CHAPTER XXXIX
ALGY'S COOKING AND BETH'S DESPAIR
Van and the new supply of provender arrived together at the tent wherethe partners made their temporary home. It was nearly dusk, the mellowend of a balmy day. Gettysburg, Napoleon, and Dave were all inside thecanvas, filling the small hollow cube of air with a mighty reek fromtheir pipes, and playing seven-up on a greasy box. The Chinese cookwas away, much to Van's surprise.
"Gett," he said, throwing off his belt and revolver, "if Nap was todeal the cards on your tombstone, on the day of Gabriel's trump, I'llbet you'd break the crust and take a hand. What have you done withAlgy?"
"He's went to git a job," said Gettysburg. "He called us all a lot ofbabies. I doggone near kicked him in the lung."
Outside, where a wagon had halted with Van's new purchases, the driverhauled out two respectable boxes and dropped them on the earth.
"What's that?" demanded Napoleon, leaping to his feet. "If it'spirates come to board us again----"
"Don't scare it away," Van interrupted warningly. "It's grub."
With one accord the three old cronies started for the door of the tent.Van followed, prepared to get a dinner under way, since his system waswoefully empty.
To the utter astonishment of all, a visitor was bustling up the hill.It was Mrs. Dick.
"Where's Van?" she panted, while still a rod away. "Here, Van!" sheexclaimed, the moment she clapped her eyes upon him, "you're just theone I want to see, and I'm an awful busy woman, but I've got to make adeal with you and the sooner it's over the better. So as long asCharlie Sing is cookin' our victuals already I just run up to fight itout, and we might as well begin the program tonight, so all you boyscome down to dinner in just about half an hour."
The men were all at sea, even Napoleon, who had once sailed anear-briny river.
"Sit down," said Van, "and give the grounds a chance to settle. We canalmost see daylight through what you said, but who, for instance, isCharlie Sing?"
"As if you didn't know!" Mrs. Dick responded warmly. "If you think I'mgoin' to call that Chinaman Algy, or anything white, you're way offyour ca-base! Algy! for a Chinaman! Not but what he's a good enoughcook, and I like him as a friend of yours--and him almost makin' me crywith his tryin' to nurse you four old helpless galoots, but I draw theline at fancy names, and don't you forget it!"
The "four old galoots" looked at one another in bewilderment. Van ledMrs. Dick gently but firmly to a box of provisions and pushed her downupon it.
"Now take a breath," he said, "and listen. Do we understand you to saythat Algy has gone to your boarding-house and taken a job as cook?"
"He has," said Mrs. Dick, "but I've named him Charlie."
"That'll turn his stomick," ventured Gettysburg gravely. "He was proudof 'Algy.'"
"He certainly must be desperate," added Van. "I don't quite savvy howit happened."
"Oh, you don't?" said little Mrs. Dick. "Well, I _do_. He come downthere and says to me, says he, 'We're broke, Van and us,' he says, 'andI'll go to work and cook for you if you'll board all the family,' orwords to that effect, says he, 'and give Van twenty dollars a month,salary,' he says, and I says I'll do it, quicker than scat. And that'sall there is to say, and if Charlie wasn't a Chinaman I'd kiss him inthe bargain!" With a quick, impatient gesture she made a daub at hereye and flecked away a jewel.
Van hauled at his collar, which was loose enough around his neck.
"Say, boys," he said, "think of Algy, being kissed in the bargain. Ialways thought he got his face at a bargain counter."
"That's all right, Bronson Van Buren!" answered Mrs. Dick indignantly,"but I never come that near to kissin' you!"
Van suddenly swooped down upon her, picked her up bodily, and kissedher on the cheek. Then he placed her again on the box.
"Why didn't you say what you wanted, earlier?" he said. "Now, don'ttalk back. I want you to harken intently. I'm perfectly willing thatAlgy should waste his sweetness on the desert air of yourboarding-house, if it pleases you and him. I'm willing these oldring-tailed galoots should continue to eat his fascinating poisons, andI certainly hope he'll draw his monthly wage, but I'm going to be toobusy to board in any one place, and Algy's salary would make a load Imust certainly decline to carry."
Mrs. Dick looked at the horseman in utter disappointment.
"You won't come? Maybe you mean my house ain't good enough?"
Napoleon was somewhat excited by prospects of again beholding Elsa, ofwhose absence he was wholly unaware.
"We won't go, neither!" he declared. "Doggone you, Van, you know wewon't go without the skipper, and you're shovin' us right out ofheaven!"
Gettysburg added: "I don't want to say nuthin', but my stomach willsure be the seat of anarchy if it has to git cheated out of goin' downto Mrs. Dick's."
Van was about to reply to them all. He had paused to frame his answerartfully, eager as he was to foster the comfort of his three oldpartners, but wholly unwilling to accept from either Mrs. Dick orAlgernon the slightest hint of aid.
"I admit that a man's reach should be above the other fellow's grasp,and all that," he started, "but here's the point----"
He was interrupted suddenly. A man, running breathlessly up the slopeand waving his hat in frantic gestures, began to shout as he came.
"Mrs. Dick! Mrs. Dick!" he cried at the top of his voice. "Help!help! You've got to come!"
Mrs. Dick leaped quickly to her feet to face the oncoming man. It wasold Billy Stitts. He had come from Beth.
"Come on! Come on!" he cried as he neared the group, towards which heceased to run, the better to catch his breath and yell. "There's hella-poppin' in the boarding-house! You've got to come!"
He surged up the last remaining ascent at a lively stride.
"What's the matter? What in the world are you drivin' at?" demandedMrs. Dick. "Hold your tongue long enough to tell me what's the matter."
"It's the _chink_!" exploded Billy pantingly. "They tried to run himoff the place! He's locked the kitchen and gone to throwin' out hotwater and Chinese language like a fire-engine on a drunk. And nowthey're all a-packin' up to quit the house, and you won't have adoggone boarder left, fer they won't eat Chinese chuck!"
"What?" said Van drawlingly, "refuse to eat Algy's confections?--acrowd like that? By all the culinary gods of Worcestershire andmustard, they'll eat out of Algy's hand."
He dived inside the tent, caught up his gun, and was strapping it onbefore Mrs. Dick could catch her breath to utter a word of her wrath.
"Well," said Gettysburg dubiously, "I hate trouble on an empty stomach,but----"
"You stay in camp till you hear the dinner bell," Van interrupted."This game is mine and Mrs. Dick's. You'll get there in time fordessert."
He did not wait for Mrs. Dick. He started at a pace that none couldfollow. Mrs. Dick began to run at his heels, calling instructions asshe went.
"Be careful of the crock'ry, Van! The stove's bran'-new! I'd hate tohave you break the chairs! And don't forgit Miss Kent!"
Old Billy Stitts had remained with the others at the camp.
"Ain't she the female woman?" he said. "Ain't she just about it?"
No one answered. The three old cronies were watching Van as he went.
Van, for his part, heard nothing of what Mrs. Dick was saying, exceptthe name "Miss Kent." He had not forgotten for a moment that Beth wasat the seat of war, or that he would perhaps be wiser by far never tobehold her again. He was speeding there despite all he felt at whatshe had done, for she might be involved in trouble at the house,and--at least she was a woman.
He arrived in the midst of a newly concerted plan on the part oflodgers and strangers combined to smoke Algy out of the kitchen. Theyhad broken windows, overturned the furniture, and worked up a livelyhumor. Algy had exhausted his supply of hot water, but not his supplyof language. It seemed as if the stream of Oriental invective beingpoured through the walls of the building might hav
e withered almostanything extant. But Goldite whisky had failed on his besiegersearlier and their vitals were proof against attack.
Van arrived among them abruptly.
"What's all this pillow-fight about?" he demanded in a voice that allcould hear. "Which one of you fellows is it that's forgotten he's aman? Who's looking for trouble with my Chinese cook and Mrs. Dick?"
He boded no good to any man sufficiently hardy to argue the matter to afinish. The attackers lost heart as they faced about and found himthere ready for action. From a half-open window above the scene Bethwas watching all that was done.
A spokesman for the lodgers found his voice.
"Well, we ain't a-goin' to stay in no doggone house with a chink shovedin fer a cook."
Van nodded: "Have you ever tried Algy's cooking?"
"No, we ain't! And we ain't a-goin' to, neither!"
The others murmured their assent.
"You're a fine discriminating cluster of bifurcated, viviparousidiots," said Van in visibly disturbing scorn. "You fellows would haveto be grabbed by the scruff of the neck and kicked into Eden, I reckon,even if the snake was killed and flung over the fence, and the fruitoffered up on silver platters. The man who hasn't eaten one of Algy'sdinners isn't fit to live. The man who refuses to eat one better beginright now on his prayers." He took out his gun and waved it looselyabout, adding: "Which one of you remembers 'Now I lay me down tosleep'?"
There was no response. The ten or twelve disturbers of the peace werestirring uneasily in their tracks.
Van gave them a chance.
"All who prefer to recite, 'Now I sit me up to eat,' please raise theirhands. Raise 'em up, raise 'em up!" he commanded with the gun. "Putup both hands, while you're at it."
Up went all the hands. Mrs. Dick arrived, and stood looking on andpanting in excitement.
"Thanks for this unanimous vote," Van resumed. "I want to inform youboarders in particular that if ever I hear of one of you missing a mealof Algy's cooking, or playing hookey from this lodging-house, as longas Mrs. Dick desires your inglorious company, I'll hand you forthwithover to the pound-keeper with instructions not to waste his chloroform,but to drown the whole litter in a bag."
"Oh, well!" said the spokesman, "I'd just as soon eat the chink'scookin', if it's good."
"Me, too," said a follower, meek as a lamb. A number echoed "Me, too."One added: "We was just having a little bit of fun."
"Well," said Van judicially, "Algy's entitled to his share." He raisedhis voice: "Hey there, Algy--come out here and play with the boys."
Mrs. Dick had caught sufficient breath to explode.
"Fun!" she said. "My windows broken! My house all upset. Snakesalive, if ever I heard----"
Algy appeared and interrupted.
"What's mallah you, Van?" he said. "I got no time fool lound now.Been play too much. All time play, that velly superstich! Nobody gottime to work."
"That's all right," Van assured him. "The boys here wish to apologizefor wasting your valuable time. In fact, they insist. Now then, boys,down on your knees, every Jack in the crowd."
That gun of his had a horribly loose way of waving about to cover allthe men. They slumped to, rather than knelt on, their knees.
"Suminagot!" said Algy. "All time too muchee monkey fooling! Mydinner not git leady, Van, you savvy that? What's mallah you?"
Van ignored the cook, in addressing the men.
"It's your earnest desire to apologize, boys, I believe," he said."All in favor will please say Aye."
The men said Aye in growlings, rumblings, and pipings.
Van addressed his cook. "Do you want them to kiss your hand?"
"_Ah_! Unema! hong oy!" said Algy blasphemously. "You makee me vellysick! Just wash my hands for finish my dinner. Too muchmonkey-doodle!" and off he went to his work, followed at once by Mrs.Dick.
"Algy's too modest," Van assured the crowd. "And none of you chaps arefit to apologize to Mrs. Dick, so you'd better go wash up for dinner.But don't let me hear so much as a peep about Algy from one of thisbunch, or Eden will turn into Hades." As the men arose to their feetsheepishly, and began to slink away he added to the spokesman, "Youthere with the face for pie, go up to my camp and call the boys tofeed."
The men disappeared. Van, left alone, was turning away when his glancewas attracted to the window, up above, where Beth was looking down.His face turned red to the topmost rim of his ears.
The girl was pale, but resolute.
"May I see you a moment, please?" she said, "before the men come in?"
"Certainly." Van went to the front and waited at the foot of thestairs.
When Beth came down he was standing in the doorway, looking off at theshadowy hills. He heard her steps upon the stairs and turned, removinghis hat.
For a moment Beth faced him silently, her color coming and going inrapid alternations. She had never seemed more beautiful than now, inher mood of worry and courage.
"Thank you for waiting," she said to him faintly, her heart beatingwildly in her bosom, "I felt as if I had the right--felt it onlyright--won't you please tell me what I have done?"
It was not an easy matter for Van to hold his own, to check an impulseutterly incontinent, utterly weak, that urged him fairly to the edge ofsurrender. But his nature was one of intensity, and inasmuch as he hadloved intensely, he distrusted now with equal force.
"What you have done?" he repeated. "I'm sure I can't tell you ofanything that you do not know yourself. What do you wish me to say?"
"I don't know! I don't know," she told him honestly. "I thought if Iasked you--asked you like this--you'd tell me what is the matter."
"There's nothing the matter."
"But there is!" she said. "Why not be frank? I know that you're introuble. Perhaps you blame----"
"I told you once that taking trouble and having trouble supply all thefun I have," he interrupted. "The man without trouble became extinctbefore he was born."
"Oh, please don't jest," she begged him earnestly. "You and I werefriends--I'm sure we were friends--but now----"
"Now, if we are not, do you think the fault is mine?"
He, too, was white, for the struggle was great in his soul.
"It isn't mine!" she said. "I want to say that! I had to say that. Istopped you--just to say that." She blushed to say so much, but shemet his stern gaze fearlessly with courage in her eyes.
He could not understand her in the least, unless she still had more todo, and thought to hold his friendship, perhaps for Searle'sprotection. He forced himself to probe in that direction.
"And you'd wish to go on being friends?"
It was a hard question--hard to ask and hard to answer. She coloredanew, but she did not flinch. Her love was too vast, too strong andelemental to shrink at a crucial moment.
"I valued your friendship--very much," she confessed steadily. "Whyshouldn't I wish it to continue?"
It was aggravating to have her seem so honest, so splendid, so womanlyand fine, when he thought of that line in her letter. He could notspare himself or her in the agitation of his nature.
"Your way and mine are different," he said. "My arts in deceit wereneglected, I'm afraid."
Her eyes blazed more widely than before. Her color went like sunsettints from the sky, leaving her face an ashen hue of chill.
"Deceit?" she repeated. "You mean that I--I have deceived you? Whatdo you mean?"
He could bear no more of her apparent innocence. It was breaking hisresolution down.
"Oh, we may as well be candid!" he exclaimed. "What's the use ofbeating round the bush? I saw your letter--read your letter--bymistake."
"My letter?"
"Your letter to your brother. Through some mistake I was given thefinal page--a fragment merely--instead of your brother's reply to bebrought to you. I was asked to read it--which I did. Is that enough?"
"My letter to---- The last----" At a sudden memory of that letter's
last page, with her heart's confession upon it, she burned a blindingcrimson. "You read----" she stammered, "--and now----" She could notlook him in the face. She leaned against the stair in sudden weakness.
"After that," he said, "does my conduct occasion surprise?"
What he meant, in the light of the letter as she had written it toGlen, as she thought he must have read it, was beyond hercomprehension. She had fondly believed he loved her. He had told herso in actions, words, and kisses. What terrible secret, deep hidden inhis breast, could possibly lie behind this thing was more than mindcould fathom. Or did he scorn and loathe her now for having succumbedto his love? He had read her confession that she loved him more thananything else in all the world. He knew the last faint word in herheart--and flung her away like this!
She cast one frightened, inquiring look at his face. It was set andhard as stone. The light in his eyes was cold, an accusing glitter.She felt herself utterly abashed, utterly shamed. Her heart had lainnaked before him, throbbing with its secret. His foot was upon it.There was nothing to cover its nakedness--nothing to cover herconfusion.
For a moment she stood there, attempting to shrink within herself. Herattitude of pain and shame appeared to him as guilt. He felt the wholething poignantly--felt sorry to send his shaft so truly home, sorry tosee the effect of the blow. But, what was the use? His was the way ofplain, straightforward dealing. Better one swift wound, even untodeath, than a lingering torture for years.
He opened his lips as if to speak. But there was nothing more to say.He turned towards the door.
Beth could not suppress one little cry.
"Oh!" It was half a moan, half a shuddering gasp.
With her last rally of strength she faced the stairway, and weaklystumbled up the steps.
A spasm of agony seized Van by the cords of his heart. He went blindlyaway, with a vision in his eyes of Beth groping weakly up the stairs--adoe with a mortal hurt.
The Furnace of Gold Page 39