Part 9 (1/2)
CHAPTER V
IN WHICH A COMPACT IS FORMED
Now that he had committed himself to action, Boyd Emerson became a different being. He was no longer the dispirited cynic of yesterday, but an eager, voluble optimist athirst for knowledge and afire with impatience. On the homeward drive he had bombarded Cherry with a running fusillade of questions, so that by the time they had arrived at her house she was mentally and physically fatigued. He seemed insatiable, drawing from her every atom of information she possessed, and although he was still hard, incisive, and aloof, it was in quite a different way. The intensity of his concentration had gathered all feeling into one definite pa.s.sion, and had sucked him dry of ordinary emotions.
In the days that followed she was at his elbow constantly, aiding him at every turn in his zeal to acquire a knowledge of the cannery system. The odd conviction grew upon her that he was working against time, that there was a limit to his period of action, for he seemed obsessed by an ever- growing pa.s.sion to accomplish some end within a given time, and had no thought for anything beyond the engrossing issue into which he had plunged. She was dumfounded by his sudden transformation, and delighted at first, but later, when she saw that he regarded her only as a means to an end, his cool a.s.sumption of leaders.h.i.+p piqued her and she felt hurt.
Constantine had been sent for Balt, with instructions to keep on until he found the fisherman, even if the quest carried him over the range. During the days of impatient waiting they occupied their time largely in reconnoitring the nearest cannery, permission to go over which Cherry had secured from the watchman, who was indebted to her. The man was timid at first, but Emerson won him over, then proceeded to pump him dry of information, as he had done with his hostess. He covered the plant like a ferret; he showed such powers of adaptability and a.s.similation as to excite the girl's wonder; his grasp of detail was instant; his retentive faculty tenacious; he never seemed to rest.
”Why, you already know more about a cannery than a superintendent does,”
she remarked, after nearly a week of this. ”I believe you could build one yourself.”
He smiled. ”I'm an engineer by education, and this is really in my line.
It's the other part that has me guessing.”
”Balt can handle that.”
”But why doesn't he come?” he questioned, crossly. A score of times he had voiced his impatience, and Cherry was hard pushed to soothe him.
Nor was she the only one to note the change in him; Fraser followed him about and looked on in bewilderment.
”What have you done to 'Frozen Annie'?” he asked Cherry on one occasion.
”You must have fed him a speed-ball, for I never saw a guy gear up so fast. Why, he was the darndest c.r.a.pe-hanger I ever met till you got him gingered up; he didn't have no more spirit than a sick kitten. Of course, he ain't what you'd call genial and expansive yet, but he's developed a remarkable burst of speed, and seems downright hopeful at times.”
”Hopeful of what?”
”Ah! that's where I wander; he's a puzzle to me. Hopeful of making money, I suppose.”
”That isn't it. I can see he doesn't care for the money itself,” the girl declared, emphatically. She would have liked to ask Fraser if he knew anything about the mysterious beauty of the magazine, but refrained.
”I don't think so, either,” said the man. ”He acts more like somebody was going to ring the gong on him if this fish thing don't let him out. It seems to be a case bet with him.”
”It's a case bet with me, too,” said the girl. ”My men are ready to quit, and--well, Willis Marsh will see that I am financially ruined!”
”Oho! So this is your only 'out,'” grinned ”Fingerless” Fraser. ”Now, I had a different idea as to why you got Emerson started.” He was observing her shrewdly.
”What idea, pray?”
”Well, talking straight and side-stepping subterfuge, this is a lonely place for a woman like you, and our mutual friend ain't altogether unattractive.”
Cherry's cheeks flamed, but her tone was icy. ”This is entirely a business matter.”
”Hm--m--! I ain't never heard you touted none as a business woman,” said the adventurer.
”Have you ever heard me”--the color faded from the girl's face, and it was a trifle drawn--”discussed in _any_ way?”
”You know, Emerson makes me uncomfortable sometimes, he is so d.a.m.n moral,”