Miss Brewster bewailed her harsh lot with drooping lip.
"Every one wants to drive me away!"
"Who else?"
"That railroad man, Mr. Galpy, was offering us special inducements to leave, in the form of special trains any time we liked. It isn"t hospitable."
"A jail is hospitable. But one doesn"t stay in it when one can get out."
"If Caracuna were the jail and I the "one," one might. I quite love it here."
He made a sharp gesture of annoyance.
"Don"t be childish," he said.
"Childish? You come down like Freedom from the mountain heights, and unfurl your warnings to the air, and complain of lost time and all that sort of thing, and what does it all amount to?" she demanded, with spirit. "That we should sail away, when you know perfectly well that the Dutch won"t let us sail away! Childish, indeed! Don"t you be BEETLISH!"
"There"s a way out, without much risk, but some discomfort. You could strike south-east to the Bird Reefs, take a small boat, and get over to the mainland. As soon as the blockade is off, the yacht can take your luggage around. The trip would be rough for you, but not dangerous. Not as dangerous as staying here may be."
"Do you really think it so serious?"
"Most emphatically."
"Will you come with us and show us the way?" she inquired, gazing with exaggerated appeal into his goggles.
"I? No."
"What shall you do?"
"Stick."
"Pins through scarabs," she laughed, "while beneath you Caracuna riots and revolutes and ma.s.sacres foreigners. Nero with his fiddle was nothing to you."
"Miss Brewster, I"m afraid you are suffering from a misplaced sense of humor. Will you believe me when I tell you that I have certain sources of information in local matters both serviceable and reliable?"
"You seem to have bet on a certainty in the Dutch blockade matter."
"Well, it"s equally certain that there is bubonic plague here."
"A bola. You told me so yourself."
"Perhaps there was nothing to be gained then by letting you know, as you were bottled up, with no way out. Now, through the good offices of a foreign official, who, of course, couldn"t afford to appear, this opportunity to reach the mainland is open to you."
"Had you anything to do with that?" she inquired suspiciously.
"Oh, the official is a friend of mine," he answered carelessly.
"And you really believe that there is an epidemic of plague here? Don"t you think that I"d make a good Red Cross nurse?"
His voice was grave and rather stern.
"You"ve never seen bubonic plague," he said, "or you wouldn"t joke about it."
"I"m sorry. But it wasn"t wholly a joke. If we were really cooped up with an epidemic, I"d volunteer. What else would there be to do?"
"Nothing of the sort," he cried vehemently. "You don"t know what you"re talking about."
"Anyway, isn"t the wonderful Luther Pruyn on his way to exorcise the demon, or something of the sort?"
"What about Luther Pruyn? Who says he"s coming here?"
"It"s the gossip of the diplomatic set and the clubs. He"s the favorite mystery of the day."
"Well, if he does come, it won"t improve matters any, for the first case he verifies he"ll clap on a quarantine that a mouse couldn"t creep through. I know something of the Pruyn method."
"And don"t wholly approve it, I judge."
"It may be efficacious, but it"s extremely inconvenient at times."
Again the cathedral clock boomed.
"See how I"ve kept you from your own affairs!" cried Miss Polly contritely. "What are you going to do now? Go back to your mountains?"
"Yes. As soon as you tell me that your father will go out by the reefs."
"Do you expect him to make up his mind, on five minutes" notice, to abandon his yacht?"
"I thought great magnates were supposed to be men of instant and unalterable decisions. I don"t know the type."
"Anyway, dad has gone out. I saw him drive away. Wouldn"t to-morrow do?"
"Why, yes; I suppose so."
"I"ll tell you. The Voice will report at the rock to-morrow, at four."
"No."
"What a very uncompromising "no"!"
"I can"t be there at four. Make it five."
"What a very arbitrary beetle man! Well, as I"ve wasted so much of your time to-day, I"ll accept your orders for to-morrow."
"And please impress your father with the extreme advisability of your getting off this island."
"Yes, sir," she said meekly. "You"ll be most awfully glad to get rid of us, won"t you?"
"Very greatly relieved."