While I was willing and eager for Howard to benefit to the limit on
the salvage there were certain things I must have if they could be
found.
"Howard," said I, "did you find the captain's strong box? There must
have been some money left if his cargo was incomplete."
"Yes--I got one box. There may be more, but, as I said, I can stay
under only four or five minutes, which is not long to hunt, and dead
Huns sitting around as if they were going to speak to you do not make
a very pleasant audience, but I locked it down and she is just as
clean as when sunk and the water is pretty cold there."
"What was in the captain's chest?"
"Well--considerable money. I have all the papers and will give them to
you."
"Howard, why do you never use a diver's suit when you go sponging?
Others use them."
"Yes, I know they do, but I have always worked alone. That is, little
Jim and I. In fact, I would not trust anyone to pump air to me but her
and she is not strong enough. However, I would trust you and I can get
an outfit to go down for what you want, and maybe we can find a way to
get the stuff up faster."
"I have got to have every scrap of evidence in that wreck. If in
getting that I can help anyway I will be glad. You must bear in mind
we have to be speedy. This man, Ramund, and his crowd being sent North
as prisoners will start something. It's a fair bet that they have
influence enough to be admitted to bail, the bank with which he is
connected furnishing that in almost any sum. They will try to protect
this valuable cargo laying down there and prevent us getting the
evidence it will yield. And the Huns will be well prepared when they
come this time."
Howard meditatively arose and walked out on the deck, but he returned
again eagerly.
"This is the off-season for sponging. I believe I can charter a
brand-new schooner of four or five hundred tons. _Anti-Kaiser_ is her
name. She has a new and complete diving outfit, besides pumps and
everything for raising spongers who get sunk; she has been coming here
for supplies."
"How soon can you know?"
"To-night or to-morrow morning."
"That's settled then; get her as soon as possible. I will see what I
can do about getting a gun or two to mount on her, and a gunner. Bulow
and Company are not going to lay down so easy."
"I know where the _Anti-Kaiser_ is anchored and we will go there as
soon as little Jim comes back," he replied, as only Howard Byng could,
eager and unlimbered, and ready for big game.
"There she is now--I thought it was time," he added, hearing her
laughter as the _Titian_ rounded the point into the little harbor and
came up to the wharf beside us. Little Jim was sitting as a queen
surrounded with her marketing--pineapples, bananas, oranges, potatoes
and all sorts of vegetables, and an immense armful of orange blossoms
and flowers.
"How would New Yorkers like to go seventy-five or a hundred miles to
market?" he asked, as we walked out on the pier to see the inspiring
picture.
I did not have time to answer before she came bounding toward her
father and at one spring landed in his arms with her bare legs about
his waist and arms about his neck kissing him joyously.
"Daddy, did you think I was gone too long? We came back just as soon
as we could, but it took so long to get all the things. You were not
uneasy, Daddy?" she asked, kissing him several times again.
"No, Jim; when you are with Don I know you are safe, but Mr. Wood and
I have an errand to do after supper and we want to get away as soon as
possible. Run with Don and see what you can do quickly," he replied,
returning her caresses before letting her down.
"Right away, Daddy," she replied, scampering toward the house, Howard
following her with his eyes until she disappeared, her knickerbockers
and her short blouse reminding me of the boy I had thought her to be.
"Somehow I wish she were not here to know what we will be doing," he
said, turning to me with a long breath, almost a sigh, fingering his
short, black beard.
I turned and faced him, deciding that right now was the proper time
for little Jim to realize her dreams. I wondered if they could stand
the separation.
"This might be a longer job than you think, especially if we were to
strike some continued bad weather on the Gulf."
"I know that," he replied thoughtfully.
"The expense ceases to be a factor--why is now not the time to begin
with her education?" I asked bluntly.
He searched me for a moment as if it was an insulting proposal. I knew
he felt it as a distinct shock.
"Wood, I have never allowed myself to think of that time. I am
cowardly, I suppose, and then I don't know where to send her, yet. I
don't believe she would know how to behave in girl's clothes. She has
always dressed as she does now and never has craved the flub-dubs and
finery of other girls."
"So much more reason you should not let her go on longer in this way.
It is time now for her to come into her education and the refinements
of young womanhood."
"Yes, I know you are right, but have I got the courage? I hate to see
her go at all, especially without a name. It's a fearful thing, Wood.
And into that country that first treated me so well and then turned it
to dead-sea fruit. Nothing but ashes inside, bitter, scalding ashes."
"The world, that world, has not finished with you. Perhaps it will yet
pronounce you great. You have done pretty well toward retrieving
yourself. Bitter thoughts projected into the world are as substantial
things as poisoned arrows, dum-dum bullets or atrocities, and may
eventually return to plague us. If you can still improve in that
direction I predict big things for you. Do you understand me, Howard?"
"Wood, I comprehend;--a short time ago I would not. But the difference
between theory and actual practice is great. You give me an awful big
order."
"I know it is, but you have already begun to fill it without coaching.
Make a mighty effort--such an effort as only Howard Byng can make and
the ashes of this dead-sea fruit that you have been eating in pretty
good quantities, will turn into a tonic to spur you on to more
wonderful things--a magnificent life. I admit it is not a small thing
to let little Jim leave you now, but it strikes me it is a real test.
Are you going to let the bigness of Howard Byng come to the front?"
"I know you are right," said he, walking, with head down, down along
the pier toward his valuable warehouse, "maybe I just need someone
like you to prod and goad it into me, to put a rowel into my
selfishness and make me wake up, but--but, you see, I don't know yet
where and how to send her. I have always thought of taking her myself,
but there's no time for that now."
"Are you willing to be guided by me in the matter?"
"Wood, you know I would rather take advice from you than from any
other living person. And why shouldn't I? You always set me right. You
started me right, but I got away from you, into a great deal of
trouble. Anything you are willing to say _you know_, I will take at
one hundred per cent. In fact, I would be mighty glad if you could
tell me where to send her, but I don't know if I can stand it now," he
added.
"I believe I do know just where to send her, and also just how to get
her there safely, perhaps more so than if you went as you have
planned. And I will take the time to tell you how I happened to know
from personal contact. Let us go back in the boat and sit down again."
He followed me into the cabin and sat down opposite where I could
study his face.
"Howard," I began seriously, "in order to make this plain to you I
must give you some inside information that has not reached the public,
and perhaps it never will officially, and for that reason treat it as
ultra-confidential.
"When Germany began war on Europe it has been said and known
positively that it was only a question of time when we would be in it,
and that no preparation was made to meet that condition. But a great
deal of work was done that has not begun to show yet. It is true that
public sentiment would not support raising an army and equipping it,
owing to such Hun stuff as 'I Did Not Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier,'
but other things perhaps as important were accomplished. One of them
was to determine just how much power the Hun had in this country. The
beginning was made in schools of all kinds, colleges and
universities, in fact, every institution of an educational nature.
"I put in the best part of two years analyzing teachers and professors
tainted with Prussianism, whether it was imported or domestic. It was
a rare experience and required careful work. Directly or indirectly, I
came in contact with all of them, and in many cases visited the
schools and colleges, interviewing professors and teachers under one
subterfuge or another, and in doing so developed some valuable and
astounding information. It will require a big basket to hold the heads
that must fall from this work. If I had them sufficiently at ease and
could get them to use the words Kamerad, Kultur, and Middle Europe, by
their face and tone I could tell. No one can repeat those words
without giving themselves away, if pro-Hun.
"Girls' schools were the hardest to get into without revealing my
purpose, which was always desirable. A man knocking at their gates was
a big interrogation point, but I managed to see about all of them.
Girls of to-day are mothers of to-morrow, and after all it's the
mothers that count, Howard.
"I am telling you this," I went on, "expecting you to grasp the
inference, in order to avoid going into details. I found a girls'
school, perhaps two hours from New York, which is an ideal place for
little Jim. The conditions are the best. She would be really educated,
and be as safe as though at home and possibly more so, just now when
she is advancing toward womanhood." I paused, watching Howard closely.
"But, Wood," he replied, with great concern, "little Jim has always
been so free, wouldn't it be wrong to shut her up in a place like
that? What would she do without her flowers and being able to go about
as she pleased?"
"They have immense grounds, covered with a beautiful forest, in which
she would be delighted. She can roam at will after school hours. Of
course, students can't leave the grounds, or rather the estate,
without escort. There are flowers in greatest profusion, everything to
make the place attractive. It is the safest and best I found among all
that I visited. In fact, I went back once or twice on a special
invitation to do a small favor."
"But, Wood, she is not ready; she has no clothes; and how can she be
sent there alone?" he asked, as though frightened even at a serious
discussion of the matter.
"Well"--I hesitated, a little excited myself at the prospect--"I think
that can be arranged. She could be put aboard the steamer at Key West,
in charge of someone. I will also have one of our men, a friend, meet
the boat in New York, and see personally that she reaches the school
absolutely safe and protected every moment, better than you could do
it yourself. My friend in New York will actually see her inside the
gate and make it known that someone else is interested in her besides
her parent and that will count for a good deal."
"You make it very plausible, and--well--let me sleep over it, and
hear what she says about it in the morning," he replied, as we saw her
come bounding down the pier like a rubber ball to tell us supper was
ready.