Fighting Byng Part 19

"That's settled then; get her as soon as possible. I will see what I can do about getting a gun or two to mount on her, and a gunner. Bulow and Company are not going to lay down so easy."

"I know where the _Anti-Kaiser_ is anch.o.r.ed and we will go there as soon as little Jim comes back," he replied, as only Howard Byng could, eager and unlimbered, and ready for big game.

"There she is now--I thought it was time," he added, hearing her laughter as the _t.i.tian_ rounded the point into the little harbor and came up to the wharf beside us. Little Jim was sitting as a queen surrounded with her marketing--pineapples, bananas, oranges, potatoes and all sorts of vegetables, and an immense armful of orange blossoms and flowers.

"How would New Yorkers like to go seventy-five or a hundred miles to market?" he asked, as we walked out on the pier to see the inspiring picture.

I did not have time to answer before she came bounding toward her father and at one spring landed in his arms with her bare legs about his waist and arms about his neck kissing him joyously.

"Daddy, did you think I was gone too long? We came back just as soon as we could, but it took so long to get all the things. You were not uneasy, Daddy?" she asked, kissing him several times again.

"No, Jim; when you are with Don I know you are safe, but Mr. Wood and I have an errand to do after supper and we want to get away as soon as possible. Run with Don and see what you can do quickly," he replied, returning her caresses before letting her down.

"Right away, Daddy," she replied, scampering toward the house, Howard following her with his eyes until she disappeared, her knickerbockers and her short blouse reminding me of the boy I had thought her to be.

"Somehow I wish she were not here to know what we will be doing," he said, turning to me with a long breath, almost a sigh, fingering his short, black beard.

I turned and faced him, deciding that right now was the proper time for little Jim to realize her dreams. I wondered if they could stand the separation.

"This might be a longer job than you think, especially if we were to strike some continued bad weather on the Gulf."

"I know that," he replied thoughtfully.

"The expense ceases to be a factor--why is now not the time to begin with her education?" I asked bluntly.

He searched me for a moment as if it was an insulting proposal. I knew he felt it as a distinct shock.

"Wood, I have never allowed myself to think of that time. I am cowardly, I suppose, and then I don't know where to send her, yet. I don't believe she would know how to behave in girl's clothes. She has always dressed as she does now and never has craved the flub-dubs and finery of other girls."

"So much more reason you should not let her go on longer in this way.

It is time now for her to come into her education and the refinements of young womanhood."

"Yes, I know you are right, but have I got the courage? I hate to see her go at all, especially without a name. It's a fearful thing, Wood.

And into that country that first treated me so well and then turned it to dead-sea fruit. Nothing but ashes inside, bitter, scalding ashes."

"The world, that world, has not finished with you. Perhaps it will yet p.r.o.nounce you great. You have done pretty well toward retrieving yourself. Bitter thoughts projected into the world are as substantial things as poisoned arrows, dum-dum bullets or atrocities, and may eventually return to plague us. If you can still improve in that direction I predict big things for you. Do you understand me, Howard?"

"Wood, I comprehend;--a short time ago I would not. But the difference between theory and actual practice is great. You give me an awful big order."

"I know it is, but you have already begun to fill it without coaching.

Make a mighty effort--such an effort as only Howard Byng can make and the ashes of this dead-sea fruit that you have been eating in pretty good quant.i.ties, will turn into a tonic to spur you on to more wonderful things--a magnificent life. I admit it is not a small thing to let little Jim leave you now, but it strikes me it is a real test.

Are you going to let the bigness of Howard Byng come to the front?"

"I know you are right," said he, walking, with head down, down along the pier toward his valuable warehouse, "maybe I just need someone like you to prod and goad it into me, to put a rowel into my selfishness and make me wake up, but--but, you see, I don't know yet where and how to send her. I have always thought of taking her myself, but there's no time for that now."

"Are you willing to be guided by me in the matter?"

"Wood, you know I would rather take advice from you than from any other living person. And why shouldn't I? You always set me right. You started me right, but I got away from you, into a great deal of trouble. Anything you are willing to say _you know_, I will take at one hundred per cent. In fact, I would be mighty glad if you could tell me where to send her, but I don't know if I can stand it now," he added.

"I believe I do know just where to send her, and also just how to get her there safely, perhaps more so than if you went as you have planned. And I will take the time to tell you how I happened to know from personal contact. Let us go back in the boat and sit down again."

He followed me into the cabin and sat down opposite where I could study his face.

"Howard," I began seriously, "in order to make this plain to you I must give you some inside information that has not reached the public, and perhaps it never will officially, and for that reason treat it as ultra-confidential.

"When Germany began war on Europe it has been said and known positively that it was only a question of time when we would be in it, and that no preparation was made to meet that condition. But a great deal of work was done that has not begun to show yet. It is true that public sentiment would not support raising an army and equipping it, owing to such Hun stuff as 'I Did Not Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier,'

but other things perhaps as important were accomplished. One of them was to determine just how much power the Hun had in this country. The beginning was made in schools of all kinds, colleges and universities, in fact, every inst.i.tution of an educational nature.

"I put in the best part of two years a.n.a.lyzing teachers and professors tainted with Prussianism, whether it was imported or domestic. It was a rare experience and required careful work. Directly or indirectly, I came in contact with all of them, and in many cases visited the schools and colleges, interviewing professors and teachers under one subterfuge or another, and in doing so developed some valuable and astounding information. It will require a big basket to hold the heads that must fall from this work. If I had them sufficiently at ease and could get them to use the words Kamerad, Kultur, and Middle Europe, by their face and tone I could tell. No one can repeat those words without giving themselves away, if pro-Hun.

"Girls' schools were the hardest to get into without revealing my purpose, which was always desirable. A man knocking at their gates was a big interrogation point, but I managed to see about all of them.

Girls of to-day are mothers of to-morrow, and after all it's the mothers that count, Howard.

"I am telling you this," I went on, "expecting you to grasp the inference, in order to avoid going into details. I found a girls'

school, perhaps two hours from New York, which is an ideal place for little Jim. The conditions are the best. She would be really educated, and be as safe as though at home and possibly more so, just now when she is advancing toward womanhood." I paused, watching Howard closely.

"But, Wood," he replied, with great concern, "little Jim has always been so free, wouldn't it be wrong to shut her up in a place like that? What would she do without her flowers and being able to go about as she pleased?"

"They have immense grounds, covered with a beautiful forest, in which she would be delighted. She can roam at will after school hours. Of course, students can't leave the grounds, or rather the estate, without escort. There are flowers in greatest profusion, everything to make the place attractive. It is the safest and best I found among all that I visited. In fact, I went back once or twice on a special invitation to do a small favor."

"But, Wood, she is not ready; she has no clothes; and how can she be sent there alone?" he asked, as though frightened even at a serious discussion of the matter.

"Well"--I hesitated, a little excited myself at the prospect--"I think that can be arranged. She could be put aboard the steamer at Key West, in charge of someone. I will also have one of our men, a friend, meet the boat in New York, and see personally that she reaches the school absolutely safe and protected every moment, better than you could do it yourself. My friend in New York will actually see her inside the gate and make it known that someone else is interested in her besides her parent and that will count for a good deal."

"You make it very plausible, and--well--let me sleep over it, and hear what she says about it in the morning," he replied, as we saw her come bounding down the pier like a rubber ball to tell us supper was ready.

CHAPTER XXII

We had no trouble negotiating for our wrecking boat--the _Anti-Kaiser_. The owner was all right, as could be inferred by the name of his new schooner, a good solid roomy one, as Howard said, fully equipped for deep-sea sponging and light wrecking among the spongers who lose their boats occasionally in sudden tropical storms.

It did not surprise me when he told us that he expected to operate about the Bahamas when the season opened and didn't propose to take any chances. He had applied for a five-pound gun to mount aft and a one-pounder forward, and got it. However, there was no gunner and one would have to be provided.

Howard did not refer to little Jim during the evening. He was counting the cost--the effect on her life and his, the necessity of being untrammeled in the immense enterprise we were undertaking. I wanted to learn from Was.h.i.+ngton the status of the Ramund case before commencing. I went to Key West in the _t.i.tian_ and spent most of the night there. As I expected, Ramund could not be refused bail much longer, but the department would post me regarding his movements. Then I ran into Ike Barry again.

"Still fis.h.i.+ng, Ike?"

"Yes--the Missus couldn't stand it any longer and came down a few days ago. She is a better scout on the water than I am. We're having a great time."

I remembered having met her at Tampa with him one time and recalled her as a sweet, motherly woman who had raised a splendid daughter they spoke of a great deal.

I found Scotty there, too, still out of a job, going about like a fish out of water, his face so long he was tramping on his upper lip, waiting for his pa.s.sport to go back to the British Navy.

"Scotty, didn't you tell me you were a gunner in the Royal Navy before you went in the engine-room?"

"I certainly was. Served two enlistments, the last one as chief."