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diff --git a/19010.txt b/19010.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..338e88b --- /dev/null +++ b/19010.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7221 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Admirable Tinker, by Edgar Jepson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Admirable Tinker + Child of the World + +Author: Edgar Jepson + +Illustrator: Margaret Eckerson + +Release Date: August 8, 2006 [EBook #19010] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADMIRABLE TINKER *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + + + + + + +[Frontispiece: "Here's my father, or the police!"] + + + + + + +THE ADMIRABLE TINKER + +CHILD OF THE WORLD + + + +BY EDGAR JEPSON + + + + +Illustrated by + +Margaret Eckerson + + + + + +NEW YORK + +McCLURE, PHILLIPS & CO. + +MCMIV + + + + +Copyright, 1904, by + +McCLURE, PHILLIPS & CO. + + +Published, March, 1904 + +Third Impression + + + +COPYRIGHT, 1903, BY THE CURTIS PUBLISHING CO. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + + I. SIR TANCRED'S QUEST + II. THE FINDING OF TINKER + III. TINKER ACCEPTS HIS NAME + IV. THE TRAINING OF TINKER + V. TINKER'S BIRTHDAY BLOODHOUND + VI. THE RESCUE OF ELIZABETH KERNABY + VII. THE STOLEN FLYING-MACHINE + VIII. THE BARON AND THE MONEY-LENDER + IX. TINKER INTERVENES + X. TINKER'S FOUNDLING + XI. TINKER FROM THE MACHINE + XII. TINKER BORROWS A MOTOR-CAR + XIII. TINKER MEETS HIS OLD NURSE + XIV. TINKER TAKES SEPTIMUS RAINER IN HAND + XV. TINKER ASSERTS THE RIGHTS OF THE EMPLOYER + XVI. TINKER DISOWNS HIS GRANDMOTHER + XVII. TINKER AND THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + +"Here's my father, or the police!" . . . Frontispiece + +He surveyed himself with an excited curiosity. + +"I can't hold him!" + +He poured comforting assurances of safety into her ears. + +"She was quite out of control for a good five minutes." + +"To-night reflect on your misdeeds. To-morrow + we will treat of your ransom." + +The pursuit was lively, but short. + +It was his first essay as coiffeur. + +As a battering-ram against the first and second buttons + of his waistcoat. + +"Hold it back!" screamed Tinker. + +Over these agreeable occupations they talked. + +And she paused to let the splendour of the gift sink in. + +It's time these lubbers walked the plank. + + + + +THE ADMIRABLE TINKER + + +CHAPTER ONE + +SIR TANCRED'S QUEST + +"It is," said Lord Crosland, "deucedly odd." + +"What?" said Sir Tancred Beauleigh. + +"That after seeing nothing of one another for nearly three years, we +should arrive at this caravanserai from different stations at the same +time, to find that our letters engaging this set of rooms came by the +same post." + +"It comes of having been born on the same day," said Sir Tancred. +"Besides, I always told you that the only possible place to live in in +town was the top left-hand corner of the Hotel Cecil, with this view up +the river, and a nice open breezy space in front of you." + +Lord Crosland, who was walking up and down the room as he talked, +stopped to gaze out of the window at Westminster, and Sir Tancred +lighted another cigarette. + +"What I like about it is, it's retired--out of the world," said Lord +Crosland. + +"It was just that recommended it to me." + +A waiter came in, and cleared away the breakfast. Lord Crosland +admired the view; Sir Tancred lay back in his easy chair, gazing with +vacant, sombre eyes into the clear blue vault of the summer sky. + +"I can't see why we shouldn't share these rooms for the season," said +Lord Crosland, when the waiter had gone with his tray. "We shall get +on all right; we always did at Vane's." + +"Well," said Sir Tancred slowly, "I have a child, a boy, somewhere--I +don't know where. I've got to find him. I'm going to find him before +I do anything else." + +"The deuce you have! Well, I'll be shot! To think that you're +married!" + +"I was married when I said good-bye to you nearly three years ago," +said Sir Tancred. "I was married to Pamela Vane." + +"You were married to Miss Vane!" cried Lord Crosland. "But how--how on +earth did you manage it? It was impossible!" + +"I committed that legal misdemeanour known as false entry," said Sir +Tancred coolly. "I added the necessary years to our ages." + +"Oh, yes, that, of course," said Lord Crosland. "You wouldn't let an +informality of that kind stand in your way. But Miss Vane? How did +you persuade her? I should have thought it impossible--absolutely +impossible." + +"It ran as near impossibility as anything I can think of," said Sir +Tancred slowly and half dreamily. "But when you are in love with one +another, impossibilities fade--and I was masterful." + +"You were that," said Lord Crosland with conviction. + +"Poor Pamela! She was wretched at having to keep it from her father; +and I was sorry enough. But it had to be done; when you are eighteen, +and in love with one another, twenty-one seems ages away, don't you +know?" + +"Of course." + +"And once done, I don't believe--honestly, I don't believe that she +regretted it," said Sir Tancred; and his sombre eyes were shining. +"Heavens, how happy we were!--for four months. But as you'll learn, if +ever you have it, happiness is a deucedly expensive thing. I paid a +price for it--I _did_ pay a price." And he shivered. "At the end of +four months it came out, and it was all up." + +"Then that was why Vane gave up coaching, sold Stanley House, and went +abroad," said Lord Crosland quickly. "We could none of us make it out." + +"That was why. When it came out, my stepmother came on the scene. +She's about as remarkable a creature as you'll chance on between now +and the blue moon. She has one idea in her head, the glory of the +Beauleighs. I believe she's as mad as a hatter about it. She was one +of the Stryke & Wigrams, the bankers, a Miss Wigram; and I think, don't +you know, that rising out of that wealthy and respectable firm, she +felt bound to be the bluest-blooded possible. That's what I fancy. At +any rate she's more of a Beauleigh than any Beauleigh since the flood." + +"I know," said Lord Crosland, and he nodded gravely with the +immeasurable sapience of a boy of twenty-one. + +"I must say, too," Sir Tancred went on thoughtfully, "that she's been +the most important Beauleigh for generations. She brought thirty +thousand a year to the restoration of our dilapidated fortunes; and she +did restore them. You know what a County is: well, little by little +she got a grip on the County, and now she just runs it. I tell you, +the County has taken to spending every bit of the year it can in town +or abroad; when it gets within thirty miles of her, it daren't call its +life its own." + +"By Jove!" said Lord Crosland earnestly. "She must be a holy terror." + +"They call it force of character when she's within thirty miles of +them," said Sir Tancred drily; and then he went on with more emphasis: +"But the banker streak comes out in her; she thinks too much of money. +She doesn't understand that money's a thing you spend on things that +amuse you; she's always making shows with it--dull shows. So it was +part of her scheme for the glory of Beauleigh, that if billions +couldn't be got, I was to marry millions. You can imagine her fury +when she learned that I was married to Pamela." + +"I can that," said Lord Crosland. + +"She got me back to Beauleigh, on some rotten pretence of legal +business about mortgages; and made a descent on Mr. Vane. You know +that he was as decent a soul as ever lived, and as sensitive. I'm +afraid that there was a lot of Stryke & Wigram in that interview--you +know, talk about having entrapped me into marriage with his +daughter--the last man in the world to dream of it. Fortunately, as I +gathered from her talk later, she made him angry enough to turn her out +of the house without seeing Pamela. She had to content herself with +writing to her--it must have been a letter." + +"Why on earth didn't you interfere? I wouldn't have stood it!" said +Lord Crosland. + +"I was at Beauleigh. I was pretty soon suspicious that our secret had +been discovered. When three days passed without my getting a letter +from Pamela, I was sure of it. And then Fortune played into my +stepmother's hands: I had a bad fall with a young horse, and injured my +spine. For two months it was touch and go whether I was a cripple for +life; and I was another four months on my back." + +"By Jove!" said Lord Crosland with profound sympathy. + +"Ah, but it was when I began to mend that my troubles began. There +were no letters for me--not a letter. Just think of it! I knew that +Pamela must be wanting me; and there I lay a helpless log. I was sure +that she had written; and, knowing my stepmother, I was sure that I +should never see the letters. I sent for her, and asked for them. She +coolly told me that she and her brother, my other guardian, Sir Everard +Wigram, Bumpkin Wigram he's generally called, had decided that I was to +be saved, if possible, from the results of my folly at any cost. They +would have taken steps to have the marriage nullified, if it hadn't +been for the risk of my being prosecuted for false entry. Then she +talked of my ingratitude after all her efforts to raise the Beauleighs +to their former glory. I couldn't stand any more that day; and the +nurse came in and fetched her out. That interview didn't do me any +good." + +"It hardly sounds the thing for an injured spine," said Lord Crosland. + +"A few days later we had another; and she had the cheek to tell me that +one day I should be grateful to her for having saved me from the +clutches of a designing girl--rank idiocy, you see, for she was only +keeping us apart for the time being. But it set me talking about the +firm of Stryke & Wigram; and for once I got her really angry. It did +me good. Yet, you know, she really believed it; she believed that she +was acting for the best." + +"Of course," said Lord Crosland thoughtfully, "she didn't know Miss +Vane, I mean Lady Beauleigh, your wife. It would have made all the +difference." + +"I've made that excuse for her often enough," said Sir Tancred. "But +it doesn't carry very far. Just look at the cold-bloodedness of it: +there was I, a helpless cripple, in a good deal of pain most of the +time, mad for a word of my wife; and that damned woman kept back her +letters. Talk about the cruelty of the Chinese--an ordinary woman can +give them points, and do it cheerfully!" + +"They are terrors," said Lord Crosland with conviction. + +"Well, there I lay; and I had to grin and bear it. But, well, I don't +want to talk about it. The only relief was that once a week my +stepmother seemed to feel bound to come and tell me that it was all for +my good; and I could talk to her about the manners and customs of the +banking classes. Then, after five and a half months of it, when I was +looking forward to getting free and to my wife, she came and told me +that Pamela was dead. I refused to believe it; and she gave me a +letter from Vane's solicitor informing her of the fact." + +"Poor beggar!" said Lord Crosland. + +Sir Tancred was silent; he was staring at nothing with sombre eyes. + +Lord Crosland looked at him compassionately; presently he said, "It +explains your face--the change in it. I was wondering at it. I +couldn't understand it." + +"What change? What's the matter with my face?" said Sir Tancred +indifferently. + +"Well, you used to be a cheerful-looking beggar, don't you know. Now +you look like what do you call him--who fell from Heaven--Lucifer, son +of the Morning. I read about him at Vane's, mugging up poetry for that +exam." + +"You'll hardly believe it," said Sir Tancred very seriously, "but I +took to reading books myself at Beauleigh, when I got all +right--reading books and mooning about. I had no energy. I went and +saw Vane's solicitor of course; but he could tell me nothing, or +wouldn't tell me. Said his client had called on him, and told him to +inform my stepmother of Pamela's death, and had not told him where she +died, or where he was now living. I fancied he was keeping something +back; but I had no energy, and I didn't drag it out of him. I went to +Stanley House; it was to be let. No one could tell me where the Vanes +had gone. I stayed at Beauleigh--mooning about. I wouldn't go to +Oxford; and I wouldn't travel. I mooned about. Six months ago I came +across Vicary at a meet--you remember Vicary at Vane's?--he told me +that Vane had died in Jersey. I went to Jersey, and found Vane's +grave. Next to it was my wife's." + +Again Sir Tancred fell silent in a gloomy musing. + +"Well?" said Lord Crosland gently. + +"The oddest thing happened. It doesn't sound exactly credible; and you +won't understand it. I don't. But as I stood by the grave, I suddenly +felt that there was something for me to do, something very important +that had to be done. It was odd, very odd. I went back to my hotel +quite harassed, puzzling and racking my brains. Then an idea struck +me; and I had a hunt through the registers. I found that two days +before she died a boy was born, Hildebrand Anne Beauleigh--the old +Beauleigh names. She knew that I should like him to be called by them. +From the registers I learnt where they had been living. I rushed off +to the house, and found it empty and to let--always these shut-up +houses. I made inquiries and inquiries, from the house agents and the +tradespeople. I could learn nothing. They had lived very quietly. +But there was a child; people had seen him wheeled about in a +perambulator. He had disappeared. I suspected my stepmother at once; +and I hurried back to Beauleigh. It had bucked me up, don't you know, +to think that I had a child. I had it out with my stepmother; and what +do you think she told me?" + +"Can't guess; but I'm laying odds that it doesn't surprise me," said +Lord Crosland. + +"She said that the fact of my having a son and heir would stand in the +way of my making the marriage she hoped. That the boy was in the hands +of a respectable couple, where I need never hope to find him; that he +would be brought up in the station of life suitable to his mother's +having been the daughter of a Tutor. My word, I did talk about the +firm of Stryke & Wigram!" + +"I should think you must have," said Lord Crosland. + +"I lost no time, but put the matter in the hands of a crack Private +Inquiry Agency. When they learned what I was doing, I'm hanged if my +stepmother and uncle Bumpkin didn't stop my allowance." He laughed +ruefully. "However, I kept the inquiries going by selling my two +horses, my jewellery, my guns, and my clothes. That's why I'm in these +rags. But no good came of it; the private detective discovered +nothing, and charged me nearly three hundred for discovering it. But +the crowning point of my stepmother's madness came yesterday. We had +the proper business interview on my coming of age; and she and uncle +Bumpkin handed me over six hundred a year, and six thousand ready +money. Then she made me an offer. She would give me ten thousand a +year to enable me to keep up the glory of the Beauleighs, and marry the +millions to increase it, if I would give up searching for the boy, and +consent to his being brought up in his respectable position. I didn't +talk about swindling him out of his rights; for I've come to the +conclusion that it's no good talking of Justice to a woman. They don't +understand what you're driving at--those of the banking classes anyhow. +I told her she could stick to Beauleigh Court, since it would only be a +white elephant to me with my six hundred a year, and go on ruling the +County. But I was going to clear out, and I couldn't help saying that +I hoped her path and mine would never cross again." + +"It was deuced little to say," said Lord Crosland. + +"Oh, what was the good? She couldn't have understood. She's mad, mad +as a hatter about the glory of the Beauleighs. But it did one good +thing; it made her cast me off for good and all. She'd toiled for the +family: and this was her reward. I might go to the Workhouse my own +way. Now you see, she won't interfere to stop my finding the boy. And +I'm going to find him if I have to spend ten years on it, and every +penny I have. And when I have found him, I'm going to look after him +myself, and keep him with me. I don't suppose I shall find it much in +my line. I'm not fond of children; and I'm not an affectionate person. +That sort of thing is rather dried up in me. But it was little enough +I could do for my wife while she was alive, and now I should like to do +the only thing I can." + +"I see," said Lord Crosland. + +"Well, you can understand that, though I've agreed to share these rooms +with you for the next few days, I can't make it a permanent +arrangement. I may have to be off anywhere at a moment's notice. On +the other hand, by offering a thumping big reward, as I can do at last, +I shall probably find him at once; and you wouldn't care for rooms with +a small child about." + +"Oh, I don't know. I rather like kids," said Lord Crosland. "They're +amusing little beggars often enough." + +"Ah, but this one is so small; only two and a half," said Sir Tancred. +"And now I'll write the advertisement." + + + + +CHAPTER TWO + +THE FINDING OF TINKER + +Sir Tancred went to the writing-table, sat down, and began to write. +He wrote slowly, pausing to think, and made many erasures. + +"I think the advertisement will make my stepmother squirm. It'll make +the County talk," he said thoughtfully. + +"It seems to me you can't help giving the show away," said Lord +Crosland. + +There came a knock at the door, and a waiter came in: "Please, Sir +Tancred, there's a lady, leastways a person, wanting to see you." + +"To see me?" said Sir Tancred with some surprise. "Who can it be? +Show her up?" + +He went on with his writing, and presently the waiter ushered in a +tall, gaunt woman, with a rugged, hard-featured face, dressed in the +rustiest black, and carrying a brown-paper parcel. + +Sir Tancred turned round in his chair, and she said very nervously, +"Good-morning, sir." + +"Good-morning," said Sir Tancred; then he sprang up and cried, +"Why--why--it's Selina Goodyear!" + +"Yes, sir, it's me. I was afraid you wouldn't remember me after all +this time. And--and--it's a liberty I'm taking, coming to see you like +this," she went on with a voluble, nervous eagerness, twisting her +hands. "But not getting any answer to my letters, I went down to +Beauleigh Court yesterday on the chance of getting a word with you; for +I knew you'd be bound to be there, seeing as it was your coming of age. +But I didn't get a chance, and came back to London by the last train, +not knowing as you was in it, till I came out of Victoria, and saw you +getting into a cab and heard you tell the cabman to drive here. And I +made up my mind to come and see you here, though I know it's a liberty +I'm taking. But I can't help it,"--and her voice suddenly grew +fierce,--"it's about the boy." + +"The boy! My boy!" cried Sir Tancred. + +"Yes, sir. You see I was his nurse from the first. Poor Miss +Pamela--I mean Lady Beauleigh, sir--gave him to me to take care of +before she died--leastways, she didn't give him to me, she was too +weak, poor dear; but she told me to take care of him, as I wrote to +you, sir." + +"As you wrote? Yes; go on." + +"And I did take care of him till Mr. Vane died. And oh, he was such a +dear baby! Then, when the young lawyer came with Mrs. Bostock and told +me as how you had arranged for her to have charge of him, and I had to +give him over to her, it nearly broke my heart. But it isn't about +myself I came to talk, but about him. I know it's troubling you, +sir--and a gentleman has his pleasures, and they take up his time. +But, after all, he's your own son, sir, and if you'd only come and see +him for yourself, you wouldn't let him be treated like he is----" + +"You know where he is!" Sir Tancred almost shouted. + +"Why, of course, sir. I told you in my letters. He's living with them +Bostocks, out Catford way." + +"You must take me to him at once!" cried Sir Tancred; and he rushed +into his bedroom, and came out with a hat and stick. + +"Look here, old chap," said Lord Crosland. "I'm going to clear out for +a few days. You'd like the kid to yourself at first. Then I'll come +back and share the rooms if you like." + +"Oh, no; it'll be all right," said Sir Tancred, and he hurried Selina +from the room to the lift, from the lift to a cab. + +They were no sooner settled in it, and the driver was getting quickly +through the traffic under the stimulus of a promise of treble his fare, +than Sir Tancred turned to Selina, and said quickly: "What do you mean +by saying that I would not let the child be treated as he is? How's he +treated?" + +"I mean that he's starved and beaten, that's what I mean, sir," said +Selina. "Just what I said in my letters." + +"But I was told he was in the hands of respectable people." + +"Respectable!" exclaimed Selina: "but I told you in my letters all +about them, sir." + +"When did you write to me?" said Sir Tancred. + +"First when Miss Pamela died; and then when Mr. Vane died,"--Sir +Tancred saw how his stepmother had obtained the information which +enabled her to get possession of the child,--"and three times since +October." + +"Since October!" cried Sir Tancred; he had never dreamed that the +suppression of his letters had continued after his recovery. + +"I only found the boy in October," said Selina. + +"Look here," said Sir Tancred, "you'd better tell me the whole story +from the beginning. I didn't get your letters." + +"You didn't get them?" said Selina, and her face cleared. "I thought +you couldn't have, sir. I knew you wasn't the one to take no notice of +them. Well, it was like this, sir. When Mrs. Bostock took the boy +away, I began to worry and worry about him; I kind of pined for him. +Then I thought if I could see him sometimes, I should feel better; and +I never liked the looks of Mrs. Bostock. She looked like a drinker; +though all the time she was in Jersey with the lawyer she kept sober +enough. I had got another place in St. Hellers, but I couldn't stand +worrying about him, and wondering if he was well treated. And I didn't +like the way she wouldn't tell me where she lived. I had my savings, +too; so I gave up my place, and came to London to look for her. I knew +she lived in South London from something she let drop; and I took a +room in Lambeth and looked for her in neighbourhoods which would be +likely for her to live in. But it's a large place, sir, and I was +months and months doing it, moving from neighbourhood to neighbourhood. +I used to trapse and trapse about all day, and at night I used to go +into Publics, the saloon bars as well as the common bars, for I didn't +know which class she really belonged to. I went into hundreds of +Publics, but I never set eyes on her. Then, last October, when I'd +nearly come to the end of my savings, I saw her going into a Public at +New Cross. I couldn't believe it; it seemed too good to be true. I +thought I must have made a mistake; I daren't go in, for fear she +should know me; and I thought she never would come out. When she did +come out, and I saw it was really 'er, I nearly fainted right away; but +I follered 'er, and she went from Public to Public with two shops in +between, and it was nearly ten o'clock when she took the tram, and past +eleven when she got to her cottage at Catford, for she stopped at two +more Publics. But I walked about all night, for I wasn't going to take +no chances; and next morning I found, sure enough, that the child was +there. But he was that changed, and he didn't know me." Her harsh +voice sank to the mournfullest tone; and she paused. + +Sir Tancred said nothing, he could say nothing; he was amazed and +profoundly touched by the persistence of this passionate, single-eyed +devotion in this hard-featured, harsh-voiced, rugged creature. + +"Well, sir," Selina went on, "I moved to Eltham, and took a room. I +soon found out what sort the Bostocks were. Every Saturday they drew +two pounds for the keep of the child; and they were hardly ever sober +till Thursday. And they starved the child, sir; and sometimes they +beat him. Now and then, when they were drunk, I've got food, good food +to him. But not often, for he was their livelihood, and however drunk +they was, they kept an eye on him; mostly he's locked up in a bedroom. +I wrote to you, sir, three times, and waited and waited for answers +till I was sick at heart; and things was getting worse and worse. I +couldn't have stood it any longer; I was just going to steal him and +carry him off somewhere where I could look after him without no one +interfering. But I thought I'd see you, and tell you about it first. +And now, sir, if you'd let me have charge of him"--her eyes fairly +blazed with eagerness--"I'd look after him properly--I would, indeed. +And I shouldn't want no two pounds a week--why, five shillings, five +shillings would be ample, sir. I'm a capable woman, and I can get as +much charring as ever I can do." + +"Of course, you shall have charge of him," said Sir Tancred. "You seem +to be the only person in the world who has any right to have charge of +him." + +"Oh, thank you, sir!" said Selina in a husky voice; and she dabbed at +her eyes. + +"It's not for you to thank me; it's for me to thank you," said Sir +Tancred. + +"Oh, no, sir!" said Selina quickly. "I know what gentlemen are. I've +been in service in good houses. They have their sport and their +pleasures; and they can't attend to things like this." + +"I've been looking for him for six months--ever since I knew that I had +a child," said Sir Tancred in a very bitter voice. + +"Have you now, sir?" said Selina. "Ah, if I'd only known, and come to +you!" + +Her story had tided them over the greater part of their journey; and +for the rest of it they were silent, Sir Tancred immersed in a bitter +reverie, Selina sitting with a hand on each knee, bent forward, with +shining eyes, breathing quickly. + +Towards the end of their journey she had to direct the cabman; and past +the last long row or little red-brick villas, in a waste from which the +agriculturalist had retired in favour of the jerry-builder, they came +to the goal, three dirty, tumble-down cottages. The cab stopped at the +third cottage; Selina sat back in the seat and pulled down her veil, in +case Mrs. Bostock should recognise her; Sir Tancred got down and +knocked at the door. A long-drawn snore was the only answer. He +hammered on the door with his cane till he heard the grating of a chair +on a brick floor; the door opened, and a blowsy, red-faced woman peered +at him with blinking eyes. + +"You have a little boy here in your charge. I've come for him," said +Sir Tancred. + +The woman only blinked at him stupidly. + +"I've come for the little boy," said Sir Tancred loudly. + +A look of drunken cunning stole into the woman's muddled face. She +said thickly, "There ain't no lil boy 'ere," and tried to shut the door. + +Sir Tancred thrust it open with a vigour which sent her staggering into +a chair, and stepped into the squalid, reeking room. Hunched up in a +chair, opposite the woman, sat a snoring man. + +"Come!" said Sir Tancred. "I want no nonsense! Where's the child?" + +A dull, muddled rage gathered in the woman's eyes; she made an effort +to rise on quite irresponsive legs. "Halbut!" she howled. "Halbut, +wake up! Here's a thief an' a burglar trying to steal the brat!" + +The man grunted, and jerked out of his sleep with the mystic word, +"Washishish?" + +"It'sh burglarsh, Halbut!" cried the woman, who seemed suddenly to see +two or more Sir Tancreds. "They're shtealing bratsh! Bash 'em!" + +Halbut jerked onto his feet, and stood lurching: + +"Englishmansh oush ish ish cashle," he said, with a ferocity which +petered out in an idiotic grin. + +"Thash it! Bash 'em!" cried the woman. + +Halbut advanced in a circular movement on Sir Tancred, with his fists +up; "Englishmansh oush ish ish cashle," he said firmly. + +Sir Tancred lunged smartly at his chest with his cane; and he tumbled +down with his face to the wall. + +"Englishmansh oush ish ish cashle," he said drowsily to the wainscot, +and was still. + +Sir Tancred took the woman gingerly by the shoulder, and gave her a +shake. "Where's the child?" he said. + +Apparently he had shaken the fumes up and the intelligence down, for +her only answer was a burst of sibilant incoherence. + +With an exclamation of impatient disgust he loosed her, and went into +the back room. It was empty. He went up the rickety stairs, and, as +he had expected, found the door of the bedroom locked. He kicked it +open and went into the frowsy room. The child was not in it. He came +downstairs and opened the back door. As he did so, he heard a +scuttling rustle. The garden was empty, but the rustle he had heard +set him exploring the dirty, rag-covered hedge with keen eyes. He saw +nothing, and walked down the garden, stooping and peering into the +bottom of the hedge. Half-way down it his eyes fell on two little +black feet, just sticking out; and above them two frightened eyes +stared through the twigs. + +Sir Tancred put his hands in among them gently, and drew out a tiny +child; his peaked little face was black, his thin little arms and legs +were black, he was clothed in filthy rags; and his yellowish hair was a +tangled mat. The child struggled like a very feeble little wild beast, +clawing and scratching, but silent with a terrible silence which showed +how he had learned to dread drawing attention to himself. + +"Quiet! quiet! I'm not going to hurt you," said Sir Tancred in a +gentle voice, a little husky with a piercing emotion which had invaded +him; and something in its tones really did quiet the child, for he +struggled no more, though his breath came in a quick, faint, terrified +panting. + +Sir Tancred took him through the house, and felt a quivering throb run +through him at the sight of the brutes who had fallen back into their +drunken slumbers. He brought him out to the cab, and said hoarsely to +Selina, "Is this the child?" + +"That's him, sir! That's him!" said Selina, holding out her hands for +him; and the tears of joy trickled down her rugged cheeks. + +Sir Tancred gave him to her, bade the cab-man drive to the Hotel Cecil, +and got into the cab. + +Selina had untied the brown-paper parcel, and was putting a little coat +on the child. "I took the liberty of getting it to bring him away, in +case you should let me have charge of him," she said. + +The child still panted, but most of the terror had faded from his eyes; +he had recognised his friend. Sir Tancred looked at him hungrily; his +soul, so long starved, was feasting on the sight of that atom of +humanity, so grimy, so shocking to the eye, but his own child. + +"They call you Hildebrand Anne, do they?" he said with a broken, joyful +laugh. "Tinker's the name for you!" + + + + +CHAPTER THREE + +TINKER ACCEPTS HIS NAME + +The child sat very still on Selina's lap, shrinking back as far as +possible from Sir Tancred. Selina kept talking to him, and his father +spoke to him several times, but he uttered never a sound. Once when +Sir Tancred moved suddenly, he threw up his little thin arm to guard +his face; and Sir Tancred swore. + +They agreed that he would be happier if they took no notice of him for +a while, and sat quiet. He seemed relieved, for he sank into an easier +position on Selina's lap, and presently they saw him stroke his coat +with a caressing gesture, as though its softness pleased him. After a +long while, he sat up, looked at the horse, said in a quaint, thin +whisper, "Gee-gee--mine like gee-gee"; and then looked swiftly round +with frightened eyes, fearful lest he had drawn attention to his +existence. + +Suddenly he began to blink, then, lulled by the motion of the cab, he +fell asleep. They sat quiet, and had reached a more civilised part of +London, when Sir Tancred said, "Do you think I could hold him without +waking him?" + +Selina nodded, and lifted him into his arms, and so they came to the +Hotel Cecil. + +When the cab stopped, the child awoke frightened, and at once began to +struggle. Sir Tancred handed him over to Selina, who soothed him, and +carried him to the lift. As soon as they were in his rooms, Sir +Tancred rang for a waiter, and when he came, bade him bring up bread +and hot milk at once. The child heard the words and said plaintively, +"Mine hungly! Mine hungly!" + +"All right, my lamb," said Selina. "You shall have dinner very soon." + +When the waiter brought the bread and milk, Selina prepared it, and sat +down at the table with the child on her knee. In a flash his grimy +little hands were in the basin, and he was thrusting the bread and milk +into his mouth with both of them. Selina pushed the bowl out of his +reach, and fed him with a spoon, very slowly, nor did she give him +much. Sir Tancred watched his ravenous eating with a constricted +heart. When she had given him as much as she thought good for him, +Selina put the bowl out of sight. The look of supreme content on his +little face was even more pathetic in its extravagance than his +ravenous hunger. He curled himself up on Selina's lap, surveyed the +room for a while with drowsy eyes, and fell asleep. + +Sir Tancred opened the note from Lord Crosland, which he had left +unheeded on the table; it ran: + +"DEAR BEAULEIGH: + +"I have moved myself and my belongings to 411 and 412, till you have +got things arranged. I'm off to Lord's for the day, but shall dine at +the Cecil. Let us dine together. + +"Yours sincerely, + +"CROSLAND." + + +Sir Tancred felt relieved, and grateful for Lord Crosland's +thoughtfulness. + +"We shall be able to have these rooms to ourselves," he said to Selina. + +"Yes, sir," said Selina. "And he'll want some clothes. When he's had +a little sleep, and I've given him a bath, I'd better go out and get +some." + +"No: I'll go now myself," said Sir Tancred. "Then, when he's had his +bath, they'll be ready for him." + +He hurried down into a cab, and drove to Swan & Edgar's. There he +bought the finest little vests and petticoat and frocks and socks and +coats they could find him. On his way back with his purchases he +remembered shoes, stopped the cab at the boot-maker's, and bought a +dozen pairs. When he came back to his rooms, followed by two waiters +loaded with parcels, he heard a splashing in the bathroom, and when +they had set down their loads and were gone, Selina came to him and +said, "I should like you to come and look at him, sir." + +She had been crying. + +Sir Tancred went into the bathroom, and found Hildebrand Anne splashing +in the bath: "Hallo, Tinker," he said cheerfully, and turned sick at +the sight of the wales and bruises about the thin little body. + +"Look at that, sir," said Selina fiercely; and she touched the worst of +them. + +The child winced at her touch, gentle as it was, and said in his +quaint, thin voice, "Halbut did do that. Mine not like Halbut. No: +mine not like Halbut." And he shook his little head vigorously. + +Sir Tancred groaned, and wished with all his heart that he had taken +advantage of his brief meeting with Halbut to give him a sound +thrashing. Then he thought with a vindictive satisfaction how bitterly +the brute would feel the loss of liquors consequent upon the loss of +his income. He went out, rang for a waiter, and bade him send for a +doctor. + +When the doctor came he examined the bruises, and felt all the tiny +bones carefully. He declared that none of them were broken and that, +in spite of having been starved, the child was sound and healthy. The +moment the doctor's grip on him loosed, Tinker wriggled off his knee +and fled to Selina, who carried him away along with a selection from +the parcels to dress him. + +"A bad case," said the doctor. "But I've seen worse, much worse. I +hope you'll put the matter into the hands of the Society for the +Prevention of Cruelty to Children, and have the parents +prosecuted--picked him up in the gutter I suppose." + +"I haven't made up my mind about prosecuting them," said Sir Tancred. + +"Oh, have them prosecuted! Have them prosecuted! It stops others," +said the doctor. "And besides, they might get the cat: it's the only +thing brutes of this kind understand." Then he added thoughtfully, +"There's one uncommon thing about this child--quite uncommon." + +"What's that?" + +"His vitality--he ought to be in bed, half-dying, with those bruises, +and starved as he is. But you saw how he struggled to get away from +me. Well, I'll write you a prescription for as strong a tonic as I +dare give a child." + +He wrote the prescription, promised to be round every morning, and took +his fee. As he went away he said, "Someone ought to get six month's +hard labour for maltreating him." + +After a while Selina brought in Tinker, dressed in his new clothes, +with his mat of hair cut close to his head. He was still grimy--many +baths were yet needed before he would be clean; but Sir Tancred saw +that, once clean, and his peaked face filled out a little, he would be +a very pretty baby. His features were fine, his eyes of a deep blue, +his head was small and well-shaped, and the close-cut hair clustered +about it in little curls. + +He clung to Selina's gown, and Sir Tancred bade her sit down, and see +what he would do. It was a long time before he stirred from her side, +and then only a little way, moving with a curious, stealthy gait, +casting fearful glances at Sir Tancred. He was attracted by the bright +stuffs which covered the furniture, and went from piece to piece, +stroking it. Then he saw himself in the unnecessarily mirrored door of +the sideboard, and surveyed his image with an almost excited curiosity, +and, it almost seemed, approbation. + +[Illustration: He surveyed himself with an excited curiosity.] + +An idea struck Sir Tancred; he went out, took a cab, came back with an +armful of toys, and set them in the middle of the room. The child +stared and stared at them with great eyes. After a long while, in his +stealthy, timid way, he made a few steps towards them, and scuttled +back to Selina. He sallied out again, came nearer to them, and fled +back. In the fourth attempt he carried off a little horse, and escaped +with it behind the sofa. There he played with it, or rather sat +hugging it, stroking it, or fingering it, in a dead silence. Sir +Tancred watched his every movement, his every expression, missing +nothing; his eyes could not have enough of him. + +Twice again Selina fed him, and twice he was again ravenous. At +half-past six she put him to bed. + +Sir Tancred dressed for dinner, made arrangements for the feeding of +Selina, and went into the smoking-room. There Lord Crosland found him, +and they dined together. After dinner Lord Crosland pressed him to go +to a theatre or a music-hall; but Sir Tancred would not: the +discoveries of the day had left him no heart for amusement. He saw +Lord Crosland set out in search of diversion; came back to his room, +and sent Selina to her supper, while he watched over the child. He sat +by the window, looking up the river, and smoking, in an unhappy +reverie. Now and again he went and looked long at his sleeping boy. + +When Selina came up from her supper he heard for the first time the +story of his wife's death, and received her last message, which had +been so long delivering. It was no little comfort to him in this +revival of sorrow to hear that she had learned of the accident which +prevented him from coming to her, and, sure of their ultimate meeting, +had come to bear patiently their separation. And the knowledge that +she must die without seeing him again had come to her in the merciful +and indifferent weariness so often the forerunner of death. + +When he had heard, and heard again, all that Selina could tell him, he +gave her a cheque for five hundred pounds, putting aside her +protestations that she had never looked for it, and would rather not +have it, with the declaration that he had actually written out the +advertisement offering that reward for information about his missing +child, when she had brought it. + +Long after she had gone to bed, he sat thinking over her story, +immersed in unhappy memories and unavailing regrets, and his bitterness +against his stepmother and uncle grew and grew in him at the ill +treatment his child had endured through their interference and neglect, +to a strength to which his own wrongs had never brought it. + +The suppression and ignoring of Selina's last letters was inexplicable +to him; he could only suppose that his stepmother had burnt them on +reading only the signature; or had believed them to be the +misrepresentations of a person trying to supplant Mrs. Bostock. He +thought for a while of writing to his stepmother out of the fulness of +his heart; and then he told himself that it was no use. At last he +went heavily to bed. Three times in the night he awoke, and went and +listened at the door of the boy's bedroom; there was no sound; he was +sleeping peacefully. + +After his morning bath Tinker looked a shade less grimy, and even the +few meals he had enjoyed since his rescue had filled out his face a +little. About eleven it was decided that a walk in the Embankment +gardens would be good for him, and Selina carried him out. But it was +very soon plain that it was anything but good for him. Every passer-by +thrilled him with a fresh terror; in three minutes he clung to Selina +panting and gasping with fright, his little fingers gripping her with a +convulsive clutch, his eyes starting out of his head, but all in a +terrible silence. It was appalling to see such an extremity of emotion +not dare to find a vocal expression. Quickly they perceived that there +was no reassuring or soothing him; Sir Tancred blindfolded him with his +handkerchief, took him from Selina, and carried him quickly back to the +hotel. He sat on Selina's lap, recovering very slowly, for nearly an +hour. Then he got to his toys. + +That afternoon Sir Tancred made a search, and discovered a staircase +leading up to the roof. It was somewhat besprent with blacks; but +there the child could take an airing, unterrified, in a solitude _a +trois_, and in a very fresh air, when a south or west wind blew. + +By the afternoon of the next day he had grown used to Sir Tancred, and, +when he was tired of his silent play with his toys, would sit on his +knee in perfect content. The skin of his face was almost white; now +only his knees were really grimy. + +On the evening of the fourth day, as he was having his supper, eating +it with much less of the ravenous fervour of a wolf in winter-time, Sir +Tancred distinctly saw him smile; it was very faint, but it was an +undoubted smile. + +Three mornings later Sir Tancred was lying awake, when his door was +pushed wider open, and Tinker stole in: + +"Hallo, Tinker! Come here! You'll catch cold! What are you looking +for?" said Sir Tancred. + +"Gee-gee," said Tinker. + +"Come here, and get warm." + +After a little thought Tinker accepted the invitation, and Sir Tancred +lifted him into bed. He huddled up to Sir Tancred, and presently found +that his unshaven chin was rough, and stroked it with some wonder. + +"You _are_ a funny little Tinker," said Sir Tancred fondly. + +"Mine Tinker. Mine Tinker!" said the child with a faint crow. + + + + +CHAPTER FOUR + +THE TRAINING OF TINKER + +Sir Tancred had a very sound theory that the air of London is as +healthy an air as can be breathed in England; but for all that Tinker +enjoyed the best quality of that air, on the roof of the Hotel Cecil, +varied by the ozone of Brighton and the air of many parts of the +country, it was many a long day before he showed a real tendency +towards sturdiness, and outgrew the effects of his privations. He was +long, too, outgrowing his terror of strangers. + +Meanwhile Sir Tancred was trying to slake his intolerable thirst for +distraction, distraction from his memories and regrets, in that section +of London Society which, let us hope, cannot see itself for its own +brilliancy, or hear itself for its own noise, that curious collection +of Princes and millionaires, aristocrats and tradesmen, great ladies +and upper Bohemians, about which the only fitting thing is its title, +found for it by some inspired journalist, of the Smart Set. There, +where life forever bubbles a cheap and exceedingly dry champagne of a +very doubtful exhilaration, he did now and again find a poor respite +from regret till time blunted the edge of his sorrows. And when his +sorrow was no longer acute, he had formed a reckless and extravagant +habit of life from which, even when the reason for it had passed, he +never sought to free himself: indeed, it never occurred to him to try. + +But he never let his effort to drown his sorrow in the whirlpool of +this strenuous life of pleasure interfere with his care of his little +son; in truth, Tinker's society was his chief relaxation from the +laborious and exacting round. Wherever he might be, in London, Paris, +Vienna, Monte Carlo, or a country-house, Tinker was at hand, in his +hotel, or lodged in the neighbourhood under the care of the faithful +Selina. + +A singularly early riser for one who sojourns in the Polite, or, to be +exact, the Impolite World,--even in London he breakfasted at ten,--Sir +Tancred was able to devote two or three hours every morning to the +child before the serious and exacting pleasures of the day, and, before +three years had passed, he had grown a veritable connoisseur in wooden +bricks, tin soldiers, and composite animals. However late he returned +at night, he never failed to look at Tinker in his cot in the room +adjoining his bedroom, to assure himself that he was warm enough, or, +if need were, lift him more comfortably on to his pillow. He watched +him in his childish complaints with more care than the careful nurses +he paid to watch him, or even than the fond and faithful Selina. And +yet he did not spoil him. + +Till Tinker was six years old they were playmates. Then, little by +little, Sir Tancred found himself drifting into the position of general +instructor, and after a while began to give serious thought to the +matter. It was not, perhaps, a sound education that he gave the child. +The classical side of it and the commercial were alike neglected; the +historical was forgotten. The spelling was weak, and the handwriting +was very bad. But, riding, fencing, and boxing were very carefully +cultivated, with the result that Tinker, though he lacked the lumps of +muscle which disfigured that eminent ancient, might very well have vied +in strength and agility with the child Hercules. + +In the matter of languages, by dint of spending some of each year in +the different European capitals, he learned to speak better French than +he did English, for his father enjoyed far better society on the +Continent than he did in London. In the same way, by sojourning in the +land, he learned to make himself understood in German; and two months +at Rome gave him a fair Italian. It must be admitted that he was as +bad at spelling in all three of those languages as he was in his own. +Again, his geography was hardly of the ornamental kind; he was entirely +and happily ignorant of the whereabouts of Leeds and Crim Tartary; it +is doubtful whether the Balearic Isles, which most boys of the Western +World could point you out on a map, were even a name to him. But by +the time he was ten he could so deal with continental or English +Bradshaw that in five or six minutes he could tell you the quickest or +the most comfortable way of reaching any town in which a +self-respecting person would care to find himself, and his knowledge of +steamer-routes and the Great American railways was no less sound. + +Besides these accomplishments he was acquiring a wide knowledge of the +world. By his eleventh birthday, though inexperienced in Lestrygons +and Lotos-eaters, he had seen the cities of more men than that way-worn +wanderer Ulysses at the end of his voyages, and he had no mean +understanding of their disposition. Besides, as the years went on, Sir +Tancred's debts increased. To live the really strenuous London life, +you need a great deal of money; and though Fortune, so cruel to him in +love, was kind at Bridge, her kindness was not continuous; and +sometimes the ungracious importunities of his creditors drove him into +retirement in the country. During these times of exile Tinker was, for +the most part, his only companion, save for brief visits from Lord +Crosland; and since Sir Tancred made a point of talking to him as his +equal in age and experience, he gained from these times of close +intimacy a yet wider knowledge of the world. These retirements never +lasted long, not long enough indeed for Tinker, who was always happy +enough in the country. Sir Tancred after a while grew impatient for +the distractions of which he had acquired so deep-rooted a habit. +Moreover, in the country, out of a well-filled country house or +shooting-box, he might at any time fall into the old, sorrowful +brooding on his lost happiness. + +The most uncommon part of Tinker's education was the careful +cultivation of his faculty of observation. Sir Tancred himself had a +natural gift of understanding his fellow-creatures, which, along with +his finer brain, little by little placed him in the noble but +unenviable position of being the first person to whom his friends flew +to be extricated from their scrapes. He had found that his gift stood +him in such good stead in his varying fortunes that he spared no pains +to equip Tinker with the faculty even more finely developed. + +In forming Tinker's manners he was at once aided and hindered by many +women. The faithful Selina, with all the best-hearted intentions in +the world of spoiling the child, was foiled, partly by Sir Tancred's +watchfulness, and partly by the uncertainty of her own temper. She was +liable to the sudden, gusty rages of her class; and one of these rages +undid the harm of many days' indulgence. When, however, Tinker was +nine, she resigned with many misgivings, tears, and upbraidings of +conscience, her charge of him, to marry a middle-aged Parisian +hairdresser of Scotch nationality and the name of Angus McNeill. Sir +Tancred had far more trouble with the women who fell in love with him; +and many women fell in love with him or thought themselves in love with +him, for his handsome, melancholy face, his reputation for +recklessness, and above all for his cold insensibility to their charm. +In ten years of the strenuous, smart life, his name was never coupled +with that of any woman. All and each of these made a pet of Tinker, +since they found it the surest way to abate his father's coldness. On +the other hand the great ladies of the Faubourg de St. Germain petted +him because his seraph's face and delightful manners charmed them; +while any nice woman petted him because she could not help it. + +Fortunately Tinker did not like being petted; his sentiments, indeed, +on the matter of being kissed by the effusive verged on the ungallant. +He liked to be a nice woman's familiar friend; his attitude toward her +could be almost avuncular; but if a woman would pet him, he endured it +with the exquisite patience with which his father forever taught him to +treat the sex. In weaker hands than those of his father, he would +doubtless have become a precocious and irritating monkey, always and +painfully in evidence. But Sir Tancred and his creditors saw to it +that his life in the world was broken by spells of healthy, boyish +life, and he remained modest enough and simple-hearted. + +As to his nerves, though they were always high-strung, the effects of +his cruel treatment as a baby wore little by little and slowly away, +until there was left only a faint dread, or rather dislike, of being +alone in the dark, and a tendency to awake once in a month or so, +crying out from a bad dream. + + + + +CHAPTER FIVE + +TINKER'S BIRTHDAY BLOODHOUND + +Hildebrand Anne came out of the long glass doors of the morning room of +the Refuge, as Sir Tancred had happily named the cottage at +Farndon-Pryze, which he had bought soon after Jeddah won the Derby at a +hundred to one, and whither he retired when he was at loggerheads with +Fortune, or Hildebrand Anne began to look fagged by London life. His +father was reading a newspaper at the end of the lawn, and he walked +across to him. + +Sir Tancred looked up from his paper, and said with a sigh: + +"I'm afraid there's no birthday present for you, Tinker." + +"That's all right, sir," said Tinker cheerfully. + +Father and son made an admirable pair, a pair of an extraordinary +distinction. Reckless pride and sorrow had impressed on Sir Tancred's +dark, sombre face much of the look of Lucifer, Son of the Morning; +Tinker was very fair with close-cropped golden curls clustering round +his small head, features as finely cut as those of his father, sunny +blue eyes, lips curved like Cupid's bow, and the air of a seraph. The +name had clung to him from its perfect inappropriateness. A tinker is +but a gritty sight, and Hildebrand Anne had grown up, to the eye, an +angel child, of a cleanliness uncanny in a small boy. + +"Even if there were anything to buy in Farndon-Pryze, our fortunes are +at a low ebb," said Sir Tancred with faint sorrow. + +Tinker heaved a sympathetic sigh, and said again, "Oh, that's all +right, sir." + +"And the papers offer no suggestions for a new campaign," and Sir +Tancred, looking with some contempt at the score of grey, pink, yellow, +and green sheets which littered the grass around his long cane chair, +fanned himself with his panama; for, though the month was May, the +morning was hot. + +"We shall have lots of money soon," said Tinker cheerily. + +"Well, I hope so. It is no use my reading these wretched rags, unless +they put me in the way of a coup." + +"We always do," said Tinker with conviction; and he strolled away, +pondering idly the question of riches. + +From the end of the garden of the Refuge, Tinker scanned the country +round with dissatisfied eyes. None of the low hills was hollowed by a +pirates', or brigands', or even a smugglers' cave with its buried +hoard, no ruin tottered above a secret treasure-chamber. For himself +he did not mind; it was all one to him whether he hunted his prey in +the Champs Elysees or the long, straggling street of Farndon-Pryze. +There were men in both places; and, though the methods of enraging them +were different, they grew crimson to much the same fieriness. He +found, indeed, an angry Frenchman more entertaining than an angry +Englishman, but he was no epicure in sensations: only, he liked them +exciting. But he would fain have discovered treasure for the sake of +his father who, as he well knew, did not find in Farndon-Pryze the +entertainment which satisfied his simpler, boyish heart. + +As he scanned the unsatisfactory landscape, he heard the sound of +hoofs, and looking round, saw James Alloway, a young farmer of the +neighbourhood, riding along the highway. His face brightened; the +coast was clear; it was the very morning to play toreador. In a breath +he was through the hedge, and on the way to the village. He approached +it after the manner of a red Indian, only pausing to cut a switch from +a hedge. He had a score to settle with Josiah Wilby, a boy whose +talebearing had procured him his last, well-earned whacking. Fortune +favoured him: he spied his prey playing in careless security with two +other boys on the village green; crept between two cottages; and was +out on him or ever he was aware of the coming of an avenger. At the +sight of Tinker, Josiah bolted for home; but he had not gone twenty +yards before the stinging switch was curling round him. He ran the +harder, howling and roaring; and Tinker accompanied him to the door of +his father's cottage. As the roaring Josiah rushed in, the infuriated +Mrs. Wilby rushed out, and Tinker withdrew. From a convenient +distance, he raised his hat, and protested his regret at having had to +instruct her son in the first principles of honour. Mrs. Wilby took +his politeness as an insult, and with a rustic disregard of his pretty +manners called him a limb, and threatened him with merciless punishment +on the return of her husband. Tinker shrugged his shoulders, spread +out his hands, gestures he had acquired in France, and hurried off on +his main errand. + +He came swiftly to a small field in which there browsed a large and +solitary ram, by name Billy, Tinker's playfellow in the game of +bull-fighting. With a somewhat unfair casting of the star part, Tinker +always played the matador, Billy played the bull. + +Drawing a stout wooden sword, the handiwork of Sir Tancred, who never +dreamed of the purpose it served, from its hiding-place in the hedge, +Tinker slipped over the gate. Billy greeted his playfellow with an +ill-conditioned grunt expressive of no joy at all. Tinker saluted, +walked up to within ten yards, and waved his hat at him. Billy watched +him with a wicked eye, affected to graze, and of a sudden charged with +all his speed. Tinker sprang aside as the ram's head went down to +butt, and as he hurtled past, prodded him with the sword behind the +shoulder. + +Billy pulled himself up as soon as he could check his momentum, and +turned and stood blinking. Twice he rapped the ground hard with his +forefoot. Tinker again drew to within ten yards of him; again Billy +charged; and again he was prodded behind the shoulder. It was a +beautiful game, and Tinker's lightness of foot, quickness of eye, and +coolness of head did every credit to the education he had received from +his father. + +It was, indeed, a fine game, but as dangerous as it was fine; if Billy +had once downed the boy, he would never have left him till he had +ground the life out of him. This Tinker did not know, so that he did +not draw all the excitement out of the game he would have done. It had +grown more and more dangerous, also; for, by dint of playing it, Billy, +who had started as a fat, clumsy, and sulky beast, had grown thin, +nimble, and vicious. Alloway, indeed, often declared that he did not +know what ailed the ram; his food never seemed to be doing him any +good, and neither man, woman, nor child dare cross the field in which +he browsed. + +The game lasted some twenty minutes; and Tinker's skill, sureness, and +lightness of movement was the prettiest sight. Sometimes, with a +snorting bleat, Billy would turn sharply at the end of his charge, and +charge again; then the concentration on the matter in hand, which his +father had so carefully cultivated in Tinker, proved a most fortunate +possession: he was never caught off his guard. But he was beginning to +think that he had had enough of it, and Billy was sure that he had, +when there came a roar from the road, and there sat Alloway on his +horse. Or rather, he was no longer sitting on his horse, he was +throwing himself off it. + +Without one word of thanks to his playfellow for the pleasant game he +had enjoyed with him, Tinker bolted for the further hedge, Billy after +him, and Alloway after both. Tinker knew the ground, ran for a post +and rails which filled a gap, and skipped over them a few yards ahead +of his energetic playfellow, who stood gazing after him with a rueful +vindictiveness. Alloway came rushing up, and took no heed of the +disappointed ram, who butted his right leg against the rails with great +promptitude and violence. Alloway emulated his violence not only in +his language, but by cutting him as hard as he could with the whip he +carried, and rushed on after Tinker. Tinker could run at an admirable +pace for a boy of eleven, and he was used to keeping it up longer than +the rustic wind would last. But Alloway was brisker than a farm hand, +or a keeper, and at the end of a couple of fields he began to gain. +Tinker was soon aware of the painful fact, and knew that retribution +was on him. But, though he could not escape, he could postpone; and +his quick mind leaped to the fact that the more done Alloway was, the +less vigorously would he ply his whip; besides, there was a chance that +he might suddenly collapse. + +At the entrance to the village there was a bare fifty yards between +them. As he came up to the smithy, Blazer, the blacksmith's dog, the +terror of the village, began to bark; and Tinker's saving idea came to +him. He ran into the yard, and walked quietly up to Blazer, who barked +and strained at his chain with every advertisement of savage fury. +Tinker knew a good deal about dogs; he came quietly up to him, and +tried to pat his head. Blazer caught at the hand, and Tinker left it +passive in his teeth. Blazer's teeth bruised the skin, but did not +pierce: and suddenly he realised that he did not know what to do with +it. + +With a sheepish air he let it go, and resumed his barking. Tinker +stepped right up to his kennel, and the barking Blazer danced about him +in an agony of indecision. Alloway rushed into the yard, and crying, +"I've got you, you young devil! Have I?" made for Tinker. + +Blazer saw a happy way out of his awkward uncertainty, and bit +Alloway's leg. + +Alloway jumped back with a roar; and, lashing at Blazer, hopped about. + +The blacksmith ran out of the smithy, and took in the situation at a +glance. + +"Take away your dog, Green! Take him away!" shouted Alloway. "I'm +going to warm the young gentleman's jacket! He's been worriting my +ram!" + +Alloway was a good customer; but Tinker was a familiar friend, and the +astute blacksmith scratched his head at great length before he said +slowly, "If zo be as you've 'it Blaazer, you'll 'av ter tak 'im away +yoursel'. I dussn't go near 'im; no, not wuz it ever so." + +"I'm going to larrup the young limb!" cried Alloway obstinately. + +"You'll 'ave to wait, then, till Blaazer gits quiet. I dussn't meddle +with 'im; an' I'm shoeing Mr. 'Utton's graay maare." And with a +natural, untrained diplomacy the blacksmith retired quickly into the +smithy. + +For a minute or two Alloway cursed and Blazer barked. Then Tinker sat +quietly down on the threshold of the kennel, and fanned himself with +his hat. The empurpled Alloway grew purpler at the sight of a coolness +he did not share. + +"You young rip!" he roared, dancing lightly in his exasperation, "I'll +larrup you if I stay here till to-morrow morning!" + +"If you're speaking to me, Mr. Alloway, you needn't speak so loud. I'm +not deaf," said Tinker with gentle severity. + +Mr. Alloway in his violent, rustic way, uttered a good many remarks +quite unfit for boyish ears. + +Tinker paid no heed to him, but chirrupped to Blazer, who came to him +in a wondering sulkiness, and with many protesting growls suffered +himself to be patted. Alloway put his hands in his pockets, and stood +stolidly with his legs wide apart, a picture of florid manliness and +grim, but whiskered determination. Some small boys, heavy with their +midday meal, came to the gate of the yard, and in an idle repletion +exhausted themselves in conjectures as to the true inwardness of +Tinker's relation with Blazer, and Alloway's absorption in it. Twice +the blacksmith came to the smithy door, and a large, slow grin spread +painfully over his bovine face. + +Tinker continued to pet Blazer till the surprised and mollified dog sat +down between his feet, and put his head on his knee. Then Tinker began +to apply that power of concentration in which he had been trained by +his father to the discovery of a method of final escape. Presently +Alloway went to the gate, and, climbing onto it, sat waiting for his +triumph in a stubborn doggedness. + +After a while Tinker said gently, "That's a good horse you ride, Mr. +Alloway." + +The farmer said nothing. + +"He's young, isn't he?" said Tinker. + +An acute and scornful expression of "You don't get round me!" filled +all of the farmer's face that was not covered with whiskers. + +"Did you think to tie him up before you ran after me?" said Tinker +earnestly. + +Alloway sprang from the gate as though a very sharp nail had of a +sudden sprouted up immediately beneath him, slapped his thigh, and +stood shaking his whip at Tinker with expressive, but starting eyes. + +"I dare say he's out of the county by now," said Tinker thoughtfully. + +"You young blackguard!" said Alloway, and stepped towards the kennel. +Blazer shot out to the length of his chain; and Alloway, in his fury, +cut him savagely with his whip. Blazer roared rather than barked; the +noise stimulated Tinker's wits; and he saw his way. + +Alloway recovered himself sufficiently to say with choking emphasis, +"Horse, or no horse, you don't get me to leave here!" and went back to +the gate. + +Tinker let him climb on it, and then he said gently, "Have you ever +played at being a runaway slave hunted by bloodhounds, Mr. Alloway?" + +Alloway scowled at him most malignantly. + +"I should think it would be quite an exciting game. It doesn't really +matter that Blazer's only a bull terrier; we can call him a bloodhound, +you know," Tinker went on, looking at the dog a little regretfully. + +Alloway, coddling his fury, scarcely heard him. + +"I'll be the slave-owner," said Tinker, fumbling with the chain. + +It came out of the staple; and Alloway roared, "What are you doing, you +young rascal?" + +"Oh, it's all right," said Tinker. "Don't be frightened; I'll keep him +on leash till you get a good lead." + +Alloway jumped down from the gate, on the other side of it, his anger +changed to uncertainty spiced with discomfort. + +Blazer felt the chain loosen, and darted forward, jerking Tinker after +him. + +"I can't hold him!" yelled Tinker. + +[Illustration: "I can't hold him!"] + +Alloway turned, dropped his whip, and bolted up through the village. + +Blazer dashed at the gate, clawing it; Tinker got a better grip on the +chain, opened the gate, snatched up the whip as Blazer jerked him +through; and they set off down the road after Alloway. The farmer ran +better than ever, faster than he had run after Tinker, faster, +probably, than he had ever run before in his life. + +Blazer, though Tinker dragged for all he was worth, made a very fair +pace after him. But by the time they were a hundred yards beyond the +village, the throttling drag began to tell; Blazer slowed down; and +Alloway, still going hard, disappeared round the corner. + +Blazer and Tinker fell into a walk, and then stopped. + +Sir Tancred Beauleigh, on his quiet way to the village post-office, was +surprised at being nearly knocked down by one of the most respectable +young farmers of the neighbourhood, who was running with the speed and +face of a man pursued by all the tigers of Bengal. A hundred yards +further on he heard yells and screams, and shouts of laughter; and +coming round a corner, he saw a small boy rolling in recurring +paroxysms of joy on the grass by the roadside, watched by a puzzled +bull-terrier. He had no difficulty in connecting them with the flying +farmer. + +He came up to the absorbed pair unnoticed, and standing over them, said +quietly, "What's the joke, Tinker?" + +Tinker sprang to his feet, and wiping away the joyful tears, said, "I +have been playing at hunting runaway slaves." + +"Ah, Alloway was the slave?" said Sir Tancred. + +"Yes, sir," said Tinker. + +Sir Tancred dropped the subject; he knew by experience that the truth +might be painful hearing, and that he would probably hear it from +Tinker's flying partner in the game quite soon enough. + +"What are you doing with that dog?" he said. + +"I borrowed him," said Tinker. + +Sir Tancred looked Blazer carefully over. "He's a very good dog," he +said. "How would you like him for a birthday present?" + +Tinker's eyes shone as a long vista of scrapes, out of which Blazer's +teeth might help him, opened before his mind. + +"Ever so much!" he said quickly. + +"Come on, then, we'll go and try to buy him." And they set out for the +village. + +Mr. Green stood in the door of the smithy, and grinned enormously at +the sight of the returning Tinker. Sir Tancred said, "Good-morning, +Green; do you care to sell this dog? I'll give you three pounds for +him." + +Mr. Green said, "Three pound," and stared helplessly at the cottages +opposite, confused by the need to assimilate, on the spur of the +moment, a new idea. + +"Three pounds?" said Tinker quickly. "Why, he only cost fifteen +shillings a year ago!" + +"An orfer is an orfer!" said Mr. Green quickly, his wits spurred at the +sudden prospect of a lowering of the price. "And I takes it." + +As he led away Blazer, with a new proprietary pride Tinker said firmly +to Sir Tancred, "I shall go on considering him a bloodhound, sir." + + + + +CHAPTER SIX + +THE RESCUE OF ELIZABETH KERNABY + +Sir Tancred paused now and again in his leisurely breakfast to scowl +across the dining room at Mr. Biggleswade, who, with his sour-looking +wife and woebegone little girl, was breakfasting at an opposite table. +The Royal Victoria Hotel was second-rate. The cooking was poor, the +wine was bad, and Solesgate itself was dull. But these misfortunes Sir +Tancred would have endured cheerfully because the place suited +Hildebrand Anne, who had but lately recovered from an attack of scarlet +fever at Farndon-Pryze, but he could not endure Mr. Biggleswade. It +was not so much that he had reckoned up Mr. Biggleswade as a large, +fat, greasy rogue, nor was it that no snub once and for all stopped Mr. +Biggleswade from thrusting himself upon him with a snobbish +obsequiousness; it was Mr. Biggleswade's noisy and haphazard methods of +disposing of his food, which left small portions of each course +nestling in his straggling beard, and filled the air with the sound of +the feeding of pigs. + +This Sir Tancred found unendurable, and the more unendurable that Mr. +Biggleswade had made up his mind that he enjoyed his meals more in the +presence of a baronet, and always waited for his coming. + +Sir Tancred was eating his breakfast mournfully, therefore, reflecting +on the unkindness of Fortune, who had afflicted Tinker with his fever +at so inconvenient a time. For he had not been able to raise the money +to take him to make his convalescence at one of the more expensive +watering places, whither resort millionaires and the smart, whose +fondness for games of chance and skill would have kept him in careless +luxury. He had been driven to bring him to Solesgate, a town of six +bathing-machines; and there the rest of his ready money dwindled to a +few shillings. A sudden cessation of the sound of the feeding of pigs +caught him from his mournful reflections. He looked up quickly, to see +Mr. Biggleswade staring at his newspaper with a most striking +expression of triumphant greed. + +On the instant Sir Tancred filled with the liveliest interest; emotion, +especially curious emotion, in his fellow creatures always aroused his +interest, and not infrequently brought him profit, and Mr. +Biggleswade's emotion seemed to him curiously violent to be excited by +the perusal of a newspaper. He made half a movement to show it to his +wife, caught Sir Tancred's eye, and setting it down, went on hastily +with his breakfast. He had not been so quick but that Sir Tancred had +seen that the paper was _The Daily Telegraph_, and the exciting +paragraph on the first page. + +Sir Tancred brightened to the rest of his breakfast; he had little +doubt that he was on the track of some roguery or other, and he +promised himself a hunt through the paper till he found it. When the +Biggleswades, having finished their breakfast, went down to the beach, +he lighted a cigar, took his folding-chair and his pile of newspapers, +and settled down sixty yards away from them. As he had expected, their +first act was to discuss the newspaper with great animation, handing it +backwards and forwards to one another. And he took _The Daily +Telegraph_ from his pile, and set about seeking the source of their +excitement. He passed over the first advertisement in the agony +column, the offer of a reward for the recovery of the stolen child of +Kernaby, the Marmalade Millionaire, merely noting that it had been +raised to 4000 pounds, and came to the conclusion that the second +advertisement was genuine, while the third, which set forth at great +length the woes of a young woman parted from a young man, seemed to him +to read like thieves communicating. He had begun to eliminate the +superfluous words, when Tinker, with Blazer, his bull-terrier, came +suddenly up to him from behind, and bade him good-morning. + +Tinker had breakfasted some three hours earlier, probably in the hotel +kitchen, for, as was his invariable custom, he was on the best of terms +with the servants; and for all that he had spent the intervening hours +on the uncovered slimy rocks, was in his usual state of spotless +cleanliness. He is the one living boy to whom dirt does not cling. + +"How have you been amusing yourself?" said his father, his stern face +lighting up with a delightful smile. + +"I'm still teaching Blazer to be a bloodhound. He's slow--very slow." + +Blazer cocked an apologetic ear and sniffed. + +"It must be tiring work." + +"Yes," said Tinker sadly, and his eyes wandered slowly along the shore. + +Sir Tancred flipped the ash off his cigar. + +"Those Biggleswades are beasts!" Tinker broke out suddenly when his +eyes fell on them. "They treat that little girl of theirs shamefully! +When I went to bed last night she was crying again. She always is. I +don't believe she's their little girl at all. I believe they've stolen +her." + +"The deuce!" cried Sir Tancred, and catching up his _Daily Telegraph_, +he read again the Marmalade Millionaire's advertisement. It ran: + +4000 POUND REWARD. 4000 POUND REWARD. 4000 POUND REWARD. + +The above sum will be paid to any person giving information leading to +the recovery of Elizabeth E. Kernaby, aged seven years. She strayed or +was stolen in Kensington Gardens between the hours of 10 and 11 a. m., +on the 19th ultimo. She is fair with blue eyes, and long flaxen hair, +speaks with a lisp, and answers to the name of Bessie. Any person +bringing information to Messrs. Datchett & Hobb's, 127, Lincoln's Inn +Fields, or to Mr. Joseph W. Kernaby, 11a, Cadogan Square, will receive: + +4000 POUND REWARD. 4000 POUND REWARD. 4000 POUND REWARD. + + +He laid the paper on his knee, and began to consider the facts of the +kidnapping, as he remembered them from the newspaper reports. Her +nurse had taken her to Kensington Gardens, where she had foregathered +with the little daughters of Sir William Uglow. The children's play +had little by little drawn them away from their gossipping nurses, +right out of their sight; and when their nurses went to look for them +they found only the little Uglows; Elizabeth Kernaby had gone. The +children said that a tall gentleman had come to them and, telling her +that her mamma had sent him for her, had taken her away in a cab. The +nurse had thought it strange, but suspected nothing wrong till she +reached home and found that Elizabeth had not returned. She did not +return; and since that day, in spite of all the efforts of Scotland +Yard and the private-detective agencies, nothing had been seen or heard +of her. The reward offered for her recovery had risen from 1000 pounds +to 4000 pounds. + +It had been a crime of a masterly simplicity, and Sir Tancred had been +sure that the child would not be forthcoming till the reward satisfied +the cupidity of the child-stealers. He had reason to believe that the +present reward did satisfy the cupidity of the child-stealers; and +after a thoughtful glance at the Biggleswades, he turned to Tinker. +Tinker could be of help to him. + +He turned to him and said: + +"Do you remember my telling you of a little girl, Elizabeth Kernaby, +who was stolen a week or two ago?" + +"Elizabeth Kernaby, aged seven, blue eyes, long flaxen hair, speaks +with a lisp, and answers to the name of Bessie," said Tinker glibly, in +the manner of one reciting a lesson. + +"Quite right," said Sir Tancred approvingly; "you'll be another +Sherlock Holmes some day. Well, I have reason to believe that the +little girl with the Biggleswades is Elizabeth Kernaby." + +Tinker's face brightened. "Her eyes are blue, but her hair is black, +and it's not very long." + +"Hair can be dyed." + +"Yes; and it doesn't match her face." + +"It doesn't, doesn't it? Well, I want to know if she lisps, and if she +answers to the name of Bessie. You will find out?" + +"Yes, I'll find out. But Mrs. Biggleswade never lets her speak to +anyone. I must think it out." + +With that Tinker sat down; set his elbows on his knees, his chin on his +hands; and plunged into deep thought. His father sat equally +thoughtful; and their similar employment brought out extraordinarily +their strong likeness, for all that Tinker was a fair, angel child, and +his father's face as dark and proud and stern as Lucifer's. + +For a long while neither said a word, nor moved. Sir Tancred was +trying to see how to work the affair on seven shillings, and debating +whether to call in the help of the police. Instinct assured him that +he had no time to lose, no time to walk to Beachley and pawn his watch, +that he must not lose sight of them, and in delicate matters he relied +chiefly on instinct. Mr. Biggleswade would not have looked so +triumphant, had not the 4000 pound reward satisfied him; it seemed +likely that he would leave for town that very day. On the other hand, +Sir Tancred was averse to going to the police; he knew what the +provincial police were. What was excellent evidence to him would seem +no evidence at all to them; and they would move too late, or, if they +moved in time, would muddle the whole business, and let the +Biggleswades know they were suspected. Besides, it hurt his self-love +to seek aid from anyone. No, the proper game was to rob the robbers, +and he had seven shillings to play it with. + +Suddenly Tinker stirred. "I'm going to try now," he said. + +Sir Tancred looked at the Biggleswades. Mr. Biggleswade lay sprawled +on his back, a handkerchief spread over his face; and mellowed by the +distance, the music of a long-drawn snore murmured over the sands. +Mrs. Biggleswade was nodding over a book. + +Tinker rose, bade Blazer stay where he was; and walked off towards the +hotel. Sir Tancred twisted round his chair, tore a hole in his _Daily +Telegraph_, and watched him. Tinker fetched a circuit to within a +hundred yards of the backs of the Biggleswades, threw his straw hat on +the sand, dropped on to his stomach, and began to squirm along towards +them, taking advantage of every ridge and hollow. It was a long +business, but at last he lay in a hollow thirty yards away. He raised +his head cautiously, and in a low, clear voice said, "Bessie." + +The little girl sprang to her feet, and stared about her wildly. +Tinker dropped his head and lay still. Mrs. Biggleswade, roused from +her napping, caught the child by the arm, and shaking her, said +savagely, "Sit down, you little brat! Keep quiet!" + +The child sank down, and began to cry. + +Tinker lay still for a while, and then began, to squirm away. When he +reached his hat, he rose to his feet, knocked the sand off his clothes, +and walked slowly back to his father. + +"She answers to the name of Bessie, sir," he said quietly. + +"Good!" said Sir Tancred, and he rose. + +They walked down to the railway station; and on the way Sir Tancred +informed Tinker that he was to take Elizabeth Kernaby up to London, to +11a Cadogan Square, and, at a cost of six out of his seven shillings, +bought two half third-class tickets. On their way back he learned, no +less to his surprise than his joy, that Tinker was the possessor of +eighteenpence. To make assurance surer, therefore, he bought a basket +of strawberries, and when the Biggleswades returned to the hotel for +lunch, they found the Beauleighs in the porch, eating them. + +"Would you like some strawberries, little girl?" said Tinker as they +passed, and he held out the basket to the child. + +"Yeth, pleath," she said, and stepped forward to take one. + +"No, no, Keziah," broke in Mrs. Biggleswade. "You know they don't +agree with you!" And she caught her away, and hurried her into the +hotel. + +"Children like sweet things; but they sometimes don't agree with them," +said Mr. Biggleswade sapiently, his loose and flabby bulk swelling yet +bigger at the thought that he was speaking to a member of the +aristocracy. + +"That is very true," said Sir Tancred pleasantly. + +Surprised by this affability, but swift to seize on a conversational +opening with a baronet, Mr. Biggleswade stayed talking with him in the +porch; he talked to him all lunch-time: and he talked to him on the +sands after lunch. His unbridled appetite for the society of the +aristocracy proved his undoing. For at a few minutes to three Sir +Tancred proposed a stroll along the shore. They went slowly, Mr. +Biggleswade rising to the great social occasion for which he had so +long hankered, and proving himself, in his talk, a thorough man of the +world. + +As they passed round the promontory at the end of the little bay, and +Sir Tancred took out his handkerchief, Tinker was awaiting the signal, +impatient, but cool; and as they passed out of sight, he began to steal +up behind the drowsy Mrs. Biggleswade and presently, touching the child +on the shoulder, beckoned her to come with him. + +She looked timidly at Mrs. Biggleswade whose eyes were closed, and +rose. Tinker drew her quietly away. They had not gone twenty yards +when a jerking nod awoke Mrs. Biggleswade, and she missed the child. +She scrambled up, turned and saw her, and cried, "Come here, you +naughty girl. Come here at once!" + +"Are you Bessie Kernaby?" said Tinker to the child. + +"Yeth, yeth," she said, turning to go to her tyrant. + +Tinker gripped her arm, and cried, "Pstt! Pstt! Hold her, Blazer! +Hold her!" and waved him at Mrs. Biggleswade. + +Blazer darted forward, growling with a fine show of teeth. + +Mrs. Biggleswade, like a wise woman, stood stock-still, and sent a +shrill scream ringing down the shore, and another, and another, and +another. + +Tinker caught Elizabeth's hand and cried, "Come on! Come on! We've +only just time to catch the train!" And the two children set off +running to the station. + +On the edge of the sands Tinker stopped for a moment, whistled shrilly, +brought Blazer racing after them, and ran on again. He could hear the +far-away rattle of the express. + +Mr. Biggleswade was too deeply engrossed in his talk with Sir Tancred +to notice the first half-dozen screams from his wife; and they came +faintly round the promontory. Then he heard them, said, "By Jove! +that's Maria!" and started to run back. Sir Tancred ran by his side. +When they came round the promontory they saw Mrs. Biggleswade waving +frantically towards the station, and half-way to it two little figures +running. Mr. Biggleswade showed himself a man of action. He swung +round, and, with the swiftness of an accomplished boxer, dealt Sir +Tancred an unexpected blow on the side of the head which knocked him +over half-stunned, and almost in the same moment started to run after +the children. He was half a mile from them, and they were less than a +quarter of a mile from the station, but naturally he ran much faster. + +As the children reached the platform the express steamed in. Tinker +hurried his prize into an empty third-class carriage, in the forepart +of the train, and pushed the ticketless Blazer under the seat. Then he +put his head out of the window, and saw to his disgust Mr. Biggleswade, +his coat-tails flying, two hundred yards from the station, yelling +lustily, but making a very good pace indeed for his flabby bulk. The +doors were shutting, and Tinker watched the guard breathlessly. When +he whistled, Mr. Biggleswade had yet fifty yards to go. At the sound +he yelled louder than ever, and made a tremendous spurt. The train was +well on the move when he rushed into the station; but he dashed at a +compartment in the last carriage, wrenched the door open, scrambled on +to the footboard, and tumbled in, amidst the shouts of the indignant +porters. + +Tinker drew in his head with a blank face. It had been no part of his +father's plan that Mr. Biggleswade should travel by the same train to +London, and his heart sank a little. But remembering Blazer, his +spirits rose, and he turned to the little girl with a cheerful face. +She was panting, crying, and wringing her hands in a paroxysm of +nervous excitement. He sat down beside her, thumped her on the back--a +way he had with tearful females--wiped away her tears with his +handkerchief, and poured comforting assurances of safety into her ears. + +[Illustration: He poured comforting assurances of safety into her ears.] + +When at last he had soothed her he began to question her, and drew from +her the story of her captivity. She had driven miles and miles with +the gentleman who had fetched her from Kensington Gardens, to a little +house in a long street. There she had found the Biggleswades. Mrs. +Biggleswade had taken away her nice clothes, and dressed her in these +common things. Then she had cut off her hair. + +"I was wondering about your hair," interrupted Tinker. + +For answer the little girl lifted up her black locks, hat and all; +displayed a fuzzy little fair poll underneath them, and let them drop +on it again. + +"I see," said Tinker, and he went on with his questioning. + +She had stayed with the Biggleswades, shut up in a room upstairs, she +did not know how many days; and then they had come down to Solesgate. +All the while Mrs. Biggleswade had been very unkind to her, and slapped +her whenever she cried for her mother. + +The remembrance of her misfortunes set her crying again, and again, +with quiet patience, he consoled her. Presently she was babbling +cheerfully of her home, her mother, and her dolls, and asking many +questions. He made the replies politeness demanded, but he lent an +abstracted ear to her talk, for he was considering different plans for +escaping Mr. Biggleswade, most of them useless by reason of the +slowness of Elizabeth. He could only make up his mind that they must +dash for a cab as quickly as they could, and trust to Blazer for +protection. + +It seemed to him a very long journey; and even when he had made his +plan, he found it no little task to take his part in the conversation. +As the train ran into London, he told her that Mr. Biggleswade was in +the train, and they must bolt for the cab. At once she was all panic +and tears, and he had much ado to brace her for effort before the train +slowed down at the terminus. Before it had stopped he was out of the +carriage, helping her down. They ran towards the barrier; but the +platform was long, and Elizabeth was slow. While they were yet thirty +yards from it, Mr. Biggleswade was on them. With a savage blow he sent +Tinker flying, caught up the screaming Elizabeth, and dashed on, crying +loudly, "The nearest hospital! The nearest hospital! My little girl! +My little girl!" + +Everyone made way for him; but Tinker picked himself up, bolted after +him, hissing on Blazer, took a flying leap on to his back, and locked +his arms round his neck in a strangling grip, as the prompt and nimble +Blazer buried his teeth in his calf. Mr. Biggleswade dropped Elizabeth +and tore viciously at Tinker's hands. The passengers and porters came +crowding round, and the moment the throng was thick enough, Tinker +dropped to his feet and gripped Elizabeth by the arm, shouting, +"Police! Police!" + +Mr. Biggleswade struggled to choke Blazer off his leg. A police +inspector pushed through the crowd, and cried, "What's all this?" + +"The young rascal has enticed away my little girl, and brought her up +to London!" cried Mr. Biggleswade, who had divested himself of Blazer, +and was holding him off by the collar; and with the other hand he +grabbed at Elizabeth. + +"It's a lie!" cried Tinker, as the inspector grasped his shoulder. +"This is Elizabeth Kernaby! He stole her!" And on the words he jerked +off her hat and wig. + +At the sight of the fuzzy little bare poll light slowly dawned on the +inspector; but even more quickly Mr. Biggleswade had seen that the game +was up, flung Blazer away from him, and bolted through the barrier. +The Inspector rushed after him; but Blazer, who apparently had not had +enough of Mr. Biggleswade's calf, outstripped him, and pinned the +fugitive on the very step of a hansom. + +When Tinker and Elizabeth, escorted by an excited and applauding crowd, +came out of the station they found Mr. Biggleswade, the inspector, two +constables, and Blazer in a tangled, battling group. Tinker saw his +chance of escaping any further aid from the police, thrust Elizabeth +into a hansom, gave the cabman the address, whistled Blazer out of the +fight, jumped in after her, and drove off amid the cheers of the crowd. +By the time the dishevelled police had Mr. Biggleswade secured, and +could turn their attention to them, the children were half a mile away. + +Tinker's hands had been torn by the savage rascal, and on the way to +Cadogan Square he was busy staunching their bleeding. By tearing his +handkerchief in two he managed with Elizabeth's aid to bandage both; +but he was vexed that they must make such an unpleasant appearance +before her relatives. When they reached Cadogan Square he paid the +cabman, and rang the bell; but when the door opened, Elizabeth assumed +the leadership. She caught Tinker's hand, dragged him past the +astonished footman, hurried him up the stairs, and burst with him into +a drawing room, where half a score of mournful people were discussing +over their tea the further measures for her recovery. + +"I've come back, mamma! And this is Hildebrand Anne Beauleigh, but his +real name is Tinker!" cried Elizabeth. + +In a breath Mrs. Kernaby had her in her arms; there were screams and +pantings, and a bandying to and fro of smelling salts. Everyone was +hugging Elizabeth, or shaking hands with Mr. Kernaby, or slapping one +another on the back and assuring one another that they had always said +so. Tinker watched their exuberance with some distaste, which +redoubled when Elizabeth's tangled and incoherent tale drew upon him +the embraces of half a dozen animated and highly scented ladies of the +kind who haunt the houses of unprotected millionaires. When at last +quiet was restored, he told his story, omitting as many of his own +doings as were not absolutely necessary to make it clear, in a fear +lest they should provoke another outburst of embraces. + +When he had clearly grasped the fact that Tinker was the son of Sir +Tancred Beauleigh, all the warm-heartedness of his native Drumtochty +bubbled up in Mr. Joseph Kernaby; he shook him warmly by the hand, and +cried: + +"Mah mannie; eh, but you're a braw sonsie laddie; an' aiblins ye need +it, nor yoursel' nor any o' your noble an' deesteengueeshed family +shall ne'er ask the twice a wee bit bite or soop unner this humble +roof." + +Tinker, not having the Gaelic, was somewhat taken aback by the cryptic +utterance; but an anxious-looking younger son of an embarrassed peer, +who for a considerable consideration was bear-leading the millionaire +through the social labyrinth, hurriedly interpreted it to him as a +standing invitation to dinner. He thanked Mr. Kernaby, and begged that +a telegram might at once be sent to his father, informing him of his +success and safety. + +"They tallygrams they yanners the saxpences, mah mannie," said the +millionaire with a falling face. "A poostcaird is a verra----" + +But the anxious-looking younger son cut him short, said that it should +be sent at once, and bade the footman charged with its despatch bring +also a doctor to dress Tinker's wounded hands. + +Meanwhile Sir Tancred, as soon as he learnt that Mr. Biggleswade had +caught the express, had hurried hot-foot in a devouring anxiety to +Beachley, where dwelt a pawnbroker, raised money, and caught there a +train to town. When he reached Cadogan Square he found Tinker making +an excellent tea after his exhausting labours, and giving an account of +the Biggleswades to a detective from Scotland Yard. When he had heard +Sir Tancred's story, too, the detective said that Mr. Biggleswade would +get five years; and the event proved him right. + +There was no getting away from the grateful Kernabys, but after the +cooking of the Royal Victoria hotel Sir Tancred was more than ready for +a good dinner. He found in his host and hostess a strong disposition +to adopt Tinker forthwith; and before the end of dinner he found them +no less inclined to adopt him, too. But it could not be. + +After dinner, disregarding the faint expostulations of the +anxious-looking younger son, the millionaire rose to his feet and +pronounced a glowing, fervid, but, save for the couplet, + + "The rank is but the guinea stamp + The maan's the maan for a' that" + +unintelligible eulogy on the family of Beauleigh. + +As he drove away with Tinker to the Hotel Cecil, Sir Tancred crinkled +the millionaire's cheque in his waistcoat pocket, and said, "Four +thousand pounds is a good day's work--two thousand for you--and two +thousand for me. We'll move to Brighton. But I spent some of the most +horrible hours of my life wondering if that beast had got into the same +compartment with you. None of the fools at the station could tell me." + +"I was afraid you'd be anxious, sir," said Tinker, patting his arm. +"But I think that Blazer and I could have dealt with him." + +Then he gave Blazer--who, distended by the fat of the land, was snoring +heavily through happy dreams of the human calf, at the bottom of the +cab--a gentle kick, and said with sad severity, "I shall never make a +real bloodhound of Blazer. Bloodhounds leap at a man's throat; they +don't collar him by the leg." + + + + +CHAPTER SEVEN + +THE STOLEN FLYING-MACHINE + +"You vas a vonder-child!" said Herr Schlugst. "You know dat machine as +good as me!" And his goggle eyes stared out of his round, good-natured +face at Hildebrand Anne in a wondering admiration. + +"Yes; I think I have got the hang of her," said Hildebrand Anne with +some pride, looking up at the great cigar-shaped balloon which hung +motionless in the still air. + +"Vat for do dey call thee Tinkar? You vas not look like a tinkar; and +you vas not haf--do not haf de tinkar brain." + +"Well, I've been called Tinker ever since I can remember; and one +name's as good as another," said Hildebrand Anne indifferently. "But +you'll let me cross over to Paris with you to-morrow, won't you?" + +"I vill not! I vill not! Dere is de danger! De great danger! We +must vant de calm dat ees dead! I take no von vith me but mine own +self! And I vas not vould go, not for nodings; but I vas vant de +tousand pounds. Dere is my leetle girl to be lived and educate." + +"But I do so want to be one of the first to cross the Channel in a +flying-machine," said Tinker plaintively. + +"Ach, to be vurst! to be vurst! Dat is you English top and toe! Do I +vas hunt de orchid to be vurst discoverer? Not mooch. I hunt him for +money. Do I cross de Channel in my machine to be vurst? Nein, nein. +I cross him for de tousand pounds. And you I vould not take, no, not +for de oder tousand pound. Bah! You vas not at all von vonder-child; +you vas von foolish! Good-night, mine young friend, good-night." And +Herr Schlugst went into the galvanised iron hut where for the time +being he lived, watching over his precious machine. + +The Tinker came out of the palisade which surrounded it, and walked +down the cliff into Brighton quite disconsolate; he could not see how +to get his way. He came into the Paragon Hotel and dressed for dinner +as sulky as a naturally cheerful soul could be. He showed no readiness +to talk, and his father presently condoled with him on his lowness of +spirits. Tinker said briefly that he had had a disappointment. + +"Ah, they are terrible things, disappointments, when one is eleven +years old," said Sir Tancred. "Later in life they lose their edge." + +On his words there came into the dining room a rotund, middle-aged +Jewish gentleman, coated with dust and wearing a harassed air. + +"Look," said Sir Tancred, "that's Blumenruth, the Jungle millionaire." + +The financier gazed gloomily round the room, looking for a table. At +the sight of Sir Tancred, an idea seemed to strike him, his face +brightened a little, and he came to them. + +"How do you do, Sir Tancred Beauleigh?" he said, shaking hands warmly. +"May I dine at your table? I want a word with you, a word which may be +profitable to both of us." + +"By all means," said Sir Tancred in the manner he always adopted +towards profitable financiers of Hamburg extraction, a manner extremely +condescending, without being offensive. + +The financier sat down; smudged the dust across his face with a +coloured silk handkerchief; and breathed heavily. Then he looked at +Tinker as though he would like him sent away. + +"Anything you may say before him will go no further," said Sir Tancred, +quick to mark the meaning of the look. "Let me introduce you. Mr. +Blumenruth, my son Hildebrand." + +The financier bowed, but he still looked unhappy at Tinker's presence. +A waiter brought him some soup, and he began upon it hurriedly. Sir +Tancred went on with his dinner in a tranquil indifference. The +financier finished his soup: looked again at Tinker, and burst out: +"Well, it can't make any difference! I want your help, Sir Tancred, +and you're the one man in England who can help me; you're used to these +things." And he smudged the dust on his face a little more. + +Sir Tancred murmured politely, "Only too pleased." + +"I must be in Paris either to-night or to-morrow morning for an hour's +talk with Meyer before the Bourse opens. And I must leave England +without anyone knowing I've left it. It may make a difference to me +of--of a hundred thousand pounds." + +"Pardon me," said Sir Tancred suavely. "I like my clients to be open +with me. It will make a difference of ruin. The Cohens have you in a +hole." + +The millionaire gasped, "My goodness! how did you know? It means +ruin--or--or I make a hundred thousand." + +"I see," said Sir Tancred. "Well?" + +"I left London quietly in a motor-car. Before I'd gone twenty miles, a +racing Panhard, stuffed with private detectives--men I've sometimes +employed myself"--he almost sobbed at the thought--"passed me; and +another came up, and dropped back to a mile behind. They're here in +Brighton. I'd given it up; I was going to dine here, sleep the night, +and go back to London to fight it out--not that it's of any use unless +I can see Meyer--when I saw you. I'll give--I'll give five thousand +pounds to anyone who can get me across to Paris secretly. It's +here--in my pocket." And he tapped his breast. + +Sir Tancred thought earnestly for fully five minutes; then he said, "It +can't be done." + +"Don't say so! now don't," said the financier, "The money's here! +Here!" and he again slapped his breast pocket. + +"It's no use," said Sir Tancred. "I might smuggle you out of the +hotel; but there isn't any sort of vessel, steamer, steam yacht, or +launch to take you across." + +"Let's go to Dover in my car!" + +"What's the use? The detectives would follow in theirs." + +The financier groaned, and some large tears ran down his face. He bent +his head to hide them; and for all that he was not pleasant to look +upon, Tinker felt sorry for him. + +"Cheer up, man," said Sir Tancred. "You can always begin again!" + +But the financier would not be heartened. He made a wretched dinner; +after it he followed Sir Tancred into the billiard room, and steadily +drinking brandies and sodas, watched him play pool. At eleven he went +to bed. Tinker had gone to bed long before, but his door was just +open, and he saw the financier go into his room. Five minutes later he +stole across the corridor, and, without knocking, opened the door and +went in. The financier was sitting at a table, gazing through a mist +of tears at a nice, new nickel-plated revolver. He had no real +intention of blowing his brains out, but with the childlike, emotional +spirit of his race, he had persuaded himself that he had, and was +luxuriating in his woe. + +"What do you want?" he moaned. + +"I've come to show you a way of getting to Paris," said Tinker, closing +the door softly. + +"Mein Gott!" cried the millionaire, relapsing into his vernacular in +his excitement. "How? How?" + +"By Herr Schlugst's flying-machine." + +"A flying-machine! Is the boy mad?" + +"No, I'm not. I've been with Herr Schlugst on three trial trips; and +the last two he let me work it most of the time. It's as easy as +winking, once you know how to do it, and he says I understand it as +well as he does. It's all ready for the journey. We've only got to +get into it without waking him; and he sleeps like a log." + +"Mein Gott! Mein Gott! What a plan! I'm to fly in the air with a +little boy! Oh, good gracious me! Good gracious me! What am I to +do?" And he stamped up and down, wringing his hands. + +"It's that or the revolver," said Tinker sweetly. + +The financier clutched at his hair and raved: fear and avarice, +conflicting, tore at his vitals. He owed his millions to no genuine +force of character, but to luck, industry, and dishonesty. In this +great crisis of his life he was helpless. Tinker, trained from +babyhood by his wise father to study his fellow creatures, understood +something of this, and began to goad him to the effort. + +"It's a lot of money to lose," said he thoughtfully. + +"The sweat of my brow! The sweat of my brow!" groaned the financier, +who had really made it by the nimbleness of his tongue. + +"And it seems a pity to blow your brains out, which hurts a good deal, +before you've tried every chance," said Tinker. + +The financier groaned. + +"At any rate, if we did come a cropper, you'd be no worse off." + +"Ah!" cried the financier, stopping short. "Why shouldn't I wake Herr +Schlugst, and get him to take me?" + +"Because he won't," said Tinker quietly. "He told me that nothing +would induce him to try a flight in the night. He's all right in the +daytime, but the darkness funks him. Foreigners are like that; they'll +go to a certain point all right, but there they stop. That's what I've +noticed. I notice these things, you know." He spoke indulgently. + +It never occurred to the financier to doubt him; he was already a +little under the influence of the cooler head. He walked up and down a +little longer; and Tinker said no more. He had been taught to leave +people to themselves when he saw them beginning to come to his way of +thinking. + +At last, with a horrible grimace which showed the depth of his agony, +the financier cried, "I'll come! I'll come! I'll trust my life--oh, +my precious life--to you. After all, you rescued the Kernaby child; +and you had to fight to do it! I'll risk it! Oh, my money! My money!" + +"Very good," said Tinker. "I'll come for you at half-past twelve. Put +on your warmest great-coat. It'll be cold." And he slipped gently out +of the room. + +Five minutes later the distracted financier rang his bell, and ordered +a bottle of 1820 liqueur brandy. It was the best thing he could have +done: a private detective, who was sitting on guard in a room lower +down the corridor to see that he did not go downstairs again, believed +him to have thrown up the sponge, and to be drowning his sorrow, and +allowed himself to become immersed in the current number of the _Family +Herald_. + +As was his practice, Sir Tancred, on his way to bed, looked in on +Tinker, and found him sleeping the profound sleep of youth and +innocence. But no sooner did he hear his father in bed and still, than +he rose from that profound sleep of youth and innocence, dressed, even +to his great-coat. He took a letter from his pocket, and put it +prominently on the dressing-table. It ran: + +DEAR FATHER: + +I have taken Bloomenroot to Parris in Herr Shlugst flyingmacheen. +Bring him to meet me at the Ifell Tower. + +Your affectionate son + TINKER. + + +Then, with his boots in his hand, he stole across to the financier's +room. Thanks to the brandy, the financier looked very much wound up. +Tinker bade him write on a sheet of notepaper, "Don't call me till +eleven," pinned it on the outside of his bedroom door, locked it, and +took the key. He left the sitting-room door unlocked. Then he opened +the window, and, followed by his protege, who was already shivering +with dread, he stepped out on to the balcony with the air of the leader +of an army. The balcony ran round the hotel, as a way of escape during +a fire; it was broad, and since the night was starry, but fairly dark, +they were little likely to be seen from below by the detectives +watching the hotel doors. They walked round to the back, came through +a window into a bathroom, through the bathroom on to the servants' +staircase, and went right down into the basement. + +"I get up early in the morning before the servants, and I had to find a +way out," said Tinker in an explanatory whisper. + +He led the way through the kitchen into a long passage, set with the +doors of cellars on either side. At the end of the passage was a short +ladder with rounded iron rungs, by which barrels were lowered, and +Tinker, mounting three rungs, pushed back a bolt, raised the heavy trap +a little, and peered about from under it. + +"The street's clear," he said. "Come on!" + +He slipped out on to the pavement, helped the clumsy financier through +the trap, caught his hand, and ran him across the street into a narrow +lane. + +"There!" he said cheerfully. "That's the most difficult part of the +business! You're out of the hotel, and not a soul knows it!" + +The financier's spirits brightened. Tinker had shown him his mettle, +and he began to have confidence. Besides, he had drunk a good deal of +the bottle of brandy. They hurried through the town by byways, and up +on to the cliffs. As they neared the palisade, and saw the great bulk +of the balloon looming through the starlight, the panting financier's +spirits sank: his teeth chattered, and his knees knocked together. + +"Oh, buck up! Buck up!" said Tinker impatiently. "You're all right! +You're all right!" + +It was a matter of a few seconds for him to climb the door of the +palisades, drop lightly on the other side, and open it. He steered the +financier gingerly round the planes, past the propelling and steering +fans, and got him into the car. He set him well forward in the bows of +it, and began to let the rope unwind from the windlass which moored the +flying-machine. All the while he heard the steady snores of Herr +Schlugst, sleeping in his iron hut. + +The flying-machine rose slowly with very little creaking for all the +greatness of the planes; the last of the rope ran out, and the lights +of the town sank like stones in water beneath them. + +"Right away!" cried Tinker joyfully, and the financier gasped. + +When the lights of the town were a mere blur beneath them, Tinker +switched on the electric lamps, and the millionaire saw him sitting on +a wicker seat in the stern of the boat-shaped car, surrounded by +levers, instruments, and dials. Tinker bade him grip the steel rails +on either side of the car, and get ready for a swoop. Then he set the +motor going, and steered round the flying-machine on to her course. +She rose and rose, moving steadily forward at the same time, far above +the sound of the waves of the Channel. + +Now Herr Schlugst did not rely so much on his propeller for speed as on +his skilful adaptation of the principle on which the bird swoops. When +the aneroid told Tinker that the car had reached the height of 3000 +feet, he opened a valve, and let the gas escape slowly from the +balloon. The instant she began to sink he switched to a slight +downward angle the great planes, some seventy feet long, which were +fixed parallel to the car. The machine began to glide downwards on +them, gathering momentum from the weight of the car, at a quickly +increasing speed, until she was tearing through the air at the rate of +forty miles an hour, and sinking a hundred feet in the mile. The +financier sat hunched up, gasping and shivering as the air whizzed past +his ears and shrilled among the ropes. Tinker, with an air of cheerful +excitement, kept the machine on her course, and watched the aneroid: +his face of a seraph was peculiarly appropriate to these high +altitudes, though the millionaire was too busy with his fears to +observe the fact. + +In half an hour the machine had rushed down to five hundred feet above +the sea: Tinker switched the planes to the same angle upwards: and the +momentum drove her up the incline of the air with little diminished +speed. Then he turned a tap and let the stored gas, compressed in an +aluminum cylinder, flow into the balloon, and restored the whole +machine to its former buoyancy. Moving more and more slowly the higher +it rose, the flying-machine once more gained the height of 3000 feet, +and once more swooped down from it. At the beginning of the upward +sweep, Tinker said, "Another swoop like that will bring us to Paris." + +The financier, who had spent the time qualifying for a place among the +invertebrates, only groaned. Tinker was disgusted; but he said, "Cheer +up! You're the first man who has ever crossed the Channel in a +flying-machine. You'll be in the History books!" + +The car rose and rose: Tinker had just resolved to swoop from 3500 feet +this time, when of a sudden she rose out of the windless area into a +stiff breeze, icily chill. They learnt what had happened by the +balloon bumping down on their heads with apparent intent to smother +them, and in a breath the car was spinning round, and jerking furiously +to and fro. The millionaire screamed and bumped about the car, and +bumped and screamed. Tinker set his teeth, jammed the flying-machine +into the teeth of the wind, switched down the planes, and tried to +drive her down. It was no use; she was whirled along like a piece of +thistledown. Then he opened the valve and let her sink. In three +minutes she had fallen below the wind, and was shooting swiftly on the +downward swoop. The financier was staring at him with a frenzied eye. +Tinker closed the valve, and said with a joyous brightness, "She was +quite out of control for a good five minutes!" + +[Illustration: "She was quite out of control for a good five minutes!"] + +The financier frankly gave it up; with a rending gasp he fell back in a +dead faint. + +Tinker shrugged his shoulders, regulated the pace of the machine by +letting gas flow from the cylinder into the balloon till it was of the +proper buoyancy, then roped the senseless financier to the bottom of +the car, and came back to the helm. + +The wind they had risen into had been blowing towards the east, so they +had not lost ground during their tossing, but they had been driven +south of their course, and he did not know exactly how to get back to +it. On the dark earth beneath he could see towns as blurs of light on +all sides of him, but no one of them was big enough to be Paris. He +let the machine swoop on down to five hundred feet, and up again. On +the upward course, from fifteen hundred feet he saw a great blur of +light on the northern horizon: it was Paris, and he was swooping past +it. He steered the machine round without taking the way off her, and +swooped down towards the city. At the end of the swoop he was already +over the suburbs, and he switched off the electric lamps. He took the +way off the machine by switching up the planes; and then, using only +the propeller, circled round, seeking for the Eiffel Tower. Presently +he saw it looming through the first dim grey light of the dawn, steered +over it, let fall a grapnel, and hooked it into the railings which ran +round it; took a turn of the rope round the windlass, and wound the +machine down to within twenty feet of the top. Then he went to the +financier, unroped him, and kicked him in the ribs ungently. + +As he kicked, saying, "Get up! Get up!" an astonished voice below +cried, "Qui vive?" + +Looking over the side of the car Tinker saw dimly the figure of a +gendarme, and said briskly, "Santos-Dumont!" + +"Vive Santos-Dumont!" cried the gendarme with enthusiasm. + +Tinker went back to the financier, and kicked him again. + +"Where am I? Where am I?" he murmured faintly. + +"On the top of the Eiffel Tower," said Tinker. + +"What? Saved! Saved!" cried the financier, for all the world as +though he had been in a melodrama; and he sat up. + +"I should like the five thousand pounds, please," said Tinker, brought +back by the touch of earth from his aerial dreams to cold reality. + +"Five thousand pounds!" cried the financier, every faculty alert at the +mention of money. "No, no! How am I to get five thousand pounds? +Five hundred now! Five hundred pounds is an enormous sum--an enormous +sum for a little boy, or even fifty! Yes, yes; fifty!" + +"That's really very tiresome," said Tinker very gently. "I never +thought you'd be so foolish as to leave all that money in empty rooms +in an hotel. Well, well, we must fly straight back and get it. I hope +we shall have as good luck as we had coming over." And he turned to +the levers. + +"Here! here! here!" screamed the financier; tore a button off his coat +in his haste to get at his breast pocket; whipped out his notecase, and +with trembling fingers took five notes from the bundle which stuffed +it, and thrust them into Tinker's hand. + +Tinker counted them, made sure that each was for a thousand pounds, and +put them in his pocket. Then he looked down at the gendarme, and said +in French: + +"I want to drop my assistant. Will you conduct him to the bottom of +the tower?" + +"Mais oui! Avec plaisir, Monsieur le Comte!" cried the gendarme, +striking himself hard on the chest to show his eager enthusiasm. + +"Merci bien," said Tinker, lowering the rope ladder. + +The gendarme held it steady, and the financier descended gingerly. +When he was off it, and the gendarme had loosed it, Tinker said "Au +revoir! and mind you wire to my father at once, and let the grapnel +rope slip out of the windlass." Lightened of the financier, the +machine shot up into the air. + +Tinker's task was done: he had only to restore the machine to Herr +Schlugst; but he had a long while to wait. He realised suddenly that +he was hungry and very, very sleepy. By letting some gas escape, he +reduced the machine to a controllable buoyancy, and set about warming +the coffee which the thoughtful Herr Schlugst had ready made. Then +with brown bread, butter, and German sausage, he made an excellent +breakfast. It was light by the time he had finished; and he set about +looking for a sleeping-place, for he could not keep awake long. A wood +on a hill some miles away seemed to him the spot he sought. He swooped +gently for it, and was soon anchored to a tree-top and sleeping +peacefully. It was past noon when a shouting awoke him. He looked +down to find the wood full of people, four or five bold photographic +spirits in the tree to which he was anchored, but nowhere near his +grapnel, which was among the smaller branches. The roads leading to +the wood were choked with bicycles, motor-cars, and pedestrians; and a +station near was disgorging a crowd of people from an excursion train. +It was time to be going. + +He cut the grapnel rope, and started leisurely for Paris. He reached +it in about an hour, and circled about it, observing it from above. +Then he came to the Eiffel Tower, and practised steering round it, to +the great joy of an excited and applauding crowd which thronged its top +and stages. It was a great moment. He steered away over Paris, made a +meal of the coffee, brown bread, and sausage left, and came back. + +He was growing tired of waiting, and was meditating crossing over the +top of the tower and pouring a little water from the ballast tank on +the sympathetic crowd, when he saw his father and Herr Schlugst forcing +their way through it. At once he rose above the tower and let down the +grapnel. A dozen hands seized it, and drew down the machine. Tinker +let the stored gas flow into the balloon to allow for Herr Schlugst's +extra weight; and lowered the rope-ladder. The bursting Teuton came +clambering up it, forcing down the car and planes by his weight on to +the heads of the crowd, which was forced to hold them up with a +thousand hands. + +"Ach, you young tevil my machine to sdeal!" he cried, tumbling into the +car. + +"You shouldn't have refused to take me with you," said Tinker, +preparing to slip over the other side on to anyone's head. + +"What haf you broke? What haf you broke?" cried Herr Schlugst, looking +round at the instruments with a practised eye, and seeing them unharmed. + +"Nothing. What should I break anything for?" said Tinker scornfully. + +"No; dere is nodings broke, schoundrel. But vere--vere is mine von +tousand pound? I ask you! Vare is mine von tousand pound! You haf +ruined me! Ruined me!" + +"Oh, that's all right!" said Tinker. "I had a passenger who paid his +fare. Here are two thousand pounds." And he gave him two of the notes. + +Herr Schlugst opened his mouth and stared at the notes, "Doo tousand +pound! Doo tousand pound!" he muttered thickly. "You vas von +vonder-child! Von vonder-child!" + +Tinker bade him good-bye, and slipped out of the car, leaving him to +fly to some smooth place in the environs, where he could dismantle his +machine. Sir Tancred was too thankful for Tinker's safety to be very +angry with him: and they descended the tower surrounded by gendarmes, +who were put to it to preserve Tinker from the embraces of excited +persons of either sex. One fat Frenchman, indeed, kissed him on both +cheeks, crying, "Vive le rosbif! vive le rosbif!" before he could ward +him off. + +At the bottom of the tower Mr. Blumenruth, radiant and triumphant, +burst through the throng, flung himself upon them, and dragged them to +a smart victoria which awaited them. He told them joyously that he had +cleared eighty-seven thousand pounds, and protested that they should be +his guests at his hotel as long as they stayed in Paris. On the way to +it Sir Tancred got down to buy some cigars, and he was barely in the +shop when the financier said in a jerky way to Tinker, "I saw a very +neat little motor-car, which I should like to make you a present of. +But I say--I don't want you to tell anyone--how--how ill I was up +there. My spirit was all right, of course; but that rarefied +air--acting on business worries--produced a state of nervous +prostration. I--I wasn't quite myself, in fact." + +Tinker looked at him with intelligent interest, and, closing one of his +sunny blue eyes, said thoughtfully, "Nervous prostration? Is the motor +a Panhard?" + +"Yes," said Mr. Blumenruth. + +"If you hadn't been so--so--upset, I've no doubt you'd have sailed the +machine yourself," said Tinker warmly. + + + + +CHAPTER EIGHT + +THE BARON AND THE MONEY-LENDER + +Sir Tancred would only stay four days in Paris with the grateful +Blumenruth, because he wished Hildebrand Anne to have the sea air, for +it seemed to him that he had not yet got back his full strength after +the scarlet fever. They returned, therefore, to Brighton, and when the +weather grew hotter, removed to the more bracing East Coast. Tinker +was for sharing the three thousand pounds he had made out of his trip +in the flying-machine equally with his father; but Sir Tancred would +not hear of it. Chiefly to please him, however, he borrowed a thousand +of it at five per cent., and invested the rest in Tinker's name. With +this thousand-pound note and three notes of fifty pounds, he paid off +the loan of a thousand pounds which he had borrowed from Mr. Robert +Lambert, a money-lender, five years before, with the balance of the +interest up to date, and found himself once more unencumbered save for +a few small debts, and with plenty of money for his immediate needs. + +During August and September they stayed at different country houses; +and Fortune being in a kindly mood, the money remained untouched. In +the middle of October they came to London to their usual rooms in the +Hotel Cecil; and Sir Tancred was one morning at breakfast disagreeably +surprised to receive from Mr. Robert Lambert a demand for the immediate +payment of 1450 pounds. At first he thought it was a mistake, then he +remembered that he had paid Mr. Lambert in notes; and that Mr. Lambert +had promised to get at once from his bank the promissory note on which +the money had been borrowed, and send it to him. The promissory note +had not come, and the matter had passed from Sir Tancred's mind. Now, +he perceived that, if Mr. Lambert chose to deny that payment, he was in +no little of a plight. + +After breakfast, therefore, he took a hansom, and drove to Mr. +Lambert's office. The worthy money-lender received him at once, and +with no less delay began to deny with every appearance of honest +indignation that he had been paid the debt. Sir Tancred grew +exceedingly disagreeable; he set forth with perfect frankness his +opinion of Mr. Lambert's character, declared that he would rather go to +that uncomfortable abode of contemptuous debtors, Holloway, than be +swindled in so barefaced a fashion; and exclaiming, "You may go to your +native Jericho, before I pay you a farthing, you thieving rascal!" went +out of the office, and banged the door behind him. + +The worthy money-lender smiled an uncomfortable and malignant smile at +the banged door, and at once gave instructions to his manager to take +proceedings. Sir Tancred explained the transaction to Tinker; warned +him against laxness in matters of business; prepared for immediate +flight; and they caught the midnight mail from Euston. By the time an +indefatigable bailiff had ascertained next day that they had left +London, they were eating their dinner, in a secure peace, at Ardrochan +Lodge in Ardrochan forest, which Sir Tancred had borrowed for the while +from his friend Lord Crosland. + +Hildebrand Anne was used to long periods unenlivened by companions of +his own age; and he began forthwith to make the best of the forest. +Some days he stalked the red deer with his father; some days were +devoted to his education, fencing, boxing, and gymnastics; and on the +others he explored the forest on a shaggy pony. It was of a +comfortable size, forty square miles or thereabouts, stretches of wild +heath, broken by strips of wood, craggy hills, and swamps, full of +streams, and abounding in many kinds of animals. It was an admirable +place for Indians, outlaws, brigands, and robber barons, and Tinker +practised all these professions in turn, with the liveliest +satisfaction. + +At first it was something of a tax on his imagination to be a whole +band of these engaging persons himself; with one companion it would +have been easy enough, but his imagination presently compassed the +task. And when he found his way to the Deil's Den, a low stone tower +on a hill some six miles from Ardrochan, his favourite occupation was +that of robber baron. It would have been more proper to put the tower +to its old use of a lair of a Highland cateran; but, to his shame, +Tinker funked the dialect with which such a person must necessarily be +cursed. + +The Deil's Den had earned its name in earlier centuries from the bloody +deeds of its first owners. No gillie would go within a mile of it, +even in bright sunshine. Tinker's carelessness of its ghosts, a +headless woman and a redheaded man with his throat cut, had won him the +deepest respect of the village, or rather hamlet, of Ardrochan. Twice +he had constrained himself to wait in the tower till dusk, in the hope +that his fearful, but inquiring, spirit would be gratified by the sight +of one or other of these psychic curiosities. + +It was a two-storied building, and its stone seemed likely to last as +long as the hills from which it had been quarried. In some thought +that it might be used as a watch-tower by his keepers, Lord Crosland +had repaired its inside, and fitted it with a stout door and two +ladders, one running to the second story and another to the roof. From +here the keen eyes of Hildebrand Anne, Baron of Ardrochan, scanned +often the countryside, looking for travelling merchants or wandering +knights; while his gallant steed Black Rudolph, whose coat was drab and +dingy, waited saddled and bridled below, and Blazer the bloodhound +sniffed about the burn hard by. Blazer had a weakness for rats quite +uncommon in bloodhounds. + +Tinker cherished but a faint hope that Fortune would ever send him a +prisoner, even a braw, shock-headed lad, or sonsie, savage lassie of +the country. But he did not do justice to that goddess's love of +mischief. It was she who inspired into Mr. Robert Lambert the desire +to shine in the Great World; and it was she who gave him the idea of +taking for the season Lord Hardacre's house and forest of Tullispaith, +in lieu of the cash which he would never get. Thither he invited +certain spirited young clients, who had practically only the choice of +being Mr. Lambert's guests at Tullispaith or King Edward's at Holloway. +Thither he came, a week beforehand, to make ready for them. + +At once he set about becoming an accomplished deer-stalker. For three +days he rode, or tramped, about the forest of Tullispaith, in search of +red deer which, in quite foolish estimate of their peril, insisted +always on putting a hill between themselves and his rifle. On the +fourth day he rested, for though his spirit was willing, his legs were +weak. This inactivity irked him, for he knew the tireless energy of +the English sportsman; and at noon Fortune inspired him with the most +disastrous idea of all, the idea of taking a stroll by himself. He +took his rifle and a packet of sandwiches, and set out. Now to the +unpractised eye any one brae, or glen, or burn of bonnie Scotland is +exactly like any other brae, or glen, or burn of that picturesque land. +He had not gone two miles before he had lost his way. + +He did not mind, for he was sure that he knew his direction. He was +wrong; he may have been like his Oriental ancestors in some of his +qualities, but he lacked their ingrained sense of orientation; and he +was walking steadily away from the house of Tullispaith. He rested +often and he looked often at his watch. He passed over the border of +Tullispaith into the forest of Ardrochan, and wandered wearily on and +on. The autumn sun was moving down the western sky at a disquieting +speed, when at last he caught sight of the Dell's Den, and with a new +energy hurried towards it. + +At about the same time Hildebrand Anne, the robber baron of Ardrochan, +caught sight of him, mounted Black Rudolph, and rode down to meet him, +ready to drag or lure him to his stronghold. The angel face of Tinker +had never looked more angelic to human being than it looked to the +weary money-lender. He had never seen him before; therefore, he had no +reason to suppose that that face was not the index to an angelic +nature. Unfortunately, Tinker knew by sight most of his father's +friends and enemies, and at the first glance he recognised the squat +figure, the thick, square nose, and muddy complexion of Mr. Robert +Lambert. + +"My lad," said the money-lender, failing to perceive that he was +addressing one of the worst kind of man in all romance, "I've lost my +way. I want to get to the house of Tullispaith. Which is the road?" + +"There is no road; and it's eight miles away," said Tinker, knitting +his brow into the gloomy and forbidding frown of a robber baron. + +"Eight miles! What am I to do? Where is the nearest place I can get a +conveyance?" + +"It would be a twenty-mile drive if you got a cart, and there's no cart +nearer than Ardrochan, and that's six miles away." + +"Well, then, a horse, or a pony, and a guide?" + +"You could get a pony at Hamish Beg's; and one of his sons could guide +you." + +"Where does he live? How can I get there?" + +"Three miles the other side of that tower." + +"Will you show me the way? I'll give you--I'll give you half-a-crown." + +"Hildebrand Anne of Ardrochan is not the hired varlet of every +wandering chapster," said Tinker with a splendid air. + +"I'm not a wandering chapster," said the money-lender. "I'm a +gentleman of London. I'll give you five shillings--half a sovereign--a +pound!" + +"The offer of money to one in whose veins flows the proudest blood of +the North is an insult!" said Tinker in a terrible voice. + +"No offence! No offence!" said Mr. Lambert, cursing what he believed +to be the penniless Highland pride under his breath. + +Suddenly Tinker saw his way. "From the top of yon tower I can show you +the path to Hamish Beg's. Follow me," he said, turned his pony, and +led the way up the hill with a sinister air. + +With a groan, the money-lender, quite unobservant of the sinister air, +breasted the ascent. He set down his rifle by the door of the tower, +and followed Tinker up the ladders. + +"You see those two pine trees between those two far hills?" said Tinker. + +Mr. Lambert drew round his field-glasses, and after long fumbling, +focussed them on the pines. "Well?" he said. + +There was no answer; he turned to his angel guide, and found himself +alone on the tower. He ran to the top of the ladder and looked down. +At the bottom stood Tinker regarding him with an excellent sardonic +smile: "Ha! ha!" he cried in a gruff, triumphant voice, +"Trapped--trapped!" And he turned on his heel. + +The money-lender heard the door slam and the key turn in the lock. He +ran to the parapet, and saw Tinker mounting his pony with an easy grace +and the air of one who has performed a meritorious action. + +"Hi! Hullo! What are you up to?" cried Mr. Lambert. + +"Foul extortioner! Your crimes have found you out! You have consigned +many a poor soul to the dungeon, it is your turn now," said Tinker with +admirable grandiloquence. Then, dropping to his ordinary voice, he +added plaintively: "Of course it's not really a dungeon; it ought to be +underground--with rats. But we must make the best of it." + +"Look here, my lad," said Mr. Lambert thickly. "I don't want any of +your silly games! I shall be late enough home as it is. You unlock +that door, and show me the way to this Beg's at once! D'ye hear?" + +Tinker laughed a good scornful laugh. "Lambert of London," he said, +returning to the romantic vein, "to-night reflect on your misdeeds. +To-morrow we will treat of your ransom. Hans Breithelm and Jorgan +Schwartz, ye answer for this caitiff's safe keeping with your heads! I +charge ye watch him well. To horse, my brave men. We ride to +Ardrochan!" And he turned his pony. + +[Illustration: "To-night reflect on your misdeeds. To-morrow we will +treat of your ransom."] + +The money-lender broke into threats and abuse; then, as the pony drew +further away, he passed to entreaties. Tinker never turned his head; +he rode on, brimming with joyous triumph; he had a real prisoner. + +Mr. Lambert shouted after him till he was hoarse, he shouted after him +till his voice was a wheezy croak. Tinker passed out of sight without +a glance back, and, for a while, that iron-hearted, inexorable man of +many loans, sobbed like a child with mingled rage and fear. Then he +scrambled down the ladder, and tried the door. There was no chance of +his bursting it open; that was a feat far beyond his strength; and +though he might have worked the rusted bars out of the window, he could +never have forced his rotundity through it. Then he bethought himself +of passers-by, and hurried to the top of the tower. There was no one +in sight. He shouted and shouted till he lost his voice again; the +echoes died away among the empty hills. He leaned upon the parapet +waiting, with the faintest hope that the diabolical boy would tire of +his joke, return, and set him free. Again and again he asked himself +who was this boy who had recognised him in this Scotch desert. + +The dusk gathered till he could not see a hundred yards from the tower. +Then he came down, struck a match, and examined the bottom room; it was +being borne in upon him that he was destined to spend the night in it. +It was some twelve feet square, and the stone floor was clean. In one +corner was a pile of heather; but there was no way of stopping up the +window, and the night was setting in chill. + +He went back to the top of the tower; it was dark now. He shouted +again. The conviction of the hopelessness of his plight was taking a +strong hold upon him, and he was growing hungry. He stamped wearily +round the top of the tower to warm his chilling body, pondering a +hundred futile plans of escape, breaking off to consign to perdition +the deceptive angel child, and meditating many different revenges. At +the end of an hour he went down the ladder, and flung himself on the +pile of heather in a paroxysm of despair. + +Till nearly ten o'clock he went now and again to the top of the tower, +and shouted. He was beginning to grow very hungry. At ten o'clock he +buried himself in the heather, and slept for an hour. He awoke cold +and stiff, and his sensitive stomach, used to the tenderest indulgence, +was clamouring angrily. He was learning what the cold and hunger, +which, by a skilful manipulation of the laws of his adopted country, he +had been able to mete out to many foolish innocents with no grudging +hand, really were. He went to the top of the tower, and shouted +fruitlessly; he warmed himself by stamping up and down; then he came +and slept again. This was his round all the night through: snatches of +uneasy sleep, cold and hungry awakenings, shoutings, and stampings +round the top of the tower. + +Meanwhile Tinker had ridden joyously home, and shown himself in such +cheerful spirits during dinner that Sir Tancred had observed him with +no little suspicion, wondering if it could really be that he had found +opportunities of mischief even in a deer-forest. After dinner Tinker +went into the kitchen, where he found Hamish Beg supping. He talked to +him for a while, on matters of sport; then he said, "I say, you told me +about the headless woman and the red-headed man with his throat cut, at +the Deil's Den, but you never told me about the man in brown who shouts +and waves from the top of the tower, and when you come to it, it's +empty." + +Hamish, the cook, and the two maids burst into a torrent of +exclamations in their strange language. "Yes," said Tinker, "a man in +brown who shouts and waves from the top of the tower, and when you come +to it, no one's there." + +He kept his story to this, and presently came back to his father, +assured that the more loudly Mr. Lambert yelled, and the more wildly he +waved, the further would any inhabitant of Ardrochan fly from the +Deil's Den. He went to bed in a gloating joy, which kept him awake a +while; and it was during those wakeful moments that a memory of "Monte +Cristo" suggested that he should gain a practical advantage from what +had so far been merely an act of abstract justice. + +It was past eleven when Tinker came riding over the hills at the head +of his merry, but imaginary men. Horribly hungry, but warmed by the +sun to a quite passable malignity, the money-lender watched his coming +from the top of the tower, pondering how to catch him and thrash him +within an inch of his life. He did not know that far more active men +than he had cherished vainly that arrogant ambition, but Tinker's +cheerful and confident air afforded little encouragement to his purpose. + +"Halt!" cried the robber baron, reining up his pony. "Hans and Jorgan, +is your captive safe? Good. Bring him forth." He turned to his +invisible band. "To your quarters, varlets! I would confer alone with +the usurious"--he rolled the satisfying word finely off his +tongue--"rogue." + +Hand on hip he sat, and watched his merry figments dismount and lead +away their horses. + +He turned, and frowned splendidly on the prisoner. "What think ye of +our hospitality, Lambert of London?" he said. + +Mr. Lambert scowled; his emotion was too deep for words. + +Suddenly Tinker dropped the robber baron, and became his frank and +engaging self: "I'm sorry to be so late," he said with a charming air +of apology, "but I had to send a message to Tullispaith to say that you +would not be back till Saturday, or perhaps Monday." + +"What!" screamed Mr. Lambert. "What do you mean?" + +"Well, I didn't want them to hunt for you. I'm going to keep you here +till you do what I want," said Tinker with a seraphic smile. + +"You young rascal! You mean to try and keep me here!" screamed Mr. +Lambert, jumping about in a light, but ungainly fashion. "Oh, I'll +teach you! I'll make you repent this till your dying day! You think +you can keep me here! You shall see. The first shepherd, the first +keeper who passes will let me out. And I won't rest"--and he swore an +oath quite unfit for boyish ears--"till I've hunted you down!" + +"No one will come within a mile of the Deil's Den," said the unruffled +Tinker. "It's haunted by a headless woman and a redheaded man with his +throat cut. But perhaps you've seen them. Besides, I've told them +that there's a man in brown who shouts and waves, and then disappears +when anyone comes to the tower. Why, if they see you, they'll run for +their lives." He spoke with a convicting quietness. + +Mr. Lambert doubled up over the parapet in a gasping anguish. + +"You're not going to leave here till you give me a letter for your +clerk, telling him to hand over Sir Tancred Beauleigh's promissory +note," said Tinker. + +Mr. Lambert rejected the suggestion in extravagant language. + +"You bandy words with me!" cried the Baron Hildebrand Anne of +Ardrochan. "Lambert of London, beware! Think, rash rogue, on your +grinders! Hans and Jorgan, prepare the red-hot pincers! You have a +quarter of an hour to reflect, Lambert." + +He flung himself off his pony, tethered it, strode down to the spring +which trickled out of the hillside some forty yards away, and came back +bearing a big jug full of water. + +Mr. Lambert watched him in a bursting fury, at whiles scanning the +empty hills with a raging eye. Suddenly light dawned on him: "Are you +the boy who stole the flying-machine?" he cried. + +"You mind your own business!" said Tinker tartly; it was his cherished +belief that he had borrowed the flying-machine. + +Mr. Lambert understood at last with whom he had to deal; and the +knowledge was not cheering. His angry stomach clamoured at him to come +to terms, but his greed was still too strong for it. + +"The time is up, Lambert of London!" said Tinker presently, very +sternly. "Will you ransom your base carcase?" + +The money-lender turned his back on him with a lofty dignity. + +"Ha! ha! Hunger shall tame that proud spirit!" said the Baron of +Ardrochan. + +Suddenly the money-lender heard the door opened, and he dashed for the +ladder. He scrambled down it in time to hear the key turn again, but +the jug of water stood inside. He took it up and drank a deep draught. +He had not known that he was so thirsty, never dreamed that water could +be so appetising. He heard Tinker summon his men, and when he came +back to the top of the tower, he was riding away. He watched him go +with a sinking heart, and, since he was so empty, it had a good depth +to sink to. Twice he opened his mouth to call him back, but greed +prevailed. + +The day wore wearily through. His spoilt stomach was now raving at him +in a savage frenzy. Now and again he shouted, but less often as the +afternoon drew on, for he knew surely that it was hopeless. + +As the dusk fell, he found himself remembering Tinker's words about the +headless woman and the redheaded man, and began to curse his folly in +not having come to terms. At times his hunger was a veritable anguish. +This night was a thousand times worse than the night before. His +hunger gave him little rest, and he awoke from his brief sleep in fits +of abject terror, fancying that the redheaded man was staring in +through the window; he saw his gashed throat quite plainly. He grew +colder and colder, for he was too faint with hunger to stamp about the +top of the tower. Later he must have grown delirious, for he saw the +headless woman climbing up the ladder to the second story. It must +have been delirium, for the figure he saw wore an ordinary nightrail, +whereas the lady of the legend wore a russet gown. Some years later, +as it seemed to him, the dawn came. It grew warmer; and he huddled +into the pile of heather and slept. + +He was awakened by a shout of "Lambert of London, awake!" and tottering +to the window, groaning, he beheld a cold grouse, a three-pound chunk +of venison, two loaves, and a small bottle of whiskey neatly set out on +a napkin. His mouth opened and shut, and opened and shut. + +"The letter, rogue! Are you going to give me the letter?" shouted the +Baron Hildebrand Anne fiercely. + +Mr. Lambert tore himself from the window, and flung himself down on the +heather, sobbing. "Fourteen hundred and fifty pounds!" he moaned, +"Fourteen hundred and fifty pounds!--and costs!" Suddenly his wits +cleared . . . What a fool he'd been! . . . Why shouldn't he give the +boy the letter, and wire countermanding his instructions? . . . Oh, he +had been a fool! + +He hurried to the window, and cried, "Yes, yes, I'll give it you! Give +me the paper. I've got a fountain pen!" + +"You'd better have a drink of whiskey first; your hand will be too +shaky to write your usual handwriting," said the thoughtful Tinker, +handing him the bottle along with the note-paper. + +Mr. Lambert took a drink, and indeed it steadied his hand. Sure that +he could make it useless, he wrote a careful and complete letter, lying +at full length on the floor, his only possible writing table. + +He scrambled up, and thrust it through the window, crying, "Here you +are! Let me out!" + +Tinker spelled the letter carefully through, and put it into another +letter he had already prepared to send to Sir Tancred's solicitors. +Then he handed the money-lender a thick venison sandwich, cut while he +had been writing. + +The tears ran down Mr. Lambert's face as his furious jaws bit into it. + +"Don't wolf it!" said Tinker sternly. "Starving men should feed +slowly." + +Mr. Lambert had no restraint; he did wolf it. Then he asked for more. + +"In a quarter of an hour," said Tinker, and he gave him nothing sooner +for all his clamorous entreaties. + +After a second sandwich the money-lender was another man, and Tinker, +seeing that he was not ill, said, "I must be going; I have a long ride +to post this letter"; and he began to hand in the rest of the food +through the window. + +"Be careful not to eat it all up at once," he said. "It's got to last +you till to-morrow." + +"What's this! What's this!" cried Mr. Lambert. "You promised to +release me when you got the letter!" + +"When I get the promissory note, or when my father's solicitor gets it. +I've told him to wire." + +The money-lender snarled like a dog; his brilliant idea had proved of +no good. He stormed and stormed; Tinker was cheerful, but indifferent. +He thrust a rug he had brought with him through the window, summoned +his phantom band, and rode away. + +Mr. Lambert spent a gloomy, but, thanks to the soothing of his stomach, +a not uncomfortable day. He was very sad that he had lost the chance +of swindling Sir Tancred Beauleigh out of 1450 pounds; and his sadness +and an occasional twinge of rheumatism filled him with thoughts of +revenge. Slowly he formed a plan of disabling Tinker by an unexpected +kick when he opened the door, thrashing him within an inch of his life, +riding off on his pony, and leaving him helpless, to starve or not, +according as he might be found. This plan was a real comfort to him. +He passed an unhaunted night; and next morning Tinker brought him more +food. For some hours he played at robber baron, and now and again held +conversations about the money-lender with his band. None of them +contained compliments. Mr. Lambert watched him with a sulky malignity, +and matured his plan. + +The next morning he awoke late, but very cheerful at the prospect of +freedom and revenge. He came to the window rubbing his hands joyfully, +and saw a little parcel hanging from the bars. He opened it, and found +the key of the door, a little compass, and a letter. Swearing at his +vanished chance of revenge, he opened it; it ran: + +Fly at once. Steer N. E. for Tulyspathe. Hamish believes you are +uncanny, and has molded a silver bullet out of a half crown to lay your +resless spirrit with. His rifel is oldfashuned, but he will not miss +and waist the half crown he is so thriffty. + +A SEKRET WORNER. + + +Mr. Lambert steered N.E. at once; he went not like the wind, but as +much like the wind as his soft, short legs would carry him. He scanned +every bush and gully with fearful eyes; he gave every thicket a wide +berth, and every time he saw Hamish, and he saw him behind a thousand +bushes and boulders, he shouted: "I'm Mr. Lambert from London, I'm not +a spirit!" + +It was, indeed, a wasted and dirty money-lender who reached Tullispaith +late in the day. He had but one thought in his mind, to fly +immediately after dinner from this expansive and terrifying country. +He wired to his guests not to come; he discharged his servants; and as +he crossed the border next day, he bade farewell to the stern and wild +Caledonia in a most impressive malediction. + +When Sir Tancred Beauleigh received his lawyer's letter containing the +promissory note, he was not a little bewildered; Tinker was quick to +enlighten him; and he heard that angel child's explanation of his +application of mediaeval German methods to a modern monetary difficulty +with a grateful astonishment. + + + + +CHAPTER NINE + +TINKER INTERVENES + +Sir Tancred lingered on at Ardrochan Lodge, for he saw that in that +strong air Tinker was losing the last of the delicacy which had been +the effect of his attack of scarlet fever. And when Lord Crosland and +two other men joined him there, he was very well contented. The others +shared his content; Tinker, more and more the Baron Hildebrand of +Ardrochan, was quite happy, and there they stayed till the Scotch +winter came down on them in all its fell severity. + +Then they moved southwards to Melton Mowbray, and hunted till the frost +put an end to that sport. On the third night of the frost, as they +were cutting for partners for a fresh rubber of bridge, Lord Crosland +said: "I tell you what, Beauleigh, the sooner we get out of this +weather the better. Let's be off to Monte Carlo, make up a pool, and +try that system of yours." + +"It's a very good idea," said Sir Tancred. "The only question is +whether the English winter isn't good for Tinker. It's hardening, you +know." + +"Always Tinker," said Lord Crosland with a smile. "I tell you what, +Nature ought to have made you a woman: what a splendid mother you'd +have made!" + +"I think she'd have found she'd made a pretty bad mistake," said Sir +Tancred. + +"Besides," said Lord Crosland, "the Admirable is as hard as a tenpenny +nail as it is. I've never seen the little beggar tired yet; and I've +seen him at the end of some hardish days." + +"Well, we'll see," said Sir Tancred. "We're partners." And the game +went on. + +Next morning he asked Tinker if he would like to go to the south of +France, or stay and be hardened. Tinker thought a while, made up his +mind that his father would like to go to the South of France, and said, +"I think I'm hard enough, sir,--to go on with. Besides, + + "When the wind is in the East + It's neither fit for man nor beast. + +In fact it shrivels me up. I should like some sunshine." + +"Then we will go," said Sir Tancred. + +Accordingly, the middle of the next week found them lodged at the Hotel +des Princes, Monte Carlo, enjoying the nourishing sunshine of the +Riviera. At least Tinker was enjoying it; the demands of a system +required his father and Lord Crosland to spend most of their day in the +darker, though hardly cooler air of the Temple of Fortune. But the +system went well, and they did not repine. + +The first time he dined in the restaurant of the hotel, Sir Tancred was +disagreeably surprised to see sitting at a neighbouring table his +loathed uncle, Sir Everard Wigram. They had met now and again during +the past nine years; but as such a meeting had always resulted in some +severe wound to the Baronet's dignity, he shunned his nephew like the +pest, and abused him from a distance. At the same table sat a +charming, peach-complexioned English girl. After a careful scrutiny of +her, Sir Tancred decided that she must be his cousin Claire, Sir +Everard's eldest child, and admitted with a very grudging reluctance +that even the rule that thorns do not produce grapes is proved by +exceptions. The third person at their table was a handsome young man, +with glossy black hair, a high-coloured, florid face, and a roving +black eye. Sir Tancred's gaze rested on him with a malicious +satisfaction; he knew all about Mr. Arthur Courtnay. + +Presently Lord Crosland's eye fell on that table. "Hullo!" he said +sharply. "How on earth comes that bounder Courtnay to be dining with +the Wigrams?" + +"Like to like," said Sir Tancred with a surprising, cheerful animation. + +A few mornings later Sir Tancred, Tinker, and Lord Crosland were +sitting in the gardens of the Temple of Fortune, and on a bench hard by +sat Claire and Courtnay. He was bending over her, talking volubly, in +a loverlike attitude, exceedingly offensive in so public a place. To +Sir Tancred's shrewd eyes he seemed to be deliberately advertising +their intimacy. She was gazing dreamily before her with happy eyes, +over the sea. Lord Crosland grew more and more fidgety; and at last he +said hotly, "You ought to interfere!" + +"Not I!" said Sir Tancred. "I'm not going to interfere. I have enough +to do to keep Tinker out of mischief without acting as dry-nurse to the +children of Uncle Bumpkin." + +"But hang it all, the man's a regular bad hat!" said Lord Crosland. +"He was advised to resign from the Bridge Club, and I happen to know +that he is actually wanted in London about a cheque." + +"And in Paris, Berlin, Petersburg, Vienna, and Buda-Pesth. Men who +speak French as well as he does always are," said Sir Tancred. "Which +reminds me, Tinker, your accent is getting too good. The honest +English tongue was never made to speak French like a Frenchman. Let up +on it a little." + +"Yes, sir," said Hildebrand Anne. + +"But you ought to do something, don't you know?" said Lord Crosland. +"The child's very pretty, and nice, and sweet, and all that. It would +be no end of a shame if she came to grief with that bounder Courtnay." + +"I won't stir a finger," said Sir Tancred firmly, "for two reasons. +One, Bumpkin Wigram helped my stepmother spoil my early life; two, if +this bounder Courtnay has got round Bumpkin words would be wasted. +Bumpkin is as dense and as obstinate as any clodhopper who ever chawed +bacon." + +"But she's a pretty child and worth saving," said Lord Crosland. "What +do you think, Tinker?" + +"I should think she was rather inexperienced," said Hildebrand Anne, +with admirable judgment. + +"Solomon, va!" said Lord Crosland, clutching the boy's ribs, and +drawing from him a sudden yell. + +"Well, come along; we have a hard day's work before us," said Sir +Tancred; and the two of them rose and strolled off towards the Temple +of Fortune. + +They left Tinker sitting still and thoughtful, the prey of a case of +conscience. He knew the story of his father's marriage, his separation +from his wife by the action of Lady Beauleigh and Sir Everard. He had +been trained to detest them, and to believe any revenge on them a mere +act of justice. But his dead mother was but a shadowy figure to him, +and this girl was very charming, and sweet, and kind, for he had had a +long talk with her one evening, and she had shared a box of chocolates +with him. Did those chocolates constitute the tie of bread and salt +between them which his father had taught him was so binding? He wished +to help the girl, therefore he made up his mind that they did. With a +sigh of satisfaction he rose, sauntered up to the absorbed lovers, and +began to parade up and down before them. His nearness put something of +a check on the eloquence of Mr. Arthur Courtnay, and every time +Tinker's shadow fell on them he looked up and frowned. + +At last he said, "Go away, my lad, and play somewhere else." + +"I don't want any cheek from a hairdresser's assistant," said Tinker +with blithe readiness. + +There is nothing so wounding as the truth, and Courtnay knew that he +was weak about the hair; he never could bring himself to keep it +properly cropped; it was so glossy. His florid face became quickly +florider, and he cried, "You impudent young dog!" + +"Do not speak to me until you've been introduced. You're always +forcing your acquaintance upon someone, Roland Macassar," said Tinker. + +It was again the wounding truth; and Courtnay sprang up and dashed for +him. Tinker bolted round a group of shrubs, Courtnay after him. +Finding him unpleasantly quick on his feet Tinker bolted into the +shrubs. Courtnay plunged after him right into a well-grown specimen of +the flowering cactus. It brought him up short. He began to swear, and +though he could have sworn with equal fluency and infelicity in French, +German, or Italian, in the depth of his genuine emotion he returned to +the tongue of his boyhood, and swore in English. When he came out of +the shrubs, adorned on one side of his face and both hands with neat +little beads of blood, he found that Claire had risen from her seat, +and was looking shocked, surprised, and worst of all, disgusted. He +did not mend matters much by mixing his apologies with threats of +vengeance on Tinker; but his temper, once out of control, was not +easily curbed. He made a most unfortunate impression on her; the beads +of blood scarcely excited her pity at all. + +Meanwhile Tinker had taken advantage of his pursuer's meeting with the +cactus to leave the terrace swiftly. He went back to the Hotel des +Princes, and took out Blazer for a walk, and as he walked, his +seraph-like face glowed with the pleasantest complacency. Blazer did +not like Monte Carlo at all; for him there was no sport and little +exercise in it; Tinker liked it very much. He had made many friends in +it, and enjoyed many amusements, the chief a pleasant, perpetual war +against the heavy, liveried guardians of the gambling rooms. It was +his opinion that people came to Monte Carlo to gamble; it was the +opinion of the Societe des Bains de Mer de Monte Carlo that children +ought not to be admitted to the tables. They asserted their opinion; +and Tinker asserted his, with the result that his bolt into the Salles +de Jeu and his difficult extrication from them by the brawny, but +liveried officials was fast becoming one of the events of the day. +Sometimes Tinker would make his bolt from the outermost portal; +sometimes, with the decorous air of one going to church, he would join +the throng filing into the concert room, and bolt from the midst of it. +The process of expulsion was always conducted with the greatest +courtesy on either side; for his bolt had become an agreeable variety +in the monotonous lives of the guardians; they never knew when or in +what fashion it would come next. + +Now he had another occupation, the shadowing of Mr. Arthur Courtnay. +That florid Adonis never grew used to hearing a gentle voice singing +softly: + + "Get your hair cut! Get your hair cut!" + +or, + + "Oh, Tatcho! Oh, Tatcho! + Rejoice, ye bald and weary men! + You'll soon be regular hairy men! + Sing! Rejoice! Let your voices go! + Sprinkle some on your cranium! + What, ho! Tatcho!" + + +The poetry was vulgar; but long ago his insight into the heart of man +had taught Tinker to attack the vulgar with the only weapon effective +against them, vulgarity. + +Sooner or later, whether he was walking, or sitting with Claire, those +vulgar strains would be wafted to Mr. Arthur Courtnay's ears, and they +injured his cause. They kept alive in the girl's mind an uneasy doubt +whether her father was right in asserting Arthur Courtnay to be one of +the nicest fellows he had ever met, a veritable gentleman of the old +school, an opinion founded on the fact that Courtnay was the only man +who had ever given two hours' close attention to his views on +Protection. + +But, for all this lurking doubt, Courtnay's influence over her was +growing stronger and stronger. He was forever appealing to her pity by +telling her of the hard and lonely life he had lived since his father, +a poor gentleman of good family, had died in exile at Boulogne. +Really, his father, a stout but impecunious horse-dealer of the name of +Budgett, certainly in exile at Boulogne owing to a standing difference +with the bankruptcy laws of his country, was alive still. But Arthur +was very fond of himself, and once in the mood of self-pity, he could +invent pathetic anecdote after pathetic anecdote of his privations +which would have touched the heart of a hardened grandmother, much more +of a susceptible girl. She fell into the way of calling him "King +Arthur" to herself. + +He devoted himself to winning her with an unrelaxing energy, for she +had forty thousand pounds of her own. + +But he cared very little for her, and sometimes he found his +love-making hard work. She was not the type of girl whom he admired; +her delicacy irritated him; he preferred what the poet has called "an +armful of girl," buxom and hearty. Often, therefore, when she had gone +to bed, he would refresh himself by a vigorous flirtation with Madame +Seraphine de Belle-Ile, a brisk and vivacious young widow, who affected +always gowns of a peculiarly vivid and searching scarlet. And this +self-indulgence proved in the end the ruin of his fine scheme of +establishing himself in life on a sound monetary basis. + +Tinker was about to get into bed one evening, and found himself slow +about it. His conscience was worrying him about some duty left undone, +and he could not remember what the duty was. Of a sudden his terrible +omission flashed into his mind: in his patient application to the task +of shadowing and annoying Mr. Arthur Courtnay he had forgotten his +daily bolt into the gambling rooms. Reluctant, but firm, he slipped on +his pumps and went downstairs. Four minutes later the feverish +gamblers in the Salles de Jeu were gratified by the sight of a +seraph-like child in blue silk pyjamas who flew gaily round the tables +pursued by two stout and joyfully excited Southern Europeans in livery. +The pursuit was lively, but short, for Tinker ran into the arms of a +wily croupier who had slipped from his seat, and unexpectedly joined +the chase. He was handed over to his pursuers and conducted from the +rooms, amidst the plaudits of the gamblers. He bade good-night to his +liveried friends on the threshold of the Casino, congratulating them on +their increasing efficiency in "Le Sport," and warm, but happy with the +sense of one more duty done, he strolled into the gardens to cool. + +[Illustration: The pursuit was lively, but short.] + +He was noiseless in his pumps, and coming quietly round a clump of +shrubs, he caught Mr. Arthur Courtnay in the act of trying to kiss +Madame de Belle-Ile with a fervour only justified by the most romantic +attachment. + +"Oh!" said Tinker reproachfully; and even more reproachfully he began +to sing: + +"Coupez vos cheveux! Coupez vos cheveux!" + + +With an execration which was by no means muttered, Mr. Arthur Courtnay +sprang up. Tinker darted away, and Courtnay followed. They pelted +through the gardens, Courtnay gaining; but as he passed a couple of +gendarmes standing in front of the Casino, Tinker yelled: "Gare le +voyou! Gare le voyou!" Instinctively the gendarmes flung themselves +before Courtnay, and his impetus brought the three of them to the +ground with some violence. + +With one fleeting glance behind, Tinker scudded on to the hotel, and +once safely in his room abandoned himself without restraint to +convulsions of inextinguishable delight. When he recovered his +habitual calm, he saw that Fortune had given him a weapon with which he +might save his cousin. + +Mr. Arthur Courtnay and the gendarmes picked themselves up; he made his +explanations, and wisely compensated them for the bruises they had +received in his fall. Then giving no more thought to Madame de +Belle-Ile, who sat awaiting him eagerly, he returned gloomily to his +hotel, reflecting on the carelessness which had delivered him into the +hands of an indefatigable imp of mischief. The upshot of his +reflection was a resolve to press his wooing to an immediate +conclusion. The next day and the day after, therefore, he redoubled +his lamentations that the smallness of his means prevented him from +going, as his natural honesty dictated, straight to Claire's father, +and asking for her hand, and protested that he dare not risk the loss +of her, which would work irreparable havoc in his life. It was only +another step to suggest that, once they were married, her father's +strong liking for him would soon bring about their forgiveness. He +pressed and pressed these points, pausing at times to declare the +vastness of his affection for her, until at last, against her better +judgment, and in spite of a lurking distrust of him, of which she could +not rid herself, she yielded to his persistence and the overwhelming +influence of his stronger personality, and consented to elope with him. + +Two days later, as Tinker, Sir Tancred, and Lord Crosland were at +dejeuner, Claire and Courtnay passed them on their way to the gardens. + +"I shouldn't wonder if those two ran away together," said Lord +Crosland; and his cheerful face fell gloomy. + +"They have the air," said Sir Tancred coolly. + +"Look here, you ought to interfere, don't you know? You ought, +really," said Lord Crosland, who had fallen under the fascination of +Claire's fresh charm. + +"Why don't _you_?" said Sir Tancred. + +"Well," said Lord Crosland uncomfortably, "I did go to Sir Everard, and +tell him to keep an eye on Courtnay; and he as good as told me to go +to--Jericho." + +"Just like Bumpkin," said Sir Tancred contemptuously. "I'll bet you a +fiver they bolt to-night--by the train _des decaves_." + +"I don't want to bet about it," said Lord Crosland very gloomily. + +Their talk made Tinker thoughtful. It would have been easy enough to +settle the matter by revealing Courtnay's injudicious display of +affection towards Madame de Belle-Ile, but that was not Tinker's way. +He had a passion for keeping things in his own hands, and a pretty eye +for dramatic possibilities. Besides, he had taken a great dislike to +Courtnay, and was eager to make his discomfiture signal. + +At half-past four in the afternoon he knocked at the door of Madame de +Belle-Ile's suite of rooms, and her maid conducted so prominent a +figure in Monte Carlo society straight to her mistress. + +Madame de Belle-Ile, having just changed from a bright scarlet costume +into a brighter, was taking her afternoon tea before returning to the +tables. + +"Bonjour, Monsieur le Vaurien," she said with a bright smile. "Have +you at last succeeded in gambling?" + +"No; it would be no pleasure to me to gamble unless your bright eyes +were shining on the table," said Tinker with a happy recollection of a +compliment he had overheard. + +"Farceur! Va!" said the lady with a pleased smile. + +"I came to ask if you would like to sup with Mr. Courtnay to-night?" +said the unscrupulous Tinker. + +"Ah, le bel Artur!" cried the lady. "But with pleasure. Where?" + +"Oh, in the restaurant of the hotel," said Tinker. + +The lady's face fell a little; she would have preferred to sup in a +less public place, one more suited to protestations of devotion. + +"At about eleven?" she said. + +"At half past," said Tinker. "And I think he'd like a note from you +accepting--it--it would please him, I'm sure. He--he--could take it +out, and look at it, you know." It was a little clumsy; but, though he +had thought it out carefully, it was the best that he could do. + +"You think so? What a lot we know about these things!" said Madame de +Belle-Ile with a pleased laugh; and she went forthwith to the +ecritoire, and in ten minutes composed the tenderest of billets-doux. +Tinker received it from her with a very lively satisfaction, and after +a few bonbons, and a desultory chat with her, escorted her down to the +Casino. + +The rest of the day seemed very long to his impatience, while to +Claire, harassed by vague doubt and real dread, it seemed exceedingly +short. When the hour for action came, she braced herself, by an +effort, to play her part; but it was with a sinking heart that she +stole, thickly veiled, and bearing a small hand-bag, out of the hotel +and down to the station. She was far too troubled to notice that she +was followed by two guardian angels in the shape of a small boy and a +brindled bull-terrier. + +Courtnay met her on the top of the steps which lead down to the +station; and when she found him in a most inharmonious mood of triumph, +she began, even so early, to repent of her rashness. Then went down to +the station as the train _des decaves_, the train of the stony-broke, +steamed in; and they settled themselves in an empty first-class +compartment. Her heart seemed to sink to her shoes as she felt the +train move. Then the door opened, and, hauling the panting Blazer by +the scruff of his neck, Tinker tumbled into the carriage. + +Claire gave a great gasp of relief: the sight of him gave her a faint +hope of escape; his presence was a respite. Tinker lifted Blazer on to +the seat between him and Courtnay, crying cheerfully, "I thought I'd +just missed you! I've got a note for you from Madame de Belle-Ile, and +I knew she'd never forgive me if I didn't give it to you!" + +Courtnay's florid face had already lost a little colour at the mere +intrusion of his inveterate persecutor that alone presaged disaster; at +his words his eyes displayed a lively, but uncomfortable tendency to +start out of his head. "I don't know what you mean!" he stuttered. "I +don't know Madame de Belle-Ile!" + +"You don't know Madame de Belle-Ile!" cried Tinker in well-affected +amazement and surprise. "Why, only three nights ago I saw you trying +to kiss her in the gardens!" + +"It's a lie!" roared Courtnay. + +"The Beauleighs don't lie," said Tinker curtly. + +For the moment, breathless with rage, Courtnay could find no words, and +Claire, very pale, stared from one to the other with startled, +searching eyes. + +"At any rate, here's her letter," said Tinker stiffly, holding it out +over Blazer's back. + +Claire stooped swiftly forward and took the letter. "I am the person +to read that letter," she said with a spirit Courtnay had never dreamed +of in her. "It is my right!" + +She tore it open, and had just time to read "Mon Artur adore," when +Courtnay, with a growl of rage, snatched it from her, and tore it into +pieces, crying, "I will not have you victimised by this mischievous +young dog! It's an absurd imposition! I claim your trust!" + +But the doubt of him which had lurked always in the bottom of Claire's +heart had sprung to sudden strength; she looked at him with eyes that +were veritably chilling in their coldness, and, turning to Tinker, she +said, "Is it true?" + +"It is--on my honour," said Tinker. + +There was a quivering movement in Claire's throat as she choked down a +sob: she rose, and walked down the carriage to the seat opposite +Tinker, farthest from Courtnay. Slowly collecting his wits, Courtnay +grew eloquent and ran through the whole gamut of the emotions proper to +the occasion: honourable indignation, and passion so deep as to be +ready to forgive even this heart-breaking distrust. She listened to +him in silence with an unchanging face, her lips set thin, her sombre +eyes gazing straight before her. + +Suddenly despair seized Courtnay, and he gave the rein to the fury +which he had been repressing with such difficulty. "At any rate, I'll +be even with you, you young dog!" he cried savagely. "I'm going to +throw you out of the train!" + +"Oh, no; you're not!" said Tinker pleasantly. "By the time you've +thrown Blazer out there won't be enough of you left to throw me out." + +Courtnay jumped up with a demonstrative hostility; Tinker hissed; with +an angry snarl Blazer drew in his tongue and put out his teeth, and +Courtnay sat down. For a while he was silent, seeking for an object to +vent his rage on; they could hear him grinding his teeth. Then he +burst out at Claire, taunting, jeering, and abusing. + +"That's enough!" cried Tinker angrily. "Pstt! Pstt! At him, Blazer! +At him!" + +For a few seconds Courtnay tried fighting, but his upbringing in France +had not fitted him to cope with a heavy bull-terrier. When the train +ran into the station at Nice, he was out on the footboard, on the +further side, yelling lustily. + +"Come on quick, before there's a fuss!" cried Tinker, catching up +Claire's handbag, and opening the door. They jumped down, Tinker +whistled Blazer, and the three of them bustled along the platform. + +"I've no ticket!" gasped Claire, who every moment expected Courtnay to +be upon them. + +"I thought of that! I've got one for you!" said Tinker; and before +Courtnay had quite realised that the train had stopped, they were out +of the station. + +Tinker hurried his charge along the line of fiacres, and stopped at a +victoria and pair. + +"Hola, cocher!" he said. "From the Couronne d'Or? Wired for to drive +a lady and a boy to Monte Carlo?" + +"Oui, monsieur!" cried the driver, gaily cracking his whip. + +They scrambled in; and the horses stepped out. Tinker knelt on the +seat, looking back over the hood. They were almost out of sight of the +station when he fancied that he saw a hatless figure run out of it into +the road. It might have been only fancy; they were so far off he could +not trust his sight. Three minutes later he dropped down on the seat +with a sigh of relief. "That's all right!" he said. + +"Oh," said Claire, "how can I ever thank you? You've saved me--oh, +what haven't you saved me from!" + +"A bad hat--a regular bad hat," said Tinker gravely. + +"You wonderful boy!" she cried, threw her arms around his neck and +kissed him. + +Tinker wriggled uncomfortably. He often wished that there were not +quite so many women in the world who insisted on embracing him. + +"Well, you're a kind of cousin, you see," he said by way of defence. + +After a while Claire cooled from her excitement to the cold +understanding of her folly. Then she grew, very naturally, bitterly +unhappy, and to his horror Tinker heard the sound of a stifled sob. + +"I think, if you'll excuse me," he said hurriedly, "I'll go to sleep." +And, happily for his comfort, his pretence at slumber was soon a +reality. It was no less a comfort to Claire: she had her cry out, and +felt the better for it. + +When the carriage drew up before the Hotel des Princes, they found an +excited group about the doorway. Sir Everard Wigram was the centre of +it, raging and lamenting. He had missed his daughter, and with his +usual good sense was taking all the world into his confidence. Lord +Crosland and Sir Tancred stood on one side; and it is to be feared that +Sir Tancred was enjoying exceedingly the distress of his enemy. + +"Leave the bag to me! I'll give it to you to-morrow," whispered Tinker +as the horses stopped. "Say we've been for a drive. I shan't split!" + +As Claire stepped out of the carriage, her father rushed up to her, +crying, "What does this mean? Where have you been? What have you been +doing?" + +"Oh," said Claire coolly, raising her voice that all the curious group +might hear, "I've been for a drive with Cousin Hildebrand. I couldn't +find you to tell you I was going." And taking out her purse, she +stepped forward to pay the coachman. + +Tinker, keeping the bag as low as he could, slipped through the group. +Lord Crosland hurried after him, and caught him by the shoulder. +"Where have you really been?" he said. "What happened? Where's +Courtnay?" + +"I've been for a drive with my cousin," said Tinker, looking up at him +with eyes of a limpid frankness. + +"Ah, let's see what you've got in that bag." + +"Can't. It's locked," said Tinker shortly. + +"Well, never mind. I owe you fifty pound," said Lord Crosland joyfully. + +Tinker stopped short and his face grew very bright. "Do you?" he said. +"I think I should like it in gold--a fiver at a time." + + + + +CHAPTER TEN + +TINKER'S FOUNDLING + +On the following afternoon Tinker met Madame de Belle-Ile hurrying out +of the hotel in a scarlet travelling costume. + +At the sight of him she stopped short and cried, "Have you heard the +sad news?" + +"No; what sad news?" said Tinker. + +"About poor Monsieur Courtnay! He has had an accident; he is laid up +at Nice, ill among strangers! I go; I fly to nurse him!" + +"Nurse that brute!" said Tinker quickly. "That--that is a waste of +kindness." + +Madame de Belle-Ile's face fell, and then flushed with anger. "You are +a horrid and detestable boy!" she cried angrily. + +"Oh, no! I'm not! It's quite true," said Tinker quietly, and he +looked at her seriously. He wanted to warn her; then he saw that he +could not do so without revealing Claire's secret. "I wish I could +tell you about him," he went on. "But I can't. He really is a sweep!" + +"You are an impertinent little wretch!" she said, and left him. + +"Au revoir," said Tinker gently. + +But she only tossed her head, and hurried on. Yet Tinker's honest +expression of opinion had impressed her: she had a belief in the +instinct of children generally and, like most people who came into +contact with him, she had a strong belief in the instinct of Tinker. +She tried to forget his words; but they kept recurring to her, and in +spite of herself, unconsciously, they put her on her guard. + +Tinker watched her out of sight, then he had half a thought of telling +Claire that she had gone to Courtnay, doubtless at his summons. But he +saw quickly that there was no need, and dismissed the thought from his +mind. Also, he kept out of his cousin's way for some days; he had a +feeling that,--however grateful she might be to him, the sight of him, +reminding her of how badly Courtnay had behaved, would be unpleasant to +her. + +However, he watched her from a distance, and saw that she was pale and +listless. Then he saw with great pleasure that Lord Crosland contrived +to be with her a good deal, that he even neglected the system for her. +But for all this pleasure, he was not quite easy in his mind; the +knowledge that he had done his grand-uncle Bumpkin the service of +saving him from such a son-in-law as Courtnay was a discomfort to him: +he felt that this was a matter which must be set right, and he kept his +eyes open for a chance. He looked, too, for the return of Courtnay and +Madame de Belle-Ile; but the days passed and they did not return. + +One morning he found himself in an unhappy mood. It seemed to him that +his wits had come to a standstill; for three days no new mischief had +come the way of his idle hands, and his regular, dally, mischievous +practices had grown so regular as almost to have acquired the +tastelessness of duties. The peculiar brightness and gaiety of Monte +Carlo life had begun to pall upon him. Loneliness was eating into his +soul; for of all the French boys who paraded the gardens of the Temple +of Fortune, he could make nothing. Their costumes, which were of +velvet and satin and lace, revolted him; their lack of spirit, their +distaste for violent movement, their joy in parading their revolting +costumes filled him with wondering contempt. As for the little French +girls, he was at any time uninterested in girls; and these +spindle-shanked precocities walked on two-inch heels, and tried to +fascinate him with the graces of mature coquettes. His careful +politeness was hard put to it to conceal his distaste for their +conversation. Possibly he was hankering after a healthier life; but at +any rate he, who was generally so full of energy, had mooned listlessly +about the gardens all the morning, with a far-away look in his eyes, +and the air of a strayed seraph. + +During his mooning about he had passed several times a little girl who +looked English. She sat on a seat in the far corner--a strange, shy, +timid child, watching with a half-frightened wonder the +strikingly-dressed women and children who strolled up and down, +chattering shrilly. He gave her but indifferent glances as he passed; +but, thanks to his father's careful training of his natural gift of +observation, the indifferent glance of that child of the world took in +more of a fellow-creature than most men's careful scrutiny. He saw +that she was frail and big-eyed, that her frock was ill-fitting and +shabby, her hat shabbier, her shoes ready-made, that she wore no +gloves, and that her mass of silky hair owed its unsuccessful attempts +at tidiness to her own brushing. He summed her up as that archetype of +patience, the gambler's neglected child. + +Just before he went to his dejeuner, he saw that she was sitting there +still. He took that meal with his father and Lord Crosland; and +instead of hurrying off, directly he had eaten his dessert, to some +pressing and generally mischievous business, he sat listening to their +talk over their coffee and cigars, and only left them at the doors of +the Casino. He strolled along the terrace, moody and disconsolate, +able to think of nothing to amuse him, and, as he came to the end of +the gardens, he saw a group of French children gathered in front of the +seat on which the little girl was sitting, and, coming nearer, he heard +jeering cries of "Sale Anglaise! Sale Anglaise!" + +In a flash Tinker's face shone with a very ecstasy of pure delight, and +he swooped down on the group. The child was clutching the arm of the +seat, and staring at her tormentors with parted lips and terrified +eyes. For their part, they were enjoying themselves to the full. They +had found a game which afforded them the maximum of pleasure, with the +minimum of effort; and just as Tinker swooped down, a cropped and +bullet-headed boy in blue velvet threw a handful of gravel into her +face. She threw up her hands and burst into tears; the children's +laughter rose to a shrill yell; and with extreme swiftness Tinker +caught the bullet-headed boy a ringing box on the right ear and another +on the left. The boy squealed, turned, clawing and kicking, on Tinker, +and, in ten seconds of crowded life, had learned the true significance +of those cryptic terms an upper-cut on the potato-trap, a hook on the +jaw, a rattler on the conk, and a buster on the mark. He lay down on +the path to digest the lesson, and his little friends fled, squealing, +away. + +The little girl slipped off the seat and said "Thank you," between two +sobs. + +Tinker's face was one bright, seraphic smile as he took off his hat, +and, with an admirable bow, said, "May I take you to your people?" + +The bullet-headed boy rose to his feet and staggered away. + +"Uncle's still in that big house," said the little girl, striving +bravely to check her sobs. + +"That's a nuisance," said Tinker thoughtfully; "for we can't get at +him." + +"I think he's forgotten all about me. He often does," said the little +girl, without any resentment; and she dusted the gravel off her frock. + +"I might bolt in and remind him." + +"They won't let us in--only grown-ups," said the little girl. "Uncle +tried to get them to let me in; but they wouldn't." + +"They're used to letting me in," said Tinker--"and hauling me out +again," he added. "It brightens them up. You tell me what he's like." + +Being a girl, the child was able to describe her uncle accurately: but +when she had done, Tinker shook his head: + +"He must be just like a dozen other Englishmen in there," he said. +"And they wouldn't give me time to ask each one if he were your uncle." + +The little girl sighed, and said, "It doesn't matter, thank you," and, +sitting down again on the seat, resumed her patient waiting, drooping +forward with eyes rather dim. + +Tinker studied her face, and his keen eye told him what was wrong. + +"Have you had dejeuner?" he said sharply. + +"No-o-o," said the little girl reluctantly. + +"Then you've had nothing since your coffee this morning?" + +"No, but it doesn't matter. Uncle is rather forgetful," said the +little girl, but her lips moved at the thought of food as a hungry +child's will. + +"This won't do at all! Come along with me. It's rather late, but +we'll find something." + +Her face brightened for a moment; but she shook her head, and said, +"No, I mustn't go away from here. Uncle might come back, and he would +be so angry if he had to look for me." + +Tinker shrugged his shoulders, turned on his heel, and was gone. She +looked after him sadly. She would have liked him to stay a little +longer; it was so nice to talk to an English boy after ten days in this +strange land; and he seemed such a nice boy. But she only drooped a +little more, and stared out over the bright sea with misty eyes, +composing herself to endure her hunger. + +Tinker went swiftly to the restaurant of the Hotel des Princes, where +the waiters greeted him with affectionate grins, and, addressing +himself to the manager, set forth his new friend's plight, and his +wishes. The manager fell in with them on the instant, only too pleased +to have the chance of obliging his most popular customer; and, in five +minutes, Tinker left the restaurant followed by a waiter bearing a tray +of dainties, all carefully chosen to tempt the appetite of a child. +They took their way to the gardens, and the little girl brightened up +at the sight of the returning Tinker. But when the waiter set the tray +on the seat, she flushed painfully, and though she could not draw her +hungry eyes away from the food, she stammered, "T-t-thank you very +m-m-much. B-b-but I haven't any money." + +Tinker gave the waiter a couple of francs, and bade him come for the +tray in half an hour. Then he said cheerfully, "That's all right. The +food's paid for; and whether you eat it or not makes no difference. In +fact, you may as well." + +The child looked from his face to the food and back again, wavering; +then said, with a little gasp, "Oh, I am so hungry." + +Tinker took this for a consent, put some aspic of pate de foie gras on +her plate, and watched her satisfy her hunger with great pleasure, +which was not lessened by the fact that, for all her hunger, she ate +with a delicate niceness. He had feared from her neglected air that +her manners had also been neglected. After the aspic, he carved the +breast of the chicken for her, helped her to salad, and mixed the ice +water with the _sirop_ to exactly the strength he liked himself; after +the chicken, he helped her to meringues, and after the meringues +lighted the kirsch of the _poires au kirsch_, which he had chosen +because it always pleased him to see the kirsch burn, and ate one of +the pears himself, while she ate the others. When she had finished her +little sigh of content warmed his heart. + +He put the tray behind the seat, and settled down beside her for a +talk. Now that she was no longer hungry, she was no longer woebegone, +and her laugh, though faint, was so pretty that he found himself making +every effort to set her laughing. They talked about themselves with +the simple egoism of children; and he learned that her name was Elsie +Brand; that she was ten years old--nearly two years younger than +himself--that her mother had died many years ago, and that she had +lived with her father in his Devonshire parsonage by the sea till last +year, when he, too, had died. Then her Uncle Richard had taken her +away to live with him in London. Her story of her life in London +lodgings set Tinker wondering about that Uncle Richard, and piecing +together the details Elsie let fall about his late rising, his late +going to bed, his morning headache and distaste for breakfast, he came +to the conclusion that he was a bad hat who lived by his somewhat +inferior wits. + +At the end of her story he tried to persuade her to come to the sea +with him and seek amusement there. But he failed; she would not leave +the seat. He gathered, indeed, from her fear of vexing her uncle that +that bad hat was in the habit of slapping her if she angered him, and, +for a breath, he was filled with a fierce indignation which surprised +him; she looked so frail. But he did not ask her if it were so, for +his delicacy forewarned him that the question would provoke a struggle +between her loyalty and her truthfulness. He entertained her, +therefore, with his reminiscences, and enjoyed to the full the +admiration and wonder which filled her face as he talked. Absorbed in +one another, they paid no heed to the passing of the hours; and the +sudden fall of twilight surprised them. + +They began to speculate whether Uncle Richard had had enough of his +gambling, and would come and fetch her. But, even now, Elsie was not +impatient, so inured had she been to neglect. She only looked anxious +again. Tinker, on the other hand, was impatient, very impatient, with +Uncle Richard, whom he was disposed to regard as a gentleman in great +need of a kicking. Moreover, the chill hour after sunset, so dangerous +on that littoral, was upon them, and he considered with disquiet the +thin stuff of the child's frock. + +Presently he said abruptly, "I've promised my father to wear an +overcoat during the fever hour. I must be off and get it, and a wrap +for you. You won't be frightened, if I leave you alone?" + +"No," Elsie said bravely, but her tone belied the word. + +"Well, walk up and down quickly, so that you don't get a chill. If you +keep near the seat, your uncle can't miss you if he comes." + +"Very well," said Elsie, rising obediently. "Only--only--if you could +get back soon." + +"I will," said Tinker, and he bolted for the hotel. + +Elsie walked up and down, trying to feel brave, but the odd shapes +which the bushes assumed in the dim light daunted her not a little, and +she strove to drive away the fancy that she saw people lurking among +them. Tinker was gone a bare seven minutes; but to the timid child it +seemed a very long while, and she welcomed his return with a gasp of +relief. + +He wore a smart, close-fitting brown racing overcoat, which reached to +his ankles; and for her he brought his fur-lined ulster. + +"Here I am," he said cheerfully. "Get into this," and he held out the +ulster. + +She put her arms into the sleeves, and he drew it around her and +buttoned it up. + +"You are a kind boy," she said, with a little break in her voice. A +sudden strong but inexplicable impulse moved Tinker; he bent forward +and kissed her on the lips. + +While you might count a score the children stood quite still, staring +at one another with eyes luminous in the starlight. Elsie's face was +one pink flush, and Tinker was scarlet. + +"That--that was a very funny kiss," she said in a curious voice. + +"Oh, what's a kiss?" said Tinker, with forced bravado, consumed with +boyish shame for the lapse. + +"I--I--liked it," said Elsie. "No one has kissed me since father +died." And her breath seemed to catch. + +"Girls like kissing," said Tinker in a tone of a dispassionate +observer. Then he seemed to thrust the matter away from him with some +eagerness: and, slipping her arm through his, he said, "Come on, let's +walk up and down." + +They walked up and down, chattering away, till eight o'clock. Then he +said, "My father will be expecting me; he dines at eight. Won't you +come too?" + +"No, no, thank you. I must wait for Uncle Richard; I must really." +But her arm tightened round his involuntarily. + +Tinker thought a while. The gardens were brighter now. The stars were +shining with their full radiance, and the lamps were alight, so that +even their retired corner was faintly bright. + +"Well, you go on walking up and down. You won't feel so lonely as +sitting still, and I'll be back as soon as I can;" he said, and off he +went. + +He found his father and Lord Crosland beginning their soup, and, +sitting down, he told them of Elsie's plight. They were duly +sympathetic; and his father at once gave him leave to take some dinner +to her, and dine with her. Thereupon, after a brief but serious +conference with the manager, Tinker departed, again followed by a +waiter with a tray. Elsie had not looked for his return for a long +while; and she was indeed pleased to be so soon freed from the struggle +against her timidity. + +They ate their dinner with great cheerfulness and good appetite, and +for an hour after it they chattered away happily. Then Elsie grew +drowsy, very drowsy, indeed, and presently, nestled against Tinker, she +fell asleep. Fortunately, the southern night was warm, and, in the +fur-lined ulster, she could take no harm. He sat holding her to him, +listening to her breathing, looking out over the sea, and revolving +many memories and more schemes, till, at last, the lights began to +dance before his eyes, and he, too, fell asleep. + +He knew no more until he was awakened by someone shaking his arm, and +found his father and Lord Crosland standing over them. + +The lamps of the Casino and the gardens were out; only the dim +starlight lighted the scene. The two children sat up and stared about +them--Elsie sleepily, Tinker wide awake. + +"We've found you at last. Hasn't your little friend's uncle come for +her?" said Sir Tancred. + +"No one has come," said Tinker. + +Sir Tancred and Lord Crosland looked at one another. + +"Desertion," murmured Lord Crosland softly. + +"Well, come along," said Sir Tancred cheerfully. "We must put her up +for to-night." + +The children slipped off the seat; Tinker put Elsie's arm through his, +and, holding her up when she stumbled over the long ulster, followed +his father and Lord Crosland. + +There were some empty bedrooms in their corridor, and Elsie was settled +for the night in one of them. + +Tinker awoke next morning, very cheerful at the thought of having a +companion to join in his amusements. He made haste to knock at Elsie's +door, and bid her come out for a swim before their coffee. She was +soon dressed and found him waiting for her. She flushed a little as +she greeted him, and he greeted her with a seraph's smile. + +"I thought you'd like a bathe before our coffee," he said. + +"It would be nice," said Elsie wistfully. "But my hair--it is such a +trouble, even without being wetted by sea-water." + +Tinker looked at the fine silky mass of it, and said with sympathetic +seriousness, "I saw it was beyond you; but we'll manage." + +He caught her hand, they ran down the stairs, out of the hotel, and +most of the way to the beach. Then he took her to a lady's +bathing-tent, and instructed the attendant to provide Elsie with the +prettiest costume she had; changed himself, and in five minutes they +were in the sea. To his joy, he found that she could swim nearly as +well as he. But he was very careful of her, and the moment she looked +cold he took her ashore. + +They came back to the hotel very hungry; and Tinker led the way through +the passages at the back of the hall, down into the hotel kitchen, +where he was welcomed with affectionate joy by the kitchen staff. The +end of a long table had been laid with the finest napery and plate of +the hotel; they sat down at it, and were forthwith served with an +exquisitely cooked dish of fresh mullet, wonderful hot cakes, and +steaming cups of fragrant _cafe au lait_. As he breakfasted, Tinker +conversed with the chattering staff with a cheerful kindliness and a +thorough knowledge of all their private concerns, keeping Elsie +informed of the matters under discussion by such phrases as "It's +Adolphe's wife; she beats him;" or, "Lucie has consulted a +fortune-teller, who says she is going to marry a millionaire;" or, +"Jean's eldest daughter has just made her first communion; they say she +looked like a pretty little angel." But he did not tell her of the +chaffing congratulations heaped on him on the prospect of his settling +down with his beautiful blonde demoiselle. He accepted them with a +smile of angelic indulgence. + +When they had done they went upstairs; and, on the way, Tinker said, "I +must have a shot at that hair of yours; it--it really gets on my +nerves." + +"It's no use," said Elsie with her ready flush. "I brush it as well as +I can; but I can't do it very well, there's such a lot of it." + +"Well, I'll do what I can," said Tinker, and he measured with +thoughtful eye the silken mass, tangled and matted by the sea-water. + +He led the way into his room, and set her in a chair, took off his +coat, turned up his sleeves, took his hair brushes, and began upon it. +It was his first essay as coiffeur, but his natural and trained +deftness stood him in good stead. He kept a watchful eye on her face +in the glass, and whenever it puckered, brushed more gently; but, at +times, in his absorption in his task, he so far forgot himself as to +hiss like a groom cleaning a horse. In the middle of it Sir Tancred +came in, and it was significant that he saw Tinker's occupation without +a smile, made no joke upon it, but seemed to take it as the most +natural thing in the world that his son should be discharging a +function of the lady's maid. He greeted the children gravely, sat +down, and watched the brushing with a respectful attention. Now and +again he asked Elsie a question, which seemed too idle to be +impertinent, but her answers told him all he wished to know; and +presently he felt, with Tinker, that her uncle was a gentleman in great +need of kicking. + +[Illustration: It was his first essay as coiffeur.] + +At last Tinker had finished; Elsie rose with a luxurious sigh, and he +looked at his work with fond pride. It was very beautiful, fine hair; +and its sheen of changing light well repaid him for his trouble. Sir +Tancred proposed that they should stroll down to the Casino, and find +her uncle. Lord Crosland joined them in the hall and went with them. +When they came to the Casino, they found a little crowd already +gathered about its doors, waiting for them to open. + +But Richard Brand was not in it, and at once Elsie's face grew anxious. +As soon as the doors opened, Sir Tancred went in to ask if her uncle +has made any inquiries about Elsie, or left word where she might find +him. In ten minutes he came out again and said, "No; he has made no +inquiries. Suppose you stroll with Elsie along towards the Condamine, +Crosland; that is the way he would come. Tinker and I will wait here." + +Lord Crosland looked at his face, said, "Come along, missie," and +strolled off with the anxious child. + +When they were out of hearing, Sir Tancred said, "I'm afraid the child +is in a bad mess. This disgusting uncle of hers lost every penny at +roulette last night; and the authorities, with their usual kindness, +took his ticket to London, and put him in the train with twenty-five +francs in his pocket." + +"What a cad!" said Tinker shortly. + +"Well, she is on our hands, and we must look after her till we can make +arrangements--deposit her in a home or something." + +Tinker said nothing for a while; he seemed plunged in profound thought. +He kicked a little stone ten yards away; then raised his eyes to his +father's face and said, in the firm voice of one whose mind is made up, +"I should like to adopt her." + +"Adopt her?" said Sir Tancred with some surprise. + +"Yes; I should like to, very much." + +"Well, thanks to your industry in the matter of flying-machines and +stolen children, you have a nice little income, so we needn't consider +the question of expense. You can afford it. But in what capacity +would you adopt her--as father, uncle, guardian, or what? The +formalities must be observed." + +"I think as a brother," said Tinker. + +Sir Tancred thought a while, then he said, "You will find it a great +responsibility." + +"Yes; but I don't mind. I--I like her, don't you know!" + +Sir Tancred's stern face relaxed into one of his rare and charming +smiles. "Very good," he said. "You shall adopt her." + +"Thank you, sir," said Tinker, and his smile matched his father's. +"And may I have some money to dress her? Her clothes are dreadful." + +"They are," said Sir Tancred; and, taking out his notecase, he gave him +a thousand-franc note. + +"Thank you," said Tinker, beaming. "I'll break it to her about her +uncle." + +He hurried off towards the Condamine, and overtaking Elsie and Lord +Crosland, told her that it was all right, that they had arranged to +take care of her for a few days, and carried her away to fetch Blazer, +for his morning walk. It is to be feared that he gave her the +impression that her uncle had been a party to the arrangement, but by a +flood of talk he diverted successfully her mind from the matter. From +an unworthy jealousy Blazer was at first disposed to sniff at Elsie, +but when he found that she joined heartily in the few poor amusements +the place afforded an honest dog, he became more gracious. The +children made their dejeuner with Sir Tancred and Lord Crosland, and +after it, having restored the reluctant Blazer to his lodging in the +basement of the hotel, they took the train to Nice. + +Tinker hired the largest commissionaire at the station and bought a +small trunk, which he gave him to carry. Then he went straight to +Madame Aline's and, having insisted on seeing Madame herself, explained +that the bright and elaborate fashions affected by the little French +girls would not suit Elsie. + +Madame agreed with him, but said, "Simplicity is so expensive." + +Tinker waved away the consideration, and showed Madame the +thousand-franc note. At once she fell a victim to his irresistible +charm, and set about meeting his taste with the liveliest energy, with +the result that in less than an hour Elsie was provided with an evening +frock of an exquisite shade of heliotrope, an afternoon frock of no +less exquisite shade of blue, and a hat, stockings, and gloves to +match. They were packed in the trunk, and with them two pairs of +shoes, which Madame sent for from a no less expensive bootmaker, and +various other garments. + +When they came out of her shop, Tinker considered for a while the hole +he had made in the thousand-franc note, and said, "The time has come to +be economical." + +He examined the shops with a keen eye till he came to one which seemed +more of the popular kind, and there he bought a frock of serge and +three of dark-blue linen, stouter shoes, slippers, and two hats. Here +he waited while Elsie changed, and when she came out, looking another +creature, he said with a sigh of relief, "I knew you'd look all right +if you had a chance." + +They had ices at a cafe, and caught a train back to Monte Carlo. Elsie +seemed dazed with her sudden wealth, while Tinker was full of a quiet, +restful satisfaction. But it was in the evening that the great triumph +came. When she came out of her room in her evening frock, Tinker +regarded her for a moment with a satisfaction that was almost solemn, +then he turned her round and said, "We match." + +"Do you really think so?" said Elsie in an awed voice, with humid eyes. + +"There's no doubt about it," said Tinker, with calm, dispassionate, and +judicial impartiality. + +When they came into the restaurant there was a faint murmur of +delighted surprise from the tables they passed; and one stout, but +sentimental baroness cried, "Viola des seraphin!" + +And truly, if you can conceive of a seraph in an Eton suit, a low-cut +white waistcoat, and a white tie, there was something in what she said. + +At the sight of them Sir Tancred smiled, and Lord Crosland said, "I +congratulate you on your taste, young people." + +"It was Tinker's," said Elsie; and she looked at him with a world of +thankfulness and devotion in her eyes. + +After dinner Tinker was uncomfortable. He felt bound to break to Elsie +her uncle's desertion, and he was afraid of tears. With a vague notion +of emphasising the difference between her uncle's _regime_ and his own, +he led the way to the corner of the gardens where they had first met +and, standing before the seat on which she had waited so long and +hungrily, he said, "I say, don't you think we could do without your +uncle?" + +"Do without uncle?" said Elsie surprised. + +"Yes; suppose, instead of living with your uncle and his looking after +you, you lived with us, and I looked after you? Suppose you were to be +my adopted sister?" + +"For good and all?" said Elsie in a hushed voice. + +"Yes." + +For answer she threw her arms round his neck, kissed him, and cried, +"Oh, I do love you so." + +By a splendid effort Tinker repressed a wriggle. + +"We'll consider it settled, then," he said. + +Elsie loosed him. With a little deprecating cough, and a delicate +tentativeness, he said, "About kissing, of course, now that you're my +sister you have a right to kiss me sometimes; and--and--of course it's +all right. But don't you think you could manage with once a day--when +we say good-night?" + +"In the morning, too," said Elsie greedily. + +"Well, twice a day," said Tinker with a sigh. + + + + +CHAPTER ELEVEN + +TINKER FROM THE MACHINE + +By Elsie's coming into it, Tinker's life was changed. At first she was +not only a companion, she was an occupation. A score of little +arrangements to secure her greater comfort had to be made, each of them +after careful consideration. He was no longer dull: they were together +from morning till night; and he found in her a considerable aptitude +for the post of lieutenant--to a Pirate Captain, a Smuggler, a Brigand +Chief, or a South African Scout. She kept him out of mischief as far +as he could be kept out of mischief: the demands her welfare made upon +his intelligence prevented his devoting it to the elaboration of +ingenious schemes for the discomfiture of his fellow-creatures; and he +had to think twice before he flung himself into any casual piece of +mischief which presented itself, lest he should involve her in +disastrous consequences. On second thoughts he generally refrained +with regret. The one practice he did not suffer to fall into desuetude +was his daily bolt into the Salles de Jeu; of that she could always be +a secure and interested spectator. + +For her part, she was entirely happy; she had been so long starved of +care and affection that, now she had them, she wanted nothing more; +they filled her life. + +Taking his responsibility thus seriously, Tinker was greatly exercised +in mind whether he should get her a maid or a governess; he could not +afford both. Elsie, with absolute conviction, declared that she needed +neither; that all she wanted was someone to brush her hair, and she was +sure that he did that far better than anyone else would. + +Tinker shook his head. "One has to be educated, don't you know?" he +said. "Look at me." + +It was one of his weaknesses to cherish the conviction that in the +matter of learning he lacked nothing, though had he been confronted by +even the vulgarest fraction, he would have been quite helpless. + +Having at last made up his mind, he sought out Sir Tancred, and said +with a very serious air, "I've been thinking it over, sir, and I've +come to the conclusion that I ought to get Elsie a governess." + +"My dear Tinker," said his father, "if you add to our household at your +present rate, I foresee myself buying a caravan, and traversing Europe +in state." + +"Like a circus," said Tinker, brightening. "It would be great fun--for +a while. I think," he added thoughtfully, "that I could brighten +Europe up a bit." + +"I do not doubt it," said Sir Tancred politely. + +"Well, you see, sir, it's like this," said Tinker. "When I adopted +Elsie you said that I was to take all responsibility; and I think I +ought to look after her education; it's no good adopting sisters by +halves." + +"You are right, of course," said Sir Tancred. "But I'm sorry for you. +For a boy of nearly twelve, your knowledge of the things taught by +governesses is small. Your spelling, now, it is--shall we say +phonetic?" + +"I don't think a gentleman ought to spell too well any more than he +ought to speak French with too good an accent," said Tinker firmly. + +"There's a good deal in what you say," said Sir Tancred. "But I'm +afraid that when Elsie has learnt geography, say, the position of +Schleswig-Holstein and Roumania and Leeds, and other such places to +which we should never dream of going, she might look down on you for +only knowing the towns on the great railways of Europe and America, and +the steamer routes of the world." + +"She might. But I don't think she's like that, though, of course, with +a girl you never can tell. I think it's more likely she would want to +teach me where they are. But she ought to be educated, and I must +chance it." + +"Well, if you ought, you must," said Sir Tancred. "But one thing I do +beg of you; do not have her taught the piano--the barrel-organ if you +like, but not the piano." + +"No; I won't. A piano would be so awkward to move about--it would want +a van to itself." + +"I was thinking, rather, of the peculiar noises it makes in the hands +of the inexperienced," said Sir Tancred. + +"I know," said Tinker in a tone of genuine sympathy. + +Tinker went to Elsie, whom he had left in the gardens of the Casino, +and told her that his father had given him leave to get her a +governess. On hearing that the matter was so near accomplishment, her +face fell, and she said, "Don't--don't you think I ought to help choose +her?" + +"It wouldn't be regular," said Tinker firmly. + +After dejeuner he caught a train to Nice, and went straight to Madame +Butler, that stay of those who seek maids, companions, nurses, or +governesses on the Riviera. He sent in his card, and was straightway +ushered into the office where she received her clients. She was +sitting at a desk, and by one of the windows sat a very pretty young +lady, who looked as if she were waiting to interview a possible +employee. A certain surprise showed itself on the face of Madame +Butler at the sight of Tinker; she had plainly expected a client of +more mature years. + +Tinker bowed, and sat down in the chair by the desk in which clients +sat and set forth their needs. + +"You wished to see me--on business?" said Madame Butler with some +hesitation. + +"Yes," said Tinker. "I want a governess for my sister--my adopted +sister. I'm responsible for her, and I've decided that she must be +educated. I told my father, Sir Tancred Beauleigh, and he gave me +leave to get her a governess. So I came to you." + +"Yes," said Madame Butler, smiling, "and what kind of a governess do +you want?" + +The pretty young lady, who had been regarding Tinker with smiling +interest, turned away with the proper delicacy, and looked out of the +window. + +Tinker's face wore a very serious, almost anxious, air. "I've worked +it out carefully," he said. "Elsie's ten years old, two years younger +than I am, and there is no need for her governess to have degrees or +certificates or that kind of thing. She will only have to teach her to +write nicely and do sums--not fractions, of course--useful sums, and +some needlework, and look after her when I'm not about. So I want a +lady, young, and English; and I should like her to be a bit of a +sportswoman, don't you know. I mean," he added in careful explanation, +"I should like her to be cheerful and good-natured, and not fussy about +the things that really don't matter." + +"I think I know the kind of governess you want," said Madame Butler. +She ran her eye over two or three pages of her ledger and added, "But +I'm very much afraid that I haven't one of that kind on my books at +present." + +"That's a pity," said Tinker. "Should I have long to wait?" + +"I'm afraid you might. People chiefly want ladles with certificates +and degrees, so the others don't offer themselves." + +The pretty young lady turned from the window with the quickness of one +suddenly making up her mind. + +"How should I do?" she said in a charming voice. + +Madame Butler turned towards her quickly with raised eyebrows, but said +nothing. Tinker turned, too, and his face lighted up with an angelic +smile. He looked at the pretty young lady carefully, and then at the +pretty young lady's tailor-made gown, and the smile faded out of his +face. + +"I'm afraid," he said sorrowfully, "you would be too expensive." + +"What salary were you thinking of giving?" she said with a brisk, +businesslike directness. + +"Thirty pounds a year," said Tinker; and then he added hastily, "Of +course it's very little; but really the work would be quite light, and +we should try and make things pleasant for her." + +"But surely, for a governess without certificates, that is a very good +salary; isn't it, Madame Butler?" + +"It is, indeed," said Madame Butler. + +"It can't be, really," said Tinker. "But I suppose people are mean." + +"Well, it would satisfy me," said the pretty young lady. "But +unfortunately I am an American, and you want an Englishwoman." + +"I only don't want a foreigner," said Tinker. "I should be awfully +pleased if you would take the post." + +"The pleasure will be mine," said the pretty young lady. "And about +references? I'm afraid I cannot get them in less than ten days." + +"Pardon," said Tinker. "Your face, if you will excuse my saying so, is +reference enough." + +The pretty young lady flushed with pleasure, and said, "That is very +nice of you, but your father might think them necessary." + +"This is my show--I mean, this matter is entirely in my hands; I look +after Elsie altogether. And I think we might consider it settled. My +name is Hildebrand Anne Beauleigh." + +"Oh, you are the boy who borrowed the flying-machine!" + +Tinker was charmed that she should take the right view of the matter; +he found that so many people, including the bulk of the English, +American, and Continental Press, were disposed, in an unintelligent +way, to regard him as having stolen it. + +"Yes," he said. + +"My name is Dorothy Rayner." + +"Rayner," said Tinker with sudden alertness. "There is an American +millionaire called Rainer." + +"I spell my name with a _y_," said Dorothy quickly. + +Madame Butler once more raised her eyebrows. + +"Well, when will you come to us? We are staying at the Hotel des +Princes at Monte Carlo." + +"To-day is Wednesday. Shall we say Saturday morning?" + +"Yes, that will do very well. Oh, by the way, I was quite +forgetting--about music." + +"I'm afraid," said Dorothy, and her face fell, "I can't teach music." + +"That's all right," said Tinker cheerfully. "My father was terribly +afraid that anyone I got would want to." + +He explained to Dorothy their nomadic fashion of life, paid Madame +Butler her fee, bade them good-bye, and went his way. + +On his return he found Elsie full of anxious curiosity, but his account +of his find set her mind at rest. He ended by saying, "It will be +awfully nice for you, don't you know? She looked as though she would +let you kiss her as often as you wanted to." + +"But I shall kiss you just the same, night and morning," said Elsie +firmly. + +"Of course, of course," said Tinker quickly, and by a manful effort he +kept the brightness in his face. + +He told his father that he had found a governess. + +"References all right?" said Sir Tancred. + +"Yes, she carries them about with her," said Tinker diplomatically. + +"I suppose I ought to see them, don't you think?" + +"You will," said Tinker. + +On her arrival on Saturday morning Dorothy found the children awaiting +her on the steps of the hotel; and to Tinker's extreme satisfaction, +she at once kissed Elsie. When she had been taken to her room, which +was next to Elsie's, and her trunks had been brought up, it was time to +go to dejeuner, and Tinker conducted her to the restaurant. They found +Sir Tancred and Lord Crosland already at table; they rose at the sight +of Dorothy, and Tinker introduced them to her gravely. Sir Tancred was +naturally surprised at being suddenly confronted by a startling vision +of beauty, when he had expected an ordinary young fresh-coloured, +good-natured Englishwoman. But for all the change worked in his face +by that surprise he might have been confronted by a vision of corkscrew +curls. Lord Crosland, however, so far forgot the proper dignity of a +peer as to kick Tinker gently under the table. Tinker looked at him +with a pained and disapproving air. + +Dorothy was even more surprised by the sight of Sir Tancred. She had +given the matter little thought, but had supposed that she would find +Tinker's father a sedate man of some fifty summers. When she found him +a young man of thirty, and exceedingly handsome and distinguished at +that, she was invaded by no slight doubt as to the wisdom of indulging +the spirit of whim which had led her to take the post of Tinker's +governess, without going a little more into the matter. This +uneasiness made her at first somewhat constrained; but Sir Tancred and +Lord Crosland contrived soon to put her at her ease, and presently she +was taking her part in the talk without an effort. + +When she went away with the children, Lord Crosland lighted a +cigarette, and said thoughtfully, "Well, Tinker has made a find. She +is a lady." + +"I should be inclined to say gentlewoman," said Sir Tancred. "Lady is +a word a trifle in disrepute; there are so many of them, and so +various, don't you know." + +"Gentlewoman be it," said Lord Crosland. "But he's a wonderful young +beggar for getting hold of the right thing. What a beautiful creature +she is!" + +"She is beautiful," said Sir Tancred grudgingly. + +"Woman-hater! Va!" said Lord Crosland. + +Dorothy found herself admitted to a frank intimacy in this little +circle into which whim had led her. She spent most of her time with +the children. She gave Elsie two hours' lessons a day, and, since she +had a knack of making them interesting, Tinker often enjoyed the +benefit of her teaching. After lessons she shared most of their +amusements, and learned to be a pirate, a brigand, an English sailor, a +Boer, and every kind of captive and conspirator. Since she occupied +some of Elsie's time, Tinker had once more leisure for mischief; and +Dorothy rarely tried to restrain his fondness for pulling the legs of +his fellow-creatures, for she found that he had the happiest knack of +choosing such fellow-creatures as would be benefited, morally, by the +operation. But she was a check upon his more reckless moods, and kept +him from one or two outrageous pranks. + +For his part, he found the responsibility of looking after her and +Elsie not a little sobering; and he was quite alive to the fact that at +Monte Carlo, that place of call of the adventurers of the world, one's +womankind need a protecting male presence. Quietly and unobtrusively +Sir Tancred seconded him in this matter; if Dorothy had the fancy to +take the air in the gardens after dinner, she found that he or Lord +Crosland, or both of them, deserted the tables till she went back to +the hotel, and strolled with her and the children. She was growing +very friendly with the two men, and beginning to take a far deeper +interest in Sir Tancred than she would have cared to admit even to +herself. His face of Lucifer, Son of the Morning, his perfect +thoughtfulness, his unfailing gentle politeness, his melancholy and his +very coldness, attracted her; and always watching him, she had now and +again a glimpse of the possibilities of energy and passion which +underlay the mask of his languor. At times, too, her woman's intuition +assured her that, for all his dislike, or rather distaste, of women, +she attracted him. + +Unfortunately, but naturally, Sir Tancred and Lord Crosland were not +the only men who found her beautiful. Monsieur le Comte Sigismond de +Puy-de-Dome, hero of many duels and more scandals, and darling of the +Nationalist Press, also saw her beauty. With him to see was to act, +and he never passed her without a conquering twirl of his waxed +moustache, and a staring leer which he fondly believed to be a glance +teeming with passion. Since even he, conscious as he was of his +extraordinary fascination, could hardly mistake her look of annoyance +for the glow of responsive passion, he resolved on more masterly +action. He kept a careful watch, and one afternoon followed her and +Tinker and Elsie on one of their walks. They went briskly, and at the +end of a mile he was maintaining a continuous, passionate monologue in +tones charged with heartfelt emotion on the subject of his tight but +patent-leather boots. + +A mile and a half on the way to Mentone they turned aside down a road +into the hills. He followed them for a while over the loose stones and +along the ruts of the roadway with considerable pain, and was on the +very point of abandoning the pursuit when he came on Dorothy and Elsie +sitting in a shady dell by the roadside, from which the wooded slopes +of the hills rose steeply. Careless of his boots and of the fact that +they had suffused his face with an unbecoming purple, he strode +gallantly up to them, and set about making Dorothy's acquaintance. He +began by talking, with an airy graciousness, of the charm of the spot +in which he had found her, and of how greatly that charm was enhanced +by her presence. But soon, seeing that she took not the slightest +notice of him, that her eyes, to all seeming, looked through him at the +trees on the further side of the dell, he lost his gracious air, and +began to halt and stumble in his speech. Then he lost his head and +plunged into a detailed account of the passion with which Dorothy's +beauty had inflamed his heart, wearing the while his finest air of a +conqueror dictating terms. + +Dorothy surveyed him with a contemptuous wonder, over which her sense +of the ludicrous was slowly gaining the mastery; Elsie stared at him. +At last he ended the impassioned description of his emotions with a yet +more impassioned appeal to Dorothy to fly with him to a far-off shore +forever shining with the golden light of love; and Dorothy laughed a +gentle laugh of pure amusement. + +Count Sigismond flushed purpler; his eyes stood well out of his head; +he drew himself up with a superb air--a little spoiled by a wince as +his left boot deftly reminded him that he was wearing it, and cried, +"Ha! You laugh! You laugh at Sigismond de Puy-de-Dome! Mon Dieu! +You shall learn!" And with a sudden spring he grabbed at her. + +She jerked aside, sprang up, and away from him. But he was between her +and the exit from the dell; he crouched with the impressive +deliberation of a villain in a melodrama for another spring, and Elsie +screamed, "Tinker! Tinker!" + +Count Sigismond heard a rustling in the bushes above, and looked up to +see them parted by an angel child, in white ducks, bearing a bunch of +lilies in his hand, who gazed at him with a serious, almost pained +face, and leapt lightly down. + +With a "Pah! Imbecile!" addressed to himself for delaying, the Count +sprang towards Dorothy, was conscious of a swift white streak, and the +head of the angel child, impelled by wiry muscles and a weight of +seventy-six pounds, smote as a battering ram upon the first and second +buttons of his waistcoat. He doubled up and sat down hard in one +movement; then turned on his side, and gasped and gasped. + +[Illustration: As a battering ram upon the first and second buttons of +his waistcoat.] + +"Come along!" cried Tinker in a most imperative tone. "A row is a +horrid nuisance when there are women in it!" And he caught his +charges, either by an arm, and bustled them out of the dell and down +the road. + +Dorothy laughed as she ran; never before had she seen vaunting +arrogance brought low in so sudden and signal a fashion. At last she +stopped, dabbed away the tears of mirth, and said, "Oh, Tinker, I am so +much obliged to you! It's all very well to laugh now; but it might +have been horrid!" + +"It was the simplest thing in the world," said Tinker. Then, rubbing +his head ruefully, he added, "I wish those foreigners would not wear +gold buttons on their white waistcoats in the daytime. They have no +more notion of how to dress than a cat--the men haven't." + +They hurried along, looking back now and again to see if they were +followed. They were not, for Count Sigismond was now sitting up in the +shady dell, staring round it with fishy eyes, and wondering dully +whether he owed his disaster entirely to an angel child, or whether +Mont Pelee had affected the neighbourhood. He gasped still. + +As they drew near the town, Tinker grew thoughtful. Suddenly he +stopped, and said seriously, "Now, look here, both of you, we mustn't +let my father know about this, or he'll certainly thrash that bounding +Frenchman; and that wouldn't be good enough, don't you know." + +"It would be very good for him," said Dorothy with some vindictiveness. + +"Yes, but not for my father," said Tinker very earnestly, indeed. "For +all that he looks like a swollen frog, Le Comte de Puy-de-Dome is +awfully dangerous with the pistol. He's hurt two men badly in duels +already." + +"Has he?" said Dorothy quickly, and the colour faded in her cheeks. +"Then we must, indeed, say nothing about it." + +"Swear," said Tinker, raising his right hand. + +"We swear," said Dorothy and Elsie in one voice, raising their right +hands. It was a formality which had to be gone through many times when +they played at being conspirators; their words and action were +mechanical. + +"That's all right," said Tinker with a sigh of relief. + +Count Sigismond returned to his hotel in a very hot fury. His outraged +pride clamoured for vengeance, and he sought for someone on whom to be +revenged. He was surprised at the end of two days to hear nothing of +his discomfiture; but his fury lost nothing by growing cool, and on the +third night he picked a quarrel with Sir Tancred. + +Next morning Sir Tancred asked Dorothy to take the children to Nice for +a few days, since he had heard that there was some fever at one of the +smaller hotels. He watched over their departure himself, and Tinker +was aware of an indefinable something in his manner which puzzled him. +It was, perhaps, that something which gave him a curious, unsettled +feeling, as if they were going on a much longer journey. As they left +the hotel, Lord Crosland came up from the Condamine carrying a square +case under his arm; it did not escape Tinker's observant eye; but in +the bustle of their removal he gave it but scant attention. In the +evening Dorothy noticed that he was restless and absent-minded, and +asked him what was the matter. + +"I don't know," he said; "I have a funny feeling as though something +was going to happen, and I can't think of anything. It's just as if +I'd missed something I ought to have noticed. It always makes me +uncomfortable. Yet I can't think what it can be." + +She made many suggestions, but to no purpose, and he went to bed +dissatisfied. He awoke once or twice in the night--a very rare thing +with him; possibly, so close was their kinship, his father's disturbed +spirit in some obscure and mysterious fashion was striving to warn him, +or prepare him for calamitous tidings. In the early morning he slept +soundly, and awoke rather later than was his wont; and, even as he +awoke, the square case which Lord Crosland had carried sprang into his +mind, and he knew it to be a case of pistols. In a flash everything +was clear to him; his father was going to fight Count Sigismond, and +had sent him to Nice to be out of the way. + +He sprang out of bed, and dashed for his watch; it was two minutes past +seven. They would fight at eight; he had nearly an hour. In three +minutes he was dressed, and racing down the stairs. He met Dorothy +coming up. + +"What's the matter?" she cried at the sight of his white face. + +"My father--he's fighting Le Comte de Puy-de-Dome, and he's got us out +of the way!" + +He did not see her turn pale, and clutch the banisters; he was racing +out of the hotel. He ran to the coach-house, wheeled his bicycle into +the courtyard, mounted, and rode down the street. He went at a +moderate pace through the town, but once on the Corniche road, he drove +the machine as hard as he could pedal. + +He was well on his way before his mind cleared enough for him to think +what he was doing; and then his heart sank; he could do nothing. He +could not interrupt a duel; that was the last enormity. And if he did +interrupt it, it would be but for a few minutes; it would take place +all the same. As the sense of his helplessness filled him, two or +three great tears forced themselves out of his eyes. He dashed them +away with a most unangelic savageness; then, conscious only of a +devouring desire to be near his father in his perilous hour, he drove +on the machine as hard as he could. + +The Corniche is a good road, but all up hill and down dale; and he knew +how much more time he lost by jumping off and running his bicycle up a +hill than he made by letting it rip down the descent. As he drew near +Monaco a kind of hopelessness settled on him. He almost wished, since +he could not stop it, that he might find the duel over. Now and again +a dry sob burst from his overloaded bosom. + +It was ten minutes to eight when he came up the slope from the +Condamine. His legs were leaden, but they drove on the machine. At +last he came to the path which leads to the half glade, half rocky +amphitheatre, in which the gentry of the principality, and of the rest +of the world who chance to be visiting it, settle their affairs of +honour, slipped off his machine, and ran down it as fast as his stiff +legs would carry him. A few yards from the end of it he turned aside +into the bushes, came to the edge of the glade, saw his father and +Count Sigismond facing one another some forty yards away; saw a white +handkerchief raised in Lord Crosland's hand, and in spite of himself, +his pent-up emotion burst from him in one wild eldritch yell. + +It still rang on the quivering air when the handkerchief fluttered to +the ground, and the pistols flashed together. + +Now to those who enjoy an intimacy with Tinker, an eldritch yell is +neither here nor there. Piercing as this one was, it barely reached +Sir Tancred's consciousness; but it smote sharply on Count Sigismond's +tense nerves, and deflected the barrel of his pistol just so much as +sent the bullet zip past Sir Tancred's ear, as he received Sir +Tancred's bullet in his elbow, and started to traverse the glade in a +series of violent but ungainly leaps, uttering squeal on squeal. + +Tinker turned and bolted, sobbing, gasping, and choking in the +revulsion from his hopeless dread. He seized his bicycle, ran it along +the road some fifty yards, turned in among the bushes, flung himself +down, and sobbed and cried. + +There was confusion on the scene of the duel. Count Sigismond's +seconds had to chase him, catch him, and hold him while the doctor +dressed his wound. Then they fell to a discussion as to whether the +eldritch yell had been uttered by the Count or by someone in the wood +round the glade; it had fallen upon very ragged nerves, and for the +lives of them they could not be sure. Lord Crosland threw no light at +all upon the matter, though he did his best to help their dispute grow +acrimonious. Sir Tancred preserved the discreet silence of a principal +in a duel; the Count Sigismond only moaned. + +At last they turned their attention to him, and carried him to the top +of the path. Sir Tancred and Lord Crosland started for the town to +send up a cab for him. + +When they were out of hearing, Lord Crosland said, "Most likely, that +yell saved your life, old chap." + +"I should say that there wasn't a doubt about it; but, really, in the +case of a sweep like Puy-de-Dome, I can't say that I mind a little +irregularity. Besides, my conscience is quite clear. Heaven knows I +did my best to keep Tinker in the dark and at a distance." + +"It can't be done," said Lord Crosland with conviction. + +Tinker heard their voices, and by a violent effort, which did him good, +hushed his hysteric sobbing. After a while he heard the cab rattle up, +and rattle away. + +Twenty minutes later he mounted his machine, and, passing through the +back streets of Monte Carlo, rode slowly back to Nice. On his way back +he washed his face at a spring, and when he mounted his machine again, +he said to himself firmly, "I'm _not_ ashamed--not a bit." + +As he wheeled his bicycle into the coach-house of the hotel, Dorothy +ran into it, caught him by the arm, and cried, "Did they fight? Is +your father hurt?" + +He looked at her white, strained face, and said with a dogged air, "My +father's all right. What do you mean about fighting? I--I've been for +a ride--on my bicycle." + +"Then you did stop it!" cried Dorothy; and before he could ward her off +she had kissed him. + +"Look here," said Tinker firmly, but gently, "these things won't bear +talking about. They won't really." + + + + +CHAPTER TWELVE + +TINKER BORROWS A MOTOR-CAR + +A few days later, early in the afternoon, Sir Tancred was leaning on +the wall of the gardens of the Temple of Fortune, smoking a cigarette, +and looking down on the Mediterranean in a very thoughtful mood. +Tinker was by his side, also looking down on the Mediterranean, also +silent, out of respect to his father's mood. + +Suddenly Sir Tancred turned towards him, and said abruptly, "What did +you say you paid your governess?" + +"Thirty pounds a year," said Tinker. + +"She dresses well," said Sir Tancred. + +Tinker turned his head and eyed his father with a trifle of distrust. +"She does dress well," he said gravely, "and I can't quite make it out. +Sometimes I think that her people must have lost their money, and she +bought her gowns before that happened. Sometimes I really think she's +only being a governess for fun." + +"For fun?" said Sir Tancred. "But I thought her references were all +right. Yes; you told me she carried them about with her." + +"Well, she has the nicest kind of face," said Tinker; and his own was +out of the common guileless. + +"Oh! her face was her reference, was it?" said Sir Tancred quickly. + +"You can forge references, but you can't forge a face," said Tinker +with the air of a philosopher. + +Sir Tancred laughed gently. "My good Tinker," he said, "I look forward +to the day when you enter the diplomatic service. The diplomacy of +your country will be newer than ever. But don't be too sure that a +woman can't forge her face." + +"There'd be a precious lot of forgery, if they could forge faces like +Dorothy's," said Tinker with conviction. + +"You seem a perfect well of truth to-day," said Sir Tancred. + +They were silent a while, gazing idly over the sea; then Tinker said, +"I'm beginning to think that Dorothy is rather mysterious, don't you +know. She gets very few letters, but lots of cablegrams, from America. +She has lots of money, too, and she spends it. Sometimes I have to +talk to her seriously about being extravagant." + +"You do? What does she say?" + +"Oh, she laughs. That's what makes me think she's only a governess for +fun. I never knew a girl so ready to laugh--though she did cry that +morning." He spoke musingly, half to himself. + +"What morning was that?" said Sir Tancred quickly. + +"It was a few mornings ago," said Tinker vaguely; and he added hastily, +"I think I'll go after her and Elsie; they've gone down the Corniche +towards Mentone." + +"Was it the morning I had an affair with M. le Comte de Puy-de-Dome?" + +"Ye-e-s," said Tinker with some reluctance, and he prepared for +trouble. Hitherto his father had said nothing of that timely but +eldritch yell. Now, by his careless admission about the tears of +Dorothy, he had opened the matter, and let himself in for a rating. + +But Sir Tancred was silent, musing, and Tinker returned to his idle +consideration of the Mediterranean. + +Presently he said, "She would make you a nice little wife, sir." + +Sir Tancred started. "There are times," he said, "when I feel you +would take my breath away, if I hadn't very good lungs." + +"I thought that that was what you were thinking about," said the +ingenuous Tinker. + +"If you add thought-reading to your other accomplishments, it will be +too much," said Sir Tancred with conviction. + +Of a sudden there came bustling round the right-hand horn of the bay a +most disreputable, bedraggled-looking vessel. By her lines a yacht, +her decks would have been a disgrace to the oldest and most battered +tin-pot of an ocean tramp. Her masts had gone, there were gaps in her +bulwarks, and the smoke of her furnaces, pouring through a hole in her +deck over which her funnel had once reared itself, had taken advantage +of this rare and golden opportunity to blacken her after-part to a very +fair semblance of imitation ebony, and to transform her crew to an even +fairer imitation of negroes dressed in black. + +"She is in a mess!" said Tinker. + +"Of the Atlantic's making, to judge by its completeness," said Sir +Tancred. "Whose yacht is it?" + +"I don't know," said Tinker, staring at it with all his eyes. + +"You ought to," said Sir Tancred with some severity. "You've been on +it. It's Meyer's." + +"So it is," said Tinker, mortified. "I am stupid not to have +recognised it!" + +"Your new clairvoyant faculty must be weakening your power of +observation. I shouldn't give way to it, if I were you." + +Tinker wriggled. + +A hundred yards from the jetty the yacht's engines were reversed; and +the way was scarcely off her, when her only remaining boat fell smartly +on the water, and was rowed quickly to the steps. + +"They seem in a hurry," said Sir Tancred. + +For a while they busied themselves in conjectures as to what errand had +brought the yacht to Monaco; Sir Tancred lighted another cigarette, and +they watched the crew of the yacht set to work at once to wash the +decks. + +Some twenty minutes later a little group hurried into the gardens, the +manager of the Hotel des Princes, a tall, bearded, grimy man, and a +stout, clean-shaven, grimy man. They came straight to Sir Tancred and +Tinker, and the bearded man said quickly, "My name is Rainer, Septimus +Rainer. I've just learnt that my daughter Dorothy is governessing your +little girl. Where is she?" + +Sir Tancred bowed, and said languidly, "Miss Rainer is the governess of +my son's adopted sister. He is her employer, not I. Here he is." + +Tinker stepped forward, and bowed. + +Septimus Rainer stared at him with a bewildered air, and said, "Well, +if this don't beat the Dutch!" Then he added feverishly, "Where is +she? Where's my little girl? Where's Dorothy?" + +"She went with Elsie--that's her pupil--down the Corniche towards +Mentone after dejeuner," said Tinker. + +"Take me to her! Take me to her at once, will you? She's not safe!" +said Rainer quickly. + +"Not safe! Come along!" said Sir Tancred; and his languor fell from +him like a mask, leaving him active and alert indeed. + +"It's like this," said Rainer as they hurried through the gardens. "A +week ago I got a cable from Paris saying that a kidnapping gang were +after Dorothy. I'm a millionaire, and the scum are after ransom. I +cabled to McNeill, my Paris agent, to come right here with half a dozen +of the best detectives in France, scooped up Mr. Buist of the New York +police,"--he nodded towards the short, clean-shaven, grimy +man--"borrowed a yacht, and came along myself. Being in a hurry, we +had trouble with the Atlantic of course; but I've done it seven hours +quicker than steamer and train. Have McNeill and the detectives come?" + +"No, they haven't," said Tinker. + +"Sure?" said Rainer. + +"Quite," said Tinker. "I've seen no one watching over Dorothy; and she +has gone about outside the town, in the woods, and down by the sea, +just as usual. She knew of no danger, I'm sure." + +"Perhaps McNeill didn't want to frighten her, and just set his men to +watch over her from a distance," said Rainer. + +"Perhaps McNeill is in it," said Sir Tancred drily. + +"I'm glad I came right here," said Rainer. + +They came out of the gardens, and as they passed the Hotel des Princes, +Tinker said, "Go on down the Corniche! I'll catch you up!" and bolted +into it. + +He ran upstairs into his father's room, and took from a drawer the +pocketbook which held their passports; ran into his own room, and +thrust into his hip-pocket the revolver he could use so well, into +other pockets five hundred francs in notes and gold. Then, sure that +he had provided against all possible emergencies, he ran smiling down +the stairs. + +As he came out of the front-door, his eyes fell on a lonely, deserted +motor-car. In a breath he had pitied its loneliness, seen its use, and +jumped into it. He set it going, and in three minutes caught up his +father, Rainer, and the detective. Sir Tancred jumped into the seat +beside him, Rainer and the detective into the back seat. + +"Whose car is this? How did you get it?" said Sir Tancred. + +"I commandeered it," said Tinker firmly. "And I was lucky too; it's a +good car." + +"I suppose there'll be a row about it. But we've got to use it," said +Sir Tancred. + +"Oh, no! there won't," said Tinker cheerfully. "When we come back, +everyone but me can get out. I'll take it back, and explain things." + +For a mile Tinker sent the car along at full speed. Then he slowed +down, and pulling up at every opening into the hills or down to the +shore, sent a long coo-ee ringing down it. No answer came back. At +the end of two miles his face was growing graver and graver, and its +gravity was reflected in the faces of the three men. At the end of two +miles and a half he stopped the car, and said, "They can't have gone +further than this." + +"Just too late," muttered Septimus Rainer; and they looked at one +another with questioning eyes. + +"Well, there's no time to be lost," said Sir Tancred. "Mr. Buist had +better hurry back to Monte Carlo, to the Hotel des Princes, in case +we've missed them. We will go on hard, and he can wire to us, if they +come back to the hotel, at Ventimiglia." + +"That's all very well," said the detective with a sudden air of +stubbornness. "But I don't like the look of the business. It's a +curious thing that Miss Rainer, the daughter of a millionaire, should +be a governess in your family. I don't understand it. There is a +chance, and I'm bound to consider it, of your being mixed up with this +kidnapping gang. What's to prevent you kidnapping Mr. Rainer?" + +Sir Tancred's eyes flashed, and he looked as though he could not +believe his ears. Tinker laughed a gentle, joyful laugh. + +"I mean no offence, sir," said the detective with some haste, at the +sight of Sir Tancred's face. "But I'm bound to look at it all ways." + +"Just as you like," said Sir Tancred quietly. "Let Mr. Rainer go back, +or both of you go back. Only be quick!" + +The millionaire had watched the faces of father and son with very keen +eyes while the detective had been speaking: "Off you go, Buist!" he +broke in. "I know where I am! Go, man! Go!" + +The detective jumped out of the car, and Sir Tancred said, "Go to M. +Lautrec at the Police Bureau at Monte Carlo. He's the best man to set +things moving. Tell him to wire as far as Genoa: there's nothing like +being on the safe side." And Tinker started the car. + +Two miles further on they came upon a peasant woman tramping slowly +along, with a heavy basket on her head. Tinker stopped the car, and +Sir Tancred asked her if she had seen a lady and a little girl walking +on the Corniche between that spot and Monte Carlo. She said she had +not seen a lady and a little girl walking, but a mile out of Monte +Carlo she had seen a lady and a little girl in a carriage with two +gentlemen; and the horses were galloping: oh, but they did gallop; they +had nearly run over her. The young lady had cried out to her as they +passed. She had not caught what she said; she had thought it a joke. + +"It looks very like them: we had better follow this carriage. What do +you think, Mr. Rainer?" said Sir Tancred. "Of course they may be back +at the hotel by now, and we may be on a wild-goose chase." + +"I guess we can afford to be laughed at; but we can't afford to lose a +chance," said the millionaire. + +"They passed this woman a mile out of Monte Carlo, and we're four miles +and a half out," said Tinker. "She doesn't walk above three miles an +hour with that basket: they're an hour and twenty minutes ahead." + +"You're smart, sonny," said the millionaire. + +"Right away!" said Sir Tancred: and he tossed a five-franc piece to the +woman. + +Tinker set the car going, and began to try his hardest to get her best +speed out of her. + +The millionaire leaned forward, and said to Sir Tancred, "The scum are +hardly up-to-date to use a carriage instead of a motor-car." + +"What I don't see is how they are going to get them across the +frontier. It looks--it looks as if the Italian police were in it," +said Sir Tancred, frowning. + +"Do you mean to tell me that the Italian police would connive at +kidnapping?" said the millionaire. + +"No: but some rascal of a detective, who could pull a good many +strings, might be in it. At any rate if they get them across the +frontier undrugged, the authorities are squared or humbugged. What I'm +afraid of is that they're making for that rabbit-warren, Genoa. If +they get them there, we may be a fortnight finding them." + +"I guess I'll squeal before that," said the millionaire; "yes, if I +have to put up a million dollars." + +The car had reached a speed at which they could only talk in a shout, +and it seemed no more than a few minutes before Tinker slowed down for +Mentone, and stopped at a gendarme. Before saying a word Sir Tancred +showed him a twenty-franc piece; and the gendarme spoke, he was even +voluble. Yes, he had seen a carriage, rather more than an hour before. +It had galloped through the town. It carried fever-patients for the +hospital at Genoa, ill of the bubonic plague. The police and the +custom-house officials had been warned by wire from Monte Carlo and +Genoa not to delay it. There were relays of horses every twenty miles +to Genoa: the wires had said so. + +"That was how they crossed the frontier, was it? What fools these +officials are!" said Sir Tancred, and he gave the gendarme his +Napoleon: and bade him tell his superior officer that the police had +been humbugged. + +"If they're really bound for Genoa, we can catch them and to spare--bar +accidents," said Tinker cheerfully. "Besides, M. Lautrec will have +wired to look out for them." And he set the car going. + +"Oh, they're bound for Genoa, sure enough," said Sir Tancred. "But +they won't enter it in that carriage, or much before daybreak. Still +the rascals don't know that you've come, Mr. Rainer, and that we're +already on their track. That ought to spoil their game." + +The car ran through Mentone, and into Ventimiglia, but as it drew near +the custom-house, Sir Tancred cried, "By Jove, we're going to be +delayed! The guard's turned out!" And sure enough, a dozen soldiers +barred the road. + +Tinker stopped the car: and a sergeant bade Sir Tancred and Mr. Rainer +come with him to the officer in command. Tinker gave his father the +pocketbook which contained their passports; the two of them got out of +the car, and followed the sergeant into the custom-house. + +Tinker jumped down, and sure that he had plenty of time, looked at the +machinery and filled up the petrol tank from a gallon tin in the back +of the car. Then he went back to his seat. + +He could hear a murmur of voices from the custom-house, and it grew +louder and louder; he caught disjointed scraps of angry talk. Of a +sudden his father's voice rose loud in apparent fury, and he cried in +Italian, "Spies! We're nothing of the kind!" and then in English, +"Bolt!" + +In a flash the car was moving, and half a dozen soldiers sprang +forward, crying, "Stop! Stop!" + +"It's running away!" screamed Tinker in Italian, and switched it on to +full speed. + +It jerked forward; and the soldiers ran heavily after it. + +"Hold it back! Hold it back!" screamed Tinker, and with the +unquestioning obedience of the perfectly disciplined man, a simple +young soldier caught hold of the back of the car, and threw all his +heart and strength into the effort to stop it, only to find himself +running fast. At sixty yards he was running faster and shouting +loudly. At eighty yards, he stopped shouting, let go, and fell down. +Tinker looked back, and saw him sitting up in the dust and shaking his +fist, while forty yards beyond him his fellow-soldiers danced +gesticulating in the middle of the road. + +[Illustration: "Hold it back!" screamed Tinker.] + + + + +CHAPTER THIRTEEN + +TINKER MEETS HIS OLD NURSE + +Tinker let the car rip on, the while he considered what he should do. +He was excited, determined, he accepted readily enough the +responsibility which had fallen upon him, but he was hardly happy. He +could see no hope of rescuing Dorothy and Elsie by himself, even if he +caught the carriage; and since he reckoned that it would take his +father two or three hours to turn the Riviera upside down, and +extricate himself and Mr. Rainer from the extremely neat and effective +trap into which they had fallen, he could look for no help from them +till far into the night. For a while he suffered from the sense that +he had bitten off, or rather had had thrust into his mouth, more than +he could chew. Then of a sudden he saw that the really important +thing, the dogging the kidnappers, was in his power, and he regained +his cheerfulness. + +He drove on the car at full speed for ten miles, and inquired of a +peasant walking beside a cart loaded with bags of grain, if he had seen +the carriage. The peasant had seen it; he was vague as to how long +ago, and how far away, but Tinker was sure that he had seen it. +Accordingly, he drove on the car at full speed again. In this way, +going at full speed, and now and again slowing down to inquire, he got +over a good many miles. He was frightened when he went through a town +lest the police should try to stop him, but it seemed that they had +received no such instructions from Ventimiglia. All the while he was +drawing nearer the carriage, for all that, somewhere or other, it had +plainly changed horses. + +At last he made up his mind that he would overtake it in the next seven +miles; and he bucketed the car along for all she was worth. At the end +of the seven miles he had not overtaken it, nor was there any +appearance of it on the road before him, a level stretch of two miles. +However, he ran on another five miles, and there was no sign of it, nor +had anyone he passed or met, seen it. Plainly he had overshot it. + +He turned the car, and came back, stopping to examine branch roads for +its wheel-tracks, losing the ground he had made up. Some seven miles +back, he came to a road leading to a great gap in the hills. A little +girl was feeding a few lean sheep at the corner of it. No: she had +seen no carriage; she had only been here a little while: the road ran +up to Camporossa. Tinker considered it, and it invited his search. It +went high into the hills, and he saw little towns here and there on +their sides. He sent the car slowly down it. For seventy yards the +roadway was hard, or stony; then came a patch of dust, smooth and +unmarked by a wheel-track. Any vehicle going along the road must have +passed over it, and a wave of disappointment submerged Tinker's spirit; +the road had seemed so very much the right one. He stopped the car, +and stared blankly at the patch of dust. Suddenly his quick eye caught +a curious marking on its surface. He jumped down, and bent over it: +sure enough, the patch had been brushed and smoothed with a bough. + +He hurried the car back to the corner of the road, and by entreaties, +persuasion, cajoling, a five-franc piece, and even--great +concession!--a kiss, he wrung from the little shepherdess a promise +that she would wait till dark if need were, stop every motor-car that +came from the direction of the frontier, and say, "The kidnappers have +gone up this road." He was assured that his father would borrow or +hire a motorcar, and follow in it. + +Then he turned the car for Camporossa. Three hundred yards up the road +he came to another patch of dust, and saw the wheel-tracks of the +carriage deep and plain. He sent along the car as hard as he dared, +for, as the road grew steeper along the hillside, it grew stonier and +stonier, thanks to its serving, like most Italian hill roads, as a +watercourse to carry off the rain from the hills. A very slow and +painful jolting brought him among the olive groves of Camporossa and +into that little town. + +He stopped before the little Inn, and was served with milk and bread +and fruit. As he ate and drank, he was all affability and information +to the group of the curious who gathered round the car. He was an +English boy; his family had gone on in front in a carriage, and he was +following them in the car. He learned at once that the carriage had +gone on to Dolceacqua, and was less than an hour ahead. + +He paid for his food and milk, and without delay sent the car up the +steep hillside. He had to nurse and coax it up the steepest parts. +After another long jolting he reached Dolceacqua, vexed all the time by +the knowledge that the carriage was going as fast as he over such +roads. The magnificent view of the Mediterranean from the rose-gardens +of Dolceacqua afforded him no pleasure at all; it made only too clear +to him the risk he would run, if he recovered Dorothy and Elsie and had +to descend that steep at any pace. At Dolceacqua he learned that the +carriage was little more than half an hour ahead, on the road to +Islabona. He was pleased to hear that, for all the badness of the +road, he had gained upon it: plainly the horses were tiring. + +Another steep climb brought him up to Islabona, to learn that the +carriage had turned to the right along the road to Apricale. To his +surprise and satisfaction he found this road smooth, and once more, +after long crawling, sent the car along at full speed. It was time to +make haste, for the sun was setting. A mile from Apricale he saw a +cloud of dust ahead of him, and he knew that he had the kidnappers in +sight. He slowed down, for he did not wish to be seen by them. Then +when the dust-cloud vanished into the straggling town, he hurried on +again, for if they pushed on through the darkness, he would have to +follow by the sound of their wheels. + +He came through Apricale at a moderate speed. Then a mile beyond it, +as he came to the top of a little hill, he saw the carriage moving +slowly down an avenue, to a house on the left, some hundred yards from +the road. He stopped the car with a jerk, backed it a little way down +the hill, and from the brow watched the carriage drive up to the house. +Then the sun set, and the swift twilight fell. + +He set about filling up the petrol tank, and making sure that the lamp +was ready to light. Then he backed the car into a clump of trees, and +set out across the fields for the house. It was the dark hour after +sunset, and he found most of the bushes thorny. Presently he came into +a deserted garden, overgrown with rank weeds and unclipped shrubs. He +hoped devoutly that the scorpions and tarantulas would await the +passing of the sunset chill in their lairs. To all seeming they did, +for he pushed through the garden without mishap, and came to the house. +It was a four-square, two-storied building, with something of the air +of a fortress, a useful abode in those once brigand-ridden hills, some +old-time gentleman's country-seat; a mat of creepers covered it to its +tiled roof. The side near him was dark; and from the back came the +voices of three stablemen about their business. He stole round to the +front; and that too was dark. But on the further side two rooms were +lighted, one on the ground floor, one above. + +A chatter of excited voices came from the lower windows; and Tinker +came to within ten yards of it, and looked in through the heavy bars. +Three men were dining at the table: a freckled redheaded man with the +high cheekbones of the Scot, a dissipated young Italian of a most +romantic air, and a small, round, vivacious man, ineffably French. + +"I'm going to marry the girl, say what you will!" the Italian cried. +"Where would your scheme have been without my aid? Where would you +have found a house like this, out of the world, secure from search, in +a country where everyone is as silent as the grave in my interests?" + +"Pardon, my dear Monteleone," said the Frenchman; "_I_ am going to +marry the lady. Without me, there would have been no scheme for you to +help. I made it. I rank first. I marry the young lady." + +"What's all this talk about marrying the girl?" roared the Scotchman, +in French. "We agreed on a ransom of a million and a half francs, five +hundred thousand francs each!" + +"The lady's beauty has changed all that," said the Frenchman. "I am +going to marry her." + +"No, no: it's me; it's me," said the Italian. + +"Have done with this foolish talk!" roared the Scotchman, banging the +table. "If either of you marries her, the poor young thing will be a +widow in a fortnight. I know Septimus Rainer; he'll shoot such a +son-in-law at sight!" + +"Shoot me! Shoot me! This American mushroom shoot a Monteleone for +marrying his daughter!" cried the Italian. "Why, the Monteleones were +Crusaders! He'll be proud of the alliance!" + +"Very proud--very proud he'll be will Septimus Rainer--when he's shot +ye," jeered the Scotchman. + +A movement overhead drew Tinker's attention; he looked up, to see +Dorothy leaning out of the window above. He uttered the short click +which served him as a signal when he played the part of chief +conspirator. She looked straight down at him, but did not move or +answer, and he knew that there was someone, an enemy, in the room with +her. The kidnappers still disputed vehemently; and he stole up to the +wall, and began to climb the vine which covered the side of the house. +He disturbed a number of roosting small birds; but Dorothy's suitors +were putting forward their pretensions to her hand with a clamour which +drowned the flutter of wings. He climbed up and up, and Dorothy never +stirred; and at last he looked under her arm into the room. Elsie, +with her elbows on the table, was staring miserably at the grim, +forbidding face of an elderly woman who sat on a chair backed up +against the door. + +Tinker looked at the woman and could scarcely believe his eyes, then he +laughed gently, slipped over the window-sill, and said cheerfully, +"Hullo, Selina, how are you?" + +The grim woman started up with a little cry, stared at him, ran across +the room, and began to hug him furiously, crying, "Oh, Master Tinker! +Master Tinker! What a turn you did give me!" + +"Drop it, Selina! Drop it!" said Tinker, struggling out of her +embrace. "You know how I hate being slobbered over!" + +Then he dodged Dorothy and Elsie, who advanced upon him with one accord +and one purpose of kissing him, and cried, "No, no! This is no time +for foolery!" + +"But I don't understand," said Dorothy. + +"Oh! Selina's my old nurse. What are you doing here, Selina? I never +expected you to turn kidnapper at your age!" + +"Nothing of the kind, Master Tinker! I'm paid to help save these poor +lambs from them Popish Jesuits, and I'm going to do it!" + +"Let's hear about this," said Tinker, sitting down on the table. + +"It's my poor husband's cousin, Mr. Alexander McNeill. He engaged me +to come here to act as maid to a young lady he was helping get away +from those Jesuits who were trying to force her into a convent to get +her money," said Selina. + +"You've been humbugged, then. What you are doing is helping to kidnap +my adopted sister Elsie, and Miss Dorothy Rainer, the daughter of an +American millionaire," said Tinker joyfully. + +Dorothy started and flushed. "How did you learn that?" she said +quickly. + +"Your father's come from America, and he and my father are looking for +you, though where they are there's no saying. I left them at +Ventimiglia arrested as spies," said Tinker. + +"Arrested as spies?" cried Dorothy. + +But Selina, whose face had undergone a slow but violent change, broke +in, "So Alexander's humbugged me, has he? He's brought me all the way +from Paris here by a lie about Jesuits having tried to bury this young +lady in one of their nasty convents, to do his dirty kidnapping work, +has he? I'll kidnap him! I'll teach him to play these tricks on me!" + +"Do!" said Tinker with warm approval. "You let him have it! Think +that you're pitching into me like you used to! Come along, all of you! +Selina's simply tremendous when her back's up!" + +Selina opened the door, and went down the stairs with all the outraged +majesty of a Boadicea. The three of them followed her quietly, and at +the bottom Tinker bade Dorothy and Elsie unbar the door of the house +and himself kept close behind Selina. She opened the door of the room; +and at the sight of her the sustained shriek in which the Italian and +the Frenchman were conversing died suddenly down, and the three +kidnappers stared at her. + +"You nasty, body-snatching scum!" said Selina, glowering at them. + +"Eh! What? You're daft, woman! What's the matter?" said McNeill. + +"Don't you woman me, Alexander McNeill!" said Selina. "Daft, am I? +Daft to listen to your lies about Jesuits and the young lady! Daft to +believe you when you told me not to listen to her, for the Jesuits had +got round her, and she didn't know what was good for her! But I've +found you out! I'm going to take the young lady straight back to her +father, and send the police here for you." + +"Woman, you're mad!" said McNeill, rising with a scared face. + +"Don't you woman me, you low Scotchman! You ought to be ashamed of +yourself, mixing yourself up with these foreign rascals! You that's +had a Christian up-bringing!" + +"You do what you're paid to do!" roared McNeill. + +"Il faut agir!" said the Frenchman, with the true Napoleonic grasp of +the situation, and he bounced in a lithe, over-confident manner at +Selina. + +In a flash she had her left hand well gripped in his abundant hair, and +was clawing his face with her right. He screamed and writhed; and the +struggle gave Tinker his chance. He slipped the key out of the inside +of the door, thrust it into the outside; as the Frenchman tore himself +away yelling, he cried, "Outside, Selina!" strengthened the command by +a strong drag on her arm; got her outside; slammed to the door, and +locked it almost before the kidnappers had realised that he was there. +He wrenched the key out of the lock just as Dorothy had got the +front-door open; ran down the hall; caught Elsie's hand, and crying, +"Come along! Come along!" ran down the avenue, followed by Dorothy and +Selina as fast as they could pelt. + +Three minutes brought them to the car; and he bundled his breathless +charges into it, drove it out of the clump of trees, and sent it hard +down the road. Just before Apricale he bade them crouch down in the +car that they might not be seen, and rushed through the ill-lighted +street at full speed. A mile beyond the town he lighted the lamp and +drove her at full speed again, along the smooth road to Islabona. + +Beyond Islabona he was forced to go very slowly down the jolting +descent; if he had tried to go at any pace, the car on those loose +stones might at any moment have taken its own steering in hand and +smashed itself against the rocky banks. Dorothy and Elsie took +advantage of the slowness to pour into his ears the tale of how the +kidnappers had seized them on the Corniche a mile outside the town, +thrust them into the carriage, and kept them quiet by threats. Now and +again he hushed them, to listen for pursuing horses. He had not much +fear of pursuit. The kidnappers would be some time breaking out of the +room in which he had locked them; and when they were out they would +scour the neighbourhood on foot. He had kept well out of sight behind +Selina; and they would hear nothing of the car before they began to +pursue. When they did pursue, it would be on the sure-footed hill +horses; they would come three yards to the car's one. + +At last they reached Dolceacqua, and pushed steadily and carefully +downwards. Half-way between that town and Camporossa, they came round +a bend in the road, to see half a mile below them the flaring lamp of a +motor-car. + +"Here's my father, or the police!" said Tinker with a sigh of relief. + +In five minutes Dorothy was kissing her father; and Tinker was +presenting the new-found Selina to Sir Tancred with a joyful account of +her delinquencies. + +It had taken Sir Tancred little more than two and a half hours to get +free of the Italian authorities; and as Tinker had expected he had +hired a motor-car, and came straight and hard for Genoa, to be turned +aside on to the right track by Tinker's shepherdess. + +When they had exchanged stories, Mr. Rainer was for going on and taking +vengeance on the kidnappers. But Sir Tancred dissuaded him, pointing +out that there was no need to have every gossip in Europe talking about +Dorothy. If the police, who were in a bustle from Mentone to Genoa, +caught them, it must be endured. But Dorothy had escaped unharmed, and +the less fuss made about the matter the better. + +Mr. Rainer listened to reason; Dorothy got into the car with Sir +Tancred and her father; and they continued the descent. Once on the +highroad they set out for Monte Carlo as hard as they dared go at +night. It was past midnight when they reached the hotel, where Buist +was awaiting them in great anxiety. The sight of them set his mind at +rest; but to this day he is inclined to believe that Sir Tancred had a +hand in the kidnapping of Dorothy, and that Selina was an accomplice. +To his intimates he speaks of him with great respect as "a mastermind +of crime." + +They were all very hungry and they supped at great length, in very good +spirits. As they were going upstairs to bed, Tinker succeeded in +keeping Dorothy back. + +"It's all very well your being the daughter of a millionaire," he said +with some severity. "But an employer has his rights. I can't lose a +governess who suits Elsie so well, straight off. I shall expect a +month's notice." + +"But I've no intention of resigning that excellent post," said Dorothy, +smiling. + +Tinker looked at her gravely, thinking, and then he said gloomily, +"Your father will never let you be a governess. I suppose you expect +me to back you up against him." + +"That's just what I do expect," said Dorothy. + + + + +CHAPTER FOURTEEN + +TINKER TAKES SEPTIMUS RAINER IN HAND + +On awaking next morning Dorothy's first thought was how would her +father's coming affect her relations with Sir Tancred; and she at once +changed it to how would it affect her relations with the whole of the +little circle into which a fortunate whim had led her. She was an honest +soul, and now she tried to be as honest with herself as a woman can bring +herself to be. She did not hide from herself that of late she and Sir +Tancred had been more and more drawn together; she even went to the +length of admitting that her feeling for him was something stronger than +friendship. Indeed, she was full of pity for him. She had learned from +Tinker something of the story of his earlier life, and like a good woman +she wished she might give him the happiness he had missed. She did not +know how strongly she longed to give him that happiness, much less was +she able to distinguish where pity merged into love. Now she was in a +great dread of her father's millions. She knew well enough that with +many, indeed, with most men of Sir Tancred's class they would have been +primroses, very large primroses, on the path of love; she feared that if +he was the man she thought him, and she would not have him any other, +they would prove barriers on that path, hard indeed to surmount. She +dressed in no very good spirits, and came downstairs to find her father +awaiting her in the hall, ready to stroll out and hear how the world had +gone with her. + +Sir Tancred also awoke with the sense of something unpleasant having +happened. But at first he could not for the life of him remember what it +was. Then he began to consider the change which would be brought about +by the irruption of the millionaire. He resented it. He found the +prospect of Tinker's losing Dorothy's services exceedingly disagreeable. +For a while he ascribed that resentment to the fact that she would cease +to be the excellent influence with Tinker she certainly was; and then he +grew resentful on his own account. It was hard, indeed, that he should +suddenly be deprived of the presence of so charming a creature at his +table, of so delightful a companion of his evening stroll in the gardens +of the Casino. If it hadn't been for those confounded millions--there he +checked himself sternly; the millions were there, and there was no more +to be said, or thought. But his temper was none the better for the +constraint. + +After his late hours the night before, Tinker did not get up as early as +usual, and he and Elsie decided to forego their bathe in the sea, but +went straight to breakfast in the kitchen of the hotel. He found the +staff greatly concerned about the trouble which was likely to befall him +for borrowing the motor-car. It seemed that on finding it gone, its +owner, a M. Cognier, had displayed a wrath of the most terrible. Of +course an Argus-eyed busy-body had seen Tinker depart in it; and M. +Cognier, an Anglophobe, had declared his intention of punishing this +insolence of Perfidious Albion by handing him over to the police. Tinker +heard all their prophecies of evil with his wonted tranquillity; but he +had no little difficulty in setting their minds at rest. + +M. Cognier had been impressive. + +The two children had finished their breakfast, and were about to set out +in search of adventure, when Selina found them and began to set forth a +petition. She wished to be allowed to enter Tinker's service again. She +was, she said, alone in the world once more, for her husband, having +spent all her savings, had with determined Scotch thriftiness +incontinently died, and left her to shift for herself. She had been +making a mean living as an ironer in a Parisian laundry, when Alexander +McNeill had sent for her to Apricale to help him deliver a young lady +from the Jesuits; and she saw in her curious meeting with Tinker, at the +country seat of the young Monteleone, the finger of Providence pointing +the way back to her old situation. Would he lay the matter before his +father, and support her petition? + +Tinker was somewhat taken aback, and said, "But I'm too old for a nurse." + +"Oh, there are lots of things I could do, Master Tinker. There are +really," said Selina. "You want a housekeeper when you're at the Refuge, +a housekeeper who could get up your linen and Sir Tancred's as they can't +do it at Farndon-Pryze. You want someone to look after you, when you've +got a cold. You never did take any care of yourself." She was wringing +her hands in her earnestness. + +"You'd be a sort of valet-housekeeper then," said Tinker, pondering the +matter. + +"Yes, and I should want very little wages. All I want is to be in your +service again. I never ought to have left it. I never had no real peace +all the time I was married, what with wondering how you were being looked +after, and whether you was ill or not. I always took in _The Morning +Post_, though Angus did grumble at the expense, all the time I was in +Paris, on purpose to see where you was; and every day I looked at the +Births, Deaths, and Marriages first, to see if anything had happened to +you." + +She stopped; and Tinker was silent a while, thinking; then he said, "Do +you think you could act as maid to Elsie?" + +"Why, of course I could, Master Tinker!" + +"She wants someone to brush her hair most," said Tinker thoughtfully. + +"I don't want a maid. And I don't want anyone to brush my hair but you," +said Elsie firmly. "No one could do it so well." + +"Oh, you'll soon get used to Selina's doing it," said Tinker cheerfully. +"And you'll find it so much more--so much more important having a maid of +your own. You'll feel so grown-up, don't you know? I tell you what, +we'll go upstairs, and Selina can have a try at it, while I talk to my +father." + +Elsie shook her head doubtfully; but she came. Tinker left them at the +door of Elsie's room, and went to his father. He found him dressing, and +after bidding him good-morning, came at once to the matter in hand. +"Selina wants to come back to us," he said. "She thinks she could be +useful as valet-housekeeper and maid to Elsie. She's awfully keen on it." + +"If she wants to come back, she most certainly can," said Sir Tancred. +"I owe Selina a debt I can never pay--and so do you, for that matter. I +don't pretend to know what the functions of a valet-housekeeper are, but +doubtless Selina knows her own capabilities best. Besides, as you are +losing your governess, you will want some woman about Elsie." + +"But I don't intend to lose my governess!" cried Tinker. + +Sir Tancred looked at him with unaffected interest. "Am I to understand +that you propose to retain the daughter of a millionaire as your adopted +sister's governess?" he said. + +"Yes," said Tinker firmly. "Dorothy's a very good governess: she suits +Elsie and she suits me." + +"That sounds like a reason," said Sir Tancred. "But I shall be +interested to see if Mr. Rainer listens to it." + +"I think," said Tinker thoughtfully, "we shan't have much trouble with +Mr. Rainer." + +"Of course, if you've made up your mind--but millionaires are kittle +cattle." + +Tinker went to Selina and Elsie, looked carefully into the matter of +hair-brushing; gave Selina a few hints on the process, and then told her +that her request was granted. He fled from the room to escape her joyful +gratitude; and went down into the hall to await the conclusion of the +process, and Elsie's coming. + +Of a sudden there descended on him an exceedingly animated French +gentleman of forty, who cried, "Tell me then a little, good-for-nothing! +Why did you steal my motor-car yesterday?" + +Tinker was suavity itself; he protested that he was desolated, grieved +beyond measure that the necessity of borrowing the motor-car had been +forced on him; but he had borrowed it in the service of a lady; and he +told briefly the story of the kidnapping. The aggrieved Frenchman +listened to it with a face in which amazement battled with incredulity; +but fortunately, towards the end of it, Dorothy and her father came into +the hotel from walking in the garden of the Casino; and Tinker introduced +the Frenchman to them. At the sight of Dorothy's beauty, he forgot his +righteous wrath; forgot that it was an international matter, another +instance of the cunning insolence of Perfidious Albion; protested his +delight that his car should have been of use to her; would not listen to +Septimus Rainer's proposal to fit it out with fresh tires, declaring that +the tires on it, worn in her service, had become one of his most +cherished possessions; and in the end turned upon Tinker with +outstretched arms, and cried, "Embrace me! I have called you a +good-for-nothing! But you are a hero!" + +With infinite quickness Tinker seized the nearest hand, wrung it warmly, +and ducked out of the way of the embrace. Then he explained that unless +the police caught the kidnappers, they desired to let the matter drop, +for the gossip would be unpleasant to Dorothy. The Frenchman understood; +and assured them that as far as he was concerned, it should be buried in +the most secret depths of his bosom. + +With that he took his leave of them; and on his heels came two Italian +detectives to inquire into the kidnapping. Sir Tancred was summoned to +the conference; and for all that their questioners assumed a good deal of +the air of inquisitors with all the horrors of the torture-chamber behind +them, he and Tinker saw to it that they went away very little wiser than +they came. + +At dejeuner Septimus Rainer told them that now he was in Europe he +proposed to stay in Europe, and enjoy a little of his daughter's society. +He could carry on all of his business he wanted to by cablegram and +letter. One thing, however, he must have, and that was clothes, for in +his haste he had come away with a gripsack and nothing more. Sir Tancred +suggested that Tinker, who knew his Nice, should take him over there, and +put him in the hands of the right tailor, hatter, hosier, and bootmaker; +and Septimus Rainer accepted the offer gratefully. + +Accordingly the two of them caught a train early in the afternoon, and +went to Nice. Septimus Rainer had supposed the getting of clothes to be +a simple and tiresome affair of a few minutes; you went to a tailor and +said, "Make me suits of clothes," or to a bootmaker and said, "Make me +pairs of boots." He was vastly mistaken. He found himself embarked upon +a serious business. + +He awoke to the seriousness of it in the train, when he found Tinker, who +had taken his commission to heart, regarding him with a cold, calculating +air, very disquieting. He endured it as long as he could, then he said +cautiously, "You aren't measuring me for my coffin; are you, sonny?" + +"Oh, no!" said Tinker with a reassuring smile of a seraphic sweetness. +"I was only thinking how you ought to be dressed." + +"Oh, anything will do for me," said Septimus Rainer carelessly. + +"I'm afraid not; you see I'm responsible," said Tinker seriously. "And I +was thinking that, getting your clothes here in Nice, I shall have to +keep a very sharp eye on them, or they'll go dressing you like a French +American--you know, an American who is dressed by a Paris tailor. And +that wouldn't do at all." + +"No: of course not," said Septimus Rainer quickly. + +But it was not till they came to the tailor's that he realised the full +seriousness of the business before them. At first he supposed that he +was to have his say in the matter; but at the end of ten minutes, with a +half-humorous abandonment, he put himself entirely in the hands of the +conscientious Tinker, and indeed had he not done so, there is no saying +that he might not have gone about the world parading a velvet collar on a +grey frock coat. It was Tinker who decided, after weighty consideration, +upon the colour and texture of the stuff of each suit, chose the very +buttons for it, and forced upon the reluctant Nicois his ideas of the way +each separate garment should be cut. Septimus Rainer was frankly +bewildered at the end of half an hour; he was used, in the way of +business, to carrying a multiplicity of details in his head, but these +details it could not carry. When he found that Tinker had them at his +finger ends, he was filled with admiration and respect. + +From the tailor's they went to the hatter's; and there Septimus Rainer +found himself trying on hats by the score. But, strangely enough, he did +not grow weary: Tinker's absorbed interest in his task was catching to +the point that at the hosier's the millionaire found himself discussing +the shade of his socks with real enthusiasm. + +When they came out of the last shop Tinker said, with the deep breath of +one relieved of a heavy responsibility, "There--I think you'll look all +right--as far as a French tailor can do it." + +"I ought to, after all the trouble you've taken, sonny," said Septimus +Rainer, smiling. + +"You have to take trouble about dressing a man. A woman is easy enough. +I got Elsie her clothes in about an hour. But a man is much more +difficult. And clothes are so important," said Tinker gravely. + +"I suppose they are--over here," said Septimus Rainer. + +"I'm glad you don't take them really seriously," said Tinker, approving +his tone, "because you'll soon get into the way of wearing them when +you've got them. It's very funny, but well-dressed Americans--men, I +mean--don't often wear their clothes properly; they look as if they felt +so awfully well-dressed. I don't think you will." + +"Now you've told me about it, I'll try not to." + +"I think you'll want a good man, though, to keep you up to the mark. You +might get slack, don't you know?" + +"No, no; I can't have a valet, and I won't," said Septimus Rainer firmly. + +"Ah, we shall have to see what Dorothy says about that," said Tinker with +a smile of doubtful meaning. + +"That's playing it rather low down on me, isn't it?" said Septimus Rainer +reproachfully. "It's--it's coercion." + +"Oh, if you have to wear clothes, you may as well do it thoroughly. You +see, it's been put into my hands, and I must go through with it," said +Tinker apologetically. + +The millionaire gazed at him ruefully. + +"And now," Tinker went on, regarding him with another cold, calculating +air, that of a proprietor, "I think I'll take you to a hair-dresser, and +have your hair and beard dealt with." + +"Crop away! crop away!" said the millionaire. + +Tinker took him to a hair-dresser, and told the man exactly how he wanted +the hair and beard cut. "He'd make you a French American, too, if I let +him," he said to Septimus Rainer. + +When the hair-dresser had done, the millionaire looked at himself in the +glass with approval, and said, "Well, I do look spick and span, though +gritty; yes--sir." + +"You'll look better when you have your clothes," said Tinker. "And, now, +I think you must want a drink." + +"That is so, sonny. This is dry work, this getting clothes." + +Tinker took him to a cafe, adorned with an American bar. Septimus Rainer +lighted a cigar and refreshed himself with the whiskey sour of his native +land; Tinker ate ices. Over these agreeable occupations they talked; and +the millionaire derived considerable entertainment and no little +instruction from his young companion's views of life on the Mediterranean +littoral, illustrated from the passing pleasure-seekers. + +[Illustration: Over these agreeable occupations they talked.] + +When they got into the railway carriage on their return, he lighted +another cigar, and lay back in the seat with the content of a man who had +done a hard day's work. But presently he roused himself and said, "I've +been thinking about those kidnapping scum. They were going to ransom +Dorothy for three hundred thousand dollars, you said." + +"Yes, a million and a half francs," said Tinker. + +"Well, sonny, I've been thinking I must pay you fifty thousand dollars +over that business. You took a big risk holding up a gang like that." + +"It wasn't me: Selina held them up," said Tinker quickly. + +"Selina did her share, and I shan't forget it. But it was your show. I +think fifty thousand dollars would be fair." + +Tinker's face went very grave. "Thank you very much," he said slowly, +"but I couldn't take any money for helping Dorothy out of a mess. When +I've taken money for helping people, they've been strangers--like the +Kernabies and Blumenruth. But Dorothy is different--quite different." + +Septimus Rainer pulled at his beard, and said in a grumbling voice, +"That's all very well, sonny; but where do I come in? You get my little +girl out of a tight place--a very tight place--and you save me three +hundred thousand dollars. Business is business, and I ought to pay." + +"It is rather awkward for you," said Tinker, looking at him with a +puzzled face and knitted brow. "But I think the thing is that it wasn't +business. I like Dorothy--I like her very much. She's a friend. And +there can't be any business between friends, don't you know?" + +"Shake, sonny," said the millionaire, holding out his hand. "I'm glad +you and she are friends." + +Tinker shook his hand gravely. + +When they came back to the hotel, at the sight of her father, Dorothy +cried, "Oh, papa, what have you been doing? You look ten years younger. +And what a nice shape your head is!" + +"Yes," said Septimus Rainer, "I pride myself on the shape of my head. +But it's all your young friend's doing." + +"Wait till his clothes come," said Tinker with modest pride. + +"I shall look fine in those clothes, I tell you--fine," said Septimus +Rainer, and his air was almost fatuous. + +"I think he ought to have a valet," said Tinker. "You can't learn about +clothes all out of your own head. Either you must have always worn the +right clothes, or you want someone to teach you." + +"Of course, you must have a valet, papa," said Dorothy. + +"I can't--I can't have a man messing about me," said Septimus Rainer in a +tone of almost pathetic pleading. + +"I'm afraid there's no way out of it," said Tinker firmly. + +"I'm sure there isn't if Tinker says so. He knows all about these +things," said Dorothy. "You must be brave, papa: you really must." + +"I'll find him one," said Tinker. + +Septimus Rainer yielded with a gesture of hopeless resignation. + + + + +CHAPTER FIFTEEN + +TINKER ASSERTS THE RIGHTS OF THE EMPLOYER + +Septimus Rainer was very soon admitted to the frankest intimacy of the +little circle. An American of the best type, he had enjoyed the +advantage in his childhood of the stern and hardening training of life +on a little farm, and the supreme advantage of a good mother. He had +fought his way to fortune with clean hands, winning always his battles +by sheer superiority of brain, never by laxity of principle; no man +could lay to his charge that he had dealt him a foul blow. He had +come, therefore, through that demoralising fight with a clean heart, +his native shrewdness increased a thousand-fold, his native simplicity +unabated. It was this combination of shrewdness and simplicity which +had caused him to send Dorothy, bitter as it had been to part with her, +to Europe to finish her education. His gorge had risen at the +intolerable snobbishness which is corroding the wealthy sections of +American society; he had made up his mind that she had a better chance +of obtaining the necessary social acquirements, while remaining a +gentlewoman, in Europe; and had acted with great success on the +conviction. + +After a few days' natural restlessness he found himself developing an +admirable capacity, very rare in millionaires, of being for a while +idle. This agreeable circumstance was the natural effect of the +surroundings in which he found himself; not so much of the place, for +at Monte Carlo pleasure is a somewhat strenuous affair, but of the fact +that his new friends had a trained power of taking life easily. +Tinker, Sir Tancred, and Lord Crosland would have admitted him to their +intimacy for the sake of Dorothy; but simple souls themselves, they +recognised in him a kindred simplicity, and admitted him to their +friendship. He possessed, to a great degree, the American +adaptability; and it is not surprising that he fell into their way of +taking life easily. It was only for the time being. The millionaire +is a good deal of the Sindbad, and he must bear the burden and go the +way of the golden Old Man of the Sea he has made for himself. But +Septimus Rainer enjoyed this respite from the tyranny of his millions +with the whole-hearted pleasure of a child. He enjoyed the brightness +and glitter of the place; he enjoyed the pleasant meals and pleasant +talks with pleasant companions; he enjoyed a little gambling at the +tables; and he enjoyed with a childlike zest playing with Dorothy and +the children, displaying latent and unsuspected talents for piracy, +brigandage, and conspiracy, which were no less a glory than a surprise +to him. Indeed, at times he was very like a young schoolboy let loose +after many hours' school. + +Tinker was of perpetual interest to him, and he listened with greedy +ears to the wisdom of the world of that sage, on the rare occasions +when some matter or other set it flowing from his lips. On the other +hand, he found in him an absorbed listener to the stories of his less +involved financial battles, and spared no pains to make them clear to +him. Sir Tancred interested him little less, and he was always +deploring the loss the splendid army of millionaires had suffered by +his excellent abilities not having been forced to flow in a business +channel. + +He was distressed, too, about the waste of Tinker, and adjured his +father to hand him over to him to be made a millionaire of. + +But Sir Tancred turned a deaf ear to his petition, and said, "Of +course, if Tinker went into business he would become a millionaire. +And it's a fashionable occupation, and I've nothing to say against it. +But over here, with some of us, there are still other things besides +money--not that there will be long--and for my part I shall be content +if he grows up a gentleman, as he will. Business might spoil that; and +at any rate I won't chance it. And, after all, my step-mother won't +live to much more than eighty, so that he will have thirty thousand a +year before he's forty-five." + +"That's a hundred and fifty thousand dollars," said Septimus Rainer +thoughtfully, and he pressed the point no more. + +He was far too shrewd not to perceive the attraction Sir Tancred and +Dorothy had for one another, and he regarded it with entire content. +Whatever he might have said against Sir Tancred's manner of life, he +had a genuine respect for his qualities; and he had learned from +Dorothy something of the causes of his falling into that manner of +life. He had a strong belief that once married to her he would change; +he thought it likely that he might even embark on the career of +politics, which he understood to be, in England, a quite respectable +pursuit. He was aware, of course, that he could easily buy her an +English peer or a foreign Prince for husband. But Sir Tancred's rank +and birth satisfied his simple tastes; and he was quite sure that he +might ransack the English peerage and the Courts of Europe without +finding her as good a husband. He did not perceive that his millions +barred Sir Tancred's path. + +Dorothy perceived it only too soon. She found the growth of her +intimacy with Sir Tancred checked; it did not lessen, indeed, but it +did not increase. A shadow had fallen across it, and he no longer +talked to her in the tone of half-affectionate familiarity he had grown +to use with her, he was more reserved. She chafed at it, but she was +not greatly downcast; she only wished that the kidnappers had had the +grace to leave her in her part of the penniless governess, a few weeks +longer. She felt that, then, all the millions in the world would not +have barred Sir Tancred's way. Indeed, she had no reason to be greatly +downcast. This sudden setting of her out of his reach had inevitably +increased her attraction for Sir Tancred; it had deepened his liking to +a far stronger feeling. He cursed the unkindly Fates, and told himself +that his only course was to fly; that the more he saw of her, the more +painful would that flight be. But he could by no means constrain +himself to forego the delight of her presence; and, though he never let +a word of his love escape his lips, his eyes and the tones of his voice +told her of it often enough. + +Tinker was not long providing Septimus Rainer with a carefully chosen +English valet, whom he found a pleasant, unassuming fellow, very easy +to get on with. Then the millionaire began to talk of engaging a +secretary, for his millions were beginning to make themselves +troublesome; and he begged Tinker, since he had found him so +unembarrassing a valet, to keep his eyes about him for a secretary +also; but Tinker said that Monte Carlo was no place to find secretaries +who understood business. + +One morning he saw Madame Seraphine de Belle-Ile drive up to the hotel. +She wore a mournful air; and he perceived at once that she was no +longer clad in a bright scarlet costume, but in one of a dull crimson, +more in keeping with her air of mournfulness. She cut him deliberately +as she passed into the hotel. + +He was exceedingly angry; no human being had ever cut him before, and +he flushed with mortification. He walked down to the gardens pondering +the affront; and his anger grew. Then of a sudden it flashed on him +that she had found out Mr. Arthur Courtnay, and that the warning he had +given her had had something to do with that discovery. She had cut him +by way of showing her gratitude in a truly womanly fashion. With the +smile of an angel indulgent to human frailty he forgave her, and thrust +the matter out of his mind. + +That night at dinner, or rather at dessert, Lord Crosland informed them +that he was engaged to Claire Wigram; and when they had done +congratulating him, he told them that in a few days he would be leaving +for England with the Wigrams. + +"Well," said Sir Tancred, "the season here is coming to an end; and, at +any rate, the weather for the last few days has been too hot to do +these children any good. I think we will move northward, too." + +"It will be the break-up of a very pleasant party," said Septimus +Rainer with a sigh, and Dorothy's face fell. + +"Why should it break up?" said Lord Crosland. "You'd better all come." + +"No; I'm not coming to England, yet," said Sir Tancred. "After all +this heat it would be too great a risk to face straight away the bitter +English summer. I thought of moving northward gently to Biarritz, or I +have a fancy for Arcachon. Wednesday would be as good a day as any." + +There was a pause; then Tinker said thoughtfully, "Wednesday is rather +soon, sir." And, turning to Dorothy, he said, "Do you think that you +could pack by Wednesday? Of course, it doesn't really matter, for you +could come on after us; but I don't want Elsie to lose a day's work." + +Septimus Rainer, Sir Tancred, and Lord Crosland looked a little taken +aback; it struck them all three with the same sense of oddness that a +small boy should direct the movements of the daughter of a millionaire. + +"Oh, I can easily pack up by Wednesday," said Dorothy, as if it were a +matter of course that he should direct her movements. + +"That's all right," said Tinker. + +"But I don't understand," said Septimus Rainer. "Has Dorothy bound +herself to do as you tell her?" + +"Well, I suppose she has, as far as teaching Elsie goes. And I +explained when she took the post that we travelled about a good deal," +said Tinker carelessly. + +"But I can't have this," said Septimus Rainer. + +"Well, she can always give me a month's notice, and then the engagement +ends," said Tinker. He was prepared for the discussion, and resolved +that his father and Dorothy should not be separated as long as he could +prevent it. + +"Do you mean she isn't free for a month from now? But--but it's +absurd!" said Septimus Rainer. + +"That's what the papers call the rights of the employer," said Tinker +with a singularly sad sweetness. + +"Oh, you wouldn't insist on that right, not if you were asked nicely, +would you?" said Lord Crosland. + +"Oh, yes, I should!" said Tinker cheerfully. "You see, I'm responsible +for Elsie, and she will never get such a good governess as Dorothy +again. So she must have as much of her as possible." + +"Thank you; it's nice to be appreciated," said Dorothy, smiling at him. + +"Ah," said Septimus Rainer with the air of one who has found a solution +of the problem, "but Dorothy can always forfeit a month's salary in +lieu of notice." + +"Oh, I couldn't think of it, papa!" cried Dorothy. "I should lose--I +should lose five pounds!" + +"This beats the Dutch! This is avarice! I allow you four thousand +dollars a month!" said Septimus Rainer. + +"Ah, but this is my own earned money!" Dorothy protested, flushing and +smiling. + +Suddenly there came a twinkle into Septimus Rainer's eye. "Well," he +said, "if you're ground down under the heel of a grasping employer, +you're ground down, and you must go to Arcachon. But I shall come, +too." + +"Of course," said Tinker. "You're--you're one of the family." + +"Thank you," said Septimus Rainer. "I'm told that you English are slow +about it. But when you make a man at home, you do make him at home. +And I've always wanted to be adopted." + + + + +CHAPTER SIXTEEN + +TINKER DISOWNS HIS GRANDMOTHER + +On the eve of their departure for Arcachon, Tinker and Elsie were +sitting in the gardens of the Temple of Fortune, taking a well-earned +rest after a farewell bolt into the Salles de Jeu, in which Elsie also +had played a gallant and successful part, for the somewhat obscure +reason that it was the last bolt: so strengthening to her character had +been companionship with Tinker. She was receiving, with modest pride, +his congratulations on having penetrated deeper than himself, to the +innermost shrine, the Trente et Quarante table, in fact, when they saw +coming towards them a large, majestic, white-haired lady, a small, +subdued, mouse-haired lady, and a man of doubtful appearance. + +Without causing him to pause in his congratulations, Tinker's active +mind had placed the two women as a wealthy Englishwoman and her +companion, and was hesitating whether to place the man in the class of +Continental Guides or private detectives, when he pointed to the two +children, and said something to the majestic lady. + +"That's the little boy, is it? Then you two go and sit on the next +seat while I talk to him," said the majestic lady in a voice which lost +in pleasantness what it gained in loudness; and she came to the seat on +which Tinker and Elsie sat, while her attendants walked on. + +Now to call him a little boy was by no means the quickest way to +Tinker's heart, and he watched her draw near with a cold eye. But all +the same when she made as if to sit down, he rose and raised his hat +with a charming smile. She sat down and looked him over with a cool +consideration which provoked his fastidiousness to no admiration of her +breeding. Then she said: + +"Are you Sir Tancred Beauleigh's little boy?" + +"I am Hildebrand Anne Beauleigh," said Tinker in a faintly corrective +tone quite lost on her complacent mind. + +"Hildebrand Anne! Hildebrand Anne! She called you Hildebrand Anne, +did she? The impudence of these minxes!" said the majestic lady, and +she sniffed like a lady of the lower-middle classes. + +At once Tinker knew that she was Lady Beauleigh, and that she was +speaking of his mother. But his face never changed; only the pupils of +his eyes contracted a little; and he drew a quiet, deep breath of +satisfaction. He had always hoped for an interview with her, his +father's step-mother, and he knew that he had the advantage; for he was +armed with a very fair knowledge of her, imparted to him by his father, +who thought it well to put him on his guard; and of him she knew +nothing. + +"Who's this little girl?" said Lady Beauleigh, surveying Elsie with her +insolent stare. "Send her away. I want to talk to you alone." + +"This is my adopted sister, Elsie. You may talk before her; it doesn't +matter how confidential it is. I always tell her everything," said +Tinker in a tone of kindly but exasperating patronage. + +"I don't care! Go away, little girl!" said Lady Beauleigh, and Tinker +was pleased to see the colour rise in her cheeks. + +He stayed Elsie, who was rising to go, with a wave of his hand and said +gently, "Is it important talk?" + +"Yes; it is!" snapped Lady Beauleigh. + +"Then I'd rather she stopped. My father says you should always have a +witness to important talk," said Tinker, and he smiled at her. + +"Stuff and nonsense! I'm your grandmother!" cried Lady Beauleigh +angrily. + +"Ah, then your name is Vane," said Tinker sweetly. + +"Vane! Vane!" Lady Beauleigh gasped rather than spoke the hated name. +"It's nothing of the kind! It's Beauleigh! I'm Lady Beauleigh!" + +"I'm afraid there must be some mistake. You can't be my grandmother on +my father's side. My father's mother is dead," said Tinker in a tone +which almost seemed to apologise for her error. + +"You must be very stupid, or very ignorant!" cried Lady Beauleigh. +"I'm your grandfather's second wife, as you ought to know!" + +"Oh, I know, now," said Tinker; and his face shone with his sudden +enlightenment. "You keep a bank." + +"I--keep--a--bank?" said Lady Beauleigh in a dreadful voice. + +"Oh, not a roulette bank or baccarat bank," said Tinker with +well-affected hastiness. "One of the shop kind--where they sell +money--with glass doors." + +"My father was a banker, if that's what you mean," said Lady Beauleigh. +"But a bank isn't a shop." + +"Oh, I always think it a kind of shop," said Tinker with the +dispassionate air of a professor discussing a problem in the Higher +Mathematics. "It's as well to lump all these--these commercial things +together, isn't it?" And he was very pleased with the word commercial. + +"No: it isn't! A bank isn't a shop, you stupid little boy!" cried Lady +Beauleigh hotly. + +"Well, just as you like," said Tinker with graceful surrender. "I only +call it a shop because it's convenient." + +"A boy of your age ought not to think about convenience. You ought to +have been taught to keep things clear and distinct," said Lady +Beauleigh in a heavy, didactic voice. + +"Oh, it's quite clear to me, really, that a bank's a shop; but we won't +talk about it, if you're ashamed of it. After all, one doesn't talk +about trade, does one?" said Tinker with a return to his kindly but +exasperating patronage. + +"Ashamed of it? I'm not ashamed of it!" said Lady Beauleigh in the +roar of a wounded lioness. + +"No, no; of course not! I only thought you were! I made a mistake!" +said Tinker quickly, with an infuriating show of humouring her. + +"I'm proud of it! Proud of it!" said Lady Beauleigh thickly. "And +when you grow up and understand things, you'll wish your father had +been a banker, too!" + +"I don't think so," said Tinker; and he smiled at her very pleasantly. +"I'm quite satisfied with my father as he is. I'd really rather that +he was a gentleman." + +"A banker is a gentleman!" cried Lady Beauleigh. + +"Yes, yes, of course," said Tinker, humouring her again. "He's--he's a +commercial gentleman." + +Lady Beauleigh could find no words. Never in the course of her +domineering life had she been raised to such an exaltation of +whole-souled exasperation. She could only glare at the suave disposer +of her long-cherished, long-asserted pretensions; and she glared with a +fury which made Elsie, who had edged little by little to the extreme +edge of the seat, rise softly and take up a safer position, standing +three yards away. + +Tinker took advantage of Lady Beauleigh's helpless speechlessness to +say thoughtfully, "But about your being my grandmother? If you're not +my father's mother or my mother's mother, you can't really be my +grandmother. You must be my step-grandmother. + +"I should think," Tinker went on, and his thoughtfulness became a +thoughtful earnestness, "that you must be what people call a connection +by marriage; not quite one of the family." + +The thoughtfulness cleared from Tinker's brow, and he said with a +pleasant smile, "But that's got nothing to do with what you came to +talk about. You said it was important. What did you want to say?" + +Lady Beauleigh remembered suddenly that she had come on an errand +connected with her promotion of the glory of the Beauleighs. She +swallowed down her fury, wiped her face with her handkerchief, and said +in a hoarse and somewhat shaky voice, "I came to make you an offer." + +Tinker beamed on her. + +"You must be tired of this beggarly life, going about from pillar to +post, living in wretched Continental hotels, with no pocket money." + +Tinker raised his eyebrows. + +"I know what your father's life is, just a mere penniless adventurer's." + +Tinker beamed no more. + +"And I came to offer to take you to live with me at Beauleigh Court. +It's a beautiful big house in the country with woods all around it, and +hunting and fishing and shooting and tennis-courts and fruit-gardens, +and a cricket-ground, everything that a boy could want." + +"And you," said Tinker in the expressionless tone of one adding an item +to a catalogue. + +"Yes; and me to look after you. You should have a bicycle." And she +paused to let the splendour of the gift sink in. + +[Illustration: And she paused to let the splendour of the gift sink in.] + +"I have a bicycle," said Tinker. + +"Well--two bicycles--and a pony----" + +"I don't like ponies--they're too slow," said Tinker in a weary voice. +"I always ride a horse." + +"Well, you should have a horse--a horse of your own." + +"What's the hunting like? But, there, I know; it can't be up to much; +it never is in those southern counties. I always hunt in +Leicestershire. I've got used to it." + +"You hunt in Leicestershire?" said Lady Beauleigh with some surprise. + +"Oh course. Where does one hunt?" said Tinker, echoing her surprise. + +"But--but--where does your horse come from? I know your father can't +afford to keep horses!" + +"Sometimes he can," said Tinker. "And if he has had to sell them, a +dozen people will always mount us." + +Lady Beauleigh paused; and then she made the last, lavish bid. "And I +would allow you a hundred a year pocket-money. Why--why, you would be +a little Prince!" + +"A little Prince! And learn geography! No, thank you!" said Tinker, +startled out of his calm. "Besides," he added carelessly, "I've made +five thousand in the last year." + +"Five thousand what?" + +"Pounds." + +"Come, come," said Lady Beauleigh, shaking her head, "you mustn't tell +me lies." + +"It isn't a lie! Tinker never tells lies," broke in Elsie hotly. + +"Hold your tongue, you impertinent little minx!" said Lady Beauleigh +sharply. "Who asked you to speak?" + +"I think you're a horrid----" said Elsie, and was checked by Tinker's +upraised hand. + +"And when I died," Lady Beauleigh went on, turning again to Tinker, "I +should leave you thirty thousand a year--think of it--thirty thousand a +year!" + +"It all sounds very nice," said Tinker in a painfully indifferent tone. +"But I'm afraid it wouldn't do." + +"Wouldn't do? Why wouldn't it do? To live in a beautiful big house in +the country, and have everything a boy could want! Why wouldn't it +do?" cried Lady Beauleigh, excited by opposition to a feverish desire +to compass the end on which her heart had been set for many months. + +"Do you really want to know," said Tinker very gently, but with a +dangerous gleam in his eyes. + +"Yes; I insist on knowing!" cried Lady Beauleigh. + +"Well," said Tinker slowly, pronouncing every word with a very +deliberate distinctness, "we shouldn't get on, you and I. I don't know +how it is; but I never get on with people who keep shops or banks. I'm +afraid you're not quite--well-bred." + +Stout Lady Beauleigh sprang to her feet. + +"Ah, well," said Tinker quietly, "you treated my father and mother very +cruelly, you've just said rude things about both of them, and you've +been rude to Elsie. The fact is, I don't see that I want a +step-grandmother at all; and I can't be expected to want an ill-bred +one anyway. So--so--I disown you." + +Lady Beauleigh's face quivered with rage; she gathered herself together +as if to box Tinker's ears; thought better of it, and hurried away. + +Tinker and Elsie looked at one another, and laughed softly. + +"Horrid old woman," said Elsie. + +"A dreadful person," said Tinker. + +As Lady Beauleigh strode out of the gardens, she came full upon Sir +Tancred and Dorothy. He raised his hat, she tried to glare through +him, and glared at him. + +"That's my step-mother," said Sir Tancred. "I wonder what's the matter +with her. She looks upset." + +"Upset! Why, she looked furious--malignant!" said Dorothy. + +Then they saw Tinker and Elsie coming towards them. + +"I see," said Sir Tancred softly. + +"Oh, if she's met my young charges!" said Dorothy, and she threw out +her hands. + +"Have you been doing anything to your grandmother, Tinker?" cried Sir +Tancred. + +"Well--I disowned her," said Tinker. + +"Disowned her!" + +"Yes; I had to," said Tinker with a faint regret. "She was rude, and +she was wearing a gown which would have stood up by itself if she had +got out of it--at Monte Carlo--in April--it's impossible!" + +He shrugged his shoulders. + + + + +CHAPTER SEVENTEEN + +TINKER AND THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE + +Dorothy sat gazing over that charming gulf, charming alike for its +scenery and its oysters, the Gulf of Arcachon. She gazed on it without +seeing it; her beautiful face was clouded, and her brow was puckered in +a wondering perplexity. + +Tinker sat on the ground near her, his chin on his knees, observing her +with a sympathetic understanding which would have disquieted her not a +little, had she not been too busy with her thoughts to notice it. + +They were still and silent for a long while, until she sighed; then he +said, with unfeigned sadness, "I'm beginning to think he never will." + +"Who never will what?" said Dorothy, awaking from her reflections, and +extremely disconcerted by the exactness with which Tinker's remark +echoed them. + +"My father--ask you to marry him," said Tinker succinctly. + +"Tinker!" cried Dorothy faintly, and she flushed a very fine red. + +"It's all very well to say 'Tinker!' like that," he said, shaking his +head very wisely. "But it's much better to look at things straight, +don't you know? You often get a little forrarder that way." + +"You are a dreadful little boy," said Dorothy with conviction. + +"Yes, yes; I'm not blind," said Tinker patiently. "But the point is, +that my father is ever so much in love with you, and he'll never ask +you to marry him, because you're too rich. I'm sure I've given you +every chance," he added with a sigh. + +"You have?" said Dorothy, gasping. + +"Yes; I'm always seeing that no one makes a third when you and he are +together--on moonlit nights and picnics, and so on, don't you know?" + +Dorothy laughed, in spite of her discomfort, at this frank discussion +of her secret. "But this is inveterate match-making," she said. "Why +do you do it?" + +"Oh, I think it would be a good thing. You both want it badly, and +you'd get on awfully well together. Besides, you're neither of you as +cheerful as you used to be, and I don't like it; it bothers me." + +"It's very good of you to let it," said Dorothy, smiling. + +"Not at all. And Elsie and I would have a settled home, too. It's +very funny; but sometimes I get tired of living in hotels." + +"I'm sure you do," said Dorothy with sympathy. + +"Well, have you got any idea how it can be worked?" + +"No!" cried Dorothy, shocked, and flushing again; "I haven't! I +wouldn't have!" + +"That's silly, when it would be such a good thing," said Tinker with a +disapproving air. "However, I suppose I can work it myself. I +generally have to when I want anything done." + +"What are you going to do?" cried Dorothy in great alarm. "Oh, I do +wish I hadn't said anything, or listened to you!" + +"I don't know what I'm going to do. These affairs of the heart are +always difficult," said Tinker with the air of a sage who has observed +many generations of unfortunate lovers. + +"I won't have you do anything; I forbid it!" cried Dorothy. + +"You shouldn't order your employer about," said Tinker with a smile +which, on any face less angelic, would have been a grin. "Besides, I'm +responsible, and I must do what's good for you. And, after all, I +shan't give you away, don't you know?" + +"Oh, do be careful!" said Dorothy plaintively. + +"I will," said Tinker; and he rose and sauntered off along the +promenade. + +Dorothy looked after him with mingled feelings, dread of what he might +do, vexation, and a little shame that he should have so easily +surprised her secret; though, indeed, she preferred that Tinker should +have discovered it rather than anyone else in the world. Then her sure +knowledge of his discretion eased her anxiety, and the consideration of +his able imagination and versatile ingenuity set a new and strong hope +springing up in her. + +Tinker strolled along to the Cafe du Printemps, and found his father +sitting before it on the usual uncomfortable little chair before the +usual white-topped table. He saw that his father's face wore the same +expression as Dorothy's had worn before he had insisted on coming to +her aid. Then he saw, with something of a shock, that a glass of +absinthe stood on the table. Things must, indeed, be in a bad way if +his father drank absinthe at half-past ten in the morning. + +However, he hid his disapproval, and sitting down on another +uncomfortable chair, he said gently, "What does it mean when a lady is +compromised, sir?" + +"It means that some accident or other has given malignant fools a +chance of gossipping about her," said Sir Tancred in an unamiable tone. + +"And the man has to marry her?" + +"Of course he has," snapped Sir Tancred. + +"Ah!" said Tinker with supreme thoughtful satisfaction. + +His father looked at him for a good minute with considerable suspicion, +wondering what new mischief he was hatching. But Tinker looked like a +guileless seraph pondering the innocent joys of the Islands of the +Blessed, to a degree which made such a suspicion a very shameful thing +indeed. Partly reassured, Sir Tancred returned to his brooding: he was +angry with himself because he felt helpless in an _impasse_. On the +one hand, he could not bring himself to fly from Dorothy; on the other, +he could not bring himself to abate his pride, and ask her to marry +him. She was so rich; Septimus Rainer had talked of settling five +million dollars on her. He looked again at the pondering Tinker; and +his helpless irritation found the natural English vent in grumbling. + +"Look here," he said, half querulously, half whimsically, "I told you +that if you went on adding to our household, I should be travelling +about Europe with a caravan. You began by adopting Elsie as a sister, +and I said nothing. Then you added Miss Rainer as her governess, and I +warned you. Miss Rainer added her father, a millionaire, and he added +a maid, a valet, two secretaries, a courier, and a private detective. +All these people, I know them well, will marry; and I shall be a +patriarch travelling with my tribe. It must stop." + +Tinker sighed. "We are a large household--twelve of us, with Selina," +he said thoughtfully. "But you might make it more compact, sir." + +"More compact--how?" + +"You might marry Dorothy; and then you and she could count as one." + +A sudden light of exasperation brightened Sir Tancred's eyes, and he +made a grab at Tinker's arm. His hand closed on empty air; Tinker was +flying like the wind along the promenade. + +"Tinker!" roared Sir Tancred; but Tinker went round a corner at the +moment at which only the T of his name could fairly be expected to have +reached him. Sir Tancred ground his teeth, and then he laughed. + +Tinker made a circuit, and came down to the sea, where he found Elsie +playing with two little English girls staying at Arcachon with their +mother. At once she deserted them for him, and when he had withdrawn +her to a distance, he said, "I've hit on a way of getting them married." + +"No! Have you? You are clever!" she cried with the ungrudging +admiration she always accorded him. + +"Clever? It only wants a little common-sense," said Tinker with some +disdain. + +"I shall be glad." + +"So shall I. It'll be a weight off my mind, don't you know?" said +Tinker with a sigh. + +"I'm sure it will," said the sympathetic Elsie. + +"It must be awfully nice to be in love," she added with conviction. + +"Now, look here," said Tinker in a terrible voice, "if I catch you +falling in love, I'll--I'll shake you!" + +"But--but, I may be in love--ever so much, for anything you know," said +Elsie somewhat haughtily. + +"You are not," said Tinker sternly. "Your appetite is all right. +Don't talk any more nonsense, but come along, we've got to get ready +for the picnic." + +At half-past eleven the two children went on board the _Petrel_, a +little steam yacht of a shallow draught adapted to the shoals of the +Gulf, which Septimus Rainer had hired from a member of the Bordeaux +Yacht Club. They found Dorothy and Sir Tancred already on board, and +were told that a cablegram from New York had given her father, his +secretaries, and the telegraph office of Arcachon a day's work, and +prevented him from coming with them. Tinker had known this fact all +the morning, but he did not say so. His manner to his father showed a +serene unconsciousness of any cloud upon their relations. + +The _Petrel_ was soon crossing the Gulf in an immensely important way, +at her full speed of eight knots an hour. In pursuance of his policy +Tinker took Elsie forward, and left Dorothy and his father to entertain +one another on the quarter-deck. The two children amused themselves +very well talking to Alphonse, the steersman, and Adolphe, the +engineer, thick-set, thick-witted men, who combined the picturesqueness +of organ-grinders with the stolidity of agriculturalists; Nature had +plainly intended them for the plough, and Circumstance had pitched them +into seafaring. + +An hour's steering brought them across the Gulf. They landed, and made +their dejeuner at a little auberge, or rather cabaret, affected by +fishermen, and the folk of the _Landes_, off grey mullet, fresh from +the Bay of Biscay, grilled over a fire of pine-cones, with a second +course of ring-doves roasted before it. + +After their coffee Tinker suggested that they should cross over to the +strip of sand which at that point separates the Gulf from the Bay, and +the others fell in with his humour. They crossed over and landed in +the yacht's dinghy. Tinker insisted on taking two rugs, though both +Dorothy and his father objected that the sand was quite dry enough to +sit on. However, when they came to the beach of the Bay, Sir Tancred +spread them out, and he and Dorothy sat on them. The two children +wandered away, and presently Elsie found herself holding Tinker's hand, +and running hard through the pines towards the landing-place. + +In answer to Tinker's hail, Alphonse fetched them aboard in the dingey, +and the honest, unsuspecting mariners accepted his instructions to take +them for a cruise, and come back later for his father and the lady, +without a murmur. But no sooner was the _Petrel_ under weigh, than he +strode to the middle of the quarter-deck, folded his arms, scowled +darkly in the direction of his father and Dorothy, so heedless of their +plight, and growled in his hoarsest, most piratical voice: + +"Marooned! Marooned!" + +Slowly he paced the deck, with arms still folded, casting the piercing +glances of a bird of prey across the waters; then of a sudden he roared +once more with the true piratical hoarseness, "All hands on deck to +splice the main brace!" + +Alphonse and Adolphe did not understand his nautical English; but when +Elsie came from the cabin with a bottle of cognac and two glasses, +their slow, wide grins showed a perfect comprehension. Tinker gave +them the cognac, and took the wheel. Then he became absorbed in +steering, and sternly rejected all further consideration of his gift; +he would have neither hand nor part in hocussing French +agriculturalists posing as mariners. + +But for all his absorption in his steering, and his care to look past +them as they sat in more than fraternal affection on the deck, with the +bottle between them, it was somehow forced on him, probably by the +noise they made, that they proceeded from a gentle cheerfulness through +a wild and songful hilarity, broken by interludes in which either +described to the other with eloquent enthusiasm the charms of the lass +who loved him best, to a tearful melancholy, from which they were rapt +away into a sodden and stertorous slumber. + +At the third snore Tinker turned to Elsie, who sat by him looking +rather scared by the changing humours of the agricultural mariners, and +said with a sardonic and ferocious smile, "The ship is ours." + +At once they divested themselves of the hats of civilisation, and tied +round their heads the red handkerchiefs proper to their profession; +then he gave her the wheel, and going to the cabin, came back with a +black flag neatly embroidered in white with a skull and crossbones, +Dorothy's work, and sternly bade an imaginary quartermaster run up the +Jolly Roger. Then, as quartermaster, he ran up that emblem of his +dreadful trade himself; became captain once more, and, with folded arms +and corrugated brow surveyed it gloomily. Then he went down to the +engine-room, put the yacht on half-speed, and, as well as he could, +stoked the fires. + +For the next three hours the _Petrel_ forgot all the innocent +traditions of her youth as a pleasure boat, and traversed the Gulf of +Arcachon a shameless, ravening pirate, while Captain Hildebrand, the +Scourge of the Spanish Main, issued curt, sanguinary orders to an +imaginary but as blood-dyed a gang of villains as ever scuttled an +Indiaman. The Jolly Roger and three or four blank shots from the +little signal gun drove three panic-stricken fishing boats from their +fishing-ground as fast as oars and sails could carry them, to spread +abroad a legend of piracy in the Gulf which would last a generation. + +It was nearly sunset before Captain Hildebrand returned to the serious +consideration of his business as Cupid's ally. Then he set the +_Petrel_ going dead slow, ran her gently on to a sandbank, and let fall +the anchor, which was hanging from her bows. This done, again a +pirate, he looked at the recumbent and still stertorous Alphonse and +Adolphe with cold, cruel eyes, and said, "It's time these lubbers +walked the plank." + +[Illustration: It's time these lubbers walked the plank.] + +"Ay, ay, sir!" said Elsie cheerfully; and then she added, in a doubtful +voice, "But won't the poor men get drowned?" + +"Not in four feet of water," said Captain Hildebrand; and he set +briskly about the preparations for the fell deed. With Elsie's help he +brought a plank to the gangway; and then, either taking him by an arm, +they dragged the grunting Adolphe slowly down the deck, and arranged +him on the plank. With a capstan bar, and many a hearty "Yo, heave +ho!" they levered the plank out over the side till Adolphe's weight +tilted it up, and he soused into the water. + +For a moment he disappeared, then he rose spluttering and choking, sank +again, found his footing, and stood up, roaring like a flabbergasted +bull. Captain Hildebrand lay quietly down on the deck, and writhed and +kicked in spasms of racking mirth; but his trusty lieutenant, after +laughing a while, looked grave, and said, "The poor man will take cold." + +"I have no sympathy with drunkards," said Captain Hildebrand with cold +severity; but he rose, and, going forward, by kicking Alphonse hard and +freely in the ribs, roused him from his dream of the lass who loved a +sailor, and said, "Adolphe has fallen overboard." + +It took some time for the information to penetrate Alphonse's skull. +When it did, he was all vivid alertness, staggered swiftly aft to the +gangway, and in rather less than five seconds, with no conspicuous +agility, had precipitated himself into Adolphe's arms. They rose, +clinging to one another, and both roared like bulls, while the +shrieking Tinker danced lightly round the deck. + +Presently he recovered enough to throw them a rope, and they climbed on +board: no difficult feat, seeing that the deck was not two feet above +their heads. Before they thought of the yacht they went to the +forecastle and changed their wet clothes, while the dusk deepened. +Tinker went to the galley, and made tea. He had brought it to the +cabin, and he and Elsie were making a well-earned and hearty meal, and +discoursing with gusto of their blood-dyed career during the afternoon, +when Alphonse, very sad and glum, came and told them that the yacht was +aground, and Adolphe was getting up full steam to get her off. Tinker +with great readiness said he would come up and help. + +In half an hour he heard the rattle of the propeller, and, coming on +deck, said he would go to the bows while Alphonse took the wheel, and +Adolphe worked the engines. + +He went right forward, and peered into the darkness. Adolphe set the +engines going full speed, reversed, and Tinker cried, "She's moving!" + +He saw the anchor chain slowly tauten, then the _Petrel_ moved no more. +The propeller thrashed away, but to no purpose, and to his great joy he +was sure that the anchor held her. However, he cheered them on to +persevere, and for nearly half an hour the propeller thrashed away. +Then they gave it up, sat down gloomily on the hatch of the engine +room, and lighted their pipes. Tinker and Elsie went back to the +cabin, rolled themselves in rugs, and were soon enjoying the innocent +sleep of childhood. + +It was twelve o'clock when Tinker awoke, and at once he went on deck +and found that Alphonse, by way of keeping watch, had gone comfortably +asleep in the bows, while Adolphe snored from the forecastle. He +kicked Alphonse awake, and said, "Don't you think you could get her off +if you hauled up the anchor?" + +For a minute or two Alphonse turned the idea hazily over in his apology +for a mind; then, with a hasty exclamation, he ran to the side, and saw +dimly the taut anchor chain. He blundered below, lugged Adolphe out of +his berth and on deck, and for five excited minutes they explained to +one another that the anchor was embedded in the sandbank, and that it +held the _Petrel_ on it. Then soberly and slowly they got to work on +the capstan, and hauled up the anchor. A dozen turns of the propeller +drew the _Petrel_ off the bank and into deep water. In three minutes +they had her about and steamed off towards the marooned, while Tinker +in the galley was heating water for coffee and making soup. + +In the meanwhile Dorothy and Sir Tancred, ignorant of their plight, had +spent a delightful afternoon exploring with a never-tiring interest one +another's souls. For a long time she chided him gently for his aimless +manner of living; and he defended himself with a half-mocking sadness. +At about sunset they rose reluctantly, sighed with one accord that the +pleasant hours were over, looked at one another with sudden questioning +eyes at the sound of the sighs, and looked quickly away. They walked +slowly, on feet reluctant to leave pleasant places, through the pines, +silent, save that twice Sir Tancred sent his voice ringing among the +trees in a call to Tinker. They came to the landing-place, to find an +empty sea, and looked at one another blankly. + +"The children must have persuaded the men to take them for a cruise," +said Sir Tancred. + +"But they're late coming back," said Dorothy. + +For a while their eyes explored the corners and recesses of the Gulf +within sight, but found no _Petrel_. Then Sir Tancred said, "Well, we +must wait"; and spread a rug for her at the foot of a tree. He paced +up and down before her, keeping an eye over the water and talking to +her. + +The dusk deepened and deepened, and at last it was quite dark. + +"We're in a fix," said Sir Tancred uneasily. "Of course, if we stay +here they will come for us sooner or later, but goodness knows when. +If we set out to walk to civilisation we shall doubtless in time strike +it somewhere, but goodness knows where." + +"If we went along this strip and turned eastward at the end of it +shouldn't we come to the railway?" said Dorothy. + +"I don't know that we should. We should get into the _Landes_, and +they're by way of being trackless. Anyhow it would mean walking for +hours; and it is less exhausting for you to sit here. The _Petrel_ +must turn up sooner or later." + +Remembering her talk with Tinker in the morning, Dorothy believed that +it would be later--much later; but as she could hardly unfold her +reasons for the belief, she said nothing. + +For a long time they were silent. Listening to the faint thunder of +the Bay behind them, the lapping of the water at their feet, and the +stirring of the pines, she filled slowly with a sense of their +aloofness from the world, and a perfect content in being out of it +alone with him. For his part, Sir Tancred was ill at ease; he foresaw +that unless the _Petrel_ came soon a lot of annoying gossip might +spring from their accident, and he was distressed on her account. On +the other hand, he, too, found himself enjoying being alone with her +out of the world. + +At last she said softly, "I feel as though we were on a desolate, +far-away island." + +"I wish to goodness we were!" he cried, with a fervour which thrilled +her. + +"You'd find it very dull," she said, with a faint, uncertain laugh. + +"Not with you," he said quietly. + +She was silent; and he took another turn up and down before he said, +half to himself, "It would simplify things so, we should be equal." + +"Equal?" + +"Oh, not from the personal point of view!" he said quickly. "You'd +always be worth a hundred of me. But on a desolate island money +wouldn't count." + +"Oh, money!" she said with a faint disdain. "What has money to do with +anything?" + +He sighed, and continued his pacing. + +"Money is always an obstacle," he said presently. "Either there is too +little of it, and that's an obstacle; or there is too much of it, and +that's an obstacle." + +"I don't think papa would agree with you about too much money," said +Dorothy. + +"I'm wondering what he will say if we don't turn up before morning," +said Sir Tancred gloomily. + +"I suppose he'll say that it was an unfortunate accident." + +"Yes; but then, I ought to have protected you against unfortunate +accidents. I'm afraid there'll be a lot of gossip." + +"Well, it wasn't your fault," said Dorothy carelessly. + +Sir Tancred grew more and more unhappy. His watch told him that it was +nearly ten o'clock, and there was no sign of the _Petrel_. Moreover, +the sense of their aloofness from the world had taken a firmer hold on +him, and it drew him and Dorothy nearer and nearer together. The +feeling that the world, of which her money had grown the symbol, would +again come between them, grew more and more intolerable. + +At last it grew too strong for him, and he stopped before her and said, +in a voice he could not keep firm, "About that wasted life of mine, +Dorothy. Do you think you could do anything with it?" + +Dorothy gasped. "I might--I might try," she said in a whisper. + +He stooped down, picked her up, and kissed her. Then, with a profound +sigh of relief and content, he sat down beside her, drew her to him, +and leaned back against the tree; she was crying softly. + +They were far away from the world, and for them time stood still. They +did not see the approaching lights of the _Petrel_, or hear the throb +of her screw; only the roaring hail of Alphonse awoke them from their +dream. + +When they came on board, the observant Tinker saw the flush which came +and went in Dorothy's cheeks, and the new light in his father's eyes; +he saw her genuine surprise at finding herself so hungry. He observed +that his father was quite careless about the cause of the _Petrel's_ +long absence, and his angel face was wreathed with the contented smile +of the truly meritorious. + +After supper his father went on deck to watch the steering of the +yacht; Elsie fell asleep; and Dorothy sat, lost in a dream. + +"Is it all right?" said Tinker softly. + +"I don't know what you mean. You're a horrid scheming little boy," +said Dorothy with shameless ingratitude. + +"Yes; but _is_ it all right?" said Tinker. + +"I shan't let you scheme like that when--when I'm your mother," said +Dorothy with virtuous severity, and she blushed. + +"So it _is_ all right," said Tinker, and he chuckled. + + + + +THE END + + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Admirable Tinker, by Edgar Jepson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADMIRABLE TINKER *** + +***** This file should be named 19010.txt or 19010.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/0/1/19010/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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