Paul Dickey

“ As the girl glared at him with a flash of hatred in her eyes, he stalked into the taproom, followed by the ready topers.
"Pile these bags on the table, Rusty," ordered Warren, as he smiled winningly at the girl.
"Yassir. We kin use 'em for one of these yere barracadies, if we has to."
"It looks as though we're booked for a warm reception in Seguro, Rusty. Doesn't it?"
Rusty rolled those chalky optics, with an expression of mingled drollery, apprehension, and confidence in his master's ability to lead the battle. It is wonderful how much expression can be condensed into a darky's eyes! ”

“ No common man should have been given such a glimpse of empire; but, in justice to the magic of such glances which come once from the eyes of every good woman, for some good man, in each lifetime, it must be acknowledged that their potent wizardry turns the commonplace, even the tawdry surroundings of a thousand million every-day lives, into dazzling kingdoms of love.
Warren Jarvis felt the thrill, and he lost his humorous poise: the heart-breaking seriousness of it all now came to his realization. ”

“ She turned away impatiently and walked toward the cabin porthole.
"Oh, come, Carlos. The ship is almost in mid-stream. Let us go out on deck, for one last look at America."
"Thank you; I can do very well without it!" he retorted, as he sat down upon the trunk. "My dear Maria, why do you not desist from this silly pursuit of an imaginary treasure? What is the value of money—we are Spaniards, not shirt-sleeved, mercenary pigs of Americans! We strive for it, only to obtain the happiness and luxury which it brings. ”

“ The feud began nearly eighty years ago. It is a different world then in that old Kentucky. I have tried to live upright, God-fearing, and had supposed that time would efface the old hatred. At least I ignored it. But Jim Marcum never forgot that your Uncle Warren had killed his father in that stand-up battle in the old tobacco warehouse; it is the curse of the Blue Grass State, this feud law. But you must carry out the vengeance, Warren. When you scotch that snake, there will be no more. ”

“ Robledo was hearkening carefully to certain careful instructions from the Duke of Alva, nodding with a smile of malicious portent at the final words.
"I will not fall short of my former reputation, your Excellency," declared the Don. "When a man reaches my time of life, after a success in the bull-ring as toreador, in the army as a duelist, and in the private retinue of so distinguished a nobleman as yourself, he has a certain pride in his ability.... Indeed, I regret that I must waste my talents upon a stupid pig of a Yankee." ”

“ She turned toward the sheep-like, staring villagers, and with an eloquent wave of her hand she cried out resonantly:
"Gentlemen—a man!"
"Gentlemen—a man"
Jarvis was lighting his cigarette, and he laughed, with a side-remark to his valet:
"Rusty, as the Indians said to Columbus: 'We're discovered!'" He turned toward the girl. "Did you by any chance address me, fair señorita?"
"I'm calling the attention of these valiant gentlemen of Seguro to the only man with spirit and bravery enough to enter the haunted castle," she declared. ”

“ The girl drew herself up with a hauteur which could never have been imitated upon the stage. Her dark eyes glinted coldly as she replied: "I—I am her Serene Highness—Maria Theresa—Princess of Aragon!"
Jarvis looked at her, waiting for the cue to the joke. She was serious. It was all so unreal, so ridiculous—and yet back there on the floor of the room down the corridor lay Jim Marcum. This mad, sad, heart-rending, adventure must have driven him to insanity. He rubbed his brow, looked out of the window, heard the unromantic honk-honk of a piratical night-owl taxicab on the street so far below. ”

“ But now the iron of vengeance had entered his soul; and he turned about suddenly, facing the body of the colonel.
Advancing toward the settle, he knelt by the body, even as a knight of old, to take his vows. He raised his clenched right hand.
"Father! I swear by my love for you and my mother that I will wipe out the Marcums, cost what it may. I will devote my life to settling the score Jim Marcum has made. I swear it to you, father!" ”

“ Is he a real, dependable, hell-bent spook, deserving all this press stuff which has been given to him? I've had so much experience with spirits—being a native Kentuckian—that they must be 100-proof to interest me!... Do you really put any stock in ghosts, Duke?"
"Yes, Mr. Warren, I am convinced that there are such things. This world is filled with evidences of the supernatural."
"Then you honestly believe this castle is haunted?"
"I know it!" And the Duke's black eyes sparkled with an intensity which had its effect even upon the cynical Warren Jarvis. ”

“ The Duke of Alva bestowed a pitying glance upon the weapon and its owner.
"I'm sorry for you, Mr. Warren. You will find that the ghost is more real than the treasure."
The Princess arose indignantly. She interrupted, with feminine betrayal of her own hand.
"But the treasure is real, Carlos. Would I have crossed the ocean for this locket unless I knew?"
Carlos looked at her sharply.
"I know I am right, now, Carlos. With the memorandum which I found inside the old locket, anyone, a total stranger, could walk right up to the very stone that hides it." ”

“ As the Duke of Alva, it is not necessary for me to produce the exact cash on the spot. The word of a Spanish nobleman is as good as his bond. It is a wager, and the terms stand."
His black eyes studied the pile of gold coins with sparkling interest.
"Very good,—twice in the same place. The word of a Kentuckian is as good as his bond. I agreed to let the Princess be the stakeholder—she may hold your word, and my money-belt. Your Serene Highness—will you do me the honor?" ”

“ I can tell you now that men are not half so afraid of spirits as the spirits are afraid of men. If you face the supernatural, it is more than half beaten to a frazzle, before the fight begins. In my professional career I have learned that ghosts, horse thieves, and peevish wildcats can all be tamed by the same little charm."
The Princess was mystified.
"Charm? What do you mean—a relic?"
The Duke leaned forward, his eyes sparkling with interest.
"What is it?"
"I'd hate to tell you," responded Warren Jarvis. "It's part of my system." ”

“ You generously offer to buy me off. You advise me, with tears in your eyes, to stay away and save my life. Shall I take the bait—hook, line, and sinker? Duke, 'the play ain't natural'!"
The nobleman clenched his fists in anger.
"You have intruded into a matter which you neither understand nor appreciate. If, as you say, the play seems unnatural, then throw down your cards and stay out of the game."
"Oh, no, no, no!" and Jarvis' voice again had that provokingly teasing tone in it. "I'll just stay right in the game and play my hand out—and watch every deal."
He turned toward Rusty. ”

“ Warren Jarvis! Mr. Warren Jarvis!"
The page stood by the library door, calling. He sprang to his feet, brought back to a consciousness of the present with galvanic suddenness. He turned, bewildered for an instant, and then walked slowly toward the boy.
"What is it?" he asked.
"A man wants to see you, sir, down at the front door. A colored man...."
Jarvis waited for no more. He hurried down the oaken stairway, out through the vestibule, and hatless, breathless—relieved to a great extent from his tension—he caught the hand of faithful Rusty Snow. ”

“ Jarvis. It was in life-and-death earnestness. I would not have felt that I could truly trust you unless you had gone through that. Remember, I am a product of a different civilization from your own: I am still superstitious, if you please to term it so, in the Old-World sense. I speak your language, and indeed think in it with you. But back in the inner shrine of my being I am a Spanish woman, true to my heredity. You are essentially an American—droll, well-balanced, cynical—and oblivious to any other national psychology than your own. ”

“ Warren was again silent. The Duke was tabulating his own material and preparing his next charge of ammunition.
"Ghost is a broad term, your Excellency. There are fifty-seven varieties of them, just like good pickles. They're equally bad for the digestion. What is your particular conception of this particular ghost?"
The Duke answered impatiently.
"There are certain occult forces in this world, Mr. Warren, that science cannot classify or fathom. Some of them are at work in that castle, manifesting their weird powers. ”

“ I wanted to recover some of those precious heirlooms which had been scattered to the four winds."
"When did you know that this one had been scattered to New York,—on your last visit to the boulevards of Paris?" And Jarvis' smile was as ingenuous as that of a babe of two.
The Duke of Alva scowled. There seemed something uncanny in the sharpness of this American; but he prided himself upon the power of diplomacy.
"I have seldom been in Paris: they are not so much interested in antiques as in very lively moderns, Mr. Ghost Breaker!... ”

“ A knock on the door brought them both back to—the deck of the Mauretania, with terra firma not so far distant below!
"There he is now," she whispered nervously. "Who shall I say you are? And what?"
"Oh, any old thing—Warren, Mr. Warren. Leave the classification to me. Self-identification is an American trait!"
She crossed the cabin, and after a timid pause opened the door.
"Come in," she murmured.
"Ah, I'm intruding," exclaimed Carlos, Duke of Alva, with an intonation which expressed an invitation for Warren Jarvis to make a graceful exit. ”

“ I don't want to let any grass grow under my feet on the trip to the castle to-night."
She gave the order to Pedro, and he promised to bring the required objects with sturdy steeds.
"Ah, Mr. Warren, looking for an honest man, like old Socrates?" inquired the Duke of Alva.
"Ah, Mr. Warren, looking for an honest man, like old Socrates?"
"Not in this neck of the woods, your Excellency!" and Jarvis disappeared in the balcony entrance to the old line of bedrooms.
Maria Theresa turned anxiously to her cousin.
"Carlos, what news of my brother? Have you heard anything yet?" ”

“ She caught the drift of his quizzical humor, and retorted in kind.
"You're an ambitious vassal. Such men have occasionally lost their heads—literally speaking. I'm afraid you wouldn't be content with anything less than a kingship."
The Kentuckian spoke with meaning behind his jest.
"A king—a prince—or a bandit!"
"A bandit—why a bandit? That is essentially Spanish!"
Jarvis lit another cigarette.
"A king could command—a prince might request—a bandit generally seizes!"
"What?" and the woman emerged from the hauteur of the royal personality.
"That which a vassal can only admire!" ”

“ What do you mean?"
"Oh, there is always money when the ghost walks," was the mysterious reply of the American, wasted on the untheatrical Spaniards. "That is the first premise upon which a reliable scientific Ghost Breaker begins his task of investigation."
"I don't know what your experience may have been, Mr. Warren. You are evidently a brave man, but you have yet to encounter a ghost like this supernatural spirit. Things are different in the Old World!"
Warren Jarvis sniffed.
"Huh! Brave? It takes no bravery to fight a coward—that is what the ghost is. ”

“ Even the servants were changed, and it had been to keep a closer bond with the dear old estate that he had taken faithful Rusty Snow as his manservant when he went on to New York again to pursue his profession.
Warren's mind burrowed in the memories of the feudism of the countryside, the sole blot on its simple yet aristocratic modes. He remembered the fragmentary stories of the ancient Marcum-Jarvis quarrel ... this had cost the lives of men for three generations, in an equity of vengeful settlement based strictly on the Mosaic law of "an eye for an eye—a tooth for a tooth." ”

“ Warren.... Are all Americans like you?"
"They all play the game in Kentucky," snapped Jarvis.
"And I thought all Americans were fools." He crossed to the door. "I think, my dear Maria, that for the sake of the family name it would do my health good to take a trip to Monte Carlo and the Riviera—even Egypt might help. Mr. Warren, take her advice and return to Kentucky."
He walked up the steps and smiled back with his cynical appreciation of the situation, a mediæval sport to the end, as Jarvis realized.
"Hey, Rusty, you just follow that Duke as well as you did me. ”

“ It's a clew, Rusty, it's a clew. We'll stick right here until we find out. This is the best room of the castle, and the ghost may prefer it."
Jarvis crossed to the fireplace again, and striking a match, held it into the opening. Its flicker indicated a good draught.
"There, Rusty," he said. "It's a good chance for a fire. The chimney's clear. Now break up that lopsided, rickety table there and make a fire. You won't feel half so scared with a good blaze behind you." ”