HER BROTHER JACK
"Good night, Dicky!" came up the elevator shaft. And then more "good
nights," growing fainter with their laughter as the car shot down.
"Good night," I called after them. "Devilish sorry you fellows won't
stay longer!"
"Jolly good lie, Jenkins," I said, yawning sleepily, as I dropped back
into my own apartment.
"Yes, sir," assented Jenkins demurely. "It's sleeping on the divan the
other night, sir. Eight hours there ain't nothing like eight hours in
bed and in your pajamas."
"Pajamas!" I ejaculated, startled.
For all day I had been thinking of _her_. I wondered if Billings would
happen to think to invite me up for the week end. But he had so many
times, and I had never gone.
"By Jove, that reminds me," I said. "Those red silk pajamas!"
"Yes, sir." Jenkins' face hardened in an odd, wooden way.
"I was wondering, Jenkins, if those pajamas were torn any in our little
row the other night."
Poor Jenkins winced a little. "I think not, sir," he muttered
humbly--"leastwise, they were all right last night when Mr.--" He seemed
to catch himself abruptly. "I mean when I found them this morning, sir."
He returned with the garments I had received from Mastermann, and again
we spread them under the lamp on the table. They looked singularly
smooth and unwrinkled. There was not a single tear or break, not even
with the delicate cords that twisted to form the frogs of the coat.
"My, sir! But ain't they red!" breathed Jenkins. "Them cords look like
little red snakes."
I cut an anxious glance at Jenkins, for I did not like his reference to
snakes. Seemed ominous, somehow. But his appearance was composed and
reassuring. And, by Jove, come to look, the cords did look just like
tiny, coiled serpents of glowing fire. Why, they were so jolly red they
hurt your eyes. Fact! And thin as the beautiful stuff was, this brighter
red ran all over the other, covering every inch of it and forming the
closest, finest what-you-call-it embroidery. It was as faint and dainty
a pattern as that on a soap bubble! Fact is, I could not trace it, even
with my glass.
The only part that wasn't covered with this embroidery business was the
stuff used to cover the knots, or little balls, over which the cords
were meant to hook. In working with some of these cords, idly fastening
and unfastening them, I got a little impatient with one that seemed
tight, you know, and I used my manicure knife to pull the knot through.
"Careful, sir," warned Jenkins. "Likely to cut something."
By Jove! No sooner said, than I did it!
The dashed blade slipped somehow and cut into the threads that tied the
covers or caps or whatever-you-call-'ems, over the knots. And when I
pulled, the beastly piece of silk came off in my fingers.
And then--oh, but I say! I just gave a sort of yell and dropped the
whole thing!
Ever have some silly ass try to scare you by poking a red hot cigar at
you in the dark? Know how you jerk back? Well, there you are! For, give
you my word, when I peeled off the little cloth cap, regular blazes of
crimson fire seemed to shoot from the end of the knot.
Fact is, it wasn't a knot at all, but a button--a devilish glassy
button, something bigger than a dime, perhaps, and thick as the end of
your little finger. And there it lay against the silk, burning its way
through it like a red coal of fire.
Dashed if it didn't look that way, anyhow. I just sat there blinking
like a jolly owl, waiting to see the stuff begin to smoke, before I had
presence of mind to tell Jenkins to touch it to see if it would burn.
But Jenkins wouldn't. He just stood there with his jaw hanging and his
eyes bulging like champagne corks!
And it was just then that Billings rolled in.
I say "rolled in," because it always looks that way. That's the way
Billings is built, you know.
"I say, Dicky," he panted, "just missed another infernal express! Plenty
more trains, but I had a great inspiration strike me that I'd let you
put me up for the night. Hat, Jenkins! Now, don't say a word, Dicky, old
chap. Cane, Jenkins! Great pleasure, assure you--won't inconvenience me
at all. Gloves, Jenkins! Just give me something to sleep in, and I'll be
as comfortable here as I would be at the club--so don't worry any about
me, old chap. By the way, want to thank you for taking care of the kid.
Got home all right, I understand."
He plunked like a jolly elephant into the largest and most comfortable
chair in the room and wheezed for breath.
"And, Jenkins!" He raised one fat finger while he took a gasp. "Don't
mind if I do have a package of Dicky's Koroskos and a sloe fizz--not too
sweet, you know; and you may--"
He halted, his eyes suddenly riveted to the table, and straightened
inquiringly, his big hands poised upon the padded arms of the chair.
"Suffering Thomas cats! What's that?" he exclaimed. "The scream
there--flag of Morocco?"
And then, without pausing for reply, he dashed on:
"I say, old chap, if you're picking up those, I can get you a few for
nothing. You know Higgins, cashier-that-was of the Widows' National,
eh? Well, Higgins sent the governor a Morocco flag the other day from
Tangier. Fact is, he sent one to every director of the bank--and an
extra large one to that bank examiner!"
He chuckled wabblingly, like a jolly jellyfish.
"Talk about a red flag to a bull," he exploded, "why, they--"
Billings broke off suddenly. Then he climbed heavily to his feet, and
without warning, heaved himself across the room and seized the button I
had just uncovered. Dashed if he didn't almost upset me.
"Here, I say!" I protested. "Don't lose that cap." I picked it up from
where he had jerked it to the floor. "It's the cover to hide that glass,
you know."
"Wh-a-a-t!"
Billings swung round, staring at me with the most curious expression.
"See here, Dicky," he exclaimed rather excitedly, but in a low tone, as
he cut a side glance at Jenkins siphoning the fizz over at the
cellarette. "What in thunder have you been doing now?"
By Jove, I turned cold for a minute, I was that startled. I thought he
was going to use the pajamas as an introduction for reference to last
night. But in a minute I saw that he did not mean that.
"Where on earth did _you_ get anything like this?" And he held up the
button and the garment.
"Oh, I say now!" I remonstrated, alarm changing to a mild dudgeon.
Billings' devilish rude manners are so offensive at times. "What do you
mean? It's a present from a friend in China."
"Present!" Billings' eyes bulged queerly. He stooped toward me,
whispering: "Did he know what this button was?"
"Why, of course he didn't," I answered indignantly. "Never dreamed of
it, of course. I tell you, it was all nicely covered, was
what-you-call-it--upholstered, you know--with devilish nice silk. I cut
it off accidentally, trying to force the thing through that loop. That
left the marble exposed."
Billings took the glass mechanically from the tray tendered by Jenkins
and sipped it slowly, eying me curiously over the top. Then he set it
back, very deliberately, wiped his mouth with the bit of napery, and
without taking his glance from me, waited until Jenkins had left the
room. Whereupon, after another searching look at the button, he dropped
it with the garment upon the table, and with hands jammed deep in his
pockets, faced me with a long-drawn whistle.
"Well, I'll be hanged!" he exclaimed. Just a coarse, vulgar outburst,
you know--no sense to it; no point at all, you know--that's Billings.
He caught up the coat again. "And these others--four of them--are they
just the same?" he demanded sharply.
"Dash it, how should I know? I suppose so," I answered indifferently.
And I closed my eyes and leaned back, feeling a bit--just a bit--weary.
Somehow, Billings is always so exhausting when he gets started on
something.
"Oh, cut it out, old chap," I protested, drowsy-like.
"I will," I heard him say. Then I guess I must have dropped off a bit,
for the next thing I knew he was shaking me.
"Dicky! Dicky! Say, look here! _Look_, I tell you!"
I did look, and--well, I was jolly vexed, that's all.
"Oh, I say now!" I spoke severely--just that way, you know. I went on,
remonstrating: "Devilish silly joke, if you ask me. You've gone and
ruined the thing, Billings! Flashy buttons like that, you know--too
tawdry, too cheap."
"_Cheap!_" He almost shouted it. Then he leaned over the back of the
leather chair and pounded his fat head against the cushions, writhing
his big bulk from side to side.
"Quite impossible," I said firmly. "Not _en regle_ at all, you know!"
And I fixed my glass and stared gloomily at the things. The five shiny
buttons just lay there against the delicate silk like so many fiery
crimson cherries. And they reminded me of something--something--what the
deuce was it? Something devilish familiar, whatever it was. And then of
a sudden I had it!
"By Jove, you know!" And I just fell back in consternation. "This is
awful! I'd look like a--er--dashed human cocktail. Oh, I say!"
Then Billings, who was already gasping like a jolly what's-its-name,
dropped upon the arm of the chair and held his side.
"Dicky, you--you'll be the death of me yet," he panted.
I never try to follow Billings. Nobody ever does. So I paid no attention
to him. Shaking his head, he lifted the garment again and held it out of
the direct rays of the shaded lamp. The five buttons leaped out of the
shadow like port lights down the bay on a moonless night.
He leered at me, chuckling. "Look _cheap_ to you, eh? What you might
call _outre_, so to speak?"
"By Jove, of course," I answered ruefully. "I can't sleep in the things
now, you know. What would people say?"
Billings stared at me disagreeably a moment and said something under his
breath. Then he caught up the buttons and the silk, and crushing them in
his hands, buried his face in the mass.
"Oh you beauties, you darlings!" I heard him murmur.
Then he looked at the buttons again, and dash it, he kissed one.
Maudlin--jolly maudlin, I say, if you ask me!
"I say, Dicky," he said carelessly. "You may not care for them, but I've
taken rather a shine to these buttons. Mind letting me have one, eh?"
He flashed a quick glance at me and then away.
"Mind? Why, certainly not; take 'em all, old chap, and welcome." Yet I
responded gloomily enough, scarcely polite, you know. And I felt too
jolly prostrated to be curious as to what he could possibly want with
the things. Waistcoat buttons, likely--Billings was given to loud dress
and other bounder stunts. But he just sat there looking down after I
spoke, and presently stole a queer glance at me.
"Dicky," he said, and paused. Then he fished out that perfectly
impossible pipe of his and began to pack it, slowly shaking his head.
"Dicky, anybody that would take advantage of you would lift a baby's
milk gurgler."
Of course, I saw no more sense in that than you do, you know, but I
understood that in his crude, vulgar way he meant some sort of a
compliment.
"Dash it, of course," I said offhand, straightening up and recrossing my
legs. I always say that and do that way when fellows say stupid things.
Such a jolly good way to keep from hurting their feelings, you know, and
saves talking and thinking. Got on to it myself.
Billings' eye ranged at me as he lighted his pipe. The smoke seemed to
make him cough, and it was this, I suppose, that set him chuckling.
He suddenly held up the row of red buttons again.
"Look here, you blessed dodo," he exclaimed brusquely. "Have you really
no idea what these are, these glass buttons you are yapping about? Of
course you haven't, you jolly chowder head, but I'm going to tell you."
He threw the coat into my lap.
"They are rubies, old man, that's all," he said quietly. "Oriental
rubies, at that--flawless and perfect--the rarest and most precious
things in the world."