"It"s a wonder you wouldn"t drop a fellow a line," said Abbott, in a faultfinding tone, as he righted the bench. "When did you come?"
"Last night. Came up from Como."
"Going to stay long?"
"That depends. I am really on my way to Zermatt. I"ve a hankering to have another try at the Matterhorn."
"Think of that!" exclaimed the colonel. "He says another try."
"You came a roundabout way," was the artist"s comment.
"Oh, that"s because I left Paris for Brescia. They had some good flights there. Wonderful year! They cross the Channel in an airship and discover the North Pole."
"Pah! Neither will be of any use to humanity; merely a fine sporting proposition." The colonel dug into his pocket for his pipe. "But what do you think of Germany?"
"Fine country," answered Courtlandt, rising and going to a window; "fine people, too. Why?"
"Do you--er--think they could whip us?"
"On land, yes."
"The devil!"
"On water, no."
"Thanks. In other words, you believe our chances equal?"
"So equal that all this war-scare is piffle. But I rather like to see you English get up in the air occasionally. It will do you good. You"ve an idea because you walloped Napoleon that you"re the same race you were then, and you are not. The English-speaking races, as the first soldiers, have ceased to be."
"Well, I be dem!" gasped the colonel.
"It"s the truth. Take the American: he thinks there is nothing in the world but money. Take the Britisher: to him caste is everything. Take the money out of one man"s mind and the importance of being well-born out of the other...." He turned from the window and smiled at the artist and the empurpling Anglo-Indian.
"Abbott," growled the soldier, "that man will some day drive me amuck.
What do you think? One night, on a tiger hunt, he got me into an argument like this. A brute of a beast jumped into the middle of it. Courtlandt shot him on the second bound, and turned to me with--"Well, as I was saying!" I don"t know to this day whether it was nerve or what you Americans call gall."
"Divided by two," grinned Abbott.
"Ha, I see; half nerve and half gall. I"ll remember that. But we were talking of airships."
"I was," retorted Courtlandt. "You were the man who started the powwow."
He looked down into the street with sudden interest. "Who is that?"
The colonel and Abbott hurried across the room.
"What did I say, Abbott? I told you I saw him. He"s crazy; fact. Thinks he can travel around incognito when there isn"t a magazine on earth that hasn"t printed his picture."
"Well, why shouldn"t he travel around if he wants to?" asked Courtlandt coolly.
The colonel nudged the artist.
"There happens to be an attraction in Bellaggio," said Abbott irritably.
"The moth and the candle," supplemented the colonel, peering over Courtlandt"s shoulder. "He"s well set up," grudgingly admitted the old fellow.
"The moth and the candle," mused Courtlandt. "That will be Nora Harrigan.
How long has this infatuation been going on?"
"Year and a half."
"And the other side?"
"There isn"t any other side," exploded the artist. "She"s worried to death. Not a day pa.s.ses but some scurrilous penny-a-liner springs some yarn, some beastly innuendo. She"s been dodging the fellow for months. In Paris last year she couldn"t move without running into him. This year she changed her apartment, and gave orders at the Opera to refuse her address to all who asked for it. Consequently she had some peace. I don"t know why it is, but a woman in public life seems to be a target."
"The penalty of beauty, Abby. Homely women seldom are annoyed, unless they become suffragists." The colonel poured forth a dense cloud of smoke.
"What brand is that, Colonel?" asked Courtlandt, choking.
The colonel generously produced his pouch.
"No, no! I was about to observe that it isn"t ambrosia."
"Rotter!" The soldier dug the offender in the ribs. "I am going to have the Harrigans over for tea this afternoon. Come over! You"ll like the family. The girl is charming; and the father is a sportsman to the backbone. Some silly fools laugh behind his back, but never before his face. And my word, I know rafts of gentlemen who are not fit to stand in his shoes."
"I should like to meet Mr. Harrigan." Courtlandt returned his gaze to the window once more.
"And his daughter?" said Abbott, curiously.
"Oh, surely!"
"I may count on you, then?" The colonel stowed away the offending brier.
"And you can stay to dinner."
"I"ll take the dinner end of the invitation," was the reply. "I"ve got to go over to Menaggio to see about some papers to be signed. If I can make the three o"clock boat in returning, you"ll see me at tea. Dinner at all events. I"m off."
"Do you mean to stand there and tell me that you have important business?"
jeered Abbott.
"My boy, the reason I"m on trains and boats, year in and year out, is in the vain endeavor to escape important business. Now and then I am rounded up. Were you ever hunted by money?" humorously.
"No," answered the Englishman sadly. "But I know one thing: I"d throw the race at the starting-post. Millions, Abbott, and to be obliged to run away from them! If the deserts hadn"t dried up all my tears, I should weep. Why don"t you hire a private secretary to handle your affairs?"
"And have him following at my heels?" Courtlandt gazed at his lean brown hands. "When these begin to shake, I"ll do so. Well, I shall see you both at dinner, whatever happens."
"That"s Courtlandt," said Abbott, when his friend was gone. "You think he"s in Singapore, the door opens and in he walks; never any letter or announcement. He arrives, that"s all."
"Strikes me," returned the other, polishing his gla.s.s, holding it up to the light, and then s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g it into his eye; "strikes me, he wasn"t overanxious to have that dish of tea. Afraid of women?"