Quick Action Part 16

"I wish I had somebody to help me work it out," he said, half to himself.

"A collaborator?"

"Yes."

"I'm so sorry that I could not be useful."

"Would you try?"

"What is the use? I am utterly unskilled and inexperienced."

"I'd be very glad to have you try," he repeated.

XI

After a moment she rose, went over and knelt down in the sand before the miniature city, studying the situation. All she could see of the lead hero in the bowler hat were his legs protruding from the drain.

"Is this battery of artillery still sh.e.l.ling him?" she inquired, looking over her shoulder at Smith.

He went over and dropped on his knees beside her.

"You see," he explained, "our hero is still under water."

"All this time!" she exclaimed in consternation. "He'll drown, won't he?"

"He'll drown unless he can crawl into that drain."

"Then he must crawl into it immediately," she said with decision.

So he of the bowler was marched along a series of pegs indicating the subterranean drain, and set down in the court of the castle.

"Good heavens!" exclaimed the Lady Alene. "We can't leave him here! They will know him by his bowler hat!"

"No," said Smith gloomily, "we can't leave him here. But what can we do?

If he runs out they'll fire at him by platoons."

"_Couldn't_ they miss him?" pleaded the girl.

"I'm afraid not. He has already lived through several showers of bullets."

"But he can't die _here_!--here under the very eyes of the Princess!"

she insisted.

"Then," said Smith, "the Princess will have to pull him through. It's up to her now."

The girl knelt there in excited silence, studying the problem intently.

It was bad business. The battlements bristled with bayonets; outside, cavalry, infantry, artillery were ma.s.sed to destroy the gentleman in the bowler hat.

Presently the flush deepened on the girl's cheeks; she took the bowler hat between her gloved fingers and set its owner in the middle of the moat again.

"Doesn't he crawl into the drain?" asked Smith anxiously.

"No. But the soldiers in the castle think he does. So," she continued with animation, "the brutal commander rushes downstairs, seizes a candle, and enters the drain from the castle court with about a thousand soldiers!"

"But----"

"With about ten thousand soldiers!" she repeated firmly. "And no sooner--_no sooner_--does their brutal and cowardly commander enter that drain with his lighted candle than the Princess runs downstairs, seizes a hatchet, severs the gas main with a single blow, and pokes the end of the pipe into the drain!"

"B-but----" stammered Smith, "I think----"

"Oh, _please_ wait! You don't understand what is coming."

"_What_ is coming?" ventured Smith timidly, instinctively closing both ears with his fingers.

"Bang!" said Lady Alene triumphantly. And struck the city of sand with her small, gloved hand.

After a silence, still kneeling there, they turned and looked at each other through the red sunset light.

"The explosion of gas killed them both," said Smith, in an awed voice.

"No."

"What?"

"No. The explosion killed everybody in the city except those two young lovers," she said.

"But why?"

"Because!"

"By what logic----"

"I desire it to be so, Mr. Smith." And she picked up the bowler hat and the Princess and calmly set them side by side amid the ruins.

After a moment Smith reached over and turned the two lead figures so that they faced each other.

There was a long silence. The red sunset light faded from the sand.

Then, very slowly, the girl reached out, took the bowler hat between her small thumb and forefinger, and gently inclined the gentleman forward at the slightest of perceptible angles.

After a moment Smith inclined him still farther forward. Then, with infinite precaution, he tipped forward the Princess, so that between her lips and the lips of the bowler hat only the width of a gra.s.s blade remained.

The Lady Alene looked up at him over her left shoulder, hesitated, looked at bowler hat and at the Princess. Then, supporting her weight on one hand, with the other she merely touched the Princess--delicately--so that not even a blade of gra.s.s could have been slipped between their painted lips.