Part 12 (2/2)
”But that is all past; he is gone, and Miss Nott does not even know where he is!” said Renshaw, with a laugh, which, however, concealed a vague uneasiness.
Mr. Nott rose and opened the door carefully. When he had satisfied himself that no one was listening, he came back and said in a whisper, ”That's a lie. Not ez Rosey means to lie, but it's a trick he's put upon that poor child. That man, Mr. Renshaw, hez been hangin' round the Pontiac ever since. I've seed him twice with my own eyes pa.s.s the cabin windys. More than that, I've heard strange noises at night, and seen strange faces in the alley over yer. And only jist now ez I kem in I ketched sight of a furrin lookin' Chinee n.i.g.g.e.r slinking round the back door of what useter be Ferrers's loft.”
”Did he look like a sailor?” asked Renshaw quickly, with a return of his former suspicion.
”Not more than I do,” said Nott, glancing complacently at his pea-jacket. ”He had rings on his yeers like a wench.”
Mr. Renshaw started. But seeing Nott's eyes fixed on him, he said lightly, ”But what have these strange faces and this strange man--probably only a Lascar sailor out of a job--to do with Ferrieres?”
”Friends o' his--feller furrin citizens--spies on Rosey, don't you see?
But they can't play the old man, Mr. Renshaw. I've told Rosey she must make a visit to the old Ranch. Once I've got her ther safe, I reckon I kin manage Mr. Ferrers and any number of Chinee n.i.g.g.e.rs he kin bring along.”
Renshaw remained for a few moments lost in thought. Then rising suddenly he grasped Mr. Nott's hand with a frank smile but determined eyes. ”I haven't got the hang of this, Mr. Nott--the whole thing gets me! I only know that I've changed my mind. I'm NOT going to Sacramento. I shall stay HERE, old man, until I see you safe through the business, or my name's not d.i.c.k Renshaw. There's my hand on it!
Don't say a word. Maybe it is no more than I ought to do--perhaps not half enough. Only remember, not a word of this to your daughter. She must believe that I leave to-night. And the sooner you get her out of this cursed s.h.i.+p the better.”
”Deacon Flint's girls are goin' up in to-night's boat. I'll send Rosey with them,” said Nott with a cunning twinkle. Renshaw nodded. Nott seized his hand with a wink of unutterable significance.
Left to himself Renshaw tried to review more calmly the circ.u.mstances in these strange revelations that had impelled him to change his resolution so suddenly. That the s.h.i.+p was under the surveillance of unknown parties, and that the description of them tallied with his own knowledge of a certain Lascar sailor, who was one of Sleight's informants--seemed to be more than probable. That this seemed to point to Sleight's disloyalty to himself while he was acting as his agent, or a double treachery on the part of Sleight's informants was in either case a reason and an excuse for his own interference. But the connection of the absurd Frenchman with the case, which at first seemed a characteristic imbecility of his landlord, bewildered him the more he thought of it. Rejecting any hypothesis of the girl's affection for the antiquated figure whose sanity was a question of public criticism, he was forced to the equally alarming theory that Ferrieres was cognizant of the treasure, and that his attentions to Rosey were to gain possession of it by marrying her. Might she not be dazzled by a picture of this wealth? Was it not possible that she was already in part possession of the secret, and her strange attraction to the s.h.i.+p, and what he had deemed her innocent craving for information concerning it, a consequence? Why had he not thought of this before? Perhaps she had detected his purpose from the first, and had deliberately checkmated him. The thought did not increase his complacency as Nott softly returned.
”It's all right,” he began with a certain satisfaction in this rare opportunity for Machiavellian diplomacy, ”it's all fixed now. Rosey tumbled to it at once, partiklerly when I said you was bound to go.
'But wot makes Mr. Renshaw go, father,' sez she; 'wot makes everybody run away from the s.h.i.+p?' sez she, rather peart like and sa.s.sy for her.
'Mr. Renshaw hez contractin' business,' sez I; 'got a big thing up in Sacramento that'll make his fortun',' sez I--for I wasn't goin' to give yer away, don't ye see. 'He had some business to talk to you about the s.h.i.+p,' sez she, lookin' at me under the corner of her pocket handkerchief. 'Lots o' business,' sez I. 'Then I reckon he don't care to hev me write to him,' sez she. 'Not a bit,' sez I, 'he wouldn't answer ye if ye did. Ye'll never hear from that chap agin.'”
”But what the devil--” interrupted the young man impetuously.
”Keep yer hair on!” remonstrated the old man with dark intelligence.
”Ef you'd seen the way she flounced into her stateroom!--she, Rosey, ez allus moves ez softly ez a spirit--you'd hev wished I'd hev unloaded a little more. No sir, gals is gals in some things all the time.”
Renshaw rose and paced the room rapidly. ”Perhaps I'd better speak to her again before she goes,” he said, impulsively.
”P'r'aps you'd better not,” replied the imperturbable Nott.
Irritated as he was, Renshaw could not avoid the reflection that the old man was right. What, indeed, could he say to her with his present imperfect knowledge? How could she write to him if that knowledge was correct?
”Ef,” said Nott, kindly, with a laying on of large benedictory and paternal hands, ”ef yer are willin' to see Rosey agin, without SPEAKIN'
to her, I reckon I ken fix it for yer. I'm goin' to take her down to the boat in half an hour. Ef yer should happen--mind, ef yer should HAPPEN to be down there, seein' some friends off and sorter promenadin'
up and down the wharf like them high-toned chaps on Montgomery Street--ye might ketch her eye unconscious like. Or, ye might do this!” He rose after a moment's cogitation and with a face of profound mystery opened the door and beckoned Renshaw to follow him. Leading the way cautiously, he brought the young man into an open unpart.i.tioned recess beside her stateroom. It seemed to be used as a storeroom, and Renshaw's eye was caught by a trunk the size and shape of the one that had provided Rosey with the materials of her masquerade. Pointing to it Mr. Nott said in a grave whisper: ”This yer trunk is the companion trunk to Rosey's. SHE'S got the things them opery women wears; this yer contains the HE things, the duds and fixin's o' the men o' the same stripe.” Throwing it open he continued: ”Now, Mr. Renshaw, gals is gals; it's nat'ral they should be took by fancy dress and store clothes on young chaps as on theirselves. That man Ferrers hez got the dead wood on all of ye in this sort of thing, and hez been playing, so to speak, a lone hand all along. And ef thar's anythin' in thar,” he added, lifting part of a theatrical wardrobe, ”that you think you'd fancy--anythin' you'd like to put on when ye promenade the wharf down yonder--it's yours. Don't ye be bashful, but help yourself.”
It was fully a minute before Renshaw fairly grasped the old man's meaning. But when he did--when the suggested spectacle of himself arrayed a la Ferrieres, gravely promenading the wharf as a last gorgeous appeal to the affections of Rosey, rose before his fancy, he gave way to a fit of genuine laughter. The nervous tension of the past few hours relaxed; he laughed until the tears came into his eyes; he was still laughing when the door of the cabin was suddenly opened and Rosey appeared cold and distant on the threshold.
”I--beg your pardon,” stammered Renshaw hastily. ”I didn't mean--to disturb you--I--”
Without looking at him Rosey turned to her father. ”I am ready,” she said coldly, and closed the door again.
A glance of artful intelligence came into Nott's eyes, which had remained blankly staring at Renshaw's apparently causeless hilarity.
Turning to him he winked solemnly. ”That keerless kind o' hoss-laff jist fetched her,” he whispered, and vanished before his chagrined companion could reply.
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