The Pagan Madonna Page 9

  CHAPTER IX

  "If you will write the order I will execute it at once. The consulatecloses early."

  "I'll write it, but how will I get it to you? The door closes below thesill."

  "When you are ready, call, and I will open the door a little."

  "It would be better if you opened it full wide. This is China--Iunderstand that. But we are both Americans, and there's a good sound lawcovering an act like this."

  "But it does not reach as far as China. Besides, I have an asset back inthe States. It is my word. I have never broken it to any man or woman, andI expect I never shall. You have, or have had, what I consider myproperty. You have hedged the question; you haven't been frank."

  The son listened intently.

  "I bought that string of glass beads in good faith of a Chinaman--LingFoo. I consider them mine--that is, if they are still in my possession.Between the hour I met you last night and the moment of Captain Dennison'sentrance to my room considerable time had elapsed."

  "Sufficient for a rogue like Cunningham to make good use of," supplementedthe prisoner in Cabin Two. "There's a way of finding out the facts."

  "Indeed?"

  "Yes. You used to carry a planchette that once belonged to the actressRachel. Why not give it a whirl? Everybody's doing it."

  Cleigh eyed Cabin Four, then Cabin Two, and shook his head slightly,dubiously. He was not getting on well. To come into contact with a strongwill was always acceptable; and a strong will in a woman was a novelty.All at once it struck him forcibly that he stood on the edge of boredom;that the lure which had brought him fully sixteen thousand miles waslosing its bite. Was he growing old, drying up?

  "Will you tell me what it is about these beads that makes you offer tenthousand for them? Glass--anybody could see that. What makes them asvaluable as pearls?"

  "They are love beads," answered Cleigh, mockingly. "They are far morepotent than powdered pearls. You have worn them about your throat, MissNorman, and the sequence is inevitable."

  "Nonsense!" cried Jane.

  Dennison added his mite to the confusion:

  "I thought that scoundrel Cunningham was lying. He said the string was acode key belonging to the British Intelligence Office."

  "Rot!" Cleigh exploded.

  "So I thought."

  "But hurry, Miss Norman. The sooner I have that written order on theconsulate the sooner you'll have your belongings."

  "Very well."

  Five minutes later she announced that the order was completed, and Cleighopened the door slightly.

  "The key will be given you the moment we weigh anchor."

  "I say," called the son, "you might drop into the Palace and get my truck,too. I'm particular about my toothbrushes." A pause. "I'd like a drink,too--if you've got the time."

  Cleigh did not answer, but he presently entered Cabin Two, filled a glasswith water, raised his son's head to a proper angle, and gave him drink.

  "Thanks. This business strikes me as the funniest thing I ever heard of!You would have done that for a dog."

  Cleigh replaced the water carafe in the rack above the wash bowl and wentout, locking the door. In the salon he called for Dodge:

  "I am going into town. I'll be back round five. Don't stir from thiscabin."

  "Yes, sir."

  "You remember that fellow who was here night before last?"

  "The good-looking chap that limped?"

  "Yes."

  "And I'm to crease him if he pokes his noodle down the stairs?"

  "Exactly! No talk, no palaver! If he starts talking he'll talk you out ofyour boots. Shoot!"

  "In the leg? All right."

  His employer having gone, Dodge sat in a corner from which he could seethe companionway and all the passages. He lit a long black cigar, laid hisformidable revolver on a knee, and began his vigil. A queer job for an oldcow-punch, for a fact.

  To guard an old carpet that didn't have "welcome" on it anywhere--hecouldn't get that, none whatever. But there was a hundred a week, the bestgrub pile in the world, and the old man's Havanas as often as he pleased.Pretty soft!

  And he had learned a new trick--shooting target in a rolling sea. He hadwasted a hundred rounds before getting the hang of it. Maybe these sailorshadn't gone pop-eyed when they saw him pumping lead into the bull's-eyesix times running? Tin cans and raw potatoes in the water, too. Somethingto brag about if he ever got back home.

  He broke the gun and inspected the cylinder. There wasn't as much greaseon the cartridges as he would have liked.

  * * * * *

  "Miss Norman?" called Dennison.

  "What is it?"

  "Are you comfortable?"

  "Oh, I'm all right. I'm only furious with rage, that's all. You are stilltied?"

  "Yes, ma'am."

  "I really don't understand your father."

  "I have never understood him. Yet he was very kind to me when I waslittle. I don't suppose there is anything in heaven or on earth that he'safraid of."

  "He is afraid of me."

  "Do you believe that?"

  "I know it. He would give anything to be rid of me. But go on."

  "With what?"

  "Your past."

  "Well, I'm something like him physically. We are both so strong that wegenerally burst through rather than take the trouble to go round. I'mhonestly sorry for him. Not a human being to love or be loved by. He neverhad a dog. I don't recollect my mother; she died when I was three; andthat death had something to do with the iron in his soul. Our old butlerused to tell me that Father cursed horribly, I mean blasphemously, whenthey took the mother out of the house. There are some men like that, wholove terribly, away and beyond the average human ability. After the motherdied he plunged into the money game. He was always making it, piling it upruthlessly but honestly. Then that craving petered out, and he took a handin the collecting game. What will come next I don't know. As a boy I wasalways afraid of him. He was kind to me, but in the abstract. I was likean extra on the grocer's bill. He put me into the hands of a tutor--alovable old dreamer--and paid no more attention to me. He never put hisarms round me and told me fairy stories."

  "Poor little boy! No fairy stories!"

  "Nary a one until I began to have playmates."

  "Do the ropes hurt?"

  "They might if I were alone."

  "What do you make of the beads?"

  "Only that they have some strange value, or father wouldn't be after them.Love beads! Doesn't sound half so plausible as Cunningham's version."

  "That handsome man who limped?"

  "Yes."

  "A real adventurer--the sort one reads about!"

  "And the queer thing about him, he keeps his word, too, for all hisbusiness is a shady one. I don't suppose there is a painting or a jewel ora book of the priceless sort that he doesn't know about, where it is andif it can be got at. Some of his deals are aboveboard, but many of themaren't. I'll wager these beads have a story of loot."

  "What he steals doesn't hurt the poor."

  "So long as the tigers fight among themselves and leave the goats alone,it doesn't stir you. Is that it?"

  "Possibly."

  "And besides, he's a handsome beggar, if there ever was one."

  "He has the face of an angel!"

  "And the soul of a vandal!"--with a touch of irritability.

  "Now you aren't fair. A vandal destroys things; this man onlytransfers----"

  "For a handsome monetary consideration----"

  "Only transfers a picture from one gallery to another."

  "Well, we've seen the last of him for a while, anyhow."

  "I wonder."

  "Will you answer me a question?"

  "Perhaps."

  "Do you know where those beads are?"

  "A little while gone I smelt tobacco smoke," she answered, dryly.

  "I see. We'll talk of something else then. Have you ever been in love?"

  "Have you?"

>   "Violently--so I believed."

  "But you got over it?"

  "Absolutely! And you?"

  "Oh, I haven't had the time. I've been too busy earning bread and butter.What was she like?"

  "A beautiful mirage--the lie in the desert, you might say. Has it everoccurred to you that the mirage is the one lie Nature utters?"

  "I hadn't thought. She deceived you?"

  "Yes."

  A short duration of silence.

  "Doesn't hurt to talk about her?"

  "Lord, no! Because I wasn't given fairy stories when I was little, I tookthem seriously when I was twenty-three."

  "Puppy love."

  "It went a little deeper than that."

  "But you don't hate women?"

  "No. I never hated the woman who deceived me. I was terribly sorry forher."

  "For having lost so nice a husband?"--with a bit of malice.

  He greeted this with laughter.

  "It is written," she observed, "that we must play the fool sometime orother."

  "Have you ever played it?"

  "Not yet, but you never can tell."

  "Jane, you're a brick!"

  "Jane!" she repeated. "Well, I don't suppose there's any harm in yourcalling me that, with partitions in between."

  "They used to call me Denny."

  "And you want me to call you that?"

  "Will you?"

  "I'll think it over--Denny!"

  They laughed. Both recognized the basic fact in this running patter. Eachwas trying to buck up the other. Jane was honestly worried. She could notsay what it was that worried her, but there was a strong leaven in her ofold-wives' prescience. It wasn't due to this high-handed adventure ofCleigh, senior; it was something leaning down darkly from the future thatworried her. That hand mirror!

  "Better not talk any more," she advised. "You'll be getting thirsty."

  "I'm already that."

  "You're a brave man, captain," she said, her tone altering from gayety toseriousness. "Don't worry about me. I've always been able to take care ofmyself, though I've never been confronted with this kind of a situationbefore. Frankly, I don't like it. But I suspect that your father will havemore respect for us if we laugh at him. Has he a sense of humour?"

  "My word for it, he has! What could be more humorous than tying me up inthis fashion and putting me in the cabin that used to be mine? Tenthousand for a string of glass beads! I say, Jane!"

  "What?"

  "When he comes back tell him you might consider twenty thousand, just toget an idea what the thing is worth."

  "I'll promise that."

  "All right. Then I'll try to snooze a bit. Getting stuffy lying on myback."

  "The brute! If I could only help you!"

  "You have--you are--you will!"

  He turned on his side, his face toward the door. His arms and legs beganto sting with the sensation known as sleep. He was glad his father hadoverheard the initial conversation. A wave of terror ran over him at thethought of being set ashore while Jane went on. Still he could have sent aBritish water terrier in hot pursuit.

  Jane sat down and took inventory. She knew but little about antiques--rugsand furniture--but she was full of inherent love of the beautiful. Thelittle secretary upon which she had written the order on the consulate wasan exquisite lowboy of old mahogany of dull finish. On the floor werecamel saddle-bays, Persian in pattern. On the panel over the lowboy was asmall painting, a foot broad and a foot and a half long. It was old--shecould tell that much. It was a portrait, tender and quaint. She would havegasped had she known that it was worth a cover of solid gold. It was aHolbein, The Younger, for which Cleigh some years gone had paid Cunninghamsixteen thousand dollars. Where and how Cunningham had acquired it was notopen history.

  An hour passed. By and by she rose and tiptoed to the partition. She heldher ear against the panel, and as she heard nothing she concluded thatDenny--why not?--was asleep. Next she gazed out of the port. It wasgrowing dark outside, overcast. It would rain again probably. A drab sky,a drab shore. She saw a boat filled with those luscious vegetables whichwrote typhus for any white person who ate them. A barge went by piled highwith paddy bags--rice in the husk--with Chinamen at the forward and sternsweeps. She wondered if these poor yellow people had ever known what itwas to play?

  Suddenly she fell back, shocked beyond measure. From the direction of thesalon--a pistol shot! This was followed by the tramp of hurrying feet.Voices, now sharp, now rumbling--this grew nearer. A struggle of somedimensions was going on in the passage. The racket reached her door, butdid not pause there. She sank into the chair, a-tremble.

  Dennison struggled to a sitting posture.

  "Jane?"

  "Yes!"

  "Are you all right?"

  "Yes, what has happened?"

  "A bit of mutiny, I take it; but it seems to be over."

  "But the shot!"

  "I heard no cry of pain, only a lot of scuffling and some high words.Don't worry."

  "I won't. Can't you break a piece of glass and saw your way out?"

  "Lord love you, that's movie stuff! If I had a razor, I couldn't manage itwithout hacking off my hands. You are worried!"

  "I'm a woman, Denny. I'm not afraid of your father; but if there ismutiny, with all these treasures on board--and over here----"

  "All right. I'll make a real effort."

  She could hear him stumbling about. She heard the crash of the watercarafe on the floor. Several minutes dragged by.

  "Can't be done!" said Dennison. "Can't make the broken glass stay put.Can't reach my ankles, either, or I could get my feet free. There's adouble latch on your door. See to it! Lord!"

  "What is it?"

  "Nothing. Just hunting round for some cuss words. Put the chair up againstthe door knob and sit tight for a while."

  The hours dragged by in stifling silence.

  Meanwhile, Cleigh, having attended to errands, lunched, had gone to theAmerican consulate and presented the order. His name and reputationcleared away the official red tape. He explained that all the fuss of thenight before had been without cause. Miss Norman had come aboard theyacht, and now decided to go to Hong-Kong with the family. This suggestedthe presence of other women on board. In the end, Jane's worldly goodswere consigned to Cleigh, who signed the receipt and made off for thelaunch.

  It was growing dark. On the way down the river Cleigh made no attempt tosearch for the beads.

  The salon lights snapped up as the launch drew alongside. Once below,Cleigh dumped Jane's possessions into the nearest chair and turned togive Dodge an order--only to find the accustomed corner vacant!

  "Dodge!" he shouted. He ran to the passage. "Dodge, where the devil areyou?"

  "Did you call, sir?"

  Cleigh spun about. In the doorway to the dining salon stood Cunningham, onhis amazingly handsome face an expression of anxious solicitude!