________________________________________________
_ One day passes much like another in Caracuna City. The sun rises
blandly, grows hot and angry as it climbs the slippery polished
vault of the heavens, and coasts down to its rest in a pleased and
mild glow. From the squat cathedral tower the bells clang and
jangle defiance to the Adversary, temporarily drowning out the
street tumult in which the yells of the lottery venders, the
braying of donkeys, the whoops of the cabmen, and the blaring of
the little motor cars with big horns, combine to render Caracuna
the noisiest capital in the world. Through the saddle-colored
hordes on the moot ground of the narrow sidewalks moves an
occasional Anglo-Saxon resident, browned and sallowed, on his way
to the government concession that he manages; a less occasional
Anglo-Saxoness, browned and marked with the seal that the tropics
put upon every woman who braves their rigors for more than a brief
period; and a sprinkling of tourists in groups, flying on cheek,
brow, and nose the stark red of their newness to the climate.
Not of this sorority Miss Polly Brewster. Having blithe regard to
her duty as an ornament of this dull world, she had tempered the
sun to the foreign cuticle with successively diminishing layers of
veils, to such good purpose that the celestial scorcher had but
kissed her graduated brownness to a soft glow of color. Not alone
in appreciation of her external advantages was Miss Brewster. Such
as it was,--and it had its qualities, albeit somewhat
unformulated,--Caracuna society gave her prompt welcome. There
were teas and rides and tennis at the little club; there were
agreeable, presentable men and hospitable women; and always there
was Fitzhugh Carroll, suave, handsome, gentle, a polished man of
the world among men, a courteous attendant to every woman, but
always with a first thought for her. Was it sheer perversity of
character, that elfin perversity so shrewdly divined by the hermit
of the mountain, that put in her mind, in this far corner of the
world, among these strange people, the thought:
"All men are alike, and Fitz, for all that he's so different and
the best of them, is the MOST alike."
Which paradox, being too much fear her in the heat of the day, she
put aside in favor of the insinuating thought of her beetle man.
Whatever else he might or might not be, he wasn't alike. She was
by no means sure that she found this difference either admirable
or amiable. But at least it was interesting.
Moreover, she was piqued. For four days had passed and the recluse
had not returned her call. True, there had come to her hotel a
wicker full of superb wild tree blooms, and, again, a tiny box,
cunning in workmanship of scented wood, containing what at first
glance she had taken to be a jewel, until she saw that it was a
tiny butterfly with opalescent wings, mounted on a silver wire.
But with them had come no word or token of identification. Perhaps
they weren't from the queer and remote person at all. Very likely
Mr. Raimonda had sent them; or Fitzhugh Carroll was adding secret
attention to his open homage; or they might even be a further
peace offering from the Hochwald secretary.
That occasionally too festive diplomat had, indeed, made amends
both profound and, evidently, sincere. Soliciting the kind offices
of both Sherwen and Raimonda, he had presented himself, under
their escort, stiff and perspiring in his full official regalia,
before Mr. Brewster; then before his daughter, whose solemnity,
presently breaking down before his painfully rehearsed English,
dissolved in fluent French, setting him at ease and making him her
slave. Poor penitent Von Plaanden even apologized to Carroll,
fortunately not having heard of the American's threat, and made a
most favorable impression upon that precisian.
"Intoxicated, he may be a rough, Miss Polly," Carroll confided to
the girl. "But sober, the man is a gentleman. He feels very badly
about the whole affair. Offered to your father to report it all
through official channels and attach his resignation."
"Not for worlds!" cried Miss Polly. "The poor man was half asleep.
And Mr. Bee--Mr. Perkins DID jog him rather sharply."
"Yes. Von Plaanden asked my advice as an American about his
attitude toward Cluff and Perkins."
"I hope you told him to let the whole thing drop."
"Exactly what I did. I explained about Cluff; that he was a very
good fellow, but of a different class, and probably wouldn't give
the thing another thought."
"And Mr. Perkins?"
"Von Plaanden wanted to challenge him, if he could find him. I
suggested that he leave me to deal with Mr. Perkins. After some
discussion, he agreed."
"Oh! And what are you going to do with him?"
"Find him first, if I can."
"I can tell you where." Carroll stared at her, astonished. "But I
don't think I will."
"He announced his intention of keeping out of my way. The man has
no sense of shame."
"You probably scared the poor lamb out of his wits, fire-eater
that you are."
Carroll would have liked to think so, but an innate sense of
justice beneath his crust of prejudice forbade him to accept this
judgment.
"The strange part of it is that he doesn't impress me as being
afraid. But there is certainly something very wrong with the
fellow. A man who will deliberately desert a woman in distress"--
Carroll's manner expanded into the roundly rhetorical--"whatever
else he may be, cannot be a gentleman."
"There might have been mitigating circumstances."
"No circumstances could excuse such an action. And, after that,
the fellow had the effrontery to send you a message."
"Me? What was it?" asked Miss Polly quickly.
"I don't know. I didn't let him finish. I forbade his even
mentioning your name."
"Indeed!" cried the girl, in quick dudgeon. "Don't you think you
are taking a great deal upon yourself, Fitz? What do you really
know about Mr. Perkins, anyway, that you judge him so
offhandedly?"
"Very little, but enough, I think. And I hardly think you know
more."
"Then you're wrong. I do."
"You KNOW this man?"
"Yes; I do."
"Does your father approve of--"
"Never mind my father! He has confidence enough in me to let me
judge of my own friends."
"Friends?" Carroll's handsome face clouded and reddened. "If I had
known that he was a friend of yours, Miss Polly, I never would
have spoken as I did. I'm most sincerely sorry," he added, with
grave courtesy.
The girl's color deepened under the brown.
"He isn't exactly a friend," she admitted. "I've just met and
talked with him a few times. But your judgment seemed so unfair,
on such a slight basis."
"I'm sorry I can't reverse my judgment," said the Southerner
stiffly, "But I know of only one standard for those matters."
"That's just your trouble." Her eyes took on a cold gleam as she
scanned the perfection and finish of the man before her.
"Fitzhugh, do you wear ready-made clothing?"
"Of course not," he answered, in surprise at this turn.
"Your suits are all made to order?"
"Yes, Miss Polly."
"And your shirts?"
"Yes, and shoes, and various other things." He smiled.
"Why do you have them specially made?"
"Beeause they suit me better, and I can afford it."
"It's really because you want them individualized for you, isn't
it?"
"Yes; I suppose so."
"Then why do you always get your mental clothes ready-made?"
"I don't think I understand, Miss Polly," he said gently.
"It seems to me that all your ideas and estimates and standards
are of stock pattern," she explained relentlessly. "Inside, you're
as just exactly so as a pair of wooden shoes. Can't you see that
you can't judge all men on the same plane?"
"I see that you're angry with me, and I see that I'm being
punished for what I said about--about Mr. Perkins. If I'd known
that you took any interest in him, I'd have bitten my tongue in
two before speaking as I did. As for the message, if you wish it,
I'll go to him--"
"Oh, that doesn't matter," she interrupted.
"This much I can say, in honesty," continued the Southerner, with
an effort: "I had a talk, almost an encounter, with him in the
plaza, and I don't believe he is the coward I thought him."
His intent to be fair to the object of his scorn was so genuine
that his critic felt a swift access of compunction.
"Oh, Fitz," she said sweetly, "you're not to blame. I should have
told you. And you're honest and loyal and a gentleman. Only I wish
sometimes that you weren't quite so awfully gentlemanly a
gentleman."
The Southerner made a gesture of despair.
"If I could only understand you, Miss Polly!"
"Don't hope it. I've never yet understood myself. But there's a
sympathy in me for the under dog, and this Mr. Perkins seems a
sort of helpless creature. Yet in another way he doesn't seem
helpless at all. Quite the reverse. Oh, dear! I'm tired of
Perkins, Perkins, Perkins! Let's talk about something pleasanter--
like the plague."
"What's that about Perkins?" Galpy had entered the drawing-room
where the conversation had been carried on, and now crossed over
to them. "I'll tell you a good one on the little blighteh. D' you
know what they call him at the Club Amicitia since his adventure
on the street car, Miss Brewster?"
"What?"
"'The Unspeakable Perk.' Rippin', ain't it? Like 'The Unspeakable
Turk,' you know."
Despite herself, Polly's lips twitched; in some ways he WAS
unspeakable.
"They've nicknamed him that because of his trying to help me, and
then--leaving?" she asked.
"Oh, not entirely. There's other things. He's a nahsty, stand-
offish way with him, you know. Don't-want-to-know-yeh trick.
Wouldn't-speak-to-yeh-if-I-could-help-it twist to his face. 'The
Unspeakable Perk.' Stands him right, I should say. There's other
reasons, too."
"What are they?"
She saw a quick, warning frown on Carroll's sharply turned face.
Galpy noted it, too, and was lost in confusion.
"Oh--ah--just gossip--nothing at all. I say, Miss Brewster, the
railway--I'm in the Ferrocarril-del-Norte office, you know--has
offered your party a special on an hour's notice, any time you
want it."
"That's most kind of your road, Mr. Galpy. But why should we want
it?"
"Things might be getting a bit ticklish any day now. I've just
taken the message from the manager to your father."
The young Englishman took his leave, and Polly Brewster went to
her room, to freshen up for luncheon, carrying with her the
sobriquet she had just heard. Certainly, applied to its subject,
it had a mucilaginous consistency. It stuck.
"'The Unspeakable Perk,'" she repeated, with a little chuckle. "If
I had a month to train him in, eh, what a speakable Perk I'd make
him! I'd make him into a Perk that would sit up and speak when I
lifted my little finger." She considered this. "I'm not so sure,"
she concluded, more doubtfully. "Hew can one tell through those
horrid glasses, particularly when one doesn't see him for days and
days?"
Without moving, she might, however, have seen him forthwith, for
at that precise and particular moment, the Unspeakable Perk was in
plain sight of her window, on a bench in the corner of the plaza,
engaged in light conversation with a legless and philosophical
beggar whom he had just astonished by the presentation of a whole
bolivar, of the value of twenty cents gold.
After she had finished luncheon and returned to her room, he was
still there. Not until the mid-heat of the afternoon, however, did
she observe, first with puzzlement, then with a start of
recognition, the patiently rounded brown back of the forward-
leaning figure in the corner. Greatly wroth was Miss Polly
Brewster. For some hours--two, at least--the man to keep tryst and
wager with whom she had tramped up miles of mountain road had been
in town and hadn't called upon her! Truly was he an Unspeakable
Perk!
Wasn't there possibly a mistake somewhere, though? A second peep
at the far-away back interpreted into the curve a suggestion of
resigned waiting. Maybe he had called, after all. Thought being
usually with Miss Brewster the mother of the twins, Determination
and Action, she slipped downstairs and inquired of the three
guardians of the door, in such Spanish as she could muster,
whether a Mr. Perkins, wearing large glasses--this in the
universal sign manual--had been to see her that day.
"Si, Senorita"--he had.
Why, then, hadn't his name been brought to her?
Extended hands and up-shrugged shoulders that might mean either
apology or incomprehension.
Straightway Miss Brewster pinned a hat upon her brown head at an
altogether casual and heart-distracting angle and sallied down
into the tesselated bowl of the park. Quite unconscious of her
approach, until she was close upon him, her objective chatted
fluently with the legless one, until she spoke quietly, almost in
his ear. Then it was only by a clutch at the bench back that he
saved himself from disaster on his return to earth.
"Wh--wh--what--wh--where--how did you come here?" he stuttered.
"Now, now, don't be alarmed," she admonished. "Shut your eyes,
draw a deep breath, count three. And, as soon as you are ready
I'll give you a talisman against social panic. Are you ready?"
"Y-yes."
"Very well. Whenever I come upon you suddenly, you mustn't try to
jump up into a tree as you did just now--"
"I didn't!"
"Oh, yes. Or burrow under a rock, as you did the other day--"
"Miss B-B-Brewster--"
"Wait until I've finished. You must turn your thoughts firmly upon
your science, until you've recovered equilibrium and the power of
human speech."
"But when you jump at me that way, I c-c-can't think of anything
but you."
"That's where the charm comes in. As soon as you see me or hear me
approaching, you must repeat, quite slowly, this scientific
incantation." She beat time with a pink and rhythmic finger as she
chanted:--
"Scarab, tarantula, doodle-bug, flea."
The beggar rapidly made the sign that protects one from the
influence of the malign and supernatural. The scientist scowled.
"Repeat it!" she commanded.
"There is no such insect as a doodle-bug," he protested feebly.
"Isn't there? I thought I heard you mention it in your
conversation with Mr. Carroll the other night."
"You put that into my head," he accused.
"Truly? Then life is indeed real and earnest. To have introduced
something unscientific into that compendium of science--there's
triumph enough for any ambition. Besides, see how beautifully it
scans."
Again she beat time, and again the beggar crooked defensive
fingers as she declaimed:--
"SCAR-ab, tar-ANT-u-la, DOO-dle-bug, FLEA!"
Homeric, I call it. Perhaps you think you could improve on it."
"Would you mind substituting 'neuropter' in the third strophe?" he
ventured. "It would be just as good as 'doodle-bug,' and more--
more accurate."
"What's a neuropter? You didn't make him up for the occasion?"
"Heaven forbid! The dragon-fly is a neuropter. The dragon-fly
we're going to breed to a biplane, you know," he reminded her
slyly.
"Indeed! Well, I shall stick to my doodle-bug. He's more
euphonious. Now, repeat it."
"Let me off this time," he pleaded. "I'm all right--quite
recovered. It's only at the start that it's so bad."
"Very well," she agreed. "But you're not to forget it. And next
time we meet you're to be sure and say it over until you're sane."
"Sane!" he said resentfully. "I'm as sane as any one you know.
It's the job of KEEPING sane in this madhouse of the tropics
that's almost driven me crazy."
"Lovely!" she approved. "Well, now that you've recovered, I'll
tell you what I came out to say. I'm sorry that I missed you."
"Missed me?" he repeated. "Oh, you have missed me, then? That's
nice. You see, I've been so busy for the last three or four days--
"
"No; I haven't missed you a bit," she declared indignantly. "The
conceit of the man!"
"But you said you w-w-were sorry you'd--"
"Don't be wholly a beetle! I meant I was sorry not to see you when
you came to call on me this morning."
"I didn't come to call on you this morning."
"No? The boy at the door said he'd seen you, or something
answering to your description."
"So he did. I came to see your father. He was out."
"What time?"
"From eleven on."
"Father? No, I don't think so."
"His secretary came down and told me so, or sent word each time."
She smiled pityingly at him.
"Of course. That's what a secretary is for."
"To tell lies?"
"White lies. You see, dad is a very busy man, and an important
man, and many people come to see him whom he hasn't time to see.
So, unless he knew your business, he would naturally be 'out' to
you."
The comers of the young man's rather sensitive mouth flattened out
perceptibly.
"Ah, I see. My mistake. Living in countries where, however queer
the people may be, they at least observe ordinary human
courtesies, one forgets--if one ever knew."
"What did you want of dad?"
"Oh, to borrow four dollars of him, of course," he replied dryly.
"You needn't be angry at me. You see, dad's time is valuable.
"Indeed? To whom?"
"Why, to himself, of course."
"Oh, well, my time--However, that doesn't matter. I haven't wholly
wasted it." He glanced toward the beggar, who was profoundly
regarding the cathedral clock.
"If you like, I'll get you an interview with dad," she offered
magnanimously.
"Me? No, I thank you," he said crisply. "I'm not patient of
unnecessary red tape."
Miss Brewster looked at him in surprise. It was borne in upon her,
as she looked, that this man was not accustomed to being lightly
regarded by other men, however busy or important; that his own
concerns in life were quite as weighty to him, and in his esteem,
perhaps, to others, as were the interests of any magnate; and
that, man to man, there would be no shyness or indecision or
purposelessness anywhere in his make-up.
"If it was important," she began hesitantly, "my father would be--
"
"It was of no importance to me," he cut in. "To others--Perhaps I
could see some one else of your party."
"Well, here I am." She smiled. "Why won't I do?"
Behind the obscuring disks she could feel his glance read her. The
grimness at the mouth's corners relaxed.
"I really don't know why you shouldn't."
"Dad says I'd have made a man of affairs," she remarked.
"Why, it's just this. You should be planning to leave this
country."
Miss Brewster bewailed her harsh lot with drooping lip.
"Every one wants to drive me away!"
"Who else?"
"That railroad man, Mr. Galpy, was offering us special inducements
to leave, in the form of special trains any time we liked. It
isn't hospitable."
"A jail is hospitable. But one doesn't stay in it when one can get
out."
"If Caracuna were the jail and I the 'one,' one might. I quite
love it here."
He made a sharp gesture of annoyance.
"Don't be childish," he said.
"Childish? You come down like Freedom from the mountain heights,
and unfurl your warnings to the air, and complain of lost time and
all that sort of thing, and what does it all amount to?" she
demanded, with spirit. "That we should sail away, when you know
perfectly well that the Dutch won't let us sail away! Childish,
indeed! Don't you be BEETLISH!"
"There's a way out, without much risk, but some discomfort. You
could strike south-east to the Bird Reefs, take a small boat, and
get over to the mainland. As soon as the blockade is off, the
yacht can take your luggage around. The trip would be rough for
you, but not dangerous. Not as dangerous as staying here may be."
"Do you really think it so serious?"
"Most emphatically."
"Will you come with us and show us the way?" she inquired, gazing
with exaggerated appeal into his goggles.
"I? No."
"What shall you do?"
"Stick."
"Pins through scarabs," she laughed, "while beneath you Caracuna
riots and revolutes and massacres foreigners. Nero with his fiddle
was nothing to you."
"Miss Brewster, I'm afraid you are suffering from a misplaced
sense of humor. Will you believe me when I tell you that I have
certain sources of information in local matters both serviceable
and reliable?"
"You seem to have bet on a certainty in the Dutch blockade
matter."
"Well, it's equally certain that there is bubonic plague here."
"A bola. You told me so yourself."
"Perhaps there was nothing to be gained then by letting you know,
as you were bottled up, with no way out. Now, through the good
offices of a foreign official, who, of course, couldn't afford to
appear, this opportunity to reach the mainland is open to you."
"Had you anything to do with that?" she inquired suspiciously.
"Oh, the official is a friend of mine," he answered carelessly.
"And you really believe that there is an epidemic of plague here?
Don't you think that I'd make a good Red Cross nurse?"
His voice was grave and rather stern.
"You've never seen bubonic plague," he said, "or you wouldn't joke
about it."
"I'm sorry. But it wasn't wholly a joke. If we were really cooped
up with an epidemic, I'd volunteer. What else would there be to
do?"
"Nothing of the sort," he cried vehemently. "You don't know what
you're talking about."
"Anyway, isn't the wonderful Luther Pruyn on his way to exorcise
the demon, or something of the sort?"
"What about Luther Pruyn? Who says he's coming here?"
"It's the gossip of the diplomatic set and the clubs. He's the
favorite mystery of the day."
"Well, if he does come, it won't improve matters any, for the
first case he verifies he'll clap on a quarantine that a mouse
couldn't creep through. I know something of the Pruyn method."
"And don't wholly approve it, I judge."
"It may be efficacious, but it's extremely inconvenient at times."
Again the cathedral clock boomed.
"See how I've kept you from your own affairs!" cried Miss Polly
contritely. "What are you going to do now? Go back to your
mountains?"
"Yes. As soon as you tell me that your father will go out by the
reefs."
"Do you expect him to make up his mind, on five minutes' notice,
to abandon his yacht?"
"I thought great magnates were supposed to be men of instant and
unalterable decisions. I don't know the type."
"Anyway, dad has gone out. I saw him drive away. Wouldn't to-
morrow do?"
"Why, yes; I suppose so."
"I'll tell you. The Voice will report at the rock to-morrow, at
four."
"No."
"What a very uncompromising 'no'!"
"I can't be there at four. Make it five."
"What a very arbitrary beetle man! Well, as I've wasted so much of
your time to-day, I'll accept your orders for to-morrow."
"And please impress your father with the extreme advisability of
your getting off this island."
"Yes, sir," she said meekly. "You'll be most awfully glad to get
rid of us, won't you?"
"Very greatly relieved."
"And a little bit sorry?"
The begoggled face turned toward her. There was a perceptible
tensity in the line of the jaw. But the beetle man made no answer.
"Now, if I could see behind those glasses," said Miss Polly
Brewster to her wicked little self, "I'd probably BITE myself
rather than say it again. Just the same--And a little bit sorry?"
she persisted aloud.
"Does that matter?" said the man quietly.
Miss Polly Brewster forthwith bit herself on her pink and wayward
tongue.
"Don't think I'm not grateful," she employed that chastened member
to say. "I am, most deeply. So will father be, even if he decides
not to leave. I'm afraid that's what he will decide."
"He mustn't."
"Tell him that yourself."
"I will, if it becomes necessary."
"Let me be present at the interview. Most people are afraid of
dad. Perhaps you'd be, too."
"I could always run away," he remarked, unsmiling. "You know how
well I do it."
"I must do it now myself, and get arrayed for the daily tea
sacrifice. Au revoir."
"Hasta manana," he said absently.
She had turned to go, but at the word she came slowly back a pace
or two, smiling.
"What a strange beetle man you are!" she said softly. "I have no
other friends like you. You ARE a friend, aren't you, in your
queer way?" She did not wait for an answer, but went on: "You
don't come to see me when I ask you. You don't send me any word.
You make me feel that, compared to your concerns with beetles and
flies, I'm quite hopelessly unimportant. And yet here I find you
giving up your own pursuits and wasting your time to plan and
watch and think for us."
"For you," he corrected.
"For me," she accepted sweetly. "What an ungrateful little pig you
must think me! But truly inside I appreciate it and thank you, and
I think--I feel that perhaps it amounts to a lot more than I
know."
He made a gesture of negation.
"No great thing," he said. "But it's the best I can do, anyway. Do
you remember what the mediaeval mummer said, when he came bearing
his poor homage?"
"No. Tell it to me."
"It runs like this: 'Lady, who art nowise bitter to those who
serve you with a good intent, that which thy servant is, that he
is for you.'"
"Polly Brewster," said the girl to herself, as she walked, slowly
and musingly, back to her room, "the busy haunts of men are more
suited to your style than the free-and-untrammeled spaces of
nature, and well you know it. But you'll go to-morrow and you'll
keep on going until you find out what is behind those brown-green
goblin spectacles. If only he didn't look so like a gnome!"
The clause conditional, introduced by the word "if," does not
always imply a conclusion, even in the mind of the propounder.
Miss Brewster would have been hard put to it to round out her
subjunctive. _
Read next: CHAPTER VI - FORKED TONGUES
Read previous: CHAPTER IV - TWO ON A MOUNTAIN-SIDE
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