The girl nodded.
"By the neck," she repeated, "and down they went into the water. And what do you suppose happened?"
"I can"t imagine," said I with a grimace.
"Well, Grue went under, still clutching the squirming, flapping bird; and he _stayed_ under."
"Stayed under the _water_?"
"Yes, longer than any sponge diver I ever heard of. And I was becoming frightened when the b.l.o.o.d.y bubbles and feathers began to come up--"
"_What_ was he doing under water?"
"He must have been tearing the bird to pieces. Oh, it was quite unpleasant, I a.s.sure you, Mr. Smith. And when he came up and looked at me out of those very vitreous eyes he resembled something horridly amphibious.... And I felt rather sick and dizzy."
"He"s got to stop that sort of thing!" I said angrily. "Snake-birds are harmless and I won"t have him killing them in that barbarous fashion.
I"ve warned him already to let birds alone. I don"t know how he catches them or why he kills them. But he seems to have a mania for doing it--"
I was interrupted by Grue"s soft and rather pleasant voice from the water"s edge, announcing a sail on the horizon. He did not turn when speaking.
The next moment I made out the sail and focussed my gla.s.ses on it.
"It"s Professor Kemper," I announced presently.
"I"m so glad," remarked Evelyn Grey.
I don"t know why it should have suddenly occurred to me, apropos of nothing, that Billy Kemper was unusually handsome. Or why I should have turned and looked at the pretty waitress--except that she was, perhaps, worth gazing upon from a purely non-scientific point of view. In fact, to a man not entirely absorbed in scientific research and not pa.s.sionately and irrevocably wedded to his profession, her violet-blue eyes and rather sweet mouth might have proved disturbing.
As I was thinking about this she looked up at me and smiled.
"It"s a good thing," I thought to myself, "that I am irrevocably wedded to my profession." And I gazed fixedly across the Atlantic Ocean.
There was scarcely sufficient breeze of a steady character to bring Kemper to Sting-ray Key; but he got out his sweeps when I hailed him and came in at a lively clip, anchoring alongside of our boat and leaping ash.o.r.e with that unnecessary dash and abandon which women find pleasing.
Glancing sideways at my waitress through my spectacles, I found her looking into a small hand mirror and patting her hair with one slim and suntanned hand.
When Professor Kemper landed on the coral he shot a curious look at Grue, and then came striding across the reef to me.
"h.e.l.lo, Smithy!" he said, holding out his hand. "Here I am, you see! Now what"s up--"
Just then Evelyn Grey got up from her seat beside the fire; and Kemper turned and gazed at her with every symptom of unfeigned approbation.
I introduced him. Evelyn Grey seemed a trifle indifferent. A good-looking man doesn"t last long with a clever woman. I smiled to myself, polishing my spectacles gleefully. Yet, I had no idea why I was smiling.
We three people turned and walked toward the comb of the reef. A solitary palm represented the island"s vegetation, except, of course, for the water-growing mangroves.
I asked Miss Grey to precede us and wait for us under the palm; and she went forward in that light-footed way of hers which, to any non-scientific man, might have been a trifle disturbing. It had no effect upon me. Besides, I was looking at Grue, who had gone to the fire and was evidently preparing to fry our evening meal of fish and rice. I didn"t like to have him cook, but I wasn"t going to do it myself; and my pretty waitress didn"t know how to cook anything more complicated than beans.
We had no beans.
Kemper said to me:
"Why on earth did you bring a waitress?"
"Not to wait on table," I replied, amused. "I"ll explain her later.
Meanwhile, I merely want to say that you need not remain with this expedition if you don"t want to. It"s optional with you."
"That"s a funny thing to say!"
"No, not funny; sad. The truth is that if I fail I"ll be driven into obscurity by the ridicule of my brother scientists the world over. I had to tell them at the Bronx what I was going after. Every man connected with the society attempted to dissuade me, saying that the whole thing was absurd and that my reputation would suffer if I engaged in such a ridiculous quest. So when you hear what that girl and I are after out here in the semi-tropics, and when you are in possession of the only evidence I have to justify my credulity, if you want to go home, go.
Because I don"t wish to risk your reputation as a scientist unless you choose to risk it yourself."
He regarded me curiously, then his eyes strayed toward the palm-tree which Evelyn Grey was now approaching.
"All right," he said briefly, "let"s hear what"s up."
So we moved forward to rejoin the girl, who had already seated herself under the tree.
She looked very attractive in her neat cuffs, tiny cap, and pink print gown, as we approached her.
"Why does she dress that way?" asked Kemper, uneasily.
"Economy. She desires to use up the habiliments of a service which there will be no necessity for her to reenter if this expedition proves successful."
"Oh. But Smithy--"
"What?"
"Was it--moral--to bring a waitress?"
"Perfectly," I replied sharply. "Science knows no s.e.x!"
"I don"t understand how a waitress can be scientific," he muttered, "and there seems to be no question about her possessing plenty of s.e.x--"
"If that girl"s conclusions are warranted," I interrupted coldly, "she is a most intelligent and clever person. _I_ think they are warranted. If you don"t, you may go home as soon as you like."
I glanced at him; he was smiling at her with that strained politeness which alters the natural expression of men in the imminence of a conversation with a new and pretty woman.
I often wonder what particular combination of facial muscles are brought into play when that politely receptive expression transforms the normal and masculine features into a fixed simper.
When Kemper and I had seated ourselves, I calmly cut short the small talk in which he was already indulging, and to which, I am sorry to say, my pretty waitress was beginning to respond. I had scarcely thought it of her--but that"s neither here nor there--and I invited her to recapitulate the circ.u.mstances which had resulted in our present foregathering here on this strip of coral in the Atlantic Ocean.
She did so very modestly and without embarra.s.sment, stating the case and reviewing the evidence so clearly and so simply that I could see how every word she uttered was not only amazing but also convincing Kemper.
When she had ended he asked a few questions very seriously:
"Granted," he said, "that the pituitary gland represents what we a.s.sume it represents, how much faith is to be placed in the testimony of a Seminole Indian?"