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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Celebrity, Volume 4, by Winston Churchill
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Celebrity, Volume 4
+
+Author: Winston Churchill
+
+Release Date: October 19, 2004 [EBook #5386]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CELEBRITY, VOLUME 4 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+THE CELEBRITY
+
+By Winston Churchill
+
+
+
+VOLUME 4.
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+I am convinced that Mr. Cooke possessed at least some of the qualities of
+a great general. In certain campaigns of past centuries, and even of
+this, it has been hero-worship that impelled the rank and file rather
+than any high sympathy with the cause they were striving for. And so it
+was with us that morning. Our commander was everywhere at once,
+encouraging us to work, and holding over us in impressive language the
+awful alternative of capture. For he had the art, in a high degree, of
+inoculating his followers with the spirit which animated him; and
+shortly, to my great surprise, I found myself working as though my life
+depended on it. I certainly did not care very much whether the Celebrity
+was captured or not, and yet, with the prospect of getting him over the
+border, I had not thought of breakfast. Farrar had a natural inclination
+for work of this sort, but even he was infused somewhat with the
+contagious haste and enthusiasm which filled the air; and together we
+folded the tents with astonishing despatch and rowed them out to the
+Maria, Mr. Cooke having gone to his knees in the water to shove the boat
+off.
+
+"What are we doing this for?" said Farrar to me, as we hoisted the sail.
+
+We both laughed.
+
+"I have just been asking myself that question," I replied.
+
+"You are a nice district attorney, Crocker," he said. "You have made a
+most proper and equitable decision in giving your consent to Allen's
+escape. Doesn't your conscience smart?"
+
+"Not unbearably. I'll tell you what, Farrar," said I, "the truth is,
+that this fellow never embezzled so much as a ten-cent piece. He isn't
+guilty: he isn't the man."
+
+"Isn't the man?" repeated Farrar.
+
+"No," I answered; "it's a long tale, and no time to tell it now. But he
+is really, as he claims to be, the author of all those detestable books
+we have been hearing so much of."
+
+"The deuce he is!" exclaimed Farrar, dropping the stopper he was tying.
+"Did he write The Sybarites?"
+
+"Yes, sir; he wrote The Sybarites, and all the rest of that trash."
+
+"He's the fellow that maintains a man ought to marry a girl after he has
+become engaged to her."
+
+"Exactly," I said, smiling at his way of putting it.
+
+"Preaches constancy to all men, but doesn't object to stealing."
+
+I laughed.
+
+"You're badly mixed," I explained. "I told you he never stole anything.
+He was only ass enough to take the man's name who is the living image of
+him. And the other man took the bonds."
+
+"Oh, come now," said he, "tell me something improbable while you are
+about it."
+
+"It's true," I replied, repressing my mirth; "true as the tale of
+Timothy. I knew him when he was a mere boy. But I don't give you that
+as a proof, for he might have become all things to all men since. Ask
+Miss Trevor; or Miss Thorn; she knows the other man, the bicycle man, and
+has seen them both together."
+
+"Where, in India? Was one standing on the ground looking at his double
+go to heaven? Or was it at one of those drawing-room shows where a
+medium holds conversation with your soul, while your body sleeps on the
+lounge? By George, Crocker, I thought you were a sensible man."
+
+No wonder I got angry. But I might have come at some proper estimation
+of Farrar's incredulity by that time.
+
+"I suppose you wouldn't take a lady's word," I growled.
+
+"Not for that," he said, busy again with the sail stops; "nor St.
+Chrysostom's, were he to come here and vouch for it. It is too damned
+improbable."
+
+"Stranger things than that have happened," I retorted, fuming.
+
+"Not to any of us," he said. Presently he added, chuckling: "He'd better
+not get into the clutches of that man Drew."
+
+"What do you mean?" I demanded. Farrar was exasperating at times.
+
+"Drew will wind those handcuffs on him like tourniquets," he laughed.
+
+There seemed to be something behind this remark, but before I could
+inquire into it we were interrupted by Mr. Cooke, who was standing on
+the beach, swearing and gesticulating for the boat.
+
+"I trust," said Farrar, as we rowed ashore, "that this blind excitement
+will continue, and that we shall have the extreme pleasure of setting
+down our friend in Her Majesty's dominions with a yachting-suit and
+a ham sandwich."
+
+We sat down to a hasty breakfast, in the middle of which the Celebrity
+arrived. His appearance was unexceptionable, but his heavy jaw was set
+in a manner which should have warned Mr. Cooke not to trifle with him.
+
+"Sit down, old man, and take a bite before we start for Canada," said my
+client.
+
+The Celebrity walked up to him.
+
+"Mr. Cooke," he began in a menacing tone, "it is high time this nonsense
+was ended. I am tired of being made a buffoon of for your party. For
+your gratification I have spent a sleepless night in those cold, damp
+woods; and I warn you that practical joking can be carried too far. I
+will not go to Canada, and I insist that you sail me back to Asquith."
+
+Mr. Cooke winked significantly in our direction and tapped his head.
+
+"I don't wonder you're a little upset, old man," he said, humoringly
+patting him; "but sit down for a bite of something, and you'll see things
+differently."
+
+"I've had my breakfast," he said, taking out a cigarette.
+
+Then Mr. Trevor got up.
+
+"He demands, sir, to be delivered over to the authorities," said he, "and
+you have no right to refuse him. I protest strongly."
+
+"And you can protest all you damn please," retorted my client; "this
+isn't the Ohio State Senate. Do you know where I would put you, Mr.
+Trevor? Do you know where you ought to be? In a hencoop, sir, if I had
+one here. In a hen-coop. What would you do if a man who had gone a
+little out of his mind asked you for a gun to shoot himself with? Give
+it him, I suppose. But I put Mr. Allen ashore in Canada, with the funds
+to get off with, and then my duty's done."
+
+This speech, as Mr. Cooke had no doubt confidently hoped, threw the
+senator into a frenzy of wrath.
+
+"The day will come, sir," he shouted, shaking his fist at my client, "the
+day will come when you will rue this bitterly."
+
+"Don't get off any of your oratorical frills on me," replied Mr. Cooke,
+contemptuously; "you ought to be tied and muzzled."
+
+Mr. Trevor was white with anger.
+
+"I, for one, will not go to Canada," he cried.
+
+"You'll stay here and starve, then," said Mr. Cooke; "damned little I
+care."
+
+Mr. Trevor turned to Farrar, who was biting his lip.
+
+"Mr. Farrar, I know you to be a rising young man of sound principles, and
+Mr. Crocker likewise. You are the only ones who can sail. Have you
+reflected that you are about to ruin your careers?"
+
+"We are prepared to take the chances, I think," said Farrar.
+
+Mr. Cooke looked us over, proudly and gratefully, as much as to say that
+while he lived we should not lack the necessities of life.
+
+At nine we embarked, the Celebrity and Mr. Trevor for the same reason
+that the animals took to the ark,--because they had to. There was a
+spanking breeze in the west-northwest, and a clear sky, a day of days for
+a sail. Mr. Cooke produced a map, which Farrar and I consulted, and
+without much trouble we hit upon a quiet place to land on the Canadian
+side. Our course was north-northwest, and therefore the wind enabled us
+to hold it without much trouble. Bear Island is situated some eighteen
+miles from shore, and about equidistant between Asquith and Far Harbor,
+which latter we had to pass on our way northward.
+
+Although a brisk sea was on, the wind had been steady from that quarter
+all night, and the motion was uniform. The Maria was an excellent
+sea-boat. There was no indication, therefore, of the return of that
+malady which had been so prevalent on the passage to Bear Island. Mr.
+Cooke had never felt better, and looked every inch a sea-captain in his
+natty yachting-suit. He had acquired a tan on the island; and, as is
+eminently proper on a boat, he affected nautical manners and nautical
+ways. But his vernacular savored so hopelessly of the track and stall
+that he had been able to acquire no mastery over the art of marine
+invective. And he possessed not so much as one maritime oath. As soon
+as we had swung clear of the cove he made for the weather stays, where he
+assumed a posture not unlike that in the famous picture of Farragut
+ascending Mobile Bay. His leather case was swung over his shoulder, and
+with his glasses he swept the lake in search of the Scimitar and other
+vessels of a like unamiable character.
+
+Although my client could have told you, offhand, jackstraw's last mile in
+a bicycle sulky, his notion of the Scimitar's speed was as vague as his
+knowledge of seamanship. And when I informed him that in all probability
+she had already passed the light on Far Harbor reef, some nine miles this
+side of the Far Harbor police station, he went into an inordinate state
+of excitement. Mr. Cooke was, indeed, that day the embodiment of an
+unselfish if misdirected zeal. He was following the dictates of both
+heart and conscience in his endeavor to rescue his guest from the law;
+and true zeal is invariably contagious. What but such could have
+commanded the unremitting labors of that morning? Farrar himself had
+done three men's work before breakfast, and it was, in great part, owing
+to him that we were now leaving the island behind us. He was sailing the
+Maria that day as she will never be sailed again: her lee gunwale awash,
+and a wake like a surveyor's line behind her. More than once I called to
+mind his facetious observation about Mr. Drew, and wondered if he knew
+more than he had said about the detective.
+
+Once in the open, the Maria showed but small consideration for her
+passengers, for she went through the seas rather than over them. And Mr.
+Cooke, manfully keeping his station on the weather bow, likewise went
+through the seas. No argument could induce him to leave the post he had
+thus heroically chosen, which was one of honor rather than utility, for
+the lake was as vacant of sails as the day that Father Marquette (or some
+one else) first beheld it. Under such circumstances ease must be
+considered as only a relative term; and the accommodations of the Maria
+afforded but two comfortable spots,--the cabin, and the lea aft of the
+cabin bulkhead. This being the case, the somewhat peculiar internal
+relations of the party decided its grouping.
+
+I know of no worse place than a small yacht, or than a large one for that
+matter, for uncongenial people. The Four betook themselves to the cabin,
+which was fortunately large, and made life bearable with a game of cards;
+while Mrs. Cooke, whose adaptability and sense I had come greatly to,
+admire, contented herself with a corner and a book. The ungrateful cause
+of the expedition himself occupied another corner. I caught sight of him
+through the cabin skylight, and the silver pencil he was holding over his
+note-book showed unmistakable marks of teeth.
+
+Outside, Mr. Trevor, his face wearing an immutable expression of defiance
+for the wickedness surrounding him, had placed his daughter for
+safe-keeping between himself and the only other reliable character on
+board,--the refrigerator. But Miss Thorn appeared in a blue mackintosh
+and a pair of heavy yachting-boots, courting rather than avoiding a
+drenching. Even a mackintosh is becoming to some women. All morning she
+sat behind Mr. Cooke, on the rise of the cabin, her back against the mast
+and her hair flying in the wind, and I, for one, was not sorry the
+Celebrity had given us this excuse for a sail.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+About half-past eleven Mr. Cooke's vigilance was rewarded by a glimpse
+of the lighthouse on Far Harbor reef, and almost simultaneously he picked
+up, to the westward, the ragged outline of the house-tops and spires of
+the town itself. But as we neared the reef the harbor appeared as quiet
+as a Sunday morning: a few Mackinaws were sailing hither and thither, and
+the Far Harbor and Beaverton boat was coming out. My client, in view
+of the peaceful aspect affairs had assumed, presently consented to
+relinquish his post, and handed the glasses over to me with an injunction
+to be watchful.
+
+I promised. And Mr. Cooke, feeling his way aft with more discretion than
+grace, finally descended into the cabin, where he was noisily received.
+And I was left with Miss Thorn. While my client had been there in front
+of us, his lively conversation and naive if profane remarks kept us in
+continual laughter. When with him it was utterly impossible to see any
+other than the ludicrous side of this madcap adventure, albeit he himself
+was so keenly in earnest as to its performance. It was with misgiving
+that I saw him disappear into the hatchway, and my impulse was to follow
+him. Our spirits, like those in a thermometer, are never stationary:
+mine were continually being sent up or down. The night before, when I
+had sat with Miss Thorn beside the fire, they went up; this morning her
+anxious solicitude for the Celebrity had sent them down again. She both
+puzzled and vexed me. I could not desert my post as lookout, and I
+remained in somewhat awkward suspense as to what she was going to say,
+gazing at distant objects through the glasses. Her remark, when it came,
+took me by surprise.
+
+"I am afraid," she said seriously, "that Uncle Fenelon's principles are
+not all that they should be. His morality is something like his tobacco,
+which doesn't injure him particularly, but is dangerous to others."
+
+I was more than willing to meet her on the neutral ground of Uncle
+Fenelon.
+
+"Do you think his principles contagious?" I asked.
+
+"They have not met with the opposition they deserve," she replied.
+"Uncle Fenelon's ideas of life are not those of other men,--yours, for
+instance. And his affairs, mental and material, are, happily for him,
+such that he can generally carry out his notions with small
+inconvenience. He is no doubt convinced that he is acting generously in
+attempting to rescue the Celebrity from a term in prison; what he does
+not realize is that he is acting ungenerously to other guests who have
+infinitely more at stake."
+
+"But our friend from Ohio has done his best to impress this upon him,"
+I replied, failing to perceive her drift; "and if his words are wasted,
+surely the thing is hopeless."
+
+"I am not joking," said she. "I was not thinking of Mr. Trevor, but of
+you. I like you, Mr. Crocker. You may not believe it, but I do."
+For the life of me I could think of no fitting reply to this declaration.
+Why was that abominable word "like" ever put into the English language?
+"Yes, I like you," she continued meditatively, "in the face of the fact
+that you persist in disliking me."
+
+"Nothing of the kind."
+
+"Oh, I know. You mustn't think me so stupid as all that. It is a
+mortifying truth that I like you, and that you have no use for me."
+
+I have never known how to take a jest from a woman. I suppose I should
+have laughed this off. Instead, I made a fool of myself.
+
+"I shall be as frank with you," I said, "and declare that I like you,
+though I should be much happier if I didn't."
+
+She blushed at this, if I am not mistaken. Perhaps it was unlooked for.
+
+"At any rate," she went on, "I should deem it my duty to warn you of the
+consequences of this joke of yours. They may not be all that you have
+anticipated. The consequences for you, I mean, which you do not seem to
+have taken into account."
+
+"Consequences for me!" I exclaimed.
+
+"I fear that you will think what I am going to say uncalled for, and that
+I am meddling with something that does not concern me. But it seems to
+me that you are undervaluing the thing you have worked so hard to attain.
+They say that you have ability, that you have acquired a practice and a
+position which at your age give the highest promise for the future. That
+you are to be counsel for the railroad. In short, that you are the
+coming man in this section of the state. I have found this out," said
+she, cutting short my objections, "in spite of the short time I have been
+here."
+
+"Nonsense!" I said, reddening in my turn.
+
+"Suppose that the Celebrity is captured," she continued, thrusting her
+hands into the pockets of her mackintosh. "It appears that he is
+shadowed, and it is not unreasonable to expect that we shall be chased
+before the day is over. Then we shall be caught red-handed in an attempt
+to get a criminal over the border. Please wait until I have finished,"
+she said, holding up her hand at an interruption I was about to make.
+"You and I know he is not a criminal; but he might as well be as far as
+you are concerned. As district attorney you are doubtless known to the
+local authorities. If the Celebrity is arrested after a long pursuit, it
+will avail you nothing to affirm that you knew all along he was the noted
+writer. You will pardon me if I say that they will not believe you then.
+He will be taken East for identification. And if I know anything about
+politics, and especially the state of affairs in local politics with
+which you are concerned, the incident and the interval following it will
+be fatal to your chances with the railroad,--to your chances in general.
+You perceive, Mr. Crocker, how impossible it is to play with fire without
+being burned."
+
+I did perceive. At the time the amazing thoroughness with which she had
+gone into the subject of my own unimportant affairs, the astuteness and
+knowledge of the world she had shown, and the clearness with which she
+had put the situation, did not strike me. Nothing struck me but the
+alarming sense of my own stupidity, which was as keen as I have ever felt
+it. What man in a public position, however humble, has not political
+enemies? The image of O'Meara was wafted suddenly before me,
+disagreeably near, and his face wore the smile of victory. All of Mr.
+Cooke's money could not save me. My spirits sank as the immediate future
+unfolded itself, and I even read the article in O'Meara's organ, the
+Northern Lights, which was to be instrumental in divesting me of my
+public trust and fair fame generally. Yes, if the Celebrity was caught
+on the other side of Far Harbor, all would be up with John Crocker! But
+it would never do to let Miss Thorn discover my discomfiture.
+
+"There is something in what you say," I replied, with what bravado I
+could muster.
+
+"A little, I think," she returned, smiling; "now, what I wish you to do
+is to make Uncle Fenelon put into Far Harbor. If he refuses, you can go
+in in spite of him, since you and Mr. Farrar are the only ones who can
+sail. You have the situation in your own hands."
+
+There was certainly wisdom in this, also. But the die was cast now, and
+pride alone was sufficient to hold me to the course I had rashly begun
+upon. Pride! What an awkward thing it is, and more difficult for most
+of us to swallow than a sponge.
+
+"I thank you for this interest in my welfare, Miss Thorn," I began.
+
+"No fine speeches, please, sir," she cut in, "but do as I advise."
+
+"I fear I cannot."
+
+"Why do you say that? The thing is simplicity itself."
+
+"I should lose my self-respect as a practical joker. And besides,"
+I said maliciously, "I started out to have some fun with the Celebrity,
+and I want to have it."
+
+"Well," she replied, rather coolly, "of course you can do as you choose."
+
+We were passing within a hundred yards of the lighthouse, set cheerlessly
+on the bald and sandy tip of the point. An icy silence sat between us,
+and such a silence is invariably insinuating. This one suggested a
+horrible thought. What if Miss Thorn had warned me in order to save the
+Celebrity from humiliation? I thrust it aside, but it returned again and
+grinned. Had she not practised insincerity before? And any one with
+half an eye could see that she was in love with the Celebrity; even the
+Fraction had remarked it. What more natural than, with her cleverness,
+she had hit upon this means of terminating the author's troubles by
+working upon my fears?
+
+Human weakness often proves too much for those of us who have the very
+best intentions. Up to now the refrigerator and Mr. Trevor had kept the
+strictest and most jealous of vigils over Irene. But at length the
+senator succumbed to the drowsiness which never failed to attack him at
+this hour, and he forgot the disrepute of his surroundings in a
+respectable sleep. Whereupon his daughter joined us on the forecastle.
+
+"I knew that would happen to papa if I only waited long enough," she
+said. "Oh, he thinks you're dreadful, Mr. Crocker. He says that
+nowadays young men haven't any principle. I mustn't be seen talking to
+you."
+
+"I have been trying to convince Mr. Crocker that his stand in the matter
+is not only immoral, but suicidal," said Miss Thorn. "Perhaps," she
+added meaningly, "he will listen to you."
+
+"I don't understand," answered Miss Trevor.
+
+"Miss Thorn has been good enough to point out," I explained, "that the
+political machine in this section, which has the honor to detest me, will
+seize upon the pretext of the Celebrity's capture to ruin me. They will
+take the will for the deed."
+
+"Of course they will do just that," cried Miss Trevor. "How bright of
+you to think of it, Marian!"
+
+Miss Thorn stood up.
+
+"I leave you to persuade him," said she; "I have no doubt you will be
+able to do it."
+
+With that she left us, quite suddenly. Abruptly, I thought. And her
+manner seemed to impress Miss Trevor.
+
+"I wonder what is the matter with Marian," said she, and leaned over the
+skylight. "Why, she has gone down to talk with the Celebrity."
+
+"Isn't that rather natural?" I asked with asperity.
+
+She turned to me with an amused expression.
+
+"Her conduct seems to worry you vastly, Mr. Crocker. I noticed that you
+were quite upset this morning in the cave. Why was it?"
+
+"You must have imagined it," I said stiffly.
+
+"I should like to know," she said, with the air of one trying to solve a
+knotty problem, "I should like to know how many men are as blind as you."
+
+"You are quite beyond me, Miss Trevor," I answered; "may I request you to
+put that remark in other words?"
+
+"I protest that you are a most unsatisfactory person," she went on, not
+heeding my annoyance. "Most abnormally modest people are. If I were to
+stick you with this hat-pin, for instance, you would accept the matter as
+a positive insult."
+
+"I certainly should," I said, laughing; "and, besides, it would be
+painful."
+
+"There you are," said she, exultingly; "I knew it. But I flatter myself
+there are men who would go into an ecstasy of delight if I ran a hat-pin
+into them. I am merely taking this as an illustration of my point."
+
+"It is a very fine point," said I. "But some people take pleasure in odd
+things. I can easily conceive of a man gallant enough to suffer the
+agony for the sake of pleasing a pretty girl."
+
+"I told you so," she pouted; "you have missed it entirely. You are
+hopelessly blind on that side, and numb. Perhaps you didn't know that
+you have had a hat-pin sticking in you for some time."
+
+I began feeling myself, nervously.
+
+"For more than a month," she cried, "and to think that you have never
+felt it." My action was too much for her gravity, and she fell back
+against the skylight in a fit of merriment, which threatened to wake her
+father. And I hoped it would.
+
+"It pleases you to speak in parables this morning," I said.
+
+"Mr. Crocker," she began again, when she had regained her speech, "shall
+I tell you of a great misfortune which might happen to a girl?"
+
+"I should be pleased to hear it," I replied courteously.
+
+"That misfortune, then, would be to fall in love with you."
+
+"Happily that is not within the limits of probability," I answered,
+beginning to be a little amused. "But why?"
+
+"Lightning often strikes where it is least expected," she replied archly.
+"Listen. If a young woman were unlucky enough to lose her heart to you,
+she might do everything but tell you, and you would never know it. I
+scarcely believe you would know it if she did tell you."
+
+I must have jumped unconsciously.
+
+"Oh, you needn't think I am in love with you."
+
+"Not for a minute," I made haste to say.
+
+She pointed towards the timber-covered hills beyond the shore.
+
+"Do you see that stream which comes foaming down the notch into the lake
+in front of us?" she asked. "Let us suppose that you lived in a cabin
+beside that brook; and that once in a while, when you went out to draw
+your water, you saw a nugget of--gold washing along with the pebbles on
+the bed. How many days do you think you would be in coming to the
+conclusion that there was a pocket of gold somewhere above you, and in
+starting in search of it?"
+
+"Not long, surely."
+
+"Ah, you are not lacking in perception there. But if I were to tell you
+that I knew of the existence of such a mine, from various proofs I have
+had, and that the mine was in the possession of a certain person who was
+quite willing to share it with you on application, you would not believe
+me."
+
+"Probably not."
+
+"Well," said Miss Trevor, with a nod of finality, "I was actually about
+to make such a disclosure. But I see it would be useless."
+
+I confess she aroused my curiosity. No coaxing, however, would induce
+her to interpret.
+
+"No," she insisted strangely, "if you cannot put two and two together, I
+fear I cannot help you. And no one I ever heard of has come to any good
+by meddling."
+
+Miss Trevor folded her hands across her lap. She wore that air which I
+am led to believe is common to all women who have something of importance
+to disclose; or at least what they consider is of importance. There was
+an element of pity, too, in her expression. For she had given me my
+chance, and my wits had been found wanting.
+
+Do not let it be surmised that I attach any great value to such banter as
+she had been indulging in. At the same time, however, I had an uneasy
+feeling that I had missed something which might have been to my
+advantage. It was in vain that I whipped my dull senses; but one
+conclusion was indicated by all this inference, and I don't care even to
+mention that: it was preposterous.
+
+Then Miss Trevor shifted to a very serious mood. She honestly did her
+best to persuade me to relinquish our enterprise, to go to Mr. Cooke and
+confess the whole thing.
+
+"I wish we had washed our hands of this Celebrity from the first," she
+said, with a sigh. "How dreadful if you lose your position on account of
+this foolishness!"
+
+"But I shan't," I answered reassuringly; "we are getting near the border
+now, and no sign of trouble. And besides," I added, "I think Miss Thorn
+tried to frighten me. And she very nearly succeeded. It was prettily
+done."
+
+"Of course she tried to frighten you. I wish she had succeeded."
+
+"But her object was transparent."
+
+"Her object!" she exclaimed. "Her object was to save you."
+
+"I think not," I replied; "it was to save the Celebrity."
+
+Miss Trevor rose and grasped one of the sail rings to keep her balance.
+She looked at me pityingly.
+
+"Do you really believe that?"
+
+"Firmly."
+
+"Then you are hopeless, Mr. Crocker, totally hopeless. I give you up."
+And she went back to her seat beside the refrigerator.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+"Crocker, old man, Crocker, what the devil does that mean?"
+
+I turned with a start to perceive a bare head thrust above the cabin
+roof, the scant hair flying, and two large, brown eyes staring into mine
+full of alarm and reproach. A plump finger was pointing to where the
+sandy reef lay far astern of us.
+
+The Mackinaws were flecked far and wide over the lake, and a dirty smudge
+on the blue showed where the Far Harbor and Beaverton boat had gone over
+the horizon. But there, over the point and dangerously close to the
+land, hung another smudge, gradually pushing its way like a writhing,
+black serpent, lakewards. Thus I was rudely jerked back to face the
+problem with which we had left the island that morning.
+
+I snatched the neglected glasses from the deck and hurried aft to join my
+client on the overhang, but a pipe was all they revealed above the bleak
+hillocks of sand. My client turned to me with a face that was white
+under the tan.
+
+"Crocker," he cried, in a tragic voice, "it's a blessed police boat, or I
+never picked a winner."
+
+"Nonsense," I said; "other boats smoke beside police boats. The lake is
+full of tugs."
+
+I was a little nettled at having been scared for a molehill.
+
+"But I know it, sure as hell," he insisted.
+
+"You know nothing about it, and won't for an hour. What's a pipe and a
+trail of smoke?"
+
+He laid a hand on my shoulder, and I felt it tremble.
+
+"Why do you suppose I came out?" he demanded solemnly.
+
+"You were probably losing," I said.
+
+"I was winning."
+
+"Then you got tired of winning."
+
+But he held up a thumb within a few inches of my face, and with it a ring
+I had often noticed, a huge opal which he customarily wore on the inside
+of his hand.
+
+"She's dead," said Mr. Cooke, sadly.
+
+"Dead?" I repeated, perplexed.
+
+"Yes, she's dead as the day I lost the two thousand at Sheepshead. She's
+never gone back on me yet. And unless I can make some little arrangement
+with those fellows," he added, tossing his head at the smoke, "you and I
+will put up to-night in some barn of a jail. I've never been in jail but
+once," said Mr. Cooke, "and it isn't so damned pleasant, I assure you."
+I saw that he believed every word of it; in fact, that it was his
+religion. I might as well have tried to argue the Sultan out of
+Mohammedanism.
+
+The pipe belonged to a tug, that was certain. Farrar said so after a
+look over his shoulder, disdaining glasses, and he knew the lake better
+than many who made their living by it. It was then that I made note of a
+curious anomaly in the betting character; for thus far Mr. Cooke, like a
+great many of his friends, was a skeptic. He never ceased to hope until
+the stake had found its way into the other man's pocket. And it was for
+hope that he now applied to Farrar. But even Farrar did not attempt to
+account for the tug's appearance that near the land.
+
+"She's in some detestable hurry to get up this way, that's flat," he
+said; "where she is, the channel out of the harbor is not forty feet
+wide."
+
+By this time the rest of the party were gathered behind us on the high
+side of the boat, in different stages of excitement, scrutinizing the
+smoke. Mr. Cooke had the glasses glued to his eyes again, his feet
+braced apart, and every line of his body bespeaking the tension of his
+mind. I imagined him standing thus, the stump of his cigar tightly
+clutched between his teeth, following the fortunes of some favorite on
+the far side of the Belmont track.
+
+We waited without comment while the smoke crept by degrees towards the
+little white spindle on the tip of the point, now and again catching a
+gleam of the sun's rays from off the glass of the lantern. And
+presently, against the white lather of the lake, I thought I caught sight
+of a black nose pushed out beyond the land. Another moment, and the tug
+itself was bobbing in the open. Barely had she reached the deep water
+beyond the sands when her length began to shorten, and the dense cloud of
+smoke that rose made it plain that she was firing. At the sight I
+reflected that I had been a fool indeed. A scant flue miles of water lay
+between us and her, and if they really meant business back there, and
+they gave every sign of it, we had about an hour and a half to get rid of
+the Celebrity. The Maria was a good boat, but she had not been built to
+try conclusions with a Far Harbor tug.
+
+My client, in spite of the ominous condition of his opal, was not slow to
+make his intentions exceedingly clear. For Mr. Cooke was first and last,
+and always, a gentleman. After that you might call him anything you
+pleased. Meditatively he screwed up his glasses and buckled them into
+the case, and then he descended to the cockpit. It was the Celebrity he
+singled out of the party.
+
+"Allen," said he, when he stood before him, "I want to impress on you
+that my word's gold. I've stuck to you thus far, and I'll be damned now
+if I throw you over, like they did Jonah."
+
+Mr. Cooke spoke with a fine dignity that in itself was impressive, and
+when he had finished he looked about him until his eye rested on Mr.
+Trevor, as though opposition were to come from that quarter. And the
+senator gave every sign of another eruption. But the Celebrity, either
+from lack of appreciation of my client's loyalty, or because of the
+nervousness which was beginning to show itself in his demeanor, despite
+an effort to hide it, returned no answer. He turned on his heel and
+resumed his seat in the cabin. Mr. Cooke was visibly affected.
+
+"I'd sooner lose my whip hand than go back on him now," he declared.
+
+Then Vesuvius began to rumble.
+
+"Mr. Cooke," said the senator, "may I suggest something which seems
+pertinent to me, though it does not appear to have occurred to you?"
+
+His tone was the calm one that the heroes used in the Celebrity's novels
+when they were about to drop on and annihilate wicked men.
+
+"Certainly, sir," my client replied briskly, bringing himself up on his
+way back to the overhang.
+
+"You have announced your intention of 'standing by' Mr. Allen, as you
+express it. Have you reflected that there are some others who deserve to
+be consulted and considered beside Mr. Allen and yourself?"
+
+Mr. Cooke was puzzled at this change of front, and unused, moreover, to
+that veiled irony of parliamentary expression.
+
+"Talk English, my friend," said he.
+
+"In plain words, sir, Mr. Allen is a criminal who ought to be locked up;
+he is a menace to society. You, who have a reputation, I am given to
+understand, for driving four horses, have nothing to lose by a scandal,
+while I have worked all my life for the little I have achieved, and have
+a daughter to think about. I will neither stand by Mr. Allen nor by
+you."
+
+Mr. Cooke was ready with a retort when the true significance of this
+struck him. Things were a trifle different now. The tables had turned
+since leaving the island, and the senator held it in his power to ruin
+our one remaining chance of escape. Strangely enough, he missed the
+cause of Mr. Cooke's hesitation.
+
+"Look here, old man," said my client, biting off another cigar, "I'm a
+first-rate fellow when you get to know me, and I'd do the same for you as
+I'm doing for Allen."
+
+"I daresay, sir, I daresay," said the other, a trifle mollified; "I don't
+claim that you're not acting as you think right."
+
+"I see it," said Mr. Cooke, with admirable humility; "I see it. I was
+wrong to haul you into this, Trevor. And the only thing to consider now
+is, how to get you out of it."
+
+Here he appeared for a moment to be wrapped in deep thought, and checked
+with his cigar an attempt to interrupt him.
+
+"However you put it, old man," he said at last, "we're all in a pretty
+bad hole."
+
+"All!" cried Mr. Trevor, indignantly.
+
+"Yes, all," asserted Mr. Cooke, with composure. "There are the police,
+and here is Allen as good as run down. If they find him when they get
+abroad, you don't suppose they'll swallow anything you have to say about
+trying to deliver him over. No, sir, you'll be bagged and fined along
+with the rest of us. And I'd be damned sorry to see it, if I do say it;
+and I blame myself freely for it, old man. Now you take my advice and
+keep your mouth shut, and I'll take care of you. I've got a place for
+Allen."
+
+During this somewhat remarkable speech Mr. Trevor, as it were, blew hot
+and cold by turns. Although its delivery was inconsiderate, its logic
+was undeniable, and the senator sat down again on the locker, and was
+silent. But I marked that off and on his fingers would open and shut
+convulsively.
+
+Time alone would disclose what was to happen to us; in the interval there
+was nothing to do but wait. We had reached the stage where anxiety
+begins to take the place of excitement, and we shifted restlessly from
+spot to spot and looked at the tug. She was ploughing along after us,
+and to such good purpose that presently I began to catch the white of the
+seas along her bows, and the bright red with which her pipe was tipped.
+Farrar alone seemed to take but slight interest in her. More than once I
+glanced at him as he stood under me, but his eye was on the shuddering
+leach of the sail. Then I leaned over.
+
+"What do you think of it?" I asked.
+
+"I told you this morning Drew would have handcuffs on him before night,"
+he replied, without raising his head.
+
+"Hang your joking, Farrar; I know more than you about it."
+
+"Then what's the use of asking me?"
+
+"Don't you see that I'm ruined if we're caught?" I demanded, a little
+warmly.
+
+"No, I don't see it," he replied. "You don't suppose I think you fool
+enough to risk this comedy if the man were guilty, do you? I don't
+believe all that rubbish about his being the criminal's double, either.
+That's something the girls got up for your benefit."
+
+I ignored this piece of brutality.
+
+"But I'm ruined anyway."
+
+"How?"
+
+I explained shortly what I thought our friend, O'Meara, would do under
+the circumstances. An inference sufficed Farrar.
+
+"Why didn't you say something about this before?" he asked gravely.
+"I would have put into Far Harbor."
+
+"Because I didn't think of it," I confessed.
+
+Farrar pulled down the corners of his mouth with trying not to smile.
+
+"Miss Thorn is a woman of brains," he remarked gently; "I respect her."
+
+I wondered by what mysterious train of reasoning he had arrived at this
+conclusion. He said nothing for a while, but toyed with the spokes of
+the wheel, keeping the wind in the sail with undue nicety.
+
+"I can't make them out," he said, all at once.
+
+"Then you believe they're after us?"
+
+"I changed the course a point or two, just to try them."
+
+"And--"
+
+"And they changed theirs."
+
+"Who could have informed?"
+
+"Drew, of course," I said; "who else?"
+
+He laughed.
+
+"Drew doesn't know anything about Allen," said he; "and, besides, he's no
+more of a detective than I am."
+
+"But Drew was told there was a criminal on the island."
+
+"Who told him?"
+
+I repeated the conversation between Drew and Mr. Trevor which I had
+overheard. Farrar whistled.
+
+"But you did not speak of that this morning," said he.
+
+"No," I replied, feeling anything but comfortable. At times when he was
+facetious as he had been this morning I was wont to lose sight of the
+fact that with Farrar the manner was not the man, and to forget the
+warmth of his friendship. I was again to be reminded of this.
+
+"Well, Crocker," he said briefly, "I would willingly give up this year's
+state contract to have known it."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+It was, accurately as I can remember, half after noon when Mr. Cooke
+first caught the smoke over the point, for the sun was very high: at two
+our fate had been decided. I have already tried to describe a part of
+what took place in that hour and a half, although even now I cannot get
+it all straight in my mind. Races, when a great deal is at stake, are
+more or less chaotic: a close four miles in a college eight is a
+succession of blurs with lucid but irrelevant intervals. The weary
+months of hard work are forgotten, and you are quite as apt to think of
+your first velocipede, or of the pie that is awaiting you in the
+boathouse, as of victory and defeat. And a yacht race, with a pair of
+rivals on your beam, is very much the same.
+
+As I sat with my feet dangling over the washboard, I reflected, once or
+twice, that we were engaged in a race. All I had to do was to twist my
+head in order to make sure of it. I also reflected, I believe, that I
+was in the position of a man who has bet all he owns, with large odds on
+losing either way. But on the whole I was occupied with more trivial
+matters a letter I had forgotten to write about a month's rent, a client
+whose summer address I had mislaid. The sun was burning my neck behind
+when a whistle aroused me to the realization that the tug was no longer a
+toy boat dancing in the distance, but a stern fact but two miles away.
+There could be no mistake now, for I saw the white steam of the signal
+against the smoke.
+
+I slid down and went into the cabin. The Celebrity was in the corner by
+the companionway, with his head on the cushions and a book in his hand.
+And forward, under the low deck beams beyond the skylight, I beheld the
+crouching figure of my client. He had stripped off his coat and was busy
+at some task on the floor.
+
+"They're whistling for us to stop," I said to him.
+
+"How near are they, old man?" he asked, without looking up.
+The perspiration was streaming down his face, and he held a brace and bit
+in his hand. Under him was the trap-door which gave access to the
+ballast below, and through this he had bored a neat hole. The yellow
+chips were still on his clothes.
+
+"They're not two miles away," I answered. "But what in mystery are you
+doing there?"
+
+But he only laid a finger beside his nose and bestowed a wink in my
+direction. Then he took some ashes from his cigar, wetted his finger,
+and thus ingeniously removed all appearance of newness from the hole he
+had made, carefully cleaning up the chips and putting them in his pocket.
+Finally he concealed the brace and bit and opened the trap, disclosing
+the rough stones of the ballast. I watched him in amazement as he tore a
+mattress from an adjoining bunk and forced it through the opening,
+spreading it fore and aft over the stones.
+
+"Now," he said, regaining his feet and surveying the whole with
+undisguised satisfaction, "he'll be as safe there as in my new family
+vault."
+
+"But" I began, a light dawning upon me.
+
+"Allen, old man," said Mr. Cooke, "come here."
+
+The Celebrity laid down his book and looked up: my client was putting on
+his coat.
+
+"Come here, old man," he repeated.
+
+And he actually came. But he stopped when he caught sight of the open
+trap and of the mattress beneath it.
+
+"How will that suit you?" asked Mr. Cooke, smiling broadly as he wiped
+his face with an embroidered handkerchief.
+
+The Celebrity looked at the mattress, then at me, and lastly at Mr.
+Cooke. His face was a study:
+
+"And--And you think I am going to get in there?" he said, his voice
+shaking.
+
+My client fell back a step.
+
+"Why not?" he demanded. "It's about your size, comfortable, and all the
+air you want" (here Mr. Cooke stuck his finger through the bit hole).
+"Damn me, if I were in your fix, I wouldn't stop at a kennel."
+
+"Then you're cursed badly mistaken," said the Celebrity, going back to
+his corner; "I'm tired of being made an ass of for you and your party."
+
+"An ass!" exclaimed my client, in proper indignation.
+
+"Yes, an ass," said the Celebrity. And he resumed his book.
+
+It would seem that a student of human nature, such as every successful
+writer should be, might by this time have arrived at some conception of
+my client's character, simple as it was, and have learned to overlook the
+slight peculiarity in his mode of expressing himself. But here the
+Celebrity fell short, if my client's emotions were not pitched in the
+same key as those of other people, who shall say that his heart was not
+as large or his sympathies as wide as many another philanthropist?
+
+But Mr. Cooke was an optimist, and as such disposed to look at the best
+side of his friends and ignore the worst; if, indeed, he perceived their
+faults at all. It was plain to me, even now, that he did not comprehend
+the Celebrity's attitude. That his guest should reject the one hope of
+escape left him was, according to Mr. Cooke, only to be accounted for by
+a loss of mental balance. Nevertheless, his disappointment was keen. He
+let down the door and slowly led the way out of the cabin. The whistle
+sounded shrilly in our ears.
+
+Mr. Cooke sat down and drew a wallet from his pocket. He began to count
+the bills, and, as if by common consent, the Four followed suit. It was
+a task which occupied some minutes, and when completed my client produced
+a morocco note-book and a pencil. He glanced interrogatively at the man
+nearest him.
+
+"Three hundred and fifty."
+
+Mr. Cooke put it down. It was entirely a matter of course. What else
+was there to be done? And when he had gone the round of his followers he
+turned to Farrar and me.
+
+"How much are you fellows equal to?" he asked.
+
+I believe he did it because he felt we should resent being left out: and
+so we should have. Mr. Cooke's instincts were delicate.
+
+We told him. Then he paused, his pencil in the air, and his eyes
+doubtfully fixed on the senator. For all this time Mr. Trevor had been
+fidgeting in his seat; but now he opened his long coat, button by button,
+and thrust his hand inside the flap. Oh, Falstaff!
+
+"Father, father!" exclaimed Miss Trevor. But her tongue was in her
+cheek.
+
+I have heard it stated that if a thoroughly righteous man were cast away
+with ninety and nine ruffians, each of the ruffians would gain
+one-one-hundredth in virtue, whilst the righteous man would sink to their
+new level. I am not able to say how much better Mr. Cooke's party was
+for Mr. Trevor's company, but the senator seemed to realize that
+something serious had happened to him, for his voice was not altogether
+steady as he pronounced the amount of his contribution.
+
+"Trevor," cried Mr. Cooke, with great fervor, "I take it all back.
+You're a true, public-spirited old sport."
+
+But the senator had not yet reached that extreme of degradation where it
+is pleasurable to be congratulated on wickedness.
+
+My client added up the figures and rubbed his hands. I regret to say
+that the aggregate would have bought up three small police organizations,
+body and soul.
+
+"Pull up, Farrar, old man," he shouted.
+
+Farrar released the wheel and threw the Maria into the wind. With the
+sail cracking and the big boom dodging over our heads, we watched the tug
+as she drew nearer and nearer, until we could hear the loud beating of
+her engines. On one side some men were making ready to lower a boat, and
+then a conspicuous figure in blue stood out by the davits. Then came the
+faint tinkle of a bell, and the H Sinclair, of Far Harbor, glided up and
+thrashed the water scarce a biscuit-throw away.
+
+"Hello, there!" the man in uniform called out. It was Captain McCann,
+chief of the Far Harbor police.
+
+Mr. Cooke waved his cigar politely.
+
+"Is that Mr. Cooke's yacht, the Maria?
+
+"The same," said Mr. Cooke.
+
+"I'm fearing I'll have to come aboard you, Mr. Cooke."
+
+"All right, old man, glad to have you," said my client.
+
+This brought a smile to McCann's face as he got into his boat. We were
+all standing in the cockpit, save the Celebrity, who was just inside of
+the cabin door. I had time to note that he was pale, and no more: I must
+have been pale myself. A few strokes brought the chief to the Maria's
+stern.
+
+"It's not me that likes to interfere with a gent's pleasure party, but
+business is business," said he, as he climbed aboard.
+
+My client's hospitality was oriental.
+
+"Make yourself at home, old man," he said, a box of his largest and
+blackest cigars in his hand. And these he advanced towards McCann before
+the knot was tied in the painter.
+
+Then a wave of self-reproach swept over me. Was it possible that I, like
+Mr. Trevor, had been deprived of all the morals I had ever possessed?
+Could it be that the district attorney was looking calmly on while Mr.
+Cooke wilfully corrupted the Far Harbor chief-of-police? As agonizing a
+minute as I ever had in my life was that which it took McCann to survey
+those cigars. His broad features became broader still, as a huge, red
+hand was reached out. I saw it close lingeringly over the box, and then
+Mr. Cooke had struck a match. The chief stepped over the washboard onto
+the handsome turkey-red cushions on the seats, and thus he came face to
+face with me.
+
+"Holy fathers!" he exclaimed. "Is it you who are here, Mr. Crocker?"
+And he pulled off his cap.
+
+"No other, McCann," said I, with what I believe was a most pitiful
+attempt at braggadocio.
+
+McCann began to puff at his cigar. Clouds of smoke came out of his face
+and floated down the wind. He was so visibly embarrassed that I gained a
+little courage.
+
+"And what brings you here?" I demanded.
+
+He scrutinized me in perplexity.
+
+"I think you're guessing, sir."
+
+"Never a guess, McCann. You'll have to explain yourself."
+
+McCann had once had a wholesome respect for me. But it looked now as if
+the bottom was dropping out of it.
+
+"Sure, Mr. Crocker," he said, "what would you be doing in such company as
+I'm hunting for? Can it be that ye're helping to lift a criminal over
+the border?"
+
+"McCann," I asked sternly, "what have you had on the, tug?"
+
+Force of habit proved too much for the man. He went back to the
+apologetic.
+
+"Never a drop, Mr. Crocker. Upon me soul!"
+
+This reminded Mr. Cooke of something (be it recorded) that he had for
+once forgotten. He lifted up the top of the refrigerator. The chief's
+eye followed him. But I was not going to permit this.
+
+"Now, McCann," I commenced again, "if you will state your business here,
+if you have any, I shall be obliged. You are delaying Mr. Cooke."
+
+The chief was seized with a nervous tremor. I think we were a pair in
+that, only I managed to keep mine, under. When it came to the point,
+and any bribing was to be done, I had hit upon a course. Self-respect
+demanded a dignity on my part. With a painful indecision McCann pulled
+a paper from his pocket which I saw was a warrant. And he dropped his
+cigar. Mr. Cooke was quick to give him another.
+
+"Ye come from Bear Island, Mr. Crocker?" he inquired.
+
+I replied in the affirmative.
+
+"I hope it's news I'm telling you," he said soberly; "I'm hoping it's
+news when I say that I'm here for Mr. Charles Wrexell Allen,--that's the
+gentleman's name. He's after taking a hundred thousand dollars away from
+Boston." Then he turned to Mr. Cooke. "The gentleman was aboard your
+boat, sir, when you left that country place of yours,--what d'ye call it?
+--Mohair? Thank you, sir." And he wiped the water from his brow. "And
+they're telling me he was on Bear Island with ye? Sure, sir, and I can't
+see why a gentleman of your standing would be wanting to get him over the
+border. But I must do my duty. Begging your pardon, Mr. Crocker," he
+added, with a bow to me.
+
+"Certainly, McCann," I said.
+
+For a space there was only the bumping and straining of the yacht and the
+swish of the water against her sides. Then the chief spoke again.
+
+"It will be saving you both trouble and inconvenience, Mr. Crocker, if
+you give him up, sir."
+
+What did the man mean? Why in the name of the law didn't he make a move?
+I was conscious that my client was fumbling in his clothes for the
+wallet; that he had muttered an invitation for the chief to go inside.
+McCann smoked uneasily.
+
+"I don't want to search the boat, sir."
+
+At these words we all turned with one accord towards the cabin. I felt
+Farrar gripping my arm tightly from behind.
+
+The Celebrity had disappeared!
+
+It was Mr. Cooke who spoke.
+
+"Search the boat!" he said, something between a laugh and a cry.
+
+"Yes, sir," the chief repeated firmly. "It's sorry I am to do it, with
+Mr. Crocker here, too."
+
+I have always maintained that nature had endowed my client with rare
+gifts; and the ease with which he now assumed a part thus unexpectedly
+thrust upon him, as well as the assurance with which he carried it out,
+goes far to prove it.
+
+"If there's anything in your line aboard, chief," he said blandly, "help
+yourself!"
+
+Some of us laughed. I thought things a little too close to be funny.
+Since the Celebrity had lost his nerve and betaken himself to the place
+of concealment Mr. Cooke had prepared for him, the whole composition of
+the affair was changed. Before, if McCann had arrested the ostensible
+Mr. Allen, my word, added to fifty dollars from my client, would probably
+have been sufficient. Should he be found now, no district attorney on
+the face of the earth could induce the chief to believe that he was any
+other than the real criminal; nor would any bribe be large enough to
+compensate McCann for the consequences of losing so important a prisoner.
+There was nothing now but to carry it off with a high hand. McCann got
+up.
+
+"Be your lave, Mr. Crocker," he said.
+
+"Never you mind me, McCann," I replied, "but you do what is right."
+
+With that he began his search. It might have been ludicrous if I had had
+any desire to laugh, for the chief wore the gingerly air of a man looking
+for a rattlesnake which has to be got somehow. And my client assisted at
+the inspection with all the graces of a dancing-master. McCann poked
+into the forward lockers where we kept the stores,--dropping the iron lid
+within an inch of his toe,--and the clothing-lockers and the
+sail-lockers. He reached under the bunks, and drew out his hand again
+quickly, as though he expected to be bitten. And at last he stood by the
+trap with the hole in it, under which the Celebrity lay prostrate. I
+could hear my own breathing. But Mr. Cooke had his wits about him still,
+and at this critical juncture he gave McCann a thump on the back which
+nearly carried him off his feet.
+
+"They say the mast is hollow, old man," he suggested.
+
+"Be jabers, Mr. Cooke," said McCann, "and I'm beginning to think it is!
+
+"He took off his cap and scratched his head.
+
+"Well, McCann, I hope you're contented," I said.
+
+"Mr. Crocker," said he, "and it's that thankful I am for you that the
+gent ain't here. But with him cutting high finks up at Mr. Cooke's house
+with a valet, and him coming on the yacht with yese, and the whole
+country in that state about him, begorra," said McCann, "and it's domned
+strange! Maybe it's swimmin' in the water he is!"
+
+The whole party had followed the search, and at this speech of the
+chief's our nervous tension became suddenly relaxed. Most of us sat down
+to laugh.
+
+"I'm asking no questions, Mr. Crocker, yell take notice," he remarked,
+his voice full of reproachful meaning.
+
+"McCann," said I, "you come outside. I want to speak to you."
+
+He followed me out.
+
+"Now," I went on, "you know me pretty well" (he nodded doubtfully), "and
+if I give you my word that Charles Wrexell Allen is not on this yacht,
+and never has been, is that sufficient?"
+
+"Is it the truth you're saying, sir?"
+
+I assured him that it was.
+
+"Then where is he, Mr. Crocker?"
+
+"God only knows!" I replied, with fervor. "I don't, McCann."
+
+The chief was satisfied. He went back into the cabin, and Mr. Cooke, in
+the exuberance of his joy, produced champagne. McCann had heard of my
+client and of his luxurious country place, and moreover it was the first
+time he had ever been on a yellow-plush yacht. He tarried. He drank Mr.
+Cooke's health and looked around him in wonder and awe, and his remarks
+were worthy of record. These sayings and the thought of the author of
+The Sybarites stifling below with his mouth to an auger-hole kept us in a
+continual state of merriment. And at last our visitor rose to go.
+
+As he was stepping over the side, Mr. Cooke laid hold of a brass button
+and pressed a handful of the black cigars upon him.
+
+"My regards to the detective, old man," said he.
+
+McCann stared.
+
+"My regards to Drew," my client insisted.
+
+"Oh!" said McCann, his face lighting up, "him with the whiskers, what
+came from Bear Island in a cat-boat. Sure, he wasn't no detective, sir."
+
+"What was he? A police commissioner?"
+
+"Mr. Cooke," said McCann, disdainfully, as he got into his boat, "he
+wasn't nothing but a prospector doing the lake for one of them summer
+hotel companies."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+When the biography of the Celebrity is written, and I have no doubt it
+will be some day, may his biographer kindly draw a veil over that instant
+in his life when he was tenderly and obsequiously raised by Mr. Cooke
+from the trap in the floor of the Maria's cabin.
+
+It is sometimes the case that a good fright will heal a feud. And
+whereas, before the arrival of the H. Sinclair, there had been much
+dissension and many quarrels concerning the disposal of the quasi Charles
+Wrexell Allen, when the tug steamed away to the southwards but one
+opinion remained,--that, like Jonah, he must be got rid of. And no one
+concurred more heartily in this than the Celebrity himself. He strolled
+about and smoked apathetically, with the manner of one who was bored
+beyond description, whilst the discussion was going on between Farrar,
+Mr. Cooke, and myself as to the best place to land him. When
+considerately asked by my client whether he had any choice in the matter,
+he replied, somewhat facetiously, that he could not think of making a
+suggestion to one who had shown such superlative skill in its previous
+management.
+
+Mr. Trevor, too, experienced a change of sentiment in Mr. Cooke's favor.
+It is not too much to say that the senator's scare had been of such
+thoroughness that he was willing to agree to almost anything. He had
+come so near to being relieved of that most precious possession, his
+respectability, that the reason in Mr. Cooke's course now appealed to
+him very strongly. Thus he became a tacit assenter in wrong-doing,
+for circumstances thrust this, once in a while, upon the best of our
+citizens.
+
+The afternoon wore cool; nay, cold is a better word. The wind brought
+with it a suggestion of the pine-clad wastes of the northwestern
+wilderness whence it came, and that sure harbinger of autumn, the
+blue haze, settled around the hills, and benumbed the rays of the sun
+lingering over the crests. Farrar and I, as navigators, were glad to get
+into our overcoats, while the others assembled in the little cabin and
+lighted the gasoline stove which stood in the corner. Outside we had our
+pipes for consolation, and the sunset beauty of the lake.
+
+By six we were well over the line, and consulting our chart, we selected
+a cove behind a headland on our left, which seemed the best we could do
+for an anchorage, although it was shallow and full of rocks. As we were
+changing our course to run in, Mr. Cooke appeared, bundled up in his
+reefer. He was in the best of spirits, and was good enough to concur
+with our plans.
+
+"Now, sir," asked Farrar, "what do you propose to do with Allen?"
+
+But our client only chuckled.
+
+"Wait and see, old man," he said; "I've got that all fixed."
+
+"Well," Farrar remarked, when he had gone in again, "he has steered it
+deuced well so far. I think we can trust him."
+
+It was dark when we dropped anchor, a very tired party indeed; and as the
+Maria could not accommodate us all with sleeping quarters, Mr. Cooke
+decided that the ladies should have the cabin, since the night was cold.
+And so it might have been, had not Miss Thorn flatly refused to sleep
+there. The cabin was stuffy, she said, and so she carried her point.
+Leaving Farrar and one of Mr. Cooke's friends to take care of the yacht,
+the rest of us went ashore, built a roaring fire and raised a tent, and
+proceeded to make ourselves as comfortable as circumstances would allow.
+The sense of relief over the danger passed produced a kind of
+lightheartedness amongst us, and the topics broached at supper would
+not have been inappropriate at a friendly dinner party. As we were
+separating for the night Miss Thorn said to me:
+
+"I am so happy for your sake, Mr. Crocker, that he was not discovered."
+
+For my sake! Could she really have meant it, after all? I went to sleep
+thinking of that sentence, beside my client beneath the trees. And it
+was first in my thoughts when I awoke.
+
+As we dipped our faces in the brook the next morning my client laughed
+softly to himself between the gasps, and I knew that he had in mind the
+last consummate touch to his successful enterprise. And the revelation
+came when the party were assembled at breakfast. Mr. Cooke stood up, and
+drawing from his pocket a small and mysterious paper parcel he forthwith
+delivered himself in the tone and manner which had so endeared him to the
+familiars of the Lake House bar.
+
+"I'm not much for words, as you all know," said he, with becoming
+modesty, "and I don't set up to be an orator. I am just what you see
+here,--a damned plain man. And there's only one virtue that I lay any
+claim to,--no one can say that I ever went back on a friend. I want to
+thank all of you (looking at the senator) for what you have done for me
+and Allen. It's not for us to talk about that hundred thousand dollars.
+--My private opinion is (he seemed to have no scruples about making it
+public) that Allen is insane. No, old man, don't interrupt me; but you
+haven't acted just right, and that's a fact. And I won't feel square
+with myself until I put him where I found him, in safety. I am sorry to
+say, my friends," he added, with emotion, "that Mr. Allen is about to
+leave us."
+
+He paused for breath, palpably satisfied with so much of it, and with the
+effect on his audience.
+
+"Now," continued he, "we start this morning for a place which is only
+four miles or so from the town of Saville, and I shall then request my
+esteemed legal adviser, Mr. Crocker, to proceed to the town and buy a
+ready-made suit of clothes for Mr. Allen, a slouch hat, a cheap necktie,
+and a stout pair of farmer's boots. And I have here," he said, holding
+up the package, "I have here the rest of it. My friends, you heard the
+chief tell me that Drew was doing the lake for a summer hotel syndicate.
+But if Drew wasn't a detective you can throw me into the lake! He wasn't
+exactly Pinkerton, and I flatter myself that we were too many for him,"
+said Mr. Cooke, with deserved pride; "and he went away in such a
+devilish hurry that he forgot his hand-bag with some of his extra
+things."
+
+Then my client opened the package, and held up on a string before our
+astonished eyes a wig, a pair of moustaches, and two bushy red whiskers.
+
+And this was Mr. Cooke's scheme! Did it electrify his hearers? Perhaps.
+Even the senator was so choked with laughter that he was forced to cast
+loose one of the buttons which held on his turn-down collar, and Farrar
+retired into the woods. But the gravity of Mr. Cooke's countenance
+remained serene.
+
+"Old man," he said to the Celebrity, "you'll have to learn the price of
+potatoes now. Here are Mr. Drew's duplicates; try 'em on."
+
+This the Celebrity politely but firmly refused to do.
+
+"Cooke," said he, "it has never been my lot to visit so kind and
+considerate a host, or to know a man who pursued his duty with so little
+thought and care of his own peril. I wish to thank you, and to apologize
+for any hasty expressions I may have dropped by mistake, and I would it
+were possible to convince you that I am neither a maniac nor an
+embezzler. But, if it's just the same to you, I believe I can get along
+without the disguise you mentioned, and so save Mr. Crocker his pains.
+In short, if you will set me down at Saville, I am willing to take my
+chances of reaching the Canadian Pacific from that point without fear of
+detection."
+
+The Celebrity's speech produced a good impression on all save Mr. Cooke,
+who appeared a trifle water-logged. He had dealt successfully with Mr.
+Allen when that gentleman had been in defiant moods, or in moods of ugly
+sarcasm. But this good-natured, turn-you-down-easy note puzzled my
+client not a little. Was this cherished scheme a whim or a joke to be
+lightly cast aside? Mr. Cooke thought not. The determination which
+distinguished him still sat in his eye as he bustled about giving orders
+for the breaking of camp. This refractory criminal must be saved from
+himself, cost what it might, and responsibility again rested heavy on my
+client's mind as I rowed him out to the Maria.
+
+"Crocker," he said, "if Allen is scooped in spite of us, you have got to
+go East and make him out an idiot."
+
+He seemed to think that I had a talent for this particular defence. I
+replied that I would do my best.
+
+"It won't be difficult," he went on; "not near as tough as that case you
+won for me. You can bring in all the bosh about his claiming to be an
+author, you know. And I'll stand expenses."
+
+This was downright generous of Mr. Cooke. We have all, no doubt, drawn
+our line between what is right and what is wrong, but I have often
+wondered how many of us with the world's indorsement across our backs
+trespass as little on the other side of the line as he.
+
+After Farrar and the Four got aboard it fell to my lot to row the rest of
+the party to the yacht. And this was no slight task that morning. The
+tender was small, holding but two beside the man at the oars, and owing
+to the rocks and shallow water of which I have spoken, the Maria lay
+considerably over a quarter of a mile out. Hence each trip occupied some
+time. Mr. Cooke I had transferred with a load of canvas and the tent
+poles, and next I returned for Mrs. Cooke and Mr. Trevor, whom I
+deposited safely. Then I landed again, helped in Miss Trevor and Miss
+Thorn, leaving the Celebrity for the last, and was pulling for the yacht
+when a cry from the tender's stern arrested me.
+
+"Mr. Crocker, they are sailing away without us!"
+
+I turned in my seat. The Maria's mainsail was up, and the jib was being
+hoisted, and her head was rapidly falling off to the wind. Farrar was
+casting. In the stern, waving a handkerchief, I recognized Mrs. Cooke,
+and beside her a figure in black, gesticulating frantically, a vision of
+coat-tails flapping in the breeze. Then the yacht heeled on her course
+and forged lakewards.
+
+"Row, Mr. Crocker, row! they are leaving us!" cried Miss Trevor, in
+alarm.
+
+I hastened to reassure her.
+
+"Farrar is probably trying something," I said. "They will be turning
+presently."
+
+This is just what they did not do. Once out of the inlet, they went
+about and headed northward, up the coast, and we remained watching them
+until Mr. Trevor became a mere oscillating black speck against the sail.
+
+"What can it mean?" asked Miss Thorn.
+
+I had not so much as an idea.
+
+"They certainly won't desert us, at any rate," I said. "We had better
+go ashore again and wait."
+
+The Celebrity was seated on the beach, and he was whittling. Now
+whittling is an occupation which speaks of a contented frame of mind, and
+the Maria's departure did not seem to have annoyed or disturbed him.
+
+"Castaways," says he, gayly, "castaways on a foreign shore. Two
+delightful young ladies, a bright young lawyer, a fugitive from justice,
+no chaperon, and nothing to eat. And what a situation for a short story,
+if only an author were permitted to make use of his own experiences!"
+
+"Only you don't know how it will end," Miss Thorn put in.
+
+The Celebrity glanced up at her.
+
+"I have a guess," said he, with a smile.
+
+"Is it true," Miss Trevor asked, "that a story must contain the element
+of love in order to find favor with the public?"
+
+"That generally recommends it, especially to your sex, Miss Trevor," he
+replied jocosely.
+
+Miss Trevor appeared interested.
+
+"And tell me," she went on, "isn't it sometimes the case that you start
+out intent on one ending, and that your artistic sense of what is fitting
+demands another?"
+
+"Don't be silly, Irene," said Miss Thorn. She was skipping flat pebbles
+over the water, and doing it capitally, too.
+
+I thought the Celebrity rather resented the question.
+
+"That sometimes happens, of course," said he, carelessly. He produced
+his inevitable gold cigarette case and held it out to me. "Be sociable
+for once, and have one," he said.
+
+I accepted.
+
+"Do you know," he continued, lighting me a match, "it beats me why you
+and Miss Trevor put this thing up on me. You have enjoyed it, naturally,
+and if you wanted to make me out a donkey you succeeded rather well. I
+used to think that Crocker was a pretty good friend of mine when I went
+to his dinners in New York. And I once had every reason to believe," he
+added, "that Miss Trevor and I were on excellent terms."
+
+Was this audacity or stupidity? Undoubtedly both.
+
+"So we were," answered Miss Trevor, "and I should be very sorry to think,
+Mr. Allen," she said meaningly, "that our relations had in any way
+changed."
+
+It was the Celebrity's turn to flush.
+
+"At any rate," he remarked in his most offhand manner, "I am much
+obliged to you both. On sober reflection I have come to believe that you
+did the very best thing for my reputation."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+He had scarcely uttered these words before the reason for the Maria's
+abrupt departure became apparent. The anchorage of the yacht had been at
+a spot whence nearly the whole south of the lake towards Far Harbor was
+open, whilst a high tongue of land hid that part from us on the shore.
+As he spoke, there shot before our eyes a steaming tug-boat, and a second
+look was not needed to assure me that she was the "H. Sinclair, of Far
+Harbor." They had perceived her from the yacht an hour since, and it was
+clear that my client, prompt to act as to think, had decided at once to
+put out and lead her a blind chase, so giving the Celebrity a chance to
+make good his escape.
+
+The surprise and apprehension created amongst us by her sudden appearance
+was such that none of us, for a space, spoke or moved. She was about a
+mile off shore, but it was even whether the chief would decide that his
+quarry had been left behind in the inlet and turn in, or whether he would
+push ahead after the yacht. He gave us an abominable five minutes of
+uncertainty. For when he came opposite the cove he slowed up, apparently
+weighing his chances. It was fortunate that we were hidden from his
+glasses by a copse of pines. The Sinclair increased her speed and pushed
+northward after the Maria. I turned to the Celebrity.
+
+"If you wish to escape, now is your chance," I said.
+
+For contrariness he was more than I have ever had to deal with. Now he
+crossed his knees and laughed.
+
+"It strikes me you had better escape, Crocker," said he. "You have more
+to run for."
+
+I looked across at Miss Thorn. She had told him, then, of my
+predicament. And she did not meet my eye. He began to whittle again,
+and remarked:
+
+"It is only seventeen miles or so across these hills to Far Harbor, old
+chap, and you can get a train there for Asquith."
+
+"Just as you choose," said I, shortly.
+
+With that I started off to gain the top of the promontory in order to
+watch the chase. I knew that this could not last as long as that of the
+day before. In less than three hours we might expect the Maria and the
+tug in the cove. And, to be frank, the indisposition of the Celebrity to
+run troubled me. Had he come to the conclusion that it was just as well
+to submit to what seemed the inevitable and so enjoy the spice of revenge
+over me? My thoughts gave zest to my actions, and I was climbing the
+steep, pine-clad slope with rapidity when I heard Miss Trevor below me
+calling out to wait for her. At the point of our ascent the ridge of the
+tongue must have been four hundred feet above the level of the water, and
+from this place of vantage we could easily make out the Maria in the
+distance, and note from time to time the gain of the Sinclair.
+
+"It wasn't fair of me, I know, to leave Marian," said Miss Trevor,
+apologetically, "but I simply couldn't resist the temptation to come up
+here."
+
+"I hardly think she will bear you much ill will," I answered dryly; "you
+did the kindest thing possible. Who knows but what they are considering
+the advisability of an elopement!"
+
+We passed a most enjoyable morning up there, all things taken into
+account, for the day was too perfect for worries. We even laughed at our
+hunger, which became keen about noon, as is always the case when one has
+nothing to eat; so we set out to explore the ridge for blackberries.
+These were so plentiful that I gathered a hatful for our friends below,
+and then I lingered for a last look at the boats. I could make out but
+one. Was it the yacht? No; for there was a trace of smoke over it. And
+yet I was sure of a mast. I put my hand over my eyes.
+
+"What is it?" asked Miss Trevor, anxiously.
+
+"The tug has the Maria in tow," I said, "and they are coming this way."
+
+We scrambled down, sobered by this discovery and thinking of little else.
+And breaking through the bushes we came upon Miss Thorn and the
+Celebrity. To me, preoccupied with the knowledge that the tug would soon
+be upon us, there seemed nothing strange in the attitude of these two,
+but Miss Trevor remarked something out of the common at once. How keenly
+a woman scents a situation.
+
+The Celebrity was standing with his back to Miss Thorn, at the edge of
+the water. His chin was in the air, and to a casual observer he looked
+to be minutely interested in a flock of gulls passing over us. And Miss
+Thorn? She was enthroned upon a heap of drift-wood, and when I caught
+sight of her face I forgot the very existence of the police captain. Her
+lips were parted in a smile.
+
+"You are just in time, Irene," she said calmly; "Mr. Allen has asked me
+to be his wife."
+
+I stood, with the hatful of berries in my hand, like a stiff wax figure
+in a museum. The expected had come at last; and how little do we expect
+the expected when it comes! I was aware that both the young women were
+looking at me, and that both were quietly laughing. And I must have cut
+a ridiculous figure indeed, though I have since been informed on good
+authority that this was not so. Much I cared then what happened. Then
+came Miss Trevor's reply, and it seemed to shake the very foundations of
+my wits.
+
+"But, Marian," said she, "you can't have him. He is engaged to me. And
+if it's quite the same to you, I want him myself. It isn't often, you
+know, that one has the opportunity to marry a Celebrity."
+
+The Celebrity turned around: an expression of extraordinary intelligence
+shot across his face, and I knew then that the hole in the well-nigh
+invulnerable armor of his conceit had been found at last. And Miss
+Thorn, of all people, had discovered it.
+
+"Engaged to you?" she cried, "I can't believe it. He would be untrue
+to everything he has written."
+
+"My word should be sufficient," said Miss Trevor, stiffly. (May I be
+hung if they hadn't acted it all out before.) "If you should wish proofs,
+however, I have several notes from him which are at your service, and an
+inscribed photograph. No, Marian," she added, shaking her head, "I
+really cannot give him up."
+
+Miss Thorn rose and confronted him, and her dignity was inspiring.
+"Is this so?" she demanded; "is it true that you are engaged to marry
+Miss Trevor?"
+
+The Bone of Contention was badly troubled. He had undoubtedly known what
+it was to have two women quarrelling over his hand at the same time, but
+I am willing to bet that the sensation of having them come together in
+his presence was new to him.
+
+"I did not think--" he began. "I was not aware that Miss Trevor looked
+upon the matter in that light, and you know--"
+
+"What disgusting equivocation," Miss Trevor interrupted. "He asked me
+point blank to marry him, and of course I consented. He has never
+mentioned to me that he wished to break the engagement, and I wouldn't
+have broken it."
+
+I felt like a newsboy in a gallery,--I wanted to cheer. And the
+Celebrity kicked the stones and things.
+
+"Who would have thought," she persisted, "that the author of The
+Sybarites, the man who chose Desmond for a hero, could play thus idly
+with the heart of woman? The man who wrote these beautiful lines:
+'Inconstancy in a woman, because of the present social conditions, is
+sometimes pardonable. In a man, nothing is more despicable.' And how
+poetic a justice it is that he has to marry me, and is thus forced to
+lead the life of self-denial he has conceived for his hero. Mr. Crocker,
+will you be my attorney if he should offer any objections?"
+
+The humor of this proved too much for the three of us, and Miss Trevor
+herself went into peals of laughter. Would that the Celebrity could have
+seen his own face. I doubt if even he could have described it. But I
+wished for his sake that the earth might have kindly opened and taken him
+in.
+
+"Marian," said Miss Trevor, "I am going to be very generous.
+I relinquish the prize to you, and to you only. And I flatter myself
+there are not many girls in this world who would do it."
+
+"Thank you, Irene," Miss Thorn replied gravely, "much as I want him,
+I could not think of depriving you."
+
+Well, there is a limit to all endurance, and the Celebrity had reached
+his.
+
+"Crocker," he said, "how far is it to the Canadian Pacific?"
+
+I told him.
+
+"I think I had best be starting," said he.
+
+And a moment later he had disappeared into the woods.
+
+We stood gazing in the direction he had taken, until the sound of his
+progress had died away. The shock of it all had considerably muddled my
+brain, and when at last I had adjusted my thoughts to the new conditions,
+a sensation of relief, of happiness, of joy (call it what you will), came
+upon me, and I could scarce restrain an impulse to toss my hat in the
+air. He was gone at last! But that was not the reason. I was safe from
+O'Meara and calumny. Nor was this all. And I did not dare to look at
+Miss Thorn. The knowledge that she had planned and carried out with
+dignity and success such a campaign filled me with awe. That I had
+misjudged her made me despise myself. Then I became aware that she was
+speaking to me, and I turned.
+
+"Mr. Crocker, do you think there is any danger that he will lose
+his way?"
+
+"No, Miss Thorn," I replied; "he has only to get to the top of that ridge
+and strike the road for Saville, as I told him."
+
+We were silent again until Miss Trevor remarked:
+
+"Well, he deserved every bit of it."
+
+"And more, Irene," said Miss Thorn, laughing; "he deserved to marry
+you."
+
+"I think he won't come West again for a very long time," said I.
+
+Miss Trevor regarded me wickedly, and I knew what was coming.
+
+"I hope you are convinced, now, Mr. Crocker, that our sex is not as black
+as you painted it: that Miss Thorn knew what she was about, and that she
+is not the inconsistent and variable creature you took her to be."
+
+I felt the blood rush to my face, and Miss Thorn, too, became scarlet.
+She went up to the mischievous Irene and grasping her arms from behind,
+bent them until she cried for mercy.
+
+"How strong you are, Marian! It is an outrage to hurt me so. I haven't
+said anything." But she was incorrigible, and when she had twisted free
+she began again:
+
+"I took it upon myself to speak a few parables to Mr. Crocker the other
+day. You know, Marian, that he is one of these level-headed old fogies
+who think women ought to be kept in a menagerie, behind bars, to be
+inspected on Saturday afternoons. Now, I appeal to you if it wouldn't be
+disastrous to fall in love with a man of such ideas. And just to let you
+know what a literal old law-brief he is, when I said he had had a hat-pin
+sticking in him for several weeks, he nearly jumped overboard, and began
+to feel himself all over. Did you know that he actually believed you
+were doing your best to get married to the Celebrity?" (Here she dodged
+Miss Thorn again.) "Oh, yes, he confided in me. He used to worry himself
+ill over that. I'll tell you what he said to me only--"
+
+But fortunately at this juncture Miss Trevor was captured again, and Miss
+Thorn put her hand over her mouth. Heaven only knows what she would have
+said!
+
+The two boats did not arrive until nearly four o'clock, owing to some
+trouble to the tug's propeller. Not knowing what excuse my client might
+have given for leaving some of his party ashore, I thought it best to go
+out to meet them. Seated on the cabin roof of the Maria I beheld Mr.
+Cooke and McCann in conversation, each with a black cigar too big for
+him.
+
+"Hello, Crocker, old man," shouted my client, "did you think I was never
+coming back? I've had lots of sport out of this hayseed captain" (and he
+poked that official playfully), "but I didn't get any grub. So we'll
+have to go to Far Harbor."
+
+I caught the hint. Mr. Cooke had given out that he had started for
+Saville to restock the larder.
+
+"No," he continued, "Brass Buttons didn't let me get to Saville. You
+see, when he got back to town last night they told him he had been
+buncoed out of the biggest thing for years, and they got it into his head
+that I was child enough to run a ferry for criminals. They told him he
+wasn't the sleuth he thought he was, so he came back. They'll have the
+laugh on him now, for sure."
+
+McCann listened with admirable good-nature, gravely pulling at his cigar,
+and eyeing Mr. Cooke with a friendly air of admiration.
+
+"Mr. Crocker," he said, with melancholy humor, "it's leery I am with the
+whole shooting-match. Mr. Cooke here is a gentleman, every inch of him,
+and so be you, Mr. Crocker. But I'm just after taking a look at the hole
+in the bottom of the boat. 'Ye have yer bunks in queer places, Mr.
+Cooke,' says I. It's not for me to be doubting a gentleman's word, sir,
+but I'm thinking me man is over the hills and far away, and that's true
+for ye."
+
+Mr. Cooke winked expressively.
+
+"McCann, you've been jerked," said he. "Have another bottle!"
+
+The Sinclair towed us to Far Harbor for a consideration, the wind being
+strong again from the south, and McCann was induced by the affable owner
+to remain on the yellow-plush yacht. I cornered him before we had gone a
+great distance.
+
+"McCann," said I, "what made you come back to-day?"
+
+"Faith, Mr. Crocker, I don't care if I am telling you. I always had a
+liking for you, sir, and bechune you and me it was that divil O'Meara
+what made all the trouble. I wasn't taking his money, not me; the saints
+forbid! But glory be to God, if he didn't raise a rumpus whin I come
+back without Allen! It was sure he was that the gent left that place,
+--what are ye calling it?--Mohair, in the Maria, and we telegraphs over to
+Asquith. He swore I'd lose me job if I didn't fetch him to-day. Mr.
+Crocker, sir, it's the lumber business I'll be startin' next week," said
+McCann.
+
+"Don't let that worry you, McCann," I answered. "I will see that you
+don't lose your place, and I give you my word again that Charles Wrexell
+Allen has never been aboard this yacht, or at Mohair to my knowledge.
+What is more, I will prove it to-morrow to your satisfaction."
+
+McCann's faith was touching.
+
+"Ye're not to say another word, sir," he said, and he stuck out his big
+hand, which I grasped warmly.
+
+My affection for McCann still remains a strong one.
+
+After my talk with McCann I was sitting on the forecastle propped against
+the bitts of the Maria's anchor-chain, and looking at the swirling foam
+cast up by the tug's propeller. There were many things I wished to turn
+over in my mind just then, but I had not long been in a state of reverie
+when I became conscious that Miss Thorn was standing beside me. I got to
+my feet.
+
+"I have been wondering how long you would remain in that trance, Mr.
+Crocker," she said. "Is it too much to ask what you were thinking of?"
+
+Now it so chanced that I was thinking of her at that moment. It would
+never have done to say this, so I stammered. And Miss Thorn was a young
+woman of tact.
+
+"I should not have put that to so literal a man as you," she declared.
+"I fear that you are incapable of crossing swords. And then," she added,
+with a slight hesitation that puzzled me, "I did not come up here to ask
+you that,--I came to get your opinion."
+
+"My opinion?" I repeated.
+
+"Not your legal opinion," she replied, smiling, "but your opinion as a
+citizen, as an individual, if you have one. To be frank, I want your
+opinion of me. Do you happen to have such a thing?"
+
+I had. But I was in no condition to give it.
+
+"Do you think me a very wicked girl?" she asked, coloring. "You once
+thought me inconsistent, I believe, but I am not that. Have I done wrong
+in leading the Celebrity to the point where you saw him this morning?"
+
+"Heaven forbid!" I cried fervently; "but you might have spared me a
+great deal had you let me into the secret."
+
+"Spared you a great deal," said Miss Thorn. "I--I don't quite
+understand."
+
+"Well--" I began, and there I stayed. All the words in the dictionary
+seemed to slip out of my grasp, and I foundered. I realized I had said
+something which even in my wildest moments I had not dared to think of.
+My secret was out before I knew I possessed it. Bad enough had I told it
+to Farrar in an unguarded second. But to her! I was blindly seeking
+some way of escape when she said softly:
+
+"Did you really care?"
+
+I am man enough, I hope, when there is need to be. And it matters not
+what I felt then, but the words came back to me.
+
+"Marian," I said, "I cared more than you will ever learn."
+
+But it seems that she had known all the time, almost since that night I
+had met her at the train. And how? I shall not pretend to answer, that
+being quite beyond me. I am very sure of one thing, however, which is
+that I never told a soul, man or woman, or even hinted at it. How was it
+possible when I didn't know myself?
+
+The light in the west was gone as we were pulled into Far Harbor, and the
+lamps of the little town twinkled brighter than I had ever seen them
+before. I think they must have been reflected in our faces, since Miss
+Trevor, when she came forward to look for us, saw something there and
+openly congratulated us. And this most embarrassing young woman demanded
+presently:
+
+"How did it happen, Marian? Did you propose to him?"
+
+I was about to protest indignantly, but Marian laid her hand on my arm.
+
+"Tell it not in Asquith," said she. "Irene, I won't have him teased any
+more."
+
+We were drawing up to the dock, and for the first time I saw that a crowd
+was gathered there. The report of this chase had gone abroad. Some
+began calling out to McCann when we came within distance, among others
+the editor of the Northern Lights, and beside him I perceived with
+amusement the generous lines: of the person of Mr. O'Meara himself.
+I hurried back to give Farrar a hand with the ropes, and it was O'Meara
+who caught the one I flung ashore and wound it around a pile. The people
+pressed around, peering at our party on the Maria, and I heard McCann
+exhorting them to make way. And just then, as he was about to cross the
+plank, they parted for some one from behind. A breathless messenger
+halted at the edge of the wharf. He held out a telegram.
+
+McCann seized it and dived into the cabin, followed closely by my client
+and those of us who could push after. He tore open the envelope, his eye
+ran over the lines, and then he began to slap his thigh and turn around
+in a circle, like a man dazed.
+
+"Whiskey!" shouted Mr. Cooke. "Get him a glass of Scotch!"
+
+But McCann held up his hand.
+
+"Holy Saint Patrick!" he said, in a husky voice, "it's upset I am,
+bottom upwards. Will ye listen to this?"
+
+   "'Drew is your man. Reddish hair and long side whiskers, gray
+   clothes. Pretends to represent summer hotel syndicate. Allen at
+   Asquith unknown and harmless.
+
+   "' (Signed.)  Everhardt."'
+
+"Sew me up," said Mr. Cooke; "if that don't beat hell!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+In this world of lies the good and the bad are so closely intermingled
+that frequently one is the means of obtaining the other. Therefore, I
+wish very freely to express my obligations to the Celebrity for any share
+he may have had in contributing to the greatest happiness of my life.
+
+Marian and I were married the very next month, October, at my client's
+palatial residence of Mohair. This was at Mr. Cooke's earnest wish: and
+since Marian was Mrs. Cooke's own niece, and an orphan, there seemed no
+good reason why my client should not be humored in the matter. As for
+Marian and me, we did not much care whether we were married at Mohair or
+the City of Mexico. Mrs. Cooke, I think, had a secret preference for
+Germantown.
+
+Mr. Cooke quite over-reached himself in that wedding. "The knot was
+tied," as the papers expressed it, "under a huge bell of yellow roses."
+The paper also named the figure which the flowers and the collation and
+other things cost Mr. Cooke. A natural reticence forbids me to repeat
+it. But, lest my client should think that I undervalue his kindness,
+I will say that we had the grandest wedding ever seen in that part of the
+world. McCann was there, and Mr. Cooke saw to it that he had a punchbowl
+all to himself in which to drink our healths: Judge Short was there,
+still followed by the conjugal eye: and Senator Trevor, who remained
+over, in a new long black coat to kiss the bride. Mr. Cooke chartered
+two cars to carry guests from the East, besides those who came as
+ordinary citizens. Miss Trevor was of the party, and Farrar, of course,
+was best man. Would that I had the flow of words possessed by the
+reporter of the Chicago Sunday newspaper!
+
+But there is one thing I must mention before Mrs. Crocker and I leave for
+New York, in a shower of rice, on Mr. Cooke's own private car, and that
+is my client's gift. In addition to the check he gave Marian, he
+presented us with a huge, 'repousse' silver urn he had had made to order,
+and he expressed a desire that the design upon it should remind us of him
+forever and ever. I think it will. Mercury is duly set forth in a
+gorgeous equipage, driving four horses around the world at a furious
+pace; and the artist, by special instructions, had docked their tails.
+
+From New York, Mrs. Crocker and I went abroad. And it so chanced, in
+December, that we were staying a few days at a country-place in Sussex,
+and the subject of The Sybarites was broached at a dinner-party. The
+book was then having its sale in England.
+
+"Crocker," said our host, "do you happen to have met the author of that
+book? He's an American."
+
+I looked across the table at my wife, and we both laughed.
+
+"I happen to know him intimately," I replied.
+
+"Do you, now?" said the Englishman; "what a very entertaining chap he is,
+is he not? I had him down in October, and, by Jove, we were laughing the
+blessed time. He was telling us how he wrote his novels, and he said,
+'pon my soul he did, that he had a secretary or something of that sort to
+whom he told the plot, and the secretary elaborated, you know, and wrote
+the draft. And he said, 'pon my honor, that sometimes the clark wrote
+the plot and all,--the whole blessed thing,--and that he never saw the
+book except to sign his name to it."
+
+"You say he was here in October?" asked Marian, when the laugh had
+subsided.
+
+"I have the date," answered our host, "for he left me an autograph copy
+of The Sybarites when he went away." And after dinner he showed us the
+book, with evident pride. Inscribed on the fly-leaf was the name of the
+author, October 10th. But a glance sufficed to convince both of us that
+the Celebrity had never written it.
+
+"John," said Marian to me, a suspicion of the truth crossing her mind,
+"John, can it be the bicycle man?"
+
+"Yes, it can be," I said; "it is."
+
+"Well," said Marian, "he's been doing a little more for our friend than
+we did."
+
+Nor was this the last we heard of that meteoric trip through England,
+which the alleged author of The Sybarites had indulged in. He did not go
+up to London; not he. It was given out that he was travelling for his
+health, that he did not wish to be lionized; and there were friends of
+the author in the metropolis who had never heard of his secretary, and
+who were at a loss to understand his conduct. They felt slighted. One
+of these told me that the Celebrity had been to a Lincolnshire estate
+where he had created a decided sensation by his riding to hounds,
+something the Celebrity had never been known to do. And before we
+crossed the Channel, Marian saw another autograph copy of the famous
+novel.
+
+One day, some months afterwards, we were sitting in our little salon in a
+Paris hotel when a card was sent up, which Marian took.
+
+"John," she cried, "it's the Celebrity."
+
+It was the Celebrity, in the flesh, faultlessly groomed and clothed, with
+frock coat, gloves, and stick. He looked the picture of ruddy, manly
+health and strength, and we saw at once that he bore no ill-will for the
+past. He congratulated us warmly, and it was my turn to offer him a
+cigarette. He was nothing loath to reminisce on the subject of his
+experiences in the wilds of the northern lakes, or even to laugh over
+them. He asked affectionately after his friend Cooke. Time had softened
+his feelings, and we learned that he had another girl, who was in Paris
+just then, and invited us on the spot to dine with her at "Joseph's."
+Let me say, in passing, that as usual she did credit to the Celebrity's
+exceptional taste.
+
+"Now," said he, "I have something to tell you two."
+
+He asked for another cigarette, and I laid the box beside him.
+
+"I suppose you reached Saville all right," I said, anticipating.
+
+"Seven at night," said he, "and so hungry that I ate what they call
+marble cake for supper, and a great many other things out of little side
+dishes, and nearly died of indigestion afterward. Then I took a train up
+to the main line. An express came along. 'Why not go West?' I asked
+myself, and I jumped aboard. It was another whim--you know I am subject
+to them. When I got to Victoria I wired for money and sailed to Japan;
+and then I went on to India and through the Suez, taking things easy. I
+fell in with some people I knew who were going where the spirit moved
+them, and I went along.
+
+"Algiers, for one place, and whom do you think I saw there, in the lobby
+of a hotel?"
+
+"Charles Wrexell Allen," cried Marian and I together.
+
+The Celebrity looked surprised. "How did you know?" he demanded.
+
+"Go on with your story," said Marian; "what did he do?"
+
+"What did he do?" said the Celebrity; "why, the blackguard stepped up
+and shook me by the hand, and asked after my health, and wanted to know
+whether I were married yet. He was so beastly familiar that I took out
+my glass, and I got him into a cafe for fear some one would see me with
+him. 'My dear fellow,' said he, 'you did me the turn of my life.--How
+can I ever repay you?' 'Hang your impudence,' said I, but I wanted to
+hear what he had to say. 'Don't lose your temper, old chap,' he laughed;
+'you took a few liberties with my name, and there was no good reason why
+I shouldn't take some with yours. Was there? When I think of it, the
+thing was most decidedly convenient; it was the hand of Providence.'
+'You took liberties with my name,' I cried. With that he coolly called
+to the waiter to fill our glasses. 'Now,' said he, 'I've got a story for
+you. Do you remember the cotillon, or whatever it was, that Cooke gave?
+Well, that was all in the Chicago papers, and the "Miles Standish" agent
+there saw it, and he knew pretty well that I wasn't West. So he sent me
+the papers, just for fun. You may imagine my surprise when I read that
+I had been leading a dance out at Mohair, or some such barbarous place in
+the northwest. I looked it up on the map (Asquith, I mean), and then I
+began to think. I wondered who in the devil it might be who had taken my
+name and occupation, and all that. You see, I had just relieved the
+company of a little money, and it hit me like a clap of thunder one day
+that the idiot was you. But I couldn't be sure. And as long as I had to
+get out very soon anyway, I concluded to go to Mohair and make certain,
+and then pile things off on you if you happened to be the man.'"
+
+At this point Marian and I were seized with laughter, in which the
+Celebrity himself joined. Presently he continued:
+
+"'So I went,' said Allen. 'I provided myself with two disguises, as a
+careful man should, but by the time I reached that outlandish hole,
+Asquith, the little thing I was mixed up in burst prematurely, and the
+papers were full of it that morning. The whole place was out with
+sticks, so to speak, hunting for you. They told me the published
+description hit you to a dot, all except the scar, and they quarrelled
+about that. I posed as the promoter of resort syndicates, and I hired
+the Scimitar and sailed over to Bear Island; and I didn't have a bad time
+that afternoon, only Cooke insisted on making remarks about my whiskers,
+and I was in mortal fear lest he might accidentally pull one off. He
+came cursed near it. By the way, he's the very deuce of a man, isn't he?
+I knew he took me for a detective, so I played the part. And in the
+night that ass of a state senator nearly gave me pneumonia by getting me
+out in the air to tell me they had hid you in a cave. So I sat up all
+night, and followed the relief party in the morning, and you nearly
+disfigured me for life when you threw that bottle into the woods. Then
+I went back to camp, and left so fast that I forgot my extra pair of red
+whiskers. I had two of each disguise, you know, so I didn't miss them.
+
+"'I guess,' Mr. Allen went on, gleefully, 'that I got off about as
+cleanly as any criminal ever did, thanks to you. If we'd fixed the thing
+up between us it couldn't have been any neater, could it? Because I went
+straight to Far Harbor and got you into a peck of trouble, right away,
+and then slipped quietly into Canada, and put on the outfit of a
+travelling salesman. And right here another bright idea struck me. Why
+not carry the thing farther? I knew that you had advertised a trip to
+Europe (why, the Lord only knows), so I went East and sailed for England
+on the Canadian Line. And let me thank you for a little sport I had in a
+quiet way as the author of The Sybarites. I think I astonished some of
+your friends, old boy.'"
+
+The Celebrity lighted another cigarette.
+
+"So if it hadn't been for me," he said, "the 'Miles Standish Bicycle
+Company' wouldn't have gone to the wall. Can they sentence me for
+assisting Allen to get away, Crocker? If they can, I believe I shall
+stay over here."
+
+"I think you are safe," said I. "But didn't Allen tell you any more?"
+
+"No. A man he used to know came into the cafe, and Allen got out of the
+back door. And I never saw him again."
+
+"I believe I can tell you a little more," said Marian.
+
+          ......................
+
+The Celebrity is still writing books of a high moral tone and
+unapproachable principle, and his popularity is undiminished. I have not
+heard, however, that he has given way to any more whims.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Celebrity, Volume 4, by Winston Churchill
+
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+The Project Gutenberg Ebook The Celebrity, v4, by Winston Churchill
+WC#49 in our series by Winston Churchill (USA author, not Sir Winston)
+
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+*****These EBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers*****
+
+
+Title: The Celebrity, Volume 4.
+
+Author: Winston Churchill (USA author, not Sir Winston Churchill)
+
+Release Date: March, 2004  [EBook #5386]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on June 28, 2002]
+
+Edition: 10
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+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
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+
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CELEBRITY, V4, BY CHURCHILL ***
+
+
+
+This eBook was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net>
+
+
+
+[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the
+file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an
+entire meal of them.  D.W.]
+
+
+
+
+
+THE CELEBRITY
+
+By Winston Churchill
+
+
+
+VOLUME 4.
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+I am convinced that Mr. Cooke possessed at least some of the qualities of
+a great general.  In certain campaigns of past centuries, and even of
+this, it has been hero-worship that impelled the rank and file rather
+than any high sympathy with the cause they were striving for.  And so it
+was with us that morning.  Our commander was everywhere at once,
+encouraging us to work, and holding over us in impressive language the
+awful alternative of capture.  For he had the art, in a high degree, of
+inoculating his followers with the spirit which animated him; and
+shortly, to my great surprise, I found myself working as though my life
+depended on it.  I certainly did not care very much whether the Celebrity
+was captured or not, and yet, with the prospect of getting him over the
+border, I had not thought of breakfast.  Farrar had a natural inclination
+for work of this sort, but even he was infused somewhat with the
+contagious haste and enthusiasm which filled the air; and together we
+folded the tents with astonishing despatch and rowed them out to the
+Maria, Mr. Cooke having gone to his knees in the water to shove the boat
+off.
+
+"What are we doing this for?"  said Farrar to me, as we hoisted the sail.
+
+We both laughed.
+
+"I have just been asking myself that question," I replied.
+
+"You are a nice district attorney, Crocker," he said.  "You have made a
+most proper and equitable decision in giving your consent to Allen's
+escape.  Doesn't your conscience smart?"
+
+"Not unbearably.  I'll tell you what, Farrar," said I, "the truth is,
+that this fellow never embezzled so much as a ten-cent piece.  He isn't
+guilty: he isn't the man."
+
+"Isn't the man?"  repeated Farrar.
+
+"No," I answered; "it's a long tale, and no time to tell it now.  But he
+is really, as he claims to be, the author of all those detestable books
+we have been hearing so much of."
+
+"The deuce he is!" exclaimed Farrar, dropping the stopper he was tying.
+"Did he write The Sybarites?"
+
+"Yes, sir; he wrote The Sybarites, and all the rest of that trash."
+
+"He's the fellow that maintains a man ought to marry a girl after he has
+become engaged to her."
+
+"Exactly," I said, smiling at his way of putting it.
+
+"Preaches constancy to all men, but doesn't object to stealing."
+
+I laughed.
+
+"You're badly mixed," I explained.  "I told you he never stole anything.
+He was only ass enough to take the man's name who is the living image of
+him.  And the other man took the bonds."
+
+"Oh, come now," said he, "tell me something improbable while you are
+about it."
+
+"It's true," I replied, repressing my mirth; "true as the tale of
+Timothy.  I knew him when he was a mere boy.  But I don't give you that
+as a proof, for he might have become all things to all men since.  Ask
+Miss Trevor; or Miss Thorn; she knows the other man, the bicycle man, and
+has seen them both together."
+
+"Where, in India?  Was one standing on the ground looking at his double
+go to heaven?  Or was it at one of those drawing-room shows where a
+medium holds conversation with your soul, while your body sleeps on the
+lounge?  By George, Crocker, I thought you were a sensible man."
+
+No wonder I got angry.  But I might have come at some proper estimation
+of Farrar's incredulity by that time.
+
+"I suppose you wouldn't take a lady's word," I growled.
+
+"Not for that," he said, busy again with the sail stops; "nor St.
+Chrysostom's, were he to come here and vouch for it.  It is too damned
+improbable."
+
+"Stranger things than that have happened," I retorted, fuming.
+
+"Not to any of us," he said.  Presently he added, chuckling: "He'd better
+not get into the clutches of that man Drew."
+
+"What do you mean?" I demanded.  Farrar was exasperating at times.
+
+"Drew will wind those handcuffs on him like tourniquets," he laughed.
+
+There seemed to be something behind this remark, but before I could
+inquire into it we were interrupted by Mr. Cooke, who was standing on
+the beach, swearing and gesticulating for the boat.
+
+"I trust," said Farrar, as we rowed ashore, "that this blind excitement
+will continue, and that we shall have the extreme pleasure of setting
+down our friend in Her Majesty's dominions with a yachting-suit and
+a ham sandwich."
+
+We sat down to a hasty breakfast, in the middle of which the Celebrity
+arrived.  His appearance was unexceptionable, but his heavy jaw was set
+in a manner which should have warned Mr. Cooke not to trifle with him.
+
+"Sit down, old man, and take a bite before we start for Canada," said my
+client.
+
+The Celebrity walked up to him.
+
+"Mr. Cooke," he began in a menacing tone, "it is high time this nonsense
+was ended.  I am tired of being made a buffoon of for your party.  For
+your gratification I have spent a sleepless night in those cold, damp
+woods; and I warn you that practical joking can be carried too far.  I
+will not go to Canada, and I insist that you sail me back to Asquith."
+
+Mr. Cooke winked significantly in our direction and tapped his head.
+
+"I don't wonder you're a little upset, old man," he said, humoringly
+patting him; "but sit down for a bite of something, and you'll see things
+differently."
+
+"I've had my breakfast," he said, taking out a cigarette.
+
+Then Mr. Trevor got up.
+
+"He demands, sir, to be delivered over to the authorities," said he, "and
+you have no right to refuse him.  I protest strongly."
+
+"And you can protest all you damn please," retorted my client; "this
+isn't the Ohio State Senate.  Do you know where I would put you, Mr.
+Trevor?  Do you know where you ought to be?  In a hencoop, sir, if I had
+one here.  In a hen-coop.  What would you do if a man who had gone a
+little out of his mind asked you for a gun to shoot himself with?  Give
+it him, I suppose.  But I put Mr. Allen ashore in Canada, with the funds
+to get off with, and then my duty's done."
+
+This speech, as Mr. Cooke had no doubt confidently hoped, threw the
+senator into a frenzy of wrath.
+
+"The day will come, sir," he shouted, shaking his fist at my client, "the
+day will come when you will rue this bitterly."
+
+"Don't get off any of your oratorical frills on me," replied Mr. Cooke,
+contemptuously; "you ought to be tied and muzzled."
+
+Mr. Trevor was white with anger.
+
+"I, for one, will not go to Canada," he cried.
+
+"You'll stay here and starve, then," said Mr. Cooke; "damned little I
+care."
+
+Mr. Trevor turned to Farrar, who was biting his lip.
+
+"Mr. Farrar, I know you to be a rising young man of sound principles, and
+Mr. Crocker likewise.  You are the only ones who can sail.  Have you
+reflected that you are about to ruin your careers?"
+
+"We are prepared to take the chances, I think," said Farrar.
+
+Mr. Cooke looked us over, proudly and gratefully, as much as to say that
+while he lived we should not lack the necessities of life.
+
+At nine we embarked, the Celebrity and Mr. Trevor for the same reason
+that the animals took to the ark,--because they had to.  There was a
+spanking breeze in the west-northwest, and a clear sky, a day of days for
+a sail.  Mr. Cooke produced a map, which Farrar and I consulted, and
+without much trouble we hit upon a quiet place to land on the Canadian
+side.  Our course was north-northwest, and therefore the wind enabled us
+to hold it without much trouble.  Bear Island is situated some eighteen
+miles from shore, and about equidistant between Asquith and Far Harbor,
+which latter we had to pass on our way northward.
+
+Although a brisk sea was on, the wind had been steady from that quarter
+all night, and the motion was uniform.  The Maria was an excellent sea-
+boat.  There was no indication, therefore, of the return of that malady
+which had been so prevalent on the passage to Bear Island.  Mr. Cooke had
+never felt better, and looked every inch a sea-captain in his natty
+yachting-suit.  He had acquired a tan on the island; and, as is eminently
+proper on a boat, he affected nautical manners and nautical ways.  But
+his vernacular savored so hopelessly of the track and stall that he had
+been able to acquire no mastery over the art of marine invective.  And he
+possessed not so much as one maritime oath.  As soon as we had swung
+clear of the cove he made for the weather stays, where he assumed a
+posture not unlike that in the famous picture of Farragut ascending
+Mobile Bay.  His leather case was swung over his shoulder, and with his
+glasses he swept the lake in search of the Scimitar and other vessels of
+a like unamiable character.
+
+Although my client could have told you, offhand, jackstraw's last mile in
+a bicycle sulky, his notion of the Scimitar's speed was as vague as his
+knowledge of seamanship.  And when I informed him that in all probability
+she had already passed the light on Far Harbor reef, some nine miles this
+side of the Far Harbor police station, he went into an inordinate state
+of excitement.  Mr. Cooke was, indeed, that day the embodiment of an
+unselfish if misdirected zeal.  He was following the dictates of both
+heart and conscience in his endeavor to rescue his guest from the law;
+and true zeal is invariably contagious.  What but such could have
+commanded the unremitting labors of that morning?  Farrar himself had
+done three men's work before breakfast, and it was, in great part, owing
+to him that we were now leaving the island behind us.  He was sailing the
+Maria that day as she will never be sailed again: her lee gunwale awash,
+and a wake like a surveyor's line behind her.  More than once I called to
+mind his facetious observation about Mr. Drew, and wondered if he knew
+more than he had said about the detective.
+
+Once in the open, the Maria showed but small consideration for her
+passengers, for she went through the seas rather than over them.  And Mr.
+Cooke, manfully keeping his station on the weather bow, likewise went
+through the seas.  No argument could induce him to leave the post he had
+thus heroically chosen, which was one of honor rather than utility, for
+the lake was as vacant of sails as the day that Father Marquette (or some
+one else) first beheld it.  Under such circumstances ease must be
+considered as only a relative term; and the accommodations of the Maria
+afforded but two comfortable spots,--the cabin, and the lea aft of the
+cabin bulkhead.  This being the case, the somewhat peculiar internal
+relations of the party decided its grouping.
+
+I know of no worse place than a small yacht, or than a large one for that
+matter, for uncongenial people.  The Four betook themselves to the cabin,
+which was fortunately large, and made life bearable with a game of cards;
+while Mrs. Cooke, whose adaptability and sense I had come greatly to,
+admire, contented herself with a corner and a book.  The ungrateful cause
+of the expedition himself occupied another corner.  I caught sight of him
+through the cabin skylight, and the silver pencil he was holding over his
+note-book showed unmistakable marks of teeth.
+
+Outside, Mr. Trevor, his face wearing an immutable expression of defiance
+for the wickedness surrounding him, had placed his daughter for safe-
+keeping between himself and the only other reliable character on board,
+--the refrigerator.  But Miss Thorn appeared in a blue mackintosh and a
+pair of heavy yachting-boots, courting rather than avoiding a drenching.
+Even a mackintosh is becoming to some women.  All morning she sat behind
+Mr. Cooke, on the rise of the cabin, her back against the mast and her
+hair flying in the wind, and I, for one, was not sorry the Celebrity had
+given us this excuse for a sail.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+About half-past eleven Mr. Cooke's vigilance was rewarded by a glimpse
+of the lighthouse on Far Harbor reef, and almost simultaneously he picked
+up, to the westward, the ragged outline of the house-tops and spires of
+the town itself.  But as we neared the reef the harbor appeared as quiet
+as a Sunday morning: a few Mackinaws were sailing hither and thither, and
+the Far Harbor and Beaverton boat was coming out.  My client, in view
+of the peaceful aspect affairs had assumed, presently consented to
+relinquish his post, and handed the glasses over to me with an injunction
+to be watchful.
+
+I promised.  And Mr. Cooke, feeling his way aft with more discretion than
+grace, finally descended into the cabin, where he was noisily received.
+And I was left with Miss Thorn.  While my client had been there in front
+of us, his lively conversation and naive if profane remarks kept us in
+continual laughter.  When with him it was utterly impossible to see any
+other than the ludicrous side of this madcap adventure, albeit he himself
+was so keenly in earnest as to its performance.  It was with misgiving
+that I saw him disappear into the hatchway, and my impulse was to follow
+him.  Our spirits, like those in a thermometer, are never stationary:
+mine were continually being sent up or down.  The night before, when I
+had sat with Miss Thorn beside the fire, they went up; this morning her
+anxious solicitude for the Celebrity had sent them down again.  She both
+puzzled and vexed me.  I could not desert my post as lookout, and I
+remained in somewhat awkward suspense as to what she was going to say,
+gazing at distant objects through the glasses.  Her remark, when it came,
+took me by surprise.
+
+"I am afraid," she said seriously, "that Uncle Fenelon's principles are
+not all that they should be.  His morality is something like his tobacco,
+which doesn't injure him particularly, but is dangerous to others."
+
+I was more than willing to meet her on the neutral ground of Uncle
+Fenelon.
+
+"Do you think his principles contagious?"  I asked.
+
+"They have not met with the opposition they deserve," she replied.
+"Uncle Fenelon's ideas of life are not those of other men,--yours, for
+instance.  And his affairs, mental and material, are, happily for him,
+such that he can generally carry out his notions with small
+inconvenience.  He is no doubt convinced that he is acting generously in
+attempting to rescue the Celebrity from a term in prison; what he does
+not realize is that he is acting ungenerously to other guests who have
+infinitely more at stake."
+
+"But our friend from Ohio has done his best to impress this upon him,"
+I replied, failing to perceive her drift; "and if his words are wasted,
+surely the thing is hopeless."
+
+"I am not joking," said she.  "I was not thinking of Mr. Trevor, but of
+you.  I like you, Mr. Crocker.  You may not believe it, but I do."
+For the life of me I could think of no fitting reply to this declaration.
+Why was that abominable word "like" ever put into the English language?
+"Yes, I like you," she continued meditatively, "in the face of the fact
+that you persist in disliking me."
+
+"Nothing of the kind."
+
+"Oh, I know.  You mustn't think me so stupid as all that.  It is a
+mortifying truth that I like you, and that you have no use for me."
+
+I have never known how to take a jest from a woman.  I suppose I should
+have laughed this off.  Instead, I made a fool of myself.
+
+"I shall be as frank with you," I said, "and declare that I like you,
+though I should be much happier if I didn't."
+
+She blushed at this, if I am not mistaken.  Perhaps it was unlooked for.
+
+"At any rate," she went on, "I should deem it my duty to warn you of the
+consequences of this joke of yours.  They may not be all that you have
+anticipated.  The consequences for you, I mean, which you do not seem to
+have taken into account."
+
+"Consequences for me!" I exclaimed.
+
+"I fear that you will think what I am going to say uncalled for, and that
+I am meddling with something that does not concern me.  But it seems to
+me that you are undervaluing the thing you have worked so hard to attain.
+They say that you have ability, that you have acquired a practice and a
+position which at your age give the highest promise for the future.  That
+you are to be counsel for the railroad.  In short, that you are the
+coming man in this section of the state.  I have found this out," said
+she, cutting short my objections, "in spite of the short time I have been
+here."
+
+"Nonsense!" I said, reddening in my turn.
+
+"Suppose that the Celebrity is captured," she continued, thrusting her
+hands into the pockets of her mackintosh.  "It appears that he is
+shadowed, and it is not unreasonable to expect that we shall be chased
+before the day is over.  Then we shall be caught red-handed in an attempt
+to get a criminal over the border.  Please wait until I have finished,"
+she said, holding up her hand at an interruption I was about to make.
+"You and I know he is not a criminal; but he might as well be as far as
+you are concerned.  As district attorney you are doubtless known to the
+local authorities.  If the Celebrity is arrested after a long pursuit, it
+will avail you nothing to affirm that you knew all along he was the noted
+writer.  You will pardon me if I say that they will not believe you then.
+He will be taken East for identification.  And if I know anything about
+politics, and especially the state of affairs in local politics with
+which you are concerned, the incident and the interval following it will
+be fatal to your chances with the railroad,--to your chances in general.
+You perceive, Mr. Crocker, how impossible it is to play with fire without
+being burned."
+
+I did perceive.  At the time the amazing thoroughness with which she had
+gone into the subject of my own unimportant affairs, the astuteness and
+knowledge of the world she had shown, and the clearness with which she
+had put the situation, did not strike me.  Nothing struck me but the
+alarming sense of my own stupidity, which was as keen as I have ever felt
+it.  What man in a public position, however humble, has not political
+enemies?  The image of O'Meara was wafted suddenly before me,
+disagreeably near, and his face wore the smile of victory.  All of Mr.
+Cooke's money could not save me.  My spirits sank as the immediate future
+unfolded itself, and I even read the article in O'Meara's organ, the
+Northern Lights, which was to be instrumental in divesting me of my
+public trust and fair fame generally.  Yes, if the Celebrity was caught
+on the other side of Far Harbor, all would be up with John Crocker!  But
+it would never do to let Miss Thorn discover my discomfiture.
+
+"There is something in what you say," I replied, with what bravado I
+could muster.
+
+"A little, I think," she returned, smiling; "now, what I wish you to do
+is to make Uncle Fenelon put into Far Harbor.  If he refuses, you can go
+in in spite of him, since you and Mr. Farrar are the only ones who can
+sail.  You have the situation in your own hands."
+
+There was certainly wisdom in this, also.  But the die was cast now, and
+pride alone was sufficient to hold me to the course I had rashly begun
+upon.  Pride!  What an awkward thing it is, and more difficult for most
+of us to swallow than a sponge.
+
+"I thank you for this interest in my welfare, Miss Thorn," I began.
+
+"No fine speeches, please, sir," she cut in, "but do as I advise."
+
+"I fear I cannot."
+
+"Why do you say that?  The thing is simplicity itself."
+
+"I should lose my self-respect as a practical joker.  And besides,"
+I said maliciously, "I started out to have some fun with the Celebrity,
+and I want to have it."
+
+"Well," she replied, rather coolly, "of course you can do as you choose."
+
+We were passing within a hundred yards of the lighthouse, set cheerlessly
+on the bald and sandy tip of the point.  An icy silence sat between us,
+and such a silence is invariably insinuating.  This one suggested a
+horrible thought.  What if Miss Thorn had warned me in order to save the
+Celebrity from humiliation?  I thrust it aside, but it returned again and
+grinned.  Had she not practised insincerity before?  And any one with
+half an eye could see that she was in love with the Celebrity; even the
+Fraction had remarked it.  What more natural than, with her cleverness,
+she had hit upon this means of terminating the author's troubles by
+working upon my fears?
+
+Human weakness often proves too much for those of us who have the very
+best intentions.  Up to now the refrigerator and Mr. Trevor had kept the
+strictest and most jealous of vigils over Irene.  But at length the
+senator succumbed to the drowsiness which never failed to attack him at
+this hour, and he forgot the disrepute of his surroundings in a
+respectable sleep.  Whereupon his daughter joined us on the forecastle.
+
+"I knew that would happen to papa if I only waited long enough," she
+said.  "Oh, he thinks you're dreadful, Mr. Crocker.  He says that
+nowadays young men haven't any principle.  I mustn't be seen talking to
+you."
+
+"I have been trying to convince Mr. Crocker that his stand in the matter
+is not only immoral, but suicidal," said Miss Thorn.  "Perhaps," she
+added meaningly, "he will listen to you."
+
+"I don't understand," answered Miss Trevor.
+
+"Miss Thorn has been good enough to point out," I explained, "that the
+political machine in this section, which has the honor to detest me, will
+seize upon the pretext of the Celebrity's capture to ruin me.  They will
+take the will for the deed."
+
+"Of course they will do just that," cried Miss Trevor.  "How bright of
+you to think of it, Marian!"
+
+Miss Thorn stood up.
+
+"I leave you to persuade him," said she; "I have no doubt you will be
+able to do it."
+
+With that she left us, quite suddenly.  Abruptly, I thought.  And her
+manner seemed to impress Miss Trevor.
+
+"I wonder what is the matter with Marian," said she, and leaned over the
+skylight.  "Why, she has gone down to talk with the Celebrity."
+
+"Isn't that rather natural?"  I asked with asperity.
+
+She turned to me with an amused expression.
+
+"Her conduct seems to worry you vastly, Mr. Crocker.  I noticed that you
+were quite upset this morning in the cave.  Why was it?"
+
+"You must have imagined it," I said stiffly.
+
+"I should like to know," she said, with the air of one trying to solve a
+knotty problem, "I should like to know how many men are as blind as you."
+
+"You are quite beyond me, Miss Trevor," I answered; "may I request you to
+put that remark in other words?"
+
+"I protest that you are a most unsatisfactory person," she went on, not
+heeding my annoyance.  "Most abnormally modest people are.  If I were to
+stick you with this hat-pin, for instance, you would accept the matter as
+a positive insult."
+
+"I certainly should," I said, laughing; "and, besides, it would be
+painful."
+
+"There you are," said she, exultingly; "I knew it.  But I flatter myself
+there are men who would go into an ecstasy of delight if I ran a hat-pin
+into them.  I am merely taking this as an illustration of my point."
+
+"It is a very fine point," said I.  "But some people take pleasure in odd
+things.  I can easily conceive of a man gallant enough to suffer the
+agony for the sake of pleasing a pretty girl."
+
+"I told you so," she pouted; "you have missed it entirely.  You are
+hopelessly blind on that side, and numb.  Perhaps you didn't know that
+you have had a hat-pin sticking in you for some time."
+
+I began feeling myself, nervously.
+
+"For more than a month," she cried, "and to think that you have never
+felt it."  My action was too much for her gravity, and she fell back
+against the skylight in a fit of merriment, which threatened to wake her
+father.  And I hoped it would.
+
+"It pleases you to speak in parables this morning," I said.
+
+"Mr. Crocker," she began again, when she had regained her speech, "shall
+I tell you of a great misfortune which might happen to a girl?"
+
+"I should be pleased to hear it," I replied courteously.
+
+"That misfortune, then, would be to fall in love with you."
+
+"Happily that is not within the limits of probability," I answered,
+beginning to be a little amused.  "But why?"
+
+"Lightning often strikes where it is least expected," she replied archly.
+"Listen.  If a young woman were unlucky enough to lose her heart to you,
+she might do everything but tell you, and you would never know it.  I
+scarcely believe you would know it if she did tell you."
+
+I must have jumped unconsciously.
+
+"Oh, you needn't think I am in love with you."
+
+"Not for a minute," I made haste to say.
+
+She pointed towards the timber-covered hills beyond the shore.
+
+"Do you see that stream which comes foaming down the notch into the lake
+in front of us?"  she asked.  "Let us suppose that you lived in a cabin
+beside that brook; and that once in a while, when you went out to draw
+your water, you saw a nugget of--gold washing along with the pebbles on
+the bed.  How many days do you think you would be in coming to the
+conclusion that there was a pocket of gold somewhere above you, and in
+starting in search of it?"
+
+"Not long, surely."
+
+"Ah, you are not lacking in perception there.  But if I were to tell you
+that I knew of the existence of such a mine, from various proofs I have
+had, and that the mine was in the possession of a certain person who was
+quite willing to share it with you on application, you would not believe
+me."
+
+"Probably not."
+
+"Well," said Miss Trevor, with a nod of finality, "I was actually about
+to make such a disclosure.  But I see it would be useless."
+
+I confess she aroused my curiosity.  No coaxing, however, would induce
+her to interpret.
+
+"No," she insisted strangely, "if you cannot put two and two together, I
+fear I cannot help you.  And no one I ever heard of has come to any good
+by meddling."
+
+Miss Trevor folded her hands across her lap.  She wore that air which I
+am led to believe is common to all women who have something of importance
+to disclose; or at least what they consider is of importance.  There was
+an element of pity, too, in her expression.  For she had given me my
+chance, and my wits had been found wanting.
+
+Do not let it be surmised that I attach any great value to such banter as
+she had been indulging in.  At the same time, however, I had an uneasy
+feeling that I had missed something which might have been to my
+advantage.  It was in vain that I whipped my dull senses; but one
+conclusion was indicated by all this inference, and I don't care even to
+mention that: it was preposterous.
+
+Then Miss Trevor shifted to a very serious mood.  She honestly did her
+best to persuade me to relinquish our enterprise, to go to Mr. Cooke and
+confess the whole thing.
+
+"I wish we had washed our hands of this Celebrity from the first," she
+said, with a sigh.  "How dreadful if you lose your position on account of
+this foolishness!"
+
+"But I shan't," I answered reassuringly; "we are getting near the border
+now, and no sign of trouble.  And besides," I added, "I think Miss Thorn
+tried to frighten me.  And she very nearly succeeded.  It was prettily
+done."
+
+"Of course she tried to frighten you.  I wish she had succeeded."
+
+"But her object was transparent."
+
+"Her object!" she exclaimed.  "Her object was to save you."
+
+"I think not," I replied; "it was to save the Celebrity."
+
+Miss Trevor rose and grasped one of the sail rings to keep her balance.
+She looked at me pityingly.
+
+"Do you really believe that?"
+
+"Firmly."
+
+"Then you are hopeless, Mr. Crocker, totally hopeless.  I give you up."
+And she went back to her seat beside the refrigerator.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+"Crocker, old man, Crocker, what the devil does that mean?"
+
+I turned with a start to perceive a bare head thrust above the cabin
+roof, the scant hair flying, and two large, brown eyes staring into mine
+full of alarm and reproach.  A plump finger was pointing to where the
+sandy reef lay far astern of us.
+
+The Mackinaws were flecked far and wide over the lake, and a dirty smudge
+on the blue showed where the Far Harbor and Beaverton boat had gone over
+the horizon.  But there, over the point and dangerously close to the
+land, hung another smudge, gradually pushing its way like a writhing,
+black serpent, lakewards.  Thus I was rudely jerked back to face the
+problem with which we had left the island that morning.
+
+I snatched the neglected glasses from the deck and hurried aft to join my
+client on the overhang, but a pipe was all they revealed above the bleak
+hillocks of sand.  My client turned to me with a face that was white
+under the tan.
+
+"Crocker," he cried, in a tragic voice, "it's a blessed police boat, or I
+never picked a winner."
+
+"Nonsense," I said; "other boats smoke beside police boats.  The lake is
+full of tugs."
+
+I was a little nettled at having been scared for a molehill.
+
+"But I know it, sure as hell," he insisted.
+
+"You know nothing about it, and won't for an hour.  What's a pipe and a
+trail of smoke?"
+
+He laid a hand on my shoulder, and I felt it tremble.
+
+"Why do you suppose I came out?"  he demanded solemnly.
+
+"You were probably losing," I said.
+
+"I was winning."
+
+"Then you got tired of winning."
+
+But he held up a thumb within a few inches of my face, and with it a ring
+I had often noticed, a huge opal which he customarily wore on the inside
+of his hand.
+
+"She's dead," said Mr. Cooke, sadly.
+
+"Dead?"  I repeated, perplexed.
+
+"Yes, she's dead as the day I lost the two thousand at Sheepshead.  She's
+never gone back on me yet.  And unless I can make some little arrangement
+with those fellows," he added, tossing his head at the smoke, "you and I
+will put up to-night in some barn of a jail.  I've never been in jail but
+once," said Mr. Cooke, "and it isn't so damned pleasant, I assure you."
+I saw that he believed every word of it; in fact, that it was his
+religion.  I might as well have tried to argue the Sultan out of
+Mohammedanism.
+
+The pipe belonged to a tug, that was certain.  Farrar said so after a
+look over his shoulder, disdaining glasses, and he knew the lake better
+than many who made their living by it.  It was then that I made note of a
+curious anomaly in the betting character; for thus far Mr. Cooke, like a
+great many of his friends, was a skeptic.  He never ceased to hope until
+the stake had found its way into the other man's pocket.  And it was for
+hope that he now applied to Farrar.  But even Farrar did not attempt to
+account for the tug's appearance that near the land.
+
+"She's in some detestable hurry to get up this way, that's flat," he
+said; "where she is, the channel out of the harbor is not forty feet
+wide."
+
+By this time the rest of the party were gathered behind us on the high
+side of the boat, in different stages of excitement, scrutinizing the
+smoke.  Mr. Cooke had the glasses glued to his eyes again, his feet
+braced apart, and every line of his body bespeaking the tension of his
+mind.  I imagined him standing thus, the stump of his cigar tightly
+clutched between his teeth, following the fortunes of some favorite on
+the far side of the Belmont track.
+
+We waited without comment while the smoke crept by degrees towards the
+little white spindle on the tip of the point, now and again catching a
+gleam of the sun's rays from off the glass of the lantern.  And
+presently, against the white lather of the lake, I thought I caught sight
+of a black nose pushed out beyond the land.  Another moment, and the tug
+itself was bobbing in the open.  Barely had she reached the deep water
+beyond the sands when her length began to shorten, and the dense cloud of
+smoke that rose made it plain that she was firing.  At the sight I
+reflected that I had been a fool indeed.  A scant flue miles of water lay
+between us and her, and if they really meant business back there, and
+they gave every sign of it, we had about an hour and a half to get rid of
+the Celebrity.  The Maria was a good boat, but she had not been built to
+try conclusions with a Far Harbor tug.
+
+My client, in spite of the ominous condition of his opal, was not slow to
+make his intentions exceedingly clear.  For Mr. Cooke was first and last,
+and always, a gentleman.  After that you might call him anything you
+pleased.  Meditatively he screwed up his glasses and buckled them into
+the case, and then he descended to the cockpit.  It was the Celebrity he
+singled out of the party.
+
+"Allen," said he, when he stood before him, "I want to impress on you
+that my word's gold.  I've stuck to you thus far, and I'll be damned now
+if I throw you over, like they did Jonah."
+
+Mr. Cooke spoke with a fine dignity that in itself was impressive, and
+when he had finished he looked about him until his eye rested on Mr.
+Trevor, as though opposition were to come from that quarter.  And the
+senator gave every sign of another eruption.  But the Celebrity, either
+from lack of appreciation of my client's loyalty, or because of the
+nervousness which was beginning to show itself in his demeanor, despite
+an effort to hide it, returned no answer.  He turned on his heel and
+resumed his seat in the cabin.  Mr. Cooke was visibly affected.
+
+"I'd sooner lose my whip hand than go back on him now," he declared.
+
+Then Vesuvius began to rumble.
+
+"Mr. Cooke," said the senator, "may I suggest something which seems
+pertinent to me, though it does not appear to have occurred to you?"
+
+His tone was the calm one that the heroes used in the Celebrity's novels
+when they were about to drop on and annihilate wicked men.
+
+"Certainly, sir," my client replied briskly, bringing himself up on his
+way back to the overhang.
+
+"You have announced your intention of 'standing by' Mr. Allen, as you
+express it.  Have you reflected that there are some others who deserve to
+be consulted and considered beside Mr. Allen and yourself?"
+
+Mr. Cooke was puzzled at this change of front, and unused, moreover, to
+that veiled irony of parliamentary expression.
+
+"Talk English, my friend," said he.
+
+"In plain words, sir, Mr. Allen is a criminal who ought to be locked up;
+he is a menace to society.  You, who have a reputation, I am given to
+understand, for driving four horses, have nothing to lose by a scandal,
+while I have worked all my life for the little I have achieved, and have
+a daughter to think about.  I will neither stand by Mr. Allen nor by
+you."
+
+Mr. Cooke was ready with a retort when the true significance of this
+struck him.  Things were a trifle different now.  The tables had turned
+since leaving the island, and the senator held it in his power to ruin
+our one remaining chance of escape.  Strangely enough, he missed the
+cause of Mr. Cooke's hesitation.
+
+"Look here, old man," said my client, biting off another cigar, "I'm a
+first-rate fellow when you get to know me, and I'd do the same for you as
+I'm doing for Allen."
+
+"I daresay, sir, I daresay," said the other, a trifle mollified; "I don't
+claim that you're not acting as you think right."
+
+"I see it," said Mr. Cooke, with admirable humility; "I see it.  I was
+wrong to haul you into this, Trevor.  And the only thing to consider now
+is, how to get you out of it."
+
+Here he appeared for a moment to be wrapped in deep thought, and checked
+with his cigar an attempt to interrupt him.
+
+"However you put it, old man," he said at last, "we're all in a pretty
+bad hole."
+
+"All!" cried Mr. Trevor, indignantly.
+
+"Yes, all," asserted Mr. Cooke, with composure.  "There are the police,
+and here is Allen as good as run down.  If they find him when they get
+abroad, you don't suppose they'll swallow anything you have to say about
+trying to deliver him over.  No, sir, you'll be bagged and fined along
+with the rest of us.  And I'd be damned sorry to see it, if I do say it;
+and I blame myself freely for it, old man.  Now you take my advice and
+keep your mouth shut, and I'll take care of you.  I've got a place for
+Allen."
+
+During this somewhat remarkable speech Mr. Trevor, as it were, blew hot
+and cold by turns.  Although its delivery was inconsiderate, its logic
+was undeniable, and the senator sat down again on the locker, and was
+silent.  But I marked that off and on his fingers would open and shut
+convulsively.
+
+Time alone would disclose what was to happen to us; in the interval there
+was nothing to do but wait.  We had reached the stage where anxiety
+begins to take the place of excitement, and we shifted restlessly from
+spot to spot and looked at the tug.  She was ploughing along after us,
+and to such good purpose that presently I began to catch the white of the
+seas along her bows, and the bright red with which her pipe was tipped.
+Farrar alone seemed to take but slight interest in her.  More than once I
+glanced at him as he stood under me, but his eye was on the shuddering
+leach of the sail.  Then I leaned over.
+
+"What do you think of it?"  I asked.
+
+"I told you this morning Drew would have handcuffs on him before night,"
+he replied, without raising his head.
+
+"Hang your joking, Farrar; I know more than you about it."
+
+"Then what's the use of asking me?"
+
+"Don't you see that I'm ruined if we're caught?"  I demanded, a little
+warmly.
+
+"No, I don't see it," he replied.  "You don't suppose I think you fool
+enough to risk this comedy if the man were guilty, do you?  I don't
+believe all that rubbish about his being the criminal's double, either.
+That's something the girls got up for your benefit."
+
+I ignored this piece of brutality.
+
+"But I'm ruined anyway."
+
+"How?"
+
+I explained shortly what I thought our friend, O'Meara, would do under
+the circumstances.  An inference sufficed Farrar.
+
+"Why didn't you say something about this before?" he asked gravely.
+"I would have put into Far Harbor."
+
+"Because I didn't think of it," I confessed.
+
+Farrar pulled down the corners of his mouth with trying not to smile.
+
+"Miss Thorn is a woman of brains," he remarked gently; "I respect her."
+
+I wondered by what mysterious train of reasoning he had arrived at this
+conclusion.  He said nothing for a while, but toyed with the spokes of
+the wheel, keeping the wind in the sail with undue nicety.
+
+"I can't make them out," he said, all at once.
+
+"Then you believe they're after us?"
+
+"I changed the course a point or two, just to try them."
+
+"And--"
+
+"And they changed theirs."
+
+"Who could have informed?"
+
+"Drew, of course," I said; "who else?"
+
+He laughed.
+
+"Drew doesn't know anything about Allen," said he; "and, besides, he's no
+more of a detective than I am."
+
+"But Drew was told there was a criminal on the island."
+
+"Who told him?"
+
+I repeated the conversation between Drew and Mr. Trevor which I had
+overheard.  Farrar whistled.
+
+"But you did not speak of that this morning," said he.
+
+"No," I replied, feeling anything but comfortable.  At times when he was
+facetious as he had been this morning I was wont to lose sight of the
+fact that with Farrar the manner was not the man, and to forget the
+warmth of his friendship.  I was again to be reminded of this.
+
+"Well, Crocker," he said briefly, "I would willingly give up this year's
+state contract to have known it."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+It was, accurately as I can remember, half after noon when Mr. Cooke
+first caught the smoke over the point, for the sun was very high: at two
+our fate had been decided.  I have already tried to describe a part of
+what took place in that hour and a half, although even now I cannot get
+it all straight in my mind.  Races, when a great deal is at stake, are
+more or less chaotic: a close four miles in a college eight is a
+succession of blurs with lucid but irrelevant intervals.  The weary
+months of hard work are forgotten, and you are quite as apt to think of
+your first velocipede, or of the pie that is awaiting you in the
+boathouse, as of victory and defeat.  And a yacht race, with a pair of
+rivals on your beam, is very much the same.
+
+As I sat with my feet dangling over the washboard, I reflected, once or
+twice, that we were engaged in a race.  All I had to do was to twist my
+head in order to make sure of it.  I also reflected, I believe, that I
+was in the position of a man who has bet all he owns, with large odds on
+losing either way.  But on the whole I was occupied with more trivial
+matters a letter I had forgotten to write about a month's rent, a client
+whose summer address I had mislaid.  The sun was burning my neck behind
+when a whistle aroused me to the realization that the tug was no longer a
+toy boat dancing in the distance, but a stern fact but two miles away.
+There could be no mistake now, for I saw the white steam of the signal
+against the smoke.
+
+I slid down and went into the cabin.  The Celebrity was in the corner by
+the companionway, with his head on the cushions and a book in his hand.
+And forward, under the low deck beams beyond the skylight, I beheld the
+crouching figure of my client.  He had stripped off his coat and was busy
+at some task on the floor.
+
+"They're whistling for us to stop," I said to him.
+
+"How near are they, old man?"  he asked, without looking up.
+The perspiration was streaming down his face, and he held a brace and bit
+in his hand.  Under him was the trap-door which gave access to the
+ballast below, and through this he had bored a neat hole.  The yellow
+chips were still on his clothes.
+
+"They're not two miles away," I answered.  "But what in mystery are you
+doing there?"
+
+But he only laid a finger beside his nose and bestowed a wink in my
+direction.  Then he took some ashes from his cigar, wetted his finger,
+and thus ingeniously removed all appearance of newness from the hole he
+had made, carefully cleaning up the chips and putting them in his pocket.
+Finally he concealed the brace and bit and opened the trap, disclosing
+the rough stones of the ballast.  I watched him in amazement as he tore a
+mattress from an adjoining bunk and forced it through the opening,
+spreading it fore and aft over the stones.
+
+"Now," he said, regaining his feet and surveying the whole with
+undisguised satisfaction, "he'll be as safe there as in my new family
+vault."
+
+"But" I began, a light dawning upon me.
+
+"Allen, old man," said Mr. Cooke, "come here."
+
+The Celebrity laid down his book and looked up: my client was putting on
+his coat.
+
+"Come here, old man," he repeated.
+
+And he actually came.  But he stopped when he caught sight of the open
+trap and of the mattress beneath it.
+
+"How will that suit you?" asked Mr. Cooke, smiling broadly as he wiped
+his face with an embroidered handkerchief.
+
+The Celebrity looked at the mattress, then at me, and lastly at Mr.
+Cooke.  His face was a study:
+
+"And--And you think I am going to get in there?" he said, his voice
+shaking.
+
+My client fell back a step.
+
+"Why not?" he demanded.  "It's about your size, comfortable, and all the
+air you want" (here Mr. Cooke stuck his finger through the bit hole).
+"Damn me, if I were in your fix, I wouldn't stop at a kennel."
+
+"Then you're cursed badly mistaken," said the Celebrity, going back to
+his corner; "I'm tired of being made an ass of for you and your party."
+
+"An ass!" exclaimed my client, in proper indignation.
+
+"Yes, an ass," said the Celebrity.  And he resumed his book.
+
+It would seem that a student of human nature, such as every successful
+writer should be, might by this time have arrived at some conception of
+my client's character, simple as it was, and have learned to overlook the
+slight peculiarity in his mode of expressing himself.  But here the
+Celebrity fell short, if my client's emotions were not pitched in the
+same key as those of other people, who shall say that his heart was not
+as large or his sympathies as wide as many another philanthropist?
+
+But Mr. Cooke was an optimist, and as such disposed to look at the best
+side of his friends and ignore the worst; if, indeed, he perceived their
+faults at all.  It was plain to me, even now, that he did not comprehend
+the Celebrity's attitude.  That his guest should reject the one hope of
+escape left him was, according to Mr. Cooke, only to be accounted for by
+a loss of mental balance.  Nevertheless, his disappointment was keen.  He
+let down the door and slowly led the way out of the cabin.  The whistle
+sounded shrilly in our ears.
+
+Mr. Cooke sat down and drew a wallet from his pocket.  He began to count
+the bills, and, as if by common consent, the Four followed suit.  It was
+a task which occupied some minutes, and when completed my client produced
+a morocco note-book and a pencil.  He glanced interrogatively at the man
+nearest him.
+
+"Three hundred and fifty."
+
+Mr. Cooke put it down.  It was entirely a matter of course.  What else
+was there to be done?  And when he had gone the round of his followers he
+turned to Farrar and me.
+
+"How much are you fellows equal to?"  he asked.
+
+I believe he did it because he felt we should resent being left out: and
+so we should have.  Mr. Cooke's instincts were delicate.
+
+We told him.  Then he paused, his pencil in the air, and his eyes
+doubtfully fixed on the senator.  For all this time Mr. Trevor had been
+fidgeting in his seat; but now he opened his long coat, button by button,
+and thrust his hand inside the flap.  Oh, Falstaff!
+
+"Father, father!" exclaimed Miss Trevor.  But her tongue was in her
+cheek.
+
+I have heard it stated that if a thoroughly righteous man were cast away
+with ninety and nine ruffians, each of the ruffians would gain one-one-
+hundredth in virtue, whilst the righteous man would sink to their new
+level.  I am not able to say how much better Mr. Cooke's party was for
+Mr. Trevor's company, but the senator seemed to realize that something
+serious had happened to him, for his voice was not altogether steady as
+he pronounced the amount of his contribution.
+
+"Trevor," cried Mr. Cooke, with great fervor, "I take it all back.
+You're a true, public-spirited old sport."
+
+But the senator had not yet reached that extreme of degradation where it
+is pleasurable to be congratulated on wickedness.
+
+My client added up the figures and rubbed his hands.  I regret to say
+that the aggregate would have bought up three small police organizations,
+body and soul.
+
+"Pull up, Farrar, old man," he shouted.
+
+Farrar released the wheel and threw the Maria into the wind.  With the
+sail cracking and the big boom dodging over our heads, we watched the tug
+as she drew nearer and nearer, until we could hear the loud beating of
+her engines.  On one side some men were making ready to lower a boat, and
+then a conspicuous figure in blue stood out by the davits.  Then came the
+faint tinkle of a bell, and the H Sinclair, of Far Harbor, glided up and
+thrashed the water scarce a biscuit-throw away.
+
+"Hello, there!"  the man in uniform called out.  It was Captain McCann,
+chief of the Far Harbor police.
+
+Mr. Cooke waved his cigar politely.
+
+"Is that Mr. Cooke's yacht, the Maria?
+
+"The same," said Mr. Cooke.
+
+"I'm fearing I'll have to come aboard you, Mr. Cooke."
+
+"All right, old man, glad to have you," said my client.
+
+This brought a smile to McCann's face as he got into his boat.  We were
+all standing in the cockpit, save the Celebrity, who was just inside of
+the cabin door.  I had time to note that he was pale, and no more: I must
+have been pale myself.  A few strokes brought the chief to the Maria's
+stern.
+
+"It's not me that likes to interfere with a gent's pleasure party, but
+business is business," said he, as he climbed aboard.
+
+My client's hospitality was oriental.
+
+"Make yourself at home, old man," he said, a box of his largest and
+blackest cigars in his hand.  And these he advanced towards McCann before
+the knot was tied in the painter.
+
+Then a wave of self-reproach swept over me.  Was it possible that I, like
+Mr. Trevor, had been deprived of all the morals I had ever possessed?
+Could it be that the district attorney was looking calmly on while Mr.
+Cooke wilfully corrupted the Far Harbor chief-of-police?  As agonizing a
+minute as I ever had in my life was that which it took McCann to survey
+those cigars.  His broad features became broader still, as a huge, red
+hand was reached out.  I saw it close lingeringly over the box, and then
+Mr. Cooke had struck a match.  The chief stepped over the washboard onto
+the handsome turkey-red cushions on the seats, and thus he came face to
+face with me.
+
+"Holy fathers!"  he exclaimed.  "Is it you who are here, Mr. Crocker?"
+And he pulled off his cap.
+
+"No other, McCann," said I, with what I believe was a most pitiful
+attempt at braggadocio.
+
+McCann began to puff at his cigar.  Clouds of smoke came out of his face
+and floated down the wind.  He was so visibly embarrassed that I gained a
+little courage.
+
+"And what brings you here?" I demanded.
+
+He scrutinized me in perplexity.
+
+"I think you're guessing, sir."
+
+"Never a guess, McCann.  You'll have to explain yourself."
+
+McCann had once had a wholesome respect for me.  But it looked now as if
+the bottom was dropping out of it.
+
+"Sure, Mr. Crocker," he said, "what would you be doing in such company as
+I'm hunting for?  Can it be that ye're helping to lift a criminal over
+the border?"
+
+"McCann," I asked sternly, "what have you had on the, tug?"
+
+Force of habit proved too much for the man.  He went back to the
+apologetic.
+
+"Never a drop, Mr. Crocker.  Upon me soul!"
+
+This reminded Mr. Cooke of something (be it recorded) that he had for
+once forgotten.  He lifted up the top of the refrigerator.  The chief's
+eye followed him.  But I was not going to permit this.
+
+"Now, McCann," I commenced again, "if you will state your business here,
+if you have any, I shall be obliged.  You are delaying Mr. Cooke."
+
+The chief was seized with a nervous tremor.  I think we were a pair in
+that, only I managed to keep mine, under.  When it came to the point,
+and any bribing was to be done, I had hit upon a course.  Self-respect
+demanded a dignity on my part.  With a painful indecision McCann pulled
+a paper from his pocket which I saw was a warrant.  And he dropped his
+cigar.  Mr. Cooke was quick to give him another.
+
+"Ye come from Bear Island, Mr. Crocker?"  he inquired.
+
+I replied in the affirmative.
+
+"I hope it's news I'm telling you," he said soberly; "I'm hoping it's
+news when I say that I'm here for Mr. Charles Wrexell Allen,--that's the
+gentleman's name.  He's after taking a hundred thousand dollars away from
+Boston."  Then he turned to Mr. Cooke.  "The gentleman was aboard your
+boat, sir, when you left that country place of yours,--what d'ye call it?
+--Mohair?  Thank you, sir."  And he wiped the water from his brow.  "And
+they're telling me he was on Bear Island with ye?  Sure, sir, and I can't
+see why a gentleman of your standing would be wanting to get him over the
+border.  But I must do my duty.  Begging your pardon, Mr. Crocker," he
+added, with a bow to me.
+
+"Certainly, McCann," I said.
+
+For a space there was only the bumping and straining of the yacht and the
+swish of the water against her sides.  Then the chief spoke again.
+
+"It will be saving you both trouble and inconvenience, Mr. Crocker, if
+you give him up, sir."
+
+What did the man mean?  Why in the name of the law didn't he make a move?
+I was conscious that my client was fumbling in his clothes for the
+wallet; that he had muttered an invitation for the chief to go inside.
+McCann smoked uneasily.
+
+"I don't want to search the boat, sir."
+
+At these words we all turned with one accord towards the cabin.  I felt
+Farrar gripping my arm tightly from behind.
+
+The Celebrity had disappeared!
+
+It was Mr. Cooke who spoke.
+
+"Search the boat!"  he said, something between a laugh and a cry.
+
+"Yes, sir," the chief repeated firmly.  "It's sorry I am to do it, with
+Mr. Crocker here, too."
+
+I have always maintained that nature had endowed my client with rare
+gifts; and the ease with which he now assumed a part thus unexpectedly
+thrust upon him, as well as the assurance with which he carried it out,
+goes far to prove it.
+
+"If there's anything in your line aboard, chief," he said blandly, "help
+yourself!"
+
+Some of us laughed.  I thought things a little too close to be funny.
+Since the Celebrity had lost his nerve and betaken himself to the place
+of concealment Mr. Cooke had prepared for him, the whole composition of
+the affair was changed.  Before, if McCann had arrested the ostensible
+Mr. Allen, my word, added to fifty dollars from my client, would probably
+have been sufficient.  Should he be found now, no district attorney on
+the face of the earth could induce the chief to believe that he was any
+other than the real criminal; nor would any bribe be large enough to
+compensate McCann for the consequences of losing so important a prisoner.
+There was nothing now but to carry it off with a high hand.  McCann got
+up.
+
+"Be your lave, Mr. Crocker," he said.
+
+"Never you mind me, McCann," I replied, "but you do what is right."
+
+With that he began his search.  It might have been ludicrous if I had had
+any desire to laugh, for the chief wore the gingerly air of a man looking
+for a rattlesnake which has to be got somehow.  And my client assisted at
+the inspection with all the graces of a dancing-master.  McCann poked
+into the forward lockers where we kept the stores,--dropping the iron lid
+within an inch of his toe,--and the clothing-lockers and the sail-
+lockers.  He reached under the bunks, and drew out his hand again
+quickly, as though he expected to be bitten.  And at last he stood by the
+trap with the hole in it, under which the Celebrity lay prostrate.  I
+could hear my own breathing.  But Mr. Cooke had his wits about him still,
+and at this critical juncture he gave McCann a thump on the back which
+nearly carried him off his feet.
+
+"They say the mast is hollow, old man," he suggested.
+
+"Be jabers, Mr. Cooke," said McCann, "and I'm beginning to think it is!
+
+"He took off his cap and scratched his head.
+
+"Well, McCann, I hope you're contented," I said.
+
+"Mr. Crocker," said he, "and it's that thankful I am for you that the
+gent ain't here.  But with him cutting high finks up at Mr. Cooke's house
+with a valet, and him coming on the yacht with yese, and the whole
+country in that state about him, begorra," said McCann, "and it's domned
+strange!  Maybe it's swimmin' in the water he is!"
+
+The whole party had followed the search, and at this speech of the
+chief's our nervous tension became suddenly relaxed.  Most of us sat down
+to laugh.
+
+"I'm asking no questions, Mr. Crocker, yell take notice," he remarked,
+his voice full of reproachful meaning.
+
+"McCann," said I, "you come outside.  I want to speak to you."
+
+He followed me out.
+
+"Now," I went on, "you know me pretty well" (he nodded doubtfully), "and
+if I give you my word that Charles Wrexell Allen is not on this yacht,
+and never has been, is that sufficient?"
+
+"Is it the truth you're saying, sir?"
+
+I assured him that it was.
+
+"Then where is he, Mr. Crocker?"
+
+"God only knows!" I replied, with fervor.  "I don't, McCann."
+
+The chief was satisfied.  He went back into the cabin, and Mr. Cooke, in
+the exuberance of his joy, produced champagne.  McCann had heard of my
+client and of his luxurious country place, and moreover it was the first
+time he had ever been on a yellow-plush yacht.  He tarried.  He drank Mr.
+Cooke's health and looked around him in wonder and awe, and his remarks
+were worthy of record.  These sayings and the thought of the author of
+The Sybarites stifling below with his mouth to an auger-hole kept us in a
+continual state of merriment.  And at last our visitor rose to go.
+
+As he was stepping over the side, Mr. Cooke laid hold of a brass button
+and pressed a handful of the black cigars upon him.
+
+"My regards to the detective, old man," said he.
+
+McCann stared.
+
+"My regards to Drew," my client insisted.
+
+"Oh!" said McCann, his face lighting up, "him with the whiskers, what
+came from Bear Island in a cat-boat.  Sure, he wasn't no detective, sir."
+
+"What was he?  A police commissioner?"
+
+"Mr. Cooke," said McCann, disdainfully, as he got into his boat, "he
+wasn't nothing but a prospector doing the lake for one of them summer
+hotel companies."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+When the biography of the Celebrity is written, and I have no doubt it
+will be some day, may his biographer kindly draw a veil over that instant
+in his life when he was tenderly and obsequiously raised by Mr. Cooke
+from the trap in the floor of the Maria's cabin.
+
+It is sometimes the case that a good fright will heal a feud.  And
+whereas, before the arrival of the H. Sinclair, there had been much
+dissension and many quarrels concerning the disposal of the quasi Charles
+Wrexell Allen, when the tug steamed away to the southwards but one
+opinion remained,--that, like Jonah, he must be got rid of.  And no one
+concurred more heartily in this than the Celebrity himself.  He strolled
+about and smoked apathetically, with the manner of one who was bored
+beyond description, whilst the discussion was going on between Farrar,
+Mr. Cooke, and myself as to the best place to land him.  When
+considerately asked by my client whether he had any choice in the matter,
+he replied, somewhat facetiously, that he could not think of making a
+suggestion to one who had shown such superlative skill in its previous
+management.
+
+Mr. Trevor, too, experienced a change of sentiment in Mr. Cooke's favor.
+It is not too much to say that the senator's scare had been of such
+thoroughness that he was willing to agree to almost anything.  He had
+come so near to being relieved of that most precious possession, his
+respectability, that the reason in Mr. Cooke's course now appealed to
+him very strongly.  Thus he became a tacit assenter in wrong-doing,
+for circumstances thrust this, once in a while, upon the best of our
+citizens.
+
+The afternoon wore cool; nay, cold is a better word.  The wind brought
+with it a suggestion of the pine-clad wastes of the northwestern
+wilderness whence it came, and that sure harbinger of autumn, the
+blue haze, settled around the hills, and benumbed the rays of the sun
+lingering over the crests.  Farrar and I, as navigators, were glad to get
+into our overcoats, while the others assembled in the little cabin and
+lighted the gasoline stove which stood in the corner.  Outside we had our
+pipes for consolation, and the sunset beauty of the lake.
+
+By six we were well over the line, and consulting our chart, we selected
+a cove behind a headland on our left, which seemed the best we could do
+for an anchorage, although it was shallow and full of rocks.  As we were
+changing our course to run in, Mr. Cooke appeared, bundled up in his
+reefer.  He was in the best of spirits, and was good enough to concur
+with our plans.
+
+"Now, sir," asked Farrar, "what do you propose to do with Allen?"
+
+But our client only chuckled.
+
+"Wait and see, old man," he said; "I've got that all fixed."
+
+"Well," Farrar remarked, when he had gone in again, "he has steered it
+deuced well so far.  I think we can trust him."
+
+It was dark when we dropped anchor, a very tired party indeed; and as the
+Maria could not accommodate us all with sleeping quarters, Mr. Cooke
+decided that the ladies should have the cabin, since the night was cold.
+And so it might have been, had not Miss Thorn flatly refused to sleep
+there.  The cabin was stuffy, she said, and so she carried her point.
+Leaving Farrar and one of Mr. Cooke's friends to take care of the yacht,
+the rest of us went ashore, built a roaring fire and raised a tent, and
+proceeded to make ourselves as comfortable as circumstances would allow.
+The sense of relief over the danger passed produced a kind of
+lightheartedness amongst us, and the topics broached at supper would
+not have been inappropriate at a friendly dinner party.  As we were
+separating for the night Miss Thorn said to me:
+
+"I am so happy for your sake, Mr. Crocker, that he was not discovered."
+
+For my sake!  Could she really have meant it, after all?  I went to sleep
+thinking of that sentence, beside my client beneath the trees.  And it
+was first in my thoughts when I awoke.
+
+As we dipped our faces in the brook the next morning my client laughed
+softly to himself between the gasps, and I knew that he had in mind the
+last consummate touch to his successful enterprise.  And the revelation
+came when the party were assembled at breakfast.  Mr. Cooke stood up, and
+drawing from his pocket a small and mysterious paper parcel he forthwith
+delivered himself in the tone and manner which had so endeared him to the
+familiars of the Lake House bar.
+
+"I'm not much for words, as you all know," said he, with becoming
+modesty, "and I don't set up to be an orator.  I am just what you see
+here,--a damned plain man.  And there's only one virtue that I lay any
+claim to,--no one can say that I ever went back on a friend.  I want to
+thank all of you (looking at the senator) for what you have done for me
+and Allen.  It's not for us to talk about that hundred thousand dollars.
+--My private opinion is (he seemed to have no scruples about making it
+public) that Allen is insane.  No, old man, don't interrupt me; but you
+haven't acted just right, and that's a fact.  And I won't feel square
+with myself until I put him where I found him, in safety. I am sorry to
+say, my friends," he added, with emotion, "that Mr. Allen is about to
+leave us."
+
+He paused for breath, palpably satisfied with so much of it, and with the
+effect on his audience.
+
+"Now," continued he, "we start this morning for a place which is only
+four miles or so from the town of Saville, and I shall then request my
+esteemed legal adviser, Mr. Crocker, to proceed to the town and buy a
+ready-made suit of clothes for Mr. Allen, a slouch hat, a cheap necktie,
+and a stout pair of farmer's boots.  And I have here," he said, holding
+up the package, "I have here the rest of it.  My friends, you heard the
+chief tell me that Drew was doing the lake for a summer hotel syndicate.
+But if Drew wasn't a detective you can throw me into the lake!  He wasn't
+exactly Pinkerton, and I flatter myself that we were too many for him,"
+said Mr. Cooke, with deserved pride; "and he went away in such a
+devilish hurry that he forgot his hand-bag with some of his extra
+things."
+
+Then my client opened the package, and held up on a string before our
+astonished eyes a wig, a pair of moustaches, and two bushy red whiskers.
+
+And this was Mr. Cooke's scheme!  Did it electrify his hearers?  Perhaps.
+Even the senator was so choked with laughter that he was forced to cast
+loose one of the buttons which held on his turn-down collar, and Farrar
+retired into the woods.  But the gravity of Mr. Cooke's countenance
+remained serene.
+
+"Old man," he said to the Celebrity, "you'll have to learn the price of
+potatoes now.  Here are Mr. Drew's duplicates; try 'em on."
+
+This the Celebrity politely but firmly refused to do.
+
+"Cooke," said he, "it has never been my lot to visit so kind and
+considerate a host, or to know a man who pursued his duty with so little
+thought and care of his own peril.  I wish to thank you, and to apologize
+for any hasty expressions I may have dropped by mistake, and I would it
+were possible to convince you that I am neither a maniac nor an
+embezzler.  But, if it's just the same to you, I believe I can get along
+without the disguise you mentioned, and so save Mr. Crocker his pains.
+In short, if you will set me down at Saville, I am willing to take my
+chances of reaching the Canadian Pacific from that point without fear of
+detection."
+
+The Celebrity's speech produced a good impression on all save Mr. Cooke,
+who appeared a trifle water-logged.  He had dealt successfully with Mr.
+Allen when that gentleman had been in defiant moods, or in moods of ugly
+sarcasm.  But this good-natured, turn-you-down-easy note puzzled my
+client not a little.  Was this cherished scheme a whim or a joke to be
+lightly cast aside?  Mr. Cooke thought not.  The determination which
+distinguished him still sat in his eye as he bustled about giving orders
+for the breaking of camp.  This refractory criminal must be saved from
+himself, cost what it might, and responsibility again rested heavy on my
+client's mind as I rowed him out to the Maria.
+
+"Crocker," he said, "if Allen is scooped in spite of us, you have got to
+go East and make him out an idiot."
+
+He seemed to think that I had a talent for this particular defence.  I
+replied that I would do my best.
+
+"It won't be difficult," he went on; "not near as tough as that case you
+won for me.  You can bring in all the bosh about his claiming to be an
+author, you know.  And I'll stand expenses."
+
+This was downright generous of Mr. Cooke.  We have all, no doubt, drawn
+our line between what is right and what is wrong, but I have often
+wondered how many of us with the world's indorsement across our backs
+trespass as little on the other side of the line as he.
+
+After Farrar and the Four got aboard it fell to my lot to row the rest of
+the party to the yacht.  And this was no slight task that morning.  The
+tender was small, holding but two beside the man at the oars, and owing
+to the rocks and shallow water of which I have spoken, the Maria lay
+considerably over a quarter of a mile out.  Hence each trip occupied some
+time.  Mr. Cooke I had transferred with a load of canvas and the tent
+poles, and next I returned for Mrs. Cooke and Mr. Trevor, whom I
+deposited safely.  Then I landed again, helped in Miss Trevor and Miss
+Thorn, leaving the Celebrity for the last, and was pulling for the yacht
+when a cry from the tender's stern arrested me.
+
+"Mr. Crocker, they are sailing away without us!"
+
+I turned in my seat.  The Maria's mainsail was up, and the jib was being
+hoisted, and her head was rapidly falling off to the wind.  Farrar was
+casting.  In the stern, waving a handkerchief, I recognized Mrs. Cooke,
+and beside her a figure in black, gesticulating frantically, a vision of
+coat-tails flapping in the breeze.  Then the yacht heeled on her course
+and forged lakewards.
+
+"Row, Mr. Crocker, row!  they are leaving us!" cried Miss Trevor, in
+alarm.
+
+I hastened to reassure her.
+
+"Farrar is probably trying something," I said.  "They will be turning
+presently."
+
+This is just what they did not do.  Once out of the inlet, they went
+about and headed northward, up the coast, and we remained watching them
+until Mr. Trevor became a mere oscillating black speck against the sail.
+
+"What can it mean?" asked Miss Thorn.
+
+I had not so much as an idea.
+
+"They certainly won't desert us, at any rate," I said.  "We had better
+go ashore again and wait."
+
+The Celebrity was seated on the beach, and he was whittling.  Now
+whittling is an occupation which speaks of a contented frame of mind, and
+the Maria's departure did not seem to have annoyed or disturbed him.
+
+"Castaways," says he, gayly, "castaways on a foreign shore.  Two
+delightful young ladies, a bright young lawyer, a fugitive from justice,
+no chaperon, and nothing to eat.  And what a situation for a short story,
+if only an author were permitted to make use of his own experiences!"
+
+"Only you don't know how it will end," Miss Thorn put in.
+
+The Celebrity glanced up at her.
+
+"I have a guess," said he, with a smile.
+
+"Is it true," Miss Trevor asked, "that a story must contain the element
+of love in order to find favor with the public?"
+
+"That generally recommends it, especially to your sex, Miss Trevor," he
+replied jocosely.
+
+Miss Trevor appeared interested.
+
+"And tell me," she went on, "isn't it sometimes the case that you start
+out intent on one ending, and that your artistic sense of what is fitting
+demands another?"
+
+"Don't be silly, Irene," said Miss Thorn.  She was skipping flat pebbles
+over the water, and doing it capitally, too.
+
+I thought the Celebrity rather resented the question.
+
+"That sometimes happens, of course," said he, carelessly.  He produced
+his inevitable gold cigarette case and held it out to me.  "Be sociable
+for once, and have one," he said.
+
+I accepted.
+
+"Do you know," he continued, lighting me a match, "it beats me why you
+and Miss Trevor put this thing up on me.  You have enjoyed it, naturally,
+and if you wanted to make me out a donkey you succeeded rather well.  I
+used to think that Crocker was a pretty good friend of mine when I went
+to his dinners in New York.  And I once had every reason to believe," he
+added, "that Miss Trevor and I were on excellent terms."
+
+Was this audacity or stupidity?  Undoubtedly both.
+
+"So we were," answered Miss Trevor, "and I should be very sorry to think,
+Mr. Allen," she said meaningly, "that our relations had in any way
+changed."
+
+It was the Celebrity's turn to flush.
+
+"At any rate," he remarked in his most offhand manner, "I am much
+obliged to you both.  On sober reflection I have come to believe that you
+did the very best thing for my reputation."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+He had scarcely uttered these words before the reason for the Maria's
+abrupt departure became apparent.  The anchorage of the yacht had been at
+a spot whence nearly the whole south of the lake towards Far Harbor was
+open, whilst a high tongue of land hid that part from us on the shore.
+As he spoke, there shot before our eyes a steaming tug-boat, and a second
+look was not needed to assure me that she was the "H. Sinclair, of Far
+Harbor."  They had perceived her from the yacht an hour since, and it was
+clear that my client, prompt to act as to think, had decided at once to
+put out and lead her a blind chase, so giving the Celebrity a chance to
+make good his escape.
+
+The surprise and apprehension created amongst us by her sudden appearance
+was such that none of us, for a space, spoke or moved.  She was about a
+mile off shore, but it was even whether the chief would decide that his
+quarry had been left behind in the inlet and turn in, or whether he would
+push ahead after the yacht.  He gave us an abominable five minutes of
+uncertainty.  For when he came opposite the cove he slowed up, apparently
+weighing his chances.  It was fortunate that we were hidden from his
+glasses by a copse of pines.  The Sinclair increased her speed and pushed
+northward after the Maria.  I turned to the Celebrity.
+
+"If you wish to escape, now is your chance," I said.
+
+For contrariness he was more than I have ever had to deal with.  Now he
+crossed his knees and laughed.
+
+"It strikes me you had better escape, Crocker," said he.  "You have more
+to run for."
+
+I looked across at Miss Thorn.  She had told him, then, of my
+predicament.  And she did not meet my eye.  He began to whittle again,
+and remarked:
+
+"It is only seventeen miles or so across these hills to Far Harbor, old
+chap, and you can get a train there for Asquith."
+
+"Just as you choose," said I, shortly.
+
+With that I started off to gain the top of the promontory in order to
+watch the chase.  I knew that this could not last as long as that of the
+day before.  In less than three hours we might expect the Maria and the
+tug in the cove.  And, to be frank, the indisposition of the Celebrity to
+run troubled me.  Had he come to the conclusion that it was just as well
+to submit to what seemed the inevitable and so enjoy the spice of revenge
+over me?  My thoughts gave zest to my actions, and I was climbing the
+steep, pine-clad slope with rapidity when I heard Miss Trevor below me
+calling out to wait for her.  At the point of our ascent the ridge of the
+tongue must have been four hundred feet above the level of the water, and
+from this place of vantage we could easily make out the Maria in the
+distance, and note from time to time the gain of the Sinclair.
+
+"It wasn't fair of me, I know, to leave Marian," said Miss Trevor,
+apologetically, "but I simply couldn't resist the temptation to come up
+here."
+
+"I hardly think she will bear you much ill will," I answered dryly; "you
+did the kindest thing possible.  Who knows but what they are considering
+the advisability of an elopement!"
+
+We passed a most enjoyable morning up there, all things taken into
+account, for the day was too perfect for worries.  We even laughed at our
+hunger, which became keen about noon, as is always the case when one has
+nothing to eat; so we set out to explore the ridge for blackberries.
+These were so plentiful that I gathered a hatful for our friends below,
+and then I lingered for a last look at the boats.  I could make out but
+one.  Was it the yacht?  No; for there was a trace of smoke over it.  And
+yet I was sure of a mast.  I put my hand over my eyes.
+
+"What is it?"  asked Miss Trevor, anxiously.
+
+"The tug has the Maria in tow," I said, "and they are coming this way."
+
+We scrambled down, sobered by this discovery and thinking of little else.
+And breaking through the bushes we came upon Miss Thorn and the
+Celebrity.  To me, preoccupied with the knowledge that the tug would soon
+be upon us, there seemed nothing strange in the attitude of these two,
+but Miss Trevor remarked something out of the common at once.  How keenly
+a woman scents a situation.
+
+The Celebrity was standing with his back to Miss Thorn, at the edge of
+the water.  His chin was in the air, and to a casual observer he looked
+to be minutely interested in a flock of gulls passing over us.  And Miss
+Thorn?  She was enthroned upon a heap of drift-wood, and when I caught
+sight of her face I forgot the very existence of the police captain.  Her
+lips were parted in a smile.
+
+"You are just in time, Irene," she said calmly; "Mr. Allen has asked me
+to be his wife."
+
+I stood, with the hatful of berries in my hand, like a stiff wax figure
+in a museum.  The expected had come at last; and how little do we expect
+the expected when it comes!  I was aware that both the young women were
+looking at me, and that both were quietly laughing.  And I must have cut
+a ridiculous figure indeed, though I have since been informed on good
+authority that this was not so.  Much I cared then what happened.  Then
+came Miss Trevor's reply, and it seemed to shake the very foundations of
+my wits.
+
+"But, Marian," said she, "you can't have him.  He is engaged to me.  And
+if it's quite the same to you, I want him myself.  It isn't often, you
+know, that one has the opportunity to marry a Celebrity."
+
+The Celebrity turned around: an expression of extraordinary intelligence
+shot across his face, and I knew then that the hole in the well-nigh
+invulnerable armor of his conceit had been found at last.  And Miss
+Thorn, of all people, had discovered it.
+
+"Engaged to you?"  she cried, "I can't believe it.  He would be untrue
+to everything he has written."
+
+"My word should be sufficient," said Miss Trevor, stiffly.  (May I be
+hung if they hadn't acted it all out before.) "If you should wish proofs,
+however, I have several notes from him which are at your service, and an
+inscribed photograph.  No, Marian," she added, shaking her head, "I
+really cannot give him up."
+
+Miss Thorn rose and confronted him, and her dignity was inspiring.
+"Is this so?"  she demanded; "is it true that you are engaged to marry
+Miss Trevor?"
+
+The Bone of Contention was badly troubled.  He had undoubtedly known what
+it was to have two women quarrelling over his hand at the same time, but
+I am willing to bet that the sensation of having them come together in
+his presence was new to him.
+
+"I did not think--" he began.  "I was not aware that Miss Trevor looked
+upon the matter in that light, and you know--"
+
+"What disgusting equivocation," Miss Trevor interrupted.  "He asked me
+point blank to marry him, and of course I consented.  He has never
+mentioned to me that he wished to break the engagement, and I wouldn't
+have broken it."
+
+I felt like a newsboy in a gallery,--I wanted to cheer.  And the
+Celebrity kicked the stones and things.
+
+"Who would have thought," she persisted, "that the author of The
+Sybarites, the man who chose Desmond for a hero, could play thus idly
+with the heart of woman?  The man who wrote these beautiful lines:
+'Inconstancy in a woman, because of the present social conditions, is
+sometimes pardonable.  In a man, nothing is more despicable.'  And how
+poetic a justice it is that he has to marry me, and is thus forced to
+lead the life of self-denial he has conceived for his hero.  Mr. Crocker,
+will you be my attorney if he should offer any objections?"
+
+The humor of this proved too much for the three of us, and Miss Trevor
+herself went into peals of laughter.  Would that the Celebrity could have
+seen his own face.  I doubt if even he could have described it.  But I
+wished for his sake that the earth might have kindly opened and taken him
+in.
+
+"Marian," said Miss Trevor, "I am going to be very generous.
+I relinquish the prize to you, and to you only.  And I flatter myself
+there are not many girls in this world who would do it."
+
+"Thank you, Irene," Miss Thorn replied gravely, "much as I want him,
+I could not think of depriving you."
+
+Well, there is a limit to all endurance, and the Celebrity had reached
+his.
+
+"Crocker," he said, "how far is it to the Canadian Pacific?"
+
+I told him.
+
+"I think I had best be starting," said he.
+
+And a moment later he had disappeared into the woods.
+
+We stood gazing in the direction he had taken, until the sound of his
+progress had died away.  The shock of it all had considerably muddled my
+brain, and when at last I had adjusted my thoughts to the new conditions,
+a sensation of relief, of happiness, of joy (call it what you will), came
+upon me, and I could scarce restrain an impulse to toss my hat in the
+air.  He was gone at last!  But that was not the reason.  I was safe from
+O'Meara and calumny.  Nor was this all.  And I did not dare to look at
+Miss Thorn.  The knowledge that she had planned and carried out with
+dignity and success such a campaign filled me with awe.  That I had
+misjudged her made me despise myself.  Then I became aware that she was
+speaking to me, and I turned.
+
+"Mr. Crocker, do you think there is any danger that he will lose
+his way?"
+
+"No, Miss Thorn," I replied; "he has only to get to the top of that ridge
+and strike the road for Saville, as I told him."
+
+We were silent again until Miss Trevor remarked:
+
+"Well, he deserved every bit of it."
+
+"And more, Irene," said Miss Thorn, laughing; "he deserved to marry
+you."
+
+"I think he won't come West again for a very long time," said I.
+
+Miss Trevor regarded me wickedly, and I knew what was coming.
+
+"I hope you are convinced, now, Mr. Crocker, that our sex is not as black
+as you painted it: that Miss Thorn knew what she was about, and that she
+is not the inconsistent and variable creature you took her to be."
+
+I felt the blood rush to my face, and Miss Thorn, too, became scarlet.
+She went up to the mischievous Irene and grasping her arms from behind,
+bent them until she cried for mercy.
+
+"How strong you are, Marian!  It is an outrage to hurt me so.  I haven't
+said anything."  But she was incorrigible, and when she had twisted free
+she began again:
+
+"I took it upon myself to speak a few parables to Mr. Crocker the other
+day.  You know, Marian, that he is one of these level-headed old fogies
+who think women ought to be kept in a menagerie, behind bars, to be
+inspected on Saturday afternoons.  Now, I appeal to you if it wouldn't be
+disastrous to fall in love with a man of such ideas.  And just to let you
+know what a literal old law-brief he is, when I said he had had a hat-pin
+sticking in him for several weeks, he nearly jumped overboard, and began
+to feel himself all over.  Did you know that he actually believed you
+were doing your best to get married to the Celebrity?"  (Here she dodged
+Miss Thorn again.) "Oh, yes, he confided in me.  He used to worry himself
+ill over that.  I'll tell you what he said to me only--"
+
+But fortunately at this juncture Miss Trevor was captured again, and Miss
+Thorn put her hand over her mouth.  Heaven only knows what she would have
+said!
+
+The two boats did not arrive until nearly four o'clock, owing to some
+trouble to the tug's propeller.  Not knowing what excuse my client might
+have given for leaving some of his party ashore, I thought it best to go
+out to meet them.  Seated on the cabin roof of the Maria I beheld Mr.
+Cooke and McCann in conversation, each with a black cigar too big for
+him.
+
+"Hello, Crocker, old man," shouted my client, "did you think I was never
+coming back?  I've had lots of sport out of this hayseed captain" (and he
+poked that official playfully), "but I didn't get any grub.  So we'll
+have to go to Far Harbor."
+
+I caught the hint.  Mr. Cooke had given out that he had started for
+Saville to restock the larder.
+
+"No," he continued, "Brass Buttons didn't let me get to Saville.  You
+see, when he got back to town last night they told him he had been
+buncoed out of the biggest thing for years, and they got it into his head
+that I was child enough to run a ferry for criminals.  They told him he
+wasn't the sleuth he thought he was, so he came back.  They'll have the
+laugh on him now, for sure."
+
+McCann listened with admirable good-nature, gravely pulling at his cigar,
+and eyeing Mr. Cooke with a friendly air of admiration.
+
+"Mr. Crocker," he said, with melancholy humor, "it's leery I am with the
+whole shooting-match.  Mr. Cooke here is a gentleman, every inch of him,
+and so be you, Mr. Crocker.  But I'm just after taking a look at the hole
+in the bottom of the boat.  'Ye have yer bunks in queer places, Mr.
+Cooke,' says I.  It's not for me to be doubting a gentleman's word, sir,
+but I'm thinking me man is over the hills and far away, and that's true
+for ye."
+
+Mr. Cooke winked expressively.
+
+"McCann, you've been jerked," said he.  "Have another bottle!"
+
+The Sinclair towed us to Far Harbor for a consideration, the wind being
+strong again from the south, and McCann was induced by the affable owner
+to remain on the yellow-plush yacht.  I cornered him before we had gone a
+great distance.
+
+"McCann," said I, "what made you come back to-day?"
+
+"Faith, Mr. Crocker, I don't care if I am telling you.  I always had a
+liking for you, sir, and bechune you and me it was that divil O'Meara
+what made all the trouble.  I wasn't taking his money, not me; the saints
+forbid!  But glory be to God, if he didn't raise a rumpus whin I come
+back without Allen!  It was sure he was that the gent left that place,--
+what are ye calling it?--Mohair, in the Maria, and we telegraphs over to
+Asquith.  He swore I'd lose me job if I didn't fetch him to-day.  Mr.
+Crocker, sir, it's the lumber business I'll be startin' next week," said
+McCann.
+
+"Don't let that worry you, McCann," I answered.  "I will see that you
+don't lose your place, and I give you my word again that Charles Wrexell
+Allen has never been aboard this yacht, or at Mohair to my knowledge.
+What is more, I will prove it to-morrow to your satisfaction."
+
+McCann's faith was touching.
+
+"Ye're not to say another word, sir," he said, and he stuck out his big
+hand, which I grasped warmly.
+
+My affection for McCann still remains a strong one.
+
+After my talk with McCann I was sitting on the forecastle propped against
+the bitts of the Maria's anchor-chain, and looking at the swirling foam
+cast up by the tug's propeller.  There were many things I wished to turn
+over in my mind just then, but I had not long been in a state of reverie
+when I became conscious that Miss Thorn was standing beside me.  I got to
+my feet.
+
+"I have been wondering how long you would remain in that trance, Mr.
+Crocker," she said.  "Is it too much to ask what you were thinking of?"
+
+Now it so chanced that I was thinking of her at that moment.  It would
+never have done to say this, so I stammered.  And Miss Thorn was a young
+woman of tact.
+
+"I should not have put that to so literal a man as you," she declared.
+"I fear that you are incapable of crossing swords.  And then," she added,
+with a slight hesitation that puzzled me, "I did not come up here to ask
+you that,--I came to get your opinion."
+
+"My opinion?" I repeated.
+
+"Not your legal opinion," she replied, smiling, "but your opinion as a
+citizen, as an individual, if you have one.  To be frank, I want your
+opinion of me.  Do you happen to have such a thing?"
+
+I had.  But I was in no condition to give it.
+
+"Do you think me a very wicked girl?"  she asked, coloring.  "You once
+thought me inconsistent, I believe, but I am not that.  Have I done wrong
+in leading the Celebrity to the point where you saw him this morning?"
+
+"Heaven forbid!"  I cried fervently; "but you might have spared me a
+great deal had you let me into the secret."
+
+"Spared you a great deal," said Miss Thorn.  "I--I don't quite
+understand."
+
+"Well--" I began, and there I stayed.  All the words in the dictionary
+seemed to slip out of my grasp, and I foundered.  I realized I had said
+something which even in my wildest moments I had not dared to think of.
+My secret was out before I knew I possessed it.  Bad enough had I told it
+to Farrar in an unguarded second.  But to her!  I was blindly seeking
+some way of escape when she said softly:
+
+"Did you really care?"
+
+I am man enough, I hope, when there is need to be.  And it matters not
+what I felt then, but the words came back to me.
+
+"Marian," I said, "I cared more than you will ever learn."
+
+But it seems that she had known all the time, almost since that night I
+had met her at the train.  And how?  I shall not pretend to answer, that
+being quite beyond me.  I am very sure of one thing, however, which is
+that I never told a soul, man or woman, or even hinted at it.  How was it
+possible when I didn't know myself?
+
+The light in the west was gone as we were pulled into Far Harbor, and the
+lamps of the little town twinkled brighter than I had ever seen them
+before.  I think they must have been reflected in our faces, since Miss
+Trevor, when she came forward to look for us, saw something there and
+openly congratulated us.  And this most embarrassing young woman demanded
+presently:
+
+"How did it happen, Marian?  Did you propose to him?"
+
+I was about to protest indignantly, but Marian laid her hand on my arm.
+
+"Tell it not in Asquith," said she.  "Irene, I won't have him teased any
+more."
+
+We were drawing up to the dock, and for the first time I saw that a crowd
+was gathered there.  The report of this chase had gone abroad.  Some
+began calling out to McCann when we came within distance, among others
+the editor of the Northern Lights, and beside him I perceived with
+amusement the generous lines: of the person of Mr. O'Meara himself.
+I hurried back to give Farrar a hand with the ropes, and it was O'Meara
+who caught the one I flung ashore and wound it around a pile.  The people
+pressed around, peering at our party on the Maria, and I heard McCann
+exhorting them to make way.  And just then, as he was about to cross the
+plank, they parted for some one from behind.  A breathless messenger
+halted at the edge of the wharf.  He held out a telegram.
+
+McCann seized it and dived into the cabin, followed closely by my client
+and those of us who could push after.  He tore open the envelope, his eye
+ran over the lines, and then he began to slap his thigh and turn around
+in a circle, like a man dazed.
+
+"Whiskey!" shouted Mr. Cooke.  "Get him a glass of Scotch!"
+
+But McCann held up his hand.
+
+"Holy Saint Patrick!"  he said, in a husky voice, "it's upset I am,
+bottom upwards.  Will ye listen to this?"
+
+     "'Drew is your man.  Reddish hair and long side whiskers, gray
+     clothes.  Pretends to represent summer hotel syndicate.  Allen at
+     Asquith unknown and harmless.
+
+     "' (Signed.)   Everhardt."'
+
+"Sew me up," said Mr. Cooke; "if that don't beat hell!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+In this world of lies the good and the bad are so closely intermingled
+that frequently one is the means of obtaining the other.  Therefore, I
+wish very freely to express my obligations to the Celebrity for any share
+he may have had in contributing to the greatest happiness of my life.
+
+Marian and I were married the very next month, October, at my client's
+palatial residence of Mohair.  This was at Mr. Cooke's earnest wish: and
+since Marian was Mrs. Cooke's own niece, and an orphan, there seemed no
+good reason why my client should not be humored in the matter.  As for
+Marian and me, we did not much care whether we were married at Mohair or
+the City of Mexico.  Mrs. Cooke, I think, had a secret preference for
+Germantown.
+
+Mr. Cooke quite over-reached himself in that wedding.  "The knot was
+tied," as the papers expressed it, "under a huge bell of yellow roses."
+The paper also named the figure which the flowers and the collation and
+other things cost Mr. Cooke.  A natural reticence forbids me to repeat
+it.  But, lest my client should think that I undervalue his kindness,
+I will say that we had the grandest wedding ever seen in that part of the
+world.  McCann was there, and Mr. Cooke saw to it that he had a punchbowl
+all to himself in which to drink our healths: Judge Short was there,
+still followed by the conjugal eye: and Senator Trevor, who remained
+over, in a new long black coat to kiss the bride.  Mr. Cooke chartered
+two cars to carry guests from the East, besides those who came as
+ordinary citizens.  Miss Trevor was of the party, and Farrar, of course,
+was best man.  Would that I had the flow of words possessed by the
+reporter of the Chicago Sunday newspaper!
+
+But there is one thing I must mention before Mrs. Crocker and I leave for
+New York, in a shower of rice, on Mr. Cooke's own private car, and that
+is my client's gift.  In addition to the check he gave Marian, he
+presented us with a huge, 'repousse' silver urn he had had made to order,
+and he expressed a desire that the design upon it should remind us of him
+forever and ever.  I think it will.  Mercury is duly set forth in a
+gorgeous equipage, driving four horses around the world at a furious
+pace; and the artist, by special instructions, had docked their tails.
+
+From New York, Mrs. Crocker and I went abroad.  And it so chanced, in
+December, that we were staying a few days at a country-place in Sussex,
+and the subject of The Sybarites was broached at a dinner-party.  The
+book was then having its sale in England.
+
+"Crocker," said our host, "do you happen to have met the author of that
+book?  He's an American."
+
+I looked across the table at my wife, and we both laughed.
+
+"I happen to know him intimately," I replied.
+
+"Do you, now?" said the Englishman; "what a very entertaining chap he is,
+is he not?  I had him down in October, and, by Jove, we were laughing the
+blessed time.  He was telling us how he wrote his novels, and he said,
+'pon my soul he did, that he had a secretary or something of that sort to
+whom he told the plot, and the secretary elaborated, you know, and wrote
+the draft.  And he said, 'pon my honor, that sometimes the clark wrote
+the plot and all,--the whole blessed thing,--and that he never saw the
+book except to sign his name to it."
+
+"You say he was here in October?"  asked Marian, when the laugh had
+subsided.
+
+"I have the date," answered our host, "for he left me an autograph copy
+of The Sybarites when he went away."  And after dinner he showed us the
+book, with evident pride.  Inscribed on the fly-leaf was the name of the
+author, October 10th.  But a glance sufficed to convince both of us that
+the Celebrity had never written it.
+
+"John," said Marian to me, a suspicion of the truth crossing her mind,
+"John, can it be the bicycle man?"
+
+"Yes, it can be," I said; "it is."
+
+"Well," said Marian, "he's been doing a little more for our friend than
+we did."
+
+Nor was this the last we heard of that meteoric trip through England,
+which the alleged author of The Sybarites had indulged in.  He did not go
+up to London; not he.  It was given out that he was travelling for his
+health, that he did not wish to be lionized; and there were friends of
+the author in the metropolis who had never heard of his secretary, and
+who were at a loss to understand his conduct.  They felt slighted.  One
+of these told me that the Celebrity had been to a Lincolnshire estate
+where he had created a decided sensation by his riding to hounds,
+something the Celebrity had never been known to do.  And before we
+crossed the Channel, Marian saw another autograph copy of the famous
+novel.
+
+One day, some months afterwards, we were sitting in our little salon in a
+Paris hotel when a card was sent up, which Marian took.
+
+"John," she cried, "it's the Celebrity."
+
+It was the Celebrity, in the flesh, faultlessly groomed and clothed, with
+frock coat, gloves, and stick.  He looked the picture of ruddy, manly
+health and strength, and we saw at once that he bore no ill-will for the
+past.  He congratulated us warmly, and it was my turn to offer him a
+cigarette.  He was nothing loath to reminisce on the subject of his
+experiences in the wilds of the northern lakes, or even to laugh over
+them.  He asked affectionately after his friend Cooke.  Time had softened
+his feelings, and we learned that he had another girl, who was in Paris
+just then, and invited us on the spot to dine with her at "Joseph's."
+Let me say, in passing, that as usual she did credit to the Celebrity's
+exceptional taste.
+
+"Now," said he, "I have something to tell you two."
+
+He asked for another cigarette, and I laid the box beside him.
+
+"I suppose you reached Saville all right," I said, anticipating.
+
+"Seven at night," said he, "and so hungry that I ate what they call
+marble cake for supper, and a great many other things out of little side
+dishes, and nearly died of indigestion afterward.  Then I took a train up
+to the main line.  An express came along.  'Why not go West?' I asked
+myself, and I jumped aboard.  It was another whim--you know I am subject
+to them.  When I got to Victoria I wired for money and sailed to Japan;
+and then I went on to India and through the Suez, taking things easy.  I
+fell in with some people I knew who were going where the spirit moved
+them, and I went along.
+
+"Algiers, for one place, and whom do you think I saw there, in the lobby
+of a hotel?"
+
+"Charles Wrexell Allen," cried Marian and I together.
+
+The Celebrity looked surprised.  "How did you know?"  he demanded.
+
+"Go on with your story," said Marian; "what did he do?"
+
+"What did he do?"  said the Celebrity; "why, the blackguard stepped up
+and shook me by the hand, and asked after my health, and wanted to know
+whether I were married yet.  He was so beastly familiar that I took out
+my glass, and I got him into a cafe for fear some one would see me with
+him.  'My dear fellow,' said he, 'you did me the turn of my life.--How
+can I ever repay you?'  'Hang your impudence,' said I, but I wanted to
+hear what he had to say.  'Don't lose your temper, old chap,' he laughed;
+'you took a few liberties with my name, and there was no good reason why
+I shouldn't take some with yours.  Was there?  When I think of it, the
+thing was most decidedly convenient; it was the hand of Providence.'
+'You took liberties with my name,' I cried.  With that he coolly called
+to the waiter to fill our glasses.  'Now,' said he, 'I've got a story for
+you.  Do you remember the cotillon, or whatever it was, that Cooke gave?
+Well, that was all in the Chicago papers, and the "Miles Standish" agent
+there saw it, and he knew pretty well that I wasn't West.  So he sent me
+the papers, just for fun.  You may imagine my surprise when I read that
+I had been leading a dance out at Mohair, or some such barbarous place in
+the northwest.  I looked it up on the map (Asquith, I mean), and then I
+began to think.  I wondered who in the devil it might be who had taken my
+name and occupation, and all that.  You see, I had just relieved the
+company of a little money, and it hit me like a clap of thunder one day
+that the idiot was you.  But I couldn't be sure.  And as long as I had to
+get out very soon anyway, I concluded to go to Mohair and make certain,
+and then pile things off on you if you happened to be the man.'"
+
+At this point Marian and I were seized with laughter, in which the
+Celebrity himself joined.  Presently he continued:
+
+"'So I went,' said Allen.  'I provided myself with two disguises, as a
+careful man should, but by the time I reached that outlandish hole,
+Asquith, the little thing I was mixed up in burst prematurely, and the
+papers were full of it that morning.  The whole place was out with
+sticks, so to speak, hunting for you.  They told me the published
+description hit you to a dot, all except the scar, and they quarrelled
+about that.  I posed as the promoter of resort syndicates, and I hired
+the Scimitar and sailed over to Bear Island; and I didn't have a bad time
+that afternoon, only Cooke insisted on making remarks about my whiskers,
+and I was in mortal fear lest he might accidentally pull one off.  He
+came cursed near it.  By the way, he's the very deuce of a man, isn't he?
+I knew he took me for a detective, so I played the part.  And in the
+night that ass of a state senator nearly gave me pneumonia by getting me
+out in the air to tell me they had hid you in a cave.  So I sat up all
+night, and followed the relief party in the morning, and you nearly
+disfigured me for life when you threw that bottle into the woods.  Then
+I went back to camp, and left so fast that I forgot my extra pair of red
+whiskers.  I had two of each disguise, you know, so I didn't miss them.
+
+"'I guess,' Mr. Allen went on, gleefully, 'that I got off about as
+cleanly as any criminal ever did, thanks to you.  If we'd fixed the thing
+up between us it couldn't have been any neater, could it?  Because I went
+straight to Far Harbor and got you into a peck of trouble, right away,
+and then slipped quietly into Canada, and put on the outfit of a
+travelling salesman.  And right here another bright idea struck me.  Why
+not carry the thing farther?  I knew that you had advertised a trip to
+Europe (why, the Lord only knows), so I went East and sailed for England
+on the Canadian Line.  And let me thank you for a little sport I had in a
+quiet way as the author of The Sybarites.  I think I astonished some of
+your friends, old boy.'"
+
+The Celebrity lighted another cigarette.
+
+"So if it hadn't been for me," he said, "the 'Miles Standish Bicycle
+Company' wouldn't have gone to the wall.  Can they sentence me for
+assisting Allen to get away, Crocker?  If they can, I believe I shall
+stay over here."
+
+"I think you are safe," said I.  "But didn't Allen tell you any more?"
+
+"No.  A man he used to know came into the cafe, and Allen got out of the
+back door.  And I never saw him again."
+
+"I believe I can tell you a little more," said Marian.
+
+                    ......................
+
+The Celebrity is still writing books of a high moral tone and
+unapproachable principle, and his popularity is undiminished.  I have not
+heard, however, that he has given way to any more whims.
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+That abominable word "like"
+
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CELEBRITY, V4, BY CHURCHILL ***
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