The Pirate of Panama | Page 6

have
doubtless taken of it and will permit me to relieve you of it."
He was the very letter of urbanity, but beneath the velvet of his voice I
felt the steel. It lay, too, in the glitter of the cold eyes that gimleted
mine sharply.
Be sure I gave him back his smile and his insolent aplomb.
"Surely you are mistaken, Captain Bothwell. I recollect finding nothing
that belongs to you."
"We'll waive that point. You found a paper," he answered quietly,
drawing up a chair and seating himself astride it with his face to the
back.
"I picked up a paper that fell from the hand of Miss Wallace."
"Exactly. I speak, of course, in the interest of my cousin. If you have
returned it to her my purpose is served."
Impatient at our fencing, or afraid, perhaps, that I might be deceived by

his suavity, the girl cut in tartly:
"You think you could rob me more successfully next time, Boris?"
His kindly toleration was a lesson in diplomacy.
"Fie, fie, Evie! A family difference of opinion. I think we must not
trouble Mr. Sedgwick with our little diversions entre nous."
"Unfortunately, you are a day after the fair, Captain Bothwell. Miss
Wallace has already done me the honor to consult me in an advisory
capacity."
I let him have my declaration of war with the airiest manner in the
world. My spirits were rising with the nearness of the battle, and I
thought it would do our cause not the least harm in the world to let him
see I was not a whit afraid to cross blades.
"Indeed! Then for the matter in hand I may consider you one of the
family. I congratulate you, Evie. Shall we say a brother--or a
cousin--or----"
"It isn't necessary to be a cad, Boris," she flung back hotly.
"Pardon me. You are right--neither necessary nor desirable. I offer
regrets." Then of a sudden the apology went out of his face like the
flame from a blown candle. He swung curtly around upon me. "Mr.
Sedgwick, I must trouble you for the map."
I will be the last to deny that there was something compelling about the
man. He sat there stroking his imperial, while the black eyes of the man
held mine with a grip of steel. Masterful he looked, and masterful I
found him to the last day of that deadly duel we fought out to a finish.
In that long moment of suspended animation when only our eyes
lived--crossed and felt the temper of each other as with the edge of
grinding rapiers--we took each the measure of his foe pretty accurately.
If I held my own it was but barely. The best I could claim was a drawn

battle.
"Regretfully I am compelled to decline your request."
"It is not a request but a demand. Come, sir, the map!" he repeated
more harshly.
That he would somehow back his demand I did not for an instant doubt,
though as to how I was still in the dark.
"Let me set you right, Captain Bothwell. This is a law office, in the city
of San Francisco, United States of America. I am neither Tommy
Atkins nor a Russian serf. Therefore, I again decline."
Coals of fire lay in his eyes.
"I--want--that--map!"
"So I gather, and as a child you often wanted the moon. But did you get
it?" I inquired pleasantly.
"The map--the map!" He had not raised his voice a note, but I give you
my word his eyes were devilish. He was a dangerous man in an ugly
frame of mind.
"Certainly you are a man of one idea, captain. Show proof of ownership
and I shall be glad to comply with your request."
"But certainly."
So quick was his motion that the revolver seemed to have leaped to his
hand of its own accord.
"I give you my word, Mr. John Sedgwick of San Francisco, United
States of America, that in the event you do not at once hand me that
map I shall blow the top of your head off!"
In a measure I was prepared for this. I told myself that we were in the
heart of a great city, in daylight, with the twentieth century setting of a

fifteen-story office building. Were I to put my head out of the window
a thousand hurrying people on Market Street would hear my call.
Yet I knew that I might as well be alone with him on a desert island for
all the help that could reach me. I knew, too, that he was not bluffing.
What he said he would do, that he would do.
My face can on occasion be wooden.
"Interesting, if true," I retorted coolly.
"And absolutely true. Make no mistake