"Aren't you going to _do_ anything?" she screamed, seizing him by the coat tail."You must, damn it--you must!""I got the policeman to telephone headquarters," said Burlingham."What else can be done? Come on."And a moment later the bedraggled and dejected company filed into a cheap levee restaurant."Bring some coffee," Burlingham said to the waiter.Then to the others, "Does anybody want anything else?" No one spoke."Coffee's all," he said to the waiter.
It came, and they drank it in silence, each one's brain busy with the disaster from the standpoint of his own resulting ruin.
Susan glanced furtively at each face in turn.She could not think of her own fate, there was such despair in the faces of these others.Mabel looked like an old woman.As for Violet, every feature of her homeliness, her coarseness, her dissipated premature old age stood forth in all its horror.Susan's heart contracted and her flesh crept as she glanced quickly away.But she still saw, and it was many a week before she ceased to see whenever Violet's name came into her mind.Burlingham, too, looked old and broken.Eshwell and Pat, neither of whom had ever had the smallest taste of success, were stolid, like cornered curs taking their beating and waiting in silence for the blows to stop.
"Here, Eshie," said the manager, "take care of the three dollars." And he handed him the bills."I'll pay for the coffee and keep the change.I'm going down to the owners of that tug and see what I can do."When he had paid they followed him out.At the curbstone he said, "Keep together somewhere round the wharf-boat.So long."He lifted the battered hat he was wearing, smiled at Susan.
"Cheer up, Miss Sackville.We'll down 'em yet!" And away he went--a strange figure, his burly frame squeezed into a dingy old frock suit from among Tempest's costumes.
A dreary two hours, the last half-hour in a drizzling rain from which the narrow eaves of the now closed and locked wharf-boat sheltered them only a little."There he comes!" cried Susan; and sure enough, Burlingham separated from the crowd streaming along the street at the top of the levee, and began to descend the slope toward them.They concentrated on his face, hoping to get some indication of what to expect; but he never permitted his face to betray his mind.He strode up the plank and joined them.
"Tempest come?" he asked.
"Tempest!" cried Mabel."Haven't I told you he's jumped? Don't you suppose __I_ _know him?""And you brought him into the company," raged Violet.
"Burlingham didn't want to take him.He looked the fool and jackass he is.Why didn't you warn us he was a rotten thief, too?""Wasn't it for shoplifting you served six months in Joliet?"retorted Mabel.
"You lie--you streetwalker!" screamed Violet.
"Ladies! Ladies!" said Eshwell.
"That's what __I__ say," observed Pat.
"I'm no lady," replied Mabel."I'm an actress.""An actress--he-he!" jeered Violet."An actress!""Shut up, all of you," commanded Burlingham."I've got some money.I settled for cash.""How much?" cried Mabel and Violet in the same breath, their quarrel not merely finished but forgotten.
"Three hundred dollars."
"For the boat and all?" demanded Eshwell."Why, Bob----""They think it was for boat and all," interrupted Burlingham with his cynical smile."They set out to bully and cheat me.
They knew I couldn't get justice.So I let 'em believe I owned the boat--and I've got fifty apiece for us.""Sixty," said Violet.
"Fifty.There are six of us."
"You don't count in this little Jonah here, do you?" cried Violet, scowling evilly at Susan.
"No--no--don't count me in," begged Susan."I didn't lose anything."Mabel pinched her arm."You're right, Mr.Burlingham," said she."Miss Sackville ought to share.We're all in the same box.""Miss Sackville will share," said Burlingham."There's going to be no skunking about this, as long as I'm in charge."Eshwell and Pat sided with Violet.While the rain streamed, the five, with Susan a horrified onlooker, fought on and on about the division of the money.Their voices grew louder.They hurled the most frightful epithets at one another.Violet seized Mabel by the hair, and the men interfered, all but coming to blows themselves in the melee.The wharfmaster rushed from his office, drove them off to the levee.They continued to yell and curse, even Burlingham losing control of himself and releasing all there was of the tough and the blackguard in his nature.Two policemen came, calmed them with threat of arrest.At last Burlingham took from his pocket one at a time three small rolls of bills.He flung one at each of the three who were opposing his division."Take that, you dirty curs," he said."And be glad I'm giving you anything at all.Most managers wouldn't have come back.Come on, Miss Sackville.Come on, Mabel." And the two followed him up the levee, leaving the others counting their shares.
At the street corner they went into a general store where Burlingham bought two ninety-eight-cent umbrellas.He gave Mabel one, held the other over Susan and himself as they walked along.
