He dispatched George--a person of address as well as a fighter in whom
the blood of ancient Greece ran quick and strong--on a humanitarian
mission. George was to walk a mile to the trolley line, go to
Fairport, hire a taxicab, and make all possible speed into Manhattan.
There he was to communicate with a young physician of Cleggett's
acquaintance, Dr. Harry Farnsworth.
Dr. Farnsworth, as Cleggett knew, was just out of medical school. He
had his degree, but no patients. But he was bold and ready. He was, in
short, just the lad to welcome with enthusiasm such a chance for active
service as the cruise of the Jasper B. promised to afford.
It was something of a risk to weaken his little party by sending George
away for several hours. But Cleggett did not hesitate. He was not the
man to allow considerations of personal safety to outweigh his devotion
to an ideal.
"And now," said Cleggett, turning to Lady Agatha, who had hearkened to
his orders to George with a bright smile of approval, "we will dine,
and I will hear the rest of your story, which was so rudely
interrupted. It is possible that together we may be able to find some
solution of your problem."
"Dine!" exclaimed Lady Agatha, eagerly. "Yes, let us dine! It may
sound incredible to you, Mr. Cleggett, that the daughter of an English
peer and the widow of a baronet should confess that, except for your
tea, she has scarcely eaten for twenty-four hours--but it is so!"
Then she said, sadly, with a sigh and sidelong glance at the box of
Reginald Maltravers which stood near the cabin companionway dripping
coldly: "Until now, Mr. Cleggett--until your aid had given me fresh
hope and strength--I had, indeed, very little appetite."
Cleggett followed her gaze, and it must be admitted that he himself
experienced a momentary sense of depression at the sight of the box of
Reginald Maltravers. It looked so damp, it looked so chill, it looked
so starkly and patiently and malevolently watchful of himself and Lady
Agatha. In a flash his lively fancy furnished him with a picture of
the box of Reginald Maltravers suddenly springing upright and hopping
towards him on one end with a series of stiff jumps that would send
drops of moisture flying from the cracks and seams and make the ice
inside of it clink and tinkle. And the mournful Elmer, now drowsing
callously over his charge, was not an invitation to be blithe. If
Cleggett himself were so affected (he mused) what must be the effect of
the box of Reginald Maltravers upon sensibilities as fine and delicate
as those of a woman like Lady Agatha Fairhaven?
"Could I--if I might----" Lady Agatha hesitated, with a glance towards
the cabin. Cleggett instantly divined her thought; for brief as was
their acquaintance, there was an almost psychic accord between his mind
and hers, and he felt himself already answering to her unspoken wish as
a ship to its rudder.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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