Captain Caution (27 page)

Marvin laughed. "I understand that I've lost two days through the promises he never intended to keep."

"Now you are bitter!" she interrupted. She patted the bench; and Marvin sat beside her, dropping his hat and stick on the gravel walk. "You do not understand Frenchmen, you Americans, any more than you understand women. My uncle, M. de Talleyrand, he would have helped you, yes, and gladly, if it had not interfered with his ideas of right and wrong."

"Then why did he promise?" Marvin said harshly. "Does he manufacture new ideas of right and wrong each day?"

She bent forward to look into his face, shaking her black curls so that a faint, penetrating fragrance rose from them. "Are there no promises broken in America?" she asked. "Here it is the custom; for if our great men said 'No' to everyone's demands, they would have poniards in the backs, all of them, in one day's time; and a great man with a poniard in his back is no better than a dead carp in the moat. So they say 'Yes' when they mean 'No.' If you had been a statesman you would know the truth of this. Maybe you do not have statesmen in America."

Marvin shook his head. "This is talk that means nothing, like your uncle's talk about American seamen. A broken promise is a broken promise, and nothing can change that. As for his ideas of right and wrong, they're probably no better than the papers he wrote for your National Institute on the fishing cantons of America. Fishing cantons! Good Godl"

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She came closer to him, so that Marvin felt the warmth of her shoulder through the sleeve of his coat. "No, no, not" she said. "It is only that you do not understand, you Americansl Listen now, and I explain everything to you. My uncle, he loves France, but he does not love this small butcher" she pretended to glower, thrusting her fingers into the front of her cloak and inflating her cheeks so that she had a look of Bonaparte about her "this madman whose desire for power is hurrying France and all of us into one large gravel" She seemed to shiver, so that Marvin took her hand and held it in both of his.

"One month ago," she continued, smiling up at him, "this madman buried himself and his army in the depths of Russia in Russia, and with winter moaning at his shoulder! Only this week we have had the news. He has burned Moscowl He has destroyed his shelter and his provisions, and the Russians are on every side of him: millions of theml He is audacious and imprudent and a madman; so it is in- evitable that he and his army must sink, either beneath the numbers of his enemies, or beneath hunger, or beneath the snow. Already they are as good as buried. It is the beginning of the end. That is why Maurice has come to his chateau to tell the Spanish king, who was stolen out of Spain and imprisoned here by the madman, that soon he can go back to his own country. Now you are able to understand it, eh? If my uncle helps you to go out on the ocean with a device that will be bad for England, then England might be longer in chopping off the madman's head and restoring peace to France."

"It's what I suspected!" Marvin said. "It's an explanation that doesn't explain. He'll help his brave allies, the Americans, if it suits his plans; and I'm his friend, unless it's inconvenient for himl"

"No," she assured him, "it is only that we, you and I, do not have great minds like my uncle Maurice. He is French, and the French people have ideas. You are materialist, thinking of the cost of your ship, but Maurice thinks above such things. He thinks of nations, moving against one another like a game of chess, and what is best to be done in each small move, you comprehend?"

"No," Marvin said.

"But you mustl You speak of friendship! Do you think friends are common as herring? They are notl For poor people, perhaps, they are no more scarce than blue diamonds; but for the rich and powerful they are as rare as unicorns! My uncle Maurice has discovered that there is no man he can trust. Through one man he lost two million in the stock market; through another he lost his beautiful home, the Hotel Monaco. Even by Bonaparte, for whom he had done ev

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erything, he was called a thief a man without faith or honorl By Bonapartel"

"It seems impossible!" Marvin said gravely.

"But it is truer" she insisted. "It was while that madman fought in Spain. His brother Lucien returned to France with millions and millions he had taken from the Spaniards, and Bonaparte said he had acted wisely. But when my uncle Maurice returned with only two little millions, this madman called him names, worse than a dog; worse than a pigl No, there is no man he can trustl From one woman, two women, perhaps, he can have sympathy and friendship. From a man, not It is the same with me. I cannot trust any woman. I take pleasure in the company of some, certainly; but all of them alll they will say any bad thing about me behind my back, whenever it pleases theml If I want friends, I must find them among men Maurice and my husband and perhaps one more, or two."

"Your husband!" he exclaimed.

She twisted quickly on the bench, drawing her hand away; then leaned backward to smile up at the expression on his face. "You see, I have told you there are many things you do not understand! When you are older, and have sailed your ship to many ports, you will no longer be like a little boy. Then, it may be, I would no longer offer to help you if you came hunting for assistance from my uncle Maurice."

She leaned toward him again; and again from her small pyramid of black curls there rose that faint and penetrating fragrance. "You see, I am telling you secrets. When you are in need of a lady's help you must appear helpless and far from home, and a little frightened, especially of her. Then she will feel at once that she must protect you, and see that you are made happy."

Marvin stared helplessly at her for a moment; then stooped for his hat and stick and rose to his feet. "I'll try to do better another time, ma'am."

"But you are obstinate!" she cried. "Never have I seen a man so obstinate! Can nothing make you believe that somewhere there is a woman wise enough to help your"

"Why," he said, "I'm beyond help, if you've told me the truth. Your uncle won't help me, and there's no help for that, is thereP"

She jumped from the bench and stamped her foot an inch from his own. "So you will walk back to Paris, because of your pride, penniless and helpless, and able to do nothing against your enemy, or for the lady he is stealing out from under your nosel Nothing, do you understandP Nothingl This Mr. Barlow, the American Envoy of whom you

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speak, he is not in Paris. He is not in France, even. He has been summoned to Vilna by the madman, and has gone to him. Like all the others, he has plunged himself into Russia and into his grave at a word from Bonaparte."

Marvin stared at his hand, clenching and unclenching it as though he found it painful. "Did you know yesterday that Mr. Barlow was not in France?" he asked.

She nodded. "Of course. And I knew more. I knew that a gentleman has recently come to Paris to act in place of Mr. Barlow. I myself know this gentleman."

"And so," Marvin said thoughtfully, "you let me go on thinking that Mr. Barlow was in Parist"

She shrugged her shoulders. "It was not I who let you go on thinking. It was Maurice, who had his own reasons. Diplomats, you understand, consider it unwise to speak the truth or tell what they know. And who am I to disabuse you about anything, knowing that you believe there are fifty foolish women for every wise one?"

Marvin stared at her helplessly. "You know who it is that took Mr. Barlow's place? Who is it?"

She hesitated, her eyes on his face: then seemed to reach a sudden decision. "The gentleman's name is garnet. He was the consul of your country in Havre. I myself know this gentleman. If I ask something of Mr. garnet, he cannot refuse me." She came close to him and placed her hand on his shoulder. "But of course you think we women are foolish all of usl"

He shook his head. "No: not all of you. If ever I had such thoughts about you, I made a mistake."

"Ahl" she said. "A triumph! The gentleman pays me a pretty compliment by saying he made a mistake! What, then, will the gentleman do?"

"Do?" he asked. "Do? I don't know what I'll do. I don't know. I'll try to think of something to do."

She made a sound of exasperation. "Almost I am tempted to do nothing for you, after alll If you need help so much, why is it you do not ask me for it?"

"It's not only a letter to Mr. Barnet that I need," Marvin said. "I've got to have money, and a deal of it. I'd mislike asking a lady for money, even if she could give it to me, and even if the lady had no husband or uncle to consider. It wouldn't seem it wouldn't seem wiser"

"But I am not going to give it to you! First you must make it possible for me to get enough to lend you, and then you must repay

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my loan as you said you would repay my uncle twice over three times overt"

He was silent, studying her.

She laughed lightly. "You see, now, I am wiser than you have thought. You have thought, all this time, that I am impatient to give you what you need; but now you find you do not know, even, how you shall help me get ill"

"How I can help you get it," Marvin said slowly, "I have no idea, but you shall have a paper guaranteeing you 300 per cent profit on your venture and I shall assume that you're as impatient for money as I am for a ship."

She sat on the bench again and looked up at him out of the corners of her eyes. "You are a nice young man so nice that it would be easy to forget that one must be careful always about matters of business. Yesterday you told us of a pendulum. Of course, I know nothing of pendulums; but there was once an English gentleman who came here to see my uncle, and he spoke of your M. Benjamin Franklin, calling him one of those damned Yankees who could do anything." Her eyes twinkled. "It may be that he was right, and that there is something about Yankees that enables them to do more than other peoples. It might be that your pendulum is something new and wonderful. It might be, even, that you could invent other things if the need arose that you could invent a safe manner of playing roulette. The thought came to me yesterday when I stood by the window and spun the wheel." She raised her eyebrows and sighed. "Here am I, obliged to play at roulette with my friends again and again each week, and each week the amount I owe is greater and greater."

In spite of the little smile that curled one corner of her lips, it seemed to Marvin that she was more than half serious in what she said. And after all, he thought, he was one of those damned Yankees.

He pondered on the structure of the gambling wheels he had seen aboard the prison ship. "I know little about gambling, ma'am," he said at last, reluctantly. "The Frenchmen on the hulks, they seemed to think a system does no good. That's what you're asking me to invent, isn't it? A system at which you can win? If that's it, ma'am, I'd better not waste my time or yours; for by the time you've won what I must have, the need for it will be over."

Again she jumped from the bench to place her hand on his arm. "But I seek only a method to keep me from losing! You said to my uncle that there is always an easier way to do things; so, if that is true, it is only necessary for you to play roulette a little, in order to

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find an easier way for me to play it. Then I shall quickly save enough for your ship, and I can give it to you even before I save itl"

"Play roulette a littlel" Marvin exclaimed. "There are reasons why I couldn't play roulette, even though it was played with buttons!"

"I know," she added hurriedly. She drew an envelope from the front of her gown. "It is herel What Maurice owed your father, with the interest for all these years, and a little more, too, since you are doing this for me."

At the look in his face, she flirted her fingers airily. "But it is noth ing to twist the nose overt Nothingl Maurice, he had intended to return this to you, you understand, but affairs were pressing, so I am doing it for him. Yes, it was his money."

She eyed him. "I truly think it was a part of the very money that he brought home from Spain, as one brings home dust on his shoes without knowing how or where it was acquired. And it is a favor for me that you are doing with it a favorl You must take it and go quickly back to Paris. There you will visit No. 9 in the Palais Royal. There are many gambling apartments in the Palais Royal, but No. 9 is the fashionable address. At No. 9 you study the wheel, morning, noon and night, and then you make me a little system, eh? You make me a little system, and I will come there soon soon. If the system has merit, you shall have what you need from me."

She pressed the envelope into Marvin's hand, nodding at him as at an obedient child. Then her little smile seemed to harden and her eyes to turn a paler, colder blue. "But don't forget the money I lend you in Paris for a ship that's business. Three hundred per cent."

She laughed and added: "It's the kind of business I like; a chance to get three for one, and the three to come suddenly! And what would youP It's the spirit of the times everybody playing with gold and golden bubbles and I'm a woman of the times. My husband lost sixty thousand livres last week on the advice of a ballet girl. I would like to show him how business should be done with a reliable Yankee gentleman."

She glanced suddenly at the watch that hung from her neck. "Heaven! It is already one hour, and I must depart with Mauricel" She reached up, drew down Marvin's head and kissed him abruptly; then ran lightly toward the chateau.

X X V I I

THE turmoil that filled the high-ceiled rooms on the second floor of No. 9 in the low, dark-grey buildings of the Palais Royal seemed to pass lightly over Marvin, who sat at an end of one of the four crowded roulette tables. On one side of him was an aged harridan, her head swathed in a green turban from which rose a single ostrich feather; her cheeks were a hectic pink and her bared shoulders protruded angularly from a gown of a sickly yellow. On the other side was a girl as young as she was scantily clad; and the two of them stared frequently and invitingly at Marvin and the pile of colored plaques that he shielded beneath his big hands.