And every other building that fronts on the Plaza, even this one we"re in now, used to be a gambling-house in bonanza times; and, see, over yonder is the Morgue and the City Prison."
They turned back into the room, and a great, fat Chinaman brought them tea on Condy"s order. But besides tea, he brought dried almonds, pickled watermelon rinds, candied quince, and "China nuts."
Travis cut the cheese into cubes with Condy"s penknife, and arranged the cubes in geometric figures upon the crackers.
"But, Condy," she complained, "why in the world did you get so many crackers? There"s hundreds of them here--enough to feed a regiment.
Why didn"t you ask me?"
"Huh! what? what? I don"t know. What"s the matter with the crackers?
You were d.i.c.kering with the cheese, and the man said, "How many crackers?" I didn"t know. I said, "Oh, give me a quarter"s worth!""
"And we couldn"t possibly have eaten ten cents" worth! Oh, Condy, you are--you are--But never mind, here"s your tea. I wonder if this green, pasty stuff is good."
They found that it was, but so sweet that it made their tea taste bitter. The watermelon rinds were flat to their Western palates, but the dried almonds were a great success. Then Condy promptly got the hiccoughs from drinking his tea too fast, and fretted up and down the room like a chicken with the pip till Travis grew faint and weak with laughter.
"Oh, well," he exclaimed aggrievedly--"laugh, that"s right! I don"t laugh. It isn"t such fun when you"ve got "em yoursel"--HULP."
"But sit down, for goodness" sake! You make me so nervous. You can"t walk them off. Sit down and hold your breath while you count nine.
Condy, I"m going to take off my gloves and veil. What do you think?"
"Sure, of course; and I"ll have a cigarette. Do you mind if I smoke?"
"Well, what"s that in your hand now?"
"By Jove, I have been smoking! I--I beg your pardon. I"m a regular stable boy. I"ll throw it away."
Travis caught his wrist. "What nonsense! I would have told you before if I"d minded."
"But it"s gone out!" he exclaimed. "I"ll have another."
As he reached into his pocket for his case, his hand encountered a paper-covered volume, and he drew it out in some perplexity.
"Now, how in the wide world did that book come in my pocket?" he muttered, frowning. "What have I been carrying it around for? I"ve forgotten. I declare I have."
"What book is it?"
"Hey? book? . . . h"m," he murmured, staring.
Travis pounded on the table. "Wake up, Condy, I"m talking to you," she called.
"It"s "Life"s Handicap,"" he answered, with a start; "but why and but why have I--"
"What"s it about? I never heard of it," she declared.
"You never heard of "Life"s Handicap"?" he shouted; "you never heard--you never--you mean to say you never heard--but here, this won"t do. Sit right still, and I"ll read you one of these yarns before you"re another minute older. Any one of them--open the book at random.
Here we are--"The Strange Ride of Morrowbie Jukes"; and it"s a stem-winder, too."
And then for the first time in her life, there in that airy, golden Chinese restaurant, in the city from which he hasted to flee, Travis Bessemer fell under the charm of the little spectacled colonial, to whose song we all must listen and to whose pipe we all must dance.
There was one "point" in the story of Jukes" strange ride that Condy prided himself upon having discovered. So far as he knew, all critics had overlooked it. It is where Jukes is describing the man-trap of the City of the Dead who are alive, and mentions that the slope of the inclosing sandhills was "about forty-five degrees." Jukes was a civil engineer, and Condy held that it was a capital bit of realism on the part of the author to have him speak of the pitch of the hills in just such technical terms. At first he thought he would call Travis"
attention to this bit of cleverness; but as he read he abruptly changed his mind. He would see if she would find it out for herself. It would be a test of her quickness, he told himself; almost an unfair test, because the point was extremely subtle and could easily be ignored by the most experienced of fiction readers. He read steadily on, working himself into a positive excitement as he approached the pa.s.sage. He came to it and read it through without any emphasis, almost slurring over it in his eagerness to be perfectly fair. But as he began to read the next paragraph, Travis, her little eyes sparkling with interest and attention, exclaimed:
"Just as an engineer would describe it. Isn"t that good!"
"Glory hallelujah!" cried Condy, slamming down the book joyfully.
"Travis, you are one in a thousand!"
"What--what is it?" she inquired blankly.
"Never mind, never mind; you"re a wonder, that"s all"--and he finished the tale without further explanation. Then, while he smoked another cigarette and she drank another cup of tea, he read to her "The Return of Imri" and the "Incarnation of Krishna Mulvaney." He found her an easy and enrapt convert to the little Englishman"s creed, and for himself tasted the intense delight of revealing to another an appreciation of a literature hitherto ignored.
"Isn"t he strong!" cried Travis. "Just a LITTLE better than Marie Corelli and the d.u.c.h.ess!"
"And to think of having all those stories to read! You haven"t read any of them yet?"
"Not a one. I"ve been reading only the novels we take up in the Wednesday cla.s.s."
"Lord!" muttered Condy.
Condy"s spirits had been steadily rising since the incident aboard the whaleback. The exhilaration of the water-front, his delight over the story he was to make out of the old mate"s yarn, Chinatown, the charming unconventionality of their lunch in the Chinese restaurant, the sparkling serenity of the afternoon, and the joy of discovering Travis" appreciation of his adored and venerated author, had put him into a mood bordering close upon hilarity.
"The next event upon our interesting programme," he announced, "will be a banjosephine obligato in A-sia minor, by that justly renowned impresario, Signor Conde Tin-pani Rivers, specially engaged for this performance; with a pleasing and pan-h.e.l.lenic song-and-dance turn by Miss Travis Bessemer, the infant phenomenon, otherwise known as "Babby Bessie.""
"You"re not going to play that banjo here?" said Travis, as he stripped away the canvas covering.
"Order in the gallery!" cried Condy, beginning to tune up. Then in a rapid, professional monotone: "Ladies-and-gentlemen - with - your - kind - permission - I - will - endeavor - to - give - you - an - imitation - of - a - Carolina - c.o.o.n - song"--and without more ado, singing the words to a rattling, catchy accompaniment, swung off into--
"F--or MY gal"s a high-born leddy, SHE"S brack, but not too shady."
He did not sing loud, and the clack and snarl of the banjo carried hardly further than the adjoining room; but there was no one to hear, and, as he went along, even Travis began to hum the words, but at that, Condy stopped abruptly, laid the instrument across his knees with exaggerated solicitude, and said deliberately:
"Travis, you are a good, sweet girl, and what you lack in beauty you make up in amiability, and I"ve no doubt you are kind to your aged father; but you--can--not--sing."
Travis was cross in a moment, all the more so because Condy had spoken the exact truth. It was quite impossible for her to carry a tune half a dozen bars without entangling herself in as many different keys.
What voice she had was not absolutely bad; but as she persisted in singing in spite of Condy"s guying, he put back his head and began a mournful and lugubrious howling.
"Ho!" she exclaimed, grabbing the banjo from his knees, "if I can"t sing, I can play better than some smart people."
"Yes, by note," rallied Condy, as Travis executed a banjo "piece" of no little intricacy. "That"s just like a machine--like a hand-piano.
"Order in the gallery!" she retorted, without pausing in her playing.
She finished with a great flourish and gazed at him in triumph, only to find him pretending a profound slumber. "O--o--o!" she remarked between her teeth, "I just hate you, Condy Rivers."
"There are others," he returned airily.
"Talk about slang."