Part 13 (2/2)

”Cheer up, Jerry; she won't be long. Give the poor girl time to digest her luncheon.” The cheerful one of the twain lit a cigarette; and in the process received the glad eye from a pa.s.sing siren of striking aspect.

”Great Caesar, old son!” he continued, when she was swallowed up in the crowd, ”you're losing the chance of a lifetime. Here, gathered together to bid us welcome, are countless beautiful women and brave men. We are for the moment the star turn of the show--the brave British sailors whom the ladies delight to honour. Never let it be said, old dear, that you failed them in this their hour of need.”

”Confound it, Ginger, I know all about that!” The other man sighed and, coming suddenly out of his brown study, he too leant forward and fumbled for his cigarette-case. ”But it's no go, old man. I'm getting a deuced sight too old and ugly nowadays to chop and change about. There comes a time of life when if a man wants to kiss one particular woman, he might as well kiss his boot for all the pleasure fooling around with another will give him.”

Ginger Lawson looked at him critically. ”My lad, I fear me that Nemesis has at length descended on you. No longer do the ortolans and caviare of unregenerate bachelorhood tempt you; rather do you yearn for ground rice and stewed prunes in the third floor back. These symptoms----”

”Ginger,” interrupted the other, ”dry up. You're a dear, good soul, but when you try to be funny, I realise the type of man who writes mottoes for crackers.” He started up eagerly, only to sit down again disappointed.

”Not she, not she, my love,” continued the other imperturbably. ”And, in the meanwhile, doesn't it strike you that you are committing a bad tactical error in sitting here, with a face like a man that's eaten a bad oyster, on the very seat where she's bound to see you when she does finish her luncheon and come down?”

”I suppose that means you want me to c.o.c.ktail with you?”

”More impossible ideas have fructified,” agreed Ginger, rising.

”No, I'm blowed if----!”

”Come on, old son.” Lawson dragged him reluctantly to his feet. ”All the world loves a lover, including the loved one herself; but you look like a deaf-mute at a funeral, who's swallowed his fee. Come and have a c.o.c.ktail at Ciro's, and then, merry and bright and caracoling like a young lark, return and s.n.a.t.c.h her from under the nose of the accursed Teuton.”

”Do you think she's going to accept him, Ginger?” he muttered anxiously, as they sauntered through the drifting crowd.

”My dear boy, ask me another. But she's coming to the ball dance on board to-night, and if the delicate pink illumination of your special kala jugger, s.h.i.+ning softly on your virile face, and toning down the somewhat vivid colour scheme of your sunburned nose, doesn't melt her heart, I don't know what will----”

Which all requires a little explanation. Before the war broke out it was the custom each year for that portion of the British Fleet stationed in the Mediterranean, and whose headquarters were at Malta, to make a cruise lasting three weeks or a month to some friendly sea-coast, where the ports were good and the inhabitants merry. Trieste, perhaps, and up the Adriatic; Alexandria and the countries to the East; or, best of all, the Riviera. And at the time when my story opens the officers of the British Mediterranean Fleet, which had come to rest in the wonderful natural anchorage of Villefranche, were doing their best to live up to the reputation which the British naval officer enjoys the world over.

Everywhere within motor distance of their vessels they were greeted with joy and acclamation; there were dances and dinners, women and wine--and what more for a s.p.a.ce can any hard-worked sailor-man desire? During their brief intervals of leisure they slept and recuperated on board, only to dash off again with unabated zeal to pastures new, or renewed, as the case might be.

Foremost amongst the revellers on this, as on other occasions, was Jerry Travers, torpedo-lieutenant on the flags.h.i.+p. Endowed by Nature with an infinite capacity for consuming c.o.c.ktails, and with a disposition which not even the catering of the Maltese mess man could embitter, his sudden fall from grace was all the more noticeable. From being a tireless leader of revels, he became a mooner in secret places, a melancholy sigher in the wardroom. Which fact did not escape the eyes of the flags.h.i.+p wardroom officers. And Lawson, the navigating lieutenant, had deputed himself as clerk of the course.

Staying at the Hotel de Paris was an American, who was afflicted with the dreadful name of Honks; with him were his wife and his daughter Maisie. Maisie Honks has not a prepossessing sound; but she was the girl who was responsible for Jerry Travers's downfall. He had met her at a ball in Nice just after the Fleet arrived, and, from that moment he had become a trifle deranged. Brother officers entering his cabin unawares found him gazing into the infinite with a slight squint. His Marine servant spread the rumour on the lower deck that ”'e'd taken to poetry, and 'orrible noises in his sleep.” Like a goodly number of men who have walked merrily through life, sipping at many flowers, but leaving each with added zest for the next, when he took it he took it hard. And Maisie had just about reduced him to idiocy. I am no describer of girls, but I was privileged to know and revere the lady from afar, and I can truthfully state that I have rarely, if ever, seen a more absolute dear.

She wasn't fluffy, and she wasn't statuesque; she did not have violet eyes which one may liken to mountain pools, or hair of that colour described as spun-gold. She was just--Maisie, one of the most adorable girls that ever happened. And Jerry, as I say, had taken it very badly.

Unfortunately, there was a fly in the ointment--almost of bluebottle size--in the shape of another occupant of the Hotel de Paris, who had also taken it very badly, and at a much earlier date. The Baron von Dressler--an officer in the German Navy, and a member of one of the oldest Prussian families--had been staying at Monte Carlo for nearly a month, on sick leave after a severe dose of fever. And he, likewise, wors.h.i.+pped with ardour and zeal at the Honks shrine. Moreover, being apparently a very decent fellow, and living as he did in the same hotel, he had, as Jerry miserably reflected, a bit of a preponderance in artillery, especially as he had opened fire more than a fortnight before the British Navy had appeared on the scene. This, then, was the general situation; and the particular feature of the moment, which caused an outlook on life even more gloomy than usual in the heart of the torpedo-lieutenant, was that the Baron von Dressler had been invited to lunch with his adored one, while he had not.

”Something potent, Fritz.” Lawson piloted him firmly to the bar and addressed the presiding being respectfully. ”Something potent and heady which will make this officer's sad heart bubble once again with the joie de vivre. He has been crossed in love.”

”Don't be an a.s.s, Ginger,” said the other peevishly.

”My dear fellow, the credit of the Navy is at stake. Admitted that you've had a bad start in the Honks stakes, nevertheless--you never know--our Teuton may take a bad fall. And, incidentally, there they both are, to say nothing of Honks pere et mere.” He was peering through the window. ”No, you don't, my boy!” as the other made a dash for the door.

”The day is yet young. Lap it up; repeat the dose; and then in the nonchalant style for which our name is famous we will sally forth and have at them.”

”Confound it, Ginger! they seem to be on devilish good terms. Look at the blighter, bending towards her as if he owned her.” Travers stood in the window rubbing his hands with his handkerchief nervously.

”What d'you expect him to do? Look the other way?” The navigating officer snorted. ”You make me tired, Torps. Come along if you're ready; and try and look jaunty and debonair.”

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