Out of the group by the bell John Courteney, apparently as unmoved as if all this were but common routine, answered Watson"s silent look with his own while the pilot, taking his ear from a speaking-tube, grasped the bell-rope.
"Wood?" asked the captain.
x.x.xVIII
THE CANE AGAIN
"Partly, sir."
All marked the qualifying word though at the same time all witnessed the cross-fire of challenge and retort that flashed between the three brothers. Basile had dropped his weapon and ceased to struggle, yet still showed a mental torture, the same he had betrayed at the previous afternoon"s worship, and in all hearts, even those of the senator"s group, it brought back for him the same tender indulgence as before.
Meanwhile Ramsey and the cub pilot had caught up the cane"s two parts and laid them in the hands of the actor, who quietly resheathed them while Basile mocked the twins. "So that"s the way Hayles," jeered the lad, "stand by a cat"s-paw friend, is it?"
"Hayles," said Julian, "never settle difficulties before ladies."
The boy resisted again as his laughing sister half knelt to lay her arms about him soothingly. "Oh, these ladies won"t mind," he tearfully sneered. "Come on! Here"s your man, with the steel, and three behind each of you to see fair play!" A wave of the hand indicated Lucian and the canes" owners on one side, and himself, the cub pilot, and Hugh on the other. The latter and the players, momentarily together, gave sudden attention, but again the humor of the situation saved it. The laugh was general; the young people about the captain, whom his equanimity and Ramsey"s and Mrs. Gilmore"s stay had emboldened to linger, drew near; and the three groups became one.
The twins themselves might have made fair actors, though no one ever had dared suggest it. Julian scowled on Gilmore and Hugh and half drew the other cane from his folded arms, but then looked distantly away, while Lucian with an indolent air said to the younger brother:
"Babe! Hayles never line up on two sides."
To retort, the lad had to s.n.a.t.c.h Ramsey"s fingers from his lips and so lost his chance, while under her breath she futilely implored him to desist.
"I"m not!" he wailed back at her. "I"m not ridiculous! You! you"ll find judgment-day ridiculous, I don"t doubt--oh, good Lordy! stop your eternal t.i.tter."
The great bell thundered and he recoiled. "There! wood! "wood, partly."
And partly what else? d"you know? Another funeral." In spite of her fond restraints he cried out to the company: "With more to follow! The bishop----"
But the sister"s fingers were on his lips once more and while she half whispered, half laughed her tender chidings old Joy appeared, coming from the bishop"s bedside. Ramsey turned a beseeching look to Hugh but the general had halted the nurse with a private question and now proclaimed:
"Th-the bishop"s doing as well"s could be ex.x.xpected."
"Expected!" cried Basile, "yes, when he"s expected to die. And then it"ll be my turn."
"It won"t!" exclaimed Ramsey. "It sha"n"t!" The boat was rounding to at a wood-yard and most of the company were glad to turn away to the sh.o.r.eward scene. The boy dropped his head on the black woman"s shoulder.
"Oh, mammy, if I was the bishop, or you, or even Ramsey, I wouldn"t mind, for I could be ready to go. Oh, G.o.d! why can"t I get religion?"
"Why, "caze you done got it, sugah boy. You done got religion "istiddy."
Only the twins smiled. The captain stepped down to the roof"s forward edge as the boat neared sh.o.r.e.
"And you"re not going to get anything else," said Ramsey, s.n.a.t.c.hing the lad"s hands and finding them cold.
He moaned in unbelief: "What do you know about it? Oh, sis", if I could only die doing some fine thing!--in a fight!--or an explosion!--anything but a deathbed!"
"Law"! honey," interposed old Joy, "what you want to do fine things faw?
You"s done got religion. You on"y ain"t got peace. Come to de bishop.
Gawd won"t let a religious enquireh kitch noth"n". I "uz tellin" de bishop "bout missy an" you, bofe gitt"n" religion "istiddy, an" he say, s"e: "Go, fetch yo" young missy; fetch bofe.""
"We"ll go!" said Ramsey before the willing boy could reply, though from every side came protests.
For once Hugh and the twins were in accord. "You must not!" called Hugh.
"You shall not!" said Julian.
She glanced from one to the other, tinkling her prettiest, and suddenly flushed. "We will!"
The twins sent Hugh a hot look which he paid back with a cold one, while Mrs. Gilmore said:
"I"ll have to go with you, Ramsey."
For one breath the girl was taken aback, but then:
"Yes," she said, "to the door, that"s all."
As they turned after Basile and Joy she added: ""Twas I, you know, that got the bishop sick in the first place."
At the corner of the texas they glanced back but were rea.s.sured to see the cub-pilot disappearing on the nearest boiler-deck stair at the outer, depopulated side of the boat, the actor and Hugh moving toward it, and the twins holding the field and scowling after their opponents.
Nevertheless, the moment the sister and wife pa.s.sed from view Julian st.u.r.dily, Lucian feebly, pressed after Hugh and the player. The last witness was gone; now was their time.
"Mr. Courteney," said Julian. The other two looked back and paused.
Lucian spoke: "Mr. Gilmore, you have my cane, sir."
The player smiled. "Is this really your cane?"
With a ripping oath Julian put in: "What"s that to you, you d.a.m.ned Gypsy? Give him the stick!"
The player let go a stage laugh. Hugh took a step forward with a grave show of self-command hardly justified. "Mr. Hayle," he said, "you don"t want to be another "hopeless a.s.s," do you?"
"Gawd!" Julian rose to his toes and lifted and brought down his cane.
But it never reached its mark. One stride of the actor, one outflash of arm and staff, foiled the blow, and when a second was turned on him the cane flew from Julian"s hand he knew not how and dropped ten feet away.
He dared not leap after it but faced the skilled fencer, blazing defiance though fully expectant of the unsheathed dirk. But no dirk was unsheathed. Lucian, forgetting his feebleness, sprang for the cane and had dropped to one knee to s.n.a.t.c.h it up when Hugh set foot on it.
"No!" said Hugh. The convalescent straightened up, his brow dark with an anguish of chagrin, and before he could find speech Hugh was adding: "Wait. I"ll give it to you."
"Don"t!" cried Gilmore. "Keep it!"
"No," wearily said Hugh, glaring on the glaring twins, "we"re all belittled enough now." He caught up the cane, drew its dagger, snapped it in half on the deck, and resheathed the stump. Then tossing the point into the river he said: "Here, Mr. Gilmore, swap."
With an actor"s relish for a scene the actor swapped, and the convalescent wept with rage as Hugh, having treated the second cane like the first, tendered it to him.
"Don"t take it!" cried his brother; "don"t touch it!" And then to Gilmore: "Don"t you hand me that one, either! Don"t you dare!"
Yet thereupon the actor dared, saying: "But for--others--I"d trounce you with it like a schoolmaster."