CHAPTER XIX
ONE HERO AND ANOTHER
At Gibraltar, Monty was handed an ominous-looking cablegram which heopened tremblingly.
To MONTGOMERY BREWSTER,
Private Yacht Flitter, Gibraltar.
There is an agitation to declare for free silver. You may have twice asmuch to spend. Hooray.
JONES.
To which Monty responded:
Defeat the measure at any cost. The more the merrier, and charge it tome. BREWSTER. P.S. Please send many cables and mark them collect.
The Riviera season was fast closing, and the possibilities suggested byMonte Carlo were too alluring to the host to admit of a long stop atGibraltar. But the DeMilles had letters to one of the officers of thegarrison, and Brewster could not overlook the opportunity to give anelaborate dinner. The success of the affair may best be judged by thefact that the "Flitter's" larder required an entirely new stock thenext day. The officers and ladies of the garrison were asked, and Montywould have entertained the entire regiment with beer and sandwiches ifhis friends had not interfered.
"It might cement the Anglo-American alliance," argued Gardner, "butyour pocketbook needs cementing a bit more."
Yet the pocketbook was very wide open, and Gardner's only consolationlay in a tall English girl whom he took out to dinner. For the othersthere were many compensations, as the affair was brilliant and the newelement a pleasant relief from the inevitable monotony.
It was after the guests had gone ashore that Monty discovered Mr. andMrs. Dan holding a tete-a-tete in the stern of the boat.
"I am sorry to break this up," he interrupted, "but as the onlyconscientious chaperon in the party, I must warn you that your behavioris already being talked about. The idea of a sedate old married couplesitting out here alone watching the moon! It's shocking."
"I yield to the host," said Dan, mockingly. "But I shall be consumedwith jealousy until you restore her to me."
Monty noticed the look in Mrs. Dan's eyes as she watched her husbandgo, and marked a new note in her voice as she said, "How this trip isbringing him out."
"He has just discovered," Monty observed, "that the club is not theonly place in the world."
"It's a funny thing," she answered, "that Dan should have been somisunderstood. Do you know that he relentlessly conceals his best side?Down underneath he is the kind of man who could do a fine thing verysimply."
"My dear Mrs. Dan, you surprise me. It looks to me almost as though youhad fallen in love with Dan yourself."
"Monty," she said, sharply, "you are as blind as the rest. Have younever seen that before? I have played many games, but I have alwayscome back to Dan. Through them all I have known that he was the onlything possible to me--the only thing in the least desirable. It's aqueer muddle that one should be tempted to play with fire even when oneis monotonously happy. I've been singed once or twice. But Dan is adear and he has always helped me out of a tight place. He knows. No oneunderstands better than Dan. And perhaps if I were less wickedly human,he would not care for me so much."
Monty listened at first in a sort of a daze, for he had unthinkinglyaccepted the general opinion of the DeMille situation. But there weretears in her eyes for a moment, and the tone of her voice wasconvincing. It came to him with unpleasant distinctness that he hadbeen all kinds of a fool. Looking back over his intercourse with her,he realized that the situation had been clear enough all the time.
"How little we know our friends!" he exclaimed, with some bitterness.And a moment later, "I've liked you a great deal, Mrs. Dan, for a longtime, but to-night--well, to-night I am jealous of Dan."
The "Flitter" saw some rough weather in making the trip across the Bayof Lyons. She was heading for Nice when an incident occurred thatcreated the first real excitement experienced on the voyage. A group ofpassengers in the main saloon was discussing, more or less stealthily,Monty's "misdemeanors," when Reggy Vanderpool sauntered lazily in, hisface displaying the only sign of interest it had shown in days.
"Funny predicament I was just in," he drawled. "I want to ask what afellow should have done under the circumstances."
"I'd have refused the girl," observed "Rip" Van Winkle, laconically.
"Girl had nothing to do with it, old chap," went on Reggy, droppinginto a chair. "Fellow fell overboard a little while ago," he went on,calmly. There was a chorus of cries and Brewster was forgotten for atime. "One of the sailors, you know. He was doing something in therigging near where I was standing. Puff! off he went into the sea, andthere he was puttering around in the water."
"Oh, the poor fellow," cried Miss Valentine.
"I'd never set eyes on him before--perfect stranger. I wouldn't havehesitated a minute, but the deck was crowded with a lot of his friends.One chap was his bunkie. So, really, now, it wasn't my place to jump inafter him. He could swim a bit, and I yelled to him to hold up and I'dtell the captain. Confounded captain wasn't to be found though.Somebody said he was asleep. In the end I told the mate. By this timewe were a mile away from the place where he went overboard, and I toldthe mate I didn't think we could find him if we went back. But helowered some boats and they put back fast. Afterwards I got to thinkingabout the matter. Of course if I had known him--if he had been one ofyou--it would have been different."
"And you were the best swimmer in college, you miserable rat," explodedDr. Lotless.
There was a wild rush for the upper deck, and Vanderpool was not thehero of the hour. The "Flitter" had turned and was steaming back overher course. Two small boats were racing to the place where Reggy'sunknown had gone over.
"Where is Brewster?" shouted Joe Bragdon.
"I can't find him, sir," answered the first mate.
"He ought to know of this," cried Mr. Valentine.
"There! By the eternal, they are picking somebody up over yonder,"exclaimed the mate. "See! that first boat has laid to and they aredragging--yes, sir, he's saved!"
A cheer went up on board and the men in the small boats waved theircaps in response. Everybody rushed to the rail as the "Flitter" drew upto the boats, and there was intense excitement on board. A gasp ofamazement went up from every one.
Monty Brewster, drenched but smiling, sat in one of the boats, andleaning limply against him, his head on his chest, was the sailor whohad fallen overboard. Brewster had seen the man in the water and,instead of wondering what his antecedents were, leaped to hisassistance. When the boat reached him his unconscious burden was a deadweight and his own strength was almost gone. Another minute or two andboth would have gone to the bottom.
As they hauled Monty over the side he shivered for an instant, graspedthe first little hand that sought his so frantically, and then turnedto look upon the half-dead sailor.
"Find out the boy's name, Mr. Abertz, and see that he has the best ofcare. Just before he fainted out there he murmured something about hismother. He wasn't thinking of himself even then, you see. AndBragdon"--this in a lower voice--"will you see that his wages areproperly increased? Hello, Peggy! Look out, you'll get wet to the skinif you do that."