Part 32 (1/2)
”Well,” said the Spaniard, ”I think you and the man, Payne, should watch over your friend, but it might be better if you did not tell him you are doing so or ask him any questions, and I would sooner you did not mention this interview. If, however, anything suspicious happens again, it might be an advantage if you let me know. You can send word to me at the hotel.”
”Not at Kenwardine's?”
Don Sebastian gave him a quiet glance, but Jake thought it was keenly observant and remembered how, one night when a messenger entered Kenwardine's patio, Richter, the German, had stood where he obstructed the Spaniard's view.
”No,” he said, ”I should prefer the hotel. Will you promise?”
”I will,” Jake answered impulsively. ”However, you seem to suggest that I should leave my partner to grapple with this thing himself and I don't like that. If he's up against any danger, I want to b.u.t.t in. d.i.c.k's no fool, but there are respects in which he's not very keen. His mind's fixed on concrete, and when he gets off it his imagination's sometimes rather weak----”
He stopped, feeling that he must not seem to censure his friend, and Don Sebastian nodded with a twinkle of amus.e.m.e.nt.
”I think I understand. There are, however, men of simple character and no cunning who are capable of going far and sometimes surprise the friends who do not know them very well. I cannot tell if Senor Brandon is one of these, but it is not impossible. After all, it is often the clever man who makes the worst mistakes; and on the whole I imagine it would be wiser to leave your comrade alone.”
He got up and laid his hand on Jake's arm with a friendly gesture. ”Now I will put you on your way, and if you feel puzzled or alarmed in future, you can come to me.”
CHAPTER XXI
d.i.c.k MAKES A BOLD VENTURE
Some delicate and important work was being done, and Stuyvesant had had his lunch sent up to the dam. Bethune and d.i.c.k joined him afterwards, and sat in the shade of a big traveling crane. Stuyvesant and d.i.c.k were hot and dirty, for it was not their custom to be content with giving orders when urgent work was going on. Bethune looked languid and immaculately neat. His speciality was mathematics, and he said he did not see why the man with mental talents should dissipate his energy by using his hands.
”It's curious about that French liner,” Stuyvesant presently remarked. ”I understand her pa.s.sengers have been waiting since yesterday and she hasn't arrived.”
”The last boat cut out Santa Brigida without notice,” Bethune replied.
”My opinion of the French is that they're a pretty casual lot.”
”On the surface. They smile and shrug where we set our teeth, but when you get down to bed-rock you don't find much difference. I thought as you do, until I went over there and saw a people that run us close for steady, intensive industry. Their small cultivators are simply great. I'd like to put them on our poorer land in the Middle West, where we're content with sixteen bushels of wheat that's most fit for chicken feed to the acre. Then what they don't know about civil engineering isn't worth learning.”
Bethune made a gesture of agreement. ”They're certainly fine engineers and they're putting up a pretty good fight just now, but these Latins puzzle me. Take the Iberian branch of the race, for example. We have Spanish peons here who'll stand for as much work and hards.h.i.+p as any Anglo-Saxon I've met. Then an educated Spaniard's hard to beat for intellectual subtlety. Chess is a game that's suited to my turn of mind, but I've been badly whipped in Santa Brigida. They've brains and application, and yet they don't progress. What's the matter with them, anyway?”
”I expect they can't formulate a continuous policy and stick to it, and they keep brains and labor too far apart; the two should coordinate. But I wonder what's holding up the mail boat.”
”Do they know when she left the last port?” d.i.c.k, who had listened impatiently, asked with concealed interest.
”They do. It's a short run and she ought to have arrived yesterday morning.”
”The Germans can't have got her. They have no commerce-destroyers in these waters,” Bethune remarked, with a glance at d.i.c.k. ”Your navy corralled the lot, I think.”
d.i.c.k wondered why Bethune looked at him, but he answered carelessly: ”So one understands. But it's strange the French company cut out the last call. There was a big quant.i.ty of freight on the mole.”
”It looks as if the agent had suspected something,” Stuyvesant replied.
”However, that's not our affair, and you want to get busy and have your specifications and cost-sheets straight when Fuller comes.”
”Then Fuller is coming back!” d.i.c.k exclaimed.
”He'll be here to-morrow night. I imagined Bethune had told you about the cablegram he sent.”
”He didn't; I expect he thought his getting a scratch lunch more important,” d.i.c.k replied, looking at his watch. ”Well, I must see everything's ready before the boys make a start.”