Part 6 (1/2)

”And he is dead, this cousin?”

”No, my friend. Merely divorced. Where do I come in--where?”

CHAPTER IV

DESPARD EXPLAINS

”Suppose we sit down long enough to smoke a cigarette,” suggested Aylmer. ”Perhaps the thump I received just now has had a disastrous effect upon my limited intelligence, but I confess that Miss Van Arlen's deportment remains a matter of mystery. What have I done?”

Despard laughed gently. He had strolled back from the camp to meet his friends and had found them superintending the obsequies of the boar.

These were performed by a Spaniard, one of the human jetsam cast up everywhere along the North African coast by tides of hazard and adventure which set from every quarter of the Mediterranean. The true son of Islam will not touch the _haloof_, the unclean jungle pig. And so Senor Bernardo Albareda, penniless derelict and strongly suspected of being a fugitive from the Spanish convict establishment at Melilla, was extracting the tusks. He held them up with a dramatic gesture of admiration.

”Twice the length of my central finger, which is not a short one!” he remarked airily, and used the occasion to exhibit the elegances of a hand which had patently not occupied itself lately with manual toil. One or two of his compatriots, who had been among the beaters, were given the task of disposing of the flesh and bristles, and departed under his escort, carrying their burdens dependent from a couple of poles, the Arabs hastening to avoid even the shadow of contamination which they cast, and spitting with undisguised disfavor as they pa.s.sed. Despard accepted his comrade's invitation and joined the other two upon the seat which they had made of a fallen mimosa stump in the shadow of the olive.

The major took out his cigarette case, found a match, and sent several tiny clouds rolling up among the branches before he spoke. And his answer was another question.

”You read the details of the Landon divorce case?” he hazarded.

”Yes,” said Aylmer. ”One could hardly escape it.”

”You remember, then, that at the close the respondent was very nearly committed for contempt of court?”

”He lost his temper, or his head,” agreed Aylmer, ”and threatened his wife. I don't think any one attached much importance to his vaporings.”

”Ah!” Despard nodded his head thoughtfully. ”I suppose that would be the point of view with most people.”

”Not with yourself?” suggested Aylmer.

Despard shook his head.

”I have known the Van Arlens for many years,” he said quietly. ”Perhaps you have forgotten that my own mother was an American, that a good deal of my boyhood was pa.s.sed in New York.”

”I didn't know you knew the Van Arlens; in fact, I could hardly suspect it, when to the best of my remembrance you never even discussed the Landon divorce case with me.”

Despard nodded.

”No,” he said, in a dry, unemotional voice. ”I did not discuss it with any one. And you, moreover, were an Aylmer.”

He was silent for a minute and the other two looked at him a little curiously. This was not the Despard they were accustomed to, a sportsman whose hobbies engrossed him to the exclusion of most other topics. This was a man who had the force of pent feeling behind his words.

”The Van Arlens naturally did not seek outside society at the time of the case,” he continued, ”but I was on leave, and I saw a good deal of them. Has it occurred to you,” he added suddenly, ”that this child is not only heir to the Landon t.i.tle but to the Van Arlen millions--at present?”

”No,” said Aylmer, ”but I suppose he is the only direct male descendant.”

”Do you realize what that means in America? To be a Landon, only a barony, though I grant you an old one, is a small thing compared with being the grandson of--the richest man in the world.”

Aylmer was silent. The point of view was one that did not easily present itself to his British complacency. Rattier, too, though he nodded a.s.sent, did it without vehemence and with a tinge of reserve. Of a royalist clique, transatlantic caste was outside his experience.

”At any rate your cousin Landon realized it at last in realizing what he was losing. He moved every legal lever he could lay his hands upon to retain the custody of his child and failed. He is to see him twice a year, for an hour. You will understand that his chances of winning his child's profitable affections are too limited for his taste.”