Chapter 48
A gla.s.s of water from the carafe did not seem to rid him of the subtle, disagreeable taste lingering in his mouth--in fact, the water itself seemed to be tainted with it.
He sat for a few moments fumbling for his cigarette case, feeling curiously uncomfortable, as though the slight motion of the s.h.i.+p were affecting his head.
As he sat there looking at the unlighted cigarette in his hand, it fell to the carpet at his feet. He started to stoop for it, caught himself in time, pulled himself erect with an effort.
Something was wrong with him--very wrong. Every uneven breath he drew seemed to fill his lungs with the odour of that strange and volatile flavour he had noticed. It was beginning to make him giddy; it seemed to affect his vision, too.
Suddenly a terrible comprehension flashed through his confused mind, clearing it for a moment.
He tried to stand up and reach the electric bell; his knees seem incapable of sustaining him. Sliding to the floor, he attempted to crawl toward the olive-wood box; managed to get one arm around it, grip the handle. Then, with a last desperate effort, he groped in his breast pocket for the automatic pistol, freed it, tried to fire it.
But the weapon and the unnerved hand that held it fell on the carpet.
A muscular paralysis set in like the terrible rigidity of death; he could still see and hear as in a thickening dream.
A moment later, from the corridor, a slim hand was inserted between the door and jamb; the supple fingers became busy with the rubber band for a moment, released it. The door opened very slowly.
For a few seconds two dark eyes were visible between door and curtain, regarding intently the figure lying p.r.o.ne upon the floor. Then the curtain was twitched noiselessly aside; a young woman in the garb of a trained nurse stepped swiftly into the stateroom on tip-toe, followed by a big, good-looking, blue-eyed man wearing a square golden beard.
The man, who carried with him a pair of crutches, but who did not appear to require their aid, hastily set the dinner-tray and camp-table outside in the corridor, then closed and bolted the door.
Already the nurse was down on her knees beside the fallen man, trying to loosen his grasp on the box. Then her face blanched.
"It's like the rigor of death itself," she whispered fearfully over her shoulder. "Could I have given him enough to kill him?"
"He took only half a cup and a swallow of water. No."
"I can't get his hand free----"
"Wait! I try!" He pulled a big, horn-handled clasp-knife from his pocket and deliberately opened the eight-inch blade.
"What are you doing?" she whispered, seizing his wrist. "Don't do that!"
The man with the golden beard hesitated, then shrugged, pocketed his knife, and seized Neeland's rigidly clenched hand.
"You are right. It makes too much muss!" tugging savagely
Neeland groaned.
"Oh, don't! Don't!" faltered the girl. "You're breaking his wrist----"
"Ugh!" grunted her companion; "I try; I can it not accomplish. See once if the box opens!"
"It is locked."
"Search this pig-dog for the key!"
She began a hurried search of Neeland's clothing; presently discovered her own handkerchief; thrust it into her ap.r.o.n pocket, and continued rummaging while the bearded man turned his attention to the automatic pistol. This he finally succeeded in disengaging, and he laid it on the wash basin.
"Here are his keys," whispered the nurse feverishly, holding them up against the dim circle of evening sky framed by the open port. "You had better light the stateroom; I can't see. Hurry! I think he is beginning to recover."
When the bearded man had switched on the electric light he returned to kneel once more beside the inert body on the floor, and began to pull and haul and tug at the box and attempt to insert the key in the lock.
But the stiffened clutch of the drugged man made it impossible either to release the box or get at the keyhole.
"_Ach, was! Verfluchtete' schwein-hund----!_" He seized the rigid hand and, exerting all the strength of a brutally inflamed fury, fairly ripped loose the fingers.
"_Also!_" he panted, seizing the stiffened body from the floor and lifting it. "Hold you him by the long and Yankee legs once, _und_ I push him out----"
"Out of the port?"
"_Gewiss!_ Otherwise he recovers to raise some h.e.l.l!"
"It is not necessary. How shall this man know?"
"You left your handkerchief. He iss no fool. He makes a noise. No, it iss safer we push him overboard."
"I'll take the papers to Karl, and then I can remain in my stateroom----"
"_No!_ Lift his legs, I tell you! You want I hold him in my arms all day while you talk, talk, talk! You take his legs right away quick----!"
He staggered a few paces forward with his unwieldy burden and, setting one knee on the sofa, attempted to force Neeland's head and shoulders through the open port. At the same moment a rapid knocking sounded outside the stateroom door.
"Quick!" breathed the nurse. "Throw him on his bed!"
The blue-eyed, golden-bearded man hesitated, then as the knocking sounded again, imperative, persistent, he staggered to the bed with his burden, laid it on the pillows, seized his crutches, rested on them, breathing heavily, and listening to the loud and rapid knocking outside the door.
"We've got to open," she whispered. "Don't forget that we found him unconscious in the corridor!" And she slid the bolt noiselessly, opened the stateroom door, and stepped outside the curtain into the corridor.
The c.o.c.kney steward stood there with a messenger.
"Wireless for Mr. Neeland----" he began; but his speech failed and his jaw fell at sight of the nurse in her cap and uniform. And when, on his crutches, the bearded man emerged from behind the curtain, the steward's eyes fairly protruded.
"The young gentleman is ill," explained the nurse coolly. "Mr. Hawks heard him fall in the corridor and came out on his crutches to see what had happened. I chanced to be pa.s.sing through the main corridor, fortunately. I am doing what I can for the young gentleman."
"Ow," said the steward, staring over her shoulder at the bearded man on crutches.
"There iss no need of calling the s.h.i.+p's doctor," said the man on crutches. "This young woman iss a hospital nurse _und_ she iss so polite and obliging to volunteer her service for the poor young gentleman."
"Yes," she said carelessly, "I can remain here for an hour or two with him. He requires only a few simple remedies--I've already given him a sedative, and he is sleeping very nicely."
"Yess, yess; it iss not grave. Pooh! It is notting. He slip and knock his head. Maybe too much tchampagne. He sleep, and by and by he feel better. It iss not advisable to make a fuss. So! We are not longer needed, steward. I return to my room."
And, nodding pleasantly, the bearded man hobbled out on his crutches and entered his own stateroom across the pa.s.sage.
"Steward," said the nurse pleasantly, "you may leave the wireless telegram with me. When Mr. Neeland wakes I'll read it to him----"
"Give that telegram to _me_!" burst out a ghostly voice from the curtained room behind her.
Every atom of colour left her face, and she stood there as though stiffened into marble. The steward stared at her. Still staring, he pa.s.sed gingerly in front of her and entered the curtained room.