THE NEWS
It was after breakfast when they met once more, on a wet deck, in bleak
sunshine.
"I waked up in broad daylight and found you and your suitcase gone,"
said the girl. "Oh, how guilty I felt! And then to discover that, just
as you thought, the cabin _was_ 63, not 65. What became of you?"
"I was all right," replied Max evasively. "I got a place to rest and
wash."
"In 65?"
"No, not there."
"Why, was there a woman in that cabin, _too_?"
Max laughed. It was good to have some one to laugh with. "I didn't dare
look," he confessed. "And I didn't care to wander about explaining
myself and my belongings to suspicious stewards."
They walked up and down the deck, shoulder to shoulder, like old
comrades. Last night there had been so many matters more pressing and
more important, that they had forgotten such trifles as names. Now they
introduced themselves to each other, though Max had an instant's
hesitation before calling himself Doran. To-morrow, or even to-day, he
might learn that which would part him forever from the name and all that
had endeared and adorned it for him.
"Do you know what I've been calling you?" the girl asked, half ashamed,
half shyly friendly, "'St. George.' Because you came and saved me from
the dragon of the sea that I was afraid of. And that was appropriate,
because St. George is my patron saint. I was born on his day, and one of
my names is Georgette, in honour of him, and of my father, who is
Georges: Colonel Georges DeLisle. My French aunts call me Georgette, for
him. My Irish aunts call me 'Sanda,' for my mother, who was Corisande,
and I like being 'Sanda' best."
She was frank about herself, as if to reward Max for his St. George-like
vigil, telling him details of her life in Ireland and France, and how it
had come about that Richard Stanton, her father's friend, had informally
acted as her guardian when she was a child. Somehow, finding her so
simple and outspoken, so kindly interested in him, Max could not bear,
on his part, to build up a wall of reserve. He gave the name that had
always been his: and though he did not tell her the whole story of his
quest, he said that he was in search of a person to whom, if found, all
that had been his would belong. "But you needn't pity me," he added
quickly. "I'm used to the idea now. I shall lose some things by being
poor, but I shall gain others."
She gave him a long look, seeing that he wanted no sympathy in words,
and that it would jar on him if she tried to offer it. "Yes, you'll gain
others," she echoed. "It must be splendid to be a man. I wonder--if
things go as you think--will you stay and seek your fortune in Algeria?"
Seek his fortune in Algeria! Max could not answer for a second or two.
Again he seemed to hear Grant Reeves's rather affected voice speaking
far off as if in a gramophone: "Perhaps you won't want to come back to
America."
When Grant had said that, Max had resolved almost fiercely that nothing
on earth should keep him from going back as quickly as possible. If
Grant or Edwin Reeves had calmly advised his seeking a new fortune in
remote Algeria, he would have flung away the proposition with passion;
but when Sanda DeLisle quietly made the suggestion, it was different.
America lay behind him in the far distance, where the sun sets. His face
was turned to the east, and Algeria was near. The girl whom he had been
able to help and protect was near, also. And she would be in Algeria. If
he hurried home to America he would never see her again. Not that that
ought to matter much! They were ships passing each other in the night.
Yet--they had exchanged signals. Max had a queer feeling that they
belonged to each other, and that, if it were not for her, he would be
hideously, desperately homesick at this moment, almost homesick enough
to turn coward and go back with his errand not done. Curiously enough,
he felt, too, that she had somewhat the same feeling about him. Silently
they were helping each other through a crisis.
"I hadn't thought of staying in Algeria," he answered her at last. "I
don't suppose I shall stay. But--I don't know. Just now my future's
hidden behind a big cloud."
"Like mine!" cried Sanda DeLisle. "Does it comfort you at all to know
there's some one here, close to your side, who's walking in the dark,
exactly as you are?"
It was the thought that had hovered, dim and wordless, in his own mind.
"Yes, it does comfort me," he said. "Though I ought to be sorry that
things aren't clear for you. They will be, though, I hope, before long."
"And for you," she added. "I wish we could exchange experiences when
we've found out what's going to become of us. I wish you were going on
to Sidi-bel-Abbés."
"I wish I were," Max said, and he did actually wish it.
"Will you write and tell me what happens to you?" she rather timidly
asked.
"I should like to. It's good of you to care."
"It's not good, but I _do_ care. How could I help it, after all you've
done for me?"
"You'll never know what it was to me to have the chance. And will you
write what your father's verdict is? If you should be going back,
perhaps I----"
"Oh, I shall not be going back!" the girl cried, with sharp decision.
"But I'll write. And I shall never forget. If men disappoint me--though
I hope, oh, _so_ much, they will not--I shall remember one loyal friend
I have made. After last night and to-day, we couldn't be _less_ than
friends, could we? even though we never hear from each other again."
"Thank you for saying that. I feel it, too, more than you can," Max
assured her. "But since we're to be friends, will you let me help you
all I can, and see you again on shore, before we go our separate ways?
Let me find out about your train, and take you to it, and so on; and
perhaps you'll dine with me, if there's time before you start."
"How good you are!" She gave him one of those soft, sweet glances,
which, unlike Billie Brookton's lovely looks, were prompted by no
conscious desire to charm. "But you will be so busy with your own
affairs!"
"Not too busy for that. I don't suppose it will be very difficult to get
at what I've come for. I shall soon know--one way or the other. I may
have to go on somewhere else, but one day won't matter. I can give
myself a little indulgence, if it's for the last time."
So they settled it. Max was to be "St. George" and keep off dragons for
a few hours more.
The _General Morel_ was supposed to do the distance between Marseilles
and Algiers in twenty-four hours, but on this trip she had an unusually
good excuse to be late. The storm had delayed her, and every one was
thankful that it was only half-past three when the ship steamed into the
old "pirate city's" splendid harbour.
Max Doran and Sanda DeLisle stood together watching the Atlas mountains
turning from violet blue to golden green, and the clustered pearls on
hill and shore transform themselves into white domes. The two landed
together, also, and Sanda let Max go with her in a big motor omnibus to
the Hotel Saint George, the hotel of her patron saint, whose name Max
remembered well because of postcards picturing its beautiful terrace and
garden, sent him long ago by Rose when he was a cadet at West Point.
They discovered that the first train in which Sanda could leave for
Sidi-bel-Abbés would start at nine o'clock that evening, so the proposed
dinner became possible; and Sanda, by the advice of Max, took a room at
the hotel for the rest of the day, inviting him to have tea with her on
the terrace at five, if he were free to come back.
He waited until the girl had disappeared with a porter and her
hand-luggage, and then inquired of the concierge whether the
Hotel-Pension Delatour still existed. He put the question carelessly, as
though it meant nothing to him, adding, as the man paused to think, that
he had looked in vain for the name in the guide-book.
"Ah, I remember now, sir," said the concierge. "There used to be a hotel
of that name, close to the old town--the Kasbah; quite a little place,
for _commercants_, and people like that. Why, yes, to be sure! But the
name has been changed, five or six years ago it must be. I think it is
the Hotel-Pension Schreiber now."
"Oh, and what became of Delatour?" Max heard himself ask, still in that
carefully careless tone which seemed to his ears almost too well done.
"I'm not sure, sir, but I rather think he died. Yes, now I recall
reading something in _La Depeche Algerienne_, at the time. He'd been a
brave soldier, and won several medals. There was a paragraph, yes, with
a mention of his family. He came from the aristocracy, it said. Perhaps
that's why he didn't turn out a good man of business. Or maybe he drank
too much or took to drugs. These old retired soldiers who've seen hard
fighting in the South often turn that way."
"Did he leave a widow and children?" Max went on, his throat rather dry.
"That I can't tell you, sir; but Delatour's successor might know. I
could send there, if----"
"Thank you. I'll go myself," said Max.
The concierge advised a cab, although there was of course the tram which
would take him close to the Hotel Schreiber, and then he could inquire
his way. Max chose the tram. He had thought it not unfair to pay the
expenses of his quest for the Doran heiress with Doran money, since he
had little left that he could call his own. But he had not spent an
extra dollar on luxuries; and after a journey from New York to Paris,
Paris to Algiers, second-class, a tram as a climax seemed more suitable
than a cab.
Where the Arab town--old and secret, and glimmering pale as a whited
sepulchre--huddled away from contact with Europe, a narrow street ran
like a bridge connecting West with East, to-day with yesterday. Near the
entrance to this street, where it started from a fine open _place_ of
great shops and cafés, the Hotel Schreiber stood humbly squeezed in
between two dull buildings as shabby as itself.
"In a few minutes I shall know," Max said to himself, as he walked into
a cheaply tiled, dingy hall, smelling of cabbage-soup and beer.
Commercial travellers' sample boxes and trunks were piled in the dim
corners, and a fat, white little man behind a window labelled "Bureau"
glanced up from some calculations, with keen interest in a traveller who
for once looked uncommercial.
His eyes glazed again when he understood that Monsieur wished only to
make inquiries, not to engage a room. He was civil, however, and glib in
French with a South-German accent. Madame Delatour had sold her interest
in the hotel to him, Anton Schreiber. Unfortunately there had been a
mortgage. The widow was left badly off, and broken-hearted at her
husband's death. With what little money she had, she had gone to Oran,
and through official influence had obtained a concession for a small
tobacconist business, selling also postcards and stamps. She ought to
have done well, for there were many soldiers in Oran. They all wanted
tobacco for themselves and postcards for their friends. But Madame lost
interest in life when she lost Delatour--a fine fellow, well spoken of,
though never strong since some fever he had contracted in the far South.
A friend in Oran had written Schreiber the last news of poor Madame
Delatour. That broken heart had failed. She had died suddenly about two
years ago, and the girl (yes, there was a daughter, a strange young
person) had been engaged through the influence of Schreiber's Oran
friends, to assist the proprietor of the Hotel Splendide at
Sidi-bel-Abbés. She was, Schreiber believed, still there, in the
position of secretary; unless she'd lately married. It was some months
since he'd heard.
Sidi-bel-Abbés.... Home of the Foreign Legion; home perhaps, of Sanda
DeLisle!...
* * * * *
It was all over, then. The blow had fallen, and Max thought that he must
be stunned by it, for he felt nothing, except a curious thrill which
came with the news that he must go to Sidi-bel-Abbés. The Arab name rang
in his ears like the sound of bells--fateful bells that chime at
midnight for birth or death. It seemed to him that Something had always
been waiting, hidden behind a corner of life, calling him to
Sidi-bel-Abbés, calling for good or evil, for sorrow or happiness, who
could tell? but calling. And his whole past, with its fun and popularity
and gay adventure, its one unfinished love story, its one tragic
episode, had been a long road leading him on toward this day--and
Sidi-bel-Abbés.
The temptation to go back, to forget his mission, a temptation which had
come to life many times after it had first been "scotched, not killed,"
did not now lift its head. Max had found out within less than an hour
after landing that which would make him penniless and nameless; yet his
most pressing wish seemed to be to get back in time for his appointment
with Sanda DeLisle, and tell her that he, too, was going to
Sidi-bel-Abbés.