"Unless you"re h.e.l.l-bent on sticking around here to get your head bashed in--I venture respectfully to suggest that you consign yourself to my competent care."
"Meaning--?"
"I"ve got a bungalow down on Long Island--a one-horse sort of a bachelor affair--and I"m going to run down there this evening and stay awhile.
There"s quiet, no society and good swimming. Will you come along and be my guest until you grow tired of it?"
Whitaker looked his prospective host over with a calculating, suspicious eye.
"I ought to be able to take care of myself," he grumbled childishly.
"Granted."
"But I"ve a great mind to take you up."
"Sensibly spoken. Can you be ready by three? I"ll call with the car then, if you can."
"Done with you!" declared Whitaker with a strong sense of relief.
As a matter of fact, he was far less incredulous of Ember"s theory than he chose to admit.
X
THE WINDOW
Though they left New York not long after three in the afternoon, twilight was fast ebbing into night when the motor-car--the owner driving, Whitaker invalided to the lonely grandeur of the tonneau--swept up from a long waste of semi-wooded countryside, spa.r.s.ely populated, b.u.mped over railroad tracks, purred softly at sedate pace through the single street of a drowsy village, and then struck away from the main country road.
Once clear of the village bounds, as if a.s.sured of an un.o.bstructed way, Ember gave the motor its head; with a long, keen whine of delight it took the bit between its teeth and flung away like a thoroughbred romping down the home-stretch. Its headlights clove a path through darkness, like a splendid sword; a pale shining ribbon of road seemed to run to the wheels as if eager to be devoured; on either hand woodlands and desolate clearings blurred into dark and rushing walls; the wind buffeted the faces of the travellers like a soft and tender hand, seeking vainly if with all its strength to withstand their impetus: only the wonderful wilderness of stars remained imperturbable.
Whitaker, braced against the jolting, s.n.a.t.c.hed begrudged mouthfuls of air strong of the sea. From time to time he caught fugitive glimpses of what seemed to be water, far in the distances to the right. He had no very definite idea of their whereabouts, having neglected through sheer indifference to question Ember, but he knew that they were drawing minute by minute closer to the Atlantic. And the knowledge was soothing to the unquiet of his soul, who loved the sea. He dreamed vaguely, with yearning, of wave-swept sh.o.r.es and their sonorous silences.
After some time the car slowed to a palpitant pause at a spot where the road was bordered on one hand by a woods, on the other by meadow-lands running down to an arm of a bay, on whose gently undulant surface the flame-tipped finger of a distant lighthouse drew an undulant path of radiance.
Ember jumped out to open a barred gate, then returning swung the car into a clear but narrow woodland road. "Mine own domain," he informed Whitaker with a laugh, as he stopped a second time to go back and close the gate. "Now we"re shut of the world, entirely."
The car crawled cautiously on, following a path that, in the searching glare of headlights, showed as two parallel tracks of white set apart by a strip of livid green and walled in by a dense tangle of scrub-oak and pine and second growth. Underbrush rasped and rattled against the guards. Outside the lighted way arose strange sounds audible above even the purring of the motor--vast mysterious whisperings and rustlings: stealthy and murmurous protests against this startling trespa.s.s.
Whitaker bent forward, inquiring: "Where are we?"
"Almost there. Patience."
Whitaker sat back again, content to await enlightenment at the pleasure of his host. Really, he didn"t much care where they were: the sense of isolation, strong upon his spirit, numbed all his curiosity.
He reckoned idly that they must have threaded a good two miles of woodland, when at length the car emerged upon a clearing and immediately turned aside to the open doorway of a miniature garage.
For the first time in five hours he was aware of the hush of Nature; the motor"s song was ended for the night.
The clearing seemed no more than a fair two acres in extent; the forest hemmed it in on three sides; on the fourth lay water. Nor was it an unqualified clearing; a hundred yards distant the lighted windows of a one-story structure shone pleasantly through a scattering plantation of pine.
Linking arms the better to guide his guest, Ember drew him toward the lights.
"Bungalow," he explained, sententious, flourishing his free hand: "hermitage--retreat."
"Paradise," Whitaker summed up, in the same humour.
"Still-water swimming at the front door; surf bathing on the beach across the bay; sailing, if you care for it; fishing, if you don"t care what you say; all sorts of civilized loafing and no society except our own."
"No women?"
"Not a petticoat."
"No neighbours?"
"Oh"--Ember motioned to his left as they faced the water--"there"s a married establishment over there somewhere, but we don"t bother one another. Fellow by the name of Fiske. I understand the place is shut up--Fiske not coming down this year."
"So much the better. I"ve been wanting just this all summer, without realizing it."
"Welcome, then, to Half-a-loaf Lodge!"
Skirting the edges of the plantation, they had come round to the front of the house. An open door, warm with light, welcomed them. They entered a long and deep living-room with walls of peeled logs and, at one end, a stone fireplace wherein a wood fire blazed heartily. Two score candles in sconces furnished an illumination mellow and benign. At a comfortable distance from the hearth stood a table bright with linen, silver and crystal--covers for two. The rear wall was broken by three doors, in one of which a rotund Chinaman beamed oleaginously. Ember hailed him by the t.i.tle of Sum Fat, explaining that it wasn"t his name, but claiming for it the virtue of exquisite felicity.
"My servant in town, here man-of-all-work; I"ve had him for years; faithful and indispensable...."
Toward the end of an excellent dinner, Whitaker caught himself nodding and blinking with drowsiness. The fatigue of their long ride, added to the nervous strain and excitement of the previous night, was proving more than he had strength to struggle against. Ember took laughing compa.s.sion upon him and led him forthwith to a bedroom furnished with the rigid simplicity of a summer camp. Once abed he lay awake only long enough to recognize, in the pulsating quiet, the restless thunder of surf on the beach across the bay. Then he slept round the clock.
He recovered consciousness to lie luxuriating in the sensation of delicious and complete repose, and to listen lazily to the drum of raindrops on the low roof--too lazy, indeed, to turn his head and consult his watch. Yet he knew it must be late in the morning, for the light was broad, if gray.
The shrill, imperative rattle of a telephone bell roused him more thoroughly. Lifting on his elbow, he eyed his watch, then hastily swung his legs out of bed; for it was nearly ten o"clock.
As he dressed he could hear the voice of Ember in the living-room talking over the telephone. Presently there came a tap at his door, and his host entered.
"Up, eh?" he said cheerfully. "I was afraid I"d have to wake you. You"re surely a sincere young sleeper.... I say!" His smile vanished beneath the clouds of an impatient frown. "This is the devil of a note: I"ve got to leave you."
"What"s the trouble?"
"That"s what I"m called upon to find out. A friend of mine"s in a tight place, and I"ve got to go and help pull him through. He just called me up--and I can"t refuse. D"you mind being left alone for a day or so?"
"Certainly not--only I"m sorry."
"No more than I. But I"ll try to get back to-morrow. If I don"t, the next day--or as soon as I possibly can. Meanwhile, please consider yourself lord and master here. Sum Fat will take good care of you.
Anything you want, just ask him. Now I"ve got to get into waterproofs: it"s raining like all get-out, but I can"t wait for a let-up."
By the time Whitaker was ready for breakfast, his host had splashed off to his motor car.
Later, while Sum Fat crooned to himself over the dish-pan in the kitchen, Whitaker explored his quarters; to begin with, not in the least disconsolate to be left alone. The place had for his imagination the zest of novelty and isolation. He rather enjoyed the sensation of complete dissociation from the rest of the world, of freedom to humour his idlest whim without reference to the prejudices of any neighbour.