HAPHAZARD QUESTING
Masters, who was not minded to let the value of a small weekly
stipend stand between him and the possession of riches, had now
abandoned even the pretense of work. He let it be known, casually,
at the cottage that he was temporarily idle, while awaiting orders.
As a matter of fact, he was awaiting the dismissal that now could
not be long delayed. To May, however, he confessed the truth, that
he had chosen to sacrifice a paltry certainty for the sake of
possible wealth. She had protested against the recklessness of his
conduct, but her pleas had fallen on deaf ears. Masters went his
way of crafty greed without a moment’s faltering. He had exulted on
learning from the conversation overheard among the three friends that
the systematized search was to be abandoned in favor of a foolish
fancy--as he deemed it. While Saxe Temple and his companions loitered
in expectation of some psychic guidance, Masters would give himself
to the quest with an energy that must win him the victory. It was in
a very cheerful frame of mind that he betook himself to the cottage
on the following morning. Upon his arrival, however, he was at once
confronted with a new phase of the situation, which filled him with
rage.
The engineer found Mrs. West and Billy Walker chatting cozily on the
porch, as usual. Mrs. West beamed kindly in her greeting, for she
enjoyed the breezy manner of this handsome young man. Billy merely
grunted. To judge from the expression of his face, the utterance were
better inarticulate.
Masters leaned his long length against a pillar at the head of
the flight of steps, and joined genially in the conversation for
a few minutes, despite the manifest grumpiness of Billy Walker,
who, never a courtier, was at no pains to conceal his distaste for
the engineer’s society. Mrs. West, however, was amiability itself,
and Masters was minded to ignore the superciliousness of the other
man’s manner, though fully conscious of it. He felt that, under the
circumstances, he could ill afford to be too finical over such a
trifle, notwithstanding the irritation to his vanity. So he rolled
a cigarette from the chip tobacco and wheat-straw paper which he
affected, and chatted jauntily with Mrs. West. When he deemed that
a sufficient interval had elapsed, the engineer prepared the way to
continue his delayed search of the cottage:
“I’ll just take a look inside. Miss Thurston promised me a book.”
Forthwith, he reprobated himself for having employed this particular
ruse, for Mrs. West said:
“Miss Thurston isn’t in the cottage, Mr. Masters. You will find her
down at the boat-house.”
Masters thanked her with his most winning smile, and strolled away
toward the lake. Mrs. West looked after him with a femininely
appreciative smile.
“What a delightful gentleman Mr. Masters is!” she remarked innocently
to Billy; by way of answer, there came a rumbling, luckily again
quite inarticulate.
Forced thus by his own error to postpone the anticipated
investigation, Masters was in no pleasant mood as he made his way to
the boat-house, with the intention of venting his spite on the girl
who loved him. But even this relief was not to be vouchsafed him yet.
On the contrary, his displeasure was swiftly to become wrath, venomed
by alarm; for, as he drew near the boat-house, he heard a chorus of
merry voices. Instantly, he realized that the other men were here
where he had expected to find only May, and possibly Miss West. Fury
mounted high at the thought. A fierce, unreasoning jealousy bit at
him. So great was his emotion under these confederate causes that,
for once, he forgot discretion, and passed with hasty steps around
the boat-house, totally heedless of the distraught expression on his
usually debonair countenance.
As the engineer rounded the corner, a scowl bent his brows at sight
of the scene before him. The summer morning was of bland sun and
gentle airs to set the care-free in a mood for lazy delights. The
group of four, it was plain, had yielded to the soft seduction of
the hour, for their faces were radiant. Roy Morton was sitting, in
a boyish attitude, on the top of a snubbing post, about which his
long legs were twined for security’s sake, while May Thurston cuddled
at his feet, her face uplifted, her eyes rapt, as she listened
to some tale told from the book of his adventures. The spectacle
infuriated Masters, and new fuel fed the flame as his eyes fell on
the other two. These had their backs to the newcomer, who approached
immediately behind them. Margaret sat at the edge of the dock,
leaning against a post, in a posture of perfect comfort peculiarly
exasperating to the observer. A little to the right, and so placed
as to face the girl, Saxe sat, with his feet folded under him like a
Turk. Masters noted, even in this gusty moment, that his rival was an
especially good-looking young man, of the shaven, clean-cut type most
esteemed by the contemporary illustrator. The engineer appreciated
the type of which he himself was the exemplar, and appreciated it
indeed at its full worth, but, having a fair degree of intelligence,
he knew that women admired also the vigorous, wholesome and cultured
man, of the kind there before him. Though he had not the least fear
for his own prowess where the hearts of women were concerned, he
could not disguise from himself the fact that here was one who might
easily prove a dangerous rival were the opportunity given.
Saxe had just done with explaining to Miss West the reason for the
new era of idleness, which the day had inaugurated for himself and
his two companions. With Billy Walker, the era was merely continued.
It must be confessed that Saxe had cast a reconnoitering glance
toward Roy before beginning his recital, and that he held his voice
lowered throughout the telling. He knew that this confidence to the
girl, whom, to a certain extent, at least, the others distrusted,
might be deemed by them the height of folly. But he was past
respecting their opinions in aught that concerned her and him. So,
he told her freely of the decision to abandon systematic search, in
favor of a recondite dependence upon occult inspiration. Margaret’s
interest in the narrative was of the sincerest, and it delighted
him. Her manner of receiving the information was proof enough to
his mind that she harbored no least desire for his failure in this
undertaking. His heart was in a glow of happiness, as she bent a
little toward him, her face all eagerness, her limpid eyes dazzlingly
blue in the brilliant light. She met his gaze squarely, as she voiced
her protest against the course adopted:
“Oh, but, Mr. Temple, the time’s so short--less than three weeks
now--it isn’t safe!”
The two were in this attitude of absorbed intimacy when Masters’
glance fell upon them. The evident intensity of their interest in
each other capped the climax of his rage. He strode forward, with
a sneer arching the heavy mustache. At the sound of his steps,
the group looked up, and, in varying fashion, each of the four
showed unmistakable signs of dissatisfaction at this interruption
of the conversation. Masters so far forgot his manners as to make
no response to the rather curt nods with which the two men greeted
him. Instead, he halted abruptly, and stared, glowering, at Margaret
and Saxe. After the first moment of astonishment at the engineer’s
discourteous manner, Saxe’s expression of animation died out
suddenly, to be replaced by a set severity that augured ill for him
who should challenge it. Roy’s jaw shot out a little, and the veil
dropped over his eyes, which, a moment before, had been mild and
deep. Margaret could only regard the malevolent face of Masters with
sheer amazement, as his wrathful eyes met hers.
It was May who saved the situation. She sprang to her feet with a
little cry, which might have been of pleasure or of pain. With the
intuition of a loving woman, she seized instantly on the fact that
something had thrown her lover from his customary poise. Without a
particle of hesitation, she employed the first ruse suggested by her
woman’s wit:
“Oh, you did come, after all--in spite of that horrid tooth!”
She had no least idea as to the cause that had put the man in this
tempestuous temper, but she realized the necessity of restoring
him to some measure of self-control ere he should commit himself
hopelessly by a violent outbreak. The fiction concerning the tooth
rose to her lips without conscious volition on her part, the grimace
with which Masters faced her, though merely a physical symbol of
fury, might well have had its origin in a spasm of pain.
As he met May’s dismayed and imploring eyes, sanity rushed back on
the engineer. By a stern effort, he fought back the flooding wrath.
His face worked a little, then settled into a grim repose. While
the others waited in silence for the outcome, he suddenly smiled,
crookedly.
“I had a frightful twinge while I was coming through the woods, but
that didn’t matter so much, because I was alone, and could make
faces, and say just what I wanted to. But I do think it was unkind of
fate to visit the worst twinge of a jumping toothache on me at the
very instant when I stepped into the presence of company; forgive
me the face I made, please.” His big eyes were shining gently now,
where before they had been blazing. His demeanor was convincing to
the unsuspicious Margaret, who, having once experienced a jumping
toothache, was prepared to accept it as full justification for any
desperate deed. Of the others, May felt a profound relief in finding
that he had so swiftly made use of her offered help, and, for the
moment, this satisfaction contented her; Roy adjusted his jaw in
a less-belligerent fashion, as contempt took the place of anger;
Saxe found himself smiling, genuinely amused over the fancy of so
piratical-seeming a person in the throes of toothache. Neither of
the men, however, had the slightest doubt that May had offered an
ingenious excuse to account for the engineer’s savage manner; and
forthwith, Saxe and Roy began to wonder mightily as to what, in fact,
had occurred to destroy so completely the ordinary suavity of this
young gentleman whom they cordially detested.
Mrs. West sent her servant, Chris, in quest of Margaret, and,
soon afterward, May and Masters also went to the cottage, without
troubling much for an excuse, so that the two friends were left
alone together on the dock. But, before they had time to voice their
common astonishment over the scene that had just passed, they were
confronted by Jake, who, as they looked up at his approach, bobbed
his head at them, and winked with a fine air of mystery. When he
spoke, he addressed himself directly to Roy, for the love each of
them bore to niceties of mechanism sealed their sympathy.
“Well, what’s new, Jake?” Roy demanded, amiably.
Another series of bobbings and winks emphasized the importance of
the forthcoming communication. Then, finally, he spoke in a husky
whisper, for secrecy’s sake:
“Thought I’d look in on ye, and tell ye I got an idee.”
“Capital, Jake!” Roy’s tone was distinctly encouraging. “What’s it
all about?”
“It’s this way,” Jake began, with manifest pride in the importance
of the coming revelation. “You see, I know somethin’ ’bout the house
up thar--” he nodded over his shoulder in the direction of the
cottage--“that you chaps don’t. That’s what!”
At this preamble, Saxe, who had been giving only desultory attention
to the old man, quickly ceased looking out over the lake, and gave
ear to what the boatman was saying, while Roy, too, displayed a new
interest. Jake was plainly gratified by the effect he had wrought on
his hearers, and he proceeded with a note of pride in his voice.
“That’s one thing ’bout that-thar cottage that you ain’t onto, and,
thinkin’ as how you wa’n’t likely to be, I says to myself, says
I, I’ll jest put ’em wise, seein’ as how ye come, to a kind o’
standstill, as it were.”
“Thanks, Jake,” Roy said. “We surely need any help we can get at this
stage of the game. Go ahead.”
The cottage was an uncouth structure. It had originally been a
story-and-a-half building, and to this Abernethey had added a sort of
wing to make the music-room, and eventually this portion had become
the principal bulk of the edifice, for domestic offices had been
joined to it, and a second story set above, in which were a number of
bedrooms. It was in reference to this second story on the wing that
Jake now came with tidings for the treasure-seekers.
“Si Hatch did that-thar job,” he said, with a wheezy chuckle of
amused reminiscence. “Si means well, but, ’tween you and me and
the lamp-post, he ain’t wuth shucks as a carpenter and j’iner--no,
siree! Well, bein’ a cussed fool, Si misca’c’lated somehow, and left
’bout two-fut space at the forrerd end ’tween the outside wall and
the lath to that side o’ the bedroom. I s’posed, o’ course, the old
man’d be madder’n a hornet, but he only jest grinned some, and says
to me, says he, it’ll save that much floorin’ for the bedroom, yes,
I snummy, he did! Mighty clus, the old man was.” Jake paused, and
regarded the listeners with merrily twinkling eyes. “Might so be as
the gold’s in thar,” he concluded. “O’ course, ’tain’t likely, but
it might so be.” He stood silent, awaiting comment.
“We’re tremendously obliged, Jake,” Roy declared promptly; and Saxe
added a phrase of appreciation.
“Do we have to tear the house down to get into the space?” Roy
continued.
Jake shook his head vehemently.
“Not a bit on it,” he declared; and he forthwith gave vent to another
chuckling series of explosions.
“You see, the old man was clus, as I said. That’s right, he was
gorrammed clus--meanin’ no disrespect. You know that-thar closet in
the front hall upstairs, by the bedroom door. Well, the old man said
they wa’n’t no earthly use o’ wastin’ good timber puttin’ a back to
that closet, with plasterin’ and all. So, he jest had paper put up.
You break away the paper, and then you can sidle right in’tween the
outside wall and the lath o’ the bedroom; thought it might be wuth
while jest to look in, as it were.”
“Indeed, we shall look in,” Saxe declared, “and we’re tremendously
grateful to you, Jake, for the tip, because we need a lot of help,
I’m thinking.”
Roy nodded assent.
“We appreciate the kindness, old chap,” he exclaimed. “And let me
tell you that I’m going to show my friendship by getting you a decent
berth, after this wild adventure is over and done with, where you’ll
have the chance of your life. Your skill with engines is wasted here;
it’s ’way off in Cuba, but it’ll be worth your while. Would you like
that?”
“You bet ye!” was the sententious answer of the boatman, as he turned
to lead the way toward the house. Presently, he chuckled yet once
again, contentedly, and added: “My old woman allus has been a-pinin’
to travel in furrin parts.”