The Blind Barber (5 page)

For some time Peggy Glenn had been sitting silent, her chin cupped in her hands, studying the matter. Her glossy hair was tousled across her forehead, and now she suddenly looked up with such an expression of diabolical brightness and practicality that she almost crowed.

“You men,” she said, rather scornfully—“you men—just messing about, that’s all! Now you let
me
tell you what to do, and you’ll have your film back to-night. Yes, I mean it. I fancy I’ve got an idea”—she struggled to conceal the pleasure that was making her tilt up her chin and grow as excited as Warren—“and it’s a
ripping
idea! Whee! Listen. In a way, Captain Valvick is right. We’ve got to trap this chap into coming back for the rest of the film … ”

Warren made a weary gesture, but she frowned him down.

“Will you listen to me? I tell you we can do it. Because why? Because
we
are the only people on the whole boat—we four—who know Curt was attacked and why he was attacked. Very well. We give it out publicly that we came in here and found Curt lying on the floor unconscious, dead to the world with a bad scalp wound. We have no suspicions that there was an attack or theft. We don’t know how it happened; we suppose that he must have come in here drunk or something, and staggered about and finally fell and bashed himself over the head—”

Warren raised his eyebrows.

“Baby,” he said with dignity, “it is not that I myself have any objection to the charming picture you have just described. But I only want to remind you that I am a member of the American Diplomatic Service. The D
IPLOMATIC
Service, Baby. The rules laid down for the strictness of my behaviour would cause annoyance among the seraphim and start a riot in a waxworks. I dislike offering suggestions, but why don’t you say that in the course of my customary morning opium debauch I went cuckoo and batted my head against the wall? My chief would like that fine.”

“Oh, all right,” she conceded primly, “if you must keep to your nasty old rules. Then—say you were ill or sea-sick; anyway, that it was an accident. Well, that you haven’t recovered consciousness … ”

Morgan whistled. “I begin to see this. Curt, I believe the wench has got something!”

“Yes,” said Warren, “and in another minute I’m going to tell you what it is. Go on, Baby. Here, have another drink. After I am picked up insensible, what then?”

“Then,” the girl continued, beaming excitedly, “we tell everybody you were taken to the infirmary, where you are still in a stupor. You see, if we tell it at the table it will go all about the boat. It’s supposed to be an accident, so there’ll be no investigation. In the meantime here will be the cabin, open and unguarded. Don’t you think this crook will see his opportunity? Of course he will. He’ll come back straightaway—and there you are.”

She tossed up her head, her hazel eyes shining and her lower lip folded over the upper in defiant triumph. There was a silence.

“By God! it’s good!” exploded Morgan, driving his fist into his palm. Even Warren was impressed; he sat like a thoughtful Indian prophet, staring at the paper cup, while Captain Valvick chuckled and Peggy said: “Hoo!” in a pleased tone. “But wait a bit,” Morgan added, “what about the steward, the one you sent to tell us?
He
knows.”

“Stewards never talk,” the girl said wisely; “they know too much as it is. Make it certain with a good tip. Then you can go ahead … By the way, Curt, is the cabin next to this one vacant? That’s where you want to hide and wait for him, if it is.”

“Why not in here?”

“He’d see you straightaway, you silly! And you’ve got to catch him with the goods. It’s no good saying, ‘Cough up, you villain!’ unless you can catch him dead to rights. He’d only say he’d got into the wrong cabin by mistake, and then where are you? He must have the film on his person—then,” she added judicially, “I dare say you may land him one, dear, if you like.”

“Ah-hh!” Warren breathed, and dreamily fingered a large fist. “Yes, Baby, the next cabin is unoccupied, as it happens. Tell you what. I’ll install myself in there, and get the steward to bring me some dinner. Captain Valvick can keep watch with me. You two go down to dinner and spread the glad news. Then you can join us afterwards. We’ll probably have a long wait. The ingredients for cocktails might not be out of place … ”

“But we mustn’t get drunk,” said Miss Glenn, as though she were uttering a careful definition of terms.

“Oh, no!” said Warren vigorously. “Not at all. Of course not. Ha-ha! The idea is absurd. But look here, I wish we had more dope on our mysterious crook. If we could only find out something about him … ” He frowned. “Wait a minute. I’ve got an idea, Captain, you know Captain Whistler pretty well, don’t you?”

“Dat old barnacle?” inquired the other. “Coroosh! Ay know him when he wass not so stuck up, you bet. He got a hawful temper, I tell you. De first time ay know him wass in Naples, when he come in wid de cargo-boat where de chief mate hass de religious mania and go crazy and t’ink he is Jesus.” The breath whistled through Valvick’s large moustache; his sandy eyebrows rose and he illustrated the drama. “De chief mate walk up on de bridge and fold his arms and say, ‘Ay am Jesus.’ De captain say, ‘You are not Jesus.’ De chief mate say, ‘Ay am Jesus and you are Pontius Pilate,’ and
smack
—he haul off and bust Captain Whistler in de yaw, and dey got to put ’im in irons. Iss a fact. Ay tank of it w’en you say Dr. Kyle iss a mad doctor, because Captain Whistler don’ like de people which go nutty. Anudder time—”

“Listen, old man,” begged Warren. “Spare the Odyssey for a minute. If there were any big international crook aboard, or there were a rumour of it, Captain Whistler would be the one to know about it, wouldn’t he? They’d wireless him, wouldn’t they, even if he kept it under cover?”

Valvick massively lifted his head sideways and scratched his cheek.

“Ay dunno. It depend on wedder dey know it at de port. Maybe. You want me to hask him?”

“Well—not exactly. Sort of sound him out, you see? Don’t let on you know anything. You might do it before dinner; and then we’d be all ready to keep watch.”

The other nodded vigorously, and Warren looked at his watch. “Nearly time for the bugle to dress for dinner. We’re all set, then?”

There was an enthusiastic chorus in the affirmative. For all these people had within them the true, glorious hare-brained spirit of adventure; and Warren poured them a quick one as a toast to the new gamble as lights came on through the vibrating sleekness of white decks, and rain-squalls spattered the portholes, and the voice of a bugle began to brattle past state-room doors, and the stately
Queen Victoria
shouldered on towards the wild business that was to be.

“B
UT DIDN’T YOU KNOW
it?” inquired Peggy Glenn, in her sweetest and most surprised tone.

Her voice was clear in the almost deserted dining-saloon, its lights winking against polished rosewood and its vast height wrenched with ghostly cracklings. The roof writhed in the fashion of tottering blocks; Morgan was not at all sure about that glass dome. To eat (or do nearly anything else) was a sporting performance in which you must look sharp for sudden rushes of the crockery from any corner of the table, from the snakelike dart of the water-glass to the majestic ground-swell of the gravy. Morgan felt like a nervous juggler. The dining-saloon would slowly surge up with an incredible balloon swell, climb higher, tilt, and plunge down from its height with a long-drawn roar of water that dislodged stewards from their pillars and made diners—clutching their chairs—feel a sudden dizziness in the pit of the stomach.

There were possibly a dozen people to stem a clattering avalanche of dishes and silver. In general, they were eating away grimly but cautiously, while a gallant orchestra attempted to play “The Student Prince.” But none of this bothered Peggy Glenn. Suave in black velvet, with her black bobbed hair done into some sort of trick wave that lent a hoydenish air to her thin face, she sat at Captain Whistler’s elbow and regarded him with naïve surprise.

“But didn’t you know it?” she repeated. “Of course Curtis can’t help it, poor boy. It runs in the family, sort of. I mean, I shouldn’t exactly call it insanity, of course … ”

Morgan choked on a bit of fish and peered sideways at her. She appealed to him.

“I say, Hank, what was the name of that uncle of his Curt was telling us about? I mean the one who had the fits-and-gibbers or something in his sleep, or maybe it was claustrophobia, and used to give a terrific spring out of bed because he thought he was being strangled?”

Captain Whistler laid down his knife and fork. He had obviously been in an ill temper when he came to the table; but he had concealed it under gruff amiability and absent-minded smiles. Wheeling round his chair he had announced that he must return to the bridge and could stay only for one course or two. Captain Whistler was stout and short of breath. He had protruding eyes of a pale brown colour, something like the hue of pickled onions, a ruddy face, and a large loose mouth which was always booming a professional and paternal “Ha-ha” to nervous old ladies. His gold braid blazed, and his short white hair stood up like the foam on a beer-glass.

Now he addressed Peggy with coy heartiness. “Come, come,” he said in his best nursery manner, “and what is the little lady telling us now? Eh, my dear? Something about an accident to a friend of yours?”

“A
dreadful
accident,” she assured him, looking round to make sure the dining-room would overhear. The only people at their own table were the captain, Dr. Kyle, Morgan, and herself; so she wanted to make sure. She described Warren’s being picked up unconscious, with a wealth of graphic detail. “But, of course, poor boy, he isn’t responsible for his actions when he gets into those fits … ”

Captain Whistler looked concerned, and then rather alarmed. His fleshy face grew redder.

“Ah, hurrumph!” he said, clearing his throat. “Dear me! Dear me!”—it speaks much for the captain’s social polish that he could sometimes force himself to say “Dear me!”—“Bad, bad, Miss Glenn! But there’s nothing—ah—seriously wrong with him, is there?” He peered at her in gruff anxiety. “Is it maybe something in Dr. Kyle’s line now?”

“Well, of course, I shouldn’t like to say—”

“Have you known cases of the kind, Doctor?”

Kyle was not a man of many words. He was methodically disposing of grilled sole—a lean, long-faced figure with a bulging shirt-front, and traces of a thin smile had pulled down the furrows in his cheeks. He glanced at Peggy from under grizzled eyebrows, and then at Morgan. Morgan received the impression that he believed in Warren’s lurid ailment about as much as he believed in the Loch Ness monster.

“Oh, yes,” he replied in his heavy, meditative voice. “Not unknown. I’ve met it before.” He looked hard at Peggy. “A mild case of
legensis-pullibus
, I should think. Patient’ll recover.”

In a harassed way Captain Whistler wiped his mouth with his napkin.

“But—ah—why wasn’t I told of this?” he demanded. “I’m master here, and it’s my right to be told of things like this … ”

“I did tell you, Captain!” Peggy protested indignantly. “I’ve been sitting here the whole time telling you; I told you three times over before you understood. I say, what
is
worrying you?”

“Eh?” said the captain, jumping a little. “Worrying me? Rubbish, my dear! Rubbish! Ha-ha!”

“I mean, I hope we’re not going to hit an iceberg or anything. That would be dreadful!” She regarded him with wide hazel eyes. “And, you know, they
do
say the captain of the
Gigantic
was drunk the night they hit the whale, and—”

“I am not drunk, madam,” said Captain Whistler, his voice taking on a slight roar. “And I am not worried either. Rubbish!”

She seemed to have an inspiration. “Then I know what it is, poor dear! Of course. You’re worried about poor Lord Sturton and all those valuable emeralds he’s got with him … ” Commiseratingly she looked at the chair which a very sea-sick peer had not yet occupied on the voyage. “And I don’t blame you. I say, Hank, just fancy. Suppose there were a notorious criminal aboard—just suppose it, I mean—and this criminal had decided to pinch Lord Sturton’s jewels. Wouldn’t it be thrilling? Only not for poor Captain Whistler, of course; because he’d be responsible, wouldn’t he?”

Under the table Morgan administered an unmannerly kick towards the shins of his beaming partner. His lips framed “Easy on!” But undoubtedly a number of diners had pricked up their ears.

“My dear young lady,” said the captain, in an agitated voice, “for Go—ah—please kindly get that nonsense out of your pretty little head. Ha-ha! You’ll alarm my passengers, you know; and I can’t have that, can I? (
Lower your voice, will you
?) The idea’s fantastic. Come, now!”

She was appealing. “Oh dear, have I said anything I shouldn’t? I mean, I was only supposing, to sort of relieve the monotony; because it
has
been rather dull, you know, and there hasn’t been anything really funny, dear Captain Whistler, since I saw you playing handball on the boat-deck. But if there were a notorious criminal on board, it would be exciting. And it might be anybody. It might be Hank. Or it might be Dr. Kyle—mightn’t it?”

“Verra likely,” agreed Dr. Kyle composedly, and went on dissecting fish.

“But if I did have anything on my mind,” declared the captain, in heavy joviality, “it would be about your uncle, Miss Glenn. He’s promised to give us a full-dress performance of his marionettes at the ship’s concert. And that’s to-morrow night, my dear. He mustn’t be ill for that, you know. He and his assistant—ah—well, they’re—they’re improving, aren’t they?” said the captain, his voice rising to a desperate bellow as he tried to divert her. “I have looked forward, I have hoped, I have waited for the—ah—pleasure, the supreme honour,” yelled Captain Whistler, “of being present at a performance. And now you really must excuse me. I mustn’t forget my duties, even at the expense of your charming company. I must—er—go. Good night, my dear. Good night, gentlemen.”

He rolled away. There was a silence. Of the diners left at roundabout tables, Morgan noticed swiftly, only three people glanced after him. There was the sharp-edged, bony, shock-haired face of Mr. Charles Woodcock, the commercial traveller, who peered out motionless with his soup-spoon poised above his mouth as though he were going to pose for a figure on a fountain. At another table some distance away Morgan saw a man and a woman—both thin and well-dressed, their pale faces looking curiously alike except that the woman wore a monocle and the man a floating blond moustache like a feather waving from his lip. They stared after the captain. Morgan did not know who they were, but he saw them every morning. They made endless circuits of the promenade-deck, in absolute silence walking rapidly, with their eyes fixed straight ahead. One morning, in dull fascination, Morgan had watched them make one hundred and sixty-four circuits without a word. At the hundred and sixty-fifth they had stopped; the man said, “Eh?” and the woman said, “Ah!” and then they both nodded and went inside. It had occurred to Morgan to speculate how their marital relations were conducted … Anyhow, they seemed to be interested in the movements of Captain Whistler.