By the time I reached Lucy’s cabin door we were well under weigh, shouldering our way swiftly and sturdily through the still, wet night.
CHAPTER XX
WE DISCOVER TEDDY PARSONS IS LEFT BEHIND—I MAKE UP MY MIND—TO THE RESCUE!—UNMANLY CONDUCT OF THE OTHERS—I GO ALONE—DISGUISE—THE GARDE CHAMPÊTRE
“It’s all over!” I cried to Lucy, as I stumbled in; “we’ve done it beautifully! We’re all safe, without a scratch!”
And then, so overwrought was I with the long tension, I became quite hysterical.
I went off into a fit of laughter, and at last, with the silly, happy tears chasing one another like sheep down my face, I managed to tell her she was free now to go back to Wharton Park with her father and grandmother, that Bob Hines would have his swimming-bath and gymnasium, that the ho-ho-hospitals would all open their closed wards again, and Teddy Parsons breathe freely once more before his fierce old governor, the colonel, at Southport.
“It was my idea!” I cried, “and we’ve done it with the greatest ease—I knew we should!—and we’re all safe; and oh, Lucy! do just come into the saloon and see how much we’ve got. It was my own idea, and the fools all said it was impossible, and just look how simple it’s been, after all! Why, we must have carried off sixty thousand pounds, at least!”
Lucy seemed scarcely to understand what I was talking about; but she saw I was safe, and, feeling the yacht well under weigh, cared for very little else; so she held my hand and soothed and calmed me, and then followed with obedient laughter as I almost dragged her into the saloon.
There, neatly piled under the electric light on the table, lay the linen bags, for all the world like the letter-bags in a mail-train; and there was Brentin, with wet hair and tie all on one side, beginning to empty them and arrange notes and gold in separate heaps. The silver was a little deficient, for we had given the sailors orders more or less to ignore the five-franc pieces.
Of the gallant band, Hines and Forsyth were lying on the sofas with closed eyes, still slightly panting; my sister was looking on, leaning up against one of the pillars, where Miss Rybot, seated at the table, was unfolding the notes with her long, slim fingers, and arranging them in bundles according to their respective values. She was doing it with the greatest coolness, and, for some reason, a rather more haughty air of displeasure than usual.