Desperation and Decision Read Online Free Page A

worried when Mac and Rose
didn't meet us outside the theater, and then we came upon them
after this pickpocket attacked Mac, and Rose was drenched, and Mac
was bleeding, and we just -- "
    I burst out laughing and patted her hand. The
warmth and love of this group had touched me deeply and I could not
muster my usual reserve. "No apology is needed, surely Madame, when
you put your family and their comfort and safety ahead of a mere
stranger," I protested.
    "Prince Florizel of Bohemia, may I present my
husband's cousin, Mrs. Rose Campbell?" Mrs. Moore-Campbell seemed
determined to carry through with formal introductions so I kissed
the hand of the little blond woman. "Her husband, Doctor Alexander
Mackenzie Campbell, and my husband, Mr. Archibald Campbell, have
gone downstairs to speak with a constable who took custody of the
pickpocket. And this is Mowgli, from India."
    "I confess I overheard your husband's earlier
introduction of this gentleman." I nodded to him. He raked his
intensely black eyes over me and nodded back.
    "What is Bohemia?" he demanded.
    I was taken aback. "It is a kingdom in
Europe," I replied.
    "What is Europe?" he asked.
    "What -- what is Europe?" I stammered. I
tried to see if he jested, but I recalled some of his odd speech
about jungles and forest gods and wolves and thought perhaps he
truly did not know. His English was indeed heavily accented and so
I opened my mouth to try to explain when Mrs. Moore-Campbell
laughed.
    "Mowgli delights in pretending ignorance but
he knows quite well what Europe is," she reassured me. "I am not
certain he knows where Bohemia is, but neither does he really need
to know. Is that not so, Mowgli?"
    Instead of responding, Mowgli opened his
mouth and gave vent to an ululating, shrill sound. Mrs.
Moore-Campbell parted her lips and I found myself looking about the
room for the mourning dove that had called before I realized the
sound had issued from the lady's throat. Mowgli responded with
another strange but vaguely birdlike sound. They both seated
themselves on the hearth with Mrs. Campbell's chair between
them.
    "Do you intend to explain this?" Doctor Mac's
voice issued from the lift as it hissed upward.
    "Phoebe will, if she has a mind," responded
Mr. Campbell as they stepped back into the sitting room.
    "Phoebe will?" Doctor Mac echoed. "What has
Phoebe got to do with naked fellows and black panthers running
around London in the dead of night?" They quieted when they saw me
at last and shook my hand, but then spotted Mrs. Moore-Campbell and
the mysterious Indian crouching together on the bricks at Mrs.
Campbell's feet. From the throat of the beautiful
gypsy-complexioned woman issued the calls of the lark, the
whippoorwill, the robin, the bluebird, and a dozen others.
Alternately the strange black-clad fellow would make sounds both
eerie and beautiful, cries of birds no American or English sun had
ever risen upon.
    "That is Chil the kite," explained the Indian
after the last.
    "And the one before?" Rose Campbell glowed
with the fire's warmth and her captivation with their new
acquaintance.
    "Darzee the tailor-bird. He cries so when the
cobra threatens his nest."
    A sound vibrated through all the suites of
rooms, one far stranger than exotic birdcalls. It was a rumble that
could be felt more than heard and ended in a thin, barely audible
wail. We all started violently and the one called Mowgli dashed out
of the room faster than the eye could follow into the fourth
adjoining bedroom.
    "What was that?" Rose cried out. "It shook my
very bones!"
    "Oh, I did not wish to do this so
topsy-turvy, but I suppose it must be. Prince Florizel, Doctor
Twist, please join us here," Mrs. Moore-Campbell and her husband
quickly rearranged the chairs and the divan in the room and created
a conference circle.
    "My little mistress," she began, "we have
something to propose to you as head of the Alexander Campbell
Foundation."
    "You've done a wonderful work with the
'decayed gentlewomen' and the