by Don Marquis
CHAPTER XXII
DANCING ON THE DECK
It was decided, at a conference of Lady Agatha, Cleggett, and the threedetectives, at the breakfast table, to throw up a line of entrenchmentsalong the bank of the canal commanding the approach to the Jasper B.and the Annabel Lee. No one felt the least doubt that Logan Black wouldrenew the attack sooner or later, unless the two vessels made off.
"And," said Cleggett, "I shall not leave until the Jasper B. has beenrigged as a schooner again. Anything else would have the appearance ofa retreat. Nor will I be hurried. I am on my own property, and Ipurpose to defend it at whatever cost."
He set his jaws firmly as he declared this intention, and Lady Agatha'seyes dwelt upon him in admiration.
"The Annabel Lee could tow you away, you know," demurred WiltonBarnstable.
"When the Jasper B. moves," said Cleggett, with finality, "it will beunder her own power."
Accordingly, work was begun at once on the entrenchments. Everyone onboard the Jasper B. was sadly in need of sleep, but Cleggett felt thatthe earthworks could not wait. He divided his force into two shifts.Cleggett, the three detectives, Jefferson the genial coachman, andWashington Artillery Lamb, the janitor and butler of the house boatAnnabel Lee, a negro as large and black as Jefferson himself, took atwo-hour trick with the spades and then lay down and slept whileAbernethy, Kuroki, Elmer, Calthrop, George the Greek, and Farnsworthdug for an equal length of time. The two prisoners captured byBarnstable the night before, one of whom was the smirking and sinisterPierre, were compelled to dig all the time. Even Teddy, Lady Agatha'slittle Pomeranian, dug. The ladies of the party slept throughout themorning.
During the forenoon Cleggett dispatched Dr. Farnsworth to the city inMiss Henrietta Pringle's Ford car, and he returned about one o'clockwith four more trained nurses. They were installed on board thehouseboat Annabel Lee, instead of at Parker's Beach as Cleggett hadoriginally intended, and the Red Cross flag was hoisted over thatvessel. Cleggett felt confident that the next battle would besanguinary in character, and, true to his humanitarian ideals, wasresolved to be fully prepared this time to care for as many people ashe might disable. Giuseppe Jones, who was quieter now, although attimes still irrationally babbling incendiary vers libre poems, wasremoved to the Annabel Lee, where Miss Medley, quite worn out, turnedhim over to a fresh nurse.
By the time the reinforcement of nurses had arrived the earthworks ofthe good ship Jasper B. were completed, and, after a double portion ofstiff grog all around, Cleggett ordered all hands to lie down on thedeck for an hour's comfortable nap. He stood watch himself. Cleggetthad not slept much during the past forty-eight hours, but he was a manof iron. Like King Henry Fifth of England, Cleggett found a certainpleasure in watching while his troops slumbered. Cleggett and thislively monarch had other points in common, although Cleggett, even inhis youth, would never have associated with a character so habituallydissolute as Sir John Falstaff.
The construction of the trench was not without its effect upon the gangof villains at Morris's. About nine in the morning Cleggett noticedthat he was under observation from the roof of the east verandah of theroad house. Loge and two of his ruffianly lieutenants werescrutinizing the Cleggett flotilla and fortifications through theirbinoculars. Cleggett, through his own glass, returned the compliment.
The three men were conducting an animated discussion. From theirgestures they seemed to be completely nonplussed by the entrenchments.Watching their pantomime closely, Cleggett gathered that Loge wasendeavoring to enforce some point of view with regard to the Jasper B.upon his two followers. Finally Loge, making a gesture towardsCleggett with one hand, tapped himself several times on the foreheadwith the other, his lips moving rapidly the while. The two other menshrugged their shoulders and nodded, as if in agreement with Loge. Theinsulting significance of the gesture was only too apparent. Asplainly as if he had heard the accompanying words Cleggett understoodthat Loge, out of the depths of his perplexity, had said that he(Cleggett) was mentally erratic.
"Ah, you think so, do you?" said Cleggett aloud, laying down his glassand seizing a rifle. "Well, just to let you know that I have a certainopinion of you, also, my friend Loge----" And he sent a bullet overthe heads of the three men. They hastily ducked into the house.Cleggett might have picked Loge off, but he disdained to do so. It washis purpose to take the man alive, if possible.
But the rifle shot did not end the espionage. All day scouting partiesin taxicabs kept appearing on the sandy plain to reconnoiter the fleetand fortress. They circled, they swooped, they dashed, they zigzaggedhere and there, but always at a high rate of speed, and always at aprudent distance from the canal. Beyond sending an occasional rifleball whistling towards the wheels of the cabs, or over the heads of theoccupants, to remind them to keep their distance, Cleggett paid butlittle attention to these parties. If Loge thought him demented, if hehad his enemy guessing, so much the better. The eccentric movements ofthese cabs was a circumstance which in itself testified to Loge'sbewilderment and curiosity.
Cleggett had no idea that there would be an attack before nightfall,and at two o'clock in the afternoon he awakened all the members of hiscrew who were still sleeping, ordered them into bathing suits, a supplyof which he had been thoughtful enough to have the young doctor bringout along with the nurses, and piped them into the canal. The waterwas cold, but they came out refreshed and invigorated by the plunge andfeeling fit for any struggle that might be ahead of them. Thismaneuver on the part of Cleggett and his marines and infantrymen seemedstill more to excite the curiosity and contribute to the bewildermentof Loge and his ruffians.
After the general bath and a substantial lunch, Cleggett called allhands aft and addressed them.
"Ladies and loyal followers and co-workers," he said. "We have passedsome nights and days of peril. And there are, I doubt not, stillparlous times ahead of the Jasper B. before our ship sets sail for theChina Seas. But what is sweeter than pleasure snatched from the verypresence of danger? Courage and gayety should go hand in hand! It isa beautiful May afternoon, we have a goodly deck beneath our feet, and,briefly, who is for a dance?"
A huzza showed the popularity of the suggestion. Washington ArtilleryLamb, the janitor and butler of the Annabel Lee, possessed an accordionon which he was an earnest and artistic performer. Miss Pringle'sJefferson had with him a harmonica, or mouth organ, which he at onceproduced. Jefferson was endowed with the peculiar gift of manipulatingthis little musical instrument solely with his lips, moving it back andforth and round about as he played, without touching it with his hands;and this left his hands free to pat the time. The negro orchestraperched itself on the top of the cabin, and in a moment Lady Agatha,the five nurses, Cleggett, the three detectives, Dr. Farnsworth, andCaptain Abernethy were tangoing on the deck. And this to the stillfurther perplexity of Logan Black. As the dance started Cleggett sawthat person, almost distracted by his inability to comprehend themental processes of the commander of the Jasper B., rise to his feet inan automobile that had stopped a couple of hundred yards away, and beatwith both hands upon his temples, gnashing his long yellow teeth thewhile.
The Rev. Simeon Calthrop turned sadly away from the vessel, and, with asigh, went and sat in the trench, where he was soon joined by Elmer.The disgraced preacher and the reformed convict had struck up a fastfriendship. They sat with their backs towards the Jasper B., andCleggett supposed from their attitude that they were sternlycondemnatory of the frivolity and festivity on board ship.
Cleggett, after the first dance, sought them out.
"I hope," he said to the Rev. Mr. Calthrop, not unkindly, "that youdon't disapprove of us."
"It isn't that, Mr. Cleggett," said the ship's chaplain, with sorrow inhis eloquent brown eyes, "it isn't that at all. In fact, I had a tangoclass in the basement of my church, every Thursday evening-when I had achurch."
"Then what is it?"
"Alas!" sighed the young preacher. "I do not trust mys
elf! Women, as Ihave told you, Mr. Cleggett, are apt to become fascinated with me. Icannot help it. It is in such gay scenes as this that the danger lies,Mr. Cleggett. As an honorable man, I feel that I am bound to withdrawmyself and my fatal influence."
"You are too subtle--too subtle for moral health," said Cleggett.
"But I will not attempt to influence you. Elmer, are you also afraidof inspiring a hopeless passion?"
"Mister Cleggett," said Elmer gloomily and huskily, out of one cornerof his mouth, "I ain't takin' a chance. D' youse get me? Not achancet. Oncet youse reformed, Mr. Cleggett, youse can't be toocareful."
Cleggett returned to the vessel. Miss Pringle the elder was leavingit. Miss Henrietta Pringle was following. Cleggett gathered that theniece left reluctantly, and under the coercion of the aunt.
Miss Pringle the elder was about to join the Rev. Mr. Calthrop in thetrench. Morality, as well as misery, loves company. But Mr. Calthropsaw the Misses Pringle coming. He swiftly rose, passed them by withhis face averted, and went aboard the Annabel Lee. It was evident thathe believed that his fatal gift of fascination had attracted theseladies towards him in spite of himself. Elmer and the Misses Pringlesat gloomily on a clean plank in the trench while the dance went gaylyon.
"If you was to ask me," said Captain Abernethy, pausing winded from thetango, strong old man that he was, "I'd give it as my opinion that themthat gits their enjoyment in an oncheerful way don't git nigh as muchof it as them that gits it in a cheerful way. Mrs. Lady Agatha, ma'am,if you kin fox-trot as well as you kin tango I'll never have anotherword to say agin female suffragettes."
But as Cap'n Abernethy spoke the grin froze upon his face.
"My God! Look there!" he shrilled, pointing a long finger towards theplain. Simultaneously the Misses Pringle, shrieking wildly, leapedfrom the trench towards the ship and Elmer fired a pistol shot.
Cleggett beheld five taxicabs, filled with Loge's assassins, chargingtowards the vessel at the rate of thirty miles an hour.
"To arms! To arms!" shouted the commander of the Jasper B.
But the enemy, with Logan Black in the lead, had already reached thetrenches. They flung themselves to the ground and swept over thetrench towards the bulwarks, twenty strong, with flashing machetes. Soconfident had Cleggett been that Loge would not dare to attack in broaddaylight that he had scarcely even considered the possibility. It wasthe one fault of his military and naval career.
"Cutlasses, men, and at them!" he cried.