The Breath of the Gods Part 51

Stunt's voluminous explanations, had a fict.i.tious l.u.s.tre. Mrs. Todd was neither far-seeing nor revengeful, yet, quite often now she pa.s.sed a thoughtful finger across the soldered spot.

Gwendolen went alone to a smaller reception-room. She wished to know above all things whether her father was now with Prince Hagane. There was but a single source of information,--Mr. Dodge. At first she thought of going to him in person. What was that "snip," or his opinions, compared with Yuki's danger? Her courage faltered, and she compromised with it by a short note sent into the office by a servant.

"Mr. T. Caraway Dodge.

"MY DEAR MR. DODGE,--Kindly inform me whether my father, Mr.

Todd, is in the office. If not, where he has gone, and at what hour he is expected back.

"Very truly, "GWENDOLEN DE LANCY TODD."

In a very few moments she flushed, and bit her lip over the following reply:

"Miss Gwendolen de Lancy Todd.

"MY DEAR MISS TODD,--Your father, Mr. Todd, is not in this office. I am not at liberty to communicate the name of the place to which he has gone. He expects to return about 2.30 P. M.

"Very truly, "T. CARAWAY DODGE."

"Pshaw! I might have known it!" said Gwendolen, under her breath, as she tore the note to small pieces. She looked at her watch. "Just one, and he can't get here for an hour and a half. What shall I do until he comes?" As if in answer, the luncheon-bell rang. She moved toward the big dining-room, dreading to see Mrs. Stunt. Yes, she was there, wriggling, smiling, opening her innocent blue eyes, as usual.

Gwendolen's greeting was civil, and no more. She sat through the meal in silence, and ate practically nothing. Mrs. Stunt tried a few tactful remarks about the girl's "being in love," as a reason for the lack of appet.i.te. After the unquiet meal, Gwendolen saw, with new dismay, that the ladies were to take possession of the main drawing-room. This deprived her of the solace of her piano. She wandered aimlessly about the big rooms, starting a letter to an American friend, and desisting, after the first page, pulling out bureau drawers, and forgetting why she had opened them, doing, in fact, all those vague, self-irritating things that indicate a perturbed and joyless mind.

She longed for intelligent human companionship,--for her father. When dad should come, she told herself, she would lose this restless heart.

She longed for him and his counsel with a physical hunger. Her mind veered again and again to Dodge, only to be whirled off fiercely. Mrs.

Todd as a confidante was impossible, even had the wily Stunt not claimed her. Secure in the conviction of a commonplace mind, good Mrs. Todd would have rushed at once to the Hagane residence, demanded instant audience of Hagane, and failing in that have hastened to the Cha no yu rooms to rescue her ailing protege. No, Mrs. Todd, with all her kind heart, could not be trusted!

The moments pa.s.sed somehow. Gwendolen saw, through an upper window, her father's approach. He came in a hired street kuruma. Even at this distance she could see that the strain was gone from his face, if not the excitement. He caught a glimpse of her, smiled, and waved to her.

Before the girl could reach him, he had entered the office and confronted Dodge. Now she was brave. With dad to guard her, she could brave a hundred such as Dodge. She burst in upon them, giving the coolest of nods to the secretary, and pouring, without warning, a series of pet.i.tions and exclamations upon her wondering father. At last he made out that she wished to see him alone. Dodge had been quicker. Already the inner door of the office closed behind him. Todd turned from the blank panel to his daughter. The teasing twitch was on his thin lip, the sparkle in his eye! "No, no, I can't stand it just now,--I'm worried, oh, so horribly worried, and you must help me, dad, as you always do. Am I not your only little girl?"

"You rascal," said Todd, seating himself, and drawing her down.

"Anything but a rascal to-day, dad. This trouble is real. Yuki may be in danger,--I can't help her. I have thought and thought and thought, until my brain goes round like flying ants in the sun. I can't help. I am an impotent, miserable, feminine girl. What did you see at Yuki's house?"

"Why, I saw only what I went to see," answered her father. He gazed with some concern on the chatterer, as if indeed she were light-headed.

"The meeting is over safely, then, and nothing happened?"

"The meeting is over! How did you know of it? The meeting is over and everything happened. History may be changed because of it!"

"Then Pierre did not wake up? Don't think me crazy, dad! I can see that you do. All that time, while you statesmen were closeted with Hagane, Pierre Le Beau lay asleep a little way off, in the garden. Now perhaps you will see what has worried me!" She gave a triumphant look.

"Good Lord!" said he. Then again, on a higher note, "Good _Lord_!" He put her from him, rose, and began walking the narrow room. Gwendolen nodded in satisfaction. At last he was stirred as deeply as she could wish.

"Yuki isn't to blame. He wandered to that garden in delirium. He must have gone there first thing, for she doesn't know how long he had been in hiding. When she discovered him, the gates were already barred, and Hagane had given her instructions. His fever was awful. She gave him medicine for it, and then a heavy fever mixture, and put him to sleep in the Cha no yu rooms!"

"Hagane being in ignorance?"

"Yes. She said she was going to try her best to tell him before the meeting, though he had commanded her not to distract his thoughts. She was going to try anyhow, but if she failed, there was nothing for it but to trust the good Lord to keep him asleep until after the meeting, and then to tell her husband immediately."

Todd gave a deep breath as of relief. He pushed the hair back from his forehead. "G.o.d! It was a risk. She is too young to face such tragic responsibilities! Poor child! poor child! But I guess it's all right now!" Gwendolen heard him mutter.

She caught his arm. "You think she is safe? You left husband and wife together?"

"Yes, and he looked at her as though she were an angel just come down. I even dared to tease him a little. I told him he looked young and handsome! The old War G.o.d almost blushed."

Suddenly the smile on his face turned gray. He stood perfectly still, his long arms dangled. Life and youth ebbed from him.

"Father! Father!" cried the girl, in agony. "What is it? A terrible thought has come to you! Don't hold it back. I must hear. I will go mad!"

Todd seated himself, and touched his handkerchief to his lips. "I think I had better not speak it, daughter."

"Tell me, _tell_ me!" said Gwendolen, fiercely. "Look at me,--look into my eyes, father. I have your own strong spirit!"

"As I was coming home," began Mr. Todd, obediently, through whitening lips, "I walked the first part of the way, you know, to cool my excitement. The meeting had been terrific in importance,--terrific--" he paused.

Gwendolen was now on her knees, reaping every look, every word, with her bright eyes. "Yes, yes; Yuki may be in danger."

"A group of fellows were standing in front of the British Legation,--Potter, Wyndham, and some others. They stopped me, and were chaffing and joking as those English try to do, when a rickshaw with three runners whizzed by like a Kentucky handicap, and there was Hagane sitting bolt upright, with a face like an old N[=o] mask. 'That's deuced odd,' says Wyndham; 'not ten minutes ago a yellow-headed foreigner without a hat went by at the same pace. Looks as if Hagane were on the scent.'"

"Oh, oh; did he say that the first was--Pierre?"

"No, he didn't say it; he didn't need to. They all looked it."

For one instant Gwendolen cowered against her father's knees. Then she rose, straight, tall, self-possessed, and held a hand down to her father. "Come, dad," she said, almost with a smile, "we have no time to lose."

He sprang up, facing her. The faces glowed with the same purpose, a white fire reflected from surfaces of ivory. Both pairs of eyes burned to black jet. "Come, then," he said simply. He took his hat in pa.s.sing.

She was bareheaded. A sealskin cap was lying on Dodge's desk. She caught it up, as her father had done his hat. Hand in hand they hurried out, Dodge, in wonder, watching them. They went down the Legation hill and there summoned kuruma, with two runners apiece, promising a good reward for haste. Only once the girl spoke. "Oh, dad, my heart weighs me to the earth with its whispers."

At the Hagane home they were told that every one was out. Gwendolen's quick eye saw that the servants were frightened, demoralized. She insisted on having English speech with Tora. He came sulkily, and at first refused to understand her words. This man's need for self-control gave Gwendolen her most unbearable twinge of apprehension. "Tora!" she cried aloud, "I love your mistress. I am good friend of Prince Hagane.

We wish to do only good things. Don't you understand? I love--good--we will do _good_, not harm. Tell us where she went."

Tora studied the two faces intently. "Both Master and the Princess Yuki-ko went ve'y quick, French Legation. Mooch troubles, I think." He turned away, as if wishing to say no more.

The eyes of the two Americans met again. "That is a place where I cannot take you, unannounced, my dear," said Mr. Todd.

"It is a place, too, where I think I could do little good. But she is unharmed; that is certain. Ronsard cannot afford to have violence there."

"Don't fancy things more terrible than they are," said Todd. "I myself am full of hope. If I can get in at all, I can help explain. In the meantime, be very cautious, and go home quietly."

"Yes, go home quietly to wait! Oh, I knew that was coming. To wait, to be stretched out flat on the rack of hours, with every little red-hot minute pinching me. But I will go. I trust you, dad, to do the best. I will wait patiently, as meekly as Yuki herself could wait. That is all I don't like about Yuki,--her meekness. Oh, my poor darling, what will those vile men do to you?"

Again at the Legation gate she dismissed her two coolies, paying them an incredible sum for immunity from bartering, and walked in, along the gravelled driveway, on foot. Dodge, who had never left the neighborhood of his office window, felt a renewed thrill of rapture at the sight of his cap, set like a brown, inverted bird's-nest, on her bright curls. It would be a different cap. No one should wear it after this consecration.

He watched the slight figure with yearning tenderness. Something in her walk, a sort of suppressed excitement in her whole person, showed to him. The unusual hung about her. Deliberately he came out from his den to follow. She gave no backward glances.

Across the front of the Legation she hurried, taking a path that led into the garden and wide lawn at the right. At its rim she poised, uncertain; then, as if coming to a swift decision, took a diagonal course across the turf. Exactly in the centre of the wide, green s.p.a.ce grew a clump of gigantic mushrooms with white tops and thick blue bodies. As she neared them the mushrooms began to bob and nod in an agitated fashion, while funny little hissing breaths came from the midst. They were the professional lawn-weeders,--little old women with round faces and high cheekbones, each armed with a pygmy sickle. They worked in a tiny grazing squad, devouring, root and all, each intruding tuft of clover, dandelion, pilewort, and even the spring messenger, tsukushimbo, beloved of j.a.panese children.

"Kon-nichiwa," cried the girl, in her high, sweet voice.

"Kon-nichiwa (good day), o jo san," responded the little company, rising, as corks on a single wave, and bobbing down again as one.