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"You cannot expect me to condole with you." "You say you are a non-combatant, and that is better than I could have expected. You English as a rule are singularly averse to our propaganda. But wait and see how affairs order themselves." "It will be a long time to wait. I'm afraid you'll never find the Recipe." I had risen to my legs to say good-bye. Taltavull gripped my hand in his bony fingers.
The gist of my tale came out pretty rapidly, although I skipped no details, but waded through chapter and verse; but before it was half told, Taltavull had sprung up from his seat, and was pacing backwards and forwards over the thick carpet, fiercely waving his long arms, and looking for all the world like a mechanical frock-coated skeleton.
"Wind's in the sou'-sou'-east and lightish, but if it holds as it is we should make Alcudia Bay by early to-morrow morning, and from there could hit off the railway at La Puebla and get to Palma." And to this Taltavull and I agreed. Our preparations for that short sea trip were few and simple.
Taltavull was sitting up amongst the scrubs, and was shaking a trembling fist at the boat and snarling out the word "iconoclast." "'Iconoclast' indeed. Faith, that's the pot libelling the kettle most unjustly. I say, Cospatric, just take that melodramatic old fool's gun away from him, and wring his neck if he won't behave himself. My dear Mrs. Cromwell, I must really apologize for our companion.
From the outset I shall go into the business with intention to succeed. Of my methods you may not learn much, for to those beyond the pale we lock out secrets. But could you know how far our brotherhood extends, and how deep is the responsibility with which each member is saddled, you would have more faith in the mighty weapon whose hilt I, Taltavull, grasp between my fingers."
Wind was fresh at first, and the ugly cutter's stem hissed through the water like red-hot iron; but as the moon rose into a steel-blue sky amongst bright white stars, the breeze dropped till it scarcely gave us steerage-way. Haigh sat smoking at the tiller throughout the night; Taltavull and I patrolled the narrow decks, chatting. We none of us felt inclined for sleep.
To be accurate, they were wrapped round the third member of our trio, who was wriggling like a demon, and foaming at the mouth in his wrath. But after all the halt was only a short one. "All clear," shouted Haigh, thirty seconds after he had descended. "Arr-e-ee, and away you go, my tulip. Not much time lost there, Señor Taltavull, after all."
"I'm letting the thing drop from my mind. However, if you've an idea, old chappie, let's hear it." "What do you say to taking up another partner?" "To what end? I fail to see what use a third would be. Still, give the proposed partner a name." "Taltavull." "Phew! I say, I rather bar meddling with politics, especially the white-hot explosive politics that he affects." "So do I. I hate 'em.
He was a goodish man at plotting and planning beforehand, that same Taltavull; but when it came to brisk action, he wasn't always prompt enough. A bit of a reverse seemed to daze him. "It's money that makes the world go round," remarked Haigh after we had got beyond the cheerful howls of the crowd, and our two fine mules had settled down to a steady hand-gallop.
Finish the tale first." And so Taltavull went on. The uncanny sights which he had witnessed impressed the Cavalleria fisherman mightily, and when he received a valuable banknote, he helped fill up the hole and departed, fully determined to hold his tongue.
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