CHAPTER IV
To Peter this revelation was like the addition of a single grain to abucket brimming with sand.
"Well, what of it?" he barked.
"To a man who is fat and untidy, a man old enough to be my father, whotreats me as if I were a thief, or a dog. I loathe him. And hedetests me. You see"--she smiled ironically--"we are not very happy.I ran away from him a month ago, from Hong Kong. I ran as far asSingaraja, and now I have to go back because I have not the courage tostay away. A stronger will would make me give him up. Would make mego away, and stay. And I grabbed at you."
"As a drowning man would grab at a straw."
"Not at all! Perhaps, let us say, I had pictured such a man as you.And then you came. He will beat me when I return."
"No!"
"Yes!" She pressed down the gauzy stuff which came up almost to herthroat in the form of a high "V." And across the rounded white curveof her chest were four angry red stripes, the marks of a whip.
He shuddered. "This is terrible."
"Will you help me--now?"
"What can I do? What can I do?" He was striving to adjust himself tothis exceedingly difficult situation. "But I don't understand how youcan place all this confidence in me."
"Because when I saw you I knew you were a man who stopped at nothing."
"But why--why does he beat you? It--it's incomprehensible!"
He stared at the beautiful face, the long, white appealing face, andthe deep, dark eyes with their fringe of long lashes. If ever a girlwas meant to be loved and protected it was this one.
"I know I am asking a great deal, far more than I have any right, andnot taking you into consideration at all. But you will help me. Youmust. Have I talked to you in vain? Do--do you think I would make youunhappy?"
"That's not the question, not the question at all. But you don't knowme. We are perfect strangers!"
That is what Peter had been trying to get out of his system all of thistime. Had he been thinking connectedly at this trying moment, not forthe life of him would he have uttered those words. He had convincedhimself that he was above and beyond all shallow conventions. And inan unguarded moment this thought, which had been in and out of hismind, popped out like a ghost from a closet. We are perfect strangers!
"So is every man a stranger to his wife. What difference does timemake? Very little, I think. A day--a week--a month--ayear--twenty!--you and I would still be strangers, for that matter.Who can see into any man's heart?"
She stopped talking, and kneaded her hands as if in anguish.
"And think! Do think of me!"
"I am thinking of you," said Peter constrainedly.
"We can go to Nara, if you like, to the little inn near the deer-park,and be so happy--you and I. Think of Nara--in cherry-blossom time!"
"I can't see the picture at all," said Peter dryly. "But since you'veelected me to be your--your Sir Galahad, I'll tell you what I will do."
Nervously the girl was fumbling at her throat, where, suspended by afine gold chain, hung a cameo, a delicately carved rose, as red as herlips, and as life-like. She nodded, quite as though her life hung bythat gold thread and depended at the high end upon his decision.
"Your husband's nationality?" he asked abruptly.
"He is a Portuguese gentleman, my father's cousin."
"It would be possible for me, perhaps, to aid a lady in distress bypunishing the cause of it."
"You mean----"
"I will gladly undertake to thrash the gentleman, if it would do anygood."
"No, no! That would not do."
"Then there's no choice for me. Either I must accept or decline yourinvitation."
"I pray you will! I have told you frankly and quickly, because time isvaluable. We have none to lose. A steamer leaves for Formosa and Mojithe morning after we arrive--at daybreak. We would scarcely have timeto complete our plans, and embark."
Peter raised his eyebrows. "Complete our plans?" he intoned.
"Yes. We must raise money. You see, there is money, thousands ofdollars, always in that house. It would be necessary to--to takewhatever of it we needed. That is why I will need you, too."
"I think," declared Peter with decision, "that we had better call thisa misdeal, and play another game for a while. In the first place, Iwill not run away with you, because it is against my principles to runaway with a strange young woman. In the second place, stealing forpleasure is one of the seven deadly sins that I conscientiously avoid.
"Now that I have aired my views, now that I have proved to you I'm notas fine and brave as you hoped me to be, let's shake hands and part thebest of friends--or the worst of enemies."
The girl rose from the chair into which she had dropped when Peterbegan his say. Alternately she was biting her upper and lower lips innervousness or irritation. She put her back to the door and braced herhands against the white enameled panels. Her breast was heaving. Shewas desperately pale, and little dots of perspiration shone on herwhite forehead. And she was limp, as though his last remark haddrained the final drop of vitality from her.
"I--I won't give you up," she said in a small, husky voice. "Besides,you are wrong, wrong in saying and believing that stealing his moneywould not be for a good cause. He is a brute, a monster, and worsethan a thief. I cannot tell you how he gets his money. I would notdare to whisper it. You will be doing a fine and splendid thing intaking his money. You will be freeing me! Does that sound likeheroics? I don't care if it does! But with that money you can buy mysoul out of bondage. You can make me happy. Won't you? Won't youdo--that--for me?"
Peter stood there like a block of ice--melting rapidly! But he saidnothing. His thoughts were beyond the expression of clumsy words.
Her dumb hand found the key, turned it. The door opened, and a sweetbreath of the cool sea air crept into the small room.
For a moment her white, distraught face hung down on her breast likethat of a child who has been scolded without understanding why. Thenshe darted out of the room.
Peter the Brazen: A Mystery Story of Modern China Page 22