"Senator Richland, of the Committee on Foreign Relations, is an old friend of my family," said Carroll, in his measured tones. "A cable--"
"Would probably never get through. This Government wouldn"t allow it.
There are other possibilities. Perhaps, Mr. Brewster," he continued, with a side glance at the girl, "we might talk it over at length this evening."
"Quite useless, Mr. Sherwen," smiled the magnate. "Polly would have it all out of me before I was an hour older. She may as well get it direct."
"Very well, then. It"s this quarantine business. If Dr. Pruyn comes here and declares bubonic plague--"
"But how will he get in?" asked Carroll.
"So far as the blockade goes, the Dutch will help him all they can. But this Government will keep him out, if possible."
"He is not persona grata?" asked Brewster.
"Not with any of the countries that play politics with pestilence.
But if he"s sent here, he"ll get in some way. In fact, Stark, the public-health surgeon at Puerto del Norte, let fall a hint that makes me think he"s on his way now. Probably in some c.o.c.klesh.e.l.l of a small boat manned by Indian smugglers."
"It sounds almost too adventurous for the scholarly Pruyn whom I recall," observed Mr. Brewster.
"The man who went through the cholera anarchy on the lazar island off Camacho, with one case of medical supplies and two boxes of cartridges, may have been scholarly; he certainly didn"t exhibit any distaste for adventure. Well, I wish he"d arrive and get something settled. Only I"d like to have you out of the way first."
"Oh, don"t send ME away, Mr. Sherwen," pleaded Miss Polly, with mischief in her eyes. "I"d make the cunningest little office a.s.sistant to busy old Dr. Pruyn. And he"s a friend of dad"s, and we surely ought to wait for him."
"If only I COULD send you! The fact is, Americans won"t be very popular if matters turn out as I expect."
"Shall we be confined to our rooms and kept incomunicado, while Dr.
Pruyn chases the terrified germ through the streets of Caracuna?"
queried the irrepressible Polly.
"You"ll probably have to move to the legation, where you will be very welcome, but none too comfortable. The place has been practically closed and sealed for two months."
"I"m sure we should bother you dreadfully," said the girl.
"It would bother me more dreadfully if you got into any trouble. Just this morning there was some kind of an affair on a street car in which some Americans were involved."
Miss Polly"s countenance was a design--a very dainty and ornamental design--in insouciance as her father said:--
"Americans? Any one we have met?"
"No news has come to me. I understand one of the diplomatic corps, returning from the President"s matinee, spoke to an American woman, and an American man interfered."
"When did this happen?" asked Carroll.
"About noon. Inquiries are going on quietly."
The young man directed a troubled and accusing look from his fine eyes upon Miss Brewster.
"You see, Miss Polly," he said, "no lady should go about unprotected down here."
"Ordinarily it"s as safe as any city," said Sherwen. "Just now I can"t be so certain."
"I hate being watched over like a child!" pouted Miss Brewster. "And I love sight-seeing alone. The flowers along the Calvario Road were so lovely."
"That"s the road to the palace," remarked Carroll, looking at her closely.
"And the b.u.t.terflies are so marvelous," she continued cheerfully. "Who lives in that salmon-pink paG.o.da just this side of the curve?"
Trouble sat dark and heavy upon the handsome features of Mr. Preston Fairfax Fitzhugh Carroll, but he was too experienced to put a direct query to his inamorata. What suspicion he had, he cherished until after dinner, when he took it to the club and made it the foundation of certain inquiries.
Thus it happened that at eleven o"clock that evening, he paused before a bench in the plaza, bowered in the bloom of creepers which flowed down from a balcony of the Kast, and occupied by the comfortably sprawled-out form of Mr. Thomas Cluff, who was making a burnt offering to Morpheus.
"Good-evening!" said Mr. Carroll pleasantly.
"Evenin"! How"s things?" returned the other.
"Right as can be, thanks to you. On behalf of the Brewster family, I want to express our appreciation of your a.s.sistance to Miss Brewster this morning."
"Oh, that was nothing," returned the other.
"But it might have been a great deal. Mr. Brewster will wish to thank you in person--"
"Aw, forget it!" besought Mr. Thomas Cluff. "That little lady is all right. I"d just as soon eat an amba.s.sador, let alone a gilt-framed secretary, to help her out."
"Miss Brewster," said the other, somewhat more stiffly, "is a wholly admirable young lady, but she is not always well advised in going out unescorted. By the way, you can doubtless confirm the rumor as to the ident.i.ty of her insulter."
"His name is Von Plaanden. But I don"t think he meant to insult any one."
"You will permit me to be the best judge of that."
"Go as far as you like," a.s.serted the big fellow cheerfully. "That fellow Perkins can tell you more about the start of the thing than I can."
"From what I hear, he has no cause to be proud of his part in the matter," said the Southerner, frowning.
"He"s sure a prompt little runner," a.s.serted Cluff. "But I"ve run away in my time, and glad of the chance."
"You will excuse me from sympathizing with your standards."
"Sure, you"re excused," returned the athlete, so placidly that Carroll, somewhat at a loss, altered his speech to a more gracious tone.
"At any rate, you stood your ground when you were needed, which is more than Mr. Perkins did. I should like to have a talk with him."
"That"s easy. He was rambling around here not a quarter of an hour ago with young Raimonda. That"s them sitting on the bench over by the fountain."
"Will you take me over and present me? I think it is due Mr. Perkins that some one should give him a frank opinion of his actions."
"I"d like to hear that," observed Cluff, who was not without humanistic curiosity. "Come along."
Heaving up his six-feet-one from the seat, he led the way to the two conversing men. Raimonda looked around and greeted the newcomers pleasantly. Cluff waved an explanatory hand between his charge and the bench.