|THE ancient bromide to the effect that man proposes but God disposes
was never better exemplified than in the case of John Stuart Webster,
who, having formulated certain daring plans for the morrow and
surrendered himself to grateful slumber in his stateroom aboard the Gulf
States Limited, awoke on that momentous morn to a distinct apprehension
that all was not as it should be with him. His mouth reminded him
vaguely of a bird-and-animal store, and riot and insurrection had broken
out in the geometric centre of his internal economy.
“I believe I'm going to be too ill to eat breakfast,” he told himself.
By seven o'clock this apprehension had crystallized into certainty.
Webster had spent much of his life far from civilization, and as
a result had found it necessary to acquire more than the layman's
knowledge of rough-and-tumble surgery and the ordinary ills to which
mortal is heir; consequently he was sufficient of a jack-leg doctor to
suspect he was developing a splendid little case of ptomaine poisoning.
He was aided in reaching this conclusion by memories of the dinner his
friends had given him the night before, and at which he had partaken of
a mallard duck, killed out of season and therefore greatly to be prized.
He recalled the waiter's boast that the said duck had been hung for five
days and had reached that state of ripeness and tenderness so greatly
desired by those connoisseurs of food whose fool philosophy has been
responsible for more deaths than most doctors..
“That brute of a duck was too far gone,” Mr. Webster soliloquized
bitterly. “And to think I'm killed off in the mere shank of my
celebration, just because I got so rich and stuck-up I had to tie into
some offal to show what a discerning judgment I had in food, not to
mention my distinctive appetite. I ought to be knocked on the head with
something, and I hope I may be if I ever accept any man's judgment in
opposition to my own, on the subject of ripe mallards. This is what
comes of breaking the game laws.”
He decided presently to go into executive session with the sleeping-car
conductor, who wired ahead for a doctor to meet the train at the next
station. And when the sawbones came and pawed Jack Webster over, he
gravely announced that if the patient had the slightest ambition to
vote at the next Presidential election, he should leave the train at
St. Louis and enter a hospital forthwith. To this heart-breaking program
Webster entered not the slightest objection, for when a man is seriously
ill, he is in much the same position as a politician--to wit: he is in
the hands of his friends. A sick man is always very sick--or thinks he
is, which amounts to the same thing; and as a rule he thinks of little
else save how sick he is. John S. Webster was, in this respect, neither
better nor worse than others of his sex, and in his great bodily and
mental depression his plans of the night before for getting acquainted
with Dolores Ruey occurred to him now as something extremely futile and
presumptuous. That young lady was now the subject least in his mind, for
she was at most naught but a bright day-dream; whereas his friend
Billy Geary was down in Sobrante with a rich wildcat mine waiting to be
developed, while the source of development lay on a bed of pain assailed
by secret apprehensions that all was over!
“Poor Billy-boy!” the sufferer murmured. “He'll wait and wait, and his
old Jack-partner won't come! Damn that duck!”
He had one little stab of pain higher up, and around his heart, as they
carried him off the train at St. Louis and stowed him in an ambulance
thoughtfully provided for by telegraph. In a nebulous way it occurred to
him that Fate had again crossed her fingers when paradise loomed on the
horizon; but recalling how very ill he was, he damned the duck. He told
himself that even if he should survive (which wasn't possible), there
could be no doubt in his mind, after all he had been through, that the
good Lord had marked him for a loveless, friendless, childless man; that
it was useless to struggle against the inevitable. He felt very, very
sorry for himself as the orderlies tucked him into bed and a nurse
thrust a thermometer under his tongue.
“A hundred and four and a quarter,” he heard her murmur to the doctor a
few minutes later.
“No bird ever flew so high that he didn't come down to roost,” said Mr.
Webster aloud.
The doctor and the nurse exchanged knowing glances. They nodded. The
patient was already delirious--a bad sign.
“Hey, Doc,” the stricken man called. They bent over him.
“Send--cablegram to Billy Geary--tell him--come home--before that
thousand--spent--money--my pocket.”
“Yes, I hear you,” the nurse said soothingly. “And the address?”
“Calle de Concordia, Nineteen, Buenaventura, Sobrante.”
“Say it again,” the nurse urged him. “Spell it.” Poor girl! She was
a native of St. Louis. If Jack Webster had mentioned Ossawatomie or
Canandaigua, he would not have been called upon to go into details and
waste his strength. He gasped and wet his lips; she bent to get the
message:
“Damn that duck,” he whispered. “She had a green tailor-made suit,
and--believe me, girl, I'd rather sell my Death Valley--borax-claims
than--work them myself. Free-milling gold--catch it on amalgamating
plates--contact between andesite and--Silurian limestone--Billy
knows ducks. I taught him myself. Come, Neddy. All together now, you
old--pelican. A little close harmony, boys:
“Let go the peak halyards,
Let go the peak halyards,
My finger is caught in the block!
Leggo!”
“Sounds like a drinking man,” the doctor observed. “If that's the case,
this attack will go hard with him.”
It did. However, life had the habit of going hard with Webster so
frequently that fortunately he was trained to the minute, and after
three days of heroic battling the doctor awarded Jack the decision.
Thereafter they kept him in the hospital ten days longer, “feeding him
up” as the patient expressed it--at the end of which period Webster,
some fifteen pounds lighter and not quite so fast on his feet as
formerly, resumed his journey toward New Orleans.
In the meantime, however, several things had happened. To begin, Dolores
Ruey spent two days wondering what had become of her quondam knight of
the whiskers--at the end of which period she arrived in New Orleans
with the conviction strong upon her that while her hero might be
as courageous as a wounded lion when dealing with men, he was the
possessor, when dealing with women, of about two per cent, less courage
than a cottontail rabbit. She reproached herself for the wintry glance
she had cast upon the poor fellow that night at the Denver railway
station; she decided that the amazing Neddy Jerome was an interfering,
impudent old fool and that she had done an unmaidenly and brazen deed
in replying to his ridiculous telegram, even though she did so under an
assumed name. Being a very human young lady, however, she could not help
wondering what had become of the ubiquitous Mr. Webster, although the
fact that he had mysteriously disappeared from the train en route to New
Orleans did not perturb her one half so much as it had the disappearee!
She had this advantage over that unfortunate man. Whereas he did not
know she was bound for Buenaventura, she knew he was; hence, upon
arrival in New Orleans she dismissed him from her thoughts, serene in
abiding faith that sooner or later her knight would appear, like little
_Bo-Peep's_ lost sheep, dragging his tail behind him, so to speak.
The only regret she entertained arose from her disappointment in the
knowledge of his real character, and its wide variance from the heroic
attributes with which she had endowed him. She had depended upon him to
be a daring devil--and he had failed to toe the scratch!
Dolores spent a week in New Orleans renewing schoolgirl friendships from
her convent days in the quaint old town. This stop-over, together with
the one in Denver, not having been taken into consideration by Mr.
William Geary when he and Mother Jenks commenced to speculate upon
the approximate date of her arrival in Buenaventura, resulted in the
premature flight of Mother Jenks to San Miguel de Padua, a fruitless
visit on the part of Billy aboard the _Cacique_, of the United Fruit
Company's line, followed by a hurry call to Mother Jenks to return to
Buenaventura until the arrival of the next steamer.
This time Billy's calculations proved correct, for Dolores did arrive
on that steamer. It is also worthy of remark here that shortly after
boarding the vessel and while _La Estrellita_ was snoring down the
Mississippi, Miss Dolores did the missing Webster the signal honour of
scanning the purser's passenger list in a vain search for his name.
At Buenaventura the steamer anchored in the roadstead; the port doctor
came aboard, partook of his customary drink with the captain, received
a bundle of the latest American newspapers and magazines, nosed around,
asked a few perfunctory questions, and gave the vessel pratique.
Immediately she was surrounded by lighters manned by clamorous,
half-naked Sobranteans, each screaming in a horrible patois of English,
Spanish, and good American slang perfervid praises of the excellence
of his service compared with that of his neighbour. Dolores was
particularly interested in the antics of one fellow who had a sign
tacked on a short signal mast in his lighter. “I am a poor man with
a large family, and my father was an American,” the legend ran.
“Kind-hearted Americans will patronize me to the exclusion of all
others.”
Dolores had made up her mind to heed this pathetic appeal, when she
observed a gasolene launch shoot up to the landing at the foot of the
companion-ladder and discharge a well-dressed, youthful white man. As he
came up the companion, the purser recognized him.
“Howdy, Bill,” he called.
“Hello, yourself,” Mr. William Geary replied, and Dolores knew him for
an American. “Do you happen to have as a passenger this trip a large,
interesting person, by name John Stuart Webster?” added Billy Geary.
“I don't know, Billy. I'll look over the passenger-list.”
“No hope,” Billy replied mournfully. “If Jack Webster was aboard he'd
have got acquainted with you. However, take a look-see to make certain.”
“Friend of yours?” the purser queried.
“You bet. Likewise guide and philosopher. He should have been here on
the last steamer--cabled me he was coming, and I haven't heard a word
from him since. I'm a little worried.”
“I'll get the list,” the purser announced, and together they moved off
toward his office. Dolores followed, drawn by the mention of that magic
name Webster, and paused in front of the purser's office to lean over the
rail, ostensibly to watch the _cargadores_ in their lighters clustering
around the great ship, but in reality to learn more of the mysterious
Webster.
“Blast the luck,” Billy Geary growled, “the old sinner isn't here. Gosh,
that's worse than having a note called on a fellow. By the way, do you
happen to have a Miss Dolores Ruey aboard?”
Dolores pricked up her little ears. What possible interest could this
stranger have in her goings or comings?
“You picked a winner this time, Bill,” she heard the purser say.
“Stateroom Sixteen, boat-deck, starboard side. You'll probably find her
there, packing to go ashore.”
“Thanks,” Billy replied and stepped out of the purser's office. Dolores
turned and faced him.
“I am Miss Ruey,” she announced. “I heard you asking for me.” Her eyes
carried the query she had not put into words: “Who are you, and what
do you want?” Billy saw and understood, and on the instant a wave of
desolation surged over him.
So this was the vision he had volunteered to meet aboard _La
Estrellita_, and by specious lie and hypo-critic mien, turn her back
from the portals of Buenaventura to that dear old United States, which,
Billy suddenly recalled with poignant pain, is a sizable country in
which a young lady may very readily be lost forever. At the moment it
occurred to Mr. Geary that the apotheosis of rapture would be a midnight
stroll in the moonlight along the Malecon, with the little waves from
the Caribbean lapping and gurgling against the beach, while afar, in
some bosky retreat, a harp with a flute obbligato sobbed out “'Nita,
Juanita” or some equally heart-throb ballad. Yes, that would be quite a
joyous journey--with Dolores Ruey.
Billy, with the quick eye of youth, noted that Dolores was perfectly
wonderful in a white flannel skirt and jacket, white buck boots, white
panama hat with a gorgeous puggaree, a mannish little linen collar, and
a red four-in-hand tie. From under that white hat peeped a profusion of
crinkly brown hair with a slightly reddish tinge to it; her eyes were
big and brown and wide apart, with golden flecks in them; their glance
met Billy's hungry gaze simply, directly, and with 'a curiosity there
was no attempt to hide. Her complexion was that peculiar shade of olive,
with a warm, healthy, underlying tinge that nobody could possibly hope
to describe, but which fits in so beautifully with brown eyes of a
certain shade. Her nose was patrician; her beautiful short upper lip
revealed the tips of two perfect, milk-white front teeth: she was, Billy
Geary told himself, a goddess before whom all low, worthless, ornery
fellows like himself should grovel and die happy, if perchance she might
be so minded as to walk on their faces! He was aroused from his critical
inventory when the houri spoke again:
“You haven't answered my question, sir!”
“No,” said Billy, “I didn't. Stupid of me, too. I was staring,
instead--because, you see, it isn't often we poor expatriated devils
down here climb out of Hades long enough to view the angels! However,
come to think of it, you didn't ask me any question. You looked it. My
name is Geary--William H. Geary, by profession a mining engineer and
by nature an ignoramus, and I have called to deliver some disappointing
news regarding Henrietta Wilkins.”
“Is she----”
“She is very much alive and in excellent health--or rather was, the
last time it was my pleasure and privilege to call on the dear lady. But
she isn't in Buenaventura now.” Mentally Billy asked God to forgive him
his black-hearted treachery to this winsome girl. He loathed the task he
had planned and foisted upon himself, and nothing but the memory of
Mother Jenks's manifold kindnesses to him in a day, thanks to Jack
Webster, now happily behind him, could have induced him to go through to
the finish. Mentally clinging to the memory of his obligations to Mother
Jenks, Billy ruthlessly smothered his finer instincts and with breaking
heart prepared to do or die.
“Why, where is she?” Dolores queried, and Billy could have wept at the
fright in those lovely brown eyes.
He waved his hand airily. “_Quien sabe?_” he said. “She left three weeks
ago for New Orleans to visit you. I dare say you passed each other on
the road--here, here, Miss Ruey, don't cry. By golly, this is a tough
one, I know, but be brave and we'll save something out of the wreck
yet.”
He took a recess of three minutes, while Dolores dabbed her eyes and
went through sundry other motions of being brave. Then he proceeded with
his nefarious recital.
“When your cablegram arrived, Miss Ruey, naturally Mrs. Wilkins was not
here to receive it, and as I was the only person who had her address,
the cable-agent referred it to me. Under the circumstances, not knowing
where I could reach you with a cable informing you that Mrs. Wilkins
was headed for California to see you, I had no other alternative but
let matters take their course. I decided you might arrive on _La
Estrellita_, so I called to welcome you to our thriving little city,
and, as a friend of about two minutes' standing, to warn you away from
it.”
Billy's mien, as he voiced this warning, was so singularly mysterious
that Dolores's curiosity was aroused instantly and rose superior to her
grief. “Why, what's the matter?” she demanded.
Billy looked around, as if fearful of being overheard. He lowered his
voice. “We're going to have one grand little first-class revolution,” he
replied. “It's due to bust almost any night now, and when it does, the
streets of San Buenaventura will run red with blood. I shudder to think
of the fate that might befall you, alone and unprotected in the city, in
such event.”
Dolores blanched. “Oh, dearie me,” she quavered. “Do they still have
revolutions here? You know, Mr. Geary, my poor father was killed in
one.”
“Yes, and the same old political gang that shot him is still on deck,”
Billy warned her. “It would be highly dangerous for a Ruey, man or
woman, to show his or her nose around Buenaventura about now. Besides,
Miss Ruey, that isn't the worst,” he continued, for a whole-hearted lad
was Billy, who never did anything by halves. While he was opposed to
lies and liars on broad, general principles, nevertheless whenever the
exigencies of circumstance compelled him to backslide, his Hibernian
impulsiveness bade him spin a yarn worth while. “The city is reeking
with cholera,” he declared.
“Cholera!” Dolores's big brown eyes grew Digger with wonder and concern.
“Are there any other fatal diseases prevalent, Mr. Geary?”
“Well, we're not advertising it, Miss Ruey, but if I had an enemy to
whom I wanted to slip a plain or fancy case of bubonic plague, I'd
invite him to visit me at Buenaventura.”
“How strange the port authorities didn't warn us at New Orleans!”
Dolores suggested.
“Tish! Tush! Fiddlesticks and then some. The fruit company censors
everything, Miss Ruey, and the news doesn't get out. The port
authorities here would never admit the truth of such reports, because it
would be bad for business----”
“But the port doctor just said the passengers could go ashore.”
“What's a human life to a doctor? Besides, he's on the slush-fund
pay-roll and does whatever the higher-ups tell him. You be guided by
what I tell you, Miss Ruey, and do not set foot on Sobrantean soil. Even
if you had a guarantee that you could escape alive, there isn't a hotel
in the city you could afford to sleep in; Miss Wilkins's house is closed
up, and Miss Wilkins's servants dismissed, and--er--well, if you stay
aboard _La Estrellita_, you'll have your nice clean stateroom, your
well-cooked meals, your bath, and the attentions of the stewardess. The
steamer will be loaded in two days; then you go back to New Orleans, and
by the time you arrive there I'll have been in communication by cable
with Mother Jenks--I mean----”
“Mother who?” Dolores demanded.
“A mere slip of the tongue, Miss Ruey. I was thinking of my landlady. I
meant Mrs. Wilkins----”
“You mean Miss Wilkins,” Dolores corrected him smilingly.
“So I do. Of course, Miss Wilkins. Well, I'll cable her you're on your
way back, and if you'll leave me your New Orleans address, I'll have her
get in touch with you, and then you can have your nice little visit far
from the madding crowd's ignoble strife and the death-dealing sting of
the yellow-fever mosquito.”
“I'm so awfully obliged to you, Mr. Geary. You're so kind, I'm sure
I'd be a most ungrateful girl not to be guided by you accordingly. You
wouldn't risk any friend of yours in this terrible place, would you, Mr.
Geary?”
“Indeed, I would not. By permitting anybody I thought anything of to
come to this city, I should feel guilty of murder.”
“I'm sure you would, Mr. Geary. Nevertheless, there is one point that is
not quite clear in my mind, and I wish you'd explain----”
“Command me, Miss Ruey.”
“If this is such a frightful place, why are you so anxious, if I may
employ such language, to hornsgoggle your dearest friend, Mr. John S.
Webster, into coming down here? Do you want to kill him and get his
money--or what?”
Billy's face flamed at thought of the embarrassing trap his glib tongue
had led him into. He cursed himself for a star-spangled jackass, and
while he was engaged in this interesting pastime Dolores spoke again.
“And by the way, which is it? Miss Wilkins or Mrs.? You've called
her both, and when I reminded you she was a Miss, you agreed with me,
whereas she is nothing of the sort. She's a Mrs. Then you blurted out
something about a Mother Jenks, and finally, Mr. Geary, it occurs to me
that for a complete stranger you are unduly interested in my welfare.
I'm not such a goose as to assimilate your weird tales of death from
disease. I might have accepted the revolution, because I know it's the
national outdoor sport down here, and I might have accepted the cholera,
because it wouldn't surprise me; but when you so artlessly throw in
bubonic plague and yellow fever for good measure, Mr. Geary, you tax my
credulity. It occurs to me that if your friend John S. Webster can risk
Buenaventura, I can also.”
“You--you know that old tarantula?” Billy gasped. “Why I--I came out to
warn him off the grass, too.”
Dolores walked a step closer to Billy and eyed him disapprovingly.
“I'm so sorry I can't believe that statement,” she replied. “With the
exception of your tendency toward fiction, you're rather a presentable
young man, too. It's really too bad, but it happens that I was standing
by the companion-ladder when you came aboard and spoke to the purser;
when you asked him if Mr. Webster was aboard, your face was alight with
eagerness and anticipation, but when you had reason to believe he was
not aboard, you looked so terribly disappointed I felt sorry for you.”
“Well, of course I would have been delighted to meet the old boy,” Billy
began, but she interrupted him.
“Mr. Geary, you're about as reliable as a Los Angeles thermometer--and
if you've ever lived in a town the main asset of which is climate, you
know just how reliable you are. Now, let us understand each other, Mr.
Geary: If you think I'm the kind of simple, trusting little country maid
who would come within half a mile of the land of her birth and then run
back home because somebody said 'Boo!' you are not nearly so intelligent
as you look. I'm going ashore, if it's the last act of my life, and when
I get there I'm going to interview the cable agent; then I'm going to
call at the steamship office and scan the passenger list of the last
three north-bound steamers, and if I do not find Henrietta Wilkins's
name on one of those passenger lists I'm going up to Calle de Concordia
Number Nineteen----”
“I surrender unconditionally,” groaned Billy. “I'm a liar from beginning
to end. I overlooked my hand. I forgot that while you were born in
this country and bred from several generations of Sobranteans, you were
raised in the U. S. A. I beg of you to believe me, however, when I tell
you that I only told you those whoppers because I was in honour bound to
tell them. Personally, I don't want you to go away--at least, not until
I'm ready to go away, too! Miss Ruey, my nose is in the dust. On my
lying head there is a ton of ashes and a thousand running yards of
sackcloth. There is a fever in my brain and a misery in my heart----”
“And contrition in your face,” she interrupted him laughingly. “You're
forgiven, Mr. Geary--on one condition.”
“Name it,” he answered.
“Tell me everything from beginning to end.”
So Billy told her, for there are some women in this world to whom a man
with a poker face, the imagination of a Verne, and the histrionic art of
an Irving cannot--nay, dare not--tell a lie. “I would much rather have
been visited with a plague of boils, like our old friend, the late Job,
than have to tell you this, Miss Ruey,” Bill concluded his recital. “Man
proposes, but God disposes, and you're here and bound to learn the truth
sooner or later. Mother isn't a lady and she knows it, but take it
from me, Miss Ruey, she's a grand old piece of work. She's a scout--a
ring-tailed sport--a regular individual and game as a gander.”
“In other words,” Dolores replied smilingly, “she has a heart of gold.”
“Twenty-four carat, all wool and a yard wide,” Billy declared,
mixed-metaphorically.
“And I mustn't call at El Buen Amigo, Mr. Geary?”
“Perish the thought! Mother must call on you. El Buen Amigo is what you
might term a hotel for tropical tramps of the masculine sex. Nearly all
of Mother's guests have a past, you know. They're the submerged white
tenth of Sobrante.”
“Then my benefactor must call to see me here?” Billy nodded. “When will
you bring her here?”
Billy reflected that Mother Jenks had been up rather late the night
before and that trade in the _cantina_ of El Buen Amigo had been
unusually brisk; so since he desired to exhibit the old lady at her
best, he concluded it might be well to spar for wind.
“To-morrow at ten,” he declared. Dolores inclined her head. Something
told her she had better leave all future details to the amiable William.
“I take it you are a guest at El Buen Amigo, Mr. Geary,” she continued.
“Oh, yes. I've been a guest for about two weeks now; before that I was
an encumbrance. Now I'm paying my way--thanks to an old side-kicker of
mine, Jack Webster.”
“But surely you're not a tropical tramp, Mr. Geary?”
“I was, but Jack Webster reformed me,” Billy answered quizzically. “You
know--power of wealth and all that.”
“I remember you inquired for your friend Mr. Webster when you came
aboard the steamer.”
“I remember it, too,” Billy countered ruefully. “I can't imagine what's
become of him. I suppose I'll have a cable from him any day, though,
telling me he'll be along on the next steamer. Miss Ruey, did you ever
go to meet the only human being in the world and discover that for some
mysterious reason he had failed to keep the appointment? If you ever
have, you'll know just how cheerful I felt when I didn't find Jack's
name on the passenger list. Miss Ruey, you'll have to meet old John
Stuart the minute he lights in Buenaventura. He's some boy.”
“_Old_ John Stuart?” she queried. “How old?”
“Oh, thirty-nine or forty on actual count, but one of the kind that
will live to be a thousand and then have to be killed with an axe. He's
coming to Sobrante to help me put over a mining deal.”
“How interesting, Mr. Geary! No wonder you were disappointed.”
The last sentence was a shaft deliberately launched; to Dolores's
delight it made a keyhole in Billy Geary's heart.
“Don't get me wrong, Miss Ruey,” he hastened to assure her. “I have a
good mine, but I'd trade it for a hand-shake from Jack! The good Lord
only published one edition of Jack, and limited the edition to one
volume; then the plates were melted for the junk we call the human
race.”
“Oh, do tell me all about him,” Dolores pleaded. Billy, always
interested in his favourite topic, beamed with boyish pleasure. “No,” he
said, “I'll not tell you about him, Miss Ruey. I'll just let him speak
for himself. We used to be as close to each other as peas in a pod,
back in Colorado, and then I made a monkey of myself and shook old Jack
without even saying good-bye. Miss Ruey, my action didn't even dent
his friendship for me. Two weeks ago, when I was sick and penniless and
despairing, the possessor of a concession on a fortune but without
a _centavo_ in my pockets to buy a banana, when I was a veritable
beach-comber and existing on the charity of Mother Jenks, I managed
finally to communicate with old Jack and told him where I was and what I
had. There's his answer, Miss Ruey, and I'm not ashamed to say that when
I got it I cried like a kid.” And Billy handed her John Stuart Webster's
remarkable cablegram, the receipt of which had, for Billy Geary,
transformed night into day, purgatory into paradise. Dolores read it.
“No wonder you love him,” she declared, and added artlessly: “His wife
must simply adore him.”
“'He has no wife to bother his fife, so he paddles his own canoe,'”
Billy recited. “I don't believe the old sour-dough has ever been in
love with anything more charming than the goddess of fortune. He's
womanproof.”
“About Mrs. Jenks,” Dolores continued, abruptly changing the subject.
“How nice to reflect that after she had trusted you and believed in you
when you were penniless, you were enabled to justify her faith.”
“You bet!” Billy declared. “I feel that I can never possibly hope to
catch even with the old Samaritan, although I did try to show her how
much I appreciated her.”
“I dare say you went right out and bought her an impossible hat,”
Dolores challenged roguishly.
“No, I didn't--for a very sufficient reason. Down here the ladies do not
wear hats. But I'll tell you what I did buy her, Miss Ruey--and oh, by
George. I'm glad now I did it. She'll wear them to-morrow when I bring
her to see you. I bought her a new black silk dress and an old lace
collar, and a gold breast-pin and a tortoise-shell hair comb and hired
an open carriage and took her for an evening ride on the Malecon to
listen to the band concert.”
“Did she like that?”
“She ate it up,” Billy declared with conviction. “I think it was her
first adventure in democracy.” Billy's pulse was still far from normal
when he reached El Buen Amigo, for he was infused with a strange,
new-found warmth that burned like malarial fever but wasn't. He wasted
no preliminaries on Mother Jenks, but bluntly acquainted her with the
facts in the case.
Mother Jenks eyed him a moment wildly. “Gord's truth!” she gasped; she
reached for her favourite elixir, but Billy got the bottle first.
“Nothing doing,” he warned this strange publican. “Mother, you're
funking it--and what would your sainted 'Enery say to that? Do you want
that angel to kiss you and get a whiff of this brandy?” Mother Jenks's
eyes actually popped. “Gor', Willie,” she gasped, “'aven't Hi told yer
she's a lydy! Me kiss the lamb! Hi trusts, Mr. Geary, as ow I knows my
plyce an' can keep it.”
“Yes, I know,” Billy soothed the frightened old woman, “but the trouble
is Miss Dolores doesn't know hers--and something tells me if she does,
she'll forget it. She'll take you in her arms and kiss you, sure as
death and taxes.”
And she did! “My lamb, my lamb,” sobbed Mother Jenks the next morning,
and rested her old cheek, with its rum-begotten hue, close to the
rose-tinted ivory cheek of her ward. “Me--wot I am--an' to think------”
“You're a sweet old dear,” Dolores whispered, patting the gray head;
“and I'm going to call you Mother.”
“Mr. William H. Geary,” the girl remarked that night, “I know now why
your friend Mr. Webster sent that cablegram. I think you're a scout,
too.”
[Illustration:ustration: 0125]
For reasons best known to himself Mr. Geary blushed furiously. “I--I'd
better go and break the news to Mother,” he suggested inanely. She held
out her hand; and Billy, having been long enough in Sobrante to have
acquired the habit, bent his malarial person over that hand and kissed
it. As he went out it occurred to him that had the lobby of the Hotel
Mateo been paved with eggs, he must have floated over them like a
Wraith, so light did he feel within.