Part 34 (1/2)

”Where you been?” he inquired.

”Miles and miles away. You know the Battery?”

William Bannister nodded.

”Well, a long way past that. First I took a s.h.i.+p and went ever so many miles. Then I landed and went ever so many more miles, with all sorts of beasts trying to bite pieces out of me.”

This interested William Bannister.

”Tigers?” he inquired.

”I didn't actually see any tigers, but I expect they were sneaking round. There were mosquitoes, though. You know what a mosquito is?”

William nodded.

”b.u.mps,” he observed crisply.

”That's right. You see this lump here, just above my mouth? Well, that's not a mosquito-bite; that's my nose; but think of something about that size and you'll have some idea of what a mosquito-bite is like out there. But why am I boring you with my troubles? Tell me all about yourself. You've certainly been growing, whatever else you may have been doing while I've been away; I can hardly lift you. Has Steve taught you to box yet?”

At this moment he was aware that he had become the centre of a small group. Looking round he found himself gazing into a face so stiff with horror and disapproval that he was startled almost into dropping William. What could have happened to induce Mrs. Porter to look like that he could not imagine; but her expression checked his flow of light conversation as if it had been turned off with a switch. He lowered Bill to the ground.

”What on earth's the matter?” he asked. ”What has happened?”

Without replying, Mrs. Porter made a gesture in the direction of the nursery, which had the effect of sending Mamie and her charge off again on the journey upstairs which Kirk's advent had interrupted. Bill seemed sorry to go, but he trudged st.u.r.dily on without remark. Kirk followed him with his eyes till he disappeared at the bend of the stairway.

”What's the matter?” he repeated.

”Are you mad, Kirk?” demanded Mrs. Porter in a tense voice.

Kirk turned helplessly to Ruth.

”You had better let me explain, Aunt Lora,” she said. ”Of course Kirk couldn't be expected to know, poor boy. You seem to forget that he has only this minute come into the house.”

Aunt Lora was not to be appeased.

”That is absolutely no excuse. He has just left a s.h.i.+p where he cannot have failed to pick up bacilli of every description. He has himself only recently recovered from a probably infectious fever. He is wearing a beard, notoriously the most germ-ridden abomination in existence.”

Kirk started. He was not proud of his beard, but he had not regarded it as quite the pestilential thing which it seemed to be in the eyes of Mrs. Porter.

”And he picks up the child!” she went on. ”Hugs him! Kisses him! And you say he could not have known better! Surely the most elementary common sense--”

”Aunt Lora!” said Ruth.

She spoke quietly, but there was a note in her voice which acted on Mrs. Porter like magic. Her flow of words ceased abruptly. It was a small incident, but it had the effect of making Kirk, grateful as he was for the interruption, somehow vaguely uneasy for a moment.

It seemed to indicate some subtle change in Ruth's character, some new quality of hardness added to it. The Ruth he had left when he sailed for Colombia would, he felt, have been incapable of quelling her masterful aunt so very decisively and with such an economy of words. It suggested previous warfare, in which the elder women had been subdued to a point where a mere exclamation could pull her up when she forgot herself.

Kirk felt uncomfortable. He did not like these sudden discoveries about Ruth.

”I will explain to Kirk,” she said. ”You go up and see that everything is right in the nursery.”