The Snake, The Crocodile, And The Dog Part 50

"How horrible!" I exclaimed. "The poor creature! Just let me lay my hands on that villain and I will- oh, dear. Oh, dear, suddenly I don't feel at all well. Wrath, I expect, has weakened my . . . Emerson, you had better put me down immediately."

Though I felt a great deal better afterward, I found to my distress that I could not stand upright. It was not my foot that prevented this, though it hurt like the devil, but the fact that my knees kept bending at odd angles. I would not have supposed that the anatomy of the knee permitted such flexibility.

"Not such an enjoyable experience as you thought, was it?" said Emerson. "And the worst is yet to come. If you think your head aches now, wait till tomorrow morning."

He looked so handsome, his eyes bright blue with amused malice, his hair waving damply back from his brow and his stalwart frame attired in clean if rumpled garments, I could not even resent the amus.e.m.e.nt.

Someone had replaced the dirty bandage, I presumed it had been Bertha. She had tended me as deftly and gently as a trained nurse, helping me strip off my filthy clothes- for my hands did not seem to function any better than my knees- and attend to the other elements of the toilette. Cyrus had been waiting to carry me to the saloon, where we were now a.s.sembled, refreshing the inner man (and woman) as the outer had been refreshed. It was certainly a more presentable group than the crew of weary, work-stained, agitated individuals who had stumbled onto the boat.

Arranging my skirts, I settled back on the divan and allowed Cyrus to lift my foot onto a stool. "You will have your little joke, Emerson," I said. "I feel perfectly fit. I confess it is a relief to know I will not have hydrophobia. When I think of Abdullah's courage in examining that poor wretched dog! He might have contracted the disease himself."

"It is a pity he didn't think of examining the dog earlier," said Cyrus critically. "He might have spared you all that agony, my dear."

"It was my idea to examine the dog," Emerson said. "Locating at short notice an animal in the appropriate stage of rabies is not as easy as you might suppose, and few men, however hardened, would care to risk handling it. However, the idea did not occur to me immediately, and the cauterization could not have been delayed Every second counts with such injuries. Once the disease enters the bloodstream . . Well, there is no need to think of that. The dog was deliberately tortured and shut up in the house to await our arrival. Who knew we would be coming that way?"

"Everyone, I should think," Charlie said. "This is the day of rest, we a.s.sumed- "

"Quite right," I said. "That line of investigation won't lead anywhere, Emerson. The villain must have thought it was worth a try. All he stood to lose was one wretched dog Thank G.o.d we came when we did! Its suffering is over now, at any rate."

"It is so like you to think of that," Cyrus murmured, taking my hand.

"Hmph," said Emerson. "You might better be thinking of what would have ensued if Abdullah had not examined the dog."

"We would have endured days, weeks of suspense," Kevin said soberly. "Even cauterization does not ensure- "

"No, no," Emerson said impatiently. "Your sympathetic suffering, O'Connell, would not have interested our attacker. What did he hope to gain by this?"

"The pleasure of picturing you picturing yourself in the ghastly throes of hydrophobia," I suggested. "Violent paroxysms of choking, tetanic convulsions, extreme depression, excitability . . ."

Emerson gave me a very old-fashioned look. "You are as bad as O'Connell. You were the one the dog attacked, not I."

"But you were the intended victim," I insisted. "You always forge ahead of the rest of us, you would have been the first to hear the poor animal's cries, and anyone who knows your character would realize how you would, inevitably, respond to such- "

"As you did." Emerson's eyes were fixed on my face. "You ran like the very devil, Peabody. How did you know the dog const.i.tuted a danger?"

I had hoped he would not wonder about that. "Don't be ridiculous," I said, with a good show of irritability. "I was not concerned about the dog, I feared it might have been employed as a means of luring you into a trap of some kind, that is all. You are always rushing in where angels fear- "

"Unlike you," said Emerson. "I suppose you tripped and fell against me without intending to?"

"Quite," I said, in my most dignified tones.

"Hmph," said Emerson. "Well. It does not matter which of us was the intended victim. What would we have done, had we believed the dog was rabid?"

Cyrus clasped my hand tighter. "I would have ordered a train and taken her straight to Cairo, of course. The Pasteur treatment must be available in the hospitals there."

"Very good, Vandergelt," said Emerson. "And somewhere along the way, I suspect, a group of kindly strangers would have relieved you of your charge. Unless . . . oh, curse it!" He leapt to his feet, eyes bulging. "What a fool I am!" And without further ado he rushed out of the room, leaving the door swinging on its hinges.

"Oh, curse it!" I echoed with equal vehemence. "Go after him, Cyrus! Confound my skirts and my foot and my knees . . . Hurry, I say!"

When I speak in that tone I am seldom disobeyed (and when I am, it is always by Ramses). Cyrus gave me a startled glance before following after Emerson. Charles looked at Rene. Rene looked at Charles. Charles shrugged. As one man they rose and left the room.

Kevin stood irresolutely in the doorway, one foot in and one foot out. "Where is he going?"

"I have not the least idea. I can only a.s.sume that it is somewhere he ought not to be- certainly not alone and unguarded. Come back and sit down, Kevin, you will never catch them up now. If that was your intention."

Kevin looked hurt. Before he could proclaim his courage and zeal, Bertha ran to him and caught his arm. "Do not go! Stay and protect us! This may be a ruse- "

"On Emerson's part?" I inquired ironically. "It is broad daylight and most of the men are still on board.

Do sit down, Bertha, and stop wailing."

His male vanity soothed by the appeal of a helpless female, Kevin slipped his arm around the slight, trembling form and led the girl to a sofa. She sat staring at me, her eyes very wide and dark. Then she wrenched the veil from her face, as if it smothered her.

"He was there before you," she said. "How is it that the dog attacked you instead?"

"I got in its way," I said.

"By chance? I do not believe that. I saw how quickly you ran. How you must love him!"

"Anyone would have done the same," I said shortly, for I am not in the habit of discussing my personal feelings with strange young women.

"Not I," said Kevin frankly. "At least not if I had been given time to think before I acted." He sighed deeply and patted Bertha's hand. "Och, but that's the curse of our confounded British moral code. It is drummed into us from childhood and is part of our nature. I've done me best to conquer it, but there have been times when even I have instinctively behaved like a gentleman instead of thinking first of my own precious skin."

"Not many," I said.

Bertha was trembling violently. Kevin seated himself beside her and began to croon rea.s.surances in a particularly vile brogue I paid them no further heed. My eyes were fixed on the wide windows of the saloon, through which I had beheld Emerson rushing full-tilt up the bank toward the village, hatless and coatless, his hair blowing wildly in the breeze. The others had followed him, but I paid them no heed either, even in my thoughts.

Long before I had dared hope they returned. I could have cried out with relief. Cyrus must have stopped him and persuaded him to listen to reason- or, more likely, Emerson had had second thoughts. He was not, as a rule, susceptible to persuasion, however reasonable.

He and Cyrus walked side by side, with the two young men trailing them at a respectful distance. It was pleasant to see such amity between them,- they appeared to be engaged in serious conversation, and I would have given a great deal to overhear what they were saying. Never mind, I thought, I will get it out of Cyrus at a later time.

CHAPTER 14.

"Men always have some high-sounding excuse for indulging themselves."

The snake, the crocodile and the dog- we had met and overcome them all! The last of the three fates had been the subtlest and most dangerous, if Emerson had not thought to examine the body of the dog, I might even now be in the clutches of our arch-enemy. I did not blame him for failing to think of it earlier. The idea- irrefutably logical though it was- had not occurred to me either. I had been somewhat distracted at the time. Only those who have faced it can fully comprehend the sick horror that fills the soul at the mere possibility of that ghastly infection. Cauterization is the most effective treatment, but it is not a certain cure.

Emerson had been a trifle distracted himself. I remembered his set, white face as he bent over me, the tightening of his lips as he prepared to lay the red-hot steel against my flesh. But there had been no tremor of those firm hands, no moisture in those keen blue eyes.

Naturally one expects such fort.i.tude in a man of Emerson's character.

However, I would not have held it against him if he had wiped away a few manly tears.

The eyes that looked at me now were not brilliant sapphire but steely gray- my own, reflected in the mirror over my dressing table. We had dispersed to our rooms after luncheon. The others were napping, I was supposed to be doing the same. Cyrus had placed me on my bed and bade me rest, Emerson, pa.s.sing by the door, had called out, "Try sleeping it off, MISS Peabody, that usually works for me."

How could I sleep? My brain teemed with confusion. I had managed to hobble to the dressing table, not because the contemplation of my own features gave me any pleasure, but because I cogitate more efficiently when in an upright position.

As Cyrus carried me to my room I had taken the opportunity of questioning him about the conversation I had overheard- or, to be more precise, overseen. "I was just trying to talk some sense into him, my dear," was the reply. "He was heading back to the desert when we caught up with him, wanted to have another look at the body of the dog, he said 'Don't worry, he's thought better of it.'"