"Make you acquainted with Mr. Perkins," he said, neglecting to mention the name of the first party of the introduction.
Perkins, goggling upward to meet a coldly hostile glance, rose, nodded in some wonder, and said: "How do you do?" Raimonda sent Cluff a glance of interrogation, to which that experimentalist in human antagonisms responded with a borrowed Spanish gesture of pleasurable uncertainty.
"I will not say that I"m glad to meet you, Mr. Perkins," began Carroll weightily, and paused.
If he expected a query, he was doomed to a disappointment. Such of the Perkins features as were not concealed by his extraordinary gla.s.ses expressed an immovable calm.
"Doubtless you know to what I refer."
Still those blank brown gla.s.ses regarded him in silence.
"Do you or do you not?" demanded Carroll, struggling to keep his temper in the face of this exasperating irresponsiveness.
"Haven"t the least idea," replied Perkins equably.
"You were on the tram this morning when Miss Brewster was insulted, weren"t you?"
"Yes."
"And ran away?"
"I did."
"What did you run away for?"
"I ran away," the other sweetly informed him, "on important business of my own."
Cluff snickered. The suspicion impinged upon Carroll"s mind that this wasn"t going to be as simple as he had expected.
"Let that go for the moment. Do you know Miss Brewster"s insulter?"
"No."
"Are you telling me the truth?" asked the Southerner sternly.
The begoggled one"s chin jerked up. To the trained eye of Cluff, swift to interpret physical indications, it seemed that Perkins"s weight had almost imperceptibly shifted its center of gravity.
"Our Southern friend is going to run into something if he doesn"t look out," he reflected.
But there was no hint of trouble in Perkins"s voice as he replied:--
"I know who he is. I don"t know him."
"Was it Von Plaanden?"
"Why do you want to know?"
"Because," returned the other, with convincing coolness, "if it was, I intend to slap his face publicly as soon as I can find him."
"You must do nothing of the sort."
Now, indeed, there was a change in the other"s bearing. The words came sharp and crisp.
"I shall do exactly as I said. Perhaps you will explain why you think otherwise."
"Because you must have some sense somewhere about you. Do you realize where you are?"
"I hardly think you can teach me geography, or anything else, Mr.
Perkins."
"Well, good G.o.d," said the other sharply, "somebody"s got to teach you!
What do you suppose would be the result of your slapping Von Plaanden"s face?"
"Whatever it may be, I am ready. I will fight him with any weapons, and gladly."
"Oh, yes; gladly! Fun for you, all right. But suppose you think of others a little."
"Afraid of being involved yourself?" smiled Carroll. "I"m sure you could run away successfully from any kind of trouble."
"Others might not be so able to escape."
"Of course I"m wholly wrong, and my training and traditions are absurdly old-fashioned, but I"ve been brought up to believe that the American who will run from a fight, or who will not stand up at home or abroad for American rights, American womanhood, and the American flag, isn"t a man."
"Oh, keep it for the Fourth of July," returned Perkins wearily. "You can"t get me into a fight."
"Fight?" Carroll laughed shortly. "If you had the traditions of a gentleman, you would not require any more provocation."
"If I had the traditions of a deranged doodle bug, I"d go around hunting trouble in a country that is full of it for foreigners--even those who behave themselves like sane human beings."
"Meaning, perhaps, that I"m not a sane human being?" inquired the Southerner.
"Do you think you act like it? To satisfy your own petty vanity of courage, you"d involve all of us in difficulties of which you know nothing. We"re living over a powder magazine here, and you want to light matches to show what a hero you are. Traditions! Don"t you talk to me about traditions! If you can serve your country or a woman better by running away than by fighting, the sensible thing to do is to run away.
The best thing you can do is to keep quiet and let Von Plaanden drop.
Otherwise, you"ll have Miss Brewster the center of--"
"Keep your tongue from that lady"s name!" warned Carroll.
"You"re giving a good many orders," said the other slowly. "But I"ll do almost anything just now to keep you peaceable, and to convince you that you must let Von Plaanden strictly alone."
"Just as surely as I meet him," said the Southerner ominously, "on my word of honor--"
"Wait a moment," broke in the other sharply. "Don"t commit yourself until you"ve heard me. Just around the corner from here is a cuartel. It isn"t a nice clean jail like ours at home. Fleas are the pleasantest companions in the place. When a man--particularly an obnoxious foreigner--lands there, they are rather more than likely to forget little incidentals like food and water. And if he should happen to be of a nation without diplomatic representation here, as is the case with the United States at present, he might well lie there incomunicado until his hearing, which might be in two days or might not be for a month. Is that correct, Mr. Raimonda?"
"Essentially," confirmed the Caracunan.
"When you are through trying to frighten me--" began Carroll contemptuously.
"Frighten you? I"m not so foolish as to waste time that way. I"m trying to warn you."