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diff --git a/old/8what10.txt b/old/8what10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0dabcaf --- /dev/null +++ b/old/8what10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11385 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of What's Bred In the Bone, by Grant Allen +(#8 in our series by Grant Allen) + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: What's Bred In the Bone + +Author: Grant Allen + +Release Date: July, 2004 [EBook #6010] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on October 16, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO Latin-1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, WHAT'S BRED IN THE BONE *** + + + + +Charles Aldarondo, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading +Team. + + + +WHAT'S BRED IN THE BONE. + +L1000 PRIZE NOVEL. + +By GRANT ALLEN + + + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + + + +CHAPTER + + I. ELMA'S STRANGER + II. TWO'S COMPANY + III. CYRIL WARING'S BROTHER + IV. INSIDE THE TUNNEL + V. GRATITUDE + VI. TWO STRANGE MEETINGS + VII. KELMSCOTT OF TILGATE + VIII. ELMA BREAKS OUT + IX. AND AFTER? + X. COLONEL KELMSCOTT'S REPENTANCE + XI. A FAMILY JAR + XII. IN SILENCE AND TEARS + XIII. BUSINESS FIRST + XIV. MUSIC HATH POWER + XV. THE PATH OF DUTY + XVI. STRUGGLE AND VICTORY + XVII. VISIONS OF WEALTH + XVIII. GENTLE WOOER + XIX. SELF OR BEARER + XX. MONTAGUE NEVITT FINESSES + XXI. COLONEL KELMSCOTT'S PUNISHMENT + XXII. CROSS PURPOSES + XXIII. GUY IN LUCK + XXIV. A SLIGHT MISUNDERSTANDING + XXV. LEAD TRUMPS + XXVI. A CHANCE MEETING + XXVII. SOMETHING TO THEIR ADVANTAGE + XXVIII. MISTAKEN IDENTITY + XXIX. WOMAN'S INTUITION + XXX. FRESH DISCOVERIES + XXXI. "GOLDEN JOYS" + XXXII. A NEW DEPARTURE + XXXIII. TIME FLIES + XXXIV. A STROKE FOR FREEDOM + XXXV. PERILS BY THE WAY + XXXVI. DESERTED + XXXVII. AUX ARMES! +XXXVIII. NEWS FROM THE CAPE + XXXIX. A GLEAM OF LIGHT + XL. THE BOLT FALLS + XLI. WHAT JUDGE? + XLII. UNEXPECTED EVIDENCE + XLIII. SIR GILBERT'S TEMPTATION + XLIV. AT BAY + XLV. ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL + + + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +ELMA'S STRANGER. + + + + + +It was late when Elma reached the station. Her pony had jibbed on +the way downhill, and the train was just on the point of moving +off as she hurried upon the platform. Old Matthews, the stout and +chubby-cheeked station-master, seized her most unceremoniously by +the left arm, and bundled her into a carriage. He had known her +from a child, so he could venture upon such liberties. + +"Second class, miss? Yes, miss. Here y'are. Look sharp, please. +Any more goin' on? All right, Tom! Go ahead there!" And lifting his +left hand, he whistled a shrill signal to the guard to start her. + +As for Elma, somewhat hot in the face with the wild rush for her +ticket, and grasping her uncounted change, pence and all, in her +little gloved hand, she found herself thrust, hap-hazard, at the +very last moment, into the last compartment of the last carriage +--alone--with an artist. + +Now, you and I, to be sure, most proverbially courteous and +intelligent reader, might never have guessed at first sight, from +the young man's outer aspect, the nature of his occupation. The +gross and clumsy male intellect, which works in accordance with +the stupid laws of inductive logic, has a queer habit of requiring +something or other, in the way of definite evidence, before it +commits itself offhand to the distinct conclusion. But Elma Clifford +was a woman; and therefore she knew a more excellent way. HER habit +was, rather to look things once fairly and squarely in the face, +and then, with the unerring intuition of her sex, to make up her +mind about them firmly, at once and for ever. That's one of the +many glorious advantages of being born a woman. You don't need to +learn in order to know. You know instinctively. And yet our girls +want to go to Girton, and train themselves up to be senior wranglers! + +Elma Clifford, however, had NOT been to Girton, so, as she stumbled +into her place, she snatched one hurried look at Cyril Wiring's +face, and knew at a glance he was a landscape painter. + +Now, this was clever of her, even in a woman, for Cyril Waring, +as he fondly imagined, was travelling that line that day disguised +as a stock-broker. In other words, there was none of the brown +velveteen affectation about his easy get-up. He was an artist, +to be sure, but he hadn't assiduously and obtrusively dressed his +character. Instead of cutting his beard to a Vandyke point, or +enduing his body in a Titianesque coat, or wearing on his head +a slouched Rembrandt hat, stuck carelessly just a trifle on one +side in artistic disorder, he was habited, for all the world like +anybody else, in the grey tweed suit of the common British tourist, +surmounted by the light felt hat (or bowler), to match, of the +modern English country gentleman. Even the soft silk necktie of a +delicate aesthetic hue that adorned his open throat didn't proclaim +him at once a painter by trade. It showed him merely as a man of +taste, with a decided eye for harmonies of colour. + +So when Elma pronounced her fellow-traveller immediately, in +her own mind, a landscape artist, she was exercising the familiar +feminine prerogative of jumping, as if by magic, to a correct +conclusion. It's a provoking way they have, those inscrutable women, +which no mere male human being can ever conceivably fathom. + +She was just about to drop down, as propriety demands, into the corner +seat diagonally opposite to--and therefore as far as possible away +from--her handsome companion, when the stranger rose, and, with +a very flushed face, said, in a hasty, though markedly deferential +and apologetic tone-- + +"I beg your pardon, but--excuse me for mentioning it--I think you're +going to sit down upon--ur--pray don't be frightened--a rather +large snake of mine." + +There was something so comically alarmed in the ring of his tone--as +of a naughty schoolboy detected in a piece of mischief--that, +propriety to the contrary notwithstanding, Elma couldn't for the +life of her repress a smile. She looked down at the seat where the +stranger pointed, and there, sure enough, coiled up in huge folds, +with his glossy head in attitude to spring at her, a great banded +snake lay alert and open-eyed. + +"Dear me," Elma cried, drawing back a little in surprise, but not +at all in horror, as she felt she ought to do. "A snake! How curious! +I hope he's not dangerous." + +"Not at all," the young man answered, still in the same half-guilty +tone of voice as before. "He's of a poisonous kind, you know; but +his fangs have been extracted. He won't do you any injury. He's +perfectly harmless. Aren't you, Sardanapalus? Eh, eh, my beauty? +But I oughtn't to have let him loose in the carriage, of course," +he added, after a short pause. "It's calculated to alarm a nervous +passenger. Only I thought I was alone, and nobody would come in; +so I let him out for a bit of a run between the stations. It's so +dull for him, poor fellow, being shut up in his box all the time +when he's travelling." + +Elma looked down at the beautiful glossy creature with genuine +admiration. His skin was like enamel; his banded scales shone bright +and silvery. She didn't know why, but somehow she felt she wasn't +in the least afraid of him. "I suppose one ought to be repelled at +once by a snake," she said, taking the opposite seat, and keeping +her glance fixed firmly upon the reptile's eye; "but then, this is +such a handsome one! I can't say why, but I don't feel afraid of +him at all as I ought, to do. Every right-minded person detests +snakes, don't they? And yet, how exquisitely flexible and beautiful +he is! Oh, pray don't put him back in his box for me. He's basking +in the sun here. I should be sorry to disturb him." + +Cyril Waring looked at her in considerable surprise. He caught +the creature in his hands as he spoke, and transferred it at once +to a tin box, with a perforated lid, that lay beside him. "Go +back, Sardanapalus," he said, in a very musical and pleasant voice, +forcing the huge beast into the lair with gentle but masterful +hands. "Go back, and go to sleep, sir. It's time for your nap. ... +Oh no, I couldn't think of letting him out any more in the carriage +to the annoyance of others. I'm ashamed enough as it is of having +unintentionally alarmed you. But you came in so unexpectedly, you +see, I hadn't time to put my queer pet away; and, when the door +opened, I was afraid he might slip out, or get under the seats, so +all I could do was just to soothe him with my hand, and keep him +quiet till the door was shut to again." + +"Indeed, I wasn't at all afraid of him," Elma answered, slipping +her change into her pocket, and looking prettier through her blush +than even her usual self. "On the contrary, I really liked to see +him. He's such a glorious snake! The lights and shades on his back +are so glancing and so wonderful! He's a perfect model. Of course, +you're painting him." + +The stranger started. "I'm painting him--yes, that's true," +he replied, with a look of sudden surprise; "but why 'of course,' +please? How on earth could you tell I was an artist even?" + +Elma glanced back in his face, and wondered to herself, too. +Now she came to think of it, HOW did she know that handsome young +man, with the charming features, and the expressive eyes, and the +neatly-cut brown beard, and the attractive manner, was an artist +at all, or anything like it? And how did she know the snake was +his model? For the life of her, she couldn't have answered those +questions herself. + +"I suppose I just guessed it," she answered, after a short pause, +blushing still more deeply at the sudden way she had thus been +dragged into conversation with the good-looking stranger. Elma's +skin was dark--a clear and creamy olive-brown complexion, such as +one sometimes sees in southern Europe, though rarely in England; and +the effect of the blush through it didn't pass unnoticed by Cyril +Waring's artistic eye. He would have given something for the chance +of transferring that delicious effect to canvas. The delicate +transparency of the blush threw up those piercing dark eyes, and +reflected lustre even on the glossy black hair that fringed her +forehead. Not an English type of beauty at all, Elma Clifford's, +he thought to himself as he eyed her closely: rather Spanish or +Italian, or say even Hungarian. + +"Well, you guessed right, at any rate," he went on, settling down +in his seat once more, after boxing his snake, but this time face +to face with her. "I'm working at a beautiful bit of fern and +foliage--quite tropical in its way--in a wood hereabout; and I've +introduced Sardanapalus, coiled up in the foreground, just to +give life to the scene, don't you know, and an excuse for a title. +I mean to call it 'The Rajah's Rest.' Behind, great ferns and a +mossy bank; in front, Sardanapalus, after tiffin, rolled spirally +round, and taking his siesta." + +This meeting was a long-wished-for occasion. Elma had never before +met a real live painter. Now, it was the cherished idea of her youth +to see something some day of that wonderful non-existent fantastic +world which we still hope for and dream about and call Bohemia. She +longed to move in literary and artistic circles. She had fashioned +to herself, like many other romantic girls, a rose-coloured picture +of Bohemian existence; not knowing indeed that Bohemia is now, alas! +an extinct province, since Belgravia and Kensington swallowed it +bodily down, digested, and assimilated it. So this casual talk +with the handsome young artist in the second-class carriage, on +the Great Southern line, was to Elma as a charming and delightful +glimpse of an enchanted region she could never enter. It was Paradise +to the Peri. She turned the conversation at once, therefore, with +resolute intent upon art and artists, determined to make the most +while it lasted of this unique opportunity. And since the subject +of self, with an attentive listener, is always an attractive +one, even to modest young men like Cyril Waring--especially when +it's a pretty girl who encourages you to dilate upon it--why, the +consequence was, that before many minutes were over, the handsome +young man was discoursing from his full heart to a sympathetic soul +about his chosen art, its hopes and its ideals, accompanied, by a +running fire of thumb-nail illustrations. He had even got so far in +the course of their intimacy as to take out the portfolio, which +lay hidden under the seat--out of deference to his disguise as +a stock-broker, no doubt--and to display before Elma's delighted +eyes, with many explanatory comments as to light and shade, or +perspective and foreshortening, the studies for the picture he had +just then engaged upon. + +By-and-by, as his enthusiasm warmed under Elma's encouragement, +the young artist produced Sardanapalus himself once more from his +box, and with deftly persuasive fingers coiled him gracefully round +on the opposite seat into the precise attitude he was expected to +take up when he sat for his portrait in the mossy foreground. + +Elma couldn't say why, but that creature fascinated her. The longer +she looked at him the more intensely he interested her. Not that +she was one bit afraid of him, as she might reasonably have expected +to be, according to all womanly precedent. On the contrary, she +felt an overwhelming desire to take him up in her own hands and +stroke and fondle him. He was so lithe and beautiful; his scales +so glistened! At last she stretched out one dainty gloved hand to +pet the spotted neck. + +"Take care," the painter cried, in a warning voice; "don't be +frightened if he springs at you. He's vicious at times. But his +fangs are drawn; he can't possibly hurt you." + +The warning, however, was quite unnecessary. Sardanapalus, instead +of springing, seemed to recognise a friend. He darted out his +forked tongue in rapid vibration, and licked her neat grey glove +respectfully. Then, lifting his flattened head with serpentine +deliberation, he coiled his great folds slowly, slowly, with sinuous +curves, round the girl's soft arm till he reached her neck in +long, winding convolutions. There he held up his face, and trilled +his swift, sibilant tongue once more with evident pleasure. He +knew his place. He was perfectly at home at once with the pretty, +olive-skinned lady. His master looked on in profound surprise. + +"Why, you're a perfect snake-charmer," he cried at last, regarding +her with open eyes of wonder. "I never saw Sardanapalus behave +like that with a stranger before. He's generally by no means fond +of new acquaintances. You must be used to snakes. Perhaps you've +kept one? You're accustomed of old to their ways and manners?" + +"No, indeed," Elma cried, laughing in spite of herself, a clear +little laugh of feminine triumph; for she had made a conquest, she +saw, of Sardanapalus; "I never so much as touched one in all my +life before. And I thought I should hate them. But this one seems +quite tame and tractable. I'm not in the least afraid of him. He is +so soft and smooth, and his movements are all so perfectly gentle." + +"Ah, that's the way with snakes, always," Cyril Waring put in, +with an admiring glance at the pretty, fearless brunette and her +strange companion. "They know at once whether people like them or +not, and they govern themselves accordingly. I suppose it's instinct. +When they see you're afraid of them, they spring and hiss; but when +they see you take to them by nature, they make themselves perfectly +at home in a moment. They don't wait to be asked. They've no false +modesty. Well, then, you see," he went on, drawing imaginary lines +with his ticket on the sketch he was holding up, "I shall work in +Sardanapalus just there, like that, coiled round in a spire. You +catch the idea, don't you?" + +As he spoke, Elma's eye, following his hand while it moved, chanced +to fall suddenly on the name of the station printed on the ticket +with which he was pointing. She gave a sharp little start. + +"Warnworth!" she cried, flushing up, with some slight embarrassment +in her voice; "why, that's ever so far back. We're long past +Warnworth. We ran by it three or four stations behind; in fact, +it's the next place to Chetwood, where I got in at." + +Cyril Waring looked up with a half-guilty smile as embarrassed as +her own. + +"Oh yes," he said quietly. "I knew that quite well. I'm down here +often. It's half-way between Chetwood and Warnworth I'm painting. +But I thought--well, if you'll excuse me saying it, I thought +I was so comfortable and so happy where I was, that I might just +as well go on a station or two more, and then pay the difference, +and take the next train back to Warnworth. You see," he added, +after a pause, with a still more apologetic and penitent air, "I saw +you were so interested in--well, in snakes, you know, and pictures." + +Gentle as he was, and courteous, and perfectly frank with her, +Elma, nevertheless, felt really half inclined to be angry at this +queer avowal. That is to say, at least, she knew it was her bounden +duty, as an English lady, to seem so; and she seemed so accordingly +with most Britannic severity. She drew herself up in a very stiff +style, and stared fixedly at him, while she began slowly and steadily +to uncoil Sardanapalus from her imprisoned arm with profound dignity. + +"I'm sorry I should have brought you so far out of your way," she +said, in a studied cold voice--though that was quite untrue, for, +as a matter of fact, she had enjoyed their talk together immensely. +"And besides, you've been wasting your valuable time when you ought +to have been painting. You'll hardly get any work done now at all +this morning. I must ask you to get out at the very next station." + +The young man bowed with a crestfallen air. "No time could possibly +be wasted," he began, with native politeness, "that was spent--" Then +he broke off quite suddenly. "I shall certainly get out wherever +you wish," he went on, more slowly, in an altered voice; "and I +sincerely regret if I've unwittingly done anything to annoy you +in any way. The fact is, the talk carried me away. It was art that +misled me. I didn't mean, I'm sure, to obtrude myself upon you." + +And even as he spoke they whisked, unawares, into the darkness of +a tunnel. + + + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +TWO'S COMPANY. + + + + + +Elma was just engaged in debating with herself internally how a +young lady of perfect manners and impeccable breeding, travelling +without a chaperon, ought to behave under such trying circumstances, +after having allowed herself to be drawn unawares into familiar +conversation with a most attractive young artist, when all of a +sudden a rapid jerk of the carriage succeeded in extricating her +perforce, and against her will, from this awkward dilemma. Something +sharp pulled up their train unexpectedly. She was aware of a loud +noise and a crash in front, almost instantaneously followed by a +thrilling jar--a low dull thud--a sound of broken glass--a quick +blank stoppage. Next instant she found herself flung wildly forward +into her neighbour's arms, while the artist, for his part, with +outstretched hands, was vainly endeavouring to break the force of +the fall for her. + +All she knew for the first few minutes was merely that there had +been an accident to the train, and they were standing still now in +the darkness of the tunnel. + +For some seconds she paused, and gasped hard for breath, and tried +in vain to recall her scattered senses. Then slowly she sank back +on the seat once more, vaguely conscious that something terrible +had happened to the train, but that neither she nor her companion +were seriously injured. + +As she sank back in her place, Cyril Waring bent forward towards +her with sympathetic kindliness. + +"You're not hurt, I hope," he said, holding out one hand to help +her rise. "Stand up for a minute, and see if you're anything worse +than severely shaken. No? That's right, then! That's well, as far +as it goes. But I'm afraid the nervous shock must have been very +rough on you." + +Elma stood tip, with tears gathering fast in her eyes. She'd have +given the world to be able to cry now, for the jar had half stunned +her and shaken her brain; but before the artist's face she was +ashamed to give free play to her feelings. So she only answered, +in a careless sort of tone-- + +"Oh, it's nothing much, I think. My head feels rather queer; but +I've no bones broken. A collision, I suppose. Oughtn't we to get +out at once and see what's happened to the other people?" + +Cyril Waring moved hastily to the door, and, letting down the window, +tried with a violent effort to turn the handle from the outside. +But the door wouldn't open. As often happens in such accidents, the +jar had jammed it. He tried the other side, and with some difficulty +at last succeeded in forcing it open. Then he descended cautiously +on to the six-foot-way, and held out his hand to help Elma from +the carriage. + +It was no collision, he saw at once, but a far more curious and +unusual accident. + +Looking ahead through the tunnel, all was black as night. A dense +wall of earth seemed to block and fill in the whole space in front +of them. Part of one broken and shattered carriage lay tossed about +in wild confusion on the ground close by. Their own had escaped. +All the rest was darkness. + +In a moment, Cyril rightly divined what must have happened to the +train. The roof of the tunnel had caved in on top of it. At least +one carriage--the one immediately in front of them--had been +crushed and shattered by the force of its fall. Their own was the +last, and it had been saved as if by a miracle. It lay just outside +the scene of the subsidence. + +One thought rose instinctively at once in the young man's mind. They +must first see if any one was injured in the other compartments, or +among the débris of the broken carriage; and then they must make +for the open mouth of the tunnel, through which the light of day +still gleamed bright behind them. + +He peered in hastily at the other three windows. Not a soul in any +one of the remaining compartments! It was a very empty train, he +had noticed himself, when he had got in at Tilgate; the one solitary +occupant of the front compartment of their carriage, a fat old +lady with a big black bag, had bundled out at Chetwood. They were +alone in the tunnel--at this end of the train at least; their sole +duty now was to make haste and save themselves. + +He gazed overhead. The tunnel was bricked in with an arch on top. +The way through in front was blocked, of course, by the fallen mass +of water-logged sandstone. He glanced back towards the open mouth. +A curious circumstance, half-way down to the opening, attracted at +once his keen and practised eye. + +Strange to say, the roof at one spot was not a true arc of a +circle. It bulged slightly downwards, in a flattened arch, as if +some superincumbent weight were pressing hard upon it. Great heavens, +what was this? Another trouble in store! He looked again, still +more earnestly, and started with horror. + +In the twinkling of an eye, his reason told him, beyond the shadow +of a doubt, what was happening at the bulge. A second fall was +just about to take place close by them. Clearly there were TWO +weak points m the roof of the tunnel. One had already given way in +front; the other was on the very eve of giving way behind them. If +it fell, they were imprisoned between two impassable walls of sand +and earth. Without one instant's delay, he turned and seized his +companion's hand hastily. + +"Quick! quick!" he cried, in a voice of eager warning. "Run, run +for your life to the mouth of the tunnel! Here, come! You've only +just time! It's going, it's going!" + +But Elma's feminine instinct worked quicker and truer than even +Cyril Waring's manly reason. She didn't know why; she couldn't say +how; but in that one indivisible moment of time she had taken in +and grasped to the full all the varying terrors of the situation. +Instead of running, however, she held back her companion with a +nervous force she could never before have imagined herself capable +of exerting. + +"Stop here," she cried authoritatively, wrenching his arm in her +haste. "If you go you'll be killed. There's no time to run past. +It'll be down before you're there. See, see, it's falling." + +Even before the words were well out of her mouth, another great +crash shook the ground behind them. With a deafening roar, the +tunnel gave way in a second place beyond. Dust and sand filled the +air confusedly. For a minute or two all was noise and smoke and +darkness. What exactly had happened neither of them could see. +But now the mouth of the tunnel was blocked at either end alike, +and no daylight was visible. So far as Cyril could judge, they +two stood alone, in the dark and gloom, as in a narrow cell, shut +in with their carriage between two solid walls of fallen earth and +crumbling sandstone. + +At this fresh misfortune, Elma sat down on the footboard with her +face in her hands, and began to sob bitterly. The artist leaned over +her and let her cry for a while in quiet despair. The poor girl's +nerves, it was clear, were now wholly unstrung. She was brave, as +women go, undoubtedly brave; but the shock and the terror of such +a position as this were more than enough to terrify the bravest. +At last Cyril ventured on a single remark. + +"How lucky," he said, in an undertone, "I didn't get out at Warnworth +after all. It would have been dreadful if you'd been left all alone +in this position." + +Elma glanced up at him with a sudden rush of gratitude. By the dim +light of the oil lamp that still flickered feebly in the carriage +overhead, she could see his face; and she knew by the look in +those truthful eyes that he really meant it. He really meant he +was glad he'd come on and exposed himself to this risk, which he +might otherwise have avoided, because he would be sorry to think a +helpless woman should be left alone by herself in the dark to face +it. And, frightened as she was, she was glad of it too. To be alone +would be awful. This was pre-eminently one of those many positions +in life in which a woman prefers to have a man beside her. + +And yet most men, she knew, would have thought to themselves at +once, "What a fool I was to come on beyond my proper station, and +let myself in for this beastly scrape, just because I'd go a few +miles further with a pretty girl I never saw in my life before, +and will probably never see in my life again, if I once get well +out of this precious predicament." + +But that they would ever get out of it at all seemed to both of them +now in the highest degree improbable. Cyril, by reason, Elma, by +instinct, argued out the whole situation at once, and correctly. +There had been much rain lately. The sandstone was water-logged. It +had caved in bodily, before them and behind them. A little isthmus +of archway still held out in isolation just above their heads. At +any moment that isthmus might give way too, and, falling on their +carriage, might crush them beneath its weight. Their lives depended +upon the continued resisting power of some fifteen yards or so of +dislocated masonry. + +Appalled at the thought, Cyril moved from his place for a minute, +and went forward to examine the fallen block in front. Then he +paced his way back with groping steps to the equally ruinous mass +behind them. Elma's eyes, growing gradually accustomed to the +darkness and the faint glimmer of the oil lamps, followed his +action with vague and tearful interest. + +"If the roof doesn't give way," he said calmly at last, when he +returned once more to her, "and if we can only let them know we're +alive in the tunnel, they may possibly dig us out before we choke. +There's air enough here for eighteen hours for us." + +He spoke very quietly and reassuringly, as if being shut up in a +fallen tunnel between two masses of earth were a matter that needn't +cause one the slightest uneasiness; but his words suggested to +Elma's mind a fresh and hitherto unthought-of danger. + +"Eighteen hours," she cried, horror-struck. "Do you mean to say +we may have to stop here, all alone, for eighteen hours together? +Oh, how very dreadful! How long! How frightening! And if they don't +dig us out before eighteen hours are over, do you mean to say we +shall die of choking?" + +Cyril gazed down at her with a very regretful and sympathetic face. + +"I didn't mean to frighten you," he said; "at least, not more than +you're frightened already; but, of course, there's only a certain +amount of oxygen in the space that's left us; and as we're using +it up at every breath, it'll naturally hold out for a limited time +only. It can't be much more than eighteen hours. Still, I don't +doubt they'll begin digging us out at once; and if they dig through +fast, they may yet be in time, even so, to save us." + +Elma bent forward with her face in her hands again, and, rocking +herself to and fro in an agony of despair, gave herself vip to a +paroxysm of utter misery. This was too, too terrible. To think of +eighteen hours in that gloom and suspense; and then to die at last, +gasping hard for breath, in the poisonous air of that pestilential +tunnel. + +For nearly an hour she sat there, broken down and speechless; while +Cyril Waring, taking a seat in silence by her side, tried at first +with mute sympathy to comfort and console her. Then he turned to +examine the roof, and the block at either end, to see if perchance +any hope remained of opening by main force an exit anywhere. He +even began by removing a little of the sand at the side of the line +with a piece of shattered board from the broken carriage in front; +but that was clearly no use. More sand tumbled in as fast as +he removed it. He saw there was nothing left for it but patience +or despair. And of the two, his own temperament dictated rather +patience. + +He returned at last, wearied out, to Elma's side. Elma, still +sitting disconsolate on the footboard, rocking herself up and down, +and moaning low and piteously, looked up as he came with a mute +glance of inquiry. She was very pretty. That struck him even now. +It made his heart bleed to think she should be so cowed and terrified. + +"I'm sorry to bother you," he said, after a pause, half afraid to +speak, "but there are four lamps all burning hard in these four +compartments, and using up the air we may need by-and-by for our +own breathing. If I were to climb to the top of the carriage--which +I can easily do--I could put them all out, and economize our oxygen. +It would leave us in the dark, but it'd give us one more chance +of life. Don't you think I'd better get up and turn them off, or +squash them?" + +Elma clasped her hands in horror at the bare suggestion. + +"Oh dear, no!" she cried hastily. "Please, PLEASE don't do that. +It's bad enough to choke slowly, like this, in the gloom. But to +die in the dark--that would be ten times more terrible. Why, it's +a perfect Black Hole of Calcutta, even now. If you were to turn +out the lights I could never stand it." + +Cyril gave a respectful little nod of assent. + +"Very well," he answered, as calm as ever. "That's just as you will. +I only meant to suggest it to you. My one wish is to do the best +I can for you. Perhaps"--and he hesitated--"perhaps I'd better +let it go on for an hour or two more, and then, whenever the air +begins to get very oppressive--I mean when one begins to feel it's +really failing us--one person, you know, could live on so much +longer than two... it would be a pity not to let you stand every +chance. Perhaps I might---" + +Elma gazed at him aghast in the utmost horror. She knew what he meant +at once. She didn't even need that he should finish his sentence. + +"Never!" she said, firmly clenching her small hand hard. "It's so +wrong of you to think of it, even. I could never permit it. It's +your duty to keep yourself alive at all hazards as long as ever +you can. You should remember your mother, your sisters, your family." + +"Why, that's just it," Cyril answered, a little crestfallen, and +feeling he had done quite a wicked thing in venturing to suggest +that his companion should have every chance for her own life. "I've +got no mother, you see, no sisters, no family. Nobody on earth +would ever be one penny the worse if _I_ were to die, except my +twin brother; he's the only relation I ever had in my life; and +even HE, I dare say, would very soon get over it. Whereas YOU"--he +paused and glanced at her compassionately--"there are probably +many to whom the loss would be a very serious one. If I could do +anything to save you---" He broke off suddenly, for Elma looked +up at him once more with a little burst of despair. + +"If you talk like that," she cried, with a familiarity that comes +of association in a very great danger, "I don't know what I shall +do; I don't know what I shall say to you. Why, I couldn't bear to +be left alone here to die by myself. If only for MY sake, now we're +boxed up here together, I think you ought to wait and do the best +you can for yourself." + +"Very well," Cyril answered once more, in a most obedient tone. "If +you wish me to live to keep you company in the tunnel, I'll live +while I may. You have only to say what you wish. I'm here to wait +upon you." + +In any other circumstances, such a phrase would have been a mere +piece of conversational politeness. At that critical moment, Elma +knew it for just what it was--a simple expression of his real +feeling. + + + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +CYRIL WARING'S BROTHER. + + + + + +It was nine o'clock that self-same night, and two men sat together +in a comfortable sitting-room under the gabled roofs of Staple +Inn, Holborn. It was as cosy a nook as any to be found within the +four-mile radius, and artistic withal in its furniture and decorations. + +In the biggest arm-chair by the empty grate, a young man with a +flute paused for a moment, irresolute. He was a handsome young man, +expressive eyes, and a neatly-cut brown beard--for all the world +like Cyril Waring's. Indeed, if Elma Clifford could that moment have +been transported from her gloomy prison in the Lavington tunnel to +that cosy room at Staple Inn, Holborn, she would have started with +surprise to find the young man who sat in the arm-chair was to all +outer appearance the self-same person as the painter she had just +left at the scene of the accident. For the two Warings were truly +"as like as two peas"; a photograph of one might almost have done +duty for the photograph of the other. + +The other occupant of the room, who leaned carelessly against the +mantelshelf, was taller and older; though he, too, was handsome, +but with the somewhat cynical and unprepossessing handsomeness of +a man of the world. His forehead was high; his lips were thin; his +nose inclined toward the Roman pattern; his black moustache was +carefully curled and twisted at the extremities. Moreover, he was +musical; for he held in one hand the bow of a violin, having just +laid down the instrument itself on the sofa after a plaintive duet +with Guy Waring. + +"Seen this evening's paper, by the way, Guy?" he asked, after +a pause, in a voice that was all honeyed charm and seductiveness. +"I brought the St. James's Gazette for you, but forgot to give you +it; I was so full of this new piece of mine. Been an accident this +morning, I see, on the Great Southern line. Somewhere down Cyril's +way, too; he's painting near Chetwood; wonder whether he could +possibly, by any chance, have been in it?" + +He drew the paper carelessly from his pocket as he spoke, and handed +it with a graceful air of inborn courtesy to his younger companion. +Everything that Montague Nevitt did, indeed, was naturally graceful +and courteous. + +Guy Waring took the printed sheet from his hands without attaching +much importance to his words, and glanced over it lightly. + +"At ten o'clock this morning," the telegram said, "a singular +catastrophe occurred in a portion of the Lavington tunnel on the +Great Southern Railway. As the 9.15 way-train from Tilgate Junction +to Guildford was passing through, a segment of the roof of the +tunnel collapsed, under pressure of the dislocated rock on top, +and bore down with enormous weight upon the carriages beneath it. +The engine, tender, and four front waggons escaped unhurt; but the +two hindmost, it is feared, were crushed by the falling mass of +earth. It is not yet known how many passengers, if any, may have +been occupying the wrecked compartments; but every effort is now +being made to dig out the débris." + +Guy read the paragraph through unmoved, to the outer eye, though +with a whitening face, and then took up the dog-eared "Bradshaw" +that lay close by upon the little oak writing-table. His hand +trembled. One glance at the map, however, set his mind at rest. + +"I thought so," he said quietly. "Cyril wouldn't be there. It's +beyond his beat. Lavington's the fourth station this way on the +up-line from Chetwood. Cyril's stopping at Tilgate town, you know--I +heard from him on Saturday--and the bit he's now working at's in +Chetwood Forest. He couldn't get lodgings at Chetwood itself, so +he's put up for the present at the White Lion, at Tilgate, and runs +over by train every day to Warnworth. It's three stations away--four +off Lavington. He'd have been daubing for an hour in the wood by +that time." + +"Well, I didn't attach any great importance to it myself," Nevitt +went on, unconcerned. "I thought most likely Cyril wouldn't be +there. But still I felt you'd like, at any rate, to know about it." + +"Oh, of course," Guy answered, still scanning the map in "Bradshaw" +close. "He couldn't have been there; but one likes to know. I think, +indeed, to make sure, I'll telegraph to Tilgate. Naturally, when a +man's got only one relation in the whole wide world--without being +a sentimentalist--that one relation means a good deal in life to +him. And Cyril and I are more to one another, of course, than most +ordinary brothers." He bit his thumb. "Still, I can't imagine how +he could possibly be there," he went on, glancing at "Bradshaw" once +more. "You see, if he went to work, he'd have got out at Warnworth; +and if he meant to come to town to consult his dentist, he'd have +taken the 9.30 express straight through from Tilgate, which gets +up to London twenty-five minutes earlier." + +"Well, but why to consult his dentist in particular?" Nevitt asked +with a smile. He had very white teeth, and he smiled accordingly +perhaps a little oftener than was quite inevitable. "You Warings +are so absolute. I never knew any such fellows in my life as you +are. You decide things so beforehand. Why mightn't he have been +coming up to town, for example, to see a friend, or get himself +fresh colours?" + +"Oh, I said 'to consult his dentist,'" Guy answered, in the most +matter-of-fact voice on earth, suppressing a tremor, "because you +know I've had toothache off and on myself, one day with another, +for the whole last fortnight. And it's a tooth that never ached +with either of us before-this one, you see"--he lifted his lip with +his forefinger--"the second on the left after the one we've lost. +If Cyril was coming up to town at all, I'm pretty sure it'd be his +tooth he was coming up to see about. I went to Eskell about mine +myself last Wednesday." + +The elder man seated himself and leaned back in his chair, with +his violin in his lap; then he surveyed his friend long and curiously. + +"It must be awfully odd, Guy," he said at last, after a good hard +stare, "to lead such a queer sort of duplicate life as Cyril and +you do! Just fancy being the counterfoil to some other man's cheque! +Just fancy being bound to do, and think, and speak, and wish as he +does! Just fancy having to get a toothache, in the very same tooth +and on the very same day! Just fancy having to consult the identical +dentist that he consults simultaneously! It'd drive ME mad. Why, +it's clean rideeklous!" + +Guy Waring looked up hastily from the telegraph form he was already +filling in, and answered, with some warmth-- + +"No, no; not quite so. It isn't like that. You mistake the situation. +We're both cheques equally, and neither is a counterfoil. Cyril +and I depend for our characters, as everybody else does, upon our +father and mother and our remoter progenitors. Only being twins, +and twins cast in very much the same sort of mould, we're naturally +the product of the same two parents, at the same precise point in +their joint life history; and therefore we're practically all but +identical." + +As he rose from his desk, with the telegram in his hand, the porter +appeared at the door with letters. Guy seized them at once, with +some little impatience. The first was from Cyril. He tore it open +in haste, and skimmed it through rapidly. Montague Nevitt meanwhile +sat languid in his chair, striking a pensive note now and again +on his violin, with his eyes half closed and his lips parted. Guy +drew a sigh of relief as he skimmed his note. + +"Just what I expected," he said slowly. "Cyril couldn't have +been there. He writes last night--the letter's marked 'Delayed in +transmission'; no doubt by the accident--'I shall come up to town +on Friday or Saturday morning to see the dentist. One of my teeth +is troublesome; I suppose you've had the same; the second on the +left from the one we've lost; been aching a fortnight. I want it +stopped. But to-morrow I really CAN'T leave work. I've got well +into the swing of such a lovely bit of fern, with Sardanapalus +just gleaming like gold in the foreground.' So that settles matters +somewhat. He can't have been there. Though, I think, even so, I'll +just telegraph for safety's sake and make things certain." + +Nevitt struck a chord twice with a sweep of his hand, listened to +it dreamily for a minute with far-away eyes, and then remarked once +more, without even looking up, "The same tooth lost, he says? You +both had it drawn! And now another one aches in both of you alike! +How very remarkable! How very, very curious!" + +"Well, that WAS queer," Guy replied, relaxing into a smile, "queer +even for us; I won't deny it; for it happened this way. I was over +in Brussels at the time, as correspondent for the Sphere at the +International Workmen's Congress, and Cyril was away by himself +just then on his holiday in the Orkneys. We both got toothache in +the self-same tooth on the self-same night; and we both lay awake +for hours in misery. Early in the morning we each of us got up--five +hundred miles away from one another, remember--and as soon as we +were dressed _I_ went into a dentist's in the Montagne de la Cour, +and Cyril to a local doctor's at Larwick; and we each of us had +it out, instanter. The dentists both declared they could save them +if we wished; but we each preferred the loss of a tooth to another +such night of abject misery." + +Nevitt stroked his moustache with a reflective air. This was +almost miraculous. "Well, I should think," he said at last, after +close reflection, "where such sympathy as that exists between two +brothers, if Cyril had really been hurt in this accident, you must +surely in some way have been dimly conscious of it." + +Guy Waring, standing there, telegram in hand, looked down at his +companion with a somewhat contemptuous smile. + +"Oh dear, no," he answered, with common-sense confidence; for he +loved not mysteries. "You don't believe any nonsense of that sort, +do you? There's nothing in the least mystical in the kind of sympathy +that exists between Cyril and myself. It's all purely physical. +We're very like one another. But that's all. There's none of the +Corsican Brothers sort of hocus-pocus about us in any way. The +whole thing is a simple caste of natural causation." + +"Then you don't believe in brain-waves?" Nevitt suggested, with a +gracefully appropriate undulation of his small white hand. + +Guy laughed incredulously. "All rubbish, my dear fellow," he answered, +"all utter rubbish. If any man knows, it's myself and Cyril. We're +as near one another as any two men on earth could possibly be; +but when we want to communicate our ideas, each to each, we have +to speak or write, just like the rest of you. Every man is like a +clock wound up to strike certain hours. Accidents may happen, events +may intervene, the clock may get smashed, and all may be prevented. +But, bar accidents, it'll strike all right, under ordinary circumstances, +when the hour arrives for it. Well, Cyril and I, as I always say, +are like two clocks wound up at the same time to strike together, +and we strike with very unusual regularity. But that's the whole +mystery. If _I_ get smashed by accident, there's no reason on earth +why Cyril shouldn't run on for years yet as usual; and if Cyril got +smashed, there's no reason on earth why I should ever know anything +about it except from the newspapers." + + + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +INSIDE THE TUNNEL. + + + + + +And, indeed, if brain-waves had been in question at all, they +ought, without a doubt, to have informed Guy Waring that at the +very moment when he was going out to send off his telegram, his +brother Cyril was sitting disconsolate, with dark blue lips and +swollen eyelids, on the footboard of the railway carriage in the +Lavington tunnel. Cyril was worn out with digging by this time, +for he had done his best once more to clear away the sand towards +the front of the train in the vague hope that he might succeed in +letting in a little more air to their narrow prison through the +chinks and interstices of the fallen sandstone. Besides, a man in +an emergency must do something, if only to justify his claim to +manliness--especially when a lady is looking on at his efforts. + +So Cyril Waring had toiled and moiled in that deadly atmosphere for +some hours in vain, and now sat, wearied out and faint from foul +vapours, by Elma's side on the damp, cold footboard. By this time +the air had almost failed them. They gasped for breath, their heads +swam vaguely. A terrible weight seemed to oppress their bosoms. +Even the lamps in the carriages flickered low and burned blue. +The atmosphere of the tunnel, loaded from the very beginning with +sulphurous smoke, was now all but exhausted. Death stared them in +the face without hope of respite--a ghastly, slow death by gradual +stifling. + +"You MUST take a little water," Elma murmured, pouring out the +last few drops for him into the tin cup--for Cyril had brought a +small bottleful that morning for his painting, as well as a packet +of sandwiches for lunch. "You're dreadfully tired. I can see your +lips are parched and dry with digging." + +She was deathly pale herself, and her own eyes were livid, for by +this time she had fairly given up all hope of rescue; and, besides, +the air in the tunnel was so foul and stupefying, she could hardly +speak; indeed, her tongue clung to her palate. But she poured out +the last few drops into the cup for Cyril and held them up imploringly, +with a gesture of supplication. These two were no strangers to one +another now. They had begun to know each other well in those twelve +long hours of deadly peril shared in common. + +Cyril waved the cup aside with a firm air of dissent. + +"No, no," he said, faintly, "you must drink it yourself. Your need +is greater far than mine." + +Elma tried to put it away in turn, but Cyril would not allow her. +So she moistened her mouth with those scanty last drops, and turned +towards him gratefully. + +"There's no hope left now," she said, in a very resigned voice. +"We must make up our minds to die where we stand. But I thank you, +oh, I thank you so much, so earnestly." + +Cyril, for his part, could hardly find breath to speak. + +"Thank you," he gasped out, in one last despairing effort. "Things +look very black; but while there's life there's hope. They may even +still, perhaps, come up with us." + +As he spoke, a sound broke unexpectedly on the silence of their +prison. A dull thud seemed to make itself faintly heard from beyond +the thick wall of sand that cut them off from the daylight. Cyril +stared with surprise. It was a noise like a pick-axe. Stooping +hastily down, he laid his ear against the rail beside the shattered +carriage. + +"They're digging!" he cried earnestly, finding words in his joy. +"They're digging to reach us! I can hear them! I can hear them!" + +Elma glanced up at him with a certain tinge of half-incredulous +surprise. + +"Yes, they're digging, of course," she said quickly. "I knew they'd +dig for us, naturally, as soon as they missed us. But how far off +are they yet? That's the real question. Will they reach us in time? +Are they near or distant?" + +Cyril knelt down on the ground as before, in an agony of suspense, +and struck the rail three times distinctly with his walking-stick. +Then he put his ear to it and listened, and waited. In less than +half a minute three answering knocks rang, dim but unmistakable, +along the buried rail. He could even feel the vibration on the iron +with his face. + +"They hear us! They hear us!" he cried once more, in a tremor of +excitement. "I don't think they're far off. They're coming rapidly +towards us." + +At the words Elma rose from her seat, still paler than ever, but +strangely resolute, and took the stick from his hand with a gesture +of despair. She was almost stifled. But. she raised it with method. +Knocking the rail twice, she bent down her head and listened in +turn. Once more two answering knocks rang sharp along the connecting +line of metal. Elma shook her head ominously. + +"No, no, they're a very long way off still," she murmured, in +a faltering tone. "I can hear it quite well. They can never reach +us!" + +She seated herself on a fragment of the broken carriage, and buried +her face in her hands once more in silence. Her heart was full. +Her head was very heavy. She gasped and struggled. Then a sudden +intuition seized her, after her kind. If the rail could carry the +sound of a tap, surely it might carry the human voice as well. +Inspired with the idea, she rose again and leant forward. + +A second time she knocked two quick little taps, ringing sharp on +the rail, as if to bespeak attention; then, putting her mouth close +to the metals, she shouted aloud along them with all the voice that +was left her-- + +"Hallo, there, do you hear? Come soon, come fast. We're alive, +but choking!" + +Quick as lightning an answer rang back as if by magic, along the +conducting line of the rail--a strange unexpected answer. + +"Break the pipe of the wires," it said, and then subsided instantly. + +Cyril, who was leaning down at her side at the moment with his ear +to the rail, couldn't make out one word of it. But Elma's sharp +senses, now quickened by the crisis, were acute as an Oriental's +and keen as a beagle's. + +"Break the pipe of the wires," they say, she exclaimed, starting +back and pondering. "What on earth can they mean by that? What +on earth can they be driving at? 'Break the pipe of the wires.' I +don't understand them." + +Hardly had she spoken, when another sharp tap resounded still more +clearly along the rail at her feet. She bent down her head once +more, and laid her eager ear beside it in terrible suspense. A rough +man's voice--a navvy's, no doubt, or a fireman's--came speeding +along the metal; and it said in thick accents-- + +"Do you hear what I say? If you want to breathe freer, break the +pipe of the wires, and you'll get fresh air from outside right +through it." + +Cyril this time had caught the words, and jumped up with a sudden +air of profound conviction. It was very dark, and the lamps were +going out, but he took his fusee-box from his pocket and struck a +light hastily. Sure enough, on the left-hand side of the tunnel, +half buried in rubbish, an earthenware pipe ran along by the edge +near the wall of the archway. Cyril raised his foot and brought +his heel down upon it sharply with all the strength and force he +had still left in him. The pipe broke short, and Cyril saw within +it a number of telegraph wires for the railway service. The tube +communicated directly with the air outside. They were saved! They +were saved! Air would come through the pipe! He saw it all now! He +dimly understood it! + +At the self-same moment, another sound of breaking was heard more +distinctly at the opposite end, some thirty or forty feet off through +the tunnel. Then a voice rang far clearer, as if issuing from the +tube, in short, sharp sentences-- + +"We'll pump you in air. How many of you are there? Are you all +alive? Is any one injured?" + +Cyril leant down and shouted back in reply-- + +"We're two. Both alive. Not hurt. But sick and half dead with +stifling. Send us air as soon as ever you can. And if possible pass +us a bottle of water." + +Some minutes elapsed--three long, slow minutes of it--intense +anxiety. Elma, now broken down with terror and want of oxygen, +fell half fainting forward towards the shattered tube. Cyril held +her up in his supporting arms, and watched the pipe eagerly. It +seemed an age; but, after a time, he became conscious of a gust of +air blowing cold on his face. The keen freshness revived him. + +He looked about him and drew a deep breath. Cool air was streaming +in through the broken place. Quick as thought, he laid Elma's mouth +as close as he could lay it to the reviving current. Her eyes were +closed. After a painful interval, she opened them languidly. Cyril +chafed her hands with his, but his chafing seemed to produce very +little effect. She lay motionless now with her eyelids half shut, +and the whites of her eyes alone showing through them. The close, +foul air of that damp and confined spot had worked its worst, and +had almost asphyxiated her. Cyril began to fear the slight relief +had arrived five minutes too late. And it must still in all +probability be some hours at least before they could be actually +disentombed from that living vault or restored to the open air of +heaven. + +As he bent over her and held his breath in speechless suspense, +the voice called out again more loudly than ever-- + +"Look out for the ball in the tube. We're sending you water!" + +Cyril watched the pipe closely and struck another light. In a minute, +a big glass marble came rattling through, with a string attached +to it. + +"Pull the string!" the voice cried; and Cyril pulled with a will. +Now and again, the object attached to it struck against some +projecting ledge or angle where the pipes overlapped. But at last, +with a little humouring, it came through in safety. At the end was +a large india-rubber bottle, full of fresh water, and a flask of +brandy. The young man seized them both with delight and avidity, +and bathed Elma's temples over and over again with the refreshing +spirit. Then he poured a little into the cup, and filling it up +with water, held it to her lips with all a woman's tenderness. Elma +gulped the draught down unconsciously, and opened her eyes at once. +For a moment she stared about her with a wild stare of surprise. + +Then, of a sudden, she recollected where she was, and why, and +seizing Cyril's hand, pressed it long and eagerly. + +"If only we can hold out for three hours more," she cried, with +fresh hope returning, "I'm sure they'll reach us; I'm sure they'll +reach us!" + + + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +GKATITUDE. + + + + + +"There were only two of you, then, in the last carriage?" Guy asked +with deep interest, the very next morning, as Cyril, none the worse +for his long imprisonment, sat quietly in their joint chambers at +Staple Inn, recounting the previous day's adventures. + +"Yes. Only two of us. It was awfully fortunate. And the carriage +that was smashed had nobody at all, except in the first compartment, +which escaped being buried. So there were no lives lost, by a +miracle, you may say. But several of the people in the front part +of the train got terribly shaken." + +"And you and the other man were shut up in the tunnel there for +fifteen hours at a stretch?" Guy went on reflectively. + +"At least fifteen hours," Cyril echoed, without attempting to +correct the slight error of sex, for no man, he thought, is bound +to criminate himself, even in a flirtation. "It was two in the +morning before they dug us quite out. And my companion by that time +was more dead than alive, I can tell you, with watching and terror." + +"Was he, poor fellow?" Guy murmured, with a sympathetic face; for +Cyril had always alluded casually to his fellow-traveller in such +general terms that Guy was as yet unaware there was a lady in the +case. "And is he all right again now, do you know? Have you heard +anything more about him?" + +But before Cyril could answer there came a knock at the door, and +the next moment Mr. Montague Nevitt, without his violin, entered +the room in some haste, all agog with excitement. His face was eager +and his manner cordial. It was clear he was full of some important +tidings. + +"Why, Cyril, my dear fellow," he cried, grasping the painter's hand +with much demonstration of friendly warmth, and wringing it hard +two or three times over, "how delighted I am to see you restored +to us alive and well once more. This is really too happy. What +a marvellous escape! And what a romantic story! All the clubs are +buzzing with it. A charming girl! You'll have to marry her, of +course, that's the necessary climax. You and the young lady are the +staple of news, I see, in very big print, in all the evening papers!" + +Guy drew back at the words with a little start of surprise. "Young +lady!" he cried aghast. "A charming girl, Nevitt! Then the person +who was shut up with you for fifteen hours in the tunnel was a +girl, Cyril!" + +Cyril's handsome face flushed slightly before his brother's scrutinizing +gaze; but he answered with a certain little ill-concealed embarrassment: + +"Oh, I didn't say so, didn't I? Well, she WAS a girl then, of course; +a certain Miss Clifford. She got in at Chetwood. Her people live +somewhere down there near Tilgate. At least, so I gathered from +what she told me." + +Nevitt stared hard at the painter's eyes, which tried, without +success, to look unconscious. + +"A romance!" he said, slowly, scanning his man with deep interest. +"A romance, I can see. Young, rich, and beautiful. My dear Cyril, +I only wish I'd had half your luck. What a splendid chance, and what +a magnificent introduction! Beauty in distress! A lady in trouble! +You console her alone in a tunnel for fifteen hours by yourself +at a stretch. Heavens, what a tete-a-tete! Did British propriety +ever before allow a man such a glorious opportunity for chivalrous +devotion to a lady of family, face, and fortune?" + +"Was she pretty?" Guy asked, coming down at once to a more realistic +platform. + +Cyril hesitated a moment. "Well, yes," he answered, somewhat curtly, +after a short pause. "She's distinctly good-looking." And he shut +his mouth sharp. But he had said quite enough. + +When a man says that of a girl, and nothing more, in an unconcerned +voice, as if it didn't matter twopence to him, you may be perfectly +sure in your own mind he's very deeply and seriously smitten. + +"And young?" Guy continued. + +"I should say about twenty." + +"And rich beyond the utmost dreams of avarice?" Montague Nevitt +put in, with a faintly cynical smile. + +"Well, I don't know about that," Cyril answered truthfully. "I +haven't the least idea who she is, even. She and I had other things +to think about, you may be sure, boxed up there so long in that +narrow space, and choking for want of air, than minute investigations +into one another's pedigrees." + +"WE'VE got no pedigree," Guy interposed, with a bitter smile. "So +the less she investigates about that the better." + +"But SHE has, I expect," Nevitt put in hastily; "and if I were you, +Cyril, I'd hunt her up forthwith, while the iron's hot, and find +out all there is to find out about her. Clifford-Clifford? I wonder +whether by any chance she's one of the Devonshire Cliffords, now? +For if so, she might really be worth a man's serious attetion. +They're very good business. They bank at our place; and they're by +no means paupers." For Nevitt was a clerk in the well-known banking +firm of Drummond, Coutts, and Barclay, Limited; and being a man +who didn't mean, as he himself said, "to throw himself away on any +girl for nothing," he kept a sharp look-out on the current account +of every wealthy client with an only daughter. + +Ten minutes later, as the talk ran on, some further light was +unexpectedly thrown upon this interesting topic by the entrance +of the porter with a letter for Cyril. The painter tore it open, +and glanced over it, as Nevitt observed, with evident eagerness. +It was short and curt, but in its own way courteous. + +"'Mr. Reginald Clifford, C.M.G., desires to thank Mr. Cyril +Waring for his kindness and consideration to Miss Clifford during +her temporary incarceration---' + +"Incarceration's good, isn't it? How much does he charge a thousand +for that sort, I wonder?--- + +"'during her temporary incarceration in the Lavington tunnel +yesterday. Mrs. and Miss Clifford wish also to express at the same +time their deep gratitude to Mr. Waring for his friendly efforts, +and trust he has experienced no further ill effects from the +unfortunate accident to which he was subjected. + +"'Craighton, Tilgate, Thursday morning.'" + +"She MIGHT have written herself," Cyril murmured half aloud. He was +evidently disappointed at this very short measure of correspondence +on the subject. + +But Montague Nevitt took a more cheerful view. "Oh, Reginald +Clifford, of Craighton!" he cried with a smile, his invariable smile. +"I know all about HIM. He's a friend of Colonel Kelmscott's down +at Tilgate Park. C.M.G., indeed! What a ridiculous old peacock. +He was administrator of St. Kitts once upon a time, I believe, or +was it Nevis or Antigua? I don't quite recollect, I'm afraid; but +anyhow, some comical little speck of a sugary, niggery, West Indian +Island; and he was made a Companion of St. Michael and St. George +when his term was up, just to keep him quiet, don't you know, for +he wanted a knighthood, and to shelve him from being appointed to +a first-class post like Barbados or Trinidad. If it's Elma Clifford +you were shut up with in the tunnel, Cyril, you might do worse, +there's no doubt, and you might do better. She's an only daughter, +and there's a little money at the back of the family, I expect; +but I fancy the Companion of the Fighting Saints lives mainly on +his pension, which, of course, is purely personal, and so dies with +him." + +Cyril folded up the note without noticing Nevitt's words and put it +in his pocket, somewhat carefully and obtrusively. "Thank you," he +said, in a very quiet tone, "I didn't ask you about Miss Clifford's +fortune. When I want information on that point I'll apply for +it plainly. But meanwhile I don't think any lady's name should be +dragged into conversation and bandied about like that, by an absolute +stranger." + +"Oh, now you needn't be huffy," Nevitt answered, with a +still sweeter smile, showing all those pearly teeth of his to the +greatest advantage. "I didn't mean to put your back up, and I'll +tell you what I'll do for you. I'll heap coals of fire on your +head, you ungrateful man. I'll return good for evil. You shall +have an invitation to Mrs. Holker's garden party on Saturday week +at Chetwood Court, and there you'll be almost sure to meet the +beautiful stranger." + +But at that very moment, at Craighton, Tilgate, Mr. Reginald +Clifford, C.M.G., a stiff little withered-up official Briton, half +mummified by long exposure to tropical suns, was sitting in his +drawing-room with Mrs. Clifford, his wife, and discussing--what +subject of all others on earth but the personality of Cyril Waring? + +"Well, it was an awkward situation for Elma, of course, I admit," +he was chirping out cheerfully, with his back turned by pure force +of habit to the empty grate, and his hands crossed behind him. +"I don't deny it was an awkward situation. Still, there's no harm +done, I hope and trust. Elma's happily not a fanciful or foolishly +susceptible sort of girl. She sees it's a case for mere ordinary +gratitude. And gratitude, in my opinion, towards a person in his +position, is sufficiently expressed once for all by letter. There's +no reason on earth she should ever again see or hear any more of +him." + +"But girls are so romantic," Mrs. Clifford put in doubtfully, with +an anxious air. She herself was by no means romantic to look at, +being, indeed, a person of a certain age, with a plump, matronly +figure, and very staid of countenance; yet there was something in +her eye, for all that, that recalled at times the vivid keenness of +Elma's, and her cheek had once been as delicate and creamy a brown +as her pretty daughter's. "Girls are so romantic," Mrs. Clifford +repeated once more, in a dreamy way, "and she was evidently impressed +by him." + +"Well, I'm glad I made inquiries at once about these two young +men, anyhow, "the Companion of St. Michael and St. George responded +with fervour, clasping his wizened little hands contentedly over +his narrow waistcoat. "It's a precious odd story, and a doubtful +story, and not at all the sort of story one likes one's girl to be +any way mixed up with. For my part, I shall give them a very wide +berth indeed in future; and there's no reason why Elma should ever +knock up against them." + +"Who told you they were nobodies?" Mrs. Clifford inquired, drawing +a wistful sigh. + +"Oh, Tom Clark was at school with them," the ex-administrator continued, +with a very cunning air, "and he knows all about them--has heard +the whole circumstances. Very odd, very odd; never met anything +so queer in all my life; most mysterious and uncanny. They never +had a father; they never had a mother; they never had anybody on +earth they could call their own; they dropped from the clouds, as +it were, one rainy day, without a friend in the world, plump down +into the Charterhouse. There they were well supplied with money, +and spent their holidays with a person at Brighton, who wasn't +even supposed to be their lawful guardian. Looks fishy, doesn't +it? Their names are Cyril and Guy Waring--and that's all they know +of themselves. They were educated like gentlemen till they were +twenty-one years old; and then they were turned loose upon the +world, like a pair of young bears, with a couple of hundred pounds +of capital apiece to shift for themselves with. Uncanny, very; +I don't like the look of it. Not at all the sort of people an +impressionable girl like our Elma should ever be allowed to see +too much of." + +"I don't think she was very much impressed by him," Mrs. Clifford +said with confidence. "I've watched her to see, and I don't think +she's in love with him. But by to-morrow, Reginald, I shall be +able, I'm sure, to tell you for certain." + +The Companion of the Militant Saints glanced rather uneasily across +the hearth-rug at his wife. "It's a marvellous gift, to be sure, +this intuition of yours, Louisa," he said, shaking his head sagely, +and swaying himself gently to and fro on the stone kerb of the +fender. "I frankly confess, my dear, I don't quite understand it. +And Elma's got it too, every bit as bad as you have. Runs in the +family, I suppose--runs somehow in the family. After living with +you now for twenty-two years--yes, twenty-two last April--in every +part of the world and every grade of the service, I'm compelled to +admit that your intuition in these matters is really remarkable--simply +remarkable." + +Mrs. Clifford coloured through her olive-brown skin, exactly like +Elma, and rose with a somewhat embarrassed and half-guilty air, +avoiding her husband's eyes as if afraid to meet them. + +Elma had gone to bed early, wearied out as she was with her long +agony in the tunnel. Mrs. Clifford crept up to her daughter's room +with a silent tread, like some noiseless Oriental, and, putting her +ear to the keyhole, listened outside the door in profound suspense +for several minutes. + +Not a sound from within; not a gentle footfall on the carpeted floor. +For a moment she hesitated; then she turned the handle slowly, and, +peering before her, peeped into the room. Thank Heaven! no snake +signs. Elma lay asleep, with one arm above her head, as peacefully +as a child, after her terrible adventure. Her bosom heaved, but +slowly and regularly. The mother drew a deep breath, and crept down +the stairs with a palpitating heart to the drawing-room again. + +"Reginald," she said, with perfect confidence, relapsing once more +at a bound into the ordinary every-day British matron, "there's no +harm done, I'm sure. She doesn't think of this young man at all. +You may dismiss him from your mind at once and for ever. She's +sleeping like a baby." + + + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +TWO STRANGE MEETINGS. + + + + + +"Mrs. Hugh Holker, at home, Saturday, May 29th, 3 to 6.30. Chetwood +Court; tennis." + +Cyril Waring read it out with a little thrill of triumph. To +be sure, it was by no means certain that Elma would be there; but +still, Chetwood Court was well within range of Tilgate town, and +Montague Nevitt felt convinced, he said, the Holkers were friends +of the Cliffords and the Kelmscotts. + +"For my part," Guy remarked, balancing a fragment of fried sole on +his fork as he spoke, "I'm not going all that way down to Chetwood +merely to swell Mrs. Holker's triumph." + +"I wouldn't if I were you," Cyril answered, with quiet incisiveness. +He hadn't exactly fallen in love with Elma at first sight, but he +was very much interested in her, and it struck him at once that +what interested him was likely also to interest his twin brother. +And this is just one of those rare cases in life where a man prefers +that his interest in a subject should not be shared by any other +person. + +Before Saturday, the 29th, arrived, however, Guy had so far changed +his mind in the matter, that he presented himself duly with Nevitt +at Waterloo to catch the same train to Chetwood station that Cyril +went down by. + +"After all," he said to Nevitt, as they walked together from the +club in Piccadilly, "I may as well see what the girl's like, anyhow. +If she's got to be my sister-in-law--which seems not unlikely now--I'd +better have a look at her beforehand, so to speak, on approbation." + +The Holkers' grounds were large and well planted, with velvety lawns +on the slope of a well-wooded hill overlooking the boundless blue +weald of Surrey. Nevitt and the Warings were late to arrive, and +found most of the guests already assembled before them. + +After a time Guy found himself, to his intense chagrin, told off by +his hostess to do the honours to an amiable old lady of high tonnage +and great conversational powers, who rattled on uninterruptedly in +one silvery stream about everybody on the ground, their histories +and their pedigrees. She took the talking so completely off his +hands, however, that, after a very few minutes, Guy, who was by +nature of a lazy and contemplative disposition, had almost ceased +to trouble himself about what she said, interposing "indeeds" and +"reallys" with automatic politeness at measured intervals; when +suddenly the old lady, coming upon a bench where a mother and +daughter were seated in the shade, settled down by their sides in +a fervour of welcome, and shook hands with them both effusively in +a most demonstrative fashion. + +The daughter was pretty--yes, distinctly pretty. She attracted Guy's +attention at once by the piercing keenness of her lustrous dark +eyes, and the delicate olive-brown of her transparent complexion. +Her expression was merry, but with a strange and attractive undertone, +he thought, of some mysterious charm. A more taking girl, indeed, +now he came to look close, he hadn't seen for months. He congratulated +himself on his garrulous old lady's choice of a bench to sit upon, +if it helped him to an introduction to the beautiful stranger. + +But before he could even be introduced, the pretty girl with the +olive-brown complexion had held out her hand to him frankly, and +exclaimed in a voice as sunny as her face-- + +"I don't need to be told your friend's name, I'm sure, Mrs. Godfrey. +He's so awfully like him. I should have known him anywhere. Of +course, you're Mr. Waring's brother, aren't you?" + +Guy smiled, and bowed gracefully; he was always graceful. + +"I refuse to be merely MR. WARING'S BROTHER," he answered, with +some amusement, as he took the proffered hand in his own warmly. +"If it comes to that, I'm Mr. Waring myself; and Cyril, whom you +seem to know already, is only my brother." + +"Ah, but MY Mr. Waring isn't here to-day, is he?" the olive-brown +girl put in, looking around with quite an eager interest at the +crowd in the distance. "Naturally, to me, he's THE Mr. Waring, of +course, and you are only MY Mr. Waring's brother." + +"Elma, my dear, what on earth will Mr. Waring think of you?" +her mother put in, with the conventional shocked face of British +propriety. "You know," she went on, turning round quickly to Guy, +"we're all so grateful to your brother for his kindness to our girl +in that dreadful accident the other day at Lavington, that we can't +help thinking and talking of him all the time as our Mr. Waring. I'm +sorry he isn't here himself this afternoon to receive our thanks. +It would be such a pleasure to all of us to give them to him in +person." + +"Oh, he is about, somewhere," Guy answered carelessly, still +keeping his eye fixed hard on the pretty girl. "I'll fetch him +round by-and-by to pay his respects in due form. He'll be only too +glad. And this, I suppose, must be Miss Clifford that I've heard +so much about." + +As he said those words, a little gleam of pleasure shot through +Elma's eyes. Her painter hadn't forgotten her, then. He had talked +much about her. + +"Yes, I knew who you must be the very first moment I saw you," she +answered, blushing; "you're so much like him in some ways, though +not in all.... And he told me that day he had a twin brother." + +"So much like him in some ways," Guy repeated, much amused. "Why, +I wonder you don't take me for Cyril himself at once. You're the +very first person I ever knew in my life, except a few old and very +intimate friends, who could tell at all the difference between us." + +Elma drew back, almost as if shocked and hurt at the bare suggestion. + +"Oh, dear no," she cried quickly, scanning him over at once with +those piercing keen eyes of hers; "you're like him, of course--I +don't deny the likeness--as brothers may be like one another. Your +features are the same, and the colour of your hair and eyes, and +all that sort of thing; but still, I knew at a glance you weren't +my Mr. Waring. I could never mistake you for him. The expression +and the look are so utterly different." + +"You must be a very subtle judge of faces," the young man answered, +still smiling, "if you knew us apart at first sight; for I never +before in my life met anybody who'd seen my brother once or twice, +and who didn't take me for him, or him for me, the very first time +he saw us apart. But then," he added, after a short pause, with +a quick dart of his eyes, "you were with him in the tunnel for a +whole long day; and in that time, of course, you saw a good deal +of him." + +Elma blushed again, and Guy noticed in passing that she blushed +very prettily. + +"And how's Sardanapalus?" she asked, in a somewhat hurried voice, +making an inartistic attempt to change the subject. + +"Oh, Sardanapalus is all right," Guy answered, laughing. "Cyril +told me you had made friends with him, and weren't one bit afraid +of him. Most people are so dreadfully frightened of the poor old +creature." + +"But he isn't old," Elma exclaimed, interrupting him with some +warmth. "He's in the prime of life. He's so glossy and beautiful. +I quite fell in love with him." + +"And who is Sardanapalus?" Mrs. Clifford asked, with a vague maternal +sense of discomfort and doubt. "A dog or a monkey?" + +"Oh, Sardanapalus, mother--didn't I tell you about him? "Elma cried +enthusiastically. "Why, he's just lovely and beautiful. He's such +a glorious green and yellow-banded snake; and he coiled around my +arm as if he'd always known me." + +Mrs. Clifford drew back with a horror-stricken face, darting across +at her daughter the same stealthy sort of look she had given her +husband the night after Elma's adventure. + +"A snake!" she repeated, aghast, "a snake! Oh, Elma! Why, you never +told me that. And he coiled round your arm. How horrible!" + +But Elma wasn't to be put down by exclamations of horror. + +"Why, you're not afraid of snakes yourself, you know, mother," she +went on, undismayed. "I remember papa saying that when you were at +St. Kitts with him you never minded them a bit, but caught them in +your hands like an Indian juggler, and treated them as playthings, +so I wasn't afraid either. I suppose it's hereditary." + +Mrs. Clifford gazed at her fixedly for a few seconds with a very +pale face. + +"I suppose it is," she said slowly and stiffly, with an evident +effort. "Most things are, in fact, in this world we live in. But +I didn't know YOU at least had inherited it, Elma." + +Just at that moment they were relieved from the temporary embarrassment +which the mention of Sardanapalus seemed to have caused the party, +by the approach of a tall and very handsome man, who came forward +with a smile towards where their group was standing. He was military +in bearing, and had dark brown hair, with a white moustache; but he +hardly looked more than fifty for all that, as Guy judged at once +from his erect carriage and the singular youthfulness of both face +and figure. That he was a born aristocrat one could see in every +motion of his well-built limbs. His mien had that ineffable air +of grace and breeding which sometimes marks the members of our old +English families. Very much like Cyril, too, Guy thought to himself, +in a flash of intuition; very much like Cyril, the way he raised +his hat and then smiled urbanely on Mrs. Clifford and Elma. But +it was Cyril grown old and prematurely white, and filled full with +the grave haughtiness of an honoured aristocrat. + +"Why, here's Colonel Kelmscott!" Mrs. Clifford exclaimed, with a +sigh of relief, not a little set at ease by the timely diversion. +"We're so glad you've come, Colonel. And Lady Emily too; she's over +yonder, is she? Ah, well, I'll look out for her. We heard you were +to be here. Oh, how kind of you; thank you. No, Elma's none the +worse for her adventure, thank Heaven! just a little shaken, that's +all, but not otherwise injured. And this gentleman's the brother +of the kind friend who was so good to her in the tunnel. I'm not +quite sure of the name. I think it's---" + +"Guy Waring," the young man interposed blandly. Hardly any one +who looked at Colonel Kelmscott's eyes could even have perceived +the profound surprise this announcement caused him. He bowed without +moving a muscle of that military face. Guy himself never noticed +the intense emotion the introduction aroused in the distinguished +stranger. But Mrs. Clifford and Elma, each scanning him closely +with those keen grey eyes of theirs, observed at once that, unmoved +as he appeared, a thunderbolt falling at Colonel Kelmscott's feet +could not more thoroughly or completely have stunned him. For a second +or two he gazed in the young man's face uneasily, his colour came +and went, his bosom heaved in silence; then he roped his moustache +with his trembling fingers, and tried in vain to pump up some +harmless remark appropriate to the occasion. But no remark came to +him. Mrs. Clifford darted a furtive glance at Elma, and Elma darted +back a furtive glance at Mrs. Clifford. Neither said a word, and each +let her eyes drop to the ground at once as they met the other's. +But each knew in her heart that something passing strange had +astonished Colonel Kelmscott; and each knew, too, that the other +had observed it. + +Mother and daughter, indeed, needed no spoken words to tell these +things plainly to one another. The deep intuition that descended +to both was enough to put them in sympathy at once without the need +of articulate language. + +"Yes, Mr. Guy Waring," Mrs. Clifford repeated at last, breaking +the awkward silence that supervened upon the group. "The brother +of Mr. Cyril Waring, who was so kind the other day to my daughter +in the tunnel." + +The Colonel started imperceptibly to the naked eye again. + +"Oh, indeed," he said, forcing himself with an effort to speak at +last. "I've read about it, of course; it was in all the papers.... +And--eh--is your brother here, too, this afternoon, Mr. Waring?" + + + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +KELMSCOTT OF TILGATE. + + + + + +To both Elma and her mother this meeting between Colonel Kelmscott +and Guy Waring was full of mystery. For the Kelmscotts, of Tilgate +Park, were the oldest county family in all that part of Surrey; +and Colonel Kelmscott himself passed as the proudest man of that +haughtiest house in Southern England. What, therefore, could have +made him give so curious and almost imperceptible a start the +moment Guy Waring's name was mentioned in conversation? Not a word +that he said, to be sure, implied to Guy himself the depth of his +surprise; but Elma, with her marvellous insight, could see at once, +for all that, by the very haze in his eyes, that he was fascinated +by Guy's personality, somewhat as she herself had been fascinated +the other day in the train by Sardanapalus. Nay, more; he seemed +to wish, with all his heart, to leave the young man's presence, and +yet to be glued to the spot, in spite of himself, by some strange +compulsion. + +It was with a dreamy, far-away tone in his voice that the Colonel +uttered those seemingly simple words, "And is your brother here, +too, this afternoon, Mr. Waring?" + +"Yes, he's somewhere about," Guy answered carelessly. "He'll turn +up by-and-by, no doubt. He's pretty sure to find out, sooner or +later, Miss Clifford's here, and then he'll come round this way to +speak to her." + +For some time they stood talking in a little group by the bench, +Colonel Kelmscott meanwhile thawing by degrees and growing gradually +interested in what Guy had to say, while Elma looked on with a +devouring curiosity. + +"Your brother's a painter, you say," the Colonel murmured once +under that heavy white moustache of his; "yes, I think I remember. +A rising painter. Had a capital landscape in the Grosvenor last +year, I recollect, and another in the Academy this spring, if +I don't mistake--skied--skied, unfairly; yet a very pretty thing, +too; 'At the Home of the Curlews.'" + +"He's painting a sweet one now," Elma put in quickly, "down here, +close by, in Chetwood Forest. He told me about it; it must be +simply lovely--all fern and mosses, with, oh! such a beautiful big +snake in the foreground." + +"I should like to see it," Colonel Kelmscott said slowly, not without +a pang. "If it's painted in the forest--and by your brother, Mr. +Waring--that would give it, to me, a certain personal value." He +paused a moment; then he added, in a little explanatory undertone, +"I'm lord of the manor, you know, at Chetwood; and I shoot the +forest." + +"Cyril would be delighted to let you see the piece when it's finished," +Guy answered lightly. "If you're ever up in town our way--we've rooms +in Staple Inn. I dare say you know it--that quaint, old-fashioned +looking place, with big lattice windows, that overhangs Holborn." + +Colonel Kelmscott started, and drew himself up still taller and +stiffer than before. + +"I may have some opportunity of seeing it some day in one of the +galleries," he answered coldly, as if not to commit himself. "To +tell you the truth, I seldom have time to lounge about in studios. +It was merely the coincidence of the picture being painted in +Chetwood Forest that made me fancy for a moment I might like to +see it. But I'm no connoisseur. Mrs. Clifford, may I take you to +get a cup of tea? Tea, I think, is laid out in the tent behind the +shrubbery." + +It was said in a tone to dismiss Guy politely; and Guy, taking +the hint, accepted it as such, and fell back a pace or two to his +garrulous old lady. But before Colonel Kelmscott could walk off +Mrs. Clifford and her daughter to the marquee for refreshments, +Elma gave a sudden start, and blushed faintly pink through that +olive-brown skin of hers. + +"Why, there's MY Mr. Waring!" she exclaimed, in a very pleased tone, +holding out her hand, with a delicious smile; and as she said it, +Cyril and Montague Nevitt strolled up from behind a great clump of +lilacs beside them. + +Two pairs of eyes watched those young folks closely as they shook +hands once more--Guy's and Mrs. Clifford's. Guy observed that +a little red spot rose on Cyril's cheek he had rarely seen there, +and that his voice trembled slightly as he said, "How do you do?" +to his pretty fellow-traveller of the famous adventure. Mrs. +Clifford observed that the faint pink faded out of the olive-brown +skin as Elma took Cyril Waring's hand in hers, and that her face +grew pale for three minutes afterwards. And Colonel Kelmscott, +looking on with a quietly observant eye, remarked to himself that +Cyril Waring was a very creditable young man indeed, as handsome +as Guy, and as like as two peas, but if anything perhaps even a +trifle more pleasing. + +For the rest of that afternoon, they six kept constantly together. + +Elma noted that Colonel Kelmscott was evidently ill at ease; a +thing most unusual with that proud, self-reliant aristocrat. He +held himself, to be sure, as straight and erect as ever, and moved +about the grounds with that same haughty air of perfect supremacy, +as of one who was monarch of all he surveyed in the county of Surrey. +But Elma could see, for all that, that he was absent-minded and +self-contained; he answered all questions in a distant, unthinking +way; some inner trouble was undoubtedly consuming him. His eyes +were all for the two Warings. They glanced nervously right and left +every minute in haste, but returned after each excursion straight +to Guy and Cyril. The Colonel noted narrowly all they said and +did; and Elma was sure he was very much pleased at least with her +painter. How could he fail to be, indeed?--for Mr. Waring was +charming. Elma wished she could have strolled off with him about +the lawn alone, were it only ten paces in front of her mother. +But somehow the fates that day were unpropitious. The party held +together as by some magnetic bond, and Mrs. Clifford's eye never +for one moment deserted her. + +The Colonel glowered. The Colonel was moody. His speech was curt. +He occupied himself mainly in listening to Guy and Cyril. A sort +of mesmeric influence seemed to draw him towards the two young men. + +He drew them out deliberately. Yet the start he had given as either +young man came up towards his side was a start, not of mere neutral +surprise, but of positive disinclination and regret at the meeting. +Nay, even now he was angling hard, with all the skill of a strategist, +to keep the Warings out of Lady Emily's way. But the more he talked +to them, the more interested he seemed. It was clear he meant to +make the most of this passing chance--and never again, if he could +help it, Elma felt certain, to see them. + +Once, and once only, Granville Kelmscott, his son, strolled casually +up and joined the group by pure chance for a few short minutes. +The heir of Tilgate Park was tall and handsome, though less so than +his father; and Mrs. Clifford was not wholly indisposed to throw +him and Elma together as much as possible. Younger by a full year +than the two Warings, Granville Kelmscott was not wholly unlike +them in face and manner. As a rule, his father was proud of him, +with a passing great pride, as he was proud of every other Kelmscott +possession. But to-day, Elma's keen eye observed that the Colonel's +glance moved quickly in a rapid dart from Cyril and Guy to his son +Granville, and back again from his son Granville to Guy and Cyril. +What was odder still, the hasty comparison seemed to redound not +altogether to Granville's credit. The Colonel paused, and stifled +a sigh as he looked; then, in spite of Mrs. Clifford's profound +attempts to retain the heir by her side, he sent the young man off +at a moment's notice to hunt up Lady Emily. Now why on earth did +he want to keep Granville and the Warings apart? Mrs. Clifford and +Elina racked their brains in vain; they could make nothing of the +mystery. + +It was a long afternoon, and Elma enjoyed it, though she never got +her tete-a-tete after all with Cyril Waring. Just a rapid look, a +dart from the eyes, a faint pressure of her hand at parting--that +was all the romance she was able to extract from it, so closely +did Mrs. Clifford play her part as chaperon. But as the two young +men and Montague Nevitt hurried off at last to catch their train +back to town, the Colonel turned to Mrs. Clifford with a sigh of +relief. + +"Splendid young fellows, those," he exclaimed, looking after them. +"I'm not sorry I met them. Ought to have gone into a cavalry regiment +early in life; what fine leaders they'd have made, to be sure, in +a dash for the guns or a charge against a battery! But they seem +to have done well for themselves in their own way: carved out their +own fortunes, each after his fashion. Very plucky young fellows. +One of them's a painter, and one's a journalist; and both of them +are making their mark in their own world. I really admire them." + +And on the way to the station, that moment, Mr. Montague Nevitt, +as he lit his cigarette, was saying to Cyril, with an approving +smile, "Your Miss Clifford's pretty." + +"Yes," Cyril answered drily, "she's not bad looking. She looked +her best to-day. And she's capital company." + +But Guy broke out unabashed into a sudden burst of speech. + +"Not bad looking!" he cried contemptuously. "Is that all you have +to say of her? And you a painter, too! Why, she's beautiful! She's +charming! If Cyril was shut up in a tunnel with HER---" + +He broke off suddenly. + +And for the rest of the way home he spoke but seldom. It was all +too true. The two Warings were cast in the self-same mould. What +attracted one, it was clear, no less surely and certainly attracted +the other. + +As they went to their separate rooms in Staple Inn that night, +Guy paused for a moment, candle in hand, by his door, and looked +straight at Cyril. + +"You needn't fear ME," he said, in a very low tone. "She's yours. +You found her. I wouldn't be mean enough for a minute to interfere +with your find. But I'm not surprised at you. I would do the same +myself, if I could have seen her first. I won't see her again. I +couldn't stand it. She's too beautiful to see and not to fall in +love with." + + + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +ELMA BREAKS OUT. + + + + + +Mrs. Clifford returned from Chetwood Court that clay in by no means +such high spirits as when she went there. In the first place, she +hadn't succeeded in throwing Elma and Granville Kelmscott into one +another's company at all, and in the second place Elma had talked +much under her very nose, for half-an-hour at a stretch, with the +unknown young painter fellow. When Elma was asked out anywhere +else in the country for the next six weeks or so, Mrs. Clifford +made up her mind strictly to inquire in private, before committing +herself to an acceptance, whether that dangerous young man was +likely or not to be included in the party. + +For Mrs. Clifford admitted frankly to herself that Cyril was +dangerous; as dangerous as they make them. He was just the right +age; he was handsome, he was clever, his tawny brown beard had the +faintest little touch of artistic redness, and was trimmed and +dressed with provoking nicety. He was an artist too; and girls +nowadays, you know, have such an unaccountable way of falling in +love with men who can paint, or write verses, or play the violin, +or do something foolish of that sort, instead of sticking fast to +the solid attractions of the London Stock Exchange or of ancestral +acres. + +Mrs. Clifford confided her fears that very night to the sympathetic +ear of the Companion of the Militant and Guardian Saints of the +British Empire. + +"Reginald," she said solemnly, "I told you the other day, when you +asked about it, Elma wasn't in love. And at the time I was right, +or very near it. But this afternoon I've had an opportunity of +watching them both together, and I've half changed my mind. Elma +thinks a great deal too much altogether, I'm afraid, about this +young Mr. Waring." + +"How do you know?" Mr. Clifford asked, staring her hard in the +face, and nodding solemnly. + +The British matron hesitated. "How do I know anything?" she answered +at last, driven to bay by the question. "I never know how. I only +know I know it. But whatever we do we must be careful not to let +Elma and the young man get thrown together again. I should say myself +it wouldn't be a bad plan if we were to send her away somewhere for +the rest of the summer, but I can tell you better about all this +to-morrow." + +Elma, for her part, had come home from Chetwood Court more full +than ever of Cyril Waring. He looked so handsome and so manly that +afternoon at the Holkers'. Elma hoped she'd be asked out where he +was going to be again. + +She sat long in her own bedroom, thinking it over with herself, +while the candle burnt down in its socket very low, and the house +was still, and the rain pattered hard on the roof overhead, and her +father and mother were discussing her by themselves downstairs in +the drawing-room. + +She sat long on her chair without caring to begin undressing. She +sat and mused with her hands crossed on her lap. She sat and thought, +and her thoughts were all about Cyril Waring. + +For more than an hour she sat there dreamily, and told herself over, +one by one, in long order, the afternoon's events from beginning +to the end of them. She repeated every word Cyril had spoken +in her ear. She remembered every glance, every look he had darted +at her. She thought of that faint pressure of his hand as he said +farewell. The tender blush came back to her brown cheek once more +with maidenly shame as she told it all over. He was so handsome +and so nice, and so very, very kind, and, perhaps, after this, she +might never again meet him. Her bosom heaved. She was conscious +of a new sense just aroused within her. + +Presently her heart began to beat more violently. She didn't know +why. It had never beaten in her life like that before--not even in +the tunnel, nor yet when Cyril came up to-day and spoke first to +her. Slowly, slowly, she rose from her seat. The fit was upon her. +Could this be a dream? Some strange impulse made her glide forward +and stand for a minute or two irresolute, in the middle of the room. +Then she turned round, once, twice, thrice, half unconsciously. She +turned round, wondering to herself all the while what this strange +thing could mean; faster, faster, faster, her heart within her +beating at each turn with more frantic haste and speed than ever. +For some minutes she turned, glowing with red shame, yet unable to +stop, and still more unable to say to herself why or wherefore. + +At first that was all. She merely turned and panted. But as she +whirled and whirled, new moods and figures seemed to force themselves +upon her. She lifted her hands and swayed them about above her head +gracefully. She was posturing she knew, but why she had no idea. +It all came upon her as suddenly and as uncontrollably as a blush. +She was whirling around the room, now slow, now fast, but always +with her arms held out lissom, like a dancing-girl's. Sometimes +her body bent this way, and sometimes that, her hands keeping time +to her movements meanwhile in long graceful curves, but all as if +compelled by some extrinsic necessity. + +It was an instinct within her over which she had no control. Surely, +surely, she must be possessed. A spirit that was not her seemed to +be catching her round the waist, and twisting her about, and making +her spin headlong over the floor through this wild fierce dance. +It was terrible, terrible. Yet she could not prevent it. A force +not her own seemed to sustain and impel her. + +And all the time, as she whirled, she was conscious also of some +strange dim need. A sense of discomfort oppressed her arms. She +hadn't everything she required for this solitary orgy. Something +more was lacking her. Something essential, vital. But what on earth +it could be she knew not; she knew not. + +By-and-by she paused, and, as she glanced right and left, the sense +of discomfort grew clearer and more vivid. It was her hands that +were wrong. Her hands were empty. She must have something to fill +them. Something alive, lithe, curling, sinuous. These wavings +and swayings, to this side and to that, seemed so meaningless and +void--without some life to guide them. There was nothing for her +to hold; nothing to tame and subdue; nothing to cling and writhe +and give point to her movements. Oh! heavens, how horrible! + +She drew herself up suddenly, and by dint of a fierce brief effort +of will repressed for awhile the mad dance that overmastered her. +The spirit within her, if spirit it were, kept quiet for a moment, +awed and subdued by her proud determination. Then it began once +more and led her resistlessly forward. She moved over to the chest +of drawers still rhythmically and with set steps, but to the phantom +strain of some unheard low music. The music was running vaguely +through her head all the time--wild Aeolian music--it sounded like +a rude tune on a harp or zither. And surely the cymbals clashed now +and again overhead; and the timbrel rang clear; and the castanets +tinkled, keeping time with the measure. She stood still and listened. +No, no, not a sound save the rain on the roof. It was the music of +her own heart, beating irregularly and fiercely to an intermittent +lilt, like a Hungarian waltz or a Roumanian tarantella. + +By this time, Elina was thoroughly frightened. Was she going mad? +she asked herself, or had some evil spirit taken up his abode within +her? What made her spin and twirl about like this--irresponsibly, +unintentionally, irrepressibly, meaninglessly? Oh, what would her +mother say, if only she knew all? And what on earth would Cyril +Waring think of her? + +Cyril Waring! Cyril Waring! It was all Cyril Waring. And yet, if +he knew--oh, mercy, mercy! + +Still, in spite of these doubts, misgivings, fears, she walked over +towards the chest of drawers with a firm and rhythmical tread, to +the bars of the internal music that rang loud through her brain, +and began opening one drawer after another in an aimless fashion. +She was looking for something--she didn't know what; and she never +could rest now until she'd found it. + +Drawer upon drawer she opened and shut wearily, but nothing that +her eyes fell upon seemed to suit her mood. Dresses and jackets and +underlinen were there; she glanced at them all with a deep sense +of profound contempt; none of these gewgaws of civilized life could +be of any use to supply the vague want her soul felt so dimly and +yet so acutely. They were dead, dead, dead, so close and clinging! +Go further! Go further! At last she opened the bottom drawer of +all, and her eye fell askance upon a feather boa, curled up at the +bottom--soft, smooth, and long; a winding, coiling, serpentine +boa. In a second, she had fallen upon it bodily with greedy hands, +and was twisting it round her waist, and holding it high and low, +and fighting fiercely at times, and figuring with it like a posturant. +Some dormant impulse of her race seemed to stir in her blood, with +frantic leaps and bounds, at its first conscious awakening. She +gave herself up to it wildly now. She was mad. She was mad. She +was glad. She was happy. + +Then she began to turn round again, slowly, slowly, slowly. As she +turned, she raised the boa now high above her head; now held it +low on one side, now stooped down and caressed it. At times, as she +played with it, the lifeless thing seemed to glide from her grasp +in curling folds and elude her; at others, she caught it round the +neck like a snake, and twisted it about her arm, or let it twine +and encircle her writhing body. Like a snake! like a snake! That +idea ran like wildfire through her burning veins. It was a snake, +indeed, she wanted; a real live snake; what would she not have +given, if it were only Sardanapalus! + +Sardanapalus, so glossy, so beautiful, so supple, that glorious green +serpent, with his large smooth coils, and his silvery scales, and +his darting red tongue, and his long lithe movements. Sardanapalus, +Sardanapalus, Sardanapalus! The very name seemed to link itself +with the music in her head. It coursed with her blood. It rang +through her brain. And another as well. Cyril Waring, Cyril Waring, +Cyril Waring, Cyril Waring! Oh! great heavens, what would Cyril +Waring say now, if only he could see her in her mad mood that +moment! + +And yet it was not she, not she, not she, but some spirit, some +weird, some unseen power within her. It was no more she than that +boa there was a snake. A real live snake. Oh, for a real live snake! +And then she could dance--tarantel, tarantella--as the spirit within +her prompted her to dance it. + +"Faster, faster," said the spirit; and she answered him back, +"Faster!" + +Faster, faster, faster, faster she whirled round the room; the +boa grew alive; it coiled about her; it strangled her. Her candle +failed; the wick in the socket flickered and died; but Elma danced +on, unheeding, in the darkness. Dance, dance, dance, dance; never +mind for the light! Oh! what madness was this? What insanity had +come over her? Would her feet never stop? Must she go on till she +dropped? Must she go on for ever? + +Ashamed and terrified with her maidenly sense, overawed and +obscured by this hateful charm, yet unable to stay herself, unable +to resist it, in a transport of fear and remorse, she danced on +irresponsibly. Check herself she couldn't, let her do what she +would. Her whole being seemed to go forth into that weird, wild +dance. She trembled and shook. She stood aghast at her own shame. +She had hard work to restrain herself from crying aloud in her +horror. + +At last, a lull, a stillness, a recess. Her limbs seemed to yield +and give way beneath her. She half fainted with fatigue. She +staggered and fell. Too weary to undress, she flung herself upon +the bed, just as she was, clothes and all. Her overwrought nerves +lost consciousness at once. In three minutes she was asleep, +breathing fast but peacefully. + + + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +AND AFTER? + + + + + +When Elma woke up next morning, it was broad daylight. She woke +with a start, to find herself lying upon the bed where she had flung +herself. For a minute or two she couldn't recollect or recall to +herself how it had all come about. It was too remote from anything +in her previous waking thought, too dream-like, too impossible. Then +an unspeakable horror flashed over her unawares. Her face flushed +hot. Shame and terror overcame her. She buried her head in her hands +in an agony of awe. Her own self-respect was literally outraged. +It wasn't exactly remorse; it wasn't exactly fear; it was a strange +creeping feeling of ineffable disgust and incredulous astonishment. + +There could be but one explanation of this impossible episode. She +must have gone mad all at once! She must be a frantic lunatic! + +A single thought usurped her whole soul. If she was going mad--if +this was really mania--she could never, never, never--marry Cyril +Waring. + +For in a flash of intuition she knew that now. She knew she was in +love. She knew he loved her. + +In that wild moment of awakening all the rest mattered nothing. +The solitary idea that ran now through her head, as the impulse to +dance had run through it last night, was the idea that she could +never marry Cyril Waring. And if Cyril Waring could have seen her +just then! her cheeks burned yet a brighter scarlet at that thought +than even before. One virginal blush suffused her face from chin +to forehead. The maidenly sense of shame consumed and devoured her. + +Was she mad? Was she mad? And was this a lucid interval? + +Presently, as she lay still on her bed all dressed, and with her +face in her hands, trembling for very shame, a little knock sounded +tentatively at the door of her bedroom. It was a timid, small knock, +very low and soft, and, as it were, inquiring. It seemed to say +in an apologetic sort of undertone, "I don't know whether you're +awake or not just yet; and if you're still asleep, pray don't let +me for a moment disturb or arouse you." + +"Who's there?" Elma mustered up courage to ask, in a hushed voice +of terror, hiding her head under the bed-clothes. + +"It's me, darling," Mrs. Clifford answered, very softly and sweetly. +Elma had never heard her mother speak in so tender and gentle a +tone before, though they loved one another well, and were far more +sympathetic than most mothers and daughters. And besides, that +knock was so unlike mamma's. Why so soft and low? + +Had mamma discovered her? With a despairing sense of being caught +she looked down at her tell-tale clothes and the unslept-in bed. + +"Oh, what shall I ever do?" she thought to herself, confusedly. "I +can't let mamma come in and catch me like this. She'll ask why on +earth I didn't undress last night. And then what could I ever say? +How could I ever explain to her?" + +The awful sense of shame-facedness grew upon her still more deeply +than ever. She jumped up and whispered through the door, in a +very penitent voice, "Oh, mother, I can't let you in just yet. Do +you mind waiting five minutes? Come again by-and-by. I--I--I'm so +awfully tired and queer this morning somehow." + +Mrs. Clifford's voice had an answering little ring of terror in +it, as she replied at once, in the same soft tone-- + +"Very well, darling. That's all right. Stay as long as you like. +Don't trouble to get up if you'd rather have your breakfast in bed. +And don't hurry yourself at all. I'll come back by-and-by and see +what's the matter." + +Elma didn't know why, but by the very tone of her mother's voice she +felt dimly conscious something strange had happened. Mrs. Clifford +spoke with unusual gentleness, yet with an unwonted tremor. + +"Thank you, dear," Elma answered through the door, going back to +the bedside and beginning to undress in a tumult of shame. "Come +again by-and-by. In just five minutes." It would do her good, she +knew, in spite of her shyness, to talk with her mother. Then she +folded her clothes neatly, one by one, on a ohair; hid the peccant +boa away in its own lower drawer; buttoned her neat little embroidered +nightdress tightly round her throat; arranged her front hair into +a careless disorder; and tried to cool down her fiery red cheeks +with copious bathing in cold water. When Mrs. Clifford came back +five minutes later, everything looked to the outer eye of a mere +casual observer exactly as if Elma had laid in bed all night, curled +up between the sheets, in the most orthodox fashion. + +But all these elaborate preparations didn't for one moment deceive +the mother's watchful glance, or the keen intuition shared by all +the women of the Clifford family. She looked tenderly at Elma--Elma +with her face half buried in the pillows, and the tell-tale flush +still crimsoning her cheek in a single round spot; then she turned +for a second to the clothes, too neatly folded on the chair by the +bedside, as she murmured low-- + +"You're not well this morning, my child. You'd better not get up. +I'll bring you a cup of tea and some toast myself. You don't feel +hungry, of course. Ah, no, I thought not. Just a slice of dry +toast--yes, yes. I have been there. Some eau de Cologne on your +forehead, dear? There, there, don't cry, Elma. You'll be better +by-and-by. Stop in bed till lunch-time. I won't let Lucy come up +with the tea, of course. You'd rather be alone. You were tired last +night. Don't be afraid, my darling. It'll soon pass off. There's +nothing on earth, nothing at all to be alarmed at." + +She laid her hand nervously on Elma's arm. Half dead with shame as +she was, Elma noticed it trembled. She noticed, too, that mamma +seemed almost afraid to catch her eye. When their glance met for +an instant the mother's eyelids fell, and her cheek, too, burned +bright red, almost as red, Elma felt, as her own that nestled hot +so deep in the pillow. Neither said a word to the other of what +she thought or felt. But their mute sympathy itself made them +more shame-faced than ever. In some dim, indefinite, instinctive +fashion, Elma knew her mother was vaguely aware what she had done +last night. Her gaze fell half unconsciously on the bottom drawer. +With quick insight, Mrs. Clifford's eye followed her daughter's. +Then it fell as before. Elma looked up at her terrified, and burst +into a sudden flood of tears. Her mother stooped down and caught her +wildly in her arms. "Cry, cry, my darling," ahe murmured, clasping +her hard to her breast. "Cry, cry; it'll do you good; there's safety +in crying. Nobody but I shall come near you to-day. Nobody else +shall know! Don't be afraid of me! Have not I been there, too? It's +nothing, nothing." + +With a burst of despair, Elma laid her face in her mother's bosom. +Some minutes later, Mrs. Clifford went down to meet her husband in +the breakfast-room. + +"Well?" the father asked, shortly, looking hard at his wife's face, +which told its own tale at once, for it was white and pallid. + +"Well!" Mrs. Clifford answered, with a pre-occupied air. "Elma's +not herself this morning at all. Had a nervous turn after she went +to her room last night. I know what it is. I suffered from them +myself when I was about her age." Her eyes fell quickly and she +shrank from her husband's searching glance. She was a plump-faced +and well-favoured British matron now, but once, many years before, +as a slim young girl, she had been in love with somebody--somebody +whom by superior parental wisdom she was never allowed to marry, +being put off instead with a well-connected match, young Mr. Clifford +of the Colonial Office. That was all. No more romance than that. +The common romance of every woman's heart. A forgotten love. Yet +she tingled to remember it. + +"And you think?" Mr. Clifford asked, laying down his newspaper and +looking very grave. + +"I don't think. I know," his wife answered hastily. "I was wrong +the other day, and Elma's in love with that young man, Cyril Waring. +I know more than that, Reginald; I know you may crush her; I know +you may kill her; but if you don't want to do that, I know she +must marry him. Whether we wish it, or whether we don't, there's +nothing else to be done. As things stand now, it's inevitable, +unavoidable. She'll never be happy with anybody else--she must have +HIM--and I, for one, won't try to prevent her." + +Mr. Reginald Clifford, C.M.G., sometime Administrator of the +island of St. Kitts, gazed at his wife in blank astonishment. She +spoke decidedly; he had never heard her speak with such firmness +in his life before. It fairly took his breath away. He gazed at +his wife blankly as he repeated to himself in very slow and solemn +tones, each word distinct, "You, for one, won't try to prevent +her!" + +"No, I won't," Mrs. Clifford retorted defiantly, assured in her +own mind she was acting right. "Elma's really in love with him; +and I won't let Elma's life be wrecked--as some lives have been +wrecked, and as some mothers would wreck it." + +Mr. Clifford leaned back in his chair, one mass of astonishment, +and let the Japanese paper-knife he was holding in his right hand +drop clattering from his fingers. "If I hadn't heard you say it +yourself, Louisa," he answered, with a gasp, "I could never have +believed it. I could--never--have--believed it. I don't believe +it even now. It's impossible, incredible." + +"But it's true," Mrs. Clifford repeated. "Elma must marry the man +she's in love with." + +Meanwhile poor Elma lay alone in her bedroom upstairs, that awful +sense of remorse and shame still making her cheeks tingle with +unspeakable horror. Mrs. Clifford brought up her cup of tea herself. +Elma took it with gratitude, but still never dared to look her +mother in the face. Mrs. Clifford, too, kept her own eyes averted. +It made Elma's self-abasement even profounder than before to feel +that her mother instinctively knew everything. + +The poor child lay there long, with a burning face and tingling +ears, too ashamed to get up and dress herself and face the outer +world, too ashamed to go down before her father's eyes, till long +after lunchtime. Then there came a noise at the door once more; +the rustling of a dress; a retreating footstep. Somebody pushed an +envelope stealthily under the door. Elma picked it up and examined +it curiously. It bore a penny stamp, and the local postmark. It +must have come then by the two o'clock delivery, without a doubt; +but the address, why, the address was written in some unknown hand, +and in printing capitals. Elma tore it open with a beating heart, +and read the one line of manuscript it contained, which was also +written in the same print-like letters. + +"Don't be afraid," the letter said, "It will do you no harm. Resist +it when it comes. If you do, you will get the better of it." + +Elma looked at the letter over and over again in a fever of dismay. +She was certain it was her mother had written that note. But she +read it with tears, only half-reassured--and then burnt it to ashes, +and proceeded to dress herself. + +When she went down to the drawing-room, Mrs. Clifford rose from +her seat, and took her hand in her own, and kissed her on one cheek +as if nothing out of the common had happened in any way. The talk +between them was obtrusively commonplace. But all that day long, +Elma noticed her mother was far tenderer to her than usual; and +when she went up to bed Mrs. Clifford held her fingers for a moment +with a gentle pressure, and kissed her twice upon her eyes, and +stifled a sigh, and then broke from the room as if afraid to speak +to her. + + + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +COLONEL KELMSCOTT'S REPENTANCE. + + + + + +Elma Clifford wasn't the only person who passed a terrible night +and suffered a painful awakening on the morning after the Holkers' +garden-party. Colonel Kelmscott, too, had his bad half-hour or so +before he finally fell asleep; and he woke up next day to a sense +of shame and remorse far more definite, and, therefore, more poignant +and more real than Elma's. + +Hour after hour, indeed, he lay there on his bed, afraid to toss or +turn lest he should wake Lady Emily, but with his limbs all fevered +and his throat all parched, thinking over the strange chance that +had thus brought him face to face, on the threshold of his honoured +age, with the two lads he had wronged so long and so cruelly. + +The shock of meeting them had been a sudden and a painful one. To +be sure, the Colonel had always felt the time might come when his +two eldest sons would cross his path in the intricate maze of London +society. He had steeled himself, as he thought, to meet them there +with dignity and with stoical reserve. He had made up his mind +that if ever the names he had imposed upon them were to fall upon +his startled ears, no human being that stood by and looked on should +note for one second a single tremor of his lips, a faint shudder of +surprise, an almost imperceptible flush or pallor on his impassive +countenance. And when the shock came, indeed, he had borne it, as +he meant to bear it, with military calmness. Not even Mrs. Clifford, +he thought, could have discovered from any undertone of his +voice or manner that the two lads he received with such well-bred +unconcern were his own twin sons, the true heirs and inheritors of +the Tilgate Park property. + +And yet, the actual crisis had taken him quite by surprise, and +shaken him far more than he could ever have conceived possible. For +one thing, though he quite expected that some day he would run up +unawares against Guy and Cyril, he did NOT expect it would be down +in the country, and still less within a few miles' drive of Tilgate. +In London, of course, all things are possible. Sooner or later, +there, everybody hustles and clashes against everybody. For that +reason, he had tried to suggest, by indirect means, when he launched +them on the world, that the twins should tempt their fortune in India +or the colonies. He would have liked to think they were well out +of his way, and out of Granville's, too. But, against his advice, +they had stayed on in England. So he expected to meet them some +day, at the Academy private view, perhaps, or in Mrs. Bouverie +Barton's literary saloon, but certainly NOT on the close sward +of the Holkers' lawn, within a few short miles of his own home at +Tilgate. + +And now he had met them, his conscience, that had lain asleep so +long, woke up of a sudden with a terrible start, and began to prick +him fiercely. + +If only they had been ugly, misshapen, vulgar; if only they +had spoken with coarse, rough voices, or irritated him by their +inferior social tone, or shown themselves unworthy to be the heirs +of Tilgate--why then, the Colonel might possibly have forgiven +himself! But to see his own two sons, the sons he had never set +eyes on for twenty-five years or more, grown up into such handsome, +well-set, noble-looking fellows--so clever, so bright, so able, so +charming--to feel they were in every way as much gentlemen born as +Granville himself, and to know he had done all three an irreparable +wrong, oh, THAT was too much for him. For he had kept two of his +sons out of their own all these years, only in order to make the +position and prospects of the third, at last, certainly doubtful, +and perhaps wretched. + +There was much to excuse him to himself, no doubt, he cried to his +own soul piteously in the night watches. Proud man as he was, he +could not so wholly abase himself even to his inmost self as to admit +he had sinned without deep provocation. He thought it all over in +his heart, just there, exactly as it all happened, that simple and +natural tale of a common wrong, that terrible secret of a lifetime +that he was still to repent in sackcloth and ashes, + +It was so long before--all those twenty-six years, or was it +twenty-eight?--since his regiment had been quartered away down in +Devonshire. He was a handsome subaltern then, with a frank open +face--Harry Kelmscott, of the Greys--just such another man, he said +to himself in his remorse, as his son Granville now--or rather, +perhaps, as Guy and Cyril Waring. For he couldn't conceal from +himself any longer the patent fact that Lucy Waring's sons were +like his own old self, and sturdier, handsomer young fellows into +the bargain than Lady Emily Kelmscott's boy Granville, whom he +had made into the heir of the Tilgate manors. The moor, where the +Greys were quartered that summer, was as dull as ditch-water. No +society, no dances, no hunting, no sport; what wonder a man of his +tastes, spoiling for want of a drawing-room to conquer, should have +kept his hand in with pretty Lucy Waring? + +But he married her--he married her. He did her no wrong in the end. +He hadn't that sin at least to lay to his conscience. + +Ah, well, poor Lucy! he had really been fond of her; as fond as +a Kelmscott of Tilgate could reasonably be expected ever to prove +towards the daughter of a simple Dartmoor farmer. It began in +flirtation, of course, as such things will begin; and it ended, as +they will end, too, in love, at least on poor Lucy's side, for what +can you expect from a Kelmscott of Tilgate? And, indeed, indeed, he +said to himself earnestly, he meant her no harm, though he seemed +at times to be cruel to her. As soon as he gathered how deeply she +was entangled--how seriously she took it all--how much she was in +love with him--he tried hard to break it off, he tried hard to put +matters to her in their proper light; he tried to show her that +an officer and a gentleman, a Kelmscott of Tilgate, could never +really have dreamed of marrying the half-educated, half-peasant +daughter of a Devonshire farmer. Though, to be sure, she was a +lady in her way, too, poor Lucy; as much of a lady in manner and in +heart as Emily herself, whose father was an earl, and whose mother +was a marquis's eldest daughter. + +So much a lady in her way, in deed, in thought, and all that--one +of nature's gentlewomen--that when Lucy cried and broke her heart +at his halting explanations, he was unmanned by her sobs, and did +a thing no Kelmscott of Tilgate should ever have stooped to do--yes, +promised to marry her. Of course, he didn't attempt in his own heart +to justify that initial folly, as lie thought it, to himself. He +didn't pretend to condone it. He only allowed he had acted like a +fool. A Kelmscott of Tilgate should have drawn back long before, +or else, having gone so far, should have told the girl plainly--at +whatever cost, to her--he could go no further and have no more to +say to her. + +To be sure, that would have killed the poor thing outright. But a +Kelmscott, you know, should respect his order, and shouldn't shrink +for a moment from these trifling sacrifices! + +However, his own heart was better, in those days, than his class +philosophy. He couldn't trample on poor Lucy Waring. So he made a +fool of himself in the end--and married Lucy. Ah, well! ah, well! +every man makes a fool of himself once or twice in his life; and +though the Colonel was ashamed now of having so far bemeaned his +order as to marry the girl, why, if the truth must out, he would +have been more ashamed still, in his heart of hearts, even then, +if he hadn't married her. He was better than his creed. He could +never have crushed her. + +Married her, yes; but not publicly, of course. At least, he respected +public decency. He married her under his own name, to be sure, but +by special licence, and at a remote little village on the far side +of the moor, where nobody knew either himself or Lucy. In those +days, he hadn't yet come into possession of the Tilgate estates; +and if his father had known of it--well, the Admiral was such +a despotic old man that he'd have insisted on his son's selling +out at once, and going off to Australia or heaven knows where, on +a journey round the world, and breaking poor Lucy's heart by his +absence. Partly for her sake, the Colonel said to himself now +in the silent night, and partly for his own, he had concealed the +marriage--for the time being--from the Admiral. + +And then came that horrible embroilment--oh, how well he remembered +it. Ah me, ah me, it seemed but yesterday--when his father insisted +he was to marry Lady Emily Croke, Lord Aldeburgh's daughter; and +he dared not marry her, of course, having a wife already, and he +dared not tell his father, on the other hand, why he couldn't marry +her. It was a hateful time. He shrank from recalling it. He was +keeping Lucy, then his own wedded wife, as Mrs. Waring, in small +rooms in Plymouth; and yet he was running up to town now and again, +on leave, as the gay young bachelor, the heir of Tilgate Park--and +meeting Emily Croke at every party he went to in London--and braving +the Admiral's wrath by refusing to propose to her. What he would +ever have done if Lucy had lived, he couldn't imagine. But, +there! Lucy DIDN'T live; so he was saved that bother. Poor child, +it brought tears to his eyes even now to think of her. He brushed +them furtively away, lest he should waken Lady Emily. + +And yet it was a shock to him, the night Lucy died. Just then, he +could hardly realize how lucky was the accident. He sat there by +her side, the day the twins were born, to see her safely through +her trouble; for he had always done his duty, after a fashion, by +Lucy. When a girl of that class marries a gentleman, don't you +see, and consents, too, mind you, to marry him privately, she can't +expect to share much of her husband's company. She can't expect +he should stultify himself by acknowledging her publicly before +his own class. And, indeed, he always meant to acknowledge her in +the end--after his father's death, when there was no fear of the +Admiral's cutting off his allowance. + +But how curiously events often turn out of themselves. The twins +were born on a Friday morning, and by the Saturday night, poor Lucy +was lying dead, a pale, sweet corpse, in her own little room, near +the Hoe, at Plymouth. It was a happy release for him though he +really loved her. But still, when a man's fool enough to love a +girl below his own station in life--the Colonel paused and broke +off. It was twenty-seven years ago now, yet he really loved her. +He couldn't find it in his heart even then to indorse to the full +the common philosophy of his own order. + +So there he was left with the two boys on his hands, but free, if +he liked, to marry Lady Emily. No reason on earth, of course, why +he shouldn't marry her now. So, naturally, he married her--after +a fortnight's interval. The Admiral was all smiles and paternal +blessings at this sudden change of front on his son's part. Why the +dickens Harry hadn't wanted to marry the girl before, to be sure +he couldn't conceive; hankering after some missy in the country, +he supposed, that silly rot about what they call love, no doubt; but +now that Harry had come to his senses at last, and taken the Earl's +lass, why, the Admiral was indulgence and munificence itself; the +young people should have an ample allowance, and my daughter-in-law, +Lady Emily, should live on the best that Tilgate and Chetwood could +possibly afford her. + +What would you have? the Colonel asked piteously, in the dead of +night, of his own conscience. How else could he have acted? He said +nothing. That was all, mind you, he declared to himself more than +once in his own soul. He told no lies. He made no complications. +While the Admiral lived, he brought up Lucy's sons, quite privately, +at Plymouth. And as soon as ever the Admiral died, he really and +truly meant to acknowledge them. + +But fathers never die--in entailed estates. The Admiral lived so +long--quite, quite too long for Guy and Cyril. Granville was born, +and grew to be a big boy, and was treated by everybody as the heir +to Tilgate. And now the Colonel's difficulties gathered thicker +around him. At last, in the fulness of time, the Admiral died, and +slept with his fathers, whose Elizabethan ruff's were the honour +and glory of the chancel at Tilgate; and then the day of reckoning +was fairly upon him. How well he remembered that awful hour. He +couldn't, he couldn't. He knew it was his duty to acknowledge his +rightful sons and heirs, but he hadn't the courage. Things had all +altered so much. + +Meanwhile, Guy and Cyril had gone to Charterhouse as nobody's +wards, and been brought up in the expectation of earning their +own livelihood, so no wrong, he said casuistically, had been done +to THEM, at any rate. And Granville had been brought up as the +heir of Tilgate. Lady Emily naturally expected her son to succeed +his father. He had gone too far to turn back at last. And yet-- + +And yet, in his own heart, disguise it as he might, he knew he was +keeping his lawful sons out of their own in the end, and it was +his duty to acknowledge them as the heirs of Tilgate. + + + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +A FAMILY JAR. + + + + + +Hour after hour the unhappy man lay still as death on his bed and +reasoned in vain with his accusing conscience. To be sure, he said +to himself, no man was bound by the law of England to name his +heir. It is for the eldest son himself to come forward and make +his claim. If Guy and Cyril could prove their title to the Tilgate +estates when he himself was dead, that was their private business. +He wasn't bound to do anything special to make the way easy for +them beforehand. + +But still, when he saw them, his heart arose and smote him. His +very class prejudices fought hard on their behalf. These men were +gentlemen, the eldest sons of a Kelmscott of Tilgate--true Kelmscotts +to the core--handsome, courtly, erect of bearing. Guy was the very +image of the Kelmscott of Tilgate Park who bled for King Charles +at Marston Moor; Cyril had the exact mien of Sir Rupert Kelmscott, +Knight of Chetwood, the ablest of their race, whose portrait, by +Kneller, hung in the great hall between his father; the Admiral, +and his uncle, Sir Frederick. They had all the qualities the Colonel +himself associated with the Kelmscott name. They were strong, brave, +vigorous, able to hold their own against all comers. To leave them +out in the cold was not only wrong--it was also, he felt in his +heart of hearts, a treason to his order. + +At last, after long watching, he fell asleep. But he slept uneasily. +When he woke, it was with a start. He found himself murmuring to +himself in his troubled sleep, "Break the entail, and settle a sum +on the two that will quiet them." + +It was the only way left to prevent public scandal, and to save +Lady Emily and his son Granville from a painful disclosure: while, +at the same time, it would to some extent satisfy the claims of +his conscience. + +Compromise, compromise; there's nothing like compromise. Colonel +Kelmscott had always had by temperament a truly British love of +compromise. + +To carry out his plan, indeed, it would be necessary to break the +entail twice; once formally, and once again really. He must begin +by getting Granville's consent to the proposed arrangement, so as +to raise ready money with which to bribe the young men; and as soon +as Granville's consent was obtained, he must put it plainly to Guy +and Cyril, as an anonymous benefactor, that if they would consent +to accept a fixed sum in lieu of all contingencies, then the secret +of their birth would be revealed to them at last, and they would +be asked to break the entail on the estates as eldest sons of a +gentleman of property. + +It was a hard bargain; a very hard bargain; but then these boys +would jump at it, no doubt; expecting nothing as they did, they'd +certainly jump at it. It's a great point, you see, to come in +suddenly, when you expect nothing, to a nice lump sum of five or +six thousand! + +So much so, indeed, that the real difficulty, he thought, would +rather lie in approaching Granville. + +After breakfast that morning, however, he tapped his son on +the shoulder as he was leaving the table, and said to him, in his +distinctly business tone, "Granville, will you step with me into +the library for ten minutes' talk? There's a small matter of the +estate I desire to discuss with you." + +Granville looked back at him with a curiously amused air. + +"Why, yes," he said shortly. "It's a very odd coincidence. But do +you know, I was going this morning myself to ask for a chance of +ten minutes' talk with you." + +He rose, and followed his father into the oak-panelled library. +The Colonel sat down on one of the uncomfortable library chairs, +especially designed, with their knobs and excrescences, to prevent +the bare possibility of serious study. Granville took a seat opposite +him, across the formal oak table. Colonel Kelmscott paused; and +cleared his throat nervously. Then, with military promptitude, he +darted straight into the very thick of the fray. + +"Granville," he said abruptly, "I want to speak with you about a +rather big affair. The fact of it is, I'm going to break the entail. +I want to raise some money." + +The son gave a little start of surprise and amusement. "Why, +this is very odd," he exclaimed once more, in an astonished tone. +"That's just the precise thing I wanted to talk about with you." + +Colonel Kelmscott eyed him with an answering start. + +"Not debts!" he said slowly. "My boy, my boy, this is bad. Not +debts surely, Granville; I never suspected it." + +"Oh, dear no," Granville answered frankly. "No debts, you may be +sure. But I wanted to feel myself on a satisfactory basis--as to +income and so forth: and I was prepared to pay for my freedom well. +To tell you the truth outright, I want to marry." + +Colonel Kelmscott eyed him close with a very puzzled look. "Not +Elma Clifford, my boy," he said again quickly. "For of course, if +it is her, Granville, I need hardly say--" + +The young man cut him short with a hasty little laugh. "Elma +Clifford," he repeated, with some scorn in his musical voice, "Oh, +dear no, not HER. If it had been her you may be sure there'd be no +reason of any sort for breaking the entail. But the fact is this: +I dislike allowances one way or the other. I want to feel once for +all I'm my own master. I want to marry--not this girl or that, +but whom ever I will. I don't care to coine to you with my hat in +my hand, asking how much you'll be kind enough to allow me if I +venture to take Miss So-and-so or Miss What-you-may-call-it. And +as I know you want money yourself for this new wing you're thinking +of, why, I'm prepared to break the entail at once, and sell whatever +building land you think right and proper." + +The father held his breath. What on earth could this mean? "And +who is the girl, Granville?" he asked, with unconcealed interest. + +"You won't care to hear," his son answered carelessly. + +Colonel Kelmscott looked across at him with a very red face. "Not +some girl who'll bring disgrace upon your mother, I hope?" he said, +with a half-pang of remorse, remembering Lucy. "Not some young +woman beneath your own station in life. For to that, you may be +sure, I'll never consent under any circumstances." + +Granville drew himself up proudly, with a haughty smile. He was a +Kelmscott, too, as arrogant as the best of them. + +"No, that's not the difficulty," he answered, looking rather +amused than annoyed or frightened. "My tastes are NOT low. I hope +I know better than to disgrace my family. The lady I want to marry, +and for whose sake I wish you to make some arrangement beforehand +is--don't be surprised--well, Gwendoline Gildersleeve." + +"Gwendoline Gildersleeve," his father echoed, astonished; for +there was feud between the families, "That rascally, land-grabbing +barrister's daughter! Why, how on earth do you come to know anything +of her, Granville? Nobody in Surrey ever had the impertinence yet +to ask me or mine to meet the Gildersleeves anywhere, since that +disgraceful behaviour of his about the boundary fences. And I didn't +suppose you'd ever even seen her." + +"Nobody in Surrey ever did ask me to meet her," Granville answered +somewhat curtly. "But you can't expect every one in London society +to keep watch over the quarrels of every country parish in provincial +England! It wouldn't be reasonable. I met Gwendoline, if you want +to know, at the Bertrams', in Berkeley Square, and she and I got +on so well together that we've--well, we've met from time to time +in the Park, since our return from town, and we think by this time +we may consider ourselves informally engaged to one another." + +Colonel Kelmscott gazed at his son in a perfect access of indignant +amazement. Gilbert Gildersleeve's daughter! That rascally Q.C.'s! +At any other moment such a proposal would have driven him forthwith +into open hostilities. If Granville chose to marry a girl like that, +why, Granville might have lived on what his father would allow him. + +Just now, however, with this keen fit of remorse quite fresh upon +his soul about poor Lucy's sons, Colonel Kelmscott was almost +disposed to accept the opening thus laid before him by Granville's +proposal. + +So he temporized for awhile, nursing his chin with his hand, +and then, after much discussion, yielded at last a conditional +consent--conditional upon their mutual agreement as to the terms +on which the entail was to be finally broken. + +"And what sort of arrangement do you propose I should make for your +personal maintenance, and this Gildersleeve girl's household?" the +Colonel asked at length, with a very red face, descending to details. + +His son, without appearing to notice the implied slight to Gwendoline, +named the terms that he thought would satisfy him. + +"That's a very stiff sum," the master of Tilgate retorted; "but +perhaps I could manage it; per--haps I could manage it. We must +sell the Dowlands farm at once, that's certain, and I must take the +twelve thousand or so the land will fetch for my own use, absolutely +and without restriction." + +"To build the new wing with?" the son put in, with a gesture of +assent. + +"To build the new wing with? Why, certainly not," his father answered +angrily. "Am I to bargain with my son what use I'm to make of my +own property? Mark my words, I won't submit to interference. To +do precisely as I choose with, sir. To roll in if I like! To fling +into the sea, if the fancy takes me!" + +Granville Kelmscott stared hard at him. Twelve thousand pounds! What +on earth could his father mean by this whim? he wondered. "Twelve +thousand pounds is a very big sum to fling away from the estate +without a question asked," he retorted, growing hot "It seems to me, +you too closely resemble our ancestors who came over from Holland. +In matters of business, you know, the fault of the Dutch is giving +too little and asking too much." + +His father glared at him. That's the worst of this huckstering and +higgling with your own flesh and blood. You have to put up with +such intolerable insults. But he controlled himself, and continued. +The longer he talked, however, the hotter and angrier he became by +degrees. And what made him the hottest and angriest of all was the +knowledge meanwhile that he was doing it every bit for Granville's +own sake; nay, more, that consideration for Granville alone had +brought him originally into this peck of trouble. + +At last he could contain himself with indignation no longer. His +temper broke down. He flared up and out with it. "Take care what +you do!" he cried. "Take care what you say, Granville! I'm not +going to be bearded with impunity in my den. If you press me too +hard, remember, I'll ruin all. I can cut you off with a shilling, +sir, if I choose--cut you off with a shilling. Yes, and do justice +to others I've wronged for your sake. Don't provoke me too far, I +say, If you do, you'll repent it." + +"Cut me off with a shilling, sir!" his son answered angrily, rising +and staring hard at him. "Why, what do you mean by that? You know +you can't do it, My interest in the estate's as good as your own. +I'm the eldest son--" + +He broke off suddenly; for at those fatal words, Colonel Kelmscott's +face, fiery red till then, grew instantly blanched and white with +terror. "Oh, what have I done?" the unhappy man cried, seeing his +son's eyes read some glimpse of the truth too clearly in his look. +"Oh, what have I said? Forget it, Granny, forget it! I didn't mean +to go so far as I did in my anger. I was a fool--a fool! I gave +way too much. For Heaven's sake, my boy, forget it, forget it!" + +The young man looked across at him with a dazed and puzzled look, +yet very full of meaning. "I shall never forget it," he said slowly. +"I shall learn what it means. I don't know how things stand; but I +see you meant it. Do as you like about the entail. It's no business +of mine. Take your pound of flesh, your twelve thousand down, +and pay your hush-money! I don't know whom you bribe, and I have +nothing to say to it. I never dragged the honour of the Kelmscotts +in the dust. I won't drag it now. I wash my hands clean from it. I +ask no questions. I demand no explanations. I only say this. Until +I know what you mean--know whether I'm lawful heir to Tilgate Park +or not, I won't marry the girl I meant to marry. I have too much +regard for her, and for the honour of our house, to take her on +what may prove to be false expectations. Break the entail, I say! +Raise your twelve thousand. Pay off your bloodhounds. But never +expect me to touch a penny of your money, henceforth and for ever, +till I know whether it was yours and mine at all to deal with." + +Colonel Kelmscott bent down his proud head meekly. "As you will, +Granville," he answered, quite broken with remorse, and silenced +by shame. "My boy, my boy, I only wanted to save you!" + + + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +IN SILENCE AND TEARS. + + + + + +When he had time to think, Colonel Kelmscott determined in his +own mind that he would still do his best to save Granville, whether +Granville himself wished it or otherwise. So he proceeded to take +all the necessary steps for breaking the entail and raising the +money he needed for Guy and Cyril. + +In all this, Granville neither acquiesced nor dissented. He +signed mechanically whatever documents his father presented to him, +and he stood by his bargain with a certain sullen, undeviating, +hard-featured loyalty; but he never forgot those few angry words +in which his father had half let out his long-guarded life secret. + +Thinking the matter over continually with himself, however, he came +in the end to the natural conclusion that one explanation alone +would fit all the facts. He was not his father's eldest son at all. +Colonel Kelmscott must have been married to some one else before +his marriage with Lady Emily. That some one else's son was the +real heir of Tilgate. And it was to him that his father, in his +passionate penitence, proposed, after many years, to do one-sided +justice. Now Granville Kelmscott, though a haughty and somewhat +head-strong fellow, after the fashion of his race, was a young man +of principle and of honour. The moment this hideous doubt occurred +to his mind, he couldn't rest in his bed till he had cleared it +all up and settled it for ever, one way or the other. If Tilgate +wasn't his, by law and right, he wanted none of it. If his father +was trying to buy off the real heir to the estate with a pitiful +pittance, in order to preserve the ill-gotten remainder for Lady +Emily's son, why, Granville for his part would be no active party +to such a miserable compromise. If some other man was the Colonel's +lawful heir, let that other man take the property and enjoy it; but +he, Granville Kelmscott, would go forth upon the world, an honest +adventurer, to seek his fortune with his own right hand wherever +he might find it. + +Still, he could take no active step, on the other hand, to hunt +up the truth about the Colonel's real or supposed first marriage. +For here an awful dilemma blocked the way before him. If the Colonel +had married before, and if by that former marriage he had a son or +sons--how could Granville be sure the supposed first wife was dead +before the second was married? And supposing, for a moment, she +was not dead--supposing his father had been even more criminal and +more unjust than he at first imagined--how could he take the initiative +himself in showing that his own mother, Lady Emily Kelmscott, was +no wife at all in the sight of the law? that some other woman was +his father's lawful consort? The bare possibility of such an issue +was too horrible for any son on earth to face undismayed. So, +tortured and distracted by his divided duty, Granville Kelmscott +shrank alike from action or inaction. + +In the midst of such doubts and difficulties, however, one duty +shone out clear as day before him. Till the mystery was cleared +up, till the problem was solved, he must see no more of Gwendoline +Gildersleeve. He had engaged himself to her as the heir of Tilgate. +She had accepted him under that guise, and looked forward to an +early and happy marriage. Now, all was changed. He was, or might +be, a beggar and an outcast. To be sure, he knew Gwendoline loved +him for himself; but how could he marry her if he didn't even know +he had anything of his own in the world to marry upon? The park +and fallow deer had been a part of himself; without them, he felt +he was hardly even a Kelmscott. It was his plain duty, now, for +Gwendoline's sake, to release her from her promise to a man who +might perhaps be penniless, and who couldn't even feel sure he was +the lawful son of his own father. And yet--for Lady Emily's sake--he +mustn't hint, even to Gwendoline, the real reason which moved him +to offer her this release. He must throw himself upon her mercy, +without cause assigned, and ask her for the time being to have +faith in him and to believe him. + +So, a day or two after the interview with his father in the library, +the self-disinherited heir of Tilgate took the path through the +glade that led into the dell beyond the boundary fence--that dell +which had once been accounted a component part of Tilgate Park, +but which Gilbert Gildersleeve had proved, in his cold-blooded +documentary legal way, to belong in reality to the grounds +of Woodlands. It was in the dell that Granville sometimes ran up +against Gwendoline. He sat down on the broken ledge of ironstone +that overhung the little brook. It was eleven o'clock gone. By +eleven o'clock, three mornings in the week, chance--pure chance--the +patron god of lovers, brought Gwendoline into the dell to meet him. + +Presently, a light footfall rang soft upon the path, and next +moment a tall and beautiful girl, with a wealth of auburn hair, and +a bright colour in her cheeks, tripped lightly down the slope, as +if strolling through the wood in maiden meditation, fancy free, +unexpecting any one. + +"What, you here, Mr. Kelmscott?" she exclaimed, as she saw him, +her pink cheek deepening as she spoke to a still profounder crimson. + +"Yes, I'm here, Gwendoline," Granville Kelmscott answered, with +a smile of recognition at her maidenly pretence of an undesigned +coincidence. "And I'm here, to say the truth, because I quite +expected this morning to meet you." + +He took her hand gravely. Gwendoline let her eyes fall modestly +on the ground, as if some warmer greeting were more often bestowed +between them. The young man blushed with a certain manly shame. +"No, not to-day, dear," he said, with an effort, as she held her +cheek aside, half courting and half deprecating the expected kiss. +"Oh, Gwendoline, I don't know how to begin. I don't know how to say +it. But I've got very sad news for you--news that I can't bear to +break--that I can't venture to explain--that I don't even properly +understand myself. I must throw myself upon your faith. I must just +ask you to trust me." + +Gwendoline let him seat her, unresisting, upon the ledge by his +side, and her cheek grew suddenly ashy pale, as she answered with +a gasp, forgetting the "Mr. Kelmscott" at this sudden leap into +the stern realities of life, "Why, Granville, what do you mean? +You know I can trust you. You know, whatever it may be, I believe +you implicitly." + +The young man took her hand in his with a tender pressure. It was +a terrible message to have to deliver. He bungled and blundered +on, with many twists and turns, through some inarticulate attempt at +an indefinite explanation. It wasn't that he didn't love her--oh, +devotedly, eternally, she must know that well; she never could doubt +it. It wasn't that any shadow had arisen between him and her, it +wasn't anything he could speak about, or anything she must say to +any soul on earth--oh, for his mother's sake, he hoped and trusted +she would religiously keep his secret inviolate! But something had +happened to him within the last few days--something unspeakable, +indefinite, uncertain, vague, yet very full of the most dreadful +possibilities; something that might make him unable to support a +wife; something that at least must delay or postpone for an unknown +time the long-hoped-for prospect of his claiming her and marrying +her. Some day, perhaps--he broke off suddenly, and looked with a +wistful look into her deep grey eyes. His resolution failed him. +"One kiss," he said, "Gwendoline!" His voice was choking. The +beautiful girl, turning towards him with a wild sob, fell, yielding +herself on his breast, and cried hot tears of joy at that evident +sign that, in spite of all he said, he still really loved her. + +They sat there long, hand in hand, and eye on eye, talking it all +over, as lovers will, with infinite delays, yet getting no nearer +towards a solution either way. Gwendoline, for her part, didn't +care, of course--what true woman does?--whether Granville was the +heir of Tilgate or not; she would marry him all the more, she said, +if he were a penniless nobody. All she wanted was to love him and +be near him. Let him marry her now, marry her to-day, and then go +where he would in the world to seek his livelihood. But Granville, +poor fellow, alarmed at the bare suggestion--for his mother's +sake--that Tilgate might really not be his, checked her at once +in her outburst with a grave, silent look; he was still, he said +calmly, the inheritor of Tilgate. It wasn't that. At least, not +as she took it. He didn't know precisely what it was himself. She +must have faith in him and trust him. She must wait and see. In +the end, he hoped, he would come back and marry her. + +And Gwendoline made answer, with many tears, that she knew it was +so, and that she loved him and trusted him. So, after sitting there +long, hand locked in hand, and heart intent on heart, the two young +people rose at last to go, protesting and vowing their mutual love +on either side, as happy and as miserable in their divided lives +as two young people in all England that moment. Over and over again +they kissed and said good-bye; then they stood with one another's +fingers clasped hard in their own, unwilling to part, and unable to +loose them. After that, they kissed again, and declared once more +they were broken-hearted, and could never leave one another. But +still, Granville added, half aside, he must make up his mind not to +see Gwendoline again--honour demanded that sacrifice--till he could +come at last a rich man to claim her. Meanwhile, she was free; and +he--he was ever hers, devotedly, whole-souledly. But they were no +longer engaged. He was hers in heart only. Let her try to forget +him. He could never forget her. + +And Gwendoline, sobbing and tearful, but believing him implicitly, +retreated with slow steps, looking back at each turn of the zigzag +path, and sending the ghosts of dead kisses from her finger-tips +to greet him. + +Below in the dell Granville stood still, and watched her depart in +breathless silence. Then, in an agony of despair, he flung himself +down on the ground and burst into tears, and sobbed like a child +over his broken daydream. + +Gwendoline, coming back to make sure, saw him lying and sobbing +so; and, woman-like, felt compelled to step down just one minute +to comfort him. Granville in turn refused her proffered comfort--it +was better so--he mustn't listen to her any more; he must steel +himself to say No; he must remember it was dishonourable of him +to drag a delicately nurtured girl into a penniless marriage. Then +they kissed once more and made it all up again; and they sobbed and +wept as before, and broke it off for ever; and they said good-bye +for the very last time; and they decided they must never meet till +Granville came back; and they hoped they would sometimes catch +just a glimpse of one another in the outer world, and whatever the +other one said or did, they would each in their hearts be always +true to their first great love; and they were more miserable still, +and they were happier than they had ever been in their lives before; +and they parted at last, with a desperate effort, each perfectly +sure of the other's love, and each vowing in soul they would never, +never see one another again, but each, for all that, perfectly +certain that some day or other they would be husband and wife, +though Tilgate and the wretched little fallow deer should sink, +unwept, to the bottom of the ocean. + + + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +BUSINESS FIRST. + + + + + +The manager at Messrs. Drummond, Coutts and Barclay's, Limited, +received Colonel Kelmscott with distinguished consideration. +A courteous, conciliatory sort of man, that manager, with his +close-shaven face and his spotless shirt-front. + +"Five minutes, my dear sir?" he exclaimed, with warmth, motioning +his visitor blandly into the leather-covered chair. "Half an hour, +if you wish it. We always have leisure to receive our clients. Any +service we can render them, we're only too happy." + +"But this is a very peculiar bit of business," Colonel Kelmscott +answered, humming and hawing with obvious hesitation. "It isn't +quite in the regular way of banking, I believe. Perhaps, indeed, +I ought rather to have put it into the hands of my solicitor. But, +even if you can't manage the thing yourself, you may be able to put +me in the way of finding out how best I can get it managed elsewhere." + +The manager bowed. His smile was a smile of genuine satisfaction. +Colonel Kelmscott of Tilgate was in a most gracious humour. +The manager, with deference, held himself wholly at his client's +disposition. + +So the Colonel proceeded to unfold his business. There were two +young men, now knocking about town, of the names of Guy and Cyril +Waring--the one a journalist, the other a painter--and they had rooms +in Staple Inn, Holborn, which would doubtless form a sufficient clue +by which to identify them. Colonel Kelmscott desired unobtrusively +to know where these young men banked--if indeed they were in a position +to keep an account; and when that was found out, he wished Messrs. +Drummond, Coutts and Barclay, Limited, to place a sum of money +at their bankers to their credit, without mentioning the name of +the person so placing it, as well as to transmit to them a sealed +envelope, containing instructions as to the use to be made of the +money in question. + +The manager nodded a cautious acquiescence. To place the money to +the credit of the two young men, indeed, would be quite in their +way. But to send the sealed envelope, without being aware of its +contents, or the nature of the business on which it was despatched, +would be much less regular. Perhaps the Colonel might find some other +means of managing without their aid that portion of the business +arrangement. + +The Colonel, for his part, fell in readily enough with this modest +point of view. It amply sufficed for him if the money were paid +to the young men's credit, and a receipt, forwarded to him in due +course, under cover of a number, to the care of the bankers. + +"Very well," the manager answered, rubbing his hands contentedly. +"Our confidential clerk will settle all that for you. A most sagacious +person, our confidential clerk. No eyes, no ears, no tongue for +anything but our clients' interests." + +The Colonel smiled, and sat a little longer, giving further details +as the precise amount he wished sent, and the particular way he +wished to send it--the whole sum to be, in fact, twelve thousand +pounds, amount of the purchase money of the Dowlands farms, whereof +only six thousand had as yet been paid down; and that six thousand +he wished to place forthwith to the credit of Cyril Waring, the +painter. The remaining six thousand, to be settled, as agreed, +in five weeks' time, he would then make over under the self-same +conditions to the other brother, Guy Waring, the journalist. It +had gone a trifle too cheap, that land at Dowlands, the Colonel +opined; but still, in days like these he was very glad, indeed, to +find a purchaser for the place at anything like its value. + +"I think a Miss Ewes was the fortunate bidder, wasn't she?" the +manager asked, just to make a certain decent show of interest in +his client's estate. + +"Yes, Miss Elma Ewes of Kenilworth," the Colonel answered, letting +loose for a moment his tongue, that unruly member. "She's the +composer, you know--writes songs and dances; remotely connected with +Reginald Clifford, the man who was Governor of some West Indian +Dutch-oven--St. Kitts, I think, or Antigua--he lives down our way, +and he's a neighbour of mine at Tilgate. Or rather she's connected +with Mrs. Clifford, the Governor's wife, who was one of the younger +branch, a Miss Ewes of Worthing, daughter of the Ewes who was Dean +of Dorchester. Elma's been a family name for years with all the +lot of Eweses, good, bad, or indifferent. Came down to them, don't +you know, from that Roumanian ancestress." + +"Indeed," the manager answered, now beginning to be really +interested--for the Cliffords were clients too, and it behoves +a banker to know everything about everybody's business. "So Mrs. +Clifford had an ancestress who was a Roumanian, had she? Well, +I've noticed at times her complexion looked very southern and +gipsy-like--distinctly un-English." + +"Oh, they call it Roumanian," Colonel Kelmscott went on in a +confidential tone, roping his white moustache, and growing more +and more conversational; "they call it Roumanian, because it sounds +more respectable; but I believe, if you go right down to the very +bottom of the thing, it was much more like some kind of Oriental +gipsy. Sir Michael Ewes, the founder of the house, in George the +Second's time, was ambassador for awhile at Constantinople. He +began life, indeed, I believe, as a Turkey merchant. Well, at Pera +one day, so the story goes--you'll find it all in Horace Walpole's +diary--he picked up with this dark-skinned gipsy-woman, who was a +wonderful creature in her way, a sort of mesmeric sorceress, who +belonged to some tribe of far eastern serpent charmers. It seems +that women of this particular tribe were regularly trained by the +men to be capering priestesses--or fortune-tellers, if you like--who +performed some extraordinary sacred antics of a mystical kind, +much after the fashion of the howling dervishes. However that may +be, Sir Michael, at any rate, pacing the streets of Pera, saw the +woman that she was passing fair, and fell in love with her outright +at some dervish entertainment. But being a very well-behaved old +man, combining a liking for Orientals with a British taste for the +highest respectability, he had the girl baptized and made into a +proper Christian first; and then he married her off-hand and brought +her home with him as my Lady Ewes to England. She was presented at +Court, to George the Second; and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu stood +her sponsor on the occasion." + +"But how did it all turn out?" the manager asked, with an air of +intelligent historical interest. + +"Turn out? Well, it turned out in a thumping big family of thirteen +children," the Colonel answered; "most of whom, happily for the +father, died young, But the five who survived, and who married at +last into very good connections, all had one peculiarity, which +they transmitted to all their female descendants. Very odd these +hereditary traits, to be sure. Very singular! Very singular!" + +"Ah, to be sure," the manager answered, turning over a pile of +letters. "And what was the hereditary trait handed down, as you +say, in the family of the Roumanian lady?" + +"Why, in the first place," the Colonel continued, leaning back in +his chair, and making himself perfectly comfortable, "all the girls +of the Ewes connection, to the third and fourth generation, have +olive-brown complexions, creamy and soft, but clear as crystal. +Then again, they've all got most extraordinary intuition--a perfectly +marvellous gift of reading faces. By George, sir," the Colonel +exclaimed, growing hot and red at the memory of that afternoon on +the Holkers' lawn, "I don't like to see those women's eyes fixed +upon my cheek when there's anything going on I don't want them to +know. A man's transparent like glass before them. They see into +his very soul. They look right through him." + +"If the lady who founded the family habits was a fortune-teller," +the manager interposed, with a scientific air, "that's not so +remarkable; for fortune-tellers must always be quick-witted people, +keen to perceive the changes of countenance in the dupes who employ +them, and prompt at humouring all the fads and fancies of their +customers, mustn't they?" + +"Quite so," the Colonel echoed. "You've hit it on the nail. And +this particular lady--Esmeralda they call her, so that Elma, which +is short for Esmeralda, understand, has come to be the regular +Christian name among all her women descendants--this particular +lady belonged to what you might call a caste or priestly family, +as it were, of hereditary fortune-tellers, every one of whose +ancestors had been specially selected for generations for the work, +till a kind of transmissible mesmeric habit got developed among +them. And they do say," the Colonel went on, lowering his voice a +little more to a confidential whisper, "that all the girls descended +from Madame Esmeralda--Lady Ewes of Charlwood, as she was in +England--retain to this day another still odder and uncannier mark +of their peculiar origin; but, of course, it's a story that would +be hard to substantiate, though I've heard it discussed more than +once among the friends of the family." + +"Dear me! What's that?" the manager asked, in a tone of marked +curiosity. + +"Why, they do say," the Colonel went on, now fairly launched upon +a piece of after-dinner gossip, "that the eastern snake-dance of +Madame Esmeralda's people is hereditary even still among the women +of the family, and that, sooner or later, it breaks out unexpectedly +in every one of them. When the fit comes on, they shut themselves +up in their own rooms, I've been told, and twirl round and round +for hours like dancing dervishes, with anything they can get in +their hands to represent a serpent, till they fall exhausted with +the hysterical effort. Even if a woman of Esmeralda's blood escapes +it at all other times, it's sure to break out when she first sees +a real live snake, or falls in love for the first time. Then the +dormant instincts of the race come over her with a rush, at the +very dawn of womanhood, all quickened and aroused, as it were, in +the general awakening." + +"That's very curious!" the manager said, leaning back in his chair +in turn, and twirling his thumbs, "very curious indeed; and yet, in +its way, very probable, very probable. For habits like those must +set themselves deep in the very core of the system, don't you think, +Colonel? If this woman, now, was descended from a whole line of +ancestresses, who had all been trained for their work into a sort +of ecstatic fervour, the ecstasy and all that went with it must +have got so deeply ingrained--" + +"I beg your pardon," the Colonel interrupted, consulting his +watch and seizing his hat hastily--for as a Kelmscott, he refused +point-blank to be lectured--"I've an appointment at my club at +half-past three, and I must not wait any longer. Well, you'll get +these young men's address for me, then, at the very earliest possible +opportunity?" + +The manager pocketed the snub, and bowed his farewell. "Oh, +certainly," he answered, trying to look as pleased and gracious as +his features would permit. "Our confidential clerk will hunt them +up immediately. We're delighted to be of use to you. Good morning. +Good morning." + +And as soon as the Colonel's back was turned, the manager rang twice +on his sharp little bell for the confidential clerk to receive +his orders. + +Mr. Montague Nevitt immediately presented himself in answer to the +summons. + +"Mr. Nevitt," the manager said, with a dry, small cough, "here's a +bit of business of the most domestic kind--strict seal of secrecy, +not a word on any account. Colonel Kelmscott of Tilgate wants to +know where two young men, named Guy and Cyril Waring, keep their +banking account, if any; and, as soon as he knows, he wishes to +pay in a substantial sum, quite privately, to their credit." + +Mr. Montague Nevitt bowed a bow of assent; without the faintest +sign of passing recognition. "Guy and Cyril Waring," he repeated to +himself, looking close at the scrap of paper his chief had handed +him; "Guy and Cyril Waring, Staple Inn, Holborn. I can find out +to-day, sir, if you attach any special and pressing importance to +promptitude in the matter." + + + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +MUSIC HATH POWER. + + + + + +For Mr. Montague Nevitt was a cautious, cool, and calculating person. +He knew, better than most of us that knowledge is power. So when +the manager mentioned to him casually in the way of business the +names of Guy and Cyril Waring, Mr. Montague Nevitt didn't respond +at once, "Oh, dear yes; one of them's my most intimate personal +friend, and the other's his brother," as a man of less discretion +might have been tempted to do. For, in the first place, by finding +out, or seeming to find out, the facts about the Warings that very +afternoon, he could increase his character with his employers for +zeal and ability. And, in the second place, if he had let out too +soon that he knew the Warings personally, he might most likely on +that very account have been no further employed in carrying into +execution this delicate little piece of family business. + +So Nevitt held his peace discreetly, like a wise man that he was, +and answered merely, in a most submissive voice, "I'll do my, best +to ascertain where they bank, at once," as if he had never before +in his life heard the name of Waring. + +For the self-same reason, Mr. Montague Nevitt didn't hint that +evening to Guy that he had become possessed during the course of +the day of a secret of the first importance to Guy's fortune and +future. Of course, a man so astute as Montague Nevitt jumped at once +at the correct conclusion, that Colonel Kelmscott must be the two +Warings' father. But he wasn't going to be fool enough to chuck his +chance away by sharing that information with any second person. A +secret is far too valuable a lever in life to be carelessly flung +aside by a man of ambition. And Montague Nevitt saw this secret in +particular was doubly valuable to him. He could use it, wedge-wise, +with both the Warings in all his future dealings, by promising to +reveal to one or other of them a matter of importance and probable +money-value, and he could use it also as a perpetual threat to +hold over Colonel Kelmscott, if ever it should be needful to extort +blackmail from the possessor of Tilgate, or to thwart his schemes +by some active interference. + +So when Nevitt strolled round about nine o'clock that night to +Staple Inn, violin-case in hand, and cigarette in mouth, he gave +not a sign of the curious information he had that day acquired, to +the person most interested in learning the truth as to the precise +genealogy of the Waring family. + +There was no great underlying community of interests between the +clever young journalist and his banking companion. A common love for +music was the main bond of union between the two men. Yet Montague +Nevitt exercised over Guy a strange and fatal fascination which +Cyril always found positively unaccountable. And on this particular +evening, as Nevitt stood swaying himself to and fro upon the hearth-rug +before the empty grate, with his eyes half closed, drawing low, +weird music with his enchanted bow from those submissive strings, Guy +leaned back on the sofa and listened, entranced, with a hopeless +feeling of utter inability ever to approach the wizard-like +and supreme execution of that masterly hand and those superhuman +fingers. How he twisted and turned them as though his bones were +india-rubber. His palms were all joints, and his eyes all ecstasy. +He seemed able to do what he liked with his violin. He played on +his instrument, indeed, as he played on Guy--with the consummate +art of a skilful executant. + +"That's marvellous, Nevitt," Guy broke out at last; "never heard +even Sarasate himself do anything quite so wild and weird as that. +What's the piece called? It seems to have something almost impish +or sprite-like in its wailing music. It's Hungarian, of course, or +Polish or Greek; I detect at once the Oriental tinge in it." + +"Wrong for once, my dear boy," Nevitt answered, smiling, "it's +English, pure English, and by a lady what's more--one of the Eweses +of Kenilworth. She's a distant relation of Cyril's Miss Clifford, +I believe. An Elma, too; name runs in the family. But she composes +wonderfully. Everything she writes is in that mystic key. It sounds +like a reminiscence of some dim and lamp-lit eastern temple. The +sort of thing a nautch-girl might bo supposed to compose, to sing +to the clash and clang of cymbals, while she was performing the +snake-dance before some Juggernaut idol!" + +"Exactly," Guy answered, shutting his eyes dreamily. "That's just +the very picture it brings up before my mind's eye--as you render +it, Nevitt. I seem to see vague visions of some vast and dimly-lighted +rock-hewn cavern, with long vistas of pillars cut from the solid +stone, while dark-limbed priestesses, clad in white muslin robes, +swing censers in the foreground to solemn music. Upon my word, +the power of sound is something simply wonderful. There's almost +nothing, I believe, good music wouldn't drive me to--or rather lead +me to; for it sways one and guides even more than it impels one." + +"And yet," Nevitt mused, in slow tones to himself, taking up his +violin again, and drawing his bow over the chords, with half-closed +eyes, in a seemingly listless, aimless manner, "I don't believe +music's your real first love, Guy. You took it up only to be different +from Cyril. The artistic impulse in both of you is the same at +bottom. If you'd let it have it's own way, you'd have taken, not +to this, I'm sure, but to painting. But Cyril painted, so, to make +yourself different, you went in for music. That's you all over! +You always have such a hankering after being what you are not!" + +"Well, hang it all, a man wants to have SOME individuality," Guy +answered apologetically. "He doesn't like to be a mere copy or +repetition of his brother." + +Nevitt reflected quietly to himself that Cyril never wanted to be +different from Guy, his was by far the stronger nature of the two: +he was content to be himself without regard to his brother. But +Nevitt didn't say so. Indeed, why should he? He merely went on +playing a few disconnected bars of a very lively, hopeful utopian +sort of a tune--a tune all youth and health, and go and gaiety--as +he interjected from time to time some brief financial remarks on the +numerous good strokes he'd pulled off of late in his transactions +in the City. + +"Can't do them in my own name, you know," he observed lightly, at +last laying down his bow, and replacing the dainty white rose in his +left top buttonhole. "Not official for a bank EMPLOYE to operate +on the Stock Exchange. The chiefs object to it. So I do my little +ventures in Tom's name instead, my brother-in-law, Tom Whitley's. +Those Cedulas went up another eighth yesterday. Well hit again: I'm +always lucky. And that was a good thing I put you on last week, +too, wasn't it? Did you sell out to-day? They're up at 96, and you +bought in at 80." + +"No, I didn't sell to-day," Guy answered, with a yawn. "I'm holding +on still for a further rise. I thought I'd sell out when they +reached the even hundred." + +"My dear fellow, you're wrong," Nevitt put in eagerly. "You ought +to have sold to-day. It's the top of the market. They'll begin to +decline soon, and when once they begin they'll come down with a +crash, as P.L.'s did on Saturday. You take my advice and sell out +first thing to-morrow morning. You'll clear sixteen pounds on each +of your shares. That's enough for any man. You bought ten shares, +I think, didn't you? Well, there you are, you see; a hundred and +sixty off-hand for you on your bargain." + +Guy paused and reflected a doubtful moment. "Yes, I'll sell out +to-morrow, Nevitt," he said, after a struggle, "or what comes to +the same thing, you can sell out for me. But, do you know, my dear +fellow, I sometimes fancy I'm a fool for my pains, going in for +all this silly speculation. Better stick to my guinea a column in +the Morning Mail. The risks are so great, and the gains so small. +I don't believe outsiders ought to back their luck at all like this +on the Stock Exchange." + +Montague Nevitt acquiesced with cheerful promptitude. "I agree +with you down to the ground," he said, lighting a cigarette, and +puffing away at it vigorously. "Outsiders ought not to back their +luck on the Stock Exchange. That, I take it, is a self-evident +proposition. But the point is, here, that you're not an outsider; +and you don't back your luck, which alters the case, you'll admit, +somewhat. You embark on speculations on my advice only, and I'm in +a position to judge, as well as any other expert in the City of +London, what things are genuine and what things are not worth a +wise man's attention." + +He stretched himself on the sofa with a lazy, luxurious air, and +continued to puff away in silence at his cigarette for another ten +minutes. Then he drew unostentatiously from his pocket a folded +sheet of foolscap paper, printed after the fashion of the common +company prospectus. For a second or two he read it over to himself +in silence, till Guy's curiosity was sufficiently roused by his +mute proceeding. + +"What have you got there?" the journalist asked at last, eyeing it +inquiringly, as the fly eyes the cobweb. + +"Oh, nothing," Nevitfc answered, folding the paper up neatly and +returning it to his pocket. "You've sworn off now, so it does not +concern you. Just the prospectus of a little fresh thing coming +out next week--a very exceptional chance--but you don't want to +go in for it. I mean to apply for three hundred shares myself, I'm +so certain of its success; and I had thought of advising you to +take a hundred and fifty on your own account as well, with that +hundred and fifty you cleared over the Cordova Cattle bonds. They're +ten-pound shares, at a merely nominal price--ten bob on application +and ten on allotment--you could take a hundred and fifty as easy +as look at it. No further calls will ever be made. It's really a +most remarkable investment." + +"Let me see the prospectus," Guy murmured, faltering, the fever +of speculation once more getting the better of him. + +Nevitt pretended to hang back like a man with fine scruples. "It's +the Rio Negro Diamond and Sapphire Mine, Limited," he said, with +a deprecatory air. "But you'd better not go in for it. I expect to +make a pot out of the thing myself. It's a unique occasion. Still, +no doubt you're right, and I don't like the responsibility of +advising any other fellow. Though you can see for yourself what +the promoters say. Very first-class names. And Klink thinks most +highly of it." + +He handed Guy the paper, and took up his violin as if by pure +accident, while Guy scanned it closely. + +The journalist bent over the prospectus with eager eyes, and Nevitt +poured forth strange music as he read, music like the murmur of the +stream of Pactolus. It was an inspiring strain; the violin seemed +to possess the true Midas touch; gold flowed like water in liquid +rills from its catgut. Guy finished, and rose, and dipped a pen +in the ink-pot. "All right," he said low, half hesitating still. +"I'll give you an order to sell out at once, and I'll fill up this +application for three hundred shares--why not three hundred? I may +as well go as many as you do. If it's really such a good thing as +you say, why shouldn't I profit by it? Send this to Klink to-morrow +early; strike while the iron's hot, and get the thing finished." + +Nevitt looked at the paper with an attentive eye. "How curious +it is," he said, regarding the signature narrowly, "that you +and Cyril, who are so much alike in everything else, should write +so differently. I should have expected your hands to be almost +identical." + +"Oh, don't you know why that is?" Guy answered, with an innocent +smile. "I do it on purpose. Cyril writes sloping forward, the +ordinary way, so I slope backward just to prevent confusion. And I +form all my letters as unlike his as I can, though if I follow my +own bent they turn out the same; his way is more natural to me, +in fact, than the way I write myself. But I must do something to +keep our letters apart. That's why we always bank at a different +banker's. If I liked I could write exactly like Cyril. See, here's +his own signature to his letter this morning, and here's my imitation +of it, written off-hand, in my own natural manner. No forger on +earth could ever need anything more absolutely identical." + +Montague Nevitt took it up, and examined it with interest. "Well, +this is wonderful," he said, comparing the two, stroke for stroke, +with the practised eye of an expert. "The signatures are as if +written by the self-same hand. Any cashier in England would accept +your cheque at sight for Cyril's." + +He didn't add aloud that such similarity was very convenient. But, +none the less, in his own mind he thought so. + + + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +THE PATH OF DUTY. + + + + + +Down at Tilgate, meanwhile, Elma Clifford had met more than once +with Cyril Waring at friends' houses around, for ever since the +accident, Society had made up its mind that Elma ought to marry her +companion in the tunnel; and, when Society once makes up its mind +on a question of this sort, why, it does its level best in the long +run to insure the fulfilment of its own prediction. + +Wherever Elma had met her painter, however, during those few short +weeks, she had seen him only before the quizzing eyes of all the +world; and though she admitted to herself that she liked him very +much, she was nevertheless so thoroughly frightened by her own +performance after the Holkers' party that she almost avoided him, +in spite of officious friends--partly, it is true, from a pure +feeling of maidenly shame, but partly also from a deeper-seated +and profoundly moral belief that with this fierce mad taint upon +her as she naturally thought, it would be nothing short of wrong +in her even to marry. She couldn't meet Cyril now without thinking +at once of that irresistible impulse which had seized her by the +throat, as it were, and bent her to its wild will in her own room +after their interview at the Holkers'; and the thought did far +more than bring a deep blush into her rich brown cheek--it made her +feel most acutely she must never dream of burdening him with that +terrible uncertainty and all it might enclose in it of sinister +import. + +For Elma felt sure she was mad that night. And, if so, oh, how could +she poison Cyril Waring's life with so unspeakable an inheritance +for himself and his children? + +She didn't know, what any psychologist might at once have told +her, that no one with the fatal taint of madness in her blood could +ever even have thought of that righteous self-denial. Such scruples +have no place in the selfish insane temperament; they belong only +to the highest and purest types of moral nature. + +One morning, however, a few weeks later, Elma had strolled off +by herself into Chetwood Forest, without any intention of going +anywhere in particular, save for a solitary walk, when suddenly, +a turn round the corner of a devious path brought her face to face +all at once with a piece of white canvas, stretched opposite her +on an easel; at the other side of which, to her profound dismay, +an artist in a grey tweed suit was busily working. + +The artist, as it happened, didn't see her at once, for the canvas +stretched between them, shutting her out from his eyes, and Elma's +light footstep on the mossy ground hadn't aroused his attention. +So the girl's first impulse was to retrace her way unobtrusively +without exchanging a word, and retire round the corner again, before +Cyril could recognise her. But somehow, when she came to try, she +couldn't. Her feet refused point blank to obey her will. And this +time, in her own heart, she knew very well why. For there in the +background, coiled up against the dense wall of rock and fern, +Sardanapalus lay knotted in sleepy folds, with his great ringed +back shining blue in the sunlight that struggled in round patches +through the shimmering foliage. More consciously now than even in +the train, the beautiful deadly creature seemed to fascinate Elma +and bind her to the spot. For a moment she hesitated, unable to +resist the strange, inexplicable attraction that ran in her blood. +That brief interval settled it. Even as she paused, Cyril glanced +round at the snake to note the passing effect of a gleam of light +that fell slantwise through the leaves to dapple his spotty back--and +caught sight of Elma. The poor girl gave a start. It was too late +now to retreat. She stood there rooted. + +Cyril moved forward to meet her with a frankly outstretched hand. +"Good morning, Miss Clifford," he said, in his cheery manly voice. +"So you've dropped down by accident upon my lair here, have you? +Well, I'm glad you've happened to pass by to-day, for this, do you +know, is my very last morning. I'm putting the finishing touches upon +my picture now before I take it back to town. I go away to-morrow, +perhaps to North Wales, perhaps to Scotland." + +Elma trembled a little at those words, in spite of resolution; +for though she could never, never, never marry him, it was nice, +of course, to feel he was near at hand, and to have the chance of +seeing him, and avoiding him as far as possible, on other people's +lawns at garden parties. She trembled and turned pale. She could +never MARRY him, to be sure; but then she could never marry any +one else either; and that being so, she liked to SEE him now and +again, on neutral ground, as it were, and to know he was somewhere +that she could meet him occasionally. Wales and Scotland are +so distant from Surrey. Elma showed in her face at once that she +thought them both unpleasantly remote from Craighton, Tilgate. + +With timid and shrinking steps, she came in front of the picture, +and gazed at it in detail long and attentively. Never before did +she know how fond she was of art. + +"It's beautiful," she said, after a pause; "I like it immensely. +That moss is so soft, and the ferns are so delicate. And how lovely +that patch of rich golden light is on Sardanapalus's shoulder." + +The painter stepped back a pace or two and examined his own handicraft, +with his head on one side, in a very critical attitude. "I don't +know that I'm quite satisfied after all with the colour-scheme," +he said, glancing askance at Elma. "I fancy it's, perhaps, just a +trifle too green. It looks all right, of course, out here in the +open; but the question is, when it's hung in the Academy, surrounded +by warm reds, and purples, and blues, won't it look by comparison +much too cabbagey and too grassy?" + +Elma drew a deep breath. + +"Oh, Mr. Waring," she cried, in a deprecating tone, holding her +breath for awe. + +It pained her that anybody--even Cyril himself--should speak so +lightly about so beautiful a picture. + +"Then you like it?" Cyril asked, turning round to her full face +and fronting her as she stood there, all beautiful blushes through +her creamy white skin. + +"Like it? I love it," Elma answered enthusiastically. "Apart from +its being yours, I think it simply beautiful." + +"And you like ME, too, then?" the painter asked, once more, making +a sudden dash at the question that was nearest to both their hearts, +after all, that moment. He was going away to-morrow, and this was +a last opportunity. Who could tell how soon somebody might come up +through the woods and interrupt their interview? He must make the +best use of his time. He must make haste to ask her. + +Elma let her eyes drop, and her heart beat hard. She laid her hand +upon the easel to steady herself as she answered slowly, "You know +I like you, Mr. Waring; I like you very, very much indeed. You +were so kind to me in the tunnel. And I felt your kindness. You +could see that day I was--very, very grateful to you." + +"When I asked you if you liked my picture, Elma," the young man said +reproachfully, taking her other hand in his, and looking straight +into her eyes, "you said, 'Like it? I love it.' But when I ask you +if you like me--ask you if you will take me--you only say you're +very, very grateful." + +Elma let him take her hand, all trembling, in his. She let him +call her by her name. She let him lean forward and gaze at her, +lover-like. Her heart throbbed high. She couldn't refuse him. +She knew she loved him. But to marry him--oh no. That was quite +another thing. There duty interposed. It would be cruel, unworthy, +disgraceful, wicked. + +She drew herself back a little with maidenly dignity, as she answered +low, "Mr. Waring, we two saw into one another's hearts so deep in +the tunnel that day we spent together, that it would be foolish for +us now to make false barriers between us. I'll tell you the plain +truth." She trembled like an aspen-leaf. "I love you, I think; but +I can never marry you." + +She said it so simply, yet with such an earnestness of despair, +that Cyril knew with a pang she really meant it. + +"Why not?" he cried eagerly, raising her hand to his lips, and +kissing it with fervour. "If you tell me you love me, Elma, all the +rest must come. Say that, and you say all. So long as I've gained +your heart, I don't care for anything." + +Elma drew her hand away with stately reserve. "I mean it, Mr. +Waring," she said slowly, sitting down on the bank, and gasping a +little for air, just as she had done in the tunnel. "I really mean +it. I LIKED you in the train that day; I was GRATEFUL to you in the +accident; I knew I LOVED you the afternoon we met at the Holkers'. +There, I've told you that plainly--more plainly than I thought I ever +could tell it to any man on earth--because we knew one another so +well when we thought we were dying side by side, and because--because +I can see you really love me.... Well, it can never be. I can never +marry you." + +She gazed at him wistfully. Cyril sat down by her side, and talked +it all over with her from a hundred points of view. He pressed his +suit hard, till Elma felt, if words could win, her painter would have +won her. But she couldn't yield, she said for HIS sake a thousand +times more than for her own, she must never marry. As the man grew +more earnest the girl in turn grew more frank and confiding. She +could never marry HIM, to be sure, she said fervently, but then +she could never, never, never marry any one else. If she married +at all she would marry Cyril. He took her hand again. Without one +shadow of resistance she let him take it and hold it. Yes, yes, he +might love her, if he liked, no harm at all in that; and SHE, she +would always, always love him. All her life through, she cried, +letting her passionate southern nature get the better of her at +last, she would love him every hour of every day in the year, and +love him only. But she could never marry him. Why, she must never +say. It was no use his trying to read her secret. He must never +find it out; never, never, never. But she, for her part, could +never forget it. + +So Cyril, eagerly pressing his suit with every art he knew, was +forced in the end to content himself with that scanty measure. She +would love him, she would write to him, even; but she would never +marry him. + +At last the time came when they must really part, or she would be +late for lunch, and mamma would know all; mamma would read everything. +He looked her wistfully in the face. Elma held out her lips, obedient +to that mute demand, with remorseful blush of maidenly shame on +her cheek. "Only once," she murmured. "Just to seal our compact. +For the first and last time. You go away to-morrow." + +"That was BEFORE you said you loved me," Cyril cried with delight, +emboldened by success. "Mayn't I stay on now, just one little week +longer?" + +At the proposal, Elma drew back her face in haste before he had +time to kiss it, and answered, in a very serious voice-- + +"Oh no, don't ask me. After this, I daren't stand the strain of +seeing you again--at least not just now--not so very, very soon. +Please, please, don't ask me. Go to-morrow, as you said. If you +don't, I can't let you," she blushed, and held out her blushing +face once more. "Only if you promise me to go to-morrow, mind," +she said, with a half-coquettish, half-tearful smile at him. + +Cyril hesitated for a second. He was inclined to temporize. "Those +are very hard terms," he said. Then impulse proved too much for him. +He bent forward, and pressed his lips just once on that olive-brown +cheek. "But I may come back again very soon," he murmured, pushing +home his advantage. + +Elma seized his hand in hers, wrung it hard and tremulously, and +then turned and ran like a frightened fawn, without pausing to look +back, down the path homeward. Yet she whispered one broken sentence +through her tears, for all that, before she went. + +"I shall love you always; but spare me, spare me." + +And Cyril was left behind by himself in the wood, completely +mystified. + + + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +STRUGGLE AND VICTORY. + + + + + +Elma hurried home full of intense misgivings. She dreaded having +to meet her mother's eye. How on earth could she hide from that +searching glance the whole truth as to what had happened in the +wood that morning? When she reached home, however, she learned to +her relief, from the maid who opened the door to her, that their +neighbour, Mr. Gilbert Gildersleeve, the distinguished Q.C., had +dropped in for lunch, and this chance diversion supplied Elma with +a little fresh courage to face the inevitable. She went straight +up to her own room the moment she entered the house, without seeing +her mother, and there she waited, bathing her face copiously till +some minutes after the lunch bell had rung. For she felt sure she +would blush crimson when she met her mother; but as she blushed +habitually when strangers came in, the cause of it might thus, +perhaps, she vainly flattered herself, escape even those lynx-like +eyes of Mrs. Clifford's. + +The great Q.C., a big, overbearing man, with a pair of huge burly +hands that somehow seemed to form his chief feature, was a little +bit blustering in his talk, as usual; the more so because he had +just learned incidentally that something had gone wrong between +his daughter Gwendoline and Granville Kelmscott. For though that +little episode of private wooing had run its course nominally +without the knowledge or consent of either family, Mr. Gilbert +Gildersleeve, at least, had none the less been aware for many weeks +past of the frequent meetings between Gwendoline and Granville +in the dell just beyond the disputed boundary line. And as Mr. +Gildersleeve disliked Colonel Kelmscott of Tilgate Park, for a +pig-headed esquire, almost as cordially as Colonel Kelmscott disliked +Mr. Gildersleeve in return for a rascally lawyer, it had given the +great Q.C. no little secret satisfaction in his own soul to learn +that his daughter Gwendoline was likely to marry the Colonel's son +and heir, directly against the wishes and consent of his father. + +Only that very morning, however, poor Mrs. Gildersleeve, that +tired, crushed wife, had imparted to her lord and master, in fear +and trembling, the unpleasant intelligence that, so far as she +could make out, there was something wrong between Granville and +Gwendoline. And this something wrong she ventured to suggest was +no mere lover's tiff of the ordinary kiss-and-make-it-up description, +but a really serious difficulty in the way of their marriage. So +Mr. Gildersleeve, thus suddenly deprived of his expected triumph, +took it out another way by more than even his wonted boisterousness +of manner in talking about the fortunes of the Kelmscott family. + +"I fancy, myself, you know, Mrs. Clifford," he was saying, very loud, +as Elma entered, "there's a screw loose just now in the Kelmscott +affairs--something rotten somewhere in the state of Denmark. That +young fellow, Granville, who's by no means such a bad lot as his +father all round--too good for the family, in fact; too good for +the family--Granville's been accustomed of late to come over into +my grounds, beyond the boundary wall, and being anxious above all +things to cultivate friendly relations with all my neighbours in +the county, I've allowed him to come--I've allowed him, and I may +even say to a certain extent I've encouraged him. There at times +he's met by accident my daughter Gwendoline. Oh, dear no"--with +uplifted hand, and deprecating lips--"I assure you, nothing of +THAT sort, my dear Mrs. Clifford. Gwendoline's far too young, and +I couldn't dream of allowing her to marry into Colonel Kelmscott's +family. But, however, be that as it may, he's been in the habit +of coming there, till very recently, when all of a sudden, only a +week or ten days back, to my immense surprise he ceased at once, +and ever since has dropped into the defensive, exactly as he used +to do. And I interpret it to mean--" + +Elma heard no more of that pompous speech. Her knees shook under +her. For she was aware only of Mrs. Clifford's eyes, fixed mildly +and calmly upon her face, not in anger, as she feared, or reproach, +but rather in infinite pity. For a second their glances met in mute +intercourse of soul, then each dropped their eyelashes as suddenly +as before. Through the rest of that lunch Elma sat as in a maze, +hearing and seeing nothing. What she ate, or drank, or talked +about, she knew not. Mr. Gildersleeve's pungent and embellished +anecdotes of the Kelmscott family and their unneighbourly pride +went in at one ear and out at the other. All she was conscious of +was her mother's sympathetic yet unerring eye; she felt sure that +at one glance that wonderful thought-reader had divined everything, +and seen through and through their interview that morning. + +After lunch, the two men strolled upon the lawn to enjoy their +cigars, and Elma and her mother were left alone in the drawing-room. + +For some minutes neither could make up her mind to break the ice +and speak. They sat shame-faced beside one another on the sofa, +like a pair of shy and frightened maidens. At last Mrs. Clifford +braced herself up to interrupt the awkward silence. "You've been +in Chetwood Forest, Elma," she murmured low, looking down and +averting her eyes carefully from her trembling daughter. + +"Yes, mother," Elma answered, all aglow with conscious blushes. +"In Chetwood Forest." + +"And you met him, dear?" The mother spoke tenderly and sympathetically. + +Elma's heart stood still. "Yes, mother, I met him." + +"And he had the snake there?" + +Elma started in surprise. Why dwell upon that seemingly unimportant +detail? "Oh yes," she answered, still redder and hotter than ever. +"He had it there. He was painting it." + +Mrs. Clifford paused a minute. Then she went on, with pain. "And +he asked you, Elma?" + +Elma bowed her head. "Yes, he asked me--and I refused him," she +answered, with a terrible wrench. + +"Oh, darling; I know it," Mrs. Clifford cried, seizing both cold +hands in hers. "And I know why, too. But, Elma, believe me, you +needn't have done it. My daughter, my daughter, you might just as +well have taken him." + +"No, never," Elma cried, rising from her seat and moving towards +the door in an agony of shame. "I couldn't. I daren't. It would +be wrong. It would be cruel. But, mother, don't speak to me of it. +Don't mention it again. Even before you it makes me more wretched +and ashamed than I can say to allude to it." + +She rushed from the room, with cheeks burning like fire. Come what +might, she never could talk to any living soul again about that +awful episode. + +But Mrs. Clifford sat on, on the sofa where Elma left her, and cried +to herself silently, silently, silently. What a mother should do +in these hateful circumstances she could hardly even guess. She +only knew she could never speak it out, and even if she did, Elma +would never have the courage or the heart to listen to her. + +That same evening, when Elma went up to bed, a strange longing +came across her to sit up late, and think over to herself again all +the painful details of the morning's interview. She seated herself +by her bedside in her evening dress, and began to think it all +out again, exactly as it happened. As she did so, the picture of +Sardanapalus, on his bed of fern, came up clear in her mind, just +as he lay coiled round in Cyril Waring's landscape. Beautiful +Sardanapalus, so sleek and smooth and glossy, if only she had him +here now--she paused and hesitated. In a moment, the wild impulse +rushed upon her once more. It clutched her by the throat; it held +her fast as in a vice. She must get up and dance; she must obey +the mandate; she must whirl till she fell in that mystical ecstasy. + +She rose, and seemed for a moment as though she must yield to the +temptation. The boa--the boa was in the lower drawer. Reluctantly, +remorsefully, she opened the drawer and took it out in her hands. +Fluff and feathers, fluff and feathers--nothing more than that! +But oh, how soft, how smooth, how yielding, how serpentine! With +a violent effort she steadied herself, and looked round for her +scissors. They lay on the dressing-table. She took them up with a +fixed and determined air. "If thy right hand offend thee, cut it +off," she thought to herself. Then she began ruthlessly hacking +the boa into short little lengths of a few inches each, which she +gathered up in her hands as soon as she had finished, and replaced +with care in the drawer where she had originally found them. + +After that her mind felt somewhat more at ease and a trifle less +turbulent. She loved Cyril Waring--oh yes, she loved him with all +her heart; it was hard to give him up; hard not to yield to that +pressing impulse in such a moment of doubt and despondency. The +boa had said to her, as it were, "Come, dance, go mad, and forget +your trouble!" But she had resisted the temptation. And now-- + +Why, now, she would undress, and creep into bed, like any other good +English girl under similar circumstances, and cry herself asleep +with thoughts of Cyril. + +And so she did in truth. She let her emotion take its natural outlet. +She lay awake for an hour or two, till her eyes were red and sore +and swollen. Then at last she dropped off, for very weariness, and +slept soundly an unbroken sleep till morning. + +At eight o'clock, Mrs. Clifford knocked her tentative little knock +at the door. "Come in, mother," Elma cried, starting up in her +surprise; and her mother, much wondering, turned the handle and +entered. + +When she reached the bed, she gave a little cry of amazement. "Why, +Elma," she exclaimed, staring her hard and long in the face; "my +darling, what's this? Your eyes are red! How strange! You've been +crying!" + +"Yes, mother," Elma answered, turning her face to the wall, but a +thousand times less ashamed than she had been the day before when +her mother spoke to her. "I couldn't help it, dearest." She took +that soft white hand in hers and pressed it hard in silence. "It's +no wonder, you know," she said at last, after a long deep pause. +"He's going away from Chetwood to-day--and it was so very, very +hard to say good-bye to him for ever." + +"Oh yes, I know, darling," Mrs. Clifford answered, eyeing her +harder than ever now with a half-incredulous look. "I know all +that. But--you've had a good night in spite of everything, Elma." + +Elma guessed what she meant. They two could converse together quite +plainly without words. "Well, yes, a better night," she answered, +hesitating, and shutting her eyes under the bed-clothes for very +shame. "A little disturbed--don't you know--just at first; but I +had a good cry very soon, and then that mended everything." + +Her mother still looked at her, half doubting and half delighted. +"A good cry's the right thing," she said slowly, in a very low +voice. "The exact right thing, perfectly proper and normal. A good +cry never did any girl on this earth one atom of harm. It's the +best safety-valve. You're lucky, Elma, my child, in being able to +get one." + +"Yes, dear," Elma answered, with her head still buried. "Very lucky +indeed. So I think, too, mother." + +Mrs. Clifford's eye fell aimlessly upon certain tiny bits of +feathery fluff that flecked the floor here and there like floating +fragments of thistledown. In a second, her keen instinct divined +what they meant. Without one word she rose silently and noiselessly, +and opened the lower drawer, where the boa usually reposed among +the furs and feathers. One glimpse of those mangled morsels showed +her the truth at a glance. She shut the drawer again noiselessly +and silently as she had opened it. But Elma, lying still with her +eyes closed tight, yet knew perfectly well how her mother had been +occupied. + +Mrs. Clifford came back, and, stooping over her daughter's bed, +kissed her forehead tenderly. "Elma, darling," she said, while a hot +tear or two fell silently upon the girl's burning cheek, "you're +very, very brave. I'm so pleased with you, so proud of you! I +couldn't have done it myself. You're stronger-minded than I am. My +child, he kissed you for good-bye yesterday. You needn't say yes, +you needn't say no. I read it in your face. No need for you to +tell me of it. Well, darling, it wasn't good-bye after all, I'm +certain of that. Believe me, my child, he'll come back some day, +and you'll know you can marry him." + +"Never!" Elma cried, hiding her face still more passionately and +wildly than before beneath great folds of the bed-clothes. "Don't +speak to me of him any more, mother! Never! Never! Never!" + + + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +VISIONS OF WEALTH. + + + + + +Cyril Waring, thus dismissed, and as in honour bound, hurried +up to London with a mind preoccupied by many pressing doubts and +misgivings. He thought much of Elma, but he thought much, too, of +sundry strange events that had happened of late to his own private +fortunes. For one thing he had sold, and sold mysteriously, at a very +good price, the picture of Sardanapalus in the glade at Chetwood. +A well-known London dealer had written down to him at Tilgate making +an excellent offer for the unfinished work, as soon as it should +be ready, on behalf of a customer whose name he didn't happen to +mention. And who could that customer be, Cyril thought to himself, +but Colonel Kelmscott? But that wasn't all. The dealer who had +offered him a round sum down for "The Rajah's Rest" had also at +the same time commissioned him to go over to the Belgian Ardennes +to paint a picture or two, at a specified price, of certain selected +scenes upon the Meuse and its tributaries. The price offered for +the work was a very respectable one, and yet--he had some internal +misgivings, somehow, about this mysterious commission. Could it be +to get rid of him? He had an uncomfortable suspicion in the back +chambers of his mind, that whoever had commissioned the pictures +might be more anxious to send him well away from Tilgate than +to possess a series of picturesque sketches on the Meuse and its +tributaries. + +And who could have an interest in keeping him far from Tilgate? +That was the question. Was there anybody whom his presence there +could in any way incommode? Could it be Elma's father who wanted +to send him so quickly away from England? + +And what was the meaning of Elma's profound resolution, so strangely +and strongly expressed, never, never to marry him? + +A painful idea flitted across the young man's puzzled brain. Had +the Cliffords alone discovered the secret of his birth? and was +that secret of such a disgraceful sort that Elma's father shrank +from owning him as a prospective son-in-law, while even Elma herself +could not bring herself to accept him as her future husband? If so, +what could that ghastly secret be? Were he and Guy the inheritors +of some deadly crime? Had their origin been concealed from them, +more in mercy than in cruelty, only lest some hideous taint of +murder or of madness might mar their future and make their whole +lives miserable? + +When he reached Staple Inn, he found Guy and Montague Nevitt already +in their joint rooms, and arrears of three days' correspondence +awaiting him. + +A close observer--like Elma Clifford--might perhaps have noted in +Montague Nevitt's eye certain well-restrained symptoms of suppressed +curiosity. But Cyril Waring, in his straightforward, simple English +manliness, was not sharp enough to perceive that Nevitt watched +him close while he broke the envelopes and glanced over his letters; +or that Nevitt's keen anxiety grew at once far deeper and more +carefully concealed as Cyril turned to one big missive with an +official-looking seal and a distinctly important legal aspect. On +the contrary, to the outer eye or ear all that could be observed in +Montague Nevitt's manner was the nervous way he went on tightening +his violin strings with a tremulous hand and whistling low to +himself a few soft and tender bars of some melancholy scrap from +Miss Ewes's refectory. + +As Cyril read through that letter, however, his breath came and went +in short little gasps, and his cheek flushed hotly with a sudden +and overpowering flood of emotion. + +"What's the matter?" Guy asked, looking over his shoulder curiously. +And Cyril, almost faint with the innumerable ideas and suspicions +that the tidings conjured up in his brain at once, said with an +evident effort, "Read it, Guy; read it." + +Guy took the letter and read, Montague Nevitt gazing at it by his +side meanwhile with profound interest. + +As soon as they had glanced through its carefully-worded sentences, +each drew a long breath and stared hard at the other. Then Cyril +added in a whirl, "And here's a letter from my own bankers saying +they've duly received the six thousand pounds and put it to my +credit." + +Guy's face was pale, but he faltered out none the less with ashy +lips, staring hard at the words all the time, "It isn't only the +money, of course, one thinks about, Cyril; but the clue it seems +to promise us to our father and mother." + +"Exactly," Cyril answered, with a responsive nod. "The money I +won't take. I don't know what it means. But the clue I'll follow +up till I've run to earth the whole truth about who we are and +where we come from." + +Montague Nevitt glanced quickly from one to the other with an +incredulous air. "Not take the money," he exclaimed, in cynical +surprise. "Why, of course you'll take it. Twelve thousand pounds +isn't to be sneezed at in these days, I can tell you. And as for +the clue, why, there isn't any clue. Not a jot or a tittle, a ghost +or a shadow of it. The unnatural parent, whoever he may be--for I +take it for granted the unnatural parent's the person at the bottom +of the offer--takes jolly good care not to let you know who on +earth he is. He wraps himself up in a double cloak of mystery. +Drummonds pay in the money to your account at your own bank, you +see, and while they're authorized to receive your acknowledgment +of the sum remitted, they are clearly NOT authorized to receive +to the sender's credit any return cheque for the amount or cash in +repayment. The unnatural parent evidently intends to remain, for +the present at least, strictly anonymous. + +"Couldn't you find out for us at Drummond, Coutts and Barclay's +who the sender is?" Guy asked, with some hesitation, still turning +over in his hand the mysterious letter. + +Nevitt shook his head with prompt decision. "No, certainly not," +he answered, assuming an air of the severest probity. "It would +be absolutely impossible. The secrets in a bank are secrets of +honour. We are the depositaries of tales that might ruin thousands, +and we never say a word about one of them to anybody." + +As for Cyril, he felt himself almost too astonished for words. It +was long before he could even discuss the matter quietly. The whole +episode seemed so strange, so mysterious, so uncanny. And no wonder +he hesitated. For the unknown writer of the letter with the legal +seal had proposed a most curious and unsatisfactory arrangement. +Six thousand pounds down on the nail to Cyril, six thousand more +in a few weeks to Guy. But not for nothing. As in all law business, +"valuable consideration" loomed large in the background. They +were both to repair, on a given day, at a given hour, to a given +office, in a given street, where they were to sign without inquiry, +and even without perusal, whatever documents might then and there +be presented to them. This course, the writer pointed out, with +perspicuous plainness, was all in the end to their own greater +advantage, + +For unless they signed, they would get nothing more, and it would +be useless for them at attempt the unravelling of the mystery. But +if they consented to sign, then, the writer declared, the anonymous +benefactor at whose instigation he wrote would leave them by his +will a further substantial sum, not one penny of which would ever +otherwise come to them. + +And Montague Nevitt, as a man of business, looking the facts in +the face, without sentiment or nonsense, advised them to sign, and +make the best of a good bargain. + +For Montague Nevitt saw at once in his own mind that this course +would prove the most useful in the end for his own interests, both +as regards the Warings and Colonel Kelmscott. + +The two persons most concerned, however, viewed the matter in a very +different light. To them, this letter, with its obscure half-hints, +opened up a chance of solving at last the mystery of their position +which had so long oppressed them. They might now perhaps find out +who they really were, if only they could follow up this pregnant +clue; and the clue itself suggested so many things. + +"Whatever else it shows," Guy said emphatically, "it shows we must +be the lawful sons of some person of property, or else why should +he want us to sign away our rights like this, all blindfold? And +whatever the rights themselves may be, they must be very considerable, +or else why should he bribe us so heavily to sign ourselves out +of them? Depend upon it, Nevitt, it's an entailed estate, and the +man who dictated that letter is in possession of the property, +which ought to belong to Cyril and me. For my part, I'm opposed to +all bargaining in the dark. I'll sign nothing, and I'll give away +nothing, without knowing what it is. And that's what I advise Cyril +to write back and tell him." + +Cyril, however, was revolving in his own mind meanwhile a still +more painful question. Could it be any blood-relationship between +himself and Elma, unknown to him, but just made known to her, that +gave rise to her firm and obviously recent determination never to +marry him? A week or two since, he was sure, Elma knew of no cause +or just impediment why they should not be joined together in holy +matrimony. Could she have learned it meanwhile, before she met him +in the wood? and could the fact of her so learning it have thus +pricked the slumbering conscience of their unknown kinsman or +their supposed supplanter? + +They sat there long and late, discussing the question from all +possible standpoints--save the one thus silently started in his +own mind by Cyril. But, in the end, Cyril's resolution remained +unshaken. He would leave the six thousand pounds in the bank, +untouched; but he would write back at once to the unknown sender, +declining plainly, once for all, to have anything to do with it +or with the proposed transactions. If anything was his by right, +he would take it as of right, but he would be no party to such +hole-and-corner renunciations of unknown contingencies as the +writer suggested. If the writer was willing to state at once all +the facts of the case, in clear and succinct language, and to come +to terms thus openly with himself and his brother, why then, Cyril +averred, he was ready to promise they would deal with his claims in +a spirit of the utmost generosity and consideration. But if this +was an attempt to do them out of their rights by a fraudulent bribe, +he for one would have nothing to say to it. He would therefore +hold the six thousand pounds paid in to his account entirely at +his anonymous correspondent's disposition. + +"And as there isn't any use in my wasting the summer, Guy," he +said, in conclusion, "I won't let this red-herring, trailed across +my path, prevent me from going over at once, as I originally intended, +to Dinant and Spa, and fulfilling the commission for those pictures +of Dale and Norton's; You and Nevitt can see meanwhile what it's +possible for us to do in the matter of hunting up this family +mystery. You can telegraph if you want me, and I'll come back at +once. But more than ever now I feel the need of redeeming the time +and working as hard as I can go at my profession." + +"Well, yes," Guy answered, as if both their thoughts ran naturally +in the self-same channel. "I agree with you there. She's been +accustomed to luxury. No man has a right to marry any girl if he +can't provide for her in the comfort and style she's always been +used to. And from that point of view, when one looks it in the +face, Cyril, six thousand pounds would come in handy." + + + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +GENTLE WOOER. + + + + + +Mr. Montague Nevitt rubbed his hands with delight in the sacred +privacy of his own apartment. Mr. Nevitt, indeed, had laid his +plans deep. He had everybody's secrets all round in his hands, and +he meant to make everybody pay dear in the end for his information. + +Mr. Nevitt was free. His holidays were on at Drummond, Coutts and +Barclay's, Limited. He loved the sea, the sun, and the summer. He +was off that day on a projected series of short country runs, in +which it was his intention strictly to combine business and pleasure. +Dartmoor, for example, as everybody knows, is a most delightful and +bracing tourist district; but what more amusing to a man of taste +than to go a round of the Moor with its heather-clad tors, and at +the same time hunt up the parish registers of the neighbourhood +for the purpose of discovering, if possible, the supposed marriage +record of Colonel Kelmscott of Tilgate with the Warings' mother? +For that there WAS a marriage Montague Nevitt felt certain in his +own wise mind, and having early arrived at that correct conclusion, +why, he had quietly offered forthwith, in Plymouth papers, a +considerable reward to parish clerks and others who would supply +him with any information as to the births, marriages, or deaths +of any person or persons of the name of Waring for some eighteen +months or so before or after the reputed date when Guy and Cyril +began their earthly pilgrimage. + +For deaths, Nevitt said to himself, with a sinister smile, were +every bit as important to him as births or marriages. He knew the +date of Colonel Kelmscott's wedding with Lady Emily Croke, and if +at that date wife number one was not yet dead, when the Colonel +took to himself wife number two, who now did the honours of Tilgate +Park for him, why, there you had as clear and convincing a case of +bigamy as any man could wish to find out against another, and to +utilize some day for his own good purposes. + +As he thought these thoughts, Montague Nevitt gave the last delicate +twirl, the final touch of art, to the wire-like ends of his waxed +moustache, in front of his mirror, and, after surveying the result +in the glass with considerable satisfaction, proceeded to set out, +on very good terms with himself, for his summer holiday. + +Devonshire, however, wasn't his first destination. Montague Nevitt, +besides being a man of business and a man of taste, was also in due +season a man of feeling. A heart beat beneath that white rosebud +in his left top button-hole. All his thoughts were not thoughts +of greed and of gain. He was bound to Tilgate to-day, and to see +a lady. + +It isn't so easy in England to see a lady alone. But fortune +favours the brave. Luck always attended Mr. Montague Nevitt's most +unimportant schemes. Hardly had he got into the field path across +the meadows between Tilgate station and the grounds of Woodlands +than, at the seat by the bend, what should he see but a lady sitting +down in an airy white summer dress, her head leaning on her hand, +most pensive and melancholy. Montague Nevitt's heart gave a sudden +bound. In luck once more. It was Gwendoline Gildersleeve. + +"Good morning!" he said briskly, coming up before Gwendoline had +time to perceive him--and fly. "This is really most fortunate. I've +run down from town today on purpose to see you, but hardly hoped +I should have the good fortune to get a tete-a-tete with you--at +least so easily. I'm so glad I'm in time. Now, don't look so cross. +You must at any rate admit, you know, my persistence is flattering." + +"I don't feel flattered by it, Mr. Nevitt," Gwendoline answered coldly, +holding out her gloved hand to him with marked disinclination. "I +thought last time I had said good-bye to you for good and for ever." + +Nevitt took her hand, and held it in his own a trifle longer than +was strictly necessary. "Now don't talk like that, Gwendoline," he +said coaxingly. "Don't crush me quite flat. Remember at least that +you ONCE were kind to me. It isn't my fault, surely, if _I_ still +recollect it." + +Gwendoline withdrew her hand from his with yet more evident coolness. +"Circumstances alter cases," she said severely. "That was before +I really knew you." + +"That was before you knew Granville Kelmscott, you mean," Nevitt +responded with an unpleasantly knowing air. "Oh yes, you needn't +wince; I've heard all about that. It's my business to hear and find +out everything. But circumstances alter cases, as you justly say, +Gwendoline. And I've discovered some circumstances about Granville +Kelmscott that may alter the case as regards your opinion of that +rich young man, whose estate weighed down a poor fellow like me in +what you've graciously pleased to call your affections." + +Gwendoline rose, and looked down at the man contemptuously. "Mr. +Nevitt," she said, in a chilling voice, "you've no right to call me +Gwendoline any longer now. You've no right to speak to me of Mr. +Granville Kelmscott. I refused your advances, not for any one else's +sake, or any one else's estate, but simply and solely because I +came to know you better than I knew you at first; and the more I +knew of you the less I liked you. I am NOT engaged to Mr. Granville +Kelmscott. I don't mean to see him again. I don't mean to marry +him." + +Nevitt took his cue at once, like a clever hand that he was, and +followed it up remorselessly. "Well, I'm glad to hear that anyhow," +he answered, assuming a careless air of utter unconcern, "for your +sake as well as for his, Miss Gildersleeve; for Granville Kelmscott, +as I happen to know in the course of business, is a ruined man--a +ruined man this moment. He isn't, and never was, the heir of Tilgate. +And I'm sure it was very honourable of him, the minute he found +he was a penniless beggar, to release you from such an unequal +engagement." + +He had played his card well. He had delivered his shot neatly. +Gwendoline, though anxious to withdraw from his hateful presence, +couldn't help but stay and learn more about this terrible hint of +his. A light broke in upon her even as the fellow spoke. Was it +this, then, that had made Granville talk so strangely to her that +morning by the dell in the Woodlands? Was it this which, as he +told her, rendered their marriage impossible? Why, if THAT were +all--Gwendoline drew a deep breath and clasped her hands together +in a sudden access of mingled hope and despair. "Oh, what do you +mean, Mr. Nevitt," she cried eagerly. "What can Granville have +done? Don't keep me in suspense! Do tell me what you mean by it." + +Montague Nevitt, still seated, looked up at her with a smile of +quiet satisfaction. He played with her for a moment as a cat plays +with a mouse. She was such a beautiful creature, so tall and fair +and graceful, and she was so awfully afraid, and he was so awfully +fond of her, that he loved to torture her thus and hold her dangling +in his power. "No, Gwendoline," he said slowly, drawing his words +out by driblets, so as to prolong her suspense, "I oughtn't to have +mentioned it at all. It's a professional secret. I retract what I +said. Forget that I said it. Excuse me on the ground of my natural +reluctance to see a woman I still love so deeply and so purely--whatever +she may happen to think of ME--throw herself away on a man without +a name or a penny. However, as Kelmscott seems to have done the +honourable thing of his own accord, and given you up the minute he +knew he couldn't keep you in the way you've been accustomed to--why, +there's no need, of course, of any warning from me. I'll say no +more on the subject." + +His studied air of mystery piqued and drew on his victim. Gwendoline +knew in her own heart she ought to go at once; her own dignity +demanded it, and she should consult her dignity. But still, she +couldn't help longing to know what Nevitt's half-hints and innuendoes +might mean. After all, she was a woman! "Oh, do tell me," she +cried, clasping her hands in suspense once more; "what have you +heard about Mr. Kelmscott? I'm not engaged to him; I don't want to +know for that, but--" she broke down, blushing crimson, and Montague +Nevitt, gazing fixedly at her delicate peach-like cheek, remarked +to himself how extremely well that blush became her. + +"No, but remember," he said in a very grave voice, in his favourite +impersonation of the man of honour, "whatever I tell you--if I give +way at all and tell you anything--you must hear in confidence, and +must repeat to nobody. If you do repeat it, you'll get me into very +serious trouble. And not only so, but as nobody knows it except +myself, you'll as good as proclaim to all the world that you +heard it from ME. If I tell you what I know, will you promise me +this--not to breathe a syllable of what I say to anybody?" + +Gwendoline, glancing down, and thoroughly ashamed of herself, yet +answered in a very low and trembling voice, "I'll promise, Mr. +Nevitt." + +"Then the facts are these," the man of feeling went on, with an +undercurrent of malicious triumph in his musical voice. "Kelmscott +is NOT his father's eldest son; he's NOT, and never was, the heir +of Tilgate. More than that, nobody knows these facts but myself. +And I know the true heirs, and I can prove their title. Well, now, +Miss Gildersleeve--if it's to be Miss Gildersleeve still--this is +the circumstance that alters the case as regards Granville Kelmscott. +I have it in my hands to ruin Kelmscott. And what I've taken the +trouble to come down and say to you to-day is simply this for your +own advantage; beware, at least, how you throw yourself away upon +a penniless man, with neither name nor fortune! When you've quite +got over that dream, you'll be glad to return to the man you threw +overboard for the rich squire's son. No circumstances have ever +altered him. He loved you from the first, and he will always love +you," + +Gwendoline looked him back in the face again, as pale as death. +"Mr. Nevitt," she said scornfully, unmoved by his tale, "I do not +love you, and I will never love you. You have no right to say such +things to me as this. I'm glad you've told me, for I now know what +Mr. Kelmscott meant. And if he was as poor as a church mouse, I'd +marry him to-morrow--I said just now I didn't mean to marry him. +I retract that word. Circumstances alter cases, and what you've +just told me alters this one. I withdraw what I said. I'll marry +Granville Kelmscott to-morrow if he asks me." + +She looked down at him so proudly, so defiantly, so haughtily, that +Montague Nevitt, sitting there with his cynical smile on his thin +red lips, flinched and wavered before her. He saw in a moment the +game was up. He had played the wrong card; he had mistaken his +woman and tried false tactics. It was too late now to retreat. An +empty revenge was all that remained to him. "Very well," he said +sullenly, looking her back in the face with a nasty scowl--for +indeed he loved that girl and was loath to lose her--"remember +your promise, and say nothing to anybody. You'll find it best so +for your own reputation in the end. But mark my words; be sure I +won't spare Granville Kelmscott now. I'll play my own game. I'll +ruin him ruthlessly. He's in my power, I tell you, and I'll crush +him under my heel. Well, that's settled at last. I'm off to Devonshire +to-morrow--on the hunt of the records--to the skirts of Dartmoor, +to a place in the wilds by the name of Mambury." He raised his +hat, and, curling his lip maliciously, walked away, without even +so much as shaking hands with her. He knew it was all up. That game +was lost. And, being a man of feeling, he regretted it bitterly. + +Gwendoline, for her part, hurried home, all aglow with remorse and +excitement. When she reached the house, she went straight up in +haste to her own bedroom. In spite of her promise, all woman that +she was, she couldn't resist sitting down at once and inditing a +hurried note to Granville Kelmscott. + +"Dearest Granville," it said, in a very shaky hand, not unblurred +by tears, "I know all now, and I wonder you thought it could ever +matter. I know you're not the eldest son, and that somebody else +is the heir of Tilgate. And I care for all that a great deal less +than nothing. I love you ten thousand times too dearly to mind one +pin whether you're rich or poor. And, rich or poor, whenever you +like, I'll marry you. + +"Yours ever devotedly and unalterably, + +"GWENDOLINE." + +She sealed it up in haste and ran out with it, all tremors, to the +post by herself. Her hands were hot. She was in a high fever. But +Mr. Montague Nevitt, that man of feeling, thus balked of his game, +walked off his disappointment as well as he could by a long smart +tramp across the springy downs, lunching at a wayside inn on bread +and cheese and beer, and descending as the evening shades drew in +on the Guildford station. Thence he ran up to town by the first +fast train, and sauntered sulkily across Waterloo Bridge to his +rooms on the Embankment. As he went a poster caught his eye on the +bridge. It riveted his attention by one fatal phrase. "Financial +News. Collapse of the Rio Negro Diamond and Sapphire Mines!" + +He stared at the placard with a dim sense of disaster. What on +earth could this mean? It fairly took his breath away. The mines +were the best things out this season. He held three hundred shares +on his own account. If this rumour were true, he had let himself +in for a loss of a clear three thousand! + +But being a person of restricted sympathies, he didn't reflect till +several minutes had passed that he must at the same time have let +Guy Waring in for three thousand also. + + + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +SELF OR BEARER. + + + + + +At Charing Cross Station Montague Nevitt bought a Financial News +and proceeded forthwith to his own rooms to read of the sudden +collapse of his pet speculation. It was only too true. The +Rio Negro Diamond and Sapphire Mines had gone entirely in one of +the periodical South American crashes which involved them in the +liabilities of several other companies. A call would be made at +once to the full extent of the nominal capital. And he would have +to find three thousand pounds down to meet the demand on his credit +immediately. + +Nevitt hadn't three thousand pounds in the world to pay. The little +he possessed beyond his salary was locked up, here and there, in +speculative undertakings, where he couldn't touch it except at long +notice. It was a crushing blow. He had need of steadying. Some +men would have flown in such a plight to brandy. Montague Nevitt +flew, instead, to the consolations of music. + +For some minutes, indeed, he paced his room up and down in solemn +silence. Then his eye fell by accident on the violin case in the +corner. Ah, that would do! That beloved violin would inspire him +with ideas; was it suicide or fraud? or some honest way out: be +it this plan or that the violin would help him. Screwing up the +strings for a minute with those deft, long, double-jointed fingers +of his, he took the bow in his right hand, and, still pacing the +room with great strides, like a wild beast in its cage, began to +discourse low passionate music to himself from one of those serpentine +pieces of Miss Ewes's of Leamington. + +As he played and played, his whole soul in his fingers, a plan +began to frame itself, vaguely, dimly at first, then more and more +definitely by slow degrees--shape, form, and features--as it grew +and developed. A beautiful chord, that last! Oh, how subtle, how +beautiful! It seemed to curl and glide on like a serpent through +the grass, leaving strange trails behind as of a flowing signature; +a flowing signature with bold twirls and flourishes--twirls +and flourishes--twirls and flourishes--twirls, twirls, twirls and +flourishes; the signature to a cheque; to a cheque for money; three +thousand pounds at Drummond, Coutts and Barclay's. + +It ran through his head, keeping time with the bars. Four thousand +pounds; five thousand; six thousand. + +The longer he played the clearer and sharper the plan stood out. +He saw his way now as clear as daylight. And his way too, to make +a deal more in the end by it. + +"Pay self or bearer six thousand pounds! Six thousand pounds; +signed, Cyril Waring!" + +For hours he paced up and down there, playing long and low. Oh, +music, how he loved it; it seemed to set everything straight all at +once in his head. With bow in hand and violin at rest, he surpassed +himself that evening in ingenuity of fingering. He trembled to think +of his own cleverness and skill. What a miracle of device! What a +triumph of cunning! Not an element was overlooked. It was safe as +houses. He could go to bed now, and drop off like a child; having +arranged before he went to make Guy Waring his cat's paw, and turn +this sad stroke of ill-luck in the end to his own ultimate greater +and wider advantage. + +And he was quite right too. He did sleep as he expected. Next +morning he woke in a very good humour, and proceeded at once to +Guy Waring's rooms the moment after breakfast. + +He found Guy, as he expected, in a tumult of excitement, having +only just that moment received by post the final call for the Rio +Negro capital. + +When other men are excited the wise man takes care to be perfectly +calm. Montague Nevitt was calm under this crushing blow. He pointed +out blandly that everything would yet go well. All was not lost. +They had other irons in the fire. And even the Rio Negros themselves +were not an absolute failure. The diamonds, the diamonds themselves, +he insisted, were still there, and the sapphires also. They studded +the soil, they were to be had for the picking. Every bit of their +money would come back to them in the end. It was a question of +meeting an immediate emergency only. + +"But I haven't three thousand pounds in the world to meet it +with," Guy exclaimed in despair. "I shall be ruined, of course. I +don't mind about that; but I never shall be able to make good my +liabilities!" + +Nevitt lighted a cigarette with a philosophical smile. The hotter +Guy waxed, the faster did he cool down. + +"Neither have I, my dear boy," he said, in his most careless voice, +puffing out rings of smoke in the interval between his clauses; +"but I don't, therefore, go mad. I don't tear my hair over it; +though, to be sure, I'm a deal worse off than you. My position's at +stake. If Drummonds were to hear of it--sack--sack instanter. As +to making yourself responsible for what you don't possess, that's +simply speculation. Everybody on the Stock Exchange always does +it. If they didn't there'd be no such thing as enterprise at all. +You can't make a fortune by risking a ha'penny." + +"But what am I to do?" Guy cried wildly. "However am I to raise +three thousand pounds? I should be ashamed to let Cyril know I'd +defaulted like this. If I can't find the money I shall go mad or +kill myself." + +Montague Nevitt played him gently, as an experienced angler plays +a plunging trout, before proceeding to land him. At last, after +offering Guy much sympathetic advice, and suggesting several +intentionally feeble schemes, only to quash them instantly, he +observed with a certain apologetic air of unobtrusive friendliness, +"Well, if the worst comes to the worst, you've one thing to fall +back upon: There's that six-thousand, of course, coming in by-and-by +from the unknown benefactor." + +Guy flung himself down in his easy-chair, with a look of utter +despondency upon his handsome face. "But I promised Cyril," he +exclaimed, with a groan, "I'd never touch that. If I were to spend +it I don't know how I could ever face Cyril." + +"I was told yesterday," Nevitt answered, with a bitter little +smile, "and by a lady, too, many times over, that circumstances +alter cases, till I began to believe it. When you promised Cyril +you weren't face to face with a financial crisis. If you were to +use the money temporarily--mind, I say only temporarily; for to +my certain knowledge Rio Negros will pull through all right in the +end--if you were to use it temporarily in such an emergency as +this, no blame of any sort could possibly attach to you. The unknown +benefactor won't mind whether your money's at your banker's, or +employed for the time being in paying your debts. Your creditors +will. If I were you, therefore, I'd use it up in paying them." + +"You would?" Guy inquired, glancing across at him, with a faint +gleam of hope in his eye. + +Nevitt fixed him at once with his strange cold stare, He had caught +his man now. He could play upon him as readily as he could play +his violin. + +"Why, certainly I would," he answered, with confidence, striking +the new chord full. "Cyril himself would do the same in your place, +I'll bet you. And the proof that he would is simply this--you yourself +will do it. Depend upon it, if you can do anything, under given +circumstances, Cyril would do it too, in the same set of conditions. +And if ever Cyril feels inclined to criticise what you've done, +you can answer him back, 'I know your heart as you know mine. In +my place, I know you'd have acted as I did.'" + +"Cyril and I are not absolutely identical," Guy answered slowly, +his eyes still fixed on Montague Nevitt's. "Sometimes I feel he +does things I wouldn't do." + +"He has more initiative than you," Nevitt answered, as if carelessly, +though with deep design in his heart. "He acts where you debate. +You're often afraid to take a serious step. Cyril never hesitates. +You draw back and falter; Cyril goes straight ahead. But all the +more reason, accordingly, that Cyril should admit the lightness of +whatever you do, for if you do anything--anything in the nature +of a definite step, I mean--why, far more readily, then, would +Cyril, in like case, have done it." + +"You think he has more initiative?" Guy asked, with a somewhat +nettled air. He hated to be thought less individual than Cyril. + +"Of course he has, my dear boy," Nevitt answered, smiling. "He'd +use the money at once, without a second's hesitation." + +"But I haven't got the money to use," Guy continued, after a short +pause. + +"Cyril has, though," Nevitt responded, with a significant nod. + +Guy perused his boots, and made no immediate answer. Nevitt wanted +none just then; he waited some seconds, humming all the while an +appropriate tune. Then he caught Guy's eye again, and fixed him a +second time. + +"It's a pity we don't know Cyril's address in Belgium," he said, +in a musing tone. "We might telegraph across for leave to use his +money meanwhile. Remember, I'm just as deeply compromised as you, +or even more so. It's a pity we should both be ruined, with six +thousand pounds standing at this very moment to Cyril's account at +the London and West Country. But it can't be helped. There's no +time to lose. The money must be paid in sharp by this evening." + +"By this evening!" Guy exclaimed, starting up excitedly. + +Nevitt nodded assent. "Yes, by this evening, of course," he answered +unperturbed, "or we become ipso facto defaulters and bankrupts." + +That was a lie to be sure; but it served his purpose. Guy was a +child at business, and believed whatever nonsense Nevitt chose to +foist upon him. + +The journalist rose and paced the room twice or thrice with a +frantic air of unspeakable misery. + +"I shall lose my place at our bank, no doubt," Nevitt went on, in +a resigned tone. "But that doesn't much matter. Though a temporary +loan--I could pay every penny in six weeks if I'd time--a temporary +loan would set things all straight again." + +"I wish to heaven Cyril was here," Guy exclaimed, in piteous tones. + +"He is, practically, when you're here," Nevitt answered, with a +knowing smile. "You can act as his deputy." + +"How do you mean?" Guy asked, turning round upon him open-mouthed. + +Nevitt paused, and smiled sweetly. + +"This is his cheque-book, I think," he replied, in the oblique +retort, picking it up and looking at it. He tore out a cheque, as +if pensively and by accident. + +"That's a precious odd thing," he went on, "that you showed me the +other day, don't you know, about your signature and Cyril's being +so absolutely identical." + +Guy gazed at him in horror. "Oh, don't talk about that!" he cried, +running his hand through his hair. "If I were even to entertain +such an idea for a moment, my self-respect would be gone for ever." + +"Exactly so," Nevitt put in, with a satirical smile. "I said so +just now. You've no initiative. Cyril wouldn't be afraid. Knowing +the interests at stake, he'd take a firm stand and act off-hand on +his own discretion." + +"Do you think so?" Guy faltered, in a hesitating voice. + +Nevitt held him with his eye. + +"Do I think so?" he echoed, "do I think so? I know it. Look here, +Guy, you and Cyril are practically one. If Cyril were here we'd ask +him at once to lend us the money. If we knew where Cyril was we'd +telegraph across and get his leave like a bird. But as he isn't +here, and as we don't know where he is, we must show some initiative; +we must act for once on our own responsibility, exactly as Cyril +would. It's only for six weeks. At the end of that time the unknown +benefactor stumps up your share. You needn't even tell Cyril, if +you don't like, of this little transaction. See! here's his cheque. +You fill it in and sign it. Nobody can tell the signature isn't +Cyril's. You take the money and release us both. In six weeks' time +you get your own share of the unnatural parent's bribe. You pay +it in to his credit, and not a living soul on earth but ourselves +need ever be one penny the wiser." + +Guy tried to look away, but he couldn't. He couldn't. Nevitt held +him fixed with his penetrating gaze. Guy moved uneasily. He felt +as if he had a stiff neck, so hard was it to turn. Nevitt took a +pen, and dipped it quick in the ink. + +"Just as an experiment," he said firmly, yet in a coaxing voice, +"sit down and sign. Let me see what it looks like. There. Write it +just here. Write 'Cyril Waring.'" + +Guy sat down as in a maze, and took the pen from his hand like an +obedient schoolboy. For a second the pen trembled in his vacillating +fingers; then he wrote on the cheque, in a free and flowing hand, +where the signature ought to be, his brother's name. He wrote it +without stopping. + +"Capital! Capital!" Nevitt cried in delight, looking over his +shoulder. "It's a splendid facsimile! Now date and amount if you +please. Six thousand pounds. It's your own natural hand after all. +Ah, capital, capital!" + +As he spoke, Guy framed the fatal words like one dreaming or +entranced, on the slip of paper before him. "Pay Self or Bearer +Six Thousand Pounds (L6,000), Cyril Waring." + +Nevitt looked at it critically. "That'll do all right," he said, +with his eye still fixed in between whiles on Guy's bloodless face. +"Now the only one thing you have still left to do is, to take it +to the bank and get it cashed instanter." + + + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +MONTAGUE NEVITT FINESSES. + + + + + +Guy rose mechanically, and followed him to the door. Nevitt still +held the forged cheque in his hand. Guy thought of it so to himself +in plain terms, as the forgery. Yet somehow, he knew not why, +he followed that sinister figure through the passage and down the +stairs like one irresistibly and magnetically drawn forward. Why, +he couldn't let any one go forth upon the streets of London--with the +cheque he himself had forged in his hands--unwatched and unshadowed. + +Nevitt called a cab; and jumped in, and beckoned him. Guy, still +as in a dream, jumped after him hastily. + +"To the London and West Country Bank, in Lombard Street," Nevitt +called through the flap. + +The cab drove off; and Guy Waring leaned back, all trembling and +irresolute, with his head on the cushions. + +At last, after a short drive, during which Guy's head seemed +to be swimming most dreamily, they reached the bank--that crowded +bank in Lombard Street. Nevitt thrust the cheque bodily into his +companion's hand. + +"Take it in, now, and cash it," he said with an authoritative air. +"Do you hear what I say? Take it in--and cash it." + +Guy, as if impelled by some superior power, walked inside the door, +and presented it timidly. + +The cashier glanced at the sum inscribed on the cheque with no +little surprise. + +"It's a rather large amount, Mr. Waring," he said, scanning his +face closely. "How will you take it?" + +Guy trembled violently from head to foot as he answered, in a voice +half choked with terror, "Bank of England hundreds, if you please. +It is a large sum, as you say; but I'm placing it elsewhere." + +The cashier retired for a few minutes; then he returned once more, +bringing a big roll of notes, and a second clerk by his side--just +to prevent mistake--stared hard at the customer. "All square," +the second clerk said, in a half-whispered aside. "It's him right +enough." + +And the cashier proceeded to count out the notes with oft-wetted +fingers. + +Guy took them up mechanically, like a drunken man, counted them +over one by one in a strange, dazed way; and staggered out at last +to the cab to Nevitt. + +Nevitt leaned forward and took the bundle from his hands. Guy stood +on the pavement and looked vacantly in at him! "That's right," Nevitt +said, clasping the bundle tight. "Rio Negro Diamond and Sapphire +Mines, cabby, 127, Knatchbull Street, Cheapside." + +The cabman whipped up his horse and disappeared round the corner, +leaving Guy Waring alone--like a fool--on the pavement. + +For a minute or two the dazed and dazzled journalist stood there +awaking by degrees as from some trance or stupefaction. At first +he could only stand still and gaze vacantly down the street after +the disappearing cab; but as his brain cleared slowly, and the mist +that hung over his mind dispelled itself bit by bit, he was able +to walk a few steps at a time towards the nearest shops, where he +looked in at the windows intently with a hollow stare, and tried +to collect his scattered wits for a great effort at understanding +this strange transaction. + +All at once, as he looked, the full folly of his deed burst in its +true light upon his muddled brain. He had handed Nevitt six thousand +pounds in Bank of England notes; to waste, or lose, or speculate, +or run away with. + +Six--thousand--pounds of Cyril's money! Not that for one moment he +suspected Nevitt. Guy Waring was too innocent to suspect anybody. +But as he woke up more fully now to the nature of his own act, +a horrible sense of guilt and pollution crept slowly over him. He +put his hand ito his forehead. Cold sweat stood in clammy small +drops upon his brow. Bit by bit, the hateful truth dawned clearly +upon him. Nevitt had lured him by strange means, he knew not how, +into hateful crime--into a disgraceful conspiracy. Word by word, +the self-accusing sentence framed itself upon his lips. + +He spoke it out, aloud: "Why--this--is forgery!" + +Dazzled and stunned by the intensity of that awful awaking from +some weird possession or suggestion of evil by a stronger mind, Guy +Waring began to walk on in a feverish fashion, fast, fast, oh, so +fast, not knowing where he went, but conscious only that he must +keep moving, lest an accusing conscience should gnaw his very heart +out. + +Whither, he hadn't as yet the faintest idea. His whole being for +the moment was centred and summed up in that unspeakable remorse. +He had done a great wrong. He had made himself a felon. And now, +in the first recoil of his revolted nature, he must go after the +man who held the evidences of his guilt, and by force or persuasion +demand them at once from him. Those notes were Cyril's. He must +get them. He must get them. + +Possessed by this one idea, with devouring force, but still in a +very nebulous and hazy form, Guy began walking towards the Strand +and the Embankment, at the hot top of his speed, to get the notes +back--at Montague Nevitt's chambers. He had walked with fiery +zeal in that wrong direction for nearly a mile, his heart burning +within him all the way, and his brain in a whirl, before it began +to strike him, in a flash of common sense, that Montague Nevitt +wouldn't be there at all. He had driven off to the office. Guy +clapped his hand to his forehead once more, in an agony of remorse. +Great heavens, what folly! He had heard him tell the cabman the +address himself--"127, Knatchbull Street, Cheapside." + +Even now he hadn't sense enough to hail a cab and go after him. His +faculties were still numbed and entranced by that horrible spell +of Montague Nevitt's eye. He had but one thought--to walk on, walk +hastily. He tramped along the streets in the direction of Cheapside, +straining every muscle to arrive at the office before Nevitt had +parted with Cyril's six thousand--but he never even thought of +saving the precious moments by driving the distance between instead +of walking it. Montague Nevitt's personality still weighed down +half his brain, and rendered his mind almost childish or imbecile. + +Hurrying on so through the crowded streets, now walking, now running, +now pausing, now panting, knocking up here against a little knot of +wayfarers, and delayed again there by an untimely block at some +crowded crossing, he turned the corner at last with a beating +heart into the narrow pavement of an alley marked up as Knatchbull +Street. Number 127 was visible from afar. + +A mob of excited people marked its site by loitering about the door. +Two policemen held off the angrier spirits among the shareholders. +But, nothing daunted by the press, Guy forced his way in and looked +around the room trembling, for Montague Nevitt. Too late! Too late! +Nevitt wasn't there. The unhappy dupe turned to the clerk in charge. + +"Has Mr. Montague Nevitt been here?" he asked, in a voice all +tremulous with emotion. + +"Mr. Montague Nevitt?" the clerk responded. "Just gone ten minutes +ago. Came to settle Mr. Whitley's call--his brother-in-law's. Went +off in a cab. Can I do anything for you?" + +"He's paid in six thousand pounds?" Guy gasped out interrogatively. + +The clerk gazed at him hard with a suspicious glance. "Are you +a shareholder?" he asked, with one eye on the policeman. "What do +you want to know for?" + +"Yes, I'm a shareholder, unfortunately," Guy answered, still in a +maze. "I hold three hundred original shares. My name's Guy Waring. +You've got me on your books. Mr. Nevitt has paid three thousand +in Mr. Whitley's name, and three thousand for me. That was our +arrangement." + +The clerk glanced hard at him again. "Waring!" he repeated, turning +over the leaves of his big book for further verification. "Waring! +Waring! Waring! Ah, here it is; Waring, Guy; journalist; 22, +Staple Inn; 300 shares. Three hundred pounds paid. Then we call up +to three thousand. No, Mr. Nevitt didn't settle for you, sir. He +paid Mr. Whitley's call in full. That was all. Nothing else. You're +still our debtor." + +"He didn't pay up!" Guy exclaimed, clapping his hands to his head, +all the black guile and treachery of the man coining home to him +at once, at one fell blow. "He didn't pay up for me! Oh, this is +too, too terrible!" + +He paused for a moment. Floods of feeling rushed over him. He knew +now that he had committed that forgery for nothing. Cyril's money +was gone. And Montague Nevitt had stolen the three thousand Guy +intrusted to him at the bank for the second payment. Yet Guy knew +he had no legal remedy save by acknowledging the forgery! This was +almost more than human nature could stand. If Montague Nevitt had +been by his side that moment Guy would have leapt at his throat, +and it would have gone hard with him if he had left the villain +living. + +He clapped his hands to his ears in the horror and agony of that +hideous disclosure. + +"The thief!" he cried aloud, in a choking voice. "Did he pay what +he paid from a big roll of notes, and did he take the rest of the +notes in the roll away with him?" + +"Yes, just so," the clerk answered calmly. "He didn't mention your +name. But perhaps he's coming back by-and-by to settle for you." + +Guy knew better. He saw through the man's whole black nature at +once. + +"I've been robbed," he said slowly. "I've been robbed and deserted. +I must follow the man and compel him to disgorge. When I've got +the cash back I'll return and pay you. ... No, I won't, though. I +forgot. I'll take it home to the bank for Cyril." + +The clerk gazed at him with a smile of pitying contempt. Mad, mad; +quite mad! The loss of his fortune had, no doubt, unhinged this +shareholder's reason. But Guy, never heeding him, rushed out into +the street and hailed a passing cab. + +"Temple Flats," he cried aloud, and drove to Nevitt's chambers. +Too late, once more! The housekeeper told him Mr. Nevitt was out. +He'd just started off, portmanteau and all, as hard as a hansom +could drive, to Waterloo Station. + +"Waterloo, then!" Guy shouted, in wild despair, to the cabman. "We +must follow this man post haste. Alive or dead, I won't rest till +I catch him!" + +It was an unhappy phrase. In the events that came after, it was +remembered against him. + + + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +COLONEL KELMSCOTT'S PUNISHMENT. + + + + + +While Montague Nevitt was thus congenially engaged in pulling off +his treble coup of settling his own share in the Rio Negro deficit, +pocketing three thousand pounds, pro tem, for incidental expenses, +and getting Guy Waring thoroughly into his power by his knowledge +of a forgery, two other events were taking place elsewhere, which +were destined to prove of no small importance to the future of +the twins and their immediate surroundings. Things generally were +converging towards a crisis in their affairs. Colonel Kelmscott's +wrong-doing was bearing first-fruit abundantly. + +For as soon as Granville Kelmscott received that strangely-worded +note from Gwendoline Gildersleeve, he proceeded, as was natural, +straight down, in his doubt, to his father's library. There, bursting +into the room, with Gwendoline's letter still crushed in his hand +in the side pocket of his coat, and a face like thunder, he stood +in the attitude of avenging fate before his father's chair, and +gazed down upon him angrily. + +"What does THIS mean?" he asked, in a low but fuming voice, brandishing +the note before his eyes as he spoke. "Is every one in the county +to be told it but I? Is everybody else to hear my business before +you tell me a word of it? A letter comes to me this morning--no +matter from whom--and here's what it says: 'I know you're not the +eldest son, and that somebody else is the heir of Tilgate.' Surely, +if anybody was to know, _I_ should have known it first. Surely, +if I'm to be turned adrift on the world, after being brought up to +think myself a man of means so long, I should, at least, be turned +adrift with my eyes open." + +Colonel Kelmscott gazed at him open-mouthed with horror. + +"Did Gwendoline Gildersleeve write that to you?" he cried, overpowered +at once by remorse and awe. "Did Gwendoline Gildersleeve write +that to you? Well, if Gwendoline Gildersleeve knows it, it's all +up with the scheme! That rascally lawyer, her father, has found +out everything. These two young men must have put their case in +the fellow's hands. He must be hunting up the facts. He must be +preparing to contest it. My boy, my boy, we're ruined! we're ruined!" + +"These two young men," Granville repeated, with a puzzled air of +surprise. "WHAT two young men? I don't know them. I never heard +of them." Then suddenly one of those flashes of intuition burst in +upon him that burst in upon us all at moments of critical importance +to our lives. "Father, father," he cried, loaning forward in his +anguish and clutching the oak chair, "you don't mean to tell me +those fellows, the Warings, that we met at Chetwood Court, are your +lawful sons--and that THAT was why you bought the landscape with +the snake in it?" + +Kelmscott, of Tilgate, bent his proud head down to the table +unchecked. "My son, my son," he cried, in his despair, "you have +said it yourself. Your own mouth has suggested it. What use my +trying to keep it from you any longer? These lads--are Kelmscotts." + +"And--my mother?" Granville Kelmscott burst out, in a very tremulous +voice. The question was almost more than a man dare ask. But he +asked it in the first bitterness of a terrible awakening. + +"Your mother," Colonel Kelmscott answered, lifting his head once +more, with a terrible effort, and looking his son point-blank in +the face--"your mother is just what I have always called her--my +lawful wife--Lady Emily Kelmscott. The mother of these lads, to +whom I was also once duly married, died before my marriage with my +present wife--thank God I can say so. I may have acted foolishly, +cruelly, criminally; but at least I never acted quite so basely +and so ill as you impute to me, Granville." + +"Thank Heaven for that," his son answered fervently, with one hand +on his breast, drawing a deep sigh as he spoke. "You're my father, +sir, and it isn't for me to reproach you; but if you had only done +THAT--oh, my mother! my mother! I don't know, sir, I'm sure, how +I could ever have forgiven you; I don't know how I could ever have +kept my hands off you." + +Colonel Kelmscott straightened himself up, and looked hard at his +son. A terrible pathos gleamed in his proud brown eyes. His white +moustache had more dignity than ever. + +"Granville," he said slowly, like a broken man, "I don't ask you to +forgive me; you can never forgive me; I don't ask you to sympathise +with me; a father knows better than to accept sympathy from a son; +but I do ask you to bear with me while I try to explain myself." + +He braced himself up, and with many long pauses, and many inarticulate +attempts to set forth the facts in the least unfavourable aspect, +told his story all through, in minute detail, to that hardest of +all critics, his own dispossessed and disinherited boy. + +"If you're hard upon me, Granville," he cried at last as he finished, +looking wistfully for pity into his son's face, "you should remember, +at least, it was for your sake I did it, my boy; it was for your +sake I did it--yours, yours, and your mother's." + +Granville let him relate his whole story in full to the bitter +end, though it was with difficulty at times that that proud and +grey-haired man nerved himself up to tell it. Then, as soon as +all was told, he looked in his father's face once more, and said +slowly, with the pitilessness of sons in general towards the faults +and failings of their erring parents-- + +"It's not my place to blame you, I know. You did it, I suppose, as +you say so, for me and my mother. But it IS my place to tell you +plainly, father, that I, for one, will have nothing at all to do +with the fruits of your deception. I was no party to the fraud; I +will be no party either to its results or its clearing up. I, too, +have to think, as you say, of my mother. For her sake, I won't +urge you to break her heart at once by disinheriting her son, now +and here, too openly. You can make what arrangements you like with +these blood-sucking Warings. You can do as you will in providing +them with hush-money. Let them take their black-mail! You've handed +them over half the sum you got for Dowlands already, I suppose. +You can buy them off for awhile by handing them over the remainder. +Twelve thousand will do. Leeches as they are, that will surely +content them, at least for the present." + +Colonel Kelmscott raised one hand and tried hard to interrupt him; +but Granville would not be interrupted. + +"No, no," he went on sternly, shaking his head and frowning. "I'll +have my say for once, and then for ever keep silence. This is the +first and last time as long as we both live I will speak with you +on the subject. So we may as well understand one another, once and +for ever. For my mother's sake, as I said, there need be just at +present no open disclosure. You have years to live yet; and as long +as you live, these Waring people have no claim upon the estate in +any way. You've given them as much as they've any right to expect. +Let them wait for the rest till, in the course of nature, they +come into possession. As for me, I will go to carve out for myself +a place in the world elsewhere by my own exertions. Perhaps, before +my mother need know her son was left a beggar by the father who +brought him up like the heir to a large estate, I may have been +able to carve out that place for myself so well that she need +never really feel the difference. I'm a Kelmscott, and can fight +the world on my own account. But, in any case, I must go. Tilgate's +no longer a fit home for me. I leave it to those who have a better +right to it." + +He rose as if to depart, with the air of a man who sets forth upon +the world to seek his fortune. Colonel Kelmscott rose too, and +faced him, all broken. + +"Granville," he said, in a voice scarcely audible through the +stifled sobs he was too proud to give vent to, "you're not going +like this. You're not going without at least shaking hands with your +father! You're not going without saying good-bye to your mother!" + +Granville turned, with hot tears standing dim in his eyes--like his +father, he was too proud to let them trickle down his cheek--and +taking the Colonel's weather-beaten hand in his, wrung it silently +for some minutes with profound emotion. + +Then he looked at the white moustache, the grizzled hair, the +bright brown eyes suffused with answering dimness, and said, almost +remorsefully, "Father, good-bye. You meant me well, no doubt. You +thought you were befriending me. But I wish to Heaven in my soul +you had meant me worse. It would have been easier for me to bear +in the end. If you'd brought me up as a nobody--as a younger son's +accustomed--" He paused and drew back, for he could see his words +were too cruel for that proud man's heart. Then he broke off +suddenly. + +"But I CAN'T say good-bye to my mother," he went on, with a piteous +look. "If I tried to say good-bye to her, I must tell her all. I'd +break down in the attempt. I'll write to her from the Cape. It'll +be easier so. She won't feel it so much then." + +"From the Cape!" Colonel Kelmscott exclaimed, drawing back in horror. +"Oh, Granville, don't tell me you're going away from us to Africa!" + +"Where else?" his son asked, looking him back in the face steadily. +"Africa it is! That's the only opening left nowadays for a man +of spirit. There, I may be able to hew out a place for myself at +last, worthy of Lady Emily Kelmscott's son. I won't come back till +I come back able to hold my own in the world with the best of them. +These Warings shan't crow over the younger son. Good-bye, once +more, father." He wrung his hand hard. "Think kindly of me when +I'm gone; and don't forget altogether I once loved Tilgate." + +He opened the door and went up to his own room again. His mind was +resolved. He wouldn't even say good-bye to Gwendoline Gildersleeve. +He'd pack a few belongings in a portmanteau in haste, and go forth +upon the world to seek his fortune in the South African diamond +fields. + +But Colonel Kelmscott sat still in the library, bowed down in his +chair, with his head between his hands, in abject misery. A strange +feeling seemed to throb through his weary brain; he had a sensation +as though his skull were opening and shutting. Great veins on his +forehead beat black and swollen. The pressure was almost more than +the vessels would stand. He held his temples between his two palms +as if to keep them from bursting. All ahead looked dark as night; +the ground was cut from under him. The punishment of his sin was +too heavy for him to bear. How could he ever tell Emily now that +Granville was gone? A horrible numbness oppressed his brain. Oh, +mercy! mercy! his head was flooded. + + + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +CROSS PURPOSES. + + + + + +At the Gildersleeves', too, the house that day was alive with +excitement. + +Gwendoline had thrown herself into a fever of alarm as soon as she +had posted her letter to Granville Kelmscott. She went up to her +own room, flung herself wildly on the hed, and sobbed herself into +a half-hysterical, half-delirious state, long before dinner-time. +She hardly knew herself at first how really ill she was. Her hands +were hot and her forehead burning. But she disregarded such mere +physical and medical details as those, by the side of a heart too +full for utterance. She thought only of Granville, and of that +horrid man who had threatened with such evident spite and rancour +to ruin him. + +She lay there some hours alone, in a high fever, before her mother +came up to her room to fetch her. Mrs. Gildersleeve was a subdued +and soft-voiced woman, utterly crushed, so people said, by the +stronger individuality of that blustering, domineering, headstrong +man, her husband. And to say the truth, the eminent Q.C. had taken +all the will out of her in twenty-three years of obedient slavery. +She was pretty still, to be sure, in a certain faded, jaded, +unassuming way; but her patient face wore a constant expression +of suppressed terror, as if she expected every moment to be the +victim of some terrible and unexplained exposure. And that feature +at least in her idiosyncrasy could hardly be put down to Gilbert +Gildersleeve's account; for hectoring and strong-minded as the +successful Q.C. was known to be, nobody could for a moment accuse +him in any definite way of deliberate unkindness to his wife or +daughter. On the contrary, he was tender and indulgent to them to +the last degree, as he understood those virtues. It was only by +constant assertion of his own individuality, and constant repression +or disregard of theirs, that he had broken his wife's spirit and +was breaking his daughter's. He treated them as considerately as +one treats a pet dog, doing everything for them that care and money +could effect, except to admit for a moment their claim to independent +opinions and actions of their own, or to allow the possibility +of their thinking and feeling on any subject on earth one nail's +breadth otherwise than as he himself did. + +At sight of Gwendoline, Mrs. Gildersleeve came over to the bed with +a scared and startled air, felt her daughter's face tenderly with +her hands for a moment, and then cried in alarm, "Why, Gwennie, +what's this? Your cheeks are burning! Who on earth has been here? +Has that horrid man come down again from London to worry you?" + +Gwendoline looked up and tried to prevaricate. But conscience was +too strong for her; the truth would out for all that. "Yes, mother," +she cried, after a pause, "and he said, oh, he said--I could never +tell you what dreadful things he said. But he's so wicked, so cruel! +You never knew such a man! He thinks I want to marry Granville +Kelmscott, and so he told me--" She broke off, of a sudden, unable +to proceed, and buried her face in her hands, sobbing long and +bitterly. + +"Well, what did he tell you, dear?" Mrs. Gildersleeve asked, with +that frightened air, as of a startled wild thing, growing deeper +than ever upon her countenance as she uttered the question. + +"He told me--oh, he told me--I can't tell you what he told me; but +he threatened to ruin us--he threatened it so dreadfully. It was +a hateful threat. He seemed to have found out something that he +knew would be our ruin. He frightened me to death. I never heard +any one say such things as he did." + +Mrs. Gildersleeve drew back in profound agitation. "Found out +something that would be our ruin!" she cried, with white face all +aghast. "Oh, Gwennie, what do you mean? Didn't he tell you what +it was? Didn't he try to explain to you? He's a wicked, wicked man +--so cruel, so unscrupulous! He gets one's secrets into his hands, +by underhand means, and then uses them to make one do whatever he +chooses. I see how it is. He wants to force us into letting him +marry you--into making you marry him! Oh, Gwennie, this is hard. +Didn't he tell you at all what it was he knew? Didn't he give you +a hint what sort of secret he was driving at?" + +Gwendoline looked up once more, and murmured low through her sobs, +"No, he didn't say what it was. He's too cunning for that. But I +think--I think it was something about Granville. Mother, I never +told you, but you know I love him! I think it was something about +HIM, though I can't quite make sure. Some secret about somebody not +being properly married, or something of that sort. I didn't quite +understand. You see, he was so discreetly vague and reticent." + +Mrs. Gildersleeve drew back her face all aghast with horror. "Some +secret--about somebody--not being properly married!" she repeated +slowly, with wild terror in her eyes. + +"Yes, mother," Gwendoline gasped out, with an effort once more. +"It was about somebody not being really the proper heir; he made +me promise I wouldn't tell; but I don't know how to keep it. He +was immensely full of it; it was an awful secret; and he said he +would ruin us--ruin us ruthlessly. He said we were in his power, +and he'd crush us under his heel. And, oh, when he said it, you +should have seen his face. It was horrible, horrible. I've seen +nothing else since. It dogs me--it haunts me." + +Mrs. Gildersleeve sat down by the bedside wringing her hands in +silence. "It's too late to-night," she said at last, after a long +deep pause, and in a voice like a woman condemned to death, "too +late to do anything; but to-morrow your father must go up to town +and try to see him. At all costs we must buy him off. He knows +everything--that's clear. He'll ruin us. He'll ruin us!" + +"It's no use papa going up to town, though," Gwendoline answered +half dreamily. "That dreadful man said he was going away for his +holiday to the country at once. He'll be gone to-morrow." + +"Gone? Gone where?" Mrs. Gildersleeve cried, in the same awestruck +voice. + +"To Devonshire," Gwendoline replied, shutting her eyes hard and +still seeing him. + +Mrs. Gildersleeve echoed the phrase in a startled cry. "To +Devonshire, Gwendoline! To Devonshire! Did he say to Devonshire?" + +"Yes," Gwendoline went on slowly, trying to recall his very words. +"To the skirts of Dartmoor, I think he said; to a place in the +wilds by the name of Mambury." + +"Mambury!" + +The terror and horror that frail and faded woman threw into the one +word fairly startled Gwendoline. She opened her eyes and stared +aghast at her mother. And well she might, for the effect was +electrical. Mrs. Gildersleeve was sitting there, transfixed with +awe and some unspeakable alarm; her figure was rigid; her face was +dead white; her mouth was drawn down with a convulsive twitch; she +clasped her bloodless hands on her knees in mute agony. For a moment +she sat there like a statue of flesh. Then, as sense and feeling +came back to her by slow degrees, she could but rock her body up +and down in her chair with a short swaying motion, and mutter over +and over again to herself in that same appalled and terrified voice, +"Mambury--Mambury--Mambury--Mambury." + +"That was the name, I'm sure," Gwendoline went on, almost equally +alarmed. "On a hunt after records, he said; on a hunt after records. +Whatever it was he wanted to prove, I suppose he knew that was the +place to prove it." + +Mrs. Gildersleeve rose, or to speak with more truth, staggered +slowly to her feet, and, steadying herself with an effort, made +blindly for the door, groping her way as she went, like some faint +and wounded creature. She said not a word to Gwendoline. She had +no tongue left for speech or comment. She merely stepped on, pale +and white, pale and white, like one who walks in her sleep, and +clutched the door-handle hard to keep her from falling. Gwendoline, +now thoroughly alarmed, followed her close on her way to the top +of the stairs. There Mrs. Gildersleeve paused, turned round to her +daughter with a mute look of anguish and held up one hand, palm +outward, appealingly, as if on purpose to forbid her from following +farther. At the gesture, Gwendoline fell back, and looked after her +mother with straining eyes. Mrs. Gildersleeve staggered on, erect, +yet to all appearance almost incapable of motion, and stumbled +down the stairs, and across the hall, and into the drawing-room +opposite. The rest Gwendoline neither saw, nor heard, nor guessed +at. She crept back into her own room, and, flinging herself on her +bed alone as she stood, cried still more piteously and miserably +than ever. + +Down in the drawing-room, however, Mrs. Gildersleeve found the +famous Q.C. absorbed in the perusal of that day's paper. She came +across towards him, pale as a ghost, and with ashen lips. "Gilbert," +she said slowly, blurting it all out in her horror, without one +word of warning, "that dreadful man Nevitt has seen Gwennie again, +and he's told her he knows all, and he means to ruin us, and he's +heard of the marriage, and he's gone down to Mambury to hunt up +the records!" + +The eminent Q.C. let the paper drop from his huge red hands in +the intensity of his surprise, while his jaw fell in unison at so +startling and almost incredible a piece of intelligence. "Nevitt +knows all!" he exclaimed, half incredulous. "He means to ruin +us! And he told this to Gwendoline! Gone down to Mambury! Oh no, +Minnie, impossible! You must have made some mistake. What did she +say exactly? Did she mention Mambury?" + +"She said it exactly as I've said it now to you," Mrs. Gildersleeve +persisted with a stony stare. "He's gone down to Devonshire, she +said; to the borders of Dartmoor, on a hunt after the records; to +a place in the wilds by the name of Mambury. Those were her very +words. I could stake my life on each syllable. I give them to you +precisely as she gave them to me." + +Mr. Gildersleeve gazed across at her with the countenance which had +made so many a nervous witness quake at the Old Bailey. "Are you +QUITE sure of that, Minnie?" he asked, in his best cross-examining +tone. "Quite sure she said Mambury, all of her own accord? Quite +sure you didn't suggest it to her, or supply the name, or give her +a hint of its whereabouts, or put her a leading question?" + +"Is it likely I'd suggest it to her?" the meekest of women answered, +aroused to retort for once, and with her face like a sheet. "Is it +likely I'd tell her? Is it likely I'd give my own girl the clue? She +said it all of herself, I tell you, without one word of prompting. +She said it just as I repeated it--to a place in the wilds by the +name of Mambury." + +Gilbert Gildersleeve whistled inaudibly to himself. 'Twas his way +when he felt himself utterly nonplussed. This was very strange +news. He didn't really understand it. But he rose and confronted +his wife anxiously. That overbearing big man was evidently stirred +by this untoward event to the very depths of his nature. + +"Then Gwennie knows all!" he cried, the blood rushing purple into +his ruddy flushed cheeks. "The wretch! The brute! He must have told +her everything!" + +"Oh, Gilbert," his wife answered, sinking into a chair in her +horror, "even HE couldn't do that--not to my own very daughter! +And he didn't do it, I'm sure. He didn't dare--coward as he is, +he couldn't be quite so cowardly. She doesn't guess what it means. +She thinks it's something, I believe, about Granville Kelmscott. +She's in love with young Kelmscott, as I told you long ago, and +everything to her mind takes some colour from that fancy. I don't +think it ever occurred to her, from what she says, this has anything +at all to do with you or me, Gilbert." + +The Q.C. reflected. He saw at once he was in a tight corner. That +boisterous man, with the burly big hands, looked quite subdued and +crestfallen now. He could hardly have snubbed the most unassuming +junior. This was a terrible thing, indeed, for a man so unscrupulous +and clever as Montague Nevitt to have wormed out of the registers. +How he could ever have wormed it out Gilbert Gildersleeve hadn't +the faintest idea, Why, who on earth could have shown him the entry +of that fatal marriage--Minnie's first marriage--the marriage with +that wretch who died in Portland prison--the marriage that was +celebrated at St. Mary's, at Mambury? He couldn't for a moment +conceive, for nobody but themselves, he fondly imagined, had ever +identified Mrs. Gilbert Gildersleeve, the wife of the eminent Q.C., +with that unhappy Mrs. Read, the convict's widow. The convict's +widow. Ah, there was the rub. For she was really a widow in name +alone when Gilbert Gildersleeve married her. + +And Montague Nevitt, that human ferret, with his keen sharp eyes, and +his sleek polite ways, had found it all out in spite of them--had +hunted up the date of Read's death and their marriage, and had +bragged how he was going down to Mambury to prove it! + +All the Warings and Reads always got married at Widdicombe or +Mambury. There were lots of them on the books there, that was one +comfort, anyhow. He'd have a good search to find his needle in +such a pottle of hay. But to think the fellow should have, had the +double-dyed cruelty to break the shameful secret first of all to +Gwendoline! That was his vile way of trying to force a poor girl +into an unwilling consent. Gilbert Gildersleeve lifted his burly +big hands in front of his capacious waistcoat, and pressed them +together angrily. If only he had that rascal's throat well between +them at that moment! He'd crush the fellow's windpipe till he choked +him on the spot, though he answered for it before the judges of +assize to-morrow! + +"There's only one thing possible for it, Minnie," he said at last, +drawing a long deep breath. "I must go down to Mambury to-morrow +to be beforehand with him. And I must either buy him off; or else, +if that won't do--" + +"Or else what, Gilbert?" + +She trembled like an aspen leaf. + +"Or else get at the books in the vestry myself," the Q.C. muttered +low between his clenched teeth, "before the fellow has time to see +them and prove it." + + + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +GUY IN LUCK. + + + + + +Guy Waring reached Waterloo ten minutes too late. Nevitt had gone +on by the West of England express. The porter at the labelling +place "minded the gentleman well." He was a sharp-looking gentleman, +with a queer look about the eyes, and a dark moustache curled round +at the corners. + +"Yes, yes," Guy cried eagerly, "that's him right enough. The eyes +mark the man. And where was he going to?" + +"He had his things labelled," the porter said, "for Plymouth." + +"And when does the next train start?" Guy inquired, all on fire. + +The porter, consulting the time-table in the muddle-headed way +peculiar to railway porters, and stroking his chin with his hand +to assist cerebration, announced, after a severe internal struggle, +that the 3.45 down, slow, was the earliest train available. + +There was nothing for it then, Guy perceived, but to run home to +his rooms, possessing his soul in patience, pack up a few things +in his Gladstone bag, and return at his leisure to catch the down +train thus unfavourably introduced to his critical notice. + +If Guy had dared, to be sure, he might have gone straight to a +police-station, and got an inspector to telegraph along the line +to stop the thief with his booty at Basingstoke or Salisbury. But +Guy didn't dare. For to interfere with Nevitt now by legal means +would be to risk the discovery of his own share in the forgery. +And from that risk the startled and awakened young man shrank for +a thousand reasons; though the chief among them all was certainly +one that never would have occurred to any one but himself as even +probable. + +He didn't wish Elma Clifford to know that the man she loved, and +the man who loved her, had become that day a forger's brother. + +To be sure, he had only seen Elma once--that afternoon at the +Holkers' garden-party. But, as Cyril himself knew, he had fallen in +love with her at first sight--far more immediately, indeed, than +even Cyril himself had done. Blood, as usual, was thicker than +water. The points that appealed to one brother appealed also to +the other, but with this characteristic difference, that Guy, who +was the more emotional and less strong-willed of the two, yielded +himself up at the very first glance to the beautiful stranger, +while Cyril required some further acquaintance before quite giving +way and losing his heart outright to her. And from that first meeting +forward, Guy had carried Elma Clifford's image engraved upon his +memory--as he would carry it, he believed, to his dying day. Not, +to be sure, that he ever thought for a moment of endeavouring to +win her away from his brother. She was Cyril's discovery, and to +Cyril, therefore, he yielded her up, as of prior right, though with +a pang of reluctance. But now that he stood face to face at last +with his own accomplished crime, the first thought that rose in his +mind spontaneous was for Elma's happiness. He must never let Elma +Clifford know that the man she loved, and would doubtless marry, +was now by HIS act--a forger's brother. + +Three forty-five arrived at last, and Guy set off, all trembling, +on his fatal quest. As he sped along, indignant at heart with +Nevitt's black treachery, on the line to Plymouth, he had plenty +of time to revolve these things abundantly in his own soul. And +when, after a long and dusty drive, he reached Plymouth, late at +night, he could learn nothing for the moment about Montague Nevitt's +movements. So he was forced to go quietly for the evening to the +Duke of Devonshire Hotel, and there wait as best he might to see +how events would next develop themselves. + +A day passed away--two days--but nothing turned up. Guy wasted much +time in Plymouth making various inquiries before he learnt at last +that a man with a queer look about the eyes, and a moustache with +waxed ends, had gone down a night or so earlier by the other line +to a station at the foot of Dartmoor, by the name of Mambury. + +No sooner, however, had he learnt this promising news, than he +set off at once, hot at heart as ever, to pursue the robber. That +wretch shouldn't get away scot free with his booty; Guy would +follow him and denounce him to the other end of the universe! When +he reached Mambury, he went direct to the village inn and asked, +with trembling lips, if Mr. Montague Nevitt was at present staying +there. The landlord shook his head with a stubborn, rustic negative. +"No, we arn't a-got no gentleman o' thik there name in the house," +he said; "fact is, zur, to tell 'ee the truth, we arn't a-had nobody +stoppin' in the Arms at all lately, 'cep' it might be a gentleman +come down from London, an' it was day afore yesterday as he did +come, an' he do call 'unself McGregor." + +Quick as lightning, Guy suspected Nevitt might be passing under a +false name. What more likely, indeed, seeing he had made off with +Guy's three thousand pounds? + +"And what sort of a man is this McGregor?" he asked hastily, putting +his suspicion into shape. "What age? What height? What kind of a +person to look at?" + +"Wull, he's a vine upstandin' zart of a gentleman," the landlord +answered glibly in his own dialect; "as proper a gentleman as you'd +wish to zee in a day's march; med be about your height, zur, or a +trifle more, has his moustaches curled round zame as if it med be +a bellick's harns; an' a strange zart o' a look about his eyes, +too, as if ur could zee right drew an' drew 'ee." + +"That's him!" Guy exclaimed, with a start, in profound excitement. +"That's the fellow, sure enough. I know him. I know him. And where +is he now, landlord? Is he in the house? Can I see him?" + +"Well, no, 'ee can't zee him, zur," the landlord answered, eyeing +the stranger askance; "he be out, jest at present. He do go vur a +walk, mostly, down yonner in the bottom alongside the brook. Mebbe +if you was to vollow by river-bank you med come up wi' him by-an'-by +... and mebbe, agin, you medn't." + +"I'll follow him," Guy exclaimed, growing more excited than ever, +now this quarry was almost well within sight; "I'll follow him till +I find him, the confounded rascal. I'll follow him to his grave. +He shan't get away from me." + +The landlord looked at him with a dubious frown. That one could +smile and smile and be a villain didn't enter into his simple rustic +philosophy. + +"He's a pleasant-spoken gentleman is Maister McGregor," the honest +Devonian said, with a tinge of disapprobation in his thick voice. +"What vur do 'ee want to vind 'un? That's what _I_ wants to know. +He don't look like one as did ever hurt a vlea. Such a soft zart of +a voice. An' he do play on the viddle that beautiful--that beautiful, +why, 'tis the zame if he war a angel from heaven. Viddler Moore, +he wur up here wi' his music last night; an' Maister McGregor, he +took the instrument vrom un, an' 'Let ME have a try, my vrend,' +says he, all modest and unassoomin'; and vi' that, he wounded it +up, an' he begun to play. Lard, how he did play. Never heard nothing +like it in all my barn days. It is the zame, vor all the world, +as you do hear they viddler chaps that plays by themselves in the +Albert Hall up to London. Depend upon it, zur, there ain't no harm +in HIM. A vullow as can play on the viddle like thik there, why, +he couldn't do no hurt, not to child nor chicken." + +Guy turned away from the door, fretting and fuming inwardly. He +knew better than that. Nevitt's consummate mastery of his chosen +instrument was but of a piece, after all, with the way he could play +on all the world, as on a familiar gamut. It was the very skill of +the man that made him so dangerous and so devilish. Guy felt that +under the spell of Nevitt's eye he himself was but as clay in the +hands of the potter. + +But Nevitt should never so trick him and twist him again. To that his +mind was now fully made up. He would never let that cold eye hold +him fixed as of yore by its steely glance. Once for all, Nevitt +had proved his power too well. Guy would take good care he never +subjected himself in future to that uncanny influence. One forgery +was enough. Henceforth he was adamant. + +And yet? And yet he was going to seek out Nevitt; going to stand +face to face with that smiling villain again; going to tax him +with his crime; going to ask him what he meant by this double-dyed +treachery. + +The landlord had told him where Nevitt was most likely to be found. +He followed that direction. At a gate that turned by the river-bank, +twenty minutes from the inn, a small boy was seated. He was +a Devonshire boy of the poorest moorland type, short, squat, and +thick set. As Guy reached the gate, the boy rose and opened it, +pulling his forelock twice or thrice, expectant of a ha'penny. "Has +anybody gone down here?" Guy asked, in an excited voice. + +And the boy answered promptly, "Yes, thik there gentleman, what's +stoppin' at the Talbot Arms. And another gentleman, too; o'ny +t'other one come after and went t'other way round. A big zart o' +a gentleman wi' 'ands vit vor two. He axed me the zame question, +had anybody gone by. This is dree of 'ee as has come zince I've +been a zitting here." + +Guy paid no attention to the second-named gentleman, with the hands +fit for two, or to his inquiries after who might have gone before +him. He fastened at once on the really important and serious +information that the person who was stopping at the Talbot Arms +had shortly before turned down the side footpath. + +"All right, my boy," he said, tossing the lad sixpence, the first +coin he came across in his waistcoat pocket. The boy opened his +eyes wide, and pocketed it with a grin. So unexpected a largess +sufficed to impress the handsome stranger firmly on his memory. He +didn't forget him when a few days later he was called on to give +evidence--at a coroner's inquest. + +But Guy, unsuspicious of the harm he had done himself, walked on, +all on fire, down the woodland path. It was a shady path, and it +led through a deep dell arched with hazels on every side, while a +little brawling brook ran along hard by, more heard than seen, in +the bottom of the dingle. Thick bramble obscured the petty rapids +from view and half trailed their lush shoots here and there across +the pathway. It was just such a mossy spot as Cyril would have loved +to paint; and Guy, himself half an artist by nature, would in any +other mood have paused to gaze delighted on its tangled greenery. + +As it was, however, he was in no mood to loiter long over ferns and +mosses. He walked down that narrow way, where luxuriant branches +of fresh green blackberry bushes encroached upon the track, still +seething in soul, and full of the bitter wrong inflicted upon him +by the man he had till lately considered his dearest friend. At each +bend of the footpath, as it threaded its way through the tortuous +dell, following close the elbows of the bickering little stream, +he expected to come full in sight of Nevitt. But, gaze as he would, +no Nevitt appeared. He must have gone on, Guy thought, and come +out at the other end, into the upland road, of which the porters +at Mambury Station had told him. + +At last he arrived at a delicious green nook, where the shade of +the trees overhead was exceptionally dense, and where the ferns +by the side were somewhat torn and trodden. Casting his eye on +the ground to the left, a metal clasp, gleaming silvery among the +bracken, happened to attract his cursory attention. Something about +that clasp looked strangely familiar. He paused and stared hard at +it. Surely, surely he had seen those metal knobs before. A flash +of recognition ran electric through his brain. Why, yes; it was +the fastener of Montague Nevitt's pocket-book--the pocket-book in +which he carried his most private documents; the pocket-book that +must have held Cyril's stolen six thousand. Guy stooped down to +pick it up with a whirling sense of surprise. Great heavens! what +was this? Not only the clasp, but the pocket-book itself--the +pocket-book filled full and crammed to bursting with papers. Ah, +mercy, what papers? Yes, incredible--the money! Hundred-pound +notes! Not a doubt upon earth of it. The whole of the stolen and +re-stolen three thousand. + +For a minute or two Guy stood there, unable to believe his own +swimming eyes. What on earth could have happened? Was it chance or +design? Had Nevitt deliberately thrown away his ill-gotten gains? +Were detectives on the track? Was he anxious to conceal his part in +the theft? Had remorse got the better of him? Or was he frightened +at last, thinking Guy was on his way to recover and restore Cyril's +stolen property? + +But no, the pocket-book was neither hidden in the ferns nor +yet studiously thrown away. From the place where it lay, Guy felt +confident at once it had fallen unperceived from Nevitt's pocket, +and been trodden by his heel unawares into the yielding leaf-mould. + +Had he pulled it out accidentally with his handkerchief? Very likely, +Guy thought. But then, how strange and improbable that a man so +methodical and calculating as Nevitt should carry such valuable +belongings as those in the self-same pocket. It was certainly most +singular. However, Guy congratulated himself, after a moment's pause, +that so much at least of the stolen property was duly recovered. +He could pay back one-half of the purloined sum now to Cyril's +credit. So he went on his way through the rest of the wood in a +somewhat calmer and easier frame of mind. To be sure, he had still +to hunt down that villain Nevitt, and to tax him to his face with +his double-dyed treachery. But it was something, nevertheless, to +have recovered a part, at any rate, of the stolen money. And Nevitt +himself need never know by what fortunate accident he had happened +to recover it. + +He emerged on the upland road, and struck back towards Mambury. +All the way round, he never saw his man. Weary with walking, he +returned in the end to the Talbot Arms. Had Mr. McGregor come back? +No, not yet; but he was sure to be home for dinner. Then Guy would +wait, and dine at the inn as well. He might have to stop all night, +but he must see McGregor. + +As the day wore on, however, it became gradually clear to him that +Montague Nevitt didn't mean to return at all. Hour after hour passed +by, but nothing was heard of him. The landlord, good man, began to +express his doubts and fears most freely. He hoped no harm hadn't +come to the gentleman in the parlour; he had a powerful zight +o' money on un for a man to carry about; the landlord had zeen it +when he took out his book from his pocket to pay the porter. Volks +didn't ought to go about with two or dree hundred pound or more in +the lonely lanes on the edge of the moorland. + +But Guy, for his part, put a different interpretation on the affair +at once. In some way or other Montague Nevitt, he thought, must +have found out he was being tracked, and, fearing for his safety, +must have dropped the pocket-book and made off, without note or +notice given, on his own sound legs, for some other part of the +country. + +So Guy made up his mind to return next morning by the very first +train direct to Plymouth, and there inquire once more whether +anything further had been seen of the noticeable stranger. + + + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +A SLIGHT MISUNDERSTANDING. + + + + + +On the very same day that Guy Waring visited Mambury, where his +mother was married, Montague Nevitt had hunted up the entry of +Colonel Kelmscott's wedding in the church register. + +Nevitt's behaviour, to say the truth, wasn't quite so black as Guy +Waring painted it. He had gone off with the extra three thousand +in his pocket, to be sure; but he didn't intend to appropriate it +outright to his own uses. He merely meant to give Guy a thoroughly +good fright, as it wasn't really necessary the call should be met +for another fortnight; and then, as soon as he'd found out the truth +about Colonel Kelmscott and his unacknowledged sons, he proposed +to use his knowledge of the forgery as a lever with Guy, so as to +force him to come to advantageous terms with his supposed father. +Nevitt's idea was that Guy and Cyril should drive a hard bargain +on their own account with the Colonel, and that he himself should +then receive a handsome commission on the transaction from both +the brothers, under penalty of disclosing the true facts about the +cheque by whose aid Guy had met their joint liability to the Rio +Negro Diamond Mines. + +It was with no small joy, therefore, that Nevitt saw at last +in the parish register of St. Mary's at Mambury, the interesting +announcement, "June 27th, Henry Lucius Kelmscott, of the parish +of Plymouth, bachelor, private in the Regiment of Scots Greys, to +Lucy Waring, spinster, of this parish." + +He saw at a glance, of course, why Kelmscott of Tilgate had chosen +to describe himself in this case as a private soldier. But he +also saw that the entry was an official document, and that here he +had one firm hold the more on Colonel Kelmscott, who must falsely +have sworn to that incorrect description. The great point of all, +however, was the signature to the book; and though nearly thirty +years had elapsed since those words were written, it was clear to +Nevitt, when he compared the autograph in the register with one of +Colonel Kelmscott's recent business letters, brought with him for +the purpose, that both had been penned by one and the same person. + +He chuckled to himself with delight to think how great a benefactor +he had proved himself unawares to Guy and Cyril. At that very +moment, no doubt, his misguided young friend whom he had compelled +to assist him with the sinews of war for this important campaign +was reviling and objurating him in revengeful terms as the blackest +and most infamous of double-dyed traitors. Ah, well! ah, well! +the good are inured to gross ingratitude. Guy little knew, as he, +Montague Nevitt, stood there triumphant in the vestry, blandly +rewarding the expectant clerk for his pains with a whole Bank of +England five-pound note--the largest sum that functionary had ever +in his life received all at once in a single payment--Guy little +knew that Nevitt was really the chief friend and founder of the +family fortunes, and was prepared to compel the "unknown benefactor" +(for a moderate commission) to recognise his unacknowledged firstborn +sons before all the world as the heirs to Tilgate. But yesterday, +they were nameless waifs and strays, of uncertain origin, ashamed of +their birth, and ignorant even whether they had been duly begotten +in lawful wedlock; to-day, they were the legal inheritors of an +honoured name and a great estate, the first and foremost among the +landed gentry of a wealthy and beautiful English county. + +He smiled to think what a good turn he had done unawares to those +ungrateful youths--and how little credit, as yet, they were prepared +to give him for it. In such a mood he returned to the inn to lunch. +His spirits were high. This was a good day's work, and he could +afford, indeed, to make merry with his host over it. He ordered +in a bottle of wine--such wine as the little country cellar could +produce, and invited that honest man, the landlord, to step in and +share it with him. He had tasted worse sherry on London dinner-tables, +and he told his host so. An affable man with inferiors, Mr. Montague +Nevitt! Then he strolled out by himself down the path by the brook. +It was a pleasant walk, with the water making music in little +trickles by its side, and Montague Nevitt, as a man of taste, +found it suited exactly with his temper for the moment. He noted +an undercurrent of rejoicing and triumphant cheeriness in the tone +of the stream as it plashed among the pebbles on its precipitous +bed that suggested to his mind some bars of a symphony which he +determined to compose as soon as he got home again to his beloved +fiddle. + +So he walked along by himself, elate, and with a springy step, on +thoughts of ambition intent, till he came at last to a cool and +shadowy place, where as yet the ferns were NOT broken down and +trampled underfoot, though Guy Waring found them so some twenty +minutes later. + +At that spot he looked up, and saw advancing along the path in the +opposite direction the burly figure of a man, in a light tourist +suit, whom he hadn't yet observed since he came to Mambury. The +very first point he noticed about the man, long before he recognised +him, was a pair of overgrown, obtrusive hands held somewhat awkwardly +in front of him--just like Gilbert Gildersleeve's. The likeness, +indeed, was so ridiculously close that Montague Nevitt smiled quietly +to himself to observe it. If he'd been in the Tilgate district now, +he'd have declared, without the slightest hesitation, that the man +on the path WAS Gilbert Gildersleeve. + +One second later, he pulled himself up with a jerk in alarmed +surprise. "Great heavens" he cried to himself, a weird sense of +awe creeping over him piece-meal, "either this is a dream or else +it IS, it must be Gilbert Gildersleeve." + +And so, indeed, it was. Gilbert Gildersleeve himself, in his proper +person. But the eminent Q.C., better versed in the wiles of time +and place than Guy Waring in his innocence, had not come obtrusively +to Mambury village or asked point-blank at the Talbot Arms by his +own right name for the man he was in search of. Such simplicity of +procedure would never even have occurred to that practised hand at +the Old Bailey. Mr. Gilbert Gildersleeve appeared on that woodland +path in the general guise of the common pedestrian tourist with +his head-quarters at Ivybridge, walking about on the congenial +outskirts of the Moor in search of the picturesque, and coming and +going by mere accident through Mambury. He had hovered around the +neighbourhood for two days, off and on, in search of his man; and +now, by careful watching, like an amateur detective, he had run +his prey to earth by a dexterous flank-movement and secured an +interview with him where he couldn't shirk or avoid it. + +To Montague Nevitt, however, the meeting seemed at first sight but +the purest accident. He had no reason to suppose, indeed, that +Gilbert Gildersleeve had any special interest in his visit to +Mambury, further than might be implied in its possible connection +with Granville Kelmscott's affairs; and he didn't believe Gwendoline, +in her fear of her father, that blustering man, would ever have +communicated to him the personal facts of their interview at Tilgate. +So he advanced to meet his old acquaintance, the barrister, with +frankly outstretched hand. + +"Mr. Gildersleeve!" he exclaimed in some surprise. "No, it can't +be you. Well, this IS indeed an unexpected pleasure." + +Gilbert Gildersleeve gazed down upon him from the towering elevation +of his six feet four. Montague Nevitt was tall enough, as men +go in England, but with his slim, tailor-made form, and his waxed +moustaches, he looked by the side of that big-built giant, like +a: Bond Street exquisite before some prize-fighting Goliath. The +barrister didn't hold out his huge hand in return. On the contrary, +he concealed it, as far as was possible, behind his burly back, +and, looking down from the full height of his contempt upon the +sinister smirking creature who advanced to greet him with that +false smile on his face, he asked severely, + +"What are YOU doing here? That's what _I_ have to ask. What foxy +ferreting have you come down to Mambury for?" + +"Foxy ferreting," Montague Nevitt repeated, drawing back as if +stung, and profoundly astonished. "Why, what do you mean by that, +Mr. Gildersleeve? I don't understand you." The home-thrust was too +true--after the great cross-examiner's well-known bullying manner +--not to pierce him to the quick. "Who dares to say I go anywhere +ferreting?" + +"_I_ do," Gilbert Gildersleeve answered, with assured confidence. +"I say it, and I know it. You pitiful sneak, don't deny it to ME. +You were in the vestry this morning looking up the registers. Even +YOU, with your false eyes, sir, daren't look me in the face and +tell me you weren't. I saw you there myself. And I know you found +in the books what you wanted; for you paid the clerk an extravagant +fee. ... What's that? you rat, don't try to interrupt me. Don't +try to bully me. It never succeeds. Montague Nevitt, I tell you, +I WON'T be bullied." And the great Q.C. put his foot down on the +path with an elephantine solidity that made the prospect of bullying +him seem tolerably unlikely. "I know the facts, and I'll stand no +prevarication. Now, tell me, what vile use did you mean to make of +your discovery this morning?" + +Montague Nevitt drew back, fairly nonplussed for the moment by such +a vigorous and unexpected attack on his flank. Resourceful as he +was, even his cunning mind came wholly unprepared to this sudden +cross-questioning. He felt his own physical inferiority to the big +Q.C. more keenly just then than he could ever have conceived it +possible for a man of his type to feel it. After all, mind doesn't +always triumph over matter. Montague Nevitt was aware that that +mountain of a man, with his six feet four of muscular humanity, +fairly cowed and overawed him at such very close quarters. + +"I don't see what business it is of yours, Mr. Gildersleeve," he +murmured, in a somewhat apologetic voice. "I may surely be allowed +to hunt up questions of pedigree, of service in the end to myself +and my friends, without YOUR interference." + +Gilbert Gildersleeve glared at him, and flared up all at once with +righteous indignation. + +"Of service in the end to yourself and your friends!" he cried, with +unfeigned scorn, putting his own interpretation, as was natural, +on the words. "Why, you cur! you reptile! you unblushing sneak! Do +you mean to say openly you avow your intention of threatening and +blackmailing me? here--alone--to my face! You extortionate wretch! +I wouldn't have believed even YOU in your heart would descend to +such meanness." + +Montague Nevitt, flurried and taken aback as he was, yet reflected +vaguely with some wonder, as he listened and looked, what this +sudden passion of disinterested zeal could betoken. Why such +burning solicitude for Colonel Kelmscott's estate on the part of +a man who was his avowed enemy? Even if Gwendoline meant to marry +the young fellow Granville, with her father's consent, how could +Nevitt himself levy blackmail upon Gilbert Gildersleeve by his +knowledge of the two Warings' claim to the property? A complication +surely. Was there not some unexpected intricacy here which the +cunning schemer himself didn't yet understand, but which might +redound, if unravelled, to his greater advantage? + +"Blackmail YOU, Mr. Gildersleeve," he cried, with a righteously +indignant air. "That's an ugly word. I blackmail nobody; and least +of all the father of a lady whom I still regard, in spite of all she +can say or do to make my life a blank, with affection and respect +as profound as ever. How can my inquiries into the two Warings' +affairs--" + +Gilbert Gildersleeve crushed him with a sudden outburst of indignant +wrath. + +"You cad!" he cried, growing red in the face with horror and disgust. +"You dare to speak so to me, and to urge such motives! But you've +mistaken your man. I won't be bullied. If what you want is to use +this vile knowledge you've so vilely ferreted out, as a lever to +compel me to marry my daughter to you against her will--I can only +tell you, you sneak, you're on the wrong tack. I will never consent +to it. You may do your worst, but you will never bend me. I'm not +a man to be bent or bullied--I won't be put down. I'll withstand +you and defy you. You may ruin me, if you like, but you'll never +break me. I stand here firm. Expose me, and I'll fight you to the +bitter end: I'll fight you, and I'll conquer you." + +He spoke with a fiery earnestness that Nevitt was only just beginning to +understand. There was something in this. Here was a clue indeed to +follow up and investigate. Surely, a menace to Granville Kelmscott's +prospects could never have moved that heavy, phlegmatic, pachydermatous +man to such an outburst of anger and suppressed fear. + +"Expose YOU?" Nevitt repeated, in a dazed and startled voice. "Expose +YOU, my dear sir! I assure you, in truth, I don't understand you." + +The barrister gazed down upon him with immeasurable scorn. "You +liar!" he broke forth, almost choking at the words. "How dare you +so pretend and prevaricate to my face? I KNOW it's not true. My own +daughter told me. She told me what you said to her--every word of +your vile threats. You had the incredible meanness to terrify a poor +helpless and innocent girl by threatening to expose her mother's +disgrace publicly. Only YOU could have done it; but you did it, +you abject thing, you did it. She told me with her own lips you +threatened to come down to Mambury, to hunt up the records. And +she told me the truth; for I've seen you doing it." + +A light broke slowly upon Montague Nevitt's mind. He drew a deep +breath. This was good luck incredible. What Gilbert Gildersleeve +meant he hadn't as yet, to be sure, the faintest conception. But +it was clear they two were at cross-questions with one another. +The secret Gilbert Gildersleeve thought he had come down to Mambury +to discover was not the secret he had actually found out in the +register that morning. It was nothing about the Kelmscotts or Guy +and Cyril Waring; it was something about the great Q..C. and his +wife themselves--presumably some unknown and disgraceful fact in +Mrs. Gilbert Gildersleeve's early history. + +And here was the cleverest lawyer at the English criminal bar just +giving himself away--giving himself away unawares and telling him +the secret, bit by bit, unconsciously. + +This chance was too valuable for Mr. Montague Nevitt to lose. At +all risks he must worm it out. He paused and temporized. His cue +was now not to let Gilbert Gildersleeve see he didn't know his +secret. He must draw on the Q.C. by obscure half hints till he was +inextricably entangled in a complete confession. + +"I had no intention of terrifying Miss Gildersleeve, I'm sure," +he said, in his blandest voice, with his best company smile, now +recovering his equanimity exactly in proportion as the barrister +grew angrier. "I merely desired to satisfy myself as to the salient +facts, and to learn their true bearing upon the family history. +If I spoke to her at all as to any knowledge I might possess with +regard to any other lady's early antecedents--" + +Gilbert Gildersleeve's brow was black as night. His great hands +trembled and twitched convulsively. Was ever blackguard so cynically +candid in his avowal of the basest crimes as this fine-spoken +specimen of the culture of Pall Mall in his open confession of that +disgusting insult to a young girl's innocence? Gilbert Gildersleeve, +who was at heart an honest man, loathed and despised and scorned +and detested him. + +"Do you dare to hint to me, then," he cried, every muscle of his +body quivering with just horror, "that you told my own daughter you +thought you had reason to suspect her own mother's early antecedents?" + +Montague Nevitt looked up at him with a quietly sarcastic smile. +"All's fair in love and war, you know," he said, not caring to +commit himself. + +That smile sealed his fate. With an irrepressible impulse, Gilbert +Gildersleeve sprang upon him. He didn't mean to hurt the man: he +sprang upon him merely as the sole outlet for his own incensed and +outraged feelings. Those great hands seized him for a second by the +dainty white throat, and flung him back in anger. Montague Nevitt +fell heavily on a thick mass of bracken. There was a gurgle, a +gasp; then his head lolled senseless. He was very much hurt. That +at least was certain. The barrister stood over him for a minute, +still purple in the face. Montague Nevitt was white--very white and +death-like. All at once it occurred to the big strong man that +his hands--those great hands--were very fierce and powerful. He +had clutched Nevitt by the throat, half unconsciously, with all +his might, just to give him a purchase as he flung the man from +him. He looked at him again. Great heavens--what was this? It burst +over him at once. He awoke to it with a wild start. The fellow was +dead! And this was clearly manslaughter! + +Justifiable homicide, if the jury knew all. But no jury now could +ever know all. And he had killed him unawares! A great horror +came over him. The man was dead--the man was dead; and he, Gilbert +Gildersleeve, had unconsciously choked him. + +He had no time to think. He had no time to calculate. His wrath was +still hot, though rapidly cooling down before this awful discovery. +Hide it! Hide it! Hide it! That was all he could think. He lifted +the body in his arms, as easily as most men would lift a baby. +Then he laid it down among the brambles close beside the stream. +Something heavy fell out of the pocket as he carried it. The +barrister took no heed. Little matter for that. He laid it down +in fear and trembling. As soon as it was hidden, he fled for his +life. By trackless ways, he walked over the Moor, and returned to +Ivybridge unseen very late in the evening. Ten minutes after he +left the spot, Guy Waring passed by and picked up the pocket-book. + + + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +LEAD TRUMPS. + + + + + +Naturally, under these circumstances, it was all in vain that Guy +Waring pursued his investigations into Montague Nevitt's whereabouts. +Neither at Plymouth nor anywhere else along the skirts of Dartmoor +could he learn that anything more had been seen or heard of the +man who called himself "Mr. McGregor." And yet Guy felt sure Nevitt +wouldn't go far from Mambury, as things stood just then; for as +soon as he missed the pocket-book containing the three thousand +pounds, he would surely take some steps to recover it. + +Two days later, however, Gilbert Gildersleeve sat in the hotel +at Plymouth, where he had moved from Ivybridge after--well, as he +phrased it to himself, after that unfortunate accident. The blustering +Q.C. was like another man now. For the first time in his life he +knew what it meant to be nervous and timid. Every sound made him +suppress an involuntary start; for as yet he had heard no whisper +of the body being discovered. He couldn't leave the neighbourhood, +however, till the murder was out. Dangerous as he felt it to +remain on the spot, some strange spell seemed to bind him against +his will to Dartmoor. He must stop and hear what local gossip had +to say when the body came to light. And above all, for the present, +he hadn't the courage to go home; he dared not face his own wife +and daughter. + +So he stayed on and lounged, and pretended to interest himself with +walks over the hills and up the Tamar valley. + +As he sat there in the billiard-room, that day, a young fellow +entered whom he remembered to have seen once or twice in London, +at evening parties, with Montague Nevitt. He turned pale at the +sight--Gilbert Gildersleeve turned pale, that great red man. At +first he didn't even remember the young fellow's name; but it came +back to him in time that he was one Guy Waring. It was a hard ordeal +to meet him, but Gilbert Gildersleeve felt he must brazen it out. +To slink away from the young man would be to rouse suspicion. So +they sat and talked for a minute or two together, on indifferent +subjects, neither, to say truth, being very well pleased to see +the other under such peculiar circumstances. Then Guy, who had the +least reason for concealment of the two, sauntered out for a stroll, +with his heart still full of that villain Nevitt, whose name, of +course, he had never mentioned to Gilbert Gildersleeve. And Gilbert +Gildersleeve, for his part, had had equal cause for a corresponding +reticence as to their common acquaintance. + +Just as Guy left the room, the landlord dropped in and began to +talk with his guest about the latest new sensation. + +"Heard the news, sir, this morning?" he asked, with an important +air. "Inspector's just told me. A case very much in your line of +business. Dead body's been discovered at Mambury, choked, and then +thrown among the brake by the river. Name of McGregor--a visitor +from London. And they do say the police have a clue to the murderer. +Person who did it--" + +Gilbert Gildersleeve's heart gave a great bound within him, and +then stood stock-still; but by an iron effort of will he suppressed +all outer sign of his profound emotion. He seemed to the observant +eye merely interested and curious, as the landlord finished his +sentence carelessly--"Person who did it's supposed to be a young +man who was at Mambury this week, of the name of Waring." + +Gilbert Gildersleeve's heart gave another bound, still more violent +than before. But again he repressed with difficulty all external +symptoms of his profound agitation. This was very strange news. Then +somebody else was suspected instead of himself. In one way that +was bad; for Gilbert Gildersleeve had a conscience and a sense of +justice. But, in another way, why, it would save time for the moment, +and divert attention from his own personality. Better anything now +than immediate suspicion. In a week or two more every trace would +be lost of his presence at Mambury. + +"Waring," he said thoughtfully, turning over the name to himself, +as if he attached it to no particular individual. "Waring--Waring--Waring." + +He paused and looked hard. Ha! so far good! It was clear the +landlord didn't know Waring was the name of the young man who had +just left the billiard-room. This was lucky, indeed, for if he HAD +known it now, and had taxed Guy then and there, before his own very +face, with being the murderer of this unknown person at Mambury, +Gilbert Gildersleeve felt no course would have been open for him +save to tell the whole truth on the spot unreservedly. Try as he +would, he COULDN'T see another man arrested before his very eyes +for the crime he himself had really, though almost unwittingly, +committed. + +"Waring," he repeated slowly, like one who endeavoured to collect +his scattered thoughts; "what sort of person was he, do you know? +And how did the police come to get a clue to him?" + +The landlord, nothing loth, went off into a long and circumstantial +story of the discovery of the body, with minute details of how the +innkeeper at Mambury had traced the supposed murderer--who gave no +name--by an envelope which he'd left in his bedroom that evening. +The county was up in arms about the affair to-day. All Dartmoor +was being searched, and it was supposed the fellow was in hiding +somewhere in the neighbourhood of Tavistock or Oakhampton. They'd +catch him by to-night. The landlord wouldn't be surprised, indeed, +now he came to think on it, if his truest himself--here a very long +pause--were retained by-and-by for the prosecution. + +Gilbert Gildersleeve drew a deep breath, unperceived. That was +all, was it? The pause had unnerved him. He talked some minutes, +as unconcernedly as he could, though trembling inwardly all the +while, about the murder and the murderer. The landlord listened +with profound respect to the words of legal wisdom as they dropped +from his lips; for he knew Mr. Gildersleeve by common repute as +one of the ablest and acutest of criminal lawyers in all England. +Then, after a short interval, the big burly man, moving his guilty +fingers nervously over the seal on his watch-chain, and assuming +as much as possible his ordinary air of blustering self-assertion, +asked, in an off-hand fashion, "By the way, let me see, I've, some +business to arrange; what's the number of my friend Mr. Billington's +bedroom?" + +The landlord looked up with a little start of surprise. "Mr. +Billington?" he said, hesitating. "We've got no Mr. Billington." + +Gilbert Gildersleeve smiled a sickly smile. It was neck or nothing +now. He must go right through with it. "Oh yes," he answered, with +prompt conviction, playing a dangerous card well--for how could +he know what name this young man Waring might possibly be passing +under? "The gentleman who was talking to me when you came in just +now. His name's Billington--though, perhaps," he added, after a +pause, with a reflective air, "he may have given you another one. +Young men will be young men. They've often some reason, when +travelling, for concealing their names. Though Billington's not +the sort of fellow, to be sure, who's likely to be knocking about +anywhere incognito." + +The landlord laughed. "Oh, we've plenty of that sort," he replied +good-humouredly. "Both ladies and gentlemen. It all makes trade. +But your friend ain't one of 'em. To tell you the truth, he didn't +give any name at all when he came to the hotel; and we didn't +ask any. Billington, is it? Ah, Billington, Billington. I knew a +Billington myself once, a trainer at Newmarket. Well, he's a very +pleasant young man, nice-spoken, and that; but I don't fancy he's +quite right in his head, somehow." + +With instinctive cleverness, Gilbert Clildersleeve snatched at the +opening at once. "Ah no, poor fellow," he said, shaking his head +sympathetically. "You've found that out already, have you? Well, +he's subject to delusions a bit; mere harmless delusions; but +he's not at all dangerous. Excitable, very, when anything odd turns +up; he'll be calling himself Waring and giving himself in charge +for this murder, I dare say, when he comes to hear of it. But as +good-hearted a fellow as ever lived, though; only, a trifle obstinate. +If you've any difficulty with him at any time, just send for me. +I've known him from a boy. He'll do anything I tell him." + +It was a critical game, but Gilbert Gildersleeve saw something +definite must be done, and he trusted to bluster, and a well-known +name, to carry him through with it. And, indeed, he had said enough. +From that moment forth, the landlord's suspicions were never even +so much as aroused by the innocent young man with the preoccupied +manner, who knew Mr. Gildersleeve. The great Q.C.'s word +was guarantee enough--for any one but himself. And the great Q.C. +himself knew it. Why, a chance word from his lips was enough to +protect Guy Waring from suspicion. Who would ever believe, then, +anything so preposterously improbable as that the great Q.C. himself +was the murderer? + +Not the police, you may be sure; nor the Plymouth landlord. + +He went out into the town, with his mind now filled full of a +curious scheme. A plan of campaign loomed up visibly before him. +Waring was suspected. Therefore Waring must somehow have given cause +for suspicion. Well, Waring was a friend of Montague Nevitt's, +and had evidently been at Mambury, either with him or without him, +immediately before the--h'm--the unfortunate accident. But as +soon as Waring came to learn of the discovery of the body, which +he would be sure to do from the paper that evening at latest, he +would see at once the full strength of whatever suspicions might +tell against him. Now, Gilbert Gildersleeve's experience of criminal +cases had abundantly shown him that a suspected person, even when +innocent, always has one fixed desire in his head--to gain time, +anyhow. So Waring would naturally wish to gain time, at whatever +cost. There were evidently circumstances connecting Waring with the +crime; there were none at all, known to the outer world, connecting +the eminent lawyer. Therefore, the eminent lawyer argued to himself, +as coolly almost as if it had been somebody else's case, not his +own, he was conducting--therefore, if an immediate means of escape +is provided for Waring, Waring will almost undoubtedly fall blindfold +into it. + +Not that he meant to let Guy pay the penalty in the end for his own +rash crime. He was no hardened villain. He had still a conscience. +If the worst came to the worst, he said to himself, he would tell +all, openly, rather than let an innocent man suffer. But, like every +one else, in accordance with his own inference from his observation +of others, he, too, wanted to gain time, anyhow; and if he could +but gain time by kindly helping Guy to escape for the present, +why, he would gladly do so. An innocent man may be suspected for +the moment, Gilbert Gildersleeve thought to himself, with a lawyer's +blind confidence; but under our English law he need never at least +fear that the suspicion will be permanent. For lawyers repeat +their own incredible commonplaces about the absolute perfection of +English law so often that at last, by a sort of retributive nemesis, +they really almost come to believe them. + +Filled with these ideas, then, which rose naturally up in his mind +without his taking the trouble, as it were, definitely to prove +them, Gilbert Gildersleeve hurried on through the crowded streets +of Plymouth town, till he reached the office of the London and +South African Steamship Company. There he entered with an air of +decided business, and asked to take a passage to Cape Town at once +by the steamer "Cetewayo", due to call at Plymouth, outward bound, +that evening. He had looked up particulars of sailing in the +papers at the hotel, and asked now, as if for himself, for a large +and roomy berth, with all his usual self-possession and boldness +of manner. The clerk gazed at him carelessly; that big and burly +man with the great awkward hands raised no picture in his brain of +the supposed murderer of McGregor in the wood at Mambury as that +murderer had been described to him by the police that morning, from +a verbal portrait after the landlord of the Talbot Arms. This +colossal, red-faced, loud-spoken person, who required a large +and roomy berth, was certainly "not" the rather slim young man, a +little above the medium height, with a dark moustache and a gentle +musical voice, whom the inn-keeper had seen in an excited mood on +the hunt for McGregor along the slopes of Dartmoor. + +"What name?" the clerk asked briskly, after Gilbert Gildersleeve had +selected his state-room from the plan, with some show of interest +as to its being well amidships and not too near the noise of the +engines. + +"Billington," the barrister answered, without a glimmer of hesitation. +"Arthur Standish Billington, if you want the full name. Thirty-two +will suit me very well, I think, and I'll pay for it now. Go aboard +when she's sighted, I suppose; nine o'clock or thereabouts." + +The clerk made out the ticket in the name he was told. "Yes, nine +o'clock," he said curtly. "All luggage to be on board the tender +by eight, sharp. You've left taking your passage very late, Mr. +Billington. Lucky we've a room that'll suit you, I'm sure, It +isn't often we have berths left amidships like this on the day of +sailing." + +Gilbert Gildersleeve pretended to look unconcerned once more. "No, +I suppose not," he answered, in a careless voice. "People generally +know their own minds rather longer beforehand. But I'd a telegram +from the Cape this morning that calls me over immediately." + +He folded up his ticket, and put it in his pocket. Then he pulled +out a roll of notes and paid the amount in full. The clerk gave him +change promptly. Nobody could ever have suspected so solid a man +as the great Q.C. of any more serious crime or misdemeanour than +shirking the second service on Sunday evening. There was a ponderous +respectability about his portly build that defied detection. The +agents of all the steamboat companies had been warned that morning +that the slim young man of the name of Waring might try to escape +at the last moment. But who could ever suspect this colossal pile, +in the British churchwarden style of human architecture, of aiding +and abetting the escape of the young man Waring from the pervasive +myrmidons of English justice? The very idea was absurd. Gilbert +Gildersleeve's waistcoat was above suspicion. + +And when Guy Waring returned to his room at the Duke of Devonshire +Hotel half an hour later, in complete ignorance as yet of the bare +fact of the murder, he found on his table an envelope addressed, +in an unknown hand, "Guy Waring, Esq.," while below in the corner, +twice underlined, were the importunate words, "IMMEDIATE! IMPORTANT!" + +Guy tore it open in wonder. What on earth could this mean? He +trembled as he read. Could Cyril have learnt all? Or had Nevitt, +that double-dyed traitor, now trebled his treachery by informing +against the man whom he had driven into a crime? Guy couldn't imagine +what it all could be driving at, for there, before his eyes, in a +round schoolboy hand, very carefully formed, without the faintest +trace of anything like character, were the words of this strange +and startling message, whose origin and intent were alike a mystery +to him. + +"Guy Waring, a warrant is out for your apprehension. Fly at once, +or things may be worse for you. It is something always to gain time +for the moment. You will avoid suspicion, public scandal, trial. +Enclosed find a ticket for Cape Town by the Cetewayo to-night. She +sails at nine. Luggage to be on board the tender by eight sharp. +If you go, all can yet be satisfactorily cleared up. If you stay, +the danger is great, and may be very serious. Ticket is taken (and +paid for) in the name of Arthur Standish Billington. Settle your +account at the hotel in that name and go. + +"Yours, in frantic haste, + +"A SINCERE WELL-WISHER." + +Guy gazed at the strange missive long and dubiously. "A warrant +is out." He scarcely knew what to do. Oh, for time, time, time! +Had Cyril sent this? Or was it some final device of that fiend, +Nevitt? + + + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +A CHANCE MEETING. + + + + + +There wasn't much time left, however, for Guy to make up his mind +in. He must decide at once. Should he accept this mysterious +warning or not? Pure fate decided it. As he hesitated he heard a +boy crying in the street. It was the special-edition-fiend calling +his evening paper. The words the boy said Guy didn't altogether +catch; but the last sentence of all fell on his ear distinctly. +He started in horror. It was an awful sound: "Warrant issued to-day +for the apprehension of Waring." + +Then the letter, whoever wrote it, was not all a lie. The forgery +was out. Cyril or the bankers had learnt the whole truth. He was +to be arrested to-day as a common felon. All the world knew his +shame. He hid his face in his hands. Come what might, he must accept +the mysterious warning now. He would take the ticket, and go off +to South Africa. + +In a moment a whole policy had arisen like a cloud and framed itself +in his mind. He was a forger, he knew, and by this time Cyril too +most probably knew it. But he had the three thousand pounds safe +and sound in his pocket, and those at least he could send back to +Cyril. With them he could send a cheque on his own banker for three +thousand more; not that there were funds there at present to meet +the demand; but if the unknown benefactor should pay in the six +thousand he promised within the next few weeks, then Cyril could +repay himself from that hypothetical fortune. On the other hand, +Guy didn't disguise from himself the strong probability that the +unknown benefactor might now refuse to pay in the six thousand. +In that case, Guy said to himself with a groan, he would take to +the diamond fields, and never rest day or night in his self-imposed +task till he had made enough to repay Cyril in full the missing +three thousand, and to make up the other three thousand he still +owed the creditors of the Rio Negro Company. After which, he +would return and give himself up like a man, to stand his trial +voluntarily for the crime he had committed. + +It was a young man's scheme, very fond and youthful; but with +the full confidence of his age he proceeded at once to put it +in practice. Indeed, now he came to think upon it, he fancied +to himself he saw something like a solution of the mystery in the +presence of the great Q.C. at Plymouth that morning. Cyril had +found out all, and had determined to save him. The bankers had +found out all, and had determined to prosecute. They had consulted +Gildersleeve. Gildersleeve had come down on a holiday trip, +and run up against him at Plymouth by pure accident. Indeed, Guy +remembered now that the great Q.C. looked not a little surprised +and excited at meeting him. Clearly Gildersleeve had communicated +with the police at once; hence the issue of the warrant. At the +same time the writer of the letter, whoever he might be--and Guy +now believed he was sent down by Cyril, or in Cyril's interest--the +writer had found out the facts betimes, and had taken a passage +for him in the name of Billington. Uncertain as he felt about +the minor details, Guy was sure this interpretation must be right +in the main. For Elma's sake--for the honour of the family--Cyril +wished him for the present to disappear. Cyril's wish was sacred. +He would go to South Africa. + +The great point was now to avoid meeting Gildersleeve before the +ship sailed. So he would pay his bill quietly, put his things in +his portmanteau, stop in his room till dusk, and then drive off in +a close cab to the landing-stage. + +But, first of all, he must send the three thousand direct to Cyril. + +He sat down in a fit of profound penitence, and penned a heart-broken +letter of confession to his brother. + +It was vague, of course; such letters are always vague; no man, even +in confessing, likes to allude in plain terms to the exact nature +of the crime he has committed; and besides, Guy took it for granted +that Cyril knew all about the main features of the case already. +He didn't ask his brother to forgive him, he said; he didn't +try to explain, for explanation would be impossible. How he came +to do it, he had no idea himself. A sudden suggestion--a strange +unaccountable impulse--a minute or two of indecision--and almost +before he knew it, under the spell of that strange eye, the thing +was done, irretrievably done for ever. The best he could offer +now was to express his profound and undying regret at the wrong he +had committed, and by which he had never profited himself a single +farthing. Nevitt had deceived him with incredible meanness; he +could never have believed any man would act as Nevitt had acted. +Nevitt had stolen three thousand pounds of the sum, and applied +them to paying off his own debt to the Rio Negro creditors: The +remaining three thousand, sent herewith, Guy had recovered, almost +by a miracle, from that false creature's grasp, and he returned them +now, in proof of the fact, in Montague Nevitt's own pocket-book, +which Cyril would no doubt immediately recognise. For himself, he +meant to leave England at once, at least for the present. Where +he was going he wouldn't as yet let Cyril know. He hoped in a new +country to recover his honour and rehabilitate his name. Meanwhile, +it was mainly for Cyril's sake that he fled--and for one other +person's too--to avoid a scandal. He hoped Cyril would be happy +with the woman of his choice; for it was to insure their joint +happiness that he was accepting the offer of escape so unexpectedly +tendered him. + +He sealed up the letter--that incriminating letter, that might mean +so much more than he ever put into it--and took it out to the post, +with the three thousand pounds and Montague Nevitt's pocket-book in +a separate packet. Proud Kelmscott as he was by birth and nature, +he slunk through the streets like a guilty man, fancying all eyes +were fixed suspiciously upon him. Then he returned to the hotel +in a burning heat, went into the smoking room on purpose like an +honest man, and rang the bell for the servant boldly. + +"Bring my bill, please," he said to the waiter who answered it. "I +go at seven o'clock." + +"Yes, sir," the waiter replied, with official promptitude. "Directly, +sir. What number?" + +"I forget the number," Guy answered, with a beating heart; "but +the name's Billington." + +"Yes, sir," the waiter responded once more, in the self-same unvaried +tone, and went off to the office. + +Guy waited in profound suspense, half expecting the waiter to +come back for the number again; but to his immense surprise and +mystification, the fellow didn't. Instead of that, he returned +some minutes later, all respectful attention, bringing the bill on +a salver, duly headed and lettered, "Mr. Billington, number 40." +In unspeakable trepidation, Guy paid it and walked away. Never +before in all his life had he been surrounded so close on every +side by a thick hedge of impenetrable and inexplicable mystery. + +Then a new terror seized him. Was he running his head into a noose, +blindfold? Who was the Billington he was thus made to personate, +and who must really be staying at the very same time in the Duke of +Devonshire? Was this just another of Nevitt's wily tricks? Had he +induced his victim to accept without question the name and character +of some still more open criminal? + +There was no time now, however, to drawback or to hesitate. The +die was cast; he must stand by its arbitrament. He had decided to +go, and on that hasty decision had acted in a way that was practically +irrevocable. He put his things together with trembling hands, +called a cab by the porter, and drove off alone in a turmoil of +doubt, to the landing-stage in the harbour. + +Policemen not a few were standing about on the pier and in the +streets as he drove past openly. But in spite of the fact that +a warrant had been issued for his apprehension, none of them took +the slightest apparent notice of him. He wondered much at this. +But there was really no just cause for wonder. For at least an hour +earlier the police had ceased to look out any longer for Nevitt's +murderer. And the reason they had done so was simply this: a telegram +had come down from Scotland Yard in the most positive terms, "Waring +arrested this afternoon at Dover. The murdered man McGregor is +now certainly known to be Montague Nevitt, a bank clerk in London. +Endeavour to trace Waring's line of retreat from Mambury to Dover +by inquiry of the railway officials. We are sure of our man. +Photographs will be forwarded you by post immediately." + +And, as a matter of fact, at the very moment when Guy was driving +down to the tender, in order to escape from an imaginary charge of +forgery, his brother Cyril, to his own immense astonishment, was +being conveyed from Dover Pier to Tavistock, under close police +escort, on a warrant charging him with the wilful murder of Montague +Nevitt, two days before, at Mambury, in Devon. + +If Guy had only known that, he would never have fled. But he didn't +know it. How could he, indeed, in his turmoil and hurry? He didn't +even know Montague Nevitt was dead. He had been too busy that day +to look at the papers. And the few facts he knew from the boys +crying in the street he naturally misinterpreted, by the light of +his own fears and personal dangers. He thought he was "wanted" for +the yet undiscovered forgery, not for the murder, of which he was +wholly ignorant. + +Nevertheless, we can never in this world entirely escape our own +personality. As Guy went on board, believing himself to have left +his identity on shore, he heard somebody, in a voice that he fancied +he knew, ask a newsboy on the tender for an evening paper. Guy +was the only passenger who embarked at Plymouth; and this person +unseen was the newsboy's one customer. + +Guy couldn't discover who he was at the moment, for the call for a +paper came from the upper deck; he only heard the voice, and wasn't +certain at first that he recognised even that any more than in a +vague and indeterminate reminiscence. No doubt the sense of guilt +made him preternaturally suspicious. But he began to fear that +somebody might possibly recognise him. And he had bought the paper +with news about the warrant. That was bad; but 'twas too late to +draw back again now. The tender lay alongside a while, discharging +her mails, and then cast loose to go. The Cetewayo's screw began +to move through the water. With a dim sense of horror, Guy knew +they were off. He was well under way for far distant South Africa. + +But he did NOT know or reflect that while he ploughed his path on +over that trackless sea, day after day, without news from England, +there would be ample time for Cyril to be tried, and found guilty, +and perhaps hanged as well, for the crime that neither of them had +really committed. + +The great ship steamed out, cutting the waves with her prow, and +left the harbour lights far, far behind her. Guy stood on deck and +watched them disappearing with very mingled feelings. Everything +had been so hurried, he hardly knew himself as yet how his flight +affected all the active and passive characters in this painful +drama. He only knew he was irrevocably committed to the voyage now. +There would be no chance of turning till they reached Cape Town, +or at, the very least Madeira, + +He stood on deck and looked back. Somebody else in an ulster stood +not far off, near a light by the saloon, conversing with an officer. +Guy recognised at once the voice of the man who had asked in the +harbour for an evening paper. At that moment a steward came up as +he stood there, on the look-out for the new passenger they'd just +taken in. "You're in thirty-two, sir, I think," he said, "and your +name--" + +"Is Billington," Guy answered, with a faint tremor of shame at the +continued falsehood. + +The man who had bought the paper turned round sharply and stared at +him. Their eyes met in one quick flash of unexpected recognition. +Guy started in horror. This was an awful meeting. He had seen the +man but once before in his life, yet he knew him at a glance. It +was Granville Kelmscott. + +For a minute or two they stood and stared at one another blankly, +those unacknowledged half-brothers, of whom one now knew, while +the other still ignored, the real relationship that existed between +them. Then Granville Kelmscott turned away without one word of +greeting. Guy trembled in his shame. He knew he was discovered. But +before his very eyes, Granville took the paper he had been reading +by that uncertain light, and, raising it high in his hand, flung +it over into the sea with spasmodic energy. It was the special +edition containing the account of the man McGregor's death and Guy +Waring's supposed connection with the murder. Granville Kelmscott, +indeed, couldn't bring himself to denounce his own half-brother. +He stared at him coldly for a second with a horrified face. + +Then he said, in a very low and distant voice, "I know your identity, +Mr. Billington," with a profoundly sarcastic accent on the assumed +name, "and I will not betray it. I know your secret, too; and I +will keep that inviolate. Only, during the rest of this voyage, do +me the honour, I beg of you, not to recognise me or speak to me in +any way at any time." + +Guy slunk away in silence to his own cabin. Never before in his +life had he known such shame. He felt that his punishment was +indeed too heavy for him. + + + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +SOMETHING TO THEIR ADVANTAGE. + + + + + +At Tilgate and Chetwood next morning, two distinguished households +were thrown into confusion by the news in the papers. To Colonel +Kelmscott and to Elma Clifford alike that news came with crushing +force and horror. A murder, said the Times, had been committed in +Devonshire, in a romantic dell, on the skirts of Dartmoor. No element +of dramatic interest was wanting to the case; persons, place, and +time were all equally remarkable. The victim of the outrage was Mr. +Montague Nevitt, confidential clerk to Messrs. Drummond, Coutts, +and Barclay, the well-known bankers, and himself a familiar figure +in musical society in London. The murderer was presumably a young +journalist, Mr. Guy Waring, not unknown himself in musical circles, +and brother of that rising landscape painter, Mr. Cyril Waring, +whose pictures of wild life in forest scenery had lately attracted +considerable attention at the Academy and the Grosvenor. Mr. Guy +Waring had been arrested the day before on the pier at Dover, where +he had just arrived by the Ostend packet. It was supposed by the +police that he had hastily crossed the Channel from Plymouth to +Cherbourg, soon after the murder, to escape detection, and, after +journeying by cross-country routes through France and Belgium, had +returned via Ostend to the shores of England. It was a triumphant +vindication of our much maligned detective system that within a few +hours after the discovery of the body on Dartmoor, the supposed +criminal should have been recognised, arrested, and detained among +a thousand others, in a busy port, at the very opposite extremity +of southern England. + +Colonel Kelmscott that day was strangely touched, even before +he took up his morning paper. A letter from Granville, posted at +Plymouth, had just reached him by the early mail, to tell him that +the only son he had ever really loved or cared for on earth had +sailed the day before, a disinherited outcast, to seek his fortune +in the wild wastes of Africa. How he could break the news to Lady +Emily he couldn't imagine. The Colonel, twisting his white moustache, +with a quivering hand on his tremulous lip, hardly dared to realize +what their future would seem like. And then--he turned to the +paper, and saw to his horror this awful tale of a cold-blooded and +cowardly murder, committed on a friend by one who, however little +he might choose to acknowledge it, was after all his own eldest +son, a Kelmscott of Tilgate, as much as Granville himself, in lawful +wedlock duly begotten. + +The proud but broken man gazed at the deadly announcement in blank +amaze and agony. His Nemesis had come. Guy Waring was his own +son--and Guy Waring was a murderer. + +He tried to argue with himself at first that this tragic result in +some strange way justified him, after the event, for his own long +neglect of his parental responsibilities. The young man was no +true Kelmscott at heart, he was sure, or such an act as that would +have revolted and appalled him. He was no true son in reality; his +order disowned him. Base blood flowed in his veins, and made crimes +like these conceivable. + +"I was right after all," the Colonel thought, "not to acknowledge +these half low-born lads as the heirs of Tilgate. Bad blood will +out in the end--and THIS is the result of it." + +And then, with sudden revulsion he thought once more--God help +him! How could he say such things in his heart even now of HER, +his pure, trustful Lucy? She was better than him in her soul, he +knew--ten thousand times better. If bad blood came in anywhere, it +came in from himself, not from that simple-hearted, innocent little +country-bred angel. + +And perhaps if he'd treated these lads as he ought, and brought +them up to their own, and made them Kelmscotts indeed, instead of +nameless adventurers, they might never have fallen into such abysses +of turpitude. But he had let them grow up in ignorance of their +own origin, with the vague stain of a possible illegitimacy hanging +over their heads; and what wonder if they forgot in the end how +noblesse oblige, and sank at last into foul depths of vice and +criminality? + +As he read on, his head swam with the cumulative evidence of that +deliberately planned and cruelly executed yet brutal murder. The +details of the crime gave him a sickening sense of loathing and +incredulity. Impossible that his own son could have schemed and +carried out so vile an attack upon a helpless person, who had once +been his nearest and dearest companion. And yet, the account in +the paper gave him no alternative but to believe it. Nevitt and +Guy Waring had been inseparable friends. They had dined together, +supped together, played duets in their own rooms, gone out to the +same parties, belonged to the same club, in all things been closer +than even the two twin brothers. Some quarrel seemed to have +arisen about a matter of speculations in which both had suffered. +They separated at once--separated in anger. Nevitt went down to +Devonshire by himself for his holiday. Then Waring followed him, +without any pretence at concealment; inquired for him at the village +inn with expressions of deadly hate; tracked him to a lonely place +in the adjacent wood; choked him, apparently with some form of +garotte or twisted rope--for the injuries seemed greater than even +the most powerful man could possibly inflict with the hands alone; +and hid the body of his murdered friend at last in a mossy dell +by the bank of the streamlet. Nor was that all; for with callous +effrontery he had returned to the inn, still inquiring after his +victim; and had gone off next morning early with a lie on his lips, +pretending even then to nurse his undying wrath and to be bent on +following up with coarse threats of revenge his stark and silent +enemy. + +So far the Times. But to Colonel Kelmscott, reading in between +the lines as he went, there was more in it than even that. He saw, +though dimly, some hint of a motive. For it was at Mambury that +all these things had taken place; and it was at Mambury that the +secret of Guy Waring's descent lay buried, as he thought, in the +parish registers. What it all meant, Colonel Kelmscott couldn't +indeed wholly understand; but many things he knew which the writer +of the account in the Times knew not. He knew that Nevitt was a +clerk in the bank where he himself kept his account, and to which +he had given orders to pay in the six thousand to Cyril's credit, +at Cyril's bankers. He knew, therefore, that Nevitt might thus +have been led to suspect the real truth of the case as to the two +so-called Warings. He knew that Cyril had just received the six +thousand. Trying to put these facts together and understand their +meaning he utterly failed; but this much at least was clear to him, +he thought--the reason for the murder was something connected with +a search for the entry of his own clandestine marriage. + +He looked down at the paper again. Great heavens, what was this? +"It is rumoured that a further inducement to the crime may perhaps +be sought in the fact that the deceased gentleman had a large sum +of money in his possession in Bank of England notes at the time +of his death. These notes he carried in a pocket-book about his +person, where they were seen by the landlord of the Talbot Arms at +Mambury, the night before the supposed murder. When the body was +discovered by the side of the brook, two days later, the notes were +gone. The pockets were carefully searched by order of the police, +but no trace of the missing money could be discovered. It is now +conjectured that Mr. Guy Waring, who is known to have lost heavily +in the Rio Negro Diamond Mines, may have committed the crime from +purely pecuniary motives, in order to release himself from his +considerable and very pressing financial embarrassments." + +The paper dropped from Colonel Kelmscott's hands. His eyes ceased +to see. His arm fell rigid. This last horrible suggestion proved +too much for him to bear. He shrank from it like poison. That +a son of his own, unacknowledged or not, should be a criminal--a +murderer--was terrible enough; but that he should even be suspected +of having committed murder for such base and vulgar motives as mere +thirst of gain was more than the blood of the Kelmscotts could put +up with. The unhappy father had said to himself in his agony at +first that if Guy really killed that prying bank clerk at all, it +was no doubt in defence of his mother's honour. THAT was a reason a +Kelmscott could understand. That, if not an excuse, was at least +a palliation. But to be told he had killed him for a roll of +bank-notes--oh, horrible, incredible; his reason drew back at it. +That was a depth to which the Kelmscott idiosyncrasy could never +descend. The Colonel in his horror refused to believe it. + +He put his hands up feebly to his throbbing brow. This was a ghastly +idea--a ghastly accusation. The man called Waring had dragged the +honour of the Kelmscotts through the mud of the street. There was +but one comfort left. He never bore that unsullied name. Nobody +would know he was a Kelmscott of Tilgate. + +The Colonel rose from his seat, and staggered across the floor. +Half-way to the door, he reeled and stopped short. The veins of his +forehead were black and swollen. He had the same strange feeling +in his head as he experienced on the day when Granville left--only +a hundred times worse. The two halves of his brain were opening +and shutting. His temples seemed too full; he fancied there was +something wrong with his forehead somewhere. He reeled once more, +like a drunken man. Then he clutched at a chair and sat down. His +brain was flooded. + +He collapsed all at once, mumbling to himself some inarticulate +gibberish. Half an hour later, the servants came in and found him. +He was seated in his chair, still doddering feebly. The house was +roused. A doctor was summoned, and the Colonel put to bed. Lady +Emily watched him with devoted care. But it was all in vain. The +doctor shook his head the moment he examined him. "A paralytic +stroke," he said gravely; "and a very serious one. He seems to have +had a slighter attack some time since, and to have wholly neglected +it. A great blood-vessel in the brain must have given way with a +rush. I can hold out no hope. He won't live till morning." + +And indeed, as it turned out, about ten that night the Colonel's +loud and stentorious breathing began to fail slowly. The intervals +grew longer and longer between each recurrent gasp, and life died +away at last in imperceptible struggles. + +By two in the morning, Kelmscott of Tilgate lay dead on his bed; +and his two unacknowledged and unrecognised sons were the masters +of his property. + +But one of them was at that moment being tossed about wildly on the +waves of Biscay; and the other was locked up on a charge of murder +in the county jail at Tavistock, in Devonshire. + +Meanwhile, at the other house at Chetwood, where these tidings were +being read with almost equal interest, Elma Clifford laid down the +paper on the table with a very pale face, and looked at her mother. +Mrs. Clifford, all solicitous watchfulness for the effect on Elma, +looked in return with searching eyes at her daughter. Then Elma +opened her lips like one who talks in her sleep, and spoke out +twice in two short disconnected sentences. The first time she +said simply, "He didn't do it, I know," and the second time, with +all the intensity of her emotional nature, "Mother, mother, whatever +turns up, I MUST go there." + +"HE will be there," Mrs. Clifford interposed, after a painful pause. + +And Elma answered dreamily, with her great eyes far away, "Yes, of +course, I know he will. And I must be there too, to see how far, +if at all, I can help them." + +"Yes, darling," her mother replied, stroking her daughter's hair +with a caressing hand. She knew that when Elma spoke in a tone like +that, no power on earth could possibly restrain her. + + + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +MISTAKEN IDENTITY. + + + + + +To Cyril Waring himself, the arrest at Dover came as an immense +surprise; rather a surprise, indeed, than a shock just at first, for +he could only treat it as a mistaken identity. The man the police +wanted was Guy, not himself; and that Guy should have done it was +clearly incredible. + +As he landed from the Ostend packet, recalled to England unexpectedly +by the announcement that the Rio Negro Diamond Mines had gone +with a crash--and no doubt involved Guy in the common ruin--Cyril +was astonished to find himself greeted on the Admiralty Pier by a +policeman, who tapped him on the shoulder with the casual remark, +"I think your name's Waring." + +Cyril answered at once, "Yes, my name's Waring." + +It didn't occur to him at the moment that the man meant to arrest +him. + +"Then you're wanted," the minion of authority answered, seizing his +arm rather gruffly. "We've got a warrant out to-day against you, +my friend. You'd better come along with me quietly to the station." + +"A warrant!" Cyril repeated, amazed, shaking off the man's hand. +"There must be some mistake somewhere." + +The policeman smiled. "Oh yes," he answered briskly, with some +humour in his tone. "There's always a mistake, of course, in all +these arrests. You never get a hold of the right man just at first. +It's sure to be a case of his twin brother. But there ain't no +mistake this time, don't you fear. I knowed you at once, when I +see you, by your photograph. Though we were looking out for you, to +be sure, going the other way. But it's you all right. There ain't +a doubt about that. Warrant in the name of Guy Waring, gentleman; +wanted for the wilful murder of a man unknown, said to be one +McGregor, alias Montague Nevitt, on the 27th instant, at Mambury, +in Devonshire." + +Cyril gave a sudden start at the conjunction of names, which naturally +increased his captor's suspicions. "But there IS a mistake, though," +he said angrily, "even on your own showing. You've got the wrong +man. It's not I that am wanted. My name's Cyril Waring, and Guy is +my brother's. Though Guy can't have murdered Mr. Nevitt, either, if +it comes to that; they were most intimate friends. However, that's +neither here nor there. I'm Cyril, not Guy; I'm not your prisoner." + +"Oh yes, you are, though," the officer answered, holding his arm very +tight, and calling mutely for assistance by a glance at the other +policemen. "I've got your photograph in my pocket right enough. +Here's the man we've orders to arrest at once. I suppose you won't +deny, now, that's your living image." + +Cyril glanced at the photograph with another start of surprise. +Sure enough, it WAS Guy; his last new cabinet portrait. The police +must be acting under some gross misapprehension. + +"That man's my brother," he said confidently, brushing the photograph +aside. "I can't understand it at all. This is extremely odd. It's +impossible my brother can even be suspected of committing murder." + +The policeman smiled cynically. "Well, it ain't impossible your +brother's brother can be suspected, anyhow," he said, with a quiet +air of superior knowledge. "The good old double trick's been tried +on once too often. If I was you, I wouldn't say too much. Whatever +you say may be used as evidence at the trial against you. You just +come along quietly to the station with me--take his other arm, Jim, +that's right: no violence please, prisoner--and we'll pretty soon +find out whether you're the man we've got orders to arrest, or his +twin brother." And he winked at his ally. He was proud of having +effected the catch of the season. + +"But I AM his twin brother," Cyril said, half struggling still to +release himself. "You can't take me up on that warrant, I tell you. +It's not my name. I'm not the man you've orders to look for." + +"Oh, that's all right," the constable answered as before, with an +incredulous smile. "Don't you go trying to obstruct the police in +the exercise of their duty. If I can't take you up on the warrant +as it stands, well, anyhow, I can arrest you on suspicion all the +same, for looking so precious like the photograph of the man as is +wanted. Twin brothers ain't got any call, don't you know, to sit, +turn about, for one another's photographs. It hinders the administration +of justice; that's where it is. And remember, whatever you choose +to say may be used as evidence at the trial against you." + +Thus adjured, Cyril yielded at last to force majeure and walked arm +in arm between the two policemen, followed by a large and admiring +crowd, to the nearest station. + +But the matter was far less easily arranged than at first imagined. +An innocent man who knows his own innocence, taken up in mistake +for a brother whom he believes to be equally incapable of the crime +with which he is charged, naturally expects to find no difficulty +at all in proving his identity and escaping from custody on a false +charge of murder. But the result of a hasty examination at the station +soon effectually removed this little delusion. His own admission +that the photograph was a portrait of Guy, and his resemblance +to it in every leading particular, made the authorities decide on +the first blush of the thing this was really the man Scotland Yard +was in search of. He was trying to escape them on the ridiculous +pretext that he was in point of fact his own twin brother. The +inspector declined to let him go for the night. He wasn't going to +repeat the mistake that was made in the Lefroy case, he said very +decidedly. He would send the suspected person under escort to +Tavistock. + +So to Tavistock Cyril went, uncertain as yet what all this could +mean, and ignorant of the crime with which he was charged, if indeed +any crime had been really committed. All the way down, an endless +string of questions suggested themselves one by one to his excited +mind. Was Nevitt really dead? And if so, who had killed him? Was +it suicide to escape from the monetary embarrassments brought about +by the failure of the Rio Negro Diamond Mines, or was it accident +or mischance? Or was it in fact a murder? And in any case--strangest +of all--where was Guy? Why didn't Guy come forward and court inquiry? +For as yet, of course, Cyril hadn't received his brother's letter, +with the incriminating pocket-book and the three thousand pounds; +nor indeed, for several days after, as things turned out, was there +even a possibility of his ever receiving it. + +Next morning, however, when Cyril was examined before the Tavistock +magistrates, he began to realize the whole strength of the case +against him. The proceedings were purely formal, as the lawyers +said; yet they were quite enough to make Cyril's cheek turn pale +with horror. One witness after another came forward and swore to +him. The station-master at Mambury gave evidence that he had made +inquiries on the platform after Nevitt by name; the inn-keeper +deposed as to his excited behaviour when he called at the Talbot +Arms, and his recognition of McGregor as the person he was in search +of; the boy of whom Guy had inquired at the gate unhesitatingly +set down the conversation to Cyril. None of them had the faintest +doubt in his own mind--each swore--that the prisoner before the +magistrates was the self-same person who went over to Mambury on +that fatal day, and who followed Montague Nevitt down the path by +the river. + +As Cyril listened, one terrible fact dawned clearer and clearer +upon his brain. Every fragment of evidence they piled up against +himself made the case against Guy look blacker and blacker. + +The magistrates accepted the proofs thus tendered, and Cyril, as +yet unassisted by professional advice, was remanded accordingly +till next morning. + +Just as he was about to leave the Sessions House in a tumult of +horror, fear, and suspense, somebody close by tapped him on the +shoulder gravely, after a few whispered words with the chairman +and the magistrates. Cyril turned round, and saw a burly man with +very large hands, whom he remembered to have had pointed out to +him in London, and, strange to say, by Montague Nevitt himself--as +the eminent Q.C., Mr. Gilbert Gildersleeve. + +The great advocate was pale, but very sincere and earnest. Cyril +noticed his manner was completely changed. It was clear some +overmastering idea possessed his soul. + +"Mr. Waring," he said, looking him full in the face, "I see you're +unrepresented. This is a case in which I take a very deep interest. +My conduct's unprofessional, I know--point-blank against all our +recognised etiquette--but perhaps you'll excuse it. Will you allow +me to undertake your defence in this matter?" + +Cyril turned round to him with truly heartfelt thanks. It was a +great relief to him, alone and in doubt, and much wondering about +Guy, to hear a friendly word from whatever quarter. + +And Cyril knew he was safe in Gilbert Gildersleeve's hands: the +greatest criminal lawyer of the day in England might surely be +trusted to set right such a mere little error of mistaken identity. +Though for Guy--whenever Guy gave himself up to the police--Cyril +felt the position was far more dangerous. He couldn't believe, +indeed, that Guy was guilty; yet the circumstances, he could no +longer conceal from himself, looked terribly black against him. + +"You're too good," he cried, taking the lawyer's hand in his with +very fervent gratitude. "How can I thank you enough? I'm deeply +obliged to you." + +"Not at all," Gilbert Gildersleeve answered, with very blanched +lips. He was ashamed of his duplicity. "You've nothing to thank me +for. This case is a simple one, and I'd like to see you out of it. +I've met your brother; and the moment I saw you I knew you weren't +he, though you're very like him. I should know you two apart wherever +I saw you." + +"That's curious," Cyril cried, "for very few people know us from +one another, except the most intimate friends." + +The Q.C. looked at him with a very penetrating glance. "I had +occasion to see your brother not long since," he answered slowly, +"and his features and expression fastened themselves indelibly on +my mind's eye. I should know you from him at a glance. This case, +as you say, is one of mistaken identity. That's just why I'm so +anxious to help you well through it." + +And indeed, Gilbert Gildersleeve, profoundly agitated as he was, +saw in the accident a marvellous chance for himself to secure a +diversion of police attention from the real murderer. The fact was, +he had passed twenty-four hours of supreme misery. As soon as he +learned from common report that "the murderer was caught, and was +being brought to Tavistock," he took it for granted at first that +Guy hadn't gone to Africa at all, but had left by rail for the +East, and been arrested elsewhere. That belief filled him full +of excruciating terrors. For Gilbert Gildersleeve, accidental +manslaughterer as he was, was not by any means a depraved or wholly +heartless person. Big, blustering, and gruff, he was yet in essence +an honest, kind-hearted, unemotional Englishman. His one desire +now was to save his wife and daughter from further misery; and if +he could only save them, he was ready to sacrifice for the moment, +to a certain extent, Guy Waring's reputation. But if Guy Waring +himself had stood before him in the dock, he must have stepped +forward to confess. The strain would have been too great for him. +He couldn't have allowed an innocent man to be hanged in his place. +Come what might, in that case he must let his wife and daughter +go, and save the innocent by acknowledging himself guilty. So, when +he looked at the prisoner, it gave him a shock of joy to see that +fortune had once more befriended him. Thank Heaven, thank Heaven, +it wasn't the man they wanted at all. This was the other brother +of the two--Cyril, the painter, not Guy, the journalist. + +In a moment the acute and experienced criminal hand recognised +that this chance told unconsciously in his own favour. Like every +other suspected person, he wanted time, and time would be taken +up in proving an alibi for Cyril, as well as showing by concurrent +proof that he was not his brother. Meanwhile, suspicion would fix +itself still more firmly upon Guy, whose flight would give colour +to the charges brought against him by the authorities. + +So the great Q.C. determined to take up Cyril Waring's case as a +labour of love, and didn't doubt he would succeed in finally proving +it. + + + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + +WOMAN'S INTUITION + + + + + +Next morning, Cyril Waring appeared once more in the Sessions House +for the preliminary investigation on the charge of murder. As he +entered, a momentary hush pervaded the room; then, suddenly, from +a seat beneath, a woman's voice burst forth, quite low, yet loud +enough to be heard by all the magistrates on the bench. + +"Why, mother," it said, in a very tremulous tone, "it isn't Guy +himself at all; don't you see it's Cyril?" + +The words were so involuntarily spoken, and in such hushed awe +and amaze, that even the magistrates themselves, hard Devonshire +squires, didn't turn their heads to rebuke the speaker. As for +Cyril, he had no need to look towards a blushing face in the body +of the court to know that the voice was Elma Clifford's. + +She sat there looking lovelier than he had ever before seen her. +Cyril's glance caught hers. They didn't need to speak. He saw at once +in her eye that Elma at least knew instinctively he was innocent. + +Next moment Gilbert Gildersleeve stood up to state his defence, +and gazed at her steadily. As he rose in his place, Elma's eye met +his. Gilbert Gildersleeve's fell. He didn't know why, but in that +second of time the great blustering man felt certain in his heart +that Elma Clifford suspected him. + +Elma Clifford, for her part, knew still more than that. With +the swift intuition she inherited from her long line of Oriental +ancestry, she said to herself at once, in categorical terms, "It +was that man that did it. I know it was he. And he sees I know it. +And he knows I'm right. And he's afraid of me accordingly." But an +intuition, however valuable to its possessor, is not yet admitted +as evidence in English courts. Elma also knew it was no use in the +world for her to get up in her place and say so openly. + +The great Q.C. put his case in a nutshell. "Our client," he +contended, "was NOT the man against whom the warrant in this case +had been duly issued; he was NOT the man named Guy Waring; he was +NOT the man whom the witnesses deposed to having seen at Mambury; he +was NOT the man who had loitered with evil intent around the skirts +of Dartmoor; in short," the great Q.C. observed, with demonstrative +eye-glass, "it was a very clear case of mistaken identity. It would +take them time, no doubt, to prove the conclusive alibi they intended +to establish; for the gentleman now charged before them, he would +hope to show hereafter, was Mr. Cyril Waring, the distinguished +painter, twin brother to Mr. Guy Waring, the journalist, against +whom warrant was issued; and he was away in Belgium during the whole +precise time when Mr. Guy Waring--as to whose guilt or innocence +he would make no definite assertion--was prowling round Dartmoor +on the trail of McGregor, alias Montague Nevitt. Therefore, they +would consent to an indefinite remand till evidence to that effect +was duly forthcoming. Meanwhile--" and here Gilbert Gildersleeve's +eyes fell upon Elma once more with a quiet forensic smile--he +would call one witness, on the spur of the moment, whom he hadn't +thought till that very morning of calling, but whom the magistrates +would allow to be a very important one--a lady from Chetwood--Miss +Elma Clifford. + +Elma, taken aback, stood up in the box and gave her evidence timidly. +It amounted to no more than the simple fact that the person before +the magistrates was Cyril, not Guy; that the two brothers were +extremely like; but that she had reason to know them easily apart, +having been associated in a most painful accident in a tunnel with +the brother, the present Mr. Cyril Waring. What she said gave only +a presumption of mistaken identity, but didn't at all invalidate +the positive identification of all the people who had seen the +supposed murderer. However, from Gilbert Gildersleeve's point of +view, this delay was doubly valuable. In the first place, it gave +him time to prove his alibi for Cyril and bring witnesses from +Belgium; and, in the second place, it succeeded in still further +fastening public suspicion on Guy, and narrowing the question for +the police to the simple issue whether or not they had really caught +the brother who was seen at Mambury on the day of the murder. + +The law's delays were as marvellous as is their wont. It was a +full fortnight before the barrister was able to prove his point by +bringing over witnesses at considerable expense from Belgium and +elsewhere, and by the aid of a few intimate friends in London, who +could speak with certainty as to the difference between the two +brothers. At the end of a fortnight, however, he did sufficiently +prove it by tracing Cyril in detail from England to the Ardennes +and back again to Dover, as well as by showing exactly how Guy had +been employed in London and elsewhere on every day or night of +the intervening period. The magistrates at last released Cyril, +convinced by his arguments; and on the very same day, the coroner's +inquest on Montague Nevitt's body, after adjourning time upon time +to await the clearing up of this initial difficulty, returned a +verdict of wilful murder against Guy Waring. + +That evening, in town, the most completely mystified person of +all was a certain cashier of the London and West County Bank, in +Lombard Street, who read in his St. James's this complete proof that +Cyril had been in Belgium through all those days when he himself +distinctly remembered cashing over the counter for him a cheque +for no less a sum than six thousand pounds to "self or bearer." +Had the brothers, then, been deliberately and nefariously engaged +in a deep-laid scheme--the cashier asked himself, much puzzled--to +confuse one another's identity with great care beforehand, with +a distinct view to the projected murder? For as yet, of course, +nobody on earth except Guy Waring himself on the waters of Biscay +knew or suspected anything at all about the forgery. + +Elma Clifford and her mother, meanwhile, had stopped on at Tavistock +till Cyril was released from his close confinement. Elma never +meant to marry him, of course--to that prime determination she still +remained firm as a rock under all conditions--but in such straits +as those, why, naturally she couldn't bear to be far away from him. +So she remained at Tavistock quietly till the inquiry was over. + +On the evening of his release Elma met him at the hotel. Her mother +had gone out on purpose to leave them alone. Elma took Cyril's hand +in hers with a profound trembling. She felt the moment for reserve +had long gone past. + +"Cyril," she said, boldly calling him by his Christian name, because +she could call him only as she always thought of him, "I knew from +the first you didn't do it. And just because I know you didn't, I +know Guy didn't either, though everything looks now so very black +against him. I can trust YOU, and I can trust HIM. All through, +I've never had a doubt one moment of either of you." + +Cyril held her hand in his, and raised it tenderly to his lips. Elma +looked at him, half surprised. Only her hand, how strange of him. +Cyril read the unspoken thought, as she would have read it herself, +and answered quickly, "Never, Elma, now, till Guy has cleared himself +of this deadly accusation. I couldn't bear to ask you to accept a +man who every one else would call a murderer's brother." + +Elma gazed at him steadfastly. Tears stood in her eyes. Her voice +trembled; but she was very firm. + +"We must clear you and him of this dreadful charge," she said slowly. +"I know we must do that, Cyril. Guy didn't kill him. Guy's wholly +incapable of it. But where is Guy now? That's what I don't understand. +We must clear that all up. Though, even when it's cleared up, I +can only LOVE you. As I told you that day at Chetwood--and I mean +it still--whatever comes to us two, I can never, never marry you." + +"Not even if I clear this all up?" Cyril asked, with a wistful +look. + +"Not even if you clear this all up," Elma answered seriously. "The +difficulty's on MY side, don't you see, not on yours at all. So far +as you're concerned, Cyril, clear this up or leave it just where +it is, I'd marry you to-morrow. I'd marry you at once, and proud +to do it, if only to show the world openly I trust you both. I half +faltered just once as you stood there in court, whether I wouldn't +say yes to you, for nothing else but that--to let everybody see +how implicitly I trusted you." + +"But _I_ couldn't allow it," Cyril answered, all aglow. "As things +stand now, Elma, our positions are reversed. While this cloud +still hangs so black over Guy, I couldn't find it in my conscience +to ask you to marry me." + +He gazed at her steadily. They were both too profoundly stirred +for tears or emotions. A quiet despair gleamed in the eyes of each. +Cyril could never marry her till he had cleared up this mystery. +Elma could never marry him, even if it were all cleared up, with that +terrible taint of madness, as she thought it, hanging threateningly +for ever over her and her family. + +She paused for a minute or two, with her hand locked in his. Then +she said once more, very low, "No, Guy didn't do it. But why did +he run away? That baffles me quite. That's the one point of it +all that makes it so strange and so terribly mysterious." + +"Elma," Cyril answered, with a cold thrill, "I believe in Guy; +I think I know myself, and I think I know him, well enough to say +that such a thing as murder is impossible for either of us. He's weak +at times, I admit, and his will was powerless before the magnetic +force of Montague Nevitt's. But when I try to face that inscrutable +mystery of why, if he's innocent, he has run away from this +charge, I confess my faith begins to falter and tremble. He must +have seen it in the papers. He must have seen I was accused. What +can he mean by leaving me to bear it in his stead without ever +coming forward to help me fairly out of it?" + +Elma looked up at him with another of her sudden flashes of superb +intuition. "He CAN'T have seen it in the papers," she said. "That +gives us some clue. If he'd seen it, he MUST have come forward to +help you. But, Cyril, MY faith never falters at all. And I tell +you why. Not only do I know Guy didn't do it, but I know who did +it. The man who murdered Montague Nevitt is--why shouldn't I tell +you?--Mr. Gilbert Gildersleeve!" + +Cyril started back astonished. "Oh, Elma, why do you think so?" he +cried in amazement. "What possible reason can you have for saying +so?" + +"None," Elma answered, with a calmly resigned air. "I only know it; +I know it from his eyes. I looked in them once and read it like a +book. But of course that's nothing. What we must do now is to try +and find out the facts. I looked in his eyes and I saw it at a +glance. And I saw he saw it. He knows I've discovered him." + +Cyril half drew away from her with a faint sense of alarm. "Elma," +he said slowly, "I believe in Guy; but really and truly I can't +quite believe THAT. You make your intuition tell you far too much. In +your natural anxiety to screen my brother, you've fixed the guilt, +without proof, upon another innocent man. I'm sure Mr. Gildersleeve's +as incapable as Guy of any such action." + +"And I'm sure of it, too," Elma answered, with the instinctive +certainty of feminine conviction. "But still I know, for all that, +he did it. Perhaps it was all done in a moment of haste. But at +least he did it. And nothing on earth that anybody could say will +ever make me believe he didn't." + +When Mrs. Clifford came back to the hotel an hour later, she scanned +her daughter's face with a keen glance of inquiry. + +"Well, he says he won't ask you again," she murmured, laying Elma's +head on her shoulder, "till this case is cleared up, and Guy is +proved innocent." + +"Yes," Elma answered, nestling close and looking red as a rose. +"He knows very well Guy didn't do it, but he wants all the rest of +the world to acknowledge it also." + +"And YOU know who did it?" Mrs, Clifford said, with a tentative +air. + +"Yes, mother. Do you?" + +"Of course I do, darling. But it'll never be proved against HIM, +you may be sure. I saw it at a glance. It's Mr. Gilbert Gildersleeve." + + + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + +FRESH DISCOVERIES. + + + + + +As Cyril drove home from Waterloo next day to his lonely rooms in +Staple Inn, Holborn, he turned aside with his cab for a few minutes +to make a passing call at the bank in Lombard Street. He was short +of ready money, and wanted to cash a cheque for fifty pounds for +expenses incurred in his defence at Tavistock. + +The cashier stared at him hard; then, without consulting anybody, +he said, in a somewhat embarrassed tone, "I don't know whether +you're aware of it, Mr. Waring, but this overdraws your current +account. We haven't fifty pounds on our books to your credit." + +He was well posted on the subject, in fact, for only that morning +he had hunted up Cyril's balance in the ledger at his side for the +gratification of his own pure personal curiosity. + +Cyril stared at him in astonishment. In this age of surprises, one +more surprise was thus suddenly sprung upon him. His first impulse +was to exclaim in a very amazed voice, "Why, I've six thousand odd +pounds to my credit, surely;" but he checked himself in time with +a violent effort. How could he tell what strange things might have +happened in his absence? If the money was gone, and Nevitt was +murdered, and Guy in hiding, who could say what fresh complications +might not still be in store for him? So he merely answered, with +a strenuous endeavour to suppress his agitation, "Will you kindly +let me have my balance-sheet, if you please? I--ur--I thought I'd +more money than that still left with you." + +The cashier brought out a big book and a bundle of cheques, which +he handed to Cyril with a face of profound interest. To him, too, +this little drama was pregnant with mystery and personal implications. +Cyril turned the vouchers over one by one, with close attention, +recognising the signature and occasion of each, till he arrived +at last at a big cheque which staggered him sadly for a moment. He +took it up in his hands and examined it in the light. "Pay Self or +Bearer, Six Thousand Pounds (L6,000), Cyril Waring." + +Oh, horrible, horrible! This, then, was the secret of Guy's sudden +disappearance. + +He didn't cry aloud. He didn't say a word. He looked at the thing +hard, and knew in a moment exactly what had happened. Guy had +forged that cheque; it was Guy's natural hand, written forward like +Cyril's own, instead of backward, as usual. And no one but himself +could possibly have told it from his own true signature. But Cyril +knew it at once for Guy's by one infallible sign--a tiny sign that +might escape the veriest expert--some faint hesitation about the +tail of the capital C, which was shorter in Guy's hand than Cyril +ever made it, and which Guy had therefore deliberately lengthened, +by an effort or an afterthought, to complete the imitation. + +"You cashed that cheque yourself, sir, over the counter, you +remember," the cashier said quietly, "on the date it was drawn on." + +Cyril never altered a muscle of his rigid face. + +"Ah, quite so," he answered, in a very dry voice, not daring to +contradict the man. He knew just what had happened. Guy must have +come to get the money himself, and the cashier must have mistaken +him for the proper owner of the purloined six thousand. They were +so very much alike. Nobody ever distinguished them. + +"And that was one of the days, I think, when you proved the alibi +in Belgium before the Devonshire magistrates at Tavistock yesterday," +the clerk went on, with a searching glance. Cyril started this +time. He saw in a second the new danger thus sprung upon him. If +the cashier chose to press the matter home to the hilt, he must +necessarily arrive at one or other of two results. Either the alibi +would break down altogether, or it would be perfectly clear that +Guy had committed a forgery. + +"So it seems," he answered, looking his keen interlocutor straight +in the eyes. "So it seems, I should say, by the date on the face +of it." + +But the cashier did NOT care to press the matter home any further; +and for a very good reason. It was none of his business to suggest +the idea of a forgery, after a cheque had been presented and duly +cashed, if the customer to whose account it was debited in course +chose voluntarily to accept the responsibility of honouring it. +The objection should come first from the customer's side. If HE +didn't care to press it, then neither did the cashier. Why should +he, indeed? Why saddle his firm with six thousand pounds loss? He +would only get himself into trouble for having failed to observe +the discrepancy in the signatures, and the difference between the +brothers. That, after all, is what a cashier is for. If he doesn't +fulfil those first duties of his post, why what on earth can be +the good of him to anybody in any way? + +The two men looked at one another across the counter with a strong +inscrutable stare of mutual suspicion. Then Cyril slowly tore +up the cheque he had tendered for fifty pounds, filled in another +for his real balance of twenty-two, handed it across to the clerk +without another word, received the cash in white trembling hands, +and went out to his cab again in a turmoil of excitement. + +All the way back to his rooms in Staple Inn one seething idea alone +possessed his soul. His faith in Guy was beginning to break down. +And with it, his faith in himself almost went. The man was his own +brother--his very counterpart, he knew; could he really believe +him capable of committing a murder? Cyril looked within, and said +a thousand times NO; he looked at that forged cheque, and his heart +misgave him. + +At Staple Inn, the housekeeper who took care of their joint rooms +came out to greet him with no small store of tears and lamentations. +"Oh, Mr. Cyril," she cried, seizing both his hands in hers with a +tremulous welcome, "I'm glad to see you back, and to know you're +innocent. I always said you never could have done it; no, no, not +you, nor yet Mr. Guy neither. The police has been here time and +again to search the rooms, but, the Lord be praised, they never +found anything. And I've got a letter for you, too, from Mr. Guy +himself; but there--I locked it up till you come in my own cupboard +at home, for fear of the detectives; and now you're back and safe +in London again, I'll run home this minute round the corner and +get it." + +Cyril sat down in the familiar easy-chair, holding his face in his +hands, and gazed about him blankly. Such a home-coming as this +was inexpressibly terrible to him. + +In a few minutes more the housekeeper came back, bringing in her +hand Guy's letter from Plymouth. + +Cyril sat for a minute and looked at the envelope in deadly silence. +Then he motioned the housekeeper out of the room with one quivering +hand. Before that good woman's face, he couldn't open it and read +it. + +As soon as she was gone, he tore it apart, trembling. As he read +and read the suspicion within him deepened quickly into a doubt, +the doubt into a conviction, the conviction into a certainty. He +clapped his hands to his head. Oh, God, what was this? Guy acknowledged +his own guilt! He confessed he had done it! + +Cyril's last hope was gone. Guy himself admitted it! + +"How I came to do it," the letter said, "I've no idea myself. A +sudden suggestion--a strange, unaccountable impulse--a prompting, +as it were, pressed upon me from without, and almost before I knew, +the crime was committed." + +Cyril bent his head low upon his knees with shame. He never +could hold up that head henceforth. No further doubt or hesitation +remained. He knew the whole truth. Guy was indeed a murderer. + +He steeled himself for the worst, and read the letter through +with a superhuman effort. It almost choked him to read. The very +consecutiveness and coherency of the sentences seemed all but +incredible under such awful circumstances. A murderer, red-handed, +to speak of his crime so calmly as that! And then, too, this undying +anger expressed and felt, even after death, against his victim +Nevitt! Cyril couldn't understand how any man--least of all his own +brother--could write such words about the murdered man whose body +was then lying all silent and cold, under the open sky, among the +bracken at Mambury. + +And once more, this awful clue of the dead man's pocket-book! Those +accursed notes! That hateful sum of money! How could Guy venture +to speak of it all in such terms as those--the one palpable fact +that indubitably linked him with that cold-blooded murder. "The +three thousand sent herewith I recovered, almost by a miracle, from +that false creature's grasp, under extraordinary circumstances, +and I return them now, in proof of the fact, in Montague Nevitt's +own pocket-book, which I'm sure you'll recognise as soon as you +look at it." + +Cyril saw it all now beyond the shadow of a doubt. He reconstructed +the whole sad tale. He was sure he understood it. But to understand +it was hardly even yet to believe it. Guy had lost heavily in the +Rio Negro Mines, as the prosecution declared; in an evil hour he'd +been cajoled into forging Cyril's name for six thousand. Montague +Nevitt had in some way misappropriated the stolen sum. Guy had +pursued him in a sudden white-heat of fury, had come up with him +unawares, had killed him in his rage, and now calmly returned as +much as he could recover of that fateful and twice-stolen money to +Cyril. It was all too horrible, but all too true. In a wild ferment +of remorse for his brother's sin, the unhappy painter sat down at +once and penned a letter of abject self-humiliation to Elma Clifford. + +"ELMA,-I said to you last night that I could never marry you till +I had clearly proved my brother Guy's innocence. Well, I said what +I can never conceivably do. Since returning to town I received a +letter from Guy himself. What it contained I must never tell you, +for Guy's own sake. But what I MUST tell you is this--I can never +again see you. Guy and I are so nearly one, in every nerve and +fibre of our being, that whatever he may have done is to me almost +as if I myself had done it. You will know how terrible a thing it +is for me to write these words, but for YOUR sake I can't refrain +from writing them. Think no more of me. I am not worthy of you. +I will think of you as long as I live. + +"Your ever devoted and heart-broken + +"CYRIL." + +He folded the letter, and sent it off to the temporary address at +the West-End where Elma had told him that she and her mother would +spend the night in London. Very late that evening a ring came at +the bell. Cyril ran to the door. It was a boy with a telegram. He +opened it, and read it with breathless excitement. + +"Whatever Guy may have said, you are quite mistaken. There's a +mystery somewhere. Keep his letter and show it to me. I may, perhaps, +be able to unravel the tangle. I'm more than ever convinced that +what I said to you last night was perfectly true. We will save him +yet. Unalterably, + +"ELMA." + +But the telegram brought little peace to Cyril. Of what value were +Elma's vague intuitions now, by the side of Guy's own positive +confession? With his very own hand Guy admitted that he had done +it. Cyril went to bed that night, the unhappiest, loneliest man +in London. What Guy was, he was. He felt himself almost like the +actual murderer. + + + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + +"GOLDEN JOYS." + + + + + +The voyage to the Cape was long and tedious. On the whole way out, +Guy made but few friends, and talked very little to his fellow +passengers. That unhappy recognition by Granville Kelmscott the +evening he went on board the Cetewayo poisoned the fugitive's mind +for the entire passage. He felt himself, in fact, a moral outcast; +he slunk away from his kind; he hardly dared to meet Kelmscott's +eyes for shame, whenever he passed him. But for one thing at least +he was truly grateful. Though Kelmscott had evidently discovered +from the papers the nature of Guy's crime, and knew his real name +well, it was clear he had said nothing of any sort on the subject +to the other passengers. Only one man on board was aware of his +guilt, Guy believed, and that one man he shunned accordingly as +far as was possible within the narrow limits of the saloon and the +quarter-deck. + +Granville Kelmscott, of course, took a very different view of Guy +Waring's position. He had read in the paper he bought at Plymouth +that Guy was the murderer of Montague Nevitt. Regarding him, +therefore, as a criminal of the deepest dye now flying from justice, +he wasn't at all surprised at Guy's shrinking and shunning him; +what astonished him rather was the man's occasional and incredible +fits of effrontery. How that fellow could ever laugh and talk at +all among the ladies on deck--with the hangman at his back--simply +appalled and horrified the proud soul of a Kelmscott. Granville +had hard work to keep from expressing his horror openly at times. +But still, with an effort, he kept his peace. With the picture of +his father and Lady Emily now strong before his mind, he couldn't +find it in his heart to bring his own half-brother, however guilty +and criminal the man might be, to the foot of the gallows. + +So they voyaged on together without once interchanging a single +word, all the way from Plymouth to the Cape Colony. And the day +they landed at Port Elizabeth, it was an infinite relief indeed to +Guy to think he could now get well away for ever from that fellow +Kelmscott. Not being by any means over-burdened with ready cash, +however, Guy determined to waste no time in the coastwise towns, +but to make his way at once boldly up country towards Kimberley. +The railway ran then only as far as Grahamstown; the rest of his +journey to the South African Golconda was accomplished by road, +in a two-wheeled cart, drawn by four small horses, which rattled +along with a will, up hill and down dale, over the precarious +highways of that semi-civilized upland. + +To Guy, just fresh from England and the monotonous sea, there was +a certain exhilaration in this first hasty glimpse of the infinite +luxuriance of sub-tropical nature. At times he almost forgot +Montague Nevitt and the forgery in the boundless sense of freedom +and novelty given him by those vast wastes of rolling tableland, +thickly covered with grass or low thorny acacias, and stretching +illimitably away in low range after range to the blue mountains +in the distance. It was strange indeed to him on the wide plains +through which they scurried in wild haste to see the springbok rush +away from the doubtful track at the first whirr of their wheels, +or the bolder bustard stand and gaze among the long grass, with his +wary eye turned sideways to look at them. Guy felt for the moment +he had left Europe and its reminiscences now fairly behind him; in +this free new world, he was free once more himself; his shame was +cast aside; he could revel like the antelopes in the immensity of +a land where nobody knew him and he knew nobody. + +What added most of all, however, to this quaint new sense of vastness +and freedom was the occasional appearance of naked blacks, roaming +at large through the burnt-up fields of which till lately they +had been undisputed possessors. Day after day Guy drove on along +the uncertain roads, past queer outlying towns of white wooden +houses--Cradock, and Middelburg, and Colesberg, and others--till +they crossed at last the boundary of Orange River into the Free +State, and halted for a while in the main street of Philippolis. + +It was a dreary place; Guy began now to see the other side of South +Africa. Though he had left England in autumn, it was spring-time +at the Cape, and the winter drought had parched up all the grass, +leaving the bare red dust in the roads or streets as dry and desolate +as the sand of the desert. The town itself consisted of some sixty +melancholy and distressful houses, bare, square, and flat-roofed, +standing unenclosed along a dismal high-road, and with that +congenitally shabby look, in spite of their newness, which seems +to belong by nature to all southern buildings. Some stagnant pools +alone remained to attest the presence after rain of a roaring brook, +the pits in whose dried-up channel they now occupied; over their +tops hung the faded foliage of a few dust-laden trees, struggling +hard for life with the energy of despair against depressing +circumstances. It was a picture that gave Guy a sudden attack of +pessimism; if THIS was the El Dorado towards which he was going, +he earnestly wished himself back again once more, forgery or no +forgery, among the breezy green fields of dear old England. + +On to Fauresmith he travelled with less comfort than before in +a rickety buggy of most primitive construction, designed to meet +the needs of rough mountain roads, and as innocent of springs as +Guy himself of the murder of Montague Nevitt. It was a wretched +drive. The drought had now broken; the wet season had begun; +rain fell heavily. A piercing cold wind blew down from the nearer +mountains; and Guy began to feel still more acutely than ever that +South Africa was by no means an earthly paradise. As he drove on and +on this feeling deepened upon him. Huge blocks of stone obstructed +the rough road, intersected as it was by deep cart-wheel ruts, down +which the rain-water now flowed in impromptu torrents. The Dutch +driver, too, anxious to show the mettle of his coarse-limbed steeds, +persisted in dashing over the hummocky ground at a break-neck pace, +while Guy balanced himself with difficulty on the narrow seat, +hanging on to his portmanteau for dear life among the jerks and +jolts, till his ringers were numbed with cold and exposure. + +They held out against it all, before the pelting rain, till man +and beast were well-nigh exhausted. At last, about three-quarters +of the way to Fauresmith, on the bleak bare hill-tops, sleety snow +began to fall in big flakes, and the barking of a dog to be heard +in the distance. The Boer driver pricked up his ears at the sound. + +"That must a house be," he remarked in his Dutch pigeon-English to +Guy; and Guy felt in his soul that the most miserable and filthy of +Kaffir huts would just then be a welcome sight to his weary eyes. +He would have given a sovereign, indeed, from the scanty store he +possessed, for a night's lodging in a convenient dog-kennel. He +was agreeably surprised, therefore, to find it was a comfortable +farmhouse, where the lights in the casement beamed forth a cheery +welcome on the wet and draggled wayfarers from real glass windows. +The farmer within received them hospitably. Business was brisk to-day. +Another traveller, he said, had just gone on towards Fauresmith. + +"A young man like yourself, fresh from England," the farmer observed, +scanning Guy closely. "He's off for the diamond diggings. I think +to Dutoitspan." + +Guy rested the right there, thinking nothing of the stranger, and +went on next day more quietly to Fauresmith. Thence to the diamond +fields, the country became at each step more sombre and more +monotonous than ever. In the afternoon they rested at Jacobsdal, +another dusty, dreary, comfortless place, consisting of about five +and twenty bankrupt houses scattered in bare clumps over a scorched-up +desert. Then on again next day, over a drearier and ever drearier +expanse of landscape. It was ghastly. It was horrible. At last, on +the top of a dismal hill range, looking down on a deep dale, the +driver halted. In the vast flat below, a dull dense fog seemed to +envelop the world with inscrutable mists. The driver pointed to it +with his demonstrative whip. + +"Down yonder," he said encouragingly, as he put the skid on his +wheel, "down yonder's the diamond fields--that's Dutoitspan before +you." + +"What makes it so grey?" Guy asked, looking in front of him with a +sinking heart. This first view of his future home was by no means +encouraging. + +"Oh, the sand make it be like that," the driver answered unconcernedly. +"Diamond fields all make up of fine red sand; and diggers pile it +about around their own claims. Then the wind comes and blow, and +make sandstorm always around Dutoitspan." + +Guy groaned inwardly. This was certainly NOT the El Dorado of his +fancy. They descended the hill, at the same break-neck pace as +before, and entered the miserable mushroom town of diamond-grubbers. +Amidst the huts in the diggings great heaps of red earth lay piled +up everywhere. Dust and sand rose high on the hot breeze into +the stifling air. As they reached the encampment--for Dutoitspan +then was little more than a camp--the blinding mists of solid red +particles drove so thick in their eyes that Guy could hardly see +a few yards before him. Their clothes and faces were literally +encrusted in thick coats of dust. The fine red mist seemed to +pervade everything. It filled their eyes, their nostrils, their +ears, their mouths. They breathed solid dust. The air was laden +deep with it. + +And THIS was the diamond fields! This was the Golconda where Guy +was to find six thousand pounds ready made to recover his losses +and to repay Cyril. Oh, horrible, horrible. His heart sank low at +it. + +And still they went on, and on, and on, and on, through the mist +of dust to the place for out-spanning. Guy only shared the common +fate of all new-comers to "the fields" in feeling much distressed +and really ill. The very horses in the cart snorted and sneezed +and showed their high displeasure by trying every now and then to +jib and turn back again. Here and there, on either side, to right +and left, where the gloom permitted it, Guy made out dimly a few +round or oblong tents, with occasional rude huts of corrugated +iron. A few uncertain figures lounged vaguely in the background. +On closer inspection they proved to be much-grimed and half-naked +natives, resting their weary limbs on piles of dry dust after their +toil in the diggings. + +It was an unearthly scene. Guy's heart sank lower and lower still +at every step the horses took into that howling wilderness. + +At last the driver drew up with a jolt in front of a long low hut +of corrugated iron, somewhat larger than the rest, but no less dull +and dreary. "The hotel," he said briefly; and Guy jumped out to +secure himself a night's lodging or so at this place of entertainment, +till he could negotiate for a hut and a decent claim, and commence +his digging. + +At the bar of the primitive saloon where he found himself landed, +a man in a grey tweed suit was already seated. He was drinking +something fizzy from a tall soda-water glass. With a sudden start +of horror Guy recognised him at once. Oh, great heavens, what was +this? It was Granville Kelmscott! + +Then Granville, too, was bound for the diamond fields like himself. +What an incredible coincidence! How strange! How inexplicable! +That rich man's son, the pampered heir to Tilgate! what could HE +be doing here, in this out-of-the-way spot, this last resort of +poor broken-down men, this miserable haunt of wretched gambling +money-grubbers? + +Here curiosity, surely, must have drawn him to the spot. He couldn't +have come to DIG! Guy gazed in amazement at that grey tweed suit. +He must be staying for a day or two in search of adventure. No more +than just that! He couldn't mean to STOP here. + +As he gazed and stood open-mouthed in the shadow of the door, +Granville Kelmscott, who hadn't seen him enter, laid down his glass, +wiped his lips with gusto, and continued his conversation with the +complacent barman. + +"Yes, I want a hut here," he said, "and to buy a good claim. I've +been looking over the kopje down by Watson's spare land, and I +think I've seen a lot that's likely to suit me." + +Guy sould hardly restrain his astonishment and surprise. He had +come, then, to dig! Oh, incredible! impossible! + +But at any rate this settled his own immediate movements. Guy's +mind was made up at once. If Granville Kelmscott was going to dig +at Dutoitspan--why, clearly Dutoitspan was no place for HIM. He +could never stand the continual presence of the one man in South +Africa who knew his deadly secret. Come what might he must leave +the neighbourhood without a moment's delay. He must strike out at +once for the far interior. As he paused, Granville Kelmscott turned +round and saw him. Their eyes met with a start. Each was equally +astonished. Then Granville rose slowly from his seat, and murmured +in a low voice, as he regarded him fixedly-- + +"You here again, Mr. Billington! This is once too often. I hardly +expected THIS. There's no room here for both of us." + +And he strode from the saloon, with a very black brow, leaving Guy +for the moment alone with the barman. + + + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + +A NEW DEPARTURE. + + + + + +A fortnight later, one sultry afternoon, Granville Kelmscott found +himself, after various strange adventures and escapes by the way, +in a Koranna hut, far in the untravelled heart of the savage Barolong +country. + +The tenement where he sat, or more precisely squatted, was by +no means either a commodious or sweet-scented one. Yet it was the +biggest of a group on the river-bank, some five feet high from +floor to roof, so that a Kelmscott couldn't possibly stand erect +at full length in it; and it was roughly round in shape, like an +overgrown beehive, the framework consisting of branches of trees, +arranged in a rude circle, over whose arching ribs native rush +mats had been thrown or sewn with irregular order. The door was a +hole, through which the proud descendant of the squires of Tilgate +had to creep on all fours; a hollow pit dug out in the centre served +as the only fireplace; smoke and stagnant air formed the staples +of the atmosphere. A more squalid hovel Granville Kelmscott had +never even conceived as possible. It was as dirty and as loathsome +as the most vivid imagination could picture the hut of the lowest +savages. + +Yet here that delicately nurtured English gentleman was to be +cooped up for an indefinite time, as it seemed, by order of the +black despot who ruled over the Barolong with a rod of iron. + +What had led Granville Kelmscott into this extraordinary scrape +it would not be hard to say. The Kelmscott nature, in all +its embodiments, worked on very simple but very fixed lines. The +moment Granville saw his half-brother Guy at Dutoitspan, his mind +was made up at once as to his immediate procedure. He wouldn't stop +one day--one hour longer than necessary where he could see that +fellow who committed the murder. Come what might, he would make +his escape at once into the far interior. + +As before in England, so now in Africa, both brothers were moved by +the self-same impulses. And each carried them out with characteristic +promptitude. + +Where could Granville go, however? Well, it was rumoured at +Dutoitspan that "pebbles" had been found far away to the north in +the Barolong country. "Pebbles," of course, is good South African +for diamonds; and at this welcome news all Kimberley and Griqualand +pricked up their ears with congenial delight; for business was +growing flat on the old-established diamond fields. The palmy era +of great finds and lucky hits was now long past; the day of systematic +and prosaic industry had set in instead for the over-stocked +diggings. It was no longer possible for the luckiest fresh hand +to pick up pebbles lying loose on the surface; the mode of working +had become highly skilled and scientific. + +Machines and scaffolds, and washing-cradles and lifting apparatus +were now required to make the business a success; the simple old +gambling element was rapidly going out, and the capitalist was rapidly +coming up in its stead as master of the situation. So Granville +Kelmscott, being an enterprising young man, though destitute of +cash, and utterly ignorant of South African life, determined to +push on with all his might and main into the Barolong country, and +to rush for the front among the first in the field in these rumoured +new diggings on the extreme north frontier of civilization. + +He started alone, as a Kelmscott might do, and made his way +adventurously, without any knowledge of the Koranna language or +manners, through many wild villages of King Khatsua's dominions. +Night after night he camped out in the open; and day after day +he tramped on by himself, buying food as he went from the natives +for English silver, in search of precious stones, over that dreary +tableland. At last, on the fourteenth day, in a deep alluvial +hollow near a squalid group of small Barolong huts, he saw a tiny +round stone, much rubbed and water-worn, which he picked up and +examined with no little curiosity. The two days he had spent at +Dutoitspan had not been wasted. He had learnt to recognise the look +of the native gem. Once glance told him at once what his pebble +was. He recognised it at sight as one of those small but much-valued +diamonds of the finest water, which diggers know by the technical +name of "glass-stones." + +The hollow where he stood was in fact an ancient alluvial pit or +volcanic mud-crater. Scoriac rubble filled it in to a very great +depth; and in the interstices of this rubble were embedded here +and there rude blocks of greenstone, containing almond-shaped +chalcedonies and agate and milk-quartz, with now and then a tiny +water-worn spec which an experienced eye would have detected at +once as the finest "riverstones." + +Here indeed was a prize! The solitary Englishman recognised in a +second that he was the first pioneer of a new and richer Kimberley. + +But as Granville Kelmscott stood still, looking hard at his find +through the little pocket-lens he had brought with him from England, +with a justifiable tremor of delight at the pleasant thought that +here, perhaps, he had lighted on the key to something which might +restore him once more to his proper place at Tilgate, he was suddenly +roused from his delightful reverie by a harsh negro voice, shrill +and clear, close behind him, saying, in very tolerable African-English-- + +"Hillo, you white man! what dat you got there? You come here to +Barolong land, so go look for diamond?" + +Granville turned sharply round, and saw standing by his side a +naked and stalwart black man, smiling blandly at his discovery with +broad negro amusement. + +"It's a pebble," the Englishman said, pocketing it as carelessly as +he could, and trying to look unconcerned, for his new acquaintance +held a long native spear in his stout left hand, and looked by no +means the sort of person to be lightly trifled with. + +"Oh, dat a pebble, mistah white man!" the Barolong said sarcastically, +holding out his black right hand with a very imperious air. "Den +you please hand him over dat pebble you find. Me got me orders. +King Khatsua no want any diamond digging in Barolong land." + +Granville tried to parley with the categorical native; but his +attempts at palaver were eminently unsuccessful. The naked black +man was master of the situation. + +"You hand over dat stone, me friend," he said, assuming a menacing +attitude, and holding out his hand once more with no very gentle +air, "or me run you trew de body wit me assegai--just so! King +Khatsua, him no want any diamond diggings in Barolong land." + +And, indeed, Granville Kelmscott couldn't help admitting to himself, +when he came to think of it, that King Khatsua was acting wisely in +his generation. For the introduction of diggers into his dominions +would surely have meant, as everywhere else, the speedy proclamation +of a British protectorate, and the final annihilation of King +Khatsua himself and his dusky fellow-countrymen. + +There is nothing, to say the truth, the South African native dreads +so much as being "eaten up," as he calls it, by those aggressive +English. King Khatsua knew his one chance in life consisted in +keeping the diggers firmly out of his dominions; and he was prepared +to deny the very existence of diamonds throughout the whole of +Barolong land, until the English, by sheer force, should come in +flocks and unearth them. + +In obedience to his chief's command, therefore, the naked henchman +still held out his hand menacingly. + +"Dis land King Khatsua's," he repeated once more, in an angry +voice. "All diamonds found on it belong to King Khatsua. Just you +hand dat over. No steal; no tief-ee." + +The instincts of the land-owning class were too strong in Granville +Kelmscott not to make him admit at once to himself the justice of +this claim. The owner of the soil had a right to the diamonds. He +handed over the stone with a pang of regret. The savage grinned to +himself, and scanned it attentively. Then extending his spear, as +one might do to a cow or a sheep, he drove Granville before him. + +"You come along a' me," he said shortly, in a most determined voice. +"You come along a' me. King Khatsua's orders." + +Granville went before him without one word of remonstrance, much +wondering what was likely to happen next, till he found himself +suddenly driven into that noisome hut, where he was forced to enter +ignominiously on all fours, like an eight months' old baby. + +By the light of the fire that burned dimly in the midst of his +captor's house he could see, as his eyes grew gradually accustomed +to the murky gloom, a strange and savage scene, such as he had never +before in his life dreamt of. In the pit of the hut some embers +glowed feebly, from whose midst a fleecy object was sputtering and +hissing. A second glance assured him that the savoury morsel was +the head of an antelope in process of roasting. Two greasy black +women, naked to the waist, were superintending this primitive +cookery; all round, a group of unclad little imps, as black as their +mothers, lounged idly about, with their eyes firmly fixed on the +chance of dinner. As Granville entered, the husband and father, +poking in his head, shouted a few words after him. Another native +outside kept watch and ward with a spear at the door meanwhile, to +prevent his escape against King Khatsua's orders. + +For two long hours the Englishman waited there, fretting and fuming, +in that stifling atmosphere. Meanwhile, the antelope's head was +fully cooked, and the women and children falling on it like wild +beasts, tore off the scorched fleece and snatched the charred flesh +from the bones with their fingers greedily. It was a hideous sight; +it sickened him to see it. + +By--and--by Granville heard a loud voice outside. He listened +in surprise. It sounded as though Barolong had another prisoner. +There was a pause and a scuffle. Then, all of a sudden, somebody +else came bundling unceremoniously through the hole that served for +a door, in the same undignified fashion as he himself had done. +Granville's eyes, now accustomed to the gloom, recognised the +stranger at once with a thrill of astonishment. He could hardly +trust his senses at the sight. It was--no, it couldn't be--yes, it +was--Guy Waring. + +Guy Waring, sure enough; as before, they were companions. The +Kelmscott character had worked itself out exactly alike in each +of them. They had come independently by the self-same road to the +rumoured diamond fields of the Barolong country. + +It was some minutes, however, before Guy, for his part, recognised +his fellow-prisoner in the dark and gloomy hut. Then each stared +at the other in mute surprise. They found no words to speak their +mutual astonishment. This was more wonderful, to be sure, than even +either of their former encounters. + +For another long hour the two unfriendly English-men huddled away +from one another in opposite corners of that native hut, without +speaking a word of any sort in their present straits. At the end +of that time, a voice spoke at the door some guttural sentences +in the Barolong language. The natives inside responded alike in +their own savage clicks. Next the voice spoke in English; it was +Granville's captor, he now knew well. + +"White men, you come out; King Khatsua himself, him go to 'peak to +you." + +They crawled out, one at a time, in sorry guise, through the narrow +hole. It was a pitiful exhibition. Were it not for the danger and +uncertainty of the event, they could almost themselves have fairly +laughed at it. King Khatsua stood before them, a tall, full-blooded +black, in European costume, with a round felt hat and a crimson tie, +surrounded by his naked wives and attendants. In his outstretched +hand he held before their faces two incriminating diamonds. He spoke +to them with much dignity at considerable length in the Barolong +tongue, to a running accompaniment of laudatory exclamations--"Oh, +my King! Oh, wise words!"--from the mouths of his courtiers. Neither +Granville nor Guy understood, of course, a single syllable of the +stately address; but that didn't in the least disturb the composure +of the dusky monarch. He went right through to the end with his +solemn warning, scolding them both roundly, as they guessed, in his +native tongue, like a master reproving a pair of naughty schoolboys. + +As he finished, their captor stood forth with great importance +to act as interpreter. He had been to the Kimberly diamond mines +himself as a labourer, and was therefore accounted by his own people +a perfect model of English scholarship. + +"King Khatsua say this," he observed curtly. "You very bad men; +you come to Barolong land. King Khatsua say, Barolong land for +Barolong. No allow white man dig here for diamonds. If white man +come, him eat up Barolong. Keep white man out; keep land for King +Khatsua." + +"Does King Khatsua want us to leave his country, then?" Granville +Kelmscott asked, with a distinct tremor in his voice, for the great +chief and his followers looked decidedly hostile. + +The interpreter threw back his head and laughed a loud long laugh. + +"King Khatsua not a fool!" he answered at last, after a rhetorical +pause. "King Khatsua no want to give up his land to white man. +If you two white man go back to Kimberley, you tell plenty other +people, 'Diamonds in Barolong land.' You say, 'Come along o' me +to Barolong land with gun; we show you where to dig 'um!' No, no, +King Khatsua not a fool. King Khatsua say this. You two white man +no go back to Kimberley. You spies. You stop here plenty time along +o' King Khatsua. Never go back, till King Khatsua give leave. So +no let any other white man come along into Barolong land." + +Granville looked at Guy, and Guy looked at Granville. In this +last extremity, before those domineering blacks, they almost forgot +everything, save that they were both English. What were they to do +now? The situation was becoming truly terrible. + +The interpreter went on once more, however, with genuine savage +enjoyment of the consternation he was causing them. + +"King Khatsua say this," he continued, in a very amused tone. "You +stop here plenty days, very good, in Barolong land. King Khatsua +give you hut; King Khatsua give you claim; Barolong man bring spear +and guard you. No do you any harm for fear of Governor. Governor keep +plenty guns in Cape Town. You two white man live in hut together, +dig diamonds together; get plenty pebbles. Keep one diamond you +find for yourself; give one diamond after that to King Khatsua. +Barolong man bring you plenty food, plenty drink, but no let you +go back. You try to go, then Barolong man spear you." + +The playful dig with which the savage thrust forward his assegai +at that final remark showed Granville Kelmscott in a moment this +was no idle threat. It was clear for the present they must accept +the inevitable. They must remain in Barolong land; and he must +share hut and work with that doubly hateful creature--the man who +had deprived him of his patrimony at Tilgate, and whom he firmly +believed to be the murderer of Montague Nevitt. This was what +had come then of his journey to Africa! Truly, adversity makes us +acquainted with strange bedfellows! + + + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + +TIME FLIES. + + + + + +Eighteen months passed away in England, and nothing more was heard +of the two fugitives to Africa. Lady Emily's cup was very full +indeed. On the self-same day she learned of her husband's death +and her son's mysterious and unaccountable disappearance. From that +moment forth, he was to her as if dead. After Granville left, no +letter or news of him, direct or indirect, ever reached Tilgate. +It was all most inexplicable. He had disappeared into space, and +no man knew of him. + +Cyril, too, had now almost given up hoping for news of Guy. Slowly +the conviction forced itself deeper and still deeper upon his mind, +in spite of Elma, that Guy was really Montague Nevitt's murderer. +Else how account for Guy's sudden disappearance, and for the fact +that he never even wrote home his whereabouts? Nay, Guy's letter +itself left no doubt upon his mind. Cyril went through life now +oppressed continually with the terrible burden of being a murderer's +brother. + +And indeed everybody else--except Elma Clifford--implicitly shared +that opinion with him. Cyril was sure the unknown benefactor shared +it too, for Guy's six thousand pounds were never paid in to his +credit--as indeed how could they, since Colonel Kelmscott, who +had promised to pay them, died before receiving the balance of the +purchase money for the Dowlands estate? Cyril slank through the +world, then, weighed down by his shame, for Guy and he were each +other's doubles, and he always had a deep underlying conviction +that, as Guy was in any particular, so also in the very fibre of +his nature he himself was. + +Everybody else, except Elma Clifford; but in spite of all, Elma still +held out firm, in her intuitive way, in favour of Guy's innocence. +She knew it, she said; and there the matter dropped. And she knew +quite equally, in her own firm mind, that Gilbert Gildersleeve was +the real murderer. + +Gilbert Gildersleeve, meanwhile, had gone up a step or two higher +in the social scale. He had been promoted to the bench on the +first vacancy, as all the world had long expected; but, strange +to say, he took it far more modestly than all the world had ever +anticipated. Indeed, before he was made a judge, everybody said +he'd be intolerable in the ermine. He was blustering and bullying +enough, in all conscience, as a mere Queen's Counsel; but when he +came to preside in a court of his own, his insolence would surpass +even the wonted insolence of our autocratic British justices. In +this, however, everybody was mistaken. + +A curious change had of late come over Gilbert Gildersleeve. The +big, bullying lawyer was growing nervous and diffident, where of +old he had been coarse and self-assertive and blustering. He was +beginning at times almost to doubt his own absolute omniscience and +absolute wisdom. He was prepared half to admit that under certain +circumstances a prisoner might possibly be in the right, and that +all crimes alike did not necessarily deserve the hardest sentence +the law of the land allowed him to allot them. Habitual criminals +even began, after a while, to express a fervent hope, as assizes +approached, they might be tried by old Gildersleeve: "Gilly," they +said, "gave a cove a chance": he wasn't "one of these 'ere reg'lar +'anging judges, like Sir 'Enery Atkins." + +During those eighteen months, too, Cyril tried, as far as he +could, from a stern sense of duty, to see as little as possible of +Elma Clifford. He loved Elma still--that goes without saying--more +devotedly than ever; and Elma's profound belief that Cyril's +brother couldn't possibly have committed so grave a crime touched +his heart to the core by its womanly confidence. There's nothing +a man likes so much as being trusted. But he had declared in the +first flush of his horror and despair that he would never again +ask Elma to marry him till the cloud that hung over Guy's character +had been lifted and dissipated; and now that, month after month, no +news came from Guy and all hope seemed to fade, lie felt it would +be wrong of him even to see her or speak with her. + +On that question however, Elma herself had a voice as well. Man +proposes; woman decides. And though Elma for her part had quite +equally made up her mind never to marry Cyril, with that nameless +terror of expected madness hanging ever over her head, she felt, +on the other hand, her very loyalty to Cyril and to Cyril's brother +imperatively demanded that she should still see him often, and +display marked friendship towards him as openly as possible. She +wanted the world to see plainly for itself that so far as this +matter of Guy's reputation was concerned, if Cyril, for his part, +wanted to marry her, she, on her side, would be quite ready to +marry Cyril. + +So she insisted on meeting him whenever she could, and on writing +to him openly from time to time very affectionate notes--those +familiar notes we all know so well and prize so dearly--full of +hopeless love and unabated confidence. Yes, good Mr. Stockbroker +who do me the honour to read my simple tale, smile cynically if you +will! You pretend to care nothing for these little sentimentalities; +but you know very well in your own heart, you've a bundle of them +at home, very brown and yellow, locked up in your escritoire; and +you'd let New Zealand Fours sink to the bottom of the Indian Ocean, +and Egyptian Unified go down to zero, before ever you'd part with +a single faded page of them. + +What can a man do, then, even under such painful circumstances, +when a girl whom he loves with all his heart lets him clearly see +she loves him in return quite as truly? Cyril would have been more +than human if he hadn't answered those notes in an equally ardent +and equally desponding strain. The burden of both their tales was +always this--even if YOU would, _I_ couldn't, because I love you +too much to impose my own disgrace upon you. + +But what Elma's mysterious trouble could be, Cyril was still unable +even to hazard a guess. He only knew she had some reason of her +own which seemed to her a sufficient bar to matrimony, and made +her firmly determine never, in any case, to marry any one. + +About twelve months after Guy's sudden disappearance, however, a +new element entered into Elma's life. At first sight, it seemed +to have but little to do with the secret of her soul. It was merely +that the new purchaser of the Dowlands estate had built herself a +pretty little Queen Anne house on the ground, and come to live in +it. + +Nevertheless, from the very first day they met, Elma took most +kindly to this new Miss Ewes, the strange and eccentric musical +composer. The mistress of Dowlands was a distant cousin of +Mrs. Clifford's own; so the family naturally had to call upon her +at once; and Elma somehow seemed always to get on from the outset +in a remarkable way with her mother's relations. At first, to be +sure, Elma could see Mrs. Clifford was rather afraid to leave her +alone with the odd new-comer, whose habits and manners were as +curious and weird as the sudden twists and turns of her own wayward +music. But, after a time, a change came over Mrs. Clifford in this +respect; and instead of trying to keep Elma and Miss Ewes apart, +it was evident to Elma--who never missed any of the small by-play +of life--that her mother rather desired to throw them closely +together. Thus it came to pass that one morning, about a month +after Miss Ewes's arrival in her new home, Elma had run in with a +message from her mother, and found the distinguished composer, as +was often the case at that time of day, sitting dreamily at her +piano, trying over on the gamut strange, fanciful chords of her +own peculiar witch-like character. The music waxed and waned in a +familiar lilt. + +"That's beautiful," Elma cried enthusiastically, as the composer +looked up at her with an inquiring glance. "I never heard anything +in my life before that went so straight through one, with its +penetrating melody. Such a lovely gliding sound, you know! So soft +and serpentine!" And even as she said it, a deep flush rose red in +the centre of her cheek. She was sorry for the words before they +were out of her mouth. They recalled all at once, in some mysterious +way, that horrid, persistent nightmare of the hateful snake-dance. +In a second, Miss Ewes caught the bright gleam in her eye, and +the deep flush on her cheek that so hastily followed it. A meaning +smile came over the elder woman's face all at once, not unpleasantly. +She was a handsome woman for her age, but very dark and gipsy-like, +after the fashion of the Eweses, with keen Italian eyes and a large +smooth expanse of powerful forehead. Lightly she ran her hand over +the keys with a masterly touch, and fixed her glance as she did so +on Elma. There was a moment's pause. Miss Ewes eyed her closely. +She was playing a tune that seemed oddly familiar to Elma's brain +somehow--to her brain, not to her ears, for Elma felt certain, +even while she recognised it most, she had never before heard it. +It was a tune that waxed and waned and curled up and down sinuously, +and twisted in and out and--ah yes, now she knew it--raised its +sleek head, and darted out its forked tongue, and vibrated with +swift tremors, and tightened and slackened, and coiled resistlessly +at last in great folds all around her. Elma listened, with eager +eyes half starting from her head, with clenched nails dug deep +into the tremulous palms, as her heart throbbed fast and her nerves +quivered fiercely. Oh, it was wrong of Miss Ewes to tempt her like +this! It was wrong, so wrong of her! For Elma knew what it was at +once--the song she had heard running vaguely through her head the +night of the dance--the night she fell in love with Cyril Waring. + +With a throbbing heart, Elma sat down on the sofa, and tried with +all her might and main not to listen, She clasped her hands still +tighter. She refused to be wrought up. She wouldn't give way to it. +If she had followed her own impulse, to be sure, she would have +risen on the spot and danced that mad dance once more with all the +wild abandonment of an almeh or a Zingari. But she resisted with +all her might. And she resisted successfully. + +Miss Ewes, never faltering, kept her keen eye fixed hard on her +with a searching glance, as she ran over the keys in ever fresh +combinations. + +Faster, wilder, and stranger the music rose; but Elma sat still, +her breast heaving hard, and her breath panting, yet otherwise as +still and motionless as a statue. She knew Miss Ewes could tell +exactly how she felt. She knew she was trying her; she knew she +was tempting her to get up and dance; and yet, she was not one +bit afraid of this strange weird woman, as she'd been afraid that +sad morning at home of her own mother. + +The composer went on fiercely for some minutes more, leaning close +over the keyboard, and throwing her very soul, as Elma could plainly +see, into the tips of her fingers. Then, suddenly she rose, and +came over, well pleased, to the sofa where Elma sat. With a motherly +gesture, she took Elma's hand; she smoothed her dark hair; she bent +down with a tender look, in those strange grey eyes, and printed +a kiss unexpectedly on the poor girl's forehead. + +"Elma," she said, leaning over her, "do you know what that was? +That was the Naga Snake Dance. It gave you an almost irresistible +longing to rise, and hold the snake in your own hands, and coil +his great folds around you. I could see how you felt. But you were +strong enough to resist. That was very well done. You resisted +even the force of my music, didn't you?" + +Elma, trembling all over, but bursting with joy that she could speak +of it at last without restraint to somebody, answered, in a very +low and tremulous voice, "Yes, Miss Ewes, I resisted it." + +Miss Ewes leant back in her place, and gazed at her long, with a +very affectionate and motherly air. "Then I'm sure I don't know," +she said at last, breaking out in a voice full of confidence, "why +on earth you shouldn't marry this young man you're in love with!" + +Elma's heart beat still harder and higher than ever. + +"What young man?" she murmured low--just to test the enchantress. + +And Miss Ewes made answer, without one moment's hesitation, "Why, +of course, Cyril Waring!" + +For a minute or two then, there was a dead silence. After that, +Miss Ewes looked up and spoke again. "Have you felt it often?" +she asked, without one word of explanation. + +"Twice before," Elma answered, not pretending to misunderstand. +"Once I gave way. That was the very first time, you see, and I +didn't know yet exactly what it meant. The second time I knew, and +then I resisted it." + +Somehow, before Miss Ewes, she hardly ever felt shy. She was so +conscious Miss Ewes knew all about it without her telling her. + +The elder woman looked at her with unfeigned admiration. + +"That was brave of you," she said quietly. "I couldn't have done +it myself! I should have HAD to give way to it. Then in YOU it's +dying out. That's as clear as daylight. It won't go any farther. I +knew it wouldn't, of course, when I saw you resisted even the Naga +dance. And for you, that's excellent.... For myself I encourage it. +It's that that makes my music what it is. It's that that inspires +me. _I_ composed that Naga dance I just played over to you, Elma. +But not all out of my own head. I couldn't have invented it. +It comes down in our blood, my dear, to you and me alike. We both +inherit it from a common ancestress." + +"Tell me all about it," Elma cried, nestling close to her new friend +with a wild burst of relief. "I don't know why, but I'm not at all +ashamed of it all before you, Miss Ewes--at least, not in the way +I am before mother." + +"You needn't be ashamed of it," Miss Ewes answered kindly. "You've +nothing to be ashamed of. It'll never trouble YOU in your life +again. It always dies out at last; they say in the sixth or seventh +generation, and when it's dying out, it goes as it went with you, +on the night you first fell in love with Cyril. If, after that, +you resist, it never comes back again. Year after year, the impulse +grows feebler and feebler. And if you can withstand the Naga dance, +you can withstand anything. Come here and take my hand, dear. I'll +tell you all about it." + +Late at night Elma sat, tearful but happy, in her own room at home, +writing a few short lines to Cyril Waring. This was all she said-- + +"There's no reason on my side now, dearest Cyril. It's all a +mistake. I'll marry you whenever and wherever you will. There need +be no reason on your side either. I love you, and can trust you. +Yours ever, + +"ELMA." + +When Cyril Waring received that note next morning he kissed it +reverently, and put it away in his desk among a bundle of others. +But he said to himself sternly in his own soul for all that, +"Never, while Guy still rests under that cloud! And how it's ever +to be lifted from him is to me inconceivable." + + + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + +A STROKE FOR FREEDOM. + + + + + +In Africa, meanwhile, during those eighteen months, King Khatsua +had kept his royal word. He had held his two European prisoners +under close watch and ward in the Koranna hut he had assigned them +for their residence. + +Like most other negro princes, indeed, Khatsua was a shrewd man of +business in his own way; and while he meant to prevent the English +strangers from escaping seaward with news of the new El Dorado +they had discovered in Barolong land, he hadn't the least idea of +turning away on that account the incidental advantages to be gained +for himself by permitting them to hunt freely in his dominions for +diamonds. So long as they acquiesced in the rough-and-ready royalty +of 50 per cent, he had proposed to them when he first decided to +detain them in his own territory--one stone for the king, and one +for the explorers--they were free to pursue their quest after gems +to their hearts' content in the valleys of Barolong land. And as the +two Englishmen, for their part, had nothing else to do in Africa, +and as they still went on hoping against hope for some chance of +escape or rescue, they dug for diamonds with a will, and secured +a number of first-class stones that would have made their fortunes +indeed--if only they could have got them to the sea or to England. + +Of course they lived perforce in the Koranna hut assigned them by +the king, in pretty much the same way as the Korannas themselves +did. King Khatsua's men supplied them abundantly with grain, +and fruits, and game; and even at times procured them ready-made +clothes, by exchange with Kimberley. In other respects, they were +not ill-treated; they were merely detained "during his majesty's +pleasure." But as his majesty had no intention of killing the goose +that laid the golden eggs, or of letting them go, if he could +help it, to spread the news of their find among their greedy +fellow-countrymen, it seemed to them both as if they might go on +being detained like this in Barolong land for an indefinite period. + +Still, things went indifferently with them. As they lived and worked +together in their native hut by Khatsua's village, a change began +slowly but irresistibly to come over Granville Kelmscott's feelings +towards his unacknowledged half-brother. At first, it was with the +deepest sense of distaste and loathing that the dispossessed heir +found himself compelled to associate with Guy Waring in such close +companionship. But, bit by bit, as they two saw more and more of +one another, this feeling of distaste began to wear off piecemeal. +Granville Kelmscott was more than half ashamed to admit it even +to himself, but in process of time he really almost caught himself +beginning to like--well, to like the man he believed to be a +murderer. It was shocking and horrible, no doubt; but what else +was he to do? Guy formed now his only European society. By the +side of those savage Barolongs, whose chief thought nothing of +perpetrating the most nameless horrors before their very eyes, for +the gratification of mere freaks of passion or jealousy, a European +murderer of the gentlemanly class seemed almost by comparison a mild +and gentle personage. Granville hardly liked to allow it in his own +mind, but it was nevertheless the case; he was getting positively +fond of this man, Guy Waring. + +Besides, blood is generally thicker than water. Living in such +close daily communion with Guy, and talking with him unrestrainedly +at last upon all possible points--save that one unapproachable +one, which both seemed to instinctively avoid alluding to in any +way--Granville began to feel that, murderer or no murderer, Guy +was in all essentials very near indeed to him. Nay, more, he found +himself at times actually arguing the point with his own conscience +that, after all, Guy was a very good sort of fellow; and if ever he +had murdered Montague Nevitt at all--which looked very probable--he +must have murdered him under considerably extenuating circumstances. + +There was only one thing about Guy that Granville didn't like when +he got to know him. This homicidal half-brother of his was gentle +as a woman; tender, kindhearted, truthful, affectionate; a gentleman +to the core, and a jolly good fellow into the bargain; but--there's +always a but--he was a terrible money-grubber! Even there in the +lost heart of Africa, at such a distance from home, with so little +chance of ever making any use of his hoarded wealth, the fellow +used to hunt up those wretched small stones, and wear them night +and day in a belt round his waist, as if he really loved them for +their own mere sakes--dirty high-priced little baubles! Granville, +for his part, couldn't bear to see such ingrained love of pelf. It +was miserable; it was mercenary. + +To be sure, he himself hunted diamonds every day of his life, just +as hard as Guy did; there was nothing else to do in this detestable +place, and a man MUST find something to turn his idle hands to. +Also he carried them, like Guy, bound up in a girdle round his own +waist; it was a pity they should be lost, if ever he should chance +to get away safe in the end to England. But then, don't you see, +the cases were so different. Guy hoarded up his diamonds for mere +wretched gain; whereas Granville valued his (he said to himself +often) not for the mere worth in money of those shimmering little +trinkets, but for his mother's sake, and Gwendoline's, and the +credit of the family. He wanted Lady Emily to see her son filling +the place in the world she had always looked forward with hope to +his filling; and, by Heaven's help, he thought, he could still fill +it. He couldn't marry Gwendoline on a beggar's pittance; and, by +Heaven's help, he hoped still to be able to marry her. + +Guy, on the other hand, found himself almost equally surprised +in turn at the rapid way he grew really to be fond of Granville +Kelmscott. Though Kelmscott knew, as he thought, the terrible secret +of his half-unconscious crime--for he could feel now how completely +he had acted under Montague Nevitt's compelling influence--Guy +was aware before long of such a profound and deep-seated sympathy +existing between them, that he became exceedingly attached in time +to his friendly fellow-prisoner. In spite of the one barrier they +could never break down, he spoke freely by degrees to Granville of +everything else in his whole life; and Granville in return spoke to +him just as freely. A good fellow, Granville, when you got to know +him. There was only a single trait in his character Guy couldn't +endure; and that was his ingrained love of money-grubbing. For the +way the man pounced down upon those dirty little stones, when he +saw them in the mud, and hoarded them up in his belt, and seemed +prepared to defend them with his very life-blood, Guy couldn't +conceal from himself-the fact that he fairly despised him. Such +vulgar, common-place, unredeemed love of pelf! Such mere bourgeois +avarice! Of what use could those wretched pebbles be to him here +in the dusty plains of far inland Africa? + +Guy himself kept close count of his finds, to be sure; but then, +the cases, don't you see, were so different! HE wanted his diamonds +to discharge the great debt of his life to Cyril, and to appear an +honest man, rehabilitated once more, before the brother he had so +deeply wronged and humiliated. Whereas Granville Kelmscott, a rich +man's son, and the heir to a great estate beyond the dreams of +avarice--that HE should have come risking his life in these savage +wilds for mere increase of superfluous wealth, why, it was simply +despicable. + +So eighteen months wore away, in mutual friendship, tempered to a +certain degree by mutual contempt, and little chance of escape came +to the captives in Barolong land. + +At last, as the second winter came round once more, for two or +three weeks the Englishmen in their huts began to perceive that +much bustle and confusion was going on all around in King Khatsua's +dominions. Preparations for a war on a considerable scale were +clearly taking place. Men mustered daily on the dusty plain with +firearms and assegais. Much pombč was drunk; many palavers took +place; a constant drumming of gongs and tom-toms disturbed their ears +by day and by night. The Englishmen concluded some big marauding +expedition was in contemplation. And they were quite right. +King Khatsua was about to concentrate his forces for an attack on +a neighbouring black monarch, as powerful and perhaps as cruel as +himself, Montisive of the Bush Veldt. + +Slowly the preparations went on all around. Then the great day came +at last, and King Khatsua set forth on his mighty campaign, to the +sound of big drums and the blare of native trumpets. + +When the warriors had marched out of the villages on their way +northward to the war, Guy saw the two prisoners' chance of escape +had arrived in earnest. They were guarded as usual, of course; +but not so strictly as before; and during the night, in particular, +Guy noticed with pleasure, little watch was now kept upon them. The +savage, indeed, can't hold two ideas in his head at once. If he's +making war on his neighbour on one side, he has no room left to +think of guarding his prisoners on the other. + +"To-night," Guy said, one evening, as they sat together in their +hut, over their native supper of mealie cakes and springbok venison, +"we must make a bold stroke. We must creep out of the kraal as +well as we can, and go for the sea westward, through Namaqua land +to Angra Pequena." + +"Westward?" Granville answered, very dubiously. "But why westward, +Waring? Surely our shortest way to the coast is down to Kimberley +and so on to the Cape. It'll take us weeks and weeks to reach the +sea, won't it, by way of Namaqua land?" + +"No matter for that," Guy replied, with confidence. He knew the map +pretty well, and had thought it all over. "As soon as the Barolong +miss us in the morning, they'll naturally think we've gone south, +as you say, towards our own people. So they'll pursue us in that +direction and try to take us; and if they were to catch us after +we'd once run away, you may be sure they'd kill us as soon as look +at us. But it would never occur to them, don't you see, we were +going away west. They won't follow us that way. So west we'll go, +and strike out for the sea, as I say, at Angra Pequena." + +They sat up through the night discussing plans low to themselves +in the dark, till nearly two in the morning. Then, when all was +silent around, and the Barolong slept, they stole quietly out, and +began their long march across the country to westward. Each man +had his diamonds tied tightly round his waist, and his revolver +at his belt. They were prepared to face every unknown danger. + +Crawling past the native huts with very cautious steps, they +made for the open, and emerged from the village on to the heights +that bounded the valley of the Lugura. They had proceeded in this +direction for more than an hour, walking as hard as their legs would +carry them, when the sound of a man running fast, but barefoot, +fell on their ears from behind in a regular pit-a-pat. Guy looked +back in dismay, and saw a naked Barolong just silhouetted against +the pale sky on the top of a long low ridge they had lately crossed +over. At the very same instant Granville raised his revolver and +pointed it at the man, who evidently had not yet perceived them. +With a sudden gesture of horror, Guy knocked down his hand and +prevented his taking aim. + +"Don't shoot," he cried, in a voice of surprised dismay and +disapproval. "We mustn't take his life. How do we know he's an +enemy at all? He mayn't be pursuing us." + +"Best shoot on spec, anyway," Granville answered, somewhat +discomposed. "All's fair in war. The fellow's after us no doubt. +And, at any rate, if he sees us he may go and report our whereabouts +to the village." + +"What? shoot an unarmed man who shows no signs of hostility! Why, +it would be sheer murder," Guy cried, with some horror. "We mustn't +make our retreat on THOSE principles, Kelmscott; it'd be quite +indefensible. I decline to fire except when we're attacked. I +won't be any party, myself, to needless bloodshed." + +Granville Kclmscott gazed at him, there in the grey dawn, in +unspeakable surprise. Not shoot at a negro! In such straits, too, +as theirs! And this rebuke had come to him--from the mouth of the +murderer! + +Turn it over as he might, Granville couldn't understand it. + +The Barolong ran along on the crest of the ridge, still at the top +of his speed, without seeming to notice them in the gloom of the +valley. Presently, he disappeared over the edge to southward. Guy +was right, after all. He wasn't in pursuit of them. More likely +he was only a runaway slave, taking advantage, like themselves, of +King Khatsua's absence. + + + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV. + +PERILS BY THE WAY. + + + + + +Three weeks later, two torn and tattered, half-starved Europeans +sat under a burning South African sun by the dry bed of a shrunken +summer torrent. It was in the depths of Namaqua land, among the +stony Karoo; and the fugitives were straggling, helplessly and +hopelessly, seaward, thirsty and weary, through a half-hostile +country, making their marches as best they could at dead of night +and resting by day where the natives would permit them. + +Their commissariat had indeed been a lean and hungry one. Though +they carried many thousand pounds' worth of diamonds about their +persons, they had nothing negotiable with which to buy food or +shelter from the uncivilized Namaquas. Ivory, cloth, and beads were +the currency of the country. No native thereabouts would look for +a moment at their little round nobs of water-worn pebbles. The fame +of the diamond fields hadn't penetrated as yet so far west in the +land as to have reached to the huts of the savage Namaquas. + +And now their staying power was almost worn out Granville Kelmscott +lay down on the sandy soil with a wild gesture of despair. All +around were bare rocks and the dry sweltering veldts, covered only +with round stones and red sand and low bushy vegetation. + +"Waring," he said feebly, in a very faint voice, "I wish you'd +leave me and go on by yourself. I'm no good any more. I'm only a +drag upon you. This fever's too bad for me to stand much longer. +I can never pull through to the coast alive. I've no energy left, +were it even to try. I'd like to lie down here and die where I sit. +Do go and leave me." + +"Never!" Guy answered resolutely. "I'll never desert you, Kelmscott, +while I've a drop of blood left. If I carry you on my back to the +coast, I'll get you there at last, or else we'll both die on the +veldt together." + +Granville held his friend's hand in his own fevered fingers as he +might have held a woman's. + +"Oh, Waring," he cried once more, in a voice half choked with profound +emotion, "I don't know how to thank you enough for all you've done +for me. You've behaved to me like a brother--like a brother indeed. +It makes me ashamed to think, when I see how unselfish, and good, +and kind you've been--ashamed to think I once distrusted you. +You've been an angel to me all through. Without you, I don't know +how I could ever have lived on through this journey at all. And +I can't bear to feel now I may spoil your retreat--can't bear to +know I'm a drag and burden to you." + +"My dear fellow," Guy said, holding the thin and fevered hand very +tenderly in his, "don't talk to me like that. I feel to you every +bit as you feel to me in this matter. I was afraid of you at first, +because I knew you misunderstood me. But the more I've seen of you, +the better we've each of us learned to sympathize with the other. +We've long been friends. I love you now, as you say, like a brother." + +Granville hesitated for a moment. Should he out with it or not? Then +at last the whole long-suppressed truth came out with a burst. He +seized his companion's two hands at once in a convulsive grasp. + +"That's not surprising either," he said, "after all--for Guy, do +you know, we ARE really brothers!" + +Guy gazed at him in astonishment. For a moment he thought his +friend's reason was giving way. Then slowly and gradually he took +it all in. + +"ARE really brothers!" he repeated, in a dazed sort of way. "Do +you mean it, Kelmscott? Then my father and Cyril's--" + +"Was mine too, Waring. Yes; I couldn't bear to die without telling +you that. And I tell it now to you. You two are the heirs of +the Tilgate estates. And the unknown person who paid six thousand +pounds to Cyril, just before you left England, was your father and +mine--Colonel Henry Kelmscott." + +Guy bent over him for a few seconds in speechless surprise. Words +failed him at first. "How do you know all this, Kelmscott?" he said +at last faintly. + +Granville told him in as few words as possible--for indeed he was +desperately weak and ill--by what accident he had discovered his +father's secret. But he told him only what he knew himself. For, of +course, he was ignorant as yet of the Colonel's seizure and sudden +death on the very day after they had sailed from England. + +Guy listened to it all in profound silence. It was a strange, +and for him a momentous tale. Then he said at last, as Granville +finished, "And you never told me this all these long months, +Kelmscott." + +"I always meant to tell you, Guy," his half-brother answered, in +a sudden fit of penitence. "I always meant in the end you and your +brother Cyril should come into your own at Tilgate as you ought. +I was only waiting--" + +"Till you'd realized enough to make good some part of your personal +loss," Guy suggested, not unkindly. + +"Oh no," Granville answered, flushing up at the suggestion. "I +wasn't waiting for that. Don't think me so mercenary. I was waiting +for YOU, in your turn to extend to ME your own personal confidence. +You know, Guy," he went on, dropping into a still more hushed +and solemn undertone, "I saw an evening paper the night we left +Plymouth--" + +"Oh, I know, I know," Guy cried, interrupting him, with a very +pale face. "Don't speak to me of that. I can't bear to think of +it. Kelmscott, I was mad when I did that deed. I wasn't myself. I +acted under somebody else's compulsion and influence. The man had +a sort of hypnotic power over my will, I believe. I couldn't help +doing whatever he ordered me. It was he who suggested it. It was +he that did it. And it's he who was really and truly guilty." + +"And who was that man?" Granville Kelmscott asked with some little +curiosity. + +"There's no reason I shouldn't tell you," Guy answered, "now we've +once broken the ice; and I'm glad in my heart, I must say, that +we've broken it. For a year and a half, day and night, that barrier +has been raised between us always, and I've longed to get rid of +it. But I was afraid to speak of it to you, and you to me! Well, +the man, if you must know, was Montague Nevitt!" + +Granville Kelmscott looked up at him in credulous surprise. But he +was too ill and weak to ask the meaning of this riddle. Montague +Nevitt! What on earth could Waring mean by that? How on earth could +Montague Nevitt have influenced and directed him in assaulting and +murdering Montague Nevitt? + +For a long time there was silence. Each brother was thinking his +own thoughts to himself about this double disclosure. At last, +Granville lifted his head and spoke again. + +"And you'll go home to England now," he said, "under an assumed +name, I suppose; and arrange with your brother Cyril for him to +claim the Kelmscott estates, and allow you something out of them +in retirement somewhere." + +"Oh no," Guy answered manfully. "I'm going home to England now, if +I go at all, under my own proper name that I've always borne, to +repay Cyril in full every penny I owe him, to make what reparation +I can for the wrong I've done, and to give myself up to the police +for trial." + +Granville gazed at him, more surprised and more admiring than ever. + +"You're a brave man, Waring," he said slowly. "I don't understand +it at all. But I know you're right. And I almost believe you. I +almost believe it was not your fault. I should like to get through +to England after all, if it was only to see you safe out of your +troubles." + +Guy looked at him fixedly. + +"My dear fellow," he said, in a compassionate tone, "you mustn't +talk any more. You've talked a great deal too much already. I see +a hut, I fancy, over yonder, beside that dark patch of brush. Now, +you must do exactly as I bid you. Don't struggle or kick. Lie as +still as you can. I'll carry you there on my back, and then we'll +see if we can get you anyhow a drop of pure water." + + + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI. + +DESERTED. + + + + + +That was almost the last thing Granville Kelmscott knew. Some +strange shadowy dreams, to be sure, disturbed the lethargy into which +he fell soon after; but they were intermittent and indefinite. He +was vaguely aware of being lifted with gentle care into somebody's +arms, and of the somebody staggering along with him, not without +considerable difficulty, over the rough stony ground of that South +African plateau. He remembered also, as in a trance, some sound of +angry voices--a loud expostulation--a hasty palaver--a long slow +pause--a gradual sense of reconciliation and friendliness--during +all which, as far as he could recover the circumstances afterwards, +he must have been extended on the earth, with his back propped +against a great ledge of jutting rock, and his head hanging listless +on his sinking breast. Thenceforward all was blank, or just dimly +perceived at long intervals between delirium and unconsciousness. +He was ill for many days, where or how he knew not. + +In some half dreamy way, he was aware too, now and again, of strange +voices by his side, strange faces tending him. But they were black +faces, all, and the voices spoke in deep guttural tones, unlike +even the clicks and harsh Bantu jerks with which he had grown +so familiar in eighteen months among the Barolong. This that he +heard now, or seemed to hear in his delirium, like distant sounds +of water, was a wholly different and very much harsher tongue--the +tongue of the Namaquas, in fact, though Granville was far too ill +and too drowsy just then to think of reasoning about it or classifying +it in any way. All he knew for the moment was that sometimes, when +he turned round feebly on his bed of straw, and asked for drink +or help in a faltering voice, no white man appeared to answer +his summons. Black, faces all--black, black, and unfamiliar. Very +intermittently he was conscious of a faint sense of loneliness. He +knew not why. But he thought he could guess. Guy Waring had deserted +him! + +At last, one morning, after more days had passed than Granville +could possibly count, all of a sudden, in a wild whirl, he came +to himself again at once, with that instant revulsion of complete +awakening which often occurs at the end of long fits of delirium +in malarious fever. A light burst in upon him with a flash. In +a moment, his brain seemed to clear all at once, and everything +to grow plain as day before him. He raised himself on one wasted +elbow and gazed around him with profound awe. He saw it all now; +he remembered everything, everything. + +He was alone, among savages in the far heart of Africa. + +He lay on his back, on a heap of fresh straw, in a close and filthy +mud-built hut. Under his aching neck a wooden pillow or prop of +native make supported his head. Two women and a man bent over him +and smiled. Their faces, though black, were far from unkindly. +They were pleased to see him stare about with such meaning in his +eyes. They were friendly, no doubt. They seemed really to take an +interest in their patient's recovery. + +But where was Guy Waring? Dead? Dead? Or run away? Had his +half-brother, in this utmost need, then, so basely deserted him? + +For some minutes, Granville gazed around him, half dazed, and in +a turmoil of surprise, yet with a vivid passion of acute inquiry. +Now he was once well awake, he must know all immediately. But +how? Who to ask? This was terrible, terrible. He had no means of +intercommunication with the people in the hut. He knew none of their +language, nor they of his. He was utterly alone, among unmitigated +savages. + +Meanwhile, the man and the women talked loud among themselves in +their own harsh speech, evidently well pleased and satisfied at +their guest's improvement. With a violent effort, Granville began to +communicate with them in the language of signs which every savage +knows as he knows his native tongue, and in which the two Englishmen +had already made some progress during their stay in Barolong land. + +Pointing first to himself, with one hand on his breast, he held +up two fingers before the observant Namaqua, to indicate that at +first there had been a couple of them on the road, both white men. +The latter point he still further elaborated by showing the white +skin on his own bare wrist, and once more holding up the two fingers +demonstratively. The Namaqua nodded. He had seized the point well. +He held up two fingers in return himself; then looked at his own +black wrist and shook his head in dissent--they were not black men; +after which he touched Granville's fair forearm with his hand; yes, +yes, just so; he took it in; two white men. + +What had become of the other one? Granville asked in the same fashion, +by looking around him on all sides in dumb show, inquiringly. One +finger only was held up now, pointing about the hut; one hand was +laid upon his own breast to show that a single white man alone +remained. He glanced about him uneasily. What had happened to his +companion? + +The Namaqua pointed with his finger to the door of the hut, as much +as to say the other man was gone. He seized every sign at once +with true savage quickness. + +Then Granville tried once more. Was his companion dead? Had he been +killed in a fight? Was that the reason of his absence? He lunged +forward with his hand holding an imaginary assegai. He pressed on +upon the foe; he drove it through a body. Then he fell, as if dead, +on the floor, with a groan and a shriek. After which, picking +himself up as well as he was able, and crawling back to his straw, +he proceeded in mute pantomime to bury himself decently. + +The Namaqua shook his head again with a laugh of dissent. Oh no; +not like that. It had happened quite otherwise. The missing white +man was well and vigorous, a slap on his own chest sufficiently +indicated that news. He placed his two first fingers in the ground, +astride like legs, and made them walk along fast, one in front +of the other. The white man had gone away. He had gone on foot. +Granville nodded acquiescence. The savage took water in a calabash +and laid it on the floor. Then he walked once more with his fingers, +as if on a long and weary march, to the water's brink. Granville +nodded comprehension again. He understood the signs. The white man +had gone away, alone, on foot--and seaward. + +At that instant, with a sudden cry of terror, the invalid's hands +went down to his waist, where he wore the girdle that contained +those precious diamonds--the diamonds that were to be the ransom +of some fraction of Tilgate. An awful sense of desertion broke over +him all at once. He called aloud in his horror. It was too much to +believe. The girdle was gone, and the diamonds with it! + +Hypocrite! Hypocrite! Thief! Murderer! Robber! He had trusted that +vile creature, that plausible wretch, in spite of all the horrible +charges he knew against him. And THIS was the sequel of their talk +that day! THIS was how Guy Waring had requited his confidence. + +He had stolen the fruits of eighteen months' labour. + +Granville turned to the Namaqua, wild with his terrible loss, and +pointed angrily to his loins, where the diamonds were not. The +savage nodded; looked wise and shook his head; pretended to gird +himself round the waist with a cloth; then went over to Granville, +who lay still in the straw, undid an imaginary belt, with deliberate +care, tied it round his own body above the other one, with every +appearance of prudence and forethought, counted the small stones +in it one by one, in his hand, to the exact number, with grotesque +fidelity, and finally set his fingers to walk a second time at a +rapid pace, in the direction of the calabash which represented the +ocean. + +Granville fell back on his wooden pillow with a horrible groan of +awakened distrust. The man had gone off, that was clear, and had +stolen his diamonds That is what comes of intrusting your life and +property to a discovered murderer. How could he ever have been such +a fool? He would never forgive himself. + +The desertion itself was bad enough in all conscience; but it was +as nothing at all in Granville's mind to the wickedness of the +robbery. + +He might have known it, of course. How that fellow toiled and moiled +and gloated over his wretched diamonds! How little he seemed to +think of the stain of blood on his hands, and how much of the mere +chance of making filthy lucre! Pah! Pah! it was pitiable. The man's +whole mind was distorted by a hideous fungoid growth--the love of +gain, which is the root of all evil. For a few miserable stones, +he would plunder his own brother, lying helpless and ill in that +African hut, and make off with the booty himself, saving his own +skin, seaward. + +If it hadn't been for the unrequited kindness of these mere savage +Namaquas, Granville cried to himself in his bitterness, he might +have died of want in the open desert. And now he would go down to +the coast, after all, a ruined man, penniless and friendless. It +was a hard thought indeed for a Kelmscott to think he should have +been abandoned and robbed by his own half-brother, and should owe +his life now to a heathen African. The tender mercies of a naked +barbarian in a mud-built hut were better than the false friendship +of his father's son, the true heir of Tilgate. + +It was miserable! pitiable! The shock of that discovery threw +Granville back once more into a profound fever. For several hours +he relapsed into delirium. And the worst of it was, the negroes +wouldn't let him die quietly in his own plain way. In the midst of +it all, he was dimly aware of a dose thrust down his throat. It +was the Namaqua administering him a pill--some nauseous native +decoction, no doubt--which tasted as if it were made of stiff white +paper. + + + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII. + +AUX ARMES! + + + + + +For a day or two more, Granville remained seriously ill in the +dirty hut. At the end of that time, weak and wasted as he was, he +insisted upon getting up and setting out alone on his long march +seaward. + +It was a wild resolve. He was utterly unfit for it. The hospitable +Namaqua, whose wives had nursed him well through that almost hopeless +illness, did his best to persuade the rash Englishman from so mad +a course, by gestures and entreaties, in his own mute language. +But Granville was obstinate. He would NOT sit down quietly and +be robbed like this of the fruit of his labours. He would not be +despoiled. He would not be trampled upon. He would make for the +coast, if he staggered in like a skeleton, and would confront the +robber with his own vile crime, be it at Angra Pequena, or Cape +Town, or London, or Tilgate. + +In short, he would do much as Guy himself had done when he discovered +Montague Nevitt's theft of the six thousand. He would follow the +villain till he ran him to earth, and would tax him at last to +his face with the open proofs of his consummate treachery. What's +bred in the bone will out in the blood. The Kelmscott strain worked +alike its own way in each of them. + +The Namaqua, to be sure, tried in vain to explain to Granville by +elaborate signs that the other white man had given orders to the +contrary. The other white man had strictly enjoined upon him not to +let the invalid escape from his hut on any pretext whatever. The +other white man had promised him a reward, a very large reward--money, +guns, ammunition--if he kept him safely and didn't allow him to +escape. Granville Kelmscott smiled to himself a bitter, cynical, +smile. Poor confiding savage! He didn't know Guy as well as he, +his brother, did. + +And yet, in the midst of it all, in spite of the revulsion, Granville +was conscious now and then of some little ingratitude somewhere to +his half-brother's memory. After all, Guy had shown him time and +again no small kindness. Some excuse should be made for a man who +saves his own life first in very dire extremities. But none, no, +none for one who has the incredible and inhuman meanness to rob his +own brother of his hard-earned gams, in a strange wild land, when +he thinks him dying. + +For it was the robbery, not the desertion, Granville could never +forgive. The man who was capable of doing that basest of acts was +capable also of murder or any crime in the decalogue. + +So the fevered white man rose at last one morning on his shrunken +limbs, and staggered, as best he might, from his protector's hut +in a wild impulse of resolution, on his mad journey seaward. When +the Namaqua saw nothing on earth would induce him to remain, he +shouldered his arms and went out beside him, fully equipped for +fight with matchlock and assegai. Not that the savage made any +undue pretence to a purely personal devotion to the belated white +man. On the contrary, he signified to Granville with many ingenious +signs that he was afraid of losing the great reward he had been +promised, if once he let the invalid get out of his sight unattended. + +Granville smiled once more that bitter smile of new-born cynicism. +Well, let the fellow follow him if he liked! He would reward +him himself if ever they reached the coast in safety. And in any +case, it was better to go attended by a native. An interpreter who +can communicate in their own tongue with the people through whose +territory you are going to pass is always, useful in a savage +country. + +How Granville got over that terrible journey seaward he could never +tell. He crawled on and on, supported by the faithful Namaqua with +unfailing good-humour, over that endless veldt, for three long days +of wretched footsore marching. And for three long nights he slept, +or lay awake, under the clear desert stars, on the open ground of +barren Namaqua land. It was a terrible time. Worn and weary with +the fever, Granville was wholly unfit for any kind of travelling. +Nothing but the iron constitution of the Kelmscotts could ever +have stood so severe an ordeal. But the son of six generations of +soldiers, who had commanded in the fever-stricken flats of Walcheren, +or followed Wellesley through the jungles of tropical India, or +forced their way with Napier into the depths of Abyssinia, was not +to be daunted even by the nameless horrors of that South African +desert. Granville still endured, for three days and nights, and +was ready to march, or crawl on, once more, upon the fourth morning. + +Here, however, his Namaqua, guide, with every appearance of terror, +made strong warnings of danger. The country beyond, he signified +by strange gestures, lay in the hands of a hostile tribe, hereditarily +at war with his fellow-clansmen. He didn't even know whether the +other white man, with the diamonds round his waist, had got safely +through, or whether the hostile tribe beyond the frontier had +assegaied him and "eaten him up," as the picturesque native phrase +goes. It was difficult enough for even a strong warrior to force +his way through that district with a good company of followers; +impossible for a single weak invalid like Granville, attended only +by one poor, ill-armed Namaqua. + +So the savage seemed to say in his ingenious pantomime. If they +went on, they'd be killed and eaten up resistlessly. If they stopped +they might pull through. They must wait and camp there. For what +they were to wait, Granville hadn't the faintest conception. But +the Namaqua insisted upon it, and Granville was helpless as a child +in his hands. The man was alarmed, apparently, for his promised +reward. If Granville insisted, he showed in very frank dumb show, +why--a thrust with the assegai explained the rest most persuasively. +Granville still had his revolver, to be sure, and a few rounds +of ball cartridge. But he was too weak to show fight; the savage +overmastered him. + +They were seated on a stony ridge or sharp hog's back, overlooking +the valley of a dry summer stream. The watershed on which they sat +separated, with its chine of rugged rocks, the territory of the +two rival tribes. But the Namaqua was evidently very little afraid +that the enemy might transgress the boundaries of his fellow-tribesmen. +He dared not himself go beyond the jagged crest of the ridge; but +he seemed to think it pretty certain the people of the other tribe +wouldn't, for their part, in turn come across to molest him. He sat +down there doggedly, as if expecting something or other to turn up +in the course of time; and more than once he made signs to Granville +which the Englishman interpreted to mean that after so many days +and nights from some previous event unspecified, somebody would +arrive on the track from the coast at the point of junction between +the hostile races. + +Granville was gazing at the Namaqua in the vain attempt to interpret +these signs more fully to himself, when, all of a sudden, an +unexpected noise in the valley below attracted his attention. He +pricked up his ears, Impossible! Incredible! It couldn't be--yes, +it was--the sharp hiss of firearms! + +At the very same moment the Namaqua leapt to his feet in sudden +alarm, and, shading his eyes with his dusky hand, gazed intently +in front of him. For a minute or so he stood still, with brows knit +and neck craning. Then he called out something in an excited tone +two or three times over in his own tongue to Granville. The Englishman +stared in the same direction, but could make out nothing definite +just at first, in the full glare of the sunlight. But the Namaqua, +with a cry of joy, held up his two fingers as before, to symbolize +the two white men, and pointed with one of them to his guest, while +with the other he indicated some object in the valley, nodding +many times over. Granville seized his meaning at once. Could it be +true, what he said in this strange mute language? Could relief be +at hand? Could the firing beneath show that Guy was returning? + +As he looked and strained his eyes, peering down upon the red plain, +under the shadow of his open palm, the objects by the water-course +grew gradually clearer. Granville could make out now that a party +of natives, armed with spears and matchlocks, was attacking some +little encampment on the bank of the dry torrent. The small force +in the encampment was returning the fire with great vigour and +spirit, though apparently over-powered by the superior numbers of +their swarming assailants. Even as Granville looked, their case grew +more desperate. A whole horde of black men seemed to be making an +onset on some small white object, most jealously guarded, round +which the defenders of the camp rallied with infinite energy. At the +head of the little band of strangers, a European in a pith helmet +was directing the fire, and fighting hard himself for the precious +white object. The rest were blacks, he thought, in half-civilized +costume. Granville's heart gave a bound as the leader sprang forth +upon one approaching savage. His action, as he leapt, stamped the +man at once. There was Kelmscott in the leap. Granville knew in a +second it was indeed Guy Waring. + +The Namaqua recognised him too, and pointed enthusiastically +forward. Granville saw what he meant. To the front! To the front! +If there was fighting to be done, let them help their friends. Let +them go forward and claim the great reward offered. + +Next moment, with a painful thrill of shame and remorse, +the Englishman saw what was the nature of the object they were so +jealously guarding. His heart stood still within him. It was a sort +of sedan chair, or invalid litter, borne on poles by four native +porters. Talk about coals of fire! Granville Kelmscott hardly knew +how to forgive himself for his unworthy distrust. Then Guy must +have reached the coast in safety, after leaving him in charge of +the Namaqua and fighting his way through, and now he was on his +way back to the interior again, with a sufficient escort and a +palanquin to fetch him. + +Even as he looked, the assailants closed in more fiercely than +ever on the faltering little band. One of them thrust out with an +assegai at Guy. In an agony of horror, Granville cried aloud where +he stood. Surely, surely, they must be crushed to earth. No arms of +precision could ever avail them against such a swarm of assailants, +poured forth over their camp as if from some human ant-hill. + +"Let us run!" the sick man cried to the Namaqua, pointing to the +fight below; and the Namaqua, comprehending the gesture, if not the +words, set forward to run with him down the slope into the valley. + +At about a hundred yards off from the crowd, Granville, crouched +behind a clump of thorny acacia, and, signalling to the Namaqua to +hide at the same time, drew his revolver and fired point-blank at +the hindmost natives. + +The effect was electrical. In a moment the savages turned and gazed +around them astonished. One of their number was hit and wounded +in the leg. Granville had aimed so purposely, to maim and terrify +them. The natives faltered and fell back. As they did so, Granville +emerged from the shelter of the acacia bush, and fired a second +shot from another point at them. At the same instant the Namaqua +raised a loud native battle-cry, and brandished his assegai. The +effect was electrical. The hostile tribe broke up in wild panic at +once. They cried in their own tongue that the Namaquas were down +upon them, under English guidance: and, quick as lightning, they +dispersed as if by magic, to hide themselves about in the thick +bush jungle. + +Two seconds later, Guy was wringing Granville's hand in a fervour +of gratitude. Each man had saved the other's life. In the rapid +interchange of question and answer that followed, one point alone +puzzled them both for a minute or two. + +"But why on earth didn't you leave a line to explain what you'd +done?" Granville cried, now thoroughly ashamed of his unbelief, "If +only I'd known, you were coming back to the village it would have +saved me so much distress, so much sleepless misery." + +"Why, so I did," Guy answered, still thoroughly out of breath, and +stained with blood and powder. "I tore a leaf from my note-book and +gave it to the Namaqua, explaining to him by signs that he was to +let you have it at once, the moment you were conscious. Here, you, +sir," he went on, turning round to their faithful black ally, and +holding up the note-book before his eyes to refresh his memory, +"why didn't you give it to the gentleman as I told you?" + +The Namaqua, catching hastily at the meaning from the mere tone +of the question, as well as from Guy's instinctive and graphic +imitation of the act of writing, pulled out from his waistband the +last relics of a very brown and tattered fragment of paper, on which +were still legible in pencil the half-obliterated words: "My dear +Granville,--I find there is no chance of conveying you to the coast +through the territory of the next tribe in your present condition, +unless---" + +The rest was torn off. Guy looked at it dubiously. But the Namaqua, +anxious to show he had followed out all instructions to the very +letter, tore off the next scrap before their eyes, rolled it up +between his palms into a nice greasy pill, and proceeded to offer +it for Granville's acceptance. The misapprehension was too absurd. +Guy went off into a hearty peal of laughter at once. The Namaqua +had taken the mysterious signs for "a very great medicine," and +had administered the magical paper accordingly, as he understood +himself to be instructed, at fixed intervals to his unfortunate +patient. That was the medicine Granville remembered having forced +down his throat at the moment when he first learned, as he thought, +his half-brother's treachery. + + + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII. + +NEWS FROM THE CAPE. + + + + + +At the Holkers' at Chetwood, one evening some days later, Cyril +Waring met Elma Clifford once more, the first time for months, and +had twenty minutes' talk in the tea-room alone with her. Contrary +to his rule, he had gone to the Holkers' party that night, for a man +can't remain a recluse all his life, no matter how hard he tries, +merely because his brother's suspected of having committed a murder. +In course of time, the attitude palls upon him. For the first year +after Guy's sudden and mysterious disappearance, indeed, Cyril +refused all invitations point-blank, except from the most intimate +friends; the shame and disgrace of that terrible episode weighed +him down so heavily that he couldn't bear to go out in the world +among unsympathetic strangers. + +But the deepest sorrow wears away by degrees, and at the end of +twelve months Cyril found he could mix a little more unreservedly +at last among his fellow-men. The hang-dog air sat ill upon his +frank, free nature. This invitation to the Holkers', too, had one +special attraction: he knew it was a house where he was almost +certain of meeting Elma. And since Elma insisted now on writing +to him constantly--she was a self-willed young woman was Elma, and +would have her way--he really saw no reason on earth himself why +he shouldn't meet her. To meet is one thing, don't you know--to +marry, another. At least so fifty generations of young people have +deluded themselves under similar circumstances into believing. + +Elma was in the room before him, prettier than ever, people said, +in the pale red ball-dress which exactly suited her gipsy-like +eyes and creamy complexion. As she entered she saw Sir Gilbert +Gildersleeve with his wife and Gwendoline standing in the corner +by the big piano. Gwendoline looked pale and preoccupied, as she +had always looked since Granville Kelmscott disappeared, leaving +behind him no more definite address for love-letters than simply +Africa; and Lady Gildersleeve was, as usual, quite subdued and +broken. But the judge himself, consoled by his new honours, seemed, +as time wore on, to have recovered a trifle of his old blustering +manner. A knighthood had reassured him. He was talking to Mr. +Holker in a loud voice as Elma approached him from behind. + +"Yes, a very curious coincidence," he was just saying, in his noisy +fashion, with one big burly hand held demonstratively before him. +"A very curious and unexplained coincidence. They both vanished +into space about the self-same time. And nothing more has ever +since been heard of them. Quite an Arabian Nights' affair in its +way--the Enchanted Carpet sort of business, don't you know--wafted +through the air unawares, like Sinbad the Sailor, or the One-eyed +Calender, from London to Bagdad, or Timbuctoo or St. Petersburg. The +OTHER young man one understands about, of course; HE had sufficient +reasons of his own, no doubt, for leaving a country which had +grown too warm for him. But that Granville Kelmscott, a gentleman +of means, the heir to such a fine estate as Tilgate, should disappear +into infinity leaving no trace behind, like a lost comet--and at +the very moment, too, when he was just about to come into the family +property--why, I call it... I call it... I call it--" + +His jaw dropped suddenly. He grew deadly pale. Words failed his +stammering tongue. Do what he would, he couldn't finish his sentence. +And yet, nothing very serious had occurred to him in any way. It +was merely that, as he uttered these words, he caught Elma Clifford's +eye, and saw lurking in it a certain gleam of deadly contempt before +which the big blustering man himself had quailed more than once +in many a Surrey drawing-room. + +For Sir Gilbert Gildersleeve knew, as well as if she had told him +the truth in so many words, that Elma Clifford suspected him of +being Montague Nevitt's murderer. + +Elma came forward, just to break the awkward pause, and shook hands +with the party by the piano coldly. Sir Gilbert tried to avoid +her; but, with the inherited instinct of her race, Elma cut off +his retreat. She boxed him in the corner between the piano and the +wall. + +"I heard what you were saying just now, Sir Gilbert," she murmured +low, but with marked emphasis, after a few polite commonplaces of +conversation had first passed between them; "and I want to ask you +one question only about the matter. ARE you so sure as you seem +of what you said this minute? Are you so sure that Mr. Guy Waring +HAD sufficient reasons of his own for wishing to leave the country?" + +Before that unflinching eye, the great lawyer trembled, as many +a witness had trembled of old under his own cross-examination. But +he tried to pass it off just at first with a little society banter. +He bowed, and smiled, and pretended to look arch--look arch, indeed, +with that ashen, white face of his!--as he answered, with forced +humour-- + +"My dear young lady, Mr. Guy Waring, as I understand, is Mr. Cyril +Waring's brother, and as by the law of England the king can do no +wrong, so I suppose--" + +Elma cut him short in the middle of his sentence with an imperious +gesture. He had never cut short an obnoxious and intruding barrister +himself with more crushing dignity. + +"Mr. Cyril Waring has nothing at all to do with the point, one way +or the other," the girl said severely. "Attend to my question. +What I ask is this: Why do you, a judge who may one day be called +upon to try the case, venture to say, on such partial evidence, +that Mr. Guy Waring had sufficient reasons of his own for leaving +the country?" + +Called upon to try Guy Waring's case! The judge paused abashed. +He was very much afraid of her. This girl had such a strange look +about the eyes, she made him tremble. People said the Ewes women +were the descendants of a witch. And there was something truly +witch-like in the way Elma Clifford looked straight down into his +eyes. She seemed to see into his very soul. He knew she suspected +him. + +He shuffled and temporized. "Well, everybody says so, you know," he +answered, shrugging his shoulders carelessly. "And what everybody +says MUST be true. ... Besides, if HE, didn't do it, who did, I +wonder?" + +Elma pounced upon her opportunity with a woman's quickness. "Somebody +else who was at Mambury that day, no doubt," she replied, with a +meaning look. "It MUST have been somebody out of the few who were +at Mambury." + +That home-thrust told. The judge's colour was livid to look upon. +What could this girl mean? How on earth could she know? How had she +even found out he was at Mambury at all? A terrible doubt oppressed +his soul. Had Gwendoline confided his movements to Elma? He had +warned his daughter time and again not to mention the fact, "for +fear of misapprehension," he said, with shuffling eyes askance. It +was better nobody should know he had been anywhere near Dartmoor +on the day of the accident. + +However, there was one consolation; the law! the law! She could +have no legal proof, and intuition goes for nothing in a court +of justice. All the suspicion went against Guy Waring, and Guy +Waring--well, Guy Waring had fled the kingdom in the very nick of +time, and was skulking now, Heaven alone knew where or why, in the +remotest depths of some far African diggings. + +And even as he thought it, the servant opened the door, and, in +the regulation footman's voice, announced "Mr. Waring." + +The judge started afresh. For one moment his senses deceived him +sadly. His mind was naturally full of Guy, just now; and as the +servant spoke, he saw a handsome young man in evening dress coming +up the long drawing-room with the very air and walk of the man +he had met that eventful afternoon at the "Duke of Devonshire" +at Plymouth. Of course, it was only Cyril; and a minute later the +judge saw his mistake, and remembered, with a bitter smile, how +conscience makes cowards of us all, as he had often remarked about +shaky witnesses in his admirable perorations. But Elma hadn't failed +to notice either the start or its reason. + +"It's only Mr. Cyril," she said pointedly; "not Mr. Guy, Sir Gilbert. +The name came very pat, though. I don't wonder it startled you." + +She was crimson herself. The judge moved away with a stealthy +uncomfortable air. He didn't half care for this uncanny young +woman. A girl who can read people's thoughts like that, a girl who +can play with you like a cat with a mouse, oughtn't to be allowed +at large in society. She should be shut up in a cage at home like +a dangerous animal, and prevented from spying out the inmost history +of families. + +A little later, Elma had twenty minutes' talk with Cyril alone. It +was in the tea-room behind, where the light refreshments were laid +out before supper. She spoke low and seriously. + +"Cyril," she said, in a tone of absolute confidence--they were +not engaged, of course, but still, it had got to plain "Cyril" and +"Elma" by this time--"I'm surer of it than ever, no matter what you +say. Guy's perfectly innocent. I know it as certainly as I know my +own name. I can't be mistaken. And the man who really did it is, +as I told you, Sir Gilbert Gildersleeve." + +"My dear child," Cyril answered--you call the girl you are in love +with "my dear child," when you mean to differ from her, with an +air of masculine superiority--"how on earth can that be, when, as +I told you, I have Guy's confession in writing, under his own very +hand, that he really did it?" + +"I don't care a pin for that," Elma cried, with a true woman's +contempt for anything so unimportant as mere positive evidence. +"Perhaps Sir Gilbert made him do it somehow--compelled him, or +coerced him, or willed him, or something--I don't understand these +new notions--or perhaps he got him into a scrape and then hadn't +the courage or the manliness to get him out of it. But at any rate, +I can answer for one thing, I were to go to the stake for it--Sir +Gilbert Gildersleeve is the man who's really guilty." + +As she spoke, a great shadow darkened the door of the room for a +moment ominously. Sir Gilbert looked in with a lady on his arm--the +inevitable dowager who refreshes herself continuously at frequent +intervals through six hours of entertainment. When he saw those +two tęte-ŕ-tęte, he drew back, somewhat disconcerted. + +"Don't let's go in there, Lady Knowles," he whispered to the dowager +by his side. "A pair of young people discussing their hearts. We +were once young ourselves. It's a pity to disturb them." + +And he passed on across the hall towards the great refreshment-room +opposite. + +"Well, I don't know," Cyril said bitterly, as the judge disappeared +through the opposite door. "I wish I could agree with you. But I +can't, I can't. The burden of it's heavier than my shoulders can +bear. Guy's weak, I know, and might be led half unawares into +certain sorts of crime; yet I only knew one man ever likely to lead +him--and that was poor Nevitt himself, not Sir Gilbert Gildersleeve, +whom he hardly even knew to speak to." + +As he paused and reflected, a servant with a salver came up and +looked into Cyril's face inquiringly. + +"Beg your pardon, sir," he said, hesitating, "but I think you're +Mr. Waring." + +"That's my name," Cyril answered, with a faint blush on his cheek. +"Do you want to speak to me?" + +"Yes, sir; there's half-a-crown to pay for porterage, if you please. +A telegram for you, sir." + +Cyril pulled out the half-a-crown, and tore open the telegram. +Its contents were indeed enough to startle him. It was dated "Cape +Town," and was as brief as is the wont of cable messages at nine +shillings a word-- + +"Coming home immediately to repay everything and stand my trial. +Kelmscott accompanies me. All well.--GUY WARING." + +Cyril looked at it with a gasp, and handed it on to Elma. Elma took +it in her dainty gloved fingers, and read it through with keen eyes +of absorbing interest. Cyril sighed a profound sigh. Elma glanced +back at him all triumph. "I told you so," she said, in a very jubilant +voice. "He wouldn't do that if he didn't KNOW he was innocent." + +At the very same second, a blustering voice was heard above the +murmur in the hall without. + +"What, half-a-crown for porterage!" it exclaimed in indignant tones. +"Why, that's a clear imposition. The people at my house ought +never to have sent it on. It's addressed to Woodlands. Unimportant, +unimportant! Here, Gwendoline, take your message--some milliner's +or dressmaker's appointment for to-morrow, I suppose. Half-a-crown +for porterage! They'd no right to bring it." + +Gwendoline took the telegram with trembling hands, tore it open +all quivers, and broke into a cry of astonishment. Then she fell +all at once into her father's arms. Elma understood it all. It was +a similar message from Granville Kelmscott to tell the lady of his +heart he was coming home to marry her. + +Sir Gilbert, somewhat flustered, called for water in haste, and +revived the fainting girl by bathing her temples. At last he took +up the cause of the mischief himself. As he read it his own face +turned white as death. Elma noticed that, too. And no wonder it +did--for these were the words of that unexpected message-- + +"Coming home to claim you by the next mail. Guy Waring accompanies +me.--GKANVILLE KELMSCOTT." + + + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX. + +A GLEAM OF LIGHT. + + + + + +Next day but one, the Companion of St. Michael and St. George came +in to Craighton with evil tidings. He had heard in the village that +Sir Gilbert Gildersleeve was ill--very seriously ill. The judge +had come home from the Holkers' the other evening much upset by +the arrival of Gwendoline's telegram. + +"Though why on earth should that upset him," Mr. Clifford continued, +screwing up his small face with a very wise air, "is more than +I can conceive; for I'm sure the Gildersleeves angled hard enough +in their time to catch young Kelmscott, by hook or by crook, for +their gawky daughter; and now that young Kelmscott telegraphs over +to say he's coming home post haste to marry her, Miss Gwendoline +faints away, if you please, as she reads the news, and the judge +himself goes upstairs as soon as he gets home, and takes to his +bed incontinently. But there, the ways of the world are really +inscrutable! What reconciles me to life, every day I grow older, is +that it's so amusing--so intensely amusing! You never know what's +going to turn up next; and what you least expect is what most often +happens." + +Elma, however, received his news with a very grave face. + +"Is he really ill, do you think, papa?" she asked, somewhat anxiously; +"or is he only--well--only frightened?" + +Mr. Clifford stared at her with a blank leathery face of self-satisfied +incomprehension. + +"Frightened!" he repeated solemnly; "Sir Gilbert Gildersleeve +frightened! And of Granville Kelmscott, too! That's true wit, Elma; +the juxtaposition of the incongruous. Why, what on earth has the +man got to be frightened of, I should like to know? ... No, no; +he's really ill; very seriously ill. Humphreys says the case is a +most peculiar one, and he's telegraphed up to town for a specialist +to come down this afternoon and consult with him." + +And indeed, Sir Gilbert was really very ill. This unexpected shock +had wholly unmanned him. To say the truth, the judge had begun to +look upon Guy Waring as practically lost, and upon the matter of +Montague Nevitt's death as closed for ever. Waring, no doubt, had +gone to Africa--under a false name--and proceeded to the diamond +fields direct, where he had probably been killed in a lucky quarrel +with some brother digger, or stuck through with an assegai by some +enterprising Zulu; and nobody had even taken the trouble to mention +it. + +It's so easy for a man to get lost in the crowd in the Dark Continent! +Why, there was Granville Kelmscott, even--a young fellow of means, +and the heir of Tilgate, about whom Gwendoline was always moaning +and groaning, poor girl, and wouldn't be comforted--there was +Granville Kelmscott gone out to Africa, and, hi, presto, disappeared +into space without a vapour or a trace, like a conjurer's shilling. It +was all very queer; but, then, queer things are the way in Africa. + +To be sure, Sir Gilbert had his qualms of conscience, too, over +having thus sent off Guy Waring, as he believed, to his grave in +Cape Colony. He was not at heart a bad man, though he was pushing, +and selfish, and self-seeking, and to a certain extent even--of +late--unscrupulous. He had his bad half-hours every now and again +with his own moral consciousness. But he had learnt to stifle his +doubts and to keep down his terrors. After all, he had told Guy no +more than the truth; and if Guy in his panic-terror chose to run +away and get killed in South Africa, that was no fault of HIS--he'd +only tried to warn the fellow of an impending danger. All's well +that ends well; and, to-day, Guy Waring was lost or dead, while he +himself was a judge, and a knight to boot, with all trace of his +crime destroyed for ever. + +So he said to himself, rejoicing, the very day Granville Kelmscott's +telegram arrived. But now that he stood face to face again with that +pressing terror, his thoughts on the matter were very different. +Strange to say, his first idea was this: what a disgraceful shame +of that fellow Waring to come to life again thus suddenly on +purpose to annoy him! He was really angry, nay, more, indignant. +Such shuffling was inexcusable. If Waring meant to give himself +up and stand his trial like a man, why the dickens didn't he do it +immediately after the--well, the accident? What did he mean by going +off for eighteen months undiscovered, and leaving one to build up +fresh plans in life, like this--and then coming home on a sudden +just on purpose to upset them? It was simply disgraceful. Sir +Gilbert felt injured; this man Waring was wronging him. Eighteen +months before he was keenly aware that he was unjustly casting a vile +and hideous suspicion on an innocent person. But in the intervening +period his moral sense had got largely blunted. Familiarity with +the hateful plot had warped his ideas about it. Their places were +reversed. Sir Gilbert was really aggrieved now that Guy Waring should +turn up again, and should venture to vindicate his deeply-wronged +character. + +The man was as good as dead. Well, and he ought to have stopped so; +or else he ought never to have died at all. He ought to have kept +himself continually in evidence. But to go away for eighteen months, +unknown and unheard of, till one's sense of security had had time +to re-establish itself, and then to turn up again like this without +one minute's warning--oh, it was infamous, scandalous. The fellow +must be devoid of all consideration for others. Sir Gilbert wiped +his clammy brow with those ample hands. What on earth was he to do +for his wife, and for Gwendoline? + +And Gwendoline was so happy, too, over Granville Kelmscott's return! +How could he endure that Granville Kelmscott's return should be +the signal for discovering her father's sin and shame to her! If +only he could have married her off before it all came out! Or if +only he could die before the man was tried!--Tried! Sir Gilbert's +eyes started from his head with horror. What was that Elma Clifford +suggested the other night? Why--if the man was arrested, he would +be arrested at Plymouth, the moment he landed, and would be tried +for murder at the Western Assizes. And it was he himself, Sir +Gilbert Gildersleeve, who was that term to take the Western Circuit. + +He would be called upon to sit on the bench himself, and try Guy +Waring for the murder he had himself committed! + +No wonder that thought sent him ill to bed at once. He lay and +tossed all night long in speechless agony and terror. It was an +appalling night. Next morning he was found delirious with fever. + +When the news reached Elma, she saw its full and fatal significance. +Cyril had stopped on for three days at the Holkers', and he came +over in the course of the morning to take a walk across the fields +with her. Elma was profoundly excited, Cyril could hardly see why. + +"This is a terrible thing," she said, "about Sir Gilbert's illness. +What I'm afraid of now is that he may die before your brother +returns. The shock must have been awful for him; mamma noticed it +every bit as much as I did; and so did Miss Ewes. They both said +at once, 'This blow will kill him!' And they both knew why, Cyril, +as well as I did. It's the Ewes' intuition. We've all of us got it, +and we all of us say, at once and unanimously--it was Sir Gilbert +Gildersleeve." + +"But suppose he DID die," Cyril asked, still sceptical, as he +always was when Elma got upon her instinctive consciousness; "what +difference would that make? If Guy's innocent, as I suppose in some +way he must be, from the tone of his telegram, he'll be acquitted +whether Sir Gilbert's alive or not. And if he's guilty--" + +He broke off suddenly with an awful pause; the other alternative +was too terrible to contemplate. + +"But he's NOT guilty," Elma answered with confidence. "I know it +more surely now than ever. And the difficulty's this. Nobody knows +the real truth, I feel certain, except Sir Gilbert Gildersleeve. +And if Sir Gilbert dies unconfessed, the truth dies with him. And +then--" She paused a moment. "I'm half afraid," she went on with a +doubtful sigh, "your brother's been too precipitate in coming home +to face it." + +"But, Elma," Cyril cried, "I can't bear to say it--yet one must +face the facts--how on earth can he be innocent, when I tell you +again and again he wrote to me himself saying he really did it?" + +"You never showed me that letter," Elma answered, with a faint +undercurrent of reproach in her tone. + +"How could I?" Cyril replied. "Even to YOU, Elma, there are some +things a man can hardly bear to speak about." + +"I have more faith than you, Cyril," Elma answered. "I've never given +up believing in Guy all the time. I believe in him still--because +I know he's your brother." + +There was a short pause, during which neither spoke. They walked +along together, looking at each other's faces with half downcast +eyes, but with the not unpleasant sense of mute companionship and +sympathy in a great sorrow. At last Elma spoke again. + +"There was one thing in Guy's telegram," she said, "I didn't quite +understand. 'Coming home immediately to repay everything.' What +did he mean by that? What has that got to do with Mr. Nevitt's +disappearance?" + +"Oh, that was quite another matter," Cyril answered, blushing deep +with shame, for he couldn't bear to let Elma know Guy was a forger +as well as a murderer. "That was something purely personal between +us two. He--he owed me money." + +Elma's keen eyes read him through at a glance. + +"But he said it all in one sentence," she objected, "as if the two +went naturally together. Coming home immediately to repay everything +and stand my trial. Cyril, Cyril, you've held something back. I +believe there's some fearful mistake here somewhere." + +"You think so?" Cyril answered, feeling more and more uncomfortable. + +"I'm sure of it," Elma replied, with a thrill, reading his thoughts +still deeper. "Oh, Cyril"--she seized his arm with a convulsive +grip--"for Heaven's sake, go and get it; let me see that letter!" + +"I have it here," Cyril answered, pulling it out with some shame +from Montague Nevitt's pocket-book, which he wouldn't destroy, and +dared not leave about for prying eyes to light upon. "I've carried +it day and night, ever since, about with me." + +Elma seized it from his hands, and sat down upon a stile, and read +it through with profound attention. + +At the end she handed it back and tears stood in her eyes. "Cyril," +she said, half laughing hysterically and half crying as she spoke, +"you've been doing that poor fellow a deep injustice. Oh, don't +you see--don't you see it? That isn't the letter of a man who has +committed a murder. It's the letter of a man who has unwittingly and +unwillingly done you some personal wrong, and is eager to repair +it. My darling, my darling, you've misread it altogether. It +isn't about Montague Nevitt's death at all; it's about nothing an +earth but some private money matter. More than that, when it was +written, Guy didn't yet know Mr. Nevitt was dead. He didn't know +he was suspected. He didn't know anything. I wonder you don't see! +I wish to Heaven you'd shown me that letter months ago! Sir Gilbert +fastened suspicion on the wrong man; and this letter has made you +accept it too easily. Guy went to Africa--that's as plain as words +can put it--to make money of his own to repay what he owed you. And +it's this, the purely personal and unimportant charge, he's coming +home to give himself up upon." + +A light seemed to burst on Cyril's mind as she spoke. For the very +first time, he felt a gleam of hope. Elma was right, after all, +he believed. Guy was wholly innocent of the greater crime; and his +heart-broken letter had only meant to deal with the question of +the forgery. + +But Cyril had heard of the murder first, and had had that most in +his mind when the letter reached him; so he interpreted it at once +as referring to the capital charge, and never dreamt for a moment +of its real narrower meaning. + +That evening, when the messenger came back from "kind inquiries" at +Woodlands, Elma asked, with hushed awe, how Sir Gilbert was going +on. + +"Very poorly, miss," the servant answered. "The doctor says he's +sunk dreadful low; and the butler thinks he has something on his +mind he can't get out in his wanderings. He's in a terrible bad +way. They wouldn't be astonished if he don't live to morning." + +So Elma went to bed that night trembling most for the result of +Sir Gilbert's illness. + + + + + + +CHAPTER XL. + +THE BOLT FALLS. + + + + + +All the way home on that long journey from Cape Town, as the two +half-brothers lounged on deck together in their canvas chairs, +Granville Kelmscott was wholly at a loss to understand what seemed +to him Guy Waring's unaccountable and almost incredible levity. The +man's conduct didn't in the least resemble that of a person who is +returning to give himself up on a charge of wilful murder. On the +contrary, Guy showed no signs of remorse or mental agony in any way; +he seemed rather elated, instead, at the pleasing thought that he +was going home, with his diamonds all turned at the Cape into solid +coin, to make his peace once more with his brother Cyril. + +To be sure, at times he did casually allude to some expected +unpleasantness when he arrived in England; yet he treated it, +Granville noticed, as though hanging were at worst but a temporary +inconvenience. Granville wondered whether, after all, he could +have some complete and crushing answer to that appalling charge; on +any other supposition, his spirits and his talk were really little +short of what one might expect from a madman. + +And indeed, now and again, Granville did really begin to suspect +that something had gone wrong somewhere with Guy Waring's intellect. +The more he thought over it, the more likely did this seem, for +Guy talked on with the greatest composure about his plans for the +future "when this difficulty was cleared up," as though a trial +for murder were a most ordinary occurrence--an accident that might +happen to any gentleman any day. And, if so, was it possible that +Guy had gone wrong in his head BEFORE the affray with Montague +Nevitt? That seemed likely enough; for when Granville remembered +Guy's invariable gentleness and kindness to himself, his devotion +in sickness and in the trials of the desert, his obvious aversion +to do harm to any one, and, above all, his heartfelt objection +to shedding human blood, Granville was constrained to believe his +newly found half-brother, if ever he committed the murder at all, +must have committed it while in a state of unsound mind, deserving +rather of pity than of moral reprehension. He comforted himself, +indeed, with this consoling idea--he could never believe a Kelmscott +of Tilgate, when clothed and in his right mind, could be guilty +of such a detestable and motiveless crime as the wilful murder of +Montague Nevitt. + +Strangely enough, moreover, the subject that seemed most to occupy +Guy Waring's mind, on the voyage home, was not his forthcoming trial +on a capital charge, but the future distribution of the Tilgate +property. Was he essentially a money-grubber, Granville wondered +to himself, as he had thought him at first in the diamond fields +in Barolong land? Was he incapable of thinking about anything but +filthy lucre? No; that was clearly not the true solution of the +problem, for, whenever Guy spoke to him about the subject, it was +generally to say one and the self-same thing-- + +"In this matter, I feel I can speak for Cyril as I speak for myself. +Neither of us would wish to deprive you now of what you've always +been brought up to consider as your own. Neither of us would wish +to dispossess Lady Emily. The most we would desire is this--to have +our position openly acknowledged and settled before the world. We +should like it to be known we were the lawful sons of a brave man +and an honest woman. And if you wish voluntarily to share with us +some part of our father's estate, we'll be willing to enter into +a reasonable arrangement by which yon yourself can retain Tilgate +Park and the mass of the property that immediately appertains to +it. I'm sure Cyril would no more wish to be grasping in this matter +than I am; and after all that you and I have gone through together, +Granville, I don't think yon need doubt the sincerity of my feelings +towards you." + +He spoke so sensibly, he spoke so manfully, he spoke so kindly +always, with a bright gleam in those tender eyes, that Granville +hardly knew what to make of his evident confidence. Surely a +man couldn't be mad who could speak like that; and yet, whenever +he alluded in any way to his return to England, it was always as +though he ignored the gravity and heinousness of the charge brought +against him. It was as though murder was an accident, for which one +was hardly responsible. Granville couldn't make him out at all; +the fellow was an enigma to him. There was so much that was good +in him; and yet, there must be so much that was bad as well. He was +such a delicate, considerate, self-effacing gentleman--and yet, +if one could believe what he himself more than once as good as +admitted, he was a criminal, a felon, an open murderer. + +Still, even so, Granville couldn't turn his back upon the brother +who had seen him so bravely across the terrors of Namaqua land. He +thought of how he had misjudged him once before, and how much he +had repented it. Whether Guy was a murderer or not, Granville felt, +the man he had saved, at least, could never forsake him. + +The night before their arrival at Plymouth, Guy was in unusually +high spirits. His mirth was contagious. Everybody on board +was delighted at the prospect of reaching land, but Guy was more +delighted and more sanguine than anybody. He was sure in his own +mind this difficulty must have blown over long before now; Cyril must +have explained; Nevitt must have confessed; everything must have +been set right, and his own good name satisfactorily rehabilitated. +For more than eighteen months he had heard nothing from England. +To-morrow he would see Cyril, and account for everything. He had +money to set all right--his hard-earned money, got at the risk +of his own life in the dreary deserts of Barolong land. All would +yet be well, and Cyril would marry, and Elma Clifford would be the +mistress of nearly half the Tilgate property. + +"It was all so different, Granville," he said to his friend +confidentially, as they paced the deck after supper, cigar in +mouth, "when you first went out, and we didn't know one another. +Then, I distrusted you, and you distrusted me. We didn't understand +one another's characters. But now we can settle it all as a family +affair. Men who have camped out together under the open sky on the +African veldt, who have run the gauntlet of Korannas and Barolong +and Namaqua, who have stood by one another in sickness and in +fight, needn't be afraid of disagreeing about their money matters +in England. Cyril will meet us to-morrow and talk it all over, +and I'm not the least troubled about the result, either for you or +for him. The same blood runs in all our veins alike. Whatever you +propose, he'll be ready to agree to. He's the very best fellow +that ever lived, and when he hears what I have to say about you, +he'll welcome you as a brother, and be as fond of you as I am." + +Next morning early they reached Plymouth Harbour. As they entered +the mouth of the breakwater, the tender came alongside to convey +them ashore. Guy looked over the bulwarks and saw Cyril waiting +for him. In a fervour of delight at the sight of the green fields +and the soft hills of old England--the beautiful Hoe, and the solid +stone houses, and the familiar face turned up to welcome him--Guy +waved his handkerchief round and round his head in triumph; to +which demonstration Cyril, as he fancied, responded but coldly. A +chill fell upon his heart. This was bad, but still, after all, he +could hardly expect Cyril to know intuitively under what sinister +influence he had signed that fatal cheque. And yet he was disappointed. +His heart had jumped so hard at sight of Cyril, he could hardly +believe Cyril wasn't glad to see him. + +As he stepped into the tender from the gangway, just ready to rush +up and shake Cyril's hand fervently, a resolute-looking man by the +side of the steps laid a very firm grip on his shoulder with an +air of authority. + +"Guy Waring?" he said interrogatively. + +And Guy, turning pale, answered without flinching-- + +"Yes, my name's Guy Waring." + +"Then you're my prisoner," the man said, in a very firm voice. "I'm +an inspector of constabulary." + +"On what charge?" Guy exclaimed, half taken aback at this promptitude. + +"I have a warrant against you, sir," the inspector answered, "as +you are no doubt aware, for the wilful murder of Montague Nevitt, +on the 17th of August, year before last, at Mambury, in Devonshire." + +The word's fell upon Guy's ears with all the suddenness and crushing +force of an unexpected thunderbolt. + +"Wilful murder," he cried, taken aback by the charge. "Wilful +murder of Montague Nevitt at Mambury! Oh no, you can't mean that! +Montague Nevitt dead! Montague Nevitt murdered! And at Mambury, +too! There MUST be some mistake somewhere." + +"No, there's no mistake at all, this time," the inspector said +quietly, slipping a pair of handcuffs unobstrusively into his pocket +as he spoke. "If you come along with me without any unnecessary +noise, we won't trouble to iron you. But you'd better say as little +as possible about the charget just now, for whatever you say may +be used in evidence at the trial against you." + +Guy turned to Cyril with an appealing look. "Cyril," he, cried, +"what does all this mean? Is Nevitt dead? It's the very first word +I've ever heard about it." + +Cyril's heart gave a bound of wild relief at those words. The moment +Guy said it his brother knew he spoke the simple truth. + +"Why, Guy," he answered, with a fierce burst of joy, "then you're +not a murderer after all? You're innocent! You're innocent! And +for eighteen months all England has thought you guilty; and I've +lived under the burden of being universally considered a murderer's +brother!" + +Guy looked him back in the face with those truthful grey eyes of +his. + +"Cyril," he said solemnly, "I'm as innocent of this charge as you +or Granville Kelmscott here. I never even heard one whisper of it +before. I don't know what it means. I don't know who they want. Till +this moment I thought Montague Nevitt was still alive in England." + +And as he said it, Granville Kelmscott, too, saw he was speaking +the truth. Impossible as he found it in his own mind to reconcile +those strange words with all that Guy had said to him in the wilds +of Namaqua land, he couldn't look him in the face without seeing +at a glance how profound and unexpected was this sudden surprise +to him. He was right in saying, "I'm as innocent of this charge as +you or Granville Kelmscott." + +But the inspector only smiled a cynical smile, and answered calmly-- + +"That's for the jury to decide. We shall hear more of this then. +You'll be tried at the assizes. Meanwhile, the less said, the +sooner mended." + + + + + + +CHAPTER XLI. + +WHAT JUDGE? + + + + + +For many days, meanwhile, Sir Gilbert had hovered between life +and death, and Elma had watched his illness daily with profound +and absorbing interest. For in her deep, intuitive way she felt +certain to herself that their one chance now lay in Sir Gilbert's +own sense of remorse and repentance. She didn't yet know, to be +sure--what Sir Gilbert himself knew--that if he recovered he would, +in all probability, have to sit in trial on another man for the +crime he had himself committed. But she did feel this,--that Sir +Gilbert would surely never stand by and let an innocent man die +for his own transgression. + +IF he recovered, that was to say. But perhaps he would not recover. +Perhaps his life would flicker out by degrees in the midst of his +delirium, and he would go to his grave unconfessed and unforgiven! +Perhaps even, for his wife's and daughter's sake, he would shrink +from revealing what Elma felt to be the truth, and would rest +content to die, leaving Guy Waring to clear himself at the trial, +as best he might, from this hateful accusation. + +It would be unjust. It would be criminal. Yet Sir Gilbert might do +it. + +Elma had a bad time, therefore, during all those long days, +even before Guy returned to England. She knew his life hung by a +slender thread, which Sir Gilbert Gildersleeve might cut short at +any moment. But her anxiety was as nothing compared to Sir Gilbert's +own. That unhappy man, a moral coward at heart, in spite of all +his blustering, lay writhing in his own room now, very ill, and +longing to be worse, longing to die, as the easiest way out of +this impossible difficulty. For his wife's sake, for Gwendoline's +sake, it was better he should die; and if only he could, he would +have left Guy Waring to his fate contentedly. His anger against +Guy burnt so bright now at last that he would have sacrificed him +willingly, provided he was not there himself to see and know it. +What did the man mean by living on to vex him? Over and over again +the unhappy judge wished himself dead, and prayed to be taken. But +that powerful frame, though severely broken by the shock, seemed +hardly able to yield up its life merely because its owner was +anxious to part with it. + +After a fortnight's severe illness, hovering all the time between +hope and fear, the doctor came one day, and looked at him hard. + +"How is he?" Lady Gildersleeve asked, seeing him hold his breath +and consider. + +To her great surprise the doctor answered, "Better; against all +hope, better." And indeed Sir Gilbert was once more convalescent. +A week or two abroad, it was said, would restore him completely. + +Then Elma had another terrible source of doubt. Would the doctors +order Sir Gilbert abroad so long that he would be out of England +when the trial took place? If so, he might miss many pricks of +remorse. She must take some active steps to arouse his conscience. + +Sir Gilbert, himself, now recovering fast, fought hard, as well he +might, for such leave of absence. He was quite unfit, he said, to +return to his judicial work so soon. Though he had said nothing +about it in public before (this was the tenor of his talk) he was +a man of profound but restrained feelings, and he had felt, he would +admit, the absence of Gwendoline's lover--especially when combined +with the tragic death of Colonel Kelmscott, the father, and the +memory of the unpleasantness that had once subsisted, through the +Colonel's blind obstinacy, between the two houses. This sudden news +of the young man's return had given him a nervous shock of which +few would have believed him capable. "You wouldn't think to look +at me," Sir Gilbert said plaintively, smoothing down his bedclothes +with those elephantine hands of his, "I was the sort of man to be +knocked down in this way;" and the great specialist from London, +gazing at him with a smile, admitted to himself that he certainly +would not have thought it. + +"Oh, nonsense, my dear sir," the specialist answered, however, to +all his appeals. "This is the merest passing turn, I assure you. +I couldn't conscientiously say you'd be unfit for duty by the time +the assizes come round again. It's clear to me, on the contrary, with +a physique like yours, you'll pull yourself together in something +less than no time with a week or so at Spa. Before you're due in +England to take up harness again you'll be walking miles at a stretch +over those heathery hills there. Convalescence, with a man like +you, is a rapid process. In a fortnight from to-day, I'll venture +to guarantee, you'll be in a fit condition to swim the Channel on +your back, or to take one of your famous fifty-mile tramps across +the bogs of Dartmoor. I'll give you a tonic that'll set your nerves +all right at once. You'll come back from Spa as fresh as a daisy." + +To Spa, accordingly, Sir Gilbert went; and from Spa came trembling +letters now and again between Gwendoline and Elma. Gwendoline was +very anxious papa should get well soon, she said, for she wanted +to be home before the Cape steamer arrived. "You know why, Elma." +But Sir Gilbert didn't return before Guy's arrival in England, for +all that. The papers continued to give bulletins of his health, +and to speculate on the probability of his returning in time to do +the Western Circuit. Elma remained in a fever of doubt and anxiety. +To her, much depended now on the question of Sir Gilbert's presence +or absence. For if he was indeed to try the case, she felt certain +to herself, it must work upon his remorse and compel confession. + +Meanwhile, preparations went on in England for Guy's approaching +trial. The magistrates committed; the grand jury, of course, found +a true bill; all England rang with the strange news that the man Guy +Waring, the murderer of Mr. Montague Nevitt some eighteen months +before, had returned at last of his own free will, and had given +himself up to take his trial. Gildersleeve was to be the judge, +they said; or if he were too ill, Atkins. Atkins was as sure as a +gun to hang him, people thought--that was Atkins's way--and, besides, +the evidence against the man, though in a sense circumstantial, +was so absolutely overwhelming that acquittal seemed impossible. + +Five to two was freely offered on Change that they'd hang him. + +The case was down for first hearing at the assizes. The night +before the trial Elma Clifford, who had hurried to Devonshire with +her mother to see and hear all--she couldn't help it, she said; +she felt she MUST be present--Elma Clifford looked at the evening +paper with a sickening sense of suspense and anxiety. A paragraph +caught her eye: "We understand that, after all, Mr. Justice +Gildersleeve still finds himself too unwell to return to England for +the Western Assizes, and his place will, therefore, most probably +be taken by Mr. Justice Atkins. The calendar is a heavy one, and +includes the interesting case of Mr. Guy Waring, charged with the +wilful murder of Montague Nevitt, at Mambury, in Devonshire." + +Elma laid down the paper with a swimming head. Too ill to return. +She wasn't at all surprised at it. It was almost more than +human nature could stand, for a man to sit as judge over another +to investigate the details of the crime he had himself committed. +But the suggestion of his absence ruined her peace of mind. She +couldn't sleep that night. She felt sure now there was no hope +left. Guy would almost certainly be convicted of murder. + +Next morning she took her seat in court, with her mother and Cyril, +as soon as the assize hall was opened to the public. But her cheek +was very pale, and her eyes were weary. Places had been assigned +them by the courtesy of the authorities, as persons interested in +the case; and Elma looked eagerly towards the door in the corner, +by which, as the usher told her, the judge was to enter. There was +a long interval, and the usual unseemly turmoil of laughing and +talking went on among the spectators in the well below. Some of +them had opera-glasses and stared about them freely. Others quizzed +the counsel, the officers, and the witnesses. Then a hush came +over them, and the door opened. Cyril was merely aware of the +usual formalities and of a judicial wig making its way, with slow +dignity, to the vacant bench. But Elma leaned forward in a tumult +of feeling. Her face all at once turned scarlet with excitement. + +"What's the matter, darling?" her mother asked, in a sympathetic +tone, noticing that something had profoundly stirred her. + +And Elma answered with bated breath, in almost inarticulate tones, +"Don't you see? Don't you see, mother? Just look at the judge! It's +himself! It's Sir Gilbert!" + +And so indeed it was. Against all hope, he had come over. At the +very last moment a telegram had been handed to the convalescent at +Spa: + +"Fallen from my horse. A nasty tumble. Sustained severe internal +injuries. Impossible to go the Western Circuit, Relieve me if you +can. Wire reply,--ATKINS." + +Sir Gilbert, as he received it, had just come in from a long ride +across the wild moors that stretch away from Spa towards Han, and +looked the picture of health, robust and fresh and ruddy. He glowed +with bodily vigour; no suspense could kill him. Refusal under such +circumstances was clearly impossible. He saw he must go, or resign +his post at once. So, with an agitated heart, he wired acquiescence, +took the next train to--Brussels and Calais, and caught the Dover +boat just in time for acceptance. And now he was there to try Guy +Waring for the murder of the man he himself had killed in The Tangle +at Mambury, + + + + + + +CHAPTER XLII. + +UNEXPECTED EVIDENCE. + + + + + +When Sir Gilbert Gildersleeve left Spa, he left with a ruddy glow +of recovered health on his bronzed red cheek; for in spite of anxiety +and repentance and doubt, the man's iron frame would somehow still +assert itself. When he took his seat on the bench in court that +morning, he looked so haggard and ill with fatigue and remorse +that even Elma Clifford herself pitied him. A hushed whisper ran +round among the spectators below that the judge wasn't fit to try +the case before him. And indeed he wasn't. For it was his own trial, +not Guy Waring's, he was really presiding over. + +He sat down in his place, a ghastly picture of pallid despair. The +red colour had faded altogether from his wan, white cheeks. His eyes +were dreamy and bloodshot with long vigil. His big hands trembled +like a woman's as he opened his note-book. His mouth twitched +nervously. So utter a collapse, in such a man as he was, seemed +nothing short of pitiable to every spectator. + +Counsel for the Crown stared him steadily in the face. Counsel for +the Crown--Forbes-Ewing, Q.C.--was an old forensic enemy, who had +fought many a hard battle against Gildersleeve, with scant interchange +of courtesy, when both were members of the junior Bar together; but +now Sir Gilbert's look moved even HIM to pity. "I think, my lord," +the Q.C. suggested with a sympathetic simper, "your lordship's too +ill to open the court to-day. Perhaps the proceedings had better +be adjourned for the present." + +"No, no," the judge answered, almost testily, shaking his sleeve +with impatience. "I'll have no putting off for trifles in the court +where I sit. There's a capital case to come on this morning. When +a man's neck's at stake--when a matter of life and death's at issue--I +don't like to keep any one longer in suspense than I absolutely +need. Delay would be cruel." + +As he spoke he lifted his eyes--and caught Elma Clifford's. The +judge let his own drop again in speechless agony. Elma's never +flinched. Neither gave a sign; but Elma knew, as, well as Sir +Gilbert knew himself, it was his own life and death the judge was +thinking of, and not Guy Waring's. + +"As you will, my lord," counsel for the Crown responded demurely. +"It was your lordship's convenience we all had at heart, rather +than the prisoner's." + +"Eh! What's that?" the judge said sharply, with a suspicious frown. +Then he recovered himself with a start. For a moment he had half +fancied that fellow, Forbes-Ewing, meant SOMETHING by what he +said--meant to poke innuendoes at him. But, after all, it was a +mere polite form. How frightened we all are, to be sure, when we +know we're on our trial! + +The opening formalities were soon got over, and then, amid a +deep hush of breathless lips, Guy Waring, of Staple Inn, Holborn, +gentleman, was put upon his trial for the wilful murder of Montague +Nevitt, eighteen months before, at Mambury in Devon. + +Guy, standing in the dock, looked puzzled and distracted rather +than alarmed or terrified. His cheek was pale, to be sure, and his +eyes were weary; but as Elma glanced from him hastily to the judge +on the bench she had no hesitation in settling in her own mind +which of the two looked most at that moment like a detected murderer +before the faces of his accusers. Guy was calm and self-contained. +Sir Gilbert's mute agony was terrible to behold. Yet, strange to +say, no one else in court save Elma seemed to note it as she did. +People saw the judge was ill, but that was all. Perhaps his wig +and robes helped to hide the effect of conscious guilt--nobody +suspects a judge of murder; perhaps all eyes were more intent on +the prisoner. + +Be that as it might, counsel for the Crown opened with a statement +of what they meant to prove, set forth in the familiar forensic +fashion. They didn't pretend the evidence against the accused +was absolutely conclusive or overwhelming in character. It was +inferential only, but not circumstantial--inferential in such a +cumulative and convincing way as could leave no moral doubt on any +intelligent mind as to the guilt of the prisoner. They would show +that a clbse intimacy had long existed between the prisoner Waring +and the deceased gentleman, Mr. Montague Nevitt. Witnesses would +be called who would prove to the court that just before the murder +this intimacy, owing to circumstances which could not fully be +cleared up, had passed suddenly into intense enmity and open hatred. +The landlord of the inn at Mambury, and other persons to be called, +would speak to the fact that prisoner had followed his victim in hot +blood into Devonshire, and had tracked him to the retreat where he +was passing his holiday alone and incognito--had tracked him with +every expression of indignant anger, and had uttered plain threats +of personal violence towards him. + +Nor was that all. It would be shown that on the afternoon of +Waring's visit to Mambury, Mr. Nevitt, who possessed an intense +love of nature in her wildest and most romantic moods--it's always +counsel's cue, for the prosecution, to set the victim's character +in the most amiable light, and so win the sympathy of the jury +as against the accused--Mr. Nevitt, that close student of natural +beauty, had strolled by himself down a certain woodland path, +known as The Tangle, which led through the loneliest and leafiest +quarter of Mambury Chase, along the tumbling stream described as +the Mam-water. Ten minutes after he had passed the gate, a material +witness would show them, the prisoner Waring presented himself, and +pointedly asked whether his victim had already gone down the path +before him. He was told that that was so. Thereupon the prisoner +opened the gate, and followed excitedly. What happened next no +living eye but the prisoner's ever saw. Montague Nevitt was not +destined to issue from that wood alive. Two days later his breathless +body was found, all stiff and stark, hidden among the brown bracken +at the bottom of the dell, where the murderer no doubt had thrust it +away out of his sight on that fatal afternoon in fear and trembling. + +Half-way through the opening speech Sir Gilbert's heart beat fast +and hard. He had never heard Forbes-Ewing open a case so well. +The man would be hanged! He felt sure of it! He could see it! For +a while the judge almost gloated over that prospect of release. +What was Guy's life to him now, by the side of his wife's and +Gwendoline's happiness? But as counsel uttered the words, "What +happened next no living eye but the prisoner's ever saw," he looked +hard at Guy. Not a quiver of remorse or of guilty knowledge passed +over the young man's face. But Elma Clifford, for her part, looked +at the judge on the bench. Their eyes met once more. Again Sir +Gilbert's fell. Oh, heavens! how terrible! Even for Gwendoline's +sake he could never stand this appalling suspense. But perhaps after +all the prosecution might fail. There was still a chance left that +the jury might acquit him. + +So, torn by conflicting emotions, he sat there still, stiff and +motionless in his seat as an Egyptian statue. + +Then counsel went on to deal in greater detail with the question of +motive. There were two motives the prosecution proposed to allege: +first, the known enmity of recent date between the two parties, believed +to have reference to some business dispute; and, secondly--here +counsel dropped his voice to a very low key--he was sorry to suggest +it; but the evidence bore it out--mere vulgar love of gain--the +commonplace thirst after filthy lucre. They would bring witnesses +to show that when Mr. Montague Nevitt was last seen alive, he was +in possession of a pocket-book containing a very large large sum in +Bank of England notes of high value; from the moment of his death +that pocket-book had disappeared, and nobody knew what had since +become of it. It was not upon the body when the body was found. And +all their efforts to trace the missing notes, whose numbers were +not known, had been unhappily unsuccessful. + +Guy listened to all this impeachment in a dazed, dreamy way. He +hardly knew what it meant. It appalled and chilled him. The web of +circumstances was too thick for him to break. He couldn't understand +it himself. And what was far worse, he could give no active +assistance to his own lawyers on the question of the notes--which +might be very important evidence against him--without further +prejudicing his case by confessing the forgery. At all hazards, he +was determined to keep that quiet now. Cyril had never spoken to +a soul of that episode, and to speak of it, as things stood, would +have been certain death to him. I would be to supply the one missing +link of motive which the prosecution needed to complete their chain +of cumulative evidence. + +It was some comfort to him to think, however, that the secret was +safe in Cyril's keeping. Cyril had all the remaining notes, still +unchanged, in his possession; and the prosecution, knowing nothing +of the forgery, or its sequel, had no clue at all as to where they +came from. + +But as for Sir Gilbert, he listened still with ever-deepening +horror. His mind swayed to and fro between hope and remorse. They +were making the man guilty, and Gwendoline would be saved! They +were making the man guilty, and a gross wrong would be perpetrated! +Great drops of sweat stood colder than ever on his burning brow. +He couldn't have believed Forbes-Ewing could have done it so well. +He was weaving a close web round an innocent man with consummate +forensic skill and cunning. + +The case went on to its second stage. Witnesses were called, and Guy +listened to them dreamily. All of them bore out counsel's opening +statement. Every man in court felt the evidence was going very +hard against the prisoner. They'd caught the right man, that was +clear--so the spectators opined. They'd proved it to the hilt. This +fellow would swing for it. + +At last the landlord of the Talbot Arms at Mambury shuffled slowly +into the witness-box. He was a heavy, dull man, and he gave evidence +as to Nevitt's stay under an assumed name--which counsel explained +suggestively by the deceased gentleman's profound love of retirement +--and as to Guy's angry remarks and evident indignation. But the +most sensational part of all his evidence was that which related +to the pocket-book Montague Nevitt was carrying at the time of his +death, containing notes, he should say, for several hundred-pounds, +"or it murt be thousands--and yet, again, it mustn't," which had +totally disappeared since the day of the murder. Diligent search +had been made for the pocket-book everywhere by the landlord and +the police, but it had vanished into space, "leaving not a wrack +behind," as junior counsel for the prosecution poetically phrased +it. + +At the words Cyril mechanically dived his hand into his pocket, as +he had done a hundred times a day before, during these last eighteen +months, to assure himself that that most incriminating and unwelcome +object was still safely ensconced in its usual resting-place. Yes, +there it was sure enough, as snug as ever! He sighed, and pulled +his hand out again nervously, with a little jerk. Something came +with it, that fell on the floor with a jingle by his neighbour's +feet. Cyril turned crimson, then deadly pale. He snatched at the +object; but his neighbour picked it up and examined it cursorily. +Its flap had burst open with the force of the fall, and on the +inside the finder read with astonishment, in very plain letters, +the very name of the murdered man, "Montague Nevitt." + +Cyril held out his hand to recover it impatiently. But the finder +was too much taken back at his strange discovery to part with it +so readily. It was full of money-Bank of England notes; and through +the transparent paper of the outermost among them the finder could +dimly read the words, "One hundred." + +He rose in his place, and held the pocket-book aloft in his hand +with a triumphant gesture. Cyril tried in vain to clutch at it. The +witness turned round sharply, disturbed by this incident. "What's +that?" the judge exclaimed, puckering his brows in disapprobation, +and looking angrily towards the disturber. + +"If you please, my lord," the innkeeper answered, letting his jaw +drop slowly in almost speechless amazement, "that's the thing I +was a-talking of: that's Mr. Nevitt's pocket-book." + +"Hand it up," the judge said shortly, gazing hard with all his eyes +at the mute evidence so tendered. + +The finder handed it up without note or comment. + +Sir Gilbert turned the book over in blank surprise. He was dumfoundered +himself. For a minute or two he examined it carefully, inside and +out. Yes; there was no mistake. It was really what they called it. +"Montague Nevitt" was written in plain letters on the leather flap; +within lay half-a-dozen engraved visiting-cards, a Foreign Office +passport in Nevitt's name, and thirty Bank of England notes for +one hundred pounds apiece. This was, indeed, a mystery! + +"Where did it come from?" the judge asked, drawing a painfully +deep breath, and handing it across to the jury. + +And the finder answered, "If you please, my lord, the gentleman +next to me pulled it out of his pocket." + +"Who is he?" the judge inquired, with a sinking heart, for he +himself knew perfectly well who was the unhappy possessor. + +And a thrill of horror ran round the crowded court as Forbes-Ewing +answered, in a very distinct voice, "Mr. Cyril Waring, my lord, +the brother of the prisoner." + + + + + + +CHAPTER XLIII. + +SIR GILBERT'S TEMPTATION. + + + + + +Cyril felt all was up. Elma glanced at him trembling. This was +horrible, inconceivable, inexplicable, fatal. The very stars in +their courses seem to fight against Guy. Blind chance checkmated +them. No hope was left now, save in Gilbert Gildersleeve's own +sense of justice. + +But Sir Gilbert Gildersleeve sat there, transfixed with horror. No +answering gleam now shot through his dull, glazed eye. For he alone +knew that whatever made the case against the prisoner look worse, +made his own position each moment more awful and more intolerable. + +Through the rest of the case, Cyril sat in his place like a stone +figure. Counsel for the Crown generously abstained from putting +him into the witness-box to give testimony against his brother. Or +rather, they thought the facts themselves, as they had just come +out in court, more telling for the jury than any formal evidence. +The only other witness of importance was, therefore, the lad who +had sat on the gate by the entrance to The Tangle. As he scrambled +into the box Sir Gilbert's anxiety grew visibly deeper and more +acute than ever. For the boy was the one person who had seen him +at Mambury on the day of the murder; and on the boy depended his +sole chance of being recognised. At Tavistock, eighteen months +before, Sir Gilbert had left the cross-examination of this witness +in the hands of a junior, and the boy hadn't noticed him, sitting +down among the Bar with gown and wig on. But to-day, it was impossible +the boy shouldn't see him; and if the boy should recognise him--why, +then, Heaven help him. + +The lad gave his evidence-in-chief with great care and deliberateness. +He swore positively to Guy, and wasn't for a moment to be shaken in +cross-examination. He admitted he had been mistaken at Tavistock, +and confused the prisoner with Cyril--when he saw one of them +apart--but now that he saw 'em both together before his eyes at +once, why, he could take his solemn oath as sure as fate upon him. +Guy's counsel failed utterly to elicit anything of importance, +except--and here Sir Gilbert's face grew whiter than ever--except +that another gentleman whom the lad didn't know had asked at the +gate about the path, and gone round the other way as if to meet +Mr. Nevitt. + +"What sort of a gentleman?" the cross-examiner inquired, clutching +at this last straw as a mere chance diversion. + +"Well, a vurry big zart o' a gentleman," witness answered, unabashed. +"A vine vigger o' a man. Jest such another as thik 'un with the +wig ther." + +As he spoke he stared hard at the judge, a good scrutinizing stare. +Sir Gilbert quailed, and glanced instinctively, first at the boy, +and then at Elma. Not a spark of intelligence shone in the lad's +stolid eyes. But Elma's were fixed upon him with a serpentine glare +of awful fascination. "Thou art the man," they seemed to say to him +mutely. Sir Gilbert, in his awe, was afraid to look at them. They +made him wild with terror, yet they somehow fixed him. Try as he would +to keep his own from meeting them, they attracted him irresistibly. + +A ripple, of faint laughter ran lightly through the court at the +undisguised frankness of the boy's reply. The judge repressed it +sternly. + +"Oh, he was just such another one as his lordship, was he?" counsel +repeated, pressing the lad hard. "Now, are you quite sure you +remember all the people you saw that day? Are you quite sure the +other man who asked about passers-by wasn't--for example--the judge +himself who's sitting here?" + +Sir Gilbert glanced up with a quick, suspicious air. It was only +a shot at random--the common advocate's trick in trying to confuse +a witness over questions of identity; but to Sir Gilbert, under the +circumstances, it was inexpressibly distressing. "Well, it murt +'a been he," the lad answered, putting his head on one side, and +surveying the judge closely with prolonged attention. "Thik un 'ad +just such another pair o' 'ands as his lordship do 'ave. It murt +'a been his lordship 'urself as is zitting there." + +"This goes quite beyond the bounds of decency," Sir Gilbert murmured +faintly, with a vain endeavour to hold his hands on the desk in an +unconcerned attitude. "Have the kindness, Mr. Walters, to spare +the Bench. Attend to your examination. Observations of that sort +are wholly uncalled for." + +But the boy, once started, was not so easily repressed. "Why, it +was his lordship," he went on, scanning the judge still harder. "I +do mind his vurry voice. It was 'im, no doubt about it. I've zeed +a zight o' people, since I zeed 'im that day, but I do mind his +voice, and I do mind his 'ands, and I do mind his ve-ace the zame +as if it wur yesterday. Now I come to look, blessed if it wasn't +his lordship!" + +Guy's counsel smiled a triumphant smile. He had carried his point. +He had confused the witness. This showed how little reliance could +be placed upon the boy's evidence as to personal identity! He'd +identify anybody who happened to be suggested to him! But Sir +Gilbert's face grew yet more deadly pale. For he saw at a glance +this was no accident or mistake; the boy really remembered him! +And Elma's steadfast eyes looked him through and through, with that +irresistible appeal, still more earnestly than ever. + +Sir Gilbert breathed again. He had been recognised to no purpose. +Even this positive identification fell flat upon everybody. + +At last the examination and cross-examination were finished, and +Guy's counsel began his hopeless task of unravelling this tangled +mass of suggestion and coincidence. He had no witnesses to call; +the very nature of the case precluded that. All he could do was +to cavil over details, to point out possible alternatives, to lay +stress upon the absence of direct evidence, and to ask that the jury +should give the prisoner the benefit of the doubt, if any doubt at +all existed in their minds as to his guilt or innocence. Counsel +had meant when he first undertook the case to lay great stress also +on the presumed absence of motive; but, after the fatal accident +which resulted in the disclosure of Montague Nevitt's pocket-book, +any argument on that score would have been worse than useless. +Counsel elected rather to pass the episode by in discreet silence, +and to risk everything on the uncertainty of the actual encounter. + +At last he sat down, wiping his brow in despair, after what he felt +himself to be a most feeble performance. + +Then Sir Gilbert began, and in a very tremulous and failing voice +summed briefly up the whole of the evidence. + +Men who remember Gildersleeve's old blustering manner stood aghast +at the timidity with which the famous lawyer delivered himself on +this, the first capital charge ever brought before him. He reminded +the jury, in very solemn and almost warning tones, that where a +human life was at stake, mere presumptive evidence should always +carry very little weight with it. And the evidence here was all +purely presumptive. The prosecution had shown nothing more than +a physical possibility that the prisoner at the bar might have +committed the murder. There was evidence of animus, it was true; +but that evidence was weak; there was partial identification; but +that identification lay open to the serious objection that all the +persons who now swore to Guy Waring's personality had sworn just +as surely and confidently before to his brother Cyril's. On the +whole, the judge summed up strongly in Guy's favour. He wiped his +clammy brow and looked appealingly at the bar. As the jury would +hope for justice themselves, let them remember to mete out nothing +but strict justice to the accused person who now stood trembling +in the dock before them. + +All the court stood astonished. Could this be Gildersleeve? Atkins +would never have summed up like that. Atkins would have gone in +point-blank for hanging him. And everybody thought Gildersleeve +would hang with the best. Nobody had suspected him till then of +any womanly weakness about capital punishment. There was a solemn +hush as the judge ended. Then everybody saw the unhappy man was +seriously ill. Great streams of sweat trickled slowly down his brow. +His eyes stared in front of him. His mouth twitched horribly. He +looked like a person on the point of apoplexy. The prisoner at the +bar gazed hard at him and pitied him. + +"He's dying himself, and he wants to go out with a clear conscience +at last," some one suggested in a low voice at the barristers' +table. The explanation served. It was whispered round the court +in a hushed undertone that the judge to-day was on his very last +legs, and had summed up accordingly. Late in life, he had learned +to show mercy, as he hoped for it. + +There was a deadly pause. The jury retired to consider their +verdict. Two men remained behind in court, waiting breathless for +their return. Two lives hung at issue in the balance while the jury +deliberated. Elma Clifford, glancing with a terrified eye from +one to the other, could hardly help pitying the guiltiest most. +His look of mute suffering was so inexpressibly pathetic. + +The twelve good men and true were gone for a full half-hour. Why, +nobody knew. The case was as plain as a pikestaff, gossipers said +in court. If he had been caught red-handed, he'd have been hanged +without remorse. It was only the eighteen months and the South +African episode that could make the jury hesitate for one moment +about hanging him. + +At last, a sound, a thrill, a movement by the door. Every eye +was strained forward. The jury trooped back again. They took their +places in silence. Sir Gilbert scanned their faces with an agonized +look. It was a moment of ghastly and painful suspense. He was +waiting for their verdict--on himself, and Guy Waring. + + + + + + +CHAPTER XLIV. + +AT BAY. + + + + + +Only two people in court doubted for one moment what the verdict +would be. And those two were the pair who stood there on their trial. +Sir Gilbert couldn't believe the jury would convict an innocent +man of the crime he himself had half unwittingly committed. Guy +Waring couldn't believe the jury would convict an innocent man of +the crime he had never been guilty of. So those two doubted. To +all the rest the verdict was a foregone conclusion. + +Nevertheless, dead silence reigned everywhere in the court as the +clerk of arraigns put the solemn question, "Gentlemen, do you find +the prisoner at the bar guilty or not guilty?" + +And the foreman, clearing his throat huskily, answered in a very +tremulous tone, "We find him guilty of wilful murder." + +There was a long, deep pause. Every one looked at the prisoner. +Guy Waring stood like one stunned by the immensity of the blow. It +was an awful moment. He knew he was innocent; but he knew now the +English law would hang him. + +One pair of eyes in the court, however, was not fixed on Guy. Elma +Clifford, at that final and supreme moment, gazed hard with all +her soul at Sir Gilbert Gildersleeve. Her glance went through him. +She sat like an embodied conscience before him. The judge rose +slowly, his eyes riveted on hers. He was trembling with remorse, +and deadlier pale than ever. An awful lividness stole over his +face. His lips were contorted. His eyebrows quivered horribly. Still +gazing straight at Elma, he essayed to speak. Twice he opened his +parched lips. Then his voice failed him. + +"I cannot accept that finding," he said at last, in a very solemn +tone, battling hard for speech against some internal enemy. "I +cannot accept it. Clerk, you will enter a verdict of not guilty." + +A deep hum of surprise ran round the expectant court. Every mouth +opened wide, and drew a long hushed breath. Senior counsel for the +Crown jumped to his feet astonished. "But why, my lord?" he asked +tartly, thus baulked of his success. "On what ground does your +lordship decide to override the plain verdict of the jury?" + +The pause that followed was inexpressibly terrible. Guy Waring +waited for the answer in an agony of suspense. He knew what it +meant now. With a rush it all occurred to him. He knew who was the +murderer. But he hoped for nothing. Sir Gilbert faltered: Elma +Clifford's eyes were upon him still, compelling him. "Because," +he said at last, with a still more evident and physical effort, +pumping the words out slowly, "I am here to administer justice, +and justice I will administer.... This man is innocent. It was I +myself who killed Montague Nevitt that day at Mambury." + +At those awful words, uttered in a tone so solemn that no one +could doubt either their truth or their sincerity, a cold thrill +ran responsive through the packed crowd of auditors. The silence +was profound. In its midst, a boy's voice burst forth all at once, +directed, as it seemed, to the counsel for the Crown, "I said it +was him," the voice cried, in a triumphant tone. "I knowed 'um! +I knowed 'um! Thik there's the man that axed me the way down the +dell the marnin' o' the murder." + +The judge turned towards the boy with a ghastly smile of enforced +recognition. "You say the truth, my lad," he answered, without +any attempt at concealment. "It was I who asked you. It was I who +killed him. I went round by the far gate after hearing he was there, +and, cutting across the wood, I met Montague Nevitt in the path +by The Tangle. I went there to meet him; I went there to confront +him; but not of malice prepense to murder him. I wanted to question +him about a family matter. Why I needed to question him no one +henceforth shall ever know. That secret, thank Heaven, rests now +in Montague Nevitt's grave. But when I did question him, he answered +me back with so foul an aspersion upon a lady who was very near +and dear to me"--the judge paused a moment; he was fighting hard +for breath; something within was evidently choking him. Then he went +on more excitedly--"an aspersion upon a lady whom I love more than +life--an insult that no man could stand--an unspeakable foulness; +and I sprang at him, the cur, in the white heat of my anger, not +meaning or dreaming to hurt him seriously. I caught him by the throat." +The judge held up his hands before the whole court appealingly. +"Look at those hands, gentlemen," he cried, turning them about. +"How could I ever know how hard and how strong they were? I only +seemed to touch him. I just pushed him from my path. He fell at +once at my feet--dead, dead unexpectedly. Remember how it all came +about. The medical evidence showed his heart was weak, and he died +in the scuffle. How was I to know all that? I only knew this--he +fell dead before me." + +With a face of speechless awe, he paused and wiped his brow. Not +a soul in court moved or breathed above a whisper. It was evident +the judge was in a paroxysm of contrition. His face was drawn up. +His whole frame quivered visibly. Even Elma pitied him. + +"And then I did a grievous wrong," the judge continued once +more, his voice now very thick and growing rapidly thicker. "I did +a grievous wrong, for which here to-day, before all this court, +I humbly ask Guy Waring's pardon. I had killed Montague Nevitt, +unintentionally, unwittingly, accidentally almost, in a moment +of anger, never knowing I was killing him. And if he had been a +stronger or a healthier man, what little I did to him would never +have killed him. I didn't mean to murder him. For that my remorse +is far less poignant. But what I did after was far worse than the +murder. I behaved like a sneak--I behaved like a coward. I saw +suspicion was aroused against the prisoner, Guy Waring. And what did +I do then? Instead of coming forward like a man, as I ought, and +saying 'I did it,' and standing my trial on the charge of manslaughter, +I did my best to throw further suspicion on an innocent person. +I made the case look blacker and worse for Guy Waring. I don't +condone my own crime. I did it for my wife's sake and my daughter's, +I admit--but I regret it now bitterly--and am I not atoning for it? +With a great humiliation, am I not amply atoning for it? I wrote +an unsigned letter warning Waring at once to fly the country, as +a warrant was out against him. Waring foolishly took my advice, +and fled forthwith. From that day to this"--he gazed round him +appealingly--"oh, friends, I have never known one happy moment." + +Guy gazed at him from the dock, where he still stood guarded by two +strong policemen, and felt a fresh light break suddenly in upon +him. Their positions now were almost reversed. It was he who was +the accuser, and Sir Gilbert Gildersleeve, the judge in that court, +who stood charged to-day on his own confession with causing the +death of Montague Nevitt. + +"Then it was YOU" Guy said slowly, breaking the pause at last, "who +sent me that anonymous letter at Plymouth?" + +"It was I," the judge answered, in an almost inaudible, gurgling +tone. "It was I who so wronged you. Can you ever forgive me for +it?" + +Guy gazed at him fixedly. He himself had suffered much. Cyril and Elma +had suffered still more. But the judge, he felt sure, had suffered +most of all of them. In this moment of relief, this moment of +vindication, this moment of triumph, he could afford to be generous. +"Sir Gilbert Gildersleeve, I forgive you," he answered slowly. + +The judge gazed around him with a vacant stare. "I feel cold," +he said, shivering; "very cold, very faint, too. But I've made all +right HERE," and he held out a document. "I wrote this paper in +my room last night--in case of accident--confessing everything. +I brought it down here, signed and witnessed, unread, intending +to read it out if the verdict went against me--I mean, against +Waring.... But I feel too weak now to read anything further.... I'm +so cold, so cold. Take the paper, Forbes-Ewing. It's all in your +line. You'll know what to do with it." He could hardly utter a word, +breath failed him so fast. "This thing has killed me," he went on, +mumbling. "I deserved it. I deserved it." + +"How about the prisoner?" the authority from the gaol asked, as +the judge collapsed rather than sat down on the bench again. + +Those words roused Sir Gilbert to full consciousness once more. +The judge rose again, solemnly, in all the majesty of his ermine. +"The prisoner is discharged," he said, in a loud, clear voice. "I +am here to do justice--justice against myself. I enter a verdict +of not guilty." Then he turned to the polices "I am your prisoner," +he went on, in a broken, rambling way. "I give myself in charge +for the manslaughter of Montague Nevitt. Manslaughter, not murder. +Though I don't even admit myself, indeed, it was anything. more +than justifiable homicide." + +He sank back again once more, and murmured three times in his seat, +as if to himself, "Justifiable homicide! Justifiable homicide! +Just--ifiable homicide!" + +Somebody rose in court as he sank, and moved quickly towards him. +The judge recognised him at once. + +"Granville Kelmscott," he said; in a weary voice, "help me out of +this. I am very, very ill. You're a friend. I'm dying. Give me your +arm! Assist me!" + + + + + + +CHAPTER XLV. + +ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL. + + + + + +Granville helped him on his arm into the judge's room amid profound +silence. All the court was deeply stirred. A few personal friends +hurried after him eagerly. Among them were the Warings, and Mrs. +Clifford, and Elma. + +The judge staggered to a seat, and held Granville's hand long +and silently in his. Then his eye caught Elma's. He turned to her +gratefully. "Thank you, young lady," he said, in a very thick voice. +"You were extremely good. I forget your name. But you helped me +greatly." + +There was such a pathetic ring in those significant words, "I +forget your name," that every eye about stood dimmed with moisture. +Remorse had clearly blotted out all else now from Sir Gilbert +Gildersleeve's powerful brain save the solitary memory of his great +wrong-doing. + +"Something's upon his mind still," Elma cried, looking hard at +him. "He's dying! he's dying! But he wants to say something else +before he dies, I'm certain. ... Mr. Kelmscott, it's to you. Oh, +Cyril, stand back! Mother, leave them alone! I'm sure from his +eye he wants to say something to Mr. Kelmscott." + +They all fell back reverently. They stood in the presence of death +and of a mighty sorrow. Sir Gilbert still held Granville's hand +fast bound in his own. "It'll kill her," he muttered. "It'll kill +her! I'm sure it'll kill her! She'll never get over the thought +that her father was--was the cause of Montague Nevitt's death. And +you'll never care to marry a girl of whom people will say, either +justly or unjustly, 'She's a murderers daughter'.... And that will +kill her, too. For, Kelmscott, she loved you!" + +Granville held the dying man's hand still more gently than ever. +"Sir Gilbert," he said, leaning over him with very tender eyes, +"no event on earth could ever possibly alter Gwendoline's love for +me, or my love for Gwendoline. I know you can't live. This shock +has been too much for you. But if it will make you die any the +happier now to know that Gwendoline and I will still be one, I give +you my sacred promise at this solemn moment, that as soon as she +likes I will marry Gwendoline." He paused for a second. "I don't +understand all this story just yet," he went on. "But of one +thing I'm certain. The sympathy of every soul in court to-day went +with you as you spoke out the truth so manfully. The sympathy of +all England will go with you to-morrow when they come to learn of +it.... Sir Gilbert, till this morning I never admired you, much as +I love Gwendoline. As you made that confession just now in court, +I declare, I admired you. With all the greater confidence now will +I marry your daughter." + +They carried him to the judge's lodgings in the town, and laid +him there peaceably for the doctors to tend him. For a fortnight +the shadow of Gildersleeve still lingered on, growing feebler and +feebler in intellect every day. But the end was certain. It was +softening of the brain, and it proceeded rapidly. The horror of +that unspeakable trial had wholly unnerved him. The great, strong +man cried and sobbed like a baby. Lady Gildersleeve and Gwendoline +were with him all through. He seldom spoke. When he did, it was +generally to murmur those fixed words of exculpation, in a tremulous +undertone, "It was my hands that did it--these great, clumsy hands +of mine--not I--not I. I never, never meant it. It was an accident. +An accident. Justifiable homicide.... What I really regret is for +that poor fellow Waring." + +And at the end of a fortnight he died, once smiling, with Gwendoline's +hand locked tight in his own, and Granville Kelmscott kneeling in +tears by his bedside. + +The Kelmscott property was settled by arrangement. It never came +into court. With the aid of the family lawyers the three half-brothers +divided it amicably. Guy wouldn't hear of Granville's giving up +his claim to the house and park at Tilgate. Granville was to the +manner born, he said, and brought up to expect it; while Cyril and +he, mere waifs and strays in the world, would be much better off, +even so, with their third of the property each, than they ever +before in their lives could have counted upon. As for Cyril, he +was too happy in Guy's exculpation from the greater crime, and his +frank explanation of the lesser--under Nevitt's influence--to care +very much in his own heart what became of Tilgate. + +The only one man who objected to this arrangement was Mr. Reginald +Clifford, C.M.G., of Craighton. The Companion of the Militant +Saints was strongly of opinion that Cyril Waring oughtn't to have +given up his prior claim to the family mansion, even for valuable +consideration elsewhere. Mr. Clifford drew himself up to the full +height of his spare figure, and caught in the tight skin of his +mummy-like face rather tighter than before, as he delivered himself +of this profound opinion. "A man should consult his own dignity," +he said stiffly, and with great precision; "if he's born to assume +a position in the county, he should assume that position as a sacred +duty. He should remember that his wife and children--" + +"But he hasn't got any wife, papa," Elma ventured to interpose, +with a bright little smile; so THAT can't count either way." + +"He hasn't a wife AT PRESENT, to be sure; that's perfectly true, +my dear; no wife AT PRESENT; but he will probably now, in his +existing circumstances, soon obtain one. A Man of Property should +always marry. Mr. Waring will naturally desire to ally himself to +some family of Good Position in the county; and the lady's relations +would, of course, insist--" + +"Well, it doesn't matter to us, papa," Elma answered maliciously; +"for, as far as we're concerned, you know; you've often said that +nothing on earth would ever induce you to give your consent." + +The Gentleman of Good Position in the county gazed at his daughter +aghast with horror. "My dear child," he said, with positive alarm, +"your remarks are nothing short of Revolutionary. You must remember +that since then circumstances have altered. At that time, Mr. +Waring was a painter--" + +"He's a painter still, I believe," Elma put in, parenthetically. +"The acquisition of property or county rank doesn't seem to have +had the very slightest effect one way or the other upon his drawing +or his colouring." + +Her father disdained to take notice of such flippant remarks. "At +that time," he repeated solemnly, "Mr. Waring was a painter, a mere +ordinary painter; we know him now to be the heir and representative +of a great County Family. If he were to ask you to-day--" + +"But he did ask me a long time ago, you know, papa," Elma put +in demurely. "And at that time, you remember, you objected to the +match; so of course, as in duty bound, I at once refused him." + +"And what did your father say to that, Elma?" Cyril asked, with a +smile, as she narrated the whole circumstances to him some hours +later. + +"Oh, he only said, 'But he'll ask you again now, you may be sure, +my child.' And I replied very gravely, I didn't think you would. +And do you know, Cyril, I really don't think you will, either." + +"Why not, Elma?" + +"Because, you foolish boy, it isn't the least bit in the world +necessary. This has been, all through, a comedy of errors. Tragedy +enough intermixed; but still a comedy of errors. There never was +really any reason on earth why either of us shouldn't have married +the other. And the only thing I now regret myself is that I didn't +do as I first threatened, and marry you outright, just to show +my confidence in you and Guy, at the time when everybody else had +turned most against you." + +"Well, suppose we make up for lost time now by saying Wednesday +fortnight," Cyril suggested, after a short pause, during which both +of them simultaneously had been otherwise occupied. + +"Oh, Cyril, that's awfully quick! It could hardly be managed. +There's the dresses, and all that! And the bridesmaids to arrange +about! And the invitations to issue!... But still, sooner than +put you off any longer now--well, yes, my dear boy--I dare say we +could make it Wednesday fortnight." + +THE END. + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, WHAT'S BRED IN THE BONE *** + +This file should be named 8what10.txt or 8what10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 8what11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 8what10a.txt + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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