The Adventures of a Modest Man

by Robert W. Chambers

  CHAPTER XV

  FLOTSAM AND JETSAM

  "Ellis," said Jones, earnestly, as they climbed to the camp and stoodgazing at the whitening ashes of their fire, "the simple life is a stateof mind. I'm in it, now. And--do you know, Ellis, that--I--I could learnto like it?"

  Ellis prodded the back-log, and tossed on some dry sticks.

  "Great Heaven!" breathed Jones, "did you ever see such eyes, Ellis?"

  "The grey ones? They're very noticeable----"

  "I meant--well, let it go at that. Here be two of us have lost athousand shillings to-day."

  "And the ladies were not in buckram," rejoined Ellis, starting a blaze."Jones, can you prepare trout for the pan with the aid of a knife? Here,rub salt in 'em--and leave all but two in that big tin--dry, mind, thencover it and sink it in the spring, or something furry will come nosingand clawing at it. I'll have things ready by the time you're back."

  "About our canoes," began Jones. "I've daubed mine with white lead, butI cut it up badly. Hadn't we better attend to them before the stormbreaks?"

  "Get yours into camp. I'll fetch mine; it's cached just below the forks.This storm may tear things."

  A quarter of an hour later two vigorous young men swung into camp,lowered the canoes from their heads and shoulders, carried the strappedkits, poles and paddles into the lean-to, and turned the light craftsbottom up as flanking shelters to headquarters.

  "No use fishing; that thunder is spoiling the Caranay," muttered Ellis,moving about and setting the camp in order. "This is a fine lean-to," headded; "it's big enough for a regiment."

  "I told you I was an architect," said Jones, surveying the open-facedshanty with pride. "I had nothing else to do, so I spent the time inmaking this. I'm a corker on the classic. Shall I take an axe and cutsome wood in the Ionic or Doric style?"

  Ellis, squatting among the provisions, busily bringing order out ofchaos, told him what sort of wood to cut; and an hour later, when theechoing thwacks of the axe ceased and Jones came in loaded withfirewood, the camp was in order; hambones, stale bedding, tin cans, theheads and spinal processes of trout had been removed, dishes polished,towels washed and drying, and a pleasant aroma of balsam tips mingledwith the spicy scent of the fire.

  "Whew!" said Jones, sniffing; "it smells pleasant now."

  "Your camp," observed Ellis, "had all the fragrance of a dog-fox inMarch. How heavy the air is. Listen to that thunder! There's the deuceto pay on the upper waters of the Caranay by this time."

  "Do you think we'll get it?"

  "Not the rain and wind; the electrical storms usually swing off,following the Big Oswaya. But we may have a flood." He arose and pickedup his rod. "The thunder has probably blanked me, but if you'll tendcamp I'll try to pick up some fish in a binnikill I know of where thetrout are habituated to the roar of the fork falls. We may need everyfish we can get if the flood proves a bad one."

  Jones said it would suit him perfectly to sit still. He curled up closeenough to the fire for comfort as well as aesthetic pleasure, removed hiseyeglasses, fished out a flask of aromatic mosquito ointment, andsolemnly began a facial toilet, in the manner of a comfortable house catanointing her countenance with one paw.

  "Ellis," he said, blinking up at that young man very amiably, "it wouldbe agreeable to see a little more of--of Miss Sandys; wouldn't it? Andthe other----"

  "We could easily do that."

  "Eh? How?"

  "By engaging an attorney to defend ourselves in court," said Ellisgrimly.

  "Pooh! You don't suppose that brown-eyed girl----"

  "Yes, I do! _She_ means mischief. If it had rested with the other----"

  "You're mistaken," said Jones, warmly. "I am perfectly persuaded that ifI had had half an hour's playful conversation with the brown-eyedone----"

  "You tried playfulness and fell down," observed Ellis, coldly. "If Icould have spoken to Miss Sandys----"

  "What! A girl with steel-grey eyes like two poniards? A lot of mercy shewould show us! My dear fellow, trust in the brown eye every time! Thewarm, humane, brown eye--the emotional, the melting, the tenderbrown----"

  "Don't trust it! Didn't she kodak twice? You and I are now in herRogues' Gallery. Besides, didn't she take notes on her pad? I neverobserved anything humane in brown eyes."

  Jones polished his nose with the mosquito salve.

  "How do you know what she wanted my picture for?" he asked, annoyed."Perhaps she means to keep it for herself--if that grey-eyed one letsher alone----"

  "Let the grey-eyed one alone yourself," retorted Ellis, warmly.

  "You'd better, too. Any expert in human character can tell you which ofthose girls means mischief."

  "If you think you're an expert--" began Ellis, irritated, then stoppedshort. Jones followed his eyes.

  "Look at that stream," said Ellis, dropping his rod against the lean-to."There's been a cloudburst in the mountains. There's no rain here, but_look_ at that stream! Yellow and bank-full! Hark! Hear the falls. Ihave an idea the woods will be awash below us in an hour."

  They descended to the ledge which an hour ago had overhung the stream.Now the water was level with it, lapping over it, rising perceptibly inthe few seconds they stood there. Alders and willows along the banks,almost covered, staggered in the discolored water; drift of all sortscame tumbling past, rotten branches, piles of brush afloat, ferns andshrubs uprooted; the torrent was thick with flakes of bark and forestmould and green-leaved twigs torn from the stream-side.

  From the lower reaches a deer came galloping toward the ridges; a foxstole furtively into the open, hesitated, and slunk off up the valley.

  And now the shallow gorge began to roar under the rising flood; tumblingcastles of piled-up foam whirled into view; the amber waves washedthrough the fringing beech growth, slopping into hollows, setting thedead leaves afloat. A sucking sound filled the woods; millions of tinybubbles purred in the shallow overflow; here and there dead branchesstirred, swung and floated.

  "Our camp is going to be an island pretty soon," observed Ellis; "justlook at----"

  But Jones caught him by the arm. "_What_ is that?" he demanded shakily."Are there things like that in these woods?"

  At the same instant Ellis caught sight of something in midstream bearingdown on them in a smother of foam--an enormous lizard-like creaturefloundering throat-deep in the flood.

  "What is it, Ellis? Look! It's got a tail ten feet long! Great Heaven,look at it!"

  "I see it," said Ellis, hoarsely. "I never saw such a thing----"

  "It's opening its jaws!" gasped Jones.

  Ellis, a trifle white around the cheekbones, stared in frozen silence atthe fearsome creature as it swept down on them. A crested wave rolledit over; four fearsome claws waved in the air; then the creature righteditself and swung in toward the bank.

  "Upon my word!" stammered Ellis; "it's part of their theatricalproperty. Lord! how real it looked out yonder. I knew it couldn't bealive, but--Jones, see how my hands are shaking. Would you believe a mancould be rattled like that?"

  "Believe it? I should say I could! Look at the thing wabbling there inthe shallows as though it were trying to move its flippers! _Look_ atit, Ellis; see how it seems to wriggle and paddle----"

  The words froze on his lips; the immense creature was moving; the scaledclaws churned the shallows; a spasm shook the head; the jaws gaped.

  "Help!" said a very sweet and frightened voice.

  Ellis got hold of one claw, Jones the other, almost before theycomprehended--certainly before, deep in the scaly creature's maw, theydiscovered the frightened but lovely features of the grey-eyed girl whohad snap-shot them.

  "Please pull," she said; "I can't swim in _this_!"

  Almost hysterically they soothed her as they tugged and steered thething into the flooded forest.

  "Mr. Ellis--please--_please_ don't pull quite so hard," she called out.

  "Oh, did I hurt you?" he cried so tenderly that, even in the shock ofemotions, Jones was ashamed of him.
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br />   "No, you don't hurt me, Mr. Ellis; I'm all right inside here, butI--I--you must not pull this papier-mache dragon to pieces----"

  "What do I care for the dragon if you are in danger?" cried Ellis,excitedly.

  But it was a frightened and vexed voice that answered almost tearfully:"If you pull too hard on the pasteboard legs something dreadful mayhappen. I--this dragon is--is about the only clothing I have on!"

  Ellis dropped the flipper, seized it again, and gazed into the scaredeyes of Jones.

  "For Heaven's sake, go easy," he hissed, "or the thing will come apart!"

  Jones, in a cold perspiration, stood knee-deep in the flood, not daringto touch the flipper again.

  "You help here," he whispered, hoarsely. "If she stands up, now, you cansupport her to camp, can't you?"

  Ellis bent over and looked into the gaping jaws of Fafnir the Dragon.

  "Miss Sandys," he said seriously, "do you think you could get on yourhind--on your feet?"

  The legs of the monster splashed, groping for the bottom; Ellis passedhis arm around the scaly body; Fafnir arose, rather wabbly, and tookone dripping step forward.

  "Beyond, rocking wildly in a gilded boat, sat two peopleand a placid swan."]

  "I fancy we can manage it now, Jones," said Ellis, cheerfully, turningaround; but Jones did not answer; he was running away, dashing andsplashing down the flooded forest. Beyond, rocking wildly in a gildedboat, sat two people and a placid swan.

  "Good Lord!" faltered Ellis, as the dragon turned with a little shriek."Is the whole Summer School being washed away?"

  "No," she said excitedly, "but the dam broke. Helen and Professor Rawsontried to save the swan-boat--we were giving tableaux from "Lohengrin"and "The Rheingold"--and--oh! oh! oh! such a torrent came! Helen--thereshe is in armour--Helen tried to paddle the boat, but the swans pulledthe other way, and they flapped so wildly that Helen called for help.Then one of the Rhine-maidens--Professor Rawson--waded in and gotaboard, but the paddle broke and they were adrift. Then one of thosehorrid swans got loose, and everybody screamed, and the water rosehigher and higher, and nobody helped anybody, so, so--as I swim well, Ijumped in without waiting to undress--you see I had been acting thedragon, Fafnir, and I went in just as I was; but the papier-mache dragonkept turning turtle with me, and first I knew I was being spun aroundlike a top."

  There was a silence; they stood watching Jones scrambling after theswan-boat, which had come to grief in shallow water. Professor Rawson,the Rhine-maiden, gave one raucous and perfunctory shriek as Jonesfloundered alongside--for the garb of the normal Rhine-daughter isscanty, and Professor Rawson's costume, as well as her maidenlyphysique, was almost anything except redundant.

  As for Helen, sometime known as brown-eyes, she rose to her slim height,all glittering in tin armour, and gave Jones a smile of heavenlygratitude that shot him through and through his Norfolk jacket.

  "Don't look!" said Professor Rawson, in a voice which, between theemotions of recent terror and present bashfulness, had dwindled to asqueak. "Don't look; I'm going to jump." And jump she did, taking to thewater with a trifle less grace than the ordinary Rhine-maiden.

  There was a spattering splash, a smothered squawk which may have beenemitted by the swan, and the next moment Professor Rawson was churningtoward dry land, her wreath of artificial seaweed over one eye, herspectacles glittering amid her dank tresses.

  Jones looked up at brown-eyes balancing in the bow of the painted boat.

  "I can get you ashore quite dry--if you don't mind," he said.

  She considered the water; she considered Jones; she looked carefully atthe wallowing Rhine-daughter.

  "Are you sure you can?" she asked.

  "Perfectly certain," breathed Jones.

  "I am rather heavy----"

  The infatuated man laughed.

  "Well, then, I'll carry the swan," she said calmly; and, seizing thatdignified and astonished bird, she walked demurely off the prow of thegaudy boat into the arms of Jones.

  To Ellis and the grey-eyed dragon, and to Professor Rawson, who hadcrawled to a dry spot on the ridge, there was a dreadful fascination inwatching that swaying pyramid of Jones, Lohengrin, and swan totteringlandward, knee-deep through the flood. The pyramid swayed dangerously attimes; but the girl in the tin armour clasped Jones around the neck andclung to the off leg of the swan, and Jones staggered on, half-strangledby the arm and buffeted by the flapping bird, until his oozing shoesstruck dry land.

  "Hurrah!" cried Ellis, his enthusiasm breaking out after an agonizingmoment of suspense; and Miss Sandys, forgetting her plight, waved herlizard claws and hailed rescuer and rescued with a clear-voiced cheer asthey came up excited and breathless, hustling before them the outragedswan, who waddled furiously forward, craning its neck and snapping.

  "_What is that?_" muttered Jones aside to Ellis as the dragon andLohengrin embraced hysterically. He glanced toward the Rhine-maiden, whowas hiding behind a tree.

  "Rhine wine with the cork pulled," replied Ellis, gravely. "Go up tocamp and get her your poncho. I'll do what I can to make thingscomfortable in camp."

  The girl in armour was saying, "You poor, brave dear! How perfectlysplendid it was of you to plunge into the flood with all that pasteboarddragon-skin tied to you--like Horatius at the bridge. Molly, I'm simplyovercome at your bravery!"

  And all the while she was saying this, Molly Sandys was saying: "Helen,how did you ever dare to try to save the boat, with those horrid swansflapping and nipping at you every second! It was the most courageousthing I ever heard of, and I simply revere you, Helen Gay!"

  Jones, returning from camp with his poncho, said: "There's a jolly firein camp and plenty of provisions;" and sidled toward the tree behindwhich Professor Rawson was attempting to prevent several yards ofcheese cloth from adhering too closely to her outline.

  "Go away!" said that spinster, severely, peering out at him with avisage terminating in a length of swan-like neck which might have beenattractive if feathered.

  "I'm only bringing you a poncho," said Jones, blushing.

  Ellis heard a smothered giggle behind him, but when he turned MollySandys had shrunk into her dragon-skin, and Helen Gay had lowered thevizor of her helmet.

  "I think we had better go to the camp-fire," he said gravely. "It's onlya step."

  "We think so, too," they said. "Thank you for asking us, Mr. Ellis."

  So Ellis led the way; after him slopped the dragon, its scaled taildragging sticks and dead leaves in its wake; next waddled the swan,perforce, prodded forward by the brown-eyed maid in her tin armor.Professor Rawson, mercifully disguised in a rubber poncho, under whichher thin shins twinkled, came in the rear, gallantly conducted by Jonesin oozing shoes.