The Man Without a Memory Part 56

"Well, I don't--and I won't."

"You're not afraid of the trip?"

"I'm not that sort of coward, thank you," she retorted sharply.

"I'm going to arrange with the pilot, Vandervelt's his name, for him to look after you when you land and see you to some station."

"I'm not taking the least interest in all this."

"You'd better book right through to Rotterdam and go to our Consulate, and I'll look for you there."

"I'm not going, Jack."

"You'd rather be clapped into an internment camp?"

"I don't care for fifty internment camps. They can do what they please with me, but I won't be coward enough to desert you."

"You can tell everything at the Consulate and----"

"Is that a Home for strayed cowards?" she cried, springing up and stamping her foot, her eyes flashing indignantly.

"No, it's the best meeting place for us and a safe refuge for quixotic girls."

"They're welcome to it, then. I shan't disturb them. If you wish to make me hate you, you'll persist in all this."

"I'd rather have you hate me than that you should stop here."

"How can you say such a thing as that?"

"Because I mean it; every syllable of it, Nessa, on my honour."

This appeared to make some impression. She winced and paled slightly.

"I've never been thought a coward before," she said after a pause, but without so much of the former snap.

"What I do think is that if what you talk of doing is cowardice, I'd rather be thought a coward than anything else."

"That means that you approve of it then?"

"On the contrary. Don't let us get at cross purposes. I must be off to this job. The thing is this. If I'm alone here, I can get through everything without risk; and I can't if you stop. It's splendid of you to wish to stick it with me; but it'll be fatal to me; fatal to both of us, indeed."

"I don't care about myself."

"Then care for me. Do it for my sake."

"How would my stopping hurt you?"

I lost patience then. "There isn't time to go over it all again, Nessa.

But if you persist in this, there's no use in continuing a useless struggle to get away. I've made the arrangement; and if you won't leave, I shall go straight from here to the police, tell them I'm La.s.sen, and leave them to do what they will."

"You wouldn't be so mad! You're only saying it to force me to give in,"

she exclaimed, firing again.

"Call it what you like; but I shall do it. Keep that in mind when the time comes for you to decide;" and without waiting to give her time to reply I left her. It went against the grain to have to use such a threat, knowing that her motive was nothing but a chivalrous regard for me; but persuasion had failed, and matters were too serious to be over nice in the choice of means to convince her.

There wasn't much wrong with the bus. Vandervelt, a very decent fellow, was a good pilot, it seemed, but not much use as a mechanic. A couple of hours or so sufficed for the job; but as I hoped that Nessa would be his pa.s.senger, I went most carefully over every part and made tests until I was satisfied. This occupied a considerable time, so that I had not finished until late in the afternoon.

The arrangement was that Vandervelt should start about sunset, as that would give him time to reach his landing place before dark. He agreed readily to get Nessa to the nearest station and to see her safely off for Rotterdam. If all went well, she ought to reach there somewhere about noon the following day.

He said nothing about the pa.s.sage money for Nessa, and I avoided the subject. So long as Nessa got away, it was nothing to me whether old Glocken swindled his companion or not. They could settle their own differences; and it would have been the act of a fool to set them by the ears at such a moment.

All I saw of the farmer tended to confirm the Irish-woman's estimate of him. He had blackmailed me in the matter of the payment for Nessa, and I had very little doubt that, having scooped in a thousand marks for her, he would start another attempt with me on the same lines.

He watched me at work for most of the time; joined with Vandervelt in praising my skill; repeating with unnecessary frequency something about what extraordinary good luck it was for them that I had come to Lingen, and his hope that I should remain with them a long time.

He didn't mean a word of it, of course, and for a long time left me guessing as to his motive for all this waste of breath. At length, however, it struck me that all this rot was intended to keep me slogging away because he was anxious about the bus and that he wished to have it in good shape before something was to happen which he had up his sleeve.

He had my five hundred marks in his pocket, and, if he broke the contract and refused to let Nessa go at the last minute, he might be getting the thousand for the reward instead of only the balance of five hundred from me. I knocked that little dodge on the head, therefore.

Waiting for a repet.i.tion of his oxish praise of my skill, I laughed and said: "You're right, farmer; you've got to know how to handle them.

They're difficult enough to repair sometimes, but easy to damage. A blow or two with the hammer in the right spot, and I could make this old bus fit for nothing but the sc.r.a.p heap;" and I gave him a meaning look and raised the hammer as if going to smash things.

He tumbled to my meaning right enough and grabbed my arm. "Mind what you're doing, man. Do you know what that thing cost?" he cried.

"Oh, yes. A good deal more than a thousand marks. I was only showing you how easy it would be to make it worth about as many pfennigs."

He laughed uneasily and went off, grunting something I didn't catch.

But he knew now what it would cost him to earn the police reward.

Half an hour later came the confirmation of my suspicion. The police sergeant from Lingen, Braun, arrived and Glocken took him into the house and then brought him across the fields to us. I was making great play with the hammer when they reached us.

Whether the old beggar had brought him there to arrest me, I couldn't tell of course, but no hint of the sort was dropped; and after a few questions about the bus, the two went off and I saw Braun start on his return to Lingen. Without me, thank goodness.

It was now nearing the time for Vandervelt to start, and I had still to see Nessa and get her final decision. Suspecting treachery, I tested the engine to show Vandervelt that it was all right, and then without his knowledge, manipulated matters, pocketed a small bit of the engine, so that she wouldn't move, and went into the house to Nessa.

Her mood had changed meanwhile; she was abjectly miserable and woebegone.

"I wonder you think it worth while to come to me again," she said.

"Time's nearly up, dear, and Vandervelt is getting ready."

No response except a desolate gesture.

"I hope you've been thinking over all I said."

"I've been thinking of part of it--the last part; the cruel part."

"I'm sorry you look at it in that light. It wasn't meant to be cruel, Nessa; but there, you know that. Have you decided?"