Part-2
II
This, then, is how it came about that "Kitten" Brown and I were seated, one in July, by the of Lake Susan W. Pillsbury, from a trout, upon which I had operations.
Brown's name was William; but the man was once a in the Administration Building at Bronx, and, furthermore, was to address her as "Kitten."
So Kitten Brown it was for him in future. After he had all the members of the scientific staff in turn, he to this d'amour.
Lightly but for scientific research, we had at the in time to the two by the Government to go to their own firesides.
A week later the of ladies arrived; and now they were on the of Lake Susan W. Pillsbury, at a little from us, trying to keep the from their and attempting to eat the provided for them by me.
I myself couldn't eat it. No wonder they murmured. But them to attack the of and cornmeal.
Kitten was saying to me:
"Our medicine isn't very extensive. I they their own. If they didn't, some among us will again see New York."
I a at the women. There was one among them—but let me their artillery:
There was the Reverend Dr. Amelia Jones, blond, adipose, and close to the four-score mark. She high in the Equal Franchise ranks. Nobody had had the to answer her back.
There was Miss Sadie Dingleheimer, fifty, emaciated, anemic, and with thick-lensed eye-glasses. She was the President of the National Prophylactic Club, that may be.
There was Miss Margaret McFadden, a Titian, toothed, muscular, and President of the Hair Dressers' Union of the United States.
There was Mrs. Gladys Doolittle Batt, a one—Batt being as a point—President of the National Eugenic and Purity League; tall, gnarled, powerful, and to attacks. The were toward others.
These, then, the artillery. The of the light only of a single piece. Her name was Angelica White, a from the Trained Nurses' Association of America. The had been too with their to such picnics, so one had been by to the Association on this expedition.
Angelica White was a tall, fair, yellow-haired girl of twenty-two or three, with violet-blue and red lips, and a way of a little when spoken to—but let that pass. I only to be scientifically minute. A for has me. I have little ability and less to my pen with that of as fiction. Once in my life my for me lyrically. It was a poem, but an one:
Truth is and must prevail,
Otherwise it were to tell the tale.
I it upon the New York Evening Post, but remuneration. My message to the world. I don't the newspaper.
Her eyes, then, were with that and which to a or hue.
Watching her askance, I was sorry that my cooking to pain her.
"Guide!" said Mrs. Doolittle Batt, in that remarkable, voice of hers.
"Ma'am!" said Kitten Brown and I with alacrity, from the ground as though at.
"This cooking," she said, with an at us, "is atrocious. Don't you know how to cook?"
I said with a attempt at ease:
"There are of cooking food for the of which an all-wise Providence—"
"Do you think you're cooking for wild-cats?" she demanded.
Our faded.
"It's my opinion that you're incompetent," the Reverend Dr. Jones, at with a hand that might have all the of the nation, but had not any.
"We're not our money's worth," said Miss Dingleheimer, "even if the Government pay your salaries."
I looked from one to another. In Miss McFadden's there was the of battle. She said:
"If you can us no than you cook, God save us all this day week!" And she the of her plate into Lake Susan W. Pillsbury.
Mrs. Doolittle Batt arose:
"Come," she said; "it is time we started. What is the name of the we may to encounter?"
We no more than did they, but we said that Lake Gladys Doolittle Batt was the first, to that woman.
"Come on, then!" she cried, up her and staff.
Miss Dingleheimer had one, too, from the Catskills.
So Kitten Brown and I our mule, set him in motion, and him into the unknown.
Where we were going we had not the idea; the of the was easy travelling, so easy that we noticed that we had already gone around the three times, until Mrs. Batt the and on us furiously.
I didn't know how to it, to say that I was doing it as a of to and the ladies.
"We don't need hardening!" she snarled. "Do you that!"
I that at once. But I a and in the wake of my mule, with something of the same which the of an dog.
In the ear of Kitten I my the of a journey.
We in the order: Arthur, the mule, led; then came Kitten Brown and myself, all over with stew-pans, shotguns, rifles, cartridge-belts, ponchos, and the of the ladies; then the Reverend Dr. Jones, and, in order, her, Miss Dingleheimer, Mrs. Batt, Miss McFadden, and Miss White—the in her nurse's and a red on her sleeve—an idea of Mrs. Batt, who in methods.
Mrs. Batt also a banner, much with by the foliage, the inscription:
EQUAL RIGHTS!
EUGENICS OR EXTERMINATION!
After a while she shouted:
"Guide! Here, you may this banner for a while! I'm tired."
Kitten and I took with it after that. It was hard work, particularly as one by one in turn they came up and their and shopping all over us. We like a pair of moving stores, not to shift our to Arthur, we had already into the of that and animal all our boxes, jars, nets, note-books, of piano wire, thermometers, barometers, hydrometers, stereometers, aeronoids, adnoids—everything, in fact, that are not to pack into the woods, but which we had to those misguided ones we guided.
And, to make room for our scientific paraphernalia, we had been to do a thing so mean, so low, that I to relate it. But are facts; we nearly a of impedimenta. There was work of all in the making or in the raw—materials for knitting, embroidering, tatting, sewing, hemming, stitching, drawn-work, lace-making, crocheting.
Also we of almost a of necessities—powder, perfumery, cosmetics, hot-water bags, slippers, negligees, novels, magazines, bon-bons, chewing-gum, hat-boxes, gloves, stockings, underwear.
We left for each lady to once. They'd have to do some now. Science can not be by hatpins; can not be side-tracked by cosmetics.
Toward we came upon a small, clear pond, set the of mountains. I was to with fatigue, but I myself, a deep, breath, and with one of those fine, gestures, I cried:
"Lake Mrs. Gladys Doolittle Batt! Eureka! At last! Excelsior!"
There was a me. I turned, to my with a smile. The ladies were the in surprise. I admit that it was a pond, not a lake.
Injecting into my voice the last of which I summon, I shouted, "Eureka!" and to about as though the size and of the had me with enthusiasm, by my to the convention.
The cold voice of Mrs. Doolittle Batt my transports:
"Is that named after me?" she demanded.
"M-ma'am?" I stammered.
"If that frog-pond has been with my name, somebody is going to into trouble," she said ominously.
A ensued. Arthur at flies. As for me, I looked up at the pines, upon the and hills, then a all around me. But I no of in case Mrs. Batt should me.
"I had been informed," she dangerously, "that the of water, which I had been with my name, was twelve miles long and three miles wide. This to be a puddle!"
"B-b-but it's very p-pretty," I feebly. "It's and clear, and it's nearly a of a mile in d-diameter—"
"Mind your business!" Mrs. Doolittle Batt. "I've been swindled!"
Kitten Brown more about than did I. He said in a voice:
"Madame, it is an outrage! The of this nation should make the Government for its duplicity! Your should have been at least twenty miles long!"
Everybody and looked at Kitten. He was a dog.
"This man to have some of common-sense," said Mrs. Batt. "I shall see to it that the Government is for this act of duplicity. I—I won't have my name to this—this wallow!—" She toward me, her small blazing: I to of Arthur.
"Guide!" she said in a voice still with passion. "Are you that you have no mistake? You appear to be ignorant."
"I am there can be no room for doubt," I said, almost out of my senses.
"And on top of this outrage, am I to eat your cooking?" she passionately. "Did I come here to look at this frog-pond and on your cooking? Did I?"
"I can cook," said a clear, voice at my elbow. And Miss White came forward, cool, clean, fresh as a in her and cap. I got her.
"I can cook very nicely," she said smilingly. "It is part of my profession, you know. So if you two will be to the fire and help me—" She let her on me for an instant, then on Brown. A moment later he and I were each other in our to her suggestion. It is that way with men.
So we her a fire and our provisions, and we waited very on the ladies when dinner was ready.
It was a dinner—coffee, bacon, flap-jacks, soup, ash-bread, chicken.
The artillery, by their journey, of ammunition. They largely. I in at Mrs. Doolittle Batt as she one flap-jack after another, while her larger and larger.
Nor was the of Miss Dingleheimer and the Reverend Dr. Jones to be at by pachyderms.
Brown and I left them while we the of little tents. Every lady had a tent.
So we cut saplings, set up the silk, pegs, and of boughs.
I was they'd their and other utensils, but they had to repletion, and were sleepy; and as each case or also a nightgown, they the of their without that we Arthur's panniers.
They all had their Miss White, who on cooking something for us, although we that the of the were all right for guides.
She us for a minutes, us with our dinner.
"You fellows," she said gently. "You are nearly starved."
It is to be with by a tall, fair, fresh girl. We looked up, gratefully.
"This is a most little lake," she said, out across the still, water which was all rose and gold in the sunset, save where the of the were in depths.
"It's odd," I said, "that no are jumping. There ought to be of them there, and this is their jumping hour."
We all looked at the quiet, of water. Not a circle, not the it.
"It must be deep," Brown.
We up at the three peaks, the of which were the of this among lakes. Deep, deep, into profundity, the away into depths.
"That little may be a thousand deep," I said. "In 1903 Professor Farrago, of Bronx Park, a in the Thunder Mountains, which was two thousand seven hundred and sixty-nine deep."
Miss White looked at me curiously.
Into a of late a small butterfly—one of the Grapta species. It settled on a of wood, its proboscis, and spread its and wings.
"Grapta California," Brown to me.
"Vanessa asteriska" I him. "Note the of the and the area the nervule."
"The on the are wanting," he demurred.
"It is brooded. The the three bands."
A moments' was by the voice of Miss White.
"I had no idea," she remarked, "that Alaskan were so familiar with terms and nomenclature."
We very red.
Brown something about having up a smattering. I added that Brown had me.
Perhaps she us; her rested on us curiously, musingly. Also, at moments, I there was the of in them.
She said:
"Two scientific from New York permission to join this expedition, but Mrs. Batt them." She upon the of Lake Gladys Doolittle Batt. "I wonder," she murmured, "what of those two gentlemen."
It was that we had ourselves to this girl.
She at us again, and she noticed in our an to terror, for she laughed—such a clear, sweet, little laugh!
"For my part," she said, "I wish they had come with us. I like—men."
With that she us very and off to her tent, us with our pressed against our stomachs, attempting by the of our to the of our gratitude.
"There's a girl!" Brown, as soon as she had her flaps. "She'll let on to Medusa, Xantippe, Cassandra and Company. I like that girl, Smith."
"You're not the only one by such sentiments," said I.
He a and smile. He was good-looking. Presently he said:
"She has the most way of at a man—"
"I've noticed," I said pleasantly.
"Oh. Did she to at you that way?" he inquired. I wanted to him.
All I said was:
"She's some kitten." Which that man for a while.
We on the bank of the lake, our against a pine-tree, the last of colour from and tree-top.
"Isn't it queer," I said, "that not a has splashed? It can't be that there are no fish in the lake."
"There are such lakes."
"Yes, very ones. I wonder how this is."
"We'll be out at with our of piano wire and take soundings," he said. "The won't wake until they're to be with flap-jacks."
I shuddered:
"They're creatures, Brown. Somehow, that and one has me with a terror unutterable."
"Mrs. Batt?"
"Yes."
He said seriously:
"She'll make a when she for her knitting. What are you going to tell her?"
"I shall say that Indians us while she was asleep, and off all those things."
"You very nicely, don't you?" he admiringly.
"In culpæ fuga," said I. "Besides, they don't need those articles."
He laughed. He didn't to be very much of Mrs. Batt.
It had dusky, and of were out. Little by little the its shape in the darkness, until only an irregular, star-set area of water that there was any there at all.
I that Brown and I, at the of the tree, were looking at the still and surface of the lake, over which numbers of were after insects; and I that I was just about to speak, when, of a sudden, the and surface of the water was as with a explosion; a of flashing, foaming, a hundred into the air. And through it I to catch a of a vast, quivering, of with a crash into the lake, while the on every and the little and from to shore, sending great of up over the so high that the very tree-tops dripped.
Petrified, dumb, our almost by the shock, our ears still by the crash of that something that had into the lake, and our starting from their sockets, we at the darkness.
Slap—slash—slush the waves, the with a almost metallic. Vision and told us that the water in the was like the of a bath-tub.
"G-g-good Lord!" Brown. "Is there a v-volcano under that lake?"
"Did you see that huge, shape that to into the water?" I gasped.
"Yes. What was it? A meteor?"
"No. It was something that came out of the and back—the way a leaps. Heavens! It couldn't have been alive, it?"
"W-wh-what do you mean?" Brown.
"It couldn't have been a f-f-fish, it?" I asked with teeth.
"No! No! It was as big as a Pullman car! It must have been a star. Did you of a fish as big as a sleeping car?"
I was too to reply. The of the had somewhat, for another to our ears—a raucous, gallinacious, sound.
I up and looked at the of tents. White-robed in of them. The was frightened.
"The was frightened."
We over to them, and when we got nearer they into their and out a of heads—heads with curl-papers.
"What was that noise? An earthquake?" the Reverend Dr. Jones. "I think I'll go home."
"Was it an avalanche?" Mrs. Batt, in a and voice. "Are we in any danger, man?"
I said that it was a flying-star which had to the and explode.
"What an region!" Miss Dingleheimer. "I've had my money's worth. I wish to go to New York at once. I'll to dress immediately—"
"It might be a years another in this latitude," I said, soothingly.
"Or it might be ten minutes," Miss Dingleheimer. "What do you know about it, anyway! I want to go home. I'm on my now. I'm as fast as I can—"
Her voice was out in a crash from the lake. Appalled, I on my heel, just in time to see another of water high in the starlight, another, another, until the entire was but a of a hundred in the air, while through them, into the of foam, great crashing, one after another.
I don't know how long the lasted; the with the pandemonium, and re-echoed from to mountain; the tree-tops spray, it in through the leaves; and the of the long after the last vast, shape had again into the water.
As my recovered, I myself supporting Mrs. Batt on one arm and the Reverend Dr. Jones upon my bosom. Both had fainted. I them with a and to look for Brown.
Somebody had in his arms, too.
"Somebody had in his arms, too."
He was not noticing me, and as I approached him I him say something the word "kitten."
In of my demoralization, another me, and I nearer and closely at what he was so in his arms. It was, as I supposed, Angelica White.
I don't know my her, for as I over a tent-peg she opened her eyes, and then herself from Brown's arms.
"Oh, I am so frightened," she murmured. She looked at me when she said it.
"Come," said I to Brown, "let Miss White retire and down. This is over and so is the danger."
He a to and minister to Miss White, but she said, with composure, that she was better; and Brown came with me to the lines.
That was wrecked, the pieces and about in their emplacements.
But a of cold water in them, and we them into one and them with some prevarication, the of which I have forgotten; but it was something about a of which the earth every twelve billion years, and that it was now all over for another such interim, and sleep with the of having at a by a cell.
Which them, I think, for, seated once more at the of our tree, presently we from the reconcentrados, like the of the bar.
They slept, the guns, like of all a-row in battery. But Brown and I, excited, still and bewildered, sat with our on the lake, each other what in the name of it was that we had and heard.
On one thing we were agreed. A scientific of the most our investigation.
This was no time for temporising, for deception, for any of shilly-shallying. We must, on the morrow, tear off our and appear these misguided and of our in our own as scientists. We must our and to from this spot until the of this had been investigated.
And so, our policy, our plans for the morrow, and each other our common ability to the artillery, we asleep.
