The American Claimant

  CHAPTER XIX.

  Meantime the earl and Hawkins were holding a troubled and anxiousprivate consultation. The earl said:

  "The mystery that bothers me, is, where did It get its other arm?"

  "Yes--it worries me, too. And another thing troubles me--the apparitionis English. How do you account for that, Colonel?"

  "Honestly, I don't know, Hawkins, I don't really know. It is veryconfusing and awful."

  "Don't you think maybe we've waked up the wrong one?"

  "The wrong one? How do you account for the clothes?"

  "The clothes are right, there's no getting around it. What are wegoing to do? We can't collect, as I see. The reward is for a one-armedAmerican. This is a two-armed Englishman."

  "Well, it may be that that is not objectionable. You see it isn't lessthan is called for, it is more, and so,--"

  But he saw that this argument was weak, and dropped it. The friendssat brooding over their perplexities some time in silence. Finallythe earl's face began to glow with an inspiration, and he said,impressively:

  "Hawkins, this materialization is a grander and nobler science than wehave dreamed of. We have little imagined what a solemn and stupendousthing we have done. The whole secret is perfectly clear to me, now,clear as day. Every man is made up of heredities, long-descendedatoms and particles of his ancestors. This present materialization isincomplete. We have only brought it down to perhaps the beginning ofthis century."

  "What do you mean, Colonel!" cried Hawkins, filled with vague alarms bythe old man's awe-compelling words and manner.

  "This. We've materialized this burglar's ancestor!"

  "Oh, don't--don't say that. It's hideous."

  "But it's true, Hawkins, I know it. Look at the facts. This apparitionis distinctly English--note that. It uses good grammar--note that. Itis an Artist--note that. It has the manners and carriage of agentleman--note that. Where's your cow-boy? Answer me that."

  "Rossmore, this is dreadful--it's too dreadful to think of!"

  "Never resurrected a rag of that burglar but the clothes, not a solitaryrag of him but the clothes."

  "Colonel, do you really mean--"

  The Colonel brought his fist down with emphasis and said:

  "I mean exactly this. This materialization was immature, the burglar hasevaded us, this is nothing but a damned ancestor!"

  He rose and walked the floor in great excitement.

  Hawkins said plaintively:

  "It's a bitter disappointment--bitter."

  "I know it. I know it, Senator; I feel it as deeply as anybody could.But we've got to submit--on moral grounds. I need money, but God knows Iam not poor enough or shabby enough to be an accessory to the punishingof a man's ancestor for crimes committed by that ancestor's posterity."

  "But Colonel!" implored Hawkins; "stop and think; don't be rash; youknow it's the only chance we've got to get the money; and besides, theBible itself says posterity to the fourth generation shall be punishedfor the sins and crimes committed by ancestors four generations backthat hadn't anything to do with them; and so it's only fair to turn therule around and make it work both ways."

  The Colonel was struck with the strong logic of this position. He strodeup and down, and thought it painfully over. Finally he said:

  "There's reason in it; yes, there's reason in it. And so, although itseems a piteous thing to sweat this poor ancient devil for a burglary hehadn't the least hand in, still if duty commands I suppose we must givehim up to the authorities."

  "I would," said Hawkins, cheered and relieved, "I'd give him up if hewas a thousand ancestors compacted into one."

  "Lord bless me, that's just what he is," said Sellers, with somethinglike a groan, "it's exactly what he is; there's a contribution inhim from every ancestor he ever had. In him there's atoms of priests,soldiers, crusaders, poets, and sweet and gracious women--all kindsand conditions of folk who trod this earth in old, old centuries, andvanished out of it ages ago, and now by act of ours they are summonedfrom their holy peace to answer for gutting a one-horse bank away out onthe borders of Cherokee Strip, and it's just a howling outrage!"

  "Oh, don't talk like that, Colonel; it takes the heart all out of me,and makes me ashamed of the part I am proposing to--"

  "Wait--I've got it!"

  "A saving hope? Shout it out, I am perishing."

  "It's perfectly simple; a child would have thought of it. He is allright, not a flaw in him, as far as I have carried the work. If I'vebeen able to bring him as far as the beginning of this century, what'sto stop me now? I'll go on and materialize him down to date."

  "Land, I never thought of that!" said Hawkins all ablaze with joy again."It's the very thing. What a brain you have got! And will he shed thesuperfluous arm?"

  "He will."

  "And lose his English accent?"

  "It will wholly disappear. He will speak Cherokee Strip--and other formsof profanity."

  "Colonel, maybe he'll confess!"

  "Confess? Merely that bank robbery?"

  "Merely? Yes, but why 'merely'?"

  The Colonel said in his most impressive manner: "Hawkins, he will bewholly under my command. I will make him confess every crime he evercommitted. There must be a thousand. Do you get the idea?"

  "Well--not quite."

  "The rewards will come to us."

  "Prodigious conception! I never saw such a head for seeing with alightning glance all the outlying ramifications and possibilities of acentral idea."

  "It is nothing; it comes natural to me. When his time is out in one jailhe goes to the next and the next, and we shall have nothing to do butcollect the rewards as he goes along. It is a perfectly steady incomeas long as we live, Hawkins. And much better than other kinds ofinvestments, because he is indestructible."

  "It looks--it really does look the way you say; it does indeed."

  "Look?--why it is. It will not be denied that I have had a pretty wideand comprehensive financial experience, and I do not hesitate to saythat I consider this one of the most valuable properties I have evercontrolled."

  "Do you really think so?"

  "I do, indeed."

  "O, Colonel, the wasting grind and grief of poverty! If we could realizeimmediately. I don't mean sell it all, but sell part--enough, you know,to--"

  "See how you tremble with excitement. That comes of lack of experience.My boy, when you have been familiar with vast operations as long as Ihave, you'll be different. Look at me; is my eye dilated? do you noticea quiver anywhere? Feel my pulse: plunk-plunk-plunk--same as if I wereasleep. And yet, what is passing through my calm cold mind? A processionof figures which would make a financial novice drunk just the sight ofthem. Now it is by keeping cool, and looking at a thing all around,that a man sees what's really in it, and saves himself from the novice'sunfailing mistake--the one you've just suggested--eagerness to realize.Listen to me. Your idea is to sell a part of him for ready cash. Nowmine is--guess."

  "I haven't an idea. What is it?"

  "Stock him--of course."

  "Well, I should never have thought of that."

  "Because you are not a financier. Say he has committed a thousandcrimes. Certainly that's a low estimate. By the look of him, even inhis unfinished condition, he has committed all of a million. But call itonly a thousand to be perfectly safe; five thousand reward, multipliedby a thousand, gives us a dead sure cash basis of--what? Five milliondollars!"

  "Wait--let me get my breath."

  "And the property indestructible. Perpetually fruitful--perpetually; fora property with his disposition will go on committing crimes and winningrewards."

  "You daze me, you make my head whirl!"

  "Let it whirl, it won't do it any harm. Now that matter is allfixed--leave it alone. I'll get up the company and issue the stock,all in good time. Just leave it in my hands. I judge you don't doubt myability to work it up for all it is worth."

  "Indeed I don't. I can say that with truth."

  "All right, then. That's di
sposed of. Everything in its turn. We oldoperators, go by order and system--no helter-skelter business withus. What's the next thing on the docket? The carrying on of thematerialization--the bringing it down to date. I will begin on that atonce. I think--

  "Look here, Rossmore. You didn't lock It in. A hundred to one it hasescaped!"

  "Calm yourself, as to that; don't give yourself any uneasiness."

  "But why shouldn't it escape?"

  "Let it, if it wants to. What of it?"

  "Well, I should consider it a pretty serious calamity."

  "Why, my dear boy, once in my power, always in my power. It may goand come freely. I can produce it here whenever I want it, just by theexercise of my will."

  "Well, I am truly glad to hear that, I do assure you."

  "Yes, I shall give it all the painting it wants to do, and we and thefamily will make it as comfortable and contented as we can. No occasionto restrain its movements. I hope to persuade it to remain prettyquiet, though, because a materialization which is in a state ofarrested development must of necessity be pretty soft and flabby andsubstanceless, and--er--by the way, I wonder where It comes from?"

  "How? What do you mean?"

  The earl pointed significantly--and interrogatively toward the sky.Hawkins started; then settled into deep reflection; finally shook hishead sorrowfully and pointed downwards.

  "What makes you think so, Washington?"

  "Well, I hardly know, but really you can see, yourself, that he doesn'tseem to be pining for his last place."

  "It's well thought! Soundly deduced. We've done that Thing a favor. ButI believe I will pump it a little, in a quiet way, and find out if weare right."

  "How long is it going to take to finish him off and fetch him down todate, Colonel?"

  "I wish I knew, but I don't. I am clear knocked out by this newdetail--this unforeseen necessity of working a subject down graduallyfrom his condition of ancestor to his ultimate result as posterity. ButI'll make him hump himself, anyway."

  "Rossmore!"

  "Yes, dear. We're in the laboratory. Come--Hawkins is here. Mind, nowHawkins--he's a sound, living, human being to all the family--don'tforget that. Here she comes."

  "Keep your seats, I'm not coming in. I just wanted to ask, who is itthat's painting down there?"

  "That? Oh, that's a young artist; young Englishman, named Tracy; verypromising--favorite pupil of Hans Christian Andersen or one of the otherold masters--Andersen I'm pretty sure it is; he's going to half-solesome of our old Italian masterpieces. Been talking to him?"

  "Well, only a word. I stumbled right in on him without expecting anybodywas there. I tried to be polite to him; offered him a snack"--(Sellersdelivered a large wink to Hawkins from behind his hand), "but hedeclined, and said he wasn't hungry" (another sarcastic wink); "so Ibrought some apples" (doublewink), "and he ate a couple of--"

  "What!" and the colonel sprang some yards toward the ceiling and camedown quaking with astonishment.

  Lady Rossmore was smitten dumb with amazement. She gazed at the sheepishrelic of Cherokee Strip, then at her husband, and then at the guestagain. Finally she said:

  "What is the matter with you, Mulberry?"

  He did not answer immediately. His back was turned; he was bending overhis chair, feeling the seat of it. But he answered next moment, andsaid:

  "Ah, there it is; it was a tack."

  The lady contemplated him doubtfully a moment, then said, prettysnappishly:

  "All that for a tack! Praise goodness it wasn't a shingle nail, it wouldhave landed you in the Milky Way. I do hate to have my nerves shook upso." And she turned on her heel and went her way.

  As soon as she was safely out, the Colonel said, in a suppressed voice:

  "Come--we must see for ourselves. It must be a mistake."

  They hurried softly down and peeped in. Sellers whispered, in a sort ofdespair--

  It is eating! What a grisly spectacle! Hawkins it's horrible! Take meaway--I can't stand it.

  They tottered back to the laboratory.