His Unknown Wife Page 5

  CHAPTER V

  ROMANCE RECEIVES A COLD DOUCHE

  But none of these thoughts showed in Maseden's face. He laughed easilyand explained in voluble Spanish that he swore in English occasionally,having picked up the correct formula from an American senor with whomhe once took a hunting trip into the interior.

  The sailor, hearing this flow of a language he understood, and not ableto measure the idiomatic fluency of Maseden's English, accepted thestory without demur, but the fourth officer and quartermaster, bothAmericans, were evidently puzzled.

  He soon got rid of the too-effusive half-caste, and retired to hisberth. Thank goodness, since the one person on board mainly concernedwas perforce aware of his identity, he was free to wash his face andtake a bath! To oblige a lady he would have remained unwashed all theway to Buenos Ayres; now, every other consideration might go hang.

  Finding a steward, he gave further cause for bewilderment by asking tobe allowed to use a bath-room.

  Greatly to Maseden's relief, his lapse into the vernacular seemed toevoke little or no comment subsequently. The captain heard of it, butwas far too irritated by the faulty behavior of a ring-bolt (examinationshowed a bad flaw in the metal) to pay any special heed. As for thehalf-caste sailor, his gratitude to Maseden took the form of describinghim admiringly as "the _vaquero_ who could swear like an _Americano_,"an equivocal compliment which actually fostered the belief that Masedenwas what he represented himself to be--a vagabond cowboy migrating fromone coast of the great South American continent to the other.

  His peculiar habits, therefore, shown in such trivial details as adesire for personal cleanliness and a certain fastidiousness at table,were attributed to the same exotic tutelage. Of course, when he spokeany intelligent Spaniard could have detected faults in phrase orpronunciation, but he had a ready resource in the _patois_ of San Juan,and no man on board was competent to assess him accurately by bothstandards.

  He settled down quickly to the exigencies of life at sea. Five daysafter leaving Cartagena he was an expert in the matter of keeping hisfeet when the vessel was rolling or pitching, or performing a corkscrewmovement which combined the worst features of each.

  When the _Southern Cross_ entered more southerly latitudes herpassengers were given ample opportunity to test their skill in thisrespect. The weather grew colder each day, and with the drop in thethermometer came gray skies and rough seas.

  There are two tracks for ocean-going steamers bound down the west coast.The open Pacific offers no hindrance to safe navigation, except anoccasional heavy gale. The inner course, through Smyth's Channel, issheltered but tortuous, and the commander of the _Southern Cross_elected to save time by heading direct for the Straits of Tierra delFuego. The ship was speedy and well-found. A stiff nor'wester tendedrather to help her along, and she should reach Buenos Ayres withinfifteen days.

  Maseden contrived to buy a heavy poncho, or cloak, from one of the crew.Wrapped in this useful garment, he patrolled the small space of deck athis disposal, and kept an unfailing eye for the reappearance at thefor'ard rail of one or other of the Misses Gray; yet day after dayslipped by and they remained obstinately hidden.

  Once or twice, when the weather permitted, he climbed to the fore deck,whence he could scan a large part of the promenade deck on both the portand starboard sides. On the port side, however, a wind-screenintervened.

  Twice he thought he saw Madeleine Gray leaning on the port rail, talkingto Sturgess--and wearing the very dress in which she was married! Eitherby accident or design she vanished almost instantly on each occasion.

  It was nonsensical, of course, but he began to harbor a sentiment ofannoyance with Sturgess, who, by some queer contriving of fortune,seemed to be drawn rather to the company of Madeleine than of sisterNina. Any real feeling of jealousy would have been absurd, almostludicrous, under the circumstances.

  For all that, Maseden couldn't understand why the fellow apparentlydevoted himself to the company of one sister to the neglect, orintentional exclusion, of the other; while the lady's behavior, assumingthat she knew of the presence of her "husband" within a few yards, was,to say the least, reprehensible if not provocative.

  By this time, Maseden was fully convinced that his wife had recognizedhim. Oddly enough, the somewhat bizarre costume he wore would help inbetraying him to her eyes. She had seen him only when arrayed in evenmore startling guise. Her memory of him, therefore, would depend whollyon his features and physique, and the incongruity of an unmistakablyAmerican voice coming from a _vaquero_ could not fail to be enhanced bythe gala attire affected by that erstwhile gay spark, old Lopez'snephew.

  Moreover, Maseden had bribed the forecastle steward to find out from oneof the saloon attendants what had happened to the two ladies on thepromenade deck when the pulley fell. One of them, the man said, was sostartled that she nearly fainted, and the American senor had carried herto a chair.

  Obviously, on an American vessel, with American officers, engineers, andquartermasters, for one whose only tongue was Spanish it was difficultto extract information. The Spanish-speaking members of the crew knewlittle or nothing of the passengers, while Maseden's part of the shipwas as completely shut off from the saloon as are the dwellings of thepoor from the palaces of the rich.

  Many times was he tempted to change his quarters, and thus tacitly admithis identity; but cold prudence as often forbade any such folly. Even ifthe full extent of his adventures in Cartagena were unknown on board, itwas a quite certain thing that the story must have reached Buenos Ayreslong ago.

  Bad as was the odor of the republic in the outer world, it stillpossessed the rights of a sovereign state, and the last thing Masedendesired was an enforced return to the Castle of San Juan, there to standhis trial anew for conspiracy, plus an undoubted attempt to murder thepresident! That would be a stiff price to pay merely in order to satehis curiosity as to the motive underlying a woman's strange whim.

  * * * * *

  On the sixth night of the voyage the opportunity for which he waslooking was offered as unexpectedly as it had been persistently withheldearlier.

  After a very unpleasant day of wind and rain the weather improvedmarkedly. True, the sky had not cleared, and the darkness which fellswiftly over a leaden sea was of a quality almost palpable.

  Had he troubled to recall the sealore gleaned from many books of travel,Maseden would have known that such a change was by no means indicativeof smoother seas and days of sunshine in the near future. The ship wasmerely crossing the center of a cyclonic area. Ere morning she wouldprobably meet a fiercer gale than that through which she had justpassed.

  Such minor considerations as to the state of the elements carried littleweight, however, when contrasted with the immediate and solid fact thatMaseden, giving an upward eye to the promenade deck about nine o'clock,discerned a solitary female figure leaning on the rail.

  Since there were no other women on board, this must be either Madeleineor Nina. As it happened, the forecastle was deserted, in the sense thatits usual occupants were either asleep or busied with the duties of thehour. Above the girl's head paced the officer of the watch. Up in thebows were two men on the look-out. Otherwise, the fore part of the shipwas untenanted save for Maseden himself and the slim, cloaked form whichseemed to be peering aimlessly into the impenetrable wall of darknessahead.

  Apparently the wind had died down. There were no sounds save the normalones--the onward rush of the ship, the swish of an occasional swellcleft by the cut-water, the steady thud of the screw, and the equallyregular creaking of planks and panels swollen by heavy rain afterundergoing tropical heat.

  It was a night rich with suggestion of mystery and romance. Some newichor stirred in Maseden's veins, firing his spirit to emprise. Comewhat might, he resolved to have speech with the lady, be she wife inname or merely sister-in-law!

  But how contrive it? If he hailed her from the main deck, the officer onthe bridge would overhear, and straightway play a domineerin
g hand inthe game. If he went aft, through a narrow gangway leading past theengine-room and various officers' cabins, he could reach a sliding doorgiving access to the saloon companion, but his presence there wouldundoubtedly be noticed, evoking a stern order to betake himself to hisown quarters.

  The third method was the direct one. A series of iron rungs ledvertically up the face of the superstructure, and, as sailorsoccasionally passed that way, the girl would not necessarily bealarmed by seeing a man coming up.

  The officer on duty might detect him, of course; but even he was liableto mistake him for one of the ship's company.

  It has been seen already that Maseden was of the rare order of mankindwhich, having once made up its mind, acts unhesitatingly. No sooner hadhe elected for the iron ladder than he had crossed the deck and wasmounting rapidly. It chanced that the officer did not see him.

  In a few seconds he was standing on the promenade deck. Then he had anattack of stage-fright. Many an actor has strode valiantly from wings tofootlights only to find his tongue glued to the roof of his mouth. Thiswas Maseden's "star turn," and not a word could he utter!

  By a singular coincidence, the lady was equally nervous. She gave scantattention to the commonplace occurrence that a member of the crew shouldwalk aft from the dim interior of the forecastle and hurry up theladder, but the situation altered dramatically when a faint gleam froma window of the smoking-room fell on the tarnished silver braid and giltbuttons of Maseden's jacket of black cloth and velvet.

  The light, such as it was, fell directly on the girl's face as sheturned towards the intruder. Her eyes, blue sapphires by day, were nowstrangely dark. Maseden saw that her expression was one of panic if notof actual terror. He was unpleasantly reminded of a bird fascinated by asnake; the displeasing simile stirred his wits and unlocked his tongue.

  "I'm sorry if I have frightened you," he said quietly, "but the chanceof securing a few words of explanation seemed too good to be lost. Youowe me something of the kind, don't you?"

  "Why?" came the truly feminine reply.

  "Because, unless I am greatly mistaken, you are the lady whom I had thehonor of marrying in the Castle of San Juan at Cartagena. You may beknown as Miss Madge Gray on board this ship, but your name in theregister was Madeleine."

  "My name is Nina, not Madge."

  Maseden was taken aback for a few seconds, yet the fact could not begainsaid that the speaker, whether Madge or Nina, did not repudiate thegeneral accuracy of his statement. Moreover, he was almost sure of hisground now. His "wife" was probably flirting with Sturgess. Nina, asusual, was left to her own devices, since the forecastle steward hadreported that Senor Gray was ill and confined to his cabin.

  "At any rate, you do not deny that either your sister or yourself islegally entitled to pose as Mrs. Philip Alexander Maseden?" he said.

  "I am not aware that either of us can fairly be described as posing inthat distinguished capacity."

  The retort was glib enough. It amused the man.

  "Perhaps I put the bald truth rather awkwardly," he said. "Let me, then,ask a plain question. Did I marry you, or your sister, last Tuesdaymorning?"

  "You certainly err if you think that I shall discuss the affairs of myfamily with a complete stranger," was the unhesitating answer.

  "Yet you, or your sister, did not scruple to marry one."

  "Are _you_ Mr. Maseden?"

  "I am. Haven't I said so? I implied it, at any rate."

  "Then why are you in disguise, posing--it is your own word--as a Spanishcowboy?"

  "Because I'm trying to save my miserable life. Don't think meungrateful, madam. I owe my escape to the phenomenal circumstancesbrought about by the desire of a charming young lady to becomeMrs. Maseden, if only for a brief half hour. I am not claimingany--privileges, shall I say?--on that account. But I can hardly creditthat, having gone through the ordeal of such a ceremony, you wouldrefuse to tell me your motive, so I reluctantly revert to my firstopinion, namely, that your sister is my wife."

  "Reluctantly! Why reluctantly?"

  There was more than a touch of bewilderment in the cry. Masedeninterpreted it as a fencer's trick to gain time.

  "I don't mind being absolutely candid," he laughed. "You see, time hangsheavy on my hands here. I have nothing to do except watch for a glimpseof an unknown wife. Queer, isn't it? Anyhow, my fate doesn't seem toworry sister Madge, who finds consolation elsewhere; so, of the two, ifI must be wed to one of you, I imagine I would prefer you."

  "I think you are intolerably rude, Mr. Maseden. Madge was right when shesaid--"

  She checked herself with a little gasp of dismay. Maseden laughed again.

  "Please don't spare me," he cried. "What did Madge say?"

  "I decline to discuss the matter any further."

  "But why should we quarrel over a minor point? You have tacitlyadmitted that your sister married me. Give me some notion of her motive.That is all I ask. It may help."

  "How help?"

  "When I take unto myself a wife I expect to be allowed some freedom ofchoice in the matter. I certainly refuse to have her picked for me by arascal like Steinbaum. If I win clear of Buenos Ayres and reach New YorkI shall take the speediest steps to undo the matrimonial knot tied inCartagena. There may be legal complications, which will be attended, Isuppose, by a certain amount of publicity. It will help some, as Mr.Sturgess would say, if I know just why the lady wanted to wed in thefirst instance. Surely there is reason behind that simple request. Yoursister begged to be allowed to marry me because I was condemned todeath. At least, such was Steinbaum's story. Was _that_ true, to beginwith?"

  No answer. Maseden felt that he had cornered her.

  "There must have been some such ground for an extraordinary action," hewent on. "To the best of my knowledge she had never seen me. I questionif she even knew my name. I--"

  A door opened, and a stream of light fell on the deck some feet away.Sturgess's voice reached them clearly.

  "Guess she's tucked up cozy in a deck chair," he was saying. "It's notime to retire to roost yet, anyhow."

  "Please go now," whispered Nina tremulously. "You mustn't be seentalking to me. I--I'll discuss things with Madge, and if possible, comehere about the same hour to-morrow, or next day. I--I'll do my best."

  Without another word, Maseden swung himself over the rail. When belowthe level of the deck he clung to the ladder and listened, not meaningto act ungenerously, but because of the other man's rapid approach.

  "Ah, there you are, Miss Nina!" cried Sturgess. "Sister Madge is boredstiff by my company, but was polite enough to pretend that she wasanxious about you."

  "I've been star-gazing," said the girl, hastening towards him.

  "So've I," grinned Sturgess. "You two girls have the finest eyes I'veever--"

  His voice trailed away into silence. Maseden dropped to the deck.

  "Hang it all!" he muttered, strangely disconsolate. "When Fate took meby the scruff of the neck and married me to one of two sisters, neitherof whom I had ever seen, she might have been kind enough, the jade, totie me to the right one!"

  Yet, even to his thinking, Madge and Nina were like as a couple of pins!Being an eminently sensible sort of fellow, he realized in the nextbreath that Madge might be quite as nice a girl as Nina.

  Then the thought struck him that she was purposely making things easierfor him by cultivating a friendship with Sturgess. In any case, Sturgesswas obviously destined to act as a pawn in the game. Even he, Maseden,had not scrupled to use that gentleman at sight when anxious to boardthe _Southern Cross_ without attracting the attention of thenews-mongering boatmen of Cartagena.

  * * * * *

  That night he lay awake for hours. For one thing, the ship was runninginto bad weather again, and complained nosily of the buffeting her stoutframe was receiving. For another, his own course was beset withdifficulties. He failed completely to understand the attitude of sisterNina.

  If Madeleine--or Madge, as he h
ad better learned to distinguish her--hadsought marriage with a man about to die as a means to escape from someunbearable duress, was her plight accentuated rather than bettered bythe fact that her husband still lived? If so, the announcement that hemeant to obtain a legal dissolution of the bond at the earliest possiblemoment would relieve the tension.

  But what if her need demanded that she should remain wed, a wife inname only? A development of that sort foreshadowed complexities of arare order. Maseden knew himself as one capable of Quixotic action--eventhe scheming Steinbaum had paid him _that_ tribute--but it was askingtoo much that he should go through life burdened with a wife who treatedhim as a benevolent stranger.

  Common sense urged that they should meet and discuss a most trying andequivocal situation as frankly and fully as might be. Why, then, hadNina Gray been so disturbed, so anxious to keep the married pair apart?Both girls knew he was alive. What purpose could it serve that the factshould be ignored?

  He puzzled his brain to recall incidents he had heard of Steinbaum'shistory, but investigation along that line drew a blank. Was Suarezmixed up in the embroglio? It was unlikely. Though the man had spentsome years in the United States and in Europe, he had not left San Juansince he, Maseden, came there, and, before that period, both Madge andNina Gray must have been girls in short frocks and long tresses.

  Perhaps the father's record would provide a clew. Somehow, though he hadnever set eyes on Mr. Gray save as a shadowy form on a dark night,Maseden sensed him as unsympathetic. He was forced to form a judgment onthe flimsiest of material, having none other; but Gray's voice, his wayof speaking to his daughters, had grated.

  First impressions are treacherous guides; nevertheless the philosopherwhom they cannot mislead does not exist.

  The following day was the longest in Maseden's experience. Monotony, initself, is wearying; when, to a dull routine of meals and occasionaltalk with men of an inferior type is added the positive discomfort ofconfinement in the most exposed and cramped part of a ship during astiff gale, monotony becomes akin to torture.

  At last, however, night fell. There was no improvement in the weather,which, if anything, grew worse; but a change in the ship's course, or ashifting of the wind--no one to whom Maseden might speak could give himany reliable data on the point--brought the _Southern Cross_ on a moreeven keel.

  Here, at least, was some slight compensation for the leaden-footed hoursof waiting. Nina Gray might be a good sailor, but it was hardlyreasonable to expect that she would keep her tryst when the big steamerwas trying alternately to stand on end or roll bodily over to port.

  About nine o'clock Maseden made out a shrouded figure in the positionwhere his "sister-in-law" had stood the previous night. He hastenedfrom the shelter of the forecastle, and was promptly drenched from headto foot by a shower of spray. He was half-way up the ladder when a voicereached him.

  "Please go back," it said. "I'll come to the gangway on the starboardside."

  He regained the deck, made for the right-hand gangway, and soon had thesatisfaction of seeing the girl walking swiftly along the dimly-lightedcorridor.

  He hardly knew how to greet her. To bid her "Good evening," or murmursome platitude about her goodness in keeping the appointment in suchvile weather, would have sounded banal.

  The lady, however, when they came face to face, settled all doubts onthe question of etiquette by saying breathlessly:

  "I have had a long talk with my sister, Mr. Maseden, and she bids metell you that she cannot meet you herself. You were so generous, so kindto her, at a moment when your thoughts might well have been centered inyour own terrible fate, that she cannot bear the ordeal of asking youthe last favor of forgetting her.

  "Of course, every facility will be given for the dissolution of themarriage. I have written here the address of a firm of lawyers inPhiladelphia who will act with your legal representatives when thematter comes before the courts. For your own purposes, I understand,you wish to remain unknown while on board this ship. We have arranged totravel to New York by the first American liner sailing from Buenos Ayresafter our arrival. Perhaps you will be good enough to choose anothervessel, or, if your affairs are urgent, _we_ would wait for a later one.Can you let me know your wishes now in that matter?"

  Maseden was so astonished that he literally caught the girl by theshoulder and turned her partly round so that the light of a distant lampfell on her face. The buffeting of the gale, aided, no doubt, by afeeling of excitement, had lent her a fine color, but, if her utterancewas a trifle broken at first, it had soon become calm and measured, nordid she seem to resent his cavalier treatment.

  "Are you joking?" he said, smiling in sheer perplexity.

  "I fail to find any humor in my words," came the instant reply.

  "Quite so. They might have been framed by a lawyer. Isn't there a ghostof a joke in that mere fact?"

  "It appeared to my sister, and I fully agree with her, that we aresuggesting the best way, the only way, out of an embarrassing dilemma."

  "Yes," agreed Maseden, drawing a long breath. "I agree to all theterms; I insist only on priority of sailing from Buenos Ayres. I don'tsee why I should risk my life just to save you a triflinginconvenience."

  "Then here is the address I spoke of," and she proffered an envelope.

  "Good. We'll leave the rest to the law, Miss Nina."

  "Thank you. Good-by."

  She would have passed him, but he was on the after side of the gangway,and his outstretched hand restrained her.

  "One moment, please," he said. "I want you to tell your sister that shehas thoroughly--disillusioned me."

  "I'll do that," she assured him, and he could not help but regard herairy self-possession as the most surprising factor in a remarkablesituation.

  "And you, too," he went on. "Something has happened to you since lastnight. Somehow you are--harder. Forgive me if I choose unpleasantadjectives."

  She hesitated before replying. Perhaps she felt the quiet scornunderlying the words.

  "Where my unhappy family is concerned, the forgiveness must come whollyfrom you," she said at last. "May I go now, Mr. Maseden? Once more,thank you for all that you have done and will do. Remember, when thismiserable affair reaches the newspapers, it is not your reputation thatwill suffer, but the woman's!"

  She left him gazing blankly after her. There was a tense _vibrato_ inthe tone of the girl's voice that touched some responsive chord in theman's breast.

  Then he became aware that he was soaked to the skin, and the wind waspiercingly cold.

  He murmured a phrase strongly reminiscent of the _Americano_ who tookhunting trips into the interior of Central America, and hurried to hiscabin, where he stripped and rubbed his limbs to a glow before turningin.