[Illustration: "'I INTEND RESIGNING MY COMMISSION, SIR'" (_See page
15_)
HEMMING
THE ADVENTURER
BY
THEODORE ROBERTS.
AUTHOR OF "BROTHERS OF PERIL," ETC.
_ILLUSTRATIONS BY A. G. LEARNED._
LONDON:
WARD, LOCK & CO., LIMITED,
1906.
A Dedication
TO ONE WHO BROUGHT
THE COLOUR OF REALITY BACK
TO LIFE AT A TIME WHEN LIFE WAS LIKE
A PICTURE, AND THE FACES OF MY FRIENDS WERE
LESS REAL THAN THE FACES OF MY DREAMING. TO ONE
WHOSE SWEET INTEREST IN MY STORIES MADE IT SEEM WORTH
WHILE TO RECALL MY AIMLESS ADVENTURES. TO ONE WHOSE
GENTLE MINISTRATIONS TURNED A WEARY SICKNESS INTO A
HOLIDAY, AND WIPED OUT THE MEMORY OF PAST PAIN. TO ONE
WHO TAUGHT ME THAT ROMANCE LIES NOT ALL IN THE MAKING
OF NEW LANDFALLS AND THE SIGHTING OF NEW
MOUNTAIN-TOPS. TO HER WHO READS THIS PAGE WITH
UNDERSTANDING, AND A QUICKENING OF
THE PULSE, THIS STORY OF HEMMING
THE ADVENTURER IS
LOVINGLY DEDICATED
1903 T. R.
CONTENTS
PART ONE
CHAPTER
I. Captain Hemming Faces a Change of Life
II. Hemming Meets with a Strange Reception
III. Hemming Visits the Manager of the Syndicate
IV. The Advent of Mr. O'Rourke and His Servant
V. The Adventurers Dispense With Mr. Nunez
VI. Hemming Hears of the Villain
VII. An Elderly Champion
VIII. Hemming Undertakes a Dignified Work
IX. O'Rourke Tells a Sad Story
X. Lieutenant Ellis Is Concerned
XI. Hemming Draws His Back Pay
PART TWO
I. The Unsuspected City
II. The Sporting President
III. The Post of Honour.--The Secretary's Affair
IV. The Thing That Happened
V. Chance in Pernambuco
VI. Cuddlehead Decides on an Adventure
VII. Hemming Learns Something about His Army
VIII. Captain Santosa Visits His Superior Officer
IX. Mr. Cuddlehead Arrives
X. The First Shot
XI. The Colonel's Ultimatum
XII. O'Rourke to the Rescue
XIII. The Unexpected Sailor
XIV. The Attack
XV. Rest in Pernambuco
PART THREE
I. The Real Girl
II. A New Restlessness
III. A Rolling Stone
IV. "The Dear, Dear Witchery of Song"
V. An Uncanny Guest
VI. The Bachelor Uncle to the Rescue
VII. Hemming Receives His Sailing Orders from a Master Not to Be Denied
VIII. Hemming Would Put His Dreams To The Proof
IX. To Part No More
X. A New Command
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
"'I intend resigning my commission, sir'" (_See page 15_)
_Frontispiece_
"Several days later Miss Travers wrote to Hemming"
"The door came in with a rending, sidelong fall"
"'I have decided, sir, to stick to scribbling'"
"At that moment Molly tripped into the room"
PART ONE
HEMMING,
THE ADVENTURER
CHAPTER I.
CAPTAIN HEMMING FACES A CHANGE OF LIFE
The colonel sat in Captain Hemming's room. He looked about at the
snug furnishings, and the photographs above the chimney. Even the
row of polished spurs on their rack against the wall, and the line of
well-shone boots and shoes at the head of the bed, could not do away
with the homelike air of the room.
"Even in Dublin, a man with something over his pay can make himself
comfortable, in seven months," mused the colonel. Being a bachelor
himself, he liked the way things were arranged. For instance, the
small book-shelf above the bed, with its freight of well-thumbed
volumes, tobacco-jar, and match-box, appealed to him. He selected a
cigarette from an open box at his elbow, and, lighting it, sighed
contentedly. In reaching back to deposit the burnt match on an
ash-tray, his hand upset a stack of folded papers and spilled them on
the floor.
"The devil!" he exclaimed, and, doubling up, scooped for the nearest.
What's this, he wondered, as a yard or two of narrow, printed matter
unrolled from his hand. He was a stranger to galley-proofs. He
looked at the top of the upper strip, and saw, in heavy, black type,
"The Colonel and the Lady." Then he settled back in the chair,
crossed his thin, tight-clad legs, and smoothed the proof. Ten
minutes later Hemming's orderly entered and mended the fire; but the
colonel did not look up. The orderly retired. The clock on the
chimneypiece ticked away the seconds all unheeded. The shadows
lengthened at the windows, and at last the colonel straightened
himself, and replaced the papers. He smiled.
"Sly old Hemming," he remarked, and laughed outright. "He shouldn't
show us up like that," he said, "but it's a good yarn. Wonder if he
will lend it to me to finish to-night?"
Just then Captain Hemming entered.
By this time the room was dusk with the twilight of early spring. He
did not sight the colonel immediately, and, going over to a wardrobe,
hung up his cap and greatcoat. He was in "undress" uniform--his blue
serge tunic somewhat shabby, but his riding-breeches and high,
spurred boots smart and new. The colonel coughed.
Though the captain's greeting was prompt and polite, it did not hide
his surprise.
"I dropped in to speak about Tomilson--he seems in a bad way," the
other explained. Tomilson was a full private--in both rank and
condition.
Hemming advised leniency in this case. He had a soft heart for the
men, in spite of his abrupt diction, and the uncompromising glare of
his single eye-glass. When the commanding officer was about to take
his departure, the captain asked him to wait a minute. His manner
was as cool as ever.
"I intend resigning my commission, sir. I decided on the course some
days ago, and meant to speak to you after parade to-morrow," he said.
"Bless me," exclaimed the colonel, "what the devil have you been up
to?"
The other smiled,--a somewhat thin smile,--and replied that he had
not disgraced the regiment, or done anything low. "But I'm down to
my pay again," he exclaimed, "and I can't live on that."
"Why not? Have you ever tried?" inquired the colonel.
Hemming did not answer the question, but waited, with his hands
behind his back, and his face toward the fast darkening windows.
"I'm sorry for it," said the older man, at last. "You are a good
officer,--forgive my saying so,--and--and the mess swears by you. I
hope you have suffered no serious misfortune."
The captain laughed wanly.
"It seems rather serious to me," he replied. "I've come to the end
of my little pile."
"The second, I believe," remarked the colonel.
Hemming nodded.
"It beats me," exclaimed his superior, and looked as if an
explanation would be welcome.
"You would understand, sir, if you were as big a fool as I have been.
Good nature, without common business sense to guide it, gets away
with more money than viciousness."
He stared gravely at the reclining colonel. "At last I have learned
my lesson," he concluded, "and it is this--put not your trust in
cads."
The colonel laughed uneasily, and quitted the room without asking for
the loan of the proof-sheets. Hemming sat down in the vacated chair.
His face now wore a pleasanter expression.
"Thank God, I'm not afraid of work," he said, "but may the devil fly
away with that cad Penthouse. How can a blood-relation of Molly's be
such a sneaking, mealy-mouthed little cur? Now, while I am lying
here winged, thanks to my childish generosity and his beastliness, he
is skipping around in London, on two months' leave. Herbert Hemming
is done with the ways of lambs and idiots." Jumping to his feet, he
went to the door and shouted for his man. A few minutes later, with
the candles glowing softly on sword and photograph, spur and
book-back, he dressed for dinner.
That night the mess found him more talkative than usual. But he left
early, for his own quarters. The groups in the anteroom thinned
gradually, as the men went about their various concerns, some to
their rooms, and some to the town, and one across the square to the
colonel's quarters, where the colonel's youngest sister awaited him.
This sister was a thorn in the colonel's flesh. She would not let
him smoke his pipe in the drawing-room (though he was sure she smoked
cigarettes there), and he heartily hoped his junior major would marry
her. The junior major hoped so too, and, with this hope in his
breast, took his departure, leaving Spalding, a subaltern, and Major
O'Grady alone by the piano.
O'Grady balanced his smouldering cigarette on the edge of the
music-stand, and strummed a few erratic bars.
"The other chaps must have suspected something," said Spalding. "I
wondered why they all cleared out."
"What are ye doing here, ye impudent young divil? Should think ye'd
skeedaddle down-town, now that Penthouse is in London, and ye've got
a chance with the lady," cried the stout Irish major. The
subaltern's boyish face took on an ugly expression.
"Penthouse--that bounder," he sneered.
"I must admit that his manners are a trifle airy," returned O'Grady,
"but the same can be truly said of most subs of this glorious age."
"I'm not objecting to his manners, major, and I'm not defending my
own," said Spalding. "I'm simply naming him a bounder."
O'Grady took up his cigarette, and turned his back on the keyboard.
"What are ye kicking about?" he inquired.
"Well," replied Spalding, anxiously examining the ceiling, "I happen
to know things about him."
"Ye're a gossip, me boy, that's what ye are," cried the major, "and
of all contemptible things, the worst is a male gossip. What do ye
happen to know about him, me boy?"
A faint smile played across the lieutenant's upturned face; but the
impatient major did not notice it.
"To begin with, he's some sort of cousin to a Miss Travers, an
English girl whom Hemming is in love with," said Spalding.
"Then you object to him on purely social grounds," interrupted the
Irishman.
"Oh, shut up, and let me tell my tale. Social grounds be shot--Miss
Travers is daughter of a lord bish-hop. Penthouse is son of a
baronet. What I'm getting at is that good old Hemming, just because
this chap is related to his girl, has looked after him like a
dry-nurse for more than a year. That is right enough. But--and this
is not known by any one but me--Hemming backed a lot of his paper,
and for the last two months he has been paying the piper. Once upon
a time, in the memory of man, Hemming had some money, but I'll eat my
helmet if he has any now."
"How d'ye know all this?" asked O'Grady, letting his fat cigarette
smoulder its life away unheeded. Spalding touched his eyes lightly
with his finger-tips.
"Saw," he said.
The major gave vent to his feelings in muttered oaths, all the while
keeping an observant eye upon his companion.
"I'll wager now that Hemming has some good old Irish blood in him,"
he remarked.
"Why do you think that?" asked Spalding, deliberately yawning.
"His generosity leads me to think so. There are other officers of
infantry regiments who'd be better off to-day, but for their kind
hearts and Irish blood." The major sighed windily as he made this
statement.
"Methinks you mean Irish whiskey," retorted Spalding. With dignity
O'Grady arose from the piano-stool.
"I'll not listen to any more of your low gossip," he said, and
started for the door, in a hurry to carry the news to any one he
might find at home.
"You needn't mention my name, sir," called Spalding, over his
shoulder. His superior officer left the room without deigning a
reply.
CHAPTER II.
HEMMING MEETS WITH A STRANGE RECEPTION
Herbert Hemming sat alone in his room, while his brother officers
sought their pleasure in divers companies. His writing-table was
drawn close to the fire. His scarlet mess-jacket made a vivid spot
of colour, in the softly illuminated room. He was busily occupied
with the proofs of "The Colonel and the Lady," when his man rapped at
the door and entered.
"Nothing more," said the captain, without looking up. The soldier
saluted, but did not go. Presently his master's attention was
awakened by the uneasy creaking of his boots.
"Well, what do you want?"
"Me mother is very ill, sir."
"I'm not a doctor, Malloy."
"I wasn't thinkin' of insultin' you, sir."
Hemming sighed, and laid down his pen.
"I have found you a satisfactory servant," he said, "also a frightful
liar."
"I must confess to you, sir," replied the man, "that I was lyin' last
month about me father,--he's been dead as St. Pathrick this seven
year,--but to-night I'm tellin' you the truth, sir, so help me--"
"Never mind that," interrupted Hemming.
Malloy was silent.
"So your mother is very ill?" continued the captain.
"Yes, sir,--locomotive attacks, sir."
"And poor, I take it?"
"Yes, sir,--four bob a week."
Hemming felt in his pockets and drew out a sovereign.
"Sorry it's so little," he said, "but if you give me her address
to-morrow I'll call and see her."
"God bless you, sir," said the man. He took the money, and hesitated
beside the table.
Hemming glanced at him inquiringly.
"Beggin' your pardon, sir, it beats me how you knows when I'm lyin'
and when I'm tellin' the truth," exclaimed the orderly.
"I'm learning things by experience. Good night, Malloy."
Alone again, Hemming made short work of his proofs. After sealing
them into a yellow envelope, and inscribing thereon the address of a
big New York weekly (whose editor had proved partial to his sketches
and stories of "doings" in the Imperial Army), he produced some of
the regimental stationery and began a letter to Miss Travers. It was
no easy undertaking--the writing of this particular letter. After
struggling for some minutes with the first sentence, he leaned back
in his chair and fell into retrospection. His age was now
twenty-nine years. He had done with Sandhurst at twenty-one, and had
been in the army ever since; had seen more than his share of foreign
service, and two seasons of border-scrapping in Northern India. He
had gone ahead in his chosen profession, despite a weakness for
reading poetry in bed and writing articles descriptive of people and
things he knew. During his father's lifetime his allowance (though
he was but a third son) was ample, and even enabled him to play polo,
and shortly after his father's death an almost unknown great-aunt had
left him a modest little sum--not much of a fortune, but a very
comfortable possession. Two years previous to his present troubles
he had fallen in love. So had the girl. A year ago he had proposed
and been accepted. He had, for her sake, fathered a reckless,
impecunious subaltern, by name Penthouse, lending him money and
endorsing his notes, and now he was stripped bare to his pay. If he
had never met the girl, things would not look so bad, for certain
papers and magazines had begun to buy his stories. By sitting up to
it and working hard, he felt that he could make more as a writer than
as a soldier. But the idea of giving up the girl sent a sickening
chill through his heart. Surely she would understand, and cheer him
up the new path. But it was with a heavy heart that he returned to
the writing of the letter. Slowly, doggedly he went through with it,
telling of his loss of fortune, through helping a person whom he
would not name, and of his hopes and plans for the future. He told
of the adventurous position he had accepted, but the day before, with
an American Newspaper Syndicate--a billet that would necessitate his
almost immediate departure for Greece. The pain of his
disappointment crept, all unnoticed by him, into the style of his
writing, and made the whole letter sound strained and unnatural.
By the time the letter was sealed and ready for the mail, Hemming was
tired out. He flung himself on the bed, unhooked the collar of his
mess-jacket (they hooked at the collar a few years ago), and,
lighting his pipe, lay for some time in unhappy half-dreaming. He
knew, for, at the last, young Penthouse had not been careful to hide
his cloven foot, that he might just as well expect another great-aunt
to leave him another lump of money as to look for any reimbursement
from the source of his misfortune. The fellow was bad, he mused, but
just how bad his friends and the world must find out for themselves.
Of course he would give Molly a hint to that effect, when he saw her.
He had not done so in the letter, because it had been hard enough to
write, without that.
Hemming went on duty next day, wearing, to the little world of the
regiment, his usual alert and undisturbed expression. Shortly before
noon he wrote and forwarded a formal resignation of his commission.
By dinner-time the word that he had given up the service had reached
every member of the mess. Spalding's story had also made the rounds,
in one form or another (thanks to Major O'Grady, that righteous enemy
to gossip), and the colonel alone was ignorant of it. During dinner
little was said about Hemming's sudden move. All felt it more or
less keenly; the colonel grieved over the loss of so capable an
officer, and the others lamented the fact that a friend and a
gentleman was forced to leave their mess because one cad happened to
be a member of it. Hemming felt their quiet sympathy. Even the
waiters tending him displayed an increased solicitousness.
Hemming remained in Dublin a week after resigning his commission. He
had a good deal of business to attend to, and some important letters
to receive--one from the American Syndicate, containing a check, and
at least two from Miss Travers. It had been the lady's custom, ever
since their engagement, to write him twice a week. Three were now
overdue. The American letter came, with its terse and satisfactory
typewritten instructions and narrow slip of perforated paper, but the
English missive failed to put in an appearance. He tried not to
worry during the day, and, being busy, succeeded fairly well, but at
night, being defenceless, care visited him even in his dreams.
Sometimes he saw the woman he loved lying ill--too ill to hold a pen.
Sometimes he saw her with a new unsuspected look in her eyes, turning
an indifferent face upon his supplications. He lost weight in those
few days, and Spalding (who, with the others, thought his only
trouble the loss of his money) said that but for the work he had in
getting a fair price for his pony, his high-cart, and his extra pairs
of riding-boots, he would have blown his brains out.
On his last night in Dublin his old regiment gave a dinner in his
honour. Civilians were there, and officers from every branch of the
service, and when Major O'Grady beheld Hemming (which did not happen
until late in the dinner), clothed in the unaccustomed black and
white, with his medal with two clasps pinned on his coat, he tried to
sing something about an Irish gentleman, and burst into tears.
"There's not a drop of the craychure in his blood," said Spalding,
across the table.
"But he's the boy with the warm heart," whimpered the major.
"And the open hand," said the subaltern.
"The same has been the ruin of many of us," replied O'Grady.
It was well for Lieutenant Penthouse that he did not return to Dublin
in time to attend that dinner.
Hemming knew a score of private houses in London where he would be
welcome for a night or a month, but in his bitter mood he ignored the
rights of friendship and went to a small hotel in an unfashionable
part of the town. As soon as he had changed from his rough tweeds
into more suitable attire, he started, in a cab, for the Travers
house. The bishop was dead, and the widow, preferring London to
Norfolk, spent every season in town. Hemming was sure of finding
some one at home, though he trembled at the memory of his evil
dreams. Upon reaching the house he dismissed the cab. The maid who
opened the door recognized him, and showed him into the drawing-room.
"I hope every one is well," he said, pausing on the threshold.
"Yes, sir," replied the maid, looking surprised at the question. She
had seen Captain Hemming many times, but never before had he
addressed her.
It seemed to Hemming that he waited hours in the narrow, heavily
furnished room. He could not sit still. At last he got to his feet,
and, crossing to a corner table, examined the photographs of some
people he knew. He wondered where his had gone to--the full-length
portrait by Bettel, in field-uniform. He looked for it everywhere,
an uncomfortable curiosity pricking him. Turning from his search, he
saw Miss Travers watching him. He took a step toward her, and
stopped short. Her face was white, her eyes were dark with the
shadow of pain. Something had put out the familiar illumination that
love had lighted so gloriously.
"Molly," whispered the man. His hands, extended at first sight of
her, dropped impotently at his side. "For God's sake, what is the
matter?" he cried. His honest gray eyes asked the question as
plainly. Hers wavered, and looked beyond him in a pitiful, strained
gaze.
"Why do you ask? You surely know," she said.
He could not speak for a moment. His brain, in a whirl of
apprehension, groped for some clue whereby it might find
understanding.
"I know nothing," he said, at last, "save that I am horribly afraid
of something I do not understand--of your silence and the change in
you." He paused for a moment, scanning her averted face. "And now I
am a poor man," he added.
At that a faint red stole into her cheeks. He drew nearer and laid a
hand quickly and tenderly upon her shoulder.
"Dear girl, can that weigh against me?" he asked, scarce above his
breath. She moved from his touch with a gesture that sent the blood
ringing back to brain and heart. The madness of the righteous anger
ebbed, leaving him cool and observant.
"I must beg your pardon for intruding, and now I shall go," he said.
"It was well worth the loss of a few thousands of pounds--to find the
real nature of your love."
He passed her with squared shoulders and sneering lip, and strode
briskly toward the door.
"Wait," she cried, "I do not understand you." Her voice contained a
new note.
He turned on the threshold and bowed.
"You have known me long enough," he said.
"Yes," she replied. He stood in the doorway and stared at her.
"If I am dreaming, then wake me, dear. Surely you love me?"
His voice was tense. He moved as if to approach her again.
"I have learned of your other life--of your living lie," she cried,
weakly.
"My other life," he repeated, smiling gently.
"Yes," she said, "from my cousin. It was his duty. Tell me it is
not true."
He saw the tears in her eyes. He marked the supplication in her
voice. But he did not move from the threshold.
"From Penthouse?" he inquired.
She did not answer him. She stood with one hand raised to her
breast, and a world of entreaty in her gaze.
"I thought," said Hemming, coldly, "that you loved me. I thought
that when a woman loved the man who loves her, that she also trusted
him. But I am very ignorant, considering my age."
He took his hat and stick from the rack in the hall, and let himself
out of the front door. He stood for a few seconds on the steps and
looked up and down the street. A cab rolled up to the curb. After
drawing on his gloves and adjusting his monocle, he stepped into the
cab and quietly gave the name of his club to the man behind.
The cab bowled along the quiet, respectable street.
"Stop here," cried Hemming, when they had reached the corner, and as
the horse slid to a standstill he stepped out, and went up to a
heavily dressed young man on the pavement. The stranger did not see
him, and held on in the direction from which Hemming had just come.
"Excuse me--a word," said Hemming.
The other halted. His heavy, handsome face whitened under its
unhealthy skin.
"Ah, how do, Hemming," he said.
Hemming took the extended hand. They stood about the same height.
Hemming retained his grip of the other's hand.
"I am somewhat pressed for time," he said, "so you'll forgive me if I
begin immediately."
He jerked Mr. Penthouse toward him with a downward wrench of his
right arm, and, with his stick in his left hand, he administered a
short and severe caning.
"I'm a-waitin' for you, guvnor," called the cabby.
Leaving Mr. Penthouse seated upon the pavement, dazed and
blasphemous, Hemming returned to the cab and drove away.
CHAPTER III.
HEMMING VISITS THE MANAGER OF THE SYNDICATE
Hemming's club was a favourite resort of military and naval men
stationed near town, or home on leave. He met half a dozen whom he
knew more or less intimately. All had something to say about his
change of career, but presently he escaped them, and sought a quiet
corner of the reading-room, where he could smoke and stare at the
latest papers. Reading was out of the question. He might as well
have tried to sing. Several times he was ready to leave the club and
return to Miss Travers, but the memory of the movement she had made
when he had touched her shoulder kept him crushed in his chair. He
dined at the club, and drank more than was his custom. The sound
wine brought colour back to his cheeks.
A youngster, who had been stationed in Halifax, Nova Scotia, for a
year past, came over to his table with an American magazine in his
hand.
"Do you know, old chap, your stories are quite the rage in Halifax,"
he said. "I notice, though, that the fellows here do not know what
you are up to at all. One soon leaves the trick of reading the
magazines on the other side."
This unexpected word for his literary work cheered Hemming
considerably. He invited the youth to seat himself and have a cigar.
Soon he found himself telling his admirer something of his
aspirations.
When Anderson of the Royal Engineers came in, he found Hemming and
the lieutenant on leave from Canada still talking across the table.
Anderson was Hemming's senior by some four or five years, but they
had been friends since childhood. After their greeting, Anderson
said:
"Have you seen Penthouse?"
"Yes, I met him about five o'clock," replied Hemming.
Anderson's face brightened, and he slapped his knee with his broad
hand.
"I ran across him in an apothecary's shop a few hours ago, and, as I
had just heard of your arrival, I wondered if you had met him," he
said. "You see," he continued, "I have had my eye on him of late.
The Travers and I are still very good friends, you know."
"This sounds very interesting," broke in the lieutenant. "What is it
all about?"
"I hardly know myself," answered Hemming.
The lieutenant wished them good night, shook hands cordially with
both, and, after assuring Hemming that he would watch eagerly for
everything he wrote, left the dining-room.
"Williams seems a good sort," remarked Hemming.
Anderson did not answer. He looked as if he were thinking unusually
hard.
"I suppose you'll be in town for a while," he said.
"I leave to-morrow for Greece. I'm a newspaper correspondent now,"
replied Hemming.
"You must stay a few days," said the engineer. "A few days will do
it. You have no right to fly off the handle like that."
"Like what?" asked the other.
"My dear boy, I have known for a week just how it would be, and now I
am in rather a hole myself," said Anderson.
"Have you been living a double life?" inquired Hemming, with a sneer.
"Great heavens!" exclaimed the lusty sapper, "do you mean to
say?--but no, I only told the lady that Penthouse was a rotten little
liar. Strong language, I must admit."
Hemming laughed shortly.
"You must not trouble yourself too much, Dicky, for it's really not
worth while," he said.
A little later Hemming excused himself to his friend on the plea that
he had to return to his hotel, and write some letters.
"I am my own master no longer," he said.
"I think you are just beginning," replied Anderson, drily.
Hemming looked into the future, saw his body journeying, vagrant as
the wind, and his hand at a hundred adventures, but never an hour of
freedom. He went down the wide steps and into the street with hell
and longing in his heart.
Hemming spent two weeks in Greece. He wrote a few descriptive
stories for his syndicate, and then crossed into Turkey, where he was
offered a commission. He wired that fighting was certain. The
syndicate thought otherwise, and called him across the world to see
or make trouble in South America. He cursed their stupidity and
started, spending only a few hours in England, and taking ship in
Liverpool for New York. Arriving in that city, he and his
possessions (and he carried a full outfit) journeyed in a cab to an
old and respectable hotel on Broadway. The fare he had to pay opened
his eyes. But what could he do beyond staring the cabby out of
countenance with his baleful, glaring eye-glass? At the hotel, they
were kind enough to take him for a duke in disguise. Next morning he
found his way to the offices of the New York News Syndicate, in a
high gray building on Fulton Street. He scrambled into one of the
great caged elevators, close on the heels of a stout gentleman in a
yellow spring overcoat and silk hat. The lift was lighted by several
small electric bulbs. The air was warm, and heavy with the scent of
stale cigarette smoke.
"New York News Syndicate," said Hemming to the attendant.
"Third floor," said the man, and up they shot and stopped. The iron
grating was rolled back. Hemming stepped out into a cool,
white-floored hall, and, turning, found the stout gentleman at his
heels.
"I think you are Captain Hemming," said the stranger, "and I am quite
sure I am Benjamin Dodder."
"Ah! the manager of the syndicate," exclaimed Hemming, waggling Mr.
Dodder's extended hand, and looking keenly into his wide,
clean-shaven face. Dodder was a much younger man than his figure
would lead one to suppose. Hemming thought his face far too heavy
for his bright, good-natured brown eyes.
"I got in last night, and came 'round for orders," explained Hemming.
"That was good of you," replied the manager, looking gratified. He
led the way through several large rooms, where clerks and
stenographers were hard at work, to his private office. He paused at
the door, and turning, said to a clerk with a glaring red necktie and
beautifully parted hair: "Ask Mr. Wells to step into my room when he
comes. Tell him Captain Herbert Hemming has arrived." A dozen keen,
inquiring faces were lifted from desk and machine, and turned toward
the new correspondent.
Within the manager's office were expensively upholstered chairs,
leather-topped tables, polished bookcases, and half a dozen admirably
chosen engravings, and above the grate many photographs, with
signatures scrawled across them. The carpet underfoot was soft and
thick.
"Try this chair, sir," invited Mr. Dodder.
Hemming sank into it, and balanced his hat and stick on his knees;
Mr. Dodder snatched them from him and placed them on his table. Then
he pulled off his coat and expanded his chest.
"Now I begin to feel like working," he remarked, with youthful gusto.
"What an extraordinary chap," thought Hemming.
Dodder opened a drawer in his table, and took out a box of cigars.
Hemming recognized the label, and remembered that they cost, in
London, three shillings apiece by the hundred.
"Have a smoke. They're not half bad," said the manager, extending
the box.
The Englishman lit a weed, and felt that it was time to begin
business.
"Why did you recall me from Greece?" he asked. "They are sure to
stand up to Turkey, unless all signs fail."
This straightforward question seemed to catch the manager unawares.
He rolled his cigar about between his white fingers, and crossed and
uncrossed his legs several times before he answered.
"It's this way," he began, and paused to glance at the closed door.
From the door his eyes turned to Hemming. "We believe as you do," he
said, "but another man wanted the job. He left here three days ago."
As Hemming had nothing to say to that, Dodder continued: "The other
chap has been with us five or six years, and, though he is a good
writer, he knows nothing of war. You were my choice, but Devlin
happens to be Wells's brother-in-law. I was up against it all right,
so I slid off as easy as I could."
"Thank you all the same," said Hemming. "Now tell me what you want
done in South America."
"We want you to start in Yucatan," replied Dodder, "or somewhere
along there, and travel, with a nigger or two, to any part of the
country that promises copy. If you hear of a revolution anywhere, go
hunt it out. Use the wire when you have news, but for the rest of it
write good, full stories in your usual style. Why, captain, have you
any idea how many newspapers, in this country and Canada, printed
each of those stories of yours from Greece and Turkey?"
Hemming shook his head.
"Twenty-six, no less," said the manager. "I believe you would prove
a paying investment if we marooned you on Anticosti," he added.
"I am glad you like my stuff," answered Hemming, "and as for
Anticosti, why, I believe one could make some interesting copy there."
"You must try it one of these days," said Dodder.
At that moment, a thin, undersized man entered the room, without the
formality of knocking. He walked with a slight limp in his left
foot. Dodder introduced him to Hemming as Mr. Wells, the syndicate's
treasurer, and a partner in the concern. Wells gave the
correspondent a nerveless handshake.
"Glad to meet you," he said, and turned to the manager with an air of
inquiry.
It was clear to the Englishman that Dodder was not thoroughly at ease
in his partner's company. He returned to his cigar and his seat with
a suggestion of "by your leave" in his air.
"I think we shall let Captain Hemming start south as soon as he
likes," he said.
"It's a pleasure trip, is it?" remarked Wells, with his hands in his
pockets, and a casual eye on the Englishman.
Hemming stared, his cigar half-raised to his lips. Dodder flushed.
"Then Captain Hemming shall start day after to-morrow," he said, in a
soothing voice. Wells paid no attention to this remark.
"I want you to send in more copy. You might let us have extra
stories from each place, under another name. We could use them," he
said to Hemming. The monocle held him in its unwinking regard for
several seconds. Then the Englishman spoke:
"I wish you to understand me from the start," he said. "When I was
in the service of my country, I was perfectly willing to do one man's
work, or three men's work, for the pay that I got, because it was a
matter of sentiment with me, and because I could afford to do it.
But now, if I do two men's work, as you suggest, I draw double pay.
Another thing, I shall take my orders from one man, or I shall take
no orders at all. Mr. Dodder is my man for choice."
It was evident that this speech of the new correspondent's threw
Dodder into a flurry, and left Wells aghast. Hemming sat in his
comfortable chair, and calmly smoked his excellent cigar. At last
Wells found his voice.
"I think the less I have to do with this man, the better," he said,
and left the room. When the door shut behind him, Dodder sighed with
relief.
"Thank God that's over," he said, and immediately expanded to his
former genial self.
"What is the matter with him?" asked Hemming, mildly.
"Guess he was born that way," replied the manager, "and he really
doesn't know what an impression he gives. He has a great head for
business."
"I should judge so," said Hemming.
Dodder laughed. "Now pull up your chair and we'll make your plans,"
he said, straightening his bulky legs under the table. They worked
busily with maps and note-books for over an hour. At the end of that
time a clerk entered with a bunch of letters and manuscripts. One of
the letters was for Hemming. It had been readdressed and forwarded
half a dozen times; and after all it proved to be nothing more
important than a meandering scrawl from Major O'Grady. "We keep your
memory green, dear boy," wrote the major, and much more in the same
vein. But a crooked postscript proved of interest. It said that
Penthouse was back in Dublin, and was going to the bow-wows at a
fearful pace.
Hemming completed his arrangements with the syndicate, and, returning
to his hotel, lunched solidly on underdone steak, French fried
potatoes, a bottle of ale, a jam tart, and coffee. Love might
display clay feet. Wells might be as rude as the devil, and
Penthouse might go to the devil, but Herbert Hemming did not intend
setting forth on his affairs with an empty stomach. The world was a
rotten enough place without that. He consumed three cigarettes over
his coffee, in a leisurely manner, and by the time he had left his
table by the window the great dining-room was empty. He spent the
rest of the day wandering about the city, conquering a desire to
write to Miss Travers. He dined at an Italian restaurant, and went
early to bed. By nine next morning, he and his traps were aboard a
little south-bound steamer.
CHAPTER IV.
THE ADVENT OF MR. O'ROURKE AND HIS SERVANT
The company of the _Laura_ was small and undistinguished. The
captain was a Nova Scotian, big and red, who had, once upon a time,
skippered a full-rigged ship, and who still sighed at the memory of
it as he looked along the narrow, dirty decks of his present craft.
The mate was a New Yorker, with a master's certificate and a head
full of stories of the prowess of the American Navy. The chief
engineer had once been a good man in his profession, but the whiskey
of his mother country had surely and slowly brought him down to his
present berth. The half-dozen passengers were of little interest to
Hemming, and the days dragged for him, sickening with memories. In
self-defence he reverted to fiction, and even attempted verse.
One morning, in the Gulf of Mexico, the _Laura_ was signalled by an
open boat with a rubber blanket for sail. The engines slowed.
Hemming was on the bridge at the time, and turned the captain's glass
upon the little craft.
"What do you make of it, sir?" inquired the skipper, from the door of
the tiny chart-room below.
"She looks like a ship's boat," replied Hemming. "The sail is rigged
square, with a boat-hook and an oar for yards, and has a hole in the
middle; it's a poncho, I think. There's a nigger forward, waving a
shirt, and a white man aft, smoking."
The captain hurried up to the bridge and took the glass. After
aiming it at the bobbing stranger, he turned to Hemming.
"My boat," he said, "and the same damn fool aboard her."
"Your boat?" inquired Hemming.
The mariner glared, with angry eyes, across the glinting water.
Suddenly his face cleared. "I win," he cried. "I bet him ten
dollars he'd have to get out inside six weeks, and by cracky, so he
has!"
"Who is he?" asked the Englishman.
"He's Mr. O'Rourke, the man who's lookin' for trouble," replied the
big Nova Scotian.
"What's he doing with your boat, and why didn't he take a decent sail
while he was about it?" Hemming asked.
"He had a decent enough sail when I saw him last," explained the
skipper, "and I don't mean to say that he's a thief. He paid for the
boat, right enough, though he bargained pretty close. He wanted to
see more of Cuba, you know, but the Spaniards wouldn't have anything
more to do with him, because of something he wrote, so he just got me
to steam in five weeks ago, and let him off in the port life-boat.
Now he's back again, with a nigger."
"What's his game?" asked Hemming.
"Search me,--unless it's just trouble," said the mariner, returning
the glass and hurrying down to the deck.
By this time the _Laura_ was rolling lazily. The captain ordered a
man to stand ready with a line; the poncho was lowered, aboard the
adventurous rowboat, and the nigger manned the oars; the white man in
the stern sheets stood up and raised his Panama hat, and the
passengers along the _Laura's_ rail replied with cheers. The captain
leaned far over the side. "What about that bet?" he shouted. The
stranger drew his hand from a pocket of his ragged ducks and held
something aloft,--something crumpled and green. Then he regained his
soaring seat, and gripped the tiller.
The captain lifted a beaming countenance to Hemming on the bridge.
"That's the first white man who ever got out of Cuba with ten
dollars," he bawled. Evidently the captain did not consider
Spaniards as white men.
The line was thrown, and went circling and unfolding through the air
until it fell into the boat. The ladder was unlashed and dropped
over the _Laura's_ side. In a minute O'Rourke and the pacifico were
on the deck, and in another minute the port life-boat was back on its
davits. O'Rourke was warmly welcomed aboard. Even the chief
engineer appeared from below to shake his hand. The captain hurried
him to the chart-room, and beckoned to Hemming from the door. When
Hemming entered, he found the newcomer lying full length on the
locker, with a glass of whiskey and water in his left hand, and the
other under his head. He got stiffly to his feet upon the
Englishman's entrance, and, after shaking hands cordially, lay down
again.
"Now what do you think of that?" queried the skipper, glancing from
O'Rourke to the other.
O'Rourke laughed good-naturedly, but with a note of weariness. "I
must confess it was not exactly a Sunday-school picnic," he said,
"and a chap's insides get fearfully squirmy on a diet of sugar-cane
and a few random plantains."
The skipper, who had been carefully, even lovingly, mixing drinks in
two more glasses, eyed O'Rourke severely.
"You'd better get married, and give up them tomfool actions," he
said, "or some fine day the Spaniards will catch up to you, and
then,--well, you'll be sorry, that's all."
"They caught up to several of our party this time," remarked
O'Rourke, casually.
"By Jove!" exclaimed Hemming, straightening his eye-glass.
The man with the Irish name and non-committal accent turned his head
on the locker, and smiled at the other adventurer.
"They were not particular pals of mine," he said, reassuringly, "so I
didn't stay to inquire their fate."
"You're fool enough to have stayed," remarked the skipper.
Hemming stared at the free and easy language of the mariner, and at
O'Rourke's good-natured way of taking it, for he had not yet become
entirely accustomed to the ways of the world outside the army, and
this O'Rourke, though unshaven and in tatters, was certainly a
gentleman, by Hemming's standards. The master of the _Laura_ may
have read something of this in his passenger's face, for he turned to
him and said: "Mr. O'Rourke and I are pretty good friends. We've
played ashore together, and we've sailed together more than once, and
when I call him a fool, why, it's my way of saying he's the
bangest-up, straight-grained man I know. I never call him a fool
before his inferiors, and if it came to any one else calling him
anything, why--" and he slapped his big red hand on the chart-room
table with a blow that rocked the bottles.
"Shut up," said O'Rourke, blushing beneath his bristles and tan, "or
Captain Hemming will take me for as silly an ass as he takes you."
"Not at all," began Hemming, awkwardly, and, when the others roared
with laughter, he hid his confusion by draining his glass. He had
never before been laughed at quite so violently, but he found, rather
to his surprise, that he liked it.
After lunch, O'Rourke (whose full name was Bertram St. Ives O'Rourke)
retired to his stateroom, and did not reappear until dinner-time. He
looked better then, clean shaven, and attired in one of the skipper's
extra warm-weather suits. He filled the borrowed clothes well enough
in length and in breadth of shoulder, but confessed, at table, that
the trousers lapped twice around his waist. During the simple meal,
the conversation was all of the internal disturbance of Cuba, and all
the passengers, as well as the skipper, seemed interested in the
matter and well informed of recent incidents. Hemming listened
keenly, now and then putting a question. O'Rourke told a part of his
adventures during his last stay in the island, and sketched, in vivid
and well-chosen words, the daily life of the patriots. It was not as
romantic as Hemming had hoped.
"It's a low sort of fighting on both sides,--not the kind you have
mixed in," said O'Rourke to Hemming.
"I?" exclaimed Hemming, while the dusky passengers and burly skipper
pricked up their ears.
"I saw your initials--H.H.--on your cigarette case," he explained,
"and I have read some good things signed H.H., by an Englishman, on
English army life, so of course I spotted you."
"I'm doing work for the New York News Syndicate now," said Hemming.
After dinner, O'Rourke led the way to the chart-room. From the
locker he produced a small typewriting machine. This he oiled, and
set up on the table. The skipper winked at Hemming.
"I wish I'd smashed the danged thing while he was away," he said.
O'Rourke paid not the slightest attention to this pleasantry, but
inserted a sheet of paper, of which he had a supply stored in the
same place of safety.
"Now," said he, seating himself on a camp-stool before the machine,
"I don't mind how much you two talk, but I have some work to do."
"You, too?" laughed the Englishman.
"I'm only a free-lance," said O'Rourke, and, lighting a cigarette, he
began clicking the keys. For more than an hour he worked steadily,
while the skipper and Hemming sat side by side on the locker and told
stories. The door was hooked open, and a fresh breeze kept the room
cool, and circled the pungent smoke.
When Hemming turned in, he found that He could not sleep. His brain
jumped and kept busy, in spite of him. Now he lived again his
exciting days in Northern India. From this he flashed to the Norfolk
tennis lawn, where Molly Travers listened again to his ardent vows.
He turned over and tried to win himself to slumber by counting
imaginary sheep. But that only seemed to suggest to his memory the
care-free days of his youth. Again he built forts in the warm earth
of the potting-house. Again he fled from the red-headed gardener,
and stumbled into piled-up ranks of flowerpots, hurling them to
destruction. Again he watched his father, in pink and spurs, trot
down the avenue in the gold, rare sunlight of those days. Feeling
that these good memories would carry him safely to the land of peace,
he closed his eyes,--only to find his mind busy with that last day in
London. He climbed swiftly from his berth, and, after slipping his
feet into his shoes, ascended to the deck. He did not wait to change
his pajamas for anything more conventional. There was not a breath
of wind. The stars burned big and white; the water over the side
flashed away in silver fire, and farther out some rolling fish broke
its trail of flame; to starboard lay a black suggestion of land.
Looking forward, he saw that the door of the chart-room stood open,
emitting a warm flood of lamplight. He went up to the lower bridge,
or half-deck, where the chart-room stood, and glanced within. The
skipper lay on the locker, snoring peacefully, and O'Rourke still
clicked at the typewriter. Hemming stole quietly in and poured
himself a glass of water from the clay bottle on the rack.
"Don't let me disturb you," he said to the worker. "I'll just have a
smoke to kill wakefulness."
"If you can't sleep," said O'Rourke, "just listen to this as long as
your eyes will stay open."
He sorted over his pages of copy and began to read. His voice was
low-pitched, and through it sounded the whispering of the steamer's
passage across the rocking waters. The style was full of colour, and
Hemming was keenly interested from start to finish. Not until the
last page was turned over did O'Rourke look up.
"What! not asleep yet!" he exclaimed.
"That seems to me very fine," said Hemming, seriously, "and I should
certainly take it for literature of an unusually high order if I did
not know that journalists cannot write literature."
"Do you think it will do?" asked O'Rourke, modestly.
"My dear chap," replied Hemming, "it will do for anything,--for a
book, or to carve on a monument. It's a dashed sight too good for
any newspaper."
"It certainly wouldn't do for a newspaper," laughed the younger man.
"Just imagine an editor with a blue pencil, loose on those
descriptions of vegetation. When I do newspaper stuff, I throw in
the blood and leave out the beauty. That is for _Griffin's
Magazine_."
"Are you sure of your market?" asked the Englishman, wondering for
even in England, _Griffin's_ was known for its quality.
"It was ordered," said O'Rourke, "and this will make the ninth
article I have done for them within five years. After months of
seeing and feeling things, I put the heart of it all, at one sitting,
into a story for _Griffin's_. After that I cook my experiences and
hard-earned knowledge into lesser dishes for lesser customers.
Sometimes I even let it off in lyrics."
"You must flood the magazines," remarked Hemming, dryly.
"Not I. To begin with, I place a great deal of my work with
publications of which you have never heard, and then, as I am young
and very productive, I write under three names, using my own for only
the things I wish to stand."
He arose and turned out the light, and to Hemming's amazement gray
dawn was on the sea and the narrow decks, and on the morning wind
came the odour of coffee.
"I think we are both good for a nap now," said O'Rourke. They left
the master of the boat slumbering on his narrow couch, and went to
their staterooms; and before Hemming fell asleep, with his face to
the draft of the port, he thanked God in his heart for a new friend.
CHAPTER V.
THE ADVENTURERS DISPENSE WITH MR. NUNEZ
Hemming and O'Rourke, and O'Rourke's low-caste Cuban, landed in
Belize. The _Laura_ continued on her way to Truxillo, and more
southern ports, for which she had a mixed freight of cheap articles
of American manufacture. She would start north again from Costa
Rica, should she be able to find a cargo, so O'Rourke and Hemming had
both given manuscripts and letters to the Nova Scotia skipper, for
mailing at the first likely opportunity, with word that they would
wire an address later. This done, the adventurers purchased three
undersized mules. O'Rourke picked up what he could in the way of an
outfit, having left everything but his pipe and poncho in the Cuban
bush. They loaded one of the mules with their belongings, and put it
in charge of John Nunez, and, mounting the others, started south,
skirting the coast. The trip was uneventful, but Hemming wrote a
number of stories descriptive of the country and the people, the
mules and his companions, under the general title of "Along New
Trails with Old Mules." O'Rourke regarded his friend's display of
energy with kindly disdain.
"There is bigger game to seaward," he said, and seemed ever on the
lookout for rumours of war from the northeast. After three weeks'
easy travelling, they awoke one morning to find that John Nunez had
taken his departure during the night, and, along with his departure,
one of their mules, a bag of hardtack and a slab of bacon.
O'Rourke looked relieved. "I've often wondered how I could ever get
rid of him, you know. I once saved his life," he said.
"It's a good thing we happened to be using the rest of the provisions
for pillows, or, by gad, your precious servant would have left us to
starve," replied Hemming, in injured tones.
"Cheer up, old man," laughed O'Rourke. "We're not three miles from
the coast, and I'll bet we are within ten of a village of some sort,"
he explained.
He was right, for by noon they were sitting at their ease before
black coffee and a Spanish omelette, in a shabby eating-house. The
town was one of some importance--in its own eyes. Also it interested
Hemming. But O'Rourke sniffed.
"Gay colours and bad smells--I've experienced the whole thing
before," said he.
"Then why the devil did you leave the _Laura_?" asked Hemming,
pouring himself another glass of doubtful claret.
"To look after you," retorted O'Rourke.
"But, seriously," urged the Englishman.
"Oh, if you will be serious," confessed the freelance, "I'll admit
that it's in my blood. I might have gone to New York and waited till
further developments in Cuba; but I could no more see you go ashore,
to waste your time and money, without wanting to follow suit, than
you could see me buy that high-priced claret without wanting to drink
it all yourself."
Hemming turned his monocle upon his friend in mild and curious regard.
"I doubt if there is another chap alive," he said, "who can write
such wisdom and talk such rot as you."
"Oh, go easy," expostulated O'Rourke, "you've only read one article
of mine--the twenty-page result of five weeks' sugar-cane and
observation."
"It was remarkable stuff," mused Hemming.
The younger man had the grace to bow. "You don't look like the kind
of chap who is lavish with his praise," he said.
Lighting a potent local cigar, he leaned back in his rickety chair,
and shouted something in Spanish. The owner of the place appeared,
rubbing his hands together and bowing. He was a fat, brown man,
smelling of native cookery and native tobacco. O'Rourke talked, at
some length, in Spanish, only a few words of which could Hemming
understand. The proprietor waved his cigarette and gabbled back.
Again O'Rourke took up the conversation, and this time his flow of
mongrel Spanish was pricked out with bluff English oaths.
Hemming asked what it was all about. O'Rourke gave himself up to
laughter.
"I have been trying to sell our mules," he said, at last, "but find
that the market is already glutted."
Hemming shook his head disconsolately. "I fail to see the joke," he
said.
"Mine host here informs me that a Cuban gentleman arrived shortly
after daylight this morning," continued O'Rourke, "and sold a mule to
the American consul."
"Our mule," gasped the enlightened Englishman--then, leaping from his
chair with a violence that caused the fat proprietor to take refuge
behind a table, he cried that there was still a chance of overtaking
the rascal. O'Rourke begged him to finish his claret in peace. "And
don't do anything rash," he said, "for I warn you that if you catch
him you'll have to keep him. I tremble even now, lest he should
enter the door and reclaim me as his master." He blew a thin wisp of
smoke toward the ceiling, and laughed comfortably. Then his glance
lowered to his friend, who had reseated himself at the other side of
the table. He saw amazement and consternation written large in
Hemming's face. The landlord also looked thunderstruck, standing
with his mouth open, his eyes fixed upon the door, and a dirty napkin
idle in his hand. O'Rourke turned and followed their enraptured
gaze--and behold, clothed in new trousers and gaudy poncho, John
Nunez bowing on the threshold.
For long seconds a painful silence held the inmates of the
eating-house in thrall. The delinquent broke it with a stream of
talk. He pointed heavenward; he touched his breast with his fingers;
he spread his arms wide, and all the while he gabbled in Spanish.
Tears ran down his dusky cheeks. O'Rourke regained his easy
attitude, and heard the story to the end. He kept his gaze upon the
Cuban's face, and not once did the Cuban meet it. At last the fellow
stopped talking, and stood before his master with his sullen,
tear-stained face half-hidden in a fold of his gay blanket.
"Well?" inquired Hemming.
"He says that he meant no harm," replied O'Rourke, "but that the
desire to steal was like fever in his blood. He swears this by more
saints than I know the name of. He says that he will give me the
money that he got for the mule, and will toil for me until the day of
his death, without a dollar of wages. But he has sworn all these
things before, and every fit of repentance seems to make him more of
a rogue. As for wages--why, his grub costs more than he is worth."
"Just let me take him in hand," said Hemming.
"You may try," assented O'Rourke.
By this time, and knowing his master's easy nature, Nunez was feeling
more at home. The attitude of the penitent was not natural to him.
He freed one arm from the folds of his poncho and calmly extracted a
cigarette from his sash. This he was about to light when Hemming's
voice arrested him in the act.
"Throw away that cigarette," came the order.
The Cuban feigned ignorance of the English language. He raised his
eyebrows, paused a second to smile insolently, and lit the frail roll
of black tobacco with a flourish. He inhaled the first puff with
very evident pleasure, and let it escape by way of his nostrils. But
he did not draw the second, for Hemming's hand landed unexpectedly
upon the side of his head. The cigarette flew at a tangent,
unrolling as it hit the earthen floor. The Cuban span completely
around, reeled for a second, and then sprang at the Englishman with
drawn knife. O'Rourke and the half-breed Mexican cried a warning.
They might have saved their breath for their next long walk, for
Hemming, quick as a terrier in his movements, stepped to one side and
delivered a remarkable blow with his fist. The Cuban--a flash of gay
clothing and harmless knife-blade--went, backward, through the narrow
doorway.
"And now," said Hemming to O'Rourke, "what are we to do next?"
"Do next?" repeated O'Rourke, sadly, "why, just sit and whistle for
the fifty Mexican dollars, which the American consul paid John for
our mule."
Hemming hurried to the door and looked up and down the glaring
street. Nunez was nowhere to be seen.
"He's not lying around anywhere, shamming dead, is he?" inquired
O'Rourke.
"Don't see him," replied Hemming.
"Then now is our chance to shake him for good," said the other, "and
the only way I can think of is to put out to sea."
As if he had made the most reasonable suggestion in the world, he
paid their score and stepped into the street. Hemming followed to
the water-front, too deep in wonder to offer objections, or demand
explanations.
CHAPTER VI.
HEMMING HEARS OF THE VILLAIN
Six days later, in a club in Kingston, Jamaica, Hemming ran across a
naval officer whom he had met, years ago, at a county ball.
"Hullo, left the army?" asked the sailor.
"Verily," replied Hemming, who could not recall the other's name.
"What--more money?"
"Less."
"Nice scandal in your old regiment. You're well out of it."
"I have heard nothing. We rather prided ourselves on our
respectability."
"A chap called Penthouse," ran on the sailor, "has turned out a
regular sneak-thief. The others began to miss things--money and
cuff-links, and trifles like that--and one day the colonel caught him
in his room pocketing a gold watch. I believe the poor beggar was
hard up--at least so my correspondent says."
At this point he noticed the pallor of Hemming's face.
"Not a friend of yours, I hope," he added, hastily.
"Far from it, but he is related to some people I know very well,"
replied Hemming.
"He was a low cur, even before he turned thief," said the talkative
sailor, "and Jones tells me he fleeced an awfully decent, but stupid
sort of chap--" He came to a full stop, and glared blankly at his
new-found acquaintance.
"Thank you," laughed Hemming, who had regained his composure as the
navy man lost his.
"Ah--damn silly break, wasn't it?" gabbled the other, turning to
O'Rourke, "but you two'll come aboard to-morrow, and have lunch with
us. One-thirty, and there's a turtle in the pot." He left the club
without waiting for an answer.
Hemming and O'Rourke had made the voyage from Honduras to Kingston in
a fifty-foot schooner. For passage-money they had handed over the
two mules, together with the residue of their provisions. Things are
not as cheap as they look in Central America. O'Rourke had navigated
the vessel, for the owner had proved himself useless, and Hemming had
hauled on sheets and halyards and worked the antiquated pump. But in
time they had arrived safely in Kingston, and never had hot water and
clean food felt and tasted so good. Hemming had mailed his "copy,"
O'Rourke had gone to a tailor; and now they lived at ease, and
awaited checks and letters from the North. The friendship of these
two had been an assured thing from the moment of their first meeting,
in the chart-room of the _Laura_, and it had grown steadily with
every adventure and hardship in common. They respected each other's
dauntless spirits and literary styles. Hemming admired O'Rourke's
cheerful heart, and his faculty (almost amounting to genius) for
getting out of tight places. He also liked his manners, and envied
him the length of his limbs. O'Rourke, in his turn, admired his
comrade's knowledge of things in general, and the way in which he
kept quiet about incidents in his past, without sulkiness. He liked
his hasty, forgiving temper, and felt an almost personal anger toward
whatever, or whoever, had embittered his life; and he considered him
as well set-up a middleweight as he had ever seen. From O'Rourke,
Hemming learned to do things for himself--little things like rolling
a blanket, frying bacon, and pitching a tent. In the past there had
always been a Mr. Thomas Atkins to look after such trifles. Also he
learned that no knowledge comes amiss to a roving newspaper man, from
the science of navigation to the art of sewing on patches, and the
low occupation of grooming a mule. He realized how much more
comfortable his life in the army, and his travelling in Greece and
Turkey would have been, had he been able to turn his own hand to the
things other people had left undone. His heart warmed toward his
instructor. One night, while they were smoking on the veranda of
their hotel, and looking away at the lights in the harbour, he told a
little of his story--something of Penthouse, and something of the
girl he loved. But he did not mention her name, and, much to his
relief, O'Rourke did not seem curious about it. That was one of
O'Rourke's most comfortable characteristics. It was really a matter
of breeding. He was deeply interested in whatever a person chose to
tell him, and he would put helpful questions which did not call for
further confessions; but he never tried to draw a man. One might
safely tell him that one's grandmother had been a cannibal, without
fear of being asked any question concerning one's grandfather. If he
really wanted to know, he would go quietly to some one else for the
information.
Shortly after arriving in Jamaica, Hemming wrote a letter to
Anderson, his particular friend in the Engineers. He mentioned
having heard of Penthouse's outbreak, but said nothing of the
occurrences of his last visit to London. He told, at a length
suggestive of his profession, of the trip through Yucatan and
Honduras, of his new friend, and of the adventurous passage from the
coast of Central America to Kingston. He sang the praises of a free
life and the glories of the tropics. He spoke of his success with
the syndicate, and the probability of fighting in Cuba in the near
future. He tried hard to make every line of the letter echo
contentment, knowing that Anderson would, very likely, retail its
contents to Miss Travers.
"My God," he said, "I was fool enough, once, to let her see the wound
she made, but once is for all."
For the remainder of the morning O'Rourke found him in a low mood,
and after trying, in vain, to raise his spirits with a new cigar as
long as a riding-boot, he smoked the weed himself and wrote a ballad
about pirates and blood. It was the ballad, complete after an hour's
work, that did the business for Hemming. The swinging lines and
rolling phrases, the fearful sea-oaths and unexpected rhymes started
him in action. At first he was not sure whether he wanted to ride or
write, but, with a little tactful persuasion from O'Rourke, decided
on the former. They hired a couple of horses, went to the club, and
drew several of their friends of H.M.S. _Thunderer_, and rode for
hours, lunching late, out of town.
One morning Hemming received a cablegram from Dodder, of the New York
Syndicate, telling him to stand ready for orders, and that a letter
followed. In a few days the letter came. It was a friendly, though
businesslike epistle, and contained a check. It ran as follows:
"MY DEAR CAPTAIN HEMMING:--Your stories reached me, and were
immediately set up and distributed broadcast. They please me, as
does all your work. I got a check from Wells for the amount of two
months' expenses (at the rate we agreed upon), and your salary, up to
date, has been marked to your credit. I believe there will be
trouble in Europe before long, and we hear that Devlin, of whom I
spoke to you, is down with some sort of fever. Be prepared to start
East at the shortest notice, and please look up some one, an
experienced man, of course, to keep an eye on Cuba for us, should you
have to leave. A man who knows the country, and is immune from
yellow fever, would be of more value than an experienced journalist.
We have journalists here, but I fear they would fall down on the job.
I do not believe the Cuban affair will ever come to more than
skirmishing, but even that is interesting when it happens at our own
back door. No mail has come to us for you. Please write us if you
know of a man.
"Yours very sincerely,
"WASHINGTON DODDER, Manager."
Hemming read it to O'Rourke.
"Will you accept the job?" he asked.
"Yes, when some one lands an invading army, but not before," replied
O'Rourke. "Fact is, I'm afraid to sneak into the place again. The
Spaniards know me too well. I've run away with Gomez and I've
retreated with Garcia, and I've had quite enough of it. But if you
have to leave and I can't get a chance to go along with you, I'll
keep my eye on things, and do what a man can. I can at least send
them some photographs of starving women and babies with distended
tummies. I notice, by the magazines, that the popular fancy is
turning toward sweet pictures of that kind, and, as luck would have
it, I indulged in photography last time I was there, and the films
happened to be in my pocket when John and I sailed away."
Thus did Bertram St. Ives O'Rourke, the free-lance who hated to move
or stay at any man's bidding, fetter himself with the chain of duty,
and become the servant of a great syndicate. But for weeks he did
not feel the chain, but made merry with sailors and landsmen, and did
inspired work for _Griffin's Magazine_. At last word came to
Hemming, calling him to the East to report the actions of the wily
Turk and courageous Greek, and, after putting his friend aboard the
mail-boat, O'Rourke sat down and grappled the fact of his own
responsibilities. After due consideration he wrote to the syndicate,
explained his position, mentioned his past efforts in Cuba, and
promised some interesting cables if they would send him enough money
to charter a tug. To his amazement (his name carried more weight
than he knew) they wired the money and told him to go ahead.
Thus it happened that within eight days of one another's departure,
and after an intimate and affectionate friendship, Herbert Hemming
sailed for one battle-field and Bertram St. Ives O'Rourke for
another, and one stout gentleman in New York paid all the pipers.
CHAPTER VII.
AN ELDERLY CHAMPION
While Herbert Hemming tried to ease the bitterness of his heart and
forget the injustice that had been done him, in new scenes and amid
new companions, Miss Travers suffered at home. Her lover had
scarcely left the house before misgivings tore her. Now, alone and
shaken with grief, she saw upon what treasonable foundation she had
accused an honourable man of--she hardly knew what. Why had he
listened to her? Why had he not laughed, and kissed away her awful,
hysterical foolishness? Then she remembered how she had repulsed his
caress, and there in the narrow, heavily furnished drawing-room she
leaned her head upon her arms and prayed.
Half an hour later she was startled by the ringing of the door-bell,
and hastened to her own room.
The caller was an elderly bachelor brother of her mother's--a man
with a small income, a taste for bridge, and tongue and ears for
gossip. His visits were always welcome to Mrs. Travers. Mrs.
Travers was a stout lady much given to family prayers, scandal, and
disputes with servants. As the widow of a bishop she felt that she
filled, in the being of the nation, a somewhat similar position to
that occupied by Westminster Abbey. She doted on all those in
temporal and spiritual authority, almost to the inclusion of curates
and subalterns,--if they had expectations. Once upon a time, seeing
nothing larger in sight for her daughter, she had been Herbert
Hemming's motherly friend. Then she had heard from Mr. Penthouse
(who was poor and dissipated, and might some day become a baronet)
that Hemming's fortune was not nearly so large as people supposed.
At first she had watched the change in her daughter, under
Penthouse's influence, with vague alarm; but a suspicion of more
eligible suitors in the offing stilled her fears. The hints which
her pleasing nephew brought to her, of Hemming's double life,
inflamed her righteous anger against the quiet captain. Had her
daughter's lover been the master of five thousand a year she would
have admonished Penthouse to keep silence concerning the affairs of
his superiors. As it was, she thought her righteous indignation
quite genuine, for few people of her kind know the full extent of
their respectable wickedness. Then had come news, through her
daughter, of Hemming's retirement from the army and entrance into
journalism. Molly had mentioned it, very quietly, one morning at
breakfast. Then had come Hemming himself, and with vast satisfaction
she had heard him leave the house without any bright laughter at the
door. And just as she had determined to descend and soothe Molly
with words of pious comfort, her brother had arrived.
Mrs. Travers heard Molly go to her room and close the door. She
decided that charity would keep better than Mr. Pollin's gossip, so
she descended to the drawing-room as fast as her weight would allow.
They shook hands cordially; after which Mr. Pollin stood respectfully
until his sister got safely deposited in the strongest chair in the
room.
Mr. Pollin was a gossip, as I have previously stated, but many of his
stories were harmless. He dressed in the height of fashion, and, in
spite of his full figure, carried himself jauntily. In his youth
(before he had come in for his modest property, and mastered whist)
he had studied law, and it was rumoured that he had even tried to
write scholarly articles and book reviews for the daily press. At
one stage in his career his sister and the late bishop had really
trembled for his respectability; but their fears had proved to be
unfounded, for, lacking encouragement from the editors, Mr. Pollin
had settled down to unbroken conventionality. Mr. Pollin's features
resembled his sister's, but his mouth was more given to smiling, and
his eyes held a twinkle, while hers were dimly lit with a gleam of
cold calculation.
To-day Mr. Pollin had quite unexpected news, at first-hand from an
Irish acquaintance of his, a Major O'Grady. But he did not blurt it
out, as a lesser gossip would have done.
"Have you seen Harry Penthouse lately?" he asked.
"Not for two days," said the lady.
Mr. Pollin crossed his knees with an effort, and tried to look over
his waistcoat at his polished boots.
"He returns to his regiment shortly," added Mrs. Travers.
Her brother coughed gently, and scrutinized the ring on his finger
with an intensity that seemed quite uncalled for.
"What is the matter?" cried the lady, breathless with the suspense.
"Nothing, my dear, although I hardly envy Harry. I'm afraid he will
find his regiment a rather uncomfortable place," replied Pollin.
"Do you mean the regiment, or his quarters, Richard?"
"His quarters are comfortable enough for a better man," replied the
elderly dandy, with a slight ring of emotion in his voice.
"Richard," exclaimed the dame, "what are you hinting about your
nephew?"
"No nephew of mine," replied the other, "nor even of yours, I think.
Poor Charles and old Sir Peter were first cousins, were they not?"
"But they were just like brothers," she urged.
"It's a pity young Penthouse hadn't been spanked more in his early
youth," remarked Mr. Pollin.
Mrs. Travers began to feel decidedly uneasy. Could it be that Harry
had, in some way, forfeited his chances of the estate and title?
Could it be that the invalid brother, the unsociable, close-fisted
one, had married? But she did not put the questions.
"What rash thing has the young man done?" she inquired.
"Nothing rash, but something dashed low," answered her brother.
"To-day," he continued, "I received a letter from a gentleman whom it
appears I've met several times in the country, Major O'Grady, of the
Seventy-Third. He has evidently quite forgotten the fact that I am
in any way connected with Harry Penthouse, or interested in Herbert
Hemming, and after several pages of reference to some exciting
rubbers we have had together (I really cannot recall them to mind),
he casually tells me the inner history of Hemming's leaving the
service."
"Ah, I thought so," sighed Mrs. Travers.
"Thought what, my dear sister?" asked Pollin, shortly.
The good lady was somewhat confused by the abruptness of her
brother's manner, and her guard was forgotten.
"That the inner history," she replied, "is that Captain Hemming was
requested to resign his commission."
"You have jumped the wrong way, Cordelia," said the gentleman, with a
disconcerting smile, "for the regiment, from the colonel to the
newest subaltern, and from the sergeant-major to the youngest bugler,
are, figuratively speaking, weeping over his departure."
Mrs. Travers seemed to dwindle in her chair. "Then why did he
retire?" she asked, in a thin whisper.
"Because Harry Penthouse wolfed all his money. At first he borrowed
a hundred or so, and lost it gambling. Hemming got a bit shy, but
thought, of course, that some day it would all be paid back. He
wanted to help the boy, so, after a good deal of persuasion, endorsed
his note for a large sum, and the note was cashed by a Jew who had
helped Penthouse before. The Jew was honest, but he came a cropper
himself, and could not afford to renew the note. Penthouse had only
enough left to carry him stylishly over his two months' leave, so
Hemming had to stump up. O'Grady says he didn't get so much as a
'Thank you' from the young bounder."
For several minutes the lady kept a stunned silence. Presently she
braced herself, and laughed unmusically.
"I have heard a very different story," she said, "and I believe from
a better authority than this Major O'Brady."
"O'Grady," corrected Pollin, "and a very dear friend of mine--cousin
to Sir Brian O'Grady."
The good fellow's imagination was getting the bit in its teeth by
this time, and his mind was turning toward the quiet of his club, and
a nip of something before dinner.
"You have your choice between Major O'Grady's story and Harry
Penthouse's," said the lady.
"And I choose O'Grady's," replied the gentleman, "because I know
Penthouse and I know Herbert. Herbert is a good soldier and a good
sort, and Harry is a damned overgrown, overfed cad."
He stole away without farewell, abashed and surprised at his own heat
and breach of etiquette.
After her brother's departure Mrs. Travers sought her daughter. She
wanted to know all the particulars of Hemming's visit.
"It is all over between us," sobbed the girl, and beyond that she
could learn nothing. Having failed to receive information, she
immediately began to impart some, and told what Mr. Pollin had heard
from Major O'Grady. Molly, who lay on the bed, kept her face buried
in the pillow, and showed no signs of hearing anything. At last her
mother left her, after saying that she would send her dinner up to
her. The bewildered woman had never felt quite so put about since
the death of the lord bishop. Could it be, she wondered, that she
had made a mistake in encouraging Harry Penthouse's work tearing down
Molly's belief in Hemming? Even her dinner did not altogether
reassure her troubled spirit.
Several days later Miss Travers wrote to Hemming. It contained only
a line or two. It begged his forgiveness. It called him to return
and let her show her love. She sent it to his old address in Dublin,
and in the corner wrote "Please forward."
[Illustration: "SEVERAL DAYS LATER MISS TRAVERS WROTE TO HEMMING"]
Now it happened that Private Malloy, who had once been Captain
Hemming's orderly, was sent one day, by a sergeant, for the officers'
mail. He thought himself a sly man, did Mr. Malloy, and when he
found a letter addressed to his late beloved master, in a familiar
handwriting, he decided that it was from "one of them dunnin' Jews,"
and carefully separated it from the pile. Later he burned it. "One
good turn deserves another," said he, watching the thin paper flame
and fade.
Penthouse returned to his regiment without calling again on Molly and
Mrs. Travers. Somehow, after the beating he had received, he did not
feel like showing his face anywhere in town. Day after day Molly
waited for an answer to her letter. By this time she had heard, from
Captain Anderson (who had acted nervously during his short call), of
Hemming's intention of going immediately to Greece. So for two weeks
she waited hopefully. Then the horrible fear that she had hurt him
beyond pardoning, perhaps even disgusted him, grew upon her. But for
more than a month every brisk footfall on the pavement and every ring
at the door-bell set her heart burning and left it throbbing with
pain.
When she drove with her mother she scanned the faces of the men in
the street, and often and often she changed colour at sight of a
thin, alert face or broad, gallant shoulders in the crowd.
Captain Anderson was at Aldershot when he received his friend's
letter from Jamaica. He went up to town and called on Miss Travers,
and, without so much as "by your leave," read her extracts from the
letter. She listened quietly, with downcast eyes and white face.
When he was through with it she looked at him kindly; but her eyes
were dim.
"Why do you taunt me?" she asked. "Is it because you are his
friend?" The smile that followed the question was not a happy one.
The sapper's honest face flamed crimson. "I thought you wanted to
know about him," he stammered.
"Of course I am glad to hear that he is so successful--and so happy,"
she replied, and her mouth took on a hardness strange and new to it.
She remembered the passionate appeal in her own letter--the cry of
love that had awakened no answering cry--and her pride and anger set
to work to tear the dreams from her heart. But a dream built by the
Master Workman, of stuffs lighter than the wind, outlasts the heavy
walls of kings' monuments.
CHAPTER VIII.
HEMMING UNDERTAKES A DIGNIFIED WORK
Hemming went through the Turko-Grecian campaign from beginning to
end, with much credit to himself and profit to the syndicate. He
worked hard, and, on occasions, risked life and limb. No word of
legitimate news of actions got out of the country ahead of his. When
the fighting was over, he wrote a careful article on the uselessness
of the sword in modern battles. He described the few occasions in
which he had seen a blooded sword in action. He damned them all--the
pointed blade of the infantry officer, and the cutting sabre of the
cavalry trooper. They would do for hill raids, or charges against
savages, but before the steady fire of men on foot, armed with rifles
of the latest pattern, they were hopeless. Their day had passed with
the passing of the ramrod, he said. After heading it "Cold Steel in
Modern Warfare," he decided that it would be a pity to waste it on
the New York News Syndicate; for of late he had become dissatisfied
with his arrangements with the syndicate. He had found that, out of
the dozen or more war-correspondents whom he had met during the
campaign, only two were allowed so small a sum as he for expenses,
and not one was paid so small a salary. So he mailed his wise story
to a big London weekly, and wrote to Dodder for a raise in his salary
and expenses. At this time he was living quietly in Athens, with a
number of friends,--merry fellows, all,--but he missed O'Rourke's
whimsical conversations and kindly comradeship.
The big London weekly published Hemming's article, and commented upon
it editorially. It also sent him a modest check--more modest than
its size and reputation would lead one to suppose. Mr. Dodder's
letter arrived at about the same time. The manager of the syndicate
was firm, though gentle. He pointed out that already Hemming drew
more money than any other correspondent connected with the concern.
He explained that, even now, Mr. Wells frequently grumbled. "And
after all," he concluded, "you are a new man, and we are helping you
to a reputation."
"We'll see about that," said Hemming, and wrote to say that he would
like to take a holiday until more fighting turned up. He sent them
his address for the next six months--Maidmill-on-Dee, Cheshire,
England. Then he sold his horse, packed his things, and sailed for
England.
At Maidmill-on-Dee, in a stone cottage with a slated roof, lived an
old couple named Thomson. During the brief married life of Hemming's
parents, these two good folk had looked after their bodily
welfare--Thomson as gardener and groom, and Mrs. Thomson as cook.
Hemming's father, though well connected, had made his livelihood as a
country doctor. The people in Maidmill-on-Dee still remembered him
as a handsome, generous man with the manner of a lord lieutenant of
the county, and with always a good horse in his stables. Hemming's
mother had been the daughter of a scholarly, though poor, country
vicar. She had been a beauty in a frail, white way, and a lover of
her husband, her home, and good literature. When the doctor had died
of blood-poisoning, contracted during a simple operation upon one of
his many poor patients, she had tried, for awhile, to take heart
again, but had followed him within a year. After the deaths of the
parents a wealthy relative had remembered the son, and, finding him a
youth of promise, had given him some money.
Hemming drove from the station in the public bus. He passed the
house where so much of his earlier years had been spent, and told the
driver to take him to Joseph Thomson's. They rattled down the quiet,
single street, and drew up at the stone threshold. He helped the
driver pile his bags and boxes beside the door. Then he dismissed
the conveyance, and paused for awhile before entering the cottage,
with a warm, new feeling of homecoming in his heart. The low, wide
kitchen was unoccupied, but the door leading to the garden behind
stood open. He sat down in a well-worn chair and looked about. The
October sunlight lit up the dishes on the dresser. A small table by
a window was laid with plates and cups for two. He heard voices in
the garden. A woman, stout and gray-haired, entered with a head of
Brussels sprouts in her hand, and with her cotton skirt kilted up,
displaying a bright, quilted petticoat. Hemming got up from his
chair, but she was not looking toward him, and she was evidently hard
of hearing. He stepped in front of her and laid his hands on her
shoulders.
"Susan," he said, beaming.
"Lor', Master Bert," she exclaimed, "you're still at your tricks."
In a flutter of delight she smacked him squarely on the mouth, and
then, blushing and trembling, begged his pardon.
"I can't think you're a grown-up man," she explained. She surveyed
him at arm's length.
"You're not overly big," she said, "an' that's a fact. But you're
surprising thick through the chest and wide i' the shoulders. An'
who'd ever have looked for Master Bert, all so suddent, i'
Maidmill-on-Dee."
By this time she was in a fair way to burst into tears, so fast were
the old memories crowding upon her. Hemming feared tears more than
the devil, and, patting her violently on the back, forced her into a
chair.
"There, Susan, there. Now keep cool and fire low, and tell me what
you are going to have for lunch?" he urged.
"Thomson," she called, "there is a gentleman here as wants to see
you."
"Bes there, now?" said Thomson, and rubbed his hands on his smock.
"Never mind your hands," she called.
Thomson scraped his heavy way into the kitchen, and blinked at the
visitor.
"Howde, sir," he remarked, affably.
"How are you, Thomson? Glad to see you again," said Hemming,
extending his hand.
The old gardener gave back a step, with a slight cry and an uptossing
of gnarled hands.
He recovered himself with an effort.
"God bless me, it's Master Herbert," he exclaimed. "Do you know,
missus, I thought it was the doctor askin' how I was," he continued,
turning to his wife, "but the master was a more sizable man,--yes,
an' redder i' the face."
"Ay," replied Mrs. Thomson, "but hansome is as hansome does--meanin'
nothin' disrespectful about the old master, God bless his memory,
dear man,--and Master Bert is a fine appearin' young gentleman."
The gaffer nodded. "The lasses wud believe you, missus," he said.
"What lasses do you mean?" inquired the old woman, sharply. "Where's
the lass i' this village fit to believe anything about one o' the
queen's officers--tell me that."
"Ay, I was sayin' nothin'," replied Thomson.
The woman looked quizzically at Hemming.
"Like enough there's a young lady in Lunnon," she suggested.
"There is no young lady--anywhere," said Hemming, "and I'm no longer
in the army. I'm at another trade now."
"Trade?" exclaimed Thomson.
"Well, hardly that," laughed Hemming. "I write for a living."
Mrs. Thomson nodded with satisfaction.
"The queen's son-in-law wrote a book," she said.
"I hardly do that kind," said Hemming, uneasily.
"I vum you don't, sir," cried the man, whacking the table, "not if
the missus means the book she read to me out of, oncet."
Hemming was pleased with the old man's shrewdness, though Mrs.
Thomson was shocked at his insinuations.
Hemming settled down in the cottage, much to the delight of the old
couple. A fair-sized room on the ground floor was given over to him,
for bedroom and study. The success of his last article had suggested
to him the writing of a book about what he knew, and had seen, of the
last brief campaign--something more lasting than his syndicate work,
and more carefully done. This work would have colour, not too
heavily splashed on; style, not too aggressive; and dignity befitting
the subject. He decided that he must prune his newspaper style
considerably for the book. So he settled down to his work, and after
three days' honest labour, all that stood of it was the title, "Where
Might Is Right." Strange to say, this seeming failure did not
discourage him. He knew what he had to say, and felt that as soon as
the right note for the expression of it was struck, it would be easy
to go on. The pages he so ruthlessly destroyed were splendid
newspaper copy, but he knew the objection thinking men have to
finding newspaper work between the covers of a book. But at last the
opening chapter was done to his taste; and after that the work was
easy and pleasant. It soon became his habit to get out of bed in
time to breakfast with Thomson, who was a thrifty market-gardener on
a small scale. After his breakfast he smoked a cigar in the garden,
and sometimes told stories of his adventures to his host. By eight
o'clock he was at his table, writing rapidly, but not steadily, until
twelve o'clock. After the simple midday dinner he walked for several
hours, and seldom went back to his work until candle-time. In this
way, with books and magazines sent down every week from London, he
managed to put in his time without letting himself think too often of
Molly Travers. Nothing in the village reminded him of her, and his
healthy days brought him, for the most part, dreamless nights.
The old people were immensely interested in Hemming and his work.
They even persuaded him to read some of the chapters of his book
aloud to them. It was plain to Hemming that Mrs. Thomson's signs of
appreciation were matters more of the heart than the head; but not so
with Thomson. He would applaud a convincing argument or a
well-turned sentence by slapping his hand on his knee, and for hours
after a reading would sit by the chimney and mumble curses on the
heads of the Turks. One morning, while Hemming was watching him at
his work, he turned from the bonfire he had been tending and, without
preamble, grasped his lodger's hand.
"You've a power of brains inside your head, sir," he said, with
vehemence. Hemming felt that, even from O'Rourke, he had never
received a more pleasing compliment. He rewarded the gaffer with a
cigar from his own case.
By Christmas "Where Might Is Right" was finished, and posted to a
London publisher. With this work done, restlessness returned to
Hemming. He fought it off for awhile, but at last packed a bag with
his best clothes, and, telling Mrs. Thomson to take care of his
letters until his return, went up to London. First of all he called
on the publishers to whom he had sent his book. The manager was in,
and received Hemming cordially. He said that he had not yet looked
at Hemming's manuscript, and that at present it was in town, having
been taken away to a house-party by their literary adviser. However,
he had followed Captain Hemming's career as a war-correspondent and
writer of army stories with interest, and felt that it was altogether
likely that the firm would want to do business with him. The genial
glow of the season must have been in the gentleman's blood, for he
cordially invited Hemming to lunch with him at his club. Upon
reaching the street Hemming found the fog, which had been scarcely
noticeable a short time before, was rapidly thickening.
"Let us walk--it is but a step," said the publisher, "and I've made
the trip in every kind of weather for the last twenty years."
On the steps of the club Hemming stumbled against a crouched figure.
There was a dull yellow glare from the lamp above, and by it Hemming
saw the beggar's bloated, hungry face, bedraggled red beard, and
trembling hand. The eyes were cunning and desperate, but pitiful
just then. Hemming passed the poor fellow a coin,--a two-shilling
piece,--and followed his guide into the warm, imposing hall of the
club, wondering where he had seen those unscrupulous eyes before.
The club was brightly lighted. The lunch was long and complicated
and very good. The publisher was vastly entertaining, and seemed in
no hurry to get back to his work. Hemming's thoughts, in spite of
the cheer, busied themselves with the beggar on the steps.
"Did you notice the beggar outside?" he asked, at last.
"The chap with the bushy beard?--why, yes, he is new to this
quarter," replied the other.
"He was a desperate-looking devil, and I think the beard was false,"
remarked Hemming. But as his host did not seem interested in either
the beggar or his beard, the subject was dropped.
Next day, with an unnamed hope in his heart that something might
happen, Hemming passed the Travers house. But the hope died at sight
of it, for it was clearly unoccupied! He remained in town a few days
longer, seeking familiar faces in familiar haunts, and finding none
to his mind. He thought it strange that romance, and everything
worth while, should have deserted the great city in so brief a time.
But, for that matter, when he came to think of it, the whole world
had lost colour. He decided that he was growing old--and perhaps too
wise. After standing the genial publisher a dinner, and receiving a
promise of a speedy decision on "Where Might Is Right," he returned
to Maidmill-on-Dee, to spend weary months awaiting rumour of war. At
last the rumour came, closely followed by sailing orders.
CHAPTER IX.
O'ROURKE TELLS A SAD STORY
Upon his arrival in New York, Hemming called immediately upon Mr.
Dodder, in the New York News Syndicate Building on Fulton Street. He
found the manager even stouter than at the time of their first
meeting, and of a redder countenance. His manner was as cordial as
before, but his mood was not so jovial.
"I am always worrying about something or other, and just now it is my
health," he told Hemming. "You don't know what I'd give, captain,
for a life like yours--and a good hard body like yours. But I can't
drop this job now. It's the very devil, I can tell you, to have
one's brain and nerves jumping and twanging all the time, while one's
carcass lolls about and puts on fat. I'm sorry I was so smart when I
was a kid. Otherwise the old man would not have sent me to college,
and I'd never have hustled myself into this slavery. My father was a
lumberman, and so was my grandfather. They had big bodies, just like
mine, but they lived the right kind of lives for their bodies."
Hemming felt sorry for him. He saw that the gigantic body was at
strife with the manner of life to which it was held, and that the
same physique that had proved itself a blessing to the lumberman, was
a menace to the desk-worker.
"Better take a few months in the woods," he suggested.
Dodder laughed bitterly. "You might just as well advise me to take a
few months in heaven," he said.
Hemming asked for news of O'Rourke.
The manager's face lighted.
"O'Rourke," he exclaimed, "is a man wise in his generation. Shackles
of gold couldn't hold that chap from his birthright of freedom. He
did us some fine work for a time,--rode with Gomez and got his news
out somehow or other,--but went under with enteric and left Cuba. We
kept him on, of course, but as soon as he could move around again he
resigned his position. He said he had some very pressing business
affair to see to."
"Is he well again?" asked Hemming, anxiously.
"Oh, yes, he's able to travel," replied Dodder. "He was here only a
week ago. He seems to be making a tour of the Eastern cities. I
guess he's looking for something."
"An editor, likely, who has lost some of his manuscripts," remarked
Hemming.
"Or a girl," said the other.
"Why a girl?" asked the Englishman.
Dodder smiled pensively. "I like to think so," he said, "for though
I am nothing but a corpulent business slave myself, I've a fine
active brain for romance, and the heart of a Lochinvar."
Hemming nodded gravely. Dodder laughed at him. "You are thinking
what a devilish big horse I need," he said.
They dined together that evening at the Reform Club, and Hemming was
amazed at the quantity of food the big man consumed. He had seen
O'Rourke, the long, lean, and broad, sit up to some hearty meals
after a day in the saddle, but never had he met with an appetite like
Dodder's. It was the appetite of his ancestral lumbermen, changed a
little in taste, perhaps, but the same in vigour.
War was in order between the United States of America and Spain.
General Shafter's army was massing in Tampa, Florida, and Hemming,
with letters from the syndicate, started for Washington to procure a
pass from the War Office. But on the night before his departure from
New York came news from London of his book, and the first batch of
proof-sheets for correction. He worked until far into the morning,
and mailed the proofs, together with a letter, before breakfast.
Arriving in Washington, he went immediately to the War Department
building, and handed in his letters. The clerk returned and asked
him to follow to an inner room. There he found a pale young man,
with an imposing, closely printed document in his hand.
"Captain Hemming?" inquired the gentleman.
Hemming bowed.
"Your credentials are correct," continued the official, "and the
Secretary of War has signed your passport. Please put your name
here."
Hemming signed his name on the margin of the document, folded it, and
stowed it in a waterproof pocketbook, and bowed himself out. He was
about to close the door behind him when the official called him back.
"You forgot something, captain," said the young man, holding a packet
made up of about half a dozen letters toward him.
"Not I," replied Hemming. He glanced at the letters, and read on the
top one "Bertram St. Ives O'Rourke, Esq."
"O'Rourke," he exclaimed.
"How stupid of me," cried the young man.
"Where is he? When was he here?" inquired Hemming. "He is a
particular friend of mine," he added.
The official considered for a second or two.
"Tall chap with a yellow face and a silk hat, isn't he?" he asked.
"Tall enough," replied Hemming, "but he had neither a yellow face nor
a silk hat when I saw him last--that was in Jamaica, about a year
ago."
At that moment the door opened and O'Rourke entered. Without
noticing Hemming he gave a folded paper to the clerk.
"You'll find that right enough," he said--and then his eye lighted
upon his old comrade. He grasped the Englishman by the shoulders and
shook him backward and forward, grinning all the while a wide, yellow
grin.
"My dear chap," protested Hemming, "where have you been to acquire
this demonstrative nature?"
"Lots of places. Come and have a drink," exclaimed O'Rourke.
"I'll mail that to your hotel," called the pale young man after them,
as they hurried out.
"What are you up to now, my son?" inquired Hemming, critically
surveying the other's faultless attire. "You look no end of a toff,
in spite of your yellow face."
"Thanks, and I feel it," replied his friend, "but my release is at
hand, for to-night I shall hie me to mine uncle's and there deposit
these polite and costly garments. Already my riding-breeches and
khaki tunic are airing over the end of my bed."
"But why this grandeur, and this wandering about from town to town?"
asked Hemming. He caught the quick look of inquiry on his friend's
face. "Dodder told me you'd been aimlessly touring through the
Eastern States," he added.
"Here we are--come in and I'll tell you about it," replied O'Rourke.
They entered the Army and Navy Club, and O'Rourke, with a
very-much-at-home air, led the way to a quiet inner room.
"I suppose we'll split the soda the same old way--as we did before
sorrow and wisdom came to us," sighed O'Rourke. He gave a familiar
order to the attentive waiter. Hemming looked closely at his
companion, and decided that the lightness was only a disguise.
"Tell me the yarn, old boy--I know it's of more than fighting and
fever," he said, settling himself comfortably in his chair.
O'Rourke waited until the servant had deposited the glasses and
retired. Then he selected two cigars from his case with commendable
care, and, rolling one across the table, lit the other. He inhaled
the first draught lazily.
"These are deuced fine cigars," remarked Hemming. O'Rourke nodded
his head, and, with his gaze upon the blue drift of smoke, began his
story.
"I was in a very bad way when I got out of that infernal island last
time. I had a dose of fever that quite eclipsed any of my former
experiences in that line--also a bullet-hole in the calf of my left
leg. Maybe you noticed my limp, and thought I was feigning gout. A
tug brought me back to this country, landing me at Port Tampa. Some
patriotic Cubans were waiting for me, and I made the run up to Tampa
in a car decorated with flags. I wore my Cuban uniform, you know,
and must have looked more heroic than I felt."
Hemming raised his eyebrows at that.
"I'm a major in the Cuban army--the devil take it," explained
O'Rourke.
"The patriots escorted me to a hotel," he continued, "but the manager
looked at my banana-hued face and refused to have anything to do with
me at any price. Failing in this, my tumultuous friends rushed me to
a wooden hospital, at the end of a river of brown sand which the
inhabitants of that town call an avenue. I was put to bed in the
best room in the place, and then my friends hurried away, each one to
find his own doctor to offer me. I was glad of the quiet, for I felt
about as beastly as a man can feel without flickering out entirely.
I don't think my insides just then would have been worth more than
two cents to any one but a medical student. The matron--at least
that's what they called her--came in to have a look at me, and ask me
questions. She was young, and she was pretty, and her impersonal
manner grieved me even then. I might have been a dashed pacifico for
all the interest she showed in me, beyond taking my temperature and
ordering the fumigation of my clothes. I wouldn't have felt so badly
about it if she had not been a lady--but she was, sure enough, and
her off-hand treatment very nearly made me forget my cramps and
visions of advancing land-crabs. During the next few days I didn't
know much of anything. When my head felt a little clearer, the
youthful matron brought me a couple of telegrams. I asked her to
open them, and read them to me. Evidently my Cuban friends had
reported the state of my health, and other things, for both telegrams
were tender inquiries after my condition.
"'You seem to be a person of some importance,' she said, regarding me
as if I were a specimen in a jar.
"'My name is O'Rourke,' I murmured. For awhile she stared at me in a
puzzled sort of way. Suddenly she blushed.
"'I beg your pardon, Mr. O'Rourke,' she said, and sounded as if she
meant it. I felt more comfortable, and sucked my ration of milk and
lime-water with relish. Next day the black orderly told me that the
matron was Miss Hudson, from somewhere up North. He didn't know just
where. I gave him a verbal order on the hospital for a dollar.
"Presently Miss Hudson came in and greeted me cheerfully. 'Why do
you want Harley to have a dollar?' she asked.
"'Just for a tip,' I replied, wearily.
"'He is paid to do his work, and if some patients fee him, the poorer
ones will suffer,' she said.
"'But I want him to have it, please. He told me your name,' I said.
"She paid no more attention to this foolish remark than if I had
sneezed. Indeed, even less, for if I had sneezed she would have
taken my pulse or my temperature. I watched her as she moved about
the room seeing that all was clean and in order.
"'Miss Hudson,' I said, gaining courage, 'will you tell me what is
going on in the world? Have you a New York paper?'
"'Yes, some papers have come for you,' she answered, 'and I will read
to you for a little while, if you feel strong enough to listen.
There is a letter, too. Shall I open it for you?'
"She drew a chair between my bed and the window, and, first of all,
examined the letter.
"'From the New York News Syndicate,' she said.
"'Then it's only a check,' I sighed.
"'I shall put it away with the money you had when you came,' she
said. She opened a paper, glanced at it, and wrinkled her white brow
at me.
"'Are you the Bertram St. Ives O'Rourke?" she asked.
"'No, indeed,' I replied. 'He has been dead a long time. He was an
admiral in the British navy.'
"'I have never heard of him,' she answered, 'but there is a man with
that name who writes charming little stories, and verses, too, I
think.'
"'Oh, that duffer,' I exclaimed, faintly.
"She laughed quietly. 'There is an article about him here--at least
I suppose it is the same man.' She glanced down the page and then up
at me. 'An angel unawares,' she laughed, and chaffed me kindly about
my modesty.
"After that we became better friends every day, though she often
laughed at the way some of the papers tried to make a hero of me.
That hurt me, because really I had gone through some awful messes,
and been sniped at a dozen times. The Spaniards had a price on my
head. I told her that, but she didn't seem impressed. As soon as I
was able to see people, my friends the Cuban cigar manufacturers
called upon me, singly and in pairs, each with a gift of cigars.
These are out of their offerings. The more they did homage to me,
the less seriously did Miss Hudson seem to regard my heroism. But
she liked me--yes, we were good friends."
O'Rourke ceased talking and pensively flipped the ash off his cigar.
Leaning back in his chair, he stared at the ceiling.
"Well?" inquired his friend. O'Rourke returned to the narration of
his experience with a visible effort.
"After awhile she read to me, for half an hour or so, every day. One
evening she read a ballad of my own; by gad, it was fine. But then,
even the _Journal_ sounded like poetry when she got hold of it. From
that we got to talking about ourselves to each other, and she told me
that she had learned nursing, after her freshman year at Vassar,
because of a change in her father's affairs. She had come South with
a wealthy patient, and, after his recovery, had accepted the position
of matron, or head nurse, of that little hospital. In return, I
yarned away about my boyhood, my more recent adventures, my friends,
and my ambitions. At last my doctor said I could leave the hospital,
but must go North right away. My leg was healed, but otherwise I
looked and felt a wreck. I was so horribly weak, and my nights
continued so crowded with suffering and delirium, that I feared my
constitution was ruined. I tried to keep myself in hand when Miss
Hudson was around, but she surely guessed that I loved her."
"What's that?" interrupted Hemming.
"I said that I loved her," retorted O'Rourke, defiantly.
"Go ahead with the story," said the Englishman.
"When the time came for my departure," continued O'Rourke, "and the
carriage was waiting at the curb, I just kissed her hand and left
without saying a word. I came North and got doctors to examine me.
They said that my heart and lungs were right as could be, and that
the rest of my gear would straighten up in time. They promised even
a return of my complexion with the departure of the malaria from my
blood. But I must live a quiet life for awhile, they said; so to
begin the quiet life I returned to Tampa, and that hospital. But I
did not find the girl."
"Was she hiding?" inquired Hemming. "Perhaps she had heard some
stories to your discredit."
"No," said O'Rourke, "she had resigned, and left the town, with her
father. Evidently her troubles were ended--just as mine were begun."
"What did you do about it?" asked Hemming, whose interest was
thoroughly aroused.
"Oh, I looked for her everywhere--in Boston, and New York, and
Baltimore, and Washington, and read all the city directories,"
replied the disconsolate lover, "but I do not know her father's first
name, and you have no idea what a lot of Hudsons there are in the
world."
Hemming discarded the butt of his cigar, and eyed his friend
contemplatively.
"I suppose you looked in the registers of the Tampa hotels?" he
queried. "The old chap's name and perhaps his address would be
there."
O'Rourke started from his chair, with dismay and shame written on his
face.
"Sit down and have another," said Hemming; "we'll look it up in a few
days."
CHAPTER X.
LIEUTENANT ELLIS IS CONCERNED
By the time Hemming and O'Rourke reached Tampa, about thirty thousand
men had gone under canvas in the surrounding pine groves and
low-lying waste places. There were Westerners and Easterners,
regulars and volunteers, and at Port Tampa a regiment of coloured
cavalry. Troops were arriving every day. Colonel Wood and
Lieutenant-Colonel Roosevelt, with their splendid command of mounted
infantry, had just pitched their shelter-tents in a place of scrub
palmetto, behind the big hotel. Taken altogether, it was an army
that made Hemming stare.
The friends went to a quiet hotel with wide verandas, cool rooms,
open fireplaces, and what proved equally attractive, reasonable
rates. They inquired of the clerk about Mr. Hudson. He remembered
the gentleman well, though he had spent only two days in the place.
"He had a daughter with him," the man informed them, and, turning to
the front of the register, looked up the name. "There's the
signature, sir, and you're welcome to it," he said. The
correspondents examined it intently for some time.
"We know that _that_ means Hudson," remarked O'Rourke, at last, "and
I should guess _John_ for the other sprawl."
"Sprawl is good," said Hemming, straightening his monocle, "but any
one can see that _Robert_ is the name."
"I've put a lot of study on it," said the clerk, "and so has the
boss, and we've about agreed to call it _Harold_."
"Take your choice," said O'Rourke, "but tell me what you make of the
address."
"Boston," cried the clerk.
They stared at him. "You were all ready," said Hemming.
"Yes, sir," he replied, "for I've been thinking it over for some
time."
"Why the devil didn't you ask him?" inquired O'Rourke, fretfully.
"Lookee here, colonel," said the hotel man, "if you know Mr. Hudson,
you know darn well why I didn't ask him where he came from."
"High and haughty?" queried O'Rourke.
The clerk nodded.
"You had better reconsider your course, old chap," laughed the
Englishman.
His friend did not reply. He was again intent on the register.
"I make seven letters in it," he said, "and I'll swear to that for an
N."
"N nothing," remarked the clerk; "that's a B."
"Yes, it is a B, I think, and to me the word looks like--well, like
Balloon," said Hemming.
O'Rourke sighed. "Of course it is New York; see the break in the
middle, and a man is more likely to come from there than from a
balloon," he said.
"Some men go away in balloons, sir," suggested the clerk.
Just then the proprietor of the hotel entered and approached the
desk. He Was an imposing figure of a man, tall and deep, and
suitably dressed in the roomiest of light tweeds. His face was round
and clever. He shook hands with the new arrivals.
"Military men, I believe," he said.
"Not just now," replied Hemming.
"Do you know where Mr. Hudson is at present?" asked O'Rourke, in
casual tones.
"Mr. Hudson, of Philadelphia? Why, no, sir, I can't say that I do,"
answered the big man.
"How do you know he's of Philadelphia?" asked the Englishman.
"He wrote it in the register; look for yourself," was the reply.
"No," said O'Rourke, mournfully, "but it is a very dry evening, and
if you will honour us with your company as far as the bar, Mr.--"
"Stillman,--delighted, sir," hastily replied the proprietor.
The three straightway sought that cool retreat, leaving the clerk to
brood, with wrinkled brow, above the puzzle so unconsciously donated
to him by a respectable one-time guest.
The weary delay in that town of sand and disorder at last came to an
end, and Hemming and O'Rourke, with their passports countersigned by
General Shafter, went aboard the _Olivette_. Most of the newspaper
men were passengers on the same boat. During the rather slow trip,
they made many friends and a few enemies. One of the friends was a
youth with a camera, sent to take pictures for the same weekly paper
which O'Rourke represented. The landing in Cuba of a part of the
invading forces and the correspondents was made at Baiquiri, on the
southern coast. The woful mismanagement of this landing has been
written about often enough. O'Rourke and Hemming, unable to procure
horses, set off toward Siboney on foot, and on foot they went through
to Santiago with the ragged, hungry, wonderful army. They did their
work well enough, and were thankful when it was over. Hemming
admired the American army--up to a certain grade. Part of the time
they had a merry Toronto journalist for messmate, a peaceful family
man, who wore a round straw hat and low shoes throughout the
campaign. During the marching (but not the fighting), O'Rourke
happened upon several members of his old command. One of the
meetings took place at midnight, when the Cuban warrior was in the
act of carrying away Hemming's field-glasses and the Toronto man's
blanket.
After the surrender of Santiago, Hemming received word to cover Porto
Rico. He started at the first opportunity in a gunboat that had once
been a harbour tug. O'Rourke, who was anxious to continue his still
hunt for the lady who had nursed him, returned to Florida, and from
thence to New York.
In Porto Rico Hemming had an easy and pleasant time. He struck up an
acquaintance that soon warmed to intimacy with a young volunteer
lieutenant of infantry, by name Ellis. Ellis was a quiet,
well-informed youth; in civil life a gentleman-at-large with a
reputation as a golfer. With his command of sixteen men he was
stationed just outside of Ponce, and under the improvised canvas
awning before his door he and Hemming exchanged views and
confidences. One evening, while the red eyes of their green cigars
glowed and dimmed in the darkness, Hemming told of his first meeting
with O'Rourke. He described the little boat tossing toward them from
the vast beyond, the poncho bellied with the wind, and the lean,
undismayed adventurer smoking at the tiller. Ellis sat very quiet,
staring toward the white tents of his men.
"Is that the same O'Rourke who was once wounded in Cuba, and later
nearly died of fever in Tampa?" he asked, when Hemming was through.
"Yes, the same man," said Hemming, "and as decent a chap as ever put
foot in stirrup. Do you know him?"
"No, but I have heard a deal about him," replied the lieutenant. It
did not surprise Hemming that a man should hear about O'Rourke.
Surely the good old chap had worked hard enough (in his own daring,
vagrant way) for his reputation. He brushed a mosquito away from his
neck, and smoked on in silence.
"I have heard a--a romance connected with your friend O'Rourke," said
Ellis, presently, in a voice that faltered. Hemming pricked up his
ears at that.
"So have I. Tell me what you have heard," he said.
"It is not so much what I've heard, as who I heard it from," began
the lieutenant, "and it's rather a personal yarn. I met a girl, not
long ago, and we seemed to take to each other from the start. I saw
her frequently, and I got broken up on her. Then I found out that,
though she liked me better than any other fellow in sight, she did
not love me one little bit. She admired my form at golf, and
considered my conversation edifying, but when it came to love, why,
there was some one else. Then she told me about O'Rourke. She had
nursed him in Tampa for several months, just before the time old
Hudson had recaptured his fortune."
"O'Rourke told me something about it," said Hemming. "He thought, at
the time, that he was an invalid for life, so he did not let her know
how he felt about her. Afterward the doctors told him he was sound
as a bell, and ever since--barring this last Cuban business--he has
been looking for her."
"But he does not know that she loves him?" queried Ellis.
"I really couldn't say," replied Hemming.
Ellis shifted his position, and with deft fingers rerolled the leaf
of his moist cigar. In a dim sort of way he wondered if he could
give up the girl. In time, perhaps, she would love him--if he could
keep O'Rourke out of sight. A man in the little encampment began to
sing a sentimental negro melody. The clear, sympathetic tenor rang,
like a bugle-call, across the stagnant air. A banjo, with its wilful
pathos, tinkled and strummed.
"Listen! that is Bolls, my sergeant. He is a member of the Harvard
Glee Club," said the lieutenant.
Hemming listened, and the sweet voice awoke the bitter memories.
Presently he asked: "What is Miss Hudson's address?"
"She is now in Europe, with her father," replied his companion.
"Their home is in Marlow, New York State."
"May I let O'Rourke know?" asked Hemming.
"Certainly," replied Ellis, scarce above a whisper. He wondered what
nasty, unsuspected devil had sprung to power within him, keeping him
from telling that the home in Marlow was by this time in the hands of
strangers, and that the Hudsons intended living in New York after
their return from Europe.
O'Rourke had asked Hemming to write to him now and then, to the Army
and Navy Club at Washington, where the letters would be sure to find
him sooner or later; so Hemming wrote him the glad information from
Porto Rico.
CHAPTER XI.
HEMMING DRAWS HIS BACK PAY
Hemming walked down Broadway on the morning of a bright November day.
The hurrying crowds on the pavements, however weary at heart, looked
glad and eager in the sunlight. The stir of the wide street got into
his blood, and he stepped along with the air of one bound upon an
errand that promised more than money. He entered a cigar store, and
filled his case with Turkish cigarettes. Some newspapers lay on the
counter, but he turned away from them, for he was sick of news.
Further along, he glanced into the windows of a book-shop. His gaze
alighted upon the figure of a Turkish soldier. Across the width of
the sheet ran the magic words, "Where Might Is Right. A Book of the
Greco-Turkish War. By Herbert Hemming."
As one walks in a dream, Hemming entered the shop. "Give me a copy
of that book," he said.
"I beg your pardon, sir?" inquired the shopman.
Hemming recovered his wits.
"I want a copy of 'Where Might Is Right,' by Hemming," he said. He
laid aside his gloves and stick, and opened the book with loving
hands. His first book. The pride of it must have been very apparent
on his tanned face, for the man behind the counter smiled.
"I have read that book myself," ventured the man. "I always read a
book that I sell more than twenty copies of in one day."
Hemming glowed, and continued his scrutiny of the volume. On one of
the first pages was printed, "Authorized American Edition." The name
of the publishers was S----'s Sons.
"Where do S----'s Sons hang out?" he asked, as he paid for the book.
"Just five doors below this," said the man.
"I'll look in there," decided Hemming, "before I call on Dodder."
The war correspondent was cordially received by the head of the great
publishing house. He was given a comprehensive account of the
arrangements made between his London and New York publishers, and
these proved decidedly satisfactory. The business talk over, Hemming
prepared to go.
"I hope you will look me up again before you leave town," said the
head of the firm, as they shook hands.
Arrived in the outer office of the New York News Syndicate, Hemming
inquired for Mr. Dodder. The clerk stared at him with so strange an
expression that his temper suffered.
"Well, what the devil is the matter?" he exclaimed.
"Mr. Dodder is dead," replied the youth. Just then Wells came from
an inner room, caught sight of the Englishman, and approached.
"So you're back, are you?" he remarked, with his hands in his
pockets. Hemming was thinking of the big, kind-hearted manager, and
replied by asking the cause of his death. "Apoplexy. Are you ready
to sail for the Philippines? Why didn't you wait in Porto Rico for
orders?" he snapped.
"Keep cool, my boy," said Hemming's brain to Hemming's heart.
Hemming himself said, with painful politeness: "I can be ready in two
days, Mr. Wells, but first we must make some new arrangements as to
expenses and salary."
"Do you think you are worth more than you get?" sneered Wells. "Has
that book that you wrote, when we were paying you to do work for us,
given you a swelled head?"
Hemming was about to reply when an overgrown young man, a bookkeeper,
who had been listening, nudged his elbow roughly.
"Here's your mail," he said.
Hemming placed the half-dozen letters in his pocket. His face was
quite pale, considering the length of time he had been in the
tropics. He took the overgrown youth by the front of his jacket and
shook him. Then he twirled him deftly and pushed him sprawling
against his enraged employer. Both went down, swearing viciously.
The other inmates of the great room stared and waited. Most of them
looked pleased. An office boy, who had received notice to leave that
morning, sprang upon a table. "Soak it to 'em, Dook. Soak it to
'em, you bang-up Chawley. Dey can't stand dat sort o' health food."
Wells got to his feet. The bookkeeper scrambled up and rushed at
Hemming. He was received in a grip that made him repent his action.
"Mr. Wells," said Hemming, "I shall hold on to this gentleman, who
does not seem to know how to treat his superiors, until he cools off,
and in the meantime I'll trouble you for what money is due me, up to
date. Please accept my resignation at the same time."
"I'll call a copper," sputtered Wells.
The door opened, and the head of the publishing house of S----'s Sons
entered.
"Good Lord, what is the trouble?" he cried.
"I am trying to draw my pay," explained Hemming.
The new arrival looked at the ruffled, confused Wells with eyes of
contempt and suspicion.
"I'll wait for you, Mr. Hemming, on condition that you will lunch
with me," he cried.
A few minutes later they left the building, and in his pocket Hemming
carried a check for the sum of his back pay.
"In a month from now," said his companion, "that concern will not be
worth as much as your check is written for. Even poor old Dodder had
all he could do to hold it together. He had the brains and decency,
and that fellow had the money."
By the time lunch was over, Hemming found himself once more in
harness, but harness of so easy a fit that not a buckle galled. The
billet was a roving commission from S----'s Sons to do articles of
unusual people and unusual places for their illustrated weekly
magazine. He spent the afternoon in reading and writing letters. He
advised every one with whom he had dealings of his new headquarters.
He had a good collection of maps, and sat up until three in the
morning pondering over them. Next day he bought himself a camera,
and overhauled his outfit. By the dawn of the third day after his
separation from the syndicate, he had decided to start northward,
despite the season.
The clamour of battle was no longer his guide. Now the Quest of the
Little-Known was his. It brought him close to many hearths, and
taught him the hearts of all sorts and conditions of men. In the
span of a few years, it made him familiar with a hundred villages
between Nain in the North and Rio de Janeiro in the South. He found
comfort under the white lights of strange cities, and sought peace in
various wildernesses. Under the canvas roof and the bark, as under
the far-shining shelters of the town, came ever the dream of his old
life for bedfellow.
END OF PART I.
PART TWO
CHAPTER I.
THE UNSUSPECTED CITY
Hemming happened upon the city of Pernamba on the evening of a sultry
day in April. He manifested no surprise beyond straightening his
monocle in his eye.
"Hope they have some English soda-water down there," he said to the
heavy foliage about him, "but I suppose it would be hardly fair to
expect an ice factory so far from the coast." For a second a vision
of tall glasses and ice that clinked came to his mind's eye. He
remembered the cool dining-rooms of his friends in Pernambuco. He
spurred his native-bred steed to a hesitating trot along the narrow,
hoof-worn path that led down to the valley. At a mud and timber hut
set beneath banana-trees, and backed by a tiny field, he drew rein.
A woman sat before the door, looking cool and at ease in her scanty
cotton dress. A naked child chased a pig among the bananas. Hemming
greeted the woman in Portuguese. She gave him humble greeting in
return. The pig and the baby came near to listen. Hemming swung his
feet free from the stirrups, to straighten the kink out of his knees.
He pushed back his pith helmet, and lit a cigarette.
"What is the name of the town?" he asked, smiling reassuringly.
The woman told him, standing respectfully on the earthen threshold.
Such square shoulders and clear eyes as this Englishman's were not
every-day sights in Pernamba.
"May a stranger find entertainment there?" he inquired.
"Yes," she replied, "and the great man who owns it is generous to
strangers. He is a big man, full of wisdom, smoking eternally a
yellow cigar not of this country."
Hemming dismounted, the better to rest his horse. Although he had
ridden all that day and the day before, he felt no fatigue himself.
The tropical sun, the narrow water-cut paths, and the clambering
vines held in the heated air and luring him with strange flowers,
brought him no terror. But he polished his monocle and sighed
uneasily, for his store of _milreis_ had dwindled since leaving
Pernambuco a week before to a sum equalling about eleven pounds in
English money.
"Has this man an army?" he asked.
"Truly a great army," replied the woman, "for I have seen it myself,
riding after thieves. It numbers five hundred men, all armed, and
wearing white tunics, and all paid for by this man. He must be
richer than a king to support so grand an army."
Hemming smiled toward the white and red roofs and clumps of foliage
in the valley, thinking, maybe, of his own old regiment, of Aldershot
during a review, of the hill batteries that had supported the
infantry advance in India, and of the fifty regiments under canvas in
Tampa.
"I crave a drink," he said,--"a finger of your good casash in a bowl
of cool water."
The woman brought it, smiling with hospitality, and would not accept
the ragged bill which he held out to her.
"It is a pleasure," cried she, "to slake the thirst of so
distinguished a señor."
Hemming bowed gravely, a smile lifting his upturned, pale moustache.
The baby came close, on all fours, and examined his yellow
riding-boots and straight spurs. Hemming patted the small one's limp
black hair.
"This is a kindly world," he said in English, then to the woman: "Let
thy son wear this ring,--see, it fits his thumb. Should any man ask
the name of his friend, say it is Hemming, an Englishman."
He pushed the child gently toward its mother, and, swinging to his
saddle, rode down toward the city. His gray eyes took in
everything,--the yellowing fruit, the fields of cane, the mud huts of
the poor, the thin horses of the charcoal-burners crowding out of the
trail to let him pass, and the patches of manioc.
All this he beheld with satisfaction. In a thin book he made a note,
thus: "Pernamba, name of town evidently run by a governor of
independent spirit. Army of 500, evidently mounted infantry.
Welcomed to outskirts of city by kind peasant woman, evening of April
6, 19--. Same climate and crops as rest of Brazil. Eleven pounds in
my pockets in Brazilian notes and small coin. What does Pernamba
hold for H.H. I wonder? A dinner or two, perhaps, and a couple of
chapters for my book."
Presently the twisting path met a highway between royal palms.
Good-sized villas, their walls all blue and white with glazed tiles,
their roofs dusky red, or else flat and railed about with white
stones, each in its separate garden. The gardens were enclosed by
high walls of brick, such as he had seen many times in the resident
sections of Pernambuco. For months he had lived in just such a
house, and lolled in just such a garden.
"The old Dutch influence," he said, tossing his cigarette over the
nearest wall. A bullock-cart came creaking along the road, the
patient cattle, with heads held low and a straight yoke across their
wrinkled necks, the driver walking at their heels, sombre with dust,
and daintily puffing a cigarette. The cart was loaded with sacks of
sugar, which sent up a heavy, sickly smell. Hemming hailed the
driver.
"Where does the governor live, my friend?"
"The President, señor? There behind the white panthers." With the
stock of his rawhide whip, the fellow pointed to an iron gate, set
between posts of red brick, topped with marble panthers. Each
panther held a shield between its front paws. Hemming threw the
bullock-driver a coin, and rode on the pavement, the better to
examine the armorial design on the shields. He laughed softly.
"Familiar," he said, "ah, yes, a good enough old Devonshire shield.
I have admired it in the dining-room of the Governor of Newfoundland.
Now I doff my hat to it at the entrance of a president's residence.
Dash it all, I have outgrown dismay, and a jolly good thing, too."
He flecked a leaf off his knee with the tip of his glove.
"Queer I never heard about this before,--and what the deuce is a
Brazilian doing with those arms? Can this be where that crazy
American whom old Farrington told me about hangs out?" His brow
cleared, and he bowed to the expressionless panthers.
A sentry, who had been standing a few paces off, with a cavalry sabre
at his shoulder and a cigarette in his mouth, now drew near and
saluted. Hemming returned the salute sharply. This same custom of
smoking on sentry-go had jarred on him many a time in Pernambuco. He
had noticed the same thing in Bahia.
"I would see the President," he said, and passed his card to the
soldier. From a small guard-house just inside the wall came several
more white-clad men. One of these hurried away with Hemming's card,
and presently returned. The gates were swung wide open; Hemming rode
in at a dress-parade trot, travel-stained, straight of back, his
monocle flashing in his eye. Soldiers posted here and there among
the palms and roses and trim flower-beds stood at attention as he
passed.
He drew rein and dismounted at the foot of the marble steps. A tall,
heavily built man, dressed in a black frock coat and white trousers,
came down to meet him. A man in livery took his horse.
"Mr. Hemming," said the large man, "I am the President." He popped a
fat, yellow cigar into his mouth, and shook hands. "Come in," he
said. He led the way into a large tiled room, containing a
billiard-table of the American kind, a roll-top desk, and an office
chair. The windows of the room were all on one side, and opened on a
corner of the gardens, in which a fountain tossed merrily. The
President sank into a chair in the easiest manner, and threw one leg
over the arm of it. Then he noticed, with a quick twinkle in his
blue eyes, Hemming in the middle of the floor, erect and unsmiling.
"Mr. Hemming," he said, "I want your respect, but none of that
stiff-backed ceremony between gentlemen. I am neither Roosevelt nor
Albert Edward. Even Morgan is a bigger man than I am, though I still
hope. You have been in the English army, and you like to have things
starched; well, so do I sometimes. Please fall into that chair."
Hemming blushed and sat down. The man was evidently crazy. "My name
is Tetson," said the President. He rang the bell and a native
servant entered.
"Thank you, a Scotch and soda," said Hemming.
"Ah, I knew it," laughed the other, "though I always take rye myself."
The servant bowed and retired.
"I see the illustrated weeklies of both New York and London,"
continued Tetson, "and I always look for your articles. I like them.
I know something about your family, also, Hemming. I have 'Burke's
Landed Gentry' and 'Who's Who' on my desk. You are a grandson of Sir
Bertram Hemming of Barracker."
"Yes," replied Hemming, both surprised and embarrassed.
"Well," said the President, "I have some blood in me, too. My
mother's grandmother was a Gostwycke. Did you notice the three stars
and six choughs?"
"I know the head of your house at home, Colonel Bruce-Gostwycke, and
another distinguished member of it in the colonies, Sir Henry
Renton," replied Hemming. "But," he continued, briskly, twisting his
moustache, "you are something bigger than that here. Why do you hold
this little half-dead county family so high?"
"My mother in New York taught me to," replied Tetson, "and then this
business is different. I did it, as you Englishmen say, off my own
bat. A pile of money, a lot of gall, a little knowledge of the
weakness of men in office,--this is all about it. Even now most of
my friends think me a fool." He gravely relit his yellow cigar. The
reek of it was worse than jerked beef to Hemming. "I will tell you
my story some day, but now you want a shower-bath and a change.
Please consider yourself at home. Sudden friendships may not be good
form in England, but they are all right back here."
"Ah," said Hemming, "I have brushed about a bit; I'm not such a--so
English as I look."
Tetson turned to the servant: "Tell Smith to look after Mr. Hemming.
Smith is a handy man. You will find all kinds of cigarettes in his
keeping, and we shall dine at eight. If you feel hungry in the
meantime, tell Smith."
He arose and shook hands. Hemming followed the servant, inwardly
wondering, outwardly calm. He had met many strange people in his
adventurous life, and had become accustomed to luck of every kind,
but this big President, with the yellow cigar, was beyond anything he
had ever dreamed.
"I am glad I was born with imagination, and have enjoyed the
enlightening society of O'Rourke in so many strange places," he
thought.
Smith proved to be a clean-shaven man, all in white and brass
buttons. Hemming surveyed him with interest.
"I see that you are an Englishman, Smith," he said.
"No, sir," replied Smith, in faultless tones. "I was born on the
Bowery. But I have been in London, sir, yes, sir, with Mr. Tetson.
We haven't always lived in this 'ere 'ole."
It seemed to Hemming that the h's had been dropped with a certain
amount of effort on the man's part, and that his eyes twinkled in a
quite uncalled-for way. But it did not bother him now. Even a valet
may be allowed his joke.
Soon he was enjoying the luxury of a shower-bath in a great, cool
room, standing by itself in a vineyard and rose garden. The shower
fell about six feet before it touched his head. The roof of the
building was open to the peak, and a subdued light, leaf-filtered,
came down through a glass tile set in among the earthen ones. The
walls and floor were of white and blue tiles. The bath was of
marble, as large as an English billiard-table, and not unlike the
shallow basin of a fountain.
Cool and vigorous, Hemming stepped from the bath, replaced his
eye-glass, and lit a cigarette. Swathed in a white robe, with his
feet in native slippers, he unlocked the door and issued into the
scented garden air. Smith awaited him in the vine-covered alley,
holding a "swizzle" on a silver tray. He drained the glass, and,
lifting up the hem of his robe, followed the valet back to the
dressing-room. Chameleons darted across his path, and through the
palms floated the ringing notes of a bugle-call.
"I found your razors and your brushes in the saddle-bags," announced
Smith, "and these shirts, sir, I bought, guessing at your size, and--"
"What is this?" interrupted Hemming, holding aloft a white jacket
heavy with gold.
"Mess jacket of our regiment, sir. The President would feel honoured
if you would wear it. And these trousers were sent in by one of the
native officers, with his compliments," replied the valet.
Hemming curtly intimated his readiness to dress. Smith closed the
shutters, turned on the lights, and examined a couple of razors.
Twenty minutes later, Herbert Hemming, in the mess uniform of a
colonel in the President of Pernamba's army, was ushered into the
presence of the family, and a certain Mr. Valentine Hicks.