The Lady and the Pirate by Emerson Hough (ebook reader library TXT) đ
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He put out his hand and I met it. âWill you shake hands with me, Cal?â said I, âon precisely those same terms about having been an awful fool? Itâs you who are the best chap in the world. And Iâll admit itâI was jealous of you!â
He roared at this. âWell,â said he, âas George Cohan says, âAllâs well that ends wellâ, and I guess we couldnât beat this for a championship year, now could we? Now say, about Dingleheimerâââ
âOh, hang Dingleheimer, Cal!â I exclaimed. âWhat I want to know is, did you ever talk any to Miss Emory aboutâwell, about me, you know?âsay anything about my affairs, or anything, you know? I mean while you were there on the boat together.â
âNo. She wouldnât let me. Besides, the truth is, I was so full of Sally all the time, I mostly talked about her. By Jove! that was a measly trick you played us, running off with the boat from under my nose! But I proposed to Sally in Natchez that night, and she came on down to the city the next day by railâwhile I ran down in that dirty little scow you left behind. And I never tumbled for days that it was you had run off with the boatâthough I found a photo of Helena and your cigarette case in the boat you left. Never tumbled till that story of the taxi driver came out. Then I said, âWell, of all things! Wonder if that old stick has really come to life after all!â And you sure had! Whatâs in your letter? Say, ainât a boat the placeâââ
âBut how did you happen to be here?â
âOh, Iâve known Ed Manning years, in New York, Paris, all around. He asked me to visit him some time. I wired and asked him if I could come out for our honeymoonâyou know, Harry, Iâm such a dââd romantic son of a gun, and once before I was out here at Edâs, and those dââd nightingales, catbirds, what dâye call âemsâââ
ââMockers.â
âYes, mockers, they sung so sweet, especial in the evenings, you knowâand Iâm so dââd romanticâalways was thatawayâand you know, why, a fellow can be romantic on his honeymoon, canât he?âhe can just cut loose then anâ be as big a dân fool as he likes thenâanâ get away with it, what? Say, canât he?â
ââYes.â
ââSo thatâs why I came.â
ââButâhoneymoon? Are you going to be married?â
ââNaw! I ainât goinâ to be marriedâI am married! Day before yesterday, in New Orleans. And I donât believe in dandlinâ anâ foolinâ around about a little thing like that. Ainât you married yet?â
âNo. Impossible. No preacher on CĂŽte Blanche Bay or on our boat. Iâve got Aunt Lucinda Daniver along, to take care of the proprieties. If I should leave it to her, I never would be married.â
âWhy?â
âShe thinks Iâm broke.â
âYes, too bad about that! I wish I could swap bank rolls with you. Why didnât you tell her the truthâand Helena, too? Why didnât you tell âem it was your own yacht? Why didnât you tell âem youâre worth a few millions and donât have to work?â
âI donât knowâmaybe Iâm like you, Cal, foolish about nightingales and things. But tell meâyou never did tell them anything about that Sally M. mine business, did you?â
âNo, I should say not! Didnât you tell me you didnât want it to get out? It was bad enough, the way old Dan and yourâsainted father handed it to each other over that mine, wasnât it? I know about it, for I promoted that mine myself, and the nameâll prove thatâSally M. Byington, with the Byington left off! There wasnât a blasted thing in it then. But when youâlike a blame quixotic foolâafter she was good for six thousand a month velvet, and ore blocked out to last a thousand yearsâwhy, then you fool around in Papaâs records, and think Papa wasnât on the square with old Dan. So on the quiet you get it all made over, back to old Danâs daughter; and take a sneak into the hazelbrush when she turns you down! Say, you know what Iâd a-done?â
âNo.â
ââIâd a-held on to the mine and told the girl how much it was bringinâ inâthatâs my system. Then Iâd a-got the mine and the girl both, maybe!â
ââMaybe.â
âWell, thatâs the system Iâd a-played. I wouldnât a-took to the tall grass, me.â
âOn the other hand, I played a system invented by myself and Henri LâOlonnois.â
âI never heard of him. Well, anyhow, you were rich enough to afford to do what you liked. But as to keeping it secret, you canât do that any longer. Those newspaper fellows are the devil to get hold of things. Since all this stuff came out about you running away with your own boatâI can see now why you did it, and Iâm glad you didâwhy, your whole life history has been printed, including all that restitution business about the Sally M. Fellows came to me and asked me about you, asked if I knew you. Said, yes, I knew youâsaid you were a romantic chap, and a good business man, tooâand the best old scout in the worldâwhat?â
I had arisen, and stood in some doubt. âWhatâs the matterâletâs go on up to the house. I want to see Sally,â he concluded.
âAnd I want very much to see Helena,â said I. âOnly, itâs going to be rather harder now to meet herâand Mrs. Daniver.â
âWell, I donât know,â said Cal Davidson; âevery fellow plays his own system. Thereâs something in what you say about women having a good poker face so far as tellinâ what they think about a man is concernedâyes. Frinstance, how much did Helena know I knew, or know you knew or thought you knewâwell, you get me? But the trouble with you is, you ainât romantic in your temperament like me.... But if I was you, I wouldnât be scared to tell Mrs. Daniver I had a dollar and a quarter or so left! Itâll soften the blow some to her, maybe. And as for Helenaâââ
âAnd as for Helena, I can look her in the face, and she can me, now. Andâwill you telephone to New Iberia for a ministerâat onceâfor this evening train? And will you tell Edouard to have his man lay out his best evening clothes for meâtell him Iâll trade him these of my cookâs for themâand a suit of traveling clothes? Because, oh! fellow varletâââ (I paused here; we both did; for a mocker just now broke into an extraordinary burst of song, so sweet, so throbbingly sweet, that we could not help but listen, both of us being lovers)....
âWhat were you saying, old man?â Cal Davidson asked after a while, musingly, as one awakening.... âSome bird, what?â
... âBecause, to-night,â I answered, âI am going to marry my fair captive, yon heartless jade, Helena. Iâve loved her always, rich or poor, and she loves me, rich or poor. And we shall live happy ever after. And may God bless us, and all true lovers!â
âAmen!â I heard some one say; and have often wondered whether it was yon varlet, the mocking-bird, or Cal Davidson himself, who spoke.... I looked around for Partial. He had followed Helena.
[B] (The words in Helenaâs note, addressed to Henry Francis Drake, Esquire, were, as I have said, but two: âYesâNowâ. That was why I was married that evening. It was curious about the wedding ring, for that I would not borrow; so an old negro blacksmith took a gold ring Edouard gave me, one found years ago by a Cajun treasure hunter in some one of the few successful hunts for the treasure of Jean Lafitte; and into this, in place of the gem long since missing, he clasped my pearl, the one we got on the river far in the north; the great pearl later known as the largest and most brilliant ever found in fresh water. It was I who named it the âBelle HelĂšneâ. So that our ring pleased all but LâOlonnois and Jean Lafitte. These two pirates had set at work that very afternoon, with âPolyte (by Edouardâs consent) and dug behind the smoke-house. Wonderful enough, they did find old bricks, enclosing a sort of hollow cavity, bricks of an ancient day; and though they got nothing else (âPolyte said he knew who had beaten them to this treasureâit was Achilles Dufrayne of Calcasieu, curse him!) they both explained how easy it would be to deceive the fair captive into thinking we really had found the ringâs setting as well as the ring itself, in a pirate treasure-box. I would not do that, on the ground that already I had deceived the fair captive quite enough.... But, though yon varlet, my friend dear old Cal Davidson, spoke rather freely about his honeymoon, and all that, I can not do so of mine with Helena.... I did not know that I could again be so happy. Often I have wished I were a romantic man, like dear old Cal.... I fear my book on the mosquitoes of North America never will be written now.âH. F. D.)
THE END
Transcriber's Note
Minor typographic errors in spelling and punctuation have been corrected without note.
The Table of Contents has been made consistent with the chapter headers, as follows--"In Which I Have a Polite Conversation" amended to "In Which I Have Polite Conversation"; "In Which Is Certain Conversation" amended to "In Which Is Certain Polite Conversation".
This book contains some archaic spelling, and some dialect; this is all reproduced here as in the original.
Illustrations have been moved slightly so that they are not in the middle of a paragraph. The frontispiece illustration has been moved to follow the title page.
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