"That isn"t Luther Pruyn, is it?" inquired Mr. Brewster.
"The same. Do you know him?"
"Yes."
"More than I do, except by reputation."
"He was in my cla.s.s at college, but I haven"t seen him since. I"d be glad to see him again. A queer, dry fellow, but character and grit to his backbone."
"I"d supposed he was younger," said Sherwen. "Anyway, he"s comparatively new to the service. His rise is the more remarkable. At present, he"s not only our quarantine representative, with full powers, but unofficially he acts, while on his roving commission, for the British, the Dutch, the French, and half the South American republics. I suppose he"s really the most important figure in the Caracuna crisis--and he hasn"t even got here yet. Perhaps our Hochwaldian friends have captured him on the quiet. It would pay "em, for if there is plague here, he"ll certainly trail it down."
"Oh, I"m tired of plague," announced Miss Polly. "Bring the others here and let"s all go over to the plaza, where it"s cool."
To their open and obvious delight, exhibited jauntily by the Englishman, with awkward and admiring respectfulness by the ball-player, and with graceful ease by the handsome Caracunan, the rest were invited to join the party.
"Don"t let them scare you about plague, Miss Brewster," said Cluff, as they found their chairs. "Foreigners don"t get it much."
"Oh, I"m not afraid! But, anyway, we shouldn"t have time to catch even a cold. We leave to-morrow."
The men exchanged glances.
"How?" inquired Sherwen and Raimonda in a breath.
"In the yacht, from Puerto del Norte."
"Not if it were a British battleship," said Galpy. "Port"s closed."
"What? Quarantine already?" said Carroll.
"Quarantine be blowed! It"s the Dutch."
"I thought you knew," said Sherwen. "All the town is ringing with the news. It just came in to-night. Holland has declared a blockade until Caracuna apologizes for the interference with its cable."
"And nothing can pa.s.s?" asked Mr. Brewster.
"Nothing but an aeroplane or a submarine."
There was a silence. Miss Polly Brewster broke it with a curious question:--
"What day is day after to-morrow?"
Several voices had answered her, but she paid little heed, for there had slipped over her shoulder a brown thin hand holding a cunningly woven closed basket of reedwork. A soft voice murmured something in Spanish.
"What does he say?" asked the girl "For me?"
"He thinks it must be for you," translated Raimonda, "from the description."
"What description?"
"He was told to go to the hotel and deliver it to the most beautiful lady. There could hardly be any mistaking such specific instructions even by an ignorant mountain peon," he added, smiling.
The girl opened the curious receptacle, and breathed a little gasp of delight. Bedded in fern, lay a ma.s.s of long sprays aquiver with bells of the purest, most lucent white, each with a great glow of gold at its heart.
"Ah," observed the young Caracunan, "I see that you are persona grata with our worthy President, Miss Brewster."
"President Fortuno?" asked the girl, surprised. "No; not that I"m aware of. Why do you say that?"
"That is his special orchid--almost the official flower. They call it "the President"s orchid.""
"Has he a monopoly of growing them?" asked Miss Brewster.
"No one can grow them. They die when transplanted from their native cliffs. But it"s only the President"s rangers who are daring enough to get them."
"Are they so inaccessible?"
"Yes. They grow nowhere but on the cliff faces, usually in the wildest part of the mountains. Few people except the hunters and mountaineers know where, and it"s only the most adventurous of them who go after the flowers."
"Do you suppose this boy got these?" Miss Brewster indicated the shy and dusky messenger.
Raimonda spoke to the boy for a moment.
"No; he didn"t collect them. Nor is he one of the President"s men. I don"t quite understand it."
"Who did gather them?"
"All that he will say is, "the master.""
"Oh!" said Miss Brewster, and retired into a thoughtful silence.
"They"re very beautiful, aren"t they?" continued the Caracunan. "And they carry a pretty sentiment."
"Tell me," commanded the girl, emerging from her reverie.
"The mountaineers say that their fragrance casts a spell which carries the thought back to the giver."
"Is that the language of science?" she queried absently, with a thought far away.
"But no, senorita, a.s.suredly not," said the young Caracufian. "It is the language--permit that I say it better in French--c"est le langage d"amour."
III
THE BETTER PART OF VALOR
Night fell with the iron clangor of bells, and day broke to the accompaniment of further insensate jangling, for Caracuna City has the noisiest cathedral in the world; and still the graceful gray yacht Polly lay in the harbor at Puerto del Norte, hemmed in by a thin film of smoke along the horizon where the Dutch warship promenaded.