The Pagan Madonna Part 3

"If ever you see him in this cabin when I'm absent, you know what to do."

"Yes, sir," replied Dodge, with a wintry smile.

Cunningham laughed.

"So you carry a Texas gunman round with you now? After all, why not? You never can tell. But don't worry, Cleigh. If ever I make up my mind to accept Eisenfeldt's offer, I'll lift the yacht first."

Cleigh laughed amusedly.

"How would you go about to steal a yacht like this?"

"That's telling. Now I've got to get back to town. My advice for you is to come in to-morrow and put up at the Astor, where I can get in touch with you easily."

"Agreed. That's all, Dodge."

The Texan departed, and Cunningham burst into laughter again.

"You're an interesting man, Cleigh. On my word, you do need a guardian--gallivanting round the world with all these treasures. Queer what things we do when we try to forget. Is there any desperate plunge we wouldn't take if we thought we could leave the Old Man of the Sea behind?

You think you're forgetting when you fly across half the world for a string of gla.s.s beads. I think I'm forgetting when I risk my neck getting hold of some half-forgotten Rembrandt. But there it is, always at our shoulder when we turn. One of the richest men in the world! Doesn't that tingle you when you hear people whisper it as you pa.s.s? Just as I tingle when some woman gasps, 'What a beautiful face!' We both have our withered leg--only yours is invisible."

The mockery on the face and the irony on the tongue of the man disturbed Cleigh. Supposing the rogue had his eye on that rug? To what lengths might he not go to possess it? And he had the infernal ingenuity of his master, Beelzebub. Or was he just trying Anthony Cleigh's nerves to see whether they were sound or raw?

"But the beads!" he said.

"I'm sorry. Simply Morrissy ran amuck."

"I am willing to pay half as much again."

"You leave that to me--at the original price. No hold-up. Prices fixed, as the French say. Those beads will be on board here to-morrow. But why the devil do you carry that rug abroad?"

"To look at."

"Mad as a hatter!" Cunningham picked up his oilskin and sou'wester. "Hang it, Cleigh, I've a notion to have a try at that rug just for the sport of it!"

"If you want to b.u.mp into Dodge," replied the millionaire, dryly, "try it."

"Oh, it will be the whole thing--the yacht--when I start action! Devil take the weather!"

"How the deuce did the beads happen to turn up here in Shanghai?"

"Morrissy brought them east from Naples. That's why his work to-night puzzles me. All those weeks to play the crook in, and then to make a play for it when he knew he could not put it over! Brain storm--and when he comes to he'll probably be sorry. Well, keep your eye on the yacht."

Cunningham shouldered into his oilskin. "To-morrow at the Astor, between three and five. By George, what a ripping idea--to steal the yacht! I'm mad as a hatter, too. Good-night, Cleigh." And laughing, Cunningham went twisting up the companionway, into the rain and the dark.

Cleigh stood perfectly still until the laughter became an echo and the echo a memory.

CHAPTER IV

Morning and winnowed skies; China awake. The great black-and-gold banners were again fluttering in Nanking Road. Mongolian ponies clattered about, automobiles rumbled, 'rickshas jogged. Venders were everywhere, many with hot rice and bean curd. Street cleaners in bright-red cotton jackets were busy with the mud puddles. The river swarmed with sampans and barges and launches. There was only one lifeless thing in all Shanghai that morning--the German Club.

In the city hospital the man Morrissy, his head in bandages, smiled feebly into Cunningham's face.

"Were you mad to try a game like that? What the devil possessed you? Three to one, and never a ghost of a chance. You never blew up like this before.

What's the answer?"

"Just struck me, d.i.c.k--one of those impulses you can't help. I'm sorry.

Ought to have known I'd have no chance, and you'd have been justified in croaking me. Just as I was in the act of handing them over to you the idea came to bolt. All that dough would keep me comfortably the rest of my life."

"What happened to them?"

"Don't know. After that biff on the coco I only wanted some place to crawl into. I had them in my hand when I started to run. Sorry."

"Have they quizzed you?"

"Yes, but I made out I couldn't talk. What's the dope?"

"You were in a rough-and-tumble down the Chinese Bund, and we got you away. Play up to that."

"All right. But, gee! I won't be able to go with you."

"If we have any luck, I'll see you get a share."

"That's white. You were always a white man, d.i.c.k. I feel like a skunk. I knew I couldn't put it over, with the three of you at my elbow. What the devil got into me?"

"Any funds?"

"Enough to get me down to Singapore. Where do you want me to hang out?"

"Suit yourself. You're out of this play--and it's my last."

"You're quitting the big game?"

"Yes. What's left of my schedule I'm going to run out on my own. So we probably won't meet again for a long time, Morrissy. Here's a couple of hundred to add to your store. If we find the beads I'll send your share wherever you say."

"Might as well be Naples. They're off me in the States."

"All right. Cook's or the American Express?"

"Address me the Milan direct."

Cunningham nodded.

"Well, good-bye."

"Good-bye, d.i.c.k. I'm sorry I gummed it up."