He surged up the last remaining ascent at a lively stride.
"What"s the matter? What in the world are you drivin" at?" demanded Mrs. d.i.c.k. "Hold your tongue long enough to tell me what"s the matter."
"It"s the _c.h.i.n.k_!" exploded Billy pantingly. "They tried to run him off the place! He"s locked the kitchen and gone to throwin" out hot water and Chinese language like a fire-engine on a drunk. And now they"re all a-packin" up to quit the house, and you won"t have a doggone boarder left, fer they won"t eat Chinese chuck!"
"What?" said Van drawlingly, "refuse to eat Algy"s confections?--a crowd like that? By all the culinary G.o.ds of Worcestershire and mustard, they"ll eat out of Algy"s hand."
He dived inside the tent, caught up his gun, and was strapping it on before Mrs. d.i.c.k could catch her breath to utter a word of her wrath.
"Well," said Gettysburg dubiously, "I hate trouble on an empty stomach, but----"
"You stay in camp till you hear the dinner bell," Van interrupted.
"This game is mine and Mrs. d.i.c.k"s. You"ll get there in time for dessert."
He did not wait for Mrs. d.i.c.k. He started at a pace that none could follow. Mrs. d.i.c.k began to run at his heels, calling instructions as she went.
"Be careful of the crock"ry, Van! The stove"s bran"-new! I"d hate to have you break the chairs! And don"t forgit Miss Kent!"
Old Billy St.i.tts had remained with the others at the camp.
"Ain"t she the female woman?" he said. "Ain"t she just about it?"
No one answered. The three old cronies were watching Van as he went.
Van, for his part, heard nothing of what Mrs. d.i.c.k was saying, except the name "Miss Kent." He had not forgotten for a moment that Beth was at the seat of war, or that he would perhaps be wiser by far never to behold her again. He was speeding there despite all he felt at what she had done, for she might be involved in trouble at the house, and--at least she was a woman.
He arrived in the midst of a newly concerted plan on the part of lodgers and strangers combined to smoke Algy out of the kitchen. They had broken windows, overturned the furniture, and worked up a lively humor. Algy had exhausted his supply of hot water, but not his supply of language. It seemed as if the stream of Oriental invective being poured through the walls of the building might have withered almost anything extant. But Goldite whisky had failed on his besiegers earlier and their vitals were proof against attack.
Van arrived among them abruptly.
"What"s all this pillow-fight about?" he demanded in a voice that all could hear. "Which one of you fellows is it that"s forgotten he"s a man? Who"s looking for trouble with my Chinese cook and Mrs. d.i.c.k?"
He boded no good to any man sufficiently hardy to argue the matter to a finish. The attackers lost heart as they faced about and found him there ready for action. From a half-open window above the scene Beth was watching all that was done.
A spokesman for the lodgers found his voice.
"Well, we ain"t a-goin" to stay in no doggone house with a c.h.i.n.k shoved in fer a cook."
Van nodded: "Have you ever tried Algy"s cooking?"
"No, we ain"t! And we ain"t a-goin" to, neither!"
The others murmured their a.s.sent.
"You"re a fine discriminating cl.u.s.ter of bifurcated, viviparous idiots," said Van in visibly disturbing scorn. "You fellows would have to be grabbed by the scruff of the neck and kicked into Eden, I reckon, even if the snake was killed and flung over the fence, and the fruit offered up on silver platters. The man who hasn"t eaten one of Algy"s dinners isn"t fit to live. The man who refuses to eat one better begin right now on his prayers." He took out his gun and waved it loosely about, adding: "Which one of you remembers "Now I lay me down to sleep"?"
There was no response. The ten or twelve disturbers of the peace were stirring uneasily in their tracks.
Van gave them a chance.
"All who prefer to recite, "Now I sit me up to eat," please raise their hands. Raise "em up, raise "em up!" he commanded with the gun. "Put up both hands, while you"re at it."
Up went all the hands. Mrs. d.i.c.k arrived, and stood looking on and panting in excitement.
"Thanks for this unanimous vote," Van resumed. "I want to inform you boarders in particular that if ever I hear of one of you missing a meal of Algy"s cooking, or playing hookey from this lodging-house, as long as Mrs. d.i.c.k desires your inglorious company, I"ll hand you forthwith over to the pound-keeper with instructions not to waste his chloroform, but to drown the whole litter in a bag."
"Oh, well!" said the spokesman, "I"d just as soon eat the c.h.i.n.k"s cookin", if it"s good."
"Me, too," said a follower, meek as a lamb. A number echoed "Me, too."
One added: "We was just having a little bit of fun."
"Well," said Van judicially, "Algy"s ent.i.tled to his share." He raised his voice: "Hey there, Algy--come out here and play with the boys."
Mrs. d.i.c.k had caught sufficient breath to explode.
"Fun!" she said. "My windows broken! My house all upset. Snakes alive, if ever I heard----"
Algy appeared and interrupted.
"What"s mallah you, Van?" he said. "I got no time fool lound now.
Been play too much. All time play, that velly superstich! n.o.body got time to work."
"That"s all right," Van a.s.sured him. "The boys here wish to apologize for wasting your valuable time. In fact, they insist. Now then, boys, down on your knees, every Jack in the crowd."
That gun of his had a horribly loose way of waving about to cover all the men. They slumped to, rather than knelt on, their knees.
"Suminagot!" said Algy. "All time too muchee monkey fooling! My dinner not git leady, Van, you savvy that? What"s mallah you?"
Van ignored the cook, in addressing the men.
"It"s your earnest desire to apologize, boys, I believe," he said.
"All in favor will please say Aye."
The men said Aye in growlings, rumblings, and pipings.
Van addressed his cook. "Do you want them to kiss your hand?"
"_Ah_! Unema! hong oy!" said Algy blasphemously. "You makee me velly sick! Just wash my hands for finish my dinner. Too much monkey-doodle!" and off he went to his work, followed at once by Mrs.
d.i.c.k.
"Algy"s too modest," Van a.s.sured the crowd. "And none of you chaps are fit to apologize to Mrs. d.i.c.k, so you"d better go wash up for dinner.
But don"t let me hear so much as a peep about Algy from one of this bunch, or Eden will turn into Hades." As the men arose to their feet sheepishly, and began to slink away he added to the spokesman, "You there with the face for pie, go up to my camp and call the boys to feed."
The men disappeared. Van, left alone, was turning away when his glance was attracted to the window, up above, where Beth was looking down.
His face turned red to the topmost rim of his ears.
The girl was pale, but resolute.
"May I see you a moment, please?" she said, "before the men come in?"