Police!!! | Page 5

remarked Evelyn Grey.
I don't know why it should have suddenly occurred to me, apropos of
nothing, that Billy Kemper was unusually handsome. Or why I should
have turned and looked at the pretty waitress--except that she was,

perhaps, worth gazing upon from a purely non-scientific point of view.
In fact, to a man not entirely absorbed in scientific research and not
passionately and irrevocably wedded to his profession, her violet-blue
eyes and rather sweet mouth might have proved disturbing.
As I was thinking about this she looked up at me and smiled.
"It's a good thing," I thought to myself, "that I am irrevocably wedded
to my profession." And I gazed fixedly across the Atlantic Ocean.
* * * * *
There was scarcely sufficient breeze of a steady character to bring
Kemper to Sting-ray Key; but he got out his sweeps when I hailed him
and came in at a lively clip, anchoring alongside of our boat and
leaping ashore with that unnecessary dash and abandon which women
find pleasing.
Glancing sideways at my waitress through my spectacles, I found her
looking into a small hand mirror and patting her hair with one slim and
suntanned hand.
When Professor Kemper landed on the coral he shot a curious look at
Grue, and then came striding across the reef to me.
"Hello, Smithy!" he said, holding out his hand. "Here I am, you see!
Now what's up--"
Just then Evelyn Grey got up from her seat beside the fire; and Kemper
turned and gazed at her with every symptom of unfeigned approbation.
I introduced him. Evelyn Grey seemed a trifle indifferent. A
good-looking man doesn't last long with a clever woman. I smiled to
myself, polishing my spectacles gleefully. Yet, I had no idea why I was
smiling.
We three people turned and walked toward the comb of the reef. A
solitary palm represented the island's vegetation, except, of course, for

the water-growing mangroves.
I asked Miss Grey to precede us and wait for us under the palm; and
she went forward in that light-footed way of hers which, to any
non-scientific man, might have been a trifle disturbing. It had no effect
upon me. Besides, I was looking at Grue, who had gone to the fire and
was evidently preparing to fry our evening meal of fish and rice. I
didn't like to have him cook, but I wasn't going to do it myself; and my
pretty waitress didn't know how to cook anything more complicated
than beans. We had no beans.
Kemper said to me:
"Why on earth did you bring a waitress?"
"Not to wait on table," I replied, amused. "I'll explain her later.
Meanwhile, I merely want to say that you need not remain with this
expedition if you don't want to. It's optional with you."
"That's a funny thing to say!"
"No, not funny; sad. The truth is that if I fail I'll be driven into
obscurity by the ridicule of my brother scientists the world over. I had
to tell them at the Bronx what I was going after. Every man connected
with the society attempted to dissuade me, saying that the whole thing
was absurd and that my reputation would suffer if I engaged in such a
ridiculous quest. So when you hear what that girl and I are after out
here in the semi-tropics, and when you are in possession of the only
evidence I have to justify my credulity, if you want to go home, go.
Because I don't wish to risk your reputation as a scientist unless you
choose to risk it yourself."
He regarded me curiously, then his eyes strayed toward the palm-tree
which Evelyn Grey was now approaching.
"All right," he said briefly, "let's hear what's up."
So we moved forward to rejoin the girl, who had already seated herself

under the tree.
She looked very attractive in her neat cuffs, tiny cap, and pink print
gown, as we approached her.
"Why does she dress that way?" asked Kemper, uneasily.
"Economy. She desires to use up the habiliments of a service which
there will be no necessity for her to reënter if this expedition proves
successful."
"Oh. But Smithy--"
"What?"
"Was it--moral--to bring a waitress?"
"Perfectly," I replied sharply. "Science knows no sex!"
"I don't understand how a waitress can be scientific," he muttered, "and
there seems to be no question about her possessing plenty of sex--"
"If that girl's conclusions are warranted," I interrupted coldly, "she is a
most intelligent and clever person. I think they are warranted. If you
don't, you may go home as soon as you like."
I glanced at him; he was smiling at her with that strained politeness
which alters the natural expression of men in the imminence of a
conversation with a new