by Don Marquis
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 fromCleggett.
"Ice?" The request was so unusual that Cleggett was not certain thathe had understood.
"Yes, ice! Ice!" There was no mistaking the genuine character of hereagerness; if she had been begging for her life she could not have beenmore 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, sheburst undisguisedly into a paroxysm of weeping. Cleggett, stirred byher beauty and her trouble, stepped nearer to her, for she swayed withher emotion as if she were about to fall. Impulsively she put a hand onhis arm, and the Pomeranian, dropped unceremoniously to the ground,sprang at Cleggett snarling and snapping as if sure he were the authorof the lady's misfortunes.
"You will think I am mad," said the lady, endeavoring to control hertears, "but I MUST have ice. Don't tell me that you have no ice!"
"My dear lady," said Cleggett, unconsciously clasping, in his anxietyto reassure her, the hand that she had laid upon his arm, "I haveice--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 shefell lax into Cleggett's arms. The reaction from despair had been toomuch for her; it had come too suddenly; at the first word ofreassurance, at the first ray of dawning hope, she had fainted.High-strung natures, intrepid in the face of danger, are apt to suchcollapses in the moment of deliverance; and, whatever the nature of thelady's trouble, Cleggett gained from her swoon a sharp sense of itsintensity.
Cleggett was not used to having beautiful women faint and fall into hisarms, and he was too much of a gentleman to hold one there a singlemoment longer than was absolutely necessary. He turned his head ratherhelplessly towards the vehicle in which the lady had arrived. To hisconsternation and surprise it had turned around and the chauffeur wasin the act of starting back towards Fairport. But he had left behindhim a large zinc bucket with a cover on it, a long unpainted, oblongbox, and two steamer trunks; on the oblong box sat a short, squat youngman in an attitude of deep dejection.
"Hi there! Stop!" cried Cleggett to the chauffeur. That personstopped his machine. He did more. He arose in the seat, applied histhumb to his nose, and vigorously and vivaciously waggled his outspreadfingers at Cleggett in a gesture, derisive and inelegant, that is olderthan the pyramids. Then he started his machine again and made allspeed in the direction of Fairport.
"I say, you, come here!" Cleggett called to the squat young man. "Can'tyou 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 thesituation in a detached, judicial manner. He spoke out of the leftcorner of his mouth in a hoarse voice, without moving the right side ofhis face at all, and he seemed to feel that the responsibility of thesituation 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 amoment. And then, speaking this time out of the right corner of hismouth, which was now nearer Cleggett, without disturbing the left halfof 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 JasperB. She was a heavy burden, but Cleggett declined the assistance ofCap'n Abernethy and George the Greek, who had come tardily out of theforecastle and now offered their assistance.
"Get a bottle of wine," he told Yosh, as he passed the Japanese on thedeck, "and then make some tea."
Cleggett laid the lady on a couch in the cabin, and then lighted alamp, as it got dark early in these quarters. While he waited forYoshahira Kuroki and the wine, he looked at her. In her appealinghelplessness she looked even more beautiful than she had at first. Shewas a blonde, with eyebrows and lashes darker than her hair; and, evenin her swoon, Cleggett could see that she was of the thin-skinned,high-colored type. Her eyes, as he had seen before she swooned, wereof a deep, dark violet color. She was no chit of a girl, but a maturewoman, tall and splendid in the noble fullness of her contours. Thehigh nose spoke of love of activity and energy of character. The fullmouth indicated warmth of heart; the chin was of that sort which wehave been taught to associate with determination.
The Japanese brought the wine, and Cleggett poured a few spoonfuls downthe lady's throat. Presently she sighed and stirred and began to showsigns of returning animation.
The Pomeranian, which had followed them into the cabin, and which nowlay 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 afleeting instant as Cleggett spoke to the Japanese, and her lips hadmoved. 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, andlooked about her wildly.
"Where am I?" she cried. "What has happened?" She passed her handacross her brow, frowning.
"You fainted, madam," said Cleggett.
"Oh!" Suddenly recollection came to her, and her anxieties rushed uponher once more. "The ice! The ice!" She sprang to her feet, andgrasped Cleggett by both shoulders, searching his face with eager eyes."You did not lie to me, did you? You promised me ice! Where is theice?"
"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 yourchauffeur had some sort of an altercation, for the chauffeur went offand left him."
"Yes," she said, simply, as they passed up the companionway to the decktogether, "that man, the driver, refused to bring us any farther."
Cleggett must have looked a little blank at that, for she suddenlythrew 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 toCleggett: "He may, mayn't he? Thank you--I was sure you would say hemight. And if one of your men could just give him a lift? And--theice?"
"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 ofsatisfaction, and she smiled at Cleggett as she signed. Sometimes agreat deal can happen in a very short space of time. Ten minutesbefore, Cleggett had never seen this lady, and now he was giving ordersat her merest suggestion. But in those ten minutes he had seen herweep, he had seen her faint, he had seen her recover herself; he hadseen her emerge from the depths of despair into something more likeself-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 himthree times, she had sighed twice, she had frowned once; she had sweptupon him bringing with her an impression of the mysterious. Many menare married to women for years without seeing their wives display somany and such varied phases; to Cleggett it seemed not so much that hewas making a new acquaintance as renewing one that had been broken offsuddenly at some distant date. Cleggett, like the true-heartedgentleman and born romanticist that he was, resolved to serve herwithout question until such time as she chose to make known to him hermotives for her actions.
"Do you know," she said, softly and gravely to Cleggett as George andElmer deposited the oblong box upon a s
pot which she indicated near thecabin, "I have met very few men in my life who are capable of what youare 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 withquestions."
"It is nothing," murmured Cleggett.
"Would you think me too impulsive," she said, with a rare smile, "if Itold you that you are the sort of man whom women are ready to trustimplicitly almost at first sight?"
Cleggett did not permit himself to speak for fear that the thrill whichher 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 wasorange 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 busyinghimself about that preparation of tea, Cleggett watched Elmer, thesquat young man, with a growing curiosity. George and Cap'n Abernethywere also watching Elmer from a discreet distance. Even Kuroki, silent,swift, and well-trained Kuroki, could not but steal occasional glancesat Elmer. Had Cleggett been of a less lofty and controlled spirit hewould certainly have asked questions.
For Elmer, having uncovered the zinc can and taken from it a hammer anda large tin funnel, proceeded to break the big chunk of ice whichKuroki had brought him, into half a dozen smaller pieces. Thesesmaller lumps, with the exception of two, he put into the zinc bucket,wrapped around with pieces of coffee sacking. Then he put the cover onthe 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 bucketfor immediate use, Elmer carefully and methodically broke it into stillsmaller pieces--pieces about the size of an English walnut, butirregular in shape. Then he inserted the tin funnel into a small holein the uppermost surface of the unpainted, oblong box and dropped intwenty or more of the little pieces of ice. When a piece proved to betoo 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 fromhole to hole, sitting astride of it the while.
From the way in which he worked, and the care with which he conservedevery smallest particle of ice, Elmer's motto seemed to be: "Hastenot, waste not." But he did not appear to derive any greatsatisfaction from his task, let alone joy. In fact, Elmer seemed to bea 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, andflat and broad were his cheek bones, too. His hair was cut very shorteverywhere except in front; in front it hung down to his eyebrows in astraggling black fringe or "bang." Not that the fringe would havecovered the average person's forehead; this "bang" was not long; butthe truth is that Elmer's forehead was lower than the average person'sand therefore easily covered. He had what is known in certain circlesas a cauliflower, or chrysanthemum, ear.
But melancholy as he looked, Elmer had evidently had his moments ofstruggle against dejection. One of these moments had been when hebought the clothes he was wearing. His hat had a bright, red and blackband around it; his tweed suit was of a startling light gray, markedoff into checks with stripes of green; his waistcoat was of lavender,and his hose were likewise of lavender, but red predominated in bothhis 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 dresswas of no avail; one felt at once that it was a surface thing and hadno connection with Elmer's soul; it stood out in front of thebackground of his sorrowful personality, accentuating the gloom, as ablossom may grow upon a bleak rock. As Elmer carefully dropped ice,piece by piece, into the oblong box, progressing slowly from hole tohole, Cleggett thought he had never seen a more depressed young man.
Captain Abernethy approached Cleggett. There was hesitation in thebrown old man's feet, there was doubt upon his wrinkled brow, but therewas the consciousness of duty in the poise of his shoulders, there wasdetermination 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 Captainhimself in her flashing look and her remark, "he is going to tell youthat you really should get rid of me and my boxes at once--I can see itin his face!"
Captain Abernethy stopped short at this, and stared. It was preciselywhat 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 tothe Cap'n: "You ridiculous old dear, you! You KNOW that's what youwere going to advise, so why deny it? I've found you out, but we bothmight just as well be good-humored about it, mightn't we?"
"Ma'am," said the Cap'n, evidently struggling between a suddenly borndesire to quit frowning and a sense that he had a perfect right tofrown as much as he wished, "Ma'am, if you was to ask me, I'd sayridin' on steamships and ridin' on sailin' vessels is two differentmatters entirely."
"Cap'n Abernethy," said Cleggett, attempting to indicate that hissailing master's advice was not absolutely required, "if you havesomething to say to me, perhaps later will do just as well."
"As fur as the Jasper B. is concerned," said the Cap'n, ignoringCleggett's remark, and still addressing the lady, "I dunno as you couldcall her EITHER a sailin' vessel, OR a steamship, as at presentconstituted."
"You want to get me off your boat at once," said the lady. "You knowyou do." And her manner added: "CAN'T you act like a good-natured olddear? You really are one, you know!"
The Cap'n became embarrassed. He began to fuss with his necktie, as iftying it tighter would assist him to hold on to his frown. He felt thefrown 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," saidthe Cap'n, fumbling with his neckwear.
"Let me fix that for you," said the lady. And before the Cap'n couldprotest she was arranging his tie for him. "You old seacaptains!------" she said, untying the scarf and making the ends even."As if anyone could possibly be afraid to sail in anything one of YOUhad charge of!" She gave the necktie a little final pat. "There, now!"
The Captain's frown was gone past replacement. But he still felt thathe owed something to himself.
"If you was to ask me," he said, turning to Cleggett, "whether what I'dgot to say to you would do later, or whether it wouldn't do later, I'danswer you it would, or it wouldn't, all accordin' to whether youwanted to hear it now, or whether you wanted to hear it later. And asfar as SAILIN' her is concerned, Mr. Cleggett, I'll SAIL her, whetheryou turn her into a battleship or into one of these here yachts. Icome of a seafarin' fambly."
And then he said to the lady, indicating the tie and bobbing his headforward with a prim little bow: "Thank ye, ma'am."
"Isn't he a duck!" said the lady, following him with her eyes, as hewent 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 iceinto 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, thegreatest--Theodore Roosevelt. His championship of the cause of votesfor women at a time when mere politicians were afraid to committhemselves is enough in itself to gain him a place in history."
She spoke with a kindling eye, and Cleggett had no doubt that there wasbefore him one of
those remarkable women who make the early part of thetwentieth century so different from any other historical period. Andhe was one with her in her admiration for Roosevelt--a man whosefacility in finding adventures and whose behavior when he had foundthem had always made a strong appeal to Cleggett. If he could not havebeen Cleggett he would have liked to have been either the Chevalierd'Artagnan or Theodore Roosevelt.
"He is a great man," said Cleggett.
But the lady, with her second cup of tea in her hand, was evidentlythinking of something else. Leaning back in her chair, she said toCleggett:
"It is no good for you to deny that you think I'm a horridlyunconventional sort of person!"
Cleggett made a polite, deprecatory gesture.
"Yes, yes, you do," she said, decidedly. "And, really, I am! I amimpulsive! I am TOO impulsive!" She raised the cup to her lips,drank, and looked off towards the western horizon, which the sun wasbeginning 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 andgazing searchingly into Cleggett's eyes:
"I am going to trust you. I am going to reward your kindness bytelling you a portion of my strange story. I am going to depend uponyou to understand it."
Cleggett bowed and murmured his gratitude at the compliment. Then hesaid:
"You could trust me with------" But he stopped. He did not wish to bepremature.
"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 isbecause I do feel it that I tell you----" She paused, as if, afterall, she lacked the courage. Cleggett said nothing. He was too fine ingrain to force a confidence. After a moment she continued: "I can tellyou 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 afew moments, and I leave you, with Elmer and my boxes, I shall have noplace to go."
"But, surely, madam----"
"Do not call me madam. Call me Lady Agatha. I am Lady AgathaFairhaven. 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 ashade of disappointment passed over the lady's face, but in a momentshe smiled and remarked:
"How relative a thing is fame! You have never heard of me! And yet Ican assure you that I am well enough known in England. I was one ofthe very first militant suffragettes to break a window--if not the veryfirst. The point is, indeed, in dispute. And were it not for mydevotion to the cause I would not now be in my present terribleplight--doomed to wander from pillar to post with that thing" (shepointed with a shudder to the box into which Elmer was still gloomilypoking ice)-"chained to me like a--like a----" She hesitated for aword, and Cleggett, tactlessly enough, with some vague recollection ofa classical tale in his mind, suggested:
"Like a corpse."
Lady Agatha turned pale. She gazed at Cleggett with terror-strickeneyes, her beautiful face became almost haggard in an instant; hethought she was about to faint again, but she did not. As he lookedupon the change his words had wrought, filled with wonder andcompunction, Cleggett suddenly divined that her occasional flashes ofgayety had been, all along, merely the forced vivacity of a brave andclever woman who was making a gallant fight against total collapse.
"Mr. Cleggett," she said, in a voice that was scarcely louder than awhisper, "I am going to confide everything to you--the whole truth. Iwill spare myself nothing; I will throw myself upon your mercy.
"I firmly believe, Mr. Cleggett--I am practically certain--that the boxthere, upon which Elmer is sitting, contains the body of ReginaldMaltravers, natural son of the tenth Earl of Claiborne, and the cousinof my late husband, Sir Archibald Fairhaven."
