The Best of Mary Roberts Rinehart

by Mary Roberts Rinehart

  "An Indian!" she said calmly. "Get the beads, Aggie; and put my shotgun on that rock, where he can see it." She stood and watched him. "Primitive man, every inch of him!" she went on. "Notice his uncovered head. Notice the freedom, almost the savagery, of the way he uses that paddle. I wish he would sing. You remember, in Hiawatha, how they sing as they paddle along?"

  She got the beads and went to the water's edge; but the Indian stooped just then and, picking up a Panama hat, put it on his head.

  "I have called," he said, "to see whether I can interest you in a set of books I am selling. I shall detain you only a moment. Sixty-three steel engravings by well-known artists; best hand-made paper; and the work itself is of high educational value."

  Tish suddenly put the beads behind her back and said we did not expect to have any time to read. We had come into the wilderness to rest our minds.

  "You are wrong, I fear," said the Indian. "Personally I find that I can read better in the wilds than anywhere else. Great thoughts in great surroundings! I take Nietzsche with me when I go fishing."

  Tish had the wretched beads behind her all the time; and, to make conversation, more than anything else, she asked about venison. He shrugged his shoulders. J. Fenimore Cooper had not prepared us for an Indian who shrugged his shoulders.

  "We Indians are allowed to kill deer," he said; "but I fear you are prohibited. I am not even permitted to sell it."

  "I should think," said Tish sharply, "that, since we are miles from a game warden, you could safely sell us a steak or two."

  He gazed at her disapprovingly. "I should not care to break the law, madam," he said.

  Then he picked up his paddle and took himself and his scruples and his hand-made paper and his sixty-three steel engravings down the river.

  "Primitive man!" I said to Tish, from my chair. "Notice the freedom, almost the savagery, with which he swings that paddle."

  We had brought a volume of Cooper along, not so much to read as to remind us how to address the Indians. Tish said nothing, but she got the book and flung it far out into the river.

  There were a number of small annoyances the first day or two. Hutchins was having trouble with the motor launch, which the steamer had towed up the day we came, and which she called the "Mebbe." And another civilized Indian, with a gold watch and a cigarette case, had rented us a leaky canoe for a dollar a day.

  [We patched the leak with chewing gum, which Aggie always carried for indigestion; and it did fairly well, so long as the gum lasted.]

  Then, on the second night, there was a little wind, and the tent collapsed on us, the ridgepole taking Aggie across the chest. It was that same night, I think, when Aggie's cat found a porcupine in the woods, and came in looking like a pincushion.

  What with chopping firewood for the stove, and carrying water, and bailing out the canoe, and with the motor boat giving one gasp and then dying for every hundred times somebody turned over the engine, we had no time to fish for two days.

  The police agent fished all day from a rock, for, of course, he had no boat; but he seemed to catch nothing. At times we saw him digging frantically, as though for worms. What he dug with I do not know; but, of course, he got no worms. Tish said if he had been more civil she would have taken something to him and a can of worms; but he had been rude, especially to Aggie's cat, and probably the boat would bring him things.

  What with getting settled and everything, we had not much time to think about the spy. It was on the third day, I believe, that he brought his green canoe to the open water in front of us and anchored there, just beyond earshot.

  He put out a line and opened a book; and from that time on he was a part of the landscape every day from 10 A.M. to 4 P.M. At noon he would eat some sort of a lunch, reading as he ate.

  He apparently never looked toward us, but he was always there. It was the most extraordinary thing. At first we thought he had found a remarkable fishing-place; but he seemed to catch very few fish. It was Tish, I think, who found the best explanation.

  "He's providing himself with an alibi," she stated. "How can he be a spy when we see him all day long? Don't you see how clever it is?"

  It was the more annoying because we had arranged a small cove for soap-and-water bathing, hanging up a rod for bath-towels and suspending a soap-dish and a sponge-holder from an overhanging branch. The cove was well shielded by brush and rocks from the island, but naturally was open to the river.

  It was directly opposite this cove that Mr. McDonald took up his position.

  This compelled us to bathe in the early morning, while the water was still cold, and resulted in causing Aggie a most uncomfortable half-hour on the fourth morning of our stay.

  She was the last one in the pool, and Tish absent-mindedly took her bathrobe and slippers back to the camp when she went. Tish went out in the canoe shortly after. She was learning to use one, with a life preserver on--Tish, of course, not the canoe. And Mr. McDonald arriving soon after, Aggie was compelled to sit in the water for two hours and twenty minutes. When Hutchins found her she was quite blue.

  This was the only disagreement we had all summer: Aggie's refusing to speak to Tish that entire day. She said Mr. McDonald had seen her head and thought it was some sort of swimming animal, and had shot at her.

  Mr. McDonald said afterward he knew her all the time, and was uncertain whether she was taking a cure for something or was trying to commit suicide. He said he spent a wretched morning. At five o'clock that evening we began to hear a curious tapping noise from the spy's island. It would last for a time, stop, and go on.

  Hutchins said it was woodpeckers; but Tish looked at me significantly.

  "Wireless!" she said. "What did I tell you?"

  That decided her next move, for that evening she put some tea and canned corn and a rubber blanket into the canoe; and in fear and trembling I went with her.

  "It's going to rain, Lizzie," she said, "and after all, that detective may be surly; but he's doing his duty by his country. It's just as heroic to follow a spy up here, and starve to death watching him, as it is to storm a trench--and less showy. And I've something to tell him."

  The canoe tilted just then, and only by heroic effort, were we able to calm it.

  "Then why not go comfortably in the motor boat?"

  Tish stopped, her paddle in the air. "Because I can't make that dratted engine go," she said, "and because I believe Hutchins would drown us all before she'd take any help to him. It's my belief that she's known him somewhere. I've seen her sit on a rock and look across at him with murder in her eyes."

  A little wind had come up, and the wretched canoe was leaking, the chewing gum having come out. Tish was paddling; so I was compelled to sit over the aperture, thus preventing water from coming in. Despite my best efforts, however, about three inches seeped in and washed about me. It was quite uncomfortable.

  The red-haired man was asleep when we landed. He had hung the comfort over a branch, like a tent, and built a fire at the end of it. He had his overcoat on, buttoned to the chin, and his head was on his suit-case. He sat up and looked at us, blinking.

  "We've brought you some tea and some canned corn," Tish said; "and a rubber blanket. It's going to rain."

  He slid out of the tent, feet first, and got up; but when he tried to speak he sneezed. He had a terrible cold.

  "I might as well say at once," Tish went on, "that we know why you are here--"

  "The deuce you do!" he said hoarsely.

  "We do not particularly care about you, especially since the way you acted to a friendly and innocent cat--one can always judge a man by the way he treats dumb animals; but we sympathize with your errand. We'll even help if we can."

  "Then the--the person in question has confided in you?"

  "Not at all," said Tish loftily. "I hope we can put two and two together. Have you got a revolver?"

  He looked startled at that. "I have one," he said; "but I guess I'll not need it. The first night or two a skunk hung rou
nd; two, in fact--mother and child--but I think they're gone."

  "Would you like some fish?"

  "My God, no!"

  This is a truthful narrative. That is exactly what he said.

  "I'll tell you what I do need, ladies," he went on: "If you've got a spare suit of underwear over there, I could use it. It'd stretch, probably. And I'd like a pen and some ink. I must have lost my fountain pen out of my pocket stooping over the bank to wash my face."

  "Do you know the wireless code?" Tish asked suddenly.

  "Wireless?"

  "I have every reason to believe," she said impressively, "that one of the great trees on that island conceals a wireless outfit."

  "I see!" He edged back a little from us both.

  "I should think," Tish said, eyeing him, "that a knowledge of the wireless code would be essential to you in your occupation."

  "We--we get a smattering of all sorts of things," he said; but he was uneasy--you could see that with half an eye.

  He accompanied us down to the canoe; but once, when Tish turned suddenly, he ducked back as though he had been struck and changed color. He thanked us for the tea and corn, and said he wished we had a spare razor--but, of course, he supposed not. Then:--

  "I suppose the--the person in question will stay as long as you do?" he asked, rather nervously.

  "It looks like it," said Tish grimly. "I've no intention of being driven away, if that's what you mean. We'll stay as long as the fishing's good."

  He groaned under his breath. "The whole d--d river is full of fish," he said. "They crawled up the bank last night and ate all the crackers I'd saved for to-day. Oh, I'll pay somebody out for this, all right! Good gracious, ladies, your boat's full of water!"

  "It has a hole in it," Tish replied and upturned it to empty it.

  When he saw the hole his eyes stuck out. "You can't go out in that leaky canoe! It's suicidal!"

  "Not at all," Tish assured him. "My friend here will sit on the leak. Get in quick, Lizzie. It's filling."

  The last we saw of the detective that night he was standing on the bank, staring after us. Afterward, when a good many things were cleared up, he said he decided that he'd been asleep and dreamed the whole thing--the wireless, and my sitting on the hole in the canoe, and the wind tossing it about, and everything--only, of course, there was the tea and the canned corn!

  We did our first fishing the next day. Hutchins had got the motor boat going, and I put over the spoon I had made from the feather duster. After going a mile or so slowly I felt a tug, and on drawing my line in I found I had captured a large fish. I wrapped the line about a part of the engine and Tish put the barrel hoop with the netting underneath it. The fish was really quite large--about four feet, I think--and it broke through the netting. I wished to hit it with the oar, but Hutchins said that might break the fin and free it. Unluckily we had not brought Tish's gun, or we might have shot it.

  At last we turned the boat round and went home, the fish swimming alongside, with its mouth open. And there Aggie, who is occasionally almost inspired, landed the fish by the simple expedient of getting out of the boat, taking the line up a bank and wrapping it round a tree. By all pulling together we landed the fish successfully. It was forty-nine inches by Tish's tape measure.

  Tish did not sleep well that night. She dreamed that the fish had a red mustache and was a spy in disguise. When she woke she declared there was somebody prowling round the tent.

  She got her shotgun and we all sat up in bed for an hour or so.

  Nothing happened, however, except that Aggie cried out that there was a small animal just inside the door of the tent. We could see it, too, though faintly. Tish turned the shotgun on it and it disappeared; but the next morning she found she had shot one of her shoes to pieces.

  III

  It was the day Tish began her diary that we discovered the red-haired man's signal. Tish was compelled to remain at home most of the day, breaking in another pair of shoes, and she amused herself by watching the river and writing down interesting things. She had read somewhere of the value of such records of impressions:--

  10 A.M. Gull on rock. Very pretty. Frightened away by the McDonald person, who has just taken up his customary position. Is he reading or watching this camp?

  10.22. Detective is breakfasting--through glasses, he is eating canned corn. Aggie--pickerel, from bank.

  10.40. Aggie's cat, beside her, has caught a small fish. Aggie declares that the cat stole one of her worms and held it in the water. I think she is mistaken.

  11. Most extraordinary thing--Hutchins has asked permission to take pen and ink across to the detective! Have consented.

  11.20. Hutchins is still across the river. If I did not know differently I should say she and the detective are quarreling. He is whittling something. Through glasses, she appears to stamp her foot.

  11.30. Aggie has captured a small sunfish. Hutchins is still across the river. He seems to be appealing to her for something--possibly the underwear. We have none to spare.

  11.40. Hutchins is an extraordinary girl. She hates men, evidently. She has had some sort of quarrel with the detective and has returned flushed with battle. Mr. McDonald called to her as she passed, but she ignored him.

  12, noon. Really, there is something mysterious about all this. The detective was evidently whittling a flagpole. He has erected it now, with a red silk handkerchief at end. It hangs out over the water. Aggie--bass, but under legal size.

  1.15 P.M. The flag puzzles Hutchins. She is covertly watching it. It is evidently a signal--but to whom? Are the secret-service men closing in on McDonald?

  1. Aggie--pike!

  2. On consulting map find unnamed lake only a few miles away. Shall investigate to-morrow.

  3. Steamer has just gone. Detective now has canoe, blue in color. Also food. He sent off his letter.

  4. Fed worms. Lizzie thinks they know me. How kindness is its own reward! Mr. McDonald is drawing in his anchor, which is a large stone fastened to a rope. Shall take bath.

  Tish's notes ended here. She did not take the bath after all, for Mr. McDonald made us a call that afternoon.

  He beached the green canoe and came up the rocks calmly and smilingly. Hutchins gave him a cold glance and went on with what she was doing, which was chopping a plank to cook the fish on. He bowed cheerfully to all of us and laid a string of fish on a rock.

  "I brought a little offering," he said, looking at Hutchins's back. "The fishing isn't what I expected but if the young lady with the hatchet will desist, so I can make myself heard, I've found a place where there are fish! This biggest fellow is three and a quarter pounds."

  Hutchins chopped harder than ever, and the plank flew up, striking her in the chest; but she refused all assistance, especially from Mr. McDonald, who was really concerned. He hurried to her and took the hatchet out of her hand, but in his excitement he was almost uncivil.

  "You obstinate little idiot!" he said. "You'll kill yourself yet."

  To my surprise, Hutchins, who had been entirely unemotional right along, suddenly burst into tears and went into the tent. Mr. McDonald took a hasty step or two after her, realizing, no doubt, that he had said more than he should to a complete stranger; but she closed the fly of the tent quite viciously and left him standing, with his arms folded, staring at it.

  It was at that moment he saw the large fish, hanging from a tree. He stood for a moment staring at it and we could see that he was quite surprised.

  "It is a fish, isn't it?" he said after a moment. "I--I thought for a moment it was painted on something."

  He sat down suddenly on one of our folding-chairs and looked at the fish, and then at each of us in turn.

  "You know," he said, "I didn't think there were such fish! I--you mustn't mind my surprise." He wiped his forehead with his handkerchief. "Just kick those things I brought into the river, will you? I apologize for them."

  "Forty-nine inches," Tish said. "We expect to do better when we really ge
t started. This evening we shall go after its mate, which is probably hanging round."

  "Its mate?" he said, rather dazed. "Oh, I see. Of course!"

  He still seemed to doubt his senses, for he went over and touched it with his finger. "Ladies," he said, "I'm not going after the--the mate. I couldn't land it if I did get it. I am going to retire from the game--except for food; but I wish, for the sake of my reason, you'd tell me what you caught it with."

  Well, you may heartily distrust a person; but that is no reason why you should not answer a simple question. So I showed him the thing I had made--and he did not believe me!

  "You're perfectly right," he said. "Every game has its secrets. I had no business to ask. But you haven't caught me with that feather-duster thing any more than you caught that fish with it. I don't mind your not telling me. That's your privilege. But isn't it rather rubbing it in to make fun of me?"

  "Nothing of the sort!" Aggie said angrily. "If you had caught it--"

  "My dear lady," he said, "I couldn't have caught it. The mere shock of getting such a bite would have sent me out of my boat in a swoon." He turned to Tish. "I have only one disappointment," he said, "that it wasn't one of our worms that did the work."

  Tish said afterward she was positively sorry for him, he looked so crestfallen. So, when he started for his canoe she followed him.

  "Look here," she said; "you're young, and I don't want to see you get into trouble. Go home, young man! There are plenty of others to take your place."

  He looked rather startled. "That's it exactly," he said, after a moment. "As well as I can make out there are about a hundred. If you think," he said fiercely, raising his voice, "that I'm going to back out and let somebody else in, I'm not. And that's flat."

  "It's a life-and-death matter," said Tish.

  "You bet it's a life-and-death matter."

  "And--what about the--the red-headed man over there?"

  His reply amazed us all. "He's harmless," he said. "I don't like him, naturally; but I admire the way he holds on. He's making the best of a bad business."