16. The Adventure Materializes
Sara bowed with mock humility and then raising her head, looked Anne straight in the eyes.
"Miss Wellington, I present Mr. Armitage, an officer--a lieutenant, I think--of the United States Navy."
Anne sat silent for a second and then stretched her hand out over the seat, laughing.
"What a situation!" she exclaimed. "I am pleased to know that my 'Dying Gladiator'--" she paused, and looked inquiringly at Armitage, who had taken and released her hand in silence.
"I don't wish to be impertinent," she continued at length, flushing vividly, "but I feel it is my right to know why you posed as a physical instructor and entered service in our house. Surely I--you--you must have had some good reason."
"Anne," Sara hastened to relieve Armitage of apparent confusion, or irritation, she could not tell which, "naturally his reasons for the deceit were excellent." She looked at her friend with a significant raising of the brows. "I--those reasons still exist, do they not, Jack?" She scowled admonishingly at him.
Armitage, who plainly diagnosed Sara's drift, was smiling broadly, as Anne looked at him with a curious, wondering expression.
"They still exist--decidedly, Sara," he said. He paused for a second, and then continued in the lamest sort of way, "Will you let me be a driver just a little while longer, Miss Wellington? It is really important. When I explain everything you'll understand. Of course, I've been governed by the best motives."
Anne was somewhat more dignified.
"Certainly, I have not the slightest objection to having a naval officer for a driver--if you have none. I must say, though, I shall be eager to learn the reasons for your rather--rather unconventional behavior."
"You shall be the first one to know," replied Jack, with quite a different meaning in mind than that which Sara Van Valkenberg read, whose eyes, by the way, were dancing with excitement.
There was an awkward silence for a moment and Jack was turning to the wheel when Anne leaned forward.
"You must tell me about the Navy, sometime," she said. "I have begun to feel I am rather a poor American. Where are you attached?"
"I'm with the torpedo flotilla at present," said Armitage. "By the way, Miss Wellington, that reminds me of my request for liberty to-night. The boats are going out and--and--it's rather important I go with them. I shall be back before midnight."
"Oh!" Sara's exclamation was so sharp and eager that both Jack and Anne started.
"I have it!" She leaned forward eagerly as both turned to her. "I know. We'll make him take us out with the boats to-night. Can you imagine anything more thrilling? I have never been on a naval vessel in my life--and they'll shoot torpedoes. Night attack, Port Arthur, and all that sort of thing, don't you know."
Anne was quite carried away.
"Good! Oh, that would be--" She stopped short as a sudden thought came to her. "Do you suppose--" she said slowly, "that you could, Mr. Armitage? I should love the experience. But perhaps--"
"Nonsense," interrupted Sara. "Of course he can take us. Didn't we see that crowd of women on one of the torpedo boats at the King's Cup race?"
"That boat was not in commission," said Jack. "You might be court-martialled if the commanding officer of the flotilla saw you." He spoke lightly, but running clearly through his mind was the uncompromising phraseology of Article 250 of the Navy Regulations: "Officers commanding fleets, divisions, or ships shall not permit women to reside on board of, or take passage in, any ship of the Navy in commission for sea service." Violation of this meant court-martial and perhaps dismissal from the service. And yet Sara's proposition thrilled him potently. He could not deny his eagerness to do as the young women wished. To have Anne at his side for long hours on a footing of equality! As he looked at her now with her lips parted, her eyes blazing with interest, her cheeks flushed, the penalty of disobeying that odious Article 250 seemed, at worst, slight. Besides, the
D'Estang was assigned to him for special service to do with her as he saw fit. There might be a loophole there.
Anne, who had been pondering his words, looked up.
"If you are thinking only of us, I shouldn't mind one bit. I should love dearly to go. I have often seen the torpedo boats from my windows and wished to be on one of them. They look so black and venomous!"
"All right. I'll take you." Armitage looked at them with serious face. "There may be some danger. It isn't yachting, you know."
"Of course it isn't," said Sara.
"Certainly not," echoed Anne. "And besides, Mr. Armitage, I've never faced real danger in my life--except once when my polo pony ran away. Oh, I want to go!"
"I should like to change my clothes." Armitage glanced humorously at his livery.
"Of course," said Anne. "I tell you; you leave us at Berger's, drive home and change your clothes, then you can pick us up there and we'll leave the car at O'Neill's until we return. How is that? We will have a lobster ordered for you."
"Don't bother about that, please. I shall have to run over to the island when I come back from The Crags, to prepare the way. Take a taxicab and be at the Navy Landing--no, that wouldn't be wise; some one might see you. Go to the New York Yacht Club station and I, or Johnson, my second, will be there in the
D'Estang's launch. We are the outer boat in the slips and you can come aboard over the stern without any one seeing you. Don't be a minute later than seven-thirty o'clock--that is," he added, "if you are serious about making the trip."
"Serious!" exclaimed Sara.
"Oh, we are serious," said Anne, "and Mr. Armitage--you 're awfully good!"
A tall, grave, young ensign met the two excited girls at the hour designated and shot them across the bay to the torpedo boat slips in silence.
"He 's a nice-looking boy," whispered Sara. "But I wonder,--he does n't seem altogether to approve."
Anne, who had been studying the officer, smiled easily.
"That isn't it; he's embarrassed. For heaven's sake, Sara, don't try to make me feel
de trop at this stage."
The young man
was embarrassed; Anne had diagnosed correctly. And it was with great relief that he turned them over to Armitage, who led them to a hatch and thence down a straight iron ladder to the wardroom. Anne watched the precise steward adjusting a centrepiece of flowers upon the mess table and then glanced around the apartment, which was lined with rifles, cutlasses, and revolvers in holsters.
"How interesting, Mr. Armitage," she said. "Do you recall the last time we were in a cabin together?" smiling. "How absurd it was!"
"Wasn't it," laughed Armitage. He left the wardroom and returned in a few minutes with two officers' long, blue overcoats and caps.
"These are your disguises. I'll send an orderly down to take you up to the bridge when we get well under way--"
"Do we really have to wear these?" Sara viewed the overcoats with mock concern.
"Must," laughed Armitage. "It is going to be cold and it looks like rain. I'd tuck my hair up under the caps as much as possible if I were you. Damp salt air is bad for hair."
"You mean you wish us to look like men," asserted Sara.
"I merely want you to be appropriate to the picture."
Sara looked at him mischievously.
"Why not the entire uniform, then?"
"Sara!" cried Anne, as Jack ducked out of the door.
"Anne," Sara placed her hand on Anne's arm, "are you interested in Jack Armitage?"
The girl looked at the dark burning cheeks of the handsome full-blooming young woman in front of her.
"Don't be silly, Sara."
"I'm not silly," said Mrs. Van Valkenberg, half humorously. "I really want to know."
"Why?"
"Why, because if you 're not, I want you to keep in the background. For I think I'd--rather like to--enlist in the Navy."
Anne could not tell why, but Sara had succeeded in irritating her.