TALKING-TALBOT-Chapter-03

Talbot was not so silly as to be a woman hater. He had had a bitter experience once, however, and since then had had no desire to know any woman intimately.

He was sorry that this beautiful young woman had been placed where common decency would compel him to be polite to her for maybe ten days, unless — and he smiled grimly — they had bad weather and she was kept in her stateroom.

She certainly was exceedingly beautiful; and it was immediately evident that the other men on board were ready to make up for any indifference Talbot felt; for those at the only other table watched her as much as the limits of decency permitted, while those at her own table betrayed feverish eagerness to make her acquaintance.She, for her part, bore herself in a friendly, pleasant way with every one, but yet with a simple dignity that forbade familiarity. She laughed easily but softly, and in a way that was a delight to listen to. In fact, Talbot found himself waiting for the low, musical ripple. It was exactly such a laugh as one might expect from the possessor of a voice of such golden richness.

Her beauty was of rather a sensuous sort; her lips full and very red — naturally so, Talbot decided very quickly; skin milky white and running into a shell-like pink in her round cheeks; eyes of a soft, melting brown ; white, even teeth ; a round, full throat.

Talbot also noted that her eyelashes were very long and dark, her hair wavy and of a lustrous brown, her chin deliciously rounded and with a tiny but well-defined dimple in it. Indeed of dimples she had a great plenty. They were in her cheeks most adorably when she smiled in the slightest degree; they were on her hands. No doubt they would be found at her elbows and — if she ever wore her gowns so low — on her shoulders.

As for her figure, it did justice to her face, being exquisitely rounded without the aid of superfluous fat. All her movements were free and graceful, as if a natural health and strength had been supplemented by careful training. When Talbot saw her on deck later, she made him think of a well-fed panther.

As his attitude toward the sex was not a pose, he did not hesitate to admit his pleasure in her any more than if she had been a beautiful horse. And when he discovered, as he soon did, that she paid no more attention to him than he did to her, he watched and enjoyed her with careless frankness, in the meantime eating his lunch and leaving the table as if she didn’t exist.

The only other person on board who interested him at all was the young man

who had brought him word of the box

of samples from the colonel.

This young man was a good-looking fellow, who gave the horses an eager, intelligent attention, who was always alert and always trim in appearance* He was the first to greet Talbot when the latter went down among the horses, and was always unobtrusively ready to answer any question or to jump to a word.

He was so constantly cheerful, so ready with his agreeable smile, and at the same time so competent, that Talbot, before the day was out, had practically made him foreman over the other men.

”Where did you learn about horses?” he asked the young fellow.

“On a ranch in Montana.”

“And what are you going over with these horses for ? It’s none of my business, but I’m interested. By the way, what’s your name ?”

“Harry Furness is my name.”‘ He flushed, and went on unhesitatingly: “It is private business that takes me over.”

“Pardon my question,” Talbot said quickly. “I really asked because I have a ranch in Texas, and am always glad to get hold of a good man. You know my nam-*?”

“Yes, sir; it’s Talbot.” He smiled in his engaging way. “They call you Talking Talbot.” He looked his admiration.

“A silly name,” said Talbot curtly, and walked away.

Harry Furness shrugged his shoulders and watched Talbot walk away, a faint, odd smile curling the corners of his mouth.

Late in the afternoon, they were stopped and boarded by a British cruiser. Talbot was surprised, as he had taken it for granted that it would be known that the ship carried horses for the British army in France.

The ship’s papers were perfunctorily examined ; and then the crew and passengers were examined with great care and particularity. It was then that Talhot learned that the beautiful young woman was Mrs. Frank Parker, of San Francisco, and a widow.

The person in charge of the examination of the passengers and crew was not a naval officer, but a civilian ; and he plainly knew definitely what to do.

Talbot was surprised to find that he was treated with unusual courtesy and was scarcely questioned. He immediately concluded that his mission was known.

The other passengers were treated with varying degrees of inquisitiveness, some being quickly dismissed and others being questioned minutely. Talbot got the impression that the inquisitor was seeking some special person or bit of information.

Mrs. Parker, when her turn came, submitted with quiet dignity to the questioning, never showing any signs of impatience when the man pushed his inquiries to an extreme. Even when it looked as if the man suspected her of being other than she asserted, she did not lose her calmness, but replied readily and placidly, and occasionally smilingly, to the questions he asked her.

“I guess,” growled a man to Talbot, “he’s taking advantage of the situation to talk to her.”

Talbot smiled. “I don’t know,” he answered, thinking of the way he had been shadowed; “a lot of fool things are done these days.”

“I’d like to punch his jaw for talking to that little woman that way,” said the man. Talbot remembered that he had been paying assiduous court to Mrs. Parker.

Just then the inquisitor suddenly ceased to question the lady, and left her with a bow that was almost profound.

••Well,” said Talbot, with a smile, “it looks as if the fellow had succumbed to those fascinating dimples.”

The other passenger broke at once into a rhapsody over the lady’s beauty and charm, to which Talbot shut his ears, not being interested.

No one else on board was subjected to the same close scrutiny as the California widow until Talbot’s young helper, Harry Furness, was reached.

His examination took precisely the course that hers had. In spile of his engaging frankness and the readiness of his replies to the most searching questions, the inquisition was persisted in rudely, and then suddenly dropped.

Talbot had a fashion of noting small things and putting them away in his brain. He did so in this instance, puzzling over the matter for a few moments and then dismissing it.

The next morning, when he went down to look at the horses, Harry said to him, in a low tone : “Do you know what’s in that box, sir?”

“The one for the commissary department?”

“Yes, sir.”

“It is supposed to have samples in it. I don’t know what kind. Why do you

ask?”

“I wish you’d come over to where it is before I answer you.”

Harry’s face was so serious that Talbot made no objection, but went at once with him to the feed bunker where the box was. He had seen it before, but had paid no special attention to it. Now he leaned over it and examined it closely.

Suddenly he stood quite still and hardly breathed; then he turned and looked at Harry, who was watching him.

“When did you discover this?”

“This morning. It may have been going on before, but I hardly think so. I’m sure I would have noticed it.”

There was a very faint, regular ticking sound coming from the box. Talbot bent over it again, his mind working rapidly and connecting together things which before had seemed to bear no relation to each other.

There was the man who had shadowed him, seemingly so senselessly ; the man who had been with the shadower as the vessel moved out from the wharf ; and that man was the same who had brought the box to the boat. Then the letter from the colonel, the letter with the familiar address.

“What’s your idea?” he demanded of Harry.

“I thought it might be a bomb.”

‘”It is possible. Do you think you could bring the captain to me at the stern of the main deck?”

“Shall I tell him anything?”

“Yes, say what we suspect. Hurry! God knows when it will go off if it is a bomb.”

“Are you going ” began Harry.

“I’m going to take it with me. Hurry, my boy !”

Harry sped away, his face white, but his jaws set in a way that delighted Talbot, who had learned to judge men.

He picked up the box and held it to his ear. The ticking was distinct, and, in view of its possible meaning, decidedly sickening. Nevertheless he carried it with an appearance of calmness to the stern, avoiding any contact with the persons he met by the way.

One of these was Mrs. Parker. Their eyes met, and she smiled a good morning at him, as they had not met at breakfast. He smiled back with more friendliness than usual. He was thinking how shocking it would be if that beautiful creature were to be sent to eternity by the explosion of the thing he carried.

He walked swiftly but without appearance of concern, and when he had come to the stern of the boat, stood there to wait. The ticking of the thing inside the box was horribly distinct. Beads of sweat broke out on his forehead.

The captain and Harry Furness came,

both pale, and the former greatly agitated.

“Good God, man !” the captain cried huskily. “Why don’t you throw it overboard?”

“I don’t know that it is dangerous.”

“Throw it overboard, I say! I won’t have my ship jeopardized. I’m responsible for all these lives.”

“Captain,” said Talbot icily, “we are wasting time. If there is a bomb in here, it may go off at any moment.”

“Then why ”

“Listen ! I have an invincible objection to making a fool of myself. There may be harmless clocks in here.”

“But ”

“And I want you to put me into one of your boats with tools to open this with. Then we shall know ”

“It shall not be opened on board of this boat. Throw it overboard, or I shall call my men and have it thrown over.”

“It would take a great many of your men to do that,” Talbot said, in a cold, even tone ; “and the thing might go off in the struggle. Besides, I don’t believe a man would come near me if I said what might be in this box. I am not asking you to let me open it on board. I want you to lower me and tow me far behind. I will open the box without danger to any one but myself.”

“Get into that first starboard boat,” the captain said, his face convulsed with fear and anger. He turned and beckoned some of the sailors who were on deck. “Lower away the first starboard boat there!”

“The tools!” said Talbot, looking at Harry.

The latter turned and ran quickly away. Talbot got into the boat, to the amazement of the men and of the group of spectators who had been drawn by the sight of something unusual.

Talbot, looking about, saw that Mrs. Parker was one of the group, and that she was studying him with a far more puzzled expression than any of the others.

Harry returned with a hammer, chisel, screw driver, and a powerful pair of nippers, just as the boat reached the water. Before she could be cast loose, he had slid down the pulley ropes, holding the tools in one hand.

“What ” began Talbot, at the

sight of the young man in the boat.

“I’m going with you.”

Talbot started to speak, then flashed an approving glance at the other and did not say anything.

The boat, cast loose, fell rapidly away from the steamer to the end of the coil of line by which it was to be towed. Talbot held the box in his arms till the end of the towline was reached and the boat had taken its normal movement.

The sea fortunately was smooth, so that there was not a great deal of motion. There was more, indeed, from the wake of the vessel than from the waves.

Talbot had been studying the box carefully to see how it was fastened, and was ready to operate the moment the little boat was steady enough for the purpose.

There were a number of screws, which he took out with the screw driver ; some wires, which he cut with the nippers. Harry silently handed him the tools as he needed them.

He tried the cover, but it still held. He pried it very gently. It gave a little. He looked at Harry.

“I don’t believe it will go off by friction,” he said. “The clockwork makes me think it will be by percussion.”

“That’s what I think.”

Talbot tried again to pry oft the lid. It yielded more and more, having evidently been held by a few blind nails.

“Remove it gently while I hold the box,” he said to Harry.

The latter put his fingers under one

end of the lid and lifted upward. It came easily and without any suspicious sound rhat would have indicated prearranged friction.

There was paper on top. This Talbot carefully lifted away. Then the devilish thing was fully exposed. It was an ingeniously and carefully prepared time bomb.

“Enough dynamite there,” said Talbot, “to blow the ship in two. The brutes !”

With steady fingers he disengaged the connection between the explosive and the machinery, and then put the clockwork on the bottom of the boat, leaving the dynamite in the box.

Harry leaned over the side of the boat, sick at his stomach. When he sat up again, Talbot said: “It is the motion of this small boat.”

“No.” was the response, “it was fright.”

“Oh ! Well, I don’t mind telling you I was never so scared in my life. I never expected to get back to the steamer.” He lifted his hand and signaled to the captain,, who was at the rail, watching eagerly. The boat began to move toward the steamer, pulled by strong hands.

“I think, Harry,” said Talbot, after a moment of silence, “I’d like to shake hands with you. You’re the bravest man I ever met.”

“Oh, Mr. Talbot!” stammered Harry, his face flushed and his eyes shining with pleasure, as he eagerly reached out and took the hand that was proffered. “But I was terribly frightened.”

“Anybody not a fool would have been. But I don’t see why you came. It wasn’t necessary, you know. Why did you?”

The color receded from Harry’s face, and then rushed back again as he met the searching glance of the keen blue eyes. He looked away and hesitated.

“Why did you, Harry?””Do you think I had any unworthy motive. Mr. Talbot?” he asked.

“No, I don’t, my boy; but you had a motive I know nothing about, and I am very properly curious. What was it?”

The young man bit his lip and looked away, silent for a space of time. Talbot watched him closely. Harry turned suddenly and faced Talbot.

“I did have a motive, Mr. Talbot. I know there is no good reason for my being here that you can see; but — but I can’t tell you what it was. You must believe there was no unfriendliness to you in it. Please believe that. I — I never knew a man I admired and respected as much as I do you, Mr. Talbot. I’m sorry I can’t tell you why I came.”

“All right,” said Talbot curtly, “you don’t have to.”

“You won’t trust me any more?” said Harry, in a troubled tone.

“It must have been a powerful motive to induce you to risk your life as you did. I don’t see how I shall have any occasion to trust you. I suppose you won’t do any harm to the horses.”

“Oh, Mr. Talbot !” was the reproachful response.

As Talbot made no effort to conceal the nature of the contents of the box, there was intense excitement on his return. The captain first, and the passengers afterward, hailed him as a hero and were warm in their thanks to him.

“Don’t thank me; don’t praise me,” he said coldly. “There’s the person who deserves all this.” And he pointed to Harry. “He discovered the probable nature of the box first; and. as you saw, he helped me open it.”

With that he went to his stateroom and left the young man to bear the burden of praise and congratulation; but Harry, too, escaped as soon as he could, and went below.

After that Talbot treated Harry with a coolness that manifestly disturbed the

latter, though he only redoubled his exertions in performing his work and in trying to anticipate Talbot’s wishes.

In spite of his attempt to make Harry the hero of the bomb affair, however, he found himself filling that role; and it was only by coldly repelling all efforts to discuss the matter with him that he extricated himself from the discomforts of it.

Oddly enough, the only person he ever talked with about it was Mrs. Parker ; and she, perhaps, was the only one who had made no effort to discuss it with him.

It would have been impossible to say how an intimacy had grown up between them, since neither had made any visible effort to bring it about. No doubt almost constant propinquity had much to do with it. She was always on deck, no matter what the weather; so was he. And she sat next him at table.

One day they were talking about war and the courage it required to face death on the battlefield. She smiled at his comment, and said: “I’d like to know how you really felt out there in the boat when you were opening the box.”

“Terribly frightened.”

She laughed outright. “You looked as cool as ice.”

“Oh, I was cool enough; I don’t lose my head very easily.”

“No, I don’t believe you do,” she said, looking into his eyes with an odd expression. “By the way, what made you think it might be a bomb?”

“That was natural enough. I think. Even my helper — that handsome young fellow who went out in the boat with me — thought so at once. As for me. I had good reasons. I had been shadowed all over Washington by a man; I saw that man talking to the one who had brought the box to me ; and the letter the man brought with the box was a forgery.””Nothing seems to escape you, Mr. Talbot,” she said.

He shrugged his shoulders. “I presume I see very little; but when I undertake to do a thing I try to keep my wits at work. Do you know why I am going to Europe?”

The faintest color rose to her cheeks. “You are taking horses over for the British government, aren’t you?”

“Yes, but that is only incidental. I’m really going over to find the son of a very dear friend.” Then he told her about Donald.

“It’s very interesting,” she commented when he was through.

“I don’t know whether it is or not,” he replied, “but I like the fact to be known, so that it will be plainly understood that I have no political mission.”

“You certainly haven’t the appearance of a diplomat; you are far too uncompromising,” she laughed.

“That’s exactly the impression I want to give. I’m going to find that boy if he’s alive, and I won’t be turned from my purpose. I was foolish not to understand that that man didn’t shadow me for my own sake. Hereafter I shall suspect everything unusual and keep away from it.”

He looked squarely into the limpid brown eyes as he said this. Mrs. Parker looked back smilingly.

“I think, Mr. Talbot.” she said, “that you would make a good friend and a bad enemy. I am like that myself.”

He smiled, and presently went below to look at the horses.