XIV
THE YELLOW FLAG
The departing whistle of the yacht Polly struck sharply to the heart ofa desolate figure seated on a bench in the blazing, dusty, public squareof Puerto del Norte, waiting out his first day of pain. A kiskadee bird,the only other creature foolish enough to risk the hot bleakness of theplaza at that hour, flitted into a dust-coated palm, inspected him, puta tentative query or two, decided that he was of no possible interest,and left the Unspeakable Perk to his own cogitations.
So deep in wretchedness were the cogitations that he did not hearthe light, hesitant footstep. But he felt in every vein and fiber theappealing touch on his shoulder.
"Good God! What are YOU doing here?" he cried, leaping to hisfeet. There was no awkwardness or shyness in his speech now; onlywonder-stricken joy.
"I came back to see you."
"But the yacht! Your ship!"
"She has left."
"No! She mustn't! Not without you! You can't stay here. It's toodangerous."
"I must. They think I'm aboard. I left a note for papa. He won't get ituntil they're at sea. And they can't come back for me, can they?"
"No--yes--they must! I must see Stark and Wisner at once."
"To send me away?"
"Yes."
"Without forgiving me?"
"Forgiving? There's no question of that between you and me."
"There is. Fitzhugh told me everything--all about the poor dead woman."
"Ah, he shouldn't have done that."
"He should!" She stamped a little willful foot. "What else could he do?"
"Why, yes," he agreed thoughtfully. "I suppose that's so. After all, aman can't bear the names that Carroll does and go wrong on the big innerthings. He has met his test, and stood it. For he cares very deeply foryou."
"Poor Fitz!" she sighed.
"But here we're wasting time!" he cried in a panic. "Where can I leaveyou?"
"Do you want to leave me?"
"Want to!" he groaned. "Can't you understand that I've got to get you tothe yacht!"
"Oh, beetle man, beetle man, don't you WANT me?" she cried dolorously."Didn't you mean your note?"
"Mean it? I meant it as I've never meant anything in the world. Butyou--what do you mean? Do you mean that you'll--you'll let the yacht gowithout you--and--and--and stay here, and m-m-marry me?"
"If you should ask me," she said, half-laughing, half-crying, "what elsecould I do? I'm alone and deserted. And there's only you in the world."
"Miss P-P-Polly," he began, "I--I can't believe--"
"It's true!" she cried, and held out two yearning hands to him. "And ifyou stammer and stutter and--and--and act like the Unspeakable Perk NOW,I'll--I'll howl!"
If she had any such project, the chance was lost on the instant of thewarning, as he caught her to him and held her close.
"Oh!" she cried, trying to push him away. "Do you know, sir, that thisis a public square?"
"Well, I didn't choose it," he reminded her, laughing in pure joy, witha boyish note new to her ear. "Anyway, there are only us two under thesun." And he drew her close again, whispering in her ear.
"Oh--oh, is that the language of medical science?" she reproved.
At this point, generic curiosity overcame the feathered eavesdropper inthe tree above.
"Qu'est-ce qu'il dit?"--"What's he say?"
The girl turned a flushed and adorable face upward.
"I won't tell you. It's for me alone," she declared joyously. "Butyou'll never stop saying it, will you, dear?"
"Never, as long as we both shall live. And that reminds me," he saidsoberly. "We must arrange about being married."
"Oh, that reminds you, does it?" she mocked. "Just incidentally, likethat."
Boom! Boom! Boom! The mission clock kept patiently at it until itssuggestion struck in.
"Of course!" he cried. "Mr. Lake, the missionary, will marry us. Andwe'll have Stark and Wisner for witnesses. How long does it take a brideto get ready? Would half an hour be enough?"
"It's rather a short engagement," she remarked demurely. "But if it'sall the time we've got--"
"It is. But, darling, we'll have to ride for it afterward, and getacross to the mainland. I've no right to let you in for such a risk," hecried remorsefully.
"You couldn't help yourself," she teased saucily. "I ran you down likeone of your own beetles. Besides, what does that permit for the Dutchship say?"
"That's for myself and a woman--the leper woman. Not for myself and mywife."
"Well, I'm a woman, aren't I? And it doesn't say that the woman MUSTN'Tbe your wife." She blushed distractingly.
"Caesar! Of course it doesn't! What luck! We'll be in Curacao to-morrow.I must see Wisner about getting us off. But, Polly, dearest one, you'resure? You haven't let yourself be carried away by that foolishness ofmine yesterday?"
"Sure? Oh, beetle man!" She put her hands on his shoulders and bent tohis ear.
The sulphur-colored winged Paul Pry stuck an impertinent head out frombehind a palm leaf.
"Qu'est-ce qu'elle dit? Qu'est-ce qu'elle dit?"
For the second and last time in his adult life the beetle man threw astone at a bird.
Four hours later six powerful black oarsmen rowed a boat containing twopassengers and practically no luggage out across the huge lazy swells ofthe Caribbean toward a smudge of black smoke.
"Look!" cried that one of the passengers who wore huge goggles. "Theregoes the flag!"
A square of yellow bunting slid slowly up the pierhead staff of the dockcorporation, and spread in the light shore breeze.
"That's the modern flaming sword," he continued. "The color stirssomething inside me. Ugly, isn't it?"
"It is ugly," she confessed thoughtfully. "Yet it's the flag we fightunder, too, isn't it? And we'd fight for it if we had to, just as wefought for the other--our own."
"I love your 'we,'" he laughed happily.
She nestled closer to him.
"Are you still hating the Caribbean?"
"I? I'm loving it the second-best thing in the world."
"But I loved it first," she reminded him jealously. "Dearest," sheadded, with one of her swift swoops of thought, "what was that funnytitle the British Secretary of Legation had?"
"What? Oh, Captain the Honorable Carey Knowles?"
"Yes. Well, I shall have a much nicer, more picturesque title than thatwhen we come back to Caracuna--dear, dirty, dangerous, queer, riotous,plague-stricken old Caracuna!"
"Then my liege ladylove intends to come back?" he asked.
"Of course. Some time. And in Caracuna I shall insist on being Mrs. theUnspeakable Perk."
THE END
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