(PART III.)
About a week after Higgins had had his heart-to-heart talk with Bill
Wiley a wedding took place, which was attended by the story-teller, the
sleuths, young Higgins and John Hogan. It was he who gave the bride
away. When the final words were spoken which made Anita Calafain Mrs.
William Wiley a sigh of relief went up from the assembled witnesses.
Higgins’ face was alight with joy as he handed the bride into a
carriage. Bill Wiley was a benedict. The bride wore a white satin gown,
trimmed with Italian lace, and a very beautiful white hat that had been
imported at much cost for the occasion of the wedding. They were whirled
away to the strains of a full string band, and then Higgins said
something that was strange for him to say. “Boys,” said he, “there is a
God, after all, and he has heard my prayers. I have paid dearly for one
hour’s frolic in my life, but I am glad to-night that I have done the
right thing, according to my code, for that vain, miserable, wretched
woman. I tried to save Bill, but he wouldn’t listen, so I have done
everything according to the dictates of my conscience.”
“Bill is the happiest man alive, so what matter what will turn up
later?” said John Hogan.
“Something will surely turn up,” said Higgins, “for that woman was born
to torment her fellow-beings.”
“She’ll lead Bill around by the nose, poor devil, and he won’t know a
thing about what will be going on when his back is turned,” said one of
the sleuths.
“What the eyes can’t see, the heart can’t feel,” said the story-teller.
“Come, boys,” said Higgins, with sudden hilarity, “let us get drunk. I
have never been drunk in my life, so I want to feel what the sensation
is like.”
So young Higgins got drunk for the first time in his life, and Bill
Wiley, on wings of love, went on his honeymoon. Six weeks later the big
bachelor house was in a blaze of light. Every one was happy. It was
Saturday night, and pay-night. The village ladies and their husbands
wandered through the quiet streets, especially near to the house where
the bachelors dwelt, for Higgins was playing the violin, and that meant
something to that village.
“My! What a change there has been in the lad since that baggage got
married,” whispered the story-teller to one of the sleuths.
“Looks like a different man,” put in John Hogan.
“I wonder how poor Bill is making out with her?” asked the story-teller.
“Gawd to tell,” said the sleuth.
“I bet she’s leadin’ him a devil of a race,” said the other sleuth.
“They ought to be here now. They went away six weeks ago to-day,” said
John Hogan.
Just now Bill Wiley entered that bachelor quarter and walked slowly and
painfully toward the group of men that were talking about him.
“Speak of the devil, and he’ll appear,” said John Hogan.
“Why, you’re looking all in, Bill,” said the story-teller.
“All in?” echoed Bill. “I’m worse than that, boys.”
“How is the lady?” asked one of the sleuths.
“I don’t know how she is now, and I don’t care.”
“You don’t care? You don’t?” said the group, in chorus.
“Why, Bill, what’s happened?”
“Why, that lady is a she-devil. She and her brother fleeced me of five
thousand dollars. I ain’t had a night’s rest since I left the Isthmus
with her. She never give me a lovin’ word nor a lovin’ look, nor a
minute’s peace of mind.”
“And where is she now, Bill?” asked John Hogan.
“Gawd knows. I lit out and left her with the man that she said was her
brother in Havana.”
“What sort of a looking man was he?” asked Higgins, becoming interested.
“He was the goldurndest lookin-pirate that I ever seen in all my life,”
answered Bill, becoming very red in the face.
“Tell us all about it, Bill,” said Higgins, drawing his chair very near,
and speaking in a kindly tone.
“Well, the night we left ye fellers and went to Colon, the pirate showed
up for the first time, an’ he come with us to the hotel; so the lady
said that she wanted a room all to herself, an’ I took a room for
myself. In the morning I went and paid the bills, but I didn’t pay his,
and he pulled a gun on me; he carried four all ready for use. Then I
went an’ bought our ticket an’ she said she wouldn’t go unless I took
her dear brother; so, for peace sake, I bought a ticket for him. Then
she said she wanted her dear brother to have a stateroom next ours, an’
for peace sake I had to let him have it. Well, sir, they treated me like
a nigger waiter during the trip, an’, for peace sake, I couldn’t say
nothin’. All the men on the ship was in love with her, but they said
that the pirate wan’t her brother at all; that he was a guy that she was
in love with, an’ I had to stand for it. They said I was a fool for
puttin’ up with things the way I did, an’, say, I sure was; but what
could I do, when that guy had a gun in every pocket an’ didn’t think it
was any more harm to use one on me than if I was a rat? Well, to make a
long story short, they got me in a room in the hotel in Havana the night
before I left, an’ they cleaned me out of every cent I had, then he
pointed a gun at me an’ told me to leave the hotel without sayin’
anythin’, or he’d riddle me with bullets. I pretended to swaller the
diamond ring, an’ they fell for that bluff, so I pawned it the next day
to pay my passage down here; an’ here I am. Five thousand of me money is
gone, an’ all me clothes, me gold watch and chain, an’ I’m feelin’ like
a damn fool. My stomach ain’t workin’ any more, an’ the first thing I’ll
have to do will be to see Dr. Deeks, for I’m feelin’ bum.”
During this narration the group exchanged meaning glances. Higgins
looked like a man dazed, and beads of perspiration fell from his
forehead. For five minutes there was silence, and then the story-teller
said, with calmness: “No good ever yet come out of a man bein’ as
honorable as Higgins. It ain’t right. If he hadn’t been so darned
honorable about that lady he’d a sent her about her business, an’ poor
Bill wouldn’t be in this mess.”
“My life is spoiled,” said Bill, with a sob. “I never could trust
another lady in this world, an’ besides, I’m married to her now, anyway.
Here’s the situation: I’m a ruined an’ broken man, an’ it’s all on
account of Higgins.”
“Yes, you’re right, Bill,” said Higgins. “I’m the cause of all your
troubles. The lady put it all over us for fair. She got about three
thousand dollars out of me, and her bluff prevented me from marrying the
best little girl in the U. S. A.”
“‘Tis no use talkin’, a woman can make a monkey of a man,” said John
Hogan.
“But life is no good without ’em,” said the story-teller.
“I don’t see how I’m goin’ to live without her,” said Bill. “I can’t
forget her.”
“You will have to, I’m afraid,” said Higgins, “for that man whom she
called her brother was the fellow she used to call husband in the old
war days.”
Some months later Bill Wiley was called to the great tribunal at
Culebra. When he arrived there he was requested to support his wife,
whom he had wilfully abandoned in Havana. Complaint had been made by the
American Consul that the wife of Bill Wiley, of the Canal Zone, was
suffering for the necessities of life.
“Well, here’s where I’ll take a hand,” said Higgins. “Gawd bless you,”
said Bill Wiley, “for I sure am in bad.”
So Higgins took passage for Havana, and, some few days after, Bill Wiley
received the following cablegram:
“Our lady and the pirate are in the penitentiary.
“HIGGINS.”