VIII
"IN HEAVEN AND EARTH"
_The Green Mouse Stirs_
"I"ve been waiting half an hour for you," observed Smith, dryly, as Beekman Brown appeared at the subway station, suitcase in hand.
"It was a most extraordinary thing that detained me," said Brown, laughing, and edging his way into the ticket line behind his friend where he could talk to him across his shoulder; "I was just leaving the office, Smithy, when Snuyder came in with a card."
"Oh, all right--of course, if----"
"No, it was not a client; I must be honest with you."
"Then you had a terrible cheek to keep me here waiting."
"It was a girl," said Beekman Brown.
Smith cast a cold glance back at him over his left shoulder.
"What kind of a girl?"
"A most extraordinary girl. She came on--on a matter----"
"Was it business or a touch?"
"Not exactly business."
"Ornamental girl?" demanded Smith.
"Yes--exceedingly; but it wasn"t that----
"Oh, it was not that which kept you talking to her half an hour while I"ve sat suffocating in this accursed subway!"
"No, Smith; her undeniably attractive features and her--ah--winning personality had nothing whatever to do with it. Buy the tickets and I"ll tell you all about it."
Smith bought two tickets. A north bound train roared into the station.
The young men stepped aboard, seated themselves, depositing their suitcases at their feet.
"Now what about that winning-looker who really didn"t interest you?"
suggested Smith in tones made slightly acid by memory of his half hour waiting.
"Smith, it was a most unusual episode. I was just leaving the office to keep my appointment with you when Snuyder came in with a card----"
"You"ve said that already."
"But I didn"t tell you what was on that card, did I?"
"I can guess."
"No, you can"t. Her name was not on the card. She was not an agent; she had nothing to sell; she didn"t want a position; she didn"t ask for a subscription to anything. And what do you suppose was on that card?"
"Well, what was on the card, for the love of Mike?" snapped Smith. "I"ll tell you. The card seemed to be an ordinary visiting card; but down in one corner was a tiny and beautifully drawn picture of a green mouse."
"A--what?"
"A mouse."
"G-green?"
"Pea green.... Come, now, Smith, if you were just leaving your office and your clerk should come in, looking rather puzzled and silly, and should hand you a card with nothing on it but a little green mouse, wouldn"t it give you pause?"
"I suppose so."
Brown removed his straw hat, touched his handsome head with his handkerchief, and continued:
"I said to Snuyder: "What the mischief is this?" He said: "It"s for you.
And there"s an exceedingly pretty girl outside who expects you to receive her for a few moments." I said: "But what has this card with a green mouse on it got to do with that girl or with me?" Snuyder said he didn"t know and that I"d better ask her. So I looked at my watch and I thought of you----"
"Yes, you did."
"I tell you I did. Then I looked at the card with the green mouse on it.... And I want to ask you frankly, Smith, what would _you_ have done?"
"Oh, what you did, I suppose," replied Smith, wearily. "Go on."
"I"m going. She entered----"
"She was tall and squeenly; you probably forgot that," observed Smith in his most objectionable manner.
"Probably not; she was of medium height, as a detail of external interest. But, although rather unusually attractive in a merely superficial and physical sense, it was instantly evident from her speech and bearing, that, in her, intellect dominated; her mind, Smithy, reigned serene, unsullied, triumphant over matter."
Smith looked up in amazement, but Brown, a reminiscent smile lighting his face, went on:
"She had a very winsome manner--a way of speaking--so prettily in earnest, so grave. And she looked squarely at me all the time----"
"So you contributed to the Home for Unemployed Patagonians."
"Would you mind shutting up?" asked Brown.
"No."
"Then try to listen respectfully. She began by explaining the significance of that pea-green mouse on the card. It seems, Smith, that there is a scientific society called The Green Mouse, composed of a few people who have determined to apply, practically, certain theories which they believe have commercial value."
"Was she," inquired Smith with misleading politeness, "what is known as an "astrologist"?"
"She was not. She is the president, I believe, of The Green Mouse Society. She explained to me that it has been indisputably proven that the earth is not only enveloped by those invisible electric currents which are now used instead of wires to carry telegraphic messages, but that this world of ours is also belted by countless psychic currents which go whirling round the earth----"