p>However, Miss Barrison interviewed the station-master's wife, a +kindly, pitiful soul, who promised to be a good mistress to the +creature. We both felt better after that was off our minds; we felt +better still when the north-bound train rolled leisurely into the +white glare of Portulacca, and presently rolled out again, quite as +leisurely, bound, thank Heaven, for that abused aggregation of sinful +boroughs called New York.</p> + +<p>Except for one young man whom I encountered in the smoker, we had the +train to ourselves, a circumstance which, curiously enough, appeared +to increase Miss Barrison's depression, and my own as a natural +sequence. The circumstances of the taking off of Professor Farrago +appeared to engross her thoughts so completely that it <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span>made me uneasy +during our trip out from Little Sprite—in fact it was growing plainer +to me every hour that in her brief acquaintance with that +distinguished scientist she had become personally attached to him to +an extent that began to worry me. Her personal indignation at the +caged Sphyx flared out at unexpected intervals, and there could be no +doubt that her unhappiness and resentment were becoming morbid.</p> + +<p>I spent an hour or two in the smoking compartment, tenanted only by a +single passenger and myself. He was an agreeable young man, although, +in the natural acquaintanceship that we struck up, I regretted to +learn that he was a writer of popular fiction, returning from Fort +Worth, where he had been for the sole purpose of composing a poem on +Florida.</p> + +<p>I have always, in common with other mentally balanced savants, +despised writers of fiction. All scientists harbor a natural antipathy +to romance in any form, and that antipathy becomes a deep horror if +fiction dares to deal flippantly with the exact sciences, or if some +degraded intellect assumes the warrantless liberty of using natural +history as the vehicle for silly tales.</p> + +<p>Never but once had I been tempted to romance in any form; never but +once had sentiment interfered with a passionless transfer of +scientific notes to the sanctuary of the unvarnished note-book or the +cloister of the juiceless monograph. Nor have I the slightest approach +to that superficial and doubtful quality known as literary skill. +Once, however, as I sat alone in the middle of the floor, classifying +my isopods, I was not only astonished but totally unprepared to find +myself <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span>repeating aloud a verse that I myself had unconsciously +fashioned:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"An isopod<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> Is a work of God."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class="noin">Never before in all my life had I made a rhyme; and it worried me for +weeks, ringing in my brain day and night, confusing me, interfering +with my thoughts.</p> + +<p>I said as much to the young man, who only laughed good-naturedly and +replied that it was the Creator's purpose to limit certain intellects, +nobody knows why, and that it was apparent that mine had not escaped.</p> + +<p>"There's one thing, however," he said, "that might be of some interest +to you and come within the circumscribed scope of your intelligence."</p> + +<p>"And what is that?" I asked, tartly.</p> + +<p>"A scientific experience of mine," he said, with a careless laugh. +"It's so much stranger than fiction that even Professor Bruce +Stoddard, of Columbia, hesitated to credit it."</p> + +<p>I looked at the young fellow suspiciously. His bland smile disarmed +me, but I did not invite him to relate his experience, although he +apparently needed only that encouragement to begin.</p> + +<p>"Now, if I could tell it exactly as it occurred," he observed, "and a +stenographer could take it down, word for word, exactly as I relate +it—"</p> + +<p>"It would give me great pleasure to do so," said a quiet voice at the +door. We rose at once, removing the cigars from our lips; but Miss +Barrison bade us continue smoking, and at a gesture from her we +resumed our seats after she had installed herself by the window.</p> + +<p>"Really," she said, looking coldly at me, "I couldn't <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span>endure the +solitude any longer. Isn't there anything to do on this tiresome +train?"</p> + +<p>"If you had your pad and pencil," I began, maliciously, "you might +take down a matter of interest—"</p> + +<p>She looked frankly at the young man, who laughed in that pleasant, +good-tempered manner of his, and offered to tell us of his alleged +scientific experience if we thought it might amuse us sufficiently to +vary the dull monotony of the journey north.</p> + +<p>"Is it fiction?" I asked, point-blank.</p> + +<p>"It is absolute truth," he replied.</p> + +<p>I rose and went off to find pad and pencil. When I returned Miss +Barrison was laughing at a story which the young man had just +finished.</p> + +<p>"But," he ended, gravely, "I have practically decided to renounce +fiction as a means of livelihood and confine myself to simple, +uninteresting statistics and facts."</p> + +<p>"I am very glad to hear you say that," I exclaimed, warmly. He bowed, +looked at Miss Barrison, and asked her when he might begin his story.</p> + +<p>"Whenever you are ready," replied Miss Barrison, smiling in a manner +which I had not observed since the disappearance of Professor Farrago. +I'll admit that the young fellow was superficially attractive.</p> + +<p>"Well, then," he began, modestly, "having no technical ability +concerning the affair in question, and having no knowledge of either +comparative anatomy or zoology, I am perhaps unfitted to tell this +story. But the story is true; the episode occurred under my own +eyes—within a few hours' sail of the Battery. And as I was one of the +first persons to verify what has long been a theory among scientists, +and, moreover, as the result of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span>Professor Holroyd's discovery is to +be placed on exhibition in Madison Square Garden on the 20th of next +month, I have decided to tell you, as simply as I am able, exactly +what occurred.</p> + +<p>"I first told the story on April 1, 1903, to the editors of the <i>North +American Review</i>, <i>The Popular Science Monthly</i>, the <i>Scientific +American</i>, <i>Nature</i>, <i>Outing</i>, and the <i>Fossiliferous Magazine</i>. All +these gentlemen rejected it; some curtly informing me that fiction had +no place in their columns. When I attempted to explain that it was not +fiction, the editors of these periodicals either maintained a +contemptuous silence, or bluntly notified me that my literary services +and opinions were not desired. But finally, when several publishers +offered to take the story as fiction, I cut short all negotiations and +decided to publish it myself. Where I am known at all, it is my +misfortune to be known as a writer of fiction. This makes it +impossible for me to receive a hearing from a scientific audience. I +regret it bitterly, because now, when it is too late, I am prepared to +prove certain scientific matters of interest, and to produce the +proofs. In this case, however, I am fortunate, for nobody can dispute +the existence of a thing when the bodily proof is exhibited as +evidence.</p> + +<p>"This is the story; and if I tell it as I write fiction, it is because +I do not know how to tell it otherwise.</p> + +<p>"I was walking along the beach below Pine Inlet, on the south shore of +Long Island. The railroad and telegraph station is at West Oyster Bay. +Everybody who has travelled on the Long Island Railroad knows the +station, but few, perhaps, know Pine Inlet. Duck-shooters, of course, +are familiar with it; but as there are <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span>no hotels there, and nothing +to see except salt meadow, salt creek, and a strip of dune and sand, +the summer-squatting public may probably be unaware of its existence. +The local name for the place is Pine Inlet; the maps give its name as +Sand Point, I believe, but anybody at West Oyster Bay can direct you +to it. Captain McPeek, who keeps the West Oyster Bay House, drives +duck-shooters there in winter. It lies five miles southeast from West +Oyster Bay.</p> + +<p>"I had walked over that afternoon from Captain McPeek's. There was a +reason for my going to Pine Inlet—it embarrasses me to explain it, +but the truth is I meditated writing an ode to the ocean. It was out +of the question to write it in West Oyster Bay, with the whistle of +locomotives in my ears. I knew that Pine Inlet was one of the +loneliest places on the Atlantic coast; it is out of sight of +everything except leagues of gray ocean. Rarely one might make out +fishing-smacks drifting across the horizon. Summer squatters never +visited it; sportsmen shunned it, except in winter. Therefore, as I +was about to do a bit of poetry, I thought that Pine Inlet was the +spot for the deed. So I went there.</p> + +<p>"As I was strolling along the beach, biting my pencil reflectively, +tremendously impressed by the solitude and the solemn thunder of the +surf, a thought occurred to me—how unpleasant it would be if I +suddenly stumbled on a summer boarder. As this joyless impossibility +flitted across my mind, I rounded a bleak sand-dune.</p> + +<p>"A girl stood directly in my path.</p> + +<p>"She stared at me as though I had just crawled up out of the sea to +bite her. I don't know what my own <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span>expression resembled, but I have +been given to understand it was idiotic.</p> + +<p>"Now I perceived, after a few moments, that the young lady was +frightened, and I knew I ought to say something civil. So I said, 'Are +there many mosquitoes here?'</p> + +<p>"'No,' she replied, with a slight quiver in her voice; 'I have only +seen one, and it was biting somebody else.'</p> + +<p>"The conversation seemed so futile, and the young lady appeared to be +more nervous than before. I had an impulse to say, 'Do not run; I have +breakfasted,' for she seemed to be meditating a flight into the +breakers. What I did say was: 'I did not know anybody was here. I do +not intend to intrude. I come from Captain McPeek's, and I am writing +an ode to the ocean.' After I had said this it seemed to ring in my +ears like, 'I come from Table Mountain, and my name is Truthful +James.'</p> + +<p>"I glanced timidly at her.</p> + +<p>"'She's thinking of the same thing,' said I to myself.</p> + +<p>"However, the young lady seemed to be a trifle reassured. I noticed +she drew a sigh of relief and looked at my shoes. She looked so long +that it made me suspicious, and I also examined my shoes. They seemed +to be in a fair state of repair.</p> + +<p>"'I—I am sorry,' she said, 'but would you mind not walking on the +beach?'</p> + +<p>"This was sudden. I had intended to retire and leave the beach to her, +but I did not fancy being driven away so abruptly.</p> + +<p>"'Dear me!' she cried; 'you don't understand. I do not—I would not +think for a moment of asking you to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span>leave Pine Inlet. I merely +ventured to request you to walk on the dunes. I am so afraid that your +footprints may obliterate the impressions that my father is studying.'</p> + +<p>"'Oh!' said I, looking about me as though I had been caught in the +middle of a flower-bed; 'really I did not notice any impressions. +Impressions of what?'</p> + +<p>"'I don't know,' she said, smiling a little at my awkward pose. 'If +you step this way in a straight line you can do no damage.'</p> + +<p>"I did as she bade me. I suppose my movements resembled the gait of a +wet peacock. Possibly they recalled the delicate manœuvres of the +kangaroo. Anyway, she laughed.</p> + +<p>"This seriously annoyed me. I had been at a disadvantage; I walk well +enough when let alone.</p> + +<p>"'You can scarcely expect,' said I, 'that a man absorbed in his own +ideas could notice impressions on the sand. I trust I have obliterated +nothing.'</p> + +<p>"As I said this I looked back at the long line of footprints +stretching away in prospective across the sand. They were my own. How +large they looked! Was that what she was laughing at?</p> + +<p>"'I wish to explain,' she said, gravely, looking at the point of her +parasol. 'I am very sorry to be obliged to warn you—to ask you to +forego the pleasure of strolling on a beach that does not belong to +me. Perhaps,' she continued, in sudden alarm, 'perhaps this beach +belongs to you?'</p> + +<p>"'The beach? Oh no,' I said.</p> + +<p>"'But—but you were going to write poems about it?'</p> + +<p>"'Only one—and that does not necessitate owning the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span>beach. I have +observed,' said I, frankly, 'that the people who own nothing write +many poems about it.'</p> + +<p>"She looked at me seriously.</p> + +<p>"'I write many poems,' I added.</p> + +<p>"She laughed doubtfully.</p> + +<p>"'Would you rather I went away?' I asked, politely. 'My family is +respectable,' I added; and I told her my name.</p> + +<p>"'Oh! Then you wrote <i>Culled Cowslips</i> and <i>Faded Fig-Leaves</i> and you +imitate Maeterlinck, and you—Oh, I know lots of people that you +know;' she cried, with every symptom of relief; 'and you know my +brother.'</p> + +<p>"'I am the author,' said I, coldly, 'of <i>Culled Cowslips</i>, but <i>Faded +Fig-Leaves</i> was an earlier work, which I no longer recognize, and I +should be grateful to you if you would be kind enough to deny that I +ever imitated Maeterlinck. Possibly,' I added, 'he imitates me.'</p> + +<p>"She was very quiet, and I saw she was sorry.</p> + +<p>"'Never mind,' I said, magnanimously, 'you probably are not familiar +with modern literature. If I knew your name I should ask permission to +present myself.'</p> + +<p>"'Why, I am Daisy Holroyd,' she said.</p> + +<p>"'What! Jack Holroyd's little sister?'</p> + +<p>"'Little?' she cried.</p> + +<p>"'I didn't mean that,' said I. 'You know that your brother and I were +great friends in Paris—'</p> + +<p>"'I know,' she said, significantly.</p> + +<p>"'Ahem! Of course,' I said, 'Jack and I were inseparable—'</p> + +<p>"'Except when shut in separate cells,' said Miss Holroyd, coldly.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span>"This unfeeling allusion to the unfortunate termination of a +Latin-Quarter celebration hurt me.</p> + +<p>"'The police,' said I, 'were too officious.'</p> + +<p>"'So Jack says,' replied Miss Holroyd, demurely.</p> + +<p>"We had unconsciously moved on along the sand-hills, side by side, as +we spoke.</p> + +<p>"'To think,' I repeated, 'that I should meet Jack's little—'</p> + +<p>"'Please,' she said, 'you are only three years my senior.'</p> + +<p>"She opened the sunshade and tipped it over one shoulder. It was +white, and had spots and posies on it.</p> + +<p>"'Jack sends us every new book you write,' she observed. 'I do not +approve of some things you write.'</p> + +<p>"'Modern school,' I mumbled.</p> + +<p>"'That is no excuse,' she said, severely; 'Anthony Trollope didn't do +it.'</p> + +<p>"The foam spume from the breakers was drifting across the dunes, and +the little tip-up snipe ran along the beach and teetered and whistled +and spread their white-barred wings for a low, straight flight across +the shingle, only to tip and run and sail on again. The salt sea-wind +whistled and curled through the crested waves, blowing in perfumed +puffs across thickets of sweet bay and cedar. As we passed through the +crackling juicy-stemmed marsh-weed myriads of fiddler crabs raised +their fore-claws in warning and backed away, rustling, through the +reeds, aggressive, protesting.</p> + +<p>"'Like millions of pygmy Ajaxes defying the lightning,' I said.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span>"Miss Holroyd laughed.</p> + +<p>"'Now I never imagined that authors were clever except in print,' she +said.</p> + +<p>"She was a most extraordinary girl.</p> + +<p>"'I suppose,' she observed, after a moment's silence—'I suppose I am +taking you to my father.'</p> + +<p>"'Delighted!' I mumbled. 'H'm! I had the honor of meeting Professor +Holroyd in Paris.'</p> + +<p>"'Yes; he bailed you and Jack out,' said Miss Holroyd, serenely.</p> + +<p>"The silence was too painful to last.</p> + +<p>"'Captain McPeek is an interesting man,' I said. I spoke more loudly +than I intended. I may have been nervous.</p> + +<p>"'Yes,' said Daisy Holroyd, 'but he has a most singular hotel clerk.'</p> + +<p>"'You mean Mr. Frisby?'</p> + +<p>"'I do.'</p> + +<p>"'Yes,' I admitted, 'Mr. Frisby is queer. He was once a bill-poster.'</p> + +<p>"'I know it!' exclaimed Daisy Holroyd, with some heat. 'He ruins +landscapes whenever he has an opportunity. Do you know that he has a +passion for bill-posting? He has; he posts bills for the pure pleasure +of it, just as you play golf, or tennis, or squash.'</p> + +<p>"'But he's a hotel clerk now,' I said; 'nobody employs him to post +bills.'</p> + +<p>"'I know it! He does it all by himself for the pure pleasure of it. +Papa has engaged him to come down here for two weeks, and I dread it,' +said the girl.</p> + +<p>"What Professor Holroyd might want of Frisby I had <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span>not the faintest +notion. I suppose Miss Holroyd noticed the bewilderment in my face, +for she laughed and nodded her head twice.</p> + +<p>"'Not only Mr. Frisby, but Captain McPeek also,' she said.</p> + +<p>"'You don't mean to say that Captain McPeek is going to close his +hotel!' I exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"My trunk was there. It contained guarantees of my respectability.</p> + +<p>"'Oh no; his wife will keep it open,' replied the girl. 'Look! you can +see papa now. He's digging.'</p> + +<p>"'Where?' I blurted out.</p> + +<p>"I remembered Professor Holroyd as a prim, spectacled gentleman, with +close-cut, snowy beard and a clerical allure. The man I saw digging +wore green goggles, a jersey, a battered sou'wester, and hip-boots of +rubber. He was delving in the muck of the salt meadow, his face +streaming with perspiration, his boots and jersey splashed with +unpleasant-looking mud. He glanced up as we approached, shading his +eyes with a sunburned hand.</p> + +<p>"'Papa, dear,' said Miss Holroyd, 'here is Jack's friend, whom you +bailed out of Mazas.'</p> + +<p>"The introduction was startling. I turned crimson with mortification. +The professor was very decent about it; he called me by name at once. +Then he looked at his spade. It was clear he considered me a nuisance +and wished to go on with his digging.</p> + +<p>"'I suppose,' he said, 'you are still writing?'</p> + +<p>"'A little,' I replied, trying not to speak sarcastically. My output +had rivalled that of 'The Duchess'—in quantity, I mean.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span>"'I seldom read—fiction,' he said, looking restlessly at the hole in +the ground.</p> + +<p>"Miss Holroyd came to my rescue.</p> + +<p>"'That was a charming story you wrote last,' she said. 'Papa should +read it—you should, papa; it's all about a fossil.'</p> + +<p>"We both looked narrowly at Miss Holroyd. Her smile was guileless.</p> + +<p>"'Fossils!' repeated the professor. 'Do you care for fossils?'</p> + +<p>"'Very much,' said I.</p> + +<p>"Now I am not perfectly sure what my object was in lying. I looked at +Daisy Holroyd's dark-fringed eyes. They were very grave.</p> + +<p>"'Fossils,' said I, 'are my hobby.'</p> + +<p>"I think Miss Holroyd winced a little at this. I did not care. I went +on:</p> + +<p>"'I have seldom had the opportunity to study the subject, but, as a +boy, I collected flint arrow-heads—"</p> + +<p>"'Flint arrow-heads!' said the professor coldly.</p> + +<p>"'Yes; they were the nearest things to fossils obtainable,' I replied, +marvelling at my own mendacity.</p> + +<p>"The professor looked into the hole. I also looked. I could see +nothing in it. 'He's digging for fossils,' thought I to myself.</p> + +<p>"'Perhaps,' said the professor, cautiously, 'you might wish to aid me +in a little research—that is to say, if you have an inclination for +fossils.' The double-entendre was not lost upon me.</p> + +<p>"'I have read all your books so eagerly,' said I, 'that to join you, +to be of service to you in any research, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span>however difficult and +trying, would be an honor and a privilege that I never dared to hope +for.'</p> + +<p>"'That,' thought I to myself, 'will do its own work.'</p> + +<p>"But the professor was still suspicious. How could he help it, when he +remembered Jack's escapades, in which my name was always blended! +Doubtless he was satisfied that my influence on Jack was evil. The +contrary was the case, too.</p> + +<p>"'Fossils,' he said, worrying the edge of the excavation with his +spade—'fossils are not things to be lightly considered.'</p> + +<p>"'No, indeed!' I protested.</p> + +<p>"'Fossils are the most interesting as well as puzzling things in the +world,' said he.</p> + +<p>"'They are!' I cried, enthusiastically.</p> + +<p>"'But I am not looking for fossils,' observed the professor, mildly.</p> + +<p>"This was a facer. I looked at Daisy Holroyd. She bit her lip and +fixed her eyes on the sea. Her eyes were wonderful eyes.</p> + +<p>"'Did you think I was digging for fossils in a salt meadow?' queried +the professor. 'You can have read very little about the subject. I am +digging for something quite different.'</p> + +<p>"I was silent. I knew that my face was flushed. I longed to say, +'Well, what the devil are you digging for?' but I only stared into the +hole as though hypnotized.</p> + +<p>"'Captain McPeek and Frisby ought to be here,' he said, looking first +at Daisy and then across the meadows.</p> + +<p>"I ached to ask him why he had subpœnaed Captain McPeek and +Frisby.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span>"'They are coming,' said Daisy, shading her eyes. 'Do you see the +speck on the meadows?'</p> + +<p>"'It may be a mud-hen,' said the professor.</p> + +<p>"'Miss Holroyd is right,' I said. 'A wagon and team and two men are +coming from the north. There's a dog beside the wagon—it's that +miserable yellow dog of Frisby's.'</p> + +<p>"'Good gracious!' cried the professor, 'you don't mean to tell me that +you see all that at such a distance?'</p> + +<p>"'Why not?' I said.</p> + +<p>"'I see nothing,' he insisted.</p> + +<p>"'You will see that I'm right, presently,' I laughed.</p> + +<p>"The professor removed his blue goggles and rubbed them, glancing +obliquely at me.</p> + +<p>"'Haven't you heard what extraordinary eyesight duck-shooters have?' +said his daughter, looking back at her father. 'Jack says that he can +tell exactly what kind of a duck is flying before most people could +see anything at all in the sky.'</p> + +<p>"'It's true,' I said; 'it comes to anybody, I fancy, who has had +practice.'</p> + +<p>"The professor regarded me with a new interest. There was inspiration +in his eyes. He turned towards the ocean. For a long time he stared at +the tossing waves on the beach, then he looked far out to where the +horizon met the sea.</p> + +<p>"'Are there any ducks out there?' he asked, at last.</p> + +<p>"'Yes,' said I, scanning the sea, 'there are.'</p> + +<p>"He produced a pair of binoculars from his coat-tail pocket, adjusted +them, and raised them to his eyes.</p> + +<p>"'H'm! What sort of ducks?'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span>"I looked more carefully, holding both hands over my forehead.</p> + +<p>"'Surf-ducks and widgeon. There is one bufflehead among them—no, two; +the rest are coots,' I replied.</p> + +<p>"'This,' cried the professor, 'is most astonishing. I have good eyes, +but I can't see a blessed thing without these binoculars!'</p> + +<p>"'It's not extraordinary,' said I; 'the surf-ducks and coots any +novice might recognize; the widgeon and buffleheads I should not have +been able to name unless they had risen from the water. It is easy to +tell any duck when it is flying, even though it looks no bigger than a +black pin-point.'</p> + +<p>"But the professor insisted that it was marvellous, and he said that I +might render him invaluable service if I would consent to come and +camp at Pine Inlet for a few weeks.</p> + +<p>"I looked at his daughter, but she turned her back. Her back was +beautifully moulded. Her gown fitted also.</p> + +<p>"'Camp out here?' I repeated, pretending to be unpleasantly surprised.</p> + +<p>"'I do not think he would care to,' said Miss Holroyd, without +turning.</p> + +<p>"I had not expected that.</p> + +<p>"'Above all things,' said I, in a clear, pleasant voice, 'I like to +camp out.'</p> + +<p>"She said nothing.</p> + +<p>"'It is not exactly camping,' said the professor. 'Come, you shall see +our conservatory. Daisy, come, dear! You must put on a heavier frock; +it is getting towards sundown.'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span>"At that moment, over a near dune, two horses' heads appeared, +followed by two human heads, then a wagon, then a yellow dog.</p> + +<p>"I turned triumphantly to the professor.</p> + +<p>"'You are the very man I want,' he muttered—'the very man—the very +man.'</p> + +<p>"I looked at Daisy Holroyd. She returned my glance with a defiant +little smile.</p> + +<p>"'Waal,' said Captain McPeek, driving up, 'here we be! Git out, +Frisby.'</p> + +<p>"Frisby, fat, nervous, and sentimental, hopped out of the cart.</p> + +<p>"'Come,' said the professor, impatiently moving across the dunes. I +walked with Daisy Holroyd. McPeek and Frisby followed. The yellow dog +walked by himself.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="XVIII" id="XVIII"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>XVIII<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>"The sun was dipping into the sea as we trudged across the meadows +towards a high, dome-shaped dune covered with cedars and thickets of +sweet bay. I saw no sign of habitation among the sand-hills. Far as +the eye could reach, nothing broke the gray line of sea and sky save +the squat dunes crowned with stunted cedars.</p> + +<p>"Then, as we rounded the base of the dune, we almost walked into the +door of a house. My amazement amused Miss Holroyd, and I noticed also +a touch of malice in her pretty eyes. But she said nothing, following +her father into the house, with the slightest possible gesture to me. +Was it invitation or was it menace?</p> + +<p>"The house was merely a light wooden frame, covered with some +waterproof stuff that looked like a mixture of rubber and tar. Over +this—in fact, over the whole roof—was pitched an awning of heavy +sail-cloth. I noticed that the house was anchored to the sand by +chains, already rusted red. But this one-storied house was not the +only building nestling in the south shelter of the big dune. A hundred +feet away stood another structure—long, low, also built of wood. It +had rows on rows of round port-holes on every side. The ports were +fitted with heavy glass, hinged to swing open if necessary. A single, +big double door occupied the front.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span>"Behind this long, low building was still another, a mere shed. Smoke +rose from the sheet-iron chimney. There was somebody moving about +inside the open door.</p> + +<p>"As I stood gaping at this mushroom hamlet the professor appeared at +the door and asked me to enter. I stepped in at once.</p> + +<p>"The house was much larger than I had imagined. A straight hallway ran +through the centre from east to west. On either side of this hallway +were rooms, the doors swinging wide open. I counted three doors on +each side; the three on the south appeared to be bedrooms.</p> + +<p>"The professor ushered me into a room on the north side, where I found +Captain McPeek and Frisby sitting at a table, upon which were drawings +and sketches of articulated animals and fishes.</p> + +<p>"'You see, McPeek,' said the professor, 'we only wanted one more man, +and I think I've got him—Haven't I?' turning eagerly to me.</p> + +<p>"'Why, yes,' I said, laughing; 'this is delightful. Am I invited to +stay here?'</p> + +<p>"'Your bedroom is the third on the south side; everything is ready. +McPeek, you can bring his trunk to-morrow, can't you?' demanded the +professor.</p> + +<p>"The red-faced captain nodded, and shifted a quid.</p> + +<p>"'Then it's all settled,' said the professor, and he drew a sigh of +satisfaction. 'You see,' he said, turning to me, 'I was at my wit's +end to know whom to trust. I never thought of you. Jack's out in +China, and I didn't dare trust anybody in my own profession. All you +care about is writing verses and stories, isn't it?'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span>"'I like to shoot,' I replied, mildly.</p> + +<p>"'Just the thing!' he cried, beaming at us all in turn. 'Now I can see +no reason why we should not progress rapidly. McPeek, you and Frisby +must get those boxes up here before dark. Dinner will be ready before +you have finished unloading. Dick, you will wish to go to your room +first.'</p> + +<p>"My name isn't Dick, but he spoke so kindly, and beamed upon me in +such a fatherly manner, that I let it go. I had occasion to correct +him afterwards, several times, but he always forgot the next minute. +He calls me Dick to this day.</p> + +<p>"It was dark when Professor Holroyd, his daughter, and I sat down to +dinner. The room was the same in which I had noticed the drawings of +beast and bird, but the round table had been extended into an oval, +and neatly spread with dainty linen and silver.</p> + +<p>"A fresh-cheeked Swedish girl appeared from a farther room, bearing +the soup. The professor ladled it out, still beaming.</p> + +<p>"'Now, this is very delightful—isn't it, Daisy?' he said.</p> + +<p>"'Very,' said Miss Holroyd, with a tinge of irony.</p> + +<p>"'Very,' I repeated, heartily.</p> + +<p>"'I suppose,' said the professor, nodding mysteriously at his +daughter, 'that Dick knows nothing of what we're about down here?'</p> + +<p>"'I suppose,' said Miss Holroyd, 'that he thinks we are digging for +fossils.'</p> + +<p>"I looked at my plate. She might have spared me that.</p> + +<p>"'Well, well,' said her father, smiling to himself, 'he <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span>shall know +everything by morning. You'll be astonished, Dick, my boy.'</p> + +<p>"'His name isn't Dick,' corrected Daisy.</p> + +<p>"The professor said, 'Isn't it?' in an absent-minded way, and relapsed +into contemplation of my necktie.</p> + +<p>"I asked Miss Holroyd a few questions about Jack, and was informed +that he had given up law and entered the consular service—as what, I +did not dare ask, for I know what our consular service is.</p> + +<p>"'In China,' said Daisy.</p> + +<p>"'Choo Choo is the name of the city,' added her father, proudly; 'it's +the terminus of the new trans-Siberian railway.'</p> + +<p>"'It's on the Pong Ping,' said Daisy.</p> + +<p>"'He's vice-consul,' added the professor, triumphantly.</p> + +<p>"'He'll make a good one,' I observed. I knew Jack. I pitied his +consul.</p> + +<p>"So we chatted on about my old playmate, until Freda, the red-cheeked +maid, brought coffee, and the professor lighted a cigar, with a little +bow to his daughter.</p> + +<p>"'Of course, you don't smoke,' she said to me, with a glimmer of +malice in her eyes.</p> + +<p>"'He mustn't,' interposed the professor, hastily; 'it will make his +hand tremble.'</p> + +<p>"'No, it won't,' said I, laughing; 'but my hand will shake if I don't +smoke. Are you going to employ me as a draughtsman?'</p> + +<p>"'You'll know to-morrow,' he chuckled, with a mysterious smile at his +daughter. 'Daisy, give him my best cigars—put the box here on the +table. We can't afford to have his hand tremble.'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span>"Miss Holroyd rose and crossed the hallway to her father's room, +returning presently with a box of promising-looking cigars.</p> + +<p>"'I don't think he knows what is good for him,' she said. 'He should +smoke only one every day.'</p> + +<p>"It was hard to bear. I am not vindictive, but I decided to treasure +up a few of Miss Holroyd's gentle taunts. My intimacy with her brother +was certainly a disadvantage to me now. Jack had apparently been +talking too much, and his sister appeared to be thoroughly acquainted +with my past. It was a disadvantage. I remembered her vaguely as a +girl with long braids, who used to come on Sundays with her father and +take tea with us in our rooms. Then she went to Germany to school, and +Jack and I employed our Sunday evenings otherwise. It is true that I +regarded her weekly visits as a species of infliction, but I did not +think I ever showed it.</p> + +<p>"'It is strange,' said I, 'that you did not recognize me at once, Miss +Holroyd. Have I changed so greatly in five years?'</p> + +<p>"'You wore a pointed French beard in Paris,' she said—'a very downy +one. And you never stayed to tea but twice, and then you only spoke +once.'</p> + +<p>"'Oh!' said I, blankly. 'What did I say?'</p> + +<p>"'You asked me if I liked plums,' said Daisy, bursting into an +irresistible ripple of laughter.</p> + +<p>"I saw that I must have made the same sort of an ass of myself that +most boys of eighteen do.</p> + +<p>"It was too bad. I never thought about the future in those days. Who +could have imagined that little Daisy Holroyd would have grown up into +this <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span>bewildering young lady? It was really too bad. Presently the +professor retired to his room, carrying with him an armful of +drawings, and bidding us not to sit up late. When he closed his door +Miss Holroyd turned to me.</p> + +<p>"'Papa will work over those drawings until midnight,' she said, with a +despairing smile.</p> + +<p>"'It isn't good for him,' I said. 'What are the drawings?'</p> + +<p>"'You may know to-morrow,' she answered, leaning forward on the table +and shading her face with one hand. 'Tell me about yourself and Jack +in Paris.'</p> + +<p>"I looked at her suspiciously.</p> + +<p>"'What! There isn't much to tell. We studied. Jack went to the law +school, and I attended—er—oh, all sorts of schools.'</p> + +<p>"'Did you? Surely you gave yourself a little recreation occasionally?'</p> + +<p>"'Occasionally,' I nodded.</p> + +<p>"'I am afraid you and Jack studied too hard.'</p> + +<p>"'That may be,' said I, looking meek.</p> + +<p>"'Especially about fossils.'</p> + +<p>"I couldn't stand that.</p> + +<p>"'Miss Holroyd,' I said, 'I do care for fossils. You may think that I +am a humbug, but I have a perfect mania for fossils—now.'</p> + +<p>"'Since when?'</p> + +<p>"'About an hour ago,' I said, airily. Out of the corner of my eye I +saw that she had flushed up. It pleased me.</p> + +<p>"'You will soon tire of the experiment,' she said, with a dangerous +smile.</p> + +<p>"'Oh, I may,' I replied, indifferently.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span>"She drew back. The movement was scarcely perceptible, but I noticed +it, and she knew I did.</p> + +<p>"The atmosphere was vaguely hostile. One feels such mental conditions +and changes instantly. I picked up a chess-board, opened it, set up +the pieces with elaborate care, and began to move, first the white, +then the black. Miss Holroyd watched me coldly at first, but after a +dozen moves she became interested and leaned a shade nearer. I moved a +black pawn forward.</p> + +<p>"'Why do you do that?' said Daisy.</p> + +<p>"'Because,' said I, 'the white queen threatens the pawn.'</p> + +<p>"'It was an aggressive move,' she insisted.</p> + +<p>"'Purely defensive,' I said. 'If her white highness will let the pawn +alone, the pawn will let the queen alone.'</p> + +<p>"Miss Holroyd rested her chin on her wrist and gazed steadily at the +board. She was flushing furiously, but she held her ground.</p> + +<p>"'If the white queen doesn't block that pawn, the pawn may become +dangerous,' she said, coldly.</p> + +<p>"I laughed, and closed up the board with a snap.</p> + +<p>"'True,' I said, 'it might even take the queen.' After a moment's +silence I asked, 'What would you do in that case, Miss Holroyd?'</p> + +<p>"'I should resign,' she said, serenely; then, realizing what she had +said, she lost her self-possession for a second, and cried: 'No, +indeed! I should fight to the bitter end! I mean—'</p> + +<p>"'What?' I asked, lingering over my revenge.</p> + +<p>"'I mean,' she said, slowly, 'that your black pawn would never have +the chance—never! I should take it immediately.'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span>"'I believe you would,' said I, smiling; 'so we'll call the game +yours, and—the pawn captured.'</p> + +<p>"'I don't want it,' she exclaimed. 'A pawn is worthless.'</p> + +<p>"'Except when it's in the king row.'</p> + +<p>"'Chess is most interesting,' she observed, sedately. She had +completely recovered her self-possession. Still I saw that she now had +a certain respect for my defensive powers. It was very soothing to me.</p> + +<p>"'You know,' said I, gravely, 'that I am fonder of Jack than of +anybody. That's the reason we never write each other, except to borrow +things. I am afraid that when I was a young cub in France I was not an +attractive personality.'</p> + +<p>"'On the contrary,' said Daisy, smiling, 'I thought you were very big +and very perfect. I had illusions. I wept often when I went home and +remembered that you never took the trouble to speak to me but once.'</p> + +<p>"'I was a cub,' I said—'not selfish and brutal, but I didn't +understand school-girls. I never had any sisters, and I didn't know +what to say to very young girls. If I had imagined that you felt +hurt—'</p> + +<p>"'Oh, I did—five years ago. Afterwards I laughed at the whole thing.'</p> + +<p>"'Laughed?' I repeated, vaguely disappointed.</p> + +<p>"'Why, of course. I was very easily hurt when I was a child. I think I +have outgrown it.'</p> + +<p>"The soft curve of her sensitive mouth contradicted her.</p> + +<p>"'Will you forgive me now?' I asked.</p> + +<p>"'Yes. I had forgotten the whole thing until I met you an hour or so +ago.'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span>"There was something that had a ring not entirely genuine in this +speech. I noticed it, but forgot it the next moment.</p> + +<p>"Presently she rose, touched her hair with the tip of one finger, and +walked to the door.</p> + +<p>"'Good-night,' she said.</p> + +<p>"'Good-night,' said I, opening the door for her to pass.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="XIX" id="XIX"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>XIX<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>"The sea was a sheet of silver tinged with pink. The tremendous arch +of the sky was all shimmering and glimmering with the promise of the +sun. Already the mist above, flecked with clustered clouds, flushed +with rose color and dull gold. I heard the low splash of the waves +breaking and curling across the beach. A wandering breeze, fresh and +fragrant, blew the curtains of my window. There was the scent of sweet +bay in the room, and everywhere the subtle, nameless perfume of the +sea.</p> + +<p>"When at last I stood upon the shore, the air and sea were all +a-glimmer in a rosy light, deepening to crimson in the zenith. Along +the beach I saw a little cove, shelving and all a-shine, where shallow +waves washed with a mellow sound. Fine as dusted gold the shingle +glowed, and the thin film of water rose, receded, crept up again a +little higher, and again flowed back, with the low hiss of snowy foam +and gilded bubbles breaking.</p> + +<p>"I stood a little while quiet, my eyes upon the water, the invitation +of the ocean in my ears, vague and sweet as the murmur of a shell. +Then I looked at my bathing-suit and towels.</p> + +<p>"'In we go!' said I, aloud. A second later the prophecy was +fulfilled.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span>"I swam far out to sea, and as I swam the waters all around me turned +to gold. The sun had risen.</p> + +<p>"There is a fragrance in the sea at dawn that none can name. +Whitethorn a-bloom in May, sedges a-sway, and scented rushes rustling +in an inland wind recall the sea to me—I can't say why.</p> + +<p>"Far out at sea I raised myself, swung around, dived, and set out +again for shore, striking strong strokes until the necked foam flew. +And when at last I shot through the breakers, I laughed aloud and +sprang upon the beach, breathless and happy. Then from the ocean came +another cry, clear, joyous, and a white arm rose in the air.</p> + +<p>"She came drifting in with the waves like a white sea-sprite, laughing +at me, and I plunged into the breakers again to join her.</p> + +<p>"Side by side we swam along the coast, just outside the breakers, +until in the next cove we saw the flutter of her maid's cap-strings.</p> + +<p>"'I will beat you to breakfast!' she cried, as I rested, watching her +glide up along the beach.</p> + +<p>"'Done!' said I—'for a sea-shell!'</p> + +<p>"'Done!' she called, across the water.</p> + +<p>"I made good speed along the shore, and I was not long in dressing, +but when I entered the dining-room she was there, demure, smiling, +exquisite in her cool, white frock.</p> + +<p>"'The sea-shell is yours,' said I. 'I hope I can find one with a pearl +in it.'</p> + +<p>"The professor hurried in before she could reply. He greeted me very +cordially, but there was an abstracted air about him, and he called me +Dick until I recognized <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span>that remonstrance was useless. He was not +long over his coffee and rolls.</p> + +<p>"'McPeek and Frisby will return with the last load, including your +trunk, by early afternoon,' he said, rising and picking up his bundle +of drawings. 'I haven't time to explain to you what we are doing, +Dick, but Daisy will take you about and instruct you. She will give +you the rifle standing in my room—it's a good Winchester. I have sent +for an 'Express' for you, big enough to knock over any elephant in +India. Daisy, take him through the sheds and tell him everything. +Luncheon is at noon. Do you usually take luncheon, Dick?'</p> + +<p>"'When I am permitted,' I smiled.</p> + +<p>"'Well,' said the professor, doubtfully, 'you mustn't come back here +for it. Freda can take you what you want. Is your hand unsteady after +eating?'</p> + +<p>"'Why, papa!' said Daisy. 'Do you intend to starve him?'</p> + +<p>"We all laughed.</p> + +<p>"The professor tucked his drawings into a capacious pocket, pulled his +sea-boots up to his hips, seized a spade, and left, nodding to us as +though he were thinking of something else.</p> + +<p>"We went to the door and watched him across the salt meadows until the +distant sand-dune hid him.</p> + +<p>"'Come,' said Daisy Holroyd, 'I am going to take you to the shop.'</p> + +<p>"She put on a broad-brimmed straw hat, a distractingly pretty +combination of filmy cool stuffs, and led the way to the long, low +structure that I had noticed the evening before.</p> + +<p>"The interior was lighted by the numberless little <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span>port-holes, and I +could see everything plainly. I acknowledge I was nonplussed by what I +did see.</p> + +<p>"In the centre of the shed, which must have been at least a hundred +feet long, stood what I thought at first was the skeleton of an +enormous whale. After a moment's silent contemplation of the thing I +saw that it could not be a whale, for the frames of two gigantic, +batlike wings rose from each shoulder. Also I noticed that the animal +possessed legs—four of them—with most unpleasant-looking webbed +claws fully eight feet long. The bony framework of the head, too, +resembled something between a crocodile and a monstrous +snapping-turtle. The walls of the shanty were hung with drawings and +blue prints. A man dressed in white linen was tinkering with the +vertebrae of the lizard-like tail.</p> + +<p>"'Where on earth did such a reptile come from?' I asked at length.</p> + +<p>"'Oh, it's not real!' said Daisy, scornfully; 'it's papier-maché.'</p> + +<p>"'I see,' said I; 'a stage prop.'</p> + +<p>"'A what?' asked Daisy, in hurt astonishment.</p> + +<p>"'Why, a—a sort of Siegfried dragon—a what's-his-name—er, Pfafner, +or Peffer, or—'</p> + +<p>"'If my father heard you say such things he would dislike you,' said +Daisy. She looked grieved, and moved towards the door. I +apologized—for what, I knew not—and we became reconciled. She ran +into her father's room and brought me the rifle, a very good +Winchester. She also gave me a cartridge-belt, full.</p> + +<p>"'Now,' she smiled, 'I shall take you to your observatory, and when we +arrive you are to begin your duty at once.'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span>"'And that duty?' I ventured, shouldering the rifle.</p> + +<p>"'That duty is to watch the ocean. I shall then explain the whole +affair—but you mustn't look at me while I speak; you must watch the +sea.'</p> + +<p>"'This,' said I, 'is hardship. I had rather go without the luncheon.'</p> + +<p>"I do not think she was offended at my speech; still she frowned for +almost three seconds.</p> + +<p>"We passed through acres of sweet bay and spear grass, sometimes +skirting thickets of twisted cedars, sometimes walking in the full +glare of the morning sun, sinking into shifting sand where +sun-scorched shells crackled under our feet, and sun-browned sea-weed +glistened, bronzed and iridescent. Then, as we climbed a little hill, +the sea-wind freshened in our faces, and lo! the ocean lay below us, +far-stretching as the eye could reach, glittering, magnificent.</p> + +<p>"Daisy sat down flat on the sand. It takes a clever girl to do that +and retain the respectful deference due her from men. It takes a +graceful girl to accomplish it triumphantly when a man is looking.</p> + +<p>"'You must sit beside me,' she said—as though it would prove irksome +to me.</p> + +<p>"'Now,' she continued, 'you must watch the water while I am talking.'</p> + +<p>"I nodded.</p> + +<p>"'Why don't you do it, then?' she asked.</p> + +<p>"I succeeded in wrenching my head towards the ocean, although I felt +sure it would swing gradually round again in spite of me.</p> + +<p>"'To begin with,' said Daisy Holroyd, 'there's a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span>thing in that ocean +that would astonish you if you saw it. Turn your head!'</p> + +<p>"'I am,' I said, meekly.</p> + +<p>"'Did you hear what I said?'</p> + +<p>"'Yes—er—a thing in the ocean that's going to astonish me.' Visions +of mermaids rose before me.</p> + +<p>"'The thing,' said Daisy, 'is a thermosaurus!'</p> + +<p>"I nodded vaguely, as though anticipating a delightful introduction to +a nautical friend.</p> + +<p>"'You don't seem astonished,' she said, reproachfully.</p> + +<p>"'Why should I be?' I asked.</p> + +<p>"'Please turn your eyes towards the water. Suppose a thermosaurus +should look out of the waves!'</p> + +<p>"'Well,' said I, 'in that case the pleasure would be mutual.'</p> + +<p>"She frowned and bit her upper lip.</p> + +<p>"'Do you know what a thermosaurus is?' she asked.</p> + +<p>"'If I am to guess,' said I, 'I guess it's a jelly-fish.'</p> + +<p>"'It's that big, ugly, horrible creature that I showed you in the +shed!' cried Daisy, impatiently.</p> + +<p>"'Eh!' I stammered.</p> + +<p>"'Not papier-maché, either,' she continued, excitedly; 'it's a real +one.'</p> + +<p>"This was pleasant news. I glanced instinctively at my rifle and then +at the ocean.</p> + +<p>"'Well,' said I at last, 'it strikes me that you and I resemble a pair +of Andromedas waiting to be swallowed. This rifle won't stop a beast, +a live beast, like that Nibelungen dragon of yours.'</p> + +<p>"'Yes, it will,' she said; 'it's not an ordinary rifle.'</p> + +<p>"Then, for the first time, I noticed, just below the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span>magazine, a +cylindrical attachment that was strange to me.</p> + +<p>"'Now, if you will watch the sea very carefully, and will promise not +to look at me,' said Daisy, 'I will try to explain.'</p> + +<p>"She did not wait for me to promise, but went on eagerly, a sparkle of +excitement in her blue eyes:</p> + +<p>"'You know, of all the fossil remains of the great batlike and +lizard-like creatures that inhabited the earth ages and ages ago, the +bones of the gigantic saurians are the most interesting. I think they +used to splash about the water and fly over the land during the +carboniferous period; anyway, it doesn't matter. Of course you have +seen pictures of reconstructed creatures such as the ichthyosaurus, +the plesiosaurus, the anthracosaurus, and the thermosaurus?'</p> + +<p>"I nodded, trying to keep my eyes from hers.</p> + +<p>"'And you know that the remains of the thermosaurus were first +discovered and reconstructed by papa?'</p> + +<p>"'Yes,' said I. There was no use in saying no.</p> + +<p>"'I am glad you do. Now, papa has proved that this creature lived +entirely in the Gulf Stream, emerging for occasional flights across an +ocean or two. Can you imagine how he proved it?'</p> + +<p>"'No,' said I, resolutely pointing my nose at the ocean.</p> + +<p>"'He proved it by a minute examination of the microscopical shells +found among the ribs of the thermosaurus. These shells contained +little creatures that live only in the warm waters of the Gulf Stream. +They were the food of the thermosaurus.'</p> + +<p>"'It was rather slender rations for a thing like that, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span>wasn't it? Did +he ever swallow bigger food—er—men?'</p> + +<p>"'Oh yes. Tons of fossil bones from prehistoric men are also found in +the interior of the thermosaurus.'</p> + +<p>"'Then,' said I, 'you, at least, had better go back to Captain +McPeek's—'</p> + +<p>"'Please turn around; don't be so foolish. I didn't say there was a +live thermosaurus in the water, did I?'</p> + +<p>"'Isn't there?'</p> + +<p>"'Why, no!'</p> + +<p>"My relief was genuine, but I thought of the rifle and looked +suspiciously out to sea.</p> + +<p>"'What's the Winchester for?' I asked.</p> + +<p>"'Listen, and I will explain. Papa has found out—how, I do not +exactly understand—that there is in the waters of the Gulf Stream the +body of a thermosaurus. The creature must have been alive within a +year or so. The impenetrable scale-armor that covers its body has, as +far as papa knows, prevented its disintegration. We know that it is +there still, or was there within a few months. Papa has reports and +sworn depositions from steamer captains and seamen from a dozen +different vessels, all corroborating one another in essential details. +These stories, of course, get into the newspapers—sea-serpent +stories—but papa knows that they confirm his theory that the huge +body of this reptile is swinging along somewhere in the Gulf Stream.'</p> + +<p>"She opened her sunshade and held it over her. I noticed that she +deigned to give me the benefit of about one-eighth of it.</p> + +<p>"'Your duty with that rifle is this: if we are fortunate enough to see +the body of the thermosaurus come <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span>floating by, you are to take good +aim and fire—fire rapidly every bullet in the magazine; then reload +and fire again, and reload and fire as long as you have any cartridges +left.'</p> + +<p>"'A self-feeding Maxim is what I should have,' I said, with gentle +sarcasm. 'Well, and suppose I make a sieve of this big lizard?'</p> + +<p>"'Do you see these rings in the sand?' she asked.</p> + +<p>"Sure enough, somebody had driven heavy piles deep into the sand all +around us, and to the tops of these piles were attached steel rings, +half buried under the spear-grass. We sat almost exactly in the centre +of a circle of these rings.</p> + +<p>"'The reason is this,' said Daisy; 'every bullet in your cartridges is +steel-tipped and armor-piercing. To the base of each bullet is +attached a thin wire of pallium. Pallium is that new metal, a thread +of which, drawn out into finest wire, will hold a ton of iron +suspended. Every bullet is fitted with minute coils of miles of this +wire. When the bullet leaves the rifle it spins out this wire as a +shot from a life-saver's mortar spins out and carries the life-line to +a wrecked ship. The end of each coil of wire is attached to that +cylinder under the magazine of your rifle. As soon as the shell is +automatically ejected this wire flies out also. A bit of scarlet tape +is fixed to the end, so that it will be easy to pick up. There is also +a snap-clasp on the end, and this clasp fits those rings that you see +in the sand. Now, when you begin firing, it is my duty to run and pick +up the wire ends and attach them to the rings. Then, you see, we have +the body of the thermosaurus full of bullets, every bullet anchored to +the shore by tiny wires, each of which could easily hold a ton's +strain.'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span>"I looked at her in amazement.</p> + +<p>"'Then,' she added, calmly, 'we have captured the thermosaurus.'</p> + +<p>"'Your father,' said I, at length, 'must have spent years of labor +over this preparation.'</p> + +<p>"'It is the work of a lifetime,' she said, simply.</p> + +<p>"My face, I suppose, showed my misgivings.</p> + +<p>"'It must not fail,' she added.</p> + +<p>"'But—but we are nowhere near the Gulf Stream,' I ventured.</p> + +<p>"Her face brightened, and she frankly held the sunshade over us both.</p> + +<p>"'Ah, you don't know,' she said, 'what else papa has discovered. Would +you believe that he has found a loop in the Gulf Stream—a genuine +loop—that swings in here just outside of the breakers below? It is +true! Everybody on Long Island knows that there is a warm current off +the coast, but nobody imagined it was merely a sort of backwater from +the Gulf Stream that formed a great circular mill-race around the cone +of a subterranean volcano, and rejoined the Gulf Stream off Cape +Albatross. But it is! That is why papa bought a yacht three years ago +and sailed about for two years so mysteriously. Oh, I did want to go +with him so much!'</p> + +<p>"'This,' said I, 'is most astonishing.'</p> + +<p>"She leaned enthusiastically towards me, her lovely face aglow.</p> + +<p>"'Isn't it?' she said; 'and to think that you and papa and I are the +only people in the whole world who know this!'</p> + +<p>"To be included in such a triology was very delightful.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span>"'Papa is writing the whole thing—I mean about the currents. He also +has in preparation sixteen volumes on the thermosaurus. He said this +morning that he was going to ask you to write the story first for some +scientific magazine. He is certain that Professor Bruce Stoddard, of +Columbia, will write the pamphlets necessary. This will give papa time +to attend to the sixteen-volume work, which he expects to finish in +three years.'</p> + +<p>"'Let us first,' said I, laughing, 'catch our thermosaurus.'</p> + +<p>"'We must not fail,' she said, wistfully.</p> + +<p>"'We shall not fail,' I said, 'for I promise to sit on this sand-hill +as long as I live—until a thermosaurus appears—if that is your wish, +Miss Holroyd.'</p> + +<p>"Our eyes met for an instant. She did not chide me, either, for not +looking at the ocean. Her eyes were bluer, anyway.</p> + +<p>"'I suppose,' she said, bending her head and absently pouring sand +between her fingers—'I suppose you think me a blue-stocking, or +something odious?'</p> + +<p>"'Not exactly,' I said. There was an emphasis in my voice that made +her color. After a moment she laid the sunshade down, still open.</p> + +<p>"'May I hold it?' I asked.</p> + +<p>"She nodded almost imperceptibly.</p> + +<p>"The ocean had turned a deep marine blue, verging on purple, that +heralded a scorching afternoon. The wind died away; the odor of cedar +and sweet-bay hung heavy in the air.</p> + +<p>"In the sand at our feet an iridescent flower-beetle crawled, its +metallic green-and-blue wings burning like a spark. Great gnats, with +filmy, glittering wings, danced <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span>aimlessly above the young golden-rod; +burnished crickets, inquisitive, timid, ran from under chips of +driftwood, waved their antennæ at us, and ran back again. One by one +the marbled tiger-beetles tumbled at our feet, dazed from the exertion +of an aërial flight, then scrambled and ran a little way, or darted +into the wire grass, where great, brilliant spiders eyed them askance +from their gossamer hammocks.</p> + +<p>"Far out at sea the white gulls floated and drifted on the water, or +sailed up into the air to flap lazily for a moment and settle back +among the waves. Strings of black surf-ducks passed, their strong +wings tipping the surface of the water; single wandering coots whirled +from the breakers into lonely flight towards the horizon.</p> + +<p>"We lay and watched the little ring-necks running along the water's +edge, now backing away from the incoming tide, now boldly wading after +the undertow. The harmony of silence, the deep perfume, the mystery of +waiting for that something that all await—what is it? love? death? or +only the miracle of another morrow?—troubled me with vague +restlessness. As sunlight casts shadows, happiness, too, throws a +shadow, an the shadow is sadness.</p> + +<p>"And so the morning wore away until Freda came with a cool-looking +hamper. Then delicious cold fowl and lettuce sandwiches and champagne +cup set our tongues wagging as only very young tongues can wag. Daisy +went back with Freda after luncheon, leaving me a case of cigars, with +a bantering smile. I dozed, half awake, keeping a partly closed eye on +the ocean, where a faint gray streak showed plainly amid the azure +water all around. That was the Gulf Stream loop.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span>"About four o'clock Frisby appeared with a bamboo shelter-tent, for +which I was unaffectedly grateful.</p> + +<p>"After he had erected it over me he stopped to chat a bit, but the +conversation bored me, for he could talk of nothing but bill-posting.</p> + +<p>"'You wouldn't ruin the landscape here, would you?' I asked.</p> + +<p>"'Ruin it!' repeated Frisby, nervously. 'It's ruined now; there ain't +a place to stick a bill.'</p> + +<p>"'The snipe stick bills—in the sand,' I said, flippantly.</p> + +<p>"There was no humor about Frisby. 'Do they?' he asked.</p> + +<p>"I moved with a certain impatience.</p> + +<p>"'Bills,' said Frisby, 'give spice an' variety to nature. They break +the monotony of the everlastin' green and what-you-may-call-its.'</p> + +<p>"I glared at him.</p> + +<p>"'Bills,' he continued, 'are not easy to stick, lemme tell you, sir. +Sign-paintin's a soft snap when it comes to bill-stickin'. Now, I +guess I've stuck more bills onto New York State than ennybody.'</p> + +<p>"'Have you?' I said, angrily.</p> + +<p>"'Yes, siree! I always pick out the purtiest spots—kinder filled +chuck full of woods and brooks and things; then I h'ist my paste-pot +onto a rock, and I slather that rock with gum, and whoop she goes!'</p> + +<p>"'Whoop what goes?'</p> + +<p>"'The bill. I paste her onto the rock, with one swipe of the brush for +the edges and a back-handed swipe for the finish—except when a bill +is folded in two halves.'</p> + +<p>"'And what do you do then?' I asked, disgusted.</p> + +<p>"'Swipe twice,' said Frisby, with enthusiasm.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span>"'And you don't think it injures the landscape?'</p> + +<p>"'Injures it!' he exclaimed, convinced that I was attempting to joke.</p> + +<p>"I looked wearily out to sea. He also looked at the water and sighed +sentimentally.</p> + +<p>"'Floatin' buoys with bills onto 'em is a idea of mine,' he observed. +'That damn ocean is monotonous, ain't it?'</p> + +<p>"I don't know what I might have done to Frisby—the rifle was so +convenient—if his mean yellow dog had not waddled up at this +juncture.</p> + +<p>"'Hi, Davy, sic 'em!' said Frisby, expectorating upon a clam-shell and +hurling it seaward. The cur watched the flight of the shell +apathetically, then squatted in the sand and looked at his master.</p> + +<p>"'Kinder lost his spirit,' said Frisby, 'ain't he? I once stuck a bill +onto Davy, an' it come off, an' the paste sorter sickened him. He was +hell on rats—once!'</p> + +<p>"After a moment or two Frisby took himself off, whistling cheerfully +to Davy, who followed him when he was ready. The rifle burned in my +fingers.</p> + +<p>"It was nearly six o'clock when the professor appeared, spade on +shoulder, boots smeared with mud.</p> + +<p>"'Well,' he said, 'nothing to report, Dick, my boy?'</p> + +<p>"'Nothing, professor.'</p> + +<p>"He wiped his shining face with his handkerchief and stared at the +water.</p> + +<p>"'My calculations lead me to believe,' he said, 'that our prize may be +due any day now. This theory I base upon the result of the report from +the last sea-captain I saw. I cannot understand why some of these +captains did not take the carcass in tow. They all say that they +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span>tried, but that the body sank before they could come within half a +mile. The truth is, probably, that they did not stir a foot from their +course to examine the thing.'</p> + +<p>"'Have you ever cruised about for it?' I ventured.</p> + +<p>"'For two years,' he said, grimly. 'It's no use; it's accident when a +ship falls in with it. One captain reports it a thousand miles from +where the last skipper spoke it, and always in the Gulf Stream. They +think it is a different specimen every time, and the papers are +teeming with sea-serpent fol-de-rol.'</p> + +<p>"'Are you sure,' I asked, 'that it will swing into the coast on this +Gulf Stream loop?'</p> + +<p>"'I think I may say that it is certain to do so. I experimented with a +dead right-whale. You may have heard of its coming ashore here last +summer.'</p> + +<p>"'I think I did,' said I, with a faint smile. The thing had poisoned +the air for miles around.</p> + +<p>"'But,' I continued, 'suppose it comes in the night?'</p> + +<p>"He laughed.</p> + +<p>"'There I am lucky. Every night this month, and every day, too, the +current of the loop runs inland so far that even a porpoise would +strand for at least twelve hours. Longer than that I have not +experimented with, but I know that the shore trend of the loop runs +across a long spur of the submerged volcanic mountain, and that +anything heavier than a porpoise would scrape the bottom and be +carried so slowly that at least twelve hours must elapse before the +carcass could float again into deep water. There are chances of its +stranding indefinitely, too, but I don't care to take those chances. +That is why I have stationed you here, Dick.'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span>"He glanced again at the water, smiling to himself.</p> + +<p>"'There is another question I want to ask,' I said, 'if you don't +mind.'</p> + +<p>"'Of course not!' he said, warmly.</p> + +<p>"'What are you digging for?'</p> + +<p>"'Why, simply for exercise. The doctor told me I was killing myself +with my sedentary habits, so I decided to dig. I don't know a better +exercise. Do you?'</p> + +<p>"'I suppose not,' I murmured, rather red in the face. I wondered +whether he'd mention fossils.</p> + +<p>"'Did Daisy tell you why we are making our papier-maché thermosaurus?' +he asked.</p> + +<p>"I shook my head.</p> + +<p>"'We constructed that from measurements I took from the fossil remains +of the thermosaurus in the Metropolitan Museum. Professor Bruce +Stoddard made the drawings. We set it up here, all ready to receive +the skin of the carcass that I am expecting.'</p> + +<p>"We had started towards home, walking slowly across the darkening +dunes, shoulder to shoulder. The sand was deep, and walking was not +easy.</p> + +<p>"'I wish,' said I at last, 'that I knew why Miss Holroyd asked me not +to walk on the beach. It's much less fatiguing.'</p> + +<p>"'That,' said the professor, 'is a matter that I intend to discuss +with you to-night.' He spoke gravely, almost sadly. I felt that +something of unparalleled importance was soon to be revealed. So I +kept very quiet, watching the ocean out of the corners of my eyes.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="XX" id="XX"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>XX<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>"Dinner was ended. Daisy Holroyd lighted her father's pipe for him, +and insisted on my smoking as much as I pleased. Then she sat down, +and folded her hands like a good little girl, waiting for her father +to make the revelation which I felt in my bones must be something out +of the ordinary.</p> + +<p>"The professor smoked for a while, gazing meditatively at his +daughter; then, fixing his gray eyes on me, he said:</p> + +<p>"'Have you ever heard of the kree—that Australian bird, half parrot, +half hawk, that destroys so many sheep in New South Wales?'</p> + +<p>"I nodded.</p> + +<p>"'The kree kills a sheep by alighting on its back and tearing away the +flesh with its hooked beak until a vital part is reached. You know +that? Well, it has been discovered that the kree had prehistoric +prototypes. These birds were enormous creatures, who preyed upon +mammoths and mastodons, and even upon the great saurians. It has been +conclusively proved that a few saurians have been killed by the +ancestors of the kree, but the favorite food of these birds was +undoubtedly the thermosaurus. It is believed that the birds attacked +the eyes of the thermosaurus, and when, as was its habit, the mammoth +creature turned on its <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span>back to claw them, they fell upon the thinner +scales of its stomach armor and finally killed it. This, of course, is +a theory, but we have almost absolute proofs of its correctness. Now, +these two birds are known among scientists as the ekaf-bird and the +ool-yllik. The names are Australian, in which country most of their +remains have been unearthed. They lived during the Carboniferous +period. Now, it is not generally known, but the fact is, that in 1801 +Captain Ransom, of the British exploring vessel <i>Gull</i>, purchased from +the natives of Tasmania the skin of an ekaf-bird that could not have +been killed more than twenty-four hours previous to its sale. I saw +this skin in the British Museum. It was labelled, "Unknown bird, +probably extinct." It took me exactly a week to satisfy myself that it +was actually the skin of an ekaf-bird. But that is not all, Dick,' +continued the professor, excitedly. 'In 1854 Admiral Stuart, of our +own navy, saw the carcass of a strange, gigantic bird floating along +the southern coast of Australia. Sharks were after it, and before a +boat could be lowered these miserable fish got it. But the good old +admiral secured a few feathers and sent them to the Smithsonian. I saw +them. They were not even labelled, but I knew that they were feathers +from the ekaf-bird or its near relative, the ool-yllik.'</p> + +<p>"I had grown so interested that I had leaned far across the table. +Daisy, too, bent forward. It was only when the professor paused for a +moment that I noticed how close together our heads were—Daisy's and +mine. I don't think she realized it. She did not move.</p> + +<p>"'Now comes the important part of this long discourse,' said the +professor, smiling at our eagerness. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span>"'Ever since the carcass of our +derelict thermosaurus was first noticed, every captain who has seen it +has also reported the presence of one or more gigantic birds in the +neighborhood. These birds, at a great distance, appeared to be +hovering over the carcass, but on the approach of a vessel they +disappeared. Even in mid-ocean they were observed. When I heard about +it I was puzzled. A month later I was satisfied that neither the +ekaf-bird nor the ool-yllik was extinct. Last Monday I knew that I was +right. I found forty-eight distinct impressions of the huge, +seven-toed claw of the ekaf-bird on the beach here at Pine Inlet. You +may imagine my excitement. I succeeded in digging up enough wet sand +around one of these impressions to preserve its form. I managed to get +it into a soap-box, and now it is there in my shop. The tide rose too +rapidly for me to save the other footprints.'</p> + +<p>"I shuddered at the possibility of a clumsy misstep on my part +obliterating the impression of an ool-yllik.</p> + +<p>"'That is the reason that my daughter warned you off the beach,' he +said, mildly.</p> + +<p>"'Hanging would have been too good for the vandal who destroyed such +priceless prizes,' I cried out, in self-reproach.</p> + +<p>"Daisy Holroyd turned a flushed face to mine and impulsively laid her +hand on my sleeve.</p> + +<p>"'How could you know?' she said.</p> + +<p>"'It's all right now,' said her father, emphasizing each word with a +gentle tap of his pipe-bowl on the table-edge; 'don't be hard on +yourself, Dick. You'll do yeoman's service yet.'</p> + +<p>"It was nearly midnight, and still we chatted on <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span>about the +thermosaurus, the ekaf-bird, and the ool-yllik, eagerly discussing the +probability of the great reptile's carcass being in the vicinity. That +alone seemed to explain the presence of these prehistoric birds at +Pine Inlet.</p> + +<p>"'Do they ever attack human beings?' I asked.</p> + +<p>"The professor looked startled.</p> + +<p>"'Gracious!' he exclaimed, 'I never thought of that. And Daisy running +about out-of-doors! Dear me! It takes a scientist to be an unnatural +parent!'</p> + +<p>"His alarm was half real, half assumed; but, all the same, he glanced +gravely at us both, shaking his handsome head, absorbed in thought. +Daisy herself looked a little doubtful. As for me, my sensations were +distinctly queer.</p> + +<p>"'It is true,' said the professor, frowning at the wall, 'that human +remains have been found associated with the bones of the ekaf-bird—I +don't know how intimately. It is a matter to be taken into most +serious consideration.'</p> + +<p>"'The problem can be solved,' said I, 'in several ways. One is, to +keep Miss Holroyd in the house—'</p> + +<p>"'I shall not stay in,' cried Daisy, indignantly.</p> + +<p>"We all laughed, and her father assured her that she should not be +abused.</p> + +<p>"'Even if I did stay in,' she said, 'one of these birds might alight +on Master Dick.'</p> + +<p>"She looked saucily at me as she spoke, but turned crimson when her +father observed, quietly, 'You don't seem to think of me, Daisy!'</p> + +<p>"'Of course I do,' she said, getting up and putting both arms around +her father's neck; 'but Dick—as—as you call him—is so helpless and +timid.'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span>"My blissful smile froze on my lips.</p> + +<p>"'Timid!' I repeated.</p> + +<p>"She came back to the table, making me a mocking reverence.</p> + +<p>"'Do you think I am to be laughed at with impunity?' she said.</p> + +<p>"'What are your other plans, Dick?' asked the professor. 'Daisy, let +him alone, you little tease!'</p> + +<p>"'One is, to haul a lot of cast-iron boilers along the dunes,' I said. +'If these birds come when the carcass floats in, and if they seem +disposed to trouble us, we could crawl into the boilers and be safe.'</p> + +<p>"'Why, that is really brilliant!' cried Daisy.</p> + +<p>"'Be quiet, my child. Dick, the plan is sound and sensible and +perfectly practical. McPeek and Frisby shall go for a dozen loads of +boilers to-morrow.'</p> + +<p>"'It will spoil the beauty of the landscape,' said Daisy, with a +taunting nod to me.</p> + +<p>"'And Frisby will probably attempt to cover them with bill-posters,' I +added, laughing.</p> + +<p>"'That,' said Daisy, 'I shall prevent, even at the cost of his life.' +And she stood up, looking very determined.</p> + +<p>"'Children, children,' protested the professor, 'go to bed—you bother +me.'</p> + +<p>"Then I turned deliberately to Miss Holroyd.</p> + +<p>"'Good-night, Daisy,' I said.</p> + +<p>"'Good-night, Dick,' she said, very gently.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="XXI" id="XXI"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>XXI<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>"The week passed quickly for me, leaving but few definite impressions. +As I look back to it now I can see the long stretch of beach burning +in the fierce sunlight, the endless meadows, with the glimmer of water +in the distance, the dunes, the twisted cedars, the leagues of +scintillating ocean, rocking, rocking, always rocking. In the starlit +nights the curlew came in from the sand-bars by twos and threes; I +could hear their querulous call as I lay in bed thinking. All day long +the little ring-necks whistled from the shore. The plover answered +them from distant, lonely inland pools. The great white gulls drifted +like feathers upon the sea.</p> + +<p>"One morning towards the end of the week, I, strolling along the +dunes, came upon Frisby. He was bill-posting. I caught him red-handed.</p> + +<p>"'This,' said I, 'must stop. Do you understand, Mr. Frisby?'</p> + +<p>"He stepped back from his work, laying his head on one side, +considering first me, then the bill that he had pasted on one of our +big boilers.</p> + +<p>"'Don't you like the color?' he asked. 'It goes well on them black +boilers.'</p> + +<p>"'Color! No, I don't like the color, either. Can't you understand that +there are some people in the world <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span>who object to seeing +patent-medicine advertisements scattered over a landscape?'</p> + +<p>"'Hey?' he said, perplexed.</p> + +<p>"'Will you kindly remove that advertisement?' I persisted.</p> + +<p>"'Too late,' said Frisby; 'it's sot.'</p> + +<p>"I was too disgusted to speak, but my disgust turned to anger when I +perceived that, as far as the eye could reach, our boilers, lying from +three to four hundred feet apart, were ablaze with yellow-and-red +posters extolling the 'Eureka Liver Pill Company.'</p> + +<p>"'It don't cost 'em nothin',' said Frisby, cheerfully; 'I done it fur +the fun of it. Purty, ain't it?'</p> + +<p>"'They are Professor Holroyd's boilers,' I said, subduing a desire to +beat Frisby with my telescope. 'Wait until Miss Holroyd sees this +work.'</p> + +<p>"'Don't she like yeller and red?' he demanded, anxiously.</p> + +<p>"'You'll find out,' said I.</p> + +<p>"Frisby gaped at his handiwork and then at his yellow dog. After a +moment he mechanically spat on a clam-shell and requested Davy to +'sic' it.</p> + +<p>"'Can't you comprehend that you have ruined our pleasure in the +landscape?' I asked, more mildly.</p> + +<p>"'I've got some green bills,' said Frisby; 'I kin stick 'em over the +yeller ones—'</p> + +<p>"'Confound it,' said I, 'it isn't the color!'</p> + +<p>"'Then,' observed Frisby, 'you don't like them pills. I've got some +bills of the "Cropper Automobile" and a few of "Bagley, the Gents' +Tailor"—'</p> + +<p>"'Frisby,' said I, 'use them all—paste the whole collection over your +dog and yourself—then walk off the cliff.'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span>"He sullenly unfolded a green poster, swabbed the boiler with paste, +laid the upper section of the bill upon it, and plastered the whole +bill down with a thwack of his brush. As I walked away I heard him +muttering.</p> + +<p>"Next day Daisy was so horrified that I promised to give Frisby an +ultimatum. I found him with Freda, gazing sentimentally at his work, +and I sent him back to the shop in a hurry, telling Freda at the same +time that she could spend her leisure in providing Mr. Frisby with +sand, soap, and a scrubbing-brush. Then I walked on to my post of +observation.</p> + +<p>"I watched until sunset. Daisy came with her father to hear my report, +but there was nothing to tell, and we three walked slowly back to the +house.</p> + +<p>"In the evenings the professor worked on his volumes, the click of his +type-writer sounding faintly behind his closed door. Daisy and I +played chess sometimes; sometimes we played hearts. I don't remember +that we ever finished a game of either—we talked too much.</p> + +<p>"Our discussions covered every topic of interest: we argued upon +politics; we skimmed over literature and music; we settled +international differences; we spoke vaguely of human brotherhood. I +say we slighted no subject of interest—I am wrong; we never spoke of +love.</p> + +<p>"Now, love is a matter of interest to ten people out of ten. Why it +was that it did not appear to interest us is as interesting a question +as love itself. We were young, alert, enthusiastic, inquiring. We +eagerly absorbed theories concerning any curious phenomena in nature, +as intellectual cocktails to stimulate discussion. And yet we did not +discuss love. I do not say that we avoided <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span>it. No; the subject was +too completely ignored for even that. And yet we found it very +difficult to pass an hour separated. The professor noticed this, and +laughed at us. We were not even embarrassed.</p> + +<p>"Sunday passed in pious contemplation of the ocean. Daisy read a +little in her prayer-book, and the professor threw a cloth over his +type-writer and strolled up and down the sands. He may have been lost +in devout abstraction; he may have been looking for footprints. As for +me, my mind was very serene, and I was more than happy. Daisy read to +me a little for my soul's sake, and the professor came up and said +something cheerful. He also examined the magazine of my Winchester.</p> + +<p>"That night, too, Daisy took her guitar to the sands and sang one or +two Basque hymns. Unlike us, the Basques do not take their pleasures +sadly. One of their pleasures is evidently religion.</p> + +<p>"The big moon came up over the dunes and stared at the sea until the +surface of every wave trembled with radiance. A sudden stillness fell +across the world; the wind died out; the foam ran noiselessly across +the beach; the cricket's rune was stilled.</p> + +<p>"I leaned back, dropping one hand upon the sand. It touched another +hand, soft and cool.</p> + +<p>"After a while the other hand moved slightly, and I found that my own +had closed above it. Presently one finger stirred a little—only a +little—for our fingers were interlocked.</p> + +<p>"On the shore the foam-froth bubbled and winked and glimmered in the +moonlight. A star fell from the zenith, showering the night with +incandescent dust.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span>"If our fingers lay interlaced beside us, her eyes were calm and +serene as always, wide open, fixed upon the depths of a dark sky. And +when her father rose and spoke to us, she did not withdraw her hand.</p> + +<p>"'Is it late?' she asked, dreamily.</p> + +<p>"'It is midnight, little daughter.'</p> + +<p>"I stood up, still holding her hand, and aided her to rise. And when, +at the door, I said good-night, she turned and looked at me for a +little while in silence, then passed into her room slowly, with head +still turned towards me.</p> + +<p>"All night long I dreamed of her; and when the east whitened, I sprang +up, the thunder of the ocean in my ears, the strong sea-wind blowing +into the open window.</p> + +<p>"'She's asleep,' I thought, and I leaned from the window and peered +out into the east.</p> + +<p>"The sea called to me, tossing its thousand arms; the soaring gulls, +dipping, rising, wheeling above the sandbar, screamed and clamored for +a playmate. I slipped into my bathing-suit, dropped from the window +upon the soft sand, and in a moment had plunged head foremost into the +surf, swimming beneath the waves towards the open sea.</p> + +<p>"Under the tossing ocean the voice of the waters was in my ears—a +low, sweet voice, intimate, mysterious. Through singing foam and +broad, green, glassy depths, by whispering sandy channels atrail with +sea-weed, and on, on, out into the vague, cool sea, I sped, rising to +the top, sinking, gliding. Then at last I flung myself out of water, +hands raised, and the clamor of the gulls filled my ears.</p> + +<p>"As I lay, breathing fast, drifting on the sea, far out <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span>beyond the +gulls I saw a flash of white, and an arm was lifted, signalling me.</p> + +<p>"'Daisy!' I called.</p> + +<p>"A clear hail came across the water, distinct on the sea-wind, and at +the same instant we raised our hands and moved towards each other.</p> + +<p>"How we laughed as we met in the sea! The white dawn came up out of +the depths, the zenith turned to rose and ashes.</p> + +<p>"And with the dawn came the wind—a great sea-wind, fresh, aromatic, +that hurled our voices back into our throats and lifted the sheeted +spray above our heads. Every wave, crowned with mist, caught us in a +cool embrace, cradled us, and slipped away, only to leave us to +another wave, higher, stronger, crested with opalescent glory, +breathing incense.</p> + +<p>"We turned together up the coast, swimming lightly side by side, but +our words were caught up by the winds and whirled into the sky.</p> + +<p>"We looked up at the driving clouds; we looked out upon the pallid +waste of waters, but it was into each other's eyes we looked, +wondering, wistful, questioning the reason of sky and sea And there in +each other's eyes we read the mystery, and we knew that earth and sky +and sea were created for us alone.</p> + +<p>"Drifting on by distant sands and dunes, her white fingers touching +mine, we spoke, keying our tones to the wind's vast harmony. And we +spoke of love.</p> + +<p>"Gray and wide as the limitless span of the sky and the sea, the winds +gathered from the world's ends to bear us on; but they were not +familiar winds; for now, along the coast, the breakers curled and +showed a million <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span>fangs, and the ocean stirred to its depths, uneasy, +ominous, and the menace of its murmur drew us closer as we moved.</p> + +<p>"Where the dull thunder and the tossing spray warned us from sunken +reefs, we heard the harsh challenges of gulls; where the pallid surf +twisted in yellow coils of spume above the bar, the singing sands +murmured of treachery and secrets of lost souls agasp in the throes of +silent undertows.</p> + +<p>"But there was a little stretch of beach glimmering through the +mountains of water, and towards this we turned, side by side. Around +us the water grew warmer; the breath of the following waves moistened +our cheeks; the water itself grew gray and strange about us.</p> + +<p>"'We have come too far,' I said; but she only answered:</p> + +<p>"'Faster, faster! I am afraid!' The water was almost hot now; its +aromatic odor filled our lungs.</p> + +<p>"'The Gulf loop!' I muttered. 'Daisy, shall I help you?'</p> + +<p>"'No. Swim—close by me! Oh-h! Dick—'</p> + +<p>"Her startled cry was echoed by another—a shrill scream, unutterably +horrible—and a great bird flapped from the beach, splashing and +beating its pinions across the water with a thundering noise.</p> + +<p>"Out across the waves it blundered, rising little by little from the +water, and now, to my horror, I saw another monstrous bird swinging in +the air above it, squealing as it turned on its vast wings. Before I +could speak we touched the beach, and I half lifted her to the shore.</p> + +<p>"'Quick!' I repeated. 'We must not wait.'</p> + +<p>"Her eyes were dark with fear, but she rested a hand <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span>on my shoulder, +and we crept up among the dune-grasses and sank down by the point of +sand where the rough shelter stood, surrounded by the iron-ringed +piles.</p> + +<p>"She lay there, breathing fast and deep, dripping with spray. I had no +power of speech left, but when I rose wearily to my knees and looked +out upon the water my blood ran cold. Above the ocean, on the breast +of the roaring wind, three enormous birds sailed, turning and wheeling +among one another; and below, drifting with the gray stream of the +Gulf loop, a colossal bulk lay half submerged—a gigantic lizard, +floating belly upward.</p> + +<p>"Then Daisy crept kneeling to my side and touched me, trembling from +head to foot.</p> + +<p>"'I know,' I muttered. 'I must run back for the rifle.'</p> + +<p>"'And—and leave me?'</p> + +<p>"I took her by the hand, and we dragged ourselves through the +wire-grass to the open end of a boiler lying in the sand.</p> + +<p>"She crept in on her hands and knees, and called to me to follow.</p> + +<p>"'You are safe now,' I cried. 'I must go back for the rifle.'</p> + +<p>"'The birds may—may attack you.'</p> + +<p>"'If they do I can get into one of the other boilers,' I said. 'Daisy, +you must not venture out until I come back. You won't, will you?'</p> + +<p>"'No-o,' she whispered, doubtfully.</p> + +<p>"'Then—good-bye.'</p> + +<p>"'Good-bye,' she answered, but her voice was very small and still.</p> + +<p>"'Good-bye,' I said again. I was kneeling at the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span>mouth of the big +iron tunnel; it was dark inside and I could not see her, but, before I +was conscious of it, her arms were around my neck and we had kissed +each other.</p> + +<p>"I don't remember how I went away. When I came to my proper senses I +was swimming along the coast at full speed, and over my head wheeled +one of the birds, screaming at every turn.</p> + +<p>"The intoxication of that innocent embrace, the close impress of her +arms around my neck, gave me a strength and recklessness that neither +fear nor fatigue could subdue. The bird above me did not even frighten +me. I watched it over my shoulder, swimming strongly, with the tide +now aiding me, now stemming my course; but I saw the shore passing +quickly, and my strength increased, and I shouted when I came in sight +of the house, and scrambled up on the sand, dripping and excited. +There was nobody in sight, and I gave a last glance up into the air +where the bird wheeled, still screeching, and hastened into the house. +Freda stared at me in amazement as I seized the rifle and shouted for +the professor.</p> + +<p>"'He has just gone to town, with Captain McPeek in his wagon,' +stammered Freda.</p> + +<p>"'What!' I cried. 'Does he know where his daughter is?'</p> + +<p>"'Miss Holroyd is asleep—not?' gasped Freda.</p> + +<p>"'Where's Frisby?' I cried, impatiently.</p> + +<p>"'Yimmie?' quavered Freda.</p> + +<p>"'Yes, Jimmie; isn't there anybody here? Good Heavens! where's that +man in the shop?'</p> + +<p>"'He also iss gone,' said Freda, shedding tears, 'to buy papier-maché. +Yimmie, he iss gone to post bills.'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span>"I waited to hear no more, but swung my rifle over my shoulder, and, +hanging the cartridge-belt across my chest, hurried out and up the +beach. The bird was not in sight.</p> + +<p>"I had been running for perhaps a minute when, far up on the dunes, I +saw a yellow dog rush madly through a clump of sweet-bay, and at the +same moment a bird soared past, rose, and hung hovering just above the +thicket. Suddenly the bird swooped; there was a shriek and a yelp from +the cur, but the bird gripped it in one claw and beat its wings upon +the sand, striving to rise. Then I saw Frisby—paste, bucket, and +brush raised—fall upon the bird, yelling lustily. The fierce creature +relaxed its talons, and the dog rushed on, squeaking with terror. The +bird turned on Frisby and sent him sprawling on his face, a sticky +mass of paste and sand. But this did not end the struggle. The bird, +croaking horridly, flew at the prostrate bill-poster, and the sand +whirled into a pillar above its terrible wings. Scarcely knowing what +I was about, I raised my rifle and fired twice. A scream echoed each +shot, and the bird rose heavily in a shower of sand; but two bullets +were embedded in that mass of foul feathers, and I saw the wires and +scarlet tape uncoiling on the sand at my feet. In an instant I seized +them and passed the ends around a cedar-tree, hooking the clasps +tight. Then I cast one swift glance upward, where the bird wheeled, +screeching, anchored like a kite to the pallium wires; and I hurried +on across the dunes, the shells cutting my feet and the bushes tearing +my wet swimming-suit, until I dripped with blood from shoulder to +ankle. Out in the ocean the carcass of the thermosaurus floated, claws +outspread, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span>belly glistening in the gray light, and over him circled +two birds. As I reached the shelter I knelt and fired into the mass of +scales, and at my first shot a horrible thing occurred—the +lizard-like head writhed, the slitted yellow eyes sliding open from +the film that covered them. A shudder passed across the undulating +body, the great scaled belly heaved, and one leg feebly clawed at the +air.</p> + +<p>"The thing was still alive!</p> + +<p>"Crushing back the horror that almost paralyzed my hands, I planted +shot after shot into the quivering reptile, while it writhed and +clawed, striving to turn over and dive; and at each shot the black +blood spurted in long, slim jets across the water. And now Daisy was +at my side, pale and determined, swiftly clasping each tape-marked +wire to the iron rings in the circle around us. Twice I filled the +magazine from my belt, and twice I poured streams of steel-tipped +bullets into the scaled mass, twisting and shuddering on the sea. +Suddenly the birds steered towards us. I felt the wind from their vast +wings. I saw the feathers erect, vibrating. I saw the spread claws +outstretched, and I struck furiously at them, crying to Daisy to run +into the iron shelter. Backing, swinging my clubbed rifle, I +retreated, but I tripped across one of the taut pallium wires, and in +an instant the hideous birds were on me, and the bone in my forearm +snapped like a pipe-stem at a blow from their wings. Twice I struggled +to my knees, blinded with blood, confused, almost fainting; then I +fell again, rolling into the mouth of the iron boiler.</p> + +<hr style='width: 15%; padding-top: 1.25em; padding-bottom: 1.25em;' /> + +<p>"When I struggled back to consciousness Daisy knelt silently beside +me, while Captain McPeek and Professor <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span>Holroyd bound up my shattered +arm, talking excitedly. The pain made me faint and dizzy. I tried to +speak and could not. At last they got me to my feet and into the +wagon, and Daisy came, too, and crouched beside me, wrapped in +oilskins to her eyes. Fatigue, lack of food, and excitement had +combined with wounds and broken bones to extinguish the last atom of +strength in my body; but my mind was clear enough to understand that +the trouble was over and the thermosaurus safe.</p> + +<p>"I heard McPeek say that one of the birds that I had anchored to a +cedar-tree had torn loose from the bullets and had winged its way +heavily out to sea. The professor answered: 'Yes, the ekaf-bird; the +others were ool-ylliks. I'd have given my right arm to have secured +them.' Then for a time I heard no more; but the jolting of the wagon +over the dunes roused me to keenest pain, and I held out my right hand +to Daisy. She clasped it in both of hers, and kissed it again and +again.</p> + +<hr style='width: 15%; padding-top: 1.25em; padding-bottom: 1.25em;' /> + +<p>"There is little more to add, I think. Professor Bruce Stoddard's +scientific pamphlet will be published soon, to be followed by +Professor Holroyd's sixteen volumes. In a few days the stuffed and +mounted thermosaurus will be placed on free public exhibition in the +arena of Madison Square Garden, the only building in the city large +enough to contain the body of this immense winged reptile."</p> + +<hr style='width: 15%; padding-top: 1.25em; padding-bottom: 1.25em;' /> + +<p>The young man hesitated, looking long and earnestly at Miss Barrison.</p> + +<p>"Did you marry her?" she asked, softly.</p> + +<p>"You wouldn't believe it," said the young man, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span>earnestly—"you +wouldn't believe it, after all that happened, if I should tell you +that she married Professor Bruce Stoddard, of Columbia—would you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I would," said Miss Barrison. "You never can tell what a girl +will do."</p> + +<p>"That story of yours," I said, "is to me the most wonderful and +valuable contribution to nature study that it has ever been my fortune +to listen to. You are fitted to write; it is your sacred mission to +produce. Are you going to?"</p> + +<p>"I am writing," said the young man, quietly, "a nature book. Sir Peter +Grebe's magnificent monograph on the speckled titmouse inspired me. +But nature study is not what I have chosen as my life's mission."</p> + +<p>He looked dreamily across at Miss Barrison. "No, not natural +phenomena," he repeated, "but unnatural phenomena. What Professor +Hyssop has done for Columbia, I shall attempt to do for Harvard. In +fact, I have already accepted the chair of Psychical Phenomena at +Cambridge."</p> + +<p>I gazed upon him with intense respect.</p> + +<p>"A personal experience revealed to me my life's work," he, went on, +thoughtfully stroking his blond mustache. "If Miss Barrison would care +to hear it—"</p> + +<p>"Please tell it," she said, sweetly.</p> + +<p>"I shall have to relate it clothed in that artificial garb known as +literary style," he explained, deprecatingly.</p> + +<p>"It doesn't matter," I said, "I never noticed any style at all in your +story of the thermosaurus."</p> + +<p>He smiled gratefully, and passed his hand over his face; a far-away +expression came into his eyes, and he slowly began, hesitating, as +though talking to himself:</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="XXII" id="XXII"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>XXII<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>"It was high noon in the city of Antwerp. From slender steeples +floated the mellow music of the Flemish bells, and in the spire of the +great cathedral across the square the cracked chimes clashed discords +until my ears ached.</p> + +<p>"When the fiend in the cathedral had jerked the last tuneless clang +from the chimes, I removed my fingers from my ears and sat down at one +of the iron tables in the court. A waiter, with his face shaved blue, +brought me a bottle of Rhine wine, a tumbler of cracked ice, and a +siphon.</p> + +<p>"'Does monsieur desire anything else?' he inquired.</p> + +<p>"'Yes—the head of the cathedral bell-ringer; bring it with vinegar +and potatoes,' I said, bitterly. Then I began to ponder on my +great-aunt and the Crimson Diamond.</p> + +<p>"The white walls of the Hôtel St. Antoine rose in a rectangle around +the sunny court, casting long shadows across the basin of the +fountain. The strip of blue overhead was cloudless. Sparrows twittered +under the eaves the yellow awnings fluttered, the flowers swayed in +the summer breeze, and the jet of the fountain splashed among the +water-plants. On the sunny side of the piazza the tables were vacant; +on the shady side I was lazily aware that the tables behind me were +occupied, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span>but I was indifferent as to their occupants, partly because +I shunned all tourists, partly because I was thinking of my +great-aunt.</p> + +<p>"Most old ladies are eccentric, but there is a limit, and my +great-aunt had overstepped it. I had believed her to be wealthy—she +died bankrupt. Still, I knew there was one thing she did possess, and +that was the famous Crimson Diamond. Now, of course, you know who my +great-aunt was.</p> + +<p>"Excepting the Koh-i-noor and the Regent, this enormous and unique +stone was, as everybody knows, the most valuable gem in existence. Any +ordinary person would have placed that diamond in a safe-deposit. My +great-aunt did nothing of the kind. She kept it in a small velvet bag, +which she carried about her neck. She never took it off, but wore it +dangling openly on her heavy silk gown.</p> + +<p>"In this same bag she also carried dried catnip-leaves, of which she +was inordinately fond. Nobody but myself, her only living relative, +knew that the Crimson Diamond lay among the sprigs of catnip in the +little velvet bag.</p> + +<p>"'Harold,' she would say, 'do you think I'm a fool? If I place the +Crimson Diamond in any safe-deposit vault in New York, somebody will +steal it, sooner or later.' Then she would nibble a sprig of catnip +and peer cunningly at me. I loathed the odor of catnip and she knew +it. I also loathed cats. This also she knew, and of course surrounded +herself with a dozen. Poor old lady! One day she was found dead in her +bed in her apartments at the Waldorf. The doctor said she died from +natural causes. The only other occupant of her sleeping-room was a +cat. The cat fled when we broke <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span>open the door, and I heard that she +was received and cherished by some eccentric people in a neighboring +apartment.</p> + +<p>"Now, although my great-aunt's death was due to purely natural causes, +there was one very startling and disagreeable feature of the case. The +velvet bag containing the Crimson Diamond had disappeared. Every inch +of the apartment was searched, the floors torn up, the walls +dismantled, but the Crimson Diamond had vanished. Chief of Police +Conlon detailed four of his best men on the case, and, as I had +nothing better to do, I enrolled myself as a volunteer. I also offered +$25,000 reward for the recovery of the gem. All New York was agog.</p> + +<p>"The case seemed hopeless enough, although there were five of us after +the thief. McFarlane was in London, and had been for a month, but +Scotland Yard could give him no help, and the last I heard of him he +was roaming through Surrey after a man with a white spot in his hair. +Harrison had gone to Paris. He kept writing me that clews were plenty +and the scent hot, but as Dennet, in Berlin, and Clancy, in Vienna, +wrote me the same thing, I began to doubt these gentlemen's ability.</p> + +<p>"'You say,' I answered Harrison, 'that the fellow is a Frenchman, and +that he is now concealed in Paris; but Dennet writes me by the same +mail that the thief is undoubtedly a German, and was seen yesterday in +Berlin. To-day I received a letter from Clancy, assuring me that +Vienna holds the culprit, and that he is an Austrian from Trieste. +Now, for Heaven's sake,' I ended, 'let me alone and stop writing me +letters until you have something to write about.'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span>"The night-clerk at the Waldorf had furnished us with our first clew. +On the night of my aunt's death he had seen a tall, grave-faced man +hurriedly leave the hotel. As the man passed the desk he removed his +hat and mopped his forehead, and the night-clerk noticed that in the +middle of his head there was a patch of hair as white as snow.</p> + +<p>"We worked this clew for all it was worth, and, a month later, I +received a cable despatch from Paris, saying that a man answering to +the description of the Waldorf suspect had offered an enormous crimson +diamond for sale to a jeweller in the Palais Royal. Unfortunately the +fellow took fright and disappeared before the jeweller could send for +the police, and since that time McFarlane in London, Harrison in +Paris, Dennet in Berlin, and Clancy in Vienna had been chasing men +with white patches on their hair until no gray-headed patriarch in +Europe was free from suspicion. I myself had sleuthed it through +England, France, Holland, and Belgium, and now I found myself in +Antwerp at the Hôtel St. Antoine, without a clew that promised +anything except another outrage on some respectable white-haired +citizen. The case seemed hopeless enough, unless the thief tried again +to sell the gem. Here was our only hope, for, unless he cut the stone +into smaller ones, he had no more chance of selling it than he would +have had if he had stolen the Venus of Milo and peddled her about the +Rue de Seine. Even were he to cut up the stone, no respectable gem +collector or jeweller would buy a crimson diamond without first +notifying me; for although a few red stones are known to collectors, +the color of the Crimson Diamond was absolutely unique, and there was +little probability of an honest mistake.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span>"Thinking of all these things, I sat sipping my Rhine wine in the +shadow of the yellow awnings. A large white cat came sauntering by and +stopped in front of me to perform her toilet, until I wished she would +go away. After a while she sat up, licked her whiskers, yawned once or +twice, and was about to stroll on, when, catching sight of me, she +stopped short and looked me squarely in the face. I returned the +attention with a scowl, because I wished to discourage any advances +towards social intercourse which she might contemplate; but after a +while her steady gaze disconcerted me, and I turned to my Rhine wine. +A few minutes later I looked up again. The cat was still eying me.</p> + +<p>"'Now what the devil is the matter with the animal,' I muttered; 'does +she recognize in me a relative?'</p> + +<p>"'Perhaps,' observed a man at the next table.</p> + +<p>"'What do you mean by that?' I demanded.</p> + +<p>"'What I say,' replied the man at the next table.</p> + +<p>"I looked him full in the face. He was old and bald and appeared +weak-minded. His age protected his impudence. I turned my back on him. +Then my eyes fell on the cat again. She was still gazing earnestly at +me.</p> + +<p>"Disgusted that she should take such pointed public notice of me, I +wondered whether other people saw it; I wondered whether there was +anything peculiar in my own personal appearance. How hard the creature +stared! It was most embarrassing.</p> + +<p>"'What has got into that cat?' I thought. 'It's sheer impudence. It's +an intrusion, and I won't stand it!' The cat did not move. I tried to +stare her out of countenance. It was useless. There was aggressive +inquiry <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span>in her yellow eyes. A sensation of uneasiness began to steal +over me—a sensation of embarrassment not unmixed with awe. All cats +looked alike to me, and yet there was something about this one that +bothered me—something that I could not explain to myself, but which +began to occupy me.</p> + +<p>"She looked familiar—this Antwerp cat. An odd sense of having seen +her before, of having been well acquainted with her in former years, +slowly settled in my mind, and, although I could never remember the +time when I had not detested cats, I was almost convinced that my +relations with this Antwerp tabby had once been intimate if not +cordial. I looked more closely at the animal. Then an idea struck +me—an idea which persisted and took definite shape in spite of me. I +strove to escape from it, to evade it, to stifle and smother it; an +inward struggle ensued which brought the perspiration in beads upon my +cheeks—a struggle short, sharp, decisive. It was useless—useless to +try to put it from me—this idea so wretchedly bizarre, so grotesque +and fantastic, so utterly inane—it was useless to deny that the cat +bore a distinct resemblance to my great-aunt!</p> + +<p>"I gazed at her in horror. What enormous eyes the creature had!</p> + +<p>"'Blood is thicker than water,' said the man at the next table.</p> + +<p>"'What does he mean by that?' I muttered, angrily, swallowing a +tumbler of Rhine wine and seltzer. But I did not turn. What was the +use?</p> + +<p>"'Chattering old imbecile,' I added to myself, and struck a match, for +my cigar was out; but, as I raised the match to relight it, I +encountered the cat's eyes again. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span>I could not enjoy my cigar with the +animal staring at me, but I was justly indignant, and I did not intend +to be routed. 'The idea! Forced to leave for a cat!' I sneered. 'We +will see who will be the one to go!' I tried to give her a jet of +seltzer from the siphon, but the bottle was too nearly empty to carry +far. Then I attempted to lure her nearer, calling her in French, +German, and English, but she did not stir. I did not know the Flemish +for 'cat.'</p> + +<p>"'She's got a name, and won't come,' I thought. 'Now, what under the +sun can I call her?'</p> + +<p>"'Aunty,' suggested the man at the next table.</p> + +<p>"I sat perfectly still. Could that man have answered my thoughts?—for +I had not spoken aloud. Of course not—it was a coincidence—but a +very disgusting one.</p> + +<p>"'Aunty,' I repeated, mechanically, 'aunty, aunty—good gracious, how +horribly human that cat looks!' Then, somehow or other, Shakespeare's +words crept into my head and I found myself repeating: 'The soul of my +grandam might haply inhabit a bird; the soul of—nonsense!' I +growled—'it isn't printed correctly! One might possibly say, speaking +in poetical metaphor, that the soul of a bird might haply inhabit +one's grandam—' I stopped short, flushing painfully. 'What awful +rot!' I murmured, and lighted another cigar. The cat was still +staring; the cigar went out. I grew more and more nervous. 'What rot!' +I repeated. 'Pythagoras must have been an ass, but I do believe there +are plenty of asses alive to-day who swallow that sort of thing.'</p> + +<p>"'Who knows?' sighed the man at the next table, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span>I sprang to my +feet and wheeled about. But I only caught a glimpse of a pair of +frayed coat-tails and a bald head vanishing into the dining-room. I +sat down again, thoroughly indignant. A moment later the cat got up +and went away.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="XXIII" id="XXIII"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>XXIII<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>"Daylight was fading in the city of Antwerp. Down into the sea sank +the sun, tinting the vast horizon with flakes of crimson, and touching +with rich deep undertones the tossing waters of the Scheldt. Its glow +fell like a rosy mantle over red-tiled roofs and meadows; and through +the haze the spires of twenty churches pierced the air like sharp, +gilded flames. To the west and south the green plains, over which the +Spanish armies tramped so long ago, stretched away until they met the +sky; the enchantment of the after-glow had turned old Antwerp into +fairy-land; and sea and sky and plain were beautiful and vague as the +night-mists floating in the moats below.</p> + +<p>"Along the sea-wall from the Rubens Gate all Antwerp strolled, and +chattered, and flirted, and sipped their Flemish wines from slender +Flemish glasses, or gossiped over krugs of foaming beer.</p> + +<p>"From the Scheldt came the cries of sailors, the creaking of cordage, +and the puff! puff! of the ferry-boats. On the bastions of the +fortress opposite, a bugler was standing. Twice the mellow notes of +the bugle came faintly over the water, then a great gun thundered from +the ramparts, and the Belgian flag fluttered along the lanyards to the +ground.</p> + +<p>"I leaned listlessly on the sea-wall and looked down <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span>at the Scheldt +below. A battery of artillery was embarking for the fortress. The +tublike transport lay hissing and whistling in the slip, and the +stamping of horses, the rumbling of gun and caisson, and the sharp +cries of the officers came plainly to the ear.</p> + +<p>"When the last caisson was aboard and stowed, and the last trooper had +sprung jingling to the deck, the transport puffed out into the +Scheldt, and I turned away through the throng of promenaders; and +found a little table on the terrace, just outside of the pretty café. +And as I sat down I became aware of a girl at the next table—a girl +all in white—the most ravishingly and distractingly pretty girl that +I had ever seen. In the agitation of the moment I forgot my name, my +fortune, my aunt, and the Crimson Diamond—all these I forgot in a +purely human impulse to see clearly; and to that end I removed my +monocle from my left eye. Some moments later I came to myself and +feebly replaced it. It was too late; the mischief was done. I was not +aware at first of the exact state of my feelings—for I had never been +in love more than three or four times in all my life—but I did know +that at her request I would have been proud to stand on my head, or +turn a flip-flap into the Scheldt.</p> + +<p>"I did not stare at her, but I managed to see her most of the time +when her eyes were in another direction. I found myself drinking +something which a waiter brought, presumably upon an order which I did +not remember having given. Later I noticed that it was a loathsome +drink which the Belgians call 'American grog,' but I swallowed it and +lighted a cigarette. As the fragrant cloud rose in the air, a voice, +which I recognized with a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span>chill, broke, into my dream of enchantment. +Could <i>he</i> have been there all the while—there sitting beside that +vision in white? His hat was off, and the ocean-breezes whispered +about his bald head. His frayed coat-tails were folded carefully over +his knees, and between the thumb and forefinger of his left hand he +balanced a bad cigar. He looked at me in a mildly cheerful way, and +said, 'I know now.'</p> + +<p>"'Know what?' I asked, thinking it better to humor him, for I was +convinced that he was mad.</p> + +<p>"'I know why cats bite.'</p> + +<p>"This was startling. I hadn't an idea what to say.</p> + +<p>"'I know why,' he repeated; 'can you guess why?' There was a covert +tone of triumph in his voice and he smiled encouragement. 'Come, try +and guess,' he urged.</p> + +<p>"I told him that I was unequal to problems.</p> + +<p>"'Listen, young man,' he continued, folding his coat-tails closely +about his legs—'try to reason it out: why should cats bite? Don't you +know? I do.'</p> + +<p>"He looked at me anxiously.</p> + +<p>"'You take no interest in this problem?' he demanded.</p> + +<p>"'Oh yes.'</p> + +<p>"'Then why do you not ask me why?' he said, looking vaguely +disappointed.</p> + +<p>"'Well,' I said, in desperation, 'why do cats bite?—hang it all!' I +thought, 'it's like a burned-cork show, and I'm Mr. Bones and he's +Tambo!'</p> + +<p>"Then he smiled gently. 'Young man,' he said, 'cats bite because they +feed on catnip. I have reasoned it out.'</p> + +<p>"I stared at him in blank astonishment. Was this <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span>benevolent-looking +old party poking fun at me? Was he paying me up for the morning's +snub? Was he a malignant and revengeful old party, or was he merely +feeble-minded? Who might he be? What was he doing here in +Antwerp—what was he doing now?—for the bald one had turned +familiarly to the beautiful girl in white.</p> + +<p>"'Wilhelmina,' he said, 'do you feel chilly?' The girl shook her head.</p> + +<p>"'Not in the least, papa.'</p> + +<p>"'Her father!' I thought—'her father!' Thank God she did not say +'popper'!</p> + +<p>"'I have been to the Zoo to-day,' announced the bald one, turning +towards me.</p> + +<p>"'Ah, indeed,' I observed; 'er—I trust you enjoyed it.'</p> + +<p>"'I have been contemplating the apes,' he continued, dreamily. 'Yes, +contemplating the apes.'</p> + +<p>"I tried to look interested.</p> + +<p>"'Yes, the apes,' he murmured, fixing his mild eyes on me. Then he +leaned towards me confidentially and whispered, 'Can you tell me what +a monkey thinks?'</p> + +<p>"'I cannot,' I replied, sharply.</p> + +<p>"'Ah,' he sighed, sinking back in his chair, and patting the slender +hand of the girl beside him—'ah, who can tell what a monkey thinks?' +His gentle face lulled my suspicions, and I replied, very gravely:</p> + +<p>"'Who can tell whether they think at all?'</p> + +<p>"'True, true! Who can tell whether they think at all; and if they do +think, ah! who can tell what they think?'</p> + +<p>"'But,' I began, 'if you can't tell whether they think <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span>at all, what's +the use of trying to conjecture what they <i>would</i> think if they <i>did</i> +think?'</p> + +<p>"He raised his hand in deprecation. 'Ah, it is exactly that which is +of such absorbing interest—exactly that! It is the abstruseness of +the proposition which stimulates research—which stirs profoundly the +brain of the thinking world. The question is of vital and instant +importance. Possibly you have already formed an opinion.'</p> + +<p>"I admitted that I had thought but little on the subject.</p> + +<p>"'I doubt,' he continued, swathing his knees in his coat-tails—'I +doubt whether you have given much attention to the subject lately +discussed by the Boston Dodo Society of Pythagorean Research.'</p> + +<p>"'I am not sure,' I said, politely, 'that I recall that particular +discussion. May I ask what was the question brought up?'</p> + +<p>"'The Felis domestica question.'</p> + +<p>"'Ah, that must indeed be interesting! And—er—what may be the Felis +do—do—'</p> + +<p>"'Domestica—not dodo. Felis domestica, the common or garden cat.'</p> + +<p>"'Indeed,' I murmured.</p> + +<p>"'You are not listening,' he said.</p> + +<p>"I only half heard him. I could not turn my eyes from his daughter's +face.</p> + +<p>"'Cat!' shouted the bald one, and I almost leaped from my chair. 'Are +you deaf?' he inquired, sympathetically.</p> + +<p>"'No—oh no!' I replied, coloring with confusion; 'you were—pardon +me—you were—er—speaking of the dodo. Extraordinary bird that—'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span>"'I was not discussing the dodo,' he sighed. 'I was speaking of cats.'</p> + +<p>"'Of course,' I said.</p> + +<p>"'The question is,' he continued, twisting his frayed coat-tails into +a sort of rope—'the question is, how are we to ameliorate the present +condition and social status of our domestic cats?'</p> + +<p>"'Feed 'em,' I suggested.</p> + +<p>"He raised both hands. They were eloquent with patient expostulation. +'I mean their spiritual condition,' he said.</p> + +<p>"I nodded, but my eyes reverted to that exquisite face. She sat +silent, her eyes fixed on the waning flecks of color in the western +sky.</p> + +<p>"'Yes,' repeated the bald one, 'the spiritual welfare of our domestic +cats.'</p> + +<p>"'Toms and tabbies?' I murmured.</p> + +<p>"'Exactly,' he said, tying a large knot in his coat-tails.</p> + +<p>"'You will ruin your coat,' I observed.</p> + +<p>"'Papa!' exclaimed the girl, turning in dismay, as that gentleman gave +a guilty start, 'stop it at once!'</p> + +<p>"He smiled apologetically and made a feeble attempt to conceal his +coat-tails.</p> + +<p>"'My dear,' he said, with gentle deprecation, 'I am so +absent-minded—I always do it in the heat of argument.'</p> + +<p>"The girl rose, and, bending over her untidy parent, deftly untied the +knot in his flapping coat. When he was disentangled, she sat down and +said, with a ghost of a smile, 'He is so very absent-minded.'</p> + +<p>"'Your father is evidently a great student,' I ventured, pleasantly. +How I pitied her, tied to this old lunatic!</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span>"'Yes, he is a great student,' she said, quietly.</p> + +<p>"'I am,' he murmured; 'that's what makes me so absent-minded. I often +go to bed and forget to sleep.' Then, looking at me, he asked me my +name, adding, with a bow, that his name was P. Royal Wyeth, Professor +of Pythagorean Research and Abstruse Paradox.</p> + +<p>"'My first name is Penny—named after Professor Penny, of Harvard,' he +said; 'but I seldom use my first name in connection with my second, as +the combination suggests a household remedy of penetrating odor.'</p> + +<p>"'My name is Kensett,' I said, 'Harold Kensett, of New York.'</p> + +<p>"'Student?'</p> + +<p>"'Er—a little.'</p> + +<p>"'Student of diamonds?'</p> + +<p>"I smiled. 'Oh, I see you know who my great-aunt was,' I said.</p> + +<p>"'I know her,' he said.</p> + +<p>"'Ah—perhaps you are unaware that my great-aunt is not now living.'</p> + +<p>"'I know her,' he repeated, obstinately.</p> + +<p>"I bowed. What a crank he was!</p> + +<p>"'What do you study? You don't fiddle away all your time, do you?' he +asked.</p> + +<p>"Now that was just what I did, but I was not pleased to have Miss +Wyeth know it. Although my time was chiefly spent in killing time, I +had once, in a fit of energy, succeeded in writing some verses 'To a +Tomtit,' so I evaded a humiliating confession by saying that I had +done a little work in ornithology.</p> + +<p>"'Good!' cried the professor, beaming all over. 'I knew you were a +fellow-scientist. Possibly you are a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span>brother-member of the Boston +Dodo Society of Pythagorean Research. Are you a dodo?'</p> + +<p>"I shook my head. 'No, I am not a dodo.'</p> + +<p>"'Only a jay?'</p> + +<p>"'A—what?' I said, angrily.</p> + +<p>"'A jay. We call the members of the Junior Ornithological Jay Society +of New York, jays, just as we refer to ourselves as dodos. Are you not +even a jay?'</p> + +<p>"'I am not,' I said, watching him suspiciously.</p> + +<p>"'I must convert you, I see,' said the professor, smiling.</p> + +<p>"'I'm afraid I do not approve of Pythagorean research,' I began, but +the beautiful Miss Wyeth turned to me very seriously, and, looking me +frankly in the eyes, said:</p> + +<p>"'I trust you will be open to conviction.'</p> + +<p>"'Good Lord!' I thought. 'Can she be another lunatic?' I looked at her +steadily. What a little beauty she was! She also, then, belonged to +the Pythagoreans—a sect I despised. Everybody knows all about the +Pythagorean craze, its rise in Boston, its rapid spread, and its +subsequent consolidation with mental and Christian science, theosophy, +hypnotism, the Salvation Army, the Shakers, the Dunkards, and the +mind-cure cult, upon a business basis. I had hitherto regarded all +Pythagoreans with the same scornful indifference which I accorded to +the faith-curists; being a member of no particular church, I was +scarcely prepared to take any of them seriously. Least of all did I +approve of the 'business basis,' and I looked very much askance indeed +at the 'Scientific and Religious Trust Company,' duly incorporated and +generally known as the Pythagorean <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span>Trust, which, consolidating with +mind-curists, faith-curists, and other flourishing salvation +syndicates, actually claimed a place among ordinary trusts, and at the +same time pretended to a control over man's future life. No, I could +never listen—I was ashamed of even entertaining the notion, and I +shook my head.</p> + +<p>"'No, Miss Wyeth, I am afraid I do not care to listen to any reasoning +on this subject.'</p> + +<p>"'Don't you believe in Pythagoras?' demanded the professor, subduing +his excitement with difficulty, and adding another knot to his +coat-tails.</p> + +<p>"'No,' I said, 'I do not.'</p> + +<p>"'How do you know you don't?' inquired the professor.</p> + +<p>"'Because,' I said, firmly, 'it is nonsense to say that the soul of a +human being can inhabit a hen!'</p> + +<p>"'Put it in a more simplified form!' insisted the professor. 'Do you +believe that the soul of a hen can inhabit a human being?'</p> + +<p>"'No, I don't!'</p> + +<p>"'Did you ever hear of a hen-pecked man?' cried the professor, his +voice ending in a shout.</p> + +<p>"I nodded, intensely annoyed.</p> + +<p>"'Will you listen to reason, then?' he continued, eagerly.</p> + +<p>"'No,' I began, but I caught Miss Wyeth's blue eyes fixed on mine with +an expression so sad, so sweetly appealing, that I faltered.</p> + +<p>"'Yes, I will listen,' I said, faintly.</p> + +<p>"'Will you become my pupil?' insisted the professor.</p> + +<p>"I was shocked to find myself wavering, but my eyes were looking into +hers, and I could not disobey what I <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span>read there. The longer I looked +the greater inclination I felt to waver. I saw that I was going to +give in, and, strangest of all, my conscience did not trouble me. I +felt it coming—a sort of mild exhilaration took possession of me. For +the first time in my life I became reckless—I even gloried in my +recklessness.</p> + +<p>"'Yes, yes,' I cried, leaning eagerly across the table, 'I shall be +glad—delighted! Will you take me as your pupil?' My single eye-glass +fell from its position unheeded. 'Take me! Oh, will you take me?' I +cried. Instead of answering, the professor blinked rapidly at me for a +moment. I imagined his eyes had grown bigger, and were assuming a +greenish tinge. The corners of his mouth began to quiver, emitting +queer, caressing little noises, and he rapidly added knot after knot +to his twitching coat-tails. Suddenly he bent forward across the table +until his nose almost touched mine. The pupils of his eyes expanded, +the iris assuming a beautiful, changing, golden-green tinge, and his +coat-tails switched violently. Then he began to mew.</p> + +<p>"I strove to rouse myself from my paralysis—I tried to shrink back, +for I felt the end of his cold nose touch mine. I could not move. The +cry of terror died in my straining throat, my hands tightened +convulsively; I was incapable of speech or motion. At the same time my +brain became wonderfully clear. I began to remember everything that +had ever happened to me—everything that I had ever done or said. I +even remembered things that I had neither done nor said; I recalled +distinctly much that had never happened. How fresh and strong my +memory! The past was like a mirror, crystal clear, and there, in +glorious tints and hues, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span>the scenes of my childhood grew and glowed +and faded, and gave place to newer and more splendid scenes. For a +moment the episode of the cat at the Hôtel St. Antoine flashed across +my mind. When it vanished a chilly stupor slowly clouded my brain; the +scenes, the memories, the brilliant colors, faded, leaving me +enveloped in a gray vapor, through which the two great eyes of the +professor twinkled with a murky light. A peculiar longing stirred +me—a strange yearning for something, I knew not what—but, oh! how I +longed and yearned for it! Slowly this indefinite, incomprehensible +longing became a living pain. Ah, how I suffered, and how the vapors +seemed to crowd around me! Then, as at a great distance, I heard her +voice, sweet, imperative:</p> + +<p>"'Mew!' she said.</p> + +<p>"For a moment I seemed to see the interior of my own skull, lighted as +by a flash of fire; the rolling eyeballs, veined in scarlet, the +glistening muscles quivering along the jaw, the humid masses of the +convoluted brain; then awful darkness—a darkness almost tangible—an +utter blackness, through which now seemed to creep a thin, silver +thread, like a river crawling across a world—like a thought gliding +to the brain—like a song, a thin, sharp song which some distant voice +was singing—which I was singing.</p> + +<p>"And I knew that I was mewing!</p> + +<p>"I threw myself back in my chair and mewed with all my heart. Oh, that +heavy load which was lifted from my breast! How good, how satisfying +it was to mew! And how I did miaul and yowl!</p> + +<p>"I gave myself up to it, heart and soul; my whole <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span>being thrilled with +the passionate outpourings of a spirit freed. My voice trembled in the +upper bars of a feline love-song, quavered, descended, swelling again +into an intimation that I brooked no rival, and ended with a +magnificent crescendo.</p> + +<p>"I finished, somewhat abashed, and glanced askance at the professor +and his daughter, but the one sat nonchalantly disentangling his +coat-tails, and the other was apparently absorbed in the distant +landscape. Evidently they did not consider me ridiculous. Flushing +painfully, I turned in my chair to see how my grewsome solo had +affected the people on the terrace. Nobody even looked at me. This, +however, gave me little comfort, for, as I began to realize what I had +done, my mortification and rage knew no bounds. I was ready to die of +shame. What on earth had induced me to mew? I looked wildly about for +escape—I would leap up—rush home to bury my burning face in my +pillows, and, later, in the friendly cabin of a homeward-bound +steamer. I would fly—fly at once! Woe to the man who blocked my way! +I started to my feet, but at that moment I caught Miss Wyeth's eyes +fixed on mine.</p> + +<p>"'Don't go,' she said.</p> + +<p>"What in Heaven's name lay in those blue eyes? I slowly sank back into +my chair.</p> + +<p>"Then the professor spoke: 'Wilhelmina, I have just received a +despatch.'</p> + +<p>"'Where from, papa?'</p> + +<p>"'From India. I'm going at once.'</p> + +<p>"She nodded her head, without turning her eyes from the sea. 'Is it +important, papa?'</p> + +<p>"'I should say so. The cashier of the local trust has <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span>compromised an +astral body, and has squandered on her all our funds, including a lot +of first mortgages on Nirvana. I suppose he's been dabbling in futures +and is short in his accounts. I sha'n't be gone long.'</p> + +<p>"'Then, good-night, papa,' she said, kissing him; 'try to be back by +eleven.' I sat stupidly staring at them.</p> + +<p>"'Oh, it's only to Bombay—I sha'n't go to Thibet +to-night—good-night, my dear,' said the professor.</p> + +<p>"Then a singular thing occurred. The professor had at last succeeded +in disentangling his coat-tails, and now, jamming his hat over his +ears, and waving his arms with a batlike motion, he climbed upon the +seat of his chair and ejaculated the word 'Presto!' Then I found my +voice.</p> + +<p>"'Stop him!' I cried, in terror.</p> + +<p>"'Presto! Presto!' shouted the professor, balancing himself on the +edge of his chair and waving his arms majestically, as if preparing +for a sudden flight across the Scheldt; and, firmly convinced that he +not only meditated it, but was perfectly capable of attempting it, I +covered my eyes with my hands.</p> + +<p>"'Are you ill, Mr. Kensett?' asked the girl, quietly.</p> + +<p>"I raised my head indignantly. 'Not at all, Miss Wyeth, only I'll bid +you good-evening, for this is the nineteenth century, and I'm a +Christian.'</p> + +<p>"'So am I,' she said. 'So is my father.'</p> + +<p>"'The devil he is,' I thought.</p> + +<p>"Her next words made me jump.</p> + +<p>"'Please do not be profane, Mr. Kensett.'</p> + +<p>"How did she know I was profane? I had not spoken a word! Could it be +possible she was able to read my thoughts? This was too much, and I +rose.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span>"'I have the honor to bid you good-evening,' I began, and reluctantly +turned to include the professor, expecting to see that gentleman +balancing himself on his chair. The professor's chair was empty.</p> + +<p>"'Oh,' said the girl, smiling, 'my father has gone.'</p> + +<p>"'Gone! Where?'</p> + +<p>"'To—to India, I believe.'</p> + +<p>"I sank helplessly into my own chair.</p> + +<p>"'I do not think he will stay very long—he promised to return by +eleven,' she said, timidly.</p> + +<p>"I tried to realize the purport of it all. 'Gone to India? Gone! How? +On a broomstick? Good Heavens,' I murmured, 'am I insane?'</p> + +<p>"'Perfectly,' she said, 'and I am tired; you may take me back to the +hotel.'</p> + +<p>"I scarcely heard her; I was feebly attempting to gather up my numbed +wits. Slowly I began to comprehend the situation, to review the +startling and humiliating events of the day. At noon, in the court of +the Hôtel St. Antoine, I had been annoyed by a man and a cat. I had +retired to my own room and had slept until dinner. In the evening I +met two tourists on the sea-wall promenade. I had been beguiled into +conversation—yes, into intimacy with these two tourists! I had had +the intention of embracing the faith of Pythagoras! Then I had mewed +like a cat with all the strength of my lungs. Now the male tourist +vanishes—and leaves me in charge of the female tourist, alone and at +night in a strange city! And now the female tourist proposes that I +take her home!</p> + +<p>"With a remnant of self-possession I groped for my eye-glass, seized +it, screwed it firmly into my eye, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span>looked long and earnestly at +the girl. As I looked, my eyes softened, my monacle dropped, and I +forgot everything in the beauty and purity of the face before me. My +heart began to beat against my stiff, white waistcoat. Had I +dared—yes, dared to think of this wondrous little beauty as a female +tourist? Her pale, sweet face, turned towards the sea, seemed to cast +a spell upon the night. How loud my heart was beating! The yellow moon +floated, half dipping in the sea, flooding land and water with +enchanted lights. Wind and wave seemed to feel the spell of her eyes, +for the breeze died away, the heaving Scheldt tossed noiselessly, and +the dark Dutch luggers swung idly on the tide with every sail adroop.</p> + +<p>"A sudden hush fell over land and water, the voices on the promenade +were stilled; little by little the shadowy throng, the terrace, the +sea itself vanished, and I only saw her face, shadowed against the +moon.</p> + +<p>"It seemed as if I had drifted miles above the earth, through all +space and eternity, and there was naught between me and high heaven +but that white face. Ah, how I loved her! I knew it—I never doubted +it. Could years of passionate adoration touch her heart—her little +heart, now beating so calmly with no thought of love to startle it +from its quiet and send it fluttering against the gentle breast? In +her lap her clasped hands tightened—her eyelids drooped as though +some pleasant thought was passing. I saw the color dye her temples, I +saw the blue eyes turn, half frightened, to my own, I saw—and I knew +she had read my thoughts. Then we both rose, side by side, and she was +weeping softly, yet for my life I dared not speak. She turned away, +touching her eyes <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span>with a bit of lace, and I sprang to her side and +offered her my arm.</p> + +<p>"'You cannot go back alone,' I said.</p> + +<p>"She did not take my arm.</p> + +<p>"'Do you hate me, Miss Wyeth?'</p> + +<p>"'I am very tired,' she said; 'I must go home.'</p> + +<p>"'You cannot go alone.'</p> + +<p>"'I do not care to accept your escort.'</p> + +<p>"'Then—you send me away?'</p> + +<p>"'No,' she said, in a hard voice. 'You can come if you like.' So I +humbly attended her to the Hôtel St. Antoine.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="XXIV" id="XXIV"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>XXIV<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>"As we reached the Place Verte and turned into the court of the hotel, +the sound of the midnight bells swept over the city, and a horse-car +jingled slowly by on its last trip to the railroad station.</p> + +<p>"We passed the fountain, bubbling and splashing in the moonlit court, +and, crossing the square, entered the southern wing of the hotel. At +the foot of the stairway she leaned for an instant against the +banisters.</p> + +<p>"'I am afraid we have walked too fast,' I said.</p> + +<p>"She turned to me coldly. 'No—conventionalities must be observed. You +were quite right in escaping as soon as possible.'</p> + +<p>"'But,' I protested, 'I assure you—'</p> + +<p>"She gave a little movement of impatience. 'Don't,' she said, 'you +tire me—conventionalities tire me. Be satisfied—nobody has seen +you.'</p> + +<p>"'You are cruel,' I said, in a low voice—'what do you think I care +for conventionalities?'</p> + +<p>"'You care everything—you care what people think, and you try to do +what they say is good form. You never did such an original thing in +your life as you have just done.'</p> + +<p>"'You read my thoughts,' I exclaimed, bitterly. 'It is not fair—'</p> + +<p>"'Fair or not, I know what you consider me—ill-bred, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span>common, pleased +with any sort of attention. Oh! why should I waste one word—one +thought on you?'</p> + +<p>"'Miss Wyeth—' I began, but she interrupted me.</p> + +<p>"'Would you dare tell me what you think of me?—Would you dare tell me +what you think of my father?'</p> + +<p>"I was silent. She turned and mounted two steps of the stairway, then +faced me again.</p> + +<p>"'Do you think it was for my own pleasure that I permitted myself to +be left alone with you? Do you imagine that I am flattered by your +attention?—do you venture to think I ever could be? How dared you +think what you did think there on the sea-wall?'</p> + +<p>"'I cannot help my thoughts!' I replied.</p> + +<p>"'You turned on me like a tiger when you awoke from your trance. Do +you really suppose that you mewed? Are you not aware that my father +hypnotized you?'</p> + +<p>"'No—I did not know it,' I said. The hot blood tingled in my +finger-tips, and I looked angrily at her.</p> + +<p>"'Why do you imagine that I waste my time on you?' she said. 'Your +vanity has answered that question—now let your intelligence answer +it. I am a Pythagorean; I have been chosen to bring in a convert, and +you were the convert selected for me by the Mahatmas of the +Consolidated Trust Company. I have followed you from New York to +Antwerp, as I was bidden, but now my courage fails, and I shrink from +fulfilling my mission, knowing you to be the type of man you are. If I +could give it up—if I could only go away—never, never again to see +you! Ah, I fear they will not permit it!—until my mission is +accomplished. Why was I <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[262]</a></span>chosen—I, with a woman's heart and a woman's +pride. I—I hate you!'</p> + +<p>"'I love you,' I said, slowly.</p> + +<p>"She paled and looked away.</p> + +<p>"'Answer me,' I said.</p> + +<p>"Her wide, blue eyes turned back again, and I held them with mine. At +last she slowly drew a long-stemmed rose from the bunch at her belt, +turned, and mounted the shadowy staircase. For a moment I thought I +saw her pause on the landing above, but the moonlight was uncertain. +After waiting for a long time in vain, I moved away, and in going +raised my hand to my face, but I stopped short, and my heart stopped +too, for a moment. In my hand I held a long-stemmed rose.</p> + +<p>"With my brain in a whirl I crept across the court and mounted the +stairs to my room. Hour after hour I walked the floor, slowly at +first, then more rapidly, but it brought no calm to the fierce tumult +of my thoughts, and at last I dropped into a chair before the empty +fireplace, burying my head in my hands.</p> + +<p>"Uncertain, shocked, and deadly weary, I tried to think—I strove to +bring order out of the chaos in my brain, but I only sat staring at +the long-stemmed rose. Slowly I began to take a vague pleasure in its +heavy perfume, and once I crushed a leaf between my palms, and, +bending over, drank in the fragrance.</p> + +<p>"Twice my lamp flickered and went out, and twice, treading softly, I +crossed the room to relight it. Twice I threw open the door, thinking +that I heard some sound without. How close the air was!—how heavy and +hot! And what was that strange, subtle odor which had insensibly +filled the room? It grew stronger and more <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span>penetrating, and I began +to dislike it, and to escape it I buried my nose in the half-opened +rose. Horror! The odor came from the rose—and the rose itself was no +longer a rose—not even a flower now—it was only a bunch of catnip; +and I dashed it to the floor and ground it under my heel.</p> + +<p>"'Mountebank!' I cried, in a rage. My anger grew cold—and I shivered, +drawn perforce to the curtained window. Something was there, outside. +I could not hear it, for it made no sound, but I knew it was there, +watching me. What was it? The damp hair stirred on my head. I touched +the heavy curtains. Whatever was outside them sprang up, tore at the +window, and then rushed away.</p> + +<p>"Feeling very shaky, I crept to the window, opened it, and leaned out. +The night was calm. I heard the fountain splashing in the moonlight +and the sea-winds soughing through the palms. Then I closed the window +and turned back into the room; and as I stood there a sudden breeze, +which could not have come from without, blew sharply in my face, +extinguishing the candle and sending the long curtains bellying out +into the room. The lamp on the table flashed and smoked and sputtered; +the room was littered with flying papers and catnip leaves. Then the +strange wind died away, and somewhere in the night a cat snarled.</p> + +<p>"I turned desperately to my trunk and flung it open. Into it I threw +everything I owned, pell-mell, closed the lid, locked it, and, seizing +my mackintosh and travelling-bag, ran down the stairs, crossed the +court, and entered the night-office of the hotel. There I called up +the sleepy clerk, settled my reckoning, and sent a porter for a cab.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span>"'Now,' I said, 'what time does the next train leave?'</p> + +<p>"'The next train for where?'</p> + +<p>"'Anywhere!'</p> + +<p>"The clerk locked the safe, and, carefully keeping the desk between +himself and me, motioned the office-boy to look at the time-tables.</p> + +<p>"'Next train, 2.10. Brussels—Paris,' read the boy.</p> + +<p>"At that moment the cab rattled up by the curbstone, and I sprang in +while the porter tossed my traps on top. Away we bumped over the stony +pavement, past street after street lighted dimly by tall gas-lamps, +and alley after alley brilliant with the glare of villanous all-night +café-concerts, and then, turning, we rumbled past the Circus and the +Eldorado, and at last stopped with a jolt before the Brussels station.</p> + +<p>"I had not a moment to lose. 'Paris!' I cried—'first-class!' and, +pocketing the book of coupons, hurried across the platform to where +the Brussels train lay. A guard came running up, flung open the door +of a first-class carriage, slammed and locked it after I had jumped +in, and the long train glided from the arched station out into the +starlit morning.</p> + +<p>"I was all alone in the compartment. The wretched lamp in the roof +flickered dimly, scarcely lighting the stuffy box. I could not see to +read my time-table, so I wrapped my legs in the travelling-rug and lay +back, staring out into the misty morning. Trees, walls, +telegraph-poles flashed past, and the cinders drove in showers against +the rattling windows. I slept at times, fitfully, and once, springing +up, peered sharply at the opposite seat, possessed with the idea that +somebody was there.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span>"When the train reached Brussels I was sound asleep, and the guard +awoke me with difficulty.</p> + +<p>"'Breakfast, sir?' he asked.</p> + +<p>"'Anything,' I sighed, and stepped out to the platform, rubbing my +legs and shivering. The other passengers were already breakfasting in +the station café, and I joined them and managed to swallow a cup of +coffee and a roll.</p> + +<p>"The morning broke gray and cloudy, and I bundled myself into my +mackintosh for a tramp along the platform. Up and down I stamped, +puffing a cigar, and digging my hands deep in my pockets, while the +other passengers huddled into the warmer compartments of the train or +stood watching the luggage being lifted into the forward +mail-carriage. The wait was very long; the hands of the great clock +pointed to six, and still the train lay motionless along the platform. +I approached a guard and asked him whether anything was wrong.</p> + +<p>"'Accident on the line,' he replied; 'monsieur had better go to his +compartment and try to sleep, for we may be delayed until noon.'</p> + +<p>"I followed the guard's advice, and, crawling into my corner, wrapped +myself in the rug and lay back watching the rain-drops spattering +along the window-sill. At noon the train had not moved, and I lunched +in the compartment. At four o'clock in the afternoon the +station-master came hurrying along the platform, crying, 'Montez! +montez! messieurs, s'il vous plaît'—and the train steamed out of the +station and whirled away through the flat, treeless Belgian plains. At +times I dozed, but the shaking of the car always awoke me, and I would +sit blinking out at the endless <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span>stretch of plain, until a sudden +flurry of rain blotted the landscape from my eyes. At last a long, +shrill whistle from the engine, a jolt, a series of bumps, and an +apparition of red trousers and bayonets warned me that we had arrived +at the French frontier. I turned out with the others, and opened my +valise for inspection, but the customs officials merely chalked it, +without examination, and I hurried back to my compartment amid the +shouting of guards and the clanging of station bells. Again I found +that I was alone in the compartment, so I smoked a cigarette, thanked +Heaven, and fell into a dreamless sleep.</p> + +<p>"How long I slept I do not know, but when I awoke the train was +roaring through a tunnel. When again it flashed out into the open +country I peered through the grimy, rain-stained window and saw that +the storm had ceased and stars were twinkling in the sky. I stretched +my legs, yawned, pushed my travelling-cap back from my forehead, and, +stumbling to my feet, walked up and down the compartment until my +cramped muscles were relieved. Then I sat down again, and, lighting a +cigar, puffed great rings and clouds of fragrant smoke across the +aisle.</p> + +<p>"The train was flying; the cars lurched and shook, and the windows +rattled accompaniment to the creaking panels. The smoke from my cigar +dimmed the lamp in the ceiling and hid the opposite seat from view. +How it curled and writhed in the corners, now eddying upward, now +floating across the aisle like a veil! I lounged back in my cushioned +seat, watching it with interest. What queer shapes it took! How thick +it was becoming!—how strangely luminous! Now it had filled the whole +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span>compartment, puff after puff crowding upward, waving, wavering, +clouding the windows, and blotting the lamp from sight. It was most +interesting. I had never before smoked such a cigar. What an +extraordinary brand! I examined the end, flicking the ashes away. The +cigar was out. Fumbling for a match to relight it, my eyes fell on the +drifting smoke-curtain which swayed across the corner opposite. It +seemed almost tangible. How like a real curtain it hung, gray, +impenetrable! A man might hide behind it. Then an idea came into my +head, and it persisted until my uneasiness amounted to a vague terror. +I tried to fight it off—I strove to resist—but the conviction slowly +settled upon me that something was behind that smoke-veil—something +which had entered the compartment while I slept.</p> + +<p>"'It can't be,' I muttered, my eyes fixed on the misty drapery; 'the +train has not stopped.'</p> + +<p>"The car creaked and trembled. I sprang to my feet and swept my arm +through the veil of smoke. Then my hair rose on my head. For my hand +touched another hand, and my eyes had met two other eyes.</p> + +<p>"I heard a voice in the gloom, low and sweet, calling me by name; I +saw the eyes again, tender and blue; soft fingers touched my own.</p> + +<p>"'Are you afraid?' she said.</p> + +<p>"My heart began to beat again, and my face warmed with returning +blood.</p> + +<p>"'It is only I,' she said, gently.</p> + +<p>"I seemed to hear my own voice speaking as if at a great distance, +'You here—alone?'</p> + +<p>"'How cruel of you!' she faltered; 'I am not alone.' At the same +instant my eyes fell upon the professor, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[268]</a></span>calmly seated by the farther +window. His hands were thrust into the folds of a corded and tasselled +dressing-gown, from beneath which peeped two enormous feet encased in +carpet slippers. Upon his head towered a yellow night-cap. He did not +pay the slightest attention to either me or his daughter, and, except +for the lighted cigar which he kept shifting between his lips, he +might have been taken for a wax dummy.</p> + +<p>"Then I began to speak, feebly, hesitating like a child.</p> + +<p>"'How did you come into this compartment? You—you do not possess +wings, I suppose? You could not have been here all the time. Will you +explain—explain to me? See, I ask you very humbly, for I do not +understand. This is the nineteenth century, and these things don't fit +in. I'm wearing a Dunlap hat—I've got a copy of the New York <i>Herald</i> +in my bag—President Roosevelt is alive, and everything is so very +unromantic in the world! Is this real magic? Perhaps I'm filled with +hallucinations. Perhaps I'm asleep and dreaming. Perhaps you are not +really here—nor I—nor anybody, nor anything!'</p> + +<p>"The train plunged into a tunnel, and when again it dashed out from +the other end the cold wind blew furiously in my face from the farther +window. It was wide open; the professor was gone.</p> + +<p>"'Papa has changed to another compartment,' she said, quietly. 'I +think perhaps you were beginning to bore him.'</p> + +<p>"Her eyes met mine and she smiled.</p> + +<p>"'Are you very much bewildered?'</p> + +<p>"I looked at her in silence. She sat very quietly, her <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span>hands clasped +above her knee, her curly hair glittering to her girdle. A long robe, +almost silvery in the twilight, clung to her young figure; her bare +feet were thrust deep into a pair of shimmering Eastern slippers.</p> + +<p>"'When you fled,' she sighed, 'I was asleep and there was no time to +lose. I barely had a moment to go to Bombay, to find papa, and return +in time to join you. This is an East-Indian costume.'</p> + +<p>"Still I was silent.</p> + +<p>"'Are you shocked?' she asked, simply.</p> + +<p>"'No,' I replied, in a dull voice, 'I'm past that.'</p> + +<p>"'You are very rude,' she said, with the tears starting to her eyes.</p> + +<p>"'I do not mean to be. I only wish to go away—away somewhere and find +out what my name is.'</p> + +<p>"'Your name is Harold Kensett.'</p> + +<p>"'Are you sure?' I asked, eagerly.</p> + +<p>"'Yes—what troubles you?'</p> + +<p>"'Is everything plain to you? Are you a sort of prophet and +second-sight medium? Is nothing hidden from you?' I asked.</p> + +<p>"'Nothing,' she faltered. My head ached and I clasped it in my hand.</p> + +<p>"A sudden change came over her. 'I am human—believe me!' she said, +with piteous eagerness. 'Indeed, I do not seem strange to those who +understand. You wonder, because you left me at midnight in Antwerp and +you wake to find me here. If, because I find myself reincarnated, +endowed with senses and capabilities which few at present possess—if +I am so made, why should it seem strange? It is all so natural to me. +If I appear to you—'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span>"'Appear?'</p> + +<p>"'Yes—'</p> + +<p>"'Wilhelmina!' I cried; 'can you vanish?'</p> + +<p>"'Yes,' she murmured; 'does it seem to you unmaidenly?'</p> + +<p>"'Great Heaven!' I groaned.</p> + +<p>"'Don't!' she cried, with tears in her voice—'oh, please don't! Help +me to bear it! If you only knew how awful it is to be different from +other girls—how mortifying it is to me to be able to vanish—oh, how +I hate and detest it all!'</p> + +<p>"'Don't cry,' I said, looking at her pityingly.</p> + +<p>"'Oh, dear me!' she sobbed. 'You shudder at the sight of me because I +can vanish.'</p> + +<p>"'I don't!' I cried.</p> + +<p>"'Yes, you do! You abhor me—you shrink away! Oh, why did I ever see +you?—why did you ever come into my life?—what have I done in ages +past, that now, reborn, I suffer cruelly—cruelly?'</p> + +<p>"'What do you mean?' I whispered. My voice trembled with happiness.</p> + +<p>"'I?—nothing; but you think me a fabled monster.'</p> + +<p>"'Wilhelmina—my sweet Wilhelmina,' I said, 'I don't think you a +fabled monster. I love you; see—see—I am at your feet; listen to me, +my darling—'</p> + +<p>"She turned her blue eyes to mine. I saw tears sparkling on the curved +lashes.</p> + +<p>"'Wilhelmina, I love you,' I said again.</p> + +<p>"Slowly she raised her hands to my head and held it a moment, looking +at me strangely. Then her face grew nearer to my own, her glittering +hair fell over my shoulders, her lips rested on mine.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span>"In that long, sweet kiss the beating of her heart answered mine, and +I learned a thousand truths, wonderful, mysterious, splendid; but when +our lips fell apart, the memory of what I learned departed also.</p> + +<p>"'It was so very simple and beautiful,' she sighed, 'and I—I never +saw it. But the Mahatmas knew—ah, they knew that my mission could +only be accomplished through love.'</p> + +<p>"'And it is,' I whispered, 'for you shall teach me—me, your husband.'</p> + +<p>"'And—and you will not be impatient? You will try to believe?'</p> + +<p>"'I will believe what you tell me, my sweetheart.'</p> + +<p>"'Even about—cats?'</p> + +<p>"Before I could reply the farther window opened and a yellow +night-cap, followed by the professor, entered from somewhere without. +Wilhelmina sank back on her sofa, but the professor needed not to be +told, and we both knew he was already busily reading our thoughts.</p> + +<p>"For a moment there was dead silence—long enough for the professor to +grasp the full significance of what had passed. Then he uttered a +single exclamation, 'Oh!'</p> + +<p>"After a while, however, he looked at me for the first time that +evening, saying, 'Congratulate you, Mr. Kensett, I'm sure,' tied +several knots in the cord of his dressing-gown, lighted a cigar, and +paid no further attention to either of us. Some moments later he +opened the window again and disappeared. I looked across the aisle at +Wilhelmina.</p> + +<p>"'You may come over beside me,' she said, shyly.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<a name="XXV" id="XXV"></a><hr /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span><br /> + +<h3>XXV<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3> +<br /> + +<p>"It was nearly ten o'clock and our train was rapidly approaching +Paris. We passed village after village wrapped in mist, station after +station hung with twinkling red and blue and yellow lanterns, then +sped on again with the echo of the switch-bells ringing in our ears.</p> + +<p>"When at length the train slowed up and stopped, I opened the window +and looked out upon a long, wet platform, shining under the electric +lights.</p> + +<p>"A guard came running by, throwing open the doors of each compartment, +and crying, 'Paris next! Tickets, if you please.'</p> + +<p>"I handed him my book of coupons, from which he tore several and +handed it back. Then he lifted his lantern and peered into the +compartment, saying, 'Is monsieur alone?'</p> + +<p>"I turned to Wilhelmina.</p> + +<p>"'He wants your ticket—give it to me.'</p> + +<p>"'What's that?' demanded the guard.</p> + +<p>"I looked anxiously at Wilhelmina.</p> + +<p>"'If your father has the tickets—' I began, but was interrupted by +the guard, who snapped:</p> + +<p>"'Monsieur will give himself the trouble to remember that I do not +understand English.'</p> + +<p>"'Keep quiet!' I said, sharply, in French. 'I am not speaking to +you.'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span>"The guard stared stupidly at me, then, at my luggage, and finally, +entering the car, knelt down and peered under the seats. Presently he +got up, very red in the face, and went out slamming the door. He had +not paid the slightest attention to Wilhelmina, but I distinctly heard +him say, 'Only Englishmen and idiots talk to themselves!'</p> + +<p>"'Wilhelmina,' I faltered, 'do you mean to say that that guard could +not see you?'</p> + +<p>"She began to look so serious again that I merely added, 'Never mind, +I don't care whether you are invisible or not, dearest.'</p> + +<p>"'I am not invisible to you,' she said; 'why should you care?'</p> + +<p>"A great noise of bells and whistles drowned our voices, and, amid the +whirring of switch-bells, the hissing of steam, and the cries of +'Paris! All out!' our train glided into the station.</p> + +<p>"It was the professor who opened the door of our carriage. There he +stood, calmly adjusting his yellow night-cap and drawing his +dressing-gown closer with the corded tassels.</p> + +<p>"'Where have you been?' I asked.</p> + +<p>"'On the engine.'</p> + +<p>"'<i>In</i> the engine, I suppose you mean,' I said.</p> + +<p>"'No, I don't; I mean <i>on</i> the engine—on the pilot. It was very +refreshing. Where are we going now?'</p> + +<p>"'Do you know Paris?' asked Wilhelmina, turning to me.</p> + +<p>"'Yes. I think your father had better take you to the Hôtel Normandie +on the Rue de l'Échelle—'</p> + +<p>"'But you must stay there, too!'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[274]</a></span>"'Of course—if you wish—'</p> + +<p>"She laughed nervously.</p> + +<p>"'Don't you see that my father and I could not take rooms—now? You +must engage three rooms for yourself.'</p> + +<p>"'Why?' I asked, stupidly.</p> + +<p>"'Oh, dear—why, because we are invisible.'</p> + +<p>"I tried to repress a shudder. The professor gave Wilhelmina his arm, +and, as I studied his ensemble, I thanked Heaven that he was +invisible.</p> + +<p>"At the gate of the station I hailed a four-seated cab, and we rattled +away through the stony streets, brilliant with gas-jets, and in a few +moments rolled smoothly across the Avenue de l'Opéra, turned into the +Rue de l'Échelle, and stopped. A bright little page, all over buttons, +came out, took my luggage, and preceded us into the hallway.</p> + +<p>"I, with Wilhelmina on my arm and the professor shuffling along beside +me, walked over to the desk.</p> + +<p>"'Room?' said the clerk. 'We have a very desirable room on the second, +fronting the Rue St. Honoré—'</p> + +<p>"'But we—that is, I want three rooms—three separate rooms!' I said.</p> + +<p>"The clerk scratched his chin. 'Monsieur is expecting friends?'</p> + +<p>"'Say yes,' whispered Wilhelmina, with a suspicion of laughter in her +voice.</p> + +<p>"'Yes,' I repeated, feebly.</p> + +<p>"'Gentlemen, of course?' said the clerk, looking at me narrowly.</p> + +<p>"'One lady.'</p> + +<p>"'Married, of course?'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[275]</a></span>"'What's that to you?' I said, sharply. 'What do you mean by speaking +to us—'</p> + +<p>"'Us!'</p> + +<p>"'I mean to me,' I said, badly rattled; 'give me the rooms and let me +get to bed, will you?'</p> + +<p>"'Monsieur will remember,' said the clerk, coldly, 'that this is an +old and respectable hotel.'</p> + +<p>"'I know it,' I said, smothering my rage.</p> + +<p>"The clerk eyed me suspiciously.</p> + +<p>"'Front!' he called, with irritating deliberation. 'Show this +gentleman to apartment ten.'</p> + +<p>"'How many rooms are there!' I demanded.</p> + +<p>"'Three sleeping-rooms and a parlor.'</p> + +<p>"'I will take it,' I said, with composure.</p> + +<p>"'On probation,' muttered the clerk, insolently.</p> + +<p>"Swallowing the insult, I followed the bell-boy up the stairs, keeping +between him and Wilhelmina, for I dreaded to see him walk through her +as if she were thin air. A trim maid rose to meet us and conducted us +through a hallway into a large apartment. She threw open all the +bedroom-doors and said, 'Will monsieur have the goodness to choose?'</p> + +<p>"'Which will you take,' I began, turning to Wilhelmina.</p> + +<p>"'I? Monsieur!' cried the startled maid.</p> + +<p>"That completely upset me. 'Here,' I muttered, slipping some silver +into her hand; 'now, for the love of Heaven, run away!'</p> + +<p>"When she had vanished with a doubtful 'Merci, monsieur!' I handed the +professor the keys and asked him to settle the thing with Wilhelmina.</p> + +<p>"Wilhelmina took the corner room, the professor <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span>rambled into the next +one, and I said good-night and crept wearily into my own chamber. I +sat down and tried to think. A great feeling of fatigue weighted my +spirits.</p> + +<p>"'I can think better with my clothes off,' I said, and slipped the +coat from my shoulders. How tired I was! 'I can think better in bed,' +I muttered, flinging my cravat on the dresser and tossing my +shirt-studs after it. I was certainly very tired. 'Now,' I yawned, +grasping the pillow and drawing it under my head—'now I can think a +bit.' But before my head fell on the pillow sleep closed my eyes.</p> + +<p>"I began to dream at once. It seemed as though my eyes were wide open +and the professor was standing beside my bed.</p> + +<p>"'Young man,' he said, 'you've won my daughter and you must pay the +piper!'</p> + +<p>"'What piper?' I said.</p> + +<p>"'The Pied Piper of Hamelin, I don't think,' replied the professor, +vulgarly, and before I could realize what he was doing he had drawn a +reed pipe from his dressing-gown and was playing a strangely annoying +air. Then an awful thing occurred. Cats began to troop into the room, +cats by the hundred—toms and tabbies, gray, yellow, Maltese, Persian, +Manx—all purring and all marching round and round, rubbing against +the furniture, the professor, and even against me. I struggled with +the nightmare.</p> + +<p>"'Take them away!' I tried to gasp.</p> + +<p>"'Nonsense!' he said; 'here is an old friend.'</p> + +<p>"I saw the white tabby cat of the Hôtel St. Antoine.</p> + +<p>"'An old friend,' he repeated, and played a dismal melody on his +reed.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[277]</a></span>"I saw Wilhelmina enter the room, lift the white tabby in her arms, +and bring her to my side.</p> + +<p>"'Shake hands with him,' she commanded.</p> + +<p>"To my horror the tabby deliberately extended a paw and tapped me on +the knuckles.</p> + +<p>"'Oh!' I cried, in agony; 'this is a horrible dream! Why, oh, why +can't I wake!'</p> + +<p>"'Yes,' she said, dropping the cat, 'it is partly a dream, but some of +it is real. Remember what I say, my darling; you are to go to-morrow +morning and meet the twelve-o'clock train from Antwerp at the Gare du +Nord. Papa and I are coming to Paris on that train. Don't you know +that we are not really here now, you silly boy? Good-night, then. I +shall be very glad to see you.'</p> + +<p>"I saw her glide from the room, followed by the professor, playing a +gay quick-step, to which the cats danced two and two.</p> + +<p>"'Good-night, sir,' said each cat as it passed my bed; and I dreamed +no more.</p> + +<p>"When I awoke, the room, the bed had vanished; I was in the street, +walking rapidly; the sun shone down on the broad, white pavements of +Paris, and the streams of busy life flowed past me on either side. How +swiftly I was walking! Where the devil was I going? Surely I had +business somewhere that needed immediate attention. I tried to +remember when I had awakened, but I could not. I wondered where I had +dressed myself; I had apparently taken great pains with my toilet, for +I was immaculate, monocle and all, even down to a long-stemmed rose +nestling in my button-hole. I knew Paris and recognized the streets +through which I was hurrying. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[278]</a></span>Where could I be going? What was my +hurry? I glanced at my watch and found I had not a moment to lose. +Then, as the bells of the city rang out mid-day, I hastened into the +railroad station on the Rue Lafayette and walked out to the platform. +And as I looked down the glittering track, around the distant curve +shot a locomotive followed by a long line of cars. Nearer and nearer +it came, while the station-gongs sounded and the switch-bells began +ringing all along the track.</p> + +<p>"'Antwerp express!' cried the sous-chef de gare, and as the train +slipped along the tiled platform I sprang upon the steps of a +first-class carriage and threw open the door.</p> + +<p>"'How do you do, Mr. Kensett?' said Wilhelmina Wyeth, springing +lightly to the platform. 'Really it is very nice of you to come to the +train.' At the same moment a bald, mild-eyed gentleman emerged from +the depths of the same compartment, carrying a large, covered basket.</p> + +<p>"'How are you, Kensett?' he said. 'Glad to see you again. Rather warm +in that compartment—no, I will not trust this basket to an +expressman; give Wilhelmina your arm and I'll follow. We go to the +Normandie, I believe?'</p> + +<p>"All the morning I had Wilhelmina to myself, and at dinner I sat +beside her, with the professor opposite. The latter was cheerful +enough, but he nearly ruined my appetite, for he smelled strongly of +catnip. After dinner he became restless and fidgeted about in his +chair until coffee was brought, and we went up to the parlor of our +apartment. Here his restlessness <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[279]</a></span>increased to such an extent that I +ventured to ask him if he was in good health.</p> + +<p>"'It's that basket—the covered basket which I have in the next room,' +he said.</p> + +<p>"'What's the trouble with the basket?' I asked.</p> + +<p>"'The basket's all right—but the contents worry me.'</p> + +<p>"'May I inquire what the contents are?' I ventured.</p> + +<p>"The professor rose.</p> + +<p>"'Yes,' he said, 'you may inquire of my daughter.' He left the room, +but reappeared shortly, carrying a saucer of milk.</p> + +<p>"I watched him enter the next room, which was mine.</p> + +<p>"'What on earth is he taking that into my room for?' I asked +Wilhelmina. 'I don't keep cats.'</p> + +<p>"'But you will,' she said.</p> + +<p>"'I? Never!'</p> + +<p>"'You will if I ask you to.'</p> + +<p>"'But—but you won't ask me.'</p> + +<p>"'But I do.'</p> + +<p>"'Wilhelmina!'</p> + +<p>"'Harold!'</p> + +<p>"'I detest cats.'</p> + +<p>"'You must not.'</p> + +<p>"'I can't help it.'</p> + +<p>"'You will when I ask it. Have I not given myself to you? Will you not +make a little sacrifice for me?'</p> + +<p>"'I don't understand—'</p> + +<p>"'Would you refuse my first request?'</p> + +<p>"'No,' I said, miserably, 'I will keep dozens of cats—'</p> + +<p>"'I do not ask that; I only wish you to keep one.'</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[280]</a></span>"'Was that what your father had in that basket?' I asked, +suspiciously.</p> + +<p>"'Yes, the basket came from Antwerp.'</p> + +<p>"'What! The white Antwerp cat!' I cried.</p> + +<p>"'Yes.'</p> + +<p>"'And you ask me to keep that cat? Oh, Wilhelmina!'</p> + +<p>"'Listen!' she said. 'I have a long story to tell you; come nearer, +close to me. You say you love me?'</p> + +<p>"I bent and kissed her.</p> + +<p>"'Then I shall put you to the proof,' she murmured.</p> + +<p>"'Prove me!'</p> + +<p>"'Listen. That cat is the same cat that ran out of the apartment in +the Waldorf when your great-aunt ceased to exist—in human shape. My +father and myself, having received word from the Mahatmas of the Trust +Company, sheltered and cherished the cat. We were ordered by the +Mahatmas to convert you. The task was appalling—but there is no such +thing as refusing a command, and we laid our plans. That man with a +white spot in his hair was my father—'</p> + +<p>"'What! Your father is bald.'</p> + +<p>"'He wore a wig then. The white spot came from dropping chemicals on +the wig while experimenting with a substance which you could not +comprehend.'</p> + +<p>"'Then—then that clew was useless; but who could have taken the +Crimson Diamond? And who was the man with the white spot on his head +who tried to sell the stone in Paris?'</p> + +<p>"'That was my father.'</p> + +<p>"'He—he—st—took the Crimson Diamond!' I cried, aghast.</p> + +<p>"'Yes and no. That was only a paste stone that he <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[281]</a></span>had in Paris. It +was to draw you over here. He had the real Crimson Diamond also.'</p> + +<p>"'Your father?'</p> + +<p>"'Yes. He has it in the next room now. Can you not see how it +disappeared, Harold? Why, the cat swallowed it!'</p> + +<p>"'Do you mean to say that the white tabby swallowed the Crimson +Diamond?'</p> + +<p>"'By mistake. She tried to get it out of the velvet bag, and, as the +bag was also full of catnip, she could not resist a mouthful, and +unfortunately just then you broke in the door and so startled the cat +that she swallowed the Crimson Diamond.'</p> + +<p>"There was a painful pause. At last I said:</p> + +<p>"'Wilhelmina, as you are able to vanish, I suppose you also are able +to converse with cats.'</p> + +<p>"'I am,' she replied, trying to keep back the tears of mortification.</p> + +<p>"'And that cat told you this?'</p> + +<p>"'She did.'</p> + +<p>"'And my Crimson Diamond is inside that cat?'</p> + +<p>"'It is.'</p> + +<p>"'Then,' said I, firmly, 'I am going to chloroform the cat.'</p> + +<p>"'Harold!' she cried, in terror, 'that cat is your great-aunt!'</p> + +<p>"I don't know to this day how I stood the shock of that announcement, +or how I managed to listen while Wilhelmina tried to explain the +transmigration theory, but it was all Chinese to me. I only knew that +I was a blood relation of a cat, and the thought nearly drove me mad.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[282]</a></span>"'Try, my darling, try to love her,' whispered Wilhelmina; 'she must +be very precious to you—'</p> + +<p>"'Yes, with my diamond inside her,' I replied, faintly.</p> + +<p>"'You must not neglect her,' said Wilhelmina.</p> + +<p>"'Oh no, I'll always have my eye on her—I mean I will surround her +with luxury—er, milk and bones and catnip and books—er—does she +read?'</p> + +<p>"'Not the books that human beings read. Now, go and speak to your +aunt, Harold.'</p> + +<p>"'Eh! How the deuce—'</p> + +<p>"'Go; for my sake try to be cordial.'</p> + +<p>"She rose and led me unresistingly to the door of my room.</p> + +<p>"'Good Heavens!' I groaned; 'this is awful.'</p> + +<p>"'Courage, my darling!' she whispered. 'Be brave for love of me.'</p> + +<p>"I drew her to me and kissed her. Beads of cold perspiration started +in the roots of my hair, but I clenched my teeth and entered the room +alone. The room was dark and I stood silent, not knowing where to +turn, fearful lest I step on my aunt! Then, through the dreary +silence, I called, 'Aunty!'</p> + +<p>"A faint noise broke upon my ear, and my heart grew sick, but I strode +into the darkness, calling, hoarsely:</p> + +<p>"'Aunt Tabby! It is your nephew!'</p> + +<p>"Again the faint sound. Something was stirring there among the +shadows—a shape moving softly along the wall, a shade which glided by +me, paused, wavered, and darted under the bed. Then I threw myself on +the floor, profoundly moved, begging, imploring my aunt to come to +me.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[283]</a></span>"'Aunty! Aunty!' I murmured. 'Your nephew is waiting to take you to +his heart!'</p> + +<p>"At last I saw my great-aunt's eyes shining in the dark."</p> + +<p>The young man's voice grew hushed and solemn, and he lifted his hand +in silence:</p> + +<p>"Close the door. That meeting is not for the eyes of the world! Close +the door upon that sacred scene where great-aunt and nephew are united +at last."</p> + +<hr style='width: 15%; padding-top: 1.25em; padding-bottom: 1.25em;' /> + +<p>A long pause followed; deep emotion was visible in Miss Barrison's +sensitive face. She said:</p> + +<p>"Then—you are married?"</p> + +<p>"No," replied Mr. Kensett, in a mortified voice.</p> + +<p>"Why not?" I asked, amazed.</p> + +<p>"Because," he said, "although my fiancée was prepared to accept a cat +as her great-aunt, she could not endure the complications that +followed."</p> + +<p>"What complications?" inquired Miss Barrison.</p> + +<p>The young man sighed profoundly, shaking his head.</p> + +<p>"My great-aunt had kittens," he said, softly.</p> + +<hr style='width: 15%; padding-top: 1.25em; padding-bottom: 1.25em;' /> + +<p>The tremendous scientific importance of these experiences excited me +beyond measure. The simplicity of the narrative, the elaborate +attention to corroborative detail, all bore irresistible testimony to +the truth of these accounts of phenomena vitally important to the +entire world of science.</p> + +<p>We all dined together that night—a little earnest company of +knowledge-seekers in the vast wilderness of the unexplored; and we +lingered long in the dining-car, propounding questions, advancing +theories, speculating <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[284]</a></span>upon possibilities of most intense interest. +Never before had I known a man whose relatives were cats and kittens, +but he did not appear to share my enthusiasm in the matter.</p> + +<p>"You see," he said, looking at Miss Barrison, "it may be interesting +from a purely scientific point of view, but it has already proved a +bar to my marrying."</p> + +<p>"Were the kittens black?" I inquired.</p> + +<p>"No," he said, "my aunt drew the color-line, I am proud to say."</p> + +<p>"I don't see," said Miss Barrison, "why the fact that your great-aunt +is a cat should prevent you from marrying."</p> + +<p>"It wouldn't prevent <i>me</i>!" said the young man, quickly.</p> + +<p>"Nor me," mused Miss Barrison—"if I were really in love."</p> + +<p>Meanwhile I had been very busy thinking about Professor Farrago, and, +coming to an interesting theory, advanced it.</p> + +<p>"If," I began, "he marries one of those transparent ladies, what about +the children?"</p> + +<p>"Some would be, no doubt, transparent," said Kensett.</p> + +<p>"They might be only translucent," suggested Miss Barrison.</p> + +<p>"Or partially opaque," I ventured. "But it's a risky marriage—not to +be able to see what one's wife is about—"</p> + +<p>"That is a silly reflection on women," said Miss Barrison, quietly. +"Besides, a girl need not be transparent to conceal what she's +doing."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[285]</a></span>This observation seemed to end our postprandial and tripartite +conference; Miss Barrison retired to her stateroom presently; after a +last cigar, smoked almost in silence, the young man and I bade each +other a civil good-night and retired to our respective berths.</p> + +<p>I think it was at Richmond, Virginia, that I was awakened by the negro +porter shaking me very gently and repeating, in a pleasant, monotonous +voice: "Teleg'am foh you, suh! Teleg'am foh Mistuh Gilland, suh. 'Done +call you 'lev'm times sense breakfass, suh! Las' call foh luncheon, +suh. Teleg'am foh—"</p> + +<p>"Heavens!" I muttered, sitting up in my bunk, "is it as late as that! +Where are we?" I slid up the window-shade and sat blinking at a flood +of sunshine.</p> + +<p>"Telegram?" I said, yawning and rubbing my eyes. "Let me have it. All +right, I'll be out presently. Shut that curtain! I don't want the +entire car to criticise my pink pajamas!"</p> + +<p>"Ain' nobody in de cyar, 'scusin yo'se'f, suh," grinned the porter, +retiring.</p> + +<p>I heard him, but did not comprehend, sitting there sleepily unfolding +the scrawled telegram. Suddenly my eyes flew wide open; I scanned the +despatch with stunned incredulity:</p> + +<div class="block2"> +<p class="right sc">"Atlanta, Georgia.</p> + +<p>"We couldn't help it. Love at first sight. Married this +morning in Atlanta. Wildly happy. Forgive. Wire blessing.</p> + +<p class="right" style="margin-right: 5%;">"(Signed) <span class="sc">Harold Kensett</span>, <br /> +"<span class="sc">Helen Barrison Kensett.</span>"</p> +</div> + +<p>"Porter!" I shouted. "Porter! Help!"</p> + +<p>There was no response.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[286]</a></span>"Oh, Lord!" I groaned, and rolled over, burying my head in the +blankets; for I understood at last that Science, the most jealous, +most exacting of mistresses, could never brook a rival.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<h4>THE END</h4> + + +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<div class="tr"> +<p class="cen"><a name="TN" id="TN"></a>Typographical errors corrected in text:</p> +<br /> +Page 86: beautful replaced with beautiful<br /> +Page 180: Magazin replaced with Magazine<br /> +Page 206: sun-sorched replaced with sun-scorched<br /> +</div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<hr /> +<br /> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's In Search of the Unknown, by Robert W. Chambers + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN SEARCH OF THE UNKNOWN *** + +***** This file should be named 18668-h.htm or 18668-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/6/6/18668/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Jeannie Howse and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +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. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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Chambers + +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: In Search of the Unknown + +Author: Robert W. Chambers + +Release Date: June 23, 2006 [EBook #18668] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN SEARCH OF THE UNKNOWN *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Jeannie Howse and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + * * * * * + + +--------------------------------------------------------------+ + | Transcriber's Note: | + | | + | Inconsistent hyphenation matches the original document. | + | | + | A number of obvious typographical errors have been corrected | + | in this text. For a complete list, please see the bottom of | + | this document. | + | | + +--------------------------------------------------------------+ + + * * * * * + + + + + +[Illustration: SHE STARTED TOWARD THE DOOR] + + + + +IN SEARCH OF THE +UNKNOWN + + + +BY +ROBERT W. CHAMBERS + +AUTHOR OF "THE MAIDS OF PARADISE" "THE MAID-AT-ARMS" +"CARDIGAN" "THE CONSPIRATORS" ETC. + + + + +NEW YORK AND LONDON +HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS +1904 + + + + +Copyright, 1904, by ROBERT W. CHAMBERS. + +_All rights reserved._ +Published June, 1904. + + + + + TO + MY FRIEND + E. LE GRAND BEERS + + MY DEAR LE GRAND,--You and I were early drawn together by a + common love of nature. Your researches into the natural + history of the tree-toad, your observations upon the + mud-turtles of Providence Township, your experiments with the + fresh-water lobster, all stimulated my enthusiasm in a + scientific direction, which has crystallized in this helpful + little book, dedicated to you. + + Pray accept it as an insignificant payment on account for all + I owe to you. + + THE AUTHOR. + + + + +PREFACE + + +It appears to the writer that there is urgent need of more "nature +books"--books that are scraped clear of fiction and which display only +the carefully articulated skeleton of fact. Hence this little volume, +presented with some hesitation and more modesty. Various chapters +have, at intervals, appeared in the pages of various publications. The +continued narrative is now published for the first time; and the +writer trusts that it may inspire enthusiasm for natural and +scientific research, and inculcate a passion for accurate observation +among the young. + + THE AUTHOR. + + _April 1, 1904._ + + + + + Where the slanting forest eaves, + Shingled tight with greenest leaves, + Sweep the scented meadow-sedge, + Let us snoop along the edge; + Let us pry in hidden nooks, + Laden with our nature books, + Scaring birds with happy cries, + Chloroforming butterflies, + Rooting up each woodland plant, + Pinning beetle, fly, and ant, + So we may identify + What we've ruined, by-and-by. + + + + +IN SEARCH OF THE UNKNOWN + + +I + + +Because it all seems so improbable--so horribly impossible to me now, +sitting here safe and sane in my own library--I hesitate to record an +episode which already appears to me less horrible than grotesque. Yet, +unless this story is written now, I know I shall never have the +courage to tell the truth about the matter--not from fear of ridicule, +but because I myself shall soon cease to credit what I now know to be +true. Yet scarcely a month has elapsed since I heard the stealthy +purring of what I believed to be the shoaling undertow--scarcely a +month ago, with my own eyes, I saw that which, even now, I am +beginning to believe never existed. As for the harbor-master--and the +blow I am now striking at the old order of things--But of that I shall +not speak now, or later; I shall try to tell the story simply and +truthfully, and let my friends testify as to my probity and the +publishers of this book corroborate them. + +On the 29th of February I resigned my position under the government +and left Washington to accept an offer from Professor Farrago--whose +name he kindly permits me to use--and on the first day of April I +entered upon my new and congenial duties as general superintendent of +the water-fowl department connected with the Zoological Gardens then +in course of erection at Bronx Park, New York. + +For a week I followed the routine, examining the new foundations, +studying the architect's plans, following the surveyors through the +Bronx thickets, suggesting arrangements for water-courses and pools +destined to be included in the enclosures for swans, geese, pelicans, +herons, and such of the waders and swimmers as we might expect to +acclimate in Bronx Park. + +It was at that time the policy of the trustees and officers of the +Zoological Gardens neither to employ collectors nor to send out +expeditions in search of specimens. The society decided to depend upon +voluntary contributions, and I was always busy, part of the day, in +dictating answers to correspondents who wrote offering their services +as hunters of big game, collectors of all sorts of fauna, trappers, +snarers, and also to those who offered specimens for sale, usually at +exorbitant rates. + +To the proprietors of five-legged kittens, mangy lynxes, moth-eaten +coyotes, and dancing bears I returned courteous but uncompromising +refusals--of course, first submitting all such letters, together with +my replies, to Professor Farrago. + +One day towards the end of May, however, just as I was leaving Bronx +Park to return to town, Professor Lesard, of the reptilian department, +called out to me that Professor Farrago wanted to see me a moment; so +I put my pipe into my pocket again and retraced my steps to the +temporary, wooden building occupied by Professor Farrago, general +superintendent of the Zoological Gardens. The professor, who was +sitting at his desk before a pile of letters and replies submitted for +approval by me, pushed his glasses down and looked over them at me +with a whimsical smile that suggested amusement, impatience, +annoyance, and perhaps a faint trace of apology. + +"Now, here's a letter," he said, with a deliberate gesture towards a +sheet of paper impaled on a file--"a letter that I suppose you +remember." He disengaged the sheet of paper and handed it to me. + +"Oh yes," I replied, with a shrug; "of course the man is +mistaken--or--" + +"Or what?" demanded Professor Farrago, tranquilly, wiping his glasses. + +"--Or a liar," I replied. + +After a silence he leaned back in his chair and bade me read the +letter to him again, and I did so with a contemptuous tolerance for +the writer, who must have been either a very innocent victim or a very +stupid swindler. I said as much to Professor Farrago, but, to my +surprise, he appeared to waver. + +"I suppose," he said, with his near-sighted, embarrassed smile, "that +nine hundred and ninety-nine men in a thousand would throw that letter +aside and condemn the writer as a liar or a fool?" + +"In my opinion," said I, "he's one or the other." + +"He isn't--in mine," said the professor, placidly. + +"What!" I exclaimed. "Here is a man living all alone on a strip of +rock and sand between the wilderness and the sea, who wants you to +send somebody to take charge of a bird that doesn't exist!" + +"How do you know," asked Professor Farrago, "that the bird in question +does not exist?" + +"It is generally accepted," I replied, sarcastically, "that the great +auk has been extinct for years. Therefore I may be pardoned for +doubting that our correspondent possesses a pair of them alive." + +"Oh, you young fellows," said the professor, smiling wearily, "you +embark on a theory for destinations that don't exist." + +He leaned back in his chair, his amused eyes searching space for the +imagery that made him smile. + +"Like swimming squirrels, you navigate with the help of Heaven and a +stiff breeze, but you never land where you hope to--do you?" + +Rather red in the face, I said: "Don't you believe the great auk to be +extinct?" + +"Audubon saw the great auk." + +"Who has seen a single specimen since?" + +"Nobody--except our correspondent here," he replied, laughing. + +I laughed, too, considering the interview at an end, but the professor +went on, coolly: + +"Whatever it is that our correspondent has--and I am daring to believe +that it _is_ the great auk itself--I want you to secure it for the +society." + +When my astonishment subsided my first conscious sentiment was one of +pity. Clearly, Professor Farrago was on the verge of dotage--ah, what +a loss to the world! + +I believe now that Professor Farrago perfectly interpreted my +thoughts, but he betrayed neither resentment nor impatience. I drew a +chair up beside his desk--there was nothing to do but to obey, and +this fool's errand was none of my conceiving. + +Together we made out a list of articles necessary for me and itemized +the expenses I might incur, and I set a date for my return, allowing +no margin for a successful termination to the expedition. + +"Never mind that," said the professor. "What I want you to do is to +get those birds here safely. Now, how many men will you take?" + +"None," I replied, bluntly; "it's a useless expense, unless there is +something to bring back. If there is I'll wire you, you may be sure." + +"Very well," said Professor Farrago, good-humoredly, "you shall have +all the assistance you may require. Can you leave to-night?" + +The old gentleman was certainly prompt. I nodded, half-sulkily, aware +of his amusement. + +"So," I said, picking up my hat, "I am to start north to find a place +called Black Harbor, where there is a man named Halyard who possesses, +among other household utensils, two extinct great auks--" + +We were both laughing by this time. I asked him why on earth he +credited the assertion of a man he had never before heard of. + +"I suppose," he replied, with the same half-apologetic, half-humorous +smile, "it is instinct. I feel, somehow, that this man Halyard _has_ +got an auk--perhaps two. I can't get away from the idea that we are on +the eve of acquiring the rarest of living creatures. It's odd for a +scientist to talk as I do; doubtless you're shocked--admit it, now!" + +But I was not shocked; on the contrary, I was conscious that the same +strange hope that Professor Farrago cherished was beginning, in spite +of me, to stir my pulses, too. + +"If he has--" I began, then stopped. + +The professor and I looked hard at each other in silence. + +"Go on," he said, encouragingly. + +But I had nothing more to say, for the prospect of beholding with my +own eyes a living specimen of the great auk produced a series of +conflicting emotions within me which rendered speech profanely +superfluous. + +As I took my leave Professor Farrago came to the door of the +temporary, wooden office and handed me the letter written by the man +Halyard. I folded it and put it into my pocket, as Halyard might +require it for my own identification. + +"How much does he want for the pair?" I asked. + +"Ten thousand dollars. Don't demur--if the birds are really--" + +"I know," I said, hastily, not daring to hope too much. + +"One thing more," said Professor Farrago, gravely; "you know, in that +last paragraph of his letter, Halyard speaks of something else in the +way of specimens--an undiscovered species of amphibious biped--just +read that paragraph again, will you?" + +I drew the letter from my pocket and read as he directed: + + "When you have seen the two living specimens of the great auk, + and have satisfied yourself that I tell the truth, you may be + wise enough to listen without prejudice to a statement I shall + make concerning the existence of the strangest creature ever + fashioned. I will merely say, at this time, that the creature + referred to is an amphibious biped and inhabits the ocean near + this coast. More I cannot say, for I personally have not seen + the animal, but I have a witness who has, and there are many + who affirm that they have seen the creature. You will + naturally say that my statement amounts to nothing; but when + your representative arrives, if he be free from prejudice, I + expect his reports to you concerning this sea-biped will + confirm the solemn statements of a witness I _know_ to be + unimpeachable. + + "Yours truly, BURTON HALYARD. + + "BLACK HARBOR." + +"Well," I said, after a moment's thought, "here goes for the +wild-goose chase." + +"Wild auk, you mean," said Professor Farrago, shaking hands with me. +"You will start to-night, won't you?" + +"Yes, but Heaven knows how I'm ever going to land in this man +Halyard's door-yard. Good-bye!" + +"About that sea-biped--" began Professor Farrago, shyly. + +"Oh, don't!" I said; "I can swallow the auks, feathers and claws, but +if this fellow Halyard is hinting he's seen an amphibious creature +resembling a man--" + +"--Or a woman," said the professor, cautiously. + +I retired, disgusted, my faith shaken in the mental vigor of Professor +Farrago. + + + + +II + + +The three days' voyage by boat and rail was irksome. I bought my kit +at Sainte Croix, on the Central Pacific Railroad, and on June 1st I +began the last stage of my journey _via_ the Sainte Isole broad-gauge, +arriving in the wilderness by daylight. A tedious forced march by +blazed trail, freshly spotted on the wrong side, of course, brought me +to the northern terminus of the rusty, narrow-gauge lumber railway +which runs from the heart of the hushed pine wilderness to the sea. + +Already a long train of battered flat-cars, piled with sluice-props +and roughly hewn sleepers, was moving slowly off into the brooding +forest gloom, when I came in sight of the track; but I developed a +gratifying and unexpected burst of speed, shouting all the while. The +train stopped; I swung myself aboard the last car, where a pleasant +young fellow was sitting on the rear brake, chewing spruce and reading +a letter. + +"Come aboard, sir," he said, looking up with a smile; "I guess you're +the man in a hurry." + +"I'm looking for a man named Halyard," I said, dropping rifle and +knapsack on the fresh-cut, fragrant pile of pine. "Are you Halyard?" + +"No, I'm Francis Lee, bossing the mica pit at Port-of-Waves," he +replied, "but this letter is from Halyard, asking me to look out for a +man in a hurry from Bronx Park, New York." + +"I'm that man," said I, filling my pipe and offering him a share of +the weed of peace, and we sat side by side smoking very amiably, until +a signal from the locomotive sent him forward and I was left alone, +lounging at ease, head pillowed on both arms, watching the blue sky +flying through the branches overhead. + +Long before we came in sight of the ocean I smelled it; the fresh, +salt aroma stole into my senses, drowsy with the heated odor of pine +and hemlock, and I sat up, peering ahead into the dusky sea of pines. + +Fresher and fresher came the wind from the sea, in puffs, in mild, +sweet breezes, in steady, freshening currents, blowing the feathery +crowns of the pines, setting the balsam's blue tufts rocking. + +Lee wandered back over the long line of flats, balancing himself +nonchalantly as the cars swung around a sharp curve, where water +dripped from a newly propped sluice that suddenly emerged from the +depths of the forest to run parallel to the railroad track. + +"Built it this spring," he said, surveying his handiwork, which seemed +to undulate as the cars swept past. "It runs to the cove--or ought +to--" He stopped abruptly with a thoughtful glance at me. + +"So you're going over to Halyard's?" he continued, as though answering +a question asked by himself. + +I nodded. + +"You've never been there--of course?" + +"No," I said, "and I'm not likely to go again." + +I would have told him why I was going if I had not already begun to +feel ashamed of my idiotic errand. + +"I guess you're going to look at those birds of his," continued Lee, +placidly. + +"I guess I am," I said, sulkily, glancing askance to see whether he +was smiling. + +But he only asked me, quite seriously, whether a great auk was really +a very rare bird; and I told him that the last one ever seen had been +found dead off Labrador in January, 1870. Then I asked him whether +these birds of Halyard's were really great auks, and he replied, +somewhat indifferently, that he supposed they were--at least, nobody +had ever before seen such birds near Port-of-Waves. + +"There's something else," he said, running, a pine-sliver through his +pipe-stem--"something that interests us all here more than auks, big +or little. I suppose I might as well speak of it, as you are bound to +hear about it sooner or later." + +He hesitated, and I could see that he was embarrassed, searching for +the exact words to convey his meaning. + +"If," said I, "you have anything in this region more important to +science than the great auk, I should be very glad to know about it." + +Perhaps there was the faintest tinge of sarcasm in my voice, for he +shot a sharp glance at me and then turned slightly. After a moment, +however, he put his pipe into his pocket, laid hold of the brake with +both hands, vaulted to his perch aloft, and glanced down at me. + +"Did you ever hear of the harbor-master?" he asked, maliciously. + +"Which harbor-master?" I inquired. + +"You'll know before long," he observed, with a satisfied glance into +perspective. + +This rather extraordinary observation puzzled me. I waited for him to +resume, and, as he did not, I asked him what he meant. + +"If I knew," he said, "I'd tell you. But, come to think of it, I'd be +a fool to go into details with a scientific man. You'll hear about the +harbor-master--perhaps you will see the harbor-master. In that event I +should be glad to converse with you on the subject." + +I could not help laughing at his prim and precise manner, and, after a +moment, he also laughed, saying: + +"It hurts a man's vanity to know he knows a thing that somebody else +knows he doesn't know. I'm damned if I say another word about the +harbor-master until you've been to Halyard's!" + +"A harbor-master," I persisted, "is an official who superintends the +mooring of ships--isn't he?" + +But he refused to be tempted into conversation, and we lounged +silently on the lumber until a long, thin whistle from the locomotive +and a rush of stinging salt-wind brought us to our feet. Through the +trees I could see the bluish-black ocean, stretching out beyond black +headlands to meet the clouds; a great wind was roaring among the trees +as the train slowly came to a stand-still on the edge of the primeval +forest. + +Lee jumped to the ground and aided me with my rifle and pack, and then +the train began to back away along a curved side-track which, Lee +said, led to the mica-pit and company stores. + +"Now what will you do?" he asked, pleasantly. "I can give you a good +dinner and a decent bed to-night if you like--and I'm sure Mrs. Lee +would be very glad to have you stop with us as long as you choose." + +I thanked him, but said that I was anxious to reach Halyard's before +dark, and he very kindly led me along the cliffs and pointed out the +path. + +"This man Halyard," he said, "is an invalid. He lives at a cove called +Black Harbor, and all his truck goes through to him over the company's +road. We receive it here, and send a pack-mule through once a month. +I've met him; he's a bad-tempered hypochondriac, a cynic at heart, and +a man whose word is never doubted. If he says he has a great auk, you +may be satisfied he has." + +My heart was beating with excitement at the prospect; I looked out +across the wooded headlands and tangled stretches of dune and hollow, +trying to realize what it might mean to me, to Professor Farrago, to +the world, if I should lead back to New York a live auk. + +"He's a crank," said Lee; "frankly, I don't like him. If you find it +unpleasant there, come back to us." + +"Does Halyard live alone?" I asked. + +"Yes--except for a professional trained nurse--poor thing!" + +"A man?" + +"No," said Lee, disgustedly. + +Presently he gave me a peculiar glance; hesitated, and finally said: +"Ask Halyard to tell you about his nurse and--the harbor-master. +Good-bye--I'm due at the quarry. Come and stay with us whenever you +care to; you will find a welcome at Port-of-Waves." + +We shook hands and parted on the cliff, he turning back into the +forest along the railway, I starting northward, pack slung, rifle over +my shoulder. Once I met a group of quarrymen, faces burned brick-red, +scarred hands swinging as they walked. And, as I passed them with a +nod, turning, I saw that they also had turned to look after me, and I +caught a word or two of their conversation, whirled back to me on the +sea-wind. + +They were speaking of the harbor-master. + + + + +III + + +Towards sunset I came out on a sheer granite cliff where the sea-birds +were whirling and clamoring, and the great breakers dashed, rolling in +double-thundered reverberations on the sun-dyed, crimson sands below +the rock. + +Across the half-moon of beach towered another cliff, and, behind this, +I saw a column of smoke rising in the still air. It certainly came +from Halyard's chimney, although the opposite cliff prevented me from +seeing the house itself. + +I rested a moment to refill my pipe, then resumed rifle and pack, and +cautiously started to skirt the cliffs. I had descended half-way +towards the beech, and was examining the cliff opposite, when +something on the very top of the rock arrested my attention--a man +darkly outlined against the sky. The next moment, however, I knew it +could not be a man, for the object suddenly glided over the face of +the cliff and slid down the sheer, smooth lace like a lizard. Before I +could get a square look at it, the thing crawled into the surf--or, at +least, it seemed to--but the whole episode occurred so suddenly, so +unexpectedly, that I was not sure I had seen anything at all. + +However, I was curious enough to climb the cliff on the land side and +make my way towards the spot where I imagined I saw the man. Of +course, there was nothing there--not a trace of a human being, I mean. +Something _had_ been there--a sea-otter, possibly--for the remains of +a freshly killed fish lay on the rock, eaten to the back-bone and +tail. + +The next moment, below me, I saw the house, a freshly painted, trim, +flimsy structure, modern, and very much out of harmony with the +splendid savagery surrounding it. It struck a nasty, cheap note in the +noble, gray monotony of headland and sea. + +The descent was easy enough. I crossed the crescent beach, hard as +pink marble, and found a little trodden path among the rocks, that led +to the front porch of the house. + +There were two people on the porch--I heard their voices before I saw +them--and when I set my foot upon the wooden steps, I saw one of them, +a woman, rise from her chair and step hastily towards me. + +"Come back!" cried the other, a man with a smooth-shaven, deeply lined +face, and a pair of angry, blue eyes; and the woman stepped back +quietly, acknowledging my lifted hat with a silent inclination. + +The man, who was reclining in an invalid's rolling-chair, clapped both +large, pale hands to the wheels and pushed himself out along the +porch. He had shawls pinned about him, an untidy, drab-colored hat on +his head, and, when he looked down at me, he scowled. + +"I know who you are," he said, in his acid voice; "you're one of the +Zoological men from Bronx Park. You look like it, anyway." + +"It is easy to recognize you from your reputation," I replied, +irritated at his discourtesy. + +"Really," he replied, with something between a sneer and a laugh, "I'm +obliged for your frankness. You're after my great auks, are you not?" + +"Nothing else would have tempted me into this place," I replied, +sincerely. + +"Thank Heaven for that," he said. "Sit down a moment; you've +interrupted us." Then, turning to the young woman, who wore the neat +gown and tiny cap of a professional nurse, he bade her resume what she +had been saying. She did so, with deprecating glance at me, which made +the old man sneer again. + +"It happened so suddenly," she said, in her low voice, "that I had no +chance to get back. The boat was drifting in the cove; I sat in the +stern, reading, both oars shipped, and the tiller swinging. Then I +heard a scratching under the boat, but thought it might be +sea-weed--and, next moment, came those soft thumpings, like the sound +of a big fish rubbing its nose against a float." + +Halyard clutched the wheels of his chair and stared at the girl in +grim displeasure. + +"Didn't you know enough to be frightened?" he demanded. + +"No--not then," she said, coloring faintly; "but when, after a few +moments, I looked up and saw the harbor-master running up and down the +beach, I was horribly frightened." + +"Really?" said Halyard, sarcastically; "it was about time." Then, +turning to me, he rasped out: "And that young lady was obliged to row +all the way to Port-of-Waves and call to Lee's quarrymen to take her +boat in." + +Completely mystified, I looked from Halyard to the girl, not in the +least comprehending what all this meant. + +"That will do," said Halyard, ungraciously, which curt phrase was +apparently the usual dismissal for the nurse. + +She rose, and I rose, and she passed me with an inclination, stepping +noiselessly into the house. + +"I want beef-tea!" bawled Halyard after her; then he gave me an +unamiable glance. + +"I was a well-bred man," he sneered; "I'm a Harvard graduate, too, but +I live as I like, and I do what I like, and I say what I like." + +"You certainly are not reticent," I said, disgusted. + +"Why should I be?" he rasped; "I pay that young woman for my +irritability; it's a bargain between us." + +"In your domestic affairs," I said, "there is nothing that interests +me. I came to see those auks." + +"You probably believe them to be razor-billed auks," he said, +contemptuously. "But they're not; they're great auks." + +I suggested that he permit me to examine them, and he replied, +indifferently, that they were in a pen in his backyard, and that I was +free to step around the house when I cared to. + +I laid my rifle and pack on the veranda, and hastened off with mixed +emotions, among which hope no longer predominated. No man in his +senses would keep two such precious prizes in a pen in his backyard, I +argued, and I was perfectly prepared to find anything from a puffin to +a penguin in that pen. + +I shall never forget, as long as I live, my stupor of amazement when I +came to the wire-covered enclosure. Not only were there two great +auks in the pen, alive, breathing, squatting in bulky majesty on their +sea-weed bed, but one of them was gravely contemplating two newly +hatched chicks, all bill and feet, which nestled sedately at the edge +of a puddle of salt-water, where some small fish were swimming. + +For a while excitement blinded, nay, deafened me. I tried to realize +that I was gazing upon the last individuals of an all but extinct +race--the sole survivors of the gigantic auk, which, for thirty years, +has been accounted an extinct creature. + +I believe that I did not move muscle nor limb until the sun had gone +down and the crowding darkness blurred my straining eyes and blotted +the great, silent, bright-eyed birds from sight. + +Even then I could not tear myself away from the enclosure; I listened +to the strange, drowsy note of the male bird, the fainter responses of +the female, the thin plaints of the chicks, huddling under her breast; +I heard their flipper-like, embryotic wings beating sleepily as the +birds stretched and yawned their beaks and clacked them, preparing for +slumber. + +"If you please," came a soft voice from the door, "Mr. Halyard awaits +your company to dinner." + + + + +IV + + +I dined well--or, rather, I might have enjoyed my dinner if Mr. +Halyard had been eliminated; and the feast consisted exclusively of a +joint of beef, the pretty nurse, and myself. She was exceedingly +attractive--with a disturbing fashion of lowering her head and raising +her dark eyes when spoken to. + +As for Halyard, he was unspeakable, bundled up in his snuffy shawls, +and making uncouth noises over his gruel. But it is only just to say +that his table was worth sitting down to and his wine was sound as a +bell. + +"Yah!" he snapped, "I'm sick of this cursed soup--and I'll trouble you +to fill my glass--" + +"It is dangerous for you to touch claret," said the pretty nurse. + +"I might as well die at dinner as anywhere," he observed. + +"Certainly," said I, cheerfully passing the decanter, but he did not +appear overpleased with the attention. + +"I can't smoke, either," he snarled, hitching the shawls around until +he looked like Richard the Third. + +However, he was good enough to shove a box of cigars at me, and I took +one and stood up, as the pretty nurse slipped past and vanished into +the little parlor beyond. + +We sat there for a while without speaking. He picked irritably at the +bread-crumbs on the cloth, never glancing in my direction; and I, +tired from my long foot-tour, lay back in my chair, silently +appreciating one of the best cigars I ever smoked. + +"Well," he rasped out at length, "what do you think of my auks--and my +veracity?" + +I told him that both were unimpeachable. + +"Didn't they call me a swindler down there at your museum?" he +demanded. + +I admitted that I had heard the term applied. Then I made a clean +breast of the matter, telling him that it was I who had doubted; that +my chief, Professor Farrago, had sent me against my will, and that I +was ready and glad to admit that he, Mr. Halyard, was a benefactor of +the human race. + +"Bosh!" he said. "What good does a confounded wobbly, bandy-toed bird +do to the human race?" + +But he was pleased, nevertheless; and presently he asked me, not +unamiably, to punish his claret again. + +"I'm done for," he said; "good things to eat and drink are no good to +me. Some day I'll get mad enough to have a fit, and then--" + +He paused to yawn. + +"Then," he continued, "that little nurse of mine will drink up my +claret and go back to civilization, where people are polite." + +Somehow or other, in spite of the fact that Halyard was an old pig, +what he said touched me. There was certainly not much left in life for +him--as he regarded life. + +"I'm going to leave her this house," he said, arranging his shawls. +"She doesn't know it. I'm going to leave her my money, too. She +doesn't know that. Good Lord! What kind of a woman can she be to stand +my bad temper for a few dollars a month!" + +"I think," said I, "that it's partly because she's poor, partly +because she's sorry for you." + +He looked up with a ghastly smile. + +"You think she really is sorry?" + +Before I could answer he went on: "I'm no mawkish sentimentalist, and +I won't allow anybody to be sorry for me--do you hear?" + +"Oh, I'm not sorry for you!" I said, hastily, and, for the first time +since I had seen him, he laughed heartily, without a sneer. + +We both seemed to feel better after that; I drank his wine and smoked +his cigars, and he appeared to take a certain grim pleasure in +watching me. + +"There's no fool like a young fool," he observed, presently. + +As I had no doubt he referred to me, I paid him no attention. + +After fidgeting with his shawls, he gave me an oblique scowl and asked +me my age. + +"Twenty-four," I replied. + +"Sort of a tadpole, aren't you?" he said. + +As I took no offence, he repeated the remark. + +"Oh, come," said I, "there's no use in trying to irritate me. I see +through you; a row acts like a cocktail on you--but you'll have to +stick to gruel in my company." + +"I call that impudence!" he rasped out, wrathfully. + +"I don't care what you call it," I replied, undisturbed, "I am not +going to be worried by you. Anyway," I ended, "it is my opinion that +you could be very good company if you chose." + +The proposition appeared to take his breath away--at least, he said +nothing more; and I finished my cigar in peace and tossed the stump +into a saucer. + +"Now," said I, "what price do you set upon your birds, Mr. Halyard?" + +"Ten thousand dollars," he snapped, with an evil smile. + +"You will receive a certified check when the birds are delivered," I +said, quietly. + +"You don't mean to say you agree to that outrageous bargain--and I +won't take a cent less, either--Good Lord!--haven't you any spirit +left?" he cried, half rising from his pile of shawls. + +His piteous eagerness for a dispute sent me into laughter impossible +to control, and he eyed me, mouth open, animosity rising visibly. + +Then he seized the wheels of his invalid chair and trundled away, too +mad to speak; and I strolled out into the parlor, still laughing. + +The pretty nurse was there, sewing under a hanging lamp. + +"If I am not indiscreet--" I began. + +"Indiscretion is the better part of valor," said she, dropping her +head but raising her eyes. + +So I sat down with a frivolous smile peculiar to the appreciated. + +"Doubtless," said I, "you are hemming a 'kerchief." + +"Doubtless I am not," she said; "this is a night-cap for Mr. +Halyard." + +A mental vision of Halyard in a night-cap, very mad, nearly set me +laughing again. + +"Like the King of Yvetot, he wears his crown in bed," I said, +flippantly. + +"The King of Yvetot might have made that remark," she observed, +re-threading her needle. + +It is unpleasant to be reproved. How large and red and hot a man's +ears feel. + +To cool them, I strolled out to the porch; and, after a while, the +pretty nurse came out, too, and sat down in a chair not far away. She +probably regretted her lost opportunity to be flirted with. + +"I have so little company--it is a great relief to see somebody from +the world," she said. "If you can be agreeable, I wish you would." + +The idea that she had come out to see me was so agreeable that I +remained speechless until she said: "Do tell me what people are doing +in New York." + +So I seated myself on the steps and talked about the portion of the +world inhabited by me, while she sat sewing in the dull light that +straggled out from the parlor windows. + +She had a certain coquetry of her own, using the usual methods with an +individuality that was certainly fetching. For instance, when she lost +her needle--and, another time, when we both, on hands and knees, +hunted for her thimble. + +However, directions for these pastimes may be found in contemporary +classics. + +I was as entertaining as I could be--perhaps not quite as entertaining +as a young man usually thinks he is. However, we got on very well +together until I asked her tenderly who the harbor-master might be, +whom they all discussed so mysteriously. + +"I do not care to speak about it," she said, with a primness of which +I had not suspected her capable. + +Of course I could scarcely pursue the subject after that--and, indeed, +I did not intend to--so I began to tell her how I fancied I had seen a +man on the cliff that afternoon, and how the creature slid over the +sheer rock like a snake. + +To my amazement, she asked me to kindly discontinue the account of my +adventures, in an icy tone, which left no room for protest. + +"It was only a sea-otter," I tried to explain, thinking perhaps she +did not care for snake stories. + +But the explanation did not appear to interest her, and I was +mortified to observe that my impression upon her was anything but +pleasant. + +"She doesn't seem to like me and my stories," thought I, "but she is +too young, perhaps, to appreciate them." + +So I forgave her--for she was even prettier than I had thought her at +first--and I took my leave, saying that Mr. Halyard would doubtless +direct me to my room. + +Halyard was in his library, cleaning a revolver, when I entered. + +"Your room is next to mine," he said; "pleasant dreams, and kindly +refrain from snoring." + +"May I venture an absurd hope that you will do the same!" I replied, +politely. + +That maddened him, so I hastily withdrew. + +I had been asleep for at least two hours when a movement by my bedside +and a light in my eyes awakened me. I sat bolt upright in bed, +blinking at Halyard, who, clad in a dressing-gown and wearing a +night-cap, had wheeled himself into my room with one hand, while with +the other he solemnly waved a candle over my head. + +"I'm so cursed lonely," he said--"come, there's a good fellow--talk to +me in your own original, impudent way." + +I objected strenuously, but he looked so worn and thin, so lonely and +bad-tempered, so lovelessly grotesque, that I got out of bed and +passed a spongeful of cold water over my head. + +Then I returned to bed and propped the pillows up for a back-rest, +ready to quarrel with him if it might bring some little pleasure into +his morbid existence. + +"No," he said, amiably, "I'm too worried to quarrel, but I'm much +obliged for your kindly offer. I want to tell you something." + +"What?" I asked, suspiciously. + +"I want to ask you if you ever saw a man with gills like a fish?" + +"Gills?" I repeated. + +"Yes, gills! Did you?" + +"No," I replied, angrily, "and neither did you." + +"No, I never did," he said, in a curiously placid voice, "but there's +a man with gills like a fish who lives in the ocean out there. Oh, you +needn't look that way--nobody ever thinks of doubting my word, and I +tell you that there's a man--or a thing that looks like a man--as big +as you are, too--all slate-colored--with nasty red gills like a +fish!--and I've a witness to prove what I say!" + +"Who?" I asked, sarcastically. + +"The witness? My nurse." + +"Oh! She saw a slate-colored man with gills?" + +"Yes, she did. So did Francis Lee, superintendent of the Mica Quarry +Company at Port-of-Waves. So have a dozen men who work in the quarry. +Oh, you needn't laugh, young man. It's an old story here, and anybody +can tell you about the harbor-master." + +"The harbor-master!" I exclaimed. + +"Yes, that slate-colored thing with gills, that looks like a +man--and--by Heaven! _is_ a man--that's the harbor-master. Ask any +quarryman at Port-of-Waves what it is that comes purring around their +boats at the wharf and unties painters and changes the mooring of +every cat-boat in the cove at night! Ask Francis Lee what it was he +saw running and leaping up and down the shoal at sunset last Friday! +Ask anybody along the coast what sort of a thing moves about the +cliffs like a man and slides over them into the sea like an otter--" + +"I saw it do that!" I burst out. + +"Oh, did you? Well, _what was it?_" + +Something kept me silent, although a dozen explanations flew to my +lips. + +After a pause, Halyard said: "You saw the harbor-master, that's what +you saw!" + +I looked at him without a word. + +"Don't mistake me," he said, pettishly; "I don't think that the +harbor-master is a spirit or a sprite or a hobgoblin, or any sort of +damned rot. Neither do I believe it to be an optical illusion." + +"What do you think it is?" I asked. + +"I think it's a man--I think it's a branch of the human race--that's +what I think. Let me tell you something: the deepest spot in the +Atlantic Ocean is a trifle over five miles deep--and I suppose you +know that this place lies only about a quarter of a mile off this +headland. The British exploring vessel, _Gull_, Captain Marotte, +discovered and sounded it, I believe. Anyway, it's there, and it's my +belief that the profound depths are inhabited by the remnants of the +last race of amphibious human beings!" + +This was childish; I did not bother to reply. + +"Believe it or not, as you will," he said, angrily; "one thing I know, +and that is this: the harbor-master has taken to hanging around my +cove, and he is attracted by my nurse! I won't have it! I'll blow his +fishy gills out of his head if I ever get a shot at him! I don't care +whether it's homicide or not--anyway, it's a new kind of murder and it +attracts me!" + +I gazed at him incredulously, but he was working himself into a +passion, and I did not choose to say what I thought. + +"Yes, this slate-colored thing with gills goes purring and grinning +and spitting about after my nurse--when she walks, when she rows, when +she sits on the beach! Gad! It drives me nearly frantic. I won't +tolerate it, I tell you!" + +"No," said I, "I wouldn't either." And I rolled over in bed convulsed +with laughter. + +The next moment I heard my door slam. I smothered my mirth and rose to +close the window, for the land-wind blew cold from the forest, and a +drizzle was sweeping the carpet as far as my bed. + +That luminous glare which sometimes lingers after the stars go out, +threw a trembling, nebulous radiance over sand and cove. I heard the +seething currents under the breakers' softened thunder--louder than I +ever heard it. Then, as I closed my window, lingering for a last look +at the crawling tide, I saw a man standing, ankle-deep, in the surf, +all alone there in the night. But--was it a man? For the figure +suddenly began running over the beach on all fours like a beetle, +waving its limbs like feelers. Before I could throw open the window +again it darted into the surf, and, when I leaned out into the +chilling drizzle, I saw nothing save the flat ebb crawling on the +coast--I heard nothing save the purring of bubbles on seething sands. + + + + +V + + +It took me a week to perfect my arrangements for transporting the +great auks, by water, to Port-of-Waves, where a lumber schooner was to +be sent from Petite Sainte Isole, chartered by me for a voyage to New +York. + +I had constructed a cage made of osiers, in which my auks were to +squat until they arrived at Bronx Park. My telegrams to Professor +Farrago were brief. One merely said "Victory!" Another explained that +I wanted no assistance; and a third read: "Schooner chartered. Arrive +New York July 1st. Send furniture-van to foot of Bluff Street." + +My week as a guest of Mr. Halyard proved interesting. I wrangled with +that invalid to his heart's content, I worked all day on my osier +cage, I hunted the thimble in the moonlight with the pretty nurse. We +sometimes found it. + +As for the thing they called the harbor-master, I saw it a dozen +times, but always either at night or so far away and so close to the +sea that of course no trace of it remained when I reached the spot, +rifle in hand. + +I had quite made up my mind that the so-called harbor-master was a +demented darky--wandered from, Heaven knows where--perhaps shipwrecked +and gone mad from his sufferings. Still, it was far from pleasant to +know that the creature was strongly attracted by the pretty nurse. + +She, however, persisted in regarding the harbor-master as a +sea-creature; she earnestly affirmed that it had gills, like a fish's +gills, that it had a soft, fleshy hole for a mouth, and its eyes were +luminous and lidless and fixed. + +"Besides," she said, with a shudder, "it's all slate color, like a +porpoise, and it looks as wet as a sheet of india-rubber in a +dissecting-room." + +The day before I was to set sail with my auks in a cat-boat bound for +Port-of-Waves, Halyard trundled up to me in his chair and announced +his intention of going with me. + +"Going where?" I asked. + +"To Port-of-Waves and then to New York," he replied, tranquilly. + +I was doubtful, and my lack of cordiality hurt his feelings. + +"Oh, of course, if you need the sea-voyage--" I began. + +"I don't; I need you," he said, savagely; "I need the stimulus of our +daily quarrel. I never disagreed so pleasantly with anybody in my +life; it agrees with me; I am a hundred per cent. better than I was +last week." + +I was inclined to resent this, but something in the deep-lined face of +the invalid softened me. Besides, I had taken a hearty liking to the +old pig. + +"I don't want any mawkish sentiment about it," he said, observing me +closely; "I won't permit anybody to feel sorry for me--do you +understand?" + +"I'll trouble you to use a different tone in addressing me," I +replied, hotly; "I'll feel sorry for you if I choose to!" And our +usual quarrel proceeded, to his deep satisfaction. + +By six o'clock next evening I had Halyard's luggage stowed away in the +cat-boat, and the pretty nurse's effects corded down, with the newly +hatched auk-chicks in a hat-box on top. She and I placed the osier +cage aboard, securing it firmly, and then, throwing tablecloths over +the auks' heads, we led those simple and dignified birds down the path +and across the plank at the little wooden pier. Together we locked up +the house, while Halyard stormed at us both and wheeled himself +furiously up and down the beach below. At the last moment she forgot +her thimble. But we found it, I forget where. + +"Come on!" shouted Halyard, waving his shawls furiously; "what the +devil are you about up there?" + +He received our explanation with a sniff, and we trundled him aboard +without further ceremony. + +"Don't run me across the plank like a steamer trunk!" he shouted, as I +shot him dexterously into the cock-pit. But the wind was dying away, +and I had no time to dispute with him then. + +The sun was setting above the pine-clad ridge as our sail flapped and +partly filled, and I cast off, and began a long tack, east by south, +to avoid the spouting rocks on our starboard bow. + +The sea-birds rose in clouds as we swung across the shoal, the black +surf-ducks scuttered out to sea, the gulls tossed their sun-tipped +wings in the ocean, riding the rollers like bits of froth. + +Already we were sailing slowly out across that great hole in the +ocean, five miles deep, the most profound sounding ever taken in the +Atlantic. The presence of great heights or great depths, seen or +unseen, always impresses the human mind--perhaps oppresses it. We were +very silent; the sunlight stain on cliff and beach deepened to +crimson, then faded into sombre purple bloom that lingered long after +the rose-tint died out in the zenith. + +Our progress was slow; at times, although the sail filled with the +rising land breeze, we scarcely seemed to move at all. + +"Of course," said the pretty nurse, "we couldn't be aground in the +deepest hole in the Atlantic." + +"Scarcely," said Halyard, sarcastically, "unless we're grounded on a +whale." + +"What's that soft thumping?" I asked. "Have we run afoul of a barrel +or log?" + +It was almost too dark to see, but I leaned over the rail and swept +the water with my hand. + +Instantly something smooth glided under it, like the back of a great +fish, and I jerked my hand back to the tiller. At the same moment the +whole surface of the water seemed to begin to purr, with a sound like +the breaking of froth in a champagne-glass. + +"What's the matter with you?" asked Halyard, sharply. + +"A fish came up under my hand," I said; "a porpoise or something--" + +With a low cry, the pretty nurse clasped my arm in both her hands. + +"Listen!" she whispered. "It's purring around the boat." + +"What the devil's purring?" shouted Halyard. "I won't have anything +purring around me!" + +At that moment, to my amazement, I saw that the boat had stopped +entirely, although the sail was full and the small pennant fluttered +from the mast-head. Something, too, was tugging at the rudder, +twisting and jerking it until the tiller strained and creaked in my +hand. All at once it snapped; the tiller swung useless and the boat +whirled around, heeling in the stiffening wind, and drove shoreward. + +It was then that I, ducking to escape the boom, caught a glimpse of +something ahead--something that a sudden wave seemed to toss on deck +and leave there, wet and flapping--a man with round, fixed, fishy +eyes, and soft, slaty skin. + +But the horror of the thing were the two gills that swelled and +relaxed spasmodically, emitting a rasping, purring sound--two gasping, +blood-red gills, all fluted and scolloped and distended. + +Frozen with amazement and repugnance, I stared at the creature; I felt +the hair stirring on my head and the icy sweat on my forehead. + +"It's the harbor-master!" screamed Halyard. + +The harbor-master had gathered himself into a wet lump, squatting +motionless in the bows under the mast; his lidless eyes were +phosphorescent, like the eyes of living codfish. After a while I felt +that either fright or disgust was going to strangle me where I sat, +but it was only the arms of the pretty nurse clasped around me in a +frenzy of terror. + +There was not a fire-arm aboard that we could get at. Halyard's hand +crept backward where a steel-shod boat-hook lay, and I also made a +clutch at it. The next moment I had it in my hand, and staggered +forward, but the boat was already tumbling shoreward among the +breakers, and the next I knew the harbor-master ran at me like a +colossal rat, just as the boat rolled over and over through the surf, +spilling freight and passengers among the sea-weed-covered rocks. + +When I came to myself I was thrashing about knee-deep in a rocky pool, +blinded by the water and half suffocated, while under my feet, like a +stranded porpoise, the harbor-master made the water boil in his +efforts to upset me. But his limbs seemed soft and boneless; he had no +nails, no teeth, and he bounced and thumped and flapped and splashed +like a fish, while I rained blows on him with the boat-hook that +sounded like blows on a football. And all the while his gills were +blowing out and frothing, and purring, and his lidless eyes looked +into mine, until, nauseated and trembling, I dragged myself back to +the beach, where already the pretty nurse alternately wrung her hands +and her petticoats in ornamental despair. + +Beyond the cove, Halyard was bobbing up and down, afloat in his +invalid's chair, trying to steer shoreward. He was the maddest man I +ever saw. + +"Have you killed that rubber-headed thing yet?" he roared. + +"I can't kill it," I shouted, breathlessly. "I might as well try to +kill a football!" + +"Can't you punch a hole in it?" he bawled. "If I can only get at +him--" + +His words were drowned in a thunderous splashing, a roar of great, +broad flippers beating the sea, and I saw the gigantic forms of my two +great auks, followed by their chicks, blundering past in a shower of +spray, driving headlong out into the ocean. + +"Oh, Lord!" I said. "I can't stand that," and, for the first time in +my life, I fainted peacefully--and appropriately--at the feet of the +pretty nurse. + + * * * * * + +It is within the range of possibility that this story may be doubted. +It doesn't matter; nothing can add to the despair of a man who has +lost two great auks. + +As for Halyard, nothing affects him--except his involuntary sea-bath, +and that did him so much good that he writes me from the South that +he's going on a walking-tour through Switzerland--if I'll join him. I +might have joined him if he had not married the pretty nurse. I wonder +whether--But, of course, this is no place for speculation. + +In regard to the harbor-master, you may believe it or not, as you +choose. But if you hear of any great auks being found, kindly throw a +table-cloth over their heads and notify the authorities at the new +Zoological Gardens in Bronx Park, New York. The reward is ten thousand +dollars. + + + + +VI + + +Before I proceed any further, common decency requires me to reassure +my readers concerning my intentions, which, Heaven knows, are far from +flippant. + +To separate fact from fancy has always been difficult for me, but now +that I have had the honor to be chosen secretary of the Zoological +Gardens in Bronx Park, I realize keenly that unless I give up writing +fiction nobody will believe what I write about science. Therefore it +is to a serious and unimaginative public that I shall hereafter +address myself; and I do it in the modest confidence that I shall +neither be distrusted nor doubted, although unfortunately I still +write in that irrational style which suggests covert frivolity, and +for which I am undergoing a course of treatment in English literature +at Columbia College. Now, having promised to avoid originality and +confine myself to facts, I shall tell what I have to tell concerning +the dingue, the mammoth, and--something else. + +For some weeks it had been rumored that Professor Farrago, president +of the Bronx Park Zoological Society, would resign, to accept an +enormous salary as manager of Barnum & Bailey's circus. He was now +with the circus in London, and had promised to cable his decision +before the day was over. + +I hoped he would decide to remain with us. I was his secretary and +particular favorite, and I viewed, without enthusiasm, the advent of a +new president, who might shake us all out of our congenial and +carefully excavated ruts. However, it was plain that the trustees of +the society expected the resignation of Professor Farrago, for they +had been in secret session all day, considering the names of possible +candidates to fill Professor Farrago's large, old-fashioned shoes. +These preparations worried me, for I could scarcely expect another +chief as kind and considerate as Professor Leonidas Farrago. + +That afternoon in June I left my office in the Administration Building +in Bronx Park and strolled out under the trees for a breath of air. +But the heat of the sun soon drove me to seek shelter under a little +square arbor, a shady retreat covered with purple wistaria and +honeysuckle. As I entered the arbor I noticed that there were three +other people seated there--an elderly lady with masculine features and +short hair, a younger lady sitting beside her, and, farther away, a +rough-looking young man reading a book. + +For a moment I had an indistinct impression of having met the elder +lady somewhere, and under circumstances not entirely agreeable, but +beyond a stony and indifferent glance she paid no attention to me. As +for the younger lady, she did not look at me at all. She was very +young, with pretty eyes, a mass of silky brown hair, and a skin as +fresh as a rose which had just been rained on. + +With that delicacy peculiar to lonely scientific bachelors, I modestly +sat down beside the rough young man, although there was more room +beside the younger lady. "Some lazy loafer reading a penny dreadful," +I thought, glancing at him, then at the title of his book. Hearing me +beside him, he turned around and blinked over his shabby shoulder, and +the movement uncovered the page he had been silently conning. The +volume in his hands was Darwin's famous monograph on the monodactyl. + +He noticed the astonishment on my face and smiled uneasily, shifting +the short clay pipe in his mouth. + +"I guess," he observed, "that this here book is too much for me, +mister." + +"It's rather technical," I replied, smiling. + +"Yes," he said, in vague admiration; "it's fierce, ain't it?" + +After a silence I asked him if he would tell me why he had chosen +Darwin as a literary pastime. + +"Well," he said, placidly, "I was tryin' to read about annermals, but +I'm up against a word-slinger this time all right. Now here's a +gum-twister," and he painfully spelled out m-o-n-o-d-a-c-t-y-l, +breathing hard all the while. + +"Monodactyl," I said, "means a single-toed creature." + +He turned the page with alacrity. "Is that the beast he's talkin' +about?" he asked. + +The illustration he pointed out was a wood-cut representing Darwin's +reconstruction of the dingue from the fossil bones in the British +Museum. It was a well-executed wood-cut, showing a dingue in the +foreground and, to give scale, a mammoth in the middle distance. + +"Yes," I replied, "that is the dingue." + +"I've seen one," he observed, calmly. + +I smiled and explained that the dingue had been extinct for some +thousands of years. + +"Oh, I guess not," he replied, with cool optimism. Then he placed a +grimy forefinger on the mammoth. + +"I've seen them things, too," he remarked. + +Again I patiently pointed out his error, and suggested that he +referred to the elephant. + +"Elephant be blowed!" he replied, scornfully. "I guess I know what I +seen. An' I seen that there thing you call a dingue, too." + +Not wishing to prolong a futile discussion, I remained silent. After a +moment he wheeled around, removing his pipe from his hard mouth. + +"Did you ever hear tell of Graham's Glacier?" he demanded. + +"Certainly," I replied, astonished; "it's the southernmost glacier in +British America." + +"Right," he said. "And did you ever hear tell of the Hudson Mountings, +mister?" + +"Yes," I replied. + +"What's behind 'em?" he snapped out. + +"Nobody knows," I answered. "They are considered impassable." + +"They ain't, though," he said, doggedly; "I've been behind 'em." + +"Really!" I replied, tiring of his yarn. + +"Ya-as, reely," he repeated, sullenly. Then he began to fumble and +search through the pages of his book until he found what he wanted. +"Mister," he said, "jest read that out loud, please." + +The passage he indicated was the famous chapter beginning: + + "Is the mammoth extinct? Is the dingue extinct? Probably. And + yet the aborigines of British America maintain the contrary. + Probably both the mammoth and the dingue are extinct; but + until expeditions have penetrated and explored not only the + unknown region in Alaska but also that hidden table-land + beyond the Graham Glacier and the Hudson Mountains, it will + not be possible to definitely announce the total extinction of + either the mammoth or the dingue." + +When I had read it, slowly, for his benefit, he brought his hand down +smartly on one knee and nodded rapidly. + +"Mister," he said, "that gent knows a thing or two, and don't you +forgit it!" Then he demanded, abruptly, how I knew he hadn't been +behind the Graham Glacier. + +I explained. + +"Shucks!" he said; "there's a road five miles wide inter that there +table-land. Mister, I ain't been in New York long; I come inter port a +week ago on the _Arctic Belle_, whaler. I was in the Hudson range when +that there Graham Glacier bust up--" + +"What!" I exclaimed. + +"Didn't you know it?" he asked. "Well, mebbe it ain't in the papers, +but it busted all right--blowed up by a earthquake an' volcano +combine. An', mister, it was oreful. My, how I did run!" + +"Do you mean to tell me that some convulsion of the earth has +shattered the Graham Glacier?" I asked. + +"Convulsions? Ya-as, an' fits, too," he said, sulkily. "The hull blame +thing dropped inter a hole. An' say, mister, home an' mother is good +enough fur me now." + +I stared at him stupidly. + +"Once," he said, "I ketched pelts fur them sharps at Hudson Bay, like +any yaller husky, but the things I seen arter that convulsion-fit--the +_things I seen behind the Hudson Mountings_--don't make me hanker +arter no life on the pe-rarie wild, lemme tell yer. I may be a Mother +Carey chicken, but this chicken has got enough." + +After a long silence I picked up his book again and pointed at the +picture of the mammoth. + +"What color is it?" I asked. + +"Kinder red an' brown," he answered, promptly. "It's woolly, too." + +Astounded, I pointed to the dingue. + +"One-toed," he said, quickly; "makes a noise like a bell when +scutterin' about." + +Intensely excited, I laid my hand on his arm. "My society will give +you a thousand dollars," I said, "if you pilot me inside the Hudson +table-land and show me either a mammoth or a dingue!" + +He looked me calmly in the eye. + +"Mister," he said, slowly, "have you got a million for to squander on +me?" + +"No," I said, suspiciously. + +"Because," he went on, "it wouldn't be enough. Home an' mother suits +me now." + +He picked up his book and rose. In vain I asked his name and address; +in vain I begged him to dine with me--to become my honored guest. + +"Nit," he said, shortly, and shambled off down the path. + +But I was not going to lose him like that. I rose and deliberately +started to stalk him. It was easy. He shuffled along, pulling on his +pipe, and I after him. + +It was growing a little dark, although the sun still reddened the tops +of the maples. Afraid of losing him in the falling dusk, I once more +approached him and laid my hand upon his ragged sleeve. + +"Look here," he cried, wheeling about, "I want you to quit follerin' +me. Don't I tell you money can't make me go back to them mountings!" +And as I attempted to speak, he suddenly tore off his cap and pointed +to his head. His hair was white as snow. + +"That's what come of monkeyin' inter your cursed mountings," he +shouted, fiercely. "There's things in there what no Christian oughter +see. Lemme alone er I'll bust yer." + +He shambled on, doubled fists swinging by his side. The next moment, +setting my teeth obstinately, I followed him and caught him by the +park gate. At my hail he whirled around with a snarl, but I grabbed +him by the throat and backed him violently against the park wall. + +"You invaluable ruffian," I said, "now you listen to me. I live in +that big stone building, and I'll give you a thousand dollars to take +me behind the Graham Glacier. Think it over and call on me when you +are in a pleasanter frame of mind. If you don't come by noon to-morrow +I'll go to the Graham Glacier without you." + +He was attempting to kick me all the time, but I managed to avoid him, +and when I had finished I gave him a shove which almost loosened his +spinal column. He went reeling out across the sidewalk, and when he +had recovered his breath and his balance he danced with displeasure +and displayed a vocabulary that astonished me. However, he kept his +distance. + +As I turned back into the park, satisfied that he would not follow, +the first person I saw was the elderly, stony-faced lady of the +wistaria arbor advancing on tiptoe. Behind her came the younger lady +with cheeks like a rose that had been rained on. + +Instantly it occurred to me that they had followed us, and at the same +moment I knew who the stony-faced lady was. Angry, but polite, I +lifted my hat and saluted her, and she, probably furious at having +been caught tip-toeing after me, cut me dead. The younger lady passed +me with face averted, but even in the dusk I could see the tip of one +little ear turn scarlet. + +Walking on hurriedly, I entered the Administration Building, and found +Professor Lesard, of the reptilian department, preparing to leave. + +"Don't you do it," I said, sharply; "I've got exciting news." + +"I'm only going to the theatre," he replied. "It's a good show--Adam +and Eve; there's a snake in it, you know. It's in my line." + +"I can't help it," I said; and I told him briefly what had occurred in +the arbor. + +"But that's not all," I continued, savagely. "Those women followed us, +and who do you think one of them turned out to be? Well, it was +Professor Smawl, of Barnard College, and I'll bet every pair of boots +I own that she starts for the Graham Glacier within a week. Idiot that +I was!" I exclaimed, smiting my head with both hands. "I never +recognized her until I saw her tip-toeing and craning her neck to +listen. Now she knows about the glacier; she heard every word that +young ruffian said, and she'll go to the glacier if it's only to +forestall me." + +Professor Lesard looked anxious. He knew that Miss Smawl, professor of +natural history at Barnard College, had long desired an appointment +at the Bronx Park gardens. It was even said she had a chance of +succeeding Professor Farrago as president, but that, of course, must +have been a joke. However, she haunted the gardens, annoying the +keepers by persistently poking the animals with her umbrella. On one +occasion she sent us word that she desired to enter the tigers' +enclosure for the purpose of making experiments in hypnotism. +Professor Farrago was absent, but I took it upon myself to send back +word that I feared the tigers might injure her. The miserable small +boy who took my message informed her that I was afraid she might +injure the tigers, and the unpleasant incident almost cost me my +position. + +"I am quite convinced," said I to Professor Lesard, "that Miss Smawl +is perfectly capable of abusing the information she overheard, and of +starting herself to explore a region that, by all the laws of decency, +justice, and prior claim, belongs to me." + +"Well," said Lesard, with a peculiar laugh, "it's not certain whether +you can go at all." + +"Professor Farrago will authorize me," I said, confidently. + +"Professor Farrago has resigned," said Lesard. It was a bolt from a +clear sky. + +"Good Heavens!" I blurted out. "What will become of the rest of us, +then?" + +"I don't know," he replied. "The trustees are holding a meeting over +in the Administration Building to elect a new president for us. It +depends on the new president what becomes of us." + +"Lesard," I said, hoarsely, "you don't suppose that they could +possibly elect Miss Smawl as our president, do you?" + +He looked at me askance and bit his cigar. + +"I'd be in a nice position, wouldn't I?" said I, anxiously. + +"The lady would probably make you walk the plank for that tiger +business," he replied. + +"But I didn't do it," I protested, with sickly eagerness. "Besides, I +explained to her--" + +He said nothing, and I stared at him, appalled by the possibility of +reporting to Professor Smawl for instructions next morning. + +"See here, Lesard," I said, nervously, "I wish you would step over to +the Administration Building and ask the trustees if I may prepare for +this expedition. Will you?" + +He glanced at me sympathetically. It was quite natural for me to wish +to secure my position before the new president was elected--especially +as there was a chance of the new president being Miss Smawl. + +"You are quite right," he said; "the Graham Glacier would be the +safest place for you if our next president is to be the Lady of the +Tigers." And he started across the park puffing his cigar. + +I sat down on the doorstep to wait for his return, not at all charmed +with the prospect. It made me furious, too, to see my ambition nipped +with the frost of a possible veto from Miss Smawl. + +"If she is elected," thought I, "there is nothing for me but to +resign--to avoid the inconvenience of being shown the door. Oh, I wish +I had allowed her to hypnotize the tigers!" + +Thoughts of crime flitted through my mind. Miss Smawl would not remain +president--or anything else very long--if she persisted in her desire +for the tigers. And then when she called for help I would pretend not +to hear. + +Aroused from criminal meditation by the return of Professor Lesard, I +jumped up and peered into his perplexed eyes. "They've elected a +president," he said, "but they won't tell us who the president is +until to-morrow." + +"You don't think--" I stammered. + +"I don't know. But I know this: the new president sanctions the +expedition to the Graham Glacier, and directs you to choose an +assistant and begin preparations for four people." + +Overjoyed, I seized his hand and said, "Hurray!" in a voice weak with +emotion. "The old dragon isn't elected this time," I added, +triumphantly. + +"By-the-way," he said, "who was the other dragon with her in the park +this evening?" + +I described her in a more modulated voice. + +"Whew!" observed Professor Lesard, "that must be her assistant, +Professor Dorothy Van Twiller! She's the prettiest blue-stocking in +town." + +With this curious remark my confrere followed me into my room and +wrote down the list of articles I dictated to him. The list included a +complete camping equipment for myself and three other men. + +"Am I one of those other men?" inquired Lesard, with an unhappy smile. + +Before I could reply my door was shoved open and a figure appeared at +the threshold, cap in hand. + +"What do you want?" I asked, sternly; but my heart was beating high +with triumph. + +The figure shuffled; then came a subdued voice: + +"Mister, I guess I'll go back to the Graham Glacier along with you. +I'm Billy Spike, an' it kinder scares me to go back to them Hudson +Mountains, but somehow, mister, when you choked me and kinder walked +me off on my ear, why, mister, I kinder took to you like." + +There was absolute silence for a minute; then he said: + +"So if you go, I guess I'll go, too, mister." + +"For a thousand dollars?" + +"Fur nawthin'," he muttered--"or what you like." + +"All right, Billy," I said, briskly; "just look over those rifles and +ammunition and see that everything's sound." + +He slowly lifted his tough young face and gave me a doglike glance. +They were hard eyes, but there was gratitude in them. + +"You'll get your throat slit," whispered Lesard. + +"Not while Billy's with me," I replied, cheerfully. + +Late that night, as I was preparing for pleasant dreams, a knock came +on my door and a telegraph-messenger handed me a note, which I read, +shivering in my bare feet, although the thermometer marked eighty +Fahrenheit: + + "You will immediately leave for the Hudson Mountains via + Wellman Bay, Labrador, there to await further instructions. + Equipment for yourself and one assistant will include + following articles" [here began a list of camping utensils, + scientific paraphernalia, and provisions]. "The steamer + _Penguin_ sails at five o'clock to-morrow morning. Kindly find + yourself on board at that hour. Any excuse for not complying + with these orders will be accepted as your resignation. + + "SUSAN SMAWL, + "President Bronx Zoological Society." + +"Lesard!" I shouted, trembling with fury. + +He appeared at his door, chastely draped in pajamas; and he read the +insolent letter with terrified alacrity. + +"What are you going to do--resign?" he asked, much frightened. + +"Do!" I snarled, grinding my teeth; "I'm going--that's what I'm going +to do!" + +"But--but you can't get ready and catch that steamer, too," he +stammered. + +He did not know me. + + + + +VII + + +And so it came about that one calm evening towards the end of June, +William Spike and I went into camp under the southerly shelter of that +vast granite wall called the Hudson Mountains, there to await the +promised "further instructions." + +It had been a tiresome trip by steamer to Anticosti, from there by +schooner to Widgeon Bay, then down the coast and up the Cape Clear +River to Port Porpoise. There we bought three pack-mules and started +due north on the Great Fur Trail. The second day out we passed Fort +Boise, the last outpost of civilization, and on the sixth day we were +travelling eastward under the granite mountain parapets. + +On the evening of the sixth day out from Fort Boise we went into camp +for the last time before entering the unknown land. + +I could see it already through my field-glasses, and while William was +building the fire I climbed up among the rocks above and sat down, +glasses levelled, to study the prospect. + +There was nothing either extraordinary or forbidding in the landscape +which stretched out beyond; to the right the solid palisade of granite +cut off the view; to the left the palisade continued, an endless +barrier of sheer cliffs crowned with pine and hemlock. But the +interesting section of the landscape lay almost directly in front of +me--a rent in the mountain-wall through which appeared to run a level, +arid plain, miles wide, and as smooth and even as a highroad. + +There could be no doubt concerning the significance of that rent in +the solid mountain-wall; and, moreover, it was exactly as William +Spike had described it. However, I called to him and he came up from +the smoky camp-fire, axe on shoulder. + +"Yep," he said, squatting beside me; "the Graham Glacier used to +meander through that there hole, but somethin' went wrong with the +earth's in'ards an' there was a bust-up." + +"And you saw it, William?" I said, with a sigh of envy. + +"Hey? Seen it? Sure I seen it! I was to Spoutin' Springs, twenty mile +west, with a bale o' blue fox an' otter pelt. Fust I knew them geysers +begun for to groan egregious like, an' I seen the caribou gallopin' +hell-bent south. 'This climate,' sez I, 'is too bracin' for me,' so I +struck a back trail an' landed onto a hill. Then them geysers blowed +up, one arter the next, an' I heard somethin' kinder cave in between +here an' China. I disremember things what happened. Somethin' throwed +me down, but I couldn't stay there, for the blamed ground was runnin' +like a river--all wavy-like, an' the sky hit me on the back o' me +head." + +"And then?" I urged, in that new excitement which every repetition of +the story revived. I had heard it all twenty times since we left New +York, but mere repetition could not apparently satisfy me. + +"Then," continued William, "the whole world kinder went off like a +fire-cracker, an' I come too, an' ran like--" + +"I know," said I, cutting him short, for I had become wearied of the +invariable profanity which lent a lurid ending to his narrative. + +"After that," I continued, "you went through the rent in the +mountains?" + +"Sure." + +"And you saw a dingue and a creature that resembled a mammoth?" + +"Sure," he repeated, sulkily. + +"And you saw something else?" I always asked this question; it +fascinated me to see the sullen fright flicker in William's eyes, and +the mechanical backward glance, as though what he had seen might still +be behind him. + +He had never answered this third question but once, and that time he +fairly snarled in my face as he growled: "I seen what no Christian +oughter see." + +So when I repeated: "And you saw something else, William?" he gave me +a wicked, frightened leer, and shuffled off to feed the mules. +Flattery, entreaties, threats left him unmoved; he never told me what +the third thing was that he had seen behind the Hudson Mountains. + +William had retired to mix up with his mules; I resumed my binoculars +and my silent inspection of the great, smooth path left by the Graham +Glacier when something or other exploded that vast mass of ice into +vapor. + +The arid plain wound out from the unknown country like a river, and I +thought then, and think now, that when the glacier was blown into +vapor the vapor descended in the most terrific rain the world has ever +seen, and poured through the newly blasted mountain-gateway, sweeping +the earth to bed-rock. To corroborate this theory, miles to the +southward I could see the debris winding out across the land towards +Wellman Bay, but as the terminal moraine of the vanished glacier +formerly ended there I could not be certain that my theory was +correct. Owing to the formation of the mountains I could not see more +than half a mile into the unknown country. What I could see appeared +to be nothing but the continuation of the glacier's path, scored out +by the cloud-burst, and swept as smooth as a floor. + +Sitting there, my heart beating heavily with excitement, I looked +through the evening glow at the endless, pine-crowned mountain-wall +with its giant's gateway pierced for me! And I thought of all the +explorers and the unknown heroes--trappers, Indians, humble +naturalists, perhaps--who had attempted to scale that sheer barricade +and had died there or failed, beaten back from those eternal cliffs. +Eternal? No! For the Eternal Himself had struck the rock, and it had +sprung asunder, thundering obedience. + +In the still evening air the smoke from the fire below mounted in a +straight, slender pillar, like the smoke from those ancient altars +builded before the first blood had been shed on earth. + +The evening wind stirred the pines; a tiny spring brook made thin +harmony among the rocks; a murmur came from the quiet camp. It was +William adjuring his mules. In the deepening twilight I descended the +hillock, stepping cautiously among the rocks. + +Then, suddenly, as I stood outside the reddening ring of firelight, +far in the depths of the unknown country, far behind the +mountain-wall, a sound grew on the quiet air. William heard it and +turned his face to the mountains. The sound faded to a vibration which +was felt, not heard. Then once more I began to divine a vibration in +the air, gathering in distant volume until it became a sound, lasting +the space of a spoken word, fading to vibration, then silence. + +Was it a cry? + +I looked at William inquiringly. He had quietly fainted away. + +I got him to the little brook and poked his head into the icy water, +and after a while he sat up pluckily. + +To an indignant question he replied: "Naw, I ain't a-cussin' you. +Lemme be or I'll have fits." + +"Was it that sound that scared you?" I asked. + +"Ya-as," he replied with a dauntless shiver. + +"Was it the voice of the mammoth?" I persisted, excitedly. "Speak, +William, or I'll drag you about and kick you!" + +He replied that it was neither a mammoth nor a dingue, and added a +strong request for privacy, which I was obliged to grant, as I could +not torture another word out of him. + +I slept little that night; the exciting proximity of the unknown land +was too much for me. But although I lay awake for hours, I heard +nothing except the tinkle of water among the rocks and the plover +calling from some hidden marsh. At daybreak I shot a ptarmigan which +had walked into camp, and the shot set the echoes yelling among the +mountains. + +William, sullen and heavy-eyed, dressed the bird, and we broiled it +for breakfast. + +Neither he nor I alluded to the sound we had heard the night before; +he boiled water and cleaned up the mess-kit, and I pottered about +among the rocks for another ptarmigan. Wearying of this, presently, I +returned to the mules and William, and sat down for a smoke. + +"It strikes me," I said, "that our instructions to 'await further +orders' are idiotic. How are we to receive 'further orders' here?" + +William did not know. + +"You don't suppose," said I, in sudden disgust, "that Miss Smawl +believes there is a summer hotel and daily mail service in the Hudson +Mountains?" + +William thought perhaps she did suppose something of the sort. + +It irritated me beyond measure to find myself at last on the very +border of the unknown country, and yet checked, held back, by the +irresponsible orders of a maiden lady named Smawl. However, my salary +depended upon the whim of that maiden lady, and although I fussed and +fumed and glared at the mountains through my glasses, I realized that +I could not stir without the permission of Miss Smawl. At times this +grotesque situation became almost unbearable, and I often went away by +myself and indulged in fantasies, firing my gun off and pretending I +had hit Miss Smawl by mistake. At such moments I would imagine I was +free at last to plunge into the strange country, and I would squat on +a rock and dream of bagging my first mammoth. + +The time passed heavily; the tension increased with each new day. I +shot ptarmigan and kept our table supplied with brook-trout. William +chopped wood, conversed with his mules, and cooked very badly. + +"See here," I said, one morning; "we have been in camp a week to-day, +and I can't stand your cooking another minute!" + +William, who was washing a saucepan, looked up and begged me +sarcastically to accept the _cordon bleu_. But I know only how to cook +eggs, and there were no eggs within some hundred miles. + +To get the flavor of the breakfast out of my mouth I walked up to my +favorite hillock and sat down for a smoke. The next moment, however, I +was on my feet, cheering excitedly and shouting for William. + +"Here come 'further instructions' at last!" I cried, pointing to the +southward, where two dots on the grassy plain were imperceptibly +moving in our direction. + +"People on mules," said William, without enthusiasm. + +"They must be messengers for us!" I cried, in chaste joy. "Three +cheers for the northward trail, William, and the mischief take +Miss--Well, never mind now," I added. + +"On them approachin' mules," observed William, "there is wimmen." + +I stared at him for a second, then attempted to strike him. He dodged +wearily and repeated his incredible remark: "Ya-as, there +is--wimmen--two female ladies onto them there mules." + +"Bring me my glasses!" I said, hoarsely; "bring me those glasses, +William, because I shall destroy you if you don't!" + +Somewhat awed by my calm fury, he hastened back to camp and returned +with the binoculars. It was a breathless moment. I adjusted the lenses +with a steady hand and raised them. + +Now, of all unexpected sights my fate may reserve for me in the +future, I trust--nay, I know--that none can ever prove as unwelcome as +the sight I perceived through my binoculars. For upon the backs of +those distant mules were two women, and the first one was Miss Smawl! + +Upon her head she wore a helmet, from which fluttered a green veil. +Otherwise she was clothed in tweeds; and at moments she beat upon her +mule with a thick umbrella. + +Surfeited with the sickening spectacle, I sat down on a rock and tried +to cry. + +"I told yer so," observed William; but I was too tired to attack him. + +When the caravan rode into camp I was myself again, smilingly prepared +for the worst, and I advanced, cap in hand, followed furtively by +William. + +"Welcome," I said, violently injecting joy into my voice. "Welcome, +Professor Smawl, to the Hudson Mountains!" + +"Kindly take my mule," she said, climbing down to mother earth. + +"William," I said, with dignity, "take the lady's mule." + +Miss Smawl gave me a stolid glance, then made directly for the +camp-fire, where a kettle of game-broth simmered over the coals. The +last I saw of her she was smelling of it, and I turned my back and +advanced towards the second lady pilgrim, prepared to be civil until +snubbed. + +Now, it is quite certain that never before had William Spike or I +beheld so much feminine loveliness in one human body on the back of a +mule. She was clad in the daintiest of shooting-kilts, yet there was +nothing mannish about her except the way she rode the mule, and that +only accentuated her adorable femininity. + +I remembered what Professor Lesard had said about blue stockings--but +Miss Dorothy Van Twiller's were gray, turned over at the tops, and +disappearing into canvas spats buckled across a pair of slim +shooting-boots. + +"Welcome," said I, attempting to restrain a too violent cordiality. +"Welcome, Professor Van Twiller, to the Hudson Mountains." + +"Thank you," she replied, accepting my assistance very sweetly; "it is +a pleasure to meet a human being again." + +I glanced at Miss Smawl. She was eating game-broth, but she resembled +a human being in a general way. + +"I should very much like to wash my hands," said Professor Van +Twiller, drawing the buckskin gloves from her slim fingers. + +I brought towels and soap and conducted her to the brook. + +She called to Professor Smawl to join her, and her voice was +crystalline; Professor Smawl declined, and her voice was batrachian. + +"She is so hungry!" observed Miss Van Twiller. "I am very thankful we +are here at last, for we've had a horrid time. You see, we neither of +us know how to cook." + +I wondered what they would say to William's cooking, but I held my +peace and retired, leaving the little brook to mirror the sweetest +face that was ever bathed in water. + + + + +VIII + + +That afternoon our expedition, in two sections, moved forward. The +first section comprised myself and all the mules; the second section +was commanded by Professor Smawl, followed by Professor Van Twiller, +armed with a tiny shot-gun. William, loaded down with the ladies' +toilet articles, skulked in the rear. I say skulked; there was no +other word for it. + +"So you're a guide, are you?" observed Professor Smawl when William, +cap in hand, had approached her with well-meant advice. "The woods are +full of lazy guides. Pick up those Gladstone bags! I'll do the guiding +for this expedition." + +Made cautious by William's humiliation, I associated with the mules +exclusively. Nevertheless, Professor Smawl had her hard eyes on me, +and I realized she meant mischief. + +The encounter took place just as I, driving the five mules, entered +the great mountain gateway, thrilled with anticipation which almost +amounted to foreboding. As I was about to set foot across the +imaginary frontier which divided the world from the unknown land, +Professor Smawl hailed me and I halted until she came up. + +"As commander of this expedition," she said, somewhat out of breath, +"I desire to be the first living creature who has ever set foot +behind the Graham Glacier. Kindly step aside, young sir!" + +"Madam," said I, rigid with disappointment, "my guide, William Spike, +entered that unknown land a year ago." + +"He _says_ he did," sneered Professor Smawl. + +"As you like," I replied; "but it is scarcely generous to forestall +the person whose stupidity gave you the clew to this unexplored +region." + +"You mean yourself?" she asked, with a stony stare. + +"I do," said I, firmly. + +Her little, hard eyes grew harder, and she clutched her umbrella until +the steel ribs crackled. + +"Young man," she said, insolently; "if I could have gotten rid of you +I should have done so the day I was appointed president. But Professor +Farrago refused to resign unless your position was assured, subject, +of course, to your good behavior. Frankly, I don't like you, and I +consider your views on science ridiculous, and if an opportunity +presents itself I will be most happy to request your resignation. +Kindly collect your mules and follow me." + +Mortified beyond measure, I collected my mules and followed my +president into the strange country behind the Hudson Mountains--I who +had aspired to lead, compelled to follow in the rear, driving mules. + +The journey was monotonous at first, but we shortly ascended a ridge +from which we could see, stretching out below us, the wilderness +where, save the feet of William Spike, no human feet had passed. + +As for me, tingling with enthusiasm, I forgot my chagrin, I forgot the +gross injustice, I forgot my mules. "Excelsior!" I cried, running up +and down the ridge in uncontrollable excitement at the sublime +spectacle of forest, mountain, and valley all set with little lakes. + +"Excelsior!" repeated an excited voice at my side, and Professor Van +Twiller sprang to the ridge beside me, her eyes bright as stars. + +Exalted, inspired by the mysterious beauty of the view, we clasped +hands and ran up and down the grassy ridge. + +"That will do," said Professor Smawl, coldly, as we raced about like a +pair of distracted kittens. The chilling voice broke the spell; I +dropped Professor Van Twiller's hand and sat down on a bowlder, aching +with wrath. + +Late that afternoon we halted beside a tiny lake, deep in the unknown +wilderness, where purple and scarlet bergamot choked the shores and +the spruce-partridge strutted fearlessly under our very feet. Here we +pitched our two tents. The afternoon sun slanted through the pines; +the lake glittered; acres of golden brake perfumed the forest silence, +broken only at rare intervals by the distant thunder of a partridge +drumming. + +Professor Smawl ate heavily and retired to her tent to lie torpid +until evening. William drove the unloaded mules into an intervale full +of sun-cured, fragrant grasses; I sat down beside Professor Van +Twiller. + +The wilderness is electric. Once within the influence of its currents, +human beings become positively or negatively charged, violently +attracting or repelling each other. + +"There is something the matter with this air," said Professor Van +Twiller. "It makes me feel as though I were desperately enamoured of +the entire human race." + +She leaned back against a pine, smiling vaguely, and crossing one knee +over the other. + +Now I am not bold by temperament, and, normally, I fear ladies. +Therefore it surprised me to hear myself begin a frivolous _causerie_, +replying to her pretty epigrams with epigrams of my own, advancing to +the borderland of badinage, fearlessly conducting her and myself over +that delicate frontier to meet upon the terrain of undisguised +flirtation. + +It was clear that she was out for a holiday. The seriousness and +restraints of twenty-two years she had left behind her in the +civilized world, and now, with a shrug of her young shoulders, she +unloosened her burden of reticence, dignity, and responsibility and +let the whole load fall with a discreet thud. + +"Even hares go mad in March," she said, seriously. "I know you intend +to flirt with me--and I don't care. Anyway, there's nothing else to +do, is there?" + +"Suppose," said I, solemnly, "I should take you behind that big tree +and attempt to kiss you!" + +The prospect did not appear to appall her, so I looked around with +that sneaking yet conciliatory caution peculiar to young men who are +novices in the art. Before I had satisfied myself that neither William +nor the mules were observing us, Professor Van Twiller rose to her +feet and took a short step backward. + +"Let's set traps for a dingue," she said, "will you?" + +I looked at the big tree, undecided. "Come on," she said; "I'll show +you how." And away we went into the woods, she leading, her kilts +flashing through the golden half-light. + +Now I had not the faintest notion how to trap the dingue, but +Professor Van Twiller asserted that it formerly fed on the tender tips +of the spruce, quoting Darwin as her authority. + +So we gathered a bushel of spruce-tips, piled them on the bank of a +little stream, then built a miniature stockade around the bait, a foot +high. I roofed this with hemlock, then laboriously whittled out and +adjusted a swinging shutter for the entrance, setting it on springy +twigs. + +"The dingue, you know, was supposed to live in the water," she said, +kneeling beside me over our trap. + +I took her little hand and thanked her for the information. + +"Doubtless," she said, enthusiastically, "a dingue will come out of +the lake to-night to feed on our spruce-tips. Then," she added, "we've +got him." + +"True!" I said, earnestly, and pressed her fingers very gently. + +Her face was turned a little away; I don't remember what she said; I +don't remember that she said anything. A faint rose-tint stole over +her cheek. A few moments later she said: "You must not do that again." + +It was quite late when we strolled back to camp. Long before we came +in sight of the twin tents we heard a deep voice bawling our names. It +was Professor Smawl, and she pounced upon Dorothy and drove her +ignominiously into the tent. + +"As for you," she said, in hollow tones, "you may explain your +conduct at once, or place your resignation at my disposal." + +But somehow or other I appeared to be temporarily lost to shame, and I +only smiled at my infuriated president, and entered my own tent with a +step that was distinctly frolicsome. + +"Billy," said I to William Spike, who regarded me morosely from the +depths of the tent, "I'm going out to bag a mammoth to-morrow, so +kindly clean my elephant-gun and bring an axe to chop out the tusks." + +That night Professor Smawl complained bitterly of the cooking, but as +neither Dorothy nor I knew how to improve it, she revenged herself on +us by eating everything on the table and retiring to bed, taking +Dorothy with her. + +I could not sleep very well; the mosquitoes were intrusive, and +Professor Smawl dreamed she was a pack of wolves and yelped in her +sleep. + +"Bird, ain't she?" said William, roused from slumber by her weird +noises. + +Dorothy, much frightened, crawled out of her tent, where her +blanket-mate still dreamed dyspeptically, and William and I made her +comfortable by the camp-fire. + +It takes a pretty girl to look pretty half asleep in a blanket. + +"Are you sure you are quite well?" I asked her. + +To make sure, I tested her pulse. For an hour it varied more or less, +but without alarming either of us. Then she went back to bed and I sat +alone by the camp-fire. + +Towards midnight I suddenly began to feel that strange, distant +vibration that I had once before felt. As before, the vibration grew +on the still air, increasing in volume until it became a sound, then +died out into silence. + +I rose and stole into my tent. + +William, white as death, lay in his corner, weeping in his sleep. + +I roused him remorselessly, and he sat up scowling, but refused to +tell me what he had been dreaming. + +"Was it about that third thing you saw--" I began. But he snarled up +at me like a startled animal, and I was obliged to go to bed and toss +about and speculate. + +The next morning it rained. Dorothy and I visited our dingue-trap but +found nothing in it. We were inclined, however, to stay out in the +rain behind a big tree, but Professor Smawl vetoed that proposition +and sent me off to supply the larder with fresh meat. + +I returned, mad and wet, with a dozen partridges and a white +hare--brown at that season--and William cooked them vilely. + +"I can taste the feathers!" said Professor Smawl, indignantly. + +"There is no accounting for taste," I said, with a polite gesture of +deprecation; "personally, I find feathers unpalatable." + +"You may hand in your resignation this evening!" cried Professor +Smawl, in hollow tones of passion. + +I passed her the pancakes with a cheerful smile, and flippantly +pressed the hand next me. Unexpectedly it proved to be William's +sticky fist, and Dorothy and I laughed until her tears ran into +Professor Smawl's coffee-cup--an accident which kindled her wrath to +red heat, and she requested my resignation five times during the +evening. + +The next day it rained again, more or less. Professor Smawl complained +of the cooking, demanded my resignation, and finally marched out to +explore, lugging the reluctant William with her. Dorothy and I sat +down behind the largest tree we could find. + +I don't remember what we were saying when a peculiar sound interrupted +us, and we listened earnestly. + +It was like a bell in the woods, ding-dong! ding-dong! ding-dong!--a +low, mellow, golden harmony, coming nearer, then stopping. + +I clasped Dorothy in my arms in my excitement. + +"It is the note of the dingue!" I whispered, "and that explains its +name, handed down from remote ages along with the names of the +behemoth and the coney. It was because of its bell-like cry that it +was named! Darling!" I cried, forgetting our short acquaintance, "we +have made a discovery that the whole world will ring with!" + +Hand in hand we tiptoed through the forest to our trap. There was +something in it that took fright at our approach and rushed +panic-stricken round and round the interior of the trap, uttering its +alarm-note, which sounded like the jangling of a whole string of +bells. + +I seized the strangely beautiful creature; it neither attempted to +bite nor scratch, but crouched in my arms, trembling and eying me. + +Delighted with the lovely, tame animal, we bore it tenderly back to +the camp and placed it on my blanket. Hand in hand we stood before it, +awed by the sight of this beast, so long believed to be extinct. + +"It is too good to be true," sighed Dorothy, clasping her white hands +under her chin and gazing at the dingue in rapture. + +"Yes," said I, solemnly, "you and I, my child, are face to face with +the fabled dingue--_Dingus solitarius_! Let us continue to gaze at it, +reverently, prayerfully, humbly--" + +Dorothy yawned--probably with excitement. + +We were still mutely adoring the dingue when Professor Smawl burst +into the tent at a hand-gallop, bawling hoarsely for her kodak and +note-book. + +Dorothy seized her triumphantly by the arm and pointed at the dingue, +which appeared to be frightened to death. + +"What!" cried Professor Smawl, scornfully; "_that_ a dingue? Rubbish!" + +"Madam," I said, firmly, "it is a dingue! It's a monodactyl! See! It +has but a single toe!" + +"Bosh!" she retorted; "it's got four!" + +"Four!" I repeated, blankly. + +"Yes; one on each foot!" + +"Of course," I said; "you didn't suppose a monodactyl meant a beast +with one leg and one toe!" + +But she laughed hatefully and declared it was a woodchuck. + +We squabbled for a while until I saw the significance of her attitude. +The unfortunate woman wished to find a dingue first and be accredited +with the discovery. + +I lifted the dingue in both hands and shook the creature gently, until +the chiming ding-dong of its protestations filled our ears like sweet +bells jangled out of tune. + +Pale with rage at this final proof of the dingue's identity, she +seized her camera and note-book. + +"I haven't any time to waste over that musical woodchuck!" she +shouted, and bounced out of the tent. + +"What have you discovered, dear?" cried Dorothy, running after her. + +"A mammoth!" bawled Professor Smawl, triumphantly; "and I'm going to +photograph him!" + +Neither Dorothy nor I believed her. We watched the flight of the +infatuated woman in silence. + +And now, at last, the tragic shadow falls over my paper as I write. I +was never passionately attached to Professor Smawl, yet I would gladly +refrain from chronicling the episode that must follow if, as I have +hitherto attempted, I succeed in sticking to the unornamented truth. + +I have said that neither Dorothy nor I believed her. I don't know why, +unless it was that we had not yet made up our minds to believe that +the mammoth still existed on earth. So, when Professor Smawl +disappeared in the forest, scuttling through the underbrush like a +demoralized hen, we viewed her flight with unconcern. There was a +large tree in the neighborhood--a pleasant shelter in case of rain. So +we sat down behind it, although the sun was shining fiercely. + +It was one of those peaceful afternoons in the wilderness when the +whole forest dreams, and the shadows are asleep and every little +leaflet takes a nap. Under the still tree-tops the dappled sunlight, +motionless, soaked the sod; the forest-flies no longer whirled in +circles, but sat sunning their wings on slender twig-tips. + +The heat was sweet and spicy; the sun drew out the delicate essence +of gum and sap, warming volatile juices until they exhaled through the +aromatic bark. + +The sun went down into the wilderness; the forest stirred in its +sleep; a fish splashed in the lake. The spell was broken. Presently +the wind began to rise somewhere far away in the unknown land. I heard +it coming, nearer, nearer--a brisk wind that grew heavier and blew +harder as it neared us--a gale that swept distant branches--a furious +gale that set limbs clashing and cracking, nearer and nearer. Crack! +and the gale grew to a hurricane, trampling trees like dead twigs! +Crack! Crackle! Crash! Crash! + +_Was it the wind?_ + +With the roaring in my ears I sprang up, staring into the forest +vista, and at the same instant, out of the crashing forest, sped +Professor Smawl, skirts tucked up, thin legs flying like +bicycle-spokes. I shouted, but the crashing drowned my voice. Then all +at once the solid earth began to shake, and with the rush and roar of +a tornado a gigantic living thing burst out of the forest before our +eyes--a vast shadowy bulk that rocked and rolled along, mowing down +trees in its course. + +Two great crescents of ivory curved from its head; its back swept +through the tossing tree-tops. Once it bellowed like a gun fired from +a high bastion. + +The apparition passed with the noise of thunder rolling on towards the +ends of the earth. Crack! crash! went the trees, the tempest swept +away in a rolling volley of reports, distant, more distant, until, +long after the tumult had deadened, then ceased, the stunned forest +echoed with the fall of mangled branches slowly dropping. + +That evening an agitated young couple sat close together in the +deserted camp, calling timidly at intervals for Professor Smawl and +William Spike. I say timidly, because it is correct; we did not care +to have a mammoth respond to our calls. The lurking echoes across the +lake answered our cries; the full moon came up over the forest to look +at us. We were not much to look at. Dorothy was moistening my shoulder +with unfeigned tears, and I, afraid to light the fire, sat hunched up +under the common blanket, wildly examining the darkness around us. + +Chilled to the spinal marrow, I watched the gray lights whiten in the +east. A single bird awoke in the wilderness. I saw the nearer trees +looming in the mist, and the silver fog rolling on the lake. + +All night long the darkness had vibrated with the strange monotone +which I had heard the first night, camping at the gate of the unknown +land. My brain seemed to echo that subtle harmony which rings in the +auricular labyrinth after sound has ceased. + +There are ghosts of sound which return to haunt long after sound is +dead. It was these voiceless spectres of a voice long dead that +stirred the transparent silence, intoning toneless tones. + +I think I make myself clear. + +It was an uncanny night; morning whitened the east; gray daylight +stole into the woods, blotting the shadows to paler tints. It was +nearly mid-day before the sun became visible through the fine-spun web +of mist--a pale spot of gilt in the zenith. + +By this pallid light I labored to strike the two empty tents, gather +up our equipments and pack them on our five mules. Dorothy aided me +bravely, whimpering when I spoke of Professor Smawl and William Spike, +but abating nothing of her industry until we had the mules loaded and +I was ready to drive them, Heaven knows whither. + +"Where shall we go?" quavered Dorothy, sitting on a log with the +dingue in her lap. + +One thing was certain; this mammoth-ridden land was no place for +women, and I told her so. + +We placed the dingue in a basket and tied it around the leading mule's +neck. Immediately the dingue, alarmed, began dingling like a cow-bell. +It acted like a charm on the other mules, and they gravely filed off +after their leader, following the bell. Dorothy and I, hand in hand, +brought up the rear. + +I shall never forget that scene in the forest--the gray arch of the +heavens swimming in mist through which the sun peered shiftily, the +tall pines wavering through the fog, the preoccupied mules marching +single file, the foggy bell-note of the gentle dingue in its swinging +basket, and Dorothy, limp kilts dripping with dew, plodding through +the white dusk. + +We followed the terrible tornado-path which the mammoth had left in +its wake, but there were no traces of its human victims--neither one +jot of Professor Smawl nor one solitary tittle of William Spike. + +And now I would be glad to end this chapter if I could; I would gladly +leave myself as I was, there in the misty forest, with an arm +encircling the slender body of my little companion, and the mules +moving in a monotonous line, and the dingue discreetly jingling--but +again that menacing shadow falls across my page, and truth bids me +tell all, and I, the slave of accuracy, must remember my vows as the +dauntless disciple of truth. + +Towards sunset--or that pale parody of sunset which set the forest +swimming in a ghastly, colorless haze--the mammoth's trail of ruin +brought us suddenly out of the trees to the shore of a great sheet of +water. + +It was a desolate spot; northward a chaos of sombre peaks rose, piled +up like thunder-clouds along the horizon; east and south the darkening +wilderness spread like a pall. Westward, crawling out into the mist +from our very feet, the gray waste of water moved under the dull sky, +and flat waves slapped the squatting rocks, heavy with slime. + +And now I understood why the trail of the mammoth continued straight +into the lake, for on either hand black, filthy tamarack swamps lay +under ghostly sheets of mist. I strove to creep out into the bog, +seeking a footing, but the swamp quaked and the smooth surface +trembled like jelly in a bowl. A stick thrust into the slime sank into +unknown depths. + +Vaguely alarmed, I gained the firm land again and looked around, +believing there was no road open but the desolate trail we had +traversed. But I was in error; already the leading mule was wading out +into the water, and the others, one by one, followed. + +How wide the lake might be we could not tell, because the band of fog +hung across the water like a curtain. Yet out into this flat, shallow +void our mules went steadily, slop! slop! slop! in single file. +Already they were growing indistinct in the fog, so I bade Dorothy +hasten and take off her shoes and stockings. + +She was ready before I was, I having to unlace my shooting-boots, and +she stepped out into the water, kilts fluttering, moving her white +feet cautiously. In a moment I was beside her, and we waded forward, +sounding the shallow water with our poles. + +When the water had risen to Dorothy's knees I hesitated, alarmed. But +when we attempted to retrace our steps we could not find the shore +again, for the blank mist shrouded everything, and the water deepened +at every step. + +I halted and listened for the mules. Far away in the fog I heard a +dull splashing, receding as I listened. After a while all sound died +away, and a slow horror stole over me--a horror that froze the little +net-work of veins in every limb. A step to the right and the water +rose to my knees; a step to the left and the cold, thin circle of the +flood chilled my breast. Suddenly Dorothy screamed, and the next +moment a far cry answered--a far, sweet cry that seemed to come from +the sky, like the rushing harmony of the world's swift winds. Then the +curtain of fog before us lighted up from behind; shadows moved on the +misty screen, outlines of trees and grassy shores, and tiny birds +flying. Thrown on the vapory curtain, in silhouette, a man and a woman +passed under the lovely trees, arms about each other's necks; near +them the shadows of five mules grazed peacefully; a dingue gambolled +close by. + +"It is a mirage!" I muttered, but my voice made no sound. Slowly the +light behind the fog died out; the vapor around us turned to rose, +then dissolved, while mile on mile of a limitless sea spread away +till, like a quick line pencilled at a stroke, the horizon cut sky and +sea in half, and before us lay an ocean from which towered a mountain +of snow--or a gigantic berg of milky ice--for it was moving. + +"Good Heavens," I shrieked; "it is alive!" + +At the sound of my crazed cry the mountain of snow became a pillar, +towering to the clouds, and a wave of golden glory drenched the figure +to its knees! Figure? Yes--for a colossal arm shot across the sky, +then curved back in exquisite grace to a head of awful beauty--a +woman's head, with eyes like the blue lake of heaven--ay, a woman's +splendid form, upright from the sky to the earth, knee-deep in the +sea. The evening clouds drifted across her brow; her shimmering hair +lighted the world beneath with sunset. Then, shading her white brow +with one hand, she bent, and with the other hand dipped in the sea, +she sent a wave rolling at us. Straight out of the horizon it sped--a +ripple that grew to a wave, then to a furious breaker which caught us +up in a whirl of foam, bearing us onward, faster, faster, swiftly +flying through leagues of spray until consciousness ceased and all was +blank. + +Yet ere my senses fled I heard again that strange cry--that sweet, +thrilling harmony rushing out over the foaming waters, filling earth +and sky with its soundless vibrations. + +And I knew it was the hail of the Spirit of the North warning us back +to life again. + + * * * * * + +Looking back, now, over the days that passed before we staggered into +the Hudson Bay outpost at Gravel Cove, I am inclined to believe that +neither Dorothy nor I were clothed entirely in our proper minds--or, +if we were, our minds, no doubt, must have been in the same condition +as our clothing. I remember shooting ptarmigan, and that we ate them; +flashes of memory recall the steady downpour of rain through the +endless twilight of shaggy forests; dim days on the foggy tundra, +mud-holes from which the wild ducks rose in thousands; then the +stunted hemlocks, then the forest again. And I do not even recall the +moment when, at last, stumbling into the smooth path left by the +Graham Glacier, we crawled through the mountain-wall, out of the +unknown land, and once more into a world protected by the Lord +Almighty. + +A hunting-party of Elbon Indians brought us in to the post, and +everybody was most kind--that I remember, just before going into +several weeks of unpleasant delirium mercifully mitigated with +unconsciousness. + +Curiously enough, Professor Van Twiller was not very much battered, +physically, for I had carried her for days, pickaback. But the awful +experience had produced a shock which resulted in a nervous condition +that lasted so long after she returned to New York that the wealthy +and eminent specialist who attended her insisted upon taking her to +the Riviera and marrying her. I sometimes wonder--but, as I have said, +such reflections have no place in these austere pages. + +However, anybody, I fancy, is at liberty to speculate upon the fate of +the late Professor Smawl and William Spike, and upon the mules and the +gentle dingue. Personally, I am convinced that the suggestive +silhouettes I saw on that ghastly curtain of fog were cast by +beatified beings in some earthly paradise--a mirage of bliss of which +we caught but the colorless shadow-shapes floating 'twixt sea and +sky. + +At all events, neither Professor Smawl nor her William Spike ever +returned; no exploring expedition has found a trace of mule or lady, +of William or the dingue. The new expedition to be organized by +Barnard College may penetrate still farther. I suppose that, when the +time comes, I shall be expected to volunteer. But Professor Van +Twiller is married, and William and Professor Smawl ought to be, and +altogether, considering the mammoth and that gigantic and splendid +apparition that bent from the zenith to the ocean and sent a +tidal-wave rolling from the palm of one white hand--I say, taking all +these various matters under consideration, I think I shall decide to +remain in New York and continue writing for the scientific +periodicals. Besides, the mortifying experience at the Paris +Exposition has dampened even my perennially youthful enthusiasm. And +as for the late expedition to Florida, Heaven knows I am ready to +repeat it--nay, I am already forming a plan for the rescue--but though +I am prepared to encounter any danger for the sake of my beloved +superior, Professor Farrago, I do not feel inclined to commit +indiscretions in order to pry into secrets which, as I regard it, +concern Professor Smawl and William Spike alone. + +But all this is, in a measure, premature. What I now have to relate is +the recital of an eye-witness to that most astonishing scandal which +occurred during the recent exposition in Paris. + + + + +IX + + +When the delegates were appointed to the International Scientific +Congress at the Paris Exposition of 1900, how little did anybody +imagine that the great conference would end in the most gigantic +scandal that ever stirred two continents? + +Yet, had it not been for the pair of American newspapers published in +Paris, this scandal would never have been aired, for the continental +press is so well muzzled that when it bites its teeth merely meet in +the empty atmosphere with a discreet snap. + +But to the Yankee nothing excepting the Monroe Doctrine is sacred, and +the unsopped watch-dogs of the press bite right and left, unmuzzled. +The biter bites--it is his profession--and that ends the affair; the +bitee is bitten, and, in the deplorable argot of the hour, "it is up +to him." + +So now that the scandal has been well aired and hung out to dry in the +teeth of decency and the four winds, and as all the details have been +cheerfully and grossly exaggerated, it is, perhaps, the proper moment +for the truth to be written by the only person whose knowledge of all +the facts in the affair entitles him to speak for himself as well as +for those honorable ladies and gentlemen whose names and titles have +been so mercilessly criticised. + +These, then, are the simple facts: + +The International Scientific Congress, now adjourned _sine die_, met +at nine o'clock in the morning, May 3, 1900, in the Tasmanian Pavilion +of the Paris Exposition. There were present the most famous scientists +of Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia, Italy, Switzerland, and the +United States. + +His Royal Highness the Crown-Prince of Monaco presided. + +It is not necessary, now, to repeat the details of that preliminary +meeting. It is sufficient to say that committees representing the +various known sciences were named and appointed by the Prince of +Monaco, who had been unanimously elected permanent chairman of the +conference. It is the composition of a single committee that concerns +us now, and that committee, representing the science which treats of +bird life, was made up as follows: + +Chairman--His Royal Highness the Crown-Prince of Monaco. Members--Sir +Peter Grebe, Great Britain; Baron de Becasse, France; his Royal +Highness King Christian, of Finland; the Countess d'Alzette, of +Belgium; and I, from the United States, representing the Smithsonian +Institution and the Bronx Park Zoological Society of New York. + +This, then, was the composition of that now notorious ornithological +committee, a modest, earnest, self-effacing little band of workers, +bound together--in the beginning--by those ties of mutual respect and +esteem which unite all laborers in the vineyard of science. + +From the first meeting of our committee, science, the great leveller, +left no artificial barriers of rank or title standing between us. We +were enthusiasts in our love for ornithology; we found new inspiration +in the democracy of our common interests. + +As for me, I chatted with my fellows, feeling no restraint myself and +perceiving none. The King of Finland and I discussed his latest +monograph on the speckled titmouse, and I was glad to agree with the +King in all his theories concerning the nesting habits of that +important bird. + +Sir Peter Grebe, a large, red gentleman in tweeds, read us some notes +he had made on the domestic hen and her reasons for running ahead of a +horse and wagon instead of stepping aside to let the disturbing +vehicle pass. + +The Crown-Prince of Monaco took issue with Sir Peter; so did the Baron +de Becasse; and we were entertained by a friendly and marvellously +interesting three-cornered dispute, shared in by three of the most +profound thinkers of the century. + +I shall never forget the brilliancy of that argument, nor the modest, +good-humored retorts which gave us all a glimpse into depths of +erudition which impressed us profoundly and set the seal on the bonds +which held us so closely together. + +Alas, that the seal should ever have been broken! Alas, that the +glittering apple of discord should have been flung into our +midst!--no, not flung, but gently rolled under our noses by the gloved +fingers of the lovely Countess d'Alzette. + +"Messieurs," said the fair Countess, when all present, excepting she +and I, had touched upon or indicated the subjects which they had +prepared to present to the congress--"messieurs mes confreres, I have +been requested by our distinguished chairman, the Crown-Prince of +Monaco, to submit to your judgment the subject which, by favor of the +King of the Belgians, I have prepared to present to the International +Scientific Congress." + +She made a pretty courtesy as she named her own sovereign, and we all +rose out of respect to that most austere and moral ruler the King of +Belgium. + +"But," she said, with a charming smile of depreciation, "I am very, +very much afraid that the subject which I have chosen may not meet +with your approval, gentlemen." + +She stood there in her dainty Parisian gown and bonnet, shaking her +pretty head uncertainly, a smile on her lips, her small, gloved +fingers interlocked. + +"Oh, I know how dreadful it would be if this great congress should be +compelled to listen to any hoax like that which Monsieur de Rougemont +imposed on the British Royal Society," she said, gravely; "and because +the subject of my paper is as strange as the strangest phenomenon +alleged to have been noted by Monsieur de Rougemont, I hesitate--" + +She glanced at the silent listeners around her. Sir Peter's red face +had hardened; the King of Finland frowned slightly; the Crown-Prince +of Monaco and Baron de Becasse wore anxious smiles. But when her +violet eyes met mine I gave her a glance of encouragement, and that +glance, I am forced to confess, was not dictated by scientific +approval, but by something that never entirely dries up in the +mustiest and dustiest of savants--the old Adam implanted in us all. + +Now, I knew perfectly well what her subject must be; so did every man +present. For it was no secret that his Majesty of Belgium had been +swindled by some natives in Tasmania, and had paid a very large sum of +money for a skin of that gigantic bird, the ux, which has been so +often reported to exist among the inaccessible peaks of the Tasmanian +Mountains. Needless, perhaps, to say that the skin proved a fraud, +being nothing more than a Barnum contrivance made up out of the skins +of a dozen ostriches and cassowaries, and most cleverly put together +by Chinese workmen; at least, such was the report made on it by Sir +Peter Grebe, who had been sent by the British Society to Antwerp to +examine the acquisition. Needless, also, perhaps, to say that King +Leopold, of Belgium, stoutly maintained that the skin of the ux was +genuine from beak to claw. + +For six months there had been a most serious difference of opinion +among European ornithologists concerning the famous ux in the Antwerp +Museum; and this difference had promised to result in an open quarrel +between a few Belgian savants on one side and-all Europe and Great +Britain on the other. + +Scientists have a deep--rooted horror of anything that touches on +charlatanism; the taint of trickery not only alarms them, but drives +them away from any suspicious subject, and usually ruins, +scientifically speaking, the person who has introduced the subject for +discussion. + +Therefore, it took no little courage for the Countess d'Alzette to +touch, with her dainty gloves, a subject which every scientist in +Europe, with scarcely an exception, had pronounced fraudulent and +unworthy of investigation. And to bring it before the great +International Congress required more courage still; for the person +who could face, in executive session, the most brilliant intellects in +the world, and openly profess faith in a Barnumized bird skin, either +had no scientific reputation to lose or was possessed of a bravery far +above that of the savants who composed the audience. + +Now, when the pretty Countess caught a flash of encouragement in my +glance she turned rosy with gratification and surprise. Clearly, she +had not expected to find a single ally in the entire congress. Her +quick smile of gratitude touched me, and made me ashamed, too, for I +had encouraged her out of the pure love of mischief, hoping to hear +the whole matter threshed before the congress and so have it settled +once for all. It was a thoughtless thing to do on my part. I should +have remembered the consequences to the Countess if it were proven +that she had been championing a fraud. The ruffled dignity of the +congress would never forgive her; her scientific career would +practically be at an end, because her theories and observations could +no longer command respect or even the attention of those who knew that +she herself had once been deceived by a palpable fraud. + +I looked at her guiltily, already ashamed of myself for encouraging +her to her destruction. How lovely and innocent she appeared, standing +there reading her notes in a low, clear voice, fresh as a child's, +with now and then a delicious upward sweep of her long, dark lashes. + +With a start I came to my senses and bestowed a pinch on myself. This +was neither the time nor the place to sentimentalize over a girlish +beauty whose small, Parisian head was crammed full of foolish, brave +theories concerning an imposition which her aged sovereign had been +unable to detect. + +I saw the gathering frown on the King of Finland's dark face; I saw +Sir Peter Grebe grow redder and redder, and press his thick lips +together to control the angry "Bosh!" which need not have been uttered +to have been understood. The Baron de Becasse wore a painfully neutral +smile, which froze his face into a quaint gargoyle; the Crown-Prince +of Monaco looked at his polished fingernails with a startled yet +abstracted resignation. Clearly the young Countess had not a +sympathizer in the committee. + +Something--perhaps it was the latent chivalry which exists imbedded in +us all, perhaps it was pity, perhaps a glimmering dawn of belief in +the ux skin--set my thoughts working very quickly. + +The Countess d'Alzette finished her notes, then glanced around with a +deprecating smile, which died out on her lips when she perceived the +silent and stony hostility of her fellow-scientists. A quick +expression of alarm came into her lovely eyes. Would they vote against +giving her a hearing before the congress? It required a unanimous vote +to reject a subject. She turned her eyes on me. + +I rose, red as fire, my head humming with a chaos of ideas all +disordered and vague, yet whirling along in a single, resistless +current. I had come to the congress prepared to deliver a monograph on +the great auk; but now the subject went overboard as the birds +themselves had, and I found myself pleading with the committee to give +the Countess a hearing on the ux. + +"Why not?" I exclaimed, warmly. "It is established beyond question +that the ux does exist in Tasmania. Wallace saw several uxen, through +his telescope, walking about upon the inaccessible heights of the +Tasmanian Mountains. Darwin acknowledged that the bird exists; +Professor Farrago has published a pamphlet containing an accumulation +of all data bearing upon the ux. Why should not Madame la Comtesse be +heard by the entire congress?" + +I looked at Sir Peter Grebe. + +"Have _you_ seen this alleged bird skin in the Antwerp Museum?" he +asked, perspiring with indignation. + +"Yes, I have," said I. "It has been patched up, but how are we to know +that the skin did not require patching? I have not found that ostrich +skin has been used. It is true that the Tasmanians may have shot the +bird to pieces and mended the skin with bits of cassowary hide here +and there. But the greater part of the skin, and the beak and claws, +are, in my estimation, well worth the serious attention of savants. To +pronounce them fraudulent is, in my opinion, rash and premature." + +I mopped my brow; I was in for it now. I had thrown in my reputation +with the reputation of the Countess. + +The displeasure and astonishment of my confreres was unmistakable. In +the midst of a strained silence I moved that a vote be taken upon the +advisability of a hearing before the congress on the subject of the +ux. After a pause the young Countess, pale and determined, seconded my +motion. The result of the balloting was a foregone conclusion; the +Countess had one vote--she herself refraining from voting--and the +subject was entered on the committee-book as acceptable and a date set +for the hearing before the International Congress. + +The effect of this vote on our little committee was most marked. +Constraint took the place of cordiality, polite reserve replaced that +guileless and open-hearted courtesy with which our proceedings had +begun. + +With icy politeness, the Crown-Prince of Monaco asked me to state the +subject of the paper I proposed to read before the congress, and I +replied quietly that, as I was partly responsible for advocating the +discussion of the ux, I proposed to associate myself with the Countess +d'Alzette in that matter--if Madame la Comtesse would accept the offer +of a brother savant. + +"Indeed I will," she said, impulsively, her blue eyes soft with +gratitude. + +"Very well," observed Sir Peter Grebe, swallowing his indignation and +waddling off towards the door; "I shall resign my position on this +committee--yes, I will, I tell you!"--as the King of Finland laid a +fatherly hand on Sir Peter's sleeve--"I'll not be made responsible for +this damn--" + +He choked, sputtered, then bowed to the horrified Countess, asking +pardon, and declaring that he yielded to nobody in respect for the +gentler sex. And he retired with the Baron de Becasse. + +But out in the hallway I heard him explode. "Confound it! This is no +place for petticoats, Baron! And as for that Yankee ornithologist, +he's hung himself with the Countess's corset--string--yes, he has! +Don't tell me, Baron! The young idiot was all right until the Countess +looked at him, I tell you. Gad! how she crumpled him up with those +blue eyes of hers! What the devil do women come into such committees +for? Eh? It's an outrage, I tell you! Why, the whole world will jeer +at us if we sit and listen to her monograph on that fraudulent bird!" + +The young Countess, who was writing near the window, could not have +heard this outburst; but I heard it, and so did King Christian and the +Crown-Prince of Monaco. + +"Lord," thought I, "the Countess and I are in the frying-pan this +time. I'll do what I can to keep us both out of the fire." + +When the King and the Crown-Prince had made their adieux to the +Countess, and she had responded, pale and serious, they came over to +where I was standing, looking out on the Seine. + +"Though we must differ from you," said the King, kindly, "we wish you +all success in this dangerous undertaking." + +I thanked him. + +"You are a young man to risk a reputation already established," +remarked the Crown-Prince, then added: "You are braver than I. +Ridicule is a barrier to all knowledge, and, though we know that, we +seekers after truth always bring up short at that barrier and +dismount, not daring to put our hobbies to the fence." + +"One can but come a cropper," said I. + +"And risk staking our hobbies? No, no, that would make us ridiculous; +and ridicule kills in Europe." + +"It's somewhat deadly in America, too," I said, smiling. + +"The more honor to you," said the Crown-Prince, gravely. + +"Oh, I am not the only one," I answered, lightly. "There is my +confrere, Professor Hyssop, who studies apparitions and braves a +contempt and ridicule which none of us would dare challenge. We +Yankees are learning slowly. Some day we will find the lost key to the +future while Europe is sneering at those who are trying to pick the +lock." + +When King Christian, of Finland, and the Crown-Prince of Monaco had +taken their hats and sticks and departed, I glanced across the room at +the young Countess, who was now working rapidly on a type-writer, +apparently quite oblivious of my presence. + +I looked out of the window again, and my gaze wandered over the +exposition grounds. Gilt and scarlet and azure the palaces rose in +every direction, under a wilderness of fluttering flags. Towers, +minarets, turrets, golden spires cut the blue sky; in the west the +gaunt Eiffel Tower sprawled across the glittering Esplanade; behind it +rose the solid golden dome of the Emperor's tomb, gilded once more by +the Almighty's sun, to amuse the living rabble while the dead +slumbered in his imperial crypt, himself now but a relic for the +amusement of the people whom he had despised. O tempora! O mores! O +Napoleon! + +Down under my window, in the asphalted court, the King of Finland was +entering his beautiful victoria. An adjutant, wearing a cocked hat and +brilliant uniform, mounted the box beside the green-and-gold coachman; +the two postilions straightened up in their saddles; the four horses +danced. Then, when the Crown-Prince of Monaco had taken a seat beside +the King, the carriage rolled away, and far down the quay I watched it +until the flutter of the green-and-white plumes in the adjutant's +cocked hat was all I could see of vanishing royalty. + +I was still musing there by the window, listening to the click and +ringing of the type-writer, when I suddenly became aware that the +clicking had ceased, and, turning, I saw the young Countess standing +beside me. + +"Thank you for your chivalrous impulse to help me," she said, frankly, +holding out her bare hand. + +I bent over it. + +"I had not realized how desperate my case was," she said, with a +smile. "I supposed that they would at least give me a hearing. How can +I thank you for your brave vote in my favor?" + +"By giving me your confidence in this matter," said I, gravely. "If we +are to win, we must work together and work hard, madame. We are +entering a struggle, not only to prove the genuineness of a bird skin +and the existence of a bird which neither of us has ever seen, but +also a struggle which will either make us famous forever or render it +impossible for either of us ever again to face a scientific audience." + +"I know it," she said, quietly "And I understand all the better how +gallant a gentleman I have had the fortune to enlist in my cause. +Believe me, had I not absolute confidence in my ability to prove the +existence of the ux I should not, selfish as I am, have accepted your +chivalrous offer to stand or fall with me." + +The subtle emotion in her voice touched a responsive chord in me. I +looked at her earnestly; she raised her beautiful eyes to mine. + +"Will you help me?" she asked. + +Would I help her? Faith, I'd pass the balance of my life turning +flip-flaps to please her. I did not attempt to undeceive myself; I +realized that the lightning had struck me--that I was desperately in +love with the young Countess from the tip of her bonnet to the toe of +her small, polished shoe. I was curiously cool about it, too, although +my heart gave a thump that nigh choked me, and I felt myself going red +from temple to chin. + +If the Countess d'Alzette noticed it she gave no sign, unless the pink +tint under her eyes, deepening, was a subtle signal of understanding +to the signal in my eyes. + +"Suppose," she said, "that I failed, before the congress, to prove my +theory? Suppose my investigations resulted in the exposure of a fraud +and my name was held up to ridicule before all Europe? What would +become of you, monsieur?" + +I was silent. + +"You are already celebrated as the discoverer of the mammoth and the +great auk," she persisted. "You are young, enthusiastic, renowned, and +you have a future before you that anybody in the world might envy." + +I said nothing. + +"And yet," she said, softly, "you risk all because you will not leave +a young woman friendless among her confreres. It is not wise, +monsieur; it is gallant and generous and impulsive, but it is not +wisdom. Don Quixote rides no more in Europe, my friend." + +"He stays at home--seventy million of him--in America," said I. + +After a moment she said, "I believe you, monsieur." + +"It is true enough," I said, with a laugh. "We are the only people who +tilt at windmills these days--we and our cousins, the British, who +taught us." + +I bowed gayly, and added: + +"With your colors to wear, I shall have the honor of breaking a lance +against the biggest windmill in the world." + +"You mean the Citadel of Science," she said, smiling. + +"And its rock-ribbed respectability," I replied. + +She looked at me thoughtfully, rolling and unrolling the scroll in her +hands. Then she sighed, smiled, and brightened, handing me the scroll. + +"Read it carefully," she said; "it is an outline of the policy I +suggest that we follow. You will be surprised at some of the +statements. Yet every word is the truth. And, monsieur, your reward +for the devotion you have offered will be no greater than you deserve, +when you find yourself doubly famous for our joint monograph on the +ux. Without your vote in the committee I should have been denied a +hearing, even though I produced proofs to support my theory. I +appreciate that; I do most truly appreciate the courage which prompted +you to defend a woman at the risk of your own ruin. Come to me this +evening at nine. I hold for you in store a surprise and pleasure which +you do not dream of." + +"Ah, but I do," I said, slowly, under the spell of her delicate beauty +and enthusiasm. + +"How can you?" she said, laughing. "You don't know what awaits you at +nine this evening?" + +"You," I said, fascinated. + +The color swept her face; she dropped me a deep courtesy. + +"At nine, then," she said. "No. 8 Rue d'Alouette." + +I bowed, took my hat, gloves, and stick, and attended her to her +carriage below. + +Long after the blue-and-black victoria had whirled away down the +crowded quay I stood looking after it, mazed in the web of that +ancient enchantment whose spell fell over the first man in Eden, and +whose sorcery shall not fail till the last man returns his soul. + + + + +X + + +I lunched at my lodgings on the Quai Malthus, and I had but little +appetite, having fed upon such an unexpected variety of emotions +during the morning. + +Now, although I was already heels over head in love, I do not believe +that loss of appetite was the result of that alone. I was slowly +beginning to realize what my recent attitude might cost me, not only +in an utter collapse of my scientific career, and the consequent +material ruin which was likely to follow, but in the loss of all my +friends at home. The Zoological Society of Bronx Park and the +Smithsonian Institution of Washington had sent me as their trusted +delegate, leaving it entirely to me to choose the subject on which I +was to speak before the International Congress. What, then, would be +their attitude when they learned that I had chosen to uphold the +dangerous theory of the existence of the ux. + +Would they repudiate me and send another delegate to replace me? Would +they merely wash their hands of me and let me go to my own +destruction? + +"I will know soon enough," thought I, "for this morning's proceedings +will have been cabled to New York ere now, and read at the +breakfast-tables of every old, moss-grown naturalist in America before +I see the Countess d'Alzette this evening." And I drew from my pocket +the roll of paper which she had given me, and, lighting a cigar, lay +back in my chair to read it. + +The manuscript had been beautifully type-written, and I had no trouble +in following her brief, clear account of the circumstances under which +the notorious ux-skin had been obtained. As for the story itself, it +was somewhat fishy, but I manfully swallowed my growing nervousness +and comforted myself with the belief of Darwin in the existence of the +ux, and the subsequent testimony of Wallace, who simply stated what he +had seen through his telescope, and then left it to others to identify +the enormous birds he described as he had observed them stalking about +on the snowy peaks of the Tasmanian Alps. + +My own knowledge of the ux was confined to a single circumstance. +When, in 1897, I had gone to Tasmania with Professor Farrago, to make +a report on the availability of the so-called "Tasmanian devil," as a +substitute for the mongoose in the West Indies, I of course heard a +great deal of talk among the natives concerning the birds which they +affirmed haunted the summits of the mountains. + +Our time in Tasmania was too limited to admit of an exploration then. +But although we were perfectly aware that the summits of the Tasmanian +Alps are inaccessible, we certainly should have attempted to gain them +had not the time set for our departure arrived before we had completed +the investigation for which we were sent. + +One relic, however, I carried away with me. It was a single greenish +bronzed feather, found high up in the mountains by a native, and sold +to me for a somewhat large sum of money. + +Darwin believed the ux to be covered with greenish plumage; Wallace +was too far away to observe the color of the great birds; but all the +natives of Tasmania unite in affirming that the plumage of the ux is +green. + +It was not only the color of this feather that made me an eager +purchaser, it was the extraordinary length and size. I knew of no +living bird large enough to wear such a feather. As for the color, +that might have been tampered with before I bought it, and, indeed, +testing it later, I found on the fronds traces of sulphate of copper. +But the same thing has been found in the feathers of certain birds +whose color is metallic green, and it has been proven that such birds +pick up and swallow shining bits of copper pyrites. + +Why should not the ux do the same thing? + +Still, my only reason for believing in the existence of the bird was +this single feather. I had easily proved that it belonged to no known +species of bird. I also proved it to be similar to the tail-feathers +of the ux-skin in Antwerp. But the feathers on the Antwerp specimen +were gray, and the longest of them was but three feet in length, while +my huge, bronze-green feather measured eleven feet from tip to tip. + +One might account for it supposing the Antwerp skin to be that of a +young bird, or of a moulting bird, or perhaps of a different sex from +the bird whose feather I had secured. + +Still, these ideas were not proven. Nothing concerning the birds had +been proven. I had but a single fact to lean on, and that was that the +feather I possessed could not have belonged to any known species of +bird. Nobody but myself knew of the existence of this feather. And now +I meant to cable to Bronx Park for it, and to place this evidence at +the disposal of the beautiful Countess d'Alzette. + +My cigar had gone out, as I sat musing, and I relighted it and resumed +my reading of the type-written notes, lazily, even a trifle +sceptically, for all the evidence that she had been able to collect to +substantiate her theory of the existence of the ux was not half as +important as the evidence I was to produce in the shape of that +enormous green feather. + +I came to the last paragraph, smoking serenely, and leaning back +comfortably, one leg crossed over the other. Then, suddenly, my +attention became riveted on the words under my eyes. Could I have read +them aright? Could I believe what I read in ever-growing astonishment +which culminated in an excitement that stirred the very hair on my +head? + + "The ux exists. There is no longer room for doubt. Ocular + proof I can now offer in the shape of _five living eggs_ of + this gigantic bird. All measures have been taken to hatch + these eggs; they are now in the vast incubator. It is my plan + to have them hatch, one by one, under the very eyes of the + International Congress. It will be the greatest triumph that + science has witnessed since the discovery of the New World. + + [Signed] "SUSANNE D'ALZETTE." + +"Either," I cried out, in uncontrollable excitement--"either that girl +is mad or she is the cleverest woman on earth." + +After a moment I added: + +"In either event I am going to marry her." + + + + +XI + + +That evening, a few minutes before nine o'clock, I descended from a +cab in front of No. 8 Rue d'Alouette, and was ushered into a pretty +reception-room by an irreproachable servant, who disappeared directly +with my card. + +In a few moments the young Countess came in, exquisite in her silvery +dinner-gown, eyes bright, white arms extended in a charming, impulsive +welcome. The touch of her silky fingers thrilled me; I was dumb under +the enchantment of her beauty; and I think she understood my silence, +for her blue eyes became troubled and the happy parting of her lips +changed to a pensive curve. + +Presently I began to tell her about my bronzed-green feather; at my +first word she looked up brightly, almost gratefully, I fancied; and +in another moment we were deep in eager discussion of the subject +which had first drawn us together. + +What evidence I possessed to sustain our theory concerning the +existence of the ux I hastened to reveal; then, heart beating +excitedly, I asked her about the eggs and where they were at present, +and whether she believed it possible to bring them to Paris--all these +questions in the same breath--which brought a happy light into her +eyes and a delicious ripple of laughter to her lips. + +"Why, of course it is possible to bring the eggs here," she cried. "Am +I sure? Parbleu! The eggs are already here, monsieur!" + +"Here!" I exclaimed. "In Paris?" + +"In Paris? Mais oui; and in my own house--_this very house_, monsieur. +Come, you shall behold them with your own eyes!" + +Her eyes were brilliant with excitement; impulsively she stretched out +her rosy hand. I took it; and she led me quickly back through the +drawing-room, through the dining-room, across the butler's pantry, and +into a long, dark hallway. We were almost running now--I keeping tight +hold of her soft little hand, she, raising her gown a trifle, hurrying +down the hallway, silken petticoats rustling like a silk banner in the +wind. A turn to the right brought us to the cellar-stairs; down we +hastened, and then across the cemented floor towards a long, +glass-fronted shelf, pierced with steam-pipes. + +"A match," she whispered, breathlessly. + +I struck a wax match and touched it to the gas-burner overhead. + +Never, never can I forget what that flood of gas-light revealed. In a +row stood five large, glass-mounted incubators; behind the glass doors +lay, in dormant majesty, five enormous eggs. The eggs were +pale-green--lighter, somewhat, than robins' eggs, but not as pale as +herons' eggs. Each egg appeared to be larger than a large hogs-head, +and was partly embedded in bales of cotton-wool. + +Five little silver thermometers inside the glass doors indicated a +temperature of 95 deg. Fahrenheit. I noticed that there was an automatic +arrangement connected with the pipes which regulated the temperature. + +I was too deeply moved for words. Speech seemed superfluous as we +stood there, hand in hand, contemplating those gigantic, pale-green +eggs. + +There is something in a silent egg which moves one's deeper +emotions--something solemn in its embryotic inertia, something awesome +in its featureless immobility. + +I know of nothing on earth which is so totally lacking in expression +as an egg. The great desert Sphinx, brooding through its veil of sand, +has not that tremendous and meaningless dignity which wraps the +colorless oval effort of a single domestic hen. + +I held the hand of the young Countess very tightly. Her fingers closed +slightly. + +Then and there, in the solemn presence of those emotionless eggs, I +placed my arm around her supple waist and kissed her. + +She said nothing. Presently she stooped to observe the thermometer. +Naturally, it registered 95 deg. Fahrenheit. + +"Susanne," I said, softly. + +"Oh, we must go up-stairs," she whispered, breathlessly; and, picking +up her silken skirts, she fled up the cellar-stairs. + +I turned out the gas, with that instinct of economy which early +wastefulness has implanted in me, and followed the Countess Suzanne +through the suite of rooms and into the small reception-hall where she +had first received me. + +She was sitting on a low divan, head bent, slowly turning a sapphire +ring on her finger, round and round. + +I looked at her romantically, and then-- + +"Please don't," she said. + +The correct reply to this is: + +"Why not?"--very tenderly spoken. + +"Because," she replied, which was also the correct and regular answer. + +"Suzanne," I said, slowly and passionately. + +She turned the sapphire ring on her finger. Presently she tired of +this, so I lifted her passive hand very gently and continued turning +the sapphire ring on her finger, slowly, to harmonize with the cadence +of our unspoken thoughts. + +Towards midnight I went home, walking with great care through a new +street in Paris, paved exclusively with rose-colored blocks of air. + + + + +XII + + +At nine o'clock in the evening, July 31, 1900, the International +Congress was to assemble in the great lecture-hall of the Belgian +Scientific Pavilion, which adjourned the Tasmanian Pavilion, to hear +the Countess Suzanne d'Alzette read her paper on the ux. + +That morning the Countess and I, with five furniture vans, had +transported the five great incubators to the platform of the +lecture-hall, and had engaged an army of plumbers and gas-fitters to +make the steam-heating connections necessary to maintain in the +incubators a temperature of 100 deg. Fahrenheit. + +A heavy green curtain hid the stage from the body of the lecture-hall. +Behind this curtain the five enormous eggs reposed, each in its +incubator. + +The Countess Suzanne was excited and calm by turns, her cheeks were +pink, her lips scarlet, her eyes bright as blue planets at midnight. + +Without faltering she rehearsed her discourse before me, reading from +her type-written manuscript in a clear voice, in which I could +scarcely discern a tremor. Then we went through the dumb show of +exhibiting the uxen eggs to a frantically applauding audience; she +responded to countless supposititious encores, I leading her out +repeatedly before the green curtain to face the great, damp, darkened +auditorium. + +Then, in response to repeated imaginary recalls, she rehearsed the +extemporaneous speech, thanking the distinguished audience for their +patience in listening to an unknown confrere, and confessing her +obligations to me (here I appeared and bowed in self-abasement) for my +faith in her and my aid in securing for her a public hearing before +the most highly educated audience in the world. + +After that we retired behind the curtain to sit on an empty box and +eat sandwiches and watch the last lingering plumbers pasting up the +steam connections with a pot of molten lead. + +The plumbers were Americans, brought to Paris to make repairs on the +American buildings during the exposition, and we conversed with them +affably as they pottered about, plumber-like, poking under the +flooring with lighted candles, rubbing their thumbs up and down musty +old pipes, and prying up planks in dark corners. + +They informed us that they were union men and that they hoped we were +too. And I replied that union was certainly my ultimate purpose, at +which the young Countess smiled dreamily at vacancy. + +We did not dare leave the incubators. The plumbers lingered on, hour +after hour, while we sat and watched the little silver thermometers, +and waited. + +It was time for the Countess Suzanne to dress, and still the plumbers +had not finished; so I sent a messenger for her maid, to bring her +trunk to the lecture-hall, and I despatched another messenger to my +lodgings for my evening clothes and fresh linen. + +There were several dressing-rooms off the stage. Here, about six +o'clock, the Countess retired with her maid, to dress, leaving me to +watch the plumbers and the thermometers. + +When the Countess Suzanne returned, radiant and lovely in an evening +gown of black lace, I gave her the roses I had brought for her and +hurried off to dress in my turn, leaving her to watch the +thermometers. + +I was not absent more than half an hour, but when I returned I found +the Countess anxiously conversing with the plumbers and pointing +despairingly at the thermometers, which now registered only 95 deg.. + +"You must keep up the temperature!" I said. "Those eggs are due to +hatch within a few hours. What's the trouble with the heat?" + +The plumber did not know, but thought the connections were defective. + +"But that's why we called you in!" exclaimed the Countess. "Can't you +fix things securely?" + +"Oh, we'll fix things, lady," replied the plumber, condescendingly, +and he ambled away to rub his thumb up and down a pipe. + +As we alone were unable to move and handle the enormous eggs, the +Countess, whose sweet character was a stranger to vindictiveness or +petty resentment, had written to the members of the ornithological +committee, revealing the marvellous fortune which had crowned her +efforts in the search for evidence to sustain her theory concerning +the ux, and inviting these gentlemen to aid her in displaying the +great eggs to the assembled congress. + +This she had done the night previous. Every one of the gentlemen +invited had come post-haste to her "hotel," to view the eggs with +their own sceptical and astonished eyes; and the fair young Countess +and I tasted our first triumph in her cellar, whither we conducted Sir +Peter Grebe, the Crown-Prince of Monaco, Baron de Becasse, and his +Majesty King Christian of Finland. + +Scepticism and incredulity gave place to excitement and unbounded +enthusiasm. The old King embraced the Countess; Baron de Becasse +attempted to kiss me; Sir Peter Grebe made a handsome apology for his +folly and vowed that he would do open penance for his sins. The poor +Crown-Prince, who was of a nervous temperament, sat on the +cellar-stairs and wept like a child. + +His grief at his own pig-headedness touched us all profoundly. + +So it happened that these gentlemen were coming to-night to give their +aid to us in moving the priceless eggs, and lend their countenance and +enthusiastic support to the young Countess in her maiden effort. + +Sir Peter Grebe arrived first, all covered with orders and +decorations, and greeted us affectionately, calling the Countess the +"sweetest lass in France," and me his undutiful Yankee cousin who had +landed feet foremost at the expense of the British Empire. + +The King of Finland, the Crown-Prince, and Baron de Becasse arrived +together, a composite mass of medals, sashes, and academy palms. To +see them moving boxes about, straightening chairs, and pulling out +rugs reminded me of those golden-embroidered gentlemen who run out +into the arena and roll up carpets after the acrobats have finished +their turn in the Nouveau Cirque. + +I was aiding the King of Finland to move a heavy keg of nails, when +the Countess called out to me in alarm, saying that the thermometers +had dropped to 80 deg. Fahrenheit. + +I spoke sharply to the plumbers, who were standing in a circle behind +the dressing-rooms; but they answered sullenly that they could do no +more work that day. + +Indignant and alarmed, I ordered them to come out to the stage, and, +after some hesitation, they filed out, a sulky, silent lot of workmen, +with their tools already gathered up and tied in their kits. At once I +noticed that a new man had appeared among them--a red-faced, stocky +man wearing a frock-coat and a shiny silk hat. + +"Who is the master-workman here?" I asked. + +"I am," said a man in blue overalls. + +"Well," said I, "why don't you fix those steam-fittings?" + +There was a silence. The man in the silk hat smirked. + +"Well?" said I. + +"Come, come, that's all right," said the man in the silk hat. "These +men know their business without you tellin' them." + +"Who are you?" I demanded, sharply. + +"Oh, I'm just a walkin' delegate," he replied, with a sneer. "There's +a strike in New York and I come over here to tie this here exposition +up. See?" + +"You mean to say you won't let these men finish their work?" I asked, +thunderstruck. + +"That's about it, young man," he said, coolly. + +Furious, I glanced at my watch, then at the thermometers, which now +registered only 75 deg.. Already I could hear the first-comers of the +audience arriving in the body of the hall. Already a stage-hand was +turning up the footlights and dragging chairs and tables hither and +thither. + +"What will you take to stay and attend to those steam-pipes?" I +demanded, desperately. + +"It can't be done nohow," observed the man in the silk hat. "That New +York strike is good for a month yet." Then, turning to the workmen, he +nodded and, to my horror, the whole gang filed out after him, turning +deaf ears to my entreaties and threats. + +There was a deathly silence, then Sir Peter exploded into a vivid +shower of words. The Countess, pale as a ghost, gave me a +heart-breaking look. The Crown-Prince wept. + +"Great Heaven!" I cried; "the thermometers have fallen to 70 deg.!" + +The King of Finland sat down on a chair and pressed his hands over his +eyes. Baron de Becasse ran round and round, uttering subdued and +plaintive screams; Sir Peter swore steadily. + +"Gentlemen," I cried, desperately, "we must save those eggs! They are +on the very eve of hatching! Who will volunteer?" + +"To do what?" moaned the Crown-Prince. + +"I'll show you," I exclaimed, running to the incubators and beckoning +to the Baron to aid me. + +In a moment we had rolled out the great egg, made a nest on the stage +floor with the bales of cotton-wool, and placed the egg in it. One +after another we rolled out the remaining eggs, building for each its +nest of cotton; and at last the five enormous eggs lay there in a row +behind the green curtain. + +"Now," said I, excitedly, to the King, "you must get up on that egg +and try to keep it warm." + +The King began to protest, but I would take no denial, and presently +his Majesty was perched up on the great egg, gazing foolishly about at +the others, who were now all climbing up on their allotted eggs. + +"Great Heaven!" muttered the King, as Sir Peter settled down +comfortably on his egg, "I am willing to give life and fortune for the +sake of science, but I can't bear to hatch out eggs like a bird!" + +The Crown-Prince was now sitting patiently beside the Baron de +Becasse. + +"I feel in my bones," he murmured, "that I'm about to hatch something. +Can't you hear a tapping on the shell of your egg, Baron?" + +"Parbleu!" replied the Baron. "The shell is moving under me." + +It certainly was; for, the next moment, the Baron fell into his egg +with a crash and a muffled shriek, and floundered out, dripping, +yellow as a canary. + +"N'importe!" he cried, excitedly. "Allons! Save the eggs! Hurrah! Vive +la science!" And he scrambled up on the fourth egg and sat there, arms +folded, sublime courage transfiguring him from head to foot. + +We all gave him a cheer, which was hushed as the stage-manager ran in, +warning us that the audience was already assembled and in place. + +"You're not going to raise the curtain while we're sitting, are you?" +demanded the King of Finland, anxiously. + +"No, no," I said; "sit tight, your Majesty. Courage, gentlemen! Our +vindication is at hand!" + +The Countess glanced at me with startled eyes; I took her hand, +saluted it respectfully, and then quietly led her before the curtain, +facing an ocean of upturned faces across the flaring footlights. + +She stood a moment to acknowledge the somewhat ragged applause, a calm +smile on her lips. All her courage had returned; I saw that at once. + +Very quietly she touched her lips to the _eau-sucree_, laid her +manuscript on the table, raised her beautiful head, and began: + +"That the ux is a living bird I am here before you to prove--" + +A sharp report behind the curtain drowned her voice. She paled; the +audience rose amid cries of excitement. + +"What was it?" she asked, faintly. + +"Sir Peter has hatched out his egg," I whispered. "Hark! There goes +another egg!" And I ran behind the curtain. + +Such a scene as I beheld was never dreamed of on land or sea. Two +enormous young uxen, all over gigantic pin-feathers, were wandering +stupidly about. Mounted on one was Sir Peter Grebe, eyes starting from +his apoplectic visage; on the other, clinging to the bird's neck, hung +the Baron de Becasse. + +Before I could move, the two remaining eggs burst, and a pair of huge, +scrawny fledglings rose among the debris, bearing off on their backs +the King and Crown-Prince. + +"Help!" said the King of Finland, faintly. "I'm falling off!" + +I sprang to his aid, but tripped on the curtain-spring. The next +instant the green curtain shot up, and there, revealed to that vast +and distinguished audience, roamed four enormous chicks, bearing on +their backs the most respected and exclusive aristocracy of Europe. + +The Countess Suzanne turned with a little shriek of horror, then sat +down in her chair, laid her lovely head on the table, and very quietly +fainted away, unconscious of the frantic cheers which went roaring to +the roof. + + * * * * * + +This, then, is the _true_ history of the famous exposition scandal. +And, as I have said, had it not been for the presence in that audience +of two American reporters nobody would have known what all the world +now knows--nobody would have read of the marvellous feats of bareback +riding indulged in by the King of Finland--nobody would have read how +Sir Peter Grebe steered his mount safely past the footlights only to +come to grief over the prompter's box. + +But this _is_ scandal. And, as for the charming Countess Suzanne +d'Alzette, the public has heard all that it is entitled to hear, and +much that it is not entitled to hear. + +However, on second thoughts, perhaps the public is entitled to hear a +little more. I will therefore say this much--the shock of astonishment +which stunned me when the curtain flew up, revealing the +King-bestridden uxen, was nothing to the awful blow which smote me +when the Count d'Alzette leaped from the orchestra, over the +footlights, and bore away with him the fainting form of his wife, the +lovely Countess d'Alzette. + +I sometimes wonder--but, as I have repeatedly observed, this dull and +pedantic narrative of fact is no vehicle for sentimental soliloquy. It +is, then, merely sufficient to say that I took the earliest steamer +for kinder shores, spurred on to haste by a venomous cable-gram from +the Smithsonian, repudiating me, and by another from Bronx Park, +ordering me to spend the winter in some inexpensive, poisonous, and +unobtrusive spot, and make a collection of isopods. The island of Java +appeared to me to be as poisonously unobtrusive and inexpensive a +region as I had ever heard of; a steamer sailed from Antwerp for +Batavia in twenty-four hours. Therefore, as I say, I took the +night-train for Brussels, and the steamer from Antwerp the following +evening. + +Of my uneventful voyage, of the happy and successful quest, there is +little to relate. The Javanese are frolicsome and hospitable. There +was a girl there with features that were as delicate as though +chiselled out of palest amber; and I remember she wore a most +wonderful jewelled, helmet-like head-dress, and jingling bangles on +her ankles, and when she danced she made most graceful and poetic +gestures with her supple wrists--but that has nothing to do with +isopods, absolutely nothing. + +Letters from home came occasionally. Professor Farrago had returned to +the Bronx and had been re-elected to the high office he had so nobly +held when I first became associated with him. + +Through his kindness and by his advice I remained for several years in +the Far East, until a letter from him arrived recalling me and also +announcing his own hurried and sudden departure for Florida. He also +mentioned my promotion to the office of subcurator of department; so I +started on my homeward voyage very much pleased with the world, and +arrived in New York on April 1, 1904, ready for a rest to which I +believed myself entitled. And the first thing that they handed me was +a letter from Professor Farrago, summoning me South. + + + + +XIII + + +The letter that started me--I was going to say startled me, but only +imaginative people are startled--the letter, then, that started me +from Bronx Park to the South I print without the permission of my +superior, Professor Farrago. I have not obtained his permission, for +the somewhat exciting reason that nobody knows where he is. Publicity +being now recognized as the annihilator of mysteries, a benevolent +purpose alone inspires me to publish a letter so strange, so +pathetically remarkable, in view of what has recently occurred. + +As I say, I had only just returned from Java with a valuable +collection of undescribed isopods--an order of edriophthalmous +crustaceans with seven free thoracic somites furnished with fourteen +legs--and I beg my reader's pardon, but my reader will see the +necessity for the author's absolute accuracy in insisting on detail, +because the story that follows is a dangerous story for a scientist to +tell, in view of the vast amount of nonsense and fiction in +circulation masquerading as stories of scientific adventure. + +I was, therefore, anticipating a delightful summer's work with pen and +microscope, when on April 1st I received the following extraordinary +letter from Professor Farrago: + + + "IN CAMP, LITTLE SPRITE LAKE, + + "EVERGLADES, FLORIDA, _March 15, 1902._ + + "MY DEAR MR. GILLAND,--On receipt of this communication you + will immediately secure for me the following articles: + + "One complete outfit of woman's clothing. + "One camera. + "One light steel cage, large enough for you to stand in. + "One stenographer (male sex). + "One five-pound steel tank, with siphon and hose attachment. + "One rifle and ammunition. + "Three ounces rosium oxyde. + "One ounce chlorate strontium. + + "You will then, within twenty-four hours, set out with the + stenographer and the supplies mentioned and join me in camp on + Little Sprite Lake. This order is formal and admits of no + delay. You will appreciate the necessity of absolute and + unquestioning obedience when I tell you that I am practically + on the brink of the most astonishing discovery recorded in + natural history since Monsieur Zani discovered the + purple-spotted zoombok in Nyanza; and that I depend upon you + and your zeal and fidelity for success. + + "I dare not, lest my letter fall into unscrupulous hands, + convey to you more than a hint of what lies before us in these + uncharted solitudes of the Everglades. + + "You must read between the lines when I say that because one + can see through a sheet of glass, the glass is none the less + solid and palpable. One can see _through_ it--if that is also + seeing it; but one can nevertheless hold it and feel it and + receive from it sensations of cold or heat according to its + temperature. + + "Certain jellyfish are absolutely transparent when in the + water, and one can only know of their presence by accidental + contact, not by sight. + + "_Have you ever thought that possibly there might exist larger + and more highly organized creatures transparent to eyesight, + yet palpable to touch?_ + + "Little Sprite Lake is the jumping-off place; beyond lie the + Everglades, the outskirts of which are haunted by the + Seminoles, the interior of which have never been visited by + man, as far as we know. + + "As you are aware, no general survey of Florida has yet been + made; there exist no maps of the Everglades south of + Okeechobee; even Little Sprite Lake is but a vague blot on our + maps. We know, of course, that south of the eleven thousand + square miles of fresh water which is called Lake Okeechobee + the Everglades form a vast, delta-like projection of thousands + and thousands of square miles. Darkest Africa is no longer a + mystery; but the Everglades to-day remain the sombre secret of + our continent. And, to-day, this unknown expanse of swamps, + barrens, forests, and lagoons is greater than in the days of + De Soto, because the entire region has been slowly rising. + + "All this, my dear sir, you already know, and I ask your + indulgence for recalling the facts to your memory. I do it for + this reason--the search for _what I am seeking_ may lead us to + utter destruction; and therefore my formal orders to you + should be modified to this extent:--do you volunteer? If you + volunteer, my orders remain; if not, turn this letter over to + Mr. Kingsley, who will find for me the companion I require. + + "In the event of your coming, you must break your journey at + False Cape and ask for an old man named Slunk. He will give + you a packet; you will give him a dollar, and drive on to Cape + Canaveral, and you will do what is to be done there. From + there to Fort Kissimmee, to Okeechobee, traversing the lake to + the Rita River, where I have marked the trail to Little + Sprite. + + "At Little Sprite I shall await you; beyond that point a + merciful Providence alone can know what awaits us. + + "Yours fraternally, + + "FARRAGO. + + "P.S.--I think that you had better make your will, and suggest + the same idea to the stenographer who is to accompany you. + + F." + +And that was the letter I received while seated comfortably on the +floor of my work-room, surrounded by innocent isopods, all patiently +awaiting scientific investigation. + +And this is what I did: Within twenty-four hours I had assembled the +supplies required--the cage, the woman's clothing, tank, arms and +ammunition, and the chemicals; I had secured accommodations, for that +evening, on the Florida, Volusia, and Fort Lauderdale Railway as far +as Citron City; and I had been interviewing stenographers all day +long, the result of an innocently worded advertisement in the daily +newspapers. + +It was now very close to the time when I must summon a cab and drive +to the ferry; and yet I was still shy one stenographer. + +I had seen scores; they simply would not listen to the proposition. +"Why does a gentleman in the backwoods of Florida want a +stenographer?" they demanded; and as I had not the faintest idea, I +could only say so. I think the majority interviewed concluded I had +escaped from a State institution. + +As the time for departure approached I became desperate, urging and +beseeching applicants to accompany me; but neither sympathy for my +instant need nor desire for salary moved them. + +I waited until the last moment, hoping against hope. Then, with a +groan of despair, I seized luggage and raincoat, made for the door and +flung it open, only to find myself face to face with an attractive +young girl, apparently on the point of pressing the electric button. + +"I'm sorry," I said, "but I have a train to catch." + +She was noticeably attractive in her storm-coat and pretty hat, and I +really was sorry--so sorry that I added: + +"I have about twenty-seven seconds to place at your service before I +go." + +"Twenty will be sufficient," she replied, pleasantly. "I saw your +advertisement for a stenographer--" + +"We require a man," I interposed, hastily. + +"Have you engaged him?" + +"N-no." + +We looked at each other. + +"You wouldn't accept, anyway," I began. + +"How do you know?" + +"You wouldn't leave town, would you?" + +"Yes, if you required it." + +"What? Go to Florida?" + +"Y-yes--if I must." + +"But think of the alligators! Think of the snakes--big, bitey snakes!" + +"Gracious!" she exclaimed, eyes growing bigger. + +"Indians, too!--unreconciled, sulky Seminoles! Fevers! Mud-puddles! +Spiders! And only fifty dollars a week--" + +"I--I'll go," she stammered. + +"Go?" I repeated, grimly; "then you've exactly two and three-quarter +seconds left for preparations." + +Instinctively she raised her little gloved hand and patted her hair. +"I'm ready," she said, unsteadily. + +"One extra second to make your will," I added, stunned by her +self-possession. + +"I--I have nothing to leave--nobody to leave it to," she said, +smiling; "I am ready." + +I took that extra second myself for a lightning course in reflection +upon effects and consequences. + +"It's silly, it's probably murder," I said, "but you're engaged! Now +we must run for it!" + +And that is how I came to engage the services of Miss Helen Barrison +as stenographer. + + + + +XIV + + +At noon on the second day I disembarked from the train at Citron City +with all paraphernalia--cage, chemicals, arsenal, and stenographer; an +accumulation of very dusty impedimenta--all but the stenographer. By +three o'clock our hotel livery-rig was speeding along the beach at +False Cape towards the tall lighthouse looming above the dunes. + +The abode of a gentleman named Slunk was my goal. I sat brooding in +the rickety carriage, still dazed by the rapidity of my flight from +New York; the stenographer sat beside me, blue eyes bright with +excitement, fair hair blowing in the sea-wind. + +Our railway companionship had been of the slightest, also absolutely +formal; for I was too absorbed in conjecturing the meaning of this +journey to be more than absent-mindedly civil; and she, I fancy, had +had time for repentance and perhaps for a little fright, though I +could discover traces of neither. + +I remember she left the train at some city or other where we were held +for an hour; and out of the car-window I saw her returning with a +brand-new grip sack. + +She must have bought clothes, for she continued to remain cool and +fresh in her summer shirt-waists and short outing skirt; and she +looked immaculate now, sitting there beside me, the trace of a smile +curving her red mouth. + +"I'm looking for a personage named Slunk," I observed. + +After a moment's silent consideration of the Atlantic Ocean she said, +"When do my duties begin, Mr. Gilland?" + +"The Lord alone knows," I replied, grimly. "Are you repenting of your +bargain?" + +"I am quite happy," she said, serenely. + +Remorse smote me that I had consented to engage this frail, +pink-and-ivory biped for an enterprise which lay outside the suburbs +of Manhattan. I glanced guiltily at my victim; she sat there, the +incarnation of New York piquancy--a translated denizen of the +metropolis--a slender spirit of the back offices of sky-scrapers. Why +had I lured her hither?--here where the heavy, lavender-tinted +breakers thundered on a lost coast; here where above the dune-jungles +vultures soared, and snowy-headed eagles, hulking along the sands, +tore dead fish and yelped at us as we passed. + +Strange waters, strange skies--a strange, lost land aquiver under an +exotic sun; and there she sat with her wise eyes of a child, +unconcerned, watching the world in perfect confidence. + +"May I pay a little compliment to your pluck?" I asked, amused. + +"Certainly," she said, smiling as the maid of Manhattan alone knows +how to smile--shyly, inquiringly--with a lingering hint of laughter in +the curled lips' corners. Then her sensitive features fell a trifle. +"Not pluck," she said, "but necessity; I had no chance to choose, no +time to wait. My last dollar, Mr. Gilland, is in my purse!" + +With a gay little gesture she drew it from her shirt-front, then, +smiling, sat turning it over and over in her lap. + +The sun fell on her hands, gilding the smooth skin with the first tint +of sunburn. Under the corners of her eyes above the rounded cheeks a +pink stain lay like the first ripening flush on a wild strawberry. +That, too, was the mark left by the caress of wind and sun. I had had +no idea she was so pretty. + +"I think we'll enjoy this adventure," I said; "don't you?" + +"I try to make the best of things," she said, gazing off into the +horizon haze. "Look," she added; "is that a man?" + +A spot far away on the beach caught my eye. At first I thought it was +a pelican--and small wonder, too, for the dumpy, waddling, +goose-necked individual who loomed up resembled a heavy bottomed bird +more than a human being. + +"Do you suppose that could be Mr. Slunk?" asked the stenographer, as +our vehicle drew nearer. + +He looked as though his name ought to be Slunk; he was digging coquina +clams, and he dug with a pecking motion like a water-turkey mastering +a mullet too big for it. + +His name was Slunk; he admitted it when I accused him. Our negro +driver drew rein, and I descended to the sand and gazed on Mr. Slunk. + +He was, as I have said, not impressive, even with the tremendous +background of sky and ocean. + +"I've come something over a thousand miles to see you," I said, +reluctant to admit that I had come as far to see such a specimen of +human architecture. + +A weather-beaten grin stretched the skin that covered his face, and he +shoved a hairy paw into the pockets of his overalls, digging deeply +into profound depths. First he brought to light a twist of South +Carolina tobacco, which he leisurely inserted in his mouth--not, +apparently, for pleasure, but merely to get rid of it. + +The second object excavated from the overalls was a small packet +addressed to me. This he handed to me; I gravely handed him a silver +dollar; he went back to his clam-digging, and I entered the carriage +and drove on. All had been carried out according to the letter of my +instructions so far, and my spirits brightened. + +"If you don't mind I'll read my instructions," I said, in high +good-humor. + +"Pray do not hesitate," she said, smiling in sympathy. + +So I opened the little packet and read: + + "Drive to Cape Canaveral along the beach. You will find a gang + of men at work on a government breakwater. The superintendent + is Mr. Rowan. Show him this letter. + + "FARRAGO." + +Rather disappointed--for I had been expecting to find in the packet +some key to the interesting mystery which had sent Professor Farrago +into the Everglades--I thrust the missive into my pocket and resumed a +study of the immediate landscape. It had not changed as we progressed: +ocean, sand, low dunes crowned with impenetrable tangles of wild bay, +sparkleberry, and live-oak, with here and there a weather-twisted +palmetto sprawling, and here and there the battered blades of cactus +and Spanish-bayonet thrust menacingly forward; and over all the +vultures, sailing, sailing--some mere circling motes lost in the blue +above, some sheering the earth so close that their swiftly sweeping +shadows slanted continually across our road. + +"I detest a buzzard," I said, aloud. + +"I thought they were crows," she confessed. + +"Carrion-crows--yes. + + "'The carrion-crows + Sing, Caw! caw!' + +--only they don't," I added, my song putting me in good-humor once +more. And I glanced askance at the pretty stenographer. + +"It is a pleasure to be employed by agreeable people," she said, +innocently. + +"Oh, I can be much more agreeable than that," I said. + +"Is Professor Farrago--amusing?" she asked. + +"Well--oh, certainly--but not in--in the way I am." + +Suddenly it flashed upon me that my superior was a confirmed hater of +unmarried women. I had clean forgotten it; and now the full import of +what I had done scared me silent. + +"Is anything the matter?" asked Miss Barrison. + +"No--not yet," I said, ominously. + +How on earth could I have overlooked that well-known fact. The hurry +and anxiety, the stress of instant preparation and departure, had +clean driven it from my absent-minded head. + +Jogging on over the sand, I sat silent, cudgelling my brains for a +solution of the disastrous predicament I had gotten into. I pictured +the astonished rage of my superior--my probable dismissal from +employment--perhaps the general overturning and smash-up of the entire +expedition. + +A distant, dark object on the beach concentrated my distracted +thoughts; it must be the breakwater at Cape Canaveral. And it was the +breakwater, swarming with negro workmen, who were swinging great +blocks of coquina into cemented beds, singing and whistling at their +labor. + +I forgot my predicament when I saw a thin white man in sun-helmet and +khaki directing the work from the beach; and as our horses plodded up, +I stepped out and hailed him by name. + +"Yes, my name is Rowan," he said, instantly, turning to meet me. His +sharp, clear eyes included the vehicle and the stenographer, and he +lifted his helmet, then looked squarely at me. + +"My name is Gilland," I said, dropping my voice and stepping nearer. +"I have just come from Bronx Park, New York." + +He bowed, waiting for something more from me; so I presented my +credentials. + +His formal manner changed at once. "Come over here and let us talk a +bit," he said, cordially--then hesitated, glancing at Miss +Barrison--"if your wife would excuse us--" + +The pretty stenographer colored, and I dryly set Mr. Rowan +right--which appeared to disturb him more than his mistake. + +"Pardon me, Mr. Gilland, but you do not propose to take this young +girl into the Everglades, do you?" + +"That's what I had proposed to do," I said, brusquely. + +Perfectly aware that I resented his inquiry, he cast a perplexed and +troubled glance at her, then slowly led the way to a great block of +sun-warmed coquina, where he sat down, motioning me to do the same. + +"I see," he said, "that you don't know just where you are going or +just what you are expected to do." + +"No, I don't," I said. + +"Well, I'll tell you, then. You are going into the devil's own country +to look for something that I fled five hundred miles to avoid." + +"Is that so?" I said, uneasily. + +"That is so, Mr. Gilland." + +"Oh! And what is this object that I am to look for and from which you +fled five hundred miles?" + +"I don't know." + +"You don't know what you ran away from?" + +"No, sir. Perhaps if I had known I should have run a thousand miles." + +We eyed one another. + +"You think, then, that I'd better send Miss Barrison back to New +York?" I asked. + +"I certainly do. It may be murder to take her." + +"Then I'll do it!" I said, nervously. "Back she goes from the first +railroad station." + +In a flash the thought came to me that here was a way to avoid the +wrath of Professor Farrago--and a good excuse, too. He might forgive +my not bringing a man as stenographer in view of my limited time; he +never would forgive my presenting him with a woman. + +"She must go back," I repeated; and it rather surprised me to find +myself already anticipating loneliness--something that never in all my +travels had I experienced before. + +"By the first train," I added, firmly, disliking Mr. Rowan without any +reason except that he had suddenly deprived me of my stenographer. + +"What I have to tell you," he began, lighting a cigarette, the mate to +which I declined, "is this: Three years ago, before I entered this +contracting business, I was in the government employ as officer in the +Coast Survey. Our duties took us into Florida waters; we were months +at a time working on shore." + +He pulled thoughtfully at his cigarette and blew a light cloud into +the air. + +"I had leave for a month once; and like an ass I prepared to spend it +in a hunting-trip among the Everglades." + +He crossed his lean legs and gazed meditatively at his cigarette. + +"I believe," he went on, "that we penetrated the Everglades farther +than any white man who ever lived to return. There's nothing very +dismal about the Everglades--the greater part, I mean. You get high +and low hummock, marshes, creeks, lakes, and all that. If you get +lost, you're a goner. If you acquire fever, you're as well off as the +seraphim--and not a whit better. There are the usual animals +there--bears (little black fellows) lynxes, deer, panthers, +alligators, and a few stray crocodiles. As for snakes, of course +they're there, moccasins a-plenty, some rattlers, but, after all, not +as many snakes as one finds in Alabama, or even northern Florida and +Georgia. + +"The Seminoles won't help you--won't even talk to you. They're a +sullen pack--but not murderous, as far as I know. Beyond their inner +limits lie the unknown regions." + +He bit the wet end from his cigarette. + +"I went there," he said; "I came out as soon as I could." + +"Why?" + +"Well--for one thing, my companion died of fright." + +"Fright? What at?" + +"Well, there's something in there." + +"What?" + +He fixed a penetrating gaze on me. "I don't know, Mr. Gilland." + +"Did you see anything to frighten you?" I insisted. + +"No, but I felt something." He dropped his cigarette and ground it +into the sand viciously. "To cut it short," he said, "I am most +unwillingly led to believe that there are--creatures--of some sort in +the Everglades--living creatures quite as large as you or I--and that +they are perfectly transparent--as transparent as a colorless +jellyfish." + +Instantly the veiled import of Professor Farrago's letter was made +clear to me. He, too, believed that. + +"It embarrasses me like the devil to say such a thing," continued +Rowan, digging in the sand with his spurred heels. "It seems so--so +like a whopping lie--it seems so childish and ridiculous--so cursed +cheap! But I fled; and there you are. I might add," he said, +indifferently, "that I have the ordinary portion of courage allotted +to normal men." + +"But what do you believe these--these animals to be?" I asked, +fascinated. + +"I don't know." An obstinate look came into his eyes. "I don't know, +and I absolutely refuse to speculate for the benefit of anybody. I +wouldn't do it for my friend Professor Farrago; and I'm not going to +do it for you," he ended, laughing a rather grim laugh that somehow +jarred me into realizing the amazing import of his story. For I did +not doubt it, strange as it was--fantastic, incredible though it +sounded in the ears of a scientist. + +What it was that carried conviction I do not know--perhaps the fact +that my superior credited it; perhaps the manner of narration. Told in +quiet, commonplace phrases, by an exceedingly practical and +unimaginative young man who was plainly embarrassed in the telling, +the story rang out like a shout in a canon, startling because of the +absolute lack of emphasis employed in the telling. + +"Professor Farrago asked me to speak of this to no one except the man +who should come to his assistance. He desired the first chance of +clearing this--this rather perplexing matter. No doubt he didn't want +exploring parties prowling about him," added Rowan, smiling. "But +there's no fear of that, I fancy. I never expect to tell that story +again to anybody; I shouldn't have told him, only somehow it's worried +me for three years, and though I was deadly afraid of ridicule, I +finally made up my mind that science ought to have a hack at it. + +"When I was in New York last winter I summoned up courage and wrote +Professor Farrago. He came to see me at the Holland House that same +evening; I told him as much as I ever shall tell anybody. That is all, +Mr. Gilland." + +For a long time I sat silent, musing over the strange words. After a +while I asked him whether Professor Farrago was supplied with +provisions; and he said he was; that a great store of staples and tins +of concentrated rations had been carried in as far as Little Sprite +Lake; that Professor Farrago was now there alone, having insisted upon +dismissing all those he had employed. + +"There was no practical use for a guide," added Rowan, "because no +cracker, no Indian, and no guide knows the region beyond the Seminole +country." + +I rose, thanking him and offering my hand. He took it and shook it in +manly fashion, saying: "I consider Professor Farrago a very brave man; +I may say the same of any man who volunteers to accompany him. +Good-bye, Mr. Gilland; I most earnestly wish for your success. +Professor Farrago left this letter for you." + +And that was all. I climbed back into the rickety carriage, carrying +my unopened letter; the negro driver cracked his whip and whistled, +and the horses trotted inland over a fine shell road which was to lead +us across Verbena Junction to Citron City. Half an hour later we +crossed the tracks at Verbena and turned into a broad marl road. This +aroused me from my deep and speculative reverie, and after a few +moments I asked Miss Barrison's indulgence and read the letter from +Professor Farrago which Mr. Rowan had given me: + + "DEAR MR. GILLAND,--You now know all I dared not write, + fearing to bring a swarm of explorers about my ears in case + the letter was lost, and found by unscrupulous meddlers. If + you still are willing to volunteer, knowing all that I know, + join me as soon as possible. If family considerations deter + you from taking what perhaps is an insane risk, I shall not + expect you to join me. In that event, return to New York + immediately and send Kingsley. + + "Yours, F." + +"What the deuce is the matter with him!" I exclaimed, irritably. "I'll +take any chances Kingsley does!" + +Miss Barrison looked up in surprise. + +"Miss Barrison," I said, plunging into the subject headfirst, "I'm +extremely sorry, but I have news that forces me to believe the journey +too dangerous for you to attempt, so I think that it would be much +better--" The consternation in her pretty face checked me. + +"I'm awfully sorry," I muttered, appalled by her silence. + +"But--but you engaged me!" + +"I know it--I should not have done it. I only--" + +"But you did engage me, didn't you?" + +"I believe that I did--er--oh, of course--" + +"But a verbal contract is binding between honorable people, isn't it, +Mr. Gilland?" + +"Yes, but--" + +"And ours was a verbal contract; and in consideration you paid me my +first week's salary, and I bought shirt-waists and a short skirt and +three changes of--and tooth-brushes and--" + +"I know, I know," I groaned. "But I'll fix all that." + +"You can't if you break your contract." + +"Why not?" + +"Because," she said, flushing up, "I should not accept." + +"You don't understand--" + +"Really I do. You are going into a dangerous country and you're afraid +I'll be frightened." + +"It's something like that." + +"Tell me what are the dangers?" + +"Alligators, big, bitey snakes--" + +"Oh, you've said all that before!" + +"Seminoles--" + +"And that too. What else is there? Did the young man in the sun-helmet +tell you of something worse?" + +"Yes--much worse! Something so dreadfully horrible that--" + +"What?" + +"I am not at liberty to tell you, Miss Barrison," I said, striving to +appear shocked. + +"It would not make any difference anyway," she observed, calmly. "I'm +not afraid of anything in the world." + +"Yes, you are!" I said. "Listen to me; I'd be awfully glad to have you +go--I--I really had no idea how I'd miss you--miss such pleasant +companionship. But it is not possible--" The recollection of Professor +Farrago's aversion suddenly returned. "No, no," I said, "it can't be +done. I'm most unhappy over this mistake of mine; please don't look as +though you were ready to cry!" + +"Don't discharge me, Mr. Gilland," she said. + +"I'm a brute to do it, but I must; I was a bigger brute to engage you, +but I did. Don't--please don't look at me that way, Miss Barrison! As +a matter of fact, I'm tender-hearted and I can't endure it." + +"If you only knew what I had been through you wouldn't send me away," +she said, in a low voice. "It took my last penny to clothe myself and +pay for the last lesson at the college of stenography. I--I lived on +almost nothing for weeks; every respectable place was filled; I walked +and walked and walked, and nobody wanted me--they all required people +with experience--and how can I have experience until I begin, Mr. +Gilland? I was perfectly desperate when I went to see you, knowing +that you had advertised for a man--" The slightest break in her clear +voice scared me. + +"I'm not going to cry," she said, striving to smile. "If I must go, I +will go. I--I didn't mean to say all this--but--but I've been so--so +discouraged;--and you were not very cross with me--" + +Smitten with remorse, I picked up her hand and fell to patting it +violently, trying to think of something to say. The exercise did not +appear to stimulate my wits. + +"Then--then I'm to go with you?" she asked. + +"I will see," I said, weakly, "but I fear there's trouble ahead for +this expedition." + +"I fear there is," she agreed, in a cheerful voice. "You have a rifle +and a cage in your luggage. Are you going to trap Indians and have me +report their language?" + +"No, I'm not going to trap Indians," I said, sharply. "They may trap +us--but that's a detail. What I want to say to you is this: Professor +Farrago detests unmarried women, and I forgot it when I engaged you." + +"Oh, is that all?" she asked, laughing. + +"Not all, but enough to cost me my position." + +"How absurd! Why, there are millions of things we might +do!--millions!" + +"What's one of them?" I inquired. + +"Why, we might pretend to be married!" Her frank and absolutely +innocent delight in this suggestion was refreshing, but troubling. + +"We would have to be demonstrative to make that story go," I said. + +"Why? Well-bred people are not demonstrative in public," she retorted, +turning a trifle pink. + +"No, but in private--" + +"I think there is no necessity for carrying a pleasantry into our +private life," she said, in a perfectly amiable voice. "Anyway, if +Professor Farrago's feelings are to be spared, no sacrifice on the +part of a mere girl could be too great," she added, gayly; "I will +wear men's clothes if you wish." + +"You may have to anyhow in the jungle," I said; "and as it's not an +uncommon thing these days, nobody would ever take you for anything +except what you are--a very wilful and plucky and persistent and--" + +"And what, Mr. Gilland?" + +"And attractive," I muttered. + +"Thank you, Mr. Gilland." + +"You're welcome," I snapped. The near whistle of a locomotive warned +us, and I rose in the carriage, looking out across the sand-hills. + +"That is probably our train," observed the pretty stenographer. + +"_Our_ train!" + +"Yes; isn't it?" + +"Then you insist--" + +"Ah, no, Mr. Gilland; I only trust implicitly in my employer." + +"We'll wait till we get to Citron City," I said, weakly; "then it will +be time enough to discuss the situation, won't it?" + +"Yes, indeed," she said, smiling; but she knew, and I already feared, +that the situation no longer admitted of discussion. In a few moments +more we emerged, without warning, from the scrub-crested sand-hills +into the single white street of Citron City, where China-trees hung +heavy with bloom, and magnolias, already set with perfumed candelabra, +spread soft, checkered shadows over the marl. + +The train lay at the station, oceans of heavy, black smoke lazily +flowing from the locomotive; negroes were hoisting empty fruit-crates +aboard the baggage-car, through the door of which I caught a glimpse +of my steel cage and remaining paraphernalia, all securely crated. + +"Telegram hyah foh Mistuh Gilland," remarked the operator, lounging at +his window as we descended from our dusty vehicle. He had not +addressed himself to anybody in particular, but I said that I was Mr. +Gilland, and he produced the envelope. "Toted in from Okeechobee?" he +inquired, listlessly. + +"Probably; it's signed 'Farrago,' isn't it?" + +"It's foh yoh, suh, I reckon," said the operator, handing it out with +a yawn. Then he removed his hat and fanned his head, which was +perfectly bald. + +I opened the yellow envelope. "Get me a good dog with points," was the +laconic message; and it irritated me to receive such idiotic +instructions at such a time and in such a place. A good dog? Where the +mischief could I find a dog in a town consisting of ten houses and a +water-tank? I said as much to the bald-headed operator, who smiled +wearily and replaced his hat: "Dawg? They's moh houn'-dawgs in Citron +City than they's wood-ticks to keep them busy. I reckon a dollah 'll +do a heap foh you, suh." + +"Could you get me a dog for a dollar?" I asked;--"one with points?" + +"Points? I sholy can, suh;--plenty of points. What kind of dawg do yoh +requiah, suh?--live dawg? daid dawg? houn'-dawg? raid-dawg? hawg-dawg? +coon-dawg?--" + +The locomotive emitted a long, lazy, softly modulated and thoroughly +Southern toot. I handed the operator a silver dollar, and he presently +emerged from his office and slouched off up the street, while I walked +with Miss Barrison to the station platform, where I resumed the +discussion of her future movements. + +"You are very young to take such a risk," I said, gravely. "Had I not +better buy your ticket back to New York? The north-bound train meets +this one. I suppose we are waiting for it now--" I stopped, conscious +of her impatience. + +Her face flushed brightly: "Yes; I think it best. I have embarrassed +you too long already--" + +"Don't say that!" I muttered. "I--I--shall be deadly bored without +you." + +"I am not an entertainer, only a stenographer," she said, curtly. +"Please get me my ticket, Mr. Gilland." + +She gazed at me from the car-platform; the locomotive tooted two +drawling toots. + +"It is for your sake," I said, avoiding her gaze as the far-off +whistle of the north-bound express came floating out of the blue +distance. + +She did not answer; I fished out my watch, regarding it in silence, +listening to the hum of the approaching train, which ought presently +to bear her away into the North, where nothing could menace her except +the brilliant pitfalls of a Christian civilization. But I stood +there, temporizing, unable to utter a word as her train shot by us +with a rush, slower, slower, and finally stopped, with a long-drawn +sigh from the air-brakes. + +At that instant the telegraph-operator appeared, carrying a dog by the +scruff of the neck--a sad-eyed, ewe-necked dog, from the four corners +of which dangled enormous, cushion-like paws. He yelped when he beheld +me. Miss Barrison leaned down from the car-platform and took the +animal into her arms, uttering a suppressed exclamation of pity as she +lifted him. + +"You have your hands full," she said to me; "I'll take him into the +car for you." + +She mounted the steps; I followed with the valises, striving to get a +good view of my acquisition over her shoulder. + +"That isn't the kind of dog I wanted!" I repeated again and again, +inspecting the animal as it sprawled on the floor of the car at the +edge of Miss Barrison's skirt. "That dog is all voice and feet and +emotion! What makes it stick up its paws like that? I don't want that +dog and I'm not going to identify myself with it! Where's the +operator--" + +I turned towards the car-window; the operator's bald head was visible +on a line with the sill, and I made motions at him. He bowed with +courtly grace, as though I were thanking him. + +"I'm not!" I cried, shaking my head. "I wanted a dog with points--not +the kind of points that stick up all over this dog. Take him away!" + +The operator's head appeared to be gliding out of my range of vision; +then the windows of the north-bound train slid past, faster and +faster. A melancholy grace-note from the dog, a jolt, and I turned +around, appalled. + +"This train is going," I stammered, "and you are on it!" + +Miss Barrison sprang up and started towards the door, and I sped after +her. + +"I can jump," she said, breathlessly, edging out to the platform; +"please let me! There is time yet--if you only wouldn't hold me--so +tight--" + +A few moments later we walked slowly back together through the car and +took seats facing one another. + +Between us sat the hound-dog, a prey to melancholy unutterable. + + + + +XV + + +It was on Sunday when I awoke to the realization that I had quitted +civilization and was afloat on an unfamiliar body of water in an open +boat containing-- + + One light steel cage, + One rifle and ammunition, + One stenographer, + Three ounces rosium oxide, + One hound-dog, + Two valises. + +A playful wave slopped over the bow and I lost count; but the pretty +stenographer made the inventory, while I resumed the oars, and the dog +punctured the primeval silence with staccato yelps. + +A few minutes later everything and everybody was accounted for; the +sky was blue and the palms waved, and several species of dicky-birds +tuned up as I pulled with powerful strokes out into the sunny waters +of Little Sprite Lake, now within a few miles of my journey's end. + +From ponds hidden in the marshes herons rose in lazily laborious +flight, flapping low across the water; high in the cypress yellow-eyed +ospreys bent crested heads to watch our progress; sun-baked +alligators, lying heavily in the shoreward sedge, slid open, glassy +eyes as we passed. + +"Even the 'gators make eyes at you," I said, resting on my oars. + +We were on terms of badinage. + +"Who was it who shed crocodile tears at the prospect of shipping me +North?" she inquired. + +"Speaking of tears," I observed, "somebody is likely to shed a number +when Professor Farrago is picked up." + +"Pooh!" she said, and snapped her pretty, sun-tanned fingers; and I +resumed the oars in time to avoid shipwreck on a large mud-bar. + +She reclined in the stern, serenely occupied with the view, now and +then caressing the discouraged dog, now and then patting her hair +where the wind had loosened a bright strand. + +"If Professor Farrago didn't expect a woman stenographer," she said, +abruptly, "why did he instruct you to bring a complete outfit of +woman's clothing?" + +"I don't know," I said, tartly. + +"But you bought them. Are they for a young woman or an old woman?" + +"I don't know; I sent a messenger to a department store. I don't know +what he bought." + +"Didn't you look them over?" + +"No. Why? I should have been no wiser. I fancy they're all right, +because the bill was eighteen hundred dollars--" + +The pretty stenographer sat up abruptly. + +"Is that much?" I asked, uneasily. "I've always heard women's clothing +was expensive. Wasn't it enough? I told the boy to order the +best;--Professor Farrago always requires the very best scientific +instruments, and--I listed the clothes as scientific accessories--that +being the object of this expedition--_What_ are you laughing at?" + +When it pleased her to recover her gravity she announced her desire to +inspect and repack the clothing; but I refused. + +"They're for Professor Farrago," I said. "I don't know what he wants +of them. I don't suppose he intends to wear 'em and caper about the +jungle, but they're his. I got them because he told me to. I bought a +cage, too, to fit myself, but I don't suppose he means to put me in +it. Perhaps," I added, "he may invite you into it." + +"Let me refold the gowns," she pleaded, persuasively. "What does a +clumsy man know about packing such clothing as that? If you don't, +they'll be ruined. It's a shame to drag those boxes about through mud +and water!" + +So we made a landing, and lifted out and unlocked the boxes. All I +could see inside were mounds of lace and ribbons, and with a vague +idea that Miss Barrison needed no assistance I returned to the boat +and sat down to smoke until she was ready. + +When she summoned me her face was flushed and her eyes bright. + +"Those are certainly the most beautiful things!" she said, softly. +"Why, it is like a bride's trousseau--absolutely complete--all except +the bridal gown--" + +"Isn't there a dress there?" I exclaimed, in alarm. + +"No--not a day-dress." + +"Night-dresses!" I shrieked. "He doesn't want women's night-dresses! +He's a bachelor! Good Heavens! I've done it this time!" + +"But--but who is to wear them?" she asked. + +"How do I know? I don't know anything; I can only presume that he +doesn't intend to open a department store in the Everglades. And if +any lady is to wear garments in his vicinity, I assume that those +garments are to be anything except diaphanous!... Please take your +seat in the boat, Miss Barrison. I want to row and think." + +I had had my fill of exercise and thought when, about four o'clock in +the afternoon, Miss Barrison directed my attention to a point of palms +jutting out into the water about a mile to the southward. + +"That's Farrago!" I exclaimed, catching sight of a United States flag +floating majestically from a bamboo-pole. "Give me the megaphone, if +you please." + +She handed me the instrument; I hailed the shore; and presently a man +appeared under the palms at the water's edge. + +"Hello!" I roared, trying to inject cheerfulness into the hollow +bellow. "How are you, professor?" + +The answer came distinctly across the water: + +"_Who_ is that with you?" + +My lips were buried in the megaphone; I strove to speak; I only +produced a ghastly, chuckling sound. + +"Of course you expect to tell the truth," observed the pretty +stenographer, quietly. + +I removed my lips from the megaphone and looked around at her. She +returned my gaze with a disturbing smile. + +"I want to mitigate the blow," I said, hoarsely. "Tell me how." + +"I'm sure I don't know," she said, sweetly. + +"Well, _I_ do!" I fairly barked, and seizing the megaphone again, I +set it to my lips and roared, "My fiancee!" + +"Good gracious!" exclaimed Miss Barrison, in consternation, "I thought +you were going to tell the truth!" + +"Don't do that or you'll upset us," I snapped--"I'm telling the truth; +I've engaged myself to you; I did it mentally before I bellowed." + +"But--" + +"You know as well as I do what engagements mean," I said, picking up +the oars and digging them deep in the blue water. + +She assented uncertainly. + +A few minutes more of vigorous rowing brought us to a muddy landing +under a cluster of tall palmettos, where a gasoline launch lay. +Professor Farrago came down to the shore as I landed, and I walked +ahead to meet him. He was the maddest man I ever saw. But I was his +match, for I was desperate. + +"What the devil--" he began, under his breath. + +"Nonsense!" I said, deliberately. "An engaged woman is practically +married already, because marriages are made in heaven." + +"Good Lord!" he gasped, "are you mad, Gilland? I sent for a +stenographer--" + +"Miss Barrison is a stenographer," I said, calmly; and before he could +recover I had presented him, and left them face to face, washing my +hands of the whole affair. + +Unloading the boat and carrying the luggage up under the palms, I +heard her saying: + +"No, I am not in the least afraid of snakes, and I am quite ready to +begin my duties." + +And he: "Mr. Gilland is a young man who--er--lacks practical +experience." + +And she: "Mr. Gilland has been most thoughtful for my comfort. The +journey has been perfectly heavenly." + +And he, clumsily: "Ahem!--the--er--celestial aspect of your journey +has--er--doubtless been colored by--er--the prospect of +your--er--approaching nuptials--" + +She, hastily: "Oh, I do not think so, professor." + +"Idiot!" I muttered, dragging the dog to the shore, where his yelps +brought the professor hurrying. + +"Is _that_ the dog?" he inquired, adjusting his spectacles. + +"That's the dog," I said. "He's full of points, you see?" + +"Oh," mused the professor; "I thought he was full of--" He hesitated, +inspecting the animal, who, nose to the ground, stood investigating a +smell of some sort. + +"See," I said, with enthusiasm, "he's found a scent; he's trailing it +already! Now he's rolling on it!" + +"He's rolling on one of our concentrated food lozenges," said the +professor, dryly. "Tie him up, Mr. Gilland, and ask Mrs. Gilland to +come up to camp. Your room is ready." + +"Rooms," I corrected; "she isn't Mrs. Gilland yet," I added, with a +forced smile. + +"But you're practically married," observed the professor, "as you +pointed out to me. And if she's practically Mrs. Gilland, why not say +so?" + +"Don't, all the same," I snarled. + +"But marriages are made in--" + +I cast a desperate eye upon him. + +From that moment, whenever we were alone together, he made a target of +me. I never had supposed him humorously vindictive; he was, and his +apparently innocent mistakes almost turned my hair gray. + +But to Miss Barrison he was kind and courteous, and for a time +over-serious. Observing him, I could never detect the slightest +symptom of dislike for her sex--a failing which common rumor had +always credited him with to the verge of absolute rudeness. + +On the contrary, it was perfectly plain to anybody that he liked her. +There was in his manner towards her a mixture of business formality +and the deferential attitude of a gentleman. + +We were seated, just before sunset, outside of the hut built of +palmetto logs, when Professor Farrago, addressing us both, began the +explanation of our future duties. + +Miss Barrison, it appeared, was to note everything said by himself, +making several shorthand copies by evening. In other words, she was to +report every scrap of conversation she heard while in the Everglades. +And she nodded intelligently as he finished, and drew pad and pencil +from the pocket of her walking-skirt, jotting down his instructions as +a beginning. I could see that he was pleased. + +"The reason I do this," he said, "is because I do not wish to hide +anything that transpires while we are on this expedition. Only the +most scrupulously minute record can satisfy me; no details are too +small to merit record; I demand and I court from my fellow-scientists +and from the public the fullest investigation." + +He smiled slightly, turning towards me. + +"You know, Mr. Gilland, how dangerous to the reputation of a +scientific man is any line of investigation into the unusual. If a man +once is even suspected of charlatanism, of sensationalism, of turning +his attention to any phenomena not strictly within the proper pale of +scientific investigation, that man is doomed to ridicule; his +profession disowns him; he becomes a man without honor, without +authority. Is it not so?" + +"Yes," I said. + +"Therefore," he resumed, thoughtfully, "as I do most firmly believe in +the course I am now pursuing, whether I succeed or fail I desire a +true and minute record made, hiding nothing of what may be said or +done. A stenographer alone can give this to the world, while I can +only supplement it with a description of events--if I live to +transcribe them." + +Sunk in profound reverie he sat there silent under the great, smooth +palm-tree--a venerable figure in his yellow dressing-gown and carpet +slippers. Seated side by side, we waited, a trifle awed. I could hear +the soft breathing of the pretty stenographer beside me. + +"First of all," said Professor Farrago, looking up, "I must be able to +trust those who are here to aid me." + +"I--I will be faithful," said the girl, in a low voice. + +"I do not doubt you, my child," he said; "nor you, Gilland. And so I +am going to tell you this much now--more, I hope, later." + +And he sat up straight, lifting an impressive forefinger. + +"Mr. Rowan, lately an officer of our Coast Survey, wrote me a letter +from the Holland House in New York--a letter so strange that, on +reading it, I immediately repaired to his hotel, where for hours we +talked together. + +"The result of that conference is this expedition. + +"I have now been here two months, and I am satisfied of certain facts. +First, there do exist in this unexplored wilderness certain forms of +life which are solid and palpable, but transparent and practically +invisible. Second, these living creatures belong to the animal +kingdom, are warm-blooded vertebrates, possess powers of locomotion, +but whether that of flight I am not certain. Third, they appear to +possess such senses as we enjoy--smell, touch, sight, hearing, and no +doubt the sense of taste. Fourth, their skin is smooth to the touch, +and the temperature of the epidermis appears to approximate that of a +normal human being. Fifth and last, whether bipeds or quadrupeds I do +not know, though all evidence appears to confirm my theory that they +walk erect. One pair of their limbs appear to terminate in a sort of +foot--like a delicately shaped human foot, except that there appear to +be no toes. The other pair of limbs terminate in something that, from +the single instance I experienced, seemed to resemble soft but firm +antennae or, perhaps, digitated palpi--" + +"Feelers!" I blurted out. + +"I don't know, but I think so. Once, when I was standing in the +forest, perfectly aware that creatures I could not see had stealthily +surrounded me, the tension was brought to a crisis when over my face, +from cheek to chin, stole a soft something, brushing the skin as +delicately as a child's fingers might brush it." + +"Good Lord!" I breathed. + +A care-worn smile crept into his eyes. "A test for nerves, you think, +Mr. Gilland? I agree with you. Nobody fears what anybody can see." + +There came the slightest movement beside me. + +"Are you trembling?" I asked, turning. + +"I was writing," she replied, steadily. "Did my elbow touch you?" + +"By-the-way," said Professor Farrago, "I fear I forgot to congratulate +you upon your choice of a stenographer, Mr. Gilland." + +A rosy light stole over her pale face. + +"Am I to record that too?" she asked, raising her blue eyes. + +"Certainly," he replied, gravely. + +"But, professor," I began, a prey to increasing excitement, "do you +propose to attempt the capture of one of these animals?" + +"That is what the cage is for," he said. "I supposed you had guessed +that." + +"I had," murmured the pretty stenographer. + +"I do not doubt it," said Professor Farrago, gravely. + +"What are the chemicals for--and the tank and hose attachment?" + +"Think, Mr. Gilland." + +"I can't; I'm almost stunned by what you tell me." + +He laughed. "The rosium oxide and salts of strontium are to be dumped +into the tank together. They'll effervesce, of course." + +"Of course," I muttered. + +"And I can throw a rose-colored spray over any object by the hose +attachment, can't I?" + +"Yes." + +"Well, I tried it on a transparent jelly-fish and it became perfectly +visible and of a beautiful rose-color: and I tried it on rock-crystal, +and on glass, and on pure gelatine, and all became suffused with a +delicate pink glow, which lasted for hours or minutes according to the +substance.... Now you understand, don't you?" + +"Yes; you want to see what sort of creature you have to deal with." + +"Exactly; so when I've trapped it I am going to spray it." He turned +half humorously towards the stenographer: "I fancy you understood long +before Mr. Gilland did." + +"I don't think so," she said, with a sidelong lifting of the heavy +lashes; and I caught the color of her eyes for a second. + +"You see how Miss Barrison spares your feelings," observed Professor +Farrago, dryly. "She owes you little gratitude for bringing her here, +yet she proves a generous victim." + +"Oh, I am very grateful for this rarest of chances!" she said, shyly. +"To be among the first in the world to discover such wonders ought to +make me very grateful to the man who gave me the opportunity." + +"Do you mean Mr. Gilland?" asked the professor, laughing. + +I had never before seen Professor Farrago laugh such a care-free +laugh; I had never suspected him of harboring even an embryo of the +social graces. Dry as dust, sapless as steel, precise as the magnetic +needle, he had hitherto been to me the mummified embodiment of science +militant. Now, in the guise of a perfectly human and genial old +gentleman, I scarcely recognized my superior of the Bronx Park +society. And as a woman-hater he was a miserable failure. + +"Heavens," I thought to myself, "am I becoming jealous of my revered +professor's social success with a stray stenographer?" I felt mean, +and I probably looked it, and I was glad that telepathy did not permit +Miss Barrison to record my secret and unworthy ruminations. + +The professor was saying: "These transparent creatures break off +berries and fruits and branches; I have seen a flower, too, plucked +from its stem by invisible digits and borne swiftly through the +forest--only the flower visible, apparently speeding through the air +and out of sight among the thickets. + +"I have found the footprints that I described to you, usually on the +edge of a stream or in the soft loam along some forest lake or lost +lagoon. + +"Again and again I have been conscious in the forest that unseen eyes +were fixed on me, that unseen shapes were following me. Never but that +one time did these invisible creatures close in around me and venture +to touch me. + +"They may be weak; their structure may be frail, and they may be +incapable of violence or harm, but the depth of the footprints +indicates a weight of at least one hundred and thirty pounds, and it +certainly requires some muscular strength to break off a branch of +wild guavas." + +He bent his noble head, thoughtfully regarding the design on his +slippers. + +"What was the rifle for?" I asked. + +"Defence, not aggression," he said, simply. + +"And the camera?" + +"A camera record is necessary in these days of bad artists." + +I hesitated, glancing at Miss Barrison. She was still writing, her +pretty head bent over the pad in her lap. + +"And the clothing?" I asked, carelessly. + +"Did you get it?" he demanded. + +"Of course--" I glanced at Miss Barrison. "There's no use writing down +everything, is there?" + +"Everything must be recorded," said Professor Farrago, inflexibly. +"What clothing did you buy?" + +"I forgot the gown," I said, getting red about the ears. + +"Forgot the gown!" he repeated. + +"Yes--one kind of gown--the day kind. I--I got the other kind." + +He was annoyed; so was I. After a moment he got up, and crossing to +the log cabin, opened one of the boxes of apparel. + +"Is it what you wanted?" I inquired. + +"Y-es, I presume so," he replied, visibly perplexed. + +"It's the best to be had," said I. + +"That's quite right," he said, musingly. "We use only the best of +everything at Bronx Park. It is traditional with us, you know." + +Curiosity pushed me. "Well, what on earth is it for?" I broke out. + +He looked at me gravely over the tops of his spectacles--a striking +and inspiring figure in his yellow flannel dressing-gown and +slippers. + +"I shall tell you some day--perhaps," he said, mildly. "Good-night, +Miss Barrison; good-night, Mr. Gilland. You will find extra blankets +on your bunk--" + +"What!" I cried. + +"Bunks," he said, and shut the door. + + + + +XVI + + +"There is something weird about this whole proceeding," I observed to +the pretty stenographer next morning. + +"These pies will be weird if you don't stop talking to me," she said, +opening the doors of Professor Farrago's portable camping-oven and +peeping in at the fragrant pastry. + +The professor had gone off somewhere into the woods early that +morning. As he was not in the habit of talking to himself, the +services of Miss Barrison were not required. Before he started, +however, he came to her with a request for a dozen pies, the +construction of which he asked if she understood. She had been to +cooking-school in more prosperous days, and she mentioned it; so at +his earnest solicitation she undertook to bake for him twelve +apple-pies; and she was now attempting it, assisted by advice from me. + +"Are they burned?" I asked, sniffing the air. + +"No, they are not burned, Mr. Gilland, but my finger is," she +retorted, stepping back to examine the damage. + +I offered sympathy and witch-hazel, but she would have none of my +offerings, and presently returned to her pies. + +"We can't eat all that pastry," I protested. + +"Professor Farrago said they were not for us to eat," she said, +dusting each pie with powdered sugar. + +"Well, what are they for? The dog? Or are they simply objets d'art to +adorn the shanty--" + +"You annoy me," she said. + +"The pies annoy me; won't you tell me what they're for?" + +"I have a pretty fair idea what they're for," she observed, tossing +her head. "Haven't you?" + +"No. What?" + +"These pies are for bait." + +"To bait hooks with?" I exclaimed. + +"Hooks! No, you silly man. They're for baiting the cage. He means to +trap these transparent creatures in a cage baited with pie." + +She laughed scornfully; inserted the burned tip of her finger in her +mouth and stood looking at me defiantly like a flushed and bright-eyed +school-girl. + +"You think you're teasing me," she said; "but you do not realize what +a singularly slow-minded young man you are." + +I stopped laughing. "How did you come to the conclusion that pies were +to be used for such a purpose?" I asked. + +"I deduce," she observed, with an airy wave of her disengaged hand. + +"Your deductions are weird--like everything else in this vicinity. +Pies to catch invisible monsters? Pooh!" + +"You're not particularly complimentary, are you?" she said. + +"Not particularly; but I could be, with you for my inspiration. I +could even be enthusiastic--" + +"About my pies?" + +"No--about your eyes." + +"You are very frivolous--for a scientist," she said, scornfully; +"please subdue your enthusiasm and bring me some wood. This fire is +almost out." + +When I had brought the wood, she presented me with a pail of hot water +and pointed at the dishes on the breakfast-table. + +"Never!" I cried, revolted. + +"Then I suppose I must do them--" + +She looked pensively at her scorched finger-tip, and, pursing up her +red lips, blew a gentle breath to cool it. + +"I'll do the dishes," I said. + +Splashing and slushing the cups and saucers about in the hot water, I +reflected upon the events of the last few days. The dog, stupefied by +unwonted abundance of food, lay in the sunshine, sleeping the sleep of +repletion; the pretty stenographer, all rosy from her culinary +exertions, was removing the pies and setting them in neat rows to +cool. + +"There," she said, with a sigh; "now I will dry the dishes for you.... +You didn't mention the fact, when you engaged me, that I was also +expected to do general housework." + +"I didn't engage you," I said, maliciously; "you engaged me, you +know." + +She regarded me disdainfully, nose uptilted. + +"How thoroughly disagreeable you can be!" she said. "Dry your own +dishes. I'm going for a stroll." + +"May I join--" + +"You may _not_! I shall go so far that you cannot possibly discover +me." + +I watched her forestward progress; she sauntered for about thirty +yards along the lake and presently sat down in plain sight under a +huge live-oak. + +A few moments later I had completed my task as general bottle-washer, +and I cast about for something to occupy me. + +First I approached and politely caressed the satiated dog. He woke up, +regarded me with dully meditative eyes, yawned, and went to sleep +again. Never a flop of tail to indicate gratitude for blandishments, +never the faintest symptom of canine appreciation. + +Chilled by my reception, I moused about for a while, poking into boxes +and bundles; then raised my head and inspected the landscape. Through +the vista of trees the pink shirt-waist of the pretty stenographer +glimmered like a rose blooming in the wilderness. + +From whatever point I viewed the prospect that pink spot seemed to +intrude; I turned my back and examined the jungle, but there it was +repeated in a hundred pink blossoms among the massed thickets; I +looked up into the tree-tops, where pink mosses spotted the palms; I +looked out over the lake, and I saw it in my mind's eye pinker than +ever. It was certainly a case of pink-eye. + +"I'll go for a stroll, too; it's a free country," I muttered. + +After I had strolled in a complete circle I found myself within three +feet of a pink shirt-waist. + +"I beg your pardon," I said; "I had no inten--" + +"I thought you were never coming," she said, amiably. + +"How is your finger?" I asked. + +She held it up. I took it gingerly; it was smooth and faintly rosy at +the tip. + +"Does it hurt?" I inquired. + +"Dreadfully. Your hands feel so cool--" + +After a silence she said, "Thank you, that has cooled the burning." + +"I am determined," said I, "to expel the fire from your finger if it +takes hours and hours." And I seated myself with that intention. + +For a while she talked, making innocent observations concerning the +tropical foliage surrounding us. Then silence crept in between us, +accentuated by the brooding stillness of the forest. + +"I am afraid your hands are growing tired," she said, considerately. + +I denied it. + +Through the vista of palms we could see the lake, blue as a violet, +sparkling with silvery sunshine. In the intense quiet the splash of +leaping mullet sounded distinctly. + +Once a tall crane stalked into view among the sedges; once an unseen +alligator shook the silence with his deep, hollow roaring. Then the +stillness of the wilderness grew more intense. + +We had been sitting there for a long while without exchanging a word, +dreamily watching the ripple of the azure water, when all at once +there came a scurrying patter of feet through the forest, and, looking +up, I beheld the hound-dog, tail between his legs, bearing down on us +at lightning speed. I rose instantly. + +"What is the matter with the dog?" cried the pretty stenographer. "Is +he going mad, Mr. Gilland?" + +"Something has scared him," I exclaimed, as the dog, eyes like lighted +candles, rushed frantically between my legs and buried his head in +Miss Barrison's lap. + +"Poor doggy!" she said, smoothing the collapsed pup; "poor, p-oor +little beast! Did anything scare him? Tell aunty all about it." + +When a dog flees _without yelping_ he's a badly frightened creature. I +instinctively started back towards the camp whence the beast had fled, +and before I had taken a dozen steps Miss Barrison was beside me, +carrying the dog in her arms. + +"I've an idea," she said, under her breath. + +"What?" I asked, keeping my eyes on the camp. + +"It's this: I'll wager that we find those pies gone!" + +"Pies gone?" I repeated, perplexed; "what makes you think--" + +"They _are_ gone!" she exclaimed. "Look!" + +I gaped stupidly at the rough pine table where the pies had stood in +three neat rows of four each. And then, in a moment, the purport of +this robbery flashed upon my senses. + +"The transparent creatures!" I gasped. + +"Hush!" she whispered, clinging to the trembling dog in her arms. + +I listened. I could hear nothing, see nothing, yet slowly I became +convinced of the presence of something unseen--something in the forest +close by, watching us out of invisible eyes. + +A chill, settling along my spine, crept upward to my scalp, until +every separate hair wiggled to the roots. Miss Barrison was pale, but +perfectly calm and self-possessed. + +"Let us go in-doors," I said, as steadily as I could. + +"Very well," she replied. + +I held the door open; she entered with the dog; I followed, closing +and barring the door, and then took my station at the window, rifle in +hand. + +There was not a sound in the forest. Miss Barrison laid the dog on the +floor and quietly picked up her pad and pencil. Presently she was deep +in a report of the phenomena, her pencil flying, leaf after leaf from +the pad fluttering to the floor. + +Nor did I at the window change my position of scared alertness, until +I was aware of her hand gently touching my elbow to attract my +attention, and her soft voice at my ear-- + +"You don't suppose by any chance that the dog ate those pies?" + +I collected my tumultuous thoughts and turned to stare at the dog. + +"Twelve pies, twelve inches each in diameter," she reflected, +musingly. "One dog, twenty inches in diameter. How many times will the +pies go into the dog? Let me see." She made a few figures on her pad, +thought awhile, produced a tape-measure from her pocket, and, kneeling +down, measured the dog. + +"No," she said, looking up at me, "he couldn't contain them." + +Inspired by her coolness and perfect composure, I set the rifle in the +corner and opened the door. Sunlight fell in bars through the quiet +woods; nothing stirred on land or water save the great, yellow-striped +butterflies that fluttered and soared and floated above the flowering +thickets bordering the jungle. + +The heat became intense; Miss Barrison went to her room to change her +gown for a lighter one; I sat down under a live-oak, eyes and ears +strained for any sign of our invisible neighbors. + +When she emerged in the lightest and filmiest of summer gowns, she +brought the camera with her; and for a while we took pictures of each +other, until we had used up all but one film. + +Desiring to possess a picture of Miss Barrison and myself seated +together, I tied a string to the shutter-lever and attached the other +end of the string to the dog, who had resumed his interrupted +slumbers. At my whistle he jumped up nervously, snapping the lever, +and the picture was taken. + +With such innocent and harmless pastime we whiled away the afternoon. +She made twelve more apple-pies. I mounted guard over them. And we +were just beginning to feel a trifle uneasy about Professor Farrago, +when he appeared, tramping sturdily through the forest, green umbrella +and butterfly-net under one arm, shot-gun and cyanide-jar under the +other, and his breast all criss-crossed with straps, from which +dangled field-glasses, collecting-boxes, and botanizing-tins--an +inspiring figure indeed--the embodied symbol of science indomitable, +triumphant! + +We hailed him with three guilty cheers; the dog woke up with a +perfunctory bark--the first sound I had heard from him since he yelped +his disapproval of me on the lagoon. + +Miss Barrison produced three bowls full of boiling water and dropped +three pellets of concentrated soup-meat into them, while I prepared +coffee. And in a few moments our simple dinner was ready--the red +ants had been dusted from the biscuits, the spiders chased off the +baked beans, the scorpions shaken from the napkins, and we sat down at +the rough, improvised table under the palms. + +The professor gave us a brief but modest account of his short tour of +exploration. He had brought back a new species of orchid, several +undescribed beetles, and a pocketful of coontie seed. He appeared, +however, to be tired and singularly depressed, and presently we +learned why. + +It seemed that he had gone straight to that section of the forest +where he had hitherto always found signs of the transparent and +invisible creatures which he had determined to capture, and he had not +found a single trace of them. + +"It alarms me," he said, gravely. "If they have deserted this region, +it might take a lifetime to locate them again in this wilderness." + +Then, very quietly, sinking her voice instinctively, as though the +unseen might be at our very elbows listening, Miss Barrison recounted +the curious adventure which had befallen the dog and the first batch +of apple-pies. + +With visible and increasing excitement the professor listened until +the very end. Then he struck the table with clinched fist--a +resounding blow which set the concentrated soup dancing in the bowls +and scattered the biscuits and the industrious red ants in every +direction. + +"Eureka!" he whispered. "Miss Barrison, your deduction was not only +perfectly reasonable, but brilliant. You are right; the pies are for +that very purpose. I conceived the idea when I first came here. Again +and again the pies that my guide made out of dried apples disappeared +in a most astonishing and mysterious manner when left to cool. At +length I determined to watch them every second; and did so, with the +result that late one afternoon I was amazed to see a pie slowly rise +from the table and move swiftly away through the air about four feet +above the ground, finally disappearing into a tangle of jasmine and +grape-vine. + +"The apparently automatic flight of that pie solved the problem; these +transparent creatures cannot resist that delicacy. Therefore I decided +to bait the cage for them this very night--Look! What's the matter +with that dog?" + +The dog suddenly bounded into the air, alighted on all fours, ears, +eyes, and muzzle concentrated on a point directly behind us. + +"Good gracious! The pies!" faltered Miss Barrison, half rising from +her seat; but the dog rushed madly into her skirts, scrambling for +protection, and she fell back almost into my arms. + +Clasping her tightly, I looked over my shoulder; the last pie was +snatched from the table before my eyes and I saw it borne swiftly away +by something unseen, straight into the deepening shadows of the +forest. + +The professor was singularly calm, even slightly ironical, as he +turned to me, saying: + +"Perhaps if you relinquish Miss Barrison she may be able to free +herself from that dog." + +I did so immediately, and she deposited the cowering dog in my arms. +Her face had suddenly become pink. + +I passed the dog on to Professor Farrago, dumping it viciously into +his lap--a proceeding which struck me as resembling a pastime of +extreme youth known as "button, button, who's got the button?" + +The professor examined the animal gravely, feeling its pulse, counting +its respirations, and finally inserting a tentative finger in an +attempt to examine its tongue. The dog bit him. + +"Ouch! It's a clear case of fright," he said, gravely. "I wanted a dog +to aid me in trailing these remarkable creatures, but I think this dog +of yours is useless, Gilland." + +"It's given us warning of the creatures' presence twice already," I +argued. + +"Poor little thing," said Miss Barrison, softly; "I don't know why, +but I love that dog.... He has eyes like yours, Mr. Gilland--" + +Exasperated, I rose from the table. "He's got eyes like holes burned +in a blanket!" I said. "And if ever a flicker of intelligence lighted +them I have failed to observe it." + +The professor regarded me dreamily. "We ought to have more pies," he +observed. "Perhaps if you carried the oven into the shanty--" + +"Certainly," said Miss Barrison; "we can lock the door while I make +twelve more pies." + +I carried the portable camping-oven into the cabin, connected the +patent asbestos chimney-pipes, and lighted the fire. And in a few +minutes Miss Barrison, sleeves rolled up and pink apron pinned under +her chin, was busily engaged in rolling pie-crust, while Professor +Farrago measured out spices and set the dried apples to soak. + +The swift Southern twilight had already veiled the forest as I +stepped out of the cabin to smoke a cigar and promenade a bit and +cogitate. A last trace of color lingering in the west faded out as I +looked; the gray glimmer deepened into darkness, through which the +white lake vapors floated in thin, wavering strata across the water. + +For a while the frog's symphony dominated all other sounds, then +lagoon and forest and cypress branch awoke; and through the steadily +sustained tumult of woodland voices I could hear the dry bark of the +fox-squirrel, the whistle of the raccoon, ducks softly quacking or +whimpering as they prepared for sleep among the reeds, the soft +booming of bitterns, the clattering gossip of the heronry, the +Southern whippoorwill's incessant call. + +At regular intervals the howling note of a lone heron echoed the +strident screech of a crimson-crested crane; the horned owl's savage +hunting-cry haunted the night, now near, now floating from infinite +distances. + +And after a while I became aware of a nearer sound, low-pitched but +ceaseless--the hum of thousands of lesser living creatures blending to +a steady monotone. + +Then the theatrical moon came up through filmy draperies of waving +Spanish moss thin as cobwebs; and far in the wilderness a cougar fell +a-crying and coughing like a little child with a bad cold. + +I went in after that. Miss Barrison was sitting before the oven, knees +gathered in her clasped hands, languidly studying the fire. She looked +up as I appeared, opened the oven-doors, sniffed the aroma, and +resumed her attitude of contented indifference. + +"Where is the professor?" I asked. + +"He has retired. He's been talking in his sleep at moments." + +"Better take it down; that's what you're here for," I observed, +closing and holding the outside door. "Ugh! there's a chill in the +air. The dew is pelting down from the pines like a steady fall of +rain." + +"You will get fever if you roam about at night," she said. "Mercy! +your coat is soaking. Sit here by the fire." + +So I pulled up a bench and sat down beside her like the traditional +spider. + +"Miss Muffitt," I said, "don't let me frighten you away--" + +"I was going anyhow--" + +"Please don't." + +"Why?" she demanded, reseating herself. + +"Because I like to sit beside you," I said, truthfully. + +"Your avowal is startling and not to be substantiated by facts," she +remarked, resting her chin on one hand and gazing into the fire. + +"You mean because I went for a stroll by moonlight? I did that because +you always seem to make fun of me as soon as the professor joins us." + +"Make fun of you? You surely don't expect me to make eyes at you!" + +There was a silence; I toasted my shins, thoughtfully. + +"How is your burned finger?" I asked. + +She lifted it for my inspection, and I began a protracted examination. + +"What would you prescribe?" she inquired, with an absent-minded glance +at the professor's closed door. + +"I don't know; perhaps a slight but firm pressure of the +finger-tips--" + +"You tried that this afternoon." + +"But the dog interrupted us--" + +"Interrupted _you_. Besides--" + +"What?" + +"I don't think you ought to," she said. + +Sitting there before the oven, side by side, hand innocently clasped +in hand, we heard the drumming of the dew on the roof, the night-wind +stirring the palms, the muffled snoring of the professor, the faint +whisper and crackle of the fire. + +A single candle burned brightly, piling our shadows together on the +wall behind us; moonlight silvered the window-panes, over which +crawled multitudes of soft-winged moths, attracted by the candle +within. + +"See their tiny eyes glow!" she whispered. "How their wings quiver! +And all for a candle-flame! Alas! alas! fire is the undoing of us +all." + +She leaned forward, resting as though buried in reverie. After a while +she extended one foot a trifle and, with the point of her shoe, +carefully unlatched the oven-door. As it swung outward a delicious +fragrance filled the room. + +"They're done," she said, withdrawing her hand from mine. "Help me to +lift them out." + +Together we arranged the delicious pastry in rows on the bench to +cool. I opened the door for a few minutes, then closed and bolted it +again. + +"Do you suppose those transparent creatures will smell the odor and +come around the cabin?" she suggested, wiping her fingers on her +handkerchief. + +I walked to the window uneasily. Outside the pane the moths crawled, +some brilliant in scarlet and tan-color set with black, some +snow-white with black tracings on their wings, and bodies peacock-blue +edged with orange. The scientist in me was aroused; I called her to +the window, and she came and leaned against the sill, nose pressed to +the glass. + +"I don't suppose you know that the antennae of that silvery-winged moth +are distinctly pectinate," I said. + +"Of course I do," she said. "I took my degree as D.E. at Barnard +College." + +"What!" I exclaimed in astonishment. "You've been through Barnard? You +are a Doctor of Entomology?" + +"It was my undoing," she said. "The department was abolished the year +I graduated. There was no similar vacancy, even in the Smithsonian." + +She shrugged her shoulders, eyes fixed on the moths. "I had to make my +own living. I chose stenography as the quickest road to +self-sustenance." + +She looked up, a flush on her cheeks. + +"I suppose you took me for an inferior?" she said. "But do you suppose +I'd flirt with you if I was?" + +She pressed her face to the pane again, murmuring that exquisite poem +of Andrew Lang: + + "Spooning is innocuous and needn't have a sequel, + But recollect, if spoon you must, spoon only with your equal." + +Standing there, watching the moths, we became rather silent--I don't +know why. + +The fire in the range had gone out; the candle-flame, flaring above a +saucer of melted wax, sank lower and lower. + +Suddenly, as though disturbed by something inside, the moths all left +the window-pane, darting off in the darkness. + +"That's curious," I said. + +"What's curious?" she asked, opening her eyes languidly. "Good +gracious! Was that a bat that beat on the window?" + +"I saw nothing," I said, disturbed. "Listen!" + +A soft sound against the glass, as though invisible fingers were +feeling the pane--a gentle rubbing--then a tap-tap, all but inaudible. + +"Is it a bird? Can you see?" she whispered. + +The candle-flame behind us flashed and expired. Moonlight flooded the +pane. The sounds continued, but there was nothing there. + +We understood now what it was that so gently rubbed and patted the +glass outside. With one accord we noiselessly gathered up the pies and +carried them into my room. + +Then she walked to the door of her room, turned, held out her hand, +and whispering, "Good-night! A demain, monsieur!" slipped into her +room and softly closed the door. + +And all night long I lay in troubled slumber beside the pies, a rifle +resting on the blankets beside me, a revolver under my pillow. And I +dreamed of moths with brilliant eyes and vast silvery wings harnessed +to a balloon in which Miss Barrison and I sat, arms around each other, +eating slice after slice of apple-pie. + + + + +XVII + + +Dawn came--the dawn of a day that I am destined never to forget. Long, +rosy streamers of light broke through the forest, shaking, quivering, +like unstable beams from celestial search-lights. Mist floated upward +from marsh and lake; and through it the spectral palms loomed, +drooping fronds embroidered with dew. + +For a while the ringing outburst of bird music dominated all; but it +soon ceased with dropping notes from the crimson cardinals repeated in +lengthening minor intervals; and then the spell of silence returned, +broken only by the faint splash of mullet, mocking the sun with +sinuous, silver flashes. + +"Good-morning," said a low voice from the door as I stood encouraging +the camp-fire with splinter wood and dead palmetto fans. + +Fresh and sweet from her toilet as a dew-drenched rose, Miss Barrison +stood there sniffing the morning air daintily, thoroughly. + +"Too much perfume," she said--"too much like ylang-ylang in a +department-store. Central Park smells sweeter on an April morning." + +"Are you criticising the wild jasmine?" I asked. + +"I'm criticising an exotic smell. Am I not permitted to comment on the +tropics?" + +Fishing out a cedar log from the lumber-stack, I fell to chopping it +vigorously. The axe-strokes made a cheerful racket through the woods. + +"Did you hear anything last night after you retired?" I asked. + +"Something was at my window--something that thumped softly and seemed +to be feeling all over the glass. To tell you the truth, I was silly +enough to remain dressed all night." + +"You don't look it," I said. + +"Oh, when daylight came I had a chance," she added, laughing. + +"All the same," said I, leaning on the axe and watching her, "you are +about the coolest and pluckiest woman I ever knew." + +"We were all in the same fix," she said, modestly. + +"No, we were not. Now I'll tell you the truth--my hair stood up the +greater part of the night. You are looking upon a poltroon, Miss +Barrison." + +"Then there was something at your window, too?" + +"Something? A dozen! They were monkeying with the sashes and panes all +night long, and I imagined that I could hear them breathing--as though +from effort of intense eagerness. Ouch! I came as near losing my nerve +as I care to. I came within an ace of hurling those cursed pies +through the window at them. I'd bolt to-day if I wasn't afraid to play +the coward." + +"Most people are brave for that reason," she said. + +The dog, who had slept under my bunk, and who had contributed to my +entertainment by sighing and moaning all night, now appeared ready for +business--business in his case being the operation of feeding. I +presented him with a concentrated tablet, which he cautiously +investigated and then rolled on. + +"Nice testimonial for the people who concocted it," I said, in +disgust. "I wish I had an egg." + +"There are some concentrated egg tablets in the shanty," said Miss +Barrison; but the idea was not attractive. + +"I refuse to fry a pill for breakfast," I said, sullenly, and set the +coffee-pot on the coals. + +In spite of the dewy beauty of the morning, breakfast was not a +cheerful function. Professor Farrago appeared, clad in sun-helmet and +khaki. I had seldom seen him depressed; but he was now, and his very +efforts to disguise it only emphasized his visible anxiety. + +His preparations for the day, too, had an ominous aspect to me. He +gave his orders and we obeyed, instinctively suppressing questions. +First, he and I transported all personal luggage of the company to the +big electric launch--Miss Barrison's effects, his, and my own. His +private papers, the stenographic reports, and all memoranda were tied +up together and carried aboard. + +Then, to my surprise, two weeks' concentrated rations for two and +mineral water sufficient for the same period were stowed away aboard +the launch. Several times he asked me whether I knew how to run the +boat, and I assured him that I did. + +In a short time nothing was left ashore except the bare furnishings of +the cabin, the female wearing-apparel, the steel cage and chemicals +which I had brought, and the twelve apple-pies--the latter under lock +and key in my room. + +As the preparations came to an end, the professor's gentle melancholy +seemed to deepen. Once I ventured to ask him if he was indisposed, and +he replied that he had never felt in better physical condition. + +Presently he bade me fetch the pies; and I brought them, and, at a +sign from him, placed them inside the steel cage, closing and locking +the door. + +"I believe," he said, glancing from Miss Barrison to me, and from me +to the dog--"I believe that we are ready to start." + +He went to the cabin and locked the door on the outside, pocketing the +key. + +Then he backed up to the steel cage, stooped and lifted his end as I +lifted mine, and together we started off through the forest, bearing +the cage between us as porters carry a heavy piece of luggage. + +Miss Barrison came next, carrying the trousseau, the tank, hose, and +chemicals; and the dog followed her--probably not from affection for +us, but because he was afraid to be left alone. + +We walked in silence, the professor and I keeping an instinctive +lookout for snakes; but we encountered nothing of that sort. On every +side, touching our shoulders, crowded the closely woven and +impenetrable tangle of the jungle; and we threaded it along a narrow +path which he, no doubt, had cut, for the machete marks were still +fresh, and the blazes on hickory, live-oak, and palm were all wet with +dripping sap, and swarming with eager, brilliant butterflies. + +At times across our course flowed shallow, rapid streams of water, +clear as crystal, and most alluring to the thirsty. + +"There's fever in every drop," said the professor, as I mentioned my +thirst; "take the bottled water if you mean to stay a little longer." + +"Stay where?" I asked. + +"On earth," he replied, tersely; and we marched on. + +The beauty of the tropics is marred somewhat for me; under all the +fresh splendor of color death lurks in brilliant tints. Where painted +fruit hangs temptingly, where great, silky blossoms exhale alluring +scent, where the elaps coils inlaid with scarlet, black, and saffron, +where in the shadow of a palmetto frond a succession of velvety black +diamonds mark the rattler's swollen length, there death is; and his +invisible consort, horror, creeps where the snake whose mouth is lined +with white creeps--where the tarantula squats, hairy, motionless; +where a bit of living enamel fringed with orange undulates along a +mossy log. + +Thinking of these things, and watchful lest, unawares, terror unfold +from some blossoming and leafy covert, I scarcely noticed the beauty +of the glade we had entered--a long oval, cross-barred with sunshine +which fell on hedges of scrub-palmetto, chin high, interlaced with +golden blossoms of the jasmine. And all around, like pillars +supporting a high green canopy above a throne, towered the silvery +stems of palms fretted with pale, rose-tinted lichens and hung with +draperies of grape-vine. + +"This is the place," said Professor Farrago. + +His quiet, passionless voice sounded strange to me; his words seemed +strange, too, each one heavily weighted with hidden meaning. + +We set the cage on the ground; he unlocked and opened the steel-barred +door, and, kneeling, carefully arranged the pies along the centre of +the cage. + +"I have a curious presentiment," he said, "that I shall not come out +of this experiment unscathed." + +"Don't, for Heaven's sake, say that!" I broke out, my nerves on edge +again. + +"Why not?" he asked, surprised. "I am not afraid." + +"Not afraid to die?" I demanded, exasperated. + +"Who spoke of dying?" he inquired, mildly. "What I said was that I do +not expect to come out of this affair unscathed." + +I did not comprehend his meaning, but I understood the reproof +conveyed. + +He closed and locked the cage door again and came towards us, +balancing the key across the palm of his hand. + +Miss Barrison had seated herself on the leaves; I stood back as the +professor sat down beside her; then, at a gesture from him, took the +place he indicated on his left. + +"Before we begin," he said, calmly, "there are several things you +ought to know and which I have not yet told you. The first concerns +the feminine wearing apparel which Mr. Gilland brought me." + +He turned to Miss Barrison and asked her whether she had brought a +complete outfit, and she opened the bundle on her knees and handed it +to him. + +"I cannot," he said, "delicately explain in so many words what use I +expect to make of this apparel. Nor do I yet know whether I shall have +any use at all for it. That can only be a theoretical speculation +until, within a few more hours, my theory is proven or disproven--and," +he said, suddenly turning on me, "my theory concerning these invisible +creatures is the most extraordinary and audacious theory ever +entertained by man since Columbus presumed that there must lie +somewhere a hidden continent which nobody had ever seen." + +He passed his hand over his protruding forehead, lost for a moment in +deepest reflection. Then, "Have you ever heard of the Sphyx?" he +asked. + +"It seems to me that Ponce de Leon wrote of something--" I began, +hesitating. + +"Yes, the famous lines in the third volume which have set so many wise +men guessing. You recall them: + +"'_And there, alas! within sound of the Fountain of Youth whose waters +tint the skin till the whole body glows softly like the petal of a +rose--there, alas! in the new world already blooming_, THE ETERNAL +ENIGMA _I beheld, in the flesh living; yet it faded even as I looked, +although I swear it lived and breathed. This is the Sphyx_.'" + +A silence; then I said, "Those lines are meaningless to me." + +"Not to me," said Miss Barrison, softly. + +The professor looked at her. "Ah, child! Ever subtler, ever surer--the +Eternal Enigma is no enigma to you." + +"What is the Sphyx?" I asked. + +"Have you read De Soto? Or Goya?" + +"Yes, both. I remember now that De Soto records the Syachas legend of +the Sphyx--something about a goddess--" + +"Not a goddess," said Miss Barrison, her lips touched with a smile. + +"Sometimes," said the professor, gently. "And Goya said: + +"'_It has come to my ears while in the lands of the Syachas that the +Sphyx surely lives, as bolder and more curious men than I may, God +willing, prove to the world hereafter_.'" + +"But what is the Sphyx?" I insisted. + +"For centuries wise men and savants have asked each other that +question. I have answered it for myself; I am now to prove it, I +trust." + +His face darkened, and again and again he stroked his heavy brow. + +"If anything occurs," he said, taking my hand in his left and Miss +Barrison's hand in his right, "promise me to obey my wishes. Will +you?" + +"Yes," we said, together. + +"If I lose my life, or--or disappear, promise me on your honor to get +to the electric launch as soon as possible and make all speed +northward, placing my private papers, the reports of Miss Barrison, +and your own reports in the hands of the authorities in Bronx Park. +Don't attempt to aid me; don't delay to search for me. Do you +promise?" + +"Yes," we breathed together. + +He looked at us solemnly. "If you fail me, you betray me," he said. + +We swore obedience. + +"Then let us begin," he said, and he rose and went to the steel cage. +Unlocking the door, he flung it wide and stepped inside, leaving the +cage door open. + +"The moment a single pie is disturbed," he said to me, "I shall close +the steel door from the inside, and you and Miss Barrison will then +dump the rosium oxide and the strontium into the tank, clap on the +lid, turn the nozzle of the hose on the cage, and spray it +thoroughly. Whatever is invisible in the cage will become visible and +of a faint rose color. And when the trapped creature becomes visible, +hold yourselves ready to aid me as long as I am able to give you +orders. After that either all will go well or all will go otherwise, +and you must run for the launch." He seated himself in the cage near +the open door. + +I placed the steel tank near the cage, uncoiled the hose attachment, +unscrewed the top, and dumped in the salts of strontium. Miss Barrison +unwrapped the bottle of rosium oxide and loosened the cork. We +examined this pearl-and-pink powder and shook it up so that it might +run out quickly. Then Miss Barrison sat down, and presently became +absorbed in a stenographic report of the proceedings up to date. + +When Miss Barrison finished her report she handed me the bundle of +papers. I stowed them away in my wallet, and we sat down together +beside the tank. + +Inside the cage Professor Farrago was seated, his spectacled eyes +fixed on the row of pies. For a while, although realizing perfectly +that our quarry was transparent and invisible, we unconsciously +strained our eyes in quest of something stirring in the forest. + +"I should think," said I, in a low voice, "that the odor of the pies +might draw at least one out of the odd dozen that came rubbing up +against my window last night." + +"Hush! Listen!" she breathed. But we heard nothing save the snoring of +the overfed dog at our feet. + +"He'll give us ample notice by butting into Miss Barrison's skirts," I +observed. "No need of our watching, professor." + +The professor nodded. Presently he removed his spectacles and lay back +against the bars, closing his eyes. + +At first the forest silence seemed cheerful there in the flecked +sunlight. The spotted wood-gnats gyrated merrily, chased by +dragon-flies; the shy wood-birds hopped from branch to twig, peering +at us in friendly inquiry; a lithe, gray squirrel, plumy tail +undulating, rambled serenely around the cage, sniffing at the pastry +within. + +Suddenly, without apparent reason, the squirrel sprang to a +tree-trunk, hung a moment on the bark, quivering all over, then dashed +away into the jungle. + +"Why did he act like that?" whispered Miss Barrison. And, after a +moment: "How still it is! Where have the birds gone?" + +In the ominous silence the dog began to whimper in his sleep and his +hind legs kicked convulsively. + +"He's dreaming--" I began. + +The words were almost driven down my throat by the dog, who, without a +yelp of warning, hurled himself at Miss Barrison and alighted on my +chest, fore paws around my neck. + +I cast him scornfully from me, but he scrambled back, digging like a +mole to get under us. + +"The transparent creatures!" whispered Miss Barrison. "Look! See that +pie move!" + +I sprang to my feet just as the professor, jamming on his spectacles, +leaned forward and slammed the cage door. + +"I've got one!" he shouted, frantically. "There's one in the cage! +Turn on that hose!" + +"Wait a second," said Miss Barrison, calmly, uncorking the bottle and +pouring a pearly stream of rosium oxide into the tank. "Quick! It's +fizzing! Screw on the top!" + +In a second I had screwed the top fast, seized the hose, and directed +a hissing cloud of vapor through the cage bars. + +For a moment nothing was heard save the whistling rush of the perfumed +spray escaping; a delicious odor of roses filled the air. Then, +slowly, there in the sunshine, a misty something grew in the cage--a +glistening, pearl-tinted phantom, imperceptibly taking shape in +space--vague at first as a shred of lake vapor, then lengthening, +rounding into flowing form, clearer, clearer. + +"The Sphyx!" gasped the professor. "In the name of Heaven, play that +hose!" + +As he spoke the treacherous hose burst. A showery pillar of +rose-colored vapor enveloped everything. Through the thickening fog +for one brief instant a human form appeared like magic--a woman's +form, flawless, exquisite as a statue, pure as marble. Then the +swimming vapor buried it, cage, pies, and all. + +We ran frantically around, the cage in the obscurity, appealing for +instructions and feeling for the bars. Once the professor's muffled +voice was heard demanding the wearing apparel, and I groped about and +found it and stuffed it through the bars of the cage. + +"Do you need help?" I shouted. There was no response. Staring around +through the thickening vapor of rosium rolling in clouds from the +overturned tank, I heard Miss Barrison's voice calling: + +"I can't move! A transparent lady is holding me!" + +Blindly I rushed about, arms outstretched, and the next moment struck +the door of the cage so hard that the impact almost knocked me +senseless. Clutching it to steady myself, it suddenly flew open. A +rush of partly visible creatures passed me like a burst of pink +flames, and in the midst, borne swiftly away on the crest of the +outrush, the professor passed like a bolt shot from a catapult; and +his last cry came wafted back to me from the forest as I swayed there, +drunk with the stupefying perfume: "Don't worry! I'm all right!" + +I staggered out into the clearer air towards a figure seen dimly +through swirling vapor. + +"Are you hurt?" I stammered, clasping Miss Barrison in my arms. + +"No--oh no," she said, wringing her hands. "But the professor! I saw +him! I could not scream; I could not move! _They_ had him!" + +"I saw him too," I groaned. "There was not one trace of terror on his +face. He was actually smiling." + +Overcome at the sublime courage of the man, we wept in each other's +arms. + + * * * * * + +True to our promise to Professor Farrago, we made the best of our way +northward; and it was not a difficult journey by any means, the voyage +in the launch across Okeechobee being perfectly simple and the trail +to the nearest railroad station but a few easy miles from the +landing-place. + +Shocking as had been our experience, dreadful as was the calamity +which had not only robbed me of a life-long friend, but had also +bereaved the entire scientific world, I could not seem to feel that +desperate and hopeless grief which the natural decease of a close +friend might warrant. No; there remained a vague expectancy which so +dominated my sorrow that at moments I became hopeful--nay, sanguine, +that I should one day again behold my beloved superior in the flesh. +There was something so happy in his last smile, something so artlessly +pleased, that I was certain no fear of impending dissolution worried +him as he disappeared into the uncharted depth of the unknown +Everglades. + +I think Miss Barrison agreed with me, too. She appeared to be more or +less dazed, which was, of course, quite natural; and during our return +voyage across Okeechobee and through the lagoons and forests beyond +she was very silent. + +When we reached the railroad at Portulacca, a thrifty lemon-growing +ranch on the Volusia and Chinkapin Railway, the first thing I did was +to present my dog to the station-agent--but I was obliged to give him +five dollars before he consented to accept the dog. + +However, Miss Barrison interviewed the station-master's wife, a +kindly, pitiful soul, who promised to be a good mistress to the +creature. We both felt better after that was off our minds; we felt +better still when the north-bound train rolled leisurely into the +white glare of Portulacca, and presently rolled out again, quite as +leisurely, bound, thank Heaven, for that abused aggregation of sinful +boroughs called New York. + +Except for one young man whom I encountered in the smoker, we had the +train to ourselves, a circumstance which, curiously enough, appeared +to increase Miss Barrison's depression, and my own as a natural +sequence. The circumstances of the taking off of Professor Farrago +appeared to engross her thoughts so completely that it made me uneasy +during our trip out from Little Sprite--in fact it was growing plainer +to me every hour that in her brief acquaintance with that +distinguished scientist she had become personally attached to him to +an extent that began to worry me. Her personal indignation at the +caged Sphyx flared out at unexpected intervals, and there could be no +doubt that her unhappiness and resentment were becoming morbid. + +I spent an hour or two in the smoking compartment, tenanted only by a +single passenger and myself. He was an agreeable young man, although, +in the natural acquaintanceship that we struck up, I regretted to +learn that he was a writer of popular fiction, returning from Fort +Worth, where he had been for the sole purpose of composing a poem on +Florida. + +I have always, in common with other mentally balanced savants, +despised writers of fiction. All scientists harbor a natural antipathy +to romance in any form, and that antipathy becomes a deep horror if +fiction dares to deal flippantly with the exact sciences, or if some +degraded intellect assumes the warrantless liberty of using natural +history as the vehicle for silly tales. + +Never but once had I been tempted to romance in any form; never but +once had sentiment interfered with a passionless transfer of +scientific notes to the sanctuary of the unvarnished note-book or the +cloister of the juiceless monograph. Nor have I the slightest approach +to that superficial and doubtful quality known as literary skill. +Once, however, as I sat alone in the middle of the floor, classifying +my isopods, I was not only astonished but totally unprepared to find +myself repeating aloud a verse that I myself had unconsciously +fashioned: + + "An isopod + Is a work of God." + +Never before in all my life had I made a rhyme; and it worried me for +weeks, ringing in my brain day and night, confusing me, interfering +with my thoughts. + +I said as much to the young man, who only laughed good-naturedly and +replied that it was the Creator's purpose to limit certain intellects, +nobody knows why, and that it was apparent that mine had not escaped. + +"There's one thing, however," he said, "that might be of some interest +to you and come within the circumscribed scope of your intelligence." + +"And what is that?" I asked, tartly. + +"A scientific experience of mine," he said, with a careless laugh. +"It's so much stranger than fiction that even Professor Bruce +Stoddard, of Columbia, hesitated to credit it." + +I looked at the young fellow suspiciously. His bland smile disarmed +me, but I did not invite him to relate his experience, although he +apparently needed only that encouragement to begin. + +"Now, if I could tell it exactly as it occurred," he observed, "and a +stenographer could take it down, word for word, exactly as I relate +it--" + +"It would give me great pleasure to do so," said a quiet voice at the +door. We rose at once, removing the cigars from our lips; but Miss +Barrison bade us continue smoking, and at a gesture from her we +resumed our seats after she had installed herself by the window. + +"Really," she said, looking coldly at me, "I couldn't endure the +solitude any longer. Isn't there anything to do on this tiresome +train?" + +"If you had your pad and pencil," I began, maliciously, "you might +take down a matter of interest--" + +She looked frankly at the young man, who laughed in that pleasant, +good-tempered manner of his, and offered to tell us of his alleged +scientific experience if we thought it might amuse us sufficiently to +vary the dull monotony of the journey north. + +"Is it fiction?" I asked, point-blank. + +"It is absolute truth," he replied. + +I rose and went off to find pad and pencil. When I returned Miss +Barrison was laughing at a story which the young man had just +finished. + +"But," he ended, gravely, "I have practically decided to renounce +fiction as a means of livelihood and confine myself to simple, +uninteresting statistics and facts." + +"I am very glad to hear you say that," I exclaimed, warmly. He bowed, +looked at Miss Barrison, and asked her when he might begin his story. + +"Whenever you are ready," replied Miss Barrison, smiling in a manner +which I had not observed since the disappearance of Professor Farrago. +I'll admit that the young fellow was superficially attractive. + +"Well, then," he began, modestly, "having no technical ability +concerning the affair in question, and having no knowledge of either +comparative anatomy or zoology, I am perhaps unfitted to tell this +story. But the story is true; the episode occurred under my own +eyes--within a few hours' sail of the Battery. And as I was one of the +first persons to verify what has long been a theory among scientists, +and, moreover, as the result of Professor Holroyd's discovery is to +be placed on exhibition in Madison Square Garden on the 20th of next +month, I have decided to tell you, as simply as I am able, exactly +what occurred. + +"I first told the story on April 1, 1903, to the editors of the _North +American Review_, _The Popular Science Monthly_, the _Scientific +American_, _Nature_, _Outing_, and the _Fossiliferous Magazine_. All +these gentlemen rejected it; some curtly informing me that fiction had +no place in their columns. When I attempted to explain that it was not +fiction, the editors of these periodicals either maintained a +contemptuous silence, or bluntly notified me that my literary services +and opinions were not desired. But finally, when several publishers +offered to take the story as fiction, I cut short all negotiations and +decided to publish it myself. Where I am known at all, it is my +misfortune to be known as a writer of fiction. This makes it +impossible for me to receive a hearing from a scientific audience. I +regret it bitterly, because now, when it is too late, I am prepared to +prove certain scientific matters of interest, and to produce the +proofs. In this case, however, I am fortunate, for nobody can dispute +the existence of a thing when the bodily proof is exhibited as +evidence. + +"This is the story; and if I tell it as I write fiction, it is because +I do not know how to tell it otherwise. + +"I was walking along the beach below Pine Inlet, on the south shore of +Long Island. The railroad and telegraph station is at West Oyster Bay. +Everybody who has travelled on the Long Island Railroad knows the +station, but few, perhaps, know Pine Inlet. Duck-shooters, of course, +are familiar with it; but as there are no hotels there, and nothing +to see except salt meadow, salt creek, and a strip of dune and sand, +the summer-squatting public may probably be unaware of its existence. +The local name for the place is Pine Inlet; the maps give its name as +Sand Point, I believe, but anybody at West Oyster Bay can direct you +to it. Captain McPeek, who keeps the West Oyster Bay House, drives +duck-shooters there in winter. It lies five miles southeast from West +Oyster Bay. + +"I had walked over that afternoon from Captain McPeek's. There was a +reason for my going to Pine Inlet--it embarrasses me to explain it, +but the truth is I meditated writing an ode to the ocean. It was out +of the question to write it in West Oyster Bay, with the whistle of +locomotives in my ears. I knew that Pine Inlet was one of the +loneliest places on the Atlantic coast; it is out of sight of +everything except leagues of gray ocean. Rarely one might make out +fishing-smacks drifting across the horizon. Summer squatters never +visited it; sportsmen shunned it, except in winter. Therefore, as I +was about to do a bit of poetry, I thought that Pine Inlet was the +spot for the deed. So I went there. + +"As I was strolling along the beach, biting my pencil reflectively, +tremendously impressed by the solitude and the solemn thunder of the +surf, a thought occurred to me--how unpleasant it would be if I +suddenly stumbled on a summer boarder. As this joyless impossibility +flitted across my mind, I rounded a bleak sand-dune. + +"A girl stood directly in my path. + +"She stared at me as though I had just crawled up out of the sea to +bite her. I don't know what my own expression resembled, but I have +been given to understand it was idiotic. + +"Now I perceived, after a few moments, that the young lady was +frightened, and I knew I ought to say something civil. So I said, 'Are +there many mosquitoes here?' + +"'No,' she replied, with a slight quiver in her voice; 'I have only +seen one, and it was biting somebody else.' + +"The conversation seemed so futile, and the young lady appeared to be +more nervous than before. I had an impulse to say, 'Do not run; I have +breakfasted,' for she seemed to be meditating a flight into the +breakers. What I did say was: 'I did not know anybody was here. I do +not intend to intrude. I come from Captain McPeek's, and I am writing +an ode to the ocean.' After I had said this it seemed to ring in my +ears like, 'I come from Table Mountain, and my name is Truthful +James.' + +"I glanced timidly at her. + +"'She's thinking of the same thing,' said I to myself. + +"However, the young lady seemed to be a trifle reassured. I noticed +she drew a sigh of relief and looked at my shoes. She looked so long +that it made me suspicious, and I also examined my shoes. They seemed +to be in a fair state of repair. + +"'I--I am sorry,' she said, 'but would you mind not walking on the +beach?' + +"This was sudden. I had intended to retire and leave the beach to her, +but I did not fancy being driven away so abruptly. + +"'Dear me!' she cried; 'you don't understand. I do not--I would not +think for a moment of asking you to leave Pine Inlet. I merely +ventured to request you to walk on the dunes. I am so afraid that your +footprints may obliterate the impressions that my father is studying.' + +"'Oh!' said I, looking about me as though I had been caught in the +middle of a flower-bed; 'really I did not notice any impressions. +Impressions of what?' + +"'I don't know,' she said, smiling a little at my awkward pose. 'If +you step this way in a straight line you can do no damage.' + +"I did as she bade me. I suppose my movements resembled the gait of a +wet peacock. Possibly they recalled the delicate manoeuvres of the +kangaroo. Anyway, she laughed. + +"This seriously annoyed me. I had been at a disadvantage; I walk well +enough when let alone. + +"'You can scarcely expect,' said I, 'that a man absorbed in his own +ideas could notice impressions on the sand. I trust I have obliterated +nothing.' + +"As I said this I looked back at the long line of footprints +stretching away in prospective across the sand. They were my own. How +large they looked! Was that what she was laughing at? + +"'I wish to explain,' she said, gravely, looking at the point of her +parasol. 'I am very sorry to be obliged to warn you--to ask you to +forego the pleasure of strolling on a beach that does not belong to +me. Perhaps,' she continued, in sudden alarm, 'perhaps this beach +belongs to you?' + +"'The beach? Oh no,' I said. + +"'But--but you were going to write poems about it?' + +"'Only one--and that does not necessitate owning the beach. I have +observed,' said I, frankly, 'that the people who own nothing write +many poems about it.' + +"She looked at me seriously. + +"'I write many poems,' I added. + +"She laughed doubtfully. + +"'Would you rather I went away?' I asked, politely. 'My family is +respectable,' I added; and I told her my name. + +"'Oh! Then you wrote _Culled Cowslips_ and _Faded Fig-Leaves_ and you +imitate Maeterlinck, and you--Oh, I know lots of people that you +know;' she cried, with every symptom of relief; 'and you know my +brother.' + +"'I am the author,' said I, coldly, 'of _Culled Cowslips_, but _Faded +Fig-Leaves_ was an earlier work, which I no longer recognize, and I +should be grateful to you if you would be kind enough to deny that I +ever imitated Maeterlinck. Possibly,' I added, 'he imitates me.' + +"She was very quiet, and I saw she was sorry. + +"'Never mind,' I said, magnanimously, 'you probably are not familiar +with modern literature. If I knew your name I should ask permission to +present myself.' + +"'Why, I am Daisy Holroyd,' she said. + +"'What! Jack Holroyd's little sister?' + +"'Little?' she cried. + +"'I didn't mean that,' said I. 'You know that your brother and I were +great friends in Paris--' + +"'I know,' she said, significantly. + +"'Ahem! Of course,' I said, 'Jack and I were inseparable--' + +"'Except when shut in separate cells,' said Miss Holroyd, coldly. + +"This unfeeling allusion to the unfortunate termination of a +Latin-Quarter celebration hurt me. + +"'The police,' said I, 'were too officious.' + +"'So Jack says,' replied Miss Holroyd, demurely. + +"We had unconsciously moved on along the sand-hills, side by side, as +we spoke. + +"'To think,' I repeated, 'that I should meet Jack's little--' + +"'Please,' she said, 'you are only three years my senior.' + +"She opened the sunshade and tipped it over one shoulder. It was +white, and had spots and posies on it. + +"'Jack sends us every new book you write,' she observed. 'I do not +approve of some things you write.' + +"'Modern school,' I mumbled. + +"'That is no excuse,' she said, severely; 'Anthony Trollope didn't do +it.' + +"The foam spume from the breakers was drifting across the dunes, and +the little tip-up snipe ran along the beach and teetered and whistled +and spread their white-barred wings for a low, straight flight across +the shingle, only to tip and run and sail on again. The salt sea-wind +whistled and curled through the crested waves, blowing in perfumed +puffs across thickets of sweet bay and cedar. As we passed through the +crackling juicy-stemmed marsh-weed myriads of fiddler crabs raised +their fore-claws in warning and backed away, rustling, through the +reeds, aggressive, protesting. + +"'Like millions of pygmy Ajaxes defying the lightning,' I said. + +"Miss Holroyd laughed. + +"'Now I never imagined that authors were clever except in print,' she +said. + +"She was a most extraordinary girl. + +"'I suppose,' she observed, after a moment's silence--'I suppose I am +taking you to my father.' + +"'Delighted!' I mumbled. 'H'm! I had the honor of meeting Professor +Holroyd in Paris.' + +"'Yes; he bailed you and Jack out,' said Miss Holroyd, serenely. + +"The silence was too painful to last. + +"'Captain McPeek is an interesting man,' I said. I spoke more loudly +than I intended. I may have been nervous. + +"'Yes,' said Daisy Holroyd, 'but he has a most singular hotel clerk.' + +"'You mean Mr. Frisby?' + +"'I do.' + +"'Yes,' I admitted, 'Mr. Frisby is queer. He was once a bill-poster.' + +"'I know it!' exclaimed Daisy Holroyd, with some heat. 'He ruins +landscapes whenever he has an opportunity. Do you know that he has a +passion for bill-posting? He has; he posts bills for the pure pleasure +of it, just as you play golf, or tennis, or squash.' + +"'But he's a hotel clerk now,' I said; 'nobody employs him to post +bills.' + +"'I know it! He does it all by himself for the pure pleasure of it. +Papa has engaged him to come down here for two weeks, and I dread it,' +said the girl. + +"What Professor Holroyd might want of Frisby I had not the faintest +notion. I suppose Miss Holroyd noticed the bewilderment in my face, +for she laughed and nodded her head twice. + +"'Not only Mr. Frisby, but Captain McPeek also,' she said. + +"'You don't mean to say that Captain McPeek is going to close his +hotel!' I exclaimed. + +"My trunk was there. It contained guarantees of my respectability. + +"'Oh no; his wife will keep it open,' replied the girl. 'Look! you can +see papa now. He's digging.' + +"'Where?' I blurted out. + +"I remembered Professor Holroyd as a prim, spectacled gentleman, with +close-cut, snowy beard and a clerical allure. The man I saw digging +wore green goggles, a jersey, a battered sou'wester, and hip-boots of +rubber. He was delving in the muck of the salt meadow, his face +streaming with perspiration, his boots and jersey splashed with +unpleasant-looking mud. He glanced up as we approached, shading his +eyes with a sunburned hand. + +"'Papa, dear,' said Miss Holroyd, 'here is Jack's friend, whom you +bailed out of Mazas.' + +"The introduction was startling. I turned crimson with mortification. +The professor was very decent about it; he called me by name at once. +Then he looked at his spade. It was clear he considered me a nuisance +and wished to go on with his digging. + +"'I suppose,' he said, 'you are still writing?' + +"'A little,' I replied, trying not to speak sarcastically. My output +had rivalled that of 'The Duchess'--in quantity, I mean. + +"'I seldom read--fiction,' he said, looking restlessly at the hole in +the ground. + +"Miss Holroyd came to my rescue. + +"'That was a charming story you wrote last,' she said. 'Papa should +read it--you should, papa; it's all about a fossil.' + +"We both looked narrowly at Miss Holroyd. Her smile was guileless. + +"'Fossils!' repeated the professor. 'Do you care for fossils?' + +"'Very much,' said I. + +"Now I am not perfectly sure what my object was in lying. I looked at +Daisy Holroyd's dark-fringed eyes. They were very grave. + +"'Fossils,' said I, 'are my hobby.' + +"I think Miss Holroyd winced a little at this. I did not care. I went +on: + +"'I have seldom had the opportunity to study the subject, but, as a +boy, I collected flint arrow-heads--" + +"'Flint arrow-heads!' said the professor coldly. + +"'Yes; they were the nearest things to fossils obtainable,' I replied, +marvelling at my own mendacity. + +"The professor looked into the hole. I also looked. I could see +nothing in it. 'He's digging for fossils,' thought I to myself. + +"'Perhaps,' said the professor, cautiously, 'you might wish to aid me +in a little research--that is to say, if you have an inclination for +fossils.' The double-entendre was not lost upon me. + +"'I have read all your books so eagerly,' said I, 'that to join you, +to be of service to you in any research, however difficult and +trying, would be an honor and a privilege that I never dared to hope +for.' + +"'That,' thought I to myself, 'will do its own work.' + +"But the professor was still suspicious. How could he help it, when he +remembered Jack's escapades, in which my name was always blended! +Doubtless he was satisfied that my influence on Jack was evil. The +contrary was the case, too. + +"'Fossils,' he said, worrying the edge of the excavation with his +spade--'fossils are not things to be lightly considered.' + +"'No, indeed!' I protested. + +"'Fossils are the most interesting as well as puzzling things in the +world,' said he. + +"'They are!' I cried, enthusiastically. + +"'But I am not looking for fossils,' observed the professor, mildly. + +"This was a facer. I looked at Daisy Holroyd. She bit her lip and +fixed her eyes on the sea. Her eyes were wonderful eyes. + +"'Did you think I was digging for fossils in a salt meadow?' queried +the professor. 'You can have read very little about the subject. I am +digging for something quite different.' + +"I was silent. I knew that my face was flushed. I longed to say, +'Well, what the devil are you digging for?' but I only stared into the +hole as though hypnotized. + +"'Captain McPeek and Frisby ought to be here,' he said, looking first +at Daisy and then across the meadows. + +"I ached to ask him why he had subpoenaed Captain McPeek and Frisby. + +"'They are coming,' said Daisy, shading her eyes. 'Do you see the +speck on the meadows?' + +"'It may be a mud-hen,' said the professor. + +"'Miss Holroyd is right,' I said. 'A wagon and team and two men are +coming from the north. There's a dog beside the wagon--it's that +miserable yellow dog of Frisby's.' + +"'Good gracious!' cried the professor, 'you don't mean to tell me that +you see all that at such a distance?' + +"'Why not?' I said. + +"'I see nothing,' he insisted. + +"'You will see that I'm right, presently,' I laughed. + +"The professor removed his blue goggles and rubbed them, glancing +obliquely at me. + +"'Haven't you heard what extraordinary eyesight duck-shooters have?' +said his daughter, looking back at her father. 'Jack says that he can +tell exactly what kind of a duck is flying before most people could +see anything at all in the sky.' + +"'It's true,' I said; 'it comes to anybody, I fancy, who has had +practice.' + +"The professor regarded me with a new interest. There was inspiration +in his eyes. He turned towards the ocean. For a long time he stared at +the tossing waves on the beach, then he looked far out to where the +horizon met the sea. + +"'Are there any ducks out there?' he asked, at last. + +"'Yes,' said I, scanning the sea, 'there are.' + +"He produced a pair of binoculars from his coat-tail pocket, adjusted +them, and raised them to his eyes. + +"'H'm! What sort of ducks?' + +"I looked more carefully, holding both hands over my forehead. + +"'Surf-ducks and widgeon. There is one bufflehead among them--no, two; +the rest are coots,' I replied. + +"'This,' cried the professor, 'is most astonishing. I have good eyes, +but I can't see a blessed thing without these binoculars!' + +"'It's not extraordinary,' said I; 'the surf-ducks and coots any +novice might recognize; the widgeon and buffleheads I should not have +been able to name unless they had risen from the water. It is easy to +tell any duck when it is flying, even though it looks no bigger than a +black pin-point.' + +"But the professor insisted that it was marvellous, and he said that I +might render him invaluable service if I would consent to come and +camp at Pine Inlet for a few weeks. + +"I looked at his daughter, but she turned her back. Her back was +beautifully moulded. Her gown fitted also. + +"'Camp out here?' I repeated, pretending to be unpleasantly surprised. + +"'I do not think he would care to,' said Miss Holroyd, without +turning. + +"I had not expected that. + +"'Above all things,' said I, in a clear, pleasant voice, 'I like to +camp out.' + +"She said nothing. + +"'It is not exactly camping,' said the professor. 'Come, you shall see +our conservatory. Daisy, come, dear! You must put on a heavier frock; +it is getting towards sundown.' + +"At that moment, over a near dune, two horses' heads appeared, +followed by two human heads, then a wagon, then a yellow dog. + +"I turned triumphantly to the professor. + +"'You are the very man I want,' he muttered--'the very man--the very +man.' + +"I looked at Daisy Holroyd. She returned my glance with a defiant +little smile. + +"'Waal,' said Captain McPeek, driving up, 'here we be! Git out, +Frisby.' + +"Frisby, fat, nervous, and sentimental, hopped out of the cart. + +"'Come,' said the professor, impatiently moving across the dunes. I +walked with Daisy Holroyd. McPeek and Frisby followed. The yellow dog +walked by himself. + + + + +XVIII + + +"The sun was dipping into the sea as we trudged across the meadows +towards a high, dome-shaped dune covered with cedars and thickets of +sweet bay. I saw no sign of habitation among the sand-hills. Far as +the eye could reach, nothing broke the gray line of sea and sky save +the squat dunes crowned with stunted cedars. + +"Then, as we rounded the base of the dune, we almost walked into the +door of a house. My amazement amused Miss Holroyd, and I noticed also +a touch of malice in her pretty eyes. But she said nothing, following +her father into the house, with the slightest possible gesture to me. +Was it invitation or was it menace? + +"The house was merely a light wooden frame, covered with some +waterproof stuff that looked like a mixture of rubber and tar. Over +this--in fact, over the whole roof--was pitched an awning of heavy +sail-cloth. I noticed that the house was anchored to the sand by +chains, already rusted red. But this one-storied house was not the +only building nestling in the south shelter of the big dune. A hundred +feet away stood another structure--long, low, also built of wood. It +had rows on rows of round port-holes on every side. The ports were +fitted with heavy glass, hinged to swing open if necessary. A single, +big double door occupied the front. + +"Behind this long, low building was still another, a mere shed. Smoke +rose from the sheet-iron chimney. There was somebody moving about +inside the open door. + +"As I stood gaping at this mushroom hamlet the professor appeared at +the door and asked me to enter. I stepped in at once. + +"The house was much larger than I had imagined. A straight hallway ran +through the centre from east to west. On either side of this hallway +were rooms, the doors swinging wide open. I counted three doors on +each side; the three on the south appeared to be bedrooms. + +"The professor ushered me into a room on the north side, where I found +Captain McPeek and Frisby sitting at a table, upon which were drawings +and sketches of articulated animals and fishes. + +"'You see, McPeek,' said the professor, 'we only wanted one more man, +and I think I've got him--Haven't I?' turning eagerly to me. + +"'Why, yes,' I said, laughing; 'this is delightful. Am I invited to +stay here?' + +"'Your bedroom is the third on the south side; everything is ready. +McPeek, you can bring his trunk to-morrow, can't you?' demanded the +professor. + +"The red-faced captain nodded, and shifted a quid. + +"'Then it's all settled,' said the professor, and he drew a sigh of +satisfaction. 'You see,' he said, turning to me, 'I was at my wit's +end to know whom to trust. I never thought of you. Jack's out in +China, and I didn't dare trust anybody in my own profession. All you +care about is writing verses and stories, isn't it?' + +"'I like to shoot,' I replied, mildly. + +"'Just the thing!' he cried, beaming at us all in turn. 'Now I can see +no reason why we should not progress rapidly. McPeek, you and Frisby +must get those boxes up here before dark. Dinner will be ready before +you have finished unloading. Dick, you will wish to go to your room +first.' + +"My name isn't Dick, but he spoke so kindly, and beamed upon me in +such a fatherly manner, that I let it go. I had occasion to correct +him afterwards, several times, but he always forgot the next minute. +He calls me Dick to this day. + +"It was dark when Professor Holroyd, his daughter, and I sat down to +dinner. The room was the same in which I had noticed the drawings of +beast and bird, but the round table had been extended into an oval, +and neatly spread with dainty linen and silver. + +"A fresh-cheeked Swedish girl appeared from a farther room, bearing +the soup. The professor ladled it out, still beaming. + +"'Now, this is very delightful--isn't it, Daisy?' he said. + +"'Very,' said Miss Holroyd, with a tinge of irony. + +"'Very,' I repeated, heartily. + +"'I suppose,' said the professor, nodding mysteriously at his +daughter, 'that Dick knows nothing of what we're about down here?' + +"'I suppose,' said Miss Holroyd, 'that he thinks we are digging for +fossils.' + +"I looked at my plate. She might have spared me that. + +"'Well, well,' said her father, smiling to himself, 'he shall know +everything by morning. You'll be astonished, Dick, my boy.' + +"'His name isn't Dick,' corrected Daisy. + +"The professor said, 'Isn't it?' in an absent-minded way, and relapsed +into contemplation of my necktie. + +"I asked Miss Holroyd a few questions about Jack, and was informed +that he had given up law and entered the consular service--as what, I +did not dare ask, for I know what our consular service is. + +"'In China,' said Daisy. + +"'Choo Choo is the name of the city,' added her father, proudly; 'it's +the terminus of the new trans-Siberian railway.' + +"'It's on the Pong Ping,' said Daisy. + +"'He's vice-consul,' added the professor, triumphantly. + +"'He'll make a good one,' I observed. I knew Jack. I pitied his +consul. + +"So we chatted on about my old playmate, until Freda, the red-cheeked +maid, brought coffee, and the professor lighted a cigar, with a little +bow to his daughter. + +"'Of course, you don't smoke,' she said to me, with a glimmer of +malice in her eyes. + +"'He mustn't,' interposed the professor, hastily; 'it will make his +hand tremble.' + +"'No, it won't,' said I, laughing; 'but my hand will shake if I don't +smoke. Are you going to employ me as a draughtsman?' + +"'You'll know to-morrow,' he chuckled, with a mysterious smile at his +daughter. 'Daisy, give him my best cigars--put the box here on the +table. We can't afford to have his hand tremble.' + +"Miss Holroyd rose and crossed the hallway to her father's room, +returning presently with a box of promising-looking cigars. + +"'I don't think he knows what is good for him,' she said. 'He should +smoke only one every day.' + +"It was hard to bear. I am not vindictive, but I decided to treasure +up a few of Miss Holroyd's gentle taunts. My intimacy with her brother +was certainly a disadvantage to me now. Jack had apparently been +talking too much, and his sister appeared to be thoroughly acquainted +with my past. It was a disadvantage. I remembered her vaguely as a +girl with long braids, who used to come on Sundays with her father and +take tea with us in our rooms. Then she went to Germany to school, and +Jack and I employed our Sunday evenings otherwise. It is true that I +regarded her weekly visits as a species of infliction, but I did not +think I ever showed it. + +"'It is strange,' said I, 'that you did not recognize me at once, Miss +Holroyd. Have I changed so greatly in five years?' + +"'You wore a pointed French beard in Paris,' she said--'a very downy +one. And you never stayed to tea but twice, and then you only spoke +once.' + +"'Oh!' said I, blankly. 'What did I say?' + +"'You asked me if I liked plums,' said Daisy, bursting into an +irresistible ripple of laughter. + +"I saw that I must have made the same sort of an ass of myself that +most boys of eighteen do. + +"It was too bad. I never thought about the future in those days. Who +could have imagined that little Daisy Holroyd would have grown up into +this bewildering young lady? It was really too bad. Presently the +professor retired to his room, carrying with him an armful of +drawings, and bidding us not to sit up late. When he closed his door +Miss Holroyd turned to me. + +"'Papa will work over those drawings until midnight,' she said, with a +despairing smile. + +"'It isn't good for him,' I said. 'What are the drawings?' + +"'You may know to-morrow,' she answered, leaning forward on the table +and shading her face with one hand. 'Tell me about yourself and Jack +in Paris.' + +"I looked at her suspiciously. + +"'What! There isn't much to tell. We studied. Jack went to the law +school, and I attended--er--oh, all sorts of schools.' + +"'Did you? Surely you gave yourself a little recreation occasionally?' + +"'Occasionally,' I nodded. + +"'I am afraid you and Jack studied too hard.' + +"'That may be,' said I, looking meek. + +"'Especially about fossils.' + +"I couldn't stand that. + +"'Miss Holroyd,' I said, 'I do care for fossils. You may think that I +am a humbug, but I have a perfect mania for fossils--now.' + +"'Since when?' + +"'About an hour ago,' I said, airily. Out of the corner of my eye I +saw that she had flushed up. It pleased me. + +"'You will soon tire of the experiment,' she said, with a dangerous +smile. + +"'Oh, I may,' I replied, indifferently. + +"She drew back. The movement was scarcely perceptible, but I noticed +it, and she knew I did. + +"The atmosphere was vaguely hostile. One feels such mental conditions +and changes instantly. I picked up a chess-board, opened it, set up +the pieces with elaborate care, and began to move, first the white, +then the black. Miss Holroyd watched me coldly at first, but after a +dozen moves she became interested and leaned a shade nearer. I moved a +black pawn forward. + +"'Why do you do that?' said Daisy. + +"'Because,' said I, 'the white queen threatens the pawn.' + +"'It was an aggressive move,' she insisted. + +"'Purely defensive,' I said. 'If her white highness will let the pawn +alone, the pawn will let the queen alone.' + +"Miss Holroyd rested her chin on her wrist and gazed steadily at the +board. She was flushing furiously, but she held her ground. + +"'If the white queen doesn't block that pawn, the pawn may become +dangerous,' she said, coldly. + +"I laughed, and closed up the board with a snap. + +"'True,' I said, 'it might even take the queen.' After a moment's +silence I asked, 'What would you do in that case, Miss Holroyd?' + +"'I should resign,' she said, serenely; then, realizing what she had +said, she lost her self-possession for a second, and cried: 'No, +indeed! I should fight to the bitter end! I mean--' + +"'What?' I asked, lingering over my revenge. + +"'I mean,' she said, slowly, 'that your black pawn would never have +the chance--never! I should take it immediately.' + +"'I believe you would,' said I, smiling; 'so we'll call the game +yours, and--the pawn captured.' + +"'I don't want it,' she exclaimed. 'A pawn is worthless.' + +"'Except when it's in the king row.' + +"'Chess is most interesting,' she observed, sedately. She had +completely recovered her self-possession. Still I saw that she now had +a certain respect for my defensive powers. It was very soothing to me. + +"'You know,' said I, gravely, 'that I am fonder of Jack than of +anybody. That's the reason we never write each other, except to borrow +things. I am afraid that when I was a young cub in France I was not an +attractive personality.' + +"'On the contrary,' said Daisy, smiling, 'I thought you were very big +and very perfect. I had illusions. I wept often when I went home and +remembered that you never took the trouble to speak to me but once.' + +"'I was a cub,' I said--'not selfish and brutal, but I didn't +understand school-girls. I never had any sisters, and I didn't know +what to say to very young girls. If I had imagined that you felt +hurt--' + +"'Oh, I did--five years ago. Afterwards I laughed at the whole thing.' + +"'Laughed?' I repeated, vaguely disappointed. + +"'Why, of course. I was very easily hurt when I was a child. I think I +have outgrown it.' + +"The soft curve of her sensitive mouth contradicted her. + +"'Will you forgive me now?' I asked. + +"'Yes. I had forgotten the whole thing until I met you an hour or so +ago.' + +"There was something that had a ring not entirely genuine in this +speech. I noticed it, but forgot it the next moment. + +"Presently she rose, touched her hair with the tip of one finger, and +walked to the door. + +"'Good-night,' she said. + +"'Good-night,' said I, opening the door for her to pass. + + + + +XIX + + +"The sea was a sheet of silver tinged with pink. The tremendous arch +of the sky was all shimmering and glimmering with the promise of the +sun. Already the mist above, flecked with clustered clouds, flushed +with rose color and dull gold. I heard the low splash of the waves +breaking and curling across the beach. A wandering breeze, fresh and +fragrant, blew the curtains of my window. There was the scent of sweet +bay in the room, and everywhere the subtle, nameless perfume of the +sea. + +"When at last I stood upon the shore, the air and sea were all +a-glimmer in a rosy light, deepening to crimson in the zenith. Along +the beach I saw a little cove, shelving and all a-shine, where shallow +waves washed with a mellow sound. Fine as dusted gold the shingle +glowed, and the thin film of water rose, receded, crept up again a +little higher, and again flowed back, with the low hiss of snowy foam +and gilded bubbles breaking. + +"I stood a little while quiet, my eyes upon the water, the invitation +of the ocean in my ears, vague and sweet as the murmur of a shell. +Then I looked at my bathing-suit and towels. + +"'In we go!' said I, aloud. A second later the prophecy was +fulfilled. + +"I swam far out to sea, and as I swam the waters all around me turned +to gold. The sun had risen. + +"There is a fragrance in the sea at dawn that none can name. +Whitethorn a-bloom in May, sedges a-sway, and scented rushes rustling +in an inland wind recall the sea to me--I can't say why. + +"Far out at sea I raised myself, swung around, dived, and set out +again for shore, striking strong strokes until the necked foam flew. +And when at last I shot through the breakers, I laughed aloud and +sprang upon the beach, breathless and happy. Then from the ocean came +another cry, clear, joyous, and a white arm rose in the air. + +"She came drifting in with the waves like a white sea-sprite, laughing +at me, and I plunged into the breakers again to join her. + +"Side by side we swam along the coast, just outside the breakers, +until in the next cove we saw the flutter of her maid's cap-strings. + +"'I will beat you to breakfast!' she cried, as I rested, watching her +glide up along the beach. + +"'Done!' said I--'for a sea-shell!' + +"'Done!' she called, across the water. + +"I made good speed along the shore, and I was not long in dressing, +but when I entered the dining-room she was there, demure, smiling, +exquisite in her cool, white frock. + +"'The sea-shell is yours,' said I. 'I hope I can find one with a pearl +in it.' + +"The professor hurried in before she could reply. He greeted me very +cordially, but there was an abstracted air about him, and he called me +Dick until I recognized that remonstrance was useless. He was not +long over his coffee and rolls. + +"'McPeek and Frisby will return with the last load, including your +trunk, by early afternoon,' he said, rising and picking up his bundle +of drawings. 'I haven't time to explain to you what we are doing, +Dick, but Daisy will take you about and instruct you. She will give +you the rifle standing in my room--it's a good Winchester. I have sent +for an 'Express' for you, big enough to knock over any elephant in +India. Daisy, take him through the sheds and tell him everything. +Luncheon is at noon. Do you usually take luncheon, Dick?' + +"'When I am permitted,' I smiled. + +"'Well,' said the professor, doubtfully, 'you mustn't come back here +for it. Freda can take you what you want. Is your hand unsteady after +eating?' + +"'Why, papa!' said Daisy. 'Do you intend to starve him?' + +"We all laughed. + +"The professor tucked his drawings into a capacious pocket, pulled his +sea-boots up to his hips, seized a spade, and left, nodding to us as +though he were thinking of something else. + +"We went to the door and watched him across the salt meadows until the +distant sand-dune hid him. + +"'Come,' said Daisy Holroyd, 'I am going to take you to the shop.' + +"She put on a broad-brimmed straw hat, a distractingly pretty +combination of filmy cool stuffs, and led the way to the long, low +structure that I had noticed the evening before. + +"The interior was lighted by the numberless little port-holes, and I +could see everything plainly. I acknowledge I was nonplussed by what I +did see. + +"In the centre of the shed, which must have been at least a hundred +feet long, stood what I thought at first was the skeleton of an +enormous whale. After a moment's silent contemplation of the thing I +saw that it could not be a whale, for the frames of two gigantic, +batlike wings rose from each shoulder. Also I noticed that the animal +possessed legs--four of them--with most unpleasant-looking webbed +claws fully eight feet long. The bony framework of the head, too, +resembled something between a crocodile and a monstrous +snapping-turtle. The walls of the shanty were hung with drawings and +blue prints. A man dressed in white linen was tinkering with the +vertebrae of the lizard-like tail. + +"'Where on earth did such a reptile come from?' I asked at length. + +"'Oh, it's not real!' said Daisy, scornfully; 'it's papier-mache.' + +"'I see,' said I; 'a stage prop.' + +"'A what?' asked Daisy, in hurt astonishment. + +"'Why, a--a sort of Siegfried dragon--a what's-his-name--er, Pfafner, +or Peffer, or--' + +"'If my father heard you say such things he would dislike you,' said +Daisy. She looked grieved, and moved towards the door. I +apologized--for what, I knew not--and we became reconciled. She ran +into her father's room and brought me the rifle, a very good +Winchester. She also gave me a cartridge-belt, full. + +"'Now,' she smiled, 'I shall take you to your observatory, and when we +arrive you are to begin your duty at once.' + +"'And that duty?' I ventured, shouldering the rifle. + +"'That duty is to watch the ocean. I shall then explain the whole +affair--but you mustn't look at me while I speak; you must watch the +sea.' + +"'This,' said I, 'is hardship. I had rather go without the luncheon.' + +"I do not think she was offended at my speech; still she frowned for +almost three seconds. + +"We passed through acres of sweet bay and spear grass, sometimes +skirting thickets of twisted cedars, sometimes walking in the full +glare of the morning sun, sinking into shifting sand where +sun-scorched shells crackled under our feet, and sun-browned sea-weed +glistened, bronzed and iridescent. Then, as we climbed a little hill, +the sea-wind freshened in our faces, and lo! the ocean lay below us, +far-stretching as the eye could reach, glittering, magnificent. + +"Daisy sat down flat on the sand. It takes a clever girl to do that +and retain the respectful deference due her from men. It takes a +graceful girl to accomplish it triumphantly when a man is looking. + +"'You must sit beside me,' she said--as though it would prove irksome +to me. + +"'Now,' she continued, 'you must watch the water while I am talking.' + +"I nodded. + +"'Why don't you do it, then?' she asked. + +"I succeeded in wrenching my head towards the ocean, although I felt +sure it would swing gradually round again in spite of me. + +"'To begin with,' said Daisy Holroyd, 'there's a thing in that ocean +that would astonish you if you saw it. Turn your head!' + +"'I am,' I said, meekly. + +"'Did you hear what I said?' + +"'Yes--er--a thing in the ocean that's going to astonish me.' Visions +of mermaids rose before me. + +"'The thing,' said Daisy, 'is a thermosaurus!' + +"I nodded vaguely, as though anticipating a delightful introduction to +a nautical friend. + +"'You don't seem astonished,' she said, reproachfully. + +"'Why should I be?' I asked. + +"'Please turn your eyes towards the water. Suppose a thermosaurus +should look out of the waves!' + +"'Well,' said I, 'in that case the pleasure would be mutual.' + +"She frowned and bit her upper lip. + +"'Do you know what a thermosaurus is?' she asked. + +"'If I am to guess,' said I, 'I guess it's a jelly-fish.' + +"'It's that big, ugly, horrible creature that I showed you in the +shed!' cried Daisy, impatiently. + +"'Eh!' I stammered. + +"'Not papier-mache, either,' she continued, excitedly; 'it's a real +one.' + +"This was pleasant news. I glanced instinctively at my rifle and then +at the ocean. + +"'Well,' said I at last, 'it strikes me that you and I resemble a pair +of Andromedas waiting to be swallowed. This rifle won't stop a beast, +a live beast, like that Nibelungen dragon of yours.' + +"'Yes, it will,' she said; 'it's not an ordinary rifle.' + +"Then, for the first time, I noticed, just below the magazine, a +cylindrical attachment that was strange to me. + +"'Now, if you will watch the sea very carefully, and will promise not +to look at me,' said Daisy, 'I will try to explain.' + +"She did not wait for me to promise, but went on eagerly, a sparkle of +excitement in her blue eyes: + +"'You know, of all the fossil remains of the great batlike and +lizard-like creatures that inhabited the earth ages and ages ago, the +bones of the gigantic saurians are the most interesting. I think they +used to splash about the water and fly over the land during the +carboniferous period; anyway, it doesn't matter. Of course you have +seen pictures of reconstructed creatures such as the ichthyosaurus, +the plesiosaurus, the anthracosaurus, and the thermosaurus?' + +"I nodded, trying to keep my eyes from hers. + +"'And you know that the remains of the thermosaurus were first +discovered and reconstructed by papa?' + +"'Yes,' said I. There was no use in saying no. + +"'I am glad you do. Now, papa has proved that this creature lived +entirely in the Gulf Stream, emerging for occasional flights across an +ocean or two. Can you imagine how he proved it?' + +"'No,' said I, resolutely pointing my nose at the ocean. + +"'He proved it by a minute examination of the microscopical shells +found among the ribs of the thermosaurus. These shells contained +little creatures that live only in the warm waters of the Gulf Stream. +They were the food of the thermosaurus.' + +"'It was rather slender rations for a thing like that, wasn't it? Did +he ever swallow bigger food--er--men?' + +"'Oh yes. Tons of fossil bones from prehistoric men are also found in +the interior of the thermosaurus.' + +"'Then,' said I, 'you, at least, had better go back to Captain +McPeek's--' + +"'Please turn around; don't be so foolish. I didn't say there was a +live thermosaurus in the water, did I?' + +"'Isn't there?' + +"'Why, no!' + +"My relief was genuine, but I thought of the rifle and looked +suspiciously out to sea. + +"'What's the Winchester for?' I asked. + +"'Listen, and I will explain. Papa has found out--how, I do not +exactly understand--that there is in the waters of the Gulf Stream the +body of a thermosaurus. The creature must have been alive within a +year or so. The impenetrable scale-armor that covers its body has, as +far as papa knows, prevented its disintegration. We know that it is +there still, or was there within a few months. Papa has reports and +sworn depositions from steamer captains and seamen from a dozen +different vessels, all corroborating one another in essential details. +These stories, of course, get into the newspapers--sea-serpent +stories--but papa knows that they confirm his theory that the huge +body of this reptile is swinging along somewhere in the Gulf Stream.' + +"She opened her sunshade and held it over her. I noticed that she +deigned to give me the benefit of about one-eighth of it. + +"'Your duty with that rifle is this: if we are fortunate enough to see +the body of the thermosaurus come floating by, you are to take good +aim and fire--fire rapidly every bullet in the magazine; then reload +and fire again, and reload and fire as long as you have any cartridges +left.' + +"'A self-feeding Maxim is what I should have,' I said, with gentle +sarcasm. 'Well, and suppose I make a sieve of this big lizard?' + +"'Do you see these rings in the sand?' she asked. + +"Sure enough, somebody had driven heavy piles deep into the sand all +around us, and to the tops of these piles were attached steel rings, +half buried under the spear-grass. We sat almost exactly in the centre +of a circle of these rings. + +"'The reason is this,' said Daisy; 'every bullet in your cartridges is +steel-tipped and armor-piercing. To the base of each bullet is +attached a thin wire of pallium. Pallium is that new metal, a thread +of which, drawn out into finest wire, will hold a ton of iron +suspended. Every bullet is fitted with minute coils of miles of this +wire. When the bullet leaves the rifle it spins out this wire as a +shot from a life-saver's mortar spins out and carries the life-line to +a wrecked ship. The end of each coil of wire is attached to that +cylinder under the magazine of your rifle. As soon as the shell is +automatically ejected this wire flies out also. A bit of scarlet tape +is fixed to the end, so that it will be easy to pick up. There is also +a snap-clasp on the end, and this clasp fits those rings that you see +in the sand. Now, when you begin firing, it is my duty to run and pick +up the wire ends and attach them to the rings. Then, you see, we have +the body of the thermosaurus full of bullets, every bullet anchored to +the shore by tiny wires, each of which could easily hold a ton's +strain.' + +"I looked at her in amazement. + +"'Then,' she added, calmly, 'we have captured the thermosaurus.' + +"'Your father,' said I, at length, 'must have spent years of labor +over this preparation.' + +"'It is the work of a lifetime,' she said, simply. + +"My face, I suppose, showed my misgivings. + +"'It must not fail,' she added. + +"'But--but we are nowhere near the Gulf Stream,' I ventured. + +"Her face brightened, and she frankly held the sunshade over us both. + +"'Ah, you don't know,' she said, 'what else papa has discovered. Would +you believe that he has found a loop in the Gulf Stream--a genuine +loop--that swings in here just outside of the breakers below? It is +true! Everybody on Long Island knows that there is a warm current off +the coast, but nobody imagined it was merely a sort of backwater from +the Gulf Stream that formed a great circular mill-race around the cone +of a subterranean volcano, and rejoined the Gulf Stream off Cape +Albatross. But it is! That is why papa bought a yacht three years ago +and sailed about for two years so mysteriously. Oh, I did want to go +with him so much!' + +"'This,' said I, 'is most astonishing.' + +"She leaned enthusiastically towards me, her lovely face aglow. + +"'Isn't it?' she said; 'and to think that you and papa and I are the +only people in the whole world who know this!' + +"To be included in such a triology was very delightful. + +"'Papa is writing the whole thing--I mean about the currents. He also +has in preparation sixteen volumes on the thermosaurus. He said this +morning that he was going to ask you to write the story first for some +scientific magazine. He is certain that Professor Bruce Stoddard, of +Columbia, will write the pamphlets necessary. This will give papa time +to attend to the sixteen-volume work, which he expects to finish in +three years.' + +"'Let us first,' said I, laughing, 'catch our thermosaurus.' + +"'We must not fail,' she said, wistfully. + +"'We shall not fail,' I said, 'for I promise to sit on this sand-hill +as long as I live--until a thermosaurus appears--if that is your wish, +Miss Holroyd.' + +"Our eyes met for an instant. She did not chide me, either, for not +looking at the ocean. Her eyes were bluer, anyway. + +"'I suppose,' she said, bending her head and absently pouring sand +between her fingers--'I suppose you think me a blue-stocking, or +something odious?' + +"'Not exactly,' I said. There was an emphasis in my voice that made +her color. After a moment she laid the sunshade down, still open. + +"'May I hold it?' I asked. + +"She nodded almost imperceptibly. + +"The ocean had turned a deep marine blue, verging on purple, that +heralded a scorching afternoon. The wind died away; the odor of cedar +and sweet-bay hung heavy in the air. + +"In the sand at our feet an iridescent flower-beetle crawled, its +metallic green-and-blue wings burning like a spark. Great gnats, with +filmy, glittering wings, danced aimlessly above the young golden-rod; +burnished crickets, inquisitive, timid, ran from under chips of +driftwood, waved their antennae at us, and ran back again. One by one +the marbled tiger-beetles tumbled at our feet, dazed from the exertion +of an aerial flight, then scrambled and ran a little way, or darted +into the wire grass, where great, brilliant spiders eyed them askance +from their gossamer hammocks. + +"Far out at sea the white gulls floated and drifted on the water, or +sailed up into the air to flap lazily for a moment and settle back +among the waves. Strings of black surf-ducks passed, their strong +wings tipping the surface of the water; single wandering coots whirled +from the breakers into lonely flight towards the horizon. + +"We lay and watched the little ring-necks running along the water's +edge, now backing away from the incoming tide, now boldly wading after +the undertow. The harmony of silence, the deep perfume, the mystery of +waiting for that something that all await--what is it? love? death? or +only the miracle of another morrow?--troubled me with vague +restlessness. As sunlight casts shadows, happiness, too, throws a +shadow, an the shadow is sadness. + +"And so the morning wore away until Freda came with a cool-looking +hamper. Then delicious cold fowl and lettuce sandwiches and champagne +cup set our tongues wagging as only very young tongues can wag. Daisy +went back with Freda after luncheon, leaving me a case of cigars, with +a bantering smile. I dozed, half awake, keeping a partly closed eye on +the ocean, where a faint gray streak showed plainly amid the azure +water all around. That was the Gulf Stream loop. + +"About four o'clock Frisby appeared with a bamboo shelter-tent, for +which I was unaffectedly grateful. + +"After he had erected it over me he stopped to chat a bit, but the +conversation bored me, for he could talk of nothing but bill-posting. + +"'You wouldn't ruin the landscape here, would you?' I asked. + +"'Ruin it!' repeated Frisby, nervously. 'It's ruined now; there ain't +a place to stick a bill.' + +"'The snipe stick bills--in the sand,' I said, flippantly. + +"There was no humor about Frisby. 'Do they?' he asked. + +"I moved with a certain impatience. + +"'Bills,' said Frisby, 'give spice an' variety to nature. They break +the monotony of the everlastin' green and what-you-may-call-its.' + +"I glared at him. + +"'Bills,' he continued, 'are not easy to stick, lemme tell you, sir. +Sign-paintin's a soft snap when it comes to bill-stickin'. Now, I +guess I've stuck more bills onto New York State than ennybody.' + +"'Have you?' I said, angrily. + +"'Yes, siree! I always pick out the purtiest spots--kinder filled +chuck full of woods and brooks and things; then I h'ist my paste-pot +onto a rock, and I slather that rock with gum, and whoop she goes!' + +"'Whoop what goes?' + +"'The bill. I paste her onto the rock, with one swipe of the brush for +the edges and a back-handed swipe for the finish--except when a bill +is folded in two halves.' + +"'And what do you do then?' I asked, disgusted. + +"'Swipe twice,' said Frisby, with enthusiasm. + +"'And you don't think it injures the landscape?' + +"'Injures it!' he exclaimed, convinced that I was attempting to joke. + +"I looked wearily out to sea. He also looked at the water and sighed +sentimentally. + +"'Floatin' buoys with bills onto 'em is a idea of mine,' he observed. +'That damn ocean is monotonous, ain't it?' + +"I don't know what I might have done to Frisby--the rifle was so +convenient--if his mean yellow dog had not waddled up at this +juncture. + +"'Hi, Davy, sic 'em!' said Frisby, expectorating upon a clam-shell and +hurling it seaward. The cur watched the flight of the shell +apathetically, then squatted in the sand and looked at his master. + +"'Kinder lost his spirit,' said Frisby, 'ain't he? I once stuck a bill +onto Davy, an' it come off, an' the paste sorter sickened him. He was +hell on rats--once!' + +"After a moment or two Frisby took himself off, whistling cheerfully +to Davy, who followed him when he was ready. The rifle burned in my +fingers. + +"It was nearly six o'clock when the professor appeared, spade on +shoulder, boots smeared with mud. + +"'Well,' he said, 'nothing to report, Dick, my boy?' + +"'Nothing, professor.' + +"He wiped his shining face with his handkerchief and stared at the +water. + +"'My calculations lead me to believe,' he said, 'that our prize may be +due any day now. This theory I base upon the result of the report from +the last sea-captain I saw. I cannot understand why some of these +captains did not take the carcass in tow. They all say that they +tried, but that the body sank before they could come within half a +mile. The truth is, probably, that they did not stir a foot from their +course to examine the thing.' + +"'Have you ever cruised about for it?' I ventured. + +"'For two years,' he said, grimly. 'It's no use; it's accident when a +ship falls in with it. One captain reports it a thousand miles from +where the last skipper spoke it, and always in the Gulf Stream. They +think it is a different specimen every time, and the papers are +teeming with sea-serpent fol-de-rol.' + +"'Are you sure,' I asked, 'that it will swing into the coast on this +Gulf Stream loop?' + +"'I think I may say that it is certain to do so. I experimented with a +dead right-whale. You may have heard of its coming ashore here last +summer.' + +"'I think I did,' said I, with a faint smile. The thing had poisoned +the air for miles around. + +"'But,' I continued, 'suppose it comes in the night?' + +"He laughed. + +"'There I am lucky. Every night this month, and every day, too, the +current of the loop runs inland so far that even a porpoise would +strand for at least twelve hours. Longer than that I have not +experimented with, but I know that the shore trend of the loop runs +across a long spur of the submerged volcanic mountain, and that +anything heavier than a porpoise would scrape the bottom and be +carried so slowly that at least twelve hours must elapse before the +carcass could float again into deep water. There are chances of its +stranding indefinitely, too, but I don't care to take those chances. +That is why I have stationed you here, Dick.' + +"He glanced again at the water, smiling to himself. + +"'There is another question I want to ask,' I said, 'if you don't +mind.' + +"'Of course not!' he said, warmly. + +"'What are you digging for?' + +"'Why, simply for exercise. The doctor told me I was killing myself +with my sedentary habits, so I decided to dig. I don't know a better +exercise. Do you?' + +"'I suppose not,' I murmured, rather red in the face. I wondered +whether he'd mention fossils. + +"'Did Daisy tell you why we are making our papier-mache thermosaurus?' +he asked. + +"I shook my head. + +"'We constructed that from measurements I took from the fossil remains +of the thermosaurus in the Metropolitan Museum. Professor Bruce +Stoddard made the drawings. We set it up here, all ready to receive +the skin of the carcass that I am expecting.' + +"We had started towards home, walking slowly across the darkening +dunes, shoulder to shoulder. The sand was deep, and walking was not +easy. + +"'I wish,' said I at last, 'that I knew why Miss Holroyd asked me not +to walk on the beach. It's much less fatiguing.' + +"'That,' said the professor, 'is a matter that I intend to discuss +with you to-night.' He spoke gravely, almost sadly. I felt that +something of unparalleled importance was soon to be revealed. So I +kept very quiet, watching the ocean out of the corners of my eyes. + + + + +XX + + +"Dinner was ended. Daisy Holroyd lighted her father's pipe for him, +and insisted on my smoking as much as I pleased. Then she sat down, +and folded her hands like a good little girl, waiting for her father +to make the revelation which I felt in my bones must be something out +of the ordinary. + +"The professor smoked for a while, gazing meditatively at his +daughter; then, fixing his gray eyes on me, he said: + +"'Have you ever heard of the kree--that Australian bird, half parrot, +half hawk, that destroys so many sheep in New South Wales?' + +"I nodded. + +"'The kree kills a sheep by alighting on its back and tearing away the +flesh with its hooked beak until a vital part is reached. You know +that? Well, it has been discovered that the kree had prehistoric +prototypes. These birds were enormous creatures, who preyed upon +mammoths and mastodons, and even upon the great saurians. It has been +conclusively proved that a few saurians have been killed by the +ancestors of the kree, but the favorite food of these birds was +undoubtedly the thermosaurus. It is believed that the birds attacked +the eyes of the thermosaurus, and when, as was its habit, the mammoth +creature turned on its back to claw them, they fell upon the thinner +scales of its stomach armor and finally killed it. This, of course, is +a theory, but we have almost absolute proofs of its correctness. Now, +these two birds are known among scientists as the ekaf-bird and the +ool-yllik. The names are Australian, in which country most of their +remains have been unearthed. They lived during the Carboniferous +period. Now, it is not generally known, but the fact is, that in 1801 +Captain Ransom, of the British exploring vessel _Gull_, purchased from +the natives of Tasmania the skin of an ekaf-bird that could not have +been killed more than twenty-four hours previous to its sale. I saw +this skin in the British Museum. It was labelled, "Unknown bird, +probably extinct." It took me exactly a week to satisfy myself that it +was actually the skin of an ekaf-bird. But that is not all, Dick,' +continued the professor, excitedly. 'In 1854 Admiral Stuart, of our +own navy, saw the carcass of a strange, gigantic bird floating along +the southern coast of Australia. Sharks were after it, and before a +boat could be lowered these miserable fish got it. But the good old +admiral secured a few feathers and sent them to the Smithsonian. I saw +them. They were not even labelled, but I knew that they were feathers +from the ekaf-bird or its near relative, the ool-yllik.' + +"I had grown so interested that I had leaned far across the table. +Daisy, too, bent forward. It was only when the professor paused for a +moment that I noticed how close together our heads were--Daisy's and +mine. I don't think she realized it. She did not move. + +"'Now comes the important part of this long discourse,' said the +professor, smiling at our eagerness. "'Ever since the carcass of our +derelict thermosaurus was first noticed, every captain who has seen it +has also reported the presence of one or more gigantic birds in the +neighborhood. These birds, at a great distance, appeared to be +hovering over the carcass, but on the approach of a vessel they +disappeared. Even in mid-ocean they were observed. When I heard about +it I was puzzled. A month later I was satisfied that neither the +ekaf-bird nor the ool-yllik was extinct. Last Monday I knew that I was +right. I found forty-eight distinct impressions of the huge, +seven-toed claw of the ekaf-bird on the beach here at Pine Inlet. You +may imagine my excitement. I succeeded in digging up enough wet sand +around one of these impressions to preserve its form. I managed to get +it into a soap-box, and now it is there in my shop. The tide rose too +rapidly for me to save the other footprints.' + +"I shuddered at the possibility of a clumsy misstep on my part +obliterating the impression of an ool-yllik. + +"'That is the reason that my daughter warned you off the beach,' he +said, mildly. + +"'Hanging would have been too good for the vandal who destroyed such +priceless prizes,' I cried out, in self-reproach. + +"Daisy Holroyd turned a flushed face to mine and impulsively laid her +hand on my sleeve. + +"'How could you know?' she said. + +"'It's all right now,' said her father, emphasizing each word with a +gentle tap of his pipe-bowl on the table-edge; 'don't be hard on +yourself, Dick. You'll do yeoman's service yet.' + +"It was nearly midnight, and still we chatted on about the +thermosaurus, the ekaf-bird, and the ool-yllik, eagerly discussing the +probability of the great reptile's carcass being in the vicinity. That +alone seemed to explain the presence of these prehistoric birds at +Pine Inlet. + +"'Do they ever attack human beings?' I asked. + +"The professor looked startled. + +"'Gracious!' he exclaimed, 'I never thought of that. And Daisy running +about out-of-doors! Dear me! It takes a scientist to be an unnatural +parent!' + +"His alarm was half real, half assumed; but, all the same, he glanced +gravely at us both, shaking his handsome head, absorbed in thought. +Daisy herself looked a little doubtful. As for me, my sensations were +distinctly queer. + +"'It is true,' said the professor, frowning at the wall, 'that human +remains have been found associated with the bones of the ekaf-bird--I +don't know how intimately. It is a matter to be taken into most +serious consideration.' + +"'The problem can be solved,' said I, 'in several ways. One is, to +keep Miss Holroyd in the house--' + +"'I shall not stay in,' cried Daisy, indignantly. + +"We all laughed, and her father assured her that she should not be +abused. + +"'Even if I did stay in,' she said, 'one of these birds might alight +on Master Dick.' + +"She looked saucily at me as she spoke, but turned crimson when her +father observed, quietly, 'You don't seem to think of me, Daisy!' + +"'Of course I do,' she said, getting up and putting both arms around +her father's neck; 'but Dick--as--as you call him--is so helpless and +timid.' + +"My blissful smile froze on my lips. + +"'Timid!' I repeated. + +"She came back to the table, making me a mocking reverence. + +"'Do you think I am to be laughed at with impunity?' she said. + +"'What are your other plans, Dick?' asked the professor. 'Daisy, let +him alone, you little tease!' + +"'One is, to haul a lot of cast-iron boilers along the dunes,' I said. +'If these birds come when the carcass floats in, and if they seem +disposed to trouble us, we could crawl into the boilers and be safe.' + +"'Why, that is really brilliant!' cried Daisy. + +"'Be quiet, my child. Dick, the plan is sound and sensible and +perfectly practical. McPeek and Frisby shall go for a dozen loads of +boilers to-morrow.' + +"'It will spoil the beauty of the landscape,' said Daisy, with a +taunting nod to me. + +"'And Frisby will probably attempt to cover them with bill-posters,' I +added, laughing. + +"'That,' said Daisy, 'I shall prevent, even at the cost of his life.' +And she stood up, looking very determined. + +"'Children, children,' protested the professor, 'go to bed--you bother +me.' + +"Then I turned deliberately to Miss Holroyd. + +"'Good-night, Daisy,' I said. + +"'Good-night, Dick,' she said, very gently. + + + + +XXI + + +"The week passed quickly for me, leaving but few definite impressions. +As I look back to it now I can see the long stretch of beach burning +in the fierce sunlight, the endless meadows, with the glimmer of water +in the distance, the dunes, the twisted cedars, the leagues of +scintillating ocean, rocking, rocking, always rocking. In the starlit +nights the curlew came in from the sand-bars by twos and threes; I +could hear their querulous call as I lay in bed thinking. All day long +the little ring-necks whistled from the shore. The plover answered +them from distant, lonely inland pools. The great white gulls drifted +like feathers upon the sea. + +"One morning towards the end of the week, I, strolling along the +dunes, came upon Frisby. He was bill-posting. I caught him red-handed. + +"'This,' said I, 'must stop. Do you understand, Mr. Frisby?' + +"He stepped back from his work, laying his head on one side, +considering first me, then the bill that he had pasted on one of our +big boilers. + +"'Don't you like the color?' he asked. 'It goes well on them black +boilers.' + +"'Color! No, I don't like the color, either. Can't you understand that +there are some people in the world who object to seeing +patent-medicine advertisements scattered over a landscape?' + +"'Hey?' he said, perplexed. + +"'Will you kindly remove that advertisement?' I persisted. + +"'Too late,' said Frisby; 'it's sot.' + +"I was too disgusted to speak, but my disgust turned to anger when I +perceived that, as far as the eye could reach, our boilers, lying from +three to four hundred feet apart, were ablaze with yellow-and-red +posters extolling the 'Eureka Liver Pill Company.' + +"'It don't cost 'em nothin',' said Frisby, cheerfully; 'I done it fur +the fun of it. Purty, ain't it?' + +"'They are Professor Holroyd's boilers,' I said, subduing a desire to +beat Frisby with my telescope. 'Wait until Miss Holroyd sees this +work.' + +"'Don't she like yeller and red?' he demanded, anxiously. + +"'You'll find out,' said I. + +"Frisby gaped at his handiwork and then at his yellow dog. After a +moment he mechanically spat on a clam-shell and requested Davy to +'sic' it. + +"'Can't you comprehend that you have ruined our pleasure in the +landscape?' I asked, more mildly. + +"'I've got some green bills,' said Frisby; 'I kin stick 'em over the +yeller ones--' + +"'Confound it,' said I, 'it isn't the color!' + +"'Then,' observed Frisby, 'you don't like them pills. I've got some +bills of the "Cropper Automobile" and a few of "Bagley, the Gents' +Tailor"--' + +"'Frisby,' said I, 'use them all--paste the whole collection over your +dog and yourself--then walk off the cliff.' + +"He sullenly unfolded a green poster, swabbed the boiler with paste, +laid the upper section of the bill upon it, and plastered the whole +bill down with a thwack of his brush. As I walked away I heard him +muttering. + +"Next day Daisy was so horrified that I promised to give Frisby an +ultimatum. I found him with Freda, gazing sentimentally at his work, +and I sent him back to the shop in a hurry, telling Freda at the same +time that she could spend her leisure in providing Mr. Frisby with +sand, soap, and a scrubbing-brush. Then I walked on to my post of +observation. + +"I watched until sunset. Daisy came with her father to hear my report, +but there was nothing to tell, and we three walked slowly back to the +house. + +"In the evenings the professor worked on his volumes, the click of his +type-writer sounding faintly behind his closed door. Daisy and I +played chess sometimes; sometimes we played hearts. I don't remember +that we ever finished a game of either--we talked too much. + +"Our discussions covered every topic of interest: we argued upon +politics; we skimmed over literature and music; we settled +international differences; we spoke vaguely of human brotherhood. I +say we slighted no subject of interest--I am wrong; we never spoke of +love. + +"Now, love is a matter of interest to ten people out of ten. Why it +was that it did not appear to interest us is as interesting a question +as love itself. We were young, alert, enthusiastic, inquiring. We +eagerly absorbed theories concerning any curious phenomena in nature, +as intellectual cocktails to stimulate discussion. And yet we did not +discuss love. I do not say that we avoided it. No; the subject was +too completely ignored for even that. And yet we found it very +difficult to pass an hour separated. The professor noticed this, and +laughed at us. We were not even embarrassed. + +"Sunday passed in pious contemplation of the ocean. Daisy read a +little in her prayer-book, and the professor threw a cloth over his +type-writer and strolled up and down the sands. He may have been lost +in devout abstraction; he may have been looking for footprints. As for +me, my mind was very serene, and I was more than happy. Daisy read to +me a little for my soul's sake, and the professor came up and said +something cheerful. He also examined the magazine of my Winchester. + +"That night, too, Daisy took her guitar to the sands and sang one or +two Basque hymns. Unlike us, the Basques do not take their pleasures +sadly. One of their pleasures is evidently religion. + +"The big moon came up over the dunes and stared at the sea until the +surface of every wave trembled with radiance. A sudden stillness fell +across the world; the wind died out; the foam ran noiselessly across +the beach; the cricket's rune was stilled. + +"I leaned back, dropping one hand upon the sand. It touched another +hand, soft and cool. + +"After a while the other hand moved slightly, and I found that my own +had closed above it. Presently one finger stirred a little--only a +little--for our fingers were interlocked. + +"On the shore the foam-froth bubbled and winked and glimmered in the +moonlight. A star fell from the zenith, showering the night with +incandescent dust. + +"If our fingers lay interlaced beside us, her eyes were calm and +serene as always, wide open, fixed upon the depths of a dark sky. And +when her father rose and spoke to us, she did not withdraw her hand. + +"'Is it late?' she asked, dreamily. + +"'It is midnight, little daughter.' + +"I stood up, still holding her hand, and aided her to rise. And when, +at the door, I said good-night, she turned and looked at me for a +little while in silence, then passed into her room slowly, with head +still turned towards me. + +"All night long I dreamed of her; and when the east whitened, I sprang +up, the thunder of the ocean in my ears, the strong sea-wind blowing +into the open window. + +"'She's asleep,' I thought, and I leaned from the window and peered +out into the east. + +"The sea called to me, tossing its thousand arms; the soaring gulls, +dipping, rising, wheeling above the sandbar, screamed and clamored for +a playmate. I slipped into my bathing-suit, dropped from the window +upon the soft sand, and in a moment had plunged head foremost into the +surf, swimming beneath the waves towards the open sea. + +"Under the tossing ocean the voice of the waters was in my ears--a +low, sweet voice, intimate, mysterious. Through singing foam and +broad, green, glassy depths, by whispering sandy channels atrail with +sea-weed, and on, on, out into the vague, cool sea, I sped, rising to +the top, sinking, gliding. Then at last I flung myself out of water, +hands raised, and the clamor of the gulls filled my ears. + +"As I lay, breathing fast, drifting on the sea, far out beyond the +gulls I saw a flash of white, and an arm was lifted, signalling me. + +"'Daisy!' I called. + +"A clear hail came across the water, distinct on the sea-wind, and at +the same instant we raised our hands and moved towards each other. + +"How we laughed as we met in the sea! The white dawn came up out of +the depths, the zenith turned to rose and ashes. + +"And with the dawn came the wind--a great sea-wind, fresh, aromatic, +that hurled our voices back into our throats and lifted the sheeted +spray above our heads. Every wave, crowned with mist, caught us in a +cool embrace, cradled us, and slipped away, only to leave us to +another wave, higher, stronger, crested with opalescent glory, +breathing incense. + +"We turned together up the coast, swimming lightly side by side, but +our words were caught up by the winds and whirled into the sky. + +"We looked up at the driving clouds; we looked out upon the pallid +waste of waters, but it was into each other's eyes we looked, +wondering, wistful, questioning the reason of sky and sea And there in +each other's eyes we read the mystery, and we knew that earth and sky +and sea were created for us alone. + +"Drifting on by distant sands and dunes, her white fingers touching +mine, we spoke, keying our tones to the wind's vast harmony. And we +spoke of love. + +"Gray and wide as the limitless span of the sky and the sea, the winds +gathered from the world's ends to bear us on; but they were not +familiar winds; for now, along the coast, the breakers curled and +showed a million fangs, and the ocean stirred to its depths, uneasy, +ominous, and the menace of its murmur drew us closer as we moved. + +"Where the dull thunder and the tossing spray warned us from sunken +reefs, we heard the harsh challenges of gulls; where the pallid surf +twisted in yellow coils of spume above the bar, the singing sands +murmured of treachery and secrets of lost souls agasp in the throes of +silent undertows. + +"But there was a little stretch of beach glimmering through the +mountains of water, and towards this we turned, side by side. Around +us the water grew warmer; the breath of the following waves moistened +our cheeks; the water itself grew gray and strange about us. + +"'We have come too far,' I said; but she only answered: + +"'Faster, faster! I am afraid!' The water was almost hot now; its +aromatic odor filled our lungs. + +"'The Gulf loop!' I muttered. 'Daisy, shall I help you?' + +"'No. Swim--close by me! Oh-h! Dick--' + +"Her startled cry was echoed by another--a shrill scream, unutterably +horrible--and a great bird flapped from the beach, splashing and +beating its pinions across the water with a thundering noise. + +"Out across the waves it blundered, rising little by little from the +water, and now, to my horror, I saw another monstrous bird swinging in +the air above it, squealing as it turned on its vast wings. Before I +could speak we touched the beach, and I half lifted her to the shore. + +"'Quick!' I repeated. 'We must not wait.' + +"Her eyes were dark with fear, but she rested a hand on my shoulder, +and we crept up among the dune-grasses and sank down by the point of +sand where the rough shelter stood, surrounded by the iron-ringed +piles. + +"She lay there, breathing fast and deep, dripping with spray. I had no +power of speech left, but when I rose wearily to my knees and looked +out upon the water my blood ran cold. Above the ocean, on the breast +of the roaring wind, three enormous birds sailed, turning and wheeling +among one another; and below, drifting with the gray stream of the +Gulf loop, a colossal bulk lay half submerged--a gigantic lizard, +floating belly upward. + +"Then Daisy crept kneeling to my side and touched me, trembling from +head to foot. + +"'I know,' I muttered. 'I must run back for the rifle.' + +"'And--and leave me?' + +"I took her by the hand, and we dragged ourselves through the +wire-grass to the open end of a boiler lying in the sand. + +"She crept in on her hands and knees, and called to me to follow. + +"'You are safe now,' I cried. 'I must go back for the rifle.' + +"'The birds may--may attack you.' + +"'If they do I can get into one of the other boilers,' I said. 'Daisy, +you must not venture out until I come back. You won't, will you?' + +"'No-o,' she whispered, doubtfully. + +"'Then--good-bye.' + +"'Good-bye,' she answered, but her voice was very small and still. + +"'Good-bye,' I said again. I was kneeling at the mouth of the big +iron tunnel; it was dark inside and I could not see her, but, before I +was conscious of it, her arms were around my neck and we had kissed +each other. + +"I don't remember how I went away. When I came to my proper senses I +was swimming along the coast at full speed, and over my head wheeled +one of the birds, screaming at every turn. + +"The intoxication of that innocent embrace, the close impress of her +arms around my neck, gave me a strength and recklessness that neither +fear nor fatigue could subdue. The bird above me did not even frighten +me. I watched it over my shoulder, swimming strongly, with the tide +now aiding me, now stemming my course; but I saw the shore passing +quickly, and my strength increased, and I shouted when I came in sight +of the house, and scrambled up on the sand, dripping and excited. +There was nobody in sight, and I gave a last glance up into the air +where the bird wheeled, still screeching, and hastened into the house. +Freda stared at me in amazement as I seized the rifle and shouted for +the professor. + +"'He has just gone to town, with Captain McPeek in his wagon,' +stammered Freda. + +"'What!' I cried. 'Does he know where his daughter is?' + +"'Miss Holroyd is asleep--not?' gasped Freda. + +"'Where's Frisby?' I cried, impatiently. + +"'Yimmie?' quavered Freda. + +"'Yes, Jimmie; isn't there anybody here? Good Heavens! where's that +man in the shop?' + +"'He also iss gone,' said Freda, shedding tears, 'to buy papier-mache. +Yimmie, he iss gone to post bills.' + +"I waited to hear no more, but swung my rifle over my shoulder, and, +hanging the cartridge-belt across my chest, hurried out and up the +beach. The bird was not in sight. + +"I had been running for perhaps a minute when, far up on the dunes, I +saw a yellow dog rush madly through a clump of sweet-bay, and at the +same moment a bird soared past, rose, and hung hovering just above the +thicket. Suddenly the bird swooped; there was a shriek and a yelp from +the cur, but the bird gripped it in one claw and beat its wings upon +the sand, striving to rise. Then I saw Frisby--paste, bucket, and +brush raised--fall upon the bird, yelling lustily. The fierce creature +relaxed its talons, and the dog rushed on, squeaking with terror. The +bird turned on Frisby and sent him sprawling on his face, a sticky +mass of paste and sand. But this did not end the struggle. The bird, +croaking horridly, flew at the prostrate bill-poster, and the sand +whirled into a pillar above its terrible wings. Scarcely knowing what +I was about, I raised my rifle and fired twice. A scream echoed each +shot, and the bird rose heavily in a shower of sand; but two bullets +were embedded in that mass of foul feathers, and I saw the wires and +scarlet tape uncoiling on the sand at my feet. In an instant I seized +them and passed the ends around a cedar-tree, hooking the clasps +tight. Then I cast one swift glance upward, where the bird wheeled, +screeching, anchored like a kite to the pallium wires; and I hurried +on across the dunes, the shells cutting my feet and the bushes tearing +my wet swimming-suit, until I dripped with blood from shoulder to +ankle. Out in the ocean the carcass of the thermosaurus floated, claws +outspread, belly glistening in the gray light, and over him circled +two birds. As I reached the shelter I knelt and fired into the mass of +scales, and at my first shot a horrible thing occurred--the +lizard-like head writhed, the slitted yellow eyes sliding open from +the film that covered them. A shudder passed across the undulating +body, the great scaled belly heaved, and one leg feebly clawed at the +air. + +"The thing was still alive! + +"Crushing back the horror that almost paralyzed my hands, I planted +shot after shot into the quivering reptile, while it writhed and +clawed, striving to turn over and dive; and at each shot the black +blood spurted in long, slim jets across the water. And now Daisy was +at my side, pale and determined, swiftly clasping each tape-marked +wire to the iron rings in the circle around us. Twice I filled the +magazine from my belt, and twice I poured streams of steel-tipped +bullets into the scaled mass, twisting and shuddering on the sea. +Suddenly the birds steered towards us. I felt the wind from their vast +wings. I saw the feathers erect, vibrating. I saw the spread claws +outstretched, and I struck furiously at them, crying to Daisy to run +into the iron shelter. Backing, swinging my clubbed rifle, I +retreated, but I tripped across one of the taut pallium wires, and in +an instant the hideous birds were on me, and the bone in my forearm +snapped like a pipe-stem at a blow from their wings. Twice I struggled +to my knees, blinded with blood, confused, almost fainting; then I +fell again, rolling into the mouth of the iron boiler. + + * * * * * + +"When I struggled back to consciousness Daisy knelt silently beside +me, while Captain McPeek and Professor Holroyd bound up my shattered +arm, talking excitedly. The pain made me faint and dizzy. I tried to +speak and could not. At last they got me to my feet and into the +wagon, and Daisy came, too, and crouched beside me, wrapped in +oilskins to her eyes. Fatigue, lack of food, and excitement had +combined with wounds and broken bones to extinguish the last atom of +strength in my body; but my mind was clear enough to understand that +the trouble was over and the thermosaurus safe. + +"I heard McPeek say that one of the birds that I had anchored to a +cedar-tree had torn loose from the bullets and had winged its way +heavily out to sea. The professor answered: 'Yes, the ekaf-bird; the +others were ool-ylliks. I'd have given my right arm to have secured +them.' Then for a time I heard no more; but the jolting of the wagon +over the dunes roused me to keenest pain, and I held out my right hand +to Daisy. She clasped it in both of hers, and kissed it again and +again. + + * * * * * + +"There is little more to add, I think. Professor Bruce Stoddard's +scientific pamphlet will be published soon, to be followed by +Professor Holroyd's sixteen volumes. In a few days the stuffed and +mounted thermosaurus will be placed on free public exhibition in the +arena of Madison Square Garden, the only building in the city large +enough to contain the body of this immense winged reptile." + + * * * * * + +The young man hesitated, looking long and earnestly at Miss Barrison. + +"Did you marry her?" she asked, softly. + +"You wouldn't believe it," said the young man, earnestly--"you +wouldn't believe it, after all that happened, if I should tell you +that she married Professor Bruce Stoddard, of Columbia--would you?" + +"Yes, I would," said Miss Barrison. "You never can tell what a girl +will do." + +"That story of yours," I said, "is to me the most wonderful and +valuable contribution to nature study that it has ever been my fortune +to listen to. You are fitted to write; it is your sacred mission to +produce. Are you going to?" + +"I am writing," said the young man, quietly, "a nature book. Sir Peter +Grebe's magnificent monograph on the speckled titmouse inspired me. +But nature study is not what I have chosen as my life's mission." + +He looked dreamily across at Miss Barrison. "No, not natural +phenomena," he repeated, "but unnatural phenomena. What Professor +Hyssop has done for Columbia, I shall attempt to do for Harvard. In +fact, I have already accepted the chair of Psychical Phenomena at +Cambridge." + +I gazed upon him with intense respect. + +"A personal experience revealed to me my life's work," he, went on, +thoughtfully stroking his blond mustache. "If Miss Barrison would care +to hear it--" + +"Please tell it," she said, sweetly. + +"I shall have to relate it clothed in that artificial garb known as +literary style," he explained, deprecatingly. + +"It doesn't matter," I said, "I never noticed any style at all in your +story of the thermosaurus." + +He smiled gratefully, and passed his hand over his face; a far-away +expression came into his eyes, and he slowly began, hesitating, as +though talking to himself: + + + + +XXII + + +"It was high noon in the city of Antwerp. From slender steeples +floated the mellow music of the Flemish bells, and in the spire of the +great cathedral across the square the cracked chimes clashed discords +until my ears ached. + +"When the fiend in the cathedral had jerked the last tuneless clang +from the chimes, I removed my fingers from my ears and sat down at one +of the iron tables in the court. A waiter, with his face shaved blue, +brought me a bottle of Rhine wine, a tumbler of cracked ice, and a +siphon. + +"'Does monsieur desire anything else?' he inquired. + +"'Yes--the head of the cathedral bell-ringer; bring it with vinegar +and potatoes,' I said, bitterly. Then I began to ponder on my +great-aunt and the Crimson Diamond. + +"The white walls of the Hotel St. Antoine rose in a rectangle around +the sunny court, casting long shadows across the basin of the +fountain. The strip of blue overhead was cloudless. Sparrows twittered +under the eaves the yellow awnings fluttered, the flowers swayed in +the summer breeze, and the jet of the fountain splashed among the +water-plants. On the sunny side of the piazza the tables were vacant; +on the shady side I was lazily aware that the tables behind me were +occupied, but I was indifferent as to their occupants, partly because +I shunned all tourists, partly because I was thinking of my +great-aunt. + +"Most old ladies are eccentric, but there is a limit, and my +great-aunt had overstepped it. I had believed her to be wealthy--she +died bankrupt. Still, I knew there was one thing she did possess, and +that was the famous Crimson Diamond. Now, of course, you know who my +great-aunt was. + +"Excepting the Koh-i-noor and the Regent, this enormous and unique +stone was, as everybody knows, the most valuable gem in existence. Any +ordinary person would have placed that diamond in a safe-deposit. My +great-aunt did nothing of the kind. She kept it in a small velvet bag, +which she carried about her neck. She never took it off, but wore it +dangling openly on her heavy silk gown. + +"In this same bag she also carried dried catnip-leaves, of which she +was inordinately fond. Nobody but myself, her only living relative, +knew that the Crimson Diamond lay among the sprigs of catnip in the +little velvet bag. + +"'Harold,' she would say, 'do you think I'm a fool? If I place the +Crimson Diamond in any safe-deposit vault in New York, somebody will +steal it, sooner or later.' Then she would nibble a sprig of catnip +and peer cunningly at me. I loathed the odor of catnip and she knew +it. I also loathed cats. This also she knew, and of course surrounded +herself with a dozen. Poor old lady! One day she was found dead in her +bed in her apartments at the Waldorf. The doctor said she died from +natural causes. The only other occupant of her sleeping-room was a +cat. The cat fled when we broke open the door, and I heard that she +was received and cherished by some eccentric people in a neighboring +apartment. + +"Now, although my great-aunt's death was due to purely natural causes, +there was one very startling and disagreeable feature of the case. The +velvet bag containing the Crimson Diamond had disappeared. Every inch +of the apartment was searched, the floors torn up, the walls +dismantled, but the Crimson Diamond had vanished. Chief of Police +Conlon detailed four of his best men on the case, and, as I had +nothing better to do, I enrolled myself as a volunteer. I also offered +$25,000 reward for the recovery of the gem. All New York was agog. + +"The case seemed hopeless enough, although there were five of us after +the thief. McFarlane was in London, and had been for a month, but +Scotland Yard could give him no help, and the last I heard of him he +was roaming through Surrey after a man with a white spot in his hair. +Harrison had gone to Paris. He kept writing me that clews were plenty +and the scent hot, but as Dennet, in Berlin, and Clancy, in Vienna, +wrote me the same thing, I began to doubt these gentlemen's ability. + +"'You say,' I answered Harrison, 'that the fellow is a Frenchman, and +that he is now concealed in Paris; but Dennet writes me by the same +mail that the thief is undoubtedly a German, and was seen yesterday in +Berlin. To-day I received a letter from Clancy, assuring me that +Vienna holds the culprit, and that he is an Austrian from Trieste. +Now, for Heaven's sake,' I ended, 'let me alone and stop writing me +letters until you have something to write about.' + +"The night-clerk at the Waldorf had furnished us with our first clew. +On the night of my aunt's death he had seen a tall, grave-faced man +hurriedly leave the hotel. As the man passed the desk he removed his +hat and mopped his forehead, and the night-clerk noticed that in the +middle of his head there was a patch of hair as white as snow. + +"We worked this clew for all it was worth, and, a month later, I +received a cable despatch from Paris, saying that a man answering to +the description of the Waldorf suspect had offered an enormous crimson +diamond for sale to a jeweller in the Palais Royal. Unfortunately the +fellow took fright and disappeared before the jeweller could send for +the police, and since that time McFarlane in London, Harrison in +Paris, Dennet in Berlin, and Clancy in Vienna had been chasing men +with white patches on their hair until no gray-headed patriarch in +Europe was free from suspicion. I myself had sleuthed it through +England, France, Holland, and Belgium, and now I found myself in +Antwerp at the Hotel St. Antoine, without a clew that promised +anything except another outrage on some respectable white-haired +citizen. The case seemed hopeless enough, unless the thief tried again +to sell the gem. Here was our only hope, for, unless he cut the stone +into smaller ones, he had no more chance of selling it than he would +have had if he had stolen the Venus of Milo and peddled her about the +Rue de Seine. Even were he to cut up the stone, no respectable gem +collector or jeweller would buy a crimson diamond without first +notifying me; for although a few red stones are known to collectors, +the color of the Crimson Diamond was absolutely unique, and there was +little probability of an honest mistake. + +"Thinking of all these things, I sat sipping my Rhine wine in the +shadow of the yellow awnings. A large white cat came sauntering by and +stopped in front of me to perform her toilet, until I wished she would +go away. After a while she sat up, licked her whiskers, yawned once or +twice, and was about to stroll on, when, catching sight of me, she +stopped short and looked me squarely in the face. I returned the +attention with a scowl, because I wished to discourage any advances +towards social intercourse which she might contemplate; but after a +while her steady gaze disconcerted me, and I turned to my Rhine wine. +A few minutes later I looked up again. The cat was still eying me. + +"'Now what the devil is the matter with the animal,' I muttered; 'does +she recognize in me a relative?' + +"'Perhaps,' observed a man at the next table. + +"'What do you mean by that?' I demanded. + +"'What I say,' replied the man at the next table. + +"I looked him full in the face. He was old and bald and appeared +weak-minded. His age protected his impudence. I turned my back on him. +Then my eyes fell on the cat again. She was still gazing earnestly at +me. + +"Disgusted that she should take such pointed public notice of me, I +wondered whether other people saw it; I wondered whether there was +anything peculiar in my own personal appearance. How hard the creature +stared! It was most embarrassing. + +"'What has got into that cat?' I thought. 'It's sheer impudence. It's +an intrusion, and I won't stand it!' The cat did not move. I tried to +stare her out of countenance. It was useless. There was aggressive +inquiry in her yellow eyes. A sensation of uneasiness began to steal +over me--a sensation of embarrassment not unmixed with awe. All cats +looked alike to me, and yet there was something about this one that +bothered me--something that I could not explain to myself, but which +began to occupy me. + +"She looked familiar--this Antwerp cat. An odd sense of having seen +her before, of having been well acquainted with her in former years, +slowly settled in my mind, and, although I could never remember the +time when I had not detested cats, I was almost convinced that my +relations with this Antwerp tabby had once been intimate if not +cordial. I looked more closely at the animal. Then an idea struck +me--an idea which persisted and took definite shape in spite of me. I +strove to escape from it, to evade it, to stifle and smother it; an +inward struggle ensued which brought the perspiration in beads upon my +cheeks--a struggle short, sharp, decisive. It was useless--useless to +try to put it from me--this idea so wretchedly bizarre, so grotesque +and fantastic, so utterly inane--it was useless to deny that the cat +bore a distinct resemblance to my great-aunt! + +"I gazed at her in horror. What enormous eyes the creature had! + +"'Blood is thicker than water,' said the man at the next table. + +"'What does he mean by that?' I muttered, angrily, swallowing a +tumbler of Rhine wine and seltzer. But I did not turn. What was the +use? + +"'Chattering old imbecile,' I added to myself, and struck a match, for +my cigar was out; but, as I raised the match to relight it, I +encountered the cat's eyes again. I could not enjoy my cigar with the +animal staring at me, but I was justly indignant, and I did not intend +to be routed. 'The idea! Forced to leave for a cat!' I sneered. 'We +will see who will be the one to go!' I tried to give her a jet of +seltzer from the siphon, but the bottle was too nearly empty to carry +far. Then I attempted to lure her nearer, calling her in French, +German, and English, but she did not stir. I did not know the Flemish +for 'cat.' + +"'She's got a name, and won't come,' I thought. 'Now, what under the +sun can I call her?' + +"'Aunty,' suggested the man at the next table. + +"I sat perfectly still. Could that man have answered my thoughts?--for +I had not spoken aloud. Of course not--it was a coincidence--but a +very disgusting one. + +"'Aunty,' I repeated, mechanically, 'aunty, aunty--good gracious, how +horribly human that cat looks!' Then, somehow or other, Shakespeare's +words crept into my head and I found myself repeating: 'The soul of my +grandam might haply inhabit a bird; the soul of--nonsense!' I +growled--'it isn't printed correctly! One might possibly say, speaking +in poetical metaphor, that the soul of a bird might haply inhabit +one's grandam--' I stopped short, flushing painfully. 'What awful +rot!' I murmured, and lighted another cigar. The cat was still +staring; the cigar went out. I grew more and more nervous. 'What rot!' +I repeated. 'Pythagoras must have been an ass, but I do believe there +are plenty of asses alive to-day who swallow that sort of thing.' + +"'Who knows?' sighed the man at the next table, and I sprang to my +feet and wheeled about. But I only caught a glimpse of a pair of +frayed coat-tails and a bald head vanishing into the dining-room. I +sat down again, thoroughly indignant. A moment later the cat got up +and went away. + + + + +XXIII + + +"Daylight was fading in the city of Antwerp. Down into the sea sank +the sun, tinting the vast horizon with flakes of crimson, and touching +with rich deep undertones the tossing waters of the Scheldt. Its glow +fell like a rosy mantle over red-tiled roofs and meadows; and through +the haze the spires of twenty churches pierced the air like sharp, +gilded flames. To the west and south the green plains, over which the +Spanish armies tramped so long ago, stretched away until they met the +sky; the enchantment of the after-glow had turned old Antwerp into +fairy-land; and sea and sky and plain were beautiful and vague as the +night-mists floating in the moats below. + +"Along the sea-wall from the Rubens Gate all Antwerp strolled, and +chattered, and flirted, and sipped their Flemish wines from slender +Flemish glasses, or gossiped over krugs of foaming beer. + +"From the Scheldt came the cries of sailors, the creaking of cordage, +and the puff! puff! of the ferry-boats. On the bastions of the +fortress opposite, a bugler was standing. Twice the mellow notes of +the bugle came faintly over the water, then a great gun thundered from +the ramparts, and the Belgian flag fluttered along the lanyards to the +ground. + +"I leaned listlessly on the sea-wall and looked down at the Scheldt +below. A battery of artillery was embarking for the fortress. The +tublike transport lay hissing and whistling in the slip, and the +stamping of horses, the rumbling of gun and caisson, and the sharp +cries of the officers came plainly to the ear. + +"When the last caisson was aboard and stowed, and the last trooper had +sprung jingling to the deck, the transport puffed out into the +Scheldt, and I turned away through the throng of promenaders; and +found a little table on the terrace, just outside of the pretty cafe. +And as I sat down I became aware of a girl at the next table--a girl +all in white--the most ravishingly and distractingly pretty girl that +I had ever seen. In the agitation of the moment I forgot my name, my +fortune, my aunt, and the Crimson Diamond--all these I forgot in a +purely human impulse to see clearly; and to that end I removed my +monocle from my left eye. Some moments later I came to myself and +feebly replaced it. It was too late; the mischief was done. I was not +aware at first of the exact state of my feelings--for I had never been +in love more than three or four times in all my life--but I did know +that at her request I would have been proud to stand on my head, or +turn a flip-flap into the Scheldt. + +"I did not stare at her, but I managed to see her most of the time +when her eyes were in another direction. I found myself drinking +something which a waiter brought, presumably upon an order which I did +not remember having given. Later I noticed that it was a loathsome +drink which the Belgians call 'American grog,' but I swallowed it and +lighted a cigarette. As the fragrant cloud rose in the air, a voice, +which I recognized with a chill, broke, into my dream of enchantment. +Could _he_ have been there all the while--there sitting beside that +vision in white? His hat was off, and the ocean-breezes whispered +about his bald head. His frayed coat-tails were folded carefully over +his knees, and between the thumb and forefinger of his left hand he +balanced a bad cigar. He looked at me in a mildly cheerful way, and +said, 'I know now.' + +"'Know what?' I asked, thinking it better to humor him, for I was +convinced that he was mad. + +"'I know why cats bite.' + +"This was startling. I hadn't an idea what to say. + +"'I know why,' he repeated; 'can you guess why?' There was a covert +tone of triumph in his voice and he smiled encouragement. 'Come, try +and guess,' he urged. + +"I told him that I was unequal to problems. + +"'Listen, young man,' he continued, folding his coat-tails closely +about his legs--'try to reason it out: why should cats bite? Don't you +know? I do.' + +"He looked at me anxiously. + +"'You take no interest in this problem?' he demanded. + +"'Oh yes.' + +"'Then why do you not ask me why?' he said, looking vaguely +disappointed. + +"'Well,' I said, in desperation, 'why do cats bite?--hang it all!' I +thought, 'it's like a burned-cork show, and I'm Mr. Bones and he's +Tambo!' + +"Then he smiled gently. 'Young man,' he said, 'cats bite because they +feed on catnip. I have reasoned it out.' + +"I stared at him in blank astonishment. Was this benevolent-looking +old party poking fun at me? Was he paying me up for the morning's +snub? Was he a malignant and revengeful old party, or was he merely +feeble-minded? Who might he be? What was he doing here in +Antwerp--what was he doing now?--for the bald one had turned +familiarly to the beautiful girl in white. + +"'Wilhelmina,' he said, 'do you feel chilly?' The girl shook her head. + +"'Not in the least, papa.' + +"'Her father!' I thought--'her father!' Thank God she did not say +'popper'! + +"'I have been to the Zoo to-day,' announced the bald one, turning +towards me. + +"'Ah, indeed,' I observed; 'er--I trust you enjoyed it.' + +"'I have been contemplating the apes,' he continued, dreamily. 'Yes, +contemplating the apes.' + +"I tried to look interested. + +"'Yes, the apes,' he murmured, fixing his mild eyes on me. Then he +leaned towards me confidentially and whispered, 'Can you tell me what +a monkey thinks?' + +"'I cannot,' I replied, sharply. + +"'Ah,' he sighed, sinking back in his chair, and patting the slender +hand of the girl beside him--'ah, who can tell what a monkey thinks?' +His gentle face lulled my suspicions, and I replied, very gravely: + +"'Who can tell whether they think at all?' + +"'True, true! Who can tell whether they think at all; and if they do +think, ah! who can tell what they think?' + +"'But,' I began, 'if you can't tell whether they think at all, what's +the use of trying to conjecture what they _would_ think if they _did_ +think?' + +"He raised his hand in deprecation. 'Ah, it is exactly that which is +of such absorbing interest--exactly that! It is the abstruseness of +the proposition which stimulates research--which stirs profoundly the +brain of the thinking world. The question is of vital and instant +importance. Possibly you have already formed an opinion.' + +"I admitted that I had thought but little on the subject. + +"'I doubt,' he continued, swathing his knees in his coat-tails--'I +doubt whether you have given much attention to the subject lately +discussed by the Boston Dodo Society of Pythagorean Research.' + +"'I am not sure,' I said, politely, 'that I recall that particular +discussion. May I ask what was the question brought up?' + +"'The Felis domestica question.' + +"'Ah, that must indeed be interesting! And--er--what may be the Felis +do--do--' + +"'Domestica--not dodo. Felis domestica, the common or garden cat.' + +"'Indeed,' I murmured. + +"'You are not listening,' he said. + +"I only half heard him. I could not turn my eyes from his daughter's +face. + +"'Cat!' shouted the bald one, and I almost leaped from my chair. 'Are +you deaf?' he inquired, sympathetically. + +"'No--oh no!' I replied, coloring with confusion; 'you were--pardon +me--you were--er--speaking of the dodo. Extraordinary bird that--' + +"'I was not discussing the dodo,' he sighed. 'I was speaking of cats.' + +"'Of course,' I said. + +"'The question is,' he continued, twisting his frayed coat-tails into +a sort of rope--'the question is, how are we to ameliorate the present +condition and social status of our domestic cats?' + +"'Feed 'em,' I suggested. + +"He raised both hands. They were eloquent with patient expostulation. +'I mean their spiritual condition,' he said. + +"I nodded, but my eyes reverted to that exquisite face. She sat +silent, her eyes fixed on the waning flecks of color in the western +sky. + +"'Yes,' repeated the bald one, 'the spiritual welfare of our domestic +cats.' + +"'Toms and tabbies?' I murmured. + +"'Exactly,' he said, tying a large knot in his coat-tails. + +"'You will ruin your coat,' I observed. + +"'Papa!' exclaimed the girl, turning in dismay, as that gentleman gave +a guilty start, 'stop it at once!' + +"He smiled apologetically and made a feeble attempt to conceal his +coat-tails. + +"'My dear,' he said, with gentle deprecation, 'I am so +absent-minded--I always do it in the heat of argument.' + +"The girl rose, and, bending over her untidy parent, deftly untied the +knot in his flapping coat. When he was disentangled, she sat down and +said, with a ghost of a smile, 'He is so very absent-minded.' + +"'Your father is evidently a great student,' I ventured, pleasantly. +How I pitied her, tied to this old lunatic! + +"'Yes, he is a great student,' she said, quietly. + +"'I am,' he murmured; 'that's what makes me so absent-minded. I often +go to bed and forget to sleep.' Then, looking at me, he asked me my +name, adding, with a bow, that his name was P. Royal Wyeth, Professor +of Pythagorean Research and Abstruse Paradox. + +"'My first name is Penny--named after Professor Penny, of Harvard,' he +said; 'but I seldom use my first name in connection with my second, as +the combination suggests a household remedy of penetrating odor.' + +"'My name is Kensett,' I said, 'Harold Kensett, of New York.' + +"'Student?' + +"'Er--a little.' + +"'Student of diamonds?' + +"I smiled. 'Oh, I see you know who my great-aunt was,' I said. + +"'I know her,' he said. + +"'Ah--perhaps you are unaware that my great-aunt is not now living.' + +"'I know her,' he repeated, obstinately. + +"I bowed. What a crank he was! + +"'What do you study? You don't fiddle away all your time, do you?' he +asked. + +"Now that was just what I did, but I was not pleased to have Miss +Wyeth know it. Although my time was chiefly spent in killing time, I +had once, in a fit of energy, succeeded in writing some verses 'To a +Tomtit,' so I evaded a humiliating confession by saying that I had +done a little work in ornithology. + +"'Good!' cried the professor, beaming all over. 'I knew you were a +fellow-scientist. Possibly you are a brother-member of the Boston +Dodo Society of Pythagorean Research. Are you a dodo?' + +"I shook my head. 'No, I am not a dodo.' + +"'Only a jay?' + +"'A--what?' I said, angrily. + +"'A jay. We call the members of the Junior Ornithological Jay Society +of New York, jays, just as we refer to ourselves as dodos. Are you not +even a jay?' + +"'I am not,' I said, watching him suspiciously. + +"'I must convert you, I see,' said the professor, smiling. + +"'I'm afraid I do not approve of Pythagorean research,' I began, but +the beautiful Miss Wyeth turned to me very seriously, and, looking me +frankly in the eyes, said: + +"'I trust you will be open to conviction.' + +"'Good Lord!' I thought. 'Can she be another lunatic?' I looked at her +steadily. What a little beauty she was! She also, then, belonged to +the Pythagoreans--a sect I despised. Everybody knows all about the +Pythagorean craze, its rise in Boston, its rapid spread, and its +subsequent consolidation with mental and Christian science, theosophy, +hypnotism, the Salvation Army, the Shakers, the Dunkards, and the +mind-cure cult, upon a business basis. I had hitherto regarded all +Pythagoreans with the same scornful indifference which I accorded to +the faith-curists; being a member of no particular church, I was +scarcely prepared to take any of them seriously. Least of all did I +approve of the 'business basis,' and I looked very much askance indeed +at the 'Scientific and Religious Trust Company,' duly incorporated and +generally known as the Pythagorean Trust, which, consolidating with +mind-curists, faith-curists, and other flourishing salvation +syndicates, actually claimed a place among ordinary trusts, and at the +same time pretended to a control over man's future life. No, I could +never listen--I was ashamed of even entertaining the notion, and I +shook my head. + +"'No, Miss Wyeth, I am afraid I do not care to listen to any reasoning +on this subject.' + +"'Don't you believe in Pythagoras?' demanded the professor, subduing +his excitement with difficulty, and adding another knot to his +coat-tails. + +"'No,' I said, 'I do not.' + +"'How do you know you don't?' inquired the professor. + +"'Because,' I said, firmly, 'it is nonsense to say that the soul of a +human being can inhabit a hen!' + +"'Put it in a more simplified form!' insisted the professor. 'Do you +believe that the soul of a hen can inhabit a human being?' + +"'No, I don't!' + +"'Did you ever hear of a hen-pecked man?' cried the professor, his +voice ending in a shout. + +"I nodded, intensely annoyed. + +"'Will you listen to reason, then?' he continued, eagerly. + +"'No,' I began, but I caught Miss Wyeth's blue eyes fixed on mine with +an expression so sad, so sweetly appealing, that I faltered. + +"'Yes, I will listen,' I said, faintly. + +"'Will you become my pupil?' insisted the professor. + +"I was shocked to find myself wavering, but my eyes were looking into +hers, and I could not disobey what I read there. The longer I looked +the greater inclination I felt to waver. I saw that I was going to +give in, and, strangest of all, my conscience did not trouble me. I +felt it coming--a sort of mild exhilaration took possession of me. For +the first time in my life I became reckless--I even gloried in my +recklessness. + +"'Yes, yes,' I cried, leaning eagerly across the table, 'I shall be +glad--delighted! Will you take me as your pupil?' My single eye-glass +fell from its position unheeded. 'Take me! Oh, will you take me?' I +cried. Instead of answering, the professor blinked rapidly at me for a +moment. I imagined his eyes had grown bigger, and were assuming a +greenish tinge. The corners of his mouth began to quiver, emitting +queer, caressing little noises, and he rapidly added knot after knot +to his twitching coat-tails. Suddenly he bent forward across the table +until his nose almost touched mine. The pupils of his eyes expanded, +the iris assuming a beautiful, changing, golden-green tinge, and his +coat-tails switched violently. Then he began to mew. + +"I strove to rouse myself from my paralysis--I tried to shrink back, +for I felt the end of his cold nose touch mine. I could not move. The +cry of terror died in my straining throat, my hands tightened +convulsively; I was incapable of speech or motion. At the same time my +brain became wonderfully clear. I began to remember everything that +had ever happened to me--everything that I had ever done or said. I +even remembered things that I had neither done nor said; I recalled +distinctly much that had never happened. How fresh and strong my +memory! The past was like a mirror, crystal clear, and there, in +glorious tints and hues, the scenes of my childhood grew and glowed +and faded, and gave place to newer and more splendid scenes. For a +moment the episode of the cat at the Hotel St. Antoine flashed across +my mind. When it vanished a chilly stupor slowly clouded my brain; the +scenes, the memories, the brilliant colors, faded, leaving me +enveloped in a gray vapor, through which the two great eyes of the +professor twinkled with a murky light. A peculiar longing stirred +me--a strange yearning for something, I knew not what--but, oh! how I +longed and yearned for it! Slowly this indefinite, incomprehensible +longing became a living pain. Ah, how I suffered, and how the vapors +seemed to crowd around me! Then, as at a great distance, I heard her +voice, sweet, imperative: + +"'Mew!' she said. + +"For a moment I seemed to see the interior of my own skull, lighted as +by a flash of fire; the rolling eyeballs, veined in scarlet, the +glistening muscles quivering along the jaw, the humid masses of the +convoluted brain; then awful darkness--a darkness almost tangible--an +utter blackness, through which now seemed to creep a thin, silver +thread, like a river crawling across a world--like a thought gliding +to the brain--like a song, a thin, sharp song which some distant voice +was singing--which I was singing. + +"And I knew that I was mewing! + +"I threw myself back in my chair and mewed with all my heart. Oh, that +heavy load which was lifted from my breast! How good, how satisfying +it was to mew! And how I did miaul and yowl! + +"I gave myself up to it, heart and soul; my whole being thrilled with +the passionate outpourings of a spirit freed. My voice trembled in the +upper bars of a feline love-song, quavered, descended, swelling again +into an intimation that I brooked no rival, and ended with a +magnificent crescendo. + +"I finished, somewhat abashed, and glanced askance at the professor +and his daughter, but the one sat nonchalantly disentangling his +coat-tails, and the other was apparently absorbed in the distant +landscape. Evidently they did not consider me ridiculous. Flushing +painfully, I turned in my chair to see how my grewsome solo had +affected the people on the terrace. Nobody even looked at me. This, +however, gave me little comfort, for, as I began to realize what I had +done, my mortification and rage knew no bounds. I was ready to die of +shame. What on earth had induced me to mew? I looked wildly about for +escape--I would leap up--rush home to bury my burning face in my +pillows, and, later, in the friendly cabin of a homeward-bound +steamer. I would fly--fly at once! Woe to the man who blocked my way! +I started to my feet, but at that moment I caught Miss Wyeth's eyes +fixed on mine. + +"'Don't go,' she said. + +"What in Heaven's name lay in those blue eyes? I slowly sank back into +my chair. + +"Then the professor spoke: 'Wilhelmina, I have just received a +despatch.' + +"'Where from, papa?' + +"'From India. I'm going at once.' + +"She nodded her head, without turning her eyes from the sea. 'Is it +important, papa?' + +"'I should say so. The cashier of the local trust has compromised an +astral body, and has squandered on her all our funds, including a lot +of first mortgages on Nirvana. I suppose he's been dabbling in futures +and is short in his accounts. I sha'n't be gone long.' + +"'Then, good-night, papa,' she said, kissing him; 'try to be back by +eleven.' I sat stupidly staring at them. + +"'Oh, it's only to Bombay--I sha'n't go to Thibet +to-night--good-night, my dear,' said the professor. + +"Then a singular thing occurred. The professor had at last succeeded +in disentangling his coat-tails, and now, jamming his hat over his +ears, and waving his arms with a batlike motion, he climbed upon the +seat of his chair and ejaculated the word 'Presto!' Then I found my +voice. + +"'Stop him!' I cried, in terror. + +"'Presto! Presto!' shouted the professor, balancing himself on the +edge of his chair and waving his arms majestically, as if preparing +for a sudden flight across the Scheldt; and, firmly convinced that he +not only meditated it, but was perfectly capable of attempting it, I +covered my eyes with my hands. + +"'Are you ill, Mr. Kensett?' asked the girl, quietly. + +"I raised my head indignantly. 'Not at all, Miss Wyeth, only I'll bid +you good-evening, for this is the nineteenth century, and I'm a +Christian.' + +"'So am I,' she said. 'So is my father.' + +"'The devil he is,' I thought. + +"Her next words made me jump. + +"'Please do not be profane, Mr. Kensett.' + +"How did she know I was profane? I had not spoken a word! Could it be +possible she was able to read my thoughts? This was too much, and I +rose. + +"'I have the honor to bid you good-evening,' I began, and reluctantly +turned to include the professor, expecting to see that gentleman +balancing himself on his chair. The professor's chair was empty. + +"'Oh,' said the girl, smiling, 'my father has gone.' + +"'Gone! Where?' + +"'To--to India, I believe.' + +"I sank helplessly into my own chair. + +"'I do not think he will stay very long--he promised to return by +eleven,' she said, timidly. + +"I tried to realize the purport of it all. 'Gone to India? Gone! How? +On a broomstick? Good Heavens,' I murmured, 'am I insane?' + +"'Perfectly,' she said, 'and I am tired; you may take me back to the +hotel.' + +"I scarcely heard her; I was feebly attempting to gather up my numbed +wits. Slowly I began to comprehend the situation, to review the +startling and humiliating events of the day. At noon, in the court of +the Hotel St. Antoine, I had been annoyed by a man and a cat. I had +retired to my own room and had slept until dinner. In the evening I +met two tourists on the sea-wall promenade. I had been beguiled into +conversation--yes, into intimacy with these two tourists! I had had +the intention of embracing the faith of Pythagoras! Then I had mewed +like a cat with all the strength of my lungs. Now the male tourist +vanishes--and leaves me in charge of the female tourist, alone and at +night in a strange city! And now the female tourist proposes that I +take her home! + +"With a remnant of self-possession I groped for my eye-glass, seized +it, screwed it firmly into my eye, and looked long and earnestly at +the girl. As I looked, my eyes softened, my monacle dropped, and I +forgot everything in the beauty and purity of the face before me. My +heart began to beat against my stiff, white waistcoat. Had I +dared--yes, dared to think of this wondrous little beauty as a female +tourist? Her pale, sweet face, turned towards the sea, seemed to cast +a spell upon the night. How loud my heart was beating! The yellow moon +floated, half dipping in the sea, flooding land and water with +enchanted lights. Wind and wave seemed to feel the spell of her eyes, +for the breeze died away, the heaving Scheldt tossed noiselessly, and +the dark Dutch luggers swung idly on the tide with every sail adroop. + +"A sudden hush fell over land and water, the voices on the promenade +were stilled; little by little the shadowy throng, the terrace, the +sea itself vanished, and I only saw her face, shadowed against the +moon. + +"It seemed as if I had drifted miles above the earth, through all +space and eternity, and there was naught between me and high heaven +but that white face. Ah, how I loved her! I knew it--I never doubted +it. Could years of passionate adoration touch her heart--her little +heart, now beating so calmly with no thought of love to startle it +from its quiet and send it fluttering against the gentle breast? In +her lap her clasped hands tightened--her eyelids drooped as though +some pleasant thought was passing. I saw the color dye her temples, I +saw the blue eyes turn, half frightened, to my own, I saw--and I knew +she had read my thoughts. Then we both rose, side by side, and she was +weeping softly, yet for my life I dared not speak. She turned away, +touching her eyes with a bit of lace, and I sprang to her side and +offered her my arm. + +"'You cannot go back alone,' I said. + +"She did not take my arm. + +"'Do you hate me, Miss Wyeth?' + +"'I am very tired,' she said; 'I must go home.' + +"'You cannot go alone.' + +"'I do not care to accept your escort.' + +"'Then--you send me away?' + +"'No,' she said, in a hard voice. 'You can come if you like.' So I +humbly attended her to the Hotel St. Antoine. + + + + +XXIV + + +"As we reached the Place Verte and turned into the court of the hotel, +the sound of the midnight bells swept over the city, and a horse-car +jingled slowly by on its last trip to the railroad station. + +"We passed the fountain, bubbling and splashing in the moonlit court, +and, crossing the square, entered the southern wing of the hotel. At +the foot of the stairway she leaned for an instant against the +banisters. + +"'I am afraid we have walked too fast,' I said. + +"She turned to me coldly. 'No--conventionalities must be observed. You +were quite right in escaping as soon as possible.' + +"'But,' I protested, 'I assure you--' + +"She gave a little movement of impatience. 'Don't,' she said, 'you +tire me--conventionalities tire me. Be satisfied--nobody has seen +you.' + +"'You are cruel,' I said, in a low voice--'what do you think I care +for conventionalities?' + +"'You care everything--you care what people think, and you try to do +what they say is good form. You never did such an original thing in +your life as you have just done.' + +"'You read my thoughts,' I exclaimed, bitterly. 'It is not fair--' + +"'Fair or not, I know what you consider me--ill-bred, common, pleased +with any sort of attention. Oh! why should I waste one word--one +thought on you?' + +"'Miss Wyeth--' I began, but she interrupted me. + +"'Would you dare tell me what you think of me?--Would you dare tell me +what you think of my father?' + +"I was silent. She turned and mounted two steps of the stairway, then +faced me again. + +"'Do you think it was for my own pleasure that I permitted myself to +be left alone with you? Do you imagine that I am flattered by your +attention?--do you venture to think I ever could be? How dared you +think what you did think there on the sea-wall?' + +"'I cannot help my thoughts!' I replied. + +"'You turned on me like a tiger when you awoke from your trance. Do +you really suppose that you mewed? Are you not aware that my father +hypnotized you?' + +"'No--I did not know it,' I said. The hot blood tingled in my +finger-tips, and I looked angrily at her. + +"'Why do you imagine that I waste my time on you?' she said. 'Your +vanity has answered that question--now let your intelligence answer +it. I am a Pythagorean; I have been chosen to bring in a convert, and +you were the convert selected for me by the Mahatmas of the +Consolidated Trust Company. I have followed you from New York to +Antwerp, as I was bidden, but now my courage fails, and I shrink from +fulfilling my mission, knowing you to be the type of man you are. If I +could give it up--if I could only go away--never, never again to see +you! Ah, I fear they will not permit it!--until my mission is +accomplished. Why was I chosen--I, with a woman's heart and a woman's +pride. I--I hate you!' + +"'I love you,' I said, slowly. + +"She paled and looked away. + +"'Answer me,' I said. + +"Her wide, blue eyes turned back again, and I held them with mine. At +last she slowly drew a long-stemmed rose from the bunch at her belt, +turned, and mounted the shadowy staircase. For a moment I thought I +saw her pause on the landing above, but the moonlight was uncertain. +After waiting for a long time in vain, I moved away, and in going +raised my hand to my face, but I stopped short, and my heart stopped +too, for a moment. In my hand I held a long-stemmed rose. + +"With my brain in a whirl I crept across the court and mounted the +stairs to my room. Hour after hour I walked the floor, slowly at +first, then more rapidly, but it brought no calm to the fierce tumult +of my thoughts, and at last I dropped into a chair before the empty +fireplace, burying my head in my hands. + +"Uncertain, shocked, and deadly weary, I tried to think--I strove to +bring order out of the chaos in my brain, but I only sat staring at +the long-stemmed rose. Slowly I began to take a vague pleasure in its +heavy perfume, and once I crushed a leaf between my palms, and, +bending over, drank in the fragrance. + +"Twice my lamp flickered and went out, and twice, treading softly, I +crossed the room to relight it. Twice I threw open the door, thinking +that I heard some sound without. How close the air was!--how heavy and +hot! And what was that strange, subtle odor which had insensibly +filled the room? It grew stronger and more penetrating, and I began +to dislike it, and to escape it I buried my nose in the half-opened +rose. Horror! The odor came from the rose--and the rose itself was no +longer a rose--not even a flower now--it was only a bunch of catnip; +and I dashed it to the floor and ground it under my heel. + +"'Mountebank!' I cried, in a rage. My anger grew cold--and I shivered, +drawn perforce to the curtained window. Something was there, outside. +I could not hear it, for it made no sound, but I knew it was there, +watching me. What was it? The damp hair stirred on my head. I touched +the heavy curtains. Whatever was outside them sprang up, tore at the +window, and then rushed away. + +"Feeling very shaky, I crept to the window, opened it, and leaned out. +The night was calm. I heard the fountain splashing in the moonlight +and the sea-winds soughing through the palms. Then I closed the window +and turned back into the room; and as I stood there a sudden breeze, +which could not have come from without, blew sharply in my face, +extinguishing the candle and sending the long curtains bellying out +into the room. The lamp on the table flashed and smoked and sputtered; +the room was littered with flying papers and catnip leaves. Then the +strange wind died away, and somewhere in the night a cat snarled. + +"I turned desperately to my trunk and flung it open. Into it I threw +everything I owned, pell-mell, closed the lid, locked it, and, seizing +my mackintosh and travelling-bag, ran down the stairs, crossed the +court, and entered the night-office of the hotel. There I called up +the sleepy clerk, settled my reckoning, and sent a porter for a cab. + +"'Now,' I said, 'what time does the next train leave?' + +"'The next train for where?' + +"'Anywhere!' + +"The clerk locked the safe, and, carefully keeping the desk between +himself and me, motioned the office-boy to look at the time-tables. + +"'Next train, 2.10. Brussels--Paris,' read the boy. + +"At that moment the cab rattled up by the curbstone, and I sprang in +while the porter tossed my traps on top. Away we bumped over the stony +pavement, past street after street lighted dimly by tall gas-lamps, +and alley after alley brilliant with the glare of villanous all-night +cafe-concerts, and then, turning, we rumbled past the Circus and the +Eldorado, and at last stopped with a jolt before the Brussels station. + +"I had not a moment to lose. 'Paris!' I cried--'first-class!' and, +pocketing the book of coupons, hurried across the platform to where +the Brussels train lay. A guard came running up, flung open the door +of a first-class carriage, slammed and locked it after I had jumped +in, and the long train glided from the arched station out into the +starlit morning. + +"I was all alone in the compartment. The wretched lamp in the roof +flickered dimly, scarcely lighting the stuffy box. I could not see to +read my time-table, so I wrapped my legs in the travelling-rug and lay +back, staring out into the misty morning. Trees, walls, +telegraph-poles flashed past, and the cinders drove in showers against +the rattling windows. I slept at times, fitfully, and once, springing +up, peered sharply at the opposite seat, possessed with the idea that +somebody was there. + +"When the train reached Brussels I was sound asleep, and the guard +awoke me with difficulty. + +"'Breakfast, sir?' he asked. + +"'Anything,' I sighed, and stepped out to the platform, rubbing my +legs and shivering. The other passengers were already breakfasting in +the station cafe, and I joined them and managed to swallow a cup of +coffee and a roll. + +"The morning broke gray and cloudy, and I bundled myself into my +mackintosh for a tramp along the platform. Up and down I stamped, +puffing a cigar, and digging my hands deep in my pockets, while the +other passengers huddled into the warmer compartments of the train or +stood watching the luggage being lifted into the forward +mail-carriage. The wait was very long; the hands of the great clock +pointed to six, and still the train lay motionless along the platform. +I approached a guard and asked him whether anything was wrong. + +"'Accident on the line,' he replied; 'monsieur had better go to his +compartment and try to sleep, for we may be delayed until noon.' + +"I followed the guard's advice, and, crawling into my corner, wrapped +myself in the rug and lay back watching the rain-drops spattering +along the window-sill. At noon the train had not moved, and I lunched +in the compartment. At four o'clock in the afternoon the +station-master came hurrying along the platform, crying, 'Montez! +montez! messieurs, s'il vous plait'--and the train steamed out of the +station and whirled away through the flat, treeless Belgian plains. At +times I dozed, but the shaking of the car always awoke me, and I would +sit blinking out at the endless stretch of plain, until a sudden +flurry of rain blotted the landscape from my eyes. At last a long, +shrill whistle from the engine, a jolt, a series of bumps, and an +apparition of red trousers and bayonets warned me that we had arrived +at the French frontier. I turned out with the others, and opened my +valise for inspection, but the customs officials merely chalked it, +without examination, and I hurried back to my compartment amid the +shouting of guards and the clanging of station bells. Again I found +that I was alone in the compartment, so I smoked a cigarette, thanked +Heaven, and fell into a dreamless sleep. + +"How long I slept I do not know, but when I awoke the train was +roaring through a tunnel. When again it flashed out into the open +country I peered through the grimy, rain-stained window and saw that +the storm had ceased and stars were twinkling in the sky. I stretched +my legs, yawned, pushed my travelling-cap back from my forehead, and, +stumbling to my feet, walked up and down the compartment until my +cramped muscles were relieved. Then I sat down again, and, lighting a +cigar, puffed great rings and clouds of fragrant smoke across the +aisle. + +"The train was flying; the cars lurched and shook, and the windows +rattled accompaniment to the creaking panels. The smoke from my cigar +dimmed the lamp in the ceiling and hid the opposite seat from view. +How it curled and writhed in the corners, now eddying upward, now +floating across the aisle like a veil! I lounged back in my cushioned +seat, watching it with interest. What queer shapes it took! How thick +it was becoming!--how strangely luminous! Now it had filled the whole +compartment, puff after puff crowding upward, waving, wavering, +clouding the windows, and blotting the lamp from sight. It was most +interesting. I had never before smoked such a cigar. What an +extraordinary brand! I examined the end, flicking the ashes away. The +cigar was out. Fumbling for a match to relight it, my eyes fell on the +drifting smoke-curtain which swayed across the corner opposite. It +seemed almost tangible. How like a real curtain it hung, gray, +impenetrable! A man might hide behind it. Then an idea came into my +head, and it persisted until my uneasiness amounted to a vague terror. +I tried to fight it off--I strove to resist--but the conviction slowly +settled upon me that something was behind that smoke-veil--something +which had entered the compartment while I slept. + +"'It can't be,' I muttered, my eyes fixed on the misty drapery; 'the +train has not stopped.' + +"The car creaked and trembled. I sprang to my feet and swept my arm +through the veil of smoke. Then my hair rose on my head. For my hand +touched another hand, and my eyes had met two other eyes. + +"I heard a voice in the gloom, low and sweet, calling me by name; I +saw the eyes again, tender and blue; soft fingers touched my own. + +"'Are you afraid?' she said. + +"My heart began to beat again, and my face warmed with returning +blood. + +"'It is only I,' she said, gently. + +"I seemed to hear my own voice speaking as if at a great distance, +'You here--alone?' + +"'How cruel of you!' she faltered; 'I am not alone.' At the same +instant my eyes fell upon the professor, calmly seated by the farther +window. His hands were thrust into the folds of a corded and tasselled +dressing-gown, from beneath which peeped two enormous feet encased in +carpet slippers. Upon his head towered a yellow night-cap. He did not +pay the slightest attention to either me or his daughter, and, except +for the lighted cigar which he kept shifting between his lips, he +might have been taken for a wax dummy. + +"Then I began to speak, feebly, hesitating like a child. + +"'How did you come into this compartment? You--you do not possess +wings, I suppose? You could not have been here all the time. Will you +explain--explain to me? See, I ask you very humbly, for I do not +understand. This is the nineteenth century, and these things don't fit +in. I'm wearing a Dunlap hat--I've got a copy of the New York _Herald_ +in my bag--President Roosevelt is alive, and everything is so very +unromantic in the world! Is this real magic? Perhaps I'm filled with +hallucinations. Perhaps I'm asleep and dreaming. Perhaps you are not +really here--nor I--nor anybody, nor anything!' + +"The train plunged into a tunnel, and when again it dashed out from +the other end the cold wind blew furiously in my face from the farther +window. It was wide open; the professor was gone. + +"'Papa has changed to another compartment,' she said, quietly. 'I +think perhaps you were beginning to bore him.' + +"Her eyes met mine and she smiled. + +"'Are you very much bewildered?' + +"I looked at her in silence. She sat very quietly, her hands clasped +above her knee, her curly hair glittering to her girdle. A long robe, +almost silvery in the twilight, clung to her young figure; her bare +feet were thrust deep into a pair of shimmering Eastern slippers. + +"'When you fled,' she sighed, 'I was asleep and there was no time to +lose. I barely had a moment to go to Bombay, to find papa, and return +in time to join you. This is an East-Indian costume.' + +"Still I was silent. + +"'Are you shocked?' she asked, simply. + +"'No,' I replied, in a dull voice, 'I'm past that.' + +"'You are very rude,' she said, with the tears starting to her eyes. + +"'I do not mean to be. I only wish to go away--away somewhere and find +out what my name is.' + +"'Your name is Harold Kensett.' + +"'Are you sure?' I asked, eagerly. + +"'Yes--what troubles you?' + +"'Is everything plain to you? Are you a sort of prophet and +second-sight medium? Is nothing hidden from you?' I asked. + +"'Nothing,' she faltered. My head ached and I clasped it in my hand. + +"A sudden change came over her. 'I am human--believe me!' she said, +with piteous eagerness. 'Indeed, I do not seem strange to those who +understand. You wonder, because you left me at midnight in Antwerp and +you wake to find me here. If, because I find myself reincarnated, +endowed with senses and capabilities which few at present possess--if +I am so made, why should it seem strange? It is all so natural to me. +If I appear to you--' + +"'Appear?' + +"'Yes--' + +"'Wilhelmina!' I cried; 'can you vanish?' + +"'Yes,' she murmured; 'does it seem to you unmaidenly?' + +"'Great Heaven!' I groaned. + +"'Don't!' she cried, with tears in her voice--'oh, please don't! Help +me to bear it! If you only knew how awful it is to be different from +other girls--how mortifying it is to me to be able to vanish--oh, how +I hate and detest it all!' + +"'Don't cry,' I said, looking at her pityingly. + +"'Oh, dear me!' she sobbed. 'You shudder at the sight of me because I +can vanish.' + +"'I don't!' I cried. + +"'Yes, you do! You abhor me--you shrink away! Oh, why did I ever see +you?--why did you ever come into my life?--what have I done in ages +past, that now, reborn, I suffer cruelly--cruelly?' + +"'What do you mean?' I whispered. My voice trembled with happiness. + +"'I?--nothing; but you think me a fabled monster.' + +"'Wilhelmina--my sweet Wilhelmina,' I said, 'I don't think you a +fabled monster. I love you; see--see--I am at your feet; listen to me, +my darling--' + +"She turned her blue eyes to mine. I saw tears sparkling on the curved +lashes. + +"'Wilhelmina, I love you,' I said again. + +"Slowly she raised her hands to my head and held it a moment, looking +at me strangely. Then her face grew nearer to my own, her glittering +hair fell over my shoulders, her lips rested on mine. + +"In that long, sweet kiss the beating of her heart answered mine, and +I learned a thousand truths, wonderful, mysterious, splendid; but when +our lips fell apart, the memory of what I learned departed also. + +"'It was so very simple and beautiful,' she sighed, 'and I--I never +saw it. But the Mahatmas knew--ah, they knew that my mission could +only be accomplished through love.' + +"'And it is,' I whispered, 'for you shall teach me--me, your husband.' + +"'And--and you will not be impatient? You will try to believe?' + +"'I will believe what you tell me, my sweetheart.' + +"'Even about--cats?' + +"Before I could reply the farther window opened and a yellow +night-cap, followed by the professor, entered from somewhere without. +Wilhelmina sank back on her sofa, but the professor needed not to be +told, and we both knew he was already busily reading our thoughts. + +"For a moment there was dead silence--long enough for the professor to +grasp the full significance of what had passed. Then he uttered a +single exclamation, 'Oh!' + +"After a while, however, he looked at me for the first time that +evening, saying, 'Congratulate you, Mr. Kensett, I'm sure,' tied +several knots in the cord of his dressing-gown, lighted a cigar, and +paid no further attention to either of us. Some moments later he +opened the window again and disappeared. I looked across the aisle at +Wilhelmina. + +"'You may come over beside me,' she said, shyly. + + + + +XXV + + +"It was nearly ten o'clock and our train was rapidly approaching +Paris. We passed village after village wrapped in mist, station after +station hung with twinkling red and blue and yellow lanterns, then +sped on again with the echo of the switch-bells ringing in our ears. + +"When at length the train slowed up and stopped, I opened the window +and looked out upon a long, wet platform, shining under the electric +lights. + +"A guard came running by, throwing open the doors of each compartment, +and crying, 'Paris next! Tickets, if you please.' + +"I handed him my book of coupons, from which he tore several and +handed it back. Then he lifted his lantern and peered into the +compartment, saying, 'Is monsieur alone?' + +"I turned to Wilhelmina. + +"'He wants your ticket--give it to me.' + +"'What's that?' demanded the guard. + +"I looked anxiously at Wilhelmina. + +"'If your father has the tickets--' I began, but was interrupted by +the guard, who snapped: + +"'Monsieur will give himself the trouble to remember that I do not +understand English.' + +"'Keep quiet!' I said, sharply, in French. 'I am not speaking to +you.' + +"The guard stared stupidly at me, then, at my luggage, and finally, +entering the car, knelt down and peered under the seats. Presently he +got up, very red in the face, and went out slamming the door. He had +not paid the slightest attention to Wilhelmina, but I distinctly heard +him say, 'Only Englishmen and idiots talk to themselves!' + +"'Wilhelmina,' I faltered, 'do you mean to say that that guard could +not see you?' + +"She began to look so serious again that I merely added, 'Never mind, +I don't care whether you are invisible or not, dearest.' + +"'I am not invisible to you,' she said; 'why should you care?' + +"A great noise of bells and whistles drowned our voices, and, amid the +whirring of switch-bells, the hissing of steam, and the cries of +'Paris! All out!' our train glided into the station. + +"It was the professor who opened the door of our carriage. There he +stood, calmly adjusting his yellow night-cap and drawing his +dressing-gown closer with the corded tassels. + +"'Where have you been?' I asked. + +"'On the engine.' + +"'_In_ the engine, I suppose you mean,' I said. + +"'No, I don't; I mean _on_ the engine--on the pilot. It was very +refreshing. Where are we going now?' + +"'Do you know Paris?' asked Wilhelmina, turning to me. + +"'Yes. I think your father had better take you to the Hotel Normandie +on the Rue de l'Echelle--' + +"'But you must stay there, too!' + +"'Of course--if you wish--' + +"She laughed nervously. + +"'Don't you see that my father and I could not take rooms--now? You +must engage three rooms for yourself.' + +"'Why?' I asked, stupidly. + +"'Oh, dear--why, because we are invisible.' + +"I tried to repress a shudder. The professor gave Wilhelmina his arm, +and, as I studied his ensemble, I thanked Heaven that he was +invisible. + +"At the gate of the station I hailed a four-seated cab, and we rattled +away through the stony streets, brilliant with gas-jets, and in a few +moments rolled smoothly across the Avenue de l'Opera, turned into the +Rue de l'Echelle, and stopped. A bright little page, all over buttons, +came out, took my luggage, and preceded us into the hallway. + +"I, with Wilhelmina on my arm and the professor shuffling along beside +me, walked over to the desk. + +"'Room?' said the clerk. 'We have a very desirable room on the second, +fronting the Rue St. Honore--' + +"'But we--that is, I want three rooms--three separate rooms!' I said. + +"The clerk scratched his chin. 'Monsieur is expecting friends?' + +"'Say yes,' whispered Wilhelmina, with a suspicion of laughter in her +voice. + +"'Yes,' I repeated, feebly. + +"'Gentlemen, of course?' said the clerk, looking at me narrowly. + +"'One lady.' + +"'Married, of course?' + +"'What's that to you?' I said, sharply. 'What do you mean by speaking +to us--' + +"'Us!' + +"'I mean to me,' I said, badly rattled; 'give me the rooms and let me +get to bed, will you?' + +"'Monsieur will remember,' said the clerk, coldly, 'that this is an +old and respectable hotel.' + +"'I know it,' I said, smothering my rage. + +"The clerk eyed me suspiciously. + +"'Front!' he called, with irritating deliberation. 'Show this +gentleman to apartment ten.' + +"'How many rooms are there!' I demanded. + +"'Three sleeping-rooms and a parlor.' + +"'I will take it,' I said, with composure. + +"'On probation,' muttered the clerk, insolently. + +"Swallowing the insult, I followed the bell-boy up the stairs, keeping +between him and Wilhelmina, for I dreaded to see him walk through her +as if she were thin air. A trim maid rose to meet us and conducted us +through a hallway into a large apartment. She threw open all the +bedroom-doors and said, 'Will monsieur have the goodness to choose?' + +"'Which will you take,' I began, turning to Wilhelmina. + +"'I? Monsieur!' cried the startled maid. + +"That completely upset me. 'Here,' I muttered, slipping some silver +into her hand; 'now, for the love of Heaven, run away!' + +"When she had vanished with a doubtful 'Merci, monsieur!' I handed the +professor the keys and asked him to settle the thing with Wilhelmina. + +"Wilhelmina took the corner room, the professor rambled into the next +one, and I said good-night and crept wearily into my own chamber. I +sat down and tried to think. A great feeling of fatigue weighted my +spirits. + +"'I can think better with my clothes off,' I said, and slipped the +coat from my shoulders. How tired I was! 'I can think better in bed,' +I muttered, flinging my cravat on the dresser and tossing my +shirt-studs after it. I was certainly very tired. 'Now,' I yawned, +grasping the pillow and drawing it under my head--'now I can think a +bit.' But before my head fell on the pillow sleep closed my eyes. + +"I began to dream at once. It seemed as though my eyes were wide open +and the professor was standing beside my bed. + +"'Young man,' he said, 'you've won my daughter and you must pay the +piper!' + +"'What piper?' I said. + +"'The Pied Piper of Hamelin, I don't think,' replied the professor, +vulgarly, and before I could realize what he was doing he had drawn a +reed pipe from his dressing-gown and was playing a strangely annoying +air. Then an awful thing occurred. Cats began to troop into the room, +cats by the hundred--toms and tabbies, gray, yellow, Maltese, Persian, +Manx--all purring and all marching round and round, rubbing against +the furniture, the professor, and even against me. I struggled with +the nightmare. + +"'Take them away!' I tried to gasp. + +"'Nonsense!' he said; 'here is an old friend.' + +"I saw the white tabby cat of the Hotel St. Antoine. + +"'An old friend,' he repeated, and played a dismal melody on his +reed. + +"I saw Wilhelmina enter the room, lift the white tabby in her arms, +and bring her to my side. + +"'Shake hands with him,' she commanded. + +"To my horror the tabby deliberately extended a paw and tapped me on +the knuckles. + +"'Oh!' I cried, in agony; 'this is a horrible dream! Why, oh, why +can't I wake!' + +"'Yes,' she said, dropping the cat, 'it is partly a dream, but some of +it is real. Remember what I say, my darling; you are to go to-morrow +morning and meet the twelve-o'clock train from Antwerp at the Gare du +Nord. Papa and I are coming to Paris on that train. Don't you know +that we are not really here now, you silly boy? Good-night, then. I +shall be very glad to see you.' + +"I saw her glide from the room, followed by the professor, playing a +gay quick-step, to which the cats danced two and two. + +"'Good-night, sir,' said each cat as it passed my bed; and I dreamed +no more. + +"When I awoke, the room, the bed had vanished; I was in the street, +walking rapidly; the sun shone down on the broad, white pavements of +Paris, and the streams of busy life flowed past me on either side. How +swiftly I was walking! Where the devil was I going? Surely I had +business somewhere that needed immediate attention. I tried to +remember when I had awakened, but I could not. I wondered where I had +dressed myself; I had apparently taken great pains with my toilet, for +I was immaculate, monocle and all, even down to a long-stemmed rose +nestling in my button-hole. I knew Paris and recognized the streets +through which I was hurrying. Where could I be going? What was my +hurry? I glanced at my watch and found I had not a moment to lose. +Then, as the bells of the city rang out mid-day, I hastened into the +railroad station on the Rue Lafayette and walked out to the platform. +And as I looked down the glittering track, around the distant curve +shot a locomotive followed by a long line of cars. Nearer and nearer +it came, while the station-gongs sounded and the switch-bells began +ringing all along the track. + +"'Antwerp express!' cried the sous-chef de gare, and as the train +slipped along the tiled platform I sprang upon the steps of a +first-class carriage and threw open the door. + +"'How do you do, Mr. Kensett?' said Wilhelmina Wyeth, springing +lightly to the platform. 'Really it is very nice of you to come to the +train.' At the same moment a bald, mild-eyed gentleman emerged from +the depths of the same compartment, carrying a large, covered basket. + +"'How are you, Kensett?' he said. 'Glad to see you again. Rather warm +in that compartment--no, I will not trust this basket to an +expressman; give Wilhelmina your arm and I'll follow. We go to the +Normandie, I believe?' + +"All the morning I had Wilhelmina to myself, and at dinner I sat +beside her, with the professor opposite. The latter was cheerful +enough, but he nearly ruined my appetite, for he smelled strongly of +catnip. After dinner he became restless and fidgeted about in his +chair until coffee was brought, and we went up to the parlor of our +apartment. Here his restlessness increased to such an extent that I +ventured to ask him if he was in good health. + +"'It's that basket--the covered basket which I have in the next room,' +he said. + +"'What's the trouble with the basket?' I asked. + +"'The basket's all right--but the contents worry me.' + +"'May I inquire what the contents are?' I ventured. + +"The professor rose. + +"'Yes,' he said, 'you may inquire of my daughter.' He left the room, +but reappeared shortly, carrying a saucer of milk. + +"I watched him enter the next room, which was mine. + +"'What on earth is he taking that into my room for?' I asked +Wilhelmina. 'I don't keep cats.' + +"'But you will,' she said. + +"'I? Never!' + +"'You will if I ask you to.' + +"'But--but you won't ask me.' + +"'But I do.' + +"'Wilhelmina!' + +"'Harold!' + +"'I detest cats.' + +"'You must not.' + +"'I can't help it.' + +"'You will when I ask it. Have I not given myself to you? Will you not +make a little sacrifice for me?' + +"'I don't understand--' + +"'Would you refuse my first request?' + +"'No,' I said, miserably, 'I will keep dozens of cats--' + +"'I do not ask that; I only wish you to keep one.' + +"'Was that what your father had in that basket?' I asked, +suspiciously. + +"'Yes, the basket came from Antwerp.' + +"'What! The white Antwerp cat!' I cried. + +"'Yes.' + +"'And you ask me to keep that cat? Oh, Wilhelmina!' + +"'Listen!' she said. 'I have a long story to tell you; come nearer, +close to me. You say you love me?' + +"I bent and kissed her. + +"'Then I shall put you to the proof,' she murmured. + +"'Prove me!' + +"'Listen. That cat is the same cat that ran out of the apartment in +the Waldorf when your great-aunt ceased to exist--in human shape. My +father and myself, having received word from the Mahatmas of the Trust +Company, sheltered and cherished the cat. We were ordered by the +Mahatmas to convert you. The task was appalling--but there is no such +thing as refusing a command, and we laid our plans. That man with a +white spot in his hair was my father--' + +"'What! Your father is bald.' + +"'He wore a wig then. The white spot came from dropping chemicals on +the wig while experimenting with a substance which you could not +comprehend.' + +"'Then--then that clew was useless; but who could have taken the +Crimson Diamond? And who was the man with the white spot on his head +who tried to sell the stone in Paris?' + +"'That was my father.' + +"'He--he--st--took the Crimson Diamond!' I cried, aghast. + +"'Yes and no. That was only a paste stone that he had in Paris. It +was to draw you over here. He had the real Crimson Diamond also.' + +"'Your father?' + +"'Yes. He has it in the next room now. Can you not see how it +disappeared, Harold? Why, the cat swallowed it!' + +"'Do you mean to say that the white tabby swallowed the Crimson +Diamond?' + +"'By mistake. She tried to get it out of the velvet bag, and, as the +bag was also full of catnip, she could not resist a mouthful, and +unfortunately just then you broke in the door and so startled the cat +that she swallowed the Crimson Diamond.' + +"There was a painful pause. At last I said: + +"'Wilhelmina, as you are able to vanish, I suppose you also are able +to converse with cats.' + +"'I am,' she replied, trying to keep back the tears of mortification. + +"'And that cat told you this?' + +"'She did.' + +"'And my Crimson Diamond is inside that cat?' + +"'It is.' + +"'Then,' said I, firmly, 'I am going to chloroform the cat.' + +"'Harold!' she cried, in terror, 'that cat is your great-aunt!' + +"I don't know to this day how I stood the shock of that announcement, +or how I managed to listen while Wilhelmina tried to explain the +transmigration theory, but it was all Chinese to me. I only knew that +I was a blood relation of a cat, and the thought nearly drove me mad. + +"'Try, my darling, try to love her,' whispered Wilhelmina; 'she must +be very precious to you--' + +"'Yes, with my diamond inside her,' I replied, faintly. + +"'You must not neglect her,' said Wilhelmina. + +"'Oh no, I'll always have my eye on her--I mean I will surround her +with luxury--er, milk and bones and catnip and books--er--does she +read?' + +"'Not the books that human beings read. Now, go and speak to your +aunt, Harold.' + +"'Eh! How the deuce--' + +"'Go; for my sake try to be cordial.' + +"She rose and led me unresistingly to the door of my room. + +"'Good Heavens!' I groaned; 'this is awful.' + +"'Courage, my darling!' she whispered. 'Be brave for love of me.' + +"I drew her to me and kissed her. Beads of cold perspiration started +in the roots of my hair, but I clenched my teeth and entered the room +alone. The room was dark and I stood silent, not knowing where to +turn, fearful lest I step on my aunt! Then, through the dreary +silence, I called, 'Aunty!' + +"A faint noise broke upon my ear, and my heart grew sick, but I strode +into the darkness, calling, hoarsely: + +"'Aunt Tabby! It is your nephew!' + +"Again the faint sound. Something was stirring there among the +shadows--a shape moving softly along the wall, a shade which glided by +me, paused, wavered, and darted under the bed. Then I threw myself on +the floor, profoundly moved, begging, imploring my aunt to come to +me. + +"'Aunty! Aunty!' I murmured. 'Your nephew is waiting to take you to +his heart!' + +"At last I saw my great-aunt's eyes shining in the dark." + +The young man's voice grew hushed and solemn, and he lifted his hand +in silence: + +"Close the door. That meeting is not for the eyes of the world! Close +the door upon that sacred scene where great-aunt and nephew are united +at last." + + * * * * * + +A long pause followed; deep emotion was visible in Miss Barrison's +sensitive face. She said: + +"Then--you are married?" + +"No," replied Mr. Kensett, in a mortified voice. + +"Why not?" I asked, amazed. + +"Because," he said, "although my fiancee was prepared to accept a cat +as her great-aunt, she could not endure the complications that +followed." + +"What complications?" inquired Miss Barrison. + +The young man sighed profoundly, shaking his head. + +"My great-aunt had kittens," he said, softly. + + * * * * * + +The tremendous scientific importance of these experiences excited me +beyond measure. The simplicity of the narrative, the elaborate +attention to corroborative detail, all bore irresistible testimony to +the truth of these accounts of phenomena vitally important to the +entire world of science. + +We all dined together that night--a little earnest company of +knowledge-seekers in the vast wilderness of the unexplored; and we +lingered long in the dining-car, propounding questions, advancing +theories, speculating upon possibilities of most intense interest. +Never before had I known a man whose relatives were cats and kittens, +but he did not appear to share my enthusiasm in the matter. + +"You see," he said, looking at Miss Barrison, "it may be interesting +from a purely scientific point of view, but it has already proved a +bar to my marrying." + +"Were the kittens black?" I inquired. + +"No," he said, "my aunt drew the color-line, I am proud to say." + +"I don't see," said Miss Barrison, "why the fact that your great-aunt +is a cat should prevent you from marrying." + +"It wouldn't prevent _me_!" said the young man, quickly. + +"Nor me," mused Miss Barrison--"if I were really in love." + +Meanwhile I had been very busy thinking about Professor Farrago, and, +coming to an interesting theory, advanced it. + +"If," I began, "he marries one of those transparent ladies, what about +the children?" + +"Some would be, no doubt, transparent," said Kensett. + +"They might be only translucent," suggested Miss Barrison. + +"Or partially opaque," I ventured. "But it's a risky marriage--not to +be able to see what one's wife is about--" + +"That is a silly reflection on women," said Miss Barrison, quietly. +"Besides, a girl need not be transparent to conceal what she's +doing." + +This observation seemed to end our postprandial and tripartite +conference; Miss Barrison retired to her stateroom presently; after a +last cigar, smoked almost in silence, the young man and I bade each +other a civil good-night and retired to our respective berths. + +I think it was at Richmond, Virginia, that I was awakened by the negro +porter shaking me very gently and repeating, in a pleasant, monotonous +voice: "Teleg'am foh you, suh! Teleg'am foh Mistuh Gilland, suh. 'Done +call you 'lev'm times sense breakfass, suh! Las' call foh luncheon, +suh. Teleg'am foh--" + +"Heavens!" I muttered, sitting up in my bunk, "is it as late as that! +Where are we?" I slid up the window-shade and sat blinking at a flood +of sunshine. + +"Telegram?" I said, yawning and rubbing my eyes. "Let me have it. All +right, I'll be out presently. Shut that curtain! I don't want the +entire car to criticise my pink pajamas!" + +"Ain' nobody in de cyar, 'scusin yo'se'f, suh," grinned the porter, +retiring. + +I heard him, but did not comprehend, sitting there sleepily unfolding +the scrawled telegram. Suddenly my eyes flew wide open; I scanned the +despatch with stunned incredulity: + + + "ATLANTA, GEORGIA. + + "We couldn't help it. Love at first sight. Married this + morning in Atlanta. Wildly happy. Forgive. Wire blessing. + + "(Signed) HAROLD KENSETT, + "HELEN BARRISON KENSETT." + +"Porter!" I shouted. "Porter! Help!" + +There was no response. + +"Oh, Lord!" I groaned, and rolled over, burying my head in the +blankets; for I understood at last that Science, the most jealous, +most exacting of mistresses, could never brook a rival. + + + +THE END + + + * * * * * + + +--------------------------------------------------------------+ + | Typographical errors corrected in text: | + | | + | Page 86: beautful replaced with beautiful | + | Page 180: Magazin replaced with Magazine | + | Page 206: sun-sorched replaced with sun-scorched | + | | + +--------------------------------------------------------------+ + + * * * * * + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's In Search of the Unknown, by Robert W. 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