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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/716-h.zip b/716-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a277cc4 --- /dev/null +++ b/716-h.zip diff --git a/716-h/716-h.htm b/716-h/716-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7746b26 --- /dev/null +++ b/716-h/716-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,10618 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<HTML> +<HEAD> + +<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> + +<TITLE> +The Project Gutenberg E-text of The Cruise of the Jasper B., by Don Marquis +</TITLE> + +<STYLE TYPE="text/css"> +BODY { color: Black; + background: White; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; + text-align: justify } + +PRE { font-size: small ; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; } + +P {text-indent: 4% } + +P.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +P.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-size: small } + +P.letter {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 5%; + font-size: small } + +P.finis { text-align: center ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +</STYLE> + +</HEAD> + +<BODY> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Cruise of the Jasper B., by Don Marquis + +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 Cruise of the Jasper B. + +Author: Don Marquis + +Posting Date: August 12, 2008 [EBook #716] +Release Date: November, 1996 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CRUISE OF THE JASPER B. *** + + + + +Produced by John Gidusko. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + +</pre> + + +<BR><BR> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +THE CRUISE OF THE JASPER B. +</H1> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +BY +</H3> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +DON MARQUIS +</H2> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +TO ALL THE COPYREADERS ON ALL<BR>THE NEWSPAPERS OF AMERICA +</H3> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CONTENTS +</H2> + +<TABLE ALIGN="center" WIDTH="80%"> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">CHAPTER</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> </TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">I </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap01">A BRIGHT BLADE LEAPS FROM A RUSTY SCABBARD</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">II </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap02">THE ROOM OF ILLUSION</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">III </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap03">A SCHOONER, A SKIPPER, AND A SKULL</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IV </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap04">A BAD MAN TO CROSS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">V </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap05">BEAUTY IN DISTRESS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VI </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap06">LADY AGATHA'S STORY</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap07">FIRST BLOOD FOR CLEGGETT</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VIII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap08">A FLAME LEAPS OUT OF THE DARK</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IX </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap09">MYSTERIES MULTIPLY</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">X </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap10">IN THE ENEMY'S CAMP</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XI </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap11">REPARTEE AND PISTOLS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap12">THE SECOND OBLONG BOX</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap13">THE SOUL OF LOGAN BLACK</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIV </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap14">CLEGGETT STANDS BY HIS SHIP</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XV </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap15">NIGHT, TEMPEST, LOVE AND BATTLE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVI </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap16">ROMANCE REGNANT</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap17">MISS PRINGLE CALLS ON MR. CLEGGETT</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVIII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap18">THE MAN IN THE BLUE PAJAMAS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIX </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap19">TWO GREAT MEN MEET</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XX </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap20">THE PSYCHOLOGICAL DETECTIVE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXI </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap21">THE THIRD OBLONG BOX ARRIVES</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap22">DANCING ON THE DECK</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXIII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap23">CUTLASSES</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXIV </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap24">THE DUEL</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXV </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap25">THE SECRET OF THE VESSEL'S HOLD</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXVI </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap26">A DOG DIES GAME</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXVII </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap27">CLEGGETT ACCOMMODATES THE KING</A></TD> +</TR> + +</TABLE> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap01"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER I +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A BRIGHT BLADE LEAPS FROM A RUSTY SCABBARD +</H3> + +<P> +On an evening in April, 191-, Clement J. Cleggett walked sedately into +the news room of the New York Enterprise with a drab-colored +walking-stick in his hand. He stood the cane in a corner, changed his +sober street coat for a more sober office jacket, adjusted a green +eyeshade below his primly brushed grayish hair, unostentatiously sat +down at the copy desk, and unobtrusively opened a drawer. +</P> + +<P> +From the drawer he took a can of tobacco, a pipe, a pair of scissors, a +paste-pot and brush, a pile of copy paper, a penknife and three +half-lengths of lead pencil. +</P> + +<P> +The can of tobacco was not remarkable. The pipe was not picturesque. +The scissors were the most ordinary of scissors. The copy paper was +quite undistinguished in appearance. The lead pencils had the most +untemperamental looking points. +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett himself, as he filled and lighted the pipe, did it in the most +matter-of-fact sort of way. Then he remarked to the head of the copy +desk, in an average kind of voice: +</P> + +<P> +"H'lo, Jim." +</P> + +<P> +"H'lo, Clegg," said Jim, without looking up. "Might as well begin on +this bunch of early copy, I guess." +</P> + +<P> +For more than ten years Cleggett had done the same thing at the same +time in the same manner, six nights of the week. +</P> + +<P> +What he did on the seventh night no one ever thought to inquire. If any +member of the Enterprise staff had speculated about it at all he would +have assumed that Cleggett spent that seventh evening in some way +essentially commonplace, sober, unemotional, quiet, colorless, dull and +Brooklynitish. +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett lived in Brooklyn. The superficial observer might have said +that Cleggett and Brooklyn were made for each other. +</P> + +<P> +The superficial observer! How many there are of him! And how much he +misses! He misses, in fact, everything. +</P> + +<P> +At two o'clock in the morning a telegraph operator approached the copy +desk and handed Cleggett a sheet of yellow paper, with the remark: +</P> + +<P> +"Cleggett—personal wire." +</P> + +<P> +It was a night letter, and glancing at the signature Cleggett saw that +it was from his brother who lived in Boston. It ran: +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +Uncle Tom died yesterday. Don't faint now. He splits bulk fortune +between you and me. Lawyers figure nearly $500,000 each. Mostly easily +negotiable securities. New will made month ago while sore at president +temperance outfit. Blood thicker than Apollinaris after all. Poor +Uncle Tom. +<BR><BR> + Edward.<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Despite Edward's thoughtful warning, Cleggett did nearly faint. Nothing +could have been less expected. Uncle Tom was an irascible +prohibitionist, and one of the most deliberately disobliging men on +earth. Cleggett and his brother had long ceased to expect anything +from him. For twenty years it had been thoroughly understood that +Uncle Tom would leave his entire estate to a temperance society. +Cleggett had ceased to think of Uncle Tom as a possible factor in his +life. He did not doubt that Uncle Tom had changed the will to gain +some point with the officials of the temperance society, intending to +change it once again after he had been deferred to, cajoled, and +flattered enough to placate his vanity. But death had stepped in just +in time to disinherit the enemies of the Demon Rum. +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett read the wire through twice, and then folded it and put it +into his pocket. He rose and walked toward the managing editor's room. +As he stepped across the floor there was a little dancing light in his +eyes, there was a faint smile upon his lips, that were quite foreign to +the staid and sober Cleggett that the world knew. He was quiet, but he +was almost jaunty, too; he felt a little drunk, and enjoyed the feeling. +</P> + +<P> +He opened the managing editor's door with more assurance than he had +ever displayed before. The managing editor, a pompous, tall, thin man +with a drooping frosty mustache, and cold gray eyes in a cold gray face +that somehow reminded one of the visage of a walrus, was preparing to +go home. +</P> + +<P> +"Well?" he said, shortly. +</P> + +<P> +He was a man for whom Cleggett had long felt a secret antipathy. The +man was, in short, the petty tyrant of Cleggett's little world. +</P> + +<P> +"Can you spare me a couple of minutes, Mr. Wharton?" said Cleggett. +But he did not say it with the air of a person who really sues for a +hearing. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, yes—go on." Mr. Wharton, who had risen from his chair, sat down +again. He was distinctly annoyed. He was ungracious. He was usually +ungracious with Cleggett. His face set itself in the expression it +always took when he declined to consider raising a man's salary. +Cleggett, who had been refused a raise regularly every three months for +the past two years, was familiar with the look. +</P> + +<P> +"Go on, go on—what is it?" asked Mr. Wharton unpleasantly, frowning +and stroking the frosty mustache, first one side and then the other. +</P> + +<P> +"I just stepped in to tell you," said Cleggett quietly, "that I don't +think much of the way you are running the Enterprise." +</P> + +<P> +Wharton stopped stroking his mustache so quickly and so amazedly that +one might have thought he had run into a thorn amongst the hirsute +growth and pricked a finger. He glared. He opened his mouth. But +before he could speak Cleggett went on: +</P> + +<P> +"Three years ago I made a number of suggestions to you. You treated me +contemptuously—very contemptuously!" +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett paused and drew a long breath, and his face became quite red. +It was as if the anger in which he could not afford to indulge himself +three years before was now working in him with cumulative effect. +Wharton, only partially recovered from the shock of Cleggett's sudden +arraignment, began to stammer and bluster, using the words nearest his +tongue: +</P> + +<P> +"You d-damned im-p-pertinent———" +</P> + +<P> +"Just a moment," Cleggett interrupted, growing visibly angrier, and +seeming to enjoy his anger more and more. "Just a word more. I had +intended to conclude my remarks by telling you that my contempt for +YOU, personally, is unbounded. It is boundless, sir! But since you +have sworn at me, I am forced to conclude this interview in another +fashion." +</P> + +<P> +And with a gesture which was not devoid of dignity Cleggett drew from +an upper waistcoat pocket a card and flung it on Wharton's desk. After +which he stepped back and made a formal bow. +</P> + +<P> +Wharton looked at the card. Bewilderment almost chased the anger from +his face. +</P> + +<P> +"Eh," he said, "what's this?" +</P> + +<P> +"My card, sir! A friend will wait on you tomorrow!" +</P> + +<P> +"Tomorrow? A friend? What for?" +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett folded his arms and regarded the managing editor with a touch +of the supercilious in his manner. +</P> + +<P> +"If you were a gentleman," he said, "you would have no difficulty in +understanding these things. I have just done you the honor of +challenging you to a duel." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Wharton's mouth opened as if he were about to explode in a roar of +incredulous laughter. But meeting Cleggett's eyes, which were, indeed, +sparkling with a most remarkable light, his jaw dropped, and he turned +slightly pale. He rose from his chair and put the desk between himself +and Cleggett, picking up as he did so a long pair of shears. +</P> + +<P> +"Put down the scissors," said Cleggett, with a wave of his hand. "I do +not propose to attack you now." +</P> + +<P> +And he turned and left the managing editor's little office, closing the +door behind him. +</P> + +<P> +The managing editor tiptoed over to the door and, with the scissors +still grasped in one hand, opened it about a quarter of an inch. +Through this crack Wharton saw Cleggett walk jauntily towards the +corner where his hat and coat were hanging. Cleggett took off his worn +office jacket, rolled it into a ball, and flung it into a waste paper +basket. He put on his street coat and hat and picked up the +drab-colored cane. Swinging the stick he moved towards the door into +the hall. In the doorway he paused, cocked his hat a trifle, turned +towards the managing editor's door, raised his hand with his pipe in it +with the manner of one who points a dueling pistol, took careful aim at +the second button of the managing editor's waistcoat, and clucked. At +the cluck the managing editor drew back hastily, as if Cleggett had +actually presented a firearm; Cleggett's manner was so rapt and fatal +that it carried conviction. Then Cleggett laughed, cocked his hat on +the other side of his head and went out into the corridor whistling. +Whistling, and, since faults as well as virtues must be told, +swaggering just a little. +</P> + +<P> +When the managing editor had heard the elevator come up, pause, and go +down again, he went out of his room and said to the city editor: +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Herbert, don't ever let that man Cleggett into this office again. +He is off—off mentally. He's a dangerous man. He's a homicidal +maniac. More'n likely he's been a quiet, steady drinker for years, and +now it's begun to show on him." +</P> + +<P> +But nothing was further from Cleggett than the wish ever to go into the +Enterprise office again. As he left the elevator on the ground floor +he stabbed the astonished elevator boy under the left arm with his cane +as a bayonet, cut him harmlessly over the head with his cane as a +saber, tossed him a dollar, and left the building humming: +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, the Beau Sabreur of the Grande Armee Was the Captain Tarjeanterre!" +</P> + +<P> +It is thus, with a single twitch of her playful fingers, that Fate +will sometimes pluck from a man the mask that has obscured his real +identity for many years. It is thus that Destiny will suddenly draw a +bright blade from a rusty scabbard! +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap02"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER II +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE ROOM OF ILLUSION +</H3> + +<P> +That part of Brooklyn in which Cleggett lived overlooks a wide sweep of +water where the East River merges with New York Bay. From his windows +he could gaze out upon the bustling harbor craft and see the ships +going forth to the great mysterious sea. +</P> + +<P> +He walked home across the Brooklyn Bridge, and as he walked he still +hummed tunes. Occasionally, still with the rapt and fatal manner which +had daunted the managing editor, he would pause and flex his wrist, and +then suddenly deliver a ferocious thrust with his walking-stick. +</P> + +<P> +The fifth of these lunges had an unexpected result. Cleggett directed +it toward the door of an unpainted toolhouse, a temporary structure +near one of the immense stone pillars from which the bridge is swung. +But, as he lunged, the toolhouse door opened, and a policeman, who was +coming out wiping his mouth on the back of his hand, received a jab in +the pit of a somewhat protuberant stomach. +</P> + +<P> +The officer grunted and stepped backward; then he came on, raising his +night-stick. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, it's—it's McCarthy!" exclaimed Cleggett, who had also sprung +back, as the light fell on the other's face. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Cleggett, by the powers!" said the officer, pausing and lowering +his lifted club. "Are ye soused, man? Or is it your way of sayin' +good avenin' to your frinds?" +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett smiled. He had first known McCarthy years before when he was +a reporter, and more recently had renewed the acquaintance in his walks +across the bridge. +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't know you were there, McCarthy," he said. +</P> + +<P> +"No?" said the officer. "And who were ye jabbin' at, thin?" +</P> + +<P> +"I was just limbering up my wrist," said Cleggett. +</P> + +<P> +"'Tis a quare thing to do," persisted McCarthy, albeit good-humoredly. +"And now I mind I've seen ye do the same before, Mr. Cleggett. You're +foriver grinnin' to yersilf an' makin' thim funny jabs at nothin' as ye +cross the bridge. Are ye subjict to stiffness in the wrists, Mr. +Cleggett?" +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps it's writer's cramp," said Cleggett, indulging the pleasant +humor that was on him. He was really thinking that, with $500,000 of +his own, he had written his last headline, edited his last piece of +copy, sharpened his last pencil. +</P> + +<P> +"Writer's cramp? Is it so?" mused McCarthy. "Newspapers is great +things, ain't they now? And so's writin' and readin'. Gr-r-reat +things! But if ye'll take my advise, Mr. Cleggett, ye'll kape that +writin' and readin' within bounds. Too much av thim rots the brains." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll remember that," said Cleggett. And he playfully jabbed the +officer again as he turned away. +</P> + +<P> +"G'wan wid ye!" protested McCarthy. "Ye're soused! The scent av it's +in the air. If I'm compilled to run yez in f'r assaultin' an officer +ye'll get the cramps out av thim wrists breakin' stone, maybe. +Cr-r-r-amps, indade!" +</P> + +<P> +Cramps, indeed! Oh, Clement J. Cleggett, you liar! And yet, who does +not lie in order to veil his inmost, sweetest thoughts from an +unsympathetic world? +</P> + +<P> +That was not an ordinary jab with an ordinary cane which Cleggett had +directed towards the toolhouse door. It was a thrust en carte; the +thrust of a brilliant swordsman; the thrust of a master; a terrible +thrust. It was meant for as pernicious a bravo as ever infested the +pages of romantic fiction. Cleggett had been slaying these gentry a +dozen times a day for years. He had pinked four of them on the way +across the bridge, before McCarthy, with his stomach and his realism, +stopped the lunge intended for the fifth. But this is not exactly the +sort of thing one finds it easy to confide to a policeman, be he ever +so friendly a policeman. +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett—Old Clegg, the copyreader—Clegg, the commonplace—C. J. +Cleggett, the Brooklynite-this person whom young reporters conceived of +as the staid, dry prophet of the dusty Fact—was secretly a mighty +reservoir of unwritten, unacted, unlived, unspoken romance. He ate it, +he drank it, he breathed it, he dreamed it. The usual copyreader, when +he closes his eyes and smiles upon a pleasant inward vision, is +thinking of starting a chicken-farm in New Jersey. But Cleggett—with +gray sprinkled in his hair, sober of face and precise of manner, as the +world knew him—lived a hidden life which was one long, wild adventure. +</P> + +<P> +Nobody had ever suspected it. But his room might have given to the +discerning a clue to the real man behind the mask which he +assumed—which he had been forced to assume in order to earn a living. +When he reached the apartment, a few minutes after his encounter on the +bridge, and switched the electric light on, the gleams fell upon an +astonishing clutter of books and arms.... +</P> + +<P> +Stevenson, cavalry sabers, W. Clark Russell, pistols, and Dumas; Jack +London, poignards, bowie knives, Stanley Weyman, Captain Marryat, and +Dumas; sword canes, Scottish claymores, Cuban machetes, Conan Doyle, +Harrison Ainsworth, dress swords, and Dumas; stilettos, daggers, +hunting knives, Fenimore Cooper, G. P. R. James, broadswords, Dumas; +Gustave Aimard, Rudyard Kipling, dueling swords, Dumas; F. Du +Boisgobey, Malay krises, Walter Scott, stick pistols, scimitars, +Anthony Hope, single sticks, foils, Dumas; jungles of arms, jumbles of +books; arms of all makes and periods; arms on the walls, in the +corners, over the fireplace, leaning against the bookshelves, lying in +ambush under the bed, peeping out of the wardrobe, propping the windows +open, serving as paper weights; pictures, warlike and romantic prints +and engravings, pinned to the walls with daggers; in the wardrobe, +coats and hats hanging from poignards and stilettos thrust into the +wood instead of from nails or hooks. But of all the weapons it was the +rapiers, of all the books it was Dumas, that he loved. There was Dumas +in French, Dumas in English, Dumas with pictures, Dumas unillustrated, +Dumas in cloth, Dumas in leather, Dumas in boards, Dumas in paper +covers. Cleggett had been twenty years getting these arms and books +together; often he had gone without a dinner in order to make a payment +on some blade he fancied. And each weapon was also a book to him; he +sensed their stories as he handled them; he felt the personalities of +their former owners stirring in him when he picked them up. It was in +that room that he dreamed; which is to say, it was in that room that he +lived his real life. +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett walked over to his writing desk and pulled out a bulky +manuscript. It was his own work. Is it necessary to hint that it was +a tale essentially romantic in character? +</P> + +<P> +He flung it into the grate and set fire to it. It represented the +labor of two years, but as he watched it burn, stirring the sheets now +and then so the flames would catch them more readily, he smiled, +unvisited by even the most shadowy second thought of regret. +</P> + +<P> +For why the deuce should a man with $500,000 in his pocket write +romances? Why should anyone write anything who is free to live? For +the first time in his existence Cleggett was free. +</P> + +<P> +He picked up a sword. It was one of his favorite rapiers. Sometimes +people came out of the books—sometimes shadowy forms came back to +claim the weapons that had been theirs—and Cleggett fought them. +There was not an unscarred piece of furniture in the place. He bent +the flexible blade in his hands, tried the point of it, formally +saluted, brought the weapon to parade, dallied with his imaginary +opponent's sword for an instant.... +</P> + +<P> +It seemed as if one of those terrible, but brilliant, duels, with which +that room was so familiar, was about to be enacted.... But he laid the +rapier down. After all, the rapier is scarcely a thing of this +century. Cleggett, for the first time, felt a little impatient with +the rapier. It is all very well to DREAM with a rapier. But now, he +was free; reality was before him; the world of actual adventure called. +He had but to choose! +</P> + +<P> +He considered. He tried to look into that bright, adventurous future. +Presently he went to the window, and gazed out. Tides of night and +mystery, flooding in from the farther, dark, mysterious ocean, all but +submerged lower Manhattan; high and beautiful above these waves of +shadow, triumphing over them and accentuating them, shone a star from +the top of the Woolworth building; flecks of light indicated the noble +curve of that great bridge which soars like a song in stone and steel +above the shifting waters; the river itself was dotted here and there +with moving lights; it was a nocturne waiting for its Whistler; here +sea and city met in glamour and beauty and illusion. +</P> + +<P> +But it was not the city which called to Cleggett. It was the sea. +</P> + +<P> +A breeze blew in from the bay and stirred his window curtains; it was +salt in his nostrils.... And, staring out into the breathing night, he +saw a succession of pictures.... +</P> + +<P> +Stripped to a pair of cotton trousers, with a dripping cutlass in one +hand and a Colt's revolver in the other, an adventurer at the head of a +bunch of dogs as desperate as himself fought his way across the reeking +decks of a Chinese junk, to close in single combat with a gigantic +one-eyed pirate who stood by the helm with a ring of dead men about him +and a great two-handed sword upheaved.... This adventurer was—Clement +J. Cleggett! ... +</P> + +<P> +Through the phosphorescent waters of a summer sea, reckless of cruising +sharks, a sailor's clasp knife in his teeth, glided noiselessly a +strong swimmer; he reached the side of a schooner yacht from which rose +the wild cries of beauty in distress, swarmed aboard with a muttered +prayer that was half a curse, swept the water from his eyes, and with +pale, stern face went about the bloody business of a hero.... Again, +this adventurer was Clement J. Cleggett! +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett turned from the window. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll do it," he cried. "I'll do it!" +</P> + +<P> +He grasped a cutlass. +</P> + +<P> +"Pirates!" he cried, swinging it about his head. "That's the +thing—pirates and the China Seas!" +</P> + +<P> +And with one frightful sweep of his blade he disemboweled a sofa +cushion; the second blow clove his typewriting machine clean to the +tattoo marks upon its breast; the third decapitated a sectional +bookcase. +</P> + +<P> +But what is a sectional bookcase to a man with $500,000 in his pocket +and the Seven Seas before him? +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap03"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER III +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A SCHOONER, A SKIPPER, AND A SKULL +</H3> + +<P> +It was a few days later, when a goodly number of the late Uncle Tom's +easily negotiable securities had been converted into cash, and the cash +deposited in the bank, that Cleggett bought the Jasper B. +</P> + +<P> +He discovered her near the town of Fairport, Long Island, one +afternoon. The vessel lay in one of the canals which reach inward from +the Great South Bay. She looked as if she might have been there for +some time. Evidently, at one period, the Jasper B. had played a part +in some catch-coin scheme of summer entertainment; a scheme that had +failed. Little trace of it remained except a rotting wooden platform, +roofless and built close to the canal, and a gangway arrangement from +this platform to the deck of the vessel. +</P> + +<P> +The Jasper B. had seen better days; even a landsman could tell that. +But from the blunt bows to the weather-scarred stern, on which the name +was faintly discernible, the hulk had an air about it, the air of +something that has lived; it was eloquent of a varied and interesting +past. +</P> + +<P> +And, to complete the picture, there sat on her deck a gnarled and brown +old man. He smoked a short pipe which was partially hidden in a tangle +of beard that had once been yellowish red but was now streaked with +dirty white; he fished earnestly without apparent result, and from time +to time he spat into the water. Cleggett's nimble fancy at once put +rings into his ears and dowered him with a history. +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett noticed, as he walked aboard the vessel, that she seemed to be +jammed not merely against, but into the bank of the canal. She was +nearer the shore than he had ever seen a vessel of any sort. Some +weeds grew in soil that had lodged upon the deck; in a couple of places +they sprang as high as the rail. Weeds grew on shore; in fact, it +would have taken a better nautical authority than Cleggett to tell +offhand just exactly where the land ended and the Jasper B. began. She +seemed to be possessed of an odd stability; although the tide was +receding the Jasper B. was not perceptibly agitated by the motion of +the water. Of anchor, or mooring chains or cables of any sort, there +was no sign. +</P> + +<P> +The brown old man—he was brown not only as to the portions of his skin +visible through his hair and whiskers, but also as to coat and trousers +and worn boots and cap and pipe and flannel shirt—turned around as +Cleggett stepped aboard, and stared at the invader with a shaggy-browed +intensity that was embarrassing. +</P> + +<P> +It occurred to Cleggett that the old man might own the vessel and make +a home of her. +</P> + +<P> +"I beg your pardon if I am intruding," ventured Cleggett, politely, +"but do you live here?" +</P> + +<P> +The brown old man made an indeterminate motion of his head, without +otherwise replying at once. Then he took a cake of dark, hard-looking +tobacco from the starboard pocket of his trousers and a clasp knife +from the port side. He shaved off a fresh pipeful, rolled it in his +palms, knocked the old ash from his pipe, refilled and relighted it, +all with the utmost deliberation. Then he cut another small piece of +tobacco from the "plug" and popped it into his mouth. Cleggett +perceived with surprise that he smoked and chewed tobacco at the same +time. As he thus refreshed himself he glanced from time to time at +Cleggett as if unfavorably impressed. Finally he closed his knife with +a click and suddenly piped out in a high, shrill voice: +</P> + +<P> +"No! Do you?" +</P> + +<P> +"I—er—do I what?" It had taken the old man so long to answer that +Cleggett had forgotten his own question, and the shrill fierceness of +the voice was disconcerting. +</P> + +<P> +He regarded Cleggett contemptuously, spat on the deck, and then +demanded truculently: +</P> + +<P> +"D'ye want to buy any seed potatoes?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why—er, no," said Cleggett. +</P> + +<P> +"Humph!" said the brown one, with the air of meaning that it was only +to be expected of an idiot like Cleggett that he would NOT want to buy +any seed potatoes. But after a further embarrassing silence he +relented enough to give Cleggett another chance. +</P> + +<P> +"You want some seed corn!" he announced rather than asked. +</P> + +<P> +"No. I———" +</P> + +<P> +"Tomato plants!" shrilled the brown one, as if daring him to deny it. +</P> + +<P> +"No." +</P> + +<P> +He turned his back on Cleggett, as if he had lost interest, and began +to wind up his fishing line on a squeaky reel. +</P> + +<P> +"Who owns this boat?" Cleggett touched him on the elbow. +</P> + +<P> +"Thinkin' of buyin' her?" +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps. Who owns her?" +</P> + +<P> +"What would you do with her?" +</P> + +<P> +"I might fix her up and sail her. Who owns her?" +</P> + +<P> +"She'll take a sight o' fixin'." +</P> + +<P> +"No doubt. Who did you say owned her?" +</P> + +<P> +The old man, who had finished with the rusty reel, deigned to look at +Cleggett again. +</P> + +<P> +"Dunno as I said." +</P> + +<P> +"But who DOES own her?" +</P> + +<P> +"She's stuck fast in the mud and her rudder's gone." +</P> + +<P> +"I see you know a lot about ships," said Cleggett, deferentially, +giving up the attempt to find out who owned her. "I picked you out for +an old sailor the minute I saw you." He thought he detected a kindlier +gleam in the old man's eye as that person listened to these words. +</P> + +<P> +"The' ain't a stick in her," said the ancient fisherman. "She's got no +wheel and she's got no nothin'. She used to be used as a kind of a +barroom and dancin' platform till the fellow that used her for such +went out o' business." +</P> + +<P> +He paused, and then added: +</P> + +<P> +"What might your name be?" +</P> + +<P> +"Cleggett." +</P> + +<P> +He appeared to reflect on the name. But he said: +</P> + +<P> +"If you was to ask me, I'd say her timbers is sound." +</P> + +<P> +"Tell me," said Cleggett, "was she a deep-water ship? Could a ship +like her sail around the world, for instance? I can tell that you know +all about ships." +</P> + +<P> +Something like a grin of gratified vanity began to show on the brown +one's features. He leaned back against the rail and looked at Cleggett +with the dawn of approval in his eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"My name's Abernethy," he suddenly volunteered. "Isaiah Abernethy. +The fellow that owns her is Goldberg. Abraham Goldberg. Real estate +man." +</P> + +<P> +"Cleggett began to get an insight into Mr. Abernethy's peculiar ideas +concerning conversation. A native spirit of independence prevented Mr. +Abernethy from dealing with an interlocutor's remarks in the sequence +that seemed to be desired by the interlocutor. He took a selection of +utterances into his mind, rolled them over together, and replied in +accordance with some esoteric system of his own. +</P> + +<P> +"Where is Mr. Goldberg's office?" asked Cleggett. +</P> + +<P> +"You've come to the proper party to get set right about ships," said +Mr. Abernethy, complacently. "Either you was sent to me by someone that +knows I'm the proper party to set you right about ships, or else you +got an eye in your own head that can recognize a man that comes of a +seafarin' fambly." +</P> + +<P> +"You ARE an old sailor, then? Maybe you are an old skipper? Perhaps +you're one of the retired Long Island sea captains we're always hearing +so much about?" +</P> + +<P> +"So fur as sailin' her around the world is concerned," said Mr. +Abernethy, glancing over the hulk, "if she was fixed up she could be +sailed anywheres—anywheres!" +</P> + +<P> +"What would you call her—a schooner?" +</P> + +<P> +"This here Goldberg," said Mr. Abernethy, "has his office over town +right accost from the railroad depot." +</P> + +<P> +And with that he put his fishing pole over his shoulder and prepared to +leave—a tall, strong-looking old man with long legs and knotty wrists, +who moved across the deck with surprising spryness. At the gangplank he +sang out without turning his head: +</P> + +<P> +"As far as my bein' a skipper's concerned, they's no law agin' callin' +me Cap'n Abernethy if you want to. I come of a seafarin' fambly." +</P> + +<P> +He crossed the platform; when he had gone thirty yards further he +stopped, turned around, and shouted: +</P> + +<P> +"Is she a schooner, hey? You want to know is she a schooner? If you +was askin' me, she ain't NOTHIN' now. But if you was to ask me again I +might say she COULD be schooner-rigged. Lots of boats IS +schooner-rigged." +</P> + +<P> +There are affinities between atom and atom, between man and woman, +between man and man. There are also affinities between men and +things-if you choose to call a ship, which has a spirit of its own, +merely a thing. There must have been this affinity between Cleggett +and the Jasper B. Only an unusual person would have thought of buying +her. But Cleggett loved her at first sight. +</P> + +<P> +Within an hour after he had first seen her he was in Mr. Abraham +Goldberg's office. +</P> + +<P> +As he was concluding his purchase—Mr. Goldberg having phoned +Cleggett's bankers—he was surprised to discover that he was buying +about half an acre of Long Island real estate along with her. For that +matter he had thought it a little odd in the first place when he had +been directed to a real estate agent as the owner of the craft. But as +he knew very little about business, and nothing at all about ships, he +assumed that perhaps it was quite the usual thing for real estate +dealers to buy and sell ships abutting on the coast of Long Island. +</P> + +<P> +"I had only intended to buy the vessel," said Cleggett. "I don't know +that I'll be able to use the land." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Goldberg looked at Cleggett with a slight start, as if he were not +sure that he had heard aright, and opened his mouth as if to say +something. But nothing came of it—not just then, at least. When the +last signature had been written, and Clegget's check had been folded by +Mr. Goldberg's plump, bejeweled fingers and put into Mr. Goldberg's +pocketbook, Mr. Goldberg remarked: +</P> + +<P> +"You say you can't use the ship?" +</P> + +<P> +"No; the land. I'm surprised to find that the land goes with the ship." +</P> + +<P> +"Why, it doesn't," said Mr. Goldberg. "It's the ship that goes with +the land. She was on the land when I bought the plot, and I just left +her there. Nobody's paid any attention to her for years." +</P> + +<P> +The words "on the land" grated on Cleggett. +</P> + +<P> +"You mean on the water, don't you?" +</P> + +<P> +"In the mud, then," suggested Mr. Goldberg. +</P> + +<P> +"But she'll sail all right," said Cleggett. +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose if she was decorated up with sails and things she'd sail. +Figuring on sailing her anywhere in particular?" +</P> + +<P> +Subtly irritated, Cleggett answered: "Oh, no, no! Not anywhere in +particular!" +</P> + +<P> +"Going to live on her this summer?—Outdoor sleeping room, and all +that?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm thinking of it." +</P> + +<P> +"You could turn her into a house boat easy enough. I had a friend who +turned an old barge like that into a house boat and had a lot of fun +with her." +</P> + +<P> +"Barge?" Cleggett rose and buttoned his coat; the conversation was +somehow growing more and more distasteful to him. "You wouldn't call +the Jasper B. a BARGE, would you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, you wouldn't call her a YACHT, would you?" said Mr. Goldberg. +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps not," admitted Cleggett, "perhaps not. She's more like a bark +than a yacht." +</P> + +<P> +"A bark? I dunno. Always thought a bark was bigger. A scow's more +her size, ain't it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Scow?" Cleggett frowned. The Jasper B. a scow! "You mean a +schooner, don't you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Schooner?" Mr. Goldberg grinned good-naturedly at his departing +customer. "A kind of a schooner-scow, huh?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, sir, a schooner!" said Cleggett, reddening, and turning in the +doorway. "Understand me, Mr. Goldberg, a schooner, sir! A schooner!" +</P> + +<P> +And standing with a frown on his face until every vestige of the smile +had died from Mr. Goldberg's lips, Cleggett repeated once more: "A +schooner, Mr. Goldberg!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sir—there's no doubt of it—a schooner, Mr. Cleggett," said Mr. +Goldberg, turning pale and backing away from the door. +</P> + +<P> +The ordinary man inspects a house or a horse first and buys it, or +fails to buy it, afterward; but genius scorns conventions; Cleggett was +not an ordinary man; he often moved straight towards his object by +inspiration; great poets and great adventurers share this faculty; +Cleggett paid for the Jasper B. first and went back to inspect his +purchase later. +</P> + +<P> +The vessel lay about two miles from the center of Fairport. He could +get within half a mile of it by trolley. Nevertheless, when he reached +the Jasper B. again after leaving Mr. Goldberg it was getting along +towards dusk. +</P> + +<P> +He first entered the cabin. It was of a good size and divided into +several compartments. But it was in a state of dilapidation and +littered with a jumble of odds and ends which looked like the ruins of +a barroom. As he turned to ascend to the deck again, after possibly +five minutes, intending to take a look at the forecastle next, he heard +the sound of a motor. +</P> + +<P> +Looking out of the cabin he saw a taxicab approaching the boat from the +direction of Fairport. It was a large machine, but it was overloaded +with seven or eight men. It stopped within twenty yards of the vessel, +and two men got out, one of them evidently a person who imposed some +sort of leadership on the rest of the party. This was a tall fellow, +with a slouching gait and round shoulders. And yet, to judge from his +movements, he was both quick and powerful. The other was a short, +stout man with a commonplace, broad red face and flaxen hair. The two +stood for a moment in colloquy in the road that led from Fairport +proper to the bayside, passing near the Jasper B., and Cleggett heard +the shorter of the two men say: +</P> + +<P> +"I'm sure I saw somebody aboard of her." +</P> + +<P> +"How long ago, Heinrich?" asked the tall man. +</P> + +<P> +"An hour or so," said Heinrich. +</P> + +<P> +"It was old man Abernethy; he's harmless," said the tall fellow. "He's +the only person that's been aboard her in years." +</P> + +<P> +"There was someone else," persisted Heinrich. "Someone who was talking +to Abernethy." +</P> + +<P> +The tall man mumbled something about having been a fool not to buy her +before this; Cleggett did not catch all of the remark. Then the tall +fellow said: +</P> + +<P> +"We'll go aboard, Heinrich, and take a look around." +</P> + +<P> +With that they advanced towards the vessel. Cleggett stepped on deck +from the cabin companionway, and both men stopped short at the sight of +him, Heinrich obviously a trifle confused, but the other one in no wise +abashed. He made no attempt, this tall fellow, to give the situation a +casual turn. What he did was to stand and stare at Cleggett, candidly, +and with more than a touch of insolence, as if trying to beat down +Cleggett's gaze. +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett, staring in his turn, perceived that the tall man, ungainly as +he was, affected a bizarre individualism in the matter of dress. His +clothing cried out, rather than suggested, that it was expensive. His +feet were cased in button shoes with fancy tops; his waistcoat, cut in +the extreme of style, revealed that little strip of white which falsely +advertises a second waistcoat beneath, but in his case the strip was +too broad. There were diamonds on the fingers of both powerful hands. +But the thing that grated particularly upon Cleggett was the character +of the man's scarfpin. It was by far the largest ornament of the sort +that Cleggett had ever seen; he was near enough to the fellow to make +out that it had been carved from a piece of solid ivory in the likeness +of a skull. In the eyeholes of the skull two opals flamed with an evil +levin. The man suggested to Cleggett, at first glance, a bartender who +had come into money, or a drayman who had been promoted to an important +office in a labor union and was spending the most of a considerable +salary on his person. And yet his face, more closely observed, somehow +gave the lie to his clothes, for it was not lacking in the signs of +intelligence. In spite of his taste, or rather lack of taste, there +was no hint of weakness in his physiognomy. His features were harsh, +bold, predatory; a slightly yellowish tinge about the temples and cheek +bones, suggestive of the ivory ornament, proclaimed a bilious +temperament. +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett, both puzzled and nettled by the man's persistent gaze, +advanced towards him across the deck of the Jasper B. and down the +gangplank, hand on hip, and called out sharply: +</P> + +<P> +"Well, my friend, you will know me the next time you see me!" +</P> + +<P> +The tall man turned without a word and walked back to the taxicab, the +occupants of which had watched this singular duel of looks in silence. +In the act of getting into the machine he face about again and said, +with a lift of the lip that showed two long, protruding canine teeth of +an almost saffron hue: +</P> + +<P> +"I WILL know you again." +</P> + +<P> +He spoke with a kind of cold hostility that gave his words all the +effect of a threat. Cleggett felt the blood leap faster through his +veins; he tingled with a fierce, illogical desire to strike the fellow +on the mouth; his soul stirred with a premonition of conflict, and the +desire for it. And yet, on the surface of things at least, the man had +been nothing more than rude; as Cleggett watched the machine make off +towards an isolated road house on the bayside he wondered at the quick +intensity of his own antipathy. Unconsciously he flexed his wrist in +his characteristic gesture. Scarcely knowing that he spoke, he +murmured: +</P> + +<P> +"That man gets on my nerves." +</P> + +<P> +That man was destined to do something more than get on Cleggett's +nerves before the adventures of the Jasper B. were ended. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap04"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IV +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A BAD MAN TO CROSS +</H3> + +<P> +The isolated road house on the bay was a nondescript, jumbled, +dilapidated-looking assemblage of structures, rather than one house. +It was known simply as Morris's. It stood a few hundred yards west of +the end of the canal which opened into the bay and was about a quarter +of a mile from the Jasper B. +</P> + +<P> +The canal itself was broad, straight, low-banked, and about +three-quarters of a mile in length. The town had thrown out a few +ranks of cottages in the direction of the canal. But these were all +summer bungalows, occupied only from June until the middle of +September. The solider and more permanent part of Fairport was well +withdrawn from the sandy, sedgy stretches that bordered on tidewater. +</P> + +<P> +At the north and inland terminus of the quiet strip of water in which +the Jasper B. reposed was a collection of buildings including +bathhouses, a boathouse, and a sort of shed where "soft drinks" and sea +food were served during the bathing season. This place was known as +Parker's Beach and was open only during the summer. +</P> + +<P> +Morris's was of quite a different character from Parker's Beach. One +could bathe at Morris's, but the beach near by was not particularly +good. One could hire boats there and buy bait for a fishing trip. In +one of its phases it made some pretensions to being a summer hotel. It +had an extensive barroom. There was a dancing floor, none too smooth. +There were long verandahs on three sides. That on the south side was +built on piles, people ate and drank there in the summer; beneath it +the water swished and gurgled when the tide was in. +</P> + +<P> +The townspeople of Fairport, or the more respectable ones, kept away +from Morris's, summer and winter. Summer transients, inhabitants of +the bungalows during the bathing season, patronized the place. But +most of the patronage at all seasons seemed to consist of automobile +parties from the city; people apparently drawn from all classes, or +eluding definite classification entirely. In the bleakest season there +was always a little stir of dubious activity about Morris's. In the +summer it impressed you with its look of cheapness. In the winter, +squatted by the cold water amidst its huddle of unpainted outhouses, at +the end of a stretch of desolate beach, the fancy gave Morris's a touch +of the sinister. +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett was anxious to get the Jasper B. into seaworthy condition as +soon as possible. It occurred to him that the employment of expert +advice should be his first step, and early the next morning he hired +Captain Abernethy. That descendant of a seafaring family, though he +felt it incumbent upon him to offer objections that had to be overcome +with a great show of respect, was really overjoyed at the commission. +He left his own cottage a mile or so away and took up his abode in the +forecastle at once. By nine o'clock that morning Cleggett had a force +of workmen renovating both cabin and forecastle, putting the cook's +galley into working order, and cleansing the decks of soil and sand. +That night Cleggett spent on the vessel, with Captain Abernethy. +</P> + +<P> +By Saturday of the same week—Cleggett had bought the vessel on +Wednesday—he was able to take up his abode in the cabin with his books +and arms about him. To his library he had added a treatise on +navigation. And, reflecting that his firearms were worthless, +considered as modern weapons, he also purchased a score of .44 caliber +Colt's revolvers and automatic pistols of the latest pattern, and a +dozen magazine rifles. +</P> + +<P> +He brought on board at the same time, for cook and cabin boy, a +Japanese lad, who said he was a sailor, and who called himself +Yoshahira Kuroki, and a Greek, George Stefanopolous. +</P> + +<P> +The latter was a handsome, rather burly fellow of about thirty, a man +with a kindling eye and a habit of boasting of his ancestors. +</P> + +<P> +Among them, he declared, was Leonidas, the hero of Thermopylae. George +admitted he was not a sailor, but professed a willingness to learn, and +looked so capable, as he squared his bulky shoulders and twisted his +fine black mustache, that Cleggett engaged him, taking him immediately +from the dairy lunch room in which he had been employed. George's idea +was to work his way back to Greece, he said, on the Jasper B. If she +did not sail for Greece for some time, George was willing to wait; he +was patient; sometime, no doubt, she would touch the shores of Greece. +</P> + +<P> +The hold of the Jasper B. Cleggett and Captain Abernethy found to be in +a chaotic state. Casks, barrels, empty bottles by the hundred, ruins +of benches, tables, chairs, old nondescript pieces of planking, broken +crates and boxes, were flung together there in moldering confusion. It +was evident that after the scheme of using the Jasper B.'s hulk as one +of the attractions of a pleasure resort had failed, all the debris of +the failure had simply been thrown pell-mell into the hold. Cleggett +and Captain Abernethy decided that the vessel, which was stepped for +two masts, should be rigged as a schooner. The Captain was soon busy +securing estimates on the amount of work that would have to be done, +and the cost of it. The pile of rubbish in the hold, which filled it +to such an extent that Cleggett gave up the attempt to examine it, was +to be removed by the same contractor who put in the sticks. +</P> + +<P> +All the activity on board and about the Jasper B. had not gone on +without attracting the attention of Morris's. Cleggett noticed that +there was usually someone in the neighborhood of that dubious resort +cocking an eye in the direction of the vessel. Indeed, the interest +became so pronounced, and seemed of a quality so different from +ordinary frank rustic curiosity, that it looked very like espionage. +It had struck Cleggett that Morris's seemed at all times to have more +than its share of idlers and hangers-on; men who appeared to make the +place their headquarters and were not to be confused with the +occasional off-season parties from the city. +</P> + +<P> +On Sunday morning Cleggett was awakened by Captain Abernethy, who +announced: +</P> + +<P> +"Strange craft lookin' us over mighty close, sir." +</P> + +<P> +"A strange craft? Where is she?" Cleggett was instantly alert. +</P> + +<P> +"She's a house boat, if you was to ask me," said the brown old man—in +a new brown suit and with his whiskers newly trimmed he gave the +impression of having been overhauled and freshly painted. +</P> + +<P> +"Where is she?" repeated Cleggett, beginning to get into his clothes. +</P> + +<P> +"She must 'a' sneaked up an' anchored mighty early this mornin'," +pursued Cap'n Abernethy, true to his conversational principles. +</P> + +<P> +"Is she in the bay or in the canal?" +</P> + +<P> +"She looks like a mighty toney kind o' vessel," said Cap'n Abernethy. +"If I was to make a guess I'd say she was one of them craft that sails +herself along when she wants to with one of these newfangled gasoline +engines." +</P> + +<P> +"She wasn't towed here then?" Cleggett gave up the attempt to learn +from the Captain just where the house boat was. +</P> + +<P> +"She lies in the canal," said the Cap'n. Having established the point +that he could not be FORCED to tell where she lay, he volunteered the +information as a personal favor from one gentleman to another. "She +lies ahead of us in the canal, a p'int or so off our port bow, I should +say. And if you was to ask me I'd say she wasn't layin' there for any +good purpose." +</P> + +<P> +"What do you think she's up to? What makes you suspicious of her?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, sir, she wasn't towed in," said Cap'n Abernethy, "or I'd 'a' heard +a tug towin' her. Comin' of a seafarin' fambly I'm a light sleeper by +nature." +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett finished dressing and went on deck. Sure enough, towards the +south end of the canal, three or four hundred yards south of the Jasper +B., and about the same distance east of Morris's, was anchored a house +boat. She was painted a slaty gray color. As Cleggett looked at her a +man stepped up on the deck, and, putting a binocular glass to his eye, +began to study the Jasper B. After a few minutes of steady scrutiny +this person turned his attention to Morris's. +</P> + +<P> +Looking towards Morris's himself Cleggett saw a man standing on the +east verandah of that resort intently scanning the house boat through a +glass. Cleggett went into the cabin and got his own glass. +</P> + +<P> +Presently the man on Morris's verandah and the man of the house boat +ceased to scrutinize each other and both turned their glasses upon the +Jasper B. But the moment they perceived that Cleggett was provided +with a glass each turned hastily and entered, the one Morris's place, +and the other the cabin of the house boat. But Cleggett had already +recognized the man at Morris's as the stoop-shouldered man of tall +stature and fanciful dress who had tried to stare him down some days +before. +</P> + +<P> +As for the man on the house boat (which, as Cleggett had made out, was +named the Annabel Lee), there was something vaguely familiar about his +general appearance which puzzled and tantalized our hero. +</P> + +<P> +As the morning wore on Cleggett became certain that the Jasper B. was +closely watched by both the Annabel Lee and Morris's, although the +watchers avoided showing themselves plainly. A slightly agitated blind +at a second story window over the verandah showed him where the tall +man or one of his associates gazed out from Morris's; and from a +porthole of the Annabel Lee he could see a glass thrust forth from time +to time. It was evident to him that the Annabel Lee and Morris's were +suspicious of each other, and that both suspected the Jasper B. But of +what did they suspect Cleggett? What intention did they impute to him? +He could only wonder. +</P> + +<P> +Through the entire morning he was conscious of the continuance of this +watch. He thought it ceased about luncheon time; but at two in the +afternoon he was certain that, if so, it had been resumed. +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett, innocent and honorable, began to get impatient of this +persistent scrutiny. And in spite of his courage a vague uneasiness +began to possess him. Towards the end of the afternoon he called his +little company aft and spoke to them. +</P> + +<P> +"My men," he said, "I do not like the attitude of our neighbors. To put +it briefly, there may be squalls ahead of the Jasper B. This is a wild +and desolate coast, comparatively speaking. Strange things have +happened to innocent people before this along the shores of Long +Island. It is well to be prepared. I intend to serve out to each of +you two hundred cartridges and a .44 caliber Colt's. In case of an +attempt to board, you may find these cutlasses handy. +</P> + +<P> +"Cap'n Abernethy, in all nautical matters you will still be in command +of the ship, but in case of a military demonstration, all of you will +look to me for leadership. You may go now and rig up a jury mast and +bend the American colors to the peak—and in case of blows, may God +defend the right! I know I do not need to exhort you to do your duty!" +</P> + +<P> +As Cleggett spoke the spirit which animated him seemed to communicate +itself to his listeners. Their eyes kindled and the keen joy that +gallant men always feel in the anticipation of conflict flushed their +faces. +</P> + +<P> +"I am a son of Leonidas," said George Stefanopolous, proudly. And he +secreted not merely one, but two, of Cleggett's daggers about his body, +in addition to the revolver given him. As George had already possessed +a dagger or two and an automatic pistol, it was now almost impossible +for him to lay his hand casually on any part of his person without its +coming into contact with a deadly weapon ready for instant use. Cap'n +Abernethy picked up a cutlass, "hefted" it thoughtfully, rolled his +sleeve back upon a lean and sinewy old arm that was tanned until it +looked like a piece of weathered oak, spat upon his hand and whirled +the weapon till it whistled in the air. "I come of a seafarin' +fambly," said the Cap'n, sententiously. +</P> + +<P> +As for Kuroki, he said nothing. He was not given to speech at any +time. But he picked up a Malay kris and ran his thumb along the edge +of it critically like a man to whom such a weapon is not altogether +unfamiliar. A pleased smile stole over his face; he handled the wicked +knife almost affectionately; he put it down with a little loving pat. +</P> + +<P> +"Brave boys," murmured Cleggett, as he watched them. He smiled, but at +the same time something like a tear blurred his eloquent and magnetic +eye for a moment. "Brave boys," he murmured, "we were made for each +other!" +</P> + +<P> +The display of the American flag by the Jasper B. had an effect that +could not have been foreseen. +</P> + +<P> +Almost immediately the Annabel Lee herself flung an exactly similar +American flag to the breeze. But a strange thing happened at Morris's. +An American flag was first hung from an upper window over the east +verandah. Then, after a moment, it was withdrawn. Then a red flag was +put out. But almost immediately Cleggett saw a man rip the red flag +from its fastenings and fling it to the ground. +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett, resorting to his glass, perceived that it was the tall man +with the stoop shoulders and incongruous clothing who had torn down the +red flag. He was now in violent altercation with the man who had hung +it out—the fellow whom he had called Heinrich some days before. +</P> + +<P> +As Cleggett watched, the two men came to blows; then they clinched and +struggled, swaying back and forth within the open window, like a moving +picture in a frame. Suddenly the tall fellow seemed to get the upper +hand; exerting all his strength, he bent the other backward over the +window sill. The two contending figures writhed desperately a moment +and then the tall man shifted one powerful, sinewy hand to Heinrich's +throat. +</P> + +<P> +The binoculars brought the thing so near to Cleggett that it seemed as +if he could touch the contorted faces; he could see the tall man's neck +muscles work as if that person were panting; he could see the signs of +suffocation in Heinrich's countenance. The fact that he saw so plainly +and yet could hear no sound of the struggle somehow added to its horror. +</P> + +<P> +All at once the tall man put his knee upon the other's chest, and flung +his weight upon Heinrich with a vehement spring. Then he tumbled +Heinrich out of the window onto the roof of the verandah. +</P> + +<P> +He stepped out of the window himself, picked Heinrich up with an ease +that testified to his immense strength, and flung him over the edge of +the verandah onto the ground. A few moments later a couple of men ran +out from Morris's, busied themselves about reviving the fellow, and +helped him into the house. If Heinrich was not badly injured, +certainly all the fight had been taken out of him for one day. +</P> + +<P> +With Heinrich thus disposed of, the tall man turned composedly to the +task of putting out the American flag again. Through the glass +Cleggett perceived that his face was twisted by a peculiar smile; a +smile of joyous malevolence. +</P> + +<P> +"A bad man to cross, that tall man," said Cleggett, musingly. And +indeed, his violence with Heinrich had seemed out of all proportion to +the apparent grounds of the quarrel; for it was evident to Cleggett +that Heinrich and the tall man had differed merely about the policy of +displaying the red flag. "A man determined to have his way," mused +Cleggett. "If he and I should meet———" Cleggett did not finish the +sentence in words, but his hand closed over the butt of his revolver. +</P> + +<P> +His musing was interrupted by the noise of an approaching automobile. +Turning, he saw a vehicle, the rather long body of which was covered so +that it resembled a merchant's delivery wagon, coming along the road +from Fairport. +</P> + +<P> +It stopped opposite the Jasper B., and from the seat beside the driver +leaped lightly the most beautiful woman Cleggett had ever seen, and +walked hesitatingly but gracefully towards him. +</P> + +<P> +She was agitated. She was, in fact, sobbing; and a Pomeranian dog +which she carried in her arms was whimpering excitedly as if in +sympathy with its mistress. Cleggett, soul of chivalry that he was, +born cavalier of beauty in distress, removed his hat and advanced to +meet her. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap05"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER V +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +BEAUTY IN DISTRESS +</H3> + +<P> +"Can you tell me where I can get some ice? Can you sell me some ice?" +cried the lady excitedly, when she was still some yards distant from +Cleggett. +</P> + +<P> +"Ice?" The request was so unusual that Cleggett was not certain that +he had understood. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, ice! Ice!" There was no mistaking the genuine character of her +eagerness; if she had been begging for her life she could not have been +more in earnest. "Don't tell me that you have none on your boat. +Don't tell me that! Don't tell me that!" +</P> + +<P> +And suddenly, like a woman who has borne all that she can bear, she +burst undisguisedly into a paroxysm of weeping. Cleggett, stirred by +her beauty and her trouble, stepped nearer to her, for she swayed with +her emotion as if she were about to fall. Impulsively she put a hand on +his arm, and the Pomeranian, dropped unceremoniously to the ground, +sprang at Cleggett snarling and snapping as if sure he were the author +of the lady's misfortunes. +</P> + +<P> +"You will think I am mad," said the lady, endeavoring to control her +tears, "but I MUST have ice. Don't tell me that you have no ice!" +</P> + +<P> +"My dear lady," said Cleggett, unconsciously clasping, in his anxiety +to reassure her, the hand that she had laid upon his arm, "I have +ice—you shall have all the ice you want!" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh," she murmured, leaning towards him, "you cannot know——" +</P> + +<P> +But the rest was lost in an incoherent babble, and with a deep sigh she +fell lax into Cleggett's arms. The reaction from despair had been too +much for her; it had come too suddenly; at the first word of +reassurance, at the first ray of dawning hope, she had fainted. +High-strung natures, intrepid in the face of danger, are apt to such +collapses in the moment of deliverance; and, whatever the nature of the +lady's trouble, Cleggett gained from her swoon a sharp sense of its +intensity. +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett was not used to having beautiful women faint and fall into his +arms, and he was too much of a gentleman to hold one there a single +moment longer than was absolutely necessary. He turned his head rather +helplessly towards the vehicle in which the lady had arrived. To his +consternation and surprise it had turned around and the chauffeur was +in the act of starting back towards Fairport. But he had left behind +him a large zinc bucket with a cover on it, a long unpainted, oblong +box, and two steamer trunks; on the oblong box sat a short, squat young +man in an attitude of deep dejection. +</P> + +<P> +"Hi there! Stop!" cried Cleggett to the chauffeur. That person +stopped his machine. He did more. He arose in the seat, applied his +thumb to his nose, and vigorously and vivaciously waggled his outspread +fingers at Cleggett in a gesture, derisive and inelegant, that is older +than the pyramids. Then he started his machine again and made all +speed in the direction of Fairport. +</P> + +<P> +"I say, you, come here!" Cleggett called to the squat young man. "Can't +you see that the lady's fainted?" +</P> + +<P> +The squat young man, thus exhorted, sadly approached. +</P> + +<P> +"Can't you see the lady has fainted?" repeated Cleggett. +</P> + +<P> +"Skoits often does," said the squat young man, looking over the +situation in a detached, judicial manner. He spoke out of the left +corner of his mouth in a hoarse voice, without moving the right side of +his face at all, and he seemed to feel that the responsibility of the +situation was Cleggett's. +</P> + +<P> +"But, don't you know her? Didn't you come here with her?" +</P> + +<P> +The squat young man appeared to debate some moral issue inwardly for a +moment. And then, speaking this time out of the right corner of his +mouth, which was now nearer Cleggett, without disturbing the left half +of his face, he pointed towards the oblong box and murmured huskily: +"That's my job." He went and sat down on the box again. +</P> + +<P> +Without more ado Cleggett lifted the lady and bore her onto the Jasper +B. She was a heavy burden, but Cleggett declined the assistance of +Cap'n Abernethy and George the Greek, who had come tardily out of the +forecastle and now offered their assistance. +</P> + +<P> +"Get a bottle of wine," he told Yosh, as he passed the Japanese on the +deck, "and then make some tea." +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett laid the lady on a couch in the cabin, and then lighted a +lamp, as it got dark early in these quarters. While he waited for +Yoshahira Kuroki and the wine, he looked at her. In her appealing +helplessness she looked even more beautiful than she had at first. She +was a blonde, with eyebrows and lashes darker than her hair; and, even +in her swoon, Cleggett could see that she was of the thin-skinned, +high-colored type. Her eyes, as he had seen before she swooned, were +of a deep, dark violet color. She was no chit of a girl, but a mature +woman, tall and splendid in the noble fullness of her contours. The +high nose spoke of love of activity and energy of character. The full +mouth indicated warmth of heart; the chin was of that sort which we +have been taught to associate with determination. +</P> + +<P> +The Japanese brought the wine, and Cleggett poured a few spoonfuls down +the lady's throat. Presently she sighed and stirred and began to show +signs of returning animation. +</P> + +<P> +The Pomeranian, which had followed them into the cabin, and which now +lay whimpering at her feet, also seemed to feel that she was awakening, +and, crawling higher, began to lick one of her hands. +</P> + +<P> +"Make some tea, Yosh," said Cleggett. "What is it?" +</P> + +<P> +This last was addressed to the lady herself. Her eyes had opened for a +fleeting instant as Cleggett spoke to the Japanese, and her lips had +moved. Cleggett bent his head nearer, while Yosh picked up the dog, +which violently objected, and asked again: "What is it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Orange pekoe, please," the lady murmured, dreamily. +</P> + +<P> +And then she sat up with a start, struggled to recover herself, and +looked about her wildly. +</P> + +<P> +"Where am I?" she cried. "What has happened?" She passed her hand +across her brow, frowning. +</P> + +<P> +"You fainted, madam," said Cleggett. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!" Suddenly recollection came to her, and her anxieties rushed upon +her once more. "The ice! The ice!" She sprang to her feet, and +grasped Cleggett by both shoulders, searching his face with eager eyes. +"You did not lie to me, did you? You promised me ice! Where is the +ice?" +</P> + +<P> +"You shall have the ice," said Cleggett, "at once." +</P> + +<P> +"Thank God!" she said. And then: "Where are Elmer and the box?" +</P> + +<P> +"Elmer? Oh, the short man! On shore. I believe that he and your +chauffeur had some sort of an altercation, for the chauffeur went off +and left him." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," she said, simply, as they passed up the companionway to the deck +together, "that man, the driver, refused to bring us any farther." +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett must have looked a little blank at that, for she suddenly +threw back her head and laughed at him. And then, sobering instantly, +she called to the squat young man: +</P> + +<P> +"Elmer! Oh, Elmer! You may bring the boxes on board!" She turned to +Cleggett: "He may, mayn't he? Thank you—I was sure you would say he +might. And if one of your men could just give him a lift? And—the +ice?" +</P> + +<P> +"George," called Cleggett, "help the man get the boxes aboard. Kuroki, +bring fifty pounds of ice on deck." +</P> + +<P> +She sighed as she heard him give these orders, but it was a sigh of +satisfaction, and she smiled at Cleggett as she signed. Sometimes a +great deal can happen in a very short space of time. Ten minutes +before, Cleggett had never seen this lady, and now he was giving orders +at her merest suggestion. But in those ten minutes he had seen her +weep, he had seen her faint, he had seen her recover herself; he had +seen her emerge from the depths of despair into something more like +self-control; he had carried her in his arms, she had laughed at him, +she had twice impulsively grasped him by the arm, she had smiled at him +three times, she had sighed twice, she had frowned once; she had swept +upon him bringing with her an impression of the mysterious. Many men +are married to women for years without seeing their wives display so +many and such varied phases; to Cleggett it seemed not so much that he +was making a new acquaintance as renewing one that had been broken off +suddenly at some distant date. Cleggett, like the true-hearted +gentleman and born romanticist that he was, resolved to serve her +without question until such time as she chose to make known to him her +motives for her actions. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you know," she said, softly and gravely to Cleggett as George and +Elmer deposited the oblong box upon a spot which she indicated near the +cabin, "I have met very few men in my life who are capable of what you +are doing?" +</P> + +<P> +"I?" said Cleggett, surprised. "I have done nothing." +</P> + +<P> +"You have found a woman in a strange position—an unusual position, +indeed!—and you have helped her without persecuting her with +questions." +</P> + +<P> +"It is nothing," murmured Cleggett. +</P> + +<P> +"Would you think me too impulsive," she said, with a rare smile, "if I +told you that you are the sort of man whom women are ready to trust +implicitly almost at first sight?" +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett did not permit himself to speak for fear that the thrill which +her words imparted to him would carry him too far. He bowed. +</P> + +<P> +"But I think you mentioned tea?" she said. "Did I hear you say it was +orange pekoe, or did I dream that? And couldn't we have it on deck?" +</P> + +<P> +While Kuroki was bringing a table and chairs on deck and busying +himself about that preparation of tea, Cleggett watched Elmer, the +squat young man, with a growing curiosity. George and Cap'n Abernethy +were also watching Elmer from a discreet distance. Even Kuroki, silent, +swift, and well-trained Kuroki, could not but steal occasional glances +at Elmer. Had Cleggett been of a less lofty and controlled spirit he +would certainly have asked questions. +</P> + +<P> +For Elmer, having uncovered the zinc can and taken from it a hammer and +a large tin funnel, proceeded to break the big chunk of ice which +Kuroki had brought him, into half a dozen smaller pieces. These +smaller lumps, with the exception of two, he put into the zinc bucket, +wrapped around with pieces of coffee sacking. Then he put the cover on +the bucket to exclude the air. +</P> + +<P> +The zinc bucket was thus a portable refrigerator, or rather, ice house. +</P> + +<P> +Taking one of the lumps of ice which he had left out of the zinc bucket +for immediate use, Elmer carefully and methodically broke it into still +smaller pieces—pieces about the size of an English walnut, but +irregular in shape. Then he inserted the tin funnel into a small hole +in the uppermost surface of the unpainted, oblong box and dropped in +twenty or more of the little pieces of ice. When a piece proved to be +too big to go through the funnel Elmer broke it again. +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett noticed that there were five of these small holes in the box, +and that Elmer was slowly working his way down the length of it from +hole to hole, sitting astride of it the while. +</P> + +<P> +From the way in which he worked, and the care with which he conserved +every smallest particle of ice, Elmer's motto seemed to be: "Haste +not, waste not." But he did not appear to derive any great +satisfaction from his task, let alone joy. In fact, Elmer seemed to be +a joyless individual; one who habitually looked forward to the worst. +On his broad face, of the complexion described in police reports as +"pasty," melancholy sat enthroned. His nose was flat and broad, and +flat and broad were his cheek bones, too. His hair was cut very short +everywhere except in front; in front it hung down to his eyebrows in a +straggling black fringe or "bang." Not that the fringe would have +covered the average person's forehead; this "bang" was not long; but +the truth is that Elmer's forehead was lower than the average person's +and therefore easily covered. He had what is known in certain circles +as a cauliflower, or chrysanthemum, ear. +</P> + +<P> +But melancholy as he looked, Elmer had evidently had his moments of +struggle against dejection. One of these moments had been when he +bought the clothes he was wearing. His hat had a bright, red and black +band around it; his tweed suit was of a startling light gray, marked +off into checks with stripes of green; his waistcoat was of lavender, +and his hose were likewise of lavender, but red predominated in both +his shirt and his necktie. His collar was too high for his short neck, +and seemed to cause him discomfort. But this attempt at gayety of dress +was of no avail; one felt at once that it was a surface thing and had +no connection with Elmer's soul; it stood out in front of the +background of his sorrowful personality, accentuating the gloom, as a +blossom may grow upon a bleak rock. As Elmer carefully dropped ice, +piece by piece, into the oblong box, progressing slowly from hole to +hole, Cleggett thought he had never seen a more depressed young man. +</P> + +<P> +Captain Abernethy approached Cleggett. There was hesitation in the +brown old man's feet, there was doubt upon his wrinkled brow, but there +was the consciousness of duty in the poise of his shoulders, there was +determination in his eyes. +</P> + +<P> +The blonde lady laughed softly as the sailing-master of the Jasper B. +saluted the owner of the vessel. +</P> + +<P> +"He is going to tell you," she said to Cleggett, including the Captain +himself in her flashing look and her remark, "he is going to tell you +that you really should get rid of me and my boxes at once—I can see it +in his face!" +</P> + +<P> +Captain Abernethy stopped short at this, and stared. It was precisely +what he HAD planned to say after drawing Cleggett discreetly aside. +But it is rather startling to have one's thoughts read in this manner. +</P> + +<P> +He frowned at the lady. She smiled at him. The smile seemed to say to +the Cap'n: "You ridiculous old dear, you! You KNOW that's what you +were going to advise, so why deny it? I've found you out, but we both +might just as well be good-humored about it, mightn't we?" +</P> + +<P> +"Ma'am," said the Cap'n, evidently struggling between a suddenly born +desire to quit frowning and a sense that he had a perfect right to +frown as much as he wished, "Ma'am, if you was to ask me, I'd say +ridin' on steamships and ridin' on sailin' vessels is two different +matters entirely." +</P> + +<P> +"Cap'n Abernethy," said Cleggett, attempting to indicate that his +sailing master's advice was not absolutely required, "if you have +something to say to me, perhaps later will do just as well." +</P> + +<P> +"As fur as the Jasper B. is concerned," said the Cap'n, ignoring +Cleggett's remark, and still addressing the lady, "I dunno as you could +call her EITHER a sailin' vessel, OR a steamship, as at present +constituted." +</P> + +<P> +"You want to get me off your boat at once," said the lady. "You know +you do." And her manner added: "CAN'T you act like a good-natured old +dear? You really are one, you know!" +</P> + +<P> +The Cap'n became embarrassed. He began to fuss with his necktie, as if +tying it tighter would assist him to hold on to his frown. He felt the +frown slipping, but it was a point of honor with him to retain it. +</P> + +<P> +"She WILL be a sailin' vessel when she gets her sticks into her," said +the Cap'n, fumbling with his neckwear. +</P> + +<P> +"Let me fix that for you," said the lady. And before the Cap'n could +protest she was arranging his tie for him. "You old sea +captains!———" she said, untying the scarf and making the ends even. +"As if anyone could possibly be afraid to sail in anything one of YOU +had charge of!" She gave the necktie a little final pat. "There, now!" +</P> + +<P> +The Captain's frown was gone past replacement. But he still felt that +he owed something to himself. +</P> + +<P> +"If you was to ask me," he said, turning to Cleggett, "whether what I'd +got to say to you would do later, or whether it wouldn't do later, I'd +answer you it would, or it wouldn't, all accordin' to whether you +wanted to hear it now, or whether you wanted to hear it later. And as +far as SAILIN' her is concerned, Mr. Cleggett, I'll SAIL her, whether +you turn her into a battleship or into one of these here yachts. I +come of a seafarin' fambly." +</P> + +<P> +And then he said to the lady, indicating the tie and bobbing his head +forward with a prim little bow: "Thank ye, ma'am." +</P> + +<P> +"Isn't he a duck!" said the lady, following him with her eyes, as he +went behind the cabin. There the Cap'n chewed, smoked, and fished, +earnestly and simultaneously, for ten minutes. +</P> + +<P> +Indeed, the blonde lady, from the moment when Elmer began to put ice +into the box, seemed to have regained her spirits. The little dog, +which was an indicator of her moods, had likewise lost its nervousness. +When Kuroki had tea ready, the dog lay down at his mistress' feet, +beside the table. +</P> + +<P> +"Dear little Teddy," said the lady, patting the animal upon the head. +</P> + +<P> +"Teddy?" said Cleggett. +</P> + +<P> +"I have named him," she said, "after a great American. To my mind, the +greatest—Theodore Roosevelt. His championship of the cause of votes +for women at a time when mere politicians were afraid to commit +themselves is enough in itself to gain him a place in history." +</P> + +<P> +She spoke with a kindling eye, and Cleggett had no doubt that there was +before him one of those remarkable women who make the early part of the +twentieth century so different from any other historical period. And +he was one with her in her admiration for Roosevelt—a man whose +facility in finding adventures and whose behavior when he had found +them had always made a strong appeal to Cleggett. If he could not have +been Cleggett he would have liked to have been either the Chevalier +d'Artagnan or Theodore Roosevelt. +</P> + +<P> +"He is a great man," said Cleggett. +</P> + +<P> +But the lady, with her second cup of tea in her hand, was evidently +thinking of something else. Leaning back in her chair, she said to +Cleggett: +</P> + +<P> +"It is no good for you to deny that you think I'm a horridly +unconventional sort of person!" +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett made a polite, deprecatory gesture. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, yes, you do," she said, decidedly. "And, really, I am! I am +impulsive! I am TOO impulsive!" She raised the cup to her lips, +drank, and looked off towards the western horizon, which the sun was +beginning to paint ruddily; she mused, murmuring as if to herself: +"Sir Archibald always thought I was too impulsive, dear man." +</P> + +<P> +After a meditative pause she said, leaning her elbows on the table and +gazing searchingly into Cleggett's eyes: +</P> + +<P> +"I am going to trust you. I am going to reward your kindness by +telling you a portion of my strange story. I am going to depend upon +you to understand it." +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett bowed and murmured his gratitude at the compliment. Then he +said: +</P> + +<P> +"You could trust me with———" But he stopped. He did not wish to be +premature. +</P> + +<P> +"With my life. I could trust you with my life," finished the lady, +gravely. "I know that. I believe that. I feel it, somehow. It is +because I do feel it that I tell you——" She paused, as if, after +all, she lacked the courage. Cleggett said nothing. He was too fine in +grain to force a confidence. After a moment she continued: "I can tell +you this," she said, with a catch in her voice that was almost a sob, +"that I am practically friendless. When you call a taxicab for me in a +few moments, and I leave you, with Elmer and my boxes, I shall have no +place to go." +</P> + +<P> +"But, surely, madam——" +</P> + +<P> +"Do not call me madam. Call me Lady Agatha. I am Lady Agatha +Fairhaven. What is your name?" +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett told her. +</P> + +<P> +"You have heard of me?" asked Lady Agatha. +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett was obliged to confess that he had not. He thought that a +shade of disappointment passed over the lady's face, but in a moment +she smiled and remarked: +</P> + +<P> +"How relative a thing is fame! You have never heard of me! And yet I +can assure you that I am well enough known in England. I was one of +the very first militant suffragettes to break a window—if not the very +first. The point is, indeed, in dispute. And were it not for my +devotion to the cause I would not now be in my present terrible +plight—doomed to wander from pillar to post with that thing" (she +pointed with a shudder to the box into which Elmer was still gloomily +poking ice)-"chained to me like a—like a——" She hesitated for a +word, and Cleggett, tactlessly enough, with some vague recollection of +a classical tale in his mind, suggested: +</P> + +<P> +"Like a corpse." +</P> + +<P> +Lady Agatha turned pale. She gazed at Cleggett with terror-stricken +eyes, her beautiful face became almost haggard in an instant; he +thought she was about to faint again, but she did not. As he looked +upon the change his words had wrought, filled with wonder and +compunction, Cleggett suddenly divined that her occasional flashes of +gayety had been, all along, merely the forced vivacity of a brave and +clever woman who was making a gallant fight against total collapse. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Cleggett," she said, in a voice that was scarcely louder than a +whisper, "I am going to confide everything to you—the whole truth. I +will spare myself nothing; I will throw myself upon your mercy. +</P> + +<P> +"I firmly believe, Mr. Cleggett—I am practically certain—that the box +there, upon which Elmer is sitting, contains the body of Reginald +Maltravers, natural son of the tenth Earl of Claiborne, and the cousin +of my late husband, Sir Archibald Fairhaven." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap06"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +LADY AGATHA'S STORY +</H3> + +<P> +It was with the greatest difficulty that Cleggett repressed a start. +Another man might have shown the shock he felt. But Cleggett had the +iron nerve of a Bismarck and the fine manner of a Richelieu. He did +not even permit his eyes to wander towards the box in question. He +merely sat and waited. +</P> + +<P> +Lady Agatha, having brought herself to the point of revelation, seemed +to find a difficulty in proceeding. Cleggett, mutely asking +permission, lighted a cigarette. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh—if you will!" said Lady Agatha, extending her hand towards the +case. He passed it over, and when she had chosen one of the little +rolls and lighted it she said: +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Cleggett, have you ever lived in England?" +</P> + +<P> +"I have never even visited England." +</P> + +<P> +"I wish you knew England." She watched the curling smoke from her +tobacco as it drifted across the table. "If you knew England you would +comprehend so much more readily some parts of my story. +</P> + +<P> +"But, being an American, you can have no adequate conception of the +conservatism that still prevails in certain quarters. I refer to the +really old families among the landed aristocracy. Some of them have not +changed essentially, in their attitude towards the world in general, +since the reign of Queen Elizabeth. They make of family a fetish. They +are ready to sacrifice everything upon the altar of family. They may +exhibit this pride of race less obviously than some of the French or +Germans or Italians; but they have a deeper sense of their own dignity, +and of what is due to it, than any of your more flighty and picturesque +continentals. There are certain things that are done. Certain things +are not done. One must conform or——" +</P> + +<P> +She interrupted herself and delicately flicked the ash from her +cigarette. +</P> + +<P> +"Conform, or be jolly well damned," she finished, crossing one leg over +the other and leaning back in her chair. "This, by the way, is the +only decent cigarette I have found in America. I hate to smoke +perfume—I like tobacco—and most of your shops seem to keep nothing +but the highly scented Turkish and Egyptian varieties." +</P> + +<P> +"They were made in London," said Cleggett, bowing. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah! But where was I? Oh, yes—one must conform. Especially if one +belongs to, or has married into, the Claiborne family. Of all the men +in England the Earl of Claiborne is the most conservative, the most +reactionary, the most deeply encrusted with prejudice. He would stop +at little where the question concerned the prestige of the aristocracy +in general; he would stop at nothing where the Claiborne family is +concerned. +</P> + +<P> +"I am telling you all this so that you may get an inkling of the blow +it was to him when I became a militant suffragist. It was blow enough +to his nephew, Sir Archibald, my late husband. The Earl maintains that +it hastened poor Archibald's death. But that is ridiculous. Archibald +had undermined his constitution with dissipation, and died following an +operation for gravel. He was to have succeeded to the title, as both +of the Earl's legitimate sons were dead without issue—one of them +perished in the Boer War, and the other was killed in the hunting field. +</P> + +<P> +"Upon Archibald's death the old Earl publicly acknowledged Reginald +Maltravers, his natural son, and took steps to have him legitimatized. +For all of the bend sinister upon his escutcheon, Reginald Maltravers +was as fanatical concerning the family as his father. Perhaps more +fanatical, because he secretly suffered for the irregularity of his own +position in the world. +</P> + +<P> +"At any rate, supported at first by the old Earl, he began a series of +persecutions designed to make me renounce my suffragist principles, or +at least to make me cease playing a conspicuous public part in the +militant propaganda. As my husband was dead and there were no +children, I could not see that I was accountable to the Claiborne +family for my actions. But the Claibornes took a different view of it. +In their philosophy, once a Claiborne, always a Claiborne. I was +bringing disgrace and humiliation upon the family, in their opinion. +Knowing the old Earl as I do, I am aware that his suffering was genuine +and intense. But what was I to do? One cannot desert one's principles +merely because they cause suffering; otherwise there could be no such +thing as revolution. +</P> + +<P> +"Reginald Maltravers had another reason for his persecution. After the +death of Sir Archibald he himself sought my hand in marriage. I shall +always remember the form of his proposal; it concluded with these +words: 'Had Archibald lived you would have been a countess. You may +still be a countess—but you must drop this suffragist show, you know. +It is all bally rot, Agatha, all bally rot.' I would not have married +him without the condition, for I despised the man himself; but the +condition made me furious and I drove him from my sight with words that +turned him white and made him my enemy forever. 'You will not be my +countess, then,' he said. 'Very well—but I can promise you that you +will cease to be a suffragist.' I can still see the evil flash of his +eye behind his monocle as he uttered these words and turned away." +</P> + +<P> +Lady Agatha shuddered at the recollection, and took a cup of tea. +</P> + +<P> +"It was then," she resumed, "that the real persecution began. I was +peculiarly helpless, as I have no near relations who might have come to +my defense. Representing himself always as the agent of his father, +but far exceeding the Earl in the malevolence of his inventions, +Reginald Maltravers sought by every means he could command to drive me +from public life in England. +</P> + +<P> +"Three times he succeeded in having me flung into Holloway Jail. I need +not tell you of the terrors of that institution, nor of the degrading +horrors of forcible feeding. They are known to a shocked and +sympathetic world. But Reginald Maltravers contrived, in my case, to +add to the usual brutalities a peculiar and personal touch. By +bribery, as I believe, he succeeded in getting himself into the prison +as a turnkey. It was his custom, when I lay weak and helpless in the +semistupor of starvation, to glide into my cell and, standing by my +couch, to recite to me the list of tempting viands that might appear +daily upon the board of a Countess of Claiborne. +</P> + +<P> +"He soon learned that his very presence itself was a persecution. After +my release from jail the last time, he began to follow me everywhere. +Turn where I would, there was Reginald Maltravers. At suffrage meetings +he took his station directly before the speaker's stand, stroked his +long blond mustache with his long white fingers, and stared at me +steadfastly through his monocle, with an evil smile upon his face. +Formerly he had, in several instances, prevented me from attending +suffrage meetings; once he had me spirited away and imprisoned for a +week when it fell to my lot to burn a railroad station for the good of +the cause. He strove to ruin me with my leaders in this despicable +manner. +</P> + +<P> +"But in the end he took to showing himself; he stood and stared. Merely +that. He was subtle enough to shift the persecution from the province +of the physical to the realm of the psychological. It was like being +haunted. Even when I did not see him, I began to THINK that I saw him. +He deliberately planted that hallucination in my mind. It is a wonder +that I did not go mad. +</P> + +<P> +"I finally determined to flee to America. I made all my arrangements +with care and—as I thought—with secrecy. I imagined that I had given +him the slip. But he was too clever for me. The third day out, as one +of the ship's officers was showing me about the vessel, I detected +Reginald Maltravers in the hold. It is not usual to allow women so far +below decks; but I had insisted on seeing everything. Perspiring, +begrimed, and mopping the moisture from his brow with a piece of cotton +waste, there he stood in the guise of a—of—a croaker, is it, Mr. +Cleggett?" +</P> + +<P> +"Stoker, I believe," said Cleggett. +</P> + +<P> +"Stoker. Thank you. He turned away in confusion when he saw that he +was discovered. I perceived that, designing to cross on the same ship +with me, he had thought himself hidden there. He was not wearing his +monocle, but I would know that sloping forehead, that blond mustache, +and that long, high, bony nose anywhere." +</P> + +<P> +Lady Agatha broke off for a moment. She was extremely agitated. But +presently she continued: "I endeavored to evade him. The attempt was +useless. He found me out at once. The persecution went on. It was +more terrible here than it had been in England. There I had friends. I +had hours, sometimes even whole days, to myself. +</P> + +<P> +"But this was not the worst. A new phase developed. From his +appearance it suddenly became apparent to me that Reginald Maltravers +could not stop haunting me if he wished!" +</P> + +<P> +"COULD not stop?" cried Cleggett. +</P> + +<P> +"COULD not," said Lady Agatha. "The hunt had become a monomania with +him. It had become an obsession. He had given his whole mentality to +it and it had absorbed all his faculties. He was now the victim of it. +He had grown powerless in the grip of the idea; he had lost volition in +the matter. +</P> + +<P> +"You can imagine my consternation when I realized this. I began to +fear the day when his insanity would take some violent form and he +would endeavor to do me a personal injury. I determined to have a +bodyguard. I wanted a man inured to danger; one capable of meeting +violence with violence, if the need arose. It struck me that if I +could get into touch with one of those chivalrous Western outlaws, of +whom we read in American works of fiction, he would be just the sort of +man I needed to protect me from Reginald Maltravers. +</P> + +<P> +"I did not consider appealing to the authorities, for I have no +confidence in your American laws, Mr. Cleggett. But I did not know how +to go about finding a chivalrous Western outlaw. So finally I put an +advertisement in the personal column of one of your morning papers for +a reformed convict." +</P> + +<P> +"A reformed convict!" exclaimed Cleggett. "May I ask how you worded the +ad.?" +</P> + +<P> +"Ad.? Oh, advertisement? I will get it for you." +</P> + +<P> +She went into the stateroom and was back in a moment with a newspaper +cutting which she handed to Cleggett. It read: +</P> + +<P> +Convict recently released from Sing Sing, if his reform is really +genuine, may secure honest employment by writing to A. F., care Morning +Dispatch. +</P> + +<P> +"Out of the answers," she resumed, "I selected four and had their +writers call for a personal interview. But only two of them seemed to +me to be really reformed, and of these two Elmer's reform struck me as +being the more genuine. You may have noticed that Elmer gives the +appearance of being done with worldly vanities." +</P> + +<P> +"He does seem depressed," said Cleggett, "but I had imputed it largely +to the nature of his present occupation." +</P> + +<P> +"It is due to his attempt to lead a better life—or at least so he +tells me," said Lady Agatha. "Morality does not come easy to Elmer, he +says, and I believe him. Elmer's time is largely taken up by inward +moral debate as to the right or wrong of particular hypothetical cases +which his imagination insists on presenting to his conscience." +</P> + +<P> +"I can certainly imagine no state of mind less enjoyable," said +Cleggett. +</P> + +<P> +"Nor I," replied Lady Agatha. "But to resume: The very fact that I +had employed a guard seemed to put Reginald Maltravers beside himself. +He followed me more closely than ever. Regardless of appearances, he +would suddenly plant himself in front of me in restaurants and +tramcars, in the streets or parks when I went for an airing, even in +the lifts and corridors of the apartment hotel where I stopped, and +stare at me intently through his monocle, caressing his mustache the +while. I did not dare make a scene; the thing was causing enough +remark without that; I was, in fact, losing my reputation. +</P> + +<P> +"Finally, goaded beyond endurance, I called Elmer into my apartment one +day and put the whole case before him. +</P> + +<P> +"'I will pay almost any price short of participation in actual crime,' +I told him, 'for a fortnight of freedom from that man's presence. I +can stand it no longer; I feel my reason slipping from me. Have I not +heard that there are in New York creatures who are willing, on the +payment of a certain stipulated sum, to guarantee to chastise a person +so as to disable him for a definite period, without doing him permanent +injury? You must know some such disreputable characters. Procure me +some wretches of this sort!' +</P> + +<P> +"Elmer replied that such creatures do, indeed, exist. He called +them—what did he call them?" +</P> + +<P> +"Gunmen?" suggested Cleggett. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, thank you. He brought two of them to me whom he introduced +as——" +</P> + +<P> +She paused. "The names escape me," she said. She called: "Elmer, just +step here a moment, please." +</P> + +<P> +Elmer, who was still putting ice into the oblong box, moodily laid away +his tools and approached. +</P> + +<P> +"What WERE the odd names of your friends? The ones who—who made the +mistake?" asked Lady Agatha, resuming her seat. +</P> + +<P> +Elmer rolled a bilious eye at Cleggett and asked Lady Agatha, out of +that corner of his mouth nearer to her: +</P> + +<P> +"Is th' guy right?" +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Cleggett is a friend of mine and can keep a secret, if that is +what you mean," said Lady Agatha. And the words sent a thrill of +elation through Cleggett's being. +</P> + +<P> +"M' friends w'at makes the mistake," said Elmer, apparently satisfied +with the assurance, and offering the information to Cleggett out of the +side of his mouth which had not been involved in his question to Lady +Agatha, "goes by th' monakers of Dopey Eddie and Izzy the Cat." +</P> + +<P> +"Picturesque," murmured Cleggett. +</P> + +<P> +"Picture—what? Picture not'in!" said Elmer, huskily. "The bulls got +not'in' on them boys. Them guys never been mugged. Them guys is too +foxy t' get mugged." +</P> + +<P> +"I infer that you weren't always so foxy," said Cleggett, eyeing him +curiously. +</P> + +<P> +The remark seemed to touch a sensitive spot. Elmer flushed and +shuffled from one foot to the other, hanging his head as if in +embarrassment. Finally he said, earnestly: +</P> + +<P> +"I wasn't no boob, Mr. Cleggett. It was a snitch got ME settled. I was +a good cracksman, honest I was. But I never had no luck." +</P> + +<P> +"I intended no reflection on your professional ability," said Cleggett, +politely. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, that's all right, Mr. Cleggett," said Elmer, forgivingly. +"Nobody's feelin's is hoited. And any friend of th' little dame here +is a friend o' mine." The diminutive, on Elmer's lips, was intended as +a compliment; Lady Agatha was not a small woman. +</P> + +<P> +"Elmer," said Lady Agatha, "tell Mr. Cleggett how the mistake occurred." +</P> + +<P> +Oratory was evidently not Elmer's strongest point. But he braced +himself for the effort and began: +</P> + +<P> +"When th' skoit here says she wants the big boob punched I says to +m'self, foist of all: 'Is it right or is it wrong?' Oncet youse got +that reform high sign put onto youse, youse can't be too careful. Do +youse get me? So when th' skoit here puts it up to me I thinks foist +off: 'Is it right or is it wrong?' See? So I thinks it over and I +says to m'self th' big boob's been pullin' rough stuff on th' little +dame here. Do youse get me? So I says to m'self, the big boob ought to +get a wallop on the nut. See? What th' big gink needs is someone to +bounce a brick off his bean, f'r th' dame here's a square little dame. +Do youse get me? So I says to the little dame: 'I'm wit' youse, see? +W'at th' big gink needs is a mont' in th' hospital.' An' the little +dame here says he's not to be croaked, but——" +</P> + +<P> +But at that instant Teddy, the Pomeranian, sprang towards the uncovered +hatchway that gave into the hold, barking violently. Lady Agatha, who +could see into the opening, arose with a scream. +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett, leaping towards the hatchway, was just in time to see two men +jump backward from the bottom of the ladder into the murk of the hold. +They had been listening. Drawing his pistol, and calling to the crew +of the Jasper B. to follow him, Cleggett plunged recklessly downward +and into the darkness. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap07"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +FIRST BLOOD FOR CLEGGETT +</H3> + +<P> +As his feet struck the top of the rubbish heap in the hold of the +vessel, Cleggett stumbled and staggered forward. But he did not let go +of his revolver. +</P> + +<P> +Perhaps he would not have fallen, but the Pomeranian, which had leaped +into the hold after him, yelping like a terrier at a rat hunt, ran +between his legs and tripped him. +</P> + +<P> +"Damn the dog!" cried Cleggett, going down. +</P> + +<P> +But the fall probably saved his life, for as he spoke two pistol shots +rang out simultaneously from the forward part of the hold. The bullets +passed over his head. Raising himself on his elbow, Cleggett fired +rapidly three times, aiming at the place where a spurt of flame had +come from. +</P> + +<P> +A cry answered him, and he knew that at least one of his bullets had +taken effect. He rose to his feet and plunged forward, firing again, +and at the same instant another bullet grazed his temple. +</P> + +<P> +The next few seconds were a wild confusion of yelping dog, shouts, +curses, shots that roared like the explosion of big guns in that +pent-up and restricted place, stinking powder, and streaks of fire that +laced themselves across the darkness. But only a single pistol replied +to Cleggett's now and he was confident that one of the men was out of +the fight. +</P> + +<P> +But the other man, blindly or with intention, was stumbling nearer as +he fired. A bullet creased Cleggett's shoulder; it was fired so close +to him that he felt the heat of the exploding powder; and in the sudden +glow of light he got a swift and vivid glimpse of a white face framed +in long black hair, and of flashing white teeth beneath a lifted lip +that twitched. The face was almost within touching distance; as it +vanished Cleggett heard the sharp, whistling intake of the fellow's +breath—and then a click that told him the other's last cartridge was +gone. Cleggett clubbed his pistol and leaped forward, striking at the +place where the gleaming teeth had been. His blow missed; he spun +around with the force of it. As he steadied himself to shoot again he +heard a rush behind him and knew that his men had come to his +assistance. +</P> + +<P> +"Collar him!" he cried. "Don't shoot, or——" +</P> + +<P> +But he did not finish that sentence. A thousand lights danced before +his eyes, Niagara roared in his ears for an instant, and he knew no +more. His adversary had laid him out with the butt of a pistol. +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett was not that inconsiderable sort of a man who is killed in any +trivial skirmish: There was a moment at the bridge of Arcole when +Napoleon, wounded and flung into a ditch, appeared to be lost. But +when Nature, often so stupid, really does take stock and become aware +that she has created an eagle she does not permit that eagle to be +killed before its wings are fledged. Napoleon was picked out of the +ditch. Cleggett was only stunned. +</P> + +<P> +Both were saved for larger triumphs. The association of names is not +accidental. These two men were, in some respects, not dissimilar, +although Bonaparte lacked Cleggett's breeding. +</P> + +<P> +When Cleggett regained consciousness he was on deck; George, Kuroki and +Cap'n Abernethy stood about him in a little semicircle of anxiety; Lady +Agatha was applying a cold compress to the bump upon his head. (He +made nothing of his other scratches.) As for Elmer, who had not +stirred from his seat on the oblong box, he moodily regarded, not +Cleggett, but a slight young fellow with long black hair, who lay +motionless upon the deck. +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett struggled to his feet. "Is he dead?" he asked, pointing to +the figure of his recent assailant. Cap'n Abernethy, for the first +time since Cleggett had known him, gave a direct answer to a question. +</P> + +<P> +"Mighty nigh it," he said, staring down at the young man. Then he +added: "Kind o' innocent lookin' young fellow, at that." +</P> + +<P> +"But the other one? Was he killed?" asked Cleggett. +</P> + +<P> +"The other?" George inquired. "But there was no other. When we got +down there you and this boy——" And George described the struggle +that had taken place after Cleggett had lost consciousness. The whole +affair, as far as it concerned Cleggett, had been a matter of seconds +rather than minutes; it was begun and over like a hundred yard dash on +the cinder track. When George and Kuroki and Cap'n Abernethy had +tumbled into the hold they had been afraid to shoot for fear of hitting +Cleggett; they had reached him, guided by his voice, just as he went +down under his assailant's pistol. They had not subdued the youth +until he had suffered severely from George's dagger. Later they learned +that one of Cleggett's bullets had also found him. Cleggett listened to +the end, and then he said: +</P> + +<P> +"But there WERE two men in the hold. And one of them, dead or wounded, +must still be down there. Carry this fellow into the +forecastle—we'll look at him later. Then bring some lanterns. We are +going down into that hold again." +</P> + +<P> +With their pistols in their right hands and lanterns in their left they +descended, Cleggett first. It was not impossible that the other +intruder might be lying, wounded, but revived enough by now to work a +pistol, behind one of the rubbish heaps. +</P> + +<P> +But no shots greeted them. The hold of the Jasper B. was not divided +into compartments of any sort. If it had ever had them, they had been +torn away. Below deck, except for the rubbish heap and the steps for +the masts, she was empty as a soup tureen. The pile of debris was the +highest toward the waist of the vessel. There it formed a treacherous +hill of junk; this hill sloped downward towards the bow and towards the +stern; in both the fore and after parts, under the forecastle and the +cabin, there were comparatively clear spaces. +</P> + +<P> +The four men forced their way back towards the stern and then came +slowly forward in a line that extended across the vessel, exploring +with their lanterns every inch of the precarious footing, and +overturning and looking behind, under, and into every box, cask, or +jumble of planking that might possibly offer a place of concealment. +They found no one. And, until they reached a clearer place, well +forward, on the starboard side of the ship, they found no trace of +anyone. +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett, who was examining this place, suddenly uttered an exclamation +which brought the others to him. He pointed to stains of blood upon +the planking; near these stains were marks left by boots which had been +gaumed with a yellowish clay. A revolver lay on the floor. Cleggett +examined it and found that only one cartridge had been exploded. The +stains of blood and the stains of yellow clay made an easily followed +trail for some yards to a point about halfway between the bow and stern +on the starboard side. +</P> + +<P> +There, in the waist of the vessel, they ceased; ceased abruptly, +mysteriously. Cleggett, not content, made his men go over the place +again, even more thoroughly than before. But there was no one there, +dead or wounded, unless he had succeeded in contracting himself to the +dimensions of a rat. +</P> + +<P> +"There is nothing," said Cleggett, standing by the ladder that led up +to the deck. "Nothing," echoed George; and then as if with one +impulse, and moved by the same eerie thought, these four men suddenly +raised their lanterns head-high and gazed at one another. +</P> + +<P> +A startled look spread from face to face. But no one spoke. There was +no need to. All recognized that they were in the presence of an +apparent impossibility. Yet this seemingly impossible thing was the +fact. There had been two men in the hold of the Jasper B. They had +entered as mysteriously and silently as disembodied spirits might have +done. One of them, wounded, had made his exit in the same baffling way. +Where? How? +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett broke the silence. +</P> + +<P> +"Let us go to the forecastle and have a look at that fellow," he said, +and led the way. +</P> + +<P> +No one lagged as they left the hold. These were all brave men, but +there are times when the invisible, the incomprehensible, will send a +momentary chill to the heart of the most intrepid. +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett found Lady Agatha, her own troubles for the time forgotten, in +the forecastle. She had lighted a lamp and was bending over the +wounded man, whose coat and waistcoat she had removed. His clothing was +a sop of blood. They cut his shirt and undershirt from him. Kuroki +brought water and the medicine chest and surgical outfit with which +Cleggett had provided the Jasper B. They examined his wounds, Lady +Agatha, with a fine seriousness and a deft touch which claimed +Cleggett's admiration, washing them herself and proceeding to stop the +flow of blood. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I am not an altogether useless person," she said, with a momentary +smile, as she saw the look in Cleggett's face. And Cleggett remembered +with shame that he had not thanked her for her ministrations to himself. +</P> + +<P> +A pistol bullet had gone quite through the young man's shoulder. There +was a deep cut on his head, and there were half a dozen other stab +wounds on his body. George had evidently worked with great rapidity in +the hold. +</P> + +<P> +In the inside breast pocket of his coat he had carried a thin and +narrow little book. There was a dagger thrust clear through it; if the +book had not been there this terrible blow delivered by the son of +Leonidas must inevitably have penetrated the lung. +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett opened the book. It was entitled "Songs of Liberty, by +Giuseppe Jones." The verse was written in the manner of Walt Whitman. +A glance at one of the sprawling poems showed Cleggett that in +sentiment it was of the most violent and incendiary character. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, he is an anarchist!" said Cleggett in surprise. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, really!" Lady Agatha looked up from her work of mercy and spoke +with animation, and then gazed upon the youth's face again with a new +interest. "An anarchist! How interesting! I have ALWAYS wanted to +meet an anarchist." +</P> + +<P> +"Poor boy, he don't look like nothin' bad," said Cap'n Abernethy, who +seemed to have taken a fancy to Giuseppe Jones. +</P> + +<P> +"Listen," said Cleggett, and read: +</P> + +<PRE> + "As for your flag, I spit upon your flag! + I spit upon your organized society anywhere and everywhere; + I spit upon your churches; + I spit upon your capitalistic institutions; + I spit upon your laws; + I spit upon the whole damned thing! + But, as I spit, I weep! I weep!" +</PRE> + +<P> +"How silly!" said Lady Agatha. "What does it mean?" +</P> + +<P> +"It means——" began Cleggett, and then stopped. The book of +revolutionary verse, taken in conjunction with the red flag that had +been displayed and then withdrawn, made him wonder if Morris's were the +headquarters of some band of anarchists. +</P> + +<P> +But, if so, why should this band show such an interest in the Jasper +B.? An interest so hostile to her present owner and his men? +</P> + +<P> +"If you was to ask me what it means," said Captain Abernethy, who had +taken the book and was fingering it, "I'd say it means young Jones here +has fell into bad company. That don't explain how he sneaked into the +hold of the Jasper B., nor what for. But he orter have a doctor." +</P> + +<P> +"He shall have a physician," said Cleggett. "In fact, the Jasper B. +needs a ship's doctor." +</P> + +<P> +"It looks to me," said Captain Abernethy, "as if she did. And if you +was to go further, Mr. Cleggett, and say that it looks as if she was +liable to need a couple o' trained nurses, too, I'd say to you that if +they's goin' to be many o' these kind o' goin's-on aboard of her she +DOES need a couple of trained nurses." +</P> + +<P> +"Captain," said Cleggett, "you are a humane man—let me shake your +hand. You have voiced my very thought!" +</P> + +<P> +Long ago Cleggett had resolved that if Chance or Providence should ever +gratify his secret wish to participate in stirring adventures, he would +see to it that all his wounded enemies, no matter how many there might +be of them, received adequate medical attention. He had often been +shocked at the callousness with which so many of the heroes of romance +dash blithely into the next adventure—though those whom they have +seriously injured lie on all sides of them as thick as autumn +leaves—with only the most perfunctory consideration of these victims; +sometimes, indeed, with no thought of them at all. +</P> + +<P> +"Something tells me," said Cleggett seriously, "that this intrusion of +armed men is only a prelude. I have little doubt of the hostility of +Morris's; I am sure that the men who hid in the hold are spies from +Morris's. I do not yet know the motive for this hostility. But the +Jasper B. is in the midst of dangers and mysteries. There is before us +an affair of some magnitude. Ere the Jasper B. sets sail for the China +Seas, there may be many wounds." +</P> + +<P> +And then he began to outline a plan that had flashed, full formed, into +his mind. It was to rent, or purchase, the buildings at Parker's +Beach, and fit them up as a field hospital, with three or four nurses +in charge. Lady Agatha, who had been listening intently, interrupted. +</P> + +<P> +"But—the China Seas," she said. "Did I understand you to say that +you intend to set sail for the China Seas?" +</P> + +<P> +"That is the ultimate destination of the Jasper B." said Cleggett. +</P> + +<P> +"I have heard—it seems to me that I have heard—that it's a very +dangerous place," ventured Lady Agatha. "Pirates, you know, and all +that sort of thing." +</P> + +<P> +"Pirates," said Cleggett, "abound." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, then," persisted Lady Agatha, "you are going out to fight them?" +</P> + +<P> +"I should not be surprised," said Cleggett, folding his arms, and +standing with his feet spread just a trifle wider than usual, "if the +Jasper B. had a brush or two with them. A brush or two!" +</P> + +<P> +Lady Agatha regarded him speculatively. But admiringly, too. +</P> + +<P> +"But those nurses——" she said. "If you're going to the China Seas +you can't very well take Parker's Beach along." +</P> + +<P> +"I was coming to that," said Cleggett, bowing. "I contemplate a +hospital ship—a vessel supplied with nurses and lint and medicines, +that will accompany the Jasper B., and fly the Red Cross flag." +</P> + +<P> +"But they are frightful people, really, those Chinese pirates, you +know," said Lady Agatha. "Do you think they'll quite appreciate a +hospital ship?" +</P> + +<P> +"It is my duty," said Cleggett, simply. "Whether they appreciate it or +not, a hospital ship they shall have. This is the twentieth century. +And although the great spirits of other days had much to commend them, +it is not to be denied that they knew little of our modern +humanitarianism. It has remained for the twentieth century to develop +that. And one owes a duty to one's epoch as well as to one's +individuality." +</P> + +<P> +"But," repeated Lady Agatha, with a meditative frown, "they are really +FRIGHTFUL people!" +</P> + +<P> +"There is good in all men," said Cleggett, "even in those whom the +stern necessities of idealism sentence to death. And I have no doubt +that many a Chinese pirate would, under other circumstances, have +developed into a very contented and useful laundry-man." +</P> + +<P> +Lady Agatha studied him intently for a moment. "Mr. Cleggett," she +said, "if you will permit me to say so, a great suffragist leader was +lost when fate made you a man." +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you," said Cleggett, bowing again. +</P> + +<P> +He dispatched George—a person of address as well as a fighter in whom +the blood of ancient Greece ran quick and strong—on a humanitarian +mission. George was to walk a mile to the trolley line, go to +Fairport, hire a taxicab, and make all possible speed into Manhattan. +There he was to communicate with a young physician of Cleggett's +acquaintance, Dr. Harry Farnsworth. +</P> + +<P> +Dr. Farnsworth, as Cleggett knew, was just out of medical school. He +had his degree, but no patients. But he was bold and ready. He was, in +short, just the lad to welcome with enthusiasm such a chance for active +service as the cruise of the Jasper B. promised to afford. +</P> + +<P> +It was something of a risk to weaken his little party by sending George +away for several hours. But Cleggett did not hesitate. He was not the +man to allow considerations of personal safety to outweigh his devotion +to an ideal. +</P> + +<P> +"And now," said Cleggett, turning to Lady Agatha, who had hearkened to +his orders to George with a bright smile of approval, "we will dine, +and I will hear the rest of your story, which was so rudely +interrupted. It is possible that together we may be able to find some +solution of your problem." +</P> + +<P> +"Dine!" exclaimed Lady Agatha, eagerly. "Yes, let us dine! It may +sound incredible to you, Mr. Cleggett, that the daughter of an English +peer and the widow of a baronet should confess that, except for your +tea, she has scarcely eaten for twenty-four hours—but it is so!" +</P> + +<P> +Then she said, sadly, with a sigh and sidelong glance at the box of +Reginald Maltravers which stood near the cabin companionway dripping +coldly: "Until now, Mr. Cleggett—until your aid had given me fresh +hope and strength—I had, indeed, very little appetite." +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett followed her gaze, and it must be admitted that he himself +experienced a momentary sense of depression at the sight of the box of +Reginald Maltravers. It looked so damp, it looked so chill, it looked +so starkly and patiently and malevolently watchful of himself and Lady +Agatha. In a flash his lively fancy furnished him with a picture of +the box of Reginald Maltravers suddenly springing upright and hopping +towards him on one end with a series of stiff jumps that would send +drops of moisture flying from the cracks and seams and make the ice +inside of it clink and tinkle. And the mournful Elmer, now drowsing +callously over his charge, was not an invitation to be blithe. If +Cleggett himself were so affected (he mused) what must be the effect of +the box of Reginald Maltravers upon sensibilities as fine and delicate +as those of a woman like Lady Agatha Fairhaven? +</P> + +<P> +"Could I—if I might——" Lady Agatha hesitated, with a glance towards +the cabin. Cleggett instantly divined her thought; for brief as was +their acquaintance, there was an almost psychic accord between his mind +and hers, and he felt himself already answering to her unspoken wish as +a ship to its rudder. +</P> + +<P> +"The cabin is at your service," said Cleggett, for he understood that +she wished to dress for dinner. He conducted her, with a touch of +formality, to his own room in the cabin, which he put at her disposal, +ordering her steamer trunks to be placed in it. Then, taking with him +some necessaries of his own, he withdrew to the forecastle to make a +careful toilet. +</P> + +<P> +It might not have occurred to another man to dress for dinner, but +Cleggett's character was an unusual blend of delicacy and strength; he +perceived subtly that Lady Agatha was of the nature to appreciate this +compliment. At a moment when her fortunes were at a low ebb what could +more cheer a woman and hearten her than such a mark of consideration? +Already Cleggett found himself asking what would please Lady Agatha. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap08"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VIII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A FLAME LEAPS OUT OF THE DARK +</H3> + +<P> +Kuroki announced dinner; Cleggett entered the captain's mess room of +the cabin, where the cloth was laid, and a moment later lady Agatha +emerged from the stateroom and gave him her hand with a smile. +</P> + +<P> +If he had thought her beautiful before, when she wore her plain +traveling suit, he thought her radiant now, in the true sense of that +much abused word. For she flung forth her charm in vital radiations. +If Cleggett had possessed a common mind he might have phrased it to +himself that she hit a man squarely in the eyes. Her beauty had that +direct and almost aggressive quality that is like a challenge, and with +sophisticated feminine art she had contrived that the dinner gown she +chose for that evening should sound the keynote of her personality like +a leitmotif in an opera. The costume was a creation of white satin, +the folds caught here and there with strings of pearls. There was a +single large rose of pink velvet among the draperies of the skirt; a +looped girdle of blue velvet was the only other splash of color. But +the full-leaved, expanded and matured rose became the vivid epitome and +illustration of the woman herself. A rope of pearls that hung down to +her waist added the touch of soft luster essential to preserve the +picture from the reproach of being too obvious an assault upon the +senses; Cleggett reflected that another woman might have gone too far +and spoiled it all by wearing diamonds. Lady Agatha always knew where +to stop. +</P> + +<P> +"I have not been so hungry since I was in Holloway Jail," said Lady +Agatha. And she ate with a candid gusto that pleased Cleggett, who +loathed in a woman a finical affectation of indifference to food. +</P> + +<P> +When Kuroki brought the coffee she took up her own story again. There +was little more to tell. +</P> + +<P> +Dopey Eddie and Izzy the Cat, it appeared, had mistaken their +instructions. Two nights after they had been engaged they had appeared +at Lady Agatha's apartment with the oblong box. +</P> + +<P> +"The horrid creatures brought it into my sitting-room and laid it on +the floor before I could prevent them," said Lady Agatha. +</P> + +<P> +"'What is this?' I asked them, in bewilderment. +</P> + +<P> +"They replied that they had killed Reginald Maltravers ACCORDING TO +ORDERS, and had brought him to me. +</P> + +<P> +"'Orders!'" I cried. "'You had no such orders.'" Elmer, who lived on the +same floor, was absent temporarily, having taken Teddy out for an +airing. I was distracted. I did not know what to do. "'Your orders,'" I +said, "'were to—to——'" +</P> + +<P> +She broke off. "What was it that Elmer told them to do, and what was +it that they did?" she mused, perplexed. She called Elmer into the +cabin. +</P> + +<P> +"Elmer," she said, "exactly what was it that you told your friends to +do to him? And what was it that they did? I can never remember the +words." +</P> + +<P> +"Poke him," said Elmer, addressing Cleggett. "I tells these ginks to +poke him. But these ginks tells th' little dame here they t'inks I has +said to croak him. So they goes an' croaks him. D' youse get me?" +</P> + +<P> +Being assured that they got him, Elmer downheartedly withdrew. +</P> + +<P> +"At any rate," continued Lady Agatha, "there was that terrible box upon +my sitting-room floor, and there were those two degraded wretches. The +callous beasts stood above the box apparently quite insensible to the +ethical enormity of their crime. But they were keen enough to see that +it might be used as a lever with which to force more money from me. +For when I demanded that they take the box away with them and dispose +of it, they only laughed at me. They said that they had had enough of +that box. They had delivered the goods—that was the phrase they +used—and they wanted more money. And they said they would not leave +until they got it. They threatened, unless I gave them the money at +once, to leave the place and get word to the police of the presence of +the box in my apartment. +</P> + +<P> +"I was in no mental condition to combat and get the better of them. I +felt myself to be entirely in their power. I saw only the weakness of +my own position. I could not, at the moment, see the weak spots in +theirs. Elmer might have advised me—but he was not there. The +miserable episode ended with my giving them a thousand dollars each, +and they left. +</P> + +<P> +"Alone with that box, my panic increased. When Elmer returned with +Teddy, I told him what had happened. He wished to open the box, having +a vague idea that perhaps after all it did not really contain what they +had said was in it. But I could not bear the thought of its being +opened. I refused to allow Elmer to look into it. +</P> + +<P> +"I determined that I would ship the box at once to some fictitious +personage, and then take the next ship back to England. +</P> + +<P> +"I hastily wrote a card, which I tacked on the box, consigning it to +Miss Genevieve Pringle, Newark, N. J. The name was the first invention +that came into my head. Newark I had heard of. I knew vaguely that it +was west of New York, but whether it was twenty miles west or two +thousand miles, I did not stop to think. I am ignorant of American +geography. +</P> + +<P> +"But no sooner had the box been taken away than I began to be uneasy. +I was more frightened with it gone than I had been with it present. I +imagined it being dropped and broken, and revealing everything. And +then it occurred to me that even if I should get out of the country, +the secret was bound to be discovered some time. I do not know why I +had not thought of that before—but I was distracted. Having got rid +of the box, I was already wild to get it into my possession again. +</P> + +<P> +"I confided my fears to Elmer, and was surprised to learn from him that +Newark is very near New York. We took a taxicab at once, and were +waiting at the freight depot in Newark when the thing arrived. There I +claimed it in the name of Miss Genevieve Pringle. +</P> + +<P> +"It became apparent to me that I must manage its final disposition +myself. Elmer hired for me the vehicle in which we arrived here, and +we started back to New York. +</P> + +<P> +"But the driver, from the first, was suspicious of the box. His +suspicions were increased when, upon returning to my apartment hotel, +where I now decided to keep the box until I could think out a coherent +plan of action, the manager of the hotel made inquiries. The manager +had seen the box brought in, and taken out again, before. Its return +struck him as odd. He offered to store it for me in the basement. I +took alarm at once. Naturally, he questioned me more closely. I was +unready in my answers. His inquiries excited and alarmed me. I felt +that any instant I might do something to betray myself. I cut the +manager short, paid my bill, got my luggage, and ordered the chauffeur +to drive to the Grand Central Station. But when we had gone three or +four blocks, I said to him: 'Stop!—I do not wish to go to the Grand +Central Station. Drive me to Poughkeepsie!' I wished a chance to +think. I knew Poughkeepsie was not far from New York City, but I +supposed it was far enough to give me a chance to determine what to do +next by the time we arrived there. +</P> + +<P> +"But I could not think coherently. I could only feel and fear. The +drive was longer than I had expected, but when we arrived at +Poughkeepsie and the chauffeur asked me again what disposition to make +of the box, I was unable to answer him. Thereupon he insolently +demanded an enormous fare. +</P> + +<P> +"I could not choose but pay it. For four days we went from place to +place, in and about New York City's suburbs—now in town and now in the +country—crossing rivers again and again on ferryboats—stopping at +hotels, road houses and all manner of places—dashing through Brooklyn +and out among the villages of Long Island—and with the fear on me that +we were being followed. +</P> + +<P> +"Elmer and I were continually on the lookout for some way to dispose of +the box, but nothing presented itself. The driver, who had become more +and more impudent in his attitude and outrageous in his charges, was +now practically a spy upon us. The necessity for ice made frequent +stops imperative; at the same time the increasing fear of pursuit made +it agony for me to stop anywhere. +</P> + +<P> +"Today, at a road house thirty or forty miles from here, I made certain +that I was pursued. The very man from whom I had claimed the box at +the railway goods station in Newark confronted me. It appears, from +what Elmer says, that he is taking a holiday and is visiting his +brother, who is the proprietor of the road house. +</P> + +<P> +"And the person who is pursuing me is—a Miss Genevieve Pringle! +</P> + +<P> +"As fate would have it, there lives in Newark a person who really owns +that name which I thought I had invented. It seems that she had been +expecting a shipment, and had called to inquire for it; upon learning +that a box had been delivered to a person in her name she had taken up +the trail at once. Having somehow traced me to Long Island, she had +actually made inquiries at this very road house some hours earlier. +The railway employee, I am certain, would have denounced me at once—he +would have accused me of theft, and would have endeavored to have me +held until he could get into communication with Miss Pringle or with +the authorities—but I bought from him a promise of silence. It cost +me another large sum. +</P> + +<P> +"A few hours ago the chauffeur, divining from a conversation between +Elmer and me that I was running short of ready money, deserted me here. +You know the rest." +</P> + +<P> +Her voice trailed off into a tired whisper as she finished, and with +her elbows on the table Lady Agatha wearily supported her head in her +hands. Her attitude acknowledged defeat. She was despairingly certain +that she would never see the last of the box which she believed to +contain Reginald Maltravers. +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett did not hesitate an instant. "Lady Agatha," he said, "the +Jasper B. is at your service as long as you may require the ship. The +cabin is your home until we arrive at a solution of your difficulties." +</P> + +<P> +His glance and manner added what his tongue left unuttered—that the +commander of the ship was henceforth her devoted cavalier. But she +understood. +</P> + +<P> +She extended her hand. Her answer was on her lips. But at that +instant the jarring roar of an explosion struck the speech from them. +</P> + +<P> +The blast was evidently near, though muffled. The earth shook; a tremor +ran through the Jasper B.; the glasses leaped and rang upon the table. +Cleggett, followed by Lady Agatha, darted up the companionway. +</P> + +<P> +As Cleggett reached the deck there was a second shock, and he beheld a +flame leap out of the earth itself—a sudden sword of fire thrust into +the night from the midst of the sandy plain before him. The light that +stabbed and was gone in an instant was about halfway between the Jasper +B. and Morris's. A second after, a missile—which Cleggett later +learned was a piece of rock the size of a man's head—fell with a +splintering crash upon and through the wooden platform beside the +Jasper B., not thirty feet from where Cleggett stood; another splashed +into the canal. The next day Cleggett saw several of these fragments +lying about the plain. +</P> + +<P> +Calling to his men to bring lanterns—for the night had fallen dark and +cloudy—Cleggett ran towards the place. Lady Agatha, refusing to +remain behind, went with them. Moving lights and a stir of activity at +Morris's, and the gleam of lanterns on board the Annabel Lee, showed +Cleggett that his neighbors likewise were excited. +</P> + +<P> +But if Cleggett had expected an easy solution of this astonishing +eruption he was disappointed. Arrived at the scene of the explosion, +he found that its nature was such as to tease and balk his faculties of +analysis. The blast had blown a hole into the ground, certainly; but +this hole was curiously filled. Two large bowlders that leaned towards +each other had stood on top of the ground. These had been split and +shattered into many fragments. A few pieces, like the one that came so +near Cleggett, had been flung to a distance, but for the most part the +shivered crowns and broken bulks had been served otherwise; the force +of the blast had disintegrated them, but had not scattered them; the +greater part of this newly-rent stone had toppled into the fissure in +the ground, and lay there mixed with earth, almost filling the hole. +It was impossible to determine just where and how the blast had been +set off; the rocks hid the facts. But Cleggett judged that the force +must have come from below the bowlders; mightily smitten from beneath, +they had collapsed into the cavern suddenly opening there, as a +building might collapse into and fill a cellar. The pieces that had +been thrown high into the air were insignificant in proportion to the +great bulk which had settled into the hole and made its origin a +mystery. +</P> + +<P> +As Cleggett, bewildered, stood and gazed upon the mass of rock and +earth, Cap'n Abernethy gave a cry and pointed at something with his +finger. Cleggett, looking at the spot indicated, saw upon the edge of +this singular fracture in the earth a thing that sent a quick chill of +horror and repulsion to his heart. It was a dead hand, roughly severed +between the wrist and the elbow. The back of it was uppermost; the +fingers were clenched. Cleggett set down his lantern beside it and +turned it over with his foot. +</P> + +<P> +The dead fingers clutched a scrap of something yellow. On one of them +was a large and peculiar ring. +</P> + +<P> +"My God!" murmured Lady Agatha, grasping Cleggett convulsively by the +shoulder, "that is the Earl of Claiborne's signet ring!" +</P> + +<P> +But Cleggett scarcely realized what she had said, until she repeated +her words. Fighting down his repugnance, he took from the lifeless and +stubborn fingers the yellow scrap of paper. +</P> + +<P> +It was a torn and crumpled twenty-dollar bill. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap09"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IX +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +MYSTERIES MULTIPLY +</H3> + +<P> +Directing Kuroki to remove the ring and bring it along, Cleggett gave +his arm to Lady Agatha and led the way back to the Jasper B. Neither +said anything to the point until, seated in the cabin, with the +twenty-dollar bill and the ring before them, Cleggett picked up the +latter and remarked: +</P> + +<P> +"You are certain of the identity of this ring?" +</P> + +<P> +"Certain," she said. "I could not mistake it. There is no other like +it, anywhere." +</P> + +<P> +It was a very heavy gold band, set with a large piece of dark green +jade which was deeply graven on its surface with the Claiborne crest. +</P> + +<P> +"Was it," asked Cleggett, "in the possession of Reginald Maltravers?" +</P> + +<P> +"It might have been, readily enough," she said, "although I had not +known that it was. Still, that does not explain...." She shrugged her +shoulders. +</P> + +<P> +"There are a number of things unexplained," answered Cleggett, "and the +presence of this ring, and the manner in which it has come into our +possession, are not the most mysterious of them. The explosion itself +appears to me, just now, at least, hard to account for." +</P> + +<P> +"The manner in which people get into and out of the hold of your vessel +is also obscure," said Lady Agatha. +</P> + +<P> +"Nor is the motive of their hostility clear," said Cleggett. +</P> + +<P> +He picked up the piece of paper money. Something about the feel of it +aroused his suspicions. He called Elmer, and when that exponent of +reform entered the cabin, asked him bluntly: +</P> + +<P> +"Did you ever have anything to do with bad money?" +</P> + +<P> +Elmer intimated that he might know it if he saw it. +</P> + +<P> +"Then look at that, please." +</P> + +<P> +Elmer took the torn bill, produced a penknife, slit the yellow paper, +and cut out of it one of the small hair-like fibers with which the +texture of such notes is sprinkled. After wetting this fiber and +mangling it with his penknife he gave his judgment briefly. +</P> + +<P> +"Queer," he said. +</P> + +<P> +"But what does that explain?" asked Lady Agatha. "Perhaps the Earl of +Claiborne came to this country and took to making counterfeit money in +the hold of the Jasper B., into and out of which he stole like a ghost? +Finally he got tired of it and blew himself up with a bomb out there, +leaving his ring with a piece of money intact? Is that the explanation +we get out of our facts? Because, you know," she added, as Cleggett +did not smile, "all that is absurd!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," said Cleggett, still refusing to be amused, "but out of all this +jumble of mystery, just one certain thing appears." +</P> + +<P> +"And that is?" +</P> + +<P> +"That our destinies are somehow linked!" +</P> + +<P> +"Our destinies? Linked?" +</P> + +<P> +She gave him a swift look, and as suddenly dropped her eyes again. +Cleggett could not tell whether she was offended or not by his +expression of the idea. +</P> + +<P> +"The same people," said Cleggett, after a brief pause, "who are so +persistently hostile to me are also in some manner connected with your +own misfortunes. Their possession of this ring shows that." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," she said, following his thought, "that is true—whoever set off +that bomb was also wearing this ring, or was very near the person who +was wearing it. And," with a shudder which conveyed to Cleggett that +she was thinking of the box on deck, "it COULDN'T have been Reginald +Maltravers!" +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps," said Cleggett, "someone was sneaking over from Morris's with +the intention of destroying the Jasper B., and was himself the victim +of a premature explosion as he crouched behind the rocks to await his +opportunity." +</P> + +<P> +"But why," puzzled Lady Agatha, with contracted brows, "should a +dynamiter, anarchistic or otherwise, be holding a counterfeit +twenty-dollar bill in his hand as he went about his work?" +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett brooded in silence. +</P> + +<P> +"We are in the midst of mysteries," he said finally. "They are +multiplying about us." +</P> + +<P> +He was about to say more. He was about to express again his belief +that they had been flung together by fate. The sense that their +stories were inextricably intertwined, that they must henceforward +march on as one mystery towards a solution, was exhilarating to him. +But how was it possible that she should feel the same sense of pleasure +in the fact that they faced dangers, seen and unseen, together? +</P> + +<P> +Together!—How the thought thrilled him! +</P> + +<P> +On deck, Elmer, before returning to the box of Reginald Maltravers, +suddenly and unexpectedly grasped Cleggett by the hand. +</P> + +<P> +"Bo," he said, "I'm wit' youse. I'm wit' youse the whole way. Any +friend of the little dame is a friend of mine. She's a square little +dame. D' youse get me?" +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you," said Cleggett, more affected than he would have cared to +own. "Thank you, my loyal fellow." +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett established a watch on deck that night, with a relief every +two hours. Towards morning George returned, with Dr. Farnsworth and a +nurse. This nurse, Miss Antoinette Medley, was a black-eyed, slender +girl with pretty hands and white teeth; she gestured a great deal and +smiled often. She and Dr. Farnsworth devoted themselves at once to the +young anarchist poet, who had come out of his stupor, indeed, but was +now babbling weakly in the delirium of fever. +</P> + +<P> +The night was not a cheerful one, and morning came gloomily out of a +gray bank of mist. Cleggett, as he looked about the boat in the first +pale light, could not resist a slight feeling of depression, courageous +as he was. The wounded man gibbered in a bunk in the forecastle. The +box of Reginald Maltravers stood on one end, leaning against the port +side of the cabin, and dripped steadily. Elmer, wrapped in blankets, +lay on the deck near the box of Reginald Maltravers, looking even more +dejected in slumber than when his eyes were open. Teddy, the +Pomeranian, was snuggled against Elmer's feet, but, as if a prey to +frightful nightmares, the little dog twitched and whined in his sleep +from time to time. These were the apparent facts, and these facts were +set to a melancholy tune by the long-drawn, dismal snores of Cap'n +Abernethy, which rose and fell, and rose and fell, and rose again like +the sad and wailing song of some strange bird bereft of a beloved mate. +They were the music for, and the commentary on, what Cleggett beheld; +Cap'n Abernethy seemed to be saying, with these snores: "If you was to +ask me, I'd say it ain't a cheerful ship this mornin', Mr. Cleggett, it +ain't a cheerful ship." +</P> + +<P> +But Cleggett's nature was too lively and vigorous to remain clouded for +long. By the time the red disk of the sun had crept above the eastern +horizon he had shaken off his fit of the blues. +</P> + +<P> +The sun looked large and bland and friendly, and, somehow, the partisan +of integrity and honor. He drew strength from it. Cleggett, like all +poetic souls, was responsive to these familiar recurrent phenomena of +nature. +</P> + +<P> +The sun did him another office. It showed him a peculiar tableau +vivant on the eastern bank of the canal, near the house boat Annabel +Lee. This consisted of three men, two of them naked except for bathing +trunks of the most abbreviated sort, running swiftly and earnestly up +and down the edge of the canal. He saw with astonishment that the two +men in bathing suits were handcuffed together, the left wrist of one to +the right wrist of the other. A rope was tied to the handcuffs, and +the other end of it was held by the third man, who was dressed in +ordinary tweeds. The third man had a magazine rifle over one shoulder. +He followed about twenty feet behind the two men in bathing suits and +drove them. +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett perceived that the man who was doing the driving was the same +who had watched the Jasper B. so persistently the day before from the +deck of the Annabel Lee. He was middle-sized, and inclined to be +stout, and yet he followed his strange team with no apparent effort. +Cleggett saw through the glass that he had a rather heavy black +mustache, and was again struck by something vaguely familiar about him. +The two men in bathing suits were slender and undersized; they did not +look at all like athletes, and although they moved as fast as they +could it was apparent that they got no pleasure out of it. They ran +with their heads hanging down, and it seemed to Cleggett that they were +quarreling as they ran, for occasionally one of them would give a +vicious jerk to the handcuffs that would almost upset the other, and +that must have hurt the wrists of both of them. +</P> + +<P> +As Cleggett watched, the driver pulled them up short, and waved them +towards the canal. They stopped, and it was apparent that they were +balking and expostulating. But the driver was inexorable. He went near +to them and threatened their bare backs with the slack of the rope. +Gingerly and shiveringly they stepped into the cold water, while the +driver stood on the bank. The water was up to their waists and he had +to threaten them again with his rope before they would duck their heads +under. +</P> + +<P> +When he allowed them on shore again they needed no urging, it was +evident, to make them hit up a good rate of speed, and back and forth +along the bank they sprinted. But the cold bath had not improved their +temper, for suddenly one of them leaped and kicked sidewise at the +other, with the result that both toppled to the ground. The stout man +was upon them in an instant, hazing them with the rope end. He drove +them, still lashing out at each other with their bare feet, into the +water again, and after a more prolonged ducking whipped them, at a +plunging gallop, upon the Annabel Lee, where they disappeared from +Cleggett's view. +</P> + +<P> +While Cleggett was still wondering what significance could underlie +this unusual form of matutinal exercise, Dr. Farnsworth came out of the +forecastle and beckoned to him. The young Doctor had a red Vandyck +beard sedulously cultivated in the belief that it would make him look +older and inspire the confidence of patients, and a shock of dark red +hair which he rumpled vigorously when he was thinking. He was rumpling +it now. +</P> + +<P> +"Who's 'Loge'?" he demanded. +</P> + +<P> +"Loge?" repeated Cleggett. +</P> + +<P> +"You don't know anyone named 'Loge,' or Logan?" +</P> + +<P> +"No. Why?" +</P> + +<P> +"Whoever he is, 'Loge' is very much on the mind of our young friend in +there," said Farnsworth, with a movement of his head towards the +forecastle. "And I wouldn't be surprised, to judge from the boy's +delirium, if 'Loge' had something to do with all the hell that's been +raised around your ship. Come in and listen to this fellow." +</P> + +<P> +Miss Medley, the nurse, was sitting beside the wounded youth's bunk, +endeavoring to soothe and restrain him. The young anarchist, whose +eyes were bright with fever, was talking rapidly in a weak but +high-pitched singsong voice. +</P> + +<P> +"He's off on the poems again," said the Doctor, after listening a +moment. "But wait, he'll get back to Loge. It's been one or the other +for an hour now." +</P> + +<P> +"I spit upon your flag," shrilled Giuseppe Jones, feebly declamatory. +"'I spit—I spit—but, as I spit, I weep.'" He paused for a moment, +and then began at the beginning and repeated all of the lines which +Cleggett had read from the little book. One gathered that it was +Giuseppe's favorite poem. +</P> + +<P> +"'I spit upon the whole damned thing!'" he shrilled, and then with a +sad shake of his head: "But, as I spit, I weep!" +</P> + +<P> +If the poem was Giuseppe's favorite poem, this was evidently his +favorite line, for he said it over and over again—"'But, as I spit, I +weep'"—in a breathless babble that was very wearing on the nerves. +</P> + +<P> +But suddenly he interrupted himself; the poems seemed to pass from his +mind. "Loge!" he said, raising himself on his elbow and staring, with +a frown not at, but through, Cleggett: "Logan—it isn't square!" +</P> + +<P> +There was suffering and perplexity in his gaze; he was evidently living +over again some painful scene. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm a revolutionist, Loge, not a crook! I won't do it, Loge!" +</P> + +<P> +Watching him, it was impossible not to understand that the struggle, +which his delirium made real and present again, had stamped itself into +the texture of his spirit. "You shouldn't ask it, Loge," he said. The +crisis of the conflict which he was living over passed presently, and +he murmured, with contracted brows, and as if talking to himself: "Is +Loge a crook? A crook?" +</P> + +<P> +But after a moment of this he returned again to a rapid repetition of +the phrase: "I'm a revolutionist, not a crook-not a crook—not a +crook—a revolutionist, not a crook, Loge, not a crook——" Once he +varied it, crying with a quick, hot scorn: "I'll cut their throats and +be damned to them, but don't ask me to steal." And then he was off +again to declaiming his poetry: "I spit, but, as I spit, I weep!" +</P> + +<P> +But as Cleggett and the Doctor listened to him the youth's ravings +suddenly took a new form. He ceased to babble; terror expanded the +pupils of his eyes and he pointed at vacancy with a shaking finger. +"Stop it!" he cried in a croaking whisper. "Stop it! It's his +skull—it's Loge's skull come alive. Stop it, I say, it's come alive +and getting bigger." With a violent effort he raised himself before +the nurse could prevent him, shrinking back from the horrid +hallucination which pressed towards him, and then fell prone and +senseless on the bunk. +</P> + +<P> +"God!—his wounds!" cried the Doctor, starting forward. As Farnsworth +had feared, they had broken open and were bleeding again. "It's a +ticklish thing," said Farnsworth, rumpling his hair. "If I give him +enough sedative to keep him quiet his heart may stop any time. If I +don't, he'll thrash himself to pieces in his delirium before the day's +over." +</P> + +<P> +But Cleggett scarcely heeded the Doctor. The reference to "Loge's" +skull had flashed a sudden light into his mind. Whatever else "Loge" +was, Cleggett had little doubt that "Loge" was the tall man with the +stoop shoulders and the odd, skull-shaped scarfpin, for whom he had +conceived at first sight such a tingling hatred—the same fellow who +had so ruthlessly manhandled the flaxen-haired Heinrich on the roof of +the verandah the day before. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap10"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER X +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +IN THE ENEMY'S CAMP +</H3> + +<P> +At seven o'clock that morning five big-bodied automobile trucks rolled +up in a thundering procession. As they hove in sight on the starboard +quarter and dropped anchor near the Jasper B., Cleggett recalled that +this was the day which Cap'n Abernethy had set for getting the sticks +and sails into the vessel. In the hurry and excitement of recent +events aboard the ship he had almost forgotten it. +</P> + +<P> +A score of men scrambled from the trucks and began to haul out of them +all the essentials of a shipyard. Wheel, rudder, masts, spars, +bowsprit, quantities of rope and cable followed—in fact, every +conceivable thing necessary to convert the Jasper B. from a hulk into a +properly rigged schooner. Cleggett, with a pith and brevity +characteristic of the man, had given his order in one sentence. +</P> + +<P> +"Make arrangements to get the sails and masts into her in one day," he +had told Captain Abernethy. +</P> + +<P> +It was in the same large and simple spirit that a Russian Czar once +laid a ruler across the map of his empire and, drawing a straight line +from Moscow to Petersburg, commanded his engineers: "Build me a +railroad to run like that." Genius has winged conceptions; it sees +things as a completed whole from the first; it is only mediocrity which +permits itself to be lost in details. +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett was like the Romanoffs in his ability to go straight to the +point, but he had none of the Romanoff cruelty. +</P> + +<P> +Captain Abernethy had made his arrangements accordingly. If it pleased +Cleggett to have a small manufacturing plant brought to the Jasper B. +instead of having the Jasper B. towed to a shipyard, it was Abernethy's +business as his chief executive officer to see that this was done. The +Captain had let the contract to an enterprising and businesslike +fellow, Watkins by name, who had at once looked the vessel over, taken +the necessary measurements, and named a good round sum for the job. +With several times the usual number of skilled workmen employed at +double the usual rate of pay, he guaranteed to do in ten hours what +might ordinarily have taken a week. +</P> + +<P> +Under the leadership of this capable Watkins, the workmen rushed at the +vessel with the dash and vim of a gang of circus employees engaged in +putting up a big tent and making ready for a show. To a casual +observer it might have seemed a scene of confusion. But in reality the +work jumped forward with order and precision, for the position of every +bolt, chain, nail, cord, piece of iron and bit of wood had been +calculated beforehand to a nicety; there was not a wasted movement of +saw, adze, or hammer. The Jasper B., in short, had been measured +accurately for a suit of clothes, the clothes had been made; they were +now merely being put on. +</P> + +<P> +Refreshed by the first sound sleep she had been able to obtain for +several nights, Lady Agatha joined Cleggett at an eight-o'clock +breakfast. It was the first of May, and warm and bright; in a simple +morning dress of pink linen Lady Agatha stirred in Cleggett a vague +recollection of one of Tennyson's earlier poems. The exact phrases +eluded him; perhaps, indeed, it was the underlying sentiment of nearly +ALL of Tennyson's earlier poems of which she reminded him—those lyrics +which are at once so romantic and so irreproachable morally. +</P> + +<P> +"We must give you Americans credit for imagination at any rate," she +said smilingly, making her Pomeranian sit up on his hind legs and beg +for a morsel of crisp bacon. "I awake in a boatyard after having gone +to sleep in a dismantled barge." +</P> + +<P> +"Barge!" The word "barge" struck Cleggett unexpectedly; he was not +aware that he had given a start and frowned. +</P> + +<P> +"Mercy!" exclaimed Lady Agatha, "how the dear man glares! What should +I call it? Scow?" +</P> + +<P> +"Scow?" said Cleggett. He had scarcely recovered from the word +"barge"; it is not to be denied that "scow" jarred upon him even more +than "barge" had done. +</P> + +<P> +"I beg your pardon," said Lady Agatha, "but what IS the Jasper B., Mr. +Cleggett?" +</P> + +<P> +"The Jasper B. is a schooner," said Cleggett. He tried to say it +casually, but he was conscious as he spoke that there was a trace of +hurt surprise in his voice. The most generous and chivalrous soul +alive, Cleggett would have gone to the stake for Lady Agatha; and yet +so unaccountable is that vain thing, the human soul (especially at +breakfast time), that he felt angry at her for misunderstanding the +Jasper B. +</P> + +<P> +"You aren't going to be horrid about it, are you?" she said. "Because, +you know, I never said I knew anything about ships." +</P> + +<P> +She picked up the little dog and stood it on the table, making the +animal extend its paws as if pleading. "Help me to beg Mr. Cleggett's +pardon," she said, "he's going to be cross with us about his old boat." +</P> + +<P> +If Lady Agatha had been just an inch taller or just a few pounds +heavier the playful mood itself would have jarred upon the fastidious +Cleggett; indeed, as she was, if she had been just a thought more +playful, it would have jarred. But Lady Agatha, it has been remarked +before, never went too far in any direction. +</P> + +<P> +Even as she smiled and held out the dog's paws Cleggett was aware of +something in her eyes that was certainly not a tear, but was just as +certainly a film of moisture that might be a tear in another minute. +Then Cleggett cursed himself inwardly for a brute—it rushed over him +how difficult to Lady Agatha her position on board the Jasper B. must +seem. She must regard herself as practically a pensioner on his +bounty. And he had been churl enough to show a spark of temper—and +that, too, after she had repeatedly expressed her gratitude to him. +</P> + +<P> +"I am deeply sorry, Lady Agatha," he began, blushing painfully, "if——" +</P> + +<P> +"Silly!" She interrupted him by reaching across the table and laying a +forgiving hand upon his arm. "Don't be so stiff and formal. Eat your +egg before it gets cold and don't say another word. Of course I know +you're not REALLY going to be cross." And she attacked her breakfast, +giving him such a look that he forthwith forgave himself and forgot +that he had had anything to forgive in her. +</P> + +<P> +"There's going to be a frightful racket around here today," he said +presently. "Maybe you'd like to get away from it for a while. How'd +you like to go for a row?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'd love it!" she said. +</P> + +<P> +"George will be glad to take you, I'm sure." +</P> + +<P> +"George? And you?" He thought he detected a note of disappointment in +her voice; he had not thought to disappoint her, but when he found her +disappointed he got a certain thrill out of it. +</P> + +<P> +"I am going over to Morris's this morning," he said. +</P> + +<P> +"To Morris's? Alone?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, yes." +</P> + +<P> +"But—but isn't it dangerous?" +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett smiled and shrugged his shoulders. +</P> + +<P> +"Promise me that you will not go over there alone," she demanded. +</P> + +<P> +"I am sorry. I cannot." +</P> + +<P> +"But it is rash—it is mad!" +</P> + +<P> +"There is no real danger." +</P> + +<P> +"Then I am going with you." +</P> + +<P> +"I think that would hardly be advisable." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm going with you," she repeated, rising with determination. +</P> + +<P> +"But you're not," said Cleggett. "I couldn't think of allowing it." +</P> + +<P> +"Then there IS danger," she said. +</P> + +<P> +He tried to evade the point. "I shouldn't have mentioned it," he +murmured. +</P> + +<P> +She ran into the stateroom and was back in an instant with her hat, +which she pinned on as she spoke. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm ready to start," she said. +</P> + +<P> +"But you're not going." +</P> + +<P> +"After what you've done for me I insist upon my right to share whatever +danger there may be." She spoke heatedly. +</P> + +<P> +In her heat and impulsiveness and generous bravery Cleggett thought her +adorable, although he began to get really angry with her, too. At the +same time he was aware that her gratitude to him was such that she was +on fire to give him some positive and early proof of it. It had not so +much as occurred to her to enjoy immunity on account of her sex; it had +not entered her mind, apparently, that her sex was an obstacle in the +way of participating in whatever dangerous enterprise he had planned. +She was, in fact, behaving like a chivalric but obstinate boy; she had +not been a militant suffragette for nothing. And yet, somehow, this +attitude only served to enhance her essential femininity. +Nevertheless, Cleggett was inflexible. +</P> + +<P> +"You would scarcely forbid me to go to Morris's today, or anywhere else +I may choose," she said hotly, with a spot of red on either cheek bone, +and a dangerous dilatation of her eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"That is exactly what I intend to do," said Cleggett, with an intensity +equal to her own, "FORBID you." +</P> + +<P> +"You are curiously presumptuous," she said. +</P> + +<P> +It was a real quarrel before they were done with it, will opposed to +naked will. And oddly enough Cleggett found his admiration grow as his +determination to gain his point increased. For she fought fair, +disdaining the facile weapon of tears, and when she yielded she did it +suddenly and merrily. +</P> + +<P> +"You've the temper of a sultan, Mr. Cleggett," she said with a laugh, +which was her signal of capitulation. And then she added maliciously: +"You've a devil of a temper—for a little man!" +</P> + +<P> +"Little!" Cleggett felt the blood rush into his face again and was +vexed at himself. "I'm taller than you are!" he cried, and the next +instant could have bitten his tongue off for the childish vanity of the +speech. +</P> + +<P> +"You're not!" she cried, her whole face alive with laughter. "Measure +and see!" +</P> + +<P> +And pulling off her hat she caught up a table knife and made him stand +with his back to hers. "You're cheating," said Cleggett, laughing now +in spite of himself, as she laid the knife across their heads. But his +voice broke and trembled on the next words, for he was suddenly +thrilled with her delicious nearness. "You're standing on your tiptoes, +and your hair's piled on top of your head." +</P> + +<P> +"Maybe you are an inch taller," she admitted, with mock reluctance. +And then she said, with a ripple of mirth: "You are taller than I +am—I give up; I won't go to Morris's." +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett, to tell the truth, was a bit relieved at the measurement. He +was of the middle height; she was slightly taller than the average +woman; he had really thought she might prove taller than he. He could +scarcely have told why he considered the point important. +</P> + +<P> +But after the quarrel she looked at Cleggett with a new and more +approving gaze. Neither of them quite realized it, but she had +challenged his ability to dominate her, and she had been worsted; he +had unconsciously met and satisfied in her that subtle inherent craving +for domination which all women possess and so few will admit the +possession of. +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett started across the sands toward Morris's with an automatic +pistol slung in a shoulder holster under his left arm and a sword cane +in his hand. He paused a moment by the scene of the explosion of the +night before, but daylight told him nothing that lantern light had +failed to reveal. He had no very definite plan, although he thought it +possible that he might gain some information. The more he reflected on +the attitude of Morris's, the more it irritated him, and he yearned to +make this irritation known. +</P> + +<P> +Perhaps there was more than a little of the spirit of bravado in the +call he proposed to pay. He planned, the next day, to sail the Jasper +B. out into the bay and up and down the coast for a few miles, to give +himself and his men a bit of practice in navigation before setting out +for the China Seas. And he could not bear to think that the hostile +denizens of Morris's should think that he had moved the Jasper B. from +her position through any fear of them. He reasoned that the most +pointed way of showing his opinion of them would be to walk casually +into Morris's barroom and order a drink or two. If Cleggett had a +fault as a commander it lay in these occasional foolhardy impulses +which he found it difficult to control. Julius Caesar had the same +sort of pride, which, in Caesar's case, amounted to positive vanity. +In fact, the character of Caesar and the character of Cleggett had many +points in common, although Cleggett possessed a nicer sense of honor +than Caesar. +</P> + +<P> +The main entrance to Morris's was on the west side. From the west +verandah one could enter directly either the main dining-room, at the +north side of the building, the office, or the barroom. The barroom, +which was large, ran the whole length of the south side of the place. +Doors also led into the barroom, from the south verandah, which was +built over the water, and from the east verandah, which was visible +from the Jasper B.—and onto the roof of which Cleggett had seen Loge +tumble the limp body of his victim, Heinrich. That had been only the +day before, but so much had happened since that Cleggett could scarcely +realize that so little time had elapsed. +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett strolled into the barroom and took a seat at a table in the +southeast corner of it, with his back to the angle of the walls. He +thus commanded a view of the bar itself; a door which led, as he +conjectured, into the kitchen; the door communicating with the office, +and a door which gave upon the west verandah—all this easily, and +without turning his head. By turning his head ever so slightly to his +right, he could command a view of the door leading to the east +verandah. Unless the ceiling suddenly opened above him, or the floor +beneath, it would be impossible to surprise him. Cleggett took this +position less through any positive fear of attack than because he +possessed the instinct of the born strategist. Cleggett was like +Robert E. Lee in his quick grasp of a situation and, indeed, in other +respects—although Cleggett would never under any circumstances have +countenanced human slavery. +</P> + +<P> +There were only two men in the place when Cleggett took his seat, the +bartender and a fellow who was evidently a waiter. He had entered the +west door and walked across the room without looking at them, +withholding his gaze purposely. When he looked towards the bar, after +seating himself, the waiter, with his back towards Cleggett's corner, +was talking in a low tone to the bartender. But they had both seen him; +Cleggett perceived they both knew him. +</P> + +<P> +"See what the gentleman wants, Pierre," said the bartender in a voice +too elaborately casual to hide his surprise at seeing Cleggett. +</P> + +<P> +The waiter turned and came towards him, and Cleggett saw the man's face +for the first time. It was a face that Cleggett never forgot. +Cleggett judged the man to be a Frenchman; he was dark and sallow, with +nervous, black eyebrows, and a smirk that came and went quickly. But +the unforgettable feature was a mole that grew on his upper lip, on the +right side, near the base of his flaring nostril. Many moles have +hairs in them; Pierre's mole had not merely half a dozen hairs, but a +whole crop. They grew thick and long; and, with a perversion of vanity +almost inconceivable in a sane person, Pierre had twisted these hairs +together, as a man twists a mustache, and had trained them to grow +obliquely across his cheek bone. He was a big fellow, for a Frenchman, +and, as he walked towards Cleggett with a mincing elasticity of gait, +he smirked and caressed this whimsical adornment. Cleggett, +fascinated, stared at it as the fellow paused before him. Pierre, +evidently gratified at the sensation he was creating, continued to +smirk and twist, and then, seeing that he held his audience, he took +from his waistcoat pocket a little piece of cosmetic and, as a final +touch of Gallic grotesquerie, waxed the thing. It was all done with +that air of quiet histrionicism, and with that sense of +self-appreciation, which only the French can achieve in its perfection. +"You ordered, M'sieur?" Pierre, having produced his effect, like the +artist (though debased) that he was, did not linger over it. +</P> + +<P> +"Er—a Scotch highball," said Cleggett, recovering himself. "And with +a piece of lemon peeling in it, please." +</P> + +<P> +Pierre served him deftly. Cleggett stirred his drink and sipped it +slowly, gazing at the bartender, who elaborately avoided watching him. +But after a moment a little noise at his right attracted his attention. +Pierre, with his hand cupped, had dashed it along a window pane and +caught a big stupid fly, abroad thus early in the year. With a sense +of almost intolerable disgust, Cleggett saw the man, with a rapt smile +on his face, tear the insect's legs from it, and turn it loose. If +ever a creature rejoiced in wickedness for its own sake, and as if its +practice were an art in itself, Pierre was that person, Cleggett +concluded. Knowing Pierre, one could almost understand those cafes of +Paris where the silly poets of degradation ostentatiously affect the +worship of all manner of devils. +</P> + +<P> +An instant later, Pierre, as if he had been doing something quite +charming, looked at Cleggett with a grin; a grin that assumed that +there was some kind of an understanding between them concerning this +delightful pastime. It was too much. Cleggett, with an oath—and +never stopping to reflect that it was perhaps just the sort of action +which Pierre hoped to provoke—grasped his cane with the intention of +laying it across the fellow's shoulders half a dozen times, come what +might, and leaving the place. +</P> + +<P> +But at that instant the door from the office opened and the man whom +he knew only as Loge entered the room. +</P> + +<P> +Loge paused at the right of Cleggett, and then marched directly across +the room and sat down opposite the commander of the Jasper B. at the +same table. He was wearing the cutaway frock coat, and as he swung his +big frame into the seat one of his coat tails caught in the chair back +and was lifted. +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett saw the steel butt of an army revolver. Loge perceived by his +face that he had seen it, and laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"I've been wanting to talk to you," he said, leaning across the table +and showing his yellow teeth in a smile which he perhaps intended to be +ingratiating. Cleggett, looking Loge fixedly in the eye, withdrew his +right hand from beneath his coat, and laid his magazine pistol on the +table under his hand. +</P> + +<P> +"I am at your service," he said, steadily, giving back unwavering gaze +for gaze. "I am looking for some information myself, and I am in +exactly the humor for a little comfortable chat." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap11"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +REPARTEE AND PISTOLS +</H3> + +<P> +Loge dropped his gaze to the pistol, and the smile upon his lips slowly +turned into a sneer. But when he lifted his eyes to Cleggett's again +there was no fear in them. +</P> + +<P> +"Put up your gun," he said, easily enough. "You won't have any use for +it here." +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you for the assurance," said Cleggett, "but it occurs to me that +it is in a very good place where it is." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, if it amuses you to play with it——" said Loge. +</P> + +<P> +"It does," said Cleggett dryly. +</P> + +<P> +"It's an odd taste," said Loge. +</P> + +<P> +"It's a taste I've formed during the last few days on board my ship," +said Cleggett meaningly. +</P> + +<P> +"Ship?" said Loge. "Oh, I beg your pardon. You mean the old hulk over +yonder in the canal?" +</P> + +<P> +"Over yonder in the canal," said Cleggett, without relaxing his +vigilance. +</P> + +<P> +"You've been frightened over there?" asked Loge, showing his teeth in a +grin. +</P> + +<P> +"No," said Cleggett. "I'm not easily frightened." +</P> + +<P> +Loge looked at the pistol under Cleggett's hand, and from the pistol to +Cleggett's face, with ironical gravity, before he spoke. "I should +have thought, from the way you cling to that pistol, that perhaps your +nerves might be a little weak and shaky." +</P> + +<P> +"On the contrary," said Cleggett, playing the game with a face like a +mask, "my nerves are so steady that I could snip that ugly-looking +skull off your cravat the length of this barroom away." +</P> + +<P> +"That would be mighty good shooting," said Loge, turning in his chair +and measuring the distance with his eye. "I don't believe you could do +it. I don't mind telling you that <I>I</I> couldn't." +</P> + +<P> +"While we are on the subject of your scarfpin," said Cleggett, in whom +the slur on the Jasper B. had been rankling, "I don't mind telling YOU +that I think that skull thing is in damned bad taste. In fact, you are +dressed generally in damned bad taste.—Who is your tailor?" +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett was gratified to see a dull flush spread over the other's face +at the insult. Loge was silent a moment, and then he said, dropping +his bantering manner, which indeed sat rather heavily upon him: "I +don't know why you should want to shoot at my scarfpin—or at me. I +don't know why you should suddenly lay a pistol between us. I don't, +in short, know why we should sit here paying each other left-handed +compliments, when it was merely my intention to make you a business +proposition." +</P> + +<P> +"I have been waiting to hear what you had to say to me," said Cleggett, +without being in the least thrown off his guard by the other's change +of manner. +</P> + +<P> +"If you had not chanced to drop in here today," said Loge, "I had +intended paying you a visit." +</P> + +<P> +"I have had several visitors lately," said Cleggett nonchalantly, "and +I think at least two of them can make no claim that they were not +warmly received." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes?" said Loge. But if Cleggett's meaning reached him he was too +cool a hand to show it. He persisted in his affectation of a +businesslike air. "Am I right in thinking that you have bought the +boat?" +</P> + +<P> +"You are." +</P> + +<P> +"To come to the point," said Loge, "I want to buy her from you. What +will you take for her?" +</P> + +<P> +The proposition was unexpected to Cleggett, but he did not betray his +surprise. +</P> + +<P> +"You want to buy her?" he said. "You want to buy the old hulk over +yonder in the canal?" He laughed, but continued: "What on earth can +your interest be in her?" +</P> + +<P> +There was a trace of surliness in Loge's voice as he answered: "YOU +were enough interested in her to buy her, it seems. Why shouldn't I +have the same interest?" +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett was silent a moment, and then he leaned across the table and +said with emphasis: "I have noticed your interest in the Jasper B. +since the day I first set foot on her. And let me warn you that unless +you show your curiosity in some other manner henceforth, you will +seriously regret it. A couple of your men have repented of your +interest already." +</P> + +<P> +"My men? What do you mean by my men? I haven't any men." Loge's +imitation of astonishment was a piece of art; but if anything he +overdid it a trifle. He frowned in a puzzled fashion, and then said: +"You talk about my men; you speak riddles to me; you appear to threaten +me, but after all I have only made you a plain business proposition. I +ask you again, what will you take for her?" +</P> + +<P> +"She's not for sale," said Cleggett shortly. +</P> + +<P> +Loge did not speak again for a moment. Instead, he picked up the spoon +with which Cleggett had stirred his highball and began to draw +characters with its wet point upon the table. "If it's a question of +price," he said finally, "I'm prepared to allow you a handsome profit." +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett determined to find out how far he would go. +</P> + +<P> +"You might be willing to pay as much as $5,000 for her—for the old +hulk over there in the canal?" +</P> + +<P> +Loge stopped playing with the spoon and looked searchingly into +Cleggett's face. Then he said: +</P> + +<P> +"I will. Turn her over to me the way she was the day you bought her, +and I'll give you $5,000." He paused, and then repeated, stressing the +words: "MIND YOU, WITH EVERYTHING IN HER THE WAY IT WAS THE DAY YOU +BOUGHT HER." +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett fumbled with his fingers in a waistcoat pocket, drew out the +torn piece of counterfeit money which he had taken from the dead hand, +and flung it on the table. +</P> + +<P> +"Five thousand dollars," he said, "in THAT kind of money?" +</P> + +<P> +Loge looked at it with eyes that suddenly contracted. Clever +dissembler that he was, he could not prevent an involuntary start. He +licked his lips, and Cleggett judged that perhaps his mouth felt a +little dry. But these were the only signs he made. Indeed, when he +spoke it was with something almost like an air of relief. +</P> + +<P> +"Come," he said, "now we're down to brass tacks at last on this +proposition. Mr. Detective, name your real price." +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett did not answer immediately. He appeared to consider his real +price. But in reality he was thinking that there was no longer any +doubt of the origin of the explosion. Since Loge practically +acknowledged the counterfeit money, the man who had died with this +piece of it in his hand must have been one of Loge's men. But he only +said: +</P> + +<P> +"Why do you call me a detective?" +</P> + +<P> +Loge shrugged his shoulders. Then he said again: "Your real price?" +</P> + +<P> +"What," said Cleggett, trying him out, "do you think of $20,000?" +</P> + +<P> +The other gave a long, low whistle. +</P> + +<P> +"Gad!" he cried, "what crooks you bulls are." +</P> + +<P> +"It's not so much," said Cleggett deliberately, "when one takes +everything into consideration." +</P> + +<P> +Loge appeared to meditate. Then he said: "That figure is out of the +question. I'll give you $10,000 and not a cent more." +</P> + +<P> +"You want her pretty badly," said Cleggett. "Or you want what's on +her." +</P> + +<P> +"Why," said Loge, with an assumption of great frankness, "between you +and me I don't care a damn about your boat. I think we understand each +other. I'm buying her to get what's on her." +</P> + +<P> +"Suppose I sell you what's on her for $10,000 and keep the ship," said +Cleggett, wondering what WAS on the Jasper B. +</P> + +<P> +"Agreed," said Loge. +</P> + +<P> +"Since we're being so frank with one another," said Cleggett, "would +you mind telling me why you didn't come to me at the start with an +offer to buy, instead of making such a nuisance of yourself?" +</P> + +<P> +"Eh?" Loge appeared genuinely surprised. "Why should I pay you any +money if I could get it, or destroy it, without that? Besides, how was +I to know you could be bought?" +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett wondered more than ever what piece of evidence the hold of the +Jasper B. contained. He felt certain that it was not merely +counterfeit bills. Cleggett determined upon a minute and thorough +search of the hold. +</P> + +<P> +"You'll send for it?" said Cleggett, still trying to get a more +definite idea of what "it" was, without revealing that he did not know. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll come myself with a taxicab," said Loge. +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett rose, smiling; he had found out as much as he could expect to +learn. +</P> + +<P> +"On the whole," he said, "I think that I prefer to keep the Jasper B. +and everything that's in her. But before I leave I must thank you for +the pleasure I have derived from our little talk—and the information +as well. You can hardly imagine how you have interested me. Will you +kindly step back and let me pass?" +</P> + +<P> +Loge got to his feet with a muttered oath; his face went livid and a +muscle worked in his throat; his fingers contracted like the claws of +some big and powerful cat. But, out of respect for Cleggett's pistol, +he stepped backward. +</P> + +<P> +"You have confessed to making counterfeit money," went on Cleggett, +enjoying the situation, "and you have as good as told me that there are +further evidences of crime on board the Jasper B. You can rest assured +that I will find them. You have also betrayed the fact that you +planned to blow my ship up, and there are several other little matters +which you have shed light upon. +</P> + +<P> +"I am not a detective. Nevertheless, I hope in the near future to see +you behind the bars and to help put you there. It may interest you to +know that my opinion of your intellect is no higher than my opinion of +your character. You seem to me to have a vast conceit of your own +cleverness, which is not justified by the facts. You are a very stupid +fellow; a—a—what is the slang word? Boob, I believe." +</P> + +<P> +But while Cleggett was finishing his remarks a subtle change stole over +Loge's countenance. His attitude, which had been one of baffled rage, +relaxed. As Cleggett paused the sneer came back upon Loge's lips. +</P> + +<P> +"Boob," he said quietly, "boob is the word. Look above you." +</P> + +<P> +A sharp metallic click overhead gave point to Loge's words. Looking up, +Cleggett saw that a trap-door had opened in the ceiling, and through +the aperture Pierre, who had left the room some moments before with the +bartender, was pointing a revolver, which he had just cocked, at +Cleggett's head. He sighted along the barrel with an eager, +anticipatory smile upon his face; Pierre would, no doubt, have +preferred to see a man boiled in oil rather than merely shot, but +shooting was something, and Pierre evidently intended to get all the +delight possible out of the situation. +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett's own pistol was within an inch of Loge's stomach. +</P> + +<P> +"I was willing to pay you real money," said Loge, "for the sake of +peace. But you're a damned fool if you think you can throw me down and +then walk straight out of here to headquarters." Then he added, +showing his yellow teeth: "You WOULD bring pistols into the +conversation, you know. That was YOUR idea. And now you're in a devil +of a fix." +</P> + +<P> +The man certainly had an iron nerve; he spoke as calmly as if +Cleggett's weapon were not in existence; there was nothing but the +pressure of a finger wanting to send both him and Cleggett to eternity. +Yet he jested; he laid his strong and devilish will across Cleggett's +mentality; it was a duel in which the two minds met and tried each +other like swords; the first break in intention, and one or the other +was a dead man. Cleggett felt the weight of that powerful and evil +soul upon his own almost as if it were a physical thing. +</P> + +<P> +"You are not altogether safe yourself," said Cleggett grimly, with his +eyes fixed on Pierre's and his pistol touching Loge's waistband. "If +Pierre so much as winks an eye—if you move a hair's breadth—I'll put +a stream of bullets through YOU. Understand?" +</P> + +<P> +How long this singular psychological combat might have lasted before a +nerve quivered somewhere and brought the denouement of a double death, +there is no telling. For accident (or fate) intervened to pluck these +antagonists back into life and rob the gloating Pierre of the happiness +of seeing two men perish without danger to himself. Something of +uncertain shape, but of a blue color, loomed vaguely behind Pierre's +head; loomed and suddenly descended to the accompaniment of a piercing +shriek. Pierre's pistol went off, but he had evidently been stricken +between the shoulders; the ball went wild, and the pistol itself +dropped from his hand, another cartridge exploding as it hit the floor. +The next instant Pierre tumbled headlong through the hole, landing upon +Loge, who, not braced for the shock, went down himself. +</P> + +<P> +As the two men struggled to rise a strange figure precipitated itself +from the room above, feet first, and hit both of them, knocking them +down again. It was a tall man, thin and lank, clad only in a suit of +silk pajamas of the color known as baby blue; he was barefoot, and +Cleggett, with that lucid grasp of detail which comes to men oftener in +nightmares than in real life, noticed that he had a bunion at the large +joint of his right great toe. +</P> + +<P> +If the man was startling, he was no less startled himself. Leaping from +the struggling forms of Pierre and Loge, who defeated each other's +frantic efforts to rise, he was across the barroom in three wild +bounds, shrieking shrilly as he leaped; he bolted through the west door +and cleared the verandah at a jump. +</P> + +<P> +Loge, gaining his feet, was after the man in blue in an instant, +evidently thinking no more of Cleggett than if the latter had been in +Madagascar. And as for Cleggett, although he might have shot down Loge +a dozen times over, he was so astonished at what he saw that the +thought never entered his head. He had, in fact, forgotten that he +held a pistol in his hand. Pierre scrambled to his feet and followed +Loge. +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett, running after them, saw the man in the blue pajamas sprinting +along the sandy margin of the bay. But Loge, his hat gone, his coat +tails level in the wind behind him, and his large patent leather shoes +flashing in the morning sunlight, was overhauling him with long and +powerful strides. Cleggett saw the quarry throw a startled glance over +his shoulder; he was no match for the terrible Loge in speed, and he +must have realized it with despair, for he turned sharply at right +angles and rushed into the sea. Loge unhesitatingly plunged after him, +and had caught him by the shoulder and whirled him about before he had +reached a swimming depth. They clinched, in water mid-thigh deep, and +then Cleggett saw Loge plant his fist, with scientific precision and +awful force, upon the point of the other's jaw. The man in the blue +pajamas collapsed; he would have dropped into the water, but Loge +caught him as he fell, threw his body across a shoulder with little +apparent effort, and trotted back into the house with him. +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett had left his sword cane in the barroom, but he judged it would +be just as well to allow it to remain there for the present. He turned +and walked meditatively across the sands towards the Jasper B. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap12"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE SECOND OBLONG BOX +</H3> + +<P> +When Cleggett returned to the ship he found Captain Abernethy in +conversation with a young man of deprecating manner whom the Captain +introduced as the Rev. Simeon Calthrop. +</P> + +<P> +"I been tellin' him," said the Cap'n, pitching his voice shrilly above +the din the workmen made, and not giving the Rev. Mr. Calthrop an +opportunity to speak for himself, "I been tellin' him it may be a long +time before the Jasper B. gets to the Holy Land." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you want to go to Palestine?" asked Cleggett of Mr. Calthrop, who +stood with downcast eyes and fingers that worked nervously at the +lapels of his rusty black coat. +</P> + +<P> +"I've knowed him sence he was a boy. He's in disgrace, Simeon Calthrop +is," shrieked the Captain, preventing the preacher from answering +Cleggett's question, and scorning to answer it directly himself. "Been +kicked out of his church fur kissin' a married woman, and can't get +another one." (The Cap'n meant another church.) +</P> + +<P> +The preacher merely raised his eyes, which were large and brown and +slightly protuberant, and murmured with a kind of brave humility: +</P> + +<P> +"It is true." +</P> + +<P> +"But why do you want to go to Palestine?" said Cleggett. +</P> + +<P> +"She sung in the choir and she had three children," screamed Cap'n +Abernethy, "and she limped some. Folks say she had a cork foot. Hey, +Simeon, DID she have a cork foot?" +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Calthrop flushed painfully, but he forced himself courageously to +answer. "Mr. Abernethy, I do not know," he said humbly, and with the +look of a stricken animal in his big brown eyes. +</P> + +<P> +He was a handsome young fellow of about thirty—or he would have been +handsome, Cleggett thought, had he not been so emaciated. His hair was +dark and brown and inclined to curl, his forehead was high and white +and broad, and his fingers were long and white and slender; his nose +was well modeled, but his lips were a trifle too full. Although he +belonged to one of the evangelical denominations, the Rev. Mr. Calthrop +affected clothing very like the regulation costume of the Episcopalian +clergy; but this clothing was now worn and torn and dusty. Buttons +were gone here and there; the knees of the unpressed trousers were +baggy and beginning to be ragged, and the sole of one shoe flapped as +he walked. He had a three days' growth of beard and no baggage. +</P> + +<P> +When Cap'n Abernethy had delivered himself and walked away, the Rev. +Mr. Calthrop confirmed the story of his own disgrace, speaking in a low +but clear voice, and with a gentle and wistful smile. +</P> + +<P> +"I am one of the most miserable of sinners, Mr. Cleggett," he said. "I +have proved myself to be that most despicable thing, an unworthy +minister. I was tempted and I fell." +</P> + +<P> +The Rev. Mr. Calthrop seemed to find the sort of satisfaction in +confessing his sins to the world that the medieval flagellants found in +scoring themselves with whips; they struck their bodies; he drew forth +his soul and beat it publicly. +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett learned that he had set himself as a punishment and a +mortification the task of obtaining his daily bread by the work of his +hands. It was his intention to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, +refusing all assistance except that which he earned by manual labor. +After such a term of years as should satisfy all men (and particularly +his own spiritual sense) of the genuineness of his penitence, he would +apply to his church for reinstatement, and ask for an appointment to +some difficult mission in a wild and savage country. The Rev. Mr. +Calthrop intimated that if he chose to accept rehabilitation on less +arduous terms, he might obtain it; but the poignancy of his own sense +of failure drove him to extremes. +</P> + +<P> +"Are you sure," said Cleggett sternly, "that you are not making a +luxury of this very penitence itself? Are you sure that it would not +be more acceptable to Heaven if you forgave yourself more easily?" +</P> + +<P> +"Alas, yes, I am sure!" said Mr. Calthrop, with a sigh and his calm and +wistful smile. "I know myself too well! I know my own soul. I am +cursed with a fatal magnetism which women find it impossible to resist. +And I am continually tempted to permit it to exert itself. This is the +cross that I bear through life." +</P> + +<P> +"You should marry some good woman," said Cleggett. +</P> + +<P> +"I do not feel that I am worthy," said Mr. Calthrop meekly. "And think +of the pain my wife would experience in seeing me continually tempted +by some woman who believed herself to be my psychic affinity!" +</P> + +<P> +"You are a thought too subtle, Mr. Calthrop," said Cleggett bluntly. +"But I suppose you cannot help that. To each of us his destiny. I am +prepared, until I see some evidence to the contrary, to believe your +repentance to be genuine. In the meantime, we need a ship's chaplain. +If your conscience permits, you may have the post—combining it, +however, with the vocation of a common sailor before the mast. I am +inclined to agree with you that manual labor will do you good. Some +time or another, in her progress around the world, the Jasper B. will +undoubtedly touch at a coast within walking distance of Jerusalem. +There we will put you ashore. Before we sail you can put in your time +holystoning the deck. +</P> + +<P> +"The deck of the Jasper B.," said Cleggett, looking at it, "to all +appearances, has not been holystoned for some years. You will find in +the forecastle several holystones that have never been used, and may +begin at once." +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett, if his tastes had not inclined him towards a more active and +adventurous life, would have made a good bishop, for he knew how to +combine justice and mercy. And yet few bishops have possessed his +rapidity of decision, when compelled, upon the spur of the moment, to +become the physician of an ailing soul. He had determined in a flash to +make the man ship's chaplain, that Calthrop might come into close +contact with other spiritual organisms and not think too exclusively of +his own. +</P> + +<P> +The Rev. Mr. Calthrop thanked him with becoming gratitude and departed +to get the new holystones. +</P> + +<P> +By three o'clock that afternoon, with such celerity had the work gone +forward, Mr. Watkins, the contractor, announced to Cleggett that his +task was finished, except for the removal of the rubbish in the hold. +Cleggett, going carefully over the vessel, and examining the new parts +with a brochure on the construction and navigation of schooners in his +hand, verified the statement. +</P> + +<P> +"She is ready to sail," said Cleggett, standing by the new wheel with a +swelling heart, and sweeping the vessel from bowsprit to rudder with a +gradual glance. +</P> + +<P> +It was a look almost paternal in its pride; Cleggett loved the Jasper +B. She was an idea that no one else but Cleggett could have had. +</P> + +<P> +"Sail?" said Mr. Watkins. +</P> + +<P> +"Why not?" said Cleggett, puzzled at his tone. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, nothing," said Mr. Watkins. "It's none of my business. My +business was to do the work I was hired to do according to +specifications. Further than that, nothing." +</P> + +<P> +"But why did you think I was having the work done?" +</P> + +<P> +"Can't say I thought," said Mr. Watkins. "I took the job, and I done +it. Had an idea mebby you were in the movin' picture game." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Watkins, as he talked, had been regarding Cap'n Abernethy, who in +turn was looking at the mainmast. There seemed to be something in the +very way Cap'n Abernethy looked at the mainmast which jarred on Mr. +Watkins. Mr. Watkins dropped his voice, indicating the Cap'n with a +curved, disparaging thumb, as he asked Cleggett: +</P> + +<P> +"Is HE going to sail her?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why not?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh—nothing; nothing at all," said Mr. Watkins. "It's none o' MY +business." +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett began to be a little annoyed. "Have you," he said with +dignity, and fixing a rather stern glance upon Mr. Watkins, "have you +any reason to doubt Cap'n Abernethy's ability as a sailing master?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, indeed," said Mr. Watkins cheerfully, "not as a sailing master. +He may be the best in the world, for all I know. <I>I</I> never seen him +sail anything. I never heard him play the violin, neither, for that +matter, and he may be a regular jim-dandy on the violin for all I know." +</P> + +<P> +"You are facetious," said Cleggett stiffly. +</P> + +<P> +"Meaning I ain't paid to be fresh, eh?" said Mr. Watkins. "And right +you are, too. And there's all that junk down in the hold to pass out +and cart away." +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett personally supervised this removal, standing on the deck by +the hatchway and scanning everything that was handed up. The character +of this junk has already been described. Every barrel or cask that was +placed upon the deck was stove in with an ax before Cleggett's eyes; he +satisfied himself that every bottle was empty; he turned over the +broken boxes and beer cases with his foot to see that they contained +nothing. +</P> + +<P> +But the work was three-quarters done before he found what he was +looking for. From under a heap of debris, which had completely hidden +it, towards the forward part of the vessel, the workmen unearthed an +unpainted oblong box, almost seven feet in length. It was of +substantial material and looked newer than any of the other stuff. +Cleggett had it placed on one side of the hatchway and sat down on it. +It was tightly nailed up; all of its surfaces were sound. Cleggett did +not doubt that he would find in it what he wanted, yet in order to be +on the safe side he continued to scrutinize everything else that came +out of the hold. +</P> + +<P> +But finally the hold was as empty as a drum, and Watkins and his men +departed. The oblong box upon which Cleggett sat was the only possible +receptacle of any sort in an undamaged condition, which had been in the +hold. He determined to have it opened in the cabin. +</P> + +<P> +As he arose from it he was struck by its resemblance to the box in +Elmer's charge, the dank box of Reginald Maltravers, which stood on one +end near the cabin companionway, leaning against the port side of the +cabin so that it was not visible from the road, which ran to the +starboard of the Jasper B. But, since all oblong boxes are bound to +have a general resemblance, Cleggett, at the time, thought little +enough of this likeness. +</P> + +<P> +He called to George and Mr. Calthrop, who, with Dr. Farnsworth, were +forward receiving their first lecture on seamanship from Cap'n +Abernethy and Kuroki, to carry the box into the cabin. +</P> + +<P> +But as George and the Rev. Mr. Calthrop lifted the box to their +shoulders, Cleggett was startled by a loud and violent oath; a +veritable bellow of blasphemy that made him shudder. Turning, he saw +than an automobile had paused in the road. In the forward part of the +machine stood Loge, raving in an almost demoniac fury and pointing at +the box. He writhed in the grip of three men who endeavored to restrain +him. One of them was the sinister Pierre. +</P> + +<P> +Hoisting himself, as it were, on a mounting billow of his own +profanity, Loge cast himself with a wide swimming motion of his arms +from the auto. But one of the men clung to him; they came to the +ground together like tackler and tackled in a football game. The +others cast themselves out of the machine and flung themselves upon +their leader; he fought like a lion, but he was finally overpowered and +thrown back into the auto, which was immediately started up and which +made off towards Fairport at a rattling speed. Three hundred yards +away, however, Loge rose again and shook a furious fist at the Jasper +B., and though Cleggett could not distinguish the words, the sense of +Loge's impotent rage rolled towards him on the wind in a roaring, +vibrant bass. +</P> + +<P> +The sight of the box that he had not been able to buy, in Cleggett's +possession, had stirred him beyond all caution; he had actually +contemplated an attempt to rush the Jasper B. in broad daylight. +</P> + +<P> +But while this queer tableau of baffled rage was enacting itself on the +starboard bow of the Jasper B., a no less strange and far less +explicable thing was occurring on the port side. The swish of oars and +the ripple of a moving boat drew Cleggett's attention in that direction +as Loge's booming threats grew fainter. He saw that two oarsmen, near +the eastern and farther side of the canal, had allowed the dainty, +varnished little craft they were supposed to propel to come to a rest +in spite of the evident displeasure of a man who sat in its stern. +This third man was the same that Cleggett had seen on the deck of the +Annabel Lee with a spy glass, and again that same morning driving the +two almost nude figures up and down the canal. +</P> + +<P> +The two oarsmen, Cleggett saw with surprise, rowed with shackled feet; +their feet were, indeed, chained to the boat itself. About the wrists +of each were steel bands; fixed to these bands were chains, the other +ends of which were locked to their oars. They were, in effect, galley +slaves. +</P> + +<P> +All this iron somewhat hampered their movements. But the reason of +their pause was an engrossing interest in the box of Reginald +Maltravers, which stood, as has already been said, on the port side of +the cabin, on one end, and so was visible from their boat. They were +looking at it with slack oars, dropped jaws and starting eyes; the +thing seemed to have fascinated them and bereft them of motion; it was +as if they were unable to get past it at all. Elmer, worn out by his +many long vigils, lay asleep on the deck at the foot of the box, with +an arm flung over his face. +</P> + +<P> +The stout man, after vainly endeavoring to start his oarsmen with +words, took up an extra oar and began vigorously prodding them with it. +Cleggett had not seen this man look towards the Jasper B., but he +nevertheless had the feeling that the man had missed little of what had +been going on there. He seemed to be that kind of man. +</P> + +<P> +His crew responding to the stabs of the oar, the little vessel went +perhaps fifty yards farther up the canal towards Parker's, and then +swung daintily around and came back towards the Jasper B. at almost the +speed of a racing shell, the men in chains bending doggedly to their +work. Cleggett saw that the boat must pass close to the Jasper B., and +leaned over the port rail. +</P> + +<P> +The man in the stern had picked up a magazine and was lolling back +reading it. As the boat passed under him Cleggett saw on the cover +page of the magazine a picture of the very man who was perusing it. It +was a singularly urbane face; both the counterfeit presentment on the +cover page and the real face were smiling and calm and benign. +Cleggett could read the legend on the magazine cover accompanying the +picture. It ran: +</P> + +<P> + Wilton Barnstable Tells In this Issue the Inside Story<BR> + of How he Broke up the Gigantic Smuggling Conspiracy.<BR> +</P> + +<P> +At that instant the man dropped the magazine and looked Cleggett full +in the face. He waved his arm in a meaning gesture in the direction in +which Loge had disappeared and said, with a gentle shake of his head at +Cleggett, as if he were chiding a naughty child: +</P> + +<P> +"When thieves fall out—! When thieves fall out, my dear sir!" +</P> + +<P> +As he swept by he resumed his magazine with the pleased air of a man +who has delivered himself of a brilliant epigram; it showed in his very +shoulders. +</P> + +<P> +"And that," murmured Cleggett, "is Wilton Barnstable, the great +detective!" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap13"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE SOUL OF LOGAN BLACK +</H3> + +<P> +Wilton Barnstable, the great detective, having witnessed Loge's +outburst of wrath, had thought it signified a quarrel between thieves, +as his words to Cleggett indicated. He had thought Cleggett a crook, +and Loge's ally. +</P> + +<P> +Loge, on the other hand, had thought Cleggett a detective. He had +addressed him as "Mr. Detective" that morning at Morris's. Loge +believed the Jasper B. and the Annabel Lee to be allied against him. +</P> + +<P> +Whereas Cleggett, until he had recognized Wilton Barnstable in the +boat, had thought it likely that the Annabel Lee and Morris's were +allied against the Jasper B. +</P> + +<P> +Now that Cleggett knew the commander of the Annabel Lee to be Wilton +Barnstable, his first impulse was to go to the Great Detective and +invite his cooperation against Loge and the gang at Morris's. But +almost instantly he reflected that he could not do this. For there was +the box of Reginald Maltravers! Indeed, how did he know that it was +not the box of Reginald Maltravers which had brought the Great +Detective to that vicinity? This man—of world-wide fame, and reputed +to possess an almost miraculous instinct in the unraveling of criminal +mysteries—might be even now on the trail of Lady Agatha. If so, he +was Cleggett's enemy. When it came to a choice between the championship +of Lady Agatha and the defiance of Wilton Barnstable, and all that he +represented, Cleggett did not hesitate for an instant. +</P> + +<P> +There were still some aspects of the situation in which he found +himself that were as puzzling as ever to Cleggett. It is true that he +now knew why Loge's men had been in the hold of the vessel; they had +been there, no doubt, in an attempt to get possession of the oblong, +unpainted box which had caused Loge's explosion of wrath; the box which +was the real thing Loge had tried to buy from Cleggett when he dickered +for the purchase of the Jasper B. But why this box should have been in +the hold of the vessel, Cleggett could not understand. And how Loge's +men had been able to get into and out of the hold without his knowledge +still perplexed him. +</P> + +<P> +The motive behind the attempt to dynamite the vessel was clear. Having +failed to purchase it, having failed to recover the box from it, Loge +had sought to destroy it with all on board. But the strange character +of this explosion still defied his powers of analysis. And then there +was the tenth Earl of Claiborne's signet ring on the dead hand. Beyond +the fact that it was a circumstance which connected his fortunes with +those of Lady Agatha, he could make nothing at all of the signet ring. +What, he asked himself again and again, was the connection of the +criminal gang at Morris's with the proudest Earl in England? +</P> + +<P> +Loge himself was a puzzle to Cleggett. The man was a counterfeiter. +That he knew. The "queer" twenty-dollar bill, which he had practically +acknowledged, left no doubt of that. But he was more than a +counterfeiter. Cleggett believed him to be also an anarchist. At +least he was associated with anarchists. +</P> + +<P> +But counterfeiting and anarchy are not ordinarily found together. The +anarchist is not a criminal in the more sordid sense. He is the enemy +of society as at present organized. He considers society to be built +on a thieving basis; he is not himself a thief. He scorns and hates +society, wishes to see it overturned, and believes himself superior to +it. He will commit the most savage atrocities for the cause and +cheerfully die for his principles. The anarchist is not a crook. He +is an idealist. +</P> + +<P> +Convinced that the unpainted oblong box would furnish a clew to the +man's real personality, Cleggett, assisted by Lady Agatha and Dr. +Farnsworth, opened it in the cabin. +</P> + +<P> +They first took out a number of plates, some broken, some intact, for +the manufacture of counterfeit notes of various denominations. There +was some of the fibrous paper used in this process. There was a +quantity of the apparatus essential to engraving the plates. This +stuff more than half filled the box. Then there were a number of books. +</P> + +<P> +"Elementary textbooks," said Dr. Farnsworth, glancing at them. On the +flyleaf of one of them was written in a bold, firm hand: "Logan Black." +</P> + +<P> +"Loge—or Logan Black," said Dr. Farnsworth, "has been giving himself +an education in the manufacture of high explosives." +</P> + +<P> +"But THESE aren't textbooks," said Lady Agatha, who had pulled out +three long, narrow volumes from the pile. "They're in manuscript, and +they look more like account books." +</P> + +<P> +The first of them, in Loge's handwriting, contained a series of notes, +mostly unintelligible to Cleggett, dealing with experiments in two +sorts of manufacture: first, the preparation of counterfeit money; +second, the production of dynamite bombs. +</P> + +<P> +The second of the manuscript books was in cipher. Cleggett might have +deciphered it without assistance, for he was skilled in these matters, +but the labor was not necessary. The book was for Loge's own eye. A +loose sheet of paper folded between the leaves gave the key. +</P> + +<P> +The book showed that Loge had been employed as an expert operator, in +the pay of a certain radical organization, to pull off dynamiting jobs +in various parts of the country. This was his account book with the +organization. He had done his work and taken his pay as methodically +as a plumber might. And he had been paid well. Cleggett guessed that +Loge was not particularly interested in the work in its relationship to +the revolutionary cause; it was the money to be made in this way, and +not any particular sympathy with his employers, which attracted Loge, +so Cleggett divined. Cleggett was astonished at the number of jobs +which Loge had engineered. The book threw light on mysterious +explosions which had occurred throughout a period of five years. +</P> + +<P> +But it was the third manuscript book which displayed the real Logan +Black. +</P> + +<P> +This was also in cipher. Dr. Farnsworth and Cleggett had translated +but a few lines of it when they perceived that it was a diary. With a +vanity almost inconceivable to those who have not reflected upon the +criminal nature, Loge had written here the tale of his own life, for +his own reading. He had written it in loving detail. It was, in fact, +the book in which he looked when he wished to admire himself. +</P> + +<P> +"It is odd," said Cleggett, "that so clever a man should write down his +own story in this way." +</P> + +<P> +"This book," said Farnsworth, "would be a boon to a psychologist +interested in criminology. You say it is odd. But with a certain type +of criminal, it is almost usual. The human soul is full of strange +impulses. One of the strangest is towards just this sort of record. +Cunning, and the vanity which destroys cunning, often exist side by +side. The criminal of a certain type almost worships himself; he is +profoundly impressed with his own cleverness. He is a braggart; he +swaggers; he defeats himself. A strange idiocy mingles with his +cleverness." +</P> + +<P> +"Even people who are not criminals do just that sort of thing," said +Lady Agatha. "Look at Samuel Pepys. He was one of the most timid of +beings. And he valued his place in the world mightily. But he wrote +down the story of his own disgrace in his diary—it had to come out of +him! And then, timid and cautious as he was, he did not destroy the +book! He let it get out of his possession." +</P> + +<P> +It was an evil, a monstrous personality which leered out of Logan +Black's diary. Boastful of his own iniquity, swaggering in his +wickedness, fatuous with self-love, he recounted his deeds with gusto +and with particularity. They did not read a quarter of this terrible +autobiography at the time, but they read enough to see the man in the +process of building up a criminal organization of his own, with +ramifications of the most surprising nature. +</P> + +<P> +"This man," said Dr. Farnsworth, with a shudder, "actually has the +ambition to be the head of nothing less than a crime trust." +</P> + +<P> +"It seems to be something more than an ambition," said Cleggett. "It +seems to be almost an accomplished fact." +</P> + +<P> +"Ugh!" said Lady Agatha, with a gesture of disgust, "he's like a great +horrid spider spinning webs!" +</P> + +<P> +Interested in anarchy only on its practical side, as the paid dynamiter +of the inner circle of radicals, Logan Black in his diary jeered at and +mocked the cause he served. And more than that, the man seemed to take +a perverted pleasure in attaching to himself young enthusiasts of the +radical type, eager to follow him as the disinterested leader of a +group of Reds, and then betraying them into the most sordid sort of +crime. Cleggett found—and could imagine the grimace of malevolent +satisfaction with which it had been written—this note: +</P> + +<P> +Heinrich is about ready to leave off talking his cant of universal +brotherhood, and make a little easy money in the way I have shown him. +It will be interesting to see what happens in side of Heinrich when he +realizes he is not an idealist, but a criminal. Will he stick to me on +the new lay? But those Germans are so sentimental—he may commit +suicide. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Cleggett recalled the manhandling Heinrich had received. A little +farther along he came upon this entry: +</P> + +<P> +The Italian-American boy is a find. Jones and Giuseppe! Puritan +father, Italian mother—and he worships me! It will be a test for my +personal magnetism, the handling of Gieseppe Jones will. He hates a +thief worse than the devil hates holy water. If I could make him steal +for me, I would know that I could do anything. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"That's our young poet in the forecastle!" said Cleggett. "I wonder if +Loge still held him." And then as the memory of the boy's ravings came +to him he mused: "Yes—he held the boy! That is what the fellow meant +in his delirium. Do you remember that he kept saying: 'I'm a +revolutionist, not a crook!'? And yet he continued to obey Loge!" +</P> + +<P> +"Is it not strange," said Lady Agatha, "that the man should take such +pride in working ruin?" +</P> + +<P> +All three were silent for a space. And then they looked at each other +with a shiver. The sense of the strong and sinister personality of +Logan Black struck on their spirits like a bleak wind. +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett was the first to recover himself. +</P> + +<P> +"God willing," he said solemnly, "I will bring that man to justice +personally!" +</P> + +<P> +Just then two bells struck. It had taken them more time than they had +realized to make even a partial examination of the contents of the box. +Cleggett, when the bell sounded, looked at his watch to see what time +it was—he was still a little unfamiliar with the nautical system. +</P> + +<P> +"He will go to any length to get this back into his possession," said +Cleggett, as he dumped the heap of incriminating evidence back into the +box and began to nail the boards on again. +</P> + +<P> +"Any length," echoed the Doctor. +</P> + +<P> +Pat upon the thought came the sound of taxicabs without. They went on +deck and saw a sinister procession rolling by. It consisted of three +machines, and there were three men in each cab. Loge and Pierre were +in the foremost one. None of the company vouchsafed so much as a +glance in the direction of the Jasper B. as the cabs whirled past +towards Morris's. It was undoubtedly a reinforcement of gunmen. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah!" said Cleggett, pointing to them. "The real battle is about to +begin! They are making ready for the attack!" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap14"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIV +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CLEGGETT STANDS BY HIS SHIP +</H3> + +<P> +Cleggett did not fear (or rather, expect, since there was very little +that Cleggett feared) an attack until well after nightfall. +Nevertheless, he began to prepare for it at once. He called the entire +ship's company aft, with the exception of Miss Medley, who was on duty +with Giuseppe Jones. +</P> + +<P> +"My friends—for I hope we stand in the relation of friends as well as +that of commander and crew—I have every reason to expect that the +enemy will make a demonstration in force sometime during the night," he +said. "We have opposed to us the leader of a dangerous and powerful +criminal organization. He is, in fact, the president of a crime trust. +He will stop at nothing to compass the destruction of the Jasper B. and +all on board her. My quarrel with him has become, in a sense, personal. +I have no right to ask you to share my risk unless you choose to do so +voluntarily. Therefore, if there is anyone of you who wishes to leave +the Jasper B., let him do it now." +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett paused. But not a man moved. On the contrary, a little +murmur of something like reproach ran around the semicircle. The +ship's company looked in each other's eyes; they stood shifting their +feet uneasily. +</P> + +<P> +Finally Cap'n Abernethy spoke, clearing his throat with a prefatory hem: +</P> + +<P> +"If you was to ask me, Mr. Cleggett," said the Captain, with less than +his usual circumlocution, "I'd say the boys here ain't flattered by +what you've just said. The boys here DOES consider themselves friends +of yours, and if you was anxious to hear my opinion of it I'd say +you've hurt their feelin's by your way of putting it. Speakin' for +myself, Mr. Cleggett, as the nautical commander of this here ship to +the military commander, I don't mind owning up that MY feelin's is +hurt." +</P> + +<P> +"Aye, aye, sir," said George the Greek, addressing the nautical +commander, and the word went from lip to lip. +</P> + +<P> +"Aye, aye, sir," said Dr. Farnsworth, "the Captain speaks for us all." +</P> + +<P> +And the Reverend Mr. Calthrop remarked with a sigh: "You may have +cause to doubt my circumspection, Mr. Cleggett, but you have no cause +to doubt my courage." +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett was not the sort of man who is ashamed to acknowledge an +error. "Friends," he cried impulsively, "forgive me! I should have +known better than to phrase my remarks as I did. I would not have hurt +your feelings for worlds. I know you are devoted to me. I call for +volunteers for the perilous adventure which is before us!" +</P> + +<P> +The ship's company stepped forward as one man. As if by magic the +atmosphere cleared. +</P> + +<P> +"Now," said Cleggett, smiling back on the enthusiastic faces before +him, but inexpressibly touched by the fineness of his crew's devotion, +"to get to the point. There are seven of us, but there are at least a +dozen of them. We have, however, the advantage in position, for we can +find cover on the ship, whereas they must attack from the open. More +than that, we will have the advantage in arms; here is a magazine rifle +for each of you, while they, if I am not mistaken, will attack with +pistols. We must keep them at a distance, if possible. If they should +attempt to rush us we will meet them with cutlasses and sabers." +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Cleggett," said Lady Agatha, rising when he had finished, and +speaking with animation, "will you permit me to make a suggestion?" +</P> + +<P> +She went on, without waiting for an answer: "It is this: Choose your +own ground for this battle! The Jasper B. is now a full-rigged +schooner. Very well, then, sail her! At the moment you are attacked, +weigh anchor, fight your way to the mouth of the canal, take up a +position in the bay in front of Morris's within easy rifle range and +out of pistol shot, and compel the place to surrender on your own +terms!" +</P> + +<P> +As the brilliance of this plan flashed upon her hearers, applause ran +around the room, and Kuroki, who spoke seldom, cried in admiration: +</P> + +<P> +"The Honorable Miss Englishman have hit her head on the nail! Let there +be some naval warfares!" +</P> + +<P> +"You are right," cried Cleggett, catching fire with the idea, "a +hundred times right! And why wait to be attacked? Let us carry the +war to the enemy's coast. Crack all sail upon her!—Up with the +anchors! We will show these gentry that the blood of Drake, Nelson, +and Old Dave Farragut still runs red in the veins of their countrymen!" +</P> + +<P> +"Banzai!" cried Kuroki. "Also Honorable Admiral Togo's veins!" +</P> + +<P> +A good breeze had sprung up out of the northwest while the conference +in the cabin was in progress. +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett was relieved that it was not from the south. There is not +much room to maneuver a schooner in a canal, and a breeze from the +south might have sailed the Jasper B. backwards towards Parker's Beach, +which would undoubtedly have given the enemy the idea that Cleggett was +retreating. The Jasper B.'s bow was pointed south, and Cleggett was +naturally anxious that she should sail south. +</P> + +<P> +At the outset a slight difficulty presented itself with regard to the +anchors—for although, as has been explained before, the Jasper B. was +a remarkably stable vessel, Cleggett had had the new anchors furnished +by the contractor let down. Having the anchors down seemed, somehow, +to make things more shipshape. It appeared that no one of the +adventurers was acquainted with an anchor song, and Cleggett, and, +indeed, all on board, felt that these anchors should be hoisted to the +accompaniment of some rousing chantey. Lady Agatha was especially +insistent on the point. +</P> + +<P> +While they stood about the capstan debating the matter the Reverend +Simeon Calthrop hesitatingly offered a suggestion which showed that, +while he was a novice as far as the nautical life was concerned, he was +also a person of resource. +</P> + +<P> +"How many of those present," inquired the young preacher, "know 'Onward +Christian Soldiers'?" +</P> + +<P> +All were acquainted with the hymn; the pastor grasped a capstan bar and +struck up the song in an agreeable tenor voice; they put their backs +into the work and their hearts into the song, and the anchors of the +Jasper B. came out of mud to the stirring notes of "Onward Christian +Soldiers, marching as to war!" +</P> + +<P> +While they were so engaged the breeze strengthened perceptibly. Looking +towards the west, Cleggett perceived the sun sinking below the horizon. +A long, blue, low-lying bank of clouds seemed to engulf it; for a +moment the top of this cloud was shot through with a golden color; then +a mass of quicker moving, nearer vapors from the north seemed to leap +suddenly nearer still; to extend itself at a bound over almost a third +of the sky; in a breath the day was gone; a storm threatened. +</P> + +<P> +The rising wind made the task of getting the canvas on the poles +extraordinarily difficult. Cleggett was well aware that the usual +method of procedure, in the presence of a storm, is rather to take in +sail than to crack on; but, always the original, he decided in this +case to reverse the common custom. Ashore or at sea, he never +permitted himself to be the slave of conventionalities. The Jasper B. +had lain so long in one spot that it would undoubtedly take more than a +capful of wind to move her. Cleggett did not know when he would get +such a strong wind again, coming from the right direction, and +determined to make the most of this one while he had it. Genius partly +consists in the acuteness which grasps opportunities. +</P> + +<P> +From the struggles of Cap'n Abernethy and the crew with the canvas, +which he saw none too clearly through the increasing dusk from his post +at the wheel, Cleggett judged that the wind was indeed strong enough +for his purpose. Yards, sheets and sails seemed to be acting in the +most singular manner. He could not remember reading of any parallel +case in the treatises on navigation which he had perused. Every now +and then the Cap'n or one of the crew would be jerked clean off his +feet by some quick and unexpected motion of a sail and flung into the +water. When this occurred the person who had been ducked crawled out +on the bank of the canal again and went on board by way of the +gangplank, returning stubbornly to his task. +</P> + +<P> +The booms in particular were possessed of a restless and unstable +spirit. They made sudden swoops, sweeps, and dashes in all directions. +Sometimes as many as three of the crew of the Jasper B. would be +knocked to the deck or into the water by a boom at the same time. But +Cleggett noted with satisfaction that they were plucky; they stuck +valiantly to the job. A doubt assailed Cleggett as to the competence +of Cap'n Abernethy, but he was loyal and fought it down. +</P> + +<P> +Finally Cap'n Abernethy hit upon a novel and ingenious idea. He tied +stout lines to the ends of the booms. The other ends of these ropes he +ran through the eyes of a couple of spare anchors. Taking the anchors +ashore, he made them fast to the wooden platform which was alongside +the Jasper B. Then he took up the slack in the lines, pulling them +taut and fastening them tightly. +</P> + +<P> +Thus the booms were held fast and stiff in position, and the crew could +get the canvas spread without being endangered by their strange and +unaccountable actions. +</P> + +<P> +This brilliant idea of anchoring the booms to the land would not have +been practicable had it not been for a whimsical cessation of the wind, +a lull such as incident to the coming of spring storms in these +latitudes. While the wind was in abeyance the men got the sails +spread. Then the Captain untied the lines, brought the spare anchors +on board, knocked the gangplank loose with a few blows of his ax, and +waited for the wind to resume. +</P> + +<P> +When the wind did blow again it came in a gust which was accompanied by +a twinkle of lightening over the whole sky and grumble of thunder. A +whirl of dust and fine gravel enveloped the Jasper B. For a moment it +was like a sandstorm. A few large drops of water fell. The gust was +violent; the sails filled with it and struggled like kites to be free; +here and there a strand of rope snapped; the masts bent and creaked; +the booms jumped and swung round like live things; the whole ship from +bowsprit to rudder shook and trembled with the assault. +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett, watchful at the wheel, prepared to turn her nose away from +the bank, but he was astonished to perceive that in spite of her +quaking and shivering the Jasper B. did not move one inch forward from +her position. He was prepared for a certain stability on the part of +the Jasper B., but not for quite so much of it. +</P> + +<P> +With the next gust the storm was on them in earnest. This blast came +with zigzag flashes of lightning that showed the heavens riotous with +battalions of charging clouds; it came with deafening thunder and a +torrential discharge of rain. One would have thought the power of the +wind sufficient to set a steel battleship scudding before it like a +wooden shoe. And yet the extraordinary Jasper B., although she +shrieked and groaned and seemed to stagger with the force of the blow, +did not move either forward or sidewise. +</P> + +<P> +She flinched, but she stood her ground. +</P> + +<P> +Second by second the storm increased in fury; in a moment it was no +longer merely a storm, it was a tempest. Cleggett, alarmed for the +safety of his masts, now ordered his men to take in sail. +</P> + +<P> +But even as he gave the order he realized that it could no longer be +done. A cloudburst, a hurricane, an electrical bombardment, struck the +Jasper B. all at once. One could not hear one's own voice. In the +glare of the lightning Cleggett saw the rigging tossing in an +indescribable confusion of canvas, spars, and ropes. Both masts and +the bowsprit snapped at almost the same instant. The whole chaotic +mass was lifted; it writhed in the air a moment, and then it came +crashing down, partly on the deck and partly in the seething waters of +the canal, where it lay and whipped ship and water with lashing +tentacles of wreckage. +</P> + +<P> +But still the unusual Jasper B. had not moved from her position. +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett's men had had warning enough to save themselves. They +gathered around him to wait for orders. More than one of them cast +anxious glances towards the land. Shouting to them to attack the +debris with axes, and setting the example himself, Cleggett soon saw +the deck clear again, and the Jasper B., to all intents, the same hulk +she had been when he bought her. But such was the fury of the tempest +that even with the big kites gone the Jasper B. continued to shake and +quiver where she lay. Speech was almost impossible on deck, but Cap'n +Abernethy signed to Cleggett that he had something important to say to +him. +</P> + +<P> +The whole company adjourned to the cabin, and there, shouting to make +himself heard, the Cap'n cried out: +</P> + +<P> +"Her timbers have been strained something terrible, Mr. Cleggett. She +ain't what I would call safe and seaworthy any more. The' don't seem +to be any danger of her sailin' off, but that's no sign she can't be +blowed over onto her beam ends and sunk with all on board. If you was +to ask me, Mr. Cleggett, I'd say the time had come to leave the Jasper +B." +</P> + +<P> +The anxiety depicted on the faces of the little circle about him might +have communicated itself to a less intrepid nature. The old Cap'n +himself was no coward. Indeed, in owning to his alarm he had really +done a brave thing, since few have the moral courage to proclaim +themselves afraid. But Cleggett was a man of iron. Although the +tempest smote the hulk with blow after blow, although both earth and +water seemed to lie prostrate and trampled beneath its unappeasable +fury, Cleggett had no thought of yielding. +</P> + +<P> +Unconsciously he drew himself up. It seemed to his crew that he +actually gained in girth and height. The soul, in certain great +moments, seems to have power to expand the body and inform it with the +quality of immortality; Ajax, in his magnificent gesture of defiance, +is all spirit. Cleggett, with his hand on his hip, uttered these +words, not without their sublimity: +</P> + +<P> +"Whether the Jasper B. sinks or swims, her commander will share her +fate. I stay by my ship!" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap15"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XV +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +NIGHT, TEMPEST, LOVE AND BATTLE +</H3> + +<P> +And, indeed, if Cleggett had been of a mind to abandon the vessel, he +could scarcely have done so now. For his words were no more than +uttered when the sharp racket of a volley of pistol shots ripped its +way through the low-pitched roaring of the wind. +</P> + +<P> +Loge had chosen the height of the storm to mask his approach. He +attacked with the tempest. +</P> + +<P> +Without a word Cleggett put out the light in the cabin. His men +grasped their weapons and followed him to the deck. A flash of +lightning showed him, through the driving rain, the enemy rushing +towards the Jasper B., pistol in hand. They were scarcely sixty yards +away, and were firing as they came. Loge, a revolver in one hand, and +Cleggett's own sword cane in the other, was leading the rush. Besides +their firearms, each of Loge's men carried a wicked-looking machete. +</P> + +<P> +"Fire!" shouted Cleggett. "Let them have it, men!" And the rifles +blazed from the deck of the Jasper B. in a crashing volley. Instantly +the world was dark again; it was impossible to determine whether the +fire of the Jasper B. had taken effect. +</P> + +<P> +"To the starboard bulwark," cried Cleggett, "and give them hell with +the next lightning flash!" +</P> + +<P> +It came as he spoke, with its vivid glare showing to Cleggett the enemy +magnified to a portentous bigness against a background of chaotic +night. Two or three of them stood, leaning keenly forward; several of +the others had dropped to one knee; the rifle discharge had checked the +rush, and they also were waiting for the lightning. Cleggett and his +men threw a second volley at this wavering silhouette of astonishment. +</P> + +<P> +A cartridge jammed in the mechanism of Cleggett's gun. With an oath he +flung the weapon to the deck. A hand thrust another one into his +grasp, and Lady Agatha's voice said in his ear, "Take this one—it's +loaded." +</P> + +<P> +"My God," said Cleggett, "I thought you were in the cabin!" +</P> + +<P> +"Not I!" she cried, "I'm loading!" +</P> + +<P> +Just then the lightning came again and showed her to him plainly. +Drenched, bare-armed, bareheaded, her hair down and rolling backward in +a rich wet mass, she knelt on the deck behind the bulwark. Her eyes +blazed with excitement, and there was a smile upon her lips. Beside +her was the zinc bucket half full of cartridges. George tossed a rifle +to her. She flung him back a loaded one, and began methodically to +fill the empty one with cartridges. +</P> + +<P> +"Agatha," shouted Cleggett, catching her by the wrist, "go to the cabin +at once—you will get yourself killed!" +</P> + +<P> +"I'll do nothing of the sort!" she shouted. +</P> + +<P> +"I love you!" cried Cleggett, beside himself with fear for her, and +scarcely knowing what his words were. "Do you hear—I love you, and I +won't have you killed!" +</P> + +<P> +A bullet ripped its way through the bulwark, perforated the zinc +bucket, struck the gun which Lady Agatha was loading and knocked it +from her hands. +</P> + +<P> +"Go to the cabin yourself!" she shouted in Cleggett's ear. "As for me, +I like it!" +</P> + +<P> +"I tell you," shouted Cleggett, "I won't have you here—I won't have +you killed!" +</P> + +<P> +He rose to his feet, and attempted to draw her out of danger. She rose +likewise and struggled with him in the dark. She wrenched herself +free, and in doing so flung him back against the rail; it lightened +again, and she screamed. Cleggett turned, and with the next flash saw +that one of the enemy, his face bloody from the graze of a bullet +across his forehead, and evidently crazed with excitement of fight and +storm, was leaping towards the rail of the vessel. +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett stooped to pick up a gun, but as he stooped the madman vaulted +over the bulwark and landed upon him, bearing him to the deck. As he +struggled to his feet Lady Agatha, who had grasped a cutlass, cut the +fellow down. The man fell back over the rail with a cry. +</P> + +<P> +For a long moment there was one continuous electric flash from horizon +to horizon, and Cleggett saw her, with windblown hair and wide eyes and +parted lips, standing poised with the red blade in her hand beneath the +driving clouds, the figure of an antique goddess. +</P> + +<P> +The next instant all was dark; her arms were around his neck in the +rain. "Oh, Clement," she sobbed, "I've killed a man! I've killed a +man!" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap16"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +ROMANCE REGNANT +</H3> + +<P> +Cleggett kissed her.... +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap17"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +MISS PRINGLE CALLS ON MR. CLEGGETT +</H3> + +<P> +But the rushing onset of events struck them apart. Out of the night +leaped danger, enhancing love and forbidding it. From the starboard +bow Captain Abernethy shrilled a cry of warning, and the heavy, +bellowing voice of Loge shouted an answer of challenge and ferocity. +The wind had fallen, but the lightning played from the clouds now +almost without intermission. Cleggett saw Loge and his followers, +machete in hand, flinging themselves at the rail. They lifted a hoarse +cheer as they came. The fire from the Jasper B. had checked the +assault temporarily; it had not broken it up; once they found lodgment +on the deck the superior numbers of Loge's crowd must inevitably tell. +</P> + +<P> +Loge was a dozen feet in advance of his men. He had cast aside the +light sword which belonged to Cleggett, and now swung a grim machete in +his hand. Cleggett flung down his gun, grasped a cutlass, and sprang +forward, his one idea to come to close quarters with that gigantic +figure of rage and power. +</P> + +<P> +But before Loge reached the bulwark on one side, and while Cleggett was +bounding toward him on the other, this on-coming group of Cleggett's +foes were suddenly smitten in the rear as if by a thunderbolt. Out of +the night and storm, mad with terror, screaming like fiends, with +distended nostrils and flying manes and flailing hoofs, there plunged +into the midst of the assaulting party a pair of snow-white +horses—astounding, felling, trampling, scattering, filling them with +confusion. A rocking carriage leaped and bounded behind the furious +animals, and as the horses struck the bulwark and swerved aside, its +weight and bulk, hurled like a missile among Cleggett's staggered and +struggling enemies, completed and confirmed their panic. +</P> + +<P> +No troops on earth can stand the shock of a cavalry charge in the rear +and flank; few can face surprise; the boarding party, convinced that +they had fallen into a trap, melted away. One moment they were +sweeping forward, vicious and formidable, confident of victory; the +next they were floundering weaponless, scrambling anyhow for safety, +multiplying and transforming, with the quick imagination of panic +terror, these two horses into a troop of mounted men. +</P> + +<P> +This sudden and almost spectral apparition of galloping steeds and +flying carriage, hurled upon the vessel out of the tempest, flung, a +piece of whirling chaos, from the chaotic skies, had almost as +startling an effect upon the defenders. For a moment they paused, with +weapons uplifted, and stared. Where an enemy had been, there was +nothing. So doubtful Greeks or Trojans might have paused and stared +upon the plains of Ilion when some splenetic and fickle deity burst +unannounced and overwhelming into the central clamor of the battle. +</P> + +<P> +But it is in these seconds of pause and doubt that great commanders +assert themselves; it is these electric seconds from which the hero +gathers his vital lightning and forges his mordant bolt. Genius claims +and rules these instants, and the gods are on the side of those who +boldly grasp loose wisdom and bind it into sheaves of judgment. +Cleggett (whom Homer would have loved) was the first to recover his +poise. He came to his decision instantaneously. A lesser man might +have lost all by rushing after his retreating enemies; a lesser man, +carried away by excitement, would have pursued. Cleggett did not relax +his grasp upon the situation, he restrained his ardor. +</P> + +<P> +"Stand firm, men! Do not leave the ship," he shouted. "The day is +ours!" +</P> + +<P> +And then, turning to Captain Abernethy, he cried: +</P> + +<P> +"We have routed them!" +</P> + +<P> +"Look at them crazy horses!" screamed the Captain in reply. +</P> + +<P> +The animals were rearing and struggling among the ruins of the broken +gangplank. As the Captain spoke, they plunged aboard the ship, and the +carriage, bounding after them, overturned on the deck—horses and +carriage came down together in a welter of splintering wheels and +broken harness and crashing wood. +</P> + +<P> +A negro driver, whom Cleggett now noticed for the first time, shot +clear of the mass and landed on the deck in a sitting posture. +</P> + +<P> +For a moment, there he sat, and did nothing more. The pole broke loose +from the carriage, the traces parted, and the two big white horses, +still kicking and plunging, struggled to their feet and free from the +wreckage. Still side by side they leaped the port bulwark, splashed +into the canal, and swam straight across it, as if animated with the +instinct of going straight ahead in that fashion to the end of the +world. Cleggett never saw or heard of them again. +</P> + +<P> +"Bring a lantern," said Cleggett to Abernethy. "Let's see if this man +is badly hurt." +</P> + +<P> +But the negro was not injured. He rose to his feet as the Captain +brought the light—the storm was now subsiding, and the lightning was +less frequent—and stood revealed as a person of surprising size and +unusual blackness. He was, in fact, so black that it was no wonder +that Cleggett had not seen him on the seat of the carriage, for unless +one turned a light full upon him his face could not be seen at all +after dark. He was in a blue livery, and his high, cockaded coachman's +hat had stayed on his head in spite of everything. +</P> + +<P> +Even sitting down on the deck he had possessed an air of patience. +When he arose and the Captain flashed the light upon his face, it +revealed a countenance full of dignified good humor. +</P> + +<P> +"Where did you come from?" asked Cleggett. +</P> + +<P> +The negro removed the hat with the cockade before answering. He did it +politely. Even ceremoniously. But he did not do it hastily. He had +the air of one who was never inclined to do things hastily. +</P> + +<P> +"From Newahk, sah," he said. "Newahk, New Jehsey, sah." +</P> + +<P> +"But who are you?" said Cleggett. "How did you get here?" +</P> + +<P> +The negro was gazing reflectively at the broken carriage. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah yo' Mistah Cleggett, sah? Mistah Clement J. Cleggett, sah, the +ownah of dis hyeah boat?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes." +</P> + +<P> +The negro fumbled in an inner pocket and produced a card. He gave it +to Cleggett with a deferential bow, and then announced sonorously: +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Genevieve Pringle, sah—in de cah-age, sah—a callin' on Mistah +Clement J. Cleggett." +</P> + +<P> +He completed the announcement with a dignified and courtly gesture, +which seemed to indicate that he was presenting the ruined carriage +itself to Cleggett. +</P> + +<P> +"You don't mean in that carriage?" cried Cleggett. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sah," said the negro. "Leas'ways, she was, sah, some time back. +Mah time an' mah 'tention done been so tooken up wif dem incompatible +hosses fo' some moments past, sah, dat I cain't say fo' suah ef she +adheahed, or ef she didn't adheah." +</P> + +<P> +He glanced speculatively at the carriage again. Cleggett sprang +towards the broken vehicle, expecting to find someone seriously injured +at the very least. But, from the ruin, a precise and high-pitched +feminine voice piped out: +</P> + +<P> +"Jefferson! Kindly assist me to disentangle myself!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yassum," said the negro, moving forward in a leisurely and dignified +manner, "comin', ma'am. I hopes an' trusts, Miss Pringle, ma'am, yo' +ain't suffered none in yo' anatomy an' phlebotomy from dis hyeah +runaway." +</P> + +<P> +With which cheerful wish Jefferson lifted respectfully, and with a +certain calm detachment, the figure of a woman from the debris. +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you, Jefferson," she said. "I fear I am very much bruised and +shaken, but I have been feeling all my bones while lying there, and I +believe that I have sustained no fractures." +</P> + +<P> +Miss Pringle was a woman of about fifty, small and prim. Prim with an +unconquerable primness that neither storm nor battle nor accident could +shake. If she had been killed in the runaway she would have looked +prim in death while awaiting the undertaker. She must have been wet +almost to those unfractured bones which she had been feeling; her black +silk dress, with its white ruching about the neck, was torn and +bedraggled; her black hat, with its jet ornaments, was crushed and hung +askew over one ear; nevertheless, Miss Pringle conveyed at once and +definitely an impression of unassailable respectability and strong +character. +</P> + +<P> +"Which of you is Mr. Cleggett?" she asked, looking about her, in the +lantern light, at the crew of the Jasper B., as she leaned upon the arm +of Jefferson, her mannerly and deliberate servitor. +</P> + +<P> +"I am Mr. Cleggett." +</P> + +<P> +"Ah!" Miss Pringle inspected him with an eye which gleamed with a hint +of latent possibilities of belligerency. "Mr. Cleggett," she +continued, pursing her lips, "I have sought an interview to warn you +that you are harboring an impostor on your ship." +</P> + +<P> +At that moment Lady Agatha joined the group. As the light fell upon her +Miss Pringle stepped forward and thrust an accusing, a denunciatory +finger at the Englishwoman. +</P> + +<P> +"You," she said, "call yourself Lady Agatha Fairhaven!" +</P> + +<P> +"I do," said Lady Agatha. +</P> + +<P> +"Woman!" cried Miss Pringle, shaking with the stress of her moral +wrath. "Where are my plum preserves?" +</P> + +<P> +And with this cryptic utterance the little lady, having come to the end +of her strength, primly fainted. +</P> + +<P> +Jefferson picked her up and carried her, in a serene and stately +manner, to the cabin. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap18"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XVIII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE MAN IN THE BLUE PAJAMAS +</H3> + +<P> +The rain had ceased almost as Miss Pringle was removed to the cabin. +The storm had passed. Low down on the edges of the world there were +still a few dark clouds, there was still an occasional glimmer of +lightning; but overhead the mists were fleecy, light and broken. A few +stars were visible here and there. +</P> + +<P> +And then in a moment more a full moon rose high and serene above the +world. The May moon is often very brilliant in these latitudes, as +sailors who are familiar with the coasts of Long Island can testify. +This moon was unusually brilliant, even for the season of the year and +the quarter of the globe. It lighted up earth and sky so that it was +(in the familiar phrase) almost possible to read by it. Only a few +moments had elapsed since the rout of Logan Black's ruffians, but in +the vicinity of this remarkable island such sudden meteorological +changes are anything but rare, geographers and travelers know. +</P> + +<P> +Lady Agatha had gone into the cabin to resuscitate Miss Pringle and, as +she said, "have it out with her." Cleggett, gazing from the deck +towards Morris's, in the strong moonlight, wondered when the attack +would be renewed. He thought, on the whole, that it was improbable +that Loge would return to the assault while this brightness continued. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly three figures appeared within his range of vision. They were +running. But running slowly, painfully, lamely. In the lead were the +two men whom he had first seen hazed up and down the bank of the canal +by Wilton Barnstable, and whom he had seen the second time chained in +the great detective's boat. +</P> + +<P> +They were shackled wrist to wrist now. To the left leg of one of them +was attached a heavy ball. A similar ball was attached to the right leg +of the other. They had picked these balls up and were struggling along +under their weight at a gait which was more like a staggering walk than +a trot. +</P> + +<P> +They were pursued by the man whom Cleggett had seen attempt to escape +from Morris's. This man still wore his suit of baby blue pajamas. +</P> + +<P> +He wore nothing else. He was stiff. He moved as if the ground hurt +his bare feet. +</P> + +<P> +He especially favored, as Cleggett noticed, the foot on which there was +a bunion. He was lame. He crept rather than ran. But he seemed +bitterly intent upon reaching the two men in irons who labored along +twenty or thirty feet ahead of him. And they, on their part, casting +now and then backward glances over their shoulders at their pursuer. +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett divined that the men in irons had escaped from the Annabel +Lee, and that the man in the baby blue pajamas was loose from Morris's. +But why the man in the pajamas pursued and the others fled he could not +guess. +</P> + +<P> +They passed within fifty yards of the Jasper B. But the men in irons +were so intent upon their own troubles, and the pursuer was so keen on +vengeance, that none of them noticed the vessel. As they limped along, +splashing through the pools the rain had left, the pursuer would +occasionally pause to fling stones and sticks and even cakes of mud at +the fugitives, who were whimpering as they tottered forward. +</P> + +<P> +The man in the baby blue pajamas was cursing in a high-pitched, nasal, +querulous voice. Cleggett noticed with astonishment that a +single-barreled eyeglass was screwed into one of his eyes. Occasionally +it dropped to the ground, and he would stop and fumble for it and wipe +it on his wet sleeve and replace it. Had it not been for these stops +he would have overtaken the men in irons. +</P> + +<P> +"Clement!" Lady Agatha laid her hand upon his arm. "Miss Pringle wants +to see you in the cabin." +</P> + +<P> +"Well—imposter!" laughed Cleggett. "Is she able to talk to you yet? +And what on earth did she mean by her plum preserves?" +</P> + +<P> +"That is what she wants to tell, evidently," said Lady Agatha. And she +went aft with him. +</P> + +<P> +Miss Pringle, who had been rubbed dry by Lady Agatha, and was now +dressed in some articles of that lady's clothing, which were much too +large for her, sat on the edge of the bed in Lady Agatha's stateroom +and awaited them. Her appearance was scarcely conventional, and she +seemed to feel it; nevertheless, she had a duty to perform, and her +innate propriety still triumphed over her situation and habiliments. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Cleggett," she said, pointing to the box which contained the +evidence against Logan Black, which was exactly similar to the box of +Reginald Maltravers, and which had been placed in this inner room for +safe-keeping, "what does that box contain?" +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett was startled. He and Lady Agatha exchanged glances. +</P> + +<P> +"What do you think it contains?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +"That box," she said, "was shipped to me from Flatbush, and was claimed +in my name—in the name of Genevieve Pringle—at the freight depot at +Newark, New Jersey, by this lady here. Deny it if you can!" +</P> + +<P> +"I do deny it, Miss Pringle," said Lady Agatha, accompanying her words +with a winsome smile. But Miss Pringle was not to be won over so +easily as all that; she met the smile with a look of steady +reprobation. And then she turned to Cleggett again. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Cleggett," she said, "my birthday occurred a few days ago. It +was—I have nothing to conceal, Mr. Cleggett—it was my forty-ninth +birthday. Every year, for many years past, a niece of mine who lives +in Flatbush sends me on my birthday a box of plum preserves. +</P> + +<P> +"These preserves have for me, Mr. Cleggett, a value that they would not +possess for anyone else; a value far above their intrinsic or, as one +might say, culinary value. They have a sentimental value as well. I +was born in Flatbush, and lived there, during my youth, on my father's +estate. The city has since grown around the old place, which my niece +now owns, but the plum trees stand as they have stood for more than +fifty years. It was beneath these plum trees...." +</P> + +<P> +Miss Pringle suddenly broke off; her face twitched; she felt for a +handkerchief, and found none; she wiped her eyes on her sleeve. +</P> + +<P> +In another person this action might have appeared somewhat careless, +but Miss Pringle, by the force of her character, managed to invest it +with propriety and dignity; looking at her, one felt that to wipe one's +eyes on one's sleeve was quite proper when done by the proper person. +</P> + +<P> +"I will conceal nothing, Mr. Cleggett. It was under these plum trees +that I once received an offer of marriage from a worthy young man. It +was from one of these plum trees that he later fell, injuring himself +so that he died. You can understand what these plum trees mean to me, +perhaps?" +</P> + +<P> +Lady Agatha impulsively sat down beside the elder woman and put her arm +about her. But Miss Pringle stiffly moved away. After a moment she +continued: +</P> + +<P> +"The preserved plums, as I have said, are sent me every year on my +birthday. This year, when I received from my niece a notification that +they had been shipped, I called for the box personally at the freight +office. +</P> + +<P> +"What was my astonishment to learn that the box had been claimed in my +name, not a quarter of an hour before, and taken away. +</P> + +<P> +"I obtained a description of the person who had represented herself as +Miss Genevieve Pringle, and of the vehicle in which she had carried off +my box. And I followed her. The paltriness of the theft revolted me, +Mr. Cleggett, and I determined to bring this person to justice. +</P> + +<P> +"The fugitive, with my plum preserves in her possession, had left, +goodness knows, a broad enough trail. I found but little difficulty in +following in my family carriage. In fact, Mr. Cleggett, I discovered +the very chauffeur who had deposited her here with the box. Inquiries +in Fairport gave me your name as the owner of this lighter." +</P> + +<P> +"Lighter!" interrupted Cleggett. "The Jasper B., madam, is not a +lighter." +</P> + +<P> +"I beg your pardon," said Miss Pringle. "But what sort of vessel is it +then?" +</P> + +<P> +"The Jasper B.," said Cleggett, with a touch of asperity, "is a +schooner, madam." +</P> + +<P> + "I intended no offense, Mr. Cleggett. I am quite willing to<BR> +believe that the vessel is a schooner, since you say that it is. I am +not informed concerning nautical affairs. But, to conclude—I +discovered from the chauffeur that this lady, calling herself Lady +Agatha Fairhaven, had been deposited here, with my box. I learned +yesterday, after inquiries in Fairport, that you were the owner of this +vessel. The real estate person from whom you purchased it assured me +that you were financially responsible. I came to expose this imposter +and to recover my box. On my way hither I was caught in the storm. +The runaway occurred, and you know the rest." +</P> + +<P> +Miss Pringle, during this recital, had not deigned to favor Lady Agatha +with a look. Lady Agatha, on her part, after the rebuff which she had +received, had sat in smiling silence. +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Pringle," she said, pleasantly but seriously, when the other +woman had finished, "first I must convince you that this box does not +contain your plum preserves, and then I will tell you my story." +</P> + +<P> +With Cleggett's assistance Lady Agatha removed the cover from the +oblong box, and showed her its contents. +</P> + +<P> +"That explains nothing," said Miss Pringle, dryly. "Of course you +would remove the plum preserves to a place of safety." +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Pringle," said Lady Agatha, "I will tell you everything. I DID +claim a box in your name at the railway goods station in Newark—and if +there had been nothing in it but plum preserves, how happy I should be! +I beg of you, Miss Pringle, to give me your attention." +</P> + +<P> +And Lady Agatha began to relate to Miss Pringle the same story which +she had told to Cleggett. At the first word indicative of the fact the +Lady Agatha had suffered for the cause of votes for women, a change +took place in the expression of Miss Pringle's countenance. Cleggett +thought she was about to speak. But she did not. Nevertheless, +although she listened intently, some of her rigidity had gone. When +Lady Agatha had finished Miss Pringle said: +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose that you can prove that you are really Lady Agatha +Fairhaven?" +</P> + +<P> +For answer Lady Agatha went to one of her trunks and opened it. She +drew therefrom a letter, and passed it over without a word. +</P> + +<P> +As Miss Pringle read it, her face lighted up. She did not lose her +primness, but her suspicion seemed altogether to depart. +</P> + +<P> +"A letter from Emmeline Pankhurst!" she said, in a hushed voice, +handling the missive as if it were a sacred relic. "Can you ever +forgive me?" +</P> + +<P> +"There is nothing to forgive," beamed Lady Agatha. "I am willing to +admit, now that you understand me, that the thing looked a bit +suspicious, on the face of it." +</P> + +<P> +"You have suffered for the cause," said Miss Pringle. "I have suffered +for it, too!" And, with a certain shyness, she patted Lady Agatha on +the arm. But the next moment she said: +</P> + +<P> +"But what IS in the box you brought here then, Lady Agatha? Two boxes +were shipped to Newark, addressed to me. Which one did you get? What +is really in the one you have been carrying around? My plum preserves, +or——" +</P> + +<P> +She shuddered and left the sentence unfinished. +</P> + +<P> +"Let us open it," said Cleggett. +</P> + +<P> +"No! No!" cried Lady Agatha. "Clement, no! I could not bear to have it +opened." +</P> + +<P> +Miss Pringle rose. It was evident that a bit of her earlier suspicion +had returned. +</P> + +<P> +"After all," said Miss Pringle, indicating the letter again, "how do I +know that——" +</P> + +<P> +"That it is not a forgery?" said Lady Agatha. "I see." She mused a +moment, and then said, with a sigh, "Well, then, let us open the box!" +</P> + +<P> +"I think it best, Agatha," said Cleggett. "I shall have it brought +down." +</P> + +<P> +But even as he turned upon his heel to go on deck and give the order, +Dr. Farnsworth and the Rev. Simeon Calthrop ran excitedly down the +cabin companionway. +</P> + +<P> +"The box of Reginald Maltravers," cried the Doctor, who was in +Cleggett's confidence, "is gone!" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap19"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIX +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +TWO GREAT MEN MEET +</H3> + +<P> +"Gone!" Lady Agatha, who had emerged from her stateroom, turned pale +and caught at her heart. +</P> + +<P> +They rushed on deck. The young Doctor was right; the box, which had +stood on the larboard side of the cabin, had disappeared. +</P> + +<P> +"It might have been blown into the canal during the storm," suggested +the Rev. Mr. Calthrop. All of the crew of the Jasper B. knew Lady +Agatha's story, and were aware of the importance of the box. +</P> + +<P> +"It was on the lee side of the cabin," objected Dr. Farnsworth, "and +while it might have been blown flat to the deck, in spite of its +protected position, it would scarcely have been picked up by the wind +again and wafted over the port bulwarks." +</P> + +<P> +"If you was to ask me," said Cap'n Abernethy, who had joined in the +discussion, "I'd give it as MY opinion it's a good riddance of bad +rubbish." +</P> + +<P> +"Rubbish?" said Miss Pringle. "Rubbish, indeed! I am confident that +that box contained my plum preserves!" +</P> + +<P> +"It has been stolen!" cried Cleggett, with conviction. "Fool that I +was, not to have taken it into the cabin!" +</P> + +<P> +"But, if you had, you know," said Lady Agatha, "one would scarcely have +cared to stay in there with it." +</P> + +<P> +"Loge has outgeneraled me," murmured Cleggett, well-nigh frantic with +self-reproach. "While he made the attack in front, he sent some of his +men to the rear of the vessel and it was quietly made off with while we +were fighting." Had the disappearance of the box concerned himself +alone Cleggett's sense of disaster might have been less poignant. But +the thought that his own carelessness had enabled the enemy to get +possession of a thing likely to involve Lady Agatha in further trouble +was nearly insupportable. He gritted his teeth and clenched his hands +in impotent rage. +</P> + +<P> +"No doubt Loge caught sight of it during the early part of the +skirmish, by a flash of lightning," said Dr. Farnsworth, "and acted as +you suggest, Mr. Cleggett. But does he believe it to be the box which +contains the evidence against him? Or can he, by any chance, be aware +of its real contents?" +</P> + +<P> +"No matter which," groaned Cleggett, "no matter which! For when he +opens it, he will learn what is in it. Don't you see that he has us +now? If he offers to trade it back to us for the other oblong box, how +can I refuse? If we have his secret, Loge has ours!" +</P> + +<P> +But Dr. Farnsworth was not listening. He had suddenly leaned over the +port rail and was staring down the canal. The others followed his gaze. +</P> + +<P> +The house boat Annabel Lee, they perceived, had got under weigh, and +was slowly approaching the Jasper B. in the moonlight. They watched +her gradual approach in silence. She stopped within a few yards of the +Jasper B., and a voice which Cleggett recognized as that of Wilton +Barnstable, the great detective, sang out: +</P> + +<P> +"Jasper B., ahoy!" +</P> + +<P> +"Aye, aye!" shouted Cleggett. +</P> + +<P> +"Is Mr. Cleggett on board?" +</P> + +<P> +"He is speaking." +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Cleggett, have you lost anything from your canal boat?" +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett did not answer, and for a moment he did not move. Then, +tightening his sword belt, and cocking his hat a trifle, he climbed +over the starboard rail and walked along the bank of the canal a few +yards until he was opposite the Annabel Lee. The great detective, on +his part, also stepped ashore. They stood and faced each other in the +moonlight, silently, and their followers, also in silence, gathered in +the bows of the respective vessels and watched them. +</P> + +<P> +Finally, Cleggett, with one hand on his hip, and standing with his feet +wide apart, said very incisively: +</P> + +<P> +"Sir, the Jasper B. is NOT a canal boat." +</P> + +<P> +"Eh?" Wilton Barnstable started at the emphasis. +</P> + +<P> +"The Jasper B.," pursued Cleggett, staring steadily at Wilton +Barnstable, "is a schooner." +</P> + +<P> +"Ah!" said the other. "Indeed?" +</P> + +<P> +"A schooner," repeated Cleggett, "indeed, sir! Indeed, sir, a schooner!" +</P> + +<P> +There was another silence, in which neither man would look aside; they +held each other with their eyes; the nervous strain communicated itself +to the crews of the two vessels. At last, however, the detective, +although he did not lower his gaze, and although he strove to give his +new attitude an effect of ease and jauntiness by twisting the end of +his mustache as he spoke, said to Cleggett: +</P> + +<P> +"A schooner, then, Mr. Cleggett, a schooner! No offense, I hope?" +</P> + +<P> +"None at all," said Cleggett, heartily enough, now that the point had +been established. And the tension relaxed on both ships. +</P> + +<P> +"You have lost an oblong box, Mr. Cleggett." The great detective +affirmed it rather than interrogated. +</P> + +<P> +"How did you know that?" +</P> + +<P> +The other laughed. "We know a great many things—it is our business to +know things," he said. Then he dropped his voice to a whisper, and said +rapidly, "Mr. Cleggett, do you know who I am?" Before Cleggett could +reply he continued, "Brace yourself—do not make an outcry when I tell +you who I am. I am Wilton Barnstable." +</P> + +<P> +"I knew you," said Cleggett. The other appeared disappointed for a +moment. And then he inquired anxiously, "How did you know me?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, from your pictures in the magazines," said Cleggett. +</P> + +<P> +The detective brightened perceptibly. "Ah, yes—the magazines! Yes, +yes, indeed! publicity is unavoidable, unavoidable, Mr. Cleggett! But +this box, now——" +</P> + +<P> +The great detective interrupted himself to laugh again, a trifle +complacently, Cleggett thought. +</P> + +<P> +"I will not mystify you, Mr. Cleggett, about the box. Mystification is +one of the tricks of the older schools of detection. I never practice +it, Mr. Cleggett. With me, the detection of crime is a business—yes, +a business. I will tell you presently how the box came into my +possession." +</P> + +<P> +"It IS in your possession?" Cleggett felt a dull pang of the heart. +If the box of Reginal Maltravers were in the hands of Logan Black he +could at least trade the other oblong box to Loge for it, and thus save +Lady Agatha. But in the possession of Wilton Barnstable, the great +detective——! Cleggett pulled himself together; he thought rapidly; +he recognized that the situation called, above all things else, for +diplomacy and adroitness. He went on, nonchalantly: +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose you are aware of the contents of the box?" +</P> + +<P> +The other laughed again as if Cleggett had made an excellent jest; +there was something urbane and benign in his manner; it appeared as if +he regarded the contents of the box of Reginald Maltravers as anything +but serious; his tone puzzled Cleggett. +</P> + +<P> +"Suppose I bring the box on board the Jasper B.," suggested the great +detective. "It interests me, that box. I have no doubt it has its +story. And perhaps, while you are telling me some things about it, I +may be able to give you some information in turn." +</P> + +<P> +There was no mistaking the fact that the man, whether genuinely +friendly or no, wished to appear so. +</P> + +<P> +"Have it brought into my cabin," said Cleggett, "and we will discuss +it." +</P> + +<P> +A few minutes later Wilton Barnstable, Cleggett, Lady Agatha, Miss +Pringle, and two of Wilton Barnstable's men sat in the cabin of the +Jasper B., with the two oblong boxes before them—the one which had +contained Loge's incriminating diary, and the one which had caused Lady +Agatha so much trouble. +</P> + +<P> +In the light of the cabin the three detectives were revealed as +startlingly alike. Barton Ward and Watson Bard, Barnstable's two +assistants, might, indeed, almost have been taken for Barnstable +himself, at a casual glance. In height, in bulk, in dress, in facial +expression, they seemed Wilton Barnstable all over again. But, looking +intently at the three men, Cleggett began to perceive a difference +between the real Wilton Barnstable and his two counterfeits. It was the +difference between the face which is informed of genius, and the +countenance which is indicative of mere talent. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Cleggett," began Wilton Barnstable, "as I said before, I will make +no attempt to mystify you. I was a witness to the attack upon your +vessel. Mr. Ward, Mr. Bard, and myself, in fact, had determined to +assist you, had we seen that the combat was going against you. We lay, +during the struggle, in the lee of your—your—er, schooner!—in the +lee of your schooner, armed, and ready to bear a hand. We have our own +little matter to settle with Logan Black. Why Logan Black should +desire possession of this particular box, I am unable to state. +Nevertheless, at the moment when he was leading his assault upon your +starboard bow, two of his men, who had made a detour to the stern of +your vessel, had clambered stealthily aboard, and were quietly pushing +the box over the side into the canal. They let themselves down into +the water, and swam towards the mouth of the canal, pushing it ahead of +them. We followed in our rowboat, Mr. Ward, Mr. Bard, and myself, at a +discreet distance. We let them push the box as far south as the +Annabel Lee. And then——" +</P> + +<P> +He paused a moment, and smiled reminiscently. Barton Ward and Watson +Bard also smiled reminiscently, and the three detectives exchanged +crafty glances. +</P> + +<P> +"Then, to be brief, we took the box away from them. They were so +ill-advised as to struggle. They are in irons, now, on board the +Annabel Lee. +</P> + +<P> +"But what I cannot understand, Mr. Cleggett, is why these men should +risk so much to make off with an empty box." +</P> + +<P> +"An empty box!" cried Cleggett. +</P> + +<P> +"Empty!" echoed Lady Agatha and Miss Pringle, in concert. +</P> + +<P> +The detective wrenched the cover from the box of Reginald Maltravers. +</P> + +<P> +"Practically empty, at any rate," he said. +</P> + +<P> +And, indeed, except for a few wads of wet excelsior, there was nothing +in the box of Reginald Maltravers. +</P> + +<P> +"Where, then," cried Lady Agatha, "is Reginald Maltravers?" +</P> + +<P> +"Where, indeed," said Wilton Barnstable, "is Reginald Maltravers?" +</P> + +<P> +"Where, then," cried Miss Pringle, "are my plum preserves?" +</P> + +<P> +"Where, indeed?" repeated Wilton Barnstable. And Barton Ward and Watson +Bard, although they did not speak aloud, stroked their mustaches and +their lips formed the ejaculation, "Where, indeed?" +</P> + +<P> +"We will tell you everything," said Cleggett. And beginning with his +purchase of the Jasper B. he recounted rapidly, but with sufficient +detail, all the facts with which the reader is already familiar, +weaving into his story the tale of Lady Agatha and the adventures of +Miss Pringle. Wilton Barnstable listened attentively. So did Barton +Ward and Watson Bard. The benign smile which was so characteristic of +Wilton Barnstable never left the three faces, but it was evident to +Cleggett that these trained intelligences grasped and weighed and +ticketed every detail. +</P> + +<P> +While Cleggett narrates, and Wilton Barnstable and his men listen, a +word to the reader concerning this great detective. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap20"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XX +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE PSYCHOLOGICAL DETECTIVE +</H3> + +<P> +Wilton Barnstable was the inventor of a new school of detection of +crime. The system came in with him, and it may go out with him for +lack of a man of his genius to perpetuate it. He insisted that there +was nothing spectacular or romantic in the pursuit of the criminal, or, +at least, that there should be nothing of the sort. And he was +especially disgusted when anyone referred to him as "a second Sherlock +Holmes." +</P> + +<P> +"I am only a plain business man," he would insist, urbanely, with a +wave of his hand. "I have merely brought order, method, system, +business principles, logic, to the detection of crime. I know nothing +of romance. Romance is usually all nonsense in my estimation. The +real detective, who gets results in real life, is NOT a Sherlock +Holmes." +</P> + +<P> +The enemies of Wilton Barnstable sometimes said of him that he was +jealous of Sherlock Holmes. When this was reported to Barnstable he +invariably remarked: "How preposterous! The idea of a man being +envious of a literary creation!" +</P> + +<P> +Perhaps his denial of the existence of romance was merely one of those +poses which geniuses so often permit themselves. Perhaps he saw it and +was thrilled with it even while he denied it. At any rate, he lived in +the midst of it. The realism which was his metier was that sort of +realism into which are woven facts and incidents of the most bizarre +and startling nature. +</P> + +<P> +And, certainly, behind the light blue eyes that could look with such +apparent ingenuousness out of his plump, bland face there was the +subtle mind of a psychologist. Barnstable, true to his attitude of the +plain business man, would have been the first to ridicule the idea +publicly if anyone had dubbed him "the psychological detective." That, +to his mind, would have savored of charlatanism. He would have said: +"I am nothing so strange and mystifying as that—I am a plain business +man." But in reality there was no new discovery of the investigating +psychologists of which he did not avail himself at once. His ability +to clothe himself with the thoughts of the criminal as an actor clothes +himself with a role, was marvelous; he knew the criminal soul. That is +to say, he knew the human soul. He refused to see anything +extraordinary in this. "It is only my business to know such things," +he would say. "We know many things. It is our business to know them. +There is no miracle about it." This was the public character he had +created for himself, and emphasized—that of the plain business man. +This was his mask. He was so subtle that he hid the vast range of his +powers behind an appearance of commonplaceness. +</P> + +<P> +Wilton Barnstable never disguised himself, in the ordinary sense of the +term. That is, he never resorted to false whiskers or wigs or obvious +tricks of that sort. +</P> + +<P> +But if Wilton Barnstable were to walk into a convention of blacksmiths, +let us say, he would quite escape attention. For before he had been +ten minutes in that gathering he would become, to all appearances, the +typical blacksmith. If he were to enter a gathering of bankers, or +barbers, or bakers, or organ grinders, or stockbrokers, or +school-teachers, a similar thing would happen. He could make himself +the composite photograph of all the individuals of any group. He +disguised himself from the inside out. +</P> + +<P> +This art of becoming inconspicuous was one of his greatest assets as a +detective. Newspaper and magazine writers would have liked to dwell +upon it. But he requested them not to emphasize it. As he modestly +narrated his triumphs to the young journalists, who hung breathless +upon his words, he was careful not to stress his talent for becoming +just like anybody and everybody else—his peculiar genius for being the +average man. +</P> + +<P> +The front which he presented to the world was, in reality, his +cleverest creation. The magazine and newspaper articles which were +written about him, the many pictures which were printed every month, +presented the mental and physical portrait of a knowing, bustling, +extraordinarily candid personality. A personality with a touch of +smugness in it. This was very generally thought to be the real Wilton +Barnstable. It was a fiction which he had succeeded in establishing. +When he addressed meetings, talked with reporters, wrote articles about +himself, or came into touch with the public in any manner, he assumed +this personality. When he did not wish to be known he laid it aside. +When he desired to pass incognito, therefore, it was not necessary for +him to assume a disguise. He simply dropped one. +</P> + +<P> +The two men with him, Barton Ward and Watson Bard, were his cleverest +agents. They were learning from the master detective the art of +looking like other people, and were at present practicing by looking +like the popular conception of Wilton Barnstable. They were clever +men. But Barton Ward and Watson Bard were, as Cleggett had felt at +once, only men of extraordinary talent, while Wilton Barnstable was a +genius. +</P> + +<P> +As Cleggett talked he was given a rather startling proof of Wilton +Barnstable's gift. He was astonished to find a change stealing over +Wilton Barnstable's features. Subtly the detective began to look like +someone else. The expression of the face, the turn of the eyes, the +lines about the mouth, began to suggest someone whom Cleggett knew. It +was rather a suggestion, an impression, than a likeness; it was rather +the spirit of a personality than a definite resemblance. It was a +psychic thing. Barnstable was disguising himself from the inside out; +he had assumed the mental and spiritual clothing of someone else. +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett could not think at first who it was that Wilton Barnstable +suggested. But presently he saw that it was himself. He glanced at +Barton Ward and Watson Bard; they still resembled the popular +conception of Wilton Barnstable. +</P> + +<P> +Gradually the look of Cleggett faded from Wilton Barnstable's face. It +changed, it shifted, that look did; Cleggett almost cried out as he saw +the face of Wilton Barnstable become an impressionistic portrait of the +soul of Logan Black. He looked at Barton Ward. Barton Ward was now +looking like Wilton Barnstable's conception of Cleggett. But Watson +Bard, less facile and less creative, still clung stolidly to the +popular conception of Wilton Barnstable. +</P> + +<P> +But, even as Cleggett looked, this remarkable exhibition ceased; the +Wilton Barnstable look dominated the faces again. Plump, yet +dignified, smiling easily and kindly, three plain business men looked +at him; respectable citizens, commonplace citizens, a little smug; +faces that spoke of comfort, method, regularity; eyes that seemed to +wink with the pressure of platitudes in the minds behind them; +platitudes that desired to force their way to the lips and out into the +world. +</P> + +<P> +Yes, such was the genius of Wilton Barnstable that he could at will +impose himself upon people as the apotheosis of the commonplace. He +did it often. It was almost second nature to him now. His urbane smile +was the only visible sign of his own enjoyment of this habitual feat. +He knew his own genius, and smiled to think how easy it was to pass for +an average man! +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap21"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE THIRD OBLONG BOX ARRIVES +</H3> + +<P> +"I think," said Wilton Barnstable, when Cleggett had finished, "that I +may be able to clear up a few points for you. +</P> + +<P> +"The two men whom you saw me hazing up and down the bank of the canal, +and whom you saw again tonight, followed by the man in the baby blue +silk pajamas, were Dopey Eddie and Izzy the Cat!" +</P> + +<P> +"The wretches!" cried Lady Agatha. +</P> + +<P> +"Wretches indeed," said Wilton Barnstable, Barton Ward, and Watson +Bard, in unison, and with conviction. +</P> + +<P> +"And the man in the baby blue silk pajamas, was——" the great +detective paused, as if to make his revelation more effective. And +while he paused, Miss Genevieve Pringle, with pursed lips and averted +face, signified that the very idea of introducing a man in baby blue +silk pajamas into the conversation was intensely displeasing to her. +</P> + +<P> +"The man in pajamas was Reginald Maltravers," finished the great +detective. +</P> + +<P> +"Reginald Maltravers!" cried Lady Agatha. +</P> + +<P> +She opened her mouth again as if to say something more, but words +failed her, and she only stared at the detective, with parted lips and +round eyes. +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett went to her and touched her on the arm, and with the touch she +gave a sob of emotion and found her tongue again. +</P> + +<P> +"Reginald Maltravers," she said, "is not dead then! Not dead after +all!" +</P> + +<P> +She endeavored to control herself, but for a moment or two she +trembled. It was evident that it was all she could do to keep from +crying hysterically with relief. The nightmare that had haunted her +for days had vanished almost too suddenly. Presently she began to be +herself again. +</P> + +<P> +"You are sure that he is not dead?" she said with a voice that still +shook. +</P> + +<P> +"Sure," said Wilton Barnstable. +</P> + +<P> +And as if quietly satisfied with the sensation they had produced, the +three detectives smiled at each other urbanely and contentedly. +Barnstable continued: +</P> + +<P> +"Reginald Maltravers came to my agency some days ago and requested a +bodyguard. Dopey Eddie and Izzy the Cat had attacked him, no doubt +intending to earn the money which Elmer had promised them. He beat +them off. In fact, he caned them soundly. But they still continued to +dog him. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Ward here, who handled the case, soon reported to me that he +believed Reginald Maltravers to be insane." +</P> + +<P> +"Insane he was," cried Lady Agatha. "I have seen the light of insanity +in his eye, gleaming through his accursed monocle." She spoke with +vehemence. Now that she knew the man to be alive, her hatred of him +had flared up again. +</P> + +<P> +"Insane he was," agreed Wilton Barnstable. "And shortly after that +discovery was made, he disappeared. The next day after his +disappearance, Dopey Eddie and Izzy the Cat were liberally supplied +with money. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course they got the money, Lady Agatha, through the clever trick +they worked upon you." +</P> + +<P> +"A great many people have got money from me since I have been in +America," said Lady Agatha. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah! Yes?" The great detective went on with his masterly summing up. +"Of course they got the money from the trick they worked on Lady +Agatha. But at the time I thought it possible that they had robbed +Reginald Maltravers and then put him out of the way. They are +well-known gunmen. +</P> + +<P> +"I took them into custody and determined to hold them until such time +as Reginald Maltravers would be found, or his fate discovered. +Eventually I brought them with me on my house boat. I was really +holding them without due legal warrant, but I am forced to do that, +sometimes. They complained of lack of exercise, so I gave them +exercise in the manner which you saw the other morning, Mr. Cleggett. +</P> + +<P> +"One of my agents, shortly after this, picked up the trail of Reginald +Maltravers again. When I learned that he was alive my first impulse +was to release Dopey Eddie and Izzy the Cat. But I learned that the +two gunmen could, if they would, give me a tip as to certain of the +activities of Logan Black, against whom I have been collecting evidence +for nearly a year. So I kept them on my boat. +</P> + +<P> +"Reginald Maltravers, most of the time that you were riding about the +country, Lady Agatha, with the box that you thought contained him, was +really following you. He would lose your trail and find it again, but +he was always some hours behind you. Of course, he knew nothing of the +oblong box. He thought that you were running away from him. And all +the time that Reginald Maltravers was following you, agents of mine +were following Reginald Maltravers." +</P> + +<P> +"Lady Agatha," interrupted Cleggett, "was also being pursued by Miss +Pringle here." +</P> + +<P> +Wilton Barnstable carefully made a note in a little book which he drew +from his waistcoat pocket. Barton Ward also made a note in a little +book, Watson Bard started to make a note, and then paused; in fact, +Watson Bard did not complete his note until he had gotten a peep into +the notebook of Barton Ward. The notes made, the three detectives once +more smiled craftily at each other, and Wilton Barnstable resumed: +</P> + +<P> +"We knew, of course, that another lady was also following Lady Agatha. +But, until the present moment, we had not identified her with Miss +Pringle. And I should not be at all surprised, not at ALL surprised, +if still another person had been following Miss Pringle." +</P> + +<P> +"With what object?" asked Miss Pringle, looking alarmed at the idea. +</P> + +<P> +"The motive, my dear lady, I must for the present withhold," said +Wilton Barnstable. And again the three detectives exchanged knowing +glances. +</P> + +<P> +"Reginald Maltravers' pursuit of you, Lady Agatha, led him to +Fairport," went on the great sleuth. "No doubt he met the driver of +the vehicle which brought you hither, and learned that you and Elmer +had been set down in this neighborhood, just as Miss Pringle learned +it. No doubt it was well after dark when he arrived in the vicinity of +the Jasper B. And it is to be supposed that, once out here, he went to +Morris's road house, thinking it quite likely that you and Elmer would +stop there, as he had been tracking you from road house to road house. +Logan Black, knowing that the authorities were on his trail, mistook +Reginald Maltravers for a detective, and held him prisoner at Morris's. +Logan Black's men took away his clothes in order to minimize the +possibility of his escape." +</P> + +<P> +"And the Earl of Claiborne's signet ring——" began Cleggett. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course, Reginald Maltravers was wearing it, and of course they took +his valuables from him," said Barnstable. "One of the ruffians was +wearing the ring as he approached your vessel with a bomb. But, Mr. +Cleggett, there are points about that bomb explosion which I do not +understand." +</P> + +<P> +"Nor I," admitted Cleggett. +</P> + +<P> +"We will clear them up later," said the great detective, smiling +benignly at his thumbs, which he was revolving slowly about each other +as he reconstructed the case. +</P> + +<P> +"Later!" smiled Barton Ward. "Later!" murmured Watson Bard. With their +hands clasped over their stomachs, they, too, benignly twirled their +thumbs. +</P> + +<P> +"Tonight," pursued Barnstable, "having finally got all the information +I wished from Dopey Eddie and Izzy the Cat with regard to Logan Black, +I tossed them the key to their irons and told them to unlock themselves +and clear out. It was just before the storm began, and they were +sitting on the bank of the canal at the time. I allowed them to sit +there in the evenings and get the fresh air. +</P> + +<P> +"But before they could unlock themselves Reginald Maltravers, who had, +we must suppose, escaped from Morris's through the carelessness of one +of Logan Black's subordinates, crawled up the bank of the canal, which +he had swum, and made for the two gunmen, with the water dripping from +his eyeglass. He had recognized them as the men who had dogged and +assaulted him, and every other idea was obliterated in his desire for +vengeance. +</P> + +<P> +"They fled. He pursued. He caught them, and they fought. They +succeeded in dropping one of the iron balls on his foot—on his bunion +foot, Mr. Cleggett—crippling him." +</P> + +<P> +As this mention of the bunion, Miss Genevive Pringle arose with +dignity, and, flinging a shawl about her shoulders, left the cabin, +chin in air. She did not vouchsafe so much as one backward glance at +Cleggett or the three detectives or lady Agatha as she left, but +outraged propriety was expressed in every line of her figure. +</P> + +<P> +"H'm," mused the detective, flushing slightly; and Watson Bard and +Barton Ward also colored a little, and looked hacked. They glanced +furtively at Lady Agatha, to see if she too might be offended. +</P> + +<P> +"Proceed, Mr. Barnstable," she said a little impatiently. "Bunions +don't bother me, either mentally or physically. I am familiar with the +idea of bunions. There are many bunions in the Claiborne family." +</P> + +<P> +"On his bunion foot, crippling him," resumed the detective, reassured. +"The storm came up, and still the gunmen fled, and still Reginald +Maltravers pursued. I suppose, since you saw them on the west side of +the canal, Mr. Cleggett, that they had run around the north end of it. +Probably, while you and Logan Black were fighting, they were running up +and down in the neighborhood, in the storm, intent only upon their own +feud." +</P> + +<P> +"They certainly seemed exhausted when I saw them," said Cleggett, "all +three of them. But if you will permit me to say so, the astuteness +with which you are reconstructing this case compels my admiration." +</P> + +<P> +Wilton Barnstable bowed, and Barton Ward and Watson Bard slightly +inclined their heads. +</P> + +<P> +"Your skill," said Lady Agatha, "is equal to that of Sherlock Holmes." +</P> + +<P> +At the name of Sherlock Holmes a shade passed over the face of Wilton +Barnstable. He slightly compressed his lips, and his eyebrows went up +a fraction of an inch. This shade was reflected on the faces of Barton +Ward and Watson Bard. There was a moment of silence, but presently +Wilton Barnstable continued, repressing a sigh: +</P> + +<P> +"I thought at first, Mr. Cleggett, that you were an ally of Logan +Black's, just as you believed me to be his ally, and as he believed you +and me to be working together. It may interest you to know that +smuggling has been one of his side lines. There is, somewhere +hereabouts, a cave in which smuggled goods are stored. These coasts +have a sinister history, Mr. Cleggett. It is possible that your canal +boat—I beg your pardon, your schooner, Mr. Cleggett—played some part +in their smuggling operations. At any rate it is evident that Logan +Black transferred to the hold of this vessel the incriminating evidence +against him, contained in that oblong box, when he learned that my +agents were watching Morris's. The Jasper B. has been lying in her +present position for a long time. In the event that a sudden get-away +from Morris's became necessary, it was an advantage to Logan Black to +be able to leave without being hampered with this matter. No one, for +many years, had paid any attention to the Jasper B., with the exception +of the old truck farmer, Abernethy, who used sometimes to fish from her +deck, and——" +</P> + +<P> +"Truck farmer!" cried Cleggett. "Abernethy?" +</P> + +<P> +"Truck farmer," repeated Wilton Barnstable. +</P> + +<P> +"Is not Abernethy an old sea captain?" asked Cleggett. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, no, I believe not," said Barnstable. "At least I never heard so. +He is well known as a small truck gardener in this neighborhood. It is +true that he comes of a seafaring family—indeed, it is his boast. +But, in a community where nearly everyone knows a little about boats, I +believe that Abernethy is remarkable for an indisposition to venture +far from shore." +</P> + +<P> +"I can scarcely believe it," breathed Cleggett. +</P> + +<P> +"He does not understand boats," said Barnstable. "That is the reason, I +take it, why he has always fished in the canal from the deck of the +Jasper B." +</P> + +<P> +"Abernethy is a gallant man," said Cleggett, rather sternly. "And even +although he may have had little actual seafaring experience, the +instinct is in him! The inherited love of a nautical life has been +latent in him all along. And at the first opportunity it has come out. +He has shown his mettle aboard the Jasper B." +</P> + +<P> +"I do not doubt it, if you insist upon it," said Wilton Barnstable, +politely. And from revolving his thumbs benignly towards himself he +began to revolve them urbanely from himself. The reversal was imitated +at once by Barton Ward, but Watson Bard was slower in putting this new +coup into execution. +</P> + +<P> +"The resemblance between the two oblong boxes evidently fooled Logan +Black," continued Barnstable, "and his men stole the wrong one, but he +knows by this time that his plan to get the box has failed." +</P> + +<P> +"He knows it?" said Cleggett. +</P> + +<P> +"From the bank of the canal he witnessed our capture of the box, and of +the two men who were making off with it. After you had beaten off his +assault upon the ship, he turned his attention to the canal, to see if +the men whom he had assigned to the job of creeping over the stern of +the Jasper B. had by any chance succeeded in purloining the box. He +was alone, but he attempted to come to the assistance of his two +followers even as we made them prisoners. In fact, we exchanged shots." +</P> + +<P> +The great detective made little of the danger he had encountered. +</P> + +<P> +Indeed, his smile became one of amusement as he removed his coat, +rolled up his shirt sleeves, and exhibited a bandaged wound in the +fleshy part of his arm. +</P> + +<P> +"It is only a slight wound," he said, beaming on it as if wounds were +quite delightful affairs, "and scarcely inconveniences me." +</P> + +<P> +Barton Ward and Watson Bard, with their sleeves rolled up, were also +smiling placidly and indulgently at bandages about their left arms. +Whether there were real wounds beneath their bandages also, Cleggett +could not determine. The bandage of Barton Ward was slightly stained +with red, but the bandage of Watson Bard was quite white. All three +replaced their coats at the same time, and Wilton Barnstable went on: +</P> + +<P> +"Our course of procedure is plain, Mr. Cleggett. We have the evidence +against Logan Black. We must have the man himself. I depend upon you +to cooperate with me. I think," he said, beaming at Barton Ward and +Watson Bard with an air of modest triumph, "that the case of Logan +Black is going to prove one of my really GREAT cases. +</P> + +<P> +"There is only one point which I have not yet made clear to you, I +believe—and that is how Logan Black's men were able to enter and leave +the hold of your vessel so mysteriously. But I am shaping up my theory +about that! I am shaping it up!" +</P> + +<P> +"Would it be indescreet to inquire just what your theory is?" asked +Cleggett. +</P> + +<P> +And Lady Agatha murmured: +</P> + +<P> +"For my part, I can make nothing of it, and I should be glad to hear +your theory." +</P> + +<P> +"It would," said Wilton Barnstable, soberly, "it would be premature, if +I told you my theory at the present moment. You must pardon me—but it +WOULD. In my line of business—and I insist, Mr. Cleggett, that I am a +plain business man, nothing more—I find it absolutely necessary not to +communicate all my information to the layman until the case is quite +perfect in all its points. But do not get the notion, Mr. Cleggett, +that I underestimate the part that you have taken in the case of Logan +Black. You have helped me, Mr. Cleggett. When I have my secretary +prepare the case of Logan Black for magazine and newspaper publication +I shall have your name mentioned as that of a person who has helped me. +Yes, you have helped me." +</P> + +<P> +As he spoke he picked from a reading table a magazine, on the cover of +which appeared his own portrait—or rather, the portrait of the popular +conception of Wilton Barnstable—and began to make motions about it +with his finger. He appeared to be marking off the space beside the +portrait into an arrangement of letters and spaces. His lips moved as +he did so; he murmured: "The Case of Logan Black—the Case of Logan +Black!" He seemed to see, with the eye of a typographical expert, the +legend printed there. Barton Ward and Watson Bard, slightly flushed and +a little excited in spite of themselves, seemed also to see it there. +</P> + +<P> +It might have occurred to a person more critical than Cleggett that it +was he himself who had furnished nearly all the real evidence upon +which Wilton Barnstable was constructing this Case of Logan Black. But +Cleggett looked for the gold in men, not the dross; the great qualities +of Wilton Barnstable appealed to his imagination; the best in Cleggett +responded to the best in Wilton Barnstable; if the detective possessed +a certain amount of vanity, Cleggett preferred to overlook it. +</P> + +<P> +"Decidedly," said Wilton Barnstable, laying down the magazine, and +looking at Cleggett kindly and serenely, "I shall see to it that your +name is mentioned in connection with the Case of Logan Black." And +Barton Ward and Watson Bard also bent upon him their bland and friendly +regard. +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett was about to thank them, but at that moment there was a +commotion of some sort on deck. +</P> + +<P> +Two female voices, one of which they all recognized as that of Miss +Genevieve Pringle, were mingling in a babble of greeting, +expostulation, interjection, and explanation, and presently Miss +Pringle entered the cabin, followed by a younger lady who, except for +her youth, looked much like her. +</P> + +<P> +"My niece, Miss Henrietta Pringle, of Flatbush," said Miss Pringle, +primly presenting her prim relation. "She has just arrived——" +</P> + +<P> +"With the plum preserves!" cried Lady Agatha. +</P> + +<P> +"With the plum preserves," confirmed Miss Genevieve Pringle. +</P> + +<P> +And Captain Abernethy and George the Greek bore into the cabin a third +oblong box, exactly similar in appearance to the box of Reginald +Maltravers and the box which contained the evidence against Logan +Black, and set it on the floor. +</P> + +<P> +The three detectives stood and looked at the three boxes with an air of +great satisfaction. +</P> + +<P> +"With this addition to our oblong boxes," said Wilton Barnstable, +"their number is now complete. Miss Henrietta Pringle, we will listen +to your story." +</P> + +<P> +There was little to tell, and Miss Henrietta Pringle told it in a +breath. Having received no acknowledgment of the receipt of the plum +preserves from her aunt, an unusual oversight on her aunt's part, she +had journeyed to Newark with a vague fear that there might be something +wrong. +</P> + +<P> +"Arrived in Newark," she said, "I learned that my aunt, with her two +white horses and her family carriage driven by Jefferson, the negro +coachmen, had suddenly left Newark, without giving any explanation to +anyone, or making her destination known. +</P> + +<P> +"The proceeding was very strange; it was very unlike my aunt, and I was +frightened. Everyone who had seen her start testified that she was +laboring under a great nervous strain of some sort. +</P> + +<P> +"I called at the freight depot and got the box of plum preserves which +I had shipped to her. To tell the truth, I feared for her reason. I +thought that if I could find her, and could show her the familiar plum +preserves, which she loved so well, they would be of material +assistance in influencing her to return to her home. So, setting out +to search for her in my Ford auto, I took the box of plum preserves +with me. +</P> + +<P> +"I soon got upon her trail. The negro coachman, the family carriage +and the white horses had excited remark everywhere. Briefly, I traced +her here, and am happy to discover that my worst fears with regard to +her have proved false." +</P> + +<P> +"Henrietta," said her aunt, reproachfully, "your fears do you very +little credit, or me either." +</P> + +<P> +"Aunt Genevieve," said the niece, "pray, do not rebuke me." +</P> + +<P> +"I was certain," said Wilton Barnstable, complacently, "that it would +develop that Miss Genevieve Pringle was herself being pursued. I was +confident of it, Cleggett. And now that I have cleared up for you the +mystery of Logan Black, the mystery of the box of Reginald Maltravers, +and the mystery of the box of plum preserves, there only remains the +capture of Logan Black to hold me in this part of the country and to +keep you from your voyage to the China Seas." +</P> + +<P> +"We must get together," said Cleggett, "on a plan of campaign. Logan +Black will certainly attack again. He has only been beaten off +temporarily. In the meanwhile, it is almost breakfast time." +</P> + +<P> +And, indeed, the lights in the cabin were suddenly growing pale. The +sun was rising. Its beams, shining through the cabin skylight, fell +upon the three great detectives, each one of whom, with an air of +ineffable satisfaction, was gloating—but gloating urbanely and with +dignity—over an oblong box. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap22"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +DANCING ON THE DECK +</H3> + +<P> +It was decided, at a conference of Lady Agatha, Cleggett, and the three +detectives, at the breakfast table, to throw up a line of entrenchments +along the bank of the canal commanding the approach to the Jasper B. +and the Annabel Lee. No one felt the least doubt that Logan Black would +renew the attack sooner or later, unless the two vessels made off. +</P> + +<P> +"And," said Cleggett, "I shall not leave until the Jasper B. has been +rigged as a schooner again. Anything else would have the appearance of +a retreat. Nor will I be hurried. I am on my own property, and I +purpose to defend it at whatever cost." +</P> + +<P> +He set his jaws firmly as he declared this intention, and Lady Agatha's +eyes dwelt upon him in admiration. +</P> + +<P> +"The Annabel Lee could tow you away, you know," demurred Wilton +Barnstable. +</P> + +<P> +"When the Jasper B. moves," said Cleggett, with finality, "it will be +under her own power." +</P> + +<P> +Accordingly, work was begun at once on the entrenchments. Everyone on +board the Jasper B. was sadly in need of sleep, but Cleggett felt that +the earthworks could not wait. He divided his force into two shifts. +Cleggett, the three detectives, Jefferson the genial coachman, and +Washington Artillery Lamb, the janitor and butler of the house boat +Annabel Lee, a negro as large and black as Jefferson himself, took a +two-hour trick with the spades and then lay down and slept while +Abernethy, Kuroki, Elmer, Calthrop, George the Greek, and Farnsworth +dug for an equal length of time. The two prisoners captured by +Barnstable the night before, one of whom was the smirking and sinister +Pierre, were compelled to dig all the time. Even Teddy, Lady Agatha's +little Pomeranian, dug. The ladies of the party slept throughout the +morning. +</P> + +<P> +During the forenoon Cleggett dispatched Dr. Farnsworth to the city in +Miss Henrietta Pringle's Ford car, and he returned about one o'clock +with four more trained nurses. They were installed on board the +houseboat Annabel Lee, instead of at Parker's Beach as Cleggett had +originally intended, and the Red Cross flag was hoisted over that +vessel. Cleggett felt confident that the next battle would be +sanguinary in character, and, true to his humanitarian ideals, was +resolved to be fully prepared this time to care for as many people as +he might disable. Giuseppe Jones, who was quieter now, although at +times still irrationally babbling incendiary vers libre poems, was +removed to the Annabel Lee, where Miss Medley, quite worn out, turned +him over to a fresh nurse. +</P> + +<P> +By the time the reinforcement of nurses had arrived the earthworks of +the good ship Jasper B. were completed, and, after a double portion of +stiff grog all around, Cleggett ordered all hands to lie down on the +deck for an hour's comfortable nap. He stood watch himself. Cleggett +had not slept much during the past forty-eight hours, but he was a man +of iron. Like King Henry Fifth of England, Cleggett found a certain +pleasure in watching while his troops slumbered. Cleggett and this +lively monarch had other points in common, although Cleggett, even in +his youth, would never have associated with a character so habitually +dissolute as Sir John Falstaff. +</P> + +<P> +The construction of the trench was not without its effect upon the gang +of villains at Morris's. About nine in the morning Cleggett noticed +that he was under observation from the roof of the east verandah of the +road house. Loge and two of his ruffianly lieutenants were +scrutinizing the Cleggett flotilla and fortifications through their +binoculars. Cleggett, through his own glass, returned the compliment. +</P> + +<P> +The three men were conducting an animated discussion. From their +gestures they seemed to be completely nonplussed by the entrenchments. +Watching their pantomime closely, Cleggett gathered that Loge was +endeavoring to enforce some point of view with regard to the Jasper B. +upon his two followers. Finally Loge, making a gesture towards +Cleggett with one hand, tapped himself several times on the forehead +with the other, his lips moving rapidly the while. The two other men +shrugged their shoulders and nodded, as if in agreement with Loge. The +insulting significance of the gesture was only too apparent. As +plainly as if he had heard the accompanying words Cleggett understood +that Loge, out of the depths of his perplexity, had said that he +(Cleggett) was mentally erratic. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, you think so, do you?" said Cleggett aloud, laying down his glass +and seizing a rifle. "Well, just to let you know that I have a certain +opinion of you, also, my friend Loge——" And he sent a bullet over +the heads of the three men. They hastily ducked into the house. +Cleggett might have picked Loge off, but he disdained to do so. It was +his purpose to take the man alive, if possible. +</P> + +<P> +But the rifle shot did not end the espionage. All day scouting parties +in taxicabs kept appearing on the sandy plain to reconnoiter the fleet +and fortress. They circled, they swooped, they dashed, they zigzagged +here and there, but always at a high rate of speed, and always at a +prudent distance from the canal. Beyond sending an occasional rifle +ball whistling towards the wheels of the cabs, or over the heads of the +occupants, to remind them to keep their distance, Cleggett paid but +little attention to these parties. If Loge thought him demented, if he +had his enemy guessing, so much the better. The eccentric movements of +these cabs was a circumstance which in itself testified to Loge's +bewilderment and curiosity. +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett had no idea that there would be an attack before nightfall, +and at two o'clock in the afternoon he awakened all the members of his +crew who were still sleeping, ordered them into bathing suits, a supply +of which he had been thoughtful enough to have the young doctor bring +out along with the nurses, and piped them into the canal. The water +was cold, but they came out refreshed and invigorated by the plunge and +feeling fit for any struggle that might be ahead of them. This +maneuver on the part of Cleggett and his marines and infantrymen seemed +still more to excite the curiosity and contribute to the bewilderment +of Loge and his ruffians. +</P> + +<P> +After the general bath and a substantial lunch, Cleggett called all +hands aft and addressed them. +</P> + +<P> +"Ladies and loyal followers and co-workers," he said. "We have passed +some nights and days of peril. And there are, I doubt not, still +parlous times ahead of the Jasper B. before our ship sets sail for the +China Seas. But what is sweeter than pleasure snatched from the very +presence of danger? Courage and gayety should go hand in hand! It is +a beautiful May afternoon, we have a goodly deck beneath our feet, and, +briefly, who is for a dance?" +</P> + +<P> +A huzza showed the popularity of the suggestion. Washington Artillery +Lamb, the janitor and butler of the Annabel Lee, possessed an accordion +on which he was an earnest and artistic performer. Miss Pringle's +Jefferson had with him a harmonica, or mouth organ, which he at once +produced. Jefferson was endowed with the peculiar gift of manipulating +this little musical instrument solely with his lips, moving it back and +forth and round about as he played, without touching it with his hands; +and this left his hands free to pat the time. The negro orchestra +perched itself on the top of the cabin, and in a moment Lady Agatha, +the five nurses, Cleggett, the three detectives, Dr. Farnsworth, and +Captain Abernethy were tangoing on the deck. And this to the still +further perplexity of Logan Black. As the dance started Cleggett saw +that person, almost distracted by his inability to comprehend the +mental processes of the commander of the Jasper B., rise to his feet in +an automobile that had stopped a couple of hundred yards away, and beat +with both hands upon his temples, gnashing his long yellow teeth the +while. +</P> + +<P> +The Rev. Simeon Calthrop turned sadly away from the vessel, and, with a +sigh, went and sat in the trench, where he was soon joined by Elmer. +The disgraced preacher and the reformed convict had struck up a fast +friendship. They sat with their backs towards the Jasper B., and +Cleggett supposed from their attitude that they were sternly +condemnatory of the frivolity and festivity on board ship. +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett, after the first dance, sought them out. +</P> + +<P> +"I hope," he said to the Rev. Mr. Calthrop, not unkindly, "that you +don't disapprove of us." +</P> + +<P> +"It isn't that, Mr. Cleggett," said the ship's chaplain, with sorrow in +his eloquent brown eyes, "it isn't that at all. In fact, I had a tango +class in the basement of my church, every Thursday evening-when I had a +church." +</P> + +<P> +"Then what is it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Alas!" sighed the young preacher. "I do not trust myself! Women, as I +have told you, Mr. Cleggett, are apt to become fascinated with me. I +cannot help it. It is in such gay scenes as this that the danger lies, +Mr. Cleggett. As an honorable man, I feel that I am bound to withdraw +myself and my fatal influence." +</P> + +<P> +"You are too subtle—too subtle for moral health," said Cleggett. +</P> + +<P> +"But I will not attempt to influence you. Elmer, are you also afraid +of inspiring a hopeless passion?" +</P> + +<P> +"Mister Cleggett," said Elmer gloomily and huskily, out of one corner +of his mouth, "I ain't takin' a chance. D' youse get me? Not a +chancet. Oncet youse reformed, Mr. Cleggett, youse can't be too +careful." +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett returned to the vessel. Miss Pringle the elder was leaving +it. Miss Henrietta Pringle was following. Cleggett gathered that the +niece left reluctantly, and under the coercion of the aunt. +</P> + +<P> +Miss Pringle the elder was about to join the Rev. Mr. Calthrop in the +trench. Morality, as well as misery, loves company. But Mr. Calthrop +saw the Misses Pringle coming. He swiftly rose, passed them by with +his face averted, and went aboard the Annabel Lee. It was evident that +he believed that his fatal gift of fascination had attracted these +ladies towards him in spite of himself. Elmer and the Misses Pringle +sat gloomily on a clean plank in the trench while the dance went gayly +on. +</P> + +<P> +"If you was to ask me," said Captain Abernethy, pausing winded from the +tango, strong old man that he was, "I'd give it as my opinion that them +that gits their enjoyment in an oncheerful way don't git nigh as much +of it as them that gits it in a cheerful way. Mrs. Lady Agatha, ma'am, +if you kin fox-trot as well as you kin tango I'll never have another +word to say agin female suffragettes." +</P> + +<P> +But as Cap'n Abernethy spoke the grin froze upon his face. +</P> + +<P> +"My God! Look there!" he shrilled, pointing a long finger towards the +plain. Simultaneously the Misses Pringle, shrieking wildly, leaped +from the trench towards the ship and Elmer fired a pistol shot. +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett beheld five taxicabs, filled with Loge's assassins, charging +towards the vessel at the rate of thirty miles an hour. +</P> + +<P> +"To arms! To arms!" shouted the commander of the Jasper B. +</P> + +<P> +But the enemy, with Logan Black in the lead, had already reached the +trenches. They flung themselves to the ground and swept over the +trench towards the bulwarks, twenty strong, with flashing machetes. So +confident had Cleggett been that Loge would not dare to attack in broad +daylight that he had scarcely even considered the possibility. It was +the one fault of his military and naval career. +</P> + +<P> +"Cutlasses, men, and at them!" he cried. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap23"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXIII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CUTLASSES +</H3> + +<P> +There was no thought of guns or pistols. There was no time to aim or +fire. Loge's rush had lodged him on the deck. Roaring like a wild +animal, he carried the fight to the defenders. He meant to make a +finish of it this time, and with the edged and bitter steel. +</P> + +<P> +As the women scurried into the cabin the two lines met, with a ringing +clash of blades, on the deck of the Jasper B., and the sparks flew from +the stricken metal. Cleggett strove to engage Loge hand to hand; and +Loge, on his part, attempted to fight his way to Cleggett; they shouted +insults at each other across the press of battle. But in affairs of +this sort a man must give his attention to the person directly in front +of him; otherwise he is lost. As Cleggett cut and thrust and parried, +a sudden seizure overtook him; he moved as if in a dream; he had the +eerie feeling that he had done all this before, sometime, perhaps in a +previous existence, and would do it again. The clangor of the meeting +swords, the inarticulate shouts and curses, the dance of struggling men +across the deck, the whirling confusion of the whole fantastic scene +beneath the quiet skies, struck upon his consciousness with that +strange phantasmagoric quality which makes the hurrying unreality of +dreams so much more vivid and more real than anything in waking life. +</P> + +<P> +In the center of Cleggett's line stood the three detectives shoulder to +shoulder. Their three swords rose and fell as one. They cut and lunged +and guarded with a machine-like regularity, advancing, giving ground, +advancing again, with a rhythmic unanimity which was baffling to their +opponents. +</P> + +<P> +On either flank of the detectives fought one of the gigantic negroes. +Washington Artillery Lamb, almost at once, had broken his cutlass, and +now he raged in the waist of the Jasper B. with a long iron bar in his +hand. Miss Pringle's Jefferson, with his high cockaded hat still +firmly fixed upon his head, laid about him with a heavy cavalry saber; +in his excitement he still held his harmonica in his mouth and blew +blasts upon it as he fought. The Rev. Simeon Calthrop, in a loud +agitated voice, sang hymns as he swung his cutlass. And, among the +legs of the combatants, leapt and snapped Teddy the Pomeranian, biting +friend and foe indiscriminately upon the ankles. +</P> + +<P> +But gradually the weight of superior numbers began to tell. Farnsworth +staggered from the fight with a face covered with blood which blinded +him. Cap'n Abernethy likewise was bleeding from a wound in the head; +George the Greek and Watson Bard were hurt, but both fought on. The +crew of the Jasper B. and their allies of the Annabel Lee were being +slowly forced back towards the cabin, when there came a sudden and +decisive turn in the fortunes of the fight. +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett, straining to meet Loge, who hung sword to sword with Wilton +Barnstable, saw Giuseppe Jones, deserted by his nurses, tumbling feebly +over the bow of the Jasper B. in the rear of Loge's line. Barelegged, +a red blanket fastened about his throat with a big brass safety pin, a +thermometer in one hand and a medicine bottle in the other, he +tottered, crazily and weakly between Loge and Barnstable, chanting a +vers libre poem in a shrill, insane voice. +</P> + +<P> +Loge, who had extended himself in a vigorous lunge, was struck by the +weight of the young anarchist's body at the crook of the knees, and +came down on the deck at full length, his machete flying from his hand +as he fell. +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett was upon the criminal in an instant, his hand at the outlaw's +throat. They grappled and rolled upon the deck. But in another second +Wilton Barnstable and Barton Ward, coming to Cleggett's assistance, had +snapped irons upon the president of the crime trust, hand and foot. +</P> + +<P> +His overthrow was the signal of his men's defeat. As he went down they +hesitated and wavered. The two great negroes, taking advantage of this +hesitation, burst among them with mighty blows and strange +Afro-American oaths, Castor and Pollux in bronze. With a shout of +"Banzai!" Kuroki rushed forward with his kris; the other defenders +added weight and fury to the rally. Before the irons were on the +wrists of Loge his men were routed. They leaped the rail and made off +for their fleet of taxicabs, flinging away their weapons as they ran. +</P> + +<P> +Loge writhed and twisted and lashed the deck with his legs and body for +a moment, striving even against the bands of steel that bit into his +wrists and ankles. And then he lay still with his face against the +planks as if in a vast and overwhelming bitterness of despair. +</P> + +<P> +It had been Cleggett's earlier thought to take the man alive, if +possible, and turn him over to the authorities. But now that Loge was +taken he burned with the wish for personal combat with him. He desired +to be the agent of society, and put an end to Logan Black himself. +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett, as he gazed at the fellow lying prone upon the deck, could +not repress a murmur of dissatisfaction. +</P> + +<P> +"We never fought it out," he said. +</P> + +<P> +Whether Loge heard him or not, the same thought was evidently running +is his mind. He lifted his head. A slow, malignant grin that showed +his yellow canine teeth lifted his upper lip. He fixed his eyes on +Cleggett with a cold deadliness of hatred and said: +</P> + +<P> +"You are lucky." +</P> + +<P> +Outwardly Cleggett remained calm, but inwardly he was shaken with an +intensity of passion that matched Loge's own. +</P> + +<P> +"Lucky?" he said quietly. "That is as may be. And if, as I infer, you +desire a settlement of a more personal nature than the law recognizes, +it is still not too late to accommodate you." +</P> + +<P> +"Desire!" cried Loge, with a movement of his manacled hands. "I would +go to Hell happy if I sent you ahead of me!" +</P> + +<P> +"Very well," said Cleggett. "Since you have challenged me I will fight +you. I will do you that honor." +</P> + +<P> +Loge was about to answer when Wilton Barnstable broke in: +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Cleggett," he said, "I scarcely understand you. Are you +consenting to fight this man?" +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly," said Cleggett. "He has challenged me." +</P> + +<P> +"A duel?" said Wilton Barnstable in astonishment. +</P> + +<P> +"A duel." +</P> + +<P> +"But that is impossible. His life is forfeit to the law. I hope, +before the year is out, to send him to the electric chair. Under the +circumstances, a duel is an absurdity." +</P> + +<P> +"An absurdity?" Cleggett, with his hands on his hips, and a little +dancing light in his eyes, faced the great detective squarely. "You +permit yourself very peculiar expressions, Mr. Barnstable!" +</P> + +<P> +"I beg your pardon," said Wilton Barnstable. "I withdraw 'absurdity.' +But you must see yourself, Mr. Cleggett, that a duel is useless, if +nothing else. The man is our prisoner. He belongs to the law." +</P> + +<P> +Loge had struggled to a sitting posture, his back against the port +bulwark, and was listening with an odd look on his face. +</P> + +<P> +"The law?" said Cleggett. "I suppose, in one sense, that is true. But +the matter has its personal element as well." +</P> + +<P> +"I must insist," said Wilton Barnstable, "that Logan Black is my +prisoner." +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett was silent a moment. Then he said firmly: "Mr. Barnstable, +it is painful to me to have to remind you of it, but your attitude +forces me to an equal directness. The fact that Logan Black is now a +captive is due to his efforts to recover certain evidence which may be +used against him. This evidence I discovered and defended, and this +evidence I now hold in my possession." +</P> + +<P> +Wilton Barnstable was about to retort, perhaps heatedly, but Cleggett, +generous even while determined to have his own way, hastened to add: +"Do not think, Mr. Barnstable, that I minimize your work, or your +assistance—but, after all, what am I demanding that is unreasonable? +If Logan Black dies by my hand, are not the ends of justice served as +well as if he died in the electric chair? And if I fall, the law may +still take its course." +</P> + +<P> +Loge had listened to this speech attentively. He lifted his head and +glanced about the deck, filling his lungs with a deep draft of air. +Something like a gleam of hope was visible in his features. +</P> + +<P> +"It is irregular," said Wilton Barnstable, frowning, and not half +convinced. "And, in the name of Heaven, why imperil your life +needlessly? Why expose yourself again to the power of this monstrous +criminal?" +</P> + +<P> +"The fellow has challenged me, and I have granted him a meeting," said +Cleggett. "I hope there is such a thing as honor!" +</P> + +<P> +"Clement!" It was Lady Agatha who spoke. As she did so she laid her +hand on Cleggett's arm. She had hearkened in silence to the colloquy +between him and Barnstable, as had the others. She drew him out of +sight and hearing behind the cabin. +</P> + +<P> +"Clement," she said with agitation, "do not fight this man!" +</P> + +<P> +"I must," he said simply. It cut him to the heart to refuse the first +request that she had asked of him since his avowal of his love for her +and her tacit acceptance. But, to a man of Cleggett's ideas, there was +no choice. +</P> + +<P> +"Clement," she said in a low tone, "you have told me that you love me." +</P> + +<P> +"Agatha!" he murmured brokenly. +</P> + +<P> +"And you know——" she paused, as if she could not continue, but her +eyes and manner spoke the rest. In a moment her lips spoke it too; she +was not the sort of woman who is afraid to avow the promptings of her +heart. "You know," she said, "that I love you." +</P> + +<P> +"Agatha!" he cried again. He could say no more. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Clement," she said, "if you were killed—killed uselessly!—now +that I have found you, I could not bear it. Dear, I could not bear it!" +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett was profoundly moved. He yearned to take her in his arms to +comfort her, and to promise anything she wished. And the thought came +to him too that, if he should perish, the one kiss, given and received +in the darkness and danger of fight and storm, would be all the brave +sweetness of her that he would know this side of the grave; the thought +came to him bitterly. For an instant he wavered. +</P> + +<P> +"Agatha!" he said with dry lips. "I have already accepted the fellow's +challenge." +</P> + +<P> +"And what of that?" she cried. "Would you cling to a barren point of +honor in despite of love?" +</P> + +<P> +"Even so," he said, and sighed. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Clement," she said, "I cannot bear it! I cannot bear to lose you! +I always knew you were in the world somewhere—and now that I have +found you it is only to give you up! It is too much!" +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett was silent for a moment. When he spoke it was slowly and +gently, but earnestly. +</P> + +<P> +"No point of honor is a barren one, dear," he said. "What the man +lying there may be matters nothing. It is not to him that I have given +my word, but to myself. In our hurried modern life we are not +punctilious enough about these things. Perhaps, in the old days, the +men and women were worse than we in many ways. But they held to a few +traditions, or the best of them did, that make the loose and tawdry +manners of this age seem cheap indeed. All my life I have known that +there was something shining and simple and precious concealed from the +common herd of men in this common age, which the brighter spirits of +the old days lived by and served and worshiped. I have always seen it +plainly, and always tried to live by it, too. Perhaps it was never, in +any period, more than a dream; but I have dreamed that dream. And +anyone who dreams that dream will have a reverence for his spoken word +no matter to whom it is passed. I may be a fool to fight this man; +well then, that is the kind of fool I am! Indeed, I know I am a fool +by the judgments of this age. But I have never truly lived in this +age. I have lived in the past; I have held to the dream; I have +believed in the bright adventure; I have walked with the generous, +chivalric spirits of the great ages; they have come to me out of my +books and dwelt with me and been my companions, and the realities of +time and place have been unreal in their presence. I see myself so +walking always. It may be that I am a vain ass, but I cannot help it. +It may be that I am a little mad; but I would rather be mad with a Don +Quixote than sane with an Andrew Carnegie and pile up platitudes and +dollars. +</P> + +<P> +"And all this foolishness of mine is somehow bound up with the thought +that I have engaged to fight that evil fellow, and must do it; all the +bright, sane madness in me cries out that he is to die by this hand of +mine. +</P> + +<P> +"I have opened my heart to you, as I have never done to anyone before. +And now I put myself into your hands. But, oh, take care—for it is +something in me better than myself that I give you to deal with! And +you can cripple it forever, because I love you and I shall listen to +you. Shall I fight him?" +</P> + +<P> +She had listened, mute and immobile, and as he spoke the red sun made a +sudden glory of her hair. She leaned towards him, and it was as if the +spirit of all the man's lifelong, foolish, romantic musings were in her +eyes and on her face. +</P> + +<P> +"Fight him!" she said. "And kill him!" +</P> + +<P> +And then her head was on his shoulder, and his arms were about her. +"Don't die!" she sobbed. "Don't die!" +</P> + +<P> +"Don't fear," he said, "I feel that I'll make short work of him." +</P> + +<P> +She smiled courageously back at him; with her hands upon his shoulders +she held him back and looked at him with tilted head. +</P> + +<P> +"If you are killed," she said, "it will have been more than most women +ever get, to have known and loved you for two days." +</P> + +<P> +"Two days?" he said. "Forever!" +</P> + +<P> +"Forever!" she said. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap24"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXIV +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE DUEL +</H3> + +<P> +Cleggett took Wilton Barnstable by the sleeve and drew him towards +Loge, who, still seated on the deck with his long legs stretched out in +front of him, was now yawning with a cynical affectation of boredom. +</P> + +<P> +"I wish you to act as my second in this affair," said Cleggett to the +detective, "and I suggest that either Mr. Ward or Mr. Bard perform a +like office for Mr. Black." +</P> + +<P> +Loge shrugged his shoulders, and said with a sneer: +</P> + +<P> +"A second, eh? We seem to be doing a great deal of arranging for a +very small amount of fighting." +</P> + +<P> +"I suggest," said Wilton Barnstable, "that a night's rest would be +quite in order for both principals." +</P> + +<P> +Loge broke in quickly, with studied insolence: "I object to the delay. +Mr. Cleggett might find some excuse for changing his mind overnight. +Let us, if you please, begin at once." +</P> + +<P> +"It was not I who suggested the delay," said Cleggett, haughtily. +</P> + +<P> +"Then give us the pistols," cried Loge, with a sudden, grim ferocity in +his voice, "and let's make an end of it!" +</P> + +<P> +"We fight with swords," said Cleggett. "I am the challenged party." +</P> + +<P> +"Ho! Swords!" cried Loge, with a harsh, jarring laugh. "A bout with +the rapiers, man to man, eh? Come, this is better and better! I may +go to the chair, but first I will spit you like a squab on a skewer, my +little nut!" And then he said again, with a shout of gusty mirth, and +a clanking of his manacles: "Swords, eh? By God! The little man says +SWORDS!" +</P> + +<P> +Wilton Barnstable drew Cleggett to one side. +</P> + +<P> +"Name pistols," he said. "For God's sake, Cleggett, name pistols! If +I had had any idea that you were going to demand rapiers I should have +warned you before." +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett was amused at the great detective's anxiety. "It appears that +the fellow handles the rapier pretty well, eh?" he said easily. +</P> + +<P> +"Cleggett——" began Barnstable. And then he paused and groaned and +mopped his brow. Presently he controlled his agitation and continued. +"Cleggett," he said, "the man is an expert swordsman. I have been on +his trail; I know his life for years past. He was once a maitre +d'armes. He gave lessons in the art." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes?" said Cleggett, laughing and flexing his wrist. "I am glad to +hear that! It will be really interesting then." +</P> + +<P> +"Cleggett," said Barnstable, "I beg of you—name pistols. This is the +man who invented that diabolical thrust with which Georges Clemenceau +laid low so many of his political opponents. If you must go on with +this mad duel, name pistols!" +</P> + +<P> +"Barnstable," said Cleggett, "I know what I am about, believe me. Your +anxiety does me little honor, but I am willing to suppose that you are +not deliberately insulting, and I pass it over. I intend to kill this +man. It is a duty which I owe to society. And as for the +rapier—believe me, Barnstable, I am no novice. And my blood tingles +and my soul aches with the desire to expunge that man from life with my +own hand. Come, we have talked enough. There is a case of swords in +the cabin. Will you do me the favor to bring them on deck?" +</P> + +<P> +Loge's irons were unlocked. He rose to his feet and stretched himself. +He removed his coat and waistcoat. Then he took off his shirt, +revealing the fact that he wore next his skin a long-sleeved undershirt +of red flannel. +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett began to imitate him. But as the commander of the Jasper B. +began to pull his shirt over his head he heard a little scream. +Everyone turned in the direction from which it had emanated. They +beheld Miss Genevieve Pringle perched upon the top of the cabin, +whither she had mounted by means of a short ladder. This lady, perhaps +not quite aware of the possibly sanguinary character of the spectacle +she was about to witness, had, nevertheless, sensed the fact that a +spectacle was toward. Miss Pringle had with her a handsome lorgnette. +</P> + +<P> +"Madam," said Cleggett, hastily pulling his shirt back on again and +approaching the cabin, "did you cry out?" +</P> + +<P> +"Mr.—er—Cleggett," said Miss Pringle, pursing her lips, "if you will +kindly hold the ladder for me I think I will descend and retire at once +to the cabin." +</P> + +<P> +"As you wish," said Cleggett politely, complying with her wish, but at +a loss to comprehend her. +</P> + +<P> +"I beg you to believe, Mr. Cleggett," said Miss Pringle, averting her +face and flushing painfully, while she turned the lorgnette about and +about with embarrassed fingers, "I beg you to believe that in electing +to witness this spectacle I had no idea of its exceedingly informal +nature." +</P> + +<P> +With these words she passed into the cabin, with the air of one who has +sustained a mortal insult. +</P> + +<P> +"Ef you was to ask me what she's tryin' to get at," piped up Cap'n +Abernethy, "I'd say it's her belief that it ain't proper for gents to +sword each other with their shirts off. She's shocked, Miss Pringle +is." +</P> + +<P> +"In great and crucial moments," said Cleggett soberly, pulling off his +shirt again and picking up a sword, "we may dispense with the minor +conventions without apology." +</P> + +<P> +Loge chose a weapon with the extreme of care and particularity, trying +the hang and balance of several of them. He looked well to the weight, +bent the blade in his hands to test the spring and temper, tried the +point upon his thumb. He handled the rapier as if he had found an old +friend again after a long absence; he looked around upon his enemies +with a sort of ferocious, bantering gayety. +</P> + +<P> +"And now," said Loge, "if this is to be a duel indeed, Mr. Cleggett and +I will need plenty of room, I suggest that the rest of you retire to +the bulwarks and give us the deck to ourselves." +</P> + +<P> +"For my part," said Cleggett, "I order it." +</P> + +<P> +"And," said Wilton Barnstable, drawing his pistol, "Mr. Black will +please note that while I am standing by the bulwarks I shall be +watching indeed. Should he make an attempt to escape from the vessel I +shall riddle him with bullets." +</P> + +<P> +"Come, come," said Loge, "all this conversation is a waste of time!" +</P> + +<P> +"That is my opinion also," said Cleggett. +</P> + +<P> +They saluted formally, and engaged their blades. +</P> + +<P> +With Cleggett, swordsmanship was both a science and an art. And +something more. It was also a passion. A good swordsman can be made; +a superior swordsman may be born; the real masters are both born and +made. It was so with Cleggett. His interest in fencing had been keen +from his early boyhood. In his teens he had acquired unusual practical +skill without great theoretical knowledge. Then he had recognized the +art for what it is, the most beautiful game on earth, and had made a +profound and thorough study of it; it appealed to his imagination. +</P> + +<P> +He became, in a way, the poet of the foil. +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett seldom fenced publicly, and then only under an assumed name; +he abhorred publicity. But there was not a teacher in New York City +who did not know him for a master. They brought him their half worked +out visions of new combinations, new thrusts; he perfected them, and +simplified, or elaborated, and gave back the finished product. +</P> + +<P> +They were the workmen, the craftsmen, the men of talent; he was the +originator, the genius. +</P> + +<P> +And he was especially lucky in not having been tied down, in his +younger years, to one national tradition of the art. The limitations +of the French, the Spanish, the Italian, or the Austrian schools had +not enslaved him in youth and hampered the free development of his +individuality. He had studied them all; he chose from them all their +superiorities; their excellences he blended into a system of his own. +</P> + +<P> +It might be called the Cleggett System. +</P> + +<P> +The Frenchman is an intellectual swordsman; the basis of his art is a +thorough knowledge of its mathematics. Upon this foundation he +superimposes a structure of audacity. But he often falls into one +error or another, for all his mental brilliancy. He may become rigidly +formal in his practice, or, in a revolt from his own formalism, be +seduced into a display of showy, sensational tricks that are all very +well in the studio but dangerous to their practitioner on the actual +dueling ground. +</P> + +<P> +The Italian, looser, freer, less formal, more individual in his style, +springing from a line of forbears who have preferred the thrust to the +cut, the point to the edge, for centuries, is a more instinctive and +less intellectual swordsman than the Frenchman. It is in his blood; he +uses his rapier with a wild and angry grace that is feline. +</P> + +<P> +The Frenchman, even when he is thoroughly serious in his desire to +slay, loves a duel for its own sake; he is never free from the thought +of the picture he is making; the art, the science, the practical +cleverness, appeal to him independently of the bloodshed. +</P> + +<P> +The Italian thinks of but one thing; to kill. He will take a severe +wound to give a fatal one. The French are the best fencers in the +world; the Italians the deadliest duelists. +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett, as has been said, knew all the schools without being the +slave of any of them. +</P> + +<P> +He brought his sword en tierce; Loge's blade met his with strength and +delicacy. The strength Cleggett was prepared for. The delicacy +surprised him. But he was too much the master, too confident of his +own powers, to trifle. He delivered one of his favorite thrusts; it +was a stroke of his own invention; three times out of five, in years +past, it had carried home the button of his foil to his opponent's +jacket. It was executed with the directness and rapidity of a flash of +lightning. +</P> + +<P> +But Loge parried it with a neatness which made Cleggett open his eyes, +replying with a counter so shrewd and close, and of such a darting +ferocity, that Cleggett, although he met it faultlessly, nevertheless +gave back a step. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah," cried Loge, showing his yellow teeth in a grin, "so the little +man knows that thrust!" +</P> + +<P> +"I invented it," said Cleggett. +</P> + +<P> +With the word he pressed forward and, making a swift and dazzling +feint, followed it with two brilliant thrusts, either of which would +have meant the death of a tyro. The first one Loge parried; the second +touched him; but it gave him nothing more than a scratch. +Nevertheless, the smile faded from Loge's face; he gave ground in his +turn before this rapid vigor of attack; he measured Cleggett with a new +glance. +</P> + +<P> +"You are touched, I think," said Cleggett, meditating a fresh +combination, "and I am glad to see you drop that ugly pretense at a +grin. You have no idea how the sight of those yellow teeth of yours, +which you were evidently never taught to brush when you were a little +boy, offends a person of any refinement." +</P> + +<P> +Loge's answer was a sudden attempt to twist his blade around +Cleggett's; followed by a direct thrust, as quick as light, which +grazed Cleggett's shoulder; a little smudge of blood appeared on his +undershirt. +</P> + +<P> +"Take care, take care, Cleggett!" warned Wilton Barnstable, from his +post by the starboard bulwark. +</P> + +<P> +"Make yourself easy," said Cleggett, parrying a counter en carte, "I am +only getting warm." +</P> + +<P> +And both of them, stung by the slight scratches which they had +received, settled to the business with an intent and silent deadliness +of purpose. +</P> + +<P> +To all appearances Loge had an immense advantage over Cleggett; his +legs were a good two inches longer; so were his arms. And he knew how +to make these peculiarities count. He fought for a while with a calm +and steady precision that repeatedly baffled the calculated impetuosity +of Cleggett's attack. But the air of bantering certainty with which he +had begun the duel had left him. He no longer wasted his breath on +repartee; no doubt he was surprised to find Cleggett's strength so +nearly equal to his own, as Cleggett had been astonished to find in +Loge so much finesse. But with a second slight wound Loge began to give +ground. +</P> + +<P> +With Cleggett a bout with the foils had always been a duel. It has +been indicated, we believe, that he was of a romantic disposition and +much given to daydreaming; his imagination had thus made every set-to +in the fencing room a veritable mortal combat to him. Therefore, this +was not his first duel; he had fought hundreds of them. And he fought +always on a settled plan, adapting it, of course, to the idiosyncrasies +of his adversary. It was his custom to vary the system of his attack +frequently in the most disconcerting manner, at the same time steadily +increasing the pace at which he fought. And when Loge began to give +ground and breathe a little harder, Cleggett, far from taking advantage +of his opponent's growing distress to rest himself, as a less +distinguished swordsman might have done, redoubled the vigor of his +assault. Cleggett knew that sooner or later a winded man makes a +fault. The lungs labor and fail to give the blood all the oxygen it +needs. The circulation suffers. Nerves and muscles are no longer the +perfect servants of the brain; for a fraction of a second the sword +deviates from the proper line. +</P> + +<P> +It was for this that Cleggett waited, pressing Loge closer and closer, +alert for the instant when Loge would fence wide; waxing as the other +waned; menacing eyes, throat, and heart with a point that leaped and +dazzled; and at the same time inclosing himself within a rampart of +steel which Loge found it more and more hopeless to attempt to +penetrate. It was as if Cleggett's blade were an extension of his will; +he and his sword were not two things, but one. The metal in his hand +was no longer merely a whip of steel; it was a thing that lived with +his own life. His pulse beat in it. It was a part of him. His +nervous force permeated it and animated it; it was his thought turned +to tempered metal, and it was with the rapidity, directness and +subtlety of thought that his sword responded to his mind. +</P> + +<P> +"Come!" said Cleggett, as Loge broke ground, scarcely aware that he +spoke aloud. "At this rate we shall be at home thrusts soon!" +</P> + +<P> +Loge must have thought so too; a shade passed over his face, his upper +lip lifted haggardly. Perhaps even that iron nature was beginning to +feel at last something of the dull sickness which is the fear of death. +He retreated continually, and Cleggett was smitten with the fancy to +force him backward and nail him, with a final thrust, to the stump of +the foremast, which had been broken off some eight feet above the deck. +</P> + +<P> +But Loge, gathering his power, made a brilliant and desperate rally; +twice he grazed Cleggett, whose blade was too closely engaged; and then +suddenly broke ground again. This time Cleggett perceived that he had +been retreating in accordance with a preconceived program. He was +certain the man contemplated a trick, perhaps some foul stroke. +</P> + +<P> +He rushed forward with a terrible thrust. Loge, whose last maneuver +had taken him within a yard of the hatchway opening into the hold, +grasped Cleggett's blade in his left hand, and at the same instant +flung his own sword, hilt first, full in Cleggett's face. As Cleggett, +struck in the mouth with the pommel, staggered back, Loge plunged feet +foremost into the hold. It was too unexpected, and too quickly done, +for a shot from Barnstable or any of Cleggett's men. +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett, with the blood streaming from his mouth, recovered himself +and leaped through the aperture in the deck. He landed upon his feet +with a jar, and, shortening his sword in his hand, stared about him in +the gloom. +</P> + +<P> +He saw no one. +</P> + +<P> +An instant later Wilton Barnstable and Cap'n Abernethy were beside him. +</P> + +<P> +"Gone!" said Cleggett simply. +</P> + +<P> +Barnstable drew from his pocket a small electric lantern and swept the +beam in a circle about the hold. Again and again he raked the darkness +until the finger of light had rested upon every foot of the interior. +</P> + +<P> +But Loge had vanished as completely as a snowflake that falls into a +tub of water. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap25"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXV +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE SECRET OF THE VESSEL'S HOLD +</H3> + +<P> +"Idiot that I am," cried Cleggett, "not to have covered that hole!" +His chagrin was touching to behold. +</P> + +<P> +"There, there, Cleggett," said Wilton Barnstable kindly, "do not +reproach yourself too bitterly." +</P> + +<P> +"But to let him escape when I had him——" Cleggett finished the +sentence with a groan. +</P> + +<P> +But Wilton Barnstable was thinking. +</P> + +<P> +"Please have some lights brought down here if you will, Captain," he +said to Abernethy, "and ask Mr. Bard and Mr. Ward to come." +</P> + +<P> +In a few minutes the interior of the hold was illuminated with +lanterns; it was as bright as day. But the detectives did not proceed +at once to a minute examination of the hold as Cleggett had supposed +they would. +</P> + +<P> +Instead, they stood in the waist of the vessel and thought. +</P> + +<P> +Visibly they thought. Wilton Barnstable thought. +</P> + +<P> +Barton Ward thought. Watson Bard thought. They thought in silence. +Cleggett could almost feel these three master brains pulsating in +unison, working in rhythmic accord, there in the silence; the sense of +this intense cerebral effort became almost oppressive.... +</P> + +<P> +Finally Wilton Barnstable began to stroke his mustache, and a pleased +smile stole over his plump and benign visage. Barton Ward also began +to stroke his mustache and smile. But it was twenty seconds more +before Watson Bard's corrugated brow relaxed and his eyes twinkled with +the idea that had come so much more readily to the other two. +</P> + +<P> +"Cleggett," said Wilton Barnstable, "you have heard of the deductive +method as applied to the work of the detective?" +</P> + +<P> +"I have," said Cleggett. "I have read Poe's detective tales and +Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories." +</P> + +<P> +"Ah! Sherlock Holmes!" The three detectives looked at each other with +glances in which were mingled both bitterness and amusement; the look +seemed to dispose of Sherlock Holmes. Once again Cleggett had a +fleeting thought that Wilton Barnstable might possibly be a vain man. +</P> + +<P> +"Sherlock Holmes," said Barnstable, "never existed. His marvelous +feats are not possible in real life, Cleggett. But the deductive +method which he pretended to use—mind you, I say PRETENDED, +Cleggett!—is, nevertheless, sound." +</P> + +<P> +And then the three detectives gave Cleggett an example of the +phenomenal cleverness. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Ward," said Wilton Barnstable, "Logan Black entered this hold." +</P> + +<P> +"He did," said Barton Ward. +</P> + +<P> +"He is not here now," said Wilton Barnstable. +</P> + +<P> +"He is not," said Watson Bard. +</P> + +<P> +"Therefore he has escaped," said Wilton Barnstable. +</P> + +<P> +"But how?" said Barton Ward. +</P> + +<P> +"Only a ghost or an insect could leave this hold otherwise than by the +hatchway, to all appearances," said Wilton Barnstable. +</P> + +<P> +"Logan Black is not a ghost," said Barton Ward firmly. +</P> + +<P> +"Logan Black is not an insect," said Watson Bard with conviction. +</P> + +<P> +"Then," said Barnstable, "that eliminates the supernatural and +the—the——" +</P> + +<P> +"The entomological?" suggested Cleggett. +</P> + +<P> +The three detectives stared at him fixedly for a moment, as if +surprised at the interruption. But if they were miffed they were too +dignified to do more than hint it. Barnstable continued: +</P> + +<P> +"There is no such thing as magic." +</P> + +<P> +"There is not," said Ward. +</P> + +<P> +"The fourth dimension does not exist," said Bard. +</P> + +<P> +"Therefore Logan Black's exit," said Barnstable, "was in accordance +with well-known physical laws. We are forced to the conclusion that he +made his escape through a secret passageway." +</P> + +<P> +"A tunnel," said Barton Ward. +</P> + +<P> +"With a concealed door opening into the hold," said Watson Bard. +</P> + +<P> +"A ship with a secret tunnel!" cried Cleggett. "Who ever heard of the +like? Why, the thing is——" +</P> + +<P> +But he broke off. He had been leaning against the starboard side of +the hold. Even as he spoke he felt the wall behind him moving. He +turned. A door was opening. It was built into the side of the Jasper +B. and the joints were cleverly concealed. He had inadvertently found, +with his elbow, the nailhead which was in reality the push button that +released the spring. The black entrance of a subterranean passage +yawned before him. +</P> + +<P> +He stared in astonishment. The three detectives were pointing at the +tunnel with plump forefingers and bland, triumphant smiles. +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing is impossible, my dear Cleggett," said Barnstable. "The +tunnel HAD to be there!" +</P> + +<P> +"It explains everything," said Cleggett. "But a tunnel into MY ship!" +</P> + +<P> +And, in truth, for a moment he felt disappointed in the Jasper B. +</P> + +<P> +A tunnel is all very well leading from the basement of a house, or +extending backward from a cave; but Cleggett felt that it was scarcely +a dignified sort of arrangement, nautically speaking, for a ship to +have leading from its hold. +</P> + +<P> +It seemed, somehow, to stamp the Jasper B. indelibly as a thing of the +land rather than as the gallant creature of piping winds and following +seas. Could the Jasper B., a bone in her teeth and her tackle humming, +ever again sail through Cleggett's dreams? For a moment, if the worst +must be known, he was almost disgusted with the Jasper B., considered +as a ship. For a moment he was willing to believe that Cap'n Abernethy +was nothing but a Long Island truck farmer, and NOT of a seafaring +family at all. For a moment he felt himself to be a copyreader again +on the New York Enterprise. +</P> + +<P> +But only for a moment! The star of romance, clouded temporarily by +fact, rose serene and bright again in the wide heaven of the unusual +spirit, the barber's basin gleamed once more the helmet of Mambrino. +Cleggett began to see the matter in its proper light. +</P> + +<P> +"A tunnel!" he cried, brightening, and looking at it with his legs +spread a little wide and his hands on his hips. "A tunnel! Eh, by gad! +Who could have prophesied a tunnel? Barnstable, never tell me again +there is no romance in real life! I tell you, Barnstable, she's a good +old ship, the Jasper B.! I don't suppose there was ever another +schooner in the world with a secret passageway leading out of her hold!" +</P> + +<P> +"She IS a remarkable vessel," agreed Wilton Barnstable gravely. "But, +come, we are wasting time! The other end of this passage is at +Morris's, that is plain. Loge Black has only a few minutes' start of +us. Therefore, to Morris's!" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap26"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXVI +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A DOG DIES GAME +</H3> + +<P> +Clambering out of the hold, the three detectives and Cleggett briefly +made their followers acquainted with the extraordinary turn of events. +The Rev. Mr. Calthrop, Miss Pringle's Jefferson, and Washington +Artillery Lamb were detailed to guard the Jasper B. end of the tunnel. +The others, seizing their rifles, raced across the sands towards +Morris's. +</P> + +<P> +In a few moments the place was invested, with riflemen on every side +except the south, which fronted on the bay. The steel-jacketed bullets +from the high-power guns tore through and through the flimsy walls. +Nevertheless the defenders replied pluckily, and the siege might have +dragged on for hours had it not been for the courage and resource of +Kuroki. Gaining the stable, Kuroki found an old pushcart there. He +piled three bales of hay upon it, and then set fire to the hay. +Pushing the cart before him, and crouching behind the bales to protect +himself from revolver shots, he worked his way to the east verandah of +the building and left the hay blazing against the planks. Then he ran +as if the devil were after him, and was almost out of pistol shot +before he got a bullet in the calf of his leg. +</P> + +<P> +The blaze caught the wood and spread. In two minutes the east verandah +was in flames. Loge and his men attempted to pour water on the blaze +from above. But Cleggett's party directed so hot a fire upon the +windows that the defenders were forced to retire. +</P> + +<P> +The main building caught. The road house was old, and was of very +light construction; the fire spread with rapidity. Loge was in a trap. +</P> + +<P> +But that evil and indomitable spirit refused to yield. Even when his +remaining ruffians came out and gave themselves up Loge still fought on +alone in a sullen fury of despair. +</P> + +<P> +Reckless of bullets, he leaned from an open window, a figure not +without its grandeur against the background of smoke and flame, and +shouted a savage and obscene insult at Cleggett. +</P> + +<P> +"Give yourself up," cried Wilton Barnstable. +</P> + +<P> +"Damn it, man, anything's better than roasting to death!" +</P> + +<P> +Loge raised his hand and sped a last bullet at the detective, grazing +Barnstable's temple. +</P> + +<P> +"Come in and get me!" he shouted. +</P> + +<P> +Barnstable fired, just as a whirl of smoke blew in front of Loge. +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett thought the outlaw staggered, but he was not certain. +</P> + +<P> +A moment later a portion of the roof fell; then the east wall crashed +in. Morris's was a blazing ruin. +</P> + +<P> +"He has perished in the flames," said Wilton Barnstable. "So ends +Logan Black!" +</P> + +<P> +"More like he's blowed his head off," said Cap'n Abernethy. "If you +was to ask me, that's what I'd do." +</P> + +<P> +"He has done neither!" cried Cleggett. "He has taken to the tunnel. +That man will fight to the last breath." +</P> + +<P> +And without waiting to see whether the others followed him or not +Cleggett set off at top speed for the Jasper B. +</P> + +<P> +With a dagger between his teeth, his pistol in its holster, and his +electric, watchman's lantern in his pocket he entered the tunnel and +crawled forward on his hands and knees. If Loge were in there indeed +he had the fire at one end and Cleggett at the other. But even at +that, escape was possible, for all Cleggett knew. What ramifications +this peculiar passageway might have he could not guess. +</P> + +<P> +The place was narrow, and in spots so low that it was necessary for a +man to crouch almost to the ground. Cleggett, because he did not wish +to reveal his presence, did not flash his lantern; there were stretches +where he might have stood almost erect and made quicker progress, if he +had found them with the light. The earth beneath him was beaten hard +and smooth. +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett thought possibly that the tunnel had originally led from +Morris's basement to the smuggler's cave which Wilton Barnstable had +spoken of, and that it had been extended later to the ship. He learned +afterwards that this was true from the men who had surrendered. The +Jasper B. had been abandoned for so long, and was so completely +abandoned except for the visits of Cap'n Abernethy, who fished from it +now and then, that Loge had conceived the idea of making it the +back-door, so to speak, of Morris's. In the event of a raid upon +Morris's his "get-away" through the hulk was provided for. He had +intended buying the ship himself; but Cleggett had forestalled him. +</P> + +<P> +From the prisoners Cleggett also learned later that two men had been +concerned in the explosion which had broken the big rocks on the plain. +One of them had won the Claiborne signet ring at poker after Reginald +Maltravers had been stripped of his valuables, and had worn it. They +had been dispatched with a bomb each, which they were to introduce into +the hold of the Jasper B., retiring through the tunnel after they had +started the clockwork mechanism going. It was known that one of them +owed the other money; they had been quarreling about it as they entered +the tunnel from the cellar of Morris's. It was conjectured that the +quarrel had progressed and that the debtor had endeavored, by the light +of his pocket lantern in the tunnel, to palm off a counterfeit bill in +settlement of the debt. This may have led to a blow, or more likely +only to an argument during which a bomb was dropped and exploded, +followed quickly by the other explosion. Dead hand, counterfeit bill +and ring were flung whimsically to the surface of the earth together, +and the leaning rocks had been astonishingly broken from beneath +through this trivial quarrel. Had it not been for this squabble the +Jasper B. and all on board must have been destroyed. Verily, the minds +of wicked men compass their own downfall, and retribution can sometimes +be an artist. +</P> + +<P> +But Cleggett, as he crawled forward through the darkness and the damp, +thought little of these things that had so mystified him at the time. +He was alert for what the immediate future might hold, not doubting +that Loge had retreated to the tunnel. He had too strong a sense of +the man's powerful and iniquitous personality to suppose that Loge +would kill himself while one chance remained, however remote, of +injuring his enemies. Loge was the kind of dog that dies biting. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly, after pressing forward for several minutes, he ran against an +obstruction. The tunnel seemed to come to an end. He did not dare +show his light. But he felt with his hands. It was rock that blocked +his way. Cleggett understood that this barrier was the result of the +explosion. Groping and exploring with his hands, he found that the +passage turned sharply to the left. It was more narrow and curving, +for the distance of a few yards, and the earth beneath was fresher. +When the tunnel had been blocked by the explosion, Loge and his men had +burrowed around the obstruction. +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett judged that he must be at about the middle of the tunnel. He +felt the more solid earth beneath his hands again, and knew that he had +passed the rock. The passage now descended deeper into the ground, +slanting steeply downward. This incline was twenty feet in length; +then the floor became horizontal again on the lower level. At the same +time the passage widened. Cleggett stretched one arm out, then the +other; he could not touch the wall on either hand. He stood erect and +held his hand up; the roof was six inches above his head. He was in a +room of some sort. Wishing, if possible, to learn the extent of this +subterranean chamber, which he did not doubt had at one time been used +as a cave and storehouse of smugglers, Cleggett began to sidle around +walls, feeling his way with his hands. +</P> + +<P> +He dislodged a pebble. It rolled to the ground with what was really a +slight sound. +</P> + +<P> +But to Cleggett, who had been getting more and more excited, it was +loud as an avalanche. He stopped and held his breath; he fancied that +he had heard another noise besides the one which his pebble made. But +he could not be sure. +</P> + +<P> +The sensation that he was not alone suddenly gripped him with +overwhelming force. His heart began to beat more quickly; the blood +drummed in his ears. Nevertheless, he kept his head. He took his +pocket lantern in his left hand, and his pistol in his right, and +leaned with his back against the wall. He listened. He heard nothing. +</P> + +<P> +But the eerie feeling that he was watched grew upon him. Presently he +fancied that the darkness began to vibrate, as if an electrical current +of some sort were being passed through it, and it might forthwith burst +into light. Cleggett, as we know, was not easily frightened. But now +he was possessed of a strange feeling, akin to terror, but which was at +the same time not any terror of physical injury. He did not fear Loge; +in dark or daylight he was ready to grapple with him and fight it out; +nevertheless he feared. That he could not say what he feared only +increased his fear. +</P> + +<P> +Children say they are "afraid of the dark." It is not the dark which +they are afraid of. It is the bodiless presences which they imagine in +the dark. It was so with Cleggett now. He was not daunted by anything +that could strike a blow. But the sense of a personality began to +encompass him. It pressed in upon him, played upon him, embraced him; +his flesh tingled as if he were being brushed; he felt his hair stir. +One recognizes a flower by its odor. So a soul flings off, in some +inexplicable way, the sense of itself. This force that laid itself +upon Cleggett and flowed around him had an individuality without a +body. Not through his senses, but psychically, he recognized it; it +was the hateful and sinister individuality of Loge. +</P> + +<P> +With choking throat and dry lips Cleggett stood and suffered beneath +the smothering presence of this terror while the slow seconds mounted +to an intolerable minute; then there burst from him an uncontrollable +shout. +</P> + +<P> +"Loge!" he roared, and the cavern rang. +</P> + +<P> +And with the word he pressed the button of his electric pocket lamp and +shot a beam of light straight in front of him. It fell upon the +yellowish brow and the wide, unwinking eyes of Loge. The eyes stared +straight at Cleggett's own from across the cave, thirty feet away. +Loge's teeth were bared in his malevolent grimace; his head was bent +forward; he sat upon a rock. Cleggett, unable to withdraw his eyes, +waited for Loge's first movement. The man made no sign. Cleggett +slowly raised his pistol.... +</P> + +<P> +But he did not fire. The open, staring eyes, unchanging at the menace +of the lifted pistol, told the story. Loge was dead. Cleggett crossed +over and examined him. Clutched on his knees was a bomb. He had been +wounded by Barnstable's last shot, but he had crawled through the +tunnel with a bomb for a final attempt on the Jasper B. His strength +had failed; he had rested upon the rock and bled to death. +</P> + +<P> +As for his last thought, Cleggett had felt it. Loge had died hating and +lusting for his blood. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap27"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XXVII +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CLEGGETT ACCOMMODATES THE KING +</H3> + +<P> +There was a wedding next day on the deck of the Jasper B. The Rev. +Simeon Calthrop performed the ceremony, and Wilton Barnstable insisted +upon lending his vessel for a bridal cruise. Washington Artillery Lamb, +engineer, janitor, cook and butler of the Annabel Lee, went with the +vessel. +</P> + +<P> +As for the Jasper B., although his wife urged him to keep the ship for +the sake of old associations, Cleggett had the hole in its side built +in and gave it to the Rev. Simeon Calthrop for a gospel ship. George +the Greek, who married Miss Medley, shipped with the preacher in his +cruise around the world, and he and his wife eventually reached Greece, +as he had originally intended. Elmer went with the Rev. Mr. Calthrop to +assist him in his missionary work. +</P> + +<P> +But it was some time before the Jasper B. sailed. Besides the hole +which was the entrance to the tunnel it was discovered that the vessel +rested on a brick foundation. The man who had used her for a saloon +and dancing platform in years past had dug away part of the bank of the +canal to fit the curve of her starboard side and had then jammed her +tight into the land. Even then she would move a trifle at times, so he +had built a dam around her, pumped the water out of the inclosed space, +jacked the hulk up, built the brick foundation, and let her down +solidly on it again. +</P> + +<P> +With the dam removed the water covered this masonry work, and she +looked quite like a real ship. Mr. Goldberg had known about this +foundation, but he had forgotten it, he explained to Cleggett. +</P> + +<P> +The Rev. Mr. Calthrop fitted her out as a floating chapel and filled +her with Bibles printed in all languages, which he distributes in many +lands. When his fatal attractiveness for women threatens to involve +him in trouble he hastily puts to sea. He has never become a really +accomplished sailor, and the Jasper B. is something of a menace to +navigation in the ports and harbors of the world. The suggestion has +frequently been made that she should be set ashore permanently and put +on wheels. But she has her features. She is, possibly, the only ship +extant with a memorial skylight to her cabin. Cleggett wished her to +carry some sort of memorial to the faithful Teddy, the Pomeranian dog, +who perished of a stray shot in the fight at Morris's. And as a +memorial window did not seem feasible a compromise was made on the +memorial skylight. The glass is by Tiffany. +</P> + +<P> +Dopey Eddie and Izzy the Cat, still followed by Reginald Maltravers, +made their way to Brooklyn, where all three were arrested and lodged in +the observation ward of the Kings County Hospital on the suspicion that +they were insane. The two gunmen were able to get free through +political influence, but Maltravers was sent to England. He was +maintained for some time in a private institution through the +generosity of the Cleggetts, but finally went on a hunger strike and +died. +</P> + +<P> +Wilton Barnstable smiles and prospers. He gained great additional fame +for his clever work in the Case of Logan Black. +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett, in 1925, was the father of four boys named D'Artagnan, Athos, +Porthos, and Aramis Cleggett; and the owner of the Claiborne estates. +</P> + +<P> +He is now immensely wealthy. It never would have occurred to him, +perhaps, to attempt to increase his modest fortune of $500,000 by +speculating on the Stock Exchange, had it not been for a fortunate +meeting with a barber in Nassau Street. +</P> + +<P> +This barber, whose Christian name was Walter, was, indeed, a mine of +suggestion and information of all sorts. And being a good-natured +fellow, who wished the world well, Walter delighted to impart his +original ideas and the fruits of his observation to his patrons while +shaving them. Some of these received his remarks coldly, it is true, +but Walter was so charged with a sense of friendliness towards all +mankind that he was never daunted for long by a rebuff. +</P> + +<P> +His interests were wide and varied; Walter found no difficulty in +talking pleasantly upon any subject; he could touch it lightly, or deal +with it in a more serious vein, as the mood of his customer seemed to +require; and he had the art of making deft and rapid transitions from +topic to topic. But there were two things in particular concerning +which Walter had thought deeply: racehorses and the stock market. +</P> + +<P> +It was the settled grief of Walter's life that he had never been able +to persuade any person with money to take his advice concerning the +races, or follow any of the dazzling stock market campaigns which he +was forever outlining. +</P> + +<P> +"They listen to me," said Walter, a little wistfully, but with a brave +smile, "or else they do not listen—but no one has ever yet taken my +advice! Do you wet your hair when you part it, sir?" +</P> + +<P> +"What," said Cleggett, carefully concealing from Walter the fact that +he spoke of himself, "would be your advice to a man with $100,000 who +wished to double it in a few weeks?" +</P> + +<P> +"Double it!" cried Walter. "Why, I could show such a person how to +multiply it by ten inside of two months." And he rapidly outlined to +Cleggett a scheme so audacious and so brilliant that it fairly took our +hero's breath away. Moreover, it stood the test of reflection; it was +sound. Not to descend to the sordid details, in three weeks Cleggett +found himself possessed of a million dollars' gain. Half of this he +gave to the excellent Walter, and in three months ran the other half +million up to twenty millions. +</P> + +<P> +Then he withdrew permanently from business, as Lady Agatha complained +that it took too much of his time; moreover, he shrank from notoriety, +which his stock market operations were beginning to bring upon him. +</P> + +<P> +Giuseppe Jones, who recovered of his wounds, forswore anarchy and +became a newspaper reporter, and grew to be a fast friend of Cleggett, +who discovered that he was a lad of parts. Cleggett eventually made +him president of a college of journalism which he founded. While he +was establishing the institution the man Wharton, his old managing +editor, broken, shattered, out of work, and a hopeless drunkard, came +to him and begged for a position. The man had sunk so low that he was +repeatedly arrested for pretending to be blind on the street corners, +and had debauched an innocent dog to assist in this deception. +Cleggett forgave him the slights of many years and made him an +assistant janitor in the new college of journalism. +</P> + +<P> +The post is a sinecure, and well within even the man Wharton's powers. +</P> + +<P> +Cap'n Abernethy travels with the Cleggetts a great deal, under the +hallucination, which they humor, that he is of service to them. The +children are very fond of him. At Claiborne Castle Cleggett has had a +shallow lake constructed for him. There the Captain, still firm in the +belief that he is a sailor, loves to potter about with catboats and +rafts. +</P> + +<P> +Dr. Farnsworth enjoys a lucrative position as physician to the Cleggett +family, and Kuroki is their butler. +</P> + +<P> +By 1925 the prejudice against militants had abated in certain exalted +circles in England, and Lady Agatha Cleggett and her husband were much +at court. +</P> + +<P> +Cleggett, hating notoriety, had endeavored to conceal the story of his +adventures along the dangerous coasts of Long Island; but concealment +was impossible. After the death of the old Earl of Claiborne, and the +demise of Reginald Maltravers, and Cleggett's purchase of the Claiborne +estate, the King wished Cleggett to take the title of Earl of Claiborne. +</P> + +<P> +His Majesty sent the Premier to sound Cleggett upon the matter. +</P> + +<P> +"No, no," said Cleggett affably. "I couldn't think of it. I am quite +democratic, you know." +</P> + +<P> +The second time the King sent one of the Royal Dukes to see Cleggett. +They were at a house party in Wales, and Cleggett was a little +disturbed that this business affair should be brought up at a gathering +so distinctly social in its nature. He was too tactful to let it be +seen, but secretly he felt that in approaching the matter in that +fashion the Duke had erred in taste. +</P> + +<P> +"But we need men like you in the House of Lords," pleaded the Duke. +</P> + +<P> +"I cannot think of it," said Cleggett. And then, not wishing to hurt +the Englishman's feelings, he said kindly: "But I will promise you +this: if I should change my mind and decide to become a member of any +aristocracy at all, it will be the English aristocracy." +</P> + +<P> +The Duke thanked Cleggett for the compliment; and Cleggett thought he +had heard the end of it. +</P> + +<P> +He was, therefore, surprised, a few weeks later, as he was conversing +with the King at Buckingham Palace, when His Majesty himself, laying +his hand familiarly on Cleggett's shoulder, renewed the petition in +person. It is hard to refuse things continually without seeming +unappreciative. In fact, Cleggett felt trapped; if the truth must be +known, he was a little angry. +</P> + +<P> +"Come, come, Cleggett," said the King, "lay aside your prejudices and +oblige me. After all, it is not the sort of thing I run about offering +to every American in London!" +</P> + +<P> +"Your Majesty," said Cleggett, politely but with a note of firmness and +finality in his voice, "since you mention the word American you force +me to speak plainly. I would not willingly wound your sensibilities in +any particular, but—pardon me if I am direct—you have been very +persistent. I AM an American, your Majesty, and I consider the honor +of being an American citizen far above any that it is within your power +to bestow. If I have not mentioned this before, it was because I did +not wish to hurt you. I hope our friendship will not cease, but I must +tell you flatly that I desire to hear no more of this. You will oblige +me by not mentioning it again, Your Majesty." +</P> + +<P> +The King begged Cleggett's pardon with a becoming sincerity, and was +about to withdraw. Cleggett, who liked him immensely, was sudden +smitten with a regret that it had been so impossible to oblige him. +</P> + +<P> +"Your Majesty," he cried impulsively, "I BEG of you not to get the idea +that there is anything personal in this refusal." +</P> + +<P> +"I respect principle," said the King gravely. But he WAS hurt and +could not help showing it, and he was a little stiff. +</P> + +<P> +"We will compromise," said Cleggett, with a flash of inspiration. +</P> + +<P> +"I will let you have my second son, Athos Cleggett. You may make him +Earl of Claiborne, if you choose. After all, HE is half English!" +</P> + +<P> +"That is like your generosity, Cleggett," said the King, smiling, and +giving Cleggett his hand. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Cruise of the Jasper B., by Don Marquis + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CRUISE OF THE JASPER B. *** + +***** This file should be named 716-h.htm or 716-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/7/1/716/ + +Produced by John Gidusko. HTML version by Al Haines. + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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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 Cruise of the Jasper B. + +Author: Don Marquis + +Posting Date: August 12, 2008 [EBook #716] +Release Date: November, 1996 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CRUISE OF THE JASPER B. *** + + + + +Produced by John Gidusko. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + + + + +THE CRUISE OF THE JASPER B. + + +BY + +DON MARQUIS + + + +TO ALL THE COPYREADERS ON ALL THE NEWSPAPERS OF AMERICA + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER + + I A BRIGHT BLADE LEAPS FROM A RUSTY SCABBARD + II THE ROOM OF ILLUSION + III A SCHOONER, A SKIPPER, AND A SKULL + IV A BAD MAN TO CROSS + V BEAUTY IN DISTRESS + VI LADY AGATHA'S STORY + VII FIRST BLOOD FOR CLEGGETT + VIII A FLAME LEAPS OUT OF THE DARK + IX MYSTERIES MULTIPLY + X IN THE ENEMY'S CAMP + XI REPARTEE AND PISTOLS + XII THE SECOND OBLONG BOX + XIII THE SOUL OF LOGAN BLACK + XIV CLEGGETT STANDS BY HIS SHIP + XV NIGHT, TEMPEST, LOVE AND BATTLE + XVI ROMANCE REGNANT + XVII MISS PRINGLE CALLS ON MR. CLEGGETT + XVIII THE MAN IN THE BLUE PAJAMAS + XIX TWO GREAT MEN MEET + XX THE PSYCHOLOGICAL DETECTIVE + XXI THE THIRD OBLONG BOX ARRIVES + XXII DANCING ON THE DECK + XXIII CUTLASSES + XXIV THE DUEL + XXV THE SECRET OF THE VESSEL'S HOLD + XXVI A DOG DIES GAME + XXVII CLEGGETT ACCOMMODATES THE KING + + + +CHAPTER I + +A BRIGHT BLADE LEAPS FROM A RUSTY SCABBARD + +On an evening in April, 191-, Clement J. Cleggett walked sedately into +the news room of the New York Enterprise with a drab-colored +walking-stick in his hand. He stood the cane in a corner, changed his +sober street coat for a more sober office jacket, adjusted a green +eyeshade below his primly brushed grayish hair, unostentatiously sat +down at the copy desk, and unobtrusively opened a drawer. + +From the drawer he took a can of tobacco, a pipe, a pair of scissors, a +paste-pot and brush, a pile of copy paper, a penknife and three +half-lengths of lead pencil. + +The can of tobacco was not remarkable. The pipe was not picturesque. +The scissors were the most ordinary of scissors. The copy paper was +quite undistinguished in appearance. The lead pencils had the most +untemperamental looking points. + +Cleggett himself, as he filled and lighted the pipe, did it in the most +matter-of-fact sort of way. Then he remarked to the head of the copy +desk, in an average kind of voice: + +"H'lo, Jim." + +"H'lo, Clegg," said Jim, without looking up. "Might as well begin on +this bunch of early copy, I guess." + +For more than ten years Cleggett had done the same thing at the same +time in the same manner, six nights of the week. + +What he did on the seventh night no one ever thought to inquire. If any +member of the Enterprise staff had speculated about it at all he would +have assumed that Cleggett spent that seventh evening in some way +essentially commonplace, sober, unemotional, quiet, colorless, dull and +Brooklynitish. + +Cleggett lived in Brooklyn. The superficial observer might have said +that Cleggett and Brooklyn were made for each other. + +The superficial observer! How many there are of him! And how much he +misses! He misses, in fact, everything. + +At two o'clock in the morning a telegraph operator approached the copy +desk and handed Cleggett a sheet of yellow paper, with the remark: + +"Cleggett--personal wire." + +It was a night letter, and glancing at the signature Cleggett saw that +it was from his brother who lived in Boston. It ran: + +Uncle Tom died yesterday. Don't faint now. He splits bulk fortune +between you and me. Lawyers figure nearly $500,000 each. Mostly easily +negotiable securities. New will made month ago while sore at president +temperance outfit. Blood thicker than Apollinaris after all. Poor +Uncle Tom. + + Edward. + + +Despite Edward's thoughtful warning, Cleggett did nearly faint. Nothing +could have been less expected. Uncle Tom was an irascible +prohibitionist, and one of the most deliberately disobliging men on +earth. Cleggett and his brother had long ceased to expect anything +from him. For twenty years it had been thoroughly understood that +Uncle Tom would leave his entire estate to a temperance society. +Cleggett had ceased to think of Uncle Tom as a possible factor in his +life. He did not doubt that Uncle Tom had changed the will to gain +some point with the officials of the temperance society, intending to +change it once again after he had been deferred to, cajoled, and +flattered enough to placate his vanity. But death had stepped in just +in time to disinherit the enemies of the Demon Rum. + +Cleggett read the wire through twice, and then folded it and put it +into his pocket. He rose and walked toward the managing editor's room. +As he stepped across the floor there was a little dancing light in his +eyes, there was a faint smile upon his lips, that were quite foreign to +the staid and sober Cleggett that the world knew. He was quiet, but he +was almost jaunty, too; he felt a little drunk, and enjoyed the feeling. + +He opened the managing editor's door with more assurance than he had +ever displayed before. The managing editor, a pompous, tall, thin man +with a drooping frosty mustache, and cold gray eyes in a cold gray face +that somehow reminded one of the visage of a walrus, was preparing to +go home. + +"Well?" he said, shortly. + +He was a man for whom Cleggett had long felt a secret antipathy. The +man was, in short, the petty tyrant of Cleggett's little world. + +"Can you spare me a couple of minutes, Mr. Wharton?" said Cleggett. +But he did not say it with the air of a person who really sues for a +hearing. + +"Yes, yes--go on." Mr. Wharton, who had risen from his chair, sat down +again. He was distinctly annoyed. He was ungracious. He was usually +ungracious with Cleggett. His face set itself in the expression it +always took when he declined to consider raising a man's salary. +Cleggett, who had been refused a raise regularly every three months for +the past two years, was familiar with the look. + +"Go on, go on--what is it?" asked Mr. Wharton unpleasantly, frowning +and stroking the frosty mustache, first one side and then the other. + +"I just stepped in to tell you," said Cleggett quietly, "that I don't +think much of the way you are running the Enterprise." + +Wharton stopped stroking his mustache so quickly and so amazedly that +one might have thought he had run into a thorn amongst the hirsute +growth and pricked a finger. He glared. He opened his mouth. But +before he could speak Cleggett went on: + +"Three years ago I made a number of suggestions to you. You treated me +contemptuously--very contemptuously!" + +Cleggett paused and drew a long breath, and his face became quite red. +It was as if the anger in which he could not afford to indulge himself +three years before was now working in him with cumulative effect. +Wharton, only partially recovered from the shock of Cleggett's sudden +arraignment, began to stammer and bluster, using the words nearest his +tongue: + +"You d-damned im-p-pertinent------" + +"Just a moment," Cleggett interrupted, growing visibly angrier, and +seeming to enjoy his anger more and more. "Just a word more. I had +intended to conclude my remarks by telling you that my contempt for +YOU, personally, is unbounded. It is boundless, sir! But since you +have sworn at me, I am forced to conclude this interview in another +fashion." + +And with a gesture which was not devoid of dignity Cleggett drew from +an upper waistcoat pocket a card and flung it on Wharton's desk. After +which he stepped back and made a formal bow. + +Wharton looked at the card. Bewilderment almost chased the anger from +his face. + +"Eh," he said, "what's this?" + +"My card, sir! A friend will wait on you tomorrow!" + +"Tomorrow? A friend? What for?" + +Cleggett folded his arms and regarded the managing editor with a touch +of the supercilious in his manner. + +"If you were a gentleman," he said, "you would have no difficulty in +understanding these things. I have just done you the honor of +challenging you to a duel." + +Mr. Wharton's mouth opened as if he were about to explode in a roar of +incredulous laughter. But meeting Cleggett's eyes, which were, indeed, +sparkling with a most remarkable light, his jaw dropped, and he turned +slightly pale. He rose from his chair and put the desk between himself +and Cleggett, picking up as he did so a long pair of shears. + +"Put down the scissors," said Cleggett, with a wave of his hand. "I do +not propose to attack you now." + +And he turned and left the managing editor's little office, closing the +door behind him. + +The managing editor tiptoed over to the door and, with the scissors +still grasped in one hand, opened it about a quarter of an inch. +Through this crack Wharton saw Cleggett walk jauntily towards the +corner where his hat and coat were hanging. Cleggett took off his worn +office jacket, rolled it into a ball, and flung it into a waste paper +basket. He put on his street coat and hat and picked up the +drab-colored cane. Swinging the stick he moved towards the door into +the hall. In the doorway he paused, cocked his hat a trifle, turned +towards the managing editor's door, raised his hand with his pipe in it +with the manner of one who points a dueling pistol, took careful aim at +the second button of the managing editor's waistcoat, and clucked. At +the cluck the managing editor drew back hastily, as if Cleggett had +actually presented a firearm; Cleggett's manner was so rapt and fatal +that it carried conviction. Then Cleggett laughed, cocked his hat on +the other side of his head and went out into the corridor whistling. +Whistling, and, since faults as well as virtues must be told, +swaggering just a little. + +When the managing editor had heard the elevator come up, pause, and go +down again, he went out of his room and said to the city editor: + +"Mr. Herbert, don't ever let that man Cleggett into this office again. +He is off--off mentally. He's a dangerous man. He's a homicidal +maniac. More'n likely he's been a quiet, steady drinker for years, and +now it's begun to show on him." + +But nothing was further from Cleggett than the wish ever to go into the +Enterprise office again. As he left the elevator on the ground floor +he stabbed the astonished elevator boy under the left arm with his cane +as a bayonet, cut him harmlessly over the head with his cane as a +saber, tossed him a dollar, and left the building humming: + +"Oh, the Beau Sabreur of the Grande Armee Was the Captain Tarjeanterre!" + +It is thus, with a single twitch of her playful fingers, that Fate +will sometimes pluck from a man the mask that has obscured his real +identity for many years. It is thus that Destiny will suddenly draw a +bright blade from a rusty scabbard! + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE ROOM OF ILLUSION + +That part of Brooklyn in which Cleggett lived overlooks a wide sweep of +water where the East River merges with New York Bay. From his windows +he could gaze out upon the bustling harbor craft and see the ships +going forth to the great mysterious sea. + +He walked home across the Brooklyn Bridge, and as he walked he still +hummed tunes. Occasionally, still with the rapt and fatal manner which +had daunted the managing editor, he would pause and flex his wrist, and +then suddenly deliver a ferocious thrust with his walking-stick. + +The fifth of these lunges had an unexpected result. Cleggett directed +it toward the door of an unpainted toolhouse, a temporary structure +near one of the immense stone pillars from which the bridge is swung. +But, as he lunged, the toolhouse door opened, and a policeman, who was +coming out wiping his mouth on the back of his hand, received a jab in +the pit of a somewhat protuberant stomach. + +The officer grunted and stepped backward; then he came on, raising his +night-stick. + +"Why, it's--it's McCarthy!" exclaimed Cleggett, who had also sprung +back, as the light fell on the other's face. + +"Mr. Cleggett, by the powers!" said the officer, pausing and lowering +his lifted club. "Are ye soused, man? Or is it your way of sayin' +good avenin' to your frinds?" + +Cleggett smiled. He had first known McCarthy years before when he was +a reporter, and more recently had renewed the acquaintance in his walks +across the bridge. + +"I didn't know you were there, McCarthy," he said. + +"No?" said the officer. "And who were ye jabbin' at, thin?" + +"I was just limbering up my wrist," said Cleggett. + +"'Tis a quare thing to do," persisted McCarthy, albeit good-humoredly. +"And now I mind I've seen ye do the same before, Mr. Cleggett. You're +foriver grinnin' to yersilf an' makin' thim funny jabs at nothin' as ye +cross the bridge. Are ye subjict to stiffness in the wrists, Mr. +Cleggett?" + +"Perhaps it's writer's cramp," said Cleggett, indulging the pleasant +humor that was on him. He was really thinking that, with $500,000 of +his own, he had written his last headline, edited his last piece of +copy, sharpened his last pencil. + +"Writer's cramp? Is it so?" mused McCarthy. "Newspapers is great +things, ain't they now? And so's writin' and readin'. Gr-r-reat +things! But if ye'll take my advise, Mr. Cleggett, ye'll kape that +writin' and readin' within bounds. Too much av thim rots the brains." + +"I'll remember that," said Cleggett. And he playfully jabbed the +officer again as he turned away. + +"G'wan wid ye!" protested McCarthy. "Ye're soused! The scent av it's +in the air. If I'm compilled to run yez in f'r assaultin' an officer +ye'll get the cramps out av thim wrists breakin' stone, maybe. +Cr-r-r-amps, indade!" + +Cramps, indeed! Oh, Clement J. Cleggett, you liar! And yet, who does +not lie in order to veil his inmost, sweetest thoughts from an +unsympathetic world? + +That was not an ordinary jab with an ordinary cane which Cleggett had +directed towards the toolhouse door. It was a thrust en carte; the +thrust of a brilliant swordsman; the thrust of a master; a terrible +thrust. It was meant for as pernicious a bravo as ever infested the +pages of romantic fiction. Cleggett had been slaying these gentry a +dozen times a day for years. He had pinked four of them on the way +across the bridge, before McCarthy, with his stomach and his realism, +stopped the lunge intended for the fifth. But this is not exactly the +sort of thing one finds it easy to confide to a policeman, be he ever +so friendly a policeman. + +Cleggett--Old Clegg, the copyreader--Clegg, the commonplace--C. J. +Cleggett, the Brooklynite-this person whom young reporters conceived of +as the staid, dry prophet of the dusty Fact--was secretly a mighty +reservoir of unwritten, unacted, unlived, unspoken romance. He ate it, +he drank it, he breathed it, he dreamed it. The usual copyreader, when +he closes his eyes and smiles upon a pleasant inward vision, is +thinking of starting a chicken-farm in New Jersey. But Cleggett--with +gray sprinkled in his hair, sober of face and precise of manner, as the +world knew him--lived a hidden life which was one long, wild adventure. + +Nobody had ever suspected it. But his room might have given to the +discerning a clue to the real man behind the mask which he +assumed--which he had been forced to assume in order to earn a living. +When he reached the apartment, a few minutes after his encounter on the +bridge, and switched the electric light on, the gleams fell upon an +astonishing clutter of books and arms.... + +Stevenson, cavalry sabers, W. Clark Russell, pistols, and Dumas; Jack +London, poignards, bowie knives, Stanley Weyman, Captain Marryat, and +Dumas; sword canes, Scottish claymores, Cuban machetes, Conan Doyle, +Harrison Ainsworth, dress swords, and Dumas; stilettos, daggers, +hunting knives, Fenimore Cooper, G. P. R. James, broadswords, Dumas; +Gustave Aimard, Rudyard Kipling, dueling swords, Dumas; F. Du +Boisgobey, Malay krises, Walter Scott, stick pistols, scimitars, +Anthony Hope, single sticks, foils, Dumas; jungles of arms, jumbles of +books; arms of all makes and periods; arms on the walls, in the +corners, over the fireplace, leaning against the bookshelves, lying in +ambush under the bed, peeping out of the wardrobe, propping the windows +open, serving as paper weights; pictures, warlike and romantic prints +and engravings, pinned to the walls with daggers; in the wardrobe, +coats and hats hanging from poignards and stilettos thrust into the +wood instead of from nails or hooks. But of all the weapons it was the +rapiers, of all the books it was Dumas, that he loved. There was Dumas +in French, Dumas in English, Dumas with pictures, Dumas unillustrated, +Dumas in cloth, Dumas in leather, Dumas in boards, Dumas in paper +covers. Cleggett had been twenty years getting these arms and books +together; often he had gone without a dinner in order to make a payment +on some blade he fancied. And each weapon was also a book to him; he +sensed their stories as he handled them; he felt the personalities of +their former owners stirring in him when he picked them up. It was in +that room that he dreamed; which is to say, it was in that room that he +lived his real life. + +Cleggett walked over to his writing desk and pulled out a bulky +manuscript. It was his own work. Is it necessary to hint that it was +a tale essentially romantic in character? + +He flung it into the grate and set fire to it. It represented the +labor of two years, but as he watched it burn, stirring the sheets now +and then so the flames would catch them more readily, he smiled, +unvisited by even the most shadowy second thought of regret. + +For why the deuce should a man with $500,000 in his pocket write +romances? Why should anyone write anything who is free to live? For +the first time in his existence Cleggett was free. + +He picked up a sword. It was one of his favorite rapiers. Sometimes +people came out of the books--sometimes shadowy forms came back to +claim the weapons that had been theirs--and Cleggett fought them. +There was not an unscarred piece of furniture in the place. He bent +the flexible blade in his hands, tried the point of it, formally +saluted, brought the weapon to parade, dallied with his imaginary +opponent's sword for an instant.... + +It seemed as if one of those terrible, but brilliant, duels, with which +that room was so familiar, was about to be enacted.... But he laid the +rapier down. After all, the rapier is scarcely a thing of this +century. Cleggett, for the first time, felt a little impatient with +the rapier. It is all very well to DREAM with a rapier. But now, he +was free; reality was before him; the world of actual adventure called. +He had but to choose! + +He considered. He tried to look into that bright, adventurous future. +Presently he went to the window, and gazed out. Tides of night and +mystery, flooding in from the farther, dark, mysterious ocean, all but +submerged lower Manhattan; high and beautiful above these waves of +shadow, triumphing over them and accentuating them, shone a star from +the top of the Woolworth building; flecks of light indicated the noble +curve of that great bridge which soars like a song in stone and steel +above the shifting waters; the river itself was dotted here and there +with moving lights; it was a nocturne waiting for its Whistler; here +sea and city met in glamour and beauty and illusion. + +But it was not the city which called to Cleggett. It was the sea. + +A breeze blew in from the bay and stirred his window curtains; it was +salt in his nostrils.... And, staring out into the breathing night, he +saw a succession of pictures.... + +Stripped to a pair of cotton trousers, with a dripping cutlass in one +hand and a Colt's revolver in the other, an adventurer at the head of a +bunch of dogs as desperate as himself fought his way across the reeking +decks of a Chinese junk, to close in single combat with a gigantic +one-eyed pirate who stood by the helm with a ring of dead men about him +and a great two-handed sword upheaved.... This adventurer was--Clement +J. Cleggett! ... + +Through the phosphorescent waters of a summer sea, reckless of cruising +sharks, a sailor's clasp knife in his teeth, glided noiselessly a +strong swimmer; he reached the side of a schooner yacht from which rose +the wild cries of beauty in distress, swarmed aboard with a muttered +prayer that was half a curse, swept the water from his eyes, and with +pale, stern face went about the bloody business of a hero.... Again, +this adventurer was Clement J. Cleggett! + +Cleggett turned from the window. + +"I'll do it," he cried. "I'll do it!" + +He grasped a cutlass. + +"Pirates!" he cried, swinging it about his head. "That's the +thing--pirates and the China Seas!" + +And with one frightful sweep of his blade he disemboweled a sofa +cushion; the second blow clove his typewriting machine clean to the +tattoo marks upon its breast; the third decapitated a sectional +bookcase. + +But what is a sectional bookcase to a man with $500,000 in his pocket +and the Seven Seas before him? + + + +CHAPTER III + +A SCHOONER, A SKIPPER, AND A SKULL + +It was a few days later, when a goodly number of the late Uncle Tom's +easily negotiable securities had been converted into cash, and the cash +deposited in the bank, that Cleggett bought the Jasper B. + +He discovered her near the town of Fairport, Long Island, one +afternoon. The vessel lay in one of the canals which reach inward from +the Great South Bay. She looked as if she might have been there for +some time. Evidently, at one period, the Jasper B. had played a part +in some catch-coin scheme of summer entertainment; a scheme that had +failed. Little trace of it remained except a rotting wooden platform, +roofless and built close to the canal, and a gangway arrangement from +this platform to the deck of the vessel. + +The Jasper B. had seen better days; even a landsman could tell that. +But from the blunt bows to the weather-scarred stern, on which the name +was faintly discernible, the hulk had an air about it, the air of +something that has lived; it was eloquent of a varied and interesting +past. + +And, to complete the picture, there sat on her deck a gnarled and brown +old man. He smoked a short pipe which was partially hidden in a tangle +of beard that had once been yellowish red but was now streaked with +dirty white; he fished earnestly without apparent result, and from time +to time he spat into the water. Cleggett's nimble fancy at once put +rings into his ears and dowered him with a history. + +Cleggett noticed, as he walked aboard the vessel, that she seemed to be +jammed not merely against, but into the bank of the canal. She was +nearer the shore than he had ever seen a vessel of any sort. Some +weeds grew in soil that had lodged upon the deck; in a couple of places +they sprang as high as the rail. Weeds grew on shore; in fact, it +would have taken a better nautical authority than Cleggett to tell +offhand just exactly where the land ended and the Jasper B. began. She +seemed to be possessed of an odd stability; although the tide was +receding the Jasper B. was not perceptibly agitated by the motion of +the water. Of anchor, or mooring chains or cables of any sort, there +was no sign. + +The brown old man--he was brown not only as to the portions of his skin +visible through his hair and whiskers, but also as to coat and trousers +and worn boots and cap and pipe and flannel shirt--turned around as +Cleggett stepped aboard, and stared at the invader with a shaggy-browed +intensity that was embarrassing. + +It occurred to Cleggett that the old man might own the vessel and make +a home of her. + +"I beg your pardon if I am intruding," ventured Cleggett, politely, +"but do you live here?" + +The brown old man made an indeterminate motion of his head, without +otherwise replying at once. Then he took a cake of dark, hard-looking +tobacco from the starboard pocket of his trousers and a clasp knife +from the port side. He shaved off a fresh pipeful, rolled it in his +palms, knocked the old ash from his pipe, refilled and relighted it, +all with the utmost deliberation. Then he cut another small piece of +tobacco from the "plug" and popped it into his mouth. Cleggett +perceived with surprise that he smoked and chewed tobacco at the same +time. As he thus refreshed himself he glanced from time to time at +Cleggett as if unfavorably impressed. Finally he closed his knife with +a click and suddenly piped out in a high, shrill voice: + +"No! Do you?" + +"I--er--do I what?" It had taken the old man so long to answer that +Cleggett had forgotten his own question, and the shrill fierceness of +the voice was disconcerting. + +He regarded Cleggett contemptuously, spat on the deck, and then +demanded truculently: + +"D'ye want to buy any seed potatoes?" + +"Why--er, no," said Cleggett. + +"Humph!" said the brown one, with the air of meaning that it was only +to be expected of an idiot like Cleggett that he would NOT want to buy +any seed potatoes. But after a further embarrassing silence he +relented enough to give Cleggett another chance. + +"You want some seed corn!" he announced rather than asked. + +"No. I------" + +"Tomato plants!" shrilled the brown one, as if daring him to deny it. + +"No." + +He turned his back on Cleggett, as if he had lost interest, and began +to wind up his fishing line on a squeaky reel. + +"Who owns this boat?" Cleggett touched him on the elbow. + +"Thinkin' of buyin' her?" + +"Perhaps. Who owns her?" + +"What would you do with her?" + +"I might fix her up and sail her. Who owns her?" + +"She'll take a sight o' fixin'." + +"No doubt. Who did you say owned her?" + +The old man, who had finished with the rusty reel, deigned to look at +Cleggett again. + +"Dunno as I said." + +"But who DOES own her?" + +"She's stuck fast in the mud and her rudder's gone." + +"I see you know a lot about ships," said Cleggett, deferentially, +giving up the attempt to find out who owned her. "I picked you out for +an old sailor the minute I saw you." He thought he detected a kindlier +gleam in the old man's eye as that person listened to these words. + +"The' ain't a stick in her," said the ancient fisherman. "She's got no +wheel and she's got no nothin'. She used to be used as a kind of a +barroom and dancin' platform till the fellow that used her for such +went out o' business." + +He paused, and then added: + +"What might your name be?" + +"Cleggett." + +He appeared to reflect on the name. But he said: + +"If you was to ask me, I'd say her timbers is sound." + +"Tell me," said Cleggett, "was she a deep-water ship? Could a ship +like her sail around the world, for instance? I can tell that you know +all about ships." + +Something like a grin of gratified vanity began to show on the brown +one's features. He leaned back against the rail and looked at Cleggett +with the dawn of approval in his eyes. + +"My name's Abernethy," he suddenly volunteered. "Isaiah Abernethy. +The fellow that owns her is Goldberg. Abraham Goldberg. Real estate +man." + +"Cleggett began to get an insight into Mr. Abernethy's peculiar ideas +concerning conversation. A native spirit of independence prevented Mr. +Abernethy from dealing with an interlocutor's remarks in the sequence +that seemed to be desired by the interlocutor. He took a selection of +utterances into his mind, rolled them over together, and replied in +accordance with some esoteric system of his own. + +"Where is Mr. Goldberg's office?" asked Cleggett. + +"You've come to the proper party to get set right about ships," said +Mr. Abernethy, complacently. "Either you was sent to me by someone that +knows I'm the proper party to set you right about ships, or else you +got an eye in your own head that can recognize a man that comes of a +seafarin' fambly." + +"You ARE an old sailor, then? Maybe you are an old skipper? Perhaps +you're one of the retired Long Island sea captains we're always hearing +so much about?" + +"So fur as sailin' her around the world is concerned," said Mr. +Abernethy, glancing over the hulk, "if she was fixed up she could be +sailed anywheres--anywheres!" + +"What would you call her--a schooner?" + +"This here Goldberg," said Mr. Abernethy, "has his office over town +right accost from the railroad depot." + +And with that he put his fishing pole over his shoulder and prepared to +leave--a tall, strong-looking old man with long legs and knotty wrists, +who moved across the deck with surprising spryness. At the gangplank he +sang out without turning his head: + +"As far as my bein' a skipper's concerned, they's no law agin' callin' +me Cap'n Abernethy if you want to. I come of a seafarin' fambly." + +He crossed the platform; when he had gone thirty yards further he +stopped, turned around, and shouted: + +"Is she a schooner, hey? You want to know is she a schooner? If you +was askin' me, she ain't NOTHIN' now. But if you was to ask me again I +might say she COULD be schooner-rigged. Lots of boats IS +schooner-rigged." + +There are affinities between atom and atom, between man and woman, +between man and man. There are also affinities between men and +things-if you choose to call a ship, which has a spirit of its own, +merely a thing. There must have been this affinity between Cleggett +and the Jasper B. Only an unusual person would have thought of buying +her. But Cleggett loved her at first sight. + +Within an hour after he had first seen her he was in Mr. Abraham +Goldberg's office. + +As he was concluding his purchase--Mr. Goldberg having phoned +Cleggett's bankers--he was surprised to discover that he was buying +about half an acre of Long Island real estate along with her. For that +matter he had thought it a little odd in the first place when he had +been directed to a real estate agent as the owner of the craft. But as +he knew very little about business, and nothing at all about ships, he +assumed that perhaps it was quite the usual thing for real estate +dealers to buy and sell ships abutting on the coast of Long Island. + +"I had only intended to buy the vessel," said Cleggett. "I don't know +that I'll be able to use the land." + +Mr. Goldberg looked at Cleggett with a slight start, as if he were not +sure that he had heard aright, and opened his mouth as if to say +something. But nothing came of it--not just then, at least. When the +last signature had been written, and Clegget's check had been folded by +Mr. Goldberg's plump, bejeweled fingers and put into Mr. Goldberg's +pocketbook, Mr. Goldberg remarked: + +"You say you can't use the ship?" + +"No; the land. I'm surprised to find that the land goes with the ship." + +"Why, it doesn't," said Mr. Goldberg. "It's the ship that goes with +the land. She was on the land when I bought the plot, and I just left +her there. Nobody's paid any attention to her for years." + +The words "on the land" grated on Cleggett. + +"You mean on the water, don't you?" + +"In the mud, then," suggested Mr. Goldberg. + +"But she'll sail all right," said Cleggett. + +"I suppose if she was decorated up with sails and things she'd sail. +Figuring on sailing her anywhere in particular?" + +Subtly irritated, Cleggett answered: "Oh, no, no! Not anywhere in +particular!" + +"Going to live on her this summer?--Outdoor sleeping room, and all +that?" + +"I'm thinking of it." + +"You could turn her into a house boat easy enough. I had a friend who +turned an old barge like that into a house boat and had a lot of fun +with her." + +"Barge?" Cleggett rose and buttoned his coat; the conversation was +somehow growing more and more distasteful to him. "You wouldn't call +the Jasper B. a BARGE, would you?" + +"Well, you wouldn't call her a YACHT, would you?" said Mr. Goldberg. + +"Perhaps not," admitted Cleggett, "perhaps not. She's more like a bark +than a yacht." + +"A bark? I dunno. Always thought a bark was bigger. A scow's more +her size, ain't it?" + +"Scow?" Cleggett frowned. The Jasper B. a scow! "You mean a +schooner, don't you?" + +"Schooner?" Mr. Goldberg grinned good-naturedly at his departing +customer. "A kind of a schooner-scow, huh?" + +"No, sir, a schooner!" said Cleggett, reddening, and turning in the +doorway. "Understand me, Mr. Goldberg, a schooner, sir! A schooner!" + +And standing with a frown on his face until every vestige of the smile +had died from Mr. Goldberg's lips, Cleggett repeated once more: "A +schooner, Mr. Goldberg!" + +"Yes, sir--there's no doubt of it--a schooner, Mr. Cleggett," said Mr. +Goldberg, turning pale and backing away from the door. + +The ordinary man inspects a house or a horse first and buys it, or +fails to buy it, afterward; but genius scorns conventions; Cleggett was +not an ordinary man; he often moved straight towards his object by +inspiration; great poets and great adventurers share this faculty; +Cleggett paid for the Jasper B. first and went back to inspect his +purchase later. + +The vessel lay about two miles from the center of Fairport. He could +get within half a mile of it by trolley. Nevertheless, when he reached +the Jasper B. again after leaving Mr. Goldberg it was getting along +towards dusk. + +He first entered the cabin. It was of a good size and divided into +several compartments. But it was in a state of dilapidation and +littered with a jumble of odds and ends which looked like the ruins of +a barroom. As he turned to ascend to the deck again, after possibly +five minutes, intending to take a look at the forecastle next, he heard +the sound of a motor. + +Looking out of the cabin he saw a taxicab approaching the boat from the +direction of Fairport. It was a large machine, but it was overloaded +with seven or eight men. It stopped within twenty yards of the vessel, +and two men got out, one of them evidently a person who imposed some +sort of leadership on the rest of the party. This was a tall fellow, +with a slouching gait and round shoulders. And yet, to judge from his +movements, he was both quick and powerful. The other was a short, +stout man with a commonplace, broad red face and flaxen hair. The two +stood for a moment in colloquy in the road that led from Fairport +proper to the bayside, passing near the Jasper B., and Cleggett heard +the shorter of the two men say: + +"I'm sure I saw somebody aboard of her." + +"How long ago, Heinrich?" asked the tall man. + +"An hour or so," said Heinrich. + +"It was old man Abernethy; he's harmless," said the tall fellow. "He's +the only person that's been aboard her in years." + +"There was someone else," persisted Heinrich. "Someone who was talking +to Abernethy." + +The tall man mumbled something about having been a fool not to buy her +before this; Cleggett did not catch all of the remark. Then the tall +fellow said: + +"We'll go aboard, Heinrich, and take a look around." + +With that they advanced towards the vessel. Cleggett stepped on deck +from the cabin companionway, and both men stopped short at the sight of +him, Heinrich obviously a trifle confused, but the other one in no wise +abashed. He made no attempt, this tall fellow, to give the situation a +casual turn. What he did was to stand and stare at Cleggett, candidly, +and with more than a touch of insolence, as if trying to beat down +Cleggett's gaze. + +Cleggett, staring in his turn, perceived that the tall man, ungainly as +he was, affected a bizarre individualism in the matter of dress. His +clothing cried out, rather than suggested, that it was expensive. His +feet were cased in button shoes with fancy tops; his waistcoat, cut in +the extreme of style, revealed that little strip of white which falsely +advertises a second waistcoat beneath, but in his case the strip was +too broad. There were diamonds on the fingers of both powerful hands. +But the thing that grated particularly upon Cleggett was the character +of the man's scarfpin. It was by far the largest ornament of the sort +that Cleggett had ever seen; he was near enough to the fellow to make +out that it had been carved from a piece of solid ivory in the likeness +of a skull. In the eyeholes of the skull two opals flamed with an evil +levin. The man suggested to Cleggett, at first glance, a bartender who +had come into money, or a drayman who had been promoted to an important +office in a labor union and was spending the most of a considerable +salary on his person. And yet his face, more closely observed, somehow +gave the lie to his clothes, for it was not lacking in the signs of +intelligence. In spite of his taste, or rather lack of taste, there +was no hint of weakness in his physiognomy. His features were harsh, +bold, predatory; a slightly yellowish tinge about the temples and cheek +bones, suggestive of the ivory ornament, proclaimed a bilious +temperament. + +Cleggett, both puzzled and nettled by the man's persistent gaze, +advanced towards him across the deck of the Jasper B. and down the +gangplank, hand on hip, and called out sharply: + +"Well, my friend, you will know me the next time you see me!" + +The tall man turned without a word and walked back to the taxicab, the +occupants of which had watched this singular duel of looks in silence. +In the act of getting into the machine he face about again and said, +with a lift of the lip that showed two long, protruding canine teeth of +an almost saffron hue: + +"I WILL know you again." + +He spoke with a kind of cold hostility that gave his words all the +effect of a threat. Cleggett felt the blood leap faster through his +veins; he tingled with a fierce, illogical desire to strike the fellow +on the mouth; his soul stirred with a premonition of conflict, and the +desire for it. And yet, on the surface of things at least, the man had +been nothing more than rude; as Cleggett watched the machine make off +towards an isolated road house on the bayside he wondered at the quick +intensity of his own antipathy. Unconsciously he flexed his wrist in +his characteristic gesture. Scarcely knowing that he spoke, he +murmured: + +"That man gets on my nerves." + +That man was destined to do something more than get on Cleggett's +nerves before the adventures of the Jasper B. were ended. + + + +CHAPTER IV + +A BAD MAN TO CROSS + +The isolated road house on the bay was a nondescript, jumbled, +dilapidated-looking assemblage of structures, rather than one house. +It was known simply as Morris's. It stood a few hundred yards west of +the end of the canal which opened into the bay and was about a quarter +of a mile from the Jasper B. + +The canal itself was broad, straight, low-banked, and about +three-quarters of a mile in length. The town had thrown out a few +ranks of cottages in the direction of the canal. But these were all +summer bungalows, occupied only from June until the middle of +September. The solider and more permanent part of Fairport was well +withdrawn from the sandy, sedgy stretches that bordered on tidewater. + +At the north and inland terminus of the quiet strip of water in which +the Jasper B. reposed was a collection of buildings including +bathhouses, a boathouse, and a sort of shed where "soft drinks" and sea +food were served during the bathing season. This place was known as +Parker's Beach and was open only during the summer. + +Morris's was of quite a different character from Parker's Beach. One +could bathe at Morris's, but the beach near by was not particularly +good. One could hire boats there and buy bait for a fishing trip. In +one of its phases it made some pretensions to being a summer hotel. It +had an extensive barroom. There was a dancing floor, none too smooth. +There were long verandahs on three sides. That on the south side was +built on piles, people ate and drank there in the summer; beneath it +the water swished and gurgled when the tide was in. + +The townspeople of Fairport, or the more respectable ones, kept away +from Morris's, summer and winter. Summer transients, inhabitants of +the bungalows during the bathing season, patronized the place. But +most of the patronage at all seasons seemed to consist of automobile +parties from the city; people apparently drawn from all classes, or +eluding definite classification entirely. In the bleakest season there +was always a little stir of dubious activity about Morris's. In the +summer it impressed you with its look of cheapness. In the winter, +squatted by the cold water amidst its huddle of unpainted outhouses, at +the end of a stretch of desolate beach, the fancy gave Morris's a touch +of the sinister. + +Cleggett was anxious to get the Jasper B. into seaworthy condition as +soon as possible. It occurred to him that the employment of expert +advice should be his first step, and early the next morning he hired +Captain Abernethy. That descendant of a seafaring family, though he +felt it incumbent upon him to offer objections that had to be overcome +with a great show of respect, was really overjoyed at the commission. +He left his own cottage a mile or so away and took up his abode in the +forecastle at once. By nine o'clock that morning Cleggett had a force +of workmen renovating both cabin and forecastle, putting the cook's +galley into working order, and cleansing the decks of soil and sand. +That night Cleggett spent on the vessel, with Captain Abernethy. + +By Saturday of the same week--Cleggett had bought the vessel on +Wednesday--he was able to take up his abode in the cabin with his books +and arms about him. To his library he had added a treatise on +navigation. And, reflecting that his firearms were worthless, +considered as modern weapons, he also purchased a score of .44 caliber +Colt's revolvers and automatic pistols of the latest pattern, and a +dozen magazine rifles. + +He brought on board at the same time, for cook and cabin boy, a +Japanese lad, who said he was a sailor, and who called himself +Yoshahira Kuroki, and a Greek, George Stefanopolous. + +The latter was a handsome, rather burly fellow of about thirty, a man +with a kindling eye and a habit of boasting of his ancestors. + +Among them, he declared, was Leonidas, the hero of Thermopylae. George +admitted he was not a sailor, but professed a willingness to learn, and +looked so capable, as he squared his bulky shoulders and twisted his +fine black mustache, that Cleggett engaged him, taking him immediately +from the dairy lunch room in which he had been employed. George's idea +was to work his way back to Greece, he said, on the Jasper B. If she +did not sail for Greece for some time, George was willing to wait; he +was patient; sometime, no doubt, she would touch the shores of Greece. + +The hold of the Jasper B. Cleggett and Captain Abernethy found to be in +a chaotic state. Casks, barrels, empty bottles by the hundred, ruins +of benches, tables, chairs, old nondescript pieces of planking, broken +crates and boxes, were flung together there in moldering confusion. It +was evident that after the scheme of using the Jasper B.'s hulk as one +of the attractions of a pleasure resort had failed, all the debris of +the failure had simply been thrown pell-mell into the hold. Cleggett +and Captain Abernethy decided that the vessel, which was stepped for +two masts, should be rigged as a schooner. The Captain was soon busy +securing estimates on the amount of work that would have to be done, +and the cost of it. The pile of rubbish in the hold, which filled it +to such an extent that Cleggett gave up the attempt to examine it, was +to be removed by the same contractor who put in the sticks. + +All the activity on board and about the Jasper B. had not gone on +without attracting the attention of Morris's. Cleggett noticed that +there was usually someone in the neighborhood of that dubious resort +cocking an eye in the direction of the vessel. Indeed, the interest +became so pronounced, and seemed of a quality so different from +ordinary frank rustic curiosity, that it looked very like espionage. +It had struck Cleggett that Morris's seemed at all times to have more +than its share of idlers and hangers-on; men who appeared to make the +place their headquarters and were not to be confused with the +occasional off-season parties from the city. + +On Sunday morning Cleggett was awakened by Captain Abernethy, who +announced: + +"Strange craft lookin' us over mighty close, sir." + +"A strange craft? Where is she?" Cleggett was instantly alert. + +"She's a house boat, if you was to ask me," said the brown old man--in +a new brown suit and with his whiskers newly trimmed he gave the +impression of having been overhauled and freshly painted. + +"Where is she?" repeated Cleggett, beginning to get into his clothes. + +"She must 'a' sneaked up an' anchored mighty early this mornin'," +pursued Cap'n Abernethy, true to his conversational principles. + +"Is she in the bay or in the canal?" + +"She looks like a mighty toney kind o' vessel," said Cap'n Abernethy. +"If I was to make a guess I'd say she was one of them craft that sails +herself along when she wants to with one of these newfangled gasoline +engines." + +"She wasn't towed here then?" Cleggett gave up the attempt to learn +from the Captain just where the house boat was. + +"She lies in the canal," said the Cap'n. Having established the point +that he could not be FORCED to tell where she lay, he volunteered the +information as a personal favor from one gentleman to another. "She +lies ahead of us in the canal, a p'int or so off our port bow, I should +say. And if you was to ask me I'd say she wasn't layin' there for any +good purpose." + +"What do you think she's up to? What makes you suspicious of her?" + +"No, sir, she wasn't towed in," said Cap'n Abernethy, "or I'd 'a' heard +a tug towin' her. Comin' of a seafarin' fambly I'm a light sleeper by +nature." + +Cleggett finished dressing and went on deck. Sure enough, towards the +south end of the canal, three or four hundred yards south of the Jasper +B., and about the same distance east of Morris's, was anchored a house +boat. She was painted a slaty gray color. As Cleggett looked at her a +man stepped up on the deck, and, putting a binocular glass to his eye, +began to study the Jasper B. After a few minutes of steady scrutiny +this person turned his attention to Morris's. + +Looking towards Morris's himself Cleggett saw a man standing on the +east verandah of that resort intently scanning the house boat through a +glass. Cleggett went into the cabin and got his own glass. + +Presently the man on Morris's verandah and the man of the house boat +ceased to scrutinize each other and both turned their glasses upon the +Jasper B. But the moment they perceived that Cleggett was provided +with a glass each turned hastily and entered, the one Morris's place, +and the other the cabin of the house boat. But Cleggett had already +recognized the man at Morris's as the stoop-shouldered man of tall +stature and fanciful dress who had tried to stare him down some days +before. + +As for the man on the house boat (which, as Cleggett had made out, was +named the Annabel Lee), there was something vaguely familiar about his +general appearance which puzzled and tantalized our hero. + +As the morning wore on Cleggett became certain that the Jasper B. was +closely watched by both the Annabel Lee and Morris's, although the +watchers avoided showing themselves plainly. A slightly agitated blind +at a second story window over the verandah showed him where the tall +man or one of his associates gazed out from Morris's; and from a +porthole of the Annabel Lee he could see a glass thrust forth from time +to time. It was evident to him that the Annabel Lee and Morris's were +suspicious of each other, and that both suspected the Jasper B. But of +what did they suspect Cleggett? What intention did they impute to him? +He could only wonder. + +Through the entire morning he was conscious of the continuance of this +watch. He thought it ceased about luncheon time; but at two in the +afternoon he was certain that, if so, it had been resumed. + +Cleggett, innocent and honorable, began to get impatient of this +persistent scrutiny. And in spite of his courage a vague uneasiness +began to possess him. Towards the end of the afternoon he called his +little company aft and spoke to them. + +"My men," he said, "I do not like the attitude of our neighbors. To put +it briefly, there may be squalls ahead of the Jasper B. This is a wild +and desolate coast, comparatively speaking. Strange things have +happened to innocent people before this along the shores of Long +Island. It is well to be prepared. I intend to serve out to each of +you two hundred cartridges and a .44 caliber Colt's. In case of an +attempt to board, you may find these cutlasses handy. + +"Cap'n Abernethy, in all nautical matters you will still be in command +of the ship, but in case of a military demonstration, all of you will +look to me for leadership. You may go now and rig up a jury mast and +bend the American colors to the peak--and in case of blows, may God +defend the right! I know I do not need to exhort you to do your duty!" + +As Cleggett spoke the spirit which animated him seemed to communicate +itself to his listeners. Their eyes kindled and the keen joy that +gallant men always feel in the anticipation of conflict flushed their +faces. + +"I am a son of Leonidas," said George Stefanopolous, proudly. And he +secreted not merely one, but two, of Cleggett's daggers about his body, +in addition to the revolver given him. As George had already possessed +a dagger or two and an automatic pistol, it was now almost impossible +for him to lay his hand casually on any part of his person without its +coming into contact with a deadly weapon ready for instant use. Cap'n +Abernethy picked up a cutlass, "hefted" it thoughtfully, rolled his +sleeve back upon a lean and sinewy old arm that was tanned until it +looked like a piece of weathered oak, spat upon his hand and whirled +the weapon till it whistled in the air. "I come of a seafarin' +fambly," said the Cap'n, sententiously. + +As for Kuroki, he said nothing. He was not given to speech at any +time. But he picked up a Malay kris and ran his thumb along the edge +of it critically like a man to whom such a weapon is not altogether +unfamiliar. A pleased smile stole over his face; he handled the wicked +knife almost affectionately; he put it down with a little loving pat. + +"Brave boys," murmured Cleggett, as he watched them. He smiled, but at +the same time something like a tear blurred his eloquent and magnetic +eye for a moment. "Brave boys," he murmured, "we were made for each +other!" + +The display of the American flag by the Jasper B. had an effect that +could not have been foreseen. + +Almost immediately the Annabel Lee herself flung an exactly similar +American flag to the breeze. But a strange thing happened at Morris's. +An American flag was first hung from an upper window over the east +verandah. Then, after a moment, it was withdrawn. Then a red flag was +put out. But almost immediately Cleggett saw a man rip the red flag +from its fastenings and fling it to the ground. + +Cleggett, resorting to his glass, perceived that it was the tall man +with the stoop shoulders and incongruous clothing who had torn down the +red flag. He was now in violent altercation with the man who had hung +it out--the fellow whom he had called Heinrich some days before. + +As Cleggett watched, the two men came to blows; then they clinched and +struggled, swaying back and forth within the open window, like a moving +picture in a frame. Suddenly the tall fellow seemed to get the upper +hand; exerting all his strength, he bent the other backward over the +window sill. The two contending figures writhed desperately a moment +and then the tall man shifted one powerful, sinewy hand to Heinrich's +throat. + +The binoculars brought the thing so near to Cleggett that it seemed as +if he could touch the contorted faces; he could see the tall man's neck +muscles work as if that person were panting; he could see the signs of +suffocation in Heinrich's countenance. The fact that he saw so plainly +and yet could hear no sound of the struggle somehow added to its horror. + +All at once the tall man put his knee upon the other's chest, and flung +his weight upon Heinrich with a vehement spring. Then he tumbled +Heinrich out of the window onto the roof of the verandah. + +He stepped out of the window himself, picked Heinrich up with an ease +that testified to his immense strength, and flung him over the edge of +the verandah onto the ground. A few moments later a couple of men ran +out from Morris's, busied themselves about reviving the fellow, and +helped him into the house. If Heinrich was not badly injured, +certainly all the fight had been taken out of him for one day. + +With Heinrich thus disposed of, the tall man turned composedly to the +task of putting out the American flag again. Through the glass +Cleggett perceived that his face was twisted by a peculiar smile; a +smile of joyous malevolence. + +"A bad man to cross, that tall man," said Cleggett, musingly. And +indeed, his violence with Heinrich had seemed out of all proportion to +the apparent grounds of the quarrel; for it was evident to Cleggett +that Heinrich and the tall man had differed merely about the policy of +displaying the red flag. "A man determined to have his way," mused +Cleggett. "If he and I should meet------" Cleggett did not finish the +sentence in words, but his hand closed over the butt of his revolver. + +His musing was interrupted by the noise of an approaching automobile. +Turning, he saw a vehicle, the rather long body of which was covered so +that it resembled a merchant's delivery wagon, coming along the road +from Fairport. + +It stopped opposite the Jasper B., and from the seat beside the driver +leaped lightly the most beautiful woman Cleggett had ever seen, and +walked hesitatingly but gracefully towards him. + +She was agitated. She was, in fact, sobbing; and a Pomeranian dog +which she carried in her arms was whimpering excitedly as if in +sympathy with its mistress. Cleggett, soul of chivalry that he was, +born cavalier of beauty in distress, removed his hat and advanced to +meet her. + + + +CHAPTER V + +BEAUTY IN DISTRESS + +"Can you tell me where I can get some ice? Can you sell me some ice?" +cried the lady excitedly, when she was still some yards distant from +Cleggett. + +"Ice?" The request was so unusual that Cleggett was not certain that +he had understood. + +"Yes, ice! Ice!" There was no mistaking the genuine character of her +eagerness; if she had been begging for her life she could not have been +more in earnest. "Don't tell me that you have none on your boat. +Don't tell me that! Don't tell me that!" + +And suddenly, like a woman who has borne all that she can bear, she +burst undisguisedly into a paroxysm of weeping. Cleggett, stirred by +her beauty and her trouble, stepped nearer to her, for she swayed with +her emotion as if she were about to fall. Impulsively she put a hand on +his arm, and the Pomeranian, dropped unceremoniously to the ground, +sprang at Cleggett snarling and snapping as if sure he were the author +of the lady's misfortunes. + +"You will think I am mad," said the lady, endeavoring to control her +tears, "but I MUST have ice. Don't tell me that you have no ice!" + +"My dear lady," said Cleggett, unconsciously clasping, in his anxiety +to reassure her, the hand that she had laid upon his arm, "I have +ice--you shall have all the ice you want!" + +"Oh," she murmured, leaning towards him, "you cannot know----" + +But the rest was lost in an incoherent babble, and with a deep sigh she +fell lax into Cleggett's arms. The reaction from despair had been too +much for her; it had come too suddenly; at the first word of +reassurance, at the first ray of dawning hope, she had fainted. +High-strung natures, intrepid in the face of danger, are apt to such +collapses in the moment of deliverance; and, whatever the nature of the +lady's trouble, Cleggett gained from her swoon a sharp sense of its +intensity. + +Cleggett was not used to having beautiful women faint and fall into his +arms, and he was too much of a gentleman to hold one there a single +moment longer than was absolutely necessary. He turned his head rather +helplessly towards the vehicle in which the lady had arrived. To his +consternation and surprise it had turned around and the chauffeur was +in the act of starting back towards Fairport. But he had left behind +him a large zinc bucket with a cover on it, a long unpainted, oblong +box, and two steamer trunks; on the oblong box sat a short, squat young +man in an attitude of deep dejection. + +"Hi there! Stop!" cried Cleggett to the chauffeur. That person +stopped his machine. He did more. He arose in the seat, applied his +thumb to his nose, and vigorously and vivaciously waggled his outspread +fingers at Cleggett in a gesture, derisive and inelegant, that is older +than the pyramids. Then he started his machine again and made all +speed in the direction of Fairport. + +"I say, you, come here!" Cleggett called to the squat young man. "Can't +you see that the lady's fainted?" + +The squat young man, thus exhorted, sadly approached. + +"Can't you see the lady has fainted?" repeated Cleggett. + +"Skoits often does," said the squat young man, looking over the +situation in a detached, judicial manner. He spoke out of the left +corner of his mouth in a hoarse voice, without moving the right side of +his face at all, and he seemed to feel that the responsibility of the +situation was Cleggett's. + +"But, don't you know her? Didn't you come here with her?" + +The squat young man appeared to debate some moral issue inwardly for a +moment. And then, speaking this time out of the right corner of his +mouth, which was now nearer Cleggett, without disturbing the left half +of his face, he pointed towards the oblong box and murmured huskily: +"That's my job." He went and sat down on the box again. + +Without more ado Cleggett lifted the lady and bore her onto the Jasper +B. She was a heavy burden, but Cleggett declined the assistance of +Cap'n Abernethy and George the Greek, who had come tardily out of the +forecastle and now offered their assistance. + +"Get a bottle of wine," he told Yosh, as he passed the Japanese on the +deck, "and then make some tea." + +Cleggett laid the lady on a couch in the cabin, and then lighted a +lamp, as it got dark early in these quarters. While he waited for +Yoshahira Kuroki and the wine, he looked at her. In her appealing +helplessness she looked even more beautiful than she had at first. She +was a blonde, with eyebrows and lashes darker than her hair; and, even +in her swoon, Cleggett could see that she was of the thin-skinned, +high-colored type. Her eyes, as he had seen before she swooned, were +of a deep, dark violet color. She was no chit of a girl, but a mature +woman, tall and splendid in the noble fullness of her contours. The +high nose spoke of love of activity and energy of character. The full +mouth indicated warmth of heart; the chin was of that sort which we +have been taught to associate with determination. + +The Japanese brought the wine, and Cleggett poured a few spoonfuls down +the lady's throat. Presently she sighed and stirred and began to show +signs of returning animation. + +The Pomeranian, which had followed them into the cabin, and which now +lay whimpering at her feet, also seemed to feel that she was awakening, +and, crawling higher, began to lick one of her hands. + +"Make some tea, Yosh," said Cleggett. "What is it?" + +This last was addressed to the lady herself. Her eyes had opened for a +fleeting instant as Cleggett spoke to the Japanese, and her lips had +moved. Cleggett bent his head nearer, while Yosh picked up the dog, +which violently objected, and asked again: "What is it?" + +"Orange pekoe, please," the lady murmured, dreamily. + +And then she sat up with a start, struggled to recover herself, and +looked about her wildly. + +"Where am I?" she cried. "What has happened?" She passed her hand +across her brow, frowning. + +"You fainted, madam," said Cleggett. + +"Oh!" Suddenly recollection came to her, and her anxieties rushed upon +her once more. "The ice! The ice!" She sprang to her feet, and +grasped Cleggett by both shoulders, searching his face with eager eyes. +"You did not lie to me, did you? You promised me ice! Where is the +ice?" + +"You shall have the ice," said Cleggett, "at once." + +"Thank God!" she said. And then: "Where are Elmer and the box?" + +"Elmer? Oh, the short man! On shore. I believe that he and your +chauffeur had some sort of an altercation, for the chauffeur went off +and left him." + +"Yes," she said, simply, as they passed up the companionway to the deck +together, "that man, the driver, refused to bring us any farther." + +Cleggett must have looked a little blank at that, for she suddenly +threw back her head and laughed at him. And then, sobering instantly, +she called to the squat young man: + +"Elmer! Oh, Elmer! You may bring the boxes on board!" She turned to +Cleggett: "He may, mayn't he? Thank you--I was sure you would say he +might. And if one of your men could just give him a lift? And--the +ice?" + +"George," called Cleggett, "help the man get the boxes aboard. Kuroki, +bring fifty pounds of ice on deck." + +She sighed as she heard him give these orders, but it was a sigh of +satisfaction, and she smiled at Cleggett as she signed. Sometimes a +great deal can happen in a very short space of time. Ten minutes +before, Cleggett had never seen this lady, and now he was giving orders +at her merest suggestion. But in those ten minutes he had seen her +weep, he had seen her faint, he had seen her recover herself; he had +seen her emerge from the depths of despair into something more like +self-control; he had carried her in his arms, she had laughed at him, +she had twice impulsively grasped him by the arm, she had smiled at him +three times, she had sighed twice, she had frowned once; she had swept +upon him bringing with her an impression of the mysterious. Many men +are married to women for years without seeing their wives display so +many and such varied phases; to Cleggett it seemed not so much that he +was making a new acquaintance as renewing one that had been broken off +suddenly at some distant date. Cleggett, like the true-hearted +gentleman and born romanticist that he was, resolved to serve her +without question until such time as she chose to make known to him her +motives for her actions. + +"Do you know," she said, softly and gravely to Cleggett as George and +Elmer deposited the oblong box upon a spot which she indicated near the +cabin, "I have met very few men in my life who are capable of what you +are doing?" + +"I?" said Cleggett, surprised. "I have done nothing." + +"You have found a woman in a strange position--an unusual position, +indeed!--and you have helped her without persecuting her with +questions." + +"It is nothing," murmured Cleggett. + +"Would you think me too impulsive," she said, with a rare smile, "if I +told you that you are the sort of man whom women are ready to trust +implicitly almost at first sight?" + +Cleggett did not permit himself to speak for fear that the thrill which +her words imparted to him would carry him too far. He bowed. + +"But I think you mentioned tea?" she said. "Did I hear you say it was +orange pekoe, or did I dream that? And couldn't we have it on deck?" + +While Kuroki was bringing a table and chairs on deck and busying +himself about that preparation of tea, Cleggett watched Elmer, the +squat young man, with a growing curiosity. George and Cap'n Abernethy +were also watching Elmer from a discreet distance. Even Kuroki, silent, +swift, and well-trained Kuroki, could not but steal occasional glances +at Elmer. Had Cleggett been of a less lofty and controlled spirit he +would certainly have asked questions. + +For Elmer, having uncovered the zinc can and taken from it a hammer and +a large tin funnel, proceeded to break the big chunk of ice which +Kuroki had brought him, into half a dozen smaller pieces. These +smaller lumps, with the exception of two, he put into the zinc bucket, +wrapped around with pieces of coffee sacking. Then he put the cover on +the bucket to exclude the air. + +The zinc bucket was thus a portable refrigerator, or rather, ice house. + +Taking one of the lumps of ice which he had left out of the zinc bucket +for immediate use, Elmer carefully and methodically broke it into still +smaller pieces--pieces about the size of an English walnut, but +irregular in shape. Then he inserted the tin funnel into a small hole +in the uppermost surface of the unpainted, oblong box and dropped in +twenty or more of the little pieces of ice. When a piece proved to be +too big to go through the funnel Elmer broke it again. + +Cleggett noticed that there were five of these small holes in the box, +and that Elmer was slowly working his way down the length of it from +hole to hole, sitting astride of it the while. + +From the way in which he worked, and the care with which he conserved +every smallest particle of ice, Elmer's motto seemed to be: "Haste +not, waste not." But he did not appear to derive any great +satisfaction from his task, let alone joy. In fact, Elmer seemed to be +a joyless individual; one who habitually looked forward to the worst. +On his broad face, of the complexion described in police reports as +"pasty," melancholy sat enthroned. His nose was flat and broad, and +flat and broad were his cheek bones, too. His hair was cut very short +everywhere except in front; in front it hung down to his eyebrows in a +straggling black fringe or "bang." Not that the fringe would have +covered the average person's forehead; this "bang" was not long; but +the truth is that Elmer's forehead was lower than the average person's +and therefore easily covered. He had what is known in certain circles +as a cauliflower, or chrysanthemum, ear. + +But melancholy as he looked, Elmer had evidently had his moments of +struggle against dejection. One of these moments had been when he +bought the clothes he was wearing. His hat had a bright, red and black +band around it; his tweed suit was of a startling light gray, marked +off into checks with stripes of green; his waistcoat was of lavender, +and his hose were likewise of lavender, but red predominated in both +his shirt and his necktie. His collar was too high for his short neck, +and seemed to cause him discomfort. But this attempt at gayety of dress +was of no avail; one felt at once that it was a surface thing and had +no connection with Elmer's soul; it stood out in front of the +background of his sorrowful personality, accentuating the gloom, as a +blossom may grow upon a bleak rock. As Elmer carefully dropped ice, +piece by piece, into the oblong box, progressing slowly from hole to +hole, Cleggett thought he had never seen a more depressed young man. + +Captain Abernethy approached Cleggett. There was hesitation in the +brown old man's feet, there was doubt upon his wrinkled brow, but there +was the consciousness of duty in the poise of his shoulders, there was +determination in his eyes. + +The blonde lady laughed softly as the sailing-master of the Jasper B. +saluted the owner of the vessel. + +"He is going to tell you," she said to Cleggett, including the Captain +himself in her flashing look and her remark, "he is going to tell you +that you really should get rid of me and my boxes at once--I can see it +in his face!" + +Captain Abernethy stopped short at this, and stared. It was precisely +what he HAD planned to say after drawing Cleggett discreetly aside. +But it is rather startling to have one's thoughts read in this manner. + +He frowned at the lady. She smiled at him. The smile seemed to say to +the Cap'n: "You ridiculous old dear, you! You KNOW that's what you +were going to advise, so why deny it? I've found you out, but we both +might just as well be good-humored about it, mightn't we?" + +"Ma'am," said the Cap'n, evidently struggling between a suddenly born +desire to quit frowning and a sense that he had a perfect right to +frown as much as he wished, "Ma'am, if you was to ask me, I'd say +ridin' on steamships and ridin' on sailin' vessels is two different +matters entirely." + +"Cap'n Abernethy," said Cleggett, attempting to indicate that his +sailing master's advice was not absolutely required, "if you have +something to say to me, perhaps later will do just as well." + +"As fur as the Jasper B. is concerned," said the Cap'n, ignoring +Cleggett's remark, and still addressing the lady, "I dunno as you could +call her EITHER a sailin' vessel, OR a steamship, as at present +constituted." + +"You want to get me off your boat at once," said the lady. "You know +you do." And her manner added: "CAN'T you act like a good-natured old +dear? You really are one, you know!" + +The Cap'n became embarrassed. He began to fuss with his necktie, as if +tying it tighter would assist him to hold on to his frown. He felt the +frown slipping, but it was a point of honor with him to retain it. + +"She WILL be a sailin' vessel when she gets her sticks into her," said +the Cap'n, fumbling with his neckwear. + +"Let me fix that for you," said the lady. And before the Cap'n could +protest she was arranging his tie for him. "You old sea +captains!------" she said, untying the scarf and making the ends even. +"As if anyone could possibly be afraid to sail in anything one of YOU +had charge of!" She gave the necktie a little final pat. "There, now!" + +The Captain's frown was gone past replacement. But he still felt that +he owed something to himself. + +"If you was to ask me," he said, turning to Cleggett, "whether what I'd +got to say to you would do later, or whether it wouldn't do later, I'd +answer you it would, or it wouldn't, all accordin' to whether you +wanted to hear it now, or whether you wanted to hear it later. And as +far as SAILIN' her is concerned, Mr. Cleggett, I'll SAIL her, whether +you turn her into a battleship or into one of these here yachts. I +come of a seafarin' fambly." + +And then he said to the lady, indicating the tie and bobbing his head +forward with a prim little bow: "Thank ye, ma'am." + +"Isn't he a duck!" said the lady, following him with her eyes, as he +went behind the cabin. There the Cap'n chewed, smoked, and fished, +earnestly and simultaneously, for ten minutes. + +Indeed, the blonde lady, from the moment when Elmer began to put ice +into the box, seemed to have regained her spirits. The little dog, +which was an indicator of her moods, had likewise lost its nervousness. +When Kuroki had tea ready, the dog lay down at his mistress' feet, +beside the table. + +"Dear little Teddy," said the lady, patting the animal upon the head. + +"Teddy?" said Cleggett. + +"I have named him," she said, "after a great American. To my mind, the +greatest--Theodore Roosevelt. His championship of the cause of votes +for women at a time when mere politicians were afraid to commit +themselves is enough in itself to gain him a place in history." + +She spoke with a kindling eye, and Cleggett had no doubt that there was +before him one of those remarkable women who make the early part of the +twentieth century so different from any other historical period. And +he was one with her in her admiration for Roosevelt--a man whose +facility in finding adventures and whose behavior when he had found +them had always made a strong appeal to Cleggett. If he could not have +been Cleggett he would have liked to have been either the Chevalier +d'Artagnan or Theodore Roosevelt. + +"He is a great man," said Cleggett. + +But the lady, with her second cup of tea in her hand, was evidently +thinking of something else. Leaning back in her chair, she said to +Cleggett: + +"It is no good for you to deny that you think I'm a horridly +unconventional sort of person!" + +Cleggett made a polite, deprecatory gesture. + +"Yes, yes, you do," she said, decidedly. "And, really, I am! I am +impulsive! I am TOO impulsive!" She raised the cup to her lips, +drank, and looked off towards the western horizon, which the sun was +beginning to paint ruddily; she mused, murmuring as if to herself: +"Sir Archibald always thought I was too impulsive, dear man." + +After a meditative pause she said, leaning her elbows on the table and +gazing searchingly into Cleggett's eyes: + +"I am going to trust you. I am going to reward your kindness by +telling you a portion of my strange story. I am going to depend upon +you to understand it." + +Cleggett bowed and murmured his gratitude at the compliment. Then he +said: + +"You could trust me with------" But he stopped. He did not wish to be +premature. + +"With my life. I could trust you with my life," finished the lady, +gravely. "I know that. I believe that. I feel it, somehow. It is +because I do feel it that I tell you----" She paused, as if, after +all, she lacked the courage. Cleggett said nothing. He was too fine in +grain to force a confidence. After a moment she continued: "I can tell +you this," she said, with a catch in her voice that was almost a sob, +"that I am practically friendless. When you call a taxicab for me in a +few moments, and I leave you, with Elmer and my boxes, I shall have no +place to go." + +"But, surely, madam----" + +"Do not call me madam. Call me Lady Agatha. I am Lady Agatha +Fairhaven. What is your name?" + +Cleggett told her. + +"You have heard of me?" asked Lady Agatha. + +Cleggett was obliged to confess that he had not. He thought that a +shade of disappointment passed over the lady's face, but in a moment +she smiled and remarked: + +"How relative a thing is fame! You have never heard of me! And yet I +can assure you that I am well enough known in England. I was one of +the very first militant suffragettes to break a window--if not the very +first. The point is, indeed, in dispute. And were it not for my +devotion to the cause I would not now be in my present terrible +plight--doomed to wander from pillar to post with that thing" (she +pointed with a shudder to the box into which Elmer was still gloomily +poking ice)-"chained to me like a--like a----" She hesitated for a +word, and Cleggett, tactlessly enough, with some vague recollection of +a classical tale in his mind, suggested: + +"Like a corpse." + +Lady Agatha turned pale. She gazed at Cleggett with terror-stricken +eyes, her beautiful face became almost haggard in an instant; he +thought she was about to faint again, but she did not. As he looked +upon the change his words had wrought, filled with wonder and +compunction, Cleggett suddenly divined that her occasional flashes of +gayety had been, all along, merely the forced vivacity of a brave and +clever woman who was making a gallant fight against total collapse. + +"Mr. Cleggett," she said, in a voice that was scarcely louder than a +whisper, "I am going to confide everything to you--the whole truth. I +will spare myself nothing; I will throw myself upon your mercy. + +"I firmly believe, Mr. Cleggett--I am practically certain--that the box +there, upon which Elmer is sitting, contains the body of Reginald +Maltravers, natural son of the tenth Earl of Claiborne, and the cousin +of my late husband, Sir Archibald Fairhaven." + + + +CHAPTER VI + +LADY AGATHA'S STORY + +It was with the greatest difficulty that Cleggett repressed a start. +Another man might have shown the shock he felt. But Cleggett had the +iron nerve of a Bismarck and the fine manner of a Richelieu. He did +not even permit his eyes to wander towards the box in question. He +merely sat and waited. + +Lady Agatha, having brought herself to the point of revelation, seemed +to find a difficulty in proceeding. Cleggett, mutely asking +permission, lighted a cigarette. + +"Oh--if you will!" said Lady Agatha, extending her hand towards the +case. He passed it over, and when she had chosen one of the little +rolls and lighted it she said: + +"Mr. Cleggett, have you ever lived in England?" + +"I have never even visited England." + +"I wish you knew England." She watched the curling smoke from her +tobacco as it drifted across the table. "If you knew England you would +comprehend so much more readily some parts of my story. + +"But, being an American, you can have no adequate conception of the +conservatism that still prevails in certain quarters. I refer to the +really old families among the landed aristocracy. Some of them have not +changed essentially, in their attitude towards the world in general, +since the reign of Queen Elizabeth. They make of family a fetish. They +are ready to sacrifice everything upon the altar of family. They may +exhibit this pride of race less obviously than some of the French or +Germans or Italians; but they have a deeper sense of their own dignity, +and of what is due to it, than any of your more flighty and picturesque +continentals. There are certain things that are done. Certain things +are not done. One must conform or----" + +She interrupted herself and delicately flicked the ash from her +cigarette. + +"Conform, or be jolly well damned," she finished, crossing one leg over +the other and leaning back in her chair. "This, by the way, is the +only decent cigarette I have found in America. I hate to smoke +perfume--I like tobacco--and most of your shops seem to keep nothing +but the highly scented Turkish and Egyptian varieties." + +"They were made in London," said Cleggett, bowing. + +"Ah! But where was I? Oh, yes--one must conform. Especially if one +belongs to, or has married into, the Claiborne family. Of all the men +in England the Earl of Claiborne is the most conservative, the most +reactionary, the most deeply encrusted with prejudice. He would stop +at little where the question concerned the prestige of the aristocracy +in general; he would stop at nothing where the Claiborne family is +concerned. + +"I am telling you all this so that you may get an inkling of the blow +it was to him when I became a militant suffragist. It was blow enough +to his nephew, Sir Archibald, my late husband. The Earl maintains that +it hastened poor Archibald's death. But that is ridiculous. Archibald +had undermined his constitution with dissipation, and died following an +operation for gravel. He was to have succeeded to the title, as both +of the Earl's legitimate sons were dead without issue--one of them +perished in the Boer War, and the other was killed in the hunting field. + +"Upon Archibald's death the old Earl publicly acknowledged Reginald +Maltravers, his natural son, and took steps to have him legitimatized. +For all of the bend sinister upon his escutcheon, Reginald Maltravers +was as fanatical concerning the family as his father. Perhaps more +fanatical, because he secretly suffered for the irregularity of his own +position in the world. + +"At any rate, supported at first by the old Earl, he began a series of +persecutions designed to make me renounce my suffragist principles, or +at least to make me cease playing a conspicuous public part in the +militant propaganda. As my husband was dead and there were no +children, I could not see that I was accountable to the Claiborne +family for my actions. But the Claibornes took a different view of it. +In their philosophy, once a Claiborne, always a Claiborne. I was +bringing disgrace and humiliation upon the family, in their opinion. +Knowing the old Earl as I do, I am aware that his suffering was genuine +and intense. But what was I to do? One cannot desert one's principles +merely because they cause suffering; otherwise there could be no such +thing as revolution. + +"Reginald Maltravers had another reason for his persecution. After the +death of Sir Archibald he himself sought my hand in marriage. I shall +always remember the form of his proposal; it concluded with these +words: 'Had Archibald lived you would have been a countess. You may +still be a countess--but you must drop this suffragist show, you know. +It is all bally rot, Agatha, all bally rot.' I would not have married +him without the condition, for I despised the man himself; but the +condition made me furious and I drove him from my sight with words that +turned him white and made him my enemy forever. 'You will not be my +countess, then,' he said. 'Very well--but I can promise you that you +will cease to be a suffragist.' I can still see the evil flash of his +eye behind his monocle as he uttered these words and turned away." + +Lady Agatha shuddered at the recollection, and took a cup of tea. + +"It was then," she resumed, "that the real persecution began. I was +peculiarly helpless, as I have no near relations who might have come to +my defense. Representing himself always as the agent of his father, +but far exceeding the Earl in the malevolence of his inventions, +Reginald Maltravers sought by every means he could command to drive me +from public life in England. + +"Three times he succeeded in having me flung into Holloway Jail. I need +not tell you of the terrors of that institution, nor of the degrading +horrors of forcible feeding. They are known to a shocked and +sympathetic world. But Reginald Maltravers contrived, in my case, to +add to the usual brutalities a peculiar and personal touch. By +bribery, as I believe, he succeeded in getting himself into the prison +as a turnkey. It was his custom, when I lay weak and helpless in the +semistupor of starvation, to glide into my cell and, standing by my +couch, to recite to me the list of tempting viands that might appear +daily upon the board of a Countess of Claiborne. + +"He soon learned that his very presence itself was a persecution. After +my release from jail the last time, he began to follow me everywhere. +Turn where I would, there was Reginald Maltravers. At suffrage meetings +he took his station directly before the speaker's stand, stroked his +long blond mustache with his long white fingers, and stared at me +steadfastly through his monocle, with an evil smile upon his face. +Formerly he had, in several instances, prevented me from attending +suffrage meetings; once he had me spirited away and imprisoned for a +week when it fell to my lot to burn a railroad station for the good of +the cause. He strove to ruin me with my leaders in this despicable +manner. + +"But in the end he took to showing himself; he stood and stared. Merely +that. He was subtle enough to shift the persecution from the province +of the physical to the realm of the psychological. It was like being +haunted. Even when I did not see him, I began to THINK that I saw him. +He deliberately planted that hallucination in my mind. It is a wonder +that I did not go mad. + +"I finally determined to flee to America. I made all my arrangements +with care and--as I thought--with secrecy. I imagined that I had given +him the slip. But he was too clever for me. The third day out, as one +of the ship's officers was showing me about the vessel, I detected +Reginald Maltravers in the hold. It is not usual to allow women so far +below decks; but I had insisted on seeing everything. Perspiring, +begrimed, and mopping the moisture from his brow with a piece of cotton +waste, there he stood in the guise of a--of--a croaker, is it, Mr. +Cleggett?" + +"Stoker, I believe," said Cleggett. + +"Stoker. Thank you. He turned away in confusion when he saw that he +was discovered. I perceived that, designing to cross on the same ship +with me, he had thought himself hidden there. He was not wearing his +monocle, but I would know that sloping forehead, that blond mustache, +and that long, high, bony nose anywhere." + +Lady Agatha broke off for a moment. She was extremely agitated. But +presently she continued: "I endeavored to evade him. The attempt was +useless. He found me out at once. The persecution went on. It was +more terrible here than it had been in England. There I had friends. I +had hours, sometimes even whole days, to myself. + +"But this was not the worst. A new phase developed. From his +appearance it suddenly became apparent to me that Reginald Maltravers +could not stop haunting me if he wished!" + +"COULD not stop?" cried Cleggett. + +"COULD not," said Lady Agatha. "The hunt had become a monomania with +him. It had become an obsession. He had given his whole mentality to +it and it had absorbed all his faculties. He was now the victim of it. +He had grown powerless in the grip of the idea; he had lost volition in +the matter. + +"You can imagine my consternation when I realized this. I began to +fear the day when his insanity would take some violent form and he +would endeavor to do me a personal injury. I determined to have a +bodyguard. I wanted a man inured to danger; one capable of meeting +violence with violence, if the need arose. It struck me that if I +could get into touch with one of those chivalrous Western outlaws, of +whom we read in American works of fiction, he would be just the sort of +man I needed to protect me from Reginald Maltravers. + +"I did not consider appealing to the authorities, for I have no +confidence in your American laws, Mr. Cleggett. But I did not know how +to go about finding a chivalrous Western outlaw. So finally I put an +advertisement in the personal column of one of your morning papers for +a reformed convict." + +"A reformed convict!" exclaimed Cleggett. "May I ask how you worded the +ad.?" + +"Ad.? Oh, advertisement? I will get it for you." + +She went into the stateroom and was back in a moment with a newspaper +cutting which she handed to Cleggett. It read: + +Convict recently released from Sing Sing, if his reform is really +genuine, may secure honest employment by writing to A. F., care Morning +Dispatch. + +"Out of the answers," she resumed, "I selected four and had their +writers call for a personal interview. But only two of them seemed to +me to be really reformed, and of these two Elmer's reform struck me as +being the more genuine. You may have noticed that Elmer gives the +appearance of being done with worldly vanities." + +"He does seem depressed," said Cleggett, "but I had imputed it largely +to the nature of his present occupation." + +"It is due to his attempt to lead a better life--or at least so he +tells me," said Lady Agatha. "Morality does not come easy to Elmer, he +says, and I believe him. Elmer's time is largely taken up by inward +moral debate as to the right or wrong of particular hypothetical cases +which his imagination insists on presenting to his conscience." + +"I can certainly imagine no state of mind less enjoyable," said +Cleggett. + +"Nor I," replied Lady Agatha. "But to resume: The very fact that I +had employed a guard seemed to put Reginald Maltravers beside himself. +He followed me more closely than ever. Regardless of appearances, he +would suddenly plant himself in front of me in restaurants and +tramcars, in the streets or parks when I went for an airing, even in +the lifts and corridors of the apartment hotel where I stopped, and +stare at me intently through his monocle, caressing his mustache the +while. I did not dare make a scene; the thing was causing enough +remark without that; I was, in fact, losing my reputation. + +"Finally, goaded beyond endurance, I called Elmer into my apartment one +day and put the whole case before him. + +"'I will pay almost any price short of participation in actual crime,' +I told him, 'for a fortnight of freedom from that man's presence. I +can stand it no longer; I feel my reason slipping from me. Have I not +heard that there are in New York creatures who are willing, on the +payment of a certain stipulated sum, to guarantee to chastise a person +so as to disable him for a definite period, without doing him permanent +injury? You must know some such disreputable characters. Procure me +some wretches of this sort!' + +"Elmer replied that such creatures do, indeed, exist. He called +them--what did he call them?" + +"Gunmen?" suggested Cleggett. + +"Yes, thank you. He brought two of them to me whom he introduced +as----" + +She paused. "The names escape me," she said. She called: "Elmer, just +step here a moment, please." + +Elmer, who was still putting ice into the oblong box, moodily laid away +his tools and approached. + +"What WERE the odd names of your friends? The ones who--who made the +mistake?" asked Lady Agatha, resuming her seat. + +Elmer rolled a bilious eye at Cleggett and asked Lady Agatha, out of +that corner of his mouth nearer to her: + +"Is th' guy right?" + +"Mr. Cleggett is a friend of mine and can keep a secret, if that is +what you mean," said Lady Agatha. And the words sent a thrill of +elation through Cleggett's being. + +"M' friends w'at makes the mistake," said Elmer, apparently satisfied +with the assurance, and offering the information to Cleggett out of the +side of his mouth which had not been involved in his question to Lady +Agatha, "goes by th' monakers of Dopey Eddie and Izzy the Cat." + +"Picturesque," murmured Cleggett. + +"Picture--what? Picture not'in!" said Elmer, huskily. "The bulls got +not'in' on them boys. Them guys never been mugged. Them guys is too +foxy t' get mugged." + +"I infer that you weren't always so foxy," said Cleggett, eyeing him +curiously. + +The remark seemed to touch a sensitive spot. Elmer flushed and +shuffled from one foot to the other, hanging his head as if in +embarrassment. Finally he said, earnestly: + +"I wasn't no boob, Mr. Cleggett. It was a snitch got ME settled. I was +a good cracksman, honest I was. But I never had no luck." + +"I intended no reflection on your professional ability," said Cleggett, +politely. + +"Oh, that's all right, Mr. Cleggett," said Elmer, forgivingly. +"Nobody's feelin's is hoited. And any friend of th' little dame here +is a friend o' mine." The diminutive, on Elmer's lips, was intended as +a compliment; Lady Agatha was not a small woman. + +"Elmer," said Lady Agatha, "tell Mr. Cleggett how the mistake occurred." + +Oratory was evidently not Elmer's strongest point. But he braced +himself for the effort and began: + +"When th' skoit here says she wants the big boob punched I says to +m'self, foist of all: 'Is it right or is it wrong?' Oncet youse got +that reform high sign put onto youse, youse can't be too careful. Do +youse get me? So when th' skoit here puts it up to me I thinks foist +off: 'Is it right or is it wrong?' See? So I thinks it over and I +says to m'self th' big boob's been pullin' rough stuff on th' little +dame here. Do youse get me? So I says to m'self, the big boob ought to +get a wallop on the nut. See? What th' big gink needs is someone to +bounce a brick off his bean, f'r th' dame here's a square little dame. +Do youse get me? So I says to the little dame: 'I'm wit' youse, see? +W'at th' big gink needs is a mont' in th' hospital.' An' the little +dame here says he's not to be croaked, but----" + +But at that instant Teddy, the Pomeranian, sprang towards the uncovered +hatchway that gave into the hold, barking violently. Lady Agatha, who +could see into the opening, arose with a scream. + +Cleggett, leaping towards the hatchway, was just in time to see two men +jump backward from the bottom of the ladder into the murk of the hold. +They had been listening. Drawing his pistol, and calling to the crew +of the Jasper B. to follow him, Cleggett plunged recklessly downward +and into the darkness. + + + +CHAPTER VII + +FIRST BLOOD FOR CLEGGETT + +As his feet struck the top of the rubbish heap in the hold of the +vessel, Cleggett stumbled and staggered forward. But he did not let go +of his revolver. + +Perhaps he would not have fallen, but the Pomeranian, which had leaped +into the hold after him, yelping like a terrier at a rat hunt, ran +between his legs and tripped him. + +"Damn the dog!" cried Cleggett, going down. + +But the fall probably saved his life, for as he spoke two pistol shots +rang out simultaneously from the forward part of the hold. The bullets +passed over his head. Raising himself on his elbow, Cleggett fired +rapidly three times, aiming at the place where a spurt of flame had +come from. + +A cry answered him, and he knew that at least one of his bullets had +taken effect. He rose to his feet and plunged forward, firing again, +and at the same instant another bullet grazed his temple. + +The next few seconds were a wild confusion of yelping dog, shouts, +curses, shots that roared like the explosion of big guns in that +pent-up and restricted place, stinking powder, and streaks of fire that +laced themselves across the darkness. But only a single pistol replied +to Cleggett's now and he was confident that one of the men was out of +the fight. + +But the other man, blindly or with intention, was stumbling nearer as +he fired. A bullet creased Cleggett's shoulder; it was fired so close +to him that he felt the heat of the exploding powder; and in the sudden +glow of light he got a swift and vivid glimpse of a white face framed +in long black hair, and of flashing white teeth beneath a lifted lip +that twitched. The face was almost within touching distance; as it +vanished Cleggett heard the sharp, whistling intake of the fellow's +breath--and then a click that told him the other's last cartridge was +gone. Cleggett clubbed his pistol and leaped forward, striking at the +place where the gleaming teeth had been. His blow missed; he spun +around with the force of it. As he steadied himself to shoot again he +heard a rush behind him and knew that his men had come to his +assistance. + +"Collar him!" he cried. "Don't shoot, or----" + +But he did not finish that sentence. A thousand lights danced before +his eyes, Niagara roared in his ears for an instant, and he knew no +more. His adversary had laid him out with the butt of a pistol. + +Cleggett was not that inconsiderable sort of a man who is killed in any +trivial skirmish: There was a moment at the bridge of Arcole when +Napoleon, wounded and flung into a ditch, appeared to be lost. But +when Nature, often so stupid, really does take stock and become aware +that she has created an eagle she does not permit that eagle to be +killed before its wings are fledged. Napoleon was picked out of the +ditch. Cleggett was only stunned. + +Both were saved for larger triumphs. The association of names is not +accidental. These two men were, in some respects, not dissimilar, +although Bonaparte lacked Cleggett's breeding. + +When Cleggett regained consciousness he was on deck; George, Kuroki and +Cap'n Abernethy stood about him in a little semicircle of anxiety; Lady +Agatha was applying a cold compress to the bump upon his head. (He +made nothing of his other scratches.) As for Elmer, who had not +stirred from his seat on the oblong box, he moodily regarded, not +Cleggett, but a slight young fellow with long black hair, who lay +motionless upon the deck. + +Cleggett struggled to his feet. "Is he dead?" he asked, pointing to +the figure of his recent assailant. Cap'n Abernethy, for the first +time since Cleggett had known him, gave a direct answer to a question. + +"Mighty nigh it," he said, staring down at the young man. Then he +added: "Kind o' innocent lookin' young fellow, at that." + +"But the other one? Was he killed?" asked Cleggett. + +"The other?" George inquired. "But there was no other. When we got +down there you and this boy----" And George described the struggle +that had taken place after Cleggett had lost consciousness. The whole +affair, as far as it concerned Cleggett, had been a matter of seconds +rather than minutes; it was begun and over like a hundred yard dash on +the cinder track. When George and Kuroki and Cap'n Abernethy had +tumbled into the hold they had been afraid to shoot for fear of hitting +Cleggett; they had reached him, guided by his voice, just as he went +down under his assailant's pistol. They had not subdued the youth +until he had suffered severely from George's dagger. Later they learned +that one of Cleggett's bullets had also found him. Cleggett listened to +the end, and then he said: + +"But there WERE two men in the hold. And one of them, dead or wounded, +must still be down there. Carry this fellow into the +forecastle--we'll look at him later. Then bring some lanterns. We are +going down into that hold again." + +With their pistols in their right hands and lanterns in their left they +descended, Cleggett first. It was not impossible that the other +intruder might be lying, wounded, but revived enough by now to work a +pistol, behind one of the rubbish heaps. + +But no shots greeted them. The hold of the Jasper B. was not divided +into compartments of any sort. If it had ever had them, they had been +torn away. Below deck, except for the rubbish heap and the steps for +the masts, she was empty as a soup tureen. The pile of debris was the +highest toward the waist of the vessel. There it formed a treacherous +hill of junk; this hill sloped downward towards the bow and towards the +stern; in both the fore and after parts, under the forecastle and the +cabin, there were comparatively clear spaces. + +The four men forced their way back towards the stern and then came +slowly forward in a line that extended across the vessel, exploring +with their lanterns every inch of the precarious footing, and +overturning and looking behind, under, and into every box, cask, or +jumble of planking that might possibly offer a place of concealment. +They found no one. And, until they reached a clearer place, well +forward, on the starboard side of the ship, they found no trace of +anyone. + +Cleggett, who was examining this place, suddenly uttered an exclamation +which brought the others to him. He pointed to stains of blood upon +the planking; near these stains were marks left by boots which had been +gaumed with a yellowish clay. A revolver lay on the floor. Cleggett +examined it and found that only one cartridge had been exploded. The +stains of blood and the stains of yellow clay made an easily followed +trail for some yards to a point about halfway between the bow and stern +on the starboard side. + +There, in the waist of the vessel, they ceased; ceased abruptly, +mysteriously. Cleggett, not content, made his men go over the place +again, even more thoroughly than before. But there was no one there, +dead or wounded, unless he had succeeded in contracting himself to the +dimensions of a rat. + +"There is nothing," said Cleggett, standing by the ladder that led up +to the deck. "Nothing," echoed George; and then as if with one +impulse, and moved by the same eerie thought, these four men suddenly +raised their lanterns head-high and gazed at one another. + +A startled look spread from face to face. But no one spoke. There was +no need to. All recognized that they were in the presence of an +apparent impossibility. Yet this seemingly impossible thing was the +fact. There had been two men in the hold of the Jasper B. They had +entered as mysteriously and silently as disembodied spirits might have +done. One of them, wounded, had made his exit in the same baffling way. +Where? How? + +Cleggett broke the silence. + +"Let us go to the forecastle and have a look at that fellow," he said, +and led the way. + +No one lagged as they left the hold. These were all brave men, but +there are times when the invisible, the incomprehensible, will send a +momentary chill to the heart of the most intrepid. + +Cleggett found Lady Agatha, her own troubles for the time forgotten, in +the forecastle. She had lighted a lamp and was bending over the +wounded man, whose coat and waistcoat she had removed. His clothing was +a sop of blood. They cut his shirt and undershirt from him. Kuroki +brought water and the medicine chest and surgical outfit with which +Cleggett had provided the Jasper B. They examined his wounds, Lady +Agatha, with a fine seriousness and a deft touch which claimed +Cleggett's admiration, washing them herself and proceeding to stop the +flow of blood. + +"Oh, I am not an altogether useless person," she said, with a momentary +smile, as she saw the look in Cleggett's face. And Cleggett remembered +with shame that he had not thanked her for her ministrations to himself. + +A pistol bullet had gone quite through the young man's shoulder. There +was a deep cut on his head, and there were half a dozen other stab +wounds on his body. George had evidently worked with great rapidity in +the hold. + +In the inside breast pocket of his coat he had carried a thin and +narrow little book. There was a dagger thrust clear through it; if the +book had not been there this terrible blow delivered by the son of +Leonidas must inevitably have penetrated the lung. + +Cleggett opened the book. It was entitled "Songs of Liberty, by +Giuseppe Jones." The verse was written in the manner of Walt Whitman. +A glance at one of the sprawling poems showed Cleggett that in +sentiment it was of the most violent and incendiary character. + +"Why, he is an anarchist!" said Cleggett in surprise. + +"Oh, really!" Lady Agatha looked up from her work of mercy and spoke +with animation, and then gazed upon the youth's face again with a new +interest. "An anarchist! How interesting! I have ALWAYS wanted to +meet an anarchist." + +"Poor boy, he don't look like nothin' bad," said Cap'n Abernethy, who +seemed to have taken a fancy to Giuseppe Jones. + +"Listen," said Cleggett, and read: + + "As for your flag, I spit upon your flag! + I spit upon your organized society anywhere and everywhere; + I spit upon your churches; + I spit upon your capitalistic institutions; + I spit upon your laws; + I spit upon the whole damned thing! + But, as I spit, I weep! I weep!" + +"How silly!" said Lady Agatha. "What does it mean?" + +"It means----" began Cleggett, and then stopped. The book of +revolutionary verse, taken in conjunction with the red flag that had +been displayed and then withdrawn, made him wonder if Morris's were the +headquarters of some band of anarchists. + +But, if so, why should this band show such an interest in the Jasper +B.? An interest so hostile to her present owner and his men? + +"If you was to ask me what it means," said Captain Abernethy, who had +taken the book and was fingering it, "I'd say it means young Jones here +has fell into bad company. That don't explain how he sneaked into the +hold of the Jasper B., nor what for. But he orter have a doctor." + +"He shall have a physician," said Cleggett. "In fact, the Jasper B. +needs a ship's doctor." + +"It looks to me," said Captain Abernethy, "as if she did. And if you +was to go further, Mr. Cleggett, and say that it looks as if she was +liable to need a couple o' trained nurses, too, I'd say to you that if +they's goin' to be many o' these kind o' goin's-on aboard of her she +DOES need a couple of trained nurses." + +"Captain," said Cleggett, "you are a humane man--let me shake your +hand. You have voiced my very thought!" + +Long ago Cleggett had resolved that if Chance or Providence should ever +gratify his secret wish to participate in stirring adventures, he would +see to it that all his wounded enemies, no matter how many there might +be of them, received adequate medical attention. He had often been +shocked at the callousness with which so many of the heroes of romance +dash blithely into the next adventure--though those whom they have +seriously injured lie on all sides of them as thick as autumn +leaves--with only the most perfunctory consideration of these victims; +sometimes, indeed, with no thought of them at all. + +"Something tells me," said Cleggett seriously, "that this intrusion of +armed men is only a prelude. I have little doubt of the hostility of +Morris's; I am sure that the men who hid in the hold are spies from +Morris's. I do not yet know the motive for this hostility. But the +Jasper B. is in the midst of dangers and mysteries. There is before us +an affair of some magnitude. Ere the Jasper B. sets sail for the China +Seas, there may be many wounds." + +And then he began to outline a plan that had flashed, full formed, into +his mind. It was to rent, or purchase, the buildings at Parker's +Beach, and fit them up as a field hospital, with three or four nurses +in charge. Lady Agatha, who had been listening intently, interrupted. + +"But--the China Seas," she said. "Did I understand you to say that +you intend to set sail for the China Seas?" + +"That is the ultimate destination of the Jasper B." said Cleggett. + +"I have heard--it seems to me that I have heard--that it's a very +dangerous place," ventured Lady Agatha. "Pirates, you know, and all +that sort of thing." + +"Pirates," said Cleggett, "abound." + +"Well, then," persisted Lady Agatha, "you are going out to fight them?" + +"I should not be surprised," said Cleggett, folding his arms, and +standing with his feet spread just a trifle wider than usual, "if the +Jasper B. had a brush or two with them. A brush or two!" + +Lady Agatha regarded him speculatively. But admiringly, too. + +"But those nurses----" she said. "If you're going to the China Seas +you can't very well take Parker's Beach along." + +"I was coming to that," said Cleggett, bowing. "I contemplate a +hospital ship--a vessel supplied with nurses and lint and medicines, +that will accompany the Jasper B., and fly the Red Cross flag." + +"But they are frightful people, really, those Chinese pirates, you +know," said Lady Agatha. "Do you think they'll quite appreciate a +hospital ship?" + +"It is my duty," said Cleggett, simply. "Whether they appreciate it or +not, a hospital ship they shall have. This is the twentieth century. +And although the great spirits of other days had much to commend them, +it is not to be denied that they knew little of our modern +humanitarianism. It has remained for the twentieth century to develop +that. And one owes a duty to one's epoch as well as to one's +individuality." + +"But," repeated Lady Agatha, with a meditative frown, "they are really +FRIGHTFUL people!" + +"There is good in all men," said Cleggett, "even in those whom the +stern necessities of idealism sentence to death. And I have no doubt +that many a Chinese pirate would, under other circumstances, have +developed into a very contented and useful laundry-man." + +Lady Agatha studied him intently for a moment. "Mr. Cleggett," she +said, "if you will permit me to say so, a great suffragist leader was +lost when fate made you a man." + +"Thank you," said Cleggett, bowing again. + +He dispatched George--a person of address as well as a fighter in whom +the blood of ancient Greece ran quick and strong--on a humanitarian +mission. George was to walk a mile to the trolley line, go to +Fairport, hire a taxicab, and make all possible speed into Manhattan. +There he was to communicate with a young physician of Cleggett's +acquaintance, Dr. Harry Farnsworth. + +Dr. Farnsworth, as Cleggett knew, was just out of medical school. He +had his degree, but no patients. But he was bold and ready. He was, in +short, just the lad to welcome with enthusiasm such a chance for active +service as the cruise of the Jasper B. promised to afford. + +It was something of a risk to weaken his little party by sending George +away for several hours. But Cleggett did not hesitate. He was not the +man to allow considerations of personal safety to outweigh his devotion +to an ideal. + +"And now," said Cleggett, turning to Lady Agatha, who had hearkened to +his orders to George with a bright smile of approval, "we will dine, +and I will hear the rest of your story, which was so rudely +interrupted. It is possible that together we may be able to find some +solution of your problem." + +"Dine!" exclaimed Lady Agatha, eagerly. "Yes, let us dine! It may +sound incredible to you, Mr. Cleggett, that the daughter of an English +peer and the widow of a baronet should confess that, except for your +tea, she has scarcely eaten for twenty-four hours--but it is so!" + +Then she said, sadly, with a sigh and sidelong glance at the box of +Reginald Maltravers which stood near the cabin companionway dripping +coldly: "Until now, Mr. Cleggett--until your aid had given me fresh +hope and strength--I had, indeed, very little appetite." + +Cleggett followed her gaze, and it must be admitted that he himself +experienced a momentary sense of depression at the sight of the box of +Reginald Maltravers. It looked so damp, it looked so chill, it looked +so starkly and patiently and malevolently watchful of himself and Lady +Agatha. In a flash his lively fancy furnished him with a picture of +the box of Reginald Maltravers suddenly springing upright and hopping +towards him on one end with a series of stiff jumps that would send +drops of moisture flying from the cracks and seams and make the ice +inside of it clink and tinkle. And the mournful Elmer, now drowsing +callously over his charge, was not an invitation to be blithe. If +Cleggett himself were so affected (he mused) what must be the effect of +the box of Reginald Maltravers upon sensibilities as fine and delicate +as those of a woman like Lady Agatha Fairhaven? + +"Could I--if I might----" Lady Agatha hesitated, with a glance towards +the cabin. Cleggett instantly divined her thought; for brief as was +their acquaintance, there was an almost psychic accord between his mind +and hers, and he felt himself already answering to her unspoken wish as +a ship to its rudder. + +"The cabin is at your service," said Cleggett, for he understood that +she wished to dress for dinner. He conducted her, with a touch of +formality, to his own room in the cabin, which he put at her disposal, +ordering her steamer trunks to be placed in it. Then, taking with him +some necessaries of his own, he withdrew to the forecastle to make a +careful toilet. + +It might not have occurred to another man to dress for dinner, but +Cleggett's character was an unusual blend of delicacy and strength; he +perceived subtly that Lady Agatha was of the nature to appreciate this +compliment. At a moment when her fortunes were at a low ebb what could +more cheer a woman and hearten her than such a mark of consideration? +Already Cleggett found himself asking what would please Lady Agatha. + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +A FLAME LEAPS OUT OF THE DARK + +Kuroki announced dinner; Cleggett entered the captain's mess room of +the cabin, where the cloth was laid, and a moment later lady Agatha +emerged from the stateroom and gave him her hand with a smile. + +If he had thought her beautiful before, when she wore her plain +traveling suit, he thought her radiant now, in the true sense of that +much abused word. For she flung forth her charm in vital radiations. +If Cleggett had possessed a common mind he might have phrased it to +himself that she hit a man squarely in the eyes. Her beauty had that +direct and almost aggressive quality that is like a challenge, and with +sophisticated feminine art she had contrived that the dinner gown she +chose for that evening should sound the keynote of her personality like +a leitmotif in an opera. The costume was a creation of white satin, +the folds caught here and there with strings of pearls. There was a +single large rose of pink velvet among the draperies of the skirt; a +looped girdle of blue velvet was the only other splash of color. But +the full-leaved, expanded and matured rose became the vivid epitome and +illustration of the woman herself. A rope of pearls that hung down to +her waist added the touch of soft luster essential to preserve the +picture from the reproach of being too obvious an assault upon the +senses; Cleggett reflected that another woman might have gone too far +and spoiled it all by wearing diamonds. Lady Agatha always knew where +to stop. + +"I have not been so hungry since I was in Holloway Jail," said Lady +Agatha. And she ate with a candid gusto that pleased Cleggett, who +loathed in a woman a finical affectation of indifference to food. + +When Kuroki brought the coffee she took up her own story again. There +was little more to tell. + +Dopey Eddie and Izzy the Cat, it appeared, had mistaken their +instructions. Two nights after they had been engaged they had appeared +at Lady Agatha's apartment with the oblong box. + +"The horrid creatures brought it into my sitting-room and laid it on +the floor before I could prevent them," said Lady Agatha. + +"'What is this?' I asked them, in bewilderment. + +"They replied that they had killed Reginald Maltravers ACCORDING TO +ORDERS, and had brought him to me. + +"Orders!" I cried. "You had no such orders." Elmer, who lived on the +same floor, was absent temporarily, having taken Teddy out for an +airing. I was distracted. I did not know what to do. "Your orders," I +said, "were to--to----" + +She broke off. "What was it that Elmer told them to do, and what was +it that they did?" she mused, perplexed. She called Elmer into the +cabin. + +"Elmer," she said, "exactly what was it that you told your friends to +do to him? And what was it that they did? I can never remember the +words." + +"Poke him," said Elmer, addressing Cleggett. "I tells these ginks to +poke him. But these ginks tells th' little dame here they t'inks I has +said to croak him. So they goes an' croaks him. D' youse get me?" + +Being assured that they got him, Elmer downheartedly withdrew. + +"At any rate," continued Lady Agatha, "there was that terrible box upon +my sitting-room floor, and there were those two degraded wretches. The +callous beasts stood above the box apparently quite insensible to the +ethical enormity of their crime. But they were keen enough to see that +it might be used as a lever with which to force more money from me. +For when I demanded that they take the box away with them and dispose +of it, they only laughed at me. They said that they had had enough of +that box. They had delivered the goods--that was the phrase they +used--and they wanted more money. And they said they would not leave +until they got it. They threatened, unless I gave them the money at +once, to leave the place and get word to the police of the presence of +the box in my apartment. + +"I was in no mental condition to combat and get the better of them. I +felt myself to be entirely in their power. I saw only the weakness of +my own position. I could not, at the moment, see the weak spots in +theirs. Elmer might have advised me--but he was not there. The +miserable episode ended with my giving them a thousand dollars each, +and they left. + +"Alone with that box, my panic increased. When Elmer returned with +Teddy, I told him what had happened. He wished to open the box, having +a vague idea that perhaps after all it did not really contain what they +had said was in it. But I could not bear the thought of its being +opened. I refused to allow Elmer to look into it. + +"I determined that I would ship the box at once to some fictitious +personage, and then take the next ship back to England. + +"I hastily wrote a card, which I tacked on the box, consigning it to +Miss Genevieve Pringle, Newark, N. J. The name was the first invention +that came into my head. Newark I had heard of. I knew vaguely that it +was west of New York, but whether it was twenty miles west or two +thousand miles, I did not stop to think. I am ignorant of American +geography. + +"But no sooner had the box been taken away than I began to be uneasy. +I was more frightened with it gone than I had been with it present. I +imagined it being dropped and broken, and revealing everything. And +then it occurred to me that even if I should get out of the country, +the secret was bound to be discovered some time. I do not know why I +had not thought of that before--but I was distracted. Having got rid +of the box, I was already wild to get it into my possession again. + +"I confided my fears to Elmer, and was surprised to learn from him that +Newark is very near New York. We took a taxicab at once, and were +waiting at the freight depot in Newark when the thing arrived. There I +claimed it in the name of Miss Genevieve Pringle. + +"It became apparent to me that I must manage its final disposition +myself. Elmer hired for me the vehicle in which we arrived here, and +we started back to New York. + +"But the driver, from the first, was suspicious of the box. His +suspicions were increased when, upon returning to my apartment hotel, +where I now decided to keep the box until I could think out a coherent +plan of action, the manager of the hotel made inquiries. The manager +had seen the box brought in, and taken out again, before. Its return +struck him as odd. He offered to store it for me in the basement. I +took alarm at once. Naturally, he questioned me more closely. I was +unready in my answers. His inquiries excited and alarmed me. I felt +that any instant I might do something to betray myself. I cut the +manager short, paid my bill, got my luggage, and ordered the chauffeur +to drive to the Grand Central Station. But when we had gone three or +four blocks, I said to him: 'Stop!--I do not wish to go to the Grand +Central Station. Drive me to Poughkeepsie!' I wished a chance to +think. I knew Poughkeepsie was not far from New York City, but I +supposed it was far enough to give me a chance to determine what to do +next by the time we arrived there. + +"But I could not think coherently. I could only feel and fear. The +drive was longer than I had expected, but when we arrived at +Poughkeepsie and the chauffeur asked me again what disposition to make +of the box, I was unable to answer him. Thereupon he insolently +demanded an enormous fare. + +"I could not choose but pay it. For four days we went from place to +place, in and about New York City's suburbs--now in town and now in the +country--crossing rivers again and again on ferryboats--stopping at +hotels, road houses and all manner of places--dashing through Brooklyn +and out among the villages of Long Island--and with the fear on me that +we were being followed. + +"Elmer and I were continually on the lookout for some way to dispose of +the box, but nothing presented itself. The driver, who had become more +and more impudent in his attitude and outrageous in his charges, was +now practically a spy upon us. The necessity for ice made frequent +stops imperative; at the same time the increasing fear of pursuit made +it agony for me to stop anywhere. + +"Today, at a road house thirty or forty miles from here, I made certain +that I was pursued. The very man from whom I had claimed the box at +the railway goods station in Newark confronted me. It appears, from +what Elmer says, that he is taking a holiday and is visiting his +brother, who is the proprietor of the road house. + +"And the person who is pursuing me is--a Miss Genevieve Pringle! + +"As fate would have it, there lives in Newark a person who really owns +that name which I thought I had invented. It seems that she had been +expecting a shipment, and had called to inquire for it; upon learning +that a box had been delivered to a person in her name she had taken up +the trail at once. Having somehow traced me to Long Island, she had +actually made inquiries at this very road house some hours earlier. +The railway employee, I am certain, would have denounced me at once--he +would have accused me of theft, and would have endeavored to have me +held until he could get into communication with Miss Pringle or with +the authorities--but I bought from him a promise of silence. It cost +me another large sum. + +"A few hours ago the chauffeur, divining from a conversation between +Elmer and me that I was running short of ready money, deserted me here. +You know the rest." + +Her voice trailed off into a tired whisper as she finished, and with +her elbows on the table Lady Agatha wearily supported her head in her +hands. Her attitude acknowledged defeat. She was despairingly certain +that she would never see the last of the box which she believed to +contain Reginald Maltravers. + +Cleggett did not hesitate an instant. "Lady Agatha," he said, "the +Jasper B. is at your service as long as you may require the ship. The +cabin is your home until we arrive at a solution of your difficulties." + +His glance and manner added what his tongue left unuttered--that the +commander of the ship was henceforth her devoted cavalier. But she +understood. + +She extended her hand. Her answer was on her lips. But at that +instant the jarring roar of an explosion struck the speech from them. + +The blast was evidently near, though muffled. The earth shook; a tremor +ran through the Jasper B.; the glasses leaped and rang upon the table. +Cleggett, followed by Lady Agatha, darted up the companionway. + +As Cleggett reached the deck there was a second shock, and he beheld a +flame leap out of the earth itself--a sudden sword of fire thrust into +the night from the midst of the sandy plain before him. The light that +stabbed and was gone in an instant was about halfway between the Jasper +B. and Morris's. A second after, a missile--which Cleggett later +learned was a piece of rock the size of a man's head--fell with a +splintering crash upon and through the wooden platform beside the +Jasper B., not thirty feet from where Cleggett stood; another splashed +into the canal. The next day Cleggett saw several of these fragments +lying about the plain. + +Calling to his men to bring lanterns--for the night had fallen dark and +cloudy--Cleggett ran towards the place. Lady Agatha, refusing to +remain behind, went with them. Moving lights and a stir of activity at +Morris's, and the gleam of lanterns on board the Annabel Lee, showed +Cleggett that his neighbors likewise were excited. + +But if Cleggett had expected an easy solution of this astonishing +eruption he was disappointed. Arrived at the scene of the explosion, +he found that its nature was such as to tease and balk his faculties of +analysis. The blast had blown a hole into the ground, certainly; but +this hole was curiously filled. Two large bowlders that leaned towards +each other had stood on top of the ground. These had been split and +shattered into many fragments. A few pieces, like the one that came so +near Cleggett, had been flung to a distance, but for the most part the +shivered crowns and broken bulks had been served otherwise; the force +of the blast had disintegrated them, but had not scattered them; the +greater part of this newly-rent stone had toppled into the fissure in +the ground, and lay there mixed with earth, almost filling the hole. +It was impossible to determine just where and how the blast had been +set off; the rocks hid the facts. But Cleggett judged that the force +must have come from below the bowlders; mightily smitten from beneath, +they had collapsed into the cavern suddenly opening there, as a +building might collapse into and fill a cellar. The pieces that had +been thrown high into the air were insignificant in proportion to the +great bulk which had settled into the hole and made its origin a +mystery. + +As Cleggett, bewildered, stood and gazed upon the mass of rock and +earth, Cap'n Abernethy gave a cry and pointed at something with his +finger. Cleggett, looking at the spot indicated, saw upon the edge of +this singular fracture in the earth a thing that sent a quick chill of +horror and repulsion to his heart. It was a dead hand, roughly severed +between the wrist and the elbow. The back of it was uppermost; the +fingers were clenched. Cleggett set down his lantern beside it and +turned it over with his foot. + +The dead fingers clutched a scrap of something yellow. On one of them +was a large and peculiar ring. + +"My God!" murmured Lady Agatha, grasping Cleggett convulsively by the +shoulder, "that is the Earl of Claiborne's signet ring!" + +But Cleggett scarcely realized what she had said, until she repeated +her words. Fighting down his repugnance, he took from the lifeless and +stubborn fingers the yellow scrap of paper. + +It was a torn and crumpled twenty-dollar bill. + + + +CHAPTER IX + +MYSTERIES MULTIPLY + +Directing Kuroki to remove the ring and bring it along, Cleggett gave +his arm to Lady Agatha and led the way back to the Jasper B. Neither +said anything to the point until, seated in the cabin, with the +twenty-dollar bill and the ring before them, Cleggett picked up the +latter and remarked: + +"You are certain of the identity of this ring?" + +"Certain," she said. "I could not mistake it. There is no other like +it, anywhere." + +It was a very heavy gold band, set with a large piece of dark green +jade which was deeply graven on its surface with the Claiborne crest. + +"Was it," asked Cleggett, "in the possession of Reginald Maltravers?" + +"It might have been, readily enough," she said, "although I had not +known that it was. Still, that does not explain...." She shrugged her +shoulders. + +"There are a number of things unexplained," answered Cleggett, "and the +presence of this ring, and the manner in which it has come into our +possession, are not the most mysterious of them. The explosion itself +appears to me, just now, at least, hard to account for." + +"The manner in which people get into and out of the hold of your vessel +is also obscure," said Lady Agatha. + +"Nor is the motive of their hostility clear," said Cleggett. + +He picked up the piece of paper money. Something about the feel of it +aroused his suspicions. He called Elmer, and when that exponent of +reform entered the cabin, asked him bluntly: + +"Did you ever have anything to do with bad money?" + +Elmer intimated that he might know it if he saw it. + +"Then look at that, please." + +Elmer took the torn bill, produced a penknife, slit the yellow paper, +and cut out of it one of the small hair-like fibers with which the +texture of such notes is sprinkled. After wetting this fiber and +mangling it with his penknife he gave his judgment briefly. + +"Queer," he said. + +"But what does that explain?" asked Lady Agatha. "Perhaps the Earl of +Claiborne came to this country and took to making counterfeit money in +the hold of the Jasper B., into and out of which he stole like a ghost? +Finally he got tired of it and blew himself up with a bomb out there, +leaving his ring with a piece of money intact? Is that the explanation +we get out of our facts? Because, you know," she added, as Cleggett +did not smile, "all that is absurd!" + +"Yes," said Cleggett, still refusing to be amused, "but out of all this +jumble of mystery, just one certain thing appears." + +"And that is?" + +"That our destinies are somehow linked!" + +"Our destinies? Linked?" + +She gave him a swift look, and as suddenly dropped her eyes again. +Cleggett could not tell whether she was offended or not by his +expression of the idea. + +"The same people," said Cleggett, after a brief pause, "who are so +persistently hostile to me are also in some manner connected with your +own misfortunes. Their possession of this ring shows that." + +"Yes," she said, following his thought, "that is true--whoever set off +that bomb was also wearing this ring, or was very near the person who +was wearing it. And," with a shudder which conveyed to Cleggett that +she was thinking of the box on deck, "it COULDN'T have been Reginald +Maltravers!" + +"Perhaps," said Cleggett, "someone was sneaking over from Morris's with +the intention of destroying the Jasper B., and was himself the victim +of a premature explosion as he crouched behind the rocks to await his +opportunity." + +"But why," puzzled Lady Agatha, with contracted brows, "should a +dynamiter, anarchistic or otherwise, be holding a counterfeit +twenty-dollar bill in his hand as he went about his work?" + +Cleggett brooded in silence. + +"We are in the midst of mysteries," he said finally. "They are +multiplying about us." + +He was about to say more. He was about to express again his belief +that they had been flung together by fate. The sense that their +stories were inextricably intertwined, that they must henceforward +march on as one mystery towards a solution, was exhilarating to him. +But how was it possible that she should feel the same sense of pleasure +in the fact that they faced dangers, seen and unseen, together? + +Together!--How the thought thrilled him! + +On deck, Elmer, before returning to the box of Reginald Maltravers, +suddenly and unexpectedly grasped Cleggett by the hand. + +"Bo," he said, "I'm wit' youse. I'm wit' youse the whole way. Any +friend of the little dame is a friend of mine. She's a square little +dame. D' youse get me?" + +"Thank you," said Cleggett, more affected than he would have cared to +own. "Thank you, my loyal fellow." + +Cleggett established a watch on deck that night, with a relief every +two hours. Towards morning George returned, with Dr. Farnsworth and a +nurse. This nurse, Miss Antoinette Medley, was a black-eyed, slender +girl with pretty hands and white teeth; she gestured a great deal and +smiled often. She and Dr. Farnsworth devoted themselves at once to the +young anarchist poet, who had come out of his stupor, indeed, but was +now babbling weakly in the delirium of fever. + +The night was not a cheerful one, and morning came gloomily out of a +gray bank of mist. Cleggett, as he looked about the boat in the first +pale light, could not resist a slight feeling of depression, courageous +as he was. The wounded man gibbered in a bunk in the forecastle. The +box of Reginald Maltravers stood on one end, leaning against the port +side of the cabin, and dripped steadily. Elmer, wrapped in blankets, +lay on the deck near the box of Reginald Maltravers, looking even more +dejected in slumber than when his eyes were open. Teddy, the +Pomeranian, was snuggled against Elmer's feet, but, as if a prey to +frightful nightmares, the little dog twitched and whined in his sleep +from time to time. These were the apparent facts, and these facts were +set to a melancholy tune by the long-drawn, dismal snores of Cap'n +Abernethy, which rose and fell, and rose and fell, and rose again like +the sad and wailing song of some strange bird bereft of a beloved mate. +They were the music for, and the commentary on, what Cleggett beheld; +Cap'n Abernethy seemed to be saying, with these snores: "If you was to +ask me, I'd say it ain't a cheerful ship this mornin', Mr. Cleggett, it +ain't a cheerful ship." + +But Cleggett's nature was too lively and vigorous to remain clouded for +long. By the time the red disk of the sun had crept above the eastern +horizon he had shaken off his fit of the blues. + +The sun looked large and bland and friendly, and, somehow, the partisan +of integrity and honor. He drew strength from it. Cleggett, like all +poetic souls, was responsive to these familiar recurrent phenomena of +nature. + +The sun did him another office. It showed him a peculiar tableau +vivant on the eastern bank of the canal, near the house boat Annabel +Lee. This consisted of three men, two of them naked except for bathing +trunks of the most abbreviated sort, running swiftly and earnestly up +and down the edge of the canal. He saw with astonishment that the two +men in bathing suits were handcuffed together, the left wrist of one to +the right wrist of the other. A rope was tied to the handcuffs, and +the other end of it was held by the third man, who was dressed in +ordinary tweeds. The third man had a magazine rifle over one shoulder. +He followed about twenty feet behind the two men in bathing suits and +drove them. + +Cleggett perceived that the man who was doing the driving was the same +who had watched the Jasper B. so persistently the day before from the +deck of the Annabel Lee. He was middle-sized, and inclined to be +stout, and yet he followed his strange team with no apparent effort. +Cleggett saw through the glass that he had a rather heavy black +mustache, and was again struck by something vaguely familiar about him. +The two men in bathing suits were slender and undersized; they did not +look at all like athletes, and although they moved as fast as they +could it was apparent that they got no pleasure out of it. They ran +with their heads hanging down, and it seemed to Cleggett that they were +quarreling as they ran, for occasionally one of them would give a +vicious jerk to the handcuffs that would almost upset the other, and +that must have hurt the wrists of both of them. + +As Cleggett watched, the driver pulled them up short, and waved them +towards the canal. They stopped, and it was apparent that they were +balking and expostulating. But the driver was inexorable. He went near +to them and threatened their bare backs with the slack of the rope. +Gingerly and shiveringly they stepped into the cold water, while the +driver stood on the bank. The water was up to their waists and he had +to threaten them again with his rope before they would duck their heads +under. + +When he allowed them on shore again they needed no urging, it was +evident, to make them hit up a good rate of speed, and back and forth +along the bank they sprinted. But the cold bath had not improved their +temper, for suddenly one of them leaped and kicked sidewise at the +other, with the result that both toppled to the ground. The stout man +was upon them in an instant, hazing them with the rope end. He drove +them, still lashing out at each other with their bare feet, into the +water again, and after a more prolonged ducking whipped them, at a +plunging gallop, upon the Annabel Lee, where they disappeared from +Cleggett's view. + +While Cleggett was still wondering what significance could underlie +this unusual form of matutinal exercise, Dr. Farnsworth came out of the +forecastle and beckoned to him. The young Doctor had a red Vandyck +beard sedulously cultivated in the belief that it would make him look +older and inspire the confidence of patients, and a shock of dark red +hair which he rumpled vigorously when he was thinking. He was rumpling +it now. + +"Who's 'Loge'?" he demanded. + +"Loge?" repeated Cleggett. + +"You don't know anyone named 'Loge,' or Logan?" + +"No. Why?" + +"Whoever he is, 'Loge' is very much on the mind of our young friend in +there," said Farnsworth, with a movement of his head towards the +forecastle. "And I wouldn't be surprised, to judge from the boy's +delirium, if 'Loge' had something to do with all the hell that's been +raised around your ship. Come in and listen to this fellow." + +Miss Medley, the nurse, was sitting beside the wounded youth's bunk, +endeavoring to soothe and restrain him. The young anarchist, whose +eyes were bright with fever, was talking rapidly in a weak but +high-pitched singsong voice. + +"He's off on the poems again," said the Doctor, after listening a +moment. "But wait, he'll get back to Loge. It's been one or the other +for an hour now." + +"I spit upon your flag," shrilled Giuseppe Jones, feebly declamatory. +"'I spit--I spit--but, as I spit, I weep.'" He paused for a moment, +and then began at the beginning and repeated all of the lines which +Cleggett had read from the little book. One gathered that it was +Giuseppe's favorite poem. + +"'I spit upon the whole damned thing!'" he shrilled, and then with a +sad shake of his head: "But, as I spit, I weep!" + +If the poem was Giuseppe's favorite poem, this was evidently his +favorite line, for he said it over and over again--"'But, as I spit, I +weep'"--in a breathless babble that was very wearing on the nerves. + +But suddenly he interrupted himself; the poems seemed to pass from his +mind. "Loge!" he said, raising himself on his elbow and staring, with +a frown not at, but through, Cleggett: "Logan--it isn't square!" + +There was suffering and perplexity in his gaze; he was evidently living +over again some painful scene. + +"I'm a revolutionist, Loge, not a crook! I won't do it, Loge!" + +Watching him, it was impossible not to understand that the struggle, +which his delirium made real and present again, had stamped itself into +the texture of his spirit. "You shouldn't ask it, Loge," he said. The +crisis of the conflict which he was living over passed presently, and +he murmured, with contracted brows, and as if talking to himself: "Is +Loge a crook? A crook?" + +But after a moment of this he returned again to a rapid repetition of +the phrase: "I'm a revolutionist, not a crook-not a crook--not a +crook--a revolutionist, not a crook, Loge, not a crook----" Once he +varied it, crying with a quick, hot scorn: "I'll cut their throats and +be damned to them, but don't ask me to steal." And then he was off +again to declaiming his poetry: "I spit, but, as I spit, I weep!" + +But as Cleggett and the Doctor listened to him the youth's ravings +suddenly took a new form. He ceased to babble; terror expanded the +pupils of his eyes and he pointed at vacancy with a shaking finger. +"Stop it!" he cried in a croaking whisper. "Stop it! It's his +skull--it's Loge's skull come alive. Stop it, I say, it's come alive +and getting bigger." With a violent effort he raised himself before +the nurse could prevent him, shrinking back from the horrid +hallucination which pressed towards him, and then fell prone and +senseless on the bunk. + +"God!--his wounds!" cried the Doctor, starting forward. As Farnsworth +had feared, they had broken open and were bleeding again. "It's a +ticklish thing," said Farnsworth, rumpling his hair. "If I give him +enough sedative to keep him quiet his heart may stop any time. If I +don't, he'll thrash himself to pieces in his delirium before the day's +over." + +But Cleggett scarcely heeded the Doctor. The reference to "Loge's" +skull had flashed a sudden light into his mind. Whatever else "Loge" +was, Cleggett had little doubt that "Loge" was the tall man with the +stoop shoulders and the odd, skull-shaped scarfpin, for whom he had +conceived at first sight such a tingling hatred--the same fellow who +had so ruthlessly manhandled the flaxen-haired Heinrich on the roof of +the verandah the day before. + + + +CHAPTER X + +IN THE ENEMY'S CAMP + +At seven o'clock that morning five big-bodied automobile trucks rolled +up in a thundering procession. As they hove in sight on the starboard +quarter and dropped anchor near the Jasper B., Cleggett recalled that +this was the day which Cap'n Abernethy had set for getting the sticks +and sails into the vessel. In the hurry and excitement of recent +events aboard the ship he had almost forgotten it. + +A score of men scrambled from the trucks and began to haul out of them +all the essentials of a shipyard. Wheel, rudder, masts, spars, +bowsprit, quantities of rope and cable followed--in fact, every +conceivable thing necessary to convert the Jasper B. from a hulk into a +properly rigged schooner. Cleggett, with a pith and brevity +characteristic of the man, had given his order in one sentence. + +"Make arrangements to get the sails and masts into her in one day," he +had told Captain Abernethy. + +It was in the same large and simple spirit that a Russian Czar once +laid a ruler across the map of his empire and, drawing a straight line +from Moscow to Petersburg, commanded his engineers: "Build me a +railroad to run like that." Genius has winged conceptions; it sees +things as a completed whole from the first; it is only mediocrity which +permits itself to be lost in details. + +Cleggett was like the Romanoffs in his ability to go straight to the +point, but he had none of the Romanoff cruelty. + +Captain Abernethy had made his arrangements accordingly. If it pleased +Cleggett to have a small manufacturing plant brought to the Jasper B. +instead of having the Jasper B. towed to a shipyard, it was Abernethy's +business as his chief executive officer to see that this was done. The +Captain had let the contract to an enterprising and businesslike +fellow, Watkins by name, who had at once looked the vessel over, taken +the necessary measurements, and named a good round sum for the job. +With several times the usual number of skilled workmen employed at +double the usual rate of pay, he guaranteed to do in ten hours what +might ordinarily have taken a week. + +Under the leadership of this capable Watkins, the workmen rushed at the +vessel with the dash and vim of a gang of circus employees engaged in +putting up a big tent and making ready for a show. To a casual +observer it might have seemed a scene of confusion. But in reality the +work jumped forward with order and precision, for the position of every +bolt, chain, nail, cord, piece of iron and bit of wood had been +calculated beforehand to a nicety; there was not a wasted movement of +saw, adze, or hammer. The Jasper B., in short, had been measured +accurately for a suit of clothes, the clothes had been made; they were +now merely being put on. + +Refreshed by the first sound sleep she had been able to obtain for +several nights, Lady Agatha joined Cleggett at an eight-o'clock +breakfast. It was the first of May, and warm and bright; in a simple +morning dress of pink linen Lady Agatha stirred in Cleggett a vague +recollection of one of Tennyson's earlier poems. The exact phrases +eluded him; perhaps, indeed, it was the underlying sentiment of nearly +ALL of Tennyson's earlier poems of which she reminded him--those lyrics +which are at once so romantic and so irreproachable morally. + +"We must give you Americans credit for imagination at any rate," she +said smilingly, making her Pomeranian sit up on his hind legs and beg +for a morsel of crisp bacon. "I awake in a boatyard after having gone +to sleep in a dismantled barge." + +"Barge!" The word "barge" struck Cleggett unexpectedly; he was not +aware that he had given a start and frowned. + +"Mercy!" exclaimed Lady Agatha, "how the dear man glares! What should +I call it? Scow?" + +"Scow?" said Cleggett. He had scarcely recovered from the word +"barge"; it is not to be denied that "scow" jarred upon him even more +than "barge" had done. + +"I beg your pardon," said Lady Agatha, "but what IS the Jasper B., Mr. +Cleggett?" + +"The Jasper B. is a schooner," said Cleggett. He tried to say it +casually, but he was conscious as he spoke that there was a trace of +hurt surprise in his voice. The most generous and chivalrous soul +alive, Cleggett would have gone to the stake for Lady Agatha; and yet +so unaccountable is that vain thing, the human soul (especially at +breakfast time), that he felt angry at her for misunderstanding the +Jasper B. + +"You aren't going to be horrid about it, are you?" she said. "Because, +you know, I never said I knew anything about ships." + +She picked up the little dog and stood it on the table, making the +animal extend its paws as if pleading. "Help me to beg Mr. Cleggett's +pardon," she said, "he's going to be cross with us about his old boat." + +If Lady Agatha had been just an inch taller or just a few pounds +heavier the playful mood itself would have jarred upon the fastidious +Cleggett; indeed, as she was, if she had been just a thought more +playful, it would have jarred. But Lady Agatha, it has been remarked +before, never went too far in any direction. + +Even as she smiled and held out the dog's paws Cleggett was aware of +something in her eyes that was certainly not a tear, but was just as +certainly a film of moisture that might be a tear in another minute. +Then Cleggett cursed himself inwardly for a brute--it rushed over him +how difficult to Lady Agatha her position on board the Jasper B. must +seem. She must regard herself as practically a pensioner on his +bounty. And he had been churl enough to show a spark of temper--and +that, too, after she had repeatedly expressed her gratitude to him. + +"I am deeply sorry, Lady Agatha," he began, blushing painfully, "if----" + +"Silly!" She interrupted him by reaching across the table and laying a +forgiving hand upon his arm. "Don't be so stiff and formal. Eat your +egg before it gets cold and don't say another word. Of course I know +you're not REALLY going to be cross." And she attacked her breakfast, +giving him such a look that he forthwith forgave himself and forgot +that he had had anything to forgive in her. + +"There's going to be a frightful racket around here today," he said +presently. "Maybe you'd like to get away from it for a while. How'd +you like to go for a row?" + +"I'd love it!" she said. + +"George will be glad to take you, I'm sure." + +"George? And you?" He thought he detected a note of disappointment in +her voice; he had not thought to disappoint her, but when he found her +disappointed he got a certain thrill out of it. + +"I am going over to Morris's this morning," he said. + +"To Morris's? Alone?" + +"Why, yes." + +"But--but isn't it dangerous?" + +Cleggett smiled and shrugged his shoulders. + +"Promise me that you will not go over there alone," she demanded. + +"I am sorry. I cannot." + +"But it is rash--it is mad!" + +"There is no real danger." + +"Then I am going with you." + +"I think that would hardly be advisable." + +"I'm going with you," she repeated, rising with determination. + +"But you're not," said Cleggett. "I couldn't think of allowing it." + +"Then there IS danger," she said. + +He tried to evade the point. "I shouldn't have mentioned it," he +murmured. + +She ran into the stateroom and was back in an instant with her hat, +which she pinned on as she spoke. + +"I'm ready to start," she said. + +"But you're not going." + +"After what you've done for me I insist upon my right to share whatever +danger there may be." She spoke heatedly. + +In her heat and impulsiveness and generous bravery Cleggett thought her +adorable, although he began to get really angry with her, too. At the +same time he was aware that her gratitude to him was such that she was +on fire to give him some positive and early proof of it. It had not so +much as occurred to her to enjoy immunity on account of her sex; it had +not entered her mind, apparently, that her sex was an obstacle in the +way of participating in whatever dangerous enterprise he had planned. +She was, in fact, behaving like a chivalric but obstinate boy; she had +not been a militant suffragette for nothing. And yet, somehow, this +attitude only served to enhance her essential femininity. +Nevertheless, Cleggett was inflexible. + +"You would scarcely forbid me to go to Morris's today, or anywhere else +I may choose," she said hotly, with a spot of red on either cheek bone, +and a dangerous dilatation of her eyes. + +"That is exactly what I intend to do," said Cleggett, with an intensity +equal to her own, "FORBID you." + +"You are curiously presumptuous," she said. + +It was a real quarrel before they were done with it, will opposed to +naked will. And oddly enough Cleggett found his admiration grow as his +determination to gain his point increased. For she fought fair, +disdaining the facile weapon of tears, and when she yielded she did it +suddenly and merrily. + +"You've the temper of a sultan, Mr. Cleggett," she said with a laugh, +which was her signal of capitulation. And then she added maliciously: +"You've a devil of a temper--for a little man!" + +"Little!" Cleggett felt the blood rush into his face again and was +vexed at himself. "I'm taller than you are!" he cried, and the next +instant could have bitten his tongue off for the childish vanity of the +speech. + +"You're not!" she cried, her whole face alive with laughter. "Measure +and see!" + +And pulling off her hat she caught up a table knife and made him stand +with his back to hers. "You're cheating," said Cleggett, laughing now +in spite of himself, as she laid the knife across their heads. But his +voice broke and trembled on the next words, for he was suddenly +thrilled with her delicious nearness. "You're standing on your tiptoes, +and your hair's piled on top of your head." + +"Maybe you are an inch taller," she admitted, with mock reluctance. +And then she said, with a ripple of mirth: "You are taller than I +am--I give up; I won't go to Morris's." + +Cleggett, to tell the truth, was a bit relieved at the measurement. He +was of the middle height; she was slightly taller than the average +woman; he had really thought she might prove taller than he. He could +scarcely have told why he considered the point important. + +But after the quarrel she looked at Cleggett with a new and more +approving gaze. Neither of them quite realized it, but she had +challenged his ability to dominate her, and she had been worsted; he +had unconsciously met and satisfied in her that subtle inherent craving +for domination which all women possess and so few will admit the +possession of. + +Cleggett started across the sands toward Morris's with an automatic +pistol slung in a shoulder holster under his left arm and a sword cane +in his hand. He paused a moment by the scene of the explosion of the +night before, but daylight told him nothing that lantern light had +failed to reveal. He had no very definite plan, although he thought it +possible that he might gain some information. The more he reflected on +the attitude of Morris's, the more it irritated him, and he yearned to +make this irritation known. + +Perhaps there was more than a little of the spirit of bravado in the +call he proposed to pay. He planned, the next day, to sail the Jasper +B. out into the bay and up and down the coast for a few miles, to give +himself and his men a bit of practice in navigation before setting out +for the China Seas. And he could not bear to think that the hostile +denizens of Morris's should think that he had moved the Jasper B. from +her position through any fear of them. He reasoned that the most +pointed way of showing his opinion of them would be to walk casually +into Morris's barroom and order a drink or two. If Cleggett had a +fault as a commander it lay in these occasional foolhardy impulses +which he found it difficult to control. Julius Caesar had the same +sort of pride, which, in Caesar's case, amounted to positive vanity. +In fact, the character of Caesar and the character of Cleggett had many +points in common, although Cleggett possessed a nicer sense of honor +than Caesar. + +The main entrance to Morris's was on the west side. From the west +verandah one could enter directly either the main dining-room, at the +north side of the building, the office, or the barroom. The barroom, +which was large, ran the whole length of the south side of the place. +Doors also led into the barroom, from the south verandah, which was +built over the water, and from the east verandah, which was visible +from the Jasper B.--and onto the roof of which Cleggett had seen Loge +tumble the limp body of his victim, Heinrich. That had been only the +day before, but so much had happened since that Cleggett could scarcely +realize that so little time had elapsed. + +Cleggett strolled into the barroom and took a seat at a table in the +southeast corner of it, with his back to the angle of the walls. He +thus commanded a view of the bar itself; a door which led, as he +conjectured, into the kitchen; the door communicating with the office, +and a door which gave upon the west verandah--all this easily, and +without turning his head. By turning his head ever so slightly to his +right, he could command a view of the door leading to the east +verandah. Unless the ceiling suddenly opened above him, or the floor +beneath, it would be impossible to surprise him. Cleggett took this +position less through any positive fear of attack than because he +possessed the instinct of the born strategist. Cleggett was like +Robert E. Lee in his quick grasp of a situation and, indeed, in other +respects--although Cleggett would never under any circumstances have +countenanced human slavery. + +There were only two men in the place when Cleggett took his seat, the +bartender and a fellow who was evidently a waiter. He had entered the +west door and walked across the room without looking at them, +withholding his gaze purposely. When he looked towards the bar, after +seating himself, the waiter, with his back towards Cleggett's corner, +was talking in a low tone to the bartender. But they had both seen him; +Cleggett perceived they both knew him. + +"See what the gentleman wants, Pierre," said the bartender in a voice +too elaborately casual to hide his surprise at seeing Cleggett. + +The waiter turned and came towards him, and Cleggett saw the man's face +for the first time. It was a face that Cleggett never forgot. +Cleggett judged the man to be a Frenchman; he was dark and sallow, with +nervous, black eyebrows, and a smirk that came and went quickly. But +the unforgettable feature was a mole that grew on his upper lip, on the +right side, near the base of his flaring nostril. Many moles have +hairs in them; Pierre's mole had not merely half a dozen hairs, but a +whole crop. They grew thick and long; and, with a perversion of vanity +almost inconceivable in a sane person, Pierre had twisted these hairs +together, as a man twists a mustache, and had trained them to grow +obliquely across his cheek bone. He was a big fellow, for a Frenchman, +and, as he walked towards Cleggett with a mincing elasticity of gait, +he smirked and caressed this whimsical adornment. Cleggett, +fascinated, stared at it as the fellow paused before him. Pierre, +evidently gratified at the sensation he was creating, continued to +smirk and twist, and then, seeing that he held his audience, he took +from his waistcoat pocket a little piece of cosmetic and, as a final +touch of Gallic grotesquerie, waxed the thing. It was all done with +that air of quiet histrionicism, and with that sense of +self-appreciation, which only the French can achieve in its perfection. +"You ordered, M'sieur?" Pierre, having produced his effect, like the +artist (though debased) that he was, did not linger over it. + +"Er--a Scotch highball," said Cleggett, recovering himself. "And with +a piece of lemon peeling in it, please." + +Pierre served him deftly. Cleggett stirred his drink and sipped it +slowly, gazing at the bartender, who elaborately avoided watching him. +But after a moment a little noise at his right attracted his attention. +Pierre, with his hand cupped, had dashed it along a window pane and +caught a big stupid fly, abroad thus early in the year. With a sense +of almost intolerable disgust, Cleggett saw the man, with a rapt smile +on his face, tear the insect's legs from it, and turn it loose. If +ever a creature rejoiced in wickedness for its own sake, and as if its +practice were an art in itself, Pierre was that person, Cleggett +concluded. Knowing Pierre, one could almost understand those cafes of +Paris where the silly poets of degradation ostentatiously affect the +worship of all manner of devils. + +An instant later, Pierre, as if he had been doing something quite +charming, looked at Cleggett with a grin; a grin that assumed that +there was some kind of an understanding between them concerning this +delightful pastime. It was too much. Cleggett, with an oath--and +never stopping to reflect that it was perhaps just the sort of action +which Pierre hoped to provoke--grasped his cane with the intention of +laying it across the fellow's shoulders half a dozen times, come what +might, and leaving the place. + +But at that instant the door from the office opened and the man whom +he knew only as Loge entered the room. + +Loge paused at the right of Cleggett, and then marched directly across +the room and sat down opposite the commander of the Jasper B. at the +same table. He was wearing the cutaway frock coat, and as he swung his +big frame into the seat one of his coat tails caught in the chair back +and was lifted. + +Cleggett saw the steel butt of an army revolver. Loge perceived by his +face that he had seen it, and laughed. + +"I've been wanting to talk to you," he said, leaning across the table +and showing his yellow teeth in a smile which he perhaps intended to be +ingratiating. Cleggett, looking Loge fixedly in the eye, withdrew his +right hand from beneath his coat, and laid his magazine pistol on the +table under his hand. + +"I am at your service," he said, steadily, giving back unwavering gaze +for gaze. "I am looking for some information myself, and I am in +exactly the humor for a little comfortable chat." + + + +CHAPTER XI + +REPARTEE AND PISTOLS + +Loge dropped his gaze to the pistol, and the smile upon his lips slowly +turned into a sneer. But when he lifted his eyes to Cleggett's again +there was no fear in them. + +"Put up your gun," he said, easily enough. "You won't have any use for +it here." + +"Thank you for the assurance," said Cleggett, "but it occurs to me that +it is in a very good place where it is." + +"Oh, if it amuses you to play with it----" said Loge. + +"It does," said Cleggett dryly. + +"It's an odd taste," said Loge. + +"It's a taste I've formed during the last few days on board my ship," +said Cleggett meaningly. + +"Ship?" said Loge. "Oh, I beg your pardon. You mean the old hulk over +yonder in the canal?" + +"Over yonder in the canal," said Cleggett, without relaxing his +vigilance. + +"You've been frightened over there?" asked Loge, showing his teeth in a +grin. + +"No," said Cleggett. "I'm not easily frightened." + +Loge looked at the pistol under Cleggett's hand, and from the pistol to +Cleggett's face, with ironical gravity, before he spoke. "I should +have thought, from the way you cling to that pistol, that perhaps your +nerves might be a little weak and shaky." + +"On the contrary," said Cleggett, playing the game with a face like a +mask, "my nerves are so steady that I could snip that ugly-looking +skull off your cravat the length of this barroom away." + +"That would be mighty good shooting," said Loge, turning in his chair +and measuring the distance with his eye. "I don't believe you could do +it. I don't mind telling you that _I_ couldn't." + +"While we are on the subject of your scarfpin," said Cleggett, in whom +the slur on the Jasper B. had been rankling, "I don't mind telling YOU +that I think that skull thing is in damned bad taste. In fact, you are +dressed generally in damned bad taste.--Who is your tailor?" + +Cleggett was gratified to see a dull flush spread over the other's face +at the insult. Loge was silent a moment, and then he said, dropping +his bantering manner, which indeed sat rather heavily upon him: "I +don't know why you should want to shoot at my scarfpin--or at me. I +don't know why you should suddenly lay a pistol between us. I don't, +in short, know why we should sit here paying each other left-handed +compliments, when it was merely my intention to make you a business +proposition." + +"I have been waiting to hear what you had to say to me," said Cleggett, +without being in the least thrown off his guard by the other's change +of manner. + +"If you had not chanced to drop in here today," said Loge, "I had +intended paying you a visit." + +"I have had several visitors lately," said Cleggett nonchalantly, "and +I think at least two of them can make no claim that they were not +warmly received." + +"Yes?" said Loge. But if Cleggett's meaning reached him he was too +cool a hand to show it. He persisted in his affectation of a +businesslike air. "Am I right in thinking that you have bought the +boat?" + +"You are." + +"To come to the point," said Loge, "I want to buy her from you. What +will you take for her?" + +The proposition was unexpected to Cleggett, but he did not betray his +surprise. + +"You want to buy her?" he said. "You want to buy the old hulk over +yonder in the canal?" He laughed, but continued: "What on earth can +your interest be in her?" + +There was a trace of surliness in Loge's voice as he answered: "YOU +were enough interested in her to buy her, it seems. Why shouldn't I +have the same interest?" + +Cleggett was silent a moment, and then he leaned across the table and +said with emphasis: "I have noticed your interest in the Jasper B. +since the day I first set foot on her. And let me warn you that unless +you show your curiosity in some other manner henceforth, you will +seriously regret it. A couple of your men have repented of your +interest already." + +"My men? What do you mean by my men? I haven't any men." Loge's +imitation of astonishment was a piece of art; but if anything he +overdid it a trifle. He frowned in a puzzled fashion, and then said: +"You talk about my men; you speak riddles to me; you appear to threaten +me, but after all I have only made you a plain business proposition. I +ask you again, what will you take for her?" + +"She's not for sale," said Cleggett shortly. + +Loge did not speak again for a moment. Instead, he picked up the spoon +with which Cleggett had stirred his highball and began to draw +characters with its wet point upon the table. "If it's a question of +price," he said finally, "I'm prepared to allow you a handsome profit." + +Cleggett determined to find out how far he would go. + +"You might be willing to pay as much as $5,000 for her--for the old +hulk over there in the canal?" + +Loge stopped playing with the spoon and looked searchingly into +Cleggett's face. Then he said: + +"I will. Turn her over to me the way she was the day you bought her, +and I'll give you $5,000." He paused, and then repeated, stressing the +words: "MIND YOU, WITH EVERYTHING IN HER THE WAY IT WAS THE DAY YOU +BOUGHT HER." + +Cleggett fumbled with his fingers in a waistcoat pocket, drew out the +torn piece of counterfeit money which he had taken from the dead hand, +and flung it on the table. + +"Five thousand dollars," he said, "in THAT kind of money?" + +Loge looked at it with eyes that suddenly contracted. Clever +dissembler that he was, he could not prevent an involuntary start. He +licked his lips, and Cleggett judged that perhaps his mouth felt a +little dry. But these were the only signs he made. Indeed, when he +spoke it was with something almost like an air of relief. + +"Come," he said, "now we're down to brass tacks at last on this +proposition. Mr. Detective, name your real price." + +Cleggett did not answer immediately. He appeared to consider his real +price. But in reality he was thinking that there was no longer any +doubt of the origin of the explosion. Since Loge practically +acknowledged the counterfeit money, the man who had died with this +piece of it in his hand must have been one of Loge's men. But he only +said: + +"Why do you call me a detective?" + +Loge shrugged his shoulders. Then he said again: "Your real price?" + +"What," said Cleggett, trying him out, "do you think of $20,000?" + +The other gave a long, low whistle. + +"Gad!" he cried, "what crooks you bulls are." + +"It's not so much," said Cleggett deliberately, "when one takes +everything into consideration." + +Loge appeared to meditate. Then he said: "That figure is out of the +question. I'll give you $10,000 and not a cent more." + +"You want her pretty badly," said Cleggett. "Or you want what's on +her." + +"Why," said Loge, with an assumption of great frankness, "between you +and me I don't care a damn about your boat. I think we understand each +other. I'm buying her to get what's on her." + +"Suppose I sell you what's on her for $10,000 and keep the ship," said +Cleggett, wondering what WAS on the Jasper B. + +"Agreed," said Loge. + +"Since we're being so frank with one another," said Cleggett, "would +you mind telling me why you didn't come to me at the start with an +offer to buy, instead of making such a nuisance of yourself?" + +"Eh?" Loge appeared genuinely surprised. "Why should I pay you any +money if I could get it, or destroy it, without that? Besides, how was +I to know you could be bought?" + +Cleggett wondered more than ever what piece of evidence the hold of the +Jasper B. contained. He felt certain that it was not merely +counterfeit bills. Cleggett determined upon a minute and thorough +search of the hold. + +"You'll send for it?" said Cleggett, still trying to get a more +definite idea of what "it" was, without revealing that he did not know. + +"I'll come myself with a taxicab," said Loge. + +Cleggett rose, smiling; he had found out as much as he could expect to +learn. + +"On the whole," he said, "I think that I prefer to keep the Jasper B. +and everything that's in her. But before I leave I must thank you for +the pleasure I have derived from our little talk--and the information +as well. You can hardly imagine how you have interested me. Will you +kindly step back and let me pass?" + +Loge got to his feet with a muttered oath; his face went livid and a +muscle worked in his throat; his fingers contracted like the claws of +some big and powerful cat. But, out of respect for Cleggett's pistol, +he stepped backward. + +"You have confessed to making counterfeit money," went on Cleggett, +enjoying the situation, "and you have as good as told me that there are +further evidences of crime on board the Jasper B. You can rest assured +that I will find them. You have also betrayed the fact that you +planned to blow my ship up, and there are several other little matters +which you have shed light upon. + +"I am not a detective. Nevertheless, I hope in the near future to see +you behind the bars and to help put you there. It may interest you to +know that my opinion of your intellect is no higher than my opinion of +your character. You seem to me to have a vast conceit of your own +cleverness, which is not justified by the facts. You are a very stupid +fellow; a--a--what is the slang word? Boob, I believe." + +But while Cleggett was finishing his remarks a subtle change stole over +Loge's countenance. His attitude, which had been one of baffled rage, +relaxed. As Cleggett paused the sneer came back upon Loge's lips. + +"Boob," he said quietly, "boob is the word. Look above you." + +A sharp metallic click overhead gave point to Loge's words. Looking up, +Cleggett saw that a trap-door had opened in the ceiling, and through +the aperture Pierre, who had left the room some moments before with the +bartender, was pointing a revolver, which he had just cocked, at +Cleggett's head. He sighted along the barrel with an eager, +anticipatory smile upon his face; Pierre would, no doubt, have +preferred to see a man boiled in oil rather than merely shot, but +shooting was something, and Pierre evidently intended to get all the +delight possible out of the situation. + +Cleggett's own pistol was within an inch of Loge's stomach. + +"I was willing to pay you real money," said Loge, "for the sake of +peace. But you're a damned fool if you think you can throw me down and +then walk straight out of here to headquarters." Then he added, +showing his yellow teeth: "You WOULD bring pistols into the +conversation, you know. That was YOUR idea. And now you're in a devil +of a fix." + +The man certainly had an iron nerve; he spoke as calmly as if +Cleggett's weapon were not in existence; there was nothing but the +pressure of a finger wanting to send both him and Cleggett to eternity. +Yet he jested; he laid his strong and devilish will across Cleggett's +mentality; it was a duel in which the two minds met and tried each +other like swords; the first break in intention, and one or the other +was a dead man. Cleggett felt the weight of that powerful and evil +soul upon his own almost as if it were a physical thing. + +"You are not altogether safe yourself," said Cleggett grimly, with his +eyes fixed on Pierre's and his pistol touching Loge's waistband. "If +Pierre so much as winks an eye--if you move a hair's breadth--I'll put +a stream of bullets through YOU. Understand?" + +How long this singular psychological combat might have lasted before a +nerve quivered somewhere and brought the denouement of a double death, +there is no telling. For accident (or fate) intervened to pluck these +antagonists back into life and rob the gloating Pierre of the happiness +of seeing two men perish without danger to himself. Something of +uncertain shape, but of a blue color, loomed vaguely behind Pierre's +head; loomed and suddenly descended to the accompaniment of a piercing +shriek. Pierre's pistol went off, but he had evidently been stricken +between the shoulders; the ball went wild, and the pistol itself +dropped from his hand, another cartridge exploding as it hit the floor. +The next instant Pierre tumbled headlong through the hole, landing upon +Loge, who, not braced for the shock, went down himself. + +As the two men struggled to rise a strange figure precipitated itself +from the room above, feet first, and hit both of them, knocking them +down again. It was a tall man, thin and lank, clad only in a suit of +silk pajamas of the color known as baby blue; he was barefoot, and +Cleggett, with that lucid grasp of detail which comes to men oftener in +nightmares than in real life, noticed that he had a bunion at the large +joint of his right great toe. + +If the man was startling, he was no less startled himself. Leaping from +the struggling forms of Pierre and Loge, who defeated each other's +frantic efforts to rise, he was across the barroom in three wild +bounds, shrieking shrilly as he leaped; he bolted through the west door +and cleared the verandah at a jump. + +Loge, gaining his feet, was after the man in blue in an instant, +evidently thinking no more of Cleggett than if the latter had been in +Madagascar. And as for Cleggett, although he might have shot down Loge +a dozen times over, he was so astonished at what he saw that the +thought never entered his head. He had, in fact, forgotten that he +held a pistol in his hand. Pierre scrambled to his feet and followed +Loge. + +Cleggett, running after them, saw the man in the blue pajamas sprinting +along the sandy margin of the bay. But Loge, his hat gone, his coat +tails level in the wind behind him, and his large patent leather shoes +flashing in the morning sunlight, was overhauling him with long and +powerful strides. Cleggett saw the quarry throw a startled glance over +his shoulder; he was no match for the terrible Loge in speed, and he +must have realized it with despair, for he turned sharply at right +angles and rushed into the sea. Loge unhesitatingly plunged after him, +and had caught him by the shoulder and whirled him about before he had +reached a swimming depth. They clinched, in water mid-thigh deep, and +then Cleggett saw Loge plant his fist, with scientific precision and +awful force, upon the point of the other's jaw. The man in the blue +pajamas collapsed; he would have dropped into the water, but Loge +caught him as he fell, threw his body across a shoulder with little +apparent effort, and trotted back into the house with him. + +Cleggett had left his sword cane in the barroom, but he judged it would +be just as well to allow it to remain there for the present. He turned +and walked meditatively across the sands towards the Jasper B. + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE SECOND OBLONG BOX + +When Cleggett returned to the ship he found Captain Abernethy in +conversation with a young man of deprecating manner whom the Captain +introduced as the Rev. Simeon Calthrop. + +"I been tellin' him," said the Cap'n, pitching his voice shrilly above +the din the workmen made, and not giving the Rev. Mr. Calthrop an +opportunity to speak for himself, "I been tellin' him it may be a long +time before the Jasper B. gets to the Holy Land." + +"Do you want to go to Palestine?" asked Cleggett of Mr. Calthrop, who +stood with downcast eyes and fingers that worked nervously at the +lapels of his rusty black coat. + +"I've knowed him sence he was a boy. He's in disgrace, Simeon Calthrop +is," shrieked the Captain, preventing the preacher from answering +Cleggett's question, and scorning to answer it directly himself. "Been +kicked out of his church fur kissin' a married woman, and can't get +another one." (The Cap'n meant another church.) + +The preacher merely raised his eyes, which were large and brown and +slightly protuberant, and murmured with a kind of brave humility: + +"It is true." + +"But why do you want to go to Palestine?" said Cleggett. + +"She sung in the choir and she had three children," screamed Cap'n +Abernethy, "and she limped some. Folks say she had a cork foot. Hey, +Simeon, DID she have a cork foot?" + +Mr. Calthrop flushed painfully, but he forced himself courageously to +answer. "Mr. Abernethy, I do not know," he said humbly, and with the +look of a stricken animal in his big brown eyes. + +He was a handsome young fellow of about thirty--or he would have been +handsome, Cleggett thought, had he not been so emaciated. His hair was +dark and brown and inclined to curl, his forehead was high and white +and broad, and his fingers were long and white and slender; his nose +was well modeled, but his lips were a trifle too full. Although he +belonged to one of the evangelical denominations, the Rev. Mr. Calthrop +affected clothing very like the regulation costume of the Episcopalian +clergy; but this clothing was now worn and torn and dusty. Buttons +were gone here and there; the knees of the unpressed trousers were +baggy and beginning to be ragged, and the sole of one shoe flapped as +he walked. He had a three days' growth of beard and no baggage. + +When Cap'n Abernethy had delivered himself and walked away, the Rev. +Mr. Calthrop confirmed the story of his own disgrace, speaking in a low +but clear voice, and with a gentle and wistful smile. + +"I am one of the most miserable of sinners, Mr. Cleggett," he said. "I +have proved myself to be that most despicable thing, an unworthy +minister. I was tempted and I fell." + +The Rev. Mr. Calthrop seemed to find the sort of satisfaction in +confessing his sins to the world that the medieval flagellants found in +scoring themselves with whips; they struck their bodies; he drew forth +his soul and beat it publicly. + +Cleggett learned that he had set himself as a punishment and a +mortification the task of obtaining his daily bread by the work of his +hands. It was his intention to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, +refusing all assistance except that which he earned by manual labor. +After such a term of years as should satisfy all men (and particularly +his own spiritual sense) of the genuineness of his penitence, he would +apply to his church for reinstatement, and ask for an appointment to +some difficult mission in a wild and savage country. The Rev. Mr. +Calthrop intimated that if he chose to accept rehabilitation on less +arduous terms, he might obtain it; but the poignancy of his own sense +of failure drove him to extremes. + +"Are you sure," said Cleggett sternly, "that you are not making a +luxury of this very penitence itself? Are you sure that it would not +be more acceptable to Heaven if you forgave yourself more easily?" + +"Alas, yes, I am sure!" said Mr. Calthrop, with a sigh and his calm and +wistful smile. "I know myself too well! I know my own soul. I am +cursed with a fatal magnetism which women find it impossible to resist. +And I am continually tempted to permit it to exert itself. This is the +cross that I bear through life." + +"You should marry some good woman," said Cleggett. + +"I do not feel that I am worthy," said Mr. Calthrop meekly. "And think +of the pain my wife would experience in seeing me continually tempted +by some woman who believed herself to be my psychic affinity!" + +"You are a thought too subtle, Mr. Calthrop," said Cleggett bluntly. +"But I suppose you cannot help that. To each of us his destiny. I am +prepared, until I see some evidence to the contrary, to believe your +repentance to be genuine. In the meantime, we need a ship's chaplain. +If your conscience permits, you may have the post--combining it, +however, with the vocation of a common sailor before the mast. I am +inclined to agree with you that manual labor will do you good. Some +time or another, in her progress around the world, the Jasper B. will +undoubtedly touch at a coast within walking distance of Jerusalem. +There we will put you ashore. Before we sail you can put in your time +holystoning the deck. + +"The deck of the Jasper B.," said Cleggett, looking at it, "to all +appearances, has not been holystoned for some years. You will find in +the forecastle several holystones that have never been used, and may +begin at once." + +Cleggett, if his tastes had not inclined him towards a more active and +adventurous life, would have made a good bishop, for he knew how to +combine justice and mercy. And yet few bishops have possessed his +rapidity of decision, when compelled, upon the spur of the moment, to +become the physician of an ailing soul. He had determined in a flash to +make the man ship's chaplain, that Calthrop might come into close +contact with other spiritual organisms and not think too exclusively of +his own. + +The Rev. Mr. Calthrop thanked him with becoming gratitude and departed +to get the new holystones. + +By three o'clock that afternoon, with such celerity had the work gone +forward, Mr. Watkins, the contractor, announced to Cleggett that his +task was finished, except for the removal of the rubbish in the hold. +Cleggett, going carefully over the vessel, and examining the new parts +with a brochure on the construction and navigation of schooners in his +hand, verified the statement. + +"She is ready to sail," said Cleggett, standing by the new wheel with a +swelling heart, and sweeping the vessel from bowsprit to rudder with a +gradual glance. + +It was a look almost paternal in its pride; Cleggett loved the Jasper +B. She was an idea that no one else but Cleggett could have had. + +"Sail?" said Mr. Watkins. + +"Why not?" said Cleggett, puzzled at his tone. + +"Oh, nothing," said Mr. Watkins. "It's none of my business. My +business was to do the work I was hired to do according to +specifications. Further than that, nothing." + +"But why did you think I was having the work done?" + +"Can't say I thought," said Mr. Watkins. "I took the job, and I done +it. Had an idea mebby you were in the movin' picture game." + +Mr. Watkins, as he talked, had been regarding Cap'n Abernethy, who in +turn was looking at the mainmast. There seemed to be something in the +very way Cap'n Abernethy looked at the mainmast which jarred on Mr. +Watkins. Mr. Watkins dropped his voice, indicating the Cap'n with a +curved, disparaging thumb, as he asked Cleggett: + +"Is HE going to sail her?" + +"Why not?" + +"Oh--nothing; nothing at all," said Mr. Watkins. "It's none o' MY +business." + +Cleggett began to be a little annoyed. "Have you," he said with +dignity, and fixing a rather stern glance upon Mr. Watkins, "have you +any reason to doubt Cap'n Abernethy's ability as a sailing master?" + +"No, indeed," said Mr. Watkins cheerfully, "not as a sailing master. +He may be the best in the world, for all I know. _I_ never seen him +sail anything. I never heard him play the violin, neither, for that +matter, and he may be a regular jim-dandy on the violin for all I know." + +"You are facetious," said Cleggett stiffly. + +"Meaning I ain't paid to be fresh, eh?" said Mr. Watkins. "And right +you are, too. And there's all that junk down in the hold to pass out +and cart away." + +Cleggett personally supervised this removal, standing on the deck by +the hatchway and scanning everything that was handed up. The character +of this junk has already been described. Every barrel or cask that was +placed upon the deck was stove in with an ax before Cleggett's eyes; he +satisfied himself that every bottle was empty; he turned over the +broken boxes and beer cases with his foot to see that they contained +nothing. + +But the work was three-quarters done before he found what he was +looking for. From under a heap of debris, which had completely hidden +it, towards the forward part of the vessel, the workmen unearthed an +unpainted oblong box, almost seven feet in length. It was of +substantial material and looked newer than any of the other stuff. +Cleggett had it placed on one side of the hatchway and sat down on it. +It was tightly nailed up; all of its surfaces were sound. Cleggett did +not doubt that he would find in it what he wanted, yet in order to be +on the safe side he continued to scrutinize everything else that came +out of the hold. + +But finally the hold was as empty as a drum, and Watkins and his men +departed. The oblong box upon which Cleggett sat was the only possible +receptacle of any sort in an undamaged condition, which had been in the +hold. He determined to have it opened in the cabin. + +As he arose from it he was struck by its resemblance to the box in +Elmer's charge, the dank box of Reginald Maltravers, which stood on one +end near the cabin companionway, leaning against the port side of the +cabin so that it was not visible from the road, which ran to the +starboard of the Jasper B. But, since all oblong boxes are bound to +have a general resemblance, Cleggett, at the time, thought little +enough of this likeness. + +He called to George and Mr. Calthrop, who, with Dr. Farnsworth, were +forward receiving their first lecture on seamanship from Cap'n +Abernethy and Kuroki, to carry the box into the cabin. + +But as George and the Rev. Mr. Calthrop lifted the box to their +shoulders, Cleggett was startled by a loud and violent oath; a +veritable bellow of blasphemy that made him shudder. Turning, he saw +than an automobile had paused in the road. In the forward part of the +machine stood Loge, raving in an almost demoniac fury and pointing at +the box. He writhed in the grip of three men who endeavored to restrain +him. One of them was the sinister Pierre. + +Hoisting himself, as it were, on a mounting billow of his own +profanity, Loge cast himself with a wide swimming motion of his arms +from the auto. But one of the men clung to him; they came to the +ground together like tackler and tackled in a football game. The +others cast themselves out of the machine and flung themselves upon +their leader; he fought like a lion, but he was finally overpowered and +thrown back into the auto, which was immediately started up and which +made off towards Fairport at a rattling speed. Three hundred yards +away, however, Loge rose again and shook a furious fist at the Jasper +B., and though Cleggett could not distinguish the words, the sense of +Loge's impotent rage rolled towards him on the wind in a roaring, +vibrant bass. + +The sight of the box that he had not been able to buy, in Cleggett's +possession, had stirred him beyond all caution; he had actually +contemplated an attempt to rush the Jasper B. in broad daylight. + +But while this queer tableau of baffled rage was enacting itself on the +starboard bow of the Jasper B., a no less strange and far less +explicable thing was occurring on the port side. The swish of oars and +the ripple of a moving boat drew Cleggett's attention in that direction +as Loge's booming threats grew fainter. He saw that two oarsmen, near +the eastern and farther side of the canal, had allowed the dainty, +varnished little craft they were supposed to propel to come to a rest +in spite of the evident displeasure of a man who sat in its stern. +This third man was the same that Cleggett had seen on the deck of the +Annabel Lee with a spy glass, and again that same morning driving the +two almost nude figures up and down the canal. + +The two oarsmen, Cleggett saw with surprise, rowed with shackled feet; +their feet were, indeed, chained to the boat itself. About the wrists +of each were steel bands; fixed to these bands were chains, the other +ends of which were locked to their oars. They were, in effect, galley +slaves. + +All this iron somewhat hampered their movements. But the reason of +their pause was an engrossing interest in the box of Reginald +Maltravers, which stood, as has already been said, on the port side of +the cabin, on one end, and so was visible from their boat. They were +looking at it with slack oars, dropped jaws and starting eyes; the +thing seemed to have fascinated them and bereft them of motion; it was +as if they were unable to get past it at all. Elmer, worn out by his +many long vigils, lay asleep on the deck at the foot of the box, with +an arm flung over his face. + +The stout man, after vainly endeavoring to start his oarsmen with +words, took up an extra oar and began vigorously prodding them with it. +Cleggett had not seen this man look towards the Jasper B., but he +nevertheless had the feeling that the man had missed little of what had +been going on there. He seemed to be that kind of man. + +His crew responding to the stabs of the oar, the little vessel went +perhaps fifty yards farther up the canal towards Parker's, and then +swung daintily around and came back towards the Jasper B. at almost the +speed of a racing shell, the men in chains bending doggedly to their +work. Cleggett saw that the boat must pass close to the Jasper B., and +leaned over the port rail. + +The man in the stern had picked up a magazine and was lolling back +reading it. As the boat passed under him Cleggett saw on the cover +page of the magazine a picture of the very man who was perusing it. It +was a singularly urbane face; both the counterfeit presentment on the +cover page and the real face were smiling and calm and benign. +Cleggett could read the legend on the magazine cover accompanying the +picture. It ran: + + Wilton Barnstable Tells In this Issue the Inside Story + of How he Broke up the Gigantic Smuggling Conspiracy. + +At that instant the man dropped the magazine and looked Cleggett full +in the face. He waved his arm in a meaning gesture in the direction in +which Loge had disappeared and said, with a gentle shake of his head at +Cleggett, as if he were chiding a naughty child: + +"When thieves fall out--! When thieves fall out, my dear sir!" + +As he swept by he resumed his magazine with the pleased air of a man +who has delivered himself of a brilliant epigram; it showed in his very +shoulders. + +"And that," murmured Cleggett, "is Wilton Barnstable, the great +detective!" + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE SOUL OF LOGAN BLACK + +Wilton Barnstable, the great detective, having witnessed Loge's +outburst of wrath, had thought it signified a quarrel between thieves, +as his words to Cleggett indicated. He had thought Cleggett a crook, +and Loge's ally. + +Loge, on the other hand, had thought Cleggett a detective. He had +addressed him as "Mr. Detective" that morning at Morris's. Loge +believed the Jasper B. and the Annabel Lee to be allied against him. + +Whereas Cleggett, until he had recognized Wilton Barnstable in the +boat, had thought it likely that the Annabel Lee and Morris's were +allied against the Jasper B. + +Now that Cleggett knew the commander of the Annabel Lee to be Wilton +Barnstable, his first impulse was to go to the Great Detective and +invite his cooperation against Loge and the gang at Morris's. But +almost instantly he reflected that he could not do this. For there was +the box of Reginald Maltravers! Indeed, how did he know that it was +not the box of Reginald Maltravers which had brought the Great +Detective to that vicinity? This man--of world-wide fame, and reputed +to possess an almost miraculous instinct in the unraveling of criminal +mysteries--might be even now on the trail of Lady Agatha. If so, he +was Cleggett's enemy. When it came to a choice between the championship +of Lady Agatha and the defiance of Wilton Barnstable, and all that he +represented, Cleggett did not hesitate for an instant. + +There were still some aspects of the situation in which he found +himself that were as puzzling as ever to Cleggett. It is true that he +now knew why Loge's men had been in the hold of the vessel; they had +been there, no doubt, in an attempt to get possession of the oblong, +unpainted box which had caused Loge's explosion of wrath; the box which +was the real thing Loge had tried to buy from Cleggett when he dickered +for the purchase of the Jasper B. But why this box should have been in +the hold of the vessel, Cleggett could not understand. And how Loge's +men had been able to get into and out of the hold without his knowledge +still perplexed him. + +The motive behind the attempt to dynamite the vessel was clear. Having +failed to purchase it, having failed to recover the box from it, Loge +had sought to destroy it with all on board. But the strange character +of this explosion still defied his powers of analysis. And then there +was the tenth Earl of Claiborne's signet ring on the dead hand. Beyond +the fact that it was a circumstance which connected his fortunes with +those of Lady Agatha, he could make nothing at all of the signet ring. +What, he asked himself again and again, was the connection of the +criminal gang at Morris's with the proudest Earl in England? + +Loge himself was a puzzle to Cleggett. The man was a counterfeiter. +That he knew. The "queer" twenty-dollar bill, which he had practically +acknowledged, left no doubt of that. But he was more than a +counterfeiter. Cleggett believed him to be also an anarchist. At +least he was associated with anarchists. + +But counterfeiting and anarchy are not ordinarily found together. The +anarchist is not a criminal in the more sordid sense. He is the enemy +of society as at present organized. He considers society to be built +on a thieving basis; he is not himself a thief. He scorns and hates +society, wishes to see it overturned, and believes himself superior to +it. He will commit the most savage atrocities for the cause and +cheerfully die for his principles. The anarchist is not a crook. He +is an idealist. + +Convinced that the unpainted oblong box would furnish a clew to the +man's real personality, Cleggett, assisted by Lady Agatha and Dr. +Farnsworth, opened it in the cabin. + +They first took out a number of plates, some broken, some intact, for +the manufacture of counterfeit notes of various denominations. There +was some of the fibrous paper used in this process. There was a +quantity of the apparatus essential to engraving the plates. This +stuff more than half filled the box. Then there were a number of books. + +"Elementary textbooks," said Dr. Farnsworth, glancing at them. On the +flyleaf of one of them was written in a bold, firm hand: "Logan Black." + +"Loge--or Logan Black," said Dr. Farnsworth, "has been giving himself +an education in the manufacture of high explosives." + +"But THESE aren't textbooks," said Lady Agatha, who had pulled out +three long, narrow volumes from the pile. "They're in manuscript, and +they look more like account books." + +The first of them, in Loge's handwriting, contained a series of notes, +mostly unintelligible to Cleggett, dealing with experiments in two +sorts of manufacture: first, the preparation of counterfeit money; +second, the production of dynamite bombs. + +The second of the manuscript books was in cipher. Cleggett might have +deciphered it without assistance, for he was skilled in these matters, +but the labor was not necessary. The book was for Loge's own eye. A +loose sheet of paper folded between the leaves gave the key. + +The book showed that Loge had been employed as an expert operator, in +the pay of a certain radical organization, to pull off dynamiting jobs +in various parts of the country. This was his account book with the +organization. He had done his work and taken his pay as methodically +as a plumber might. And he had been paid well. Cleggett guessed that +Loge was not particularly interested in the work in its relationship to +the revolutionary cause; it was the money to be made in this way, and +not any particular sympathy with his employers, which attracted Loge, +so Cleggett divined. Cleggett was astonished at the number of jobs +which Loge had engineered. The book threw light on mysterious +explosions which had occurred throughout a period of five years. + +But it was the third manuscript book which displayed the real Logan +Black. + +This was also in cipher. Dr. Farnsworth and Cleggett had translated +but a few lines of it when they perceived that it was a diary. With a +vanity almost inconceivable to those who have not reflected upon the +criminal nature, Loge had written here the tale of his own life, for +his own reading. He had written it in loving detail. It was, in fact, +the book in which he looked when he wished to admire himself. + +"It is odd," said Cleggett, "that so clever a man should write down his +own story in this way." + +"This book," said Farnsworth, "would be a boon to a psychologist +interested in criminology. You say it is odd. But with a certain type +of criminal, it is almost usual. The human soul is full of strange +impulses. One of the strangest is towards just this sort of record. +Cunning, and the vanity which destroys cunning, often exist side by +side. The criminal of a certain type almost worships himself; he is +profoundly impressed with his own cleverness. He is a braggart; he +swaggers; he defeats himself. A strange idiocy mingles with his +cleverness." + +"Even people who are not criminals do just that sort of thing," said +Lady Agatha. "Look at Samuel Pepys. He was one of the most timid of +beings. And he valued his place in the world mightily. But he wrote +down the story of his own disgrace in his diary--it had to come out of +him! And then, timid and cautious as he was, he did not destroy the +book! He let it get out of his possession." + +It was an evil, a monstrous personality which leered out of Logan +Black's diary. Boastful of his own iniquity, swaggering in his +wickedness, fatuous with self-love, he recounted his deeds with gusto +and with particularity. They did not read a quarter of this terrible +autobiography at the time, but they read enough to see the man in the +process of building up a criminal organization of his own, with +ramifications of the most surprising nature. + +"This man," said Dr. Farnsworth, with a shudder, "actually has the +ambition to be the head of nothing less than a crime trust." + +"It seems to be something more than an ambition," said Cleggett. "It +seems to be almost an accomplished fact." + +"Ugh!" said Lady Agatha, with a gesture of disgust, "he's like a great +horrid spider spinning webs!" + +Interested in anarchy only on its practical side, as the paid dynamiter +of the inner circle of radicals, Logan Black in his diary jeered at and +mocked the cause he served. And more than that, the man seemed to take +a perverted pleasure in attaching to himself young enthusiasts of the +radical type, eager to follow him as the disinterested leader of a +group of Reds, and then betraying them into the most sordid sort of +crime. Cleggett found--and could imagine the grimace of malevolent +satisfaction with which it had been written--this note: + +Heinrich is about ready to leave off talking his cant of universal +brotherhood, and make a little easy money in the way I have shown him. +It will be interesting to see what happens in side of Heinrich when he +realizes he is not an idealist, but a criminal. Will he stick to me on +the new lay? But those Germans are so sentimental--he may commit +suicide. + + +Cleggett recalled the manhandling Heinrich had received. A little +farther along he came upon this entry: + +The Italian-American boy is a find. Jones and Giuseppe! Puritan +father, Italian mother--and he worships me! It will be a test for my +personal magnetism, the handling of Gieseppe Jones will. He hates a +thief worse than the devil hates holy water. If I could make him steal +for me, I would know that I could do anything. + + +"That's our young poet in the forecastle!" said Cleggett. "I wonder if +Loge still held him." And then as the memory of the boy's ravings came +to him he mused: "Yes--he held the boy! That is what the fellow meant +in his delirium. Do you remember that he kept saying: 'I'm a +revolutionist, not a crook!'? And yet he continued to obey Loge!" + +"Is it not strange," said Lady Agatha, "that the man should take such +pride in working ruin?" + +All three were silent for a space. And then they looked at each other +with a shiver. The sense of the strong and sinister personality of +Logan Black struck on their spirits like a bleak wind. + +Cleggett was the first to recover himself. + +"God willing," he said solemnly, "I will bring that man to justice +personally!" + +Just then two bells struck. It had taken them more time than they had +realized to make even a partial examination of the contents of the box. +Cleggett, when the bell sounded, looked at his watch to see what time +it was--he was still a little unfamiliar with the nautical system. + +"He will go to any length to get this back into his possession," said +Cleggett, as he dumped the heap of incriminating evidence back into the +box and began to nail the boards on again. + +"Any length," echoed the Doctor. + +Pat upon the thought came the sound of taxicabs without. They went on +deck and saw a sinister procession rolling by. It consisted of three +machines, and there were three men in each cab. Loge and Pierre were +in the foremost one. None of the company vouchsafed so much as a +glance in the direction of the Jasper B. as the cabs whirled past +towards Morris's. It was undoubtedly a reinforcement of gunmen. + +"Ah!" said Cleggett, pointing to them. "The real battle is about to +begin! They are making ready for the attack!" + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +CLEGGETT STANDS BY HIS SHIP + +Cleggett did not fear (or rather, expect, since there was very little +that Cleggett feared) an attack until well after nightfall. +Nevertheless, he began to prepare for it at once. He called the entire +ship's company aft, with the exception of Miss Medley, who was on duty +with Giuseppe Jones. + +"My friends--for I hope we stand in the relation of friends as well as +that of commander and crew--I have every reason to expect that the +enemy will make a demonstration in force sometime during the night," he +said. "We have opposed to us the leader of a dangerous and powerful +criminal organization. He is, in fact, the president of a crime trust. +He will stop at nothing to compass the destruction of the Jasper B. and +all on board her. My quarrel with him has become, in a sense, personal. +I have no right to ask you to share my risk unless you choose to do so +voluntarily. Therefore, if there is anyone of you who wishes to leave +the Jasper B., let him do it now." + +Cleggett paused. But not a man moved. On the contrary, a little +murmur of something like reproach ran around the semicircle. The +ship's company looked in each other's eyes; they stood shifting their +feet uneasily. + +Finally Cap'n Abernethy spoke, clearing his throat with a prefatory hem: + +"If you was to ask me, Mr. Cleggett," said the Captain, with less than +his usual circumlocution, "I'd say the boys here ain't flattered by +what you've just said. The boys here DOES consider themselves friends +of yours, and if you was anxious to hear my opinion of it I'd say +you've hurt their feelin's by your way of putting it. Speakin' for +myself, Mr. Cleggett, as the nautical commander of this here ship to +the military commander, I don't mind owning up that MY feelin's is +hurt." + +"Aye, aye, sir," said George the Greek, addressing the nautical +commander, and the word went from lip to lip. + +"Aye, aye, sir," said Dr. Farnsworth, "the Captain speaks for us all." + +And the Reverend Mr. Calthrop remarked with a sigh: "You may have +cause to doubt my circumspection, Mr. Cleggett, but you have no cause +to doubt my courage." + +Cleggett was not the sort of man who is ashamed to acknowledge an +error. "Friends," he cried impulsively, "forgive me! I should have +known better than to phrase my remarks as I did. I would not have hurt +your feelings for worlds. I know you are devoted to me. I call for +volunteers for the perilous adventure which is before us!" + +The ship's company stepped forward as one man. As if by magic the +atmosphere cleared. + +"Now," said Cleggett, smiling back on the enthusiastic faces before +him, but inexpressibly touched by the fineness of his crew's devotion, +"to get to the point. There are seven of us, but there are at least a +dozen of them. We have, however, the advantage in position, for we can +find cover on the ship, whereas they must attack from the open. More +than that, we will have the advantage in arms; here is a magazine rifle +for each of you, while they, if I am not mistaken, will attack with +pistols. We must keep them at a distance, if possible. If they should +attempt to rush us we will meet them with cutlasses and sabers." + +"Mr. Cleggett," said Lady Agatha, rising when he had finished, and +speaking with animation, "will you permit me to make a suggestion?" + +She went on, without waiting for an answer: "It is this: Choose your +own ground for this battle! The Jasper B. is now a full-rigged +schooner. Very well, then, sail her! At the moment you are attacked, +weigh anchor, fight your way to the mouth of the canal, take up a +position in the bay in front of Morris's within easy rifle range and +out of pistol shot, and compel the place to surrender on your own +terms!" + +As the brilliance of this plan flashed upon her hearers, applause ran +around the room, and Kuroki, who spoke seldom, cried in admiration: + +"The Honorable Miss Englishman have hit her head on the nail! Let there +be some naval warfares!" + +"You are right," cried Cleggett, catching fire with the idea, "a +hundred times right! And why wait to be attacked? Let us carry the +war to the enemy's coast. Crack all sail upon her!--Up with the +anchors! We will show these gentry that the blood of Drake, Nelson, +and Old Dave Farragut still runs red in the veins of their countrymen!" + +"Banzai!" cried Kuroki. "Also Honorable Admiral Togo's veins!" + +A good breeze had sprung up out of the northwest while the conference +in the cabin was in progress. + +Cleggett was relieved that it was not from the south. There is not +much room to maneuver a schooner in a canal, and a breeze from the +south might have sailed the Jasper B. backwards towards Parker's Beach, +which would undoubtedly have given the enemy the idea that Cleggett was +retreating. The Jasper B.'s bow was pointed south, and Cleggett was +naturally anxious that she should sail south. + +At the outset a slight difficulty presented itself with regard to the +anchors--for although, as has been explained before, the Jasper B. was +a remarkably stable vessel, Cleggett had had the new anchors furnished +by the contractor let down. Having the anchors down seemed, somehow, +to make things more shipshape. It appeared that no one of the +adventurers was acquainted with an anchor song, and Cleggett, and, +indeed, all on board, felt that these anchors should be hoisted to the +accompaniment of some rousing chantey. Lady Agatha was especially +insistent on the point. + +While they stood about the capstan debating the matter the Reverend +Simeon Calthrop hesitatingly offered a suggestion which showed that, +while he was a novice as far as the nautical life was concerned, he was +also a person of resource. + +"How many of those present," inquired the young preacher, "know 'Onward +Christian Soldiers'?" + +All were acquainted with the hymn; the pastor grasped a capstan bar and +struck up the song in an agreeable tenor voice; they put their backs +into the work and their hearts into the song, and the anchors of the +Jasper B. came out of mud to the stirring notes of "Onward Christian +Soldiers, marching as to war!" + +While they were so engaged the breeze strengthened perceptibly. Looking +towards the west, Cleggett perceived the sun sinking below the horizon. +A long, blue, low-lying bank of clouds seemed to engulf it; for a +moment the top of this cloud was shot through with a golden color; then +a mass of quicker moving, nearer vapors from the north seemed to leap +suddenly nearer still; to extend itself at a bound over almost a third +of the sky; in a breath the day was gone; a storm threatened. + +The rising wind made the task of getting the canvas on the poles +extraordinarily difficult. Cleggett was well aware that the usual +method of procedure, in the presence of a storm, is rather to take in +sail than to crack on; but, always the original, he decided in this +case to reverse the common custom. Ashore or at sea, he never +permitted himself to be the slave of conventionalities. The Jasper B. +had lain so long in one spot that it would undoubtedly take more than a +capful of wind to move her. Cleggett did not know when he would get +such a strong wind again, coming from the right direction, and +determined to make the most of this one while he had it. Genius partly +consists in the acuteness which grasps opportunities. + +From the struggles of Cap'n Abernethy and the crew with the canvas, +which he saw none too clearly through the increasing dusk from his post +at the wheel, Cleggett judged that the wind was indeed strong enough +for his purpose. Yards, sheets and sails seemed to be acting in the +most singular manner. He could not remember reading of any parallel +case in the treatises on navigation which he had perused. Every now +and then the Cap'n or one of the crew would be jerked clean off his +feet by some quick and unexpected motion of a sail and flung into the +water. When this occurred the person who had been ducked crawled out +on the bank of the canal again and went on board by way of the +gangplank, returning stubbornly to his task. + +The booms in particular were possessed of a restless and unstable +spirit. They made sudden swoops, sweeps, and dashes in all directions. +Sometimes as many as three of the crew of the Jasper B. would be +knocked to the deck or into the water by a boom at the same time. But +Cleggett noted with satisfaction that they were plucky; they stuck +valiantly to the job. A doubt assailed Cleggett as to the competence +of Cap'n Abernethy, but he was loyal and fought it down. + +Finally Cap'n Abernethy hit upon a novel and ingenious idea. He tied +stout lines to the ends of the booms. The other ends of these ropes he +ran through the eyes of a couple of spare anchors. Taking the anchors +ashore, he made them fast to the wooden platform which was alongside +the Jasper B. Then he took up the slack in the lines, pulling them +taut and fastening them tightly. + +Thus the booms were held fast and stiff in position, and the crew could +get the canvas spread without being endangered by their strange and +unaccountable actions. + +This brilliant idea of anchoring the booms to the land would not have +been practicable had it not been for a whimsical cessation of the wind, +a lull such as incident to the coming of spring storms in these +latitudes. While the wind was in abeyance the men got the sails +spread. Then the Captain untied the lines, brought the spare anchors +on board, knocked the gangplank loose with a few blows of his ax, and +waited for the wind to resume. + +When the wind did blow again it came in a gust which was accompanied by +a twinkle of lightening over the whole sky and grumble of thunder. A +whirl of dust and fine gravel enveloped the Jasper B. For a moment it +was like a sandstorm. A few large drops of water fell. The gust was +violent; the sails filled with it and struggled like kites to be free; +here and there a strand of rope snapped; the masts bent and creaked; +the booms jumped and swung round like live things; the whole ship from +bowsprit to rudder shook and trembled with the assault. + +Cleggett, watchful at the wheel, prepared to turn her nose away from +the bank, but he was astonished to perceive that in spite of her +quaking and shivering the Jasper B. did not move one inch forward from +her position. He was prepared for a certain stability on the part of +the Jasper B., but not for quite so much of it. + +With the next gust the storm was on them in earnest. This blast came +with zigzag flashes of lightning that showed the heavens riotous with +battalions of charging clouds; it came with deafening thunder and a +torrential discharge of rain. One would have thought the power of the +wind sufficient to set a steel battleship scudding before it like a +wooden shoe. And yet the extraordinary Jasper B., although she +shrieked and groaned and seemed to stagger with the force of the blow, +did not move either forward or sidewise. + +She flinched, but she stood her ground. + +Second by second the storm increased in fury; in a moment it was no +longer merely a storm, it was a tempest. Cleggett, alarmed for the +safety of his masts, now ordered his men to take in sail. + +But even as he gave the order he realized that it could no longer be +done. A cloudburst, a hurricane, an electrical bombardment, struck the +Jasper B. all at once. One could not hear one's own voice. In the +glare of the lightning Cleggett saw the rigging tossing in an +indescribable confusion of canvas, spars, and ropes. Both masts and +the bowsprit snapped at almost the same instant. The whole chaotic +mass was lifted; it writhed in the air a moment, and then it came +crashing down, partly on the deck and partly in the seething waters of +the canal, where it lay and whipped ship and water with lashing +tentacles of wreckage. + +But still the unusual Jasper B. had not moved from her position. + +Cleggett's men had had warning enough to save themselves. They +gathered around him to wait for orders. More than one of them cast +anxious glances towards the land. Shouting to them to attack the +debris with axes, and setting the example himself, Cleggett soon saw +the deck clear again, and the Jasper B., to all intents, the same hulk +she had been when he bought her. But such was the fury of the tempest +that even with the big kites gone the Jasper B. continued to shake and +quiver where she lay. Speech was almost impossible on deck, but Cap'n +Abernethy signed to Cleggett that he had something important to say to +him. + +The whole company adjourned to the cabin, and there, shouting to make +himself heard, the Cap'n cried out: + +"Her timbers have been strained something terrible, Mr. Cleggett. She +ain't what I would call safe and seaworthy any more. The' don't seem +to be any danger of her sailin' off, but that's no sign she can't be +blowed over onto her beam ends and sunk with all on board. If you was +to ask me, Mr. Cleggett, I'd say the time had come to leave the Jasper +B." + +The anxiety depicted on the faces of the little circle about him might +have communicated itself to a less intrepid nature. The old Cap'n +himself was no coward. Indeed, in owning to his alarm he had really +done a brave thing, since few have the moral courage to proclaim +themselves afraid. But Cleggett was a man of iron. Although the +tempest smote the hulk with blow after blow, although both earth and +water seemed to lie prostrate and trampled beneath its unappeasable +fury, Cleggett had no thought of yielding. + +Unconsciously he drew himself up. It seemed to his crew that he +actually gained in girth and height. The soul, in certain great +moments, seems to have power to expand the body and inform it with the +quality of immortality; Ajax, in his magnificent gesture of defiance, +is all spirit. Cleggett, with his hand on his hip, uttered these +words, not without their sublimity: + +"Whether the Jasper B. sinks or swims, her commander will share her +fate. I stay by my ship!" + + + +CHAPTER XV + +NIGHT, TEMPEST, LOVE AND BATTLE + +And, indeed, if Cleggett had been of a mind to abandon the vessel, he +could scarcely have done so now. For his words were no more than +uttered when the sharp racket of a volley of pistol shots ripped its +way through the low-pitched roaring of the wind. + +Loge had chosen the height of the storm to mask his approach. He +attacked with the tempest. + +Without a word Cleggett put out the light in the cabin. His men +grasped their weapons and followed him to the deck. A flash of +lightning showed him, through the driving rain, the enemy rushing +towards the Jasper B., pistol in hand. They were scarcely sixty yards +away, and were firing as they came. Loge, a revolver in one hand, and +Cleggett's own sword cane in the other, was leading the rush. Besides +their firearms, each of Loge's men carried a wicked-looking machete. + +"Fire!" shouted Cleggett. "Let them have it, men!" And the rifles +blazed from the deck of the Jasper B. in a crashing volley. Instantly +the world was dark again; it was impossible to determine whether the +fire of the Jasper B. had taken effect. + +"To the starboard bulwark," cried Cleggett, "and give them hell with +the next lightning flash!" + +It came as he spoke, with its vivid glare showing to Cleggett the enemy +magnified to a portentous bigness against a background of chaotic +night. Two or three of them stood, leaning keenly forward; several of +the others had dropped to one knee; the rifle discharge had checked the +rush, and they also were waiting for the lightning. Cleggett and his +men threw a second volley at this wavering silhouette of astonishment. + +A cartridge jammed in the mechanism of Cleggett's gun. With an oath he +flung the weapon to the deck. A hand thrust another one into his +grasp, and Lady Agatha's voice said in his ear, "Take this one--it's +loaded." + +"My God," said Cleggett, "I thought you were in the cabin!" + +"Not I!" she cried, "I'm loading!" + +Just then the lightning came again and showed her to him plainly. +Drenched, bare-armed, bareheaded, her hair down and rolling backward in +a rich wet mass, she knelt on the deck behind the bulwark. Her eyes +blazed with excitement, and there was a smile upon her lips. Beside +her was the zinc bucket half full of cartridges. George tossed a rifle +to her. She flung him back a loaded one, and began methodically to +fill the empty one with cartridges. + +"Agatha," shouted Cleggett, catching her by the wrist, "go to the cabin +at once--you will get yourself killed!" + +"I'll do nothing of the sort!" she shouted. + +"I love you!" cried Cleggett, beside himself with fear for her, and +scarcely knowing what his words were. "Do you hear--I love you, and I +won't have you killed!" + +A bullet ripped its way through the bulwark, perforated the zinc +bucket, struck the gun which Lady Agatha was loading and knocked it +from her hands. + +"Go to the cabin yourself!" she shouted in Cleggett's ear. "As for me, +I like it!" + +"I tell you," shouted Cleggett, "I won't have you here--I won't have +you killed!" + +He rose to his feet, and attempted to draw her out of danger. She rose +likewise and struggled with him in the dark. She wrenched herself +free, and in doing so flung him back against the rail; it lightened +again, and she screamed. Cleggett turned, and with the next flash saw +that one of the enemy, his face bloody from the graze of a bullet +across his forehead, and evidently crazed with excitement of fight and +storm, was leaping towards the rail of the vessel. + +Cleggett stooped to pick up a gun, but as he stooped the madman vaulted +over the bulwark and landed upon him, bearing him to the deck. As he +struggled to his feet Lady Agatha, who had grasped a cutlass, cut the +fellow down. The man fell back over the rail with a cry. + +For a long moment there was one continuous electric flash from horizon +to horizon, and Cleggett saw her, with windblown hair and wide eyes and +parted lips, standing poised with the red blade in her hand beneath the +driving clouds, the figure of an antique goddess. + +The next instant all was dark; her arms were around his neck in the +rain. "Oh, Clement," she sobbed, "I've killed a man! I've killed a +man!" + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +ROMANCE REGNANT + +Cleggett kissed her.... + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +MISS PRINGLE CALLS ON MR. CLEGGETT + +But the rushing onset of events struck them apart. Out of the night +leaped danger, enhancing love and forbidding it. From the starboard +bow Captain Abernethy shrilled a cry of warning, and the heavy, +bellowing voice of Loge shouted an answer of challenge and ferocity. +The wind had fallen, but the lightning played from the clouds now +almost without intermission. Cleggett saw Loge and his followers, +machete in hand, flinging themselves at the rail. They lifted a hoarse +cheer as they came. The fire from the Jasper B. had checked the +assault temporarily; it had not broken it up; once they found lodgment +on the deck the superior numbers of Loge's crowd must inevitably tell. + +Loge was a dozen feet in advance of his men. He had cast aside the +light sword which belonged to Cleggett, and now swung a grim machete in +his hand. Cleggett flung down his gun, grasped a cutlass, and sprang +forward, his one idea to come to close quarters with that gigantic +figure of rage and power. + +But before Loge reached the bulwark on one side, and while Cleggett was +bounding toward him on the other, this on-coming group of Cleggett's +foes were suddenly smitten in the rear as if by a thunderbolt. Out of +the night and storm, mad with terror, screaming like fiends, with +distended nostrils and flying manes and flailing hoofs, there plunged +into the midst of the assaulting party a pair of snow-white +horses--astounding, felling, trampling, scattering, filling them with +confusion. A rocking carriage leaped and bounded behind the furious +animals, and as the horses struck the bulwark and swerved aside, its +weight and bulk, hurled like a missile among Cleggett's staggered and +struggling enemies, completed and confirmed their panic. + +No troops on earth can stand the shock of a cavalry charge in the rear +and flank; few can face surprise; the boarding party, convinced that +they had fallen into a trap, melted away. One moment they were +sweeping forward, vicious and formidable, confident of victory; the +next they were floundering weaponless, scrambling anyhow for safety, +multiplying and transforming, with the quick imagination of panic +terror, these two horses into a troop of mounted men. + +This sudden and almost spectral apparition of galloping steeds and +flying carriage, hurled upon the vessel out of the tempest, flung, a +piece of whirling chaos, from the chaotic skies, had almost as +startling an effect upon the defenders. For a moment they paused, with +weapons uplifted, and stared. Where an enemy had been, there was +nothing. So doubtful Greeks or Trojans might have paused and stared +upon the plains of Ilion when some splenetic and fickle deity burst +unannounced and overwhelming into the central clamor of the battle. + +But it is in these seconds of pause and doubt that great commanders +assert themselves; it is these electric seconds from which the hero +gathers his vital lightning and forges his mordant bolt. Genius claims +and rules these instants, and the gods are on the side of those who +boldly grasp loose wisdom and bind it into sheaves of judgment. +Cleggett (whom Homer would have loved) was the first to recover his +poise. He came to his decision instantaneously. A lesser man might +have lost all by rushing after his retreating enemies; a lesser man, +carried away by excitement, would have pursued. Cleggett did not relax +his grasp upon the situation, he restrained his ardor. + +"Stand firm, men! Do not leave the ship," he shouted. "The day is +ours!" + +And then, turning to Captain Abernethy, he cried: + +"We have routed them!" + +"Look at them crazy horses!" screamed the Captain in reply. + +The animals were rearing and struggling among the ruins of the broken +gangplank. As the Captain spoke, they plunged aboard the ship, and the +carriage, bounding after them, overturned on the deck--horses and +carriage came down together in a welter of splintering wheels and +broken harness and crashing wood. + +A negro driver, whom Cleggett now noticed for the first time, shot +clear of the mass and landed on the deck in a sitting posture. + +For a moment, there he sat, and did nothing more. The pole broke loose +from the carriage, the traces parted, and the two big white horses, +still kicking and plunging, struggled to their feet and free from the +wreckage. Still side by side they leaped the port bulwark, splashed +into the canal, and swam straight across it, as if animated with the +instinct of going straight ahead in that fashion to the end of the +world. Cleggett never saw or heard of them again. + +"Bring a lantern," said Cleggett to Abernethy. "Let's see if this man +is badly hurt." + +But the negro was not injured. He rose to his feet as the Captain +brought the light--the storm was now subsiding, and the lightning was +less frequent--and stood revealed as a person of surprising size and +unusual blackness. He was, in fact, so black that it was no wonder +that Cleggett had not seen him on the seat of the carriage, for unless +one turned a light full upon him his face could not be seen at all +after dark. He was in a blue livery, and his high, cockaded coachman's +hat had stayed on his head in spite of everything. + +Even sitting down on the deck he had possessed an air of patience. +When he arose and the Captain flashed the light upon his face, it +revealed a countenance full of dignified good humor. + +"Where did you come from?" asked Cleggett. + +The negro removed the hat with the cockade before answering. He did it +politely. Even ceremoniously. But he did not do it hastily. He had +the air of one who was never inclined to do things hastily. + +"From Newahk, sah," he said. "Newahk, New Jehsey, sah." + +"But who are you?" said Cleggett. "How did you get here?" + +The negro was gazing reflectively at the broken carriage. + +"Ah yo' Mistah Cleggett, sah? Mistah Clement J. Cleggett, sah, the +ownah of dis hyeah boat?" + +"Yes." + +The negro fumbled in an inner pocket and produced a card. He gave it +to Cleggett with a deferential bow, and then announced sonorously: + +"Miss Genevieve Pringle, sah--in de cah-age, sah--a callin' on Mistah +Clement J. Cleggett." + +He completed the announcement with a dignified and courtly gesture, +which seemed to indicate that he was presenting the ruined carriage +itself to Cleggett. + +"You don't mean in that carriage?" cried Cleggett. + +"Yes, sah," said the negro. "Leas'ways, she was, sah, some time back. +Mah time an' mah 'tention done been so tooken up wif dem incompatible +hosses fo' some moments past, sah, dat I cain't say fo' suah ef she +adheahed, or ef she didn't adheah." + +He glanced speculatively at the carriage again. Cleggett sprang +towards the broken vehicle, expecting to find someone seriously injured +at the very least. But, from the ruin, a precise and high-pitched +feminine voice piped out: + +"Jefferson! Kindly assist me to disentangle myself!" + +"Yassum," said the negro, moving forward in a leisurely and dignified +manner, "comin', ma'am. I hopes an' trusts, Miss Pringle, ma'am, yo' +ain't suffered none in yo' anatomy an' phlebotomy from dis hyeah +runaway." + +With which cheerful wish Jefferson lifted respectfully, and with a +certain calm detachment, the figure of a woman from the debris. + +"Thank you, Jefferson," she said. "I fear I am very much bruised and +shaken, but I have been feeling all my bones while lying there, and I +believe that I have sustained no fractures." + +Miss Pringle was a woman of about fifty, small and prim. Prim with an +unconquerable primness that neither storm nor battle nor accident could +shake. If she had been killed in the runaway she would have looked +prim in death while awaiting the undertaker. She must have been wet +almost to those unfractured bones which she had been feeling; her black +silk dress, with its white ruching about the neck, was torn and +bedraggled; her black hat, with its jet ornaments, was crushed and hung +askew over one ear; nevertheless, Miss Pringle conveyed at once and +definitely an impression of unassailable respectability and strong +character. + +"Which of you is Mr. Cleggett?" she asked, looking about her, in the +lantern light, at the crew of the Jasper B., as she leaned upon the arm +of Jefferson, her mannerly and deliberate servitor. + +"I am Mr. Cleggett." + +"Ah!" Miss Pringle inspected him with an eye which gleamed with a hint +of latent possibilities of belligerency. "Mr. Cleggett," she +continued, pursing her lips, "I have sought an interview to warn you +that you are harboring an impostor on your ship." + +At that moment Lady Agatha joined the group. As the light fell upon her +Miss Pringle stepped forward and thrust an accusing, a denunciatory +finger at the Englishwoman. + +"You," she said, "call yourself Lady Agatha Fairhaven!" + +"I do," said Lady Agatha. + +"Woman!" cried Miss Pringle, shaking with the stress of her moral +wrath. "Where are my plum preserves?" + +And with this cryptic utterance the little lady, having come to the end +of her strength, primly fainted. + +Jefferson picked her up and carried her, in a serene and stately +manner, to the cabin. + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE MAN IN THE BLUE PAJAMAS + +The rain had ceased almost as Miss Pringle was removed to the cabin. +The storm had passed. Low down on the edges of the world there were +still a few dark clouds, there was still an occasional glimmer of +lightning; but overhead the mists were fleecy, light and broken. A few +stars were visible here and there. + +And then in a moment more a full moon rose high and serene above the +world. The May moon is often very brilliant in these latitudes, as +sailors who are familiar with the coasts of Long Island can testify. +This moon was unusually brilliant, even for the season of the year and +the quarter of the globe. It lighted up earth and sky so that it was +(in the familiar phrase) almost possible to read by it. Only a few +moments had elapsed since the rout of Logan Black's ruffians, but in +the vicinity of this remarkable island such sudden meteorological +changes are anything but rare, geographers and travelers know. + +Lady Agatha had gone into the cabin to resuscitate Miss Pringle and, as +she said, "have it out with her." Cleggett, gazing from the deck +towards Morris's, in the strong moonlight, wondered when the attack +would be renewed. He thought, on the whole, that it was improbable +that Loge would return to the assault while this brightness continued. + +Suddenly three figures appeared within his range of vision. They were +running. But running slowly, painfully, lamely. In the lead were the +two men whom he had first seen hazed up and down the bank of the canal +by Wilton Barnstable, and whom he had seen the second time chained in +the great detective's boat. + +They were shackled wrist to wrist now. To the left leg of one of them +was attached a heavy ball. A similar ball was attached to the right leg +of the other. They had picked these balls up and were struggling along +under their weight at a gait which was more like a staggering walk than +a trot. + +They were pursued by the man whom Cleggett had seen attempt to escape +from Morris's. This man still wore his suit of baby blue pajamas. + +He wore nothing else. He was stiff. He moved as if the ground hurt +his bare feet. + +He especially favored, as Cleggett noticed, the foot on which there was +a bunion. He was lame. He crept rather than ran. But he seemed +bitterly intent upon reaching the two men in irons who labored along +twenty or thirty feet ahead of him. And they, on their part, casting +now and then backward glances over their shoulders at their pursuer. + +Cleggett divined that the men in irons had escaped from the Annabel +Lee, and that the man in the baby blue pajamas was loose from Morris's. +But why the man in the pajamas pursued and the others fled he could not +guess. + +They passed within fifty yards of the Jasper B. But the men in irons +were so intent upon their own troubles, and the pursuer was so keen on +vengeance, that none of them noticed the vessel. As they limped along, +splashing through the pools the rain had left, the pursuer would +occasionally pause to fling stones and sticks and even cakes of mud at +the fugitives, who were whimpering as they tottered forward. + +The man in the baby blue pajamas was cursing in a high-pitched, nasal, +querulous voice. Cleggett noticed with astonishment that a +single-barreled eyeglass was screwed into one of his eyes. Occasionally +it dropped to the ground, and he would stop and fumble for it and wipe +it on his wet sleeve and replace it. Had it not been for these stops +he would have overtaken the men in irons. + +"Clement!" Lady Agatha laid her hand upon his arm. "Miss Pringle wants +to see you in the cabin." + +"Well--imposter!" laughed Cleggett. "Is she able to talk to you yet? +And what on earth did she mean by her plum preserves?" + +"That is what she wants to tell, evidently," said Lady Agatha. And she +went aft with him. + +Miss Pringle, who had been rubbed dry by Lady Agatha, and was now +dressed in some articles of that lady's clothing, which were much too +large for her, sat on the edge of the bed in Lady Agatha's stateroom +and awaited them. Her appearance was scarcely conventional, and she +seemed to feel it; nevertheless, she had a duty to perform, and her +innate propriety still triumphed over her situation and habiliments. + +"Mr. Cleggett," she said, pointing to the box which contained the +evidence against Logan Black, which was exactly similar to the box of +Reginald Maltravers, and which had been placed in this inner room for +safe-keeping, "what does that box contain?" + +Cleggett was startled. He and Lady Agatha exchanged glances. + +"What do you think it contains?" he asked. + +"That box," she said, "was shipped to me from Flatbush, and was claimed +in my name--in the name of Genevieve Pringle--at the freight depot at +Newark, New Jersey, by this lady here. Deny it if you can!" + +"I do deny it, Miss Pringle," said Lady Agatha, accompanying her words +with a winsome smile. But Miss Pringle was not to be won over so +easily as all that; she met the smile with a look of steady +reprobation. And then she turned to Cleggett again. + +"Mr. Cleggett," she said, "my birthday occurred a few days ago. It +was--I have nothing to conceal, Mr. Cleggett--it was my forty-ninth +birthday. Every year, for many years past, a niece of mine who lives +in Flatbush sends me on my birthday a box of plum preserves. + +"These preserves have for me, Mr. Cleggett, a value that they would not +possess for anyone else; a value far above their intrinsic or, as one +might say, culinary value. They have a sentimental value as well. I +was born in Flatbush, and lived there, during my youth, on my father's +estate. The city has since grown around the old place, which my niece +now owns, but the plum trees stand as they have stood for more than +fifty years. It was beneath these plum trees...." + +Miss Pringle suddenly broke off; her face twitched; she felt for a +handkerchief, and found none; she wiped her eyes on her sleeve. + +In another person this action might have appeared somewhat careless, +but Miss Pringle, by the force of her character, managed to invest it +with propriety and dignity; looking at her, one felt that to wipe one's +eyes on one's sleeve was quite proper when done by the proper person. + +"I will conceal nothing, Mr. Cleggett. It was under these plum trees +that I once received an offer of marriage from a worthy young man. It +was from one of these plum trees that he later fell, injuring himself +so that he died. You can understand what these plum trees mean to me, +perhaps?" + +Lady Agatha impulsively sat down beside the elder woman and put her arm +about her. But Miss Pringle stiffly moved away. After a moment she +continued: + +"The preserved plums, as I have said, are sent me every year on my +birthday. This year, when I received from my niece a notification that +they had been shipped, I called for the box personally at the freight +office. + +"What was my astonishment to learn that the box had been claimed in my +name, not a quarter of an hour before, and taken away. + +"I obtained a description of the person who had represented herself as +Miss Genevieve Pringle, and of the vehicle in which she had carried off +my box. And I followed her. The paltriness of the theft revolted me, +Mr. Cleggett, and I determined to bring this person to justice. + +"The fugitive, with my plum preserves in her possession, had left, +goodness knows, a broad enough trail. I found but little difficulty in +following in my family carriage. In fact, Mr. Cleggett, I discovered +the very chauffeur who had deposited her here with the box. Inquiries +in Fairport gave me your name as the owner of this lighter." + +"Lighter!" interrupted Cleggett. "The Jasper B., madam, is not a +lighter." + +"I beg your pardon," said Miss Pringle. "But what sort of vessel is it +then?" + +"The Jasper B.," said Cleggett, with a touch of asperity, "is a +schooner, madam." + + "I intended no offense, Mr. Cleggett. I am quite willing to +believe that the vessel is a schooner, since you say that it is. I am +not informed concerning nautical affairs. But, to conclude--I +discovered from the chauffeur that this lady, calling herself Lady +Agatha Fairhaven, had been deposited here, with my box. I learned +yesterday, after inquiries in Fairport, that you were the owner of this +vessel. The real estate person from whom you purchased it assured me +that you were financially responsible. I came to expose this imposter +and to recover my box. On my way hither I was caught in the storm. +The runaway occurred, and you know the rest." + +Miss Pringle, during this recital, had not deigned to favor Lady Agatha +with a look. Lady Agatha, on her part, after the rebuff which she had +received, had sat in smiling silence. + +"Miss Pringle," she said, pleasantly but seriously, when the other +woman had finished, "first I must convince you that this box does not +contain your plum preserves, and then I will tell you my story." + +With Cleggett's assistance Lady Agatha removed the cover from the +oblong box, and showed her its contents. + +"That explains nothing," said Miss Pringle, dryly. "Of course you +would remove the plum preserves to a place of safety." + +"Miss Pringle," said Lady Agatha, "I will tell you everything. I DID +claim a box in your name at the railway goods station in Newark--and if +there had been nothing in it but plum preserves, how happy I should be! +I beg of you, Miss Pringle, to give me your attention." + +And Lady Agatha began to relate to Miss Pringle the same story which +she had told to Cleggett. At the first word indicative of the fact the +Lady Agatha had suffered for the cause of votes for women, a change +took place in the expression of Miss Pringle's countenance. Cleggett +thought she was about to speak. But she did not. Nevertheless, +although she listened intently, some of her rigidity had gone. When +Lady Agatha had finished Miss Pringle said: + +"I suppose that you can prove that you are really Lady Agatha +Fairhaven?" + +For answer Lady Agatha went to one of her trunks and opened it. She +drew therefrom a letter, and passed it over without a word. + +As Miss Pringle read it, her face lighted up. She did not lose her +primness, but her suspicion seemed altogether to depart. + +"A letter from Emmeline Pankhurst!" she said, in a hushed voice, +handling the missive as if it were a sacred relic. "Can you ever +forgive me?" + +"There is nothing to forgive," beamed Lady Agatha. "I am willing to +admit, now that you understand me, that the thing looked a bit +suspicious, on the face of it." + +"You have suffered for the cause," said Miss Pringle. "I have suffered +for it, too!" And, with a certain shyness, she patted Lady Agatha on +the arm. But the next moment she said: + +"But what IS in the box you brought here then, Lady Agatha? Two boxes +were shipped to Newark, addressed to me. Which one did you get? What +is really in the one you have been carrying around? My plum preserves, +or----" + +She shuddered and left the sentence unfinished. + +"Let us open it," said Cleggett. + +"No! No!" cried Lady Agatha. "Clement, no! I could not bear to have it +opened." + +Miss Pringle rose. It was evident that a bit of her earlier suspicion +had returned. + +"After all," said Miss Pringle, indicating the letter again, "how do I +know that----" + +"That it is not a forgery?" said Lady Agatha. "I see." She mused a +moment, and then said, with a sigh, "Well, then, let us open the box!" + +"I think it best, Agatha," said Cleggett. "I shall have it brought +down." + +But even as he turned upon his heel to go on deck and give the order, +Dr. Farnsworth and the Rev. Simeon Calthrop ran excitedly down the +cabin companionway. + +"The box of Reginald Maltravers," cried the Doctor, who was in +Cleggett's confidence, "is gone!" + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +TWO GREAT MEN MEET + +"Gone!" Lady Agatha, who had emerged from her stateroom, turned pale +and caught at her heart. + +They rushed on deck. The young Doctor was right; the box, which had +stood on the larboard side of the cabin, had disappeared. + +"It might have been blown into the canal during the storm," suggested +the Rev. Mr. Calthrop. All of the crew of the Jasper B. knew Lady +Agatha's story, and were aware of the importance of the box. + +"It was on the lee side of the cabin," objected Dr. Farnsworth, "and +while it might have been blown flat to the deck, in spite of its +protected position, it would scarcely have been picked up by the wind +again and wafted over the port bulwarks." + +"If you was to ask me," said Cap'n Abernethy, who had joined in the +discussion, "I'd give it as MY opinion it's a good riddance of bad +rubbish." + +"Rubbish?" said Miss Pringle. "Rubbish, indeed! I am confident that +that box contained my plum preserves!" + +"It has been stolen!" cried Cleggett, with conviction. "Fool that I +was, not to have taken it into the cabin!" + +"But, if you had, you know," said Lady Agatha, "one would scarcely have +cared to stay in there with it." + +"Loge has outgeneraled me," murmured Cleggett, well-nigh frantic with +self-reproach. "While he made the attack in front, he sent some of his +men to the rear of the vessel and it was quietly made off with while we +were fighting." Had the disappearance of the box concerned himself +alone Cleggett's sense of disaster might have been less poignant. But +the thought that his own carelessness had enabled the enemy to get +possession of a thing likely to involve Lady Agatha in further trouble +was nearly insupportable. He gritted his teeth and clenched his hands +in impotent rage. + +"No doubt Loge caught sight of it during the early part of the +skirmish, by a flash of lightning," said Dr. Farnsworth, "and acted as +you suggest, Mr. Cleggett. But does he believe it to be the box which +contains the evidence against him? Or can he, by any chance, be aware +of its real contents?" + +"No matter which," groaned Cleggett, "no matter which! For when he +opens it, he will learn what is in it. Don't you see that he has us +now? If he offers to trade it back to us for the other oblong box, how +can I refuse? If we have his secret, Loge has ours!" + +But Dr. Farnsworth was not listening. He had suddenly leaned over the +port rail and was staring down the canal. The others followed his gaze. + +The house boat Annabel Lee, they perceived, had got under weigh, and +was slowly approaching the Jasper B. in the moonlight. They watched +her gradual approach in silence. She stopped within a few yards of the +Jasper B., and a voice which Cleggett recognized as that of Wilton +Barnstable, the great detective, sang out: + +"Jasper B., ahoy!" + +"Aye, aye!" shouted Cleggett. + +"Is Mr. Cleggett on board?" + +"He is speaking." + +"Mr. Cleggett, have you lost anything from your canal boat?" + +Cleggett did not answer, and for a moment he did not move. Then, +tightening his sword belt, and cocking his hat a trifle, he climbed +over the starboard rail and walked along the bank of the canal a few +yards until he was opposite the Annabel Lee. The great detective, on +his part, also stepped ashore. They stood and faced each other in the +moonlight, silently, and their followers, also in silence, gathered in +the bows of the respective vessels and watched them. + +Finally, Cleggett, with one hand on his hip, and standing with his feet +wide apart, said very incisively: + +"Sir, the Jasper B. is NOT a canal boat." + +"Eh?" Wilton Barnstable started at the emphasis. + +"The Jasper B.," pursued Cleggett, staring steadily at Wilton +Barnstable, "is a schooner." + +"Ah!" said the other. "Indeed?" + +"A schooner," repeated Cleggett, "indeed, sir! Indeed, sir, a schooner!" + +There was another silence, in which neither man would look aside; they +held each other with their eyes; the nervous strain communicated itself +to the crews of the two vessels. At last, however, the detective, +although he did not lower his gaze, and although he strove to give his +new attitude an effect of ease and jauntiness by twisting the end of +his mustache as he spoke, said to Cleggett: + +"A schooner, then, Mr. Cleggett, a schooner! No offense, I hope?" + +"None at all," said Cleggett, heartily enough, now that the point had +been established. And the tension relaxed on both ships. + +"You have lost an oblong box, Mr. Cleggett." The great detective +affirmed it rather than interrogated. + +"How did you know that?" + +The other laughed. "We know a great many things--it is our business to +know things," he said. Then he dropped his voice to a whisper, and said +rapidly, "Mr. Cleggett, do you know who I am?" Before Cleggett could +reply he continued, "Brace yourself--do not make an outcry when I tell +you who I am. I am Wilton Barnstable." + +"I knew you," said Cleggett. The other appeared disappointed for a +moment. And then he inquired anxiously, "How did you know me?" + +"Why, from your pictures in the magazines," said Cleggett. + +The detective brightened perceptibly. "Ah, yes--the magazines! Yes, +yes, indeed! publicity is unavoidable, unavoidable, Mr. Cleggett! But +this box, now----" + +The great detective interrupted himself to laugh again, a trifle +complacently, Cleggett thought. + +"I will not mystify you, Mr. Cleggett, about the box. Mystification is +one of the tricks of the older schools of detection. I never practice +it, Mr. Cleggett. With me, the detection of crime is a business--yes, +a business. I will tell you presently how the box came into my +possession." + +"It IS in your possession?" Cleggett felt a dull pang of the heart. +If the box of Reginal Maltravers were in the hands of Logan Black he +could at least trade the other oblong box to Loge for it, and thus save +Lady Agatha. But in the possession of Wilton Barnstable, the great +detective----! Cleggett pulled himself together; he thought rapidly; +he recognized that the situation called, above all things else, for +diplomacy and adroitness. He went on, nonchalantly: + +"I suppose you are aware of the contents of the box?" + +The other laughed again as if Cleggett had made an excellent jest; +there was something urbane and benign in his manner; it appeared as if +he regarded the contents of the box of Reginald Maltravers as anything +but serious; his tone puzzled Cleggett. + +"Suppose I bring the box on board the Jasper B.," suggested the great +detective. "It interests me, that box. I have no doubt it has its +story. And perhaps, while you are telling me some things about it, I +may be able to give you some information in turn." + +There was no mistaking the fact that the man, whether genuinely +friendly or no, wished to appear so. + +"Have it brought into my cabin," said Cleggett, "and we will discuss +it." + +A few minutes later Wilton Barnstable, Cleggett, Lady Agatha, Miss +Pringle, and two of Wilton Barnstable's men sat in the cabin of the +Jasper B., with the two oblong boxes before them--the one which had +contained Loge's incriminating diary, and the one which had caused Lady +Agatha so much trouble. + +In the light of the cabin the three detectives were revealed as +startlingly alike. Barton Ward and Watson Bard, Barnstable's two +assistants, might, indeed, almost have been taken for Barnstable +himself, at a casual glance. In height, in bulk, in dress, in facial +expression, they seemed Wilton Barnstable all over again. But, looking +intently at the three men, Cleggett began to perceive a difference +between the real Wilton Barnstable and his two counterfeits. It was the +difference between the face which is informed of genius, and the +countenance which is indicative of mere talent. + +"Mr. Cleggett," began Wilton Barnstable, "as I said before, I will make +no attempt to mystify you. I was a witness to the attack upon your +vessel. Mr. Ward, Mr. Bard, and myself, in fact, had determined to +assist you, had we seen that the combat was going against you. We lay, +during the struggle, in the lee of your--your--er, schooner!--in the +lee of your schooner, armed, and ready to bear a hand. We have our own +little matter to settle with Logan Black. Why Logan Black should +desire possession of this particular box, I am unable to state. +Nevertheless, at the moment when he was leading his assault upon your +starboard bow, two of his men, who had made a detour to the stern of +your vessel, had clambered stealthily aboard, and were quietly pushing +the box over the side into the canal. They let themselves down into +the water, and swam towards the mouth of the canal, pushing it ahead of +them. We followed in our rowboat, Mr. Ward, Mr. Bard, and myself, at a +discreet distance. We let them push the box as far south as the +Annabel Lee. And then----" + +He paused a moment, and smiled reminiscently. Barton Ward and Watson +Bard also smiled reminiscently, and the three detectives exchanged +crafty glances. + +"Then, to be brief, we took the box away from them. They were so +ill-advised as to struggle. They are in irons, now, on board the +Annabel Lee. + +"But what I cannot understand, Mr. Cleggett, is why these men should +risk so much to make off with an empty box." + +"An empty box!" cried Cleggett. + +"Empty!" echoed Lady Agatha and Miss Pringle, in concert. + +The detective wrenched the cover from the box of Reginald Maltravers. + +"Practically empty, at any rate," he said. + +And, indeed, except for a few wads of wet excelsior, there was nothing +in the box of Reginald Maltravers. + +"Where, then," cried Lady Agatha, "is Reginald Maltravers?" + +"Where, indeed," said Wilton Barnstable, "is Reginald Maltravers?" + +"Where, then," cried Miss Pringle, "are my plum preserves?" + +"Where, indeed?" repeated Wilton Barnstable. And Barton Ward and Watson +Bard, although they did not speak aloud, stroked their mustaches and +their lips formed the ejaculation, "Where, indeed?" + +"We will tell you everything," said Cleggett. And beginning with his +purchase of the Jasper B. he recounted rapidly, but with sufficient +detail, all the facts with which the reader is already familiar, +weaving into his story the tale of Lady Agatha and the adventures of +Miss Pringle. Wilton Barnstable listened attentively. So did Barton +Ward and Watson Bard. The benign smile which was so characteristic of +Wilton Barnstable never left the three faces, but it was evident to +Cleggett that these trained intelligences grasped and weighed and +ticketed every detail. + +While Cleggett narrates, and Wilton Barnstable and his men listen, a +word to the reader concerning this great detective. + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE PSYCHOLOGICAL DETECTIVE + +Wilton Barnstable was the inventor of a new school of detection of +crime. The system came in with him, and it may go out with him for +lack of a man of his genius to perpetuate it. He insisted that there +was nothing spectacular or romantic in the pursuit of the criminal, or, +at least, that there should be nothing of the sort. And he was +especially disgusted when anyone referred to him as "a second Sherlock +Holmes." + +"I am only a plain business man," he would insist, urbanely, with a +wave of his hand. "I have merely brought order, method, system, +business principles, logic, to the detection of crime. I know nothing +of romance. Romance is usually all nonsense in my estimation. The +real detective, who gets results in real life, is NOT a Sherlock +Holmes." + +The enemies of Wilton Barnstable sometimes said of him that he was +jealous of Sherlock Holmes. When this was reported to Barnstable he +invariably remarked: "How preposterous! The idea of a man being +envious of a literary creation!" + +Perhaps his denial of the existence of romance was merely one of those +poses which geniuses so often permit themselves. Perhaps he saw it and +was thrilled with it even while he denied it. At any rate, he lived in +the midst of it. The realism which was his metier was that sort of +realism into which are woven facts and incidents of the most bizarre +and startling nature. + +And, certainly, behind the light blue eyes that could look with such +apparent ingenuousness out of his plump, bland face there was the +subtle mind of a psychologist. Barnstable, true to his attitude of the +plain business man, would have been the first to ridicule the idea +publicly if anyone had dubbed him "the psychological detective." That, +to his mind, would have savored of charlatanism. He would have said: +"I am nothing so strange and mystifying as that--I am a plain business +man." But in reality there was no new discovery of the investigating +psychologists of which he did not avail himself at once. His ability +to clothe himself with the thoughts of the criminal as an actor clothes +himself with a role, was marvelous; he knew the criminal soul. That is +to say, he knew the human soul. He refused to see anything +extraordinary in this. "It is only my business to know such things," +he would say. "We know many things. It is our business to know them. +There is no miracle about it." This was the public character he had +created for himself, and emphasized--that of the plain business man. +This was his mask. He was so subtle that he hid the vast range of his +powers behind an appearance of commonplaceness. + +Wilton Barnstable never disguised himself, in the ordinary sense of the +term. That is, he never resorted to false whiskers or wigs or obvious +tricks of that sort. + +But if Wilton Barnstable were to walk into a convention of blacksmiths, +let us say, he would quite escape attention. For before he had been +ten minutes in that gathering he would become, to all appearances, the +typical blacksmith. If he were to enter a gathering of bankers, or +barbers, or bakers, or organ grinders, or stockbrokers, or +school-teachers, a similar thing would happen. He could make himself +the composite photograph of all the individuals of any group. He +disguised himself from the inside out. + +This art of becoming inconspicuous was one of his greatest assets as a +detective. Newspaper and magazine writers would have liked to dwell +upon it. But he requested them not to emphasize it. As he modestly +narrated his triumphs to the young journalists, who hung breathless +upon his words, he was careful not to stress his talent for becoming +just like anybody and everybody else--his peculiar genius for being the +average man. + +The front which he presented to the world was, in reality, his +cleverest creation. The magazine and newspaper articles which were +written about him, the many pictures which were printed every month, +presented the mental and physical portrait of a knowing, bustling, +extraordinarily candid personality. A personality with a touch of +smugness in it. This was very generally thought to be the real Wilton +Barnstable. It was a fiction which he had succeeded in establishing. +When he addressed meetings, talked with reporters, wrote articles about +himself, or came into touch with the public in any manner, he assumed +this personality. When he did not wish to be known he laid it aside. +When he desired to pass incognito, therefore, it was not necessary for +him to assume a disguise. He simply dropped one. + +The two men with him, Barton Ward and Watson Bard, were his cleverest +agents. They were learning from the master detective the art of +looking like other people, and were at present practicing by looking +like the popular conception of Wilton Barnstable. They were clever +men. But Barton Ward and Watson Bard were, as Cleggett had felt at +once, only men of extraordinary talent, while Wilton Barnstable was a +genius. + +As Cleggett talked he was given a rather startling proof of Wilton +Barnstable's gift. He was astonished to find a change stealing over +Wilton Barnstable's features. Subtly the detective began to look like +someone else. The expression of the face, the turn of the eyes, the +lines about the mouth, began to suggest someone whom Cleggett knew. It +was rather a suggestion, an impression, than a likeness; it was rather +the spirit of a personality than a definite resemblance. It was a +psychic thing. Barnstable was disguising himself from the inside out; +he had assumed the mental and spiritual clothing of someone else. + +Cleggett could not think at first who it was that Wilton Barnstable +suggested. But presently he saw that it was himself. He glanced at +Barton Ward and Watson Bard; they still resembled the popular +conception of Wilton Barnstable. + +Gradually the look of Cleggett faded from Wilton Barnstable's face. It +changed, it shifted, that look did; Cleggett almost cried out as he saw +the face of Wilton Barnstable become an impressionistic portrait of the +soul of Logan Black. He looked at Barton Ward. Barton Ward was now +looking like Wilton Barnstable's conception of Cleggett. But Watson +Bard, less facile and less creative, still clung stolidly to the +popular conception of Wilton Barnstable. + +But, even as Cleggett looked, this remarkable exhibition ceased; the +Wilton Barnstable look dominated the faces again. Plump, yet +dignified, smiling easily and kindly, three plain business men looked +at him; respectable citizens, commonplace citizens, a little smug; +faces that spoke of comfort, method, regularity; eyes that seemed to +wink with the pressure of platitudes in the minds behind them; +platitudes that desired to force their way to the lips and out into the +world. + +Yes, such was the genius of Wilton Barnstable that he could at will +impose himself upon people as the apotheosis of the commonplace. He +did it often. It was almost second nature to him now. His urbane smile +was the only visible sign of his own enjoyment of this habitual feat. +He knew his own genius, and smiled to think how easy it was to pass for +an average man! + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +THE THIRD OBLONG BOX ARRIVES + +"I think," said Wilton Barnstable, when Cleggett had finished, "that I +may be able to clear up a few points for you. + +"The two men whom you saw me hazing up and down the bank of the canal, +and whom you saw again tonight, followed by the man in the baby blue +silk pajamas, were Dopey Eddie and Izzy the Cat!" + +"The wretches!" cried Lady Agatha. + +"Wretches indeed," said Wilton Barnstable, Barton Ward, and Watson +Bard, in unison, and with conviction. + +"And the man in the baby blue silk pajamas, was----" the great +detective paused, as if to make his revelation more effective. And +while he paused, Miss Genevieve Pringle, with pursed lips and averted +face, signified that the very idea of introducing a man in baby blue +silk pajamas into the conversation was intensely displeasing to her. + +"The man in pajamas was Reginald Maltravers," finished the great +detective. + +"Reginald Maltravers!" cried Lady Agatha. + +She opened her mouth again as if to say something more, but words +failed her, and she only stared at the detective, with parted lips and +round eyes. + +Cleggett went to her and touched her on the arm, and with the touch she +gave a sob of emotion and found her tongue again. + +"Reginald Maltravers," she said, "is not dead then! Not dead after +all!" + +She endeavored to control herself, but for a moment or two she +trembled. It was evident that it was all she could do to keep from +crying hysterically with relief. The nightmare that had haunted her +for days had vanished almost too suddenly. Presently she began to be +herself again. + +"You are sure that he is not dead?" she said with a voice that still +shook. + +"Sure," said Wilton Barnstable. + +And as if quietly satisfied with the sensation they had produced, the +three detectives smiled at each other urbanely and contentedly. +Barnstable continued: + +"Reginald Maltravers came to my agency some days ago and requested a +bodyguard. Dopey Eddie and Izzy the Cat had attacked him, no doubt +intending to earn the money which Elmer had promised them. He beat +them off. In fact, he caned them soundly. But they still continued to +dog him. + +"Mr. Ward here, who handled the case, soon reported to me that he +believed Reginald Maltravers to be insane." + +"Insane he was," cried Lady Agatha. "I have seen the light of insanity +in his eye, gleaming through his accursed monocle." She spoke with +vehemence. Now that she knew the man to be alive, her hatred of him +had flared up again. + +"Insane he was," agreed Wilton Barnstable. "And shortly after that +discovery was made, he disappeared. The next day after his +disappearance, Dopey Eddie and Izzy the Cat were liberally supplied +with money. + +"Of course they got the money, Lady Agatha, through the clever trick +they worked upon you." + +"A great many people have got money from me since I have been in +America," said Lady Agatha. + +"Ah! Yes?" The great detective went on with his masterly summing up. +"Of course they got the money from the trick they worked on Lady +Agatha. But at the time I thought it possible that they had robbed +Reginald Maltravers and then put him out of the way. They are +well-known gunmen. + +"I took them into custody and determined to hold them until such time +as Reginald Maltravers would be found, or his fate discovered. +Eventually I brought them with me on my house boat. I was really +holding them without due legal warrant, but I am forced to do that, +sometimes. They complained of lack of exercise, so I gave them +exercise in the manner which you saw the other morning, Mr. Cleggett. + +"One of my agents, shortly after this, picked up the trail of Reginald +Maltravers again. When I learned that he was alive my first impulse +was to release Dopey Eddie and Izzy the Cat. But I learned that the +two gunmen could, if they would, give me a tip as to certain of the +activities of Logan Black, against whom I have been collecting evidence +for nearly a year. So I kept them on my boat. + +"Reginald Maltravers, most of the time that you were riding about the +country, Lady Agatha, with the box that you thought contained him, was +really following you. He would lose your trail and find it again, but +he was always some hours behind you. Of course, he knew nothing of the +oblong box. He thought that you were running away from him. And all +the time that Reginald Maltravers was following you, agents of mine +were following Reginald Maltravers." + +"Lady Agatha," interrupted Cleggett, "was also being pursued by Miss +Pringle here." + +Wilton Barnstable carefully made a note in a little book which he drew +from his waistcoat pocket. Barton Ward also made a note in a little +book, Watson Bard started to make a note, and then paused; in fact, +Watson Bard did not complete his note until he had gotten a peep into +the notebook of Barton Ward. The notes made, the three detectives once +more smiled craftily at each other, and Wilton Barnstable resumed: + +"We knew, of course, that another lady was also following Lady Agatha. +But, until the present moment, we had not identified her with Miss +Pringle. And I should not be at all surprised, not at ALL surprised, +if still another person had been following Miss Pringle." + +"With what object?" asked Miss Pringle, looking alarmed at the idea. + +"The motive, my dear lady, I must for the present withhold," said +Wilton Barnstable. And again the three detectives exchanged knowing +glances. + +"Reginald Maltravers' pursuit of you, Lady Agatha, led him to +Fairport," went on the great sleuth. "No doubt he met the driver of +the vehicle which brought you hither, and learned that you and Elmer +had been set down in this neighborhood, just as Miss Pringle learned +it. No doubt it was well after dark when he arrived in the vicinity of +the Jasper B. And it is to be supposed that, once out here, he went to +Morris's road house, thinking it quite likely that you and Elmer would +stop there, as he had been tracking you from road house to road house. +Logan Black, knowing that the authorities were on his trail, mistook +Reginald Maltravers for a detective, and held him prisoner at Morris's. +Logan Black's men took away his clothes in order to minimize the +possibility of his escape." + +"And the Earl of Claiborne's signet ring----" began Cleggett. + +"Of course, Reginald Maltravers was wearing it, and of course they took +his valuables from him," said Barnstable. "One of the ruffians was +wearing the ring as he approached your vessel with a bomb. But, Mr. +Cleggett, there are points about that bomb explosion which I do not +understand." + +"Nor I," admitted Cleggett. + +"We will clear them up later," said the great detective, smiling +benignly at his thumbs, which he was revolving slowly about each other +as he reconstructed the case. + +"Later!" smiled Barton Ward. "Later!" murmured Watson Bard. With their +hands clasped over their stomachs, they, too, benignly twirled their +thumbs. + +"Tonight," pursued Barnstable, "having finally got all the information +I wished from Dopey Eddie and Izzy the Cat with regard to Logan Black, +I tossed them the key to their irons and told them to unlock themselves +and clear out. It was just before the storm began, and they were +sitting on the bank of the canal at the time. I allowed them to sit +there in the evenings and get the fresh air. + +"But before they could unlock themselves Reginald Maltravers, who had, +we must suppose, escaped from Morris's through the carelessness of one +of Logan Black's subordinates, crawled up the bank of the canal, which +he had swum, and made for the two gunmen, with the water dripping from +his eyeglass. He had recognized them as the men who had dogged and +assaulted him, and every other idea was obliterated in his desire for +vengeance. + +"They fled. He pursued. He caught them, and they fought. They +succeeded in dropping one of the iron balls on his foot--on his bunion +foot, Mr. Cleggett--crippling him." + +As this mention of the bunion, Miss Genevive Pringle arose with +dignity, and, flinging a shawl about her shoulders, left the cabin, +chin in air. She did not vouchsafe so much as one backward glance at +Cleggett or the three detectives or lady Agatha as she left, but +outraged propriety was expressed in every line of her figure. + +"H'm," mused the detective, flushing slightly; and Watson Bard and +Barton Ward also colored a little, and looked hacked. They glanced +furtively at Lady Agatha, to see if she too might be offended. + +"Proceed, Mr. Barnstable," she said a little impatiently. "Bunions +don't bother me, either mentally or physically. I am familiar with the +idea of bunions. There are many bunions in the Claiborne family." + +"On his bunion foot, crippling him," resumed the detective, reassured. +"The storm came up, and still the gunmen fled, and still Reginald +Maltravers pursued. I suppose, since you saw them on the west side of +the canal, Mr. Cleggett, that they had run around the north end of it. +Probably, while you and Logan Black were fighting, they were running up +and down in the neighborhood, in the storm, intent only upon their own +feud." + +"They certainly seemed exhausted when I saw them," said Cleggett, "all +three of them. But if you will permit me to say so, the astuteness +with which you are reconstructing this case compels my admiration." + +Wilton Barnstable bowed, and Barton Ward and Watson Bard slightly +inclined their heads. + +"Your skill," said Lady Agatha, "is equal to that of Sherlock Holmes." + +At the name of Sherlock Holmes a shade passed over the face of Wilton +Barnstable. He slightly compressed his lips, and his eyebrows went up +a fraction of an inch. This shade was reflected on the faces of Barton +Ward and Watson Bard. There was a moment of silence, but presently +Wilton Barnstable continued, repressing a sigh: + +"I thought at first, Mr. Cleggett, that you were an ally of Logan +Black's, just as you believed me to be his ally, and as he believed you +and me to be working together. It may interest you to know that +smuggling has been one of his side lines. There is, somewhere +hereabouts, a cave in which smuggled goods are stored. These coasts +have a sinister history, Mr. Cleggett. It is possible that your canal +boat--I beg your pardon, your schooner, Mr. Cleggett--played some part +in their smuggling operations. At any rate it is evident that Logan +Black transferred to the hold of this vessel the incriminating evidence +against him, contained in that oblong box, when he learned that my +agents were watching Morris's. The Jasper B. has been lying in her +present position for a long time. In the event that a sudden get-away +from Morris's became necessary, it was an advantage to Logan Black to +be able to leave without being hampered with this matter. No one, for +many years, had paid any attention to the Jasper B., with the exception +of the old truck farmer, Abernethy, who used sometimes to fish from her +deck, and----" + +"Truck farmer!" cried Cleggett. "Abernethy?" + +"Truck farmer," repeated Wilton Barnstable. + +"Is not Abernethy an old sea captain?" asked Cleggett. + +"Why, no, I believe not," said Barnstable. "At least I never heard so. +He is well known as a small truck gardener in this neighborhood. It is +true that he comes of a seafaring family--indeed, it is his boast. +But, in a community where nearly everyone knows a little about boats, I +believe that Abernethy is remarkable for an indisposition to venture +far from shore." + +"I can scarcely believe it," breathed Cleggett. + +"He does not understand boats," said Barnstable. "That is the reason, I +take it, why he has always fished in the canal from the deck of the +Jasper B." + +"Abernethy is a gallant man," said Cleggett, rather sternly. "And even +although he may have had little actual seafaring experience, the +instinct is in him! The inherited love of a nautical life has been +latent in him all along. And at the first opportunity it has come out. +He has shown his mettle aboard the Jasper B." + +"I do not doubt it, if you insist upon it," said Wilton Barnstable, +politely. And from revolving his thumbs benignly towards himself he +began to revolve them urbanely from himself. The reversal was imitated +at once by Barton Ward, but Watson Bard was slower in putting this new +coup into execution. + +"The resemblance between the two oblong boxes evidently fooled Logan +Black," continued Barnstable, "and his men stole the wrong one, but he +knows by this time that his plan to get the box has failed." + +"He knows it?" said Cleggett. + +"From the bank of the canal he witnessed our capture of the box, and of +the two men who were making off with it. After you had beaten off his +assault upon the ship, he turned his attention to the canal, to see if +the men whom he had assigned to the job of creeping over the stern of +the Jasper B. had by any chance succeeded in purloining the box. He +was alone, but he attempted to come to the assistance of his two +followers even as we made them prisoners. In fact, we exchanged shots." + +The great detective made little of the danger he had encountered. + +Indeed, his smile became one of amusement as he removed his coat, +rolled up his shirt sleeves, and exhibited a bandaged wound in the +fleshy part of his arm. + +"It is only a slight wound," he said, beaming on it as if wounds were +quite delightful affairs, "and scarcely inconveniences me." + +Barton Ward and Watson Bard, with their sleeves rolled up, were also +smiling placidly and indulgently at bandages about their left arms. +Whether there were real wounds beneath their bandages also, Cleggett +could not determine. The bandage of Barton Ward was slightly stained +with red, but the bandage of Watson Bard was quite white. All three +replaced their coats at the same time, and Wilton Barnstable went on: + +"Our course of procedure is plain, Mr. Cleggett. We have the evidence +against Logan Black. We must have the man himself. I depend upon you +to cooperate with me. I think," he said, beaming at Barton Ward and +Watson Bard with an air of modest triumph, "that the case of Logan +Black is going to prove one of my really GREAT cases. + +"There is only one point which I have not yet made clear to you, I +believe--and that is how Logan Black's men were able to enter and leave +the hold of your vessel so mysteriously. But I am shaping up my theory +about that! I am shaping it up!" + +"Would it be indescreet to inquire just what your theory is?" asked +Cleggett. + +And Lady Agatha murmured: + +"For my part, I can make nothing of it, and I should be glad to hear +your theory." + +"It would," said Wilton Barnstable, soberly, "it would be premature, if +I told you my theory at the present moment. You must pardon me--but it +WOULD. In my line of business--and I insist, Mr. Cleggett, that I am a +plain business man, nothing more--I find it absolutely necessary not to +communicate all my information to the layman until the case is quite +perfect in all its points. But do not get the notion, Mr. Cleggett, +that I underestimate the part that you have taken in the case of Logan +Black. You have helped me, Mr. Cleggett. When I have my secretary +prepare the case of Logan Black for magazine and newspaper publication +I shall have your name mentioned as that of a person who has helped me. +Yes, you have helped me." + +As he spoke he picked from a reading table a magazine, on the cover of +which appeared his own portrait--or rather, the portrait of the popular +conception of Wilton Barnstable--and began to make motions about it +with his finger. He appeared to be marking off the space beside the +portrait into an arrangement of letters and spaces. His lips moved as +he did so; he murmured: "The Case of Logan Black--the Case of Logan +Black!" He seemed to see, with the eye of a typographical expert, the +legend printed there. Barton Ward and Watson Bard, slightly flushed and +a little excited in spite of themselves, seemed also to see it there. + +It might have occurred to a person more critical than Cleggett that it +was he himself who had furnished nearly all the real evidence upon +which Wilton Barnstable was constructing this Case of Logan Black. But +Cleggett looked for the gold in men, not the dross; the great qualities +of Wilton Barnstable appealed to his imagination; the best in Cleggett +responded to the best in Wilton Barnstable; if the detective possessed +a certain amount of vanity, Cleggett preferred to overlook it. + +"Decidedly," said Wilton Barnstable, laying down the magazine, and +looking at Cleggett kindly and serenely, "I shall see to it that your +name is mentioned in connection with the Case of Logan Black." And +Barton Ward and Watson Bard also bent upon him their bland and friendly +regard. + +Cleggett was about to thank them, but at that moment there was a +commotion of some sort on deck. + +Two female voices, one of which they all recognized as that of Miss +Genevieve Pringle, were mingling in a babble of greeting, +expostulation, interjection, and explanation, and presently Miss +Pringle entered the cabin, followed by a younger lady who, except for +her youth, looked much like her. + +"My niece, Miss Henrietta Pringle, of Flatbush," said Miss Pringle, +primly presenting her prim relation. "She has just arrived----" + +"With the plum preserves!" cried Lady Agatha. + +"With the plum preserves," confirmed Miss Genevieve Pringle. + +And Captain Abernethy and George the Greek bore into the cabin a third +oblong box, exactly similar in appearance to the box of Reginald +Maltravers and the box which contained the evidence against Logan +Black, and set it on the floor. + +The three detectives stood and looked at the three boxes with an air of +great satisfaction. + +"With this addition to our oblong boxes," said Wilton Barnstable, +"their number is now complete. Miss Henrietta Pringle, we will listen +to your story." + +There was little to tell, and Miss Henrietta Pringle told it in a +breath. Having received no acknowledgment of the receipt of the plum +preserves from her aunt, an unusual oversight on her aunt's part, she +had journeyed to Newark with a vague fear that there might be something +wrong. + +"Arrived in Newark," she said, "I learned that my aunt, with her two +white horses and her family carriage driven by Jefferson, the negro +coachmen, had suddenly left Newark, without giving any explanation to +anyone, or making her destination known. + +"The proceeding was very strange; it was very unlike my aunt, and I was +frightened. Everyone who had seen her start testified that she was +laboring under a great nervous strain of some sort. + +"I called at the freight depot and got the box of plum preserves which +I had shipped to her. To tell the truth, I feared for her reason. I +thought that if I could find her, and could show her the familiar plum +preserves, which she loved so well, they would be of material +assistance in influencing her to return to her home. So, setting out +to search for her in my Ford auto, I took the box of plum preserves +with me. + +"I soon got upon her trail. The negro coachman, the family carriage +and the white horses had excited remark everywhere. Briefly, I traced +her here, and am happy to discover that my worst fears with regard to +her have proved false." + +"Henrietta," said her aunt, reproachfully, "your fears do you very +little credit, or me either." + +"Aunt Genevieve," said the niece, "pray, do not rebuke me." + +"I was certain," said Wilton Barnstable, complacently, "that it would +develop that Miss Genevieve Pringle was herself being pursued. I was +confident of it, Cleggett. And now that I have cleared up for you the +mystery of Logan Black, the mystery of the box of Reginald Maltravers, +and the mystery of the box of plum preserves, there only remains the +capture of Logan Black to hold me in this part of the country and to +keep you from your voyage to the China Seas." + +"We must get together," said Cleggett, "on a plan of campaign. Logan +Black will certainly attack again. He has only been beaten off +temporarily. In the meanwhile, it is almost breakfast time." + +And, indeed, the lights in the cabin were suddenly growing pale. The +sun was rising. Its beams, shining through the cabin skylight, fell +upon the three great detectives, each one of whom, with an air of +ineffable satisfaction, was gloating--but gloating urbanely and with +dignity--over an oblong box. + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +DANCING ON THE DECK + +It was decided, at a conference of Lady Agatha, Cleggett, and the three +detectives, at the breakfast table, to throw up a line of entrenchments +along the bank of the canal commanding the approach to the Jasper B. +and the Annabel Lee. No one felt the least doubt that Logan Black would +renew the attack sooner or later, unless the two vessels made off. + +"And," said Cleggett, "I shall not leave until the Jasper B. has been +rigged as a schooner again. Anything else would have the appearance of +a retreat. Nor will I be hurried. I am on my own property, and I +purpose to defend it at whatever cost." + +He set his jaws firmly as he declared this intention, and Lady Agatha's +eyes dwelt upon him in admiration. + +"The Annabel Lee could tow you away, you know," demurred Wilton +Barnstable. + +"When the Jasper B. moves," said Cleggett, with finality, "it will be +under her own power." + +Accordingly, work was begun at once on the entrenchments. Everyone on +board the Jasper B. was sadly in need of sleep, but Cleggett felt that +the earthworks could not wait. He divided his force into two shifts. +Cleggett, the three detectives, Jefferson the genial coachman, and +Washington Artillery Lamb, the janitor and butler of the house boat +Annabel Lee, a negro as large and black as Jefferson himself, took a +two-hour trick with the spades and then lay down and slept while +Abernethy, Kuroki, Elmer, Calthrop, George the Greek, and Farnsworth +dug for an equal length of time. The two prisoners captured by +Barnstable the night before, one of whom was the smirking and sinister +Pierre, were compelled to dig all the time. Even Teddy, Lady Agatha's +little Pomeranian, dug. The ladies of the party slept throughout the +morning. + +During the forenoon Cleggett dispatched Dr. Farnsworth to the city in +Miss Henrietta Pringle's Ford car, and he returned about one o'clock +with four more trained nurses. They were installed on board the +houseboat Annabel Lee, instead of at Parker's Beach as Cleggett had +originally intended, and the Red Cross flag was hoisted over that +vessel. Cleggett felt confident that the next battle would be +sanguinary in character, and, true to his humanitarian ideals, was +resolved to be fully prepared this time to care for as many people as +he might disable. Giuseppe Jones, who was quieter now, although at +times still irrationally babbling incendiary vers libre poems, was +removed to the Annabel Lee, where Miss Medley, quite worn out, turned +him over to a fresh nurse. + +By the time the reinforcement of nurses had arrived the earthworks of +the good ship Jasper B. were completed, and, after a double portion of +stiff grog all around, Cleggett ordered all hands to lie down on the +deck for an hour's comfortable nap. He stood watch himself. Cleggett +had not slept much during the past forty-eight hours, but he was a man +of iron. Like King Henry Fifth of England, Cleggett found a certain +pleasure in watching while his troops slumbered. Cleggett and this +lively monarch had other points in common, although Cleggett, even in +his youth, would never have associated with a character so habitually +dissolute as Sir John Falstaff. + +The construction of the trench was not without its effect upon the gang +of villains at Morris's. About nine in the morning Cleggett noticed +that he was under observation from the roof of the east verandah of the +road house. Loge and two of his ruffianly lieutenants were +scrutinizing the Cleggett flotilla and fortifications through their +binoculars. Cleggett, through his own glass, returned the compliment. + +The three men were conducting an animated discussion. From their +gestures they seemed to be completely nonplussed by the entrenchments. +Watching their pantomime closely, Cleggett gathered that Loge was +endeavoring to enforce some point of view with regard to the Jasper B. +upon his two followers. Finally Loge, making a gesture towards +Cleggett with one hand, tapped himself several times on the forehead +with the other, his lips moving rapidly the while. The two other men +shrugged their shoulders and nodded, as if in agreement with Loge. The +insulting significance of the gesture was only too apparent. As +plainly as if he had heard the accompanying words Cleggett understood +that Loge, out of the depths of his perplexity, had said that he +(Cleggett) was mentally erratic. + +"Ah, you think so, do you?" said Cleggett aloud, laying down his glass +and seizing a rifle. "Well, just to let you know that I have a certain +opinion of you, also, my friend Loge----" And he sent a bullet over +the heads of the three men. They hastily ducked into the house. +Cleggett might have picked Loge off, but he disdained to do so. It was +his purpose to take the man alive, if possible. + +But the rifle shot did not end the espionage. All day scouting parties +in taxicabs kept appearing on the sandy plain to reconnoiter the fleet +and fortress. They circled, they swooped, they dashed, they zigzagged +here and there, but always at a high rate of speed, and always at a +prudent distance from the canal. Beyond sending an occasional rifle +ball whistling towards the wheels of the cabs, or over the heads of the +occupants, to remind them to keep their distance, Cleggett paid but +little attention to these parties. If Loge thought him demented, if he +had his enemy guessing, so much the better. The eccentric movements of +these cabs was a circumstance which in itself testified to Loge's +bewilderment and curiosity. + +Cleggett had no idea that there would be an attack before nightfall, +and at two o'clock in the afternoon he awakened all the members of his +crew who were still sleeping, ordered them into bathing suits, a supply +of which he had been thoughtful enough to have the young doctor bring +out along with the nurses, and piped them into the canal. The water +was cold, but they came out refreshed and invigorated by the plunge and +feeling fit for any struggle that might be ahead of them. This +maneuver on the part of Cleggett and his marines and infantrymen seemed +still more to excite the curiosity and contribute to the bewilderment +of Loge and his ruffians. + +After the general bath and a substantial lunch, Cleggett called all +hands aft and addressed them. + +"Ladies and loyal followers and co-workers," he said. "We have passed +some nights and days of peril. And there are, I doubt not, still +parlous times ahead of the Jasper B. before our ship sets sail for the +China Seas. But what is sweeter than pleasure snatched from the very +presence of danger? Courage and gayety should go hand in hand! It is +a beautiful May afternoon, we have a goodly deck beneath our feet, and, +briefly, who is for a dance?" + +A huzza showed the popularity of the suggestion. Washington Artillery +Lamb, the janitor and butler of the Annabel Lee, possessed an accordion +on which he was an earnest and artistic performer. Miss Pringle's +Jefferson had with him a harmonica, or mouth organ, which he at once +produced. Jefferson was endowed with the peculiar gift of manipulating +this little musical instrument solely with his lips, moving it back and +forth and round about as he played, without touching it with his hands; +and this left his hands free to pat the time. The negro orchestra +perched itself on the top of the cabin, and in a moment Lady Agatha, +the five nurses, Cleggett, the three detectives, Dr. Farnsworth, and +Captain Abernethy were tangoing on the deck. And this to the still +further perplexity of Logan Black. As the dance started Cleggett saw +that person, almost distracted by his inability to comprehend the +mental processes of the commander of the Jasper B., rise to his feet in +an automobile that had stopped a couple of hundred yards away, and beat +with both hands upon his temples, gnashing his long yellow teeth the +while. + +The Rev. Simeon Calthrop turned sadly away from the vessel, and, with a +sigh, went and sat in the trench, where he was soon joined by Elmer. +The disgraced preacher and the reformed convict had struck up a fast +friendship. They sat with their backs towards the Jasper B., and +Cleggett supposed from their attitude that they were sternly +condemnatory of the frivolity and festivity on board ship. + +Cleggett, after the first dance, sought them out. + +"I hope," he said to the Rev. Mr. Calthrop, not unkindly, "that you +don't disapprove of us." + +"It isn't that, Mr. Cleggett," said the ship's chaplain, with sorrow in +his eloquent brown eyes, "it isn't that at all. In fact, I had a tango +class in the basement of my church, every Thursday evening-when I had a +church." + +"Then what is it?" + +"Alas!" sighed the young preacher. "I do not trust myself! Women, as I +have told you, Mr. Cleggett, are apt to become fascinated with me. I +cannot help it. It is in such gay scenes as this that the danger lies, +Mr. Cleggett. As an honorable man, I feel that I am bound to withdraw +myself and my fatal influence." + +"You are too subtle--too subtle for moral health," said Cleggett. + +"But I will not attempt to influence you. Elmer, are you also afraid +of inspiring a hopeless passion?" + +"Mister Cleggett," said Elmer gloomily and huskily, out of one corner +of his mouth, "I ain't takin' a chance. D' youse get me? Not a +chancet. Oncet youse reformed, Mr. Cleggett, youse can't be too +careful." + +Cleggett returned to the vessel. Miss Pringle the elder was leaving +it. Miss Henrietta Pringle was following. Cleggett gathered that the +niece left reluctantly, and under the coercion of the aunt. + +Miss Pringle the elder was about to join the Rev. Mr. Calthrop in the +trench. Morality, as well as misery, loves company. But Mr. Calthrop +saw the Misses Pringle coming. He swiftly rose, passed them by with +his face averted, and went aboard the Annabel Lee. It was evident that +he believed that his fatal gift of fascination had attracted these +ladies towards him in spite of himself. Elmer and the Misses Pringle +sat gloomily on a clean plank in the trench while the dance went gayly +on. + +"If you was to ask me," said Captain Abernethy, pausing winded from the +tango, strong old man that he was, "I'd give it as my opinion that them +that gits their enjoyment in an oncheerful way don't git nigh as much +of it as them that gits it in a cheerful way. Mrs. Lady Agatha, ma'am, +if you kin fox-trot as well as you kin tango I'll never have another +word to say agin female suffragettes." + +But as Cap'n Abernethy spoke the grin froze upon his face. + +"My God! Look there!" he shrilled, pointing a long finger towards the +plain. Simultaneously the Misses Pringle, shrieking wildly, leaped +from the trench towards the ship and Elmer fired a pistol shot. + +Cleggett beheld five taxicabs, filled with Loge's assassins, charging +towards the vessel at the rate of thirty miles an hour. + +"To arms! To arms!" shouted the commander of the Jasper B. + +But the enemy, with Logan Black in the lead, had already reached the +trenches. They flung themselves to the ground and swept over the +trench towards the bulwarks, twenty strong, with flashing machetes. So +confident had Cleggett been that Loge would not dare to attack in broad +daylight that he had scarcely even considered the possibility. It was +the one fault of his military and naval career. + +"Cutlasses, men, and at them!" he cried. + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +CUTLASSES + +There was no thought of guns or pistols. There was no time to aim or +fire. Loge's rush had lodged him on the deck. Roaring like a wild +animal, he carried the fight to the defenders. He meant to make a +finish of it this time, and with the edged and bitter steel. + +As the women scurried into the cabin the two lines met, with a ringing +clash of blades, on the deck of the Jasper B., and the sparks flew from +the stricken metal. Cleggett strove to engage Loge hand to hand; and +Loge, on his part, attempted to fight his way to Cleggett; they shouted +insults at each other across the press of battle. But in affairs of +this sort a man must give his attention to the person directly in front +of him; otherwise he is lost. As Cleggett cut and thrust and parried, +a sudden seizure overtook him; he moved as if in a dream; he had the +eerie feeling that he had done all this before, sometime, perhaps in a +previous existence, and would do it again. The clangor of the meeting +swords, the inarticulate shouts and curses, the dance of struggling men +across the deck, the whirling confusion of the whole fantastic scene +beneath the quiet skies, struck upon his consciousness with that +strange phantasmagoric quality which makes the hurrying unreality of +dreams so much more vivid and more real than anything in waking life. + +In the center of Cleggett's line stood the three detectives shoulder to +shoulder. Their three swords rose and fell as one. They cut and lunged +and guarded with a machine-like regularity, advancing, giving ground, +advancing again, with a rhythmic unanimity which was baffling to their +opponents. + +On either flank of the detectives fought one of the gigantic negroes. +Washington Artillery Lamb, almost at once, had broken his cutlass, and +now he raged in the waist of the Jasper B. with a long iron bar in his +hand. Miss Pringle's Jefferson, with his high cockaded hat still +firmly fixed upon his head, laid about him with a heavy cavalry saber; +in his excitement he still held his harmonica in his mouth and blew +blasts upon it as he fought. The Rev. Simeon Calthrop, in a loud +agitated voice, sang hymns as he swung his cutlass. And, among the +legs of the combatants, leapt and snapped Teddy the Pomeranian, biting +friend and foe indiscriminately upon the ankles. + +But gradually the weight of superior numbers began to tell. Farnsworth +staggered from the fight with a face covered with blood which blinded +him. Cap'n Abernethy likewise was bleeding from a wound in the head; +George the Greek and Watson Bard were hurt, but both fought on. The +crew of the Jasper B. and their allies of the Annabel Lee were being +slowly forced back towards the cabin, when there came a sudden and +decisive turn in the fortunes of the fight. + +Cleggett, straining to meet Loge, who hung sword to sword with Wilton +Barnstable, saw Giuseppe Jones, deserted by his nurses, tumbling feebly +over the bow of the Jasper B. in the rear of Loge's line. Barelegged, +a red blanket fastened about his throat with a big brass safety pin, a +thermometer in one hand and a medicine bottle in the other, he +tottered, crazily and weakly between Loge and Barnstable, chanting a +vers libre poem in a shrill, insane voice. + +Loge, who had extended himself in a vigorous lunge, was struck by the +weight of the young anarchist's body at the crook of the knees, and +came down on the deck at full length, his machete flying from his hand +as he fell. + +Cleggett was upon the criminal in an instant, his hand at the outlaw's +throat. They grappled and rolled upon the deck. But in another second +Wilton Barnstable and Barton Ward, coming to Cleggett's assistance, had +snapped irons upon the president of the crime trust, hand and foot. + +His overthrow was the signal of his men's defeat. As he went down they +hesitated and wavered. The two great negroes, taking advantage of this +hesitation, burst among them with mighty blows and strange +Afro-American oaths, Castor and Pollux in bronze. With a shout of +"Banzai!" Kuroki rushed forward with his kris; the other defenders +added weight and fury to the rally. Before the irons were on the +wrists of Loge his men were routed. They leaped the rail and made off +for their fleet of taxicabs, flinging away their weapons as they ran. + +Loge writhed and twisted and lashed the deck with his legs and body for +a moment, striving even against the bands of steel that bit into his +wrists and ankles. And then he lay still with his face against the +planks as if in a vast and overwhelming bitterness of despair. + +It had been Cleggett's earlier thought to take the man alive, if +possible, and turn him over to the authorities. But now that Loge was +taken he burned with the wish for personal combat with him. He desired +to be the agent of society, and put an end to Logan Black himself. + +Cleggett, as he gazed at the fellow lying prone upon the deck, could +not repress a murmur of dissatisfaction. + +"We never fought it out," he said. + +Whether Loge heard him or not, the same thought was evidently running +is his mind. He lifted his head. A slow, malignant grin that showed +his yellow canine teeth lifted his upper lip. He fixed his eyes on +Cleggett with a cold deadliness of hatred and said: + +"You are lucky." + +Outwardly Cleggett remained calm, but inwardly he was shaken with an +intensity of passion that matched Loge's own. + +"Lucky?" he said quietly. "That is as may be. And if, as I infer, you +desire a settlement of a more personal nature than the law recognizes, +it is still not too late to accommodate you." + +"Desire!" cried Loge, with a movement of his manacled hands. "I would +go to Hell happy if I sent you ahead of me!" + +"Very well," said Cleggett. "Since you have challenged me I will fight +you. I will do you that honor." + +Loge was about to answer when Wilton Barnstable broke in: + +"Mr. Cleggett," he said, "I scarcely understand you. Are you +consenting to fight this man?" + +"Certainly," said Cleggett. "He has challenged me." + +"A duel?" said Wilton Barnstable in astonishment. + +"A duel." + +"But that is impossible. His life is forfeit to the law. I hope, +before the year is out, to send him to the electric chair. Under the +circumstances, a duel is an absurdity." + +"An absurdity?" Cleggett, with his hands on his hips, and a little +dancing light in his eyes, faced the great detective squarely. "You +permit yourself very peculiar expressions, Mr. Barnstable!" + +"I beg your pardon," said Wilton Barnstable. "I withdraw 'absurdity.' +But you must see yourself, Mr. Cleggett, that a duel is useless, if +nothing else. The man is our prisoner. He belongs to the law." + +Loge had struggled to a sitting posture, his back against the port +bulwark, and was listening with an odd look on his face. + +"The law?" said Cleggett. "I suppose, in one sense, that is true. But +the matter has its personal element as well." + +"I must insist," said Wilton Barnstable, "that Logan Black is my +prisoner." + +Cleggett was silent a moment. Then he said firmly: "Mr. Barnstable, +it is painful to me to have to remind you of it, but your attitude +forces me to an equal directness. The fact that Logan Black is now a +captive is due to his efforts to recover certain evidence which may be +used against him. This evidence I discovered and defended, and this +evidence I now hold in my possession." + +Wilton Barnstable was about to retort, perhaps heatedly, but Cleggett, +generous even while determined to have his own way, hastened to add: +"Do not think, Mr. Barnstable, that I minimize your work, or your +assistance--but, after all, what am I demanding that is unreasonable? +If Logan Black dies by my hand, are not the ends of justice served as +well as if he died in the electric chair? And if I fall, the law may +still take its course." + +Loge had listened to this speech attentively. He lifted his head and +glanced about the deck, filling his lungs with a deep draft of air. +Something like a gleam of hope was visible in his features. + +"It is irregular," said Wilton Barnstable, frowning, and not half +convinced. "And, in the name of Heaven, why imperil your life +needlessly? Why expose yourself again to the power of this monstrous +criminal?" + +"The fellow has challenged me, and I have granted him a meeting," said +Cleggett. "I hope there is such a thing as honor!" + +"Clement!" It was Lady Agatha who spoke. As she did so she laid her +hand on Cleggett's arm. She had hearkened in silence to the colloquy +between him and Barnstable, as had the others. She drew him out of +sight and hearing behind the cabin. + +"Clement," she said with agitation, "do not fight this man!" + +"I must," he said simply. It cut him to the heart to refuse the first +request that she had asked of him since his avowal of his love for her +and her tacit acceptance. But, to a man of Cleggett's ideas, there was +no choice. + +"Clement," she said in a low tone, "you have told me that you love me." + +"Agatha!" he murmured brokenly. + +"And you know----" she paused, as if she could not continue, but her +eyes and manner spoke the rest. In a moment her lips spoke it too; she +was not the sort of woman who is afraid to avow the promptings of her +heart. "You know," she said, "that I love you." + +"Agatha!" he cried again. He could say no more. + +"Oh, Clement," she said, "if you were killed--killed uselessly!--now +that I have found you, I could not bear it. Dear, I could not bear it!" + +Cleggett was profoundly moved. He yearned to take her in his arms to +comfort her, and to promise anything she wished. And the thought came +to him too that, if he should perish, the one kiss, given and received +in the darkness and danger of fight and storm, would be all the brave +sweetness of her that he would know this side of the grave; the thought +came to him bitterly. For an instant he wavered. + +"Agatha!" he said with dry lips. "I have already accepted the fellow's +challenge." + +"And what of that?" she cried. "Would you cling to a barren point of +honor in despite of love?" + +"Even so," he said, and sighed. + +"Oh, Clement," she said, "I cannot bear it! I cannot bear to lose you! +I always knew you were in the world somewhere--and now that I have +found you it is only to give you up! It is too much!" + +Cleggett was silent for a moment. When he spoke it was slowly and +gently, but earnestly. + +"No point of honor is a barren one, dear," he said. "What the man +lying there may be matters nothing. It is not to him that I have given +my word, but to myself. In our hurried modern life we are not +punctilious enough about these things. Perhaps, in the old days, the +men and women were worse than we in many ways. But they held to a few +traditions, or the best of them did, that make the loose and tawdry +manners of this age seem cheap indeed. All my life I have known that +there was something shining and simple and precious concealed from the +common herd of men in this common age, which the brighter spirits of +the old days lived by and served and worshiped. I have always seen it +plainly, and always tried to live by it, too. Perhaps it was never, in +any period, more than a dream; but I have dreamed that dream. And +anyone who dreams that dream will have a reverence for his spoken word +no matter to whom it is passed. I may be a fool to fight this man; +well then, that is the kind of fool I am! Indeed, I know I am a fool +by the judgments of this age. But I have never truly lived in this +age. I have lived in the past; I have held to the dream; I have +believed in the bright adventure; I have walked with the generous, +chivalric spirits of the great ages; they have come to me out of my +books and dwelt with me and been my companions, and the realities of +time and place have been unreal in their presence. I see myself so +walking always. It may be that I am a vain ass, but I cannot help it. +It may be that I am a little mad; but I would rather be mad with a Don +Quixote than sane with an Andrew Carnegie and pile up platitudes and +dollars. + +"And all this foolishness of mine is somehow bound up with the thought +that I have engaged to fight that evil fellow, and must do it; all the +bright, sane madness in me cries out that he is to die by this hand of +mine. + +"I have opened my heart to you, as I have never done to anyone before. +And now I put myself into your hands. But, oh, take care--for it is +something in me better than myself that I give you to deal with! And +you can cripple it forever, because I love you and I shall listen to +you. Shall I fight him?" + +She had listened, mute and immobile, and as he spoke the red sun made a +sudden glory of her hair. She leaned towards him, and it was as if the +spirit of all the man's lifelong, foolish, romantic musings were in her +eyes and on her face. + +"Fight him!" she said. "And kill him!" + +And then her head was on his shoulder, and his arms were about her. +"Don't die!" she sobbed. "Don't die!" + +"Don't fear," he said, "I feel that I'll make short work of him." + +She smiled courageously back at him; with her hands upon his shoulders +she held him back and looked at him with tilted head. + +"If you are killed," she said, "it will have been more than most women +ever get, to have known and loved you for two days." + +"Two days?" he said. "Forever!" + +"Forever!" she said. + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +THE DUEL + +Cleggett took Wilton Barnstable by the sleeve and drew him towards +Loge, who, still seated on the deck with his long legs stretched out in +front of him, was now yawning with a cynical affectation of boredom. + +"I wish you to act as my second in this affair," said Cleggett to the +detective, "and I suggest that either Mr. Ward or Mr. Bard perform a +like office for Mr. Black." + +Loge shrugged his shoulders, and said with a sneer: + +"A second, eh? We seem to be doing a great deal of arranging for a +very small amount of fighting." + +"I suggest," said Wilton Barnstable, "that a night's rest would be +quite in order for both principals." + +Loge broke in quickly, with studied insolence: "I object to the delay. +Mr. Cleggett might find some excuse for changing his mind overnight. +Let us, if you please, begin at once." + +"It was not I who suggested the delay," said Cleggett, haughtily. + +"Then give us the pistols," cried Loge, with a sudden, grim ferocity in +his voice, "and let's make an end of it!" + +"We fight with swords," said Cleggett. "I am the challenged party." + +"Ho! Swords!" cried Loge, with a harsh, jarring laugh. "A bout with +the rapiers, man to man, eh? Come, this is better and better! I may +go to the chair, but first I will spit you like a squab on a skewer, my +little nut!" And then he said again, with a shout of gusty mirth, and +a clanking of his manacles: "Swords, eh? By God! The little man says +SWORDS!" + +Wilton Barnstable drew Cleggett to one side. + +"Name pistols," he said. "For God's sake, Cleggett, name pistols! If +I had had any idea that you were going to demand rapiers I should have +warned you before." + +Cleggett was amused at the great detective's anxiety. "It appears that +the fellow handles the rapier pretty well, eh?" he said easily. + +"Cleggett----" began Barnstable. And then he paused and groaned and +mopped his brow. Presently he controlled his agitation and continued. +"Cleggett," he said, "the man is an expert swordsman. I have been on +his trail; I know his life for years past. He was once a maitre +d'armes. He gave lessons in the art." + +"Yes?" said Cleggett, laughing and flexing his wrist. "I am glad to +hear that! It will be really interesting then." + +"Cleggett," said Barnstable, "I beg of you--name pistols. This is the +man who invented that diabolical thrust with which Georges Clemenceau +laid low so many of his political opponents. If you must go on with +this mad duel, name pistols!" + +"Barnstable," said Cleggett, "I know what I am about, believe me. Your +anxiety does me little honor, but I am willing to suppose that you are +not deliberately insulting, and I pass it over. I intend to kill this +man. It is a duty which I owe to society. And as for the +rapier--believe me, Barnstable, I am no novice. And my blood tingles +and my soul aches with the desire to expunge that man from life with my +own hand. Come, we have talked enough. There is a case of swords in +the cabin. Will you do me the favor to bring them on deck?" + +Loge's irons were unlocked. He rose to his feet and stretched himself. +He removed his coat and waistcoat. Then he took off his shirt, +revealing the fact that he wore next his skin a long-sleeved undershirt +of red flannel. + +Cleggett began to imitate him. But as the commander of the Jasper B. +began to pull his shirt over his head he heard a little scream. +Everyone turned in the direction from which it had emanated. They +beheld Miss Genevieve Pringle perched upon the top of the cabin, +whither she had mounted by means of a short ladder. This lady, perhaps +not quite aware of the possibly sanguinary character of the spectacle +she was about to witness, had, nevertheless, sensed the fact that a +spectacle was toward. Miss Pringle had with her a handsome lorgnette. + +"Madam," said Cleggett, hastily pulling his shirt back on again and +approaching the cabin, "did you cry out?" + +"Mr.--er--Cleggett," said Miss Pringle, pursing her lips, "if you will +kindly hold the ladder for me I think I will descend and retire at once +to the cabin." + +"As you wish," said Cleggett politely, complying with her wish, but at +a loss to comprehend her. + +"I beg you to believe, Mr. Cleggett," said Miss Pringle, averting her +face and flushing painfully, while she turned the lorgnette about and +about with embarrassed fingers, "I beg you to believe that in electing +to witness this spectacle I had no idea of its exceedingly informal +nature." + +With these words she passed into the cabin, with the air of one who has +sustained a mortal insult. + +"Ef you was to ask me what she's tryin' to get at," piped up Cap'n +Abernethy, "I'd say it's her belief that it ain't proper for gents to +sword each other with their shirts off. She's shocked, Miss Pringle +is." + +"In great and crucial moments," said Cleggett soberly, pulling off his +shirt again and picking up a sword, "we may dispense with the minor +conventions without apology." + +Loge chose a weapon with the extreme of care and particularity, trying +the hang and balance of several of them. He looked well to the weight, +bent the blade in his hands to test the spring and temper, tried the +point upon his thumb. He handled the rapier as if he had found an old +friend again after a long absence; he looked around upon his enemies +with a sort of ferocious, bantering gayety. + +"And now," said Loge, "if this is to be a duel indeed, Mr. Cleggett and +I will need plenty of room, I suggest that the rest of you retire to +the bulwarks and give us the deck to ourselves." + +"For my part," said Cleggett, "I order it." + +"And," said Wilton Barnstable, drawing his pistol, "Mr. Black will +please note that while I am standing by the bulwarks I shall be +watching indeed. Should he make an attempt to escape from the vessel I +shall riddle him with bullets." + +"Come, come," said Loge, "all this conversation is a waste of time!" + +"That is my opinion also," said Cleggett. + +They saluted formally, and engaged their blades. + +With Cleggett, swordsmanship was both a science and an art. And +something more. It was also a passion. A good swordsman can be made; +a superior swordsman may be born; the real masters are both born and +made. It was so with Cleggett. His interest in fencing had been keen +from his early boyhood. In his teens he had acquired unusual practical +skill without great theoretical knowledge. Then he had recognized the +art for what it is, the most beautiful game on earth, and had made a +profound and thorough study of it; it appealed to his imagination. + +He became, in a way, the poet of the foil. + +Cleggett seldom fenced publicly, and then only under an assumed name; +he abhorred publicity. But there was not a teacher in New York City +who did not know him for a master. They brought him their half worked +out visions of new combinations, new thrusts; he perfected them, and +simplified, or elaborated, and gave back the finished product. + +They were the workmen, the craftsmen, the men of talent; he was the +originator, the genius. + +And he was especially lucky in not having been tied down, in his +younger years, to one national tradition of the art. The limitations +of the French, the Spanish, the Italian, or the Austrian schools had +not enslaved him in youth and hampered the free development of his +individuality. He had studied them all; he chose from them all their +superiorities; their excellences he blended into a system of his own. + +It might be called the Cleggett System. + +The Frenchman is an intellectual swordsman; the basis of his art is a +thorough knowledge of its mathematics. Upon this foundation he +superimposes a structure of audacity. But he often falls into one +error or another, for all his mental brilliancy. He may become rigidly +formal in his practice, or, in a revolt from his own formalism, be +seduced into a display of showy, sensational tricks that are all very +well in the studio but dangerous to their practitioner on the actual +dueling ground. + +The Italian, looser, freer, less formal, more individual in his style, +springing from a line of forbears who have preferred the thrust to the +cut, the point to the edge, for centuries, is a more instinctive and +less intellectual swordsman than the Frenchman. It is in his blood; he +uses his rapier with a wild and angry grace that is feline. + +The Frenchman, even when he is thoroughly serious in his desire to +slay, loves a duel for its own sake; he is never free from the thought +of the picture he is making; the art, the science, the practical +cleverness, appeal to him independently of the bloodshed. + +The Italian thinks of but one thing; to kill. He will take a severe +wound to give a fatal one. The French are the best fencers in the +world; the Italians the deadliest duelists. + +Cleggett, as has been said, knew all the schools without being the +slave of any of them. + +He brought his sword en tierce; Loge's blade met his with strength and +delicacy. The strength Cleggett was prepared for. The delicacy +surprised him. But he was too much the master, too confident of his +own powers, to trifle. He delivered one of his favorite thrusts; it +was a stroke of his own invention; three times out of five, in years +past, it had carried home the button of his foil to his opponent's +jacket. It was executed with the directness and rapidity of a flash of +lightning. + +But Loge parried it with a neatness which made Cleggett open his eyes, +replying with a counter so shrewd and close, and of such a darting +ferocity, that Cleggett, although he met it faultlessly, nevertheless +gave back a step. + +"Ah," cried Loge, showing his yellow teeth in a grin, "so the little +man knows that thrust!" + +"I invented it," said Cleggett. + +With the word he pressed forward and, making a swift and dazzling +feint, followed it with two brilliant thrusts, either of which would +have meant the death of a tyro. The first one Loge parried; the second +touched him; but it gave him nothing more than a scratch. +Nevertheless, the smile faded from Loge's face; he gave ground in his +turn before this rapid vigor of attack; he measured Cleggett with a new +glance. + +"You are touched, I think," said Cleggett, meditating a fresh +combination, "and I am glad to see you drop that ugly pretense at a +grin. You have no idea how the sight of those yellow teeth of yours, +which you were evidently never taught to brush when you were a little +boy, offends a person of any refinement." + +Loge's answer was a sudden attempt to twist his blade around +Cleggett's; followed by a direct thrust, as quick as light, which +grazed Cleggett's shoulder; a little smudge of blood appeared on his +undershirt. + +"Take care, take care, Cleggett!" warned Wilton Barnstable, from his +post by the starboard bulwark. + +"Make yourself easy," said Cleggett, parrying a counter en carte, "I am +only getting warm." + +And both of them, stung by the slight scratches which they had +received, settled to the business with an intent and silent deadliness +of purpose. + +To all appearances Loge had an immense advantage over Cleggett; his +legs were a good two inches longer; so were his arms. And he knew how +to make these peculiarities count. He fought for a while with a calm +and steady precision that repeatedly baffled the calculated impetuosity +of Cleggett's attack. But the air of bantering certainty with which he +had begun the duel had left him. He no longer wasted his breath on +repartee; no doubt he was surprised to find Cleggett's strength so +nearly equal to his own, as Cleggett had been astonished to find in +Loge so much finesse. But with a second slight wound Loge began to give +ground. + +With Cleggett a bout with the foils had always been a duel. It has +been indicated, we believe, that he was of a romantic disposition and +much given to daydreaming; his imagination had thus made every set-to +in the fencing room a veritable mortal combat to him. Therefore, this +was not his first duel; he had fought hundreds of them. And he fought +always on a settled plan, adapting it, of course, to the idiosyncrasies +of his adversary. It was his custom to vary the system of his attack +frequently in the most disconcerting manner, at the same time steadily +increasing the pace at which he fought. And when Loge began to give +ground and breathe a little harder, Cleggett, far from taking advantage +of his opponent's growing distress to rest himself, as a less +distinguished swordsman might have done, redoubled the vigor of his +assault. Cleggett knew that sooner or later a winded man makes a +fault. The lungs labor and fail to give the blood all the oxygen it +needs. The circulation suffers. Nerves and muscles are no longer the +perfect servants of the brain; for a fraction of a second the sword +deviates from the proper line. + +It was for this that Cleggett waited, pressing Loge closer and closer, +alert for the instant when Loge would fence wide; waxing as the other +waned; menacing eyes, throat, and heart with a point that leaped and +dazzled; and at the same time inclosing himself within a rampart of +steel which Loge found it more and more hopeless to attempt to +penetrate. It was as if Cleggett's blade were an extension of his will; +he and his sword were not two things, but one. The metal in his hand +was no longer merely a whip of steel; it was a thing that lived with +his own life. His pulse beat in it. It was a part of him. His +nervous force permeated it and animated it; it was his thought turned +to tempered metal, and it was with the rapidity, directness and +subtlety of thought that his sword responded to his mind. + +"Come!" said Cleggett, as Loge broke ground, scarcely aware that he +spoke aloud. "At this rate we shall be at home thrusts soon!" + +Loge must have thought so too; a shade passed over his face, his upper +lip lifted haggardly. Perhaps even that iron nature was beginning to +feel at last something of the dull sickness which is the fear of death. +He retreated continually, and Cleggett was smitten with the fancy to +force him backward and nail him, with a final thrust, to the stump of +the foremast, which had been broken off some eight feet above the deck. + +But Loge, gathering his power, made a brilliant and desperate rally; +twice he grazed Cleggett, whose blade was too closely engaged; and then +suddenly broke ground again. This time Cleggett perceived that he had +been retreating in accordance with a preconceived program. He was +certain the man contemplated a trick, perhaps some foul stroke. + +He rushed forward with a terrible thrust. Loge, whose last maneuver +had taken him within a yard of the hatchway opening into the hold, +grasped Cleggett's blade in his left hand, and at the same instant +flung his own sword, hilt first, full in Cleggett's face. As Cleggett, +struck in the mouth with the pommel, staggered back, Loge plunged feet +foremost into the hold. It was too unexpected, and too quickly done, +for a shot from Barnstable or any of Cleggett's men. + +Cleggett, with the blood streaming from his mouth, recovered himself +and leaped through the aperture in the deck. He landed upon his feet +with a jar, and, shortening his sword in his hand, stared about him in +the gloom. + +He saw no one. + +An instant later Wilton Barnstable and Cap'n Abernethy were beside him. + +"Gone!" said Cleggett simply. + +Barnstable drew from his pocket a small electric lantern and swept the +beam in a circle about the hold. Again and again he raked the darkness +until the finger of light had rested upon every foot of the interior. + +But Loge had vanished as completely as a snowflake that falls into a +tub of water. + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +THE SECRET OF THE VESSEL'S HOLD + +"Idiot that I am," cried Cleggett, "not to have covered that hole!" +His chagrin was touching to behold. + +"There, there, Cleggett," said Wilton Barnstable kindly, "do not +reproach yourself too bitterly." + +"But to let him escape when I had him----" Cleggett finished the +sentence with a groan. + +But Wilton Barnstable was thinking. + +"Please have some lights brought down here if you will, Captain," he +said to Abernethy, "and ask Mr. Bard and Mr. Ward to come." + +In a few minutes the interior of the hold was illuminated with +lanterns; it was as bright as day. But the detectives did not proceed +at once to a minute examination of the hold as Cleggett had supposed +they would. + +Instead, they stood in the waist of the vessel and thought. + +Visibly they thought. Wilton Barnstable thought. + +Barton Ward thought. Watson Bard thought. They thought in silence. +Cleggett could almost feel these three master brains pulsating in +unison, working in rhythmic accord, there in the silence; the sense of +this intense cerebral effort became almost oppressive.... + +Finally Wilton Barnstable began to stroke his mustache, and a pleased +smile stole over his plump and benign visage. Barton Ward also began +to stroke his mustache and smile. But it was twenty seconds more +before Watson Bard's corrugated brow relaxed and his eyes twinkled with +the idea that had come so much more readily to the other two. + +"Cleggett," said Wilton Barnstable, "you have heard of the deductive +method as applied to the work of the detective?" + +"I have," said Cleggett. "I have read Poe's detective tales and +Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories." + +"Ah! Sherlock Holmes!" The three detectives looked at each other with +glances in which were mingled both bitterness and amusement; the look +seemed to dispose of Sherlock Holmes. Once again Cleggett had a +fleeting thought that Wilton Barnstable might possibly be a vain man. + +"Sherlock Holmes," said Barnstable, "never existed. His marvelous +feats are not possible in real life, Cleggett. But the deductive +method which he pretended to use--mind you, I say PRETENDED, +Cleggett!--is, nevertheless, sound." + +And then the three detectives gave Cleggett an example of the +phenomenal cleverness. + +"Mr. Ward," said Wilton Barnstable, "Logan Black entered this hold." + +"He did," said Barton Ward. + +"He is not here now," said Wilton Barnstable. + +"He is not," said Watson Bard. + +"Therefore he has escaped," said Wilton Barnstable. + +"But how?" said Barton Ward. + +"Only a ghost or an insect could leave this hold otherwise than by the +hatchway, to all appearances," said Wilton Barnstable. + +"Logan Black is not a ghost," said Barton Ward firmly. + +"Logan Black is not an insect," said Watson Bard with conviction. + +"Then," said Barnstable, "that eliminates the supernatural and +the--the----" + +"The entomological?" suggested Cleggett. + +The three detectives stared at him fixedly for a moment, as if +surprised at the interruption. But if they were miffed they were too +dignified to do more than hint it. Barnstable continued: + +"There is no such thing as magic." + +"There is not," said Ward. + +"The fourth dimension does not exist," said Bard. + +"Therefore Logan Black's exit," said Barnstable, "was in accordance +with well-known physical laws. We are forced to the conclusion that he +made his escape through a secret passageway." + +"A tunnel," said Barton Ward. + +"With a concealed door opening into the hold," said Watson Bard. + +"A ship with a secret tunnel!" cried Cleggett. "Who ever heard of the +like? Why, the thing is----" + +But he broke off. He had been leaning against the starboard side of +the hold. Even as he spoke he felt the wall behind him moving. He +turned. A door was opening. It was built into the side of the Jasper +B. and the joints were cleverly concealed. He had inadvertently found, +with his elbow, the nailhead which was in reality the push button that +released the spring. The black entrance of a subterranean passage +yawned before him. + +He stared in astonishment. The three detectives were pointing at the +tunnel with plump forefingers and bland, triumphant smiles. + +"Nothing is impossible, my dear Cleggett," said Barnstable. "The +tunnel HAD to be there!" + +"It explains everything," said Cleggett. "But a tunnel into MY ship!" + +And, in truth, for a moment he felt disappointed in the Jasper B. + +A tunnel is all very well leading from the basement of a house, or +extending backward from a cave; but Cleggett felt that it was scarcely +a dignified sort of arrangement, nautically speaking, for a ship to +have leading from its hold. + +It seemed, somehow, to stamp the Jasper B. indelibly as a thing of the +land rather than as the gallant creature of piping winds and following +seas. Could the Jasper B., a bone in her teeth and her tackle humming, +ever again sail through Cleggett's dreams? For a moment, if the worst +must be known, he was almost disgusted with the Jasper B., considered +as a ship. For a moment he was willing to believe that Cap'n Abernethy +was nothing but a Long Island truck farmer, and NOT of a seafaring +family at all. For a moment he felt himself to be a copyreader again +on the New York Enterprise. + +But only for a moment! The star of romance, clouded temporarily by +fact, rose serene and bright again in the wide heaven of the unusual +spirit, the barber's basin gleamed once more the helmet of Mambrino. +Cleggett began to see the matter in its proper light. + +"A tunnel!" he cried, brightening, and looking at it with his legs +spread a little wide and his hands on his hips. "A tunnel! Eh, by gad! +Who could have prophesied a tunnel? Barnstable, never tell me again +there is no romance in real life! I tell you, Barnstable, she's a good +old ship, the Jasper B.! I don't suppose there was ever another +schooner in the world with a secret passageway leading out of her hold!" + +"She IS a remarkable vessel," agreed Wilton Barnstable gravely. "But, +come, we are wasting time! The other end of this passage is at +Morris's, that is plain. Loge Black has only a few minutes' start of +us. Therefore, to Morris's!" + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +A DOG DIES GAME + +Clambering out of the hold, the three detectives and Cleggett briefly +made their followers acquainted with the extraordinary turn of events. +The Rev. Mr. Calthrop, Miss Pringle's Jefferson, and Washington +Artillery Lamb were detailed to guard the Jasper B. end of the tunnel. +The others, seizing their rifles, raced across the sands towards +Morris's. + +In a few moments the place was invested, with riflemen on every side +except the south, which fronted on the bay. The steel-jacketed bullets +from the high-power guns tore through and through the flimsy walls. +Nevertheless the defenders replied pluckily, and the siege might have +dragged on for hours had it not been for the courage and resource of +Kuroki. Gaining the stable, Kuroki found an old pushcart there. He +piled three bales of hay upon it, and then set fire to the hay. +Pushing the cart before him, and crouching behind the bales to protect +himself from revolver shots, he worked his way to the east verandah of +the building and left the hay blazing against the planks. Then he ran +as if the devil were after him, and was almost out of pistol shot +before he got a bullet in the calf of his leg. + +The blaze caught the wood and spread. In two minutes the east verandah +was in flames. Loge and his men attempted to pour water on the blaze +from above. But Cleggett's party directed so hot a fire upon the +windows that the defenders were forced to retire. + +The main building caught. The road house was old, and was of very +light construction; the fire spread with rapidity. Loge was in a trap. + +But that evil and indomitable spirit refused to yield. Even when his +remaining ruffians came out and gave themselves up Loge still fought on +alone in a sullen fury of despair. + +Reckless of bullets, he leaned from an open window, a figure not +without its grandeur against the background of smoke and flame, and +shouted a savage and obscene insult at Cleggett. + +"Give yourself up," cried Wilton Barnstable. + +"Damn it, man, anything's better than roasting to death!" + +Loge raised his hand and sped a last bullet at the detective, grazing +Barnstable's temple. + +"Come in and get me!" he shouted. + +Barnstable fired, just as a whirl of smoke blew in front of Loge. + +Cleggett thought the outlaw staggered, but he was not certain. + +A moment later a portion of the roof fell; then the east wall crashed +in. Morris's was a blazing ruin. + +"He has perished in the flames," said Wilton Barnstable. "So ends +Logan Black!" + +"More like he's blowed his head off," said Cap'n Abernethy. "If you +was to ask me, that's what I'd do." + +"He has done neither!" cried Cleggett. "He has taken to the tunnel. +That man will fight to the last breath." + +And without waiting to see whether the others followed him or not +Cleggett set off at top speed for the Jasper B. + +With a dagger between his teeth, his pistol in its holster, and his +electric, watchman's lantern in his pocket he entered the tunnel and +crawled forward on his hands and knees. If Loge were in there indeed +he had the fire at one end and Cleggett at the other. But even at +that, escape was possible, for all Cleggett knew. What ramifications +this peculiar passageway might have he could not guess. + +The place was narrow, and in spots so low that it was necessary for a +man to crouch almost to the ground. Cleggett, because he did not wish +to reveal his presence, did not flash his lantern; there were stretches +where he might have stood almost erect and made quicker progress, if he +had found them with the light. The earth beneath him was beaten hard +and smooth. + +Cleggett thought possibly that the tunnel had originally led from +Morris's basement to the smuggler's cave which Wilton Barnstable had +spoken of, and that it had been extended later to the ship. He learned +afterwards that this was true from the men who had surrendered. The +Jasper B. had been abandoned for so long, and was so completely +abandoned except for the visits of Cap'n Abernethy, who fished from it +now and then, that Loge had conceived the idea of making it the +back-door, so to speak, of Morris's. In the event of a raid upon +Morris's his "get-away" through the hulk was provided for. He had +intended buying the ship himself; but Cleggett had forestalled him. + +From the prisoners Cleggett also learned later that two men had been +concerned in the explosion which had broken the big rocks on the plain. +One of them had won the Claiborne signet ring at poker after Reginald +Maltravers had been stripped of his valuables, and had worn it. They +had been dispatched with a bomb each, which they were to introduce into +the hold of the Jasper B., retiring through the tunnel after they had +started the clockwork mechanism going. It was known that one of them +owed the other money; they had been quarreling about it as they entered +the tunnel from the cellar of Morris's. It was conjectured that the +quarrel had progressed and that the debtor had endeavored, by the light +of his pocket lantern in the tunnel, to palm off a counterfeit bill in +settlement of the debt. This may have led to a blow, or more likely +only to an argument during which a bomb was dropped and exploded, +followed quickly by the other explosion. Dead hand, counterfeit bill +and ring were flung whimsically to the surface of the earth together, +and the leaning rocks had been astonishingly broken from beneath +through this trivial quarrel. Had it not been for this squabble the +Jasper B. and all on board must have been destroyed. Verily, the minds +of wicked men compass their own downfall, and retribution can sometimes +be an artist. + +But Cleggett, as he crawled forward through the darkness and the damp, +thought little of these things that had so mystified him at the time. +He was alert for what the immediate future might hold, not doubting +that Loge had retreated to the tunnel. He had too strong a sense of +the man's powerful and iniquitous personality to suppose that Loge +would kill himself while one chance remained, however remote, of +injuring his enemies. Loge was the kind of dog that dies biting. + +Suddenly, after pressing forward for several minutes, he ran against an +obstruction. The tunnel seemed to come to an end. He did not dare +show his light. But he felt with his hands. It was rock that blocked +his way. Cleggett understood that this barrier was the result of the +explosion. Groping and exploring with his hands, he found that the +passage turned sharply to the left. It was more narrow and curving, +for the distance of a few yards, and the earth beneath was fresher. +When the tunnel had been blocked by the explosion, Loge and his men had +burrowed around the obstruction. + +Cleggett judged that he must be at about the middle of the tunnel. He +felt the more solid earth beneath his hands again, and knew that he had +passed the rock. The passage now descended deeper into the ground, +slanting steeply downward. This incline was twenty feet in length; +then the floor became horizontal again on the lower level. At the same +time the passage widened. Cleggett stretched one arm out, then the +other; he could not touch the wall on either hand. He stood erect and +held his hand up; the roof was six inches above his head. He was in a +room of some sort. Wishing, if possible, to learn the extent of this +subterranean chamber, which he did not doubt had at one time been used +as a cave and storehouse of smugglers, Cleggett began to sidle around +walls, feeling his way with his hands. + +He dislodged a pebble. It rolled to the ground with what was really a +slight sound. + +But to Cleggett, who had been getting more and more excited, it was +loud as an avalanche. He stopped and held his breath; he fancied that +he had heard another noise besides the one which his pebble made. But +he could not be sure. + +The sensation that he was not alone suddenly gripped him with +overwhelming force. His heart began to beat more quickly; the blood +drummed in his ears. Nevertheless, he kept his head. He took his +pocket lantern in his left hand, and his pistol in his right, and +leaned with his back against the wall. He listened. He heard nothing. + +But the eerie feeling that he was watched grew upon him. Presently he +fancied that the darkness began to vibrate, as if an electrical current +of some sort were being passed through it, and it might forthwith burst +into light. Cleggett, as we know, was not easily frightened. But now +he was possessed of a strange feeling, akin to terror, but which was at +the same time not any terror of physical injury. He did not fear Loge; +in dark or daylight he was ready to grapple with him and fight it out; +nevertheless he feared. That he could not say what he feared only +increased his fear. + +Children say they are "afraid of the dark." It is not the dark which +they are afraid of. It is the bodiless presences which they imagine in +the dark. It was so with Cleggett now. He was not daunted by anything +that could strike a blow. But the sense of a personality began to +encompass him. It pressed in upon him, played upon him, embraced him; +his flesh tingled as if he were being brushed; he felt his hair stir. +One recognizes a flower by its odor. So a soul flings off, in some +inexplicable way, the sense of itself. This force that laid itself +upon Cleggett and flowed around him had an individuality without a +body. Not through his senses, but psychically, he recognized it; it +was the hateful and sinister individuality of Loge. + +With choking throat and dry lips Cleggett stood and suffered beneath +the smothering presence of this terror while the slow seconds mounted +to an intolerable minute; then there burst from him an uncontrollable +shout. + +"Loge!" he roared, and the cavern rang. + +And with the word he pressed the button of his electric pocket lamp and +shot a beam of light straight in front of him. It fell upon the +yellowish brow and the wide, unwinking eyes of Loge. The eyes stared +straight at Cleggett's own from across the cave, thirty feet away. +Loge's teeth were bared in his malevolent grimace; his head was bent +forward; he sat upon a rock. Cleggett, unable to withdraw his eyes, +waited for Loge's first movement. The man made no sign. Cleggett +slowly raised his pistol.... + +But he did not fire. The open, staring eyes, unchanging at the menace +of the lifted pistol, told the story. Loge was dead. Cleggett crossed +over and examined him. Clutched on his knees was a bomb. He had been +wounded by Barnstable's last shot, but he had crawled through the +tunnel with a bomb for a final attempt on the Jasper B. His strength +had failed; he had rested upon the rock and bled to death. + +As for his last thought, Cleggett had felt it. Loge had died hating and +lusting for his blood. + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +CLEGGETT ACCOMMODATES THE KING + +There was a wedding next day on the deck of the Jasper B. The Rev. +Simeon Calthrop performed the ceremony, and Wilton Barnstable insisted +upon lending his vessel for a bridal cruise. Washington Artillery Lamb, +engineer, janitor, cook and butler of the Annabel Lee, went with the +vessel. + +As for the Jasper B., although his wife urged him to keep the ship for +the sake of old associations, Cleggett had the hole in its side built +in and gave it to the Rev. Simeon Calthrop for a gospel ship. George +the Greek, who married Miss Medley, shipped with the preacher in his +cruise around the world, and he and his wife eventually reached Greece, +as he had originally intended. Elmer went with the Rev. Mr. Calthrop to +assist him in his missionary work. + +But it was some time before the Jasper B. sailed. Besides the hole +which was the entrance to the tunnel it was discovered that the vessel +rested on a brick foundation. The man who had used her for a saloon +and dancing platform in years past had dug away part of the bank of the +canal to fit the curve of her starboard side and had then jammed her +tight into the land. Even then she would move a trifle at times, so he +had built a dam around her, pumped the water out of the inclosed space, +jacked the hulk up, built the brick foundation, and let her down +solidly on it again. + +With the dam removed the water covered this masonry work, and she +looked quite like a real ship. Mr. Goldberg had known about this +foundation, but he had forgotten it, he explained to Cleggett. + +The Rev. Mr. Calthrop fitted her out as a floating chapel and filled +her with Bibles printed in all languages, which he distributes in many +lands. When his fatal attractiveness for women threatens to involve +him in trouble he hastily puts to sea. He has never become a really +accomplished sailor, and the Jasper B. is something of a menace to +navigation in the ports and harbors of the world. The suggestion has +frequently been made that she should be set ashore permanently and put +on wheels. But she has her features. She is, possibly, the only ship +extant with a memorial skylight to her cabin. Cleggett wished her to +carry some sort of memorial to the faithful Teddy, the Pomeranian dog, +who perished of a stray shot in the fight at Morris's. And as a +memorial window did not seem feasible a compromise was made on the +memorial skylight. The glass is by Tiffany. + +Dopey Eddie and Izzy the Cat, still followed by Reginald Maltravers, +made their way to Brooklyn, where all three were arrested and lodged in +the observation ward of the Kings County Hospital on the suspicion that +they were insane. The two gunmen were able to get free through +political influence, but Maltravers was sent to England. He was +maintained for some time in a private institution through the +generosity of the Cleggetts, but finally went on a hunger strike and +died. + +Wilton Barnstable smiles and prospers. He gained great additional fame +for his clever work in the Case of Logan Black. + +Cleggett, in 1925, was the father of four boys named D'Artagnan, Athos, +Porthos, and Aramis Cleggett; and the owner of the Claiborne estates. + +He is now immensely wealthy. It never would have occurred to him, +perhaps, to attempt to increase his modest fortune of $500,000 by +speculating on the Stock Exchange, had it not been for a fortunate +meeting with a barber in Nassau Street. + +This barber, whose Christian name was Walter, was, indeed, a mine of +suggestion and information of all sorts. And being a good-natured +fellow, who wished the world well, Walter delighted to impart his +original ideas and the fruits of his observation to his patrons while +shaving them. Some of these received his remarks coldly, it is true, +but Walter was so charged with a sense of friendliness towards all +mankind that he was never daunted for long by a rebuff. + +His interests were wide and varied; Walter found no difficulty in +talking pleasantly upon any subject; he could touch it lightly, or deal +with it in a more serious vein, as the mood of his customer seemed to +require; and he had the art of making deft and rapid transitions from +topic to topic. But there were two things in particular concerning +which Walter had thought deeply: racehorses and the stock market. + +It was the settled grief of Walter's life that he had never been able +to persuade any person with money to take his advice concerning the +races, or follow any of the dazzling stock market campaigns which he +was forever outlining. + +"They listen to me," said Walter, a little wistfully, but with a brave +smile, "or else they do not listen--but no one has ever yet taken my +advice! Do you wet your hair when you part it, sir?" + +"What," said Cleggett, carefully concealing from Walter the fact that +he spoke of himself, "would be your advice to a man with $100,000 who +wished to double it in a few weeks?" + +"Double it!" cried Walter. "Why, I could show such a person how to +multiply it by ten inside of two months." And he rapidly outlined to +Cleggett a scheme so audacious and so brilliant that it fairly took our +hero's breath away. Moreover, it stood the test of reflection; it was +sound. Not to descend to the sordid details, in three weeks Cleggett +found himself possessed of a million dollars' gain. Half of this he +gave to the excellent Walter, and in three months ran the other half +million up to twenty millions. + +Then he withdrew permanently from business, as Lady Agatha complained +that it took too much of his time; moreover, he shrank from notoriety, +which his stock market operations were beginning to bring upon him. + +Giuseppe Jones, who recovered of his wounds, forswore anarchy and +became a newspaper reporter, and grew to be a fast friend of Cleggett, +who discovered that he was a lad of parts. Cleggett eventually made +him president of a college of journalism which he founded. While he +was establishing the institution the man Wharton, his old managing +editor, broken, shattered, out of work, and a hopeless drunkard, came +to him and begged for a position. The man had sunk so low that he was +repeatedly arrested for pretending to be blind on the street corners, +and had debauched an innocent dog to assist in this deception. +Cleggett forgave him the slights of many years and made him an +assistant janitor in the new college of journalism. + +The post is a sinecure, and well within even the man Wharton's powers. + +Cap'n Abernethy travels with the Cleggetts a great deal, under the +hallucination, which they humor, that he is of service to them. The +children are very fond of him. At Claiborne Castle Cleggett has had a +shallow lake constructed for him. There the Captain, still firm in the +belief that he is a sailor, loves to potter about with catboats and +rafts. + +Dr. Farnsworth enjoys a lucrative position as physician to the Cleggett +family, and Kuroki is their butler. + +By 1925 the prejudice against militants had abated in certain exalted +circles in England, and Lady Agatha Cleggett and her husband were much +at court. + +Cleggett, hating notoriety, had endeavored to conceal the story of his +adventures along the dangerous coasts of Long Island; but concealment +was impossible. After the death of the old Earl of Claiborne, and the +demise of Reginald Maltravers, and Cleggett's purchase of the Claiborne +estate, the King wished Cleggett to take the title of Earl of Claiborne. + +His Majesty sent the Premier to sound Cleggett upon the matter. + +"No, no," said Cleggett affably. "I couldn't think of it. I am quite +democratic, you know." + +The second time the King sent one of the Royal Dukes to see Cleggett. +They were at a house party in Wales, and Cleggett was a little +disturbed that this business affair should be brought up at a gathering +so distinctly social in its nature. He was too tactful to let it be +seen, but secretly he felt that in approaching the matter in that +fashion the Duke had erred in taste. + +"But we need men like you in the House of Lords," pleaded the Duke. + +"I cannot think of it," said Cleggett. And then, not wishing to hurt +the Englishman's feelings, he said kindly: "But I will promise you +this: if I should change my mind and decide to become a member of any +aristocracy at all, it will be the English aristocracy." + +The Duke thanked Cleggett for the compliment; and Cleggett thought he +had heard the end of it. + +He was, therefore, surprised, a few weeks later, as he was conversing +with the King at Buckingham Palace, when His Majesty himself, laying +his hand familiarly on Cleggett's shoulder, renewed the petition in +person. It is hard to refuse things continually without seeming +unappreciative. In fact, Cleggett felt trapped; if the truth must be +known, he was a little angry. + +"Come, come, Cleggett," said the King, "lay aside your prejudices and +oblige me. After all, it is not the sort of thing I run about offering +to every American in London!" + +"Your Majesty," said Cleggett, politely but with a note of firmness and +finality in his voice, "since you mention the word American you force +me to speak plainly. I would not willingly wound your sensibilities in +any particular, but--pardon me if I am direct--you have been very +persistent. I AM an American, your Majesty, and I consider the honor +of being an American citizen far above any that it is within your power +to bestow. If I have not mentioned this before, it was because I did +not wish to hurt you. I hope our friendship will not cease, but I must +tell you flatly that I desire to hear no more of this. You will oblige +me by not mentioning it again, Your Majesty." + +The King begged Cleggett's pardon with a becoming sincerity, and was +about to withdraw. Cleggett, who liked him immensely, was sudden +smitten with a regret that it had been so impossible to oblige him. + +"Your Majesty," he cried impulsively, "I BEG of you not to get the idea +that there is anything personal in this refusal." + +"I respect principle," said the King gravely. But he WAS hurt and +could not help showing it, and he was a little stiff. + +"We will compromise," said Cleggett, with a flash of inspiration. + +"I will let you have my second son, Athos Cleggett. You may make him +Earl of Claiborne, if you choose. After all, HE is half English!" + +"That is like your generosity, Cleggett," said the King, smiling, and +giving Cleggett his hand. + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Cruise of the Jasper B., by Don Marquis + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CRUISE OF THE JASPER B. *** + +***** This file should be named 716.txt or 716.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/7/1/716/ + +Produced by John Gidusko. HTML version by Al Haines. + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Cleggett walked sedately +into the news room of the New York Enterprise with a drab-colored +walking-stick in his hand. He stood the cane in a corner, +changed his sober street coat for a more sober office jacket, +adjusted a green eyeshade below his primly brushed grayish hair, +unostentatiously sat down at the copy desk, and unobtrusively +opened a drawer. + +From the drawer he took a can of tobacco, a pipe, a pair of +scissors, a paste-pot and brush, a pile of copy paper, a penknife +and three half-lengths of lead pencil. + +The can of tobacco was not remarkable. The pipe was not +picturesque. The scissors were the most ordinary of scissors. +The copy paper was quite undistinguished in appearance. The lead +pencils had the most untemperamental looking points. + +Cleggett himself, as he filled and lighted the pipe, did it in +the most matter-of-fact sort of way. Then he remarked to the head +of the copy desk, in an average kind of voice: + +"H'lo, Jim." + +"H'lo, Clegg," said Jim, without looking up. "Might as well begin +on this bunch of early copy, I guess." + +For more than ten years Cleggett had done the same thing at the +same time in the same manner, six nights of the week. + +What he did on the seventh night no one ever thought to inquire. +If any member of the Enterprise staff had speculated about it at +all he would have assumed that Cleggett spent that seventh +evening in some way essentially commonplace, sober, unemotional, +quiet, colorless, dull and Brooklynitish. + +Cleggett lived in Brooklyn. The superficial observer might have +said that Cleggett and Brooklyn were made for each other. + +The superficial observer! How many there are of him! And how +much he misses! He misses, in fact, everything. + +At two o'clock in the morning a telegraph operator approached the +copy desk and handed Cleggett a sheet of yellow paper, with the +remark: + +"Cleggett--personal wire." + +It was a night letter, and glancing at the signature Cleggett saw +that it was from his brother who lived in Boston. It ran: + +Uncle Tom died yesterday. Don't faint now. +He splits bulk fortune between you and me. +Lawyers figure nearly $500,000 each. Mostly +easily negotiable securities. New will made +month ago while sore at president temperance +outfit. Blood thicker than Apollinaris after all. +Poor Uncle Tom. + + Edward. + +Despite Edward's thoughtful warning, Cleggett did nearly faint. +Nothing could have been less expected. Uncle Tom was an +irascible prohibitionist, and one of the most deliberately +disobliging men on earth. Cleggett and his brother had long +ceased to expect anything from him. For twenty years it had been +thoroughly understood that Uncle Tom would leave his entire +estate to a temperance society. Cleggett had ceased to think of +Uncle Tom as a possible factor in his life. He did not doubt +that Uncle Tom had changed the will to gain some point with the +officials of the temperance society, intending to change it once +again after he had been deferred to, cajoled, and flattered +enough to placate his vanity. But death had stepped in just in +time to disinherit the enemies of the Demon Rum. + +Cleggett read the wire through twice, and then folded it and put +it into his pocket. He rose and walked toward the managing +editor's room. As he stepped across the floor there was a little +dancing light in his eyes, there was a faint smile upon his lips, +that were quite foreign to the staid and sober Cleggett that the +world knew. He was quiet, but he was almost jaunty, too; he felt +a little drunk, and enjoyed the feeling. + +He opened the managing editor's door with more assurance than he +had ever displayed before. The managing editor, a pompous, tall, +thin man with a drooping frosty mustache, and cold gray eyes in a +cold gray face that somehow reminded one of the visage of a +walrus, was preparing to go home. + +"Well?" he said, shortly. + +He was a man for whom Cleggett had long felt a secret antipathy. +The man was, in short, the petty tyrant of Cleggett's little +world. + +"Can you spare me a couple of minutes, Mr. Wharton?" said +Cleggett. But he did not say it with the air of a person who +really sues for a hearing. + +"Yes, yes--go on." Mr. Wharton, who had risen from his chair, +sat down again. He was distinctly annoyed. He was ungracious. +He was usually ungracious with Cleggett. His face set itself in +the expression it always took when he declined to consider +raising a man's salary. Cleggett, who had been refused a raise +regularly every three months for the past two years, was familiar +with the look. + +"Go on, go on--what is it?" asked Mr. Wharton unpleasantly, +frowning and stroking the frosty mustache, first one side and +then the other. + +"I just stepped in to tell you," said Cleggett quietly, "that I +don't think much of the way you are running the Enterprise." + +Wharton stopped stroking his mustache so quickly and so amazedly +that one might have thought he had run into a thorn amongst the +hirsute growth and pricked a finger. He glared. He opened his +mouth. But before he could speak Cleggett went on: + +"Three years ago I made a number of suggestions to you. You +treated me contemptuously--very contemptuously!" + +Cleggett paused and drew a long breath, and his face became quite +red. It was as if the anger in which he could not afford to +indulge himself three years before was now working in him with +cumulative effect. Wharton, only partially recovered from the +shock of Cleggett's sudden arraignment, began to stammer and +bluster, using the words nearest his tongue: + +"You d-damned im-p-pertinent------" + +"Just a moment," Cleggett interrupted, growing visibly angrier, +and seeming to enjoy his anger more and more. "Just a word more. + +I had intended to conclude my remarks by telling you that my +contempt for YOU, personally, is unbounded. It is boundless, +sir! But since you have sworn at me, I am forced to conclude +this interview in another fashion." + +And with a gesture which was not devoid of dignity Cleggett drew +from an upper waistcoat pocket a card and flung it on Wharton's +desk. After which he stepped back and made a formal bow. + +Wharton looked at the card. Bewilderment almost chased the anger +from his face. + +"Eh," he said, "what's this?" + +"My card, sir! A friend will wait on you tomorrow!" + +"Tomorrow? A friend? What for?" + +Cleggett folded his arms and regarded the managing editor with a +touch of the supercilious in his manner. + +"If you were a gentleman," he said, "you would have no difficulty +in understanding these things. I have just done you the honor of +challenging you to a duel." + +Mr. Wharton's mouth opened as if he were about to explode in a +roar of incredulous laughter. But meeting Cleggett's eyes, which +were, indeed, sparkling with a most remarkable light, his jaw +dropped, and he turned slightly pale. He rose from his chair and +put the desk between himself and Cleggett, picking up as he did +so a long pair of shears. + +"Put down the scissors," said Cleggett, with a wave of his hand. +"I do not propose to attack you now." + +And he turned and left the managing editor's little office, +closing the door behind him. + +The managing editor tiptoed over to the door and, with the +scissors still grasped in one hand, opened it about a quarter of +an inch. Through this crack Wharton saw Cleggett walk jauntily +towards the corner where his hat and coat were hanging. Cleggett +took off his worn office jacket, rolled it into a ball, and flung +it into a waste paper basket. He put on his street coat and hat +and picked up the drab-colored cane. Swinging the stick he moved +towards the door into the hall. In the doorway he paused, cocked +his hat a trifle, turned towards the managing editor's door, +raised his hand with his pipe in it with the manner of one who +points a dueling pistol, took careful aim at the second button of +the managing editor's waistcoat, and clucked. At the cluck the +managing editor drew back hastily, as if Cleggett had actually +presented a firearm; Cleggett's manner was so rapt and fatal that +it carried conviction. Then Cleggett laughed, cocked his hat on +the other side of his head and went out into the corridor +whistling. Whistling, and, since faults as well as virtues must +be told, swaggering just a little. + +When the managing editor had heard the elevator come up, pause, +and go down again, he went out of his room and said to the city +editor: + +"Mr. Herbert, don't ever let that man Cleggett into this office +again. He is off--off mentally. He's a dangerous man. He's a +homicidal maniac. More'n likely he's been a quiet, steady drinker +for years, and now it's begun to show on him." + +But nothing was further from Cleggett than the wish ever to go +into the Enterprise office again. As he left the elevator on the +ground floor he stabbed the astonished elevator boy under the +left arm with his cane as a bayonet, cut him harmlessly over the +head with his cane as a saber, tossed him a dollar, and left the +building humming: + +"Oh, the Beau Sabreur of the Grande Armee +Was the Captain Tarjeanterre!" + +It is thus, with a single twitch of her playful fingers, that +Fate will sometimes pluck from a man the mask that has obscured +his real identity for many years. It is thus that Destiny will +suddenly draw a bright blade from a rusty scabbard! + + +CHAPTER II + +THE ROOM OF ILLUSION + +That part of Brooklyn in which Cleggett lived overlooks a wide +sweep of water where the East River merges with New York Bay. +From his windows he could gaze out upon the bustling harbor craft +and see the ships going forth to the great mysterious sea. + +He walked home across the Brooklyn Bridge, and as he walked he +still hummed tunes. Occasionally, still with the rapt and fatal +manner which had daunted the managing editor, he would pause and +flex his wrist, and then suddenly deliver a ferocious thrust with +his walking-stick. + +The fifth of these lunges had an unexpected result. Cleggett +directed it toward the door of an unpainted toolhouse, a +temporary structure near one of the immense stone pillars from +which the bridge is swung. But, as he lunged, the toolhouse door +opened, and a policeman, who was coming out wiping his mouth on +the back of his hand, received a jab in the pit of a somewhat +protuberant stomach. + +The officer grunted and stepped backward; then he came on, +raising his night-stick. + +"Why, it's--it's McCarthy!" exclaimed Cleggett, who had also +sprung back, as the light fell on the other's face. + +"Mr. Cleggett, by the powers!" said the officer, pausing and +lowering his lifted club. "Are ye soused, man? Or is it your +way of sayin' good avenin' to your frinds?" + +Cleggett smiled. He had first known McCarthy years before when +he was a reporter, and more recently had renewed the acquaintance +in his walks across the bridge. + +"I didn't know you were there, McCarthy," he said. + +"No?" said the officer. "And who were ye jabbin' at, thin?" + +"I was just limbering up my wrist," said Cleggett. + +"'Tis a quare thing to do," persisted McCarthy, albeit +good-humoredly. "And now I mind I've seen ye do the same before, +Mr. Cleggett. You're foriver grinnin' to yersilf an' makin' thim +funny jabs at nothin' as ye cross the bridge. Are ye subjict to +stiffness in the wrists, Mr. Cleggett?" + +"Perhaps it's writer's cramp," said Cleggett, indulging the +pleasant humor that was on him. He was really thinking that, with +$500,000 of his own, he had written his last headline, edited his +last piece of copy, sharpened his last pencil. + +"Writer's cramp? Is it so?" mused McCarthy. "Newspapers is great +things, ain't they now? And so's writin' and readin'. Gr-r-reat +things! But if ye'll take my advise, Mr. Cleggett, ye'll kape +that writin' and readin' within bounds. Too much av thim rots +the brains." + +"I'll remember that," said Cleggett. And he playfully jabbed the +officer again as he turned away. + +"G'wan wid ye!" protested McCarthy. "Ye're soused! The scent av +it's in the air. If I'm compilled to run yez in f'r assaultin' +an officer ye'll get the cramps out av thim wrists breakin' +stone, maybe. Cr-r-r-amps, indade!" + +Cramps, indeed! Oh, Clement J. Cleggett, you liar! And yet, who +does not lie in order to veil his inmost, sweetest thoughts from +an unsympathetic world? + +That was not an ordinary jab with an ordinary cane which Cleggett +had directed towards the toolhouse door. It was a thrust en +carte; the thrust of a brilliant swordsman; the thrust of a +master; a terrible thrust. It was meant for as pernicious a +bravo as ever infested the pages of romantic fiction. Cleggett +had been slaying these gentry a dozen times a day for years. He +had pinked four of them on the way across the bridge, before +McCarthy, with his stomach and his realism, stopped the lunge +intended for the fifth. But this is not exactly the sort of +thing one finds it easy to confide to a policeman, be he ever so +friendly a policeman. + +Cleggett--Old Clegg, the copyreader--Clegg, the commonplace--C. +J. Cleggett, the Brooklynite-this person whom young reporters +conceived of as the staid, dry prophet of the dusty Fact--was +secretly a mighty reservoir of unwritten, unacted, unlived, +unspoken romance. He ate it, he drank it, he breathed it, he +dreamed it. The usual copyreader, when he closes his eyes and +smiles upon a pleasant inward vision, is thinking of starting a +chicken-farm in New Jersey. But Cleggett--with gray sprinkled in +his hair, sober of face and precise of manner, as the world knew +him--lived a hidden life which was one long, wild adventure. + +Nobody had ever suspected it. But his room might have given to +the discerning a clue to the real man behind the mask which he +assumed--which he had been forced to assume in order to earn a +living. When he reached the apartment, a few minutes after his +encounter on the bridge, and switched the electric light on, the +gleams fell upon an astonishing clutter of books and arms. . . . + +Stevenson, cavalry sabers, W. Clark Russell, pistols, and Dumas; +Jack London, poignards, bowie knives, Stanley Weyman, Captain +Marryat, and Dumas; sword canes, Scottish claymores, Cuban +machetes, Conan Doyle, Harrison Ainsworth, dress swords, and +Dumas; stilettos, daggers, hunting knives, Fenimore Cooper, G. P. +R. James, broadswords, Dumas; Gustave Aimard, Rudyard Kipling, +dueling swords, Dumas; F. Du Boisgobey, Malay krises, Walter +Scott, stick pistols, scimitars, Anthony Hope, single sticks, +foils, Dumas; jungles of arms, jumbles of books; arms of all +makes and periods; arms on the walls, in the corners, over the +fireplace, leaning against the bookshelves, lying in ambush under +the bed, peeping out of the wardrobe, propping the windows open, +serving as paper weights; pictures, warlike and romantic prints +and engravings, pinned to the walls with daggers; in the +wardrobe, coats and hats hanging from poignards and stilettos +thrust into the wood instead of from nails or hooks. But of all +the weapons it was the rapiers, of all the books it was Dumas, +that he loved. There was Dumas in French, Dumas in English, +Dumas with pictures, Dumas unillustrated, Dumas in cloth, Dumas +in leather, Dumas in boards, Dumas in paper covers. Cleggett had +been twenty years getting these arms and books together; often he +had gone without a dinner in order to make a payment on some +blade he fancied. And each weapon was also a book to him; he +sensed their stories as he handled them; he felt the +personalities of their former owners stirring in him when he +picked them up. It was in that room that he dreamed; which is to +say, it was in that room that he lived his real life. + +Cleggett walked over to his writing desk and pulled out a bulky +manuscript. It was his own work. Is it necessary to hint that +it was a tale essentially romantic in character? + +He flung it into the grate and set fire to it. It represented +the labor of two years, but as he watched it burn, stirring the +sheets now and then so the flames would catch them more readily, +he smiled, unvisited by even the most shadowy second thought of +regret. + +For why the deuce should a man with $500,000 in his pocket write +romances? Why should anyone write anything who is free to live? +For the first time in his existence Cleggett was free. + +He picked up a sword. It was one of his favorite rapiers. +Sometimes people came out of the books--sometimes shadowy forms +came back to claim the weapons that had been theirs--and Cleggett +fought them. There was not an unscarred piece of furniture in +the place. He bent the flexible blade in his hands, tried the +point of it, formally saluted, brought the weapon to parade, +dallied with his imaginary opponent's sword for an instant. . . . + +It seemed as if one of those terrible, but brilliant, duels, with +which that room was so familiar, was about to be enacted. . . . +But he laid the rapier down. After all, the rapier is scarcely a +thing of this century. Cleggett, for the first time, felt a +little impatient with the rapier. It is all very well to DREAM +with a rapier. But now, he was free; reality was before him; the +world of actual adventure called. He had but to choose! + +He considered. He tried to look into that bright, adventurous +future. Presently he went to the window, and gazed out. Tides +of night and mystery, flooding in from the farther, dark, +mysterious ocean, all but submerged lower Manhattan; high and +beautiful above these waves of shadow, triumphing over them and +accentuating them, shone a star from the top of the Woolworth +building; flecks of light indicated the noble curve of that great +bridge which soars like a song in stone and steel above the +shifting waters; the river itself was dotted here and there with +moving lights; it was a nocturne waiting for its Whistler; here +sea and city met in glamour and beauty and illusion. + +But it was not the city which called to Cleggett. It was the sea. + +A breeze blew in from the bay and stirred his window curtains; it +was salt in his nostrils. . . .And, staring out into the +breathing night, he saw a succession of pictures. . . . + +Stripped to a pair of cotton trousers, with a dripping cutlass in +one hand and a Colt's revolver in the other, an adventurer at the +head of a bunch of dogs as desperate as himself fought his way +across the reeking decks of a Chinese junk, to close in single +combat with a gigantic one-eyed pirate who stood by the helm with +a ring of dead men about him and a great two-handed sword +upheaved. . . . This adventurer was--Clement J. Cleggett! . . . + +Through the phosphorescent waters of a summer sea, reckless of +cruising sharks, a sailor's clasp knife in his teeth, glided +noiselessly a strong swimmer; he reached the side of a schooner +yacht from which rose the wild cries of beauty in distress, +swarmed aboard with a muttered prayer that was half a curse, +swept the water from his eyes, and with pale, stern face went +about the bloody business of a hero. . . . Again, this +adventurer was Clement J. Cleggett! + +Cleggett turned from the window. + +"I'll do it," he cried. "I'll do it!" + +He grasped a cutlass. + +"Pirates!" he cried, swinging it about his head. "That's the +thing--pirates and the China Seas!" + +And with one frightful sweep of his blade he disemboweled a sofa +cushion; the second blow clove his typewriting machine clean to +the tattoo marks upon its breast; the third decapitated a +sectional bookcase. + +But what is a sectional bookcase to a man with $500,000 in his +pocket and the Seven Seas before him? + + +CHAPTER III + +A SCHOONER, A SKIPPER, AND A SKULL + +It was a few days later, when a goodly number of the late Uncle +Tom's easily negotiable securities had been converted into cash, +and the cash deposited in the bank, that Cleggett bought the +Jasper B. + +He discovered her near the town of Fairport, Long Island, one +afternoon. The vessel lay in one of the canals which reach +inward from the Great South Bay. She looked as if she might have +been there for some time. Evidently, at one period, the Jasper +B. had played a part in some catch-coin scheme of summer +entertainment; a scheme that had failed. Little trace of it +remained except a rotting wooden platform, roofless and built +close to the canal, and a gangway arrangement from this platform +to the deck of the vessel. + +The Jasper B. had seen better days; even a landsman could tell +that. But from the blunt bows to the weather-scarred stern, on +which the name was faintly discernible, the hulk had an air about +it, the air of something that has lived; it was eloquent of a +varied and interesting past. + +And, to complete the picture, there sat on her deck a gnarled and +brown old man. He smoked a short pipe which was partially hidden +in a tangle of beard that had once been yellowish red but was now +streaked with dirty white; he fished earnestly without apparent +result, and from time to time he spat into the water. Cleggett's +nimble fancy at once put rings into his ears and dowered him with +a history. + +Cleggett noticed, as he walked aboard the vessel, that she seemed +to be jammed not merely against, but into the bank of the canal. +She was nearer the shore than he had ever seen a vessel of any +sort. Some weeds grew in soil that had lodged upon the deck; in +a couple of places they sprang as high as the rail. Weeds grew +on shore; in fact, it would have taken a better nautical +authority than Cleggett to tell offhand just exactly where the +land ended and the Jasper B. began. She seemed to be possessed +of an odd stability; although the tide was receding the Jasper B. +was not perceptibly agitated by the motion of the water. Of +anchor, or mooring chains or cables of any sort, there was no +sign. + +The brown old man--he was brown not only as to the portions of +his skin visible through his hair and whiskers, but also as to +coat and trousers and worn boots and cap and pipe and flannel +shirt--turned around as Cleggett stepped aboard, and stared at +the invader with a shaggy-browed intensity that was embarrassing. + +It occurred to Cleggett that the old man might own the vessel and +make a home of her. + +"I beg your pardon if I am intruding," ventured Cleggett, +politely, "but do you live here?" + +The brown old man made an indeterminate motion of his head, +without otherwise replying at once. Then he took a cake of dark, +hard-looking tobacco from the starboard pocket of his trousers +and a clasp knife from the port side. He shaved off a fresh +pipeful, rolled it in his palms, knocked the old ash from his +pipe, refilled and relighted it, all with the utmost +deliberation. Then he cut another small piece of tobacco from +the "plug" and popped it into his mouth. Cleggett perceived with +surprise that he smoked and chewed tobacco at the same time. As +he thus refreshed himself he glanced from time to time at +Cleggett as if unfavorably impressed. Finally he closed his +knife with a click and suddenly piped out in a high, shrill +voice: + +"No! Do you?" + +"I--er--do I what?" It had taken the old man so long to answer +that Cleggett had forgotten his own question, and the shrill +fierceness of the voice was disconcerting. + +He regarded Cleggett contemptuously, spat on the deck, and then +demanded truculently: + +"D'ye want to buy any seed potatoes?" + +"Why--er, no," said Cleggett. + +"Humph!" said the brown one, with the air of meaning that it was +only to be expected of an idiot like Cleggett that he would NOT +want to buy any seed potatoes. But after a further embarrassing +silence he relented enough to give Cleggett another chance. + +"You want some seed corn!" he announced rather than asked. + +"No. I------" + +"Tomato plants!" shrilled the brown one, as if daring him to deny +it. + +"No." + +He turned his back on Cleggett, as if he had lost interest, and +began to wind up his fishing line on a squeaky reel. + +"Who owns this boat?" Cleggett touched him on the elbow. + +"Thinkin' of buyin' her?" + +"Perhaps. Who owns her?" + +"What would you do with her?" + +"I might fix her up and sail her. Who owns her?" + +"She'll take a sight o' fixin'." + +"No doubt. Who did you say owned her?" + +The old man, who had finished with the rusty reel, deigned to +look at Cleggett again. + +"Dunno as I said." + +"But who DOES own her?" + +"She's stuck fast in the mud and her rudder's gone." + +"I see you know a lot about ships," said Cleggett, deferentially, +giving up the attempt to find out who owned her. "I picked you +out for an old sailor the minute I saw you." He thought he +detected a kindlier gleam in the old man's eye as that person +listened to these words. + +"The' ain't a stick in her," said the ancient fisherman. "She's +got no wheel and she's got no nothin'. She used to be used as a +kind of a barroom and dancin' platform till the fellow that used +her for such went out o' business." + +He paused, and then added: + +"What might your name be?" + +"Cleggett." + +He appeared to reflect on the name. But he said: + +"If you was to ask me, I'd say her timbers is sound." + +"Tell me," said Cleggett, "was she a deep-water ship? Could a +ship like her sail around the world, for instance? I can tell +that you know all about ships." + +Something like a grin of gratified vanity began to show on the +brown one's features. He leaned back against the rail and looked +at Cleggett with the dawn of approval in his eyes. + +"My name's Abernethy," he suddenly volunteered. "Isaiah +Abernethy. The fellow that owns her is Goldberg. Abraham +Goldberg. Real estate man." + +"Cleggett began to get an insight into Mr. Abernethy's peculiar +ideas concerning conversation. A native spirit of independence +prevented Mr. Abernethy from dealing with an interlocutor's +remarks in the sequence that seemed to be desired by the +interlocutor. He took a selection of utterances into his mind, +rolled them over together, and replied in accordance with some +esoteric system of his own. + +"Where is Mr. Goldberg's office?" asked Cleggett. + +"You've come to the proper party to get set right about ships," +said Mr. Abernethy, complacently. "Either you was sent to me by +someone that knows I'm the proper party to set you right about +ships, or else you got an eye in your own head that can recognize +a man that comes of a seafarin' fambly." + +"You ARE an old sailor, then? Maybe you are an old skipper? +Perhaps you're one of the retired Long Island sea captains we're +always hearing so much about?" + +"So fur as sailin' her around the world is concerned," said Mr. +Abernethy, glancing over the hulk, "if she was fixed up she could +be sailed anywheres--anywheres!" + +"What would you call her--a schooner?" + +"This here Goldberg," said Mr. Abernethy, "has his office over +town right accost from the railroad depot." + +And with that he put his fishing pole over his shoulder and +prepared to leave--a tall, strong-looking old man with long legs +and knotty wrists, who moved across the deck with surprising +spryness. At the gangplank he sang out without turning his head: + +"As far as my bein' a skipper's concerned, they's no law agin' +callin' me Cap'n Abernethy if you want to. I come of a seafarin' +fambly." + +He crossed the platform; when he had gone thirty yards further he +stopped, turned around, and shouted: + +"Is she a schooner, hey? You want to know is she a schooner? If +you was askin' me, she ain't NOTHIN' now. But if you was to ask +me again I might say she COULD be schooner-rigged. Lots of boats +IS schooner-rigged." + +There are affinities between atom and atom, between man and +woman, between man and man. There are also affinities between men +and things-if you choose to call a ship, which has a spirit of +its own, merely a thing. There must have been this affinity +between Cleggett and the Jasper B. Only an unusual person would +have thought of buying her. But Cleggett loved her at first +sight. + +Within an hour after he had first seen her he was in Mr. Abraham +Goldberg's office. + +As he was concluding his purchase--Mr. Goldberg having phoned +Cleggett's bankers--he was surprised to discover that he was +buying about half an acre of Long Island real estate along with +her. For that matter he had thought it a little odd in the first +place when he had been directed to a real estate agent as the +owner of the craft. But as he knew very little about business, +and nothing at all about ships, he assumed that perhaps it was +quite the usual thing for real estate dealers to buy and sell +ships abutting on the coast of Long Island. + +"I had only intended to buy the vessel," said Cleggett. "I don't +know that I'll be able to use the land." + +Mr. Goldberg looked at Cleggett with a slight start, as if he +were not sure that he had heard aright, and opened his mouth as +if to say something. But nothing came of it--not just then, at +least. When the last signature had been written, and Clegget's +check had been folded by Mr. Goldberg's plump, bejeweled fingers +and put into Mr. Goldberg's pocketbook, Mr. Goldberg remarked: + +"You say you can't use the ship?" + +"No; the land. I'm surprised to find that the land goes with the +ship." + +"Why, it doesn't," said Mr. Goldberg. "It's the ship that goes +with the land. She was on the land when I bought the plot, and I +just left her there. Nobody's paid any attention to her for +years." + +The words "on the land" grated on Cleggett. + +"You mean on the water, don't you?" + +"In the mud, then," suggested Mr. Goldberg. + +"But she'll sail all right," said Cleggett. + +"I suppose if she was decorated up with sails and things she'd +sail. Figuring on sailing her anywhere in particular?" + +"Subtly irritated, Cleggett answered: "Oh, no, no! Not anywhere +in particular!" + +"Going to live on her this summer?--Outdoor sleeping room, and +all that?" + +"I'm thinking of it." + +"You could turn her into a house boat easy enough. I had a +friend who turned an old barge like that into a house boat and +had a lot of fun with her." + +"Barge?" Cleggett rose and buttoned his coat; the conversation +was somehow growing more and more distasteful to him. "You +wouldn't call the Jasper B. a BARGE, would you?" + +"Well, you wouldn't call her a YACHT, would you?" said Mr. +Goldberg. + +"Perhaps not," admitted Cleggett, "perhaps not. She's more like a +bark than a yacht." + +"A bark? I dunno. Always thought a bark was bigger. A scow's +more her size, ain't it?" + +"Scow?" Cleggett frowned. The Jasper B. a scow! "You mean a +schooner, don't you?" + +"Schooner?" Mr. Goldberg grinned good-naturedly at his departing +customer. "A kind of a schooner-scow, huh?" + +"No, sir, a schooner!" said Cleggett, reddening, and turning in +the doorway. "Understand me, Mr. Goldberg, a schooner, sir! A +schooner!" + +And standing with a frown on his face until every vestige of the +smile had died from Mr. Goldberg's lips, Cleggett repeated once +more: "A schooner, Mr. Goldberg!" + +"Yes, sir--there's no doubt of it--a schooner, Mr. Cleggett," +said Mr. Goldberg, turning pale and backing away from the door. + +The ordinary man inspects a house or a horse first and buys it, +or fails to buy it, afterward; but genius scorns conventions; +Cleggett was not an ordinary man; he often moved straight towards +his object by inspiration; great poets and great adventurers +share this faculty; Cleggett paid for the Jasper B. first and +went back to inspect his purchase later. + +The vessel lay about two miles from the center of Fairport. He +could get within half a mile of it by trolley. Nevertheless, +when he reached the Jasper B. again after leaving Mr. Goldberg it +was getting along towards dusk. + +He first entered the cabin. It was of a good size and divided +into several compartments. But it was in a state of dilapidation +and littered with a jumble of odds and ends which looked like the +ruins of a barroom. As he turned to ascend to the deck again, +after possibly five minutes, intending to take a look at the +forecastle next, he heard the sound of a motor. + +Looking out of the cabin he saw a taxicab approaching the boat +from the direction of Fairport. It was a large machine, but it +was overloaded with seven or eight men. It stopped within twenty +yards of the vessel, and two men got out, one of them evidently a +person who imposed some sort of leadership on the rest of the +party. This was a tall fellow, with a slouching gait and round +shoulders. And yet, to judge from his movements, he was both +quick and powerful. The other was a short, stout man with a +commonplace, broad red face and flaxen hair. The two stood for a +moment in colloquy in the road that led from Fairport proper to +the bayside, passing near the Jasper B., and Cleggett heard the +shorter of the two men say: + +"I'm sure I saw somebody aboard of her." + +"How long ago, Heinrich?" asked the tall man. + +"An hour or so," said Heinrich. + +"It was old man Abernethy; he's harmless," said the tall fellow. +"He's the only person that's been aboard her in years." + +"There was someone else," persisted Heinrich. "Someone who was +talking to Abernethy." + +The tall man mumbled something about having been a fool not to +buy her before this; Cleggett did not catch all of the remark. +Then the tall fellow said: + +"We'll go aboard, Heinrich, and take a look around." + +With that they advanced towards the vessel. Cleggett stepped on +deck from the cabin companionway, and both men stopped short at +the sight of him, Heinrich obviously a trifle confused, but the +other one in no wise abashed. He made no attempt, this tall +fellow, to give the situation a casual turn. What he did was to +stand and stare at Cleggett, candidly, and with more than a touch +of insolence, as if trying to beat down Cleggett's gaze. + +Cleggett, staring in his turn, perceived that the tall man, +ungainly as he was, affected a bizarre individualism in the +matter of dress. His clothing cried out, rather than suggested, +that it was expensive. His feet were cased in button shoes with +fancy tops; his waistcoat, cut in the extreme of style, revealed +that little strip of white which falsely advertises a second +waistcoat beneath, but in his case the strip was too broad. +There were diamonds on the fingers of both powerful hands. But +the thing that grated particularly upon Cleggett was the +character of the man's scarfpin. It was by far the largest +ornament of the sort that Cleggett had ever seen; he was near +enough to the fellow to make out that it had been carved from a +piece of solid ivory in the likeness of a skull. In the eyeholes +of the skull two opals flamed with an evil levin. The man +suggested to Cleggett, at first glance, a bartender who had come +into money, or a drayman who had been promoted to an important +office in a labor union and was spending the most of a +considerable salary on his person. And yet his face, more +closely observed, somehow gave the lie to his clothes, for it was +not lacking in the signs of intelligence. In spite of his taste, +or rather lack of taste, there was no hint of weakness in his +physiognomy. His features were harsh, bold, predatory; a +slightly yellowish tinge about the temples and cheek bones, +suggestive of the ivory ornament, proclaimed a bilious +temperament. + +Cleggett, both puzzled and nettled by the man's persistent gaze, +advanced towards him across the deck of the Jasper B. and down +the gangplank, hand on hip, and called out sharply: + +"Well, my friend, you will know me the next time you see me!" + +The tall man turned without a word and walked back to the +taxicab, the occupants of which had watched this singular duel of +looks in silence. In the act of getting into the machine he face +about again and said, with a lift of the lip that showed two +long, protruding canine teeth of an almost saffron hue: + +"I WILL know you again." + +He spoke with a kind of cold hostility that gave his words all +the effect of a threat. Cleggett felt the blood leap faster +through his veins; he tingled with a fierce, illogical desire to +strike the fellow on the mouth; his soul stirred with a +premonition of conflict, and the desire for it. And yet, on the +surface of things at least, the man had been nothing more than +rude; as Cleggett watched the machine make off towards an +isolated road house on the bayside he wondered at the quick +intensity of his own antipathy. Unconsciously he flexed his +wrist in his characteristic gesture. Scarcely knowing that he +spoke, he murmured: + +"That man gets on my nerves." + +That man was destined to do something more than get on Cleggett's +nerves before the adventures of the Jasper B. were ended. + + +CHAPTER IV + +A BAD MAN TO CROSS + +The isolated road house on the bay was a nondescript, jumbled, +dilapidated-looking assemblage of structures, rather than one +house. It was known simply as Morris's. It stood a few hundred +yards west of the end of the canal which opened into the bay and +was about a quarter of a mile from the Jasper B. + +The canal itself was broad, straight, low-banked, and about +three-quarters of a mile in length. The town had thrown out a +few ranks of cottages in the direction of the canal. But these +were all summer bungalows, occupied only from June until the +middle of September. The solider and more permanent part of +Fairport was well withdrawn from the sandy, sedgy stretches that +bordered on tidewater. + +At the north and inland terminus of the quiet strip of water in +which the Jasper B. reposed was a collection of buildings +including bathhouses, a boathouse, and a sort of shed where "soft +drinks" and sea food were served during the bathing season. This +place was known as Parker's Beach and was open only during the +summer. + +Morris's was of quite a different character from Parker's Beach. +One could bathe at Morris's, but the beach near by was not +particularly good. One could hire boats there and buy bait for a +fishing trip. In one of its phases it made some pretensions to +being a summer hotel. It had an extensive barroom. There was a +dancing floor, none too smooth. There were long verandahs on +three sides. That on the south side was built on piles' people +ate and drank there in the summer; beneath it the water swished +and gurgled when the tide was in. + +The townspeople of Fairport, or the more respectable ones, kept +away from Morris's, summer and winter. Summer transients, +inhabitants of the bungalows during the bathing season, +patronized the place. But most of the patronage at all seasons +seemed to consist of automobile parties from the city; people +apparently drawn from all classes, or eluding definite +classification entirely. In the bleakest season there was always +a little stir of dubious activity about Morris's. In the summer +it impressed you with its look of cheapness. In the winter, +squatted by the cold water amidst its huddle of unpainted +outhouses, at the end of a stretch of desolate beach, the fancy +gave Morris's a touch of the sinister. + +Cleggett was anxious to get the Jasper B. into seaworthy +condition as soon as possible. It occurred to him that the +employment of expert advice should be his first step, and early +the next morning he hired Captain Abernethy. That descendant of +a seafaring family, though he felt it incumbent upon him to offer +objections that had to be overcome with a great show of respect, +was really overjoyed at the commission. He left his own cottage +a mile or so away and took up his abode in the forecastle at +once. By nine o'clock that morning Cleggett had a force of +workmen renovating both cabin and forecastle, putting the cook's +galley into working order, and cleansing the decks of soil and +sand. That night Cleggett spent on the vessel, with Captain +Abernethy. + +By Saturday of the same week--Cleggett had bought the vessel on +Wednesday--he was able to take up his abode in the cabin with his +books and arms about him. To his library he had added a treatise +on navigation. And, reflecting that his firearms were worthless, +considered as modern weapons, he also purchased a score of .44 +caliber Colt's revolvers and automatic pistols of the latest +pattern, and a dozen magazine rifles. + +He brought on board at the same time, for cook and cabin boy, a +Japanese lad, who said he was a sailor, and who called himself +Yoshahira Kuroki, and a Greek, George Stefanopolous. + +The latter was a handsome, rather burly fellow of about thirty, a +man with a kindling eye and a habit of boasting of his ancestors. + +Among them, he declared, was Leonidas, the hero of Thermopylae. +George admitted he was not a sailor, but professed a willingness +to learn, and looked so capable, as he squared his bulky +shoulders and twisted his fine black mustache, that Cleggett +engaged him, taking him immediately from the dairy lunch room in +which he had been employed. George's idea was to work his way +back to Greece, he said, on the Jasper B. If she did not sail +for Greece for some time, George was willing to wait; he was +patient; sometime, no doubt, she would touch the shores of +Greece. + +The hold of the Jasper B. Cleggett and Captain Abernethy found to +be in a chaotic state. Casks, barrels, empty bottles by the +hundred, ruins of benches, tables, chairs, old nondescript pieces +of planking, broken crates and boxes, were flung together there +in moldering confusion. It was evident that after the scheme of +using the Jasper B.'s hulk as one of the attractions of a +pleasure resort had failed, all the debris of the failure had +simply been thrown pell-mell into the hold. Cleggett and Captain +Abernethy decided that the vessel, which was stepped for two +masts, should be rigged as a schooner. The Captain was soon busy +securing estimates on the amount of work that would have to be +done, and the cost of it. The pile of rubbish in the hold, which +filled it to such an extent that Cleggett gave up the attempt to +examine it, was to be removed by the same contractor who put in +the sticks. + +All the activity on board and about the Jasper B. had not gone on +without attracting the attention of Morris's. Cleggett noticed +that there was usually someone in the neighborhood of that +dubious resort cocking an eye in the direction of the vessel. +Indeed, the interest became so pronounced, and seemed of a +quality so different from ordinary frank rustic curiosity, that +it looked very like espionage. It had struck Cleggett that +Morris's seemed at all times to have more than its share of +idlers and hangers-on; men who appeared to make the place their +headquarters and were not to be confused with the occasional +off-season parties from the city. + +On Sunday morning Cleggett was awakened by Captain Abernethy, who +announced: + +"Strange craft lookin' us over mighty close, sir." + +"A strange craft? Where is she?" Cleggett was instantly alert. + +"She's a house boat, if you was to ask me," said the brown old +man--in a new brown suit and with his whiskers newly trimmed he +gave the impression of having been overhauled and freshly +painted. + +"Where is she?" repeated Cleggett, beginning to get into his +clothes. + +"She must 'a' sneaked up an' anchored mighty early this mornin'," +pursued Cap'n Abernethy, true to his conversational principles. + +"Is she in the bay or in the canal?" + +"She looks like a mighty toney kind o' vessel," said Cap'n +Abernethy. "If I was to make a guess I'd say she was one of them +craft that sails herself along when she wants to with one of +these newfangled gasoline engines." + +"She wasn't towed here then?" Cleggett gave up the attempt to +learn from the Captain just where the house boat was. + +"She lies in the canal," said the Cap'n. Having established the +point that he could not be FORCED to tell where she lay, he +volunteered the information as a personal favor from one +gentleman to another. "She lies ahead of us in the canal, a +p'int or so off our port bow, I should say. And if you was to ask +me I'd say she wasn't layin' there for any good purpose." + +"What do you think she's up to? What makes you suspicious of +her?" + +"No, sir, she wasn't towed in," said Cap'n Abernethy, "or I'd 'a' +heard a tug towin' her. Comin' of a seafarin' fambly I'm a light +sleeper by nature." + +Cleggett finished dressing and went on deck. Sure enough, towards +the south end of the canal, three or four hundred yards south of +the Jasper B., and about the same distance east of Morris's, was +anchored a house boat. She was painted a slaty gray color. As +Cleggett looked at her a man stepped up on the deck, and, putting +a binocular glass to his eye, began to study the Jasper B. After +a few minutes of steady scrutiny this person turned his attention +to Morris's. + +Looking towards Morris's himself Cleggett saw a man standing on +the east verandah of that resort intently scanning the house boat +through a glass. Cleggett went into the cabin and got his own +glass. + +Presently the man on Morris's verandah and the man of the house +boat ceased to scrutinize each other and both turned their +glasses upon the Jasper B. But the moment they perceived that +Cleggett was provided with a glass each turned hastily and +entered, the one Morris's place, and the other the cabin of the +house boat. But Cleggett had already recognized the man at +Morris's as the stoop-shouldered man of tall stature and fanciful +dress who had tried to stare him down some days before. + +As for the man on the house boat (which, as Cleggett had made +out, was named the Annabel Lee), there was something vaguely +familiar about his general appearance which puzzled and +tantalized our hero. + +As the morning wore on Cleggett became certain that the Jasper B. +was closely watched by both the Annabel Lee and Morris's, +although the watchers avoided showing themselves plainly. A +slightly agitated blind at a second story window over the +verandah showed him where the tall man or one of his associates +gazed out from Morris's; and from a porthole of the Annabel Lee +he could see a glass thrust forth from time to time. It was +evident to him that the Annabel Lee and Morris's were suspicious +of each other, and that both suspected the Jasper B. But of what +did they suspect Cleggett? What intention did they impute to +him? He could only wonder. + +Through the entire morning he was conscious of the continuance of +this watch. He thought it ceased about luncheon time; but at two +in the afternoon he was certain that, if so, it had been resumed. + +Cleggett, innocent and honorable, began to get impatient of this +persistent scrutiny. And in spite of his courage a vague +uneasiness began to possess him. Towards the end of the +afternoon he called his little company aft and spoke to them. + +"My men," he said, "I do not like the attitude of our neighbors. +To put it briefly, there may be squalls ahead of the Jasper B. +This is a wild and desolate coast, comparatively speaking. +Strange things have happened to innocent people before this along +the shores of Long Island. It is well to be prepared. I intend +to serve out to each of you two hundred cartridges and a .44 +caliber Colt's. In case of an attempt to board, you may find +these cutlasses handy. + +"Cap'n Abernethy, in all nautical matters you will still be in +command of the ship, but in case of a military demonstration, all +of you will look to me for leadership. You may go now and rig up +a jury mast and bend the American colors to the peak--and in case +of blows, may God defend the right! I know I do not need to +exhort you to do your duty!" + +As Cleggett spoke the spirit which animated him seemed to +communicate itself to his listeners. Their eyes kindled and the +keen joy that gallant men always feel in the anticipation of +conflict flushed their faces. + +"I am a son of Leonidas," said George Stefanopolous, proudly. +And he secreted not merely one, but two, of Cleggett's daggers +about his body, in addition to the revolver given him. As George +had already possessed a dagger or two and an automatic pistol, it +was now almost impossible for him to lay his hand casually on any +part of his person without its coming into contact with a deadly +weapon ready for instant use. Cap'n Abernethy picked up a +cutlass, "hefted" it thoughtfully, rolled his sleeve back upon a +lean and sinewy old arm that was tanned until it looked like a +piece of weathered oak, spat upon his hand and whirled the weapon +till it whistled in the air. "I come of a seafarin' fambly," +said the Cap'n, sententiously. + +As for Kuroki, he said nothing. He was not given to speech at +any time. But he picked up a Malay kris and ran his thumb along +the edge of it critically like a man to whom such a weapon is not +altogether unfamiliar. A pleased smile stole over his face; he +handled the wicked knife almost affectionately; he put it down +with a little loving pat. + +"Brave boys," murmured Cleggett, as he watched them. He smiled, +but at the same time something like a tear blurred his eloquent +and magnetic eye for a moment. "Brave boys," he murmured, "we +were made for each other!" + +The display of the American flag by the Jasper B. had an effect +that could not have been foreseen. + +Almost immediately the Annabel Lee herself flung an exactly +similar American flag to the breeze. But a strange thing happened +at Morris's. An American flag was first hung from an upper +window over the east verandah. Then, after a moment, it was +withdrawn. Then a red flag was put out. But almost immediately +Cleggett saw a man rip the red flag from its fastenings and fling +it to the ground. + +Cleggett, resorting to his glass, perceived that it was the tall +man with the stoop shoulders and incongruous clothing who had +torn down the red flag. He was now in violent altercation with +the man who had hung it out--the fellow whom he had called +Heinrich some days before. + +As Cleggett watched, the two men came to blows; then they +clinched and struggled, swaying back and forth within the open +window, like a moving picture in a frame. Suddenly the tall +fellow seemed to get the upper hand; exerting all his strength, +he bent the other backward over the window sill. The two +contending figures writhed desperately a moment and then the tall +man shifted one powerful, sinewy hand to Heinrich's throat. + +The binoculars brought the thing so near to Cleggett that it +seemed as if he could touch the contorted faces; he could see the +tall man's neck muscles work as if that person were panting; he +could see the signs of suffocation in Heinrich's countenance. +The fact that he saw so plainly and yet could hear no sound of +the struggle somehow added to its horror. + +All at once the tall man put his knee upon the other's chest, and +flung his weight upon Heinrich with a vehement spring. Then he +tumbled Heinrich out of the window onto the roof of the verandah. + +He stepped out of the window himself, picked Heinrich up with an +ease that testified to his immense strength, and flung him over +the edge of the verandah onto the ground. A few moments later a +couple of men ran out from Morris's, busied themselves about +reviving the fellow, and helped him into the house. If Heinrich +was not badly injured, certainly all the fight had been taken out +of him for one day. + +With Heinrich thus disposed of, the tall man turned composedly to +the task of putting out the American flag again. Through the +glass Cleggett perceived that his face was twisted by a peculiar +smile; a smile of joyous malevolence. + +"A bad man to cross, that tall man," said Cleggett, musingly. +And indeed, his violence with Heinrich had seemed out of all +proportion to the apparent grounds of the quarrel; for it was +evident to Cleggett that Heinrich and the tall man had differed +merely about the policy of displaying the red flag. "A man +determined to have his way," mused Cleggett. "If he and I should +meet------" Cleggett did not finish the sentence in words, but +his hand closed over the butt of his revolver. + +His musing was interrupted by the noise of an approaching +automobile. Turning, he saw a vehicle, the rather long body of +which was covered so that it resembled a merchant's delivery +wagon, coming along the road from Fairport. + +It stopped opposite the Jasper B., and from the seat beside the +driver leaped lightly the most beautiful woman Cleggett had ever +seen, and walked hesitatingly but gracefully towards him. + +She was agitated. She was, in fact, sobbing; and a Pomeranian +dog which she carried in her arms was whimpering excitedly as if +in sympathy with its mistress. Cleggett, soul of chivalry that +he was, born cavalier of beauty in distress, removed his hat and +advanced to meet her. + +CHAPTER V + +BEAUTY IN DISTRESS + +"Can you tell me where I can get some ice? Can you sell me some +ice?" cried the lady excitedly, when she was still some yards +distant from Cleggett. + +"Ice?" The request was so unusual that Cleggett was not certain +that he had understood. + +"Yes, ice! Ice!" There was no mistaking the genuine character +of her eagerness; if she had been begging for her life she could +not have been more in earnest. "Don't tell me that you have none +on your boat. Don't tell me that! Don't tell me that!" + +And suddenly, like a woman who has borne all that she can bear, +she burst undisguisedly into a paroxysm of weeping. Cleggett, +stirred by her beauty and her trouble, stepped nearer to her, for +she swayed with her emotion as if she were about to fall. +Impulsively she put a hand on his arm, and the Pomeranian, +dropped unceremoniously to the ground, sprang at Cleggett +snarling and snapping as if sure he were the author of the lady's +misfortunes. + +"You will think I am mad," said the lady, endeavoring to control +her tears, "but I MUST have ice. Don't tell me that you have no +ice!" + +"My dear lady," said Cleggett, unconsciously clasping, in his +anxiety to reassure her, the hand that she had laid upon his arm, +"I have ice--you shall have all the ice you want!" + +"Oh," she murmured, leaning towards him, "you cannot know----" + +But the rest was lost in an incoherent babble, and with a deep +sigh she fell lax into Cleggett's arms. The reaction from +despair had been too much for her; it had come too suddenly; at +the first word of reassurance, at the first ray of dawning hope, +she had fainted. High-strung natures, intrepid in the face of +danger, are apt to such collapses in the moment of deliverance; +and, whatever the nature of the lady's trouble, Cleggett gained +from her swoon a sharp sense of its intensity. + +Cleggett was not used to having beautiful women faint and fall +into his arms, and he was too much of a gentleman to hold one +there a single moment longer than was absolutely necessary. He +turned his head rather helplessly towards the vehicle in which +the lady had arrived. To his consternation and surprise it had +turned around and the chauffeur was in the act of starting back +towards Fairport. But he had left behind him a large zinc bucket +with a cover on it, a long unpainted, oblong box, and two steamer +trunks; on the oblong box sat a short, squat young man in an +attitude of deep dejection. + +"Hi there! Stop!" cried Cleggett to the chauffeur. That person +stopped his machine. He did more. He arose in the seat, applied +his thumb to his nose, and vigorously and vivaciously waggled his +outspread fingers at Cleggett in a gesture, derisive and +inelegant, that is older than the pyramids. Then he started his +machine again and made all speed in the direction of Fairport. + +"I say, you, come here!" Cleggett called to the squat young man. +"Can't you see that the lady's fainted?" + +The squat young man, thus exhorted, sadly approached. + +"Can't you see the lady has fainted?" repeated Cleggett. + +"Skoits often does," said the squat young man, looking over the +situation in a detached, judicial manner. He spoke out of the +left corner of his mouth in a hoarse voice, without moving the +right side of his face at all, and he seemed to feel that the +responsibility of the situation was Cleggett's. + +"But, don't you know her? Didn't you come here with her?" + +The squat young man appeared to debate some moral issue inwardly +for a moment. And then, speaking this time out of the right +corner of his mouth, which was now nearer Cleggett, without +disturbing the left half of his face, he pointed towards the +oblong box and murmured huskily: "That's my job." He went and +sat down on the box again. + +Without more ado Cleggett lifted the lady and bore her onto the +Jasper B. She was a heavy burden, but Cleggett declined the +assistance of Cap'n Abernethy and George the Greek, who had come +tardily out of the forecastle and now offered their assistance. + +"Get a bottle of wine," he told Yosh, as he passed the Japanese +on the deck, "and then make some tea." + +Cleggett laid the lady on a couch in the cabin, and then lighted +a lamp, as it got dark early in these quarters. While he waited +for Yoshahira Kuroki and the wine, he looked at her. In her +appealing helplessness she looked even more beautiful than she +had at first. She was a blonde, with eyebrows and lashes darker +than her hair; and, even in her swoon, Cleggett could see that +she was of the thin-skinned, high-colored type. Her eyes, as he +had seen before she swooned, were of a deep, dark violet color. +She was no chit of a girl, but a mature woman, tall and splendid +in the noble fullness of her contours. The high nose spoke of +love of activity and energy of character. The full mouth +indicated warmth of heart; the chin was of that sort which we +have been taught to associate with determination. + +The Japanese brought the wine, and Cleggett poured a few +spoonfuls down the lady's throat. Presently she sighed and +stirred and began to show signs of returning animation. + +The Pomeranian, which had followed them into the cabin, and which +now lay whimpering at her feet, also seemed to feel that she was +awakening, and, crawling higher, began to lick one of her hands. + +"Make some tea, Yosh," said Cleggett. "What is it?" + +This last was addressed to the lady herself. Her eyes had opened +for a fleeting instant as Cleggett spoke to the Japanese, and her +lips had moved. Cleggett bent his head nearer, while Yosh picked +up the dog, which violently objected, and asked again: "What is +it?" + +"Orange pekoe, please," the lady murmured, dreamily. + +And then she sat up with a start, struggled to recover herself, +and looked about her wildly. + +"Where am I?" she cried. "What has happened?" She passed her +hand across her brow, frowning. + +"You fainted, madam," said Cleggett. + +"Oh!" Suddenly recollection came to her, and her anxieties +rushed upon her once more. "The ice! The ice!" She sprang to +her feet, and grasped Cleggett by both shoulders, searching his +face with eager eyes. "You did not lie to me, did you? You +promised me ice! Where is the ice?" + +"You shall have the ice," said Cleggett, "at once." + +"Thank God!" she said. And then: "Where are Elmer and the box?" + +"Elmer? Oh, the short man! On shore. I believe that he and +your chauffeur had some sort of an altercation, for the chauffeur +went off and left him." + +"Yes," she said, simply, as they passed up the companionway to +the deck together, "that man, the driver, refused to bring us any +farther." + +Cleggett must have looked a little blank at that, for she +suddenly threw back her head and laughed at him. And then, +sobering instantly, she called to the squat young man: + +"Elmer! Oh, Elmer! You may bring the boxes on board!" She +turned to Cleggett: "He may, mayn't he? Thank you--I was sure +you would say he might. And if one of your men could just give +him a lift? And--the ice?" + +"George," called Cleggett, "help the man get the boxes aboard. +Kuroki, bring fifty pounds of ice on deck." + +She sighed as she heard him give these orders, but it was a sigh +of satisfaction, and she smiled at Cleggett as she signed. +Sometimes a great deal can happen in a very short space of time. +Ten minutes before, Cleggett had never seen this lady, and now he +was giving orders at her merest suggestion. But in those ten +minutes he had seen her weep, he had seen her faint, he had seen +her recover herself; he had seen her emerge from the depths of +despair into something more like self-control; he had carried her +in his arms, she had laughed at him, she had twice impulsively +grasped him by the arm, she had smiled at him three times, she +had sighed twice, she had frowned once; she had swept upon him +bringing with her an impression of the mysterious. Many men are +married to women for years without seeing their wives display so +many and such varied phases; to Cleggett it seemed not so much +that he was making a new acquaintance as renewing one that had +been broken off suddenly at some distant date. Cleggett, like +the true-hearted gentleman and born romanticist that he was, +resolved to serve her without question until such time as she +chose to make known to him her motives for her actions. + +"Do you know," she said, softly and gravely to Cleggett as George +and Elmer deposited the oblong box upon a spot which she +indicated near the cabin, "I have met very few men in my life who +are capable of what you are doing?" + +"I?" said Cleggett, surprised. "I have done nothing." + +"You have found a woman in a strange position--an unusual +position, indeed!--and you have helped her without persecuting +her with questions." + +"It is nothing," murmured Cleggett. + +"Would you think me too impulsive," she said, with a rare smile, +"if I told you that you are the sort of man whom women are ready +to trust implicitly almost at first sight?" + +Cleggett did not permit himself to speak for fear that the thrill +which her words imparted to him would carry him too far. He +bowed. + +"But I think you mentioned tea?" she said. "Did I hear you say +it was orange pekoe, or did I dream that? And couldn't we have +it on deck?" + +While Kuroki was bringing a table and chairs on deck and busying +himself about that preparation of tea, Cleggett watched Elmer, +the squat young man, with a growing curiosity. George and Cap'n +Abernethy were also watching Elmer from a discreet distance. +Even Kuroki, silent, swift, and well-trained Kuroki, could not +but steal occasional glances at Elmer. Had Cleggett been of a +less lofty and controlled spirit he would certainly have asked +questions. + +For Elmer, having uncovered the zinc can and taken from it a +hammer and a large tin funnel, proceeded to break the big chunk +of ice which Kuroki had brought him, into half a dozen smaller +pieces. These smaller lumps, with the exception of two, he put +into the zinc bucket, wrapped around with pieces of coffee +sacking. Then he put the cover on the bucket to exclude the air. + +The zinc bucket was thus a portable refrigerator, or rather, ice +house. + +Taking one of the lumps of ice which he had left out of the zinc +bucket for immediate use, Elmer carefully and methodically broke +it into still smaller pieces--pieces about the size of an English +walnut, but irregular in shape. Then he inserted the tin funnel +into a small hole in the uppermost surface of the unpainted, +oblong box and dropped in twenty or more of the little pieces of +ice. When a piece proved to be too big to go through the funnel +Elmer broke it again. + +Cleggett noticed that there were five of these small holes in the +box, and that Elmer was slowly working his way down the length of +it from hole to hole, sitting astride of it the while. + +From the way in which he worked, and the care with which he +conserved every smallest particle of ice, Elmer's motto seemed to +be: "Haste not, waste not." But he did not appear to derive any +great satisfaction from his task, let alone joy. In fact, Elmer +seemed to be a joyless individual; one who habitually looked +forward to the worst. On his broad face, of the complexion +described in police reports as "pasty," melancholy sat enthroned. +His nose was flat and broad, and flat and broad were his cheek +bones, too. His hair was cut very short everywhere except in +front; in front it hung down to his eyebrows in a straggling +black fringe or "bang." Not that the fringe would have covered +the average person's forehead; this "bang" was not long; but the +truth is that Elmer's forehead was lower than the average +person's and therefore easily covered. He had what is known in +certain circles as a cauliflower, or chrysanthemum, ear. + +But melancholy as he looked, Elmer had evidently had his moments +of struggle against dejection. One of these moments had been when +he bought the clothes he was wearing. His hat had a bright, red +and black band around it; his tweed suit was of a startling light +gray, marked off into checks with stripes of green; his waistcoat +was of lavender, and his hose were likewise of lavender, but red +predominated in both his shirt and his necktie. His collar was +too high for his short neck, and seemed to cause him discomfort. +But this attempt at gayety of dress was of no avail; one felt at +once that it was a surface thing and had no connection with +Elmer's soul; it stood out in front of the background of his +sorrowful personality, accentuating the gloom, as a blossom may +grow upon a bleak rock. As Elmer carefully dropped ice, piece by +piece, into the oblong box, progressing slowly from hole to hole, +Cleggett thought he had never seen a more depressed young man. + +Captain Abernethy approached Cleggett. There was hesitation in +the brown old man's feet, there was doubt upon his wrinkled brow, +but there was the consciousness of duty in the poise of his +shoulders, there was determination in his eyes. + +The blonde lady laughed softly as the sailing-master of the +Jasper B. saluted the owner of the vessel. + +"He is going to tell you," she said to Cleggett, including the +Captain himself in her flashing look and her remark, "he is going +to tell you that you really should get rid of me and my boxes at +once--I can see it in his face!" + +Captain Abernethy stopped short at this, and stared. It was +precisely what he HAD planned to say after drawing Cleggett +discreetly aside. But it is rather startling to have one's +thoughts read in this manner. + +He frowned at the lady. She smiled at him. The smile seemed to +say to the Cap'n: "You ridiculous old dear, you! You KNOW +that's what you were going to advise, so why deny it? I've found +you out, but we both might just as well be good-humored about it, +mightn't we?" + +"Ma'am," said the Cap'n, evidently struggling between a suddenly +born desire to quit frowning and a sense that he had a perfect +right to frown as much as he wished, "Ma'am, if you was to ask +me, I'd say ridin' on steamships and ridin' on sailin' vessels is +two different matters entirely." + +"Cap'n Abernethy," said Cleggett, attempting to indicate that his +sailing master's advice was not absolutely required, "if you have +something to say to me, perhaps later will do just as well." + +"As fur as the Jasper B. is concerned," said the Cap'n, ignoring +Cleggett's remark, and still addressing the lady, "I dunno as you +could call her EITHER a sailin' vessel, OR a steamship, as at +present constituted." + +"You want to get me off your boat at once," said the lady. "You +know you do." And her manner added: "CAN'T you act like a good- +natured old dear? You really are one, you know!" + +The Cap'n became embarrassed. He began to fuss with his necktie, +as if tying it tighter would assist him to hold on to his frown. +He felt the frown slipping, but it was a point of honor with him +to retain it. + +"She WILL be a sailin' vessel when she gets her sticks into her," +said the Cap'n, fumbling with his neckwear. + +"Let me fix that for you," said the lady. And before the Cap'n +could protest she was arranging his tie for him. "You old sea +captains!------" she said, untying the scarf and making the ends +even. "As if anyone could possibly be afraid to sail in anything +one of YOU had charge of!" She gave the necktie a little final +pat. "There, now!" + +The Captain's frown was gone past replacement. But he still felt +that he owed something to himself. + +"If you was to ask me," he said, turning to Cleggett, "whether +what I'd got to say to you would do later, or whether it wouldn't +do later, I'd answer you it would, or it wouldn't, all accordin' +to whether you wanted to hear it now, or whether you wanted to +hear it later. And as far as SAILIN' her is concerned, Mr. +Cleggett, I'll SAIL her, whether you turn her into a battleship +or into one of these here yachts. I come of a seafarin' fambly." + +And then he said to the lady, indicating the tie and bobbing his +head forward with a prim little bow: "Thank ye, ma'am." + +"Isn't he a duck!" said the lady, following him with her eyes, as +he went behind the cabin. There the Cap'n chewed, smoked, and +fished, earnestly and simultaneously, for ten minutes. + +Indeed, the blonde lady, from the moment when Elmer began to put +ice into the box, seemed to have regained her spirits. The +little dog, which was an indicator of her moods, had likewise +lost its nervousness. When Kuroki had tea ready, the dog lay +down at his mistress' feet, beside the table. + +"Dear little Teddy," said the lady, patting the animal upon the +head. + +"Teddy?" said Cleggett. + +"I have named him," she said, "after a great American. To my +mind, the greatest--Theodore Roosevelt. His championship of the +cause of votes for women at a time when mere politicians were +afraid to commit themselves is enough in itself to gain him a +place in history." + +She spoke with a kindling eye, and Cleggett had no doubt that +there was before him one of those remarkable women who make the +early part of the twentieth century so different from any other +historical period. And he was one with her in her admiration for +Roosevelt--a man whose facility in finding adventures and whose +behavior when he had found them had always made a strong appeal +to Cleggett. If he could not have been Cleggett he would have +liked to have been either the Chevalier d'Artagnan or Theodore +Roosevelt. + +"He is a great man," said Cleggett. + +But the lady, with her second cup of tea in her hand, was +evidently thinking of something else. Leaning back in her chair, +she said to Cleggett: + +"It is no good for you to deny that you think I'm a horridly +unconventional sort of person!" + +Cleggett made a polite, deprecatory gesture. + +"Yes, yes, you do," she said, decidedly. "And, really, I am! I +am impulsive! I am TOO impulsive!" She raised the cup to her +lips, drank, and looked off towards the western horizon, which +the sun was beginning to paint ruddily; she mused, murmuring as +if to herself: "Sir Archibald always thought I was too +impulsive, dear man." + +After a meditative pause she said, leaning her elbows on the +table and gazing searchingly into Cleggett's eyes: + +"I am going to trust you. I am going to reward your kindness by +telling you a portion of my strange story. I am going to depend +upon you to understand it." + +Cleggett bowed and murmured his gratitude at the compliment. +Then he said: + +"You could trust me with------" But he stopped. He did not wish +to be premature. + +"With my life. I could trust you with my life," finished the +lady, gravely. "I know that. I believe that. I feel it, +somehow. It is because I do feel it that I tell you----" She +paused, as if, after all, she lacked the courage. Cleggett said +nothing. He was too fine in grain to force a confidence. After a +moment she continued: "I can tell you this," she said, with a +catch in her voice that was almost a sob, "that I am practically +friendless. When you call a taxicab for me in a few moments, and +I leave you, with Elmer and my boxes, I shall have no place to +go." + +"But, surely, madam----" + +"Do not call me madam. Call me Lady Agatha. I am Lady Agatha +Fairhaven. What is your name?" + +Cleggett told her. + +"You have heard of me?" asked Lady Agatha. + +Cleggett was obliged to confess that he had not. He thought that +a shade of disappointment passed over the lady's face, but in a +moment she smiled and remarked: + +"How relative a thing is fame! You have never heard of me! And +yet I can assure you that I am well enough known in England. I +was one of the very first militant suffragettes to break a +window--if not the very first. The point is, indeed, in dispute. + +And were it not for my devotion to the cause I would not now be +in my present terrible plight--doomed to wander from pillar to +post with that thing" (she pointed with a shudder to the box into +which Elmer was still gloomily poking ice)-"chained to me like +a--like a----" She hesitated for a word, and Cleggett, tactlessly +enough, with some vague recollection of a classical tale in his +mind, suggested: + +"Like a corpse." + +Lady Agatha turned pale. She gazed at Cleggett with +terror-stricken eyes, her beautiful face became almost haggard in +an instant; he thought she was about to faint again, but she did +not. As he looked upon the change his words had wrought, filled +with wonder and compunction, Cleggett suddenly divined that her +occasional flashes of gayety had been, all along, merely the +forced vivacity of a brave and clever woman who was making a +gallant fight against total collapse. + +"Mr. Cleggett," she said, in a voice that was scarcely louder +than a whisper, "I am going to confide everything to you--the +whole truth. I will spare myself nothing; I will throw myself +upon your mercy. + +"I firmly believe, Mr. Cleggett--I am practically certain--that +the box there, upon which Elmer is sitting, contains the body of +Reginald Maltravers, natural son of the tenth Earl of Claiborne, +and the cousin of my late husband, Sir Archibald Fairhaven." + + +CHAPTER VI + +LADY AGATHA'S STORY + +It was with the greatest difficulty that Cleggett repressed a +start. Another man might have shown the shock he felt. But +Cleggett had the iron nerve of a Bismarck and the fine manner of +a Richelieu. He did not even permit his eyes to wander towards +the box in question. He merely sat and waited. + +Lady Agatha, having brought herself to the point of revelation, +seemed to find a difficulty in proceeding. Cleggett, mutely +asking permission, lighted a cigarette. + +"Oh--if you will!" said Lady Agatha, extending her hand towards +the case. He passed it over, and when she had chosen one of the +little rolls and lighted it she said: + +"Mr. Cleggett, have you ever lived in England?" + +"I have never even visited England." + +"I wish you knew England." She watched the curling smoke from +her tobacco as it drifted across the table. "If you knew England +you would comprehend so much more readily some parts of my story. + +"But, being an American, you can have no adequate conception of +the conservatism that still prevails in certain quarters. I +refer to the really old families among the landed aristocracy. +Some of them have not changed essentially, in their attitude +towards the world in general, since the reign of Queen Elizabeth. + +They make of family a fetish. They are ready to sacrifice +everything upon the altar of family. They may exhibit this pride +of race less obviously than some of the French or Germans or +Italians; but they have a deeper sense of their own dignity, and +of what is due to it, than any of your more flighty and +picturesque continentals. There are certain things that are +done. Certain things are not done. One must conform or----" + +She interrupted herself and delicately flicked the ash from her +cigarette. + +"Conform, or be jolly well damned," she finished, crossing one +leg over the other and leaning back in her chair. "This, by the +way, is the only decent cigarette I have found in America. I +hate to smoke perfume--I like tobacco--and most of your shops +seem to keep nothing but the highly scented Turkish and Egyptian +varieties." + +"They were made in London," said Cleggett, bowing. + +"Ah! But where was I? Oh, yes--one must conform. Especially if +one belongs to, or has married into, the Claiborne family. Of +all the men in England the Earl of Claiborne is the most +conservative, the most reactionary, the most deeply encrusted +with prejudice. He would stop at little where the question +concerned the prestige of the aristocracy in general; he would +stop at nothing where the Claiborne family is concerned. + +"I am telling you all this so that you may get an inkling of the +blow it was to him when I became a militant suffragist. It was +blow enough to his nephew, Sir Archibald, my late husband. The +Earl maintains that it hastened poor Archibald's death. But that +is ridiculous. Archibald had undermined his constitution with +dissipation, and died following an operation for gravel. He was +to have succeeded to the title, as both of the Earl's legitimate +sons were dead without issue--one of them perished in the Boer +War, and the other was killed in the hunting field. + +"Upon Archibald's death the old Earl publicly acknowledged +Reginald Maltravers, his natural son, and took steps to have him +legitimatized. For all of the bend sinister upon his escutcheon, +Reginald Maltravers was as fanatical concerning the family as his +father. Perhaps more fanatical, because he secretly suffered for +the irregularity of his own position in the world. + +"At any rate, supported at first by the old Earl, he began a +series of persecutions designed to make me renounce my suffragist +principles, or at least to make me cease playing a conspicuous +public part in the militant propaganda. As my husband was dead +and there were no children, I could not see that I was +accountable to the Claiborne family for my actions. But the +Claibornes took a different view of it. In their philosophy, +once a Claiborne, always a Claiborne. I was bringing disgrace +and humiliation upon the family, in their opinion. Knowing the +old Earl as I do, I am aware that his suffering was genuine and +intense. But what was I to do? One cannot desert one's +principles merely because they cause suffering; otherwise there +could be no such thing as revolution. + +"Reginald Maltravers had another reason for his persecution. +After the death of Sir Archibald he himself sought my hand in +marriage. I shall always remember the form of his proposal; it +concluded with these words: 'Had Archibald lived you would have +been a countess. You may still be a countess--but you must drop +this suffragist show, you know. It is all bally rot, Agatha, all +bally rot.' I would not have married him without the condition, +for I despised the man himself; but the condition made me furious +and I drove him from my sight with words that turned him white +and made him my enemy forever. 'You will not be my countess, +then,' he said. 'Very well--but I can promise you that you will +cease to be a suffragist.' I can still see the evil flash of his +eye behind his monocle as he uttered these words and turned +away." + +Lady Agatha shuddered at the recollection, and took a cup of tea. + +"It was then," she resumed, "that the real persecution began. I +was peculiarly helpless, as I have no near relations who might +have come to my defense. Representing himself always as the +agent of his father, but far exceeding the Earl in the +malevolence of his inventions, Reginald Maltravers sought by +every means he could command to drive me from public life in +England. + +"Three times he succeeded in having me flung into Holloway Jail. +I need not tell you of the terrors of that institution, nor of +the degrading horrors of forcible feeding. They are known to a +shocked and sympathetic world. But Reginald Maltravers +contrived, in my case, to add to the usual brutalities a peculiar +and personal touch. By bribery, as I believe, he succeeded in +getting himself into the prison as a turnkey. It was his custom, +when I lay weak and helpless in the semistupor of starvation, to +glide into my cell and, standing by my couch, to recite to me the +list of tempting viands that might appear daily upon the board of +a Countess of Claiborne. + +"He soon learned that his very presence itself was a persecution. + +After my release from jail the last time, he began to follow me +everywhere. Turn where I would, there was Reginald Maltravers. +At suffrage meetings he took his station directly before the +speaker's stand, stroked his long blond mustache with his long +white fingers, and stared at me steadfastly through his monocle, +with an evil smile upon his face. Formerly he had, in several +instances, prevented me from attending suffrage meetings; once he +had me spirited away and imprisoned for a week when it fell to my +lot to burn a railroad station for the good of the cause. He +strove to ruin me with my leaders in this despicable manner. + +"But in the end he took to showing himself; he stood and stared. +Merely that. He was subtle enough to shift the persecution from +the province of the physical to the realm of the psychological. +It was like being haunted. Even when I did not see him, I began +to THINK that I saw him. He deliberately planted that +hallucination in my mind. It is a wonder that I did not go mad. + +"I finally determined to flee to America. I made all my +arrangements with care and--as I thought--with secrecy. I +imagined that I had given him the slip. But he was too clever +for me. The third day out, as one of the ship's officers was +showing me about the vessel, I detected Reginald Maltravers in +the hold. It is not usual to allow women so far below decks; but +I had insisted on seeing everything. Perspiring, begrimed, and +mopping the moisture from his brow with a piece of cotton waste, +there he stood in the guise of a--of--a croaker, is it, Mr. +Cleggett?" + +"Stoker, I believe," said Cleggett. + +"Stoker. Thank you. He turned away in confusion when he saw +that he was discovered. I perceived that, designing to cross on +the same ship with me, he had thought himself hidden there. He +was not wearing his monocle, but I would know that sloping +forehead, that blond mustache, and that long, high, bony nose +anywhere." + +Lady Agatha broke off for a moment. She was extremely agitated. +But presently she continued: "I endeavored to evade him. The +attempt was useless. He found me out at once. The persecution +went on. It was more terrible here than it had been in England. +There I had friends. I had hours, sometimes even whole days, to +myself. + +"But this was not the worst. A new phase developed. From his +appearance it suddenly became apparent to me that Reginald +Maltravers could not stop haunting me if he wished!" + +"COULD not stop?" cried Cleggett. + +"COULD not," said Lady Agatha. "The hunt had become a monomania +with him. It had become an obsession. He had given his whole +mentality to it and it had absorbed all his faculties. He was +now the victim of it. He had grown powerless in the grip of the +idea; he had lost volition in the matter. + +"You can imagine my consternation when I realized this. I began +to fear the day when his insanity would take some violent form +and he would endeavor to do me a personal injury. I determined +to have a bodyguard. I wanted a man inured to danger; one +capable of meeting violence with violence, if the need arose. It +struck me that if I could get into touch with one of those +chivalrous Western outlaws, of whom we read in American works of +fiction, he would be just the sort of man I needed to protect me +from Reginald Maltravers. + +"I did not consider appealing to the authorities, for I have no +confidence in your American laws, Mr. Cleggett. But I did not +know how to go about finding a chivalrous Western outlaw. So +finally I put an advertisement in the personal column of one of +your morning papers for a reformed convict." + +"A reformed convict!" exclaimed Cleggett. "May I ask how you +worded the ad.?" + +"Ad.? Oh, advertisement? I will get it for you." + +She went into the stateroom and was back in a moment with a +newspaper cutting which she handed to Cleggett. It read: + +Convict recently released from Sing Sing, if +his reform is really genuine, may secure honest +employment by writing to A. F., care Morning Dispatch. + +"Out of the answers," she resumed, "I selected four and had their +writers call for a personal interview. But only two of them +seemed to me to be really reformed, and of these two Elmer's +reform struck me as being the more genuine. You may have noticed +that Elmer gives the appearance of being done with worldly +vanities." + +"He does seem depressed," said Cleggett, "but I had imputed it +largely to the nature of his present occupation." + +"It is due to his attempt to lead a better life--or at least so +he tells me," said Lady Agatha. "Morality does not come easy to +Elmer, he says, and I believe him. Elmer's time is largely taken +up by inward moral debate as to the right or wrong of particular +hypothetical cases which his imagination insists on presenting to +his conscience." + +"I can certainly imagine no state of mind less enjoyable," said +Cleggett. + +"Nor I," replied Lady Agatha. "But to resume: The very fact +that I had employed a guard seemed to put Reginald Maltravers +beside himself. He followed me more closely than ever. +Regardless of appearances, he would suddenly plant himself in +front of me in restaurants and tramcars, in the streets or parks +when I went for an airing, even in the lifts and corridors of the +apartment hotel where I stopped, and stare at me intently through +his monocle, caressing his mustache the while. I did not dare +make a scene; the thing was causing enough remark without that; I +was, in fact, losing my reputation. + +"Finally, goaded beyond endurance, I called Elmer into my +apartment one day and put the whole case before him. + +"'I will pay almost any price short of participation in actual +crime,' I told him, 'for a fortnight of freedom from that man's +presence. I can stand it no longer; I feel my reason slipping +from me. Have I not heard that there are in New York creatures +who are willing, on the payment of a certain stipulated sum, to +guarantee to chastise a person so as to disable him for a +definite period, without doing him permanent injury? You must +know some such disreputable characters. Procure me some wretches +of this sort!' + +"Elmer replied that such creatures do, indeed, exist. He called +them--what did he call them?" + +"Gunmen?" suggested Cleggett. + +"Yes, thank you. He brought two of them to me whom he introduced +as----" + +She paused. "The names escape me," she said. She called: "Elmer, +just step here a moment, please." + +Elmer, who was still putting ice into the oblong box, moodily +laid away his tools and approached. + +"What WERE the odd names of your friends? The ones who--who made +the mistake?" asked Lady Agatha, resuming her seat. + +Elmer rolled a bilious eye at Cleggett and asked Lady Agatha, out +of that corner of his mouth nearer to her: + +"Is th' guy right?" + +"Mr. Cleggett is a friend of mine and can keep a secret, if that +is what you mean," said Lady Agatha. And the words sent a thrill +of elation through Cleggett's being. + +"M' friends w'at makes the mistake," said Elmer, apparently +satisfied with the assurance, and offering the information to +Cleggett out of the side of his mouth which had not been involved +in his question to Lady Agatha, "goes by th' monakers of Dopey +Eddie and Izzy the Cat." + +"Picturesque," murmured Cleggett. + +"Picture--what? Picture not'in!" said Elmer, huskily. "The +bulls got not'in' on them boys. Them guys never been mugged. +Them guys is too foxy t' get mugged." + +"I infer that you weren't always so foxy," said Cleggett, eyeing +him curiously. + +The remark seemed to touch a sensitive spot. Elmer flushed and +shuffled from one foot to the other, hanging his head as if in +embarrassment. Finally he said, earnestly: + +"I wasn't no boob, Mr. Cleggett. It was a snitch got ME settled. +I was a good cracksman, honest I was. But I never had no luck." + +"I intended no reflection on your professional ability," said +Cleggett, politely. + +"Oh, that's all right, Mr. Cleggett," said Elmer, forgivingly. +"Nobody's feelin's is hoited. And any friend of th' little dame +here is a friend o' mine." The diminutive, on Elmer's lips, was +intended as a compliment; Lady Agatha was not a small woman. + +"Elmer," said Lady Agatha, "tell Mr. Cleggett how the mistake +occurred." + +Oratory was evidently not Elmer's strongest point. But he braced +himself for the effort and began: + +"When th' skoit here says she wants the big boob punched I says +to m'self, foist of all: 'Is it right or is it wrong?' Oncet +youse got that reform high sign put onto youse, youse can't be +too careful. Do youse get me? So when th' skoit here puts it up +to me I thinks foist off: 'Is it right or is it wrong?' See? +So I thinks it over and I says to m'self th' big boob's been +pullin' rough stuff on th' little dame here. Do youse get me? +So I says to m'self, the big boob ought to get a wallop on the +nut. See? What th' big gink needs is someone to bounce a brick +off his bean, f'r th' dame here's a square little dame. Do youse +get me? So I says to the little dame: 'I'm wit' youse, see? +W'at th' big gink needs is a mont' in th' hospital.' An' the +little dame here says he's not to be croaked, but----" + +But at that instant Teddy, the Pomeranian, sprang towards the +uncovered hatchway that gave into the hold, barking violently. +Lady Agatha, who could see into the opening, arose with a scream. + +Cleggett, leaping towards the hatchway, was just in time to see +two men jump backward from the bottom of the ladder into the murk +of the hold. They had been listening. Drawing his pistol, and +calling to the crew of the Jasper B. to follow him, Cleggett +plunged recklessly downward and into the darkness. + + +CHAPTER VII + +FIRST BLOOD FOR CLEGGETT + +As his feet struck the top of the rubbish heap in the hold of the +vessel, Cleggett stumbled and staggered forward. But he did not +let go of his revolver. + +Perhaps he would not have fallen, but the Pomeranian, which had +leaped into the hold after him, yelping like a terrier at a rat +hunt, ran between his legs and tripped him. + +"Damn the dog!" cried Cleggett, going down. + +But the fall probably saved his life, for as he spoke two pistol +shots rang out simultaneously from the forward part of the hold. +The bullets passed over his head. Raising himself on his elbow, +Cleggett fired rapidly three times, aiming at the place where a +spurt of flame had come from. + +A cry answered him, and he knew that at least one of his bullets +had taken effect. He rose to his feet and plunged forward, +firing again, and at the same instant another bullet grazed his +temple. + +The next few seconds were a wild confusion of yelping dog, +shouts, curses, shots that roared like the explosion of big guns +in that pent-up and restricted place, stinking powder, and +streaks of fire that laced themselves across the darkness. But +only a single pistol replied to Cleggett's now and he was +confident that one of the men was out of the fight. + +But the other man, blindly or with intention, was stumbling +nearer as he fired. A bullet creased Cleggett's shoulder; it was +fired so close to him that he felt the heat of the exploding +powder; and in the sudden glow of light he got a swift and vivid +glimpse of a white face framed in long black hair, and of +flashing white teeth beneath a lifted lip that twitched. The +face was almost within touching distance; as it vanished Cleggett +heard the sharp, whistling intake of the fellow's breath--and +then a click that told him the other's last cartridge was gone. +Cleggett clubbed his pistol and leaped forward, striking at the +place where the gleaming teeth had been. His blow missed; he +spun around with the force of it. As he steadied himself to +shoot again he heard a rush behind him and knew that his men had +come to his assistance. + +"Collar him!" he cried. "Don't shoot, or----" + +But he did not finish that sentence. A thousand lights danced +before his eyes, Niagara roared in his ears for an instant, and +he knew no more. His adversary had laid him out with the butt of +a pistol. + +Cleggett was not that inconsiderable sort of a man who is killed +in any trivial skirmish: There was a moment at the bridge of +Arcole when Napoleon, wounded and flung into a ditch, appeared to +be lost. But when Nature, often so stupid, really does take +stock and become aware that she has created an eagle she does not +permit that eagle to be killed before its wings are fledged. +Napoleon was picked out of the ditch. Cleggett was only stunned. + +Both were saved for larger triumphs. The association of names is +not accidental. These two men were, in some respects, not +dissimilar, although Bonaparte lacked Cleggett's breeding. + +When Cleggett regained consciousness he was on deck; George, +Kuroki and Cap'n Abernethy stood about him in a little semicircle +of anxiety; Lady Agatha was applying a cold compress to the bump +upon his head. (He made nothing of his other scratches.) As for +Elmer, who had not stirred from his seat on the oblong box, he +moodily regarded, not Cleggett, but a slight young fellow with +long black hair, who lay motionless upon the deck. + +Cleggett struggled to his feet. "Is he dead?" he asked, pointing +to the figure of his recent assailant. Cap'n Abernethy, for the +first time since Cleggett had known him, gave a direct answer to +a question. + +"Mighty nigh it," he said, staring down at the young man. Then +he added: "Kind o' innocent lookin' young fellow, at that." + +"But the other one? Was he killed?" asked Cleggett. + +"The other?" George inquired. "But there was no other. When we +got down there you and this boy----" And George described the +struggle that had taken place after Cleggett had lost +consciousness. The whole affair, as far as it concerned +Cleggett, had been a matter of seconds rather than minutes; it +was begun and over like a hundred yard dash on the cinder track. +When George and Kuroki and Cap'n Abernethy had tumbled into the +hold they had been afraid to shoot for fear of hitting Cleggett; +they had reached him, guided by his voice, just as he went down +under his assailant's pistol. They had not subdued the youth +until he had suffered severely from George's dagger. Later they +learned that one of Cleggett's bullets had also found him. +Cleggett listened to the end, and then he said: + +"But there WERE two men in the hold. And one of them, dead or +wounded, must still be down there. Carry this fellow into the +forecastle--we'll look at him later. Then bring some lanterns. +We are going down into that hold again." + +With their pistols in their right hands and lanterns in their +left they descended, Cleggett first. It was not impossible that +the other intruder might be lying, wounded, but revived enough by +now to work a pistol, behind one of the rubbish heaps. + +But no shots greeted them. The hold of the Jasper B. was not +divided into compartments of any sort. If it had ever had them, +they had been torn away. Below deck, except for the rubbish heap +and the steps for the masts, she was empty as a soup tureen. The +pile of debris was the highest toward the waist of the vessel. +There it formed a treacherous hill of junk; this hill sloped +downward towards the bow and towards the stern; in both the fore +and after parts, under the forecastle and the cabin, there were +comparatively clear spaces. + +The four men forced their way back towards the stern and then +came slowly forward in a line that extended across the vessel, +exploring with their lanterns every inch of the precarious +footing, and overturning and looking behind, under, and into +every box, cask, or jumble of planking that might possibly offer +a place of concealment. They found no one. And, until they +reached a clearer place, well forward, on the starboard side of +the ship, they found no trace of anyone. + +Cleggett, who was examining this place, suddenly uttered an +exclamation which brought the others to him. He pointed to +stains of blood upon the planking; near these stains were marks +left by boots which had been gaumed with a yellowish clay. A +revolver lay on the floor. Cleggett examined it and found that +only one cartridge had been exploded. The stains of blood and +the stains of yellow clay made an easily followed trail for some +yards to a point about halfway between the bow and stern on the +starboard side. + +There, in the waist of the vessel, they ceased; ceased abruptly, +mysteriously. Cleggett, not content, made his men go over the +place again, even more thoroughly than before. But there was no +one there, dead or wounded, unless he had succeeded in +contracting himself to the dimensions of a rat. + +"There is nothing," said Cleggett, standing by the ladder that +led up to the deck. "Nothing," echoed George; and then as if +with one impulse, and moved by the same eerie thought, these four +men suddenly raised their lanterns head-high and gazed at one +another. + +A startled look spread from face to face. But no one spoke. +There was no need to. All recognized that they were in the +presence of an apparent impossibility. Yet this seemingly +impossible thing was the fact. There had been two men in the +hold of the Jasper B. They had entered as mysteriously and +silently as disembodied spirits might have done. One of them, +wounded, had made his exit in the same baffling way. Where? +How? + +Cleggett broke the silence. + +"Let us go to the forecastle and have a look at that fellow," he +said, and led the way. + +No one lagged as they left the hold. These were all brave men, +but there are times when the invisible, the incomprehensible, +will send a momentary chill to the heart of the most intrepid. + +Cleggett found Lady Agatha, her own troubles for the time +forgotten, in the forecastle. She had lighted a lamp and was +bending over the wounded man, whose coat and waistcoat she had +removed. His clothing was a sop of blood. They cut his shirt and +undershirt from him. Kuroki brought water and the medicine chest +and surgical outfit with which Cleggett had provided the Jasper +B. They examined his wounds, Lady Agatha, with a fine +seriousness and a deft touch which claimed Cleggett's admiration, +washing them herself and proceeding to stop the flow of blood. + +"Oh, I am not an altogether useless person," she said, with a +momentary smile, as she saw the look in Cleggett's face. And +Cleggett remembered with shame that he had not thanked her for +her ministrations to himself. + +A pistol bullet had gone quite through the young man's shoulder. +There was a deep cut on his head, and there were half a dozen +other stab wounds on his body. George had evidently worked with +great rapidity in the hold. + +In the inside breast pocket of his coat he had carried a thin and +narrow little book. There was a dagger thrust clear through it; +if the book had not been there this terrible blow delivered by +the son of Leonidas must inevitably have penetrated the lung. + +Cleggett opened the book. It was entitled "Songs of Liberty, by +Giuseppe Jones." The verse was written in the manner of Walt +Whitman. A glance at one of the sprawling poems showed Cleggett +that in sentiment it was of the most violent and incendiary +character. + +"Why, he is an anarchist!" said Cleggett in surprise. + +"Oh, really!" Lady Agatha looked up from her work of mercy and +spoke with animation, and then gazed upon the youth's face again +with a new interest. "An anarchist! How interesting! I have +ALWAYS wanted to meet an anarchist." + +"Poor boy, he don't look like nothin' bad," said Cap'n Abernethy, +who seemed to have taken a fancy to Giuseppe Jones. + +"Listen," said Cleggett, and read: + + "As for your flag, I spit upon your flag! + I spit upon your organized society anywhere and everywhere; + I spit upon your churches; + I spit upon your capitalistic institutions; + I spit upon your laws; + I spit upon the whole damned thing! + But, as I spit, I weep! I weep!" + +"How silly!" said Lady Agatha. "What does it mean?" + +"It means----" began Cleggett, and then stopped. The book of +revolutionary verse, taken in conjunction with the red flag that +had been displayed and then withdrawn, made him wonder if +Morris's were the headquarters of some band of anarchists. + +But, if so, why should this band show such an interest in the +Jasper B. ? An interest so hostile to her present owner and his +men? + +"If you was to ask me what it means," said Captain Abernethy, who +had taken the book and was fingering it, "I'd say it means young +Jones here has fell into bad company. That don't explain how he +sneaked into the hold of the Jasper B., nor what for. But he +orter have a doctor." + +"He shall have a physician," said Cleggett. "In fact, the Jasper +B. needs a ship's doctor." + +"It looks to me," said Captain Abernethy, "as if she did. And if +you was to go further, Mr. Cleggett, and say that it looks as if +she was liable to need a couple o' trained nurses, too, I'd say +to you that if they's goin' to be many o' these kind o' goin's-on +aboard of her she DOES need a couple of trained nurses." + +"Captain," said Cleggett, "you are a humane man --let me shake +your hand. You have voiced my very thought!" + +Long ago Cleggett had resolved that if Chance or Providence +should ever gratify his secret wish to participate in stirring +adventures, he would see to it that all his wounded enemies, no +matter how many there might be of them, received adequate medical +attention. He had often been shocked at the callousness with +which so many of the heroes of romance dash blithely into the +next adventure--though those whom they have seriously injured +lie on all sides of them as thick as autumn leaves--with only the +most perfunctory consideration of these victims; sometimes, +indeed, with no thought of them at all. + +"Something tells me," said Cleggett seriously, "that this +intrusion of armed men is only a prelude. I have little doubt of +the hostility of Morris's; I am sure that the men who hid in the +hold are spies from Morris's. I do not yet know the motive for +this hostility. But the Jasper B. is in the midst of dangers and +mysteries. There is before us an affair of some magnitude. Ere +the Jasper B. sets sail for the China Seas, there may be many +wounds." + +And then he began to outline a plan that had flashed, full +formed, into his mind. It was to rent, or purchase, the +buildings at Parker's Beach, and fit them up as a field hospital, +with three or four nurses in charge. Lady Agatha, who had been +listening intently, interrupted. + +"But--the China Seas," she said. "Did I understand you to say +that you intend to set sail for the China Seas?" + +"That is the ultimate destination of the Jasper B." said +Cleggett. + +"I have heard--it seems to me that I have heard--that it's a +very dangerous place," ventured Lady Agatha. "Pirates, you know, +and all that sort of thing." + +"Pirates," said Cleggett, "abound." + +"Well, then," persisted Lady Agatha, "you are going out to fight +them?" + +"I should not be surprised," said Cleggett, folding his arms, and +standing with his feet spread just a trifle wider than usual, "if +the Jasper B. had a brush or two with them. A brush or two!" + +Lady Agatha regarded him speculatively. But admiringly, too. + +"But those nurses----" she said. "If you're going to the China +Seas you can't very well take Parker's Beach along." + +"I was coming to that," said Cleggett, bowing. "I contemplate a +hospital ship--a vessel supplied with nurses and lint and +medicines, that will accompany the Jasper B., and fly the Red +Cross flag." + +"But they are frightful people, really, those Chinese pirates, +you know," said Lady Agatha. "Do you think they'll quite +appreciate a hospital ship?" + +"It is my duty," said Cleggett, simply. "Whether they appreciate +it or not, a hospital ship they shall have. This is the +twentieth century. And although the great spirits of other days +had much to commend them, it is not to be denied that they knew +little of our modern humanitarianism. It has remained for the +twentieth century to develop that. And one owes a duty to one's +epoch as well as to one's individuality." + +"But," repeated Lady Agatha, with a meditative frown, "they are +really FRIGHTFUL people!" + +"There is good in all men," said Cleggett, "even in those whom +the stern necessities of idealism sentence to death. And I have +no doubt that many a Chinese pirate would, under other +circumstances, have developed into a very contented and useful +laundry-man." + +Lady Agatha studied him intently for a moment. "Mr. Cleggett," +she said, "if you will permit me to say so, a great suffragist +leader was lost when fate made you a man." + +"Thank you," said Cleggett, bowing again. + +He dispatched George--a person of address as well as a fighter in +whom the blood of ancient Greece ran quick and strong--on a +humanitarian mission. George was to walk a mile to the trolley +line, go to Fairport, hire a taxicab, and make all possible speed +into Manhattan. There he was to communicate with a young +physician of Cleggett's acquaintance, Dr. Harry Farnsworth. + +Dr. Farnsworth, as Cleggett knew, was just out of medical school. +He had his degree, but no patients. But he was bold and ready. +He was, in short, just the lad to welcome with enthusiasm such a +chance for active service as the cruise of the Jasper B. promised +to afford. + +It was something of a risk to weaken his little party by sending +George away for several hours. But Cleggett did not hesitate. He +was not the man to allow considerations of personal safety to +outweigh his devotion to an ideal. + +"And now," said Cleggett, turning to Lady Agatha, who had +hearkened to his orders to George with a bright smile of +approval, "we will dine, and I will hear the rest of your story, +which was so rudely interrupted. It is possible that together we +may be able to find some solution of your problem." + +"Dine!" exclaimed Lady Agatha, eagerly. "Yes, let us dine! It +may sound incredible to you, Mr. Cleggett, that the daughter of +an English peer and the widow of a baronet should confess that, +except for your tea, she has scarcely eaten for twenty-four +hours--but it is so!" + +Then she said, sadly, with a sign and sidelong glance at the box +of Reginald Maltravers which stood near the cabin companionway +dripping coldly: "Until now, Mr. Cleggett--until your aid had +given me fresh hope and strength--I had, indeed, very little +appetite." + +Cleggett followed her gaze, and it must be admitted that he +himself experienced a momentary sense of depression at the sight +of the box of Reginald Maltravers. It looked so damp, it looked +so chill, it looked so starkly and patiently and malevolently +watchful of himself and Lady Agatha. In a flash his lively fancy +furnished him with a picture of the box of Reginald Maltravers +suddenly springing upright and hopping towards him on one end +with a series of stiff jumps that would send drops of moisture +flying from the cracks and seams and make the ice inside of it +clink and tinkle. And the mournful Elmer, now drowsing callously +over his charge, was not an invitation to be blithe. If Cleggett +himself were so affected (he mused) what must be the effect of +the box of Reginald Maltravers upon sensibilities as fine and +delicate as those of a woman like Lady Agatha Fairhaven? + +"Could I--if I might----" Lady Agatha hesitated, with a glance +towards the cabin. Cleggett instantly divined her thought; for +brief as was their acquaintance, there was an almost psychic +accord between his mind and hers, and he felt himself already +answering to her unspoken wish as a ship to its rudder. + +"The cabin is at your service," said Cleggett, for he understood +that she wished to dress for dinner. He conducted her, with a +touch of formality, to his own room in the cabin, which he put at +her disposal, ordering her steamer trunks to be placed in it. +Then, taking with him some necessaries of his own, he withdrew to +the forecastle to make a careful toilet. + +It might not have occurred to another man to dress for dinner, +but Cleggett's character was an unusual blend of delicacy and +strength; he perceived subtly that Lady Agatha was of the nature +to appreciate this compliment. At a moment when her fortunes +were at a low ebb what could more cheer a woman and hearten her +than such a mark of consideration? Already Cleggett found +himself asking what would please Lady Agatha. + + +CHAPTER VIII + +A FLAME LEAPS OUT OF THE DARK + +Kuroki announced dinner; Cleggett entered the captain's mess room +of the cabin, where the cloth was laid, and a moment later lady +Agatha emerged from the stateroom and gave him her hand with a +smile. + +If he had thought her beautiful before, when she wore her plain +traveling suit, he thought her radiant now, in the true sense of +that much abused word. For she flung forth her charm in vital +radiations. If Cleggett had possessed a common mind he might have +phrased it to himself that she hit a man squarely in the eyes. +Her beauty had that direct and almost aggressive quality that is +like a challenge, and with sophisticated feminine art she had +contrived that the dinner gown she chose for that evening should +sound the keynote of her personality like a leitmotif in an +opera. The costume was a creation of white satin, the folds +caught here and there with strings of pearls. There was a single +large rose of pink velvet among the draperies of the skirt; a +looped girdle of blue velvet was the only other splash of color. +But the full-leaved, expanded and matured rose became the vivid +epitome and illustration of the woman herself. A rope of pearls +that hung down to her waist added the touch of soft luster +essential to preserve the picture from the reproach of being too +obvious an assault upon the senses; Cleggett reflected that +another woman might have gone too far and spoiled it all by +wearing diamonds. Lady Agatha always knew where to stop. + +"I have not been so hungry since I was in Holloway Jail," said +Lady Agatha. And she ate with a candid gusto that pleased +Cleggett, who loathed in a woman a finical affectation of +indifference to food. + +When Kuroki brought the coffee she took up her own story again. +There was little more to tell. + +Dopey Eddie and Izzy the Cat, it appeared, had mistaken their +instructions. Two nights after they had been engaged they had +appeared at Lady Agatha's apartment with the oblong box. + +"The horrid creatures brought it into my sitting-room and laid it +on the floor before I could prevent them," said Lady Agatha. + +"'What is this?' I asked them, in bewilderment. + +"They replied that they had killed Reginald Maltravers ACCORDING +TO ORDERS, and had brought him to me. + +"'Orders!' I cried. 'You had no such orders.' Elmer, who lived +on the same floor, was absent temporarily, having taken Teddy out +for an airing. I was distracted. I did not know what to do. +'Your orders," I said, 'were to--to----'" + +She broke off. "What was it that Elmer told them to do, and what +was it that they did?" she mused, perplexed. She called Elmer +into the cabin. + +"Elmer," she said, "exactly what was it that you told your +friends to do to him? And what was it that they did? I can +never remember the words." + +"Poke him," said Elmer, addressing Cleggett. "I tells these +ginks to poke him. But these ginks tells th' little dame here +they t'inks I has said to croak him. So they goes an' croaks +him. D' youse get me?" + +Being assured that they got him, Elmer downheartedly withdrew. + +"At any rate," continued Lady Agatha, "there was that terrible +box upon my sitting-room floor, and there were those two degraded +wretches. The callous beasts stood above the box apparently +quite insensible to the ethical enormity of their crime. But they +were keen enough to see that it might be used as a lever with +which to force more money from me. For when I demanded that they +take the box away with them and dispose of it, they only laughed +at me. They said that they had had enough of that box. They had +delivered the goods--that was the phrase they used--and they +wanted more money. And they said they would not leave until they +got it. They threatened, unless I gave them the money at once, +to leave the place and get word to the police of the presence of +the box in my apartment. + +"I was in no mental condition to combat and get the better of +them. I felt myself to be entirely in their power. I saw only +the weakness of my own position. I could not, at the moment, see +the weak spots in theirs. Elmer might have advised me--but he +was not there. The miserable episode ended with my giving them a +thousand dollars each, and they left. + +"Alone with that box, my panic increased. When Elmer returned +with Teddy, I told him what had happened. He wished to open the +box, having a vague idea that perhaps after all it did not really +contain what they had said was in it. But I could not bear the +thought of its being opened. I refused to allow Elmer to look +into it. + +"I determined that I would ship the box at once to some +fictitious personage, and then take the next ship back to +England. + +"I hastily wrote a card, which I tacked on the box, consigning it +to Miss Genevieve Pringle, Newark, N. J. The name was the first +invention that came into my head. Newark I had heard of. I knew +vaguely that it was west of New York, but whether it was twenty +miles west or two thousand miles, I did not stop to think. I am +ignorant of American geography. + +"But no sooner had the box been taken away than I began to be +uneasy. I was more frightened with it gone than I had been with +it present. I imagined it being dropped and broken, and +revealing everything. And then it occurred to me that even if I +should get out of the country, the secret was bound to be +discovered some time. I do not know why I had not thought of +that before--but I was distracted. Having got rid of the box, I +was already wild to get it into my possession again. + +"I confided my fears to Elmer, and was surprised to learn from +him that Newark is very near New York. We took a taxicab at +once, and were waiting at the freight depot in Newark when the +thing arrived. There I claimed it in the name of Miss Genevieve +Pringle. + +"It became apparent to me that I must manage its final +disposition myself. Elmer hired for me the vehicle in which we +arrived here, and we started back to New York. + +"But the driver, from the first, was suspicious of the box. His +suspicions were increased when, upon returning to my apartment +hotel, where I now decided to keep the box until I could think +out a coherent plan of action, the manager of the hotel made +inquiries. The manager had seen the box brought in, and taken +out again, before. Its return struck him as odd. He offered to +store it for me in the basement. I took alarm at once. +Naturally, he questioned me more closely. I was unready in my +answers. His inquiries excited and alarmed me. I felt that any +instant I might do something to betray myself. I cut the manager +short, paid my bill, got my luggage, and ordered the chauffeur to +drive to the Grand Central Station. But when we had gone three +or four blocks, I said to him: 'Stop!--I do not wish to go to the +Grand Central Station. Drive me to Poughkeepsie!' I wished a +chance to think. I knew Poughkeepsie was not far from New York +City, but I supposed it was far enough to give me a chance to +determine what to do next by the time we arrived there. + +"But I could not think coherently. I could only feel and fear. +The drive was longer than I had expected, but when we arrived at +Poughkeepsie and the chauffeur asked me again what disposition to +make of the box, I was unable to answer him. Thereupon he +insolently demanded an enormous fare. + +"I could not choose but pay it. For four days we went from place +to place, in and about New York City's suburbs--now in town and +now in the country--crossing rivers again and again on +ferryboats--stopping at hotels, road houses and all manner of +places--dashing through Brooklyn and out among the villages of +Long Island--and with the fear on me that we were being followed. + +"Elmer and I were continually on the lookout for some way to +dispose of the box, but nothing presented itself. The driver, +who had become more and more impudent in his attitude and +outrageous in his charges, was now practically a spy upon us. +The necessity for ice made frequent stops imperative; at the same +time the increasing fear of pursuit made it agony for me to stop +anywhere. + +"Today, at a road house thirty or forty miles from here, I made +certain that I was pursued. The very man from whom I had claimed +the box at the railway goods station in Newark confronted me. It +appears, from what Elmer says, that he is taking a holiday and is +visiting his brother, who is the proprietor of the road house. + +"And the person who is pursuing me is--a Miss Genevieve Pringle! + +"As fate would have it, there lives in Newark a person who really +owns that name which I thought I had invented. It seems that she +had been expecting a shipment, and had called to inquire for it; +upon learning that a box had been delivered to a person in her +name she had taken up the trail at once. Having somehow traced +me to Long Island, she had actually made inquiries at this very +road house some hours earlier. The railway employee, I am +certain, would have denounced me at once--he would have accused +me of theft, and would have endeavored to have me held until he +could get into communication with Miss Pringle or with the +authorities--but I bought from him a promise of silence. It cost +me another large sum. + +"A few hours ago the chauffeur, divining from a conversation +between Elmer and me that I was running short of ready money, +deserted me here. You know the rest." + +Her voice trailed off into a tired whisper as she finished, and +with her elbows on the table Lady Agatha wearily supported her +head in her hands. Her attitude acknowledged defeat. She was +despairingly certain that she would never see the last of the box +which she believed to contain Reginald Maltravers. + +Cleggett did not hesitate an instant. "Lady Agatha," he said, +"the Jasper B. is at your service as long as you may require the +ship. The cabin is your home until we arrive at a solution of +your difficulties." + +His glance and manner added what his tongue left unuttered--that +the commander of the ship was henceforth her devoted cavalier. +But she understood. + +She extended her hand. Her answer was on her lips. But at that +instant the jarring roar of an explosion struck the speech from +them. + +The blast was evidently near, though muffled. The earth shook; a +tremor ran through the Jasper B.; the glasses leaped and rang +upon the table. Cleggett, followed by Lady Agatha, darted up the +companionway. + +As Cleggett reached the deck there was a second shock, and he +beheld a flame leap out of the earth itself--a sudden sword of +fire thrust into the night from the midst of the sandy plain +before him. The light that stabbed and was gone in an instant +was about halfway between the Jasper B. and Morris's. A second +after, a missile--which Cleggett later learned was a piece of +rock the size of a man's head--fell with a splintering crash upon +and through the wooden platform beside the Jasper B., not thirty +feet from where Cleggett stood; another splashed into the canal. +The next day Cleggett saw several of these fragments lying about +the plain. + +Calling to his men to bring lanterns--for the night had fallen +dark and cloudy--Cleggett ran towards the place. Lady Agatha, +refusing to remain behind, went with them. Moving lights and a +stir of activity at Morris's, and the gleam of lanterns on board +the Annabel Lee, showed Cleggett that his neighbors likewise were +excited. + +But if Cleggett had expected an easy solution of this astonishing +eruption he was disappointed. Arrived at the scene of the +explosion, he found that its nature was such as to tease and balk +his faculties of analysis. The blast had blown a hole into the +ground, certainly; but this hole was curiously filled. Two large +bowlders that leaned towards each other had stood on top of the +ground. These had been split and shattered into many fragments. +A few pieces, like the one that came so near Cleggett, had been +flung to a distance, but for the most part the shivered crowns +and broken bulks had been served otherwise; the force of the +blast had disintegrated them, but had not scattered them; the +greater part of this newly-rent stone had toppled into the +fissure in the ground, and lay there mixed with earth, almost +filling the hole. It was impossible to determine just where and +how the blast had been set off; the rocks hid the facts. But +Cleggett judged that the force must have come from below the +bowlders; mightily smitten from beneath, they had collapsed into +the cavern suddenly opening there, as a building might collapse +into and fill a cellar. The pieces that had been thrown high into +the air were insignificant in proportion to the great bulk which +had settled into the hole and made its origin a mystery. + +As Cleggett, bewildered, stood and gazed upon the mass of rock +and earth, Cap'n Abernethy gave a cry and pointed at something +with his finger. Cleggett, looking at the spot indicated, saw +upon the edge of this singular fracture in the earth a thing that +sent a quick chill of horror and repulsion to his heart. It was +a dead hand, roughly severed between the wrist and the elbow. +The back of it was uppermost; the fingers were clenched. +Cleggett set down his lantern beside it and turned it over with +his foot. + +The dead fingers clutched a scrap of something yellow. On one of +them was a large and peculiar ring. + +"My God!" murmured Lady Agatha, grasping Cleggett convulsively by +the shoulder, "that is the Earl of Claiborne's signet ring!" + +But Cleggett scarcely realized what she had said, until she +repeated her words. Fighting down his repugnance, he took from +the lifeless and stubborn fingers the yellow scrap of paper. + +It was a torn and crumpled twenty-dollar bill. + + +CHAPTER IX + +MYSTERIES MULTIPLY + +Directing Kuroki to remove the ring and bring it along, Cleggett +gave his arm to Lady Agatha and led the way back to the Jasper B. +Neither said anything to the point until, seated in the cabin, +with the twenty-dollar bill and the ring before them, Cleggett +picked up the latter and remarked: + +"You are certain of the identity of this ring?" + +"Certain," she said. "I could not mistake it. There is no other +like it, anywhere." + +It was a very heavy gold band, set with a large piece of dark +green jade which was deeply graven on its surface with the +Claiborne crest. + +"Was it," asked Cleggett, "in the possession of Reginald +Maltravers?" + +"It might have been, readily enough," she said, "although I had +not known that it was. Still, that does not explain. . . ." She +shrugged her shoulders. + +"There are a number of things unexplained," answered Cleggett, +"and the presence of this ring, and the manner in which it has +come into our possession, are not the most mysterious of them. +The explosion itself appears to me, just now, at least, hard to +account for." + +"The manner in which people get into and out of the hold of your +vessel is also obscure," said Lady Agatha. + +"Nor is the motive of their hostility clear," said Cleggett. + +He picked up the piece of paper money. Something about the feel +of it aroused his suspicions. He called Elmer, and when that +exponent of reform entered the cabin, asked him bluntly: + +"Did you ever have anything to do with bad money?" + +Elmer intimated that he might know it if he saw it. + +"Then look at that, please." + +Elmer took the torn bill, produced a penknife, slit the yellow +paper, and cut out of it one of the small hair-like fibers with +which the texture of such notes is sprinkled. After wetting this +fiber and mangling it with his penknife he gave his judgment +briefly. + +"Queer," he said. + +"But what does that explain?" asked Lady Agatha. "Perhaps the +Earl of Claiborne came to this country and took to making +counterfeit money in the hold of the Jasper B., into and out of +which he stole like a ghost? Finally he got tired of it and blew +himself up with a bomb out there, leaving his ring with a piece +of money intact? Is that the explanation we get out of our +facts? Because, you know," she added, as Cleggett did not smile, +"all that is absurd!" + +"Yes," said Cleggett, still refusing to be amused, "but out of +all this jumble of mystery, just one certain thing appears." + +"And that is?" + +"That our destinies are somehow linked!" + +"Our destinies? Linked?" + +She gave him a swift look, and as suddenly dropped her eyes +again. Cleggett could not tell whether she was offended or not +by his expression of the idea. + +"The same people," said Cleggett, after a brief pause, "who are +so persistently hostile to me are also in some manner connected +with your own misfortunes. Their possession of this ring shows +that." + +"Yes," she said, following his thought, "that is true--whoever +set off that bomb was also wearing this ring, or was very near +the person who was wearing it. And," with a shudder which +conveyed to Cleggett that she was thinking of the box on deck, +"it COULDN'T have been Reginald Maltravers!" + +"Perhaps," said Cleggett, "someone was sneaking over from +Morris's with the intention of destroying the Jasper B., and was +himself the victim of a premature explosion as he crouched behind +the rocks to await his opportunity." + +"But why," puzzled Lady Agatha, with contracted brows, "should a +dynamiter, anarchistic or otherwise, be holding a counterfeit +twenty-dollar bill in his hand as he went about his work?" + +Cleggett brooded in silence. + +"We are in the midst of mysteries," he said finally. "They are +multiplying about us." + +He was about to say more. He was about to express again his +belief that they had been flung together by fate. The sense that +their stories were inextricably intertwined, that they must +henceforward march on as one mystery towards a solution, was +exhilarating to him. But how was it possible that she should +feel the same sense of pleasure in the fact that they faced +dangers, seen and unseen, together? + +Together!--How the thought thrilled him! + +On deck, Elmer, before returning to the box of Reginald +Maltravers, suddenly and unexpectedly grasped Cleggett by the +hand. + +"Bo," he said, "I'm wit' youse. I'm wit' youse the whole way. +Any friend of the little dame is a friend of mine. She's a +square little dame. D' youse get me?" + +"Thank you," said Cleggett, more affected than he would have +cared to own. "Thank you, my loyal fellow." + +Cleggett established a watch on deck that night, with a relief +every two hours. Towards morning George returned, with Dr. +Farnsworth and a nurse. This nurse, Miss Antoinette Medley, was +a black-eyed, slender girl with pretty hands and white teeth; she +gestured a great deal and smiled often. She and Dr. Farnsworth +devoted themselves at once to the young anarchist poet, who had +come out of his stupor, indeed, but was now babbling weakly in +the delirium of fever. + +The night was not a cheerful one, and morning came gloomily out +of a gray bank of mist. Cleggett, as he looked about the boat in +the first pale light, could not resist a slight feeling of +depression, courageous as he was. The wounded man gibbered in a +bunk in the forecastle. The box of Reginald Maltravers stood on +one end, leaning against the port side of the cabin, and dripped +steadily. Elmer, wrapped in blankets, lay on the deck near the +box of Reginald Maltravers, looking even more dejected in slumber +than when his eyes were open. Teddy, the Pomeranian, was +snuggled against Elmer's feet, but, as if a prey to frightful +nightmares, the little dog twitched and whined in his sleep from +time to time. These were the apparent facts, and these facts +were set to a melancholy tune by the long-drawn, dismal snores of +Cap'n Abernethy, which rose and fell, and rose and fell, and rose +again like the sad and wailing song of some strange bird bereft +of a beloved mate. They were the music for, and the commentary +on, what Cleggett beheld; Cap'n Abernethy seemed to be saying, +with these snores: "If you was to ask me, I'd say it ain't a +cheerful ship this mornin', Mr. Cleggett, it ain't a cheerful +ship." + +But Cleggett's nature was too lively and vigorous to remain +clouded for long. By the time the red disk of the sun had crept +above the eastern horizon he had shaken off his fit of the blues. + +The sun looked large and bland and friendly, and, somehow, the +partisan of integrity and honor. He drew strength from it. +Cleggett, like all poetic souls, was responsive to these familiar +recurrent phenomena of nature. + +The sun did him another office. It showed him a peculiar tableau +vivant on the eastern bank of the canal, near the house boat +Annabel Lee. This consisted of three men, two of them naked +except for bathing trunks of the most abbreviated sort, running +swiftly and earnestly up and down the edge of the canal. He saw +with astonishment that the two men in bathing suits were +handcuffed together, the left wrist of one to the right wrist of +the other. A rope was tied to the handcuffs, and the other end +of it was held by the third man, who was dressed in ordinary +tweeds. The third man had a magazine rifle over one shoulder. +He followed about twenty feet behind the two men in bathing suits +and drove them. + +Cleggett perceived that the man who was doing the driving was the +same who had watched the Jasper B. so persistently the day before +from the deck of the Annabel Lee. He was middle-sized, and +inclined to be stout, and yet he followed his strange team with +no apparent effort. Cleggett saw through the glass that he had a +rather heavy black mustache, and was again struck by something +vaguely familiar about him. The two men in bathing suits were +slender and undersized; they did not look at all like athletes, +and although they moved as fast as they could it was apparent +that they got no pleasure out of it. They ran with their heads +hanging down, and it seemed to Cleggett that they were quarreling +as they ran, for occasionally one of them would give a vicious +jerk to the handcuffs that would almost upset the other, and that +must have hurt the wrists of both of them. + +As Cleggett watched, the driver pulled them up short, and waved +them towards the canal. They stopped, and it was apparent that +they were balking and expostulating. But the driver was +inexorable. He went near to them and threatened their bare backs +with the slack of the rope. Gingerly and shiveringly they +stepped into the cold water, while the driver stood on the bank. +The water was up to their waists and he had to threaten them +again with his rope before they would duck their heads under. + +When he allowed them on shore again they needed no urging, it was +evident, to make them hit up a good rate of speed, and back and +forth along the bank they sprinted. But the cold bath had not +improved their temper, for suddenly one of them leaped and kicked +sidewise at the other, with the result that both toppled to the +ground. The stout man was upon them in an instant, hazing them +with the rope end. He drove them, still lashing out at each +other with their bare feet, into the water again, and after a +more prolonged ducking whipped them, at a plunging gallop, upon +the Annabel Lee, where they disappeared from Cleggett's view. + +While Cleggett was still wondering what significance could +underlie this unusual form of matutinal exercise, Dr. Farnsworth +came out of the forecastle and beckoned to him. The young Doctor +had a red Vandyck beard sedulously cultivated in the belief that +it would make him look older and inspire the confidence of +patients, and a shock of dark red hair which he rumpled +vigorously when he was thinking. He was rumpling it now. + +"Who's 'Loge'?" he demanded. + +"Loge?" repeated Cleggett. + +"You don't know anyone named 'Loge,' or Logan?" + +"No. Why?" + +"Whoever he is, 'Loge' is very much on the mind of our young +friend in there," said Farnsworth, with a movement of his head +towards the forecastle. "And I wouldn't be surprised, to judge +from the boy's delirium, if 'Loge' had something to do with all +the hell that's been raised around your ship. Come in and listen +to this fellow." + +Miss Medley, the nurse, was sitting beside the wounded youth's +bunk, endeavoring to soothe and restrain him. The young +anarchist, whose eyes were bright with fever, was talking rapidly +in a weak but high-pitched singsong voice. + +"He's off on the poems again," said the Doctor, after listening a +moment. "But wait, he'll get back to Loge. It's been one or the +other for an hour now." + +"I spit upon your flag," shrilled Giuseppe Jones, feebly +declamatory. "'I spit--I spit--but, as I spit, I weep.'" He +paused for a moment, and then began at the beginning and repeated +all of the lines which Cleggett had read from the little book. +One gathered that it was Giuseppe's favorite poem. + +"'I spit upon the whole damned thing!'" he shrilled, and then +with a sad shake of his head: "But, as I spit, I weep!" + +If the poem was Giuseppe's favorite poem, this was evidently his +favorite line, for he said it over and over again--"'But, as I +spit, I weep'"--in a breathless babble that was very wearing on +the nerves. + +But suddenly he interrupted himself; the poems seemed to pass +from his mind. "Loge!" he said, raising himself on his elbow and +staring, with a frown not at, but through, Cleggett: "Logan--it +isn't square!" + +There was suffering and perplexity in his gaze; he was evidently +living over again some painful scene. + +"I'm a revolutionist, Loge, not a crook! I won't do it, Loge!" + +Watching him, it was impossible not to understand that the +struggle, which his delirium made real and present again, had +stamped itself into the texture of his spirit. "You shouldn't +ask it, Loge," he said. The crisis of the conflict which he was +living over passed presently, and he murmured, with contracted +brows, and as if talking to himself: "Is Loge a crook? A crook?" + +But after a moment of this he returned again to a rapid +repetition of the phrase: "I'm a revolutionist, not a crook-not +a crook--not a crook--a revolutionist, not a crook, Loge, not a +crook----" Once he varied it, crying with a quick, hot scorn: +"I'll cut their throats and be damned to them, but don't ask me +to steal." And then he was off again to declaiming his poetry: +"I spit, but, as I spit, I weep!" + +But as Cleggett and the Doctor listened to him the youth's +ravings suddenly took a new form. He ceased to babble; terror +expanded the pupils of his eyes and he pointed at vacancy with a +shaking finger. "Stop it!" he cried in a croaking whisper. "Stop +it! It's his skull--it's Loge's skull come alive. Stop it, I +say, it's come alive and getting bigger." With a violent effort +he raised himself before the nurse could prevent him, shrinking +back from the horrid hallucination which pressed towards him, and +then fell prone and senseless on the bunk. + +"God!--his wounds!" cried the Doctor, starting forward. As +Farnsworth had feared, they had broken open and were bleeding +again. "It's a ticklish thing," said Farnsworth, rumpling his +hair. "If I give him enough sedative to keep him quiet his heart +may stop any time. If I don't, he'll thrash himself to pieces in +his delirium before the day's over." + +But Cleggett scarcely heeded the Doctor. The reference to +"Loge's" skull had flashed a sudden light into his mind. +Whatever else "Loge" was, Cleggett had little doubt that "Loge" +was the tall man with the stoop shoulders and the odd, skull- +shaped scarfpin, for whom he had conceived at first sight such a +tingling hatred--the same fellow who had so ruthlessly manhandled +the flaxen-haired Heinrich on the roof of the verandah the day +before. + + +CHAPTER X + +IN THE ENEMY'S CAMP + +At seven o'clock that morning five big-bodied automobile trucks +rolled up in a thundering procession. As they hove in sight on +the starboard quarter and dropped anchor near the Jasper B., +Cleggett recalled that this was the day which Cap'n Abernethy had +set for getting the sticks and sails into the vessel. In the +hurry and excitement of recent events aboard the ship he had +almost forgotten it. + +A score of men scrambled from the trucks and began to haul out of +them all the essentials of a shipyard. Wheel, rudder, masts, +spars, bowsprit, quantities of rope and cable followed--in fact, +every conceivable thing necessary to convert the Jasper B. from a +hulk into a properly rigged schooner. Cleggett, with a pith and +brevity characteristic of the man, had given his order in one +sentence. + +"Make arrangements to get the sails and masts into her in one +day," he had told Captain Abernethy. + +It was in the same large and simple spirit that a Russian Czar +once laid a ruler across the map of his empire and, drawing a +straight line from Moscow to Petersburg, commanded his engineers: +"Build me a railroad to run like that." Genius has winged +conceptions; it sees things as a completed whole from the first; +it is only mediocrity which permits itself to be lost in details. + +Cleggett was like the Romanoffs in his ability to go straight to +the point, but he had none of the Romanoff cruelty. + +Captain Abernethy had made his arrangements accordingly. If it +pleased Cleggett to have a small manufacturing plant brought to +the Jasper B. instead of having the Jasper B. towed to a +shipyard, it was Abernethy's business as his chief executive +officer to see that this was done. The Captain had let the +contract to an enterprising and businesslike fellow, Watkins by +name, who had at once looked the vessel over, taken the necessary +measurements, and named a good round sum for the job. With +several times the usual number of skilled workmen employed at +double the usual rate of pay, he guaranteed to do in ten hours +what might ordinarily have taken a week. + +Under the leadership of this capable Watkins, the workmen rushed +at the vessel with the dash and vim of a gang of circus employees +engaged in putting up a big tent and making ready for a show. To +a casual observer it might have seemed a scene of confusion. But +in reality the work jumped forward with order and precision, for +the position of every bolt, chain, nail, cord, piece of iron and +bit of wood had been calculated beforehand to a nicety; there was +not a wasted movement of saw, adze, or hammer. The Jasper B., in +short, had been measured accurately for a suit of clothes, the +clothes had been made; they were now merely being put on. + +Refreshed by the first sound sleep she had been able to obtain +for several nights, Lady Agatha joined Cleggett at an +eight-o'clock breakfast. It was the first of May, and warm and +bright; in a simple morning dress of pink linen Lady Agatha +stirred in Cleggett a vague recollection of one of Tennyson's +earlier poems. The exact phrases eluded him; perhaps, indeed, it +was the underlying sentiment of nearly ALL of Tennyson's earlier +poems of which she reminded him--those lyrics which are at once +so romantic and so irreproachable morally. + +"We must give you Americans credit for imagination at any rate," +she said smilingly, making her Pomeranian sit up on his hind legs +and beg for a morsel of crisp bacon. "I awake in a boatyard +after having gone to sleep in a dismantled barge." + +"Barge!" The word "barge" struck Cleggett unexpectedly; he was +not aware that he had given a start and frowned. + +"Mercy!" exclaimed Lady Agatha, "how the dear man glares! What +should I call it? Scow?" + +"Scow?" said Cleggett. He had scarcely recovered from the word +"barge"; it is not to be denied that "scow" jarred upon him even +more than "barge" had done. + +"I beg your pardon," said Lady Agatha, "but what IS the Jasper +B., Mr. Cleggett?" + +"The Jasper B. is a schooner," said Cleggett. He tried to say it +casually, but he was conscious as he spoke that there was a trace +of hurt surprise in his voice. The most generous and chivalrous +soul alive, Cleggett would have gone to the stake for Lady +Agatha; and yet so unaccountable is that vain thing, the human +soul (especially at breakfast time), that he felt angry at her +for misunderstanding the Jasper B. + +"You aren't going to be horrid about it, are you?" she said. +"Because, you know, I never said I knew anything about ships." + +She picked up the little dog and stood it on the table, making +the animal extend its paws as if pleading. "Help me to beg Mr. +Cleggett's pardon," she said, "he's going to be cross with us +about his old boat." + +If Lady Agatha had been just an inch taller or just a few pounds +heavier the playful mood itself would have jarred upon the +fastidious Cleggett; indeed, as she was, if she had been just a +thought more playful, it would have jarred. But Lady Agatha, it +has been remarked before, never went too far in any direction. + +Even as she smiled and held out the dog's paws Cleggett was aware +of something in her eyes that was certainly not a tear, but was +just as certainly a film of moisture that might be a tear in +another minute. Then Cleggett cursed himself inwardly for a +brute--it rushed over him how difficult to Lady Agatha her +position on board the Jasper B. must seem. She must regard +herself as practically a pensioner on his bounty. And he had +been churl enough to show a spark of temper--and that, too, after +she had repeatedly expressed her gratitude to him. + +"I am deeply sorry, Lady Agatha," he began, blushing painfully, +"if----" + +"Silly!" She interrupted him by reaching across the table and +laying a forgiving hand upon his arm. "Don't be so stiff and +formal. Eat your egg before it gets cold and don't say another +work. Of course I know you're not REALLY going to be cross." +And she attacked her breakfast, giving him such a look that he +forthwith forgave himself and forgot that he had had anything to +forgive in her. + +"There's going to be a frightful racket around here today," he +said presently. "Maybe you'd like to get away from it for a +while. How'd you like to go for a row?" + +"I'd love it!" she said. + +"George will be glad to take you, I'm sure." + +"George? And you?" He thought he detected a note of +disappointment in her voice; he had not thought to disappoint +her, but when he found her disappointed he got a certain thrill +out of it. + +"I am going over to Morris's this morning," he said. + +"To Morris's? Alone?" + +"Why, yes." + +"But--but isn't it dangerous?" + +Cleggett smiled and shrugged his shoulders. + +"Promise me that you will not go over there alone," she demanded. + +"I am sorry. I cannot." + +"But it is rash--it is mad!" + +"There is no real danger." + +"Then I am going with you." + +"I think that would hardly be advisable." + +"I'm going with you," she repeated, rising with determination. + +"But you're not," said Cleggett. "I couldn't think of allowing +it." + +"Then there IS danger," she said. + +He tried to evade the point. "I shouldn't have mentioned it," he +murmured. + +She ran into the stateroom and was back in an instant with her +hat, which she pinned on as she spoke. + +"I'm ready to start," she said. + +"But you're not going." + +"After what you've done for me I insist upon my right to share +whatever danger there may be." She spoke heatedly. + +In her heat and impulsiveness and generous bravery Cleggett +thought her adorable, although he began to get really angry with +her, too. At the same time he was aware that her gratitude to +him was such that she was on fire to give him some positive and +early proof of it. It had not so much as occurred to her to +enjoy immunity on account of her sex; it had not entered her +mind, apparently, that her sex was an obstacle in the way of +participating in whatever dangerous enterprise he had planned. +She was, in fact, behaving like a chivalric but obstinate boy; +she had not been a militant suffragette for nothing. And yet, +somehow, this attitude only served to enhance her essential +femininity. Nevertheless, Cleggett was inflexible. + +"You would scarcely forbid me to go to Morris's today, or +anywhere else I may choose," she said hotly, with a spot of red +on either cheek bone, and a dangerous dilatation of her eyes. + +"That is exactly what I intend to do," said Cleggett, with an +intensity equal to her own, "FORBID you." + +"You are curiously presumptuous," she said. + +It was a real quarrel before they were done with it, will opposed +to naked will. And oddly enough Cleggett found his admiration +grow as his determination to gain his point increased. For she +fought fair, disdaining the facile weapon of tears, and when she +yielded she did it suddenly and merrily. + +"You've the temper of a sultan, Mr. Cleggett," she said with a +laugh, which was her signal of capitulation. And then she added +maliciously: "You've a devil of a temper--for a little man!" + +"Little!" Cleggett felt the blood rush into his face again and +was vexed at himself. "I'm taller than you are!" he cried, and +the next instant could have bitten his tongue off for the +childish vanity of the speech. + +"You're not!" she cried, her whole face alive with laughter. +"Measure and see!" + +And pulling off her hat she caught up a table knife and made him +stand with his back to hers. "You're cheating," said Cleggett, +laughing now in spite of himself, as she laid the knife across +their heads. But his voice broke and trembled on the next words, +for he was suddenly thrilled with her delicious nearness. +"You're standing on your tiptoes, and your hair's piled on top of +your head." + +"Maybe you are an inch taller," she admitted, with mock +reluctance. And then she said, with a ripple of mirth: "You are +taller than I am--I give up; I won't go to Morris's." + +Cleggett, to tell the truth, was a bit relieved at the +measurement. He was of the middle height; she was slightly +taller than the average woman; he had really thought she might +prove taller than he. He could scarcely have told why he +considered the point important. + +But after the quarrel she looked at Cleggett with a new and more +approving gaze. Neither of them quite realized it, but she had +challenged his ability to dominate her, and she had been worsted; +he had unconsciously met and satisfied in her that subtle +inherent craving for domination which all women possess and so +few will admit the possession of. + +Cleggett started across the sands toward Morris's with an +automatic pistol slung in a shoulder holster under his left arm +and a sword cane in his hand. He paused a moment by the scene of +the explosion of the night before, but daylight told him nothing +that lantern light had failed to reveal. He had no very definite +plan, although he thought it possible that he might gain some +information. The more he reflected on the attitude of Morris's, +the more it irritated him, and he yearned to make this irritation +known. + +Perhaps there was more than a little of the spirit of bravado in +the call he proposed to pay. He planned, the next day, to sail +the Jasper B. out into the bay and up and down the coast for a +few miles, to give himself and his men a bit of practice in +navigation before setting out for the China Seas. And he could +not bear to think that the hostile denizens of Morris's should +think that he had moved the Jasper B. from her position through +any fear of them. He reasoned that the most pointed way of +showing his opinion of them would be to walk casually into +Morris's barroom and order a drink or two. If Cleggett had a +fault as a commander it lay in these occasional foolhardy +impulses which he found it difficult to control. Julius Caesar +had the same sort of pride, which, in Caesar's case, amounted to +positive vanity. In fact, the character of Caesar and the +character of Cleggett had many points in common, although +Cleggett possessed a nicer sense of honor than Caesar. + +The main entrance to Morris's was on the west side. From the +west verandah one could enter directly either the main +dining-room, at the north side of the building, the office, or +the barroom. The barroom, which was large, ran the whole length +of the south side of the place. Doors also led into the barroom, +from the south verandah, which was built over the water, and from +the east verandah, which was visible from the Jasper B.--and +onto the roof of which Cleggett had seen Loge tumble the limp +body of his victim, Heinrich. That had been only the day before, +but so much had happened since that Cleggett could scarcely +realize that so little time had elapsed. + +Cleggett strolled into the barroom and took a seat at a table in +the southeast corner of it, with his back to the angle of the +walls. He thus commanded a view of the bar itself; a door which +led, as he conjectured, into the kitchen; the door communicating +with the office, and a door which gave upon the west +verandah--all this easily, and without turning his head. By +turning his head ever so slightly to his right, he could command +a view of the door leading to the east verandah. Unless the +ceiling suddenly opened above him, or the floor beneath, it would +be impossible to surprise him. Cleggett took this position less +through any positive fear of attack than because he possessed the +instinct of the born strategist. Cleggett was like Robert E. Lee +in his quick grasp of a situation and, indeed, in other +respects--although Cleggett would never under any circumstances +have countenanced human slavery. + +There were only two men in the place when Cleggett took his seat, +the bartender and a fellow who was evidently a waiter. He had +entered the west door and walked across the room without looking +at them, withholding his gaze purposely. When he looked towards +the bar, after seating himself, the waiter, with his back towards +Cleggett's corner, was talking in a low tone to the bartender. +But they had both seen him; Cleggett perceived they both knew +him. + +"See what the gentleman wants, Pierre," said the bartender in a +voice too elaborately casual to hide his surprise at seeing +Cleggett. + +The waiter turned and came towards him, and Cleggett saw the +man's face for the first time. It was a face that Cleggett never +forgot. Cleggett judged the man to be a Frenchman; he was dark +and sallow, with nervous, black eyebrows, and a smirk that came +and went quickly. But the unforgettable feature was a mole that +grew on his upper lip, on the right side, near the base of his +flaring nostril. Many moles have hairs in them; Pierre's mole +had not merely half a dozen hairs, but a whole crop. They grew +thick and long; and, with a perversion of vanity almost +inconceivable in a sane person, Pierre had twisted these hairs +together, as a man twists a mustache, and had trained them to +grow obliquely across his cheek bone. He was a big fellow, for a +Frenchman, and, as he walked towards Cleggett with a mincing +elasticity of gait, he smirked and caressed this whimsical +adornment. Cleggett, fascinated, stared at it as the fellow +paused before him. Pierre, evidently gratified at the sensation +he was creating, continued to smirk and twist, and then, seeing +that he held his audience, he took from his waistcoat pocket a +little piece of cosmetic and, as a final touch of Gallic +grotesquerie, waxed the thing. It was all done with that air of +quiet histrionicism, and with that sense of self-appreciation, +which only the French can achieve in its perfection. "You +ordered, M'sieur?" Pierre, having produced his effect, like the +artist (though debased) that he was, did not linger over it. + +"Er--a Scotch highball," said Cleggett, recovering himself. "And +with a piece of lemon peeling in it, please." + +Pierre served him deftly. Cleggett stirred his drink and sipped +it slowly, gazing at the bartender, who elaborately avoided +watching him. But after a moment a little noise at his right +attracted his attention. Pierre, with his hand cupped, had +dashed it along a window pane and caught a big stupid fly, abroad +thus early in the year. With a sense of almost intolerable +disgust, Cleggett saw the man, with a rapt smile on his face, +tear the insect's legs from it, and turn it loose. If ever a +creature rejoiced in wickedness for its own sake, and as if its +practice were an art in itself, Pierre was that person, Cleggett +concluded. Knowing Pierre, one could almost understand those +cafes of Paris where the silly poets of degradation +ostentatiously affect the worship of all manner of devils. + +An instant later, Pierre, as if he had been doing something quite +charming, looked at Cleggett with a grin; a grin that assumed +that there was some kind of an understanding between them +concerning this delightful pastime. It was too much. Cleggett, +with an oath--and never stopping to reflect that it was perhaps +just the sort of action which Pierre hoped to provoke--grasped +his cane with the intention of laying it across the fellow's +shoulders half a dozen times, come what might, and leaving the +place. + +But at that instant the door from the office opened and the man +whom he knew only as Loge entered the room. + +Loge paused at the right of Cleggett, and then marched directly +across the room and sat down opposite the commander of the Jasper +B. at the same table. He was wearing the cutaway frock coat, and +as he swung his big frame into the seat one of his coat tails +caught in the chair back and was lifted. + +Cleggett saw the steel butt of an army revolver. Loge perceived +by his face that he had seen it, and laughed. + +"I've been wanting to talk to you," he said, leaning across the +table and showing his yellow teeth in a smile which he perhaps +intended to be ingratiating. Cleggett, looking Loge fixedly in +the eye, withdrew his right hand from beneath his coat, and laid +his magazine pistol on the table under his hand. + +"I am at your service," he said, steadily, giving back unwavering +gaze for gaze. "I am looking for some information myself, and I +am in exactly the humor for a little comfortable chat." + + +CHAPTER XI + +REPARTEE AND PISTOLS + +Loge dropped his gaze to the pistol, and the smile upon his lips +slowly turned into a sneer. But when he lifted his eyes to +Cleggett's again there was no fear in them. + +"Put up your gun," he said, easily enough. "You won't have any +use for it here." + +"Thank you for the assurance," said Cleggett, "but it occurs to +me that it is in a very good place where it is." + +"Oh, if it amuses you to play with it----" said Loge. + +"It does," said Cleggett dryly. + +"It's an odd taste," said Loge. + +"It's a taste I've formed during the last few days on board my +ship," said Cleggett meaningly. + +"Ship?" said Loge. "Oh, I beg your pardon. You mean the old hulk +over yonder in the canal?" + +"Over yonder in the canal," said Cleggett, without relaxing his +vigilance. + +"You've been frightened over there?" asked Loge, showing his +teeth in a grin. + +"No," said Cleggett. "I'm not easily frightened." + +Loge looked at the pistol under Cleggett's hand, and from the +pistol to Cleggett's face, with ironical gravity, before he +spoke. "I should have thought, from the way you cling to that +pistol, that perhaps your nerves might be a little weak and +shaky." + +"On the contrary," said Cleggett, playing the game with a face +like a mask, "my nerves are so steady that I could snip that +ugly-looking skull off your cravat the length of this barroom +away." + +"That would be mighty good shooting," said Loge, turning in his +chair and measuring the distance with his eye. "I don't believe +you could do it. I don't mind telling you that _I_ couldn't." + +"While we are on the subject of your scarfpin," said Cleggett, in +whom the slur on the Jasper B. had been rankling, "I don't mind +telling YOU that I think that skull thing is in damned bad taste. +In fact, you are dressed generally in damned bad taste.--Who is +your tailor?" + +Cleggett was gratified to see a dull flush spread over the +other's face at the insult. Loge was silent a moment, and then +he said, dropping his bantering manner, which indeed sat rather +heavily upon him: "I don't know why you should want to shoot at +my scarfpin--or at me. I don't know why you should suddenly lay +a pistol between us. I don't, in short, know why we should sit +here paying each other left-handed compliments, when it was +merely my intention to make you a business proposition." + +"I have been waiting to hear what you had to say to me," said +Cleggett, without being in the least thrown off his guard by the +other's change of manner. + +"If you had not chanced to drop in here today," said Loge, "I had +intended paying you a visit." + +"I have had several visitors lately," said Cleggett nonchalantly, +"and I think at least two of them can make no claim that they +were not warmly received." + +"Yes?" said Loge. But if Cleggett's meaning reached him he was +too cool a hand to show it. He persisted in his affectation of a +businesslike air. "Am I right in thinking that you have bought +the boat?" + +"You are." + +"To come to the point," said Loge, "I want to buy her from you. +What will you take for her?" + +The proposition was unexpected to Cleggett, but he did not betray +his surprise. + +"You want to buy her?" he said. "You want to buy the old hulk +over yonder in the canal?" He laughed, but continued: "What on +earth can your interest be in her?" + +There was a trace of surliness in Loge's voice as he answered: +"YOU were enough interested in her to buy her, it seems. Why +shouldn't I have the same interest?" + +Cleggett was silent a moment, and then he leaned across the table +and said with emphasis: "I have noticed your interest in the +Jasper B. since the day I first set foot on her. And let me warn +you that unless you show your curiosity in some other manner +henceforth, you will seriously regret it. A couple of your men +have repented of your interest already." + +"My men? What do you mean by my men? I haven't any men." +Loge's imitation of astonishment was a piece of art; but if +anything he overdid it a trifle. He frowned in a puzzled +fashion, and then said: "You talk about my men; you speak +riddles to me; you appear to threaten me, but after all I have +only made you a plain business proposition. I ask you again, +what will you take for her?" + +"She's not for sale," said Cleggett shortly. + +Loge did not speak again for a moment. Instead, he picked up the +spoon with which Cleggett had stirred his highball and began to +draw characters with its wet point upon the table. "If it's a +question of price," he said finally, "I'm prepared to allow you a +handsome profit." + +Cleggett determined to find out how far he would go. + +"You might be willing to pay as much as $5,000 for her--for the +old hulk over there in the canal?" + +Loge stopped playing with the spoon and looked searchingly into +Cleggett's face. Then he said: + +"I will. Turn her over to me the way she was the day you bought +her, and I'll give you $5,000." He paused, and then repeated, +stressing the words: "MIND YOU, WITH EVERYTHING IN HER THE WAY IT +WAS THE DAY YOU BOUGHT HER." + +Cleggett fumbled with his fingers in a waistcoat pocket, drew out +the torn piece of counterfeit money which he had taken from the +dead hand, and flung it on the table. + +"Five thousand dollars," he said, "in THAT kind of money?" + +Loge looked at it with eyes that suddenly contracted. Clever +dissembler that he was, he could not prevent an involuntary +start. He licked his lips, and Cleggett judged that perhaps his +mouth felt a little dry. But these were the only signs he made. +Indeed, when he spoke it was with something almost like an air of +relief. + +"Come," he said, "now we're down to brass tacks at last on this +proposition. Mr. Detective, name your real price." + +Cleggett did not answer immediately. He appeared to consider his +real price. But in reality he was thinking that there was no +longer any doubt of the origin of the explosion. Since Loge +practically acknowledged the counterfeit money, the man who had +died with this piece of it in his hand must have been one of +Loge's men. But he only said: + +"Why do you call me a detective?" + +Loge shrugged his shoulders. Then he said again: "Your real +price?" + +"What," said Cleggett, trying him out, "do you think of $20,000?" + +The other gave a long, low whistle. + +"Gad!" he cried, "what crooks you bulls are." + +"It's not so much," said Cleggett deliberately, "when one takes +everything into consideration." + +Loge appeared to meditate. Then he said: "That figure is out of +the question. I'll give you $10,000 and not a cent more." + +"You want her pretty badly," said Cleggett. "Or you want what's +on her." + +"Why," said Loge, with an assumption of great frankness, "between +you and me I don't care a damn about your boat. I think we +understand each other. I'm buying her to get what's on her." + +"Suppose I sell you what's on her for $10,000 and keep the ship," +said Cleggett, wondering what WAS on the Jasper B. + +"Agreed," said Loge. + +"Since we're being so frank with one another," said Cleggett, +"would you mind telling me why you didn't come to me at the start +with an offer to buy, instead of making such a nuisance of +yourself?" + +"Eh?" Loge appeared genuinely surprised. "Why should I pay you +any money if I could get it, or destroy it, without that? +Besides, how was I to know you could be bought?" + +Cleggett wondered more than ever what piece of evidence the hold +of the Jasper B. contained. He felt certain that it was not +merely counterfeit bills. Cleggett determined upon a minute and +thorough search of the hold. + +"You'll send for it?" said Cleggett, still trying to get a more +definite idea of what "it" was, without revealing that he did not +know. + +"I'll come myself with a taxicab," said Loge. + +Cleggett rose, smiling; he had found out as much as he could +expect to learn. + +"On the whole," he said, "I think that I prefer to keep the +Jasper B. and everything that's in her. But before I leave I must +thank you for the pleasure I have derived from our little +talk--and the information as well. You can hardly imagine how +you have interested me. Will you kindly step back and let me +pass?" + +Loge got to his feet with a muttered oath; his face went livid +and a muscle worked in his throat; his fingers contracted like +the claws of some big and powerful cat. But, out of respect for +Cleggett's pistol, he stepped backward. + +"You have confessed to making counterfeit money," went on +Cleggett, enjoying the situation, "and you have as good as told +me that there are further evidences of crime on board the Jasper +B. You can rest assured that I will find them. You have also +betrayed the fact that you planned to blow my ship up, and there +are several other little matters which you have shed light upon. + +"I am not a detective. Nevertheless, I hope in the near future +to see you behind the bars and to help put you there. It may +interest you to know that my opinion of your intellect is no +higher than my opinion of your character. You seem to me to have +a vast conceit of your own cleverness, which is not justified by +the facts. You are a very stupid fellow; a--a--what is the slang +word? Boob, I believe." + +But while Cleggett was finishing his remarks a subtle change +stole over Loge's countenance. His attitude, which had been one +of baffled rage, relaxed. As Cleggett paused the sneer came back +upon Loge's lips. + +"Boob," he said quietly, "boob is the word. Look above you." + +A sharp metallic click overhead gave point to Loge's words. +Looking up, Cleggett saw that a trap-door had opened in the +ceiling, and through the aperture Pierre, who had left the room +some moments before with the bartender, was pointing a revolver, +which he had just cocked, at Cleggett's head. He sighted along +the barrel with an eager, anticipatory smile upon his face; +Pierre would, no doubt, have preferred to see a man boiled in oil +rather than merely shot, but shooting was something, and Pierre +evidently intended to get all the delight possible out of the +situation. + +Cleggett's own pistol was within an inch of Loge's stomach. + +"I was willing to pay you real money," said Loge, "for the sake +of peace. But you're a damned fool if you think you can throw me +down and then walk straight out of here to headquarters." Then +he added, showing his yellow teeth: "You WOULD bring pistols +into the conversation, you know. That was YOUR idea. And now +you're in a devil of a fix." + +The man certainly had an iron nerve; he spoke as calmly as if +Cleggett's weapon were not in existence; there was nothing but +the pressure of a finger wanting to send both him and Cleggett to +eternity. Yet he jested; he laid his strong and devilish will +across Cleggett's mentality; it was a duel in which the two minds +met and tried each other like swords; the first break in +intention, and one or the other was a dead man. Cleggett felt +the weight of that powerful and evil soul upon his own almost as +if it were a physical thing. + +"You are not altogether safe yourself," said Cleggett grimly, +with his eyes fixed on Pierre's and his pistol touching Loge's +waistband. "If Pierre so much as winks an eye--if you move a +hair's breadth--I'll put a stream of bullets through YOU. +Understand?" + +How long this singular psychological combat might have lasted +before a nerve quivered somewhere and brought the denouement of a +double death, there is no telling. For accident (or fate) +intervened to pluck these antagonists back into life and rob the +gloating Pierre of the happiness of seeing two men perish without +danger to himself. Something of uncertain shape, but of a blue +color, loomed vaguely behind Pierre's head; loomed and suddenly +descended to the accompaniment of a piercing shriek. Pierre's +pistol went off, but he had evidently been stricken between the +shoulders; the ball went wild, and the pistol itself dropped from +his hand, another cartridge exploding as it hit the floor. The +next instant Pierre tumbled headlong through the hole, landing +upon Loge, who, not braced for the shock, went down himself. + +As the two men struggled to rise a strange figure precipitated +itself from the room above, feet first, and hit both of them, +knocking them down again. It was a tall man, thin and lank, clad +only in a suit of silk pajamas of the color known as baby blue; +he was barefoot, and Cleggett, with that lucid grasp of detail +which comes to men oftener in nightmares than in real life, +noticed that he had a bunion at the large joint of his right +great toe. + +If the man was startling, he was no less startled himself. +Leaping from the struggling forms of Pierre and Loge, who +defeated each other's frantic efforts to rise, he was across the +barroom in three wild bounds, shrieking shrilly as he leaped; he +bolted through the west door and cleared the verandah at a jump. + +Loge, gaining his feet, was after the man in blue in an instant, +evidently thinking no more of Cleggett than if the latter had +been in Madagascar. And as for Cleggett, although he might have +shot down Loge a dozen times over, he was so astonished at what +he saw that the thought never entered his head. He had, in fact, +forgotten that he held a pistol in his hand. Pierre scrambled to +his feet and followed Loge. + +Cleggett, running after them, saw the man in the blue pajamas +sprinting along the sandy margin of the bay. But Loge, his hat +gone, his coat tails level in the wind behind him, and his large +patent leather shoes flashing in the morning sunlight, was +overhauling him with long and powerful strides. Cleggett saw the +quarry throw a startled glance over his shoulder; he was no match +for the terrible Loge in speed, and he must have realized it with +despair, for he turned sharply at right angles and rushed into +the sea. Loge unhesitatingly plunged after him, and had caught +him by the shoulder and whirled him about before he had reached a +swimming depth. They clinched, in water mid-thigh deep, and then +Cleggett saw Loge plant his fist, with scientific precision and +awful force, upon the point of the other's jaw. The man in the +blue pajamas collapsed; he would have dropped into the water, but +Loge caught him as he fell, threw his body across a shoulder with +little apparent effort, and trotted back into the house with him. + +Cleggett had left his sword cane in the barroom, but he judged it +would be just as well to allow it to remain there for the +present. He turned and walked meditatively across the sands +towards the Jasper B. + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE SECOND OBLONG BOX + +When Cleggett returned to the ship he found Captain Abernethy in +conversation with a young man of deprecating manner whom the +Captain introduced as the Rev. Simeon Calthrop. + +"I been tellin' him," said the Cap'n, pitching his voice shrilly +above the din the workmen made, and not giving the Rev. Mr. +Calthrop an opportunity to speak for himself, "I been tellin' him +it may be a long time before the Jasper B. gets to the Holy +Land." + +"Do you want to go to Palestine?" asked Cleggett of Mr. Calthrop, +who stood with downcast eyes and fingers that worked nervously at +the lapels of his rusty black coat. + +"I've knowed him sence he was a boy. He's in disgrace, Simeon +Calthrop is," shrieked the Captain, preventing the preacher from +answering Cleggett's question, and scorning to answer it directly +himself. "Been kicked out of his church fur kissin' a married +woman, and can't get another one." (The Cap'n meant another +church.) + +The preacher merely raised his eyes, which were large and brown +and slightly protuberant, and murmured with a kind of brave +humility: + +"It is true." + +"But why do you want to go to Palestine?" said Cleggett. + +"She sung in the choir and she had three children," screamed +Cap'n Abernethy, "and she limped some. Folks say she had a cork +foot. Hey, Simeon, DID she have a cork foot?" + +Mr. Calthrop flushed painfully, but he forced himself +courageously to answer. "Mr. Abernethy, I do not know," he said +humbly, and with the look of a stricken animal in his big brown +eyes. + +He was a handsome young fellow of about thirty--or he would have +been handsome, Cleggett thought, had he not been so emaciated. +His hair was dark and brown and inclined to curl, his forehead +was high and white and broad, and his fingers were long and white +and slender; his nose was well modeled, but his lips were a +trifle too full. Although he belonged to one of the evangelical +denominations, the Rev. Mr. Calthrop affected clothing very like +the regulation costume of the Episcopalian clergy; but this +clothing was now worn and torn and dusty. Buttons were gone here +and there; the knees of the unpressed trousers were baggy and +beginning to be ragged, and the sole of one shoe flapped as he +walked. He had a three days' growth of beard and no baggage. + +When Cap'n Abernethy had delivered himself and walked away, the +Rev. Mr. Calthrop confirmed the story of his own disgrace, +speaking in a low but clear voice, and with a gentle and wistful +smile. + +"I am one of the most miserable of sinners, Mr. Cleggett," he +said. "I have proved myself to be that most despicable thing, an +unworthy minister. I was tempted and I fell." + +The Rev. Mr. Calthrop seemed to find the sort of satisfaction in +confessing his sins to the world that the medieval flagellants +found in scoring themselves with whips; they struck their bodies; +he drew forth his soul and beat it publicly. + +Cleggett learned that he had set himself as a punishment and a +mortification the task of obtaining his daily bread by the work +of his hands. It was his intention to make a pilgrimage to +Jerusalem, refusing all assistance except that which he earned by +manual labor. After such a term of years as should satisfy all +men (and particularly his own spiritual sense) of the genuineness +of his penitence, he would apply to his church for reinstatement, +and ask for an appointment to some difficult mission in a wild +and savage country. The Rev. Mr. Calthrop intimated that if he +chose to accept rehabilitation on less arduous terms, he might +obtain it; but the poignancy of his own sense of failure drove +him to extremes. + +"Are you sure," said Cleggett sternly, "that you are not making a +luxury of this very penitence itself? Are you sure that it would +not be more acceptable to Heaven if you forgave yourself more +easily?" + +"Alas, yes, I am sure!" said Mr. Calthrop, with a sigh and his +calm and wistful smile. "I know myself too well! I know my own +soul. I am cursed with a fatal magnetism which women find it +impossible to resist. And I am continually tempted to permit it +to exert itself. This is the cross that I bear through life." + +"You should marry some good woman," said Cleggett. + +"I do not feel that I am worthy," said Mr. Calthrop meekly. "And +think of the pain my wife would experience in seeing me +continually tempted by some woman who believed herself to be my +psychic affinity!" + +"You are a thought too subtle, Mr. Calthrop," said Cleggett +bluntly. "But I suppose you cannot help that. To each of us his +destiny. I am prepared, until I see some evidence to the +contrary, to believe your repentance to be genuine. In the +meantime, we need a ship's chaplain. If your conscience permits, +you may have the post--combining it, however, with the vocation +of a common sailor before the mast. I am inclined to agree with +you that manual labor will do you good. Some time or another, in +her progress around the world, the Jasper B. will undoubtedly +touch at a coast within walking distance of Jerusalem. There we +will put you ashore. Before we sail you can put in your time +holystoning the deck. + +"The deck of the Jasper B., said Cleggett, looking at it, "to all +appearances, has not been holystoned for some years. You will +find in the forecastle several holystones that have never been +used, and may begin at once." + +Cleggett, if his tastes had not inclined him towards a more +active and adventurous life, would have made a good bishop, for +he knew how to combine justice and mercy. And yet few bishops +have possessed his rapidity of decision, when compelled, upon the +spur of the moment, to become the physician of an ailing soul. +He had determined in a flash to make the man ship's chaplain, +that Calthrop might come into close contact with other spiritual +organisms and not think too exclusively of his own. + +The Rev. Mr. Calthrop thanked him with becoming gratitude and +departed to get the new holystones. + +By three o'clock that afternoon, with such celerity had the work +gone forward, Mr. Watkins, the contractor, announced to Cleggett +that his task was finished, except for the removal of the rubbish +in the hold. Cleggett, going carefully over the vessel, and +examining the new parts with a brochure on the construction and +navigation of schooners in his hand, verified the statement. + +"She is ready to sail," said Cleggett, standing by the new wheel +with a swelling heart, and sweeping the vessel from bowsprit to +rudder with a gradual glance. + +It was a look almost paternal in its pride; Cleggett loved the +Jasper B. She was an idea that no one else but Cleggett could +have had. + +"Sail?" said Mr. Watkins. + +"Why not?" said Cleggett, puzzled at his tone. + +"Oh, nothing," said Mr. Watkins. "It's none of my business. My +business was to do the work I was hired to do according to +specifications. Further than that, nothing." + +"But why did you think I was having the work done?" + +"Can't say I thought," said Mr. Watkins. "I took the job, and I +done it. Had an idea mebby you were in the movin' picture game." + +Mr. Watkins, as he talked, had been regarding Cap'n Abernethy, +who in turn was looking at the mainmast. There seemed to be +something in the very way Cap'n Abernethy looked at the mainmast +which jarred on Mr. Watkins. Mr. Watkins dropped his voice, +indicating the Cap'n with a curved, disparaging thumb, as he +asked Cleggett: + +"Is HE going to sail her?" + +"Why not?" + +"Oh--nothing; nothing at all," said Mr. Watkins. "It's none o' MY +business." + +Cleggett began to be a little annoyed. "Have you," he said with +dignity, and fixing a rather stern glance upon Mr. Watkins, "have +you any reason to doubt Cap'n Abernethy's ability as a sailing +master?" + +"No, indeed," said Mr. Watkins cheerfully, "not as a sailing +master. He may be the best in the world, for all I know. _I_ +never seen him sail anything. I never heard him play the violin, +neither, for that matter, and he may be a regular jim-dandy on +the violin for all I know." + +"You are facetious," said Cleggett stiffly. + +"Meaning I ain't paid to be fresh, eh?" said Mr. Watkins. "And +right you are, too. And there's all that junk down in the hold +to pass out and cart away." + +Cleggett personally supervised this removal, standing on the deck +by the hatchway and scanning everything that was handed up. The +character of this junk has already been described. Every barrel +or cask that was placed upon the deck was stove in with an ax +before Cleggett's eyes; he satisfied himself that every bottle +was empty; he turned over the broken boxes and beer cases with +his foot to see that they contained nothing. + +But the work was three-quarters done before he found what he was +looking for. From under a heap of debris, which had completely +hidden it, towards the forward part of the vessel, the workmen +unearthed an unpainted oblong box, almost seven feet in length. +It was of substantial material and looked newer than any of the +other stuff. Cleggett had it placed on one side of the hatchway +and sat down on it. It was tightly nailed up; all of its +surfaces were sound. Cleggett did not doubt that he would find +in it what he wanted, yet in order to be on the safe side he +continued to scrutinize everything else that came out of the +hold. + +But finally the hold was as empty as a drum, and Watkins and his +men departed. The oblong box upon which Cleggett sat was the +only possible receptacle of any sort in an undamaged condition, +which had been in the hold. He determined to have it opened in +the cabin. + +As he arose from it he was struck by its resemblance to the box +in Elmer's charge, the dank box of Reginald Maltravers, which +stood on one end near the cabin companionway, leaning against the +port side of the cabin so that it was not visible from the road, +which ran to the starboard of the Jasper B. But, since all +oblong boxes are bound to have a general resemblance, Cleggett, +at the time, thought little enough of this likeness. + +He called to George and Mr. Calthrop, who, with Dr. Farnsworth, +were forward receiving their first lecture on seamanship from +Cap'n Abernethy and Kuroki, to carry the box into the cabin. + +But as George and the Rev. Mr. Calthrop lifted the box to their +shoulders, Cleggett was startled by a loud and violent oath; a +veritable bellow of blasphemy that made him shudder. Turning, he +saw than an automobile had paused in the road. In the forward +part of the machine stood Loge, raving in an almost demoniac fury +and pointing at the box. He writhed in the grip of three men who +endeavored to restrain him. One of them was the sinister Pierre. + +Hoisting himself, as it were, on a mounting billow of his own +profanity, Loge cast himself with a wide swimming motion of his +arms from the auto. But one of the men clung to him; they came +to the ground together like tackler and tackled in a football +game. The others cast themselves out of the machine and flung +themselves upon their leader; he fought like a lion, but he was +finally overpowered and thrown back into the auto, which was +immediately started up and which made off towards Fairport at a +rattling speed. Three hundred yards away, however, Loge rose +again and shook a furious fist at the Jasper B., and though +Cleggett could not distinguish the words, the sense of Loge's +impotent rage rolled towards him on the wind in a roaring, +vibrant bass. + +The sight of the box that he had not been able to buy, in +Cleggett's possession, had stirred him beyond all caution; he had +actually contemplated an attempt to rush the Jasper B. in broad +daylight. + +But while this queer tableau of baffled rage was enacting itself +on the starboard bow of the Jasper B., a no less strange and far +less explicable thing was occurring on the port side. The swish +of oars and the ripple of a moving boat drew Cleggett's attention +in that direction as Loge's booming threats grew fainter. He saw +that two oarsmen, near the eastern and farther side of the canal, +had allowed the dainty, varnished little craft they were supposed +to propel to come to a rest in spite of the evident displeasure +of a man who sat in its stern. This third man was the same that +Cleggett had seen on the deck of the Annabel Lee with a spy +glass, and again that same morning driving the two almost nude +figures up and down the canal. + +The two oarsmen, Cleggett saw with surprise, rowed with shackled +feet; their feet were, indeed, chained to the boat itself. About +the wrists of each were steel bands; fixed to these bands were +chains, the other ends of which were locked to their oars. They +were, in effect, galley slaves. + +All this iron somewhat hampered their movements. But the reason +of their pause was an engrossing interest in the box of Reginald +Maltravers, which stood, as has already been said, on the port +side of the cabin, on one end, and so was visible from their +boat. They were looking at it with slack oars, dropped jaws and +starting eyes; the thing seemed to have fascinated them and +bereft them of motion; it was as if they were unable to get past +it at all. Elmer, worn out by his many long vigils, lay asleep +on the deck at the foot of the box, with an arm flung over his +face. + +The stout man, after vainly endeavoring to start his oarsmen with +words, took up an extra oar and began vigorously prodding them +with it. Cleggett had not seen this man look towards the Jasper +B., but he nevertheless had the feeling that the man had missed +little of what had been going on there. He seemed to be that kind +of man. + +His crew responding to the stabs of the oar, the little vessel +went perhaps fifty yards farther up the canal towards Parker's, +and then swung daintily around and came back towards the Jasper +B. at almost the speed of a racing shell, the men in chains +bending doggedly to their work. Cleggett saw that the boat must +pass close to the Jasper B., and leaned over the port rail. + +The man in the stern had picked up a magazine and was lolling +back reading it. As the boat passed under him Cleggett saw on +the cover page of the magazine a picture of the very man who was +perusing it. It was a singularly urbane face; both the +counterfeit presentment on the cover page and the real face were +smiling and calm and benign. Cleggett could read the legend on +the magazine cover accompanying the picture. It ran: + + Wilton Barnstable Tells In this Issue the Inside Story + of How he Broke up the Gigantic Smuggling Conspiracy. + +At that instant the man dropped the magazine and looked Cleggett +full in the face. He waved his arm in a meaning gesture in the +direction in which Loge had disappeared and said, with a gentle +shake of his head at Cleggett, as if he were chiding a naughty +child: + +"When thieves fall out--! When thieves fall out, my dear sir!" + +As he swept by he resumed his magazine with the pleased air of a +man who has delivered himself of a brilliant epigram; it showed +in his very shoulders. + +"And that," murmured Cleggett, "is Wilton Barnstable, the great +detective!" + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE SOUL OF LOGAN BLACK + +Wilton Barnstable, the great detective, having witnessed Loge's +outburst of wrath, had thought it signified a quarrel between +thieves, as his words to Cleggett indicated. He had thought +Cleggett a crook, and Loge's ally. + +Loge, on the other hand, had thought Cleggett a detective. He +had addressed him as "Mr. Detective" that morning at Morris's. +Loge believed the Jasper B. and the Annabel Lee to be allied +against him. + +Whereas Cleggett, until he had recognized Wilton Barnstable in +the boat, had thought it likely that the Annabel Lee and Morris's +were allied against the Jasper B. + +Now that Cleggett knew the commander of the Annabel Lee to be +Wilton Barnstable, his first impulse was to go to the Great +Detective and invite his cooperation against Loge and the gang at +Morris's. But almost instantly he reflected that he could not do +this. For there was the box of Reginald Maltravers! Indeed, how +did he know that it was not the box of Reginald Maltravers which +had brought the Great Detective to that vicinity? This man--of +world-wide fame, and reputed to possess an almost miraculous +instinct in the unraveling of criminal mysteries--might be even +now on the trail of Lady Agatha. If so, he was Cleggett's enemy. +When it came to a choice between the championship of Lady Agatha +and the defiance of Wilton Barnstable, and all that he +represented, Cleggett did not hesitate for an instant. + +There were still some aspects of the situation in which he found +himself that were as puzzling as ever to Cleggett. It is true +that he now knew why Loge's men had been in the hold of the +vessel; they had been there, no doubt, in an attempt to get +possession of the oblong, unpainted box which had caused Loge's +explosion of wrath; the box which was the real thing Loge had +tried to buy from Cleggett when he dickered for the purchase of +the Jasper B. But why this box should have been in the hold of +the vessel, Cleggett could not understand. And how Loge's men +had been able to get into and out of the hold without his +knowledge still perplexed him. + +The motive behind the attempt to dynamite the vessel was clear. +Having failed to purchase it, having failed to recover the box +from it, Loge had sought to destroy it with all on board. But +the strange character of this explosion still defied his powers +of analysis. And then there was the tenth Earl of Claiborne's +signet ring on the dead hand. Beyond the fact that it was a +circumstance which connected his fortunes with those of Lady +Agatha, he could make nothing at all of the signet ring. What, +he asked himself again and again, was the connection of the +criminal gang at Morris's with the proudest Earl in England? + +Loge himself was a puzzle to Cleggett. The man was a +counterfeiter. That he knew. The "queer" twenty-dollar bill, +which he had practically acknowledged, left no doubt of that. +But he was more than a counterfeiter. Cleggett believed him to +be also an anarchist. At least he was associated with +anarchists. + +But counterfeiting and anarchy are not ordinarily found together. +The anarchist is not a criminal in the more sordid sense. He is +the enemy of society as at present organized. He considers +society to be built on a thieving basis; he is not himself a +thief. He scorns and hates society, wishes to see it overturned, +and believes himself superior to it. He will commit the most +savage atrocities for the cause and cheerfully die for his +principles. The anarchist is not a crook. He is an idealist. + +Convinced that the unpainted oblong box would furnish a clew to +the man's real personality, Cleggett, assisted by Lady Agatha and +Dr. Farnsworth, opened it in the cabin. + +They first took out a number of plates, some broken, some intact, +for the manufacture of counterfeit notes of various +denominations. There was some of the fibrous paper used in this +process. There was a quantity of the apparatus essential to +engraving the plates. This stuff more than half filled the box. +Then there were a number of books. + +"Elementary textbooks," said Dr. Farnsworth, glancing at them. +On the flyleaf of one of them was written in a bold, firm hand: +"Logan Black." + +"Loge--or Logan Black," said Dr. Farnsworth, "has been giving +himself an education in the manufacture of high explosives." + +"But THESE aren't textbooks," said Lady Agatha, who had pulled +out three long, narrow volumes from the pile. "They're in +manuscript, and they look more like account books." + +The first of them, in Loge's handwriting, contained a series of +notes, mostly unintelligible to Cleggett, dealing with +experiments in two sorts of manufacture: first, the preparation +of counterfeit money; second, the production of dynamite bombs. + +The second of the manuscript books was in cipher. Cleggett might +have deciphered it without assistance, for he was skilled in +these matters, but the labor was not necessary. The book was for +Loge's own eye. A loose sheet of paper folded between the leaves +gave the key. + +The book showed that Loge had been employed as an expert +operator, in the pay of a certain radical organization, to pull +off dynamiting jobs in various parts of the country. This was +his account book with the organization. He had done his work and +taken his pay as methodically as a plumber might. And he had +been paid well. Cleggett guessed that Loge was not particularly +interested in the work in its relationship to the revolutionary +cause; it was the money to be made in this way, and not any +particular sympathy with his employers, which attracted Loge, so +Cleggett divined. Cleggett was astonished at the number of jobs +which Loge had engineered. The book threw light on mysterious +explosions which had occurred throughout a period of five years. + +But it was the third manuscript book which displayed the real +Logan Black. + +This was also in cipher. Dr. Farnsworth and Cleggett had +translated but a few lines of it when they perceived that it was +a diary. With a vanity almost inconceivable to those who have +not reflected upon the criminal nature, Loge had written here the +tale of his own life, for his own reading. He had written it in +loving detail. It was, in fact, the book in which he looked when +he wished to admire himself. + +"It is odd," said Cleggett, "that so clever a man should write +down his own story in this way." + +"This book," said Farnsworth, "would be a boon to a psychologist +interested in criminology. You say it is odd. But with a +certain type of criminal, it is almost usual. The human soul is +full of strange impulses. One of the strangest is towards just +this sort of record. Cunning, and the vanity which destroys +cunning, often exist side by side. The criminal of a certain +type almost worships himself; he is profoundly impressed with his +own cleverness. He is a braggart; he swaggers; he defeats +himself. A strange idiocy mingles with his cleverness." + +"Even people who are not criminals do just that sort of thing," +said Lady Agatha. "Look at Samuel Pepys. He was one of the most +timid of beings. And he valued his place in the world mightily. +But he wrote down the story of his own disgrace in his diary--it +had to come out of him! And then, timid and cautious as he was, +he did not destroy the book! He let it get out of his +possession." + +It was an evil, a monstrous personality which leered out of Logan +Black's diary. Boastful of his own iniquity, swaggering in his +wickedness, fatuous with self-love, he recounted his deeds with +gusto and with particularity. They did not read a quarter of +this terrible autobiography at the time, but they read enough to +see the man in the process of building up a criminal organization +of his own, with ramifications of the most surprising nature. + +"This man," said Dr. Farnsworth, with a shudder, "actually has +the ambition to be the head of nothing less than a crime trust." + +"It seems to be something more than an ambition," said Cleggett. +"It seems to be almost an accomplished fact." + +"Ugh!" said Lady Agatha, with a gesture of disgust, "he's like a +great horrid spider spinning webs!" + +Interested in anarchy only on its practical side, as the paid +dynamiter of the inner circle of radicals, Logan Black in his +diary jeered at and mocked the cause he served. And more than +that, the man seemed to take a perverted pleasure in attaching to +himself young enthusiasts of the radical type, eager to follow +him as the disinterested leader of a group of Reds, and then +betraying them into the most sordid sort of crime. Cleggett +found--and could imagine the grimace of malevolent satisfaction +with which it had been written--this note: + +Heinrich is about ready to leave off talking +his cant of universal brotherhood, and make a +little easy money in the way I have shown him. +It will be interesting to see what happens in +side of Heinrich when he realizes he is not an +idealist, but a criminal. Will he stick to me on +the new lay? But those Germans are so sentimental +--he may commit suicide. + +Cleggett recalled the manhandling Heinrich had received. A +little farther along he came upon this entry: + +The Italian-American boy is a find. Jones and +Giuseppe! Puritan father, Italian mother--and +he worships me! It will be a test for my personal +magnetism, the handling of Gieseppe Jones +will. He hates a thief worse than the devil hates +holy water. If I could make him steal for me, I +would know that I could do anything. + +"That's our young poet in the forecastle!" said Cleggett. "I +wonder if Loge still held him." And then as the memory of the +boy's ravings came to him he mused: "Yes--he held the boy! That +is what the fellow meant in his delirium. Do you remember that +he kept saying: 'I'm a revolutionist, not a crook!'? And yet he +continued to obey Loge!" + +"Is it not strange," said Lady Agatha, "that the man should take +such pride in working ruin?" + +All three were silent for a space. And then they looked at each +other with a shiver. The sense of the strong and sinister +personality of Logan Black struck on their spirits like a bleak +wind. + +Cleggett was the first to recover himself. + +"God willing," he said solemnly, "I will bring that man to +justice personally!" + +Just then two bells struck. It had taken them more time than +they had realized to make even a partial examination of the +contents of the box. Cleggett, when the bell sounded, looked at +his watch to see what time it was--he was still a little +unfamiliar with the nautical system. + +"He will go to any length to get this back into his possession," +said Cleggett, as he dumped the heap of incriminating evidence +back into the box and began to nail the boards on again. + +"Any length," echoed the Doctor. + +Pat upon the thought came the sound of taxicabs without. They +went on deck and saw a sinister procession rolling by. It +consisted of three machines, and there were three men in each +cab. Loge and Pierre were in the foremost one. None of the +company vouchsafed so much as a glance in the direction of the +Jasper B. as the cabs whirled past towards Morris's. It was +undoubtedly a reinforcement of gunmen. + +"Ah!" said Cleggett, pointing to them. "The real battle is about +to begin! They are making ready for the attack!" + + +CHAPTER XIV + +CLEGGETT STANDS BY HIS SHIP + +Cleggett did not fear (or rather, expect, since there was very +little that Cleggett feared) an attack until well after +nightfall. Nevertheless, he began to prepare for it at once. He +called the entire ship's company aft, with the exception of Miss +Medley, who was on duty with Giuseppe Jones. + +"My friends--for I hope we stand in the relation of friends as +well as that of commander and crew--I have every reason to expect +that the enemy will make a demonstration in force sometime during +the night," he said. "We have opposed to us the leader of a +dangerous and powerful criminal organization. He is, in fact, +the president of a crime trust. He will stop at nothing to +compass the destruction of the Jasper B. and all on board her. +My quarrel with him has become, in a sense, personal. I have no +right to ask you to share my risk unless you choose to do so +voluntarily. Therefore, if there is anyone of you who wishes to +leave the Jasper B., let him do it now." + +Cleggett paused. But not a man moved. On the contrary, a little +murmur of something like reproach ran around the semicircle. The +ship's company looked in each other's eyes; they stood shifting +their feet uneasily. + +Finally Cap'n Abernethy spoke, clearing his throat with a +prefatory hem: + +"If you was to ask me, Mr. Cleggett," said the Captain, with less +than his usual circumlocution, "I'd say the boys here ain't +flattered by what you've just said. The boys here DOES consider +themselves friends of yours, and if you was anxious to hear my +opinion of it I'd say you've hurt their feelin's by your way of +putting it. Speakin' for myself, Mr. Cleggett, as the nautical +commander of this here ship to the military commander, I don't +mind owning up that MY feelin's is hurt." + +"Aye, aye, sir," said George the Greek, addressing the nautical +commander, and the word went from lip to lip. + +"Aye, aye, sir," said Dr. Farnsworth, "the Captain speaks for us +all." + +And the Reverend Mr. Calthrop remarked with a sigh: "You may +have cause to doubt my circumspection, Mr. Cleggett, but you have +no cause to doubt my courage." + +Cleggett was not the sort of man who is ashamed to acknowledge an +error. "Friends," he cried impulsively, "forgive me! I should +have known better than to phrase my remarks as I did. I would +not have hurt your feelings for worlds. I know you are devoted +to me. I call for volunteers for the perilous adventure which is +before us!" + +The ship's company stepped forward as one man. As if by magic +the atmosphere cleared. + +"Now," said Cleggett, smiling back on the enthusiastic faces +before him, but inexpressibly touched by the fineness of his +crew's devotion, "to get to the point. There are seven of us, +but there are at least a dozen of them. We have, however, the +advantage in position, for we can find cover on the ship, whereas +they must attack from the open. More than that, we will have the +advantage in arms; here is a magazine rifle for each of you, +while they, if I am not mistaken, will attack with pistols. We +must keep them at a distance, if possible. If they should +attempt to rush us we will meet them with cutlasses and sabers." + +"Mr. Cleggett," said Lady Agatha, rising when he had finished, +and speaking with animation, "will you permit me to make a +suggestion?" + +She went on, without waiting for an answer: "It is this: Choose +your own ground for this battle! The Jasper B. is now a +full-rigged schooner. Very well, then, sail her! At the moment +you are attacked, weigh anchor, fight your way to the mouth of +the canal, take up a position in the bay in front of Morris's +within easy rifle range and out of pistol shot, and compel the +place to surrender on your own terms!" + +As the brilliance of this plan flashed upon her hearers, applause +ran around the room, and Kuroki, who spoke seldom, cried in +admiration: + +"The Honorable Miss Englishman have hit her head on the nail! +Let there be some naval warfares!" + +"You are right," cried Cleggett, catching fire with the idea, "a +hundred times right! And why wait to be attacked? Let us carry +the war to the enemy's coast. Crack all sail upon her!--Up with +the anchors! We will show these gentry that the blood of Drake, +Nelson, and Old Dave Farragut still runs red in the veins of +their countrymen!" + +"Banzai!" cried Kuroki. "Also Honorable Admiral Togo's veins!" + +A good breeze had sprung up out of the northwest while the +conference in the cabin was in progress. + +Cleggett was relieved that it was not from the south. There is +not much room to maneuver a schooner in a canal, and a breeze +from the south might have sailed the Jasper B. backwards towards +Parker's Beach, which would undoubtedly have given the enemy the +idea that Cleggett was retreating. The Jasper B.'s bow was +pointed south, and Cleggett was naturally anxious that she should +sail south. + +At the outset a slight difficulty presented itself with regard to +the anchors--for although, as has been explained before, the +Jasper B. was a remarkably stable vessel, Cleggett had had the +new anchors furnished by the contractor let down. Having the +anchors down seemed, somehow, to make things more shipshape. It +appeared that no one of the adventurers was acquainted with an +anchor song, and Cleggett, and, indeed, all on board, felt that +these anchors should be hoisted to the accompaniment of some +rousing chantey. Lady Agatha was especially insistent on the +point. + +While they stood about the capstan debating the matter the +Reverend Simeon Calthrop hesitatingly offered a suggestion which +showed that, while he was a novice as far as the nautical life +was concerned, he was also a person of resource. + +"How many of those present," inquired the young preacher, "know +'Onward Christian Soldiers'?" + +All were acquainted with the hymn; the pastor grasped a capstan +bar and struck up the song in an agreeable tenor voice; they put +their backs into the work and their hearts into the song, and the +anchors of the Jasper B. came out of mud to the stirring notes of +"Onward Christian Soldiers, marching as to war!" + +While they were so engaged the breeze strengthened perceptibly. +Looking towards the west, Cleggett perceived the sun sinking +below the horizon. A long, blue, low-lying bank of clouds seemed +to engulf it; for a moment the top of this cloud was shot through +with a golden color; then a mass of quicker moving, nearer vapors +from the north seemed to leap suddenly nearer still; to extend +itself at a bound over almost a third of the sky; in a breath the +day was gone; a storm threatened. + +The rising wind made the task of getting the canvas on the poles +extraordinarily difficult. Cleggett was well aware that the +usual method of procedure, in the presence of a storm, is rather +to take in sail than to crack on; but, always the original, he +decided in this case to reverse the common custom. Ashore or at +sea, he never permitted himself to be the slave of +conventionalities. The Jasper B. had lain so long in one spot +that it would undoubtedly take more than a capful of wind to move +her. Cleggett did not know when he would get such a strong wind +again, coming from the right direction, and determined to make +the most of this one while he had it. Genius partly consists in +the acuteness which grasps opportunities. + +From the struggles of Cap'n Abernethy and the crew with the +canvas, which he saw none too clearly through the increasing dusk +from his post at the wheel, Cleggett judged that the wind was +indeed strong enough for his purpose. Yards, sheets and sails +seemed to be acting in the most singular manner. He could not +remember reading of any parallel case in the treatises on +navigation which he had perused. Every now and then the Cap'n or +one of the crew would be jerked clean off his feet by some quick +and unexpected motion of a sail and flung into the water. When +this occurred the person who had been ducked crawled out on the +bank of the canal again and went on board by way of the +gangplank, returning stubbornly to his task. + +The booms in particular were possessed of a restless and unstable +spirit. They made sudden swoops, sweeps, and dashes in all +directions. Sometimes as many as three of the crew of the Jasper +B. would be knocked to the deck or into the water by a boom at +the same time. But Cleggett noted with satisfaction that they +were plucky; they stuck valiantly to the job. A doubt assailed +Cleggett as to the competence of Cap'n Abernethy, but he was +loyal and fought it down. + +Finally Cap'n Abernethy hit upon a novel and ingenious idea. He +tied stout lines to the ends of the booms. The other ends of +these ropes he ran through the eyes of a couple of spare anchors. +Taking the anchors ashore, he made them fast to the wooden +platform which was alongside the Jasper B. Then he took up the +slack in the lines, pulling them taut and fastening them tightly. + +Thus the booms were held fast and stiff in position, and the crew +could get the canvas spread without being endangered by their +strange and unaccountable actions. + +This brilliant idea of anchoring the booms to the land would not +have been practicable had it not been for a whimsical cessation +of the wind, a lull such as incident to the coming of spring +storms in these latitudes. While the wind was in abeyance the +men got the sails spread. Then the Captain untied the lines, +brought the spare anchors on board, knocked the gangplank loose +with a few blows of his ax, and waited for the wind to resume. + +When the wind did blow again it came in a gust which was +accompanied by a twinkle of lightening over the whole sky and +grumble of thunder. A whirl of dust and fine gravel enveloped +the Jasper B. For a moment it was like a sandstorm. A few large +drops of water fell. The gust was violent; the sails filled with +it and struggled like kites to be free; here and there a strand +of rope snapped; the masts bent and creaked; the booms jumped and +swung round like live things; the whole ship from bowsprit to +rudder shook and trembled with the assault. + +Cleggett, watchful at the wheel, prepared to turn her nose away +from the bank, but he was astonished to perceive that in spite of +her quaking and shivering the Jasper B. did not move one inch +forward from her position. He was prepared for a certain +stability on the part of the Jasper B., but not for quite so much +of it. + +With the next gust the storm was on them in earnest. This blast +came with zigzag flashes of lightning that showed the heavens +riotous with battalions of charging clouds; it came with +deafening thunder and a torrential discharge of rain. One would +have thought the power of the wind sufficient to set a steel +battleship scudding before it like a wooden shoe. And yet the +extraordinary Jasper B., although she shrieked and groaned and +seemed to stagger with the force of the blow, did not move either +forward or sidewise. + +She flinched, but she stood her ground. + +Second by second the storm increased in fury; in a moment it was +no longer merely a storm, it was a tempest. Cleggett, alarmed +for the safety of his masts, now ordered his men to take in sail. + +But even as he gave the order he realized that it could no longer +be done. A cloudburst, a hurricane, an electrical bombardment, +struck the Jasper B. all at once. One could not hear one's own +voice. In the glare of the lightning Cleggett saw the rigging +tossing in an indescribable confusion of canvas, spars, and +ropes. Both masts and the bowsprit snapped at almost the same +instant. The whole chaotic mass was lifted; it writhed in the +air a moment, and then it came crashing down, partly on the deck +and partly in the seething waters of the canal, where it lay and +whipped ship and water with lashing tentacles of wreckage. + +But still the unusual Jasper B. had not moved from her position. + +Cleggett's men had had warning enough to save themselves. They +gathered around him to wait for orders. More than one of them +cast anxious glances towards the land. Shouting to them to +attack the debris with axes, and setting the example himself, +Cleggett soon saw the deck clear again, and the Jasper B., to all +intents, the same hulk she had been when he bought her. But such +was the fury of the tempest that even with the big kites gone the +Jasper B. continued to shake and quiver where she lay. Speech +was almost impossible on deck, but Cap'n Abernethy signed to +Cleggett that he had something important to say to him. + +The whole company adjourned to the cabin, and there, shouting to +make himself heard, the Cap'n cried out: + +"Her timbers have been strained something terrible, Mr. Cleggett. + +She ain't what I would call safe and seaworthy any more. The' +don't seem to be any danger of her sailin' off, but that's no +sign she can't be blowed over onto her beam ends and sunk with +all on board. If you was to ask me, Mr. Cleggett, I'd say the +time had come to leave the Jasper B. " + +The anxiety depicted on the faces of the little circle about him +might have communicated itself to a less intrepid nature. The +old Cap'n himself was no coward. Indeed, in owning to his alarm +he had really done a brave thing, since few have the moral +courage to proclaim themselves afraid. But Cleggett was a man of +iron. Although the tempest smote the hulk with blow after blow, +although both earth and water seemed to lie prostrate and +trampled beneath its unappeasable fury, Cleggett had no thought +of yielding. + +Unconsciously he drew himself up. It seemed to his crew that he +actually gained in girth and height. The soul, in certain great +moments, seems to have power to expand the body and inform it +with the quality of immortality; Ajax, in his magnificent gesture +of defiance, is all spirit. Cleggett, with his hand on his hip, +uttered these words, not without their sublimity: + +"Whether the Jasper B. sinks or swims, her commander will share +her fate. I stay by my ship!" + + +CHAPTER XV + +NIGHT, TEMPEST, LOVE AND BATTLE + +And, indeed, if Cleggett had been of a mind to abandon the +vessel, he could scarcely have done so now. For his words were +no more than uttered when the sharp racket of a volley of pistol +shots ripped its way through the low-pitched roaring of the wind. + +Loge had chosen the height of the storm to mask his approach. He +attacked with the tempest. + +Without a word Cleggett put out the light in the cabin. His men +grasped their weapons and followed him to the deck. A flash of +lightning showed him, through the driving rain, the enemy rushing +towards the Jasper B., pistol in hand. They were scarcely sixty +yards away, and were firing as they came. Loge, a revolver in +one hand, and Cleggett's own sword cane in the other, was leading +the rush. Besides their firearms, each of Loge's men carried a +wicked-looking machete. + +"Fire!" shouted Cleggett. "Let them have it, men!" And the +rifles blazed from the deck of the Jasper B. in a crashing +volley. Instantly the world was dark again; it was impossible to +determine whether the fire of the Jasper B. had taken effect. + +"To the starboard bulwark," cried Cleggett, "and give them hell +with the next lightning flash!" + +It came as he spoke, with its vivid glare showing to Cleggett the +enemy magnified to a portentous bigness against a background of +chaotic night. Two or three of them stood, leaning keenly +forward; several of the others had dropped to one knee; the rifle +discharge had checked the rush, and they also were waiting for +the lightning. Cleggett and his men threw a second volley at +this wavering silhouette of astonishment. + +A cartridge jammed in the mechanism of Cleggett's gun. With an +oath he flung the weapon to the deck. A hand thrust another one +into his grasp, and Lady Agatha's voice said in his ear, "Take +this one--it's loaded." + +"My God," said Cleggett, "I thought you were in the cabin!" + +"Not I!" she cried, "I'm loading!" + +Just then the lightning came again and showed her to him plainly. +Drenched, bare-armed, bareheaded, her hair down and rolling +backward in a rich wet mass, she knelt on the deck behind the +bulwark. Her eyes blazed with excitement, and there was a smile +upon her lips. Beside her was the zinc bucket half full of +cartridges. George tossed a rifle to her. She flung him back a +loaded one, and began methodically to fill the empty one with +cartridges. + +"Agatha," shouted Cleggett, catching her by the wrist, "go to the +cabin at once--you will get yourself killed!" + +"I'll do nothing of the sort!" she shouted. + +"I love you!" cried Cleggett, beside himself with fear for her, +and scarcely knowing what his words were. "Do you hear--I love +you, and I won't have you killed!" + +A bullet ripped its way through the bulwark, perforated the zinc +bucket, struck the gun which Lady Agatha was loading and knocked +it from her hands. + +"Go to the cabin yourself!" she shouted in Cleggett's ear. "As +for me, I like it!" + +"I tell you," shouted Cleggett, "I won't have you here--I won't +have you killed!" + +He rose to his feet, and attempted to draw her out of danger. +She rose likewise and struggled with him in the dark. She +wrenched herself free, and in doing so flung him back against the +rail; it lightened again, and she screamed. Cleggett turned, and +with the next flash saw that one of the enemy, his face bloody +from the graze of a bullet across his forehead, and evidently +crazed with excitement of fight and storm, was leaping towards +the rail of the vessel. + +Cleggett stooped to pick up a gun, but as he stooped the madman +vaulted over the bulwark and landed upon him, bearing him to the +deck. As he struggled to his feet Lady Agatha, who had grasped a +cutlass, cut the fellow down. The man fell back over the rail +with a cry. + +For a long moment there was one continuous electric flash from +horizon to horizon, and Cleggett saw her, with windblown hair and +wide eyes and parted lips, standing poised with the red blade in +her hand beneath the driving clouds, the figure of an antique +goddess. + +The next instant all was dark; her arms were around his neck in +the rain. "Oh, Clement," she sobbed, "I've killed a man! I've +killed a man!" + + +CHAPTER XVI + +ROMANCE REGNANT + +Cleggett kissed her. . . . + + +CHAPTER XVII + +MISS PRINGLE CALLS ON MR. CLEGGETT + +But the rushing onset of events struck them apart. Out of the +night leaped danger, enhancing love and forbidding it. From the +starboard bow Captain Abernethy shrilled a cry of warning, and +the heavy, bellowing voice of Loge shouted an answer of challenge +and ferocity. The wind had fallen, but the lightning played from +the clouds now almost without intermission. Cleggett saw Loge +and his followers, machete in hand, flinging themselves at the +rail. They lifted a hoarse cheer as they came. The fire from +the Jasper B. had checked the assault temporarily; it had not +broken it up; once they found lodgment on the deck the superior +numbers of Loge's crowd must inevitably tell. + +Loge was a dozen feet in advance of his men. He had cast aside +the light sword which belonged to Cleggett, and now swung a grim +machete in his hand. Cleggett flung down his gun, grasped a +cutlass, and sprang forward, his one idea to come to close +quarters with that gigantic figure of rage and power. + +But before Loge reached the bulwark on one side, and while +Cleggett was bounding toward him on the other, this on-coming +group of Cleggett's foes were suddenly smitten in the rear as if +by a thunderbolt. Out of the night and storm, mad with terror, +screaming like fiends, with distended nostrils and flying manes +and flailing hoofs, there plunged into the midst of the +assaulting party a pair of snow-white horses--astounding, +felling, trampling, scattering, filling them with confusion. A +rocking carriage leaped and bounded behind the furious animals, +and as the horses struck the bulwark and swerved aside, its +weight and bulk, hurled like a missile among Cleggett's staggered +and struggling enemies, completed and confirmed their panic. + +No troops on earth can stand the shock of a cavalry charge in the +rear and flank; few can face surprise; the boarding party, +convinced that they had fallen into a trap, melted away. One +moment they were sweeping forward, vicious and formidable, +confident of victory; the next they were floundering weaponless, +scrambling anyhow for safety, multiplying and transforming, with +the quick imagination of panic terror, these two horses into a +troop of mounted men. + +This sudden and almost spectral apparition of galloping steeds +and flying carriage, hurled upon the vessel out of the tempest, +flung, a piece of whirling chaos, from the chaotic skies, had +almost as startling an effect upon the defenders. For a moment +they paused, with weapons uplifted, and stared. Where an enemy +had been, there was nothing. So doubtful Greeks or Trojans might +have paused and stared upon the plains of Ilion when some +splenetic and fickle deity burst unannounced and overwhelming +into the central clamor of the battle. + +But it is in these seconds of pause and doubt that great +commanders assert themselves; it is these electric seconds from +which the hero gathers his vital lightning and forges his mordant +bolt. Genius claims and rules these instants, and the gods are +on the side of those who boldly grasp loose wisdom and bind it +into sheaves of judgment. Cleggett (whom Homer would have loved) +was the first to recover his poise. He came to his decision +instantaneously. A lesser man might have lost all by rushing +after his retreating enemies; a lesser man, carried away by +excitement, would have pursued. Cleggett did not relax his grasp +upon the situation, he restrained his ardor. + +"Stand firm, men! Do not leave the ship," he shouted. "The day +is ours!" + +And then, turning to Captain Abernethy, he cried: + +"We have routed them!" + +"Look at them crazy horses!" screamed the Captain in reply. + +The animals were rearing and struggling among the ruins of the +broken gangplank. As the Captain spoke, they plunged aboard the +ship, and the carriage, bounding after them, overturned on the +deck--horses and carriage came down together in a welter of +splintering wheels and broken harness and crashing wood. + +A negro driver, whom Cleggett now noticed for the first time, +shot clear of the mass and landed on the deck in a sitting +posture. + +For a moment, there he sat, and did nothing more. The pole broke +loose from the carriage, the traces parted, and the two big white +horses, still kicking and plunging, struggled to their feet and +free from the wreckage. Still side by side they leaped the port +bulwark, splashed into the canal, and swam straight across it, as +if animated with the instinct of going straight ahead in that +fashion to the end of the world. Cleggett never saw or heard of +them again. + +"Bring a lantern," said Cleggett to Abernethy. "Let's see if this +man is badly hurt." + +But the negro was not injured. He rose to his feet as the +Captain brought the light--the storm was now subsiding, and the +lightning was less frequent--and stood revealed as a person of +surprising size and unusual blackness. He was, in fact, so black +that it was no wonder that Cleggett had not seen him on the seat +of the carriage, for unless one turned a light full upon him his +face could not be seen at all after dark. He was in a blue +livery, and his high, cockaded coachman's hat had stayed on his +head in spite of everything. + +Even sitting down on the deck he had possessed an air of +patience. When he arose and the Captain flashed the light upon +his face, it revealed a countenance full of dignified good humor. + +"Where did you come from?" asked Cleggett. + +The negro removed the hat with the cockade before answering. He +did it politely. Even ceremoniously. But he did not do it +hastily. He had the air of one who was never inclined to do +things hastily. + +"From Newahk, sah," he said. "Newahk, New Jehsey, sah." + +"But who are you?" said Cleggett. "How did you get here?" + +The negro was gazing reflectively at the broken carriage. + +"Ah yo' Mistah Cleggett, sah? Mistah Clement J. Cleggett, sah, +the ownah of dis hyeah boat?" + +"Yes." + +The negro fumbled in an inner pocket and produced a card. He +gave it to Cleggett with a deferential bow, and then announced +sonorously: + +"Miss Genevieve Pringle, sah--in de cah-age, sah--a callin' on +Mistah Clement J. Cleggett." + +He completed the announcement with a dignified and courtly +gesture, which seemed to indicate that he was presenting the +ruined carriage itself to Cleggett. + +"You don't mean in that carriage?" cried Cleggett. + +"Yes, sah," said the negro. "Leas'ways, she was, sah, some time +back. Mah time an' mah 'tention done been so tooken up wif dem +incompatible hosses fo' some moments past, sah, dat I cain't say +fo' suah ef she adheahed, or ef she didn't adheah." + +He glanced speculatively at the carriage again. Cleggett sprang +towards the broken vehicle, expecting to find someone seriously +injured at the very least. But, from the ruin, a precise and +high-pitched feminine voice piped out: + +"Jefferson! Kindly assist me to disentangle myself!" + +"Yassum," said the negro, moving forward in a leisurely and +dignified manner, "comin', ma'am. I hopes an' trusts, Miss +Pringle, ma'am, yo' ain't suffered none in yo' anatomy an' +phlebotomy from dis hyeah runaway." + +With which cheerful wish Jefferson lifted respectfully, and with +a certain calm detachment, the figure of a woman from the debris. + +"Thank you, Jefferson," she said. "I fear I am very much bruised +and shaken, but I have been feeling all my bones while lying +there, and I believe that I have sustained no fractures." + +Miss Pringle was a woman of about fifty, small and prim. Prim +with an unconquerable primness that neither storm nor battle nor +accident could shake. If she had been killed in the runaway she +would have looked prim in death while awaiting the undertaker. +She must have been wet almost to those unfractured bones which +she had been feeling; her black silk dress, with its white +ruching about the neck, was torn and bedraggled; her black hat, +with its jet ornaments, was crushed and hung askew over one ear; +nevertheless, Miss Pringle conveyed at once and definitely an +impression of unassailable respectability and strong character. + +"Which of you is Mr. Cleggett?" she asked, looking about her, in +the lantern light, at the crew of the Jasper B., as she leaned +upon the arm of Jefferson, her mannerly and deliberate servitor. + +"I am Mr. Cleggett." + +"Ah!" Miss Pringle inspected him with an eye which gleamed with +a hint of latent possibilities of belligerency. "Mr. Cleggett," +she continued, pursing her lips, "I have sought an interview to +warn you that you are harboring an impostor on your ship." + +At that moment Lady Agatha joined the group. As the light fell +upon her Miss Pringle stepped forward and thrust an accusing, a +denunciatory finger at the Englishwoman. + +"You," she said, "call yourself Lady Agatha Fairhaven!" + +"I do," said Lady Agatha. + +"Woman!" cried Miss Pringle, shaking with the stress of her moral +wrath. "Where are my plum preserves?" + +And with this cryptic utterance the little lady, having come to +the end of her strength, primly fainted. + +Jefferson picked her up and carried her, in a serene and stately +manner, to the cabin. + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE MAN IN THE BLUE PAJAMAS + +The rain had ceased almost as Miss Pringle was removed to the +cabin. The storm had passed. Low down on the edges of the world +there were still a few dark clouds, there was still an occasional +glimmer of lightning; but overhead the mists were fleecy, light +and broken. A few stars were visible here and there. + +And then in a moment more a full moon rose high and serene above +the world. The May moon is often very brilliant in these +latitudes, as sailors who are familiar with the coasts of Long +Island can testify. This moon was unusually brilliant, even for +the season of the year and the quarter of the globe. It lighted +up earth and sky so that it was (in the familiar phrase) almost +possible to read by it. Only a few moments had elapsed since the +rout of Logan Black's ruffians, but in the vicinity of this +remarkable island such sudden meteorological changes are anything +but rare, geographers and travelers know. + +Lady Agatha had gone into the cabin to resuscitate Miss Pringle +and, as she said, "have it out with her." Cleggett, gazing from +the deck towards Morris's, in the strong moonlight, wondered when +the attack would be renewed. He thought, on the whole, that it +was improbable that Loge would return to the assault while this +brightness continued. + +Suddenly three figures appeared within his range of vision. They +were running. But running slowly, painfully, lamely. In the +lead were the two men whom he had first seen hazed up and down +the bank of the canal by Wilton Barnstable, and whom he had seen +the second time chained in the great detective's boat. + +They were shackled wrist to wrist now. To the left leg of one of +them was attached a heavy ball. A similar ball was attached to +the right leg of the other. They had picked these balls up and +were struggling along under their weight at a gait which was more +like a staggering walk than a trot. + +They were pursued by the man whom Cleggett had seen attempt to +escape from Morris's. This man still wore his suit of baby blue +pajamas. + +He wore nothing else. He was stiff. He moved as if the ground +hurt his bare feet. + +He especially favored, as Cleggett noticed, the foot on which +there was a bunion. He was lame. He crept rather than ran. But +he seemed bitterly intent upon reaching the two men in irons who +labored along twenty or thirty feet ahead of him. And they, on +their part, casting now and then backward glances over their +shoulders at their pursuer. + +Cleggett divined that the men in irons had escaped from the +Annabel Lee, and that the man in the baby blue pajamas was loose +from Morris's. But why the man in the pajamas pursued and the +others fled he could not guess. + +They passed within fifty yards of the Jasper B. But the men in +irons were so intent upon their own troubles, and the pursuer was +so keen on vengeance, that none of them noticed the vessel. As +they limped along, splashing through the pools the rain had left, +the pursuer would occasionally pause to fling stones and sticks +and even cakes of mud at the fugitives, who were whimpering as +they tottered forward. + +The man in the baby blue pajamas was cursing in a high-pitched, +nasal, querulous voice. Cleggett noticed with astonishment that +a single-barreled eyeglass was screwed into one of his eyes. +Occasionally it dropped to the ground, and he would stop and +fumble for it and wipe it on his wet sleeve and replace it. Had +it not been for these stops he would have overtaken the men in +irons. + +"Clement!" Lady Agatha laid her hand upon his arm. "Miss Pringle +wants to see you in the cabin." + +"Well--imposter!" laughed Cleggett. "Is she able to talk to you +yet? And what on earth did she mean by her plum preserves?" + +"That is what she wants to tell, evidently," said Lady Agatha. +And she went aft with him. + +Miss Pringle, who had been rubbed dry by Lady Agatha, and was now +dressed in some articles of that lady's clothing, which were much +too large for her, sat on the edge of the bed in Lady Agatha's +stateroom and awaited them. Her appearance was scarcely +conventional, and she seemed to feel it; nevertheless, she had a +duty to perform, and her innate propriety still triumphed over +her situation and habiliments. + +"Mr. Cleggett," she said, pointing to the box which contained the +evidence against Logan Black, which was exactly similar to the +box of Reginald Maltravers, and which had been placed in this +inner room for safe-keeping, "what does that box contain?" + +Cleggett was startled. He and Lady Agatha exchanged glances. + +"What do you think it contains?" he asked. + +"That box," she said, "was shipped to me from Flatbush, and was +claimed in my name--in the name of Genevieve Pringle--at the +freight depot at Newark, New Jersey, by this lady here. Deny it +if you can!" + +"I do deny it, Miss Pringle," said Lady Agatha, accompanying her +words with a winsome smile. But Miss Pringle was not to be won +over so easily as all that; she met the smile with a look of +steady reprobation. And then she turned to Cleggett again. + +"Mr. Cleggett," she said, "my birthday occurred a few days ago. +It was--I have nothing to conceal, Mr. Cleggett--it was my +forty-ninth birthday. Every year, for many years past, a niece +of mine who lives in Flatbush sends me on my birthday a box of +plum preserves. + +"These preserves have for me, Mr. Cleggett, a value that they +would not possess for anyone else; a value far above their +intrinsic or, as one might say, culinary value. They have a +sentimental value as well. I was born in Flatbush, and lived +there, during my youth, on my father's estate. The city has +since grown around the old place, which my niece now owns, but +the plum trees stand as they have stood for more than fifty +years. It was beneath these plum trees. . . ." + +Miss Pringle suddenly broke off; her face twitched; she felt for +a handkerchief, and found none; she wiped her eyes on her sleeve. + +In another person this action might have appeared somewhat +careless, but Miss Pringle, by the force of her character, +managed to invest it with propriety and dignity; looking at her, +one felt that to wipe one's eyes on one's sleeve was quite proper +when done by the proper person. + +"I will conceal nothing, Mr. Cleggett. It was under these plum +trees that I once received an offer of marriage from a worthy +young man. It was from one of these plum trees that he later +fell, injuring himself so that he died. You can understand what +these plum trees mean to me, perhaps?" + +Lady Agatha impulsively sat down beside the elder woman and put +her arm about her. But Miss Pringle stiffly moved away. After a +moment she continued: + +"The preserved plums, as I have said, are sent me every year on +my birthday. This year, when I received from my niece a +notification that they had been shipped, I called for the box +personally at the freight office. + +"What was my astonishment to learn that the box had been claimed +in my name, not a quarter of an hour before, and taken away. + +"I obtained a description of the person who had represented +herself as Miss Genevieve Pringle, and of the vehicle in which +she had carried off my box. And I followed her. The paltriness +of the theft revolted me, Mr. Cleggett, and I determined to bring +this person to justice. + +"The fugitive, with my plum preserves in her possession, had +left, goodness knows, a broad enough trail. I found but little +difficulty in following in my family carriage. In fact, Mr. +Cleggett, I discovered the very chauffeur who had deposited her +here with the box. Inquiries in Fairport gave me your name as +the owner of this lighter." + +"Lighter!" interrupted Cleggett. "The Jasper B., madam, is not +a lighter." + +"I beg your pardon," said Miss Pringle. "But what sort of vessel +is it then?" + +"The Jasper B.," said Cleggett, with a touch of asperity, "is a +schooner, madam." + + "I intended no offense, Mr. Cleggett. I am quite willing to +believe that the vessel is a schooner, since you say that it is. +I am not informed concerning nautical affairs. But, to +conclude--I discovered from the chauffeur that this lady, calling +herself Lady Agatha Fairhaven, had been deposited here, with my +box. I learned yesterday, after inquiries in Fairport, that you +were the owner of this vessel. The real estate person from whom +you purchased it assured me that you were financially +responsible. I came to expose this imposter and to recover my +box. On my way hither I was caught in the storm. The runaway +occurred, and you know the rest." + +Miss Pringle, during this recital, had not deigned to favor Lady +Agatha with a look. Lady Agatha, on her part, after the rebuff +which she had received, had sat in smiling silence. + +"Miss Pringle," she said, pleasantly but seriously, when the +other woman had finished, "first I must convince you that this +box does not contain your plum preserves, and then I will tell +you my story." + +With Cleggett's assistance Lady Agatha removed the cover from the +oblong box, and showed her its contents. + +"That explains nothing," said Miss Pringle, dryly. "Of course +you would remove the plum preserves to a place of safety." + +"Miss Pringle," said Lady Agatha, "I will tell you everything. I +DID claim a box in your name at the railway goods station in +Newark--and if there had been nothing in it but plum preserves, +how happy I should be! I beg of you, Miss Pringle, to give me +your attention." + +And Lady Agatha began to relate to Miss Pringle the same story +which she had told to Cleggett. At the first word indicative of +the fact the Lady Agatha had suffered for the cause of votes for +women, a change took place in the expression of Miss Pringle's +countenance. Cleggett thought she was about to speak. But she +did not. Nevertheless, although she listened intently, some of +her rigidity had gone. When Lady Agatha had finished Miss +Pringle said: + +"I suppose that you can prove that you are really Lady Agatha +Fairhaven?" + +For answer Lady Agatha went to one of her trunks and opened it. +She drew therefrom a letter, and passed it over without a word. + +As Miss Pringle read it, her face lighted up. She did not lose +her primness, but her suspicion seemed altogether to depart. + +"A letter from Emmeline Pankhurst!" she said, in a hushed voice, +handling the missive as if it were a sacred relic. "Can you ever +forgive me?" + +"There is nothing to forgive," beamed Lady Agatha. "I am willing +to admit, now that you understand me, that the thing looked a bit +suspicious, on the face of it." + +"You have suffered for the cause," said Miss Pringle. "I have +suffered for it, too!" And, with a certain shyness, she patted +Lady Agatha on the arm. But the next moment she said: + +"But what IS in the box you brought here then, Lady Agatha? Two +boxes were shipped to Newark, addressed to me. Which one did you +get? What is really in the one you have been carrying around? +My plum preserves, or----" + +She shuddered and left the sentence unfinished. + +"Let us open it," said Cleggett. + +"No! No!" cried Lady Agatha. "Clement, no! I could not bear to +have it opened." + +Miss Pringle rose. It was evident that a bit of her earlier +suspicion had returned. + +"After all," said Miss Pringle, indicating the letter again, "how +do I know that----" + +"That it is not a forgery?" said Lady Agatha. "I see." She mused +a moment, and then said, with a sigh, "Well, then, let us open +the box!" + +"I think it best, Agatha," said Cleggett. "I shall have it +brought down." + +But even as he turned upon his heel to go on deck and give the +order, Dr. Farnsworth and the Rev. Simeon Calthrop ran excitedly +down the cabin companionway. + +"The box of Reginald Maltravers," cried the Doctor, who was in +Cleggett's confidence, "is gone!" + + +CHAPTER XIX + +TWO GREAT MEN MEET + +"Gone!" Lady Agatha, who had emerged from her stateroom, turned +pale and caught at her heart. + +They rushed on deck. The young Doctor was right; the box, which +had stood on the larboard side of the cabin, had disappeared. + +"It might have been blown into the canal during the storm," +suggested the Rev. Mr. Calthrop. All of the crew of the Jasper +B. knew Lady Agatha's story, and were aware of the importance of +the box. + +"It was on the lee side of the cabin," objected Dr. Farnsworth, +"and while it might have been blown flat to the deck, in spite of +its protected position, it would scarcely have been picked up by +the wind again and wafted over the port bulwarks." + +"If you was to ask me," said Cap'n Abernethy, who had joined in +the discussion, "I'd give it as MY opinion it's a good riddance +of bad rubbish." + +"Rubbish?" said Miss Pringle. "Rubbish, indeed! I am confident +that that box contained my plum preserves!" + +"It has been stolen!" cried Cleggett, with conviction. "Fool +that I was, not to have taken it into the cabin!" + +"But, if you had, you know," said Lady Agatha, "one would +scarcely have cared to stay in there with it." + +"Loge has outgeneraled me," murmured Cleggett, well-nigh frantic +with self-reproach. "While he made the attack in front, he sent +some of his men to the rear of the vessel and it was quietly made +off with while we were fighting." Had the disappearance of the +box concerned himself alone Cleggett's sense of disaster might +have been less poignant. But the thought that his own +carelessness had enabled the enemy to get possession of a thing +likely to involve Lady Agatha in further trouble was nearly +insupportable. He gritted his teeth and clenched his hands in +impotent rage. + +"No doubt Loge caught sight of it during the early part of the +skirmish, by a flash of lightning," said Dr. Farnsworth, "and +acted as you suggest, Mr. Cleggett. But does he believe it to be +the box which contains the evidence against him? Or can he, by +any chance, be aware of its real contents?" + +"No matter which," groaned Cleggett, "no matter which! For when +he opens it, he will learn what is in it. Don't you see that he +has us now? If he offers to trade it back to us for the other +oblong box, how can I refuse? If we have his secret, Loge has +ours!" + +But Dr. Farnsworth was not listening. He had suddenly leaned +over the port rail and was staring down the canal. The others +followed his gaze. + +The house boat Annabel Lee, they perceived, had got under weigh, +and was slowly approaching the Jasper B. in the moonlight. They +watched her gradual approach in silence. She stopped within a +few yards of the Jasper B., and a voice which Cleggett recognized +as that of Wilton Barnstable, the great detective, sang out: + +"Jasper B., ahoy!" + +"Aye, aye!" shouted Cleggett. + +"Is Mr. Cleggett on board?" + +"He is speaking." + +"Mr. Cleggett, have you lost anything from your canal boat?" + +Cleggett did not answer, and for a moment he did not move. Then, +tightening his sword belt, and cocking his hat a trifle, he +climbed over the starboard rail and walked along the bank of the +canal a few yards until he was opposite the Annabel Lee. The +great detective, on his part, also stepped ashore. They stood and +faced each other in the moonlight, silently, and their followers, +also in silence, gathered in the bows of the respective vessels +and watched them. + +Finally, Cleggett, with one hand on his hip, and standing with +his feet wide apart, said very incisively: + +"Sir, the Jasper B. is NOT a canal boat." + +"Eh?" Wilton Barnstable started at the emphasis. + +"The Jasper B.," pursued Cleggett, staring steadily at Wilton +Barnstable, "is a schooner." + +"Ah!" said the other. "Indeed?" + +"A schooner," repeated Cleggett, "indeed, sir! Indeed, sir, a +schooner!" + +There was another silence, in which neither man would look aside; +they held each other with their eyes; the nervous strain +communicated itself to the crews of the two vessels. At last, +however, the detective, although he did not lower his gaze, and +although he strove to give his new attitude an effect of ease and +jauntiness by twisting the end of his mustache as he spoke, said +to Cleggett: + +"A schooner, then, Mr. Cleggett, a schooner! No offense, I +hope?" + +"None at all," said Cleggett, heartily enough, now that the point +had been established. And the tension relaxed on both ships. + +"You have lost an oblong box, Mr. Cleggett." The great detective +affirmed it rather than interrogated. + +"How did you know that?" + +The other laughed. "We know a great many things--it is our +business to know things," he said. Then he dropped his voice to a +whisper, and said rapidly, "Mr. Cleggett, do you know who I am?" +Before Cleggett could reply he continued, "Brace yourself--do not +make an outcry when I tell you who I am. I am Wilton +Barnstable." + +"I knew you," said Cleggett. The other appeared disappointed for +a moment. And then he inquired anxiously, "How did you know me?" + +"Why, from your pictures in the magazines," said Cleggett. + +The detective brightened perceptibly. "Ah, yes--the magazines! +Yes, yes, indeed! publicity is unavoidable, unavoidable, Mr. +Cleggett! But this box, now----" + +The great detective interrupted himself to laugh again, a trifle +complacently, Cleggett thought. + +"I will not mystify you, Mr. Cleggett, about the box. +Mystification is one of the tricks of the older schools of +detection. I never practice it, Mr. Cleggett. With me, the +detection of crime is a business--yes, a business. I will tell +you presently how the box came into my possession." + +"It IS in your possession?" Cleggett felt a dull pang of the +heart. If the box of Reginal Maltravers were in the hands of +Logan Black he could at least trade the other oblong box to Loge +for it, and thus save Lady Agatha. But in the possession of +Wilton Barnstable, the great detective----! Cleggett pulled +himself together; he thought rapidly; he recognized that the +situation called, above all things else, for diplomacy and +adroitness. He went on, nonchalantly: + +"I suppose you are aware of the contents of the box?" + +The other laughed again as if Cleggett had made an excellent +jest; there was something urbane and benign in his manner; it +appeared as if he regarded the contents of the box of Reginald +Maltravers as anything but serious; his tone puzzled Cleggett. + +"Suppose I bring the box on board the Jasper B.," suggested the +great detective. "It interests me, that box. I have no doubt it +has its story. And perhaps, while you are telling me some things +about it, I may be able to give you some information in turn." + +There was no mistaking the fact that the man, whether genuinely +friendly or no, wished to appear so. + +"Have it brought into my cabin," said Cleggett, "and we will +discuss it." + +A few minutes later Wilton Barnstable, Cleggett, Lady Agatha, +Miss Pringle, and two of Wilton Barnstable's men sat in the cabin +of the Jasper B., with the two oblong boxes before them--the one +which had contained Loge's incriminating diary, and the one which +had caused Lady Agatha so much trouble. + +In the light of the cabin the three detectives were revealed as +startlingly alike. Barton Ward and Watson Bard, Barnstable's two +assistants, might, indeed, almost have been taken for Barnstable +himself, at a casual glance. In height, in bulk, in dress, in +facial expression, they seemed Wilton Barnstable all over again. +But, looking intently at the three men, Cleggett began to +perceive a difference between the real Wilton Barnstable and his +two counterfeits. It was the difference between the face which is +informed of genius, and the countenance which is indicative of +mere talent. + +"Mr. Cleggett," began Wilton Barnstable, "as I said before, I +will make no attempt to mystify you. I was a witness to the +attack upon your vessel. Mr. Ward, Mr. Bard, and myself, in fact, +had determined to assist you, had we seen that the combat was +going against you. We lay, during the struggle, in the lee of +your--your--er, schooner!--in the lee of your schooner, armed, +and ready to bear a hand. We have our own little matter to +settle with Logan Black. Why Logan Black should desire +possession of this particular box, I am unable to state. +Nevertheless, at the moment when he was leading his assault upon +your starboard bow, two of his men, who had made a detour to the +stern of your vessel, had clambered stealthily aboard, and were +quietly pushing the box over the side into the canal. They let +themselves down into the water, and swam towards the mouth of the +canal, pushing it ahead of them. We followed in our rowboat, Mr. +Ward, Mr. Bard, and myself, at a discreet distance. We let them +push the box as far south as the Annabel Lee. And then----" + +He paused a moment, and smiled reminiscently. Barton Ward and +Watson Bard also smiled reminiscently, and the three detectives +exchanged crafty glances. + +"Then, to be brief, we took the box away from them. They were so +ill-advised as to struggle. They are in irons, now, on board the +Annabel Lee. + +"But what I cannot understand, Mr. Cleggett, is why these men +should risk so much to make off with an empty box." + +"An empty box!" cried Cleggett. + +"Empty!" echoed Lady Agatha and Miss Pringle, in concert. + +The detective wrenched the cover from the box of Reginald +Maltravers. + +"Practically empty, at any rate," he said. + +And, indeed, except for a few wads of wet excelsior, there was +nothing in the box of Reginald Maltravers. + +"Where, then," cried Lady Agatha, "is Reginald Maltravers?" + +"Where, indeed," said Wilton Barnstable, "is Reginald +Maltravers?" + +"Where, then," cried Miss Pringle, "are my plum preserves?" + +"Where, indeed?" repeated Wilton Barnstable. And Barton Ward and +Watson Bard, although they did not speak aloud, stroked their +mustaches and their lips formed the ejaculation, "Where, indeed?" + +"We will tell you everything," said Cleggett. And beginning with +his purchase of the Jasper B. he recounted rapidly, but with +sufficient detail, all the facts with which the reader is already +familiar, weaving into his story the tale of Lady Agatha and the +adventures of Miss Pringle. Wilton Barnstable listened +attentively. So did Barton Ward and Watson Bard. The benign +smile which was so characteristic of Wilton Barnstable never left +the three faces, but it was evident to Cleggett that these +trained intelligences grasped and weighed and ticketed every +detail. + +While Cleggett narrates, and Wilton Barnstable and his men +listen, a word to the reader concerning this great detective. + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE PSYCHOLOGICAL DETECTIVE + +Wilton Barnstable was the inventor of a new school of detection +of crime. The system came in with him, and it may go out with +him for lack of a man of his genius to perpetuate it. He +insisted that there was nothing spectacular or romantic in the +pursuit of the criminal, or, at least, that there should be +nothing of the sort. And he was especially disgusted when anyone +referred to him as "a second Sherlock Holmes." + +"I am only a plain business man," he would insist, urbanely, with +a wave of his hand. "I have merely brought order, method, +system, business principles, logic, to the detection of crime. I +know nothing of romance. Romance is usually all nonsense in my +estimation. The real detective, who gets results in real life, +is NOT a Sherlock Holmes." + +The enemies of Wilton Barnstable sometimes said of him that he +was jealous of Sherlock Holmes. When this was reported to +Barnstable he invariably remarked: "How preposterous! The idea +of a man being envious of a literary creation!" + +Perhaps his denial of the existence of romance was merely one of +those poses which geniuses so often permit themselves. Perhaps +he saw it and was thrilled with it even while he denied it. At +any rate, he lived in the midst of it. The realism which was his +metier was that sort of realism into which are woven facts and +incidents of the most bizarre and startling nature. + +And, certainly, behind the light blue eyes that could look with +such apparent ingenuousness out of his plump, bland face there +was the subtle mind of a psychologist. Barnstable, true to his +attitude of the plain business man, would have been the first to +ridicule the idea publicly if anyone had dubbed him "the +psychological detective." That, to his mind, would have savored +of charlatanism. He would have said: "I am nothing so strange +and mystifying as that--I am a plain business man." But in +reality there was no new discovery of the investigating +psychologists of which he did not avail himself at once. His +ability to clothe himself with the thoughts of the criminal as an +actor clothes himself with a role, was marvelous; he knew the +criminal soul. That is to say, he knew the human soul. He +refused to see anything extraordinary in this. "It is only my +business to know such things," he would say. "We know many +things. It is our business to know them. There is no miracle +about it." This was the public character he had created for +himself, and emphasized--that of the plain business man. This +was his mask. He was so subtle that he hid the vast range of his +powers behind an appearance of commonplaceness. + +Wilton Barnstable never disguised himself, in the ordinary sense +of the term. That is, he never resorted to false whiskers or +wigs or obvious tricks of that sort. + +But if Wilton Barnstable were to walk into a convention of +blacksmiths, let us say, he would quite escape attention. For +before he had been ten minutes in that gathering he would become, +to all appearances, the typical blacksmith. If he were to enter +a gathering of bankers, or barbers, or bakers, or organ grinders, +or stockbrokers, or school-teachers, a similar thing would +happen. He could make himself the composite photograph of all +the individuals of any group. He disguised himself from the +inside out. + +This art of becoming inconspicuous was one of his greatest assets +as a detective. Newspaper and magazine writers would have liked +to dwell upon it. But he requested them not to emphasize it. As +he modestly narrated his triumphs to the young journalists, who +hung breathless upon his words, he was careful not to stress his +talent for becoming just like anybody and everybody else--his +peculiar genius for being the average man. + +The front which he presented to the world was, in reality, his +cleverest creation. The magazine and newspaper articles which +were written about him, the many pictures which were printed +every month, presented the mental and physical portrait of a +knowing, bustling, extraordinarily candid personality. A +personality with a touch of smugness in it. This was very +generally thought to be the real Wilton Barnstable. It was a +fiction which he had succeeded in establishing. When he +addressed meetings, talked with reporters, wrote articles about +himself, or came into touch with the public in any manner, he +assumed this personality. When he did not wish to be known he +laid it aside. When he desired to pass incognito, therefore, it +was not necessary for him to assume a disguise. He simply +dropped one. + +The two men with him, Barton Ward and Watson Bard, were his +cleverest agents. They were learning from the master detective +the art of looking like other people, and were at present +practicing by looking like the popular conception of Wilton +Barnstable. They were clever men. But Barton Ward and Watson +Bard were, as Cleggett had felt at once, only men of +extraordinary talent, while Wilton Barnstable was a genius. + +As Cleggett talked he was given a rather startling proof of +Wilton Barnstable's gift. He was astonished to find a change +stealing over Wilton Barnstable's features. Subtly the detective +began to look like someone else. The expression of the face, the +turn of the eyes, the lines about the mouth, began to suggest +someone whom Cleggett knew. It was rather a suggestion, an +impression, than a likeness; it was rather the spirit of a +personality than a definite resemblance. It was a psychic thing. +Barnstable was disguising himself from the inside out; he had +assumed the mental and spiritual clothing of someone else. + +Cleggett could not think at first who it was that Wilton +Barnstable suggested. But presently he saw that it was himself. +He glanced at Barton Ward and Watson Bard; they still resembled +the popular conception of Wilton Barnstable. + +Gradually the look of Cleggett faded from Wilton Barnstable's +face. It changed, it shifted, that look did; Cleggett almost +cried out as he saw the face of Wilton Barnstable become an +impressionistic portrait of the soul of Logan Black. He looked +at Barton Ward. Barton Ward was now looking like Wilton +Barnstable's conception of Cleggett. But Watson Bard, less +facile and less creative, still clung stolidly to the popular +conception of Wilton Barnstable. + +But, even as Cleggett looked, this remarkable exhibition ceased; +the Wilton Barnstable look dominated the faces again. Plump, yet +dignified, smiling easily and kindly, three plain business men +looked at him; respectable citizens, commonplace citizens, a +little smug; faces that spoke of comfort, method, regularity; +eyes that seemed to wink with the pressure of platitudes in the +minds behind them; platitudes that desired to force their way to +the lips and out into the world. + +Yes, such was the genius of Wilton Barnstable that he could at +will impose himself upon people as the apotheosis of the +commonplace. He did it often. It was almost second nature to +him now. His urbane smile was the only visible sign of his own +enjoyment of this habitual feat. He knew his own genius, and +smiled to think how easy it was to pass for an average man! + + +CHAPTER XXI + +THE THIRD OBLONG BOX ARRIVES + +"I think," said Wilton Barnstable, when Cleggett had finished, +"that I may be able to clear up a few points for you. + +"The two men whom you saw me hazing up and down the bank of the +canal, and whom you saw again tonight, followed by the man in the +baby blue silk pajamas, were Dopey Eddie and Izzy the Cat!" + +"The wretches!" cried Lady Agatha. + +"Wretches indeed," said Wilton Barnstable, Barton Ward, and +Watson Bard, in unison, and with conviction. + +"And the man in the baby blue silk pajamas, was----" the great +detective paused, as if to make his revelation more effective. +And while he paused, Miss Genevieve Pringle, with pursed lips and +averted face, signified that the very idea of introducing a man +in baby blue silk pajamas into the conversation was intensely +displeasing to her. + +"The man in pajamas was Reginald Maltravers," finished the great +detective. + +"Reginald Maltravers!" cried Lady Agatha. + +She opened her mouth again as if to say something more, but words +failed her, and she only stared at the detective, with parted +lips and round eyes. + +Cleggett went to her and touched her on the arm, and with the +touch she gave a sob of emotion and found her tongue again. + +"Reginald Maltravers," she said, "is not dead then! Not dead +after all!" + +She endeavored to control herself, but for a moment or two she +trembled. It was evident that it was all she could do to keep +from crying hysterically with relief. The nightmare that had +haunted her for days had vanished almost too suddenly. Presently +she began to be herself again. + +"You are sure that he is not dead?" she said with a voice that +still shook. + +"Sure," said Wilton Barnstable. + +And as if quietly satisfied with the sensation they had produced, +the three detectives smiled at each other urbanely and +contentedly. Barnstable continued: + +"Reginald Maltravers came to my agency some days ago and +requested a bodyguard. Dopey Eddie and Izzy the Cat had attacked +him, no doubt intending to earn the money which Elmer had +promised them. He beat them off. In fact, he caned them +soundly. But they still continued to dog him. + +"Mr. Ward here, who handled the case, soon reported to me that he +believed Reginald Maltravers to be insane." + +"Insane he was," cried Lady Agatha. "I have seen the light of +insanity in his eye, gleaming through his accursed monocle." She +spoke with vehemence. Now that she knew the man to be alive, her +hatred of him had flared up again. + +"Insane he was," agreed Wilton Barnstable. "And shortly after +that discovery was made, he disappeared. The next day after his +disappearance, Dopey Eddie and Izzy the Cat were liberally +supplied with money. + +"Of course they got the money, Lady Agatha, through the clever +trick they worked upon you." + +"A great many people have got money from me since I have been in +America," said Lady Agatha. + +"Ah! Yes?" The great detective went on with his masterly summing +up. "Of course they got the money from the trick they worked on +Lady Agatha. But at the time I thought it possible that they had +robbed Reginald Maltravers and then put him out of the way. They +are well-known gunmen. + +"I took them into custody and determined to hold them until such +time as Reginald Maltravers would be found, or his fate +discovered. Eventually I brought them with me on my house boat. +I was really holding them without due legal warrant, but I am +forced to do that, sometimes. They complained of lack of +exercise, so I gave them exercise in the manner which you saw the +other morning, Mr. Cleggett. + +"One of my agents, shortly after this, picked up the trail of +Reginald Maltravers again. When I learned that he was alive my +first impulse was to release Dopey Eddie and Izzy the Cat. But I +learned that the two gunmen could, if they would, give me a tip +as to certain of the activities of Logan Black, against whom I +have been collecting evidence for nearly a year. So I kept them +on my boat. + +"Reginald Maltravers, most of the time that you were riding about +the country, Lady Agatha, with the box that you thought contained +him, was really following you. He would lose your trail and find +it again, but he was always some hours behind you. Of course, he +knew nothing of the oblong box. He thought that you were running +away from him. And all the time that Reginald Maltravers was +following you, agents of mine were following Reginald +Maltravers." + +"Lady Agatha," interrupted Cleggett, "was also being pursued by +Miss Pringle here." + +Wilton Barnstable carefully made a note in a little book which he +drew from his waistcoat pocket. Barton Ward also made a note in +a little book, Watson Bard started to make a note, and then +paused; in fact, Watson Bard did not complete his note until he +had gotten a peep into the notebook of Barton Ward. The notes +made, the three detectives once more smiled craftily at each +other, and Wilton Barnstable resumed: + +"We knew, of course, that another lady was also following Lady +Agatha. But, until the present moment, we had not identified her +with Miss Pringle. And I should not be at all surprised, not at +ALL surprised, if still another person had been following Miss +Pringle." + +"With what object?" asked Miss Pringle, looking alarmed at the +idea. + +"The motive, my dear lady, I must for the present withhold," said +Wilton Barnstable. And again the three detectives exchanged +knowing glances. + +"Reginald Maltravers' pursuit of you, Lady Agatha, led him to +Fairport," went on the great sleuth. "No doubt he met the driver +of the vehicle which brought you hither, and learned that you +and Elmer had been set down in this neighborhood, just as Miss +Pringle learned it. No doubt it was well after dark when he +arrived in the vicinity of the Jasper B. And it is to be +supposed that, once out here, he went to Morris's road house, +thinking it quite likely that you and Elmer would stop there, as +he had been tracking you from road house to road house. Logan +Black, knowing that the authorities were on his trail, mistook +Reginald Maltravers for a detective, and held him prisoner at +Morris's. Logan Black's men took away his clothes in order to +minimize the possibility of his escape." + +"And the Earl of Claiborne's signet ring----" began Cleggett. + +"Of course, Reginald Maltravers was wearing it, and of course +they took his valuables from him," said Barnstable. "One of the +ruffians was wearing the ring as he approached your vessel with a +bomb. But, Mr. Cleggett, there are points about that bomb +explosion which I do not understand." + +"Nor I," admitted Cleggett. + +"We will clear them up later," said the great detective, smiling +benignly at his thumbs, which he was revolving slowly about each +other as he reconstructed the case. + +"Later!" smiled Barton Ward. "Later!" murmured Watson Bard. +With their hands clasped over their stomachs, they, too, benignly +twirled their thumbs. + +"Tonight," pursued Barnstable, "having finally got all the +information I wished from Dopey Eddie and Izzy the Cat with +regard to Logan Black, I tossed them the key to their irons and +told them to unlock themselves and clear out. It was just before +the storm began, and they were sitting on the bank of the canal +at the time. I allowed them to sit there in the evenings and get +the fresh air. + +"But before they could unlock themselves Reginald Maltravers, who +had, we must suppose, escaped from Morris's through the +carelessness of one of Logan Black's subordinates, crawled up the +bank of the canal, which he had swum, and made for the two +gunmen, with the water dripping from his eyeglass. He had +recognized them as the men who had dogged and assaulted him, and +every other idea was obliterated in his desire for vengeance. + +"They fled. He pursued. He caught them, and they fought. They +succeeded in dropping one of the iron balls on his foot--on his +bunion foot, Mr. Cleggett--crippling him." + +As this mention of the bunion, Miss Genevive Pringle arose with +dignity, and, flinging a shawl about her shoulders, left the +cabin, chin in air. She did not vouchsafe so much as one +backward glance at Cleggett or the three detectives or lady +Agatha as she left, but outraged propriety was expressed in every +line of her figure. + +"H'm," mused the detective, flushing slightly; and Watson Bard +and Barton Ward also colored a little, and looked hacked. They +glanced furtively at Lady Agatha, to see if she too might be +offended. + +"Proceed, Mr. Barnstable," she said a little impatiently. +"Bunions don't bother me, either mentally or physically. I am +familiar with the idea of bunions. There are many bunions in the +Claiborne family." + +"On his bunion foot, crippling him," resumed the detective, +reassured. "The storm came up, and still the gunmen fled, and +still Reginald Maltravers pursued. I suppose, since you saw them +on the west side of the canal, Mr. Cleggett, that they had run +around the north end of it. Probably, while you and Logan Black +were fighting, they were running up and down in the neighborhood, +in the storm, intent only upon their own feud." + +"They certainly seemed exhausted when I saw them," said Cleggett, +"all three of them. But if you will permit me to say so, the +astuteness with which you are reconstructing this case compels my +admiration." + +Wilton Barnstable bowed, and Barton Ward and Watson Bard slightly +inclined their heads. + +"Your skill," said Lady Agatha, "is equal to that of Sherlock +Holmes." + +At the name of Sherlock Holmes a shade passed over the face of +Wilton Barnstable. He slightly compressed his lips, and his +eyebrows went up a fraction of an inch. This shade was reflected +on the faces of Barton Ward and Watson Bard. There was a moment +of silence, but presently Wilton Barnstable continued, repressing +a sigh: + +"I thought at first, Mr. Cleggett, that you were an ally of Logan +Black's, just as you believed me to be his ally, and as he +believed you and me to be working together. It may interest you +to know that smuggling has been one of his side lines. There is, +somewhere hereabouts, a cave in which smuggled goods are stored. +These coasts have a sinister history, Mr. Cleggett. It is +possible that your canal boat--I beg your pardon, your schooner, +Mr. Cleggett--played some part in their smuggling operations. At +any rate it is evident that Logan Black transferred to the hold +of this vessel the incriminating evidence against him, contained +in that oblong box, when he learned that my agents were watching +Morris's. The Jasper B. has been lying in her present position +for a long time. In the event that a sudden get-away from +Morris's became necessary, it was an advantage to Logan Black to +be able to leave without being hampered with this matter. No +one, for many years, had paid any attention to the Jasper B., +with the exception of the old truck farmer, Abernethy, who used +sometimes to fish from her deck, and----" + +"Truck farmer!" cried Cleggett. "Abernethy?" + +"Truck farmer," repeated Wilton Barnstable. + +"Is not Abernethy an old sea captain?" asked Cleggett. + +"Why, no, I believe not," said Barnstable. "At least I never +heard so. He is well known as a small truck gardener in this +neighborhood. It is true that he comes of a seafaring +family--indeed, it is his boast. But, in a community where +nearly everyone knows a little about boats, I believe that +Abernethy is remarkable for an indisposition to venture far from +shore." + +"I can scarcely believe it," breathed Cleggett. + +"He does not understand boats," said Barnstable. "That is the +reason, I take it, why he has always fished in the canal from the +deck of the Jasper B. " + +"Abernethy is a gallant man," said Cleggett, rather sternly. +"And even although he may have had little actual seafaring +experience, the instinct is in him! The inherited love of a +nautical life has been latent in him all along. And at the first +opportunity it has come out. He has shown his mettle aboard the +Jasper B. " + +"I do not doubt it, if you insist upon it," said Wilton +Barnstable, politely. And from revolving his thumbs benignly +towards himself he began to revolve them urbanely from himself. +The reversal was imitated at once by Barton Ward, but Watson Bard +was slower in putting this new coup into execution. + +"The resemblance between the two oblong boxes evidently fooled +Logan Black," continued Barnstable, "and his men stole the wrong +one. but he knows by this time that his plan to get the box has +failed." + +"He knows it?" said Cleggett. + +"From the bank of the canal he witnessed our capture of the box, +and of the two men who were making off with it. After you had +beaten off his assault upon the ship, he turned his attention to +the canal, to see if the men whom he had assigned to the job of +creeping over the stern of the Jasper B. had by any chance +succeeded in purloining the box. He was alone, but he attempted +to come to the assistance of his two followers even as we made +them prisoners. In fact, we exchanged shots." + +The great detective made little of the danger he had encountered. + +Indeed, his smile became one of amusement as he removed his coat, +rolled up his shirt sleeves, and exhibited a bandaged wound in +the fleshy part of his arm. + +"It is only a slight wound," he said, beaming on it as if wounds +were quite delightful affairs, "and scarcely inconveniences me." + +Barton Ward and Watson Bard, with their sleeves rolled up, were +also smiling placidly and indulgently at bandages about their +left arms. Whether there were real wounds beneath their bandages +also, Cleggett could not determine. The bandage of Barton Ward +was slightly stained with red, but the bandage of Watson Bard was +quite white. All three replaced their coats at the same time, +and Wilton Barnstable went on: + +"Our course of procedure is plain, Mr. Cleggett. We have the +evidence against Logan Black. We must have the man himself. I +depend upon you to cooperate with me. I think," he said, beaming +at Barton Ward and Watson Bard with an air of modest triumph, +"that the case of Logan Black is going to prove one of my really +GREAT cases. + +"There is only one point which I have not yet made clear to you, +I believe--and that is how Logan Black's men were able to enter +and leave the hold of your vessel so mysteriously. But I am +shaping up my theory about that! I am shaping it up!" + +"Would it be indescreet to inquire just what your theory is?" +asked Cleggett. + +And Lady Agatha murmured: + +"For my part, I can make nothing of it, and I should be glad to +hear your theory." + +"It would," said Wilton Barnstable, soberly, "it would be +premature, if I told you my theory at the present moment. You +must pardon me--but it WOULD. In my line of business--and I +insist, Mr. Cleggett, that I am a plain business man, nothing +more--I find it absolutely necessary not to communicate all my +information to the layman until the case is quite perfect in all +its points. But do not get the notion, Mr. Cleggett, that I +underestimate the part that you have taken in the case of Logan +Black. You have helped me, Mr. Cleggett. When I have my +secretary prepare the case of Logan Black for magazine and +newspaper publication I shall have your name mentioned as that of +a person who has helped me. Yes, you have helped me." + +As he spoke he picked from a reading table a magazine, on the +cover of which appeared his own portrait--or rather, the portrait +of the popular conception of Wilton Barnstable--and began to make +motions about it with his finger. He appeared to be marking off +the space beside the portrait into an arrangement of letters and +spaces. His lips moved as he did so; he murmured: "The Case of +Logan Black--the Case of Logan Black!" He seemed to see, with +the eye of a typographical expert, the legend printed there. +Barton Ward and Watson Bard, slightly flushed and a little +excited in spite of themselves, seemed also to see it there. + +It might have occurred to a person more critical than Cleggett +that it was he himself who had furnished nearly all the real +evidence upon which Wilton Barnstable was constructing this Case +of Logan Black. But Cleggett looked for the gold in men, not the +dross; the great qualities of Wilton Barnstable appealed to his +imagination; the best in Cleggett responded to the best in Wilton +Barnstable; if the detective possessed a certain amount of +vanity, Cleggett preferred to overlook it. + +"Decidedly," said Wilton Barnstable, laying down the magazine, +and looking at Cleggett kindly and serenely, "I shall see to it +that your name is mentioned in connection with the Case of Logan +Black." And Barton Ward and Watson Bard also bent upon him their +bland and friendly regard. + +Cleggett was about to thank them, but at that moment there was a +commotion of some sort on deck. + +Two female voices, one of which they all recognized as that of +Miss Genevieve Pringle, were mingling in a babble of greeting, +expostulation, interjection, and explanation, and presently Miss +Pringle entered the cabin, followed by a younger lady who, except +for her youth, looked much like her. + +"My niece, Miss Henrietta Pringle, of Flatbush," said Miss +Pringle, primly presenting her prim relation. "She has just +arrived----" + +"With the plum preserves!" cried Lady Agatha. + +"With the plum preserves," confirmed Miss Genevieve Pringle. + +And Captain Abernethy and George the Greek bore into the cabin a +third oblong box, exactly similar in appearance to the box of +Reginald Maltravers and the box which contained the evidence +against Logan Black, and set it on the floor. + +The three detectives stood and looked at the three boxes with an +air of great satisfaction. + +"With this addition to our oblong boxes," said Wilton Barnstable, +"their number is now complete. Miss Henrietta Pringle, we will +listen to your story." + +There was little to tell, and Miss Henrietta Pringle told it in a +breath. Having received no acknowledgment of the receipt of the +plum preserves from her aunt, an unusual oversight on her aunt's +part, she had journeyed to Newark with a vague fear that there +might be something wrong. + +"Arrived in Newark," she said, "I learned that my aunt, with her +two white horses and her family carriage driven by Jefferson, the +negro coachmen, had suddenly left Newark, without giving any +explanation to anyone, or making her destination known. + +"The proceeding was very strange; it was very unlike my aunt, and +I was frightened. Everyone who had seen her start testified that +she was laboring under a great nervous strain of some sort. + +"I called at the freight depot and got the box of plum preserves +which I had shipped to her. To tell the truth, I feared for her +reason. I thought that if I could find her, and could show her +the familiar plum preserves, which she loved so well, they would +be of material assistance in influencing her to return to her +home. So, setting out to search for her in my Ford auto, I took +the box of plum preserves with me. + +"I soon got upon her trail. The negro coachman, the family +carriage and the white horses had excited remark everywhere. +Briefly, I traced her here, and am happy to discover that my +worst fears with regard to her have proved false." + +"Henrietta," said her aunt, reproachfully, "your fears do you +very little credit, or me either." + +"Aunt Genevieve," said the niece, "pray, do not rebuke me." + +"I was certain," said Wilton Barnstable, complacently, "that it +would develop that Miss Genevieve Pringle was herself being +pursued. I was confident of it, Cleggett. And now that I have +cleared up for you the mystery of Logan Black, the mystery of the +box of Reginald Maltravers, and the mystery of the box of plum +preserves, there only remains the capture of Logan Black to hold +me in this part of the country and to keep you from your voyage +to the China Seas." + +"We must get together," said Cleggett, "on a plan of campaign. +Logan Black will certainly attack again. He has only been beaten +off temporarily. In the meanwhile, it is almost breakfast time." + +And, indeed, the lights in the cabin were suddenly growing pale. +The sun was rising. Its beams, shining through the cabin +skylight, fell upon the three great detectives, each one of whom, +with an air of ineffable satisfaction, was gloating--but gloating +urbanely and with dignity--over an oblong box. + + +CHAPTER XXII + +DANCING ON THE DECK + +It was decided, at a conference of Lady Agatha, Cleggett, and the +three detectives, at the breakfast table, to throw up a line of +entrenchments along the bank of the canal commanding the approach +to the Jasper B. and the Annabel Lee. No one felt the least doubt +that Logan Black would renew the attack sooner or later, unless +the two vessels made off. + +"And," said Cleggett, "I shall not leave until the Jasper B. has +been rigged as a schooner again. Anything else would have the +appearance of a retreat. Nor will I be hurried. I am on my own +property, and I purpose to defend it at whatever cost." + +He set his jaws firmly as he declared this intention, and Lady +Agatha's eyes dwelt upon him in admiration. + +"The Annabel Lee could tow you away, you know," demurred Wilton +Barnstable. + +"When the Jasper B. moves," said Cleggett, with finality, "it +will be under her own power." + +Accordingly, work was begun at once on the entrenchments. +Everyone on board the Jasper B. was sadly in need of sleep, but +Cleggett felt that the earthworks could not wait. He divided his +force into two shifts. Cleggett, the three detectives, Jefferson +the genial coachman, and Washington Artillery Lamb, the janitor +and butler of the house boat Annabel Lee, a negro as large and +black as Jefferson himself, took a two-hour trick with the spades +and then lay down and slept while Abernethy, Kuroki, Elmer, +Calthrop, George the Greek, and Farnsworth dug for an equal +length of time. The two prisoners captured by Barnstable the +night before, one of whom was the smirking and sinister Pierre, +were compelled to dig all the time. Even Teddy, Lady Agatha's +little Pomeranian, dug. The ladies of the party slept throughout +the morning. + +During the forenoon Cleggett dispatched Dr. Farnsworth to the +city in Miss Henrietta Pringle's Ford car, and he returned about +one o'clock with four more trained nurses. They were installed +on board the houseboat Annabel Lee, instead of at Parker's Beach +as Cleggett had originally intended, and the Red Cross flag was +hoisted over that vessel. Cleggett felt confident that the next +battle would be sanguinary in character, and, true to his +humanitarian ideals, was resolved to be fully prepared this time +to care for as many people as he might disable. Giuseppe Jones, +who was quieter now, although at times still irrationally +babbling incendiary vers libre poems, was removed to the Annabel +Lee, where Miss Medley, quite worn out, turned him over to a +fresh nurse. + +By the time the reinforcement of nurses had arrived the +earthworks of the good ship Jasper B. were completed, and, after +a double portion of stiff grog all around, Cleggett ordered all +hands to lie down on the deck for an hour's comfortable nap. He +stood watch himself. Cleggett had not slept much during the past +forty-eight hours, but he was a man of iron. Like King Henry +Fifth of England, Cleggett found a certain pleasure in watching +while his troops slumbered. Cleggett and this lively monarch +had other points in common, although Cleggett, even in his youth, +would never have associated with a character so habitually +dissolute as Sir John Falstaff. + +The construction of the trench was not without its effect upon +the gang of villains at Morris's. About nine in the morning +Cleggett noticed that he was under observation from the roof of +the east verandah of the road house. Loge and two of his +ruffianly lieutenants were scrutinizing the Cleggett flotilla and +fortifications through their binoculars. Cleggett, through his +own glass, returned the compliment. + +The three men were conducting an animated discussion. From their +gestures they seemed to be completely nonplussed by the +entrenchments. Watching their pantomime closely, Cleggett +gathered that Loge was endeavoring to enforce some point of view +with regard to the Jasper B. upon his two followers. Finally +Loge, making a gesture towards Cleggett with one hand, tapped +himself several times on the forehead with the other, his lips +moving rapidly the while. The two other men shrugged their +shoulders and nodded, as if in agreement with Loge. The +insulting significance of the gesture was only too apparent. As +plainly as if he had heard the accompanying words Cleggett +understood that Loge, out of the depths of his perplexity, had +said that he (Cleggett) was mentally erratic. + +"Ah, you think so, do you?" said Cleggett aloud, laying down his +glass and seizing a rifle. "Well, just to let you know that I +have a certain opinion of you, also, my friend Loge----" And he +sent a bullet over the heads of the three men. They hastily +ducked into the house. Cleggett might have picked Loge off, but +he disdained to do so. It was his purpose to take the man alive, +if possible. + +But the rifle shot did not end the espionage. All day scouting +parties in taxicabs kept appearing on the sandy plain to +reconnoiter the fleet and fortress. They circled, they swooped, +they dashed, they zigzagged here and there, but always at a high +rate of speed, and always at a prudent distance from the canal. +Beyond sending an occasional rifle ball whistling towards the +wheels of the cabs, or over the heads of the occupants, to remind +them to keep their distance, Cleggett paid but little attention +to these parties. If Loge thought him demented, if he had his +enemy guessing, so much the better. The eccentric movements of +these cabs was a circumstance which in itself testified to Loge's +bewilderment and curiosity. + +Cleggett had no idea that there would be an attack before +nightfall, and at two o'clock in the afternoon he awakened all +the members of his crew who were still sleeping, ordered them +into bathing suits, a supply of which he had been thoughtful +enough to have the young doctor bring out along with the nurses, +and piped them into the canal. The water was cold, but they came +out refreshed and invigorated by the plunge and feeling fit for +any struggle that might be ahead of them. This maneuver on the +part of Cleggett and his marines and infantrymen seemed still +more to excite the curiosity and contribute to the bewilderment +of Loge and his ruffians. + +After the general bath and a substantial lunch, Cleggett called +all hands aft and addressed them. + +"Ladies and loyal followers and co-workers," he said. "We have +passed some nights and days of peril. And there are, I doubt +not, still parlous times ahead of the Jasper B. before our ship +sets sail for the China Seas. But what is sweeter than pleasure +snatched from the very presence of danger? Courage and gayety +should go hand in hand! It is a beautiful May afternoon, we have +a goodly deck beneath our feet, and, briefly, who is for a +dance?" + +A huzza showed the popularity of the suggestion. Washington +Artillery Lamb, the janitor and butler of the Annabel Lee, +possessed an accordion on which he was an earnest and artistic +performer. Miss Pringle's Jefferson had with him a harmonica, or +mouth organ, which he at once produced. Jefferson was endowed +with the peculiar gift of manipulating this little musical +instrument solely with his lips, moving it back and forth and +round about as he played, without touching it with his hands; and +this left his hands free to pat the time. The negro orchestra +perched itself on the top of the cabin, and in a moment Lady +Agatha, the five nurses, Cleggett, the three detectives, Dr. +Farnsworth, and Captain Abernethy were tangoing on the deck. And +this to the still further perplexity of Logan Black. As the dance +started Cleggett saw that person, almost distracted by his +inability to comprehend the mental processes of the commander of +the Jasper B., rise to his feet in an automobile that had stopped +a couple of hundred yards away, and beat with both hands upon his +temples, gnashing his long yellow teeth the while. + +The Rev. Simeon Calthrop turned sadly away from the vessel, and, +with a sigh, went and sat in the trench, where he was soon joined +by Elmer. The disgraced preacher and the reformed convict had +struck up a fast friendship. They sat with their backs towards +the Jasper B., and Cleggett supposed from their attitude that +they were sternly condemnatory of the frivolity and festivity on +board ship. + +Cleggett, after the first dance, sought them out. + +"I hope," he said to the Rev. Mr. Calthrop, not unkindly, "that +you don't disapprove of us." + +"It isn't that, Mr. Cleggett," said the ship's chaplain, with +sorrow in his eloquent brown eyes, "it isn't that at all. In +fact, I had a tango class in the basement of my church, every +Thursday evening-when I had a church." + +"Then what is it?" + +"Alas!" sighed the young preacher. "I do not trust myself! +Women, as I have told you, Mr. Cleggett, are apt to become +fascinated with me. I cannot help it. It is in such gay scenes +as this that the danger lies, Mr. Cleggett. As an honorable man, +I feel that I am bound to withdraw myself and my fatal +influence." + +"You are too subtle--too subtle for moral health," said Cleggett. + +"But I will not attempt to influence you. Elmer, are you also +afraid of inspiring a hopeless passion?" + +"Mister Cleggett," said Elmer gloomily and huskily, out of one +corner of his mouth, "I ain't takin' a chance. D' youse get me? +Not a chancet. Oncet youse reformed, Mr. Cleggett, youse can't be +too careful." + +Cleggett returned to the vessel. Miss Pringle the elder was +leaving it. Miss Henrietta Pringle was following. Cleggett +gathered that the niece left reluctantly, and under the coercion +of the aunt. + +Miss Pringle the elder was about to join the Rev. Mr. Calthrop in +the trench. Morality, as well as misery, loves company. But Mr. +Calthrop saw the Misses Pringle coming. He swiftly rose, passed +them by with his face averted, and went aboard the Annabel Lee. +It was evident that he believed that his fatal gift of +fascination had attracted these ladies towards him in spite of +himself. Elmer and the Misses Pringle sat gloomily on a clean +plank in the trench while the dance went gayly on. + +"If you was to ask me," said Captain Abernethy, pausing winded +from the tango, strong old man that he was, "I'd give it as my +opinion that them that gits their enjoyment in an oncheerful way +don't git nigh as much of it as them that gits it in a cheerful +way. Mrs. Lady Agatha, ma'am, if you kin fox-trot as well as you +kin tango I'll never have another word to say agin female +suffragettes." + +But as Cap'n Abernethy spoke the grin froze upon his face. + +"My God! Look there!" he shrilled, pointing a long finger +towards the plain. Simultaneously the Misses Pringle, shrieking +wildly, leaped from the trench towards the ship and Elmer fired a +pistol shot. + +Cleggett beheld five taxicabs, filled with Loge's assassins, +charging towards the vessel at the rate of thirty miles an hour. + +"To arms! To arms!" shouted the commander of the Jasper B. + +But the enemy, with Logan Black in the lead, had already reached +the trenches. They flung themselves to the ground and swept over +the trench towards the bulwarks, twenty strong, with flashing +machetes. So confident had Cleggett been that Loge would not +dare to attack in broad daylight that he had scarcely even +considered the possibility. It was the one fault of his military +and naval career. + +"Cutlasses, men, and at them!" he cried. + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +CUTLASSES + +There was no thought of guns or pistols. There was no time to aim +or fire. Loge's rush had lodged him on the deck. Roaring like a +wild animal, he carried the fight to the defenders. He meant to +make a finish of it this time, and with the edged and bitter +steel. + +As the women scurried into the cabin the two lines met, with a +ringing clash of blades, on the deck of the Jasper B., and the +sparks flew from the stricken metal. Cleggett strove to engage +Loge hand to hand; and Loge, on his part, attempted to fight his +way to Cleggett; they shouted insults at each other across the +press of battle. But in affairs of this sort a man must give his +attention to the person directly in front of him; otherwise he is +lost. As Cleggett cut and thrust and parried, a sudden seizure +overtook him; he moved as if in a dream; he had the eerie feeling +that he had done all this before, sometime, perhaps in a previous +existence, and would do it again. The clangor of the meeting +swords, the inarticulate shouts and curses, the dance of +struggling men across the deck, the whirling confusion of the +whole fantastic scene beneath the quiet skies, struck upon his +consciousness with that strange phantasmagoric quality which +makes the hurrying unreality of dreams so much more vivid and +more real than anything in waking life. + +In the center of Cleggett's line stood the three detectives +shoulder to shoulder. Their three swords rose and fell as one. +They cut and lunged and guarded with a machine-like regularity, +advancing, giving ground, advancing again, with a rhythmic +unanimity which was baffling to their opponents. + +On either flank of the detectives fought one of the gigantic +negroes. Washington Artillery Lamb, almost at once, had broken +his cutlass, and now he raged in the waist of the Jasper B. with +a long iron bar in his hand. Miss Pringle's Jefferson, with his +high cockaded hat still firmly fixed upon his head, laid about +him with a heavy cavalry saber; in his excitement he still held +his harmonica in his mouth and blew blasts upon it as he fought. +The Rev. Simeon Calthrop, in a loud agitated voice, sang hymns as +he swung his cutlass. And, among the legs of the combatants, +leapt and snapped Teddy the Pomeranian, biting friend and foe +indiscriminately upon the ankles. + +But gradually the weight of superior numbers began to tell. +Farnsworth staggered from the fight with a face covered with +blood which blinded him. Cap'n Abernethy likewise was bleeding +from a wound in the head; George the Greek and Watson Bard were +hurt, but both fought on. The crew of the Jasper B. and their +allies of the Annabel Lee were being slowly forced back towards +the cabin, when there came a sudden and decisive turn in the +fortunes of the fight. + +Cleggett, straining to meet Loge, who hung sword to sword with +Wilton Barnstable, saw Giuseppe Jones, deserted by his nurses, +tumbling feebly over the bow of the Jasper B. in the rear of +Loge's line. Barelegged, a red blanket fastened about his throat +with a big brass safety pin, a thermometer in one hand and a +medicine bottle in the other, he tottered, crazily and weakly +between Loge and Barnstable, chanting a vers libre poem in a +shrill, insane voice. + +Loge, who had extended himself in a vigorous lunge, was struck by +the weight of the young anarchist's body at the crook of the +knees, and came down on the deck at full length, his machete +flying from his hand as he fell. + +Cleggett was upon the criminal in an instant, his hand at the +outlaw's throat. They grappled and rolled upon the deck. But in +another second Wilton Barnstable and Barton Ward, coming to +Cleggett's assistance, had snapped irons upon the president of +the crime trust, hand and foot. + +His overthrow was the signal of his men's defeat. As he went +down they hesitated and wavered. The two great negroes, taking +advantage of this hesitation, burst among them with mighty blows +and strange Afro-American oaths, Castor and Pollux in bronze. +With a shout of "Banzai!" Kuroki rushed forward with his kris; +the other defenders added weight and fury to the rally. Before +the irons were on the wrists of Loge his men were routed. They +leaped the rail and made off for their fleet of taxicabs, +flinging away their weapons as they ran. + +Loge writhed and twisted and lashed the deck with his legs and +body for a moment, striving even against the bands of steel that +bit into his wrists and ankles. And then he lay still with his +face against the planks as if in a vast and overwhelming +bitterness of despair. + +It had been Cleggett's earlier thought to take the man alive, if +possible, and turn him over to the authorities. But now that +Loge was taken he burned with the wish for personal combat with +him. He desired to be the agent of society, and put an end to +Logan Black himself. + +Cleggett, as he gazed at the fellow lying prone upon the deck, +could not repress a murmur of dissatisfaction. + +"We never fought it out," he said. + +Whether Loge heard him or not, the same thought was evidently +running is his mind. He lifted his head. A slow, malignant grin +that showed his yellow canine teeth lifted his upper lip. He +fixed his eyes on Cleggett with a cold deadliness of hatred and +said: + +"You are lucky." + +Outwardly Cleggett remained calm, but inwardly he was shaken with +an intensity of passion that matched Loge's own. + +"Lucky?" he said quietly. "That is as may be. And if, as I +infer, you desire a settlement of a more personal nature than the +law recognizes, it is still not too late to accommodate you." + +"Desire!" cried Loge, with a movement of his manacled hands. "I +would go to Hell happy if I sent you ahead of me!" + +"Very well," said Cleggett. "Since you have challenged me I will +fight you. I will do you that honor." + +Loge was about to answer when Wilton Barnstable broke in: + +"Mr. Cleggett," he said, "I scarcely understand you. Are you +consenting to fight this man?" + +"Certainly," said Cleggett. "He has challenged me." + +"A duel?" said Wilton Barnstable in astonishment. + +"A duel." + +"But that is impossible. His life is forfeit to the law. I +hope, before the year is out, to send him to the electric chair. +Under the circumstances, a duel is an absurdity." + +"An absurdity?" Cleggett, with his hands on his hips, and a +little dancing light in his eyes, faced the great detective +squarely. "You permit yourself very peculiar expressions, Mr. +Barnstable!" + +"I beg your pardon," said Wilton Barnstable. "I withdraw +'absurdity.' But you must see yourself, Mr. Cleggett, that a +duel is useless, if nothing else. The man is our prisoner. He +belongs to the law." + +Loge had struggled to a sitting posture, his back against the +port bulwark, and was listening with an odd look on his face. + +"The law?" said Cleggett. "I suppose, in one sense, that is +true. But the matter has its personal element as well." + +"I must insist," said Wilton Barnstable, "that Logan Black is my +prisoner." + +Cleggett was silent a moment. Then he said firmly: "Mr. +Barnstable, it is painful to me to have to remind you of it, but +your attitude forces me to an equal directness. The fact that +Logan Black is now a captive is due to his efforts to recover +certain evidence which may be used against him. This evidence I +discovered and defended, and this evidence I now hold in my +possession." + +Wilton Barnstable was about to retort, perhaps heatedly, but +Cleggett, generous even while determined to have his own way, +hastened to add: "Do not think, Mr. Barnstable, that I minimize +your work, or your assistance--but, after all, what am I +demanding that is unreasonable? If Logan Black dies by my hand, +are not the ends of justice served as well as if he died in the +electric chair? And if I fall, the law may still take its +course." + +Loge had listened to this speech attentively. He lifted his head +and glanced about the deck, filling his lungs with a deep draft +of air. Something like a gleam of hope was visible in his +features. + +"It is irregular," said Wilton Barnstable, frowning, and not half +convinced. "And, in the name of Heaven, why imperil your life +needlessly? Why expose yourself again to the power of this +monstrous criminal?" + +"The fellow has challenged me, and I have granted him a meeting," +said Cleggett. "I hope there is such a thing as honor!" + +"Clement!" It was Lady Agatha who spoke. As she did so she laid +her hand on Cleggett's arm. She had hearkened in silence to the +colloquy between him and Barnstable, as had the others. She drew +him out of sight and hearing behind the cabin." + +"Clement," she said with agitation, "do not fight this man!" + +"I must," he said simply. It cut him to the heart to refuse the +first request that she had asked of him since his avowal of his +love for her and her tacit acceptance. But, to a man of +Cleggett's ideas, there was no choice. + +"Clement," she said in a low tone, "you have told me that you +love me." + +"Agatha!" he murmured brokenly. + +"And you know----" she paused, as if she could not continue, but +her eyes and manner spoke the rest. In a moment her lips spoke +it too; she was not the sort of woman who is afraid to avow the +promptings of her heart. "You know," she said, "that I love +you." + +"Agatha!" he cried again. He could say no more. + +"Oh, Clement," she said, "if you were killed--killed +uselessly!--now that I have found you, I could not bear it. +Dear, I could not bear it!" + +Cleggett was profoundly moved. He yearned to take her in his +arms to comfort her, and to promise anything she wished. And the +thought came to him too that, if he should perish, the one kiss, +given and received in the darkness and danger of fight and storm, +would be all the brave sweetness of her that he would know this +side of the grave; the thought came to him bitterly. For an +instant he wavered. + +"Agatha!" he said with dry lips. "I have already accepted the +fellow's challenge." + +"And what of that?" she cried. "Would you cling to a barren +point of honor in despite of love?" + +"Even so," he said, and sighed. + +"Oh, Clement," she said, "I cannot bear it! I cannot bear to +lose you! I always knew you were in the world somewhere--and now +that I have found you it is only to give you up! It is too +much!" + +Cleggett was silent for a moment. When he spoke it was slowly +and gently, but earnestly. + +"No point of honor is a barren one, dear," he said. "What the +man lying there may be matters nothing. It is not to him that I +have given my word, but to myself. In our hurried modern life we +are not punctilious enough about these things. Perhaps, in the +old days, the men and women were worse than we in many ways. But +they held to a few traditions, or the best of them did, that make +the loose and tawdry manners of this age seem cheap indeed. All +my life I have known that there was something shining and simple +and precious concealed from the common herd of men in this common +age, which the brighter spirits of the old days lived by and +served and worshiped. I have always seen it plainly, and always +tried to live by it, too. Perhaps it was never, in any period, +more than a dream; but I have dreamed that dream. And anyone who +dreams that dream will have a reverence for his spoken word no +matter to whom it is passed. I may be a fool to fight this man; +well then, that is the kind of fool I am! Indeed, I know I am a +fool by the judgments of this age. But I have never truly lived +in this age. I have lived in the past; I have held to the dream; +I have believed in the bright adventure; I have walked with the +generous, chivalric spirits of the great ages; they have come to +me out of my books and dwelt with me and been my companions, and +the realities of time and place have been unreal in their +presence. I see myself so walking always. It may be that I am a +vain ass, but I cannot help it. It may be that I am a little +mad; but I would rather be mad with a Don Quixote than sane with +an Andrew Carnegie and pile up platitudes and dollars. + +"And all this foolishness of mine is somehow bound up with the +thought that I have engaged to fight that evil fellow, and must +do it; all the bright, sane madness in me cries out that he is to +die by this hand of mine. + +"I have opened my heart to you, as I have never done to anyone +before. And now I put myself into your hands. But, oh, take +care--for it is something in me better than myself that I give +you to deal with! And you can cripple it forever, because I love +you and I shall listen to you. Shall I fight him?" + +She had listened, mute and immobile, and as he spoke the red sun +made a sudden glory of her hair. She leaned towards him, and it +was as if the spirit of all the man's lifelong, foolish, romantic +musings were in her eyes and on her face. + +"Fight him!" she said. "And kill him!" + +And then her head was on his shoulder, and his arms were about +her. "Don't die!" she sobbed. "Don't die!" + +"Don't fear," he said, "I feel that I'll make short work of him." + +She smiled courageously back at him; with her hands upon his +shoulders she held him back and looked at him with tilted head. + +"If you are killed," she said, "it will have been more than most +women ever get, to have known and loved you for two days." + +"Two days?" he said. "Forever!" + +"Forever!" she said. + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +THE DUEL + +Cleggett took Wilton Barnstable by the sleeve and drew him +towards Loge, who, still seated on the deck with his long legs +stretched out in front of him, was now yawning with a cynical +affectation of boredom. + +"I wish you to act as my second in this affair," said Cleggett to +the detective, "and I suggest that either Mr. Ward or Mr. Bard +perform a like office for Mr. Black." + +Loge shrugged his shoulders, and said with a sneer: + +"A second, eh? We seem to be doing a great deal of arranging for +a very small amount of fighting." + +"I suggest," said Wilton Barnstable, "that a night's rest would +be quite in order for both principals." + +Loge broke in quickly, with studied insolence: "I object to the +delay. Mr. Cleggett might find some excuse for changing his mind +overnight. Let us, if you please, begin at once." + +"It was not I who suggested the delay," said Cleggett, haughtily. + +"Then give us the pistols," cried Loge, with a sudden, grim +ferocity in his voice, "and let's make an end of it!" + +"We fight with swords," said Cleggett. "I am the challenged +party." + +"Ho! Swords!" cried Loge, with a harsh, jarring laugh. "A bout +with the rapiers, man to man, eh? Come, this is better and +better! I may go to the chair, but first I will spit you like a +squab on a skewer, my little nut!" And then he said again, with +a shout of gusty mirth, and a clanking of his manacles: "Swords, +eh? By God! The little man says SWORDS!" + +Wilton Barnstable drew Cleggett to one side. + +"Name pistols," he said. "For God's sake, Cleggett, name +pistols! If I had had any idea that you were going to demand +rapiers I should have warned you before." + +Cleggett was amused at the great detective's anxiety. "It +appears that the fellow handles the rapier pretty well, eh?" he +said easily. + +"Cleggett----" began Barnstable. And then he paused and groaned +and mopped his brow. Presently he controlled his agitation and +continued. "Cleggett," he said, "the man is an expert swordsman. +I have been on his trail; I know his life for years past. He was +once a maitre d'armes. He gave lessons in the art." + +"Yes?" said Cleggett, laughing and flexing his wrist. "I am glad +to hear that! It will be really interesting then." + +"Cleggett," said Barnstable, "I beg of you--name pistols. This +is the man who invented that diabolical thrust with which Georges +Clemenceau laid low so many of his political opponents. If you +must go on with this mad duel, name pistols!" + +"Barnstable," said Cleggett, "I know what I am about, believe me. +Your anxiety does me little honor, but I am willing to suppose +that you are not deliberately insulting, and I pass it over. I +intend to kill this man. It is a duty which I owe to society. +And as for the rapier--believe me, Barnstable, I am no novice. +And my blood tingles and my soul aches with the desire to expunge +that man from life with my own hand. Come, we have talked +enough. There is a case of swords in the cabin. Will you do me +the favor to bring them on deck?" + +Loge's irons were unlocked. He rose to his feet and stretched +himself. He removed his coat and waistcoat. Then he took off +his shirt, revealing the fact that he wore next his skin a +long-sleeved undershirt of red flannel. + +Cleggett began to imitate him. But as the commander of the +Jasper B. began to pull his shirt over his head he heard a little +scream. Everyone turned in the direction from which it had +emanated. They beheld Miss Genevieve Pringle perched upon the +top of the cabin, whither she had mounted by means of a short +ladder. This lady, perhaps not quite aware of the possibly +sanguinary character of the spectacle she was about to witness, +had, nevertheless, sensed the fact that a spectacle was toward. +Miss Pringle had with her a handsome lorgnette. + +"Madam," said Cleggett, hastily pulling his shirt back on again +and approaching the cabin, "did you cry out?" + +"Mr.--er--Cleggett," said Miss Pringle, pursing her lips, "if you +will kindly hold the ladder for me I think I will descend and +retire at once to the cabin." + +"As you wish," said Cleggett politely, complying with her wish, +but at a loss to comprehend her. + +"I beg you to believe, Mr. Cleggett," said Miss Pringle, averting +her face and flushing painfully, while she turned the lorgnette +about and about with embarrassed fingers, "I beg you to believe +that in electing to witness this spectacle I had no idea of its +exceedingly informal nature." + +With these words she passed into the cabin, with the air of one +who has sustained a mortal insult. + +"Ef you was to ask me what she's tryin' to get at," piped up +Cap'n Abernethy, "I'd say it's her belief that it ain't proper +for gents to sword each other with their shirts off. She's +shocked, Miss Pringle is." + +"In great and crucial moments," said Cleggett soberly, pulling +off his shirt again and picking up a sword, "we may dispense with +the minor conventions without apology." + +Loge chose a weapon with the extreme of care and particularity, +trying the hang and balance of several of them. He looked well +to the weight, bent the blade in his hands to test the spring and +temper, tried the point upon his thumb. He handled the rapier as +if he had found an old friend again after a long absence; he +looked around upon his enemies with a sort of ferocious, +bantering gayety. + +"And now," said Loge, "if this is to be a duel indeed, Mr. +Cleggett and I will need plenty of room, I suggest that the rest +of you retire to the bulwarks and give us the deck to ourselves." + +"For my part," said Cleggett, "I order it." + +"And," said Wilton Barnstable, drawing his pistol, "Mr. Black +will please note that while I am standing by the bulwarks I shall +be watching indeed. Should he make an attempt to escape from the +vessel I shall riddle him with bullets." + +"Come, come," said Loge, "all this conversation is a waste of +time!" + +"That is my opinion also," said Cleggett. + +They saluted formally, and engaged their blades. + +With Cleggett, swordsmanship was both a science and an art. And +something more. It was also a passion. A good swordsman can be +made; a superior swordsman may be born; the real masters are both +born and made. It was so with Cleggett. His interest in fencing +had been keen from his early boyhood. In his teens he had +acquired unusual practical skill without great theoretical +knowledge. Then he had recognized the art for what it is, the +most beautiful game on earth, and had made a profound and +thorough study of it; it appealed to his imagination. + +He became, in a way, the poet of the foil. + +Cleggett seldom fenced publicly, and then only under an assumed +name; he abhorred publicity. But there was not a teacher in New +York City who did not know him for a master. They brought him +their half worked out visions of new combinations, new thrusts; +he perfected them, and simplified, or elaborated, and gave back +the finished product. + +They were the workmen, the craftsmen, the men of talent; he was +the originator, the genius. + +And he was especially lucky in not having been tied down, in his +younger years, to one national tradition of the art. The +limitations of the French, the Spanish, the Italian, or the +Austrian schools had not enslaved him in youth and hampered the +free development of his individuality. He had studied them all; +he chose from them all their superiorities; their excellences he +blended into a system of his own. + +It might be called the Cleggett System. + +The Frenchman is an intellectual swordsman; the basis of his art +is a thorough knowledge of its mathematics. Upon this foundation +he superimposes a structure of audacity. But he often falls into +one error or another, for all his mental brilliancy. He may +become rigidly formal in his practice, or, in a revolt from his +own formalism, be seduced into a display of showy, sensational +tricks that are all very well in the studio but dangerous to +their practitioner on the actual dueling ground. + +The Italian, looser, freer, less formal, more individual in his +style, springing from a line of forbears who have preferred the +thrust to the cut, the point to the edge, for centuries, is a +more instinctive and less intellectual swordsman than the +Frenchman. It is in his blood; he uses his rapier with a wild +and angry grace that is feline. + +The Frenchman, even when he is thoroughly serious in his desire +to slay, loves a duel for its own sake; he is never free from the +thought of the picture he is making; the art, the science, the +practical cleverness, appeal to him independently of the +bloodshed. + +The Italian thinks of but one thing; to kill. He will take a +severe wound to give a fatal one. The French are the best +fencers in the world; the Italians the deadliest duelists. + +Cleggett, as has been said, knew all the schools without being +the slave of any of them. + +He brought his sword en tierce; Loge's blade met his with +strength and delicacy. The strength Cleggett was prepared for. +The delicacy surprised him. But he was too much the master, too +confident of his own powers, to trifle. He delivered one of his +favorite thrusts; it was a stroke of his own invention; three +times out of five, in years past, it had carried home the button +of his foil to his opponent's jacket. It was executed with the +directness and rapidity of a flash of lightning. + +But Loge parried it with a neatness which made Cleggett open his +eyes, replying with a counter so shrewd and close, and of such a +darting ferocity, that Cleggett, although he met it faultlessly, +nevertheless gave back a step. + +"Ah," cried Loge, showing his yellow teeth in a grin, "so the +little man knows that thrust!" + +"I invented it," said Cleggett. + +With the word he pressed forward and, making a swift and dazzling +feint, followed it with two brilliant thrusts, either of which +would have meant the death of a tyro. The first one Loge +parried; the second touched him; but it gave him nothing more +than a scratch. Nevertheless, the smile faded from Loge's face; +he gave ground in his turn before this rapid vigor of attack; he +measured Cleggett with a new glance. + +"You are touched, I think," said Cleggett, meditating a fresh +combination, "and I am glad to see you drop that ugly pretense at +a grin. You have no idea how the sight of those yellow teeth of +yours, which you were evidently never taught to brush when you +were a little boy, offends a person of any refinement." + +Loge's answer was a sudden attempt to twist his blade around +Cleggett's; followed by a direct thrust, as quick as light, which +grazed Cleggett's shoulder; a little smudge of blood appeared on +his undershirt. + +"Take care, take care, Cleggett!" warned Wilton Barnstable, from +his post by the starboard bulwark. + +"Make yourself easy," said Cleggett, parrying a counter en carte, +"I am only getting warm." + +And both of them, stung by the slight scratches which they had +received, settled to the business with an intent and silent +deadliness of purpose. + +To all appearances Loge had an immense advantage over Cleggett; +his legs were a good two inches longer; so were his arms. And he +knew how to make these peculiarities count. He fought for a +while with a calm and steady precision that repeatedly baffled +the calculated impetuosity of Cleggett's attack. But the air of +bantering certainty with which he had begun the duel had left +him. He no longer wasted his breath on repartee; no doubt he was +surprised to find Cleggett's strength so nearly equal to his own, +as Cleggett had been astonished to find in Loge so much finesse. +But with a second slight wound Loge began to give ground. + +With Cleggett a bout with the foils had always been a duel. It +has been indicated, we believe, that he was of a romantic +disposition and much given to daydreaming; his imagination had +thus made every set-to in the fencing room a veritable mortal +combat to him. Therefore, this was not his first duel; he had +fought hundreds of them. And he fought always on a settled plan, +adapting it, of course, to the idiosyncrasies of his adversary. +It was his custom to vary the system of his attack frequently in +the most disconcerting manner, at the same time steadily +increasing the pace at which he fought. And when Loge began to +give ground and breathe a little harder, Cleggett, far from +taking advantage of his opponent's growing distress to rest +himself, as a less distinguished swordsman might have done, +redoubled the vigor of his assault. Cleggett knew that sooner or +later a winded man makes a fault. The lungs labor and fail to +give the blood all the oxygen it needs. The circulation suffers. +Nerves and muscles are no longer the perfect servants of the +brain; for a fraction of a second the sword deviates from the +proper line. + +It was for this that Cleggett waited, pressing Loge closer and +closer, alert for the instant when Loge would fence wide; waxing +as the other waned; menacing eyes, throat, and heart with a point +that leaped and dazzled; and at the same time inclosing himself +within a rampart of steel which Loge found it more and more +hopeless to attempt to penetrate. It was as if Cleggett's blade +were an extension of his will; he and his sword were not two +things, but one. The metal in his hand was no longer merely a +whip of steel; it was a thing that lived with his own life. His +pulse beat in it. It was a part of him. His nervous force +permeated it and animated it; it was his thought turned to +tempered metal, and it was with the rapidity, directness and +subtlety of thought that his sword responded to his mind. + +"Come!" said Cleggett, as Loge broke ground, scarcely aware that +he spoke aloud. "At this rate we shall be at home thrusts soon!" + +Loge must have thought so too; a shade passed over his face, his +upper lip lifted haggardly. Perhaps even that iron nature was +beginning to feel at last something of the dull sickness which is +the fear of death. He retreated continually, and Cleggett was +smitten with the fancy to force him backward and nail him, with a +final thrust, to the stump of the foremast, which had been broken +off some eight feet above the deck. + +But Loge, gathering his power, made a brilliant and desperate +rally; twice he grazed Cleggett, whose blade was too closely +engaged; and then suddenly broke ground again. This time +Cleggett perceived that he had been retreating in accordance with +a preconceived program. He was certain the man contemplated a +trick, perhaps some foul stroke. + +He rushed forward with a terrible thrust. Loge, whose last +maneuver had taken him within a yard of the hatchway opening into +the hold, grasped Cleggett's blade in his left hand, and at the +same instant flung his own sword, hilt first, full in Cleggett's +face. As Cleggett, struck in the mouth with the pommel, +staggered back, Loge plunged feet foremost into the hold. It was +too unexpected, and too quickly done, for a shot from Barnstable +or any of Cleggett's men. + +Cleggett, with the blood streaming from his mouth, recovered +himself and leaped through the aperture in the deck. He landed +upon his feet with a jar, and, shortening his sword in his hand, +stared about him in the gloom. + +He saw no one. + +An instant later Wilton Barnstable and Cap'n Abernethy were +beside him. + +"Gone!" said Cleggett simply. + +Barnstable drew from his pocket a small electric lantern and +swept the beam in a circle about the hold. Again and again he +raked the darkness until the finger of light had rested upon +every foot of the interior. + +But Loge had vanished as completely as a snowflake that falls +into a tub of water. + + +CHAPTER XXV + +THE SECRET OF THE VESSEL'S HOLD + +"Idiot that I am," cried Cleggett, "not to have covered that +hole!" His chagrin was touching to behold. + +"There, there, Cleggett," said Wilton Barnstable kindly, "do not +reproach yourself too bitterly." + +"But to let him escape when I had him----" Cleggett finished the +sentence with a groan. + +But Wilton Barnstable was thinking. + +"Please have some lights brought down here if you will, Captain," +he said to Abernethy, "and ask Mr. Bard and Mr. Ward to come." + +In a few minutes the interior of the hold was illuminated with +lanterns; it was as bright as day. But the detectives did not +proceed at once to a minute examination of the hold as Cleggett +had supposed they would. + +Instead, they stood in the waist of the vessel and thought. + +Visibly they thought. Wilton Barnstable thought. + +Barton Ward thought. Watson Bard thought. They thought in +silence. Cleggett could almost feel these three master brains +pulsating in unison, working in rhythmic accord, there in the +silence; the sense of this intense cerebral effort became almost +oppressive. . . . + +Finally Wilton Barnstable began to stroke his mustache, and a +pleased smile stole over his plump and benign visage. Barton +Ward also began to stroke his mustache and smile. But it was +twenty seconds more before Watson Bard's corrugated brow relaxed +and his eyes twinkled with the idea that had come so much more +readily to the other two. + +"Cleggett," said Wilton Barnstable, "you have heard of the +deductive method as applied to the work of the detective?" + +"I have," said Cleggett. "I have read Poe's detective tales and +Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories." + +"Ah! Sherlock Holmes!" The three detectives looked at each +other with glances in which were mingled both bitterness and +amusement; the look seemed to dispose of Sherlock Holmes. Once +again Cleggett had a fleeting thought that Wilton Barnstable +might possibly be a vain man. + +"Sherlock Holmes," said Barnstable, "never existed. His +marvelous feats are not possible in real life, Cleggett. But the +deductive method which he pretended to use--mind you, I say +PRETENDED, Cleggett!--is, nevertheless, sound." + +And then the three detectives gave Cleggett an example of the +phenomenal cleverness. + +"Mr. Ward," said Wilton Barnstable, "Logan Black entered this +hold." + +"He did," said Barton Ward. + +"He is not here now," said Wilton Barnstable. + +"He is not," said Watson Bard. + +"Therefore he has escaped," said Wilton Barnstable. + +"But how?" said Barton Ward. + +"Only a ghost or an insect could leave this hold otherwise than +by the hatchway, to all appearances," said Wilton Barnstable. + +"Logan Black is not a ghost," said Barton Ward firmly. + +"Logan Black is not an insect," said Watson Bard with conviction. + +"Then," said Barnstable, "that eliminates the supernatural and +the--the----" + +"The entomological?" suggested Cleggett. + +The three detectives stared at him fixedly for a moment, as if +surprised at the interruption. But if they were miffed they were +too dignified to do more than hint it. Barnstable continued: + +"There is no such thing as magic." + +"There is not," said Ward. + +"The fourth dimension does not exist," said Bard. + +"Therefore Logan Black's exit," said Barnstable, "was in +accordance with well-known physical laws. We are forced to the +conclusion that he made his escape through a secret passageway." + +"A tunnel," said Barton Ward. + +"With a concealed door opening into the hold," said Watson Bard. + +"A ship with a secret tunnel!" cried Cleggett. "Who ever heard of +the like? Why, the thing is----" + +But he broke off. He had been leaning against the starboard side +of the hold. Even as he spoke he felt the wall behind him +moving. He turned. A door was opening. It was built into the +side of the Jasper B. and the joints were cleverly concealed. He +had inadvertently found, with his elbow, the nailhead which was +in reality the push button that released the spring. The black +entrance of a subterranean passage yawned before him. + +He stared in astonishment. The three detectives were pointing at +the tunnel with plump forefingers and bland, triumphant smiles. + +"Nothing is impossible, my dear Cleggett," said Barnstable. "The +tunnel HAD to be there!" + +"It explains everything," said Cleggett. "But a tunnel into MY +ship!" + +And, in truth, for a moment he felt disappointed in the Jasper B. + +A tunnel is all very well leading from the basement of a house, +or extending backward from a cave; but Cleggett felt that it was +scarcely a dignified sort of arrangement, nautically speaking, +for a ship to have leading from its hold. + +It seemed, somehow, to stamp the Jasper B. indelibly as a thing +of the land rather than as the gallant creature of piping winds +and following seas. Could the Jasper B., a bone in her teeth and +her tackle humming, ever again sail through Cleggett's dreams? +For a moment, if the worst must be known, he was almost disgusted +with the Jasper B., considered as a ship. For a moment he was +willing to believe that Cap'n Abernethy was nothing but a Long +Island truck farmer, and NOT of a seafaring family at all. For a +moment he felt himself to be a copyreader again on the New York +Enterprise. + +But only for a moment! The star of romance, clouded temporarily +by fact, rose serene and bright again in the wide heaven of the +unusual spirit, the barber's basin gleamed once more the helmet +of Mambrino. Cleggett began to see the matter in its proper +light. + +"A tunnel!" he cried, brightening, and looking at it with his +legs spread a little wide and his hands on his hips. "A tunnel! +Eh, by gad! Who could have prophesied a tunnel? Barnstable, +never tell me again there is no romance in real life! I tell +you, Barnstable, she's a good old ship, the Jasper B.! I don't +suppose there was ever another schooner in the world with a +secret passageway leading out of her hold!" + +"She IS a remarkable vessel," agreed Wilton Barnstable gravely. +"But, come, we are wasting time! The other end of this passage +is at Morris's, that is plain. Loge Black has only a few +minutes' start of us. Therefore, to Morris's!" + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +A DOG DIES GAME + +Clambering out of the hold, the three detectives and Cleggett +briefly made their followers acquainted with the extraordinary +turn of events. The Rev. Mr. Calthrop, Miss Pringle's Jefferson, +and Washington Artillery Lamb were detailed to guard the Jasper +B. end of the tunnel. The others, seizing their rifles, raced +across the sands towards Morris's. + +In a few moments the place was invested, with riflemen on every +side except the south, which fronted on the bay. The +steel-jacketed bullets from the high-power guns tore through and +through the flimsy walls. Nevertheless the defenders replied +pluckily, and the siege might have dragged on for hours had it +not been for the courage and resource of Kuroki. Gaining the +stable, Kuroki found an old pushcart there. He piled three bales +of hay upon it, and then set fire to the hay. Pushing the cart +before him, and crouching behind the bales to protect himself +from revolver shots, he worked his way to the east verandah of +the building and left the hay blazing against the planks. Then +he ran as if the devil were after him, and was almost out of +pistol shot before he got a bullet in the calf of his leg. + +The blaze caught the wood and spread. In two minutes the east +verandah was in flames. Loge and his men attempted to pour water +on the blaze from above. But Cleggett's party directed so hot a +fire upon the windows that the defenders were forced to retire. + +The main building caught. The road house was old, and was of +very light construction; the fire spread with rapidity. Loge was +in a trap. + +But that evil and indomitable spirit refused to yield. Even when +his remaining ruffians came out and gave themselves up Loge still +fought on alone in a sullen fury of despair. + +Reckless of bullets, he leaned from an open window, a figure not +without its grandeur against the background of smoke and flame, +and shouted a savage and obscene insult at Cleggett. + +"Give yourself up," cried Wilton Barnstable. + +"Damn it, man, anything's better than roasting to death!" + +Loge raised his hand and sped a last bullet at the detective, +grazing Barnstable's temple. + +"Come in and get me!" he shouted. + +Barnstable fired, just as a whirl of smoke blew in front of Loge. + +Cleggett thought the outlaw staggered, but he was not certain. + +A moment later a portion of the roof fell; then the east wall +crashed in. Morris's was a blazing ruin. + +"He has perished in the flames," said Wilton Barnstable. "So +ends Logan Black!" + +"More like he's blowed his head off," said Cap'n Abernethy. "If +you was to ask me, that's what I'd do." + +"He has done neither!" cried Cleggett. "He has taken to the +tunnel. That man will fight to the last breath." + +And without waiting to see whether the others followed him or not +Cleggett set off at top speed for the Jasper B. + +With a dagger between his teeth, his pistol in its holster, and +his electric, watchman's lantern in his pocket he entered the +tunnel and crawled forward on his hands and knees. If Loge were +in there indeed he had the fire at one end and Cleggett at the +other. But even at that, escape was possible, for all Cleggett +knew. What ramifications this peculiar passageway might have he +could not guess. + +The place was narrow, and in spots so low that it was necessary +for a man to crouch almost to the ground. Cleggett, because he +did not wish to reveal his presence, did not flash his lantern; +there were stretches where he might have stood almost erect and +made quicker progress, if he had found them with the light. The +earth beneath him was beaten hard and smooth. + +Cleggett thought possibly that the tunnel had originally led from +Morris's basement to the smuggler's cave which Wilton Barnstable +had spoken of, and that it had been extended later to the ship. +He learned afterwards that this was true from the men who had +surrendered. The Jasper B. had been abandoned for so long, and +was so completely abandoned except for the visits of Cap'n +Abernethy, who fished from it now and then, that Loge had +conceived the idea of making it the back-door, so to speak, of +Morris's. In the event of a raid upon Morris's his "get-away" +through the hulk was provided for. He had intended buying the +ship himself; but Cleggett had forestalled him. + +From the prisoners Cleggett also learned later that two men had +been concerned in the explosion which had broken the big rocks on +the plain. One of them had won the Claiborne signet ring at +poker after Reginald Maltravers had been stripped of his +valuables, and had worn it. They had been dispatched with a bomb +each, which they were to introduce into the hold of the Jasper +B., retiring through the tunnel after they had started the +clockwork mechanism going. It was known that one of them owed +the other money; they had been quarreling about it as they +entered the tunnel from the cellar of Morris's. It was +conjectured that the quarrel had progressed and that the debtor +had endeavored, by the light of his pocket lantern in the tunnel, +to palm off a counterfeit bill in settlement of the debt. This +may have led to a blow, or more likely only to an argument during +which a bomb was dropped and exploded, followed quickly by the +other explosion. Dead hand, counterfeit bill and ring were flung +whimsically to the surface of the earth together, and the leaning +rocks had been astonishingly broken from beneath through this +trivial quarrel. Had it not been for this squabble the Jasper B. +and all on board must have been destroyed. Verily, the minds of +wicked men compass their own downfall, and retribution can +sometimes be an artist. + +But Cleggett, as he crawled forward through the darkness and the +damp, thought little of these things that had so mystified him at +the time. He was alert for what the immediate future might hold, +not doubting that Loge had retreated to the tunnel. He had too +strong a sense of the man's powerful and iniquitous personality +to suppose that Loge would kill himself while one chance +remained, however remote, of injuring his enemies. Loge was the +kind of dog that dies biting. + +Suddenly, after pressing forward for several minutes, he ran +against an obstruction. The tunnel seemed to come to an end. He +did not dare show his light. But he felt with his hands. It was +rock that blocked his way. Cleggett understood that this barrier +was the result of the explosion. Groping and exploring with his +hands, he found that the passage turned sharply to the left. It +was more narrow and curving, for the distance of a few yards, and +the earth beneath was fresher. When the tunnel had been blocked +by the explosion, Loge and his men had burrowed around the +obstruction. + +Cleggett judged that he must be at about the middle of the +tunnel. He felt the more solid earth beneath his hands again, +and knew that he had passed the rock. The passage now descended +deeper into the ground, slanting steeply downward. This incline +was twenty feet in length; then the floor became horizontal again +on the lower level. At the same time the passage widened. +Cleggett stretched one arm out, then the other; he could not +touch the wall on either hand. He stood erect and held his hand +up; the roof was six inches above his head. He was in a room of +some sort. Wishing, if possible, to learn the extent of this +subterranean chamber, which he did not doubt had at one time been +used as a cave and storehouse of smugglers, Cleggett began to +sidle around walls, feeling his way with his hands. + +He dislodged a pebble. It rolled to the ground with what was +really a slight sound. + +But to Cleggett, who had been getting more and more excited, it +was loud as an avalanche. He stopped and held his breath; he +fancied that he had heard another noise besides the one which his +pebble made. But he could not be sure. + +The sensation that he was not alone suddenly gripped him with +overwhelming force. His heart began to beat more quickly; the +blood drummed in his ears. Nevertheless, he kept his head. He +took his pocket lantern in his left hand, and his pistol in his +right, and leaned with his back against the wall. He listened. +He heard nothing. + +But the eerie feeling that he was watched grew upon him. +Presently he fancied that the darkness began to vibrate, as if an +electrical current of some sort were being passed through it, and +it might forthwith burst into light. Cleggett, as we know, was +not easily frightened. But now he was possessed of a strange +feeling, akin to terror, but which was at the same time not any +terror of physical injury. He did not fear Loge; in dark or +daylight he was ready to grapple with him and fight it out; +nevertheless he feared. That he could not say what he feared +only increased his fear. + +Children say they are "afraid of the dark." It is not the dark +which they are afraid of. It is the bodiless presences which +they imagine in the dark. It was so with Cleggett now. He was +not daunted by anything that could strike a blow. But the sense +of a personality began to encompass him. It pressed in upon him, +played upon him, embraced him; his flesh tingled as if he were +being brushed; he felt his hair stir. One recognizes a flower by +its odor. So a soul flings off, in some inexplicable way, the +sense of itself. This force that laid itself upon Cleggett and +flowed around him had an individuality without a body. Not +through his senses, but psychically, he recognized it; it was the +hateful and sinister individuality of Loge. + +With choking throat and dry lips Cleggett stood and suffered +beneath the smothering presence of this terror while the slow +seconds mounted to an intolerable minute; then there burst from +him an uncontrollable shout. + +"Loge!" he roared, and the cavern rang. + +And with the word he pressed the button of his electric pocket +lamp and shot a beam of light straight in front of him. It fell +upon the yellowish brow and the wide, unwinking eyes of Loge. +The eyes stared straight at Cleggett's own from across the cave, +thirty feet away. Loge's teeth were bared in his malevolent +grimace; he head was bent forward; he sat upon a rock. Cleggett, +unable to withdraw his eyes, waited for Loge's first movement. +The man made no sign. Cleggett slowly raised his pistol. . . . + +But he did not fire. The open, staring eyes, unchanging at the +menace of the lifted pistol, told the story. Loge was dead. +Cleggett crossed over and examined him. Clutched on his knees +was a bomb. He had been wounded by Barnstable's last shot, but +he had crawled through the tunnel with a bomb for a final attempt +on the Jasper B. His strength had failed; he had rested upon the +rock and bled to death. + +As for his last thought, Cleggett had felt it. Loge had died +hating and lusting for his blood. + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +CLEGGETT ACCOMMODATES THE KING + +There was a wedding next day on the deck of the Jasper B. The +Rev. Simeon Calthrop performed the ceremony, and Wilton +Barnstable insisted upon lending his vessel for a bridal cruise. +Washington Artillery Lamb, engineer, janitor, cook and butler of +the Annabel Lee, went with the vessel. + +As for the Jasper B., although his wife urged him to keep the +ship for the sake of old associations, Cleggett had the hole in +its side built in and gave it to the Rev. Simeon Calthrop for a +gospel ship. George the Greek, who married Miss Medley, shipped +with the preacher in his cruise around the world, and he and his +wife eventually reached Greece, as he had originally intended. +Elmer went with the Rev. Mr. Calthrop to assist him in his +missionary work. + +But it was some time before the Jasper B. sailed. Besides the +hole which was the entrance to the tunnel it was discovered that +the vessel rested on a brick foundation. The man who had used +her for a saloon and dancing platform in years past had dug away +part of the bank of the canal to fit the curve of her starboard +side and had then jammed her tight into the land. Even then she +would move a trifle at times, so he had built a dam around her, +pumped the water out of the inclosed space, jacked the hulk up, +built the brick foundation, and let her down solidly on it again. + +With the dam removed the water covered this masonry work, and she +looked quite like a real ship. Mr. Goldberg had known about this +foundation, but he had forgotten it, he explained to Cleggett. + +The Rev. Mr. Calthrop fitted her out as a floating chapel and +filled her with Bibles printed in all languages, which he +distributes in many lands. When his fatal attractiveness for +women threatens to involve him in trouble he hastily puts to sea. +He has never become a really accomplished sailor, and the Jasper +B. is something of a menace to navigation in the ports and +harbors of the world. The suggestion has frequently been made +that she should be set ashore permanently and put on wheels. But +she has her features. She is, possibly, the only ship extant +with a memorial skylight to her cabin. Cleggett wished her to +carry some sort of memorial to the faithful Teddy, the Pomeranian +dog, who perished of a stray shot in the fight at Morris's. And +as a memorial window did not seem feasible a compromise was made +on the memorial skylight. The glass is by Tiffany. + +Dopey Eddie and Izzy the Cat, still followed by Reginald +Maltravers, made their way to Brooklyn, where all three were +arrested and lodged in the observation ward of the Kings County +Hospital on the suspicion that they were insane. The two gunmen +were able to get free through political influence, but Maltravers +was sent to England. He was maintained for some time in a +private institution through the generosity of the Cleggetts, but +finally went on a hunger strike and died. + +Wilton Barnstable smiles and prospers. He gained great +additional fame for his clever work in the Case of Logan Black. + +Cleggett, in 1925, was the father of four boys named D'Artagnan, +Athos, Porthos, and Aramis Cleggett; and the owner of the +Claiborne estates. + +He is now immensely wealthy. It never would have occurred to +him, perhaps, to attempt to increase his modest fortune of +$500,000 by speculating on the Stock Exchange, had it not been +for a fortunate meeting with a barber in Nassau Street. + +This barber, whose Christian name was Walter, was, indeed, a mine +of suggestion and information of all sorts. And being a +good-natured fellow, who wished the world well, Walter delighted +to impart his original ideas and the fruits of his observation to +his patrons while shaving them. Some of these received his +remarks coldly, it is true, but Walter was so charged with a +sense of friendliness towards all mankind that he was never +daunted for long by a rebuff. + +His interests were wide and varied; Walter found no difficulty in +talking pleasantly upon any subject; he could touch it lightly, +or deal with it in a more serious vein, as the mood of his +customer seemed to require; and he had the art of making deft and +rapid transitions from topic to topic. But there were two things +in particular concerning which Walter had thought deeply: +racehorses and the stock market. + +It was the settled grief of Walter's life that he had never been +able to persuade any person with money to take his advice +concerning the races, or follow any of the dazzling stock market +campaigns which he was forever outlining. + +"They listen to me," said Walter, a little wistfully, but with a +brave smile, "or else they do not listen--but no one has ever yet +taken my advice! Do you wet your hair when you part it, sir?" + +"What," said Cleggett, carefully concealing from Walter the fact +that he spoke of himself, "would be your advice to a man with +$100,000 who wished to double it in a few weeks?" + +"Double it!" cried Walter. "Why, I could show such a person how +to multiply it by ten inside of two months." And he rapidly +outlined to Cleggett a scheme so audacious and so brilliant that +it fairly took our hero's breath away. Moreover, it stood the +test of reflection; it was sound. Not to descend to the sordid +details, in three weeks Cleggett found himself possessed of a +million dollars' gain. Half of this he gave to the excellent +Walter, and in three months ran the other half million up to +twenty millions. + +Then he withdrew permanently from business, as Lady Agatha +complained that it took too much of his time; moreover, he shrank +from notoriety, which his stock market operations were beginning +to bring upon him. + +Giuseppe Jones, who recovered of his wounds, forswore anarchy and +became a newspaper reporter, and grew to be a fast friend of +Cleggett, who discovered that he was a lad of parts. Cleggett +eventually made him president of a college of journalism which he +founded. While he was establishing the institution the man +Wharton, his old managing editor, broken, shattered, out of work, +and a hopeless drunkard, came to him and begged for a position. +The man had sunk so low that he was repeatedly arrested for +pretending to be blind on the street corners, and had debauched +an innocent dog to assist in this deception. Cleggett forgave +him the slights of many years and made him an assistant janitor +in the new college of journalism. + +The post is a sinecure, and well within even the man Wharton's +powers. + +Cap'n Abernethy travels with the Cleggetts a great deal, under +the hallucination, which they humor, that he is of service to +them. The children are very fond of him. At Claiborne Castle +Cleggett has had a shallow lake constructed for him. There the +Captain, still firm in the belief that he is a sailor, loves to +potter about with catboats and rafts. + +Dr. Farnsworth enjoys a lucrative position as physician to the +Cleggett family, and Kuroki is their butler. + +By 1925 the prejudice against militants had abated in certain +exalted circles in England, and Lady Agatha Cleggett and her +husband were much at court. + +Cleggett, hating notoriety, had endeavored to conceal the story +of his adventures along the dangerous coasts of Long Island; but +concealment was impossible. After the death of the old Earl of +Claiborne, and the demise of Reginald Maltravers, and Cleggett's +purchase of the Claiborne estate, the King wished Cleggett to +take the title of Earl of Claiborne. + +His Majesty sent the Premier to sound Cleggett upon the matter. + +"No, no," said Cleggett affably. "I couldn't think of it. I am +quite democratic, you know." + +The second time the King sent one of the Royal Dukes to see +Cleggett. They were at a house party in Wales, and Cleggett was +a little disturbed that this business affair should be brought up +at a gathering so distinctly social in its nature. He was too +tactful to let it be seen, but secretly he felt that in +approaching the matter in that fashion the Duke had erred in +taste. + +"But we need men like you in the House of Lords," pleaded the +Duke. + +"I cannot think of it," said Cleggett. And then, not wishing to +hurt the Englishman's feelings, he said kindly: "But I will +promise you this: if I should change my mind and decide to become +a member of any aristocracy at all, it will be the English +aristocracy." + +The Duke thanked Cleggett for the compliment; and Cleggett +thought he had heard the end of it. + +He was, therefore, surprised, a few weeks later, as he was +conversing with the King at Buckingham Palace, when His Majesty +himself, laying his hand familiarly on Cleggett's shoulder, +renewed the petition in person. It is hard to refuse things +continually without seeming unappreciative. In fact, Cleggett +felt trapped; if the truth must be known, he was a little angry. + +"Come, come, Cleggett," said the King, "lay aside your prejudices +and oblige me. After all, it is not the sort of thing I run +about offering to every American in London!" + +"Your Majesty," said Cleggett, politely but with a note of +firmness and finality in his voice, "since you mention the word +American you force me to speak plainly. I would not willingly +wound your sensibilities in any particular, but--pardon me if I +am direct--you have been very persistent. I AM an American, your +Majesty, and I consider the honor of being an American citizen +far above any that it is within your power to bestow. If I have +not mentioned this before, it was because I did not wish to hurt +you. I hope our friendship will not cease, but I must tell you +flatly that I desire to hear no more of this. You will oblige me +by not mentioning it again, Your Majesty." + +The King begged Cleggett's pardon with a becoming sincerity, and +was about to withdraw. Cleggett, who liked him immensely, was +sudden smitten with a regret that it had been so impossible to +oblige him. + +"Your Majesty," he cried impulsively, "I BEG of you not to get +the idea that there is anything personal in this refusal." + +"I respect principle," said the King gravely. But he WAS hurt +and could not help showing it, and he was a little stiff. + +"We will compromise," said Cleggett, with a flash of inspiration. + +"I will let you have my second son, Athos Cleggett. You may make +him Earl of Claiborne, if you choose. After all, HE is half +English!" + +"That is like your generosity, Cleggett," said the King, smiling, +and giving Cleggett his hand. + + + + + +End Project Gutenberg Etext of The Cruise of the Jasper B. + diff --git a/old/jsprb10.zip b/old/jsprb10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c0895ae --- /dev/null +++ b/old/jsprb10.zip |