WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL BY THE SJME AUTHOR THE FINGER OF MR. BLEE OH, MR. BIDGOOD LOVE-BIRDS IN THE COCO- NUTS THE BODLEY HEAD WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL BY PETER BLUNDELL LONDON : JOHN LANE, THE BODLEY HEAD NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY. MCMXVII PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOCKS AND SONS, LIMITEB LONDON AND BKCCLKS, KNOLAMD TO D. B. WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL CHAPTER I ABOUT six o'clock one morning the small steamer Sherrybung was rounding Pisang point for the purpose of entering the Bay of Jallagar. Night mists still held the rigid mangrove swamps that lined the shore, and lay in thin wreaths about the green-spangled coast mountains. But, although the day was young, the sun, well above in the sky, was already en- gaged on its daily occupation of trying to boil the ocean. And aboard the steamer, in spite of protecting awnings and other paraphernalia with which civilized man surrounds himself in the tropics, the air was hot. For ships' crews, however, heat holds but few terrors. Sailors do not care much about washing either decks or necks in the Arctic ; and 2 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL British mates seek out the lotus-eating life of the Indian Ocean, weakening though it be to consti- tution and morals, and eschew always if possible the brisker atmosphere and more billowy waves of the North Atlantic. The crew of the Sherrybung, Malays to a man, and her mate, Mr. Jones, formed no exception to the common rule. But her solitary passenger was in a different case. He felt the heat. It was for this reason he had forsaken his bunk at the break of day, clad in grass slippers, small bath- towel, eyeglasses and solar topee, in search of a sea-breeze. Having searched the whole ship without any result, he was now seated on a bollard near the forecastle hatch reading Marcus Aurelius, a work from the perusal of which he usually obtained good counsel, but which he now found contained no instructions whatever con- cerning the doing without of sea-breezes. If it were a certainty that the books people parade with on the decks of steamers are the ones they are fondest of, the world would have at hand another means of character-reading. But, unfortunately, there are such things as French novels hidden away in bunkhead bookshelves. WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 3 Nevertheless a chastely bound Marcus Aurelius, combined with a volume on political economy, does point at certain tastes. A man who reads such books on steamers' decks should turn out to be a person of some pretensions intellectually, argumentative perhaps, but quiet to ride or drive domestically. Such a description fitted well with the eye- glasses and the features of the passenger. The bath-towel ? He was a bachelor, and the ship carried not a single lady that trip. He was, in fact, one of that large army of fledgling professors that America scatters by the handful over the Old World nowadays, to amass knowledge for the benefit of her coming generation of citizens. His name, Haliburton J. Bliss. With him as figurehead, the Sherrybung rounded the point and discovered herself to the island of Jallagar, as she was in the habit of doing about this time on the first and third Thursdays of every month. The unrucked sea becanle lighter and more opaque, the sapphire of the ocean changing to the turquoise of the bay. The steamer's velvet-throated whistle sounded 4 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL "good morning" several times. When in his opinion this duty had been efficiently performed, the mate released the string operating the steam- whistle valve, left the bridge in charge of the captain, and strolled forward to inspect the gear on the forecastle head. In so doing he followed the custom of all ships' mates on entering port. He did not, however, strain this custom as he might have done and order all passengers off the deck, but instead lounged over to the solitary specimen on the bollard and, affably for him, drew attention to the view. " Yes, it looks a nice island," agreed Professor Bliss. " Beautifully flat, green, and peaceful. Seems," he added, " as though it hadn't shaved for three days." " What look like whiskers are really palm- trees," explained Mr. Jones. " It's a great coco- nut place. What with copra and cats Are you staying long there, mister ? " He gazed at the other inquisitively. Ameri- cans, most of them, went on direct to Manila. But this one had booked as far as Jallagar only. To imagine what any sane person, not British, should want on an island stigmatized unanimously WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 5 by the whole sea-faring profession as " God- forsaken" was difficult, but the annoying reti- cence of the solitary passenger had so far left the officers of the Sherrybung with no other alternative. " Are you staying long there ? " demanded Mr. Jones, determined to learn something before the ship got into port. " I may be there a year or two," replied Pro- fessor Bliss. u Good Lord ! '* ejaculated the mate. " But perhaps you'll get used to it," he added com- fortingly. " Got a job there ? " " Yes. I've been sent here to learn some- thing about how you Britishers govern your small colonies." " Ho, ho ! " muttered the mate, looking at him reflectively. " Then I suppose you'll be in the Government Service ? " " I suppose I shall," admitted the professor. "Is there anything the matter with it ?" "Ohno." " Then what are you shaking your head for ? " " When I say there's nothing the matter with it," explained Mr. Jones in a melancholy voice, 6 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL " I don't mean I should like to be in your shoes. I should not : especially if you've got much to do with the Resident." "What's wrong with the Resident ?" de- manded the professor with much interest. " Well, my private opinion, between you and me, is that he's a bit wrong in the head," replied Mr. Jones confidentially, eyeing the other's astonished face with an expression of some pleasure. " He's different from other Resi- dents." " That's no reason for thinking he's mad," pointed out Professor Bliss. " Doesn't take much notice of Jallagar," went on the mate. " But is very busy about Egypt. Likes the Pyramids, the Egyptian temples, and rot of that sort. At least I think it's rot. He's got dotty on cats. Treats them as sacred. Has a Swedish loafer named Kamp up from Pelung to look after them. This fellow has played the devil with the whole island. He has got the Resident completely under his thumb, and has now been made Postmaster-General. Some say," continued the mate in a whisper, " that he's after the Resident's daughter. If it WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 7 is so it's a damned shame, for she's a nice girl. I don't know what her father's doing. He must be mad. They say he spends every cent of his salary on things from Cairo. We brought up from Pelung for him last voyage a couple of Nile crocodiles, and any quantity of small stuff such as carved bricks, bits of statues, idols, manuscripts and curios found in tombs. We've got a mummy on board for him this trip. I don't mean you, of course," he added, with a coarse laugh as he lounged off. The professor, looking as if he would have liked some further information about this re- markable Resident, picked up the book on political economy, sat down on the bollard and became at once absorbed. He remained so until a gang of brown-skinned sailors uncoiled a yellow and much patched leather hose and began to wash the decks. Then, hearing the hissing of the water, he laid down the volume, arose, and turning towards the man with the nozzle smiled and nodded. " Tuan matt mandi ! Baik la ! " the man yelled back, obviously amused that any one should want to wash in such a manner. 8 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL The professor sprang up lightly from the bollard, laid down the volume, kicked aside topee, pince-nez, and slippers, threw aside the bath- towel, revealing a pair of red bathing drawers, and sprang towards the hose. He revolved slowly and with dignity as the glittering, sunlit stream of water played about him. After all, the naked body is the real index of character. A strong man does not, for in- stance, stand like an old cab-horse. Neither did Halliburton J. Bliss. His lily-white legs were straight and graceful. His lily-white body was square set. It faced the splashing water de- fiantly. And the legs, the body, the arms were of good useful dimensions, and bore a fair pro- portion one to the other. Thus far praise, the rest, alas, is blame. The velvet-throated whistle shouted again, and at the sound a wizened, elderly, little man in a kimono, who was seated at a richly inlaid table on the veranda of the largest house in Jallagar, jumped up and, seizing a telescope from the rack on the wall, levelled it at the Shcrrybung, now some two miles away. WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 9 A girl, also in a kimono, laid down the book she was reading and, sitting rather upright in her cane chair, waited, obviously for the man to speak. " Do you see anything, father ? " she asked at last. " There's somebody in white on the bridge," replied the man. "That will be the captain," I expect." " And and I'm not sure, but there's some- thing white in the front of the ship. It looks like a man." " That will be our visitor none of the officers would be on the forecastle head with the ship so far off land." " It is certainly not one of the officers," said the man. " It is a stranger to the tropics, judging from the skimpy cut of his suit. A few of the crew are up .there with him. They are busy about something, but the boat is too far off to see what." " It must be our visitor," the girl decided. " Americans often dress differently from us in the tropics. Well, I'm glad he's here I shall go and bathe now," she added, leaving the veranda. io WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL She walked along shaded corridors hung with Egyptian tapestry of grotesque design. Sun- shine filtering through the lattices shimmered on polished floors. Warm light of the tropical morning threw shadows before her as with light step she passed. At the bathroom a Malay woman servant, clad in a silk sarong and short linen coat, handed her towels. She entered, and the servant, shutting the door, stood before it like a sentinel. But little light filtered into the bathroom. The patterns of the tiled floor and white enamelled walls could barely be distinguished. The vaulted roof was scarcely visible. The place, so cool, so quiet, so robbed of all the warmth of the sun, had an atmosphere almost cloistral. A huge round porcelain bath of antique design stood in the middle of the floor. Near it was a bench of carved camphor wood, and on this the girl, unrobing, laid her clothes. Her bare, round arms gleamed like ivory in the twilight as she unfastened and coiled again her jet-black hair. She moved with athletic grace and with the lightness of the perfectly trained. WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 11 How different Professor Haliburton J. Bliss ! His movements under the hose are of the nature of a shuffle. His modelling does not bear exami- nation. He is lumpy in the wrong places, his stomach too prominent, there are pads of flesh about his shoulder-blades, he ^ has the beginnings of a double chin. Evidently he is a man who had not played. His hair appears to be his only well-trained feature. The very hose seems incapable of effacing its complacent parting. But his body resembles clay rather than marble ; his hands, though well cared for, are small and helpless- looking ; his misty blue eyes honest but unin- telligent and commonplace. A gong sounded. He at once went to his cabin and proceeded to dress. The steamer drew nearer to shore. The anatomy of the island became visible. There is, except for its hill, little to distinguish Jallagar from other islands similarly situated. Nature, cold and devilish at the poles, on the equator becomes a smiling sorceress. Give her a sand-heap, some coral and salt water, and she will out of these produce a multitude of coco-nut 12 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL palms. She has done this in Jallagar better, so the inhabitants say, than elsewhere. The groves form a thick fringe all round the island, and the town of Jallagar itself is built on the withered remains of the first of them. Every- where among the houses bald-headed palms rear themselves towards the glaring blue sky, stark and senile, and with not a nut among them. Around the conical bases of these brown ancients play the great-grandchildren of the men who planted them, little copper-coloured children dressed in amulets and not much else, shouting, kicking, hacking the pearl-grey trunks with rusty knives, and making mud-pies of the black sandy soil. And on every open space the dazzling white kernel of the coco-nut the copra spread on grass mats, is drying in the sun. Professor Bliss was shaving in his cabin, with the bath-towel about him, when the steamer drew round into the small bay on which the town and harbour lie. The channel runs close inshore here, and the steamer brushed the trees. A large fronded leaf came in suddenly through the cabin port-hole and tickled him as he shaved. WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 13 " Palm-trees," muttered the professor. " I must go on deck." He scraped away with the safety razor and sponged himself. Then, springing round, he bent over the lower bunk and unfolded from a pile of clean clothes lying there an immaculate white duck suit. Yesterday's soiled suit was hanging from a peg. With inexperienced hands he proceeded to undo the metal-fastened silver buttons and transfer them to the clean jacket. Having done so to his great satisfaction, he put on the jacket and found that all the buttons faced inwards. The discovery brought on a profuse perspiration. He set the fan going and started to rectify the error. Drops from his brow and arms spotted the starched white surface of the coat. The fasteners clung to the buttons and developed a peculiar slipperiness. He seized the old jacket, mopped his brow and fingers on it, and returned to and finished the task. Before putting the jacket on the safety razor had to be cleaned. He dragged the greasy, yellow-enamelled toilet-pail from under the cabin washstand and, placing it in the middle of the cabin floor, held the razor firmly over it i 4 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL with one hand and with the other hand manipu- lated the cabin water-bottle. In the middle of this delicate operation he heard the telegraph ring sharply. He felt the ship quiver. Then the engines, put astern, re- volved with all the uneven clatter of a person running backwards. " We're ashore ! " exclaimed the professor, and clambering as best he could on top of the washstand, he put his head out of the port-hole. Now for the first time he looked at miles of coco-nut palms. Weathered grey trunks, regi- ment after regiment, stood at attention as the ship glided on again. Fretted leaves, of all colours from vandyke brown to olive green, waved a salute. Dotted here and there in the shade of the palms were native huts, built of reeds, paraffin-tins, old packing-cases. On the narrow ribbon of sun-bleached sandy foreshore, against which surged the light-blue water of the steamer wake, were fishing traps and nets and unpainted grey dug-outs. Women sat on the frail verandas of the huts, women wrapped in many- coloured cotton robes, who hid their faces as the steamer drew close. Sun-blackened fishermen, WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 15 dressed in blue dungaree with bright red scanty turbans, mended nets on the beach. There was present in force the ubiquitous small boy. To one of these latter who stood, nearly naked, close to the water, looking it seemed awestruck, as well he might, at the wonderful white man's steamer and its mysterious passenger who had come from the great land across the sea, the professor shouted a smiling " Good morning." The boy stared, put his hand into his scanty waistcloth, and, withdrawing it, threw a weapon. The weapon caught Haliburton J. full in the eye. " Dash it ! I'm poisoned 1 " he spluttered. Leaping backwards he landed neatly in the toilet- pail. And at once a mixture of professor, pail, water, and clean white jacket rolled on the floor. Haliburton J., extricating himself with great speed, dashed out of the cabin and down the alleyway holding his eye. Whatever had struck him contained, it was plain, some very powerful native poison. The smell of it nearly over- powered him. An immediate antidote was clearly absolutely necessary if the eye was to be saved. That is, of course, if there was any eye left. He was beginning to have doubts. 16 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL At such times as these people think quickly. Haliburton J. had already travelled in thought as far as a hospital, when he found himself colliding with something soft and yet not too soft. "Why don't you look where you're going ? " growled Mr. Jones. " I've been poisoned ! " gasped Haliburton J. in excuse. He related in one breath how the poisoning took place, and demanded an antidote. " An antidote for what ? " asked Mr. Jones. " How should I know ? " gasped Haliburton J. indignantly. " I'm a stranger here. If I'd been in the place as long as you, I should recognize the frightful stuff by its beastly odour ! " The mate bent over and sniffed. " Smells like rotten egg," he said shortly. " And that's what it is too. Here's a bit of shell sticking to your undervest. A wash is what you . > want. On returning to the cabin to finish dressing the professor found that one of his books had floated away under the bunk on the top of the tide of slop-water. On dragging it out, a letter WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 17 fell from it. He picked them both up together and, drying the book absent-mindedly on the soiled white jacket, glanced through the letter. It was one he had received from an aunt in New York, and in the hurry of departure had put away with scarcely a glance. Turning over the page, he found a postscript, of the existence of which he had been entirely unaware : "P.S. Just as I was closing up this letter I had a line from your Aunt Phoebe in Scotland. She says one of your Scotch uncles, Alexis Campbell, is out in Jallagar, and is one of the biggest merchants on the island, and that she is writing to him telling him you are going there. Please be sure to seek him out at once on your arrival ! " " It's a good thing that letter dropped out," said Haliburton J. to himself. He eyed the book, and perceived that it had bestowed a liberal share of the dye from its red cover on the soiled white jacket. Throwing both into a corner, he proceeded in some disgust to complete his toilet. When at last he reached the deck the Sherrybnng was moored safely alongside Jallagar wharf. CHAPTER II THE Sherrybung had been tied up alongside a decrepit wooden wharf, understood to be the oldest wooden wharf in Jallagar, and therefore sufficiently respectable to be the property of that venerable steamship company, the Bung Line. Haliburton J., coming out on deck observed this wharf through eager eyeglasses. It looked withered, worm-eaten, and fit for burial, so the political economist within him whispered ; but Romance pointed to the beautiful grey colouring of the sun-bleached sheds and timbered deck, to the rich browns of the sea-stained piles, to the green hair seaweed astretch in the limpid water below, where shoals of tiny parrot fish were playing. At the back was a road lined with one-story, red-painted shops, the open fronts of which were WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 19 full of merchandise. Near these, in the shadow, folk were passing and repassing. But the sun- baked wharf was empty. Aboard all was strangely quiet. The crew were at breakfast, if the evidence of the galley chimney was to be trusted. Except for Mr. Jones, who was on his beloved forecastle head inspecting the condition of the ship's mooring lines, there was nobody in sight. Presently he too moved out of the picture. " How's the poisoned eye ? " he asked, coming down the steps and smiling rudely. " Much better," answered Haliburton J., with a forced laugh. " Coming down to have some tommy ? " in- quired the mate. "Presently, when the bell rings," said Hali- burton J. " We don't ring it in port," the mate in- formed him, and passed on. A smell of eggs and bacon came through the open port-holes of the saloon. The captain, a short, red-faced man with an appearance of being about to burst out of his white suit, came to a doorway, said " Good morning " in a voice that 20 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL brooked no contradiction, and asked a similar question about breakfast. " Almost immediately," said Haliburton J. And, turning, he gazed ashore once more. He had received a letter from the Resident- of Jallagar at Pelung, and gathered from its con- tents that he might expect to be met on arrival. There was as yet, however, no sign of that expec- tation being fulfilled. " They don't seem to work to a time-table out here," he murmured. " They eat and sleep, I suppose, and just do things in between." A big, yellow pariah dog crawled out of a heap of timber that lay untidily stacked in a corner ; and with great deliberation came and squatted on the wharf opposite Haliburton and examined him closely. Haliburton J. returned the compliment. " He's got mange. I wonder they allow it," he muttered. " An ugly, dangerous brute ! " The dog on his part did not seem to think much of Haliburton J., for after sniffing the air for a while, and finding apparently an evil odour, it raised its head and howled dismally. Haliburton J. stooped, made a pretence of WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 21 picking up something and throwing it. With another doleful howl the dog retired to the shelter of the timber. It had the air of a dog who would appear again if sufficient inducement offered. A minute later the sound of wheels withdrew the professor's mind from the consideration of how one might reform the Jallagar Dog Licensing Regulations to the realm of actuality. Adjusting his eyeglasses, he perceived a dog- cart coming rapidly along the road. This was the first home-like thing he had seen on the island, and he followed its course interestedly. It passed out of sight behind a row of rusty corrugated-sheet coaling sheds, then came again into view. The turn-out was spick and span, the horse a bright bay, and the occupants consisted of a lady dressed in white, and a red-turbaned, red-uniformed Malay syce. On arriving opposite the ship, the cart turned smartly and headed towards the wharf. Drawing up with skill, the lady handed the reins to the syce and prepared to descend. As she did so a small yellow cat appeared suddenly from some- where in the trap and, springing to the ground, ran rapidly across the wharf. 22 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL " Snicketty ! Snicketty ! " cried the lady in a high clear voice. But the cat paid no heed. It was out to run, and it ran. In entire ignorance of the fact that, lurking at hand, there was a dog with nothing particular to do that morning, it chose a line of country that traversed the piled-up timber. The yellow dog appeared to view, running hard and barking furiously. " Oh, my poor Snicketty ! " cried the young lady. And she also began to run. They came towards the steamer. Of the three the dog was by far the fleetest. " Oh, my poor Snicketty ! " cried the lady despairingly. It occurred to Haliburton J. suddenly that from every point of view he would be doing good work if he saved that cat. Not that he was fond of cats, but he hated that dog anyhow, and Within a foot of him was the gangway, from which a white, many-stepped and much berailed accommodation ladder formed a bridge to the wharf. With an agility that surprised him- self he took off his eyeglasses, mounted the WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 23 gangway, and bounded down this accommodation ladder. Now, accommodation ladders are meant to be used with dignity. If bounded down they achieve a resilience akin to that of diving boards. The bound that took Professor Bliss finally on to the wharf was an affair almost of furlongs. He reached his destination at the foot of the ladder just as the yellow dog in hot pursuit of the cat arrived at the same spot. There was a howl from the dog, a muttered exclamation from the man, and the pursuit continued, first the cat, then the dog, then the lady, and then, when he had picked himself up, Haliburton J. But the latter by means of his well-timed fall had robbed the dog of half its speed. It now had the use of three legs only, the fourth having been thoroughly well trodden on. But it was a game dog. The young lady's skirts placed her at a dis- advantage, although she was running excellently. Haliburton J., at scratch, had the field well in hand. In sixty seconds he was running down the road level with the dog, in seventy with a well-aimed 24 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL kick he had disabled the dog's other leg, and in seventy-seven and a half he had swooped down and picked up safe and unhurt the yellow cat. It was a little furry ball, composed mainly of claws and palpitation. " Poor pussy ! " said Haliburton J., stroking it and looking down the road to where the young lady was walking rapidly towards him. " Poor pussy ! quiet then. Go away, you beast 1 " This to the yellow dog who had limped up barking joyously because, although he had not got the cat, one of his fellow pursuers had. "Go away, you beast ! " cried Haliburton J. He raised a foot threateningly. The dog, probably driven to madness by such an exhibition of treachery and base selfishness, rushed in and, seizing him by the trousers, tore them. It then went away howling more loudly than ever. " You've got him ! " cried the young lady, coming up. " Oh, give him to me. What claws ! Thank you so much." " It's a very great pleasure," said Professor Bliss, bowing. " Chasing kittens on a hot morning ? Not WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 25 much pleasure that, do you think ? " asked the young lady. " No," said Haliburton J., bowing again. " I didn't mean quite that." He wanted to add, " Finding something in this island quite up to anything we have in America," but luckily did not. " Professor Bliss, I think ? " asked the girl. " Yes ? I was certain you were directly* I saw you." " Indeed ! How did you know ? " " When I first saw you, you were jumping. It was magnificent." " I don't think the dog thinks so," said Hali- burton J. modestly. "It was splendid of you," went on the young lady. "But as you jumped the wind blew up your coat. I said at once to myself, ' This must be an American.' You've a belt round your waist with a big revolver and a knife in it." " I should think I had, coming into a place like this," said the professor, laughing. " The natives here seem out of hand. Only this morn- ing, as I was looking out of my cabin window I mean port-hole a youngster little bigger than 26 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL an infant threw a rotten egg at me and nearly blew my eye out. It may be a quiet place. They say so in the guide-books. But I'm taking no risks." " And now that dog has torn your tr " " Don't mention it," said the professor, hastily. "You have been in the wars," went on the girl, laughing. " I think the best plan would be for you to get into the dog-cart, and I will drive you straight home. Don't bother about your things. The servant will get them from the steamer, or we'll send our bullock-cart for them." " But " said Haliburton J., staring at her. "But what?" " I'm sorry," said Haliburton J., uncomfort- ably, " to have to refuse your offer of hospi- tality. But I'm going to stay at the Resident's house. I'm expecting the old gentleman down here any minute." The girl flushed slightly, then laughed. " I ought to have told you," she said with quiet dignity. " The Resident is my father, and I live at the Residency. I am Miss Vannery." " I am pleased," said Haliburton J. They walked slowly along to where the dog- cart was standing. He felt for his eyeglasses, WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 27 found them undamaged, and putting them on stole a look at her, hoping not to find defects. Glasses are terrible disillusioners, but in this instance they improved the view. She was tall and very dark. The chase had made her hair untidy. One black, rather curly lock had escaped from the confinement of her severe white topee. Her blue eyes sparkled and her pale cheeks were faintly flushed. Her white drill frock was cut to perfection. Beside her, Haliburton J. felt like a broken- winded navvy. It was a feeling he did not often experience no professors do. But even broken- winded navvies have eyes ; and, after all, glances are about the only things the law allows to be stolen with impunity. Haliburton J., wiping his glasses, ventured to steal another glance. The girl, conscious of being inspected, looked ahead of her, smiling carelessly. After a few seconds' theft, Haliburton J.'s eyes again sought the ground. He walked humbly, conscious of a slight, not- to-be-explained excitement, and feeling more navvy-like than ever. " How sharp the cat's claws are ! " murmured 28 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL the young lady. " Did you have a good voyage up ? My father is looking forward to seeing you." They reached the dog-cart The syce had drawn it a little to one side to allow room for a hand-barrow to be pushed on to the wharf. Two ebony-coloured Klings, dressed in red with yellow facings, were pushing the barrow. There was with them a nondescript creature who might have been a very white half-caste or, on the other hand, a European. He had a red, seamed, bloated face, was unshaven, and wore a huge carroty moustache. His uncleaned canvas shoes were in holes. His khaki suit was threadbare, dirty, and tat- tered. Through its open, ragged collar showed inches of red, flabby neck. And surmounting all was a thing of pith which had once been a helmet, but which rain and wear had reduced to a condition of almost immoral shapelessness. " They are going to fetch the mail from the ship and take it to the Post Office," explained Miss Vannery. And then in a whisper, " Isn't it terrible ? Did you see him ? " " Who ? " asked the professor. WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 29 4{ Why, that man with them," said the girl, in a low voice. " He looked like a Euro- pean." { ' Would he be what we call in the States a poor white ? " asked Haliburton J. CHAPTER III THE gentleman with the broken-brimmed topee his name was Alexis McQuat kept his eyes on the ground as the Resident's daughter and the stranger passed. His quick ears caught the girl's remark, and he went a fiery red. For long enough he had observed Miss Vannery as she drove about the narrow, dusty streets of the town. He had watched her often walking briskly through the sunlight, watched her entering the native shops. She was one of the few things in the town worth a gaze. Once from the hot darkness of a native bar- room nowadays he was never to be seen in the European hotel he had witnessed a pair of laden Chinese coolies, coming along through the sun glare in a cloud of dust, their queues rolled up, their half-naked bodies glistening, almost collide with her as they trotted by. She nearly fell in WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 31 avoiding them, and he, starting forward to render her aid, had suddenly remembered that the Eurasian next to him was by no means the sort of man to be left in charge of some one else's half-finished glass of ale. It was galling to a man who still had some spirit left in him to think that after such a chance of distinguishing himself he had at last come under her observation when a temporary stress of circumstances had forced him to take a position as pusher of the Government mail barrow, and merely assistant pusher at that. " The pay's not dirty, anyhow," he muttered, trying to console himself. " She has a fine figure, has that missie, and is always in the company of men. Pleasant it would be to have half a dozen wives such as she," remarked the sooty -faced Kling in charge of the barrow, smirking. " Shut your heid, ye blether ! " burst out McQuat angrily, in broad Scotch. The Kling, surprised and alarmed, moved away. "Conceited, drunken " McQuat heard him muttering continually. 32 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL " Shut your held, I tell ye ! Diam ! Ye babi ! " "I'll speak to Tuan Kamp about you," an- nounced the Kling spitefully. " Kiss your aunt, ye black-faced monkey ! " They waited round the barrow in silence. The groves of coco-nut palms across the glowing blue strip of water that formed the harbour were already drooping in the fierce sunlight. Coolies talking noisily had gathered about the steamer. A winch or two had begun to rattle. Intense heat Alexis had endured for years without noticing it. But to find himself blushing on the equator when his blushing machinery had not been working for ten years was oddly irritating. " It'll be all the same a hundred years after- wards," he muttered gruffly. " Who is she, I'd like to know ? No better nor any one else. Maybe wurrse ! Claes are not everything." The incident reminded him of bygone days when putting on a clean white suit was for him a daily occurrence, when shaving was a habit, not an event. It was more years than he cared to think WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 33 about since he, full of ambition and a strict teetotaller, left Scotland for the glittering East. Underneath the crown of that broken-brimmed topee was a bald patch. He wore his red moustache carefully curled, his figure slightly bow-windowed. These, and his red nose, were the only possessions of his that had showed increase since his departure from home. He had, in short, managed at forty-five to become so altered that his parents would not have known him, and his friends did not want to do so. Some such thought as this struck him as he pushed along the barrow. "Well, it will be all the same a hundred years afterwards," he muttered again. But incantation could not break the spell on him that morning. The flush seemed to have come to stay. It made him feel irritable, nervous, like a broody hen. He fingered his chin. The three-days-old growth on it emphasized to 'him his frayed untidiness. The barrow went forward to the gangway and, under the gimlet eyes of some Europeans, McQuat and his comrades received the mail. " Look at that one in khaki," he heard a D 34 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL lady remark to the man beside her. " He's quite white ! " " Some Spanish offshoot, perhaps, or a throw- back of sorts, I should say," replied the man learnedly through his nose. " But he's more of a redskin as regards colour." A throw-back ! A Spanish offshoot ! With lowered head, his mild blue eyes full of indignant tears, Alexis McQuat pushed the barrow back to the Post Office. The Klings on the other side of the barrow were coldly silent. He had spoken angrily to their foreman in a strange language. He was not one of themselves. The foreman treated him with marked disdain and, on arriving at their destination, reported him to Mr. Bunn, the Eurasian Second Assistant Postmaster-General, for smelling of liquor when on duty. McQuat's pleasure in hearing this important official, after sniffing, announce that he did not believe the foreman's tale was dimmed by the official's further remark that every one knew that nowadays the accused never had the price of a drink on him. u I care for none of ye," he announced wrath- WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 35 fully. " I resign, that's what I do. Gie me ma money." " How much do we owe this chap ? " asked Mr. Bunn contemptuously. The Kling foreman told him. It was a small amount ; but sufficient to get a shave with. Late in the afternoon the Post Office saw Alexis again. He had been a round of the hotels in the interim, and the barmen had unanimously assured him that, as usual, the Government had maltreated one of the best fellows that ever lived. The confidence he had gained from these friends of his did not extend, however, to his gait, which now exhibited a certain liveliness. The creak of the hand-rail as he ascended the wooden stairs leading to the counter told of his need of support sideways. But his tread was firm enough. " Now, ma mannie," he cried joyfully through the open window, " have you got any letters for the name of Campbell ? " There was one. The clerk, after a glance, handed it over the counter, and with a half-smile at his fellow-clerks watched the best-known beach-comber in Jallagar walk slowly down the 36 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL creaking wooden steps and wander on in an aim- less fashion towards the town. Over the for- bidden grass borders of the Post Office lawn the man walked, and the clerk, frowning slightly, saw he had the letter open. He stumbled on to a flower-bed and stood there gaping in the brilliant sunlight. Then with a cry of surprise he turned and walked quickly back and up the stairs again. " Ma mannie," he said, with an air of owning the Post Office, " I'll be troubling you to change this ten-pun-note." Breathing hard, he flourished the crinkly piece of paper in front of the clerk. He was, he saw, causing a stir in the office. Yes, he was getting known. The clerks were looking at him with respect. "Is it yours ? " asked the fellow at the counter, taking it. " Is it mine ? Dod drat it ! Is it mine ? Yes ! An' I can get a gey whin mair fra' the place it comes fra'." They were taking it away into an inner room. There was a delay. Yes, he was getting known. He stuck out his chest. WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 37 " We're the boys," he told the Malay clerk at the counter. Still further delay ! A cold thought struck him. Perhaps they had not sufficient money in the Post Office to change such a large sum. He himself had experienced difficulties over much smaller sums than ten pounds. " Tell the boss," he whispered eagerly, " tae let me have some of it the noo onyway. I'll come for the rest in the morning." A moment later they paid him. He went away with ninety silver Mexican dollars in his trousers pocket, feeling pleasantly lopsided. " Guid nicht to ye," he said condescend- ingly. " A'll be making a straight track for home the noo." His home apparently lay in a zigzag direction. Taverns filled with enthusiastic friends dotted the way to it. Somewhere towards morning one of these saw him over the final stage of his journey, and left him on the doorstep of his hut. He was singing " Bonnie Mary of Argyle " for the fifth time, and singing it, so he thought, well, when a Sikh policeman came up and gently pushed him inside his door. He fell asleep, debating 38 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL; within himself whether he had too many friends, or his friends were too many for him, or he was too many for his friends. He could not be sure what was the trouble, but he had an idea that it must be the latter, and this thought made him chuckle as he slept. In the house next door Mrs. Vanderpump turned wearily once or twice on her sleeping- mat, and then, muttering something about the inconvenience of semi-detached bungalows com- bined with neighbours who became musical after midnight, half rose and punched her pillow vigorously. " I shall have to see to him to-morrow morn- ing," she said to herself. On most days she merely " did for " Mr. McQuat. It was only after these infrequent musical evenings that she had to see to him. For years now " doing " for him and sewing for the European ladies of Jallagar had been her principal means of support. Her late husband, Vanderpump, the Pelung policeman, had been dead so long that she had grown almost to look upon him as a youthful folly. He in his time WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 39 had been a man requiring " seeing to " very often. McQuat was a flea-bite to him. In spite of them both she was still buxom enough. Maybe it was her buxomness and a certain straight way she had with her that had kept Alexis a tenant of the other half of the tiny bungalow for so many years. She dressed on week days in bajus and sarongs, with her slightly grizzled hair coiled anyhow on the back of her head, and anything on her feet, sandals, grass slippers, men's white shoes, clogs when in the wash-house. Sometimes, seldom though, she went unshod, and McQuat knew that her feet were pretty and her ankles slim. Alexis had a disposition that had failed from birth to give satisfaction. This was when he was young, and had been put down locally to the fact that he was brought up on the bottle. All his life he had stood in awe of his mother. Now he stood in awe of Mrs. Vanderpump. She was very strict with him. Sometimes she hardly spoke to him. He used to watch her on Sunday leaving the tumbledown little bungalow on her way to Mass, and was never tired of won- dering where she got all the clothes. On such 40 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL days he modestly kept out of her way in the street. There were other days when she was as pleasant as summer, saints' days when she would kill a superfluous chicken and invite him to the festival. The worst of McQuat was that festival meant to him merely the opening of many bottles. This was tiresome stupidity in Mrs. Vanderpump's eyes ; and festivals lately had been few and far between. Her knock at the door always made him start when he heard it. After musical evenings it was hard work making him hear. Mr. McQuat ! " " M-i-s-t-e-r M-c-Q-u-a-t ! " The sunlight streamed into the tiny room, lighting up the bed draped in white mosquito netting, the reed walls, the discoloured almanac, shining with the intensity of a searchlight upon the elderly, khaki-clad figure of Mr. McQuat as it lay sprawling on the floor. The brim of the topee, half parted from the crown, was still on his head, jammed hard there by one of his friends the previous evening. He slept peace- fully. WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 41 " Mr. McQuat ! Am I to stand here all morning ? " A shiver crept through the form of the sleeper. Mr. McQuat started on to his knees, looked about guiltily, went noiselessly over to the bed and ruffled it. He rose to his feet. " Come in, Mrs. Vanderpump," he shouted heartily. " An' hoo are we this morning ? " "You're getting quite the gentleman," said the widow tartly, entering. " Lying abed till all hours." " I been out of bed this long time," said Alexis truthfully. " I was a wee bit late getting home last nicht." " Yes, you were. I heard you. You and your Mary of Argyle ! What do you think Mary of Argyle would say to you if she could see you now ? " " There's nothing the matter wi' me." " What about your topee, then ? " cried the widow, laughing in spite of herself. " Look at yourself, look at yourself if you can find a glass that won't crack at the sight of you. Jemima ! But you are a proper guy ! And this is the lord, if you please, that comes home with the milk, 42 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL shouting about Mary of Argyle, a woman two hundred years old if she's a day, and a woman that he knows nothing about whatever. Oh yes ! I heard a policeman playing skittles with you last night a filthy Sikh policeman. And you call yourself a European ! I've a good mind not to make you any breakfast." Mr. McQuat was understood to say that he did not want any breakfast. "You'll eat your breakfast," said Mrs. Van- derpump, eyeing him with great firmness. " I know what you're after, you artful man ! What you want to be now is an invalid. But nursing's not in my line, no, thank you." She bustled through into the cook-house, and in a very few minutes came back with a teapot and bread on a tray. She poured out a cup. " There ! " she said. " Eat some bread and have a drink of hot tea. I'll come in later and tidy round. And," she went on, stooping and picking up an envelope from the floor, " don't leave your letters lying about or I shall get to know your secrets, and when I get to know them, Mr. McQuat, well, look out, for WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 43 you'll never have another moment's peace on this earth ! " She put the envelope on the table beside him and, saying again that she would be back a little later to tidy round, went back to her own side of the bungalow. It was the letter he had received the day before. There had been no time to read it. He picked it up and opened it languidly. It ran : " MY DEAR SON, " You will be glad to hear that; Father and I celebrate our golden wedding to-day. One of our greatest pleasures is to think you have done so well abroad and been a credit to us. We are sorry not to have seen you for so long, but hope you will come home on a visit soon. Please accept this ten pounds from us to buy a present to celebrate this golden wedding of ours. We want you to have something in that great big house of yours that we ourselves gave you on this our happy day. " With love to my son, "Your Mother, imitation of a snore. " Mercy, what a noise ! " commented Mrs. 2o6 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL Vanderpump loudly. " 1 wonder if it is McQuat at all. It sounds more like some underfed pig." " It's no' an underfed pig either," replied the irritated McQuat, sitting up. " Whatever it is," reflected the widow more loudly still, " it's not a human being, leastways not a respectable one." "Respectable enough to make your chicken run," shouted McQuat, sitting up straighter than ever. " Dear me, I ought to know that voice," soliloquized Mrs. Vanderpump through a hole in the partition. " It reminds me of a well- known public singer, I mean public-house singer. Tut, tut, what was his name ? Oh, I have it Tiddley Tim, that's the man." " 1 never did sing outside public-houses, wumman," roared McQuat indignantly. " You know that fine." " When asked why he was singing outside he said it was because they wouldn't let him sing inside," went on his tormentor. " Oh yes, he has a good voice. I asked a man once whether he was fond of balls and he said he had been till he'd heard Tiddley Tim bawl." WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 207 " My name's McQuat ! " yelled Alexis in great anger. " Oh, is that you, Mr. McQuat ? " cried the widow with an elaborate air of astonishment. " Dear me, fancy that ! And how are you the morning ? " " Och, I'm a' richt," said the Scotsman surlily. " You sound as if you'd a sore throat," said Mrs. Vanderpump in concerned tones. " No wonder." The beach-comber did not answer, but moving across the room, drew out a table. Going to a cupboard he brought out a plate and some table implements. " Mr. McQuat," said the widow through the partition. He took no notice. " Mr. McQuat," went on the voice in tones of real contrition, "don't be angry. Do you know, five minutes after you went away last evening, I had such a nice supper waiting for you. That empty plate and bit of paper was only my joke." " I'll teach her to joke," said McQuat to him- self stubbornly. He drew the table to the centre of the room, 208 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL and with a clatter and flourish laid the turkey and the bottle on it. Drawing up a chair, he sat down and began breakfast, observing with in- tense satisfaction the excited vibration of the reed wall, and the darkening of a certain peep-hole used by both of them, as the widow applying an eye carefully squinted in at him. " Mr. McQu'at," she said again, appealingly. In answer he picked up the bottle, flourished it with a jovial air, and drank deeply of the con- tents. He then cut off the turkey's leg and began to pick it, only ceasing when he heard the widow move away and speak again. " Poor fellow," she soliloquized loudly. " I expect he's had a bit of luck ! Been out on the prowl and got some sort of a bone to gnaw." She retired to the garden, banging the door behind her. " Goo ! What a tongue ! " muttered McQuat. He tried the leg again. Then, finding his appe- tite gone, he rose and slouched round in an attempt to put the room straight. A hungry miaow called his attention to the cat. Going to the cupboard, he took the animal out of its basket and examined it. It was WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 209 undoubtedly what he had sought, a perfect speci- men of a male tortoise-shell. A look in its amber eye a look he did not admire he put down to hunger, and offered it the turkey's leg. Its blank refusal of this half-finished dainty caused him to wonder what male tortoise-shells fed on, until the animal answered the question by biting him severely on the thumb. He dropped it before you could say "knife," but found time for a shorter monosyllable. His attempts to recapture the cat, during the next ten minutes, afforded an excellent illustration of the proverb, " It is easy to stoop and pick up nothing," and when at last he had it in his grasp he did not rest until it was safe in the cupboard with the door locked upon it. He was free then to sit down, a condition which throughout life he had considered as essential to happiness. Dropping into a chair, he began with the aid of his bottle to plan his programme for the day. A survey of the mosquito-net on the bed, which had parted at a seam rather than let the cat run up it, and of the broken crockery on the floor, confirmed his opinion that domestic animals were a mistake. He at once made up his mind p 2io WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL that his cleverest move would be to dispose of his newly-acquired pet to the Resident in exchange for the five hundred dollars with as little delay- as possible. After a warm day spent in straight- ening up his little apartment he left the bun- galow towards nightfall and made his way to the Residency. Once in the open, the events of the previous night began to assume a bulk which they had not so far done. For the first time since his arrival i'i Jallagar he was actually glad when his acquaint- ances looked the other way. For the day succeeding a first-class burglary there seemed but little stir in the hot streets. People sat in their doorways and basked, the Chinese fruit and lemonade sellers wrangled as calmly as ever. But McQuat eyed them all sus- piciously. It was only when he saw a policeman laughing that he felt more at ease. Later he saw another laughing also. The double assurance of safety was extraordinarily comforting, and he was actually whistling a cheerful tune between his teeth as he walked up to the Residency. His exit was not equally spirited. The Resi- dent, who looked ill and worried, informed him WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 211 shortly that he had offered five hundred dollars for the first tortoise-shell male, but not for the second. He went on to say that some one else had obtained a tortoise-shell male, and was to deliver it at the Residency that evening. He could make no offer at present for any other cat, but this was the single grain of comfort Alexis obtained he would take Mr. McQuat's address and communicate further with him if necessary. It struck the beach-comber when half-way down the drive that as a burglar he was not exactly wise in handing round his correct address. He turned back with the object of making good the error, thought better of it, and crawled slowly on towards home. CHAPTER XV THE failure to dispose of the cat that afternoon entailed certain disagreeable consequences which the humble beach- comber spent the first part of his journey in fore- seeing. It was a beast which ever since it had bitten his thumb he was determined not to have on his hands longer than necessary. The fact that it refused to eat, but drank greedily, a way of living which, as every experienced man knew was no way of living at all, was an additional reason for disposing of it quickly. Again, he had relied on the turkey to feed him until he received at least something on account from the Resident, and there seemed to be little chance now of any sale at all. Would he, after all, have to swallow Mrs. Vanderpump's insults to-morrow morning for breakfast in the hope that she would relent and give him some- thing substantial for lunch ? Never, he vowed, while there was a stone unturned in Jallagar. WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 213 True, there were few men left in the island to whom he had not already applied often for an emergency loan ; but money he would get from somewhere, or his name wasn't - He was passing the Post Office when rumi- nating thus, and the idea came to him to ask once again for letters. There were not any. The clerk was none too polite. He walked away down the steps and on. Looking at the ground, his head between his shoulders, with a fixed resolve to find some trusting lender if he had to go the length of searching every public-house in Jallagar, he turned a corner and ran straight into the gentle- man who, in his opinion, was the least likely to be that person of any, the young American. With great presence of mind McQuat stood still, feeling ostentatiously in every pocket " Dear, dear, mister," he ejaculated, " if I havena been and forgot. Lying at hame it is this very minute ! " "What is ? " asked Haliburton. " The money I owe ye. Just fancy now," he continued elaborately, " me forgetting that ! Ma heid's like a sieve ! " 214 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL "That's all right," said Haliburton J. with a laugh. " Any time will do. Well, I must be going on. I'm in a hurry." It had been the beach-comber's curse through life that he could never leave a job of this nature half done. " It's a pity ye're in a hurry," he remarked brilliantly, " or ye might have come along home wi' me and gotten what I owe ye." He relied on a refusal, but his knowledge of character did not extend to that of the Scientist. An invitation to visit the home of a poor white seldom offers itself to the political economist ; and the professor, disregarding his appointment, hastened to accept it. " It's very kind of you to ask me," he replied. " I will come with you at once." " But what about what ye was in a hurry for ? " inquired the flabbergasted Alexis. " Ah, that can wait," explained Professor Bliss, easily. " It was merely an invitation to tea at the club. I'd much rather have tea with you." " Tea with me ! " thought the beach-comber walking on in confusion. " Tea with me, tea ! " His head in a whirl, he observed the stranger WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 215 turn to the right about and walk like a policeman at his side. At once he found himself the subject of a volley of questions concerning his habits, all of which he considered unduly personal, and none of which he could answer to his own satisfaction. With a brain unused to doing two things at once he found it impossible to evolve a deep-laid scheme for getting rid of this annoying person and at the same time explain that, though he had half-a-pound of rice some days and not on others, he did not mean that his average consumption was five and three-twentieth ounces per diem. So he gave up all thought of escaping and, saying as little as possible, led the way to the bunga- low. He hoped that, once inside, a certain air of unwelcome which he felt confident of being able to lend to the place would cause the visit to be a short one. To help this plan he became afflicted as they walked on with a gruffhess which grew at last so alarming that the visitor stopped at the garden gate, produced a small box of cough lozenges, and invited him to suck one. Refusing the offer, the indignant Alexis led the way in. " A nice little place," remarked the professor, 216 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL looking round the small apartment with interest. " So er compact." He took the chair offered him and, leaning back, knocked his head smartly against the bed- post. " Ay, it's compact enough," admitted McQuat grudgingly. With a foot that insisted on being conspicuous he pushed the kettle a little farther under the bed and, breathing hard, took the chair opposite. " I used to have a place like this myself when I was a student," went on Haliburton J. pleasantly. " The only thing is that one's possessions do accumulate so. But my motto was, as I dare- say yours is, Mr. McQuat, * A place for every- thing and everything in its place.' ' " It is," assented Alexis gruffly. A noise like a faint miaow from the cupboard seemed to vouch for the truth of this statement. McQuat started in his chair and then sank back with a well-marked air of unconsciousness. " What was that noise ? " asked the professor sharply. "Noise?" echoed McQuat. "Oh, mebbe the hens outside." WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 217 " It sounded more like a cat. Ah, there it is again." The beach-comber, putting his hand to his ear, was rewarded by a faint miaow. " What is it ? A cat in the cupboard ? " " Oh, that," explained the beach-comber, twid- dling his fingers nervously in an endeavour to gain time. " Och, a cat ? No. That's a young leopard I've got. I'm trying to tame it." " Well, it would get tame in that cupboard," assented the professor drily. " Ay, that's the way we tame they leopards," agreed the beach-comber. " I shouldn't like to have a young leopard in my bedroom though," remarked the professor. " A young leopard," he added, looking at the cupboard curiously. " I've never seen one." " Have to keep it in darkness, it being a nicht animal," stated McQuat, rejecting the hint hastily. "I tried letting it out in daylight onst and it gave my thumb a gae cruel biting." He produced the thumb for the professor's inspection, and then, observing its dirty condition, thrust it hastily back into his pocket. " Strange how like the voice of this young 2i8 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL leopard is to a cat's miaow," went on the visitor, with annoying pertinacity. " But I suppose I am myself a little to blame for that. All sounds seem like a cat miaowing to me since that cat was stolen. Odd, isn't it, Mr. McQuat ? " Judging from the expression on the beach- comber's face it was the oddest thing he had ever heard of. " Och, the one that was stolen ? " he remarked feebly. " We're searching for it all over the place," went on Haliburton J. " We're bound to get it soon, and I pity the thief when he's caught. Hallo ! There's your leopard again. I should like to look at it." " It couldna be risked, sir," explained McQuat, trembling with anxiety. " The sun- light seems to turn it into a devil." " If I were you I should keep it quiet when the police come to search your bungalow," advised the professor. " It sounds like a cat." " Search my bungalow ! " gasped the beach- comber. "We may have to search every bungalow," explained the professor, allowing for the first time WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 219 a suspicious glance to fall in the direction of his host. " The police might visit you at any time." "They'll find nothing here," exclaimed McQuat. " Mr. Kamp can come himself if he likes. It beats me," he continued, with an air of innocence that seemed to himself lifelike, " how ony one could ha' the nerve to gae to the Post- master-General's and steal his cat, a cat that nae doubt he has had by him for years and years and was sae fond of. I know what it is, sir, to love a pet." He shook his head sorrowfully. " Steal the Postmaster-General's cat ? " asked Haliburton J., in great surprise. " I didn't know it had been stolen." The beach-comber looked at him cunningly. This was evidently some trap. " I never knowed it had been stolen either," he said with a wary look, " until you tellt me." " But I never did." The beach-comber forced himself to smile unbelievingly and to shake his head. " The cat I'm referring to," explained the pro- fessor, " was one that was stolen from the mail steamer in broad daylight. Have you heard anything about that? " 220 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL He watched his host narrowly and, with some disappointment, noted that he denied all know- ledge of the robbery in a tone of voice and with an expression of countenance which told of nothing but innocence. There was little doubt. The man knew nothing. The professor hastened to apologize for hastily formed suspicions which had proved groundless. " But, as I said," he ended, " I've got c cat ' on the brain. Do you know, at one moment I was actually convinced that my male tortoise-shell was in that cupboard ? " The fervour with which the odd-job man ex- pressed his indignation at such a possibility was rather overdone, but the professor did not seem to notice it. On his side, Alexis observed that his visitor had made no inquiries about the debt he had been invited to collect. That was good. On the other hand, he showed no signs of going, and his eyes were busy taking in every feature of the little room. Not at all a desirable visitor. Alexis decided to give him a hint to go. " Let's have a doch and doris, as we say in WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 221 Scotland," said he, producing the bottle and trying hard to appear cordial. " I never drink champagne in the afternoon, as a rule," said the professor. He, however, suffered his glass to be filled. " Nor do I neither," confessed Alexis, lightly. " But I've had this bottle going on for a a week now, and we'd best finish it. Here's luck tae ye." He drained his glass with practised ease, and, his courage fast coming back, sat waiting for his guest to do likewise. But the American, sipping the contents of his glass, continued to sit. " Have you been long in the island ? " he asked. McQuat replied with gruff brevity. "Twenty years!" muttered Haliburton J. " And you are a Scotsman ? " "Ay, am I," assented McQuat, yawning elaborately. It seemed that he was destined to sit there all afternoon. " Then if that is so," pursued the professor, " you must have known my Uncle Campbell." The beach-comber, with a look of great * D 222 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL astonishment, jumped a foot from his chair ; then making an effort he succeeded in limiting the play of emotions beyond his entire control to his face only. " I've never met a man of the name," he muttered. "Never in Jallagar." " He's not telling the truth," reflected Hali- burton J., looking at him more suspiciously than ever. " He's a bad hat, this man is. He knows more than he admits about that cat, and he knows a lot about my uncle. I shouldn't be surprised, judging from his face, to hear he had murdered him. I shall have to be cautious." " You do not know or have not known any- one of the name of Campbell ? " he inquired in his best legal manner. " I do not," asseverated the beach-comber in an irritated voice. "Don't you believe him, sir," said a voice coming from nowhere. Both men jumped up in surprise. The beach- comber was the first to recover himself. " It's only an auld parrot next door," he explained anxiously. " I'll wring its neck when I get a chance at it." WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 223 " Parrot yourself! I'd rather be a parrot than a public-house vocalist anyway," commented the unknown in a voice full of indignation. " It isn't a parrot," said the professor with decision. "You've far too many animals about here, anyhow," he went on in a stern voice. " Even if your leopard is a leopard you've no business to keep it in that cupboard without taking out a dog licence. It's a question that will have to be seen into. Not that I want to act the spy in any man's house. But there are limits. Now tell me at once, please, what you know of the late Mr. Campbell." " Never haird any one mention the name." asseverated the beach-comber obstinately. He seemed determined to say nothing. It remained to be seen what threats would do. " Are you sure ? " asked the professor sternly. " Think again. Think while there's time. I'm convinced myself there's been foul play some- where. That person next door as good as says you know about it. If the police find that you've been connected with his disappearance it may go hard with you." " There hasna been ony person going by the 224 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL name of Campbell on this island," began McQuat in a queer voice, " but " He knows all about Campbell," came from the other side of the partition. " A strangely intelligent bird, that," com- mented the professor sarcastically. " Really I shall have to put the matter in the hands of the police." " He knows all about Campbell," continued the voice. " Ask for that letter in his top jacket- pocket from his mother, Janet Campbell." " What ! " ejaculated the professor in intense surprise. " His mother ! " " And if he won't give it you, read this one from the same party." With a tearing noise the reed wall close to the professor was burst asunder. A lemon- coloured hand at the end of a plump bare arm came through the orifice and thrust a well- thumbed piece of paper between the astonished professor's fingers. He glanced at it and at once recognized a handwriting that in his youth had been held up to him as a model. " My dear son," the letter began. There could be no doubt ! This was the lost relative, this ! WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 225 " So you're my old uncle," he began feebly, holding out his hand. " Well, well, how time goes on ! I'm glad to see you, glad to meet you so far away from the old country." " Now then, McQuat, say, * God bless you, my child,' " said the female voice from the other side of the partition. " I'll do nothing of the sort," said the Scots- man. " Look ye here," he continued angrily, turning to his guest. " Maybe my name is Campbell. I'm no saying it isna, And maybe you're my nephew. But that's no my fault. It canna be helped. Dinna ye cast it up to me and I'll no cast it up to you." " What do you mean ? " asked Haliburton J. " I say," returned McQuat, breathing hard and looking away. " I've got my own way of living. You let me alone. There's not a buddy in Jallagar that will like you the better for having me for an uncle. But one thing," he continued, after a moment's silence, "Gie me your word not to go writing o'er much to your auld fowk or talking in Jallagar aboot being ma nephew." The professor promised with some alacrity that he would not. - Q 226 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL " But we mustn't part like this," said he. "We must meet again." " I dinna want to meet again," returned the beach-comber obstinately. "Don't be a fool, McQuat," counselled the widow through the wall. "You hear what she says," urged the pro- fessor. " Come, I may be able to do you a good turn. We mustn't lose sight of each other. You won't ? Then shake hands, anyway." A duet that had threatened to become pathetic was now interrupted by the arrival of Mrs. Van- derpump, who insisted on shaking hands all round vigorously. Having done this, she announced that as, after all, long-lost nephews and uncles, she sup- posed, got hungry like other men, she would prepare tea and toast next door, and that if the professor and his uncle would do her the honour " I've only got one cup at the moment, sir," she went on, " but you can drink out of Mr. McQuat's and Mr. McQuat can drink out of a beer-mug, he's more used to it. I'll borrow your cup, McQuat, if you please." WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 227 Without waiting for permission, the bustling lady bent down and, before the unfortunate beach-comber had realized what she was doing, opened the cupboard door and put her hand inside. She at once withdrew it with a terrified scream. "There's something in there. It clawed me," she called out. " What is it ? " As if in answer to her inquiry there arose a violent commotion inside the cupboard, a half- carved turkey dropped with a thud on the floor, and there sprang out after it a yellowish object that streaked across the room, clambered, scratch- ing, up the wall and out of the window. " It is the cat leopard ! " shouted the beach- comber excitedly. " Stop it ! " They ran to the window and watched it tear down the strip of garden. Before disappearing over the fence it turned and surveyed them malignantly. For an uncle and nephew newly met, the two were strangely silent at the widow's little tea-party. It was a mental picture of the yellow- striped animal as it paused at the garden end that held them silent. They were both of them wondering if a young leopard looked like a tortoise-shell cat. CHAPTER XVI A SECOND search after tea of the garden and immediate neighbourhood having failed to reveal any trace of the run- away, the beach-comber bade adieu to his nephew with a mixture of feelings in which politeness for- tunately predominated, and turned to the re- arrangement of plans now completely disorganized. It was a work that required for its execution a deal of silent thinking about the future. Think- ing aloud about the past and his misdeeds was of no assistance whatever, although Mrs. Vander- pump seemed to have an idea it was. After an effort to change her tune by an accusation that she did nothing else but harp, harp, harp, he repaired to his own quarters. There, irritated and perspiring, he sat with closed eyes laying plans that seemed always too addled to hatch, and at last went early to sleep, thoroughly tired of staying awake. About ten o'clock he was aroused by a rat-tat WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 229 on the front door of his bungalow. Putting on some clothes, he hastened to answer the summons. The tapper was a Malay lad in the red Government House uniform. He had no letter, but carried a message from the Resident that Mr. McQuat was to call at the Residency next evening bringing the cat with him. "The Resident is now angry about we know not what," the servant added in answer to a ques- tion. "There will be much trouble for you if you fail to come." " And do you know what I'm angry aboot ? " asked McQuat of the dimly lighted doorpost, after staring stupidly in the direction of the retreating messenger. " Och, ye dinna ! Well, tak' that ! " Grving rein to his desire to hit somebody or something, he gave the post a slap. It was a hard slap, but it failed to flatten a nail in the post that he had not before noticed ; and he spent the next five minutes in taking part in a circus, the floor of his apartment doing duty for the ring, the mosquito curtains of his bed serving once as a hoop. Exactly what animal he represented was not clear. In his own mind he figured as a tiger, but Mrs. Vanderpump, if the fact that she rapped 2 3 o WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL on the wall twice and told him not to be an ass was any guide, had other views. When he sat down after a while, breathing hard, he began to think hers was the clearer vision. The sudden demand of the Resident upon him necessitated another change of plan. The plan that once laid takes time to mature but per- forms this act without assistance was the sort of plan he liked. But in the present instance some- thing very different was called for. How to catch a male tortoise-shell cat before next evening, that was the problem. After pondering on it whilst sitting and whilst pacing the floor, he at length lay down, his brow knit, in a final mighty effort after a solution. An answer came in course of time, or rather the semblance of one. He lighted the hurricane lamp, fished out from a drawer a long piece of string, and tied one end of this string to the window shutter. Then selecting a shorter piece of string, he slung it over a whitewashed roof beam near the window. Next he walked slowly and deliberately over to the cupboard. He listened. The house was silent. A faint snoring from the adjoining apartment indicated that one WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 231 spy at least was laid low. With a smile of satis- faction he bent down, and feeling in the cupboard brought out the unfinished turkey, tied it to the shorter string, and hoisted it level with the window- sill. Then extinguishing the lamp and thrusting the window-shutter outwards, he picked up the end of the long string and, crouching in a corner, waited. It was a hot, dark night, and what stars there were shone tremulously through the light veil of cloud that filled the upper air. That there were cats about he was certain. His back-yard he had never known empty of them after sunset. If the number of fights that took place there was any guide, it seemed to have been long ago selected, regardless of his convenience, as the cat duelling-ground for all Jallagar. But on this particular evening the neighbour- hood was free of caterwauling. From the look of things one might have thought that some spiteful person had issued a warning to all cats concerning him. He felt it was better thus. The truant tortoise-shell would feel more inclined to venture back in search of food if undisturbed by strangers. 232 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL He wondered if the animal knew that food was hanging there for it. He himself did, the turkey having been dead long enough to make its presence noticeable. Cats, he recollected, had at best a poor sense of smell ; but even a nose- less cat ought to have been able to smell that turkey. Directly he had opened the window a horde of mosquitoes in wait outside had streamed in and pounced on it like one man. They were still coming in. In fact, they seemed likely to be the only visitors that night. What felt to him like an hour had now passed. His hand was cramped from holding the string, his chest, having performed a like office for his breath, was in a similar condition. At last he arose, his rusty legs aching under him, and was about to light the lamp and hang it beside the bait in a last attempt at success, when suddenly, coming from close to the window, he heard the loud miaow of a cat. He crouched hurriedly. There was another hungry miaow, a scuffle, and a huge cat jumped on to the window- sill. As it stood there silhouetted against the pale darkness, the highly excited beach-comber had no difficulty in recognizing the tortoise-shell. WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 233 With a snarl it sprang at the turkey. A dull crash followed as bird and beast fell to the floor together. The exultant McQuat pulled-to the window and made a pounce at a dim object on the floor, an object which proved on examination to be the turkey. He was about to fling it away in disgust, when the trapped pussy, which had been lurking under the bed and was probably indignant at what seemed to be an attempt to rob it of its prey, sprang at him and clawed his nose severely. This duty performed, it tried to retreat ; but McQuat gripped it hard and, despite a struggle, bore it to the cupboard and hastily slammed and locked the door upon it. He then in triumph drained the bottle of champagne to the dregs, afterwards carefully draining the dregs also. Five minutes later he was in bed, wooing a slumber which he felt he had earned but which apparently was not to be bought. t, It was scarcely more than dawn when he sprang up and went to examine his prize. No sound came from the cupboard, but when he removed the key and put his ear to the hole he 234 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL heard the hiss of breathing distinctly. From its regularity he judged the animal to be asleep a judgment which he found, on cautiously inserting a hand through the door, to be hideously wrong. Another attempt met with no more success. On the third he managed to catch a leg with a whirlwind at the end of it, and dragged his prey into the light. The next moment and he had thrust it back, banged the cupboard door, and, regardless of the ears of the neighbours, was getting rid of a multi- tude of adjectives accumulated during an intensely irritating night. By some amazing miracle, that seemed to have worked backwards, the tortoise-shell had turned while he slept into a large sandy and red tom-cat which for two years, at any rate, had been the terror of the neighbourhood. " Now then 1 Now then ! " cried the widow sharply, rapping hard on the wall. " When you've done ! What are you doing now play- ing at being an earthquake ? " " I've got something here what's annoying me," explained Alexis shortly. " 1 thought from the sound that the monsoon WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 235 had burst in your bedroom," jeered the widow. " Don't get angry on an empty stomach," she continued cheerfully. "If you feel that you must bite something come and bite breakfast. I'm getting it ready now. There's eggs, toasted rice-cakes, and a cup of coffee waiting ; and if you come quick I'll open a new tin of condensed milk. What ? Aren't you speaking this morn- ing ? Come along now, there's a good boy ; what's the good of being sulky over nothing ? I'm good friends." " But I'm not," snapped the beach-comber. " Oh yes, you are," chirped Mrs. Vander- pump. " You only feel sad because you've been bad, as I used to tell the late Mr. Vanderpump nearly every morning. If you feel sad you may come to your breakfast with your black tie on ; and, if that's not enough for you, give me an hour to boil a pail of water and I'll dye you black all over." " Oh, ye'd dye me, would ye ? " " Yes, I would." " What would ye dye me with ? " asked the beach-comber, suddenly struck with an idea. His voice sounded gruff. But the change in 236 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL his expression was astonishing. In spite of the frightful adventures of the night, his face now was that of a man unexpectedly dowered with happiness. " No nonsense, you great booby," called out the widow. " Are you coming ? " " Ay, I'll be there," cried he, still preserving with a struggle his surly tone. Events that happened about him throughout the morning are best shown cinematographi- cally : First scene. Beach-comber to be seen engaged on the remarkable occupation of washing before breakfast. Glimpses of beach-comber dressing ; hatless, entering widow's bungalow ; seated in back parlour, sunlight shining in, looking very hot, fanning, talking, widow voluble, beach- comber listens with a cunning smile. After a while gets up, goes out. Widow looks after him, and then with demure smile gazes on ground. Second scene. An empty beach, a low tide, narrow sandy shore, deserted but for innumerable hermit-crabs. Other small crabs run about at enormous speed. At the back coco-nut palms WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 237 planted thick, their grey weathered trunks stand- ing, all with the same slant landwards, their roots showing. Above, an impenetrable wall of olive green, backed and topped by a hot, quivering blue sky. Farther on, the sand gives way to black-grey mud in which other and larger crabs have built cone-shaped castles, the size of mole- hills. Between these nests, spikes of young mangrove plants project from the mud like por- cupine quills. The coco-nut palms now give place to dwarf mangroves, oddly twisted trunks growing out of many-pronged external roots, fruit like gherkins, leaves of emerald green among the branches. Beach-comber appears with axe, and stripping bark from the mangrove trees, ties it in bundle and walks away. The vibrant white light and the strongly defined shadows give an impression of unbearable heat. Third scene. The main street of Jallagar, similar white light and black shadow. A Chinese shop, so full of goods that a customer can hardly move, with Chinese shopmen bare to the buff sitting cross-legged beside counter and doing sums on the abacus. Beach-comber enters and purchases some chemical that is carefully weighed 238 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL out. No money passes, the beach-comber's credit being apparently good. Fourth scene. Through the glaring sun, beach-comber toils home with purchases. He enters small bungalow. The door shuts. CHAPTER XVII IT was high noon when McQuat returned to the bungalow, high noon of one of the hottest days within his remembrance, a black noon when the earth was parched, when trees and bushes were shadowless, when the room was hot and he was hotter, and every bottle in the house was empty. He poured a little water from an earthenware chatty and sipped it gingerly, determined that although such a drink might degrade him it should not dilute him. Then, recognizing that the job before him was a long one and no time was to be wasted, he picked up the bundle of mangrove bark and disappeared through the back door. The art of dyeing the domestic cat, although well known to the ancients, is new to Malaya. To the beach-comber, indeed, dyeing of any sort was in the nature of an experiment But all life 2 4 o WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL is more or less an experiment, and he did not fear to face the difficulty. Whistling through his teeth, he bent down and chopped the man- grove bark into small pieces. It was a laborious business, rendered peculiarly irritating by the fact that the kitchen chopper, true to its race, spent most of the time in losing its head. By the time his task was completed, he seemed to have passed hours in bending and unbending, and realized how tired a caterpillar must feel about its waist. The chips had next to be collected, placed in his largest saucepan and boiled with water for twenty minutes. The chemical some compound of iron in a smaller saucepan had, according to the instructions received at breakfast, to be brought to a boil at the same time. In the o accomplishment of this seemingly easy operation the anxious Alexis, now thoroughly on his mettle, produced a blaze on the raised clay hearth of the little reed-built cookhouse so mighty as to threaten to fire the roof. He spent ten minutes, stick in hand, standing on the hearth and putting out sparks ; and only descended when, owing to the intense heat, he found himself in danger of coming WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 241 to the boil before the contents of the sauce- pans. Luck favoured him ; the fire died down and became a mass of glowing charcoal. By dint of careful stirring he brought both pots to the boil together and carried them off to the bath- room, a small windowless lean-to next door to the kitchen. It was when he came out again, having arranged the operating theatre to his satisfaction, that Mrs. Vanderpump who had marked the fierce smoke of the kitchen fire from some dis- tance off and hurried home caught a glimpse of his busy figure. Looking through a crack, she was astonished to see him, very red in the face, emerging again through his back door and holding tight to a fiercely resisting sandy-red cat. He entered the bathroom and shut himself in. Listening intently, she heard a sound of scuffling succeeded by a series of faint miaows. " It'll soon be over, and a good riddance," she soliloquized. " He's caught that great tom- cat and he's drowning it. My, he's getting full of beans nowadays, isn't he ? " She continued to listen. It seemed to require 242 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL a deal of drowning, did that animal ; but she remembered its fine physique and allowed the beach-comber plenty of time. But the miaowing after a time became so much more insistent that she had to give up her theory of murder being done and search for another explanation. An idea that he was washing the cat was dismissed as improbable. Teasing it equally so, for she had never seen the beach-comber unkind to dumb animals. The problem was difficult, and, as five feet of garden separated her eye from the nearest crack in the bathroom wall, she would have let it remain unsolved had she been anxious merely to satisfy her curiosity. But on a particularly loud miaow succeeded by growls coming from the secret chamber, feel- ings of humanity, which even chicken-killing never atrophies, clamoured insistently. She brought a pair of steps and, scaling the garden fence, applied her eye to a crack in the bathroom wall, a crack she had noted before and had often longed to use. The beach-comber had just managed to get WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 243 the cat tied by its four legs to a stout stick, and was now proceeding to pour cooling water into the two steaming saucepans. A peculiar sweet odour that accompanied the escaping vapour she recognized as that given off by the extract of mangrove. She at once realized that Alexis was putting into practice knowledge cunningly gained from her that morning. Highly interested, she pressed closer to the wall in an endeavour to attain a wider field of vision, and succeeded in catching a glimpse of a coat and shirt hanging from a nail. Alexis in a ragged bath-towel only, and with trickles of perspiration running over his absorbed face, had now come to the conclusion that the contents of saucepan one were cold enough, and, squatting on the ground, dipped in a forefinger carelessly. He withdrew it at once with a sup- pressed yell, and in an excited search after coolness thrust it into the other saucepan. The surprise he exhibited when the finger came out a dirty black nearly made the widow burst out laughing, but with a struggle she managed to confine herself to a smile, and watched with intense amusement the annoyed 244 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL experimenter pop the finger into his mouth and solemnly suck it for some thirty seconds. To his obvious disgust it came out looking if anything blacker than ever. After gazing at it consideringly for some time, he dropped it with the air of a man who has done his best and, seizing the cat, thrust its tail into one saucepan, whipped it out, and dipped it into the other. This treatment turned an animal now apparently resigned to its fate into an incarnate fury. Realizing probably that whilst it had nine lives it only had one tail, it made a terrible effort, bent like a contortionist, burst a series of knots, and twine that looked strong enough to hold a tiger, and ran off, nearly upsetting the two saucepans. The delighted widow had now the pleasure of witnessing a game of puss in the corner as played by a man and a real cat. The latter gave a performance of great brilliancy. The man supplied the dash, or what is usually represented by a dash in works of fiction. He looked a loser all over until the sandy and red made a false move and was nearly cornered. It was then, on seeing the animal make a spring and WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 245 catch the valiant McQuat by the bath-towel, that Mrs. Vanderpump withdrew. Returned to her parlour, she brewed tea, and, sitting and sipping, exhausted herself in an attempt to put two and two together, an attempt which she renewed later when she espied the secretive Alexis walking triumphantly up and down in the hot, sunlit garden, leading a dejected, damp, and thoroughly cowed animal on a piece of string. Try as she would, she could not understand the beach-comber's sudden passion for cats, dyed and otherwise ; and, as the comprehension of her neighbour's business was to her a mainspring of life, she could not resist trying the effect of a direct question or two. With this object she hurried into her garden, but the accidental slamming of a door defeated her intention, and looking over the fence she had the mortification of seeing the modest beach- comber retiring with stealthy quickness into his own abode. She strolled patiently up and down until a sudden issue of smoke from the cook-house warned her that there were other means of drying things than by the sun. Later, her curiosity still 246 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL unquenched, she saw the beach-comber leave the bungalow. She noted that his dress was neat, for him, and that he carried a bag. His direction was towards the town. The luck that had brought Alexis through an eventful day did not desert him now. His toilet had been hurried, and his mirror, none of the best, had not told him everything. He was un- aware that his right eye had received its share of the dye until by mere chance an acquaintance met him and with rude laughter drew his attention to the fact. It would have been fatal to have interviewed the Resident in such a condition, and he hurried into the shop of a friendly Chinaman, who, after an examination, rubbed the affected part with a coco-nut husk dipped in a solution of soap and lemon. It was a painful cure, but McQuat bore it with fortitude. Frequent stoppages to wipe away unbidden tears delayed his subsequent pro- gress, and he arrived on the Residency lawn at the moment when the short tropical twilight was beginning to fade into night. It was an excellent light to sell male tortoise- shell cats by, and he felt pardonably jubilant as WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 247 he walked up to the Resident on the lawn and, with an impressive air, turned his purchase out of the bag. It was a cat, he felt, that did him credit, a cat worth five hundred dollars any day to a person who needed such an animal. He determined to ask six. " What an extraordinary creature ! " burst out the Resident, after a long stare. " Not another like it in the wurrld, sir," re- turned McQuat, with an air of great satisfaction. " When I got it last nicht, I says to maself, * If Mr. Vannery wants the real thing, well, here it is." " Last night ?" exclaimed Mr. Vannery. "It was two or three nights ago that you said you had it." " I had it, sir, then," corrected the beach- comber hastily, " but I hadna properly got it. It was only last nicht that I got it properly." " You mean * bought it ' ; I see," said Mr. Vannery, with an understanding air. "Where did you get it ? From a native ? " " It used to belong to a wumman living close to me," replied McQuat, truthfully. " But she didna want it." 248 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL " Not want it ! " echoed the Resident, con- temptuously. " Little she knows what she has missed. The markings are unusual," he went on in a loud voice, " but the shape of the animal^and its royal carriage are those of the true tortoise- shell male. Pick him up and give him to me." " He's very fierce, sir," pointed out the beach- comber, warningly. " Pick him up, then, and hold him tight your- self," ordered the Resident. " Who's that by the steps?" he continued, raising his voice. "Oh, it's you, Melita. Come here. I've got the cat. He's a remarkable creature." Melita walked quickly over the lawn and stood beside her father. McQuat loosed one hand and attempted to raise his topee and bow. The " re- markable creature " took advantage of a long- sought-for opportunity, and gave him a vicious pat on the right cheek. " What a fine, lively animal ! " remarked the Resident, approvingly. u He ought to stand the climate well." " Too lively, I think," cried Miss Vannery. " Aren't the markings, also, a little lively for a tortoise-shell ? " WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 249 " Not at all," said Mr. Vannery, decidedly. " I've been looking closer," he went on, " and I have come to a conclusion about the markings. They have a meaning, I'm convinced of it. Look, for instance, at the round black mark encircling the right eye. That would mean that once the sun was darkened but now it is illuminant. Why, you ask, is it illuminant ? Simply because the ancient religion of Egypt is being introduced into the Malay Archipelago. Again exhibit the animal's right side, my man you see there a large black patch which Nature might have dabbed on with a brush ; but notice its triangular shape, notice its resemblance to the sacred pyramids. On the other side turn him again ; thank you we have what the uninformed would say were tabby markings gone wrong, but which I, who know, recognize as perfectly legible Egyp- tian hieroglyphics and a colourable representation of the temple of Ptah." " And I suppose the black tail means a melan- choly story ? " smiled Melita in a nervous effort after lightness. " How often have I asked you not to laugh at these solemn things ? " said the Resident, 250 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL passionately. " Now and here I forbid you once and for all to do so." Miss Vannery turned very pale, seemed about to retort, but said nothing. McQuat, indignant that so beautiful a creature should be abused, when asked what his price for the cat was, put it without hesitation at seven hundred dollars. f Melita left the two in heated argument, unable to agree. But a bargain was effected, for later she heard her father's shout of delight, and saw him rushing like a madman towards the house with the cat in his arms. CHAPTER XVIII THE Honourable the Postmaster -General of Jallagar and his household spent the remainder of the night of McQuat's visit in peaceful slumber. The water-carrier, coming in to sweep the veranda in the morning, was the first to discover that a robbery had been committed. He hastily called the second boy, who, running in half- dressed, at once discovered that the turkey as well as the new cat had disappeared. A message shouted in guttural monosyllables at the servants' quarters from the back door brought out the head boy, who, with all the calm- ness in emergency of his race, walked gingerly round his sleeping master and searched for traces of the robber. Finding none, he with the others adjourned to the kitchen, and at a general meeting decided that the safest plan would be for all servants to 252 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL go to bed again and let the sleeper in the dining- room awaken and find out his loss for him- self. Indignant astonishment, when, on opening his eyes about seven o'clock, he found himself sitting at a table laid for dinner with a large dish before him on which reposed one small sausage, aroused Adolphus. with the speed of an electric shock. He wasted some five seconds blinking at the lamp as it flickered and died in the sunlight, then rushed to the back entrance and began to shout. " Boy ! Boy ! Boy ! " There was no answer. The closed door of the cook-house stared at him peacefully. In the tender sunlight sleepy fowls picked breakfast with a languid air. Some little birds twittered in a mango tree close by. The restfulness of the simple scene seemed to intensify the fat Swede's irritation. He yelled for the boy again, but it appeared that an ordinary unqualified boy would not now satisfy his demands. It was necessary, one gathered, that the boy supplied him should be of a ruddy hue, clad pre- ferably in dripping gore. WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 253 " Boy ! Boy ! Come here, you boy ! Boy!" " All light, sir," answered a superlatively sleepy voice from the servants' bedroom. " If you are not come here in two minutes I vill wr-r-ing your neck," announced Adolphus majestically, going back to the veranda. It was a threat which the second boy had often heard uttered before, a threat which he had been in the habit of countering by taking at least two minutes and a half in which to arrive. But before sixty seconds had elapsed a loud howl and a roar of rage caused him and all the other servants to slip on jackets, unroll pigtails, and hurry into the bungalow. Gathered in a small body for defensive pur- poses, they watched with an air of great interest their master searching for the cat. Later, going to the rail, they were spectators of the continua- tion of the hunt in the garden. The search was unsuccessful, and Kamp, followed by the Malay gardener, returned to the house where he led the way to the dining-room, ordering them to come in after him. " Vere is my cat ? " he demanded fiercely, 254 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL after they had ranged themselves close to the door. Not a Chinaman among them knew. None were, it seemed, even aware that there ever was a cat. The second boy, on being pressed, admitted having seen something in a basket which might o o o have been a cat, but said that he did not approach to look, being of tender years and afraid. " You're a damn liar," shouted Adolphus, in a violent effort to frighten him. " You haf stole my cat. Vere is it ? Don't shake your head at me and grin, or I vill break every bone you haf. And vere is my turkey ? " " Perhaps you, sir, have eaten it," suggested the boy, hopefully. " Can 1 eat de bones ? " roared the fat Swede. "You can do anything, sir," chorused the servants as one man, flatteringly. The cook then interposed. In a glib speech he, to Adolphus's great irritation, held the balance of justice between master and servant. It was a balance which as held by him tilted perceptibly in what seemed to Adolphus the wrong direction. But neither master nor servant was to be con- sidered blameworthy, it seemed. In the cook's WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 255 opinion the fault lay with the cat, who plainly had got up during the night, as cats will, had stolen the turkey, and fled. " How could it steal anything and run away ven it vas in de basket- ? " queried Adolphus, irately. The reply of the cook that the animal must have been an extra strong one sounded particularly feeble, and Adolphus in a passion seized the sausage on the dish and threw it at him in a fury. The cook ducked and the missile caught the Malay gardener full in the face. With a cry of rage the man rubbed the fat from his eyes and, drawing his short pruning sabre from its rough wooden sheath, dashed at his denier. " Run, Tuan> it was a pork one," screamed the excited cook in Malay. But Adolphus, conscious that he had greased the face of the strictest Mohammedan in Jallagar, had already taken that precautionary measure. The servants, flocking out of doors, had an interesting five minutes watching their fat master running round and round the garden, with the Malay in hot pursuit and steadily gaining ground. At length, when in a spasm of terror the fugitive 256 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL took a short cut, stumbled on a creeper, and fell heavily, they judged it time to interfere. Two of them rushed forward, tripped up the enraged Mohammedan and sat on him. The others assisted their limping master into the house and to bed. A knee at first thought to be merely sprained, the doctor on arrival pronounced to be seriously dislocated, and ordered a thorough rest. It was an accident inconvenient from more points than one. It enabled Kamp, however, to give, in a letter, a good excuse for not presenting himself at the Residency that evening. An offer, in reply, to receive the cat without his escort he ignored, causing in the meantime a strict search for the missing animal to be instituted throughout the island. He managed to conceal his loss for a time, and it was not until after a personal visit in which no glimpse of the cat was vouchsafed that Mr. Vannery became distrustful, and, without a word to Adolphus, closed with McQuat's offer of a male tortoise-shell. The enraged gardener was carefully sat upon by the cook until cool, and then was allowed to rise. He demanded his wages, and left for town WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 257 to consult with the imaum about his defilement. In a lengthy conversation that venerable gentle- man warned him that shedding the blood of even a Swede was a dangerous proceeding, and advised him to seek other methods of vengeance. Two simple methods of effecting this latter suggested themselves at once, and the angry Malay spent the nights following in damaging his enemy's garden, and the days in slandering his name, to the delight of the natives and Eurasians of Jallagar. The dark-complexioned section of the inha- bitants were not the only ones to rejoice in the fat Swede's accident. On most of the Europeans also it seemed to act as a sort of tonic. Miss Vannery, noting the marvellous improvement in her father's mind now that Kamp's influence was removed, spent half the days in smiles. The' remainder of the time she devoted to entertain- ing a difficult-natured parent, with such success that he actually went to bed one evening without feeding his cats. True, he remembered the omission at midnight and roused the household. But she felt she had made a beginning and was delighted accordingly. The coming of McQuat's unique specimen s 258 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL disturbed a little the even course of the cure, and, casting about for a means of dispelling the abnormal interest her father was taking in his purchase, she at last decided to give a garden- party. At Mr. Vannery's suggestion she marked the invitations " In honour of His Highness." A sheaf of cards, posted by the Resident's en- thusiastic hand, received instant replies. All were acceptances, and at least one society leader looked up the back files of her lady's newspaper to see whether ostrich-feathers in the hair were a neces- sity at such a function. Some disappointment was expressed when the secret leaked out that " His Highness " was merely a cat, but it was evident that the day was to be a red-letter one, and most of the ladies t . ' seemed to have decided finally that, cat or no cat, it was their duty to do their share in colouring it. As the youth remarked to the girl in blue, who was now in pink and wore a wedding-ring, the Residency lawn was ablaze that afternoon with every shade of the alphabet. " I like you best," he continued, " in simple white." "You won't when you get the laundry bills," WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 259 she told him with a superior air. " Blues and pinks last ever so much longer." " If they don't raise my screw soon," observed the youth, " we shall both have to wear sack- cloth and eat hashes. Let's go and talk to the Bobbys." Mrs. Bobby, in a simple frock of emerald green, did not match the grass, and her husband, always a resourceful man, had on their arrival led her past the various shrubs that lined the lawn and seated her in front of the one which blended with her best. Standing beside her, he watched the evolu- tions of a crowd that was the largest, gayest, and noisiest he had ever seen in Jallagar. There was no room for tennis on the lawn that day. Vividly clad ladies , and men in dazzling white, moving slowly about, gave in the hot, bright sunshine the effect of a kaleidoscope. The sky was a gorgeous unspecked blue. The carved white walls of the Residency shone like enamel. Patches of creeper and brilliant red trumpet- flowers formed a background for the Resident and his daughter, who stood near the porch shaking hands with the latest arrivals. 26o WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL Mr. Bobby noted that Professor Bliss was standing with them, and that Melita, when she had time, talked to him vivaciously. He was about to call his wife's attention to the pair when the youth and the girl in pink came up. " Is this the grand stand ? " asked the youth jovially, " or are you practising for police duty ? " The Superintendent of Public Works replied grimly that he preferred standing so long as he did not have to stand his questioner. He in- quired how the girl in pink had done it for the past fortnight. But the bride was too busy admiring Mrs. Bobby's new frock to notice the witticism, and, listening in his turn to her remarks, he was proud to discover that what he thought was a hideous green was the very shade that at that moment all London was wearing. " Come and play croquet," suggested the youth. " It's at the other end of the lawn in the shade. It'll do us good." " Yes, do, Mrs. Bobby," urged the girl. " I shall play with your husband. He plays mag- nificently." WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 261 Smiling, the Bobbys suffered themselves to be led across a blazing, crowded lawn where every one had a word for them. They had got through a game of croquet when tea came. The two men brought chairs, then cups and a tray with cakes and Pelung confectionery. Mr. Bobby was silently sucking his fourth chocolate when he observed, coming along the drive within twenty yards of them, a highly- coloured figure wearing an exceedingly small straw hat. The figure stopped directly his eye caught it, and bending, looked along a massive walking-stick. Having taken a bearing, it got under way again and steered a bee-line for the lawn. " Whoever is it ? " asked Mrs. Bobby. " I've never seen a man walk so straight before." " Perhaps he's a tightrope dancer practising," suggested the youth. " He looks more like a man who's used to walking along chalk lines in police-stations," re- marked Mr. Bobby. " Ah, I thought so." The man had reached the edge of the lawn and with his eye fixed unwaveringly on his mark a tree behind where the four sat walked on, 262 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL his head held rigidly at a level which he appeared unwilling to alter. When he came to the grass bank, in order to preserve this level he made an obstinate attempt to walk on air, failed hope- lessly, and fell full length on the lawn. He at once picked himself up, rescued his hat and stick, and, turning, gazed sternly and reproach- fully at the grass bank. Disgusted apparently at the sight of so much treachery, he turned round again, and, observing for the first time the Bobbys' party, lifted his small hat with a flourish and advanced towards them. He at once stumbled over a croquet hoop. He got up, and, with surprising alert- ness, picked up hat and stick once more. Before again setting out, he gravely replaced the hoop in the ground. " Tae the de'il with all these public parks say I," he observed to Mr. Bobby on drawing near. " A gentleman canna gae walking on a bit o' grass without there's a whin hoops putt there to break his neck so as he willna gae on the grass ony moir." " Yes, it's a dangerous place, this," agreed the youth. WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 263 "An' how's a' wi' ye the day ? " inquired the stranger, balancing himself on his stick, and giving forth a smile of benevolence. " Not so weel as micht be, I ken that fra' the look on your faces. Lots of fowk here ! " he went on solemnly. " Men, women and bairns, all en- joying theirsels this bricht summer's day. And Mr. McQuat's enjoying hisself wi' the best o' them. I'm Mr. McQuat." "That's right," murmured Mr. Bobby with a smile at Mrs. Bobby, who did not respond. " Yes, I'm joyin' a' richt," continued the man, gazing about him with an air of much interest. " Where's ma nephew ? " he continued suddenly. " Where's ma young nephew ? " " Your nephew ? " asked the youth. " I don't know. He's not here. Why not," he went on ingeniously, " search for him over there where all those people are ? That's where you'll find him, perhaps." The new arrival thanked him profusely, and staggered off in the direction indicated. Pre- sently, when a laugh of mingled amusement and indignation came from the thronging guests, the Bobbys and their friends rose and followed him. 264 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL " I wonder if he s found his relation ? " muttered Mr, Bobby to the girl in pink as they gently forced a passage through the crowd. " He has, by Jove, and it's the professor ! Well, I always heard Bliss had a rich uncle ! " " Rich uncle ! " whispered a pimply gentle- man next to him. " Why, it's McQuat, the beach-comber. He must have struck it lucky. And, isn't he well-oiled ! Not 'arf ! " The highly interested spectators closed in and listened to the affecting speech that the uncle was making. " In Pelung ma name was Campbell," McQuat explained solemnly to the world in general. " An' this great big gawkie is my wee nevvy Haliburton. Many's the time I've dandled him on my knee or would ha' done if he hadna been in America and me in Pelung. But the wurrld's a sma' place when it's a case of uncle and newy wanting to meet. We've managed it at last, an' an', I'm never going to leave him any mair. In fac' I've adopted him. Canna ye see how pleased he is ? " The professor was, every one saw, trying his best to look so, The crowd withdrew, leaving WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 265 uncle and nephew to the solitude two newly-met relatives would naturally desire. Forming a wide circle, it turned and observed the pair closely. Comment was none too kind, the uncle's loud check suit especially coming in for adverse criticism. " He seems to have studied the art of lecturing," observed the pimply gentleman to Mr. Bobby. " Bliss is getting it hot ! " McQuat stood for a minute or two longer in front of the professor addressing him and wag- gling a forefinger. Then, perceiving suddenly that the onlookers had left him, he instructed them to draw closer and keep off the draught. As they did not do so he seemed to have come to the conclusion that they were waiting to be enter- tained, for he at once took off his small straw hat and began his favourite song : " I have heard the mavis singing Its love-song to the morn." It was a favourite song with some of the audience until McQuat sang it. But his render- ing spoilt it for them for ever. He had reached the end of the first stanza and was apostrophizing 266 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL " Bonnie Mary of Argyle " at the top of his voice, when Melita came out of the Residency. She went across to where the professor was seated. He rose and spoke to her earnestly. The spectators perceived from the glances the couple cast at him that they were talking of the songster. They thought they noticed that Miss Vannery looked at first incredulous, and then, as she came over and joined Mrs. Bobby, faintly scornful. They thought, also, that they could detect a tired, slightly hopeless expression on the face of the professor. He sank back in his chair and waited for his uncle to stop singing. But that gentle- man, having successfully concluded his favourite song was, by way of an encore, beginning it again. It was at this moment that two persons ar- riving from different directions caused every one to forget for the moment both Bliss and the songster. First, the Resident was seen emerging from the Residency. He carried with the greatest care a large silk bag. Secondly, a ponderous figure, limping along with the aid of two sticks, came slowly up the drive. WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 267 " Why, it's Kamp ! " said Mr. Bobby. I thought he was safe in bed." " I wonder how he knew about it ? " mur- mured Melita to Mrs. Bobby. " I took especial care not to send him an invitation." With a deepening interest and some sense of mystification the now silent crowd watched the two converge toward the centre of the lawn, where still the unconscious songster sang. CHAPTER XIX THE Resident was the first to arrive. He held up the bag, smiling with a politeness which must have cost him something, sat down, and waited for the end of a song which he obviously thought was being given by request. His daughter, with the Bobbys and their friends, joined him unobtrusively, and feebly followed when at the end of the song he led the clapping. To sing before such an appreciative audience was a new experience for the humble beach- comber. He turned and bowed low, his small straw hat placed well over the heart and, de- termined that all should have their fill of the treat, began his song " Mary of Argyle " for the third time. Mr. Vannery, obviously disconcerted, rose, looked about him undecidedly, and reluctantly sat down again. An anonymous request from the back of the crowd that the singer should be WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 269 turned out, he answered by a lifting of the hand, An impatient audience realized that civilization has not yet invented a social rule by the aid of which a thoroughly determined vocalist can be compelled to cease his lay. Glasses of water held out the songster sniffed at and waved away. When the pimply gentleman threw him a dollar, he picked it up and, never for an instant ceasing to sing, bowed his thanks profusely. The disgusted giver was about to follow on with a heavy cushion when a roar at the extreme edge of the crowd announced the arrival of Adolphus. The fat Swede pushed his way through the audience without ceremony and, limping heavily, made straight for the Resident. " What is de game ? Why haf I not been told ? " he shouted in a voice audible all over the garden. A shiver of excitement ran through the crowd. Here apparently was another person in a state of intoxication. They observed the Resident rise and open his mouth to speak. He was at once shouted down by the latest guest. " Dere is a plot ! " yelled Adolphus. " I 270 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL know all ! I haf heard ! Vere is my cat ? I vill not be robbed ! " " Here, sit down, Kamp," said Mr. Bobby, coming towards him. " Don't get excited." " I vill not sit down," declared the fat Swede furiously. " You tink I will keep quiet and be sheated by you Englanders ? I vill have rights ! " " Mr. Kamp, Mr. Kamp, you're mistaken," declared the Resident in a soothing voice. " You talk like zat to me, oily tongue ! " yelled Adolphus. " You have stolen my cat and now you broduce it when you tink I am ill and asleep. But I am not asleep ! I am very wide awake indeed ! " " How dare you speak to me like that, sir ? " said Mr. Vannery in a loud voice. " Sit down at once or I will order the police to remove you." " You order de police to remove me ? You ? " screamed Adolphus. The vocalist, still busy with his song, noticed for the first time that there was some disturbance going on behind him. He turned majestically and, fixing the fat Swede with his eye, advanced to enlist the attention of this new arrival. WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 271 " Though your voice may lose its sweetness, And your eye its brightness too,' 1 he sang cheerfully, coming up close. Adolphus, with a glare of disgust, turned on his heel and, hobbling a few paces towards Melita, raised his hat. " Though your step may lose its fleetness, And your hair its funny hue," yelled the beach-comber, pursuing him. " What you say about my hair ? " demanded the Swede, who was rather touchy about its carroty colour. The singer ignored the question, and went on to tell a now thoroughly convulsed audience about the state of feelings he had for his questioner : " Still to me wilt thou be dearer Than all the world can own. I have loved thee for thy beauty, But not for it alo o one." At this point Mr. Bobby, fearing from the suffused purple of the fat Swede's face that he was about to have a fit, rushed forward, caught the vocalist by the arm and thrust him into a seat among an audience now almost ill with laughter. 272 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL A promise that he should be allowed to give another song later induced the indignant McQuat to a temporary silence. But it was plain that he felt badly treated in some way for, directly Adolphus spoke again, he was heard to murmur jealously to the person next to him that the man was singing flat. " You ask me where I bought the cat ? " said Mr. Vannery coldly to the Swede. " I am not obliged 'to comply with your demand for informa- tien, but I say that I got it from the gentleman who has just finished singing." " A beach-comb ! De lowest person in de island ! " cried Adolphus. " Not the lowest," shouted somebody. "British anyhow 1 " " Hear, hear ! " yelled the crowd. Adolphus turned to answer them. " You do not like me ! " he hissed. "We don't," shouted several young gentle- men heartily. " But 1 vill show you vat your British justice is. Now I challenge de Resident not when I am away as he hoped, but when I am bresent to open his bag dere and show de cat." WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 273 " Let me do it," cried Mr. Bobby. He looked inquiringly at Mr. Vannery and, receiving a nod of assent, picked up the bag and bore it silently to the centre of the arena. Not a whisper from the audience ! Those in the background drew closer. A dead silence reigned. Mr. Bobby, after a short one-handed wrestle with a knot, knelt and tried both hands. The girl in pink, having suggested in a whisper that the youth should lend the performer a knife, took her eyes from the bag and let them rest carelessly on the group near the Resident. She saw the calmness of Melita, the open mouth of Professor Bliss, the interested, merry expres- sion of Mrs. Bobby. She noted with disgust the air of pleasurable anticipation that sat on Kamp's large, oily face. Suddenly, and to her great pleasure, this face underwent a rapid change, the eyes opened incredulously, the jaw dropped with a clang. She turned and saw Mr. Bobby about to lead the tortoise-shell cat up and down for inspection. " Well, Mr. Kamp, do you recognize the cat? " asked Mr. Vannery, calmly. 274 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL " I do not," confessed Adolphus, staring hard at the animal. Neither, for that matter, did Mr. McQuat. The one he remembered was smaller and damper looking. A few days' good feeding and careful brushing had given his capture an opulent ap- pearance. It was sleek and plump and seemed very tame. Its coat shone. The dyed places had now deepened to a jetty black, and, so it appeared to him, positively sparkled. Blinking uncomfort- ably, he noticed the stained tail and the marks of his five fingers on the back. It suddenly occurred to him that other people might note this latter feature also. Glancing furtively down at his right hand he remarked with growing soberness its black appearance, and thrust it hastily into his pocket. Now in some anxiety he watched the Swede, and experienced a cold shiver every time a change of expression came over that gentleman's face. Those marks on the back simply courted detection, it seemed to him. " A lovely cat," remarked the professor to him. " Where did you pick it up ? " " I didna pick it up at all," he returned, on the defensive at once. " Them marks " WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 275 "Oh, I thought you did," muttered the pro- fessor, with a stare. " Every one told me that you did." " Then they said what wasna true," asseve- rated McQuat, doggedly. " I boucht it, that's what I did." An explanation that this was what the pro- fessor meant reassured him. As the cat, slowly travelling round the ring, received nothing but commendation, his alarms after a while fled and he became lively again. " I got the cat for a mere song," he announced to the general public in a loud voice. " It's a wonder you got it alive, then," cried somebody opposite. The beach-comber took the laugh that followed this remark as a compliment to his own sagacity, and proceeded to astonish the crowd with a des- cription drawn on the spot of the exact method on which he went to work to secure his treasure. The seller, at first stated to be a Malay, became by a mere twist of the tongue a Chinaman when it was necessary for the cunning purchaser to put on a little pressure by pulling a pigtail. The actual purchase was a proceeding too involved for even 276 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL the purchaser to understand, so it seemed from the story. However, the cat was there, that was . everything. A cry from the Swede now diverted interest again to the animal. The girl in pink, turning, saw that he had gone down on his knees and was examining its coat with the aid of a small magnifying glass. " Ach ! " he said, again lifting his head and staring slowly round him. His face, now lit up brightly by the fading sun, had taken on again, she noticed, a look of some triumph. " And vere," he asked, in an ominous voice, " is de shentleman who found de cat ? " " There he is," said one or two voices. A hundred pairs of eyes became at once fixed on McQuat. He felt them and shivered. " Will you step here, shentleman dat found de cat ? " asked the fat Swede, with an appearance of terrible calm. " What do ye want wi' me ? " asked Alexis, in an uneasy voice, standing up. " I want to see your hand," shouted Adolphus, rising also and shaking his fist. " I want to see WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 277 dat hand dat you have stuck like glue in your bocket. Dat hand is a black one, I am sure." " It isna," shouted McQuat, with a feeble show of indignation. " Dis is no tortoise-shell cat," went on Adol- phus to the Resident in an insulting voice. " Dis is a plain sandy cat dat has been dyed. De microscope shows de crystals of de dye on de hairs of de fur." " What ? " cried Mr. Vannery, looking dis- turbed. " It can't be true. No, I don't believe it!" " Dere was not much good of de old Egyb- tians braying to a cat like dis," said the fat Swede, with a meaning smile, gazing at him. " Yes, de cat is dyed, and dat hand stuck in de trousers bocket of de man over dere is de hand vat did de deed." He stooped, picked up his two sticks, and limped over to where McQuat sat. " Now, you beach-comber," he said threaten- ingly, " take your hand at once out of your drousers bocket and let me see it." I willna." " Why not ? " cried several. 278 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL " Because I willna," replied Alexis doggedly, giving the only reason except one that he had at his disposal at the moment. There was a murmur in the crowd. One or two dashed forward with the object, if their in- dignant demeanour was anything to go by, of making him do as the fat Swede wished. To their astonishment these found themselves confronted with the determined form of Professor Bliss. " My uncle is quite right," announced the new defender in a calm voice. " Your uncle ! " jeered Adolphus. " Yes, my uncle," said the professor. " This is a British island, and I have carefully studied British law," he continued. "You cannot legally compel this man to take his hand out of his pocket if he does not wish to do so. After a summons has been issued and the court have decided that it is in the interest of justice that his hand shall be examined, then, and not till then, you may bring forward your police and have the hand extracted by force. Use power before that, and my uncle will instruct his solicitors to take proceedings for assault and battery. I am WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 279 now going," he added, " to take my uncle home." " But den he vill vash his hand," pointed out the fat Swede angrily. " Such is the British custom," said Hali- burton J., winking solemnly at Mr. Bobby. " Come, uncle." It was a fine sight to see the nephew seize his new-found relation by the coat-sleeve and lead him gently away. The crowd, taking no notice of the fat Swede's petition that a policeman should guard the suspected man in order to prevent him from washing until his hand was examined in court, watched the pair steer a crooked course across the croquet lawn, mount the bank, and walk down the drive. They then collected round the cat. The persistent Adolphus had proposed to the Resident another test, and a servant was even now bringing across the lawn a bottle of vinegar. "What you call vinegar, we call in Sweden acetic acid," explained Adolphus in an excited voice as he took the bottle. " It vill dissolve many dyes. I vill now," he continued, bending over, " pour ever such a leetle drop on de fur 280 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL and rub it with my handkerchief. If de handker- chief shows black, den de cat is dyed." " Come closer," said Melita to her friends in a whisper. " We must look." They drew up behind the cat. " You vill observe," said Adolphus to the > Resident, " I pour yust one leetle drop on to de black of de animal. Zo He proceeded to tilt the bottle. " Oh, I've dropped my handkerchief," cried Melita. Stooping suddenly to pick it up, she collided with the fat Swede's arm ; the bottle tilted vio- lently and the cat received a good tablespoonful of vinegar on its eyes. To decide who resented the deplorable acci- dent most, Adolphus or its victim, was difficult. Both spoke at once, but the latter acted the quicker. Miaowing fiercely, it broke its string with a violent effort, and, dodging amongst the feet of the spectators, was across the lawn and half-way up a tree in a few seconds. It was a pleasant sight to see the great Adol- phus, with the vinegar-bottle concealed behind his back, stand in the sun at the foot of the tree WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 281 and try to coax the suspicious animal down. Some of the spectators, judging from the en- couraging comments they made, would not have minded if he had spent the entire evening on the seemingly hopeless task. But he gave it up after a few minutes, and returning, suggested that the beach-comber should be summoned that very day to appear before the court on the charge of swindling, and that a Sikh policeman should be placed under the tree to arrest the cat when it descended. The Resident readily agreed to the latter suggestion but demurred about the former. " I can't do that very well without better evidence," he answered. "Besides," pointed out the smiling Melita, " probably Mr. McQuat has washed his hands by this time. So in any case you'd be rather late." " Ah, you don't vant him to be arrested," shouted Adolphus, turning on her. "You are on his side. You, ven sending out invitations to dis barty did not send one to me. You alzo hit me on de elbow yust now and make de vinegar pop out. Perhaps you alzo dyed de cat ! You and your friend de American ! Pah ! " 282 WANTED- A TORTOISE-SHELL " Professor Bliss is not " began Melita, reddening. " If you think you ought to have a sum- mons, by all means have one," said the Resident angrily. " Yes, have one," echoed Mr. Bobby. " Have one, Kamp. And if you can induce the Resident to grant one right away, why, there is no reason to prevent its being served this very night. For here's the process-server coming up the drive now. Just," he ended with a mischievous look at Melita, "in the nick of time." " Zo he is," confirmed the fat Swede, peering down the drive, his hand over his eyes. " Der luck is goot. Ve vill haf de man yet. Mr. Vannery ? " " Send for the summons-book, somebody," said the Resident coldly. " I will make a sum- mons out." He sat down and gazed before him into vacancy. His face had taken on again the de- spondent look which Melita thought the past few days had banished for ever. " If it hadn't been for this dreadful Swedish creature," she said to Mrs. Bobby in an WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 283 exasperated whisper, " father would never have known the cat was dyed." " He doesn't know it yet," said Mrs. Bobby. " There is no need to worry, Melita." " It's most unfortunate the process-server coming here now," went on Miss Vannery. " He never does come to the Residency in the after- noon. What can he want ? I've no idea." " As a matter of fact," said Mr. Bobby in a low voice, "and strictly confidentially, the pro- fessor and I are to blame. We arranged it nearly an hour ago. I slipped over to the Residency myself and 'phoned them to send the man here at once." " But what for ? " " Wait, and you'll see," replied Mr. Bobby, with an irritating air of secrecy. "But I don't mind telling you privately that I feel rather sorry for Adolphus." Greatly encouraged by this last remark, Melita took a place near her father, and awaited the arrival of the most important official of the Jallagar service in a delightful state of curiosity. As official executioner to the Government, the process-server was held in deep respect by 284 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL the natives. There had not been an execution on the island for eight years. But no one knew whose might be next, and it was the fashion in dealing with the person who would be in charge of it to err on the side of politeness and gene- rosity. For seven years the present holder of the post had roamed about the island with the air of selecting a victim. Habit caused him to pre- serve this air even when serving a simple summons. Now in the presence of so many Europeans he was stately in the superior degree. His salute to the Resident, when he had solemnly advanced to the centre and put his heels together, was the salute of one king to another. The Resident saluted back ; and it was at once apparent, to the process-server, which king had the better manners. " What do you want ? " asked Mr. Vannery. "I want Mr. Kamp, Tuan Resident," replied the process-server with military simplicity. " It is my duty to serve a summons on him for aiding and abetting the stealing of goods, chattels, and live stock from the Sherrybung" " Vot is dis ? I am summoned ? " cried Adolphus, growing pale. Ta> Titan." WANTED A TORTOISE SHELL 285 " But dis is scheating ! " " I never signed the summons," remarked Mr. Vannery, looking bewildered. " I am as surprised as you are, Mr. Kamp." " No, sir, I signed it," said Mr. Bobby. " The case is quite clear," he went on sharply, addressing the fat Swede. " An Eurasian named Bunn came back to Jallagar with a valuable male tortoise-shell cat. You were in search of such an animal. A spy of yours your chief clerk, to be precise- " " He vas no spy of mine," burst out Adolphus angrily. " Wait a minute," urged the Resident. " Let Mr. Bobby finish." " He vas no spy of mine, I say," cried Adol- phus again. " This man reported to you ' " He didn't." "He says he did." He's a liar." " Reported to you that there was a tortoise- shell cat on board." " He did noding of de sort," yelled the Swede. 286 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL " Probably the same cat that's in the tree now." " It was not," shrieked Adolphus furiously, determined to leave no statement uncontradicted. " You will kindly note, Resident," proceeded Mr. Bobby in a calm voice, " that Mr. Kamp states that the cat stolen from the Sherrybung is not the one now in the tree." " 1 said noding of de sort," roared the Swede. " But you did, Mr. Kamp," said the Resident firmly. " I heard you." " I did not ! I am no liar ! " "I have taken a note of it," remarked the Resident in a severer tone than anyone had heard him use to the Swede before that day. " You will kindly remain silent while Mr. Bobby is speaking. Or, if you prefer it, we will postpone the discussion and I will deal with the matter officially in court to-morrow. You are quite sure of your ground, Mr. Bobby ? " "Absolutely," replied the Chief of Public Works. " I hold sworn statements from all witnesses. The case could not be clearer. If Mr. Kamp wishes," he went on, " I, too, shall be pleased to say what is to be said in court WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 287 to-morrow. I have no axe to grind. But what do you wish, Mr. Kamp ? " The fat Swede glared, began to speak, then faltered. " Say vat you vill. I vish to hear vat more lies you haf to speak," he said at last sulkily. " Very well," agreed the Resident. " Go on, please, Mr. Bobby." " Having heard that this cat was on board, Mr. Kamp, in his house with, unknown to him, his Chinese cook and boy as well as his Malay gardener listening on the other side of the door, bribed the chief clerk to drug Bunn, steal the cat, and bring it to his residence." " Dat is not true," cried Adolphus. "This was done," continued Mr. Bobby, taking no notice of the interruption. " And I saw the cat there," cried Mr. Vannery hastily. "Exactly. Fortunately for justice and unfor- tunately for himself, Mr. Kamp held high festival that night. He drank too much and went to sleep at the dinner-table. While he slept some one came and stole the precious cat. He awoke, discovered the loss, and accusing the Chinese 288 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL servants of complicity, took a pork sausage from a dish and threw it at the cook. It missed the cook and hit the Malay gardener in the eye. The gardener in great indignation sought out the Eurasian, Bunn, who came to me, offered proof, and was granted the summons. And that," con- cluded Mr. Bobby, " is the complete story." He sat down. " And now may I shpeak ? " cried the fat Swede. Mr. Vannery nodded coldly. " I say dis story is not true." " If you don't admit the truth of it, you have your remedy," said the cool Mr. Bobby. " Why not serve a writ on me for libel ? " " I vill go to Pelung ven I can do it, and you vill see what I do," cried Adolphus, blus- tering. " As you please," said Mr. Bobby. There was a short silence. Adolphus looked about him malevolently. " I vill stay in dis house no more," he screamed at last. " I am insulted ! I vill pay all out ! " He snatched up his two sticks and hobbled across the lawn. " Look out ! Take care ! " he yelled WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 289 in a last burst of rage on nearing the drive, turn- ing his head as he limped along. As if to emphasize the importance of follow- ing the advice he gave, he at once caught his foot in the last croquet hoop. He tumbled over, cursing loudly, picked himself up, and disap- peared. "And now that's over," cried Mr. Bobby, taking upon himself the charge of affairs for the moment, " I think we had all better go home. But before doing so, I propose I know it's a bit unusual, but the events have been unusual a hearty vote of thanks to Mr. Vannery for a most interesting afternoon. It's an afternoon which, I think, has done us all good, and if things go as they appear to be going " (A voice, " and people "), " and people, or rather one person, if you like, it's an afternoon well spent." CHAPTER XX PROFESSOR BLISS brought his uncle to a standstill for a moment in the drive, and turned to see whether his exit was still creating interest among those left behind. Perceiving that none, not even one, was paying the slightest attention to his doings, and that, indeed, the backs of all were towards him, he sighed gently, and set himself to the difficult task of steering a course in tow of a rudderless consort. Fate, he felt, had used him hardly. Had it been kind, had the process-server arrived a little earlier, his uncle might have escaped a shaming, and he himself been a witness of the exposure of his enemy. It is due to him to say that thoughts about the latter did not occupy him much, and that, indeed, he passed the process-server without notic- ing him. The fate of the gentleman on his arm was what chiefly concerned him, just as it was what chiefly concerned the gentleman himself. WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 291 McQuat's legs still had a strong tendency towards walking in zigzags, but his mind now showed no sign of wandering from the point. That he had never been in jail, but didn't mind if he was ; that they might give him six months, but that, whatever they said, he would refuse to labour hard ; these formed the chief topics of the first part of the journey. Later, as he became evaporated and less heady, his eagerness to defy the authorities dwindled, and he wondered if they would let him off with three months only. " D'ye think they'll let me off wi' three ? " he murmured in the professor's ear, sinking to the ground for the ninth time. " I could na thole mair." " It'll be six or nothing," returned Halibur- ton J. irritably. " Try and get 'em to make it naething," sug- gested the beach-comber, eagerly. " Ye see hoo it is wi' me. My legs are na what they were. They're no built for the treadmill onyway." " I can't do anything, I'm afraid," muttered Haliburton J., in a weary voice. " Ye can so," asseverated the beach-comber. As if to emphasize the statement, he stopped 292 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL short, pulled his arm away from its supporting hand, tilted the small straw hat well over his eyes, and gazed at the professor from below it with great earnestness. " Ye can that," he said again, laying a per- suasive hand on the other's chest. " That is, if ye're not o'er prood to help your auld uncle. Nae doot, being an American professor, ye're naturally a wee bit puffed up. But 1 ask ye, laddie, if it 'ud be nice for you, when ye're swank- ing and swaggering about with the heid yuns of the country, for them to know that your auld uncle is doing time in the jail close by ? " " It would not," confessed Haliburton J. with feeling. " But, if I may speak plainly, you'd be better in jail than rolling drunk about the street. Here, stand up ! " " I'll no stand up any mair," declared Alexis, making a dash and clasping his nephew about the neck, " unless you promise to gae to the Resident richt noo, and ask him on your bended knee no to be ower hard on your poor auld uncle." " Then you'll have to sit down, I'm afraid," said Haliburton J. shortly, trying to release himself. " I'll see what can be done, but I won't promise." WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 293 " It's no guid," muttered McQuat, holding on tight. " You maun promise." This scene occurred in the very centre of the town. The sight drew a small crowd at once, a crowd that momentarily grew larger. "Come along! Don't be foolish," urged Haliburton J. " I'll no come along," said the beach-comber, obstinately. " Who are you tae tell a man who micht 'a been your feyther, and is forbye yun of your ain kin, tae come along ? " "Look here," said Haliburton J., in despera- tion, " I'll promise to intercede for you at once. We'll go into my office right away, and I'll ring up the Resident on the telephone. But I'll only do it if you'll sign a pledge promising him on your part that, so long as he does not prosecute you for cat dyeing, you'll never touch intoxicants again." " Not to touch 'toxicants no mair ? " " Not another drop." " I couldna promise that. Not another drop ? Well, may I have a wee hauf a drop ? " "No." " Not even as a medicine ? " asked Alexis, still hanging on. 294 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL " Not even as a medicine." " Ye mak' a hard bargain," said Alexis, releas- ing his grip and standing up. " But, you being my nephew, I'll oblige ye. I ha' no alternative. It'll be better than doing sax months on the treadmill, onyway." " You promise, then ? " " I promise ye," said Alexis. " There's ma hand on it." The natives, disappointed at the tame ending of what at one time looked like developing into a free fight, drifted away. Having got his uncle into the office and into the only arm-chair, the professor went to the telephone and rang up Mr. Vannery. " Hello ! Is that the Residency ? Yes can I speak to Mr. Vannery ? " " Who is it ? Oh, you, Professor Bliss. Well?" It was Melita speaking. Even through a mile or two of wire her voice sounded to him cold and disappointed. " I wanted a word with Mr. Vannery." " Is it urgent ? He's not at all well." " I'm so sorry." WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 295 " It's not your fault," she acknowledged coldly. " But I'm afraid your uncle has a good deal to do with it." " I have him with me now. I know he's sorry I don't think he " began the professor. ' ' The damage is done/' said Melita, distantly. " Can I take any message for my father ? " " I was going to venture to intercede for my uncle," said the professor, in a hesitating voice. " He did wrong in dyeing the cat, but the money tempted him, and I'm afraid he drinks a good deal. Do you think if he promised to start afresh and became teetotal the Resident could be induced not to prosecute ? " " I think I can say he won't prosecute." " Oh, thank you." " Not at all. You see Oh, perhaps you haven't heard ! There's no evidence. The cat is dead." " Dead ! " exclaimed the surprised professor. " But," he went on, " the fur is there for testing." " No, it is not," returned Melita. " The cat has gone for good. When the people left, my father ordered the Sikh policeman stationed at the bottom of the tree to climb it and bring the 296 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL cat down. The cat saw the man's turban slowly coming up the tree towards it, took fright, jumped off the tree and ran up another tree that hangs over the lake, and then out on to a thin, rotten branch. The branch snapped and the cat fell into the lake. Before it had swum a yard the large crocodile which my father brought from the Nile seized and swallowed it." " Extraordinary ! " exclaimed the professor. " It is," agreed Melita, " and most upsetting to my father. Is there anything else ? " "Then, in the circumstances," said the pro- fessor, u there can be no objection to my promis- ing my uncle that if he turns over a new leaf, as suggested, the Resident will not prosecute ? " " Not in the least," said Melita. She rang off. She rang off, and the downcast professor, armed with an official piece of paper, went back to his relative. An hour later he had deposited him at the bungalow and was walking home with the signed pledge in his pocket. He had no great hope that the signing of this promise would have any great effect on his uncle, WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 297 but inquiries made during the next few days showed that, strangely enough, the pledge had not been openly broken at any rate. The truth was that Mrs. Vanderpump, having had one sleepless night after McQuat had received payment for his cat, and determined not to have another, had entered the house next door when her neighbour was away and taken all the money she could lay hands on. A knowledge that the beach-comber had a hiding-place under a certain loose board in his parlour aided her considerably in this task. She had robbed the place before, and handed the proceeds back to the rightful owner in small doles when he became fit to use money again. This time the sum she found surprised her. She returned to her own side of the bungalow carry- ing a handkerchief heavy with dollars. On that evening, and again on the following morning, she waited patiently for Alexis to raise an outcry and come to her for something on account. But neither of the expected events happened. She heard the beach-comber whistling to himself lugubriously as he moved about his quarters, and applying her eye after a time to her 298 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL favourite peep-hole, was slightly astonished to see him " tidying up " with a thoroughness that was new. A longing to applaud that awoke within her withered an hour or so afterwards when, on leaving a hen-house at the bottom of the garden, she had to duck out of the way of an empty beer-bottle thrown by an unseen hand. Another followed, and a hoarse, melancholy voice began to sing the well-known song, " Mary of Argyle." Peeping over the wall, she caught the beach- comber in the act of hurling the third bottle. " You seem to be busy," she said in her most sarcastic voice. "I am," said Alexis simply. "A'm makkin' a guid job of it. I ha' done wi' all these vanities," he went on, indicating with his foot a row of empty bottles he had collected. " I'm biddin' 'em good-bye to-day, for now I'm a tee- totaller the very sicht of 'em irritates me." " Are you a teetotaller ? " " I hate the very smell of it," declared the beach-comber violently. " That's funny." " As for the taste ! " continued the enthusiast. WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 299 " Awa', ye spawn of the de'il," he went on, fling- ing a third bottle over the wall in sudden fury. " Good-bye to ye, auld friend, I shall handle ye nae mair." " Hush ! " said the widow. " I've got a sitting hen. You'll frighten her." " Is she in the end house ? " asked McQuat, peeping over the wall. " No, that's something that's another pen," said the widow, slightly confused. " Yes, I'm trying meat," she continued, in answer to the question she thought she read in his eye, holding up her basket for inspection. " Meat makes hens lay, you know. Now, come along in and have a cup of tea, Mr. McQuat, and tell me what you've been up to lately." But the beach-comber made an excuse about work to be done and would not be persuaded. Indeed, it was not until the next evening that she extracted over her ever-ready teapot his shame- faced version of the events of the past few days. It was a story that made even her, ex-wife of a Pelung policeman, gasp. " And your nephew has made you teetotal, has he ? Well, he's a clever man," she commented 300 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL rather jealously. " I've been trying it, McQuat, for years now." " Have ye ? " exclaimed the beach-comber in surprise. " An' I never knowed it ! " " I don't suppose you did." " What was ye wanting to make me a teetotal for ? " "I don't know. I just wanted to," said the widow, looking away and flushing slightly. The beach-comber eyed her in amazement. " Mrs. McQuat Mrs. Vanderpump, I should say," he stuttered. " I onyway," he continued with a cautious air, "I'm a teetotal signed and sealed noo, and, except maybe for a glass o' port wine onct in a wee while, I'll never touch another drop except at New Year time." " If you touch anything at any time," declared the widow fiercely, " I'll give you away to the police, McQuat. I can't stand your spoiling of yourself any more. It's enough to break a woman's heart. Look you, senseless man, if it hadn't been for your nephew where would you be now ? In jail with a lot of natives." " Ay, an' I'll be there yet maybe," said Alexis ruminatively. WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 301 " Not if you're a man and keep your promise." " I've no telPt ye everything," confessed the beach-comber hesitatingly. " Ye'd better have nae mair to do wi' me. What would you say if they wanted me for burglary as well ? " " For burglary ? " cried the widow, horror- struck. " Ay." " Tell me about it at once," she ordered. The beach-comber, after a loud preface in which he dealt with the evils of employing Swedes in the British colonies when decent citizens of the Empire were out of work, reduced his voice to a whisper apparently with the idea of making it last and did as the widow bade him. It was a long story as he told it, the moral of it being apparently that the best-intentioned people, even when engaged in the innocent occu- pation of searching for work, are sometimes the victims of fate. " And noo, Mrs. Vanderpump," he said when he had ended, striving hard to be impersonal, " if you was the buddy what stole the cat what would you dae ? " "What would I do ? " cried the widow, 302 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL looking hard at him. " I would go and give myself up to the police at once." " Would ye though ? " exclaimed McQuat, wincing. " Yes, I would. Best to get it over." " It would brek my nevvy's heart, the shame of it," pointed out McQuat unselfishly. " I suppose you yourself wouldn't mind a jot ? " said the widow with sarcasm. " I dinna care for they polis," confessed the beach-comber. " Well, then, if not to the police," continued Mrs. Vanderpump, pretending to consider, " I should go to the Resident or, better still, to his daughter, for I know her, and I should give her the cat and ask her to plead with the Resi- dent and " " But how can I when I havena the cat ? " exclaimed McQuat testily. " It was yon big cat," he went on, " that jumpit oot o' the cupboard and rin awa the day when ma nephew, the pro- fessor, came here firrst." " Oh, that one ? " murmured the widow softly. " If that cat hadna gone awa, I shouldna needed to dye the other yun, ye see." WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 303 " I see," said the widow, nodding. " But of course, Mr. McQuat, I'm only supposing you had the cat." " But I havena." " Well suppose you have it. Would you, if you had, be willing to take it to Miss Vannery and ask her to plead with her father to get you off being punished ? " "Would she get me off?" asked the beach- comber with a temporizing air. " I'm certain she would," said Mrs. Vander- pump. "Then I'd tak' the cat to her like a birrd," said the beach-comber. " I only wish I had it." " How do you know you haven't ? " ques- tioned the widow, with a sudden smile. " How do I I dinna onnerstan' ye," said the beach-comber. " I say," asked the widow in low, distinct tones, " how do you know you, or me which is the same thing, hasn't got the cat in one of my hen-houses now ? " " What ? " cried the astonished beach-comber, jumping up. " Mrs. Vanderpump, you " " How do you know," continued the lady, 304 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL with a pleased smile, " that , when you thought the cat bolted over the wall and was gone for ever, that it did not come back ? How do you know that it did not come into my hen-house ? Wouldn't it naturally like me better than you ? " " But if it had ye would have tellt me," objected the beach-comber, with an air of trying hard not to believe what he already knew was the truth. " Told you ! When you were sulking and grumping in there ! " laughed the widow. " Told you ! Was it likely ? But you're a different man to-day, aren't you, McQuat ? So if you wish, and as a great treat, you can come down to the end hen-house with me now, and see the cat that you lost." CHAPTER XXI IT was monsoon weather in Jallagar. A youthful sky laughed and wept by turns, and because of its April uncertainty the Residency at-home was held in the drawing-room. When Melita had said good-bye to the last guest but one a stout lady in brilliant orange silk she came back and offered more tea to the last of all. " No, thanks," said Mrs. Bobby, " I must go too. Well then, just a little. Mrs. Gladstone Mortimer says she got her new red dress from Paris," she went on, taking up the cup and settling herself for one last minute's talk. " Thank you." " You seemed to be together more than usual," remarked Melita. " She was very amusing." " She can be sometimes. What was it about ? " " About you," said Mrs. Bobby, gazing straight ahead of her with a mischievous expression on her kindly face. x 3 o6 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL "Me?" "She doesn't think you're behaving at all well," explained Mrs. Bobby solemnly. " She says she thought you had a kinder heart." " What have I done, then ? " asked Melita, reddening slightly. " She says," related Mrs. Bobby evenly, " that things were different when she was a young girl. Then women were very particular about whom they encouraged, but once they had shown favour to any one they would never have turned him away merely because he had a poor but honest uncle." " A what ? " cried the surprised Melita, blush- ing furiously. "A poor but honest uncle," repeated Mrs. Bobby. "She said that ?" " Those were her exact words," returned the faithful friend. " It's kind of you to tell me," said Melita bitterly. " And that she should say such a thing after her treatment of Ethel Mortimer ! " " That happened a long time ago," pointed out Mrs. Bobby. "She's older and more tolerant now." WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 307 "Perhaps you sympathize with her views about me ? " asked Melita, indignantly. " You do ! Well, I didn't think you'd ever believe as badly as that of me." " He never comes here now," pointed out Mrs. Bobby. " Who is to blame for that ? Every one in the Service can come to the Residency." " He never goes anywhere." " It's not my fault, I assure you," said Melita, with a smile. " Well, good-bye," said the lady, rising. The disapproving shake of the head she gave on departure would have irritated Job himself, but Miss Vannery smiled more pleasantly than ever. Coming back, she instructed the servant to clear away, and left the room. When, after an interval of half an hour, she again appeared she was, if signs such as frequent surveys of herself in the glass and consultations of her wrist watch were to be relied on, expecting a visitor of some importance. A firm step on the corridor announced an arrival. She rose, her cheeks flushing. It was the professor. 3 o8 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL " I got your letter " he began. " If you hadn't kept away," said Melita, " it would not have been necessary to send it. Why have you kept away since that afternoon ? " " I didn't intend to," he returned feebly. " After all, it's it's not so very long ago." " And I wanted to hear so much how Mr. McQuat was," said Melita, smiling brightly. " He's all right." "Is he fond of you ?" she asked with some abruptness. " I think so," said Haliburton J., looking puzzled. " And does he approve of me ? " she inquired solemnly. " I only ask," she added, " because it's since you found him that you have neglected us all at the Residency so much." " On the contrary " It doesn't matter." " But it does," contradicted the professor. " Surely not ? " " If I had had that tortoise-shell cat," explained the professor, growing excited, " I shouldn't have minded my uncle. Not that I mind him now," he added, " but " WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL 309 "That's exactly why I wished to see you," interposed Melita. " It's a subject I'm still anxious about. Are you searching ? Have you found the cat ? " No I " " It's the only thing I asked you to get for me," she said with emphasis. " You know," returned Haliburton J. hotly, " I'd give everything I possess to find it." " Everything ? " asked Melita. Something in her tone caused the dolorous professor to look up. " Melita ! " he said in surprise. " Me- lita ! " " Ah, if we only had the cat ! " she mur- mured, drawing away. " Melita ! " cried the professor, following eagerly. " What does it matter about cats ? What does it matter about uncles ? Nothing matters, nothing. Only that I love you, that I want, I ask, you to be my wife." "Oh, Haliburton J.," said Melita softly, evading him, " how often have I told you that I hate this native custom of asking for wages in advance ? " 310 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL " I'll get a cat yet," cried the professor bravely. " I will- Melita, if I do ? " " Of course, if you do," she murmured. " I'll search the whole of Asia ! " said the professor in a determined voice. He picked up his topee. " I'll begin to-night ! " " But where are you going to begin ? " asked Melita gently. " With the island, of course," announced the professor. " If if you wouldn't mind beginning by looking in that hamper in the corner," murmured Melita, growing suddenly very pale. "In the hamper ?" asked the professor. He gazed at her stupidly. But only for an instant. Then rushed to the corner and lifted the hamper's lid. " Melita ? " he cried rapturously. "Yes, Haliburton J., whispered Melita with a burning blush. " Yes. It's your tortoise-shell cat that I have brought to you." POSTSCRIPT MY DEAR DOROTHY, I am sending you these last few chapters to glance through before they go to the printer. Thank you for letting me dedicate the book to you. It seems ages since you last wore that pink dress on Jallagar lawn. I often wonder whether we shall run across many of our friends out there again. Some we shall And here is a surprise for you. I had a letter from the professor this morning. They are in England, he and Melita, with Mr. Vannery and the baby I didn't know there was one. He wants us to lunch with Melita and him- self in town on Thursday next. He leaves arrangements to me. Now can your " Soldiers and Sailors' Families " spare you ? I think I shall be able to get leave. 3 i2 WANTED A TORTOISE-SHELL Munitions engineers are not quite so hard pressed nowadays. Let me know by return if you can come. By the way, Bliss says that the McQuats I mean Campbells are going strong. The great man himself, it seems, has blossomed into quite a personage. Hands round the plate in church, serves on the Local Board, and so forth. Bliss says that Mrs. McQuat has other things to feed now besides chickens. I can't make out what he means. Yours, P. B. WOOLWICH, 1917. University of California SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY Return this material to the library from which it was borrowed. A 000501206 7