Part 6 (1/2)

”Still talking?” droned the menacing voice of Central.

”But it isn't fair,” Hayden continued to protest to the Unknown. ”You have me at a disadvantage, and I am going to drop all courtesy and any pretense of good manners. Now, are you ready? Yes? Well then, who are you and what do you want?”

”Who am I? Ah, senor, a waif of the wind, adrift on the night's Plutonian sh.o.r.e; but an hour or two ago, the gale caught me up in Spain and swept me over the seas. Regard me as a voice, merely a voice that would hold speech with so distinguished a naturalist.”

”A naturalist!” exclaimed Hayden both disappointed and disconcerted. ”You have mistaken your man. I can lay no claims to any scientific accomplishments or achievements.”

”Oh, pardon!” There was an affected and exaggerated horror in her tones.

”I have made a mistake, oh, a great mistake. I had fancied that you were a collector of b.u.t.terflies.”

Hayden nearly dropped the receiver. There was the smallest of pauses and then he spoke in his accustomed tone, a little cooler and more leisurely than usual, with some fleeting idea of caution.

”Ah, yes, yes, I am somewhat interested in that line. But the fact is known to few. Perhaps you will kindly tell me how you learned of my enthusiasm?”

”Are you quite sure that you may not have mentioned the subject to me yourself.” Her voice was full of subtle emphasis.

”No, senorita,” he laughed. ”That will not do. You can not throw me off the track that way, by trying to make me doubt my memory.”

”Then, truly, you do not recall the old glad days in Spain?” her voice questioned incredulously, doubted, took on a little fall of disappointment, almost of wounded vanity or sentiment.

”Senorita, emphatically, no. Had I, in the old glad days in Spain, or the old glad days anywhere else, ever met a woman with a voice like yours, I should never have forgotten her in a thousand years. No, senorita. Try something else. That will not do.”

”Zip!” There was unmistakable temper in the exclamation.

”We were speaking of b.u.t.terflies,” said Hayden, alarmed lest she should ring him off. ”Are you at all interested in that line?”

”Indeed, yes,” she a.s.sured him, ”although I doubt very much if my interest is anything like as scientific as yours. I fancy I am more interested in them because of their wonderful beauty, than for any more particular reason. And what in all the world, senor, is so beautiful as the b.u.t.terflies of the tropics? Do you remember how they come floating out into the sunlight from the dark mysterious depths of the forests?

Such colors! Such iridescence on their wings; but the most beautiful of all are the great gray ones, senor, the silver b.u.t.terflies.”

Again Hayden started violently and again succeeded in controlling the surprise her words aroused in him. ”I quite agree with you,” he said politely. ”The silver b.u.t.terfly is one of the most beautiful of all the tropical varieties.”

”Yes, truly.” Again there was the hint of irresistible laughter in the lady's tones. ”But there is a curious little fact that I fancy very few of you naturalists know, and that is that it is not confined absolutely to the tropics. Doubt the a.s.sertion if you will, but I make it calmly: I, senor, with my own eyes have seen silver b.u.t.terflies at New York, and in the most unlikely places; oh, places you would never dream of, the opera, for instance.”

”You surprise me!” Hayden was prepared for anything now, and his voice was carefully indifferent, almost drawling; but his mind was working like lightning. What on earth could this mean? Was it a possibility that it might be Marcia,--Marcia Oldham herself, thus cleverly disguising her voice? No, no, a thousand times, no. He hastily rejected the thought.

Even if she possessed the skill--nevertheless the very tones themselves revealed a woman of a totally different type and temperament.

”I am so anxious to see your collection,” continued the rich, warmly-colored voice. ”I am wondering if you have been able to secure a specimen of a very rare b.u.t.terfly indeed, one which some naturalists believe is quite extinct. It is called 'The Veiled Mariposa.'”

Hayden felt as if in some peculiar, intuitive sort of way, he had expected this from the first. For a moment or two, he could not control his excitement. His mouth felt curiously dry, and he noticed that his hand was trembling.

”I--I think I have heard of it,” he said at last, and objurgated himself for his stammering ba.n.a.lity.

”But,” and the word seemed to express a pout, ”I understood that it was in your collection.”

”Ah, one must not trust too much to report and rumor,” Hayden reminded her.

”Then it is not in your collection?” she persisted.