"I should be pleased to hear it," I replied courteously.
"That misfortune, then, would be to fall in love with you."
"Happily that is not within the limits of probability," I answered, beginning to be a little amused. "But why?"
"Lightning often strikes where it is least expected," she replied archly. "Listen. If a young woman were unlucky enough to lose her heart to you, she might do everything but tell you, and you would never know it. I scarcely believe you would know it if she did tell you."
I must have jumped unconsciously.
"Oh, you needn"t think I am in love with you."
"Not for a minute," I made haste to say.
She pointed towards the timber-covered hills beyond the sh.o.r.e.
"Do you see that stream which comes foaming down the notch into the lake in front of us?" she asked. "Let us suppose that you lived in a cabin beside that brook; and that once in a while, when you went out to draw your water, you saw a nugget of--gold washing along with the pebbles on the bed. How many days do you think you would be in coming to the conclusion that there was a pocket of gold somewhere above you, and in starting in search of it?"
"Not long, surely."
"Ah, you are not lacking in perception there. But if I were to tell you that I knew of the existence of such a mine, from various proofs I have had, and that the mine was in the possession of a certain person who was quite willing to share it with you on application, you would not believe me."
"Probably not."
"Well," said Miss Trevor, with a nod of finality, "I was actually about to make such a disclosure. But I see it would be useless."
I confess she aroused my curiosity. No coaxing, however, would induce her to interpret.
"No," she insisted strangely, "if you cannot put two and two together, I fear I cannot help you. And no one I ever heard of has come to any good by meddling."
Miss Trevor folded her hands across her lap. She wore that air which I am led to believe is common to all women who have something of importance to disclose; or at least what they consider is of importance.
There was an element of pity, too, in her expression. For she had given me my chance, and my wits had been found wanting.
Do not let it be surmised that I attach any great value to such banter as she had been indulging in. At the same time, however, I had an uneasy feeling that I had missed something which might have been to my advantage. It was in vain that I whipped my dull senses; but one conclusion was indicated by all this inference, and I don"t care even to mention that: it was preposterous.
Then Miss Trevor shifted to a very serious mood. She honestly did her best to persuade me to relinquish our enterprise, to go to Mr. Cooke and confess the whole thing.
"I wish we had washed our hands of this Celebrity from the first," she said, with a sigh. "How dreadful if you lose your position on account of this foolishness!"
"But I shan"t," I answered rea.s.suringly; "we are getting near the border now, and no sign of trouble. And besides," I added, "I think Miss Thorn tried to frighten me. And she very nearly succeeded. It was prettily done."
"Of course she tried to frighten you. I wish she had succeeded."
"But her object was transparent."
"Her object!" she exclaimed. "Her object was to save you."
"I think not," I replied; "it was to save the Celebrity."
Miss Trevor rose and grasped one of the sail rings to keep her balance.
She looked at me pityingly.
"Do you really believe that?"
"Firmly."
"Then you are hopeless, Mr. Crocker, totally hopeless. I give you up."
And she went back to her seat beside the refrigerator.
CHAPTER XVII
"Crocker, old man, Crocker, what the devil does that mean?"
I turned with a start to perceive a bare head thrust above the cabin roof, the scant hair flying, and two large, brown eyes staring into mine full of alarm and reproach. A plump finger was pointing to where the sandy reef lay far astern of us.
The Mackinaws were flecked far and wide over the lake, and a dirty smudge on the blue showed where the Far Harbor and Beaverton boat had gone over the horizon. But there, over the point and dangerously close to the land, hung another smudge, gradually pushing its way like a writhing, black serpent, lakewards. Thus I was rudely jerked back to face the problem with which we had left the island that morning.
I s.n.a.t.c.hed the neglected gla.s.ses from the deck and hurried aft to join my client on the overhang, but a pipe was all they revealed above the bleak hillocks of sand. My client turned to me with a face that was white under the tan.
"Crocker," he cried, in a tragic voice, "it"s a blessed police boat, or I never picked a winner."
"Nonsense," I said; "other boats smoke beside police boats. The lake is full of tugs."
I was a little nettled at having been scared for a molehill.
"But I know it, sure as h.e.l.l," he insisted.
"You know nothing about it, and won"t for an hour. What"s a pipe and a trail of smoke?"
He laid a hand on my shoulder, and I felt it tremble.
"Why do you suppose I came out?" he demanded solemnly.
"You were probably losing," I said.
"I was winning."
"Then you got tired of winning."
But he held up a thumb within a few inches of my face, and with it a ring I had often noticed, a huge opal which he customarily wore on the inside of his hand.
"She"s dead," said Mr. Cooke, sadly.
"Dead?" I repeated, perplexed.
"Yes, she"s dead as the day I lost the two thousand at Sheepshead. She"s never gone back on me yet. And unless I can make some little arrangement with those fellows," he added, tossing his head at the smoke, "you and I will put up to-night in some barn of a jail. I"ve never been in jail but once," said Mr. Cooke, "and it isn"t so d.a.m.ned pleasant, I a.s.sure you." I saw that he believed every word of it; in fact, that it was his religion. I might as well have tried to argue the Sultan out of Mohammedanism.