Tommy and I were thunderstruck. It gives one a weird feeling to see a man shaken with grief. I was helpless and, there"s no denying it, just a little remorseful. As quick in sympathy as he was in resource, Tommy crossed and put a hand on the old fellow"s shoulder, saying gently:
"Buck up, Professor. This kind of thing won"t do, you know!"
Then my surprise was most complete. Sitting now, face buried in his hands, he brokenly told a story that at times brought tears to our own eyes.
When he finished I had visualized a scene begun more than thirty years ago in the Royal Palace of Azuria: an honorable young doctor, Court physician, voluntarily surrendering his appointment because he loved the King"s younger daughter--Doloria"s aunt; the old ruler"s searching eyes that sympathized even while they censured--the aged hand that pressed with understanding even while it took the proffered resignation. Then the young doctor"s quick departure; his plunge into the Universities, trusting absorption of the sciences to act as a panacea for his grief.
Years later his return to Azuria; their pure love still burning, though unexpressed. At last the kidnaping; the quick preparations for pursuit; and finally the girl, herself, sweet with many confessions, bringing in her own hands the old King"s "authority"--this paper before us--which commanded him to return the little Princess by any means he could, his reward being the fulfillment of his heart"s desire.
"And now," he moaned, rocking to and fro, "after seventeen years of searching, I have won only to lose!"
Truly, I was touched. Tommy turned quickly away and blinked at the horizon. Yet neither of us knew that all of this time Doloria had been standing in the companionway door. She now crossed swiftly and sat by the weeping man, impulsively drawing his grizzled head to her shoulder as a mother might have comforted a hurt child. But toward me her face was turned, and I saw that her startled eyes spoke into mine the entreating message which distracted her--telling me that we must acknowledge this claim of Monsieur"s poor heart before our own could ever be happy; asking me what to do, since his t.i.tle to happiness came first. Yet all that her lips spoke was the trembling whisper:
"Oh, Jack!"
But he, with a new determination, sat quickly upright. The warmth of a woman"s sympathetic arms upon a life that had been without comfort, the quick intuition that she was pleading for him at a great cost to herself, stirred the fineness of his nature, and he cried:
"Never! I have lived this long, and this long suffered, enough to know the irony of that royal barrier! Your aunt and I, dear child, are pa.s.sing toward the shadows of life, while you and my boy Jack are just starting out. Your happiness shall not be cindered upon a false altar--I swear it!"
"Good old boy," Tommy murmured. "Do you mean that, honest?"
"_Pardieu_, have I not sworn it?"
"And you wouldn"t try to muddy the water again if I confessed that our Marine Law was a hocus-pocus?"
"What is that hocus-pocus?"
"A no-such-a-thing."
"_Sacre bleu_! I see! Pipes and iron safes and hocus-pocus! But I do not care!" He turned to Doloria and, taking one of her hands, said: "You, _mon ami_, shall find your heart"s best desire. It is I who say it!--I, who have the authority!" The way he clung to that authority was really pathetic.
"It occurs to me, Monsieur," Tommy crossed and looked down at them--and I saw that Doloria read in his eyes the sadness of one who must remain outside while others pa.s.s through to happiness--"that you, too, can find your heart"s best desire. Jack and our sweet Princess will be leaving for Azuria as soon as pa.s.sports are procurable. Now, the day they arrive, you might be moseying about the railroad station, borrow her for an hour, and personally conduct her to the palace. The late lamented King"s royal authority contained no stipulation about the missing child being returned in a state of single blessedness, therefore the reward is yours. Add that up, and see if it doesn"t spell Eureka!"
Doloria turned to Monsieur with a glorious smile and, being nearest, received the first hug as the light of Tommy"s reasoning burst upon him.
Then he bounded up and hugged me; but Gates and Tommy ran away, the cowards, yet did a lot of laughing from a distance. And now the forward watch called something, at the same time pointing off our port bow. Low upon the water lay Miami.
Excitedly we took turns focusing the binoculars on it, and after a little as we drew fairly near Tommy, with a puzzled look, asked:
"Who are those people on your Colonel"s dock?"
"My father, maybe. I wired him to come."
"Boy, I mean the petticoats! Look at "em--there"re two!"
"Can you make out their faces?" I asked, having a good time all to myself; for here was my chance to return an obligation in the matter of courtships which, if not cancelled, would furnish the versatile Tommy with an anecdote I should never outlive.
"Not yet," he mumbled, squinting more closely.
"One"s probably the Mater," I suggested.
"I hope so," he smiled, lowering the binoculars. "What was the toast you gave her, Jack?--"if romance and adventure are alive I"ll bring them home to you!"--wasn"t that it?"
"Yes, and we sailed out on that quest only seventeen days ago. It seems incredible, doesn"t it!"
"It sure does," he chuckled, once more raising the gla.s.ses. "You"ve put on seventeen pounds, too,--besides a special chunk of 120, or thereabouts, which you gained the night of the rescue. That"s some record, boy! See here," he asked quickly, "who the deuce are those people, anyway! One has a mighty familiar look!" And I could hardly keep from laughing as I answered:
"I think the Mater went by Louisville and picked up Nell----"
"Good Lord, I _see_ her," he yelled, so instantly and irrepressibly delirious with joy that he let my binoculars fall overboard, the chump.
But now I saw that Doloria--which was the other name for romance and adventure--had slipped away from Monsieur; she had gone forward and, all alone, was leaning against the foremast, gazing dreamily at this new world and these new people who waited to take her to their hearts. So I forgot Tommy, G.o.d bless him!--he may have known a little about women, after all!
THE END