“Now, then, Maria,” said Zerkow, his cracked, strained voice just rising
above a whisper, hitching his chair closer to the table, “now, then, my
girl, let's have it all over again. Tell us about the gold plate--the
service. Begin with, 'There were over a hundred pieces and every one of
them gold.'”
“I don't know what you're talking about, Zerkow,” answered Maria. “There
never was no gold plate, no gold service. I guess you must have dreamed
it.”
Maria and the red-headed Polish Jew had been married about a month after
the McTeague's picnic which had ended in such lamentable fashion. Zerkow
had taken Maria home to his wretched hovel in the alley back of the
flat, and the flat had been obliged to get another maid of all work.
Time passed, a month, six months, a whole year went by. At length Maria
gave birth to a child, a wretched, sickly child, with not even strength
enough nor wits enough to cry. At the time of its birth Maria was out of
her mind, and continued in a state of dementia for nearly ten days. She
recovered just in time to make the arrangements for the baby's burial.
Neither Zerkow nor Maria was much affected by either the birth or the
death of this little child. Zerkow had welcomed it with pronounced
disfavor, since it had a mouth to be fed and wants to be provided for.
Maria was out of her head so much of the time that she could scarcely
remember how it looked when alive. The child was a mere incident in
their lives, a thing that had come undesired and had gone unregretted.
It had not even a name; a strange, hybrid little being, come and gone
within a fortnight's time, yet combining in its puny little body the
blood of the Hebrew, the Pole, and the Spaniard.
But the birth of this child had peculiar consequences. Maria came out
of her dementia, and in a few days the household settled itself again
to its sordid regime and Maria went about her duties as usual. Then one
evening, about a week after the child's burial, Zerkow had asked Maria
to tell him the story of the famous service of gold plate for the
hundredth time.
Zerkow had come to believe in this story infallibly. He was immovably
persuaded that at one time Maria or Maria's people had possessed these
hundred golden dishes. In his perverted mind the hallucination had
developed still further. Not only had that service of gold plate once
existed, but it existed now, entire, intact; not a single burnished
golden piece of it was missing. It was somewhere, somebody had it,
locked away in that leather trunk with its quilted lining and round
brass locks. It was to be searched for and secured, to be fought for,
to be gained at all hazards. Maria must know where it was; by dint of
questioning, Zerkow would surely get the information from her. Some day,
if only he was persistent, he would hit upon the right combination of
questions, the right suggestion that would disentangle Maria's confused
recollections. Maria would tell him where the thing was kept, was
concealed, was buried, and he would go to that place and secure it, and
all that wonderful gold would be his forever and forever. This service
of plate had come to be Zerkow's mania.
On this particular evening, about a week after the child's burial, in
the wretched back room of the Junk shop, Zerkow had made Maria sit down
to the table opposite him--the whiskey bottle and the red glass tumbler
with its broken base between them--and had said:
“Now, then, Maria, tell us that story of the gold dishes again.”
Maria stared at him, an expression of perplexity coming into her face.
“What gold dishes?” said she.
“The ones your people used to own in Central America. Come on, Maria,
begin, begin.” The Jew craned himself forward, his lean fingers clawing
eagerly at his lips.
“What gold plate?” said Maria, frowning at him as she drank her whiskey.
“What gold plate? I don' know what you're talking about, Zerkow.”
Zerkow sat back in his chair, staring at her.
“Why, your people's gold dishes, what they used to eat off of. You've
told me about it a hundred times.”
“You're crazy, Zerkow,” said Maria. “Push the bottle here, will you?”
“Come, now,” insisted Zerkow, sweating with desire, “come, now, my girl,
don't be a fool; let's have it, let's have it. Begin now, 'There were
more'n a hundred pieces, and every one of 'em gold.' Oh, YOU know; come
on, come on.”
“I don't remember nothing of the kind,” protested Maria, reaching for
the bottle. Zerkow snatched it from her.
“You fool!” he wheezed, trying to raise his broken voice to a shout.
“You fool! Don't you dare try an' cheat ME, or I'll DO for you. You know
about the gold plate, and you know where it is.” Suddenly he pitched his
voice at the prolonged rasping shout with which he made his street cry.
He rose to his feet, his long, prehensile fingers curled into fists. He
was menacing, terrible in his rage. He leaned over Maria, his fists in
her face.
“I believe you've got it!” he yelled. “I believe you've got it, an' are
hiding it from me. Where is it, where is it? Is it here?” he rolled his
eyes wildly about the room. “Hey? hey?” he went on, shaking Maria by the
shoulders. “Where is it? Is it here? Tell me where it is. Tell me, or
I'll do for you!”
“It ain't here,” cried Maria, wrenching from him. “It ain't anywhere.
What gold plate? What are you talking about? I don't remember nothing
about no gold plate at all.”
No, Maria did not remember. The trouble and turmoil of her mind
consequent upon the birth of her child seemed to have readjusted her
disordered ideas upon this point. Her mania had come to a crisis, which
in subsiding had cleared her brain of its one illusion. She did not
remember. Or it was possible that the gold plate she had once remembered
had had some foundation in fact, that her recital of its splendors had
been truth, sound and sane. It was possible that now her FORGETFULNESS
of it was some form of brain trouble, a relic of the dementia of
childbirth. At all events Maria did not remember; the idea of the gold
plate had passed entirely out of her mind, and it was now Zerkow who
labored under its hallucination. It was now Zerkow, the raker of the
city's muck heap, the searcher after gold, that saw that wonderful
service in the eye of his perverted mind. It was he who could now
describe it in a language almost eloquent. Maria had been content merely
to remember it; but Zerkow's avarice goaded him to a belief that it was
still in existence, hid somewhere, perhaps in that very house, stowed
away there by Maria. For it stood to reason, didn't it, that Maria could
not have described it with such wonderful accuracy and such careful
detail unless she had seen it recently--the day before, perhaps, or that
very day, or that very hour, that very HOUR?
“Look out for yourself,” he whispered, hoarsely, to his wife. “Look out
for yourself, my girl. I'll hunt for it, and hunt for it, and hunt for
it, and some day I'll find it--I will, you'll see--I'll find it, I'll
find it; and if I don't, I'll find a way that'll make you tell me where
it is. I'll make you speak--believe me, I will, I will, my girl--trust
me for that.”
And at night Maria would sometimes wake to find Zerkow gone from the
bed, and would see him burrowing into some corner by the light of his
dark-lantern and would hear him mumbling to himself: “There were more'n
a hundred pieces, and every one of 'em gold--when the leather trunk was
opened it fair dazzled your eyes--why, just that punchbowl was worth a
fortune, I guess; solid, solid, heavy, rich, pure gold, nothun but gold,
gold, heaps and heaps of it--what a glory! I'll find it yet, I'll find
it. It's here somewheres, hid somewheres in this house.”
At length his continued ill success began to exasperate him. One day he
took his whip from his junk wagon and thrashed Maria with it, gasping
the while, “Where is it, you beast? Where is it? Tell me where it is;
I'll make you speak.”
“I don' know, I don' know,” cried Maria, dodging his blows. “I'd tell
you, Zerkow, if I knew; but I don' know nothing about it. How can I tell
you if I don' know?”
Then one evening matters reached a crisis. Marcus Schouler was in his
room, the room in the flat just over McTeague's “Parlors” which he had
always occupied. It was between eleven and twelve o'clock. The vast
house was quiet; Polk Street outside was very still, except for the
occasional whirr and trundle of a passing cable car and the persistent
calling of ducks and geese in the deserted market directly opposite.
Marcus was in his shirt sleeves, perspiring and swearing with exertion
as he tried to get all his belongings into an absurdly inadequate trunk.
The room was in great confusion. It looked as though Marcus was about
to move. He stood in front of his trunk, his precious silk hat in its
hat-box in his hand. He was raging at the perverseness of a pair of
boots that refused to fit in his trunk, no matter how he arranged them.
“I've tried you SO, and I've tried you SO,” he exclaimed fiercely,
between his teeth, “and you won't go.” He began to swear horribly,
grabbing at the boots with his free hand. “Pretty soon I won't take you
at all; I won't, for a fact.”
He was interrupted by a rush of feet upon the back stairs and a
clamorous pounding upon his door. He opened it to let in Maria Macapa,
her hair dishevelled and her eyes starting with terror.
“Oh, MISTER Schouler,” she gasped, “lock the door quick. Don't let him
get me. He's got a knife, and he says sure he's going to do for me, if I
don't tell him where it is.”
“Who has? What has? Where is what?” shouted Marcus, flaming with
excitement upon the instant. He opened the door and peered down the dark
hall, both fists clenched, ready to fight--he did not know whom, and he
did not know why.
“It's Zerkow,” wailed Maria, pulling him back into the room and bolting
the door, “and he's got a knife as long as THAT. Oh, my Lord, here he
comes now! Ain't that him? Listen.”
Zerkow was coming up the stairs, calling for Maria.
“Don't you let him get me, will you, Mister Schouler?” gasped Maria.
“I'll break him in two,” shouted Marcus, livid with rage. “Think I'm
afraid of his knife?”
“I know where you are,” cried Zerkow, on the landing outside. “You're in
Schouler's room. What are you doing in Schouler's room at this time of
night? Come outa there; you oughta be ashamed. I'll do for you yet, my
girl. Come outa there once, an' see if I don't.”
“I'll do for you myself, you dirty Jew,” shouted Marcus, unbolting the
door and running out into the hall.
“I want my wife,” exclaimed the Jew, backing down the stairs. “What's
she mean by running away from me and going into your room?”
“Look out, he's got a knife!” cried Maria through the crack of the door.
“Ah, there you are. Come outa that, and come back home,” exclaimed
Zerkow.
“Get outa here yourself,” cried Marcus, advancing on him angrily. “Get
outa here.”
“Maria's gota come too.”
“Get outa here,” vociferated Marcus, “an' put up that knife. I see it;
you needn't try an' hide it behind your leg. Give it to me, anyhow,” he
shouted suddenly, and before Zerkow was aware, Marcus had wrenched it
away. “Now, get outa here.”
Zerkow backed away, peering and peeping over Marcus's shoulder.
“I want Maria.”
“Get outa here. Get along out, or I'll PUT you out.” The street door
closed. The Jew was gone.
“Huh!” snorted Marcus, swelling with arrogance. “Huh! Think I'm afraid
of his knife? I ain't afraid of ANYBODY,” he shouted pointedly, for
McTeague and his wife, roused by the clamor, were peering over the
banisters from the landing above. “Not of anybody,” repeated Marcus.
Maria came out into the hall.
“Is he gone? Is he sure gone?”
“What was the trouble?” inquired Marcus, suddenly.
“I woke up about an hour ago,” Maria explained, “and Zerkow wasn't in
bed; maybe he hadn't come to bed at all. He was down on his knees by the
sink, and he'd pried up some boards off the floor and was digging there.
He had his dark-lantern. He was digging with that knife, I guess, and
all the time he kept mumbling to himself, 'More'n a hundred pieces, an'
every one of 'em gold; more'n a hundred pieces, an' every one of 'em
gold.' Then, all of a sudden, he caught sight of me. I was sitting up in
bed, and he jumped up and came at me with his knife, an' he says, 'Where
is it? Where is it? I know you got it hid somewhere. Where is it? Tell
me or I'll knife you.' I kind of fooled him and kept him off till I got
my wrapper on, an' then I run out. I didn't dare stay.”
“Well, what did you tell him about your gold dishes for in the first
place?” cried Marcus.
“I never told him,” protested Maria, with the greatest energy. “I never
told him; I never heard of any gold dishes. I don' know where he got the
idea; he must be crazy.”
By this time Trina and McTeague, Old Grannis, and little Miss Baker--all
the lodgers on the upper floors of the flat--had gathered about Maria.
Trina and the dentist, who had gone to bed, were partially dressed, and
Trina's enormous mane of black hair was hanging in two thick braids
far down her back. But, late as it was, Old Grannis and the retired
dressmaker had still been up and about when Maria had aroused them.
“Why, Maria,” said Trina, “you always used to tell us about your gold
dishes. You said your folks used to have them.”
“Never, never, never!” exclaimed Maria, vehemently. “You folks must all
be crazy. I never HEARD of any gold dishes.”
“Well,” spoke up Miss Baker, “you're a queer girl, Maria; that's all
I can say.” She left the group and returned to her room. Old Grannis
watched her go from the corner of his eye, and in a few moments followed
her, leaving the group as unnoticed as he had joined it. By degrees the
flat quieted down again. Trina and McTeague returned to their rooms.
“I guess I'll go back now,” said Maria. “He's all right now. I ain't
afraid of him so long as he ain't got his knife.”
“Well, say,” Marcus called to her as she went down stairs, “if he gets
funny again, you just yell out; I'LL hear you. I won't let him hurt
you.”
Marcus went into his room again and resumed his wrangle with the
refractory boots. His eye fell on Zerkow's knife, a long, keen-bladed
hunting-knife, with a buckhorn handle. “I'll take you along with me,” he
exclaimed, suddenly. “I'll just need you where I'm going.”
Meanwhile, old Miss Baker was making tea to calm her nerves after the
excitement of Maria's incursion. This evening she went so far as to
make tea for two, laying an extra place on the other side of her little
tea-table, setting out a cup and saucer and one of the Gorham silver
spoons. Close upon the other side of the partition Old Grannis bound
uncut numbers of the “Nation.”
“Do you know what I think, Mac?” said Trina, when the couple had
returned to their rooms. “I think Marcus is going away.”
“What? What?” muttered the dentist, very sleepy and stupid, “what you
saying? What's that about Marcus?”
“I believe Marcus has been packing up, the last two or three days. I
wonder if he's going away.”
“Who's going away?” said McTeague, blinking at her.
“Oh, go to bed,” said Trina, pushing him goodnaturedly. “Mac, you're the
stupidest man I ever knew.”
But it was true. Marcus was going away. Trina received a letter the next
morning from her mother. The carpet-cleaning and upholstery business in
which Mr. Sieppe had involved himself was going from bad to worse. Mr.
Sieppe had even been obliged to put a mortgage upon their house. Mrs.
Sieppe didn't know what was to become of them all. Her husband had even
begun to talk of emigrating to New Zealand. Meanwhile, she informed
Trina that Mr. Sieppe had finally come across a man with whom Marcus
could “go in with on a ranch,” a cattle ranch in the southeastern
portion of the State. Her ideas were vague upon the subject, but she
knew that Marcus was wildly enthusiastic at the prospect, and was
expected down before the end of the month. In the meantime, could Trina
send them fifty dollars?
“Marcus IS going away, after all, Mac,” said Trina to her husband
that day as he came out of his “Parlors” and sat down to the lunch of
sausages, mashed potatoes, and chocolate in the sitting-room.
“Huh?” said the dentist, a little confused. “Who's going away? Schouler
going away? Why's Schouler going away?”
Trina explained. “Oh!” growled McTeague, behind his thick mustache, “he
can go far before I'LL stop him.”
“And, say, Mac,” continued Trina, pouring the chocolate, “what do you
think? Mamma wants me--wants us to send her fifty dollars. She says
they're hard up.”
“Well,” said the dentist, after a moment, “well, I guess we can send it,
can't we?”
“Oh, that's easy to say,” complained Trina, her little chin in the
air, her small pale lips pursed. “I wonder if mamma thinks we're
millionaires?”
“Trina, you're getting to be regular stingy,” muttered McTeague. “You're
getting worse and worse every day.”
“But fifty dollars is fifty dollars, Mac. Just think how long it takes
you to earn fifty dollars. Fifty dollars! That's two months of our
interest.”
“Well,” said McTeague, easily, his mouth full of mashed potato, “you got
a lot saved up.”
Upon every reference to that little hoard in the brass match-safe
and chamois-skin bag at the bottom of her trunk, Trina bridled on the
instant.
“Don't TALK that way, Mac. 'A lot of money.' What do you call a lot of
money? I don't believe I've got fifty dollars saved.”
“Hoh!” exclaimed McTeague. “Hoh! I guess you got nearer a hundred AN'
fifty. That's what I guess YOU got.”
“I've NOT, I've NOT,” declared Trina, “and you know I've not. I wish
mamma hadn't asked me for any money. Why can't she be a little more
economical? I manage all right. No, no, I can't possibly afford to send
her fifty.”
“Oh, pshaw! What WILL you do, then?” grumbled her husband.
“I'll send her twenty-five this month, and tell her I'll send the rest
as soon as I can afford it.”
“Trina, you're a regular little miser,” said McTeague.
“I don't care,” answered Trina, beginning to laugh. “I guess I am, but I
can't help it, and it's a good fault.”
Trina put off sending this money for a couple of weeks, and her mother
made no mention of it in her next letter. “Oh, I guess if she wants
it so bad,” said Trina, “she'll speak about it again.” So she again
postponed the sending of it. Day by day she put it off. When her mother
asked her for it a second time, it seemed harder than ever for Trina to
part with even half the sum requested. She answered her mother, telling
her that they were very hard up themselves for that month, but that she
would send down the amount in a few weeks.
“I'll tell you what we'll do, Mac,” she said to her husband, “you send
half and I'll send half; we'll send twenty-five dollars altogether.
Twelve and a half apiece. That's an idea. How will that do?”
“Sure, sure,” McTeague had answered, giving her the money. Trina sent
McTeague's twelve dollars, but never sent the twelve that was to be her
share. One day the dentist happened to ask her about it.
“You sent that twenty-five to your mother, didn't you?” said he.
“Oh, long ago,” answered Trina, without thinking.
In fact, Trina never allowed herself to think very much of this affair.
And, in fact, another matter soon came to engross her attention.
One Sunday evening Trina and her husband were in their sitting-room
together. It was dark, but the lamp had not been lit. McTeague had
brought up some bottles of beer from the “Wein Stube” on the ground
floor, where the branch post-office used to be. But they had not
opened the beer. It was a warm evening in summer. Trina was sitting on
McTeague's lap in the bay window, and had looped back the Nottingham
curtains so the two could look out into the darkened street and watch
the moon coming up over the glass roof of the huge public baths. On
occasions they sat like this for an hour or so, “philandering,” Trina
cuddling herself down upon McTeague's enormous body, rubbing her cheek
against the grain of his unshaven chin, kissing the bald spot on the top
of his head, or putting her fingers into his ears and eyes. At times,
a brusque access of passion would seize upon her, and, with a nervous
little sigh, she would clasp his thick red neck in both her small arms
and whisper in his ear:
“Do you love me, Mac, dear? Love me BIG, BIG? Sure, do you love me as
much as you did when we were married?”
Puzzled, McTeague would answer: “Well, you know it, don't you, Trina?”
“But I want you to SAY so; say so always and always.”
“Well, I do, of course I do.”
“Say it, then.”
“Well, then, I love you.”
“But you don't say it of your own accord.”
“Well, what--what--what--I don't understand,” stammered the dentist,
bewildered.
There was a knock on the door. Confused and embarrassed, as if they were
not married, Trina scrambled off McTeague's lap, hastening to light the
lamp, whispering, “Put on your coat, Mac, and smooth your hair,” and
making gestures for him to put the beer bottles out of sight. She opened
the door and uttered an exclamation.
“Why, Cousin Mark!” she said. McTeague glared at him, struck speechless,
confused beyond expression. Marcus Schouler, perfectly at his ease,
stood in the doorway, smiling with great affability.
“Say,” he remarked, “can I come in?”
Taken all aback, Trina could only answer:
“Why--I suppose so. Yes, of course--come in.”
“Yes, yes, come in,” exclaimed the dentist, suddenly, speaking without
thought. “Have some beer?” he added, struck with an idea.
“No, thanks, Doctor,” said Marcus, pleasantly.
McTeague and Trina were puzzled. What could it all mean? Did Marcus
want to become reconciled to his enemy? “I know.” Trina said to herself.
“He's going away, and he wants to borrow some money. He won't get a
penny, not a penny.” She set her teeth together hard.
“Well,” said Marcus, “how's business, Doctor?”
“Oh,” said McTeague, uneasily, “oh, I don' know. I guess--I guess,”
he broke off in helpless embarrassment. They had all sat down by now.
Marcus continued, holding his hat and his cane--the black wand of ebony
with the gold top presented to him by the “Improvement Club.”
“Ah!” said he, wagging his head and looking about the sitting-room, “you
people have got the best fixed rooms in the whole flat. Yes, sir; you
have, for a fact.” He glanced from the lithograph framed in gilt and red
plush--the two little girls at their prayers--to the “I'm Grandpa”
and “I'm Grandma” pictures, noted the clean white matting and the gay
worsted tidies over the chair backs, and appeared to contemplate in
ecstasy the framed photograph of McTeague and Trina in their wedding
finery.
“Well, you two are pretty happy together, ain't you?” said he, smiling
good-humoredly.
“Oh, we don't complain,” answered Trina.
“Plenty of money, lots to do, everything fine, hey?”
“We've got lots to do,” returned Trina, thinking to head him off, “but
we've not got lots of money.”
But evidently Marcus wanted no money.
“Well, Cousin Trina,” he said, rubbing his knee, “I'm going away.”
“Yes, mamma wrote me; you're going on a ranch.”
“I'm going in ranching with an English duck,” corrected Marcus. “Mr.
Sieppe has fixed things. We'll see if we can't raise some cattle. I know
a lot about horses, and he's ranched some before--this English duck. And
then I'm going to keep my eye open for a political chance down there. I
got some introductions from the President of the Improvement Club. I'll
work things somehow, oh, sure.”
“How long you going to be gone?” asked Trina.
Marcus stared.
“Why, I ain't EVER coming back,” he vociferated. “I'm going to-morrow,
and I'm going for good. I come to say good-by.”
Marcus stayed for upwards of an hour that evening. He talked on easily
and agreeably, addressing himself as much to McTeague as to Trina. At
last he rose.
“Well, good-by, Doc.”
“Good-by, Marcus,” returned McTeague. The two shook hands.
“Guess we won't ever see each other again,” continued Marcus. “But good
luck to you, Doc. Hope some day you'll have the patients standing in
line on the stairs.”
“Huh! I guess so, I guess so,” said the dentist.
“Good-by, Cousin Trina.”
“Good-by, Marcus,” answered Trina. “You be sure to remember me to mamma,
and papa, and everybody. I'm going to make two great big sets of Noah's
ark animals for the twins on their next birthday; August is too old
for toys. But you can tell the twins that I'll make them some great big
animals. Good-by, success to you, Marcus.”
“Good-by, good-by. Good luck to you both.”
“Good-by, Cousin Mark.”
“Good-by, Marcus.”
He was gone.