LITMIR.BIZ

Скачать книгу

dehumanized.

      “I wonder why Mrs. McKisco didn’t like the Divers?” she said. “They were very nice to her.”

      “Oh, it wasn’t that. It was something she saw. We never did find exactly what it was because of Barban.”

      “Then that wasn’t what made you so sad.”

      “Oh, no,” he said, his voice breaking, “that was something else that happened when we got back to the hotel. But now I don’t care – I wash my hands of it completely.”

      They followed the other car east along the shore past Juan les Pins, where the skeleton of the new Casino was rising. It was past four and under a blue-gray sky the first fishing boats were creaking out into a glaucous sea. Then they turned off the main road and into the back country.

      “It’s the golf course,” cried Campion. “I’m sure that’s where it’s going to be.”

      He was right. When Abe’s car pulled up ahead of them the east was crayoned red and yellow, promising a sultry day. Ordering the hotel car into a grove of pines Rosemary and Campion kept in the shadow of a wood and skirted the bleached fairway where Abe and McKisco were walking up and down, the latter raising his head at intervals like a rabbit scenting. Presently there were moving figures over by a farther tee and the watchers made out Barban and his French second – the latter carried the box of pistols under his arm.

      Somewhat appalled, McKisco slipped behind Abe and took a long swallow of brandy. He walked on choking and would have marched directly up into the other party, but Abe stopped him and went forward to talk to the Frenchman. The sun was over the horizon.

      Campion grabbed Rosemary’s arm.

      “I can’t stand it,” he squeaked, almost voiceless. “It’s too much. This will cost me —”

      “Let go,” Rosemary said peremptorily. She breathed a frantic prayer in French.

      The principals[93] faced each other, Barban with the sleeve rolled up from his arm. His eyes gleamed restlessly in the sun, but his motion was deliberate as he wiped his palm on the seam of his trousers. McKisco, reckless with brandy, pursed his lips in a whistle and pointed his long nose about nonchalantly, until Abe stepped forward with a handkerchief in his hand. The French second stood with his face turned away. Rosemary caught her breath in terrible pity and gritted her teeth with hatred for Barban; then:

      “One – two – three!” Abe counted in a strained voice.

      They fired at the same moment. McKisco swayed but recovered himself. Both shots had missed.

      “Now, that’s enough!” cried Abe.

      The duellists walked in, and everyone looked at Barban inquiringly.

      “I declare myself unsatisfied.”

      “What? Sure you’re satisfied,” said Abe impatiently. “You just don’t know it.”

      “Your man refuses another shot?”

      “You’re damn right, Tommy. You insisted on this and my client went through with it.”

      Tommy laughed scornfully.

      “The distance was ridiculous,” he said. “I’m not accustomed to such farces – your man must remember he’s not now in America.”

      “No use cracking at America,” said Abe rather sharply. And then, in a more conciliatory tone, “This has gone far enough, Tommy.” They parleyed briskly for a moment – then Barban nodded and bowed coldly to his late antagonist.

      “No shake hand?” suggested the French doctor.

      “They already know each other[94],” said Abe.

      He turned to McKisco.

      “Come on, let’s get out.”

      As they strode off, McKisco, in exultation, gripped his arm.

      “Wait a minute!” Abe said. “Tommy wants his pistol back. He might need it again.”

      McKisco handed it over.

      “To hell with him,” he said in a tough voice. “Tell him he can —”

      “Shall I tell him you want another shot?”

      “Well, I did it,” cried McKisco, as they went along. “And I did it pretty well, didn’t I? I wasn’t yellow.[95]“

      “You were pretty drunk,” said Abe bluntly.

      “No, I wasn’t.”

      “All right, then, you weren’t.”

      “Why would it make any difference if I had a drink or so?” As his confidence mounted he looked resentfully at Abe.

      “What difference does that make?” he repeated.

      “If you can’t see it, there’s no use going into it.”

      “Don’t you know everybody was drunk all the time during the war?”

      “Well, let’s forget it.”

      But the episode was not quite over. There were urgent footsteps in the heather behind them and the doctor drew up alongside.

      “Pardon, Messieurs,” he panted. “Voulez-vous régler mes honoraires? Naturellement c’est pour soins médicaux seulement. M. Barban n’a qu’un billet de mille et ne peut pas les régler et l’autre a laissé son porte-monnaie chez lui.[96]“

      “Trust a Frenchman to think of that,” said Abe, and then to the doctor. “Combien?[97]”

      “Let me pay this,” said McKisco.

      “No, I’ve got it. We were all in about the same danger.”

      Abe paid the doctor while McKisco suddenly turned into the bushes and was sick there. Then paler than before he strutted on with Abe toward the car through the now rosy morning.

      Campion lay gasping on his back in the shrubbery, the only casualty of the duel, while Rosemary suddenly hysterical with laughter kept kicking at him with her espadrille. She did this persistently until she roused him – the only matter of importance to her now was that in a few hours she would see the person whom she still referred to in her mind as “the Divers” on the beach.

      XII

      They were at Voisins waiting for Nicole, six of them, Rosemary, the Norths, Dick Diver and two young French musicians. They were looking over the other patrons of the restaurant to see if they had repose – Dick said no American man had any repose, except himself, and they were seeking example to confront him with. Things looked black for them – not a man had come into the restaurant for ten minutes without raising his hand to his face.

      “We ought never to have given up waxed mustaches,” said Abe. “Nevertheless Dick isn’t the only man with repose —”

      “Oh, yes, I am.”

      “ – but he may be the only sober man with repose.” A well-dressed American had come in with two women who swooped and fluttered un-self-consciously around a table. Suddenly, he perceived that he was being watched – whereupon his hand rose spasmodically and arranged a phantom bulge in his necktie. In another unseated party a man endlessly patted his shaven cheek with his palm, and his companion mechanically raised and lowered the stub of a cold cigar. The luckier ones fingered eyeglasses and facial hair, the unequipped stroked blank mouths, or even pulled desperately at the lobes of their ears.

      A well-known general came in, and Abe, counting on the man’s first year at West Point[98] – that year during which no cadet can resign and from which none ever recovers – made a bet with Dick of five dollars.

      His hands hanging naturally at his sides, the general waited to be seated.

Скачать книгу