The Pagan Madonna

by Harold MacGrath

  CHAPTER XVI

  After they had gone below Dennison dropped into Jane's chair. ImmediatelyDodge began to talk: "So you nearly throttled that ornery coyote, huh?Whata you know about this round-up? The three o' 'em came in, and I neversmelt nothin' until they were on top o' me. How should I smell anythin'?Hobnobbing together for days, how was I to know they were a bunch ofpirates? Is your old man sore?"

  "Naturally."

  "I mean appertainin' to me?"

  "I don't see how he could be. Who took care of you--bound you up?"

  "That nice-lookin' greaser with the slue foot. Soft speakin' like a womanand an eye like a timber wolf. Some _hombre_! Where we bound for?"

  "God knows!"--dejectedly.

  "Bad as that, huh? Your girl?"

  "No."

  "No place for a girl. If they hadn't busted my arm I wouldn't care somuch! If it comes to a show-down I won't be no good to anybody. Gimme myguns and we'd be headin' home in five minutes. These _hombres_ knowsomethin' o' my gun play. Gee, it's lonesome here!" Dodge mused for amoment. "Say, what's your old man's idea hog-tyin' you that-a-way?"

  "He'll tell you perhaps."

  "Uh-huh. Say, what did the Lord make all that stuff for?" with a gesturetoward the brazen sea. "What's it good for, anyhow?"

  "But for the sea we wouldn't have any oysters or codfish," said Dennison,soberly.

  Dodge chuckled.

  "Oysters and codfish! Say, you're all right! Never knew the old man had ason until you blew in. Back in New York nobody ever said nothin' aboutyou. Where you been?"

  "Lots of places."

  "Any ridin'?"

  "Some."

  "Can you shoot?"

  "A little."

  "Kill any o' them Bolsheviks?"

  "That would be guesswork. Did you ever kill a man?"

  "Nope. Didn't have to. I'm pretty good on the draw, and where I come fromthey knew it and didn't bother me."

  "I see."

  "Shootin' these days is all in the movies. I was ridin' for a film companywhen your old man lassoed me for this job. Never know when you're welloff--huh? I thought there wouldn't be nothin' to do but grub pile threetimes a day and the old man's cheroots in between. And here I be now,ridin' along with a bunch of pirates! Whata you know about that? And someof them nice boys, too. If they were riff-raff, barroom bums, I could geta line on it. But I'll have to pass the buck."

  "You haven't got an extra gun anywhere, have you?"

  "We'd be headin' east if I had"--grimly. "I'd have pared down the oddsthis mornin'. That _hombre_ with the hop-a-long didn't leave me a quilltoothpick. Was you thinkin' of startin' somethin'?"--hopefully.

  "No, but I'd feel more comfortable if Miss Norman could carry a gun."

  "Uh-huh. Say, she's all right. No hysterics. Ain't many of 'em thatwouldn't 'a' been snivellin' all day and night in her bunk. Been listenin'to her readin'. Gee, you'd think we were floatin' round this codfish lakejust for the fun of it! She won't run to cover if a bust-up comes. Nonewhatever! And I bet she can cook, too. Them kind can always cook."

  Conversation lapsed.

  Below, Jane was passing through an unusual experience.

  Said Cleigh at the start: "I'm going to show you the paintings--there arefourteen in all. I will tell you the history of each. And above all,please bear in mind the price of each picture."

  "I'll remember."

  But she thought the request an odd one, coming from the man as she knewhim.

  Most of the treasures were in his own spacious cabin. There was aNapoleonic corner--a Meissonier on one side and a Detaille on the other.In a stationary cabinet there were a pair of stirrups, a riding crop, abook on artillery tactics, a pair of slippers beaded with seed pearls, anda buckle studded with sapphires.

  "What are those?" she asked, attracted.

  "They belonged to the Emperor and his first Empress."

  "Napoleon?"

  "The Corsican. Next to the masters, I've a passion for things genuinelyNapoleonic. The hussar is by Meissonier and the skirmish by Detaille."

  "How much is this corner worth?"

  "I can't say, except that I would not part with those objects for ahundred thousand; and there are friends of mine who would pay half thatsum for them--behind my back. This is a Da Vinci."

  Half an hour passed. Jane honestly tried to be thrilled by the splendourof the names she heard, but her eye was always travelling back toward theslippers and the buckle. The Empress Josephine! Romance and gallantry inthe old, old days!

  "The painting in your cabin is by Holbein. It cost me sixteen thousand.Now let us go out and look at the rug. That is the apple of my eye. It isthe second finest example of the animal rug in the world. A sheet of puregold, half an inch thick, covering the rug from end to end, would notequal its worth."

  Jane admired the rug, but she would have preferred the gold. Her sense ofthe beautiful was alive, but there was always in her mind the genteelpoverty of the past. She was beginning to understand. To go in quest ofthe beautiful required an unlimited purse and an endless leisure; and shewould have never the one nor the other.

  "How much gold would that be?" she inquired, naively.

  "Nearly eighty thousand. Have you kept in mind the sums I have givenyou?"

  "Yes. Let me see--good heavens, a quarter of a million! But why do youcarry them about like this?"

  "Because I'm something of a rogue myself. I could not enjoy the rug andthe paintings except on board. The French, the Italian, and the Spanishgovernments could confiscate every solitary painting except the Meissonierand the Detaille, for the simple reason that they were stolen. Oh, I didnot steal them myself; I merely purchased them with one eye shut. If Ihadn't bought them they would have gone to some other collector. Do youget a glimmer of the truth now?"

  "The truth?"--perplexedly.

  "Yes--where Cunningham will get his pearls?"--bitterly.

  "Oh!"

  "And I could not touch him. A quarter of a million! And with his knowledgeof the secret marts he could easily dispose of them. Worth a bold stroke,eh?"

  "But how will he get them off the yacht--transship them?"

  Her faith in Cunningham began to waver. A quarter of a million! Thethought was as bells in her ears.

  "Of the outside issues I have no inkling. But I have shown you hispearls."

  "But the crew! Certainly they will not return to any port with us. And whyshould he lie to me? There is no reason in the world why he shouldn'thave told me, if he had committed piracy to obtain your paintings. And hewas poring over maps."

  "Some tramp is probably going to pick him up. He's ordered us away fromthe wireless. Cunningham must have his joke, so he is beguiling you withtwaddle about hunting pearls. He is robbing me of my treasures, and Ican't strike back on that count. But I can land him in prison on the countof piracy; and by the Lord Harry, I'll do it if it takes my last dollar!He'll rue this adventure, or they call me Tungsten for nothing!"

  "I wanted so to believe in him!"

  "Not difficult to understand why. He has a silver tongue and a face likeJohn the Baptist--del Sarto's--and you are romantic. The picture of himhas enlisted your sympathies. You are filled with pity that he should beso richly endowed, facially and mentally, and to be a cripple such aschildren laugh over."

  "Have you never considered what mental anguish must be the portion of aman whose body is twisted as his is? I know. So I pity him profoundly,even if he is a rogue. That's all I was born for--to pity and to bind up.And I pity you, Mr. Cleigh, you who have walled your heart in granite."

  "You're plain-spoken, young lady."

  "Yes, certain sick minds need plain speaking."

  "Then my mind is sick?"

  "Yes."

  "And only a little while gone it was romantic!"

  "Two hundred million hands begging for bread, and you crossing the worldfor a string of glass beads whose value is only sentimental!"

  "I can't let that pass, Miss Norman. I have trusted lieutenants who attendt
o my charities. I'm not a miser."

  "You are, with the greatest thing in the world--human love."

  "Shall a man give it where it is not wanted? But enough of this talk. Ihave shown you Cunningham's pearls."

  "Perhaps."

  * * * * *

  Night and wheeling stars. It was stuffy in the crew's quarters. Halfnaked, the men lolled about, some in their bunks, some on the floor. Theorders were that none should sleep on deck during the voyage to theCatwick.

  "All because the old man brings a skirt on board, we have to sweat bloodin the forepeak!" growled Flint. "We've got a right to a little sport."

  "Sure we have!"

  The speaker was sitting on the edge of his bunk. He was a fine specimenof young manhood, with a pleasant, rollicking Irish countenance. He lookedas if he had been brought up clean and had carried his cleanliness intothe world. The blue anchor and love birds on his formidable forearmsproclaimed him a deep-sea man. It was he who had given Dennison the shirtand the ducks.

  "Sure, we have a right to a little sport! But why call in the undertakerto help us out? You poor fish, all the way from San Francisco you've beengrousing because shore leaves weren't long enough for you to get primesoused in. What's two months in our young lives?"

  "I've always been free to do as I liked."

  "You look it! I'll say so! The chief laid down the rules of this game, andwe all took oath to follow those rules. The trouble with you is, you'vebeen reading dime novels. Where do you think you are--raiding the SpanishMain? There's every chance of our coming out top hole, as thoselime-juicers say, with oodles of dough and a whole skin."

  "Say, don't I know this Sulu game? I tell you, if he does find his atollthere won't be any shell. Not a chance in a hundred! Somebody's beengiving him a song and dance. As I get the dope, some pearl-hunting friendof his croaks and leaves him this chart. Old stuff! I bet a million boobshave croaked trying to locate the red cross on a chart."

  "Why the devil did you sign on, then?"

  "I wanted a little fun, and I'm going to have it. There's champagne andNapoleon brandy in the dry-stores. Wouldn't hurt us to have a little ofit. If we've got to go to jail we might as well go lit up."

  "Flint, you talk too much," said a voice from the doorway. It wasCunningham's. He leaned carelessly against the jamb. The crew fell silentand motionless. "Boys, you've heard Hennessy. Play it my way and you'llwear diamonds; mess it up and you'll all wear hemp. The world will forgiveus when it finds out we've only made it laugh." Cunningham strolled overto Flint, who rose to his feet. "Flint, I want that crimp-house whiskyyou've been swigging on the sly. No back talk! Hand it over!"

  "And if I don't?" said Flint, his jaw jutting.