Part 33

“Gentlemen,” I said, “if it hadn’t been for Marcena Keedy’s tongue you would have shown a better side to us when you arrived here.” Nobody seemed ready to say anything for a moment and I went on. “I reckon he told, you that he was our partner and that we have cheated him.”

“He had quite a story to tell when he reported the matter to the underwriters,” admitted the lawyer.

“After you sized him up, you naturally decided that men who could cheat Keedy must be the champion renegades of the Pacific coast! I can’t blame you much for the way you came banging up against us. I don’t know what else he has said to our prejudice, and I don’t care. Now that you are here with us, face to face, and we’re down on a real man-basis, we don’t need to paw over what a liar has said. I want you to call that man Keedy on to the _Zizania_, even though he poisons the air. What I have to say I’ll say in his hearing.”

I’m pretty sure that Keedy did not relish making that call, but the men who went after him brought him. He had a gambler’s face and nerve and he put on his best front; he even disregarded Miss Kama’s presence and lighted a cigar to appear more at ease, and I plucked it from between his jaws and flung it out of the window.

“I want the floor for only a few moments, gentlemen,”

I told the group. “I’m going to tell you how this expedition was organized, how this person Keedy fitted in; and what happened.” And I did tell them.

It was necessary for the lawyer to appoint Capt. Rask Holstrom as special guard to keep Keedy’s mouth shut while I talked, but the rules of a court-room prevailed after that.

“I’ll admit, gentlemen,” I said when I had finished my little story, “that we have acted like children so far as the legal side of this thing goes. But it seemed only a crazy scheme at best when we started out--I couldn’t feel that I was dealing with any reality. After we arrived here we did the best we could, and we have been too busy to study up law. But I want to say that Captain Holstrom and I are not thieves by nature. I’ll show you a thief, however. There he stands!” I pointed to Keedy. “He stole from us a box of bullion worth twenty thousand dollars. I know that he recovered two more boxes. Now that you are proposing to handle this matter man-fashion, Captain Holstrom and I stand ready to give to owners what is fairly their own. I advise you to ask Keedy what he proposes to do!” The lawyer asked him in mighty prompt fashion.

“Up to date nobody seems to be making any showdown except in talk,” said Mr. Keedy. “I’ll cash in conversation just as far as anybody.”

“But how does it happen, Keedy, that when you gave us your other information you did not say that you had any of the gold in your hands?” asked the lawyer.

He scowled and did not answer.

“If these men turn their bullion over on a square lay, are you prepared to do the same?”

“I’ll talk business after I have seen them turn it over.”

“That’s a rather queer attitude for you to take, Keedy, after your talk to the underwriters and to me.”

But the renegade did not show any inclination to come across with anything definite.

I knew well enough that he could not. His try with those divers had cost high and it was safe to presume that he had realized on every ounce of the bullion his men had recovered and had planted the money. My rancor was deep and I walked up to him and declared my belief.

“You understand, Keedy, that you must produce the bullion or its value in money or our bargain doesn’t stand,” said the lawyer.

I did not need that declaration to be assured that the villain had sold us without regard to our rights or our safety. And sudden fervor and determination thrilled through and through me. I proposed to show those men from San Francisco the difference between Marcena Keedy and the partners on whom he had pasted his dirty label. Mere talk was not as convincing proof as I desired. I had already made an investment of my best strength and all my courage and I had much to show. But I felt that if those men could see with their own eyes what that investment signified in the way of human endurance, they would meet me in more generous spirit when we came to make our bargain.

Up to then the legal papers had only been waved under my nose in threatening manner. I asked permission to examine them, and the lawyer was very obliging. They were all-embracing, even to granting powers of attorney to the underwriters’ agents to handle the matter in all its aspects.

“Gentlemen,” I said, “I’m going down after the rest of that gold, and every box will be put into your hands as it comes up.”

I got a glimpse at the girl’s face, but I did not dare to look into her eyes. Her cheeks were white, and she was gasping protests which nobody heeded, for those men were listening to something which filled their ears just then:

“And after you see how I am bucking hell for your sakes, well, then we shall see what you have to say to me--man to man!”

XXXVII--THE FRUIT OF THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE

IF what I have just written sounds as if I wanted to pose as a hero of melodrama, I have produced a wrong impression. I was playing a big game and I was using all the hard, cold and calculating wit I possessed. As I have said, I proposed to operate on human nature. After all, I was in no position to demand anything from those men, in spite of the bluff we were making in regard to the treasure we had recovered and concealed. I had a healthy fear of what the courts might do to us in a case where stolen property had been hidden. It was up to me to cultivate a spirit of generosity in them--and that was why I went down again, though every nerve and fiber in my racked body made protest. But I went down under better conditions.

The tug had powerful pumps and a considerable quantity of good hose. She was manageable in shoal water, and by means of her hawsers and well-set kedges we were able to swing her in, for the day’s work, fairly close to the wreck.

There is no need of further dwelling on details--and it would be necessary to supply the details by somebody’s word of mouth--somebody who watched me, for I don’t remember much of what happened. I was a lunatic, I suppose; my human machinery was operated by a single mania. As I look back I am unable to separate the nightmare from the reality with any amount of clarity. Therefore, we’ll allow all that to hang in limbo, seeing that this is a plain yam and not a study of psychology.

However, I can remember flashes through the dark curtain, and of a few of these I will make mention, for they have a bearing on the tale.

There was a period when I was in the mood for babbling. I could feel my dry tongue clacking away inside my jaws like a clapper in a wooden box and wholly beyond my control. That tongue was telling all my story about my love and longing and ambition in my boyhood days--telling the story to somebody who patted my cheek and crooned sympathy--somebody who did not annoy me by dispute when I said that I would never live to see Levant again--somebody who promised to carry there the three rings and tell my story and fulfil my requests. It was a dream full of agony for me--rather it may be called a dreaming reality. I wanted to stop that clacking tongue. I wasn’t operating it. It was telling a lot of truth which I did not want published. It was putting me in wrong, I felt, just as if some enemy were tattling about me. It was mine and I hated it furiously for what seemed to be betrayal of me. I wasn’t standing for what the tongue said.

Then there was a period when I forgave the tongue many of its past offenses, because, at last, it did good service for me in man-talk to men. It was steady and convincing and I was conscious that it had helped me to win in some big matter. Then, later, there was a time when there were shots and shoutings and dismal trouble of some sort. And, last of all, in the blurred imaginings, mixed with the real, came the long-drawn-out, misty, groping, wondering consciousness that I was out of strife and trouble and agony. But I could not come out of the shadow--I knew that many days and nights came and went while I was trying to grasp something which I could know was reality.

I was dreaming that I was back in my old room in Dodovah Vose’s tavern, and that dream seemed to last for days. Then all at once I woke up and I was truly in that room.

By the open window sat Capt. Rask Holstrom and he was junking up a Red Astrachan apple with his jackknife. He poised a cube of the fruit on the tip of the blade; looked me square in the eyes, and asked, in a matter-of-fact way, if I was feeling more like myself that day.

There was no doubt about my being in Dodovah Vose’s tavern! I made sure before I opened my mouth. There was the old quaint smell of the place, and I could always trust my nose. For my ears there was the whining squeak of the windmill pump in the stable-yard. I touched the irregular seams of the silk crazy-quilt, and, to delight my eyes, the brass handles of the ancient high-boy in the corner blinked back the radiance of the afternoon sunlight. All my senses were satisfied, for I could almost taste, as the breeze flicked my lips, the savor of fried chicken which came floating in through the window. And after my senses told me what they did, I felt at ease and dismissed all the shadows and imaginings. Never did a man come back to his right balance of mind in more commonplace fashion.

I decided to be just as matter-of-fact as Captain Rask. I told him I felt pretty fair. Parts of my hands were bandaged and I was aware that my feet were tied up.

“Have another apple?”

So I had been eating apples from Dodovah Vose’s orchard! I used to steal from his trees--especially the early-autumn fruit. I must have been giving the impression that I was pretty nigh all right, even though the kink in my brain had kept me on the side-track so far as I was concerned, personally.

The captain junked an apple into quarters, pared them, and gave me the fruit. I think Eve tempted Adam with a Red Astrachan!

The captain sat and rocked and munched. Confound his old pelt, why didn’t he start in and tell me what had happened?

He clacked his knife shut after a time and yawned.

“So, as I was telling you before you had your nap, Kama and I may as well move on. There isn’t much more that’s sensible we can do for you.” I wondered just what they _had_ done!

“Where is Kama?” I called her “Kama” quite naturally; it seemed to me that my clattering tongue had been that familiar for a long time.

“Oh, I guess she’s just resting up a little in her room. She is bound to be nursing you most of the time, though you don’t need so much attention, so far as I can see. Do you know, Ross, in spite of what you and I were saying to each other yesterday, that girl o’ mine still insists that your mind isn’t right, and that you’re off the hooks. She says there’s something that hasn’t come back to you!”

God bless that girl’s intuition! I felt the tears coming into my eyes.

“Women folks are always seeing something a man can’t see--because it isn’t there for him to see!” declared the captain. “I have made her keep her mouth shut best I could! Nice thing it would be to have it go out in business circles that you’re a lunatic. That old hippohampus uncle of yours would try to get himself appointed your guardian. He makes believe to be a great friend of yours, I know, when he calls, but I reckon he’s only hiding that old grudge that Vose has told me about. _There’s_ your friend, Ross--Vose! He’s the old boy to tie to!” I was getting considerable information from Capt. Rask Hol-strom without weakening his confidence in my sanity.

“And then, outside of Vose, it has really been a good thing for you to get back here near your girl,” pursued the captain. “Now you take Kama on that point! I say women folks have too much imagination. When you told me you wanted the Kingsley girl to stay away from you till you was fit to look at, why, then you was showing hard, ordinary common sense. In spite of all that Kama or anybody else said about her coming in here, I done just what you asked me to do--for I believe in men standing by each other. But, as I have told you, Kama was bound to have it that a screw was loose because you didn’t want your girl first thing! And Kama has been bound and determined to hang on here till she is sure you’re all right with your girl. But I can’t see that your girl is in any great pucker about you! She hasn’t showed up!” The sweat started out on me. Into what sort of a tangle had my affairs been drawn?

“But I’ve got a good girl, even if she is flighty in her thoughts--as I suppose girls’ nature is about this lovey-dove business. I used to sit and hear you talk to her on the _Zizania_ about those three rings and that girl back in Levant--all mush, mush right in the middle of that wind-up job--and, I swear, if I didn’t think you were crazy then, though she wouldn’t have it that way! Said you were all right. Kama and I never did seem to agree very well on much of anything. After the settlement with the underwriters, when you were right as a trivet and wanted to stay on the Coast, then she insisted that you were out of your head--as I don’t mind telling you noe when we’re going--and she fairly picked you up and lugged you back here. You were too sick to help yourself, you know! Made me help her do it! For you and your girl, said she! I ain’t sure but what you _was_ a little delirious there at times. But being here with Vose has done you good. However, I like West the best. So as I say, I reckon Kama and I will pack up and start back. Furthermore, you know, I’m summonsed for that trial.” I merely stared at the old gossiper.

“I don’t want to be too hard on those critters,” he said, musingly. “There was a big temptation and Marcena Keedy knew how to stir ’em up. When he lolloped that word ‘gold’ around in his mouth he always made me drool.”

Didn’t I remember, also? Only too well!

“No, I’m going to use some discretion in my testimony,”

Captain Rask chatted on. “I have been running over in my mind what happened. Now, if you’re a mind to, let me kind of rehearse it over to you so that you can check up my memory. I’ll hate to have any law-sharks tangle me on the stand. If I make a slip catch me up on it.”

I assured him that I would, and I settled back in bed with great joy in my heart.

He gave me the most wonderful story I ever read or ever listened to--wonderful because it concerned myself, my friends, my hopes, and my fortune; wonderful, because I was in it, acted in it, and now for the first time was hearing what I had done. He droned out the hair-raising narrative without showing special interest in it, confident that I knew the happenings as well as he; at the most interesting point, in order to collect his thoughts in regard to Marcena Keedy, he stopped and pared and munched an apple; I was saving my own face in the matter and I did not dare to prod him.

I am not minded to make much account of the details of that story. In this yarn I have been telling what I do know--not what I have heard from another man’s lips. Let this much suffice: I recovered the rest of the _Golden Gate_ treasure, so far as human knowledge of it went, the jettisoned gold was dragged for and raised, and then mutiny, which had been secretly organized by Keedy and the Finn, developed into a bloody battle which had been won against numbers by the rifles of the lawful guards. Keedy would not fight--he had prodded the other poor devils to do that--and the San Francisco men took the law into their hands when the _Zizania_ was on the high seas and hung Keedy from the derrick boom. So, there’s enough in a nutshell to make quite a book by itself!

And then while Captain Rask meditatively wagged his jaws on another apple I lay and gnawed my nervous lips and wondered how much money I had in the world! I did not dare to ask questions. I felt as bitterly fearful as a straitened merchant who has lost all run of his bank credits and is afraid to ask his bank how he stands; the fear of giving one’s self away becomes terror pretty vital!

“However, I’m going to pass the rest of my days without worrying about their troubles,” declared the captain, again clacking shut his knife blade. “They brought it on themselves, though I shall swear on the stand that Keedy toled them into the scrape. You and I did right by the faithful ones--especially _you_, for you could give out a better line of talk--when we pulled that hundred thousand out of the underwriters and added it to the hundred thousand of our own. They’re satisfied, even the Snohomish Glutton in his new restaurant, and Ingot Ike, who has gone to board with him. Clear consciences--that’s what we’ve got, Ross!”

But how much clear profit? The fact that we had handed out one hundred thousand dollars was a consoling bit of information. There naturally must be plenty more where that came from!

“Do all the folks here--do the people in Levant know how well we’re fixed?” I faltered.

“Sure! I ain’t ashamed of it. Are you? I haven’t let the yarn lose anything by the way I have told it. It has been a good way of killing time.”

So everybody else in Levant, except myself, knew how rich I was!

And then that infernal old tiddlywhoop yawned, got up, and stamped out of the room, saying that he was going to stretch his legs. I didn’t have spirit enough to stop him and ask the great question.

I don’t know just how wild I looked while I sat there, but I know I felt wild. Then Kama Holstrom came into the room.

I was conscious that my features were not obeying my volition. I had not been able to make that clacking tongue of mine behave; now my face was just as disobedient. I wanted with all my heart to beam gratitude and joy on her, but I seemed to be trying to manage a stiff mask. If she had turned and escaped in sheer fright I would not have blamed her.

I entirely mistook the expression on her face when she stood there and stared at me. Her eyes were wide with what appeared to be terror. Her lips parted and her cheeks grew pale. Then she ran to the side of the bed, plumped down on her knees, set both her little hands about one of mine and cried, “Thank the good God! You have come back--you have come back!”

And that’s how a woman knows.

The balm of her tears bathed my hand when she put her forehead down and hid her face. It was not white any longer--the warm color flooded it and I ought to have been content for a time with what I could bring in the compass of my gaze. But I wanted to have a blessing from her eyes, and when I struggled to lift her face she suddenly released my hand and hurried to the window and sat down.

“I didn’t mean to make a fool of myself that way,” she panted. “But when I saw your eyes I knew you had come back--and it has been so long--and the others haven’t understood!”

“When I came to myself, just now, Kama, your father was here and I didn’t confess to him. What I know now and what you have known all along we must keep to ourselves.”

“Yes! Nobody has believed what I was so sure of!”

We sat there in silence for a long time.

“Do you remember?” she asked, almost whispering the question.

“Only flashes. Not much. But your father has just been chatting on, and now I have the story without his realizing what news he was telling me.”

I was the first to break another silence:

“I know from what he said how faithful and self-sacrificing--”

“You force me to remind you how much we owe to you, sir. It makes me very uncomfortable. It’s twitting me of a debt which father and I can never pay. Please don’t!”

So there was conversation closed on that point; I did not feel like making Kama Holstrom uncomfortable.

“It’s all coming about just as it should. It will be all right from now on,” she said, after a time.

She had recovered all her usual serenity; she was the girl of the _Zizania_, cool and distant. I was irritated by her manner. That aloofness was not a square deal between folks who had been through what we had suffered together. It seemed to me that I was not being treated right--first that matter-of-fact manner of Captain Rask and now this coolness on the daughter’s part. Her first greeting had given me an appetite for more of the same sort. Of course, I didn’t expect to be welcomed back from the shadows with a brass band and speeches--but some kind of hankering or dissatisfaction was gnawing inside me and I felt ugly and cross and childish.

“I haven’t intended to go too far in anything, sir. But I have been so anxious to help all I could--forgive me, but father and I do owe you so much! Don’t scowl so! I’ll not mention debts again. I hope you won’t think I was too eager--and that I meddled. But I went to her! I did not want her to misunderstand! It was due you and due myself--and her. So I have explained everything. I have told her the story. It will come about all right--just as you hope--I am sure! I did not intend to stay here--but I have been worrying about--But now you can speak for yourself!”

She rattled it off so fast I couldn’t get in a word. She looked relieved when she had finished--as if she had been carrying around something very disagreeable and had handed it over to somebody for keeps. And I was obliged to wait quite a while before I dared to trust myself to reply to her. What she had handed to me seemed to be about as gratifying as if she had dropped a sea-crab down the back of my neck and then sat back and expected me to give her three cheers.

“Look-a-here!” I yapped. “Where did you get the notion that I wanted you or anybody else to act as my attorney over there?” I jerked my thumb in the direction of the Kingsley house.

“But your head was not right--I knew it,” she stammered. “I was afraid there would be a misunderstanding--and after what you made me promise on the _Zizania_--”

“Don’t you know that I was as crazy as a coot?”

“But I knew that deep down in your heart you must love her.”

“A crazy man doesn’t tell the truth.”

“Oh, he does when he is revealing his real soul.”

“I wasn’t revealing any soul. I was babbling away--and I knew I was talking fool talk and I couldn’t stop my tongue. I didn’t mean that guff. And now you have got this thing all tangled up by talking to Celene Kingsley. I can do my own love-making!” That temper of mine was working in fine shape. And Kama Holstrom was no wilting daisy in temperament!

“From what I know of you myself, and what _others_--I call no names--have said, you are about as well qualified in that direction as a catfish.” She jumped up and stamped her foot.

“But I know now what love--”

“Mr. Sidney, you have just insulted me because I tried to be your friend. And your _sweetheart_,” she sneered, “has no better manners than you! She has not even thanked me for bringing you to her! I do not understand! I shall go to her at once and tell her that you are in your right senses at last. After this you handle your own love affairs. Don’t you mention the word ‘love’ to me again!” She marched out and banged the door so violently behind her that all the brass handles on the old high-boy were left jingling shrilly--as if the high-boy had gone into a spasm of giggles over my comeuppance!

In a few minutes the kindly face of Dodovah Vose appeared at the door, his eyes full of solicitude.

“Fall out of bed?” he inquired.

“No, out of heaven,” I snapped. He came in and shut the door and showed anxiety.

“See here, son, you seem to have a turn for the worse all of a sudden. You’ve been gaining fine. But your eyes look crazy to-day. And what you just said--”

Say, I came nigh bawling out Dodovah Vose, right then! Nobody seemed to know anything about my case except Kama Holstrom--and she knew too blamed much! I rolled myself out of bed and stood on my feet.

“My Lawd!” gasped my old friend, “you mustn’t do that. It’s against her orders. You’re sartain out of your head!”