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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/19114-h.zip b/19114-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..740fe7b --- /dev/null +++ b/19114-h.zip diff --git a/19114-h/19114-h.htm b/19114-h/19114-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e09a5d6 --- /dev/null +++ b/19114-h/19114-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,12267 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Foe-Farrell by A. T. Quiller-Couch</title> +<style type="text/css"> + body {background:#fdfdfd; + color:black; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; + font-size: medium; + margin-top:100px; + margin-left:12%; + margin-right:12%; + text-align:justify; } + h1, h2, h3, h4, h5 {text-align: center; } + p {text-indent: 4%; } + p.noindent {text-indent: 0%; } + hr.full { width: 100%; + height: 5px; } + hr.narrow { width: 40%; + text-align: center; } + blockquote.footnote { font-size: small; } + .caption { font-size: small; + font-weight: bold; } + .center { text-align: center; } + .ind1 {margin-left: 1em; } + .ind2 {margin-left: 2em; } + .ind3 {margin-left: 3em; } + .ind4 {margin-left: 4em; } + .ind5 {margin-left: 5em; } + .ind6 {margin-left: 6em; } + .ind7 {margin-left: 7em; } + .ind8 {margin-left: 8em; } + .ind9 {margin-left: 9em; } + .ind10 {margin-left: 10em; } + .ind11 {margin-left: 11em; } + .ind12 {margin-left: 12em; } + .ind13 {margin-left: 13em; } + .ind14 {margin-left: 14em; } + .ind15 {margin-left: 15em; } + .ind16 {margin-left: 16em; } + .ind17 {margin-left: 17em; } + .ind18 {margin-left: 18em; } + .ind19 {margin-left: 19em; } + .ind20 {margin-left: 20em; } + .large {font-size: large; } + table { font-size: medium; } + a:link {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + link {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + a:visited {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + a:hover {color:red} +</style> +</head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Foe-Farrell, by Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch + +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: Foe-Farrell + +Author: Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch + +Release Date: August 25, 2006 [EBook #19114] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FOE-FARRELL *** + + + + +Produced by Lionel Sear + + + + + +</pre> + +<hr class="full" noshade> +<br> +<br> +<h2>FOE-FARRELL.</h2> + +<h4>By</h4> + +<h2>Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch.</h2> +<br><br><br> +<h5>1918.</h5> +<h5>This etext prepared from a reprint of a version published in 1918.</h5> +<br> +<p>TO ANYONE WHO SUPPOSES THAT HE HAS A WORSE ENEMY THAN HIMSELF.</p> + +<br><br><br> + +<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> + +<h2>BOOK I—INGREDIENTS.</h2> + + +<center> +<br> +<table><tr><td> + +<table cellpadding="2"> + +<tr><td align="right" valign="top"> </td><td><a href="#1">PROLOGUE.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right" valign="top"> </td><td><a href="#2">NIGHT THE FIRST—John Foe.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right" valign="top"> </td><td><a href="#3">NIGHT THE SECOND—The Meeting at the Baths.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right" valign="top"> </td><td><a href="#4">NIGHT THE THIRD—The Grand research.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right" valign="top"> </td><td><a href="#5">NIGHT THE FOURTH—Adventure of the Police Station.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right" valign="top"> </td><td><a href="#6">NIGHT THE FIFTH—Adventure of the "Catalafina".</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right" valign="top"> </td><td><a href="#7">NIGHT THE SIXTH—Adventure of the Picturedrome.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right" valign="top"> </td><td><a href="#8">NIGHT THE SEVENTH—The Outrage.</a></td></tr> +</table> + + + + + + +<h2>BOOK II—THE CHASE.</h2> + +<table cellpadding="2"> + +<tr><td align="right" valign="top"> </td><td><a href="#9">NIGHT THE EIGHTH—Vendetta.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right" valign="top"> </td><td><a href="#10">NIGHT THE NINTH—The Hunt is Up.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right" valign="top"> </td><td><a href="#11">NIGHT THE TENTH—Pilgrimage of Hate.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right" valign="top"> </td><td><a href="#12">NIGHT THE ELEVENTH—Science of the Chase.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right" valign="top"> </td><td><a href="#13">NIGHT THE TWELFTH—The <i>Emania</i>.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right" valign="top"> </td><td><a href="#14">NIGHT THE THIRTEENTH—Escape.</a></td></tr> +</table> + + +<h2>BOOK III—THE RETRIEVE.</h2> + +<table cellpadding="2"> + +<tr><td align="right" valign="top"> </td><td><a href="#15">NIGHT THE FOURTEENTH—San Ramon.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right" valign="top"> </td><td><a href="#16">NIGHT THE FIFTEENTH—Redivivus.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right" valign="top"> </td><td><a href="#17">NIGHT THE SIXTEENTH—Captain Macnaughten.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right" valign="top"> </td><td><a href="#18">NIGHT THE SEVENTEENTH—No. 2 Boat.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right" valign="top"> </td><td><a href="#19">NIGHT THE EIGHTEENTH—"And so they came to the Island…."</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right" valign="top"> </td><td><a href="#20">NIGHT THE NINETEENTH—The Castaways.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right" valign="top"> </td><td><a href="#21">NIGHT THE TWENTIETH—One Man Escapes.</a></td></tr> +</table> + +<h2>BOOK IV—THE COUNTERCHASE.</h2> + +<table cellpadding="2"> + +<tr><td align="right" valign="top"> </td><td><a href="#22">NIGHT THE TWENTY-FIRST—The Yellow Dog.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right" valign="top"> </td><td><a href="#23">NIGHT THE TWENTY-SECOND—The Second Man escapes.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right" valign="top"> </td><td><a href="#24">NIGHT THE TWENTY-THIRD—Counterchase.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right" valign="top"> </td><td><a href="#25">NIGHT THE TWENTY-FOURTH—Constantia.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right" valign="top"> </td><td><a href="#26">NIGHT THE TWENTY-FIFTH—The Paying of the Score</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right" valign="top"> </td><td><a href="#27">EPILOGUE.</a></td></tr> +</table> + +</td></tr></table> +</center> + + + + + +<br><br> +<h2>BOOK I.</h2> + +<br> + +<h2>INGREDIENTS.</h2> + +<br> + +<blockquote><blockquote> +<p class = "noindent">If the red slayer thinks he slays,<br> +<span class = "ind2">Or if the slain think he is slain,</span><br> + They know not well the subtle ways<br> +<span class = "ind2">I keep, and pass, and turn again.</span><br> +<span class = "ind10">EMERSON: <i>Brahma</i>.</span></p> +</blockquote></blockquote> + +<blockquote><blockquote> +<p class = "noindent">The best kind of revenge is not to become like him.<br> +<span class = "ind10">MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS.</span></p> +</blockquote></blockquote> + +<br> +<br> +<p><a name="1"></a> </p> +<h3>PROLOGUE.</h3> +<br> + + +<p> +Otway told this story in a dug-out which served for officers' mess of +a field-battery somewhere near the Aisne: but it has nothing to do +with the War. He told it in snatches, night by night, after the +manner of Scheherazade in the <i>Arabian Nights Entertainments</i>, and as +a rule to an auditory of two. Here is a full list of:</p> + +<h3>PERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE</h3> + +<h4>NARRATOR.</h4> + +<blockquote><blockquote> +<p class = "noindent"> Major Sir Roderick Otway, Bart., M.C., R.F.A.</p> +</blockquote></blockquote> +<br> +<h4>AUDIENCE AND INTERLOCUTORS.</h4> + + +<blockquote><blockquote> +<p class = "noindent">Lieut. John Polkinghorne. R.F.A., of the Battery.<br> + Sec. Lieut. Samuel Barham, M.C. R.F.A., of the Battery.<br> + Sec. Lieut. Percy Yarrell-Smith. R.F.A., of the Battery<br> + Sec Lieut. Noel Williams, R.F.A., attached for instruction.<br></p> +</blockquote></blockquote> +<p> +But military duties usually restricted the audience to two at a time, +though there were three on the night when Barham (Sammy) set his C.O. +going with a paragraph from an old newspaper. The captain—one +McInnes, promoted from the ranks—attended one stance only. He dwelt +down at the wagon-lines along with the Veterinary Officer, and +brought up the ammunition most nights, vanishing back in the small +hours like a ghost before cock-crow.</p> + +<p>The battery lay somewhat wide to the right of its fellows in the +brigade; in a saucer-shaped hollow on the hill-side, well screened +with scrub. Roughly it curved back from the straight lip overlooking +the slope, in a three-fifths segment of a circle; and the officers' +mess made a short arc in it, some way in rear of the guns. +You descended, by steps, cut in the soil and well pounded, into a +dwelling rather commodious than large: for Otway—who knew about +yachts—had taken a fancy to construct it nautical-wise, with lockers +that served for seats at a narrow saloon table, sleeping bunks +excavated along the sides, and air-holes like cabin top-lights, +cunningly curtained by night, under the shell-proof cover.</p> + +<p>"It cost us a week," he wrote home to his sister, "to get the place +to my mind. Since then we have been adding fancy touches almost +daily, and now the other batteries froth with envy. You see, it had +to be contrived, like the poet's chest of drawers."</p> + +<blockquote><blockquote> +<p class = "noindent">A double debt to pay:<br> + Doss-house by night and bag-of-tricks by day.</p> +</blockquote></blockquote> + +<p>And here we have lived now, shooting and sleeping (very little +sleeping) for five solid weeks. All leave being off, I have fallen +into this way of life, almost without a thought that there ever had +been, or could be, another, and feel as if my destiny were to go on +at it for ever and ever. And this at thirty-five, Sally!</p> + +<p>"It must be ever so much worse for the youngsters, one would say. +Anyway I have had ten good years that they are missing… +Cambridge, Henley, Lord's; Ascot, and home-to-tidy, and afterwards +the little Mercedes, and you and I rolling in to Prince's and the +theatre, whilst good old Bob is for the House, to take <i>his</i> +exercises walking the lobbies; clean linen after the bath, and my own +sister beside me—she that always knew how to dress—and the summer +evening over Hyde Park Corner and the Green Park.… No, I mustn't +go on. It is <i>verboten</i> even to think of a white shirt until the +Bosch hangs out the tail of <i>his</i>.</p> + +<p>"My youngsters are missing all this, I tell myself. Yet they are a +cheerful crowd, and keep smiling on their Papa. The worst is, a kind +of paralysis seems to have smitten our home mails and general +transport for close upon a fortnight. No letters, no parcels—but +one case of wine, six weeks overdue, with half the bottles in shards: +no newspapers. This last specially afflicts young Sammy Barham, who +is a glutton for the halfpenny press: which again is odd, because his +comments on it are vitriolic.</p> + +<p>"No books—that's the very worst. Our mess library went astray in +the last move: no great loss perhaps except for the <i>Irish R.M.</i>, +which I was reading for the nth time. The only relic that survives, +and follows us everywhere like an intelligent hound, is a novel of +Scottish sentiment, entitled <i>But and Ben</i>. The heroine wears +(p. 2) a dress of 'some soft white clinging material'—which may +account for it. Young Y.-Smith, who professes to have read the work +from cover to cover, asserts that this material clings to her +throughout: but I doubt the thoroughness of his perusal since he +explained to us that 'Ben' and 'But' were the play-names of the lad +and his lassie.… For our personal libraries we possess:</p> + +<blockquote><blockquote> +<p class = "noindent">"<i>R.O.</i>—A hulking big copy of the <i>International Code of + Signals</i>: a putrid bad book, of which I am preparing, in odd + moments, a recension, to submit to the Board of Trade. Y.-Smith + borrows this off me now and then, to learn up the flags at the + beginning. He gloats on crude colours.</p> +</blockquote></blockquote> + +<blockquote><blockquote> +<p class = "noindent">"<i>Polkinghorne</i>—A Bible, which I borrow, sometimes for private + study, sometimes (you understand?) for professional purposes. + It contains a Book of Common Prayer as well as the Apocrypha. + P. (a Cornishman, something of a mystic, two years my senior and + full of mining experiences in Nevada and S. America) always + finds a difficulty in parting with this, his one book. He is + deep in it, this moment, at the far end of the table.</p> +</blockquote></blockquote> +<blockquote><blockquote> +<p class = "noindent">"<i>Sammy Barham</i>, so far as anyone can discover, has never read a + book in his life nor wanted to. He was educated at Harrow. + Lacking the <i>Daily Mail</i>, he is miserable just now, poor boy! + I almost forgave the Code upon discovering that his initials, + S.B., spell, for a distress signal, 'Can you lend (or give) me a + newspaper?'</p> +</blockquote></blockquote> + +<blockquote><blockquote> +<p class = "noindent">"<i>Yarrell-Smith</i> reads Penny Dreadfuls. He owns four, and was + kind enough, the other day, to lend me one: but it's a trifle + too artless even for my artless mind.</p> +</blockquote></blockquote> + +<blockquote><blockquote> +<p class = "noindent">"Young <i>Williams</i>—a promising puppy sent up to me to be + walked—reads nothing at all. He brought two packs of Patience + cards and a Todhunter's <i>Euclid</i>; the one to rest, the other to + stimulate, his mind; and I've commandeered the <i>Euclid</i>. + A great writer, Sally! He's not juicy, and he don't palpitate, + but he's an angel for style. 'Therefore the triangle DBC is + equal to the triangle ABC—pause and count three—'the less to + the greater'—pause—'which is absurd.' Neat and demure: and + you're constantly coming on little things like that. + 'Two straight lines cannot enclose a space'—so broad and + convincing, when once pointed out!—and why is it not in + <i>The Soldiers' Pocket-Book</i> under 'Staff Axioms'?</p> +</blockquote></blockquote> + +<p>"When you make up the next parcel, stick in a few of the unlikeliest +books. I don't want Paley's <i>Evidences of Christianity</i>: I have +tackled that for my Little-Go, and, besides, we have plenty of 'em +out here: but books about Ireland, and the Near East, and local +government, and farm-labourers' wages, and the future life, and all +that sort of thing. + +"Two nights ago, Polkinghorne got going on our chances in another +world. Polkinghorne is a thoughtful man in his way, rising +forty—don't know his religion. I had an idea somehow that he was +interested in such things. But to my astonishment the boys took him +up and were off in full cry. It appeared that each one had been +nursing his own thoughts on the subject. The trouble was, none of us +knew very much about it—"</p> + +<p> +Otway, writing beneath the hurricane-lamp, had reached this point in +his letter when young Barham exclaimed to the world at large:</p> + +<p>"Hallo! here's a tall story!"</p> + +<p>The C.O. looked up. So did Polkinghorne, from his Bible. Sammy held +a torn sheet of newspaper.</p> + +<p>"Don't keep it to yourself, my son," said Otway, laying down his pen +and leaning back, so that his face passed out of the inner circle of +the lamplight.</p> + +<p>Sammy bent forward, pushed the paper nearer to this pool of light, +smoothed it and read:</p> + +<h4>"'THAMES-SIDE MYSTERY'"</h4> + +<blockquote><blockquote> +<p class = "noindent"> "'A Coroner's jury at C—, a 'village' on the south bank of the + Thames, not a hundred miles below Gravesend—'"</p> +</blockquote></blockquote> + +<p>"Seems a lot of mystery about it already," observed Polkinghorne. +"Don't they give the name of the village?"</p> + +<p>"No; they just call it 'C—,' and, what's more, they put 'village' +into inverted commas. Don't know why: but there's a hint at the +end."</p> + +<p>"Proceed."</p> + +<p>Sammy proceeded.</p> + + +<blockquote><blockquote> +<p class = "noindent"> "'—Was engaged yesterday in holding an inquest on the body of an + unknown man, found lying at highwater mark in a creek some way + below the village. A local constable had discovered the body: + but neither the officer who attended nor the river police could + afford any clue to the deceased's identity. Medical evidence + proved that death was due to drowning, although the corpse had + not been long immersed: but a sensation was caused when the + evidence further disclosed that it bore an incised wound over + the left breast, in itself sufficient to cause death had not + suffocation quickly supervened.<br><br> + + "'The body was further described, in the police evidence, as that + of a middle-aged man, presumably a gentleman. It was clad in a + black 'evening-dress' suit, and two pearl studs of some value + remained in the limp shirt-front; from which, however, a third + and fellow stud was missing. The Police Inspector—who asked + for an open verdict, pending further inquiry—added that the + linen, and the clothing generally, bore no mark leading to + identification. Further, if a crime had been committed, the + motive had not been robbery. The trousers-pockets contained a + sovereign, and eighteen shillings in silver. In the waistcoat + was a gold watch (which had stopped at 10.55), with a chain and + a sovereign-purse containing two sovereigns and a + half-sovereign: in the left-hand breast pocket of the + dinner-jacket a handkerchief, unmarked: in the right-hand pocket + a bundle of notes and a worn bean-shaped case for a pair of + eyeglasses. The glasses were missing. The Police had carefully + dried the notes and separated them. They were nine one pound + notes; all numbered, of course. Beyond this and the number on + the watch there was nothing to afford a clue.'—"</p> +</blockquote></blockquote> + +<p>Here Barham paused for a glance up at the roof of the dug-out, as two +explosions sounded pretty near at hand. "Huns saying good-night," he +interpolated. "Can't have spotted us. Nothing doing aloft these +three days."</p> + +<p>Polkinghorne looked across the light at the C.O., who sat +unaccountably silent, his face inscrutable in the penumbra. +Taking silence for "yes," Polkinghorne arose and put his head outside +for a look around.</p> + +<p>"Queer story, you'll admit, sir?" put in Sammy Barham during this +pause. "Shall I go on, or wait for the rollicking Polly to hear it +out?—for the queerest part is to come."</p> + +<p>"I know," said Otway, after some two or three seconds' silence.</p> + +<p>"Eh?… But it's just here, sir, the thing of a sudden gets +mysteriouser and mysteriouser—"</p> + +<p>Polkinghorne came back. "Nerves," he reported. "They're potting all +over the place.… Here, Sammy, pass over that scrap of paper if +you've finished reading. I want to hear the end."</p> + +<p>"It hasn't any," said Otway from the shadow.</p> + +<p>"But, sir, when I was just warning you—"</p> + +<p>"Dashed good beginning, anyway," said Polkinghorne; "something like +<i>Our Mutual Friend</i>."</p> + +<p>"Who's he?" asked Sammy.</p> + +<p>"Ingenuous youth, continue," Otway commanded. "Polky wants to hear +the rest of the paragraph, and so do I."</p> + +<p>"It goes on just like a detective story," promised Sammy. "Just you +listen to this:—</p> + +<blockquote><blockquote> +<p class = "noindent"> "'An incident which may eventually throw some light on the + mystery interrupted the Coroner's summing up and caused + something of a sensation. This was the appearance of an + individual, evidently labouring under strong excitement, who, + having thrust his way past the police, advanced to the Coroner's + table and demanded to have sight of the body. The man's + gestures were wild, and on being asked his name he answered + incoherently. His manner seriously affected one of the jury, + who swooned and had to be removed from Court.<br><br> + + "'While restoratives were being applied at the 'Plume and + Feathers' Inn (adjacent to the building in which the inquest was + held), the Coroner held consultation with Police and Foreman of + the Jury, and eventually adjourned for a second inspection of + the body, the stranger accompanying them. From this inspection, + as from the first, representatives of the Press were excluded.<br><br> + + "'Returning to Court at the expiration of forty minutes—by which + time the absent juror had recovered sufficiently to take his + seat—the Coroner directed an open verdict to be entered and the + inquiry closed.<br><br> + + "'The intrusive visitor did not reappear. We understand that he + was found to be suffering from acute mental derangement and is + at present under medical treatment as well as under supervision + of the police, who are closely watching the case. They preserve + great reticence on the whole subject and very rightly so in + these days, considering the number of enemy plotters in our + midst, and that the neighbourhood of 'C—' in particular is + known to be infested with their activities.'"</p> +</blockquote></blockquote> + +<p>"Is that all?" asked Polkinghorne.</p> + +<p>"That's all; and about enough, I should say, for this Penny Reading."</p> + +<p>"When did it happen?"</p> + +<p>"Can't tell. The top of the sheet's torn off." Barham pushed the +paper across. "By the look, it's a bit of an old <i>Daily Chronicle</i>. +I found it wrapping one of my old riding boots, that I haven't worn +since I took to a sedentary life. Higgs must have picked it up at +our last move—"</p> + +<p>"Do you want the date?" put in Otway. "If so, it was in January +last—January the 18th, to be exact."</p> + +<p>"But—"</p> + +<p>"I mean the date of the inquest. The paper would be next morning's— +Wednesday the 19th," Otway went on in a curious level voice, as +though spelling the information for them out of the lamplight on the +table.</p> + +<p>Barham stared. "But—" he began again—"but <i>how</i>, sir?"</p> + +<p>Polkinghorne, who also had stared for a moment, broke in with a +laugh. "The C.O. is pulling your leg, Sammy. He tore off the top of +your paper—it was lying around all this morning—noted the date and +thought he might safely make a pipe-spill."</p> + +<p>"That won't do," retorted Barham, still searching Otway's face on +which there seemed to rest a double shadow. "For when I turned it +out of my valise this morning I carefully looked for the date—I'll +swear I did—and it was missing."</p> + +<p>"Then you tore the thing in unpacking, and the C.O. picked up the +scrap you overlooked. Isn't that the explanation, sir?"</p> + +<p>"No," said Otway after a pause, still as if he spoke under control of +a muted pedal. He checked himself, apparently on the point of +telling more; but the pause grew into a long silence.</p> + +<p>Barham tried back. "January, you said, sir?… and now we're +close upon the end of October—"</p> + +<p>He could get nothing out of the C.O.'s eyes, which were bent on the +table; and little enough could he read in his face, save that it was +sombre with thought and at the same time abstracted to a degree that +gave the boy a sudden uncanny feeling. It was like watching a man in +the travail of second sight, and all the queerer because he had never +seen an expression even remotely resembling it on the face of this +hero of his, with whose praise he filled his home-letters—"One of +the best: never flurried: and, what's more, you never catch him off +his game by any chance."</p> + +<p>Otway's jaw twitched once, very slightly. He put out a hand to pick +up his pen and resume writing; but in the act fell back into the +brown study, the trance, the rapt gaze at a knot in the woodwork of +the table. His hand rested for a moment by the ink-pot around which +his fingers felt, like a blind man's softly making sure of its +outline and shape. He withdrew it to his tunic-pocket, pulled out +pipe and tobacco-pouch and began to fill.…</p> + +<p>At this point in came young Yarrell-Smith. Young Yarrell-Smith wore +a useful cloak—French cavalry pattern—of black mackintosh, with a +hood. It dripped and shone in the lamplight.</p> + +<p>"Beastly night," he announced to the company in general and turned to +report to Otway, who had sat up alert on the instant.</p> + +<p>"Yes," quoted Otway,</p> + +<blockquote><blockquote> +<p class = "noindent"><span class = "ind2">"'Thou comest from thy voyage—</span><br> + Yes, the spray is on thy cloak and hair.'"</p> +</blockquote></blockquote> + +<p>That's Matthew Arnold, if the information conveys anything to you. +Everything quiet?"</p> + +<p>"Quite quiet, sir, for the last twenty minutes; and the Captain just +come in and unloading. No accidents, though they very nearly met +their match, five hundred yards down the road."</p> + +<p>"We heard," said Polkinghorne.</p> + +<p>"I tucked the Infant into his little O.P., and left him comfy. +He won't see anything there to-night."</p> + +<p>"He'll <i>think</i> he does," said Sammy Barham with conviction.</p> + +<p>"The Infant is quite a good Infant," Otway observed; and then, +sinking his voice a tone, "Lord, if at his age I'd had his sense of +responsibility…"</p> + +<p>Barham noted the change of tone, though he could not catch the words. +Again he threw a quick look towards his senior. Something was wrong +with him, something unaccountable.…</p> + +<p>Yarrell-Smith noted nothing. "Well, he won't see anything to-night, +sir; and if Sammy will pull himself together and pity the sorrows of +a poor young man whose trembling knees—"</p> + +<p>"Sorry," said Sammy, turning to the locker and fishing forth a +bottle.</p> + +<p>"—I'll tell you why," Yarrell-Smith went on as the tot was filled. +"First place, the Bosch has finished hating us for to-night and gone +to bye-bye. Secondly, it's starting to sleet—and that vicious, a +man can't see five yards in front of him."</p> + +<p>"I love my love with a B because he's Boschy," said Sammy lightly: +"I'll take him to Berlin—or say, Bapaume to begin with—and feed him +on Substitutes.… Do you know that parlour-game, Yarrell dear? +Are you a performer at Musical Chairs? Were you by any chance +brought up on a book called <i>What Shall We do Now?</i> The fact is—" +Sammy, who could be irreverent, but so as never to offend, stole a +look at Otway—"we're a trifle hipped in the old log cabin. +I started a guessing-competition just now, and our Commanding +Officer won't play. Turn up the reference, Polky—Ecclesiastes +something-or-other. It runs: 'We are become as a skittle-alley in a +garden of cucumbers, forasmuch as our centurion will not come out to +play with us.'"</p> + +<p>Otway laughed. "And it goes on that the grasshopper is a +burden.… But Y.-S. has given you the name, just now."</p> + +<p>"<i>I</i>, sir?" Yarrell-Smith gazed, in the more astonishment to find +that Otway, after his laugh, reaching up to trim the lamp, looked +strangely serious. "I'm blest if I understand a word of all +this.… What name, sir?"</p> + +<p>"<i>Hate</i>," said Otway, dropping back into his chair and drawing +at his pipe. "But you're warm; as they say in the nursery-game. +Try '<i>Foe</i>,' if you prefer it."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I see," protested Yarrell-Smith, after a bewildered look around. +"You've all agreed to be funny with a poor orphan that has just come +in from the cold."</p> + +<p>Barham paid no heed to this. "'Foe' might be the name of a man. +It's unusual.… But what was the Johnny called who wrote +<i>Robinson Crusoe?</i>"</p> + +<p>"It <i>was</i> the name of a man," answered Otway.</p> + +<p>"<i>This</i> man?" Barham tapped his finger on the newspaper.</p> + +<p>Otway nodded.</p> + +<p>"The man the inquest was held on?"</p> + +<p>"That—or the other." Otway looked around at them queerly. "I think +the other. But upon my soul I won't swear."</p> + +<p>"The other? You mean the stranger—the man who interrupted—"</p> + +<p>At this point Yarrell-Smith sank upon a locker. "I beg your pardon, +all of you," he moaned helplessly; "but if there's such a thing about +as First Aid—"</p> + +<p>"Sammy had better read you this thing he's unearthed," said +Polkinghorne kindly.</p> + +<p>Barham picked up the newspaper.</p> + +<p>"No, you don't," Otway commanded. "Put it down.… If you fellows +don't mind listening, I'll tell you the story. It's about Hate; real +Hate, too; not the Bosch variety."</p> + +<br> +<br> +<p><a name="2"></a> </p> +<h3>NIGHT THE FIRST.</h3> +<br> + + +<h4>JOHN FOE.</h4> + +<p>John Foe and I entered Rugby together at fourteen, and shared a study +for a year and a term. Pretty soon he climbed out of my reach and +finally attained to the Sixth. I never got beyond the Lower Fifth, +having no brains to mention. Cricket happened to be my strong point; +and when you're in the Eleven you can keep on fairly level terms with +a push man in the Sixth. So he and I were friends—"Jack" and +"Roddy" to one another—all the way up. We went through the school +together and went up to Cambridge together.</p> + +<p>He was a whale at Chemistry (otherwise Stinks), and took a Tancred +Scholarship at Caius. I had beaten the examiner in Little-go at +second shot, and went up in the same term, to Trinity; where I played +what is called the flannelled fool at cricket—an old-fashioned game +which I will describe to you one of these days—</p> + +<p>"<i>Cricket? But I thought you rowed, sir?" put in Yarrell Smith. +"Yes, surely—</i>"</p> + +<p>"<i>Hush! tread softly," Barham interrupted. "Our Major won't mind +your not knowing he was a double Blue—don't stare at him like that; +it's rude. But he will not like it forgotten that he once knocked up +a century for England v Australia.… You'll forgive our young +friend, sir; he left school early, when the war broke out</i>."</p> + +<p><i>Otway looked across at Yarrell-Smith with a twinkle. "I took up +rowing in my second year," he explained modestly, "to enlarge my +mind. And this story, my good Sammy, is not about me—though I come +into it incidentally because by a pure fluke I happened to set it +going. All the autobiography that's wanted for our present purpose +is that I went up to Trinity College, Cambridge, in the footsteps +(among others) of Francis Bacon and Isaac Newton, and—well, you see +the result. May I go on?</i>"</p> + +<p><i>But although they were listening, Otway did not at once go on. +Sammy had spoken in his usual light way and yet with something of a +pang in his voice, and something of a transient cloud still rested on +the boy's face. Otway noted it, and understood. When the war broke +out, Sammy had been on the point of going up to Oxford</i>.…</p> + +<p><i>Before the cloudlet passed, Otway had a vision behind it, though the +vision came from his own brain, out of his own memory—a vision of +green turf and of boys in white on it, a small regiment set orderly +against a background of English elms, and moving orderly, intent on +the game of games</i>.</p> + +<blockquote><blockquote> +<p class = "noindent"> O thou, that dear and happy Isle,<br> + The garden of the world erstwhile.…<br> + Unhappy! shall we nevermore<br> + That sweet militia restore?</p> +</blockquote></blockquote> + +<p><i>Snatches of an old parody floated in his brain with the vision—a +parody of Walt Whitman—</i></p> + +<p>Far off a grey-brown thrush warbling in hedge or in marsh; Down there +in the blossoming bushes, my brother, what is that you are +saying?…</p> + +<p>The perfect feel of a "fourer "!…</p> + +<p>The jubilant cry from the flowering thorn to the flowerless willow, +"smite, smite, smite."</p> + +<p>(Flowerless willow no more but every run a late-shed perfect bloom.)</p> + +<p>The fierce chant of my demon brother issuing forth against the demon +bowler, "hit him, hit him, hit him."</p> + +<p>The thousand melodious cracks, delicious cracks, the responsive +echoes of my comrades and the hundred thence-resulting runs, +passionately yearned for, never, never again to be forgotten.</p> + +<p>Overhead meanwhile the splendid silent sun, blending all, fusing all, +bathing all in floods of soft ecstatic perspiration.</p> + +<p><i>Otway lifted his stare from the rough table</i>.</p> + +<p>They have skinned the turf off Trinity cricket-ground… +Such turf, too! I wonder who bought it, and what he paid for it. +… They have turned the field into a big Base Hospital—all tin +sheds, like a great kraal of scientific Kaffirs. Which reminds +me…</p> + +<p>Foe read medicine. Caius, you must know, is a great college for +training doctors, and in the way of scholarships and prizes he +annexed most of the mugs on the board. All the same I want you to +understand that he wasn't a pot-hunter. I don't quite know how to +explain.… His father had died while he was at Rugby, leaving him +a competence; but he certainly was not over-burdened with money. +Of that I am sure.… Can't say why. He never talked of his +private affairs, even with me, though we were friends, "Jack" and +"Roddy" to each other still, and inhabited lodgings together in Jesus +Lane. He owed money to no one. Unsociable habit, I used to call it; +destructive of confidence between man and man.</p> + +<p>But he was no pot-hunter. I think—I am sure—that so long as he +kept upsides with money he rather despised it. He had a handsome +face—rather curiously like the pictures you see of Dante—and his +mind answered to it, up to a point. Fastidious is the word,… +gave you the impression he had attached himself to Natural Science +much as an old Florentine attached himself to theology or anatomy or +classics, with a kind of cold passion.</p> + +<p>The queerest thing about him was that anything like "intellectual +society," as they call it, bored him stiff. Now you may believe it +or not, but I've always had a kind of crawling reverence for things +of the mind, and for men who go in for 'em. You can't think the +amount of poetry, for instance, I've read in my time, just wondering +how the devil it was done. But it's no use; it never was any use, +even in those days. No man of the kind I wanted to worship could +ever take me seriously. I remember once being introduced to a poet +whose stuff I knew by heart, almost every line of it, and when I +blurted out some silly enthusiasm—sort of thing a well-meaning +Philistine does say, don't you know?—he put the lid down on me with +"Now, that's most interesting. I've often wondered if what I write +appealed to one of your—er—interests, and if so, how."</p> + +<p>Well that's where I always felt Foe could help. And yet he didn't +help very much. He read a heap of poetry—on the sly, as it were; +and one night I coaxed him off to a talk about Browning. +His language on the way home was three-parts blasphemy.</p> + +<p>Am I making him at all clear to you? He kept his intellect in a cage +all to itself, so to speak.… What's more—and you'll see the +point of this by and by—he liked to keep his few friends in separate +cages. I won't say he was jealous: but if he liked A and B, it was +odds he'd be uneasy at A's liking B, or at any rate getting to like +him intimately.</p> + +<p>This secretiveness had its value, to be sure. It gave you a sense of +being <i>privileged</i> by his friendship.… Or, no; that's too +priggish for my meaning. Foe wasn't a bit of a prig. It was only +because he had, on his record already, so much brains that the +ordinary man who met him in my rooms was disposed to wonder how he +could be so good a fellow. Get into your minds, please, that he +<i>was</i> a good fellow, and that no one doubted it; of the sort that +listens and doesn't speak out of his turn.</p> + +<p>He had a great capacity for silence; and it's queer to me—since I've +thought over it—what a large share of our friendship consisted in +just sitting up into the small hours and smoking, and saying next to +nothing. <i>I</i> talked, no doubt: Foe didn't.</p> + +<p>I shall go on calling him Foe. He was Jack to me, always; but Foe +suits better with the story; and besides… well, I suppose +there's always something in friendship that one chooses to keep in a +cage.… The only cage-mate that Jack—I mean Foe—ever allowed me +was Jimmy Caldecott, and that happened after we had both moved to +London.</p> + +<p>He—Foe—had taken a first-class in the Tripos, of course; and a +fellowship on top of that. But he did not stay up at Cambridge. +He put in the next few years at different London hospitals, published +some papers on the nervous system of animals, got appointed Professor +of Animal Morphology, in the South London University College (the +Silversmiths' College), and might wake up any morning to find himself +a Fellow of the Royal Society. He was already—I am talking of 1907, +when the tale starts—a Corresponding Member of three or four learned +Societies in Europe and the U.S.A., and had put a couple of honorary +doctorates to his account besides his Cambridge DSc.</p> + +<p>As for me, I had rooms at first in Jermyn Street, then chambers in +the Inner Temple—my father, who had been Chairman of Quarter +Sessions, holding the opinion that I ought to read for the Bar, that +I might be better qualified in due time to deal out local justice +down in Warwickshire. I read a little, played cricket a good deal, +stuck out three or four London Seasons, travelled a bit, shot a bit +in East Africa (Oh, I forgot to say I'd put in a year in the South +African War); climbed a bit, in Switzerland, and afterwards in the +Himalayas; come home to write a paper for the Geographical Society; +got bitten with Socialism and certain Fabian notions, and put in some +time with an East-End Settlement besides attending many crowded and +unsavoury public meetings to urge what was vaguely known as +Betterment. When I took courage and made a clean breast of my new +opinions to my father, the old man answered very composedly that he +too had been a Radical in his time, and had come out of it all right. +… By all means let me go on with my spouting: capital practice +for public life: hoped I should take my place one of these days in +the County Council at home: wouldn't even mind seeing me in +Parliament, etc.—all with the wise calm of one who has passed his +three-score years and ten, found the world good, made it a little +better, hunted his own harriers and learnt, long since, every way in +which hares run. So I returned and somehow found myself pledged to +compete as a Progressive for the next London County Council—for a +constituency down Bethnal Green way. In all this, you see, my orbit +and Foe's wouldn't often intersect. But we dined together on +birthdays and other occasions. One year I took him down to the +Derby, on the ground that it was part of a liberal education. In the +paddock he nodded at a horse in blinkers and said, "What's the matter +with that fellow?" "St. Amant," said I, and began to explain why +Hayhoe had put blinkers on him. "Where does he stand in the +betting?" asked Foe. "Why, man," said I, "at 5 to 1. You can't risk +good money on a horse of that temper. I've put mine on the French +horse over there—Gouvernant—easy favourite—7 to 4 on." "Oh," said +he, in a silly sort of way, "I thought St. Amant might be your French +horse—it's a French name isn't it?… As for your Gouvernant, I +advise you to run for your life and hedge: the animal is working up +for a stage fright. A touch more and he's dished before the flag +drops. Now, whether the blinkers have done it or not, that St. Amant +is firm as a rock." "How the devil—" I began. "That's a fine +horse, too, over yonder," he said, pointing one out with his +umbrella. "John o' Gaunt," said I: "ran second to St. Amant for the +Guineas, and second to Henry the First in the Newmarket, with St. +Amant third. The running has been all in-and-out this season. +But how the devil you spotted him, when I didn't know you could tell +a horse's head from his stern—" "I don't profess to much more," +said Foe; "but it's my job to read an animal's eye, and what he's fit +for by the quiver under his skin. Now, I'd only a glimpse of St. +Amant's eye, across his blinkers, and your John o' Gaunt is a stout +one—inclined, you tell me, to run in second place. But if your +money's on Gouvernant, hurry while there's time and set it right. +If you've thirty seconds to spare when you've done that," he added, +"you may put up a tenner for me on St. Amant—but don't bother. Your +book may want some arranging."</p> + +<p>The way he said it impressed me, and I fairly shinned back to the +Ring. I hadn't made my book on any reasoned conviction, you +understand; for the horses had been playing at cat's-cradle all +along, and as I went it broke on me that, after all, my faith in +Gouvernant mainly rested on my knowing less of him than of the +others—that I was really going with the crowd. But really I was +running to back a superstition—my belief in Foe, who knew nothing +about horse-racing and cared less.</p> + +<p>Well, the race was run that year in a thunderstorm—a drencher; and +if Foe was right, I guess that finished Gouvernant, who never looked +like a winner. St. Amant romped home, with John o' Gaunt second, in +the place he could be trusted for. Thanks to Foe I had saved myself +more than a pony in three strenuous minutes, and he pocketed his few +sovereigns and smiled.</p> + +<p>That was also the day—June 1st, 1904—"Glorious First of June" as +Jimmy Collingwood called it—that Foe first made Jimmy's +acquaintance. Young Collingwood was a neighbour of mine, down in the +country; an artless, irresponsible, engaging youth, of powerful build +and as pretty an oarsman and as neat a waterman as you could watch. +Eton and B.N.C. Oxford were his nursing mothers. His friends +(including the dons) at this latter house of learning knew him as the +Malefactor; it being a tradition that he poisoned an aunt or a +grandparent annually, towards the close of May. He was attending the +obsequies of one that afternoon on the edge of the hill, in a hansom, +with a plate of <i>foie gras</i> on his knees and a bottle of champagne +between his ankles. His cabby reclined on the turf with a bottle of +Bass and the remains of a pigeon pie. His horse had its head in a +nose-bag.</p> + +<p>"Hallo, Jimmy!" I hailed, pausing before the pastoral scene. +"Funeral bake-meats?"</p> + +<p>"Hallo!" Jimmy answered, and shook his head very solemnly. +"Sister-in-law this time. It had to be."</p> + +<p>"Sister-in-law! Why you haven't one!"</p> + +<p>"Course not," said Jimmy. "That's the whole trouble. Ain't I +breaking it to you gently?… Case of <i>angina pectoris</i>, if you +know what that means. It sounds like a pick-me-up—'try Angostura +bitters to keep up your Pecker.' But it isn't. Angina—short 'i'; I +know because I tried it on the Dean with a long one and he corrected +me. He said that angina might be forgiven, for once, in a young man +bereaved and labouring under strong emotion, but that if I +apprehended its running in the family I had better get the quantity +right. He also remarked rather pointedly that he hoped his memory +was at fault and that my poor brother hadn't really lost his deceased +wife's sister."</p> + +<p>"Do you know where bad boys go?" I asked him.</p> + +<p>"Silly question," said Jimmy, with his mouth full of <i>foie gras</i>. +"Why, to the Derby, of course. Have something to eat."</p> + +<p>I told him that we had lunched, introduced him to Foe as the +Malefactor, and invited him to come back and dine with us at Prince's +before catching the late train for Oxford. He answered that fate +always smiled on him at these funerals, paid off his cabby, and +joined us.</p> + +<p>Our dinner that evening was a brilliant success; and we left it to +drive to Paddington to see the boy off. He had dropped a few pounds +over the Derby but made the most of it up by a plunge on the last +race: "and what with your standing me a dinner, I'm all up on the +day's working and that cheerful I could kiss the guard." He wasn't +in the least drunk, either; but explained to me very lucidly, on my +taxing him with his real offence—cutting Oxford for a day when, the +Eights being a short week off, he should have been in strict +training—that all the strength of the B.N.C. boat that year lying on +stroke side (he rowed at "six"), one might look on a <i>Peche Melba</i> +and a Corona almost in the light of a prescription. "Friend of my +youth," he added—addressing me, "and"—addressing Foe—"prop, sole +prop, of my declining years—as you love me, be cruel to be kind and +restrain me when I show a disposition to kiss yon bearded guard."</p> + +<p>As the tail of the train swung out of the station Foe said +meditatively, "I like that boy,"… And so it was. That autumn, +when Jimmy Collingwood, having achieved a pass degree—"by means," as +he put it, "only known to myself"—came up to share my chambers and +read for the Bar, he and Foe struck up a warm affection. For once, +moreover, Foe broke his habit of keeping his friends in separate +cages. He was too busy a man to join us often; but when we met we +were the Three Musketeers.</p> +<br> +<p> +My father died in the Autumn of 1906; and this kept me down in the +country until the New Year; although he had left his affairs as +straight as a balance-sheet. Death duties and other things.… +His account-books, note-books, filed references and dockets; +his diaries kept, for years back, with records of rents and +tithe-charges, of farms duly visited and crops examined field by +field; appraisements of growing timber, memoranda for new plantings, +queer charitable jottings about his tenants, their families, +prospects, and ways to help them; all this tally, kept under God's +eye by one who had never suffered man to interfere with him, gave my +Radicalism a pretty severe jerk.</p> + +<p>You see, here, worked out admirably in practice, was the rural side +of that very landlordism which I had been denouncing up and down the +East-End. The difference was plain enough, of course; but when you +worked down to principle, it became for me a pretty delicate +difference to explain. I was pledged, however, to return to London +after Christmas and run (as Jimmy Collingwood put it) for those +Bethnal Green Stakes: and in due time—that's to say, about the +middle of January—up I came.</p> + +<p>I won't bore you with my political campaign. One day in the middle +of it Jimmy said, "To-night's a night off and we're dining with Jack +Foe down in Chelsea. Eight o'clock: no theatre afterwards: 'no band, +no promenade, no nozzing.' We've arranged between us to give your +poor tired brain a rest."</p> + +<p>"When you do happen to be thoughtful," said I "you might give me a +little longer warning. As it is, I made a half-promise yesterday, to +speak for that man of ours, Farrell, across the water."</p> + +<p>"No, you don't," said Jimmy. "Who's Farrell? Friend of yours?"</p> + +<p>"Tottenham Court Road," I said. "Only met him yesterday."</p> + +<p>"What? Peter Farrell's Hire System?… And you met him there, in +the Tottenham Court Road—by appointment, I suppose, with a coy +carnation in your buttonhole. A bad young baronet, unmarried, +intellectual, with a craving for human sympathy, on the Hire +System'—"</p> + +<p>"Don't be an ass, Jimmy," said I. "He's a Progressive, and they tell +me his seat's dicky."</p> + +<p>"They mostly are in the Tottenham Court Road," said Jimmy. "But if +you've made half a promise, I was a week ahead of you with a whole +one. We dine with Jack Foe."</p> +<br> +<p> +The night was a beast. Foe's flat, high up on a block overlooking +the Chelsea embankment, fairly rocked under squalls of a cross-river +wind. He had moved into these new quarters while I was down in +Warwickshire, and the man who put in the windows had scamped his job. +The sashes rattled diabolically. Now that's just the sort of thing +he'd have asked me to see to before he installed himself, if I had +been up at the time: or, rather, I should have seen to it without +being asked. That kind of noise never affected <i>him</i>: he could just +withdraw himself into his work and forget it. But different noises +get on different men's nerves, and, next to the scratching of a +slate-pencil, a window on the rattle or the distant slam-slam of a +door left ajar makes me craziest. You'd think a man out here would +get accustomed to anything in the way of racket. Not a bit of it! +Home on leave those particular sounds rasp me as badly as ever.… +Moreover I have rather an eye for scamped carpentry: learned it off +my father, going about the property with him. His own eye was a +hawk's for loose fences, loose slates, badly-hung gates, even a +broken sash-cord.</p> + +<p>Foe's notions of furnishing, too, had always been bleak. He had +hung his few pictures in the wrong places, and askew at that. +He understood dining, though, and no doubt the dinner was good, +though I gave very little attention to it.</p> + +<p>"Otty's hipped to-night," said Collingwood, over the coffee. +"Politics are all he can talk in these days. Wake up, Otty, and +don't sit thinking out a speech."</p> + +<p>I woke up. "I don't need to think out a speech," said I. "After a +fortnight's campaigning a fellow can make speeches in his sleep."</p> + +<p>"That's just what you're doing; and my fear is, you'll stand up +presently and make one in ours."</p> + +<p>"I'm sorry, Jack," I apologised. "Fact is, I'm worried by a +half-promise I made to your man Farrell, over the river—"</p> + +<p>"<i>My</i> man Farrell?" says Foe. "Farrell?… Farrell?… Never +heard of him. Who's Farrell?"</p> + +<p>"Never heard of him?… Why, Farrell's our candidate over there! +… <i>Your</i> candidate; because, if elected, he'll represent you; +because your College and—if you choose to narrow it down—your own +laboratories and lecture-rooms—will belong to his constituency. +The rates on your buildings, the trams that bring your poorer +students, the public money that pays their scholarships—"</p> + +<p>"My dear Roddy," he broke in. "You know that I never could get up an +interest in politics. As for local politics—"</p> + +<p>That fired me up at once. "Pretty silly sneer, that! Doesn't there +lurk, somewhere down in your consciousness, <i>some</i> sense of belonging +to the first city in the world?… Oh, yes, you use it, fast +enough, whenever you go back to Cambridge and play the condescending +metropolitan in Combination Room. <i>There</i>, seventy minutes from +Liverpool Street, you pose—yes, <i>pose</i>, Jack—as the urbane man, +Horatius Flaccus life-size; whereas your job as a citizen is confined +to cursing the rates, swearing if a pit in the wood pavement jolts +you on the way home from the theatre, supposing it's somebody's +business, supposing there's graft in it, and talking superciliously +of Glasgow and Birmingham, provincial towns, while you can't help to +cheapen the price of a cabbage in Covent Garden!"</p> + +<p>"Dear Roddy," Foe answered—very tolerantly, I'll admit—"you'll get +elected, to a dead certainty."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'm all right," said I, cooling down. "Wish I could be so sure +of your man Farrell, across the bridge."</p> + +<p>"Farrell?"</p> + +<p>"That's his name.… Think you'll be able to remember it?"</p> + +<p>Here Jimmy dropped the ash of his cigar into his coffee-cup and +chipped in judiciously.</p> + +<p>"Otty has the right of it, Professor—though we shall have to cure +him of his platform style. <i>Somebody</i> has to look after this country +and look after London; and if you despise the fellows who run the +show, then it's up to you, my intellectuals, to come in and do the +business better. But you won't. It bores you. 'Oh, go away—can't +you see I'm busy? I've got a malignant growth here, potted in a +glass bottle with a diet of sterilised fat and an occasional whisky +and soda, and we're sitting around until the joker develops D.T. +He's an empyema, from South America, fully-grown male—'"</p> + +<p>"Heavens alive!"</p> + +<p>"I dare say I haven't the exact name," confessed Jimmy. "Fact is, I +happened on it in the dictionary when I was turning up 'Empiricist' +in a bit of a hurry. Some Moderate fellow down at Bethnal Green had +called Otty in one of his speeches 'an ignorant empiricist'; so +naturally I had to look up the word. I'd a hope it meant something +connected with Empire-building, and then Otty could have scored off +him. But apparently it doesn't."</p> + +<p>"Are you sure?" asks Foe.</p> + +<p>"Well, I used the dictionary they keep at Boodle's, not having one of +my own. If you tell me it's not up to date, I'll write something +sarcastic in the Complaint-Book."</p> + +<p>Foe dropped the end of his cigar into the ash-tray and pushed back +his chair. "Well", said he, "it's about time we got into our coats, +eh?"</p> + +<p>"My dear fellow—" I began. "You don't tell us—" I began again.</p> + +<p>He understood, of course. What he said was, "The late Mr. Gladstone, +they tell me, used to address Queen Victoria as if she were a public +meeting. She complained that she didn't like it… and anyway, if +you two can't help it, I can't help the acoustic defects of this +flat.… Some more brandy? You'd better. It's a beast of a +night; but your faithful dog shall bear you company."</p> + +<br> +<br> +<p><a name="3"></a> </p> +<h3>NIGHT THE SECOND.</h3> +<br> + + +<h4>THE MEETING AT THE BATHS.</h4> + +<p>Foe's man, after whistling ten minutes or so for a taxi, returned +upstairs, powdered with sleet. There wasn't, he said, so much as a +four-wheeler crawling in the street. We went down and waited in the +hall while he whistled again.</p> + +<p>"Where is this show of yours being held?" Foe asked, after a bit.</p> + +<p>"In the Baths," I told him, "just across the bridge. Yes, actually +<i>in</i> the great Swimming Bath.… You needn't be afraid, though. +They drain it."</p> + +<p>"I don't care if they omitted that precaution," said he. "This is an +adventure, and I'm for taking it in the proper spirit. Let's walk."</p> + +<p>He pushed back the catch of the lock. The door burst open, hurling +him back against the wall, as his man came flying through, fairly +projected into our arms by the pressure of wind in the porch.</p> + +<p>"Make up the fire, put out the whisky, and go to bed," Foe bawled at +him. "Eh?… Yes, that's all right; I have my latch-key."</p> + +<p>I couldn't have expostulated if I'd wanted to. The wind filled my +mouth. We butted out after him into the gale, Jimmy turning in the +doorway to let out a skirling war-whoop—"just to brace up the +flat-dwellers," he explained afterwards. "I wanted to tell 'em that +St. George was for Merry England, but there wasn't time."</p> + +<p>We didn't say much on the way. The wind took care of that. On the +bridge we had to claw the parapet to pull ourselves along; and just +as we won to the portico of the Baths there came a squall that +knocked us all sideways. Foe and Jimmy cast their arms about one +pillar, I clung to another; and the policeman, who at that moment +shot his lantern upon us from his shelter in the doorway, pardonably +mistook our condition. He advised us—as a friend, if he might say +so—to go home quietly.</p> + +<p>"But there's a public meeting inside," said I.</p> + +<p>"There might be, or there might not be," he allowed. "It's a thin +one anyway. You'll get no fun out of it."</p> + +<p>"And I am due to make a speech there," I went on. "That's to say, +they want me to propose or second a vote of thanks or something of +the sort."</p> + +<p>"If I was you, sir," advised the constable, kindness itself, "I +wouldn't, however much they wanted it."</p> + +<p>I gave him my card. He held it close under the ray of his bull's-eye +and altered his manner with a jerk. "Begging your pardon, Sir +Roderick—"</p> + +<p>"Not at all," I assured him. "Most natural mistake in the world. +If there's a side entrance, now, near the platform—"</p> + +<p>He led us up a gusty by-street and tapped for us on the side door. +It was opened at once, though cautiously, by a little frock-coated +man ornamented with a large blue-and-white favour. After an +instant's parley he received us obsequiously, and the constable +pocketed our blessing.</p> + +<p>"Of course," he said by way of Good night, "I knew from the first I +was dealing with gentlemen. I made no mistake about that."</p> + +<p>The little steward admitted us to a sort of lobby or improvised +cloak-room stowed somewhere beneath the platform. While helping us +off with our coats he told us that the audience was satisfactory +"considering the weather." "A night like this isn't calculated to +fetch out doubtfuls."</p> + +<p>"It has fetched out one, anyhow," said I. "This is Professor Foe, of +your University College."</p> + +<p>"Greatly honoured, sir, I am sure!" The little man bowed to Foe, and +turned again to me: "Your friends, Sir Roderick, will accompany you +on the platform, of course. Shall we go in at once? Or—at this +moment Mr. Jenkinson is up. He has been speaking for twenty +minutes."</p> + +<p>"—And has just started his peroration," said I; for though it came +muffled through the boarding, I had recognised Mr. Jenkinson's voice, +and the oration to which in other parts of London I had already +listened twice. I could time it. "There's no hurry," I said. +"Jenkinson—good man, Jenkinson—has finished with the tram-service +statistics, and will now for a brief two minutes lift the whole +question on to a higher plane. Then he'll sit down, and that's where +we'll slip in, covered by the thunder of applause."</p> + +<p>He divided a grin between us and a couple of assistants who had been +hanging up our coats and now came forward.</p> + +<p>"To tell you the truth, Sir Roderick, our candidate wants +strengthening a bit, for platform purposes; though they tell me he's +improving steadily. The kinder of you to come, sir, and help us. +As for Jenkinson, he's the popular pet over here, as a speaker or +when he comes across to play at the Oval. As a cricketer yourself, +Sir Roderick, you'll know what Jenkinson does with his summer?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly," said I. "Being on the Committee of the M.C.C.—"</p> + +<p>"You don't mean to say that it's Jenko?" Jimmy chipped in. +"You don't tell me it's our long left and left-handed Jenko, that has +bowled me at the nets a hundred times?—alas, poor Jenko!"</p> + +<p>"Why, of course, it is," said I. "Didn't you know?… How the +deuce else do you suppose that a cricket pro. supports himself during +the winter?"</p> + +<p>"I'd never thought of that," said Jimmy. "One half of the world +never knows how the other half lives."</p> + +<p>"Well," said I, "that's Jenkinson's winter occupation—public +oratory—advocacy of social and municipal reform—mostly on Fabian +lines. The man's honest, mind you.… But he's finishing.… +Come along! Are you for the platform, Jack?"</p> + +<p>"Not if I can sit somewhere at your feet and look up at you," said +Foe. "I'm not at all certain that I approve of your candidate, +either, or his political platform—"</p> + +<p>"Our Mr. Farrell, Professor? Oh, surely!—" the little steward +expostulated. "But maybe you've never made Mr. Farrell's +acquaintance, sir?"</p> + +<p>"Never set eyes on him, to my knowledge," Foe assured him.</p> + +<p>"Then, Professor—if I may make bold to say so—it's impossible to +disapprove of Mr. Farrell. He's a bit what-you-might-call +<i>opportunist</i> in his views; but, for the gentleman himself, he +wouldn't hurt a fly—not a headache in a hogshead of him, as the +saying goes.… Certainly, Sir Roderick, if you're ready.… +Mr. Byles, here, will conduct the Professor to a chair close under +the platform. We usually keep a few front seats vacant, for friends +and—er—eventualities."</p> + +<p>"I'm an eventuality," said Foe.</p> + +<p>"You'll be one of <i>us</i>, sir, before you've finished, never fear!" the +little steward promised genially.</p> +<br> +<p> +We entered amid salvos of applause, again and again renewed. It was +none of our earning nor intended for us. Jenkinson (I was afterwards +told) had varied his peroration with a local allusion very cleverly +introduced. "They probably knew him" (he said)—"those, at any rate, +who happened to live near Kennington probably knew him—for one who +earned his living by a form of sport, by a mere game, if they +preferred so to call it." (Cheers.) "He was not there to defend +himself, still less to defend cricket." (Hear, hear.) "He would +only say that cricket was a game which demanded some skill and— +especially when one bowled at the Oval" (loud cheers) "against +Surrey" (cheers loud and prolonged)—"often some endurance." +(Laughter.) "He would add that cricket was a thoroughly English +game." (Renewed cheers.) "Why do I mention cricket to-night, +sir?"—Jenkinson swung round and demanded it of the Chairman, who +hadn't a notion. "I mention it, sir, because players have sometimes +said to me, 'Jenkinson, I wonder you always seem to enjoy yourself at +the Oval.' 'Why not?' says I; 'the crowd's friendly and the pitch +perfect.' 'That's just it,' they say; 'perfect to break a bowler's +heart.' 'Never you mind.' I answers: 'Tom Jenkinson, when he gets +into Surrey, isn't out for averages.'" (Can't you hear the cheers at +that?) "'He's out for fine art and a long day at it in pleasant +surroundings: and,' I winds up, 'if you reckon I sometimes take a +while, down there, to bowl a man <i>out</i>, just you wait till I come +down and help to bowl a man <i>in</i>!' Your servant, Mr. Farrell!"</p> + +<p>Neat, eh? Well, we made our entrance right on top of it: and though +the great Bath was no more than three-parts full, you couldn't see a +vacant seat, the audience rocked so.</p> + +<p>Now I must tell you a queer thing.… You know what it feels like +when you're talking away easily, maybe laughing, and all of a sudden +the Bosch puts in one that you feel means business? Something in the +sound of the devil makes you scatter.… Well, I can't explain it, +but through the noise of the stamping, hand-clapping, cheering, all +of a sudden and without rhyme or reason, I seemed to hear the shriek +of something distant, sinister, menacing.… Oh, I'm not an +imaginative fellow. Very likely it was a note set up by the wind +outside. I can't even swear that I <i>heard</i> it; sort of took it down +my spine. Shrill it was for a moment—something between a child's +wail and the hiss of a snake—and, the next moment, not shrill at +all, but dull and heavy, like the flap of a great wing beating the +air, heavy with evil.… Yes, that was the sense of it—heavy with +evil. I pulled up with a shiver. The Chairman was on his feet, +waiting for the applause to cease, ready to announce the next +speaker. The little steward touched him by the arm; he wheeled about +and shook my hand effusively as I was introduced. "Delighted! +Flattered!" he said, and shook me by the hand again. The shiver went +out of me: but it took something out of me at the same time. I had a +most curious feeling of depression as I found my place.… I +looked about for Foe, and spotted him. They had given him a chair +close under the platform, a little to my right. He had taken his +seat and was scanning the platform attentively. The arc-light shone +down on his face, and showed it white, bewildered, a trifle +strained.… But this may have been no more than my fancy.</p> + +<p>The Chairman asked for silence. He was a bald-headed small man of no +particular points and (as Jimmy whispered) seemed to feel his +position acutely. He said that, whatever their personal differences, +they would all agree that Mr. Jenkinson's speech had uplifted them +above ordinary politics. He had felt himself speaking not as their +Chairman but as a private individual—or, in other words, as a man— +uplifted into a higher plane, and he would now call upon their +respected candidate, Mr. Farrell, to address the meeting.</p> + +<p>Mr. Farrell stepped forward. I must try to tell you what Mr. Farrell +looked like, because it belongs to the story.… You'll find that +it becomes pretty important.</p> + +<p>He was of medium height and carried a belly. Later on, when I came +to know him, I heard him refer to it as his "figure" and say that +exercise was good for it. I don't know about that: but he certainly +was given exercise to reduce it, later on.… He could not have +been ashamed of it either, just yet: for it was clothed in front with +sealskin and festooned with two loops of gold chain.</p> + +<p>Two or three locks of hair, cultivated to a great length and +plastered by means of pomade across his cranium, concealed a certain +poverty of undergrowth thereabouts; while a pair of whiskers, sandy +in colour and stiff in texture, and a clean-shaven upper lip and +chin, threw out a challenge that Mr. Peter Farrell could grow hair if +and where he chose. His eyes bulged like gooseberries. They were +colourless, and lustreless in comparison with the diamond pin in his +neckcloth. His frock-coat and pepper-and-salt trousers were of +superfine material and flashy cut. They fitted him like a skin in +all the wrong places. Get it into your heads—Here was a prosperous +reach-me-down person of the sort you will find on any political +platform, standing for Parliament or seconding a vote of thanks.</p> + +<p>He was not in the least bumptious. He began very nervously with a +carefully prepared Shakespearean quotation—"'I am no orator as +Brutus is,'" in compliment to Jenkinson. Then he gave <i>me</i> a lift. +He said that my presence there was a proof, if proof were needed, of +the solidarity—he would repeat the word—of the solidarity existing +in the Progressive ranks. He was sure—he might even say, +confident—that this graceful act on the part of the right honourable +baronet (as he chose to call me) would give the lie to certain +reports—hints, rather—emanating from certain quarters which called +themselves newspapers. He would not soil his mouth by giving them +their true name, which was Rags. "We are all solid here," announced +Mr. Farrell, and was answered with applause.</p> + +<p>After this spirited opening he consulted a sheaf of notes, and +was straightway mired in a ploughland of tramway finance and +sticky statistics. After ten minutes of this he turned a furrow, +so to speak, and zigzagged off into Education "Provided" and +"Non-Provided," lunging and floundering with the Church Catechism and +the Rate-Book until I dare say his audience mistook the two for one +single composition.</p> + +<p>"Poor old Jack!" I thought. "This will be boring him stiff."… +And with that I sat up of a sudden, listening. Sure as fate I heard +the damned thing coming… coming…</p> + +<p>"This brings me," said Mr. Farrell, "to the subject of Grants—Grants +from the Imperial Exchequer and Special Grants from the London County +Council to certain University Colleges, of which you have one in your +midst—" It was at this point that I sat up.</p> + +<p>"I may claim," went on Mr. Farrell, "to be no foe of Higher +Education. I am all for the Advancement of Science. In my own way +of business I have frequently had occasion to consult scientific +experts, and have derived benefit—practical benefit—from their +advice. I freely own it. What's more, ladies and gentlemen, I am +all for Research, provided you keep it within limits.</p> + +<p>"What do I mean by limits?… I have here, in my hand, ladies and +gentlemen, a document. It is signed by a number of influential +persons, including several ladies of title. This document alleges— +er—certain practices going on in a certain University College not +five hundred yards from where I stand at this moment; and it asks me +what I think of them, and if public money—your money and mine— +should be voted to encourage that and similar forms of Research—"</p> + +<p>"Great Scott!" groaned Jimmy, and touched my arm. "Otty, look at the +Professor's face! To think we—"</p> + +<p>"I have also," pursued Mr. Farrell, "a supplementary paper, +extensively signed in the constituency, supporting the document +mentioned and asking for a Public Inquiry; asking me if I am willing +to press for a Royal Commission. It was put into my hands as I +entered the hall; but I have no hesitation whatever in answering that +question.</p> + +<p>"A certain Professor is mentioned—I have not the pleasure of his +acquaintance—and a certain—er—" Mr. Farrell consulted his papers— +"Laboratory of Physiological Research. I made my own way in the +world. But I am an Englishman, I hope; and when such a document as +this, influentially signed, is put into my hands and an answer +demanded of me, what sort of answer do I give? The answer I give, +ladies and gentlemen, is that I keep a spaniel at home, though not +for sporting purposes, and still less for purposes of Physiological +Research"—Every time the ass came to these two words he made +elaborate pretence of consulting his papers.</p> + +<p>"Nine times out of ten this dumb friend and dependent of mine greets +me in the hall as I reach home after a hard day's business, wagging +his tail in a way almost more than human. And when I think of me +going home to-night, with this document—signed, as I say, by persons +of title and supported by this influential body of rate-payers—and +look into his dumb eyes and think it might happen to my Dash to be +laid on a board in the interests of this so-called Research, and +there vivisected alive, then I say—"</p> + +<p>"<i>It's a lie!</i>"</p> + +<p>Foe was on his legs, and he fairly shouted it. Shell-shock? +<i>Phut!</i>—It exploded right at our feet below the platform. Farrell +came staggering back, right on top of us; but the reason may have +been partly that Jimmy had reached forward, too late, and gripped his +coat-tails. Of course the man's offence was unpardonable; but I +could hardly recognise Jack's face, so drawn it was and twisted in +white-hot hate.</p> + +<p>There was silence while you might count five, perhaps. The audience, +taken right aback for that space, had begun to rise and crane +forward. "Who is it?"—you could almost hear the question starting +to run.</p> + +<p>Then again, for a few seconds, things happened just as they do in +rowdy public meetings. While the Chairman thumped the table, Farrell +wrenched his coat-tails from Jimmy's grip and stepped to the edge of +the platform.</p> + +<p>"Who are you?" he demanded. There was a queer throaty sound in his +voice; yet he held himself (I thought) in fair control.</p> + +<p>"My name is Foe," came the answer. Jack was still on his feet, his +face ashen, his eyes blazing behind his glasses. I had known him all +these years and never guessed him capable of such a white rage. +But the words came very slowly and deliberately. "My name is Foe. +I am the Professor with whom, just now, you said you hadn't the +pleasure to be acquainted—"</p> + +<p>"Throw him out!" called a voice from one of the back rows.</p> + +<p>I had expected that; had, as you might say, been waiting for it. +What caught me unprepared was its instant effect on Mr. Farrell.</p> + +<p>He raised a fist and shook it. He fairly capered. "Yes, throw him +out! Throw him out!" He choked, spluttered and let it out almost in +a scream. I leaned forward for a sideways sight of his face.</p> + +<p>"Gad! he's going to have a fit and tumble off the platform. +Stand by, Otty." Jimmy, reaching out a hand again for Mr. Farrell's +coat-tails, spoke the warning close in my ear, for by this time +twenty or thirty voices had taken up the cry, "Throw him out!" the +Chairman was hammering like mad for Order, and there was an ugly +shuffle of feet at the far end of the hall.</p> + +<p>"Throw him out! Throw him out!" Farrell kept screaming above the +hubbub. "How would <i>he</i> treat a dog?—"</p> + +<p>"The man's demented," said I—and with that I heard a bench or a +chair go crack like a revolver-shot. It might have been a shot +starting a sprint; for close on top of it about a dozen fellows leapt +out into the gangway, while three or four charged forward through the +audience, where the women had already started to scream.</p> + +<p>There was nothing for it but prompt action. Jimmy and I swung +ourselves down over the front of the platform. This gave us a fair +start of the crowd, but it didn't give us any time to argue with Foe, +who still stood glaring up at Farrell, ready to put in another retort +as soon as he could get a hearing. Of the danger rushing down on him +either he wasn't aware or he cared nothing for it. Jimmy caught him +by the waist, and grinned intelligently as I pointed to the emergency +exit around the corner of the platform.</p> + +<p>"Right-O! Hold the curtain aside for me.… Along you come, +Professor! Be a good child and don't kick nursy…"</p> + +<p>"Take him home," said I. "Policeman will help if there's a row +outside."</p> + +<p>Then I dropped the curtain on them and faced about. The audience by +this time were standing on benches and chairs, but of course my first +job was with the hustlers who had reached the end of the gangway and +were coming on under the lee of the platform. They looked ugly at +first, but the job turned out to be a soft one.</p> + +<p>"You wanted him turned out," said I, "and we've obliged you. +Rather neatly, eh?—You can't say no to that."</p> + +<p>I wanted someone to laugh, and by the mercy of Heaven someone did— +someone back in the third or fourth row. In five seconds or so quite +a lot of people were laughing and applauding.</p> + +<p>"Now stand where you are," said I, catching hold of this advantage; +"and one of you give me a leg up to the platform. I'm going to +propose a vote of thanks.… Won't keep you standing long. +But please don't go back to your seats; because some of the women are +frightened."</p> + +<p>Well, they gave me a leg up, and somebody above gave me a hand, and +there I was, none the worse, on the platform.</p> + +<p>Farrell had collapsed in his seat by the Chairman's table and sat +with his face in his hands. The Chairman was paralytic. So I did +the only thing that seemed possible: started to propose a vote of +thanks. Pretty fair rubbish I must have started with, too: but by +and by I slipped into my own election speech and after that it was +pretty plain sailing. You see, when a man runs for candidate, he +begins by preparing half a dozen speeches; but by the time he's half +through he has them pretty well boiled down into one, and he can +speak that one in his sleep. After ten minutes or so I forgot that I +was moving a vote of thanks to somebody and moved a vote of +confidence instead—confidence in Mr. Farrell.</p> + +<p>Nobody minded. Two or three speakers followed me and moved and +seconded all sorts of things at random. We were all in a hopeless +muddle, and all quite good-humoured about it; and we wound up by +singing "God Save the King!"</p> + + +<br> +<br> +<p><a name="4"></a> </p> +<h3>NIGHT THE THIRD.</h3> +<br> + +<h4>THE GRAND RESEARCH.</h4> + +<p>The little Chairman followed me into the lobby and thanked me +effusively, while a couple of stewards helped me into my great-coat. +He threw a meaning glance over his shoulder at Farrell, who stood in +a corner nervously winding and unwinding a long silk comforter about +his neck and throat. He seemed to be muttering, saying something +over to himself. His face twitched—it was still red and congested— +and he kept his eyes on the floor. He had not spoken to either of us +since the meeting dissolved. Very likely he did not see us.</p> + +<p>"A bit rattled," I suggested quietly.</p> + +<p>"You may bet on that, Sir Roderick." The steward, who was turning up +my coat collar, said this almost in my ear. "You don't think, now—"</p> + +<p>He did not finish the sentence, and I faced about on him for the rest +of it. He tapped his forehead gently.</p> + +<p>"Oh, nonsense!" said I. "He's not broken to public life and he +doesn't ruffle well, that's all; and, after all, it isn't every man +who enjoys being called a liar to his face and before some hundreds +of people."</p> + +<p>"His face, sir," the steward persisted. "That's it; you've given me +the word. Did you see his face? No, of course you didn't, for you +were sitting sideways to him—and so was you, Mr. Chairman, sir. +But I was standing by the main door when it happened, and had him in +full view, and—Well!" he wound up.</p> + +<p>"Well?" said I.</p> + +<p>He dropped his voice to a whisper almost. "It frightened me, +sir.… I think it must have frightened a good few of the +audience, and that's what held the rush back and gave you and the +other gentleman time. You wouldn't think, to look at his face now"— +with a glance across at Farrell, who was sending out to inquire if +his car had arrived, and looking at his watch (for, you'll +understand, the meeting had broken up early in spite of my oratorical +effort)—"you wouldn't believe, Sir Roderick, that there was anything +deep in the man. Nor perhaps there isn't. It didn't seem to me, +just half a minute, that it was Mr. Farrell inside Mr. Farrell's +clothes and looking out of his eyes."</p> + +<p>"Then <i>who</i>, in the world?" I asked.</p> + +<p>The steward gave himself a shake. "Speak low, sir, and don't turn +round.… I was a fool to mention his name—folks always hear +their own names quicker than anything else. He's looking our way, +suspicious-like.… Now if I was to say 'Satan,' or if I was to +say that he was a party possessed—Well, any way, Sir Roderick, I +wish we had someone else for a candidate, and I don't see myself +happy, these next few days, working on Committee for him."</p> + +<p>"Well, you have the advantage of me," said I. "You saw him +full-face, whereas I had to study him from the rear. From the rear +he looked funny enough.… But look here," I went on; "if there +were any slate loose on the man's roof, as you're hinting, you may +bet that a great Furnishing Company in Tottenham Court Road wouldn't +be taking any risks with him as Chairman of Directors."</p> + +<p>"All I can say, sir," he muttered, shaking his head, "is that I don't +like it. And, anyway, he isn't a gentleman."</p> + +<p>The Chairman had left us to say good night to Mr. Farrell, whose car +was just then announced. I went across, too, to shake hands and wish +him good luck on polling-day. As our eyes met he started, came out +of the torpor in which he had been gazing about him, and bowed to me +in best shop-walker fashion.</p> + +<p>"Ah, Sir Roderick!" he said, not very coherently. "You must excuse +me—remiss, very. Owe you many thanks, sir—not only for coming— +great honour—But saved very awkward situation. Overwrought, sir— +that's what I'm suffering from—overstrain: not used to this sort of +thing.… My God, I am tired… all of a sudden, too; so tired +you can't think.… Can I have the pleasure of driving you a part +of the way, Sir Roderick?"</p> + +<p>"Thank you, Mr. Farrell," said I. "But you're for Wimbledon, I +believe, and I'm for Chelsea. Fact is"—I ventured it on an +impulse—"I'm going to call on that friend of mine, Professor Foe, +who so unhappily interrupted you to-night, and tell him that he made +a fool of himself." I watched his eyes. They were merely dull— +heavy. "You did provoke him, you know, Mr. Farrell," I went on: +"I'm morally certain he is guiltless of the practices alleged in that +document of yours; and, if I can persuade him to receive you in his +laboratory and show you his work and his methods—"</p> + +<p>By George, I <i>had</i> called back that look into Mr. Farrell's +gooseberry eyes! This time it lasted for about two seconds.</p> + +<p>"Meet him?—<i>him?</i> Your pardon, Sir Roderick." He brushed his hand +over his eyes, but they were dull again.… "No, thank you"—he +turned to the Chairman—"It's only two steps to the car; I don't want +anyone's arm.… Well, yes, I'm obliged to you. Queer, how tired +I feel.… Good night, gentlemen!"</p> +<br> +<p> +The car purred and glided away. "I feel a bit uneasy about our +Candidate," said the Chairman as we watched the rear-light turn the +corner. "He's had a shock.… Well, we live in stirring times, +and one more evening's over!"</p> + +<p>"But it isn't!" I cried out on a sudden thought. "Man, we've +forgotten the reporters! If they've left the building the whole town +will be red before we're well out of our beauty-sleep."</p> + +<p>We made a plunge back for the hall and, as luck would have it, found +three of the four reporters at the table. The early close had left +them ahead of time, and two were copying out their shorthand while +the third was engaged on a pithy paragraph or two under the headline +of "Stormy Proceedings—A Professor Ejected. What happens to Dogs in +the Silversmiths' College?"</p> + +<p>I won't say how we prevailed with the Fourth Estate, except that it +wasn't by bribery. The man writing the Pithy Pars did some cricket +reporting at Lord's during the summer—some of the best, too. +I was taking bread out of his mouth, and knew it. But it had to be +done, and it was done, as a favour between gentlemen. He saw to the +others.… God help those people who run down Cricket!</p> +<br> +<p> +I knocked in at Foe's flat well on the virtuous side of midnight. +Jimmy was in charge of the patient. Foe had got into an old Caius +blazer and sat very far back in a wicker chair—lolled, in fact, on +his shoulder-pins, sucking at a pipe and brooding.</p> + +<p>"Give me a whisky-and-soda," said I. "If ever a man has earned it!"</p> + +<p>"I somehow knew you'd turn up," said Jimmy, mixing. "Not a scratch? +Tell us."</p> + +<p>So I told. I didn't tell all, of course. I left out all the +business in the lobby, what the steward had said, what Farrell had +said, and my traffic with the reporters. I humped myself on my +display of oratory.</p> + +<p>I must have thrown this—necessarily thrown it—somewhat out of +proportion.</p> + +<p>Jimmy said, "Rats! I know all about Caesar's funeral, and you +couldn't do it. You can't come it over us with your spellbound +audience. What you've done is you've kept the bridge ever since the +proud Professor and I started back, and, when they cut it behind you, +you swam the river."</p> + +<p>"Have it which way you like," said I, dropping into a chair. +"Now tell me how you two have been getting along."</p> + +<p>"Our motto," said Jimmy, "has been Plain Living and High Thinking. +We have fleeted the time in earnest discourse. It began on the way +home with the Professor asking me some innocent question concerning +what he called the 'Science' of Ju-Jitsu. I told him that it was of +Japanese origin, as its name implied, and further that he did wrong +to call it a Science; it was really an Art. I engaged that I could +prove this to him in thirty seconds, but said I would wait until we +reached home, lest he might be trying his discovery on the Police. +This led to a discussion on the Art of Self-Defence, in the course of +which he let fall the incredible remark that he had never been inside +the National Sporting Club."</p> + +<p>"Give him time," said I. "Jack's a methodical worker, as every man +of science should be. He'll come to it; but, so far, his researches +have been confined to the lower animals."</p> + +<p>Jimmy looked puzzled. "Eh?… Oh, you mean politicians. Well, it +occurred to me that if he meant to attend any more political +meetings, there was no time to be lost. So—"</p> + +<p>"But I don't," Jack growled.</p> + +<p>Jimmy corrected himself. "Perhaps we'd better say, then, that I +thought it well he should know the difference between some public +gatherings and others. So we've been talking about the N.S.C. and +the Professor is under promise to visit it with me, one night, and +see how an argument ought to be conducted."</p> + +<p>I lit a pipe and looked at Foe over the match. "Jack," said I, "a +holiday for you is indicated. With Jimmy's leave I'm going to speak +seriously for a moment.… Down in the country, among other jobs, +I have to sit on an Asylum Committee: and from the start I've been +struck by the number of officials in charge of lunatics who seem, +after some while at it, to go a bit dotty themselves. Doctors, male +attendants—it doesn't seem to affect the women so much—even +chaplains—after a time I wouldn't give more than short odds on the +complete sanity of any of 'em. Why, even our Chairman… I must +tell you about our Chairman.… He's old, and you may put it down +to senile decay. Before we discharge a patient, or let him out as +harmless, it's our custom to have him up before the Committee with a +relative who undertakes to be answerable for him. Well, our +Chairman, of late, can't be trusted to tell t'other from which: and +it's pretty painful when he starts on the vacant-looking patient and +says, pointing a finger at the astonished relative, 'You see, +Mr. So-and-so, the apparent condition of this poor creature. +It is with some hesitation that we have given this case the benefit +of the doubt; and we cannot hand him over unless satisfied that you +feel your responsibility to be a grave one.'"</p> + +<p>Foe got up, smiling dourly, knocked out his pipe, and chose a fresh +one from the mantelpiece. "You'll make quite a good story of that, +Roddy," he said, "with a little practice. But, as I don't work among +lunatics, what's the bearing of it?"</p> + +<p>"You're working," said I, "—for years now you've been working and +overworking—on these wretched animals, and neglecting the society of +your fellow-men. You pore over animals, you probe into animals, +you're always thinking about animals; which amounts to consorting +with animals—at their worst, too.… I tell you, Jack, it won't +do. I've had my doubts for some time, but to-night I'm sure of it. +If you go on as you're going, there'll be a smash, my boy."</p> + +<p>I was half afraid he would fly out on me. But he lit his pipe +thoughtfully, dropped the match into the fire, and watched it burn +out before he answered.</p> + +<p>"And I'm to consort with my fellow-men, eh?—with the sort you led me +among to-night?" He laughed harshly, with a not ill-humoured snort. +"Is that your prescription? Thank you, I prefer my bad beasts."</p> + +<p>"No," I said. "After to-night it's not my prescription. I'll give +you another. I know your work, and that your heart's in it. +But ease down this term as far as the lecture-list allows, and then +at Easter come with Jimmy and me to Wastdale and let me teach your +infant footsteps how to mountaineer. There's nothing like a stiff +climb and a summit for purging a man's mind.… I've come to like +mountains ever so much better than big game. They are the authentic +gods, high and clean; they're above desecration; the more you assail +them the more you are theirs.… Now there's always a kind of +lust, a kind of taint, about big-game hunting. No harm to a man if +he's in full health—but beastliness, and menagerie smell, if he's +not."</p> + +<p>"Mountains!" scoffs he.</p> + +<p>"You needn't despise them," said I. "They're apt to be heavenly, +just before Easter, with the snow on 'em; and Mickledore or Gable or +the Pillar from Ennerdale will easily afford you forty-four ways of +breaking your neck.… If you're good and can do a little trick I +have in mind on Scawfell I'll reward you by bringing you home past a +farm where they keep a couple of savage sheep-dogs. For a good +conduct prize, I have a friend up there—a farming clergyman—who +will teach you words of cheer by introducing you to a bull that can't +pass the Board of Trade test because he's like Lady Macbeth's hand— +however you babble to him in a green field he makes the green one +red. But these shall be special treats, you understand, held in +reserve. Most days you'll just climb till you're tired, and your +dinner shall be mutton for three weeks on end.… Now, don't +interrupt. I may seem to be on the oratorical lay to-night, but God +knows I'm in earnest. If I wasn't, I shouldn't have spoken out like +this before Jimmy, who's your friend and will back me up."</p> + +<p>"I might," said Jimmy judiciously, "if I understood what you meant by +all this chat about savage animals. What is it, at all? Does the +Professor keep a menagerie? And, if so, why haven't I been invited?"</p> + +<p>"Why, don't you know?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Know what?" asked Jimmy, leaning back and sucking at his pipe. +"Whatever it is, I probably don't: that's what a Public School and +University education did for me. As I seem to remember one Farrell's +remarking in the dim and distant past, for my part I never indulged +in Physiological Research—I made my own way in the world…" +He murmured it dreamily, and then sat up with a start. "Lord's +sake!" he cried out. "You don't tell me that Farrell… that the +Professor actually—"</p> + +<p>"Don't be a fool," I interrupted. "Of course, Jack doesn't. Jack, +tell him about the Grand Research. Enlighten his ignorance, that's a +good fellow."</p> + +<p>"Enlighten him yourself, if you want to. You'll tell it all wrong: +but I'm tired," declared Foe.</p> + +<p>"Well, then," said I, "it's this way, dear James.… You behold +seated opposite to you on the right of the fireplace, and smoking the +beast of a brier pipe with the modesty of true genius, a Scientific +Man—a Savant, shall I say?—of European reputation. It isn't quite +European just yet: but it's going to be, which is better."</p> + +<p>"I always prophesied it," said Jimmy. "What's it going to be <i>for</i>?"</p> + +<p>"Listen," said I. "Having received (as you assure us) a liberal +education, either at Eton or B.N.C., you probably made acquaintance +with that beautiful poem by Dr. Isaac Watts beginning—"</p> + +<blockquote><blockquote> +<p class = "noindent">'Let dogs delight to bark and bite—'</p> +</blockquote></blockquote> + +<p>"Continue the quotation, with brief notes on any obscurities."</p> + +<p>"Certainly," said Jimmy.</p> + +<blockquote><blockquote> +<p class = "noindent">'Let dogs delight to bark and bite,<br> +<span class = "ind2">'Tis manners so to do—'</span></p> +</blockquote></blockquote> + +<p>"No, that sounds a bit off."</p> + +<blockquote><blockquote> +<p class = "noindent"> 'Let dogs delight to bark and bite,<br> +<span class = "ind2">For God hath made them so;</span><br> + Let bears and lions growl and fight, +<span class = "ind2">For 'tis their nature toe.'</span></p> +</blockquote></blockquote> + +<p>"Good boy!" said I. "Now that's where Dr. Watts—"</p> + +<p>"Don't interrupt," said Jimmy. "It isn't manners so to do, when I'm +just getting into my stride—"</p> + +<blockquote><blockquote> +<p class = "noindent">'But, children, you should never let<br> +<span class = "ind2"> Such angry passions rise:</span><br> + Your little hands were never made<br> +<span class = "ind2"> To tear each other's eyes…'</span></p> +</blockquote></blockquote> + +<p>"Please, I don't know any more."</p> + +<p>"Nor need you," I assured him, "for, according to Jack, it's +completely out of date."</p> + +<p>"'M'yes!" Jimmy agreed. "But he won't get a European reputation by +discovering <i>that</i>. They don't tear each other's eyes at the N.S.C., +even—it's against the rules. Come and see for yourself, Professor."</p> + +<p>"Angry passions," I went on patiently; "envy, hatred, and malice— +especially hatred—are Jack's special lay; the Grand Research we call +it. Take simple anger, for instance. What is it makes a man angry?"</p> + +<p>"Lots of things.… Being called a liar, for one."</p> + +<p>Foe took the mischief in the boy's eye, and let out a laugh. +"I can't be angry with <i>you</i>, anyway. Go on, Roddy. You're doing it +quite well so far, though I'm almost too sleepy to listen."</p> + +<p>"It isn't as simple as you think," I pursued seriously (but glad +enough in my heart to have heard Jack laugh—he wasn't given to +laughter at any time). "All sorts of things happen inside you; all +sorts of mechanisms start working: nerves and muscles, of course, but +even in the blood-vessels there's a change of the corpuscles as per +order—you put an insult into the slot and they do the rest. +The levers of the machine—the brakes, clutches and the rest are in +the forebrain: that's where you change gear when you want to struggle +with suppressed emotion, run her slow or let her all out: and that's +what Jack means to do with us before he has finished. Does he want +us to love or to hate?—He'll press a button, and we shall do the +rest, automatically. He will call on a Foreign Minister or an +ambassador and make or avert a European War. He will dictate—"</p> + +<p>"He's telling you the most atrocious rubbish," cut in Foe, addressing +Jimmy.</p> + +<p>"I am suiting this explanation to the infant mind," said I, "and I'll +trouble you not to interrupt.… You may or may not have heard, my +dear child, either at Eton or Oxford, that the brain has two +hemispheres—"</p> + +<p>"Just like the globe," said Jimmy brightly.</p> + +<p>"Aptly observed," I congratulated him: "though that is perhaps no +more than a coincidence. Taking the illustration, however, if we can +only eliminate the Monroe Doctrine and work the clutch between these +two—Jack, you are reaching for the poker. Don't fire, Colonel: I'll +come down.… Reverting, then, to the forebrain, you have +doubtless observed that in man it is enormously larger than in the +lower animals, as in our arrogance we call them—"</p> + +<p>"I hadn't," said Jimmy.</p> + +<p>"It's a fact, nevertheless," said I. "I assure you.… Well, +Jack, so far, has dealt only with the lower animals. I don't say the +lowest. I doubt if he can do much with an oyster who has been +crossed in love. But by George! you should watch him whispering to a +horse! or, if you want something showier, see him walk into a lion's +cage with the tamer."</p> + +<p>"I say, Professor! Have you <i>really?</i>—" I knew Jimmy would sit up +at this point.</p> + +<p>"Of course he has," said I. "It began on a trip we took together in +Uganda, just after leaving Cambridge. I was after lions: Jack's game +was the mosquito and other bugs. One day—oh, well, Jack, we'll keep +that story for another occasion.… The long and short was, he +found he had a gift—uncanny to me—of dealing with animals in a +rage, and raising or lowering their angry passions at will. +He switched off bugs, their cause and cure, and on to this new track. +He started experimenting, made observations, took records. He's been +at it now—how many years, Jack? He'll play on a dog-fight better +than you can on a penny-whistle: as soon as he chooses they're +sitting one on each side of the gramophone, listening to Their +Master's Voice. Vivisection?—Farrell's an ass. The only inhuman +thing I've ever known Jack do was to domesticate a wild-cat and +restore her to the woods unprotected by her natural amenities. +These people hear a shindy going on in the laboratory in `—` Street, +and conclude that he's holding the wrong sort of tea-party. Now, if +he'd had an ounce of practical wisdom to-night, he'd have arisen +quietly, invited Farrell to drop in at 4.30 to-morrow, arranged a +moderate dog-fight, and given that upholsterer ten minutes of +glorious life. Farrell—"</p> + +<p>"I'm going to turn you both out," said Foe, getting up suddenly. +"Help yourself to another whisky-and-soda, Roddy.… I'm so beaten +with sleep it's odds against getting off my boots." As a fact, too, +his face was weary-white. He turned to Jimmy, however, with a ghost +of a smile. "Roddy has been talking a deal of nonsense. But if you +really care to inspect my little show, come around some morning +… . Let me see—to-day's Wednesday. Saturday is my slack +morning—What d'you say to breakfasting here on Saturday, nine +o'clock? and we'll walk over at half-past ten or thereabouts. I keep +a yellow dog there that will go through some tricks for you.… +Right? Then so long!… You can come along, too, Roddy, if you'll +behave yourself."</p> + + +<br> +<br> +<p><a name="5"></a> </p> +<h3>NIGHT THE FOURTH.</h3> +<br> + + +<h4>ADVENTURE OF THE POLICE STATION.</h4> + +<p>I opened my newspaper next morning in no little anxiety. I ought +rather to say "my newspapers": for the L.C.C. campaign was raging at +its height, and a candidate cannot afford to neglect in the morning +any nasty thing that any nasty fellow has written overnight.</p> + +<p>Jephson—yes, he's the same good Jephson who wouldn't exchange my +button-stick for a Field-Marshal's baton—Jephson brought in my +morning tea and laid across the foot of my bed a bundle of newspapers +as thick as a bolster.</p> + +<p>I sat up, reached for them and began to read almost as soon as he +switched on the light. I was honestly nervous.</p> + +<p>I took the hostile papers first, of course. Pretty soon it began +to dawn on my grateful soul that all was right with the world. +The reporters had stood shoulder to shoulder. Two or three headlines +gave me a shake. "BRISK SCENES ACROSS THE WATER," "MR. FARRELL +SPEAKS OUT," "AN INTERRUPTER EJECTED." One headline in particular +gave me qualms—"WHAT'S WRONG WITH SILVERSMITH'S COLLEGE? PUBLIC +ENDOWMENT WITHOUT PUBLIC CONTROL: MR. FARRELL PUTS SOME SEARCHING +QUESTIONS." But it had all been toned down in the letterpress and +came to very little. The reporters, using their own discretion, had +used such phrases as "An interrupter, apparently labouring under some +excitement," "At this point a gentleman in the front row caused a +diversion by challenging… The audience were in no mood, +however,…" "Here an auditor protested warmly. It was +understood that he had some official connection with the institution +referred to by the candidate," and so on.</p> + +<p>I hugged myself over my success. To be sure, the vague impression +derivable was that the "scene" had its origin in strong drink. +But the name of Professor John Foe nowhere appeared. Greatest +blessing of all, there was no leading article, no pithy paragraph, +even. I arose and shaved blithely. Across the stairhead I could +hear Jimmy shouting music-hall ditties—his custom in his bath. +Yes, all was right with the world.</p> + +<p>Nothing happened that day, except that I interviewed my agent after +breakfast, worked like a nigger until nightfall, canvassing slums; +got back to the Bath Club, had a swim, dined, and returned to my +constituency for the night's public meeting. Arduous work: but what +you might call supererogatory. I could have shot my opponent +sitting, and he knew it. My rascal of an agent knew it too, but he +was an honest man in his way—and that's politics.</p> + +<p>Next morning, same procedure on Jephson's part: similar bolster +of papers, neatly folded and laid across the foot of my bed. +This time I poured myself a cup of tea and reached for them lazily. +The <i>Times</i> was topmost. Jephson always laid the <i>Times</i> topmost.</p> + +<p>Five minutes later… But listen to this—</p> + +<p><i>(To-night before resuming his story Otway had laid on the table +beside him a small but bulging letter-case, from the contents of +which he now selected a newspaper cutting.)</i></p> + +<h4>PUBLIC ENDOWMENT OF RESEARCH</h4> + + +<blockquote><blockquote> +<p class = "noindent">To the Editor of <i>The Times</i>:—<br><br> + + Sir,<br><br> + + A Memorial, influentially signed by a number of ladies and + gentlemen variously eminent in Society, Politics, Literature and + Art but united in their friendship for the dumb creation, was + recently addressed to the Principal of the South London + ("Silversmiths'") University College, situated in the + constituency for which I am offering myself as representative in + the next London County Council. In this Memorial the Principal + was invited to ease the public mind with respect to rumours + (widely prevalent) concerning certain practices in the + laboratories under his charge, either by denying them or + inviting a public inquiry. I was not aware of this document—to + which I should have been happy to add my signature—until last + night, when a copy of it was put into my hands, with an + additional list of signatures by more than a hundred local + residents. This morning I have had an opportunity to peruse + the answer sent by the Principal (Sir Elkin Travers) to the + Hon. Secretary of the Memorialists.<br><br> + + I cannot consider this answer satisfactory. Sir Elkin is + content to meet the allegation with a flat denial, and rejects + the reasonable request for a public inquiry in language none too + courteous. Unfortunately a body of testimony by residents in + the close vicinity of the College, as to the noises and outcries + heard proceeding from the laboratories from time to time, if not + in direct conflict with the denial, at least suggests that, with + the growing numbers of his professors and students, Sir Elkin + cannot know what is going on, at all times, in every department + of the Institution: while his peremptory rejection of an + investigation which he might have welcomed as an opportunity for + allaying public suspicion will be far from having that effect. + If all is well inside his laboratories, why should Sir Elkin + fear the light?<br><br> + + May I point out that considerable sums of public money are spent + on these University Colleges, and even, indirectly, in promoting + the very researches incriminated by the Memorialists. We should + insist on knowing what we are paying for and whether it is + consistent with the consciences of those among us who look upon + dumb animals as the friends and servants of man.<br><br> + +<span class = "ind4">I am, Sir, Your obedient servant,</span><br><br> + +<span class = "ind10">P. FARRELL.</span><br><br> + + The Acacias, Wimbledon,<br> + Thursday, March 7, 1907.<br><br></p> +</blockquote></blockquote> +<br> +<p>I dressed and breakfasted in some haste. I heard Jimmy splashing and +carolling in his tub, and for one moment had a mind to knock in and +read him the letter, which worried me. But I didn't.… It really +wasn't Jimmy's business.… Good Lord! if I'd only acted on that +one little impulse, which seemed at the time not to matter two +straws!—</p> + +<p>I took a taxi to Chelsea, carting the newspapers with me and rooting +Farrell's truffles out of a dozen or so on the way. It was just as +bad as I feared. The man had used a type-copier and snowed his +screed all over Fleet Street. There were one or two small leaders, +too, and editorial notes: nasty ones.</p> + +<p>I caught Foe on his very doorstep. "Hallo!" said he. "What's wrong? +… Looks as if you were suddenly reduced to selling newspapers. +I'm not buying any, my good man."</p> + +<p>"You'll come upstairs and read a few, anyway," said I; and took him +upstairs and showed him the <i>Times</i>. He frowned as he read Farrell's +letter. I expected him to break out into strong language at least. +But he finished his reading and tossed the paper on to the table with +no more than a short laugh—a rather grim short laugh.</p> + +<p>"Silly little bounder," was his comment.</p> + +<p>"You didn't treat him quite so apathetically, the night before last," +said I. "It might be better for you if you had. Look, here's the +<i>Morning Post, Standard, Daily News, Mail, Chronicle, Express</i>.… +He has plastered it into them all."</p> + +<p>"I don't read newspapers," was his answer.</p> + +<p>"Other people do," was mine; for I was nettled a bit. "Here are some +of the editors asking questions already, and I'll bet the evening +papers will be like dogs about a bone. This man may be a damned +fool, but he's dangerous: that's to say he has started mischief."</p> + +<p>"Oh, surely—not dangerous?" Foe queried, with an odd lift of his +eyebrows.</p> + +<p>"If I were you, at all events, I'd go straight and consult your man— +what's his name? Travers?—at once. My taxi is waiting, and I'll +run across in time to interview him before you start your morning's +work. Did he show you his answer to these precious Memorialists +before he posted it?"</p> + +<p>For the moment Foe ignored my question. "Dangerous?" he repeated in +a musing, questioning way. "Do you really think… I beg your +pardon, Roddy… Eh? You were asking about Travers. Yes, he +showed me his answer. Very good answer, I thought. It just told +them to mind their own business."</p> + +<p>"Did he say that, in so many words?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Let me think.… So far as I remember he put it rather neatly. +… Yes, he wrote that he was not prepared to worry his staff with +vague charges, or to invite an inquiry on the strength of +representations which—so far as he could attach a meaning to them— +meant what was false. But he added that if the Memorialists would +kindly put these charges into writing, defining the practices +complained of, and naming the persons accused, they should be dealt +with in the proper way which (he understood) the law provided."</p> + +<p>"Capital," said I. "Your Principal is no fool. Go off straight and +consult him. Take these papers—the whole bundle—"</p> + +<p>Foe took them up and pushed them into the pockets of his great-coat.</p> + +<p>"<i>You</i> think he's dangerous?" he asked again, in an absent-minded +way.</p> + +<p>"Eh?… Oh, you're talking of Farrell?" said I. "Farrell's a +fool, and fools are always dangerous."</p> + +<p>Thereupon Jack Foe did and said that which I had afterwards some +cause to remember. He passed his hand over his forehead, much as a +man might brush away a cobweb flung across his evening walk between +hedges. "That man makes me tired," he said; "extraordinarily tired. +For two nights I've been trying not to dream about him. It was very +good of you to come, Roddy. You shall run me over in your taxi and +I'll speak to Travers. If the man is a fool—"</p> + +<p>"A dangerous fool," I corrected.</p> + +<p>"Coward, too, I should judge. Yes, certainly, I'll speak to +Travers."</p> +<br> +<p> +I put down Foe at the gates of his College and speeded home. +Jimmy had breakfasted and gone forth to take the air. I sat +down to open my letters and answer them. In the middle of this my +agent arrived. We lunched together and spent the afternoon +canvassing. This lasted until dinner, for which I returned to my +Club. Thence a taxi took me East again to Bethnal Green for a +meeting. The importance of these details is that they kept me from +having word with Jimmy, or seeing fur or feather of him, for more +than twenty-four hours.</p> + +<p>Nor did I find him in my chambers when I got home, soon after eleven. +He was a youth of many engagements. So I mixed myself a drink and +whiled away three-quarters of an hour with a solitary pipe and the +bundle of evening papers set out for me by Jephson, who lived out +with his wife and family and retired to domestic joys at 9.30.</p> + +<p>The evening papers had let down the Silversmiths' College pretty +easily on the whole. But one of them—an opposition rag which +specialised in the politics, especially gutter politics, of South +London and was owned by a ring of contractors—had come out with a +virulent attack, headed "Vivisection in Our Midst." The article set +me hoping that Travers was a strong man and would use the law of +libel: it deserved the horsewhip. It left a taste in the mouth that +required a second whisky-and-apollinaris before I sought my bed, +sleepily promising myself that I would call on Farrell in the +morning, however inconvenient it might be, and help to put an end to +this nonsense.… I would, if the worst came to the worst, even +drag the fool to Jack's laboratory and convince him of his folly.</p> + +<p>And this promise, as will be seen, I carried out to the very last +letter.</p> +<br> +<p> +A rapping on my bedroom door fetched me out of my beauty sleep. +I started up in bed and switched on the electric light.</p> + +<p>"That you, Jimmy?" I called. "Come in, you ass, and say what you +want. If it's the corkscrew—"</p> + +<p>"If you please, Sir Roderick—sorry to disturb you—" said a voice +outside which I recognised as the night-porter's.</p> + +<p>"Smithers?" I called. "What's wrong?… Open the door, man.… +Is the place on fire?"</p> + +<p>The door opened and showed me Smithers with a tall policeman looming +behind him.</p> + +<p>"Hallo!" said I, sitting up straighter and rubbing my eyes.</p> + +<p>"Constable, sir," explained Smithers, "with a message for you. +Says he must see you personally."</p> + +<p>The constable spoke while I stared at him, my eyes blinking under the +bed-light. "It's a dream," I was telling myself. "Silly kind of +dream—"</p> + +<p>"Gentleman in the Ensor Street Police Court, sir. Requires bail +till to-morrow—till ten-thirty this morning, I should have said. +Gave your name for surety." The constable announced this in a firm +bass voice, respectful but business-like. "Said he was a friend of +yours."</p> + +<p>"What's his name?" I demanded.</p> + +<p>"Gave the name of James Collingwood, sir—and this same address."</p> + +<p>I gasped. "Jimmy?—Oh, I beg your pardon, Constable!—What has Mr. +Collingwood been doing?"</p> + +<p>"He's <i>charged</i>, sir," the constable answered carefully, "with +resisting the police in the execution of their duty."</p> + +<p>"What duty?"</p> + +<p>"There was another gent took up, sir: and I may say, between +ourselves, as your friend, sir, put up a bit of a fight for him. +Very nimble with his fists he was, sir, or so I heard it mentioned. +I wasn't myself mixed up in the affair. But from the faces on them +as brought him in I should say, strikly between ourselves, he's lucky +the word isn't assault—even aggeravated. But the Inspector took the +report… and the Inspector, if I may say so, knows a gentleman +when he sees one."</p> + +<p>"Was he—" I began, and corrected myself. "Was Mr. Collingwood +drunk?—strictly between ourselves, as you put it."</p> + +<p>"No, sir." The honest man gave his verdict slowly. "I shan't be +called for evidence: but I seen him and talked with him. Sober and +bright, sir; and, when I left, in the best of sperrits. But I +wouldn't say as how he hadn't been more than happy earlier in the +evening."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, Constable," said I. "You'll find a decanter, a syphon, +and a glass set out for the prodigal's return, all on the table in +the next room. Possibly you'll discover what to do with them while I +dress. Smithers, turn on the light out there, and get me a taxi if +you can. For I suppose," said I to the constable, "this means that +I've to turn out and go with you?"</p> + +<p>"I am afraid so, sir, and thanking you kindly. But as for the taxi, +I came in one and took the liberty to keep it waiting—at this hour."</p> + +<p>"Very thoughtful of you," said I, with a look at my watch. The time +was 12.50.</p> + +<p>"Not at all, sir. Mr. Collingwood turned out the loose change in his +pocket and told me not to spare expense. Here it is, sir—one pound, +seventeen—and I'd be glad if you took it and paid the whole fare at +the end of the run."</p> + +<p>"Good," said I, amused. "Jimmy is obviously sober. I never knew him +drunk—really drunk—for that matter." I had my legs out of bed by +this time, and the constable was bashfully withdrawing, Smithers +having turned on the lights in the outer room. "Stop a moment," I +commanded. "You may not believe it, but I'm a child at this game. +How much money shall I have to take?… I don't know that I have +more than a tenner loose about me—unless I can raise something off +Smithers."</p> + +<p>The constable relaxed his face into a smile, or something approaching +one. "There is no money needed—not at this hour of the night. +Your recognisances, Sir Roderick—for a fiver or so, if you ask me. +But—" and here he hesitated.</p> + +<p>"Well?"</p> + +<p>"There's the other gentleman, sir. Mr. Collingwood <i>did</i> mention—"</p> + +<p>"Oh, did he?" I cut in. "It was silly, maybe, to have forgotten him +all this time—I'm a sound sleeper; and even when awake my mind moves +slowly. But who the Hades is this other gentleman?"</p> + +<p>"When arrested, sir, he gave his name as Martin Frobisher," said the +constable with just a tremor of the eyelids, "and his address as +North-West Passage; he wouldn't say more definitely. At the station +he asked leave to correct this, and said that his real name was +Martin Luther, a foreigner, but naturalised for years, and we should +find his papers at the Reform Club, S.W."</p> + +<p>"I don't seem to have met either of these Martins—or not in life," +I said thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>"Well, sir, if you ask <i>me</i>," he agreed, "I should be surprised if +you had; for between ourselves, as it were, I don't believe he's +either of his alleged Martins. And the Station don't think much of +his names and addresses."</p> + +<p>"Does <i>he</i> want to be bailed out, too?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"He didn't ask it. He weren't in no condition, sir—as you might put +it—when I left. But Mr. Collingwood, he says to me (I took a note, +sir, of the very words he used)"—the man pulled out a note-book from +his breast-pocket, and held it forward under the light—"'You go to +Sir Roderick,' he says, 'and tell him from me that the prodigal is +returned bearing his calf with him.'" The constable read it out +carefully, word by word. "I don't know what it means, sir; but that +was his message, and he said it twice over."</p> + +<p>"There seems to be more in this than meets the eye," said I, +pondering the riddle.</p> + +<p>"You wouldn't say so, sir, if you'd seen Hagan's," said he, retiring +with the last word and, on top of it, a genially open grin.</p> + +<p>I was dressed in ten minutes or so, and we sped to Ensor Street. +There I found my young reprobate sober and cheerful and unabashed.</p> + +<p>"Sorry to give you this trouble, old man," was his greeting. +"Sort of thing that happens when a fellow gets mixed up in politics."</p> + +<p>"You shall tell me all about it," said I, "when we've gone through +the little formalities of release.… What have I to sign?" +I asked the sergeant who played escort.</p> + +<p>"Oh, but wait a moment," put in Jimmy. "There's another bird. The +animals came in two by two—eh, Sergeant Noah? I say, Otty, you'll +be in a fearful way when you see him. But I couldn't help it—upon +my soul I couldn't: and you'll have to be kind to him."</p> + +<p>"Who is it?" I demanded.</p> + +<p>"It's—Well, he gave the name of Martin Luther. But you judge for +yourself. Sergeant Bostock—or are you Wombwell?—take Sir Haroun +Alraschid to the next cage and show him the Great Reformer."</p> + +<p>To the next cell I was led in a state of expectancy that indeed +justified his allusion to the <i>Arabian Nights</i>. And the door opened +and the light shone—upon Mr. Peter Farrell!</p> + +<p>It was a swollen eye that Mr. Farrell upturned to us from his low +bed, and a swollen and bloodied lip that babbled contrition along +with appeals to be "got out of this" and lamentations for the day +he was born; and as on that day so on this a mother had found it +hard to recognise him. He wore a goodly but disorganised raiment; +a fur-lined great-coat, evening dress beneath it; but the tie was +missing, the shirt-collar had burst from its stud, the shirt-front +showed blood-stains, dirty finger-marks, smears of mud. Mud caked +his coat, its fur: apparently he had been rolling in mud. But the +worst was that he wept.</p> + +<p>He wept copiously. Was it the late Mr. Gladstone who invented the +phrase "Reformation in a Flood"? Anyhow, it kept crossing and +re-crossing my mind absurdly as I surveyed this wreck that had called +itself Martin Luther. All the wine in him had turned to tears of +repentance, and he was pretty nauseous. I told him to stand up.</p> + +<p>"This—er—gentleman," said I to the police-sergeant, "is called +Farrell—Mr. Peter Farrell. He lives," I said, as the address at the +foot of the <i>Times</i> letter came to my memory, "at The Acacias, +Wimbledon."</p> + +<p>The sergeant nodded slowly. "That's right, sir. I knew him well +enough. Attended a meeting of his only last Saturday—on duty, +that's to say."</p> + +<p>We smiled. "He's not precisely a friend of mine," said I. "But we +have met in public life, and I'll be answerable for him. We must get +him out of this."</p> + +<p>"There's no difficulty, sir, since we have the address. There was no +card or letter in his pocket, and he said he came from Wittenberg +through the Gates of Hell. I looked him up in the Directory and the +address is as you state.… But to tell you the truth, sir, I +didn't ring up his telephone number, thinking as a nap might bring +him round a bit.… We keep a taxi or two on call for these little +jobs, and I'll get a driver that can be trusted. I'll call up Sam +Hicks. There was a latch-key in the gentleman's pocket, and Sam +Hicks is capable of steering a case like this to bed and leaving the +summons pinned on his dressing-gown for a reminder.… But perhaps +you'll call around for him to-morrow morning, sir, and bring him?"</p> + +<p>"I'll be damned if I do," said I. "He must take his risks and I'll +risk the bail.… Look here!"—I took Mr. Farrell by the collar +and my fingers touched mud. "Pah!" said I. "Can't we clean him up a +bit before consigning him?… Look here, Farrell! I'm sending you +home. Do you understand? And you're to return here on peril of your +life at ten o'clock. Do you understand?"</p> + +<p>"I understand, Sir Roderick," sobbed Farrell. "Angels must have sent +you, Sir Roderick.… I have unfortunately mislaid my glasses and +something seems to be obscuring the sight of my left eye. But I +recognised your kindly voice, Sir Roderick. The events of the past +few hours are something of a blank to me at present: but may I take +the liberty of wringing my deliverer by the hand?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly not," said I. "Sit up and attend. Have you a wife? +Sit up, I say. Will Mrs. Farrell by any chance be sitting up?"</p> + +<p>"I thank God," answered Mr. Farrell fervently, "I am a widower. +It is the one bright spot. Could my poor Maria look down from where +she is, and see me at this moment—"</p> + +<p>"It <i>is</i> a slice of luck," I agreed. "Well, you're in the devil of a +mess, and you've goosed yourself besides losing a promising seat for +the party. What on earth—but we'll talk of that to-morrow. +You must turn up, please, and see it out. I don't know what defence, +if any, you can put up: but by to-morrow you'll have a damnatory eye +that will spoil the most ingenious. My advice is, don't make any. +Cut losses, and face the music. This is a queer country; but the +Press, which has been ragging you for weeks, will deal tenderly with +you as a drunk and incapable."</p> + +<p>"But the scandal, Sir Roderick!" he moaned.</p> + +<p>"There won't be any," said I. "You've lost the seat: that's all. +… Now stay quiet while I sign a paper or two."</p> + +<p>Jimmy (redeemed) and I together packed Mr. Farrell into his taxi. +Mr. Samuel Hicks, driver and expert, threw an eye over him as we +helped him in and wrapped him in rugs. "There's going to be no +trouble with this fare," said Mr. Hicks, as he pocketed his +payment-in-advance. "Nigh upon two o'clock in the morning and no +more trouble than a lamb in cold storage."</p> + +<br> +<br> +<p><a name="6"></a> </p> +<h3>NIGHT THE FIFTH.</h3> +<br> + + +<h4>ADVENTURE OF THE "CATALAFINA": MR. JAMES COLLINGWOOD'S NARRATIVE.</h4> + +<p>"Well now," I asked, as my taxi bore us homeward, "what have you to +say about all this?"</p> + +<p>"I say," answered Jimmy with sententiousness, after a pause, "that +you should never take three glasses of champagne on an empty +stomach."</p> + +<p>"I don't," said I.</p> + +<p>"Nor do I," said Jimmy. "I took five, on Farrell's three… +eight glasses to the bottle. It was a Christian act, because I saw +that was he exceeding. But he insisted on ordering two bottles: so +it was all thrown away."</p> + +<p>"What was thrown away?"</p> + +<p>"The Christian act.… I say, Otty," he reproached me, "wake up! +You're not attending."</p> + +<p>"On the contrary," I assured him, "I am waiting with some patience +for the explanation you owe me. After dragging me out of bed at one +o'clock in the morning, it's natural, perhaps, you should assume me +to be half-asleep—"</p> + +<p>Jimmy broke in with a chuckle. "Poor old Otty! You've been most +awfully decent over this."</p> + +<p>"Cut that short," I admonished him. "I am waiting for the story: and +you provide the requisite lightness of touch; but the trouble is, you +don't seem able to provide anything else."</p> + +<p>"Don't be stern, Otty," he entreated. "It is past pardon. I know, +and to-morrow—later in the morning, I should say—you'll find that +the defendant feels his position acutely. Honour bright, I'll do you +credit in the dock.… Wish I was as sure of Farrell. But, as for +the story, as I am a sober man, I don't know where to begin. There's +a wicked uncle mixed up in it, and a wicked nephew and a taxi, and a +lady with a reticule, and a picture palace, and a water-pipe, and +heaps upon heaps of policemen—they're the worst mixed up of the +lot—"</p> + +<p>"Begin at the beginning," I commanded. "That is, unless you'd rather +defer the whole story for the magistrate's ear."</p> + +<p>"The whole story?" He chuckled. "I'd like to see the Beak's face. +… No, I couldn't possibly. My good Otty, how many people d'you +reckon it would compromise?"</p> + +<p>"You've compromised Farrell pretty thoroughly, anyhow," said I +grimly: "and you've compromised the cause in which I happen to be +interested. Has it occurred to you, my considerate young friend, +that Farrell has receded to 1000 to 1 in the betting?—that, in +short, you've lost us the seat?"</p> + +<p>"<i>I</i> compromise Farrell?"—Jimmy sat up and exclaimed it indignantly. +"<i>I</i> lose you his silly seat?… Rats! The little bounder +compromised himself! He's been doing it freely—doing it since ten +o'clock—two crowded hours of glorious life… 'stonishing, Otty, +what a variegated ass a man can make of himself nowadays in two short +hours, with the help of a taxi and if he wastes no time. When I +think of our simple grandfathers playing at Bloods, wrenching off +door-knockers.… Oh, yes—but you're waiting for the story. +Well, it happened like this,—</p> + +<p>"Farrell called on you this morning, soon after breakfast-time, and +found me breakfasting. He was in something of a perspiration. +It appeared that he'd fired off a letter to the <i>Times</i> directed +against our dear Professor; and, having fired it, had learnt from +somebody that the Professor was a close friend of ours. He had come +around to make the peace with you, if he could—he's a funny little +snob. But you had flown."</p> + +<p>"I had gone off," said I, "to catch Jack Foe and warn him that the +letter was dangerous."</p> + +<p>"Think so? Well, you'd left the <i>Times</i> lying on the floor, and +he picked it up and read his composition to me while I dallied with +the bacon. It seemed to me pretty fair tosh, and I told him so. +I promised that if his second thoughts about it coincided with my +first ones, I would pass them on together to you when I saw you next, +and added that I had trouble to adapt my hours to political +candidates, they were such early risers. That, you might say, verged +on a hint: but he didn't take it. He hung about, standing on one leg +and then on the other, protesting that he would put things right. +I hate people who stand on one leg when you're breakfasting, don't +you?… So I gave him a cigar, and he smoked it whilst I went on +eating. He said it was a first-class cigar and asked me where I +dealt. I said truthfully that it was one of yours, and falsely that +you bought them in Leadenhall Market off a man called Huggins. +I gave him the address, which he took down with a gold pencil in his +pocket-book.… I said they were probably smuggled, and (as I +expected) he winked at me and said he rather gathered so from the +address. He also said that he knew a good thing wherever he saw it, +that you were his <i>bo ideal</i> of a British baronet, and that we had +very cosy quarters. This led him on to discourse of his wife, and +how lonely he felt since losing her—she had been a martyr to +sciatica. But there was much to be said for a bachelor existence, +after all. It was so free. His wife had never, in the early days, +whole-heartedly taken to his men friends: for which he couldn't +altogether blame her—they weren't many of 'em drawing-room company. +A good few of them, too, had gone down in the world while he had been +going up. He instanced some of these, but I didn't recollect having +met any of 'em. There were others he'd lost sight of. He named +these too—good old Bill This and Charley That and a Frank Somebody +who sang a wonderful tenor in his day and would bring tears to your +eyes the way he gave you <i>Annie Laurie</i> when half drunk: but again I +couldn't recall that any of them had been passed down to me. +'You see, Mr. Collingwood,' he said, 'when one keeps a little house +down at Wimbledon, these things have a way of dropping out as time +goes on.' 'Just like the teeth,' said I. He thought over this for a +while, and then laughed—oh, he laughed quite a lot—and declared I +was a humorist. He hadn't heard anything so quick, not for a long +while. 'Mr. Collingwood,' he said, 'I'm a lonely man with it all. +I don't mind owning to you that I've taken up these here politics +partly for distraction. It used to be different when me and Maria +could stick it out over a game of bezique. She used to make me dress +for dinner, always. We had a billiard-room, too: but that didn't +work so well. I could never bring her up to my standard of play, not +within forty in a hundred, by reason that she'd use the rest for +almost every stroke. She had a sense of humour, had Maria: you'd +have got along with her, Mr. Collingwood, and she'd have got along +with you. You'd have struck sparks. One evening I asked her, +'Maria, why are you so fond of the jigger?' 'Because of my figger,' +says she, pat as you please. Now, wasn't that humorous, eh? She +<i>meant</i>, of course, that being of the buxom sort in later life—and +it carried her off in the end—' Why, hallo!" Jimmy exclaimed. +"Are we home already?"</p> + +<p>"We have arrived at the Temple, E.C.," said I gently, "but scarcely +yet at the beginning of the story."</p> +<br> +<p> +He resumed it in our chambers, while I operated on the hearth with a +firelighter.</p> + +<p>"Well," said Jimmy, smoking, "to cut a long story short"—and I +grunted my thanks—"he told me he was a lonely man, but that he knew +a thing or two yet. Had I by any chance made acquaintance with the +'Catalafina,' in Soho? 'Oh, come!' said I bashfully, 'who is she?' +'It's a restarong,' said he: 'Italian: where the cook does things you +can't guess what they're made of. Just as well, perhaps.' But the +results, he undertook to say, were excellent."</p> + +<p>"Do I see one?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"No, you don't," answered Jimmy, sipping his whisky-and-soda. +"That's just <i>it</i>, if you'll let me proceed.… He said that they +kept some marvellous Lagrima Christi—if I liked Lagrima Christi. +For his part, it always soured on his stomach. But we could send out +for a bottle of fizz—I'm using his expression, Otty—"</p> + +<p>"I trust so," said I.</p> + +<p>"He called it that. He said he would take it as an honour if I'd +join him in a little supper this very evening at the 'Catalafina.' +He had a meeting at 7.30, at which he would do his best to soften +down this letter of his in the <i>Times</i>; he would get it over by 9.30. +Could we meet (say) on the steps of the 'Empire' at ten o'clock? +He would hurry thither straight from the Baths, report progress—for +me to set your mind at rest—and afterwards take me off to this +damned eating-house. I should never find it by myself, he assured +me. He was right there; but I'm not anxious to try. My hope is that +it, or the management, won't find <i>me</i>.… Well, weakly-and +partly for your sake, Otty—I consented. He said, by the way, he +would be greatly honoured if I'd persuade you to come along too. +'It's Bohemian,' he said; 'if Sir Roderick will overlook it.' +'You told me it was Italian,' said I: 'but never mind. Sir Roderick, +as it happens, is a bit of a Bohemian himself and is dining to-night +with a club of them—the Lost Dogs, if you've ever heard of that +Society.' I saved you, anyway. You may put it that I flung myself +into the breach. They found you, but it was literally over my +prostrate body… and here we are."</p> + +<p>"Is that the story?" said I.</p> + +<p>Jimmy leaned back on his shoulder-blades in the armchair. "It is the +preliminary canter," he announced. "Now we're off, and you watch me +getting into my stride,—</p> + +<p>"Farrell turned up, on time. He was somewhat agitated, and I +suspect—yes, in the light of later events I strongly suspect—he had +picked up a drink somewhere on the way. I got into his taxi, and we +swung up Rupert Street, and out of Rupert Street into what the +novelists, when they haven't a handy map or the energy to use it, +describe as a labyrinth leading to questionable purlieus. I am +content to leave it at purlieus. The driver, as it seemed to me, had +as foggy a notion as I of what, without infringing Messrs. Swan and +Edgar's <i>lingerie</i> copyright, we'll call the 'Catalafina's' +whereabouts. Farrell spent two-thirds of the passage with his head +out of window. I don't mean to convey that he was seasick: and he +certainly wasn't drunk, or approaching it. He kept his head out to +shout directions. He was pardonably excited—maybe a bit nervous in +a channel that seemed to be buoyed all the way with pawnbrokers' +signs. But he brought us through. We alighted at the entrance of +the 'Catalafina'; Farrell paid the driver, and I advised him to find +his way back before daylight overtook him.</p> + +<p>"I will not attempt to describe the interior of the 'Catalafina.' +Farrell saved me that trouble on the threshold. 'Twenty years or +so,' he said, pausing and inhaling garlic, 'often makes a difference +in these places. One mustn't expect this to be quite what it used to +be."… Well, I hadn't, of course, and I dare say it wasn't. +It had sand on the floor, and spittoons. It was crowded, between the +spittoons, with little cast-iron tables, covered with dirty +table-cloths spread upon American cloth and garnished with artificial +flowers and napkins of Japanese paper. Farrell called them +'serviettes.' He also said he felt 'peckish.' I—well, I had taken +the precaution of dining at Boodle's, and responded that I was rather +for the bucket than the manger. He considered this for some time and +then laughed so loudly that all the anarchists in the room looked up +as if one of their bombs had gone off by mistake.… Oh, I omitted +to mention that all the space left unoccupied by cigarette-smoke and +the smell of garlic was crowded with anarchists, all dressed for the +part. They wore black ties with loose ends, fed with their hats on, +and read Italian newspapers—like a musical comedy. The waiters +looked like stage-anarchists, too; but you could easily tell them +from the others because they went about in their shirt-sleeves.</p> + +<p>"Farrell caught the eye of one of these bandits, who came along with +a great neuter cat rubbing against his legs. Farrell began with two +jocose remarks which didn't quite hit the mark he intended them for. +'Hallo, Jovanny!' he said pretty loudly, 'I don't seem to remember +your face, and yet it's familiar somehow.'—Whereat Giovanni, or +whatever his name was, flung a look over his shoulder that was equal +to an alarm, and all the anarchists looked up uneasily too—for +Farrell's voice carries, as you may have observed. He followed this +up by smiling at me over the <i>carte du jour</i> and observing in a +jovial stentorian voice that he felt like a man returned from exile. +Fifteen years—and it must be fifteen years—is a long stretch.… +'Oh, damn your Italian,' said Farrell suddenly, dropping the card. +'In the old days we used to make orders on our fingers, in the dumb +alphabet, and risk what came.'</p> + +<p>"By this time he had Giovanni, and several anarchists at the nearer +tables, properly scared. But he picked up the card and went on, +innocent as a judge,' We used to have a code in those days. +For instance, you crooked one finger over your nose and that meant +'sea-urchins.'' 'Why?' I asked. 'That was the code,' Farrell +explained. 'They used to have a speciality in sea-urchins, straight +from the Mediterranean. You rubbed a soupsong of garlic into them +with three drops of paprika.… Now what do you say to +sea-urchins?'</p> + +<p>"'Nothing, as a rule,' said I. 'Safer with oysters, isn't it? +They don't explode.' I dropped this out just to try its effect on the +waiter, and he blanched. One or two of our <i>convives</i> began to +clear.</p> + +<p>"Farrell ordered two dozen of oysters, to start with, and sent a +runner out for—no, Otty, I won't say it again—for two bottles of +Perrier-Jouet; <i>two</i> bottles and '96, mark you. On hearing this +command about a dozen <i>habitues</i> of the 'Catalafina' arose hastily, +drained their glasses and vanished.</p> + +<p>"Farrell perceived it not. He had picked up the card again and was +ordering some infernal broth made of mussels and I-don't-know-what. +'What do you say to follow?' he asked me.</p> + +<p>"'Something light,' I suggested. 'Liver of blaspheming Jew, for +choice: it sounds like another speciality of this kitchen.'</p> + +<p>"In the interval before the wine was brought Farrell gave me a short +account of the meeting he had just left: and he didn't lighten the +atmosphere of suspicion around us by suddenly sinking his voice to a +kind of conspirator's whisper. The meeting (it appeared) had been +lively, and more than lively. Our small incursion—or the +Professor's, rather—had been a fool to it. For the Professor's +loyal pupils, stung by that letter in the <i>Times</i>, had organised a +counter-demonstration. 'Their behaviour,' Farrell reported, 'was +unbridled.' They would hardly allow me a hearing. I give you my +word—and I wish Sir Roderick to know it—I was prepared to tell them +that information had come to me which put a different complexion on +the whole case. I was even prepared to tell them that, while I +should ever insist on the South London University College and all +similar institutions being subject to a more public control with an +increased representation of local rate-payers on their governing +bodies, I was confident that in this particular case the charge had +been too hasty.… I have the notes of my speech in my great-coat +pocket; I'll give them to you later and beg you as a favour to show +them to Sir Roderick. But what was the use, when they started booing +me because I wore evening dress?'</p> + +<p>"'Why did you?' I asked.</p> + +<p>"'Because, as I tried to explain, I had another engagement to keep +immediately after the Meeting—a Conversatsiony, as I put it to +them.'</p> + +<p>"'Then perhaps,' said I, 'they took exception to some details of the +costume—for instance, your wearing a silk handkerchief, and crimson +at that, tucked in between your shirt-front and your white +waistcoat.'</p> + +<p>"'Is that wrong?' Farrell asked anxiously. 'Maria used to insist on +it. She said it looked neglijay.… But I suppose fashions alter +in these little details.' He stood up, removed the handkerchief, and +stowed it in a tail-pocket.</p> + +<p>"'That's better,' said I.</p> + +<p>"'I'm not above taking a hint,' said he, 'from one as knows. +It'll be harder to get at.… But I don't believe, if you'll +excuse me, that any one of these students, as they call themselves, +ever wore an evening suit in his life—unless 'twas a hired one. +No, sir; they came prepared for mischief. They meant to wreck the +Meeting, and had brought along bags of cayenne pepper, and pots of +chemicals to stink us out. They opened one—phew! And I have +another, captured from them, in the pocket of my greatcoat on the +rack, there. I'll show it to you by and by. Luckily our stewards +had wind, early in the afternoon, that some such game was afoot, and +had posted a body of bruisers conveniently, here and there, about the +hall. So in the end they were thrown out, one by one—yes, sir, +ignominiously. It don't add to one's respect for public life, +though.'</p> + +<p>"At this point the wine made its appearance, and—if you'll believe +me—it was genuine: Perrier-Jouet, '96. A little while on the ice +might have improved it, but we gave it no time. The oysters arrived +too; but they were tired, I think. Something was wrong with them, +anyhow.… Then—as I seem to remember having told you—Farrell +put down three glasses of champagne on an empty stomach."</p> + +<p>"You did mention it," said I; "somewhere in the dim and distant +past."</p> + +<p>"For my part," went on Jimmy seriously, "my potations were moderate. +After trying the first oyster, I was sober enough to let the others +alone. Then came on the alleged mussel-soup. I tried it and laid +down my spoon.… Do you happen to know, Otty, which develops the +quicker typhoid or ptomaine? and if they are, by any chance, mutually +exclusive? Farrell will like to know.</p> + +<p>"He swallowed it all. But when he had done he looked full in the +eyes and said in a loud, unfaltering voice, 'This restarong is no +longer what it was.'</p> + +<p>"'The champagne is, and better,' I consoled him.</p> + +<p>"'Well, what do you say now,' he asked,' to a pig's trotter farced +with pimento? <i>That</i> sounds appetising, at any rate.'</p> + +<p>"I think it was at this point, accurately, that I began to suspect +him of having exceeded or of being on the verge of excess. But the +suspicion no sooner crossed my mind than he set it at rest by getting +up and walking across the room to his great-coat, on the rack by the +door. His gait was perfectly steady. He drew certain articles from +the pockets, returned with them, and laid them on the table: +a cigar-case, a mysterious round box of white metal—sort of box you +buy 'Blanco' in—and another round object concealed in a crushed +paper-bag. He opened the first.</p> + +<p>"'Have a cigar,' he invited me. 'They smoke between the courses in +this place—proper thing to do.'</p> + +<p>"'Sanitary precaution,' I suggested. 'I'll be content with a +cigarette for the present. What are your other disinfectants?'</p> + +<p>"He laughed, very suddenly and violently. 'Disinfectants?' +he chortled; 'that's a good 'un! They're exhibits, my dear +sir—pardon-liberty-calling-you-Dear-sir. Stewards collected a +dozen, these infernal machines—'</p> + +<p>"'There's no need to shout,' said I. No, Otty I was sober. +… But I looked around and it struck me that the faces at the +near tables were bright, and white, and curiously distinct in the +cigarette-smoke.</p> + +<p>"'I am not shouting,' Farrell protested: but he was, and at that +moment. 'Disinfectants? That box, there—there's a bottle inside— +sulphuretted hydrogen. T'other joker's a firework of sorts. +I brought 'em along for evidence.… Wha's that?' He jerked +himself bolt upright, staring at a dish the waiter held under his +nose.</p> + +<p>"'It's the <i>tete de veau en spaghetti</i> you ordered, sir,' said +Giovanni.</p> + +<p>"'Did I? I don't remember it. Do <i>you</i> remember my ordering +tait-de-whatever it calls itself?' he asked me earnestly.</p> + +<p>"Well, I couldn't, and I said so.</p> + +<p>"'If I did,' commanded Farrell, 'take it away and let me forget it. +This place is not what it was.… Take it away, you Corsican +Brother, and bring me the bill! Look here,' said he as Giovanni +departed. 'We'll get out of this and try something better. What do +you say to looking in at the Ritz?' He lit his cigar and poured out +more champagne.</p> + +<p>"'As you like,' said I. 'Let's get out of this anyway. For my part, +I've had enough.'</p> + +<p>"'Well, <i>I</i> haven't,' said he, and fixed a stare on me. +'Oh, I see what you mean. I'm drunk.… It's no use your +pretending,' he caught me up argumentatively. 'I've taken too much +t'drink. Tiring day. Hope you're not a prude?'</p> + +<p>"'Well then,' I confessed, 'it did strike me you were punishing the +other fellow a bit too fast in the opening rounds. But you walked +over to your corner, just now, steady as a soldier—'</p> + +<p>"'Peculiarity of mine,' he explained. 'Ought t'have warned you. +Takes me in head, long before legs. Do you a sprint down the +street—even money—when we're outside.… Wha's this? Oh, the +bill.… Thought it was more spaghetti.… Yes, I know.… +Custom of house… pay the signora in the brass cage. My dear +sir, if you'll 'scuse fam'liarity—'</p> + +<p>"'Right,' said I, as he dived a hand into his pocket and fetched out +a fistful of coin. 'Here's half-a-crown for Giovanni—he will now +run along and poison somebody else. This being your show, I further +abstract two sovereigns for the bill. I shall, I perceive, have to +hand you ninepence in cash with the receipt.… But since you are +intoxicated and I am what in any less sepulchral caravanserai might +be described as merry, let us order our retreat with military +precision. First, then, I fetch you yonder magnificent garment which +has been drawing revolutionary hatred upon us ever since we +entered…'</p> + +<p>"'It was a present from Maria,' he said, as I helped him into it. +'Her last. She said it was a real sable.'</p> + +<p>"'She spoke truthfully,' I assured him. 'Now gather up these light +articles and steer for the door as accurately as you can, while I +gather up my inexpensive paletot and pay at the desk.'</p> + +<p>"'If I had my way with this blasted restarong,' he observed with +sudden venom,' I'd raze it to the ground!'</p> + +<p>"I walked over to the desk. I was right in supposing that ninepence +was the sum I should receive from the Esmeralda behind the brass +barrier. But her eyes were bright and interrogated me: the brass +trellis between us shone also with an unnatural lustre: I was dealing +with another man's money, and it seemed incumbent on me to count the +change twice, with care.</p> + +<p>"While I was thus engaged, Farrell went past me for the door with the +shuffle and hard breathing of an elephant pursued by a forest fire.</p> + +<p>"'Hurry!' he gasped.</p> + +<p>"'What is it?' I demanded, catching him up on the fifth stair.</p> + +<p>"He panted. 'I couldn't help it.… Sodom and Gomorrah +… basaltic, I've heard… we'd better run!'</p> + +<p>"'What the devil have you done?' I asked, close to his ear.</p> + +<p>"'Opened that stink-pot,' Farrell answered, taking two steps at a +time. He gained the pavement and paused, turning on me.</p> + +<p>"'Lucky they can't afford to keep a commissionaire.—How long do +these things take, as a rule, before going off?'</p> + +<p>"'What things?' I asked.</p> + +<p>"'Maroons, don't you call 'em?' said he, feeling in a foolish sort of +way at his breast-pocket, as if for his pince-nez. 'I got the +slow-match going with the end of my cigar, careless-like. How long +do they take as a rule?'</p> + +<p>"Well, a handsome detonation below-stairs answered him upon that +instant.</p> + +<p>"Farrell clutched my arm, and we ran." +</p> + +<br> +<br> +<p><a name="7"></a> </p> +<h3>NIGHT THE SIXTH.</h3> +<br> + + +<h4>THE ADVENTURE OF THE PICTUREDROME.</h4> + +<p>"Farrell could sprint," continued Jimmy. "You may have noticed that +a lot of these round-bellied men have quite a good turn of speed for +a short course. In spite of his fur coat he led by a yard or two: +but this was partly because I hung back a little, on the chance of +having to fight a rear-guard action.</p> + +<p>"I could hear no shouts or footsteps in our wake, and this struck me +as strange at the time. On second thoughts, however, I dare say the +management and frequenters of the 'Catalafina' have more than a +bowing acquaintance with infernal machines. A daisy by the river's +brim… to them a simple maroon would be nothing to write home +about, nor the sort of incident to justify telephoning for an +inquisitive police. By the mercy of Heaven, too, we encountered no +member of the Force in our flight. I suppose that constables are +rare in Soho.</p> + +<p>"Farrell led for a couple of blocks as an American writer would put +it; dived down a side street to the right; sped like an arrow for a +couple of hundred yards; then darted around another turning, again to +the right. I put on a spurt and caught him by his fur collar. +'Look here,' I said, 'I don't hear anyone in chase. We are the +wicked fleeing, whom no man pursueth. I don't quite understand why. +Maybe sulphuretted hydrogen's their favourite perfume. They don't +use it in their bath, because… well, never mind. What I have to +talk at this moment is mathematics. I don't know how you reason it +out; but to me it's demonstrable that if we keep turning to the right +like this we shall find ourselves back at the door of your infernal +'Catalafina.' Inevitably,' I said, nodding at him in a way +calculated to convince.</p> + +<p>"'Allow me,' he answered, and promptly wrung my hand. 'I ought +t'have warned you—I always run in circles, this condish'n. +Bad habit: never could break myself. 'Scuse me; haven't been drunk +for years.' He pulled himself up and eyed me earnestly. 'Wha's your +suggest'n under shirkumstanches? Retrace steps?'</p> + +<p>"'As I figure it out,' said I, sweet and reasonable, 'that also would +lead us back to the 'Catalafina.''</p> + +<p>"'Quite so,' he agreed, nodding back as I nodded. 'Case hopelesh, +then. No posh'ble way out.'</p> + +<p>"'Well, I don't know,' said I. 'If we go straight on until we find a +turning to the left.… And look here,' I put in, grabbing him +again, for he was starting to run. 'Since there's no one in chase +apparently, I suggest that we walk. It looks better, if we meet a +constable: though there seems to be none about ... so far.'</p> + +<p>"'Scand'lous!' said Farrell.</p> + +<p>"'What's scandalous?' I asked.</p> + +<p>"'Lax'ty Metr'pl't'n P'lice.' He took me by a buttonhole, finger and +thumb. 'Dish—district notorious. One-worst-Lond'n. Dish—damn the +word—distr'ck like this, anything might happen any moment. +Mus' speak about it.… You just wait till I'm on County +Counshle.'</p> + +<p>"I took him by the arm and steered him. I did it beautifully, though +it's undeniable that I had taken wine to excess. I did it so +beautifully that we met not a living soul—or if we did, Otty, I +failed to remark it.… I don't suppose it was really happening as +I felt it was happening. I just tell how it felt.… Farrell and +I were ranging arm-in-arm through a quarter that had mysteriously +hushed and hidden itself at our approach. There were pianos tinkling +from upper storeys: there were muffled choruses with banjo or guitar +accompaniments humming up from the bowels of the earth: there were +chinks of light between blinds, under doorways, down areas. +There was even a flare of light, now and again, blaring to gramophone +accompaniment across the street from a gin-palace or a corner public. +But the glass of these places of entertainment was all opaque, and +there were no loungers on the kerb in front of any.… I held +Farrell tightly beneath the elbow, and steered through this enchanted +purlieu.</p> + +<p>"'S'pose you know where you're heading?' said Farrell after a while.</p> + +<p>"'On these occasions,' said I, 'one steers by the pole-star.'</p> + +<p>"'Where is it?' he demanded.</p> + +<p>"'At this moment, so far as I can judge,' I assured him, 'it is +shining accurately on the back of your neck.'</p> + +<p>"Of a sudden we found ourselves at the head of a pavement lined with +the red stern-lights of a rank of cabs and taxis. I had not the +vaguest notion of its name: but the street was obviously one of those +curious ones, unsuspected, and probably non-existent by day, in which +lurk the vehicles that can't be discovered when it's raining and you +want to get home from a theatre. 'Glow-worms!' announced Farrell.</p> + +<p>"I tightened my grip under his funny-bone, and hailed the first +vehicle. It was a hansom. 'Engaged?' I asked.</p> + +<p>"'All depends where you're going, sir,' said the cabby.</p> + +<p>"'Wimbledon,' shouted Farrell, and broke away from me. +'Wimbledon for pleasure and the simple life!… You'll excuse +me—' he dodged towards the back of the cab: 'on these occasions— +always make a point take number.'</p> + +<p>"'It's all right,' I spoke up to the cabman. 'My friend means the +Ritz. I'm taking him there.'</p> + +<p>"'I shouldn't, if I was you,' said the man sourly; 'not unless he's +an American.'</p> + +<p>"'He is,' said I, 'and from Texas. I am charged to deliver him at +the Ritz, where all will be explained': and I dashed around to the +rear of the cab, collared Farrell, and hoicked him inboard.…</p> + +<p>"The cab was no sooner under way and steering west-by-south than +Farrell clutched hold of me and burst into tears on my shoulder. +It appeared, as I coaxed it from him, that his mind had cast back, +and he was lamenting the dearth of policemen in Soho.</p> + +<p>"The hole above us opened, and the cabman spoke down.</p> + +<p>"'Are you sure you meant the Ritz, sir—really?'</p> + +<p>"'I don't want to compromise you,' said I. 'Drop us at the head of +St. James's Street.'</p> + +<p>"He did so; took his fee, and hesitated for a moment before turning +his horse. 'Sure you can manage the gentleman, sir?' he asked.</p> + +<p>"'Sure, thank you,' said I, and he drove away slowly. I steered +Farrell into the shelter of the Ritz's portico, facing Piccadilly."</p> + +<p>"<i>They draw the blinds now (put in Otway) under the Lighting Order: +but in those days the Ritz was given—I won't say to advertising its +opulence—but to allowing a glimpse of real comfort to the itinerant +millionaire. Jimmy resumes:—</i></p> + +<p>"'Now, look here,' said I, indicating the show inside: 'I wasn't +hungry to start with: and I suggest we've both inhaled enough garlic +to put us off the manger for a fortnight. As for the bucket, you've +exceeded already, and I have taken more than is going to be good for +me—a subtle difference which I won't pause here and now to explain. +It's a kindly suggestion of yours," said I; 'but I put it to you that +it's time for good little Progressives to be in their beds, and +you'll just take a taxi from the rank on the slope, trundle home to +Wimbledon and go bye-bye.'</p> + +<p>"Farrell wasn't listening. He had his shoulders planted against a +pillar of the portico, and had fallen into a brown study, staring in +upon the giddy throng.</p> + +<p>"'When we look,' said he slowly, like an orator in a dream—'when we +are privileged to contemplate, as we are at this moment, such a +spectacle of the idle Ritz—excuse me, the idle Rich—and their +goings on, and countless poor folk in the East End with nothing +but a herring—if that—between them and to-morrow's sunrise— +well, I don't know how it strikes you, but to me it is an Object +Lesson. You'll excuse me, Mr.—I haven't the pleasure to remember +your name at this moment. I connect it with my Maria's two +pianners—something between the Broadwood and the Collard and +Collard—you'll excuse me, but putting myself in the place of the +angel Gabriel, merely for the sake of argument, this is the sort of +way it would take <i>me</i>!'</p> + +<p>"Before I could jump for him, Otty, he lifted his hand and flung +something—I don't know what it was, for a certainty, but I believe +it was the 'Blanco' tin of sulphuretted hydrogen, that he had been +nursing all the way from the 'Catalafina.'… At any rate the +missile hit. There was an agreeable crash of plate glass, and we ran +for our lives.</p> + +<p>"You know the long rank of taxis on the slope of Piccadilly. +We pelted for it. Before an alarm whistle sounded I had gained the +fifth in the row. The drivers were all gathered in their shelter, +probably discussing politics. I made for a car, cried to Farrell to +jump in, hoicked up the works like mad, and made a spring for the +seat and the steering-gear. Amid the alarm-whistles sounding from +the Ritz I seemed to catch a shrill scream close behind me, and +looked around to make sure that my man was inside. The door +slammed-to, and I steered out for a fair roadway.</p> + +<p>"There was a certain amount of outcry in the rear. But I opened-out +down the slope and soon had it well astern. We sailed past Hyde Park +Corner, down Knightsbridge, and cut along Brompton Road into Fulham +Road, and rounded into King's Road, cutting the kerb a trifle too +fine. Speed rather than direction being my object for the moment, +Otty, I rejoiced in a clear thoroughfare and let her rip for Putney +Bridge. There was a communication tube in the taxi, and for some +while it had been whistling in my ear, with calls and outcries in +high falsetto interjected between the blasts. 'Funny dog's +ventriloquising,' thought I, and paid no further attention to the +noises. Our pace was such, I couldn't be distracted from the +steering.… I was quite sober by this time: sober, but +considerably exhilarated.</p> + +<p>"My spirit soared as we took the bridge with a rush, cleared the High +Street and breasted Putney Hill for the Heath. The night was clear, +with a southerly breeze. The stars shone, and I seemed to inhale all +the scents of a limitless prairie, wafted past the wind-screen from +the heath and the stretch of Wimbledon Common beyond.… Why +should I miss anything of this glorious chance? Why should I tamely +deliver Farrell at a house the name of which I had forgotten, the +situation of which was unknown to me, the domestics of which, when I +found it by painful inquiry, would probably receive me with cold +suspicion, as a misleader of middle-age? In fine, why should I not +strike the Common and roam there, letting the good car have her head +while Farrell slept himself sober. A line or two of the late Robert +Browning's waltzed in my head:"</p> + +<blockquote><blockquote> +<p class = "noindent"> 'What if we still ride on, we two?'<br> +<span class = "ind2">—Ride, ride together, for ever ride.'</span></p> +</blockquote></blockquote> + +<p>"I brought the car gently to a halt on the edge of the heath, under +the stars, climbed out, and opened the door briskly.</p> + +<p>"'Look here, Farrell,' I announced. 'I've a notion—'</p> + +<p>"'Then it's more than <i>I</i> have, of the way you're treating a lady!' +answered a voice; and out stepped a figure in skirts! By George, +Otty, you might have knocked me down with a—with a feather boa: +which was just what this apparition seemed preparing to do. +I had brought the taxi to rest close under a gas-lamp, and in the +light of it she confronted me, slightly swaying the hand which +grasped the boa.</p> + +<p>"'Good Lord! ma'am,' I gasped,' how in the world… ?'</p> + +<p>"'That's what I want to know,' said she, with more show of menace. +'What is your game, young man? Abduction?'</p> + +<p>"'I swear to you, ma'am,' I stammered, 'that my intentions would be +strictly honourable if I happened to have any.… I may be more +intoxicated than I felt up to a moment ago.… But let us, at all +events, keep our heads. It seems the only way out of this +predicament, that we keep strictly in touch with reality. Very well, +then.… You entered this vehicle, a middle-aged gentleman +something more than three sheets in the wind. You emerge from it +apparently sober and of the opposite sex. If any explanation be +necessary,' I wound up hardily, 'I imagine it to be due to <i>me</i>, who +have driven you thus far under a false impression—and, I may add, at +no little risk to the transpontine traffic.'</p> + +<p>"'Look here!' said this astonishing female. 'I don't know how it's +happened, but I believe I am addressing a gentleman—'</p> + +<p>"'I hope so,' said I, as she paused.</p> + +<p>"'Well, then,' she demanded, smoothing her skirt, and seating herself +on the edge of the grass, under the lamplight. 'The question is, +what do you propose to do? I place myself in your hands, +unreservedly.'</p> + +<p>"I managed to murmur that she did me honour. 'But with your leave, +ma'am,' said I, 'we'll defer that point for a moment while you tell +me how on earth you have managed to change places with my friend, +whom with my own eyes I saw enter this vehicle. It must have been a +lightning change anyhow: for all the way from Piccadilly I have been +priding myself on our speed.'</p> + +<p>"'Change places?' she exclaimed. 'Change places? I'm a respectable +married woman, young sir: and as such I'd ask you what else was due +to myself when he sat down on my lap without even being interjuiced?'</p> + +<p>"I made a step to the door of the taxi, but turned and came back. +'He's inside, then?' I asked.</p> + +<p>"'Of course he's inside,' she retorted. 'What d'you take me for? +A body-snatcher? Inside he is, and snoring like a pig. Wake him up +and ask him if I've be'aved short of a lady from the first.'</p> + +<p>"'He's incapable of it, ma'am,' said I. 'Or, rather, I should say, +<i>you</i> are incapable of it. By which I mean that my friend is +incapable of—er—involving you otherwise than innocently in a +situation of which—er—you are both incapable, respectively. +Appearances may be against us—'</p> + +<p>"'Look here,' she chipped in. 'Have you been drinking too?'</p> + +<p>"'A little,' I admitted. 'But you may trust me to be discreet. +How this responsibility comes to be mine, I can't guess: but it is +urgent that I restore you to your home, or at any rate find you a +decent lodging for the night. Where is your home?' I asked.</p> + +<p>"'Walsall,' said she. 'And I wish I had never left it!'</p> + +<p>"'Well, ma'am,' said I, 'I won't be so ungallant as to echo that +regret. But, speaking for the moment as a taxi-driver, I put it that +Walsall is a tidy distance. Were you, by some process that passes my +guessing, on your way to Walsall when we, as it seems, intercepted +you in Piccadilly?'</p> + +<p>"'Not at all,' she answered. 'On the contrary, I was wanting to get +to Shorncliffe Camp.'</p> + +<p>"I mused. 'From Walsall?… They must have opened a new route +lately.'</p> + +<p>"'It's this way,' she told me. 'My husband's a sergeant in the Royal +Artillery. He's stationed at Shorncliffe: and I was to meet him +there to-night, travelling through London. When I got to London, +what with the shops and staring at Buckingham Palace, and one thing +and another, I missed the last train down. So, happening to find +myself by a line of taxis, I had a mind to ask what the fare might be +down to Shorncliffe and tell the man that my husband was expecting me +and would pay at the other end. I was that tired, I got into the +handiest taxi—that looked smart and comfortable, with a little lamp +inside and a nice bunch of artificial flowers made up to look like my +Christian name—And what do you think that is? Guess.'</p> + +<p>"'I'm hopeless with plants, ma'am," said I, looking hard at the taxi. +'Might it be Daisy?'</p> + +<p>"'No, it ain't,' said she. 'There now, you'll take a long time +guessing, at that rate. It's Petunia.… Well, then as I was +saying, I got in and sat back in the cushions, waiting for the +Shofer, if that's how you pronounce it; and I reckon I must have +closed my eyes, for the next thing I remember was this friend of +yours sitting plump in my lap without so much as asking leave. +Before I could recover myself we were off. And now, I put it to you +as a gentleman, What's to become of me? For, as perhaps I ought to +warn you, my husband's a terror when he's roused.'</p> + +<p>"'He's at Shorncliffe. We won't rouse him to-night,' I assured her. +'It's funny,' I went on, 'how often the simplest explanation will—' +But I left that sentence unfinished. 'Have you any relatives in +London?' I asked brightly.</p> + +<p>"She hesitated, but at length confessed she had a sister resident in +Pimlico.</p> + +<p>"'Ah!' said I. 'She married beneath her, perhaps?'</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Petunia looked at me suspiciously in the lamplight. 'How did +you guess that?' she asked.</p> + +<p>"'Simplicity itself, ma'am,' I answered. 'She could hardly have done +less. And from Eaton Square to Pimlico, what is it but a step?… +Or, you may put it down to a brain-wave. Yes, ma'am. And I'm going +to have another."</p> + +<p>"I stepped to the door of the taxi, threw it open, and shouted to +Farrell to tumble out.</p> + +<p>"'Wha's matter?' he asked sleepily. 'Where are we?'</p> + +<p>"'We're on the edge of Putney Heath,' said I.</p> + +<p>"'Ri'!' said he in a murmur. 'You're true friend. First turning +to the left and keep straight on. Second gate on Common pasht +pillar-box.'</p> + +<p>"I haled him forth. 'Look here,' said I. 'Pull yourself together. +I find that we've, in our innocence, abducted this lady, who happened +to be resting in the taxi when you jumped in.'</p> + +<p>"Farrell, making a mental effort, blinked hard. 'That accounts for +it,' said he. 'Thought I felt something wrong when I sat down.'</p> + +<p>"'That being so,' I went on, 'you will agree that our first duty, as +we are chivalrous men, is to restore her to her relatives.'</p> + +<p>"'B'all means,' he agreed heartily. 'R'shtore her. Why not?'</p> + +<p>"'As it happens, she has a sister living in Pimlico.'</p> + +<p>"'They all—' he began: but I was on the watch and fielded the ball +smartly.</p> + +<p>"'And you, unless I'm mistaken,' said I, 'are a member of the +National Liberal Club?'</p> + +<p>"'We all—' he began again, and checked himself to gaze on me with +admiration. 'Shay that again,' he demanded. "'You are a member of +the National Liberal Club?' I repeated.</p> + +<p>"'I am,' he owned; 'but I couldn' pr'nounce it just at this moment, +not for a tenner. An' you've said it twice! Tha's what I call +carryin' liquor like a gentleman: or else you've studied +voice-producsh'n. Wish I'd studied voice-producsh'n, your age. +Usheful, County Council.'</p> + +<p>"'County Council!' put in the lady sharply. 'Don't tell me!'</p> + +<p>"'He's but a candidate at present, ma'am,' I explained.</p> + +<p>"She eyed us both suspiciously. 'No kid, is it?' she asked. +'You ain't a dress-clothes detective? What?… Then, as between a +lady and a gentleman, why haven't you introduced him? It's usual.'</p> + +<p>"'So it is, ma'am. Forgive me, this is Mr. Peter Farrell. +Mr. Farrell, the—the—Lady Petunia.'</p> + +<p>"'And very delicately you done it, young man.' The Lady Petunia +bowed amiably. 'This ain't no—this isn't—no time nor place for +taking advantages and compromising.' She pitched her voice higher +and addressed Farrell. 'I'm pleased to make your acquaintance, if I +caught your name correctly. Mr. Farrell?—and of the National +Liberal Club? The address is sufficient, sir. It carries its own +recommendation—though I had hoped for the Constitutional.'</p> + +<p>"'It's still harder to pronounce, ma'am,' I assured her. 'That is my +friend's only reason.'</p> + +<p>"'It was you that started my-ladying me,' she claimed. 'Why don't +you keep it up? I like it.'</p> + +<p>"'My dear Lady Petunia,' said I, 'as you so well put it, the National +Liberal Club carries its own recommendation. What's more, it's going +to be the saving of us.'</p> + +<p>"'I don't see connecshun,' objected Farrell. 'They don't admit—'</p> + +<p>"'They'll admit you,' I said; 'and that's where you'll sleep +to-night. The night porter will hunt out a pair of pyjamas and +escort you up the lift. Oh, he's used to it. He gets politicians +from Bradford and such places dropping in at all hours. Don't try +the marble staircase—it's winding and slippery at the edge.… +And don't stand gaping at me in that helpless fashion, but get a move +on your intelligence.… We're dealing with a lady in distress, +and that's our first consideration. Now I can't take you on to +Wimbledon, however willing to be shut of you: first, because it would +take time, and next because I'm not sure how much petrol's left in +the machine. So back we turn for be lights of merry London. +We deposit the Lady Petunia at—what's the address, ma'am?"</p> + +<p>"'Never you mind,' said she helpfully. 'Put me down somewhere near +the end of Vauxhall Bridge, and I'll find my way.'</p> + +<p>"'Spoken like an angel,' said I. 'And then, Farrell, you're for the +National Liberal Club. The servants there are not known to me, but +I'll bet on their asking fewer questions than I should have to answer +your housekeeper.'</p> + +<p>"I think Farrell was about to demand time for consideration. But the +Lady Petunia gripped him by the arm. 'Loveadove!' she exclaimed. +'There's a copper coming down the road!' We bundled him back into +the taxi. 'It's a real copper, too,' she warned me as she sprang in +at his heels. 'Spark her up, and hurry!—I can tell the sound of +their boots at fifty yards.'</p> + +<p>"Well, Otty, I sprang to the stirrup, and Joris and she.—She was +right. The policeman came up and drew to a halt as, without an +indecent show of haste, I dropped into the driver's seat, started up +and slewed the wheel round.</p> + +<p>"'Anything wrong?' he asked.</p> + +<p>"'There was,' said I. 'Over-succulence in the bivalves: but she'll +work home, I think.'</p> + +<p>"I pipped him Good night, and we sailed down the hill in some style. +Sharp to the right, and by and by I opened a common on my right— +Wandsworth? Clapham?—Don't ask <i>me</i>. I named it Clapham. 'To your +tents, O Clapham!' I shouted as I went: but the warning was +superfluous. As the poet—wasn't it Wordsworth?—remarked on a +famous occasion, Dear God! the very houses seemed asleep.…'</p> + +<p>"It must have been five or six minutes later that our petrol gave out +and my trusted taxi came gently to a halt in the middle of the +roadway. I climbed out, opened the door and explained. 'Step out, +quick,' said I, 'and make down this street to the left. We must +tangle the track a bit, with this piece of evidence behind us.'</p> + +<p>"The Lady Petunia considerately took Farrell's arm. 'Why, he can +walk!' she announced. 'I'm all ri'!' Farrell assured her. 'You may +be yet,' she answered, 'if you keep your head shut.' Farrell asked +me if I considered that a ladylike expression. To this she retorted +that she couldn't bear for anyone to speak crossly to her: it broke +her heart.</p> + +<p>"'Capital!' said I. 'Voices a tone lower, please—but keep it up, +and you're husband and wife, returning from an evening at the +theatre. Taxi broken down—wife peevish at having to walk remaining +distance. Keep it up, and I'll undertake to steer you past half the +police in London.'</p> + +<p>"Well, I steered them past two, and without a question. Not one of +us knew our bearings, but we were making excellent weather of it, and +at length came out by the by-streets upon a fine broad thoroughfare +with an arc-lamp at the corner.</p> + +<p>"I stared up at the building on my left, against which he lamp shone. +There was no street-sign at the angle, and an inscription in large +gilt letters on the facade was not very hopeful—ROYAL SOUTH LONDON +PICTUREDROME—yet to some extent reassuring. We were at any rate +lost in London; and not in Byzantium, as we might have deduced from +other architectural details.</p> + +<p>"'And yet I am not wholly sure,' said I. 'We will ask the next +policeman. <i>Picturedrome</i> now—barbaric union of West and East.— +Surely the word must be somewhere in Gibbon. Ever met it in Gibbon, +Farrell?'</p> + +<p>"'No, I haven't,' he answered testily. 'Never was in Gibbon, to my +knowledge. Where is it?… But I'll tell you what!' he wound up, +fierce and sudden; 'I've met with too many policemen to-night; +avenuesh, we've been passin'. Seems to me neighb'rhood infested. +Not like Soho. 'Nequal dishtribush'n bobbies. 'Nequal distribush'n +everything. Cursh—curse—modern shivilzash'n—damn!'</p> + +<p>"'Our taxi,' I mused, 'may have been a magic one. We are in a dream, +and the Lady Petunia is part of it. She may vanish at any moment—'</p> + +<p>"But Petunia had turned about for a glance along the street behind +us. Instead of vanishing, she clawed my arm sharply, suppressed a +squeal, and pointed.… Fifty yards away stood a taxi, and two +policemen beside it, flashing their lanterns over it and into its +interior.</p> + +<p>"Between two flashes I recognised it.… It was <i>mine</i>, my Arab +taxi, my beautiful, my own.… Farrell's fatal propensity for +steering to the right had fetched us around, almost full circle.</p> + +<p>"There she stood, with her mute appealing headlights. 'Wha's +matter?' asked Farrell. 'Oh, I say—Oh, come! <i>More</i> of 'em?'</p> + +<p>"'I dragged him and Petunia back into the shadow under the side-wall +of the Picturedrome, and leaned back against the edifice while I +mopped my brow. My shoulder-blade encountered the sharp edge of a +rainwater pipe. A bright and glorious inspiration took hold of me. +Farrell had made all the running, so far: it was time for me to +assert my manhood.</p> + +<p>"'Wait here,' I whispered, 'and all will be well. In three +minutes—'</p> + +<p>"'Here, I say!' interposed the Lady Petunia. 'You're not going to do +a bilk?'</p> + +<p>"'Dear lady,' I answered, 'for at least twenty minutes you have been +complaining, and pardonably, that my friend and I have enjoyed the +pleasure of your company yet repaid it with no form of entertainment. +I fear we cannot offer you Grand Opera. But if your taste inclines +to the Movies—'</p> + +<p>"'Get along, you silly,' she rebuked me. 'Ain't you sober enough to +see the place is closed?'</p> + +<p>"'If I were sure it wouldn't be used as evidence against me,' I +answered gallantly, 'I should say that Love laughs at Locksmiths. +Here, take my overcoat; my watch also—as evidence of good faith and +because it gets in one's way, climbing.… Wait by this door, +which (you can see) is an Emergency Exit, and within five minutes you +shall be reposing in a plush seat and admitting that the finish +crowns the work.'"</p> + +<br> +<p> +"Well, at this hour, Otty, I won't dwell on my contribution to the +evening's pleasure. Besides, it was nothing to boast of. I was a +member of the Oxford Alpine Club, you know: and the water-pipe +offered no difficulties. The stucco was in poor condition—I should +say that it hardens more easily in Byzantium—but for difficulty +there was nothing comparable with New College Chapel, or the friable +masonry and the dome of the Radcliffe.</p> + +<p>"I let myself down through a skylight into the bowels of the place: +found, with the help of matches, the operating box and the gallery, +switched on the lights, and shinned down a pillar to the stalls. +After that, to open the Emergency Exit and admit my audience was what +the detective stories call the work of a moment. I re-closed the +door carefully, and climbed back to manipulate the lantern.</p> + +<p>"I had helped to work one of these shows once, at a Sunday School +treat—or a Primrose Fete—forget which—down in the country. +It's quite simple when you have the hang of it.… I made a mull +with the first reel: got it upside down; and Petunia, from somewhere +deep under the gallery, called up 'Gar'n!' It was a Panorama of +Pekin, anyway, and dull enough whichever way you took it.</p> + +<p>"After that we fairly spun through 'The Cowpuncher's Stunt'—a train +robbery—'The Missing Million,' and a man tumbling out of the top +storey of Flat-Iron Building, New York. He went down, storey after +storey, to the motto of 'Keep on Moving,' and just before he hit the +ground he began to tumble up again. On his way up he smacked all the +faces looking out at the windows—I often wonder, Otty, how they get +people to do these things: but I suppose the risk's taken into +account in the pay.</p> + +<p>"Farrell took a great fancy to 'Keep on Moving.' Up to this we had +been snug as fleas in a blanket; but now he started to make such a +noise, encoring, that I had to step down to the gallery and lean over +it and request Petunia to take the cover off the piano and play +something, if she could, to deaden the outcries. 'Something domestic +on the loud pedal,' I suggested. 'Create an impression that we're +holding a rehearsal after hours.'</p> + +<p>"She came forward, looked up, and said that I reminded her of Romeo +and Juliet upside down.</p> + +<p>"'Of course!' I explained. 'We're in Pekin. Get to the piano, +quick.'</p> + +<p>"'I've forgotten my scales,' she answered back, between Farrell's +calls of ''Core! 'Core!'—'Will it do if I sit on the keys?'</p> + +<p>"She went to the instrument. 'Often, and <i>con expressione</i>!' +I shouted; 'and back-pedal for all you are worth!' Then I climbed +down and collared Farrell, for the police had begun to hammer on the +door. I grabbed for his head: but it must have been by the collar I +caught him—that being where he wore most fur.… There was a +stairway between the stalls and the gallery. I whirled him up it, +and leaned over the gallery rail, calling to Petunia. She had +dragged off the piano-cover and was rolling herself up in it.… +Then, as the police crashed in, I switched off the lights.</p> + +<p>"Somehow or another I hauled Farrell up and on to the flat roof. +'Now,' said I, after prospecting a bit in a hurry, 'the great point +is to keep cool. You follow me over this parapet, lower yourself, +and drop on to the next roof. It's a matter of sixteen feet at most, +and then we'll find a water-pipe.'</p> + +<p>"But he wouldn't. He said that he suffered from giddiness on a +height and had done so from the age of sixteen, but that he was game +for any number of policemen. He'd seen too many policemen, and +wanted to reduce the number. I left him clawing at a chimney-pot, +and—well, I told you the stucco was brittle, and you saw the state +of his clothes. I think he must have got out a brick or two and put +up a fight.</p> + +<p>"For my part, I slid three-quarters of the way down a pipe, lost my +grip somehow and tumbled sock upon the serried ranks of a brutal and +licentious constabulary. They broke my fall, and afterwards I did my +best. But, as Farrell had justly complained, there were too many of +them. So now you know," Jimmy wound up with a yawn.</p> + +<p>"What about the Lady Petunia?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Oh!" He woke up with a start and laughed: "I forgot—and it's the +cream, too.… The police who grabbed me had been hastily summoned +by whistle. They rushed me up two side streets and towards a +convenient taxi. It was convenient: it was stationary.… It was +my own, own taxi, still sitting. One constable shouted for its +driver; another had almost pushed me in when he started to apologise +to somebody inside. It was Petunia, wrapped in slumber. She must +have slipped out by the Emergency Exit and taken action with great +presence of mind. I don't know if they managed to wake her up, or +what happened to her." Jimmy yawned again. "What's the time, Otty? +It must be any hour of the morning.… <i>I</i> don't know. She forgot +to return my watch."</p> + +<br> +<br> +<p><a name="8"></a> </p> +<h3>NIGHT THE SEVENTH.</h3> +<br> + + +<h4>THE OUTRAGE.</h4> + +<p>Jephson awoke me at 7.30 as usual. But I dozed for another half an +hour and should have dropped asleep again had it not been that some +little thing—I could not put a name to the worry—kept teasing my +brain; some piece of grit in the machine. An engagement forgotten? +an engagement to be kept?—Nothing very important.…</p> + +<p>Then I remembered, jumped out of bed, and knocked in at Jimmy's room. +I expected to find him stretched in heavy slumber. But no: he stood +before his dressing-table, tubbed, shaven, half-clothed, and looking +as fresh as paint.</p> + +<p>"Hallo!" said he. "Anything wrong?"</p> + +<p>"Just occurred to me," said I, "this is the morning you were due to +breakfast with Jack. Thought I'd remind you, in case you might want +to telephone and put him off."</p> + +<p>"If I remember," said Jimmy thoughtfully, rummaging in a drawer, +"this Jack's other name is Foe. If it were Ketch, I'd be obliged to +you for ringing him up with that message.… It's all right. +Plenty of time. Breakfast and conversation with the learned prepared +for me right on my way to the Seat of Justice. Providence—and you +can call it no less—couldn't have ordered it better. Here, help me +to choose.—What's the neatest thing in ties when a man's going to +feel his position acutely?"</p> + +<p>Upon this I observed that his infamous way of life seemed to leave +more impression upon his friends than on himself; and stalked back to +my bedchamber.</p> + +<p>"Ingrate!" he shouted after me. "When you've seen Farrell!"</p> + +<p>So I breakfasted alone, read the papers (which reported that Mr. +Farrell's meeting overnight had been "accompanied by scenes of +considerable disorder "), dealt with some correspondence, and in due +time was taxi'd to Ensor Street. There I found Jimmy on the +penitents' bench, full of sparkling interest in the proceedings of +the court and in the line—a long and variegated one—of his +fellow-indictables. Farrell sat beside him, sprucely dressed but +woebegone. He wore a sort of lamp-shade, of a green colour, over his +eyes, and (as Jimmy put it) "looked the part—Prodigal Son among the +Charlottes." By some connivance—on some faked pretence, I make no +doubt, that I was his legal adviser—the police allowed Jimmy to +cross over and consult me. He informed me that the Professor had put +him up an excellent breakfast of grilled sole and devilled kidneys, +and had afterwards shown him round the laboratory. "Wonderful man, +the Professor! But you should see that dog of his he calls Billy— +hairy little yellow beast that flies into rages like a mad thing, and +then at a word crawls on its belly. Sort of beast that dies on his +master's grave, in the children's books, like any human creature."</p> +<br> +<p> +The charge was not called on the list until 12.30 or thereabouts. +… They say that in England there's one law for the rich and +another for the poor. I don't know about that: but there's one for +the bright and young and another for the middle-aged and sulky. +The police had already let Jimmy down lightly on the charge sheet: +they showed further leniency at the hearing. Even the constable who +faced the Bench with an eye like a damnatory potato contrived to +suggest that he would have left it outside if he could—so +benevolently, so appreciatively he made it twinkle as he gave +evidence. Jimmy tried to take the blame; but the Magistrate, without +relaxing his face, fined him two pounds and mulcted Farrell in five. +He added some scathing remarks upon old men who led their juniors +astray and called themselves Martin Luther when they were nothing of +the sort. I wondered if he knew that he was admonishing a candidate +for County Council honours. I had a notion that he did. His address +lasted half a minute or less, and during it he kept his gaze +implacably fixed on the culprit: but by the working of his under-jaw +and of the muscles below it I seemed to surmise—shall we say—a +certain process of deglutition.</p> + +<p>Their fines paid, Jimmy—staunch to the last—brought Farrell forth +to me, who waited outside by the doorstep.</p> + +<p>"Look here, Otty; he's in trouble—"</p> + +<p>"Of his own making, by all accounts," I put in sternly.</p> + +<p>Farrell began to stutter. "A most untoward—er—incident, Sir +Roderick—<i>most</i> untoward! Compromising, I fear?"</p> + +<p>"You've lost us the seat, that's all," I told him.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I trust not—I trust not!" he protested. "Might the reporters +be—er—"</p> + +<p>"Squared?" I suggested.</p> + +<p>"Induced—yes, induced—to omit the—er—personal reference?"</p> + +<p>"Like the Scarlet Mr. E's," suggested Jimmy, "or the Scarlet +Pimpernel—rather a good name for you, Farrell. Better than Martin +Luther, anyway. The Scarlet Pimpernel, or Two in a Taxi, Not to +Mention the Lady. Or—wait a bit—Peter and Petunia, or Marooned in +Soho. Reader, do you know the 'Catalafina'? If not, let me—"</p> + +<p>"Jimmy," I commanded, "don't make an ass of yourself.… As for +you, Mr. Farrell, let me remind you of a pretty wise saying of +somebody's—that influence is jolly useful until you have used it. +If I remember, I strained my little stock of it with these reporters +two nights ago."</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't jib at expense, Sir Roderick," he whimpered.</p> + +<p>"Don't kick him, Otty," Jimmy implored. "He's down. And listen to +me, Farrell," he went on, swinging about. "You can't help it: it's +the Hire System working out through the pores. You don't perspire +what you think you're perspiring, though you're doing it freely +enough.… Now, Otty—for my sake—if you don't mind!"</p> + +<p>"Well then, Mr. Farrell," said I, "I'm ready to do this much for +you.—We'll find a taxi here and now for the Whips' Offices and take +their advice. Having taken it, I am willing to drive straight back +to your Committee Rooms with the Head Office's decision."</p> + +<p>The man's nerves were anywhere. He clung to me for counsel—for mere +company—as he would have clung to anybody.</p> + +<p>So we found a taxi and climbed in, all three.</p> +<br> +<p> +But I did not reach the Whips' Office that day.</p> + +<p>There was a hold-up as we neared the bridge, and we to came a dead +stop. I set it down to some ordinary block of traffic, and with a +touch of annoyance: for Farrell by this time was arguing himself out +as a victim of circumstances, and with a feebleness of sophistry that +tried the patience. I remember saying "The long and short of it is, +you've made a fool of yourself.… Why on earth can't this fellow +get a move on?"—As though he had heard me, just then the driver +slewed about and shot us back a queer half-humorous glance through +the glass screen.</p> + +<p>Jimmy, lolling crossways on one of the little let-down seats with his +leg across the other, caught the glance, sprang up and thrust his +head out at the window.</p> + +<p>"Hallo!" said he. "Suffragettes? Dog-fight?… Pretty good riot, +anyhow,"—and the next moment he was out on the roadway. I craned up +for a look through the screen, and stepped out in his wake.</p> + +<p>Some thirty yards ahead of us, close by the gates of the South London +College, a dense crowd blocked the thoroughfare. It was a curiously +quiet crowd, but it swayed violently under some pressure in the +centre, and broke as we watched, letting through a small body of +police with half a dozen men and youths in firm custody.</p> + +<p>My wits gave a leap, and my heart sank on the instant. I stepped to +the taxi door and commanded Farrell to tumble out.</p> + +<p>"Here's more of your mess-work, unless I'm mistaken," said I.</p> + +<p>"Mine?" He looked at me with a dazed face. "Mine?" he quavered. +"Oh, but what has happened?… There would seem to be some +conspiracy.…"</p> + +<p>"Yes, you interfering ass. Out with you, quick! and we'll talk +later." I turned my shoulder on him as I handed the driver his fare. +"Now follow and keep close to me."</p> + +<p>I stepped forward to meet the Sergeant in charge of the convoy. +He would have put me aside. "Sorry, sir, but you must tell your man +to take you round by the next bridge. Traffic closed here—half an +hour, maybe." Then he caught sight of Farrell behind my shoulder, +recognised him, and called his party to a halt. "Excuse me," he +said, with a fine official manner committing him to no approval of +us, "but is this the Candidate?… Well, you've come prompt, sir, +but scarcely prompt enough. Situation's in hand, so to speak. +Still you might be useful, getting the crowd to clear off peaceable." +He pondered for a couple of seconds. "Yes, I'll step back with you +to the gate, sirs, and pass you in. You, Wrightson," he spoke up to +a second in command, "take over this little lot and deliver them: +it's all clear ahead. Get back as fast as you can.… Now, sirs, +if you'll follow me—there's no danger—the half of 'em no more than +sightseers."</p> + +<p>"Just a word, Sergeant," said I, catching up his stride. "I want to +know how this started and how far it has gone."</p> + +<p>He glanced at me sideways. "Not on oath, sir, nor official, eh? +What isn't hearsay is opinion, if you understand. Far as I make it +out—but we was caught on the hop, more by ill luck than ill +management—it started with an open-air meetin' right yonder, at the +corner of the Park. Your friend—that is to say Mr. Farrell, if I +make no mistake-"</p> + +<p>"Yes, he's Mr. Farrell all right. Go on."</p> + +<p>"Well, he was billed to attend, sir; but he didn't turn up."</p> + +<p>"He had another engagement," I put in.</p> + +<p>"Well, and I did hear some word, too, to that effect," allowed the +Sergeant, with another professional glance, subdolent but correct. +"But, as reported to me, his absence was unfortunate. One or two of +the wrong sort got hold of the mob, and there was a rush for the +College gates.… Which the two or three constables did their best +and 'phoned me up."</p> + +<p>"Much damage?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Can't say, sir. I was given post at the gates, where for ten +minutes my fellows was kept pretty busy bashing 'em and throwing 'em +out. You see, it being Saturday, most of the students had gone home, +and the porter was took of a heap and ran.… Or that's how it was +reported. And whiles we was thus occupied, word came out that the +game was over without need to call reinforcements, if we could hold +the gate. We answered back sayin' if that was all we was doing it +comfortably. Whereupon they began to hand us out the arrests, with +word that some outbuildings had been wrecked and a considerable deal +of glass broken. Lavatories, as I gathered."</p> + +<p>"Laboratories," I suggested.</p> + +<p>"Very like," the Sergeant agreed; "if you put it so. It struck me as +sounding like the sort of place where you wash your hands.… +We was pretty busy just then, or up to that moment; but from +information that reached me, they was trying to wreck some part of +the science buildings."</p> + +<p>"One more question," said I—for by this time we had reached the edge +of the crowd. "Do you happen to know if Professor Foe was in the +building at the time?"</p> + +<p>"He was not, sir. He had locked up for the day and gone home to his +private house. They fetched him by 'phone.… I know, sir, having +received instructions to pass him in: which I did, under escort. +You needn't be anxious about him, if he's a friend of yours."</p> + +<p>But I was.</p> + +<p>The crowd, as the Sergeant had promised, was curious rather than +vicious; much the sort of crowd that the King's coach will fetch out, +or a big fire; and from this I augured hopefully (correctly, too, as +it proved) that the actual rioters had been little more than a +handful, excited by Saturday's beer and park-oratory.… +The average Londoner takes very little truck in municipal politics, +as I'd been deploring for a fortnight on public platforms. It costs +you all your time to get one in ten of him to attend a public +meeting: he's cynical and sits with his back to the ring where a few +earnest men and women, and a number of cranks, are putting it up +against the Vested Interests and the Press.</p> + +<p>As we came up, some few recognised Farrell, and raised a cheer.… +I dare say that helped: but anyhow the Sergeant worked us through +with great skill, here and there addressing a man good-naturedly and +advising him to go home and take his wages to the missus, because the +fun was over and soon there might be pickpockets about. In thirty +seconds or so we had reached the gate and were admitted.</p> + +<p>The porter's lodge had escaped lightly. A trampled flower-bed, +flowerless at this season, and a few broken window-panes, were all +the evidence that the rioters had passed. A little farther on where +the broad carriage-way, that ran straight to the College portico, +threw out branches right and left to the Natural Science Buildings, a +number of ornamental shrubs had been mutilated, a few of the smaller +uprooted. Foe's laboratory lay to the left, and we were about to +take this bend when a tall man came striding across to us from the +right; a short way ahead of two others, one round and pursy and of +clerical aspect, the other an official in the Silversmiths' uniform. +The tall man I guessed at once to be the Principal, returning from a +survey of the damage done: and I waited while he approached. He wore +an angry frown, and his eyes interrogated us pretty sharply.</p> + +<p>"Sir Elkin Travers?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"At your service, sir, if you are sent to help in this business?" +Sir Elkin's eyes passed on this question to the Police Sergeant and +reverted to me. "From Whitehall?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"No, sir," I answered. "My name is Otway—Sir Roderick Otway; and +our only excuse for being here is that two of us are close friends of +Professor Foe. Indeed, sir, for myself, let me say that I have for +many years been his closest friend, and I am anxious about him."</p> + +<p>"You have need to be, I fear," said Sir Elkin, speaking slowly. +"I was going back to him at this moment. Will you come with +me.… This, by the way, is Mr. Michelmore, our College Bursar."</p> + +<p>"With your leave, gentleman," put in the Sergeant, "I'll be going +back now. They've collared most of the ringleaders; but by the sound +of it they're beating the shrubberies for the stray birds…"</p> + +<p>"Certainly, Sergeant—certainly.… Your men have been most +prompt." Sir Elkin dismissed him, and again bent his attention on +us. "You are all friends of the Professor's?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Two of us," said I. "This third is Mr. Farrell, who has come to +express his sincere regret."</p> + +<p>The Principal's eyes, which had been softening, hardened again +suddenly with anger and suspicion. What must that ass Farrell do but +hold out his hand effusively? "Pleased to make your acquaintance, +Sir Elkin," he began. "Assure you—innocent—slightest intention— +quite without my approval—outrage—deplorable—last thing in the +world—"</p> + +<p>He stammered, wagging a hand at vacancy; for the hand it reached to +grasp had swiftly withdrawn itself behind Sir Elkin's back, and +remained there.</p> + +<p>"We will discuss your innocence later on, sir. Be very sure you will +be given occasion to establish it, if you can." Sir Elkin's glare, +under his iron-grey eyebrows, promised No Quarter. "Since you have +pushed your way in with these gentlemen, it may interest you to +follow us and see the results of your ignorant incitement."</p> + +<p>He shook Farrell off—as it were—with a hunching movement of the +shoulder, and turned to me.</p> + +<p>"Come, sir," he said, courteously enough. "I warn you it is a +tragedy."</p> + +<p>"But my friend is unhurt?" I asked anxiously. "The Sergeant told +me—"</p> + +<p>"Doctor Foe had left the building—whether fortunately or +unfortunately you shall judge—half an hour before the mob +arrived. Saturday is, for lecturing, a <i>dies non</i> with him, though +he often spends the whole day here at his work." Sir Elkin paused. +"By the way, did I catch your name aright, just now? You are Sir +Roderick Otway?… Then I ought to have thanked you, before this. +It was you who sent me a message yesterday. Foe himself made light +of it—"</p> + +<p>"I wish I had come with him," said I, with something like a groan.</p> + +<p>"I wish to Heaven you had," he agreed very seriously. "For I have a +confession to make.… I was a fool. I contented myself with +warning a few of the teaching staff to be on their guard, and with +setting an extra round of night-watchers. But I neglected to see to +it that Foe removed his papers to the College strong-room. I did +suggest it; but when he pointed out that it would involve an +afternoon's work at least, and went on to grumble that it would +probably cost him a month to re-sort them—that he hated all meddling +with his records—"</p> + +<p>"My God!" I cried. "You don't tell me his records—eight years' +close work, as I know—"</p> + +<p>"Eight years," repeated the Principal in grave echo as my words +failed. "Eight years' work: that would have cost a few hours to +secure—a week, perhaps, to rearrange; and in twenty minutes or so—" +He broke off. "You see that smoke?" he asked. "Over there by the +two tall Wellingtonias?… There, sir, goes up the last trace of +those eight years of our friend's devotion. Patience amounting to +genius, loyalty to truth for truth's sake so absolute that one +careless moment is dishonour, records calculated to a hair, tested, +retested, worked over, brooded over—there's what in twenty minutes +your Hun and your Goth can make of it in this world!"</p> + +<p>"But, sir," I broke in, "books and packed paper don't burn in that +way! Foe's Regent-Park notes alone ran to thirty-two letter-cases +when I saw them last. He brought home two bullock-trunks from +Uganda, stuffed solid—"</p> + +<p>Sir Elkin wheeled about sharply. "Mr. Farrell," said he, "you had a +letter in yesterday's <i>Times</i>."</p> + +<p>"If it had crossed my mind, Sir Elkin," pleaded Farrell with a +wagging movement of his whole body, propitiatory, such as dogs make +when they see the whip. "I do assure you—"</p> + +<p>"I seem to recollect," interrupted Sir Elkin, "your saying that +considerable sums of public money were spent on our laboratories. +The grant allocated to this College for research was so munificent +that, after building a physiological laboratory with a small +lecture-theatre, we had to house the professor himself in a +match-boarded room covered with corrugated iron. Between them"— +he turned to me in swift explanation—"they made a furnace.… +Yes, Mr. Farrell, and you asked why, if all is well inside my +laboratories, I should fear the light. You would insist on knowing +what you were paying for.… Well, here is the answer, sir—if it +meet your demand."</p> + +<p>In the clearing where Jack's laboratory stood surrounded by turf and +a ring of conifers, a dozen firemen were busy coiling and packing +lengths of hose. The fire had been beaten; its last gasp was out; +and the main building stood, smoke-stained, water-stained, with +gaping sockets for windows, but with its roof apparently intact. +The trees were scorched to leeward, and the turf was a trampled +morass. Charred benches and desks, broken bottles, retorts, and +glass cases, bestrewed it. But of Jack's sanctum—of the room in +which I had been allowed to sit while he worked, because, as he put +it, "I made no noise with my pipe"—nothing remained save a mound of +ashes and a few sheets of iron roofing, buckled and contorted. +A thin wisp of smoke coiled up from the ruin.</p> + +<p>"Jack!" I called.</p> + +<p>"Let's try the theatre," Sir Elkin suggested. "I left him there."</p> + +<p>We went in.</p> + +<p>The rostrum Jack used for his lectures was low, flat-topped and +semicircular, with a high raised desk in the middle. Being isolated, +it had escaped the fire; as maybe it had proved too cumbrous for +removal.</p> + +<p>Anyhow, there it was; and Jack stood beside it busy with something he +was laying out on the flat desk-top. It looked like some sort of +jigsaw puzzle that he was piecing together very carefully, very— +what's the word?—meticulously. He had a small heap of oddments on +his left, and a silk handkerchief in his right hand. His game was, +he picked out an oddment from the heap, polished it, fitted it more +or less into the silly puzzle, and stepped back to eye it. He looked +up, annoyed-like, as if we were breaking in on a delicate experiment.</p> + +<p>"Drop that, Foe!" Sir Elkin commanded, sharp and harsh, but with a +human tremble in his voice. His nails clawed into my arm. "It's his +dog," he whispered me, "or what's left. The poor brute held the +door, they say… sprang at their throats right and left… +till someone brained him and they threw his carcass into the +fire.… Drop it, Foe—that's a good fellow!"</p> + +<p>Jack stayed himself, stared at us dully, and put down the +handkerchief after dusting the bench with it.</p> + +<p>"Is that you, you fellows?" he asked, with a smile playing about his +mouth and twisting it. "Good of you, Roddy—though almost too late +for the fun! Jimmy, too?… They've made a bit of a mess here, +eh?… Ah, and there's Mr. Farrell! Will somebody introduce Mr. +Farrell?… Good-morning, sir! We'll—we'll talk this little +matter over—you and I—later."</p> + + +<br><br> +<h2>BOOK II.</h2> + + +<br> +<h2>THE CHASE.</h2> + + +<br> +<br> +<p><a name="9"></a> </p> +<h3>NIGHT THE EIGHTH.</h3> +<br> + + +<h4>VENDETTA.</h4> + +<blockquote><blockquote> +<p class = "noindent"> "My dear Roddy,—Don't come around: and for God's sake don't send + Jimmy. The word is 'No sympathy, by request.' You will + understand.<br><br> + + "I shall call on you at 9 o'clock on Tuesday. Have breakfast + ready, for I shall be hungry as a hunter.<br><br> + + "Don't fash yourself, either, with fears that I am 'unhinged' by + this business. I am just off to Paddington—thence for the + Thames—shan't say where: but it's a backwater, where I propose + to think things out. I shall have thought them out, quite + definitely, by Tuesday.<br><br> + + "I believe you keep a few bottles of the audit ale. Tell Jephson + to open one for a stirrup-cup. You can invite Jimmy.—<br> +<span class = "ind20">Yours truly,</span><br> +<span class = "ind20">J.F.</span><br><br> + + "P.S.—I don't know, and can't guess, how you came to tumble in + so promptly on the heels of that riot. But you have always been + a cherub sitting up aloft and keeping watch over— + Poor Jack.<br><br> + + "P.P.S.—This by Special Messenger.… Forgive my breaking + away and leaving you all so impolitely. Nothing would do, just + then, but to escape and be alone.— + Until Tuesday."</p> +</blockquote></blockquote> + + +<p>A boy-messenger brought this missive at 5.30. I read it over in a +hurry, and took cheer: read it over a second time, sentence by +sentence, and liked it less. It left no doubt, anyhow, that to +search for Jack on the reaches of the river would be idle, as to find +him would be mean. So there was nothing to do but wait.</p> + +<p>That week-end, as it happened, brought a false promise of spring, +with a hard east wind and a clear sky.</p> + +<p>Punctually at nine o'clock on Tuesday he arrived, clean and hale and +positively bronzed. The old preoccupation of over-work rested no +longer upon him. We had made ready with grilled sole, omelette, +bacon and a cold game-pie. He ate like a cavalryman, talking all the +while of his adventures. It appeared that he had chosen the "Leather +Bottle" at Clifton Hampden for headquarters, and had spent a part of +Sunday discussing Christian Science with an atheistical bagman. +He said not a word of Saturday's happenings—talked away, in fact, as +if he had returned to us, on perfect terms of understanding, out of a +void. Jimmy played up and mulled some beer for us afterwards, on a +recipe of which (he gave us to know) the College of Brasenose, +Oxford, alone possessed the secret, to be imparted only to such of +its sons as had deserved it by godliness and good learning.</p> + +<p>Foe commended the brew, declined a cigar, and pulled out his old +pipe.</p> + +<p>"Infernal job," he began, "having to talk business, 'specially when +you've tasted freedom."</p> + +<p>He filled his pipe, lit it carefully, and went on. "I got back to +London early yesterday morning. Spent the day clearing up my worldly +affairs.… Don't look scared, Roddy. I've thrown up the +Professorship—that's all."</p> + +<p>"Why, in the world?" I wanted to know.</p> + +<p>"You may put it," he answered easily, "that, as the clerics say, I've +had a higher call."</p> + +<p>"Don't understand," said I; "unless you're telling us that Travers—" + +"Travers?" His eyebrows went up. "Oh, I see what you mean. +No: Travers hasn't been running around and finding me a better-paid +job as a solatium. He's a good fellow and quite capable of it. +Even hinted at something of the sort when I broke it to him verbally, +yesterday afternoon. I thanked him, but wasn't taking any. I get +quite as much money as I want at the Silversmiths'; and I've saved a +little, too. It's freedom, not money, I want; as a means to my +little end. I want complete freedom for a couple of years, perhaps +for three, or maybe even for longer. It may be I shall have to buy +myself an annuity. I'd ask for absolute independence if it could be +had—independence of all my fellow-creatures but one. But it can't +be had: so I've come to you for help."</p> + +<p>"Say on," I commanded.</p> + +<p>"It's this way, Roddy. Like the late General Trochu, I have a Plan. +Unlike his, it's a Great Plan.… Yes, I'll give you a glimpse of +it by and by. It involves—or may involve—the cutting of all human +ties—that is of all but one. Well, as you know, I haven't many, and +those clients of Farrell's have lightened me of worldly furniture. +What's become of Farrell, by the way?"</p> + +<p>"He's retiring from the contest, and has been advised to travel for +the good of his health. The Sunday papers settled it with their +reports of the Police Court proceedings.… What! Haven't you +heard?"</p> + +<p>"Now I come to think of it, Travers tried to tell me some story… +but I wasn't listening.… In trouble, is he? Good. Not going to +hang him, are they? Good."</p> + +<p>"The actual decision," said I, "was taken at the Whips' Office +yesterday morning. Farrell goes. There's just time to put up a +working-man candidate in his stead. But the seat's lost."</p> + +<p>"Good," repeated Jack tranquilly. "Eh?… Oh, I beg your pardon, +Roddy: I was looking at it from—well, from a different angle.… +Let's get back to my plan. Wasn't it Huck Finn who wished it were +possible to die temporarily? That's what I'm going to do, anyhow: +and I want you to be my executor."</p> + +<p>"I should need an inventory of your worldly goods, to start with," +said I gravely.</p> + +<p>"Drew it up, Sunday night.… Where's my coat?… here, catch!" +He pulled out a long legal envelope, well stuffed, and threw it +across to me. "Don't open it now. When you do, you'll find +everything in order. I've a habit of neatness with my worldly +affairs."</p> + +<p>"All very well," said I. "But you'll have to tell a lot more before +I commit myself. And, anyhow, things can't be done in this easy way. +You'll have to see a solicitor and get me power of attorney or +something of the sort—"</p> + +<p>"Look here," he interrupted; "I thought it was understood that I'd +come to you for <i>help</i>. Power of attorney? Bosh! Not going to +commit yourself? Why, man, you're committed! The cheque's drawn and +paid into your account at Hoare's.… I did it yesterday—caught +'em just before closing-time. You'll be hearing in a post or so. +They have all the bonds too, and my written instructions.… I +bank there, too, you know."</p> + +<p>"Heaven alive!" said I, with a gasp. "Are you telling me you've +chucked all you possess into my account?"</p> + +<p>"Why not?" he demanded. "Oh, you can make me out an I O U some time, +and get Jimmy to witness it, if you're so damned—what's the word?— +punctilious. If you can't do me this simple favour, why then you +must sign the business over to Jimmy here."</p> + +<p>"No, you don't," answered Jimmy, and in accents commendably clear +considering that he uttered them with his nose deep in the tankard of +mulled ale. "Up to now I have played the good boy who is seen but +not heard. I break the self-imposed silence only to say: 'Woe betide +the man who attempts to complicate my overdraft!'"</p> + +<p>I addressed myself to Jack. "You'll be wanting money sent to you +from time to time, and I'm to transmit.—Is that the idea?"</p> + +<p>He nodded.</p> + +<p>"Where am I to send it?"</p> + +<p>"That's the uncertainty, of course. From time to time I shall keep +you informed. It may be to a suburban villa, it may be to some +<i>Poste Restante</i> in the Sahara. That's as the chase goes. Like Baal +I shall be on a journey, or I shall be pursuing. Yes, anyway I shall +be pursuing.… All I ask is that, on getting a call, you'll send +out, as best you can, such-and-such a sum to the address indicated. +You have between £6000 and £7000 to play with. +Probably you will be surprised at my moderation in demanding: but +anyway I shall keep well within the limit. My memory and the +bank-book usually balance to a pound or two."</p> + +<p>"Then it's travel you're after?" I asked.</p> + +<p>He nodded. "On a journey—<i>and</i> pursuing."</p> + +<p>"Big game?"</p> + +<p>"You may call it the biggest. Or I'm out to make it the biggest. +… Jimmy, pass me the tobacco." He took the jar and, filling his +pipe, lay back in the wicker chair with something like a groan. +"Roddy, can't you <i>see</i>? These years, as you know, I've been working +up my inquiry into rage in animals; beginning, that is, with animals, +but always, as you know, intending to carry the inquiry up as soon as +I had a solid working basis. Yes, it was all to proceed on +induction—laborious tests, classifications—you know the system and +that I didn't care if it took a lifetime. Well, all of a sudden, as +I'm beginning to realise that, though the process is sound—must be +sound—pursuit is probably hopeless because it must take twenty +lifetimes—of a sudden, I say, this new way is revealed. Put it that +I've come, all of a start, upon a little stream called Rubicon. +Put it that I've burnt—no, put it that Farrell's myrmidons have +burnt, at a stroke, every boat for me.</p> + +<p>"—I might have gone on for years upon years, collecting statistics +and ploughing out conclusions.… I begin to believe in the +calculated interposition of Providence.… On the critical moment +of transference the bridge breaks behind me. I have lost all my +baggage. But, on the other shore, I have the jewel.</p> + +<p>"—Listen, my boy.… The end of me may be empiricism.… They +have destroyed eight years' work, and I have nothing left of it but +memories of data which I can't produce for evidence—worthless, that +is, for a man of my scientific conscience. <i>En revanche</i> and on the +other side of the stream I find I have <i>it</i>; to carry on and test +upon a fellow-man I have the diamond to cut all glass. With the +brute beasts it was all observation, much of it uncertain. +Henceforth it will be clean experiment. Farrell accused me of +practising vivisection. As a matter of fact, I never did. Now I'm +going to, and on Farrell."</p> + +<p>Jimmy arose on pretence of seeking a match, and leaned his elbow on +the mantelpiece while he stared into the fire.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I say, Professor!" he blurted out. "Farrell, you know! He's no +sort of class. He—he deserves punishing, but he don't mean any +harm, if you understand." Here Jimmy faced about with an ingenuous +smile. "I'm a bit of a fool myself, you see, and must speak up for +my order."</p> + +<p>"But you speak up too late, my boy," answered Foe. "What's the use +of telling me that Farrell is no class? As if I didn't know <i>that</i>! +… Why, man, I didn't <i>choose</i> Farrell, to pay my attentions to +him. If the gods had paid me the compliment of sending along the +late Mr. Gladstone, or the present Archbishop of Canterbury (whoever +he may be), or General Booth (if he's alive), to knock out eight +years of my life like so many skittles in an alley, I'd have felt +flattered, of course. But they didn't: they sent along Farrell, and +I bow my head before a higher wisdom which, you'll allow, has been +justified of its child. Could the late Mr. Gladstone—since we've +instanced him—have done it more expeditiously, more thoroughly, with +a neater turn of the wrist?… No. Very well, then! Better men +than I have married their cooks and been content to recognise that it +just happened so. You can start apologising for Farrell when I start +complaining he's inadequate."</p> + +<p>Jack's eyes, during this speech, were for Jimmy, of course, and I had +used the opportunity to watch his face pretty narrowly. It was a +little more than ordinarily pale, but composed, as his tone was light +and his manner of speech almost flippant. I wondered.…</p> + +<p>"Jimmy meant," said I, "that <i>you're</i> too good to match yourself +against Farrell. The harm he's done you is atrocious—I can hardly +look you in the face, Jack, and speak about it.… All the same, +Jimmy talks sense: an outsider like Farrell isn't worthy of your +steel, as the writers say."</p> + +<p>"We'll wait till he has felt it." Jack stood up, pushed his hands +into his trouser-pockets, took one turn around the room, returned, +and came to a halt on the hearth-rug. "There's another point," said +he. "You fellows can never get it out of your heads that your +thoroughbred is always, and necessarily, more sensitive than your +mongrel. <i>It must be so</i>—you don't trouble about evidence: it's +fixed in your minds <i>a priori</i>: which means that you're just as +unscientific and at least as far from the truth as I should be if I +posited the exact opposite… As a matter of fact, some miss in +the breeding will usually carry with it an irritable protective nerve +and keep the animal sensitive on points which the thoroughbred +ignores. Your cripple thinks of his hip, your hunchback of his +spine: your well-formed man takes his hip and spine for granted. +Your bastard is sensitive on historical fact and predisposed to lying +about it.… Stated thus, my counter-proposition is obvious. +You won't be so ready to agree when I go on to assure you that +sensitiveness in these mongrels and misfits often spreads from the +centre over the whole nervous system.—But, anyway, you knew my poor +hound, the pair of you. Not much breeding in Billy, eh?… +Well, he bit four blackguards before they laid him out: bit 'em deep, +too, and I won't answer for the virus. That dog died defending +my papers. He fought on his honour, and he knew it, Roddy. +He suffered, Jimmy—even if he was dead when they threw him into the +fire. And—I'm going to give your Farrell the benefit of the doubt. +… Where's the tobacco?"</p> + +<p>I passed him the jar. "We'll allow for the moment that you are +right, Jack," said I. "At all events, you've made out a case. +But where do I come in? What's the part you propose for me in this +show? Pull yourself together and admit that I'm asking a sweetly +reasonable question."</p> + +<p>"Didn't I explain?" Jack answered testily. "Surely I made it clear? +All I ask of you is to post me out from time to time the money I ask +for travelling expenses.… That doesn't compromise you, eh? +… Damn it all, Roddy," he exploded, "I counted you were my +friend to that extent!"</p> + +<p>"That's all right, Jack," said I. "But a friend is one thing and an +accomplice is another. What's your game with Farrell? You haven't +told me yet, though you're asking what gives me the right to know."</p> + +<p>He picked up his coat and hat and turned on me with a smile, very +faint and weary and a trifle absent-minded.</p> + +<p>"To tell you the truth," said he, as if searching for something at +the back of his mind, "I haven't thought it out quite accurately. +It's near enough to warrant what preparations I'm making: but it +hasn't the shape of a clean proposition—which is the shape my +conscience demands.… Don't hurry me, Roddy: let me come around +again to-morrow.… I can't invite you to my flat, because I'm +making arrangements to shut it up, and these details get in the way, +all the time.… Tell you what.—Meet me, you two, at Prince's +Grill-room to-morrow, one-fifteen, and you shall have the plan of +campaign on a half-sheet of notepaper. I'm a brute, Roddy, to bother +you with these private affairs in the middle of your politics. +But one-fifteen to-morrow, if you can manage. Sure? Right, then.— +So long!"</p> + +<p>He wagged, at the door, a benediction on us with his walking-stick +and went down the stairs, I strolled to the window and watched him +cross the turfed square of the court. Jimmy had taken up the poker +and started raking the lower bars of the grate.</p> + +<p>"Queer how quietly the Professor takes it," began Jimmy. "I was +half-afraid—Oh, drop it, Otty, old man—I'm sorry!"</p> + +<p>We had both wheeled about together, and I held a window cushion, +poised, ready to hurl.</p> + +<p>"Of course I didn't mean that, really!" pleaded Jimmy, parrying with +the poker-point. "Sit down and let's talk. Is he mad?… +I don't like it."</p> + + +<br> +<br> +<p><a name="10"></a> </p> +<h3>NIGHT THE NINTH.</h3> +<br> + + +<h4>THE HUNT IS UP.</h4> + +<p>Well, I thought it over, and talked it over with Jimmy, and decided +that, much as I loved Jack Foe, he'd have to be more explicit with me +before I undertook this stewardship. You will say that, this being +the only decent decision open, I might have done without the thinking +and the talking.… And that's true enough. But, you see, I had +lived with Jack pretty long and pretty close, and this was the first +time I'd ever taken a miss with him. If anyone for the past ten or +fifteen years had suggested to me, concerning Jack Foe, that a day +might come when I shouldn't know where to find him, I—well, I should +have lost my temper. It was inconceivable, even now. I told myself +that, though he had expressly given me leave to invite Jimmy to the +breakfast, he had taken a fit of reticence in Jimmy's presence and +had shied off; that I should get more out of him when we were alone +together.… Is that good English, by the way? Can two persons be +alone?… Thank you, Polkinghorne—of course they can when they're +real friends.</p> + +<p>But that speculation wouldn't work, either: for again at Prince's, +and again at Jack's invitation, we were to be a party of three.… +I tell you of these doubts because through them, and (you may say) by +way of them, it came to me—my first inkling that something was wrong +with the man.</p> + +<p>Anyway, as it turned out, Jimmy and I might have spared ourselves the +discussion: for when we reached Prince's the head-waiter (an old +friend) brought me a letter. It had been delivered by District +Messenger almost two hours before. It ran—Here it is: I have all +the documents but one, and I've sent home for that.</p> +<br> +<blockquote><blockquote> +<p class = "noindent">"Dear Roddy,—Sorry to do a shirk: but circumstances oblige me to + take the boat-train, 9.45, ex Victoria. I have locked up the + flat. The porter has the keys, with instructions to lend to + nobody but you or the landlord.<br><br> + + "Address, for some little while, quite uncertain. I drew out a + fair sum in circular notes and cash; enough to keep me solvent + for some weeks. So you need not worry about the money.<br><br> + + "You needn't fash your consciences over the Plan, either. + I'll tell you about it in my next, written from the first place + when I find leisure. I'll unfold—no, the word insults its + beautiful simplicity. Apologies to Jimmy. Tell him to buy a + copy-book and write in it <i>Experiment is better than + Observation</i>.<br><br> + + "So long! A great peace has fallen on me, Roddy. 'I am one with + my kind,' like the convalescent gentleman in <i>Maud</i>. 'I embrace + the purpose of—whatever Higher Power set Farrell going—'and + the doom assigned.'<br><br> + + "Farrell is going strong. Yoicks!—Yours ever,"<br> +<span class = "ind20">"J.F."</span></p> +</blockquote></blockquote> +<br> +<p>I handed the letter across to Jimmy, and set myself to order, +thoughtfully, something to eat.</p> + +<p>"Well, what do you say to it?" I asked as Jimmy finished his perusal.</p> + +<p>"I say," pronounced Jimmy in unfaltering voice, "that the crisis +demands a gin-and-vermouth, at once, and that the vermouth should be +of the Italian variety."</p> + +<p>"Waiter!" I called.</p> + +<p>"Nay," said Jimmy, "hear me out. I say further—did you mention a +rump-steak underdone?"</p> + +<p>"You did," said I.</p> + +<p>"And with oysters on the top?"</p> + +<p>"It's where they usually go," I pleaded. "I didn't specify. +One takes a lot of these little things for granted."</p> + +<p>"Then I say further that, this being one of those occasions on which +no time should be lost, you will reach for that collection of <i>hors +d'oeuvre</i> on the table behind you, and lift your voice for a bottle +of Graves to follow the vermouth and quickly, but not so as to gall +its kibe.… And I say last of all," he wound up reflectively, +helping himself to two stuffed olives and a <i>hareng sauer</i>, "that the +Professor is running a grave risk, and I wouldn't be in his shoes at +this moment."</p> + +<p>"You think—" I began nervously.</p> + +<p>"Never did such a thing in my life," said Jimmy. "I <i>know</i>. He's in +one of those beastly Restaurant Cars."</p> + +<p>Silence descended on Foe for two months and more. Then I received +this long letter:—</p> +<br> +<Blockquote><blockquote> +<p class = "noindent"> <span class = "ind20">Grand Hotel, Paris,</span><br> +<span class = "ind20">May 27th.</span><br> + + "My dear Roddy,—The hunt is up. I took some time getting a move + on it: but to-night Farrell has the real spirit of the chase + upon him, and is in his room at this moment, packing + surreptitiously with intent to give me the slip.<br><br> + + "You will have gathered from a glance at the above address + that Farrell is with me; or rather, that I am with Farrell. + I give him full scope with his tastes. It is part of the Plan. + But to-night—knowing that he had gone to his room to pack + surreptitiously, and that his berth in the <i>Wagon-lit</i> is booked + for to-morrow night at the Gare d'Orleans—I gave myself what + the housemaids call an evening-out. This is Paris, Roddy, in + the time of the chestnut bloom. A full moon has been performing + above the chestnuts. Beneath their boughs the municipality had + hung a thousand reflections of it in the form of Chinese + lanterns shaped and coloured like great oranges. The band at + the <i>Ambassadeurs</i>—a band of artists and, as I should judge, + conducted by somebody who couldn't forget that he had once been + a gentleman—saw the moon rise and at once were stricken with + Midsummer madness. It had been recklessly, defiantly, blatantly + exploiting its collective shame on two-steps and coon + song,—shouting its <i>de profundis</i>, each degenerate soul + bucking up its lost fellow with a challenge to go one better and + mock at its hell—when of a sudden, as I say, the moon rose, and + the conductor caught up his stick, and the whole damned crew + floated off on <i>The Magic Flute</i>.… It wasn't on the + programme. It just happened, and no one paid them the smallest + attention.… But there it was: ten minutes of ecstasy.<br><br> + + "They ceased upon the night: and the next news was that after + five minutes' interval they were chained again and + conscientiously throwing vim into <i>Boum-Poump</i> with the + standardised five thumps of jollity on the kettledrum.<br><br> + + "So the champak odours failed—What is champak? Have the Germans + synthetised it yet?—and I awoke from dreams of thee. I walked + back by way of the Quais—by the river:"<br><br> + +<span class = "ind4">Dissolute man!</span><br> +<span class = "ind2">Lave in it, drink of it</span><br> +<span class = "ind4">Then, if you can.</span></p><br><br> + + "But I have played for safety and am writing this with the aid of + a whisky-and-Perrier to hope that it finds you well as it leaves + me at present.<br><br> + + "I dare say it struck you as a poorish kind of trick—my inviting + you to Prince's and leaving you to pay for the repast. + The reason of my sudden bolt was a sudden report that Farrell + intended to start at once for a holiday on the Continent of + Europe—that he had been to Cook's and bought himself a circular + ticket for the Riviera—Paris, Toulon, Cannes, Nice, etc.—on to + Genoa, Paris by Mt. Cenis—that sort of thing. I should tell + you that, being chin-deep in winding up my affairs, I had + employed a man to watch his movements. Shadowing Farrell is a + soft option, even now, when he's painfully learning the + rudiments of flight: four months ago he had not even a nascent + terror to make him suspicious. Oh, never fear but I'll educate + him, dull as he is! Remember your <i>Ancient Mariner</i>, Roddy? + Here are two passages purposely set wide apart by the author, + that I'll put together for you to choose between 'em,—"<br><br> + +<span class = "ind2">(1) As who, pursued with yell and blow,</span><br> +<span class = "ind4">Still treads the shadow of his—Foe,</span><br> +<span class = "ind6">And forward bends his head.…</span><br><br><br> + +<span class = "ind2">(2) Like one that on a lonesome road</span><br> +<span class = "ind4">Doth walk in fear and dread,</span><br> +<span class = "ind4">And having once turned round, walks on,</span><br> +<span class = "ind4">And turns no more his head;</span><br> +<span class = "ind4">Because he knows a frightful fiend</span><br> +<span class = "ind6">Doth close behind him tread.</span><br><br> + + "You may urge that Coleridge—a lazy man and a forgetful—is just + repeating himself. But there's a shade of difference; and I'll + undertake to deliver back Farrell in whichever condition you + prefer; or even to split the shade. But you must give me time.<br><br> + + "As it was, I risked nothing in paying an ordinary professional. + Farrell walked into the office, and my man followed him. + Farrell took some time discussing his route with the clerk. + My man borrowed the use of a telephone-box, left the door open + and rang me up. By the time he was put through he had heard all + he needed. So he closed the door, and reported. I instructed + him, of course, to buy me a similar ticket. 'And,' said my man, + 'he is inquiring which is the best hotel at Monte Carlo, and it + seems he hardly knows any French." 'Right,' said I. 'Come + along at once and collect your fee, for I haven't any time to + spare.'<br><br> + + "I thought it possible that Farrell might break his journey to + dally with the gaieties of Paris. But he didn't. I found out + easily enough at Cook's Office there that he had booked a + sleeper and gone straight through. So I went to the Opera, + listened to <i>Rigoletto</i>, idled most of the next day in the old + haunts, and took the usual Sud-Express, with a sleeper, from the + Gare de Lyons.<br><br> + + "No: I lie. You can't call it idling when you sit—say in the + Bois, on any chance bench anywhere—seeing nothing, letting the + carriages go by like an idle show of phenomena, but with your + whole soul thrilling to a new idea, drinking it in, pushing out + new fibres which grow as they suck in more of it through small + new ducts, with a ripple and again a choke and yet again a + gurgle, which you orchestrate into a sound of deep waters + combining as you draw them home.… Oh, yes—you may laugh: + but I know now what conception is: what Shakespeare felt like + when he sat one night, in a garden, and the great plot of + <i>Othello</i> came teeming.…<br><br> + + "Please bear one thing in mind, my dear Roddy, You are never, now + or hereafter, to pity me. <i>Qualis artifex</i>.… I used to + smile to myself in a cocksure youthful way when great men hinted + in great books that one had to make burnt-sacrifice of the eye's + delight, the heart's desire; the lust of the flesh, the pride of + the intellect; see them all consumed to a handful of dust, and + trample out even the last spark of that, before the true phoenix + sprang; that only when half-gods go the gods arrive. But it's + true, Roddy! It's true!<br><br> + + "I won't grow dithyrambic—not just yet. I was so sure of my man + that it seemed quite worth while to tumble out at Avignon—a + place I had never inspected—and fool away another spell among + Roman remains, and Petrarch and the rival Popes, and the opening + scenes of the Revolution, and just thinking—thinking.<br><br> + + "So I reached Monte Carlo next day, a little after noon; took a + bath and a siesta; sauntered into the Casino there, a good + forty-eight hours behind time; and caught my man, sitting.<br><br> + + "Are you superstitious, Roddy? Of course you are: and so are all + of us who pretend that we are not.… Monte Carlo is the hell + of a hole. I had never seen it before: but as I went into the + Casino, all of a sudden I had a queer recollection—of a + breakfast-party at Cambridge in young La Touche's rooms, in + King's (he was killed in the South African War), and of his + saying solemnly as we lit cigarettes that he'd had a dream + overnight. He dreamed that he walked into the Casino at Monte + Carlo, went straight to the first table on the left, put down a + five-franc piece on Number 17, and came out a winner of + prodigious sums.<br><br> + + "Well, we are all humbugs about superstition. I don't believe + there's a man existent—that's to say, a tolerable man, a fellow + who isn't a prig—who doesn't touch posts, or count his steps on + the pavement, or choose what tie he'll wear on certain days, + or give way to some such human weakness when he's alone. + We so-called 'men of science' are, I truly believe, the worst of + the lot. You can't get rid of one fetish but you have instantly + the impulse to kneel to another…<br><br> + + "Anyhow, there was my man sitting, and the number 17 almost + straight before him, a little in front of his right arm; and + this recollection came to me; and I leaned over his shoulder and + laid a five-franc piece on the number.<br><br> + + "It won. I piled my winnings on the original stake, <i>plus</i> all + my loose cash; and Number 17 won again.<br><br> + + "That's all. You know my old theory that every scientific man + should have a sense of mystery—it's more useful to him than to + most of his fellows. Anyway I'd tried my luck on Bob La + Touche's long bygone dream.<br><br> + + "Several pairs of eyes began to regard me with interest: and the + croupier, as he pushed my spoil across, spared me a glance + inscrutable but scrutinising. I make no doubt that had I helped + to make up the next game, quite a number of the punters would + have backed my infant fortune. But I didn't. Farrell had + slewed about in his chair for to look up at the newcomer: and at + sight of his dropped jaw, as he recognised me, I smiled, + gathered up my wealth and walked out.<br><br> + + "I took a seat in the Casino garden, overlooking the sea. + 'Sort of thing,' I found myself murmuring, 'might happen once in + a blue moon,' and with that was aware that a sort of blue + moonlight was indeed bathing the garden, though the moon's + reflection lay yellow enough across the still Mediterranean. + [Here, for description, turn up Matt. Arnold's <i>A Southern + Night</i>: possibly still copyrighted.]<br><br> + + "Farrell came out. He spotted me at once; for to help the moon, + as well as to dispel the heavy scent of the gaming-room, I was + lighting a cigar. He took a couple of turns on the terrace and + halted in front of me. His manner was nervous.<br><br> + + "'Excuse me, Professor—' he began.<br><br> + + "'Excuse me, Mr. Farrell,' I corrected him; 'I am a Professor no + longer. You may call me Doctor Foe, if you like.… Did + Number 17 win a third time?'<br><br> + + "'I—I fancy not," he stammered. 'To tell the truth, your sudden + appearance here, when I supposed you to be in London—and at + Monte Carlo, of all places—But perhaps you are a devotee of the + fickle goddess? Men of learning,' he floundered on, 'find + relaxation—complete change of interest. Darwin—the great + Darwin—used to read novels: the worse the novel, the better he + liked it—or so I've heard.'<br><br> + + "'As it happens,' said I, 'this is my first visit to Monte + Carlo.'<br><br> + + "'Indeed?' He brightened and became yet more fatuous. + 'Then we may call it a coincidence, eh?—a veritable + coincidence. When I saw you—But first of all, let me + congratulate you on your luck.'<br><br> + + "'Thank you,' I said. 'I will make a note that your first + impulse on encountering me was to congratulate me on my luck.'<br><br> + + "This seemed to puzzle him for a moment. Then, 'Oh, I see what + you mean,' he said. 'But we're coming to that.… You gave + me a fair turn just now, you did, turning up so unexpected. + But (says I) this makes an opportunity that I ought to have made + for myself before leaving London. Yes, I ought.… But I + want to say to you now, Dr. Foe—as between man and man—that I + made a mistake. I was misled—that's the long and short of it. + I never stirred up that crowd, Doctor, to make the mess they did + of your—your premises. But so far as any unguarded words of + mine may have set things going in my absence—well, I'm sorry. + A man can't say fairer than that, can he?… And I've + suffered for it, too,' he added; 'if that's any consolation to + you.'<br><br> + + "'Suffered, have you?' I asked.<br><br> + + "'What, haven't you heard?' He was surprised.—Yes, Roddy, + genuinely. 'Well, now I won't say it was all owing to that + little affair at the Silversmiths' College.… There were + other—er—circumstances. In fact there was what-you-might-call + a combination of circumstances. The upshot of which was that I + had a safe seat and took a bad toss out of it. No, I don't + harbour no feelings against you, Doctor Foe. I'm a sociable, + easy-going sort of fellow, and not above owning up to a mistake + when I've made one.… I stung you up again just now, wishing + you joy of your luck: meaning no more than your winnings at the + tables. Not being touchy myself, I dessay it comes easy to + advise a man not to be touchy. But what I say is, we're both + down on our luck for the time, and we're both here to forget it. + So why not be sociable?'<br><br> + + "'Suppose on the contrary, Mr. Farrell,' I suggested, 'that I am + here to remember. What then?'<br><br> + + "'Then I'd say—No, you interrupted me somewhere when I was going + to make myself clear. You won't mind what I'm going to say? + … Well, then, I gather those asses did some pretty + considerable damage to your scientific 'plant'—is that so? + … Well, again, feeling a sort of responsibility in this + business, I want to say that if it'll set things on their legs + again, five or six thousand pounds won't break Peter Farrell.'<br><br> + + "I didn't strangle him, Roddy. It was the perilous moment: but I + sat it out like a statue, and then I knew myself a match for + this business. I didn't strangle him, even though he provoked + me by adding, 'Yes, and now we're met, out here, you can be + useful to me in a lot of little ways. Know French, don't you? + Well, I don't, and we'll throw that in.… What I mean is, + What d'ye say to our joining forces? I'm fed up with these + Cook's men. They do their best, I don't deny. But this + business of the lingo is a stiffer fence than I bargained for. + Now, with a fellow-countryman to swap talk; <i>and</i> a gentleman, + and one that can patter to the waiters and at the railway + stations—What do you say to it, Doctor? Shall we let bygones + be bygones?'<br><br> + + "I did not strangle him, Roddy, even for that. I sat pretty + still for a while, pretending to consider.<br><br> + + "'It's odd, Mr. Farrell,' said I after a bit, 'that you should + invite me to be your companion. You'll always remember that you + invited me?'<br><br> + + "''Course I shall,' said he. 'Let's be sociable—that's my + offer.'<br><br> + + "I threw away my cigar. 'Provided you make no suggestion beyond + it, I accept,' said I. 'We will take this trip together. + Do you mean to stay long at Monte Carlo?'<br><br> + + "'Pretty place,' said Farrell. 'Been up to La Turbie? No, of + course; you've only just arrived. Well, I can recommend it— + funny little railway takes you up, and the view from the top is + a knock-out. But I'm your man, wherever you'll do the + personally-conducting. I'm not wedded to this place. Only came + here because I understood it was fast, and I wanted to see.'<br><br> + + "'Where's your hotel?' I asked.<br><br> + + "'Grand Hotel, next door,' he answered. 'What' yours?'<br><br> + + "'The same,' said I. 'We'll meet at <i>dejeuner</i>—same table. + Twelve noon, if that suits.'<br><br> + + "'I don't know if you're wedded to this place—' said he.<br><br> + + "'Not one little bit,' I answered.<br><br> + + "'Inside there, for instance?'<br><br> + + "'You saw,' said I. 'I came out because I disliked the smell.'<br><br> + + "'And there's that pigeon-shooting. Goes on all day. I hate + taking life—even if I could—'<br><br> + + "'You've once before,' said I, 'suspected me of being careless + about the sufferings of animals; and you've, apologised. + Shall we call it off? I don't shoot pigeons anyway.'<br><br> + + "'Me either,' Farrell agreed heartily. 'I'm here for fresh air + and exercise. Don't mind confessing to you I've no great fancy + for this place. Man told me at dayjooney this morning he'd just + come in from sitting under the palms before the Casino entrance. + … All of a sudden a young fellow walked out and shot + himself there, point-blank. Man who told me doesn't take any + interest in play—over from Mentone for the day, just to see + things.—Well, this young fellow, as I say, shot himself—put + revolver to his forehead—there on the steps. And by George, + sir, he was mopped up and into a sack within twenty seconds! + One porter ready with sack, another to help, third with sponge + to mop steps—stage clear almost before you could rub your eyes. + … I just tell it to you as it was told to me, and by a man + pretty far gone in consumption, so that you'd say he'd be + cautious about lying.'<br><br> + + "I lit another cigar. 'With so priceless a fool as this,' I said + to myself, 'you must not be in a hurry, John Foe.' Aloud I + said, 'I've no passion either, for this place. I wanted to see + it, and I've seen it. I'll knock in at your room at eight + o'clock, if that will suit you, and we'll discuss plans. For my + part, I had a mind to go back to Cannes and start for a ramble + among the Esterel.'"<br><br><br> + + + "To be brief, we struck the bargain and—incredible as you may + find it—have been running in double harness ever since.… + I couldn't have believed it myself, in prediction: but here it + is—<i>and until a few hours ago Farrell never guessed</i>.<br><br> + + "No: that is wrong. He never guessed at all. I told him.<br><br> + + "It came to me, after the first week, as habitually as daily + bread. We put in a couple of days at Mentone, another couple at + Nice; then for a fortnight we made Cannes our centre, with a trip + up to Grasse and several long tramps among the mountains. + After that came St. Tropez, Costebello, Toulon, Marseilles, + Montpellier—with excursions to Aigues-Mortes, the Pont du Gard + and the rest of it. From Montpellier we turned right about on + our tracks; took Cannes again, Antibes; drove along the whole + Corniche in a two-horse barouche. There was a sort of compact + that we'd do the whole Riviera—French and Italian—as thoroughly + as tourists can do it; and we did—from Montpellier to + Bordighera, from Bordighera to Genoa. And he never guessed.<br><br> + + "I had two bad moments; by which I mean moments of unscientific + impatience, sudden unworthy impulses to kill him and get rid of + the job. Unscientific, unworthy—unsportsmanlike—to kill your + priceless fish before he has even felt the hook!<br><br> + + "The second bad moment I overcame (I am proud to report) of my + own strength of will. It happened at a bend of the Corniche, + when our driver pulled up on the edge of a really nasty + precipice and invited us to admire the view. It being the hour + for <i>dejeuner</i>, we haled our basket out of the carriage, and + spread our meal on the parapet. Farrell sat perched there with + his back to the sea, and made unpleasant noises, gnawing at a + chicken-bone. I wanted to see how he'd fall backwards and watch + him strike the beach.…<br><br> + + "Well, I was glad when the impulse was conquered and I had proved + my self-control: because the previous temptation had been a + close call, and I believe it would have bowled me out but for a + special interposition of—Providence.<br><br> + + "We were following up a path in the Esterel: a little gorge of a + path cut by some torrent long since dried. The track had steep + sides—fifteen to twenty feet—right and left, and was so narrow + that we took it single file. I was leading.<br><br> + + "Now, on our way westward out of Cannes, that morning, we had + passed the golf-links, and Farrell had been talking golf ever + since. I don't know why golf-talk should have such power to + infuriate those who despise that game. But so it is, Roddy.<br><br> + + "I had the weapon in my pocket. I had my fingers on it as I + trudged along, and was saying to myself, 'Why not here? In the + name of common sense, why not here? Why not here and now?'— + when a leveret, that had somehow bungled its footing on the high + bank above, came tumbling down, not three yards ahead of us. + The poor little brute picked itself up, half-stunned, caught + sight of us, and made a bolt up the path ahead. From this side + to that it darted, trying to climb and escape; but again and + again the bank beat it, and from each spring it toppled back; + and we followed relentlessly.<br><br> + + "At the end of two hundred yards it gave in. It just lay down in + the path like a thing already dead and waited for what we should + choose to do.<br><br> + + "I picked it up. I showed it to Farrell, keeping my fingers on + the faint little heart.<br><br> + + "'They say,' said I, 'it's lucky when a hare pops out in your + path. What do you think?'<br><br> + + "'Worth carrying home?' said Farrell. 'I'm partial to hare. + But he's a bit undersized for Leadenhall Market'—and the fool + laughed.<br><br> + + "'We'll let him go,' said I.<br><br> + + "'I guess he's too far scared to crawl,' he suggested doubtfully.<br><br> + + "'Turn about and watch,' said I. 'It may have escaped your + memory that you once accused me of being cruel to animals. + Turn about, and watch. Don't move.'<br><br> + + "I undid the three upper buttons of my waistcoat, stowed the + little fellow down inside, against my shirt, leaving his head + free, so that I could stroke his ears and brainpan. I let + Farrell see this, stepped past him, and walked slowly back down + the path. At the end of twenty paces I lifted the little beast + out, set him on the ground, and walked on. He shook his ears + twice, then lopped after me like a dog, at a slow canter. + At the point where he had tumbled I collected him again by the + ears, lifted him, climbed the bank and restored him to his + thicket, into which he vanished with a flick of his white scut.<br><br> + + "Then I went back very slowly to Farrell. 'Curious things, + animals,' said I. 'If you don't mind, we won't talk any more + golf to-day.'"<br><br> +</blockquote></blockquote> +<br> +<br> +<p><a name="11"></a> </p> +<h3>NIGHT THE TENTH.</h3> + + +<h4>PILGRIMAGE OF HATE.</h4> +<blockquote><blockquote> +<p class = "noindent"> "A map scored with the zigzags of our route would suggest the + wanderings of a couple of lunatics. But that was the way of it. + I would turn up at breakfast any morning and propound some plan + for a new divagation. Farrell never failed to fall in with it. + For a time, of course, I had him in places whence, with his + ignorance of France, he might have found it hard to escape back + to his own form of civilisation. But even when he had picked up + enough of the language to ask for a railway ticket and something + to eat, his reliance on me continued to be pathetic, dog-like.<br><br> + + "I know something of dogs. I have no experience of marriage. + But from time to time I put this question to myself: 'Here is a + widower—free, as he tells me, after twenty-seven years of + married life almost entirely spent at Wimbledon. It is + inconceivable that he did not, during that considerable period, + look at least once or twice across the table at the late Mrs. + Farrell and ask himself if the business was to go on for ever.' + I supposed, Roddy, that the two had been in love, as such + creatures feel the emotion. 'Well then,' thought I, 'here are + we two, the one hating and hiding his hate, thrown together in + constant companionship. How long will it take the other, who + has never cut an inch of the ice encasing that hatred, before he + finds my society intolerable?'<br><br> + + "That was the question; and I had the answer to-day.<br><br> + + "From Genoa we actually harked back to Cahors, for an aimless two + weeks among the upper waters of the Lot and the Tarn. I led him + over the roof of France, as they call it. I sweated him down + valleys to Ambialet, to Roc-Amadour, I threaded him through + limestone caverns wherein I could have cut his throat and left + him, never to be missed. We struck up for the provincial + gaieties of Toulouse. We attended the Opera there— + <i>Il Trovatore</i>—and Farrell wept in his seat. I can see the + tears now—oozing out between the finger-stalls of a pair of + white-kid gloves he had been inspired to buy at the + <i>Bon Marche</i>. We also went to the theatre, where the company + performed <i>Les Vivacites du Capitaine Tic</i>.<br><br> + + "At the conclusion of this harmless comedy, Farrell said a really + good thing. He said it was funny enough and even instructive if + you looked at it from the right point of view; but for his part + (and I might call him advanced if I chose) he liked the sort of + musical comedy in which you spice a chicken to make 'em all fall + in love when they've eaten it; or at least, if it's to be + legitimate comedy, one in which they take off their clothes and + go to bed by mistake.<br><br> + + "So we came on to Paris, and here we are at the Grand Hotel. + Farrell's notion of Paris, was of course, the Moulin Rouge, and + the kind of place on Montmartre where they sing some kind of + blasphemy while a squint-eyed waiter serves you cocktails on a + coffin.<br><br> + + "We were solemnly giving way to this libidinous humbug last night + when he leaned back and said to me, 'This is all very well, + Doctor; and I'm glad to have had the experience. But do you + know what I want at this moment?'<br><br> + + "'Say on,' said I, looking up to return the nod of an + acquaintance—a young American, Caffyn by name—who had risen + from a table not far from ours and was making his way out. + On a sudden impulse I called after him, 'Hi! Caffyn!'<br><br> + + "'Hallo!' Caffyn turned about and came strolling back. He is a + long lantern-jawed lad with a sardonic drawl of speech. He has + spent two years in the <i>ville lumiere</i>, having come to it + moth-like from somewhere afar in Texas. His ambition—no, + wait!—the ambition of his father, a 'cattle king,' is that he + should acquire the difficult art of painting in oils. + 'Want me?' asked Caffyn, as I pushed a chair for him. + 'What for? If it's to admire the 'rainbow' you've been mixing, + I'm a connoisseur and I don't pass it. Your hand's steady + enough, one or two lines admirably defined, but you've gotten + the pink noyau and the <i>parfait amour</i> into their wrong billets. + If, on the other hand, you want me to drink it, I'll see you to + hell first."… Then, as I introduced him, "Good evening, + Mr. Farrell. I am pleased to meet you in this meretricious + haunt of gaiety. If I may be allowed to say so, you set it off, + sir.'<br><br> + + "'Sit down a moment,' said I. 'We didn't intrude upon your + solitary table, thinking—'<br><br> + + "'I know,' he caught me up. 'Natural delicacy of Britishers— + 'Here's a fellow learning to take his pleasures sadly. + We'll give him time.' And I, gentlemen, allowed that it was + 'way down in Cupid's garden—Damon and Pythias discovered hand + in hand—no gooseberries, by request.… If you'd like to be + told how I was occupied, I was chewing—ay, marry and go to— + I was one with my distant father's most fatted calf—fed up and + chewing.'<br><br> + + "'And if you'd like to know how we were occupied,' said I, 'we + were both wanting something—and the same thing. We haven't + told one another what it is, and you are called in to guess.'<br><br> + + "'Oh, a thought-reading <i>seance</i>. Right.' He turned the chair + about, sat on it straddle-wise and crossed his arms over the + curved top bar. 'Let me see,' he mused, leaning forward, + pulling at his cigar and bringing his eyes, after they had + travelled over the crowd, back firmly to us. ''Two souls with + but a single thought,'' he quoted, ''two hearts that beat as + one.'… Well, now, if you were of my country and from my + parts I'd string you like two jays on one perch—How say'st, + prithee, and in sooth yes, sure! I'd sing you <i>The Cowpuncher's + Lament</i>, sweet and low, with tears in my voice. As it is, I'll + be getting the local colour a bit smudged, maybe: but I guess— + I guess,' said Caffyn—and his gaze seemed to turn inward and + become far withdrawn—'I guess—'O Hardy, kiss me ere I die!'— + No, that's wrong: it isn't the cockpit of the <i>Victory</i>. + It's the after-saloon of the Calais-Dover packet—shortest + route—and I see you two there at table, eating cold roast beef, + underdone, with plain boiled potatoes. With plain boiled + potatoes—yes, and mixed pickles.' He passed a hand over his + eyes. 'Excuse me, gentlemen; the vision is blurred just here— + if someone would kindly shoot that lady on the stage and stop + her—it's not much to ask, when she's exposing so much of her + personality—How the devil can I tell the difference between + mixed pickles and piccalilli while she's committing murder on + the high C? <i>Passez outre</i>.… I see you eating like men who + haven't seen Christian food for years; yet you are swallowing it + in a hurry that almost defeats the blessed taste; because one of + you has just shouted up, with his mouth full, a command to be + informed as soon as ever the white shore of Albion can be spied + from deck. It is a race with Time—Shakespeare's Cliff against + a pickled onion.… Oh, have done! have done!'<br><br> + + "'Thank you, Caffyn,' said I. 'You may come out of your trance. + You have done admirably.'<br><br> + + "'Wonderful,' breathed Farrell; and he breathed it heavily. + 'I won't say I'd actually arrived at a plain-boiled potato—'<br><br> + + "'But it was floating in your brain,' I chimed him down. + 'Such is the province of imaginative art, of poetry, as defined + by that great Englishman, Samuel Johnson. It reproduces our + common thoughts with a great increase of sensibility.'<br><br> + + "'Mr. Caffyn has put it rightways, anyhow,' Farrell insisted. + 'Look here, Doctor'—he calls me by that title and none other— + 'What's the programme for to-morrow.'<br><br> + + "'Versailles,' said I.<br><br> + + "'Then we'll make it so. But, the day after, I'm for England. + … I don't mind telling you, Mr. Caffyn, that the Doctor + and me hit it off first-class.'<br><br> + + "'I've noted it,' said Caffyn quietly.<br><br> + + "'And it's the rummier,' Farrell pursued, 'because him and me— + or, as I should say, he and I—started this tour upon what you + might call a mutual—what's the word? misunderstanding?—no, I + have it—antipathy. Is that correct, Doctor?'<br><br> + + "'Perfectly,' I agreed.<br><br> + + "'T'tell the truth,' confessed Farrell, 'I've always been up + against schoolmasters; yes, all my life. They've such a—such + a—well, as this ain't Wimbledon, one may speak it out—such a + bloody superior way of giving you information. Now if there's + one thing in th' world I 'bominate, it's information.' Farrell + threw a fierce glance around the dining tables as if defiantly + making sure of his ground. 'But I'll say this for the Doctor; + he never gives you any. That is, you have to pump for it.… + But we've had, we two, a daisy of a time. The great thing about + travel, Mr. Caffyn, is that it enlarges the mind. Yes, sir, and + in Doctor Foe's company you positively can't help it.'<br><br> + + "'I'm sorry, Farrell,' said I.<br><br> + + "'Sorry?' he exclaimed. 'Why should you be sorry? I <i>like</i> + having a—a wider outlook on things, provided it ain't banged in + a man's eye. In fact, I don't mind confessing to you, Mr. + Caffyn, here in the Doctor's presence, that this has been a + great experience for me. I've had a good time, as I believe, + sir, they say in your country. But I look around me'—here + Farrell looked again and almost theatrically around the feast of + Comus—'and I say that, be it never so homely, give me Wimbledon + to wind up. You and me, Doctor—or, as I might say, you and I, + are for home, after all—and the old cooking. Our ways + henceforth may lie separate; but we've a bond in common and any + time you care to look me up at Wimbledon I shall be most happy. + We'll crack a bottle to our travels.'<br><br> + + "'Right,' I agreed. 'Caffyn, will you make a note of at too?'<br><br> + + "'And Mr. Caffyn—at any time—Goes without saying,' pursued + Farrell.<br><br> + + "'Right,' agreed Caffyn."<br><br> + + + "That was yesterday, Roddy. This morning, as ever is, Farrell + and I started, according to programme, for Versailles. I could + see that his mind had been running on Caffyn's words; that he + was dying to get back to Wimbledon; yes, and almost dying to be + quit of me.<br><br> + + "I had been waiting for this. I had known that the moment would + come, and wondered a score of times that it took so long in + coming. As unmarried men, Roddy, you and I are out of our depth + here. But surely—I hark back to it—it <i>must</i> happen to one or + other of every married couple to look across the table and + realise the words <i>Till death us do part</i>. When it happens to + both simultaneously I suppose murder follows; or, at least, + divorce.<br><br> + + "Talking about murder, I've to confess that at Versailles I felt + the impulse again. You know that infernal Galerie des Glaces? + Well, of a sudden the multiplication of Farrell's face and the + bald spot at the back of his head came near to overpowering me. + We had escaped, too, from the wandering sightseers, and stood + isolated at the end of the vast hall.… High sniffing + dilettanti may say what they like, but Versailles is what Jimmy + would call a 'knock-out.' The very first view of the Grand + Avenue had knocked Farrell out, at all events, and he had stared + at the great fountains, and followed me through courts and + galleries in mere bedazement, speechless, with eyes like a + fish's, round and bulging and glassy.… He looked so funny, + standing there… so small… and yet actually, I suppose, + taller than the late King Louis Quatorze by three inches. + … Somewhere outside on a terrace a band was playing things + from the <i>Mariage de Figaro</i>—Figaro, at Versailles of all + places!… In short the world had gone pretty mad for a + moment, and for that moment I felt that, in this <i>bizarrerie</i> of + contrast it might dignify our quarrel if Farrell died amid such + magnificent surroundings.… But I conquered the impulse all + right: and this, the third time, was the easiest."<br><br> + + + "I got him away to the Little Trianon: and there in its gardens— + as you would lay in the shade a patient suffering from + sunstroke—I conducted him to a seat under the spring boughs + beside the little lake that reflects the Hameau. He stared on + the green turf at our feet, and across at the grouped rustic + buildings, all as pretty as paint, and came out of his stupor + with a long sigh.<br><br> + + "'A-ah!' he murmured. 'That's better! That does me good.'<br><br> + + "Then I knew that it was coming: that I must break his fate to + him. I even gave him the prompt-word.<br><br> + + "'Homelike,' I suggested.<br><br> + + "'You've hit it,' he said, and paused. 'No place like Home! + I'm glad enough to have seen all that show yonder.' He waved a + hand. 'But I wouldn't be one of these kings, not if you paid + me.… Look here, we'll cross to-morrow, eh? Of course, if + you prefer to stay behind—'<br><br> + + "'I'm not going to stay behind,' said I, throwing away my + cigarette.<br><br> + + "'Capital! We'll wind up with a dinner at the Savoy—'<br><br> + + "'Cold roast beef and mixed pickles,' I put in.<br><br> + + "He chuckled. 'Clever fellow, that Caffyn—made my mouth water, + he did. We'll wind up at the Savoy, and talk over another trip + that we'll take together, one of these days. For I shall miss + your company, Doctor.'<br><br> + + "'No, you won't,' said I, lighting a fresh cigarette.<br><br> + + "He stared at me for a moment as if slightly hurt in his + feelings. Then: 'Don't contradict,' he said sharply, and + laughed as I stared in my turn. 'Expression of yours,' he said. + 'Sounds rude; but all depends <i>how</i> you say it. I reckon I've + caught up the accent—eh?—by the quick way you looked up.… + I hadn't much school and never went to College: but I've studied + you, Doctor, and I'll improve.'<br><br> + + "'Well, then,' said I, nettled and less inclined to spare him,' + I'm sorry to contradict you, Mr. Farrell, but you are never + going to miss my company—<i>never, until your life's end</i>.'<br><br> + + "'What d'ye mean?' he blurted: and I suppose there was something + in my look that made him edge off an inch or two on the rustic + seat.<br><br> + + "'Simply this,' I answered. 'Ten or a dozen weeks ago you made + yourself the instrument to destroy something twenty times more + valuable than yourself. I am not speaking of what you killed in + me, nor of the years of application, the records, measurements, + analyses which you hoofed into nothing with no more thought than + a splay coon's for an ant-heap. Nor will I trouble you with any + tale of the personal hopes I had built on them, for you to + murder. The gods suffer men of your calibre to exist, and they + must know why. But I tell you this, though you may find it even + harder to understand. Science has her altars, and her priests. + I was one, serving an altar which you defiled. And by God, + Peter Farrell, upholsterer, the priest will pursue!'<br><br> + + "He drew back to the end of the seat and fairly wilted. + His terror had no more dignity than a sheep's. He cast an eye + about for help. There was none. 'You're mad!' he quavered. + 'If we were in England now—What is it you're threatening?'<br><br> + + "'Nothing that you could take hold of, to swear information + against me,' I answered, 'even if you were in England now—now + that April's here. Or is it May? I shall probably end by + killing you; but I have tested my forbearance, and now know that + it will happen at my own time, place, and convenient + opportunity. That's a threat, eh? Well, there's no hurry about + it, and you couldn't do anything with it, even at home in merry + England. You couldn't put up a case that you go in bodily fear + of me—as you're beginning to do—when I can call Caffyn + ('Clever fellow, Caffyn!') to witness that only last night you + desired no end to our acquaintance. Besides, my acquaintance is + all I propose to inflict on you, just yet.'<br><br> + + "He jumped up, and faced me. He was thoroughly scared, and no + less thoroughly puzzled. To do him justice, he had pluck + enough, too, to be pretty angry.<br><br> + + "'I don't know what you mean!' he broke out. 'I don't know what + you're driving at, mad or not.… The moment we crossed one + another I hated you—Yes, damn you, first impressions are truest + after all! Later, I was weak enough, thinking I'd injured you, + to—to—' He broke down feebly. 'What sort of devil are you?' + he demanded, mopping his forehead. 'You can't hurt me, I say. + What is it you threaten?'<br><br> + + "'Only this,' said I. 'You have been a married man for a number + of years, and therefore can probably appreciate better than I + what it means. But you know my feeling for you, as I know yours + towards me.… Well, I propose to be your companion in this + world and until death do us part.… You may dodge, but I + shall be faithful; you may slip, run, elude, but I shall quest. + But your shadow I am going to be, Mr. Farrell; and ever, when + you have hit a place in the sun, it shall be to start and find + me—a faithful hound at your side. I have put the fear on you, + I see. Waking or sleeping you shall never put that fear off. + … And now,' said I, rising and tapping another cigarette on + my case, 'let me steer you back to the railway-station. + You will prefer to dine alone to-night and think out your plans. + I shall be thinking out mine at the <i>Ambassadeurs</i>.'"<br><br> + + + "So that's how it happened, Roddy. You might post me £100 + to the Grand Hotel, Biarritz: for I'm running short. The hunt + is up, and he's breaking for South."<br> +<span class = "ind20">"J. F."</span><br><br> +</blockquote></blockquote> +<br> +<br> +<p><a name="12"></a> </p> +<h3>NIGHT THE ELEVENTH.</h3> +<br> + + +<h4>SCIENCE OF THE CHASE.</h4> + +<p>I'm an imperfect Christian: but I read Jack's long letter three times +over, and at each reading I liked it the less. Before posting an +answer I handed the thing to Jimmy; who spent a morning over it, +helping himself—a sure sign of a troubled spirit—to tobacco +indifferently from his own jar and mine. When nothing troubled him— +that is to say, as a rule—he invariably used mine. I left him +ruminating; went out, did some business, and met him again at our +usual luncheon-table at the Bath Club.</p> + +<p>"I believe," said Jimmy reflectively at luncheon, "that my way with +Farrell was the better, after all.… You'll admit that it did the +trick, and without causing any offence to anybody. Well, if you ask +me how to deal with the Professor, I'll be equally practical. +Starve him off."</p> + +<p>"No good," said I. "If I cut off supply, he'll only come back, +demand his money and be off on the trail again. Indeed, he may turn +up in these rooms to-morrow: for it's ten to one, on my reckoning, +that Farrell will pretty soon break back for home."</p> + +<p>"All the easier, then," said Jimmy. "Save you the trouble of writing +a letter. When he comes for his money, tell him you're freezing on +to it."</p> + +<p>"But, man alive! it's Jack's money. You wouldn't have me thieve, +would you?… As for the letter, I've written it; in fact you may +say that I've written two, or, rather, assisted at their composition. +Here is one of them, in copy. It explains the other, which is a +half-sheet of instructions now in my lawyer's possession. I shall +have to write a third presently, explaining to Jack—"</p> + +<p>"I don't like letter-writing," interrupted Jimmy, "and I shun +solicitors. Which is anticipatory vengeance: as soon as I'm called, +and in practice, they'll be active enough in shunning me. Otty, you +need a nurse. What the devil do you want with consulting solicitors, +when you can have my advice, legal or illegal, gratis?"</p> + +<p>"Listen to this," said I:—</p> +<br> + +<blockquote><blockquote> +<p class = "noindent"> +<span class = "ind10">"Thistleton Chambers,"</span><br> +<span class = "ind12">"29a Essex Street, Strand, W.C.,"</span><br> +<span class = "ind15">"May 12th, 1907."</span><br><br> + + "Dear Sir,—Our client, Sir Roderick Otway, Bart., has to-day + transferred to our account the sum of £6,500(six thousand, five hundred + pounds), representing a sum received by him from you, to + be administered on conditions which, after reconsidering them, + he finds himself unable to accept.<br><br> + + "Sir Roderick instructs us that you will draw on us at your + convenience for any sum or sums under this cover. This, of + course, pending notification of your wish that we should + transfer the account elsewhere.<br><br> + + "Acting on our client's further instructions, we hereby + enclose in registered envelope circular notes value £100. Kindly acknowledge receipt and oblige."<br><br> + +<span class = "ind14">"Yours faithfully,</span><br> +<span class = "ind16">"B. NORGATE,</span><br> +<span class = "ind13">"for Wiseman and Norgate,</span><br> +<span class = "ind16">"Solicitors.</span><br> + "To<br> +<span class = "ind2">"J. Foe, Esq., D.Sc.,</span><br> +<span class = "ind3">"Grand Hotel,</span><br> +<span class = "ind4">"Biarritz."</span><br></p> +</blockquote></blockquote> + +<br> + +<p>Jimmy looked me straight, and asked, "Is that letter posted?"</p> + +<p>"It is," I answered. "I told Norgate that, as a matter of honour, +Jack's letter ought to be answered promptly. That's why I lost no +time this morning. Not being quite certain of the earliest post to +France, he made sure by sending off the office-boy straight to +St. Martin's-le-Grand."</p> + +<p>"Then no taxi will avail us," groaned Jimmy, "and I must call for a +liqueur brandy instead.… Oh, Otty—you must forgive the old +feud: but why <i>did</i> your parents send you to Cambridge? Mine sent me +to a place where I had at least to sweat up forty pages or so of a +fellow called Plato. Not being able to translate him, I got him more +or less by heart. Here's the argument, then.… Supposing a +friend makes a deposit with you, that's a debt, eh? Of course it is. +But suppose it's a deposit of arms, or of money to buy arms, and he +comes to you and asks for it when he's not in his right senses, and +you know he's not, and he'll—like as not—play the devil with that +deposit, if you restore it. What then?"</p> + +<p>"If I thought that Farrell was in danger," I mused; "that's to say, +in any immediate danger—"</p> + +<p>"Rats!" said Jimmy contemptuously. "Farrell's a third party. +Why drag in a third party? The Professor's <i>your</i> friend; and he's +made a deposit with you: and you don't need to think of anyone but +him. For he's <i>mad</i>.… Now, come along to the smoking-room, +where I've ordered them to take the coffee, and where I'll give you +ten minutes to pull up your socks and do a bit of thinking."</p> +<br> +<p> +"Maybe you're right, Jimmy," said I as we lit our cigarettes. +"And if so, it's pretty ghastly.… He's had enough to put him +off his hinge. But somehow I can't bring myself—No, hang it! +I've always looked on Jack as the sanest man I've ever known. If he +has a failing it's for working everything out by cold reason."</p> + +<p>"Just what he's doing at this moment," answered Jimmy dryly. "If you +don't like the word 'mad' I'll take it back and substitute 'balmy,' +or anything you like. Madness is a relative term; and I should have +thought that what you call working-everything-out-by-cold-reason was +a form of it. I know jolly well that if I felt myself taken that way +I should go to a doctor about it. And if <i>you're</i> going to practise +it on the subject just now before the committee, I shall leave the +chair and this meeting breaks up in disorder."</p> + +<p>"The point is," said I, "that the letter has gone."</p> + +<p>"What address?" he asked pouring out the coffee.</p> + +<p>"Biarritz, Grand Hotel—Why surely you read it?"—I stared at him, +but he was looking down on the cups. Then of a sudden I understood. +"Jimmy," I said humbly, "I've been an ass."</p> + +<p>"Ah," said he, "I'm glad you see it in that light.… The +afternoon mail has gone: but there's the night boat. You can't +telegraph, unfortunately. In his state of mind you mustn't warn him. +You must catch him sitting."</p> + +<p>"Look here," I proposed. "It will be a nuisance for you, Jimmy—it +will probably bore you stiff. But if you'll only come along with +me…"</p> + +<p>"The implied compliment is noted and accepted," said Jimmy gravely. +"The invitation must be declined, with thanks, though. Your mind is +working better already. A few hours holiday off the L.C.C., and +you'll find yourself the man you were. But the gear wants oiling. +… Do you remember your betting me ten to one this morning, in a +lucid interval, that Farrell would break for home? Well, I didn't +take you up. I don't mind owning that, after you'd left, and after +some thought, I told Jephson to pack <i>both</i> suit-cases. But that +lawyer, with his infernal notion of dispatch in business, will have +put money in the Professor's pocket some hours before you reach +Biarritz. Money's his means of pursuit: and it's well on the cards +that you'll find both your birds flown. You are going to Biarritz, +Otty, for your sins—like Napoleon III. and other eminent persons +before you: and you'll have, unlike the historical character just +named, to go alone for your sins. For on your ten-to-one odds that +Farrell breaks for home it's obvious that I remain and keep goal. +Now what you have to do is to make for the bank and get out some +money, while I take a swim in the tank here. After that," added +Jimmy, relapsing into frivolity, "I'll look up the Trades Directory +for a respectable firm dealing in strait-waistcoats."</p> + +<p>Well, there is no need to tell of my chase to Biarritz; for I +arrived there only to be baulked. The porter who entered my name in +elegant script, with many flourishes, in the Hotel Visitors' Book, +informed me that the English Doctor had departed—it was four hours +ago—to catch the night express for Paris. Here was the entry— +"Dr. J. Foe, Chelsea, London." He had left no other address. +"Had he a companion?" No, none. He had passed his time in solitary +rambles: but on this, the last day, he had spent some time in writing +furiously, up to the moment of departure.</p> + +<p>The porter moved away to clear the letter-box, which stood pretty +near the end of the table. I examined the register. Farrell's name +was not among the entries.</p> + +<p>They had assigned me my room, and I was about to take the lift and +inspect, when I heard the porter say to himself, "<i>Tiens, c'est +drole, maintenant</i>." He had the bundle of cleared letters in his hand +and held out one. It was addressed to me in Jack's handwriting.</p> + +<p>I pounced for it. "<i>C'est a moi—Ceci s'expliquera, sans doute</i>." +The porter hesitated. "<i>Une lettre timbree—c'est contre les regies, +sinon contre la loi… mais puisque c'est pour monsieur, +apparement</i>—"</p> + +<p>A ten-franc piece did the rest. I took the letter up to my chamber +where I opened it and read—</p> + + +<blockquote><blockquote> +<p class = "noindent"> +<span class = "ind10">[FOE to OTWAY]</span><br><br> + +<span class = "ind20">"Grand Hotel, Biarritz.</span><br> + + "Dear Roddy,—I am obliged to you by receipt of your silly + lawyer's letter enclosing £100; though what kind of + salve it can spread on your conscience to commission a fellow + called Norgate to do what you won't do at first hand I fail to + perceive. However, have it your own way. I have an enemy who, + with a little training, won't give me time to worry about my + friends.<br><br> + + "Farrell is improving. It was difficult at first to get a move + on a man of his stupidity, and I could only work on his one + sensitive nerve, which is cowardice. He has imagination enough + to be terrified of that which hides and doesn't declare itself + whether for good or evil.<br><br> + + "My own early experiments have, I admit, been amateurish. But I + shall acquire skill, and the appetite shall learn refinements, + to keep it in health. I don't think it was bad sport, on the + whole, to open with low comedy. It tickled me, anyhow, to watch + Farrell emerge from a sort of bathing-machine upon the <i>plage</i>, + moderately nude and quite unsuspicious—having given me that + artful slip in Paris—and, approaching the machine from the + rear, to insert his shirt-collar, with my card, into his + left-hand shoe.<br><br> + + "That was the first card I left on him. He was putting up at the + <i>Albion</i>—I had no need to search; for the local paper, of + course, prints a Visitors' List which it collects from the + hotels, and there my gentleman was, under his own name. + (Oh, we're in the simple stages of the process, thus far, and he + hasn't yet had recourse to so much as an <i>alias</i>.) But I + didn't call on him at the <i>Albion</i>.<br><br> + + "I have since learnt from him that the discovery of my card in + the bathing-machine shook him up—well, pretty much as the + footprint on the sand shook up Robinson Crusoe. But there's a + difference, as he'll learn, between being shaken and being + scared into fits. At all events, he didn't bolt: for I kept out + of sight and molested him no more that day. Next morning he + took courage and started off for the golf-links, which lie out + to the north, beyond the lighthouse. He was enjoying his + liberty, you understand: for I had made him carry his clubs + about and up and down the Riviera, but never allowed him to + play. That was a part of our understanding. Also he may have + had some hazy notion that, golf being to me as holy water to the + Devil, he'd be safe out there, within a charmed circle.<br><br> + + "There's something in it, too, Roddy. And I've half a mind, if + he doesn't wake up and improve, to offer him a handicap. + He shall be safe, all the world over, when he can find a + golf-course for sanctuary, and shall play his little game while + I wait for him and:"<br><br> + +<span class = "ind8">Sit on a stile</span><br> +<span class = "ind6">And continue to smile.</span><br><br> + + "I wonder what sort of a hell it would be, going round and + round on endless rounds of golf—with a real Colonel Bogey + sitting on the stile and watching.… But I make no promises, + no offers, just now.<br><br> + + "He tells me that at the Club House he found a Golf Major of + sorts—or, as he puts it, 'a compatriot, a military gentleman, + retired, with a remarkable knowledge of India'—and seduced him + into playing a round. I should gather that Farrell plays an + indifferent game. At all events, the Golf Major was averse from + a second round, and retiring to a table in the Club veranda + allowed Farrell to call for—catch hold of your French, Roddy— + '<i>Deux bieres, complet</i>.' The waiter understood it to mean + liquid refreshment and not a double funeral.… Over the + drink the Golf Major, who had known Biarritz for twenty years, + explained the difference between its old and its new + golf-course, and informed Farrell that in the old one there had + used to be the most sporting hole anywhere—for a beginner. + You drove slap across a chasm of the sea: if you didn't land + your ball neatly you were in the devil of a hole, and if you + foozled you saw your ball dropping down, down, to the beach and + the Atlantic. 'Too expensive for duffers altogether, especially + when the price of balls rose. Only the caddies thrived on it, + at the risk of their necks.… After this tiffin we'll stroll + over and have a look at it.'<br><br> + + "So thither they strolled, and by and by started to amuse + themselves with pot-shot drives from the old tee. The Major + whacked his ball across to a neat lie time after time. + Farrell muffed and foozled, wasting his substance in riotous + slogging. The height of the cliff, maybe, dizzied his head.<br><br> + + "In this way I suppose he expended all his ammunition. At any + rate there came a pause, and a small Basque boy in a blue + <i>beret</i> began to descend the slope very cautiously, searching + for lost balls in the scree. At the foot of the gully, where it + funnelled to a sheer drop, I stepped from under my shelter and + met the youngster, holding out a golf-ball. 'Here is one more,' + said I—'Where are the two gentlemen gone?' He told me that + they had gone back to the Club House. 'Then here is a franc for + you,' said I, 'and here is a card which you will take with the + ball and my compliments to the gentleman who cannot play golf so + well as the other gentleman.'<br><br> + + "The lad grinned. We climbed the cliff together, and I saw him + speed off to the Club House."<br><br> + +<br> + "I had thus left two cards on Farrell, and it was now his turn to + call: which he duly did, and next day; not, however, at the + Grand Hotel, but at a far more romantic place of entertainment.<br><br> + + "If you don't know this place—and I do not commend it to you for + entertainment towards the close of the English season—let me + tell you that, walking south from the town by paths that lead + around the curves of the foreshore, you quickly lose Biarritz + and find yourself in a deserted and melancholy country,—a sort + of blasted heath that belongs to a fairy-tale. The great + military road for Spain runs hidden, pretty wide on your left, + among the lower foothills of the Pyrenees: and from it these + foothills undulate down and drop over little cliffs to form a + moorland with patches of salt marish. In spring, they tell me, + the ground is all gay with scarlet anemones in sheets; but, when + I took the path, their glory was over and but a few late flowers + lingered. I happen, however, to like flowers for their scent + more than for their colour: and the whole of this moor was a + spilth of scent from bushes of the purple Daphne—its full + flowering time over, but its scent lingering ghostlily on the + salt wind from the sea. And the sea was forlorn as it always is + in this inner bight of the Bay of Biscay, where no ships have + any business and your whole traffic is a fishing-boat or two, or + a thread of smoke out on the horizon. You are alone between sea + and mountains; and all along the strip that separates them, + while the sky is spring, the land and the sense of it are + autumn.<br><br> + + "Now I don't know the history of it, but can only guess that once + on a time some enterprising speculator, fired by the sudden + Third-Empire blaze of Biarritz, conceived the project of + starting a rival watering place, here to the South, and that + they were to make its beginning with a colossal Hotel. At any + rate, here, rounding a desolate point of the foreshore, I came + upon a long desolate beach, and a long desolate building, + magnificent of facade, new and yet ruinated, fronting the Bay + with a hundred empty eye-sockets.<br><br> + + "It broke on the view with a shock. It made me glance over my + shoulder to make sure of the real Biarritz not far behind. + But three or four spits of land shut off that human, if vulgar, + resort. Between me and the Pyrenees this immense ghastly + sarcophagus of misdirected enterprise possessed the landscape, + and I approached it. Yes, Roddy:"<br><br> + +<span class = "ind6">Dauntless the slughorn to my lips I set,</span><br> +<span class = "ind6">And blew. <i>Childe Roland to the Dark Tower came</i>.</span><br><br> + + "The horrible place turned out to be a mask—as I hope the Dark + Tower did, after all, for Childe Roland. But it was a horrible + mask. It had been started on foundations of good stone, with + true French lordliness: but it parodied—or, rather, it + satirised—the ambitious French tendency to impose architecture + upon nature. Behind the facade, through which the wind + whistled, all was an unroofed mass of rusted girders and joists; + a skeleton framework about which I climbed—the first and last + guest—conning and guessing where suites of rooms had been + planned, to be adorned with Louis Seize furniture, for a host of + fellow-guests that had never come and now would never arrive to + make merry. I clambered along a girder, off which my heels + scaled the rust in long flakes, and thrust my head through one + of the great empty windows to take in the view.<br><br> + + "—Which was indeed magnificent. But my eye switched from it to + a mean little human figure, moving along the foreshore with a + gait which, even at a goodish distance, I recognised for + Farrell's. It looked like a beetle creeping, nearing, across + the flats and hummocks. But it was Farrell.<br><br> + + "He halted at some distance, as I had halted; arrested, as I had + been arrested, at sight of the incongruous great structure, + planted here. He drew close, cast a sort of questioning glance + seaward, very deliberately drew a pair of field-glasses from a + case slung over his shoulder, and focused them on the building, + lifting them slowly.<br><br> + + "I had drawn back behind my window-jamb, yet so as to watch him. + As he tilted the glasses upward, I leaned out.<br><br> + + "He stood for a moment, or two motionless. Then his hands sank, + with the glasses clutched in them. He walked slowly away. + When he judged himself hidden by a spit of the shore—but my + window overlooked it—he broke into a run.<br><br> + + "I note that he is already beginning to reduce his figure.<br><br> +<br> + "I returned the call that same evening. I dropped in on + him as he took his seat to dine <i>solus</i> at the <i>Albion</i>. + The dining-room, I should tell you, was fairly full. Usual + ruck of people: sort of too-English; English you see at + <i>tables-d'hote</i> and nowhere else in the world, with an + end-of-season preponderance of females who stay to look after + the British chaplain a little longer than he needs, or to + gratify some obscure puritan pride in seeing everybody out, or + because there's a bargain to be squeezed with the management to + the last ounce, or peradventure because they've planned a series + of cheap visits at home for our beautiful summer and one or two + of the Idle Rich have remembered to be less idle than they were + last year, and more restive.<br><br> + + "To do him credit—and it makes me hopeful for him—Farrell has a + certain instinct of self-preservation. Let us never forget that + he is a widower. Amid these Amazons he had fenced a bachelor + table. I walked up to it straight and said, with a glance + around, 'Farrell, you're lonely.'<br><br> + + "He passed a hand over his forehead and murmured, 'Oh, for God's + sake—don't drive me like this!…'<br><br> + + "'Nonsense,' said I. 'Forget it, man. Look around you and say + if there's one of these spinsters you'd rather have for + companion. Don't raise your voice. You started in admirable + key.… Let's keep to it and understand one another. + I'm dining with you. If you like, we'll toss up later for who + pays: but I'm dining with you. I promise not to hurt you + to-night, if that helps conviviality.'<br><br> + + "'It does,' said he in a queer way. 'Let's talk.'<br><br> + + "'Well then,' said I confidentially. 'You're a solid man. + You've made your way in the world, and I suppose the sort of + success you've won implies some grit.… What makes you + afraid of me, Farrell?'<br><br> + + "He drank some wine and stared down on the table-cloth, knitting + his brows. 'Well,' he answered, 'I might tell you it's because + you're mad.'<br><br> + + "'That's nonsense,' I assured him.<br><br> + + "'Oh, is it?' said he. 'I'd like to be sure it is.'<br><br> + + "'My pulse, as yours, doth temperately keep time," I quoted. + 'Feel it, Farrell.'<br><br> + + "I stretched out my wrist. He started back as though it had been + a snake.<br><br> + + "'On the whole you're right,' said I, drawing back my hand + slowly, watching his eyes. 'If they saw you feeling my pulse + the ladies around us would at once solve the doubt they have + discussed in the drawing-room. All <i>table-d'hote</i> ladies + speculate concerning their fellow-guests in the hotel.… . + Thirty pairs of eyes were on the point of detecting you for a + fashionable physician, and by this time to-morrow thirty ladies + travelling in search of health would have found means to make + your acquaintance and pump you for medical advice on the + cheap.… Yes, Farrell, you have a lively instinct of + self-preservation. I will note it.… Now tell me.—When I + walked in just now, that same instinct prompted you to get up + and run; to run as you did along the foreshore this afternoon. + What restrained you?'<br><br> + + "'Why, hang it all,' he blurted with a look around; 'a fellow + couldn't very well show up like that before all these ladies!'<br><br> + + "He meant it too, Roddy. It came out with a flush, plump and + honest.<br><br> + + "It makes the chase more interesting. But I am annoyed with + myself over the miscalculation.… I could have sworn he was + a coward in grain. I marked all the <i>stigmata</i>.… + And behold he can show fight!—at any rate in presence of the + other sex.… Can something have happened to him, think you, + since our talk at Versailles? Is it possible that I am + <i>educating</i> the man?<br><br> + + "On top of this complicating discovery I made a simplifying one.<br><br> + + "You know that I have a knack with animals, in the way of + handling their passions. I've never tried it on humans: for + I've never laid down any basis of knowledge, and I've always + detested empiricism. That study, as you remember, was to come.<br><br> + + "Well, I'll write further about it some day.… But I believe + I have <i>something like</i> this power over Farrell.… I put out + a feeler or two—to change metaphors, I waved a hand gently over + the lyre, scarcely touching the strings; and it certainly + struck me that they responded. You will understand that a + <i>table-d'hote</i> was no place for pushing the experiment. + And there were one or two men in the smoking-room when we sought + it.<br><br> + + "Farrell found himself; talked, after a while, quite well and + easily. In the smoking-room he told me a good deal about his + early life: all <i>bourgeois</i> stuff, of course, but recounted in + the manner that belongs to it, and quite worth listening to.<br><br> + + "He never wilted once, until I got up to go and drank what + remained of my whisky-and-seltzer 'to our next merry meeting.' + He followed me out to the hotel doorway to say Good night. + We did not shake hands.<br><br> + + "There are indications that he will travel back north to-night. + He has left for Pau, to play golf. At Dax this evening—mark my + words—a solitary traveller may be observed furtively stealing + on board the night express for Paris. He will be observed: but + he won't be a solitary traveller.<br><br> + + "Your lawyer's letter—as I started by remarking—has arrived + opportunely. If Farrell, as I suspect, intends to go through to + London, I may reach you almost as soon as this letter, and shall + add a piece of my mind for a postscript.—Yours,"<br><br> + +<span class = "ind15">"J. F."</span></p> +</blockquote></blockquote> +<br><br> + +<p>I slept the night at Biarritz and started back early next morning for +London.</p> + +<p>I found Jimmy recumbent in what he called his Young Oxford Student's +Reading Chair, alone with the racing news in the evening papers.</p> + +<p>"Hallo!" he greeted me. "I rather expected you just now. Let's go +and dine somewhere."</p> + +<p>"Has Jack turned up here?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"'Course he has: Farrell too—Farrell first by a short head. +Rather a good idea, my stopping at home to keep goal. Hard lines on +you, though; all that journey for nothing.… If it's any +consolation, the Professor was much affected when I told him of all +the trouble you were taking, out of pure friendship, to fit him with +a strait-waistcoat. 'Good old Roddy!' he said."</p> + +<p>"No, he didn't," I interrupted. "And if he did, we'll cut that out. +Tell me what happened."</p> + +<p>"He said he had posted a letter to you from Biarritz: that it ought +to have arrived by this time. I told him it hadn't, and it hasn't. +If it had, I warn you I should have opened it."</p> + +<p>"That's all right," I said. "I extracted it from the post-box at +Biarritz, and have it here. You shall read it by and by. Go on."</p> + +<p>"Well, in my opinion, the Professor's pulling your leg—or he and +Farrell between 'em. If either's mad, it's Farrell; or else—which +I'm inclined to suspect—Farrell's a born actor."</p> + +<p>"Now see here," I threatened, "I've travelled some thousands of +miles: I've spent two nights in the train and one in a French +bedstead haunted by mosquitoes: I've had the beast of a crossing, and +I'm in the worst possible temper. Will you, please tell me exactly +what has happened?"</p> + +<p>"You shall have the details over dinner," he promised affably. +"For you've omitted the one observation that's relevant—your stomach +is crying aloud for a meal. The Cafe Royal is prescribed."</p> + +<p>"Not until I've had a tub and dressed myself. The dust of +coal-brick—"</p> + +<p>"That's all right, again.… I admonished Jephson. You'll find +the bath spread and your clothes laid out in your bedder, and in five +minutes or so Jephson will bring hot water in a lordly can. I, too, +will dress.… But meantime, here are the outlines:</p> + +<p>"Farrell knocked in early this morning. He was agitated and he +perspired. He wished to see you at once. I pointed out that it was +impossible and, as they say in examinations, gave reasons for my +answer. Hearing it, he showed a disposition to shake at the knees +and cling to the furniture. When he went on to discover that I might +do in your place, and the furniture's place, and started clinging to +me—well, I struck. I pointed out that he was apparently sound in +wind and limb, inquired if he owed money, and having his assurance to +the contrary, suggested that he should pull himself together and copy +the Village Blacksmith.</p> + +<p>"While we were arguing it, the Professor butted in. I'll do him the +justice to say he wasn't perspiring. But he, too, was in the devil +of a hurry to interview you. So I had to play band as before.</p> + +<p>"The position was really rather funny. There, by the door, was the +Professor, asking questions hard, and seemingly unaware that Farrell +was anywhere in the room. Here was I, playing faithful Gelert +life-size, but pretty warily, covering Farrell—who, for aught I +knew, had gone to earth under the sofa. I couldn't hear him +breathing—and he's pretty stertorous, as a rule.</p> + +<p>"I kept a pretty straight eye on the Professor, somehow, and told him +the facts—that you had sent the money ('Yes, I know,' said he: 'I +got it before leaving Biarritz'): that you had actually gone to that +health-resort in search of him. ('Good God!' said he. 'That's like +old Roddy'—or some words to that effect. You wouldn't let me repeat +'em, just now.) Then he started telling me about this letter he'd +posted at Biarritz, and that it should have arrived, by rights. +'Well, it hasn't,' said I, feeling pretty inhospitable for not asking +him to sit down and have a drink.… But, you see, I wasn't +certain he wouldn't sit down somewhere on top of Farrell.… +'Think he'll be home tonight?' asked the Professor. 'That's what I'm +allowing, in the circumstances,' said I. '—But you owe him some +apology, you know, because you've led him the devil of a dance.' +'Don't I realise <i>that!</i>' says he, like a man worried and much +affected. 'We'll call around to-night, on the chance of his turning +up to forgive us. Come along, Farrell!' says he.</p> + +<p>"I whipped about; and there was Farrell, seated in that chair of +yours, bolt upright, smirking as foolish as a wet-nurse at a +christening! I couldn't have believed my eyes.… But there it +was—and after what I'd been listening to, five minutes before!</p> + +<p>"As I'm describing it, it staggered me—and the more when the +Professor, looking past me, said, 'If you're ready, Farrell?' and +Farrell stood up, smiling and ready, and moved to join him. +But I kept what face I could.</p> + +<p>"'You're going to look in again, you two?' I asked. The Professor +said 'Yes, on the chance that Roddy may turn up'; and he looked at +Farrell; and Farrell blinked and said, 'Yes, we owe him an +explanation, of course.'</p> + +<p>"'Well,' said I,' you'll be lucky if he don't throw you both +downstairs for a pair of knockabout artists astray. I've a sense of +humour that can stretch some distance, and with the permission of our +kind friends in front this matinee performance will be repeated +to-night, when Otty's sense of humour will gape for it, no doubt, +after being stretched to the Pyrenees and back.'</p> + +<p>"The Professor motioned Farrell out to the staircase. Then he came +forward to me and said, pretty low and serious, 'You're a good boy, +Jimmy. You're so good a boy that I want you to keep out of this. +If Roddy turns up to-night, tell him that my man's for Wimbledon, +safe and sound. On second thoughts, we won't bother a tired man, +to-night, with any excuses or apologies. By to-morrow he will +probably have had my letter, and will understand. He may or may not +decide to show it to you. I hope he won't. I hope you'll let us see +him alone to-morrow. Good-bye.'</p> + +<p>"—Now what do you make of that?" demanded Jimmy helplessly.</p> + +<p>"I make it out to be no jest, but pretty serious," said I. +"But luckily Farrell's located at Wimbledon. Where's Jack?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Don't know," answered Jimmy.</p> + +<p>"I'm tired enough for this night, anyhow," said I. "And here's +Jephson.—'Evening, Jephson."</p> + +<p>Jephson came in with a can in one hand and in the other a tray with a +telegram upon it.</p> + +<p>"Good evening, Sir Roderick! Glad to see you safe home, sir," said +Jephson. "Telegram just delivered at the Lodge for Mr. Collingwood."</p> + +<p>"For me?" said Jimmy. "I've backed nothing to-day. Been too busy."</p> + +<p>He tore upon the envelope, read the message, and after a pause handed +it to me, whistling softly. It had been handed in at the Docks +Station, Liverpool, and it ran—</p> + +<p> + "Tell O. that F. and I sail to-night New York S.S. <i>Emania</i>.</p> + +<p> "Foe."</p> + + +<br> +<br> +<p><a name="13"></a> </p> +<h3>NIGHT THE TWELFTH.</h3> +<br> + +<h4>THE "EMANIA".</h4> + +<p>I am going to spin the next stretch of this yarn—and maybe the next +after it—in my own way. You will wonder how I happened by certain +scraps of information: but you will understand before we come to the +end.</p> + +<p>It comes mainly from later report, but partly from documents which I +have been too busy, of late, to sift. Here they are, all mixed: and +I choose one only out of the heap—and that a passage which doesn't +help the actual story much, though it may help the understanding of +it. It occurs in a letter of Foe's written at sea and posted from +New York—</p> +<br> +<p> "She had been reading a magazine, borrowed from the ship's + library, and when she left me, she left it lying beside her + deck-chair. The wind ruffled its pages and threatened to tear + them: so I picked the thing up, and was about to close it, and + to stow it behind her cushion, when a story-title caught my eye + and agreeably whetted my curiosity. It was 'The Head Hunter.'</p> + +<p> "I don't care greatly for short stories. Fiction as a rule bores + me in inverse proportion to its length—which seems a paradox + and liable to be reduced to the absurd by any moderately expert + logician. Yet you will find it experimentally true of five + readers out of six.… Moreover the yarn had little or + nothing to do with real head-hunting—except in its preamble. + I soon glanced at the end, and had no further use for the story.</p> + +<p> "But I turned my attention back to the preamble and reread it + twice. The fellow, an American, has a queer cocky irregular + style: but he can write when he chooses: and in one shot he so + fairly hit me between wind and water that I had to steal the + book, carry it down to my cabin and copy out the passage for + your benefit.… Yes, for yours: because it conveys something + I've been wanting you to understand about this chase of mine, + something I couldn't have put into words though I'd tried for a + month. I enclose it herewith.…</p> + +<p> "When I had finished my copying, I took the thing back, meaning + to slip it under Miss Denistoun's cushion. But she had returned + to her chair, and so I was caught red-handed. 'So it was you?' + said she. 'What have you been doing with my magazine?' + 'Skimming it,' said I—which was true enough, literally, but I + didn't manage it very well. 'Did you find anything to interest + you specially?' she asked. 'Well, yes,' I admitted;' I picked + it up and lit on something that promised well: but the story + came to nothing.' She gave me a glance and I felt sure she had + spotted my awkwardness and was going to pursue the catechism. + But she didn't. To my relief she harked back to our previous + talk. At tea-time, however, she remembered to take the + magazine away with her.… It has not yet been returned to + store.…"</p> + +<h4>(ENCLOSURE)</h4> + +<p> "'<i>Particularly during my stay in Mindanao had I been fascinated + and attracted by that delightfully original tribe of heathen + known as the head-hunters. Those grim, flinty, relentless + little men, never seen, but chilling the warmest noonday by the + subtle terror of their concealed presence, paralleling the trail + of their prey through unmapped forests, across perilous + mountain-tops, adown bottomless chasms, into uninhabitable + jungles, always near, with the inevitable hand of death + uplifted, betraying their pursuits only by such signs as a beast + or a bird or a gliding serpent might make—a twig crackling in + the awful sweat-soaked night, a drench of dew showering from the + screening foliage of a giant tree, a whisper at even from the + rushes of a water-level—a hint of death for every mile and + every hour—they amused me greatly, those little fellows of one + idea.</i>'"</p> + +<p>You observe that a lady has come into the story at last, as she was +bound to do. (You will hear of another and a very different one by +and by.) It is not my fault that she enters it so late—I tell of +things as they occurred—though a clever writer would have dragged +her in long before this. I wish to God I hadn't to bring her into it +at all. I slipped out her surname just now.…</p> + +<p>It was through being a friend of mine that she comes into it. +Constantia Denistoun and I had ridden ponies, tickled for trout, +bird-nested, tumbled off trees, out of duck-punts, through forbidden +ice, and into every form of juvenile disgrace, together as boy and +girl. Her father and mine had been college friends, and (I believe) +had both fallen in love with my mother, at a College ball, and my +father won—but all on an understanding of honourable combat. +Denistoun set out to travel, quite in the traditional way of the +Rejected One. He was a Yorkshire squire with plenty of money, and +could afford the prescribed cure. He travelled as far as to +Virginia, U.S.A., where he halted, and wooed and won the heiress of a +wide estate of cotton and tobacco and a great Palladian house, all +devastated and ruined by the War, in which her father had fallen, +one of Lee's pet leaders of cavalry.… Yes, I know it sounds +like a tale out of Ouida: but such things happen, and this thing +happened.… Denistoun scaled the twenty steps of the Ionic +portico, cleft his way through the cobwebs and briers that were +living and dying for Dixie, kicked over the grand piano that Dinah's +duster still reverentially spared, and carried off the enchanted +Princess across the seas to Yorkshire: where in due course she bore +him a daughter, Constantia, and, some years later, a son who +eventually came into the property but doesn't come into the story.</p> + +<p>In the meantime it had happened that <i>I</i> saw the light.… +My mother died, a year later: and after seven years of widowhood my +father married again. My sister Sally—the recipient of those long +letters you see me inditing o' nights—is my step-sister, and an +adored one at that.</p> + +<p>There you have the family history, or enough of it. The old +friendship between my father and Squire Denistoun had never been +broken; and now that death had taken away the last excuse for a +rivalry which had been felt but to be renounced, Constantia and I— +unconscious brats—shared holidays, as it chanced at my home or hers, +in nefarious poaching beside Avon or in gallops between her northern +moors and the sea.</p> + +<p>That is all, or almost all. I have to add that, having fallen into +most scrapes with her, I ended by proposing one in which she gently +but decisively declined to share the risk.… I am inclined to +think that, having been so frank with her, and so frequent, in +confidences about others to whom my heart was lost, she may have +missed the bloom on the recital.… But there it was; and that's +that, as they say.</p> + +<p>I accused her at the time of a priggish, unnatural craving for things +of the intellect. All my excuse was that at a certain time of her +life she took a sudden turn for reading and setting queer new values +on things. But she was always a sportswoman, a woman of the open +air, and—here's the point—always knowledgeable with animals and +always beloved by them, but always (as it seemed to me) inclined to +be severe and disciplinary. To a lean pack she was Diana; they +fawned behind her for no pay but hope of her word to let slip. +But she would beat them off the piled platter, and from a fed lap-dog +she could scarcely restrain her hands. If you think this hasn't to +do with the story, I can only assure you that it has.</p> + +<p>One thing more—She had met Foe; for the first time at a +luncheon-party in my rooms at Cambridge, in May Week; a second time, +it may be, at a May Week ball—but that wouldn't count, for she +danced divinely and Foe couldn't compete for nuts. She may have met +him once or twice afterwards, in London. It's not likely.</p> + +<p>Anyhow (as she has told me since) she recognised him at once when he +turned up on the <i>Emania</i>.</p> + +<p>She and her mother were bound out to visit some friends at +Washington, thence to fare South and stay a while with a cousin who +held the old homestead in which her mother retained some sort of +dower share.</p> + +<p>Thus she recognised Foe as soon as he appeared on deck.</p> + +<p>But he did not appear on deck until the <i>Emania</i> was well out from +Queenstown; having made sure that Farrell didn't bolt there. +The two—need I tell it?—had not taken passage in collusion. +Farrell was escaping, Foe on his trail. But Foe had no idea of any +dramatic surprise on board. Having made sure of his man, he just +took a remnant first-class berth at the last moment, turned in, and +went to sleep.</p> + +<p>In all their commerce (you will have begun to remark) Foe and Farrell +were apt to yield, at intervals, to an abandonment of weariness, but +so that they alternated, the exhaustion of one seeming ever to double +the other's fever. Foe sought his bunk and lay there like a log. +Farrell, after the first shock of reading his pursuer's name in the +Passengers' Book—where it sprang to his eyes fair and square—fell +to haunting the passage-way, low down in the vessel, on which one +dreadful door refused to open. His terror of it so preoccupied him +that he forgot to feel sea-sick. But the steward of those nether +regions marked him, by the electric lamps, as a lurking passenger to +be watched; and wondered who, at that depth in the ship, could be +carrying valuables to tempt a middle-aged gentleman who (if looks +were any guide) ought to be up and losing money to the regular +card-sharpers.</p> + +<p>It was not until the second day out, and pretty late in the +afternoon, that Foe emerged from his cabin, neatly dressed and hale. +(Unlike some Professors I have known, Jack kept his clothes brushed +and his hair cut.) As he opened his door his ear caught a slight +shuffling sound; whereupon he smiled and stepped quickly down the +passage to the turn of the companion way.</p> + +<p>"No hurry, Farrell!" he called; and Farrell, arrested, turned slowly +about on the stair. "Man, you're like the swain in Thackeray:"</p> + +<blockquote><blockquote> +<p class = "noindent">Although I enter not,<br> + Yet round about the spot<br> +<span class = "ind2">Oft-times I hover—</span></p> +</blockquote></blockquote> + +<p>"Solicitous, were you?—thought I might be sea-sick?"</p> + +<p>"I was wondering," Farrell stammered. "Seeing that you didn't turn +up at meals—"</p> + +<p>(Here I must read you a queer remark from the letter in which Jack +reported this encounter. Here's the extract:—)</p> + +<p> "<i>Do you know, Roddy, that silly simple answer gave me half a + fright for a moment, or a fright for half a moment—I forget + which.… What I had to remember then was my discovery that I + had my second keyboard in reserve and could pull certain stops + out of him at will.… But seriously, I wouldn't, without + that power, back myself in this experiment against a man who + obstinately persisted in forgiving. It came on me with a + flash—and I offer this tribute to the Christian religion</i>."</p> + +<p>Foe's answer was, "Very kind of you. As a fact, I have been +subsisting on hard biscuit and weak whisky-and-water: though I'm an +excellent sailor, as they say.… It's a diet that suits me when +I'm working hard."</p> + +<p>"Working?" exclaimed Farrell. "What? Head-work, d'you mean?… +Doctor, this is the best news you could have told me. If only I +could know that you were picking up your interests—getting back to +yourself—"</p> + +<p>Foe took him by the arm. "It's no good, unfortunately," he answered. +"Come up on deck, and I'll tell you."</p> + +<p>On deck he repeated, "It's no good. I've been hard at it, working on +my memory, trying to sketch out a kind of monograph—summary of +conclusions—salvage from the wreck. But it won't do. It was an +edifice to be built up on data, bit by bit, like an atoll.… Ever +seen a coral reef, by the way? We'll inspect one—many perhaps—on +our travels.… I'd burn in the pit rather than smatter out +popular guess-work. Yes, all personal pride apart, I couldn't do it. +But however badly I set down conclusions, they've all rested on data, +they've all grown up on data, and I haven't the data.… I wrote +out half a dozen pages and then asked myself, 'What would <i>you</i> say +if a man came along professing to have made this discovery? +You'd demand his evidence, and you'd be right. Of course you'd be +right. And if he didn't produce it, you'd call him a quack. +Right again.'… From this personal point of view, to be sure, I +might take this sorry way out—print my conclusions, and anticipate +the demand for evidence by throwing myself overboard.… In the +dim and distant future some fellow might strike the lost path, take +the pains that I've taken, work out the theory, yes, and (it's even +possible) be generous enough to add that, by some freak of guessing, +in the year 1907, a certain Dr. John Foe, of whom nothing further is +known, did, in unscientific fashion, hit on the truth, or a part of +the truth. Oh, damn! <i>Why</i> should I burn in the pit, or throw myself +overboard, or go down to the shades for a quack, because a thing like +you has crawled out of the Tottenham Court Road.… Eh? Well, I +won't, anyhow: and so you see how it is, and how it's going to be."</p> + +<p>Farrell leaned against the rail, and held to a boat's davit, while +his gaze wandered vaguely out over the Atlantic as if it would +capture some wireless message. ("I knew how it would be," adds Foe +in his letter reporting this talk. "He was going to try the +forgive-and-forget with me: but by this time I was sure of myself.")</p> + +<p>"Listen to me, Doctor," Farrell began. "Listen to me, for God's +pity! I didn't get off at Queenstown, though I knew you were on +board—"</p> + +<p>"No use if you had," put in Foe. "You don't think I had overlooked +that possibility, do you?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I didn't, anyway," was the answer. "And I'll tell you why. +Honest I will.… We're both here and bound for America, ain't we? +And, from what I've heard, there's no such expensive, bright, +up-to-date laboratories—if that's the way to pronounce it—as you'll +find in the States, in every walk of Science. Now, I never meant you +an injury, Doctor; but I did you one—that I freely own.… What I +say is, if money can make any amends, and if there's an outfit for +science to be found in the States to your mind, why, I'll improve on +it, sir. And I'm not saying it, as you might suppose, under any +threat, but because I've been thinking it out and I mean it. I'm a +childless man—"</p> + +<p>Foe cut him short here. "My only trouble with you, Farrell," +said he, "is that you may reach your grave without understanding. +If I thought that wasn't preventible somehow, it would save me +trouble to wring your neck here and now and throw you overboard. +As it is—"</p> + +<p>But, as it was, along the deck just then came Constantia Denistoun, +with her mother leaning on her arm and a maid following. She +recognised Foe and halted.</p> + +<p>"Why, good Heavens!… and I'd no idea that you were on the +<i>Emania</i>," said she. "Mother, this is Mr. Foe—Roddy's friend, +you know.… Or ought I to call you Doctor, or Professor, or +what?… You weren't anything of that sort anyhow, when we met— +how many years ago? at Cambridge."</p> + +<p>—That, or to that effect.… Constantia told me afterwards that +she didn't remember throwing more than a glance at Farrell, whom she +took, very pardonably, to be a chance acquaintance from the +smoking-room, picked up as such acquaintances are picked up on +ship-board. And Farrell stood back a couple of paces. To do him +justice, he was in no wise a thruster.</p> + +<p>"It's odd," she went on, "that we haven't run across one another +until this moment. What's your business, over yonder? if that's not +a rude question."</p> + +<p>"It's a natural one, anyhow," Foe answered. "My business? Well, it +has been suggested to me that a trip in the States, to see what +they're doing in the way of scientific outfit and, maybe, get hints +for a new laboratory, might not be waste of time."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I know; I've heard," she said softly. "It's splendid to find +you taking it like this… picking up the pieces, eh?… +I wonder if"—she hesitated—"if I might ask you some questions? +… Just as much as you choose to tell: but something to put into +a letter to our Roddy, you know. Any news of you will be honey to +him.… You'll be writing from New York, of course. But one man +doesn't tell another that he's looking brave and well; and yet that's +often what the other may be most wanting to know."</p> + +<p>Foe was touched (so he's told me). He said some ordinary thing that +tried to show he was grateful, and Constantia and her mother passed +on. He had not introduced Farrell.</p> +<br> +<p> +Constantia told me most of the rest, some months later, pouring tea +for me in her flat. There is not much in it. She said that she had +taken very little account of Jack's companion; had just reckoned him +up for a chance idler in his company—"a sort of super-commercial +traveller"; so she described him; "not at all bad-looking though."</p> + +<p>She went on to tell that she had been mildly surprised to see them at +dinner, seated together; further surprised and even intrigued, to see +them at breakfast together, next morning.</p> + +<p>"Later," said she, "I asked him, 'Who's your friend that you didn't +introduce yesterday?' 'Well,' said Dr. Foe, 'I didn't introduce him +because I thought you mightn't like it. He's rather an outsider. +His name's Farrell.' 'Farrell,' I said—'But isn't that—wasn't +he—?' 'Yes, he is, and he was,' Dr. Foe told me very gravely. +'That's just it.' I couldn't help asking how, after what had +happened, they came to be travelling in company. 'That's the funny +part of it,' was the answer; 'he's trying to make some kind of—well, +of a reparation.' I thought better of Dr. Foe, Roddy.… It seems +so <i>mean</i>, somehow, that after what you've told me, Dr. Foe should +be-what shall I say?—accepting this reparation from a man who +happens to be rich!"</p> +<br> +<p> +Constantia repeated this, in effect, some two or three nights later. +We had danced through a waltz together and agreed to sit out another. +We sat it out, under a palm. It was somewhere in the immediate +neighbourhood of Queen's Gate, and a fashionable band, tired of +modernist tunes, was throbbing out the old <i>Wiener Blatter</i>.… +If Constantia remembered that sacred tune, she gave no sign of it.</p> + +<p>"I thought better—somehow—of your friend," said Constantia.</p> + +<p>I gave her a sort of guessing look. "You may take it from me, Con," +I said, "that the trouble's not there. I'm worried about Jack. +I haven't heard from him for months. But he's not of that make, +whatever he is."</p> + +<p>"Are you sure?" she asked. "I feel that I'd like to know. If you +are right, why were he and this Mr. Farrell such close friends?"</p> + +<p>"Farrell's pretty impossible, I agree," said I.</p> + +<p>Constantia opened her fan and snapped it. "Impossible?" said she. +"Well, I don't know.… Dr. Foe introduced him, later on… +and what do you think Mamma said? She said that she had supposed +them at first sight to be relatives. There was a trick about the +eyes and the corner of the brow.… You are quite sure," she added +irrelevantly, "that Dr.—that your friend—would be above—?"</p> + +<p>"I swear to you, Con," I assured her. "I know Jack Foe inside and +out."</p> + +<p>She had opened her fan again very deliberately; and as deliberately +she closed it.</p> + +<p>"No man ever knew that of a man," she said; "nor no woman either. +… You're a rotter, Roddy—but you're rather a dear."</p> + + +<br> +<br> +<p><a name="14"></a> </p> +<h3>NIGHT THE THIRTEENTH.</h3> +<br> + + + +<h4>ESCAPE.</h4> + +<p>Somewhere in the bustle of landing and scrimmage past the Customs, +Miss Denistoun lost sight of the two travellers; and with that, for a +time, she goes out of the story.</p> + +<p>You may almost put it that for a time they do the same. At all +events for the next few weeks the record keeps a very slight hold on +them and their doings. Jack knew, you see, that—though not a +disapproving sort, as a rule, and in those days (though you children +will hardly believe it) inclined to like my friends the better for +doing what they jolly well pleased—I barred this vendetta-game of +his, and would have called him off if I could. Folk were a bit more +squeamish, if you remember, in those dear old pre-War days.</p> + +<p>But please note <i>this</i>, for it is a part of his story. Jack wrote +seldom, having a sense that I didn't want to hear. When he did +write, however, he was liable at any time to break away from the +light, half-jesting, half-defiant tone which he had purposely chosen +to cover our disagreement, and to give me a sentence or two, or even +a page, of cold-blooded confession. It may have been that his +purpose, at that point, suddenly absorbed him, sucked him under. +It may have been that his fixed idea had begun to spread like a +disease over his other sensibilities, hardening and deadening the +tissue, so that he did this kind of thing unconsciously. It may have +been both. You shall judge before we have finished.</p> + +<p>I will give you just one specimen. It occurs in the very first +letter addressed from America. He and Farrell had spent five days in +New York:</p> + +<p> "I am going to ease the chain—to run it out several lengths, + in fact. I shall still keep pretty close in attendance on the + patient, but my professional visits will be rarer. A new and + more strenuous course of treatment requires these holidays, if + his nerves are not to break down under it.</p> + +<p> "The suggestion, after all, came from him, and I am merely + improving on it.… This continent has started a small + heat-wave—the first of the summer. Now Farrell, who perspires + freely, tells me that he doesn't mind any amount of heat, so + that it isn't accompanied by noise: but noise and heat combined + drive him crazy. I had myself noted that while the tall + buildings here excited no curiosity in him, he acted as the + veriest rubberneck under the clang and roar of the overhead + trains; and the din of Broadway, he confessed, gave him vertigo + after the soft tide of traffic that moves broad and full— + 'strong without rage, without o'erflowing full'—down Tottenham + Court Road, embanked with antique furniture or colourable + imitations.</p> + +<p> "He made this confession to me in the <i>entr'acte</i> of a silly + vaudeville, to witness which we had been carried by an elevator + some sixteen storeys and landed on a roof crowded with palms and + funny people behaving like millionaires. In the <i>entr'acte</i> the + band sank its blare suddenly to a sort of 'Home, Sweet Home' + adagio, and after a minute of it Farrell put up a hand, covering + his eyes, and I saw the tears welling—yes, positively—between + his fingers. He's sentimental, of course.</p> + +<p> "I asked what was the matter? He turned me a face like poor + Susan's when at the thrush's song she beheld:"</p> + +<blockquote><blockquote> +<p class = "noindent">Bright volumes of vapour through Lothbury glide<br> + And a river flow on through the vale of Cheapside.</p> +</blockquote></blockquote> +<br> + +<p> He said pitiably that he wanted—that he wanted very much—to go + home; and gave as his reason that New York was too noisy for + him.… A sudden notion took me at this. 'If that's the + trouble,' I answered, 'one voice in this city shall cease its + small contribution to the din.… We will try,' I said, + 'the sedative of silence.'</p> + +<p> "For three days now I have been applying this treatment. + At breakfast, luncheon, dinner; in the street, at the theatre; + I sit or walk with him, saying never a word, silent as a shadow. + He desires nothing so little, I need not tell you. In the + infernal din of this town he looks at me and would sell his + soul for the sound of an English voice—even his worst enemy's. + It is torture, and he will break down if I don't give him a + holiday. The curious part of it is that, under this twist of + the screw, he has apparently found some resource of pluck. + He doesn't entreat, though it is killing him with quite curious + rapidity. I must give him a holiday to-morrow."</p> +<br> +<p> +I piece it out from later letters that from New York they harked out +and harked back, to and from various excursions—quite ordinary ones. +I might, if it were worth while, construct the itinerary; but it +would take a lot of useless labour and yield nothing of importance. +If Farrell, under this careful slackness of pursuit, had made a bolt +for Texas or Alaska, the chronicle just here might be worth reciting. +But he didn't, and it isn't. Buffalo—Long Island—Newport—and, in +one of Jack's letters, Chicago for farthest West—occur in a miz-maze +fashion. It is obvious to me that during these months Farrell, kept +on the run, ran like a hare (and a pretty tame one); that twice or +thrice he headed back for New York, and was headed off.</p> + +<p>I passed over each letter, as it came, to Jimmy, It was over some +later letter, pretty much like the one I've just read to you, that +Jimmy, frowning thoughtfully, put the sudden question, "I say, Otty, +are we fond enough of him to start on another wild-goose chase?—to +America this time, and together?"</p> + +<p>"Jack's my best friend, of course," I answered after a moment. +"You don't tell me—" and here I broke off, for he was eyeing me +queerly.</p> + +<p>"The Professor is, or was, a pretty good friend of mine," said he. +"But you hesitated a moment. Why?… Oh, you needn't answer: +I'll tell you. When I asked, 'Are you so fond of him?' for a +moment—just for a flash—you hadn't Jack Foe in your mind, but +Farrell."</p> + +<p>"Well, that's true," I owned. "I'm pretty angry with Jack: he's +playing it outside the touch-line, in my opinion. Except that I +detest cruelty, Farrell's nothing to me, of course."</p> + +<p>"I wonder," Jimmy mused. "Sometimes, when I'm thinking over this +affair—but let us confine ourselves to the Professor. He's in some +danger, if you think <i>that</i> worth the journey. They shoot pretty +quick in the States, and they don't value human life a bit as we +value it in England: or so I've always heard. If it's true—and it +would be rather interesting to run across and find this out for +oneself—one of these days Farrell will be pushed outside <i>his</i> +touch-line—outside the British conventions in which he lives and +moves and has his poor being—and a second later the Professor will +get six pellets of lead pumped into him."</p> + +<p>"Oh, as for that," said I, "Jack must look after himself, as he's +well able to. When a man takes to head-hunting, it's no job for his +friends to save him risks."</p> + +<p>"Glad you look at it so," said Jimmy. "Then, so far as the +Professor's concerned, it's from himself we're not protecting him, +just now?"</p> + +<p>"Or from the self which is not himself," I suggested.</p> + +<p>"That's better," Jimmy agreed, and again fell a-musing. "Sometimes I +think we might get closer to it yet". . . But he did not supply the +definition. After half-a-minute's brooding he woke up, as it were, +with a start. "Could you sail this next week?" he asked.</p> +<br> +<p> +Well, we sailed, five days later; and there is no need to say more of +this trip than that it panned out a fiasco worse than my first. +At New York we beat up the police; and, later on, worried Mulberry +Street and the great detective service for which the city is famous. +Police and detectives availed us nothing. I knew that by the same +mail which brought his latest letter to me, Foe had drawn £600 +on Norgate; and Norgate had dispatched the money without delay, five +days ahead of us. The address was a hotel at the then fashionable +end of Third Avenue. There we found their names on the register. +Plain sailing enough. Farrell had left, as we calculated (the +detectives helping us), on the day the money presumably arrived, and +at about six in the evening; Foe some fifteen or sixteen hours later. +And, with that, we were up against a wall. Not a trace could be +discovered of either from the moment he had walked out of the hotel. +Farrell, having paid his bill, had walked out, carrying a small +handbag (or 'grip,' as the porter termed it), leaving a portmanteau +behind, with word that he would return next day and fetch it. +We were allowed to examine the portmanteau. It contained some shirts +and collars and two suits of clothes, but no clue whatever—not a +scrap of paper in any of the pockets. Foe had departed leisurably +next morning, with his slight baggage.</p> + +<p>Our detective (to do him justice) did his best to earn his money. +He carefully traced out and documented the movements of the two +travellers from one to another of the various addresses I was able to +supply: and he handed in a report, which attested not only his +calligraphy but a high degree of professional zeal. It corresponded +with everything I knew already and decorated it with details which +could only have been accumulated by conscientious research. They +tallied with—they corroborated—they substantiated—they touched +up—the bald facts we already knew. But they did not advance us one +foot beyond the portals of the Flaxman Building Hotel, out of which +Farrell and Foe had walked, at fifteen hours' interval, and walked +straight into vacancy.</p> + +<p>In short, Jimmy and I sailed for home, a fortnight later, utterly +beaten.</p> + +<p>Now I'm telling the story in my own way. A novelist, who knew how to +work it, would (I'm pretty sure) keep up the mystery just about here. +But I'm going to put in what happened, though I didn't hear about it +until two years later.</p> + +<p>What happened was that, one evening, Jack drove Farrell too far, and +over a trifle. Without knowing it, too, he had been teaching Farrell +to learn cunning. They were back in New York and (it seems almost +too silly to repeat) seated in a restaurant, ordering dinner. +Jack held the <i>carte du jour</i>: the waiter was at his elbow; Farrell +sat opposite, waiting. For some twenty-four hours—that is, since +their return to New York City—Jack had chosen to be talkative. +Farrell was even encouraged to hope that he had broken the spell of +his hatred, and that the next boat for England might carry them home +in company and forgiving. Just then the devil put it into Jack to +resume his torture. He laid down the card and sat silent, the waiter +still at his elbow. "Well, what shall it be?" asked Farrell, a +trifle faintly. Jack, like the Tar-Baby, kept on saying nothing. +The waiter looked about him, and fetched back his attention politely. +"What shall it be?" Farrell repeated. Then, as Jack stared quietly +at the table, not answering, "Go and attend to the next table," said +he to the man. "You can come back in three minutes." The waiter +went. "Now," said Farrell, laying down the napkin he had unfolded, +"are you going to speak?"</p> + +<p>Foe picked up the card again and studied it.</p> + +<p>"Yes or no, damn you?" demanded Farrell. "Here and now I'll have an +end to this monkeying—Yes, or no?" he cried explosively.</p> + +<p>Foe pointed a finger at the chair from which Farrell had sprung up.</p> + +<p>"I won't!" protested Farrell, and wrenched himself away. "Here's the +end of it, and I'm shut of you!"</p> + +<p>He dragged himself to the door. Foe, still studying the card through +his glasses, did not even trouble to throw a glance after him. +Once in the street, Farrell felt his chain broken: he hailed a cab, +and was driven off to his hotel. There he packed, paid his bill, and +vanished with his grip into the night, leaving his portmanteau behind +with a word that he would return for it.</p> + +<p>Foe had taught him cunning.</p> + +<p>He bethought him of Renton, an old foreman of his; a highly +intelligent fellow, who had come out to New York, some years before, +to better himself, and had so far succeeded that he now controlled +and practically owned a mammoth furnishing emporium—The Home Circle +Store—in Twenty-Third Street. Farrell was pretty sure of the +address; because Renton, who had long since taken out his papers of +naturalisation, regularly remembered his old employer on Thanksgiving +Day and sent him a report of his prosperity, mixed up with no little +sentiment. To this Farrell had for some years responded with a note +of his good wishes, cordial, but brief and businesslike. Of late, +however, this acknowledgment, though still punctual, had tended to +express itself in the form of a Christmas-card.</p> + +<p>Farrell confirmed his recollection of the address by checking it in +the Telephone Book, and paid a call on the Home Circle Store next +afternoon, while Foe was enjoying a siesta in that state of lassitude +which (as I've told you) almost always in one or other of the men +followed their crises of animosity.</p> + +<p>Renton was unaffectedly glad to see Farrell. "Well, Mr. Farrell," he +said, as they shook hands, "well, <i>sir!</i> If this isn't a sight for +sore eyes! And—when I've been meaning, every fall, to step across +home and see your luck—to think that it should be you first dropping +in upon me!" He rushed Farrell up and down elevators, over floor +after floor of his great establishment, perspiring (for the afternoon +was hot), swelling with hospitality and pardonable pride. "And when +we've done, sir, I must take you to my little place up town and make +you acquainted with Mrs. Renton. She's not by any means the least +part of my luck, sir. She'll be all over it when I present you, +having so often heard tell—You've aged, Mr. Farrell! And yet, +in a way, you haven't.… You were putting on waist when I saw you +last, and now you're what-one-might-call in good condition—almost +thin. Yes, sir, I heard about your poor lady… I wrote about it, +if you remember. Sudden, as I understand?… But if you look at +it in one way, that's often for the best: and in the midst of life— +You'll be taking dinner with us. That's understood."</p> + +<p>"Look here, Ned," Farrell interrupted. "It's done me good to shake +you by the hand and see you so flourishing. But I've looked you up +because—well, because I'm in a tight place, and I wonder if you +could anyways help."</p> + +<p>"Eh?" Renton pulled up and looked at him shrewdly. "What's wrong? +Nothing to do with the old firm, now, surely?… I get the London +<i>Times</i> sent over, and your last Shareholders' Meeting was a perfect +Hallelujah Chorus. Why, you're quoted—"</p> + +<p>Now you'll know Farrell, by this time, for a man of his class—and a +pretty good class it is, in England, when all's said and done; for a +man of the sort that resents a suspicion on his business about as +quickly as he'd resent one on his private and domestic honour— +perhaps even a trifle more smartly. His business, in short, <i>is</i> the +first home and hearth of his honour. So Farrell cut in, very quick +and hot,—</p> + +<p>"If my business were only twice as solid as yours, Ned Renton, I +might be worrying you about it.… There, don't take me amiss! +… I've come to trouble you about myself. Fact is, I'm in a +hole. There's a man after me; and I want you to get me out of this +place pretty quick and without drawing any attention more than you +can avoid."</p> + +<p>"O-oh!" said Renton, rubbing his chin, and looking serious. "And +what about the lady?"</p> + +<p>"There's no woman in this," Farrell assured him. "No, Ned; nor the +trace of one."</p> + +<p>"That's curious," said Renton, still reflective. "You being a +widower, I thought, maybe… But as between friends, you'll +understand, I'm not asking."</p> + +<p>"I'll tell you the gist of it later," said Farrell. "It started over +politics."</p> + +<p>"So?… We've a way with that trouble over here," said Renton. +"Now you mention it, I'd read in the London <i>Times</i> that you were +running for municipal government, and then somehow you seemed to fade +out.… I wondered why.… Is that part of the story?"</p> + +<p>Farrell answered that it was. They were seated in Renton's private +office, and Renton picked up a small square block of wood from his +desk. It looked like a paper-weight.</p> + +<p>"I've a certain amount of—well, we'll call it influence—hereabouts, +if any man happens to be troubling you," he suggested musingly, and +glanced at Farrell. "But you're not taking it that way, I see."</p> + +<p>Farrell nodded.</p> + +<p>"You just want to be cleared out.… That's all right. You shall +tell me all about it later, boss—any time that suits you." +He handed the paperweight across to Farrell. "Ever come across that +kind of wood?" he asked.</p> + +<p>Farrell examined it. "Never," he answered. "It looks like +mahogany—if 'tweren't for the colour. Dyed, is it?"</p> + +<p>"Not a bit. I could show you with a chisel in two minutes.… But +you're right. Mahogany it is, and cuts like mahogany.… I keep a +high-class warehouse of stuff lower down-town, and there I'll show +you a log of it, seven-by-four. It's from Costa Rica. Would you +care to prospect?… I don't mind sharing secrets with the old +firm, as you always dealt with me honourably and we're both growing +old enough to remember old kindness."</p> + +<p>"I'd make a holiday of it," said Farrell heartily, fingering the +wood. "Comes from Costa Rica, eh?"</p> + +<p>"There's not much of it going, even there," said Renton. +"Not enough, I'm afraid, to start a fashionable craze. It was +brought to me, as a sample, by an enterprising skipper from Puerto +Limon, and I was going to send back a man with him, to prospect. +… But it's not detracting from his character to say that he +can't tell mahogany from walnut with his finger-tips in the dark—as +<i>you</i> could, boss. If it's a holiday you want, with a trifle of high +cabinet-science thrown in, what about taking his place?"</p> + +<p>"It's the loveliest stuff," said Farrell, rapt, fingering the wood +delicately.</p> + +<p>"Well, now, that makes me feel good, having my old master's word for +it, that taught me all I know. Look at it sideways and catch the +tints under the light. 'Opaline mahogany' we'll call it. +Come down-town with me, and I'll show you the baulk of it. It don't +grow big.… What about cash?"</p> + +<p>"I've a plenty for the present," Farrell assured him. "Clearing's my +only difficulty."</p> + +<p>"You trust to me, and I'll oblige," said his old employee.</p> +<br> +<p> +Farrell went back to his hotel that evening, paid his bill and walked +out with his grip. At Renton's warehouse in the lower town he +changed his dress for a workman's; was conveyed to the Quay by +Renton, who shipped him aboard the lime-tramp. She carried him down +to Puerto Limon; where the skipper took a holiday, and the pair +struck farther down the coast on mule-back for a hundred miles or so, +and then inland for the Mosquito village hard by which they were to +find the grove of this mysterious purple hardwood. They found it—as +Farrell had agreed with Renton in expecting—to be no forest, +scarcely even a grove, but a mere patch, and the timber a "sport" +though an exceedingly beautiful one. On their return to Limon +Farrell wrote out a careful report. The wood was priceless. +It deserved a new genius to design a new style of inlay for it. +Given that, with the very pink of artists among cabinet-makers and a +knowledgeable man to put the furniture on the market, a reasonable +fortune was to be made. With skill it could be propagated: but for +two generations and longer it must depend on its rarity. He added +some suggestions for propagating it and wound up, "Turn these over, +for what they are worth, to someone who understands this climate and +is botanist as well as nurseryman. It won't profit you or me, Ned; +and we've no children. Mr. Weekes has, though"—Weekes was the +skipper—"and his grandchildren ought to have something to inherit. +I'd hate to die and think that such stuff was being lost to the +trade. But for the standing timber, anyway, there's only one word. +<i>Buy</i>. Yours gratefully, P. Farrell."</p> + +<p>When his report was written and signed, he handed it to Weekes. +"We can mail this, if you approve," he said.</p> + +<p>Weekes read it over and approved the document. "But I don't approve +mailing it," he assured Farrell. "No, sirree: your boss has a name +for playing straight, but we won't give him all that time and +temptation. We'll go back and hand him this together—for you come +into it, I guess, on some floor or other."</p> + +<p>"No," said Farrell. "The report's as good as it promises; but I'm +out of this job. The only favour you can do me is to help me shift +down this coast—as far as Colon, for instance. And I owe it to +Renton, of course, to mail this letter. With your knowledge of the +boats and trains, you can get to New York along with it or even ahead +of it."</p> + +<p>"That's all very well, so far as it goes," said Weekes, thoughtfully; +"and I see your point. But again, what about <i>you</i>?"</p> + +<p>"Ah, to be sure," answered Farrell, pondering in his turn. +"There's the risk of leaving me behind to chip in on you both. +Well… You don't run any whalers from this port, do you?"</p> + +<p>"Whalers?" Captain Weekes opened his eyes.</p> + +<p>"I understand," Farrell explained, "that they keep out at sea for a +considerable time.… No, and it wouldn't help your confidence if +I told you that there's a man in New York—an Englishman like +myself—hunting me for my life.… But see here. Of your +knowledge find me a southward bound vessel that, once out, certainly +won't make port for a fortnight. We'll mail this report from the +Quay, and you can put me on board at the last moment, watch me waving +farewells from the offing, and then hurry north as soon as you +please."</p> +<br> +<p> +Well, this, or something like it, was agreed upon; and here Farrell +sails out of the story for ten months, a passenger on the schooner +<i>Garcia</i>, bound for Colon.</p> + + +<br><br> +<h2>BOOK III.</h2> +<br> +<h2>THE RETRIEVE.</h2> + + +<br> +<br> +<p><a name="15"></a> </p> +<h3>NIGHT THE FOURTEENTH.</h3> +<br> + +<h4>SAN RAMON.</h4> + +<p>I have never set eyes on the village of San Ramon, but I have heard +it described by two men—by one of them in great detail—and their +descriptions tally.</p> + +<p>It is a village or townlet of two hundred houses or so. It lies +about a third of the way down the coast of Peru, close over the sea. +It has no harbour: a population of half-breeds—mestizos? Is that +the word?—sprinkled with whitish cosmopolitans, and here and there a +real white man. But these last, though they wear shoes and keep up +among themselves a pretence to be the aristocracy of the place, have +really resigned life for this anticipatory Paradise where they grow +grey on remittance money, eating the lotus, drinking smoked Scotch in +the hotel veranda, swapping stories, and—since they know one another +all too well in this drowsy decline of their day—feebly and falsely +pretending to one another what gallant knowing fellows they had been +in its morning. As for their shoes, token of their caste, they +usually wear them unlaced by day and not infrequently sleep in them +at night. With the exception of Engelbaum, who keeps the hotel, the +white citizens are unmarried. With the exception of Frau Engelbaum— +aged sixty and stout at that—there are no white ladies in San Ramon.</p> + +<p>And yet San Ramon is a Paradise. A tall mountain backs it. The +Pacific kisses its feet. A spring bursting from the mountain, about +four thousand feet up, has cut a gorge down which it tumbles in +cascades to the beach and the salt water. Where the source leaps +from the rock the vegetation begins, as you would expect. It widens +and grows more luxuriant all the way down. The stream comes to a +forty-foot waterfall between sheer rock curtained with creepers; +whence it hurries down through plantations of banana, past San Ramon, +which perches where it can, house by house, on shelves hidden in +greenery. There it takes another great leap into a basin it has +hollowed for itself in the steep-to beach.</p> + +<p>We have come down by nature's route. Now we'll climb back by man's. +A sort of stairway, broad-stepped, made of pebbles and pounded earth, +mounts in fairly well engineered zigzags to the plateau above the +lower fall, and in a straighter flight beside the gorge to the hotel +which is the topmost building of San Ramon. Above that it becomes a +gully curved by torrential rains; above that, zigzags again as a +mule-track up to a pass in the mountains—and thereafter God knows +whither. Connecting the lower zigzags (I need scarcely say) are +short-cuts or slides made by the brown-footed children, who plunge +down almost as steeply and quickly as the stream itself when the +fortnightly fruit-steamer blows her siren beyond the point.</p> + +<p>There is no harbour, you understand. The small steamer—by name the +<i>P.M. Diaz</i>—drops anchor a short mile out in a half-protected +roadstead, and discharges what she has to discharge, or lades what +she has to lade, by boats. Her ladings during the banana-harvest are +feverish, tumultuous, vociferous. Her ladings during the sleepy +remainder of the year comprise canned meats, Scotch whisky, +illustrated magazines, and plantation inspectors.</p> +<br> +<p> +It was almost twelve months to a day—I am trying to tell the story +to-night as a novelist would tell it, but without going beyond the +material supplied to me—It was almost twelve months from the day Foe +left the portico of the Flaxman Building Hotel, New York, that he +stepped ashore on the beach below San Ramon and resigned his light +suitcase to a herd of bare-legged boys who offered to carry it up to +the hotel, but seemed likelier to dismember it on the way and share +up the shreds. They took him, as a matter of course, for a +plantation inspector, arrived in the off-season. He was the only +passenger landed from the <i>P.M. Diaz</i>, which had dropped anchor +comfortably, in perfect weather, but would sail in the morning. +A light land-breeze blew off the mountains: but it passed over a mile +of water before rippling the sea, which, inshore, lay as glass. +The sunset from the Pacific lit up San Ramon above him, all terraced +and embowered.</p> + +<p>Halted there, gazing up and taking stock of this Paradise before +scaling it, Foe could not be aware, though he might have guessed, +that half a hundred embrasures in the climbing foliage hid +field-glasses and telescopes of which he was the one and common +focus. Up at the hotel, one idler said to another, "Will it be +Morgansen this time, d'you think?" The other passed on the question +to Engelbaum, who was so far the master of his guests that he had +lazily commandeered the large telescope on the <i>galeria</i>, and without +gainsay. "If it's old Morgansen," the second man added, "we might +trot some way down the hill to wish him well. The day's cooling in."</p> + +<p>"It's not Morgansen," announced Engelbaum. "A new man—thinnish—Oh, +yes, but an inspector. You can tell these scientific men by their +cut."</p> + +<p>"Hope they haven't sacked old Morgansen," said the first idler. +"He's been a bit of a scandal, these three years. But he knows about +bananas more'n a banana would own to, even with a blush."</p> +<br> +<p> +Half-way over the hill, on a packing-case in a bare veranda, sat a +man who for three months had avoided the hotel and these loungers, +and been given up by all of them (by some enviously) as a lost +friend. A woman reclined—good old novelists' word—in a sort of +deck-chair three paces away. The windows of the house stood wide, +and showed rooms within carpetless, matless, swept if not garnished, +with other packing-cases stacked about and labelled. There was even +a label on the chair in which the woman reclined: but her skirt hid +it.</p> + +<p>When the whistle of the fruit-steamer had first sounded, out beyond +the Point, and almost before the alert young population of San Ramon +could tear down the pathway beside the bungalow's discreet garden, +she had risen with a catch of the breath, taken up a pair of +field-glasses and scanned the offing.</p> + +<p>"It is she beyond a doubt," she had announced.</p> + +<p>"What other could it be?" the man had answered, pretty lazily. +"And that being so—"</p> + +<p>Said the woman—I am trying to tell this in correct fashion—"Why are +you so dull?—who, when the boat used to call, would snatch up the +glasses and be no company for anyone until you had counted everything +she discharged."</p> + +<p>Farrell—oh! by the way it's about time I told you that the man was +Farrell—Farrell looked at the woman. Farrell said:</p> + +<p>No, the devil! I can't tell it the professional way, after all. +There's the woman. Well, the woman was young, and fair to see, dark, +well-bred, with a tinge of lemon, and descended pretty straight from +the Incas—"instead of which" she preferred to call herself Mrs. +M'Kay or M'Kie, having been caught and married in an unguarded moment +by someone who had arrived in San Ramon to push a new brand of whisky +and stayed to push it the wrong way. Since M'Kie's death—or +M'Kay's—whichever it was—new-comers had to choose between +Engelbaum's, on the summit, and the lady, an heiress in a small way, +who played the guitar, half-way down the hill, but frowned on the +drinking-habit.</p> + +<p>Farrell, you will perceive, had chosen the better way, and had become +a voluntary exile from Engelbaum's in consequence. That, or the +exercise of running, had done him a power of good. Just now he was +bronzed, spare, even inclining to gauntness. Twelve months before, +he had shortened his whiskers, as a first step to disguise. +Since then, and to please this woman, he had grown a beard which he +kept short and trimmed to a point, naval fashion. It was +straw-coloured, went well with his bronzed complexion and improved +his appearance very considerably. It may be that this growth had +encouraged the hair on his scalp or stimulated it by rivalry to +renewed effort: more likely the play of sunshine and sea-breeze had +done the trick between them; but anyhow Farrell now possessed a light +mat of silky yellowish hair on the top of his head—as the nigger +song has it, in the place where the wool ought to grow. Shoes, blue +dungaree trousers and a striped shirt were his clothing—the shirt +opened at the throat and to the second button, disclosing a V of +naked chest as healthily tanned as his face. His face had thinned +too. His eyes no longer bulged. They had receded well under the +pent of his brow and, in receding, taken colour from its shadow.</p> +<br> +<p> +"I am not dull, Santa," said Farrell. "I am only content and—well, +a little bit regretful, and—well yes, again, the least bit lazy. +But what does it matter? Ylario has gone down to the beach. He will +send off word to the skipper that all this truck will be ready on the +foreshore by five-thirty to-morrow. In good weather he never weighs +before seven, and the weather is settled."</p> + +<p>The woman, at one word of his, had turned and set down her glasses.</p> + +<p>"Regretful?" She echoed it as a question, and followed it up with a +question. "At what are you staring so hard?"</p> + +<p>He lifted his eyes and met hers very steadily, earnestly. "At your +shape, Santa," was his answer. "When your back is turned, I am +always looking at you so."</p> + +<p>"Regretfully?" she asked, mocking.</p> + +<p>"As for the regret, you know what it is and must be. How can a man +feel it different, when we leave this place to-morrow? Don't women +feel that way towards places where they have been happy?"</p> + +<p>She picked up the glasses again and set them with her gaze seaward +before answering. Thus the shadow of her hands screened any +emotion—if emotion there were—on her face.</p> + +<p>"I have not been happy here, all the time," she answered softly, +readjusting the glass, or pretending to. "Not by any means. +San Ramon to me is a hole.… Yes," she went on deliberately, +"I know well what you are going to say. I have <i>you</i>: but I want +something more—something I have always wanted and, it seems to me, +every woman always wants—something beyond the sky-line. In Sydney, +now—"</p> + +<p>"You'll find there's a sky-line waiting for you at Sydney," said +Farrell; "as like to this one as two peas—and just as impossible to +get beyond"—which mayn't seem very good grammar, but is how he said +it. "Now to me a sky-line's a sky-line—just something to have you +standing against."</p> + +<p>"You shall have a kiss for that, <i>caballero</i>—in a moment," she +purred, and slanted the binoculars down to bear on the beach. "Only +one passenger," she announced.</p> + +<p>"Usual inspector, no doubt," said Farrell, rolling a cigarette.</p> + +<p>"Ye-es—by the look of him.… Oh, there's Ylario, all right, +talking to the boatman!… He must be a stranger, I think—by the +way he's staring up at the town."</p> + +<p>"Ylario was bred and born here; of uncertain parents, to be sure—"</p> + +<p>She laughed. "Foolish!… I meant the inspector, of course."</p> + +<p>"What's he like?" asked Farrell. "Report."</p> + +<p>She lowered the glass, twisted the screw of it idly, and returned to +her hammock-chair, beside which she set it down on the veranda floor.</p> + +<p>"Now I'll make a confession to you," she said, picking up her guitar +and throwing her body back in the chair. "I love you," she said. +"When you are close, and alone with me, my heart feels as if it could +melt into yours.… No, don't get up: you shall have your kiss, in +good time. But when you—what shall I say?—when you <i>all-white</i> men +are at all far off, or when many of you are together, I cannot well +distinguish.… Ah, pardon me, beloved! Haven't you had that +trouble with people of other races than your own—among a crowd of +Japanese, say? And the shepherds on the mountains behind here—have +you not wondered how they can know every sheep in a flock of many +hundred?"</p> + +<p>Farrell was on his feet by this time, and in something of a passion. +"Am I, then," he stammered out; "—am I, then, so like any of the +others, up at Engelbaum's?"</p> + +<p>"Calm yourself, O beloved," said Santa, brushing her finger-nails, +gipsy-wise and soft as butterflies, over, the strings of her guitar. +"Calm yourself, and hearken. You are all the world to me, and you +know it. Yet there is something—something I could explain to you +better, maybe, if I knew English better… and yet I am not sure. +… Let me try, however.… It always seems to me with you +English, you Americans, you white-skinned men—with all the ones I +have known—that the fault is not all mine when I find you alike just +at first; that every one of you ought to be a man quite different +from all other men; that you, of your race—yes, every one—were +meant for something you have missed—were meant to be—Oh, what is +the word?"</p> + +<p>"'Distinguished?'" suggested Farrell, standing up. "I never was +that, Santa—though, back in England, at one time, I had a notion to +make some sort of a mark."</p> + +<p>Santa let the neck of the guitar fall back against her breast and +clasped her hands suddenly. "Yes, that is it;—to make your mark! +Every woman who loves a man wants him to make his mark somehow, +somewhere.… I cannot tell you why: but it is so."</p> + +<p>Farrell took a turn on the veranda. "My dear," he said tenderly, +coming back and halting before her, "do you realise that I am fifty +years old?" + +She pressed her palms over her eyes. "You keep telling me that, and +it hurts! Besides, you grow younger every day… and—and I +cannot bear to hear you say it!" She lowered her hands and smiled +up, but through tears.</p> + +<p>"The men who find their way to San Ramon from my country or from the +States," he went on, picking up the binoculars absently while his +eyes sought the sky-line, "do not come in any hope of making their +mark—not even plantation-inspectors." Farrell fumbled with the +screw, adjusting the focus. "If that is why we are going to +Sydney—"</p> + +<p>"Whatever happens," declared Santa, "I will love you better anywhere +than in San Ramon: and I have loved you well enough here! The men +who come to San Ramon—pah! this for them!" She thrummed an air— +<i>La Camisa de la Lola</i>—on the guitar and broke off with another +small sound of scorn from her throat. "<i>That's</i> what suits them, and +what all of them are worth!"</p> + +<p>She brushed the strings again: and if Farrell made any sound at all, +the buzz of them covered it. He had brought the glasses to bear on +the beach.</p> + +<p>Santa started to thrum on the lower strings. Farrell swung about +suddenly, set the glasses down, and walked back into the dismantled +house.</p> + +<p>Now so far I have evidence for all I'm telling you. From this point +for thirty seconds or so, I am going to guess what happened. +Santa went on thrumming. She heard his footsteps on the bare floor +as he went through the echoing, dismantled room behind her. +She heard them on the brick of the broad passage which separated the +living-rooms of the bungalow from its bed-chambers. She heard him +lift the latch of the outer door. She heard the outer door shut +behind him. Then she waited for his footsteps to sound again on the +sunken pathway which ran downhill beside her patch of garden, hidden +by the cactus fence—or rather, deep below it. "He is standing on +the doorstep," she said to herself, "lighting a cigarette"; and then, +"but he is a long while about it. This is strange." Still as her +ear caught no sound of him, Santa sprang up and slipped, guitar in +hand, to the outer door—the fence being too tall for her to +over-pry, and moreover prickly. She opened the door and peeped out. +There was no one down the pathway. There was no one up the pathway, +which here, for some fifty or sixty yards, climbed straight, full in +view. "And what on earth has become of him?" wondered Santa. +"He did not go down—I should have heard him. But why should he go +up? He has broken with those drinkers at Engelbaum's.… Besides, +it is unbelievable that, in this short time, he should have vanished. +…"</p> + +<p>So much for guesswork. Now I come back to the story as it was +afterwards related to me.</p> + +<p>Santa, standing there in the porch, guitar in hand and leaning +forward over the rail which guarded a long flight of stone +steps, heard a footfall on the road below—an ascending footfall. +For a moment she mistook it for Farrell's: she believed she could +distinguish Farrell's from any other man's: and so for a moment she +stood mystified.</p> + +<p>Then a man hove in view around the corner… not Farrell, but the +newly-landed stranger she had spied through her binoculars—the +presumed Inspector. His eyes were lifted as he calculated the new +gradient ahead of him, and thus on the instant he caught sight of +Santa aloft in the porch-way. Something held Santa's feet.</p> + +<p>"Many pardons, <i>senora</i>," said the Stranger, halting a little before +he came abreast of the stairway and lifting his hat. "But can you +tell me if this path leads to the Hotel?"</p> + +<p>Now Santa was confused and a little abashed—it may have been because +in her haste she had forgotten to drape her head in her mantilla—a +rite proper to be observed by Peruvian ladies before showing +themselves out-of-doors. But she could not help smiling: the +question being so absurd.</p> + +<p>"Seeing, <i>sentor</i>, that there can be no other," she answered, with a +small wave of the hand out and towards the gorge down which the river +cascaded always so loudly that they both had unconsciously raised the +pitch of their voices.</p> + +<p>From the pathway above came the sound of stray stones dislodged under +a heavy plunging tread; and there was Farrell striding down, with his +hands in his trousers' pockets.</p> + +<p>In the right pocket he carried a revolver, which he had picked up on +his way through the house. His forefinger felt about its trigger.</p> + +<p> +He had recognised Foe through the glass. He had pelted up the path +in the old sweating terror, making for the mountain as if driven, to +call on it to cover him.</p> + +<p>Close by Engelbaum's gate he overtook three small boys contending +around a suit-case: the point being that all three could not demand +reward for carrying so light a burden. If the owner were a fool, or +generously inclined (which amounted to the same thing), two of the +three might put in a colourable claim for services rendered.</p> + +<p>In white countries one boy fights with another. In San Ramon as many +as fifteen can fight indiscriminately, and the vanquished are weeded +out by gradual process. Farrell shook the urchins apart, driving +them for a moment from the suit-case as one would drive three wasps +off a honey-pot.… It lay at his feet. Yes, he'd have recognised +it anywhere, even without help of the half-effaced "J. F." painted on +its canvas cover. It was a far-travelled piece of luggage, and +much-enduring—What are those adjectives by which Homer is always +calling Ulysses?… It bore many labels. One, with "Southampton" +upon it, was apparently pretty recent… and another with +"Waterloo."</p> + +<p>He turned the case over while the boys eyed him, keeping their +distance. His brain worked more and more clearly. . . Foe had +returned to England, then, to pick up the trail. But how had he +struck it?… There was only one way.… He had, of course, +been obliged to send letters home from time to time—letters to his +firm, to his bankers for money—instructions to pay his housekeeper— +possibly a score of letters in all. Foe must have obtained +possession of one and spotted the postmark on the Peruvian stamp. +…</p> + +<p>Of a sudden he realised his cowardice; and flushed, with shame and +manhood together, there in the pathway.… This thing was no +longer a duel. Three were in it now, and the third was Santa.… +The old scare had caught him, surprised him, and he had run from +recollected habit.… It had been base.… Why, of course, +Santa made all the difference! He must go back to protect Santa.</p> + +<p>At the thought of her he felt a second flush of shame sweep up in +him, quite different from the first and quite horrible. The tide of +it scorched his face as if flaying it. And so—if you'll +understand—in the very moment of knowing himself twice vulnerable— +no, ten times as vulnerable—this Farrell, loving this woman, became +a man: and three small ragamuffins stood about him and witnessed the +outward process.</p> + +<p>The outward process ended in his fishing out three <i>dineros</i> from his +trouser pocket and bestowing one on each of them—twopence-halfpenny +or thereabouts is a godsend to a juvenile in San Ramon. +"There, little fools!" he said. "Take the stranger's bag along and +don't quarrel any more. There is nothing in this world so silly as +quarrelling."</p> + +<p>With that he went back down the hill, and so came on Foe and on +Santa, talking down to Foe from the balcony porch.</p> +<br> +<p> +"Hallo, old man!" said Farrell, looking Foe straight in the eyes: and +"Hallo!" answered Foe, looking Farrell straight in the eyes. Santa, +gazing down from the rail, thought it strange that they did not shake +hands, as Britons and Americans do when they met.</p> + +<p>"I found three rascals," said Farrell easily, "scrapping for the +honour of delivering a suit-case at Engelbaum's hotel—a suit-case +that I recognised. I rescued it, and it is now safe in the porch. +… Oh, by the way, though you seem to have made acquaintance, let +me do the formal and introduce you to my wife. Santa, this is Doctor +Foe, an old fellow-traveller."</p> + +<p>Foe gave him one glance, shrewd and steady, before looking aloft and +again raising his hat. The thrust did not penetrate Farrell's +defence.</p> + +<p>"It's awkward," said Farrell, "that we can't even offer you a bed. +We're all packed up, ready to sail by the steamer to-morrow. +Mrs. Farrell and I in fact are shifting quarters.… Staying?"</p> + +<p>"No," said Foe imperturbably. "I shall be sailing to-morrow, too. +… I just heard of this place, and thought I'd like to have a +look at it before going on.… Shouldn't think of troubling you."</p> + +<p>"Curious, how small the world is," went on Farrell in a level voice. +"You won't mind my talking a bit in the old manner?… It sort of +puts us back at the old ease, eh?… Well then, we can't offer to +put you up. But if you don't mind a packing-case for a chair and +another for a table—eh, Santa?"</p> + +<p>"We shall be charmed," said Santa.</p> + +<p>"You understand that it will be a picnic," added Farrell.</p> + +<p>"My good sir!" protested Foe.</p> + +<p>"Yes?… It will be better than Engelbaum's, any way. I don't +mind promising," said Farrell. "We will talk over old times, and +Santa shall play her guitar to us."</p> +<br> +<p> +That is how the two men met.</p> + +<p> +The <i>P.M. Diaz</i> plied no farther than Callao. From Callao the +Farrells, with their furniture, and Foe in company, worked down by +coasters to Valparaiso.</p> +<br> +<p> +Does any one of you remember the mystery of the <i>Eurotas</i>? which +regularly for about four months occupied from an inch-and-a-half to +four inches space in the newspapers. In 1909… pretty late in +the year. She happened to be the first ship of a new line started +between Valparaiso and Sydney, and her owners had so well boomed the +adventure in the Press that, when she began to be reported as +overdue, the public woke up and she became as interesting as a lost +dog. She was of 12,000 tons, new, Clyde-built, well-found, and +carried a mixed cargo, with about twenty passengers. Two vessels +reported having passed her, about three hundred miles out. After +that she had become as a ship that had never been.</p> + +<p>In his casual way—for I must remind you that he and I had lost all +trace of Foe and Farrell in New York—Jimmy lit on the next item of +news.</p> + +<p>Long before the <i>Eurotas</i> was posted as "missing," the newspapers +published a list of her passengers. Jimmy, seizing on this, ran his +eye down it, and let out the sort of cry with which he greets all +news, good, bad, or indifferent.</p> + +<p>"I say, Otty!—here it is, and what do you make of it? + +<blockquote><blockquote> +<p class = "noindent">—'The s.s. +<i>Eurotas</i>.… List of Passengers.<br> + +<span class = "ind2">"Mr. and Mrs. P. Farrell, San Ramon, Peru.</span><br> +<span class = "ind2">Professor J. Foe, of London.…'"</span></p><br> +</blockquote></blockquote> + + +<br> +<p>And after that there was silence for four years. The bell at Lloyd's +never rang to announce the arrival of the <i>Eurotas</i>. By Christmas +her underwriters were paying up, and the newspapers had lost interest +in her fate.</p> + + +<br> +<br> +<p><a name="16"></a> </p> +<h3>NIGHT THE FIFTEENTH.</h3> +<br> + + +<h4>REDIVIVUS.</h4> + +<p>About seven weeks later Norgate called on me with evidence that +settled the last doubt: a letter from Foe, written from Valparaiso. +It was brief enough. It merely announced that he was on the eve of +sailing for Sydney and wished to have credit for £600 opened +with the Bank of New South Wales. "I have booked a berth on the +<i>Eurotas</i>," it concluded, "and go aboard to-night. She's a new ship, +owned by a new line, of which you may or may not have heard—the +'Southern Cross Line.' We hear enough about it in this town, the +Company having contrived to fall foul of the dock labour here. +I don't know the rights or wrongs of it, but some sort of boycott is +threatened. However, this sort of dispute usually gets itself +settled at the last moment; and anyhow I shall get to Sydney by some +means or other. So you may safely mail there. No need to cable. +I have plenty of money for immediate purposes."</p> + +<p>"What had I best do?" asked Norgate. "Lloyd's are about giving the +<i>Eurotas</i> up."</p> + +<p>"Cable out and make sure," said I. "If he calls at the Bank, he +calls; and if he doesn't, there are no bones broken. <i>Something</i> has +gone wrong with the ship; and in the mix-up he may easily have lost +his ready cash and be landed at Sydney without a cent."</p> +<br> +<p> +I should have told you that, about a fortnight before this, Jimmy had +solved, or partially solved, the puzzle of that entry "Mr. and Mrs. +P. Farrell" on the passenger-list. Jimmy had found a good girl, and +as pretty almost as she was good, and yet imprudent enough to consent +to marry him. This had the effect of rendering him at once and +surprisingly prudent. As the poet puts it, "he had found out a flat +for his fair," and as he himself put it, "We have heard the chimes at +midnight, Master Shallow: but be-shrew me, we never thought of making +my bank-manager one of the party, to break him in to our ways; +the consequence being that Elinor's maid will have to stick a +bedroom-suite priced five-pounds-ten, while the other domestics, +unless dividends improve, sleep (poor souls, insecurely) upon +bedsteads liable to be spirited from under them at any moment by a +Hire System that knows no bowels.… By George!" sighed Jimmy. +"If we hadn't let Farrell slip through our fingers! Do you know, +Otty, I've an idea," he announced. "Why shouldn't I take the +Tottenham Court Road to-morrow, visit Farrell's old place of +business, and kill two birds with one stone?"</p> + +<p>"It sounds a sporting proposition," I agreed, "though sketchily +presented."</p> + +<p>"Adumbrated," suggested Jimmy. "That's a good word. I found it in +yesterday's <i>Observer</i>."</p> + +<p>"Adumbrated, then," said I. "The Tottenham Court Road—"</p> + +<p>"—<i>And</i> two birds with one stone. No moors for me this year: I'm +back on the simple life and the catapult.… You just wait."</p> + +<p>There really is no resisting Jimmy, nor ever will be. He went up the +Tottenham Court Road next day, walked into Farrell's late place of +business and demanded to see the General Manager; and—if you'll +believe it—that dignitary was fetched amid a hush of awe. +"I dropped in," explained Jimmy, "to see one of those cheap bedroom +suites you advertise, in pickled walnut—or is it <i>marron glace?</i>— +suitable for a house-parlourmaid. The fact is, I'm going to get +married—well, you've guessed that—otherwise, of course, I shouldn't +be here.… My intended wife—she's a Devonshire lady, by the +way—from near Honiton. Anything wrong about Honiton?… No? I +beg your pardon—I thought you smiled.… Well, as I was about to +explain, my intended wife, coming as she does from near Honiton— +that's where they make the lace—likes her servants to be +comfortable: at least, so she says. Your late Managing Director, had +he lived—" Here Jimmy made a pause.</p> + +<p>"You knew our Mr. Farrell, sir?" asked the present Managing Director, +sympathetically.</p> + +<p>"He honoured me with his acquaintance. If he had lived," said Jimmy +… "But there!… By the way… that second marriage of +his—wasn't it rather sudden? I understood him to be a confirmed +widower."</p> + +<p>"We know nothing about it, sir: nothing beyond what he conveyed in a +letter to our Vice-Chairman. In fact, sir, during the last year or +so of his life, when Mr. Farrell took his strange fancy for foreign +parts, it seemed to us—well, it seemed to us that, in his strange +condition of mind, anything might happen. To this day, sir, we +haven't what you might call any certitude of his demise. It is not, +up to this moment, legally proven—as they say. Our last letter from +him was dated from far up the coast—from a place called San Ramon, +which I understand to be in Peru. In it he announced that he was +married again, and to a lady (as we gathered) of Peruvian descent. +He added that he had never, previously to the time of writing or +thereabouts, known complete happiness."</p> + +<p>Jimmy brought back this information, having, on top of it, acquired a +bedroom suite of painted deal. "And there," said he, "the matter +must rest. Foe's gone, and Farrell's gone. Both decent, in their +way; and both, but for foolish temper, alive now and hearty."</p> +<br> +<p> +So it seemed to be, and the book to be closed. I mourned for Jack, +yet not as I should have mourned for him a year or two before. +Jimmy married and left me, and soon after I moved from our old +quarters in the Temple to my present rooms in Jermyn Street.</p> +<br> +<p> +Four years passed: and then, one fine morning, my door opened, and +John Foe called me by name.</p> + +<p>"Hallo, Roddy! How goes it?"</p> + +<p>I jumped up, in a pretty bad scare. It was the voice that did it: +for, my door making an angle with the window, and the day being +sunny, he stood there against a strong light—sort of silhouette +effect, as you might put it. And there was a something about him, +thus gloomed—but we'll talk of that by and by. The voice was Jack +Foe's, and none other.</p> + +<p>"It's all right," he went on easily. "Pull yourself together. +… It <i>is</i> the Ancient Mariner come home, but you needn't +imitate the Pilot and fall down in a fit.… Where's the Pilot's +Boy, by the way—young Jimmy Collingwood? You still keep Jephson, I +see. … I happened on Jephson at your street-door, just returned +from posting a letter. Jephson performed the holy Hermit very +creditably: he raised his eyes and almost sat down on the doorstep +and prayed where he did sit. 'Doctor Foe!' said Jephson. +'Good Lord, send may I never—!'—which amounts to a prayer, +eh?… He let me in with his latchkey, and I told him I'd run up +unannounced.… Well?"</p> + +<p>He came forward. In the old days Jack and I never shook hands; nor +did we now. He set down hat, gloves, and umbrella carelessly on my +knee-hole table and dropped into a chair with a long-drawn sigh. +"Reminds one—eh?—of the famous stage-direction in <i>The Rovers— +Several soldiers cross the stage wearily, as if returning from the +Thirty Years' War</i>.… Well? What are you still staring at? +… Oh, I perceive! It's my clothes.… Yes; I should inform +you that they are expensive, and the nearest compromise a Valparaiso +tailor and I could reach in realising our several ideas of a Harley +Street doctor. I am going to open a practice in that neighbourhood, +and thought I would lose no time. The hat and umbrella over there +are all right, if you'll give yourself the trouble to examine them. +I bought them on the way along."</p> + +<p>He was right, in a way, about his clothes. (I believe I have already +mentioned that Jack had always dressed himself carefully and in good +form.) His frock-coat had a fullness of skirt, and his trousers a +bluish aggressive tint, that I couldn't pass for metropolitan. +His boots were worse—of some wrong sort of patent leather. But they +ought not to have altered the man as I felt that he was altered. +… Yes, cheapened and coarsened, in some indefinable way. +His hair had thinned and showed a bald patch: not a large patch: +still, there it was. His shape had been rather noticeably slim. +I won't say that it had grown pursy, but it had run to seed somehow. +Least of all I liked the change in his eyes, which bulged somewhat, +showing an unhealthy white glitter. I set down this glitter as due +to long weeks at sea: but the explanation couldn't quite satisfy me. +When a lost friend returns as it were from the grave—from shipwreck, +at any rate, and uncharted travel—you look to find him gaunt, brown, +leathery, hollow of cheek and eye, eh? Foe's appearance didn't +answer to this conception… not one little bit.</p> + +<p>"Then you didn't sail in the <i>Eurotas</i>, after all?" said I, finding +speech. "We saw your name on the list."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, I did," he interrupted. "And, by the way, we shall have to +talk about her—or, rather, about what I ought to do.… Yes, I +know what you'll be advising. 'Go straight to Lloyd's,' no doubt."</p> + +<p>"Man alive," said I, "why not? If you were aboard of her—and if, as +you tell me, you fetched somehow to Sydney—why in God's name hasn't +Lloyd's heard of it months ago? There are such things as cables. +… Unless, to be sure, you have a reason?"</p> + +<p>"I have and I haven't," said Jack. "My turning-up doesn't hurt +anyone, does it? The <i>Eurotas</i> went down, sure enough: and <i>I</i> +didn't scuttle her, if that's what you suspect."</p> + +<p>"Please don't be an ass, Jack," I pleaded.</p> + +<p>"Well, I don't see," he continued, ruminating, "—I don't see any way +but to go to Lloyd's and tell them about it. Yet equally I don't see +what good it can do. The underwriters have paid up, eh?"</p> + +<p>"More than three years ago," I told him.</p> + +<p>"Well, then… I was perfectly well prepared to answer any +questions at Valparaiso. I landed in my own name. I went back to +the same hotel. And 'Foe' is not the most common of names, +especially when you write 'Doctor' before it.… No, I'm wrong. +Farrell had entered our names on the register, and had entered mine +as 'Professor.' On my return I wrote it 'John Foe, M.D.' But anyway, +not a soul in the hotel recognised me.… I think my looks must +have altered, somehow.… So I let it go. I dare say you won't +understand, not knowing the kind of experiences I've been through, +nor the number of 'em. But you may understand that after a goodish +while as a castaway I was tired beyond the point of answering more +questions than I should happen to be asked.… So I gave +Valparaiso a silent blessing, and came home by the first ship, to +consult you and Collingwood. What—let me repeat—have you done with +Collingwood?"</p> + +<p>"Jimmy?" said I. "He's married, a year since, and is already the +father of a bouncing boy. I acted as his best man, by request. +He has a delightful and tiny wife who keeps him in order, which he +passes on to the County of Warwickshire as Justice of the Peace and +Coram.… But about the <i>Eurotas</i>?" I persisted. "I don't think +you quite realise. There were passengers on board: and for months—"</p> + +<p>"Of course there were passengers," Foe agreed. "It won't help their +relatives (will it?) to know for certain what they pretty well know +already. As I hinted to Norgate in my last letter, there was a +labour crisis on when we sailed. Some aggrieved blackguard on the +dock, acting on his own or under command of his 'Union,' shovelled +half a dozen bombs in with the coal. Simple process. Between seven +hundred and a thousand miles out, this particular batch of coal was +reached and shovelled into the forward furnaces. I counted four +explosions. Two of them blew her bows to pieces, and she sank by the +head and was gone in twenty minutes.</p> + +<p>"Must I tell it, when I am home and dying to ask questions?—Oh, very +well, then.… I shall be perfectly truthful so far as the history +goes; but I warn you that at a certain point you won't like it, and +you'll go on to like it less. You and I have been friends, Roddy, +and you naturally suppose that I've come straight to you, as my first +friend, to be welcomed and to ask for counsel. But you suppose +wrong. I am come asking neither for advice, nor for a sympathy— +which I know I shan't get."</p> + +<p>"My dear Jack—" I began to protest.</p> + +<p>"Oh, be quiet," said he, "and let <i>me</i> do the talking! I've had no +one to talk to, these five months around the Horn, but a Norwegian +skipper, a first mate of the same country, a fellow-passenger shipped +off as a dipsomaniac for a cure (we lost him somewhere in the worst +of it—I've an idea he let himself be swept overboard), and a mixed +crew that I helped to cure of <i>beri-beri</i> at St. Helena. So I want +to do the talking, with your leave.</p> + +<p>"—And I want to say this first, foremost, once and for all. I am +come <i>simply to tell you</i>. I understand the devil of a lot about +hatred by this time—more than you will ever begin to guess. But you +taught me, anyhow, this much about friendship, that I couldn't bear +to go along with you without your knowing every atom of the truth. +That means, we're going to be clean cuts, when I've done.… +You'll loathe the tale. But, damn it, you shall respect me for this, +that I cut clean, for old sake's sake, and wiped up the account, +before we parted as strangers and I started life afresh."</p> + +<p>"All this is pretty mysterious, Jack," said I. "You know that, for +all the hurt he'd done you, I shied out of helping your pursuit of +Farrell.… Tell me, what happened to Farrell? Went down in the +<i>Eurotas</i>, I guess, and so squared accounts. That's what you mean— +eh?—by your clean cut and starting life afresh?… If so, for +your sake I'm glad of it."</p> + +<p>"He didn't go down in the <i>Eurotas</i>," Foe answered gravely: "As a +matter of fact I dragged him on board one of the boats with my own +hands."</p> + +<p>"What?" said I. "Farrell another survivor?"</p> + +<p>"Upon my word," he answered, lighting a cigarette, "I can't swear to +Farrell's being alive or dead. Probably he's dead; but anyway I've +no further use for him, and that's where the clean cut comes in. +I had to quit hold of him because a woman beat me.… Now sit +quiet and listen."</p> + +<h4>FOE'S NARRATIVE.</h4> + +<p>"Did you know that Farrell had married?… Yes, at San Ramon, a +little portless place some way down the coast of Peru. The woman was +a Peruvian and owned a banana-strip there, left to her by her first +husband, a drunkard, in part-compensation for having ill-used and +beaten her.</p> + +<p>"When I ran Farrell to earth there, after he'd given me the slip for +twelve months and more, this woman had married him and almost made a +new man of him. In another month or so I don't doubt she'd have +converted him into man enough to tell her all the truth, and let her +deliver him.</p> + +<p>"As it was, he passed me off for his friend—the ass!… +I shipped with them, and we worked down the coast, by fruit-ship and +sloop, to Valparaiso, intending for Sydney.… Now at this point I +might easily make myself out a calculating villain. Farrell was +enamoured to feebleness, and to make love to his Santa was an +opportunity cast into my lap by the gods.… But actually, before +I could even meditate this simple villainy, I had fallen in love with +her because I couldn't help it.</p> + +<p>"Now I had never been in love before, and I took the disease pretty +severely. And I should say that I took it rather curiously: but you +shall judge, for I'll set out the credit side of the account just as +plainly as the other.</p> + +<p>"I hated the man, as you know: I loved the woman, as I've told you. +But—here's the puzzle—strange to say, at that time, and for a long +while, these two passions did not conflict or even contend at all, as +neither did they help. I couldn't hate Farrell any worse than I did +already. If I'd hated him just a little less, I might have killed +him, to get him out of the way. But I give you my word, I never +thought of shortening the chase in that way. Farrell, you may say, +had become necessary to me: by this time I couldn't think of living +without him.… Now I know what's crossing your mind. I might +have piled up the torture on Farrell, and at the same time have +played on that other passion, by setting myself to debauch Santa. +No, I'm not complaining. You shall have as bad to condemn before +I've done, so you needn't apologise. But, as it happens, I wasn't +that sort of blackguard. Moreover, it wouldn't have worked, anyhow. +Santa was as good as her name—</p> + +<p>"No, damn it! I will clear myself of <i>that</i>!… You'll understand +that I loved the woman, and—well, in the old days, as you'll do me +the justice to remember, I hated men who played loose among women. +As for 'making love' to Santa—oh, I can't explain to you, who never +saw her, how utterly that was beyond question on either side.… +Almost white she was, with the blood of the Incas in her—blood of +Castile, too, belike—and yet all of a woman, with funny rustic ways +that turned at any moment to royal.… And she loved Farrell—my +God!</p> + +<p>"I wonder now if she guessed—guessed at the time, I mean. They say +that women always guess; which in these matters is as good as +knowing.… But I'm holding up my story."</p> +<br> +<p> +"The <i>Eurotas</i> went down in something like 36, south latitude, +longitude 105 and a half west. That's as near as I make it: that is +to say, some three or four hundred miles from any known land save +Easter Island, which lay well away north and to windward, for we were +down where the main winds set between W. and N. That's as close as I +can give it to you. In seafaring matters I leave seamen to their own +job, and don't worry about reckonings and day's runs. It's their +business to take me, mine to trust their skill. You will own, Roddy, +that if fools had only kept their noses out of <i>my</i> job in life, I +shouldn't be having to tell you this story.</p> + +<p>"Anyhow, Macnaughten—that was the skipper's name—took all the +ship's instruments with him on board his own boat, which was the last +to quit.</p> + +<p>"He was a good man, and I couldn't but admire his behaviour, first +and last. The <i>Eurotas</i> went down within half an hour of the first +explosion; which had surprised us passengers on deck as we were +chatting and watching the sunset. The sea was calm as a pond, with a +bank of cloud to northward, all edged with gold on its western +fringes.</p> + +<p>"I think this calm, resting over sea and sky, may have helped us +through the catastrophe. The only irritation I felt was at the +slowness of it all, between the moment we knew we were lost and +the moment when the vessel went down. Yet every moment between +was used to a nicety, almost as if Captain Macnaughten had been +preparing for the test. He commanded us, crew and passengers alike. +Four stokers had been killed below: another and the engineer officer +badly hurt. These two were fetched up while some of us lowered the +accommodation-ladder and others swung out the boats on the davits. +These two sick men were carried down to the first of the three boats +launched. Four women passengers followed; three married, one a +spinster. The three husbands were ordered down after them.</p> + +<p>"The <i>Eurotas</i>, as I've told you, was a new ship, well found to the +last life-buoy. The directors of the Company had lunched on board +before she sailed and drunk to her health, having seen that +everything answered to advertisement. The boats were staunch, newly +painted and smart: the crew as well-picked a lot as the Board could +find. So far as I can recall those hurrying minutes, I remember them +as being almost intolerably slow. I cannot say how many of them it +took before we realised for a certainty that the ship was going down. +But I know that as, by order, I went down the ladder to the second +boat, I had a sense of irritation at the long time it was taking and +the methodical way the skipper was getting out stores and +water-breakers and having them hefted down.</p> + +<p>"Another thing I must tell you. As I went down the ladder—the +ship's bows already beginning to dip steeply—I had a sense of being +in no <i>time</i> at all, but in eternity. There around us, spread and +placid, stretched the emptiest waste of the Pacific, with God's sun +deserting the sky above it, sinking almost as fast as the ship was +sinking.</p> + +<p>"Santa had wrapped her mantilla over her head. She went down the +ladder before me, following Farrell. Our boat was white-painted on +thwarts and stern-sheets.… I was keeping my foothold with +difficulty, loaded with a water-breaker.… A man took it from +me, all in silence. I gripped Farrell's hand and hoiked him on +board. There was a great silence hanging, as it seemed, about those +last moments.</p> + +<p>"We pushed off a little way. The third and last boat was lowered +down, and we saw the last half-dozen, with the captain at their +heels, tumbling down in a stampede.</p> + +<p>"The <i>Eurotas</i> took her plunge just as we heard them unhook from the +davit-blocks."</p> + + +<br> +<br> +<p><a name="17"></a> </p> +<h3>NIGHT THE SIXTEENTH.</h3> +<br> + + + +<h4>CAPTAIN MACNAUGHTEN.</h4> + +<h4>(Foe's Narrative Continued.)</h4> + +<p>"I once read a novel called <i>One Traveller Returns</i>. That's all I +remember of it—the title.</p> + +<p>"Well, I am that traveller: and if ever I write down the story of the +<i>Eurotas</i>, and in particular of what was suffered on board her boat +No. 2, I have no doubt that nine readers out of ten will forget the +details just as soon and just as completely. There is a horrible +sameness about these narratives, Roddy; and the truer they are (as +I've proved) the nearer they resemble one another. Monotonous they +are—these drawn-out agonies—as the sea itself upon which they are +enacted. From time to time you sit up half-awake out of your stupor, +and then you know that something is going to happen, and also that it +is something you've read about somewhere, something that you've +<i>lived</i> through (or so it seems) in dreams, or in a previous +existence. You hardly know which; and you don't care, much. +It's going to be horrible, you know: it's going to be all the more +horrible, in its way, for being conventional. You want to get it +over and pass on to the next stereotyped nightmare. That's the +feeling.</p> + +<p>"So I'm going to confine my tale pretty closely to myself and what +pulled me through.… But before I get to this I must tell you of +two shocks that fell on me before I came to it, and seemed to promise +that the books were all wrong and not half vivid enough. I dare say +that quite a number of survivors have tried to paint the sense of +loneliness that swooped on them in the first few seconds after their +ship had slid down. But I'll swear I had read nothing to prepare me +for it.… It's not a ship—it's a continent—that vanishes. +The little hole it has made in the water calls to the whole ocean to +cover it, and the ocean widens out its horizon by ten times all +around, at once pouring in and spreading itself to isolate you ten +times farther from help.… Nobody who hasn't been through this +and felt it for himself can understand how promptly and easily— +without help of quenching their thirst in salt water—men go mad, in +open boats, at sea.</p> + +<p>"But I believe the shock of loneliness at sunrise was even more +hideous. One is prepared for it, in a way; otherwise it would, I am +sure, be far more hideous. Santa confessed to me, on the second day, +that she had felt—and, she believed, could feel—nothing more +dreadful. As she put it, 'You see, my friend, when the sky lightens +at length, you have assurance of God, and that God is help. +Then, when He sends up no help, but a great staring sun to watch your +misery, hour by hour, God turns to devil and you only long for +night—when, at least, the dew falls.'</p> + +<p>"Between sunset and sunrise, however, I was kept fairly busy. +For the <i>Eurotas</i> had scarcely been twenty minutes under water, and +night had barely fallen, before the captain's boat ranged up to us. +She carried a lantern in her bows, and I had found one and was +lighting it after his example.</p> + +<p>"'Names on board!' he demanded. We gave them through Grimalson, the +second mate, who was in charge. He said no more for about half a +minute, during which time no doubt he was running through the list in +his head. Then, 'That's all right,' he announced cheerily. +'You'll set watches, Mr. Grimalson, and keep her in easy hail. +The weather will certainly hold fine for a bit, and early to-morrow +I'll be alongside again with instructions. Plumb south our course +lies, for the present. I'll tell you why, later. You have a sail?"</p> + +<p>"'Ay, sir,' answered Grimalson.</p> + +<p>"'Right. But don't hoist it unless I signal.… Yes, yes, not a +draught at present. But if a breeze should get up, don't hoist sail +without instructions. We keep together—that's the main point. +Just pull along easy—I'll set the pace—and keep in my wake, course +due south. Those that aren't pulling will act wise to trust in God +and get some sleep.… Is that Doctor Foe there forra'd, with the +lantern?'</p> + +<p>"'Ay, sir,' I answered up.</p> + +<p>"'Then as soon as you've fixed it, sir, I'll ask you to jump aboard +and along with us for to-night. I've poor Jock Abercrombie here— +fetched him and Swainson out of No. 1 boat'—These were the two +injured men: Abercrombie, our Chief Engineer, by far the worst +burnt—'I doubt if he'll last till morning: but we've been friends +from boys, Jock and me, and if you can do aught, sir, to make his +passing easier—'</p> + +<p>"I asked him to wait while I fetched my medicine-chest, and was +transhipped with it into the captain's boat. They had laid +Abercrombie in the stern-sheets, with the stoker Swainson beside him. +Abercrombie's plight was hopeless; flesh of chest and arms all +red-raw from the scorching, and the man palpably dying from shock.</p> + +<p>"'I had him into my boat, sir,' Macnaughten explained gravely, +'because we'd shipped the ladies—all but Mrs. Farrell—in No. 1, and +I don't want 'em to be distressed more than necessary.… A man +can't think of everything all in five minutes, but I got him out of +it, soon as I could. There's no hope, think you?'</p> + +<p>"'Between you and me, none,' said I, sinking my voice.</p> + +<p>"'That's what I reckoned,' said the skipper, with just a nod of his +head. He had taken the tiller and sent all the crew, saving four men +rowing, forward whilst I examined the patients. 'Jock wouldn't be +one to let out a groan if he knew there were women by to be scared by +it.… Also, Doctor, if he's dying, I'd like to be handy by, if +you understand. I got him this berth. We were friends, always.'</p> + +<p>"I found some cotton-wool and a tin of vaseline, and coated the poor +man's hurts as well as I could. Then, as he still groaned, though +more feebly, I got out my phial of morphia and a needle. As I held +the bottle against a sort of binnacle-light by which Macnaughten sat +steering, I caught his eyes staring down on me, quiet and solemn. +I tell you, that man was a man, Roddy.</p> + +<p>"'Yes, I know, Doctor,' he said quietly. 'You're calculating how +much there is of it, and how you may have to use it before we're +through.… What about Swainson?'</p> + +<p>"'He'll pull around,' said I. 'The vaseline will ease three-fourths +of his trouble within ten minutes.'</p> + +<p>"'Keep your voice low,' said the skipper, 'as I'm keeping mine.' +He bent forward, pretending to consult the compass. 'I've sent all +these fellows forward, though they put her down by the head so that +it's like steering a monkey by the tail.… Now I reckon that +you'll be wishful to go back to-morrow, or as soon as may be, and +join your party. That's so?'</p> + +<p>"'That's so,' said I, as I finished the injection and turned to deal +with the stoker.</p> + +<p>"'Well, I'd like to have you here aboard,' said the skipper. +'But so's best. We want some brains in No. 2 boat; and, between +ourselves, Grimalson hasn't the brains of a hare. He's a +second-cousin-twice-removed of one of our directors. He's no seaman +at all; and his navigation's all a pretence.… I suppose, now, +<i>you</i> can't navigate?'</p> + +<p>"'Good Lord, no, sir!' said I. 'I just understand the principles of +it—that's all.'</p> + +<p>"'It's a damned sight more than Grimalson understands, I'll bet,' +responded Captain Macnaughten, studying the binnacle and speaking as +though we were discussing the weather and the crops. 'You may push +your finger into that man anywhere, he's that soft and boggy—no +better'n slush—<i>and</i> pink.… Don't you despise a pink-coloured +man? Still, I want you to understand, Doctor, that he's the superior +officer on No. 2, for the time being.'</p> + +<p>"'I understand,' said I, looking up from my business of unguenting +the stoker, who was not badly burnt.</p> + +<p>"'But if Grimalson should turn rotten.… Well, now, I've had an +eye on you, sir, and I judge I can share off on you a bit of trouble +I wouldn't share off on most.… <i>You</i> must know as well as I do +that the chance is pretty thin for us all, even if this weather +holds. I reckon there's no nearer land than Easter Island, four +hundred good miles norr'ard, and a beat in light winds.… I've +heard too much about long beats in open boats—heard enough to make +the flesh creep. Anyways, I'm responsible. I've turned it over in +my head: and I'm giving orders—you take me? We're not steering for +any land at all. We're steering the shortest way, due south—what +wind there is drawing behind us—on the chance to hit in with the way +of traffic—Sydney ships making round the Horn.… You'll not +argue that, I hope?" he demanded.</p> + +<p>"'On the contrary, sir,' I agreed, 'I just know enough to be sure +that you are doing the wisest thing.'</p> + +<p>"'Nobody but God can be sure,' said he, and sat musing. 'Well, I +take the responsibility God has seen fit to lay on me of a sudden. +You won't hear me speak of this again: but you're an educated man, +and you've nerve as well as brains—I marked ye by the head of the +ladder, when the first boat was getting out. I reckoned you for one +that doesn't speak out of his turn; and it came over me, just now, +that I'd like one such man, and him a gentleman, to bear in mind that +if I set my face pretty hard in the time that's ahead of us, it won't +mean that I ain't feeling things at the back of it.'</p> + +<p>"'Thank you, Captain Macnaughten,' said I, pretty earnestly. +'The best I can answer is the simplest—that you're doing me much +honour.'</p> + +<p>"'That's all right,' he said lightly: 'all right and understood. +One man often helps another in funny little ways in this funny old +world.' After a pause he went on yet more lightly and cheerfully, +'Well—and I've noticed you've a trick of beginning your sentences on +that word 'well': it's a habit of mine too, they tell me—as the +ladies say ashore, we're going to be worse before we are better, so +we'll call those fellows aft a bit and ease the steering.… Stay +a minute, though, before I call to them.… A clever man like you +ought to be able to pick up a bit of navigation in a few lessons. +While our boats keep together (as, please God, they will to the end) +it wouldn't be a bad notion if you dropped alongside just before +midday for a morning call, and I'll learn you how to handle a sextant +and prick down a reckoning.… It'll be sociable, too.… Yes, +I'll signal the time to you: but, to be ready for it, you might set +your watch by my chronometer here.… I wonder, now,' he inquired +oddly, 'if you've forgot to wind yours up to-night?'</p> + +<p>"Well, Roddy, it's the truth that I had forgotten. I looked at him, +pretty foolish, and with that we both laughed—yes, there and then, a +sort of laugh, low and quiet, like well-water bubbling.</p> + +<p>"'Now I'll tell <i>you</i>,' said the skipper, 'I caught myself winding up +mine the moment after the ship went down… that's funny, eh? +Five minutes to nine was the hour.… I'd hooked the old timepiece +out of my fob, and there I was, winding, for all the world as if +ashore and going to bed.… See here—three turns of the winch and +she's chock-a-block again, if you ever!… And, come to think, I +may as well correct <i>her</i> by the chronometer, too.'</p> + +<p>"So we solemnly set our watches together, there by the binnacle +light. A queer fancy took me that the act was a sort of ritual, not +devised by either of us—a setting and sealing of friendship.… +Ought a fellow, Roddy, shipwrecked in the South Pacific, to complain +while he has these three stand-by's—a woman to love, a man to +admire, and a man to hate?"</p> +<br> +<p> +"The engineer died just before dawn. Indeed, the day broke of a +sudden as I finished straightening his body and wrapping it for +burial; and I looked up in the new light, and around me, to take in +that second gush of loneliness of which I told you.… It was +appalling. It swept in on me from the whole enormous circumference +of empty waters, and I fairly cowered from it over the corpse I had +been tending.</p> + +<p>"I never had that sensation again, or in anything like that degree, +during the whole voyage; and I shall presently tell you why. But it +was Macnaughten who taught me my first deliverance.… I knelt +there, huddled, not daring to turn my face up for a second look and +expose my cowardice. I seemed to be drowning in the deep of deeps, +and fragments of the first chapter of Genesis swirled past me like +straws—<i>And the earth was without form and void.… And the +Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God saw the +light, that it was good</i>—but here it was, and it was not good. +<i>And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters</i>— +but there was no firmament. <i>And God divided the waters… and +the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that +it was good</i>—oh, my God! <i>And God said, Let the waters under the +heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let dry land appear: +and it was so</i>—But it wasn't!</p> + +<p>"Captain Macnaughten's voice spoke through this misery of mine quite +matter-of-factly and simply, dispersing it like so much morning mist.</p> + +<p>"'Signal the other boats to pull close,' he commanded. 'Someone tell +me where the Bible and Prayer-Book were stowed. I saw them handed +down, with my own eyes.' Then to me: 'These things—packed as we +are… the sooner over, the better, and the less they'll prey on +anyone's mind.' He looked down. 'Jock would have liked it so, I +reckon.'</p> + +<p>"The other two boats were called close. The summons was explained, +and the burial service decently read. 'It don't seem altogether a +lively beginning,' said he to me at the close—and the water was +scarce dry on his cheek that had run down suddenly as he read out +<i>I heard a voice from heaven, saying</i>—'But,' he added, 'it'll sober +'em down to what they'll have to face.… And now we'll sober 'em +up with some cheerfuller business no less practical.'</p> + +<p>"The boats having gathered close for this ceremony, he commanded them +to stay so while the crews cooked breakfast. 'I saw the coffee +handed down into No. 1,' he announced. 'Fetch it out, you!… +And, after breakfast, I'll overhaul all three boats and see that each +has her share fairly apportioned.'</p> + +<p>"I tell you, Roddy, that this Macnaughten, who aboard the <i>Eurotas</i> +had been an ordinary skipper conning his ship, and nowise hearty or +communicative, of a sudden proved himself as great as any man I've +read of in history.… You may smile if you will. But here was a +man abandoned by Heaven in the waste of the South Pacific, with all +his prospects blasted and all the hopes built on the <i>Eurotas</i> line +(in which, I learned, he had piled his money); with a wife at home, +moreover, and a daughter. Yet for the seven days we kept company he +stood up to duty, fathered us all, never showed sick or sorry. +He had a fairish baritone voice, and it was he that started us +singing to fill up the endless time. How does it go?—"</p> + +<blockquote><blockquote> +<p class = "noindent">Thus sang they in an English boat,<br> + A holy and a cheerful note—</p> +</blockquote></blockquote> + +<p>God! I can hear his voice now, trolling <i>Nancy Lee</i> back across the +waters, defying them, until the night quenched it.</p> + +<p>"Through these seven days, regularly and towards noon, he signalled +and I went aboard No. 3 for a lesson in navigation. It was the third +day that, returning, I found Grimalson didn't stomach these visits. +Grimalson was a mean man, and incompetent; the sort that knows he's +not trusted, knows there's good reason for it, and resents it all the +time. I thought him just a sulky brute, and noted that on some +excuse or other it was always inconvenient to be close up with No. 3 +boat as it drew towards midday and my time (as he put it, growling) +for 'taking the Old Man's temperature.' He was misguided enough, on +the fourth day, to let off a part of this rather feeble joke upon the +captain himself, and found his bearings pretty smartly. He had so +managed things that at ten minutes to noon it became pretty clear I +must miss my appointment. All three boats carried sail now: the +weather being perfect, with a nor'-westerly breeze, light but steady: +and the three were running before it pretty well abreast like three +tiny butterflies on the waste of water—for I should tell you that +all three were twenty-four footers, built to one whale-boat model on +the same moulds, and carried small Bermuda, or leg-of-mutton sails, +cut to one pattern—when Grimalson took it into his head that our +down-haul should be tautened in, cursed the man who was doing his +best to execute a silly order, ran forward, and so messed matters +that the sail had to be three-parts lowered and re-set. It was quite +deliberately done, as even a landsman could see; and it lost us a +couple of hundred yards off the captain's boat, sailing to starboard +of us.</p> + +<p>"Things were scarcely right with us before Macnaughten had brought +his boat about close to wind and came ranging alongside. He had his +watch in his hand.</p> + +<p>"'Mr. Grimalson,' he demanded, 'why were you fooling with that sail, +just now?'</p> + +<p>"'She wasn't setting proper,' explained Grimalson; 'and I told Jarvis +to take a swig on the downhaul. He got messed up in the slack +somehow, and—'</p> + +<p>"'Before you go any further,'—the captain cut him short—' I may +just tell you that your sail was setting perfectly, and that I saw +the whole business through my glass.… Hasn't Doctor Foe told you +that I require him, while this weather holds, to be on board this +boat regularly at ten minutes to noon, to take observations?'</p> + +<p>"'Observations?' grumbled the second mate. 'I thought observations +to be a seaman's job. I reckoned that what doctors and suchlike took +was temperatures, and five minutes up or down wouldn't put anyone +out.'</p> + +<p>"'I'm sorry,' answered Macnaughten, very quiet, after a moment's +thought,—'I am very sorry to tell you before your crew and +passengers what, with a ship under me, I should have called you aft +and below to hear in private. But if you ever use that tone with me +again, Mr. Grimalson, I shall take <i>your</i> temperature with my +revolver. And if you dare to disobey my smallest order, as you +deliberately did just now, I shall transfer you to this boat and clap +you in irons. For it seems to me I have to explain to you what the +others,—crew and passengers alike—know by the light of common +sense: that until God's mercy delivers us my least word is the Ten +Commandments rolled into one, we being where a hand's turn is either +a hair's-breadth or broad as the Pacific.… Now cast off, and set +your behaviour by No. 1 boat, where Mr. Ingpen has come up to wind +and is waiting for us.… A cable's length on the port, and level +with us—that's the order, and you'll watch it until I give the next. +You have lost us twenty minutes. Happen <i>that</i> might turn out the +hair's breadth I was speaking of—the difference between life and +death—and the whole Pacific ain't wider.'</p> +<br><p>"We were down in latitudes where the current sets southeasterly, and +this was helping us all the time. But on the sixth and seventh days, +although the wind held fair and light and steady, a considerable +swell had been following us, warning of trouble somewhere to +northward; and on the eighth night it overtook us.</p> + +<p>"It was—not to speak irreverently—in itself ten times more trouble +than ten thousand Grimalsons could have raised; a tearing gale of +wind which, all of a sudden, converted the oily summits of the swell +into bursting white waves. I don't suppose the height from trough to +summit actually increased as it did to view, but in twenty minutes, +and with night shutting down the lid on us, each successive wave +astern seemed to grow taller by feet. The rain appeared to have no +effect in flattening their caps, though it came down with a weight +that knocked half the breath out of our bodies, and with a roar above +which it was hard to hear an order shouted. We could spy the other +boats' lanterns but at long intervals, partly because of this +down-pouring curtain and partly, I suppose, because when we topped up +over a crest they would nine times out of ten be hidden in a trough, +dipping or rising.</p> + +<p>"We carried, by Captain Macnaughten's orders, a hurricane lamp on our +fore-stay. Someone had lit a second amidships, where we huddled in +oilskins and under tarpaulins like a congregation of eels.… +Jarvis, our best seaman, had the tiller. He sat, all hunched, +crouching forward over a third small lamp—the binnacle lamp with +which our boat, like the others, was providentially fitted. +The rain, however, beat on its glass in such sheets that he could not +possibly have read the compass card floating by the wick. Nor—I am +sure—was he trying to read it. He just sat and steered by the feel +of the seas as they lurched ahead and sank abaft. The lamplight +glowed up on his cheek-bones, but was lost under the pent of his +sou'wester, which had a sort of crease or channel in its fore-flap, +that shed down the rain in a flood. Though we lay, we passengers, on +the bottom boards we could see nothing of his face, so far forward he +bent.</p> + +<p>"Then Grimalson lost his head. He was seated at Jarvis's shoulder in +the stern-sheets, with a hefty seaman (Prout by name) on his other +hand tending the sheet—the both of 'em starboard of Jarvis. Of a +sudden he started up, reached forward, snatched the midships light, +and held it aloft against the wall of a tremendous sea arching +astern. At sight of it the fool lost all his remaining nerve, and +yelled to the two seamen forward to lash a couple of oars to the +painter and cast overboard. 'If we ran another hundred yards, we +were lost: there was no hope but to fetch around head-to-sea and ride +to it.'</p> + +<p>"—Which, after some seven or eight sickening minutes, we did. +He was master, and Jarvis put down the helm and obeyed. Twice we +were heaved, tilted and slid sideways down, like folks perched on the +window-sills of a falling house. Then she came fair about and rode +to it, every crest flinging more or less of spray over us, hour after +hour.…</p> + +<p>"But I must tell you one thing. From time to time we were roused up +in the darkness, to bale. Our work performed, we three passengers— +Santa and Farrell and I—would creep under the tarpauling anew, out +of the drumming rain, and coil there to sleep.… Ay, and once in +the pitch blackness under, she, mistaking, reached two arms around my +neck and with a long sigh, dead-beat, sank asleep. That was all. +… Farrell lay as he had tumbled, like a log across my ankles. +… I held her, crooked by my elbow against my side, her head +drowsed on my shoulder, her body pulsing against mine. I am telling +you all, and I tell you that I did not dare to kiss her. Lying +awake, with Farrell across my feet, I held her to me, feeling her +breathe.</p> + +<p>"At hint of dawn Jarvis, who had been watching the seas the night +through, barked us out of cover. The rain had ceased, the gale had +swept southward as fast as it had come. The sea heaved almost as +steeply as ever, but the toppling waves no longer flung any spray +over us, or any to mention."</p> +<br> +<p> +"Day broke, and the after-swell still tumbled us heavily: but nowhere +within the great ring of horizon did it heave one of the other boats +into sight. The sea smoothed itself down with a quite wonderful +rapidity, and still its great surface was a blank."</p> +<br> +<p> +"I cannot somehow believe that so able a handler of his boat as I +knew Captain Macnaughten to be allowed himself to be swamped in that +gale. His orders had been to carry on and only heave-to upon signal. +Jarvis—who (as I have said) could sail our boat running by the feel +of her, maintained that we had never been in the worst of danger, +that the skipper could sail a boat for ten to his own one, that he +had just held on, in his straight way, upon the orders he had given, +and left us at the back of the horizon while we fenced seas under +Grimalson's orders.</p> + +<p>"Since nothing apparently has been heard since of those other boats, +I shall go on hoping that Jarvis was wrong, and that Captain +Macnaughten's boat and Mr. Ingpen's, in one way or another, met with +a short sharp end in that gale.</p> + +<p>"But if they did last it out and over the horizon to drag it out and +die and never be reported to Lloyd's, then I, who know the sort of +things they must have suffered, assure you, who have read them +accurately reported in books, that whenever or wherever Captain James +Macnaughten perished, the Recording Angel has him entered up for a +seaman and a gentleman."</p> + + +<br> +<br> +<p><a name="18"></a> </p> +<h3>NIGHT THE SEVENTEENTH.</h3> +<br> + + + +<h4>NO. 2 BOAT.</h4> + +<h4>(Foe's Narrative Continued.)</h4> + +<p>"One must use ugly words for ugly things.</p> + +<p>"Grimalson, staring—as we all stared—over the blank sea, vomited +the natural man within him in some fourteen or fifteen words for +which he was never forgiven by any of us.</p> + +<p>"'Gone, by Gosh! And that bloody old fool was teaching <i>me</i> to +handle a boat!'</p> + +<p>"All heard it. Not a soul spoke. I glanced at Jarvis in time to +catch the twitch of his mouth—one of those twitches I used to study +in angry dogs, and snapshot and measure: but he continued to gaze +across the waters. After half a minute or so he glanced at me, +looked seaward again, and observed quietly, 'It don't seem probable +they would run mast-down in the time. And yet I don't know: 'twas +blowing powerful fresh just after midnight. Hull-down, a boat might +easily be; and supposing sail lowered, what's a boat's mast better to +pick up than a needle in a bottle o' hay?—let be they might be +dismasted. There was weather enough. And No. 1 carried a bamboo— +which is never to be trusted, if you ask <i>me</i>.'</p> + +<p>"'Who the devil's asking you?' demanded Grimalson.</p> + +<p>"'Nobody, sir,' the seaman answered, respectfully, but without +turning his head. 'Words spoken in a l'il boat like this be for +anybody's hearin'; and anybody's heard or no, accordin' as they +choose.'</p> + +<p>"'Well then,' Grimalson retorted, 'I happen to be boss here aboard, +and I don't choose. So drop you that, prompt, and start baling her.'</p> + +<p>"'One moment, Mr. Grimalson—' I began. But he took me up quicker +than he had taken Jarvis.</p> + +<p>"'Dear me, now!' he snarled in a foolish sarcastic way. 'And who may +this be that I have the honour of addressing?—Captain Macnaughten's +ghost? or his next-of-kin, belike? Or may be his deputy +understudy?—with your <i>One moment, please</i>?… You sit down on +that thwart there, and don't you dare open your face again until I +give you leave.… That was the old fool's way with <i>me</i>—hey? +And now you recognise it.'</p> + +<p>"'I do,' said I, pulling out my revolver. 'You may quit fumbling in +your pocket, for it's wringing wet and these cartridges are dry, as I +have assured myself.… <i>You</i> sit down on <i>that</i> thwart, and don't +you dare open your face until I give you leave to get up and wash it. +That's <i>your</i> trick of speech, and maybe you recognise it."</p> + +<p>"As I covered him, Jarvis touched my elbow. 'I beg your pardon, sir, +but you're a gentleman and a passenger, and Mr. Grimalson's our +senior officer, when all's said, <i>and</i> in command.… I'm not +talkin' about the rights of it nor the wrongs of it,' Jarvis went on, +as I still held the revolver levelled:' but 'tis flat mutiny you're +committing; and me and my mates'll have to range up on the side of +order. Whereby you'll be no match for us.… Oh, sir,' he +pleaded, 'let up with quarrelling, and let's all die decent, if we +must, when the time comes—and with a lady in the boat!'</p> + +<p>"'Thank you, Jarvis,' said I; and lowering my revolver drew out the +cartridges pretty deliberately. 'I beg your pardon, Mr. Grimalson. +I shall not, on any provocation, interfere with you again. But +before you start baling the boat, I'll ask you to note that the third +water-breaker is stove, and it was the only full one. Saltish this +water may be, but nine-tenths of it is honest rain from heaven.'</p> + +<p>"'My God, sir, and it's truth!' verified one of the seamen who had +scrambled forward. The full breaker had jerked loose from its +lashings and lay awash under the bowman's thwart: worse—it had +loosed the other two, and these, floating light, had washed away +overboard and gone out of ken.</p> + +<p>"Grimalson stood up, slightly dazed. In the rock of the boat he +seemed to be shifting his weight deliberately from foot to foot.</p> + +<p>"'Why didn't one of you report?' he shouted, in a fury at which I +smiled; it being so senseless and at the same time so cunning, as a +ruse to let him arise with dignity from the thwart. 'Why didn't +somebody report?' he repeated in an absurd official manner, quite as +though he had been a station-master interrogating a group of porters +on the whereabouts of a missing parcel.</p> + +<p>"'Well, sir,' I answered as politely as possible; 'it was I that +first found the casks were loose, and by the accident that the rim of +the full one struck me pretty sharply, in the night, between the +shoulder-blades. I got it trigged up, as you see, before it ran +amuck to do further damage. In securing it I found that it had lost +its bung and was almost empty: but that hardly seemed worth +mentioning, with such a flood of rainwater washing around. There was +nothing to be done at the moment; the breaker in a way was refilling +itself, as soon as I had it jammed, by the water washing over it; +and, after a bit, judging it full or nearly full, I ripped off a +corner of my oily and made a sort of bung, as you see."</p> + +<p>"All this had, in fact, cost me some labour, and I related it, no +doubt, a bit too complacently. Worse, I rounded it up by saying, +'The captain, sir, was more anxious about the water than anything, as +he told me yesterday.'</p> + +<p>"At this his temper boiled over—yet not (as I could see) until he +had flung a glance at Jarvis and the crew, to make sure they were +submissive still to the old habit of discipline. 'Macnaughten was +always full of wisdom,' he sneered; '—so full that he's dead of it! +… And so you didn't think it worth mentioning?'</p> + +<p>"Do you know, Roddy, I didn't think the fool worth any further +attention.… One can't really hate two men at one time… at +any rate, <i>I</i> can't. It's too fatiguing. There sat Farrell, three +feet away, looking dazed, as he'd looked ever since the <i>Eurotas</i> +went under. As for this Grimalson, I didn't reckon him worth powder +and shot. I knew that he would bluster before the men, to save his +face, and then climb down. To secure the water on board was such an +obvious measure that, bluster as he might, he couldn't miss coming to +it finally.… I heard Jarvis explaining that an empty pork-tub, +with a tarpauling inside of it, would hold quite a deal of the +rainwater washing above the bottom-boards. I took no more trouble +than to turn my back on Grimalson, who was arguing that all this +water was mucking the dry provisions.</p> + +<p>"'They're pretty well mucked already, sir, by the looks of 'em,' +answered Jarvis: 'all but the canned meats, and few enough they are. +Five cans, as I counted the last stowage.'</p> + +<p>"'Oh, very well, then,' came the order which I had known to be +inevitable. 'Run a tarpauling inside of that cask—and bale, you, +Prout and Martinez!'</p> + +<p>"And so, behind my back and almost as I shrugged my shoulders—so, +within twenty minutes of the sunrise that told us we were eight human +beings isolated from all help but that which we could afford to one +another—in a casual, unpremeditated stroke the curse fell on us.</p> + +<p>"The seaman Martinez, kneeling in water, was asking, rather +helplessly, for someone to pass him a baler or invent one—our +regulation dipper having gone overboard in the gale. It was a silly, +useless question: but Grimalson, already rattled, swung round upon a +man he knew to be weak. 'Damn me!' cried he in a gust of rage, 'if I +can't teach it to doctors, I'll teach <i>seamen</i> who gives orders +here!' and snatching out a marling-spike from a sheath in his belt, +hurled it full at the seaman's head.</p> + +<p>"The act was brutal enough in itself; for the iron, though a light +one, was full heavy enough, flung with that force, to lay a man out. +It did worse: for Martinez, instead of ducking his head, made a +spring to his feet, putting out his hands much as if fielding a +cricket-ball. The marling-spike, miss-aimed, struck the thwart in +front of him, turned point up with the ricochet, and plunged into his +thigh. As I splashed forward to his help, blood came creeping, +staining the water around my ankles. The steel point had pierced +slantwise through his femoral artery.</p> + +<p>"Well, I was quick: and Santa was quick, too—tearing in strips the +damp pillow-case on which her head rested of nights when it wasn't +resting against Farrell's shoulder. (But not <i>this</i> night, I thought +as I worked—not this blessed night just passed!) With the +pillow-case and the very spike that had done the mischief I made a +good firm tourniquet and saved Martinez's life for the time.</p> + +<p>"But he had lost a lot of blood. All the drinking water awash in the +boat was foul with it, and this bloodied flood was running, as the +boat rocked, in and out among our small bags of pork and ship-bread. +My job ended, I looked aft. Farrell was leaning over the gunwale in +uncontrollable nausea. The face of Prout at the tiller, was dogged +but inexpressive. Grimalson stood like a man dazed.</p> + +<p>"'Will he live?' he asked, his eyes meeting mine. 'Of course I never +intended—'</p> + +<p>"'It wasn't a very pretty thing to do, was it?' I answered quietly.</p> + +<p>"'Well, this settles it,' said he, staring down at the water. +'We must clean out this filthy mess and overhaul the stores.'</p> + +<p>"'And <i>then</i>?' I asked.</p> + +<p>"'Oh, it'll rain,' said he, affecting confidence. 'It rained for a +hundred last night, didn't it? We've run south of the dry latitudes +and soon we'll be getting more rain than we've any use for. +There's the small keg of rum, too.… Great thing as we're +situated,' the fool continued, 'is to keep everyone in heart. +And anyway I don't stomach water with blood in it—specially Dago +blood.… Jarvis and Webster, fall to baling: and you, Prout, hand +us over the tiller and dig out something for breakfast.'</p> + +<p>"I had found a plug of tobacco in my pocket and seated myself to +slice it: and as I cut it upon my palm, my eyes fell on Farrell's +yet-heaving shoulders.… Of a sudden then it came upon me that, +even with the luck we'd carried, men can't go through seven days and +eight nights in an open boat and emerge quite sane. Macnaughten had +put up a gallant, a magnificent pretence. 'The Old Man's Penny +Readings,' as Grimalson had dubbed those evenings when the boats had +closed up and the crews sang Moody and Sankey or <i>My Mary</i>—'The Old +Man's Penny Readings, or Pea-nuts on the Pacific'—had been just as +grandly simple as anything in the Gospel. No: that's wrong—they had +come straight out of the Gospel, a last chapter of it the skipper had +found floating and recovered, and would carry up, a proud passport to +his God.</p> + +<p>"But Macnaughten was gone, and with him the whole lovely illusion. +He had kept us in a nursery, separated from hell by a half-inch +plank; and here we were all beasts, consigned to ravening and to die +of unsatisfied bestial wants—yes, and commanded by a monkey-man who +chattered of keeping everyone in heart! <i>He!</i>"</p> +<br> +<p> +"So there it was. I told you, Roddy, that it all happened like a +nightmare—or, if you prefer it, a composite photograph—of any dozen +stories you can recall. Here are the facts; and I will try to give +them succinctly, as in a police-report.</p> + +<p>"We were eight in the boat:"</p> +<center> +<table> +<tr> + <td>Grimalson.</td><td>In command.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td>Davis.</td><td>A.B. Seaman.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td>Prout.</td><td>A.B. Seaman.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td>Webster.</td><td>Ordinary Seaman.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td>Martinez.</td><td>Ordinary Seaman.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td>Farrell.</td><td>Passenger.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td>Santa.</td><td>Passenger.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td>and I.</td><td>Passenger.</td> +</tr> +</table> +</center> +<p>"Our victuals were:—4 lb. of pork (about) and 7 lb. of ship-bread, +all messed with blood: 3 cans of potted meat, 2 of preserved fruit, +one tin of sardines: for liquid, half a gallon of rum and, in the +breaker, about 3 pints of water.</p> + +<p>"We were, as we calculated, four hundred miles at least from any +known land, and we had no chart on board: we might be within a +hundred miles of the fringe of traffic.</p> + +<p>"The sea was calm: the wind came in intermittent light draughts from +the north. The sky was a great burning-glass, holding no hint of +rain."</p> +<br> +<p> +"Now from the very beginning—from the moment we left the ship—I +knew that, if we were to perish of hunger or thirst before sighting +help, I should be the last survivor. No; you needn't stare: it's +perfectly simple.… I doubt if I ever told you that in the old +days, when experimenting with the animals, I found that my will—or +brain-power, if you prefer the term—worked torpidly for a while +after meals, although, as you know, I was never what they call a +hearty feeder. So I took to cutting down my rations. Then of course +I discovered that this was all right enough up to a point, beyond +which the stomach's craving made the brain irritable and impatient. +So for a long time I let it go at that, and ate pretty frugally at +fairly long stretches… until one day, in some book about Indian +fakirs, I picked up a hint that if this interval of exhaustion were +passed—if I stuck it out—my will might pick up its second wind, so +to speak, and work more strongly than ever. I was curious enough, +anyway, to give it a trial or two. The results didn't amount to +much: but I <i>did</i> discover that I had a rather exceptional capacity +for fasting, and promised myself to practise it further, from time to +time, as an experiment on my own vile body.</p> + +<p>"But now we'll come to something more important. In the matter of +thirst I had persevered: being, as you may remember, hot-foot upon +rabies just then and the salivary glands.… Well, in the matter +of thirst, I trained myself to do my three days easy without +swallowing a drop. That last night you invited yourself to dinner— +the night I first met Farrell, by the way—you unknowingly ended a +four days' experiment. I told Jimmy Collingwood about it, the +morning he breakfasted with me.…"</p> + +<p>["I remember Jimmy's telling me something about it, in the taxi," I +put in. "He said you were either the saviour or the curse of +society—he wasn't clear which: wouldn't commit himself until he'd +read your forthcoming treatise on <i>Thirst, Its Cause and Cure</i>. +He added that you were mistaken if you thought the topic +non-controversial."]</p> + +<p>"He needn't be afraid. . . Farrell smashed me up for good as a +benefactor of my species.… I shall put up a brass plate in +Harley Street and end my days as a pottering empiricist—Remember +Jimmy's trouble with that word?—alleviating particular complaints +for cash. If it hadn't been for Farrell—well, just you remember +<i>that</i> when I stand up for judgment!…</p> + +<p>"Anyhow, that infernal boat gave me all the personal experiment I +wanted.… I promised not to tell you all about it.… Martinez +went first, of course, being weak as water. He died muttering for +water. Grimalson came next… two days later.</p> + +<p>"But I shall go on telling you about myself. Physically I suffered +very little, mentally a good deal at sight of the others' torments— +but only from time to time. By the fourth day (the eleventh after +the <i>Eurotas</i> went down) we were all more or less mad, I reckon. +But my lunacy took the form of light-headedness with a strange, +almost persistent, sense of exaltation. I kept my strength so much +better than they that almost unconsciously they left most of the +trimming and steering in my hands. And I sat and steered as a god, +in a world blank of all but miserable happenings. I looked on Santa, +and she was the woman I loved but should never enjoy. I looked on +Farrell: and he was <i>here</i>, brought here by <i>me</i>. What worse woe +could possibly lie in store for him than this agony over which I +presided it was impossible to tell and hard indeed to imagine. But I +did not want him to die. On the contrary, it was for <i>him</i> that I +searched the horizon, that a ship might rescue us and he might live. +I would see to the rest!</p> + +<p>"They say that living with an enemy in a confinement such as ours, +makes you hate him worse and worse.… It wasn't so with me. +My hate, by this time, was set and annealed, so to speak; quite cold, +and almost judicial. I had no more jealousy than Jove. The air +that, to the others, quivered so damnably, so insufferably around the +boat under a sky without shade, swam around me like incense.… +As for Farrell, his eyes watched mine like a dog's.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, we went through it all! I'll have to tell you about +Grimalson (as shortly as possible, though), because Farrell gets +mixed up in it, hereabouts. Even in their suffering, the three +seamen—Jarvis, Prout, and Webster—had nursed poor Martinez almost +tenderly; and I suppose, amid their mutterings forward, they had +hatched out their form of protest. And it was fit for comic opera— +ghastly comic opera—if you can imagine Lucifer sitting in the +stalls.</p> + +<p>"Noon of the third day it was—I count from the time of our losing +the other two boats. We had lowered Martinez overboard about an hour +before, and the seamen should have been preparing our diminutive +ration. (Salt pork boiled in sea-water, if you can imagine it, +Roddy!) I was steering: Santa sat a foot away, staring over the +waters, sometimes bringing her attention back to a line which +Grimalson had cast overboard, trying for a fish. Grimalson lounged +on the after-thwart—facing me, as you might say, and with his back +to the men, but lolling sideways over the gunwale. He felt the line +with his left hand. Close by his right lay a useless gaff. He had +exhausted our third and last tin of sardines for bait, without +effect, and—what was worse—had drained the oil down his throat +impudently, without an offer to share it. Also he had been drinking +salt water—and I had not troubled to restrain him. Farrell I could +hate, but this man was naught. Farrell lay on the bottom-boards at +my feet, breathing stertorously, with his head in what shade Santa's +gown and the side-sheets together afforded. But this fool seemed +intent on baiting the Pacific with a plummet, a hook, and a lump of +salt pork.</p> + +<p>"As if this wasn't enough of grisly opera, of a sudden, in my +light-headedness I saw the three men stand up, join hands solemnly in +a sort of cat's cradle fashion, and advance aft, for all the world +like a comic trio, with the after thwart for footlights. They came +to a halt, close behind Grimalson, and—even as though I had ordered +a burlesque—Jarvis cleared his parched throat painfully, very +formally, and spoke across to me. You must picture the three, if you +will, still holding hands while he spoke.</p> + +<p>"'Doctor Foe, sir,' said Jarvis oratorically, 'me and my mates, not +knowing the law, but being wishful to behave conformable as British +seamen, have cast it up together. And we allow 'tis no mutiny, being +situated as we are, to say as this Martinez was a shipmate, when +all's said and done, though a Dago, and Mr. Grimalson, meaning no +disrespect, done him to death by bloody murder. Which, consequently, +attaching no blame, we three, as loyal British seamen, two A.B. and +one ordinary, and giving our opinion for what it is worth, hold that +Mr. Grimalson was probably off his chump when he done it, and hasn't +behaved subsequently in a way to inspire confidence in a crew left as +we are. Whereby, Doctor Foe, not having pen and ink handy to make a +round robin of it, we hereby respectfully depose Mr. Grimalson, and +request of you to take over command of this craft, trusting you to be +a gentleman and being well aware of the consequences and ready to +face 'em. The others having said <i>Amen</i>, we'll consider the matter +finished.'</p> + +<p>"There's farce somewhere in every tragedy, Roddy. Here, against the +glare on the Pacific, it challenged all doom, broad and unashamed. +I need hardly tell you that Grimalson, at the opening of this +harangue, had dropped his fishing-line, clutched his gaff, and +whirled about furiously. But he faced three determined men, and +Webster's loose hand played with a revolver. Twice or thrice +Grimalson essayed to interrupt; but Jarvis was a man with a prepared +speech: and, backed by Webster's free hand, he delivered it straight +out at me to the last word over Grimalson's shoulder.</p> + +<p>"Then, as he concluded, there ensued the beastliest scene of all. +Grimalson, from facing these three slow, determined men, took a swift +turn right about and struck at me with the gaff. They clutched at +him and he faced about again, dropping the gaff, springing to the +thwart and hitting right and left. Webster sprang also to the thwart +and landed him a stunner on the point of the jaw which sent him +overboard from the rocking boat.</p> + +<p>"Now Webster was, in ordinary life, a religious man, and a Methodist. +At sight of what he had done he ran to the boat's side, making +ineffectual grabs to recover the body, which floated for a moment or +two, with the senseless hands afloat or spread on the waters, as if +in ghastly benediction. And then, as I put up helm, as if hauled +down on a line, the trunk and head disappeared from view and a bloody +smear came up, oozing and spreading. Jarvis called out that he had +seen a shark's fin.</p> + +<p>"I did not see it, being occupied in rounding up the boat to recover +the body: doing this, too, with my left hand, in no small pain. +For Grimalson's stroke with the gaff had lacerated my right fore-arm, +tearing away a strip of my rolled-up shirt-sleeve.</p> + +<p>"And then.… My God, Roddy!—Farrell, who had roused himself up +at the scrimmage, had his mouth fastened on my arm, mad with thirst, +sucking the blood! Oh, you have to go through these things to +understand!… And I said I wouldn't tell.… I beat at him; +but it was Santa who pushed him off.</p> + +<p>"Webster had sunk, sobbing, with his face on his hands that gripped +the gunwale. We were all mad. I held out my bleeding fore-arm to +Santa, who was tearing a bandage for it.</p> + +<p>"'Your husband has drunk,' I said.</p> + +<p>"'Ah, pity!' said she, softly, taking the first deft turn of the +bandage. 'Must you, too, be a beast?'</p> + +<p>"Jarvis, meanwhile, like a man dulled to all tragedy had gone to the +boat's side and was hauling in Grimalson's futile line. He brought +up the sinker.</p> + +<p>"'God help us all!—there's hope yet!' he barked through his parched +throat, and held up the sinker all clothed about and clogged with +greenish-brown shore-weed."</p> + + +<br> +<br> +<p><a name="19"></a> </p> +<h3>NIGHT THE EIGHTEENTH.</h3> +<br> + + + +<h4>"AND SO THEY CAME TO THE ISLAND…"</h4> + +<h4>(Foe's Narrative Continued)</h4> + +<p>"That night, as I was steering, I heard a sound as of a bucket dipped +over the bows. Needless to say, we had hoisted no lantern on the +forestay since the night the other boats had driven away from us or +gone down. To help a vessel to pick us up on that expanse of water +it would have been about as useful as the tail of a glow-worm—and +moreover the crew <i>had drunk all the oil</i>.</p> + +<p>"I had the sheet well out and was running under a light, lazy +night-waft of breeze. A thin moon was setting somewhere behind my +right shoulder, and the glimmer of it played on the canvas.… +I had supposed all the others to be sunk in merciful sleep, when +Webster stood up and, staggering forward, ducked under the foot of +the sail, which at once hid him from me.… When I heard the +<i>plunk</i> of a bucket—as I supposed—it suggested at the worst that +here was another fool dosing himself mad on sea-water; and, as values +counted by this time, it was not worth while to awake four other +souls to consciousness and misery for the sake of preventing him. +… And then the man's face went swimming past me, upturned to the +moonlight, momentarily sinking as I grabbed at his beard which +floated up like seaweed.… I grabbed, and missed. God knows what +I should have done had my fingers tangled themselves in that beard, +to get a clutch on it.</p> + +<p>"He had slipped himself overboard, to drown quietly.… And we +were now five, and Prout was plainly a dying man. (I'd have you +note, Roddy, the order in which the men on board went; for it rather +curiously backs up my theory that there's ever so much more vitality +in what we call brains than in what we call physique.) Martinez was +a weakling, of poor breed: Grimalson, big as bull's beef, had a brain +rotten as a pear: Webster, a docile fellow, was strong as Hercules +and surprisingly stupid. These were gone, in their order. +The two A.B.'s, Jarvis and Prout—canny men, resourceful, full of +seamanship—survived, and we three passengers. What kept Farrell +going, and saved his reason, was a great capacity for sleep. +He slept all the night and most of the day; and though by consequence +he helped us little or nothing, seemed (as he declared himself to be) +constantly dog-tired. His momentary ferocity, when he fastened on my +bleeding forearm, had been a gust only, and after it he sank deeper +and deeper into drowsiness. As for Santa—frankly, I don't know. +They tell us that women sleep more lightly than men, and can endure +suffering far more patiently—which some explain by saying that their +nerves are less sensitive to pain, and (I suppose therefore) to +pleasure. But I don't know: I have never studied the subject. +She sat very quiet, sometimes for hours together, without stirring; +but she took very little actual sleep.</p> + +<p>"The end of Jarvis and Prout was one of those inhuman, ghastly farces +which, as I've said, break the spell of a sudden and are worse than +the tragedy itself. They had struck up a quaint, almost canine +friendship—Yes, that's the word, though I can't stop to explain what +I mean by it more than by saying that they would sit together by the +hour, like two dogs before a fire. The odd thing about it was that +they had twice been shipwrecked before on the coast; and had come +through the double experience respecting one another as capable +seamen but forming no attachment until—But it's ludicrous past +guessing. On the second day in the boat it was discovered by a +chance word that they had a common acquaintance in 'Frisco: and he +wasn't much of a friend either. I never heard his name right and +full, and I doubt if they knew it. They called him Uncle Tibe, and I +gathered from their earlier conversations that he was a Jewish dealer +in marine stores and a money-lender; of mature years; and afflicted +with a chronic and most Christian thirst, which he alleviated by +methods derived from the earliest patriarchs of his race. Of these +his favourite was to attach himself to some young seaman with money +in his pocket and, having insinuated concurrently the undoubted +truths that he possessed great wealth but was averse to spending it +(even on Scotch 'smokes'), to insinuate further that the victim had +to an extraordinary degree crept into the affections of a childless +old man,—yea, might hope indeed, by attentions which in practice +worked out to ordering whisky and adding 'Make it two,' to inherit +his real and personal estate.</p> + +<p>"Silly as you like!—But the discovery that each had been hoaxed by +Uncle Tibe, and the comparison of their foolish experiences, with +reported tales of the dupes yet more heavily befooled and bled, +caught and bound these men in fellowship. They had both met with +some queer ones in their travels, and they compared notes: but they +always came back to this superlative old fraud. After long wise and +disconnected talk about the set of the wind, or the rates of pay on +various lines, or stowage, or freights, or rigs, or currents, or the +characters of various skippers and mates, or the liveliness or +sulkiness or homeliness or fickleness of this or that kind of cargo, +they would revert extra-professionally to Uncle Tibe: of whom the old +stories would be repeated over and over, with long pauses, chuckles, +slow appreciations—'Ay, Tibe!… He was a none-such, if you +like!'</p> + +<p>"Will you believe me that, in the end, these two honest fellows +murdered each other over this more-than-half-mythical Tibe? No, you +can't guess what it's like, towards the finish. They sat side by +side on the mid-thwart, fishing over either gunwale—or leaning over, +pretending. They were almost too weak to haul in a fish over four +pounds had they caught one, and for two days their throats had been +parched so that speech came with difficulty. Of a sudden Jarvis let +out 'Tibe!' with a sort of ghostly cackle, and Prout cackled 'Tibe!' +in an echo even thinner.… And, with that Jarvis stood up and +started raving of what he would do when the money came to him, as he +allowed it would, after all. Mighty queer ways of spending wealth he +mentioned, too, before Prout was up and, yelling at him for a thief +and supplanter, drove at his throat with a knife. He missed: but the +next instant, these two fond friends, whose friendship had fenced us +others off almost as strangers, were wallowing and knifing one +another on the bottom-boards,—all over the visionary legacy of a +Jew, thousands of miles away, whose picking of their pockets had been +their common reminiscence and their standing joke through days of +horror! And political economists used to tell us that money is a +medium and symbol of exchange!"</p> +<br> +<p> +"Well, after that we were three in the boat, and I was the only one +strong enough to heft the bodies overboard. If they could only have +held on to their wits for another twenty-four hours, or even for +twelve!</p> + +<p>"When I had done this work, and redded up the boat, I looked rather +anxiously at Santa, who had been watching me: for I feared the effect +this scene of shambles might have upon her. She sat, with Farrell's +head resting against her knee, and still gazed unmoved.… Then I +knew why. She had passed beyond these vain phenomena. Her eyes saw +them and saw them not.… She was dying.</p> + +<p>"Yet she sat erect. She even smiled, very faintly, and made a feeble +motion of the hand towards her guitar-case, which I had lifted out of +the reach of the blood and set on the seat at a little distance from +her. Then I understood that she <i>had</i> seen, after all.… For I +must tell you that, in the early days, Santa's playing and singing +had brought great cheer to the crews, and our boat was envied for +carrying this music. But there had come a day when Jarvis and Prout +sent aft very respectfully to beg that there might be no more of it, +for it dragged across their raw nerves: and from that hour the guitar +had lain in its case. It could be set free now.</p> + +<p>"I took it out, and she half held out her arms for it, as a mother +might for her newly-born child.… But she would never play on it +again. The strings were all loose but one, and that one broken. +She had no strength, and I no skill, to re-tune the thing.</p> + +<p>"But she thanked me in a sort of throaty whisper, and sat for a while +letting the neck of the guitar lie against her shoulder, while her +left hand went up to clasp it and finger it in the old way. And her +right hand lifted itself once or twice towards the sounding-hole, but +dropped back to her lap.</p> + +<p>"'You are very good to me,' she said, after some seconds, still in +the same whisper. 'Why is it that you hate Pete so?' Then, as I did +not answer, she went on, 'I am dying, I think. It would be quite +safe to tell me, now.'</p> + +<p>"'When two men love one woman—' I began. But she shook her head, +and her eyes accused me. Santa had very beautiful eyes, and in this +agony they were perhaps deeper in colour and more beautiful than +ever. But they had changed, somehow.… I cannot explain it but +they recalled another pair of eyes… another woman's.… +Whose?… I don't know! My mother's, maybe. She died, you know, +when I was quite a small boy.… Anyway, these eyes quite suddenly +looked at me out of the past—out of my memory, as it were. +They were Santa's and yet they were not Santa's.…</p> + +<p>"'Ah,' said she, 'do not lie to me, now! It hurts so!'</p> + +<p>"'Well, then,' I told her, 'your husband once, back in the past, did me +a very great wrong. It—well, it wrecked the work of my life, and I +have never forgiven it. Now let us talk no more about it.'</p> + +<p>"A look of relief, almost a happy look, dawned on her face. +'I <i>knew</i> it was not about me! For I saw your two faces when you met +on the hill, under my porchway.… Do you know that, at moments, +you are very much alike?… Oh, in general, of course, there is no +likeness at all.… But at certain moments.… And it was so +when you met, there on the hill: I had to look from one to the other. +It was plain in that instant that you hated one another—yes, and it +might have been for a long time… ages and ages. But it could +not have been about me, for you had not set eyes on me but within the +minute.… I am glad, anyway, that it is not for my sake that you +hate.'</p> + +<p>"Her words came in faint, hurrying wafts, much as for days the wind +had been ruffling after us. The sunset struck slantwise across her +cheek and hung entangled in the brown tress that drooped low by her +right temple. I tell you, Roddy, that if the old gods and goddesses +in our school-books ever turned out to be mortal after all, she was +one, and thus looked, and spoke as she died.…</p> + +<p>"'I understand well enough,' she went on, 'the small things over +which women quarrel.… Though they all seem very far away just +now, I was a woman and could be jealous over <i>any of them</i>. But I +never understood why <i>men</i> quarrelled, except for me, of course. +… Was it over your work, do you tell me?'</p> + +<p>"'Surely,' said I, 'a man's work—'</p> + +<p>"'Yes. I know that it is so,' she answered me with a small sigh. +'Do you know that, far back, I come down from the Incas? and I dare +say they thought less of work than of other things.… It is all +thanks to your working that we three are alive, now.… I +understand a little why men so much value their work.… But yet I +do not understand why they drop their work to quarrel as they do. +I understand it no better than the fighting of dogs.' She paused on +that last word, and then, as though it had put new life into her, she +sat erect and opened her eyes wider upon the horizon as she put the +amazing question, 'Was it over a dog that you two hated?'</p> + +<p>"It staggered me: but I caught at the first explanation. 'Oh, I +see,' said I. 'Your husband has been telling you?'</p> + +<p>"She didn't answer this at once.… At length, and as though my +voice had taken long in reaching her, far out on the ocean where her +gaze rested—'No,' said she, 'Pete has told me nothing. ... I never +asked.… But if it is true, <i>ay de mi!</i> then that which I behold +is not true.'</p> + +<p>"'Of what are you speaking?' I asked.</p> + +<p>"'I saw an island,' she answered, as one in a dream: 'and again I see +it. It has two sharp peaks and one that would seem to be cut short. +Lawns of green climb up to the peaks between forests. There is a +ring of surf all about the shore… but the boat has found a +passage through… and you and Pete are landing… and— +strangest!—there is a dog leaping about on the shore to welcome +you.'</p> + +<p>"I was silent, not caring to break in upon her happy delirium. +'But I am not there,' she whispered, almost in a moan. 'Why should a +dog be there and not I?' Still getting no word from me, she turned +her eyes full on mine and repeated the question imperatively, almost +indignantly. 'Why should it be a dog?—and not <i>I</i>, over whom you +never hated?'</p> + +<p>"'Santa,' said I, 'if there were such an island as you see—'</p> + +<p>"'But there <i>is</i>,' she interrupted quick as thought. 'There <i>is</i>, +and it is near, though I shall not see it, except from the boat.'</p> + +<p>"'Say, then, that there is such an island—' said I. It was just +possible: for during the last two days we had sighted many sea-birds.</p> + +<p>"'And near—quite near,' she insisted. 'It has groves of coco-trees, +and streams tumbling down the rocks—on which no boat can row with +men cursing in her and fighting with knives.'</p> + +<p>"'Then you shall land on that island, O beloved!' said I, 'and we +will live on it, and love—'</p> + +<p>"'Ah, I know what you mean! You mean as they love in heaven? Yes.' +And she added quite simply. 'I have had great trouble with men.'</p> + +<p>"'Not exactly as in heaven,' said I, and took out from a +breast-pocket under my jumper a small flask of yellow Chartreuse, +which I had snatched up among other small belongings from my +state-room locker ten minutes before the <i>Eurotas</i> went down. +I had nursed it with a very jealous purpose.… Farrell should not +slip through my fingers by dying, while I could yet force a stimulant +down his throat, to linger him out.… It was a tiny 'sample' +flask, and had been pressed on my acceptance, as a small flourish of +trade, by a German wine-dealer in Valparaiso.… And here at the +crisis, with Farrell dying at my feet, on an instant I renounced my +purpose.</p> + +<p>"'Drink this,' I commanded Santa, 'and you shall live some hours yet. +And then, if there <i>be</i> an island—'</p> + +<p>"She caught at it with a delighted cry, her hands suddenly vitalised. +The guitar slid down from her lap. She drew out the glass stopper, +holding the flask up a moment to the setting sun and letting it blaze +through the liquid. Then swiftly, as I made sure she would carry it +to her lips, she bent over Farrell and whispered some soft word of +the night that pierced his stupor so that he stirred and lolled his +head around.… Yes, and for a farewell kiss—which I watched +without jealousy.…</p> + +<p>"But as their mouths drew apart, and before his swollen lips could +close again, she had slipped the mouth of the flask between them and +the cordial was pouring down his throat.…</p> + +<p>"She had defeated me.… I watched her without uttering a word. +Farrell let out a guttural sort of <i>ah-h!</i> and sat up somewhat higher +against her knee, opening his chest and breathing in new life as the +Chartreuse coursed through his veins. Santa turned the flask +upside-down, and handed it to me.</p> + +<p>"'I have won!' she said softly. 'Men at the last are—what is the +word?—magnanimous, mostly: and that is why a woman can usually win +in the end.'</p> + +<p>"'You have thrown away,' said I, 'so much of life as I gave you, +renouncing much. You have sacrificed yourself.'</p> + +<p>"'That was <i>my</i> share of the price, my friend. Now continue to be +great, as for these many days you have been good. There is a bad +pain about my heart. With that other small bottle of yours, and with +that needle I have seen you use… You will? Ah, how much better +it is to be friends than enemies, when the world—even this little +shrinking world—is so wide yet—so wide—'</p> + +<p>"So I took her wrist and, she scarcely wincing, injected the last +drop of my morphia: yes, Roddy, and kissed the spot like any poor +fool, she not resisting!… Her last words were that I should lay +the guitar back again on her lap.… Oh, damn it, man! it was +everything your damned sneerer would choose to call it.… But I +tell you I held my ear close to her breast for hours; and in my +light-headedness I heard the muted music lulling her: and in and out +of her breathing, when she was long past speech—and above the +stertorous snoring of my enemy laid at her feet—I heard distant +waves breaking in a low chime to some words of a verse I had once +quoted to her on a night when her song had made the crews sorrowful +for a while before lifting their hearts again to make them +merry—music to ripple, ripple:"</p> + +<blockquote><blockquote> +<p class = "noindent"> +<span class = "ind2">'—Ripple in my hearing</span><br> + Like waves upon a lonely beach, where no craft anchoreth;<br> + That I may steep my soul therein, and craving naught, nor + fearing,<br> + Drift on through slumber to a dream, and through a dream to + death.'</p> +</blockquote></blockquote> + +<p>"My ear was close to her breast, listening, as the last breath went +out with a flutter… and Santa was dead, having conquered me— +conquered me far beyond my guessing; but up to the moment having +subdued me so effectively that my sole kiss of her had been taken, +kneeling, upon the wrist, as one kisses faith to a sovereign, and had +never been returned. Through the night I held her wrist until it was +cold."</p> +<br> +<p> +"Towards dawn, and just at that moment when a watcher's spirits are +at their lowest, Farrell stirred, stretched out his legs, drew them +up again, and asked how things were?… For his part (he added, +sitting up weakly), he felt a different man.</p> + +<p>"'It behoves you to be,' said I with some sternness. 'Take the +tiller and—yes, you may hold on to it with some firmness. Your wife +is dead.'</p> + +<p>"'Santa!' he gasped. 'Oh, my God!' and cast himself upon her body, +seemly bestowed as I could serve it.</p> + +<p>"'Get off of it,' I shouted, 'before I brain you!' I held the very +gaff with which Grimalson had torn my arm. He had plucked the tiller +from the rudder-head, and with these two weapons in our right hands +we faced one another, each with his left feeling for the revolver he +carried.</p> + +<p>"Then Farrell, who stood facing the bows, shot out his right as +if jabbing at me with the stick, a foot short of my shoulder. +The action was, as a stroke, so idiotic that, although it might so +easily have meant death to me, I turned half-about to where the stick +pointed, as the helmless boat yawed.</p> + +<p>"And there, above the low-lying wisps of morning fog, stood three +peaks: two sharp and the third blunted: and, below the fog, ran a +thin white ribbon of breaking water!</p> + +<p>"We had run down upon it so close in those hours of darkness that the +beat of the surf had, as I now recognised, confused itself into +Santa's last breathings: so close that, as the sun took swift mastery +of the mist and dissolved it, disclosing, below the peaks, the +variegated greenery of lawn and forest pouring down to the seamed +cliffs and pouring over them to the very beaches in tapestries of +vines and creepers, we were almost in the ring of the surf: and it +came as a shock to me that the lazy swell on which we had so long +lifted and dropped, heeding it least among many threats, could beat +on this islet so terrifically.</p> + +<p>"The sight so vanquished Farrell that he yielded the stick over to +me, obedient as a child. I thrust it back in its socket, hauled +sheet and fetched her up close to the wind outside the surges.… +Without a word said, he turned to pointing out this and that inlet +between the reefs where there seemed a chance to slip through.</p> + +<p>"For two miles at least we fended off in this way, until we came to +the base of the hill which, from seaward, had appeared so curiously +truncated. As we opened its steep-to sides, they rounded gradually +into a high curve at the skyline, and, at the base, into a foreshore +of tumbled rock through which ran a cleft with still water protected +by sheer rocks—a narrow slit, but worth risking with the wind to +drive us straight through. So I upped helm on the heave of a comber, +and drove her for it, the walls of rock so close on either hand that +twice the end of our short boom brushed them before Farrell, who held +the sheet, could avoid touching.… And then, rushed by a heave of +the swell through this gorge, we were shot into a round lake of the +bluest water I ever set eyes on; a lakelet, rather; calm as a pond +except by the entrance, where the waves, broken and spent, spread +themselves in long ripples that melted and were gone.</p> + +<p>"You know Lulworth Cove? Well, imagine Lulworth, with a narrower +entrance, its water blue as a sapphire shot with amethystine violet, +its cliffs taller, steeper, hung with matted creeper and, high aloft, +holding the heaven in a three-part circle almost as regular as you +could draw with a pair of compasses. We were floating in the cup of +a dead volcano, broken on the seaward side; and broken many hundreds +of years ago—for on our starboard hand, by the edge of the rent, +swept down a slope of turf, cropped by the gales, green as an English +park; with a thread of a stream dropping to a small wilderness of +ferns, and, through this, to plash upon a miniature beach of pink +sand, on the edge of which the sea scarcely lapped. Sea-birds of +many kinds circled and squawked overhead. Yet it was not our boat +that had frightened them.</p> + +<p>"They had risen in alarm at the sound of barking, high up the slope. +A dog came leaping down it, tore through the fern, and, as our boat +drew to shore, raced to and fro by the water's edge, barking wildly +in an ecstasy of welcome. A yellow dog, Roddy—a largish yellow +dog—and, as I live by food, the living image of my murdered Billy!"</p> + + +<br> +<br> +<p><a name="20"></a> </p> +<h3>NIGHT THE NINETEENTH.</h3> +<br> + + + +<h4>THE CASTAWAYS.</h4> + +<h4>(Foe's Narrative Continued.)</h4> + +<p>"A miracle? Well, I had always supposed poor Billy to be a mongrel +of such infinite variety of descent that the world might never hope +to behold his like. But, after all, the strains even of dogs are +limited in number; and what Nature has produced she can reproduce.</p> + +<p>"But the apparition, just there, and at that moment, was a miracle to +me. I sat staring at it even when the boat's stem took the beach +gently, and it was Farrell who first crawled over her side to land. +His knees shook, and the dog, leaping against him, nearly bowled him +over. Then the sight of water seemed to galvanise his legs, and he +tottered frantically up the small foreshore to the cascade, beside +which he fell and drank, letting the spray drench his head, neck, and +shoulders. The animal had gone with him, gambolling and barking, and +now ran to and fro and leapt over his body three or four times, still +barking. All his welcome was for Farrell. To me, as I followed, +staggering, the animal paid no heed at all, until he saw me drawing +close, when he suddenly turned about, showed his teeth and started to +growl. His tail stiffened, the hairs on his chine bristled up, and I +believe in another moment he would have flown at me.</p> + +<p>"Partly of knowledge, however, and partly of weakness, I checked +this. My feet had no sooner felt firm ground than I found myself +weak as a year-old child. The strength of will that had held me up +through that awful voyage—and it was awful, Roddy—went draining out +of me, and the last of my bodily strength with it, like grain through +a hole in a sack. As the dog bristled up, I fell forward on hands +and knees, laughing hysterically, and the dog winced back as if +before a whip, and cringed.… You know, I dare say, that no dog +will ever attack a man who falls forward like that, or crouches as if +to sit, <i>and laughs</i>?… So I dropped from this posture right +prone by the edge of the basin hollowed by the little waterfall, and +drank my fill.</p> + +<p>"What next do you guess we did?… We rolled over on the sand +under the shade of the cliff, and slept.…</p> + +<p>"We slept for three mortal hours. I've no doubt we should have slept +oblivious for another three, had not the making tide aroused me with +its cool wash around my ankles. The sun, too, was stealing our +resting-place from us, or the comfort of it, cutting away the cliff's +shadow as it neared the meridian.… The boat, utterly neglected +by us, had floated up, broadside on, with the quiet tide, almost to +our feet. The dog sat on his haunches, waiting and watching for one +or other of us to give sign of life.</p> + +<p>"I roused up Farrell.… My first thought was for Santa's body, +laid within the boat on the bottom-boards. 'Are we man enough, +between us, to lift her out?' I asked. 'Or shall we moor the boat +and climb for help?… There are certainly people on this island, +since this dog must have a master somewhere.'</p> + +<p>"'She is a light weight,' said Farrell simply. 'Let us try.… +Her soul forgive me for leaving her, even so long as I have, in that +horrible boat!'</p> + +<p>"So, weak as we were, we managed to lift Santa's body ashore and +carry it up the few yards of sand beyond what we judged to be a faint +tide-mark, close under the ferns.… After this we fetched ashore +the tool-chest and some loose articles that we judged to be +necessary—such as the cooking-pot, binoculars, and a spare coil or +two of rope and a ship's mallet; and Farrell searched the undercliff +for sea-birds' eggs, whilst I gave the boat a cleansing with baler +and sponge, redded her up after a fashion, and finally moored her off +with a shore-line, some twenty yards out on the placid water. +While thus occupied, my mind was wondering what kind of people +inhabited this island, and why they kept such poor watch.… +We had run in openly in daylight, and yet it would seem that only +this dog had spied us.</p> + +<p>"If they were savages, why, then, I had only my revolver with a fair +number of cartridges.… Some of my stock I had blazed away during +the last two days in vain attempts upon the life of the sea-birds +that ever wheeled out of fair range. The tool-chest, indeed, +contained a shot-gun, or the parts of one: but I had never pieced +them together, for the simple reason that all the cartridges +belonging to it had, through Grimalson's careless stowage, been +soaked and spoilt during the night of the gale.… Somehow, I +could not mentally connect savages with the ownership of this dog. +But the day wore on, and still no one hailed us from the cliffs or +the green slope.</p> + +<p>"Now I must tell you that the boat's locker yet held a chunk or +two—less than a pound—of brined pork, hard as wood and salt as the +Dead Sea, that none of the crew at the last had a thought to boil in +the sea water, which only made it more intolerable. None of us, +indeed, after a trial, had been able to get a morsel past our +swollen tonsils. But I had a boxful of matches in my trouser pocket, +half-emptied: and, as it turned out, Farrell had preserved another. +So in this most vital necessary we were well supplied. Therefore, +when Farrell, with the dog at his heels, came back along the shore, +holding up two cray-fish that he had taken in a rock-pool at the turn +of the tide, I tossed the gobbets of pork overboard to desecrate the +clear depth. Indeed, apart from fish and fowl, I had seen as we +neared the island that we had no fear of starving: for an abundance +of cocos and palms grew all around the ridge of the crater and had +but to be climbed for as soon as we found strength. The tool-chest +contained a saw and a hatchet.</p> + +<p>"It also contained an engineering-tool, part pick, part digger. +I handed it to Farrell, and he understood. 'But first,' said I, +'let's make a fire and fill the pot. There's a plenty of small dead +wood everywhere, and we're too weak just yet to heave this gear any +distance up the slope before sunset. We'd best light a fire here; +and when we have it started, I'll mount the slope some little way +where I see a plenty of limes growing. I may go some way farther, to +prospect. The smoke of the fire ought to attract the attention of +these very careless islanders; and if they turn out to be unfriendly, +well, I have my revolver and you'll have ample warning to clear off +to the boat.'</p> + +<p>"'Savages?' muttered Farrell. 'I never thought of that.… Go you +up, if you will, and take the dog for company. You can leave me to +light the fire, and—'tisn't a request I've dared to make to you +since God knows when—but if you've any pity anywhere in your bowels, +just now I'd like to be alone.'</p> + +<p>"'I haven't,' said I: 'but I have some sense in my head, and I'm +going to prospect. I'll leave you at anchor here for an hour or so.'</p> + +<p>"I whistled to the dog, and the dog, after long hesitation and having +been thrice shoo'd in my wake by Farrell, followed. But he hung some +twenty yards behind, and showed no sign of desire to lead me to the +people to whom he belonged. By and by he came to a dead halt and, +for all my whistling and calling, broke back for the beach again and +disappeared at a gallop.…</p> + +<p>"I held my ascent, still beside the downward-pouring stream, and on +my way noted fruit-bearing trees in plenty. I reached a point where +the volcanic hill ran down landward in rounded ridges, and crossed +two or three of these: but no sign of human habitation could I +discern.</p> + +<p>"When I descended again to the beach, with the lap of my jumper full +of limes and wild grapes, it was to find the dog stretched beside a +sizable fire and Farrell busy nailing together some lengths of long +timber. I had heard the sound of his hammer from half-way down the +slope.</p> + +<p>"'Good Lord, man!' said I, staring. For he had pulled in the boat +and sawn almost the whole of the port-side out of her. 'You have cut +us off now, whatever happens!'</p> + +<p>"'You don't imagine,' said he, 'that I'd ever set foot in that +blasted boat again?'</p> + +<p>"What is more, he had cut a couple of cloths out of the sail, for a +winding-sheet.… But the pot was near to boiling; and after we +had supped on the crayfish and the fruit, he fell to work again, +nailing together a rough coffin. He explained that he had served his +time in quite a humble way before embarking in business, on borrowed +capital, as a tradesman. Then, under the risen moon, by the scarcely +audible plash of the beach, he told me quite a lot about himself and +his early days, as he fashioned a coffin for the woman into whose +arms I had driven him, as I had driven him with her corpse to this +lost isle.</p> + +<p>"In the midst of it I said, 'You know, I suppose, that she saved your +life?'</p> + +<p>"He checked his hammer midway in a stroke, and stared at me, the +moonlight white on his face.</p> + +<p>"'You know,' I repeated, 'that she gave her life to save yours?' and +I told him how. At the end of the tale, if ever hatred shone in a +man's eyes, it shone in Farrell's; and yet there was incredulity in +them too.</p> + +<p>"'What!" he gasped. 'And you let her do it, there in front of you, +when with a turn of the hand—O my God!' he broke off. 'I've thought +at times you must be the Devil himself, you Foe: but I never reckoned +you for as bad as all that! The wonder to me is I don't kill you +where you sit.' He clenched the hammer, and twice again he called on +his God. The dog growled.</p> + +<p>"'Steady!' said I, showing him the revolver. 'Steady, and sit down. +You can't kill me, my good man, unless you do it in my sleep—against +which I'll take precautions. So you may quit wondering on that +score.… And I can't kill you; for you're too precious—doubly +precious now, <i>having been bought with that price</i>.… Sit down, I +tell you, and order that infernal dog to be quiet: else I'll pump +some lead into him and, dog against dog, you may count it quits.'</p> + +<p>"'Quits?' he echoed.</p> + +<p>"'In the matter of two yellow dogs only: and I have given up keeping +pets, having <i>you</i>.… Now listen: Did you ever guess that I +loved your wife?'</p> + +<p>"It took him like a blow between the eyes. 'No, I didn't,' he +answered slowly, and then with a sudden rush of malignity, 'I wonder +it didn't occur to you, then—I wonder you didn't try to—to—tamper +with her.'</p> + +<p>"'You would,' said I. 'It's the sort of man you are, you Farrell. +The next thing, you'll be capable of wondering if I didn't.… +Pah! and <i>you</i> call <i>me</i> Satan!' I spat. 'Now, take hold on your +fool head and think. For <i>her</i> sake I grant you ease of that +suspicion, though in dealing with you it would be priceless to me. +Think what a peck of torture I'm letting run to waste, as that +waterfall yonder runs to waste in its basin. But it wouldn't be +true. Your wife was an angel. Drink that comfort—drink it into +every cranny of your soul.… And now hold your head again. +I loved Santa, I tell you.'</p> + +<p>"'You let her die,' he muttered sullenly.</p> + +<p>"'Think, you fool—think!' I commanded. 'If she had lived, you would +have died, and she would be sitting where you are sitting at this +moment, and I here, and the moon swimming above us two—Would you +have had it so?'</p> + +<p>"'My God!' he blurted, wiping the back of a hand across his eyes. +'This is too much for me.…'</p> + +<p>"I stood and picked up the engineering tool. 'For me, too,' said I, +'it is enough.… Now come and choose the spot, and I will fall to +my part of the work.'</p> + +<p>"But to this he demurred, saying vaguely that he was upset; that the +spot for the grave must be chosen with care and by daylight; that he +must first finish the coffin, and then take some rest. There would +be time enough after we had breakfasted.</p> + +<p>"I believed that I understood.… He wished to wash and wind the +body. So at dawn—by which time the coffin was ready—I told him +that he should be alone for a couple of hours, and went up the hill +again in the first light, to prospect. Again I tried to whistle the +dog after me: but this time he refused even to budge.</p> + +<p>"I climbed no farther than before; that is, a little beyond the +ridge. For it gave upon a wide undulating valley to the slopes of +the second crater, which again partly overlapped the cone of the +third or highest. To descend and cross this first vale would cost +from two to three hours' hard walking, and my design was merely to +con the prospect for sign of those inhabitants to whom the dog must +belong. For he was little more than a puppy in age. Also, though +lean, he was not at all emaciated: but the traces of rabbit-dung on +the slopes told that a deserted dog might manage to sustain life +here. Also it promised that the island was inhabited, and by white +men, for rabbits are not indigenous anywhere in the South Pacific. +They must be brought.</p> + +<p>"I studied the hollow and searched it with my binoculars for some +while: but without picking up any trace of mankind. Far below me a +sizable stream here showed itself through the tropical vegetation as +it hurried down to a hidden cove. The wide ocean spread southward to +my right. Of how far the island might stretch beyond the taller and +more distant cone I could make no guess.</p> + +<p>"A desire for sleep came upon me, and I stretched myself in the shade +of a bush under the lee of the ridge. After an hour's nap I rose and +descended again to the beach.</p> + +<p>"Farrell sat by the fire, cooking breakfast, the dog watching him. +There was no coffin, nor any sign of a grave, and the tide was +making. He had made haste to bury Santa during my absence.… +He said not a word about it, and I did not question him. But he had +played me this trick. Henceforth I felt no further pity."</p> +<br> +<p> +"You may remember my saying, Roddy, when I first started to tell you +about Santa, that it was impossible for me to hate Farrell worse than +I did. Well, I thought so at the time. But now on the island I was +to find myself mistaken, and this trick of his set me off hating him +in a new and quite different way.</p> + +<p>"I believe now, looking back, that this was the real beginning of +Santa's revenge; or the first evident sign of its working; unless you +count the behaviour of the dog—of which I will say more presently. +At any rate I had no longer that cool godlike sense of mastery over +the man which had sustained me in the boat. It may sound incredible: +but whereas, cooped in that narrow shell of boards, I had found his +presence gratifying, here on an island of wide prospects, where we +could have parcelled out a kingdom apiece and lived by the year +without sight of one another, I found it irritating and at times even +intolerably so. He had found power, through her dead body, to give +me a grievance against him, when I had supposed him too low and +myself too high for anything to affect me that he could do.… +It is always a mistake, Roddy, to falter once in an experiment. +It is disloyalty in a man of science to renounce one at any point. +Now, I had renounced, in handing Santa the flask; and again I had +faltered, in a moment of generosity when I left him beside her +corpse.… And of that act of generosity—and of delicacy, too, by +the way—this thief had taken advantage.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes—I know what you will be wanting to say—that the man was +her husband, hang it all!… I answer that he <i>had been</i> her +husband and my darling's flesh I had resigned to him, as was meet and +right.… But if you'll understand—if you've ever read what the +Gospel quite truly says about marriage, to take it in—the man had no +tyrant's monopoly beyond the grave. She was mine now—his, too, if +he would—but mine also by right of my great love for her.</p> + +<p>"You see, I am shaking, even as I speak of it. I had this grievance, +and it festered and raised the whole temperature of my hate.… +And this wasn't the worst, either. The worst was a sense that, lying +somewhere with closed eyes under the ebb and flow of the tide, my +beloved was working against me, watchfully, by unguessable ways, and +weakening me. There was this dog, for example.… Yes, <i>that</i> had +been the first token. How had it passed from me—this power over +animals that had used to be exerted so easily?"</p> +<br> +<p> +"But I had not lost my power over Farrell, although there were times +when I mistrusted it. His eyes had given me the first warning, when +I returned that morning and found myself tricked. They were +half-timorous but also half-defiant, and wholly sly. It disconcerted +him that I made no comment on his silence and asked no questions.</p> + +<p>"On the fifth morning—by which time we had picked up enough strength +to attempt a day's exploration of the west side of the island, and +within an hour of the time fixed for our start, he found me fitting +and nailing a short cross-plank to the boat's mast.</p> + +<p>"'Hallo!' said he. 'What job are you spoiling there? I'm the +carpenter of this party, or believed I was.'</p> + +<p>"'And I'm the captain,' said I; 'and duly appointed—though I have no +witness but you to the fact—if you choose to lie about it.… +I'm doing a job which you have neglected: fixing a Cross for Santa. +It will be a comfort, as we fare inland, to know she has a Christian +mark over her grave.… You have the bearings accurate no doubt,' +said I, lifting the heavy cross and, as I stooped to shoulder it, +picking up the ship's mallet, which lay at my feet. 'Will it be +here—or here?' I asked, choosing the spot and prodding the sharpened +foot of the cross into the sand.… His face blanched. +'You accursed fool!' said I, 'do you suppose I haven't, these four +days, been watching you and the dog?'—and, as I said it, the point +of the mast struck upon timber. 'Come and help me to drive it deep,' +I commanded. 'If we can work it down within reach of mallet, three +taps will drive it so that it will stand firm above such tides as +reach this anchorage of hers.'</p> + +<p>"He came down the beach heavily and we heaved our strength together, +driving the cross down by the coffin's head. 'The mallet is handy by +you,' said I. 'Pick it up and use it while I hold steady.'</p> + +<p>"This work done, without another word between us, we returned, picked +up axe, saw, and a wallet to collect any specimens of fruit we might +find on our way, and, still without a word, breasted the hill side by +side, the dog running ahead of us.</p> + +<p>"We got no farther that day than to the stream which ran between our +hill and the second volcano, the edge of which—like that of our own +broken and truncated one, ran down steeply to the western shore. +The wood beside the stream grew so thick, interlaced with tendrils of +tropical plants, that we were forced to turn aside and make for the +coast in hope to find a crossing.</p> + +<p>"We descended into the sound of the beating surf before we found one: +and there an impish fancy took me. I had been losing grip on +Farrell, and despite my small triumph of that morning, I felt a +sudden desire to test him. Pretending that my purpose was only to +cross and report, I waded the stream and dodged upward through the +undergrowth; recrossed it, about a hundred yards above, crawled +another yard and again recrossed, all to baffle the hound's scent, +since from Farrell I could have hidden by this time securely enough. +In a very few minutes I heard his voice hallooing to me, and then the +dog's yelp began to chime in with it. By and by the beast, well +baffled, was baying hard through the undergrowth between me and the +surf.</p> + +<p>"After a while of this play I crept out and strolled easily back to +my first ford, my hands in my pockets.</p> + +<p>"'What the devil's up with your beast?' I asked, wading across to the +bank on which Farrell stood.</p> + +<p>"His face was white. 'My God!' he said. 'I thought, for a while, we +had lost you!'</p> + +<p>"Then I knew that he dared not be alone, and that I had him, whatever +happened."</p> + + +<br> +<br> +<p><a name="21"></a> </p> +<h3>NIGHT THE TWENTIETH.</h3> +<br> + + +<h4>ONE MAN ESCAPES.</h4> + +<p>Before continuing Foe's story, I should warn you not to be surprised +that hereabouts it takes on a somewhat different tone. I am trying +to give you the tale as he told it: and so much of it as related to +Santa, he told bravely and frankly, here and there with a thrill +somewhere deep beneath his voice, and exaltation on his face. +He was, in short, the Jack Foe of old days, opening out his heart to +me; and all the more the same because he was different. By this I +mean that never in life had I heard him speak in just that way, +simply because never in life had he brought me this kind of emotion, +to confess it; but, granted the woman and the love, here (I felt) was +the old Jack opening his heart to me. It rejuvenated his whole +figure, too, and, in a way, ennobled it. I forgot—or rather, I no +longer saw—the change in him which had given me that secondary shock +when he walked into the room.</p> + +<p>I cannot tell you the precise point at which his tone altered, and +grew hard, defiant, careless and—now and then at its worst—even +flippant. But it was here or hereabouts, and you will guess the +reason towards the end.</p> + +<p>Another thing I must mention. You have already guessed that the +tale was not told at one sitting. Between the start and the point +where I broke off last night, we had lunched, taken a stroll +Piccadilly-wards, done some shopping, and chatted on the way about +various friends and what had happened to them in this while—Jack +questioning, of course, while I did almost all the talking. It was +in the emptying Park, as we sat and watched the carriages go by, that +he told me of Santa's burial and what followed it, so far as you have +heard. I broke off last time at the point where he broke off, stood +up, and said he would tell me the end of it all over dinner at the +Cafe Royal, where we had called, on the way, to reserve our old +table.</p> + +<p>I saw afterwards why he had arranged it so: as you will see. But for +the present it only needs remembering that what follows was told in a +brilliant, rather noisy room—at an isolated table, but with a throng +of diners all around us.</p> + +<p>I had ordered wild duck as part of the dinner: and when it came to be +served he looked hard at his plate, and, without lifting his eyes, +slid from casual talk into his narrative again:</p> + +<h4>[Foe's Narrative Concluded]</h4> + +<p>"Wild duck—? good! Yes, we used to have wild duck on the island. +… There were lagoons on the east side, fairly teeming with them, +and we fixed up a decoy. I don't pretend that we fixed up an orange +salad like this, with curacao: but in the beginning we practised with +limes, and later on I invented one of sliced bananas, with a sort of +spirit I brewed from the fruit. Also we found bait in the pools, not +so much unlike the whitebait we've been eating—I used to frizzle it +in palm oil. And once I achieved turtle soup.… He was the only +fellow that, in two years, we ever managed to collar and lay on his +back; and the soup, after all was no great success. But turtle's +eggs.… I can tell you all about turtle's eggs. That dog had a +nose for them like a pig's for truffles.</p> + +<p>"Don't be afraid, Roddy. In this sophisticated den of high living +and moderate thinking I'm not going to give you the Swiss Family +Robinson; though I could double no trumps and risk it on the author +of that yarn—whoever he may have been—if he had only dealt from a +single pack, which he didn't. Farrell and I didn't build a house in +a tree, because we didn't need to; and we didn't ride on emus, +because we didn't want to, and moreover there weren't any. But we +did pretty well there for two years, Roddy: and could say as +Gonzalo—was it Gonzalo?—said of another island, that here was +everything advantageous to life. And we found the means to live, +too.</p> + +<p>"I may say that I took the role of Mrs. Beeton: hunted for fruits, +fished, told Farrell (of my small botanical knowledge) what to eat, +drink, and avoid, and attended to the high cuisine. Farrell, +reverting to his old journeyman skill, sawed planks and knocked up a +hut. When one hut became intolerable for the pair of us—for in all +that time we never ceased hating—he knocked up a second and better +one for my habitation. He was my hewer of wood and drawer of water. +Also it was he who—since I professed no eagerness to get away—did +the conventional thing that castaways do: erected a flag-staff, and +hauled piles of brushwood up to the topmost lip of our volcano, for a +bonfire to be lit if any ship should be sighted, lest it might pass +in the night. I had resigned the binoculars to him, but he never +brought report of a sail.</p> + +<p>"On two points—which served us again and again for furious +quarrels—the fool was quite obstinate. He would not budge from our +first encampment—that is to say, out of sight of Santa's grave; and +he flatly refused to fit new planks to the ruinated boat which now +lay, a thing of ribs, high and dry as we had hauled her close +underneath the fern-brake beside the cascade. Again and again I +pointed out to him that, patched up, she would serve me for fishing. +To this he answered, truly enough, that we had a plenty of fish in +the rock-pools and a plenty of oysters on the shore. Then I urged +that, if we sighted a ship—though it didn't matter to me—we might +need a boat to get out to her. He retorted that, though it mattered +to him, he would never set foot again in that cursed craft or help me +to set foot in her. Finally, one day when I was absent on an +expedition after food, he broke her remains to shreds.</p> + +<p>"Upon this we had an insane quarrel—the more insane because it all +turned on my dwelling on the detriment to his chances of escape and +his reminding me of my indifference. We argued like two babies. +But I had now another grievance: though it was the devil to me to be +falling back on grievances.</p> + +<p>"I still held the whip-hand over him in this—I could always thong +him by a threat to part company and live by myself on the east side +of the island. He mortally feared to be left, even with the dog for +company.</p> + +<p>"The dog remained a mystery. Although, as time went on, we explored +the island pretty thoroughly, we never found his owner, nor any sign +of human habitation. The conies which bred and multiplied on the +hills were our only assurance that man had ever landed here before +us—that is, until we discovered the strange boat: and it was through +the dog that we discovered it."</p> +<br> +<p> +"During the first three months we made no lengthy excursions, being +occupied in cutting and sawing timber for the two living-huts and a +store-hut; in making a small net (this was my task), and in +sun-drying the fish I caught in it—for, knowing little about these +latitudes, I feared that at any moment the heavenly weather might +break, and we be held prisoners by torrential rains, traces of which +I read in some of the seaward-running gullies. Also Farrell refused +to budge until he had built his bonfire. When this was done we had +another pretty fierce quarrel because, tired of waiting, I took a +humour to punish him by making him wait in his turn while I did some +tailoring.… No: we didn't dress in goatskins. There were no +goats. But I had visions of piecing up a rabbit-skin coat and, in +the meantime, of cutting up the boat's sail into drawers and jumpers, +our clothes by this time being worse than a disgrace. But I believe +that I held out chiefly to annoy him; and, having annoyed him +sufficiently, I gave way to his final argument—that our boots were +wearing out fast and, if we didn't make the expedition at once, +likely enough we never should.</p> + +<p>"So we started on what proved to be a two days' tramp, and thereby +came pretty near to wrecking ourselves.</p> + +<p>"The third cone, which—in that clear atmosphere—seemed to stand +close behind the second, turned out to be separated from it by a good +five miles as the crow flies. But on the north-western shore the sea +had breached the reefs and swept in to form a salt lagoon in the +great hollow, so that we had to fetch a circuit of at least seven +miles to the southward, avoiding a tangle of forest in which the +lagoon ended, and clambering along a volcanic ridge with the sea +often sheer on our right. It was in this lagoon, by the way, that we +afterwards learned to take our wild duck, scores of which paddled +about quite tamely on its surface, their tameness promising poorly +for human hospitality on the farther side of the hill.</p> + +<p>"We gained the side of the great cone at length and, rounding it, +beheld all the northern part of the island spread at our feet—in +form a narrow strip of land curving around a delicious bay and ending +in a small pinnacle of high tumbled cliff and wood. Quite obviously +this bay was the one anchorage in the island for any ship of burden; +and no ship could have asked for a better: for it made almost three +parts of a circle, and, while not completely land-locked, held +recesses in which any gale might be ridden out.</p> + +<p>"Here, if anywhere, as I told Farrell, we should come upon human life +or the traces of it: here, if anywhere, if vessel ever made this +island, to water, she would drop hook. 'Fools we have been, to waste +months pitching camp on the other side, when this is the place of +places, and this hill gives the citadel prospect of all!'</p> + +<p>"Farrell sat down on a rock and broke into curses. 'Damn you,' he +moaned, 'for bringing me so far! I wish I had never seen it. +Wasn't it comfortable enough where we were?… And now I can't go +back!'</p> + +<p>"I had taken the binoculars and, engaged with the view, for a moment +paid no heed. I was accustomed to his explosions of fury, as he to +mine. But, turning about for a while, I saw that he had unlaced his +left boot and was holding it out.… The sole had broken loose in +our scramble over the tufa rocks, and hung parted from its upper.</p> + +<p>"'That's bad,' said I. 'Well, I stuck a ship's needle in the +tool-bag here before we started—<i>you</i> never think of anything! +When we get down to the shore we'll see what can be done: that is, if +we don't find a cobbler.'</p> + +<p>"'Cobbler? you funny ass!—' he began.</p> + +<p>"'Look here,'—I stopped him. 'If you won't attend to me, attend to +Rover. What's up with that dog of yours?'—for the dog which had +been following all day pretty obediently, except for a wild dash down +to the lagoon to scatter the wild duck, had of a sudden picked up +bearings and was running forward, halting, returning, wagging his +tail, running forward again, turning, asking dumbly to be understood, +in the way all dogs have who invite you to follow a trail.</p> + +<p>"'Here's business,' said I, and hurried after him, leaving Farrell to +limp down the hill-side in our wake. For once the dog recognised me +as more intelligent or, at any rate, prompter than his master, and +gave his whole attention to me.… I tumbled down the hill after +him in a haste that fairly set my temples throbbing. Once sure of +me, he played no more at backwards-and-forwards, but bounded down the +slope towards the innermost southern corner of the bay, where a grove +of coco-trees almost overhung the beach. A curtain of creepers +bunched over the low cliff at their feet and into this he plunged and +disappeared.</p> + +<p>"But his barking still led me on; and presently, as I avoided the +undergrowth and creepers to follow the foreshore, sounded back to me +across a low spit of rock. I climbed this and came all unexpectedly +upon a diminutive creek.</p> + +<p>"It was really but a fissure between the rocks, with deep water +between them and an abrupt, dolls'-house-beach of sand and shells +above it, terminating in a flat, overhanging ledge. And on this +ledge rested a white-painted boat, high and dry! From the +stern-sheets the dog barked at me joyously, wagging his tail, with +his fore-feet on the edge of the stern-board.</p> + +<p>"I ran to it. Within the stern-board, in cut letters from which the +cheap paint had scaled, was a name plain to read—<i>Two Brothers</i>. +Two paddles lay in her, neatly disposed: a short mast and sail +tightly wrapped and traced up in its cordage; her rudder, with +tiller-stick, two rusty rowlocks of galvanised iron, and a tin baler, +all trimly bestowed under the stern-sheets—and that was her +inventory, save a pig of iron ballast, much rusted. How long she had +rested there, clean and tidied, half protected from the sun's rays, +there was no guessing. But her seams gaped so that I could push my +little finger some way between her strakes. She had no anchor; and +her painter had been cut short at the ring, sharply. Only the knot +remained.</p> + +<p>"I was examining this when Farrell overtook me. He came over the +rocks, limping; halted; and let out a cry at sight of the boat. +Then, as by chance, he peered into the cleft at his feet, into the +fathom-deep water past which I had run; and, with that, let out a +sharper cry, commanding me to him.</p> + +<p>"Down in the transparent water, inert but seeming to move as the +ripple ran over it, lay the body of a man, face down, with a trail of +weed awash over its shoulders. Peering down through the weed, I saw +that a cord knotted about its right ankle ended in another pig of +ballast, three-parts covered by the prismatic sand.</p> + +<p>"'My God!' said Farrell, and shivered.</p> + +<p>"'Well, he's no use to us, even if we do fish him up,' said I, pretty +grimly. 'Here's the dog's owner, and that's as far as we get. +Since a dog—even so intelligent a pup as Rover here—can't very well +attach a weight to his master's ankle and cast him overboard—let +alone pulling his boat above high water and stowing sail—we'll +conclude that this fellow deliberately made away with himself. +As I make it out, the dog, thus marooned, struck pretty frantically +for the high ground. Lost dogs—and lost children, for that matter— +always make up hill, dark or daylight. I suppose it's the primitive +instinct to search for a view.… But anyway, here's a boat. +She's unseaworthy, as she lies: but her timbers look sound enough if +we can staunch her, and the first thing is to get her down to the +water and see how fast she fills. We've a baler, to cope with the +leak… and when we have her more or less staunch, here's the way +around to our camp. Hurry up your wits!' I added sharply.</p> + +<p>"'If we launch her here,' he twittered, 'she'll settle down on +<i>that</i>!'</p> + +<p>"'Then run,' said I, 'and, with all the knowledge you ever picked up +in Tottenham Court Road, fetch every grass and fibre you can collect, +to stuff her seams. I'll do the sailing while the wind's fair +offshore, as it is at present. When it heads us, I'll do the +pulling. Man alive! think of your burst boot! For my part, I'm +willing enough to stay here as anywhere: or you can stay, and I'll +start back for camp, and we'll share this island like two kings, you +keeping this imperial anchorage.'</p> + +<p>"But of course this had him beaten. He helped me launch the boat and +ran to collect stuffing for her seams, while I sat in her and baled, +baled, baled.… It was pretty eerie to sit there alone—for the +dog had gone with Farrell—fighting the water, and feel her settling, +if for five minutes I gave up the struggle, down nearer and nearer +upon the shoulders of that drowned corpse with the hidden face. +By sunset Farrell returned with an armful of sun-dried fibre. +We hauled the boat high again and he began caulking her lower seams, +that already had started to close.</p> + +<p>"'She'll keep afloat now for a few hundred yards,' he announced after +a while. 'Let's launch her again and run her round the point and +beach her. I left a bundle of bark there that, early to-morrow, +we'll cut in strips and tack over the seams, and she'll do fine to +carry us home.'</p> + +<p>"'Home?' echoed I grimly.</p> + +<p>"'You know what I mean, you blighter!' he snarled. 'Oh, for God's +sake, no—we mustn't start bickering alongside of <i>that</i>!' He forced +his eyes to look down again at the corpse, and shuddered. +'The tide's going down, too.'</p> + +<p>"'It won't go down far enough to uncover <i>him</i>: and that you ought to +have sense to know," said I.</p> + +<p>"'But the farther it goes down the nearer he'll come up, or seem to,' +he argued.</p> + +<p>"'Well, night's coming on, and you won't see him,' I suggested, +playing on his nerves.</p> + +<p>"'D'you think I'll sit here in the dark, alongside of—oh, hurry, you +devil! Hurry!'</p> + +<p>"I chuckled at this. It came into my mind to refuse, and declare I +would sit out the night here by the boat. I knew that the shore +beyond, though it curved for two good miles, would not be wide enough +to contain his agony through the night hours.… But I had pushed +him far enough for the time. So we launched the boat again and +paddled her around and beached her on shelving sand: and soon after, +night fell.</p> + +<p>"Farrell slept poorly. Three or four times I heard him start up, to +pace to and fro under the starlight: and each time the dog awoke and +trotted with him.…</p> + +<p>"But he was up, brisk and early, with dawn; and he made quite a good +job of tacking bark over the boat's seams, while I sat and cobbled up +his boot with sailmaker's needle and twine. He made, indeed, and +though swift with the work, so good a job that, inspecting the boat +when he had done, I judged she would stand the strain of sailing— +whereas I had looked forward to a grilling pull in a craft that +leaked like a basket.</p> + +<p>"At a quarter to ten, by my watch, we pushed off, stepped mast and +hoisted sail—a small balance-lug. We carried a brisk offshore +wind—a soldier's wind—which southerned as the day wore on, and +again flew and broke off-shore as we neared home. I steered: +Farrell, for the most part, dozed after his labours. He had not, I +may say, one single faculty of a seaman in his whole make-up. +He could mend a boat or make an imitation Sheraton wardrobe; but, +when the both were made, he'd have sailed the one about as well as +the other.</p> + +<p>"He dozed uneasily, with many twitchings. Once he woke up and said, +'I thank God he lay so as we couldn't see his face. Would it have +been swollen much, think you?… Bleached, I make no doubt.…'</p> + +<p>"'What about worse?' I answered. 'I noticed a crab or two.' + +"He put up his hands to his face. 'How the devil can you talk so!' +he stammered.</p> + +<p>"'It was you who started questions,' said I.</p> + +<p>"'Suicide, you think?' he asked, after half an hour's silence, during +which his mind had plainly been tugging away from the horrible +subject only to find it irresistible.</p> + +<p>"'All pointed to it,' I answered. 'As for the motive, we can only +guess.'</p> + +<p>"'Where's the guesswork?' he demanded fiercely. 'Cast here, in this +awful loneliness—' I saw him look around on sea and cliff with a +shiver.</p> + +<p>"'He had the dog,' said I. 'You find Rover here a companion, don't +you? I had a notion, Farrell, that you were fond of dogs.… I +used to be.'</p> + +<p>"We downed sail hereabouts, and pulled in for the cleft and the +anchorage we called home. The sea under the smoothing land-wind ran +through the passage as calmly as through a miller's leat: and I will +own it was happier to be by that shore where my cross still stood +over Santa than by the other, where that other body lay, face-down, +with the weight whipped to its ankle. "'Wonder who he was?' said +Farrell late that evening, as we parted to go to our quarters. +'A missionary, I shouldn't be surprised.'</p> + +<p>"'If so,' said I, 'he tumbled on a sinecure. Since your mind runs on +him and you want to sleep, make it out that he was a bishop, and +home-sickened for the Athenaeum.'"</p> +<br> +<p> +"I'm coming to the end, Roddy; and you shall have it sharp and quick, +as it happened.… As I've said, we stuck it out on that island +for two years, and a little over, hating one another as two lonely +men will come to hate, on island or lighthouse, even when they don't +start on a sworn enmity. Oh, you must have been through it to +understand!… We even quarrelled—and came almost to blows—over +the day of the month; though God knows what it helped either to be +right or wrong, and, as it happened, we were both wrong by a +fortnight or so."</p> +<br> +<p> +"And then Farrell took ill.</p> + +<p>"It was a kind of fever he caught while duck-snaring in the lagoon. +He'd start off there for a long day with his dog, the two practising +cleverness at the sport. I always felt somehow that, when his grief +came, it would come through the dog.… Well, he took a fever +which I couldn't well diagnose, to say whether it was rheumatic +or malarial. It ran to sweats and it ran to dry skin with +shivering-fits, the deuce of a temperature, and wild delirium.</p> + +<p>"I nursed him, of course, and doctored him, keeping the fever at bay +as well as I could with decoctions of bark—quassia for the most +part—and fresh juice of limes. But it was the vigour of his frame +that pulled him through—as I believe all the skill in London could +not have availed to do in the days of his prosperity when he was fat +and fleshy. Hard life on the island had thinned him down and +tautened and toughened him so that I wondered sometimes, washing his +body, if this was indeed the man with whom I had vowed my quarrel.</p> + +<p>"His ravings in delirium, however, left no doubt on that score! +I tell you I had to listen to some fairly obscene descriptions of +myself and his feelings for me—all in the best Houndsditch.… +Yet here again was a queer thing—again and again this gutter-flow +would check itself, drop its Cockney as if down a sink, and, bubbling +up again, start flowing to the language of an educated man.… The +first time this happened it gave me a shock, less the abruptness of +the break than by its sudden assault upon my memory. All insensibly, +and unmarked by me, Farrell's accent and way of speech had been +nearing those of decent folk. They were by no means perfect, but +they had amazingly improved.… Now, when his delirium plunged him +back to Houndsditch, though it gave me a jerk, I could account for it +as reversion to an old habit that had been put off before ever we +met. What beat me was, that his second style, accent and choice of +words—though still fluent in cursing—far surpassed in purity any +speech I had heard from him in health.</p> + +<p>"And there was something else about it.… While the gutter ran +Houndsditch, the man was a cur, cowering and yelping out terror under +strokes of a whip-lash. When it shifted accent, he lost all this and +started to <i>threaten</i>. Something like this it would run: 'Gawd! +Oh, Gawd, he's after me again.… See his rosy eyes follerin' like +rosy naphthas.… Oh, Gawd, hide me from this blighter.… Look +here, damn you! I'll trouble you to know who's master here. +You will halt where you are, you Foe, and not wag a tail until I give +you leave. That's better! Now, if you will kindly state your +business at that distance I'll state mine.… Is that all? +Quite so: and now you'll listen to me, and maybe reconsider yourself +…' That, or something like that, is the way it would go.</p> + +<p>"I had a sense all the while, Roddy, that he was almost slipping +through my fingers, and I fairly dug in my nails to hold him to life. +On that point my conscience is clear, anyhow. No man ever had a +doctor to battle harder for him, or a more devoted nurse.</p> + +<p>"Well, I pulled him through, and nursed him to convalescence. +I thought I knew something of the peevishness of convalescents: but +Farrell beat anything I had ever seen, or heard, or read of. By this +time I was worn weak as a rat with night-watching and day-watching: +but of this he made no account whatever. He started by using his +greater weakness for strength, and he went on to dissemble his +growing strength, hiding it, increasing it, still trading it as +weakness upon my exhaustion. He came back to life with a permanent +sneering smile, and a trick of wearing it for hours at a stretch as +he leaned back on the cushions I had painfully made for him of +plaited flax and stuffed with aromatic leaves, daily renewed.… +Yes, Roddy, as a doctor I played full professional service on him, +and piled it up with every extra kindness one castaway man could +render another.… And the devil, as he recovered, lay watching +me, under half-closed eyes, with never a sign of gratitude, but, for +all my reward, this shifty sneer.</p> + +<p>"There came a day when his new insolence broke out with his old hate. +'You Foe,' said he, 'I reckon you're priding yourself on your bedside +manner, eh?… I can't keep much account of time, lying here. +But, when I get about again, I'll have things in this camp a bit more +shipshape, I promise you.… I've been thinking it out, lying +here: and my conclusion is, you're too much of the boss without doing +your job.… How long is it since you've strolled up to the +look-out?'</p> + +<p>"'About a fortnight,' said I.</p> + +<p>"'And that's a pretty sort of watch, eh?' he continued irritably: +'—when you know that I never missed a day.… I tell you, Foe, +that, after this, we'll have to come to a reckoning. One or other +has to be master on this island, and it isn't going to be <i>you</i>!</p> + +<p>"I went up the hill obediently with the binoculars. I went up +thoughtfully.…"</p> + +<p> +"I came back some fifty minutes later, and said, 'You're too weak to +walk; too weak even to crawl.'</p> + +<p>"'What's the use to tell me that?' he asked, still keeping his air of +insolence. 'Drop your bedside manner, and present your report.'</p> + +<p>"'I will,' said I. 'One of us two has to be master on this island? +So you said, and you shall be he; sole master, Farrell, with your +damned dog.… There's a schooner at this moment making an offing +from the anchorage where, as I've always told you, we'd been wiser to +pitch our camp. I guess she put in to water, and I've missed her +whilst I was busy curing your body.… Well, better late than +never! She's hauling to north'ard, well wide: so you'll understand +I'm in something of a hurry.… You're on the way to recovery, +Farrell, and this makes twice that I've saved your life: but as yet +you can neither walk nor crawl, and I give you joy of your bonfire, +up yonder. In five minutes I push off, alone.'</p> + +<p>"He raised himself slowly, staring, and fell forward grovelling, +attempting vainly to catch me by the ankles.</p> + +<p>"'You won't—you can't! Oh, for God's pity say you don't mean it! +Say it's a joke, and I'll forgive you, though it's a cruel one.' +Then, as I broke away from the door—'Have mercy on me, Foe—have +mercy and don't leave me! <i>I can't do without you!</i>'"</p> + +<p> +"These were his last words that I heard as I plunged down the sand +and pulled in the boat's shoreline handover-fist. I had just time to +jump in and thrust off before the dog came bounding after me, barking +furiously. The brute was puzzled, but knew something to be wrong. +He even swam a few strokes, but turned back as I hit at him with a +paddle. He made around the curve of the shore, still barking. But I +had sculled through the narrows of the passage before he could reach +it. I had a sight, over my shoulder, of Farrell, who had crawled to +the doorway: and with that I was through the strait and sculling for +open water, while the baffled dog raced to and fro on the spits and +ledges astern, pausing only to bark after me as though he would cough +his heart out.</p> + +<p>"In the open water I hoisted sail, with the wind dead aft, and soon, +beyond the point, caught sight of the schooner. After running out +almost three miles, she had hauled close to the wind and was now +heading almost due north.… She could not miss me, and yet I had +made almost two miles before she got her head-sheets to windward and +stood by for me.</p> + +<p>"As I drew close, a thin-faced man with a pointed beard hailed me +from her after-deck.</p> + +<p>"'Ahoy, there! And who might <i>you</i> be, mistaking the Pacific for +Broadway, New York?'</p> + +<p>"'I'm from the island,' I answered.</p> + +<p>"'What ship's boat is that you've gotten hold of?' he bawled.</p> + +<p>"The <i>Two Brothers</i>.'</p> + +<p>"'Lordy! I <i>thought</i> I reckernised her.… Then you're old Buck +Vliet's missionary, that he marooned.'… Shall I go on, Roddy?"</p> +<br> +<p> +I dropped my cigar into the ash-tray. "You may stop at that," I +answered, unable (that's the queer part of it) to lift my eyes and +look him in the face, although I knew very well that he was leaning +back in his chair, eyeing me steadily, challenging the verdict. +"Yes," said I, slowly turning the cigar-stump around in its ash, +"I'm sorry, Jack… but I don't want to hear any more."</p> + +<p>"I knew you would take it so," said Jack quietly, with a sort of +sigh.</p> + +<p>"Well," said I, "how else? Of course I know you'd had a damnable +provocation, to start with. And I'm no man to judge you, not having +been through the like or the beginnings of it.… You were +rescued, for here you are. That's enough. But—damn it all!—you +left the man!"</p> + +<p>"—And the dog. While we are about it, don't let us forget the dog," +said Jack wearily. "Shall we toss who pays the bill? Here—waiter!"</p> + +<p> +We parted under the porch-cover, in the traffic of Regent Street. +I have told you that, in our best of days, Jack and I never shook +hands, meeting or parting. It saved awkwardness now.</p> + +<br><br> +<h2>BOOK IV.</h2> +<br><br> +<h2>THE COUNTERCHASE.</h2> + +<br> +<p><a name="22"></a> </p> +<h3>NIGHT THE TWENTY-FIRST.</h3> +<br> + + + +<h4>THE YELLOW DOG.</h4> + +<p>About two months later—to be accurate, it was seven weeks and two +days—my flat in Jermyn Street was honoured with a totally unexpected +call by Constantia Denistoun. Constantia has a way of committing +improprieties with all the <i>aplomb</i> of innocence. She just walked +upstairs and walked into the room where Jephson and I were packing +gun-cases.</p> + +<p>"Hallo!" said she. "You seem to be in a mess here."</p> + +<p>"Please sit down," said I, removing a sporting rifle and bundle of +cotton-waste from the best arm-chair.</p> + +<p>"What is the matter?" she asked, arching her brows as she surveyed +the general disorder.</p> + +<p>"We're packing," said I.</p> + +<p>"It may surprise you to hear it," said she, taking the seat, "but so +I had guessed. What is it? Preparing for the pheasants, or for +Quarter Day?"</p> + +<p>"Neither," I answered. "I'm going to South America, that's all. +… That will do for the present, Jephson. You may get Miss +Denistoun a cup of tea."</p> + +<p>"Sudden?" she asked, when Jephson had withdrawn.</p> + +<p>"Well," I admitted, "I booked my passage only two days ago, but I've +had the notion in my mind for some time."</p> + +<p>"Alligators, is it? or climbing, this time? Or just general +exploring?"</p> + +<p>"You may call it exploring, though I may have a shy at the Andes on +the way. These fits come upon me at intervals, Constantia, as you +know, ever since you determined to be unkind."</p> + +<p>"Don't be absurd, Roddy," she commanded, tracing out a pattern of the +carpet with the point of her sunshade. The tracing took some time. +At length she desisted, and looked up, resting her arms on her knees. +"Roddy, I'm engaged to be married."</p> + +<p>A bowl stood on the table, full of late tea-roses sent up from +Warwickshire.… As the blow fell I turned about, and slowly +selected the best bloom.</p> + +<p>"I hope," said I, "the fortunate man, whoever he is, doesn't object +to your calling around on us poor bachelors and breaking the news. +However, Jimmy Collingwood is up, with his wife, and will be coming +around from his hotel in a few minutes. He'll do for a chaperon. +Meanwhile"—I held out the rose—"I wish you all happiness from the +bottom of my heart.… When is it to be?—and shall I be in time +with an alligator for a wedding present?"</p> + +<p>"Now that's rather prettily offered," said Constantia, half-extending +her hand to take the flower, her eyes shining with just the trace of +tears. "But you and I are a pair of humbugs, Roddy. To begin with +<i>you</i>—I don't believe there are any such things as alligators on +that island."</p> + +<p>"What island?" I stammered, and my fingers gave a small, involuntary +jerk at the rose's stem as hers closed upon it.</p> + +<p>"The island about which you wrote that queer short note to—to Dr. +Foe—two days ago, asking if he could supply you as nearly as +possible with its bearings."</p> + +<p>"Are you telling me—?" I began.</p> + +<p>She nodded, searching my face. "Yes, your old friend is the man; and +that's where <i>I</i> come in as a humbug. The reason of this call is +that I want to know why you two, who used to be devoted, are no +longer friends."</p> + +<p>"Good Lord!" I exclaimed, not loudly, but more or less to myself. +"You must forgive my lighting a cigar, Constantia.… My mind +works slowly." While lighting it I made a miserable attempt to fob +her off and gain time. "When an old friend cuts in and carries +off—"</p> + +<p>"That's nonsense," she interrupted sharply; "and you know it; and you +ought to know that I know it."</p> + +<p>"Well, then," I protested rather feebly, hating to hurt her, +"you must allow that his behaviour to that man Farrell was a bit +beyond the limit. Of course, if you can forgive it—well, I don't +know. It's odious to me to be talking like this about the man to +whom you're attached—the man I used to worship. And for me, who +still would lose a hand, cheerfully, now as ever, to spare you pain! +… My dear girl, let's talk of something else."</p> + +<p>"No, we will not," said Constantia firmly. "I came to talk about +this, and I will.… Of course I know it was wrong of Jack to +pursue Mr. Farrell as he did. You remember my telling you I was +worried, that day we talked about him after my return from the +States? At that time I imagined he was allowing himself for a bribe +to be friends again with this man, and it distressed me; because— +well, women have their code, you know, as well as men, and—and I may +confess to you now that, even at that time, I had begun to take an +interest—"</p> + +<p>"I see," said I dully, resting my arm along the chimney-piece and +staring down into the grate, where Jephson had lit a small fire: for +the day, though bright, was chilly.</p> + +<p>"You assured me, you remember, that Jack was above any such meanness; +and so far you relieved me, for I saw you were telling the truth. +But," she continued, "I saw also that it wasn't the whole truth: that +you were hiding something. So I went away puzzled. Afterwards, I +got the truth out of Jimmy Collingwood."</p> + +<p>"Well?" I prompted her, as she paused.</p> + +<p>"Well, it was shocking of Jack, I admit. But, after all, this +Mr. Farrell had ruined his life, and—of course I don't quite +understand men and their code—but isn't it a trifle uncharitable of +you, Roddy, not to allow that the shock may have unhinged his mind +for a time?… No, I'm playing the humbug in <i>my</i> turn, and I'll +own up. It was wicked, if you will: but it was great in its way, and +determined… and women, you know, always fall slaves to that sort +of thing. It was straightforward, too: Jimmy said Jack had given his +man fair warning. Jimmy—but you know that boy's way—gave me the +impression that he didn't condemn Jack's craze as unsportsmanlike: +merely for being, as he put it, a thought bloodthirstier than any +line of sport he himself felt any inclination to follow. 'But I'm no +judge, Con,' he added—I remember his words—'for the simple reason +that I never had a career to be ruined.'… Well, for the rest, +Jack says he came straight to you as soon as he set foot back in +England, and told you the whole story.—That's so, I guess?" +Constantia, in her agitation, relapsed into her mother's idiom.</p> + +<p>I nodded, bending my head still lower over the high chimney-shelf, +still staring down into the fire.</p> + +<p>"Then you <i>know</i>," she said; "and I <i>do</i> call it rather dull of you, +Roddy—not to say insensate—and unlike you, anyway.… When, at +the end, he turned and behaved so finely, nursing this man through +his last illness.…"</p> +<br> +<p> +I tell you, it was lucky that I still kept my face turned sideways, +still staring down on the fire.… It took me like a mental +nausea, and all my thought for the moment was to hold steady under +it. I felt my fingers gripping hard on the ledge and holding to it, +as the waves went over my poor brain. Through the surge of them +confusedly I heard her voice pleading: and yet her voice was calm, +well under control. It must have been the waves in my own head that +broke her speech into short sentences.</p> + +<p>"You were his friend… his best friend… mine, too, Roddy. +You took it so well, just now… I <i>do</i> want—"</p> + +<p>What in the world could I say? How lift and turn my face to her? +How answer?… And yet within a second or two I must lift my face +and make some answer. Her voice was already trailing off +plaintively. I heard her catch her breath—</p> + +<p>And then—thank God—I heard a brisk, happy footstep in the outer +passage, and Jimmy burst into the room with his accustomed whoop.</p> + +<p>"Ahoy, within! How goes it with Gulliver?" He broke off, staring, +and let out another joyous whoop, upon which chimed the merry rattle +of tea-things, as Jephson followed close on his heels with a tray. +"Eh? No—but it is! In the words of the Bard, What ho, Constantia!" +He threw his bright top-hat across the room, hooked his umbrella over +his left arm, and ran forward with both hands held out. "Oh, Con! +this is good! Give me a kiss, with Otty's leave—a real good nursery +kiss!"</p> + +<p>"There!" agreed Constantia. "And now sit down and be a good boy. +Where's Lettice?"</p> + +<p>"Shopping in Knightsbridge: and the nurse walking the infant up and +down, more or less parallel, just inside the Park, that he may watch +the wheels go round.… I broke away. Shouldn't be surprised if +Lettice taxi'd around here presently. I hinted at tea, and she knows +where to find me.… Oh, by George, yes! Lettice always knows +where I am, somehow. Meanwhile, here's your good staid chaperon." +He dropped into a chair. "Otty, you're looking serious. What were +you talking about, you two?"</p> + +<p>"Well, it's like this," said I, after a glance at her; "Constantia's +going to be married—to Jack Foe."</p> + +<p>He had started up at my first words, to congratulate her. As I +dropped out the last three, with admirable presence of mind—"When in +doubt, apply cake," said he hoarsely, cramming a large piece into his +mouth to stifle his emotion.</p> + +<p>"I am not in doubt," said Constantia serenely; "and I suppose that is +why you help yourself as first aid, before offering me some bread and +butter, while Roddy lets me pour the tea. Thank you," she added, as +he whipped about with an apology. "Don't speak with your mouth full: +it's rude.… And now listen to me. Roddy, here, is off for South +America, he tells me. Two days ago he wrote to Jack, asking for the +latitude and longitude, as near as might be, of a certain island. +Jack showed me the letter.… You know about this?" she asked +Jimmy, shooting out the question of a sudden.</p> + +<p>I interrupted it. "Jimmy knows about it," said I. "No one else."</p> + +<p>She looked at us calmly, taking stock of us. "Very well," she said; +"and Jack has told me the whole story too, of course. I didn't know +till this moment that Jimmy knew: but I'm so glad he does, for it +makes us all four-square. Now, when first Jack got your letter, +Roddy, He was for sending the information in six words on a post +card, as being all that was due to an old friend that had so +misjudged him. But I persuaded him, and—"</p> + +<p>The outer door slammed upon the word, and a brisk footstep sounded in +the passage. I recognised it at once. So did Constantia.</p> + +<p>"—And here he is!" exclaimed Constantia, without rising, "—come, as +it happens, to have it out with the pair of you.… Hallo, Jack!"</p> + +<p>I am bound to say that my first look at Jack Foe gave me a start, as +he too started at sight of Jimmy, whose presence, of course, he had +not expected. He was pale in comparison with the tan of two months +back: but at every other point he was wonderfully set up and +improved. It was Constantia's doing, belike: but he had become again +in appearance the Jack Foe of old times—a trifle more seamed in the +face but with a straightness and uprightness of carriage that +rejuvenated him. His clothes, too, were of the old cut, modestly +distinguished.</p> + +<p>"Collingwood too?" said he, nodding easily. "That's better than I +looked for.… You have told them?" he asked Constantia with a +frank look of understanding. Then his eyes wandered, naturally, over +the disorder in the room.</p> + +<p>"Roddy is packing," said Constantia.</p> + +<p>"For South America," said I.</p> + +<p>"And after that? Yes, you needn't tell," he went on with an ease +which I could only admire. "It's the island, of course—I had your +note and was going to answer it, but Miss Denistoun—Constantia— +insisted that I should call round and tell you. The latitude is—"</p> + +<p>"One moment," interrupted Jimmy. "You let the door slam behind you, +Professor: and your dog is protesting."</p> + +<p>"My dog?" Foe turned about, as Jimmy stepped to the passage. "What +are you talking about, Collingwood? I don't own such a thing."</p> + +<p>"I'll be damned if there isn't one snuffling at that outer door," +said Jimmy, and went quickly out into the passage. I heard the lock +click back and, upon the noise, a scuffle and gallop of a four-footed +beast: and, with that, a great yellow dog burst in at the doorway of +the room, took a leap forward, crouched, and slowly stiffened itself +up with its legs, its back hunched and bristling. There it stood, +letting out its voice in a growl that sounded almost like a groan of +satisfied desire.</p> + +<p>"Great Scott!" exclaimed Jimmy, following. "If this isn't your +Billy, Professor, come to life!"</p> + +<p>And I, too, cast a quick glance over my shoulder at Foe—against whom +the hound evidently stiffened, as a pointer at its game. Foe, white +as a sheet, was leaning back, his shoulders propped against the edge +of the mantelshelf.</p> + +<p>"He is not my dog," he gasped out. "Take him away: he's dangerous!"</p> + +<p>"Looks so, anyway," said Jimmy calmly. "Well, if he's not your dog, +here's his owner to claim him."—And into the room, staring around on +us, walked Farrell.</p> +<br> +<p> +For the moment I stared at him as at a total stranger. It was only +when, almost ignoring the rest of us, he took a step forward, +pointing a finger at one man—it was only when I turned about and saw +Foe's face—that the truth broke on me—and then, at first, as a wild +surmise, and no more. Even when I wheeled about again and stared at +the man, full belief came slowly: for this Farrell was thin, wiry, +gaunt; sun-tanned, with sunken eyes and a slight stoop; wearing the +clothes of a gentleman and, when at length he spoke, using the accent +of a gentleman.… But this came later.</p> + +<p>For some seconds he said nothing: he stood and pointed. I glanced at +Constantia, preparing to spring between her and I knew not what.</p> + +<p>Constantia, leaning forward a little in her chair, with lips slightly +parted, had, after the first glance, no eyes for the intruder, whom +(I feel sure) she had not yet recognised. Her eyes were fixed on +Jack, at whom the finger pointed: and her hand slid along the arm of +her chair and gripped it, helping her to rise and spring to his side. +Jimmy's face I did not see. He had come to a halt in the doorway.</p> + +<p>"<i>You hound!</i>"</p> + +<p>"Roddy! Catch him—oh, help!"</p> + +<p>It was Constantia's call ringing through the room. I sprang about +just in time to give support as Jack fell into our interlacing arms, +and to take the most of his weight as we lowered him flat on the +hearth-rug in a dead faint.</p> + +<p>"Call off your damned dog, sir, whoever you are!" shouted Jimmy, +running forward to help us. "We'll talk to you in a moment."</p> + +<p>I heard Farrell call "Rover! Rover!" and the dog must have come to +heel instantly. For as I knelt, occupied in loosing Jack's collar, +of a sudden a complete hush fell on the room. Jimmy had run for the +water-bottle. "Don't ring—don't fetch Jephson!" I had commanded. +"Get water from my bedroom." When I looked up to take the bottle, +Farrell still stood implacable before the doorway.</p> + +<p>Constantia also looked up. "Who is this gentleman?" she demanded.</p> + +<p>"My name is Farrell," answered the figure by the doorway. +"Miss Denistoun may remember a fellow-passenger of some years ago, on +the <i>Emania</i>."</p> + +<p>I heard the catch of her breath as she knelt by me, staring at him. +I heard Jimmy's muttered "My God!" My arm was reaching to catch +Constantia if she should drop backward.</p> + +<p>But she pulled herself together with a long sob—I felt it shuddering +through her, so close she knelt by me. Again silence fell on the +room. Jimmy had fetched my bath-sponge along with the bottle. +I poured water upon it and bathed Jack's temples, watching his +eyelids. After a while they fluttered a little. I felt over his +heart. "He is coming round," I announced: "but we'll let him lie +here for a little, before lifting him on to the couch.</p> + +<p>"One question first," commanded Constantia. "Answer me, you two. +… Is this—is this thing true, Roddy? <i>Did he leave-this +man—on the island?</i>"</p> + +<p>For the moment I could put up no better delay—as neither could +Jimmy—than to call "hush!" and pretend to listen to Jack's faintly +recovering heart-beat. But Farrell heard, and answered,—</p> + +<p>"It's true, Miss Denistoun.… I had no notion to find him here; +still less to find you and distress you. I came to Sir Roderick. +But the dog here was wiser. <i>He</i> knew the scent on the stairs, and +raced in ahead.… I am sorry to say it, Miss Denistoun: but that +blackguard yonder took ship and left me solitary,—to die, for aught +he knew. Let him come-to, and then we'll talk."</p> + +<p>Constantia rose. Slowly she picked up her gloves and sunshade. +"No, we will not talk," she said, after a pause. "That talk is for +you four men. I—I have no wish to see him recover."</p> + +<p>As she said it, she very slowly detached from her breast-knot the +rose which had carried my felicitation, and laid it on the table: +and, with that, she walked out, Farrell drawing aside to make way for +her.</p> + + +<br> +<br> +<p><a name="23"></a> </p> +<h3>NIGHT THE TWENTY-SECOND.</h3> +<br> + + + +<h4>THE SECOND MAN ESCAPES.</h4> + +<p>Now that exit of Constantia's, I must tell you, had an instant and +very remarkable effect upon Farrell, though she swept by him without +perceiving it.</p> + +<p>A moment before he had stood barring the doorway, his legs planted +wide, his eyes fierce, his chest panting as he waited for his enemy +to come back to life, his mouth working and twisting with impatience +to let forth its flood of denunciation.</p> + +<p>As Constantia walked to the door he not only drew back a foot to let +her pass. He drew his whole body back, bowed for all the world like +any shop-walker letting out a customer, even thrust out a hand, as by +remembered instinct and as if to pull open an imaginary swing-door +for a departing customer of rank. In short, for a moment the man +reverted to his past—to Farrell of the Tottenham Court Road.… +Nor was this all. As she went by him he slewed about to follow her +with his eyes, kicking aside the dog that hampered him, crouching +against his legs: and still his gaze followed her, to the outer door.</p> + +<p>Not until she had closed the outer door behind her did he face about +on the room again; and still it was as if all the wind had been +shaken, of a sudden, out of his sails. His next words, moreover— +strange as they were—would have stablished his identity with Farrell +even had any doubt lingered in us.</p> + +<p>"Funny thing," said he, addressing us vaguely, "how like blood tells, +even down to a look in the eyes. I was husband to a woman once, +thousands of miles from here and foreign of race: but she came of +kings, though far away back, and Miss Denistoun, Sir Roderick, she +reminded me, just then—"</p> + +<p>"Look here, Mr. Farrell," I broke in; "with your leave we won't +discuss Miss Denistoun, here or anywhere—as, with your leave, we'll +cut all further conversation until Dr. Foe is fit for it, which at +this moment he pretty obviously is not. It may help your silence if +I tell you that the lady who has just left is, or was, engaged to +marry him."</p> + +<p>"<i>Christ!… And she knows?</i>" He stared, less at us than at the +four walls about him.</p> + +<p>"She does not," said I: "or did not, until a few minutes ago."</p> + +<p>"But <i>you</i> knew!"—Wrath again filled Farrell's sails. "<i>You</i> knew— +and you allowed it.… And you call yourselves gentlemen, I +suppose!"</p> + +<p>"If you take that tone with either of us for an instant longer," +I answered, after a pause, "you shall be thrown out of that door, and +your dog shall follow through the window. If you prefer to stand +quite still and hold your tongue—will you?—why, then, you are +welcome to the information that I only heard of this engagement less +than an hour ago, and Mr. Collingwood less than ten minutes before +you entered."</p> + +<p>"But you knew <i>that other thing</i>," Farrell insisted.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I knew," said I: "and for the simple reason that Dr. Foe told +it all to me. And Mr. Collingwood knows, for I told it to him. +We two have kept the secret."</p> + +<p>"And," sneered Farrell, "you still keep being his friends!"</p> + +<p>"No," I answered; "as a matter of fact, we do not. But you have +taken that tone again with me in spite of my warning, and I shall now +throw you downstairs.… You are an ill-used man, I believe, +though not by me: and for that reason, if you come back—say at ten +to-morrow morning—and apologise, you will find me sympathetic. +But just now I am going to throw you out."</p> + +<p>"You may if you can," retorted Farrell, eyeing my advance warily. +"I've spoilt this marrying, I guess: and that's the first long chalk +crossed off a long tally."</p> + +<p>I was about to grip with him when Jimmy called sharply that there +were to be no blows—Foe wanted to speak.</p> + +<p>Foe had recovered under the brandy and lay over on his side, facing +us, panting a little from the dose—of which Jimmy had been liberal.</p> + +<p>"Have it out, Roddy," he gasped, "here and now. I'm strong enough to +get it over, and—and he can't tell you any worse than you both know, +of my free telling—and I don't want to trouble either of you again. +Let him have it out," implored Foe, between his sharp intakes of +breath.</p> + +<p>"I am glad you excepted <i>me</i>," burst out Farrell. "You'll trouble +<i>me</i> again fast enough: or, rather, I'll trouble <i>you</i>—to the end of +your dirty life. Are you shamming sick, there, you Foe?"</p> + +<p>"You know that he is not," said Jimmy, holding back my arm. +"Tell your story, and clear."</p> + +<p>"My story?" echoed Farrell in a bewildered way. "What's my story +more than what you know, it seems? What's my story more than that, +after sharing hell for days in an open boat, and solitude on that +awful island, this man left me—choosing when I was sick and sorry: +left me to hell and solitude together—left me to it, cold-blooded, +when I was too weak to crawl—left me, in his cursed grudge, when he +could have saved two as easy as one? Has he told you that, +gentlemen?"</p> + +<p>"He told me quite faithfully," said I. "We—Mr. Collingwood and I— +both know it."</p> + +<p>"Ay," Farrell retorted, "but neither you nor your Mr. Collingwood, +when you say that, understands a bit what it means…" He broke +off, searching for some words to convey the remembered agony to our +brains that had no capacity (he felt) even to imagine it.</p> + +<p>"No," came a dull voice from the couch—startling us, dull though it +was. "Only you and I, Farrell, understand what it means. Tell them +just the facts, as I told the facts, and no more. Tell them, and me, +how you escaped."</p> + +<p>"By the same ship as you did, if you wish to know—the <i>I'll Away</i> +schooner, Captain Jefferson Hales. And I'll tell you something even +more surprising.—Your ill-luck started the very hour you left me and +Rover to die like two dogs together. When you stepped aboard the +<i>I'll Away</i>, you stepped aboard as a lost missionary. You had your +own bad reasons for not wanting to tell too much: and Hales had his +own very good reasons for not putting too many questions. To start +with, he didn't like missionaries as a class, <i>or</i> their +conversation: and I gather that his crew likewise didn't take much +truck in them; neither in the species nor in you as a specimen: least +of all in you as a specimen. I'm sorry for it, too, in a way: +because, at first, I pictured them asking you to put up a prayer, and +pictured your face and feelings as you knelt down to oblige. +Well, that was one of the pretty fancies that ought to come true but +don't manage to, in this world. As for the next, there's no saying. +You passed yourself for a missionary, and if Satan has humour enough +to accept you on that ticket, a pretty figure you'll make, putting up +false prayers in hell.… Anyhow, you didn't make friends on board +that schooner—eh?"</p> + +<p>"I did not," Foe answered listlessly.</p> + +<p>"You weren't over comfortable with that crowd when you changed me for +it?"</p> + +<p>"I was not, if that's any comfort to you."</p> + +<p>Farrell grinned. "Of course it's a comfort to me. They sent you to +Coventry more or less; and I'll tell you the reason, if you don't +know it. There was a whisper going round the ship forward.… +One of the hands—it being a clear day—had heard a dog barking from +the shore. Another fancied that he had. Then a third called to mind +having heard somewhere—he couldn't remember the public, or even the +port—that when old Buck Vliet marooned his missionary he'd left a +dog with him in compassion.… I should tell you two gentlemen +that the yarn about Vliet and how he caught a missionary by mistake, +and how he'd short-circuited him somewhere in a holy terror, was a +kind of legend all along the coast and around the Eastern islands. +I dare say it crossed to the Atlantic in time: for again it was the +kind of story that starts by being funny and gets funnier as each man +chooses to improve on it.… All I can say is, that if the body +you and I, Foe, looked down upon, that afternoon, belonged to Vliet's +missionary, I don't want to hear any more fun about it.… So you +see, gentlemen, this God-forsaken lot, down in the <i>I'll Away's</i> +fo'c'sle, patched it up amongst them that this man, in his hurry, had +deserted his dog. Now, as I shall tell you, if they had reasoned, +they'd have known that the dog wouldn't starve, anyway. But they +didn't reason. They were a God-forsaken lot—mostly broken men, +pliers about the islands—and it just went against their instinct +that anyone should forsake so much as a dog. If they'd known you had +forsaken a man, you Foe, they'd have tarred and burnt you.</p> + +<p>"—Captain Hales, as it happened, hadn't caught the barking or any +faint echo of it: the reason being that he was hard of hearing, +although in the rest of his senses sharper than all his crew rolled +together, and in wits or at a bargain a match for any trader between +Chile and Palmerston. Also I have heard it rumoured that he had run +a bit wild in his youth, found himself within the law or outside of +it (I forget which), and come down to the South Pacific for the +good of his health. But that was many years ago. He was now a +middle-aged man, and had learnt enough about these waters to call you +a fool if you suggested by way of flattery that what he didn't know +about them wasn't worth knowing.</p> + +<p>"—Something, at any rate, in his past had turned him into a silent, +brooding man, seldom coming out of his thoughts until it came to a +bargain, when he woke up like a giant from sleep. His deafness +helped to fasten this silent habit deeper upon him. Also he was +touchy about his deafness: didn't like at any time to be reminded of +it; and was apt to fly into a sudden rage if anyone brought up a +reminder, even by a chance hint. And that, belike, was the main +reason why he alone on board—barring yourself, Foe—never heard tell +of this barking which he had missed to hear with his own ears.</p> + +<p>"—And now for one thing more, Foe—and it'll make you squirm by and +by! Like most deaf men he was a bit suspicious: and looking at you +sideways as you came on board—what with one thing and another, not +liking missionaries as a line in trade, and, in particular, +mistrusting the cut of <i>your</i> jib, he thought things over a bit and +altered his helm.</p> + +<p>"—I'll explain. You see, you not only came aboard looking what you +are, but you came aboard fairly slimed over, in addition, with all +that had ever been told or guessed against Buck Vliet's missionary. +The stories didn't agree about his sect: but they agreed that Vliet, +though a ruffian, hadn't marooned the man just for fun—that he must +have been a hard case somehow. The stories might vary concerning +Vliet's reasons: but they agreed that the man hadn't come to it by +sheer over-prayerfulness: and the conclusion was—reasonable or +unreasonable—that you, Foe, must have been a bad potato somehow, or +at best a severe trial, if so hardened a stomach as Vliet's hadn't +been able to keep you down. Worse; he guessed you for a spy.</p> + +<p>"—Here, Sir Roderick and Mr. Collingwood, I must tell you that Vliet +and Hales, as masters in this knock-about off-island trade, had grown +to be rival kings in their way, and Hales in his brooding fashion as +jealous as fire. From all I've heard, Vliet hadn't the ambition to +be properly jealous: all <i>he</i> objected to was his business being cut.</p> + +<p>"—Vliet was an old man—a regular hoary sinner, who kept his trade +secrets by a very simple method. He stocked his crews entirely with +lads of his own begetting. White, black, he didn't care how many +wives he carried to sea, or how much of a family wash he carried in +the shrouds on a fine day. He ran his trade on secrecy and close +family limitations. He had no range. His joy was to have a corner +unknown to a soul else in the world. Fat, lazy, wicked, and sly— +that was Vliet. He belonged to the old school.</p> + +<p>"—Now, for years, Hales—of the new school, and challenger—had been +chasing after a rumour that chased after Vliet from port to port—a +rumour that Vliet drew on an uncharted island, in those latitudes, +known only to himself and to so much of his progeny as the old +Solomon didn't mistrust enough to lose overboard.… Well, the +belief at Valparaiso is that old Buck Vliet, with his schooner—on +which he grudged a penny for repairs—had found an ocean grave at +last, somewhere. The guess is that he overdid the <i>Two Brothers</i> in +the end, being careless of warnings, with a top-hamper of wives. +There is also a legend—likely invented to account for the name of +his schooner—that he left all his money to a twin brother in +business in Salt Lake City, and that the brother and his brother's +wives had fitted out a new schooner to hunt for the island's +whereabouts.</p> + +<p>"—Listen, you Foe! While I was lying sick, and you neglecting the +look-out, Hales made our island, and anchored in the bay. While I +was lying sick, and you neglecting the look-out, Hales made our +island, that had been his dream for years; landed there, or on the +far side, took its bearings to a hair, of course, and went ashore +with a party to prospect. What do you say to that?"</p> + +<p>"I say," answered Foe, still languidly, shifting his head a little on +the cushion, "that I always told you we were on the wrong side of the +island, and that you would never listen."</p> + +<p>"They landed, anyway," pursued Farrell; "and for a whole day, after +watering, they explored. They never got over the crest that looked +down on our camp."</p> + +<p>"And if they had they would never have seen us," said Foe, responding +like a man in a dream. "You had chosen the site too cleverly; the +fern-brake would have hidden us, anyway. Let that pass."</p> + +<p>"But there was the bonfire and the look-out, both unattended."</p> + +<p>"Oh, if we're to start re-arguing arguments that kept us tired for +about three years," answered Foe, "you built the bonfire on the wrong +slope, as I always told you. And I'd cut down your flagstaff."</p> + +<p>"We won't quarrel about <i>that</i>, since here we are," Farrell retorted +with a savage grin. "So I'll drop it and get on with the story. +And the next thing to be mentioned in the story, Foe, is that for a +clever man, you're about the biggest fool alive. You have no end of +knowledge in you, which I admired on the island. The way you found +all kinds of plants and things and turned them to account, and +explained to me how traders and practical chemists could make +fortunes out of them—why, it was wonderful. But it wasn't so +wonderful to me as that, with all this knowledge, you'd never turned +it to account, so to speak, when, with a third of it, at your age, +I'd have been a millionaire. And the ways and manners of a gentleman +you had, too; which I could easier set about copying—as I did. +It won't bring you much comfort to know that, half the time, I was +sucking education out of you, grinning inwardly and thinking, +'Now, my fine hater, the more you're taking the superior line with me +the more I'm your pupil all the time; the more you're giving me what +I'll find priceless, one of these days, if ever we get back upon +London pavements.' In the blindness of your hatred you never guessed +that Peter Farrell, all through life, might have had a long way with +him—a way of looking ahead—and all to better himself. You never +guessed <i>that</i>, all the time, I was letting you teach me.</p> + +<p>"—But in practical matters—in all that counts first with a business +man—I saw pretty early that you were little better than a fool. +Yet I couldn't have believed you or any man such a fool as you showed +yourself on the <i>I'll Away</i>: and even you couldn't have missed +sensing it but for one thing—<i>you couldn't dare return to the +island</i>.</p> + +<p>"—A place so rich as that, unknown, uncharted!—reeking with copra, +not to mention other wealth—fairly asking to be sold and turned over +to a government, to a syndicate, to develop it! Man! you and Hales +had a million safe between you when you boarded the schooner; and I +can see Hales's mind at work when he spotted your boat and sized up +the share he was losing by your turning up. The marvel to me is, he +didn't turn you a blind eye. But Hales is a humane man. He did time +in his youth, but he's not the sort that you are, Foe—the sort that +could leave a man to die solitary and forsaken. Belike, too, the +prize was so great in his grasp that he didn't care how much, in +reason, might run through his fingers.</p> + +<p>"—Listen! When you sighted him, he had made a careful offing of the +southern reefs, and had hauled up close to his wind. Where do you +suppose he was bound? He was fetching up to beat back to Valparaiso. +Being Yankee born and not a stocking-banker like old Buck Vliet, he +was all for Valparaiso with an island to sell to the Chilian +Government, and a concession and a syndicate fair in view. This +cargo of beads, cheap guns, sham jewellery, canned meats, and rum, +that he had aboard for the islands, would keep: the rum would even be +improved by a little Christian delay. But, if he sank it all, all +was nothing to the secret he carried.</p> + +<p>"—And then you hove on his view, for partner: and he took you in. +… I hope you'll remember him gratefully after this, Foe. +He chose to sight you—and he hadn't heard the dog. If he had, it +wasn't in him to guess that you had left any better than a dog +behind.</p> + +<p>"—Then you fairly flummoxed him. Missionary though you were, he'd +accepted you as prospective shareholder. It wasn't for him to guess +that you dared not go back.</p> + +<p>"—He's told me that, accepting you, for a day and a half he held on +his course, close-hauled. Is that so? But he was suspicious, as +deaf men are. He took a notion that you—you, keeping mum as a cat, +having to pass for somebody else and avoid questions—were just lying +low, meaning to slip cable at Valparaiso and hurry in with a prior +claim. I am sorry to say it, Foe: but altogether you did not create +good impression on board the <i>I'll Away</i>. To the crew you were an +object of dark suspicion. To the skipper you were either a close +knave, meaning to trick him, or an incredible idiot. After a while, +and almost against hope, he determined to try you for an idiot. +He ordered his helm up, and watched you. You did not protest. +He put his helm farther and farther up, and headed for the +Marquesas. Still you offered no objection. So he landed you—on +Nukuheva, if I remember. And from Nukuheva, somehow, I guess, you +got a slant out of your missionary labours to Sydney or else 'twas +back to Valparaiso—I haven't tracked it: but from one or other you +picked up some sort of a passage home. Anyway, lost men as the +<i>I'll Away's</i> crew might be, they were glad enough, having traded you +for nothing, to up-sail and lose you out of their sight.… And +this man I find you two gentlemen treating as your friend, whom the +scum of the earth (as you would call them) abhorred! And you <i>know</i>, +whilst those poor men only guessed!"</p> + +<p>"Stay a moment, Farrell," interposed Jimmy. "Sorry to interrupt +… but will you kindly take a look around this room. +Not entirely a neat apartment, eh? A few odd cases and cabin trunks +lying around?… You and Sir Roderick were almost at blows just +now. But if you're curious to know the reason of all this mess, it +is that, when you paid us this timely call, he was packing to search +for you."</p> + +<p>"So?" Farrell drew back, regarding me, and the upper lids of his +eyes went up till they were almost hidden by his brows. "So?" he +said slowly. "But why?"</p> + +<p>"Put it at a whim," I said sharply, "and get on with your tale. +… If you interrupt again, Jimmy, I'll strangle you, or attempt +to. You may have observed that I'm ready to fight anybody, this +afternoon."</p> + +<p>Farrell looked at me earnestly. "I see what you would be driving at, +sir," said he, becoming the humble tradesman again. "And I admire. +But, by God, sir!" he broke out, "it won't do! It shan't do! No man +is going to shoulder that man's sin, to rob me of him!"</p> + +<p>"Get down from that horse," said I. "You can mount him again, if you +choose, later on; but, first, finish the story."</p> + +<p>"All very well," said Farrell, "to put it in that dictatorial way, +when you've taken the heart out of a man.… Well, Hales headed +back for Valparaiso, scarce believing his luck. There he interviewed +the ministry, got a provisional concession, and started out for the +island again, to make good—and found another inhabitant alive and +kicking.</p> + +<p>"—He behaved just as well as before, and better—for I was frank +with him and knowledgeable. He couldn't understand missionaries, +real or sham: but he understood a square deal, and didn't charge +interest on bowels of mercy. His only grumble was, 'I'll put you on +your honour. Tell me, please, there's no more of you hereabouts. +It's a long passage to and fro: and if you're a man, you'll see that +I'm almost as crowded as you are lonesome. Don't start me beating +<i>all</i> this brush for skunks!'</p> + +<p>"—He sailed me back to Valparaiso, after we had spent three days +prospecting the property together. At Lima I left him to fight out +details with the Minister of the Interior—who, for some mysterious +reason, turned out to be the person charged with trafficking for an +islet three hundred miles from any interior—while I trained north +and, crossing the Isthmus, sailed north for New York. The only man +I knew in the whole Western Hemisphere was a friend of mine there, +Renton by name, and I made for Renton, to raise capital.</p> + +<p>"—I found that he could walk into Wall Street, and, arm-in-arm with +me, raise the money easily. Moreover I found that he had stored some +twelve thousand dollars for me as my share of an investment I'd +helped him to in Costa Rica. Some day, gentlemen, I'll tell you of +this little episode, if you care to hear about it. It was a deal in +a queer sort of mahogany he had asked me to inspect.</p> + +<p>"—But to return to the island, and wind up. Hales found me there, +alive and hearty, Foe. For why? Because I had found a purpose in +me—to wait and, when time came, to hunt you to the ends of the +earth. It's <i>my</i> turn now. You've taught me, and I'll improve on +your teaching. You've bought a practice, I've learnt; and now I +learn that you've fixed up to marry this Miss Denistoun.</p> + +<p>"—Don't I know why?… Didn't I see that look in her eyes as she +walked past me, just now?</p> + +<p>"—Yes.… Santa's look.… No secrets between you and me. +But, by God, you shan't! I'll save her from <i>that</i>. Sooner than she +shall be wife of yours, I'll marry her myself!"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Farrell," said I, "you have learnt much and learnt it sorely: +but you haven't learnt enough. Pick up your hat, take your dog with +you, and walk out."</p> + +<p>"That's right enough," said he; "and I'm going. I'm only half a +gentleman yet, and my feelings get the better of me in the wrong way. +But you'll never rob me of that fellow, and so I promise you two, and +him.… Come along, Rover!"</p> + + +<br> +<br> +<p><a name="24"></a> </p> +<h3>NIGHT THE TWENTY-THIRD.</h3> +<br> + + + +<h4>COUNTERCHASE.</h4> + +<p>I went to the South Pacific, after all.</p> + +<p>Farrell called on me, next day, and before I could countermand my +passage. He came, as he said, to offer me his deep apologies. +"I grant you, Sir Roderick, that I behaved ill to you and Mr. +Collingwood, and specially to Miss Denistoun. I had no business to +drag her into the talk.… But I'm only a learner in the ways +gentlemen behave. It doesn't come to me by nature, as it comes to +luckier ones, whose parents and grandparents have bred it into the +bone. You may put it that I've hair on my hoof and have to shave it +carefully. What taking trouble can do I can make it do, and don't +count the time wasted. But it's the unexpected that catches out a +man like me.… You see, I came up thinking to find you alone: and +I was so keen to see you, I paid no attention to the dog, queerly as +he was behaving. I thought, maybe, he'd smelt a cat. There weren't +any cats on the island, or aboard the <i>I'll Away</i>, or the cars, or +the <i>Oceanic</i>.… And then I burst in after the hound, as soon as +I realised that he meant mischief of some sort; and, of a sudden, +there was Foe face to face with me, and you others treating him +friendly as friendly. Was it any wonder that, coming on him like +that and after hunting him more than half the world across, I let +myself go?"</p> + +<p>"Well, first of all," I answered coldly, "you may disabuse your mind +of any notion that Mr. Collingwood and I were chatting with Doctor +Foe in the way you suspect. As a matter of fact, after you left, we +told him what we were trying to avoid telling him in Miss Denistoun's +presence at the moment when you broke in—that, through his treatment +of you, he had forfeited our friendship."</p> + +<p>"Had he come to hear that?" asked Farrell,—"if it's a fair +question."</p> + +<p>"It's a perfectly fair question," said I, "and the answer is that he +had not. He had come to give me in person some information for which +I had written to him.… Can you guess? It was the precise +latitude and longitude of your island.… And now, question for +question. You hadn't tracked him here, for you have just said that +your finding him in this room took you fairly by surprise."</p> + +<p>"Almost knocked me over," Farrell agreed.</p> + +<p>"Then what had been your purpose in calling on me?" I asked, +"—if that, too, is a fair question."</p> + +<p>"Well, I'll admit I was calling, in part, to get his address or +discover his whereabouts. But that wasn't my only reason. My real +reason and foremost—But before I tell it, Sir Roderick, will you +answer me yet another question? Was it true, what Mr. Collingwood +said?—that you were actually packing to search for me?"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Collingwood," I answered, somewhat embarrassed, "certainly would +not have said it if it hadn't been true."</p> + +<p>"Well, it fairly beat me," said Farrell, staring. "And it beats me +again, now you confirm it. Searching for <i>me</i>?—Why? You couldn't +have guessed there was money in it."</p> + +<p>"It may sound strange to you, sir," said I pretty icily; "but I took +that fancy into my head neither for your <i>beaux yeux</i> nor for profit. +Moreover, if you don't understand without my help, I'll be shot if I +can provide you with an explanation that won't strike you as wildly +foolish.… However, if you must know, the thought of a +fellow-creature marooned on that island, and of the bare chance that +he might yet be alive to be rescued, had been preying on my mind ever +since I heard Foe's tale, and parted with his friendship on account +of it. Also it may appear extravagant, but through that old +friendship I felt a sort of personal responsibility, as if Jack had +left his trespass in my keeping.… But why discuss all this? +You're back, safe and sound, and the trip is off. When Jephson has +finished unpacking, he'll step over to Cockspur Street and pay +forfeit for the two berths."</p> + +<p>"<i>Two</i> berths?"</p> + +<p>"Jephson was going with me. I fancy he looked forward to the +adventure, and is a trifle disappointed this morning."</p> + +<p>Farrell nodded to show that he understood. Yet he seemed to be +considering something else, and kept his eyes fixed on me in a queer +way.</p> + +<p>"Sir Roderick," he said, after a pause, "your arrangements are all +made for this voyage?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," said I. "Your turning up like this is quite a small +nuisance in its way. I'd arranged with my lawyers, arranged with my +bankers, let my flat here furnished from the first of next month +(<i>that's</i> the worst), taken out letters and passport, made my will, +stored my few bits of spare plate. Last week I spent down in +Warwickshire, clewing up the loose tackle, holding heart-to-heart +conversations with Collingwood and my steward. Collingwood's my +neighbour down there, you know, and will help to look after things."</p> + +<p>Farrell considered all this, slowly. "Excuse me, Sir Roderick," said +he, "but is there no chance of your going back to your intention and +re-packing?"</p> + +<p>"Why on earth should I?" was my very natural question.</p> + +<p>"Why, it's like this, sir," said Farrell, "—and now I'll come to the +real reason that brought me yesterday. My real reason was a matter +of business.… You may remember my telling you that, in New York, +I'd consulted Renton, an old friend of mine, about raising the +capital to take over and develop Santa Santissima, as we've agreed to +call the island; and that Renton had no difficulty to raise the +money. What I didn't tell you—not thinking it wise before company— +was that from the first I'd stipulated—with Hales as well as with +Renton—that half the shares should be held in Great Britain. +Hales didn't care, as he put it, where in thunder the money came +from, so long as it was good. Renton—as being British-born, though +naturalised—made no objection and only one condition, that the +syndicate should be a small one. If I could get half the capital +raised quietly in England by one or two persons, why, so much the +better. He could raise the other half without calling on Wall Street +or starting so much as an echo.… Now, I don't mind telling you, +Sir Roderick, that I had you in mind all the while. That island is a +gold mine: the copra alone there represents whole fortunes running to +waste: and even if old Buck Vliet still sails the waters—which I +doubt, for the <i>Two Brothers</i> hasn't been spoken or sighted within +these four years, and he wasn't provisioned for whaling—still, the +concession papers are made out in Hales's name and mine, and the +duplicate documents stored.… All I can say is, that I'm ready to +put my own little pile upon it, to the last guinea. And I thought of +you from the first; you having done me a good turn more than once, or +tried to. Yes, sir: but the best of all would be your going out and +making sure for yourself. You, that was preparing to go that +distance to find a lost man—I say, sir, it would be heavenly, if you +went and found a fortune instead. I've arranged a cable to Hales, +and the <i>I'll Away</i> will be waiting for you at Valparaiso. But in +case he should miss—which he won't—here are papers for you: +bearings of the island, sketch-map, copy of bond of agreement with +him, copy of agreement with Renton. All these I was bringing to put +into your hand yesterday. But, my God! Sir Roderick, now that I've +heard what I've heard—that you were preparing to search the South +Pacific for me, and for no worse reason than that a poor devil was +cast away there, I'd ask you on my knees to sleep in the berth you've +booked and travel to better purpose."</p> + +<p>It has occurred to me since—and more than once or twice—that +although the man and his offer were honest, he had a secondary +purpose all this while: to get me out of the way lest I should +embarrass his pursuit of Foe and his other scheme of which I am to +tell.</p> + +<p>But, on the whole reckoning, I incline to think the man was perfectly +sincere, and even eager to do me this kindness; which—as things +turned out—was really an extravagant one, on the monetary +calculation.</p> + +<p>At any rate, after studying his face for a while, I called Jephson +out from my bedroom and told him that I had changed my mind: we would +sail, after all, and he might start re-packing at once. Jephson +fairly beamed.</p> + +<p>"But there's one thing I'd like to say," put in Farrell, while it was +obvious that this order overwhelmed him with joy. "I want to have it +clear between us that, joyful as I am at your acceptance, and +grateful as I am for your seeing things in this light, it doesn't in +any way compromise my dealing with Foe."</p> + +<p>"If you take my advice," said I, "you'll drop Foe, and all this silly +business of hatred. He has tried it on you, and up to a certain +point it answered. You played him—I'll grant you, unknowingly—a +perfectly damnable trick. Don't smear your soul with any flattering +unction, Mr. Farrell. You wrecked his life; and, in return, he set +himself to wreck yours. Up to that point I can understand, though it +all seems to me infernally silly. But in his monomania he went just +that step too far, and has exchanged thereby the upper hand. +You have the cards now: yet I warn you against playing them. For, as +sure as I sit here, I warn you that in the act of destroying him you +will destroy yourself. I look back on his miserable pursuit, and I +prophesy the end of yours."</p> + +<p>"Well, it has taken me through fires of hell," said he; "but I +wouldn't have missed it. I'm the man now, and he's the coward."</p> + +<p>"Quite so," said I. "Then be thankful and drop it. Do you want to +retrieve his soul as he has found yours?"</p> + +<p>Farrell mused over this for a while. "I can't explain it to you," he +said. "I can't explain it to myself. But that man and I simply +can't give one another up. As I woke it in him, so he wakes in me +something that I can't be without, having once known it. It seems to +be a necessary part of myself."</p> + +<p>"There are a great many 'Can'ts' in that confession—for a strong +man," was my comment; "and a trifle too much 'myself' for a man who +has found himself. But you remember that meeting at the Baths, when +you and Jack Foe first made acquaintance? Of course you do. +Well, there was a little man seated in the hall, fronting you, and he +read the explanation and gave it to me later, as he helped me on with +my coat. I made no account of it at the time: but he said that he'd +seen another man looking out of your eyes, for a moment, and it gave +him a scunner."</p> + +<p>Again Farrell pondered. "I dare say he was right, too," he said +thoughtfully. "When two men are made for one another, I guess their +souls—if that's not too good a word—must exchange flesh and +clothing now and then, so that for the moment there's a puzzle to +separate t'other from which.… Has Foe told you about <i>her</i>— +about Santa?"</p> + +<p>"He has," said I.</p> + +<p>"Yet he can't have told you all: for he doesn't know it all—about +Renton, for instance, and how I did that bolt from him to Costa Rica, +and from Costa Rica to San Ramon. You must hear all about that, if +you will: because, when you've inspected the island for yourself, +your next business will be with Renton, and I want you to understand +the man you will be dealing with."</p> + +<p>Thereupon he told me: and that is how I was able, the other night, to +relate what happened in Costa Rica and at San Ramon.</p> + +<p>One of these days, when you're fairly rested, you shall have a full, +dull, true, and particular account of the voyage upon which I +started, next day, with Jephson, as per schedule: with a detailed +description of Santa Island, or Santa Santissima (to give it its full +name). But this story isn't about me: it concerns Foe and Farrell: +and therefore it's enough to say here, that I reached Valparaiso and +found Captain Jeff Hales waiting for me with his schooner fresh from +dock, and fleet: that he and I took to one another in the inside of +ten minutes; that our voyage, first and last, went like a yachting +cruise; that we made the island and spent something more than two +months on it, prospecting, mapping, choosing the sites for our +factories that were to be, even planning a light tramway to cart +their produce down to the grand north-eastern bay which (as Foe had +warned me) proved to be the only anchorage. But Santa's cross was +there, standing yet on the small beach where the castaways had +landed, and no doubt it stands yet. No storm ever seriously troubles +the water within that lovely protected hollow.</p> + +<p>Returning to Valparaiso, I travelled north by steamer, by rail, by +steamer and rail again, to New York, hunted up Renton, and found that +my luck held; that I was dealing with a man as honest as Hales and +keen as either of us. With half a dozen cable messages, to and from +Farrell in London, we had everything fixed, and our company as good +as a going concern, when the Chilian Government interposed a long, +vexatious delay which, at one point, appeared to hint at an intention +to repudiate the bargain.</p> + +<p>Back I travelled; this time with Renton in company, and Renton mad as +fire. It all turned out to be a bungle by some clerk that had taken +to drink and forgetfulness; but it cost us a month or two before the +Government of Senor Orrego, having no case, decided to do us justice +without troubling the Courts. Renton and I returned in triumph +through the grilling heats of July, and reached New York to find the +papers announcing this war for a certainty: whereupon, without +unpacking, I pelted for home.</p> + +<p>From Southampton I made for London, and had two short interviews with +Farrell amid the rush of rejoining the H.A.C., collecting kit, and +the rest of it. Our talk was entirely about business, and was +conducted at the National Liberal Club—the hostelry to which I had +addressed all my letters and cables. I gathered that he used it +almost as a permanent residence, having sold or given up his house at +Wimbledon. He said nothing of Foe, and I forbore to ask questions.</p> + +<p>From the H.A.C., in the general catch-as-catch-can of those early +weeks of the war, I found myself on one and the same day pushed into +a temporary Commission in the R.F.A., commanded down to Warwickshire +to recruit for it; and met at my lodge-gate with a telegram ordering +me off to Preston to collect a draft there and report its delivery at +Aldershot. Funny sort of home-coming for a man returning after two +years' absence! But there it was. I had just time by smart driving +to catch the next down train at our local station: so, without even a +glimpse of the ancestral roof, I put the dog-cart about and posted +back.</p> + +<p>For the next week or so, as Jimmy put it of his own very similar +experience (he had joined up in the Special Reserve as a gunner three +years before the war), I didn't spend a night out of my train. +Then came a morning—I had rolled up with my latest draft, from +Berwick at 4.30 a.m.—when the Colonel sent for me to come to the +orderly-room some ten minutes before he opened business, and then and +there asked me if it was to my liking to come out to France with the +division then moving, on the ammunition column of his brigade.</p> + +<p>I walked back to the R.F.A. mess, picked up a newspaper in the +ante-room, and dropped into a chair. My heart was beating like a +girl's at her first ball. "France"—"France"—the very "r" in that +glorious word kept beating in my ears with the roll of a side-drum. +I gripped the <i>Times</i>, steadied myself down to master the short +little paragraph on which my eyes had been fixed, unseeing, for a +couple of minutes, and found myself staring at this announcement:</p> +<blockquote><blockquote> +<p class = "noindent"> "A marriage has been arranged, and will shortly take place, + between Peter Farrell, Esq., of 15a The Albany, and Constantia, + only daughter of the late George Wellesley Denistoun, Esq., + J.P., D.L., of Framnel in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and of + Mrs. Denistoun of 105 Upper Brook Street, W."</p> +</blockquote></blockquote> + +<br> +<br> +<p><a name="25"></a> </p> +<h3>NIGHT THE TWENTY-FOURTH.</h3> +<br> + + + +<h4>CONSTANTIA.</h4> + +<p>The drumming in my ears died suddenly out to silence, and then +started afresh more violently than ever, and more sharply, for the +long pinging of an electric bell shrilled through it. The pinging +ceased sharply: the drumming continued; and I looked up to see the +mess sergeant standing over me, at attention.</p> + +<p>"Telephone call for you, sir."</p> + +<p>I went to the instrument like a man in a dream. Something suddenly +gone wrong with Sally's healthy first-born? Jimmy starting for +France and ringing me up for farewell? Farrell—damn Farrell!—to +talk business? Jephson, with word that he had achieved the urgent +desire of his heart and been passed as a gunner, to join me, <i>quo fas +et gloria ducunt</i>? These four only, to my knowledge, had my probable +address.</p> + +<p>"Hallo?" I called.</p> + +<p>"Hallo!" came the answer sharp and prompt, in a woman's voice which I +recognised at once for Constantia's. "Is that you, Roddy?"</p> + +<p>"Yes—Roddy, all right," I spoke back, mastering my voice.</p> + +<p>"Have you seen—?" Her voice trailed off.</p> + +<p>"D'you mean the announcement? Yes, two minutes ago. Is it +congratulations you're ringing up in this hurry?"</p> + +<p>"Roddy, dear, don't be a beast!" the voice implored. "I'm in a +horrible hole, and I think only you can help me. Is it possible for +you to get leave, and come? Mamma asks me to say that there's a room +here, and—and we want you!"</p> + +<p>"As it happens," returned I, "there'll be no trouble about getting +leave. We're to start—report says—at the end of the week, and I +must be sent up to collect a few service odds-and-ends. As for +sleeping, I'll ring up Jephson, and if he's already conscripted, I +can doss at the Club. All that is easy. But tell me, what is the +matter?"</p> + +<p>"Oh! I can't here." Constantia's voice thrilled on the wire. +"It's pretty awful. I never gave him leave—<i>never</i>!"</p> + +<p>"You're getting pretty incoherent," said I. "We'll have it out when +we meet. Dinner?… No, I shall pick up a meal on the train. +… Mustn't expect me before 8.30; I have to put a draft through +and see them off. Odd jobs, besides.… These are strenuous +times."</p> + +<p>"Roddy, you're an angel!"</p> + +<p>"Not a bit," said I; "and I warn you not to expect me in that +capacity. You'll observe that I haven't congratulated you yet." +I put this in rather savagely.</p> + +<p>"You're also rather a brute," answered the voice. "But you'll come?"</p> + +<p>"Please God," said I.</p> + +<p>"Thank God!" answered she; and I hung up the receiver.</p> +<br> +<p> +Well, in my jubilation I had forgotten to ask for leave to run +up and get kit. But leave was no sooner asked for than given. +From Victoria that evening I taxi'd straight to Jermyn Street, where +I found Jephson, warned by telegram, elate at the prospect of +soldiering. I was able, after a talk with my Colonel, to inform him +that he had also a prospect of coming along as my servant, and this +lifted him to the seventh heaven. Then I went out, picked up a +dinner at Arthur's, and walked on to Upper Brook Street.</p> + +<p>In those days London had not started to shroud its lamps. One stood +a few paces short of the porch of Number 105; and as I turned into +Brook Street I saw a man come hastily down the steps, and enter a +taxi anchored there. The butler followed and closed the door upon +him. The night had begun to drizzle, and there was a sough of +sou'westerly wind in the air. I turned up the collar of my service +overcoat and, as the taxi passed, walked pretty briskly forward and +intercepted Mrs. Denistoun's butler, who, after a stare at the +retreating vehicle, had reascended the steps and was about to close +the door. Recognising me by the light of the porch lamp, he opened +the door wide, and full upon the figure of Constantia, standing in +the hallway. She gave a little gasp and came to me, holding out her +hand.</p> + +<p>"You were always as good as your word, Roddy. Come into the library. +Where are you sleeping, by the way?"</p> + +<p>"In my flat," said I. "Jephson will not be called up for a day or +two. He has a fire lit, and will sit up for me."</p> + +<p>"He may have to sit up late," replied Constantia. "Mamma will be +down presently.… There has been something of a scene, and she is +upset. You saw Mr. Farrell go away, just now? You must have passed +him, almost at the door."</p> + +<p>"I did," said I, "though I don't know if he recognised me. +Child, what is the matter?"</p> + +<p>"Child?" echoed Constantia. "It does me good to be called that, for +that's exactly how I am feeling.… He had no right—no right—" +and there she broke off.</p> + +<p>"Do you mean," said I, "that he put that announcement in the <i>Times</i> +having no <i>right</i> to do it?"</p> + +<p>"I dare say," moaned Constantia, waving her arms feebly, +pathetically, "he understood more than I meant him to."</p> + +<p>"Let us be practical, please," said I, becoming extremely stern. +"Have you, or have you not, engaged yourself to marry Farrell?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly I have not," she answered with vivacity. "He asked me, +and I—well, I played for time."</p> + +<p>I couldn't repress a small groan at this: or, rather, it was half a +groan and half a sigh of relief. "Has he spoken to your mother?"</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"Does your mother know about it?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. I told her."</p> + +<p>"Does she approve of this announcement in the papers? Has she +sanctioned it?"</p> + +<p>"Of course she does not—of course she has not.… Roddy, sit down +and don't ask so many questions all of a heap. Sit down and light +your pipe, and pass me a cigarette. Furnilove will bring in some +whisky for you by and by."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, Constantia; but I don't feel like staying. I've always +maintained—oh, damnation!" I broke off.</p> + +<p>"What have you always maintained, Roddy? Sit down and tell it. +Are you not here because I sent for you? And didn't I send for you +because I am in trouble? We are in a tangle, I tell you, and I'm +asking you, on my knees, to untwist it. So light your pipe and, +before we begin, tell me—What is it you have always maintained?"</p> + +<p>"I have always maintained," I answered slowly, even more stern than +before, "that no woman can be safely trusted to know a cad from a +gentleman. If the cad can flourish a trifle of worldly success in +front of her, or if he's a mere adventurer and flashes himself on her +boldly enough, <i>or</i>, if she has persuaded herself to pity him, she's +just fascinated, and you can't trust her judgment ten yards. +There!… I've burnt my boats."</p> + +<p>Constantia sat for some while pondering this, breathing out the smoke +of her cigarette, gazing into the fire under the shade of a +handscreen.</p> + +<p>"I'll tell you another thing, Roddy," she said at length; "and it's +as true and truer. No woman thinks worse of a man for burning his +boats.… But it isn't quite worldly success to be wrecked and +left desolate on an island three hundred miles from anywhere. +It all started (as you hinted) with my pitying him and admiring his +strength of will after the awful experience he had tholed."</p> + +<p>"He left you just now? I saw him drive away, and his infernal dog +with him."</p> + +<p>"Yes: there had been a pretty bad scene. I was furious, and Mamma +was so much upset that I doubt if she'll be fit to talk to-night. +But it's a blessed relief to her, now that she knows you are anchored +here for a while, to protect us, and that, at the worst, we can ring +up Jermyn Street."</p> + +<p>"Why," I exclaimed, "what the devil is there to protect you from?"</p> + +<p>"Jack—Mr. Foe, that is—has been watching this house for days. +He haunts the pavement opposite, all the hours he is off duty. +Mamma is sure that he means evil, and I wish I was sure that he +didn't. He has gone under, Roddy. It is awful to look out, as +Furnilove draws the blinds, and see that figure there stationed, +reproaching us—yet for what harm that we have done him? He is even +ragged.… I should not be surprised to hear he was starving. +Yet what can we do?"</p> + +<p>"Tell me his address," said I.</p> + +<p>She hesitated. "Why should you suppose that I know his address?" she +asked, shading her face.</p> + +<p>But I took her up bluntly. "I am sorry," I said, "to be discharging +apophthegms upon you to-night: but you must hear just one other. +Every woman follows and traces a man who has once laid his heart on +her altar. I am sorry, Con, to call up an instance from so far back +in the past: but you knew where to 'phone even for me, this morning. +… So own up, child, and tell me, where is Foe?"</p> + +<p>"I believe," she answered after a while, the handscreen hiding her +face, "he has found work in one of these emergency hospitals they are +putting up.… It's at a place called Casterville Gardens, down by +Gravesend. When first he started watching this house, he was in +rags; but for the last fortnight he has worn khaki, and it improves +his appearance wonderfully.… Besides, when a man is in the army, +you have the comfort to know that, at least, he isn't starving."</p> + +<p>"Was it so bad as that?" I asked. "Well, and now about Farrell?"</p> + +<p>"Ah!" said she, "when you saw him get into that taxi, I had dismissed +him. He was going—or said he was going—straight to Printing House +Square to get that abominable paragraph contradicted. I told him +that he was to return to-night and bring me his assurance that it was +contradicted—either that, or never to enter this house again.… +And now, Roddy, as he may be late—as I would only be content with +his seeing the Editor in person—and as editors, I understand, come +down late to their work—suppose you mix yourself a whisky-and-soda: +for here is Furnilove with the glasses.… Furnilove! keep the +latch up for an hour or so, and the door on the chain. Mr. Farrell +may be calling late with a particular message. Do not admit him +beyond the hall, but come and report to me here. Sir Roderick will +receive him in the hall and take the message."</p> + +<p>"Yes, miss," said the obedient Furnilove.</p> + +<p>"That is all." Constantia pondered.—"Except that you may tell the +housemaid not to worry about the room for Sir Roderick. He will not +sleep here, after all. And you may send Henriette up with word to +Mamma that all is right and Sir Roderick stays only to receive Mr. +Farrell's message. He will probably be going at once on receipt of +it, and then you can lock up. The others can go to bed when they +choose."</p> + +<p>"Very good, miss," said Furnilove, and withdrew.</p> + +<p>"And now," said Constantia, "since he is late, keep me amused. +Tell me all about the island."</p> + +<p>So I told her this and that of my voyaging; and the time drew on +until the clock on the mantelpiece chimed a half-hour. It was +one-thirty.</p> + +<p>"The dickens!" said I, pulling out my own watch and consulting it. +"Farrell is a long time at Printing House Square. In my belief, Con, +he won't be returning."</p> + +<p>Just at that moment the front door bell pealed loudly.</p> + +<p>We stood up together. We heard Furnilove padding towards the door, +and we both moved out into the passage as he slid up the latch and +unhooked the chain. Constantia, in her eagerness, had pressed a +little ahead of me.</p> + +<p>A man rushed in, disregarding Furnilove, shouldering him aside—a +man in a furred overcoat. Expecting Farrell, for the moment I +mistook him for Farrell. Even when above the fur collar I caught the +sight of common khaki, for another moment I took him for Farrell. +But he ran for Constantia, stretching out his arms as if to embrace +her; and as he stretched them, under the hall light, I saw that one +of his hands was bleeding.</p> + +<p>I had enough presence of mind to spring in front of her and ward him +off. It was Foe.</p> + +<p>"It's all right," he gasped, staring at me. "No need to make a fuss. +… I have killed him." And with that, still staring at me +horribly, he sank slowly and collapsed in a huddle at my feet, raving +out incoherent words.</p> +<br> +<p> +Furnilove behaved admirably. Having assured himself that Miss +Constantia was safe, and that I had the intruder under control, he +went smartly to the telephone.… Amid Foe's ravings I heard him +ringing up the exchange and, after a pause, summoning the doctor.</p> + +<p>"We had better have the spare room prepared again, after all," said +Constantia. "We can't turn him out, in this state.… And there's +a dressing-room, Roddy, next door, if you can put up with it.… +But what has happened, God knows."</p> + +<p>"God knows," said I. "But he's a lunatic, unless I'm mistaken. +We'll hear what the doctor says.… But he shan't sleep here, +to trouble you.… Furnilove, whistle up and have a taxi +ready.…"</p> + +<p>"Oh, what is he saying?" moaned Constantia as the body on the floor +still twisted as if burrowing to hide itself, now muttering and again +shouting in a voice that reverberated along the passage, "Kill him! +Damn that dog!—kill him!"</p> + +<p>I knelt on the body and held it still. It was the body of my best +friend, and I knelt on it, almost throttling him.</p> + +<p>"One can't ring up a lunatic asylum, at this hour of the morning," +I found myself gasping. "He's for my flat, to-night, if your doctor +will take charge of him with me." And with that I looked up and +caught sight of Constantia's mother at the head of the staircase.</p> + +<p>"It's all right, Mrs. Denistoun," said I, glancing up. "It's my +friend, Jack Foe—my friend that was. With the doctor's leave I'll +get him back presently to Jermyn Street, where Jephson and I will +look after him for the night.… Jephson used to worship him, and +will wait on him as a slave."</p> + +<p>And with that—as it seemed amid the blasts of Furnilove's whistle in +the porchway and the <i>toot-toot</i> of a taxi, answering it—a quiet man +stood above my shoulder. It was the doctor: and Furnilove had been +so explicit on the 'phone that the doctor—whose name I learnt +afterwards to be Tredgold—almost by magic whipped out a small bottle +from his pocket.</p> + +<p>"Water," said he, after a look at the patient, "and a tumbler, +quick!"</p> + +<p>Furnilove dashed into the library and returned with both.</p> + +<p>"Bromide," said Dr. Tredgold. "Let him take it down and then hold +his head steady for a few minutes.… Right!… Now the +question is, where to bestow him? I can't answer for him when the +dose wears off: but it's no case to leave with two ladies."</p> + +<p>"There's a taxi, doctor," said I, "if we can get him into it. I have +a flat in Jermyn Street, and a trustworthy manservant. I suggest +that he'll do there for the night."</p> + +<p>"Right," said Dr. Tredgold again; "and the sooner the better. +I'll come with you, when I've bound up this wound on his hand. +It's a nasty one.… It looks to me—Yes, and it is, too!"</p> + +<p>"What is it?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"A dog-bite."</p> + +<p>"So <i>that</i> was what he killed!" thought I, and aloud I said, "Thank +God!"</p> + +<p>"Eh?" said the doctor. "A dog-bite's a queer thing to thank God +for."</p> + +<p>"It might have been worse," I answered.</p> + +<p>"H'm: well it's bad enough," Dr. Tredgold replied, busy with his +bandaging.</p> + + +<br> +<br> +<p><a name="26"></a> </p> +<h3>NIGHT THE TWENTY-FIFTH.</h3> +<br> + + + +<h4>THE PAYING OF THE SCORE.</h4> + +<p>Next evening, my leave being up, I returned to Aldershot. +Dr. Tredgold had called around early, and after overhauling his +patient and dressing the hand, had assured me there was no cause for +anxiety. The fever had gone down, and this allowed us to tackle the +main mischief, which was malnutrition. In short, Jack was starving.</p> + +<p>"Your man makes an excellent nurse," said the doctor. "I'll tell him +to go slow at first, with beef-tea and milk, and to-morrow he can +start the works up with a dose of champagne. But I'll drop in +to-morrow, to make sure. The wound?—Oh, it's a dog-bite, safe +enough, and a rather badly lacerated one. But we cauterised it in +time last night, and it shows no 'anger,' as the saying is. Has he +told you how he came by it?"</p> + +<p>"No," said I. "He has been lying in this lethargy ever since you +left him. He wakes up and takes his medicine from Jephson, and then +drops back into a doze. I thought it best not to worry him."</p> + +<p>"Quite right, too.… And I'll not ask questions, either, beyond +putting it that he's a friend of yours, gone under, and you're +playing the Samaritan.… Well, you can go back to duty, and +Jephson and I will see this through. It's queer, too.… I seem +to have seen his face somewhere.… But what's queerer is that he +isn't dead. He must have had some practice at fasting, poor fellow. +I should say that his stomach hadn't known food for a week."</p> + +<p>I duly 'phoned the doctor's report to Constantia. To Jephson my last +words were, "Write daily. When Dr. Foe can sit out, dress him in any +old suit, shirt, and underwear. I don't see myself out of this khaki +for a long time ahead. He will be fit again long before Monday week, +when you're to join up: and when he is able to walk, there's an +envelope for him in the top right-hand drawer of my writing-table."</p> + +<p>Jephson wrote twice to report that Dr. Foe was "going on favourably," +and on the third day, that he had even dressed himself and taken a +walk. He had been away four hours and more—"which caused me much +anxiety," added Jephson.</p> + +<p>But on the fourth day, on the eve of our starting for Rouen, I got +the following letter, in Jack's own handwriting:</p> + +<blockquote><blockquote> +<p class = "noindent"> "My dear Roddy,—I shall use the old name, since it is the last + time I shall address you; and you, starting for France, will + have no time to reach me and say that it is forbidden.<br><br> + + "I have killed Farrell. It was a stupid and a sorry ending. + At the last it was even quite brutal—bestially different from + anything I had imagined—and I had imagined many ways—while I + had control of the show.<br><br> + + "I have gone through madness. That again was part of the + bestiality I had not reckoned with.… And unless I take + steps I shall soon be back in worse bestiality, worse madness. + But I am taking steps.… And in the meantime, when you read + this you are to be sure that it is written by a man perfectly + sane.<br><br> + + "It is nothing that I have killed Farrell. I could have killed + him, as he could have killed me, at any time. I still think + that, while the pursuit lay with me, my methods were the more + delicate, and that I should never have goaded him to strike as + he goaded me.<br><br> + + "But I will grant that his methods were effective enough: and + along one line I should have allowed them to be original, if I + didn't know that he had picked up the hint of it on the <i>I'll + Away</i>. It was <i>rumour</i> that had cursed me there, and he started + to work upon rumour. I had put up a plate in Harley Street, as + you know, upon the dregs of my capital. This meant a certain + bluff upon credit. If my reputation lasted me out six months, + all would be well. He divined this and struck at it. To do him + justice, I suppose that if he had walked up brutally to the + Medical Association and given them his story, I should have been + struck off the Register. He worked more subtly than that. + Indefinable reports started up, spread and followed me. Out of + the skies a net of suspicion descended between me and my quite + reputable past. For no reason given, my fellow-practitioners + began to shun me.<br><br> + + "I had a bad case, and no money to carry it through. I have + heard, Roddy, that he let you into the secret of the island and + that you are like to prosper on it: and I wish you well. But I, + who brought him to it, lingering him to land—I, but for whose + treasured flask he would never have lived to see Santa Island— + could set up no claim on any of that wealth.<br><br> + + "I had deserved this. It was all quite right, and I make no + complaint. But I had to throw up Harley Street, and for two + years I steadily sank. In the end I came to know worse hunger + than I was prepared for. Though you won't have me at any price, + I think you would pity if I told you of some of the holes to + which I have crept to sleep.<br><br> + + "I suppose—and now I think of it, I might have borrowed some + comfort from the thought—I suppose that all the while, being + rich, Farrell had hired eyes to watch me. It is certain that he + ran across me—always at night, and always in evening dress. + Once, on the Embankment, as I was coiling on a bench, he came + down from the Savoy and along, bringing his dog for a walk. + The dog scented me and growled; but I lay out stiff, pretending + to sleep.<br><br> + + "Even when it came to a Salvation Army shelter, we were disturbed + by a company of the benevolent; Farrell one of them, in a furred + coat with an astrachan collar. He saw me stretched there with + closed eyes, and said that one half of the world never knows how + the other half lives.<br><br> + + "It was going like that with me when the War broke out. + Then—broken, beaten, and in rags—I put all pride in my pocket, + walked across the bridge to Silversmiths' College, rang in on + Travers, and demanded a job.<br><br> + + "Travers was shocked.… I could see also that he was + suspicious. Rumour had been at him, too. Finding him less than + frank, I turned more than proud: and, his back being up and his + conscience uneasy, he did what I could have pardoned in a weaker + man; lost his temper, to excuse himself in his own eyes for + treating me unjustly. He had scarcely spoken six words before I + detected the slime of Farrell's trail. The man had managed to + sow rumours, somehow, within the gates of Silversmiths' College, + of all places!—rumours that had nothing to do with the island, + but suggested that, after all (there being no smoke without + fire), there <i>had</i> been dubious and uncleanly experiments in the + laboratory during my professorship. I believe that this, when I + came to think it over, started my recovery: yes, my recovery. + For it showed me that Farrell was deteriorating, and, renewing a + little of my old contempt for the man, raised me by so much + above the abject fear of him into which I had sunk. From that + moment hope was renewed in me, and I nursed it. So long as he + worked on the truth he had me at his mercy: playing with + falsehood in this fashion, he was vulnerable, might come to be + mortally vulnerable if I watched and waited, and then I should + regain the lost mastery, dearer to me than life.<br><br> + + "For the moment, however, Travers claimed all the scorn I carried + inside me for use. He hinted that the College had suffered by + the scandal of the riot: which no doubt was true to some extent, + but not true enough to hide a lie or to cover a meditated + betrayal. He said that he had always looked a little askance on + my researches, and particularly upon my demonstrations; that + they were doubtless astonishing, but had lain, to his taste, a + little too near the border-line of quackery,—Yes, Roddy, he + said the word, and it did not choke him. On the whole and + speaking as a friend (yes, he used that word, too), he must + express a hope that I would not press to renew my connection + with the Silversmiths' College. It would pain + him inexpressibly, remembering old times, to be forced to give + me a direct refusal.… But was there anything else he could + do for me?<br><br> + + "That, Roddy, was the valley of the shadow of my death, and I had + no rod or staff to comfort me.<br><br> + + "I did not answer him in words. I gave him a look, and walked + out.<br><br> + + "My purpose had been to apply for temporary work, to relieve some + younger teacher who wished to enlist for medical work at the + front. Had you been in London, Roddy, I'd have pocketed shame + and come to you, and borrowed the price of a suit of clothes; + inside of which—and may be with your support—I might have + walked up boldly for a commission in the R.A.M.C.—for there was + nothing definite against me: only I was ruined, and my old + credentials, set against my present squalor, were so + comparatively splendid as to raise instant suspicion of drink + and disgrace. But it was part of my just punishment that, when + I most needed help, you should be far abroad searching for the + very island on which I had shipwrecked all.<br><br> + + "Finally I found work as a dresser in one of those temporary + hospitals which sprang up everywhere in such hurry as the + streams of wounded began to pour back from France. Ours was + pitched in a derelict pleasure-ground on the right bank of + Thames some way below Greenwich.… I don't suppose you ever + visited Casterville Gardens: as neither had I until I entered + them to do stretcher-drill, tend moaning men, and carry bloody + slops in the overgrown alleys that wound among its tawdry, + abandoned glories. It had a half-rotted pier of its own, upon + which, in Victorian days, the penny steam-boats had discharged + many thousands of crowds of pleasure-seekers. The gardens + occupied the semicircle of an old quarry, on which the + decorative landscape gardener had fallen to work with gusto, + planting it with conifers and stucco statues in winding walks + that landed you straight from the sightless wisdom of Socrates + and Milton, or the equally sightless allurement of Venus, + shielding her breasts, upon a skittle-alley, a bandstand, a + dancing-saloon, or a bar at which stood, for contrast, another + Venus, not eyeless, dispensing beer. The conifers, flourishing + there, have grown to magnificent height. The effect of rain + upon the statues has not been so happy, and I have set my pail + down to pick a snail off the saddle-nose of Socrates and + meditate and wonder what he would have thought of it all.<br><br> + + "The dancing-saloon—still advertising itself as 'Baronial + Hall'—had been converted into a main ward, holding forty beds. + It was there that Farrell found me at work, that night. He had + interviewed the Adjutant—as we called the harassed secretary + who, brayed daily between the upper and nether millstones of + official instructions and 'voluntary effort,' never left his + desk nor dared to wander abroad for fresh air—the gardens + having been specially laid out to trick the absent-minded and + induce them to lose their way. Farrell had simply told the + Adjutant that he wished to see me on urgent personal business. + The Adjutant could not hesitate before a presence that might, in + its dress-clothes and sable-lined overcoat, have stood among the + statues outside for personified Opulence.<br><br> + + "'Very good,' said he. 'Oh, yes, certainly. I will send for the + man.… Your business is private, you say?… I am very + sorry: we are all at sixes and sevens here, with every office + crowded. But there's an empty saloon—one of those absurdities + with which the management in old days sought to tickle the + public taste. They are going to turn it into a ward in a couple + of days, and that's why we have left it unoccupied. If that + will do, and you'll come with me, we'll see if the electric + light functions. I believe the fitters were at work there this + afternoon.'"<br><br> + +<br> + "That, as Farrell told me ten minutes later, was how it happened. + For me, when answering the message that a stranger had called to + see me on urgent business, I walked as directed, across the + matted moonlit lawn to this building which I had never visited + before—and when, pushing the door wide, I saw Farrell standing + under the electric lamps, with his dog beside him—I fell back a + pace and half-turned to run for it.<br><br> + + "For he was alone, yet not alone: a hundred Farrells stood there. + No, a battalion, and all of them Farrells! And a battalion of + dogs!<br><br> + + "I stepped back from the ledge of the threshold. Above the + doorway an inscription in faded gilt letters shone out against + the moon—'VERSAILLES GALLERY OF MIRRORS. ADMISSION 3D.'<br><br> + + "Then I understood. This absurd and ghastly apartment was lined, + all around its walls, with mirrors, in panels separated only by + thin gilt edgings. Dust lay thick on the floor; cobwebs hung + from the ceiling in festoons; there was not a stick of furniture + in the place. But a battalion of Farrells stood in it, and + there entered to it, and stood, under the new electric fittings, + a battalion of Foes.<br><br> + + "Farrell's aspect was grave. His eyebrows went up at the choke + of half-insane laughter with which I greeted him. 'Foe, my + man,' said he, eyeing my khaki. 'So you have come to this, have + you?'<br><br> + + "He said it pompously, with a fine air of patronage, and I + stifled a second laugh, hugging it inside my ribs: for now I + felt that the time would not be long—that, at long last, he + would pass me over the cards. 'We both seem to have come to + this, don't we?' I answered with a shrug and a glance around.<br><br> + + "'I have run down here,' he went on, still betrayed back to his + old Tottenham Court Road manner, 'because I have an announcement + to make to you.… Have you read your <i>Times</i> to-day?'<br><br> + + "He was priceless. Oh, he was falling to me—falling to me like + a ripe peach! He held out a scrap of paper.<br><br> + + "'Do I look like a man that takes in the <i>Times</i>?' I purred '—at + twopence a day, and the price likely to go up, they tell + me.… But I can guess your news, for I've watched the house. + … You've come all this way to tell me that you're going to + marry Constantia Denistoun.… Well?'<br><br> + + "'You have been watching the house?' asked he, staring, as it + took him aback.<br><br> + + "'Of course I have.… And she didn't tell you?… Gad! If + she didn't tell you, she isn't yours yet, and I've a doubt if + she's ever like to be. Did she give you leave to put in that + announcement?'<br><br> + + "Farrell cleared his throat. Before he could answer I had + chipped in—'No, you liar! I hate men who clear their throats + before speaking. It was an old trick of yours, of which I + believed myself to have cured you at some pains.… So you + have played over ardent, and there has been a row, and you have + come down here to take it out of <i>me</i>.… Man, you thought + you would: but I have you beaten at last; for I see you—as she + will see you—dissolving back into the cad you always were.'<br><br> + + "'I am going to marry her,' Farrell persisted. 'Let that eat + into your soul.'<br><br> + + "'It has eaten,' said I, 'these weeks ago, just as far as ever it + will get; and that's as far as a rat can gnaw into a + marlinespike.… Come out of this into fresh air,' said I + with another look round on our images repeated in the mirrors. + 'There are too many Farrells and Foes here. When I ran the + game, at Versailles that afternoon, it had a certain dignity. + … But, you!… Your primal curse, Farrell, reasserts + itself at length. I have done my best with you, but you + reproduce it in tawdriness. Out of the Tottenham Court Road you + came: and back to your vomit you go.'<br><br> + + "'I am going to marry Miss Denistoun,' he repeated dully. + 'I felt sure it would interest you to know.' He was losing grip.<br><br> + + "'Oh, yes,' said I. 'Whistle your dog, and let's get out of this + for a walk by the river.… There's too many of us in this + room, and we're all too cheap.… Damn it! I believe I could + forgive you for anything but for lowering our hate to <i>this</i>!'"<br><br> + +<br> + "We went out past the sentry, and walked down by the sullen + river's edge, the dog padding behind us.<br><br> + + "'You have been provocative,' said Farrell, after a while, + checking himself by an afterthought in the act of clearing his + throat. 'Considering our relative positions, I am rather + surprised at your daring to take this line.… But you used a + word just now. It was 'forgive.' I came not only to say that I + am going to marry Miss Denistoun, but to propose that henceforth + the account is closed between us. You must tell yourself that I + have won; and, having won, I bear no further malice. I would + even make some reparation on the shrine of my affection for Miss + Denistoun. She would esteem it, I feel sure, as a tribute. + … Dear me, how fast we are walking!… You'll excuse me + if I stop and take off this coat.… In the old days, as a + working-man, more than half my time I walked without a coat, and + an overcoat to this day always sets up a perspiration.… + Well now, shall we shake hands at the end of it all and cry + quits?… Say the word, and I'll go one better. They've + formed the syndicate for that island of ours. What do you say + to a thousand shares, and to coming in on the Board?'<br><br> + + "He was on the river side of me, quite close to the brink. I had + been playing for some minutes with the knife in my pocket; and + as I leapt on him and drove it in over the breast, he fell + straight backwards. All the end of Farrell was a gasp, a sharp + cry, and a splash.<br><br> + + "And both cry and splash were drowned instantly by the raging + yelp of the dog as he sprang for me. I fisted him off by his + throat and he fastened his teeth in my right hand, tearing the + flesh down as I slipped the knife into my left hand. Then with + my left I jabbed sideways under his ribs, and his bite relaxed, + and he dropped.<br><br> + + "The embankment was steep. I ran down a little way and came to a + disused landing-stage—four or five planks on rotting piles. + Kneeling there, I lowered my bleeding hand, to bathe it. + … As I knelt the body of Farrell came floating down-stream + and was borne in towards me by the eddy. It lodged against the + piles, chest uppermost, its white, wide-open eyes turned up to + the moon.<br><br> + + "—And I stared on it, Roddy, crouching there. <i>And I swear to + God it was not Farrell's face but my own that I stared into</i>.<br><br> + + "Yes… for I stared and stared at it—there, plain, looking + up far beyond me, sightless—until a swirl of the tide washed it + clear; and, as it passed out into darkness, it seemed to be + sinking slowly, slowly.<br><br> + + "I dragged myself away and ran back to the dead dog. Farrell's + overcoat lay close beside it, and his hat—which had fallen + short of the edge of the embankment as he pitched backwards.<br><br> + + "I picked up the coat, put it on, and felt in its pockets. + They were empty, but for a railway ticket. I picked up the hat, + and smiled to find that it fitted me. Lastly I stopped, lifted + the dog's corpse and flung it over to follow its master. + All accounts thus closed, I stepped out for the station and + caught the last train for Charing Cross.<br><br> + + "You know the rest.<br><br> + + "I borrowed your clothes, yesterday, and went down to the + inquest. They admitted me to see the body, on my pretence that + I had missed a relative and might be able to identify it. + Farrell had gone back to his old features; death had made up its + mind to hide the secret after all.… I am afraid that, + having overtaxed my strength, I broke down on the revulsion, and + may have given myself away.<br><br> + + "But it doesn't matter. That dog has done for me. Your Dr. + Tredgold is a good fellow and has nursed me very prettily back + from starvation. But I happen, as you know, to have studied + canine virus with some attention, and I have an objection to + rivalling some effects of it that I have witnessed. Before you + receive this, I shall be dead. I shall not trouble your + hospitable roof, and I am sorry to trouble Jephson. But the + searchers may find my body in Bushey Park.<br><br> + + "So long!—and, on the whole, so best.… I find, having lost + Farrell, that <i>I cannot do without him</i>.<br><br> + + "You have been endlessly good to me. Remember me as I was once + on a time, and so I shall always be—Yours,"<br><br> + +<span class = "ind20">"Jack."</span></p> +</blockquote></blockquote> + +<p>That is the end of the tale [concluded Otway], except for this—</p> + +<p>Twelve months later, being on leave and wanting to clear up the +mystery of the newspaper report, I took a train down to C—, past +Gravesend, made inquiries of the police, and finally hunted up the +juryman who had shown so much emotion at the inquest. I found a +little whiskered grocer, weighing out margarine in a shed that was +half shop, half canteen. All I extracted from him was this—</p> + +<p>"Yes, to be sure, sir, I remember it perfectly. I only wish I +didn't: for I dream of it at night: and, being a widower, I can't +confide the trouble. The fact is, I must suffer from nerves and— +what do they call 'em, sir?—hallucinations—yes, that's the word. +But I was fresh from inspecting the body, and when that person broke +in, wearing a face like the corpse's twin-brother, well, it knocked +me clean out. Of course, it must have been a hallucination; none of +the others saw the least resemblance—as they've told me since. +But at the moment, I'd have wagered my life.…"</p> + + +<br> +<br> +<p><a name="27"></a> </p> +<h3>EPILOGUE.</h3> +<br> + + + +<p> +"Yes, that is the story," said Otway, sorting back the documents into +his dispatch-case.</p> + +<p>"Is it quite all the story, sir?" asked Polkinghorne, breaking the +silence that followed its close.</p> + +<p>Otway frowned, re-sorted the last three or four papers, laid them in +the case and closed it with a couple of snaps.</p> + +<p>"That's all," he answered, "that exists for publication. That is, +unless you want a moral. I can give you <i>that</i>, all right: and if +you have any use for it you may apply it to this blasted War. +As I see it, the more you beat Fritz by becoming like him, the more +he has won. You may ride through his gates under an Arch of Triumph; +but if he or his ghost sits on your saddle-bow, what's the use? +You have demeaned yourself to him; you cannot shake him off, for his +claws hook in you, and through the farther gate of Judgment you ride +on, inseparables condemned.</p> + +<p>"—And, oh, by the by! I am taking my leave next Wednesday. +Sammy has been nosing suspiciously, these five days, around a +wine-case which on the 22nd he shall have the honour of opening. +It contains, if our friend the Transport Officer hasn't been +beforehand with you, some Pommery 1900; with which you are to do your +best. For it turns out that, with luck, I am to be married on that +day. No flowers, by special request."</p> + +<p>Otway re-opened the dispatch-case and again made sure of his last two +exhibits, which he had not exhibited. The first was a note, folded +three-corner-wise, which ran:</p> + +<blockquote><blockquote> +<p class = "noindent"> "Dear Roddy—Your last word to me was that you had no patience + with people so clever that they lacked sense to come out of the + rain. Well, I am willing to learn that silly skill, if you + remain willing to teach me.—Yours,"<br> + +<span class = "ind20"> "CONSTANTIA."</span></p> +</blockquote></blockquote> + +<p>The second of these exhibits, not exhibited, was a creased envelope +containing the shredded petals of a rose.</p> + +<p> +THE END. + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Foe-Farrell, by Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FOE-FARRELL *** + +***** This file should be named 19114-h.htm or 19114-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/1/1/19114/ + +Produced by Lionel Sear + +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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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: Foe-Farrell + +Author: Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch + +Release Date: August 25, 2006 [EBook #19114] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FOE-FARRELL *** + + + + +Produced by Lionel Sear + + + + + +FOE-FARRELL. + +By Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch. + + + +TO ANYONE WHO SUPPOSES THAT HE HAS A WORSE ENEMY THAN HIMSELF. + + + +CONTENTS. + +BOOK I--INGREDIENTS. + +PROLOGUE. + +NIGHT THE FIRST--John Foe. + +NIGHT THE SECOND--The Meeting at the Baths. + +NIGHT THE THIRD--The Grand research. + +NIGHT THE FOURTH--Adventure of the Police Station. + +NIGHT THE FIFTH--Adventure of the "Catalafina". + +NIGHT THE SIXTH--Adventure of the Picturedrome. + +NIGHT THE SEVENTH--The Outrage. + + +BOOK II--THE CHASE. + +NIGHT THE EIGHTH--Vendetta. + +NIGHT THE NINTH--The Hunt is Up. + +NIGHT THE TENTH--Pilgrimage of Hate. + +NIGHT THE ELEVENTH--Science of the Chase. + +NIGHT THE TWELFTH--The _Emania_. + +NIGHT THE THIRTEENTH--Escape. + + +BOOK III--THE RETRIEVE. + +NIGHT THE FOURTEENTH--San Ramon + +NIGHT THE FIFTEENTH--Redivivus. + +NIGHT THE SIXTEENTH--Captain Macnaughten. + +NIGHT THE SEVENTEENTH--No. 2 Boat. + +NIGHT THE EIGHTEENTH--"And so they came to the Island . . ." + +NIGHT THE NINETEENTH--The Castaways. + +NIGHT THE TWENTIETH--One Man Escapes. + + +BOOK IV--THE COUNTERCHASE. + +NIGHT THE TWENTY-FIRST--The Yellow Dog. + +NIGHT THE TWENTY-SECOND--The Second Man escapes. + +NIGHT THE TWENTY-THIRD--Counterchase. + +NIGHT THE TWENTY-FOURTH--Constantia. + +NIGHT THE TWENTY-FIFTH--The Paying of the Score. + +EPILOGUE. + + + + +BOOK I. + + + +INGREDIENTS. + + + + If the red slayer thinks he slays, + Or if the slain think he is slain, + They know not well the subtle ways + I keep, and pass, and turn again. + EMERSON: _Brahma_. + + The best kind of revenge is not to become like him. + MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS. + + + +PROLOGUE + + +Otway told this story in a dug-out which served for officers' mess of +a field-battery somewhere near the Aisne: but it has nothing to do +with the War. He told it in snatches, night by night, after the +manner of Scheherazade in the _Arabian Nights Entertainments_, and as +a rule to an auditory of two. Here is a full list of: + + PERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE + + +NARRATOR. + + Major Sir Roderick Otway, Bart., M.C., R.F.A. + +AUDIENCE AND INTERLOCUTORS. + + Lieut. John Polkinghorne. R.F.A., of the Battery. + Sec. Lieut. Samuel Barham, M.C. R.F.A., of the Battery. + Sec. Lieut. Percy Yarrell-Smith. R.F.A., of the Battery + Sec Lieut. Noel Williams, R.F.A., attached for instruction. + + +But military duties usually restricted the audience to two at a time, +though there were three on the night when Barham (Sammy) set his C.O. +going with a paragraph from an old newspaper. The captain--one +McInnes, promoted from the ranks--attended one stance only. He dwelt +down at the wagon-lines along with the Veterinary Officer, and +brought up the ammunition most nights, vanishing back in the small +hours like a ghost before cock-crow. + +The battery lay somewhat wide to the right of its fellows in the +brigade; in a saucer-shaped hollow on the hill-side, well screened +with scrub. Roughly it curved back from the straight lip overlooking +the slope, in a three-fifths segment of a circle; and the officers' +mess made a short arc in it, some way in rear of the guns. +You descended, by steps, cut in the soil and well pounded, into a +dwelling rather commodious than large: for Otway--who knew about +yachts--had taken a fancy to construct it nautical-wise, with lockers +that served for seats at a narrow saloon table, sleeping bunks +excavated along the sides, and air-holes like cabin top-lights, +cunningly curtained by night, under the shell-proof cover. + +"It cost us a week," he wrote home to his sister, "to get the place +to my mind. Since then we have been adding fancy touches almost +daily, and now the other batteries froth with envy. You see, it had +to be contrived, like the poet's chest of drawers." + + A double debt to pay: + Doss-house by night and bag-of-tricks by day. + +And here we have lived now, shooting and sleeping (very little +sleeping) for five solid weeks. All leave being off, I have fallen +into this way of life, almost without a thought that there ever had +been, or could be, another, and feel as if my destiny were to go on +at it for ever and ever. And this at thirty-five, Sally! + +"It must be ever so much worse for the youngsters, one would say. +Anyway I have had ten good years that they are missing . . . +Cambridge, Henley, Lord's; Ascot, and home-to-tidy, and afterwards +the little Mercedes, and you and I rolling in to Prince's and the +theatre, whilst good old Bob is for the House, to take _his_ +exercises walking the lobbies; clean linen after the bath, and my own +sister beside me--she that always knew how to dress--and the summer +evening over Hyde Park Corner and the Green Park. . . . No, I mustn't +go on. It is _verboten_ even to think of a white shirt until the +Bosch hangs out the tail of _his_. + +"My youngsters are missing all this, I tell myself. Yet they are a +cheerful crowd, and keep smiling on their Papa. The worst is, a kind +of paralysis seems to have smitten our home mails and general +transport for close upon a fortnight. No letters, no parcels--but +one case of wine, six weeks overdue, with half the bottles in shards: +no newspapers. This last specially afflicts young Sammy Barham, who +is a glutton for the halfpenny press: which again is odd, because his +comments on it are vitriolic. + +"No books--that's the very worst. Our mess library went astray in +the last move: no great loss perhaps except for the _Irish R.M._, +which I was reading for the nth time. The only relic that survives, +and follows us everywhere like an intelligent hound, is a novel of +Scottish sentiment, entitled _But and Ben_. The heroine wears +(p. 2) a dress of 'some soft white clinging material'--which may +account for it. Young Y.-Smith, who professes to have read the work +from cover to cover, asserts that this material clings to her +throughout: but I doubt the thoroughness of his perusal since he +explained to us that 'Ben' and 'But' were the play-names of the lad +and his lassie. . . . For our personal libraries we possess: + + "_R.O._--A hulking big copy of the _International Code of + Signals_: a putrid bad book, of which I am preparing, in odd + moments, a recension, to submit to the Board of Trade. Y.-Smith + borrows this off me now and then, to learn up the flags at the + beginning. He gloats on crude colours. + + "_Polkinghorne_--A Bible, which I borrow, sometimes for private + study, sometimes (you understand?) for professional purposes. + It contains a Book of Common Prayer as well as the Apocrypha. + P. (a Cornishman, something of a mystic, two years my senior and + full of mining experiences in Nevada and S. America) always + finds a difficulty in parting with this, his one book. He is + deep in it, this moment, at the far end of the table. + + "_Sammy Barham_, so far as anyone can discover, has never read a + book in his life nor wanted to. He was educated at Harrow. + Lacking the _Daily Mail_, he is miserable just now, poor boy! + I almost forgave the Code upon discovering that his initials, + S.B., spell, for a distress signal, 'Can you lend (or give) me a + newspaper?' + + "_Yarrell-Smith_ reads Penny Dreadfuls. He owns four, and was + kind enough, the other day, to lend me one: but it's a trifle + too artless even for my artless mind. + + "Young _Williams_--a promising puppy sent up to me to be + walked--reads nothing at all. He brought two packs of Patience + cards and a Todhunter's _Euclid_; the one to rest, the other to + stimulate, his mind; and I've commandeered the _Euclid_. + A great writer, Sally! He's not juicy, and he don't palpitate, + but he's an angel for style. 'Therefore the triangle DBC is + equal to the triangle ABC--pause and count three--'the less to + the greater'--pause--'which is absurd.' Neat and demure: and + you're constantly coming on little things like that. + 'Two straight lines cannot enclose a space'--so broad and + convincing, when once pointed out!--and why is it not in + _The Soldiers' Pocket-Book_ under 'Staff Axioms'? + +"When you make up the next parcel, stick in a few of the unlikeliest +books. I don't want Paley's _Evidences of Christianity_: I have +tackled that for my Little-Go, and, besides, we have plenty of 'em +out here: but books about Ireland, and the Near East, and local +government, and farm-labourers' wages, and the future life, and all +that sort of thing. + +"Two nights ago, Polkinghorne got going on our chances in another +world. Polkinghorne is a thoughtful man in his way, rising +forty--don't know his religion. I had an idea somehow that he was +interested in such things. But to my astonishment the boys took him +up and were off in full cry. It appeared that each one had been +nursing his own thoughts on the subject. The trouble was, none of us +knew very much about it--" + + +Otway, writing beneath the hurricane-lamp, had reached this point in +his letter when young Barham exclaimed to the world at large: + +"Hallo! here's a tall story!" + +The C.O. looked up. So did Polkinghorne, from his Bible. Sammy held +a torn sheet of newspaper. + +"Don't keep it to yourself, my son," said Otway, laying down his pen +and leaning back, so that his face passed out of the inner circle of +the lamplight. + +Sammy bent forward, pushed the paper nearer to this pool of light, +smoothed it and read: + + "'Thames-side Mystery + + "'A Coroner's jury at C--, a 'village' on the south bank of the + Thames, not a hundred miles below Gravesend--'" + +"Seems a lot of mystery about it already," observed Polkinghorne. +"Don't they give the name of the village?" + +"No; they just call it 'C--,' and, what's more, they put 'village' +into inverted commas. Don't know why: but there's a hint at the +end." + +"Proceed." + +Sammy proceeded. + + "'--Was engaged yesterday in holding an inquest on the body of an + unknown man, found lying at highwater mark in a creek some way + below the village. A local constable had discovered the body: + but neither the officer who attended nor the river police could + afford any clue to the deceased's identity. Medical evidence + proved that death was due to drowning, although the corpse had + not been long immersed: but a sensation was caused when the + evidence further disclosed that it bore an incised wound over + the left breast, in itself sufficient to cause death had not + suffocation quickly supervened. + + "'The body was further described, in the police evidence, as that + of a middle-aged man, presumably a gentleman. It was clad in a + black 'evening-dress' suit, and two pearl studs of some value + remained in the limp shirt-front; from which, however, a third + and fellow stud was missing. The Police Inspector--who asked + for an open verdict, pending further inquiry--added that the + linen, and the clothing generally, bore no mark leading to + identification. Further, if a crime had been committed, the + motive had not been robbery. The trousers-pockets contained a + sovereign, and eighteen shillings in silver. In the waistcoat + was a gold watch (which had stopped at 10.55), with a chain and + a sovereign-purse containing two sovereigns and a + half-sovereign: in the left-hand breast pocket of the + dinner-jacket a handkerchief, unmarked: in the right-hand pocket + a bundle of notes and a worn bean-shaped case for a pair of + eyeglasses. The glasses were missing. The Police had carefully + dried the notes and separated them. They were nine one pound + notes; all numbered, of course. Beyond this and the number on + the watch there was nothing to afford a clue.'--" + +Here Barham paused for a glance up at the roof of the dug-out, as two +explosions sounded pretty near at hand. "Huns saying good-night," he +interpolated. "Can't have spotted us. Nothing doing aloft these +three days." + +Polkinghorne looked across the light at the C.O., who sat +unaccountably silent, his face inscrutable in the penumbra. +Taking silence for "yes," Polkinghorne arose and put his head outside +for a look around. + +"Queer story, you'll admit, sir?" put in Sammy Barham during this +pause. "Shall I go on, or wait for the rollicking Polly to hear it +out?--for the queerest part is to come." + +"I know," said Otway, after some two or three seconds' silence. + +"Eh? . . . But it's just here, sir, the thing of a sudden gets +mysteriouser and mysteriouser--" + +Polkinghorne came back. "Nerves," he reported. "They're potting all +over the place. . . . Here, Sammy, pass over that scrap of paper if +you've finished reading. I want to hear the end." + +"It hasn't any," said Otway from the shadow. + +"But, sir, when I was just warning you--" + +"Dashed good beginning, anyway," said Polkinghorne; "something like +_Our Mutual Friend_." + +"Who's he?" asked Sammy. + +"Ingenuous youth, continue," Otway commanded. "Polky wants to hear +the rest of the paragraph, and so do I." + +"It goes on just like a detective story," promised Sammy. "Just you +listen to this:-- + + "'An incident which may eventually throw some light on the + mystery interrupted the Coroner's summing up and caused + something of a sensation. This was the appearance of an + individual, evidently labouring under strong excitement, who, + having thrust his way past the police, advanced to the Coroner's + table and demanded to have sight of the body. The man's + gestures were wild, and on being asked his name he answered + incoherently. His manner seriously affected one of the jury, + who swooned and had to be removed from Court. + + "'While restoratives were being applied at the 'Plume and + Feathers' Inn (adjacent to the building in which the inquest was + held), the Coroner held consultation with Police and Foreman of + the Jury, and eventually adjourned for a second inspection of + the body, the stranger accompanying them. From this inspection, + as from the first, representatives of the Press were excluded. + + "'Returning to Court at the expiration of forty minutes--by which + time the absent juror had recovered sufficiently to take his + seat--the Coroner directed an open verdict to be entered and the + inquiry closed. + + "'The intrusive visitor did not reappear. We understand that he + was found to be suffering from acute mental derangement and is + at present under medical treatment as well as under supervision + of the police, who are closely watching the case. They preserve + great reticence on the whole subject and very rightly so in + these days, considering the number of enemy plotters in our + midst, and that the neighbourhood of 'C--' in particular is + known to be infested with their activities.'" + +"Is that all?" asked Polkinghorne. + +"That's all; and about enough, I should say, for this Penny Reading." + +"When did it happen?" + +"Can't tell. The top of the sheet's torn off." Barham pushed the +paper across. "By the look, it's a bit of an old _Daily Chronicle_. +I found it wrapping one of my old riding boots, that I haven't worn +since I took to a sedentary life. Higgs must have picked it up at +our last move--" + +"Do you want the date?" put in Otway. "If so, it was in January +last--January the 18th, to be exact." + +"But--" + +"I mean the date of the inquest. The paper would be next morning's-- +Wednesday the 19th," Otway went on in a curious level voice, as +though spelling the information for them out of the lamplight on the +table. + +Barham stared. "But--" he began again--"but _how_, sir?" + +Polkinghorne, who also had stared for a moment, broke in with a +laugh. "The C.O. is pulling your leg, Sammy. He tore off the top of +your paper--it was lying around all this morning--noted the date and +thought he might safely make a pipe-spill." + +"That won't do," retorted Barham, still searching Otway's face on +which there seemed to rest a double shadow. "For when I turned it +out of my valise this morning I carefully looked for the date--I'll +swear I did--and it was missing." + +"Then you tore the thing in unpacking, and the C.O. picked up the +scrap you overlooked. Isn't that the explanation, sir?" + +"No," said Otway after a pause, still as if he spoke under control of +a muted pedal. He checked himself, apparently on the point of +telling more; but the pause grew into a long silence. + +Barham tried back. "January, you said, sir? . . . and now we're +close upon the end of October--" + +He could get nothing out of the C.O.'s eyes, which were bent on the +table; and little enough could he read in his face, save that it was +sombre with thought and at the same time abstracted to a degree that +gave the boy a sudden uncanny feeling. It was like watching a man in +the travail of second sight, and all the queerer because he had never +seen an expression even remotely resembling it on the face of this +hero of his, with whose praise he filled his home-letters--"One of +the best: never flurried: and, what's more, you never catch him off +his game by any chance." + +Otway's jaw twitched once, very slightly. He put out a hand to pick +up his pen and resume writing; but in the act fell back into the +brown study, the trance, the rapt gaze at a knot in the woodwork of +the table. His hand rested for a moment by the ink-pot around which +his fingers felt, like a blind man's softly making sure of its +outline and shape. He withdrew it to his tunic-pocket, pulled out +pipe and tobacco-pouch and began to fill. . . . + +At this point in came young Yarrell-Smith. Young Yarrell-Smith wore +a useful cloak--French cavalry pattern--of black mackintosh, with a +hood. It dripped and shone in the lamplight. + +"Beastly night," he announced to the company in general and turned to +report to Otway, who had sat up alert on the instant. + +"Yes," quoted Otway, + + "'Thou comest from thy voyage-- + Yes, the spray is on thy cloak and hair.'" + +That's Matthew Arnold, if the information conveys anything to you. +Everything quiet?" + +"Quite quiet, sir, for the last twenty minutes; and the Captain just +come in and unloading. No accidents, though they very nearly met +their match, five hundred yards down the road." + +"We heard," said Polkinghorne. + +"I tucked the Infant into his little O.P., and left him comfy. +He won't see anything there to-night." + +"He'll _think_ he does," said Sammy Barham with conviction. + +"The Infant is quite a good Infant," Otway observed; and then, +sinking his voice a tone, "Lord, if at his age I'd had his sense of +responsibility . . ." + +Barham noted the change of tone, though he could not catch the words. +Again he threw a quick look towards his senior. Something was wrong +with him, something unaccountable. . . . + +Yarrell-Smith noted nothing. "Well, he won't see anything to-night, +sir; and if Sammy will pull himself together and pity the sorrows of +a poor young man whose trembling knees--" + +"Sorry," said Sammy, turning to the locker and fishing forth a +bottle. + +"--I'll tell you why," Yarrell-Smith went on as the tot was filled. +"First place, the Bosch has finished hating us for to-night and gone +to bye-bye. Secondly, it's starting to sleet--and that vicious, a +man can't see five yards in front of him." + +"I love my love with a B because he's Boschy," said Sammy lightly: +"I'll take him to Berlin--or say, Bapaume to begin with--and feed him +on Substitutes. . . . Do you know that parlour-game, Yarrell dear? +Are you a performer at Musical Chairs? Were you by any chance +brought up on a book called _What Shall We do Now?_ The fact is--" +Sammy, who could be irreverent, but so as never to offend, stole a +look at Otway--"we're a trifle hipped in the old log cabin. +I started a guessing-competition just now, and our Commanding +Officer won't play. Turn up the reference, Polky--Ecclesiastes +something-or-other. It runs: 'We are become as a skittle-alley in a +garden of cucumbers, forasmuch as our centurion will not come out to +play with us.'" + +Otway laughed. "And it goes on that the grasshopper is a +burden. . . . But Y.-S. has given you the name, just now." + +"_I_, sir?" Yarrell-Smith gazed, in the more astonishment to find +that Otway, after his laugh, reaching up to trim the lamp, looked +strangely serious. "I'm blest if I understand a word of all +this. . . . What name, sir?" + +"_Hate_," said Otway, dropping back into his chair and drawing +at his pipe. "But you're warm; as they say in the nursery-game. +Try '_Foe_,' if you prefer it." + +"Oh, I see," protested Yarrell-Smith, after a bewildered look around. +"You've all agreed to be funny with a poor orphan that has just come +in from the cold." + +Barham paid no heed to this. "'Foe' might be the name of a man. +It's unusual. . . . But what was the Johnny called who wrote +_Robinson Crusoe?_" + +"It _was_ the name of a man," answered Otway. + +"_This_ man?" Barham tapped his finger on the newspaper. + +Otway nodded. + +"The man the inquest was held on?" + +"That--or the other." Otway looked around at them queerly. "I think +the other. But upon my soul I won't swear." + +"The other? You mean the stranger--the man who interrupted--" + +At this point Yarrell-Smith sank upon a locker. "I beg your pardon, +all of you," he moaned helplessly; "but if there's such a thing about +as First Aid--" + +"Sammy had better read you this thing he's unearthed," said +Polkinghorne kindly. + +Barham picked up the newspaper. + +"No, you don't," Otway commanded. "Put it down. . . . If you fellows +don't mind listening, I'll tell you the story. It's about Hate; real +Hate, too; not the Bosch variety." + + + +NIGHT THE FIRST. + + +JOHN FOE. + +John Foe and I entered Rugby together at fourteen, and shared a study +for a year and a term. Pretty soon he climbed out of my reach and +finally attained to the Sixth. I never got beyond the Lower Fifth, +having no brains to mention. Cricket happened to be my strong point; +and when you're in the Eleven you can keep on fairly level terms with +a push man in the Sixth. So he and I were friends--"Jack" and +"Roddy" to one another--all the way up. We went through the school +together and went up to Cambridge together. + +He was a whale at Chemistry (otherwise Stinks), and took a Tancred +Scholarship at Caius. I had beaten the examiner in Little-go at +second shot, and went up in the same term, to Trinity; where I played +what is called the flannelled fool at cricket--an old-fashioned game +which I will describe to you one of these days-- + +"_Cricket? But I thought you rowed, sir?" put in Yarrell Smith. +"Yes, surely--_" + +"_Hush! tread softly," Barham interrupted. "Our Major won't mind +your not knowing he was a double Blue--don't stare at him like that; +it's rude. But he will not like it forgotten that he once knocked up +a century for England v Australia. . . . You'll forgive our young +friend, sir; he left school early, when the war broke out_." + +_Otway looked across at Yarrell-Smith with a twinkle. "I took up +rowing in my second year," he explained modestly, "to enlarge my +mind. And this story, my good Sammy, is not about me--though I come +into it incidentally because by a pure fluke I happened to set it +going. All the autobiography that's wanted for our present purpose +is that I went up to Trinity College, Cambridge, in the footsteps +(among others) of Francis Bacon and Isaac Newton, and--well, you see +the result. May I go on?_" + +_But although they were listening, Otway did not at once go on. +Sammy had spoken in his usual light way and yet with something of a +pang in his voice, and something of a transient cloud still rested on +the boy's face. Otway noted it, and understood. When the war broke +out, Sammy had been on the point of going up to Oxford_. . . . + +_Before the cloudlet passed, Otway had a vision behind it, though the +vision came from his own brain, out of his own memory--a vision of +green turf and of boys in white on it, a small regiment set orderly +against a background of English elms, and moving orderly, intent on +the game of games_. + + O thou, that dear and happy Isle, + The garden of the world erstwhile. . . . + Unhappy! shall we nevermore + That sweet militia restore? + +_Snatches of an old parody floated in his brain with the vision--a +parody of Walt Whitman--_ + +Far off a grey-brown thrush warbling in hedge or in marsh; Down there +in the blossoming bushes, my brother, what is that you are +saying? . . . + +The perfect feel of a "fourer "! . . . + +The jubilant cry from the flowering thorn to the flowerless willow, +"smite, smite, smite." + +(Flowerless willow no more but every run a late-shed perfect bloom.) + +The fierce chant of my demon brother issuing forth against the demon +bowler, "hit him, hit him, hit him." + +The thousand melodious cracks, delicious cracks, the responsive +echoes of my comrades and the hundred thence-resulting runs, +passionately yearned for, never, never again to be forgotten. + +Overhead meanwhile the splendid silent sun, blending all, fusing all, +bathing all in floods of soft ecstatic perspiration. + +_Otway lifted his stare from the rough table_. + +They have skinned the turf off Trinity cricket-ground . . . +Such turf, too! I wonder who bought it, and what he paid for it. + . . . They have turned the field into a big Base Hospital--all tin +sheds, like a great kraal of scientific Kaffirs. Which reminds +me . . . + +Foe read medicine. Caius, you must know, is a great college for +training doctors, and in the way of scholarships and prizes he +annexed most of the mugs on the board. All the same I want you to +understand that he wasn't a pot-hunter. I don't quite know how to +explain. . . . His father had died while he was at Rugby, leaving him +a competence; but he certainly was not over-burdened with money. +Of that I am sure. . . . Can't say why. He never talked of his +private affairs, even with me, though we were friends, "Jack" and +"Roddy" to each other still, and inhabited lodgings together in Jesus +Lane. He owed money to no one. Unsociable habit, I used to call it; +destructive of confidence between man and man. + +But he was no pot-hunter. I think--I am sure--that so long as he +kept upsides with money he rather despised it. He had a handsome +face--rather curiously like the pictures you see of Dante--and his +mind answered to it, up to a point. Fastidious is the word, . . . +gave you the impression he had attached himself to Natural Science +much as an old Florentine attached himself to theology or anatomy or +classics, with a kind of cold passion. + +The queerest thing about him was that anything like "intellectual +society," as they call it, bored him stiff. Now you may believe it +or not, but I've always had a kind of crawling reverence for things +of the mind, and for men who go in for 'em. You can't think the +amount of poetry, for instance, I've read in my time, just wondering +how the devil it was done. But it's no use; it never was any use, +even in those days. No man of the kind I wanted to worship could +ever take me seriously. I remember once being introduced to a poet +whose stuff I knew by heart, almost every line of it, and when I +blurted out some silly enthusiasm--sort of thing a well-meaning +Philistine does say, don't you know?--he put the lid down on me with +"Now, that's most interesting. I've often wondered if what I write +appealed to one of your--er--interests, and if so, how." + +Well that's where I always felt Foe could help. And yet he didn't +help very much. He read a heap of poetry--on the sly, as it were; +and one night I coaxed him off to a talk about Browning. +His language on the way home was three-parts blasphemy. + +Am I making him at all clear to you? He kept his intellect in a cage +all to itself, so to speak. . . . What's more--and you'll see the +point of this by and by--he liked to keep his few friends in separate +cages. I won't say he was jealous: but if he liked A and B, it was +odds he'd be uneasy at A's liking B, or at any rate getting to like +him intimately. + +This secretiveness had its value, to be sure. It gave you a sense of +being _privileged_ by his friendship. . . . Or, no; that's too +priggish for my meaning. Foe wasn't a bit of a prig. It was only +because he had, on his record already, so much brains that the +ordinary man who met him in my rooms was disposed to wonder how he +could be so good a fellow. Get into your minds, please, that he +_was_ a good fellow, and that no one doubted it; of the sort that +listens and doesn't speak out of his turn. + +He had a great capacity for silence; and it's queer to me--since I've +thought over it--what a large share of our friendship consisted in +just sitting up into the small hours and smoking, and saying next to +nothing. _I_ talked, no doubt: Foe didn't. + +I shall go on calling him Foe. He was Jack to me, always; but Foe +suits better with the story; and besides . . . well, I suppose +there's always something in friendship that one chooses to keep in a +cage. . . . The only cage-mate that Jack--I mean Foe--ever allowed me +was Jimmy Caldecott, and that happened after we had both moved to +London. + +He--Foe--had taken a first-class in the Tripos, of course; and a +fellowship on top of that. But he did not stay up at Cambridge. +He put in the next few years at different London hospitals, published +some papers on the nervous system of animals, got appointed Professor +of Animal Morphology, in the South London University College (the +Silversmiths' College), and might wake up any morning to find himself +a Fellow of the Royal Society. He was already--I am talking of 1907, +when the tale starts--a Corresponding Member of three or four learned +Societies in Europe and the U.S.A., and had put a couple of honorary +doctorates to his account besides his Cambridge DSc. + +As for me, I had rooms at first in Jermyn Street, then chambers in +the Inner Temple--my father, who had been Chairman of Quarter +Sessions, holding the opinion that I ought to read for the Bar, that +I might be better qualified in due time to deal out local justice +down in Warwickshire. I read a little, played cricket a good deal, +stuck out three or four London Seasons, travelled a bit, shot a bit +in East Africa (Oh, I forgot to say I'd put in a year in the South +African War); climbed a bit, in Switzerland, and afterwards in the +Himalayas; come home to write a paper for the Geographical Society; +got bitten with Socialism and certain Fabian notions, and put in some +time with an East-End Settlement besides attending many crowded and +unsavoury public meetings to urge what was vaguely known as +Betterment. When I took courage and made a clean breast of my new +opinions to my father, the old man answered very composedly that he +too had been a Radical in his time, and had come out of it all right. + . . . By all means let me go on with my spouting: capital practice +for public life: hoped I should take my place one of these days in +the County Council at home: wouldn't even mind seeing me in +Parliament, etc.--all with the wise calm of one who has passed his +three-score years and ten, found the world good, made it a little +better, hunted his own harriers and learnt, long since, every way in +which hares run. So I returned and somehow found myself pledged to +compete as a Progressive for the next London County Council--for a +constituency down Bethnal Green way. In all this, you see, my orbit +and Foe's wouldn't often intersect. But we dined together on +birthdays and other occasions. One year I took him down to the +Derby, on the ground that it was part of a liberal education. In the +paddock he nodded at a horse in blinkers and said, "What's the matter +with that fellow?" "St. Amant," said I, and began to explain why +Hayhoe had put blinkers on him. "Where does he stand in the +betting?" asked Foe. "Why, man," said I, "at 5 to 1. You can't risk +good money on a horse of that temper. I've put mine on the French +horse over there--Gouvernant--easy favourite--7 to 4 on." "Oh," said +he, in a silly sort of way, "I thought St. Amant might be your French +horse--it's a French name isn't it? . . . As for your Gouvernant, I +advise you to run for your life and hedge: the animal is working up +for a stage fright. A touch more and he's dished before the flag +drops. Now, whether the blinkers have done it or not, that St. Amant +is firm as a rock." "How the devil--" I began. "That's a fine +horse, too, over yonder," he said, pointing one out with his +umbrella. "John o' Gaunt," said I: "ran second to St. Amant for the +Guineas, and second to Henry the First in the Newmarket, with St. +Amant third. The running has been all in-and-out this season. +But how the devil you spotted him, when I didn't know you could tell +a horse's head from his stern--" "I don't profess to much more," +said Foe; "but it's my job to read an animal's eye, and what he's fit +for by the quiver under his skin. Now, I'd only a glimpse of St. +Amant's eye, across his blinkers, and your John o' Gaunt is a stout +one--inclined, you tell me, to run in second place. But if your +money's on Gouvernant, hurry while there's time and set it right. +If you've thirty seconds to spare when you've done that," he added, +"you may put up a tenner for me on St. Amant--but don't bother. Your +book may want some arranging." + +The way he said it impressed me, and I fairly shinned back to the +Ring. I hadn't made my book on any reasoned conviction, you +understand; for the horses had been playing at cat's-cradle all +along, and as I went it broke on me that, after all, my faith in +Gouvernant mainly rested on my knowing less of him than of the +others--that I was really going with the crowd. But really I was +running to back a superstition--my belief in Foe, who knew nothing +about horse-racing and cared less. + +Well, the race was run that year in a thunderstorm--a drencher; and +if Foe was right, I guess that finished Gouvernant, who never looked +like a winner. St. Amant romped home, with John o' Gaunt second, in +the place he could be trusted for. Thanks to Foe I had saved myself +more than a pony in three strenuous minutes, and he pocketed his few +sovereigns and smiled. + +That was also the day--June 1st, 1904--"Glorious First of June" as +Jimmy Collingwood called it--that Foe first made Jimmy's +acquaintance. Young Collingwood was a neighbour of mine, down in the +country; an artless, irresponsible, engaging youth, of powerful build +and as pretty an oarsman and as neat a waterman as you could watch. +Eton and B.N.C. Oxford were his nursing mothers. His friends +(including the dons) at this latter house of learning knew him as the +Malefactor; it being a tradition that he poisoned an aunt or a +grandparent annually, towards the close of May. He was attending the +obsequies of one that afternoon on the edge of the hill, in a hansom, +with a plate of _foie gras_ on his knees and a bottle of champagne +between his ankles. His cabby reclined on the turf with a bottle of +Bass and the remains of a pigeon pie. His horse had its head in a +nose-bag. + +"Hallo, Jimmy!" I hailed, pausing before the pastoral scene. +"Funeral bake-meats?" + +"Hallo!" Jimmy answered, and shook his head very solemnly. +"Sister-in-law this time. It had to be." + +"Sister-in-law! Why you haven't one!" + +"Course not," said Jimmy. "That's the whole trouble. Ain't I +breaking it to you gently? . . . Case of _angina pectoris_, if you +know what that means. It sounds like a pick-me-up--'try Angostura +bitters to keep up your Pecker.' But it isn't. Angina--short 'i'; I +know because I tried it on the Dean with a long one and he corrected +me. He said that angina might be forgiven, for once, in a young man +bereaved and labouring under strong emotion, but that if I +apprehended its running in the family I had better get the quantity +right. He also remarked rather pointedly that he hoped his memory +was at fault and that my poor brother hadn't really lost his deceased +wife's sister." + +"Do you know where bad boys go?" I asked him. + +"Silly question," said Jimmy, with his mouth full of _foie gras_. +"Why, to the Derby, of course. Have something to eat." + +I told him that we had lunched, introduced him to Foe as the +Malefactor, and invited him to come back and dine with us at Prince's +before catching the late train for Oxford. He answered that fate +always smiled on him at these funerals, paid off his cabby, and +joined us. + +Our dinner that evening was a brilliant success; and we left it to +drive to Paddington to see the boy off. He had dropped a few pounds +over the Derby but made the most of it up by a plunge on the last +race: "and what with your standing me a dinner, I'm all up on the +day's working and that cheerful I could kiss the guard." He wasn't +in the least drunk, either; but explained to me very lucidly, on my +taxing him with his real offence--cutting Oxford for a day when, the +Eights being a short week off, he should have been in strict +training--that all the strength of the B.N.C. boat that year lying on +stroke side (he rowed at "six"), one might look on a _Peche Melba_ +and a Corona almost in the light of a prescription. "Friend of my +youth," he added--addressing me, "and"--addressing Foe--"prop, sole +prop, of my declining years--as you love me, be cruel to be kind and +restrain me when I show a disposition to kiss yon bearded guard." + +As the tail of the train swung out of the station Foe said +meditatively, "I like that boy," . . . And so it was. That autumn, +when Jimmy Collingwood, having achieved a pass degree--"by means," as +he put it, "only known to myself"--came up to share my chambers and +read for the Bar, he and Foe struck up a warm affection. For once, +moreover, Foe broke his habit of keeping his friends in separate +cages. He was too busy a man to join us often; but when we met we +were the Three Musketeers. + + +My father died in the Autumn of 1906; and this kept me down in the +country until the New Year; although he had left his affairs as +straight as a balance-sheet. Death duties and other things. . . . +His account-books, note-books, filed references and dockets; +his diaries kept, for years back, with records of rents and +tithe-charges, of farms duly visited and crops examined field by +field; appraisements of growing timber, memoranda for new plantings, +queer charitable jottings about his tenants, their families, +prospects, and ways to help them; all this tally, kept under God's +eye by one who had never suffered man to interfere with him, gave my +Radicalism a pretty severe jerk. + +You see, here, worked out admirably in practice, was the rural side +of that very landlordism which I had been denouncing up and down the +East-End. The difference was plain enough, of course; but when you +worked down to principle, it became for me a pretty delicate +difference to explain. I was pledged, however, to return to London +after Christmas and run (as Jimmy Collingwood put it) for those +Bethnal Green Stakes: and in due time--that's to say, about the +middle of January--up I came. + +I won't bore you with my political campaign. One day in the middle +of it Jimmy said, "To-night's a night off and we're dining with Jack +Foe down in Chelsea. Eight o'clock: no theatre afterwards: 'no band, +no promenade, no nozzing.' We've arranged between us to give your +poor tired brain a rest." + +"When you do happen to be thoughtful," said I "you might give me a +little longer warning. As it is, I made a half-promise yesterday, to +speak for that man of ours, Farrell, across the water." + +"No, you don't," said Jimmy. "Who's Farrell? Friend of yours?" + +"Tottenham Court Road," I said. "Only met him yesterday." + +"What? Peter Farrell's Hire System? . . . And you met him there, in +the Tottenham Court Road--by appointment, I suppose, with a coy +carnation in your buttonhole. A bad young baronet, unmarried, +intellectual, with a craving for human sympathy, on the Hire +System'--" + +"Don't be an ass, Jimmy," said I. "He's a Progressive, and they tell +me his seat's dicky." + +"They mostly are in the Tottenham Court Road," said Jimmy. "But if +you've made half a promise, I was a week ahead of you with a whole +one. We dine with Jack Foe." + + +The night was a beast. Foe's flat, high up on a block overlooking +the Chelsea embankment, fairly rocked under squalls of a cross-river +wind. He had moved into these new quarters while I was down in +Warwickshire, and the man who put in the windows had scamped his job. +The sashes rattled diabolically. Now that's just the sort of thing +he'd have asked me to see to before he installed himself, if I had +been up at the time: or, rather, I should have seen to it without +being asked. That kind of noise never affected _him_: he could just +withdraw himself into his work and forget it. But different noises +get on different men's nerves, and, next to the scratching of a +slate-pencil, a window on the rattle or the distant slam-slam of a +door left ajar makes me craziest. You'd think a man out here would +get accustomed to anything in the way of racket. Not a bit of it! +Home on leave those particular sounds rasp me as badly as ever. . . . +Moreover I have rather an eye for scamped carpentry: learned it off +my father, going about the property with him. His own eye was a +hawk's for loose fences, loose slates, badly-hung gates, even a +broken sash-cord. + +Foe's notions of furnishing, too, had always been bleak. He had +hung his few pictures in the wrong places, and askew at that. +He understood dining, though, and no doubt the dinner was good, +though I gave very little attention to it. + +"Otty's hipped to-night," said Collingwood, over the coffee. +"Politics are all he can talk in these days. Wake up, Otty, and +don't sit thinking out a speech." + +I woke up. "I don't need to think out a speech," said I. "After a +fortnight's campaigning a fellow can make speeches in his sleep." + +"That's just what you're doing; and my fear is, you'll stand up +presently and make one in ours." + +"I'm sorry, Jack," I apologised. "Fact is, I'm worried by a +half-promise I made to your man Farrell, over the river--" + +"_My_ man Farrell?" says Foe. "Farrell? . . . Farrell? . . . Never +heard of him. Who's Farrell?" + +"Never heard of him? . . . Why, Farrell's our candidate over there! + . . . _Your_ candidate; because, if elected, he'll represent you; +because your College and--if you choose to narrow it down--your own +laboratories and lecture-rooms--will belong to his constituency. +The rates on your buildings, the trams that bring your poorer +students, the public money that pays their scholarships--" + +"My dear Roddy," he broke in. "You know that I never could get up an +interest in politics. As for local politics--" + +That fired me up at once. "Pretty silly sneer, that! Doesn't there +lurk, somewhere down in your consciousness, _some_ sense of belonging +to the first city in the world? . . . Oh, yes, you use it, fast +enough, whenever you go back to Cambridge and play the condescending +metropolitan in Combination Room. _There_, seventy minutes from +Liverpool Street, you pose--yes, _pose_, Jack--as the urbane man, +Horatius Flaccus life-size; whereas your job as a citizen is confined +to cursing the rates, swearing if a pit in the wood pavement jolts +you on the way home from the theatre, supposing it's somebody's +business, supposing there's graft in it, and talking superciliously +of Glasgow and Birmingham, provincial towns, while you can't help to +cheapen the price of a cabbage in Covent Garden!" + +"Dear Roddy," Foe answered--very tolerantly, I'll admit--"you'll get +elected, to a dead certainty." + +"Oh, I'm all right," said I, cooling down. "Wish I could be so sure +of your man Farrell, across the bridge." + +"Farrell?" + +"That's his name. . . . Think you'll be able to remember it?" + +Here Jimmy dropped the ash of his cigar into his coffee-cup and +chipped in judiciously. + +"Otty has the right of it, Professor--though we shall have to cure +him of his platform style. _Somebody_ has to look after this country +and look after London; and if you despise the fellows who run the +show, then it's up to you, my intellectuals, to come in and do the +business better. But you won't. It bores you. 'Oh, go away--can't +you see I'm busy? I've got a malignant growth here, potted in a +glass bottle with a diet of sterilised fat and an occasional whisky +and soda, and we're sitting around until the joker develops D.T. +He's an empyema, from South America, fully-grown male--'" + +"Heavens alive!" + +"I dare say I haven't the exact name," confessed Jimmy. "Fact is, I +happened on it in the dictionary when I was turning up 'Empiricist' +in a bit of a hurry. Some Moderate fellow down at Bethnal Green had +called Otty in one of his speeches 'an ignorant empiricist'; so +naturally I had to look up the word. I'd a hope it meant something +connected with Empire-building, and then Otty could have scored off +him. But apparently it doesn't." + +"Are you sure?" asks Foe. + +"Well, I used the dictionary they keep at Boodle's, not having one of +my own. If you tell me it's not up to date, I'll write something +sarcastic in the Complaint-Book." + +Foe dropped the end of his cigar into the ash-tray and pushed back +his chair. "Well", said he, "it's about time we got into our coats, +eh?" + +"My dear fellow--" I began. "You don't tell us--" I began again. + +He understood, of course. What he said was, "The late Mr. Gladstone, +they tell me, used to address Queen Victoria as if she were a public +meeting. She complained that she didn't like it . . . and anyway, if +you two can't help it, I can't help the acoustic defects of this +flat. . . . Some more brandy? You'd better. It's a beast of a +night; but your faithful dog shall bear you company." + + + +NIGHT THE SECOND. + + +THE MEETING AT THE BATHS. + +Foe's man, after whistling ten minutes or so for a taxi, returned +upstairs, powdered with sleet. There wasn't, he said, so much as a +four-wheeler crawling in the street. We went down and waited in the +hall while he whistled again. + +"Where is this show of yours being held?" Foe asked, after a bit. + +"In the Baths," I told him, "just across the bridge. Yes, actually +_in_ the great Swimming Bath. . . . You needn't be afraid, though. +They drain it." + +"I don't care if they omitted that precaution," said he. "This is an +adventure, and I'm for taking it in the proper spirit. Let's walk." + +He pushed back the catch of the lock. The door burst open, hurling +him back against the wall, as his man came flying through, fairly +projected into our arms by the pressure of wind in the porch. + +"Make up the fire, put out the whisky, and go to bed," Foe bawled at +him. "Eh? . . . Yes, that's all right; I have my latch-key." + +I couldn't have expostulated if I'd wanted to. The wind filled my +mouth. We butted out after him into the gale, Jimmy turning in the +doorway to let out a skirling war-whoop--"just to brace up the +flat-dwellers," he explained afterwards. "I wanted to tell 'em that +St. George was for Merry England, but there wasn't time." + +We didn't say much on the way. The wind took care of that. On the +bridge we had to claw the parapet to pull ourselves along; and just +as we won to the portico of the Baths there came a squall that +knocked us all sideways. Foe and Jimmy cast their arms about one +pillar, I clung to another; and the policeman, who at that moment +shot his lantern upon us from his shelter in the doorway, pardonably +mistook our condition. He advised us--as a friend, if he might say +so--to go home quietly. + +"But there's a public meeting inside," said I. + +"There might be, or there might not be," he allowed. "It's a thin +one anyway. You'll get no fun out of it." + +"And I am due to make a speech there," I went on. "That's to say, +they want me to propose or second a vote of thanks or something of +the sort." + +"If I was you, sir," advised the constable, kindness itself, "I +wouldn't, however much they wanted it." + +I gave him my card. He held it close under the ray of his bull's-eye +and altered his manner with a jerk. "Begging your pardon, Sir +Roderick--" + +"Not at all," I assured him. "Most natural mistake in the world. +If there's a side entrance, now, near the platform--" + +He led us up a gusty by-street and tapped for us on the side door. +It was opened at once, though cautiously, by a little frock-coated +man ornamented with a large blue-and-white favour. After an +instant's parley he received us obsequiously, and the constable +pocketed our blessing. + +"Of course," he said by way of Good night, "I knew from the first I +was dealing with gentlemen. I made no mistake about that." + +The little steward admitted us to a sort of lobby or improvised +cloak-room stowed somewhere beneath the platform. While helping us +off with our coats he told us that the audience was satisfactory +"considering the weather." "A night like this isn't calculated to +fetch out doubtfuls." + +"It has fetched out one, anyhow," said I. "This is Professor Foe, of +your University College." + +"Greatly honoured, sir, I am sure!" The little man bowed to Foe, and +turned again to me: "Your friends, Sir Roderick, will accompany you +on the platform, of course. Shall we go in at once? Or--at this +moment Mr. Jenkinson is up. He has been speaking for twenty +minutes." + +"--And has just started his peroration," said I; for though it came +muffled through the boarding, I had recognised Mr. Jenkinson's voice, +and the oration to which in other parts of London I had already +listened twice. I could time it. "There's no hurry," I said. +"Jenkinson--good man, Jenkinson--has finished with the tram-service +statistics, and will now for a brief two minutes lift the whole +question on to a higher plane. Then he'll sit down, and that's where +we'll slip in, covered by the thunder of applause." + +He divided a grin between us and a couple of assistants who had been +hanging up our coats and now came forward. + +"To tell you the truth, Sir Roderick, our candidate wants +strengthening a bit, for platform purposes; though they tell me he's +improving steadily. The kinder of you to come, sir, and help us. +As for Jenkinson, he's the popular pet over here, as a speaker or +when he comes across to play at the Oval. As a cricketer yourself, +Sir Roderick, you'll know what Jenkinson does with his summer?" + +"Certainly," said I. "Being on the Committee of the M.C.C.--" + +"You don't mean to say that it's Jenko?" Jimmy chipped in. +"You don't tell me it's our long left and left-handed Jenko, that has +bowled me at the nets a hundred times?--alas, poor Jenko!" + +"Why, of course, it is," said I. "Didn't you know? . . . How the +deuce else do you suppose that a cricket pro. supports himself during +the winter?" + +"I'd never thought of that," said Jimmy. "One half of the world +never knows how the other half lives." + +"Well," said I, "that's Jenkinson's winter occupation--public +oratory--advocacy of social and municipal reform--mostly on Fabian +lines. The man's honest, mind you. . . . But he's finishing. . . . +Come along! Are you for the platform, Jack?" + +"Not if I can sit somewhere at your feet and look up at you," said +Foe. "I'm not at all certain that I approve of your candidate, +either, or his political platform--" + +"Our Mr. Farrell, Professor? Oh, surely!--" the little steward +expostulated. "But maybe you've never made Mr. Farrell's +acquaintance, sir?" + +"Never set eyes on him, to my knowledge," Foe assured him. + +"Then, Professor--if I may make bold to say so--it's impossible to +disapprove of Mr. Farrell. He's a bit what-you-might-call +_opportunist_ in his views; but, for the gentleman himself, he +wouldn't hurt a fly--not a headache in a hogshead of him, as the +saying goes. . . . Certainly, Sir Roderick, if you're ready. . . . +Mr. Byles, here, will conduct the Professor to a chair close under +the platform. We usually keep a few front seats vacant, for friends +and--er--eventualities." + +"I'm an eventuality," said Foe. + +"You'll be one of _us_, sir, before you've finished, never fear!" the +little steward promised genially. + + +We entered amid salvos of applause, again and again renewed. It was +none of our earning nor intended for us. Jenkinson (I was afterwards +told) had varied his peroration with a local allusion very cleverly +introduced. "They probably knew him" (he said)--"those, at any rate, +who happened to live near Kennington probably knew him--for one who +earned his living by a form of sport, by a mere game, if they +preferred so to call it." (Cheers.) "He was not there to defend +himself, still less to defend cricket." (Hear, hear.) "He would +only say that cricket was a game which demanded some skill and-- +especially when one bowled at the Oval" (loud cheers) "against +Surrey" (cheers loud and prolonged)--"often some endurance." +(Laughter.) "He would add that cricket was a thoroughly English +game." (Renewed cheers.) "Why do I mention cricket to-night, +sir?"--Jenkinson swung round and demanded it of the Chairman, who +hadn't a notion. "I mention it, sir, because players have sometimes +said to me, 'Jenkinson, I wonder you always seem to enjoy yourself at +the Oval.' 'Why not?' says I; 'the crowd's friendly and the pitch +perfect.' 'That's just it,' they say; 'perfect to break a bowler's +heart.' 'Never you mind.' I answers: 'Tom Jenkinson, when he gets +into Surrey, isn't out for averages.'" (Can't you hear the cheers at +that?) "'He's out for fine art and a long day at it in pleasant +surroundings: and,' I winds up, 'if you reckon I sometimes take a +while, down there, to bowl a man _out_, just you wait till I come +down and help to bowl a man _in_!' Your servant, Mr. Farrell!" + +Neat, eh? Well, we made our entrance right on top of it: and though +the great Bath was no more than three-parts full, you couldn't see a +vacant seat, the audience rocked so. + +Now I must tell you a queer thing. . . . You know what it feels like +when you're talking away easily, maybe laughing, and all of a sudden +the Bosch puts in one that you feel means business? Something in the +sound of the devil makes you scatter. . . . Well, I can't explain it, +but through the noise of the stamping, hand-clapping, cheering, all +of a sudden and without rhyme or reason, I seemed to hear the shriek +of something distant, sinister, menacing. . . . Oh, I'm not an +imaginative fellow. Very likely it was a note set up by the wind +outside. I can't even swear that I _heard_ it; sort of took it down +my spine. Shrill it was for a moment--something between a child's +wail and the hiss of a snake--and, the next moment, not shrill at +all, but dull and heavy, like the flap of a great wing beating the +air, heavy with evil. . . . Yes, that was the sense of it--heavy with +evil. I pulled up with a shiver. The Chairman was on his feet, +waiting for the applause to cease, ready to announce the next +speaker. The little steward touched him by the arm; he wheeled about +and shook my hand effusively as I was introduced. "Delighted! +Flattered!" he said, and shook me by the hand again. The shiver went +out of me: but it took something out of me at the same time. I had a +most curious feeling of depression as I found my place. . . . I +looked about for Foe, and spotted him. They had given him a chair +close under the platform, a little to my right. He had taken his +seat and was scanning the platform attentively. The arc-light shone +down on his face, and showed it white, bewildered, a trifle +strained. . . . But this may have been no more than my fancy. + +The Chairman asked for silence. He was a bald-headed small man of no +particular points and (as Jimmy whispered) seemed to feel his +position acutely. He said that, whatever their personal differences, +they would all agree that Mr. Jenkinson's speech had uplifted them +above ordinary politics. He had felt himself speaking not as their +Chairman but as a private individual--or, in other words, as a man-- +uplifted into a higher plane, and he would now call upon their +respected candidate, Mr. Farrell, to address the meeting. + +Mr. Farrell stepped forward. I must try to tell you what Mr. Farrell +looked like, because it belongs to the story. . . . You'll find that +it becomes pretty important. + +He was of medium height and carried a belly. Later on, when I came +to know him, I heard him refer to it as his "figure" and say that +exercise was good for it. I don't know about that: but he certainly +was given exercise to reduce it, later on. . . . He could not have +been ashamed of it either, just yet: for it was clothed in front with +sealskin and festooned with two loops of gold chain. + +Two or three locks of hair, cultivated to a great length and +plastered by means of pomade across his cranium, concealed a certain +poverty of undergrowth thereabouts; while a pair of whiskers, sandy +in colour and stiff in texture, and a clean-shaven upper lip and +chin, threw out a challenge that Mr. Peter Farrell could grow hair if +and where he chose. His eyes bulged like gooseberries. They were +colourless, and lustreless in comparison with the diamond pin in his +neckcloth. His frock-coat and pepper-and-salt trousers were of +superfine material and flashy cut. They fitted him like a skin in +all the wrong places. Get it into your heads--Here was a prosperous +reach-me-down person of the sort you will find on any political +platform, standing for Parliament or seconding a vote of thanks. + +He was not in the least bumptious. He began very nervously with a +carefully prepared Shakespearean quotation--"'I am no orator as +Brutus is,'" in compliment to Jenkinson. Then he gave _me_ a lift. +He said that my presence there was a proof, if proof were needed, of +the solidarity--he would repeat the word--of the solidarity existing +in the Progressive ranks. He was sure--he might even say, +confident--that this graceful act on the part of the right honourable +baronet (as he chose to call me) would give the lie to certain +reports--hints, rather--emanating from certain quarters which called +themselves newspapers. He would not soil his mouth by giving them +their true name, which was Rags. "We are all solid here," announced +Mr. Farrell, and was answered with applause. + +After this spirited opening he consulted a sheaf of notes, and +was straightway mired in a ploughland of tramway finance and +sticky statistics. After ten minutes of this he turned a furrow, +so to speak, and zigzagged off into Education "Provided" and +"Non-Provided," lunging and floundering with the Church Catechism and +the Rate-Book until I dare say his audience mistook the two for one +single composition. + +"Poor old Jack!" I thought. "This will be boring him stiff." . . . +And with that I sat up of a sudden, listening. Sure as fate I heard +the damned thing coming . . . coming . . . + +"This brings me," said Mr. Farrell, "to the subject of Grants--Grants +from the Imperial Exchequer and Special Grants from the London County +Council to certain University Colleges, of which you have one in your +midst--" It was at this point that I sat up. + +"I may claim," went on Mr. Farrell, "to be no foe of Higher +Education. I am all for the Advancement of Science. In my own way +of business I have frequently had occasion to consult scientific +experts, and have derived benefit--practical benefit--from their +advice. I freely own it. What's more, ladies and gentlemen, I am +all for Research, provided you keep it within limits. + +"What do I mean by limits? . . . I have here, in my hand, ladies and +gentlemen, a document. It is signed by a number of influential +persons, including several ladies of title. This document alleges-- +er--certain practices going on in a certain University College not +five hundred yards from where I stand at this moment; and it asks me +what I think of them, and if public money--your money and mine-- +should be voted to encourage that and similar forms of Research--" + +"Great Scott!" groaned Jimmy, and touched my arm. "Otty, look at the +Professor's face! To think we--" + +"I have also," pursued Mr. Farrell, "a supplementary paper, +extensively signed in the constituency, supporting the document +mentioned and asking for a Public Inquiry; asking me if I am willing +to press for a Royal Commission. It was put into my hands as I +entered the hall; but I have no hesitation whatever in answering that +question. + +"A certain Professor is mentioned--I have not the pleasure of his +acquaintance--and a certain--er--" Mr. Farrell consulted his papers-- +"Laboratory of Physiological Research. I made my own way in the +world. But I am an Englishman, I hope; and when such a document as +this, influentially signed, is put into my hands and an answer +demanded of me, what sort of answer do I give? The answer I give, +ladies and gentlemen, is that I keep a spaniel at home, though not +for sporting purposes, and still less for purposes of Physiological +Research"--Every time the ass came to these two words he made +elaborate pretence of consulting his papers. + +"Nine times out of ten this dumb friend and dependent of mine greets +me in the hall as I reach home after a hard day's business, wagging +his tail in a way almost more than human. And when I think of me +going home to-night, with this document--signed, as I say, by persons +of title and supported by this influential body of rate-payers--and +look into his dumb eyes and think it might happen to my Dash to be +laid on a board in the interests of this so-called Research, and +there vivisected alive, then I say--" + +"_It's a lie!_" + +Foe was on his legs, and he fairly shouted it. Shell-shock? +_Phut!_--It exploded right at our feet below the platform. Farrell +came staggering back, right on top of us; but the reason may have +been partly that Jimmy had reached forward, too late, and gripped his +coat-tails. Of course the man's offence was unpardonable; but I +could hardly recognise Jack's face, so drawn it was and twisted in +white-hot hate. + +There was silence while you might count five, perhaps. The audience, +taken right aback for that space, had begun to rise and crane +forward. "Who is it?"--you could almost hear the question starting +to run. + +Then again, for a few seconds, things happened just as they do in +rowdy public meetings. While the Chairman thumped the table, Farrell +wrenched his coat-tails from Jimmy's grip and stepped to the edge of +the platform. + +"Who are you?" he demanded. There was a queer throaty sound in his +voice; yet he held himself (I thought) in fair control. + +"My name is Foe," came the answer. Jack was still on his feet, his +face ashen, his eyes blazing behind his glasses. I had known him all +these years and never guessed him capable of such a white rage. +But the words came very slowly and deliberately. "My name is Foe. +I am the Professor with whom, just now, you said you hadn't the +pleasure to be acquainted--" + +"Throw him out!" called a voice from one of the back rows. + +I had expected that; had, as you might say, been waiting for it. +What caught me unprepared was its instant effect on Mr. Farrell. + +He raised a fist and shook it. He fairly capered. "Yes, throw him +out! Throw him out!" He choked, spluttered and let it out almost in +a scream. I leaned forward for a sideways sight of his face. + +"Gad! he's going to have a fit and tumble off the platform. +Stand by, Otty." Jimmy, reaching out a hand again for Mr. Farrell's +coat-tails, spoke the warning close in my ear, for by this time +twenty or thirty voices had taken up the cry, "Throw him out!" the +Chairman was hammering like mad for Order, and there was an ugly +shuffle of feet at the far end of the hall. + +"Throw him out! Throw him out!" Farrell kept screaming above the +hubbub. "How would _he_ treat a dog?--" + +"The man's demented," said I--and with that I heard a bench or a +chair go crack like a revolver-shot. It might have been a shot +starting a sprint; for close on top of it about a dozen fellows leapt +out into the gangway, while three or four charged forward through the +audience, where the women had already started to scream. + +There was nothing for it but prompt action. Jimmy and I swung +ourselves down over the front of the platform. This gave us a fair +start of the crowd, but it didn't give us any time to argue with Foe, +who still stood glaring up at Farrell, ready to put in another retort +as soon as he could get a hearing. Of the danger rushing down on him +either he wasn't aware or he cared nothing for it. Jimmy caught him +by the waist, and grinned intelligently as I pointed to the emergency +exit around the corner of the platform. + +"Right-O! Hold the curtain aside for me. . . . Along you come, +Professor! Be a good child and don't kick nursy . . ." + +"Take him home," said I. "Policeman will help if there's a row +outside." + +Then I dropped the curtain on them and faced about. The audience by +this time were standing on benches and chairs, but of course my first +job was with the hustlers who had reached the end of the gangway and +were coming on under the lee of the platform. They looked ugly at +first, but the job turned out to be a soft one. + +"You wanted him turned out," said I, "and we've obliged you. +Rather neatly, eh?--You can't say no to that." + +I wanted someone to laugh, and by the mercy of Heaven someone did-- +someone back in the third or fourth row. In five seconds or so quite +a lot of people were laughing and applauding. + +"Now stand where you are," said I, catching hold of this advantage; +"and one of you give me a leg up to the platform. I'm going to +propose a vote of thanks. . . . Won't keep you standing long. +But please don't go back to your seats; because some of the women are +frightened." + +Well, they gave me a leg up, and somebody above gave me a hand, and +there I was, none the worse, on the platform. + +Farrell had collapsed in his seat by the Chairman's table and sat +with his face in his hands. The Chairman was paralytic. So I did +the only thing that seemed possible: started to propose a vote of +thanks. Pretty fair rubbish I must have started with, too: but by +and by I slipped into my own election speech and after that it was +pretty plain sailing. You see, when a man runs for candidate, he +begins by preparing half a dozen speeches; but by the time he's half +through he has them pretty well boiled down into one, and he can +speak that one in his sleep. After ten minutes or so I forgot that I +was moving a vote of thanks to somebody and moved a vote of +confidence instead--confidence in Mr. Farrell. + +Nobody minded. Two or three speakers followed me and moved and +seconded all sorts of things at random. We were all in a hopeless +muddle, and all quite good-humoured about it; and we wound up by +singing "God Save the King!" + + + +NIGHT THE THIRD. + + +THE GRAND RESEARCH. + +The little Chairman followed me into the lobby and thanked me +effusively, while a couple of stewards helped me into my great-coat. +He threw a meaning glance over his shoulder at Farrell, who stood in +a corner nervously winding and unwinding a long silk comforter about +his neck and throat. He seemed to be muttering, saying something +over to himself. His face twitched--it was still red and congested-- +and he kept his eyes on the floor. He had not spoken to either of us +since the meeting dissolved. Very likely he did not see us. + +"A bit rattled," I suggested quietly. + +"You may bet on that, Sir Roderick." The steward, who was turning up +my coat collar, said this almost in my ear. "You don't think, now--" + +He did not finish the sentence, and I faced about on him for the rest +of it. He tapped his forehead gently. + +"Oh, nonsense!" said I. "He's not broken to public life and he +doesn't ruffle well, that's all; and, after all, it isn't every man +who enjoys being called a liar to his face and before some hundreds +of people." + +"His face, sir," the steward persisted. "That's it; you've given me +the word. Did you see his face? No, of course you didn't, for you +were sitting sideways to him--and so was you, Mr. Chairman, sir. +But I was standing by the main door when it happened, and had him in +full view, and--Well!" he wound up. + +"Well?" said I. + +He dropped his voice to a whisper almost. "It frightened me, +sir. . . . I think it must have frightened a good few of the +audience, and that's what held the rush back and gave you and the +other gentleman time. You wouldn't think, to look at his face now"-- +with a glance across at Farrell, who was sending out to inquire if +his car had arrived, and looking at his watch (for, you'll +understand, the meeting had broken up early in spite of my oratorical +effort)--"you wouldn't believe, Sir Roderick, that there was anything +deep in the man. Nor perhaps there isn't. It didn't seem to me, +just half a minute, that it was Mr. Farrell inside Mr. Farrell's +clothes and looking out of his eyes." + +"Then _who_, in the world?" I asked. + +The steward gave himself a shake. "Speak low, sir, and don't turn +round. . . . I was a fool to mention his name--folks always hear +their own names quicker than anything else. He's looking our way, +suspicious-like. . . . Now if I was to say 'Satan,' or if I was to +say that he was a party possessed--Well, any way, Sir Roderick, I +wish we had someone else for a candidate, and I don't see myself +happy, these next few days, working on Committee for him." + +"Well, you have the advantage of me," said I. "You saw him +full-face, whereas I had to study him from the rear. From the rear +he looked funny enough. . . . But look here," I went on; "if there +were any slate loose on the man's roof, as you're hinting, you may +bet that a great Furnishing Company in Tottenham Court Road wouldn't +be taking any risks with him as Chairman of Directors." + +"All I can say, sir," he muttered, shaking his head, "is that I don't +like it. And, anyway, he isn't a gentleman." + +The Chairman had left us to say good night to Mr. Farrell, whose car +was just then announced. I went across, too, to shake hands and wish +him good luck on polling-day. As our eyes met he started, came out +of the torpor in which he had been gazing about him, and bowed to me +in best shop-walker fashion. + +"Ah, Sir Roderick!" he said, not very coherently. "You must excuse +me--remiss, very. Owe you many thanks, sir--not only for coming-- +great honour--But saved very awkward situation. Overwrought, sir-- +that's what I'm suffering from--overstrain: not used to this sort of +thing. . . . My God, I am tired . . . all of a sudden, too; so tired +you can't think. . . . Can I have the pleasure of driving you a part +of the way, Sir Roderick?" + +"Thank you, Mr. Farrell," said I. "But you're for Wimbledon, I +believe, and I'm for Chelsea. Fact is"--I ventured it on an +impulse--"I'm going to call on that friend of mine, Professor Foe, +who so unhappily interrupted you to-night, and tell him that he made +a fool of himself." I watched his eyes. They were merely dull-- +heavy. "You did provoke him, you know, Mr. Farrell," I went on: +"I'm morally certain he is guiltless of the practices alleged in that +document of yours; and, if I can persuade him to receive you in his +laboratory and show you his work and his methods--" + +By George, I _had_ called back that look into Mr. Farrell's +gooseberry eyes! This time it lasted for about two seconds. + +"Meet him?--_him?_ Your pardon, Sir Roderick." He brushed his hand +over his eyes, but they were dull again. . . . "No, thank you"--he +turned to the Chairman--"It's only two steps to the car; I don't want +anyone's arm. . . . Well, yes, I'm obliged to you. Queer, how tired +I feel. . . . Good night, gentlemen!" + + +The car purred and glided away. "I feel a bit uneasy about our +Candidate," said the Chairman as we watched the rear-light turn the +corner. "He's had a shock. . . . Well, we live in stirring times, +and one more evening's over!" + +"But it isn't!" I cried out on a sudden thought. "Man, we've +forgotten the reporters! If they've left the building the whole town +will be red before we're well out of our beauty-sleep." + +We made a plunge back for the hall and, as luck would have it, found +three of the four reporters at the table. The early close had left +them ahead of time, and two were copying out their shorthand while +the third was engaged on a pithy paragraph or two under the headline +of "Stormy Proceedings--A Professor Ejected. What happens to Dogs in +the Silversmiths' College?" + +I won't say how we prevailed with the Fourth Estate, except that it +wasn't by bribery. The man writing the Pithy Pars did some cricket +reporting at Lord's during the summer--some of the best, too. +I was taking bread out of his mouth, and knew it. But it had to be +done, and it was done, as a favour between gentlemen. He saw to the +others. . . . God help those people who run down Cricket! + + +I knocked in at Foe's flat well on the virtuous side of midnight. +Jimmy was in charge of the patient. Foe had got into an old Caius +blazer and sat very far back in a wicker chair--lolled, in fact, on +his shoulder-pins, sucking at a pipe and brooding. + +"Give me a whisky-and-soda," said I. "If ever a man has earned it!" + +"I somehow knew you'd turn up," said Jimmy, mixing. "Not a scratch? +Tell us." + +So I told. I didn't tell all, of course. I left out all the +business in the lobby, what the steward had said, what Farrell had +said, and my traffic with the reporters. I humped myself on my +display of oratory. + +I must have thrown this--necessarily thrown it--somewhat out of +proportion. + +Jimmy said, "Rats! I know all about Caesar's funeral, and you +couldn't do it. You can't come it over us with your spellbound +audience. What you've done is you've kept the bridge ever since the +proud Professor and I started back, and, when they cut it behind you, +you swam the river." + +"Have it which way you like," said I, dropping into a chair. +"Now tell me how you two have been getting along." + +"Our motto," said Jimmy, "has been Plain Living and High Thinking. +We have fleeted the time in earnest discourse. It began on the way +home with the Professor asking me some innocent question concerning +what he called the 'Science' of Ju-Jitsu. I told him that it was of +Japanese origin, as its name implied, and further that he did wrong +to call it a Science; it was really an Art. I engaged that I could +prove this to him in thirty seconds, but said I would wait until we +reached home, lest he might be trying his discovery on the Police. +This led to a discussion on the Art of Self-Defence, in the course of +which he let fall the incredible remark that he had never been inside +the National Sporting Club." + +"Give him time," said I. "Jack's a methodical worker, as every man +of science should be. He'll come to it; but, so far, his researches +have been confined to the lower animals." + +Jimmy looked puzzled. "Eh? . . . Oh, you mean politicians. Well, it +occurred to me that if he meant to attend any more political +meetings, there was no time to be lost. So--" + +"But I don't," Jack growled. + +Jimmy corrected himself. "Perhaps we'd better say, then, that I +thought it well he should know the difference between some public +gatherings and others. So we've been talking about the N.S.C. and +the Professor is under promise to visit it with me, one night, and +see how an argument ought to be conducted." + +I lit a pipe and looked at Foe over the match. "Jack," said I, "a +holiday for you is indicated. With Jimmy's leave I'm going to speak +seriously for a moment. . . . Down in the country, among other jobs, +I have to sit on an Asylum Committee: and from the start I've been +struck by the number of officials in charge of lunatics who seem, +after some while at it, to go a bit dotty themselves. Doctors, male +attendants--it doesn't seem to affect the women so much--even +chaplains--after a time I wouldn't give more than short odds on the +complete sanity of any of 'em. Why, even our Chairman . . . I must +tell you about our Chairman. . . . He's old, and you may put it down +to senile decay. Before we discharge a patient, or let him out as +harmless, it's our custom to have him up before the Committee with a +relative who undertakes to be answerable for him. Well, our +Chairman, of late, can't be trusted to tell t'other from which: and +it's pretty painful when he starts on the vacant-looking patient and +says, pointing a finger at the astonished relative, 'You see, +Mr. So-and-so, the apparent condition of this poor creature. +It is with some hesitation that we have given this case the benefit +of the doubt; and we cannot hand him over unless satisfied that you +feel your responsibility to be a grave one.'" + +Foe got up, smiling dourly, knocked out his pipe, and chose a fresh +one from the mantelpiece. "You'll make quite a good story of that, +Roddy," he said, "with a little practice. But, as I don't work among +lunatics, what's the bearing of it?" + +"You're working," said I, "--for years now you've been working and +overworking--on these wretched animals, and neglecting the society of +your fellow-men. You pore over animals, you probe into animals, +you're always thinking about animals; which amounts to consorting +with animals--at their worst, too. . . . I tell you, Jack, it won't +do. I've had my doubts for some time, but to-night I'm sure of it. +If you go on as you're going, there'll be a smash, my boy." + +I was half afraid he would fly out on me. But he lit his pipe +thoughtfully, dropped the match into the fire, and watched it burn +out before he answered. + +"And I'm to consort with my fellow-men, eh?--with the sort you led me +among to-night?" He laughed harshly, with a not ill-humoured snort. +"Is that your prescription? Thank you, I prefer my bad beasts." + +"No," I said. "After to-night it's not my prescription. I'll give +you another. I know your work, and that your heart's in it. +But ease down this term as far as the lecture-list allows, and then +at Easter come with Jimmy and me to Wastdale and let me teach your +infant footsteps how to mountaineer. There's nothing like a stiff +climb and a summit for purging a man's mind. . . . I've come to like +mountains ever so much better than big game. They are the authentic +gods, high and clean; they're above desecration; the more you assail +them the more you are theirs. . . . Now there's always a kind of +lust, a kind of taint, about big-game hunting. No harm to a man if +he's in full health--but beastliness, and menagerie smell, if he's +not." + +"Mountains!" scoffs he. + +"You needn't despise them," said I. "They're apt to be heavenly, +just before Easter, with the snow on 'em; and Mickledore or Gable or +the Pillar from Ennerdale will easily afford you forty-four ways of +breaking your neck. . . . If you're good and can do a little trick I +have in mind on Scawfell I'll reward you by bringing you home past a +farm where they keep a couple of savage sheep-dogs. For a good +conduct prize, I have a friend up there--a farming clergyman--who +will teach you words of cheer by introducing you to a bull that can't +pass the Board of Trade test because he's like Lady Macbeth's hand-- +however you babble to him in a green field he makes the green one +red. But these shall be special treats, you understand, held in +reserve. Most days you'll just climb till you're tired, and your +dinner shall be mutton for three weeks on end. . . . Now, don't +interrupt. I may seem to be on the oratorical lay to-night, but God +knows I'm in earnest. If I wasn't, I shouldn't have spoken out like +this before Jimmy, who's your friend and will back me up." + +"I might," said Jimmy judiciously, "if I understood what you meant by +all this chat about savage animals. What is it, at all? Does the +Professor keep a menagerie? And, if so, why haven't I been invited?" + +"Why, don't you know?" I asked. + +"Know what?" asked Jimmy, leaning back and sucking at his pipe. +"Whatever it is, I probably don't: that's what a Public School and +University education did for me. As I seem to remember one Farrell's +remarking in the dim and distant past, for my part I never indulged +in Physiological Research--I made my own way in the world . . ." +He murmured it dreamily, and then sat up with a start. "Lord's +sake!" he cried out. "You don't tell me that Farrell . . . that the +Professor actually--" + +"Don't be a fool," I interrupted. "Of course, Jack doesn't. Jack, +tell him about the Grand Research. Enlighten his ignorance, that's a +good fellow." + +"Enlighten him yourself, if you want to. You'll tell it all wrong: +but I'm tired," declared Foe. + +"Well, then," said I, "it's this way, dear James. . . . You behold +seated opposite to you on the right of the fireplace, and smoking the +beast of a brier pipe with the modesty of true genius, a Scientific +Man--a Savant, shall I say?--of European reputation. It isn't quite +European just yet: but it's going to be, which is better." + +"I always prophesied it," said Jimmy. "What's it going to be _for_?" + +"Listen," said I. "Having received (as you assure us) a liberal +education, either at Eton or B.N.C., you probably made acquaintance +with that beautiful poem by Dr. Isaac Watts beginning--" + + 'Let dogs delight to bark and bite-' + +"Continue the quotation, with brief notes on any obscurities." + +"Certainly," said Jimmy. + + 'Let dogs delight to bark and bite, + 'Tis manners so to do--' + +"No, that sounds a bit off." + + 'Let dogs delight to bark and bite, + For God hath made them so; + Let bears and lions growl and fight, + For 'tis their nature toe.' + +"Good boy!" said I. "Now that's where Dr. Watts--" + +"Don't interrupt," said Jimmy. "It isn't manners so to do, when I'm +just getting into my stride--" + + 'But, children, you should never let + Such angry passions rise: + Your little hands were never made + To tear each other's eyes . . .' + +"Please, I don't know any more." + +"Nor need you," I assured him, "for, according to Jack, it's +completely out of date." + +"'M'yes!" Jimmy agreed. "But he won't get a European reputation by +discovering _that_. They don't tear each other's eyes at the N.S.C., +even--it's against the rules. Come and see for yourself, Professor." + +"Angry passions," I went on patiently; "envy, hatred, and malice-- +especially hatred--are Jack's special lay; the Grand Research we call +it. Take simple anger, for instance. What is it makes a man angry?" + +"Lots of things. . . . Being called a liar, for one." + +Foe took the mischief in the boy's eye, and let out a laugh. +"I can't be angry with _you_, anyway. Go on, Roddy. You're doing it +quite well so far, though I'm almost too sleepy to listen." + +"It isn't as simple as you think," I pursued seriously (but glad +enough in my heart to have heard Jack laugh--he wasn't given to +laughter at any time). "All sorts of things happen inside you; all +sorts of mechanisms start working: nerves and muscles, of course, but +even in the blood-vessels there's a change of the corpuscles as per +order--you put an insult into the slot and they do the rest. +The levers of the machine--the brakes, clutches and the rest are in +the forebrain: that's where you change gear when you want to struggle +with suppressed emotion, run her slow or let her all out: and that's +what Jack means to do with us before he has finished. Does he want +us to love or to hate?--He'll press a button, and we shall do the +rest, automatically. He will call on a Foreign Minister or an +ambassador and make or avert a European War. He will dictate--" + +"He's telling you the most atrocious rubbish," cut in Foe, addressing +Jimmy. + +"I am suiting this explanation to the infant mind," said I, "and I'll +trouble you not to interrupt. . . . You may or may not have heard, my +dear child, either at Eton or Oxford, that the brain has two +hemispheres--" + +"Just like the globe," said Jimmy brightly. + +"Aptly observed," I congratulated him: "though that is perhaps no +more than a coincidence. Taking the illustration, however, if we can +only eliminate the Monroe Doctrine and work the clutch between these +two--Jack, you are reaching for the poker. Don't fire, Colonel: I'll +come down. . . . Reverting, then, to the forebrain, you have +doubtless observed that in man it is enormously larger than in the +lower animals, as in our arrogance we call them--" + +"I hadn't," said Jimmy. + +"It's a fact, nevertheless," said I. "I assure you. . . . Well, +Jack, so far, has dealt only with the lower animals. I don't say the +lowest. I doubt if he can do much with an oyster who has been +crossed in love. But by George! you should watch him whispering to a +horse! or, if you want something showier, see him walk into a lion's +cage with the tamer." + +"I say, Professor! Have you _really?_--" I knew Jimmy would sit up +at this point. + +"Of course he has," said I. "It began on a trip we took together in +Uganda, just after leaving Cambridge. I was after lions: Jack's game +was the mosquito and other bugs. One day--oh, well, Jack, we'll keep +that story for another occasion. . . . The long and short was, he +found he had a gift--uncanny to me--of dealing with animals in a +rage, and raising or lowering their angry passions at will. +He switched off bugs, their cause and cure, and on to this new track. +He started experimenting, made observations, took records. He's been +at it now--how many years, Jack? He'll play on a dog-fight better +than you can on a penny-whistle: as soon as he chooses they're +sitting one on each side of the gramophone, listening to Their +Master's Voice. Vivisection?--Farrell's an ass. The only inhuman +thing I've ever known Jack do was to domesticate a wild-cat and +restore her to the woods unprotected by her natural amenities. +These people hear a shindy going on in the laboratory in `--` Street, +and conclude that he's holding the wrong sort of tea-party. Now, if +he'd had an ounce of practical wisdom to-night, he'd have arisen +quietly, invited Farrell to drop in at 4.30 to-morrow, arranged a +moderate dog-fight, and given that upholsterer ten minutes of +glorious life. Farrell--" + +"I'm going to turn you both out," said Foe, getting up suddenly. +"Help yourself to another whisky-and-soda, Roddy. . . . I'm so beaten +with sleep it's odds against getting off my boots." As a fact, too, +his face was weary-white. He turned to Jimmy, however, with a ghost +of a smile. "Roddy has been talking a deal of nonsense. But if you +really care to inspect my little show, come around some morning + . . . . Let me see--to-day's Wednesday. Saturday is my slack +morning--What d'you say to breakfasting here on Saturday, nine +o'clock? and we'll walk over at half-past ten or thereabouts. I keep +a yellow dog there that will go through some tricks for you. . . . +Right? Then so long! . . . You can come along, too, Roddy, if you'll +behave yourself." + + + +NIGHT THE FOURTH. + + +ADVENTURE OF THE POLICE STATION. + +I opened my newspaper next morning in no little anxiety. I ought +rather to say "my newspapers": for the L.C.C. campaign was raging at +its height, and a candidate cannot afford to neglect in the morning +any nasty thing that any nasty fellow has written overnight. + +Jephson--yes, he's the same good Jephson who wouldn't exchange my +button-stick for a Field-Marshal's baton--Jephson brought in my +morning tea and laid across the foot of my bed a bundle of newspapers +as thick as a bolster. + +I sat up, reached for them and began to read almost as soon as he +switched on the light. I was honestly nervous. + +I took the hostile papers first, of course. Pretty soon it began +to dawn on my grateful soul that all was right with the world. +The reporters had stood shoulder to shoulder. Two or three headlines +gave me a shake. "BRISK SCENES ACROSS THE WATER," "MR. FARRELL +SPEAKS OUT," "AN INTERRUPTER EJECTED." One headline in particular +gave me qualms--"WHAT'S WRONG WITH SILVERSMITH'S COLLEGE? PUBLIC +ENDOWMENT WITHOUT PUBLIC CONTROL: MR. FARRELL PUTS SOME SEARCHING +QUESTIONS." But it had all been toned down in the letterpress and +came to very little. The reporters, using their own discretion, had +used such phrases as "An interrupter, apparently labouring under some +excitement," "At this point a gentleman in the front row caused a +diversion by challenging . . . The audience were in no mood, +however, . . ." "Here an auditor protested warmly. It was +understood that he had some official connection with the institution +referred to by the candidate," and so on. + +I hugged myself over my success. To be sure, the vague impression +derivable was that the "scene" had its origin in strong drink. +But the name of Professor John Foe nowhere appeared. Greatest +blessing of all, there was no leading article, no pithy paragraph, +even. I arose and shaved blithely. Across the stairhead I could +hear Jimmy shouting music-hall ditties--his custom in his bath. +Yes, all was right with the world. + +Nothing happened that day, except that I interviewed my agent after +breakfast, worked like a nigger until nightfall, canvassing slums; +got back to the Bath Club, had a swim, dined, and returned to my +constituency for the night's public meeting. Arduous work: but what +you might call supererogatory. I could have shot my opponent +sitting, and he knew it. My rascal of an agent knew it too, but he +was an honest man in his way--and that's politics. + +Next morning, same procedure on Jephson's part: similar bolster +of papers, neatly folded and laid across the foot of my bed. +This time I poured myself a cup of tea and reached for them lazily. +The _Times_ was topmost. Jephson always laid the _Times_ topmost. + +Five minutes later . . . But listen to this-- + +_(To-night before resuming his story Otway had laid on the table +beside him a small but bulging letter-case, from the contents of +which he now selected a newspaper cutting.)_ + + PUBLIC ENDOWMENT OF RESEARCH + + To the Editor of _The Times_:-- + + Sir, + + A Memorial, influentially signed by a number of ladies and + gentlemen variously eminent in Society, Politics, Literature and + Art but united in their friendship for the dumb creation, was + recently addressed to the Principal of the South London + ("Silversmiths'") University College, situated in the + constituency for which I am offering myself as representative in + the next London County Council. In this Memorial the Principal + was invited to ease the public mind with respect to rumours + (widely prevalent) concerning certain practices in the + laboratories under his charge, either by denying them or + inviting a public inquiry. I was not aware of this document--to + which I should have been happy to add my signature--until last + night, when a copy of it was put into my hands, with an + additional list of signatures by more than a hundred local + residents. This morning I have had an opportunity to peruse + the answer sent by the Principal (Sir Elkin Travers) to the + Hon. Secretary of the Memorialists. + + I cannot consider this answer satisfactory. Sir Elkin is + content to meet the allegation with a flat denial, and rejects + the reasonable request for a public inquiry in language none too + courteous. Unfortunately a body of testimony by residents in + the close vicinity of the College, as to the noises and outcries + heard proceeding from the laboratories from time to time, if not + in direct conflict with the denial, at least suggests that, with + the growing numbers of his professors and students, Sir Elkin + cannot know what is going on, at all times, in every department + of the Institution: while his peremptory rejection of an + investigation which he might have welcomed as an opportunity for + allaying public suspicion will be far from having that effect. + If all is well inside his laboratories, why should Sir Elkin + fear the light? + + May I point out that considerable sums of public money are spent + on these University Colleges, and even, indirectly, in promoting + the very researches incriminated by the Memorialists. We should + insist on knowing what we are paying for and whether it is + consistent with the consciences of those among us who look upon + dumb animals as the friends and servants of man. + + I am, Sir, Your obedient servant, + + P. FARRELL. + + The Acacias, Wimbledon, + Thursday, March 7, 1907. + +I dressed and breakfasted in some haste. I heard Jimmy splashing and +carolling in his tub, and for one moment had a mind to knock in and +read him the letter, which worried me. But I didn't. . . . It really +wasn't Jimmy's business. . . . Good Lord! if I'd only acted on that +one little impulse, which seemed at the time not to matter two +straws!-- + +I took a taxi to Chelsea, carting the newspapers with me and rooting +Farrell's truffles out of a dozen or so on the way. It was just as +bad as I feared. The man had used a type-copier and snowed his +screed all over Fleet Street. There were one or two small leaders, +too, and editorial notes: nasty ones. + +I caught Foe on his very doorstep. "Hallo!" said he. "What's wrong? + . . . Looks as if you were suddenly reduced to selling newspapers. +I'm not buying any, my good man." + +"You'll come upstairs and read a few, anyway," said I; and took him +upstairs and showed him the _Times_. He frowned as he read Farrell's +letter. I expected him to break out into strong language at least. +But he finished his reading and tossed the paper on to the table with +no more than a short laugh--a rather grim short laugh. + +"Silly little bounder," was his comment. + +"You didn't treat him quite so apathetically, the night before last," +said I. "It might be better for you if you had. Look, here's the +_Morning Post, Standard, Daily News, Mail, Chronicle, Express_. . . . +He has plastered it into them all." + +"I don't read newspapers," was his answer. + +"Other people do," was mine; for I was nettled a bit. "Here are some +of the editors asking questions already, and I'll bet the evening +papers will be like dogs about a bone. This man may be a damned +fool, but he's dangerous: that's to say he has started mischief." + +"Oh, surely--not dangerous?" Foe queried, with an odd lift of his +eyebrows. + +"If I were you, at all events, I'd go straight and consult your man-- +what's his name? Travers?--at once. My taxi is waiting, and I'll +run across in time to interview him before you start your morning's +work. Did he show you his answer to these precious Memorialists +before he posted it?" + +For the moment Foe ignored my question. "Dangerous?" he repeated in +a musing, questioning way. "Do you really think . . . I beg your +pardon, Roddy . . . Eh? You were asking about Travers. Yes, he +showed me his answer. Very good answer, I thought. It just told +them to mind their own business." + +"Did he say that, in so many words?" I asked. + +"Let me think. . . . So far as I remember he put it rather neatly. + . . . Yes, he wrote that he was not prepared to worry his staff with +vague charges, or to invite an inquiry on the strength of +representations which--so far as he could attach a meaning to them-- +meant what was false. But he added that if the Memorialists would +kindly put these charges into writing, defining the practices +complained of, and naming the persons accused, they should be dealt +with in the proper way which (he understood) the law provided." + +"Capital," said I. "Your Principal is no fool. Go off straight and +consult him. Take these papers--the whole bundle--" + +Foe took them up and pushed them into the pockets of his great-coat. + +"_You_ think he's dangerous?" he asked again, in an absent-minded +way. + +"Eh? . . . Oh, you're talking of Farrell?" said I. "Farrell's a +fool, and fools are always dangerous." + +Thereupon Jack Foe did and said that which I had afterwards some +cause to remember. He passed his hand over his forehead, much as a +man might brush away a cobweb flung across his evening walk between +hedges. "That man makes me tired," he said; "extraordinarily tired. +For two nights I've been trying not to dream about him. It was very +good of you to come, Roddy. You shall run me over in your taxi and +I'll speak to Travers. If the man is a fool--" + +"A dangerous fool," I corrected. + +"Coward, too, I should judge. Yes, certainly, I'll speak to +Travers." + + +I put down Foe at the gates of his College and speeded home. +Jimmy had breakfasted and gone forth to take the air. I sat +down to open my letters and answer them. In the middle of this my +agent arrived. We lunched together and spent the afternoon +canvassing. This lasted until dinner, for which I returned to my +Club. Thence a taxi took me East again to Bethnal Green for a +meeting. The importance of these details is that they kept me from +having word with Jimmy, or seeing fur or feather of him, for more +than twenty-four hours. + +Nor did I find him in my chambers when I got home, soon after eleven. +He was a youth of many engagements. So I mixed myself a drink and +whiled away three-quarters of an hour with a solitary pipe and the +bundle of evening papers set out for me by Jephson, who lived out +with his wife and family and retired to domestic joys at 9.30. + +The evening papers had let down the Silversmiths' College pretty +easily on the whole. But one of them--an opposition rag which +specialised in the politics, especially gutter politics, of South +London and was owned by a ring of contractors--had come out with a +virulent attack, headed "Vivisection in Our Midst." The article set +me hoping that Travers was a strong man and would use the law of +libel: it deserved the horsewhip. It left a taste in the mouth that +required a second whisky-and-apollinaris before I sought my bed, +sleepily promising myself that I would call on Farrell in the +morning, however inconvenient it might be, and help to put an end to +this nonsense. . . . I would, if the worst came to the worst, even +drag the fool to Jack's laboratory and convince him of his folly. + +And this promise, as will be seen, I carried out to the very last +letter. + + +A rapping on my bedroom door fetched me out of my beauty sleep. +I started up in bed and switched on the electric light. + +"That you, Jimmy?" I called. "Come in, you ass, and say what you +want. If it's the corkscrew--" + +"If you please, Sir Roderick--sorry to disturb you--" said a voice +outside which I recognised as the night-porter's. + +"Smithers?" I called. "What's wrong? . . . Open the door, man. . . . +Is the place on fire?" + +The door opened and showed me Smithers with a tall policeman looming +behind him. + +"Hallo!" said I, sitting up straighter and rubbing my eyes. + +"Constable, sir," explained Smithers, "with a message for you. +Says he must see you personally." + +The constable spoke while I stared at him, my eyes blinking under the +bed-light. "It's a dream," I was telling myself. "Silly kind of +dream--" + +"Gentleman in the Ensor Street Police Court, sir. Requires bail +till to-morrow--till ten-thirty this morning, I should have said. +Gave your name for surety." The constable announced this in a firm +bass voice, respectful but business-like. "Said he was a friend of +yours." + +"What's his name?" I demanded. + +"Gave the name of James Collingwood, sir--and this same address." + +I gasped. "Jimmy?--Oh, I beg your pardon, Constable!--What has Mr. +Collingwood been doing?" + +"He's _charged_, sir," the constable answered carefully, "with +resisting the police in the execution of their duty." + +"What duty?" + +"There was another gent took up, sir: and I may say, between +ourselves, as your friend, sir, put up a bit of a fight for him. +Very nimble with his fists he was, sir, or so I heard it mentioned. +I wasn't myself mixed up in the affair. But from the faces on them +as brought him in I should say, strikly between ourselves, he's lucky +the word isn't assault--even aggeravated. But the Inspector took the +report . . . and the Inspector, if I may say so, knows a gentleman +when he sees one." + +"Was he--" I began, and corrected myself. "Was Mr. Collingwood +drunk?--strictly between ourselves, as you put it." + +"No, sir." The honest man gave his verdict slowly. "I shan't be +called for evidence: but I seen him and talked with him. Sober and +bright, sir; and, when I left, in the best of sperrits. But I +wouldn't say as how he hadn't been more than happy earlier in the +evening." + +"Thank you, Constable," said I. "You'll find a decanter, a syphon, +and a glass set out for the prodigal's return, all on the table in +the next room. Possibly you'll discover what to do with them while I +dress. Smithers, turn on the light out there, and get me a taxi if +you can. For I suppose," said I to the constable, "this means that +I've to turn out and go with you?" + +"I am afraid so, sir, and thanking you kindly. But as for the taxi, +I came in one and took the liberty to keep it waiting--at this hour." + +"Very thoughtful of you," said I, with a look at my watch. The time +was 12.50. + +"Not at all, sir. Mr. Collingwood turned out the loose change in his +pocket and told me not to spare expense. Here it is, sir--one pound, +seventeen--and I'd be glad if you took it and paid the whole fare at +the end of the run." + +"Good," said I, amused. "Jimmy is obviously sober. I never knew him +drunk--really drunk--for that matter." I had my legs out of bed by +this time, and the constable was bashfully withdrawing, Smithers +having turned on the lights in the outer room. "Stop a moment," I +commanded. "You may not believe it, but I'm a child at this game. +How much money shall I have to take? . . . I don't know that I have +more than a tenner loose about me--unless I can raise something off +Smithers." + +The constable relaxed his face into a smile, or something approaching +one. "There is no money needed--not at this hour of the night. +Your recognisances, Sir Roderick--for a fiver or so, if you ask me. +But--" and here he hesitated. + +"Well?" + +"There's the other gentleman, sir. Mr. Collingwood _did_ mention--" + +"Oh, did he?" I cut in. "It was silly, maybe, to have forgotten him +all this time--I'm a sound sleeper; and even when awake my mind moves +slowly. But who the Hades is this other gentleman?" + +"When arrested, sir, he gave his name as Martin Frobisher," said the +constable with just a tremor of the eyelids, "and his address as +North-West Passage; he wouldn't say more definitely. At the station +he asked leave to correct this, and said that his real name was +Martin Luther, a foreigner, but naturalised for years, and we should +find his papers at the Reform Club, S.W." + +"I don't seem to have met either of these Martins--or not in life," +I said thoughtfully. + +"Well, sir, if you ask _me_," he agreed, "I should be surprised if +you had; for between ourselves, as it were, I don't believe he's +either of his alleged Martins. And the Station don't think much of +his names and addresses." + +"Does _he_ want to be bailed out, too?" I asked. + +"He didn't ask it. He weren't in no condition, sir--as you might put +it--when I left. But Mr. Collingwood, he says to me (I took a note, +sir, of the very words he used)"--the man pulled out a note-book from +his breast-pocket, and held it forward under the light--"'You go to +Sir Roderick,' he says, 'and tell him from me that the prodigal is +returned bearing his calf with him.'" The constable read it out +carefully, word by word. "I don't know what it means, sir; but that +was his message, and he said it twice over." + +"There seems to be more in this than meets the eye," said I, +pondering the riddle. + +"You wouldn't say so, sir, if you'd seen Hagan's," said he, retiring +with the last word and, on top of it, a genially open grin. + +I was dressed in ten minutes or so, and we sped to Ensor Street. +There I found my young reprobate sober and cheerful and unabashed. + +"Sorry to give you this trouble, old man," was his greeting. +"Sort of thing that happens when a fellow gets mixed up in politics." + +"You shall tell me all about it," said I, "when we've gone through +the little formalities of release. . . . What have I to sign?" +I asked the sergeant who played escort. + +"Oh, but wait a moment," put in Jimmy. "There's another bird. The +animals came in two by two--eh, Sergeant Noah? I say, Otty, you'll +be in a fearful way when you see him. But I couldn't help it--upon +my soul I couldn't: and you'll have to be kind to him." + +"Who is it?" I demanded. + +"It's--Well, he gave the name of Martin Luther. But you judge for +yourself. Sergeant Bostock--or are you Wombwell?--take Sir Haroun +Alraschid to the next cage and show him the Great Reformer." + +To the next cell I was led in a state of expectancy that indeed +justified his allusion to the _Arabian Nights_. And the door opened +and the light shone--upon Mr. Peter Farrell! + +It was a swollen eye that Mr. Farrell upturned to us from his low +bed, and a swollen and bloodied lip that babbled contrition along +with appeals to be "got out of this" and lamentations for the day +he was born; and as on that day so on this a mother had found it +hard to recognise him. He wore a goodly but disorganised raiment; +a fur-lined great-coat, evening dress beneath it; but the tie was +missing, the shirt-collar had burst from its stud, the shirt-front +showed blood-stains, dirty finger-marks, smears of mud. Mud caked +his coat, its fur: apparently he had been rolling in mud. But the +worst was that he wept. + +He wept copiously. Was it the late Mr. Gladstone who invented the +phrase "Reformation in a Flood"? Anyhow, it kept crossing and +re-crossing my mind absurdly as I surveyed this wreck that had called +itself Martin Luther. All the wine in him had turned to tears of +repentance, and he was pretty nauseous. I told him to stand up. + +"This--er--gentleman," said I to the police-sergeant, "is called +Farrell--Mr. Peter Farrell. He lives," I said, as the address at the +foot of the _Times_ letter came to my memory, "at The Acacias, +Wimbledon." + +The sergeant nodded slowly. "That's right, sir. I knew him well +enough. Attended a meeting of his only last Saturday--on duty, +that's to say." + +We smiled. "He's not precisely a friend of mine," said I. "But we +have met in public life, and I'll be answerable for him. We must get +him out of this." + +"There's no difficulty, sir, since we have the address. There was no +card or letter in his pocket, and he said he came from Wittenberg +through the Gates of Hell. I looked him up in the Directory and the +address is as you state. . . . But to tell you the truth, sir, I +didn't ring up his telephone number, thinking as a nap might bring +him round a bit. . . . We keep a taxi or two on call for these little +jobs, and I'll get a driver that can be trusted. I'll call up Sam +Hicks. There was a latch-key in the gentleman's pocket, and Sam +Hicks is capable of steering a case like this to bed and leaving the +summons pinned on his dressing-gown for a reminder. . . . But perhaps +you'll call around for him to-morrow morning, sir, and bring him?" + +"I'll be damned if I do," said I. "He must take his risks and I'll +risk the bail. . . . Look here!"--I took Mr. Farrell by the collar +and my fingers touched mud. "Pah!" said I. "Can't we clean him up a +bit before consigning him? . . . Look here, Farrell! I'm sending you +home. Do you understand? And you're to return here on peril of your +life at ten o'clock. Do you understand?" + +"I understand, Sir Roderick," sobbed Farrell. "Angels must have sent +you, Sir Roderick. . . . I have unfortunately mislaid my glasses and +something seems to be obscuring the sight of my left eye. But I +recognised your kindly voice, Sir Roderick. The events of the past +few hours are something of a blank to me at present: but may I take +the liberty of wringing my deliverer by the hand?" + +"Certainly not," said I. "Sit up and attend. Have you a wife? +Sit up, I say. Will Mrs. Farrell by any chance be sitting up?" + +"I thank God," answered Mr. Farrell fervently, "I am a widower. +It is the one bright spot. Could my poor Maria look down from where +she is, and see me at this moment--" + +"It _is_ a slice of luck," I agreed. "Well, you're in the devil of a +mess, and you've goosed yourself besides losing a promising seat for +the party. What on earth--but we'll talk of that to-morrow. +You must turn up, please, and see it out. I don't know what defence, +if any, you can put up: but by to-morrow you'll have a damnatory eye +that will spoil the most ingenious. My advice is, don't make any. +Cut losses, and face the music. This is a queer country; but the +Press, which has been ragging you for weeks, will deal tenderly with +you as a drunk and incapable." + +"But the scandal, Sir Roderick!" he moaned. + +"There won't be any," said I. "You've lost the seat: that's all. + . . . Now stay quiet while I sign a paper or two." + +Jimmy (redeemed) and I together packed Mr. Farrell into his taxi. +Mr. Samuel Hicks, driver and expert, threw an eye over him as we +helped him in and wrapped him in rugs. "There's going to be no +trouble with this fare," said Mr. Hicks, as he pocketed his +payment-in-advance. "Nigh upon two o'clock in the morning and no +more trouble than a lamb in cold storage." + + + +NIGHT THE FIFTH. + + +ADVENTURE OF THE "CATALAFINA": MR. JAMES COLLINGWOOD'S NARRATIVE. + +"Well now," I asked, as my taxi bore us homeward, "what have you to +say about all this?" + +"I say," answered Jimmy with sententiousness, after a pause, "that +you should never take three glasses of champagne on an empty +stomach." + +"I don't," said I. + +"Nor do I," said Jimmy. "I took five, on Farrell's three . . . +eight glasses to the bottle. It was a Christian act, because I saw +that was he exceeding. But he insisted on ordering two bottles: so +it was all thrown away." + +"What was thrown away?" + +"The Christian act. . . . I say, Otty," he reproached me, "wake up! +You're not attending." + +"On the contrary," I assured him, "I am waiting with some patience +for the explanation you owe me. After dragging me out of bed at one +o'clock in the morning, it's natural, perhaps, you should assume me +to be half-asleep--" + +Jimmy broke in with a chuckle. "Poor old Otty! You've been most +awfully decent over this." + +"Cut that short," I admonished him. "I am waiting for the story: and +you provide the requisite lightness of touch; but the trouble is, you +don't seem able to provide anything else." + +"Don't be stern, Otty," he entreated. "It is past pardon. I know, +and to-morrow--later in the morning, I should say--you'll find that +the defendant feels his position acutely. Honour bright, I'll do you +credit in the dock. . . . Wish I was as sure of Farrell. But, as for +the story, as I am a sober man, I don't know where to begin. There's +a wicked uncle mixed up in it, and a wicked nephew and a taxi, and a +lady with a reticule, and a picture palace, and a water-pipe, and +heaps upon heaps of policemen--they're the worst mixed up of the +lot--" + +"Begin at the beginning," I commanded. "That is, unless you'd rather +defer the whole story for the magistrate's ear." + +"The whole story?" He chuckled. "I'd like to see the Beak's face. + . . . No, I couldn't possibly. My good Otty, how many people d'you +reckon it would compromise?" + +"You've compromised Farrell pretty thoroughly, anyhow," said I +grimly: "and you've compromised the cause in which I happen to be +interested. Has it occurred to you, my considerate young friend, +that Farrell has receded to 1000 to 1 in the betting?--that, in +short, you've lost us the seat?" + +"_I_ compromise Farrell?"--Jimmy sat up and exclaimed it indignantly. +"_I_ lose you his silly seat? . . . Rats! The little bounder +compromised himself! He's been doing it freely--doing it since ten +o'clock--two crowded hours of glorious life . . . 'stonishing, Otty, +what a variegated ass a man can make of himself nowadays in two short +hours, with the help of a taxi and if he wastes no time. When I +think of our simple grandfathers playing at Bloods, wrenching off +door-knockers. . . . Oh, yes--but you're waiting for the story. +Well, it happened like this,-- + +"Farrell called on you this morning, soon after breakfast-time, and +found me breakfasting. He was in something of a perspiration. +It appeared that he'd fired off a letter to the _Times_ directed +against our dear Professor; and, having fired it, had learnt from +somebody that the Professor was a close friend of ours. He had come +around to make the peace with you, if he could--he's a funny little +snob. But you had flown." + +"I had gone off," said I, "to catch Jack Foe and warn him that the +letter was dangerous." + +"Think so? Well, you'd left the _Times_ lying on the floor, and +he picked it up and read his composition to me while I dallied with +the bacon. It seemed to me pretty fair tosh, and I told him so. +I promised that if his second thoughts about it coincided with my +first ones, I would pass them on together to you when I saw you next, +and added that I had trouble to adapt my hours to political +candidates, they were such early risers. That, you might say, verged +on a hint: but he didn't take it. He hung about, standing on one leg +and then on the other, protesting that he would put things right. +I hate people who stand on one leg when you're breakfasting, don't +you? . . . So I gave him a cigar, and he smoked it whilst I went on +eating. He said it was a first-class cigar and asked me where I +dealt. I said truthfully that it was one of yours, and falsely that +you bought them in Leadenhall Market off a man called Huggins. +I gave him the address, which he took down with a gold pencil in his +pocket-book. . . . I said they were probably smuggled, and (as I +expected) he winked at me and said he rather gathered so from the +address. He also said that he knew a good thing wherever he saw it, +that you were his _bo ideal_ of a British baronet, and that we had +very cosy quarters. This led him on to discourse of his wife, and +how lonely he felt since losing her--she had been a martyr to +sciatica. But there was much to be said for a bachelor existence, +after all. It was so free. His wife had never, in the early days, +whole-heartedly taken to his men friends: for which he couldn't +altogether blame her--they weren't many of 'em drawing-room company. +A good few of them, too, had gone down in the world while he had been +going up. He instanced some of these, but I didn't recollect having +met any of 'em. There were others he'd lost sight of. He named +these too--good old Bill This and Charley That and a Frank Somebody +who sang a wonderful tenor in his day and would bring tears to your +eyes the way he gave you _Annie Laurie_ when half drunk: but again I +couldn't recall that any of them had been passed down to me. +'You see, Mr. Collingwood,' he said, 'when one keeps a little house +down at Wimbledon, these things have a way of dropping out as time +goes on.' 'Just like the teeth,' said I. He thought over this for a +while, and then laughed--oh, he laughed quite a lot--and declared I +was a humorist. He hadn't heard anything so quick, not for a long +while. 'Mr. Collingwood,' he said, 'I'm a lonely man with it all. +I don't mind owning to you that I've taken up these here politics +partly for distraction. It used to be different when me and Maria +could stick it out over a game of bezique. She used to make me dress +for dinner, always. We had a billiard-room, too: but that didn't +work so well. I could never bring her up to my standard of play, not +within forty in a hundred, by reason that she'd use the rest for +almost every stroke. She had a sense of humour, had Maria: you'd +have got along with her, Mr. Collingwood, and she'd have got along +with you. You'd have struck sparks. One evening I asked her, +'Maria, why are you so fond of the jigger?' 'Because of my figger,' +says she, pat as you please. Now, wasn't that humorous, eh? She +_meant_, of course, that being of the buxom sort in later life--and +it carried her off in the end--' Why, hallo!" Jimmy exclaimed. +"Are we home already?" + +"We have arrived at the Temple, E.C.," said I gently, "but scarcely +yet at the beginning of the story." + + +He resumed it in our chambers, while I operated on the hearth with a +firelighter. + +"Well," said Jimmy, smoking, "to cut a long story short"--and I +grunted my thanks--"he told me he was a lonely man, but that he knew +a thing or two yet. Had I by any chance made acquaintance with the +'Catalafina,' in Soho? 'Oh, come!' said I bashfully, 'who is she?' +'It's a restarong,' said he: 'Italian: where the cook does things you +can't guess what they're made of. Just as well, perhaps.' But the +results, he undertook to say, were excellent." + +"Do I see one?" I asked. + +"No, you don't," answered Jimmy, sipping his whisky-and-soda. +"That's just _it_, if you'll let me proceed. . . . He said that they +kept some marvellous Lagrima Christi--if I liked Lagrima Christi. +For his part, it always soured on his stomach. But we could send out +for a bottle of fizz--I'm using his expression, Otty--" + +"I trust so," said I. + +"He called it that. He said he would take it as an honour if I'd +join him in a little supper this very evening at the 'Catalafina.' +He had a meeting at 7.30, at which he would do his best to soften +down this letter of his in the _Times_; he would get it over by 9.30. +Could we meet (say) on the steps of the 'Empire' at ten o'clock? +He would hurry thither straight from the Baths, report progress--for +me to set your mind at rest--and afterwards take me off to this +damned eating-house. I should never find it by myself, he assured +me. He was right there; but I'm not anxious to try. My hope is that +it, or the management, won't find _me_. . . . Well, weakly-and +partly for your sake, Otty--I consented. He said, by the way, he +would be greatly honoured if I'd persuade you to come along too. +'It's Bohemian,' he said; 'if Sir Roderick will overlook it.' +'You told me it was Italian,' said I: 'but never mind. Sir Roderick, +as it happens, is a bit of a Bohemian himself and is dining to-night +with a club of them--the Lost Dogs, if you've ever heard of that +Society.' I saved you, anyway. You may put it that I flung myself +into the breach. They found you, but it was literally over my +prostrate body . . . and here we are." + +"Is that the story?" said I. + +Jimmy leaned back on his shoulder-blades in the armchair. "It is the +preliminary canter," he announced. "Now we're off, and you watch me +getting into my stride,-- + +"Farrell turned up, on time. He was somewhat agitated, and I +suspect--yes, in the light of later events I strongly suspect--he had +picked up a drink somewhere on the way. I got into his taxi, and we +swung up Rupert Street, and out of Rupert Street into what the +novelists, when they haven't a handy map or the energy to use it, +describe as a labyrinth leading to questionable purlieus. I am +content to leave it at purlieus. The driver, as it seemed to me, had +as foggy a notion as I of what, without infringing Messrs. Swan and +Edgar's _lingerie_ copyright, we'll call the 'Catalafina's' +whereabouts. Farrell spent two-thirds of the passage with his head +out of window. I don't mean to convey that he was seasick: and he +certainly wasn't drunk, or approaching it. He kept his head out to +shout directions. He was pardonably excited--maybe a bit nervous in +a channel that seemed to be buoyed all the way with pawnbrokers' +signs. But he brought us through. We alighted at the entrance of +the 'Catalafina'; Farrell paid the driver, and I advised him to find +his way back before daylight overtook him. + +"I will not attempt to describe the interior of the 'Catalafina.' +Farrell saved me that trouble on the threshold. 'Twenty years or +so,' he said, pausing and inhaling garlic, 'often makes a difference +in these places. One mustn't expect this to be quite what it used to +be." . . . Well, I hadn't, of course, and I dare say it wasn't. +It had sand on the floor, and spittoons. It was crowded, between the +spittoons, with little cast-iron tables, covered with dirty +table-cloths spread upon American cloth and garnished with artificial +flowers and napkins of Japanese paper. Farrell called them +'serviettes.' He also said he felt 'peckish.' I--well, I had taken +the precaution of dining at Boodle's, and responded that I was rather +for the bucket than the manger. He considered this for some time and +then laughed so loudly that all the anarchists in the room looked up +as if one of their bombs had gone off by mistake. . . . Oh, I omitted +to mention that all the space left unoccupied by cigarette-smoke and +the smell of garlic was crowded with anarchists, all dressed for the +part. They wore black ties with loose ends, fed with their hats on, +and read Italian newspapers--like a musical comedy. The waiters +looked like stage-anarchists, too; but you could easily tell them +from the others because they went about in their shirt-sleeves. + +"Farrell caught the eye of one of these bandits, who came along with +a great neuter cat rubbing against his legs. Farrell began with two +jocose remarks which didn't quite hit the mark he intended them for. +'Hallo, Jovanny!' he said pretty loudly, 'I don't seem to remember +your face, and yet it's familiar somehow.'--Whereat Giovanni, or +whatever his name was, flung a look over his shoulder that was equal +to an alarm, and all the anarchists looked up uneasily too--for +Farrell's voice carries, as you may have observed. He followed this +up by smiling at me over the _carte du jour_ and observing in a +jovial stentorian voice that he felt like a man returned from exile. +Fifteen years--and it must be fifteen years--is a long stretch. . . . +'Oh, damn your Italian,' said Farrell suddenly, dropping the card. +'In the old days we used to make orders on our fingers, in the dumb +alphabet, and risk what came.' + +"By this time he had Giovanni, and several anarchists at the nearer +tables, properly scared. But he picked up the card and went on, +innocent as a judge,' We used to have a code in those days. +For instance, you crooked one finger over your nose and that meant +'sea-urchins.'' 'Why?' I asked. 'That was the code,' Farrell +explained. 'They used to have a speciality in sea-urchins, straight +from the Mediterranean. You rubbed a soupsong of garlic into them +with three drops of paprika. . . . Now what do you say to +sea-urchins?' + +"'Nothing, as a rule,' said I. 'Safer with oysters, isn't it? +They don't explode.' I dropped this out just to try its effect on the +waiter, and he blanched. One or two of our _convives_ began to +clear. + +"Farrell ordered two dozen of oysters, to start with, and sent a +runner out for--no, Otty, I won't say it again--for two bottles of +Perrier-Jouet; _two_ bottles and '96, mark you. On hearing this +command about a dozen _habitues_ of the 'Catalafina' arose hastily, +drained their glasses and vanished. + +"Farrell perceived it not. He had picked up the card again and was +ordering some infernal broth made of mussels and I-don't-know-what. +'What do you say to follow?' he asked me. + +"'Something light,' I suggested. 'Liver of blaspheming Jew, for +choice: it sounds like another speciality of this kitchen.' + +"In the interval before the wine was brought Farrell gave me a short +account of the meeting he had just left: and he didn't lighten the +atmosphere of suspicion around us by suddenly sinking his voice to a +kind of conspirator's whisper. The meeting (it appeared) had been +lively, and more than lively. Our small incursion--or the +Professor's, rather--had been a fool to it. For the Professor's +loyal pupils, stung by that letter in the _Times_, had organised a +counter-demonstration. 'Their behaviour,' Farrell reported, 'was +unbridled.' They would hardly allow me a hearing. I give you my +word--and I wish Sir Roderick to know it--I was prepared to tell them +that information had come to me which put a different complexion on +the whole case. I was even prepared to tell them that, while I +should ever insist on the South London University College and all +similar institutions being subject to a more public control with an +increased representation of local rate-payers on their governing +bodies, I was confident that in this particular case the charge had +been too hasty. . . . I have the notes of my speech in my great-coat +pocket; I'll give them to you later and beg you as a favour to show +them to Sir Roderick. But what was the use, when they started booing +me because I wore evening dress?' + +"'Why did you?' I asked. + +"'Because, as I tried to explain, I had another engagement to keep +immediately after the Meeting--a Conversatsiony, as I put it to +them.' + +"'Then perhaps,' said I, 'they took exception to some details of the +costume--for instance, your wearing a silk handkerchief, and crimson +at that, tucked in between your shirt-front and your white +waistcoat.' + +"'Is that wrong?' Farrell asked anxiously. 'Maria used to insist on +it. She said it looked neglijay. . . . But I suppose fashions alter +in these little details.' He stood up, removed the handkerchief, and +stowed it in a tail-pocket. + +"'That's better,' said I. + +"'I'm not above taking a hint,' said he, 'from one as knows. +It'll be harder to get at. . . . But I don't believe, if you'll +excuse me, that any one of these students, as they call themselves, +ever wore an evening suit in his life--unless 'twas a hired one. +No, sir; they came prepared for mischief. They meant to wreck the +Meeting, and had brought along bags of cayenne pepper, and pots of +chemicals to stink us out. They opened one--phew! And I have +another, captured from them, in the pocket of my greatcoat on the +rack, there. I'll show it to you by and by. Luckily our stewards +had wind, early in the afternoon, that some such game was afoot, and +had posted a body of bruisers conveniently, here and there, about the +hall. So in the end they were thrown out, one by one--yes, sir, +ignominiously. It don't add to one's respect for public life, +though.' + +"At this point the wine made its appearance, and--if you'll believe +me--it was genuine: Perrier-Jouet, '96. A little while on the ice +might have improved it, but we gave it no time. The oysters arrived +too; but they were tired, I think. Something was wrong with them, +anyhow. . . . Then--as I seem to remember having told you--Farrell +put down three glasses of champagne on an empty stomach." + +"You did mention it," said I; "somewhere in the dim and distant +past." + +"For my part," went on Jimmy seriously, "my potations were moderate. +After trying the first oyster, I was sober enough to let the others +alone. Then came on the alleged mussel-soup. I tried it and laid +down my spoon. . . . Do you happen to know, Otty, which develops the +quicker typhoid or ptomaine? and if they are, by any chance, mutually +exclusive? Farrell will like to know. + +"He swallowed it all. But when he had done he looked full in the +eyes and said in a loud, unfaltering voice, 'This restarong is no +longer what it was.' + +"'The champagne is, and better,' I consoled him. + +"'Well, what do you say now,' he asked,' to a pig's trotter farced +with pimento? _That_ sounds appetising, at any rate.' + +"I think it was at this point, accurately, that I began to suspect +him of having exceeded or of being on the verge of excess. But the +suspicion no sooner crossed my mind than he set it at rest by getting +up and walking across the room to his great-coat, on the rack by the +door. His gait was perfectly steady. He drew certain articles from +the pockets, returned with them, and laid them on the table: +a cigar-case, a mysterious round box of white metal--sort of box you +buy 'Blanco' in--and another round object concealed in a crushed +paper-bag. He opened the first. + +"'Have a cigar,' he invited me. 'They smoke between the courses in +this place--proper thing to do.' + +"'Sanitary precaution,' I suggested. 'I'll be content with a +cigarette for the present. What are your other disinfectants?' + +"He laughed, very suddenly and violently. 'Disinfectants?' +he chortled; 'that's a good 'un! They're exhibits, my dear +sir--pardon-liberty-calling-you-Dear-sir. Stewards collected a +dozen, these infernal machines--' + +"'There's no need to shout,' said I. No, Otty I was sober. + . . . But I looked around and it struck me that the faces at the +near tables were bright, and white, and curiously distinct in the +cigarette-smoke. + +"'I am not shouting,' Farrell protested: but he was, and at that +moment. 'Disinfectants? That box, there--there's a bottle inside-- +sulphuretted hydrogen. T'other joker's a firework of sorts. +I brought 'em along for evidence. . . . Wha's that?' He jerked +himself bolt upright, staring at a dish the waiter held under his +nose. + +"'It's the _tete de veau en spaghetti_ you ordered, sir,' said +Giovanni. + +"'Did I? I don't remember it. Do _you_ remember my ordering +tait-de-whatever it calls itself?' he asked me earnestly. + +"Well, I couldn't, and I said so. + +"'If I did,' commanded Farrell, 'take it away and let me forget it. +This place is not what it was. . . . Take it away, you Corsican +Brother, and bring me the bill! Look here,' said he as Giovanni +departed. 'We'll get out of this and try something better. What do +you say to looking in at the Ritz?' He lit his cigar and poured out +more champagne. + +"'As you like,' said I. 'Let's get out of this anyway. For my part, +I've had enough.' + +"'Well, _I_ haven't,' said he, and fixed a stare on me. +'Oh, I see what you mean. I'm drunk. . . . It's no use your +pretending,' he caught me up argumentatively. 'I've taken too much +t'drink. Tiring day. Hope you're not a prude?' + +"'Well then,' I confessed, 'it did strike me you were punishing the +other fellow a bit too fast in the opening rounds. But you walked +over to your corner, just now, steady as a soldier--' + +"'Peculiarity of mine,' he explained. 'Ought t'have warned you. +Takes me in head, long before legs. Do you a sprint down the +street--even money--when we're outside. . . . Wha's this? Oh, the +bill. . . . Thought it was more spaghetti. . . . Yes, I know. . . . +Custom of house . . . pay the signora in the brass cage. My dear +sir, if you'll 'scuse fam'liarity--' + +"'Right,' said I, as he dived a hand into his pocket and fetched out +a fistful of coin. 'Here's half-a-crown for Giovanni--he will now +run along and poison somebody else. This being your show, I further +abstract two sovereigns for the bill. I shall, I perceive, have to +hand you ninepence in cash with the receipt. . . . But since you are +intoxicated and I am what in any less sepulchral caravanserai might +be described as merry, let us order our retreat with military +precision. First, then, I fetch you yonder magnificent garment which +has been drawing revolutionary hatred upon us ever since we +entered . . .' + +"'It was a present from Maria,' he said, as I helped him into it. +'Her last. She said it was a real sable.' + +"'She spoke truthfully,' I assured him. 'Now gather up these light +articles and steer for the door as accurately as you can, while I +gather up my inexpensive paletot and pay at the desk.' + +"'If I had my way with this blasted restarong,' he observed with +sudden venom,' I'd raze it to the ground!' + +"I walked over to the desk. I was right in supposing that ninepence +was the sum I should receive from the Esmeralda behind the brass +barrier. But her eyes were bright and interrogated me: the brass +trellis between us shone also with an unnatural lustre: I was dealing +with another man's money, and it seemed incumbent on me to count the +change twice, with care. + +"While I was thus engaged, Farrell went past me for the door with the +shuffle and hard breathing of an elephant pursued by a forest fire. + +"'Hurry!' he gasped. + +"'What is it?' I demanded, catching him up on the fifth stair. + +"He panted. 'I couldn't help it. . . . Sodom and Gomorrah + . . . basaltic, I've heard . . . we'd better run!' + +"'What the devil have you done?' I asked, close to his ear. + +"'Opened that stink-pot,' Farrell answered, taking two steps at a +time. He gained the pavement and paused, turning on me. + +"'Lucky they can't afford to keep a commissionaire.--How long do +these things take, as a rule, before going off?' + +"'What things?' I asked. + +"'Maroons, don't you call 'em?' said he, feeling in a foolish sort of +way at his breast-pocket, as if for his pince-nez. 'I got the +slow-match going with the end of my cigar, careless-like. How long +do they take as a rule?' + +"Well, a handsome detonation below-stairs answered him upon that +instant. + +"Farrell clutched my arm, and we ran." + + + +NIGHT THE SIXTH. + + +THE ADVENTURE OF THE PICTUREDROME. + +"Farrell could sprint," continued Jimmy. "You may have noticed that +a lot of these round-bellied men have quite a good turn of speed for +a short course. In spite of his fur coat he led by a yard or two: +but this was partly because I hung back a little, on the chance of +having to fight a rear-guard action. + +"I could hear no shouts or footsteps in our wake, and this struck me +as strange at the time. On second thoughts, however, I dare say the +management and frequenters of the 'Catalafina' have more than a +bowing acquaintance with infernal machines. A daisy by the river's +brim . . . to them a simple maroon would be nothing to write home +about, nor the sort of incident to justify telephoning for an +inquisitive police. By the mercy of Heaven, too, we encountered no +member of the Force in our flight. I suppose that constables are +rare in Soho. + +"Farrell led for a couple of blocks as an American writer would put +it; dived down a side street to the right; sped like an arrow for a +couple of hundred yards; then darted around another turning, again to +the right. I put on a spurt and caught him by his fur collar. +'Look here,' I said, 'I don't hear anyone in chase. We are the +wicked fleeing, whom no man pursueth. I don't quite understand why. +Maybe sulphuretted hydrogen's their favourite perfume. They don't +use it in their bath, because . . . well, never mind. What I have to +talk at this moment is mathematics. I don't know how you reason it +out; but to me it's demonstrable that if we keep turning to the right +like this we shall find ourselves back at the door of your infernal +'Catalafina.' Inevitably,' I said, nodding at him in a way +calculated to convince. + +"'Allow me,' he answered, and promptly wrung my hand. 'I ought +t'have warned you--I always run in circles, this condish'n. +Bad habit: never could break myself. 'Scuse me; haven't been drunk +for years.' He pulled himself up and eyed me earnestly. 'Wha's your +suggest'n under shirkumstanches? Retrace steps?' + +"'As I figure it out,' said I, sweet and reasonable, 'that also would +lead us back to the 'Catalafina.'' + +"'Quite so,' he agreed, nodding back as I nodded. 'Case hopelesh, +then. No posh'ble way out.' + +"'Well, I don't know,' said I. 'If we go straight on until we find a +turning to the left. . . . And look here,' I put in, grabbing him +again, for he was starting to run. 'Since there's no one in chase +apparently, I suggest that we walk. It looks better, if we meet a +constable: though there seems to be none about ... so far.' + +"'Scand'lous!' said Farrell. + +"'What's scandalous?' I asked. + +"'Lax'ty Metr'pl't'n P'lice.' He took me by a buttonhole, finger and +thumb. 'Dish--district notorious. One-worst-Lond'n. Dish--damn the +word--distr'ck like this, anything might happen any moment. +Mus' speak about it. . . . You just wait till I'm on County +Counshle.' + +"I took him by the arm and steered him. I did it beautifully, though +it's undeniable that I had taken wine to excess. I did it so +beautifully that we met not a living soul--or if we did, Otty, I +failed to remark it. . . . I don't suppose it was really happening as +I felt it was happening. I just tell how it felt. . . . Farrell and +I were ranging arm-in-arm through a quarter that had mysteriously +hushed and hidden itself at our approach. There were pianos tinkling +from upper storeys: there were muffled choruses with banjo or guitar +accompaniments humming up from the bowels of the earth: there were +chinks of light between blinds, under doorways, down areas. +There was even a flare of light, now and again, blaring to gramophone +accompaniment across the street from a gin-palace or a corner public. +But the glass of these places of entertainment was all opaque, and +there were no loungers on the kerb in front of any. . . . I held +Farrell tightly beneath the elbow, and steered through this enchanted +purlieu. + +"'S'pose you know where you're heading?' said Farrell after a while. + +"'On these occasions,' said I, 'one steers by the pole-star.' + +"'Where is it?' he demanded. + +"'At this moment, so far as I can judge,' I assured him, 'it is +shining accurately on the back of your neck.' + +"Of a sudden we found ourselves at the head of a pavement lined with +the red stern-lights of a rank of cabs and taxis. I had not the +vaguest notion of its name: but the street was obviously one of those +curious ones, unsuspected, and probably non-existent by day, in which +lurk the vehicles that can't be discovered when it's raining and you +want to get home from a theatre. 'Glow-worms!' announced Farrell. + +"I tightened my grip under his funny-bone, and hailed the first +vehicle. It was a hansom. 'Engaged?' I asked. + +"'All depends where you're going, sir,' said the cabby. + +"'Wimbledon,' shouted Farrell, and broke away from me. +'Wimbledon for pleasure and the simple life! . . . You'll excuse +me--' he dodged towards the back of the cab: 'on these occasions-- +always make a point take number.' + +"'It's all right,' I spoke up to the cabman. 'My friend means the +Ritz. I'm taking him there.' + +"'I shouldn't, if I was you,' said the man sourly; 'not unless he's +an American.' + +"'He is,' said I, 'and from Texas. I am charged to deliver him at +the Ritz, where all will be explained': and I dashed around to the +rear of the cab, collared Farrell, and hoicked him inboard. . . . + +"The cab was no sooner under way and steering west-by-south than +Farrell clutched hold of me and burst into tears on my shoulder. +It appeared, as I coaxed it from him, that his mind had cast back, +and he was lamenting the dearth of policemen in Soho. + +"The hole above us opened, and the cabman spoke down. + +"'Are you sure you meant the Ritz, sir--really?' + +"'I don't want to compromise you,' said I. 'Drop us at the head of +St. James's Street.' + +"He did so; took his fee, and hesitated for a moment before turning +his horse. 'Sure you can manage the gentleman, sir?' he asked. + +"'Sure, thank you,' said I, and he drove away slowly. I steered +Farrell into the shelter of the Ritz's portico, facing Piccadilly." + +"_They draw the blinds now (put in Otway) under the Lighting Order: +but in those days the Ritz was given--I won't say to advertising its +opulence--but to allowing a glimpse of real comfort to the itinerant +millionaire. Jimmy resumes:--_ + +"'Now, look here,' said I, indicating the show inside: 'I wasn't +hungry to start with: and I suggest we've both inhaled enough garlic +to put us off the manger for a fortnight. As for the bucket, you've +exceeded already, and I have taken more than is going to be good for +me--a subtle difference which I won't pause here and now to explain. +It's a kindly suggestion of yours," said I; 'but I put it to you that +it's time for good little Progressives to be in their beds, and +you'll just take a taxi from the rank on the slope, trundle home to +Wimbledon and go bye-bye.' + +"Farrell wasn't listening. He had his shoulders planted against a +pillar of the portico, and had fallen into a brown study, staring in +upon the giddy throng. + +"'When we look,' said he slowly, like an orator in a dream--'when we +are privileged to contemplate, as we are at this moment, such a +spectacle of the idle Ritz--excuse me, the idle Rich--and their +goings on, and countless poor folk in the East End with nothing +but a herring--if that--between them and to-morrow's sunrise-- +well, I don't know how it strikes you, but to me it is an Object +Lesson. You'll excuse me, Mr.--I haven't the pleasure to remember +your name at this moment. I connect it with my Maria's two +pianners--something between the Broadwood and the Collard and +Collard--you'll excuse me, but putting myself in the place of the +angel Gabriel, merely for the sake of argument, this is the sort of +way it would take _me_!' + +"Before I could jump for him, Otty, he lifted his hand and flung +something--I don't know what it was, for a certainty, but I believe +it was the 'Blanco' tin of sulphuretted hydrogen, that he had been +nursing all the way from the 'Catalafina.' . . . At any rate the +missile hit. There was an agreeable crash of plate glass, and we ran +for our lives. + +"You know the long rank of taxis on the slope of Piccadilly. +We pelted for it. Before an alarm whistle sounded I had gained the +fifth in the row. The drivers were all gathered in their shelter, +probably discussing politics. I made for a car, cried to Farrell to +jump in, hoicked up the works like mad, and made a spring for the +seat and the steering-gear. Amid the alarm-whistles sounding from +the Ritz I seemed to catch a shrill scream close behind me, and +looked around to make sure that my man was inside. The door +slammed-to, and I steered out for a fair roadway. + +"There was a certain amount of outcry in the rear. But I opened-out +down the slope and soon had it well astern. We sailed past Hyde Park +Corner, down Knightsbridge, and cut along Brompton Road into Fulham +Road, and rounded into King's Road, cutting the kerb a trifle too +fine. Speed rather than direction being my object for the moment, +Otty, I rejoiced in a clear thoroughfare and let her rip for Putney +Bridge. There was a communication tube in the taxi, and for some +while it had been whistling in my ear, with calls and outcries in +high falsetto interjected between the blasts. 'Funny dog's +ventriloquising,' thought I, and paid no further attention to the +noises. Our pace was such, I couldn't be distracted from the +steering. . . . I was quite sober by this time: sober, but +considerably exhilarated. + +"My spirit soared as we took the bridge with a rush, cleared the High +Street and breasted Putney Hill for the Heath. The night was clear, +with a southerly breeze. The stars shone, and I seemed to inhale all +the scents of a limitless prairie, wafted past the wind-screen from +the heath and the stretch of Wimbledon Common beyond. . . . Why +should I miss anything of this glorious chance? Why should I tamely +deliver Farrell at a house the name of which I had forgotten, the +situation of which was unknown to me, the domestics of which, when I +found it by painful inquiry, would probably receive me with cold +suspicion, as a misleader of middle-age? In fine, why should I not +strike the Common and roam there, letting the good car have her head +while Farrell slept himself sober. A line or two of the late Robert +Browning's waltzed in my head:" + + 'What if we still ride on, we two?' + '--Ride, ride together, for ever ride.' + +"I brought the car gently to a halt on the edge of the heath, under +the stars, climbed out, and opened the door briskly. + +"'Look here, Farrell,' I announced. 'I've a notion--' + +"'Then it's more than _I_ have, of the way you're treating a lady!' +answered a voice; and out stepped a figure in skirts! By George, +Otty, you might have knocked me down with a--with a feather boa: +which was just what this apparition seemed preparing to do. +I had brought the taxi to rest close under a gas-lamp, and in the +light of it she confronted me, slightly swaying the hand which +grasped the boa. + +"'Good Lord! ma'am,' I gasped,' how in the world . . . ?' + +"'That's what I want to know,' said she, with more show of menace. +'What is your game, young man? Abduction?' + +"'I swear to you, ma'am,' I stammered, 'that my intentions would be +strictly honourable if I happened to have any. . . . I may be more +intoxicated than I felt up to a moment ago. . . . But let us, at all +events, keep our heads. It seems the only way out of this +predicament, that we keep strictly in touch with reality. Very well, +then. . . . You entered this vehicle, a middle-aged gentleman +something more than three sheets in the wind. You emerge from it +apparently sober and of the opposite sex. If any explanation be +necessary,' I wound up hardily, 'I imagine it to be due to _me_, who +have driven you thus far under a false impression--and, I may add, at +no little risk to the transpontine traffic.' + +"'Look here!' said this astonishing female. 'I don't know how it's +happened, but I believe I am addressing a gentleman--' + +"'I hope so,' said I, as she paused. + +"'Well, then,' she demanded, smoothing her skirt, and seating herself +on the edge of the grass, under the lamplight. 'The question is, +what do you propose to do? I place myself in your hands, +unreservedly.' + +"I managed to murmur that she did me honour. 'But with your leave, +ma'am,' said I, 'we'll defer that point for a moment while you tell +me how on earth you have managed to change places with my friend, +whom with my own eyes I saw enter this vehicle. It must have been a +lightning change anyhow: for all the way from Piccadilly I have been +priding myself on our speed.' + +"'Change places?' she exclaimed. 'Change places? I'm a respectable +married woman, young sir: and as such I'd ask you what else was due +to myself when he sat down on my lap without even being interjuiced?' + +"I made a step to the door of the taxi, but turned and came back. +'He's inside, then?' I asked. + +"'Of course he's inside,' she retorted. 'What d'you take me for? +A body-snatcher? Inside he is, and snoring like a pig. Wake him up +and ask him if I've be'aved short of a lady from the first.' + +"'He's incapable of it, ma'am,' said I. 'Or, rather, I should say, +_you_ are incapable of it. By which I mean that my friend is +incapable of--er--involving you otherwise than innocently in a +situation of which--er--you are both incapable, respectively. +Appearances may be against us--' + +"'Look here,' she chipped in. 'Have you been drinking too?' + +"'A little,' I admitted. 'But you may trust me to be discreet. +How this responsibility comes to be mine, I can't guess: but it is +urgent that I restore you to your home, or at any rate find you a +decent lodging for the night. Where is your home?' I asked. + +"'Walsall,' said she. 'And I wish I had never left it!' + +"'Well, ma'am,' said I, 'I won't be so ungallant as to echo that +regret. But, speaking for the moment as a taxi-driver, I put it that +Walsall is a tidy distance. Were you, by some process that passes my +guessing, on your way to Walsall when we, as it seems, intercepted +you in Piccadilly?' + +"'Not at all,' she answered. 'On the contrary, I was wanting to get +to Shorncliffe Camp.' + +"I mused. 'From Walsall? . . . They must have opened a new route +lately.' + +"'It's this way,' she told me. 'My husband's a sergeant in the Royal +Artillery. He's stationed at Shorncliffe: and I was to meet him +there to-night, travelling through London. When I got to London, +what with the shops and staring at Buckingham Palace, and one thing +and another, I missed the last train down. So, happening to find +myself by a line of taxis, I had a mind to ask what the fare might be +down to Shorncliffe and tell the man that my husband was expecting me +and would pay at the other end. I was that tired, I got into the +handiest taxi--that looked smart and comfortable, with a little lamp +inside and a nice bunch of artificial flowers made up to look like my +Christian name--And what do you think that is? Guess.' + +"'I'm hopeless with plants, ma'am," said I, looking hard at the taxi. +'Might it be Daisy?' + +"'No, it ain't,' said she. 'There now, you'll take a long time +guessing, at that rate. It's Petunia. . . . Well, then as I was +saying, I got in and sat back in the cushions, waiting for the +Shofer, if that's how you pronounce it; and I reckon I must have +closed my eyes, for the next thing I remember was this friend of +yours sitting plump in my lap without so much as asking leave. +Before I could recover myself we were off. And now, I put it to you +as a gentleman, What's to become of me? For, as perhaps I ought to +warn you, my husband's a terror when he's roused.' + +"'He's at Shorncliffe. We won't rouse him to-night,' I assured her. +'It's funny,' I went on, 'how often the simplest explanation will--' +But I left that sentence unfinished. 'Have you any relatives in +London?' I asked brightly. + +"She hesitated, but at length confessed she had a sister resident in +Pimlico. + +"'Ah!' said I. 'She married beneath her, perhaps?' + +"Mrs. Petunia looked at me suspiciously in the lamplight. 'How did +you guess that?' she asked. + +"'Simplicity itself, ma'am,' I answered. 'She could hardly have done +less. And from Eaton Square to Pimlico, what is it but a step? . . . +Or, you may put it down to a brain-wave. Yes, ma'am. And I'm going +to have another." + +"I stepped to the door of the taxi, threw it open, and shouted to +Farrell to tumble out. + +"'Wha's matter?' he asked sleepily. 'Where are we?' + +"'We're on the edge of Putney Heath,' said I. + +"'Ri'!' said he in a murmur. 'You're true friend. First turning +to the left and keep straight on. Second gate on Common pasht +pillar-box.' + +"I haled him forth. 'Look here,' said I. 'Pull yourself together. +I find that we've, in our innocence, abducted this lady, who happened +to be resting in the taxi when you jumped in.' + +"Farrell, making a mental effort, blinked hard. 'That accounts for +it,' said he. 'Thought I felt something wrong when I sat down.' + +"'That being so,' I went on, 'you will agree that our first duty, as +we are chivalrous men, is to restore her to her relatives.' + +"'B'all means,' he agreed heartily. 'R'shtore her. Why not?' + +"'As it happens, she has a sister living in Pimlico.' + +"'They all--' he began: but I was on the watch and fielded the ball +smartly. + +"'And you, unless I'm mistaken,' said I, 'are a member of the +National Liberal Club?' + +"'We all--' he began again, and checked himself to gaze on me with +admiration. 'Shay that again,' he demanded. "'You are a member of +the National Liberal Club?' I repeated. + +"'I am,' he owned; 'but I couldn' pr'nounce it just at this moment, +not for a tenner. An' you've said it twice! Tha's what I call +carryin' liquor like a gentleman: or else you've studied +voice-producsh'n. Wish I'd studied voice-producsh'n, your age. +Usheful, County Council.' + +"'County Council!' put in the lady sharply. 'Don't tell me!' + +"'He's but a candidate at present, ma'am,' I explained. + +"She eyed us both suspiciously. 'No kid, is it?' she asked. +'You ain't a dress-clothes detective? What? . . . Then, as between a +lady and a gentleman, why haven't you introduced him? It's usual.' + +"'So it is, ma'am. Forgive me, this is Mr. Peter Farrell. +Mr. Farrell, the--the--Lady Petunia.' + +"'And very delicately you done it, young man.' The Lady Petunia +bowed amiably. 'This ain't no--this isn't--no time nor place for +taking advantages and compromising.' She pitched her voice higher +and addressed Farrell. 'I'm pleased to make your acquaintance, if I +caught your name correctly. Mr. Farrell?--and of the National +Liberal Club? The address is sufficient, sir. It carries its own +recommendation--though I had hoped for the Constitutional.' + +"'It's still harder to pronounce, ma'am,' I assured her. 'That is my +friend's only reason.' + +"'It was you that started my-ladying me,' she claimed. 'Why don't +you keep it up? I like it.' + +"'My dear Lady Petunia,' said I, 'as you so well put it, the National +Liberal Club carries its own recommendation. What's more, it's going +to be the saving of us.' + +"'I don't see connecshun,' objected Farrell. 'They don't admit--' + +"'They'll admit you,' I said; 'and that's where you'll sleep +to-night. The night porter will hunt out a pair of pyjamas and +escort you up the lift. Oh, he's used to it. He gets politicians +from Bradford and such places dropping in at all hours. Don't try +the marble staircase--it's winding and slippery at the edge. . . . +And don't stand gaping at me in that helpless fashion, but get a move +on your intelligence. . . . We're dealing with a lady in distress, +and that's our first consideration. Now I can't take you on to +Wimbledon, however willing to be shut of you: first, because it would +take time, and next because I'm not sure how much petrol's left in +the machine. So back we turn for be lights of merry London. +We deposit the Lady Petunia at--what's the address, ma'am?" + +"'Never you mind,' said she helpfully. 'Put me down somewhere near +the end of Vauxhall Bridge, and I'll find my way.' + +"'Spoken like an angel,' said I. 'And then, Farrell, you're for the +National Liberal Club. The servants there are not known to me, but +I'll bet on their asking fewer questions than I should have to answer +your housekeeper.' + +"I think Farrell was about to demand time for consideration. But the +Lady Petunia gripped him by the arm. 'Loveadove!' she exclaimed. +'There's a copper coming down the road!' We bundled him back into +the taxi. 'It's a real copper, too,' she warned me as she sprang in +at his heels. 'Spark her up, and hurry!--I can tell the sound of +their boots at fifty yards.' + +"Well, Otty, I sprang to the stirrup, and Joris and she.--She was +right. The policeman came up and drew to a halt as, without an +indecent show of haste, I dropped into the driver's seat, started up +and slewed the wheel round. + +"'Anything wrong?' he asked. + +"'There was,' said I. 'Over-succulence in the bivalves: but she'll +work home, I think.' + +"I pipped him Good night, and we sailed down the hill in some style. +Sharp to the right, and by and by I opened a common on my right-- +Wandsworth? Clapham?--Don't ask _me_. I named it Clapham. 'To your +tents, O Clapham!' I shouted as I went: but the warning was +superfluous. As the poet--wasn't it Wordsworth?--remarked on a +famous occasion, Dear God! the very houses seemed asleep. . . .' + +"It must have been five or six minutes later that our petrol gave out +and my trusted taxi came gently to a halt in the middle of the +roadway. I climbed out, opened the door and explained. 'Step out, +quick,' said I, 'and make down this street to the left. We must +tangle the track a bit, with this piece of evidence behind us.' + +"The Lady Petunia considerately took Farrell's arm. 'Why, he can +walk!' she announced. 'I'm all ri'!' Farrell assured her. 'You may +be yet,' she answered, 'if you keep your head shut.' Farrell asked +me if I considered that a ladylike expression. To this she retorted +that she couldn't bear for anyone to speak crossly to her: it broke +her heart. + +"'Capital!' said I. 'Voices a tone lower, please--but keep it up, +and you're husband and wife, returning from an evening at the +theatre. Taxi broken down--wife peevish at having to walk remaining +distance. Keep it up, and I'll undertake to steer you past half the +police in London.' + +"Well, I steered them past two, and without a question. Not one of +us knew our bearings, but we were making excellent weather of it, and +at length came out by the by-streets upon a fine broad thoroughfare +with an arc-lamp at the corner. + +"I stared up at the building on my left, against which he lamp shone. +There was no street-sign at the angle, and an inscription in large +gilt letters on the facade was not very hopeful--ROYAL SOUTH LONDON +PICTUREDROME--yet to some extent reassuring. We were at any rate +lost in London; and not in Byzantium, as we might have deduced from +other architectural details. + +"'And yet I am not wholly sure,' said I. 'We will ask the next +policeman. _Picturedrome_ now--barbaric union of West and East.-- +Surely the word must be somewhere in Gibbon. Ever met it in Gibbon, +Farrell?' + +"'No, I haven't,' he answered testily. 'Never was in Gibbon, to my +knowledge. Where is it? . . . But I'll tell you what!' he wound up, +fierce and sudden; 'I've met with too many policemen to-night; +avenuesh, we've been passin'. Seems to me neighb'rhood infested. +Not like Soho. 'Nequal dishtribush'n bobbies. 'Nequal distribush'n +everything. Cursh--curse--modern shivilzash'n--damn!' + +"'Our taxi,' I mused, 'may have been a magic one. We are in a dream, +and the Lady Petunia is part of it. She may vanish at any moment--' + +"But Petunia had turned about for a glance along the street behind +us. Instead of vanishing, she clawed my arm sharply, suppressed a +squeal, and pointed. . . . Fifty yards away stood a taxi, and two +policemen beside it, flashing their lanterns over it and into its +interior. + +"Between two flashes I recognised it. . . . It was _mine_, my Arab +taxi, my beautiful, my own. . . . Farrell's fatal propensity for +steering to the right had fetched us around, almost full circle. + +"There she stood, with her mute appealing headlights. 'Wha's +matter?' asked Farrell. 'Oh, I say--Oh, come! _More_ of 'em?' + +"'I dragged him and Petunia back into the shadow under the side-wall +of the Picturedrome, and leaned back against the edifice while I +mopped my brow. My shoulder-blade encountered the sharp edge of a +rainwater pipe. A bright and glorious inspiration took hold of me. +Farrell had made all the running, so far: it was time for me to +assert my manhood. + +"'Wait here,' I whispered, 'and all will be well. In three +minutes--' + +"'Here, I say!' interposed the Lady Petunia. 'You're not going to do +a bilk?' + +"'Dear lady,' I answered, 'for at least twenty minutes you have been +complaining, and pardonably, that my friend and I have enjoyed the +pleasure of your company yet repaid it with no form of entertainment. +I fear we cannot offer you Grand Opera. But if your taste inclines +to the Movies--' + +"'Get along, you silly,' she rebuked me. 'Ain't you sober enough to +see the place is closed?' + +"'If I were sure it wouldn't be used as evidence against me,' I +answered gallantly, 'I should say that Love laughs at Locksmiths. +Here, take my overcoat; my watch also--as evidence of good faith and +because it gets in one's way, climbing. . . . Wait by this door, +which (you can see) is an Emergency Exit, and within five minutes you +shall be reposing in a plush seat and admitting that the finish +crowns the work.'" + + +"Well, at this hour, Otty, I won't dwell on my contribution to the +evening's pleasure. Besides, it was nothing to boast of. I was a +member of the Oxford Alpine Club, you know: and the water-pipe +offered no difficulties. The stucco was in poor condition--I should +say that it hardens more easily in Byzantium--but for difficulty +there was nothing comparable with New College Chapel, or the friable +masonry and the dome of the Radcliffe. + +"I let myself down through a skylight into the bowels of the place: +found, with the help of matches, the operating box and the gallery, +switched on the lights, and shinned down a pillar to the stalls. +After that, to open the Emergency Exit and admit my audience was what +the detective stories call the work of a moment. I re-closed the +door carefully, and climbed back to manipulate the lantern. + +"I had helped to work one of these shows once, at a Sunday School +treat--or a Primrose Fete--forget which--down in the country. +It's quite simple when you have the hang of it. . . . I made a mull +with the first reel: got it upside down; and Petunia, from somewhere +deep under the gallery, called up 'Gar'n!' It was a Panorama of +Pekin, anyway, and dull enough whichever way you took it. + +"After that we fairly spun through 'The Cowpuncher's Stunt'--a train +robbery--'The Missing Million,' and a man tumbling out of the top +storey of Flat-Iron Building, New York. He went down, storey after +storey, to the motto of 'Keep on Moving,' and just before he hit the +ground he began to tumble up again. On his way up he smacked all the +faces looking out at the windows--I often wonder, Otty, how they get +people to do these things: but I suppose the risk's taken into +account in the pay. + +"Farrell took a great fancy to 'Keep on Moving.' Up to this we had +been snug as fleas in a blanket; but now he started to make such a +noise, encoring, that I had to step down to the gallery and lean over +it and request Petunia to take the cover off the piano and play +something, if she could, to deaden the outcries. 'Something domestic +on the loud pedal,' I suggested. 'Create an impression that we're +holding a rehearsal after hours.' + +"She came forward, looked up, and said that I reminded her of Romeo +and Juliet upside down. + +"'Of course!' I explained. 'We're in Pekin. Get to the piano, +quick.' + +"'I've forgotten my scales,' she answered back, between Farrell's +calls of ''Core! 'Core!'--'Will it do if I sit on the keys?' + +"She went to the instrument. 'Often, and _con expressione_!' +I shouted; 'and back-pedal for all you are worth!' Then I climbed +down and collared Farrell, for the police had begun to hammer on the +door. I grabbed for his head: but it must have been by the collar I +caught him--that being where he wore most fur. . . . There was a +stairway between the stalls and the gallery. I whirled him up it, +and leaned over the gallery rail, calling to Petunia. She had +dragged off the piano-cover and was rolling herself up in it. . . . +Then, as the police crashed in, I switched off the lights. + +"Somehow or another I hauled Farrell up and on to the flat roof. +'Now,' said I, after prospecting a bit in a hurry, 'the great point +is to keep cool. You follow me over this parapet, lower yourself, +and drop on to the next roof. It's a matter of sixteen feet at most, +and then we'll find a water-pipe.' + +"But he wouldn't. He said that he suffered from giddiness on a +height and had done so from the age of sixteen, but that he was game +for any number of policemen. He'd seen too many policemen, and +wanted to reduce the number. I left him clawing at a chimney-pot, +and--well, I told you the stucco was brittle, and you saw the state +of his clothes. I think he must have got out a brick or two and put +up a fight. + +"For my part, I slid three-quarters of the way down a pipe, lost my +grip somehow and tumbled sock upon the serried ranks of a brutal and +licentious constabulary. They broke my fall, and afterwards I did my +best. But, as Farrell had justly complained, there were too many of +them. So now you know," Jimmy wound up with a yawn. + +"What about the Lady Petunia?" I asked. + +"Oh!" He woke up with a start and laughed: "I forgot--and it's the +cream, too. . . . The police who grabbed me had been hastily summoned +by whistle. They rushed me up two side streets and towards a +convenient taxi. It was convenient: it was stationary. . . . It was +my own, own taxi, still sitting. One constable shouted for its +driver; another had almost pushed me in when he started to apologise +to somebody inside. It was Petunia, wrapped in slumber. She must +have slipped out by the Emergency Exit and taken action with great +presence of mind. I don't know if they managed to wake her up, or +what happened to her." Jimmy yawned again. "What's the time, Otty? +It must be any hour of the morning. . . . _I_ don't know. She forgot +to return my watch." + + + +NIGHT THE SEVENTH. + + +THE OUTRAGE. + +Jephson awoke me at 7.30 as usual. But I dozed for another half an +hour and should have dropped asleep again had it not been that some +little thing--I could not put a name to the worry--kept teasing my +brain; some piece of grit in the machine. An engagement forgotten? +an engagement to be kept?--Nothing very important. . . . + +Then I remembered, jumped out of bed, and knocked in at Jimmy's room. +I expected to find him stretched in heavy slumber. But no: he stood +before his dressing-table, tubbed, shaven, half-clothed, and looking +as fresh as paint. + +"Hallo!" said he. "Anything wrong?" + +"Just occurred to me," said I, "this is the morning you were due to +breakfast with Jack. Thought I'd remind you, in case you might want +to telephone and put him off." + +"If I remember," said Jimmy thoughtfully, rummaging in a drawer, +"this Jack's other name is Foe. If it were Ketch, I'd be obliged to +you for ringing him up with that message. . . . It's all right. +Plenty of time. Breakfast and conversation with the learned prepared +for me right on my way to the Seat of Justice. Providence--and you +can call it no less--couldn't have ordered it better. Here, help me +to choose.--What's the neatest thing in ties when a man's going to +feel his position acutely?" + +Upon this I observed that his infamous way of life seemed to leave +more impression upon his friends than on himself; and stalked back to +my bedchamber. + +"Ingrate!" he shouted after me. "When you've seen Farrell!" + +So I breakfasted alone, read the papers (which reported that Mr. +Farrell's meeting overnight had been "accompanied by scenes of +considerable disorder "), dealt with some correspondence, and in due +time was taxi'd to Ensor Street. There I found Jimmy on the +penitents' bench, full of sparkling interest in the proceedings of +the court and in the line--a long and variegated one--of his +fellow-indictables. Farrell sat beside him, sprucely dressed but +woebegone. He wore a sort of lamp-shade, of a green colour, over his +eyes, and (as Jimmy put it) "looked the part--Prodigal Son among the +Charlottes." By some connivance--on some faked pretence, I make no +doubt, that I was his legal adviser--the police allowed Jimmy to +cross over and consult me. He informed me that the Professor had put +him up an excellent breakfast of grilled sole and devilled kidneys, +and had afterwards shown him round the laboratory. "Wonderful man, +the Professor! But you should see that dog of his he calls Billy-- +hairy little yellow beast that flies into rages like a mad thing, and +then at a word crawls on its belly. Sort of beast that dies on his +master's grave, in the children's books, like any human creature." + + +The charge was not called on the list until 12.30 or thereabouts. + . . . They say that in England there's one law for the rich and +another for the poor. I don't know about that: but there's one for +the bright and young and another for the middle-aged and sulky. +The police had already let Jimmy down lightly on the charge sheet: +they showed further leniency at the hearing. Even the constable who +faced the Bench with an eye like a damnatory potato contrived to +suggest that he would have left it outside if he could--so +benevolently, so appreciatively he made it twinkle as he gave +evidence. Jimmy tried to take the blame; but the Magistrate, without +relaxing his face, fined him two pounds and mulcted Farrell in five. +He added some scathing remarks upon old men who led their juniors +astray and called themselves Martin Luther when they were nothing of +the sort. I wondered if he knew that he was admonishing a candidate +for County Council honours. I had a notion that he did. His address +lasted half a minute or less, and during it he kept his gaze +implacably fixed on the culprit: but by the working of his under-jaw +and of the muscles below it I seemed to surmise--shall we say--a +certain process of deglutition. + +Their fines paid, Jimmy--staunch to the last--brought Farrell forth +to me, who waited outside by the doorstep. + +"Look here, Otty; he's in trouble--" + +"Of his own making, by all accounts," I put in sternly. + +Farrell began to stutter. "A most untoward--er--incident, Sir +Roderick--_most_ untoward! Compromising, I fear?" + +"You've lost us the seat, that's all," I told him. + +"Oh, I trust not--I trust not!" he protested. "Might the reporters +be--er--" + +"Squared?" I suggested. + +"Induced--yes, induced--to omit the--er--personal reference?" + +"Like the Scarlet Mr. E's," suggested Jimmy, "or the Scarlet +Pimpernel--rather a good name for you, Farrell. Better than Martin +Luther, anyway. The Scarlet Pimpernel, or Two in a Taxi, Not to +Mention the Lady. Or--wait a bit--Peter and Petunia, or Marooned in +Soho. Reader, do you know the 'Catalafina'? If not, let me--" + +"Jimmy," I commanded, "don't make an ass of yourself. . . . As for +you, Mr. Farrell, let me remind you of a pretty wise saying of +somebody's--that influence is jolly useful until you have used it. +If I remember, I strained my little stock of it with these reporters +two nights ago." + +"I wouldn't jib at expense, Sir Roderick," he whimpered. + +"Don't kick him, Otty," Jimmy implored. "He's down. And listen to +me, Farrell," he went on, swinging about. "You can't help it: it's +the Hire System working out through the pores. You don't perspire +what you think you're perspiring, though you're doing it freely +enough. . . . Now, Otty--for my sake--if you don't mind!" + +"Well then, Mr. Farrell," said I, "I'm ready to do this much for +you.--We'll find a taxi here and now for the Whips' Offices and take +their advice. Having taken it, I am willing to drive straight back +to your Committee Rooms with the Head Office's decision." + +The man's nerves were anywhere. He clung to me for counsel--for mere +company--as he would have clung to anybody. + +So we found a taxi and climbed in, all three. + + +But I did not reach the Whips' Office that day. + +There was a hold-up as we neared the bridge, and we to came a dead +stop. I set it down to some ordinary block of traffic, and with a +touch of annoyance: for Farrell by this time was arguing himself out +as a victim of circumstances, and with a feebleness of sophistry that +tried the patience. I remember saying "The long and short of it is, +you've made a fool of yourself. . . . Why on earth can't this fellow +get a move on?"--As though he had heard me, just then the driver +slewed about and shot us back a queer half-humorous glance through +the glass screen. + +Jimmy, lolling crossways on one of the little let-down seats with his +leg across the other, caught the glance, sprang up and thrust his +head out at the window. + +"Hallo!" said he. "Suffragettes? Dog-fight? . . . Pretty good riot, +anyhow,"--and the next moment he was out on the roadway. I craned up +for a look through the screen, and stepped out in his wake. + +Some thirty yards ahead of us, close by the gates of the South London +College, a dense crowd blocked the thoroughfare. It was a curiously +quiet crowd, but it swayed violently under some pressure in the +centre, and broke as we watched, letting through a small body of +police with half a dozen men and youths in firm custody. + +My wits gave a leap, and my heart sank on the instant. I stepped to +the taxi door and commanded Farrell to tumble out. + +"Here's more of your mess-work, unless I'm mistaken," said I. + +"Mine?" He looked at me with a dazed face. "Mine?" he quavered. +"Oh, but what has happened? . . . There would seem to be some +conspiracy. . . ." + +"Yes, you interfering ass. Out with you, quick! and we'll talk +later." I turned my shoulder on him as I handed the driver his fare. +"Now follow and keep close to me." + +I stepped forward to meet the Sergeant in charge of the convoy. +He would have put me aside. "Sorry, sir, but you must tell your man +to take you round by the next bridge. Traffic closed here--half an +hour, maybe." Then he caught sight of Farrell behind my shoulder, +recognised him, and called his party to a halt. "Excuse me," he +said, with a fine official manner committing him to no approval of +us, "but is this the Candidate? . . . Well, you've come prompt, sir, +but scarcely prompt enough. Situation's in hand, so to speak. +Still you might be useful, getting the crowd to clear off peaceable." +He pondered for a couple of seconds. "Yes, I'll step back with you +to the gate, sirs, and pass you in. You, Wrightson," he spoke up to +a second in command, "take over this little lot and deliver them: +it's all clear ahead. Get back as fast as you can. . . . Now, sirs, +if you'll follow me--there's no danger--the half of 'em no more than +sightseers." + +"Just a word, Sergeant," said I, catching up his stride. "I want to +know how this started and how far it has gone." + +He glanced at me sideways. "Not on oath, sir, nor official, eh? +What isn't hearsay is opinion, if you understand. Far as I make it +out--but we was caught on the hop, more by ill luck than ill +management--it started with an open-air meetin' right yonder, at the +corner of the Park. Your friend--that is to say Mr. Farrell, if I +make no mistake-" + +"Yes, he's Mr. Farrell all right. Go on." + +"Well, he was billed to attend, sir; but he didn't turn up." + +"He had another engagement," I put in. + +"Well, and I did hear some word, too, to that effect," allowed the +Sergeant, with another professional glance, subdolent but correct. +"But, as reported to me, his absence was unfortunate. One or two of +the wrong sort got hold of the mob, and there was a rush for the +College gates. . . . Which the two or three constables did their best +and 'phoned me up." + +"Much damage?" I asked. + +"Can't say, sir. I was given post at the gates, where for ten +minutes my fellows was kept pretty busy bashing 'em and throwing 'em +out. You see, it being Saturday, most of the students had gone home, +and the porter was took of a heap and ran. . . . Or that's how it was +reported. And whiles we was thus occupied, word came out that the +game was over without need to call reinforcements, if we could hold +the gate. We answered back sayin' if that was all we was doing it +comfortably. Whereupon they began to hand us out the arrests, with +word that some outbuildings had been wrecked and a considerable deal +of glass broken. Lavatories, as I gathered." + +"Laboratories," I suggested. + +"Very like," the Sergeant agreed; "if you put it so. It struck me as +sounding like the sort of place where you wash your hands. . . . +We was pretty busy just then, or up to that moment; but from +information that reached me, they was trying to wreck some part of +the science buildings." + +"One more question," said I--for by this time we had reached the edge +of the crowd. "Do you happen to know if Professor Foe was in the +building at the time?" + +"He was not, sir. He had locked up for the day and gone home to his +private house. They fetched him by 'phone. . . . I know, sir, having +received instructions to pass him in: which I did, under escort. +You needn't be anxious about him, if he's a friend of yours." + +But I was. + +The crowd, as the Sergeant had promised, was curious rather than +vicious; much the sort of crowd that the King's coach will fetch out, +or a big fire; and from this I augured hopefully (correctly, too, as +it proved) that the actual rioters had been little more than a +handful, excited by Saturday's beer and park-oratory. . . . +The average Londoner takes very little truck in municipal politics, +as I'd been deploring for a fortnight on public platforms. It costs +you all your time to get one in ten of him to attend a public +meeting: he's cynical and sits with his back to the ring where a few +earnest men and women, and a number of cranks, are putting it up +against the Vested Interests and the Press. + +As we came up, some few recognised Farrell, and raised a cheer. . . . +I dare say that helped: but anyhow the Sergeant worked us through +with great skill, here and there addressing a man good-naturedly and +advising him to go home and take his wages to the missus, because the +fun was over and soon there might be pickpockets about. In thirty +seconds or so we had reached the gate and were admitted. + +The porter's lodge had escaped lightly. A trampled flower-bed, +flowerless at this season, and a few broken window-panes, were all +the evidence that the rioters had passed. A little farther on where +the broad carriage-way, that ran straight to the College portico, +threw out branches right and left to the Natural Science Buildings, a +number of ornamental shrubs had been mutilated, a few of the smaller +uprooted. Foe's laboratory lay to the left, and we were about to +take this bend when a tall man came striding across to us from the +right; a short way ahead of two others, one round and pursy and of +clerical aspect, the other an official in the Silversmiths' uniform. +The tall man I guessed at once to be the Principal, returning from a +survey of the damage done: and I waited while he approached. He wore +an angry frown, and his eyes interrogated us pretty sharply. + +"Sir Elkin Travers?" I asked. + +"At your service, sir, if you are sent to help in this business?" +Sir Elkin's eyes passed on this question to the Police Sergeant and +reverted to me. "From Whitehall?" he asked. + +"No, sir," I answered. "My name is Otway--Sir Roderick Otway; and +our only excuse for being here is that two of us are close friends of +Professor Foe. Indeed, sir, for myself, let me say that I have for +many years been his closest friend, and I am anxious about him." + +"You have need to be, I fear," said Sir Elkin, speaking slowly. +"I was going back to him at this moment. Will you come with +me. . . . This, by the way, is Mr. Michelmore, our College Bursar." + +"With your leave, gentleman," put in the Sergeant, "I'll be going +back now. They've collared most of the ringleaders; but by the sound +of it they're beating the shrubberies for the stray birds . . ." + +"Certainly, Sergeant--certainly. . . . Your men have been most +prompt." Sir Elkin dismissed him, and again bent his attention on +us. "You are all friends of the Professor's?" he asked. + +"Two of us," said I. "This third is Mr. Farrell, who has come to +express his sincere regret." + +The Principal's eyes, which had been softening, hardened again +suddenly with anger and suspicion. What must that ass Farrell do but +hold out his hand effusively? "Pleased to make your acquaintance, +Sir Elkin," he began. "Assure you--innocent--slightest intention-- +quite without my approval--outrage--deplorable--last thing in the +world--" + +He stammered, wagging a hand at vacancy; for the hand it reached to +grasp had swiftly withdrawn itself behind Sir Elkin's back, and +remained there. + +"We will discuss your innocence later on, sir. Be very sure you will +be given occasion to establish it, if you can." Sir Elkin's glare, +under his iron-grey eyebrows, promised No Quarter. "Since you have +pushed your way in with these gentlemen, it may interest you to +follow us and see the results of your ignorant incitement." + +He shook Farrell off--as it were--with a hunching movement of the +shoulder, and turned to me. + +"Come, sir," he said, courteously enough. "I warn you it is a +tragedy." + +"But my friend is unhurt?" I asked anxiously. "The Sergeant told +me--" + +"Doctor Foe had left the building--whether fortunately or +unfortunately you shall judge--half an hour before the mob +arrived. Saturday is, for lecturing, a _dies non_ with him, though +he often spends the whole day here at his work." Sir Elkin paused. +"By the way, did I catch your name aright, just now? You are Sir +Roderick Otway? . . . Then I ought to have thanked you, before this. +It was you who sent me a message yesterday. Foe himself made light +of it--" + +"I wish I had come with him," said I, with something like a groan. + +"I wish to Heaven you had," he agreed very seriously. "For I have a +confession to make. . . . I was a fool. I contented myself with +warning a few of the teaching staff to be on their guard, and with +setting an extra round of night-watchers. But I neglected to see to +it that Foe removed his papers to the College strong-room. I did +suggest it; but when he pointed out that it would involve an +afternoon's work at least, and went on to grumble that it would +probably cost him a month to re-sort them--that he hated all meddling +with his records--" + +"My God!" I cried. "You don't tell me his records--eight years' +close work, as I know--" + +"Eight years," repeated the Principal in grave echo as my words +failed. "Eight years' work: that would have cost a few hours to +secure--a week, perhaps, to rearrange; and in twenty minutes or so--" +He broke off. "You see that smoke?" he asked. "Over there by the +two tall Wellingtonias? . . . There, sir, goes up the last trace of +those eight years of our friend's devotion. Patience amounting to +genius, loyalty to truth for truth's sake so absolute that one +careless moment is dishonour, records calculated to a hair, tested, +retested, worked over, brooded over--there's what in twenty minutes +your Hun and your Goth can make of it in this world!" + +"But, sir," I broke in, "books and packed paper don't burn in that +way! Foe's Regent-Park notes alone ran to thirty-two letter-cases +when I saw them last. He brought home two bullock-trunks from +Uganda, stuffed solid--" + +Sir Elkin wheeled about sharply. "Mr. Farrell," said he, "you had a +letter in yesterday's _Times_." + +"If it had crossed my mind, Sir Elkin," pleaded Farrell with a +wagging movement of his whole body, propitiatory, such as dogs make +when they see the whip. "I do assure you--" + +"I seem to recollect," interrupted Sir Elkin, "your saying that +considerable sums of public money were spent on our laboratories. +The grant allocated to this College for research was so munificent +that, after building a physiological laboratory with a small +lecture-theatre, we had to house the professor himself in a +match-boarded room covered with corrugated iron. Between them"-- +he turned to me in swift explanation--"they made a furnace. . . . +Yes, Mr. Farrell, and you asked why, if all is well inside my +laboratories, I should fear the light. You would insist on knowing +what you were paying for. . . . Well, here is the answer, sir--if it +meet your demand." + +In the clearing where Jack's laboratory stood surrounded by turf and +a ring of conifers, a dozen firemen were busy coiling and packing +lengths of hose. The fire had been beaten; its last gasp was out; +and the main building stood, smoke-stained, water-stained, with +gaping sockets for windows, but with its roof apparently intact. +The trees were scorched to leeward, and the turf was a trampled +morass. Charred benches and desks, broken bottles, retorts, and +glass cases, bestrewed it. But of Jack's sanctum--of the room in +which I had been allowed to sit while he worked, because, as he put +it, "I made no noise with my pipe"--nothing remained save a mound of +ashes and a few sheets of iron roofing, buckled and contorted. +A thin wisp of smoke coiled up from the ruin. + +"Jack!" I called. + +"Let's try the theatre," Sir Elkin suggested. "I left him there." + +We went in. + +The rostrum Jack used for his lectures was low, flat-topped and +semicircular, with a high raised desk in the middle. Being isolated, +it had escaped the fire; as maybe it had proved too cumbrous for +removal. + +Anyhow, there it was; and Jack stood beside it busy with something he +was laying out on the flat desk-top. It looked like some sort of +jigsaw puzzle that he was piecing together very carefully, very-- +what's the word?--meticulously. He had a small heap of oddments on +his left, and a silk handkerchief in his right hand. His game was, +he picked out an oddment from the heap, polished it, fitted it more +or less into the silly puzzle, and stepped back to eye it. He looked +up, annoyed-like, as if we were breaking in on a delicate experiment. + +"Drop that, Foe!" Sir Elkin commanded, sharp and harsh, but with a +human tremble in his voice. His nails clawed into my arm. "It's his +dog," he whispered me, "or what's left. The poor brute held the +door, they say . . . sprang at their throats right and left . . . +till someone brained him and they threw his carcass into the +fire. . . . Drop it, Foe--that's a good fellow!" + +Jack stayed himself, stared at us dully, and put down the +handkerchief after dusting the bench with it. + +"Is that you, you fellows?" he asked, with a smile playing about his +mouth and twisting it. "Good of you, Roddy--though almost too late +for the fun! Jimmy, too? . . . They've made a bit of a mess here, +eh? . . . Ah, and there's Mr. Farrell! Will somebody introduce Mr. +Farrell? . . . Good-morning, sir! We'll--we'll talk this little +matter over--you and I--later." + + + + +BOOK II. + + + +THE CHASE. + + + +NIGHT THE EIGHTH. + + +VENDETTA. + + "My dear Roddy,--Don't come around: and for God's sake don't send + Jimmy. The word is 'No sympathy, by request.' You will + understand. + + "I shall call on you at 9 o'clock on Tuesday. Have breakfast + ready, for I shall be hungry as a hunter. + + "Don't fash yourself, either, with fears that I am 'unhinged' by + this business. I am just off to Paddington--thence for the + Thames--shan't say where: but it's a backwater, where I propose + to think things out. I shall have thought them out, quite + definitely, by Tuesday. + + "I believe you keep a few bottles of the audit ale. Tell Jephson + to open one for a stirrup-cup. You can invite Jimmy.-- + Yours truly, + J.F. + + "P.S.--I don't know, and can't guess, how you came to tumble in + so promptly on the heels of that riot. But you have always been + a cherub sitting up aloft and keeping watch over-- + Poor Jack. + + "P.P.S.--This by Special Messenger. . . . Forgive my breaking + away and leaving you all so impolitely. Nothing would do, just + then, but to escape and be alone.-- + Until Tuesday." + +A boy-messenger brought this missive at 5.30. I read it over in a +hurry, and took cheer: read it over a second time, sentence by +sentence, and liked it less. It left no doubt, anyhow, that to +search for Jack on the reaches of the river would be idle, as to find +him would be mean. So there was nothing to do but wait. + +That week-end, as it happened, brought a false promise of spring, +with a hard east wind and a clear sky. + +Punctually at nine o'clock on Tuesday he arrived, clean and hale and +positively bronzed. The old preoccupation of over-work rested no +longer upon him. We had made ready with grilled sole, omelette, +bacon and a cold game-pie. He ate like a cavalryman, talking all the +while of his adventures. It appeared that he had chosen the "Leather +Bottle" at Clifton Hampden for headquarters, and had spent a part of +Sunday discussing Christian Science with an atheistical bagman. +He said not a word of Saturday's happenings--talked away, in fact, as +if he had returned to us, on perfect terms of understanding, out of a +void. Jimmy played up and mulled some beer for us afterwards, on a +recipe of which (he gave us to know) the College of Brasenose, +Oxford, alone possessed the secret, to be imparted only to such of +its sons as had deserved it by godliness and good learning. + +Foe commended the brew, declined a cigar, and pulled out his old +pipe. + +"Infernal job," he began, "having to talk business, 'specially when +you've tasted freedom." + +He filled his pipe, lit it carefully, and went on. "I got back to +London early yesterday morning. Spent the day clearing up my worldly +affairs. . . . Don't look scared, Roddy. I've thrown up the +Professorship--that's all." + +"Why, in the world?" I wanted to know. + +"You may put it," he answered easily, "that, as the clerics say, I've +had a higher call." + +"Don't understand," said I; "unless you're telling us that Travers--" + +"Travers?" His eyebrows went up. "Oh, I see what you mean. +No: Travers hasn't been running around and finding me a better-paid +job as a solatium. He's a good fellow and quite capable of it. +Even hinted at something of the sort when I broke it to him verbally, +yesterday afternoon. I thanked him, but wasn't taking any. I get +quite as much money as I want at the Silversmiths'; and I've saved a +little, too. It's freedom, not money, I want; as a means to my +little end. I want complete freedom for a couple of years, perhaps +for three, or maybe even for longer. It may be I shall have to buy +myself an annuity. I'd ask for absolute independence if it could be +had--independence of all my fellow-creatures but one. But it can't +be had: so I've come to you for help." + +"Say on," I commanded. + +"It's this way, Roddy. Like the late General Trochu, I have a Plan. +Unlike his, it's a Great Plan. . . . Yes, I'll give you a glimpse of +it by and by. It involves--or may involve--the cutting of all human +ties--that is of all but one. Well, as you know, I haven't many, and +those clients of Farrell's have lightened me of worldly furniture. +What's become of Farrell, by the way?" + +"He's retiring from the contest, and has been advised to travel for +the good of his health. The Sunday papers settled it with their +reports of the Police Court proceedings. . . . What! Haven't you +heard?" + +"Now I come to think of it, Travers tried to tell me some story . . . +but I wasn't listening. . . . In trouble, is he? Good. Not going to +hang him, are they? Good." + +"The actual decision," said I, "was taken at the Whips' Office +yesterday morning. Farrell goes. There's just time to put up a +working-man candidate in his stead. But the seat's lost." + +"Good," repeated Jack tranquilly. "Eh? . . . Oh, I beg your pardon, +Roddy: I was looking at it from--well, from a different angle. . . . +Let's get back to my plan. Wasn't it Huck Finn who wished it were +possible to die temporarily? That's what I'm going to do, anyhow: +and I want you to be my executor." + +"I should need an inventory of your worldly goods, to start with," +said I gravely. + +"Drew it up, Sunday night. . . . Where's my coat? . . . here, catch!" +He pulled out a long legal envelope, well stuffed, and threw it +across to me. "Don't open it now. When you do, you'll find +everything in order. I've a habit of neatness with my worldly +affairs." + +"All very well," said I. "But you'll have to tell a lot more before +I commit myself. And, anyhow, things can't be done in this easy way. +You'll have to see a solicitor and get me power of attorney or +something of the sort--" + +"Look here," he interrupted; "I thought it was understood that I'd +come to you for _help_. Power of attorney? Bosh! Not going to +commit yourself? Why, man, you're committed! The cheque's drawn and +paid into your account at Hoare's. . . . I did it yesterday--caught +'em just before closing-time. You'll be hearing in a post or so. +They have all the bonds too, and my written instructions. . . . I +bank there, too, you know." + +"Heaven alive!" said I, with a gasp. "Are you telling me you've +chucked all you possess into my account?" + +"Why not?" he demanded. "Oh, you can make me out an I O U some time, +and get Jimmy to witness it, if you're so damned--what's the word?-- +punctilious. If you can't do me this simple favour, why then you +must sign the business over to Jimmy here." + +"No, you don't," answered Jimmy, and in accents commendably clear +considering that he uttered them with his nose deep in the tankard of +mulled ale. "Up to now I have played the good boy who is seen but +not heard. I break the self-imposed silence only to say: 'Woe betide +the man who attempts to complicate my overdraft!'" + +I addressed myself to Jack. "You'll be wanting money sent to you +from time to time, and I'm to transmit.--Is that the idea?" + +He nodded. + +"Where am I to send it?" + +"That's the uncertainty, of course. From time to time I shall keep +you informed. It may be to a suburban villa, it may be to some +_Poste Restante_ in the Sahara. That's as the chase goes. Like Baal +I shall be on a journey, or I shall be pursuing. Yes, anyway I shall +be pursuing. . . . All I ask is that, on getting a call, you'll send +out, as best you can, such-and-such a sum to the address indicated. +You have between 6000 and 7000 pounds sterling to play with. +Probably you will be surprised at my moderation in demanding: but +anyway I shall keep well within the limit. My memory and the +bank-book usually balance to a pound or two." + +"Then it's travel you're after?" I asked. + +He nodded. "On a journey--_and_ pursuing." + +"Big game?" + +"You may call it the biggest. Or I'm out to make it the biggest. + . . . Jimmy, pass me the tobacco." He took the jar and, filling his +pipe, lay back in the wicker chair with something like a groan. +"Roddy, can't you _see_? These years, as you know, I've been working +up my inquiry into rage in animals; beginning, that is, with animals, +but always, as you know, intending to carry the inquiry up as soon as +I had a solid working basis. Yes, it was all to proceed on +induction--laborious tests, classifications--you know the system and +that I didn't care if it took a lifetime. Well, all of a sudden, as +I'm beginning to realise that, though the process is sound--must be +sound--pursuit is probably hopeless because it must take twenty +lifetimes--of a sudden, I say, this new way is revealed. Put it that +I've come, all of a start, upon a little stream called Rubicon. +Put it that I've burnt--no, put it that Farrell's myrmidons have +burnt, at a stroke, every boat for me. + +"--I might have gone on for years upon years, collecting statistics +and ploughing out conclusions. . . . I begin to believe in the +calculated interposition of Providence. . . . On the critical moment +of transference the bridge breaks behind me. I have lost all my +baggage. But, on the other shore, I have the jewel. + +"--Listen, my boy. . . . The end of me may be empiricism. . . . They +have destroyed eight years' work, and I have nothing left of it but +memories of data which I can't produce for evidence--worthless, that +is, for a man of my scientific conscience. _En revanche_ and on the +other side of the stream I find I have _it_; to carry on and test +upon a fellow-man I have the diamond to cut all glass. With the +brute beasts it was all observation, much of it uncertain. +Henceforth it will be clean experiment. Farrell accused me of +practising vivisection. As a matter of fact, I never did. Now I'm +going to, and on Farrell." + +Jimmy arose on pretence of seeking a match, and leaned his elbow on +the mantelpiece while he stared into the fire. + +"Oh, I say, Professor!" he blurted out. "Farrell, you know! He's no +sort of class. He--he deserves punishing, but he don't mean any +harm, if you understand." Here Jimmy faced about with an ingenuous +smile. "I'm a bit of a fool myself, you see, and must speak up for +my order." + +"But you speak up too late, my boy," answered Foe. "What's the use +of telling me that Farrell is no class? As if I didn't know _that_! + . . . Why, man, I didn't _choose_ Farrell, to pay my attentions to +him. If the gods had paid me the compliment of sending along the +late Mr. Gladstone, or the present Archbishop of Canterbury (whoever +he may be), or General Booth (if he's alive), to knock out eight +years of my life like so many skittles in an alley, I'd have felt +flattered, of course. But they didn't: they sent along Farrell, and +I bow my head before a higher wisdom which, you'll allow, has been +justified of its child. Could the late Mr. Gladstone--since we've +instanced him--have done it more expeditiously, more thoroughly, with +a neater turn of the wrist? . . . No. Very well, then! Better men +than I have married their cooks and been content to recognise that it +just happened so. You can start apologising for Farrell when I start +complaining he's inadequate." + +Jack's eyes, during this speech, were for Jimmy, of course, and I had +used the opportunity to watch his face pretty narrowly. It was a +little more than ordinarily pale, but composed, as his tone was light +and his manner of speech almost flippant. I wondered. . . . + +"Jimmy meant," said I, "that _you're_ too good to match yourself +against Farrell. The harm he's done you is atrocious--I can hardly +look you in the face, Jack, and speak about it. . . . All the same, +Jimmy talks sense: an outsider like Farrell isn't worthy of your +steel, as the writers say." + +"We'll wait till he has felt it." Jack stood up, pushed his hands +into his trouser-pockets, took one turn around the room, returned, +and came to a halt on the hearth-rug. "There's another point," said +he. "You fellows can never get it out of your heads that your +thoroughbred is always, and necessarily, more sensitive than your +mongrel. _It must be so_--you don't trouble about evidence: it's +fixed in your minds _a priori_: which means that you're just as +unscientific and at least as far from the truth as I should be if I +posited the exact opposite . . . As a matter of fact, some miss in +the breeding will usually carry with it an irritable protective nerve +and keep the animal sensitive on points which the thoroughbred +ignores. Your cripple thinks of his hip, your hunchback of his +spine: your well-formed man takes his hip and spine for granted. +Your bastard is sensitive on historical fact and predisposed to lying +about it. . . . Stated thus, my counter-proposition is obvious. +You won't be so ready to agree when I go on to assure you that +sensitiveness in these mongrels and misfits often spreads from the +centre over the whole nervous system.--But, anyway, you knew my poor +hound, the pair of you. Not much breeding in Billy, eh? . . . +Well, he bit four blackguards before they laid him out: bit 'em deep, +too, and I won't answer for the virus. That dog died defending +my papers. He fought on his honour, and he knew it, Roddy. +He suffered, Jimmy--even if he was dead when they threw him into the +fire. And--I'm going to give your Farrell the benefit of the doubt. + . . . Where's the tobacco?" + +I passed him the jar. "We'll allow for the moment that you are +right, Jack," said I. "At all events, you've made out a case. +But where do I come in? What's the part you propose for me in this +show? Pull yourself together and admit that I'm asking a sweetly +reasonable question." + +"Didn't I explain?" Jack answered testily. "Surely I made it clear? +All I ask of you is to post me out from time to time the money I ask +for travelling expenses. . . . That doesn't compromise you, eh? + . . . Damn it all, Roddy," he exploded, "I counted you were my +friend to that extent!" + +"That's all right, Jack," said I. "But a friend is one thing and an +accomplice is another. What's your game with Farrell? You haven't +told me yet, though you're asking what gives me the right to know." + +He picked up his coat and hat and turned on me with a smile, very +faint and weary and a trifle absent-minded. + +"To tell you the truth," said he, as if searching for something at +the back of his mind, "I haven't thought it out quite accurately. +It's near enough to warrant what preparations I'm making: but it +hasn't the shape of a clean proposition--which is the shape my +conscience demands. . . . Don't hurry me, Roddy: let me come around +again to-morrow. . . . I can't invite you to my flat, because I'm +making arrangements to shut it up, and these details get in the way, +all the time. . . . Tell you what.--Meet me, you two, at Prince's +Grill-room to-morrow, one-fifteen, and you shall have the plan of +campaign on a half-sheet of notepaper. I'm a brute, Roddy, to bother +you with these private affairs in the middle of your politics. +But one-fifteen to-morrow, if you can manage. Sure? Right, then.-- +So long!" + +He wagged, at the door, a benediction on us with his walking-stick +and went down the stairs, I strolled to the window and watched him +cross the turfed square of the court. Jimmy had taken up the poker +and started raking the lower bars of the grate. + +"Queer how quietly the Professor takes it," began Jimmy. "I was +half-afraid--Oh, drop it, Otty, old man--I'm sorry!" + +We had both wheeled about together, and I held a window cushion, +poised, ready to hurl. + +"Of course I didn't mean that, really!" pleaded Jimmy, parrying with +the poker-point. "Sit down and let's talk. Is he mad? . . . +I don't like it." + + + +NIGHT THE NINTH. + + +THE HUNT IS UP. + +Well, I thought it over, and talked it over with Jimmy, and decided +that, much as I loved Jack Foe, he'd have to be more explicit with me +before I undertook this stewardship. You will say that, this being +the only decent decision open, I might have done without the thinking +and the talking. . . . And that's true enough. But, you see, I had +lived with Jack pretty long and pretty close, and this was the first +time I'd ever taken a miss with him. If anyone for the past ten or +fifteen years had suggested to me, concerning Jack Foe, that a day +might come when I shouldn't know where to find him, I--well, I should +have lost my temper. It was inconceivable, even now. I told myself +that, though he had expressly given me leave to invite Jimmy to the +breakfast, he had taken a fit of reticence in Jimmy's presence and +had shied off; that I should get more out of him when we were alone +together. . . . Is that good English, by the way? Can two persons be +alone? . . . Thank you, Polkinghorne--of course they can when they're +real friends. + +But that speculation wouldn't work, either: for again at Prince's, +and again at Jack's invitation, we were to be a party of three. . . . +I tell you of these doubts because through them, and (you may say) by +way of them, it came to me--my first inkling that something was wrong +with the man. + +Anyway, as it turned out, Jimmy and I might have spared ourselves the +discussion: for when we reached Prince's the head-waiter (an old +friend) brought me a letter. It had been delivered by District +Messenger almost two hours before. It ran--Here it is: I have all +the documents but one, and I've sent home for that. + + "Dear Roddy,--Sorry to do a shirk: but circumstances oblige me to + take the boat-train, 9.45, ex Victoria. I have locked up the + flat. The porter has the keys, with instructions to lend to + nobody but you or the landlord. + + "Address, for some little while, quite uncertain. I drew out a + fair sum in circular notes and cash; enough to keep me solvent + for some weeks. So you need not worry about the money. + + "You needn't fash your consciences over the Plan, either. + I'll tell you about it in my next, written from the first place + when I find leisure. I'll unfold--no, the word insults its + beautiful simplicity. Apologies to Jimmy. Tell him to buy a + copy-book and write in it _Experiment is better than + Observation_. + + "So long! A great peace has fallen on me, Roddy. 'I am one with + my kind,' like the convalescent gentleman in _Maud_. 'I embrace + the purpose of--whatever Higher Power set Farrell going--'and + the doom assigned.' + + "Farrell is going strong. Yoicks!--Yours ever," + "J.F." + +I handed the letter across to Jimmy, and set myself to order, +thoughtfully, something to eat. + +"Well, what do you say to it?" I asked as Jimmy finished his perusal. + +"I say," pronounced Jimmy in unfaltering voice, "that the crisis +demands a gin-and-vermouth, at once, and that the vermouth should be +of the Italian variety." + +"Waiter!" I called. + +"Nay," said Jimmy, "hear me out. I say further--did you mention a +rump-steak underdone?" + +"You did," said I. + +"And with oysters on the top?" + +"It's where they usually go," I pleaded. "I didn't specify. +One takes a lot of these little things for granted." + +"Then I say further that, this being one of those occasions on which +no time should be lost, you will reach for that collection of _hors +d'oeuvre_ on the table behind you, and lift your voice for a bottle +of Graves to follow the vermouth and quickly, but not so as to gall +its kibe. . . . And I say last of all," he wound up reflectively, +helping himself to two stuffed olives and a _hareng sauer_, "that the +Professor is running a grave risk, and I wouldn't be in his shoes at +this moment." + +"You think--" I began nervously. + +"Never did such a thing in my life," said Jimmy. "I _know_. He's in +one of those beastly Restaurant Cars." + +Silence descended on Foe for two months and more. Then I received +this long letter:-- + + Grand Hotel, Paris, + May 27th. + + "My dear Roddy,--The hunt is up. I took some time getting a move + on it: but to-night Farrell has the real spirit of the chase + upon him, and is in his room at this moment, packing + surreptitiously with intent to give me the slip. + + "You will have gathered from a glance at the above address + that Farrell is with me; or rather, that I am with Farrell. + I give him full scope with his tastes. It is part of the Plan. + But to-night--knowing that he had gone to his room to pack + surreptitiously, and that his berth in the _Wagon-lit_ is booked + for to-morrow night at the Gare d'Orleans--I gave myself what + the housemaids call an evening-out. This is Paris, Roddy, in + the time of the chestnut bloom. A full moon has been performing + above the chestnuts. Beneath their boughs the municipality had + hung a thousand reflections of it in the form of Chinese + lanterns shaped and coloured like great oranges. The band at + the _Ambassadeurs_--a band of artists and, as I should judge, + conducted by somebody who couldn't forget that he had once been + a gentleman--saw the moon rise and at once were stricken with + Midsummer madness. It had been recklessly, defiantly, blatantly + exploiting its collective shame on two-steps and coon + song,--shouting its _de profundis_, each degenerate soul + bucking up its lost fellow with a challenge to go one better and + mock at its hell--when of a sudden, as I say, the moon rose, and + the conductor caught up his stick, and the whole damned crew + floated off on _The Magic Flute_. . . . It wasn't on the + programme. It just happened, and no one paid them the smallest + attention. . . . But there it was: ten minutes of ecstasy. + + "They ceased upon the night: and the next news was that after + five minutes' interval they were chained again and + conscientiously throwing vim into _Boum-Poump_ with the + standardised five thumps of jollity on the kettledrum. + + "So the champak odours failed--What is champak? Have the Germans + synthetised it yet?--and I awoke from dreams of thee. I walked + back by way of the Quais--by the river:" + + Dissolute man! + Lave in it, drink of it + Then, if you can. + + "But I have played for safety and am writing this with the aid of + a whisky-and-Perrier to hope that it finds you well as it leaves + me at present. + + "I dare say it struck you as a poorish kind of trick--my inviting + you to Prince's and leaving you to pay for the repast. + The reason of my sudden bolt was a sudden report that Farrell + intended to start at once for a holiday on the Continent of + Europe--that he had been to Cook's and bought himself a circular + ticket for the Riviera--Paris, Toulon, Cannes, Nice, etc.--on to + Genoa, Paris by Mt. Cenis--that sort of thing. I should tell + you that, being chin-deep in winding up my affairs, I had + employed a man to watch his movements. Shadowing Farrell is a + soft option, even now, when he's painfully learning the + rudiments of flight: four months ago he had not even a nascent + terror to make him suspicious. Oh, never fear but I'll educate + him, dull as he is! Remember your _Ancient Mariner_, Roddy? + Here are two passages purposely set wide apart by the author, + that I'll put together for you to choose between 'em,--" + + (1) As who, pursued with yell and blow, + Still treads the shadow of his--Foe, + And forward bends his head. . . . + + (2) Like one that on a lonesome road + Doth walk in fear and dread, + And having once turned round, walks on, + And turns no more his head; + Because he knows a frightful fiend + Doth close behind him tread. + + "You may urge that Coleridge--a lazy man and a forgetful--is just + repeating himself. But there's a shade of difference; and I'll + undertake to deliver back Farrell in whichever condition you + prefer; or even to split the shade. But you must give me time. + + "As it was, I risked nothing in paying an ordinary professional. + Farrell walked into the office, and my man followed him. + Farrell took some time discussing his route with the clerk. + My man borrowed the use of a telephone-box, left the door open + and rang me up. By the time he was put through he had heard all + he needed. So he closed the door, and reported. I instructed + him, of course, to buy me a similar ticket. 'And,' said my man, + 'he is inquiring which is the best hotel at Monte Carlo, and it + seems he hardly knows any French." 'Right,' said I. 'Come + along at once and collect your fee, for I haven't any time to + spare.' + + "I thought it possible that Farrell might break his journey to + dally with the gaieties of Paris. But he didn't. I found out + easily enough at Cook's Office there that he had booked a + sleeper and gone straight through. So I went to the Opera, + listened to _Rigoletto_, idled most of the next day in the old + haunts, and took the usual Sud-Express, with a sleeper, from the + Gare de Lyons. + + "No: I lie. You can't call it idling when you sit--say in the + Bois, on any chance bench anywhere--seeing nothing, letting the + carriages go by like an idle show of phenomena, but with your + whole soul thrilling to a new idea, drinking it in, pushing out + new fibres which grow as they suck in more of it through small + new ducts, with a ripple and again a choke and yet again a + gurgle, which you orchestrate into a sound of deep waters + combining as you draw them home. . . . Oh, yes--you may laugh: + but I know now what conception is: what Shakespeare felt like + when he sat one night, in a garden, and the great plot of + _Othello_ came teeming. . . . + + "Please bear one thing in mind, my dear Roddy, You are never, now + or hereafter, to pity me. _Qualis artifex_. . . . I used to + smile to myself in a cocksure youthful way when great men hinted + in great books that one had to make burnt-sacrifice of the eye's + delight, the heart's desire; the lust of the flesh, the pride of + the intellect; see them all consumed to a handful of dust, and + trample out even the last spark of that, before the true phoenix + sprang; that only when half-gods go the gods arrive. But it's + true, Roddy! It's true! + + "I won't grow dithyrambic--not just yet. I was so sure of my man + that it seemed quite worth while to tumble out at Avignon--a + place I had never inspected--and fool away another spell among + Roman remains, and Petrarch and the rival Popes, and the opening + scenes of the Revolution, and just thinking--thinking. + + "So I reached Monte Carlo next day, a little after noon; took a + bath and a siesta; sauntered into the Casino there, a good + forty-eight hours behind time; and caught my man, sitting. + + "Are you superstitious, Roddy? Of course you are: and so are all + of us who pretend that we are not. . . . Monte Carlo is the hell + of a hole. I had never seen it before: but as I went into the + Casino, all of a sudden I had a queer recollection--of a + breakfast-party at Cambridge in young La Touche's rooms, in + King's (he was killed in the South African War), and of his + saying solemnly as we lit cigarettes that he'd had a dream + overnight. He dreamed that he walked into the Casino at Monte + Carlo, went straight to the first table on the left, put down a + five-franc piece on Number 17, and came out a winner of + prodigious sums. + + "Well, we are all humbugs about superstition. I don't believe + there's a man existent--that's to say, a tolerable man, a fellow + who isn't a prig--who doesn't touch posts, or count his steps on + the pavement, or choose what tie he'll wear on certain days, + or give way to some such human weakness when he's alone. + We so-called 'men of science' are, I truly believe, the worst of + the lot. You can't get rid of one fetish but you have instantly + the impulse to kneel to another . . . + + "Anyhow, there was my man sitting, and the number 17 almost + straight before him, a little in front of his right arm; and + this recollection came to me; and I leaned over his shoulder and + laid a five-franc piece on the number. + + "It won. I piled my winnings on the original stake, _plus_ all + my loose cash; and Number 17 won again. + + "That's all. You know my old theory that every scientific man + should have a sense of mystery--it's more useful to him than to + most of his fellows. Anyway I'd tried my luck on Bob La + Touche's long bygone dream. + + "Several pairs of eyes began to regard me with interest: and the + croupier, as he pushed my spoil across, spared me a glance + inscrutable but scrutinising. I make no doubt that had I helped + to make up the next game, quite a number of the punters would + have backed my infant fortune. But I didn't. Farrell had + slewed about in his chair for to look up at the newcomer: and at + sight of his dropped jaw, as he recognised me, I smiled, + gathered up my wealth and walked out. + + "I took a seat in the Casino garden, overlooking the sea. + 'Sort of thing,' I found myself murmuring, 'might happen once in + a blue moon,' and with that was aware that a sort of blue + moonlight was indeed bathing the garden, though the moon's + reflection lay yellow enough across the still Mediterranean. + [Here, for description, turn up Matt. Arnold's _A Southern + Night_: possibly still copyrighted.] + + "Farrell came out. He spotted me at once; for to help the moon, + as well as to dispel the heavy scent of the gaming-room, I was + lighting a cigar. He took a couple of turns on the terrace and + halted in front of me. His manner was nervous. + + "'Excuse me, Professor--' he began. + + "'Excuse me, Mr. Farrell,' I corrected him; 'I am a Professor no + longer. You may call me Doctor Foe, if you like. . . . Did + Number 17 win a third time?' + + "'I--I fancy not," he stammered. 'To tell the truth, your sudden + appearance here, when I supposed you to be in London--and at + Monte Carlo, of all places--But perhaps you are a devotee of the + fickle goddess? Men of learning,' he floundered on, 'find + relaxation--complete change of interest. Darwin--the great + Darwin--used to read novels: the worse the novel, the better he + liked it--or so I've heard.' + + "'As it happens,' said I, 'this is my first visit to Monte + Carlo.' + + "'Indeed?' He brightened and became yet more fatuous. + 'Then we may call it a coincidence, eh?--a veritable + coincidence. When I saw you--But first of all, let me + congratulate you on your luck.' + + "'Thank you,' I said. 'I will make a note that your first + impulse on encountering me was to congratulate me on my luck.' + + "This seemed to puzzle him for a moment. Then, 'Oh, I see what + you mean,' he said. 'But we're coming to that. . . . You gave + me a fair turn just now, you did, turning up so unexpected. + But (says I) this makes an opportunity that I ought to have made + for myself before leaving London. Yes, I ought. . . . But I + want to say to you now, Dr. Foe--as between man and man--that I + made a mistake. I was misled--that's the long and short of it. + I never stirred up that crowd, Doctor, to make the mess they did + of your--your premises. But so far as any unguarded words of + mine may have set things going in my absence--well, I'm sorry. + A man can't say fairer than that, can he? . . . And I've + suffered for it, too,' he added; 'if that's any consolation to + you.' + + "'Suffered, have you?' I asked. + + "'What, haven't you heard?' He was surprised.--Yes, Roddy, + genuinely. 'Well, now I won't say it was all owing to that + little affair at the Silversmiths' College. . . . There were + other--er--circumstances. In fact there was what-you-might-call + a combination of circumstances. The upshot of which was that I + had a safe seat and took a bad toss out of it. No, I don't + harbour no feelings against you, Doctor Foe. I'm a sociable, + easy-going sort of fellow, and not above owning up to a mistake + when I've made one. . . . I stung you up again just now, wishing + you joy of your luck: meaning no more than your winnings at the + tables. Not being touchy myself, I dessay it comes easy to + advise a man not to be touchy. But what I say is, we're both + down on our luck for the time, and we're both here to forget it. + So why not be sociable?' + + "'Suppose on the contrary, Mr. Farrell,' I suggested, 'that I am + here to remember. What then?' + + "'Then I'd say--No, you interrupted me somewhere when I was going + to make myself clear. You won't mind what I'm going to say? + . . . Well, then, I gather those asses did some pretty + considerable damage to your scientific 'plant'--is that so? + . . . Well, again, feeling a sort of responsibility in this + business, I want to say that if it'll set things on their legs + again, five or six thousand pounds won't break Peter Farrell.' + + "I didn't strangle him, Roddy. It was the perilous moment: but I + sat it out like a statue, and then I knew myself a match for + this business. I didn't strangle him, even though he provoked + me by adding, 'Yes, and now we're met, out here, you can be + useful to me in a lot of little ways. Know French, don't you? + Well, I don't, and we'll throw that in. . . . What I mean is, + What d'ye say to our joining forces? I'm fed up with these + Cook's men. They do their best, I don't deny. But this + business of the lingo is a stiffer fence than I bargained for. + Now, with a fellow-countryman to swap talk; _and_ a gentleman, + and one that can patter to the waiters and at the railway + stations--What do you say to it, Doctor? Shall we let bygones + be bygones?' + + "I did not strangle him, Roddy, even for that. I sat pretty + still for a while, pretending to consider. + + "'It's odd, Mr. Farrell,' said I after a bit, 'that you should + invite me to be your companion. You'll always remember that you + invited me?' + + "''Course I shall,' said he. 'Let's be sociable--that's my + offer.' + + "I threw away my cigar. 'Provided you make no suggestion beyond + it, I accept,' said I. 'We will take this trip together. + Do you mean to stay long at Monte Carlo?' + + "'Pretty place,' said Farrell. 'Been up to La Turbie? No, of + course; you've only just arrived. Well, I can recommend it-- + funny little railway takes you up, and the view from the top is + a knock-out. But I'm your man, wherever you'll do the + personally-conducting. I'm not wedded to this place. Only came + here because I understood it was fast, and I wanted to see.' + + "'Where's your hotel?' I asked. + + "'Grand Hotel, next door,' he answered. 'What' yours?' + + "'The same,' said I. 'We'll meet at _dejeuner_--same table. + Twelve noon, if that suits.' + + "'I don't know if you're wedded to this place--' said he. + + "'Not one little bit,' I answered. + + "'Inside there, for instance?' + + "'You saw,' said I. 'I came out because I disliked the smell.' + + "'And there's that pigeon-shooting. Goes on all day. I hate + taking life--even if I could--' + + "'You've once before,' said I, 'suspected me of being careless + about the sufferings of animals; and you've, apologised. + Shall we call it off? I don't shoot pigeons anyway.' + + "'Me either,' Farrell agreed heartily. 'I'm here for fresh air + and exercise. Don't mind confessing to you I've no great fancy + for this place. Man told me at dayjooney this morning he'd just + come in from sitting under the palms before the Casino entrance. + . . . All of a sudden a young fellow walked out and shot + himself there, point-blank. Man who told me doesn't take any + interest in play--over from Mentone for the day, just to see + things.--Well, this young fellow, as I say, shot himself--put + revolver to his forehead--there on the steps. And by George, + sir, he was mopped up and into a sack within twenty seconds! + One porter ready with sack, another to help, third with sponge + to mop steps--stage clear almost before you could rub your eyes. + . . . I just tell it to you as it was told to me, and by a man + pretty far gone in consumption, so that you'd say he'd be + cautious about lying.' + + "I lit another cigar. 'With so priceless a fool as this,' I said + to myself, 'you must not be in a hurry, John Foe.' Aloud I + said, 'I've no passion either, for this place. I wanted to see + it, and I've seen it. I'll knock in at your room at eight + o'clock, if that will suit you, and we'll discuss plans. For my + part, I had a mind to go back to Cannes and start for a ramble + among the Esterel.'" + + + "To be brief, we struck the bargain and--incredible as you may + find it--have been running in double harness ever since. . . . + I couldn't have believed it myself, in prediction: but here it + is--_and until a few hours ago Farrell never guessed_. + + "No: that is wrong. He never guessed at all. I told him. + + "It came to me, after the first week, as habitually as daily + bread. We put in a couple of days at Mentone, another couple at + Nice; then for a fortnight we made Cannes our centre, with a trip + up to Grasse and several long tramps among the mountains. + After that came St. Tropez, Costebello, Toulon, Marseilles, + Montpellier--with excursions to Aigues-Mortes, the Pont du Gard + and the rest of it. From Montpellier we turned right about on + our tracks; took Cannes again, Antibes; drove along the whole + Corniche in a two-horse barouche. There was a sort of compact + that we'd do the whole Riviera--French and Italian--as thoroughly + as tourists can do it; and we did--from Montpellier to + Bordighera, from Bordighera to Genoa. And he never guessed. + + "I had two bad moments; by which I mean moments of unscientific + impatience, sudden unworthy impulses to kill him and get rid of + the job. Unscientific, unworthy--unsportsmanlike--to kill your + priceless fish before he has even felt the hook! + + "The second bad moment I overcame (I am proud to report) of my + own strength of will. It happened at a bend of the Corniche, + when our driver pulled up on the edge of a really nasty + precipice and invited us to admire the view. It being the hour + for _dejeuner_, we haled our basket out of the carriage, and + spread our meal on the parapet. Farrell sat perched there with + his back to the sea, and made unpleasant noises, gnawing at a + chicken-bone. I wanted to see how he'd fall backwards and watch + him strike the beach. . . . + + "Well, I was glad when the impulse was conquered and I had proved + my self-control: because the previous temptation had been a + close call, and I believe it would have bowled me out but for a + special interposition of--Providence. + + "We were following up a path in the Esterel: a little gorge of a + path cut by some torrent long since dried. The track had steep + sides--fifteen to twenty feet--right and left, and was so narrow + that we took it single file. I was leading. + + "Now, on our way westward out of Cannes, that morning, we had + passed the golf-links, and Farrell had been talking golf ever + since. I don't know why golf-talk should have such power to + infuriate those who despise that game. But so it is, Roddy. + + "I had the weapon in my pocket. I had my fingers on it as I + trudged along, and was saying to myself, 'Why not here? In the + name of common sense, why not here? Why not here and now?'-- + when a leveret, that had somehow bungled its footing on the high + bank above, came tumbling down, not three yards ahead of us. + The poor little brute picked itself up, half-stunned, caught + sight of us, and made a bolt up the path ahead. From this side + to that it darted, trying to climb and escape; but again and + again the bank beat it, and from each spring it toppled back; + and we followed relentlessly. + + "At the end of two hundred yards it gave in. It just lay down in + the path like a thing already dead and waited for what we should + choose to do. + + "I picked it up. I showed it to Farrell, keeping my fingers on + the faint little heart. + + "'They say,' said I, 'it's lucky when a hare pops out in your + path. What do you think?' + + "'Worth carrying home?' said Farrell. 'I'm partial to hare. + But he's a bit undersized for Leadenhall Market'--and the fool + laughed. + + "'We'll let him go,' said I. + + "'I guess he's too far scared to crawl,' he suggested doubtfully. + + "'Turn about and watch,' said I. 'It may have escaped your + memory that you once accused me of being cruel to animals. + Turn about, and watch. Don't move.' + + "I undid the three upper buttons of my waistcoat, stowed the + little fellow down inside, against my shirt, leaving his head + free, so that I could stroke his ears and brainpan. I let + Farrell see this, stepped past him, and walked slowly back down + the path. At the end of twenty paces I lifted the little beast + out, set him on the ground, and walked on. He shook his ears + twice, then lopped after me like a dog, at a slow canter. + At the point where he had tumbled I collected him again by the + ears, lifted him, climbed the bank and restored him to his + thicket, into which he vanished with a flick of his white scut. + + "Then I went back very slowly to Farrell. 'Curious things, + animals,' said I. 'If you don't mind, we won't talk any more + golf to-day.'" + + + +NIGHT THE TENTH. + + +PILGRIMAGE OF HATE. + + "A map scored with the zigzags of our route would suggest the + wanderings of a couple of lunatics. But that was the way of it. + I would turn up at breakfast any morning and propound some plan + for a new divagation. Farrell never failed to fall in with it. + For a time, of course, I had him in places whence, with his + ignorance of France, he might have found it hard to escape back + to his own form of civilisation. But even when he had picked up + enough of the language to ask for a railway ticket and something + to eat, his reliance on me continued to be pathetic, dog-like. + + "I know something of dogs. I have no experience of marriage. + But from time to time I put this question to myself: 'Here is a + widower--free, as he tells me, after twenty-seven years of + married life almost entirely spent at Wimbledon. It is + inconceivable that he did not, during that considerable period, + look at least once or twice across the table at the late Mrs. + Farrell and ask himself if the business was to go on for ever.' + I supposed, Roddy, that the two had been in love, as such + creatures feel the emotion. 'Well then,' thought I, 'here are + we two, the one hating and hiding his hate, thrown together in + constant companionship. How long will it take the other, who + has never cut an inch of the ice encasing that hatred, before he + finds my society intolerable?' + + "That was the question; and I had the answer to-day. + + "From Genoa we actually harked back to Cahors, for an aimless two + weeks among the upper waters of the Lot and the Tarn. I led him + over the roof of France, as they call it. I sweated him down + valleys to Ambialet, to Roc-Amadour, I threaded him through + limestone caverns wherein I could have cut his throat and left + him, never to be missed. We struck up for the provincial + gaieties of Toulouse. We attended the Opera there-- + _Il Trovatore_--and Farrell wept in his seat. I can see the + tears now--oozing out between the finger-stalls of a pair of + white-kid gloves he had been inspired to buy at the + _Bon Marche_. We also went to the theatre, where the company + performed _Les Vivacites du Capitaine Tic_. + + "At the conclusion of this harmless comedy, Farrell said a really + good thing. He said it was funny enough and even instructive if + you looked at it from the right point of view; but for his part + (and I might call him advanced if I chose) he liked the sort of + musical comedy in which you spice a chicken to make 'em all fall + in love when they've eaten it; or at least, if it's to be + legitimate comedy, one in which they take off their clothes and + go to bed by mistake. + + "So we came on to Paris, and here we are at the Grand Hotel. + Farrell's notion of Paris, was of course, the Moulin Rouge, and + the kind of place on Montmartre where they sing some kind of + blasphemy while a squint-eyed waiter serves you cocktails on a + coffin. + + "We were solemnly giving way to this libidinous humbug last night + when he leaned back and said to me, 'This is all very well, + Doctor; and I'm glad to have had the experience. But do you + know what I want at this moment?' + + "'Say on,' said I, looking up to return the nod of an + acquaintance--a young American, Caffyn by name--who had risen + from a table not far from ours and was making his way out. + On a sudden impulse I called after him, 'Hi! Caffyn!' + + "'Hallo!' Caffyn turned about and came strolling back. He is a + long lantern-jawed lad with a sardonic drawl of speech. He has + spent two years in the _ville lumiere_, having come to it + moth-like from somewhere afar in Texas. His ambition--no, + wait!--the ambition of his father, a 'cattle king,' is that he + should acquire the difficult art of painting in oils. + 'Want me?' asked Caffyn, as I pushed a chair for him. + 'What for? If it's to admire the 'rainbow' you've been mixing, + I'm a connoisseur and I don't pass it. Your hand's steady + enough, one or two lines admirably defined, but you've gotten + the pink noyau and the _parfait amour_ into their wrong billets. + If, on the other hand, you want me to drink it, I'll see you to + hell first." . . . Then, as I introduced him, "Good evening, + Mr. Farrell. I am pleased to meet you in this meretricious + haunt of gaiety. If I may be allowed to say so, you set it off, + sir.' + + "'Sit down a moment,' said I. 'We didn't intrude upon your + solitary table, thinking--' + + "'I know,' he caught me up. 'Natural delicacy of Britishers-- + 'Here's a fellow learning to take his pleasures sadly. + We'll give him time.' And I, gentlemen, allowed that it was + 'way down in Cupid's garden--Damon and Pythias discovered hand + in hand--no gooseberries, by request. . . . If you'd like to be + told how I was occupied, I was chewing--ay, marry and go to-- + I was one with my distant father's most fatted calf--fed up and + chewing.' + + "'And if you'd like to know how we were occupied,' said I, 'we + were both wanting something--and the same thing. We haven't + told one another what it is, and you are called in to guess.' + + "'Oh, a thought-reading _seance_. Right.' He turned the chair + about, sat on it straddle-wise and crossed his arms over the + curved top bar. 'Let me see,' he mused, leaning forward, + pulling at his cigar and bringing his eyes, after they had + travelled over the crowd, back firmly to us. ''Two souls with + but a single thought,'' he quoted, ''two hearts that beat as + one.' . . . Well, now, if you were of my country and from my + parts I'd string you like two jays on one perch--How say'st, + prithee, and in sooth yes, sure! I'd sing you _The Cowpuncher's + Lament_, sweet and low, with tears in my voice. As it is, I'll + be getting the local colour a bit smudged, maybe: but I guess-- + I guess,' said Caffyn--and his gaze seemed to turn inward and + become far withdrawn--'I guess--'O Hardy, kiss me ere I die!'-- + No, that's wrong: it isn't the cockpit of the _Victory_. + It's the after-saloon of the Calais-Dover packet--shortest + route--and I see you two there at table, eating cold roast beef, + underdone, with plain boiled potatoes. With plain boiled + potatoes--yes, and mixed pickles.' He passed a hand over his + eyes. 'Excuse me, gentlemen; the vision is blurred just here-- + if someone would kindly shoot that lady on the stage and stop + her--it's not much to ask, when she's exposing so much of her + personality--How the devil can I tell the difference between + mixed pickles and piccalilli while she's committing murder on + the high C? _Passez outre_. . . . I see you eating like men who + haven't seen Christian food for years; yet you are swallowing it + in a hurry that almost defeats the blessed taste; because one of + you has just shouted up, with his mouth full, a command to be + informed as soon as ever the white shore of Albion can be spied + from deck. It is a race with Time--Shakespeare's Cliff against + a pickled onion. . . . Oh, have done! have done!' + + "'Thank you, Caffyn,' said I. 'You may come out of your trance. + You have done admirably.' + + "'Wonderful,' breathed Farrell; and he breathed it heavily. + 'I won't say I'd actually arrived at a plain-boiled potato--' + + "'But it was floating in your brain,' I chimed him down. + 'Such is the province of imaginative art, of poetry, as defined + by that great Englishman, Samuel Johnson. It reproduces our + common thoughts with a great increase of sensibility.' + + "'Mr. Caffyn has put it rightways, anyhow,' Farrell insisted. + 'Look here, Doctor'--he calls me by that title and none other-- + 'What's the programme for to-morrow.' + + "'Versailles,' said I. + + "'Then we'll make it so. But, the day after, I'm for England. + . . . I don't mind telling you, Mr. Caffyn, that the Doctor + and me hit it off first-class.' + + "'I've noted it,' said Caffyn quietly. + + "'And it's the rummier,' Farrell pursued, 'because him and me-- + or, as I should say, he and I--started this tour upon what you + might call a mutual--what's the word? misunderstanding?--no, I + have it--antipathy. Is that correct, Doctor?' + + "'Perfectly,' I agreed. + + "'T'tell the truth,' confessed Farrell, 'I've always been up + against schoolmasters; yes, all my life. They've such a--such + a--well, as this ain't Wimbledon, one may speak it out--such a + bloody superior way of giving you information. Now if there's + one thing in th' world I 'bominate, it's information.' Farrell + threw a fierce glance around the dining tables as if defiantly + making sure of his ground. 'But I'll say this for the Doctor; + he never gives you any. That is, you have to pump for it. . . . + But we've had, we two, a daisy of a time. The great thing about + travel, Mr. Caffyn, is that it enlarges the mind. Yes, sir, and + in Doctor Foe's company you positively can't help it.' + + "'I'm sorry, Farrell,' said I. + + "'Sorry?' he exclaimed. 'Why should you be sorry? I _like_ + having a--a wider outlook on things, provided it ain't banged in + a man's eye. In fact, I don't mind confessing to you, Mr. + Caffyn, here in the Doctor's presence, that this has been a + great experience for me. I've had a good time, as I believe, + sir, they say in your country. But I look around me'--here + Farrell looked again and almost theatrically around the feast of + Comus--'and I say that, be it never so homely, give me Wimbledon + to wind up. You and me, Doctor--or, as I might say, you and I, + are for home, after all--and the old cooking. Our ways + henceforth may lie separate; but we've a bond in common and any + time you care to look me up at Wimbledon I shall be most happy. + We'll crack a bottle to our travels.' + + "'Right,' I agreed. 'Caffyn, will you make a note of at too?' + + "'And Mr. Caffyn--at any time--Goes without saying,' pursued + Farrell. + + "'Right,' agreed Caffyn." + + + "That was yesterday, Roddy. This morning, as ever is, Farrell + and I started, according to programme, for Versailles. I could + see that his mind had been running on Caffyn's words; that he + was dying to get back to Wimbledon; yes, and almost dying to be + quit of me. + + "I had been waiting for this. I had known that the moment would + come, and wondered a score of times that it took so long in + coming. As unmarried men, Roddy, you and I are out of our depth + here. But surely--I hark back to it--it _must_ happen to one or + other of every married couple to look across the table and + realise the words _Till death us do part_. When it happens to + both simultaneously I suppose murder follows; or, at least, + divorce. + + "Talking about murder, I've to confess that at Versailles I felt + the impulse again. You know that infernal Galerie des Glaces? + Well, of a sudden the multiplication of Farrell's face and the + bald spot at the back of his head came near to overpowering me. + We had escaped, too, from the wandering sightseers, and stood + isolated at the end of the vast hall. . . . High sniffing + dilettanti may say what they like, but Versailles is what Jimmy + would call a 'knock-out.' The very first view of the Grand + Avenue had knocked Farrell out, at all events, and he had stared + at the great fountains, and followed me through courts and + galleries in mere bedazement, speechless, with eyes like a + fish's, round and bulging and glassy. . . . He looked so funny, + standing there . . . so small . . . and yet actually, I suppose, + taller than the late King Louis Quatorze by three inches. + . . . Somewhere outside on a terrace a band was playing things + from the _Mariage de Figaro_--Figaro, at Versailles of all + places! . . . In short the world had gone pretty mad for a + moment, and for that moment I felt that, in this _bizarrerie_ of + contrast it might dignify our quarrel if Farrell died amid such + magnificent surroundings. . . . But I conquered the impulse all + right: and this, the third time, was the easiest." + + + "I got him away to the Little Trianon: and there in its gardens-- + as you would lay in the shade a patient suffering from + sunstroke--I conducted him to a seat under the spring boughs + beside the little lake that reflects the Hameau. He stared on + the green turf at our feet, and across at the grouped rustic + buildings, all as pretty as paint, and came out of his stupor + with a long sigh. + + "'A-ah!' he murmured. 'That's better! That does me good.' + + "Then I knew that it was coming: that I must break his fate to + him. I even gave him the prompt-word. + + "'Homelike,' I suggested. + + "'You've hit it,' he said, and paused. 'No place like Home! + I'm glad enough to have seen all that show yonder.' He waved a + hand. 'But I wouldn't be one of these kings, not if you paid + me. . . . Look here, we'll cross to-morrow, eh? Of course, if + you prefer to stay behind--' + + "'I'm not going to stay behind,' said I, throwing away my + cigarette. + + "'Capital! We'll wind up with a dinner at the Savoy--' + + "'Cold roast beef and mixed pickles,' I put in. + + "He chuckled. 'Clever fellow, that Caffyn--made my mouth water, + he did. We'll wind up at the Savoy, and talk over another trip + that we'll take together, one of these days. For I shall miss + your company, Doctor.' + + "'No, you won't,' said I, lighting a fresh cigarette. + + "He stared at me for a moment as if slightly hurt in his + feelings. Then: 'Don't contradict,' he said sharply, and + laughed as I stared in my turn. 'Expression of yours,' he said. + 'Sounds rude; but all depends _how_ you say it. I reckon I've + caught up the accent--eh?--by the quick way you looked up. . . . + I hadn't much school and never went to College: but I've studied + you, Doctor, and I'll improve.' + + "'Well, then,' said I, nettled and less inclined to spare him,' + I'm sorry to contradict you, Mr. Farrell, but you are never + going to miss my company--_never, until your life's end_.' + + "'What d'ye mean?' he blurted: and I suppose there was something + in my look that made him edge off an inch or two on the rustic + seat. + + "'Simply this,' I answered. 'Ten or a dozen weeks ago you made + yourself the instrument to destroy something twenty times more + valuable than yourself. I am not speaking of what you killed in + me, nor of the years of application, the records, measurements, + analyses which you hoofed into nothing with no more thought than + a splay coon's for an ant-heap. Nor will I trouble you with any + tale of the personal hopes I had built on them, for you to + murder. The gods suffer men of your calibre to exist, and they + must know why. But I tell you this, though you may find it even + harder to understand. Science has her altars, and her priests. + I was one, serving an altar which you defiled. And by God, + Peter Farrell, upholsterer, the priest will pursue!' + + "He drew back to the end of the seat and fairly wilted. + His terror had no more dignity than a sheep's. He cast an eye + about for help. There was none. 'You're mad!' he quavered. + 'If we were in England now--What is it you're threatening?' + + "'Nothing that you could take hold of, to swear information + against me,' I answered, 'even if you were in England now--now + that April's here. Or is it May? I shall probably end by + killing you; but I have tested my forbearance, and now know that + it will happen at my own time, place, and convenient + opportunity. That's a threat, eh? Well, there's no hurry about + it, and you couldn't do anything with it, even at home in merry + England. You couldn't put up a case that you go in bodily fear + of me--as you're beginning to do--when I can call Caffyn + ('Clever fellow, Caffyn!') to witness that only last night you + desired no end to our acquaintance. Besides, my acquaintance is + all I propose to inflict on you, just yet.' + + "He jumped up, and faced me. He was thoroughly scared, and no + less thoroughly puzzled. To do him justice, he had pluck + enough, too, to be pretty angry. + + "'I don't know what you mean!' he broke out. 'I don't know what + you're driving at, mad or not. . . . The moment we crossed one + another I hated you--Yes, damn you, first impressions are truest + after all! Later, I was weak enough, thinking I'd injured you, + to--to--' He broke down feebly. 'What sort of devil are you?' + he demanded, mopping his forehead. 'You can't hurt me, I say. + What is it you threaten?' + + "'Only this,' said I. 'You have been a married man for a number + of years, and therefore can probably appreciate better than I + what it means. But you know my feeling for you, as I know yours + towards me. . . . Well, I propose to be your companion in this + world and until death do us part. . . . You may dodge, but I + shall be faithful; you may slip, run, elude, but I shall quest. + But your shadow I am going to be, Mr. Farrell; and ever, when + you have hit a place in the sun, it shall be to start and find + me--a faithful hound at your side. I have put the fear on you, + I see. Waking or sleeping you shall never put that fear off. + . . . And now,' said I, rising and tapping another cigarette on + my case, 'let me steer you back to the railway-station. + You will prefer to dine alone to-night and think out your plans. + I shall be thinking out mine at the _Ambassadeurs_.'" + + + "So that's how it happened, Roddy. You might post me 100 pounds + to the Grand Hotel, Biarritz: for I'm running short. The hunt + is up, and he's breaking for South." + "J. F." + + + +NIGHT THE ELEVENTH. + + +SCIENCE OF THE CHASE. + +I'm an imperfect Christian: but I read Jack's long letter three times +over, and at each reading I liked it the less. Before posting an +answer I handed the thing to Jimmy; who spent a morning over it, +helping himself--a sure sign of a troubled spirit--to tobacco +indifferently from his own jar and mine. When nothing troubled him-- +that is to say, as a rule--he invariably used mine. I left him +ruminating; went out, did some business, and met him again at our +usual luncheon-table at the Bath Club. + +"I believe," said Jimmy reflectively at luncheon, "that my way with +Farrell was the better, after all. . . . You'll admit that it did the +trick, and without causing any offence to anybody. Well, if you ask +me how to deal with the Professor, I'll be equally practical. +Starve him off." + +"No good," said I. "If I cut off supply, he'll only come back, +demand his money and be off on the trail again. Indeed, he may turn +up in these rooms to-morrow: for it's ten to one, on my reckoning, +that Farrell will pretty soon break back for home." + +"All the easier, then," said Jimmy. "Save you the trouble of writing +a letter. When he comes for his money, tell him you're freezing on +to it." + +"But, man alive! it's Jack's money. You wouldn't have me thieve, +would you? . . . As for the letter, I've written it; in fact you may +say that I've written two, or, rather, assisted at their composition. +Here is one of them, in copy. It explains the other, which is a +half-sheet of instructions now in my lawyer's possession. I shall +have to write a third presently, explaining to Jack--" + +"I don't like letter-writing," interrupted Jimmy, "and I shun +solicitors. Which is anticipatory vengeance: as soon as I'm called, +and in practice, they'll be active enough in shunning me. Otty, you +need a nurse. What the devil do you want with consulting solicitors, +when you can have my advice, legal or illegal, gratis?" + +"Listen to this," said I:-- + + "Thistleton Chambers," + "29a Essex Street, Strand, W.C.," + "May 12th, 1907." + + "Dear Sir,--Our client, Sir Roderick Otway, Bart., has to-day + transferred to our account the sum of six thousand, five hundred + pounds sterling, representing a sum received by him from you, to + be administered on conditions which, after reconsidering them, + he finds himself unable to accept. + + "Sir Roderick instructs us that you will draw on us at your + convenience for any sum or sums under this cover. This, of + course, pending notification of your wish that we should + transfer the account elsewhere. + + "Acting on our client's further instructions, we hereby + enclose in registered envelope circular notes value 100 pounds + sterling. Kindly acknowledge receipt and oblige." + + "Yours faithfully," + "B. Norgate," + "for Wiseman and Norgate," + "Solicitors." + "To" + "J. Foe, Esq., DSc.," + "Grand Hotel," + "Biarritz." + +Jimmy looked me straight, and asked, "Is that letter posted?" + +"It is," I answered. "I told Norgate that, as a matter of honour, +Jack's letter ought to be answered promptly. That's why I lost no +time this morning. Not being quite certain of the earliest post to +France, he made sure by sending off the office-boy straight to +St. Martin's-le-Grand." + +"Then no taxi will avail us," groaned Jimmy, "and I must call for a +liqueur brandy instead. . . . Oh, Otty--you must forgive the old +feud: but why _did_ your parents send you to Cambridge? Mine sent me +to a place where I had at least to sweat up forty pages or so of a +fellow called Plato. Not being able to translate him, I got him more +or less by heart. Here's the argument, then. . . . Supposing a +friend makes a deposit with you, that's a debt, eh? Of course it is. +But suppose it's a deposit of arms, or of money to buy arms, and he +comes to you and asks for it when he's not in his right senses, and +you know he's not, and he'll--like as not--play the devil with that +deposit, if you restore it. What then?" + +"If I thought that Farrell was in danger," I mused; "that's to say, +in any immediate danger--" + +"Rats!" said Jimmy contemptuously. "Farrell's a third party. +Why drag in a third party? The Professor's _your_ friend; and he's +made a deposit with you: and you don't need to think of anyone but +him. For he's _mad_. . . . Now, come along to the smoking-room, +where I've ordered them to take the coffee, and where I'll give you +ten minutes to pull up your socks and do a bit of thinking." + + +"Maybe you're right, Jimmy," said I as we lit our cigarettes. +"And if so, it's pretty ghastly. . . . He's had enough to put him +off his hinge. But somehow I can't bring myself--No, hang it! +I've always looked on Jack as the sanest man I've ever known. If he +has a failing it's for working everything out by cold reason." + +"Just what he's doing at this moment," answered Jimmy dryly. "If you +don't like the word 'mad' I'll take it back and substitute 'balmy,' +or anything you like. Madness is a relative term; and I should have +thought that what you call working-everything-out-by-cold-reason was +a form of it. I know jolly well that if I felt myself taken that way +I should go to a doctor about it. And if _you're_ going to practise +it on the subject just now before the committee, I shall leave the +chair and this meeting breaks up in disorder." + +"The point is," said I, "that the letter has gone." + +"What address?" he asked pouring out the coffee. + +"Biarritz, Grand Hotel--Why surely you read it?"--I stared at him, +but he was looking down on the cups. Then of a sudden I understood. +"Jimmy," I said humbly, "I've been an ass." + +"Ah," said he, "I'm glad you see it in that light. . . . The +afternoon mail has gone: but there's the night boat. You can't +telegraph, unfortunately. In his state of mind you mustn't warn him. +You must catch him sitting." + +"Look here," I proposed. "It will be a nuisance for you, Jimmy--it +will probably bore you stiff. But if you'll only come along with +me . . ." + +"The implied compliment is noted and accepted," said Jimmy gravely. +"The invitation must be declined, with thanks, though. Your mind is +working better already. A few hours holiday off the L.C.C., and +you'll find yourself the man you were. But the gear wants oiling. + . . . Do you remember your betting me ten to one this morning, in a +lucid interval, that Farrell would break for home? Well, I didn't +take you up. I don't mind owning that, after you'd left, and after +some thought, I told Jephson to pack _both_ suit-cases. But that +lawyer, with his infernal notion of dispatch in business, will have +put money in the Professor's pocket some hours before you reach +Biarritz. Money's his means of pursuit: and it's well on the cards +that you'll find both your birds flown. You are going to Biarritz, +Otty, for your sins--like Napoleon III. and other eminent persons +before you: and you'll have, unlike the historical character just +named, to go alone for your sins. For on your ten-to-one odds that +Farrell breaks for home it's obvious that I remain and keep goal. +Now what you have to do is to make for the bank and get out some +money, while I take a swim in the tank here. After that," added +Jimmy, relapsing into frivolity, "I'll look up the Trades Directory +for a respectable firm dealing in strait-waistcoats." + +Well, there is no need to tell of my chase to Biarritz; for I +arrived there only to be baulked. The porter who entered my name in +elegant script, with many flourishes, in the Hotel Visitors' Book, +informed me that the English Doctor had departed--it was four hours +ago--to catch the night express for Paris. Here was the entry-- +"Dr. J. Foe, Chelsea, London." He had left no other address. +"Had he a companion?" No, none. He had passed his time in solitary +rambles: but on this, the last day, he had spent some time in writing +furiously, up to the moment of departure. + +The porter moved away to clear the letter-box, which stood pretty +near the end of the table. I examined the register. Farrell's name +was not among the entries. + +They had assigned me my room, and I was about to take the lift and +inspect, when I heard the porter say to himself, "_Tiens, c'est +drole, maintenant_." He had the bundle of cleared letters in his hand +and held out one. It was addressed to me in Jack's handwriting. + +I pounced for it. "_C'est a moi--Ceci s'expliquera, sans doute_." +The porter hesitated. "_Une lettre timbree--c'est contre les regies, +sinon contre la loi . . . mais puisque c'est pour monsieur, +apparement_--" + +A ten-franc piece did the rest. I took the letter up to my chamber +where I opened it and read-- + + [FOE to OTWAY] + + "Grand Hotel, Biarritz. + + "Dear Roddy,--I am obliged to you by receipt of your silly + lawyer's letter enclosing 100 pounds; though what kind of + salve it can spread on your conscience to commission a fellow + called Norgate to do what you won't do at first hand I fail to + perceive. However, have it your own way. I have an enemy who, + with a little training, won't give me time to worry about my + friends. + + "Farrell is improving. It was difficult at first to get a move + on a man of his stupidity, and I could only work on his one + sensitive nerve, which is cowardice. He has imagination enough + to be terrified of that which hides and doesn't declare itself + whether for good or evil. + + "My own early experiments have, I admit, been amateurish. But I + shall acquire skill, and the appetite shall learn refinements, + to keep it in health. I don't think it was bad sport, on the + whole, to open with low comedy. It tickled me, anyhow, to watch + Farrell emerge from a sort of bathing-machine upon the _plage_, + moderately nude and quite unsuspicious--having given me that + artful slip in Paris--and, approaching the machine from the + rear, to insert his shirt-collar, with my card, into his + left-hand shoe. + + "That was the first card I left on him. He was putting up at the + _Albion_--I had no need to search; for the local paper, of + course, prints a Visitors' List which it collects from the + hotels, and there my gentleman was, under his own name. + (Oh, we're in the simple stages of the process, thus far, and he + hasn't yet had recourse to so much as an _alias_.) But I + didn't call on him at the _Albion_. + + "I have since learnt from him that the discovery of my card in + the bathing-machine shook him up--well, pretty much as the + footprint on the sand shook up Robinson Crusoe. But there's a + difference, as he'll learn, between being shaken and being + scared into fits. At all events, he didn't bolt: for I kept out + of sight and molested him no more that day. Next morning he + took courage and started off for the golf-links, which lie out + to the north, beyond the lighthouse. He was enjoying his + liberty, you understand: for I had made him carry his clubs + about and up and down the Riviera, but never allowed him to + play. That was a part of our understanding. Also he may have + had some hazy notion that, golf being to me as holy water to the + Devil, he'd be safe out there, within a charmed circle. + + "There's something in it, too, Roddy. And I've half a mind, if + he doesn't wake up and improve, to offer him a handicap. + He shall be safe, all the world over, when he can find a + golf-course for sanctuary, and shall play his little game while + I wait for him and:" + + Sit on a stile + And continue to smile. + + "I wonder what sort of a hell it would be, going round and + round on endless rounds of golf--with a real Colonel Bogey + sitting on the stile and watching. . . . But I make no promises, + no offers, just now. + + "He tells me that at the Club House he found a Golf Major of + sorts--or, as he puts it, 'a compatriot, a military gentleman, + retired, with a remarkable knowledge of India'--and seduced him + into playing a round. I should gather that Farrell plays an + indifferent game. At all events, the Golf Major was averse from + a second round, and retiring to a table in the Club veranda + allowed Farrell to call for--catch hold of your French, Roddy-- + '_Deux bieres, complet_.' The waiter understood it to mean + liquid refreshment and not a double funeral. . . . Over the + drink the Golf Major, who had known Biarritz for twenty years, + explained the difference between its old and its new + golf-course, and informed Farrell that in the old one there had + used to be the most sporting hole anywhere--for a beginner. + You drove slap across a chasm of the sea: if you didn't land + your ball neatly you were in the devil of a hole, and if you + foozled you saw your ball dropping down, down, to the beach and + the Atlantic. 'Too expensive for duffers altogether, especially + when the price of balls rose. Only the caddies thrived on it, + at the risk of their necks. . . . After this tiffin we'll stroll + over and have a look at it.' + + "So thither they strolled, and by and by started to amuse + themselves with pot-shot drives from the old tee. The Major + whacked his ball across to a neat lie time after time. + Farrell muffed and foozled, wasting his substance in riotous + slogging. The height of the cliff, maybe, dizzied his head. + + "In this way I suppose he expended all his ammunition. At any + rate there came a pause, and a small Basque boy in a blue + _beret_ began to descend the slope very cautiously, searching + for lost balls in the scree. At the foot of the gully, where it + funnelled to a sheer drop, I stepped from under my shelter and + met the youngster, holding out a golf-ball. 'Here is one more,' + said I--'Where are the two gentlemen gone?' He told me that + they had gone back to the Club House. 'Then here is a franc for + you,' said I, 'and here is a card which you will take with the + ball and my compliments to the gentleman who cannot play golf so + well as the other gentleman.' + + "The lad grinned. We climbed the cliff together, and I saw him + speed off to the Club House." + + + "I had thus left two cards on Farrell, and it was now his turn to + call: which he duly did, and next day; not, however, at the + Grand Hotel, but at a far more romantic place of entertainment. + + "If you don't know this place--and I do not commend it to you for + entertainment towards the close of the English season--let me + tell you that, walking south from the town by paths that lead + around the curves of the foreshore, you quickly lose Biarritz + and find yourself in a deserted and melancholy country,--a sort + of blasted heath that belongs to a fairy-tale. The great + military road for Spain runs hidden, pretty wide on your left, + among the lower foothills of the Pyrenees: and from it these + foothills undulate down and drop over little cliffs to form a + moorland with patches of salt marish. In spring, they tell me, + the ground is all gay with scarlet anemones in sheets; but, when + I took the path, their glory was over and but a few late flowers + lingered. I happen, however, to like flowers for their scent + more than for their colour: and the whole of this moor was a + spilth of scent from bushes of the purple Daphne--its full + flowering time over, but its scent lingering ghostlily on the + salt wind from the sea. And the sea was forlorn as it always is + in this inner bight of the Bay of Biscay, where no ships have + any business and your whole traffic is a fishing-boat or two, or + a thread of smoke out on the horizon. You are alone between sea + and mountains; and all along the strip that separates them, + while the sky is spring, the land and the sense of it are + autumn. + + "Now I don't know the history of it, but can only guess that once + on a time some enterprising speculator, fired by the sudden + Third-Empire blaze of Biarritz, conceived the project of + starting a rival watering place, here to the South, and that + they were to make its beginning with a colossal Hotel. At any + rate, here, rounding a desolate point of the foreshore, I came + upon a long desolate beach, and a long desolate building, + magnificent of facade, new and yet ruinated, fronting the Bay + with a hundred empty eye-sockets. + + "It broke on the view with a shock. It made me glance over my + shoulder to make sure of the real Biarritz not far behind. + But three or four spits of land shut off that human, if vulgar, + resort. Between me and the Pyrenees this immense ghastly + sarcophagus of misdirected enterprise possessed the landscape, + and I approached it. Yes, Roddy:" + + Dauntless the slughorn to my lips I set, + And blew. _Childe Roland to the Dark Tower came_. + + "The horrible place turned out to be a mask--as I hope the Dark + Tower did, after all, for Childe Roland. But it was a horrible + mask. It had been started on foundations of good stone, with + true French lordliness: but it parodied--or, rather, it + satirised--the ambitious French tendency to impose architecture + upon nature. Behind the facade, through which the wind + whistled, all was an unroofed mass of rusted girders and joists; + a skeleton framework about which I climbed--the first and last + guest--conning and guessing where suites of rooms had been + planned, to be adorned with Louis Seize furniture, for a host of + fellow-guests that had never come and now would never arrive to + make merry. I clambered along a girder, off which my heels + scaled the rust in long flakes, and thrust my head through one + of the great empty windows to take in the view. + + "--Which was indeed magnificent. But my eye switched from it to + a mean little human figure, moving along the foreshore with a + gait which, even at a goodish distance, I recognised for + Farrell's. It looked like a beetle creeping, nearing, across + the flats and hummocks. But it was Farrell. + + "He halted at some distance, as I had halted; arrested, as I had + been arrested, at sight of the incongruous great structure, + planted here. He drew close, cast a sort of questioning glance + seaward, very deliberately drew a pair of field-glasses from a + case slung over his shoulder, and focused them on the building, + lifting them slowly. + + "I had drawn back behind my window-jamb, yet so as to watch him. + As he tilted the glasses upward, I leaned out. + + "He stood for a moment, or two motionless. Then his hands sank, + with the glasses clutched in them. He walked slowly away. + When he judged himself hidden by a spit of the shore--but my + window overlooked it--he broke into a run. + + "I note that he is already beginning to reduce his figure. + + "I returned the call that same evening. I dropped in on + him as he took his seat to dine _solus_ at the _Albion_. + The dining-room, I should tell you, was fairly full. Usual + ruck of people: sort of too-English; English you see at + _tables-d'hote_ and nowhere else in the world, with an + end-of-season preponderance of females who stay to look after + the British chaplain a little longer than he needs, or to + gratify some obscure puritan pride in seeing everybody out, or + because there's a bargain to be squeezed with the management to + the last ounce, or peradventure because they've planned a series + of cheap visits at home for our beautiful summer and one or two + of the Idle Rich have remembered to be less idle than they were + last year, and more restive. + + "To do him credit--and it makes me hopeful for him--Farrell has a + certain instinct of self-preservation. Let us never forget that + he is a widower. Amid these Amazons he had fenced a bachelor + table. I walked up to it straight and said, with a glance + around, 'Farrell, you're lonely.' + + "He passed a hand over his forehead and murmured, 'Oh, for God's + sake--don't drive me like this! . . .' + + "'Nonsense,' said I. 'Forget it, man. Look around you and say + if there's one of these spinsters you'd rather have for + companion. Don't raise your voice. You started in admirable + key. . . . Let's keep to it and understand one another. + I'm dining with you. If you like, we'll toss up later for who + pays: but I'm dining with you. I promise not to hurt you + to-night, if that helps conviviality.' + + "'It does,' said he in a queer way. 'Let's talk.' + + "'Well then,' said I confidentially. 'You're a solid man. + You've made your way in the world, and I suppose the sort of + success you've won implies some grit. . . . What makes you + afraid of me, Farrell?' + + "He drank some wine and stared down on the table-cloth, knitting + his brows. 'Well,' he answered, 'I might tell you it's because + you're mad.' + + "'That's nonsense,' I assured him. + + "'Oh, is it?' said he. 'I'd like to be sure it is.' + + "'My pulse, as yours, doth temperately keep time," I quoted. + 'Feel it, Farrell.' + + "I stretched out my wrist. He started back as though it had been + a snake. + + "'On the whole you're right,' said I, drawing back my hand + slowly, watching his eyes. 'If they saw you feeling my pulse + the ladies around us would at once solve the doubt they have + discussed in the drawing-room. All _table-d'hote_ ladies + speculate concerning their fellow-guests in the hotel. . . . . + Thirty pairs of eyes were on the point of detecting you for a + fashionable physician, and by this time to-morrow thirty ladies + travelling in search of health would have found means to make + your acquaintance and pump you for medical advice on the + cheap. . . . Yes, Farrell, you have a lively instinct of + self-preservation. I will note it. . . . Now tell me.--When I + walked in just now, that same instinct prompted you to get up + and run; to run as you did along the foreshore this afternoon. + What restrained you?' + + "'Why, hang it all,' he blurted with a look around; 'a fellow + couldn't very well show up like that before all these ladies!' + + "He meant it too, Roddy. It came out with a flush, plump and + honest. + + "It makes the chase more interesting. But I am annoyed with + myself over the miscalculation. . . . I could have sworn he was + a coward in grain. I marked all the _stigmata_. . . . + And behold he can show fight!--at any rate in presence of the + other sex. . . . Can something have happened to him, think you, + since our talk at Versailles? Is it possible that I am + _educating_ the man? + + "On top of this complicating discovery I made a simplifying one. + + "You know that I have a knack with animals, in the way of + handling their passions. I've never tried it on humans: for + I've never laid down any basis of knowledge, and I've always + detested empiricism. That study, as you remember, was to come. + + "Well, I'll write further about it some day. . . . But I believe + I have _something like_ this power over Farrell. . . . I put out + a feeler or two--to change metaphors, I waved a hand gently over + the lyre, scarcely touching the strings; and it certainly + struck me that they responded. You will understand that a + _table-d'hote_ was no place for pushing the experiment. + And there were one or two men in the smoking-room when we sought + it. + + "Farrell found himself; talked, after a while, quite well and + easily. In the smoking-room he told me a good deal about his + early life: all _bourgeois_ stuff, of course, but recounted in + the manner that belongs to it, and quite worth listening to. + + "He never wilted once, until I got up to go and drank what + remained of my whisky-and-seltzer 'to our next merry meeting.' + He followed me out to the hotel doorway to say Good night. + We did not shake hands. + + "There are indications that he will travel back north to-night. + He has left for Pau, to play golf. At Dax this evening--mark my + words--a solitary traveller may be observed furtively stealing + on board the night express for Paris. He will be observed: but + he won't be a solitary traveller. + + "Your lawyer's letter--as I started by remarking--has arrived + opportunely. If Farrell, as I suspect, intends to go through to + London, I may reach you almost as soon as this letter, and shall + add a piece of my mind for a postscript.--Yours," + + "J. F." + +I slept the night at Biarritz and started back early next morning for +London. + +I found Jimmy recumbent in what he called his Young Oxford Student's +Reading Chair, alone with the racing news in the evening papers. + +"Hallo!" he greeted me. "I rather expected you just now. Let's go +and dine somewhere." + +"Has Jack turned up here?" I asked. + +"'Course he has: Farrell too--Farrell first by a short head. +Rather a good idea, my stopping at home to keep goal. Hard lines on +you, though; all that journey for nothing. . . . If it's any +consolation, the Professor was much affected when I told him of all +the trouble you were taking, out of pure friendship, to fit him with +a strait-waistcoat. 'Good old Roddy!' he said." + +"No, he didn't," I interrupted. "And if he did, we'll cut that out. +Tell me what happened." + +"He said he had posted a letter to you from Biarritz: that it ought +to have arrived by this time. I told him it hadn't, and it hasn't. +If it had, I warn you I should have opened it." + +"That's all right," I said. "I extracted it from the post-box at +Biarritz, and have it here. You shall read it by and by. Go on." + +"Well, in my opinion, the Professor's pulling your leg--or he and +Farrell between 'em. If either's mad, it's Farrell; or else--which +I'm inclined to suspect--Farrell's a born actor." + +"Now see here," I threatened, "I've travelled some thousands of +miles: I've spent two nights in the train and one in a French +bedstead haunted by mosquitoes: I've had the beast of a crossing, and +I'm in the worst possible temper. Will you, please tell me exactly +what has happened?" + +"You shall have the details over dinner," he promised affably. +"For you've omitted the one observation that's relevant--your stomach +is crying aloud for a meal. The Cafe Royal is prescribed." + +"Not until I've had a tub and dressed myself. The dust of +coal-brick--" + +"That's all right, again. . . . I admonished Jephson. You'll find +the bath spread and your clothes laid out in your bedder, and in five +minutes or so Jephson will bring hot water in a lordly can. I, too, +will dress. . . . But meantime, here are the outlines: + +"Farrell knocked in early this morning. He was agitated and he +perspired. He wished to see you at once. I pointed out that it was +impossible and, as they say in examinations, gave reasons for my +answer. Hearing it, he showed a disposition to shake at the knees +and cling to the furniture. When he went on to discover that I might +do in your place, and the furniture's place, and started clinging to +me--well, I struck. I pointed out that he was apparently sound in +wind and limb, inquired if he owed money, and having his assurance to +the contrary, suggested that he should pull himself together and copy +the Village Blacksmith. + +"While we were arguing it, the Professor butted in. I'll do him the +justice to say he wasn't perspiring. But he, too, was in the devil +of a hurry to interview you. So I had to play band as before. + +"The position was really rather funny. There, by the door, was the +Professor, asking questions hard, and seemingly unaware that Farrell +was anywhere in the room. Here was I, playing faithful Gelert +life-size, but pretty warily, covering Farrell--who, for aught I +knew, had gone to earth under the sofa. I couldn't hear him +breathing--and he's pretty stertorous, as a rule. + +"I kept a pretty straight eye on the Professor, somehow, and told him +the facts--that you had sent the money ('Yes, I know,' said he: 'I +got it before leaving Biarritz'): that you had actually gone to that +health-resort in search of him. ('Good God!' said he. 'That's like +old Roddy'--or some words to that effect. You wouldn't let me repeat +'em, just now.) Then he started telling me about this letter he'd +posted at Biarritz, and that it should have arrived, by rights. +'Well, it hasn't,' said I, feeling pretty inhospitable for not asking +him to sit down and have a drink. . . . But, you see, I wasn't +certain he wouldn't sit down somewhere on top of Farrell. . . . +'Think he'll be home tonight?' asked the Professor. 'That's what I'm +allowing, in the circumstances,' said I. '--But you owe him some +apology, you know, because you've led him the devil of a dance.' +'Don't I realise _that!_' says he, like a man worried and much +affected. 'We'll call around to-night, on the chance of his turning +up to forgive us. Come along, Farrell!' says he. + +"I whipped about; and there was Farrell, seated in that chair of +yours, bolt upright, smirking as foolish as a wet-nurse at a +christening! I couldn't have believed my eyes. . . . But there it +was--and after what I'd been listening to, five minutes before! + +"As I'm describing it, it staggered me--and the more when the +Professor, looking past me, said, 'If you're ready, Farrell?' and +Farrell stood up, smiling and ready, and moved to join him. +But I kept what face I could. + +"'You're going to look in again, you two?' I asked. The Professor +said 'Yes, on the chance that Roddy may turn up'; and he looked at +Farrell; and Farrell blinked and said, 'Yes, we owe him an +explanation, of course.' + +"'Well,' said I,' you'll be lucky if he don't throw you both +downstairs for a pair of knockabout artists astray. I've a sense of +humour that can stretch some distance, and with the permission of our +kind friends in front this matinee performance will be repeated +to-night, when Otty's sense of humour will gape for it, no doubt, +after being stretched to the Pyrenees and back.' + +"The Professor motioned Farrell out to the staircase. Then he came +forward to me and said, pretty low and serious, 'You're a good boy, +Jimmy. You're so good a boy that I want you to keep out of this. +If Roddy turns up to-night, tell him that my man's for Wimbledon, +safe and sound. On second thoughts, we won't bother a tired man, +to-night, with any excuses or apologies. By to-morrow he will +probably have had my letter, and will understand. He may or may not +decide to show it to you. I hope he won't. I hope you'll let us see +him alone to-morrow. Good-bye.' + +"--Now what do you make of that?" demanded Jimmy helplessly. + +"I make it out to be no jest, but pretty serious," said I. +"But luckily Farrell's located at Wimbledon. Where's Jack?" I asked. + +"Don't know," answered Jimmy. + +"I'm tired enough for this night, anyhow," said I. "And here's +Jephson.--'Evening, Jephson." + +Jephson came in with a can in one hand and in the other a tray with a +telegram upon it. + +"Good evening, Sir Roderick! Glad to see you safe home, sir," said +Jephson. "Telegram just delivered at the Lodge for Mr. Collingwood." + +"For me?" said Jimmy. "I've backed nothing to-day. Been too busy." + +He tore upon the envelope, read the message, and after a pause handed +it to me, whistling softly. It had been handed in at the Docks +Station, Liverpool, and it ran-- + + + "Tell O. that F. and I sail to-night New York S.S. _Emania_. + + "Foe." + + + +NIGHT THE TWELFTH. + + +THE "EMANIA". + +I am going to spin the next stretch of this yarn--and maybe the next +after it--in my own way. You will wonder how I happened by certain +scraps of information: but you will understand before we come to the +end. + +It comes mainly from later report, but partly from documents which I +have been too busy, of late, to sift. Here they are, all mixed: and +I choose one only out of the heap--and that a passage which doesn't +help the actual story much, though it may help the understanding of +it. It occurs in a letter of Foe's written at sea and posted from +New York-- + + "She had been reading a magazine, borrowed from the ship's + library, and when she left me, she left it lying beside her + deck-chair. The wind ruffled its pages and threatened to tear + them: so I picked the thing up, and was about to close it, and + to stow it behind her cushion, when a story-title caught my eye + and agreeably whetted my curiosity. It was 'The Head Hunter.' + + "I don't care greatly for short stories. Fiction as a rule bores + me in inverse proportion to its length--which seems a paradox + and liable to be reduced to the absurd by any moderately expert + logician. Yet you will find it experimentally true of five + readers out of six. . . . Moreover the yarn had little or + nothing to do with real head-hunting--except in its preamble. + I soon glanced at the end, and had no further use for the story. + + "But I turned my attention back to the preamble and reread it + twice. The fellow, an American, has a queer cocky irregular + style: but he can write when he chooses: and in one shot he so + fairly hit me between wind and water that I had to steal the + book, carry it down to my cabin and copy out the passage for + your benefit. . . . Yes, for yours: because it conveys something + I've been wanting you to understand about this chase of mine, + something I couldn't have put into words though I'd tried for a + month. I enclose it herewith. . . . + + "When I had finished my copying, I took the thing back, meaning + to slip it under Miss Denistoun's cushion. But she had returned + to her chair, and so I was caught red-handed. 'So it was you?' + said she. 'What have you been doing with my magazine?' + 'Skimming it,' said I--which was true enough, literally, but I + didn't manage it very well. 'Did you find anything to interest + you specially?' she asked. 'Well, yes,' I admitted;' I picked + it up and lit on something that promised well: but the story + came to nothing.' She gave me a glance and I felt sure she had + spotted my awkwardness and was going to pursue the catechism. + But she didn't. To my relief she harked back to our previous + talk. At tea-time, however, she remembered to take the + magazine away with her. . . . It has not yet been returned to + store. . . ." + + (ENCLOSURE) + + "'_Particularly during my stay in Mindanao had I been fascinated + and attracted by that delightfully original tribe of heathen + known as the head-hunters. Those grim, flinty, relentless + little men, never seen, but chilling the warmest noonday by the + subtle terror of their concealed presence, paralleling the trail + of their prey through unmapped forests, across perilous + mountain-tops, adown bottomless chasms, into uninhabitable + jungles, always near, with the inevitable hand of death + uplifted, betraying their pursuits only by such signs as a beast + or a bird or a gliding serpent might make--a twig crackling in + the awful sweat-soaked night, a drench of dew showering from the + screening foliage of a giant tree, a whisper at even from the + rushes of a water-level--a hint of death for every mile and + every hour--they amused me greatly, those little fellows of one + idea._'" + +You observe that a lady has come into the story at last, as she was +bound to do. (You will hear of another and a very different one by +and by.) It is not my fault that she enters it so late--I tell of +things as they occurred--though a clever writer would have dragged +her in long before this. I wish to God I hadn't to bring her into it +at all. I slipped out her surname just now. . . . + +It was through being a friend of mine that she comes into it. +Constantia Denistoun and I had ridden ponies, tickled for trout, +bird-nested, tumbled off trees, out of duck-punts, through forbidden +ice, and into every form of juvenile disgrace, together as boy and +girl. Her father and mine had been college friends, and (I believe) +had both fallen in love with my mother, at a College ball, and my +father won--but all on an understanding of honourable combat. +Denistoun set out to travel, quite in the traditional way of the +Rejected One. He was a Yorkshire squire with plenty of money, and +could afford the prescribed cure. He travelled as far as to +Virginia, U.S.A., where he halted, and wooed and won the heiress of a +wide estate of cotton and tobacco and a great Palladian house, all +devastated and ruined by the War, in which her father had fallen, +one of Lee's pet leaders of cavalry. . . . Yes, I know it sounds +like a tale out of Ouida: but such things happen, and this thing +happened. . . . Denistoun scaled the twenty steps of the Ionic +portico, cleft his way through the cobwebs and briers that were +living and dying for Dixie, kicked over the grand piano that Dinah's +duster still reverentially spared, and carried off the enchanted +Princess across the seas to Yorkshire: where in due course she bore +him a daughter, Constantia, and, some years later, a son who +eventually came into the property but doesn't come into the story. + +In the meantime it had happened that _I_ saw the light. . . . +My mother died, a year later: and after seven years of widowhood my +father married again. My sister Sally--the recipient of those long +letters you see me inditing o' nights--is my step-sister, and an +adored one at that. + +There you have the family history, or enough of it. The old +friendship between my father and Squire Denistoun had never been +broken; and now that death had taken away the last excuse for a +rivalry which had been felt but to be renounced, Constantia and I-- +unconscious brats--shared holidays, as it chanced at my home or hers, +in nefarious poaching beside Avon or in gallops between her northern +moors and the sea. + +That is all, or almost all. I have to add that, having fallen into +most scrapes with her, I ended by proposing one in which she gently +but decisively declined to share the risk. . . . I am inclined to +think that, having been so frank with her, and so frequent, in +confidences about others to whom my heart was lost, she may have +missed the bloom on the recital. . . . But there it was; and that's +that, as they say. + +I accused her at the time of a priggish, unnatural craving for things +of the intellect. All my excuse was that at a certain time of her +life she took a sudden turn for reading and setting queer new values +on things. But she was always a sportswoman, a woman of the open +air, and--here's the point--always knowledgeable with animals and +always beloved by them, but always (as it seemed to me) inclined to +be severe and disciplinary. To a lean pack she was Diana; they +fawned behind her for no pay but hope of her word to let slip. +But she would beat them off the piled platter, and from a fed lap-dog +she could scarcely restrain her hands. If you think this hasn't to +do with the story, I can only assure you that it has. + +One thing more--She had met Foe; for the first time at a +luncheon-party in my rooms at Cambridge, in May Week; a second time, +it may be, at a May Week ball--but that wouldn't count, for she +danced divinely and Foe couldn't compete for nuts. She may have met +him once or twice afterwards, in London. It's not likely. + +Anyhow (as she has told me since) she recognised him at once when he +turned up on the _Emania_. + +She and her mother were bound out to visit some friends at +Washington, thence to fare South and stay a while with a cousin who +held the old homestead in which her mother retained some sort of +dower share. + +Thus she recognised Foe as soon as he appeared on deck. + +But he did not appear on deck until the _Emania_ was well out from +Queenstown; having made sure that Farrell didn't bolt there. +The two--need I tell it?--had not taken passage in collusion. +Farrell was escaping, Foe on his trail. But Foe had no idea of any +dramatic surprise on board. Having made sure of his man, he just +took a remnant first-class berth at the last moment, turned in, and +went to sleep. + +In all their commerce (you will have begun to remark) Foe and Farrell +were apt to yield, at intervals, to an abandonment of weariness, but +so that they alternated, the exhaustion of one seeming ever to double +the other's fever. Foe sought his bunk and lay there like a log. +Farrell, after the first shock of reading his pursuer's name in the +Passengers' Book--where it sprang to his eyes fair and square--fell +to haunting the passage-way, low down in the vessel, on which one +dreadful door refused to open. His terror of it so preoccupied him +that he forgot to feel sea-sick. But the steward of those nether +regions marked him, by the electric lamps, as a lurking passenger to +be watched; and wondered who, at that depth in the ship, could be +carrying valuables to tempt a middle-aged gentleman who (if looks +were any guide) ought to be up and losing money to the regular +card-sharpers. + +It was not until the second day out, and pretty late in the +afternoon, that Foe emerged from his cabin, neatly dressed and hale. +(Unlike some Professors I have known, Jack kept his clothes brushed +and his hair cut.) As he opened his door his ear caught a slight +shuffling sound; whereupon he smiled and stepped quickly down the +passage to the turn of the companion way. + +"No hurry, Farrell!" he called; and Farrell, arrested, turned slowly +about on the stair. "Man, you're like the swain in Thackeray:" + + Although I enter not, + Yet round about the spot + Oft-times I hover-- + +"Solicitous, were you?--thought I might be sea-sick?" + +"I was wondering," Farrell stammered. "Seeing that you didn't turn +up at meals--" + +(Here I must read you a queer remark from the letter in which Jack +reported this encounter. Here's the extract:--) + + "_Do you know, Roddy, that silly simple answer gave me half a + fright for a moment, or a fright for half a moment--I forget + which. . . . What I had to remember then was my discovery that I + had my second keyboard in reserve and could pull certain stops + out of him at will. . . . But seriously, I wouldn't, without + that power, back myself in this experiment against a man who + obstinately persisted in forgiving. It came on me with a + flash--and I offer this tribute to the Christian religion_." + +Foe's answer was, "Very kind of you. As a fact, I have been +subsisting on hard biscuit and weak whisky-and-water: though I'm an +excellent sailor, as they say. . . . It's a diet that suits me when +I'm working hard." + +"Working?" exclaimed Farrell. "What? Head-work, d'you mean? . . . +Doctor, this is the best news you could have told me. If only I +could know that you were picking up your interests--getting back to +yourself--" + +Foe took him by the arm. "It's no good, unfortunately," he answered. +"Come up on deck, and I'll tell you." + +On deck he repeated, "It's no good. I've been hard at it, working on +my memory, trying to sketch out a kind of monograph--summary of +conclusions--salvage from the wreck. But it won't do. It was an +edifice to be built up on data, bit by bit, like an atoll. . . . Ever +seen a coral reef, by the way? We'll inspect one--many perhaps--on +our travels. . . . I'd burn in the pit rather than smatter out +popular guess-work. Yes, all personal pride apart, I couldn't do it. +But however badly I set down conclusions, they've all rested on data, +they've all grown up on data, and I haven't the data. . . . I wrote +out half a dozen pages and then asked myself, 'What would _you_ say +if a man came along professing to have made this discovery? +You'd demand his evidence, and you'd be right. Of course you'd be +right. And if he didn't produce it, you'd call him a quack. +Right again.' . . . From this personal point of view, to be sure, I +might take this sorry way out--print my conclusions, and anticipate +the demand for evidence by throwing myself overboard. . . . In the +dim and distant future some fellow might strike the lost path, take +the pains that I've taken, work out the theory, yes, and (it's even +possible) be generous enough to add that, by some freak of guessing, +in the year 1907, a certain Dr. John Foe, of whom nothing further is +known, did, in unscientific fashion, hit on the truth, or a part of +the truth. Oh, damn! _Why_ should I burn in the pit, or throw myself +overboard, or go down to the shades for a quack, because a thing like +you has crawled out of the Tottenham Court Road. . . . Eh? Well, I +won't, anyhow: and so you see how it is, and how it's going to be." + +Farrell leaned against the rail, and held to a boat's davit, while +his gaze wandered vaguely out over the Atlantic as if it would +capture some wireless message. ("I knew how it would be," adds Foe +in his letter reporting this talk. "He was going to try the +forgive-and-forget with me: but by this time I was sure of myself.") + +"Listen to me, Doctor," Farrell began. "Listen to me, for God's +pity! I didn't get off at Queenstown, though I knew you were on +board--" + +"No use if you had," put in Foe. "You don't think I had overlooked +that possibility, do you?" + +"Well, I didn't, anyway," was the answer. "And I'll tell you why. +Honest I will. . . . We're both here and bound for America, ain't we? +And, from what I've heard, there's no such expensive, bright, +up-to-date laboratories--if that's the way to pronounce it--as you'll +find in the States, in every walk of Science. Now, I never meant you +an injury, Doctor; but I did you one--that I freely own. . . . What I +say is, if money can make any amends, and if there's an outfit for +science to be found in the States to your mind, why, I'll improve on +it, sir. And I'm not saying it, as you might suppose, under any +threat, but because I've been thinking it out and I mean it. I'm a +childless man--" + +Foe cut him short here. "My only trouble with you, Farrell," +said he, "is that you may reach your grave without understanding. +If I thought that wasn't preventible somehow, it would save me +trouble to wring your neck here and now and throw you overboard. +As it is--" + +But, as it was, along the deck just then came Constantia Denistoun, +with her mother leaning on her arm and a maid following. She +recognised Foe and halted. + +"Why, good Heavens! . . . and I'd no idea that you were on the +_Emania_," said she. "Mother, this is Mr. Foe--Roddy's friend, +you know. . . . Or ought I to call you Doctor, or Professor, or +what? . . . You weren't anything of that sort anyhow, when we met-- +how many years ago? at Cambridge." + +--That, or to that effect. . . . Constantia told me afterwards that +she didn't remember throwing more than a glance at Farrell, whom she +took, very pardonably, to be a chance acquaintance from the +smoking-room, picked up as such acquaintances are picked up on +ship-board. And Farrell stood back a couple of paces. To do him +justice, he was in no wise a thruster. + +"It's odd," she went on, "that we haven't run across one another +until this moment. What's your business, over yonder? if that's not +a rude question." + +"It's a natural one, anyhow," Foe answered. "My business? Well, it +has been suggested to me that a trip in the States, to see what +they're doing in the way of scientific outfit and, maybe, get hints +for a new laboratory, might not be waste of time." + +"Yes, I know; I've heard," she said softly. "It's splendid to find +you taking it like this . . . picking up the pieces, eh? . . . +I wonder if"--she hesitated--"if I might ask you some questions? + . . . Just as much as you choose to tell: but something to put into +a letter to our Roddy, you know. Any news of you will be honey to +him. . . . You'll be writing from New York, of course. But one man +doesn't tell another that he's looking brave and well; and yet that's +often what the other may be most wanting to know." + +Foe was touched (so he's told me). He said some ordinary thing that +tried to show he was grateful, and Constantia and her mother passed +on. He had not introduced Farrell. + + +Constantia told me most of the rest, some months later, pouring tea +for me in her flat. There is not much in it. She said that she had +taken very little account of Jack's companion; had just reckoned him +up for a chance idler in his company--"a sort of super-commercial +traveller"; so she described him; "not at all bad-looking though." + +She went on to tell that she had been mildly surprised to see them at +dinner, seated together; further surprised and even intrigued, to see +them at breakfast together, next morning. + +"Later," said she, "I asked him, 'Who's your friend that you didn't +introduce yesterday?' 'Well,' said Dr. Foe, 'I didn't introduce him +because I thought you mightn't like it. He's rather an outsider. +His name's Farrell.' 'Farrell,' I said--'But isn't that--wasn't +he--?' 'Yes, he is, and he was,' Dr. Foe told me very gravely. +'That's just it.' I couldn't help asking how, after what had +happened, they came to be travelling in company. 'That's the funny +part of it,' was the answer; 'he's trying to make some kind of--well, +of a reparation.' I thought better of Dr. Foe, Roddy. . . . It seems +so _mean_, somehow, that after what you've told me, Dr. Foe should +be-what shall I say?--accepting this reparation from a man who +happens to be rich!" + + +Constantia repeated this, in effect, some two or three nights later. +We had danced through a waltz together and agreed to sit out another. +We sat it out, under a palm. It was somewhere in the immediate +neighbourhood of Queen's Gate, and a fashionable band, tired of +modernist tunes, was throbbing out the old _Wiener Blatter_. . . . +If Constantia remembered that sacred tune, she gave no sign of it. + +"I thought better--somehow--of your friend," said Constantia. + +I gave her a sort of guessing look. "You may take it from me, Con," +I said, "that the trouble's not there. I'm worried about Jack. +I haven't heard from him for months. But he's not of that make, +whatever he is." + +"Are you sure?" she asked. "I feel that I'd like to know. If you +are right, why were he and this Mr. Farrell such close friends?" + +"Farrell's pretty impossible, I agree," said I. + +Constantia opened her fan and snapped it. "Impossible?" said she. +"Well, I don't know. . . . Dr. Foe introduced him, later on . . . +and what do you think Mamma said? She said that she had supposed +them at first sight to be relatives. There was a trick about the +eyes and the corner of the brow. . . . You are quite sure," she added +irrelevantly, "that Dr.--that your friend--would be above--?" + +"I swear to you, Con," I assured her. "I know Jack Foe inside and +out." + +She had opened her fan again very deliberately; and as deliberately +she closed it. + +"No man ever knew that of a man," she said; "nor no woman either. + . . . You're a rotter, Roddy--but you're rather a dear." + + + +NIGHT THE THIRTEENTH. + + +ESCAPE. + +Somewhere in the bustle of landing and scrimmage past the Customs, +Miss Denistoun lost sight of the two travellers; and with that, for a +time, she goes out of the story. + +You may almost put it that for a time they do the same. At all +events for the next few weeks the record keeps a very slight hold on +them and their doings. Jack knew, you see, that--though not a +disapproving sort, as a rule, and in those days (though you children +will hardly believe it) inclined to like my friends the better for +doing what they jolly well pleased--I barred this vendetta-game of +his, and would have called him off if I could. Folk were a bit more +squeamish, if you remember, in those dear old pre-War days. + +But please note _this_, for it is a part of his story. Jack wrote +seldom, having a sense that I didn't want to hear. When he did +write, however, he was liable at any time to break away from the +light, half-jesting, half-defiant tone which he had purposely chosen +to cover our disagreement, and to give me a sentence or two, or even +a page, of cold-blooded confession. It may have been that his +purpose, at that point, suddenly absorbed him, sucked him under. +It may have been that his fixed idea had begun to spread like a +disease over his other sensibilities, hardening and deadening the +tissue, so that he did this kind of thing unconsciously. It may have +been both. You shall judge before we have finished. + +I will give you just one specimen. It occurs in the very first +letter addressed from America. He and Farrell had spent five days in +New York: + + "I am going to ease the chain--to run it out several lengths, + in fact. I shall still keep pretty close in attendance on the + patient, but my professional visits will be rarer. A new and + more strenuous course of treatment requires these holidays, if + his nerves are not to break down under it. + + "The suggestion, after all, came from him, and I am merely + improving on it. . . . This continent has started a small + heat-wave--the first of the summer. Now Farrell, who perspires + freely, tells me that he doesn't mind any amount of heat, so + that it isn't accompanied by noise: but noise and heat combined + drive him crazy. I had myself noted that while the tall + buildings here excited no curiosity in him, he acted as the + veriest rubberneck under the clang and roar of the overhead + trains; and the din of Broadway, he confessed, gave him vertigo + after the soft tide of traffic that moves broad and full-- + 'strong without rage, without o'erflowing full'--down Tottenham + Court Road, embanked with antique furniture or colourable + imitations. + + "He made this confession to me in the _entr'acte_ of a silly + vaudeville, to witness which we had been carried by an elevator + some sixteen storeys and landed on a roof crowded with palms and + funny people behaving like millionaires. In the _entr'acte_ the + band sank its blare suddenly to a sort of 'Home, Sweet Home' + adagio, and after a minute of it Farrell put up a hand, covering + his eyes, and I saw the tears welling--yes, positively--between + his fingers. He's sentimental, of course. + + "I asked what was the matter? He turned me a face like poor + Susan's when at the thrush's song she beheld:" + + Bright volumes of vapour through Lothbury glide + And a river flow on through the vale of Cheapside. + + He said pitiably that he wanted--that he wanted very much--to go + home; and gave as his reason that New York was too noisy for + him. . . . A sudden notion took me at this. 'If that's the + trouble,' I answered, 'one voice in this city shall cease its + small contribution to the din. . . . We will try,' I said, + 'the sedative of silence.' + + "For three days now I have been applying this treatment. + At breakfast, luncheon, dinner; in the street, at the theatre; + I sit or walk with him, saying never a word, silent as a shadow. + He desires nothing so little, I need not tell you. In the + infernal din of this town he looks at me and would sell his + soul for the sound of an English voice--even his worst enemy's. + It is torture, and he will break down if I don't give him a + holiday. The curious part of it is that, under this twist of + the screw, he has apparently found some resource of pluck. + He doesn't entreat, though it is killing him with quite curious + rapidity. I must give him a holiday to-morrow." + + +I piece it out from later letters that from New York they harked out +and harked back, to and from various excursions--quite ordinary ones. +I might, if it were worth while, construct the itinerary; but it +would take a lot of useless labour and yield nothing of importance. +If Farrell, under this careful slackness of pursuit, had made a bolt +for Texas or Alaska, the chronicle just here might be worth reciting. +But he didn't, and it isn't. Buffalo--Long Island--Newport--and, in +one of Jack's letters, Chicago for farthest West--occur in a miz-maze +fashion. It is obvious to me that during these months Farrell, kept +on the run, ran like a hare (and a pretty tame one); that twice or +thrice he headed back for New York, and was headed off. + +I passed over each letter, as it came, to Jimmy, It was over some +later letter, pretty much like the one I've just read to you, that +Jimmy, frowning thoughtfully, put the sudden question, "I say, Otty, +are we fond enough of him to start on another wild-goose chase?--to +America this time, and together?" + +"Jack's my best friend, of course," I answered after a moment. +"You don't tell me--" and here I broke off, for he was eyeing me +queerly. + +"The Professor is, or was, a pretty good friend of mine," said he. +"But you hesitated a moment. Why? . . . Oh, you needn't answer: +I'll tell you. When I asked, 'Are you so fond of him?' for a +moment--just for a flash--you hadn't Jack Foe in your mind, but +Farrell." + +"Well, that's true," I owned. "I'm pretty angry with Jack: he's +playing it outside the touch-line, in my opinion. Except that I +detest cruelty, Farrell's nothing to me, of course." + +"I wonder," Jimmy mused. "Sometimes, when I'm thinking over this +affair--but let us confine ourselves to the Professor. He's in some +danger, if you think _that_ worth the journey. They shoot pretty +quick in the States, and they don't value human life a bit as we +value it in England: or so I've always heard. If it's true--and it +would be rather interesting to run across and find this out for +oneself--one of these days Farrell will be pushed outside _his_ +touch-line--outside the British conventions in which he lives and +moves and has his poor being--and a second later the Professor will +get six pellets of lead pumped into him." + +"Oh, as for that," said I, "Jack must look after himself, as he's +well able to. When a man takes to head-hunting, it's no job for his +friends to save him risks." + +"Glad you look at it so," said Jimmy. "Then, so far as the +Professor's concerned, it's from himself we're not protecting him, +just now?" + +"Or from the self which is not himself," I suggested. + +"That's better," Jimmy agreed, and again fell a-musing. "Sometimes I +think we might get closer to it yet". . . But he did not supply the +definition. After half-a-minute's brooding he woke up, as it were, +with a start. "Could you sail this next week?" he asked. + + +Well, we sailed, five days later; and there is no need to say more of +this trip than that it panned out a fiasco worse than my first. +At New York we beat up the police; and, later on, worried Mulberry +Street and the great detective service for which the city is famous. +Police and detectives availed us nothing. I knew that by the same +mail which brought his latest letter to me, Foe had drawn 600 pounds +on Norgate; and Norgate had dispatched the money without delay, five +days ahead of us. The address was a hotel at the then fashionable +end of Third Avenue. There we found their names on the register. +Plain sailing enough. Farrell had left, as we calculated (the +detectives helping us), on the day the money presumably arrived, and +at about six in the evening; Foe some fifteen or sixteen hours later. +And, with that, we were up against a wall. Not a trace could be +discovered of either from the moment he had walked out of the hotel. +Farrell, having paid his bill, had walked out, carrying a small +handbag (or 'grip,' as the porter termed it), leaving a portmanteau +behind, with word that he would return next day and fetch it. +We were allowed to examine the portmanteau. It contained some shirts +and collars and two suits of clothes, but no clue whatever--not a +scrap of paper in any of the pockets. Foe had departed leisurably +next morning, with his slight baggage. + +Our detective (to do him justice) did his best to earn his money. +He carefully traced out and documented the movements of the two +travellers from one to another of the various addresses I was able to +supply: and he handed in a report, which attested not only his +calligraphy but a high degree of professional zeal. It corresponded +with everything I knew already and decorated it with details which +could only have been accumulated by conscientious research. They +tallied with--they corroborated--they substantiated--they touched +up--the bald facts we already knew. But they did not advance us one +foot beyond the portals of the Flaxman Building Hotel, out of which +Farrell and Foe had walked, at fifteen hours' interval, and walked +straight into vacancy. + +In short, Jimmy and I sailed for home, a fortnight later, utterly +beaten. + +Now I'm telling the story in my own way. A novelist, who knew how to +work it, would (I'm pretty sure) keep up the mystery just about here. +But I'm going to put in what happened, though I didn't hear about it +until two years later. + +What happened was that, one evening, Jack drove Farrell too far, and +over a trifle. Without knowing it, too, he had been teaching Farrell +to learn cunning. They were back in New York and (it seems almost +too silly to repeat) seated in a restaurant, ordering dinner. +Jack held the _carte du jour_: the waiter was at his elbow; Farrell +sat opposite, waiting. For some twenty-four hours--that is, since +their return to New York City--Jack had chosen to be talkative. +Farrell was even encouraged to hope that he had broken the spell of +his hatred, and that the next boat for England might carry them home +in company and forgiving. Just then the devil put it into Jack to +resume his torture. He laid down the card and sat silent, the waiter +still at his elbow. "Well, what shall it be?" asked Farrell, a +trifle faintly. Jack, like the Tar-Baby, kept on saying nothing. +The waiter looked about him, and fetched back his attention politely. +"What shall it be?" Farrell repeated. Then, as Jack stared quietly +at the table, not answering, "Go and attend to the next table," said +he to the man. "You can come back in three minutes." The waiter +went. "Now," said Farrell, laying down the napkin he had unfolded, +"are you going to speak?" + +Foe picked up the card again and studied it. + +"Yes or no, damn you?" demanded Farrell. "Here and now I'll have an +end to this monkeying--Yes, or no?" he cried explosively. + +Foe pointed a finger at the chair from which Farrell had sprung up. + +"I won't!" protested Farrell, and wrenched himself away. "Here's the +end of it, and I'm shut of you!" + +He dragged himself to the door. Foe, still studying the card through +his glasses, did not even trouble to throw a glance after him. +Once in the street, Farrell felt his chain broken: he hailed a cab, +and was driven off to his hotel. There he packed, paid his bill, and +vanished with his grip into the night, leaving his portmanteau behind +with a word that he would return for it. + +Foe had taught him cunning. + +He bethought him of Renton, an old foreman of his; a highly +intelligent fellow, who had come out to New York, some years before, +to better himself, and had so far succeeded that he now controlled +and practically owned a mammoth furnishing emporium--The Home Circle +Store--in Twenty-Third Street. Farrell was pretty sure of the +address; because Renton, who had long since taken out his papers of +naturalisation, regularly remembered his old employer on Thanksgiving +Day and sent him a report of his prosperity, mixed up with no little +sentiment. To this Farrell had for some years responded with a note +of his good wishes, cordial, but brief and businesslike. Of late, +however, this acknowledgment, though still punctual, had tended to +express itself in the form of a Christmas-card. + +Farrell confirmed his recollection of the address by checking it in +the Telephone Book, and paid a call on the Home Circle Store next +afternoon, while Foe was enjoying a siesta in that state of lassitude +which (as I've told you) almost always in one or other of the men +followed their crises of animosity. + +Renton was unaffectedly glad to see Farrell. "Well, Mr. Farrell," he +said, as they shook hands, "well, _sir!_ If this isn't a sight for +sore eyes! And--when I've been meaning, every fall, to step across +home and see your luck--to think that it should be you first dropping +in upon me!" He rushed Farrell up and down elevators, over floor +after floor of his great establishment, perspiring (for the afternoon +was hot), swelling with hospitality and pardonable pride. "And when +we've done, sir, I must take you to my little place up town and make +you acquainted with Mrs. Renton. She's not by any means the least +part of my luck, sir. She'll be all over it when I present you, +having so often heard tell--You've aged, Mr. Farrell! And yet, +in a way, you haven't. . . . You were putting on waist when I saw you +last, and now you're what-one-might-call in good condition--almost +thin. Yes, sir, I heard about your poor lady . . . I wrote about it, +if you remember. Sudden, as I understand? . . . But if you look at +it in one way, that's often for the best: and in the midst of life-- +You'll be taking dinner with us. That's understood." + +"Look here, Ned," Farrell interrupted. "It's done me good to shake +you by the hand and see you so flourishing. But I've looked you up +because--well, because I'm in a tight place, and I wonder if you +could anyways help." + +"Eh?" Renton pulled up and looked at him shrewdly. "What's wrong? +Nothing to do with the old firm, now, surely? . . . I get the London +_Times_ sent over, and your last Shareholders' Meeting was a perfect +Hallelujah Chorus. Why, you're quoted--" + +Now you'll know Farrell, by this time, for a man of his class--and a +pretty good class it is, in England, when all's said and done; for a +man of the sort that resents a suspicion on his business about as +quickly as he'd resent one on his private and domestic honour-- +perhaps even a trifle more smartly. His business, in short, _is_ the +first home and hearth of his honour. So Farrell cut in, very quick +and hot,-- + +"If my business were only twice as solid as yours, Ned Renton, I +might be worrying you about it. . . . There, don't take me amiss! + . . . I've come to trouble you about myself. Fact is, I'm in a +hole. There's a man after me; and I want you to get me out of this +place pretty quick and without drawing any attention more than you +can avoid." + +"O-oh!" said Renton, rubbing his chin, and looking serious. "And +what about the lady?" + +"There's no woman in this," Farrell assured him. "No, Ned; nor the +trace of one." + +"That's curious," said Renton, still reflective. "You being a +widower, I thought, maybe . . . But as between friends, you'll +understand, I'm not asking." + +"I'll tell you the gist of it later," said Farrell. "It started over +politics." + +"So? . . . We've a way with that trouble over here," said Renton. +"Now you mention it, I'd read in the London _Times_ that you were +running for municipal government, and then somehow you seemed to fade +out. . . . I wondered why. . . . Is that part of the story?" + +Farrell answered that it was. They were seated in Renton's private +office, and Renton picked up a small square block of wood from his +desk. It looked like a paper-weight. + +"I've a certain amount of--well, we'll call it influence--hereabouts, +if any man happens to be troubling you," he suggested musingly, and +glanced at Farrell. "But you're not taking it that way, I see." + +Farrell nodded. + +"You just want to be cleared out. . . . That's all right. You shall +tell me all about it later, boss--any time that suits you." +He handed the paperweight across to Farrell. "Ever come across that +kind of wood?" he asked. + +Farrell examined it. "Never," he answered. "It looks like +mahogany--if 'tweren't for the colour. Dyed, is it?" + +"Not a bit. I could show you with a chisel in two minutes. . . . But +you're right. Mahogany it is, and cuts like mahogany. . . . I keep a +high-class warehouse of stuff lower down-town, and there I'll show +you a log of it, seven-by-four. It's from Costa Rica. Would you +care to prospect? . . . I don't mind sharing secrets with the old +firm, as you always dealt with me honourably and we're both growing +old enough to remember old kindness." + +"I'd make a holiday of it," said Farrell heartily, fingering the +wood. "Comes from Costa Rica, eh?" + +"There's not much of it going, even there," said Renton. +"Not enough, I'm afraid, to start a fashionable craze. It was +brought to me, as a sample, by an enterprising skipper from Puerto +Limon, and I was going to send back a man with him, to prospect. + . . . But it's not detracting from his character to say that he +can't tell mahogany from walnut with his finger-tips in the dark--as +_you_ could, boss. If it's a holiday you want, with a trifle of high +cabinet-science thrown in, what about taking his place?" + +"It's the loveliest stuff," said Farrell, rapt, fingering the wood +delicately. + +"Well, now, that makes me feel good, having my old master's word for +it, that taught me all I know. Look at it sideways and catch the +tints under the light. 'Opaline mahogany' we'll call it. +Come down-town with me, and I'll show you the baulk of it. It don't +grow big. . . . What about cash?" + +"I've a plenty for the present," Farrell assured him. "Clearing's my +only difficulty." + +"You trust to me, and I'll oblige," said his old employee. + + +Farrell went back to his hotel that evening, paid his bill and walked +out with his grip. At Renton's warehouse in the lower town he +changed his dress for a workman's; was conveyed to the Quay by +Renton, who shipped him aboard the lime-tramp. She carried him down +to Puerto Limon; where the skipper took a holiday, and the pair +struck farther down the coast on mule-back for a hundred miles or so, +and then inland for the Mosquito village hard by which they were to +find the grove of this mysterious purple hardwood. They found it--as +Farrell had agreed with Renton in expecting--to be no forest, +scarcely even a grove, but a mere patch, and the timber a "sport" +though an exceedingly beautiful one. On their return to Limon +Farrell wrote out a careful report. The wood was priceless. +It deserved a new genius to design a new style of inlay for it. +Given that, with the very pink of artists among cabinet-makers and a +knowledgeable man to put the furniture on the market, a reasonable +fortune was to be made. With skill it could be propagated: but for +two generations and longer it must depend on its rarity. He added +some suggestions for propagating it and wound up, "Turn these over, +for what they are worth, to someone who understands this climate and +is botanist as well as nurseryman. It won't profit you or me, Ned; +and we've no children. Mr. Weekes has, though"--Weekes was the +skipper--"and his grandchildren ought to have something to inherit. +I'd hate to die and think that such stuff was being lost to the +trade. But for the standing timber, anyway, there's only one word. +_Buy_. Yours gratefully, P. Farrell." + +When his report was written and signed, he handed it to Weekes. +"We can mail this, if you approve," he said. + +Weekes read it over and approved the document. "But I don't approve +mailing it," he assured Farrell. "No, sirree: your boss has a name +for playing straight, but we won't give him all that time and +temptation. We'll go back and hand him this together--for you come +into it, I guess, on some floor or other." + +"No," said Farrell. "The report's as good as it promises; but I'm +out of this job. The only favour you can do me is to help me shift +down this coast--as far as Colon, for instance. And I owe it to +Renton, of course, to mail this letter. With your knowledge of the +boats and trains, you can get to New York along with it or even ahead +of it." + +"That's all very well, so far as it goes," said Weekes, thoughtfully; +"and I see your point. But again, what about _you_?" + +"Ah, to be sure," answered Farrell, pondering in his turn. +"There's the risk of leaving me behind to chip in on you both. +Well . . . You don't run any whalers from this port, do you?" + +"Whalers?" Captain Weekes opened his eyes. + +"I understand," Farrell explained, "that they keep out at sea for a +considerable time. . . . No, and it wouldn't help your confidence if +I told you that there's a man in New York--an Englishman like +myself--hunting me for my life. . . . But see here. Of your +knowledge find me a southward bound vessel that, once out, certainly +won't make port for a fortnight. We'll mail this report from the +Quay, and you can put me on board at the last moment, watch me waving +farewells from the offing, and then hurry north as soon as you +please." + + +Well, this, or something like it, was agreed upon; and here Farrell +sails out of the story for ten months, a passenger on the schooner +_Garcia_, bound for Colon. + + + + +BOOK III. + + +THE RETRIEVE. + + + +NIGHT THE FOURTEENTH. + + +SAN RAMON. + +I have never set eyes on the village of San Ramon, but I have heard +it described by two men--by one of them in great detail--and their +descriptions tally. + +It is a village or townlet of two hundred houses or so. It lies +about a third of the way down the coast of Peru, close over the sea. +It has no harbour: a population of half-breeds--mestizos? Is that +the word?--sprinkled with whitish cosmopolitans, and here and there a +real white man. But these last, though they wear shoes and keep up +among themselves a pretence to be the aristocracy of the place, have +really resigned life for this anticipatory Paradise where they grow +grey on remittance money, eating the lotus, drinking smoked Scotch in +the hotel veranda, swapping stories, and--since they know one another +all too well in this drowsy decline of their day--feebly and falsely +pretending to one another what gallant knowing fellows they had been +in its morning. As for their shoes, token of their caste, they +usually wear them unlaced by day and not infrequently sleep in them +at night. With the exception of Engelbaum, who keeps the hotel, the +white citizens are unmarried. With the exception of Frau Engelbaum-- +aged sixty and stout at that--there are no white ladies in San Ramon. + +And yet San Ramon is a Paradise. A tall mountain backs it. The +Pacific kisses its feet. A spring bursting from the mountain, about +four thousand feet up, has cut a gorge down which it tumbles in +cascades to the beach and the salt water. Where the source leaps +from the rock the vegetation begins, as you would expect. It widens +and grows more luxuriant all the way down. The stream comes to a +forty-foot waterfall between sheer rock curtained with creepers; +whence it hurries down through plantations of banana, past San Ramon, +which perches where it can, house by house, on shelves hidden in +greenery. There it takes another great leap into a basin it has +hollowed for itself in the steep-to beach. + +We have come down by nature's route. Now we'll climb back by man's. +A sort of stairway, broad-stepped, made of pebbles and pounded earth, +mounts in fairly well engineered zigzags to the plateau above the +lower fall, and in a straighter flight beside the gorge to the hotel +which is the topmost building of San Ramon. Above that it becomes a +gully curved by torrential rains; above that, zigzags again as a +mule-track up to a pass in the mountains--and thereafter God knows +whither. Connecting the lower zigzags (I need scarcely say) are +short-cuts or slides made by the brown-footed children, who plunge +down almost as steeply and quickly as the stream itself when the +fortnightly fruit-steamer blows her siren beyond the point. + +There is no harbour, you understand. The small steamer--by name the +_P.M. Diaz_--drops anchor a short mile out in a half-protected +roadstead, and discharges what she has to discharge, or lades what +she has to lade, by boats. Her ladings during the banana-harvest are +feverish, tumultuous, vociferous. Her ladings during the sleepy +remainder of the year comprise canned meats, Scotch whisky, +illustrated magazines, and plantation inspectors. + + +It was almost twelve months to a day--I am trying to tell the story +to-night as a novelist would tell it, but without going beyond the +material supplied to me--It was almost twelve months from the day Foe +left the portico of the Flaxman Building Hotel, New York, that he +stepped ashore on the beach below San Ramon and resigned his light +suitcase to a herd of bare-legged boys who offered to carry it up to +the hotel, but seemed likelier to dismember it on the way and share +up the shreds. They took him, as a matter of course, for a +plantation inspector, arrived in the off-season. He was the only +passenger landed from the _P.M. Diaz_, which had dropped anchor +comfortably, in perfect weather, but would sail in the morning. +A light land-breeze blew off the mountains: but it passed over a mile +of water before rippling the sea, which, inshore, lay as glass. +The sunset from the Pacific lit up San Ramon above him, all terraced +and embowered. + +Halted there, gazing up and taking stock of this Paradise before +scaling it, Foe could not be aware, though he might have guessed, +that half a hundred embrasures in the climbing foliage hid +field-glasses and telescopes of which he was the one and common +focus. Up at the hotel, one idler said to another, "Will it be +Morgansen this time, d'you think?" The other passed on the question +to Engelbaum, who was so far the master of his guests that he had +lazily commandeered the large telescope on the _galeria_, and without +gainsay. "If it's old Morgansen," the second man added, "we might +trot some way down the hill to wish him well. The day's cooling in." + +"It's not Morgansen," announced Engelbaum. "A new man--thinnish--Oh, +yes, but an inspector. You can tell these scientific men by their +cut." + +"Hope they haven't sacked old Morgansen," said the first idler. +"He's been a bit of a scandal, these three years. But he knows about +bananas more'n a banana would own to, even with a blush." + + +Half-way over the hill, on a packing-case in a bare veranda, sat a +man who for three months had avoided the hotel and these loungers, +and been given up by all of them (by some enviously) as a lost +friend. A woman reclined--good old novelists' word--in a sort of +deck-chair three paces away. The windows of the house stood wide, +and showed rooms within carpetless, matless, swept if not garnished, +with other packing-cases stacked about and labelled. There was even +a label on the chair in which the woman reclined: but her skirt hid +it. + +When the whistle of the fruit-steamer had first sounded, out beyond +the Point, and almost before the alert young population of San Ramon +could tear down the pathway beside the bungalow's discreet garden, +she had risen with a catch of the breath, taken up a pair of +field-glasses and scanned the offing. + +"It is she beyond a doubt," she had announced. + +"What other could it be?" the man had answered, pretty lazily. +"And that being so--" + +Said the woman--I am trying to tell this in correct fashion--"Why are +you so dull?--who, when the boat used to call, would snatch up the +glasses and be no company for anyone until you had counted everything +she discharged." + +Farrell--oh! by the way it's about time I told you that the man was +Farrell--Farrell looked at the woman. Farrell said: + +No, the devil! I can't tell it the professional way, after all. +There's the woman. Well, the woman was young, and fair to see, dark, +well-bred, with a tinge of lemon, and descended pretty straight from +the Incas--"instead of which" she preferred to call herself Mrs. +M'Kay or M'Kie, having been caught and married in an unguarded moment +by someone who had arrived in San Ramon to push a new brand of whisky +and stayed to push it the wrong way. Since M'Kie's death--or +M'Kay's--whichever it was--new-comers had to choose between +Engelbaum's, on the summit, and the lady, an heiress in a small way, +who played the guitar, half-way down the hill, but frowned on the +drinking-habit. + +Farrell, you will perceive, had chosen the better way, and had become +a voluntary exile from Engelbaum's in consequence. That, or the +exercise of running, had done him a power of good. Just now he was +bronzed, spare, even inclining to gauntness. Twelve months before, +he had shortened his whiskers, as a first step to disguise. +Since then, and to please this woman, he had grown a beard which he +kept short and trimmed to a point, naval fashion. It was +straw-coloured, went well with his bronzed complexion and improved +his appearance very considerably. It may be that this growth had +encouraged the hair on his scalp or stimulated it by rivalry to +renewed effort: more likely the play of sunshine and sea-breeze had +done the trick between them; but anyhow Farrell now possessed a light +mat of silky yellowish hair on the top of his head--as the nigger +song has it, in the place where the wool ought to grow. Shoes, blue +dungaree trousers and a striped shirt were his clothing--the shirt +opened at the throat and to the second button, disclosing a V of +naked chest as healthily tanned as his face. His face had thinned +too. His eyes no longer bulged. They had receded well under the +pent of his brow and, in receding, taken colour from its shadow. + + +"I am not dull, Santa," said Farrell. "I am only content and--well, +a little bit regretful, and--well yes, again, the least bit lazy. +But what does it matter? Ylario has gone down to the beach. He will +send off word to the skipper that all this truck will be ready on the +foreshore by five-thirty to-morrow. In good weather he never weighs +before seven, and the weather is settled." + +The woman, at one word of his, had turned and set down her glasses. + +"Regretful?" She echoed it as a question, and followed it up with a +question. "At what are you staring so hard?" + +He lifted his eyes and met hers very steadily, earnestly. "At your +shape, Santa," was his answer. "When your back is turned, I am +always looking at you so." + +"Regretfully?" she asked, mocking. + +"As for the regret, you know what it is and must be. How can a man +feel it different, when we leave this place to-morrow? Don't women +feel that way towards places where they have been happy?" + +She picked up the glasses again and set them with her gaze seaward +before answering. Thus the shadow of her hands screened any +emotion--if emotion there were--on her face. + +"I have not been happy here, all the time," she answered softly, +readjusting the glass, or pretending to. "Not by any means. +San Ramon to me is a hole. . . . Yes," she went on deliberately, +"I know well what you are going to say. I have _you_: but I want +something more--something I have always wanted and, it seems to me, +every woman always wants--something beyond the sky-line. In Sydney, +now--" + +"You'll find there's a sky-line waiting for you at Sydney," said +Farrell; "as like to this one as two peas--and just as impossible to +get beyond"--which mayn't seem very good grammar, but is how he said +it. "Now to me a sky-line's a sky-line--just something to have you +standing against." + +"You shall have a kiss for that, _caballero_--in a moment," she +purred, and slanted the binoculars down to bear on the beach. "Only +one passenger," she announced. + +"Usual inspector, no doubt," said Farrell, rolling a cigarette. + +"Ye-es--by the look of him. . . . Oh, there's Ylario, all right, +talking to the boatman! . . . He must be a stranger, I think--by the +way he's staring up at the town." + +"Ylario was bred and born here; of uncertain parents, to be sure--" + +She laughed. "Foolish! . . . I meant the inspector, of course." + +"What's he like?" asked Farrell. "Report." + +She lowered the glass, twisted the screw of it idly, and returned to +her hammock-chair, beside which she set it down on the veranda floor. + +"Now I'll make a confession to you," she said, picking up her guitar +and throwing her body back in the chair. "I love you," she said. +"When you are close, and alone with me, my heart feels as if it could +melt into yours. . . . No, don't get up: you shall have your kiss, in +good time. But when you--what shall I say?--when you _all-white_ men +are at all far off, or when many of you are together, I cannot well +distinguish. . . . Ah, pardon me, beloved! Haven't you had that +trouble with people of other races than your own--among a crowd of +Japanese, say? And the shepherds on the mountains behind here--have +you not wondered how they can know every sheep in a flock of many +hundred?" + +Farrell was on his feet by this time, and in something of a passion. +"Am I, then," he stammered out; "--am I, then, so like any of the +others, up at Engelbaum's?" + +"Calm yourself, O beloved," said Santa, brushing her finger-nails, +gipsy-wise and soft as butterflies, over, the strings of her guitar. +"Calm yourself, and hearken. You are all the world to me, and you +know it. Yet there is something--something I could explain to you +better, maybe, if I knew English better . . . and yet I am not sure. + . . . Let me try, however. . . . It always seems to me with you +English, you Americans, you white-skinned men--with all the ones I +have known--that the fault is not all mine when I find you alike just +at first; that every one of you ought to be a man quite different +from all other men; that you, of your race--yes, every one--were +meant for something you have missed--were meant to be--Oh, what is +the word?" + +"'Distinguished?'" suggested Farrell, standing up. "I never was +that, Santa--though, back in England, at one time, I had a notion to +make some sort of a mark." + +Santa let the neck of the guitar fall back against her breast and +clasped her hands suddenly. "Yes, that is it;--to make your mark! +Every woman who loves a man wants him to make his mark somehow, +somewhere. . . . I cannot tell you why: but it is so." + +Farrell took a turn on the veranda. "My dear," he said tenderly, +coming back and halting before her, "do you realise that I am fifty +years old?" + +She pressed her palms over her eyes. "You keep telling me that, and +it hurts! Besides, you grow younger every day . . . and--and I +cannot bear to hear you say it!" She lowered her hands and smiled +up, but through tears. + +"The men who find their way to San Ramon from my country or from the +States," he went on, picking up the binoculars absently while his +eyes sought the sky-line, "do not come in any hope of making their +mark--not even plantation-inspectors." Farrell fumbled with the +screw, adjusting the focus. "If that is why we are going to +Sydney--" + +"Whatever happens," declared Santa, "I will love you better anywhere +than in San Ramon: and I have loved you well enough here! The men +who come to San Ramon--pah! this for them!" She thrummed an air-- +_La Camisa de la Lola_--on the guitar and broke off with another +small sound of scorn from her throat. "_That's_ what suits them, and +what all of them are worth!" + +She brushed the strings again: and if Farrell made any sound at all, +the buzz of them covered it. He had brought the glasses to bear on +the beach. + +Santa started to thrum on the lower strings. Farrell swung about +suddenly, set the glasses down, and walked back into the dismantled +house. + +Now so far I have evidence for all I'm telling you. From this point +for thirty seconds or so, I am going to guess what happened. +Santa went on thrumming. She heard his footsteps on the bare floor +as he went through the echoing, dismantled room behind her. +She heard them on the brick of the broad passage which separated the +living-rooms of the bungalow from its bed-chambers. She heard him +lift the latch of the outer door. She heard the outer door shut +behind him. Then she waited for his footsteps to sound again on the +sunken pathway which ran downhill beside her patch of garden, hidden +by the cactus fence--or rather, deep below it. "He is standing on +the doorstep," she said to herself, "lighting a cigarette"; and then, +"but he is a long while about it. This is strange." Still as her +ear caught no sound of him, Santa sprang up and slipped, guitar in +hand, to the outer door--the fence being too tall for her to +over-pry, and moreover prickly. She opened the door and peeped out. +There was no one down the pathway. There was no one up the pathway, +which here, for some fifty or sixty yards, climbed straight, full in +view. "And what on earth has become of him?" wondered Santa. +"He did not go down--I should have heard him. But why should he go +up? He has broken with those drinkers at Engelbaum's. . . . Besides, +it is unbelievable that, in this short time, he should have vanished. + . . ." + +So much for guesswork. Now I come back to the story as it was +afterwards related to me. + +Santa, standing there in the porch, guitar in hand and leaning +forward over the rail which guarded a long flight of stone +steps, heard a footfall on the road below--an ascending footfall. +For a moment she mistook it for Farrell's: she believed she could +distinguish Farrell's from any other man's: and so for a moment she +stood mystified. + +Then a man hove in view around the corner . . . not Farrell, but the +newly-landed stranger she had spied through her binoculars--the +presumed Inspector. His eyes were lifted as he calculated the new +gradient ahead of him, and thus on the instant he caught sight of +Santa aloft in the porch-way. Something held Santa's feet. + +"Many pardons, _senora_," said the Stranger, halting a little before +he came abreast of the stairway and lifting his hat. "But can you +tell me if this path leads to the Hotel?" + +Now Santa was confused and a little abashed--it may have been because +in her haste she had forgotten to drape her head in her mantilla--a +rite proper to be observed by Peruvian ladies before showing +themselves out-of-doors. But she could not help smiling: the +question being so absurd. + +"Seeing, _sentor_, that there can be no other," she answered, with a +small wave of the hand out and towards the gorge down which the river +cascaded always so loudly that they both had unconsciously raised the +pitch of their voices. + +From the pathway above came the sound of stray stones dislodged under +a heavy plunging tread; and there was Farrell striding down, with his +hands in his trousers' pockets. + +In the right pocket he carried a revolver, which he had picked up on +his way through the house. His forefinger felt about its trigger. + + +He had recognised Foe through the glass. He had pelted up the path +in the old sweating terror, making for the mountain as if driven, to +call on it to cover him. + +Close by Engelbaum's gate he overtook three small boys contending +around a suit-case: the point being that all three could not demand +reward for carrying so light a burden. If the owner were a fool, or +generously inclined (which amounted to the same thing), two of the +three might put in a colourable claim for services rendered. + +In white countries one boy fights with another. In San Ramon as many +as fifteen can fight indiscriminately, and the vanquished are weeded +out by gradual process. Farrell shook the urchins apart, driving +them for a moment from the suit-case as one would drive three wasps +off a honey-pot. . . . It lay at his feet. Yes, he'd have recognised +it anywhere, even without help of the half-effaced "J. F." painted on +its canvas cover. It was a far-travelled piece of luggage, and +much-enduring--What are those adjectives by which Homer is always +calling Ulysses? . . . It bore many labels. One, with "Southampton" +upon it, was apparently pretty recent . . . and another with +"Waterloo." + +He turned the case over while the boys eyed him, keeping their +distance. His brain worked more and more clearly. . . Foe had +returned to England, then, to pick up the trail. But how had he +struck it? . . . There was only one way. . . . He had, of course, +been obliged to send letters home from time to time--letters to his +firm, to his bankers for money--instructions to pay his housekeeper-- +possibly a score of letters in all. Foe must have obtained +possession of one and spotted the postmark on the Peruvian stamp. + . . . + +Of a sudden he realised his cowardice; and flushed, with shame and +manhood together, there in the pathway. . . . This thing was no +longer a duel. Three were in it now, and the third was Santa. . . . +The old scare had caught him, surprised him, and he had run from +recollected habit. . . . It had been base. . . . Why, of course, +Santa made all the difference! He must go back to protect Santa. + +At the thought of her he felt a second flush of shame sweep up in +him, quite different from the first and quite horrible. The tide of +it scorched his face as if flaying it. And so--if you'll +understand--in the very moment of knowing himself twice vulnerable-- +no, ten times as vulnerable--this Farrell, loving this woman, became +a man: and three small ragamuffins stood about him and witnessed the +outward process. + +The outward process ended in his fishing out three _dineros_ from his +trouser pocket and bestowing one on each of them--twopence-halfpenny +or thereabouts is a godsend to a juvenile in San Ramon. +"There, little fools!" he said. "Take the stranger's bag along and +don't quarrel any more. There is nothing in this world so silly as +quarrelling." + +With that he went back down the hill, and so came on Foe and on +Santa, talking down to Foe from the balcony porch. + + +"Hallo, old man!" said Farrell, looking Foe straight in the eyes: and +"Hallo!" answered Foe, looking Farrell straight in the eyes. Santa, +gazing down from the rail, thought it strange that they did not shake +hands, as Britons and Americans do when they met. + +"I found three rascals," said Farrell easily, "scrapping for the +honour of delivering a suit-case at Engelbaum's hotel--a suit-case +that I recognised. I rescued it, and it is now safe in the porch. + . . . Oh, by the way, though you seem to have made acquaintance, let +me do the formal and introduce you to my wife. Santa, this is Doctor +Foe, an old fellow-traveller." + +Foe gave him one glance, shrewd and steady, before looking aloft and +again raising his hat. The thrust did not penetrate Farrell's +defence. + +"It's awkward," said Farrell, "that we can't even offer you a bed. +We're all packed up, ready to sail by the steamer to-morrow. +Mrs. Farrell and I in fact are shifting quarters. . . . Staying?" + +"No," said Foe imperturbably. "I shall be sailing to-morrow, too. + . . . I just heard of this place, and thought I'd like to have a +look at it before going on. . . . Shouldn't think of troubling you." + +"Curious, how small the world is," went on Farrell in a level voice. +"You won't mind my talking a bit in the old manner? . . . It sort of +puts us back at the old ease, eh? . . . Well then, we can't offer to +put you up. But if you don't mind a packing-case for a chair and +another for a table--eh, Santa?" + +"We shall be charmed," said Santa. + +"You understand that it will be a picnic," added Farrell. + +"My good sir!" protested Foe. + +"Yes? . . . It will be better than Engelbaum's, any way. I don't +mind promising," said Farrell. "We will talk over old times, and +Santa shall play her guitar to us." + + +That is how the two men met. + + +The _P.M. Diaz_ plied no farther than Callao. From Callao the +Farrells, with their furniture, and Foe in company, worked down by +coasters to Valparaiso. + + +Does any one of you remember the mystery of the _Eurotas_? which +regularly for about four months occupied from an inch-and-a-half to +four inches space in the newspapers. In 1909 . . . pretty late in +the year. She happened to be the first ship of a new line started +between Valparaiso and Sydney, and her owners had so well boomed the +adventure in the Press that, when she began to be reported as +overdue, the public woke up and she became as interesting as a lost +dog. She was of 12,000 tons, new, Clyde-built, well-found, and +carried a mixed cargo, with about twenty passengers. Two vessels +reported having passed her, about three hundred miles out. After +that she had become as a ship that had never been. + +In his casual way--for I must remind you that he and I had lost all +trace of Foe and Farrell in New York--Jimmy lit on the next item of +news. + +Long before the _Eurotas_ was posted as "missing," the newspapers +published a list of her passengers. Jimmy, seizing on this, ran his +eye down it, and let out the sort of cry with which he greets all +news, good, bad, or indifferent. + +"I say, Otty!--here it is, and what do you make of it?--'The s.s. +_Eurotas_. . . . List of Passengers. + + "Mr. and Mrs. P. Farrell, San Ramon, Peru. + Professor J. Foe, of London. . . .'" + +And after that there was silence for four years. The bell at Lloyd's +never rang to announce the arrival of the _Eurotas_. By Christmas +her underwriters were paying up, and the newspapers had lost interest +in her fate. + + + +NIGHT THE FIFTEENTH. + + +REDIVIVUS. + +About seven weeks later Norgate called on me with evidence that +settled the last doubt: a letter from Foe, written from Valparaiso. +It was brief enough. It merely announced that he was on the eve of +sailing for Sydney and wished to have credit for 600 pounds opened +with the Bank of New South Wales. "I have booked a berth on the +_Eurotas_," it concluded, "and go aboard to-night. She's a new ship, +owned by a new line, of which you may or may not have heard--the +'Southern Cross Line.' We hear enough about it in this town, the +Company having contrived to fall foul of the dock labour here. +I don't know the rights or wrongs of it, but some sort of boycott is +threatened. However, this sort of dispute usually gets itself +settled at the last moment; and anyhow I shall get to Sydney by some +means or other. So you may safely mail there. No need to cable. +I have plenty of money for immediate purposes." + +"What had I best do?" asked Norgate. "Lloyd's are about giving the +_Eurotas_ up." + +"Cable out and make sure," said I. "If he calls at the Bank, he +calls; and if he doesn't, there are no bones broken. _Something_ has +gone wrong with the ship; and in the mix-up he may easily have lost +his ready cash and be landed at Sydney without a cent." + + +I should have told you that, about a fortnight before this, Jimmy had +solved, or partially solved, the puzzle of that entry "Mr. and Mrs. +P. Farrell" on the passenger-list. Jimmy had found a good girl, and +as pretty almost as she was good, and yet imprudent enough to consent +to marry him. This had the effect of rendering him at once and +surprisingly prudent. As the poet puts it, "he had found out a flat +for his fair," and as he himself put it, "We have heard the chimes at +midnight, Master Shallow: but be-shrew me, we never thought of making +my bank-manager one of the party, to break him in to our ways; +the consequence being that Elinor's maid will have to stick a +bedroom-suite priced five-pounds-ten, while the other domestics, +unless dividends improve, sleep (poor souls, insecurely) upon +bedsteads liable to be spirited from under them at any moment by a +Hire System that knows no bowels. . . . By George!" sighed Jimmy. +"If we hadn't let Farrell slip through our fingers! Do you know, +Otty, I've an idea," he announced. "Why shouldn't I take the +Tottenham Court Road to-morrow, visit Farrell's old place of +business, and kill two birds with one stone?" + +"It sounds a sporting proposition," I agreed, "though sketchily +presented." + +"Adumbrated," suggested Jimmy. "That's a good word. I found it in +yesterday's _Observer_." + +"Adumbrated, then," said I. "The Tottenham Court Road--" + +"--_And_ two birds with one stone. No moors for me this year: I'm +back on the simple life and the catapult. . . . You just wait." + +There really is no resisting Jimmy, nor ever will be. He went up the +Tottenham Court Road next day, walked into Farrell's late place of +business and demanded to see the General Manager; and--if you'll +believe it--that dignitary was fetched amid a hush of awe. +"I dropped in," explained Jimmy, "to see one of those cheap bedroom +suites you advertise, in pickled walnut--or is it _marron glace?_-- +suitable for a house-parlourmaid. The fact is, I'm going to get +married--well, you've guessed that--otherwise, of course, I shouldn't +be here. . . . My intended wife--she's a Devonshire lady, by the +way--from near Honiton. Anything wrong about Honiton? . . . No? I +beg your pardon--I thought you smiled. . . . Well, as I was about to +explain, my intended wife, coming as she does from near Honiton-- +that's where they make the lace--likes her servants to be +comfortable: at least, so she says. Your late Managing Director, had +he lived--" Here Jimmy made a pause. + +"You knew our Mr. Farrell, sir?" asked the present Managing Director, +sympathetically. + +"He honoured me with his acquaintance. If he had lived," said Jimmy + . . . "But there! . . . By the way . . . that second marriage of +his--wasn't it rather sudden? I understood him to be a confirmed +widower." + +"We know nothing about it, sir: nothing beyond what he conveyed in a +letter to our Vice-Chairman. In fact, sir, during the last year or +so of his life, when Mr. Farrell took his strange fancy for foreign +parts, it seemed to us--well, it seemed to us that, in his strange +condition of mind, anything might happen. To this day, sir, we +haven't what you might call any certitude of his demise. It is not, +up to this moment, legally proven--as they say. Our last letter from +him was dated from far up the coast--from a place called San Ramon, +which I understand to be in Peru. In it he announced that he was +married again, and to a lady (as we gathered) of Peruvian descent. +He added that he had never, previously to the time of writing or +thereabouts, known complete happiness." + +Jimmy brought back this information, having, on top of it, acquired a +bedroom suite of painted deal. "And there," said he, "the matter +must rest. Foe's gone, and Farrell's gone. Both decent, in their +way; and both, but for foolish temper, alive now and hearty." + + +So it seemed to be, and the book to be closed. I mourned for Jack, +yet not as I should have mourned for him a year or two before. +Jimmy married and left me, and soon after I moved from our old +quarters in the Temple to my present rooms in Jermyn Street. + + +Four years passed: and then, one fine morning, my door opened, and +John Foe called me by name. + +"Hallo, Roddy! How goes it?" + +I jumped up, in a pretty bad scare. It was the voice that did it: +for, my door making an angle with the window, and the day being +sunny, he stood there against a strong light--sort of silhouette +effect, as you might put it. And there was a something about him, +thus gloomed--but we'll talk of that by and by. The voice was Jack +Foe's, and none other. + +"It's all right," he went on easily. "Pull yourself together. + . . . It _is_ the Ancient Mariner come home, but you needn't +imitate the Pilot and fall down in a fit. . . . Where's the Pilot's +Boy, by the way--young Jimmy Collingwood? You still keep Jephson, I +see. . . . I happened on Jephson at your street-door, just returned +from posting a letter. Jephson performed the holy Hermit very +creditably: he raised his eyes and almost sat down on the doorstep +and prayed where he did sit. 'Doctor Foe!' said Jephson. +'Good Lord, send may I never--!'--which amounts to a prayer, +eh? . . . He let me in with his latchkey, and I told him I'd run up +unannounced. . . . Well?" + +He came forward. In the old days Jack and I never shook hands; nor +did we now. He set down hat, gloves, and umbrella carelessly on my +knee-hole table and dropped into a chair with a long-drawn sigh. +"Reminds one--eh?--of the famous stage-direction in _The Rovers-- +Several soldiers cross the stage wearily, as if returning from the +Thirty Years' War_. . . . Well? What are you still staring at? + . . . Oh, I perceive! It's my clothes. . . . Yes; I should inform +you that they are expensive, and the nearest compromise a Valparaiso +tailor and I could reach in realising our several ideas of a Harley +Street doctor. I am going to open a practice in that neighbourhood, +and thought I would lose no time. The hat and umbrella over there +are all right, if you'll give yourself the trouble to examine them. +I bought them on the way along." + +He was right, in a way, about his clothes. (I believe I have already +mentioned that Jack had always dressed himself carefully and in good +form.) His frock-coat had a fullness of skirt, and his trousers a +bluish aggressive tint, that I couldn't pass for metropolitan. +His boots were worse--of some wrong sort of patent leather. But they +ought not to have altered the man as I felt that he was altered. + . . . Yes, cheapened and coarsened, in some indefinable way. +His hair had thinned and showed a bald patch: not a large patch: +still, there it was. His shape had been rather noticeably slim. +I won't say that it had grown pursy, but it had run to seed somehow. +Least of all I liked the change in his eyes, which bulged somewhat, +showing an unhealthy white glitter. I set down this glitter as due +to long weeks at sea: but the explanation couldn't quite satisfy me. +When a lost friend returns as it were from the grave--from shipwreck, +at any rate, and uncharted travel--you look to find him gaunt, brown, +leathery, hollow of cheek and eye, eh? Foe's appearance didn't +answer to this conception . . . not one little bit. + +"Then you didn't sail in the _Eurotas_, after all?" said I, finding +speech. "We saw your name on the list." + +"Oh, yes, I did," he interrupted. "And, by the way, we shall have to +talk about her--or, rather, about what I ought to do. . . . Yes, I +know what you'll be advising. 'Go straight to Lloyd's,' no doubt." + +"Man alive," said I, "why not? If you were aboard of her--and if, as +you tell me, you fetched somehow to Sydney--why in God's name hasn't +Lloyd's heard of it months ago? There are such things as cables. + . . . Unless, to be sure, you have a reason?" + +"I have and I haven't," said Jack. "My turning-up doesn't hurt +anyone, does it? The _Eurotas_ went down, sure enough: and _I_ +didn't scuttle her, if that's what you suspect." + +"Please don't be an ass, Jack," I pleaded. + +"Well, I don't see," he continued, ruminating, "--I don't see any way +but to go to Lloyd's and tell them about it. Yet equally I don't see +what good it can do. The underwriters have paid up, eh?" + +"More than three years ago," I told him. + +"Well, then . . . I was perfectly well prepared to answer any +questions at Valparaiso. I landed in my own name. I went back to +the same hotel. And 'Foe' is not the most common of names, +especially when you write 'Doctor' before it. . . . No, I'm wrong. +Farrell had entered our names on the register, and had entered mine +as 'Professor.' On my return I wrote it 'John Foe, M.D.' But anyway, +not a soul in the hotel recognised me. . . . I think my looks must +have altered, somehow. . . . So I let it go. I dare say you won't +understand, not knowing the kind of experiences I've been through, +nor the number of 'em. But you may understand that after a goodish +while as a castaway I was tired beyond the point of answering more +questions than I should happen to be asked. . . . So I gave +Valparaiso a silent blessing, and came home by the first ship, to +consult you and Collingwood. What--let me repeat--have you done with +Collingwood?" + +"Jimmy?" said I. "He's married, a year since, and is already the +father of a bouncing boy. I acted as his best man, by request. +He has a delightful and tiny wife who keeps him in order, which he +passes on to the County of Warwickshire as Justice of the Peace and +Coram. . . . But about the _Eurotas_?" I persisted. "I don't think +you quite realise. There were passengers on board: and for months--" + +"Of course there were passengers," Foe agreed. "It won't help their +relatives (will it?) to know for certain what they pretty well know +already. As I hinted to Norgate in my last letter, there was a +labour crisis on when we sailed. Some aggrieved blackguard on the +dock, acting on his own or under command of his 'Union,' shovelled +half a dozen bombs in with the coal. Simple process. Between seven +hundred and a thousand miles out, this particular batch of coal was +reached and shovelled into the forward furnaces. I counted four +explosions. Two of them blew her bows to pieces, and she sank by the +head and was gone in twenty minutes. + +"Must I tell it, when I am home and dying to ask questions?--Oh, very +well, then. . . . I shall be perfectly truthful so far as the history +goes; but I warn you that at a certain point you won't like it, and +you'll go on to like it less. You and I have been friends, Roddy, +and you naturally suppose that I've come straight to you, as my first +friend, to be welcomed and to ask for counsel. But you suppose +wrong. I am come asking neither for advice, nor for a sympathy-- +which I know I shan't get." + +"My dear Jack--" I began to protest. + +"Oh, be quiet," said he, "and let _me_ do the talking! I've had no +one to talk to, these five months around the Horn, but a Norwegian +skipper, a first mate of the same country, a fellow-passenger shipped +off as a dipsomaniac for a cure (we lost him somewhere in the worst +of it--I've an idea he let himself be swept overboard), and a mixed +crew that I helped to cure of _beri-beri_ at St. Helena. So I want +to do the talking, with your leave. + +"--And I want to say this first, foremost, once and for all. I am +come _simply to tell you_. I understand the devil of a lot about +hatred by this time--more than you will ever begin to guess. But you +taught me, anyhow, this much about friendship, that I couldn't bear +to go along with you without your knowing every atom of the truth. +That means, we're going to be clean cuts, when I've done. . . . +You'll loathe the tale. But, damn it, you shall respect me for this, +that I cut clean, for old sake's sake, and wiped up the account, +before we parted as strangers and I started life afresh." + +"All this is pretty mysterious, Jack," said I. "You know that, for +all the hurt he'd done you, I shied out of helping your pursuit of +Farrell. . . . Tell me, what happened to Farrell? Went down in the +_Eurotas_, I guess, and so squared accounts. That's what you mean-- +eh?--by your clean cut and starting life afresh? . . . If so, for +your sake I'm glad of it." + +"He didn't go down in the _Eurotas_," Foe answered gravely: "As a +matter of fact I dragged him on board one of the boats with my own +hands." + +"What?" said I. "Farrell another survivor?" + +"Upon my word," he answered, lighting a cigarette, "I can't swear to +Farrell's being alive or dead. Probably he's dead; but anyway I've +no further use for him, and that's where the clean cut comes in. +I had to quit hold of him because a woman beat me. . . . Now sit +quiet and listen." + + + FOE'S NARRATIVE. + +"Did you know that Farrell had married? . . . Yes, at San Ramon, a +little portless place some way down the coast of Peru. The woman was +a Peruvian and owned a banana-strip there, left to her by her first +husband, a drunkard, in part-compensation for having ill-used and +beaten her. + +"When I ran Farrell to earth there, after he'd given me the slip for +twelve months and more, this woman had married him and almost made a +new man of him. In another month or so I don't doubt she'd have +converted him into man enough to tell her all the truth, and let her +deliver him. + +"As it was, he passed me off for his friend--the ass! . . . +I shipped with them, and we worked down the coast, by fruit-ship and +sloop, to Valparaiso, intending for Sydney. . . . Now at this point I +might easily make myself out a calculating villain. Farrell was +enamoured to feebleness, and to make love to his Santa was an +opportunity cast into my lap by the gods. . . . But actually, before +I could even meditate this simple villainy, I had fallen in love with +her because I couldn't help it. + +"Now I had never been in love before, and I took the disease pretty +severely. And I should say that I took it rather curiously: but you +shall judge, for I'll set out the credit side of the account just as +plainly as the other. + +"I hated the man, as you know: I loved the woman, as I've told you. +But--here's the puzzle--strange to say, at that time, and for a long +while, these two passions did not conflict or even contend at all, as +neither did they help. I couldn't hate Farrell any worse than I did +already. If I'd hated him just a little less, I might have killed +him, to get him out of the way. But I give you my word, I never +thought of shortening the chase in that way. Farrell, you may say, +had become necessary to me: by this time I couldn't think of living +without him. . . . Now I know what's crossing your mind. I might +have piled up the torture on Farrell, and at the same time have +played on that other passion, by setting myself to debauch Santa. +No, I'm not complaining. You shall have as bad to condemn before +I've done, so you needn't apologise. But, as it happens, I wasn't +that sort of blackguard. Moreover, it wouldn't have worked, anyhow. +Santa was as good as her name-- + +"No, damn it! I will clear myself of _that_! . . . You'll understand +that I loved the woman, and--well, in the old days, as you'll do me +the justice to remember, I hated men who played loose among women. +As for 'making love' to Santa--oh, I can't explain to you, who never +saw her, how utterly that was beyond question on either side. . . . +Almost white she was, with the blood of the Incas in her--blood of +Castile, too, belike--and yet all of a woman, with funny rustic ways +that turned at any moment to royal. . . . And she loved Farrell--my +God! + +"I wonder now if she guessed--guessed at the time, I mean. They say +that women always guess; which in these matters is as good as +knowing. . . . But I'm holding up my story." + + +"The _Eurotas_ went down in something like 36, south latitude, +longitude 105 and a half west. That's as near as I make it: that is +to say, some three or four hundred miles from any known land save +Easter Island, which lay well away north and to windward, for we were +down where the main winds set between W. and N. That's as close as I +can give it to you. In seafaring matters I leave seamen to their own +job, and don't worry about reckonings and day's runs. It's their +business to take me, mine to trust their skill. You will own, Roddy, +that if fools had only kept their noses out of _my_ job in life, I +shouldn't be having to tell you this story. + +"Anyhow, Macnaughten--that was the skipper's name--took all the +ship's instruments with him on board his own boat, which was the last +to quit. + +"He was a good man, and I couldn't but admire his behaviour, first +and last. The _Eurotas_ went down within half an hour of the first +explosion; which had surprised us passengers on deck as we were +chatting and watching the sunset. The sea was calm as a pond, with a +bank of cloud to northward, all edged with gold on its western +fringes. + +"I think this calm, resting over sea and sky, may have helped us +through the catastrophe. The only irritation I felt was at the +slowness of it all, between the moment we knew we were lost and +the moment when the vessel went down. Yet every moment between +was used to a nicety, almost as if Captain Macnaughten had been +preparing for the test. He commanded us, crew and passengers alike. +Four stokers had been killed below: another and the engineer officer +badly hurt. These two were fetched up while some of us lowered the +accommodation-ladder and others swung out the boats on the davits. +These two sick men were carried down to the first of the three boats +launched. Four women passengers followed; three married, one a +spinster. The three husbands were ordered down after them. + +"The _Eurotas_, as I've told you, was a new ship, well found to the +last life-buoy. The directors of the Company had lunched on board +before she sailed and drunk to her health, having seen that +everything answered to advertisement. The boats were staunch, newly +painted and smart: the crew as well-picked a lot as the Board could +find. So far as I can recall those hurrying minutes, I remember them +as being almost intolerably slow. I cannot say how many of them it +took before we realised for a certainty that the ship was going down. +But I know that as, by order, I went down the ladder to the second +boat, I had a sense of irritation at the long time it was taking and +the methodical way the skipper was getting out stores and +water-breakers and having them hefted down. + +"Another thing I must tell you. As I went down the ladder--the +ship's bows already beginning to dip steeply--I had a sense of being +in no _time_ at all, but in eternity. There around us, spread and +placid, stretched the emptiest waste of the Pacific, with God's sun +deserting the sky above it, sinking almost as fast as the ship was +sinking. + +"Santa had wrapped her mantilla over her head. She went down the +ladder before me, following Farrell. Our boat was white-painted on +thwarts and stern-sheets. . . . I was keeping my foothold with +difficulty, loaded with a water-breaker. . . . A man took it from +me, all in silence. I gripped Farrell's hand and hoiked him on +board. There was a great silence hanging, as it seemed, about those +last moments. + +"We pushed off a little way. The third and last boat was lowered +down, and we saw the last half-dozen, with the captain at their +heels, tumbling down in a stampede. + +"The _Eurotas_ took her plunge just as we heard them unhook from the +davit-blocks." + + + +NIGHT THE SIXTEENTH. + + +CAPTAIN MACNAUGHTEN. + +(Foe's Narrative Continued.) + +"I once read a novel called _One Traveller Returns_. That's all I +remember of it--the title. + +"Well, I am that traveller: and if ever I write down the story of the +_Eurotas_, and in particular of what was suffered on board her boat +No. 2, I have no doubt that nine readers out of ten will forget the +details just as soon and just as completely. There is a horrible +sameness about these narratives, Roddy; and the truer they are (as +I've proved) the nearer they resemble one another. Monotonous they +are--these drawn-out agonies--as the sea itself upon which they are +enacted. From time to time you sit up half-awake out of your stupor, +and then you know that something is going to happen, and also that it +is something you've read about somewhere, something that you've +_lived_ through (or so it seems) in dreams, or in a previous +existence. You hardly know which; and you don't care, much. +It's going to be horrible, you know: it's going to be all the more +horrible, in its way, for being conventional. You want to get it +over and pass on to the next stereotyped nightmare. That's the +feeling. + +"So I'm going to confine my tale pretty closely to myself and what +pulled me through. . . . But before I get to this I must tell you of +two shocks that fell on me before I came to it, and seemed to promise +that the books were all wrong and not half vivid enough. I dare say +that quite a number of survivors have tried to paint the sense of +loneliness that swooped on them in the first few seconds after their +ship had slid down. But I'll swear I had read nothing to prepare me +for it. . . . It's not a ship--it's a continent--that vanishes. +The little hole it has made in the water calls to the whole ocean to +cover it, and the ocean widens out its horizon by ten times all +around, at once pouring in and spreading itself to isolate you ten +times farther from help. . . . Nobody who hasn't been through this +and felt it for himself can understand how promptly and easily-- +without help of quenching their thirst in salt water--men go mad, in +open boats, at sea. + +"But I believe the shock of loneliness at sunrise was even more +hideous. One is prepared for it, in a way; otherwise it would, I am +sure, be far more hideous. Santa confessed to me, on the second day, +that she had felt--and, she believed, could feel--nothing more +dreadful. As she put it, 'You see, my friend, when the sky lightens +at length, you have assurance of God, and that God is help. +Then, when He sends up no help, but a great staring sun to watch your +misery, hour by hour, God turns to devil and you only long for +night--when, at least, the dew falls.' + +"Between sunset and sunrise, however, I was kept fairly busy. +For the _Eurotas_ had scarcely been twenty minutes under water, and +night had barely fallen, before the captain's boat ranged up to us. +She carried a lantern in her bows, and I had found one and was +lighting it after his example. + +"'Names on board!' he demanded. We gave them through Grimalson, the +second mate, who was in charge. He said no more for about half a +minute, during which time no doubt he was running through the list in +his head. Then, 'That's all right,' he announced cheerily. +'You'll set watches, Mr. Grimalson, and keep her in easy hail. +The weather will certainly hold fine for a bit, and early to-morrow +I'll be alongside again with instructions. Plumb south our course +lies, for the present. I'll tell you why, later. You have a sail?" + +"'Ay, sir,' answered Grimalson. + +"'Right. But don't hoist it unless I signal. . . . Yes, yes, not a +draught at present. But if a breeze should get up, don't hoist sail +without instructions. We keep together--that's the main point. +Just pull along easy--I'll set the pace--and keep in my wake, course +due south. Those that aren't pulling will act wise to trust in God +and get some sleep. . . . Is that Doctor Foe there forra'd, with the +lantern?' + +"'Ay, sir,' I answered up. + +"'Then as soon as you've fixed it, sir, I'll ask you to jump aboard +and along with us for to-night. I've poor Jock Abercrombie here-- +fetched him and Swainson out of No. 1 boat'--These were the two +injured men: Abercrombie, our Chief Engineer, by far the worst +burnt--'I doubt if he'll last till morning: but we've been friends +from boys, Jock and me, and if you can do aught, sir, to make his +passing easier--' + +"I asked him to wait while I fetched my medicine-chest, and was +transhipped with it into the captain's boat. They had laid +Abercrombie in the stern-sheets, with the stoker Swainson beside him. +Abercrombie's plight was hopeless; flesh of chest and arms all +red-raw from the scorching, and the man palpably dying from shock. + +"'I had him into my boat, sir,' Macnaughten explained gravely, +'because we'd shipped the ladies--all but Mrs. Farrell--in No. 1, and +I don't want 'em to be distressed more than necessary. . . . A man +can't think of everything all in five minutes, but I got him out of +it, soon as I could. There's no hope, think you?' + +"'Between you and me, none,' said I, sinking my voice. + +"'That's what I reckoned,' said the skipper, with just a nod of his +head. He had taken the tiller and sent all the crew, saving four men +rowing, forward whilst I examined the patients. 'Jock wouldn't be +one to let out a groan if he knew there were women by to be scared by +it. . . . Also, Doctor, if he's dying, I'd like to be handy by, if +you understand. I got him this berth. We were friends, always.' + +"I found some cotton-wool and a tin of vaseline, and coated the poor +man's hurts as well as I could. Then, as he still groaned, though +more feebly, I got out my phial of morphia and a needle. As I held +the bottle against a sort of binnacle-light by which Macnaughten sat +steering, I caught his eyes staring down on me, quiet and solemn. +I tell you, that man was a man, Roddy. + +"'Yes, I know, Doctor,' he said quietly. 'You're calculating how +much there is of it, and how you may have to use it before we're +through. . . . What about Swainson?' + +"'He'll pull around,' said I. 'The vaseline will ease three-fourths +of his trouble within ten minutes.' + +"'Keep your voice low,' said the skipper, 'as I'm keeping mine.' +He bent forward, pretending to consult the compass. 'I've sent all +these fellows forward, though they put her down by the head so that +it's like steering a monkey by the tail. . . . Now I reckon that +you'll be wishful to go back to-morrow, or as soon as may be, and +join your party. That's so?' + +"'That's so,' said I, as I finished the injection and turned to deal +with the stoker. + +"'Well, I'd like to have you here aboard,' said the skipper. +'But so's best. We want some brains in No. 2 boat; and, between +ourselves, Grimalson hasn't the brains of a hare. He's a +second-cousin-twice-removed of one of our directors. He's no seaman +at all; and his navigation's all a pretence. . . . I suppose, now, +_you_ can't navigate?' + +"'Good Lord, no, sir!' said I. 'I just understand the principles of +it--that's all.' + +"'It's a damned sight more than Grimalson understands, I'll bet,' +responded Captain Macnaughten, studying the binnacle and speaking as +though we were discussing the weather and the crops. 'You may push +your finger into that man anywhere, he's that soft and boggy--no +better'n slush--_and_ pink. . . . Don't you despise a pink-coloured +man? Still, I want you to understand, Doctor, that he's the superior +officer on No. 2, for the time being.' + +"'I understand,' said I, looking up from my business of unguenting +the stoker, who was not badly burnt. + +"'But if Grimalson should turn rotten. . . . Well, now, I've had an +eye on you, sir, and I judge I can share off on you a bit of trouble +I wouldn't share off on most. . . . _You_ must know as well as I do +that the chance is pretty thin for us all, even if this weather +holds. I reckon there's no nearer land than Easter Island, four +hundred good miles norr'ard, and a beat in light winds. . . . I've +heard too much about long beats in open boats--heard enough to make +the flesh creep. Anyways, I'm responsible. I've turned it over in +my head: and I'm giving orders--you take me? We're not steering for +any land at all. We're steering the shortest way, due south--what +wind there is drawing behind us--on the chance to hit in with the way +of traffic--Sydney ships making round the Horn. . . . You'll not +argue that, I hope?" he demanded. + +"'On the contrary, sir,' I agreed, 'I just know enough to be sure +that you are doing the wisest thing.' + +"'Nobody but God can be sure,' said he, and sat musing. 'Well, I +take the responsibility God has seen fit to lay on me of a sudden. +You won't hear me speak of this again: but you're an educated man, +and you've nerve as well as brains--I marked ye by the head of the +ladder, when the first boat was getting out. I reckoned you for one +that doesn't speak out of his turn; and it came over me, just now, +that I'd like one such man, and him a gentleman, to bear in mind that +if I set my face pretty hard in the time that's ahead of us, it won't +mean that I ain't feeling things at the back of it.' + +"'Thank you, Captain Macnaughten,' said I, pretty earnestly. +'The best I can answer is the simplest--that you're doing me much +honour.' + +"'That's all right,' he said lightly: 'all right and understood. +One man often helps another in funny little ways in this funny old +world.' After a pause he went on yet more lightly and cheerfully, +'Well--and I've noticed you've a trick of beginning your sentences on +that word 'well': it's a habit of mine too, they tell me--as the +ladies say ashore, we're going to be worse before we are better, so +we'll call those fellows aft a bit and ease the steering. . . . Stay +a minute, though, before I call to them. . . . A clever man like you +ought to be able to pick up a bit of navigation in a few lessons. +While our boats keep together (as, please God, they will to the end) +it wouldn't be a bad notion if you dropped alongside just before +midday for a morning call, and I'll learn you how to handle a sextant +and prick down a reckoning. . . . It'll be sociable, too. . . . Yes, +I'll signal the time to you: but, to be ready for it, you might set +your watch by my chronometer here. . . . I wonder, now,' he inquired +oddly, 'if you've forgot to wind yours up to-night?' + +"Well, Roddy, it's the truth that I had forgotten. I looked at him, +pretty foolish, and with that we both laughed--yes, there and then, a +sort of laugh, low and quiet, like well-water bubbling. + +"'Now I'll tell _you_,' said the skipper, 'I caught myself winding up +mine the moment after the ship went down . . . that's funny, eh? +Five minutes to nine was the hour. . . . I'd hooked the old timepiece +out of my fob, and there I was, winding, for all the world as if +ashore and going to bed. . . . See here--three turns of the winch and +she's chock-a-block again, if you ever! . . . And, come to think, I +may as well correct _her_ by the chronometer, too.' + +"So we solemnly set our watches together, there by the binnacle +light. A queer fancy took me that the act was a sort of ritual, not +devised by either of us--a setting and sealing of friendship. . . . +Ought a fellow, Roddy, shipwrecked in the South Pacific, to complain +while he has these three stand-by's--a woman to love, a man to +admire, and a man to hate?" + + +"The engineer died just before dawn. Indeed, the day broke of a +sudden as I finished straightening his body and wrapping it for +burial; and I looked up in the new light, and around me, to take in +that second gush of loneliness of which I told you. . . . It was +appalling. It swept in on me from the whole enormous circumference +of empty waters, and I fairly cowered from it over the corpse I had +been tending. + +"I never had that sensation again, or in anything like that degree, +during the whole voyage; and I shall presently tell you why. But it +was Macnaughten who taught me my first deliverance. . . . I knelt +there, huddled, not daring to turn my face up for a second look and +expose my cowardice. I seemed to be drowning in the deep of deeps, +and fragments of the first chapter of Genesis swirled past me like +straws--_And the earth was without form and void. . . . And the +Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God saw the +light, that it was good_--but here it was, and it was not good. +_And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters_-- +but there was no firmament. _And God divided the waters . . . and +the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that +it was good_--oh, my God! _And God said, Let the waters under the +heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let dry land appear: +and it was so_--But it wasn't! + +"Captain Macnaughten's voice spoke through this misery of mine quite +matter-of-factly and simply, dispersing it like so much morning mist. + +"'Signal the other boats to pull close,' he commanded. 'Someone tell +me where the Bible and Prayer-Book were stowed. I saw them handed +down, with my own eyes.' Then to me: 'These things--packed as we +are . . . the sooner over, the better, and the less they'll prey on +anyone's mind.' He looked down. 'Jock would have liked it so, I +reckon.' + +"The other two boats were called close. The summons was explained, +and the burial service decently read. 'It don't seem altogether a +lively beginning,' said he to me at the close--and the water was +scarce dry on his cheek that had run down suddenly as he read out +_I heard a voice from heaven, saying_--'But,' he added, 'it'll sober +'em down to what they'll have to face. . . . And now we'll sober 'em +up with some cheerfuller business no less practical.' + +"The boats having gathered close for this ceremony, he commanded them +to stay so while the crews cooked breakfast. 'I saw the coffee +handed down into No. 1,' he announced. 'Fetch it out, you! . . . +And, after breakfast, I'll overhaul all three boats and see that each +has her share fairly apportioned.' + +"I tell you, Roddy, that this Macnaughten, who aboard the _Eurotas_ +had been an ordinary skipper conning his ship, and nowise hearty or +communicative, of a sudden proved himself as great as any man I've +read of in history. . . . You may smile if you will. But here was a +man abandoned by Heaven in the waste of the South Pacific, with all +his prospects blasted and all the hopes built on the _Eurotas_ line +(in which, I learned, he had piled his money); with a wife at home, +moreover, and a daughter. Yet for the seven days we kept company he +stood up to duty, fathered us all, never showed sick or sorry. +He had a fairish baritone voice, and it was he that started us +singing to fill up the endless time. How does it go?--" + + Thus sang they in an English boat, + A holy and a cheerful note-- + +God! I can hear his voice now, trolling _Nancy Lee_ back across the +waters, defying them, until the night quenched it. + +"Through these seven days, regularly and towards noon, he signalled +and I went aboard No. 3 for a lesson in navigation. It was the third +day that, returning, I found Grimalson didn't stomach these visits. +Grimalson was a mean man, and incompetent; the sort that knows he's +not trusted, knows there's good reason for it, and resents it all the +time. I thought him just a sulky brute, and noted that on some +excuse or other it was always inconvenient to be close up with No. 3 +boat as it drew towards midday and my time (as he put it, growling) +for 'taking the Old Man's temperature.' He was misguided enough, on +the fourth day, to let off a part of this rather feeble joke upon the +captain himself, and found his bearings pretty smartly. He had so +managed things that at ten minutes to noon it became pretty clear I +must miss my appointment. All three boats carried sail now: the +weather being perfect, with a nor'-westerly breeze, light but steady: +and the three were running before it pretty well abreast like three +tiny butterflies on the waste of water--for I should tell you that +all three were twenty-four footers, built to one whale-boat model on +the same moulds, and carried small Bermuda, or leg-of-mutton sails, +cut to one pattern--when Grimalson took it into his head that our +down-haul should be tautened in, cursed the man who was doing his +best to execute a silly order, ran forward, and so messed matters +that the sail had to be three-parts lowered and re-set. It was quite +deliberately done, as even a landsman could see; and it lost us a +couple of hundred yards off the captain's boat, sailing to starboard +of us. + +"Things were scarcely right with us before Macnaughten had brought +his boat about close to wind and came ranging alongside. He had his +watch in his hand. + +"'Mr. Grimalson,' he demanded, 'why were you fooling with that sail, +just now?' + +"'She wasn't setting proper,' explained Grimalson; 'and I told Jarvis +to take a swig on the downhaul. He got messed up in the slack +somehow, and--' + +"'Before you go any further,'--the captain cut him short--' I may +just tell you that your sail was setting perfectly, and that I saw +the whole business through my glass. . . . Hasn't Doctor Foe told you +that I require him, while this weather holds, to be on board this +boat regularly at ten minutes to noon, to take observations?' + +"'Observations?' grumbled the second mate. 'I thought observations +to be a seaman's job. I reckoned that what doctors and suchlike took +was temperatures, and five minutes up or down wouldn't put anyone +out.' + +"'I'm sorry,' answered Macnaughten, very quiet, after a moment's +thought,--'I am very sorry to tell you before your crew and +passengers what, with a ship under me, I should have called you aft +and below to hear in private. But if you ever use that tone with me +again, Mr. Grimalson, I shall take _your_ temperature with my +revolver. And if you dare to disobey my smallest order, as you +deliberately did just now, I shall transfer you to this boat and clap +you in irons. For it seems to me I have to explain to you what the +others,--crew and passengers alike--know by the light of common +sense: that until God's mercy delivers us my least word is the Ten +Commandments rolled into one, we being where a hand's turn is either +a hair's-breadth or broad as the Pacific. . . . Now cast off, and set +your behaviour by No. 1 boat, where Mr. Ingpen has come up to wind +and is waiting for us. . . . A cable's length on the port, and level +with us--that's the order, and you'll watch it until I give the next. +You have lost us twenty minutes. Happen _that_ might turn out the +hair's breadth I was speaking of--the difference between life and +death--and the whole Pacific ain't wider.' + +"We were down in latitudes where the current sets southeasterly, and +this was helping us all the time. But on the sixth and seventh days, +although the wind held fair and light and steady, a considerable +swell had been following us, warning of trouble somewhere to +northward; and on the eighth night it overtook us. + +"It was--not to speak irreverently--in itself ten times more trouble +than ten thousand Grimalsons could have raised; a tearing gale of +wind which, all of a sudden, converted the oily summits of the swell +into bursting white waves. I don't suppose the height from trough to +summit actually increased as it did to view, but in twenty minutes, +and with night shutting down the lid on us, each successive wave +astern seemed to grow taller by feet. The rain appeared to have no +effect in flattening their caps, though it came down with a weight +that knocked half the breath out of our bodies, and with a roar above +which it was hard to hear an order shouted. We could spy the other +boats' lanterns but at long intervals, partly because of this +down-pouring curtain and partly, I suppose, because when we topped up +over a crest they would nine times out of ten be hidden in a trough, +dipping or rising. + +"We carried, by Captain Macnaughten's orders, a hurricane lamp on our +fore-stay. Someone had lit a second amidships, where we huddled in +oilskins and under tarpaulins like a congregation of eels. . . . +Jarvis, our best seaman, had the tiller. He sat, all hunched, +crouching forward over a third small lamp--the binnacle lamp with +which our boat, like the others, was providentially fitted. +The rain, however, beat on its glass in such sheets that he could not +possibly have read the compass card floating by the wick. Nor--I am +sure--was he trying to read it. He just sat and steered by the feel +of the seas as they lurched ahead and sank abaft. The lamplight +glowed up on his cheek-bones, but was lost under the pent of his +sou'wester, which had a sort of crease or channel in its fore-flap, +that shed down the rain in a flood. Though we lay, we passengers, on +the bottom boards we could see nothing of his face, so far forward he +bent. + +"Then Grimalson lost his head. He was seated at Jarvis's shoulder in +the stern-sheets, with a hefty seaman (Prout by name) on his other +hand tending the sheet--the both of 'em starboard of Jarvis. Of a +sudden he started up, reached forward, snatched the midships light, +and held it aloft against the wall of a tremendous sea arching +astern. At sight of it the fool lost all his remaining nerve, and +yelled to the two seamen forward to lash a couple of oars to the +painter and cast overboard. 'If we ran another hundred yards, we +were lost: there was no hope but to fetch around head-to-sea and ride +to it.' + +"--Which, after some seven or eight sickening minutes, we did. +He was master, and Jarvis put down the helm and obeyed. Twice we +were heaved, tilted and slid sideways down, like folks perched on the +window-sills of a falling house. Then she came fair about and rode +to it, every crest flinging more or less of spray over us, hour after +hour. . . . + +"But I must tell you one thing. From time to time we were roused up +in the darkness, to bale. Our work performed, we three passengers-- +Santa and Farrell and I--would creep under the tarpauling anew, out +of the drumming rain, and coil there to sleep. . . . Ay, and once in +the pitch blackness under, she, mistaking, reached two arms around my +neck and with a long sigh, dead-beat, sank asleep. That was all. + . . . Farrell lay as he had tumbled, like a log across my ankles. + . . . I held her, crooked by my elbow against my side, her head +drowsed on my shoulder, her body pulsing against mine. I am telling +you all, and I tell you that I did not dare to kiss her. Lying +awake, with Farrell across my feet, I held her to me, feeling her +breathe. + +"At hint of dawn Jarvis, who had been watching the seas the night +through, barked us out of cover. The rain had ceased, the gale had +swept southward as fast as it had come. The sea heaved almost as +steeply as ever, but the toppling waves no longer flung any spray +over us, or any to mention." + + +"Day broke, and the after-swell still tumbled us heavily: but nowhere +within the great ring of horizon did it heave one of the other boats +into sight. The sea smoothed itself down with a quite wonderful +rapidity, and still its great surface was a blank." + + +"I cannot somehow believe that so able a handler of his boat as I +knew Captain Macnaughten to be allowed himself to be swamped in that +gale. His orders had been to carry on and only heave-to upon signal. +Jarvis--who (as I have said) could sail our boat running by the feel +of her, maintained that we had never been in the worst of danger, +that the skipper could sail a boat for ten to his own one, that he +had just held on, in his straight way, upon the orders he had given, +and left us at the back of the horizon while we fenced seas under +Grimalson's orders. + +"Since nothing apparently has been heard since of those other boats, +I shall go on hoping that Jarvis was wrong, and that Captain +Macnaughten's boat and Mr. Ingpen's, in one way or another, met with +a short sharp end in that gale. + +"But if they did last it out and over the horizon to drag it out and +die and never be reported to Lloyd's, then I, who know the sort of +things they must have suffered, assure you, who have read them +accurately reported in books, that whenever or wherever Captain James +Macnaughten perished, the Recording Angel has him entered up for a +seaman and a gentleman." + + + +NIGHT THE SEVENTEENTH. + + +NO. 2 BOAT. + +(Foe's Narrative Continued.) + +"One must use ugly words for ugly things. + +"Grimalson, staring--as we all stared--over the blank sea, vomited +the natural man within him in some fourteen or fifteen words for +which he was never forgiven by any of us. + +"'Gone, by Gosh! And that bloody old fool was teaching _me_ to +handle a boat!' + +"All heard it. Not a soul spoke. I glanced at Jarvis in time to +catch the twitch of his mouth--one of those twitches I used to study +in angry dogs, and snapshot and measure: but he continued to gaze +across the waters. After half a minute or so he glanced at me, +looked seaward again, and observed quietly, 'It don't seem probable +they would run mast-down in the time. And yet I don't know: 'twas +blowing powerful fresh just after midnight. Hull-down, a boat might +easily be; and supposing sail lowered, what's a boat's mast better to +pick up than a needle in a bottle o' hay?--let be they might be +dismasted. There was weather enough. And No. 1 carried a bamboo-- +which is never to be trusted, if you ask _me_.' + +"'Who the devil's asking you?' demanded Grimalson. + +"'Nobody, sir,' the seaman answered, respectfully, but without +turning his head. 'Words spoken in a l'il boat like this be for +anybody's hearin'; and anybody's heard or no, accordin' as they +choose.' + +"'Well then,' Grimalson retorted, 'I happen to be boss here aboard, +and I don't choose. So drop you that, prompt, and start baling her.' + +"'One moment, Mr. Grimalson--' I began. But he took me up quicker +than he had taken Jarvis. + +"'Dear me, now!' he snarled in a foolish sarcastic way. 'And who may +this be that I have the honour of addressing?--Captain Macnaughten's +ghost? or his next-of-kin, belike? Or may be his deputy +understudy?--with your _One moment, please_? . . . You sit down on +that thwart there, and don't you dare open your face again until I +give you leave. . . . That was the old fool's way with _me_--hey? +And now you recognise it.' + +"'I do,' said I, pulling out my revolver. 'You may quit fumbling in +your pocket, for it's wringing wet and these cartridges are dry, as I +have assured myself. . . . _You_ sit down on _that_ thwart, and don't +you dare open your face until I give you leave to get up and wash it. +That's _your_ trick of speech, and maybe you recognise it." + +"As I covered him, Jarvis touched my elbow. 'I beg your pardon, sir, +but you're a gentleman and a passenger, and Mr. Grimalson's our +senior officer, when all's said, _and_ in command. . . . I'm not +talkin' about the rights of it nor the wrongs of it,' Jarvis went on, +as I still held the revolver levelled:' but 'tis flat mutiny you're +committing; and me and my mates'll have to range up on the side of +order. Whereby you'll be no match for us. . . . Oh, sir,' he +pleaded, 'let up with quarrelling, and let's all die decent, if we +must, when the time comes--and with a lady in the boat!' + +"'Thank you, Jarvis,' said I; and lowering my revolver drew out the +cartridges pretty deliberately. 'I beg your pardon, Mr. Grimalson. +I shall not, on any provocation, interfere with you again. But +before you start baling the boat, I'll ask you to note that the third +water-breaker is stove, and it was the only full one. Saltish this +water may be, but nine-tenths of it is honest rain from heaven.' + +"'My God, sir, and it's truth!' verified one of the seamen who had +scrambled forward. The full breaker had jerked loose from its +lashings and lay awash under the bowman's thwart: worse--it had +loosed the other two, and these, floating light, had washed away +overboard and gone out of ken. + +"Grimalson stood up, slightly dazed. In the rock of the boat he +seemed to be shifting his weight deliberately from foot to foot. + +"'Why didn't one of you report?' he shouted, in a fury at which I +smiled; it being so senseless and at the same time so cunning, as a +ruse to let him arise with dignity from the thwart. 'Why didn't +somebody report?' he repeated in an absurd official manner, quite as +though he had been a station-master interrogating a group of porters +on the whereabouts of a missing parcel. + +"'Well, sir,' I answered as politely as possible; 'it was I that +first found the casks were loose, and by the accident that the rim of +the full one struck me pretty sharply, in the night, between the +shoulder-blades. I got it trigged up, as you see, before it ran +amuck to do further damage. In securing it I found that it had lost +its bung and was almost empty: but that hardly seemed worth +mentioning, with such a flood of rainwater washing around. There was +nothing to be done at the moment; the breaker in a way was refilling +itself, as soon as I had it jammed, by the water washing over it; +and, after a bit, judging it full or nearly full, I ripped off a +corner of my oily and made a sort of bung, as you see." + +"All this had, in fact, cost me some labour, and I related it, no +doubt, a bit too complacently. Worse, I rounded it up by saying, +'The captain, sir, was more anxious about the water than anything, as +he told me yesterday.' + +"At this his temper boiled over--yet not (as I could see) until he +had flung a glance at Jarvis and the crew, to make sure they were +submissive still to the old habit of discipline. 'Macnaughten was +always full of wisdom,' he sneered; '--so full that he's dead of it! + . . . And so you didn't think it worth mentioning?' + +"Do you know, Roddy, I didn't think the fool worth any further +attention. . . . One can't really hate two men at one time . . . at +any rate, _I_ can't. It's too fatiguing. There sat Farrell, three +feet away, looking dazed, as he'd looked ever since the _Eurotas_ +went under. As for this Grimalson, I didn't reckon him worth powder +and shot. I knew that he would bluster before the men, to save his +face, and then climb down. To secure the water on board was such an +obvious measure that, bluster as he might, he couldn't miss coming to +it finally. . . . I heard Jarvis explaining that an empty pork-tub, +with a tarpauling inside of it, would hold quite a deal of the +rainwater washing above the bottom-boards. I took no more trouble +than to turn my back on Grimalson, who was arguing that all this +water was mucking the dry provisions. + +"'They're pretty well mucked already, sir, by the looks of 'em,' +answered Jarvis: 'all but the canned meats, and few enough they are. +Five cans, as I counted the last stowage.' + +"'Oh, very well, then,' came the order which I had known to be +inevitable. 'Run a tarpauling inside of that cask--and bale, you, +Prout and Martinez!' + +"And so, behind my back and almost as I shrugged my shoulders--so, +within twenty minutes of the sunrise that told us we were eight human +beings isolated from all help but that which we could afford to one +another--in a casual, unpremeditated stroke the curse fell on us. + +"The seaman Martinez, kneeling in water, was asking, rather +helplessly, for someone to pass him a baler or invent one--our +regulation dipper having gone overboard in the gale. It was a silly, +useless question: but Grimalson, already rattled, swung round upon a +man he knew to be weak. 'Damn me!' cried he in a gust of rage, 'if I +can't teach it to doctors, I'll teach _seamen_ who gives orders +here!' and snatching out a marling-spike from a sheath in his belt, +hurled it full at the seaman's head. + +"The act was brutal enough in itself; for the iron, though a light +one, was full heavy enough, flung with that force, to lay a man out. +It did worse: for Martinez, instead of ducking his head, made a +spring to his feet, putting out his hands much as if fielding a +cricket-ball. The marling-spike, miss-aimed, struck the thwart in +front of him, turned point up with the ricochet, and plunged into his +thigh. As I splashed forward to his help, blood came creeping, +staining the water around my ankles. The steel point had pierced +slantwise through his femoral artery. + +"Well, I was quick: and Santa was quick, too--tearing in strips the +damp pillow-case on which her head rested of nights when it wasn't +resting against Farrell's shoulder. (But not _this_ night, I thought +as I worked--not this blessed night just passed!) With the +pillow-case and the very spike that had done the mischief I made a +good firm tourniquet and saved Martinez's life for the time. + +"But he had lost a lot of blood. All the drinking water awash in the +boat was foul with it, and this bloodied flood was running, as the +boat rocked, in and out among our small bags of pork and ship-bread. +My job ended, I looked aft. Farrell was leaning over the gunwale in +uncontrollable nausea. The face of Prout at the tiller, was dogged +but inexpressive. Grimalson stood like a man dazed. + +"'Will he live?' he asked, his eyes meeting mine. 'Of course I never +intended--' + +"'It wasn't a very pretty thing to do, was it?' I answered quietly. + +"'Well, this settles it,' said he, staring down at the water. +'We must clean out this filthy mess and overhaul the stores.' + +"'And _then_?' I asked. + +"'Oh, it'll rain,' said he, affecting confidence. 'It rained for a +hundred last night, didn't it? We've run south of the dry latitudes +and soon we'll be getting more rain than we've any use for. +There's the small keg of rum, too. . . . Great thing as we're +situated,' the fool continued, 'is to keep everyone in heart. +And anyway I don't stomach water with blood in it--specially Dago +blood. . . . Jarvis and Webster, fall to baling: and you, Prout, hand +us over the tiller and dig out something for breakfast.' + +"I had found a plug of tobacco in my pocket and seated myself to +slice it: and as I cut it upon my palm, my eyes fell on Farrell's +yet-heaving shoulders. . . . Of a sudden then it came upon me that, +even with the luck we'd carried, men can't go through seven days and +eight nights in an open boat and emerge quite sane. Macnaughten had +put up a gallant, a magnificent pretence. 'The Old Man's Penny +Readings,' as Grimalson had dubbed those evenings when the boats had +closed up and the crews sang Moody and Sankey or _My Mary_--'The Old +Man's Penny Readings, or Pea-nuts on the Pacific'--had been just as +grandly simple as anything in the Gospel. No: that's wrong--they had +come straight out of the Gospel, a last chapter of it the skipper had +found floating and recovered, and would carry up, a proud passport to +his God. + +"But Macnaughten was gone, and with him the whole lovely illusion. +He had kept us in a nursery, separated from hell by a half-inch +plank; and here we were all beasts, consigned to ravening and to die +of unsatisfied bestial wants--yes, and commanded by a monkey-man who +chattered of keeping everyone in heart! _He!_" + + +"So there it was. I told you, Roddy, that it all happened like a +nightmare--or, if you prefer it, a composite photograph--of any dozen +stories you can recall. Here are the facts; and I will try to give +them succinctly, as in a police-report. + +"We were eight in the boat:" + + "Grimalson,--in command. + Davis, Prout--A.B. seamen. + Webster, Martinez--Ordinary seamen. + Farrell, Santa and I--Passengers." + +"Our victuals were:--4 lb. of pork (about) and 7 lb. of ship-bread, +all messed with blood: 3 cans of potted meat, 2 of preserved fruit, +one tin of sardines: for liquid, half a gallon of rum and, in the +breaker, about 3 pints of water. + +"We were, as we calculated, four hundred miles at least from any +known land, and we had no chart on board: we might be within a +hundred miles of the fringe of traffic. + +"The sea was calm: the wind came in intermittent light draughts from +the north. The sky was a great burning-glass, holding no hint of +rain." + + +"Now from the very beginning--from the moment we left the ship--I +knew that, if we were to perish of hunger or thirst before sighting +help, I should be the last survivor. No; you needn't stare: it's +perfectly simple. . . . I doubt if I ever told you that in the old +days, when experimenting with the animals, I found that my will--or +brain-power, if you prefer the term--worked torpidly for a while +after meals, although, as you know, I was never what they call a +hearty feeder. So I took to cutting down my rations. Then of course +I discovered that this was all right enough up to a point, beyond +which the stomach's craving made the brain irritable and impatient. +So for a long time I let it go at that, and ate pretty frugally at +fairly long stretches . . . until one day, in some book about Indian +fakirs, I picked up a hint that if this interval of exhaustion were +passed--if I stuck it out--my will might pick up its second wind, so +to speak, and work more strongly than ever. I was curious enough, +anyway, to give it a trial or two. The results didn't amount to +much: but I _did_ discover that I had a rather exceptional capacity +for fasting, and promised myself to practise it further, from time to +time, as an experiment on my own vile body. + +"But now we'll come to something more important. In the matter of +thirst I had persevered: being, as you may remember, hot-foot upon +rabies just then and the salivary glands. . . . Well, in the matter +of thirst, I trained myself to do my three days easy without +swallowing a drop. That last night you invited yourself to dinner-- +the night I first met Farrell, by the way--you unknowingly ended a +four days' experiment. I told Jimmy Collingwood about it, the +morning he breakfasted with me. . . ." + +["I remember Jimmy's telling me something about it, in the taxi," I +put in. "He said you were either the saviour or the curse of +society--he wasn't clear which: wouldn't commit himself until he'd +read your forthcoming treatise on _Thirst, Its Cause and Cure_. +He added that you were mistaken if you thought the topic +non-controversial."] + +"He needn't be afraid. . . Farrell smashed me up for good as a +benefactor of my species. . . . I shall put up a brass plate in +Harley Street and end my days as a pottering empiricist--Remember +Jimmy's trouble with that word?--alleviating particular complaints +for cash. If it hadn't been for Farrell--well, just you remember +_that_ when I stand up for judgment! . . . + +"Anyhow, that infernal boat gave me all the personal experiment I +wanted. . . . I promised not to tell you all about it. . . . Martinez +went first, of course, being weak as water. He died muttering for +water. Grimalson came next . . . two days later. + +"But I shall go on telling you about myself. Physically I suffered +very little, mentally a good deal at sight of the others' torments-- +but only from time to time. By the fourth day (the eleventh after +the _Eurotas_ went down) we were all more or less mad, I reckon. +But my lunacy took the form of light-headedness with a strange, +almost persistent, sense of exaltation. I kept my strength so much +better than they that almost unconsciously they left most of the +trimming and steering in my hands. And I sat and steered as a god, +in a world blank of all but miserable happenings. I looked on Santa, +and she was the woman I loved but should never enjoy. I looked on +Farrell: and he was _here_, brought here by _me_. What worse woe +could possibly lie in store for him than this agony over which I +presided it was impossible to tell and hard indeed to imagine. But I +did not want him to die. On the contrary, it was for _him_ that I +searched the horizon, that a ship might rescue us and he might live. +I would see to the rest! + +"They say that living with an enemy in a confinement such as ours, +makes you hate him worse and worse. . . . It wasn't so with me. +My hate, by this time, was set and annealed, so to speak; quite cold, +and almost judicial. I had no more jealousy than Jove. The air +that, to the others, quivered so damnably, so insufferably around the +boat under a sky without shade, swam around me like incense. . . . +As for Farrell, his eyes watched mine like a dog's. + +"Oh, yes, we went through it all! I'll have to tell you about +Grimalson (as shortly as possible, though), because Farrell gets +mixed up in it, hereabouts. Even in their suffering, the three +seamen--Jarvis, Prout, and Webster--had nursed poor Martinez almost +tenderly; and I suppose, amid their mutterings forward, they had +hatched out their form of protest. And it was fit for comic opera-- +ghastly comic opera--if you can imagine Lucifer sitting in the +stalls. + +"Noon of the third day it was--I count from the time of our losing +the other two boats. We had lowered Martinez overboard about an hour +before, and the seamen should have been preparing our diminutive +ration. (Salt pork boiled in sea-water, if you can imagine it, +Roddy!) I was steering: Santa sat a foot away, staring over the +waters, sometimes bringing her attention back to a line which +Grimalson had cast overboard, trying for a fish. Grimalson lounged +on the after-thwart--facing me, as you might say, and with his back +to the men, but lolling sideways over the gunwale. He felt the line +with his left hand. Close by his right lay a useless gaff. He had +exhausted our third and last tin of sardines for bait, without +effect, and--what was worse--had drained the oil down his throat +impudently, without an offer to share it. Also he had been drinking +salt water--and I had not troubled to restrain him. Farrell I could +hate, but this man was naught. Farrell lay on the bottom-boards at +my feet, breathing stertorously, with his head in what shade Santa's +gown and the side-sheets together afforded. But this fool seemed +intent on baiting the Pacific with a plummet, a hook, and a lump of +salt pork. + +"As if this wasn't enough of grisly opera, of a sudden, in my +light-headedness I saw the three men stand up, join hands solemnly in +a sort of cat's cradle fashion, and advance aft, for all the world +like a comic trio, with the after thwart for footlights. They came +to a halt, close behind Grimalson, and--even as though I had ordered +a burlesque--Jarvis cleared his parched throat painfully, very +formally, and spoke across to me. You must picture the three, if you +will, still holding hands while he spoke. + +"'Doctor Foe, sir,' said Jarvis oratorically, 'me and my mates, not +knowing the law, but being wishful to behave conformable as British +seamen, have cast it up together. And we allow 'tis no mutiny, being +situated as we are, to say as this Martinez was a shipmate, when +all's said and done, though a Dago, and Mr. Grimalson, meaning no +disrespect, done him to death by bloody murder. Which, consequently, +attaching no blame, we three, as loyal British seamen, two A.B. and +one ordinary, and giving our opinion for what it is worth, hold that +Mr. Grimalson was probably off his chump when he done it, and hasn't +behaved subsequently in a way to inspire confidence in a crew left as +we are. Whereby, Doctor Foe, not having pen and ink handy to make a +round robin of it, we hereby respectfully depose Mr. Grimalson, and +request of you to take over command of this craft, trusting you to be +a gentleman and being well aware of the consequences and ready to +face 'em. The others having said _Amen_, we'll consider the matter +finished.' + +"There's farce somewhere in every tragedy, Roddy. Here, against the +glare on the Pacific, it challenged all doom, broad and unashamed. +I need hardly tell you that Grimalson, at the opening of this +harangue, had dropped his fishing-line, clutched his gaff, and +whirled about furiously. But he faced three determined men, and +Webster's loose hand played with a revolver. Twice or thrice +Grimalson essayed to interrupt; but Jarvis was a man with a prepared +speech: and, backed by Webster's free hand, he delivered it straight +out at me to the last word over Grimalson's shoulder. + +"Then, as he concluded, there ensued the beastliest scene of all. +Grimalson, from facing these three slow, determined men, took a swift +turn right about and struck at me with the gaff. They clutched at +him and he faced about again, dropping the gaff, springing to the +thwart and hitting right and left. Webster sprang also to the thwart +and landed him a stunner on the point of the jaw which sent him +overboard from the rocking boat. + +"Now Webster was, in ordinary life, a religious man, and a Methodist. +At sight of what he had done he ran to the boat's side, making +ineffectual grabs to recover the body, which floated for a moment or +two, with the senseless hands afloat or spread on the waters, as if +in ghastly benediction. And then, as I put up helm, as if hauled +down on a line, the trunk and head disappeared from view and a bloody +smear came up, oozing and spreading. Jarvis called out that he had +seen a shark's fin. + +"I did not see it, being occupied in rounding up the boat to recover +the body: doing this, too, with my left hand, in no small pain. +For Grimalson's stroke with the gaff had lacerated my right fore-arm, +tearing away a strip of my rolled-up shirt-sleeve. + +"And then. . . . My God, Roddy!--Farrell, who had roused himself up +at the scrimmage, had his mouth fastened on my arm, mad with thirst, +sucking the blood! Oh, you have to go through these things to +understand! . . . And I said I wouldn't tell. . . . I beat at him; +but it was Santa who pushed him off. + +"Webster had sunk, sobbing, with his face on his hands that gripped +the gunwale. We were all mad. I held out my bleeding fore-arm to +Santa, who was tearing a bandage for it. + +"'Your husband has drunk,' I said. + +"'Ah, pity!' said she, softly, taking the first deft turn of the +bandage. 'Must you, too, be a beast?' + +"Jarvis, meanwhile, like a man dulled to all tragedy had gone to the +boat's side and was hauling in Grimalson's futile line. He brought +up the sinker. + +"'God help us all!--there's hope yet!' he barked through his parched +throat, and held up the sinker all clothed about and clogged with +greenish-brown shore-weed." + + + +NIGHT THE EIGHTEENTH. + + +"AND SO THEY CAME TO THE ISLAND . . ." + +(Foe's Narrative Continued) + +"That night, as I was steering, I heard a sound as of a bucket dipped +over the bows. Needless to say, we had hoisted no lantern on the +forestay since the night the other boats had driven away from us or +gone down. To help a vessel to pick us up on that expanse of water +it would have been about as useful as the tail of a glow-worm--and +moreover the crew _had drunk all the oil_. + +"I had the sheet well out and was running under a light, lazy +night-waft of breeze. A thin moon was setting somewhere behind my +right shoulder, and the glimmer of it played on the canvas. . . . +I had supposed all the others to be sunk in merciful sleep, when +Webster stood up and, staggering forward, ducked under the foot of +the sail, which at once hid him from me. . . . When I heard the +_plunk_ of a bucket--as I supposed--it suggested at the worst that +here was another fool dosing himself mad on sea-water; and, as values +counted by this time, it was not worth while to awake four other +souls to consciousness and misery for the sake of preventing him. + . . . And then the man's face went swimming past me, upturned to the +moonlight, momentarily sinking as I grabbed at his beard which +floated up like seaweed. . . . I grabbed, and missed. God knows what +I should have done had my fingers tangled themselves in that beard, +to get a clutch on it. + +"He had slipped himself overboard, to drown quietly. . . . And we +were now five, and Prout was plainly a dying man. (I'd have you +note, Roddy, the order in which the men on board went; for it rather +curiously backs up my theory that there's ever so much more vitality +in what we call brains than in what we call physique.) Martinez was +a weakling, of poor breed: Grimalson, big as bull's beef, had a brain +rotten as a pear: Webster, a docile fellow, was strong as Hercules +and surprisingly stupid. These were gone, in their order. +The two A.B.'s, Jarvis and Prout--canny men, resourceful, full of +seamanship--survived, and we three passengers. What kept Farrell +going, and saved his reason, was a great capacity for sleep. +He slept all the night and most of the day; and though by consequence +he helped us little or nothing, seemed (as he declared himself to be) +constantly dog-tired. His momentary ferocity, when he fastened on my +bleeding forearm, had been a gust only, and after it he sank deeper +and deeper into drowsiness. As for Santa--frankly, I don't know. +They tell us that women sleep more lightly than men, and can endure +suffering far more patiently--which some explain by saying that their +nerves are less sensitive to pain, and (I suppose therefore) to +pleasure. But I don't know: I have never studied the subject. +She sat very quiet, sometimes for hours together, without stirring; +but she took very little actual sleep. + +"The end of Jarvis and Prout was one of those inhuman, ghastly farces +which, as I've said, break the spell of a sudden and are worse than +the tragedy itself. They had struck up a quaint, almost canine +friendship--Yes, that's the word, though I can't stop to explain what +I mean by it more than by saying that they would sit together by the +hour, like two dogs before a fire. The odd thing about it was that +they had twice been shipwrecked before on the coast; and had come +through the double experience respecting one another as capable +seamen but forming no attachment until--But it's ludicrous past +guessing. On the second day in the boat it was discovered by a +chance word that they had a common acquaintance in 'Frisco: and he +wasn't much of a friend either. I never heard his name right and +full, and I doubt if they knew it. They called him Uncle Tibe, and I +gathered from their earlier conversations that he was a Jewish dealer +in marine stores and a money-lender; of mature years; and afflicted +with a chronic and most Christian thirst, which he alleviated by +methods derived from the earliest patriarchs of his race. Of these +his favourite was to attach himself to some young seaman with money +in his pocket and, having insinuated concurrently the undoubted +truths that he possessed great wealth but was averse to spending it +(even on Scotch 'smokes'), to insinuate further that the victim had +to an extraordinary degree crept into the affections of a childless +old man,--yea, might hope indeed, by attentions which in practice +worked out to ordering whisky and adding 'Make it two,' to inherit +his real and personal estate. + +"Silly as you like!--But the discovery that each had been hoaxed by +Uncle Tibe, and the comparison of their foolish experiences, with +reported tales of the dupes yet more heavily befooled and bled, +caught and bound these men in fellowship. They had both met with +some queer ones in their travels, and they compared notes: but they +always came back to this superlative old fraud. After long wise and +disconnected talk about the set of the wind, or the rates of pay on +various lines, or stowage, or freights, or rigs, or currents, or the +characters of various skippers and mates, or the liveliness or +sulkiness or homeliness or fickleness of this or that kind of cargo, +they would revert extra-professionally to Uncle Tibe: of whom the old +stories would be repeated over and over, with long pauses, chuckles, +slow appreciations--'Ay, Tibe! . . . He was a none-such, if you +like!' + +"Will you believe me that, in the end, these two honest fellows +murdered each other over this more-than-half-mythical Tibe? No, you +can't guess what it's like, towards the finish. They sat side by +side on the mid-thwart, fishing over either gunwale--or leaning over, +pretending. They were almost too weak to haul in a fish over four +pounds had they caught one, and for two days their throats had been +parched so that speech came with difficulty. Of a sudden Jarvis let +out 'Tibe!' with a sort of ghostly cackle, and Prout cackled 'Tibe!' +in an echo even thinner. . . . And, with that Jarvis stood up and +started raving of what he would do when the money came to him, as he +allowed it would, after all. Mighty queer ways of spending wealth he +mentioned, too, before Prout was up and, yelling at him for a thief +and supplanter, drove at his throat with a knife. He missed: but the +next instant, these two fond friends, whose friendship had fenced us +others off almost as strangers, were wallowing and knifing one +another on the bottom-boards,--all over the visionary legacy of a +Jew, thousands of miles away, whose picking of their pockets had been +their common reminiscence and their standing joke through days of +horror! And political economists used to tell us that money is a +medium and symbol of exchange!" + + +"Well, after that we were three in the boat, and I was the only one +strong enough to heft the bodies overboard. If they could only have +held on to their wits for another twenty-four hours, or even for +twelve! + +"When I had done this work, and redded up the boat, I looked rather +anxiously at Santa, who had been watching me: for I feared the effect +this scene of shambles might have upon her. She sat, with Farrell's +head resting against her knee, and still gazed unmoved. . . . Then I +knew why. She had passed beyond these vain phenomena. Her eyes saw +them and saw them not. . . . She was dying. + +"Yet she sat erect. She even smiled, very faintly, and made a feeble +motion of the hand towards her guitar-case, which I had lifted out of +the reach of the blood and set on the seat at a little distance from +her. Then I understood that she _had_ seen, after all. . . . For I +must tell you that, in the early days, Santa's playing and singing +had brought great cheer to the crews, and our boat was envied for +carrying this music. But there had come a day when Jarvis and Prout +sent aft very respectfully to beg that there might be no more of it, +for it dragged across their raw nerves: and from that hour the guitar +had lain in its case. It could be set free now. + +"I took it out, and she half held out her arms for it, as a mother +might for her newly-born child. . . . But she would never play on it +again. The strings were all loose but one, and that one broken. +She had no strength, and I no skill, to re-tune the thing. + +"But she thanked me in a sort of throaty whisper, and sat for a while +letting the neck of the guitar lie against her shoulder, while her +left hand went up to clasp it and finger it in the old way. And her +right hand lifted itself once or twice towards the sounding-hole, but +dropped back to her lap. + +"'You are very good to me,' she said, after some seconds, still in +the same whisper. 'Why is it that you hate Pete so?' Then, as I did +not answer, she went on, 'I am dying, I think. It would be quite +safe to tell me, now.' + +"'When two men love one woman--' I began. But she shook her head, +and her eyes accused me. Santa had very beautiful eyes, and in this +agony they were perhaps deeper in colour and more beautiful than +ever. But they had changed, somehow. . . . I cannot explain it but +they recalled another pair of eyes . . . another woman's. . . . +Whose? . . . I don't know! My mother's, maybe. She died, you know, +when I was quite a small boy. . . . Anyway, these eyes quite suddenly +looked at me out of the past--out of my memory, as it were. +They were Santa's and yet they were not Santa's. . . . + +"'Ah,' said she, 'do not lie to me, now! It hurts so!' + +"'Well, then,' I told her, 'your husband once, back in the past, did me +a very great wrong. It--well, it wrecked the work of my life, and I +have never forgiven it. Now let us talk no more about it.' + +"A look of relief, almost a happy look, dawned on her face. +'I _knew_ it was not about me! For I saw your two faces when you met +on the hill, under my porchway. . . . Do you know that, at moments, +you are very much alike? . . . Oh, in general, of course, there is no +likeness at all. . . . But at certain moments. . . . And it was so +when you met, there on the hill: I had to look from one to the other. +It was plain in that instant that you hated one another--yes, and it +might have been for a long time . . . ages and ages. But it could +not have been about me, for you had not set eyes on me but within the +minute. . . . I am glad, anyway, that it is not for my sake that you +hate.' + +"Her words came in faint, hurrying wafts, much as for days the wind +had been ruffling after us. The sunset struck slantwise across her +cheek and hung entangled in the brown tress that drooped low by her +right temple. I tell you, Roddy, that if the old gods and goddesses +in our school-books ever turned out to be mortal after all, she was +one, and thus looked, and spoke as she died. . . . + +"'I understand well enough,' she went on, 'the small things over +which women quarrel. . . . Though they all seem very far away just +now, I was a woman and could be jealous over _any of them_. But I +never understood why _men_ quarrelled, except for me, of course. + . . . Was it over your work, do you tell me?' + +"'Surely,' said I, 'a man's work--' + +"'Yes. I know that it is so,' she answered me with a small sigh. +'Do you know that, far back, I come down from the Incas? and I dare +say they thought less of work than of other things. . . . It is all +thanks to your working that we three are alive, now. . . . I +understand a little why men so much value their work. . . . But yet I +do not understand why they drop their work to quarrel as they do. +I understand it no better than the fighting of dogs.' She paused on +that last word, and then, as though it had put new life into her, she +sat erect and opened her eyes wider upon the horizon as she put the +amazing question, 'Was it over a dog that you two hated?' + +"It staggered me: but I caught at the first explanation. 'Oh, I +see,' said I. 'Your husband has been telling you?' + +"She didn't answer this at once. . . . At length, and as though my +voice had taken long in reaching her, far out on the ocean where her +gaze rested--'No,' said she, 'Pete has told me nothing. ... I never +asked. . . . But if it is true, _ay de mi!_ then that which I behold +is not true.' + +"'Of what are you speaking?' I asked. + +"'I saw an island,' she answered, as one in a dream: 'and again I see +it. It has two sharp peaks and one that would seem to be cut short. +Lawns of green climb up to the peaks between forests. There is a +ring of surf all about the shore . . . but the boat has found a +passage through . . . and you and Pete are landing . . . and-- +strangest!--there is a dog leaping about on the shore to welcome +you.' + +"I was silent, not caring to break in upon her happy delirium. +'But I am not there,' she whispered, almost in a moan. 'Why should a +dog be there and not I?' Still getting no word from me, she turned +her eyes full on mine and repeated the question imperatively, almost +indignantly. 'Why should it be a dog?--and not _I_, over whom you +never hated?' + +"'Santa,' said I, 'if there were such an island as you see--' + +"'But there _is_,' she interrupted quick as thought. 'There _is_, +and it is near, though I shall not see it, except from the boat.' + +"'Say, then, that there is such an island--' said I. It was just +possible: for during the last two days we had sighted many sea-birds. + +"'And near--quite near,' she insisted. 'It has groves of coco-trees, +and streams tumbling down the rocks--on which no boat can row with +men cursing in her and fighting with knives.' + +"'Then you shall land on that island, O beloved!' said I, 'and we +will live on it, and love--' + +"'Ah, I know what you mean! You mean as they love in heaven? Yes.' +And she added quite simply. 'I have had great trouble with men.' + +"'Not exactly as in heaven,' said I, and took out from a +breast-pocket under my jumper a small flask of yellow Chartreuse, +which I had snatched up among other small belongings from my +state-room locker ten minutes before the _Eurotas_ went down. +I had nursed it with a very jealous purpose. . . . Farrell should not +slip through my fingers by dying, while I could yet force a stimulant +down his throat, to linger him out. . . . It was a tiny 'sample' +flask, and had been pressed on my acceptance, as a small flourish of +trade, by a German wine-dealer in Valparaiso. . . . And here at the +crisis, with Farrell dying at my feet, on an instant I renounced my +purpose. + +"'Drink this,' I commanded Santa, 'and you shall live some hours yet. +And then, if there _be_ an island--' + +"She caught at it with a delighted cry, her hands suddenly vitalised. +The guitar slid down from her lap. She drew out the glass stopper, +holding the flask up a moment to the setting sun and letting it blaze +through the liquid. Then swiftly, as I made sure she would carry it +to her lips, she bent over Farrell and whispered some soft word of +the night that pierced his stupor so that he stirred and lolled his +head around. . . . Yes, and for a farewell kiss--which I watched +without jealousy. . . . + +"But as their mouths drew apart, and before his swollen lips could +close again, she had slipped the mouth of the flask between them and +the cordial was pouring down his throat. . . . + +"She had defeated me. . . . I watched her without uttering a word. +Farrell let out a guttural sort of _ah-h!_ and sat up somewhat higher +against her knee, opening his chest and breathing in new life as the +Chartreuse coursed through his veins. Santa turned the flask +upside-down, and handed it to me. + +"'I have won!' she said softly. 'Men at the last are--what is the +word?--magnanimous, mostly: and that is why a woman can usually win +in the end.' + +"'You have thrown away,' said I, 'so much of life as I gave you, +renouncing much. You have sacrificed yourself.' + +"'That was _my_ share of the price, my friend. Now continue to be +great, as for these many days you have been good. There is a bad +pain about my heart. With that other small bottle of yours, and with +that needle I have seen you use . . . You will? Ah, how much better +it is to be friends than enemies, when the world--even this little +shrinking world--is so wide yet--so wide--' + +"So I took her wrist and, she scarcely wincing, injected the last +drop of my morphia: yes, Roddy, and kissed the spot like any poor +fool, she not resisting! . . . Her last words were that I should lay +the guitar back again on her lap. . . . Oh, damn it, man! it was +everything your damned sneerer would choose to call it. . . . But I +tell you I held my ear close to her breast for hours; and in my +light-headedness I heard the muted music lulling her: and in and out +of her breathing, when she was long past speech--and above the +stertorous snoring of my enemy laid at her feet--I heard distant +waves breaking in a low chime to some words of a verse I had once +quoted to her on a night when her song had made the crews sorrowful +for a while before lifting their hearts again to make them +merry--music to ripple, ripple:" + + '--Ripple in my hearing + Like waves upon a lonely beach, where no craft anchoreth; + That I may steep my soul therein, and craving naught, nor + fearing, + Drift on through slumber to a dream, and through a dream to + death.' + +"My ear was close to her breast, listening, as the last breath went +out with a flutter . . . and Santa was dead, having conquered me-- +conquered me far beyond my guessing; but up to the moment having +subdued me so effectively that my sole kiss of her had been taken, +kneeling, upon the wrist, as one kisses faith to a sovereign, and had +never been returned. Through the night I held her wrist until it was +cold." + + +"Towards dawn, and just at that moment when a watcher's spirits are +at their lowest, Farrell stirred, stretched out his legs, drew them +up again, and asked how things were? . . . For his part (he added, +sitting up weakly), he felt a different man. + +"'It behoves you to be,' said I with some sternness. 'Take the +tiller and--yes, you may hold on to it with some firmness. Your wife +is dead.' + +"'Santa!' he gasped. 'Oh, my God!' and cast himself upon her body, +seemly bestowed as I could serve it. + +"'Get off of it,' I shouted, 'before I brain you!' I held the very +gaff with which Grimalson had torn my arm. He had plucked the tiller +from the rudder-head, and with these two weapons in our right hands +we faced one another, each with his left feeling for the revolver he +carried. + +"Then Farrell, who stood facing the bows, shot out his right as +if jabbing at me with the stick, a foot short of my shoulder. +The action was, as a stroke, so idiotic that, although it might so +easily have meant death to me, I turned half-about to where the stick +pointed, as the helmless boat yawed. + +"And there, above the low-lying wisps of morning fog, stood three +peaks: two sharp and the third blunted: and, below the fog, ran a +thin white ribbon of breaking water! + +"We had run down upon it so close in those hours of darkness that the +beat of the surf had, as I now recognised, confused itself into +Santa's last breathings: so close that, as the sun took swift mastery +of the mist and dissolved it, disclosing, below the peaks, the +variegated greenery of lawn and forest pouring down to the seamed +cliffs and pouring over them to the very beaches in tapestries of +vines and creepers, we were almost in the ring of the surf: and it +came as a shock to me that the lazy swell on which we had so long +lifted and dropped, heeding it least among many threats, could beat +on this islet so terrifically. + +"The sight so vanquished Farrell that he yielded the stick over to +me, obedient as a child. I thrust it back in its socket, hauled +sheet and fetched her up close to the wind outside the surges. . . . +Without a word said, he turned to pointing out this and that inlet +between the reefs where there seemed a chance to slip through. + +"For two miles at least we fended off in this way, until we came to +the base of the hill which, from seaward, had appeared so curiously +truncated. As we opened its steep-to sides, they rounded gradually +into a high curve at the skyline, and, at the base, into a foreshore +of tumbled rock through which ran a cleft with still water protected +by sheer rocks--a narrow slit, but worth risking with the wind to +drive us straight through. So I upped helm on the heave of a comber, +and drove her for it, the walls of rock so close on either hand that +twice the end of our short boom brushed them before Farrell, who held +the sheet, could avoid touching. . . . And then, rushed by a heave of +the swell through this gorge, we were shot into a round lake of the +bluest water I ever set eyes on; a lakelet, rather; calm as a pond +except by the entrance, where the waves, broken and spent, spread +themselves in long ripples that melted and were gone. + +"You know Lulworth Cove? Well, imagine Lulworth, with a narrower +entrance, its water blue as a sapphire shot with amethystine violet, +its cliffs taller, steeper, hung with matted creeper and, high aloft, +holding the heaven in a three-part circle almost as regular as you +could draw with a pair of compasses. We were floating in the cup of +a dead volcano, broken on the seaward side; and broken many hundreds +of years ago--for on our starboard hand, by the edge of the rent, +swept down a slope of turf, cropped by the gales, green as an English +park; with a thread of a stream dropping to a small wilderness of +ferns, and, through this, to plash upon a miniature beach of pink +sand, on the edge of which the sea scarcely lapped. Sea-birds of +many kinds circled and squawked overhead. Yet it was not our boat +that had frightened them. + +"They had risen in alarm at the sound of barking, high up the slope. +A dog came leaping down it, tore through the fern, and, as our boat +drew to shore, raced to and fro by the water's edge, barking wildly +in an ecstasy of welcome. A yellow dog, Roddy--a largish yellow +dog--and, as I live by food, the living image of my murdered Billy!" + + + +NIGHT THE NINETEENTH. + + +THE CASTAWAYS. + +(Foe's Narrative Continued.) + +"A miracle? Well, I had always supposed poor Billy to be a mongrel +of such infinite variety of descent that the world might never hope +to behold his like. But, after all, the strains even of dogs are +limited in number; and what Nature has produced she can reproduce. + +"But the apparition, just there, and at that moment, was a miracle to +me. I sat staring at it even when the boat's stem took the beach +gently, and it was Farrell who first crawled over her side to land. +His knees shook, and the dog, leaping against him, nearly bowled him +over. Then the sight of water seemed to galvanise his legs, and he +tottered frantically up the small foreshore to the cascade, beside +which he fell and drank, letting the spray drench his head, neck, and +shoulders. The animal had gone with him, gambolling and barking, and +now ran to and fro and leapt over his body three or four times, still +barking. All his welcome was for Farrell. To me, as I followed, +staggering, the animal paid no heed at all, until he saw me drawing +close, when he suddenly turned about, showed his teeth and started to +growl. His tail stiffened, the hairs on his chine bristled up, and I +believe in another moment he would have flown at me. + +"Partly of knowledge, however, and partly of weakness, I checked +this. My feet had no sooner felt firm ground than I found myself +weak as a year-old child. The strength of will that had held me up +through that awful voyage--and it was awful, Roddy--went draining out +of me, and the last of my bodily strength with it, like grain through +a hole in a sack. As the dog bristled up, I fell forward on hands +and knees, laughing hysterically, and the dog winced back as if +before a whip, and cringed. . . . You know, I dare say, that no dog +will ever attack a man who falls forward like that, or crouches as if +to sit, _and laughs_? . . . So I dropped from this posture right +prone by the edge of the basin hollowed by the little waterfall, and +drank my fill. + +"What next do you guess we did? . . . We rolled over on the sand +under the shade of the cliff, and slept. . . . + +"We slept for three mortal hours. I've no doubt we should have slept +oblivious for another three, had not the making tide aroused me with +its cool wash around my ankles. The sun, too, was stealing our +resting-place from us, or the comfort of it, cutting away the cliff's +shadow as it neared the meridian. . . . The boat, utterly neglected +by us, had floated up, broadside on, with the quiet tide, almost to +our feet. The dog sat on his haunches, waiting and watching for one +or other of us to give sign of life. + +"I roused up Farrell. . . . My first thought was for Santa's body, +laid within the boat on the bottom-boards. 'Are we man enough, +between us, to lift her out?' I asked. 'Or shall we moor the boat +and climb for help? . . . There are certainly people on this island, +since this dog must have a master somewhere.' + +"'She is a light weight,' said Farrell simply. 'Let us try. . . . +Her soul forgive me for leaving her, even so long as I have, in that +horrible boat!' + +"So, weak as we were, we managed to lift Santa's body ashore and +carry it up the few yards of sand beyond what we judged to be a faint +tide-mark, close under the ferns. . . . After this we fetched ashore +the tool-chest and some loose articles that we judged to be +necessary--such as the cooking-pot, binoculars, and a spare coil or +two of rope and a ship's mallet; and Farrell searched the undercliff +for sea-birds' eggs, whilst I gave the boat a cleansing with baler +and sponge, redded her up after a fashion, and finally moored her off +with a shore-line, some twenty yards out on the placid water. +While thus occupied, my mind was wondering what kind of people +inhabited this island, and why they kept such poor watch. . . . +We had run in openly in daylight, and yet it would seem that only +this dog had spied us. + +"If they were savages, why, then, I had only my revolver with a fair +number of cartridges. . . . Some of my stock I had blazed away during +the last two days in vain attempts upon the life of the sea-birds +that ever wheeled out of fair range. The tool-chest, indeed, +contained a shot-gun, or the parts of one: but I had never pieced +them together, for the simple reason that all the cartridges +belonging to it had, through Grimalson's careless stowage, been +soaked and spoilt during the night of the gale. . . . Somehow, I +could not mentally connect savages with the ownership of this dog. +But the day wore on, and still no one hailed us from the cliffs or +the green slope. + +"Now I must tell you that the boat's locker yet held a chunk or +two--less than a pound--of brined pork, hard as wood and salt as the +Dead Sea, that none of the crew at the last had a thought to boil in +the sea water, which only made it more intolerable. None of us, +indeed, after a trial, had been able to get a morsel past our +swollen tonsils. But I had a boxful of matches in my trouser pocket, +half-emptied: and, as it turned out, Farrell had preserved another. +So in this most vital necessary we were well supplied. Therefore, +when Farrell, with the dog at his heels, came back along the shore, +holding up two cray-fish that he had taken in a rock-pool at the turn +of the tide, I tossed the gobbets of pork overboard to desecrate the +clear depth. Indeed, apart from fish and fowl, I had seen as we +neared the island that we had no fear of starving: for an abundance +of cocos and palms grew all around the ridge of the crater and had +but to be climbed for as soon as we found strength. The tool-chest +contained a saw and a hatchet. + +"It also contained an engineering-tool, part pick, part digger. +I handed it to Farrell, and he understood. 'But first,' said I, +'let's make a fire and fill the pot. There's a plenty of small dead +wood everywhere, and we're too weak just yet to heave this gear any +distance up the slope before sunset. We'd best light a fire here; +and when we have it started, I'll mount the slope some little way +where I see a plenty of limes growing. I may go some way farther, to +prospect. The smoke of the fire ought to attract the attention of +these very careless islanders; and if they turn out to be unfriendly, +well, I have my revolver and you'll have ample warning to clear off +to the boat.' + +"'Savages?' muttered Farrell. 'I never thought of that. . . . Go you +up, if you will, and take the dog for company. You can leave me to +light the fire, and--'tisn't a request I've dared to make to you +since God knows when--but if you've any pity anywhere in your bowels, +just now I'd like to be alone.' + +"'I haven't,' said I: 'but I have some sense in my head, and I'm +going to prospect. I'll leave you at anchor here for an hour or so.' + +"I whistled to the dog, and the dog, after long hesitation and having +been thrice shoo'd in my wake by Farrell, followed. But he hung some +twenty yards behind, and showed no sign of desire to lead me to the +people to whom he belonged. By and by he came to a dead halt and, +for all my whistling and calling, broke back for the beach again and +disappeared at a gallop. . . . + +"I held my ascent, still beside the downward-pouring stream, and on +my way noted fruit-bearing trees in plenty. I reached a point where +the volcanic hill ran down landward in rounded ridges, and crossed +two or three of these: but no sign of human habitation could I +discern. + +"When I descended again to the beach, with the lap of my jumper full +of limes and wild grapes, it was to find the dog stretched beside a +sizable fire and Farrell busy nailing together some lengths of long +timber. I had heard the sound of his hammer from half-way down the +slope. + +"'Good Lord, man!' said I, staring. For he had pulled in the boat +and sawn almost the whole of the port-side out of her. 'You have cut +us off now, whatever happens!' + +"'You don't imagine,' said he, 'that I'd ever set foot in that +blasted boat again?' + +"What is more, he had cut a couple of cloths out of the sail, for a +winding-sheet. . . . But the pot was near to boiling; and after we +had supped on the crayfish and the fruit, he fell to work again, +nailing together a rough coffin. He explained that he had served his +time in quite a humble way before embarking in business, on borrowed +capital, as a tradesman. Then, under the risen moon, by the scarcely +audible plash of the beach, he told me quite a lot about himself and +his early days, as he fashioned a coffin for the woman into whose +arms I had driven him, as I had driven him with her corpse to this +lost isle. + +"In the midst of it I said, 'You know, I suppose, that she saved your +life?' + +"He checked his hammer midway in a stroke, and stared at me, the +moonlight white on his face. + +"'You know,' I repeated, 'that she gave her life to save yours?' and +I told him how. At the end of the tale, if ever hatred shone in a +man's eyes, it shone in Farrell's; and yet there was incredulity in +them too. + +"'What!" he gasped. 'And you let her do it, there in front of you, +when with a turn of the hand--O my God!' he broke off. 'I've thought +at times you must be the Devil himself, you Foe: but I never reckoned +you for as bad as all that! The wonder to me is I don't kill you +where you sit.' He clenched the hammer, and twice again he called on +his God. The dog growled. + +"'Steady!' said I, showing him the revolver. 'Steady, and sit down. +You can't kill me, my good man, unless you do it in my sleep--against +which I'll take precautions. So you may quit wondering on that +score. . . . And I can't kill you; for you're too precious--doubly +precious now, _having been bought with that price_. . . . Sit down, I +tell you, and order that infernal dog to be quiet: else I'll pump +some lead into him and, dog against dog, you may count it quits.' + +"'Quits?' he echoed. + +"'In the matter of two yellow dogs only: and I have given up keeping +pets, having _you_. . . . Now listen: Did you ever guess that I +loved your wife?' + +"It took him like a blow between the eyes. 'No, I didn't,' he +answered slowly, and then with a sudden rush of malignity, 'I wonder +it didn't occur to you, then--I wonder you didn't try to--to--tamper +with her.' + +"'You would,' said I. 'It's the sort of man you are, you Farrell. +The next thing, you'll be capable of wondering if I didn't. . . . +Pah! and _you_ call _me_ Satan!' I spat. 'Now, take hold on your +fool head and think. For _her_ sake I grant you ease of that +suspicion, though in dealing with you it would be priceless to me. +Think what a peck of torture I'm letting run to waste, as that +waterfall yonder runs to waste in its basin. But it wouldn't be +true. Your wife was an angel. Drink that comfort--drink it into +every cranny of your soul. . . . And now hold your head again. +I loved Santa, I tell you.' + +"'You let her die,' he muttered sullenly. + +"'Think, you fool--think!' I commanded. 'If she had lived, you would +have died, and she would be sitting where you are sitting at this +moment, and I here, and the moon swimming above us two--Would you +have had it so?' + +"'My God!' he blurted, wiping the back of a hand across his eyes. +'This is too much for me. . . .' + +"I stood and picked up the engineering tool. 'For me, too,' said I, +'it is enough. . . . Now come and choose the spot, and I will fall to +my part of the work.' + +"But to this he demurred, saying vaguely that he was upset; that the +spot for the grave must be chosen with care and by daylight; that he +must first finish the coffin, and then take some rest. There would +be time enough after we had breakfasted. + +"I believed that I understood. . . . He wished to wash and wind the +body. So at dawn--by which time the coffin was ready--I told him +that he should be alone for a couple of hours, and went up the hill +again in the first light, to prospect. Again I tried to whistle the +dog after me: but this time he refused even to budge. + +"I climbed no farther than before; that is, a little beyond the +ridge. For it gave upon a wide undulating valley to the slopes of +the second crater, which again partly overlapped the cone of the +third or highest. To descend and cross this first vale would cost +from two to three hours' hard walking, and my design was merely to +con the prospect for sign of those inhabitants to whom the dog must +belong. For he was little more than a puppy in age. Also, though +lean, he was not at all emaciated: but the traces of rabbit-dung on +the slopes told that a deserted dog might manage to sustain life +here. Also it promised that the island was inhabited, and by white +men, for rabbits are not indigenous anywhere in the South Pacific. +They must be brought. + +"I studied the hollow and searched it with my binoculars for some +while: but without picking up any trace of mankind. Far below me a +sizable stream here showed itself through the tropical vegetation as +it hurried down to a hidden cove. The wide ocean spread southward to +my right. Of how far the island might stretch beyond the taller and +more distant cone I could make no guess. + +"A desire for sleep came upon me, and I stretched myself in the shade +of a bush under the lee of the ridge. After an hour's nap I rose and +descended again to the beach. + +"Farrell sat by the fire, cooking breakfast, the dog watching him. +There was no coffin, nor any sign of a grave, and the tide was +making. He had made haste to bury Santa during my absence. . . . +He said not a word about it, and I did not question him. But he had +played me this trick. Henceforth I felt no further pity." + + +"You may remember my saying, Roddy, when I first started to tell you +about Santa, that it was impossible for me to hate Farrell worse than +I did. Well, I thought so at the time. But now on the island I was +to find myself mistaken, and this trick of his set me off hating him +in a new and quite different way. + +"I believe now, looking back, that this was the real beginning of +Santa's revenge; or the first evident sign of its working; unless you +count the behaviour of the dog--of which I will say more presently. +At any rate I had no longer that cool godlike sense of mastery over +the man which had sustained me in the boat. It may sound incredible: +but whereas, cooped in that narrow shell of boards, I had found his +presence gratifying, here on an island of wide prospects, where we +could have parcelled out a kingdom apiece and lived by the year +without sight of one another, I found it irritating and at times even +intolerably so. He had found power, through her dead body, to give +me a grievance against him, when I had supposed him too low and +myself too high for anything to affect me that he could do. . . . +It is always a mistake, Roddy, to falter once in an experiment. +It is disloyalty in a man of science to renounce one at any point. +Now, I had renounced, in handing Santa the flask; and again I had +faltered, in a moment of generosity when I left him beside her +corpse. . . . And of that act of generosity--and of delicacy, too, by +the way--this thief had taken advantage. + +"Oh, yes--I know what you will be wanting to say--that the man was +her husband, hang it all! . . . I answer that he _had been_ her +husband and my darling's flesh I had resigned to him, as was meet and +right. . . . But if you'll understand--if you've ever read what the +Gospel quite truly says about marriage, to take it in--the man had no +tyrant's monopoly beyond the grave. She was mine now--his, too, if +he would--but mine also by right of my great love for her. + +"You see, I am shaking, even as I speak of it. I had this grievance, +and it festered and raised the whole temperature of my hate. . . . +And this wasn't the worst, either. The worst was a sense that, lying +somewhere with closed eyes under the ebb and flow of the tide, my +beloved was working against me, watchfully, by unguessable ways, and +weakening me. There was this dog, for example. . . . Yes, _that_ had +been the first token. How had it passed from me--this power over +animals that had used to be exerted so easily?" + + +"But I had not lost my power over Farrell, although there were times +when I mistrusted it. His eyes had given me the first warning, when +I returned that morning and found myself tricked. They were +half-timorous but also half-defiant, and wholly sly. It disconcerted +him that I made no comment on his silence and asked no questions. + +"On the fifth morning--by which time we had picked up enough strength +to attempt a day's exploration of the west side of the island, and +within an hour of the time fixed for our start, he found me fitting +and nailing a short cross-plank to the boat's mast. + +"'Hallo!' said he. 'What job are you spoiling there? I'm the +carpenter of this party, or believed I was.' + +"'And I'm the captain,' said I; 'and duly appointed--though I have no +witness but you to the fact--if you choose to lie about it. . . . +I'm doing a job which you have neglected: fixing a Cross for Santa. +It will be a comfort, as we fare inland, to know she has a Christian +mark over her grave. . . . You have the bearings accurate no doubt,' +said I, lifting the heavy cross and, as I stooped to shoulder it, +picking up the ship's mallet, which lay at my feet. 'Will it be +here--or here?' I asked, choosing the spot and prodding the sharpened +foot of the cross into the sand. . . . His face blanched. +'You accursed fool!' said I, 'do you suppose I haven't, these four +days, been watching you and the dog?'--and, as I said it, the point +of the mast struck upon timber. 'Come and help me to drive it deep,' +I commanded. 'If we can work it down within reach of mallet, three +taps will drive it so that it will stand firm above such tides as +reach this anchorage of hers.' + +"He came down the beach heavily and we heaved our strength together, +driving the cross down by the coffin's head. 'The mallet is handy by +you,' said I. 'Pick it up and use it while I hold steady.' + +"This work done, without another word between us, we returned, picked +up axe, saw, and a wallet to collect any specimens of fruit we might +find on our way, and, still without a word, breasted the hill side by +side, the dog running ahead of us. + +"We got no farther that day than to the stream which ran between our +hill and the second volcano, the edge of which--like that of our own +broken and truncated one, ran down steeply to the western shore. +The wood beside the stream grew so thick, interlaced with tendrils of +tropical plants, that we were forced to turn aside and make for the +coast in hope to find a crossing. + +"We descended into the sound of the beating surf before we found one: +and there an impish fancy took me. I had been losing grip on +Farrell, and despite my small triumph of that morning, I felt a +sudden desire to test him. Pretending that my purpose was only to +cross and report, I waded the stream and dodged upward through the +undergrowth; recrossed it, about a hundred yards above, crawled +another yard and again recrossed, all to baffle the hound's scent, +since from Farrell I could have hidden by this time securely enough. +In a very few minutes I heard his voice hallooing to me, and then the +dog's yelp began to chime in with it. By and by the beast, well +baffled, was baying hard through the undergrowth between me and the +surf. + +"After a while of this play I crept out and strolled easily back to +my first ford, my hands in my pockets. + +"'What the devil's up with your beast?' I asked, wading across to the +bank on which Farrell stood. + +"His face was white. 'My God!' he said. 'I thought, for a while, we +had lost you!' + +"Then I knew that he dared not be alone, and that I had him, whatever +happened." + + + +NIGHT THE TWENTIETH. + + +ONE MAN ESCAPES. + +Before continuing Foe's story, I should warn you not to be surprised +that hereabouts it takes on a somewhat different tone. I am trying +to give you the tale as he told it: and so much of it as related to +Santa, he told bravely and frankly, here and there with a thrill +somewhere deep beneath his voice, and exaltation on his face. +He was, in short, the Jack Foe of old days, opening out his heart to +me; and all the more the same because he was different. By this I +mean that never in life had I heard him speak in just that way, +simply because never in life had he brought me this kind of emotion, +to confess it; but, granted the woman and the love, here (I felt) was +the old Jack opening his heart to me. It rejuvenated his whole +figure, too, and, in a way, ennobled it. I forgot--or rather, I no +longer saw--the change in him which had given me that secondary shock +when he walked into the room. + +I cannot tell you the precise point at which his tone altered, and +grew hard, defiant, careless and--now and then at its worst--even +flippant. But it was here or hereabouts, and you will guess the +reason towards the end. + +Another thing I must mention. You have already guessed that the +tale was not told at one sitting. Between the start and the point +where I broke off last night, we had lunched, taken a stroll +Piccadilly-wards, done some shopping, and chatted on the way about +various friends and what had happened to them in this while--Jack +questioning, of course, while I did almost all the talking. It was +in the emptying Park, as we sat and watched the carriages go by, that +he told me of Santa's burial and what followed it, so far as you have +heard. I broke off last time at the point where he broke off, stood +up, and said he would tell me the end of it all over dinner at the +Cafe Royal, where we had called, on the way, to reserve our old +table. + +I saw afterwards why he had arranged it so: as you will see. But for +the present it only needs remembering that what follows was told in a +brilliant, rather noisy room--at an isolated table, but with a throng +of diners all around us. + +I had ordered wild duck as part of the dinner: and when it came to be +served he looked hard at his plate, and, without lifting his eyes, +slid from casual talk into his narrative again: + +[Foe's Narrative Concluded] + +"Wild duck--? good! Yes, we used to have wild duck on the island. + . . . There were lagoons on the east side, fairly teeming with them, +and we fixed up a decoy. I don't pretend that we fixed up an orange +salad like this, with curacao: but in the beginning we practised with +limes, and later on I invented one of sliced bananas, with a sort of +spirit I brewed from the fruit. Also we found bait in the pools, not +so much unlike the whitebait we've been eating--I used to frizzle it +in palm oil. And once I achieved turtle soup. . . . He was the only +fellow that, in two years, we ever managed to collar and lay on his +back; and the soup, after all was no great success. But turtle's +eggs. . . . I can tell you all about turtle's eggs. That dog had a +nose for them like a pig's for truffles. + +"Don't be afraid, Roddy. In this sophisticated den of high living +and moderate thinking I'm not going to give you the Swiss Family +Robinson; though I could double no trumps and risk it on the author +of that yarn--whoever he may have been--if he had only dealt from a +single pack, which he didn't. Farrell and I didn't build a house in +a tree, because we didn't need to; and we didn't ride on emus, +because we didn't want to, and moreover there weren't any. But we +did pretty well there for two years, Roddy: and could say as +Gonzalo--was it Gonzalo?--said of another island, that here was +everything advantageous to life. And we found the means to live, +too. + +"I may say that I took the role of Mrs. Beeton: hunted for fruits, +fished, told Farrell (of my small botanical knowledge) what to eat, +drink, and avoid, and attended to the high cuisine. Farrell, +reverting to his old journeyman skill, sawed planks and knocked up a +hut. When one hut became intolerable for the pair of us--for in all +that time we never ceased hating--he knocked up a second and better +one for my habitation. He was my hewer of wood and drawer of water. +Also it was he who--since I professed no eagerness to get away--did +the conventional thing that castaways do: erected a flag-staff, and +hauled piles of brushwood up to the topmost lip of our volcano, for a +bonfire to be lit if any ship should be sighted, lest it might pass +in the night. I had resigned the binoculars to him, but he never +brought report of a sail. + +"On two points--which served us again and again for furious +quarrels--the fool was quite obstinate. He would not budge from our +first encampment--that is to say, out of sight of Santa's grave; and +he flatly refused to fit new planks to the ruinated boat which now +lay, a thing of ribs, high and dry as we had hauled her close +underneath the fern-brake beside the cascade. Again and again I +pointed out to him that, patched up, she would serve me for fishing. +To this he answered, truly enough, that we had a plenty of fish in +the rock-pools and a plenty of oysters on the shore. Then I urged +that, if we sighted a ship--though it didn't matter to me--we might +need a boat to get out to her. He retorted that, though it mattered +to him, he would never set foot again in that cursed craft or help me +to set foot in her. Finally, one day when I was absent on an +expedition after food, he broke her remains to shreds. + +"Upon this we had an insane quarrel--the more insane because it all +turned on my dwelling on the detriment to his chances of escape and +his reminding me of my indifference. We argued like two babies. +But I had now another grievance: though it was the devil to me to be +falling back on grievances. + +"I still held the whip-hand over him in this--I could always thong +him by a threat to part company and live by myself on the east side +of the island. He mortally feared to be left, even with the dog for +company. + +"The dog remained a mystery. Although, as time went on, we explored +the island pretty thoroughly, we never found his owner, nor any sign +of human habitation. The conies which bred and multiplied on the +hills were our only assurance that man had ever landed here before +us--that is, until we discovered the strange boat: and it was through +the dog that we discovered it." + + +"During the first three months we made no lengthy excursions, being +occupied in cutting and sawing timber for the two living-huts and a +store-hut; in making a small net (this was my task), and in +sun-drying the fish I caught in it--for, knowing little about these +latitudes, I feared that at any moment the heavenly weather might +break, and we be held prisoners by torrential rains, traces of which +I read in some of the seaward-running gullies. Also Farrell refused +to budge until he had built his bonfire. When this was done we had +another pretty fierce quarrel because, tired of waiting, I took a +humour to punish him by making him wait in his turn while I did some +tailoring. . . . No: we didn't dress in goatskins. There were no +goats. But I had visions of piecing up a rabbit-skin coat and, in +the meantime, of cutting up the boat's sail into drawers and jumpers, +our clothes by this time being worse than a disgrace. But I believe +that I held out chiefly to annoy him; and, having annoyed him +sufficiently, I gave way to his final argument--that our boots were +wearing out fast and, if we didn't make the expedition at once, +likely enough we never should. + +"So we started on what proved to be a two days' tramp, and thereby +came pretty near to wrecking ourselves. + +"The third cone, which--in that clear atmosphere--seemed to stand +close behind the second, turned out to be separated from it by a good +five miles as the crow flies. But on the north-western shore the sea +had breached the reefs and swept in to form a salt lagoon in the +great hollow, so that we had to fetch a circuit of at least seven +miles to the southward, avoiding a tangle of forest in which the +lagoon ended, and clambering along a volcanic ridge with the sea +often sheer on our right. It was in this lagoon, by the way, that we +afterwards learned to take our wild duck, scores of which paddled +about quite tamely on its surface, their tameness promising poorly +for human hospitality on the farther side of the hill. + +"We gained the side of the great cone at length and, rounding it, +beheld all the northern part of the island spread at our feet--in +form a narrow strip of land curving around a delicious bay and ending +in a small pinnacle of high tumbled cliff and wood. Quite obviously +this bay was the one anchorage in the island for any ship of burden; +and no ship could have asked for a better: for it made almost three +parts of a circle, and, while not completely land-locked, held +recesses in which any gale might be ridden out. + +"Here, if anywhere, as I told Farrell, we should come upon human life +or the traces of it: here, if anywhere, if vessel ever made this +island, to water, she would drop hook. 'Fools we have been, to waste +months pitching camp on the other side, when this is the place of +places, and this hill gives the citadel prospect of all!' + +"Farrell sat down on a rock and broke into curses. 'Damn you,' he +moaned, 'for bringing me so far! I wish I had never seen it. +Wasn't it comfortable enough where we were? . . . And now I can't go +back!' + +"I had taken the binoculars and, engaged with the view, for a moment +paid no heed. I was accustomed to his explosions of fury, as he to +mine. But, turning about for a while, I saw that he had unlaced his +left boot and was holding it out. . . . The sole had broken loose in +our scramble over the tufa rocks, and hung parted from its upper. + +"'That's bad,' said I. 'Well, I stuck a ship's needle in the +tool-bag here before we started--_you_ never think of anything! +When we get down to the shore we'll see what can be done: that is, if +we don't find a cobbler.' + +"'Cobbler? you funny ass!--' he began. + +"'Look here,'--I stopped him. 'If you won't attend to me, attend to +Rover. What's up with that dog of yours?'--for the dog which had +been following all day pretty obediently, except for a wild dash down +to the lagoon to scatter the wild duck, had of a sudden picked up +bearings and was running forward, halting, returning, wagging his +tail, running forward again, turning, asking dumbly to be understood, +in the way all dogs have who invite you to follow a trail. + +"'Here's business,' said I, and hurried after him, leaving Farrell to +limp down the hill-side in our wake. For once the dog recognised me +as more intelligent or, at any rate, prompter than his master, and +gave his whole attention to me. . . . I tumbled down the hill after +him in a haste that fairly set my temples throbbing. Once sure of +me, he played no more at backwards-and-forwards, but bounded down the +slope towards the innermost southern corner of the bay, where a grove +of coco-trees almost overhung the beach. A curtain of creepers +bunched over the low cliff at their feet and into this he plunged and +disappeared. + +"But his barking still led me on; and presently, as I avoided the +undergrowth and creepers to follow the foreshore, sounded back to me +across a low spit of rock. I climbed this and came all unexpectedly +upon a diminutive creek. + +"It was really but a fissure between the rocks, with deep water +between them and an abrupt, dolls'-house-beach of sand and shells +above it, terminating in a flat, overhanging ledge. And on this +ledge rested a white-painted boat, high and dry! From the +stern-sheets the dog barked at me joyously, wagging his tail, with +his fore-feet on the edge of the stern-board. + +"I ran to it. Within the stern-board, in cut letters from which the +cheap paint had scaled, was a name plain to read--_Two Brothers_. +Two paddles lay in her, neatly disposed: a short mast and sail +tightly wrapped and traced up in its cordage; her rudder, with +tiller-stick, two rusty rowlocks of galvanised iron, and a tin baler, +all trimly bestowed under the stern-sheets--and that was her +inventory, save a pig of iron ballast, much rusted. How long she had +rested there, clean and tidied, half protected from the sun's rays, +there was no guessing. But her seams gaped so that I could push my +little finger some way between her strakes. She had no anchor; and +her painter had been cut short at the ring, sharply. Only the knot +remained. + +"I was examining this when Farrell overtook me. He came over the +rocks, limping; halted; and let out a cry at sight of the boat. +Then, as by chance, he peered into the cleft at his feet, into the +fathom-deep water past which I had run; and, with that, let out a +sharper cry, commanding me to him. + +"Down in the transparent water, inert but seeming to move as the +ripple ran over it, lay the body of a man, face down, with a trail of +weed awash over its shoulders. Peering down through the weed, I saw +that a cord knotted about its right ankle ended in another pig of +ballast, three-parts covered by the prismatic sand. + +"'My God!' said Farrell, and shivered. + +"'Well, he's no use to us, even if we do fish him up,' said I, pretty +grimly. 'Here's the dog's owner, and that's as far as we get. +Since a dog--even so intelligent a pup as Rover here--can't very well +attach a weight to his master's ankle and cast him overboard--let +alone pulling his boat above high water and stowing sail--we'll +conclude that this fellow deliberately made away with himself. +As I make it out, the dog, thus marooned, struck pretty frantically +for the high ground. Lost dogs--and lost children, for that matter-- +always make up hill, dark or daylight. I suppose it's the primitive +instinct to search for a view. . . . But anyway, here's a boat. +She's unseaworthy, as she lies: but her timbers look sound enough if +we can staunch her, and the first thing is to get her down to the +water and see how fast she fills. We've a baler, to cope with the +leak . . . and when we have her more or less staunch, here's the way +around to our camp. Hurry up your wits!' I added sharply. + +"'If we launch her here,' he twittered, 'she'll settle down on +_that_!' + +"'Then run,' said I, 'and, with all the knowledge you ever picked up +in Tottenham Court Road, fetch every grass and fibre you can collect, +to stuff her seams. I'll do the sailing while the wind's fair +offshore, as it is at present. When it heads us, I'll do the +pulling. Man alive! think of your burst boot! For my part, I'm +willing enough to stay here as anywhere: or you can stay, and I'll +start back for camp, and we'll share this island like two kings, you +keeping this imperial anchorage.' + +"But of course this had him beaten. He helped me launch the boat and +ran to collect stuffing for her seams, while I sat in her and baled, +baled, baled. . . . It was pretty eerie to sit there alone--for the +dog had gone with Farrell--fighting the water, and feel her settling, +if for five minutes I gave up the struggle, down nearer and nearer +upon the shoulders of that drowned corpse with the hidden face. +By sunset Farrell returned with an armful of sun-dried fibre. +We hauled the boat high again and he began caulking her lower seams, +that already had started to close. + +"'She'll keep afloat now for a few hundred yards,' he announced after +a while. 'Let's launch her again and run her round the point and +beach her. I left a bundle of bark there that, early to-morrow, +we'll cut in strips and tack over the seams, and she'll do fine to +carry us home.' + +"'Home?' echoed I grimly. + +"'You know what I mean, you blighter!' he snarled. 'Oh, for God's +sake, no--we mustn't start bickering alongside of _that_!' He forced +his eyes to look down again at the corpse, and shuddered. +'The tide's going down, too.' + +"'It won't go down far enough to uncover _him_: and that you ought to +have sense to know," said I. + +"'But the farther it goes down the nearer he'll come up, or seem to,' +he argued. + +"'Well, night's coming on, and you won't see him,' I suggested, +playing on his nerves. + +"'D'you think I'll sit here in the dark, alongside of--oh, hurry, you +devil! Hurry!' + +"I chuckled at this. It came into my mind to refuse, and declare I +would sit out the night here by the boat. I knew that the shore +beyond, though it curved for two good miles, would not be wide enough +to contain his agony through the night hours. . . . But I had pushed +him far enough for the time. So we launched the boat again and +paddled her around and beached her on shelving sand: and soon after, +night fell. + +"Farrell slept poorly. Three or four times I heard him start up, to +pace to and fro under the starlight: and each time the dog awoke and +trotted with him. . . . + +"But he was up, brisk and early, with dawn; and he made quite a good +job of tacking bark over the boat's seams, while I sat and cobbled up +his boot with sailmaker's needle and twine. He made, indeed, and +though swift with the work, so good a job that, inspecting the boat +when he had done, I judged she would stand the strain of sailing-- +whereas I had looked forward to a grilling pull in a craft that +leaked like a basket. + +"At a quarter to ten, by my watch, we pushed off, stepped mast and +hoisted sail--a small balance-lug. We carried a brisk offshore +wind--a soldier's wind--which southerned as the day wore on, and +again flew and broke off-shore as we neared home. I steered: +Farrell, for the most part, dozed after his labours. He had not, I +may say, one single faculty of a seaman in his whole make-up. +He could mend a boat or make an imitation Sheraton wardrobe; but, +when the both were made, he'd have sailed the one about as well as +the other. + +"He dozed uneasily, with many twitchings. Once he woke up and said, +'I thank God he lay so as we couldn't see his face. Would it have +been swollen much, think you? . . . Bleached, I make no doubt. . . .' + +"'What about worse?' I answered. 'I noticed a crab or two.' + +"He put up his hands to his face. 'How the devil can you talk so!' +he stammered. + +"'It was you who started questions,' said I. + +"'Suicide, you think?' he asked, after half an hour's silence, during +which his mind had plainly been tugging away from the horrible +subject only to find it irresistible. + +"'All pointed to it,' I answered. 'As for the motive, we can only +guess.' + +"'Where's the guesswork?' he demanded fiercely. 'Cast here, in this +awful loneliness--' I saw him look around on sea and cliff with a +shiver. + +"'He had the dog,' said I. 'You find Rover here a companion, don't +you? I had a notion, Farrell, that you were fond of dogs. . . . I +used to be.' + +"We downed sail hereabouts, and pulled in for the cleft and the +anchorage we called home. The sea under the smoothing land-wind ran +through the passage as calmly as through a miller's leat: and I will +own it was happier to be by that shore where my cross still stood +over Santa than by the other, where that other body lay, face-down, +with the weight whipped to its ankle. "'Wonder who he was?' said +Farrell late that evening, as we parted to go to our quarters. +'A missionary, I shouldn't be surprised.' + +"'If so,' said I, 'he tumbled on a sinecure. Since your mind runs on +him and you want to sleep, make it out that he was a bishop, and +home-sickened for the Athenaeum.'" + + +"I'm coming to the end, Roddy; and you shall have it sharp and quick, +as it happened. . . . As I've said, we stuck it out on that island +for two years, and a little over, hating one another as two lonely +men will come to hate, on island or lighthouse, even when they don't +start on a sworn enmity. Oh, you must have been through it to +understand! . . . We even quarrelled--and came almost to blows--over +the day of the month; though God knows what it helped either to be +right or wrong, and, as it happened, we were both wrong by a +fortnight or so." + + +"And then Farrell took ill. + +"It was a kind of fever he caught while duck-snaring in the lagoon. +He'd start off there for a long day with his dog, the two practising +cleverness at the sport. I always felt somehow that, when his grief +came, it would come through the dog. . . . Well, he took a fever +which I couldn't well diagnose, to say whether it was rheumatic +or malarial. It ran to sweats and it ran to dry skin with +shivering-fits, the deuce of a temperature, and wild delirium. + +"I nursed him, of course, and doctored him, keeping the fever at bay +as well as I could with decoctions of bark--quassia for the most +part--and fresh juice of limes. But it was the vigour of his frame +that pulled him through--as I believe all the skill in London could +not have availed to do in the days of his prosperity when he was fat +and fleshy. Hard life on the island had thinned him down and +tautened and toughened him so that I wondered sometimes, washing his +body, if this was indeed the man with whom I had vowed my quarrel. + +"His ravings in delirium, however, left no doubt on that score! +I tell you I had to listen to some fairly obscene descriptions of +myself and his feelings for me--all in the best Houndsditch. . . . +Yet here again was a queer thing--again and again this gutter-flow +would check itself, drop its Cockney as if down a sink, and, bubbling +up again, start flowing to the language of an educated man. . . . The +first time this happened it gave me a shock, less the abruptness of +the break than by its sudden assault upon my memory. All insensibly, +and unmarked by me, Farrell's accent and way of speech had been +nearing those of decent folk. They were by no means perfect, but +they had amazingly improved. . . . Now, when his delirium plunged him +back to Houndsditch, though it gave me a jerk, I could account for it +as reversion to an old habit that had been put off before ever we +met. What beat me was, that his second style, accent and choice of +words--though still fluent in cursing--far surpassed in purity any +speech I had heard from him in health. + +"And there was something else about it. . . . While the gutter ran +Houndsditch, the man was a cur, cowering and yelping out terror under +strokes of a whip-lash. When it shifted accent, he lost all this and +started to _threaten_. Something like this it would run: 'Gawd! +Oh, Gawd, he's after me again. . . . See his rosy eyes follerin' like +rosy naphthas. . . . Oh, Gawd, hide me from this blighter. . . . Look +here, damn you! I'll trouble you to know who's master here. +You will halt where you are, you Foe, and not wag a tail until I give +you leave. That's better! Now, if you will kindly state your +business at that distance I'll state mine. . . . Is that all? +Quite so: and now you'll listen to me, and maybe reconsider yourself + . . .' That, or something like that, is the way it would go. + +"I had a sense all the while, Roddy, that he was almost slipping +through my fingers, and I fairly dug in my nails to hold him to life. +On that point my conscience is clear, anyhow. No man ever had a +doctor to battle harder for him, or a more devoted nurse. + +"Well, I pulled him through, and nursed him to convalescence. +I thought I knew something of the peevishness of convalescents: but +Farrell beat anything I had ever seen, or heard, or read of. By this +time I was worn weak as a rat with night-watching and day-watching: +but of this he made no account whatever. He started by using his +greater weakness for strength, and he went on to dissemble his +growing strength, hiding it, increasing it, still trading it as +weakness upon my exhaustion. He came back to life with a permanent +sneering smile, and a trick of wearing it for hours at a stretch as +he leaned back on the cushions I had painfully made for him of +plaited flax and stuffed with aromatic leaves, daily renewed. . . . +Yes, Roddy, as a doctor I played full professional service on him, +and piled it up with every extra kindness one castaway man could +render another. . . . And the devil, as he recovered, lay watching +me, under half-closed eyes, with never a sign of gratitude, but, for +all my reward, this shifty sneer. + +"There came a day when his new insolence broke out with his old hate. +'You Foe,' said he, 'I reckon you're priding yourself on your bedside +manner, eh? . . . I can't keep much account of time, lying here. +But, when I get about again, I'll have things in this camp a bit more +shipshape, I promise you. . . . I've been thinking it out, lying +here: and my conclusion is, you're too much of the boss without doing +your job. . . . How long is it since you've strolled up to the +look-out?' + +"'About a fortnight,' said I. + +"'And that's a pretty sort of watch, eh?' he continued irritably: +'--when you know that I never missed a day. . . . I tell you, Foe, +that, after this, we'll have to come to a reckoning. One or other +has to be master on this island, and it isn't going to be _you_! + +"I went up the hill obediently with the binoculars. I went up +thoughtfully. . . ." + + +"I came back some fifty minutes later, and said, 'You're too weak to +walk; too weak even to crawl.' + +"'What's the use to tell me that?' he asked, still keeping his air of +insolence. 'Drop your bedside manner, and present your report.' + +"'I will,' said I. 'One of us two has to be master on this island? +So you said, and you shall be he; sole master, Farrell, with your +damned dog. . . . There's a schooner at this moment making an offing +from the anchorage where, as I've always told you, we'd been wiser to +pitch our camp. I guess she put in to water, and I've missed her +whilst I was busy curing your body. . . . Well, better late than +never! She's hauling to north'ard, well wide: so you'll understand +I'm in something of a hurry. . . . You're on the way to recovery, +Farrell, and this makes twice that I've saved your life: but as yet +you can neither walk nor crawl, and I give you joy of your bonfire, +up yonder. In five minutes I push off, alone.' + +"He raised himself slowly, staring, and fell forward grovelling, +attempting vainly to catch me by the ankles. + +"'You won't--you can't! Oh, for God's pity say you don't mean it! +Say it's a joke, and I'll forgive you, though it's a cruel one.' +Then, as I broke away from the door--'Have mercy on me, Foe--have +mercy and don't leave me! _I can't do without you!_'" + + +"These were his last words that I heard as I plunged down the sand +and pulled in the boat's shoreline handover-fist. I had just time to +jump in and thrust off before the dog came bounding after me, barking +furiously. The brute was puzzled, but knew something to be wrong. +He even swam a few strokes, but turned back as I hit at him with a +paddle. He made around the curve of the shore, still barking. But I +had sculled through the narrows of the passage before he could reach +it. I had a sight, over my shoulder, of Farrell, who had crawled to +the doorway: and with that I was through the strait and sculling for +open water, while the baffled dog raced to and fro on the spits and +ledges astern, pausing only to bark after me as though he would cough +his heart out. + +"In the open water I hoisted sail, with the wind dead aft, and soon, +beyond the point, caught sight of the schooner. After running out +almost three miles, she had hauled close to the wind and was now +heading almost due north. . . . She could not miss me, and yet I had +made almost two miles before she got her head-sheets to windward and +stood by for me. + +"As I drew close, a thin-faced man with a pointed beard hailed me +from her after-deck. + +"'Ahoy, there! And who might _you_ be, mistaking the Pacific for +Broadway, New York?' + +"'I'm from the island,' I answered. + +"'What ship's boat is that you've gotten hold of?' he bawled. + +"The _Two Brothers_.' + +"'Lordy! I _thought_ I reckernised her. . . . Then you're old Buck +Vliet's missionary, that he marooned.' . . . Shall I go on, Roddy?" + + +I dropped my cigar into the ash-tray. "You may stop at that," I +answered, unable (that's the queer part of it) to lift my eyes and +look him in the face, although I knew very well that he was leaning +back in his chair, eyeing me steadily, challenging the verdict. +"Yes," said I, slowly turning the cigar-stump around in its ash, +"I'm sorry, Jack . . . but I don't want to hear any more." + +"I knew you would take it so," said Jack quietly, with a sort of +sigh. + +"Well," said I, "how else? Of course I know you'd had a damnable +provocation, to start with. And I'm no man to judge you, not having +been through the like or the beginnings of it. . . . You were +rescued, for here you are. That's enough. But--damn it all!--you +left the man!" + +"--And the dog. While we are about it, don't let us forget the dog," +said Jack wearily. "Shall we toss who pays the bill? Here--waiter!" + + +We parted under the porch-cover, in the traffic of Regent Street. +I have told you that, in our best of days, Jack and I never shook +hands, meeting or parting. It saved awkwardness now. + + + +BOOK IV. + + + +THE COUNTERCHASE. + + + +NIGHT THE TWENTY-FIRST. + + +THE YELLOW DOG. + +About two months later--to be accurate, it was seven weeks and two +days--my flat in Jermyn Street was honoured with a totally unexpected +call by Constantia Denistoun. Constantia has a way of committing +improprieties with all the _aplomb_ of innocence. She just walked +upstairs and walked into the room where Jephson and I were packing +gun-cases. + +"Hallo!" said she. "You seem to be in a mess here." + +"Please sit down," said I, removing a sporting rifle and bundle of +cotton-waste from the best arm-chair. + +"What is the matter?" she asked, arching her brows as she surveyed +the general disorder. + +"We're packing," said I. + +"It may surprise you to hear it," said she, taking the seat, "but so +I had guessed. What is it? Preparing for the pheasants, or for +Quarter Day?" + +"Neither," I answered. "I'm going to South America, that's all. + . . . That will do for the present, Jephson. You may get Miss +Denistoun a cup of tea." + +"Sudden?" she asked, when Jephson had withdrawn. + +"Well," I admitted, "I booked my passage only two days ago, but I've +had the notion in my mind for some time." + +"Alligators, is it? or climbing, this time? Or just general +exploring?" + +"You may call it exploring, though I may have a shy at the Andes on +the way. These fits come upon me at intervals, Constantia, as you +know, ever since you determined to be unkind." + +"Don't be absurd, Roddy," she commanded, tracing out a pattern of the +carpet with the point of her sunshade. The tracing took some time. +At length she desisted, and looked up, resting her arms on her knees. +"Roddy, I'm engaged to be married." + +A bowl stood on the table, full of late tea-roses sent up from +Warwickshire. . . . As the blow fell I turned about, and slowly +selected the best bloom. + +"I hope," said I, "the fortunate man, whoever he is, doesn't object +to your calling around on us poor bachelors and breaking the news. +However, Jimmy Collingwood is up, with his wife, and will be coming +around from his hotel in a few minutes. He'll do for a chaperon. +Meanwhile"--I held out the rose--"I wish you all happiness from the +bottom of my heart. . . . When is it to be?--and shall I be in time +with an alligator for a wedding present?" + +"Now that's rather prettily offered," said Constantia, half-extending +her hand to take the flower, her eyes shining with just the trace of +tears. "But you and I are a pair of humbugs, Roddy. To begin with +_you_--I don't believe there are any such things as alligators on +that island." + +"What island?" I stammered, and my fingers gave a small, involuntary +jerk at the rose's stem as hers closed upon it. + +"The island about which you wrote that queer short note to--to Dr. +Foe--two days ago, asking if he could supply you as nearly as +possible with its bearings." + +"Are you telling me--?" I began. + +She nodded, searching my face. "Yes, your old friend is the man; and +that's where _I_ come in as a humbug. The reason of this call is +that I want to know why you two, who used to be devoted, are no +longer friends." + +"Good Lord!" I exclaimed, not loudly, but more or less to myself. +"You must forgive my lighting a cigar, Constantia. . . . My mind +works slowly." While lighting it I made a miserable attempt to fob +her off and gain time. "When an old friend cuts in and carries +off--" + +"That's nonsense," she interrupted sharply; "and you know it; and you +ought to know that I know it." + +"Well, then," I protested rather feebly, hating to hurt her, +"you must allow that his behaviour to that man Farrell was a bit +beyond the limit. Of course, if you can forgive it--well, I don't +know. It's odious to me to be talking like this about the man to +whom you're attached--the man I used to worship. And for me, who +still would lose a hand, cheerfully, now as ever, to spare you pain! + . . . My dear girl, let's talk of something else." + +"No, we will not," said Constantia firmly. "I came to talk about +this, and I will. . . . Of course I know it was wrong of Jack to +pursue Mr. Farrell as he did. You remember my telling you I was +worried, that day we talked about him after my return from the +States? At that time I imagined he was allowing himself for a bribe +to be friends again with this man, and it distressed me; because-- +well, women have their code, you know, as well as men, and--and I may +confess to you now that, even at that time, I had begun to take an +interest--" + +"I see," said I dully, resting my arm along the chimney-piece and +staring down into the grate, where Jephson had lit a small fire: for +the day, though bright, was chilly. + +"You assured me, you remember, that Jack was above any such meanness; +and so far you relieved me, for I saw you were telling the truth. +But," she continued, "I saw also that it wasn't the whole truth: that +you were hiding something. So I went away puzzled. Afterwards, I +got the truth out of Jimmy Collingwood." + +"Well?" I prompted her, as she paused. + +"Well, it was shocking of Jack, I admit. But, after all, this +Mr. Farrell had ruined his life, and--of course I don't quite +understand men and their code--but isn't it a trifle uncharitable of +you, Roddy, not to allow that the shock may have unhinged his mind +for a time? . . . No, I'm playing the humbug in _my_ turn, and I'll +own up. It was wicked, if you will: but it was great in its way, and +determined . . . and women, you know, always fall slaves to that sort +of thing. It was straightforward, too: Jimmy said Jack had given his +man fair warning. Jimmy--but you know that boy's way--gave me the +impression that he didn't condemn Jack's craze as unsportsmanlike: +merely for being, as he put it, a thought bloodthirstier than any +line of sport he himself felt any inclination to follow. 'But I'm no +judge, Con,' he added--I remember his words--'for the simple reason +that I never had a career to be ruined.' . . . Well, for the rest, +Jack says he came straight to you as soon as he set foot back in +England, and told you the whole story.--That's so, I guess?" +Constantia, in her agitation, relapsed into her mother's idiom. + +I nodded, bending my head still lower over the high chimney-shelf, +still staring down into the fire. + +"Then you _know_," she said; "and I _do_ call it rather dull of you, +Roddy--not to say insensate--and unlike you, anyway. . . . When, at +the end, he turned and behaved so finely, nursing this man through +his last illness. . . ." + + +I tell you, it was lucky that I still kept my face turned sideways, +still staring down on the fire. . . . It took me like a mental +nausea, and all my thought for the moment was to hold steady under +it. I felt my fingers gripping hard on the ledge and holding to it, +as the waves went over my poor brain. Through the surge of them +confusedly I heard her voice pleading: and yet her voice was calm, +well under control. It must have been the waves in my own head that +broke her speech into short sentences. + +"You were his friend . . . his best friend . . . mine, too, Roddy. +You took it so well, just now . . . I _do_ want--" + +What in the world could I say? How lift and turn my face to her? +How answer? . . . And yet within a second or two I must lift my face +and make some answer. Her voice was already trailing off +plaintively. I heard her catch her breath-- + +And then--thank God--I heard a brisk, happy footstep in the outer +passage, and Jimmy burst into the room with his accustomed whoop. + +"Ahoy, within! How goes it with Gulliver?" He broke off, staring, +and let out another joyous whoop, upon which chimed the merry rattle +of tea-things, as Jephson followed close on his heels with a tray. +"Eh? No--but it is! In the words of the Bard, What ho, Constantia!" +He threw his bright top-hat across the room, hooked his umbrella over +his left arm, and ran forward with both hands held out. "Oh, Con! +this is good! Give me a kiss, with Otty's leave--a real good nursery +kiss!" + +"There!" agreed Constantia. "And now sit down and be a good boy. +Where's Lettice?" + +"Shopping in Knightsbridge: and the nurse walking the infant up and +down, more or less parallel, just inside the Park, that he may watch +the wheels go round. . . . I broke away. Shouldn't be surprised if +Lettice taxi'd around here presently. I hinted at tea, and she knows +where to find me. . . . Oh, by George, yes! Lettice always knows +where I am, somehow. Meanwhile, here's your good staid chaperon." +He dropped into a chair. "Otty, you're looking serious. What were +you talking about, you two?" + +"Well, it's like this," said I, after a glance at her; "Constantia's +going to be married--to Jack Foe." + +He had started up at my first words, to congratulate her. As I +dropped out the last three, with admirable presence of mind--"When in +doubt, apply cake," said he hoarsely, cramming a large piece into his +mouth to stifle his emotion. + +"I am not in doubt," said Constantia serenely; "and I suppose that is +why you help yourself as first aid, before offering me some bread and +butter, while Roddy lets me pour the tea. Thank you," she added, as +he whipped about with an apology. "Don't speak with your mouth full: +it's rude. . . . And now listen to me. Roddy, here, is off for South +America, he tells me. Two days ago he wrote to Jack, asking for the +latitude and longitude, as near as might be, of a certain island. +Jack showed me the letter. . . . You know about this?" she asked +Jimmy, shooting out the question of a sudden. + +I interrupted it. "Jimmy knows about it," said I. "No one else." + +She looked at us calmly, taking stock of us. "Very well," she said; +"and Jack has told me the whole story too, of course. I didn't know +till this moment that Jimmy knew: but I'm so glad he does, for it +makes us all four-square. Now, when first Jack got your letter, +Roddy, He was for sending the information in six words on a post +card, as being all that was due to an old friend that had so +misjudged him. But I persuaded him, and--" + +The outer door slammed upon the word, and a brisk footstep sounded in +the passage. I recognised it at once. So did Constantia. + +"--And here he is!" exclaimed Constantia, without rising, "--come, as +it happens, to have it out with the pair of you. . . . Hallo, Jack!" + +I am bound to say that my first look at Jack Foe gave me a start, as +he too started at sight of Jimmy, whose presence, of course, he had +not expected. He was pale in comparison with the tan of two months +back: but at every other point he was wonderfully set up and +improved. It was Constantia's doing, belike: but he had become again +in appearance the Jack Foe of old times--a trifle more seamed in the +face but with a straightness and uprightness of carriage that +rejuvenated him. His clothes, too, were of the old cut, modestly +distinguished. + +"Collingwood too?" said he, nodding easily. "That's better than I +looked for. . . . You have told them?" he asked Constantia with a +frank look of understanding. Then his eyes wandered, naturally, over +the disorder in the room. + +"Roddy is packing," said Constantia. + +"For South America," said I. + +"And after that? Yes, you needn't tell," he went on with an ease +which I could only admire. "It's the island, of course--I had your +note and was going to answer it, but Miss Denistoun--Constantia-- +insisted that I should call round and tell you. The latitude is--" + +"One moment," interrupted Jimmy. "You let the door slam behind you, +Professor: and your dog is protesting." + +"My dog?" Foe turned about, as Jimmy stepped to the passage. "What +are you talking about, Collingwood? I don't own such a thing." + +"I'll be damned if there isn't one snuffling at that outer door," +said Jimmy, and went quickly out into the passage. I heard the lock +click back and, upon the noise, a scuffle and gallop of a four-footed +beast: and, with that, a great yellow dog burst in at the doorway of +the room, took a leap forward, crouched, and slowly stiffened itself +up with its legs, its back hunched and bristling. There it stood, +letting out its voice in a growl that sounded almost like a groan of +satisfied desire. + +"Great Scott!" exclaimed Jimmy, following. "If this isn't your +Billy, Professor, come to life!" + +And I, too, cast a quick glance over my shoulder at Foe--against whom +the hound evidently stiffened, as a pointer at its game. Foe, white +as a sheet, was leaning back, his shoulders propped against the edge +of the mantelshelf. + +"He is not my dog," he gasped out. "Take him away: he's dangerous!" + +"Looks so, anyway," said Jimmy calmly. "Well, if he's not your dog, +here's his owner to claim him."--And into the room, staring around on +us, walked Farrell. + + +For the moment I stared at him as at a total stranger. It was only +when, almost ignoring the rest of us, he took a step forward, +pointing a finger at one man--it was only when I turned about and saw +Foe's face--that the truth broke on me--and then, at first, as a wild +surmise, and no more. Even when I wheeled about again and stared at +the man, full belief came slowly: for this Farrell was thin, wiry, +gaunt; sun-tanned, with sunken eyes and a slight stoop; wearing the +clothes of a gentleman and, when at length he spoke, using the accent +of a gentleman. . . . But this came later. + +For some seconds he said nothing: he stood and pointed. I glanced at +Constantia, preparing to spring between her and I knew not what. + +Constantia, leaning forward a little in her chair, with lips slightly +parted, had, after the first glance, no eyes for the intruder, whom +(I feel sure) she had not yet recognised. Her eyes were fixed on +Jack, at whom the finger pointed: and her hand slid along the arm of +her chair and gripped it, helping her to rise and spring to his side. +Jimmy's face I did not see. He had come to a halt in the doorway. + +"_You hound!_" + +"Roddy! Catch him--oh, help!" + +It was Constantia's call ringing through the room. I sprang about +just in time to give support as Jack fell into our interlacing arms, +and to take the most of his weight as we lowered him flat on the +hearth-rug in a dead faint. + +"Call off your damned dog, sir, whoever you are!" shouted Jimmy, +running forward to help us. "We'll talk to you in a moment." + +I heard Farrell call "Rover! Rover!" and the dog must have come to +heel instantly. For as I knelt, occupied in loosing Jack's collar, +of a sudden a complete hush fell on the room. Jimmy had run for the +water-bottle. "Don't ring--don't fetch Jephson!" I had commanded. +"Get water from my bedroom." When I looked up to take the bottle, +Farrell still stood implacable before the doorway. + +Constantia also looked up. "Who is this gentleman?" she demanded. + +"My name is Farrell," answered the figure by the doorway. +"Miss Denistoun may remember a fellow-passenger of some years ago, on +the _Emania_." + +I heard the catch of her breath as she knelt by me, staring at him. +I heard Jimmy's muttered "My God!" My arm was reaching to catch +Constantia if she should drop backward. + +But she pulled herself together with a long sob--I felt it shuddering +through her, so close she knelt by me. Again silence fell on the +room. Jimmy had fetched my bath-sponge along with the bottle. +I poured water upon it and bathed Jack's temples, watching his +eyelids. After a while they fluttered a little. I felt over his +heart. "He is coming round," I announced: "but we'll let him lie +here for a little, before lifting him on to the couch. + +"One question first," commanded Constantia. "Answer me, you two. + . . . Is this--is this thing true, Roddy? _Did he leave-this +man--on the island?_" + +For the moment I could put up no better delay--as neither could +Jimmy--than to call "hush!" and pretend to listen to Jack's faintly +recovering heart-beat. But Farrell heard, and answered,-- + +"It's true, Miss Denistoun. . . . I had no notion to find him here; +still less to find you and distress you. I came to Sir Roderick. +But the dog here was wiser. _He_ knew the scent on the stairs, and +raced in ahead. . . . I am sorry to say it, Miss Denistoun: but that +blackguard yonder took ship and left me solitary,--to die, for aught +he knew. Let him come-to, and then we'll talk." + +Constantia rose. Slowly she picked up her gloves and sunshade. +"No, we will not talk," she said, after a pause. "That talk is for +you four men. I--I have no wish to see him recover." + +As she said it, she very slowly detached from her breast-knot the +rose which had carried my felicitation, and laid it on the table: +and, with that, she walked out, Farrell drawing aside to make way for +her. + + + +NIGHT THE TWENTY-SECOND. + + +THE SECOND MAN ESCAPES. + +Now that exit of Constantia's, I must tell you, had an instant and +very remarkable effect upon Farrell, though she swept by him without +perceiving it. + +A moment before he had stood barring the doorway, his legs planted +wide, his eyes fierce, his chest panting as he waited for his enemy +to come back to life, his mouth working and twisting with impatience +to let forth its flood of denunciation. + +As Constantia walked to the door he not only drew back a foot to let +her pass. He drew his whole body back, bowed for all the world like +any shop-walker letting out a customer, even thrust out a hand, as by +remembered instinct and as if to pull open an imaginary swing-door +for a departing customer of rank. In short, for a moment the man +reverted to his past--to Farrell of the Tottenham Court Road. . . . +Nor was this all. As she went by him he slewed about to follow her +with his eyes, kicking aside the dog that hampered him, crouching +against his legs: and still his gaze followed her, to the outer door. + +Not until she had closed the outer door behind her did he face about +on the room again; and still it was as if all the wind had been +shaken, of a sudden, out of his sails. His next words, moreover-- +strange as they were--would have stablished his identity with Farrell +even had any doubt lingered in us. + +"Funny thing," said he, addressing us vaguely, "how like blood tells, +even down to a look in the eyes. I was husband to a woman once, +thousands of miles from here and foreign of race: but she came of +kings, though far away back, and Miss Denistoun, Sir Roderick, she +reminded me, just then--" + +"Look here, Mr. Farrell," I broke in; "with your leave we won't +discuss Miss Denistoun, here or anywhere--as, with your leave, we'll +cut all further conversation until Dr. Foe is fit for it, which at +this moment he pretty obviously is not. It may help your silence if +I tell you that the lady who has just left is, or was, engaged to +marry him." + +"_Christ! . . . And she knows?_" He stared, less at us than at the +four walls about him. + +"She does not," said I: "or did not, until a few minutes ago." + +"But _you_ knew!"--Wrath again filled Farrell's sails. "_You_ knew-- +and you allowed it. . . . And you call yourselves gentlemen, I +suppose!" + +"If you take that tone with either of us for an instant longer," +I answered, after a pause, "you shall be thrown out of that door, and +your dog shall follow through the window. If you prefer to stand +quite still and hold your tongue--will you?--why, then, you are +welcome to the information that I only heard of this engagement less +than an hour ago, and Mr. Collingwood less than ten minutes before +you entered." + +"But you knew _that other thing_," Farrell insisted. + +"Yes, I knew," said I: "and for the simple reason that Dr. Foe told +it all to me. And Mr. Collingwood knows, for I told it to him. +We two have kept the secret." + +"And," sneered Farrell, "you still keep being his friends!" + +"No," I answered; "as a matter of fact, we do not. But you have +taken that tone again with me in spite of my warning, and I shall now +throw you downstairs. . . . You are an ill-used man, I believe, +though not by me: and for that reason, if you come back--say at ten +to-morrow morning--and apologise, you will find me sympathetic. +But just now I am going to throw you out." + +"You may if you can," retorted Farrell, eyeing my advance warily. +"I've spoilt this marrying, I guess: and that's the first long chalk +crossed off a long tally." + +I was about to grip with him when Jimmy called sharply that there +were to be no blows--Foe wanted to speak. + +Foe had recovered under the brandy and lay over on his side, facing +us, panting a little from the dose--of which Jimmy had been liberal. + +"Have it out, Roddy," he gasped, "here and now. I'm strong enough to +get it over, and--and he can't tell you any worse than you both know, +of my free telling--and I don't want to trouble either of you again. +Let him have it out," implored Foe, between his sharp intakes of +breath. + +"I am glad you excepted _me_," burst out Farrell. "You'll trouble +_me_ again fast enough: or, rather, I'll trouble _you_--to the end of +your dirty life. Are you shamming sick, there, you Foe?" + +"You know that he is not," said Jimmy, holding back my arm. +"Tell your story, and clear." + +"My story?" echoed Farrell in a bewildered way. "What's my story +more than what you know, it seems? What's my story more than that, +after sharing hell for days in an open boat, and solitude on that +awful island, this man left me--choosing when I was sick and sorry: +left me to hell and solitude together--left me to it, cold-blooded, +when I was too weak to crawl--left me, in his cursed grudge, when he +could have saved two as easy as one? Has he told you that, +gentlemen?" + +"He told me quite faithfully," said I. "We--Mr. Collingwood and I-- +both know it." + +"Ay," Farrell retorted, "but neither you nor your Mr. Collingwood, +when you say that, understands a bit what it means . . ." He broke +off, searching for some words to convey the remembered agony to our +brains that had no capacity (he felt) even to imagine it. + +"No," came a dull voice from the couch--startling us, dull though it +was. "Only you and I, Farrell, understand what it means. Tell them +just the facts, as I told the facts, and no more. Tell them, and me, +how you escaped." + +"By the same ship as you did, if you wish to know--the _I'll Away_ +schooner, Captain Jefferson Hales. And I'll tell you something even +more surprising.--Your ill-luck started the very hour you left me and +Rover to die like two dogs together. When you stepped aboard the +_I'll Away_, you stepped aboard as a lost missionary. You had your +own bad reasons for not wanting to tell too much: and Hales had his +own very good reasons for not putting too many questions. To start +with, he didn't like missionaries as a class, _or_ their +conversation: and I gather that his crew likewise didn't take much +truck in them; neither in the species nor in you as a specimen: least +of all in you as a specimen. I'm sorry for it, too, in a way: +because, at first, I pictured them asking you to put up a prayer, and +pictured your face and feelings as you knelt down to oblige. +Well, that was one of the pretty fancies that ought to come true but +don't manage to, in this world. As for the next, there's no saying. +You passed yourself for a missionary, and if Satan has humour enough +to accept you on that ticket, a pretty figure you'll make, putting up +false prayers in hell. . . . Anyhow, you didn't make friends on board +that schooner--eh?" + +"I did not," Foe answered listlessly. + +"You weren't over comfortable with that crowd when you changed me for +it?" + +"I was not, if that's any comfort to you." + +Farrell grinned. "Of course it's a comfort to me. They sent you to +Coventry more or less; and I'll tell you the reason, if you don't +know it. There was a whisper going round the ship forward. . . . +One of the hands--it being a clear day--had heard a dog barking from +the shore. Another fancied that he had. Then a third called to mind +having heard somewhere--he couldn't remember the public, or even the +port--that when old Buck Vliet marooned his missionary he'd left a +dog with him in compassion. . . . I should tell you two gentlemen +that the yarn about Vliet and how he caught a missionary by mistake, +and how he'd short-circuited him somewhere in a holy terror, was a +kind of legend all along the coast and around the Eastern islands. +I dare say it crossed to the Atlantic in time: for again it was the +kind of story that starts by being funny and gets funnier as each man +chooses to improve on it. . . . All I can say is, that if the body +you and I, Foe, looked down upon, that afternoon, belonged to Vliet's +missionary, I don't want to hear any more fun about it. . . . So you +see, gentlemen, this God-forsaken lot, down in the _I'll Away's_ +fo'c'sle, patched it up amongst them that this man, in his hurry, had +deserted his dog. Now, as I shall tell you, if they had reasoned, +they'd have known that the dog wouldn't starve, anyway. But they +didn't reason. They were a God-forsaken lot--mostly broken men, +pliers about the islands--and it just went against their instinct +that anyone should forsake so much as a dog. If they'd known you had +forsaken a man, you Foe, they'd have tarred and burnt you. + +"--Captain Hales, as it happened, hadn't caught the barking or any +faint echo of it: the reason being that he was hard of hearing, +although in the rest of his senses sharper than all his crew rolled +together, and in wits or at a bargain a match for any trader between +Chile and Palmerston. Also I have heard it rumoured that he had run +a bit wild in his youth, found himself within the law or outside of +it (I forget which), and come down to the South Pacific for the +good of his health. But that was many years ago. He was now a +middle-aged man, and had learnt enough about these waters to call you +a fool if you suggested by way of flattery that what he didn't know +about them wasn't worth knowing. + +"--Something, at any rate, in his past had turned him into a silent, +brooding man, seldom coming out of his thoughts until it came to a +bargain, when he woke up like a giant from sleep. His deafness +helped to fasten this silent habit deeper upon him. Also he was +touchy about his deafness: didn't like at any time to be reminded of +it; and was apt to fly into a sudden rage if anyone brought up a +reminder, even by a chance hint. And that, belike, was the main +reason why he alone on board--barring yourself, Foe--never heard tell +of this barking which he had missed to hear with his own ears. + +"--And now for one thing more, Foe--and it'll make you squirm by and +by! Like most deaf men he was a bit suspicious: and looking at you +sideways as you came on board--what with one thing and another, not +liking missionaries as a line in trade, and, in particular, +mistrusting the cut of _your_ jib, he thought things over a bit and +altered his helm. + +"--I'll explain. You see, you not only came aboard looking what you +are, but you came aboard fairly slimed over, in addition, with all +that had ever been told or guessed against Buck Vliet's missionary. +The stories didn't agree about his sect: but they agreed that Vliet, +though a ruffian, hadn't marooned the man just for fun--that he must +have been a hard case somehow. The stories might vary concerning +Vliet's reasons: but they agreed that the man hadn't come to it by +sheer over-prayerfulness: and the conclusion was--reasonable or +unreasonable--that you, Foe, must have been a bad potato somehow, or +at best a severe trial, if so hardened a stomach as Vliet's hadn't +been able to keep you down. Worse; he guessed you for a spy. + +"--Here, Sir Roderick and Mr. Collingwood, I must tell you that Vliet +and Hales, as masters in this knock-about off-island trade, had grown +to be rival kings in their way, and Hales in his brooding fashion as +jealous as fire. From all I've heard, Vliet hadn't the ambition to +be properly jealous: all _he_ objected to was his business being cut. + +"--Vliet was an old man--a regular hoary sinner, who kept his trade +secrets by a very simple method. He stocked his crews entirely with +lads of his own begetting. White, black, he didn't care how many +wives he carried to sea, or how much of a family wash he carried in +the shrouds on a fine day. He ran his trade on secrecy and close +family limitations. He had no range. His joy was to have a corner +unknown to a soul else in the world. Fat, lazy, wicked, and sly-- +that was Vliet. He belonged to the old school. + +"--Now, for years, Hales--of the new school, and challenger--had been +chasing after a rumour that chased after Vliet from port to port--a +rumour that Vliet drew on an uncharted island, in those latitudes, +known only to himself and to so much of his progeny as the old +Solomon didn't mistrust enough to lose overboard. . . . Well, the +belief at Valparaiso is that old Buck Vliet, with his schooner--on +which he grudged a penny for repairs--had found an ocean grave at +last, somewhere. The guess is that he overdid the _Two Brothers_ in +the end, being careless of warnings, with a top-hamper of wives. +There is also a legend--likely invented to account for the name of +his schooner--that he left all his money to a twin brother in +business in Salt Lake City, and that the brother and his brother's +wives had fitted out a new schooner to hunt for the island's +whereabouts. + +"--Listen, you Foe! While I was lying sick, and you neglecting the +look-out, Hales made our island, and anchored in the bay. While I +was lying sick, and you neglecting the look-out, Hales made our +island, that had been his dream for years; landed there, or on the +far side, took its bearings to a hair, of course, and went ashore +with a party to prospect. What do you say to that?" + +"I say," answered Foe, still languidly, shifting his head a little on +the cushion, "that I always told you we were on the wrong side of the +island, and that you would never listen." + +"They landed, anyway," pursued Farrell; "and for a whole day, after +watering, they explored. They never got over the crest that looked +down on our camp." + +"And if they had they would never have seen us," said Foe, responding +like a man in a dream. "You had chosen the site too cleverly; the +fern-brake would have hidden us, anyway. Let that pass." + +"But there was the bonfire and the look-out, both unattended." + +"Oh, if we're to start re-arguing arguments that kept us tired for +about three years," answered Foe, "you built the bonfire on the wrong +slope, as I always told you. And I'd cut down your flagstaff." + +"We won't quarrel about _that_, since here we are," Farrell retorted +with a savage grin. "So I'll drop it and get on with the story. +And the next thing to be mentioned in the story, Foe, is that for a +clever man, you're about the biggest fool alive. You have no end of +knowledge in you, which I admired on the island. The way you found +all kinds of plants and things and turned them to account, and +explained to me how traders and practical chemists could make +fortunes out of them--why, it was wonderful. But it wasn't so +wonderful to me as that, with all this knowledge, you'd never turned +it to account, so to speak, when, with a third of it, at your age, +I'd have been a millionaire. And the ways and manners of a gentleman +you had, too; which I could easier set about copying--as I did. +It won't bring you much comfort to know that, half the time, I was +sucking education out of you, grinning inwardly and thinking, +'Now, my fine hater, the more you're taking the superior line with me +the more I'm your pupil all the time; the more you're giving me what +I'll find priceless, one of these days, if ever we get back upon +London pavements.' In the blindness of your hatred you never guessed +that Peter Farrell, all through life, might have had a long way with +him--a way of looking ahead--and all to better himself. You never +guessed _that_, all the time, I was letting you teach me. + +"--But in practical matters--in all that counts first with a business +man--I saw pretty early that you were little better than a fool. +Yet I couldn't have believed you or any man such a fool as you showed +yourself on the _I'll Away_: and even you couldn't have missed +sensing it but for one thing--_you couldn't dare return to the +island_. + +"--A place so rich as that, unknown, uncharted!--reeking with copra, +not to mention other wealth--fairly asking to be sold and turned over +to a government, to a syndicate, to develop it! Man! you and Hales +had a million safe between you when you boarded the schooner; and I +can see Hales's mind at work when he spotted your boat and sized up +the share he was losing by your turning up. The marvel to me is, he +didn't turn you a blind eye. But Hales is a humane man. He did time +in his youth, but he's not the sort that you are, Foe--the sort that +could leave a man to die solitary and forsaken. Belike, too, the +prize was so great in his grasp that he didn't care how much, in +reason, might run through his fingers. + +"--Listen! When you sighted him, he had made a careful offing of the +southern reefs, and had hauled up close to his wind. Where do you +suppose he was bound? He was fetching up to beat back to Valparaiso. +Being Yankee born and not a stocking-banker like old Buck Vliet, he +was all for Valparaiso with an island to sell to the Chilian +Government, and a concession and a syndicate fair in view. This +cargo of beads, cheap guns, sham jewellery, canned meats, and rum, +that he had aboard for the islands, would keep: the rum would even be +improved by a little Christian delay. But, if he sank it all, all +was nothing to the secret he carried. + +"--And then you hove on his view, for partner: and he took you in. + . . . I hope you'll remember him gratefully after this, Foe. +He chose to sight you--and he hadn't heard the dog. If he had, it +wasn't in him to guess that you had left any better than a dog +behind. + +"--Then you fairly flummoxed him. Missionary though you were, he'd +accepted you as prospective shareholder. It wasn't for him to guess +that you dared not go back. + +"--He's told me that, accepting you, for a day and a half he held on +his course, close-hauled. Is that so? But he was suspicious, as +deaf men are. He took a notion that you--you, keeping mum as a cat, +having to pass for somebody else and avoid questions--were just lying +low, meaning to slip cable at Valparaiso and hurry in with a prior +claim. I am sorry to say it, Foe: but altogether you did not create +good impression on board the _I'll Away_. To the crew you were an +object of dark suspicion. To the skipper you were either a close +knave, meaning to trick him, or an incredible idiot. After a while, +and almost against hope, he determined to try you for an idiot. +He ordered his helm up, and watched you. You did not protest. +He put his helm farther and farther up, and headed for the +Marquesas. Still you offered no objection. So he landed you--on +Nukuheva, if I remember. And from Nukuheva, somehow, I guess, you +got a slant out of your missionary labours to Sydney or else 'twas +back to Valparaiso--I haven't tracked it: but from one or other you +picked up some sort of a passage home. Anyway, lost men as the +_I'll Away's_ crew might be, they were glad enough, having traded you +for nothing, to up-sail and lose you out of their sight. . . . And +this man I find you two gentlemen treating as your friend, whom the +scum of the earth (as you would call them) abhorred! And you _know_, +whilst those poor men only guessed!" + +"Stay a moment, Farrell," interposed Jimmy. "Sorry to interrupt + . . . but will you kindly take a look around this room. +Not entirely a neat apartment, eh? A few odd cases and cabin trunks +lying around? . . . You and Sir Roderick were almost at blows just +now. But if you're curious to know the reason of all this mess, it +is that, when you paid us this timely call, he was packing to search +for you." + +"So?" Farrell drew back, regarding me, and the upper lids of his +eyes went up till they were almost hidden by his brows. "So?" he +said slowly. "But why?" + +"Put it at a whim," I said sharply, "and get on with your tale. + . . . If you interrupt again, Jimmy, I'll strangle you, or attempt +to. You may have observed that I'm ready to fight anybody, this +afternoon." + +Farrell looked at me earnestly. "I see what you would be driving at, +sir," said he, becoming the humble tradesman again. "And I admire. +But, by God, sir!" he broke out, "it won't do! It shan't do! No man +is going to shoulder that man's sin, to rob me of him!" + +"Get down from that horse," said I. "You can mount him again, if you +choose, later on; but, first, finish the story." + +"All very well," said Farrell, "to put it in that dictatorial way, +when you've taken the heart out of a man. . . . Well, Hales headed +back for Valparaiso, scarce believing his luck. There he interviewed +the ministry, got a provisional concession, and started out for the +island again, to make good--and found another inhabitant alive and +kicking. + +"--He behaved just as well as before, and better--for I was frank +with him and knowledgeable. He couldn't understand missionaries, +real or sham: but he understood a square deal, and didn't charge +interest on bowels of mercy. His only grumble was, 'I'll put you on +your honour. Tell me, please, there's no more of you hereabouts. +It's a long passage to and fro: and if you're a man, you'll see that +I'm almost as crowded as you are lonesome. Don't start me beating +_all_ this brush for skunks!' + +"--He sailed me back to Valparaiso, after we had spent three days +prospecting the property together. At Lima I left him to fight out +details with the Minister of the Interior--who, for some mysterious +reason, turned out to be the person charged with trafficking for an +islet three hundred miles from any interior--while I trained north +and, crossing the Isthmus, sailed north for New York. The only man +I knew in the whole Western Hemisphere was a friend of mine there, +Renton by name, and I made for Renton, to raise capital. + +"--I found that he could walk into Wall Street, and, arm-in-arm with +me, raise the money easily. Moreover I found that he had stored some +twelve thousand dollars for me as my share of an investment I'd +helped him to in Costa Rica. Some day, gentlemen, I'll tell you of +this little episode, if you care to hear about it. It was a deal in +a queer sort of mahogany he had asked me to inspect. + +"--But to return to the island, and wind up. Hales found me there, +alive and hearty, Foe. For why? Because I had found a purpose in +me--to wait and, when time came, to hunt you to the ends of the +earth. It's _my_ turn now. You've taught me, and I'll improve on +your teaching. You've bought a practice, I've learnt; and now I +learn that you've fixed up to marry this Miss Denistoun. + +"--Don't I know why? . . . Didn't I see that look in her eyes as she +walked past me, just now? + +"--Yes. . . . Santa's look. . . . No secrets between you and me. +But, by God, you shan't! I'll save her from _that_. Sooner than she +shall be wife of yours, I'll marry her myself!" + +"Mr. Farrell," said I, "you have learnt much and learnt it sorely: +but you haven't learnt enough. Pick up your hat, take your dog with +you, and walk out." + +"That's right enough," said he; "and I'm going. I'm only half a +gentleman yet, and my feelings get the better of me in the wrong way. +But you'll never rob me of that fellow, and so I promise you two, and +him. . . . Come along, Rover!" + + + +NIGHT THE TWENTY-THIRD. + + +COUNTERCHASE. + +I went to the South Pacific, after all. + +Farrell called on me, next day, and before I could countermand my +passage. He came, as he said, to offer me his deep apologies. +"I grant you, Sir Roderick, that I behaved ill to you and Mr. +Collingwood, and specially to Miss Denistoun. I had no business to +drag her into the talk. . . . But I'm only a learner in the ways +gentlemen behave. It doesn't come to me by nature, as it comes to +luckier ones, whose parents and grandparents have bred it into the +bone. You may put it that I've hair on my hoof and have to shave it +carefully. What taking trouble can do I can make it do, and don't +count the time wasted. But it's the unexpected that catches out a +man like me. . . . You see, I came up thinking to find you alone: and +I was so keen to see you, I paid no attention to the dog, queerly as +he was behaving. I thought, maybe, he'd smelt a cat. There weren't +any cats on the island, or aboard the _I'll Away_, or the cars, or +the _Oceanic_. . . . And then I burst in after the hound, as soon as +I realised that he meant mischief of some sort; and, of a sudden, +there was Foe face to face with me, and you others treating him +friendly as friendly. Was it any wonder that, coming on him like +that and after hunting him more than half the world across, I let +myself go?" + +"Well, first of all," I answered coldly, "you may disabuse your mind +of any notion that Mr. Collingwood and I were chatting with Doctor +Foe in the way you suspect. As a matter of fact, after you left, we +told him what we were trying to avoid telling him in Miss Denistoun's +presence at the moment when you broke in--that, through his treatment +of you, he had forfeited our friendship." + +"Had he come to hear that?" asked Farrell,--"if it's a fair +question." + +"It's a perfectly fair question," said I, "and the answer is that he +had not. He had come to give me in person some information for which +I had written to him. . . . Can you guess? It was the precise +latitude and longitude of your island. . . . And now, question for +question. You hadn't tracked him here, for you have just said that +your finding him in this room took you fairly by surprise." + +"Almost knocked me over," Farrell agreed. + +"Then what had been your purpose in calling on me?" I asked, +"--if that, too, is a fair question." + +"Well, I'll admit I was calling, in part, to get his address or +discover his whereabouts. But that wasn't my only reason. My real +reason and foremost--But before I tell it, Sir Roderick, will you +answer me yet another question? Was it true, what Mr. Collingwood +said?--that you were actually packing to search for me?" + +"Mr. Collingwood," I answered, somewhat embarrassed, "certainly would +not have said it if it hadn't been true." + +"Well, it fairly beat me," said Farrell, staring. "And it beats me +again, now you confirm it. Searching for _me_?--Why? You couldn't +have guessed there was money in it." + +"It may sound strange to you, sir," said I pretty icily; "but I took +that fancy into my head neither for your _beaux yeux_ nor for profit. +Moreover, if you don't understand without my help, I'll be shot if I +can provide you with an explanation that won't strike you as wildly +foolish. . . . However, if you must know, the thought of a +fellow-creature marooned on that island, and of the bare chance that +he might yet be alive to be rescued, had been preying on my mind ever +since I heard Foe's tale, and parted with his friendship on account +of it. Also it may appear extravagant, but through that old +friendship I felt a sort of personal responsibility, as if Jack had +left his trespass in my keeping. . . . But why discuss all this? +You're back, safe and sound, and the trip is off. When Jephson has +finished unpacking, he'll step over to Cockspur Street and pay +forfeit for the two berths." + +"_Two_ berths?" + +"Jephson was going with me. I fancy he looked forward to the +adventure, and is a trifle disappointed this morning." + +Farrell nodded to show that he understood. Yet he seemed to be +considering something else, and kept his eyes fixed on me in a queer +way. + +"Sir Roderick," he said, after a pause, "your arrangements are all +made for this voyage?" + +"Oh, yes," said I. "Your turning up like this is quite a small +nuisance in its way. I'd arranged with my lawyers, arranged with my +bankers, let my flat here furnished from the first of next month +(_that's_ the worst), taken out letters and passport, made my will, +stored my few bits of spare plate. Last week I spent down in +Warwickshire, clewing up the loose tackle, holding heart-to-heart +conversations with Collingwood and my steward. Collingwood's my +neighbour down there, you know, and will help to look after things." + +Farrell considered all this, slowly. "Excuse me, Sir Roderick," said +he, "but is there no chance of your going back to your intention and +re-packing?" + +"Why on earth should I?" was my very natural question. + +"Why, it's like this, sir," said Farrell, "--and now I'll come to the +real reason that brought me yesterday. My real reason was a matter +of business. . . . You may remember my telling you that, in New York, +I'd consulted Renton, an old friend of mine, about raising the +capital to take over and develop Santa Santissima, as we've agreed to +call the island; and that Renton had no difficulty to raise the +money. What I didn't tell you--not thinking it wise before company-- +was that from the first I'd stipulated--with Hales as well as with +Renton--that half the shares should be held in Great Britain. +Hales didn't care, as he put it, where in thunder the money came +from, so long as it was good. Renton--as being British-born, though +naturalised--made no objection and only one condition, that the +syndicate should be a small one. If I could get half the capital +raised quietly in England by one or two persons, why, so much the +better. He could raise the other half without calling on Wall Street +or starting so much as an echo. . . . Now, I don't mind telling you, +Sir Roderick, that I had you in mind all the while. That island is a +gold mine: the copra alone there represents whole fortunes running to +waste: and even if old Buck Vliet still sails the waters--which I +doubt, for the _Two Brothers_ hasn't been spoken or sighted within +these four years, and he wasn't provisioned for whaling--still, the +concession papers are made out in Hales's name and mine, and the +duplicate documents stored. . . . All I can say is, that I'm ready to +put my own little pile upon it, to the last guinea. And I thought of +you from the first; you having done me a good turn more than once, or +tried to. Yes, sir: but the best of all would be your going out and +making sure for yourself. You, that was preparing to go that +distance to find a lost man--I say, sir, it would be heavenly, if you +went and found a fortune instead. I've arranged a cable to Hales, +and the _I'll Away_ will be waiting for you at Valparaiso. But in +case he should miss--which he won't--here are papers for you: +bearings of the island, sketch-map, copy of bond of agreement with +him, copy of agreement with Renton. All these I was bringing to put +into your hand yesterday. But, my God! Sir Roderick, now that I've +heard what I've heard--that you were preparing to search the South +Pacific for me, and for no worse reason than that a poor devil was +cast away there, I'd ask you on my knees to sleep in the berth you've +booked and travel to better purpose." + +It has occurred to me since--and more than once or twice--that +although the man and his offer were honest, he had a secondary +purpose all this while: to get me out of the way lest I should +embarrass his pursuit of Foe and his other scheme of which I am to +tell. + +But, on the whole reckoning, I incline to think the man was perfectly +sincere, and even eager to do me this kindness; which--as things +turned out--was really an extravagant one, on the monetary +calculation. + +At any rate, after studying his face for a while, I called Jephson +out from my bedroom and told him that I had changed my mind: we would +sail, after all, and he might start re-packing at once. Jephson +fairly beamed. + +"But there's one thing I'd like to say," put in Farrell, while it was +obvious that this order overwhelmed him with joy. "I want to have it +clear between us that, joyful as I am at your acceptance, and +grateful as I am for your seeing things in this light, it doesn't in +any way compromise my dealing with Foe." + +"If you take my advice," said I, "you'll drop Foe, and all this silly +business of hatred. He has tried it on you, and up to a certain +point it answered. You played him--I'll grant you, unknowingly--a +perfectly damnable trick. Don't smear your soul with any flattering +unction, Mr. Farrell. You wrecked his life; and, in return, he set +himself to wreck yours. Up to that point I can understand, though it +all seems to me infernally silly. But in his monomania he went just +that step too far, and has exchanged thereby the upper hand. +You have the cards now: yet I warn you against playing them. For, as +sure as I sit here, I warn you that in the act of destroying him you +will destroy yourself. I look back on his miserable pursuit, and I +prophesy the end of yours." + +"Well, it has taken me through fires of hell," said he; "but I +wouldn't have missed it. I'm the man now, and he's the coward." + +"Quite so," said I. "Then be thankful and drop it. Do you want to +retrieve his soul as he has found yours?" + +Farrell mused over this for a while. "I can't explain it to you," he +said. "I can't explain it to myself. But that man and I simply +can't give one another up. As I woke it in him, so he wakes in me +something that I can't be without, having once known it. It seems to +be a necessary part of myself." + +"There are a great many 'Can'ts' in that confession--for a strong +man," was my comment; "and a trifle too much 'myself' for a man who +has found himself. But you remember that meeting at the Baths, when +you and Jack Foe first made acquaintance? Of course you do. +Well, there was a little man seated in the hall, fronting you, and he +read the explanation and gave it to me later, as he helped me on with +my coat. I made no account of it at the time: but he said that he'd +seen another man looking out of your eyes, for a moment, and it gave +him a scunner." + +Again Farrell pondered. "I dare say he was right, too," he said +thoughtfully. "When two men are made for one another, I guess their +souls--if that's not too good a word--must exchange flesh and +clothing now and then, so that for the moment there's a puzzle to +separate t'other from which. . . . Has Foe told you about _her_-- +about Santa?" + +"He has," said I. + +"Yet he can't have told you all: for he doesn't know it all--about +Renton, for instance, and how I did that bolt from him to Costa Rica, +and from Costa Rica to San Ramon. You must hear all about that, if +you will: because, when you've inspected the island for yourself, +your next business will be with Renton, and I want you to understand +the man you will be dealing with." + +Thereupon he told me: and that is how I was able, the other night, to +relate what happened in Costa Rica and at San Ramon. + +One of these days, when you're fairly rested, you shall have a full, +dull, true, and particular account of the voyage upon which I +started, next day, with Jephson, as per schedule: with a detailed +description of Santa Island, or Santa Santissima (to give it its full +name). But this story isn't about me: it concerns Foe and Farrell: +and therefore it's enough to say here, that I reached Valparaiso and +found Captain Jeff Hales waiting for me with his schooner fresh from +dock, and fleet: that he and I took to one another in the inside of +ten minutes; that our voyage, first and last, went like a yachting +cruise; that we made the island and spent something more than two +months on it, prospecting, mapping, choosing the sites for our +factories that were to be, even planning a light tramway to cart +their produce down to the grand north-eastern bay which (as Foe had +warned me) proved to be the only anchorage. But Santa's cross was +there, standing yet on the small beach where the castaways had +landed, and no doubt it stands yet. No storm ever seriously troubles +the water within that lovely protected hollow. + +Returning to Valparaiso, I travelled north by steamer, by rail, by +steamer and rail again, to New York, hunted up Renton, and found that +my luck held; that I was dealing with a man as honest as Hales and +keen as either of us. With half a dozen cable messages, to and from +Farrell in London, we had everything fixed, and our company as good +as a going concern, when the Chilian Government interposed a long, +vexatious delay which, at one point, appeared to hint at an intention +to repudiate the bargain. + +Back I travelled; this time with Renton in company, and Renton mad as +fire. It all turned out to be a bungle by some clerk that had taken +to drink and forgetfulness; but it cost us a month or two before the +Government of Senor Orrego, having no case, decided to do us justice +without troubling the Courts. Renton and I returned in triumph +through the grilling heats of July, and reached New York to find the +papers announcing this war for a certainty: whereupon, without +unpacking, I pelted for home. + +From Southampton I made for London, and had two short interviews with +Farrell amid the rush of rejoining the H.A.C., collecting kit, and +the rest of it. Our talk was entirely about business, and was +conducted at the National Liberal Club--the hostelry to which I had +addressed all my letters and cables. I gathered that he used it +almost as a permanent residence, having sold or given up his house at +Wimbledon. He said nothing of Foe, and I forbore to ask questions. + +From the H.A.C., in the general catch-as-catch-can of those early +weeks of the war, I found myself on one and the same day pushed into +a temporary Commission in the R.F.A., commanded down to Warwickshire +to recruit for it; and met at my lodge-gate with a telegram ordering +me off to Preston to collect a draft there and report its delivery at +Aldershot. Funny sort of home-coming for a man returning after two +years' absence! But there it was. I had just time by smart driving +to catch the next down train at our local station: so, without even a +glimpse of the ancestral roof, I put the dog-cart about and posted +back. + +For the next week or so, as Jimmy put it of his own very similar +experience (he had joined up in the Special Reserve as a gunner three +years before the war), I didn't spend a night out of my train. +Then came a morning--I had rolled up with my latest draft, from +Berwick at 4.30 a.m.--when the Colonel sent for me to come to the +orderly-room some ten minutes before he opened business, and then and +there asked me if it was to my liking to come out to France with the +division then moving, on the ammunition column of his brigade. + +I walked back to the R.F.A. mess, picked up a newspaper in the +ante-room, and dropped into a chair. My heart was beating like a +girl's at her first ball. "France"--"France"--the very "r" in that +glorious word kept beating in my ears with the roll of a side-drum. +I gripped the _Times_, steadied myself down to master the short +little paragraph on which my eyes had been fixed, unseeing, for a +couple of minutes, and found myself staring at this announcement: + + "A marriage has been arranged, and will shortly take place, + between Peter Farrell, Esq., of 15a The Albany, and Constantia, + only daughter of the late George Wellesley Denistoun, Esq., + J.P., D.L., of Framnel in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and of + Mrs. Denistoun of 105 Upper Brook Street, W." + + + +NIGHT THE TWENTY-FOURTH. + + +CONSTANTIA. + +The drumming in my ears died suddenly out to silence, and then +started afresh more violently than ever, and more sharply, for the +long pinging of an electric bell shrilled through it. The pinging +ceased sharply: the drumming continued; and I looked up to see the +mess sergeant standing over me, at attention. + +"Telephone call for you, sir." + +I went to the instrument like a man in a dream. Something suddenly +gone wrong with Sally's healthy first-born? Jimmy starting for +France and ringing me up for farewell? Farrell--damn Farrell!--to +talk business? Jephson, with word that he had achieved the urgent +desire of his heart and been passed as a gunner, to join me, _quo fas +et gloria ducunt_? These four only, to my knowledge, had my probable +address. + +"Hallo?" I called. + +"Hallo!" came the answer sharp and prompt, in a woman's voice which I +recognised at once for Constantia's. "Is that you, Roddy?" + +"Yes--Roddy, all right," I spoke back, mastering my voice. + +"Have you seen--?" Her voice trailed off. + +"D'you mean the announcement? Yes, two minutes ago. Is it +congratulations you're ringing up in this hurry?" + +"Roddy, dear, don't be a beast!" the voice implored. "I'm in a +horrible hole, and I think only you can help me. Is it possible for +you to get leave, and come? Mamma asks me to say that there's a room +here, and--and we want you!" + +"As it happens," returned I, "there'll be no trouble about getting +leave. We're to start--report says--at the end of the week, and I +must be sent up to collect a few service odds-and-ends. As for +sleeping, I'll ring up Jephson, and if he's already conscripted, I +can doss at the Club. All that is easy. But tell me, what is the +matter?" + +"Oh! I can't here." Constantia's voice thrilled on the wire. +"It's pretty awful. I never gave him leave--_never_!" + +"You're getting pretty incoherent," said I. "We'll have it out when +we meet. Dinner? . . . No, I shall pick up a meal on the train. + . . . Mustn't expect me before 8.30; I have to put a draft through +and see them off. Odd jobs, besides. . . . These are strenuous +times." + +"Roddy, you're an angel!" + +"Not a bit," said I; "and I warn you not to expect me in that +capacity. You'll observe that I haven't congratulated you yet." +I put this in rather savagely. + +"You're also rather a brute," answered the voice. "But you'll come?" + +"Please God," said I. + +"Thank God!" answered she; and I hung up the receiver. + + +Well, in my jubilation I had forgotten to ask for leave to run +up and get kit. But leave was no sooner asked for than given. +From Victoria that evening I taxi'd straight to Jermyn Street, where +I found Jephson, warned by telegram, elate at the prospect of +soldiering. I was able, after a talk with my Colonel, to inform him +that he had also a prospect of coming along as my servant, and this +lifted him to the seventh heaven. Then I went out, picked up a +dinner at Arthur's, and walked on to Upper Brook Street. + +In those days London had not started to shroud its lamps. One stood +a few paces short of the porch of Number 105; and as I turned into +Brook Street I saw a man come hastily down the steps, and enter a +taxi anchored there. The butler followed and closed the door upon +him. The night had begun to drizzle, and there was a sough of +sou'westerly wind in the air. I turned up the collar of my service +overcoat and, as the taxi passed, walked pretty briskly forward and +intercepted Mrs. Denistoun's butler, who, after a stare at the +retreating vehicle, had reascended the steps and was about to close +the door. Recognising me by the light of the porch lamp, he opened +the door wide, and full upon the figure of Constantia, standing in +the hallway. She gave a little gasp and came to me, holding out her +hand. + +"You were always as good as your word, Roddy. Come into the library. +Where are you sleeping, by the way?" + +"In my flat," said I. "Jephson will not be called up for a day or +two. He has a fire lit, and will sit up for me." + +"He may have to sit up late," replied Constantia. "Mamma will be +down presently. . . . There has been something of a scene, and she is +upset. You saw Mr. Farrell go away, just now? You must have passed +him, almost at the door." + +"I did," said I, "though I don't know if he recognised me. +Child, what is the matter?" + +"Child?" echoed Constantia. "It does me good to be called that, for +that's exactly how I am feeling. . . . He had no right--no right--" +and there she broke off. + +"Do you mean," said I, "that he put that announcement in the _Times_ +having no _right_ to do it?" + +"I dare say," moaned Constantia, waving her arms feebly, +pathetically, "he understood more than I meant him to." + +"Let us be practical, please," said I, becoming extremely stern. +"Have you, or have you not, engaged yourself to marry Farrell?" + +"Certainly I have not," she answered with vivacity. "He asked me, +and I--well, I played for time." + +I couldn't repress a small groan at this: or, rather, it was half a +groan and half a sigh of relief. "Has he spoken to your mother?" + +"No." + +"Does your mother know about it?" + +"Yes. I told her." + +"Does she approve of this announcement in the papers? Has she +sanctioned it?" + +"Of course she does not--of course she has not. . . . Roddy, sit down +and don't ask so many questions all of a heap. Sit down and light +your pipe, and pass me a cigarette. Furnilove will bring in some +whisky for you by and by." + +"Thank you, Constantia; but I don't feel like staying. I've always +maintained--oh, damnation!" I broke off. + +"What have you always maintained, Roddy? Sit down and tell it. +Are you not here because I sent for you? And didn't I send for you +because I am in trouble? We are in a tangle, I tell you, and I'm +asking you, on my knees, to untwist it. So light your pipe and, +before we begin, tell me--What is it you have always maintained?" + +"I have always maintained," I answered slowly, even more stern than +before, "that no woman can be safely trusted to know a cad from a +gentleman. If the cad can flourish a trifle of worldly success in +front of her, or if he's a mere adventurer and flashes himself on her +boldly enough, _or_, if she has persuaded herself to pity him, she's +just fascinated, and you can't trust her judgment ten yards. +There! . . . I've burnt my boats." + +Constantia sat for some while pondering this, breathing out the smoke +of her cigarette, gazing into the fire under the shade of a +handscreen. + +"I'll tell you another thing, Roddy," she said at length; "and it's +as true and truer. No woman thinks worse of a man for burning his +boats. . . . But it isn't quite worldly success to be wrecked and +left desolate on an island three hundred miles from anywhere. +It all started (as you hinted) with my pitying him and admiring his +strength of will after the awful experience he had tholed." + +"He left you just now? I saw him drive away, and his infernal dog +with him." + +"Yes: there had been a pretty bad scene. I was furious, and Mamma +was so much upset that I doubt if she'll be fit to talk to-night. +But it's a blessed relief to her, now that she knows you are anchored +here for a while, to protect us, and that, at the worst, we can ring +up Jermyn Street." + +"Why," I exclaimed, "what the devil is there to protect you from?" + +"Jack--Mr. Foe, that is--has been watching this house for days. +He haunts the pavement opposite, all the hours he is off duty. +Mamma is sure that he means evil, and I wish I was sure that he +didn't. He has gone under, Roddy. It is awful to look out, as +Furnilove draws the blinds, and see that figure there stationed, +reproaching us--yet for what harm that we have done him? He is even +ragged. . . . I should not be surprised to hear he was starving. +Yet what can we do?" + +"Tell me his address," said I. + +She hesitated. "Why should you suppose that I know his address?" she +asked, shading her face. + +But I took her up bluntly. "I am sorry," I said, "to be discharging +apophthegms upon you to-night: but you must hear just one other. +Every woman follows and traces a man who has once laid his heart on +her altar. I am sorry, Con, to call up an instance from so far back +in the past: but you knew where to 'phone even for me, this morning. + . . . So own up, child, and tell me, where is Foe?" + +"I believe," she answered after a while, the handscreen hiding her +face, "he has found work in one of these emergency hospitals they are +putting up. . . . It's at a place called Casterville Gardens, down by +Gravesend. When first he started watching this house, he was in +rags; but for the last fortnight he has worn khaki, and it improves +his appearance wonderfully. . . . Besides, when a man is in the army, +you have the comfort to know that, at least, he isn't starving." + +"Was it so bad as that?" I asked. "Well, and now about Farrell?" + +"Ah!" said she, "when you saw him get into that taxi, I had dismissed +him. He was going--or said he was going--straight to Printing House +Square to get that abominable paragraph contradicted. I told him +that he was to return to-night and bring me his assurance that it was +contradicted--either that, or never to enter this house again. . . . +And now, Roddy, as he may be late--as I would only be content with +his seeing the Editor in person--and as editors, I understand, come +down late to their work--suppose you mix yourself a whisky-and-soda: +for here is Furnilove with the glasses. . . . Furnilove! keep the +latch up for an hour or so, and the door on the chain. Mr. Farrell +may be calling late with a particular message. Do not admit him +beyond the hall, but come and report to me here. Sir Roderick will +receive him in the hall and take the message." + +"Yes, miss," said the obedient Furnilove. + +"That is all." Constantia pondered.--"Except that you may tell the +housemaid not to worry about the room for Sir Roderick. He will not +sleep here, after all. And you may send Henriette up with word to +Mamma that all is right and Sir Roderick stays only to receive Mr. +Farrell's message. He will probably be going at once on receipt of +it, and then you can lock up. The others can go to bed when they +choose." + +"Very good, miss," said Furnilove, and withdrew. + +"And now," said Constantia, "since he is late, keep me amused. +Tell me all about the island." + +So I told her this and that of my voyaging; and the time drew on +until the clock on the mantelpiece chimed a half-hour. It was +one-thirty. + +"The dickens!" said I, pulling out my own watch and consulting it. +"Farrell is a long time at Printing House Square. In my belief, Con, +he won't be returning." + +Just at that moment the front door bell pealed loudly. + +We stood up together. We heard Furnilove padding towards the door, +and we both moved out into the passage as he slid up the latch and +unhooked the chain. Constantia, in her eagerness, had pressed a +little ahead of me. + +A man rushed in, disregarding Furnilove, shouldering him aside--a +man in a furred overcoat. Expecting Farrell, for the moment I +mistook him for Farrell. Even when above the fur collar I caught the +sight of common khaki, for another moment I took him for Farrell. +But he ran for Constantia, stretching out his arms as if to embrace +her; and as he stretched them, under the hall light, I saw that one +of his hands was bleeding. + +I had enough presence of mind to spring in front of her and ward him +off. It was Foe. + +"It's all right," he gasped, staring at me. "No need to make a fuss. + . . . I have killed him." And with that, still staring at me +horribly, he sank slowly and collapsed in a huddle at my feet, raving +out incoherent words. + + +Furnilove behaved admirably. Having assured himself that Miss +Constantia was safe, and that I had the intruder under control, he +went smartly to the telephone. . . . Amid Foe's ravings I heard him +ringing up the exchange and, after a pause, summoning the doctor. + +"We had better have the spare room prepared again, after all," said +Constantia. "We can't turn him out, in this state. . . . And there's +a dressing-room, Roddy, next door, if you can put up with it. . . . +But what has happened, God knows." + +"God knows," said I. "But he's a lunatic, unless I'm mistaken. +We'll hear what the doctor says. . . . But he shan't sleep here, +to trouble you. . . . Furnilove, whistle up and have a taxi +ready. . . ." + +"Oh, what is he saying?" moaned Constantia as the body on the floor +still twisted as if burrowing to hide itself, now muttering and again +shouting in a voice that reverberated along the passage, "Kill him! +Damn that dog!--kill him!" + +I knelt on the body and held it still. It was the body of my best +friend, and I knelt on it, almost throttling him. + +"One can't ring up a lunatic asylum, at this hour of the morning," +I found myself gasping. "He's for my flat, to-night, if your doctor +will take charge of him with me." And with that I looked up and +caught sight of Constantia's mother at the head of the staircase. + +"It's all right, Mrs. Denistoun," said I, glancing up. "It's my +friend, Jack Foe--my friend that was. With the doctor's leave I'll +get him back presently to Jermyn Street, where Jephson and I will +look after him for the night. . . . Jephson used to worship him, and +will wait on him as a slave." + +And with that--as it seemed amid the blasts of Furnilove's whistle in +the porchway and the _toot-toot_ of a taxi, answering it--a quiet man +stood above my shoulder. It was the doctor: and Furnilove had been +so explicit on the 'phone that the doctor--whose name I learnt +afterwards to be Tredgold--almost by magic whipped out a small bottle +from his pocket. + +"Water," said he, after a look at the patient, "and a tumbler, +quick!" + +Furnilove dashed into the library and returned with both. + +"Bromide," said Dr. Tredgold. "Let him take it down and then hold +his head steady for a few minutes. . . . Right! . . . Now the +question is, where to bestow him? I can't answer for him when the +dose wears off: but it's no case to leave with two ladies." + +"There's a taxi, doctor," said I, "if we can get him into it. I have +a flat in Jermyn Street, and a trustworthy manservant. I suggest +that he'll do there for the night." + +"Right," said Dr. Tredgold again; "and the sooner the better. +I'll come with you, when I've bound up this wound on his hand. +It's a nasty one. . . . It looks to me--Yes, and it is, too!" + +"What is it?" I asked. + +"A dog-bite." + +"So _that_ was what he killed!" thought I, and aloud I said, "Thank +God!" + +"Eh?" said the doctor. "A dog-bite's a queer thing to thank God +for." + +"It might have been worse," I answered. + +"H'm: well it's bad enough," Dr. Tredgold replied, busy with his +bandaging. + + + +NIGHT THE TWENTY-FIFTH. + + +THE PAYING OF THE SCORE. + +Next evening, my leave being up, I returned to Aldershot. +Dr. Tredgold had called around early, and after overhauling his +patient and dressing the hand, had assured me there was no cause for +anxiety. The fever had gone down, and this allowed us to tackle the +main mischief, which was malnutrition. In short, Jack was starving. + +"Your man makes an excellent nurse," said the doctor. "I'll tell him +to go slow at first, with beef-tea and milk, and to-morrow he can +start the works up with a dose of champagne. But I'll drop in +to-morrow, to make sure. The wound?--Oh, it's a dog-bite, safe +enough, and a rather badly lacerated one. But we cauterised it in +time last night, and it shows no 'anger,' as the saying is. Has he +told you how he came by it?" + +"No," said I. "He has been lying in this lethargy ever since you +left him. He wakes up and takes his medicine from Jephson, and then +drops back into a doze. I thought it best not to worry him." + +"Quite right, too. . . . And I'll not ask questions, either, beyond +putting it that he's a friend of yours, gone under, and you're +playing the Samaritan. . . . Well, you can go back to duty, and +Jephson and I will see this through. It's queer, too. . . . I seem +to have seen his face somewhere. . . . But what's queerer is that he +isn't dead. He must have had some practice at fasting, poor fellow. +I should say that his stomach hadn't known food for a week." + +I duly 'phoned the doctor's report to Constantia. To Jephson my last +words were, "Write daily. When Dr. Foe can sit out, dress him in any +old suit, shirt, and underwear. I don't see myself out of this khaki +for a long time ahead. He will be fit again long before Monday week, +when you're to join up: and when he is able to walk, there's an +envelope for him in the top right-hand drawer of my writing-table." + +Jephson wrote twice to report that Dr. Foe was "going on favourably," +and on the third day, that he had even dressed himself and taken a +walk. He had been away four hours and more--"which caused me much +anxiety," added Jephson. + +But on the fourth day, on the eve of our starting for Rouen, I got +the following letter, in Jack's own handwriting: + + "My dear Roddy,--I shall use the old name, since it is the last + time I shall address you; and you, starting for France, will + have no time to reach me and say that it is forbidden. + + "I have killed Farrell. It was a stupid and a sorry ending. + At the last it was even quite brutal--bestially different from + anything I had imagined--and I had imagined many ways--while I + had control of the show. + + "I have gone through madness. That again was part of the + bestiality I had not reckoned with. . . . And unless I take + steps I shall soon be back in worse bestiality, worse madness. + But I am taking steps. . . . And in the meantime, when you read + this you are to be sure that it is written by a man perfectly + sane. + + "It is nothing that I have killed Farrell. I could have killed + him, as he could have killed me, at any time. I still think + that, while the pursuit lay with me, my methods were the more + delicate, and that I should never have goaded him to strike as + he goaded me. + + "But I will grant that his methods were effective enough: and + along one line I should have allowed them to be original, if I + didn't know that he had picked up the hint of it on the _I'll + Away_. It was _rumour_ that had cursed me there, and he started + to work upon rumour. I had put up a plate in Harley Street, as + you know, upon the dregs of my capital. This meant a certain + bluff upon credit. If my reputation lasted me out six months, + all would be well. He divined this and struck at it. To do him + justice, I suppose that if he had walked up brutally to the + Medical Association and given them his story, I should have been + struck off the Register. He worked more subtly than that. + Indefinable reports started up, spread and followed me. Out of + the skies a net of suspicion descended between me and my quite + reputable past. For no reason given, my fellow-practitioners + began to shun me. + + "I had a bad case, and no money to carry it through. I have + heard, Roddy, that he let you into the secret of the island and + that you are like to prosper on it: and I wish you well. But I, + who brought him to it, lingering him to land--I, but for whose + treasured flask he would never have lived to see Santa Island-- + could set up no claim on any of that wealth. + + "I had deserved this. It was all quite right, and I make no + complaint. But I had to throw up Harley Street, and for two + years I steadily sank. In the end I came to know worse hunger + than I was prepared for. Though you won't have me at any price, + I think you would pity if I told you of some of the holes to + which I have crept to sleep. + + "I suppose--and now I think of it, I might have borrowed some + comfort from the thought--I suppose that all the while, being + rich, Farrell had hired eyes to watch me. It is certain that he + ran across me--always at night, and always in evening dress. + Once, on the Embankment, as I was coiling on a bench, he came + down from the Savoy and along, bringing his dog for a walk. + The dog scented me and growled; but I lay out stiff, pretending + to sleep. + + "Even when it came to a Salvation Army shelter, we were disturbed + by a company of the benevolent; Farrell one of them, in a furred + coat with an astrachan collar. He saw me stretched there with + closed eyes, and said that one half of the world never knows how + the other half lives. + + "It was going like that with me when the War broke out. + Then--broken, beaten, and in rags--I put all pride in my pocket, + walked across the bridge to Silversmiths' College, rang in on + Travers, and demanded a job. + + "Travers was shocked. . . . I could see also that he was + suspicious. Rumour had been at him, too. Finding him less than + frank, I turned more than proud: and, his back being up and his + conscience uneasy, he did what I could have pardoned in a weaker + man; lost his temper, to excuse himself in his own eyes for + treating me unjustly. He had scarcely spoken six words before I + detected the slime of Farrell's trail. The man had managed to + sow rumours, somehow, within the gates of Silversmiths' College, + of all places!--rumours that had nothing to do with the island, + but suggested that, after all (there being no smoke without + fire), there _had_ been dubious and uncleanly experiments in the + laboratory during my professorship. I believe that this, when I + came to think it over, started my recovery: yes, my recovery. + For it showed me that Farrell was deteriorating, and, renewing a + little of my old contempt for the man, raised me by so much + above the abject fear of him into which I had sunk. From that + moment hope was renewed in me, and I nursed it. So long as he + worked on the truth he had me at his mercy: playing with + falsehood in this fashion, he was vulnerable, might come to be + mortally vulnerable if I watched and waited, and then I should + regain the lost mastery, dearer to me than life. + + "For the moment, however, Travers claimed all the scorn I carried + inside me for use. He hinted that the College had suffered by + the scandal of the riot: which no doubt was true to some extent, + but not true enough to hide a lie or to cover a meditated + betrayal. He said that he had always looked a little askance on + my researches, and particularly upon my demonstrations; that + they were doubtless astonishing, but had lain, to his taste, a + little too near the border-line of quackery,--Yes, Roddy, he + said the word, and it did not choke him. On the whole and + speaking as a friend (yes, he used that word, too), he must + express a hope that I would not press to renew my connection + with the Silversmiths' College. It would pain + him inexpressibly, remembering old times, to be forced to give + me a direct refusal. . . . But was there anything else he could + do for me? + + "That, Roddy, was the valley of the shadow of my death, and I had + no rod or staff to comfort me. + + "I did not answer him in words. I gave him a look, and walked + out. + + "My purpose had been to apply for temporary work, to relieve some + younger teacher who wished to enlist for medical work at the + front. Had you been in London, Roddy, I'd have pocketed shame + and come to you, and borrowed the price of a suit of clothes; + inside of which--and may be with your support--I might have + walked up boldly for a commission in the R.A.M.C.--for there was + nothing definite against me: only I was ruined, and my old + credentials, set against my present squalor, were so + comparatively splendid as to raise instant suspicion of drink + and disgrace. But it was part of my just punishment that, when + I most needed help, you should be far abroad searching for the + very island on which I had shipwrecked all. + + "Finally I found work as a dresser in one of those temporary + hospitals which sprang up everywhere in such hurry as the + streams of wounded began to pour back from France. Ours was + pitched in a derelict pleasure-ground on the right bank of + Thames some way below Greenwich. . . . I don't suppose you ever + visited Casterville Gardens: as neither had I until I entered + them to do stretcher-drill, tend moaning men, and carry bloody + slops in the overgrown alleys that wound among its tawdry, + abandoned glories. It had a half-rotted pier of its own, upon + which, in Victorian days, the penny steam-boats had discharged + many thousands of crowds of pleasure-seekers. The gardens + occupied the semicircle of an old quarry, on which the + decorative landscape gardener had fallen to work with gusto, + planting it with conifers and stucco statues in winding walks + that landed you straight from the sightless wisdom of Socrates + and Milton, or the equally sightless allurement of Venus, + shielding her breasts, upon a skittle-alley, a bandstand, a + dancing-saloon, or a bar at which stood, for contrast, another + Venus, not eyeless, dispensing beer. The conifers, flourishing + there, have grown to magnificent height. The effect of rain + upon the statues has not been so happy, and I have set my pail + down to pick a snail off the saddle-nose of Socrates and + meditate and wonder what he would have thought of it all. + + "The dancing-saloon--still advertising itself as 'Baronial + Hall'--had been converted into a main ward, holding forty beds. + It was there that Farrell found me at work, that night. He had + interviewed the Adjutant--as we called the harassed secretary + who, brayed daily between the upper and nether millstones of + official instructions and 'voluntary effort,' never left his + desk nor dared to wander abroad for fresh air--the gardens + having been specially laid out to trick the absent-minded and + induce them to lose their way. Farrell had simply told the + Adjutant that he wished to see me on urgent personal business. + The Adjutant could not hesitate before a presence that might, in + its dress-clothes and sable-lined overcoat, have stood among the + statues outside for personified Opulence. + + "'Very good,' said he. 'Oh, yes, certainly. I will send for the + man. . . . Your business is private, you say? . . . I am very + sorry: we are all at sixes and sevens here, with every office + crowded. But there's an empty saloon--one of those absurdities + with which the management in old days sought to tickle the + public taste. They are going to turn it into a ward in a couple + of days, and that's why we have left it unoccupied. If that + will do, and you'll come with me, we'll see if the electric + light functions. I believe the fitters were at work there this + afternoon.'" + + + "That, as Farrell told me ten minutes later, was how it happened. + For me, when answering the message that a stranger had called to + see me on urgent business, I walked as directed, across the + matted moonlit lawn to this building which I had never visited + before--and when, pushing the door wide, I saw Farrell standing + under the electric lamps, with his dog beside him--I fell back a + pace and half-turned to run for it. + + "For he was alone, yet not alone: a hundred Farrells stood there. + No, a battalion, and all of them Farrells! And a battalion of + dogs! + + "I stepped back from the ledge of the threshold. Above the + doorway an inscription in faded gilt letters shone out against + the moon--'VERSAILLES GALLERY OF MIRRORS. ADMISSION 3D.' + + "Then I understood. This absurd and ghastly apartment was lined, + all around its walls, with mirrors, in panels separated only by + thin gilt edgings. Dust lay thick on the floor; cobwebs hung + from the ceiling in festoons; there was not a stick of furniture + in the place. But a battalion of Farrells stood in it, and + there entered to it, and stood, under the new electric fittings, + a battalion of Foes. + + "Farrell's aspect was grave. His eyebrows went up at the choke + of half-insane laughter with which I greeted him. 'Foe, my + man,' said he, eyeing my khaki. 'So you have come to this, have + you?' + + "He said it pompously, with a fine air of patronage, and I + stifled a second laugh, hugging it inside my ribs: for now I + felt that the time would not be long--that, at long last, he + would pass me over the cards. 'We both seem to have come to + this, don't we?' I answered with a shrug and a glance around. + + "'I have run down here,' he went on, still betrayed back to his + old Tottenham Court Road manner, 'because I have an announcement + to make to you. . . . Have you read your _Times_ to-day?' + + "He was priceless. Oh, he was falling to me--falling to me like + a ripe peach! He held out a scrap of paper. + + "'Do I look like a man that takes in the _Times_?' I purred '--at + twopence a day, and the price likely to go up, they tell + me. . . . But I can guess your news, for I've watched the house. + . . . You've come all this way to tell me that you're going to + marry Constantia Denistoun. . . . Well?' + + "'You have been watching the house?' asked he, staring, as it + took him aback. + + "'Of course I have. . . . And she didn't tell you? . . . Gad! If + she didn't tell you, she isn't yours yet, and I've a doubt if + she's ever like to be. Did she give you leave to put in that + announcement?' + + "Farrell cleared his throat. Before he could answer I had + chipped in--'No, you liar! I hate men who clear their throats + before speaking. It was an old trick of yours, of which I + believed myself to have cured you at some pains. . . . So you + have played over ardent, and there has been a row, and you have + come down here to take it out of _me_. . . . Man, you thought + you would: but I have you beaten at last; for I see you--as she + will see you--dissolving back into the cad you always were.' + + "'I am going to marry her,' Farrell persisted. 'Let that eat + into your soul.' + + "'It has eaten,' said I, 'these weeks ago, just as far as ever it + will get; and that's as far as a rat can gnaw into a + marlinespike. . . . Come out of this into fresh air,' said I + with another look round on our images repeated in the mirrors. + 'There are too many Farrells and Foes here. When I ran the + game, at Versailles that afternoon, it had a certain dignity. + . . . But, you! . . . Your primal curse, Farrell, reasserts + itself at length. I have done my best with you, but you + reproduce it in tawdriness. Out of the Tottenham Court Road you + came: and back to your vomit you go.' + + "'I am going to marry Miss Denistoun,' he repeated dully. + 'I felt sure it would interest you to know.' He was losing grip. + + "'Oh, yes,' said I. 'Whistle your dog, and let's get out of this + for a walk by the river. . . . There's too many of us in this + room, and we're all too cheap. . . . Damn it! I believe I could + forgive you for anything but for lowering our hate to _this_!'" + + + "We went out past the sentry, and walked down by the sullen + river's edge, the dog padding behind us. + + "'You have been provocative,' said Farrell, after a while, + checking himself by an afterthought in the act of clearing his + throat. 'Considering our relative positions, I am rather + surprised at your daring to take this line. . . . But you used a + word just now. It was 'forgive.' I came not only to say that I + am going to marry Miss Denistoun, but to propose that henceforth + the account is closed between us. You must tell yourself that I + have won; and, having won, I bear no further malice. I would + even make some reparation on the shrine of my affection for Miss + Denistoun. She would esteem it, I feel sure, as a tribute. + . . . Dear me, how fast we are walking! . . . You'll excuse me + if I stop and take off this coat. . . . In the old days, as a + working-man, more than half my time I walked without a coat, and + an overcoat to this day always sets up a perspiration. . . . + Well now, shall we shake hands at the end of it all and cry + quits? . . . Say the word, and I'll go one better. They've + formed the syndicate for that island of ours. What do you say + to a thousand shares, and to coming in on the Board?' + + "He was on the river side of me, quite close to the brink. I had + been playing for some minutes with the knife in my pocket; and + as I leapt on him and drove it in over the breast, he fell + straight backwards. All the end of Farrell was a gasp, a sharp + cry, and a splash. + + "And both cry and splash were drowned instantly by the raging + yelp of the dog as he sprang for me. I fisted him off by his + throat and he fastened his teeth in my right hand, tearing the + flesh down as I slipped the knife into my left hand. Then with + my left I jabbed sideways under his ribs, and his bite relaxed, + and he dropped. + + "The embankment was steep. I ran down a little way and came to a + disused landing-stage--four or five planks on rotting piles. + Kneeling there, I lowered my bleeding hand, to bathe it. + . . . As I knelt the body of Farrell came floating down-stream + and was borne in towards me by the eddy. It lodged against the + piles, chest uppermost, its white, wide-open eyes turned up to + the moon. + + "--And I stared on it, Roddy, crouching there. _And I swear to + God it was not Farrell's face but my own that I stared into_. + + "Yes . . . for I stared and stared at it--there, plain, looking + up far beyond me, sightless--until a swirl of the tide washed it + clear; and, as it passed out into darkness, it seemed to be + sinking slowly, slowly. + + "I dragged myself away and ran back to the dead dog. Farrell's + overcoat lay close beside it, and his hat--which had fallen + short of the edge of the embankment as he pitched backwards. + + "I picked up the coat, put it on, and felt in its pockets. + They were empty, but for a railway ticket. I picked up the hat, + and smiled to find that it fitted me. Lastly I stopped, lifted + the dog's corpse and flung it over to follow its master. + All accounts thus closed, I stepped out for the station and + caught the last train for Charing Cross. + + "You know the rest. + + "I borrowed your clothes, yesterday, and went down to the + inquest. They admitted me to see the body, on my pretence that + I had missed a relative and might be able to identify it. + Farrell had gone back to his old features; death had made up its + mind to hide the secret after all. . . . I am afraid that, + having overtaxed my strength, I broke down on the revulsion, and + may have given myself away. + + "But it doesn't matter. That dog has done for me. Your Dr. + Tredgold is a good fellow and has nursed me very prettily back + from starvation. But I happen, as you know, to have studied + canine virus with some attention, and I have an objection to + rivalling some effects of it that I have witnessed. Before you + receive this, I shall be dead. I shall not trouble your + hospitable roof, and I am sorry to trouble Jephson. But the + searchers may find my body in Bushey Park. + + "So long!--and, on the whole, so best. . . . I find, having lost + Farrell, that _I cannot do without him_. + + "You have been endlessly good to me. Remember me as I was once + on a time, and so I shall always be--Yours," + + "Jack." + +That is the end of the tale [concluded Otway], except for this-- + +Twelve months later, being on leave and wanting to clear up the +mystery of the newspaper report, I took a train down to C--, past +Gravesend, made inquiries of the police, and finally hunted up the +juryman who had shown so much emotion at the inquest. I found a +little whiskered grocer, weighing out margarine in a shed that was +half shop, half canteen. All I extracted from him was this-- + +"Yes, to be sure, sir, I remember it perfectly. I only wish I +didn't: for I dream of it at night: and, being a widower, I can't +confide the trouble. The fact is, I must suffer from nerves and-- +what do they call 'em, sir?--hallucinations--yes, that's the word. +But I was fresh from inspecting the body, and when that person broke +in, wearing a face like the corpse's twin-brother, well, it knocked +me clean out. Of course, it must have been a hallucination; none of +the others saw the least resemblance--as they've told me since. +But at the moment, I'd have wagered my life. . . ." + + + +EPILOGUE. + + +"Yes, that is the story," said Otway, sorting back the documents into +his dispatch-case. + +"Is it quite all the story, sir?" asked Polkinghorne, breaking the +silence that followed its close. + +Otway frowned, re-sorted the last three or four papers, laid them in +the case and closed it with a couple of snaps. + +"That's all," he answered, "that exists for publication. That is, +unless you want a moral. I can give you _that_, all right: and if +you have any use for it you may apply it to this blasted War. +As I see it, the more you beat Fritz by becoming like him, the more +he has won. You may ride through his gates under an Arch of Triumph; +but if he or his ghost sits on your saddle-bow, what's the use? +You have demeaned yourself to him; you cannot shake him off, for his +claws hook in you, and through the farther gate of Judgment you ride +on, inseparables condemned. + +"--And, oh, by the by! I am taking my leave next Wednesday. +Sammy has been nosing suspiciously, these five days, around a +wine-case which on the 22nd he shall have the honour of opening. +It contains, if our friend the Transport Officer hasn't been +beforehand with you, some Pommery 1900; with which you are to do your +best. For it turns out that, with luck, I am to be married on that +day. No flowers, by special request." + +Otway re-opened the dispatch-case and again made sure of his last two +exhibits, which he had not exhibited. The first was a note, folded +three-corner-wise, which ran: + + "Dear Roddy--Your last word to me was that you had no patience + with people so clever that they lacked sense to come out of the + rain. Well, I am willing to learn that silly skill, if you + remain willing to teach me.--Yours," + + "CONSTANTIA." + +The second of these exhibits, not exhibited, was a creased envelope +containing the shredded petals of a rose. + + +THE END. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Foe-Farrell, by Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FOE-FARRELL *** + +***** This file should be named 19114.txt or 19114.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/1/1/19114/ + +Produced by Lionel Sear + +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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