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XVII
After a silence, she lay back among her cushions and glanced at us witha faint smile.
"One day last winter," she said, "after the last client had gone andoffice hours were over, I sat here thinking, wondering what in the worldcould be worse for a girl than to have no parents.... And I happened toglance into my crystal, and saw there an incident beginning to evolvethat cheered me up, because it was a parody on my more morbid train ofthought. After all, the same Chance that gives a child to its parentsgives the parents to that child. You may think this is Tupper," sheadded, "but it is Athalie. And that being the case, nobody will laugh."
Nobody did laugh.
"Thank you," she said sweetly. "Now I will tell you what I saw in mycrystal when I happened to be feeling unusually alone in the world." Andwith a pretty nod to us, collectively, she began.
* * * * *
The bulk of the cargo and a few bodies were coming ashore at the easternend of the island, and that is where the throngs were--people from theLight House, fishermen from the inlet, and hundreds of winter touristsfrom St. Augustine, in white flannels and summer gowns, all attracted toIbis Island by the grewsome spectacle of the wreck.
The West Indian hurricane had done its terrific business and had gone,leaving a turquoise sky untroubled by a cloud, and a sea of snow andcobalt.
Nothing living had been washed ashore from the wreck. As for the brig,she had vanished--if there had been anything left of her to disappearexcept the wreckage, human and otherwise, that had come tumbling ashorethrough the surf all night long.
So young Gray, seeing that there was nothing for him to do, and notcaring for the spectacle at the eastern end of the island, turned on hisheel and walked west through thickets of sweet bay, palmetto, andbeach-grape.
He wore the lightest weight solaro, with a helmet and close-fittingputtees of the same. Two straps crossed his breast, the one supporting awell filled haversack, the other a water bottle. Except for fire arms hewas equipped for darkest Africa, or for anything else on earth--at leasthe supposed so. He was wrong; he was not equipped for what he was aboutto encounter on Ibis Island.
It happened in this manner: traversing the seaward dunes, because thebeach no longer afforded him even a narrow margin for a footing,shoulder deep in a tangle of beach-grapes, he chanced to glance at thelittle sandy cove which he was skirting, and saw there an empty fruitcrate tumbling in the smother of foam, and a very small setter puppyclinging to it frantically, with every claw clutching, and his drenchedtail between his legs.
Even while Gray was forcing his eager way through the tangle, he wasaware of somebody else moving forward through the high scrub just westof him; and as he sprang out onto the beach and laid his hand on thestranded fruit crate, another hand, slimmer and whiter than his, fellon the crate as he dragged it out of the foamy shallows and up acrossthe dry sand, just as a tremendous roller smashed into clouds of foambehind it.
"I beg your pardon," said a breathless voice at his elbow, "but I thinkI saw this little dog first."
Gray already was reaching for the shivering little thing, but two otherhands deprived him of the puppy; and he looked up, impatient andannoyed, into the excited brown eyes of a young girl.
She had taken the dripping, clawing little creature to her breast, whereit shivered and moaned and whined, shoving its cold nose up under herchin.
"I beg your pardon," said Gray, firmly, "but I am really very certainthat I first discovered that dog."
"I am sorry you think so," she said, clasping the creature all thetighter.
"I _do_ think so," insisted Gray. "I _know_ it!"
"I am very sorry," she repeated. Over the puppy's shivering back herbrown eyes gazed upon Gray. They were very pretty, but hostile.
"There can be no question about the ownership of this pup," persistedGray. "Of course, I am sorry if you really think you discovered thedog. Because you didn't."
"I _did_ discover him," she said, calmly.
"I beg your pardon. I was walking through the beach-grapes----"
"I beg yours! I also was crossing the sweet-bay scrub when I happened toglance down at the cove and saw this poor little dog in the water."
"That is exactly what _I_ did! I happened to glance down, and there Isaw this little dog. Instantly I sprang----"
"So did I!--I _beg_ your pardon for interrupting you!"
"I was merely explaining that I first saw the dog, and next I noticedyou. But first of all I saw the dog."
"That is the exact sequence in my own observations," she rejoinedcalmly. "First of all I saw the dog in the water, then I heard a crashin the bush, and saw something floundering about in the tangle."
"And," continued Gray, much annoyed by her persistency, "no sooner had Icaught hold of the crate than _you_ came up and laid _your_ hand on it,also. You surely must remember that I had my hand on the crate beforeyou did!"
"I am very sorry you think so. The contrary was the case. _I_ took firmhold of the crate, and then you aided me to draw it up out of thewater."
"It is extraordinary," he said, "how mistaken you are concerning theactual sequence of events. Not that I doubt for a moment that you reallysuppose you discovered the dog. Probably you were a little excited----"
"I was perfectly cool. Possibly _you_ were a trifle excited."
"Not in the least," he retorted with calm exasperation. "I never becomeagitated."
The puppy continued to shiver and drive its nose up under the girl'schin.
"Poor little thing! Poor little shipwrecked baby!" she crooned. And, toGray: "I don't know why this puppy should be so cold. The water is warmenough."
"Put it in the hot sand," he said. "We can rub it dry."
She hesitated, flushing perhaps at her own suspicions; but neverthelessshe said:
"You would not attempt to take it if I put it down, would you?"
"I don't intend to snatch it," he said with dignity. "_Men_ don'tsnatch."
So they went inland a few paces where the sand was hot and loose anddeep; and there they knelt down and put the puppy on the sand.
"'I am in possession of the dog and you merely claimpossession.'"]
"Scrub him thoroughly," she suggested, pouring heaping handfuls of hot,silvery sand over the little creature.
Gray did likewise, and together they rubbed and scrubbed and rolled thepuppy about until the dog began to roll on his back all by himself,twisting and wriggling and waving his big, padded paws.
"What he wants is water," asserted Gray, unstrapping his haversack andbottle. From the one he produced an aluminum pannikin; from the other hefilled it with water. The puppy drank it all while Gray and thebrown-eyed girl looked on intently.
Then Gray produced some beef sandwiches, and the famished littlecreature leaped and whirled and danced as Gray fed him cautiously, bitby bit.
"Do you think that is perfectly fair?" asked the girl gravely.
"Fair?" repeated Gray guiltily.
"Yes. Who first feeds a strange dog is recognised as the reigningauthority."
"Very well, you may feed him, too. But that does not alter the facts inthe case."
"The facts," said the girl, taking a sandwich from Gray, "are that I amin possession of the dog and you merely claim possession."
They fed him alternately and in silence--until their opinion becameunanimous that it was dangerous, for the present, to feed him any more.
The puppy begged and pleaded and cajoled and danced--a most appealingand bewitching little creature, silvery white and blue-ticked, with atiny tan point over each eye and a black and tan saddle.
"Lavarack," observed Gray.
"English," she nodded.
It wagged not only its little, whippy tail, but in doing so wriggled itsentire hind quarters, showing no preference for either of its rescuers,but bestowing winning and engaging favours impartially.
The girl could endure it no longer, but snatched the puppy to her with asoft little cry, and cuddl
ed it tight. Gray looked on gloomily. Then,when she released it, he took it and caressed it in masculine fashion.There was no discernible difference in its affectionate responses.
After the dog had lavished enthusiasm and affection on its saviours tothe point of physical exhaustion, it curled up on the hot sand betweenthem. At first, when they moved or spoke, the little, silky head wasquickly lifted, and the brown eyes turned alertly from one to the otherof the two beings most beloved on earth. But presently only the whippytail stirred in recognition of their voices. And finally the little dogslept in the hot sunshine.