Part 26 (2/2)
”Foolish?” he chuckled. ”Why, I'm the most devout wors.h.i.+per at the shrine! The shrine brags about me! It says to unbelievers: Now, if you don't believe in love at first sight, just cast your orbs upon Peter Moore, our most s.h.i.+ning example. Allah, by Allah! The old philanderer is a.s.suredly of the faith!”
”I am quite serious, Mr. Moore.”
”As I was afraid, Miss Borria. Seriously, if you must know it, then here goes: As soon as I saw you I was mad about you! Call it infatuation, call it a rush of blood to my foolish young head, call it anything you like----”
”Why don't you stop all this?” she broke him off.
”All what?” he inquired innocently.
”This--this life you are leading. This indolence. This constant toying with danger. This empty life. This sham of adventure-love that you affect. It will get you nothing. I know! I, too, thought it was a great lark at first, and I played with fire; and you know just what happens to the children who play with fire.
”At first you skirt the surface, and then you go a little deeper, and finally you can do nothing but struggle. It is a terrible feeling, to find that your wonderful toy is killing you. Certain people in China, Mr. Moore, are conducting practises that you of the western world frown upon. And blundering upon these practices, as perhaps you have, you believe you are very bold and daring, and you are thrilled as you rub elbows with death, in tracing the dragons to their dens.”
”Dragons!” The syllables cracked from Peter's lips, and his wits, which were wandering in channels of their own while this lecture progressed, suddenly were bundled together, and he was alert and keenly attentive.
”Or call them what you will,” went on the girl in a low-pitched monotone. ”I call them dragons, because the dragon is a filthy, wretched symbol.”
”You have some knowledge of my encounters with--dragons?” put in Peter as casually as he was able.
”I profess to know nothing of your encounters with anybody,” replied the girl quietly and patiently. ”I base my conclusions only on what I have seen. This morning I saw you throw a Chinese coolie into the harbor at Batavia. It happens that I have seen that coolie before, and it also happens that I know a little--do not ask me what I know, for I will never tell you--a little about the company that coolie keeps.”
”I guess you are getting a little beyond my depth,” stated Peter uncomfortably. ”Would you mind sort of summing up what you've just said?”
”I mean, I want to try to persuade you that the life you have been living is wrong. At the same time, I want you to help me, as only you can help me, in putting a life of wretchedness behind me. It is asking a great deal, a very great deal, but in return I will give you more than you will ever realize, more than you can realize, for you cannot realize the danger that surrounds your every movement, and will continue to surround you until they--_they_--are a.s.sured that you have decided to forget them.”
Peter shook his head, forgetting to wonder what an officer might think upon finding the door locked. Would the jovial little captain be quite so jovial viewing these incriminating circ.u.mstances? Not likely. But Peter had dismissed the fat captain from his mind, together with all other alien thoughts, as he concentrated upon the amazing words of this exceedingly amazing and beautiful girl. She was looking down at the chevron of gold sparks on his sleeve.
”I can tell you but one more thing of consequence,” she continued. ”It is this: Together we can stand; divided we will fall, just as surely as the sun follows its track in the heavens. I have a plan that will offend you--perhaps offend you terribly--but there is no other way.
When _they_ know that we have decided to forget them, we can breathe easily. Our secrets, grown stale, are not harmful to them.”
”I am always open to any reasonable inducement,” Peter said dryly.
The eyes meeting his were quite wild.
”How would you like to go to some lovely little place to have money, to live comfortably, even luxuriously, with a woman of whom you could be justly proud, and who would bend every power with the sole view of making you happy?”--she was blus.h.i.+ng hotly--”and all this woman would demand in return would be your loyalty, your respect--and later your love, if that were possible.”
”But this--this is--astounding!” Peter exclaimed.
”I expected you to say that. But let me a.s.sure you, I have thought this over. I have given it every possible consideration, and now I know there is no other way. I want to leave China. I want to go away forever and ever. I must leave.”
Her shoulders jerked nervously.
”My life has been miserable--so miserable. And I am not brave enough to go through with it alone. I am afraid, terribly afraid. And afraid of myself, and of my weakness. I must be encouraged, must have some one to make me strong and brave, and afterward to take the good in me and bring it out, and kill the bad.”
She relinquished Peter's hand and thumped her chest with small fists.
”There is good in me; but it has never been given a chance! I want a man who will bring that good out, a man who will make me fine and true and honorable. For such a man I would give everything--my life!” She lowered her voice. ”I would give my best--my love. When I saw you lift the coolie, after he showed you his knife, I thought you were such a man; and when I looked into your face I believed I had found such a man. The rest--remains--for you to say.”
<script>