Dazedly he looked into the empty case. Upon one of the new boards he saw marked with the careless brush of some shipping-clerk, "Watkins & Co., Hartford, Conn."
Again, as with the unstable lilac-bushes, his world spun about him; it drew in and darkened. He had the sensation of a grain of dust sucked down a vast black funnel.
Outside the quiet room, the city went on its ruthless, noisy way. In there where dynasties had fallen and a monarch lay p.r.o.ne, a spotted dog sporting with a _papier-mache_ something, came suddenly on a cold hand flung out on the rug. Nap instantly forsook the sham for the real, deserted the head of Ram-tah, and laved Bean"s closed eyes with a lolloping pink tongue.
XIV
The next morning at eight-thirty the door of the steam-heated apartment resounded to sharp knocking. There being no response, the knocking was repeated and prolonged. Retreating footsteps were heard in the hallway.
Five minutes later a key rattled in the door and Ca.s.sidy entered, followed by the waster.
Bean was discovered in a flowered dressing-gown gazing open-eyed at the shut door of a closet. He sat on the couch and one of his arms clasped a sleeping dog. The floor was littered with wisps of excelsior.
"My word, old top, had to have the chap let me into your diggin"s you know. You were sleeping like the dead." The waster was bustling and breezy.
"Busy," said Bean. He arose and went into the hall where Ca.s.sidy stood.
"He _would_ have in," explained Ca.s.sidy. "Say th" wor-r-d if he"s no frind, an" he"ll have out agin. I"ll put him so. "T would not be a refined thing to do, but nicissary if needed."
""S all right," said Bean. "Friend of mine." He closed the door on Ca.s.sidy.
Inside, he found the waster interestedly poking with his stick at a roundish object on the floor.
"Dog"s been at it," explained the waster brightly. "What"s the idea?
Private theatricals?"
"Yes," said Bean, "private theatricals," and resumed his place on the couch, staring dully at the closet door.
"But, look here, old chap, you must liven up. She would have it I should come for you. My word! I believe you"re funking! You look absurdly rotten like it, you know."
"Toothache, right across here," muttered Bean. "Have to put it off."
"But that"s not done, old top; really it"s not done, you know.
It ... it ... one doesn"t do it at all, you know."
"Never?" asked Bean, brightening a little with alarm.
"Jolly well never," insisted the waster; "not for anything a dentist-fellow could manage. Come now!"
Bean was listless once more, deaf, unseeing.
"Righto," said the waster. "Bachelor dinner last night ... yes?"
The situation had become intelligible to him. He found the bathroom, and from it came the sound of running water. He had the air of a Master of Revels.
"Into it--only thing to do!"
He led Bean to the brink of the icy pool and skilfully flayed him of the flowered gown. He was thorough, the waster. He"d known chaps to pretend to get in by making a great splashing with one hand, after they were left alone. He overcame a few of the earlier exercises in jiu-jitsu and committed Bean"s form to the deep.
"Righto!" he exclaimed. "Does it every time. Shiver all you like. Good for you! Now then--clothes! Clothes and things, Man! Oh, here they are to be sure! How stupid of me! Feel better already, yes? Knew it. Studs in shirt. My word! Studs! Studs! There! Let me tie it. Here! Look alive man! She would have it. She must have known you. There!"
He had finished by clamping Bean"s hat tightly about his head. Bean was thinking that the waster possessed more executive talent than Grandma had given him credit for; also that he would find an excuse to break away once they were outside; also that Balthasar was keenly witty.
Balthasar had _said_ it would disintegrate if handled.
He would leave Nap with Ca.s.sidy. He would return for him that night, then flee. He would go back to Wellsville, which he should never have left.
The waster had him in the car outside, a firm grasp on one of his arms.
"I"ll allow you only one," said the waster judicially as the car moved off. "I know where the chap makes them perfectly--brings a mummy back to life--"
"A mum--what mummy?" asked Bean dreamily.
"Your own, if you had one, you silly juggins!"
Bean winced, but made no reply.
The car halted before an uptown hotel.
"Come on!" said the waster.
"Bring it out," suggested Bean, devising flight.
The waster prepared to use force.
"Quit. I"ll go," said Bean.
He was before a polished bar, the white-jacketed attendant of which not only recognized the waster but seemed to divine his errand.
"Two," commanded the waster. The attendant had already reached for a bottle of absinthe, and now busied himself with two eggs, a shaker, and cracked ice.
"White of an egg, delicate but nourishing after bachelor dinners," said the waster expertly.
Bean, in the polished mirror, regarded a pallid and shrinking youth whom he knew to be himself--not a reincarnation of the Egyptian king, but just Bunker Bean. He could not endure a long look at the thing, and allowed his gaze to wander to the panelled woodwork of the bar.
"Fumed oak," he suggested to the waster.
But the waster pushed one of the slender-stemmed gla.s.ses toward him.
"There"s the life-line, old top; cling to it! Here"s a go!"
Bean drank. The beverage was icy, but it warmed him to life. The mere white of an egg mixed with a liquid of such perfect innocence that he recalled it from his soothing-syrup days.
"Have one with me," he said in what he knew to be a faultless bar manner.
"Oh, I say old top," the waster protested.