Out of the Primitive Part 4

"She--she'd left the door up--heat was stifling," explained Blake. "I had gone off north, exploring. The beast was crawling in--But I've got to remember he wasn't responsible--a paranoiac!"

"Ah, yes. And then?" questioned the Englishman, tugging nervously at the tip of his little blond mustache.

"Then--then--" muttered Blake. "He got what was coming to him. Cyclone struck like a tornado. Door whirled down and knocked him out of the opening--smashed him!"

"The end he had earned!"

"Yes--even if he wasn't responsible, he had become just that--a beast.

She had saved his life, too--night I ran down to the beach after eating a poison fish. Barricade hadn't been finished. He was down with the fever. They were attacked--jackals, hyenas. She got him safe inside the tree, with the yelling curs jumping at her."

"My word! she did that?--she? Of all the young ladies I've ever known, she was the very last I should have expected--"

"What! you've met her before?" demanded Blake.

"Then she hasn't told you?" replied his friend. "Lady Bayrose was one of my old friends, y'know. Met 'em aboard s.h.i.+p--sailed on the same steamer, after my run home."

"You did?" muttered Blake, in blank astonishment. "You know her?"

"You must have heard me sing out to her from the boat. Yes, I--er--had the voyage with her through the Mediterranean and down the Red Sea. But Lady Bayrose got tiffed at me, and at Aden s.h.i.+fted to a Cape boat. I had to go on to India alone."

"India?" queried Blake.

"Trailing Hawkins. He first went to India. But he doubled back and 'round to Cape Colony."

"So that's why you didn't get here sooner," said Blake.

"Yes. Didn't notice that the _Impala_ was posted. Didn't know either you or Miss Leslie was aboard her until after I learned you'd thrown up the management of that Rand mine. Traced you to Cape Town. Odd that you and she and Hawkins should all have booked on the same steamer!"

"Think so?" said Blake. "I don't. Winthrope--Hawkins, that is--was smooth enough to know he'd not be suspected if travelling as a member of Lady Bayrose's party. He had already wormed himself into her favor.

As for me--well, they had come to look at the mine, and I had shown Jenny through the workings. Does that make it clear why I threw up the job and followed them to Cape Town?"

"She had not given you any reason to--surely, not any encouragement?

No, I can't believe it!"

"Course not, you British doughhead! It was all the other way 'round.

Think I didn't realize? She, a lady, and me--what I am! But I couldn't help it--I just couldn't help myself, Jimmy. Knew her father, too--all about his millions and how he made them! He did me--twice. You'd think the very name would have turned me. Yet the minute I set eyes on her--say!"

"You're certainly hard hit!" murmured the young earl. He flushed, bit his lip, hesitated, and burst out with impulsive generosity: "Gad, old man! If it's true--if she really--er--has come to love you, I own that you've won her fair and square--all this, y'know." He waved his hand around in a sweeping gesture. "Saved her from all this. Yes--if it's really true!"

Blake looked away, and spoke in a hushed voice: "It's--it's true, Jimmy! Only a little while ago, there on the cliff edge when we saw your steamer, she--she told me. It started yesterday after I bluffed off the lion. You see, she--"

"Lion?" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Lord James.

"Yes." Blake flung up his head in an impatient gesture. "The beast tried to stalk us. Jumped back into the gra.s.s when I circled out at him. I got the gra.s.s fired before he screwed up courage to tackle me.--Don't cut in!--It was then that Jenny--she--she tried to say something. But I streaked for home. This morning, though, when I saw we were safe, I was weak enough to let her--speak out."

Lord James hesitated just perceptibly, and then caught his friend's big, ill-used hand in a cordial clasp. "So--you're engaged!

Congratulations!"

"If only it was just that!" cried Blake. He flushed red under his thick coat of tan. "I--I suppose I've got to tell you, Jimmy--I must. I need your help to carry out my plan."

"Your plan?" repeated the Englishman wonderingly.

"To save her from--from committing herself. It isn't fair to her to let her do it now. She ought to wait till she gets back home, among her own people. You see she wants to--She--she says that s.h.i.+p captains can--"

He caught his breath, and bent nearer, but with his face half averted.

His voice sank to an almost inaudible murmur--"that s.h.i.+p captains can marry people."

"Ah!" gasped Lord James. But he recovered on the instant. "Gad! that _is_ a surprise, old man. Always the lady's privilege, though, to name the day, y'know. I s.h.i.+pped a stewardess to wait on the women--had hoped they would all have been saved. She'll do for lady's maid. Also brought along some women's togs, in case of emergencies. As for yourself, between mine and Megg's and his own wardrobes, my man can rig you up a presentable outfit. Clever chap, that Wilton."

"You've gone back to a valet again!" reproached Blake, momentarily diverted. Then his fists clenched and his brows met in a frown of self-disgust. "Lord! for me to forget for a second! Look here, Jimmy, you're clean off. You don't savvy a little bit. Don't you see the point? I can't let her commit herself now--here! You know I can't. It wouldn't be fair to her, and you know it."

Lord James met his look with a clear and unfaltering gaze, and answered steadily: "That all depends on one thing, Tom. If she really loves you--"

"D'you think she's the kind to do it, if she didn't?" demanded Blake.

"No, that's not the point, at all. I've tried to be square, so far. She saw what I'm like when I cut loose--there on the s.h.i.+p. I was two-thirds drunk when the cyclone flung us ash.o.r.e. No excuse--except that all of them had turned me down from the first--there at Cape Town. Yes, she knows just what I'm like when the craving is on me. Yesterday, down there at the south headland, before the lion came around, I gave her some idea of what I've done--all that."

"You've lived a cleaner life than most who're considered eligible!"

exclaimed Lord James. "I know that with respect to women, you're the cleanest--"

"Eligible!" broke in Blake. "No man is that, far as she's concerned, unless it's you, Jimmy."

"Chuck it! You're always knocking yourself. But about this plan that's bothering you? Out with it."

"That's talking! All right, here it is, straight--I want you to get back aboard and steam away, fast as you can hike. You can run into Port Mozambique, if you're going north, and arrange for a boat to call by for me."

"You're daft!" cried Lord James. "Daft! Mad as a hatter! Can you fancy for a moment I'd go off and leave you here?"

"Guess you can't help yourself, Jimmy. The most you can do is force me to take to the jungle. You can't get me aboard. I tell you, I've figured it all out. I won't go aboard and let her do--what she's planning to do. You ought to know. Jimmy, that when I say a thing, I mean it. She's not going to set eyes on me again until after she's back in America. Is that plain?"

"Tom--old man! that's like you!" cried the Englishman, and again he gripped the other's rough hand. "I see now what you're driving at. It's a thing few men would have the bigness to do. You're giving up a certainty, because your love for her is great enough, unselfish enough to consider only her good. D'you fancy I could do such a thing? You're risking everything. Shows you're fit, even for her!"

"It's little enough--for her!" put in Blake.

"That's like you to say it," rejoined his friend. "See here, old man.

You've made a clean breast of it all. I should be no less candid. You know now that I met her before--was all those weeks with her aboard s.h.i.+p. Need I tell you that I, too, love her?"

"You?" growled Blake. "But of course! I don't blame you. You couldn't help it."

"It's been an odd shuffling of the cards," remarked his friend. "What if--Aren't you afraid there may be a new deal, Tom? If you don't come aboard, she and I will be together at least as far as Zanzibar, and probably all the way to Aden, before I can find some one else to take her on to England."

"What of that?" rejoined Blake. "Think I don't know you're square, after the months we roughed-it together?"

"Then--But I can't leave you here in this h.e.l.l-hole! You've no right to ask me to do that, Tom. If I could bring my guns ash.o.r.e and stay with you--But she'll never be more in need of some one, if you insist upon your plan. I say! I have it--We'll slip you aboard after dark. You can lie in covert till we reach Port Mozambique. I trust I'm clever enough to keep her diverted that long. Can put it that you're outfitting--all that, y' know."

"Say, that's not so bad," admitted Blake, half persuaded. "I could slip ash.o.r.e, soon as we ran into harbor, leaving her a note to tell her why."

"Right-o, Tammas! But wait. I'll go you one better. You can write your note and give it out that you've s.h.i.+fted to another s.h.i.+p. But you'll stay aboard with us, under cover. Of all the steamers that touch at Aden, one will soon come along with parties whom either she or I know.

Then off she goes to the tight little island, and we follow after in our little tramp or on another liner. Hey, Tammas?"

"Well, I don't know," hesitated Blake. "It sounds all right."