CHAPTER XIII
THE ENMESHING OF THE MASTER
She fell silent, biting her full lip. Something in her eyes shamed theman. Not for all his inflexible sternness could he feel that he hadcome out a winner in this, their first encounter. A woman--one of thedespised, ignored creatures--had deceived him. She had disobeyed hisorders. She had flatly thrown down the gage of battle to him, thatshe would never leave _Nissr_ alive. And last, she had forced himinto planning to disseminate falsehoods among his crew--falsehoods thesecret of which only she shared with him.
Unwilling as this man was to have anything in common with her, hehad been obliged to have something in common--to have much. Somethingexisted; a bond, even if an unpleasant one, had already stretcheditself between these two--the first secret this man ever had sharedwith any woman.
"Captain Alden" smiled a little. The honors of war, so far, lay all inher camp.
The Master, feeling this to the inner marrows, humiliated, shaken,yet through it all not quite able to suppress a kind of grudging andunwilling tribute of admiration, sought to conceal his perturbationwith a stern command:
"Now, madam, I will call my orderly and have you escorted to astateroom; have you provided with everything needful for your injury.I trust it is not causing you any severe pain?"
"Pray don't waste any time or thought on any injury of mine, sir!" thewoman returned.
"Very well, madam! Resume your disguise!"
She tried to sweep up her magnificent hair and secure it upon herhead. But with only one hand available this proved impossible. Theyboth saw there was no way for her to put on the toupee again.
She smiled oddly, with a half-whimsical, wholly feminine bit ofmalice. Her eyes seemed dancing.
"I'm afraid I can't obey you, sir," she proffered. "You can see foryourself, it can't be done."
A dull, angry flush crept over the Master's rather pale face, and lostitself in the roots of his thick, black hair. Perfectly well he sawthat he was being cornered in an untenable position of half-command,half-intimacy. Without apparently exercising any wiles, this woman wasnone the less involving him in bonds like those the Lilliputians threwround sleeping Gulliver.
Anger welled up in his proud heart that anyone--much less awoman--should thus lower his dignity. But still his manhood dictatedcourtesy. He came a few steps nearer, and said:
"I must admit this seems rather an embarrassing situation. Frankly, itdoes not tend to ameliorate the relation between us. You have placedyourself--and me--in a peculiarly compromising position. I must try tomeet it.
"Obviously you cannot expect one so unskilled as I, in thingsfeminine, to help you in the capacity of lady's maid Therefore onlyone thing remains to do. Instead of calling my orderly, and having himshow you your stateroom, I must in some way arrange to get you there,myself."
"That's kind of you, I'm sure," she answered, half in mockery, half ingratitude.
"There I will supply you with medical supplies. In some manner orother you can manage to do up your hair and resume your disguise. Youwill remain in your stateroom--under arrest--until such time as youare cast loose, tomorrow, in your plane."
"Tomorrow?"
"I should say, sometime before night of the day that has alreadybegun. Food and drink will be brought you, of course."
"That's very good of you, sir." Her smile tantalized. The curtlaconicism of her manner, in the masculine role, had changed to thesofter ways of womankind. Despite himself, the Master was constrainedto admire her ability as an actress.
"Of course you realize," she continued, "that to cast me loose in aplane, with only one serviceable arm, will be equivalent to committingcold-blooded murder."
"A mere detail!"
"A mere detail--to murder a woman?"
"Pardon me, you misunderstand. I mean, the manner in which you are toleave Nissr matters little, so long as you leave. I will see that youare safely landed--that no harm arrives to you.
"But you--shall not remain with us. Now, kindly stay here. Lock thecabin door after I have gone, and admit no one until I return. I willsignal you with two triple knocks, thus."
He illustrated the knocks, on the table, and, unlocking the door, leftthe cabin in a black humor. The sound of the woman locking the doorafter him, the knowledge that he had been obliged to make up a littlecode for readmission, angered him as he rarely had been angered.
Self-protection, however, demanded these subterfuges. To let thesecret escape, and to be obliged to admit having been deceived bya woman, would fatally lower his prestige with the Legionaries. Howcould he, if known to be the dupe of a woman, command those hard, boldmen?
Humiliated, yet in his heart thankful that no one had yet penetratedthe secret--as Dr. Lombardo easily might have done, had he laidforcible hands on "Captain Alden"--the Master set about the necessarytask of himself preparing a stateroom and providing the requisitemedical supplies.
Lombardo asked no questions. His eyes, however, had grown quizzical.No one else seemed to notice what the Master was about. Each was busyin his own place, at his own task.
Twenty minutes had passed before all was ready and the Master couldreturn to his cabin. He rapped as agreed, and was admitted, feelinghis cheeks burn at even the analogy between this clandestine entranceand some vulgar liaison--a thing he scrupulously had avoided all hislife.
"Come!" he directed. She followed him. Silently he ushered her intoher appointed place. No one had seen them. He followed her into thelittle stateroom, closed the door, folded his arms and confronted herwith a grim face.
"Before leaving you, madam," said he, "I wish to repeat that onlyyour sex has saved you from summary execution. You are guilty of highcrimes and misdemeanors, in the code of this expedition--guilty offalsehood and deception that might have introduced fatal complicationsinto my most carefully evolved plan.
"Nevertheless, my code as an officer prohibits any punishmentother than this merely nominal arrest. I must offer you temporaryhospitality. Moreover, if you need any assistance in dressing yourwound, I will give it. Common humanity demands that."
"I don't need anything, thank you," she answered. "I don't ask foranything, but to stay with the Legion."
"That's a point I must positively decline to argue, madam," heinformed her, shaking his head. "And, since there is nothing more tosay, I wish you a very good night!"
Bowing, he left the stateroom. He heard the door-catch snap. Somehow,in some way as yet inexplicable to him, that sound caused him anotherdiscomfort. For the first time in his life he had been having privateconversation with a woman--conversation that might almost have beenconstrued as intimate, since it had held secrets. For the first timehe had felt himself outwitted by a woman, beaten, made mock of. Now hewas being shut away from her.
Inwardly raging as he was, hot, confused, unhorsed, still a strange,fingering insinuation of something agreeable had begun to waken inhim. The Master, not understanding it at all, or being able to analyzesensations so foreign to all his previous thought and experience, cutthe Gordian knot of puzzlement by roundly cursing himself, by Allahand the Prophet's beard, as a fool. And with a vastly disturbed mindhe returned along the white, gleaming corridor--that dipped and swayedwith the swift rush of _Nissr_--back to his own cabin.
There he found the buzzer of his little desk-telephone intermittentlycalling him.
"Yes, hello?" he answered, receiver at ear, as he sat down in theswivel-chair of aluminum with its hydrogen cushion.
The voice of the wireless man, Menendez, reached him. In a soft,Spanish-accented kind of drawl, Menendez said:
"Just picked up two important radios, sir."
"Well? What are they?"
"International Air Board headquarters, in Washington, has beennotified of our getaway. They have sent out calls for all air-stationsin both America and Europe to put up scout-squadrons to watch for us."
"What else?"
"Two squadrons have been started westward across the Atlantic,already, to capture or destroy us."
"Indeed? Where from?" The Master spoke coldly. This information, farfrom seeming important to him as it had to Menendez, appeared theveriest commonplace. It was nothing but what he had expected andforeseen. He smiled grimly as he listened to the radio man's answer:
"One squadron has started from Queenstown. The other from theAzores--from St. Michaels."
"Anything else?"
"Well, sir, now and then I can get a few words they're sending fromplane to plane--or from plane to headquarters. They mean business.It's capture or kill. They're rating us as pirates."
"Very well. Anything really important?"
"Nothing else, sir."
"Keep me informed, if any real news comes in. But don't disturb mewith trifles!"
The Master hung up the receiver, sat back in his chair and stretchedhis long, powerful legs under the desk. He set both elbows on the armsof the chair, joined his finger-tips and sank his lips upon them.
"I'd better be rigging that vibratory apparatus before long," hereflected. "But still, there's no immediate hurry. Time enough for allthat. Lots of time."
His thoughts wandered from _Nissr_ and the great adventure, from thecoming attackers, from the vibratory apparatus, yes from the goal ofall this undertaking itself, back to "Captain Alden." The _who_ and_why_, the _whence_ and _whither_ of this strange woman urgentlyintruded on his mind; nor by any effort of the will could he excludethese thoughts.
For a long time, while _Nissr_ roared away eastward, ever eastwardinto the night, he sat there, sunk in a profound revery.
"A woman," he whispered, finally, the words lingering on his lips. "Awoman, eh? Strange--very strange!"
Resolutely he forced himself to consider the plans he had laid out;his success thus far; the means he meant to take with the attackingsquadrons; the consummation of his whole campaign so vast, sooverpowering in its scope.
But through it all, persisted other thoughts. And these, he found, hecould not put away.
The buzzer of the desk-telephone again recalled him to himself."Hello, hello?"
"I have to report that a third squadron has been ordered into the air,from Monrovia," announced Menendez.
"Very well! Anything else?"
"No, sir."
The Master hung up the receiver, arose, and seemed to shake himselffrom the kind of torpor into which his thoughts of the woman hadplunged him.
"Enough of this nonsense!" growled he. "There's work to bedone--_work_!"
With fresh energy he flung himself into the task of planning how tomeet and to repel the three air-fleets now already on the westwardwing to capture or annihilate the Flying Legion.
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