Part 30 (2/2)

But the next day, when Loveday came, nothing had been done--no chance of _tete-a-tete_ with Hogarth: and that day was O'Hara an anxious and tremulous man, living on the tip-toe and _qui vive_ of lynx-eyed keenness.

The same night at a masque at the Palace of Peterhof Loveday got a chance of dialogue with Hogarth, they seated amid greenery and coloured gleams, Hogarth groomed to the glittering gla.s.s of his shoes, his legs stretched, arm akimbo; and presently Loveday led the talk to things of the sea. ”What an extraordinary activity! The British Government launches the _Peleus_ next Monday at Deptford--the first 28,000-ton war-boat; and seven cruisers on the slips. Then the French, Austro-German, Russian--”

”Ha!--I know. They won't build long”.

”Still the confidence?”

”You can only ask, my dear boy, because you do not yet see what a thing the battles.h.i.+p really is--much more than half a sham. The march of invention is from the complex to the simple: for simplicity is strength; but to the moment when I began to construct, naval construction had not followed this law: for from the old smooth-bores, aimed with tackle and quoin, to the present regime of electric wires, you have had a continual advance in complexity--always within the same little arc of thought--till now the most complex of things is a battles.h.i.+p; and if you ask me which is the weaker, a battles.h.i.+p or a watch, I answer a battles.h.i.+p--_weak_ meaning liability to the injuries which they were built to resist. In such a case as that of the _Maine_, sunk at Havana, one might fancy that the task of naval constructors is to turn out a thing to sink with a minimum of trouble; and you remember the _Camperdown_ and _Victoria_, how, playing about together, one happened to touch the other, when down plunged that other. These s.h.i.+ps are a compromise between three _motifs_--speed, resisting attack, and attacking: and the first is so antagonistic to the second, and also to the third, that the net result is almost a Nonent.i.ty, or No-Thing.

Nothing, in fact, could be more _queer_, unfounded, than these s.h.i.+ps; and the future will look back upon them with pity. Hence the simple islands, following the law: and don't think t hat their efficacy is a thing riskier than arithmetic itself.”

”Good”, went Loveday. ”But, Richard--captain your islands with decent men”.

”You have something on your mind: what is it?”

”It is--delicate. Have I your permission to speak?”

”Why, John, yes”.

”Well then--is O'Hara to be an Admiral?”

”Old Pat? Hardly, I think. He may. But no--I don't think. Poor old talky-talky. He has worked hard for us, John: and his fund of experience, in one way and another, has been invaluable. Well, I don't know: I have had the idea, but I don't suppose that, in reality--Still, I am fond of him, John. Such a tongue, and such a versatile brain, is he! He was my comfort for many a sombre day in prison--”

Listening near with rancid grin behind some greenery, O'Hara kept nodding emphatic a.s.sents of satisfaction to Hogarth's praise.

”But, stop”, said Loveday: ”do you know why he was in prison?”

”He was innocent”.

”Of what?”

”Of stealing some diamonds entrusted him by the Pope”.

”Bah! he lies. His trial was a _cause celebre_, and hence the false name he gave me at first: the moment I heard you say 'O'Hara' I knew the man.

He had committed an a.s.sault upon a lady in a train--”

”Beast that he is”, went Hogarth, while O'Hara's eyes started from his head: ”and liar, too, it seems. Ha!--he gave me the most circ.u.mstantial story. Why didn't you tell me this before?”

”It was delicate--”

”Beast that he is. Yet how complex is character! the man's tenderness for his Church is so charming--”

”Fiddlesticks! Look here, Richard, I am come all the way from Westring to tell you this thing. Don't you give vast powers to that man: it isn't decent; and I have a feeling that it will be a baleful piece of weakness. And don't get easy, and tolerant, and fat in the eyes, Hogarth. That is a very significant Bible-story--the implacable disaster sent upon old Eli for no greater crime than a _bonhomme_ indolence.

And in order to arouse your wrath against this O'Hara, I am going now, against my will, to tell you something: the name of that lady in that train”.

”Someone whom I know?”

<script>