"No; I"m not to be put off with pretty speeches. Take them off. Please!"
Releasing her hand, he lifted off the heavy and disfiguring apparatus, and stood before her, quietly submissive to her wish. She took a quick step backward, stumbled, and thrust out a hand against the face of the giant rock for support.
"Oh!" she cried, and again, "Oh, I didn"t think you"d look like that!"
"What is it? Is there anything very wrong with me?" he asked seriously, blinking a little in the soft light.
"No, no. It isn"t that. I--I hardly know--I expected something different. Forgive me for being so--so stupid."
In truth, Miss Polly Brewster had sustained a shock. She had become accustomed to regard her beetle man rather more in the light of a beetle than a man. In fact, the human side of him had impressed her only as a certain dim appeal to sympathy; the masculine side had simply not existed. Now it was as if he had unmasked. The visage, so grotesque and gnomish behind its mechanical apparatus, had given place to a wholly different and formidably strange face. The change all centered in the eyes. They were wide-set eyes of the clearest, steadiest, and darkest gray she had ever met; and they looked out at her from sharply angled brows with a singular clarity and calmness of regard. In their light the man"s face became instinct with character in every line. Strength was there, self-control, dignity, a glint of humor in the little wrinkles at the corner of the mouth, and, withal a sort of quiet and st.u.r.dy beauty.
She had half-turned her face from him. Now, as her gaze returned and was fixed by his, she felt a wave of blood expand her heart, rush upward into her cheeks, and press into her eyes tears of swift regret. But now she was sorry, not for him, but for herself, because he had become remote and difficult to her.
"Have I startled you?" he asked curiously. "I"ll put them back on again."
"No, no; don"t do that!" She rallied herself to the point of laughing a little. "I"m a goose. You see, I"ve pictured you as quite different.
Have you ever seen yourself in the gla.s.s with those dreadful disguises on?"
"Why, no; I don"t suppose I have," he replied, after reflection. "After all, they"re meant for use, not for ornament."
By this time she had mastered her confusion and was able to examine his face. Under his eyes were circles of dull gray, defined by deep lines,
"Why, you"re worn out!" she cried pitifully. "Haven"t you been sleeping?"
"Not much."
"You must take something for it." The mothering instinct sprang to the rescue. "How much rest did you get last night?"
"Let me see. Last night I did very well. Fully four hours."
"And that is more than you average?"
"Well, yes; lately. You see, I"ve been pretty busy."
"Yet you"ve given up your time to my wretched, unimportant little stupid affairs! And what return have I made?"
"You"ve made the sun shine," he said, "in a rather shaded existence."
"Promise me that you"ll sleep to-night; that you won"t work a stroke."
"No; I can"t promise that."
"You"ll break down. You"ll go to pieces. What have you got to do more important than keeping in condition?"
"As to that, I"ll last through. And there"s some business that won"t wait."
Divination came upon her.
"Dad"s message!"
"If it weren"t that, it would be something else."
Her hand went out to him, and was withdrawn.
"Please put on your gla.s.ses," she said shyly.
Smiling, he did her bidding.
"There! Now you are my beetle man again. No, not quite, though. You"ll never be quite the same beetle man again."
"I shall always be," he contradicted gently.
"Anyway, it"s better. You"re easier to say things to. Are you really the man who ran away from the street car?" she asked doubtfully.
"I really am."
"Then I"m most surely sure that you had good reason." She began to laugh softly. "As for the stories about you, I"d believe them less than ever, now."
"Are there stories about me?"
"Gossip of the club. They call you "The Unspeakable Perk"!"
"Not a bad nickname," he admitted. "I expect I have been rather unspeakable, from their point of view."
A desire to have the faith that was in her supported by this man"s own word overrode her shyness.
"Mr. Beetle Man," she said, "have you got a sister?"
"I? No. Why?"
"If you had a sister, is there anything--Oh, DARN your sister!" broke forth the irrepressible Polly. "I"ll be your sister for this. Is there anything about you and your life here that you"d be afraid to tell me?"
"No."
"I knew there wasn"t," she said contentedly. She hesitated a moment, then put a hand on his arm. "Does this HAVE to be good-bye, Mr. Beetle Man?" she said wistfully.
"I"m afraid so."
"No!" She stamped imperiously. "I want to see you again, and I"m going to see you again. Won"t you come down to the port and bring me another bunch of your mountain orchids when we sail--just for good-bye?"
Through the dull medium of the gla.s.ses she could feel his eyes questioning hers. And she knew that once more before she sailed away, she must look into those eyes, in all their clarity and all their strength--and then try to forget them. The swift color ran up into her cheeks.
"I--I suppose so," he said. "Yes."
"Au revoir, then!" she cried, with a thrill of gladness, and fled up the rock.
The Unspeakable Perk strode down his path, broke into a trot, and held to it until he reached his house. But Miss Polly, departing in her own direction, stopped dead after ten minutes" going. It had struck her forcefully that she had forgotten the matter of the expense of the message. How could she reach him? She remembered the cliff above the rock, and the signal. If a signal was valid in one direction, it ought to work equally well in the other. She had her automatic with her.
Retracing her steps, she ascended the cliff, a rugged climb. Across the deep-fringed chasm she could plainly see the porch of the quinta with the little clearing at the side, dim in the clouded light. Drawing the revolver, she fired three shots.