Part 26 (2/2)

”I think otherwise, Mr. Verity, and Mr. Bulmer, I take it, agrees with me,” said the reporter.

”Wot,” blazed David, into whose mind had darted a notion that dazzled him by its daring, ”d'ye mean to insiniwate that I lent my s.h.i.+p to this 'ere Dom Wot's-'is-name? D'ye sit there an' tell me that Jimmie c.o.ke, a skipper who's bin in my employ for sixteen year, would carry on that sort of fool's business behind 'is owner's back? Go into my clerk's office, young man, an' ax Andrews to show up a copy of the s.h.i.+p's manifest. See w'en an 'ow she was insured. Jot down the names of the freighters for this run, and skip round to their offices to verify.

An' if that don't fill the bill, well, just interview yourself, an' say if you'd allow your niece, a bonnie la.s.s like my Iris, to take a trip that might end in 'er bein' blown to bits. It's crool, that's wot it is, reel crool.”

David was not simulating this contemptuous wrath. He actually felt it.

His harsh voice cracked when he spoke of Iris, and the excited words gushed out in a torrent.

The reporter glanced at Bulmer, who was watching Verity with a tense expectancy that was not to be easily accounted for, since his manner and speech on entering the room had been so distinctly hostile.

”The lady referred to was Miss Iris Yorke, then?”

”'Oo else? I've on'y one niece. My trouble is that she went without my permission, in a way of speakin'. 'Ere, you'd better 'ave the fax.

She was engaged to my friend, Mr. Bulmer, but, bein' a slip of a girl, an' fond o' romancin', she just put herself aboard the Andromeeda without sayin' 'with your leave' or 'by your leave.' She wrote me a letter, w'ich sort of explains the affair. D'you want to see it?”

”If I may.”

”No,” said Bulmer.

”Yes,” bl.u.s.tered Verity, fully alive now to the immense possibilities underlying the appearance in print of Iris's references to her forthcoming marriage.

”An' I say 'no,' an' mean it,” said the older man. ”Go slow, David, go slow. I was not comin 'ere as your enemy when I found this paper bein'

cried in the streets. It med me mad for a while. But I believe wot you've said, an' I'm not the man to want my business, or my future wife's I 'ope, to be chewed over by every d.i.c.k, Tom, an' 'Arry in Liverpool.”

The reincarnation of David was a wonderful spectacle, the most impressive incident the journalist had ever witnessed, did he but know its genesis. The metamorphosis was physical as well as mental. Verity burgeoned before his very eyes.

”Of course, that makes a h-- a tremenjous difference,” said the s.h.i.+powner. ”You 'ave my word for it, an' that is enough for most men.

Mr. Andrews 'll give you all the information you want. I'll cable now to Rio an' Pernambewco, an' see if I can get any straight news from the s.h.i.+ppin' 'ouses there. I'll let you know if I 'ear anything, an' you might do the same by me.”

The reporter gave this promise readily. He scented a possible scandal, and meant to keep in touch with Verity. Meanwhile, he was in need of the facts which the managing clerk could supply, so he took himself off.

Bulmer went to the window and looked out. A drizzle of sleet was falling from a gray sky. The atmosphere was heavy. It was a day singularly appropriate to the evil tidings that had shocked him into a fury against the man who had so willfully deceived him. David picked up the proof slips and reread them. He compared them with the paragraphs in the newspaper brought by Bulmer, and thrown by him on the table after his first outburst of helpless wrath. They were identical in wording, of course, but, somehow, their meaning was clearer in the printed page: and David, despite his uncouth diction, was a clever man.

He wrinkled his forehead now in a.n.a.lysis of each line. Soon he hit on something that puzzled him.

”d.i.c.key,” he said.

There was no answer. The old man peering through the window seemed to have bent and whitened even since he came into the room.

”Look 'ere, d.i.c.key,” went on David, ”this dashed fairy-tale won't hold water. _You_ know c.o.ke. Is 'e the kind o' man to go b.u.mpin' round like a stage 'ero, an' hoisting Union Jacks as the s.h.i.+p sinks? I ax you, is 'e? It's nonsense, stuff an' nonsense. An', if the Andromeeda was sc.r.a.pped at Fernando Noronha, 'oo were the freebooters that collared the island, an' 'ow did this 'ere De Sylva get to Maceio? Are you listenin'?”

”Yes,” said Bulmer, turning at last, and devouring Verity with his deep-set eyes.

”Well, wot d'ye think of it?”

”Did you send the s.h.i.+p to Fernando Noronha?”

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