Philip Curtiss

“ Bracken,' she said, 'do you think it is going to rain?'
" 'No, Lady Mary,' I said. 'The people at home would never recognize what's coming as rain. They would think it Niagara Falls.'
" 'Really!' she said. 'How unique!'
"Well," said Bracken, "I have to grant it to Lady Mary. The typhoon came and it was a record-breaker, even for that coast. The rain was all that I had said it would be and more, but we found a sort of cave up in the middle of the island, and there Lady Mary sat at the doorway, looking out as calmly as if she were watching the crowds in Hyde Park. She never moved. ”

“ Mullin did not warm to the newcomer much. "Well, do you mean to deny it?" he asked, a bit stiffly.
"In a very instructive life," replied Bracken, speaking very slowly and still looking at the fire, "I have learned to deny nothing. All that I can say is that it doesn't happen always." He looked up suddenly from one to the other of us. "Have any of you ever happened to be on the Oil Rivers?"
Safe to say none of us ever had. Mullin had never really been outside of Gramercy Park, but neither Bingham nor I spoke for a moment, each hoping that the other might have had an uncle on the Oil Rivers. ”

“ At one time, early in his career, he had been vice—I mean a less important official right there in Accra, and while there he had hatched out a crocodile egg."
Bracken suddenly lowered his voice and leaned forward, looking from right to left.
"I don't want to say anything that might get me into trouble back there," he said, "but, you see, a crocodile egg is hatched by the heat of the sun. Now while the Niger country is swarming with crocodiles, you never see one wild on the Gold Coast. The traders and all the rival scientists said that they couldn't live there, couldn't be hatched there. ”

“ If you want to sit for days, ignored and alone; if you find it exciting to read obsolete notices on a bulletin-board; if you like to watch strangers play pool, badly; if you find any interest in reading books which are only there because some member forgot to take them home in the fall of 1894; if you rejoice in seeing others gay and happy while you are miserable, by all means spend three or four days in a club where you don't know a soul. ”

“ Heather, if you value your life, I suggest that you climb a tree.'
"I looked behind me and there, within an inch of my heels and also my neck and all that came in between, I saw six feet of great, gaping jaws and two yards of white, gleaming teeth. Did I jump? I broke records, but Lady Mary never moved.
" 'It is only Tony,' she said. 'I recognized him by his collar as he was creeping up behind you in the moonlight. At first I thought that it was a strange crocodile. This is rather interesting. I had heard that crocodiles could swim hundreds of miles and now I have proved it. ”

“ Before I had been in my bungalow ten minutes on that day of which I am telling you, a Kruboy came up with a note from my chief. It seems that the new—the new high official, Slops, had decided that he wanted to inspect the Bottomless Pit. He had heard that some French scientists from Grand Bassam had trawled up some coral from the bottom of it and, like the true scientist that he was, he had denied it offhand. He wanted to prove that they were lying. The party was going out on the survey boat at nine the following morning and of course Slops took Lady Mary along with him. ”

“ Accra, Lagos, the Bight of Benin—yes, they were all there.
Yet aren't people funny? In spite of it all, in spite of what Simmons had said, to this day I sometimes lie awake in the stilly night and wonder whatever became of Lady Mary. ”

“ You are about to receive a blow, not to say earthquake.'
" 'What's up?' I asked him.
"For answer he went and mixed another whisky-and-soda, double strength."
"Look here," broke in Bingham, bursting the bonds of silence, "you've got to cut that out." He waved his hand toward Mullin and me. "I'll try to restrain myself if you draw such word pictures, but I can't answer for my men."
Bracken laughed. "Well, the long and the short of it was that Hepplethwaite turned at last and said: 'Steady now, Bracken. Pull yourself together. "Slops" is here! ”

“ Bracken glanced at his watch but saw that he still had a few minutes.
"Well, we landed and Lady Mary started right up into the bush with her collector's case and her magnifying-glass. Naturally, I started after her, but she turned and lifted her lorgnette. From the way she looked at me she might better have lifted the magnifying-glass.
" 'Mr—er Mr. Heather,' she said, 'I prefer to be left alone.'
" 'Oh, all right, then,' I said to myself, and sat down on the beach to smoke. I knew that nothing could happen to her on that island. ”

“ Every West-African sailor knows what that means. When you see an arch in the Gulf of Guinea it means a tornado. When the arch has white clouds inside it, it means a typhoon.
" 'Way out on the horizon I could see the survey ship. I could imagine the hustle there must be on her, for they were in more danger than we were. Even while I watched, the air grew steel-gray and the cold wind began to bend the tops of the palm-trees. I turned to rush into the bush, but, before I reached it, Lady Mary came out on the beach. ”