Beasleys Christmas Party | Page 5

must know him pretty well."
"What next?" she said, smiling.
"You said he lived there all alone," I went on, tentatively.
"Except for an old colored couple, his servants."
"Can you tell me--" I hesitated. "Has he ever been thought--well,
'queer'?"
"Never!" she answered, emphatically. "Never anything so exciting!
Merely deadly and hopelessly commonplace." She picked up the saucer,
now exceedingly empty, and set it upon a shelf by the lattice door.
"What was it about--what was that name?--'Simpledoria'?"
"I will tell you," I said. And I related in detail the singular performance
of which I had been a witness in the late moonlight before that
morning's dawn. As I talked, we half unconsciously moved across the
lawn together, finally seating ourselves upon a bench beyond the
rose-beds and near the high fence. The interest my companion
exhibited in the narration might have surprised me had my nocturnal
experience itself been less surprising. She interrupted me now and then
with little, half-checked ejaculations of acute wonder, but sat for the
most part with her elbow on her knee and her chin in her hand, her face
turned eagerly to mine and her lips parted in half-breathless attention.
There was nothing "far away" about her eyes now; they were widely
and intently alert.
When I finished, she shook her head slowly, as if quite dumfounded,
and altered her position, leaning against the back of the bench and
gazing straight before her without speaking. It was plain that her
neighbor's extraordinary behavior had revealed a phase of his character
novel enough to be startling.
"One explanation might be just barely possible," I said. "If it is, it is the

most remarkable case of somnambulism on record. Did you ever hear
of Mr. Beasley's walking in his--"
She touched me lightly but peremptorily on the arm in warning, and I
stopped. On the other side of the board fence a door opened creakily,
and there sounded a loud and cheerful voice--that of the gentleman in
the dressing-gown.
"HERE we come!" it said; "me and big Bill Hammersley. I want to
show Bill I can jump ANYWAYS three times as far as he can! Come
on, Bill."
"Is that Mr. Beasley's voice?" I asked, under my breath.
Miss Apperthwaite nodded in affirmation.
"Could he have heard me?"
"No," she whispered. "He's just come out of the house." And then to
herself, "Who under heaven is Bill Hammersley? I never heard of
HIM!"
"Of course, Bill," said the voice beyond the fence, "if you're afraid I'll
beat you TOO badly, you've still got time to back out. I did understand
you to kind of hint that you were considerable of a jumper, but if--What?
What'd you say, Bill?" There ensued a moment's complete silence. "Oh,
all right," the voice then continued. "You say you're in this to win, do
you? Well, so'm I, Bill Hammersley; so'm I. Who'll go first? Me? All
right--from the edge of the walk here. Now then! One--two--three!
HA!"
A sound came to our ears of some one landing heavily--and at full
length, it seemed--on the turf, followed by a slight, rusty groan in the
same voice. "Ugh! Don't you laugh, Bill Hammersley! I haven't jumped
as much as I OUGHT to, these last twenty years; I reckon I've kind of
lost the hang of it. Aha!" There were indications that Mr. Beasley was
picking himself up, and brushing his trousers with his hands. "Now, it's
your turn, Bill. What say?" Silence again, followed by, "Yes, I'll make
Simpledoria get out of the way. Come here, Simpledoria. Now, Bill,
put your heels together on the edge of the walk. That's right. All ready?
Now then! One for the money--two for the show--three to make
ready--and four for to GO!" Another silence. "By jingo, Bill
Hammersley, you've beat me! Ha, ha! That WAS a jump! What say?"
Silence once more. "You say you can do even better than that? Now,
Bill, don't brag. Oh! you say you've often jumped farther? Oh! you say

that was up in Scotland, where you had a spring-board? Oho! All right;
let's see how far you can jump when you really try. There! Heels on the
walk again. That's right; swing your arms. One--two--three! THERE
you go!" Another silence. "ZING! Well, sir, I'll be e-tarnally snitched
to flinders if you didn't do it THAT time, Bill Hammersley! I see I
never really saw any jumping before in all my born days. It's eleven
feet if it's an inch. What? You say you--"
I heard no more, for Miss Apperthwaite, her face flushed and her eyes
shining, beckoned me imperiously to follow her, and departed so
hurriedly that it might be said she ran.
"I don't know," said I, keeping at her elbow, "whether it's more like
Alice or the