THE UPPER BERTH
When he had learned at the village of La Tour that Doctor Lefebre had
left the place long ago, to practise in Paris, Max went there, and found
Lefebre without difficulty. He was now, at fifty, a well-known man,
still young looking, but with a somewhat melancholy face, and the long
eyelids that mean Jewish ancestry. When he had listened to Max's story
he said, with a thoughtful smile: "Do you see, it is to you I owe my
success? I have never repented what I did for Madame. Still less do I
repent now, having met you. I gained advantages for myself that I could
not otherwise have had; and to-day proves that I gave them to one who
Has known how to profit by every gift. The _other_--the girl--would not
have known how. There was something strange about the child, something
not right, not normal. I have often wondered what she has become. But it
is better for you not to think of her. Fate has shut a door between you
two. Don't open it. That is the advice, Monsieur, of the man who brought
you into this very extraordinary world."
Max thanked him, but answered that, for good or ill, he had made up his
mind. Doctor Lefebre shrugged his shoulders with an air of resigned
regret, and told what little he knew of the Delatours since he had sent
the young woman off to Algeria with the baby. The first thing he had
heard was four or five years after, when he paid a visit to La Tour, and
was told that Maxime Delatour had left the army and settled permanently
in Algeria. Then, no more news for several years, until one day a letter
had been forwarded to him in Paris from his old address at La Tour. It
was from Madame Delatour, dated "Hotel Pension Delatour, Alger," asking
guardedly if he would tell her where she might write to the American
lady whose child had been born at the château. "The lady who had been
kind to her and her baby." She would like to send news of little
Josephine, in whom the lady might still take an interest. Madame
Delatour had added in a postscript that she and her husband were keeping
a small hotel in Algiers, which they had taken with "some money that had
come to them," but were not doing as well as they could wish. Doctor
Lefebre, feeling sure that she meant to make trouble, had not answered
the letter; but even had he answered, he could only have said that Mrs.
Doran lived in New York. He knew no more himself, and had never tried to
find out. Since then he had heard nothing of the Delatour family.
That same night Max left Paris for Marseilles, and the next morning he
was on board the _General Morel_ starting for Algiers. For the first
time in his life he had to think of economy: for though Rose's legacy
had amounted to something over fifteen thousand dollars, already it was
nearly disposed of. He determined never again to touch a Doran dollar
for his own personal use, unless he discovered that the rightful owner
was dead. He had left Fort Ellsworth owing a good deal here and there;
for tradesmen were slow about sending bills to such a valuable customer.
Now, however, he felt that he must pay his debts with the money that was
his own; and settling them would make an immense hole in his small
inheritance. There, for instance, were the pearls and the ring he had
bought for Billie Brookton. Their cost alone was nine thousand dollars,
and even if Billie should offer to give them back, he meant to ask her
to keep them for remembrance. But she would not offer. He would never
have admitted to himself that he knew she would not; yet, since
receiving her letter, he had known. If he had by and by to tell Billie
that he was to be a poor man, she would make some charming excuse for
not sending back his presents. Or else she would not refer to them at
all. Whatever the future might bring, it seemed to Max that he had lost
youth's bright vision of romance. There was no such girl in the world as
the girl he had dreamed. The letter had shown him that--the one letter
he had ever had from Billie Brookton.
After his talk with Doctor Lefebre the change in his life became for Max
more intimately real than it had been before. The fact that he was
travelling second-class, though an insignificant thing in itself,
brought it home to him in a curious, irritating way. He felt that he
must be a weak, spoiled creature, not worthy to call himself a soldier,
because little, unfamiliar shabbinesses and inconveniences disgusted
him. He remembered how he had revelled in his one trip abroad with Rose
and some friends of theirs the year before he went to West Point. They
had motored from Paris to the Riviera, and stayed in Nice. Then they
had come back to Marseilles, and had taken the best cabins on board a
great liner, for Egypt. What fun he and the other boy of the party had
had! He felt now that, however things turned out, the fun of life was
over.
If the girl, Josephine Delatour, lived, he would have to leave the army;
that was clear. Grant Reeves had shown him why. And it would be hard,
for he loved soldiering. He could think willingly of no other profession
or even business. Yet somewhere, somehow, he would have to begin at the
bottom and work up. Besides, there were his real parents to be thought
of, if they were still alive. Max felt that perhaps he was hard--or
worse still, snobbish--not to feel any instinctive affection for them.
His mother had sold him, in order that she might have money to go to her
husband, whom she loved so much better than her child. Well, at least
she had a heart! That was something. And if the pair still kept a little
hotel, what of that? Was he such a mean wretch as to be ashamed because
he was the son of a small hotel-keeper? Max began spying out in himself
his faults and weaknesses, which, while he was happy and fortunate, he
had never suspected. And now and then he caught the words running
through his mind: "If only she is dead, the whole thing will be no more
than a bad dream." What a cad he was! he thought. And even if she were
dead, nothing could ever be as it had been. Jack Doran was not his
father, and he would have no right to anything that had been Jack's, not
even his love. If he kept the money it would not make him happy. He
could never be happy again.
It was in this mood that he went on board the _General Morel_, the
oldest and worst-built ship of her line. She was carrying a crowd of
second-class passengers for Algiers, and the worried stewards had no
time to attend to him. He found his own cabin, by the number on his
ticket, groping through a long, dark corridor, which smelt of food and
bilge water. The stateroom was as gloomy as the passage leading to it,
and he congratulated himself that at least he had the lower berth.
His roommate, however, had been in before him, and either through
ignorance or impudence had annexed Max's bunk for himself. On the
roughly laundered coverlet was a miniature brown kitbag, conspicuously
new looking. It had been carelessly left open, or had sprung open of
itself, being too tightly packed, and as Max prepared to change its
place, muttering, "Cheek of the fellow!" he could not help seeing two
photographs in silver frames lying on top of the bag's other contents.
Both portraits were of men. One was an officer in the uniform of the
French army, with the typical soldier look which gives likeness and kin
to fighting men in all races of the world. The other photograph Max
recognized at a glance as that of Richard Stanton, the explorer.
Queer, Max thought, as he lifted the bag, open as it was, to the upper
berth. Queer, that some little _bourgeois_ Frenchman, journeying
second-class from Marseilles to Algiers, should have as a treasure in
his hand-baggage the portrait of a celebrated and extremely pugnacious
Englishman who had got the newspapers down on him two or three years ago
for a wild interview he had given against the _entente cordiale_. Max
remembered it and the talk about it in the officers' mess at Fort
Ellsworth, just after he joined his regiment. However, the Frenchman's
photographs were his own business; and Max relented not at all toward
the cheeky brute because he had a portrait of the great Richard Stanton
in his bag. This was the sort of thing one had to expect when one
travelled second-class! A few weeks before he would have thought it
impossible as well as disgusting to bunk with a stranger whom he had
never seen; but as he said to himself, with a shrug of the shoulders
which tried to be Spartan, "Misfortune makes strange bedfellows." Max
was disciplining himself to put up with hardships of all sorts which
would probably become a part of everyday life. His own hand-luggage, a
suitcase with his name marked on it, had been dumped down by some
steward in the corridor, and he carried it into the stateroom himself,
pushing it far under the lower berth with a rather vicious kick. As rain
was falling in torrents, and a bitter wind blowing, he kept on his heavy
overcoat, and went out of the cabin leaving no trace of his ownership
there except the hidden suitcase. Perhaps on that kick which had sent it
out of sight the shaping of Max Doran's whole future life depended.
On the damp deck and in the dingy "salle" of the second-class Max
wondered, with stifled repulsion, which among the fat Germans,
hook-nosed Algerian Jews, dignified Arab merchants, and common-looking
Frenchmen, was to share his ridiculously small cabin. Most of them
appeared to be half sick already, in fearful anticipation of the rocking
they were doomed to get in the ancient tub once she steamed out of the
harbour and into the face of the gale. In the "gang," as he called it,
there was visible but one person in what Max Doran had been accustomed
to think of as his own "rank." That person was a girl, and despite the
gloom which shut him into himself, he glanced at her now and then with
curiosity. It seemed unaccountable that such a girl should be travelling
apparently alone, and especially second-class.
The first thing that caught his attention was the colour of her hair as
she stood with her back to him, on deck. She was wrapped in a long, dark
blue coat, with well-cut lines which showed the youthfulness of her
tall, slim figure, as tall and slim as Billie Brookton's, but more
alertly erect, more boyish. On her head was a small, close-fitting toque
of the same dark blue as her coat; and between this cap and the
turned-up collar bunched out a thick roll of yellow hair. It was not as
yellow as Billie's, yet at first glance it reminded him of hers, with a
sick longing for lost beauty and romance. Seeing the delicate figure,
cloaked in the same blue which Billie affected for travelling, he
thought what it would be like to have the girl with the yellow hair
turn, to show Billie's face radiant with love for him, to hear her
flutey voice cry: "Max, I couldn't bear it without you! Forget what I
said in that horrid letter. I didn't mean a word of it. I've given up
everything to be your wife. Take me!"
Soon the girl did turn from the rain blowing into her face, and that
face was of an entirely different type from Billie's. Seeing it, after
that attack upon his imagination, was a sharp relief to Max. Still he
did not lose interest. The girl's hair was not so yellow where it grew
on her head and framed the rather thin oval of her face, as in the
thick-rolled mass behind, golden still with childhood's gold. Except for
her tall slenderness she was not in the least like Billie Brookton; and
she would have no great pretension to beauty had it not been for a pair
of long, gray, thick-lashed eyes which looked out softly and sweetly on
the world. Her nose was too small and her mouth too large, but the
delicate cutting of the nostrils and the bow of the coral-pink upper lip
had fascination and a sensitiveness that was somehow pathetic. She held
her head high, on a long and lovely throat, which gave her a look of
courage, but a forced courage, not the christening gift of godmother
nature. That sort of girl, Max reflected, was meant to be cherished and
taken care of. And why was she not taken care of? He wondered if she had
run away from home, in her dainty prettiness, to be jostled by this
unappreciative, second-class crowd? She was brave enough, though,
despite her look of flower-delicacy, to stop on deck long after the ship
had steamed out from the comparatively quiet, rock-bound harbour, and
plunged into the tossing sea. At last a big wave drove the girl away,
and Max did not see her again until dinner time. He came late and
reluctantly into the close-smelling dining-saloon, and found her already
seated at the long table. Her place was nearly opposite his, and as he
sat down she looked up with a quick, interested look which had girlish
curiosity in it, and a complete lack of self-consciousness that was
perhaps characteristic. Evidently, as he had separated her in his mind
from the rabble, wondering about her, so she had separated him and
wondered also. She was too far away for Max to speak, even if he had
dared; but a moment later a big man who squeezed himself in between
table and revolving chair, next to the girl, made an excuse to ask for
the salt, and begin a conversation. He did this in a matter-of-fact,
bourgeois way, however, which not even a prude or a snob could think
offensive. And apparently the girl was far from being a prude or a snob.
She answered with a soft, girlish charm of manner which gave the
impression that she was generously kind of heart. Then something that
the man said made her flush up and start with surprise.
From that moment on the two were absorbed in each other. Could it be,
Max asked himself, that the big, rough fellow and the daintily bred girl
had found an acquaintance in common? There seemed to be a gulf between
them as wide as the world, yet evidently they had hit upon some subject
which interested them both. Through the clatter of dishes Max caught
words, or fragments of sentences, all spoken in French. The man had a
common accent, but the girl's was charming. She had a peculiarly sweet,
soft voice, that somehow matched the sweetness and softness of the long,
straight-lashed eyes under the low, level brows, so delicately yet
clearly pencilled. Max guessed at first that she was English; then from
some slight inflection of tone, wondered if she were Irish instead. It
was a name which sounded like "Sidi-bel-Abbés" that made the girl start
and blush, and turn to her neighbour with sudden interest. Again and
again they mentioned "Sidi-bel-Abbés," which meant nothing for Max until
he heard the girl say "La Legion Etrangére." Immediately the
recollection of a book he had read flashed into Max's brain. Why, yes,
of course, Sidi-bel-Abbés was a place in Algeria, the headquarters of
the Foreign Legion, that mysterious band of men without a country, in
whom men of all countries are interested. What was there in the subject
of the Foreign Legion to attract such a girl? Could she be going alone
to Sidi-bel-Abbés, hoping to find some lost relative--a brother,
perhaps? She asked the man eager questions, which Max could not hear,
but the big fellow shook his bullet-shaped head. Evidently he had little
information to give on the subject which specially appealed to her; but
there were others on which he held forth volubly; and though the girl's
attention flagged sometimes, she could have been no more gracious in her
manner to the common fellow if he had been an exiled king. "_La Boxe_"
were the words which Max began to hear repeated, and a boxer was what
the man looked like: a second or third rate professional. Max wished
that he could catch what was being said, for boxing was one of his own
accomplishments. He boxed so well that once, before he was twenty-one,
he had knocked out his master, an ex-lightweight champion, in three
rounds. Since then he had kept up his practice, and the sporting set
among the officers at Fort Ellsworth had been proud of their Max Doran.
Every moment the weather grew worse, and one after another the few
second-class passengers who had dared to risk dining faded away. At
last, about halfway through the badly served meal, the girl got up with
a wan little smile for her talkative neighbour, and went out, keeping
her balance by catching at the back of a chair now and then. The
bullet-headed man soon followed, charging at the open door like a bull,
as a wave dropped the floor under his feet. But Max, priding himself on
his qualities as a sailor, managed to sit through the meagre dessert.
The girl was not visible on the rain-swept deck, or in the gloomy
reading-room, where Max glanced over old French papers until his optic
nerves sent imperative messages of protest to his brain. Then he strayed
on deck again, finding excuse after excuse to keep out of his cabin,
where no doubt a seasick roommate was by this time wallowing and
guzzling. At last, however, his swimming head begged for a pillow, no
matter how hard, and in desperation he went below. He found the cabin
door on the hook, and the faded curtain of cretonne drawn across. There
was one comfort, at least: the wretch liked air. Max hoped the fellow
had gone to sleep, in which case there might be some chance of rest.
Gently he unhooked the door and fastened it again in the same manner. A
little light flittered through the thin curtain, enabling Max to grope
his way about the tiny stateroom, and he determined not to rouse his
companion by switching on the electricity.
It had occurred to him, on his way to the cabin, that he might find his
berth usurped by a prostrate form, as in the afternoon by a bag. But his
first peering glance through the dimness reassured him on this point.
The owner of the bag had taken the hint, and stowed himself in his own
bunk. Max could just make out a huddled shape under bedclothes which had
been drawn high for warmth. Then he knelt down to grope for the suitcase
which he had pushed far under his own berth. Seeking it in the
semi-darkness, a wave sent him sprawling. He heard from somewhere a
shrill crash of glass, a sudden babble of excited voices, and decided it
would not be worth while to undress unless the storm should abate. He
scrambled up, and thankfully flung himself, just as he was, on to his
bunk. In the wild confusion of squeaking, straining planks, the thump of
waves against the porthole, the demon-shrieks of infuriated wind, and
the shouts and running to and fro of sailors overhead, it seemed
impossible that any human being could sleep. Yet the creature overhead
was mercifully quiet; and suddenly slumber fell upon Max, shutting out
thought and sound. For a while he slept heavily; but by and by dreams
came and lifted the curtain of unconsciousness, stirring him to
restlessness. It seemed that he had lived through years since New York,
and that everything had long ago been decided for him, one way or the
other, though his dulled brain kept the secret. He knew only that he was
at Sidi-bel-Abbés--Sidi-bel-Abbés. How he had got there, and what he was
doing, he could not tell. It ought to be a town, but it was not. There
were no houses nor buildings of any kind in this strange Sidi-bel-Abbés.
He could see only waves of yellow sand, billowing and moving all around
him like sea waves; and it was sea as well as desert. Suddenly one of
the waves rolled away, to show a small white tent, almost like a covered
boat. A voice was calling to him from it, and he struggled to get near,
falling and stumbling among the yellow waves. Then abruptly he started
back. It was Billie Brookton's voice. Instead of being glad to hear it,
he was bitterly, bleakly disappointed, and felt chilled to the heart
with cold. Surprised at his own despair, he waked up, with a great
start, just in time to brace his feet against the bottom of the berth
and save himself from being thrown out by a shuddering bound of the
ship. From overhead he heard a sigh of pain or weariness, and the top
berth creaked with some movement of its occupant. "The beast's awake!"
thought Max, resentfully. "Now for ructions! No more hope of sleep for
me, I suppose."
But all was still again, except for a faint rustling as if the pillow
were being turned over. At the same instant something long and supple,
like a thick, silky rope, slid down from above. He could see it in the
dim light as it fell and brushed his hand protruding, palm uppermost,
over the edge of the bunk. Quite mechanically he shut his fingers on the
thing, to prevent its dropping to the floor, and, to his amazement, it
felt to the touch like a woman's hair. His hand was full of it--a great,
satin-soft curl it seemed to be. Only, it _couldn't_ be that, of course!
Maybe he was half dreaming still. He opened his fingers and let the
stuff go. But instead of falling to the floor, the long rope swayed
gently back and forth with the rocking of the ship. It _was_ hair! A
wonderful plait of hair, attached to a woman's head. A woman was lying
there in the upper berth.