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+Project Gutenberg's The Doings Of Raffles Haw, by Arthur Conan Doyle
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Doings Of Raffles Haw
+
+Author: Arthur Conan Doyle
+
+Posting Date: March 11, 2009 [EBook #8394]
+Release Date: June, 2005
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES HAW ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Lionel G. Sear
+
+
+
+
+
+THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES HAW
+
+By Arthur Conan Doyle
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER
+
+ 1.  A DOUBLE ENIGMA
+
+ 2.  THE TENANT OF THE NEW HALL.
+
+ 3.  A HOUSE OF WONDERS.
+
+ 4.  FROM CLIME TO CLIME.
+
+ 5.  LAURA'S REQUEST
+
+ 6.  A STRANGE VISITOR
+
+ 7.  THE WORKINGS OF WEALTH.
+
+ 8.  A BILLIONAIRE'S PLANS.
+
+ 9.  A NEW DEPARTURE
+
+10. THE GREAT SECRET
+
+11. A CHEMICAL DEMONSTRATION.
+
+12. A FAMILY JAR.
+
+13. A MIDNIGHT ADVENTURE
+
+14. THE SPREAD OF THE BLIGHT.
+
+15. THE GREATER SECRET.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I. A DOUBLE ENIGMA.
+
+
+"I'm afraid that he won't come," said Laura McIntyre, in a disconsolate
+voice.
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Oh, look at the weather; it is something too awful."
+
+As she spoke a whirl of snow beat with a muffled patter against the cosy
+red-curtained window, while a long blast of wind shrieked and whistled
+through the branches of the great white-limbed elms which skirted the
+garden.
+
+Robert McIntyre rose from the sketch upon which he had been working, and
+taking one of the lamps in his hand peered out into the darkness. The
+long skeleton limbs of the bare trees tossed and quivered dimly amid the
+whirling drift. His sister sat by the fire, her fancy-work in her lap,
+and looked up at her brothers profile which showed against the brilliant
+yellow light. It was a handsome face, young and fair and clear cut, with
+wavy brown hair combed backwards and rippling down into that outward
+curve at the ends which one associates with the artistic temperament.
+There was refinement too in his slightly puckered eyes, his dainty
+gold-rimmed _pince-nez_ glasses, and in the black velveteen coat which
+caught the light so richly upon its shoulder. In his mouth only
+there was something--a suspicion of coarseness, a possibility of
+weakness--which in the eyes of some, and of his sister among them,
+marred the grace and beauty of his features. Yet, as he was wont himself
+to say, when one thinks that each poor mortal is heir to a legacy of
+every evil trait or bodily taint of so vast a line of ancestors, lucky
+indeed is the man who does not find that Nature has scored up some
+long-owing family debt upon his features.
+
+And indeed in this case the remorseless creditor had gone so far as to
+exact a claim from the lady also, though in her case the extreme beauty
+of the upper part of the face drew the eye away from any weakness which
+might be found in the lower. She was darker than her brother--so dark
+that her heavily coiled hair seemed to be black until the light shone
+slantwise across it. The delicate, half-petulant features, the finely
+traced brows, and the thoughtful, humorous eyes were all perfect in
+their way, and yet the combination left something to be desired. There
+was a vague sense of a flaw somewhere, in feature or in expression,
+which resolved itself, when analysed, into a slight out-turning and
+droop of the lower lip; small indeed, and yet pronounced enough to turn
+what would have been a beautiful face into a merely pretty one. Very
+despondent and somewhat cross she looked as she leaned back in the
+armchair, the tangle of bright-coloured silks and of drab holland upon
+her lap, her hands clasped behind her head, with her snowy forearms and
+little pink elbows projecting on either side.
+
+"I know he won't come," she repeated.
+
+"Nonsense, Laura! Of course he'll come. A sailor and afraid of the
+weather!"
+
+"Ha!" She raised her finger, and a smile of triumph played over her
+face, only to die away again into a blank look of disappointment. "It is
+only papa," she murmured.
+
+A shuffling step was heard in the hall, and a little peaky man, with his
+slippers very much down at the heels, came shambling into the room. Mr.
+McIntyre, sen., was pale and furtive-looking, with a thin straggling
+red beard shot with grey, and a sunken downcast face. Ill-fortune and
+ill-health had both left their marks upon him. Ten years before he had
+been one of the largest and richest gunmakers in Birmingham, but a long
+run of commercial bad luck had sapped his great fortune, and had finally
+driven him into the Bankruptcy Court. The death of his wife on the very
+day of his insolvency had filled his cup of sorrow, and he had gone
+about since with a stunned, half-dazed expression upon his weak pallid
+face which spoke of a mind unhinged. So complete had been his downfall
+that the family would have been reduced to absolute poverty were it not
+for a small legacy of two-hundred a year which both the children had
+received from one of their uncles upon the mother's side who had amassed
+a fortune in Australia. By combining their incomes, and by taking a
+house in the quiet country district of Tamfield, some fourteen miles
+from the great Midland city, they were still able to live with some
+approach to comfort. The change, however, was a bitter one to all--to
+Robert, who had to forego the luxuries dear to his artistic temperament,
+and to think of turning what had been merely an overruling hobby into a
+means of earning a living; and even more to Laura, who winced before
+the pity of her old friends, and found the lanes and fields of
+Tamfield intolerably dull after the life and bustle of Edgbaston. Their
+discomfort was aggravated by the conduct of their father, whose life
+now was one long wail over his misfortunes, and who alternately sought
+comfort in the Prayer-book and in the decanter for the ills which had
+befallen him.
+
+To Laura, however, Tamfield presented one attraction, which was now
+about to be taken from her. Their choice of the little country hamlet as
+their residence had been determined by the fact of their old friend,
+the Reverend John Spurling, having been nominated as the vicar. Hector
+Spurling, the elder son, two months Laura's senior, had been engaged to
+her for some years, and was, indeed, upon the point of marrying her when
+the sudden financial crash had disarranged their plans. A sub-lieutenant
+in the Navy, he was home on leave at present, and hardly an evening
+passed without his making his way from the Vicarage to Elmdene, where
+the McIntyres resided. To-day, however, a note had reached them to
+the effect that he had been suddenly ordered on duty, and that he must
+rejoin his ship at Portsmouth by the next evening. He would look in,
+were it but for half-an-hour, to bid them adieu.
+
+"Why, where's Hector?" asked Mr. McIntyre, blinking round from side to
+side.
+
+"He's not come, father. How could you expect him to come on such a night
+as this? Why, there must be two feet of snow in the glebe field."
+
+"Not come, eh?" croaked the old man, throwing himself down upon the
+sofa. "Well, well, it only wants him and his father to throw us over,
+and the thing will be complete."
+
+"How can you even hint at such a thing, father?" cried Laura
+indignantly. "They have been as true as steel. What would they think if
+they heard you."
+
+"I think, Robert," he said, disregarding his daughter's protest, "that
+I will have a drop, just the very smallest possible drop, of brandy. A
+mere thimbleful will do; but I rather think I have caught cold during
+the snowstorm to-day."
+
+Robert went on sketching stolidly in his folding book, but Laura looked
+up from her work.
+
+"I'm afraid there is nothing in the house, father," she said.
+
+"Laura! Laura!" He shook his head as one more in sorrow than in anger.
+"You are no longer a girl, Laura; you are a woman, the manager of a
+household, Laura. We trust in you. We look entirely towards you. And yet
+you leave your poor brother Robert without any brandy, to say nothing of
+me, your father. Good heavens, Laura! what would your mother have said?
+Think of accidents, think of sudden illness, think of apoplectic fits,
+Laura. It is a very grave res--a very grave response--a very great risk
+that you run."
+
+"I hardly touch the stuff," said Robert curtly; "Laura need not provide
+any for me."
+
+"As a medicine it is invaluable, Robert. To be used, you understand, and
+not to be abused. That's the whole secret of it. But I'll step down to
+the Three Pigeons for half an hour."
+
+"My dear father," cried the young man "you surely are not going out upon
+such a night. If you must have brandy could I not send Sarah for some?
+Please let me send Sarah; or I would go myself, or--"
+
+Pip! came a little paper pellet from his sister's chair on to the
+sketch-book in front of him! He unrolled it and held it to the light.
+
+"For Heaven's sake let him go!" was scrawled across it.
+
+"Well, in any case, wrap yourself up warm," he continued, laying bare
+his sudden change of front with a masculine clumsiness which horrified
+his sister. "Perhaps it is not so cold as it looks. You can't lose your
+way, that is one blessing. And it is not more than a hundred yards."
+
+With many mumbles and grumbles at his daughter's want of foresight, old
+McIntyre struggled into his great-coat and wrapped his scarf round his
+long thin throat. A sharp gust of cold wind made the lamps flicker as he
+threw open the hall-door. His two children listened to the dull fall of
+his footsteps as he slowly picked out the winding garden path.
+
+"He gets worse--he becomes intolerable," said Robert at last. "We should
+not have let him out; he may make a public exhibition of himself."
+
+"But it's Hector's last night," pleaded Laura. "It would be dreadful if
+they met and he noticed anything. That was why I wished him to go."
+
+"Then you were only just in time," remarked her brother, "for I hear the
+gate go, and--yes, you see."
+
+As he spoke a cheery hail came from outside, with a sharp rat-tat at the
+window. Robert stepped out and threw open the door to admit a tall young
+man, whose black frieze jacket was all mottled and glistening with snow
+crystals. Laughing loudly he shook himself like a Newfoundland dog, and
+kicked the snow from his boots before entering the little lamplit room.
+
+Hector Spurling's profession was written in every line of his face.
+The clean-shaven lip and chin, the little fringe of side whisker, the
+straight decisive mouth, and the hard weather-tanned cheeks all spoke of
+the Royal Navy. Fifty such faces may be seen any night of the year round
+the mess-table of the Royal Naval College in Portsmouth Dockyard--faces
+which bear a closer resemblance to each other than brother does commonly
+to brother. They are all cast in a common mould, the products of a
+system which teaches early self-reliance, hardihood, and manliness--a
+fine type upon the whole; less refined and less intellectual, perhaps,
+than their brothers of the land, but full of truth and energy and
+heroism. In figure he was straight, tall, and well-knit, with keen grey
+eyes, and the sharp prompt manner of a man who has been accustomed both
+to command and to obey.
+
+"You had my note?" he said, as he entered the room. "I have to go again,
+Laura. Isn't it a bore? Old Smithers is short-handed, and wants me back
+at once." He sat down by the girl, and put his brown hand across her
+white one. "It won't be a very large order this time," he continued.
+"It's the flying squadron business--Madeira, Gibraltar, Lisbon, and
+home. I shouldn't wonder if we were back in March."
+
+"It seems only the other day that you landed." she answered.
+
+"Poor little girl! But it won't be long. Mind you take good care of her,
+Robert when I am gone. And when I come again, Laura, it will be the last
+time mind! Hang the money! There are plenty who manage on less. We need
+not have a house. Why should we? You can get very nice rooms in Southsea
+at 2 pounds a week. McDougall, our paymaster, has just married, and he
+only gives thirty shillings. You would not be afraid, Laura?"
+
+"No, indeed."
+
+"The dear old governor is so awfully cautious. Wait, wait, wait, that's
+always his cry. I tell him that he ought to have been in the Government
+Heavy Ordnance Department. But I'll speak to him tonight. I'll talk him
+round. See if I don't. And you must speak to your own governor. Robert
+here will back you up. And here are the ports and the dates that we are
+due at each. Mind that you have a letter waiting for me at every one."
+
+He took a slip of paper from the side pocket of his coat, but, instead
+of handing it to the young lady, he remained staring at it with the
+utmost astonishment upon his face.
+
+"Well, I never!" he exclaimed. "Look here, Robert; what do you call
+this?"
+
+"Hold it to the light. Why, it's a fifty-pound Bank of England note.
+Nothing remarkable about it that I can see."
+
+"On the contrary. It's the queerest thing that ever happened to me. I
+can't make head or tail of it."
+
+"Come, then, Hector," cried Miss McIntyre with a challenge in her eyes.
+"Something very queer happened to me also to-day. I'll bet a pair of
+gloves that my adventure was more out of the common than yours, though I
+have nothing so nice to show at the end of it."
+
+"Come, I'll take that, and Robert here shall be the judge."
+
+"State your cases." The young artist shut up his sketch-book, and rested
+his head upon his hands with a face of mock solemnity. "Ladies first! Go
+along Laura, though I think I know something of your adventure already."
+
+"It was this morning, Hector," she said. "Oh, by the way, the story will
+make you wild. I had forgotten that. However, you mustn't mind, because,
+really, the poor fellow was perfectly mad."
+
+"What on earth was it?" asked the young officer, his eyes travelling
+from the bank-note to his _fiancee_.
+
+"Oh, it was harmless enough, and yet you will confess it was very queer.
+I had gone out for a walk, but as the snow began to fall I took shelter
+under the shed which the workmen have built at the near end of the great
+new house. The men have gone, you know, and the owner is supposed to be
+coming to-morrow, but the shed is still standing. I was sitting there
+upon a packing-case when a man came down the road and stopped under the
+same shelter. He was a quiet, pale-faced man, very tall and thin, not
+much more than thirty, I should think, poorly dressed, but with the look
+and bearing of a gentleman. He asked me one or two questions about the
+village and the people, which, of course, I answered, until at last we
+found ourselves chatting away in the pleasantest and easiest fashion
+about all sorts of things. The time passed so quickly that I forgot all
+about the snow until he drew my attention to its having stopped for
+the moment. Then, just as I was turning to go, what in the world do you
+suppose that he did? He took a step towards me, looked in a sad pensive
+way into my face, and said: `I wonder whether you could care for me if
+I were without a penny.' Wasn't it strange? I was so frightened that I
+whisked out of the shed, and was off down the road before he could add
+another word. But really, Hector, you need not look so black, for when
+I look back at it I can quite see from his tone and manner that he meant
+no harm. He was thinking aloud, without the least intention of being
+offensive. I am convinced that the poor fellow was mad."
+
+"Hum! There was some method in his madness, it seems to me," remarked
+her brother.
+
+"There would have been some method in my kicking," said the lieutenant
+savagely. "I never heard of a more outrageous thing in my life."
+
+"Now, I said that you would be wild!" She laid her white hand upon the
+sleeve of his rough frieze jacket. "It was nothing. I shall never see
+the poor fellow again. He was evidently a stranger to this part of the
+country. But that was my little adventure. Now let us have yours."
+
+The young man crackled the bank-note between his fingers and thumb,
+while he passed his other hand over his hair with the action of a man
+who strives to collect himself.
+
+"It is some ridiculous mistake," he said. "I must try and set it right.
+Yet I don't know how to set about it either. I was going down to the
+village from the Vicarage just after dusk when I found a fellow in a
+trap who had got himself into broken water. One wheel had sunk into the
+edge of the ditch which had been hidden by the snow, and the whole thing
+was high and dry, with a list to starboard enough to slide him out of
+his seat. I lent a hand, of course, and soon had the wheel in the road
+again. It was quite dark, and I fancy that the fellow thought that I was
+a bumpkin, for we did not exchange five words. As he drove off he shoved
+this into my hand. It is the merest chance that I did not chuck it away,
+for, feeling that it was a crumpled piece of paper, I imagined that it
+must be a tradesman's advertisement or something of the kind. However,
+as luck would have it, I put it in my pocket, and there I found it when
+I looked for the dates of our cruise. Now you know as much of the matter
+as I do."
+
+Brother and sister stared at the black and white crinkled note with
+astonishment upon their faces.
+
+"Why, your unknown traveller must have been Monte Cristo, or Rothschild
+at the least!" said Robert. "I am bound to say, Laura, that I think you
+have lost your bet."
+
+"Oh, I am quite content to lose it. I never heard of such a piece of
+luck. What a perfectly delightful man this must be to know."
+
+"But I can't take his money," said Hector Spurling, looking somewhat
+ruefully at the note. "A little prize-money is all very well in its way,
+but a Johnny must draw the line somewhere. Besides it must have been
+a mistake. And yet he meant to give me something big, for he could not
+mistake a note for a coin. I suppose I must advertise for the fellow."
+
+"It seems a pity too," remarked Robert. "I must say that I don't quite
+see it in the same light that you do."
+
+"Indeed I think that you are very Quixotic, Hector," said Laura
+McIntyre. "Why should you not accept it in the spirit in which it was
+meant? You did this stranger a service--perhaps a greater service than
+you know of--and he meant this as a little memento of the occasion. I do
+not see that there is any possible reason against your keeping it."
+
+"Oh, come!" said the young sailor, with an embarrassed laugh, "it is not
+quite the thing--not the sort of story one would care to tell at mess."
+
+"In any case you are off to-morrow morning," observed Robert. "You have
+no time to make inquiries about the mysterious Croesus. You must really
+make the best of it."
+
+"Well, look here, Laura, you put it in your work-basket," cried Hector
+Spurling. "You shall be my banker, and if the rightful owner turns up
+then I can refer him to you. If not, I suppose we must look on it as a
+kind of salvage-money, though I am bound to say I don't feel entirely
+comfortable about it." He rose to his feet, and threw the note down into
+the brown basket of coloured wools which stood beside her. "Now, Laura,
+I must up anchor, for I promised the governor to be back by nine. It
+won't be long this time, dear, and it shall be the last. Good-bye,
+Robert! Good luck!"
+
+"Good-bye, Hector! _Bon voyage!_"
+
+The young artist remained by the table, while his sister followed her
+lover to the door. In the dim light of the hall he could see their
+figures and overhear their words.
+
+"Next time, little girl?"
+
+"Next time be it, Hector."
+
+"And nothing can part us?"
+
+"Nothing."
+
+"In the whole world?"
+
+"Nothing."
+
+Robert discreetly closed the door. A moment later a thud from without,
+and the quick footsteps crunching on the snow told him that their
+visitor had departed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II. THE TENANT OF THE NEW HALL.
+
+
+The snow had ceased to fall, but for a week a hard frost had held the
+country side in its iron grip. The roads rang under the horses' hoofs,
+and every wayside ditch and runlet was a street of ice. Over the long
+undulating landscape the red brick houses peeped out warmly against the
+spotless background, and the lines of grey smoke streamed straight up
+into the windless air. The sky was of the lightest palest blue, and
+the morning sun, shining through the distant fog-wreaths of Birmingham,
+struck a subdued glow from the broad-spread snow fields which might have
+gladdened the eyes of an artist.
+
+It did gladden the heart of one who viewed it that morning from the
+summit of the gently-curving Tamfield Hill Robert McIntyre stood with
+his elbows upon a gate-rail, his Tam-o'-Shanter hat over his eyes, and
+a short briar-root pipe in his mouth, looking slowly about him, with the
+absorbed air of one who breathes his fill of Nature. Beneath him to
+the north lay the village of Tamfield, red walls, grey roofs, and a
+scattered bristle of dark trees, with his own little Elmdene nestling
+back from the broad, white winding Birmingham Road. At the other
+side, as he slowly faced round, lay a vast stone building, white and
+clear-cut, fresh from the builders' hands. A great tower shot up from
+one corner of it, and a hundred windows twinkled ruddily in the light of
+the morning sun. A little distance from it stood a second small square
+low-lying structure, with a tall chimney rising from the midst of it,
+rolling out a long plume of smoke into the frosty air. The whole vast
+structure stood within its own grounds, enclosed by a stately park
+wall, and surrounded by what would in time be an extensive plantation
+of fir-trees. By the lodge gates a vast pile of _debris_, with lines
+of sheds for workmen, and huge heaps of planks from scaffoldings, all
+proclaimed that the work had only just been brought to an end.
+
+Robert McIntyre looked down with curious eyes at the broad-spread
+building. It had long been a mystery and a subject of gossip for the
+whole country side. Hardly a year had elapsed since the rumour had first
+gone about that a millionaire had bought a tract of land, and that it
+was his intention to build a country seat upon it. Since then the work
+had been pushed on night and day, until now it was finished to the
+last detail in a shorter time than it takes to build many a six-roomed
+cottage. Every morning two long special trains had arrived from
+Birmingham, carrying down a great army of labourers, who were relieved
+in the evening by a fresh gang, who carried on their task under the rays
+of twelve enormous electric lights. The number of workmen appeared to be
+only limited by the space into which they could be fitted. Great lines
+of waggons conveyed the white Portland stone from the depot by the
+station. Hundreds of busy toilers handed it over, shaped and squared, to
+the actual masons, who swung it up with steam cranes on to the growing
+walls, where it was instantly fitted and mortared by their companions.
+Day by day the house shot higher, while pillar and cornice and carving
+seemed to bud out from it as if by magic. Nor was the work confined
+to the main building. A large separate structure sprang up at the same
+time, and there came gangs of pale-faced men from London with much
+extraordinary machinery, vast cylinders, wheels and wires, which they
+fitted up in this outlying building. The great chimney which rose from
+the centre of it, combined with these strange furnishings, seemed to
+mean that it was reserved as a factory or place of business, for it
+was rumoured that this rich man's hobby was the same as a poor man's
+necessity, and that he was fond of working with his own hands amid
+chemicals and furnaces. Scarce, too, was the second storey begun ere the
+wood-workers and plumbers and furnishers were busy beneath, carrying
+out a thousand strange and costly schemes for the greater comfort and
+convenience of the owner. Singular stories were told all round the
+country, and even in Birmingham itself, of the extraordinary luxury and
+the absolute disregard for money which marked all these arrangements.
+No sum appeared to be too great to spend upon the smallest detail which
+might do away with or lessen any of the petty inconveniences of life.
+Waggons and waggons of the richest furniture had passed through the
+village between lines of staring villagers. Costly skins, glossy
+carpets, rich rugs, ivory, and ebony, and metal; every glimpse into
+these storehouses of treasure had given rise to some new legend. And
+finally, when all had been arranged, there had come a staff of forty
+servants, who heralded the approach of the owner, Mr. Raffles Haw
+himself.
+
+It was no wonder, then, that it was with considerable curiosity that
+Robert McIntyre looked down at the great house, and marked the smoking
+chimneys, the curtained windows, and the other signs which showed that
+its tenant had arrived. A vast area of greenhouses gleamed like a lake
+on the further side, and beyond were the long lines of stables and
+outhouses. Fifty horses had passed through Tamfield the week before, so
+that, large as were the preparations, they were not more than would
+be needed. Who and what could this man be who spent his money with
+so lavish a hand? His name was unknown. Birmingham was as ignorant as
+Tamfield as to his origin or the sources of his wealth. Robert McIntyre
+brooded languidly over the problem as he leaned against the gate,
+puffing his blue clouds of bird's-eye into the crisp, still air.
+
+Suddenly his eye caught a dark figure emerging from the Avenue gates and
+striding up the winding road. A few minutes brought him near enough to
+show a familiar face looking over the stiff collar and from under the
+soft black hat of an English clergyman.
+
+"Good-morning, Mr. Spurling."
+
+"Ah, good-morning, Robert. How are you? Are you coming my way? How
+slippery the roads are!"
+
+His round, kindly face was beaming with good nature, and he took little
+jumps as he walked, like a man who can hardly contain himself for
+pleasure.
+
+"Have you heard from Hector?"
+
+"Oh, yes. He went off all right last Wednesday from Spithead, and he
+will write from Madeira. But you generally have later news at Elmdene
+than I have."
+
+"I don't know whether Laura has heard. Have you been up to see the new
+comer?"
+
+"Yes; I have just left him."
+
+"Is he a married man--this Mr. Raffles Haw?"
+
+"No, he is a bachelor. He does not seem to have any relations either, as
+far as I could learn. He lives alone, amid his huge staff of servants.
+It is a most remarkable establishment. It made me think of the Arabian
+Nights."
+
+"And the man? What is he like?"
+
+"He is an angel--a positive angel. I never heard or read of such
+kindness in my life. He has made me a happy man."
+
+The clergyman's eyes sparkled with emotion, and he blew his nose loudly
+in his big red handkerchief.
+
+Robert McIntyre looked at him in surprise.
+
+"I am delighted to hear it," he said. "May I ask what he has done?"
+
+"I went up to him by appointment this morning. I had written asking him
+if I might call. I spoke to him of the parish and its needs, of my long
+struggle to restore the south side of the church, and of our efforts
+to help my poor parishioners during this hard weather. While I spoke
+he said not a word, but sat with a vacant face, as though he were not
+listening to me. When I had finished he took up his pen. 'How much will
+it take to do the church?' he asked. 'A thousand pounds,' I answered;
+'but we have already raised three hundred among ourselves. The Squire
+has very handsomely given fifty pounds.' 'Well,' said he, 'how about
+the poor folk? How many families are there?' 'About three hundred,' I
+answered. 'And coals, I believe, are at about a pound a ton', said he.
+'Three tons ought to see them through the rest of the winter. Then you
+can get a very fair pair of blankets for two pounds. That would make
+five pounds per family, and seven hundred for the church.' He dipped his
+pen in the ink, and, as I am a living man, Robert, he wrote me a cheque
+then and there for two thousand two hundred pounds. I don't know what
+I said; I felt like a fool; I could not stammer out words with which
+to thank him. All my troubles have been taken from my shoulders in an
+instant, and indeed, Robert, I can hardly realise it."
+
+"He must be a most charitable man."
+
+"Extraordinarily so. And so unpretending. One would think that it was
+I who was doing the favour and he who was the beggar. I thought of that
+passage about making the heart of the widow sing for joy. He made my
+heart sing for joy, I can tell you. Are you coming up to the Vicarage?"
+
+"No, thank you, Mr. Spurling. I must go home and get to work on my new
+picture. It's a five-foot canvas--the landing of the Romans in Kent. I
+must have another try for the Academy. Good-morning."
+
+He raised his hat and continued down the road, while the vicar turned
+off into the path which led to his home.
+
+Robert McIntyre had converted a large bare room in the upper storey of
+Elmdene into a studio, and thither he retreated after lunch. It was
+as well that he should have some little den of his own, for his father
+would talk of little save of his ledgers and accounts, while Laura
+had become peevish and querulous since the one tie which held her
+to Tamfield had been removed. The chamber was a bare and bleak one,
+un-papered and un-carpeted, but a good fire sparkled in the grate, and
+two large windows gave him the needful light. His easel stood in the
+centre, with the great canvas balanced across it, while against the
+walls there leaned his two last attempts, "The Murder of Thomas of
+Canterbury" and "The Signing of Magna Charta." Robert had a weakness for
+large subjects and broad effects. If his ambition was greater than
+his skill, he had still all the love of his art and the patience under
+discouragement which are the stuff out of which successful painters are
+made. Twice his brace of pictures had journeyed to town, and twice they
+had come back to him, until the finely gilded frames which had made such
+a call upon his purse began to show signs of these varied adventures.
+Yet, in spite of their depressing company, Robert turned to his fresh
+work with all the enthusiasm which a conviction of ultimate success can
+inspire.
+
+But he could not work that afternoon.
+
+In vain he dashed in his background and outlined the long curves of the
+Roman galleys. Do what he would, his mind would still wander from his
+work to dwell upon his conversation with the vicar in the morning. His
+imagination was fascinated by the idea of this strange man living alone
+amid a crowd, and yet wielding such a power that with one dash of his
+pen he could change sorrow into joy, and transform the condition of
+a whole parish. The incident of the fifty-pound note came back to his
+mind. It must surely have been Raffles Haw with whom Hector Spurling
+had come in contact. There could not be two men in one parish to whom so
+large a sum was of so small an account as to be thrown to a bystander in
+return for a trifling piece of assistance. Of course, it must have been
+Raffles Haw. And his sister had the note, with instructions to return
+it to the owner, could he be found. He threw aside his palette, and
+descending into the sitting-room he told Laura and his father of his
+morning's interview with the vicar, and of his conviction that this was
+the man of whom Hector was in quest.
+
+"Tut! Tut!" said old McIntyre. "How is this, Laura? I knew nothing of
+this. What do women know of money or of business? Hand the note over to
+me and I shall relieve you of all responsibility. I will take everything
+upon myself."
+
+"I cannot possibly, papa," said Laura, with decision. "I should not
+think of parting with it."
+
+"What is the world coming to?" cried the old man, with his thin hands
+held up in protest. "You grow more undutiful every day, Laura. This
+money would be of use to me--of use, you understand. It may be the
+corner-stone of the vast business which I shall re-construct. I will use
+it, Laura, and I will pay something--four, shall we say, or even
+four and a-half--and you may have it back on any day. And I will give
+security--the security of my--well, of my word of honour."
+
+"It is quite impossible, papa," his daughter answered coldly. "It is not
+my money. Hector asked me to be his banker. Those were his very words.
+It is not in my power to lend it. As to what you say, Robert, you may
+be right or you may be wrong, but I certainly shall not give Mr. Raffles
+Haw or anyone else the money without Hector's express command."
+
+"You are very right about not giving it to Mr. Raffles Haw," cried old
+McIntyre, with many nods of approbation. "I should certainly not let it
+go out of the family."
+
+"Well, I thought that I would tell you."
+
+Robert picked up his Tam-o'-Shanter and strolled out to avoid the
+discussion between his father and sister, which he saw was about to
+be renewed. His artistic nature revolted at these petty and sordid
+disputes, and he turned to the crisp air and the broad landscape to
+soothe his ruffled feelings. Avarice had no place among his failings,
+and his father's perpetual chatter about money inspired him with a
+positive loathing and disgust for the subject.
+
+Robert was lounging slowly along his favourite walk which curled
+over the hill, with his mind turning from the Roman invasion to the
+mysterious millionaire, when his eyes fell upon a tall, lean man in
+front of him, who, with a pipe between his lips, was endeavouring
+to light a match under cover of his cap. The man was clad in a rough
+pea-jacket, and bore traces of smoke and grime upon his face and hands.
+Yet there is a Freemasonry among smokers which overrides every social
+difference, so Robert stopped and held out his case of fusees.
+
+"A light?" said he.
+
+"Thank you." The man picked out a fusee, struck it, and bent his head to
+it. He had a pale, thin face, a short straggling beard, and a very sharp
+and curving nose, with decision and character in the straight thick
+eyebrows which almost met on either side of it. Clearly a superior
+kind of workman, and possibly one of those who had been employed in
+the construction of the new house. Here was a chance of getting some
+first-hand information on the question which had aroused his curiosity.
+Robert waited until he had lit his pipe, and then walked on beside him.
+
+"Are you going in the direction of the new Hall?" he asked.
+
+"Yes."
+
+The man's voice was cold, and his manner reserved.
+
+"Perhaps you were engaged in the building of it?"
+
+"Yes, I had a hand in it."
+
+"They say that it is a wonderful place inside. It has been quite the
+talk of the district. Is it as rich as they say?"
+
+"I am sure I don't know. I have not heard what they say."
+
+His attitude was certainly not encouraging, and it seemed to Robert that
+he gave little sidelong suspicious glances at him out of his keen grey
+eyes. Yet, if he were so careful and discreet there was the more reason
+to think that there was information to be extracted, if he could but
+find a way to it.
+
+"Ah, there it lies!" he remarked, as they topped the brow of the hill,
+and looked down once more at the great building. "Well, no doubt it is
+very gorgeous and splendid, but really for my own part I would rather
+live in my own little box down yonder in the village."
+
+The workman puffed gravely at his pipe.
+
+"You are no great admirer of wealth, then?" he said.
+
+"Not I. I should not care to be a penny richer than I am. Of course I
+should like to sell my pictures. One must make a living. But beyond that
+I ask nothing. I dare say that I, a poor artist, or you, a man who work
+for your bread, have more happiness out of life than the owner of that
+great palace."
+
+"Indeed, I think that it is more than likely," the other answered, in a
+much more conciliatory voice.
+
+"Art," said Robert, warming to the subject, "is her own reward. What
+mere bodily indulgence is there which money could buy which can
+give that deep thrill of satisfaction which comes on the man who has
+conceived something new, something beautiful, and the daily delight as
+he sees it grow under his hand, until it stands before him a completed
+whole? With my art and without wealth I am happy. Without my art I
+should have a void which no money could fill. But I really don't know
+why I should say all this to you."
+
+The workman had stopped, and was staring at him earnestly with a look of
+the deepest interest upon his smoke-darkened features.
+
+"I am very glad to hear what you say," said he. "It is a pleasure to
+know that the worship of gold is not quite universal, and that there are
+at least some who can rise above it. Would you mind my shaking you by
+the hand?"
+
+It was a somewhat extraordinary request, but Robert rather prided
+himself upon his Bohemianism, and upon his happy facility for making
+friends with all sorts and conditions of men. He readily exchanged a
+cordial grip with his chance acquaintance.
+
+"You expressed some curiosity as to this house. I know the grounds
+pretty well, and might perhaps show you one or two little things which
+would interest you. Here are the gates. Will you come in with me?"
+
+Here was, indeed, a chance. Robert eagerly assented, and walked up the
+winding drive amid the growing fir-trees. When he found his uncouth
+guide, however, marching straight across the broad, gravel square to the
+main entrance, he felt that he had placed himself in a false position.
+
+"Surely not through the front door," he whispered, plucking his
+companion by the sleeve. "Perhaps Mr. Raffles Haw might not like it."
+
+"I don't think there will be any difficulty," said the other, with a
+quiet smile. "My name is Raffles Haw."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III. A HOUSE OF WONDERS.
+
+
+Robert McIntyre's face must have expressed the utter astonishment which
+filled his mind at this most unlooked-for announcement. For a moment he
+thought that his companion must be joking, but the ease and assurance
+with which he lounged up the steps, and the deep respect with which a
+richly-clad functionary in the hall swung open the door to admit him,
+showed that he spoke in sober earnest. Raffles Haw glanced back, and
+seeing the look of absolute amazement upon the young artist's features,
+he chuckled quietly to himself.
+
+"You will forgive me, won't you, for not disclosing my identity?" he
+said, laying his hand with a friendly gesture upon the other's sleeve.
+"Had you known me you would have spoken less freely, and I should not
+have had the opportunity of learning your true worth. For example, you
+might hardly have been so frank upon the matter of wealth had you known
+that you were speaking to the master of the Hall."
+
+"I don't think that I was ever so astonished in my life," gasped Robert.
+
+"Naturally you are. How could you take me for anything but a workman?
+So I am. Chemistry is one of my hobbies, and I spend hours a day in my
+laboratory yonder. I have only just struck work, and as I had inhaled
+some not-over-pleasant gases, I thought that a turn down the road and a
+whiff of tobacco might do me good. That was how I came to meet you, and
+my toilet, I fear, corresponded only too well with my smoke-grimed face.
+But I rather fancy I know you by repute. Your name is Robert McIntyre,
+is it not?"
+
+"Yes, though I cannot imagine how you knew."
+
+"Well, I naturally took some little trouble to learn something of my
+neighbours. I had heard that there was an artist of that name, and I
+presume that artists are not very numerous in Tamfield. But how do you
+like the design? I hope it does not offend your trained taste."
+
+"Indeed, it is wonderful--marvellous! You must yourself have an
+extraordinary eye for effect."
+
+"Oh, I have no taste at all; not the slightest. I cannot tell good from
+bad. There never was such a complete Philistine. But I had the best man
+in London down, and another fellow from Vienna. They fixed it up between
+them."
+
+They had been standing just within the folding doors upon a huge mat
+of bison skins. In front of them lay a great square court, paved with
+many-coloured marbles laid out in a labyrinth of arabesque design. In
+the centre a high fountain of carved jade shot five thin feathers of
+spray into the air, four of which curved towards each corner of the
+court to descend into broad marble basins, while the fifth mounted
+straight up to an immense height, and then tinkled back into the central
+reservoir. On either side of the court a tall, graceful palm-tree shot
+up its slender stem to break into a crown of drooping green leaves some
+fifty feet above their heads. All round were a series of Moorish arches,
+in jade and serpentine marble, with heavy curtains of the deepest purple
+to cover the doors which lay between them. In front, to right and to
+left, a broad staircase of marble, carpeted with rich thick Smyrna rug
+work, led upwards to the upper storeys, which were arranged around the
+central court. The temperature within was warm and yet fresh, like the
+air of an English May.
+
+"It's taken from the Alhambra," said Raffles Haw. "The palm-trees are
+pretty. They strike right through the building into the ground beneath,
+and their roots are all girt round with hot-water pipes. They seem to
+thrive very well."
+
+"What beautifully delicate brass-work!" cried Robert, looking up with
+admiring eyes at the bright and infinitely fragile metal trellis screens
+which adorned the spaces between the Moorish arches.
+
+"It is rather neat. But it is not brass-work. Brass is not tough enough
+to allow them to work it to that degree of fineness. It is gold. But
+just come this way with me. You won't mind waiting while I remove this
+smoke?"
+
+He led the way to a door upon the left side of the court, which, to
+Robert's surprise, swung slowly open as they approached it. "That is
+a little improvement which I have adopted," remarked the master of the
+house. "As you go up to a door your weight upon the planks releases a
+spring which causes the hinges to revolve. Pray step in. This is my own
+little sanctum, and furnished after my own heart."
+
+If Robert expected to see some fresh exhibition of wealth and luxury
+he was woefully disappointed, for he found himself in a large but bare
+room, with a little iron truckle-bed in one corner, a few scattered
+wooden chairs, a dingy carpet, and a large table heaped with books,
+bottles, papers, and all the other _debris_ which collect around a busy
+and untidy man. Motioning his visitor into a chair, Raffles Haw pulled
+off his coat, and, turning up the sleeves of his coarse flannel shirt,
+he began to plunge and scrub in the warm water which flowed from a tap
+in the wall.
+
+"You see how simple my own tastes are," he remarked, as he mopped his
+dripping face and hair with the towel. "This is the only room in my
+great house where I find myself in a congenial atmosphere. It is homely
+to me. I can read here and smoke my pipe in peace. Anything like luxury
+is abhorrent to me."
+
+"Really, I should not have though it," observed Robert.
+
+"It is a fact, I assure you. You see, even with your views as to the
+worthlessness of wealth, views which, I am sure, are very sensible and
+much to your credit, you must allow that if a man should happen to be
+the possessor of vast--well, let us say of considerable--sums of money,
+it is his duty to get that money into circulation, so that the community
+may be the better for it. There is the secret of my fine feathers. I
+have to exert all my ingenuity in order to spend my income, and yet keep
+the money in legitimate channels. For example, it is very easy to give
+money away, and no doubt I could dispose of my surplus, or part of my
+surplus, in that fashion, but I have no wish to pauperise anyone, or to
+do mischief by indiscriminate charity. I must exact some sort of money's
+worth for all the money which I lay out You see my point, don't you?"
+
+"Entirely; though really it is something novel to hear a man complain of
+the difficulty of spending his income."
+
+"I assure you that it is a very serious difficulty with me. But I have
+hit upon some plans--some very pretty plans. Will you wash your hands?
+Well, then, perhaps you would care to have a look round. Just come into
+this corner of the room, and sit upon this chair. So. Now I will sit
+upon this one, and we are ready to start."
+
+The angle of the chamber in which they sat was painted for about six
+feet in each direction of a dark chocolate-brown, and was furnished with
+two red plush seats protruding from the walls, and in striking contrast
+with the simplicity of the rest of the apartment.
+
+"This," remarked Raffles Haw, "is a lift, though it is so closely joined
+to the rest of the room that without the change in colour it might
+puzzle you to find the division. It is made to run either horizontally
+or vertically. This line of knobs represents the various rooms. You can
+see 'Dining,' 'Smoking,' 'Billiard,' 'Library' and so on, upon them. I
+will show you the upward action. I press this one with 'Kitchen' upon
+it."
+
+There was a sense of motion, a very slight jar, and Robert, without
+moving from his seat, was conscious that the room had vanished, and that
+a large arched oaken door stood in the place which it had occupied.
+
+"That is the kitchen door," said Raffles Haw. "I have my kitchen at the
+top of the house. I cannot tolerate the smell of cooking. We have come
+up eighty feet in a very few seconds. Now I press again and here we are
+in my room once more."
+
+Robert McIntyre stared about him in astonishment.
+
+"The wonders of science are greater than those of magic," he remarked.
+
+"Yes, it is a pretty little mechanism. Now we try the horizontal. I
+press the 'Dining' knob and here we are, you see. Step towards the door,
+and you will find it open in front of you."
+
+Robert did as he was bid, and found himself with his companion in a
+large and lofty room, while the lift, the instant that it was freed
+from their weight, flashed back to its original position. With his feet
+sinking into the soft rich carpet, as though he were ankle-deep in some
+mossy bank, he stared about him at the great pictures which lined the
+walls.
+
+"Surely, surely, I see Raphael's touch there," he cried, pointing up at
+the one which faced him.
+
+"Yes, it is a Raphael, and I believe one of his best. I had a very
+exciting bid for it with the French Government. They wanted it for the
+Louvre, but of course at an auction the longest purse must win."
+
+"And this 'Arrest of Catiline' must be a Rubens. One cannot mistake his
+splendid men and his infamous women."
+
+"Yes, it is a Rubens. The other two are a Velasquez and a Teniers,
+fair specimens of the Spanish and of the Dutch schools. I have only old
+masters here. The moderns are in the billiard-room. The furniture here
+is a little curious. In fact, I fancy that it is unique. It is made of
+ebony and narwhals' horns. You see that the legs of everything are of
+spiral ivory, both the table and the chairs. It cost the upholsterer
+some little pains, for the supply of these things is a strictly limited
+one. Curiously enough, the Chinese Emperor had given a large order for
+narwhals' horns to repair some ancient pagoda, which was fenced in with
+them, but I outbid him in the market, and his celestial highness has had
+to wait. There is a lift here in the corner, but we do not need it. Pray
+step through this door. This is the billiard-room," he continued as they
+advanced into the adjoining room. "You see I have a few recent pictures
+of merit upon the walls. Here is a Corot, two Meissoniers, a Bouguereau,
+a Millais, an Orchardson, and two Alma-Tademas. It seems to me to be
+a pity to hang pictures over these walls of carved oak. Look at those
+birds hopping and singing in the branches. They really seem to move and
+twitter, don't they?"
+
+"They are perfect. I never saw such exquisite work. But why do you call
+it a billiard-room, Mr. Haw? I do not see any board."
+
+"Oh, a board is such a clumsy uncompromising piece of furniture. It is
+always in the way unless you actually need to use it. In this case the
+board is covered by that square of polished maple which you see let into
+the floor. Now I put my foot upon this motor. You see!" As he spoke,
+the central portion of the flooring flew up, and a most beautiful
+tortoise-shell-plated billiard-table rose up to its proper position.
+He pressed a second spring, and a bagatelle-table appeared in the same
+fashion. "You may have card-tables or what you will by setting the
+levers in motion," he remarked. "But all this is very trifling. Perhaps
+we may find something in the museum which may be of more interest to
+you."
+
+He led the way into another chamber, which was furnished in antique
+style, with hangings of the rarest and richest tapestry. The floor was
+a mosaic of coloured marbles, scattered over with mats of costly fur.
+There was little furniture, but a number of Louis Quatorze cabinets of
+ebony and silver with delicately-painted plaques were ranged round the
+apartment.
+
+"It is perhaps hardly fair to dignify it by the name of a museum," said
+Raffles Haw. "It consists merely of a few elegant trifles which I have
+picked up here and there. Gems are my strongest point. I fancy that
+there, perhaps, I might challenge comparison with any private collector
+in the world. I lock them up, for even the best servants may be
+tempted."
+
+He took a silver key from his watch chain, and began to unlock and draw
+out the drawers. A cry of wonder and of admiration burst from Robert
+McIntyre, as his eyes rested upon case after case filled with the
+most magnificent stones. The deep still red of the rubies, the clear
+scintillating green of the emeralds, the hard glitter of the diamonds,
+the many shifting shades of beryls, of amethysts, of onyxes, of
+cats'-eyes, of opals, of agates, of cornelians seemed to fill the whole
+chamber with a vague twinkling, many-coloured light. Long slabs of the
+beautiful blue lapis lazuli, magnificent bloodstones, specimens of pink
+and red and white coral, long strings of lustrous pearls, all these were
+tossed out by their owner as a careless schoolboy might pour marbles
+from his bag.
+
+"This isn't bad," he said, holding up a great glowing yellow mass as
+large as his own head. "It is really a very fine piece of amber. It
+was forwarded to me by my agent at the Baltic. Twenty-eight pounds,
+it weighs. I never heard of so fine a one. I have no very large
+brilliants--there were no very large ones in the market--but my average
+is good. Pretty toys, are they not?" He picked up a double handful of
+emeralds from a drawer, and then let them trickle slowly back into the
+heap.
+
+"Good heavens!" cried Robert, as he gazed from case to case. "It is an
+immense fortune in itself. Surely a hundred thousand pounds would hardly
+buy so splendid a collection."
+
+"I don't think that you would do for a valuer of precious stones," said
+Raffles Haw, laughing. "Why, the contents of that one little drawer
+of brilliants could not be bought for the sum which you name. I have a
+memo. here of what I have expended up to date on my collection, though
+I have agents at work who will probably make very considerable additions
+to it within the next few weeks. As matters stand, however, I have
+spent--let me see-pearls one forty thousand; emeralds, seven fifty;
+rubies, eight forty; brilliants, nine twenty; onyxes--I have several
+very nice onyxes-two thirty. Other gems, carbuncles, agates--hum!
+Yes, it figures out at just over four million seven hundred and forty
+thousand. I dare say that we may say five millions, for I have not
+counted the odd money."
+
+"Good gracious!" cried the young artist, with staring eyes.
+
+"I have a certain feeling of duty in the matter. You see the cutting,
+polishing, and general sale of stones is one of those industries which
+is entirely dependent upon wealth. If we do not support it, it must
+languish, which means misfortune to a considerable number of people. The
+same applies to the gold filigree work which you noticed in the
+court. Wealth has its responsibilities, and the encouragement of these
+handicrafts are among the most obvious of them. Here is a nice ruby. It
+is Burmese, and the fifth largest in existence. I am inclined to think
+that if it were uncut it would be the second, but of course cutting
+takes away a great deal." He held up the blazing red stone, about the
+size of a chestnut, between his finger and thumb for a moment, and then
+threw it carelessly back into its drawer. "Come into the smoking-room,"
+he said; "you will need some little refreshment, for they say that
+sight-seeing is the most exhausting occupation in the world."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV. FROM CLIME TO CLIME
+
+
+The chamber in which the bewildered Robert now found himself was more
+luxurious, if less rich, than any which he had yet seen. Low settees of
+claret-coloured plush were scattered in orderly disorder over a mossy
+Eastern carpet. Deep lounges, reclining sofas, American rocking-chairs,
+all were to be had for the choosing. One end of the room was walled by
+glass, and appeared to open upon a luxuriant hot-house. At the further
+end a double line of gilt rails supported a profusion of the most recent
+magazines and periodicals. A rack at each side of the inlaid fireplace
+sustained a long line of the pipes of all places and nations--English
+cherrywoods, French briars, German china-bowls, carved meerschaums,
+scented cedar and myall-wood, with Eastern narghiles, Turkish
+chibooques, and two great golden-topped hookahs. To right and left
+were a series of small lockers, extending in a treble row for the whole
+length of the room, with the names of the various brands of tobacco
+scrolled in ivory work across them. Above were other larger tiers of
+polished oak, which held cigars and cigarettes.
+
+"Try that Damascus settee," said the master of the house, as he threw
+himself into a rocking-chair. "It is from the Sultan's upholsterer.
+The Turks have a very good notion of comfort. I am a confirmed smoker
+myself, Mr. McIntyre, so I have been able, perhaps, to check my
+architect here more than in most of the other departments. Of pictures,
+for example, I know nothing, as you would very speedily find out. On
+a tobacco, I might, perhaps, offer an opinion. Now these"--he drew out
+some long, beautifully-rolled, mellow-coloured cigars--"these are really
+something a little out of the common. Do try one."
+
+Robert lit the weed which was offered to him, and leaned back
+luxuriously amid his cushions, gazing through the blue balmy fragrant
+cloud-wreaths at the extraordinary man in the dirty pea-jacket who spoke
+of millions as another might of sovereigns. With his pale face, his sad,
+languid air, and his bowed shoulders, it was as though he were crushed
+down under the weight of his own gold. There was a mute apology, an
+attitude of deprecation in his manner and speech, which was strangely
+at variance with the immense power which he wielded. To Robert the
+whole whimsical incident had been intensely interesting and amusing. His
+artistic nature blossomed out in this atmosphere of perfect luxury
+and comfort, and he was conscious of a sense of repose and of absolute
+sensual contentment such as he had never before experienced.
+
+"Shall it be coffee, or Rhine wine, or Tokay, or perhaps something
+stronger," asked Raffles Haw, stretching out his hand to what looked like
+a piano-board projecting from the wall. "I can recommend the Tokay. I
+have it from the man who supplies the Emperor of Austria, though I think
+I may say that I get the cream of it."
+
+He struck twice upon one of the piano-notes, and sat expectant. With a
+sharp click at the end of ten seconds a sliding shutter flew open, and
+a small tray protruded bearing two long tapering Venetian glasses filled
+with wine.
+
+"It works very nicely," said Raffles Haw. "It is quite a new thing--never
+before done, as far as I know. You see the names of the various wines
+and so on printed on the notes. By pressing the note down I complete an
+electric circuit which causes the tap in the cellars beneath to remain
+open long enough to fill the glass which always stands beneath it. The
+glasses, you understand, stand upon a revolving drum, so that there must
+always be one there. The glasses are then brought up through a pneumatic
+tube, which is set working by the increased weight of the glass when the
+wine is added to it. It is a pretty little idea. But I am afraid that I
+bore you rather with all these petty contrivances. It is a whim of mine
+to push mechanism as far as it will go."
+
+"On the contrary, I am filled with interest and wonder," said Robert
+warmly. "It is as if I had been suddenly whipped up out of prosaic old
+England and transferred in an instant to some enchanted palace, some
+Eastern home of the Genii. I could not have believed that there existed
+upon this earth such adaptation of means to an end, such complete
+mastery of every detail which may aid in stripping life of any of its
+petty worries."
+
+"I have something yet to show you," remarked Raffles Haw; "but we will
+rest here for a few minutes, for I wished to have a word with you. How
+is the cigar?"
+
+"Most excellent."
+
+"It was rolled in Louisiana in the old slavery days. There is nothing
+made like them now. The man who had them did not know their value. He
+let them go at merely a few shillings apiece. Now I want you to do me a
+favour, Mr. McIntyre."
+
+"I shall be so glad."
+
+"You can see more or less how I am situated. I am a complete stranger
+here. With the well-to-do classes I have little in common. I am no
+society man. I don't want to call or be called on. I am a student in a
+small way, and a man of quiet tastes. I have no social ambitions at all.
+Do you understand?"
+
+"Entirely."
+
+"On the other hand, my experience of the world has been that it is the
+rarest thing to be able to form a friendship with a poorer man--I mean
+with a man who is at all eager to increase his income. They think much
+of your wealth, and little of yourself. I have tried, you understand,
+and I know." He paused and ran his fingers through his thin beard.
+
+Robert McIntyre nodded to show that he appreciated his position.
+
+"Now, you see," he continued, "if I am to be cut off from the rich by
+my own tastes, and from those who are not rich by my distrust of their
+motives, my situation is an isolated one. Not that I mind isolation:
+I am used to it. But it limits my field of usefulness. I have no
+trustworthy means of informing myself when and where I may do good.
+I have already, I am glad to say, met a man to-day, your vicar, who
+appears to be thoroughly unselfish and trustworthy. He shall be one
+of my channels of communication with the outer world. Might I ask you
+whether you would be willing to become another?"
+
+"With the greatest pleasure," said Robert eagerly.
+
+The proposition filled his heart with joy, for it seemed to give him an
+almost official connection with this paradise of a house. He could not
+have asked for anything more to his taste.
+
+"I was fortunate enough to discover by your conversation how high a
+ground you take in such matters, and how entirely disinterested you
+are. You may have observed that I was short and almost rude with you at
+first. I have had reason to fear and suspect all chance friendships.
+Too often they have proved to be carefully planned beforehand, with some
+sordid object in view. Good heavens, what stories I could tell you!
+A lady pursued by a bull--I have risked my life to save her, and have
+learned afterwards that the scene had been arranged by the mother as an
+effective introduction, and that the bull had been hired by the hour.
+But I won't shake your faith in human nature. I have had some rude
+shocks myself. I look, perhaps, with a jaundiced eye on all who come
+near me. It is the more needful that I should have one whom I can trust
+to advise me."
+
+"If you will only show me where my opinion can be of any use I shall be
+most happy," said Robert. "My people come from Birmingham, but I know
+most of the folk here and their position."
+
+"That is just what I want. Money can do so much good, and it may do so
+much harm. I shall consult you when I am in doubt. By the way, there
+is one small question which I might ask you now. Can you tell me who
+a young lady is with very dark hair, grey eyes, and a finely chiselled
+face? She wore a blue dress when I saw her, with astrachan about her
+neck and cuffs."
+
+Robert chuckled to himself.
+
+"I know that dress pretty well," he said. "It is my sister Laura whom
+you describe."
+
+"Your sister! Really! Why, there is a resemblance, now that my attention
+is called to it. I saw her the other day, and wondered who she might be.
+She lives with you, of course?"
+
+"Yes; my father, she, and I live together at Elmdene."
+
+"Where I hope to have the pleasure of making their acquaintance. You
+have finished your cigar? Have another, or try a pipe. To the real
+smoker all is mere trifling save the pipe. I have most brands of tobacco
+here. The lockers are filled on the Monday, and on Saturday they are
+handed over to the old folk at the alms-houses, so I manage to keep it
+pretty fresh always. Well, if you won't take anything else, perhaps you
+would care to see one or two of the other effects which I have devised.
+On this side is the armoury, and beyond it the library. My collection of
+books is a limited one; there are just over the fifty thousand volumes.
+But it is to some extent remarkable for quality. I have a Visigoth Bible
+of the fifth century, which I rather fancy is unique; there is a 'Biblia
+Pauperum' of 1430; a MS. of Genesis done upon mulberry leaves, probably
+of the second century; a 'Tristan and Iseult' of the eighth century; and
+some hundred black-letters, with five very fine specimens of Schoffer
+and Fust. But those you may turn over any wet afternoon when you have
+nothing better to do. Meanwhile, I have a little device connected with
+this smoking-room which may amuse you. Light this other cigar. Now sit
+with me upon this lounge which stands at the further end of the room."
+
+The sofa in question was in a niche which was lined in three sides and
+above with perfectly clear transparent crystal. As they sat down the
+master of the house drew a cord which pulled out a crystal shutter
+behind them, so that they were enclosed on all sides in a great box
+of glass, so pure and so highly polished that its presence might very
+easily be forgotten. A number of golden cords with crystal handles hung
+down into this small chamber, and appeared to be connected with a long
+shining bar outside.
+
+"Now, where would you like to smoke your cigar?" said Raffles Haw, with
+a twinkle in his demure eyes. "Shall we go to India, or to Egypt, or to
+China, or to--"
+
+"To South America," said Robert.
+
+There was a twinkle, a whirr, and a sense of motion. The young artist
+gazed about him in absolute amazement. Look where he would all round
+were tree-ferns and palms with long drooping creepers, and a blaze of
+brilliant orchids. Smoking-room, house, England, all were gone, and he
+sat on a settee in the heart of a virgin forest of the Amazon. It was no
+mere optical delusion or trick. He could see the hot steam rising from
+the tropical undergrowth, the heavy drops falling from the huge green
+leaves, the very grain and fibre of the rough bark which clothed the
+trunks. Even as he gazed a green mottled snake curled noiselessly over
+a branch above his head, and a bright-coloured paroquet broke suddenly
+from amid the foliage and flashed off among the tree-trunks. Robert
+gazed around, speechless with surprise, and finally turned upon his host
+a face in which curiosity was not un-mixed with a suspicion of fear.
+
+"People have been burned for less, have they not?" cried Raffles Haw
+laughing heartily. "Have you had enough of the Amazon? What do you say
+to a spell of Egypt?"
+
+Again the whirr, the swift flash of passing objects, and in an instant
+a huge desert stretched on every side of them, as far as the eye could
+reach. In the foreground a clump of five palm-trees towered into the
+air, with a profusion of rough cactus-like plants bristling from their
+base. On the other side rose a rugged, gnarled, grey monolith, carved at
+the base into a huge scarabaeus. A group of lizards played about on the
+surface of the old carved stone. Beyond, the yellow sand stretched away
+into furthest space, where the dim mirage mist played along the horizon.
+
+"Mr. Haw, I cannot understand it!" Robert grasped the velvet edge of the
+settee, and gazed wildly about him.
+
+"The effect is rather startling, is it not? This Egyptian desert is
+my favourite when I lay myself out for a contemplative smoke. It seems
+strange that tobacco should have come from the busy, practical West.
+It has much more affinity for the dreamy, languid East. But perhaps you
+would like to run over to China for a change?"
+
+"Not to-day," said Robert, passing his hand over his forehead. "I feel
+rather confused by all these wonders, and indeed I think that they have
+affected my nerves a little. Besides, it is time that I returned to my
+prosaic Elmdene, if I can find my way out of this wilderness to which
+you have transplanted me. But would you ease my mind, Mr. Haw, by
+showing me how this thing is done?"
+
+"It is the merest toy--a complex plaything, nothing more. Allow me to
+explain. I have a line of very large greenhouses which extends from
+one end of my smoking-room. These different houses are kept at varying
+degrees of heat and humidity so as to reproduce the exact climates of
+Egypt, China, and the rest. You see, our crystal chamber is a tramway
+running with a minimum of friction along a steel rod. By pulling this or
+that handle I regulate how far it shall go, and it travels, as you have
+seen, with amazing speed. The effect of my hot-houses is heightened by
+the roofs being invariably concealed by skies, which are really very
+admirably painted, and by the introduction of birds and other creatures,
+which seem to flourish quite as well in artificial as in natural heat.
+This explains the South American effect."
+
+"But not the Egyptian."
+
+"No. It is certainly rather clever. I had the best man in France,
+at least the best at those large effects, to paint in that circular
+background. You understand, the palms, cacti, obelisk, and so on, are
+perfectly genuine, and so is the sand for fifty yards or so, and I defy
+the keenest-eyed man in England to tell where the deception commences.
+It is the familiar and perhaps rather meretricious effect of a circular
+panorama, but carried out in the most complete manner. Was there any
+other point?"
+
+"The crystal box? Why was it?"
+
+"To preserve my guests from the effects of the changes of temperature.
+It would be a poor kindness to bring them back to my smoking-room
+drenched through, and with the seeds of a violent cold. The crystal has
+to be kept warm, too, otherwise vapour would deposit, and you would have
+your view spoiled. But must you really go? Then here we are back in the
+smoking-room. I hope that it will not be your last visit by many a one.
+And if I may come down to Elmdene I should be very glad to do so. This
+is the way through the museum."
+
+As Robert McIntyre emerged from the balmy aromatic atmosphere of the
+great house, into the harsh, raw, biting air of an English winter
+evening, he felt as though he had been away for a long visit in some
+foreign country. Time is measured by impressions, and so vivid and novel
+had been his feelings, that weeks and weeks might have elapsed since his
+chat with the smoke-grimed stranger in the road. He walked along with
+his head in a whirl, his whole mind possessed and intoxicated by the one
+idea of the boundless wealth and the immense power of this extraordinary
+stranger. Small and sordid and mean seemed his own Elmdene as he
+approached it, and he passed over its threshold full of restless
+discontent against himself and his surroundings.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V. LAURA'S REQUEST.
+
+
+That night after supper Robert McIntyre poured forth all that he had
+seen to his father and to his sister. So full was he of the one subject
+that it was a relief to him to share his knowledge with others. Rather
+for his own sake, then, than for theirs he depicted vividly all
+the marvels which he had seen; the profusion of wealth, the regal
+treasure-house of gems, the gold, the marble, the extraordinary devices,
+the absolute lavishness and complete disregard for money which was shown
+in every detail. For an hour he pictured with glowing words all
+the wonders which had been shown him, and ended with some pride by
+describing the request which Mr. Raffles Haw had made, and the complete
+confidence which he had placed in him.
+
+His words had a very different effect upon his two listeners. Old
+McIntyre leaned back in his chair with a bitter smile upon his lips, his
+thin face crinkled into a thousand puckers, and his small eyes shining
+with envy and greed. His lean yellow hand upon the table was clenched
+until the knuckles gleamed white in the lamplight. Laura, on the other
+hand, leaned forward, her lips parted, drinking in her brother's words
+with a glow of colour upon either cheek. It seemed to Robert, as he
+glanced from one to the other of them, that he had never seen his father
+look so evil, or his sister so beautiful.
+
+"Who is the fellow, then?" asked the old man after a considerable pause.
+"I hope he got all this in an honest fashion. Five millions in jewels,
+you say. Good gracious me! Ready to give it away, too, but afraid of
+pauperising any one. You can tell him, Robert, that you know of one
+very deserving case which has not the slightest objection to being
+pauperised."
+
+"But who can he possibly be, Robert?" cried Laura. "Haw cannot be his
+real name. He must be some disguised prince, or perhaps a king in exile.
+Oh, I should have loved to have seen those diamonds and the emeralds! I
+always think that emeralds suit dark people best. You must tell me again
+all about that museum, Robert."
+
+"I don't think that he is anything more than he pretends to be," her
+brother answered. "He has the plain, quiet manners of an ordinary
+middle-class Englishman. There was no particular polish that I
+could see. He knew a little about books and pictures, just enough to
+appreciate them, but nothing more. No, I fancy that he is a man quite in
+our own position of life, who has in some way inherited a vast sum. Of
+course it is difficult for me to form an estimate, but I should judge
+that what I saw to-day--house, pictures, jewels, books, and so on--could
+never have been bought under twenty millions, and I am sure that that
+figure is entirely an under-statement."
+
+"I never knew but one Haw," said old McIntyre, drumming his fingers on
+the table; "he was a foreman in my pin-fire cartridge-case department.
+But he was an elderly single man. Well, I hope he got it all honestly. I
+hope the money is clean."
+
+"And really, really, he is coming to see us!" cried Laura, clapping her
+hands. "Oh, when do you think he will come, Robert? Do give me warning.
+Do you think it will be to-morrow?"
+
+"I am sure I cannot say."
+
+"I should so love to see him. I don't know when I have been so
+interested."
+
+"Why, you have a letter there," remarked Robert. "From Hector, too, by
+the foreign stamp. How is he?"
+
+"It only came this evening. I have not opened it yet. To tell the truth,
+I have been so interested in your story that I had forgotten all about
+it. Poor old Hector! It is from Madeira." She glanced rapidly over the
+four pages of straggling writing in the young sailor's bold schoolboyish
+hand. "Oh, he is all right," she said. "They had a gale on the way out,
+and that sort of thing, but he is all right now. He thinks he may
+be back by March. I wonder whether your new friend will come
+to-morrow--your knight of the enchanted Castle."
+
+"Hardly so soon, I should fancy."
+
+"If he should be looking about for an investment. Robert," said the
+father, "you won't forget to tell him what a fine opening there is now
+in the gun trade. With my knowledge, and a few thousands at my back, I
+could bring him in his thirty per cent. as regular as the bank. After
+all, he must lay out his money somehow. He cannot sink it all in
+books and precious stones. I am sure that I could give him the highest
+references."
+
+"It may be a long time before he comes, father," said Robert coldly;
+"and when he does I am afraid that I can hardly use his friendship as a
+means of advancing your interest."
+
+"We are his equals, father," cried Laura with spirit. "Would you put us
+on the footing of beggars? He would think we cared for him only for his
+money. I wonder that you should think of such a thing."
+
+"If I had not thought of such things where would your education have
+been, miss?" retorted the angry old man; and Robert stole quietly away
+to his room, whence amid his canvases he could still hear the hoarse
+voice and the clear in their never-ending family jangle. More and more
+sordid seemed the surroundings of his life, and more and more to be
+valued the peace which money can buy.
+
+Breakfast had hardly been cleared in the morning, and Robert had not yet
+ascended to his work, when there came a timid tapping at the door, and
+there was Raffles Haw on the mat outside. Robert ran out and welcomed
+him with all cordiality.
+
+"I am afraid that I am a very early visitor," he said apologetically;
+"but I often take a walk after breakfast." He had no traces of work upon
+him now, but was trim and neat with a dark suit, and carefully brushed
+hair. "You spoke yesterday of your work. Perhaps, early as it is, you
+would allow me the privilege of looking over your studio?"
+
+"Pray step in, Mr. Haw," cried Robert, all in a flutter at this advance
+from so munificent a patron of art; "I should be only too happy to show
+you such little work as I have on hand, though, indeed, I am almost
+afraid when I think how familiar you are with some of the greatest
+masterpieces. Allow me to introduce you to my father and to my sister
+Laura."
+
+Old McIntyre bowed low and rubbed his thin hands together; but the young
+lady gave a gasp of surprise, and stared with widely-opened eyes at the
+millionaire. Maw stepped forward, however, and shook her quietly by the
+hand,
+
+"I expected to find that it was you," he said. "I have already met your
+sister, Mr. McIntyre, on the very first day that I came here. We took
+shelter in a shed from a snowstorm, and had quite a pleasant little
+chat."
+
+"I had no notion that I was speaking to the owner of the Hall," said
+Laura in some confusion. "How funnily things turn out, to be sure!"
+
+"I had often wondered who it was that I spoke to, but it was only
+yesterday that I discovered. What a sweet little place you have here! It
+must be charming in summer. Why, if it were not for this hill my windows
+would look straight across at yours."
+
+"Yes, and we should see all your beautiful plantations," said Laura,
+standing beside him in the window. "I was wishing only yesterday that
+the hill was not there."
+
+"Really! I shall be happy to have it removed for you if you would like
+it."
+
+"Good gracious!" cried Laura. "Why, where would you put it?"
+
+"Oh, they could run it along the line and dump it anywhere. It is not
+much of a hill. A few thousand men with proper machinery, and a line
+of rails brought right up to them could easily dispose of it in a few
+months."
+
+"And the poor vicar's house?" Laura asked, laughing.
+
+"I think that might be got over. We could run him up a facsimile, which
+would, perhaps, be more convenient to him. Your brother will tell you
+that I am quite an expert at the designing of houses. But, seriously, if
+you think it would be an improvement I will see what can be done."
+
+"Not for the world, Mr. Haw. Why, I should be a traitor to the whole
+village if I were to encourage such a scheme. The hill is the one thing
+which gives Tamfield the slightest individuality. It would be the
+height of selfishness to sacrifice it in order to improve the view from
+Elmdene."
+
+"It is a little box of a place this, Mr. Haw," said old McIntyre. "I
+should think you must feel quite stifled in it after your grand mansion,
+of which my son tells me such wonders. But we were not always accustomed
+to this sort of thing, Mr. Haw. Humble as I stand here, there was a
+time, and not so long ago, when I could write as many figures on a
+cheque as any gunmaker in Birmingham. It was--"
+
+"He is a dear discontented old papa," cried Laura, throwing her arm
+round him in a caressing manner. He gave a sharp squeak and a grimace
+of pain, which he endeavoured to hide by an outbreak of painfully
+artificial coughing.
+
+"Shall we go upstairs?" said Robert hurriedly, anxious to divert his
+guest's attention from this little domestic incident. "My studio is the
+real atelier, for it is right up under the tiles. I shall lead the way,
+if you will have the kindness to follow me."
+
+Leaving Laura and Mr. McIntyre, they went up together to the workroom.
+Mr. Haw stood long in front of the "Signing of Magna Charta," and
+the "Murder of Thomas a Becket," screwing up his eyes and twitching
+nervously at his beard, while Robert stood by in anxious expectancy.
+
+"And how much are these?" asked Raffles Haw at last.
+
+"I priced them at a hundred apiece when I sent them to London."
+
+"Then the best I can wish you is that the day may come when you would
+gladly give ten times the sum to have them back again. I am sure that
+there are great possibilities in you, and I see that in grouping and in
+boldness of design you have already achieved much. But your drawing, if
+you will excuse my saying so, is just a little crude, and your colouring
+perhaps a trifle thin. Now, I will make a bargain with you, Mr.
+McIntyre, if you will consent to it. I know that money has no charms
+for you, but still, as you said when I first met you, a man must live.
+I shall buy these two canvases from you at the price which you name,
+subject to the condition that you may always have them back again by
+repaying the same sum."
+
+"You are really very kind." Robert hardly knew whether to be delighted
+at having sold his pictures or humiliated at the frank criticism of the
+buyer.
+
+"May I write a cheque at once?" said Raffles Haw. "Here is pen and ink.
+So! I shall send a couple of footmen down for them in the afternoon.
+Well, I shall keep them in trust for you. I dare say that when you are
+famous they will be of value as specimens of your early manner."
+
+"I am sure that I am extremely obliged to you, Mr. Haw," said the young
+artist, placing the cheque in his notebook. He glanced at it as he
+folded it up, in the vague hope that perhaps this man of whims had
+assessed his pictures at a higher rate than he had named. The figures,
+however, were exact. Robert began dimly to perceive that there were
+drawbacks as well as advantages to the reputation of a money-scorner,
+which he had gained by a few chance words, prompted rather by the
+reaction against his father's than by his own real convictions.
+
+"I hope, Miss McIntyre," said Raffles Haw, when they had descended to
+the sitting-room once more, "that you will do me the honour of coming to
+see the little curiosities which I have gathered together. Your brother
+will, I am sure, escort you up; or perhaps Mr. McIntyre would care to
+come?"
+
+"I shall be delighted to come, Mr. Haw," cried Laura, with her sweetest
+smile. "A good deal of my time just now is taken up in looking after the
+poor people, who find the cold weather very trying." Robert raised his
+eyebrows, for it was the first he had heard of his sister's missions of
+mercy, but Mr. Raffles Haw nodded approvingly. "Robert was telling us of
+your wonderful hot-houses. I am sure I wish I could transport the whole
+parish into one of them, and give them a good warm."
+
+"Nothing would be easier, but I am afraid that they might find it a
+little trying when they came out again. I have one house which is only
+just finished. Your brother has not seen it yet, but I think it is the
+best of them all. It represents an Indian jungle, and is hot enough in
+all conscience."
+
+"I shall so look forward to seeing it," cried Laura, clasping her hands.
+"It has been one of the dreams of my life to see India. I have read so
+much of it, the temples, the forests, the great rivers, and the tigers.
+Why, you would hardly believe it, but I have never seen a tiger except
+in a picture."
+
+"That can easily be set right," said Raffles Haw, with his quiet smile.
+"Would you care to see one?"
+
+"Oh, immensely."
+
+"I will have one sent down. Let me see, it is nearly twelve o'clock. I
+can get a wire to Liverpool by one. There is a man there who deals in
+such things. I should think he would be due to-morrow morning. Well,
+I shall look forward to seeing you all before very long. I have rather
+outstayed my time, for I am a man of routine, and I always put in a
+certain number of hours in my laboratory." He shook hands cordially with
+them all, and lighting his pipe at the doorstep, strolled off upon his
+way.
+
+"Well, what do you think of him now?" asked Robert, as they watched his
+black figure against the white snow.
+
+"I think that he is no more fit to be trusted with all that money than a
+child," cried the old man. "It made me positively sick to hear him talk
+of moving hills and buying tigers, and such-like nonsense, when there
+are honest men without a business, and great businesses starving for a
+little capital. It's unchristian--that's what I call it."
+
+"I think he is most delightful, Robert," said Laura. "Remember, you have
+promised to take us up to the Hall. And he evidently wishes us to go
+soon. Don't you think we might go this afternoon?"
+
+"I hardly think that, Laura. You leave it in my hands, and I will
+arrange it all. And now I must get to work, for the light is so very
+short on these winter days."
+
+That night Robert McIntyre had gone to bed, and was dozing off when a
+hand plucked at his shoulder, and he started up to find his sister in
+some white drapery, with a shawl thrown over her shoulders, standing
+beside him in the moonlight.
+
+"Robert, dear," she whispered, stooping over him, "there was something I
+wanted to ask you, but papa was always in the way. You will do something
+to please me, won't you, Robert?"
+
+"Of course, Laura. What is it?"
+
+"I do so hate having my affairs talked over, dear. If Mr. Raffles Haw
+says anything to you about me, or asks any questions, please don't say
+anything about Hector. You won't, will you, Robert, for the sake of your
+little sister?"
+
+"No; not unless you wish it."
+
+"There is a dear good brother." She stooped over him and kissed him
+tenderly.
+
+It was a rare thing for Laura to show any emotion, and her brother
+marvelled sleepily over it until he relapsed into his interrupted doze.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI. A STRANGE VISITOR.
+
+
+The McIntyre family was seated at breakfast on the morning which
+followed the first visit of Raffles Haw, when they were surprised to
+hear the buzz and hum of a multitude of voices in the village street.
+Nearer and nearer came the tumult, and then, of a sudden, two maddened
+horses reared themselves up on the other side of the garden hedge,
+prancing and pawing, with ears laid back and eyes ever glancing at some
+horror behind them. Two men hung shouting to their bridles, while a
+third came rushing up the curved gravel path. Before the McIntyres could
+realise the situation, their maid, Mary, darted into the sitting-room
+with terror in her round freckled face:
+
+"If you please, miss," she screamed, "your tiger has arrove."
+
+"Good heavens!" cried Robert, rushing to the door with his half-filled
+teacup in his hand. "This is too much. Here is an iron cage on a trolly
+with a great ramping tiger, and the whole village with their mouths
+open."
+
+"Mad as a hatter!" shrieked old Mr. McIntyre. "I could see it in his
+eye. He spent enough on this beast to start me in business.
+Whoever heard of such a thing? Tell the driver to take it to the
+police-station."
+
+"Nothing of the sort, papa," said Laura, rising with dignity and
+wrapping a shawl about her shoulders. Her eyes were shining, her cheeks
+flushed, and she carried herself like a triumphant queen.
+
+Robert, with his teacup in his hand, allowed his attention to be
+diverted from their strange visitor while he gazed at his beautiful
+sister.
+
+"Mr. Raffles Haw has done this out of kindness to me," she said,
+sweeping towards the door. "I look upon it as a great attention on his
+part. I shall certainly go out and look at it."
+
+"If you please, sir," said the carman, reappearing at the door, "it's
+all as we can do to 'old in the 'osses."
+
+"Let us all go out together then," suggested Robert.
+
+They went as far as the garden fence and stared over, while the whole
+village, from the school-children to the old grey-haired men from the
+almshouses, gathered round in mute astonishment. The tiger, a long,
+lithe, venomous-looking creature, with two blazing green eyes, paced
+stealthily round the little cage, lashing its sides with its tail, and
+rubbing its muzzle against the bars.
+
+"What were your orders?" asked Robert of the carman.
+
+"It came through by special express from Liverpool, sir, and the train
+is drawn up at the Tamfield siding all ready to take it back. If it 'ad
+been royalty the railway folk couldn't ha' shown it more respec'. We are
+to take it back when you're done with it. It's been a cruel job, sir,
+for our arms is pulled clean out of the sockets a-'olding in of the
+'osses."
+
+"What a dear, sweet creature it is," cried Laura. "How sleek and how
+graceful! I cannot understand how people could be afraid of anything so
+beautiful."
+
+"If you please, marm," said the carman, touching his skin cap, "he out
+with his paw between the bars as we stood in the station yard, and if
+I 'adn't pulled my mate Bill back it would ha' been a case of kingdom
+come. It was a proper near squeak, I can tell ye."
+
+"I never saw anything more lovely," continued Laura, loftily overlooking
+the remarks of the driver. "It has been a very great pleasure to me
+to see it, and I hope that you will tell Mr. Haw so if you see him,
+Robert."
+
+"The horses are very restive," said her brother. "Perhaps, Laura, if you
+have seen enough, it would be as well to let them go."
+
+She bowed in the regal fashion which she had so suddenly adopted. Robert
+shouted the order, the driver sprang up, his comrades let the horses
+go, and away rattled the waggon and the trolly with half the Tamfielders
+streaming vainly behind it.
+
+"Is it not wonderful what money can do?" Laura remarked, as they knocked
+the snow from their shoes within the porch. "There seems to be no wish
+which Mr. Haw could not at once gratify."
+
+"No wish of yours, you mean," broke in her father. "It's different when
+he is dealing with a wrinkled old man who has spent himself in working
+for his children. A plainer case of love at first sight I never saw."
+
+"How can you be so coarse, papa?" cried Laura, but her eyes flashed, and
+her teeth gleamed, as though the remark had not altogether displeased
+her.
+
+"For heaven's sake, be careful, Laura!" cried Robert. "It had not struck
+me before, but really it does look rather like it. You know how you
+stand. Raffles Haw is not a man to play with."
+
+"You dear old boy!" said Laura, laying her hand upon his shoulder, "what
+do you know of such things? All you have to do is to go on with your
+painting, and to remember the promise you made the other night."
+
+"What promise was that, then?" cried old McIntyre suspiciously.
+
+"Never you mind, papa. But if you forget it, Robert, I shall never
+forgive you as long as I live."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII. THE WORKINGS OF WEALTH.
+
+
+It can easily be believed that as the weeks passed the name and fame
+of the mysterious owner of the New Hall resounded over the quiet
+countryside until the rumour of him had spread to the remotest corners
+of Warwickshire and Staffordshire. In Birmingham on the one side, and in
+Coventry and Leamington on the other, there was gossip as to his untold
+riches, his extraordinary whims, and the remarkable life which he led.
+His name was bandied from mouth to mouth, and a thousand efforts were
+made to find out who and what he was. In spite of all their pains,
+however, the newsmongers were unable to discover the slightest trace of
+his antecedents, or to form even a guess as to the secret of his riches.
+
+It was no wonder that conjecture was rife upon the subject, for hardly a
+day passed without furnishing some new instance of the boundlessness of
+his power and of the goodness of his heart. Through the vicar, Robert,
+and others, he had learned much of the inner life of the parish, and
+many were the times when the struggling man, harassed and driven to
+the wall, found thrust into his hand some morning a brief note with
+an enclosure which rolled all the sorrow back from his life. One day a
+thick double-breasted pea-jacket and a pair of good sturdy boots were
+served out to every old man in the almshouse. On another, Miss Swire,
+the decayed gentlewoman who eked out her small annuity by needlework,
+had a brand new first-class sewing-machine handed in to her to take the
+place of the old worn-out treadle which tried her rheumatic joints.
+The pale-faced schoolmaster, who had spent years with hardly a break in
+struggling with the juvenile obtuseness of Tamfield, received through
+the post a circular ticket for a two months' tour through Southern
+Europe, with hotel coupons and all complete. John Hackett, the farmer,
+after five long years of bad seasons, borne with a brave heart, had at
+last been overthrown by the sixth, and had the bailiffs actually in the
+house when the good vicar had rushed in, waving a note above his head,
+to tell him not only that his deficit had been made up, but that enough
+remained over to provide the improved machinery which would enable him
+to hold his own for the future. An almost superstitious feeling came
+upon the rustic folk as they looked at the great palace when the sun
+gleamed upon the huge hot-houses, or even more so, perhaps, when at
+night the brilliant electric lights shot their white radiance through
+the countless rows of windows. To them it was as if some minor
+Providence presided in that great place, unseen but seeing all,
+boundless in its power and its graciousness, ever ready to assist and to
+befriend. In every good deed, however, Raffles Haw still remained in
+the background, while the vicar and Robert had the pleasant task of
+conveying his benefits to the lowly and the suffering.
+
+Once only did he appear in his own person, and that was upon the famous
+occasion when he saved the well-known bank of Garraweg Brothers in
+Birmingham. The most charitable and upright of men, the two brothers,
+Louis and Rupert, had built up a business which extended its
+ramifications into every townlet of four counties. The failure of their
+London agents had suddenly brought a heavy loss upon them, and the
+circumstance leaking out had caused a sudden and most dangerous run upon
+their establishment. Urgent telegrams for bullion from all their forty
+branches poured in at the very instant when the head office was crowded
+with anxious clients all waving their deposit-books, and clamouring for
+their money. Bravely did the two brothers with their staff stand with
+smiling faces behind the shining counter, while swift messengers sped
+and telegrams flashed to draw in all the available resources of the
+bank. All day the stream poured through the office, and when four
+o'clock came, and the doors were closed for the day, the street without
+was still blocked by the expectant crowd, while there remained scarce a
+thousand pounds of bullion in the cellars.
+
+"It is only postponed. Louis," said brother Rupert despairingly, when
+the last clerk had left the office, and when at last they could relax
+the fixed smile upon their haggard faces.
+
+"Those shutters will never come down again," cried brother Louis, and
+the two suddenly burst out sobbing in each other's arms, not for their
+own griefs, but for the miseries which they might bring upon those who
+had trusted them.
+
+But who shall ever dare to say that there is no hope, if he will but
+give his griefs to the world? That very night Mrs. Spurling had received
+a letter from her old school friend, Mrs. Louis Garraweg, with all her
+fears and her hopes poured out in it, and the whole sad story of their
+troubles. Swift from the Vicarage went the message to the Hall, and
+early next morning Mr. Raffles Haw, with a great black carpet-bag in his
+hand, found means to draw the cashier of the local branch of the Bank
+of England from his breakfast, and to persuade him to open his doors
+at unofficial hours. By half-past nine the crowd had already begun
+to collect around Garraweg's, when a stranger, pale and thin, with a
+bloated carpet-bag, was shown at his own very pressing request into the
+bank parlour.
+
+"It is no use, sir," said the elder brother humbly, as they stood
+together encouraging each other to turn a brave face to misfortune,
+"we can do no more. We have little left, and it would be unfair to the
+others to pay you now. We can but hope that when our assets are realised
+no one will be the loser save ourselves."
+
+"I did not come to draw out, but to put in," said Raffles Haw in his
+demure apologetic fashion. "I have in my bag five thousand hundred-pound
+Bank of England notes. If you will have the goodness to place them to my
+credit account I should be extremely obliged."
+
+"But, good heavens, sir!" stammered Rupert Garraweg, "have you
+not heard? Have you not seen? We cannot allow you to do this thing
+blindfold; can we Louis?"
+
+"Most certainly not. We cannot recommend our bank, sir, at the present
+moment, for there is a run upon us, and we do not know to what lengths
+it may go."
+
+"Tut! tut!" said Raffles Haw. "If the run continues you must send me a
+wire, and I shall make a small addition to my account. You will send me
+a receipt by post. Good-morning, gentlemen!" He bowed himself out ere
+the astounded partners could realise what had befallen them, or raise
+their eyes from the huge black bag and the visiting card which lay upon
+their table. There was no great failure in Birmingham that day, and the
+house of Garraweg still survives to enjoy the success which it deserves.
+
+Such were the deeds by which Raffles Haw made himself known throughout
+the Midlands, and yet, in spite of all his open-handedness, he was not
+a man to be imposed upon. In vain the sturdy beggar cringed at his gate,
+and in vain the crafty letter-writer poured out a thousand fabulous woes
+upon paper. Robert was astonished when he brought some tale of trouble
+to the Hall to observe how swift was the perception of the recluse, and
+how unerringly he could detect a flaw in a narrative, or lay his finger
+upon the one point which rang false. Were a man strong enough to help
+himself, or of such a nature as to profit nothing by help, none would
+he get from the master of the New Hall. In vain, for example, did old
+McIntyre throw himself continually across the path of the millionaire,
+and impress upon him, by a thousand hints and innuendoes, the hard
+fortune which had been dealt him, and the ease with which his fallen
+greatness might be restored. Raffles Haw listened politely, bowed,
+smiled, but never showed the slightest inclination to restore the
+querulous old gunmaker to his pedestal.
+
+But if the recluse's wealth was a lure which drew the beggars from
+far and near, as the lamp draws the moths, it had the same power of
+attraction upon another and much more dangerous class. Strange hard
+faces were seen in the village street, prowling figures were marked at
+night stealing about among the fir plantations, and warning messages
+arrived from city police and county constabulary to say that evil
+visitors were known to have taken train to Tamfield. But if, as Raffles
+Haw held, there were few limits to the power of immense wealth, it
+possessed, among other things, the power of self-preservation, as one or
+two people were to learn to their cost.
+
+"Would you mind stepping up to the Hall?" he said one morning, putting
+his head in at the door of the Elmdene sitting-room. "I have something
+there that might amuse you." He was on intimate terms with the McIntyres
+now, and there were few days on which they did not see something of each
+other.
+
+They gladly accompanied him, all three, for such invitations were
+usually the prelude of some agreeable surprise which he had in store for
+them.
+
+"I have shown you a tiger," he remarked to Laura, as he led them into
+the dining-room. "I will now show you something quite as dangerous,
+though not nearly so pretty." There was an arrangement of mirrors at one
+end of the room, with a large circular glass set at a sharp angle at the
+top.
+
+"Look in there--in the upper glass," said Raffles Haw.
+
+"Good gracious! what dreadful-looking men!" cried Laura. "There are two
+of them, and I don't know which is the worse."
+
+"What on earth are they doing?" asked Robert. "They appear to be sitting
+on the ground in some sort of a cellar."
+
+"Most dangerous-looking characters," said the old man. "I should
+strongly recommend you to send for a policeman."
+
+"I have done so. But it seems a work of supererogation to take them to
+prison, for they are very snugly in prison already. However, I suppose
+that the law must have its own."
+
+"And who are they, and how did they come there? Do tell us, Mr. Haw."
+
+Laura McIntyre had a pretty beseeching way with her, which went rather
+piquantly with her queenly style of beauty.
+
+"I know no more than you do. They were not there last night, and they
+are here this morning, so I suppose it is a safe inference that they
+came in during the night, especially as my servants found the window
+open when they came down. As to their character and intentions, I should
+think that is pretty legible upon their faces. They look a pair of
+beauties, don't they?"
+
+"But I cannot understand in the least where they are," said Robert,
+staring into the mirror. "One of them has taken to butting his head
+against the wall. No, he is bending so that the other may stand upon his
+back. He is up there now, and the light is shining upon his face. What
+a bewildered ruffianly face it is too. I should so like to sketch it.
+It would be a study for the picture I am thinking of of the Reign of
+Terror."
+
+"I have caught them in my patent burglar trap," said Haw. "They are my
+first birds, but I have no doubt that they will not be the last. I will
+show you how it works. It is quite a new thing. This flooring is now
+as strong as possible, but every night I disconnect it. It is done
+simultaneously by a central machine for every room on the ground-floor.
+When the floor is disconnected one may advance three or four steps,
+either from the window or door, and then that whole part turns on a
+hinge and slides you into a padded strong-room beneath, where you may
+kick your heels until you are released. There is a central oasis between
+the hinges, where the furniture is grouped for the night. The flooring
+flies into position again when the weight of the intruder is removed,
+and there he must bide, while I can always take a peep at him by this
+simple little optical arrangement. I thought it might amuse you to have
+a look at my prisoners before I handed them over to the head-constable,
+who I see is now coming up the avenue."
+
+"The poor burglars!" cried Laura. "It is no wonder that they look
+bewildered, for I suppose, Mr. Haw, that they neither know where they
+are, nor how they came there. I am so glad to know that you guard
+yourself in this way, for I have often thought that you ran a danger."
+
+"Have you so?" said he, smiling round at her. "I think that my house
+is fairly burglar-proof. I have one window which may be used as an
+entrance, the centre one of the three of my laboratory. I keep it so
+because, to tell the truth, I am somewhat of a night prowler myself, and
+when I treat myself to a ramble under the stars I like to slip in and
+out without ceremony. It would, however, be a fortunate rogue who picked
+the only safe entrance out of a hundred, and even then he might find
+pitfalls. Here is the constable, but you must not go, for Miss McIntyre
+has still something to see in my little place. If you will step into the
+billiard-room I shall be with you in a very few moments."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII. A BILLIONAIRE'S PLANS.
+
+
+That morning, and many mornings both before and afterwards, were spent
+by Laura at the New Hall examining the treasures of the museum, playing
+with the thousand costly toys which Raffles Haw had collected, or
+sallying out from the smoking-room in the crystal chamber into the long
+line of luxurious hot-houses. Haw would walk demurely beside her as
+she flitted from one thing to another like a butterfly among flowers,
+watching her out of the corner of his eyes, and taking a quiet pleasure
+in her delight. The only joy which his costly possessions had ever
+brought him was that which came from the entertainment of others.
+
+By this time his attentions towards Laura McIntyre had become so
+marked that they could hardly be mistaken. He visibly brightened in
+her presence, and was never weary of devising a thousand methods of
+surprising and pleasing her. Every morning ere the McIntyre family were
+afoot a great bouquet of strange and beautiful flowers was brought
+down by a footman from the Hall to brighten their breakfast-table. Her
+slightest wish, however fantastic, was instantly satisfied, if human
+money or ingenuity could do it. When the frost lasted a stream was
+dammed and turned from its course that it might flood two meadows,
+solely in order that she might have a place upon which to skate. With
+the thaw there came a groom every afternoon with a sleek and beautiful
+mare in case Miss McIntyre should care to ride. Everything went to show
+that she had made a conquest of the recluse of the New Hall.
+
+And she on her side played her part admirably. With female adaptiveness
+she fell in with his humour, and looked at the world through his eyes.
+Her talk was of almshouses and free libraries, of charities and of
+improvements. He had never a scheme to which she could not add some
+detail making it more complete and more effective. To Haw it seemed that
+at last he had met a mind which was in absolute affinity with his own.
+Here was a help-mate, who could not only follow, but even lead him in
+the path which he had chosen.
+
+Neither Robert nor his father could fail to see what was going forward,
+but to the latter nothing could possibly be more acceptable than a
+family tie which should connect him, however indirectly, with a man of
+vast fortune. The glamour of the gold bags had crept over Robert also,
+and froze the remonstrance upon his lips. It was very pleasant to have
+the handling of all this wealth, even as a mere agent. Why should he
+do or say what might disturb their present happy relations? It was his
+sister's business, not his; and as to Hector Spurling, he must take his
+chance as other men did. It was obviously best not to move one way or
+the other in the matter.
+
+But to Robert himself, his work and his surroundings were becoming more
+and more irksome. His joy in his art had become less keen since he had
+known Raffles Haw. It seemed so hard to toll and slave to earn such a
+trifling sum, when money could really be had for the asking. It was true
+that he had asked for none, but large sums were for ever passing through
+his hands for those who were needy, and if he were needy himself his
+friend would surely not grudge it to him. So the Roman galleys still
+remained faintly outlined upon the great canvas, while Robert's days
+were spent either in the luxurious library at the Hall, or in strolling
+about the country listening to tales of trouble, and returning like
+a tweed-suited ministering angel to carry Raffles Haw's help to the
+unfortunate. It was not an ambitious life, but it was one which was very
+congenial to his weak and easy-going nature.
+
+Robert had observed that fits of depression had frequently come upon
+the millionaire, and it had sometimes struck him that the enormous sums
+which he spent had possibly made a serious inroad into his capital, and
+that his mind was troubled as to the future. His abstracted manner, his
+clouded brow, and his bent head all spoke of a soul which was weighed
+down with care, and it was only in Laura's presence that he could throw
+off the load of his secret trouble. For five hours a day he buried
+himself in the laboratory and amused himself with his hobby, but it
+was one of his whims that no one, neither any of his servants, nor
+even Laura or Robert, should ever cross the threshold of that outlying
+building. Day after day he vanished into it, to reappear hours
+afterwards pale and exhausted, while the whirr of machinery and the
+smoke which streamed from his high chimney showed how considerable were
+the operations which he undertook single-handed.
+
+"Could I not assist you in any way?" suggested Robert, as they sat
+together after luncheon in the smoking-room. "I am convinced that you
+over-try your strength. I should be so glad to help you, and I know a
+little of chemistry."
+
+"Do you, indeed?" said Raffles Haw, raising his eyebrows. "I had no
+idea of that; it is very seldom that the artistic and the scientific
+faculties go together."
+
+"I don't know that I have either particularly developed. But I have
+taken classes, and I worked for two years in the laboratory at Sir
+Josiah Mason's Institute."
+
+"I am delighted to hear it," Haw replied with emphasis. "That may be
+of great importance to us. It is very possible--indeed, almost
+certain--that I shall avail myself of your offer of assistance, and
+teach you something of my chemical methods, which I may say differ
+considerably from those of the orthodox school. The time, however, is
+hardly ripe for that. What is it, Jones?"
+
+"A note, sir."
+
+The butler handed it in upon a silver salver. Haw broke the seal and ran
+his eye over it.
+
+"Tut! tut! It is from Lady Morsley, asking me to the Lord-Lieutenant's
+ball. I cannot possibly accept. It is very kind of them, but I do wish
+they would leave me alone. Very well, Jones. I shall write. Do you know,
+Robert, I am often very unhappy."
+
+He frequently called the young artist by his Christian name, especially
+in his more confidential moments.
+
+"I have sometimes feared that you were," said the other sympathetically.
+"But how strange it seems, you who are yet young, healthy, with every
+faculty for enjoyment, and a millionaire."
+
+"Ah, Robert," cried Haw, leaning back in his chair, and sending up thick
+blue wreaths from his pipe. "You have put your finger upon my
+trouble. If I were a millionaire I might be happy, but, alas, I am no
+millionaire!"
+
+"Good heavens!" gasped Robert.
+
+Cold seemed to shoot to his inmost soul as it flashed upon him that this
+was a prelude to a confession of impending bankruptcy, and that all this
+glorious life, all the excitement and the colour and change, were about
+to vanish into thin air.
+
+"No millionaire!" he stammered.
+
+"No, Robert; I am a billionaire--perhaps the only one in the world. That
+is what is on my mind, and why I am unhappy sometimes. I feel that I
+should spend this money--that I should put it in circulation--and yet it
+is so hard to do it without failing to do good--without doing positive
+harm. I feel my responsibility deeply. It weighs me down. Am I justified
+in continuing to live this quiet life when there are so many millions
+whom I might save and comfort if I could but reach them?"
+
+Robert heaved a long sigh of relief. "Perhaps you take too grave a view
+of your responsibilities," he said. "Everybody knows that the good which
+you have done is immense. What more could you desire? If you really
+wished to extend your benevolence further, there are organised charities
+everywhere which would be very glad of your help."
+
+"I have the names of two hundred and seventy of them," Haw answered.
+"You must run your eye over them some time, and see if you can suggest
+any others. I send my annual mite to each of them. I don't think there
+is much room for expansion in that direction."
+
+"Well, really you have done your share, and more than your share.
+I would settle down to lead a happy life, and think no more of the
+matter."
+
+"I could not do that," Haw answered earnestly. "I have not been singled
+out to wield this immense power simply in order that I might lead
+a happy life. I can never believe that. Now, can you not use your
+imagination, Robert, and devise methods by which a man who has command
+of--well, let us say, for argument's sake, boundless wealth, could
+benefit mankind by it, without taking away any one's independence or in
+any way doing harm?"
+
+"Well, really, now that I come to think of it, it is a very difficult
+problem," said Robert.
+
+"Now I will submit a few schemes to you, and you may give me your
+opinion on them. Supposing that such a man were to buy ten square miles
+of ground here in Staffordshire, and were to build upon it a neat city,
+consisting entirely of clean, comfortable little four-roomed
+houses, furnished in a simple style, with shops and so forth, but no
+public-houses. Supposing, too, that he were to offer a house free to all
+the homeless folk, all the tramps, and broken men, and out-of-workers
+in Great Britain. Then, having collected them together, let him employ
+them, under fitting superintendence, upon some colossal piece of work
+which would last for many years, and perhaps be of permanent value to
+humanity. Give them a good rate of pay, and let their hours of labour be
+reasonable, and those of recreation be pleasant. Might you not benefit
+them and benefit humanity at one stroke?"
+
+"But what form of work could you devise which would employ so vast
+a number for so long a time, and yet not compete with any existing
+industry? To do the latter would simply mean to shift the misery from
+one class to another."
+
+"Precisely so. I should compete with no one. What I thought of doing was
+of sinking a shaft through the earth's crust, and of establishing rapid
+communication with the Antipodes. When you had got a certain distance
+down--how far is an interesting mathematical problem--the centre of
+gravity would be beneath you, presuming that your boring was not quite
+directed towards the centre, and you could then lay down rails and
+tunnel as if you were on the level."
+
+Then for the first time it flashed into Robert McIntyre's head that his
+father's chance words were correct, and that he was in the presence of
+a madman. His great wealth had clearly turned his brain, and made him a
+monomaniac. He nodded indulgently, as when one humours a child.
+
+"It would be very nice," he said. "I have heard, however, that the
+interior of the earth is molten, and your workmen would need to be
+Salamanders."
+
+"The latest scientific data do not bear out the idea that the earth
+is so hot," answered Raffles Haw. "It is certain that the increased
+temperature in coal mines depends upon the barometric pressure. There
+are gases in the earth which may be ignited, and there are combustible
+materials as we see in the volcanoes; but if we came across anything of
+the sort in our borings, we could turn a river or two down the shaft,
+and get the better of it in that fashion."
+
+"It would be rather awkward if the other end of your shaft came out
+under the Pacific Ocean," said Robert, choking down his inclination to
+laugh.
+
+"I have had estimates and calculations from the first living
+engineers--French, English, and American. The point of exit of the
+tunnel could be calculated to the yard. That portfolio in the corner is
+full of sections, plans, and diagrams. I have agents employed in buying
+up land, and if all goes well, we may get to work in the autumn. That is
+one device which may produce results. Another is canal-cutting."
+
+"Ah, there you would compete with the railways."
+
+"You don't quite understand. I intend to cut canals through every neck
+of land where such a convenience would facilitate commerce. Such a
+scheme, when unaccompanied by any toll upon vessels, would, I think, be
+a very judicious way of helping the human race."
+
+"And where, pray, would you cut the canals?" asked Robert.
+
+"I have a map of the world here," Haw answered, rising, and taking one
+down from the paper-rack. "You see the blue pencil marks. Those are the
+points where I propose to establish communication. Of course, I should
+begin by the obvious duty of finishing the Panama business."
+
+"Naturally." The man's lunacy was becoming more and more obvious, and
+yet there was such precision and coolness in his manner, that Robert
+found himself against his own reason endorsing and speculating over his
+plans.
+
+"The Isthmus of Corinth also occurs to one. That, however, is a small
+matter, from either a financial or an engineering point of view. I
+propose, however, to make a junction here, through Kiel between the
+German Ocean and the Baltic. It saves, you will observe, the whole
+journey round the coast of Denmark, and would facilitate our trade with
+Germany and Russia. Another very obvious improvement is to join the
+Forth and the Clyde, so as to connect Leith with the Irish and American
+routes. You see the blue line?"
+
+"Quite so."
+
+"And we will have a little cutting here. It will run from Uleaborg to
+Kem, and will connect the White Sea with the Gulf of Bothnia. We must
+not allow our sympathies to be insular, must we? Our little charities
+should be cosmopolitan. We will try and give the good people of
+Archangel a better outlet for their furs and their tallow."
+
+"But it will freeze."
+
+"For six months in the year. Still, it will be something. Then we must
+do something for the East. It would never do to overlook the East."
+
+"It would certainly be an oversight," said Robert, who was keenly alive
+to the comical side of the question. Raffles Haw, however, in deadly
+earnest, sat scratching away at his map with his blue pencil.
+
+"Here is a point where we might be of some little use. If we cut through
+from Batoum to the Kura River we might tap the trade of the Caspian, and
+open up communication with all the rivers which run into it. You notice
+that they include a considerable tract of country. Then, again, I think
+that we might venture upon a little cutting between Beirut, on the
+Mediterranean, and the upper waters of the Euphrates, which would lead
+us into the Persian Gulf. Those are one or two of the more obvious
+canals which might knit the human race into a closer whole."
+
+"Your plans are certainly stupendous," said Robert, uncertain whether to
+laugh or to be awe-struck. "You will cease to be a man, and become one
+of the great forces of Nature, altering, moulding, and improving."
+
+"That is precisely the view which I take of myself. That is why I feel
+my responsibility so acutely."
+
+"But surely if you will do all this you may rest. It is a considerable
+programme."
+
+"Not at all. I am a patriotic Briton, and I should like to do something
+to leave my name in the annals of my country. I should prefer, however,
+to do it after my own death, as anything in the shape of publicity and
+honour is very offensive to me. I have, therefore, put by eight hundred
+million in a place which shall be duly mentioned in my will, which I
+propose to devote to paying off the National Debt. I cannot see that any
+harm could arise from its extinction."
+
+Robert sat staring, struck dumb by the audacity of the strange man's
+words.
+
+"Then there is the heating of the soil. There is room for improvement
+there. You have no doubt read of the immense yields which have resulted
+in Jersey and elsewhere, from the running of hot-water pipes through the
+soil. The crops are trebled and quadrupled. I would propose to try the
+experiment upon a larger scale. We might possibly reserve the Isle of
+Man to serve as a pumping and heating station. The main pipes would run
+to England, Ireland, and Scotland, where they would subdivide rapidly
+until they formed a network two feet deep under the whole country. A
+pipe at distances of a yard would suffice for every purpose."
+
+"I am afraid," suggested Robert, "that the water which left the Isle of
+Man warm might lose a little of its virtue before it reached Caithness,
+for example."
+
+"There need not be any difficulty there. Every few miles a furnace might
+be arranged to keep up the temperature. These are a few of my plans for
+the future, Robert, and I shall want the co-operation of disinterested
+men like yourself in all of them. But how brightly the sun shines, and
+how sweet the countryside looks! The world is very beautiful, and
+I should like to leave it happier than I found it. Let us walk out
+together, Robert, and you will tell me of any fresh cases where I may be
+of assistance."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX. A NEW DEPARTURE.
+
+
+Whatever good Mr. Raffles Haw's wealth did to the world, there could be
+no doubt that there were cases where it did harm. The very contemplation
+and thought of it had upon many a disturbing and mischievous effect.
+Especially was this the case with the old gunmaker. From being merely
+a querulous and grasping man, he had now become bitter, brooding, and
+dangerous. Week by week, as he saw the tide of wealth flow as it were
+through his very house without being able to divert the smallest rill to
+nourish his own fortunes, he became more wolfish and more hungry-eyed.
+He spoke less of his own wrongs, but he brooded more, and would stand
+for hours on Tamfield Hill looking down at the great palace beneath, as
+a thirst-stricken man might gaze at the desert mirage.
+
+He had worked, and peeped, and pried, too, until there were points upon
+which he knew more than either his son or his daughter.
+
+"I suppose that you still don't know where your friend gets his money?"
+he remarked to Robert one morning, as they walked together through the
+village.
+
+"No, father, I do not. I only know that he spends it very well."
+
+"Well!" snarled the old man. "Yes, very well! He has helped every tramp
+and slut and worthless vagabond over the countryside, but he will
+not advance a pound, even on the best security, to help a respectable
+business man to fight against misfortune."
+
+"My dear father, I really cannot argue with you about it," said Robert.
+"I have already told you more than once what I think. Mr. Haw's object
+is to help those who are destitute. He looks upon us as his equals, and
+would not presume to patronise us, or to act as if we could not help
+ourselves. It would be a humiliation to us to take his money."
+
+"Pshaw! Besides, it is only a question of an advance, and advances
+are made every day among business men. How can you talk such nonsense,
+Robert?"
+
+Early as it was, his son could see from his excited, quarrelsome manner
+that the old man had been drinking. The habit had grown upon him of
+late, and it was seldom now that he was entirely sober.
+
+"Mr. Raffles Haw is the best judge," said Robert coldly. "If he earns
+the money, he has a right to spend it as he likes."
+
+"And how does he earn it? You don't know, Robert. You don't know that
+you aren't aiding and abetting a felony when you help him to fritter
+it away. Was ever so much money earned in an honest fashion? I tell you
+there never was. I tell you, also, that lumps of gold are no more to
+that man than chunks of coal to the miners over yonder. He could build
+his house of them and think nothing of it."
+
+"I know that he is very rich, father. I think, however, that he has an
+extravagant way of talking sometimes, and that his imagination carries
+him away. I have heard him talk of plans which the richest man upon
+earth could not possibly hope to carry through."
+
+"Don't you make any mistake, my son. Your poor old father isn't quite
+a fool, though he is only an honest broken merchant." He looked up
+sideways at his son with a wink and a most unpleasant leer. "Where
+there's money I can smell it. There's money there, and heaps of it.
+It's my belief that he is the richest man in the world, though how he
+came to be so I should not like to guarantee. I'm not quite blind yet,
+Robert. Have you seen the weekly waggon?"
+
+"The weekly waggon!"
+
+"Yes, Robert. You see I can find some news for you yet. It is due this
+morning. Every Saturday morning you will see the waggon come in. Why,
+here it is now, as I am a living man, coming round the curve."
+
+Robert glanced back and saw a great heavy waggon drawn by two strong
+horses lumbering slowly along the road which led to the New Hall. From
+the efforts of the animals and its slow pace the contents seemed to be
+of great weight.
+
+"Just you wait here," old McIntyre cried, plucking at his son's sleeve
+with his thin bony hand. "Wait here and see it pass. Then we will watch
+what becomes of it."
+
+They stood by the side of the road until it came abreast of them. The
+waggon was covered with tarpaulin sheetings in front and at the sides,
+but behind some glimpse could be caught of the contents. They consisted,
+as far as Robert could see, of a number of packets of the same shape,
+each about two feet long and six inches high, arranged symmetrically
+upon the top of each other. Each packet was surrounded by a covering of
+coarse sacking.
+
+"What do you think of that?" asked old McIntyre triumphantly as the load
+creaked past.
+
+"Why, father? What do you make of it?"
+
+"I have watched it, Robert--I have watched it every Saturday, and I had
+my chance of looking a little deeper into it. You remember the day when
+the elm blew down, and the road was blocked until they could saw it in
+two. That was on a Saturday, and the waggon came to a stand until they
+could clear a way for it. I was there, Robert, and I saw my chance.
+I strolled behind the waggon, and I placed my hands upon one of those
+packets. They look small, do they not? It would take a strong man to
+lift one. They are heavy, Robert, heavy, and hard with the hardness of
+metal. I tell you, boy, that that waggon is loaded with gold."
+
+"Gold!"
+
+"With solid bars of gold, Robert. But come into the plantation and we
+shall see what becomes of it."
+
+They passed through the lodge gates, behind the waggon, and then
+wandered off among the fir-trees until they gained a spot where they
+could command a view. The load had halted, not in front of the house,
+but at the door of the out-building with the chimney. A staff of
+stablemen and footmen were in readiness, who proceeded to swiftly unload
+and to carry the packages through the door. It was the first time that
+Robert had ever seen any one save the master of the house enter the
+laboratory. No sign was seen of him now, however, and in half an hour
+the contents had all been safely stored and the waggon had driven
+briskly away.
+
+"I cannot understand it, father," said Robert thoughtfully, as they
+resumed their walk. "Supposing that your supposition is correct, who
+would send him such quantities of gold, and where could it come from?"
+
+"Ha, you have to come to the old man after all!" chuckled his companion.
+"I can see the little game. It is clear enough to me. There are two of
+them in it, you understand. The other one gets the gold. Never mind how,
+but we will hope that there is no harm. Let us suppose, for example,
+that they have found a marvellous mine, where you can just shovel it out
+like clay from a pit. Well, then, he sends it on to this one, and he has
+his furnaces and his chemicals, and he refines and purifies it and makes
+it fit to sell. That's my explanation of it, Robert. Eh, has the old man
+put his finger on it?"
+
+"But if that were true, father, the gold must go back again."
+
+"So it does, Robert, but a little at a time. Ha, ha! I've had my eyes
+open, you see. Every night it goes down in a small cart, and is sent on
+to London by the 7.40. Not in bars this time, but done up in iron-bound
+chests. I've seen them, boy, and I've had this hand upon them."
+
+"Well," said the young man thoughtfully, "maybe you are right. It is
+possible that you are right."
+
+While father and son were prying into his secrets, Raffles Haw had found
+his way to Elmdene, where Laura sat reading the _Queen_ by the fire.
+
+"I am so sorry," she said, throwing down her paper and springing to
+her feet. "They are all out except me. But I am sure that they won't be
+long. I expect Robert every moment."
+
+"I would rather speak with you alone," answered Raffles Haw quietly.
+"Pray sit down, for I wanted to have a little chat with you."
+
+Laura resumed her seat with a flush upon her cheeks and a quickening of
+the breath. She turned her face away and gazed into the fire; but there
+was a sparkle in her eyes which was not caught from the leaping flames.
+
+"Do you remember the first time that we met, Miss McIntyre?" he
+asked, standing on the rug and looking down at her dark hair, and the
+beautifully feminine curve of her ivory neck.
+
+"As if it were yesterday," she answered in her sweet mellow tones.
+
+"Then you must also remember the wild words that I said when we
+parted. It was very foolish of me. I am sure that I am most sorry if I
+frightened or disturbed you, but I have been a very solitary man for a
+long time, and I have dropped into a bad habit of thinking aloud. Your
+voice, your face, your manner, were all so like my ideal of a true
+woman, loving, faithful, and sympathetic, that I could not help
+wondering whether, if I were a poor man, I might ever hope to win the
+affection of such a one."
+
+"Your good opinion, Mr. Raffles Haw, is very dear to me," said Laura.
+"I assure you that I was not frightened, and that there is no need to
+apologise for what was really a compliment."
+
+"Since then I have found," he continued, "that all that I had read upon
+your face was true. That your mind is indeed that of the true woman,
+full of the noblest and sweetest qualities which human nature can aspire
+to. You know that I am a man of fortune, but I wish you to dismiss that
+consideration from your mind. Do you think from what you know of my
+character that you could be happy as my wife, Laura?"
+
+She made no answer, but still sat with her head turned away and her
+sparkling eyes fixed upon the fire. One little foot from under her skirt
+tapped nervously upon the rug.
+
+"It is only right that you should know a little more about me before you
+decide. There is, however, little to know. I am an orphan, and, as far
+as I know, without a relation upon earth. My father was a respectable
+man, a country surgeon in Wales, and he brought me up to his own
+profession. Before I had passed my examinations, however, he died and
+left me a small annuity. I had conceived a great liking for the subjects
+of chemistry and electricity, and instead of going on with my medical
+work I devoted myself entirely to these studies, and eventually built
+myself a laboratory where I could follow out my own researches. At about
+this time I came into a very large sum of money, so large as to make me
+feel that a vast responsibility rested upon me in the use which I made
+of it. After some thought I determined to build a large house in a quiet
+part of the country, not too far from a great centre. There I could be
+in touch with the world, and yet would have quiet and leisure to mature
+the schemes which were in my head. As it chanced, I chose Tamfield as my
+site. All that remains now is to carry out the plans which I have
+made, and to endeavour to lighten the earth of some of the misery and
+injustice which weigh it down. I again ask you, Laura, will you throw
+in your lot with mine, and help me in the life's work which lies before
+me?"
+
+Laura looked up at him, at his stringy figure, his pale face, his keen,
+yet gentle eyes. Somehow as she looked there seemed to form itself
+beside him some shadow of Hector Spurling, the manly features, the
+clear, firm mouth, the frank manner. Now, in the very moment of her
+triumph, it sprang clearly up in her mind how at the hour of their
+ruin he had stood firmly by them, and had loved the penniless girl as
+tenderly as the heiress to fortune. That last embrace at the door, too,
+came back to her, and she felt his lips warm upon her own.
+
+"I am very much honoured, Mr. Haw," she stammered, "but this is so
+sudden. I have not had time to think. I do not know what to say."
+
+"Do not let me hurry you," he cried earnestly. "I beg that you will
+think well over it. I shall come again for my answer. When shall I come?
+Tonight?"
+
+"Yes, come tonight."
+
+"Then, adieu. Believe me that I think more highly of you for your
+hesitation. I shall live in hope." He raised her hand to his lips, and
+left her to her own thoughts.
+
+But what those thoughts were did not long remain in doubt. Dimmer and
+dimmer grew the vision of the distant sailor face, clearer and clearer
+the image of the vast palace, of the queenly power, of the diamonds, the
+gold, the ambitious future. It all lay at her feet, waiting to be picked
+up. How could she have hesitated, even for a moment? She rose, and,
+walking over to her desk, she took out a sheet of paper and an envelope.
+The latter she addressed to Lieutenant Spurling, H.M.S. _Active_,
+Gibraltar. The note cost some little trouble, but at last she got it
+worded to her mind.
+
+   "Dear Hector," she said--"I am convinced that your father has
+   never         entirely approved of our engagement, otherwise he
+   would not have thrown obstacles in the way of our marriage.
+   I am sure, too, that since my poor father's misfortune it is
+   only your own sense of honour and feeling of duty which have
+   kept you true to me, and that you would have done infinitely
+   better had you never seen me.  I cannot bear, Hector, to allow
+   you to imperil your future for my sake, and I have determined,
+   after thinking well over the matter, to release you from our
+   boy and girl engagement, so that you may be entirely free in
+   every way.  It is possible that you may think it unkind of me
+   to do this now, but I am quite sure, dear Hector, that when you
+   are an admiral and a very distinguished man, you will look back
+   at this, and you will see that I have been a true friend to you,
+   and have prevented you from making a false step early in your
+   career.  For myself, whether I marry or not, I have determined
+   to devote the remainder of my life to trying to do good, and to
+   leaving the world happier than I found it.  Your father is very
+   well, and gave us a capital sermon last Sunday.  I enclose the
+   bank-note which you asked me to keep for you.  Good-bye, for ever,
+   dear Hector, and believe me when I say that, come what may, I am
+   ever your true friend,
+
+   "Laura S. McIntyre."
+
+She had hardly sealed her letter before her father and Robert returned.
+She closed the door behind them, and made them a little curtsey.
+
+"I await my family's congratulations," she said, with her head in the
+air. "Mr. Raffles Haw has been here, and he has asked me to be his
+wife."
+
+"The deuce he did!" cried the old man. "And you said--?"
+
+"I am to see him again."
+
+"And you will say--?"
+
+"I will accept him."
+
+"You were always a good girl, Laura," said old McIntyre, standing on his
+tiptoes to kiss her.
+
+"But Laura, Laura, how about Hector?" asked Robert in mild remonstrance.
+
+"Oh, I have written to him," his sister answered carelessly. "I wish you
+would be good enough to post the letter."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X. THE GREAT SECRET.
+
+
+And so Laura McIntyre became duly engaged to Raffles Haw, and old
+McIntyre grew even more hungry-looking as he felt himself a step nearer
+to the source of wealth, while Robert thought less of work than ever,
+and never gave as much as a thought to the great canvas which still
+stood, dust-covered, upon his easel. Haw gave Laura an engagement ring
+of old gold, with a great blazing diamond bulging out of it. There was
+little talk about the matter, however, for it was Haw's wish that all
+should be done very quietly. Nearly all his evenings were spent at
+Elmdene, where he and Laura would build up the most colossal schemes of
+philanthropy for the future. With a map stretched out on the table in
+front of them, these two young people would, as it were, hover over the
+world, planning, devising, and improving.
+
+"Bless the girl!" said old McIntyre to his son; "she speaks about it as
+if she were born to millions. Maybe, when once she is married, she won't
+be so ready to chuck her money into every mad scheme that her husband
+can think of."
+
+"Laura is greatly changed," Robert answered; "she has grown much more
+serious in her ideas."
+
+"You wait a bit!" sniggered his father. "She is a good girl, is Laura,
+and she knows what she is about. She's not a girl to let her old dad go
+to the wall if she can set him right. It's a pretty state of things," he
+added bitterly: "here's my daughter going to marry a man who thinks no
+more of gold than I used to of gun-metal; and here's my son going about
+with all the money he cares to ask for to help every ne'er-do-well in
+Staffordshire; and here's their father, who loved them and cared for
+them, and brought them both up, without money enough very often to buy
+a bottle of brandy. I don't know what your poor dear mother would have
+thought of it."
+
+"You have only to ask for what you want."
+
+"Yes, as if I were a five-year-old child. But I tell you, Robert, I'll
+have my rights, and if I can't get them one way I will another. I won't
+be treated as if I were no one. And there's one thing: if I am to be
+this man's pa-in-law, I'll want to know something about him and his
+money first. We may be poor, but we are honest. I'll up to the Hall now,
+and have it out with him." He seized his hat and stick and made for the
+door.
+
+"No, no, father," cried Robert, catching him by the sleeve. "You had
+better leave the matter alone. Mr. Haw is a very sensitive man. He would
+not like to be examined upon such a point. It might lead to a serious
+quarrel. I beg that you will not go."
+
+"I am not to be put off for ever," snarled the old man, who had been
+drinking heavily. "I'll put my foot down now, once and for ever." He
+tugged at his sleeve to free himself from his son's grasp.
+
+"At least you shall not go without Laura knowing. I will call her down,
+and we shall have her opinion."
+
+"Oh, I don't want to have any scenes," said McIntyre sulkily, relaxing
+his efforts. He lived in dread of his daughter, and at his worst moments
+the mention of her name would serve to restrain him.
+
+"Besides," said Robert, "I have not the slightest doubt that Raffles
+Haw will see the necessity for giving us some sort of explanation before
+matters go further. He must understand that we have some claim now to be
+taken into his confidence."
+
+He had hardly spoken when there was a tap at the door, and the man of
+whom they were speaking walked in.
+
+"Good-morning, Mr. McIntyre," said he. "Robert, would you mind stepping
+up to the Hall with me? I want to have a little business chat." He
+looked serious, like a man who is carrying out something which he has
+well weighed.
+
+They walked up together with hardly a word on either side. Raffles Haw
+was absorbed in his own thoughts. Robert felt expectant and nervous,
+for he knew that something of importance lay before him. The winter had
+almost passed now, and the first young shoots were beginning to peep out
+timidly in the face of the wind and the rain of an English March. The
+snows were gone, but the countryside looked bleaker and drearier, all
+shrouded in the haze from the damp, sodden meadows.
+
+"By the way, Robert," said Raffles Haw suddenly, as they walked up the
+Avenue. "Has your great Roman picture gone to London?"
+
+"I have not finished it yet."
+
+"But I know that you are a quick worker. You must be nearly at the end
+of it."
+
+"No, I am afraid that it has not advanced much since you saw it. For one
+thing, the light has not been very good."
+
+Raffles Haw said nothing, but a pained expression flashed over his face.
+When they reached the house he led the way through the museum. Two great
+metal cases were lying on the floor.
+
+"I have a small addition there to the gem collection," he remarked as he
+passed. "They only arrived last night, and I have not opened them yet,
+but I am given to understand from the letters and invoices that there
+are some fine specimens. We might arrange them this afternoon, if you
+care to assist me. Let us go into the smoking-room now."
+
+He threw himself down into a settee, and motioned Robert into the
+armchair in front of him.
+
+"Light a cigar," he said. "Press the spring if there is any refreshment
+which you would like. Now, my dear Robert, confess to me in the first
+place that you have often thought me mad."
+
+The charge was so direct and so true that the young artist hesitated,
+hardly knowing how to answer.
+
+"My dear boy, I do not blame you. It was the most natural thing in the
+world. I should have looked upon anyone as a madman who had talked to me
+as I have talked to you. But for all that, Robert, you were wrong, and I
+have never yet in our conversations proposed any scheme which it was not
+well within my power to carry out. I tell you in all sober earnest that
+the amount of my income is limited only by my desire, and that all the
+bankers and financiers combined could not furnish the sums which I can
+put forward without an effort."
+
+"I have had ample proof of your immense wealth," said Robert.
+
+"And you are very naturally curious as to how that wealth was obtained.
+Well, I can tell you one thing. The money is perfectly clean. I have
+robbed no one, cheated no one, sweated no one, ground no one down in the
+gaining of it. I can read your father's eye, Robert. I can see that he
+has done me an injustice in this matter. Well, perhaps he is not to be
+blamed. Perhaps I also might think uncharitable things if I were In his
+place. But that is why I now give an explanation to you, Robert, and not
+to him. You, at least, have trusted me, and you have a right, before I
+become one of your family, to know all that I can tell you. Laura also
+has trusted me, but I know well that she is content still to trust me."
+
+"I would not intrude upon your secrets, Mr. Haw," said Robert, "but
+of course I cannot deny that I should be very proud and pleased if you
+cared to confide them to me."
+
+"And I will. Not all. I do not think that I shall ever, while I live,
+tell all. But I shall leave directions behind me so that when I die you
+may be able to carry on my unfinished work. I shall tell you where those
+directions are to be found. In the meantime, you must be content to
+learn the effects which I produce without knowing every detail as to the
+means."
+
+Robert settled himself down in his chair and concentrated his attention
+upon his companion's words, while Haw bent forward his eager, earnest
+face, like a man who knows the value of the words which he is saying.
+
+"You are already aware," he remarked, "that I have devoted a great deal
+of energy and of time to the study of chemistry."
+
+"So you told me."
+
+"I commenced my studies under a famous English chemist, I continued
+them under the best man in France, and I completed them in the most
+celebrated laboratory of Germany. I was not rich, but my father had left
+me enough to keep me comfortably, and by living economically I had a
+sum at my command which enabled me to carry out my studies in a very
+complete way. When I returned to England I built myself a laboratory
+in a quiet country place where I could work without distraction or
+interruption. There I began a series of investigations which soon took
+me into regions of science to which none of the three famous men who
+taught me had ever penetrated.
+
+"You say, Robert, that you have some slight knowledge of chemistry, and
+you will find it easier to follow what I say. Chemistry is to a large
+extent an empirical science, and the chance experiment may lead to
+greater results than could, with our present data, be derived from the
+closest study or the keenest reasoning. The most important chemical
+discoveries from the first manufacture of glass to the whitening and
+refining of sugar have all been due to some happy chance which might
+have befallen a mere dabbler as easily as a deep student.
+
+"Well, it was to such a chance that my own great discovery--perhaps the
+greatest that the world has seen--was due, though I may claim the credit
+of having originated the line of thought which led up to it. I had
+frequently speculated as to the effect which powerful currents of
+electricity exercise upon any substance through which they are poured
+for a considerable time. I did not here mean such feeble currents as
+are passed along a telegraph wire, but I mean the very highest possible
+developments. Well, I tried a series of experiments upon this point. I
+found that in liquids, and in compounds, the force had a disintegrating
+effect. The well-known experiment of the electrolysis of water will, of
+course, occur to you. But I found that in the case of elemental solids
+the effect was a remarkable one. The element slowly decreased in weight,
+without perceptibly altering in composition. I hope that I make myself
+clear to you?"
+
+"I follow you entirely," said Robert, deeply interested in his
+companion's narrative.
+
+"I tried upon several elements, and always with the same result. In
+every case an hour's current would produce a perceptible loss of weight.
+My theory at that stage was that there was a loosening of the molecules
+caused by the electric fluid, and that a certain number of these
+molecules were shed off like an impalpable dust, all round the lump of
+earth or of metal, which remained, of course, the lighter by their loss.
+I had entirely accepted this theory, when a very remarkable chance led
+me to completely alter my opinions.
+
+"I had one Saturday night fastened a bar of bismuth in a clamp, and had
+attached it on either side to an electric wire, in order to observe what
+effect the current would have upon it. I had been testing each metal in
+turn, exposing them to the influence for from one to two hours. I had
+just got everything in position, and had completed my connection, when
+I received a telegram to say that John Stillingfleet, an old chemist in
+London with whom I had been on terms of intimacy, was dangerously ill,
+and had expressed a wish to see me. The last train was due to leave in
+twenty minutes, and I lived a good mile from the station, I thrust a few
+things into a bag, locked my laboratory, and ran as hard as I could to
+catch it.
+
+"It was not until I was in London that it suddenly occurred to me that
+I had neglected to shut off the current, and that it would continue to
+pass through the bar of bismuth until the batteries were exhausted. The
+fact, however, seemed to be of small importance, and I dismissed it from
+my mind. I was detained in London until the Tuesday night, and it
+was Wednesday morning before I got back to my work. As I unlocked the
+laboratory door my mind reverted to the uncompleted experiment, and it
+struck me that in all probability my piece of bismuth would have been
+entirely disintegrated and reduced to its primitive molecules. I was
+utterly unprepared for the truth.
+
+"When I approached the table I found, sure enough, that the bar of metal
+had vanished, and that the clamp was empty. Having noted the fact, I was
+about to turn away to something else, when my attention was attracted to
+the fact that the table upon which the clamp stood was starred over with
+little patches of some liquid silvery matter, which lay in single drops
+or coalesced into little pools. I had a very distinct recollection of
+having thoroughly cleared the table before beginning my experiment,
+so that this substance had been deposited there since I had left for
+London. Much interested, I very carefully collected it all into one
+vessel, and examined it minutely. There could be no question as to what
+it was. It was the purest mercury, and gave no response to any test for
+bismuth.
+
+"I at once grasped the fact that chance had placed in my hands a
+chemical discovery of the very first importance. If bismuth were, under
+certain conditions, to be subjected to the action of electricity, it
+would begin by losing weight, and would finally be transformed into
+mercury. I had broken down the partition which separated two elements.
+
+"But the process would be a constant one. It would presumably prove
+to be a general law, and not an isolated fact. If bismuth turned into
+mercury, what would mercury turn into? There would be no rest for me
+until I had solved the question. I renewed the exhausted batteries and
+passed the current through the bowl of quicksilver. For sixteen hours I
+sat watching the metal, marking how it slowly seemed to curdle, to grow
+firmer, to lose its silvery glitter and to take a dull yellow hue. When
+I at last picked it up in a forceps, and threw it upon the table, it had
+lost every characteristic of mercury, and had obviously become another
+metal. A few simple tests were enough to show me that this other metal
+was platinum.
+
+"Now, to a chemist, there was something very suggestive in the order in
+which these changes had been effected. Perhaps you can see the relation,
+Robert, which they bear to each other?"
+
+"No, I cannot say that I do."
+
+Robert had sat listening to this strange statement with parted lips and
+staring eyes.
+
+"I will show you. Speaking atomically, bismuth is the heaviest of the
+metals. Its atomic weight is 210. The next in weight is lead, 207, and
+then comes mercury at 200. Possibly the long period during which the
+current had acted in my absence had reduced the bismuth to lead and
+the lead in turn to mercury. Now platinum stands at 197.5, and it was
+accordingly the next metal to be produced by the continued current. Do
+you see now?"
+
+"It is quite clear."
+
+"And then there came the inference, which sent my heart into my mouth
+and caused my head to swim round. Gold is the next in the series.
+Its atomic weight is 197. I remembered now, and for the first time
+understood why it was always lead and mercury winch were mentioned by
+the old alchemists as being the two metals which might be used in their
+calling. With fingers which trembled with excitement I adjusted the
+wires again, and in little more than an hour--for the length of the
+process was always in proportion to the difference in the metals--I
+had before me a knob of ruddy crinkled metal, which answered to every
+reaction for gold.
+
+"Well, Robert, this is a long story, but I think that you will agree
+with me that its importance justifies me in going into detail. When
+I had satisfied myself that I had really manufactured gold I cut the
+nugget in two. One half I sent to a jeweller and worker in precious
+metals, with whom I had some slight acquaintance, asking him to report
+upon the quality of the metal. With the other half I continued my series
+of experiments, and reduced it in successive stages through all the long
+series of metals, through silver and zinc and manganese, until I brought
+it to lithium, which is the lightest of all."
+
+"And what did it turn to then?" asked Robert.
+
+"Then came what to chemists is likely to be the most interesting portion
+of my discovery. It turned to a greyish fine powder, which powder gave
+no further results, however much I might treat it with electricity.
+And that powder is the base of all things; it is the mother of all
+the elements; it is, in short, the substance whose existence has been
+recently surmised by a leading chemist, and which has been christened
+protyle by him. I am the discoverer of the great law of the electrical
+transposition of the metals, and I am the first to demonstrate protyle,
+so that, I think, Robert, if all my schemes in other directions come to
+nothing, my name is at least likely to live in the chemical world.
+
+"There is not very much more for me to tell you. I had my nugget back
+from my friend the jeweller, confirming my opinion as to its nature and
+its quality. I soon found several methods by which the process might
+be simplified, and especially a modification of the ordinary electric
+current, which was very much more effective. Having made a certain
+amount of gold, I disposed of it for a sum which enabled me to buy
+improved materials and stronger batteries. In this way I enlarged my
+operations until at last I was in a position to build this house and
+to have a laboratory where I could carry out my work on a much larger
+scale. As I said before, I can now state with all truth that the amount
+of my income is only limited by my desires."
+
+"It is wonderful!" gasped Robert. "It is like a fairy tale. But with
+this great discovery in your mind you must have been sorely tempted to
+confide it to others."
+
+"I thought well over it. I gave it every consideration. It was obvious
+to me that if my invention were made public, its immediate result would
+be to deprive the present precious metals of all their special value.
+Some other substance--amber, we will say, or ivory--would be chosen as a
+medium for barter, and gold would be inferior to brass, as being heavier
+and yet not so hard. No one would be the better for such a consummation
+as that. Now, if I retained my secret, and used it with wisdom, I might
+make myself the greatest benefactor to mankind that has ever
+lived. Those were the chief reasons, and I trust that they are not
+dishonourable ones, which led me to form the resolution, which I have
+today for the first time broken."
+
+"But your secret is safe with me," cried Robert. "My lips shall be
+sealed until I have your permission to speak."
+
+"If I had not known that I could trust you I should have withheld it
+from your knowledge. And now, my dear Robert, theory is very weak work,
+and practice is infinitely more interesting. I have given you more than
+enough of the first. If you will be good enough to accompany me to the
+laboratory I shall give you a little of the latter."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI. A CHEMICAL DEMONSTRATION.
+
+
+Raffles Haw led the way through the front door, and crossing over the
+gravelled drive pushed open the outer door of the laboratory--the same
+through which the McIntyres had seen the packages conveyed from the
+waggon. On passing through it Robert found that they were not really
+within the building, but merely in a large bare ante-chamber, around
+the walls of which were stacked the very objects which had aroused his
+curiosity and his father's speculations. All mystery had gone from
+them now, however, for while some were still wrapped in their sackcloth
+coverings, others had been undone, and revealed themselves as great pigs
+of lead.
+
+"There is my raw material," said Raffles Haw carelessly, nodding at the
+heap. "Every Saturday I have a waggon-load sent up, which serves me
+for a week, but we shall need to work double tides when Laura and I
+are married, and we get our great schemes under way. I have to be very
+careful about the quality of the lead, for, of course, every impurity is
+reproduced in the gold."
+
+A heavy iron door led into the inner chamber. Haw unlocked it, but only
+to disclose a second one about five feet further on.
+
+"This flooring is all disconnected at night," he remarked. "I have no
+doubt that there is a good deal of gossip in the servants'-hall about
+this sealed chamber, so I have to guard myself against some inquisitive
+ostler or too adventurous butler."
+
+The inner door admitted them into the laboratory, a high, bare,
+whitewashed room with a glass roof. At one end was the furnace and
+boiler, the iron mouth of which was closed, though the fierce red light
+beat through the cracks, and a dull roar sounded through the building.
+On either side innumerable huge Leyden jars stood ranged in rows, tier
+topping tier, while above them were columns of Voltaic cells. Robert's
+eyes, as he glanced around, lit on vast wheels, complicated networks of
+wire, stands, test-tubes, coloured bottles, graduated glasses, Bunsen
+burners, porcelain insulators, and all the varied _debris_ of a chemical
+and electrical workshop.
+
+"Come across here," said Raffles Haw, picking his way among the heaps of
+metal, the coke, the packing-cases, and the carboys of acid. "Yours
+is the first foot except my own which has ever penetrated to this
+room since the workmen left it. My servants carry the lead into the
+ante-room, but come no further. The furnace can be cleaned and stoked
+from without. I employ a fellow to do nothing else. Now take a look in
+here."
+
+He threw open a door on the further side, and motioned to the young
+artist to enter. The latter stood silent with one foot over the
+threshold, staring in amazement around him. The room, which may have
+been some thirty feet square, was paved and walled with gold. Great
+brick-shaped ingots, closely packed, covered the whole floor, while on
+every side they were reared up in compact barriers to the very ceiling.
+The single electric lamp which lighted the windowless chamber struck
+a dull, murky, yellow light from the vast piles of precious metal, and
+gleamed ruddily upon the golden floor.
+
+"This is my treasure house," remarked the owner. "You see that I have
+rather an accumulation just now. My imports have been exceeding my
+exports. You can understand that I have other and more important duties
+even than the making of gold, just now. This is where I store my output
+until I am ready to send it off. Every night almost I am in the habit of
+sending a case of it to London. I employ seventeen brokers in its sale.
+Each thinks that he is the only one, and each is dying to know where I
+can get such large quantities of virgin gold. They say that it is the
+purest which comes into the market. The popular theory is, I believe,
+that I am a middleman acting on behalf of some new South African mine,
+which wishes to keep its whereabouts a secret. What value would you put
+upon the gold in this chamber? It ought to be worth something, for it
+represents nearly a week's work."
+
+"Something fabulous, I have no doubt," said Robert, glancing round at
+the yellow barriers. "Shall I say a hundred and fifty thousand pounds?"
+
+"Oh dear me, it is surely worth very much more than that," cried Raffles
+Haw, laughing. "Let me see. Suppose that we put it at three ten an
+ounce, which is nearly ten shillings under the mark. That makes,
+roughly, fifty-six pounds for a pound in weight. Now each of these
+ingots weighs thirty-six pounds, which brings their value to two
+thousand and a few odd pounds. There are five hundred ingots on each of
+these three sides of the room, but on the fourth there are only three
+hundred, on account of the door, but there cannot be less than two
+hundred on the floor, which gives us a rough total of two thousand
+ingots. So you see, my dear boy, that any broker who could get the
+contents of this chamber for four million pounds would be doing a nice
+little stroke of business."
+
+"And a week's work!" gasped Robert. "It makes my head swim."
+
+"You will follow me now when I repeat that none of the great schemes
+which I intend to simultaneously set in motion are at all likely to
+languish for want of funds. Now come into the laboratory with me and see
+how it is done."
+
+In the centre of the workroom was an instrument like a huge vice, with
+two large brass-coloured plates, and a great steel screw for bringing
+them together. Numerous wires ran into these metal plates, and were
+attached at the other end to the rows of dynamic machines. Beneath was
+a glass stand, which was hollowed out in the centre into a succession of
+troughs.
+
+"You will soon understand all about it," said Raffles Haw, throwing off
+his coat, and pulling on a smoke-stained and dirty linen jacket. "We
+must first stoke up a little." He put his weight on a pair of great
+bellows, and an answering roar came from the furnace. "That will do. The
+more heat the more electric force, and the quicker our task. Now for the
+lead! Just give me a hand in carrying it."
+
+They lifted a dozen of the pigs of lead from the floor on to the glass
+stand, and having adjusted the plates on either side, Haw screwed up the
+handle so as to hold them in position.
+
+"It used in the early days to be a slow process," he remarked; "but now
+that I have immense facilities for my work it takes a very short time. I
+have now only to complete the connection in order to begin."
+
+He took hold of a long glass lever which projected from among the wires,
+and drew it downwards. A sharp click was heard, followed by a loud,
+sparkling, crackling noise. Great spurts of flame sprang from the two
+electrodes, and the mass of lead was surrounded by an aureole of golden
+sparks, which hissed and snapped like pistol-shots. The air was filled
+with the peculiar acid smell of ozone.
+
+"The power there is immense," said Raffles Haw, superintending the
+process, with his watch upon the palm of his hand. "It would reduce an
+organic substance to protyle instantly. It is well to understand the
+mechanism thoroughly, for any mistake might be a grave matter for the
+operator. You are dealing with gigantic forces. But you perceive that
+the lead is already beginning to turn."
+
+Silvery dew-like drops had indeed begun to form upon the dull-coloured
+mass, and to drop with a tinkle and splash into the glass troughs.
+Slowly the lead melted away, like an icicle in the sun, the electrodes
+ever closing upon it as it contracted, until they came together in the
+centre, and a row of pools of quicksilver had taken the place of the
+solid metal. Two smaller electrodes were plunged into the mercury, which
+gradually curdled and solidified, until it had resumed the solid form,
+with a yellowish brassy shimmer.
+
+"What lies in the moulds now is platinum," remarked Raffles Haw. "We
+must take it from the troughs and refix it in the large electrodes.
+So! Now we turn on the current again. You see that it gradually takes a
+darker and richer tint. Now I think that it is perfect." He drew up the
+lever, removed the electrodes, and there lay a dozen bricks of ruddy
+sparkling gold.
+
+"You see, according to our calculations, our morning's work has been
+worth twenty-four thousand pounds, and it has not taken us more than
+twenty minutes," remarked the alchemist, as he picked up the newly-made
+ingots, and threw them down among the others.
+
+"We will devote one of them to experiment," said he, leaving the last
+standing upon the glass insulator. "To the world it would seem an
+expensive demonstration which cost two thousand pounds, but our
+standard, you see, is a different one. Now you will see me run through
+the whole gamut of metallic nature."
+
+First of all men after the discoverer, Robert saw the gold mass, when
+the electrodes were again applied to it, change swiftly and successively
+to barium, to tin, to silver, to copper, to iron. He saw the long white
+electric sparks change to crimson with the strontium, to purple with the
+potassium, to yellow with the manganese. Then, finally, after a hundred
+transformations, it disintegrated before his eyes, and lay as a little
+mound of fluffy grey dust upon the glass table.
+
+"And this is protyle," said Haw, passing his fingers through it. "The
+chemist of the future may resolve it into further constituents, but to
+me it is the Ultima Thule."
+
+"And now, Robert," he continued, after a pause, "I have shown you enough
+to enable you to understand something of my system. This is the great
+secret. It is the secret which endows the man who knows it with such
+a universal power as no man has ever enjoyed since the world was made.
+This secret it is the dearest wish of my heart to use for good, and
+I swear to you, Robert McIntyre, that if I thought it would tend to
+anything but good I would have done with it for ever. No, I would
+neither use it myself nor would any other man learn it from my lips. I
+swear it by all that is holy and solemn!"
+
+His eyes flashed as he spoke, and his voice quivered with emotion.
+Standing, pale and lanky, amid his electrodes and his retorts, there was
+still something majestic about this man, who, amid all his stupendous
+good fortune, could still keep his moral sense undazzled by the glitter
+of his gold. Robert's weak nature had never before realised the strength
+which lay in those thin, firm lips and earnest eyes.
+
+"Surely in your hands, Mr. Haw, nothing but good can come of it," he
+said.
+
+"I hope not--I pray not--most earnestly do I pray not. I have done for
+you, Robert, what I might not have done for my own brother had I one,
+and I have done it because I believe and hope that you are a man who
+would not use this power, should you inherit it, for selfish ends.
+But even now I have not told you all. There is one link which I have
+withheld from you, and which shall be withheld from you while I live.
+But look at this chest, Robert."
+
+He led him to a great iron-clamped chest which stood in the corner, and,
+throwing it open, he took from it a small case of carved ivory.
+
+"Inside this," he said, "I have left a paper which makes clear anything
+which is still hidden from you. Should anything happen to me you
+will always be able to inherit my powers, and to continue my plans
+by following the directions which are there expressed. And now,"
+he continued, throwing his casket back again into the box, "I shall
+frequently require your help, but I do not think it will be necessary
+this morning. I have already taken up too much of your time. If you are
+going back to Elmdene I wish that you would tell Laura that I shall be
+with her in the afternoon."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII. A FAMILY JAR.
+
+
+And so the great secret was out, and Robert walked home with his head in
+a whirl, and the blood tingling in his veins. He had shivered as he
+came up at the damp cold of the wind and the sight of the mist-mottled
+landscape. That was all gone now. His own thoughts tinged everything
+with sunshine, and he felt inclined to sing and dance as he walked
+down the muddy, deeply-rutted country lane. Wonderful had been the fate
+allotted to Raffles Haw, but surely hardly less important that which had
+come upon himself. He was the sharer of the alchemist's secret, and
+the heir to an inheritance which combined a wealth greater than that of
+monarchs, to a freedom such as monarchs cannot enjoy. This was a destiny
+indeed! A thousand gold-tinted visions of his future life rose up
+before him, and in fancy he already sat high above the human race,
+with prostrate thousands imploring his aid, or thanking him for his
+benevolence.
+
+How sordid seemed the untidy garden, with its scrappy bushes and gaunt
+elm trees! How mean the plain brick front, with the green wooden porch!
+It had always offended his artistic sense, but now it was obtrusive in
+its ugliness. The plain room, too, with the American leather chairs, the
+dull-coloured carpet, and the patchwork rug, he felt a loathing for it
+all. The only pretty thing in it, upon which his eyes could rest with
+satisfaction, was his sister, as she leaned back in her chair by the
+fire with her white, clear beautiful face outlined against the dark
+background.
+
+"Do you know, Robert," she said, glancing up at him from under her long
+black lashes, "Papa grows unendurable. I have had to speak very plainly
+to him, and to make him understand that I am marrying for my own benefit
+and not for his."
+
+"Where is he, then?"
+
+"I don't know. At the Three Pigeons, no doubt. He spends most of his
+time there now. He flew off in a passion, and talked such nonsense about
+marriage settlements, and forbidding the banns, and so on. His notion
+of a marriage settlement appears to be a settlement upon the bride's
+father. He should wait quietly, and see what can be done for him."
+
+"I think, Laura, that we must make a good deal of allowance for him,"
+said Robert earnestly. "I have noticed a great change in him lately. I
+don't think he is himself at all. I must get some medical advice. But I
+have been up at the Hall this morning."
+
+"Have you? Have you seen Raffles? Did he send anything for me?"
+
+"He said that he would come down when he had finished his work."
+
+"But what is the matter, Robert?" cried Laura, with the swift perception
+of womanhood. "You are flushed, and your eyes are shining, and really
+you look quite handsome. Raffles has been telling you something! What
+was it? Oh, I know! He has been telling you how he made his money.
+Hasn't he, now?"
+
+"Well, yes. He took me partly into his confidence. I congratulate you,
+Laura, with all my heart, for you will be a very wealthy woman."
+
+"How strange it seems that he should have come to us in our poverty.
+It is all owing to you, you dear old Robert; for if he had not taken a
+fancy to you, he would never have come down to Elmdene and taken a fancy
+to some one else."
+
+"Not at all," Robert answered, sitting down by his sister, and patting
+her hand affectionately. "It was a clear case of love at first sight.
+He was in love with you before he ever knew your name. He asked me about
+you the very first time I saw him."
+
+"But tell me about his money, Bob," said his sister. "He has not told
+me yet, and I am so curious. How did he make it? It was not from his
+father; he told me that himself. His father was just a country doctor.
+How did he do it?"
+
+"I am bound over to secrecy. He will tell you himself."
+
+"Oh, but only tell me if I guess right. He had it left him by an uncle,
+eh? Well, by a friend? Or he took out some wonderful patent? Or he
+discovered a mine? Or oil? Do tell me, Robert!"
+
+"I mustn't, really," cried her brother laughing. "And I must not talk to
+you any more. You are much too sharp. I feel a responsibility about it;
+and, besides, I must really do some work."
+
+"It Is very unkind of you," said Laura, pouting. "But I must put my
+things on, for I go into Birmingham by the 1.20."
+
+"To Birmingham?"
+
+"Yes, I have a hundred things to order. There is everything to be got.
+You men forget about these details. Raffles wishes to have the wedding
+in little more than a fortnight. Of course it will be very quiet, but
+still one needs something."
+
+"So early as that!" said Robert, thoughtfully. "Well, perhaps it is
+better so."
+
+"Much better, Robert. Would it not be dreadful if Hector came back first
+and there was a scene? If I were once married I should not mind. Why
+should I? But of course Raffles knows nothing about him, and it would be
+terrible if they came together."
+
+"That must be avoided at any cost."
+
+"Oh, I cannot bear even to think of it. Poor Hector! And yet what could
+I do, Robert? You know that it was only a boy and girl affair. And how
+could I refuse such an offer as this? It was a duty to my family, was it
+not?"
+
+"You were placed in a difficult position--very difficult," her brother
+answered. "But all will be right, and I have no doubt Hector will see it
+as you do. But does Mr. Spurling know of your engagement?"
+
+"Not a word. He was here yesterday, and talked of Hector, but indeed I
+did not know how to tell him. We are to be married by special licence in
+Birmingham, so really there is no reason why he should know. But now I
+must hurry or I shall miss my train."
+
+When his sister was gone Robert went up to his studio, and having
+ground some colours upon his palette he stood for some time, brush and
+mahlstick in hand, in front of his big bare canvas. But how profitless
+all his work seemed to him now! What object had he in doing it? Was it
+to earn money? Money could be had for the asking, or, for that matter,
+without the asking. Or was it to produce a thing of beauty? But he had
+artistic faults. Raffles Haw had said so, and he knew that he was right.
+After all his pains the thing might not please; and with money he could
+at all times buy pictures which would please, and which would be things
+of beauty. What, then, was the object of his working? He could see none.
+He threw down his brush, and, lighting his pipe, he strolled downstairs
+once more.
+
+His father was standing in front of the fire, and in no very good
+humour, as his red face and puckered eyes sufficed to show.
+
+"Well, Robert," he began, "I suppose that, as usual, you have spent your
+morning plotting against your father?"
+
+"What do you mean, father?"
+
+"I mean what I say. What is it but plotting when three folk--you and she
+and this Raffles Haw--whisper and arrange and have meetings without a
+word to me about it? What do I know of your plans?"
+
+"I cannot tell you secrets which are not my own, father."
+
+"But I'll have a voice in the matter, for all that. Secrets or no
+secrets, you will find that Laura has a father, and that he is not a man
+to be set aside. I may have had my ups and downs in trade, but I have
+not quite fallen so low that I am nothing in my own family. What am I to
+get out of this precious marriage?"
+
+"What should you get? Surely Laura's happiness and welfare are enough
+for you?"
+
+"If this man were really fond of Laura he would show proper
+consideration for Laura's father. It was only yesterday that I asked him
+for a loan-condescended actually to ask for it--I, who have been within
+an ace of being Mayor of Birmingham! And he refused me point blank."
+
+"Oh, father! How could you expose yourself to such humiliation?"
+
+"Refused me point blank!" cried the old man excitedly. "It was against
+his principles, if you please. But I'll be even with him--you see if I
+am not. I know one or two things about him. What is it they call him at
+the Three Pigeons? A 'smasher'--that's the word-a coiner of false
+money. Why else should he have this metal sent him, and that great smoky
+chimney of his going all day?"
+
+"Why can you not leave him alone, father?" expostulated Robert. "You
+seem to think of nothing but his money. If he had not a penny he would
+still be a very kind-hearted, pleasant gentleman."
+
+Old McIntyre burst into a hoarse laugh.
+
+"I like to hear you preach," said he. "Without a penny, indeed! Do you
+think that you would dance attendance upon him if he were a poor man?
+Do you think that Laura would ever have looked twice at him? You know as
+well as I do that she is marrying him only for his money."
+
+Robert gave a cry of dismay. There was the alchemist standing in the
+doorway, pale and silent, looking from one to the other of them with his
+searching eyes.
+
+"I must apologise," he said coldly. "I did not mean to listen to your
+words. I could not help it. But I have heard them. As to you, Mr.
+McIntyre, I believe that you speak from your own bad heart. I will not
+let myself be moved by your words. In Robert I have a true friend. Laura
+also loves me for my own sake. You cannot shake my faith in them. But
+with you, Mr. McIntyre, I have nothing in common; and it is as well,
+perhaps, that we should both recognise the fact."
+
+He bowed, and was gone ere either of the McIntyres could say a word.
+
+"You see!" said Robert at last. "You have done now what you cannot
+undo!"
+
+"I will be even with him!" cried the old man furiously, shaking his
+fist through the window at the dark slow-pacing figure. "You just wait,
+Robert, and see if your old dad is a man to be played with."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII. A MIDNIGHT VENTURE.
+
+
+Not a word was said to Laura when she returned as to the scene which had
+occurred in her absence. She was in the gayest of spirits, and prattled
+merrily about her purchases and her arrangements, wondering from time
+to time when Raffles Haw would come. As night fell, however, without any
+word from him, she became uneasy.
+
+"What can be the matter that he does not come?" she said. "It is the
+first day since our engagement that I have not seen him."
+
+Robert looked out through the window.
+
+"It is a gusty night, and raining hard," he remarked. "I do not at all
+expect him."
+
+"Poor Hector used to come, rain, snow, or fine. But, then, of course, he
+was a sailor. It was nothing to him. I hope that Raffles is not ill."
+
+"He was quite well when I saw him this morning," answered her brother,
+and they relapsed into silence, while the rain pattered against the
+windows, and the wind screamed amid the branches of the elms outside.
+
+Old McIntyre had sat in the corner most of the day biting his nails and
+glowering into the fire, with a brooding, malignant expression upon his
+wrinkled features. Contrary to his usual habits, he did not go to
+the village inn, but shuffled off early to bed without a word to his
+children. Laura and Robert remained chatting for some time by the fire,
+she talking of the thousand and one wonderful things which were to be
+done when she was mistress of the New Hall. There was less philanthropy
+in her talk when her future husband was absent, and Robert could not but
+remark that her carriages, her dresses, her receptions, and her travels
+in distant countries were the topics into which she threw all the
+enthusiasm which he had formerly heard her bestow upon refuge homes and
+labour organisations.
+
+"I think that greys are the nicest horses," she said. "Bays are nice
+too, but greys are more showy. We could manage with a brougham and a
+landau, and perhaps a high dog-cart for Raffles. He has the coach-house
+full at present, but he never uses them, and I am sure that those fifty
+horses would all die for want of exercise, or get livers like Strasburg
+geese, if they waited for him to ride or drive them."
+
+"I suppose that you will still live here?" said her brother.
+
+"We must have a house in London as well, and run up for the season. I
+don't, of course, like to make suggestions now, but it will be different
+afterwards. I am sure that Raffles will do it if I ask him. It is all
+very well for him to say that he does not want any thanks or honours,
+but I should like to know what is the use of being a public benefactor
+if you are to have no return for it. I am sure that if he does only
+half what he talks of doing, they will make him a peer--Lord Tamfield,
+perhaps--and then, of course, I shall be my Lady Tamfield, and what
+would you think of that, Bob?" She dropped him a stately curtsey, and
+tossed her head in the air, as one who was born to wear a coronet.
+
+"Father must be pensioned off," she remarked presently. "He shall have
+so much a year on condition that he keeps away. As to you, Bob, I don't
+know what we shall do for you. We shall make you President of the Royal
+Academy if money can do it."
+
+It was late before they ceased building their air-castles and retired to
+their rooms. But Robert's brain was excited, and he could not sleep.
+The events of the day had been enough to shake a stronger man. There
+had been the revelation of the morning, the strange sights which he
+had witnessed in the laboratory, and the immense secret which had been
+confided to his keeping. Then there had been his conversation with his
+father in the afternoon, their disagreement, and the sudden intrusion
+of Raffles Haw. Finally the talk with his sister had excited his
+imagination, and driven sleep from his eyelids. In vain he turned and
+twisted in his bed, or paced the floor of his chamber. He was not only
+awake, but abnormally awake, with every nerve highly strung, and every
+sense at the keenest. What was he to do to gain a little sleep? It
+flashed across him that there was brandy in the decanter downstairs, and
+that a glass might act as a sedative.
+
+He had opened the door of his room, when suddenly his ear caught the
+sound of slow and stealthy footsteps upon the stairs. His own lamp was
+unlit, but a dim glimmer came from a moving taper, and a long black
+shadow travelled down the wall. He stood motionless, listening intently.
+The steps were in the hall now, and he heard a gentle creaking as the
+key was cautiously turned in the door. The next instant there came a
+gust of cold air, the taper was extinguished, and a sharp snap announced
+that the door had been closed from without.
+
+Robert stood astonished. Who could this night wanderer be? It must be
+his father. But what errand could take him out at three in the morning?
+And such a morning, too! With every blast of the wind the rain beat up
+against his chamber-window as though it would drive it in. The glass
+rattled in the frames, and the tree outside creaked and groaned as its
+great branches were tossed about by the gale. What could draw any man
+forth upon such a night?
+
+Hurriedly Robert struck a match and lit his lamp. His father's room was
+opposite his own, and the door was ajar. He pushed it open and looked
+about him. It was empty. The bed had not even been lain upon. The single
+chair stood by the window, and there the old man must have sat since he
+left them. There was no book, no paper, no means by which he could have
+amused himself, nothing but a razor-strop lying on the window-sill.
+
+A feeling of impending misfortune struck cold to Robert's heart. There
+was some ill-meaning in this journey of his father's. He thought of his
+brooding of yesterday, his scowling face, his bitter threats. Yes, there
+was some mischief underlying it. But perhaps he might even now be in
+time to prevent it. There was no use calling Laura. She could be no help
+in the matter. He hurriedly threw on his clothes, muffled himself in his
+top-coat, and, seizing his hat and stick, he set off after his father.
+
+As he came out into the village street the wind whirled down it, so that
+he had to put his ear and shoulder against it, and push his way forward.
+It was better, however, when he turned into the lane. The high bank and
+the hedge sheltered him upon one side. The road, however, was deep in
+mud, and the rain fell in a steady swish. Not a soul was to be seen, but
+he needed to make no inquiries, for he knew whither his father had gone
+as certainly as though he had seen him.
+
+The iron side gate of the avenue was half open, and Robert stumbled his
+way up the gravelled drive amid the dripping fir-trees. What could his
+father's intention be when he reached the Hall? Was it merely that he
+wished to spy and prowl, or did he intend to call up the master and
+enter into some discussion as to his wrongs? Or was it possible that
+some blacker and more sinister design lay beneath his strange doings?
+Robert thought suddenly of the razor-strop, and gasped with horror. What
+had the old man been doing with that? He quickened his pace to a run,
+and hurried on until he found himself at the door of the Hall.
+
+Thank God! all was quiet there. He stood by the big silent door and
+listened intently. There was nothing to be heard save the wind and the
+rain. Where, then, could his father be? If he wished to enter the Hall
+he would not attempt to do so by one of the windows, for had he not been
+present when Raffles Haw had shown them the precautions which he had
+taken? But then a sudden thought struck Robert. There was one window
+which was left unguarded. Haw had been imprudent enough to tell them
+so. It was the middle window of the laboratory. If he remembered it so
+clearly, of course his father would remember it too. There was the point
+of danger.
+
+The moment that he had come round the corner of the building he found
+that his surmise had been correct. An electric lamp burned in the
+laboratory, and the silver squares of the three large windows stood out
+clear and bright in the darkness. The centre one had been thrown open,
+and, even as he gazed, Robert saw a dark monkey-like figure spring up
+on to the sill, and vanish into the room beyond. For a moment only it
+outlined itself against the brilliant light beyond, but in that moment
+Robert had space to see that it was indeed his father. On tiptoe he
+crossed the intervening space, and peeped in through the open window. It
+was a singular spectacle which met his eyes.
+
+There stood upon the glass table some half-dozen large ingots of gold,
+which had been made the night before, but which had not been removed to
+the treasure-house. On these the old man had thrown himself, as one who
+enters into his rightful inheritance. He lay across the table, his arms
+clasping the bars of gold, his cheek pressed against them, crooning
+and muttering to himself. Under the clear, still light, amid the giant
+wheels and strange engines, that one little dark figure clutching and
+clinging to the ingots had in it something both weird and piteous.
+
+For five minutes or more Robert stood in the darkness amid the rain,
+looking in at this strange sight, while his father hardly moved save to
+cuddle closer to the gold, and to pat it with his thin hands. Robert
+was still uncertain what he should do, when his eyes wandered from the
+central figure and fell on something else which made him give a little
+cry of astonishment--a cry which was drowned amid the howling of the
+gale.
+
+Raffles Haw was standing in the corner of the room. Where he had come
+from Robert could not say, but he was certain that he had not been there
+when he first looked in. He stood silent, wrapped in some long, dark
+dressing-gown, his arms folded, and a bitter smile upon his pale face.
+Old McIntyre seemed to see him at almost the same moment, for he
+snarled out an oath, and clutched still closer at his treasure, looking
+slantwise at the master of the house with furtive, treacherous eyes.
+
+"And it has really come to this!" said Haw at last, taking a step
+forward. "You have actually fallen so low, Mr. McIntyre, as to steal
+into my house at night like a common burglar. You knew that this window
+was unguarded. I remember telling you as much. But I did not tell you
+what other means I had adopted by which I might be warned if knaves made
+an entrance. But that you should have come! You!"
+
+The old gunmaker made no attempt to justify himself, but he muttered
+some few hoarse words, and continued to cling to the treasure.
+
+"I love your daughter," said Raffles Haw, "and for her sake I will not
+expose you. Your hideous and infamous secret shall be safe with me. No
+ear shall hear what has happened this night. I will not, as I might,
+arouse my servants and send for the police. But you must leave my house
+without further words. I have nothing more to say to you. Go as you have
+come."
+
+He took a step forward, and held out his hand as if to detach the old
+man's grasp from the golden bars. The other thrust his hand into the
+breast of his coat, and with a shrill scream of rage flung himself upon
+the alchemist. So sudden and so fierce was the movement that Haw had no
+time for defence. A bony hand gripped him by the throat, and the blade
+of a razor flashed in the air. Fortunately, as it fell, the weapon
+struck against one of the many wires which spanned the room, and flying
+out of the old man's grasp, tinkled upon the stone floor. But, though
+disarmed, he was still dangerous. With a horrible silent energy he
+pushed Haw back and back until, coming to a bench, they both fell over
+it, McIntyre remaining uppermost. His other hand was on the alchemist's
+throat, and it might have fared ill with him had Robert not climbed
+through the window and dragged his father off from him. With the aid
+of Haw, he pinned the old man down, and passed a long cravat around his
+arms. It was terrible to look at him, for his face was convulsed, his
+eyes bulging from his head, and his lips white with foam.
+
+Haw leaned against the glass table panting, with his hand to his side.
+
+"You here, Robert?" he gasped. "Is it not horrible? How did you come?"
+
+"I followed him. I heard him go out."
+
+"He would have robbed me. And he would have murdered me. But he is
+mad--stark, staring mad!"
+
+There could be no doubt of it. Old McIntyre was sitting up now, and
+burst suddenly into a hoarse peal of laughter, rocking himself backwards
+and forwards, and looking up at them with little twinkling, cunning
+eyes. It was clear to both of them that his mind, weakened by long
+brooding over the one idea, had now at last become that of a monomaniac.
+His horrid causeless mirth was more terrible even than his fury.
+
+"What shall we do with him?" asked Haw. "We cannot take him back to
+Elmdene. It would be a terrible shock to Laura."
+
+"We could have doctors to certify in the morning. Could we not keep him
+here until then? If we take him back, some one will meet us, and there
+will be a scandal."
+
+"I know. We will take him to one of the padded rooms, where he can
+neither hurt himself nor anyone else. I am somewhat shaken myself. But I
+am better now. Do you take one arm, and I will take the other."
+
+Half-leading and half-dragging him they managed between them to convey
+the old gunmaker away from the scene of his disaster, and to lodge him
+for the night in a place of safety. At five in the morning Robert had
+started in the gig to make the medical arrangements, while Raffles Haw
+paced his palatial house with a troubled face and a sad heart.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV. THE SPREAD OF THE BLIGHT.
+
+
+It may be that Laura did not look upon the removal of her father as an
+unmixed misfortune. Nothing was said to her as to the manner of the old
+man's seizure, but Robert informed her at breakfast that he had thought
+it best, acting under medical advice, to place him for a time under
+some restraint. She had herself frequently remarked upon the growing
+eccentricity of his manner, so that the announcement could have been
+no great surprise to her. It is certain that it did not diminish her
+appetite for the coffee and the scrambled eggs, nor prevent her from
+chatting a good deal about her approaching wedding.
+
+But it was very different with Raffles Haw. The incident had shocked
+him to his inmost soul. He had often feared lest his money should do
+indirect evil, but here were crime and madness arising before his very
+eyes from its influence. In vain he tried to choke down his feelings,
+and to persuade himself that this attack of old McIntyre's was something
+which came of itself--something which had no connection with himself or
+his wealth. He remembered the man as he had first met him, garrulous,
+foolish, but with no obvious vices. He recalled the change which, week
+by week, had come over him--his greedy eye, his furtive manner, his
+hints and innuendoes, ending only the day before in a positive demand
+for money. It was too certain that there was a chain of events there
+leading direct to the horrible encounter in the laboratory. His money
+had cast a blight where he had hoped to shed a blessing.
+
+Mr. Spurling, the vicar, was up shortly after breakfast, some rumour of
+evil having come to his ears. It was good for Haw to talk with him, for
+the fresh breezy manner of the old clergyman was a corrective to his own
+sombre and introspective mood.
+
+"Prut, tut!" said he. "This is very bad--very bad indeed! Mind unhinged,
+you say, and not likely to get over it! Dear, dear! I have noticed
+a change in him these last few weeks. He looked like a man who had
+something upon his mind. And how is Mr. Robert McIntyre?"
+
+"He is very well. He was with me this morning when his father had this
+attack."
+
+"Ha! There is a change in that young man. I observe an alteration in
+him. You will forgive me, Mr. Raffles Haw, if I say a few serious words
+of advice to you. Apart from my spiritual functions I am old enough
+to be your father. You are a very wealthy man, and you have used your
+wealth nobly--yes, sir, nobly. I do not think that there is a man in a
+thousand who would have done as well. But don't you think sometimes that
+it has a dangerous influence upon those who are around you?"
+
+"I have sometimes feared so." "We may pass over old Mr. McIntyre. It
+would hardly be just, perhaps, to mention him in this connection. But
+there is Robert. He used to take such an interest in his profession.
+He was so keen about art. If you met him, the first words he said were
+usually some reference to his plans, or the progress he was making in
+his latest picture. He was ambitious, pushing, self-reliant. Now he does
+nothing. I know for a fact that it is two months since he put brush to
+canvas. He has turned from a student into an idler, and, what is worse,
+I fear into a parasite. You will forgive me for speaking so plainly?"
+
+Raffles Haw said nothing, but he threw out his hands with a gesture of
+pain.
+
+"And then there is something to be said about the country folk," said
+the vicar. "Your kindness has been, perhaps, a little indiscriminate
+there. They don't seem to be as helpful or as self-reliant as they used.
+There was old Blaxton, whose cowhouse roof was blown off the other day.
+He used to be a man who was full of energy and resource. Three months
+ago he would have got a ladder and had that roof on again in two days'
+work. But now he must sit down, and wring his hands, and write letters,
+because he knew that it would come to your ears, and that you would make
+it good. There's old Ellary, too! Well, of course he was always poor,
+but at least he did something, and so kept himself out of mischief. Not
+a stroke will he do now, but smokes and talks scandal from morning to
+night. And the worst of it is, that it not only hurts those who have
+had your help, but it unsettles those who have not. They all have an
+injured, surly feeling as if other folk were getting what they had an
+equal right to. It has really come to such a pitch that I thought it was
+a duty to speak to you about it. Well, it is a new experience to me.
+I have often had to reprove my parishioners for not being charitable
+enough, but it is very strange to find one who is too charitable. It is
+a noble error."
+
+"I thank you very much for letting me know about it," answered Raffles
+Haw, as he shook the good old clergyman's hand. "I shall certainly
+reconsider my conduct in that respect."
+
+He kept a rigid and unmoved face until his visitor had gone, and then
+retiring to his own little room, he threw himself upon the bed and burst
+out sobbing with his face buried in the pillow. Of all men in England,
+this, the richest, was on that day the most miserable. How could he use
+this great power which he held? Every blessing which he tried to give
+turned itself into a curse. His intentions were so good, and yet the
+results were so terrible. It was as if he had some foul leprosy of the
+mind which all caught who were exposed to his influence. His charity,
+so well meant, so carefully bestowed, had yet poisoned the whole
+countryside. And if in small things his results were so evil, how could
+he tell that they would be better in the larger plans which he had
+formed? If he could not pay the debts of a simple yokel without
+disturbing the great laws of cause and effect which lie at the base of
+all things, what could he hope for when he came to fill the treasury
+of nations, to interfere with the complex conditions of trade, or to
+provide for great masses of the population? He drew back with horror as
+he dimly saw that vast problems faced him in which he might make errors
+which all his money could not repair. The way of Providence was the
+straight way. Yet he, a half-blind creature, must needs push in and
+strive to alter and correct it. Would he be a benefactor? Might he not
+rather prove to be the greatest malefactor that the world had seen?
+
+But soon a calmer mood came upon him, and he rose and bathed his flushed
+face and fevered brow. After all, was not there a field where all were
+agreed that money might be well spent? It was not the way of nature, but
+rather the way of man which he would alter. It was not Providence that
+had ordained that folk should live half-starved and overcrowded in
+dreary slums. That was the result of artificial conditions, and it
+might well be healed by artificial means. Why should not his plans
+be successful after all, and the world better for his discovery? Then
+again, it was not the truth that he cast a blight on those with whom he
+was brought in contact. There was Laura; who knew more of him than she
+did, and yet how good and sweet and true she was! She at least had lost
+nothing through knowing him. He would go down and see her. It would be
+soothing to hear her voice, and to turn to her for words of sympathy in
+this his hour of darkness.
+
+The storm had died away, but a soft wind was blowing, and the smack of
+the coming spring was in the air. He drew in the aromatic scent of the
+fir-trees as he passed down the curving drive. Before him lay the long
+sloping countryside, all dotted over with the farmsteadings and little
+red cottages, with the morning sun striking slantwise upon their grey
+roofs and glimmering windows. His heart yearned over all these people
+with their manifold troubles, their little sordid miseries, their
+strivings and hopings and petty soul-killing cares. How could he get
+at them? How could he manage to lift the burden from them, and yet not
+hinder them in their life aim? For more and more could he see that all
+refinement is through sorrow, and that the life which does not refine is
+the life without an aim.
+
+Laura was alone in the sitting-room at Elmdene, for Robert had gone out
+to make some final arrangements about his father. She sprang up as her
+lover entered, and ran forward with a pretty girlish gesture to greet
+him.
+
+"Oh, Raffles!" she cried, "I knew that you would come. Is it not
+dreadful about papa?"
+
+"You must not fret, dearest," he answered gently. "It may not prove to
+be so very grave after all."
+
+"But it all happened before I was stirring. I knew nothing about it
+until breakfast-time. They must have gone up to the Hall very early."
+
+"Yes, they did come up rather early."
+
+"What is the matter with you, Raffles?" cried Laura, looking up into his
+face. "You look so sad and weary!"
+
+"I have been a little in the blues. The fact is, Laura, that I have had
+a long talk with Mr. Spurling this morning."
+
+The girl started, and turned white to the lips. A long talk with Mr.
+Spurling! Did that mean that he had learned her secret?
+
+"Well?" she gasped.
+
+"He tells me that my charity has done more harm than good, and in fact,
+that I have had an evil influence upon every one whom I have come
+near. He said it in the most delicate way, but that was really what it
+amounted to."
+
+"Oh, is that all?" said Laura, with a long sigh of relief. "You must not
+think of minding what Mr. Spurling says. Why, it is absurd on the face
+of it! Everybody knows that there are dozens of men all over the country
+who would have been ruined and turned out of their houses if you had not
+stood their friend. How could they be the worse for having known you? I
+wonder that Mr. Spurling can talk such nonsense!"
+
+"How is Robert's picture getting on?"
+
+"Oh, he has a lazy fit on him. He has not touched it for ever so long.
+But why do you ask that? You have that furrow on your brow again. Put it
+away, sir!"
+
+She smoothed it away with her little white hand.
+
+"Well, at any rate, I don't think that quite everybody is the worse,"
+said he, looking down at her. "There is one, at least, who is beyond
+taint, one who is good, and pure, and true, and who would love me as
+well if I were a poor clerk struggling for a livelihood. You would,
+would you not, Laura?"
+
+"You foolish boy! of course I would."
+
+"And yet how strange it is that it should be so. That you, who are the
+only woman whom I have ever loved, should be the only one in whom I also
+have raised an affection which is free from greed or interest. I wonder
+whether you may not have been sent by Providence simply to restore my
+confidence in the world. How barren a place would it not be if it were
+not for woman's love! When all seemed black around me this morning, I
+tell you, Laura, that I seemed to turn to you and to your love as the
+one thing on earth upon which I could rely. All else seemed shifting,
+unstable, influenced by this or that base consideration. In you, and you
+only, could I trust."
+
+"And I in you, dear Raffles! I never knew what love was until I met
+you."
+
+She took a step towards him, her hands advanced, love shining in her
+features, when in an instant Raffles saw the colour struck from her
+face, and a staring horror spring into her eyes. Her blanched and rigid
+face was turned towards the open door, while he, standing partly behind
+it, could not see what it was that had so moved her.
+
+"Hector!" she gasped, with dry lips.
+
+A quick step in the hall, and a slim, weather-tanned young man sprang
+forward into the room, and caught her up in his arms as if she had been
+a feather.
+
+"You darling!" he said; "I knew that I would surprise you. I came right
+up from Plymouth by the night train. And I have long leave, and plenty
+of time to get married. Isn't it jolly, dear Laura?"
+
+He pirouetted round with her in the exuberance of his delight. As he
+spun round, however, his eyes fell suddenly upon the pale and silent
+stranger who stood by the door. Hector blushed furiously, and made an
+awkward sailor bow, standing with Laura's cold and unresponsive hand
+still clasped in his.
+
+"Very sorry, sir--didn't see you," he said. "You'll excuse my going on
+in this mad sort of way, but if you had served you would know what it
+is to get away from quarter-deck manners, and to be a free man. Miss
+McIntyre will tell you that we have known each other since we were
+children, and as we are to be married in, I hope, a month at the latest,
+we understand each other pretty well."
+
+Raffles Haw still stood cold and motionless. He was stunned, benumbed,
+by what he saw and heard. Laura drew away from Hector, and tried to free
+her hand from his grasp.
+
+"Didn't you get my letter at Gibraltar?" she asked.
+
+"Never went to Gibraltar. Were ordered home by wire from Madeira.
+Those chaps at the Admiralty never know their own minds for two hours
+together. But what matter about a letter, Laura, so long as I can see
+you and speak with you? You have not introduced me to your friend here."
+
+"One word, sir," cried Raffles Haw in a quivering voice. "Do I entirely
+understand you? Let me be sure that there is no mistake. You say that
+you are engaged to be married to Miss McIntyre?"
+
+"Of course I am. I've just come back from a four months' cruise, and I
+am going to be married before I drag my anchor again."
+
+"Four months!" gasped Haw. "Why, it is just four months since I came
+here. And one last question, sir. Does Robert McIntyre know of your
+engagement?"
+
+"Does Bob know? Of course he knows. Why, it was to his care I left Laura
+when I started. But what is the meaning of all this? What is the matter
+with you, Laura? Why are you so white and silent? And--hallo! Hold up,
+sir! The man is fainting!"
+
+"It is all right!" gasped Haw, steadying himself against the edge of the
+door.
+
+He was as white as paper, and his hand was pressed close to his side as
+though some sudden pain had shot through him. For a moment he tottered
+there like a stricken man, and then, with a hoarse cry, he turned and
+fled out through the open door.
+
+"Poor devil!" said Hector, gazing in amazement after him. "He seems hard
+hit anyhow. But what is the meaning of all this, Laura?"
+
+His face had darkened, and his mouth had set.
+
+She had not said a word, but had stood with a face like a mask looking
+blankly in front of her. Now she tore herself away from him, and,
+casting herself down with her face buried in the cushion of the sofa,
+she burst into a passion of sobbing.
+
+"It means that you have ruined me," she cried. "That you have
+ruined-ruined--ruined me! Could you not leave us alone? Why must you
+come at the last moment? A few more days, and we were safe. And you
+never had my letter."
+
+"And what was in your letter, then?" he asked coldly, standing with his
+arms folded, looking down at her.
+
+"It was to tell you that I released you. I love Raffles Haw, and I was
+to have been his wife. And now it is all gone. Oh, Hector, I hate you,
+and I shall always hate you as long as I live, for you have stepped
+between me and the only good fortune that ever came to me. Leave me
+alone, and I hope that you will never cross our threshold again."
+
+"Is that your last word, Laura?"
+
+"The last that I shall ever speak to you."
+
+"Then, good-bye. I shall see the Dad, and go straight back to Plymouth."
+He waited an instant, in hopes of an answer, and then walked sadly from
+the room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV. THE GREATER SECRET.
+
+
+It was late that night that a startled knocking came at the door of
+Elmdene. Laura had been in her room all day, and Robert was moodily
+smoking his pipe by the fire, when this harsh and sudden summons
+broke in upon his thoughts. There in the porch was Jones, the stout
+head-butler of the Hall, hatless, scared, with the raindrops shining in
+the lamplight upon his smooth, bald head.
+
+"If you please, Mr. McIntyre, sir, would it trouble you to step up to
+the Hall?" he cried. "We are all frightened, sir, about master."
+
+Robert caught up his hat and started at a run, the frightened butler
+trotting heavily beside him. It had been a day of excitement and
+disaster. The young artist's heart was heavy within him, and the shadow
+of some crowning trouble seemed to have fallen upon his soul.
+
+"What is the matter with your master, then?" he asked, as he slowed down
+into a walk.
+
+"We don't know, sir; but we can't get an answer when we knock at the
+laboratory door. Yet he's there, for it's locked on the inside. It has
+given us all a scare, sir, that, and his goin's-on during the day."
+
+"His goings-on?"
+
+"Yes, sir; for he came back this morning like a man demented, a-talkin'
+to himself, and with his eyes starin' so that it was dreadful to look at
+the poor dear gentleman. Then he walked about the passages a long time,
+and he wouldn't so much as look at his luncheon, but he went into the
+museum, and gathered all his jewels and things, and carried them into
+the laboratory. We don't know what he's done since then, sir, but his
+furnace has been a-roarin', and his big chimney spoutin' smoke like a
+Birmingham factory. When night came we could see his figure against the
+light, a-workin' and a-heavin' like a man possessed. No dinner would he
+have, but work, and work, and work. Now it's all quiet, and the furnace
+cold, and no smoke from above, but we can't get no answer from him, sir,
+so we are scared, and Miller has gone for the police, and I came away
+for you."
+
+They reached the Hall as the butler finished his explanation, and
+there outside the laboratory door stood the little knot of footmen and
+ostlers, while the village policeman, who had just arrived, was holding
+his bull's-eye to the keyhole, and endeavouring to peep through.
+
+"The key is half-turned," he said. "I can't see nothing except just the
+light."
+
+"Here's Mr. McIntyre," cried half-a-dozen voices, as Robert came
+forward.
+
+"We'll have to beat the door in, sir," said the policeman. "We can't get
+any sort of answer, and there's something wrong."
+
+Twice and thrice they threw their united weights against it until at
+last with a sharp snap the lock broke, and they crowded into the narrow
+passage. The inner door was ajar, and the laboratory lay before them.
+
+In the centre was an enormous heap of fluffy grey ash, reaching up
+half-way to the ceiling. Beside it was another heap, much smaller, of
+some brilliant scintillating dust, which shimmered brightly in the rays
+of the electric light. All round was a bewildering chaos of broken jars,
+shattered bottles, cracked machinery, and tangled wires, all bent and
+draggled. And there in the midst of this universal ruin, leaning back in
+his chair with his hands clasped upon his lap, and the easy pose of one
+who rests after hard work safely carried through, sat Raffles Haw, the
+master of the house, and the richest of mankind, with the pallor of
+death upon his face. So easily he sat and so naturally, with such a
+serene expression upon his features, that it was not until they raised
+him, and touched his cold and rigid limbs, that they could realise that
+he had indeed passed away.
+
+Reverently and slowly they bore him to his room, for he was beloved by
+all who had served him. Robert alone lingered with the policeman in the
+laboratory. Like a man in a dream he wandered about, marvelling at the
+universal destruction. A large broad-headed hammer lay upon the
+ground, and with this Haw had apparently set himself to destroy all
+his apparatus, having first used his electrical machines to reduce
+to protyle all the stock of gold which he had accumulated. The
+treasure-room which had so dazzled Robert consisted now of merely four
+bare walls, while the gleaming dust upon the floor proclaimed the fate
+of that magnificent collection of gems which had alone amounted to a
+royal fortune. Of all the machinery no single piece remained intact,
+and even the glass table was shattered into three pieces. Strenuously
+earnest must have been the work which Raffles Haw had done that day.
+
+And suddenly Robert thought of the secret which had been treasured in
+the casket within the iron-clamped box. It was to tell him the one last
+essential link which would make his knowledge of the process complete.
+Was it still there? Thrilling all over, he opened the great chest, and
+drew out the ivory box. It was locked, but the key was in it. He turned
+it and threw open the lid. There was a white slip of paper with his own
+name written upon it. With trembling fingers he unfolded it. Was he
+the heir to the riches of El Dorado, or was he destined to be a poor
+struggling artist? The note was dated that very evening, and ran in this
+way:
+
+   "MY DEAR ROBERT,--My secret shall never be used again. I cannot
+   tell you how I thank Heaven that I did not entirely confide it to
+   you, for I should have been handing over an inheritance of misery
+   both to yourself and others.  For myself I have hardly had a happy
+   moment since I discovered it. This I could have borne had I been
+   able to feel that I was doing good, but, alas! the only effect of my
+   attempts has been to turn workers into idlers, contented men into
+   greedy parasites, and, worst of all, true, pure women into
+   deceivers and hypocrites.  If this is the effect of my interference
+   on a small scale, I cannot hope for anything better were I to carry
+   out the plans which we have so often discussed.  The schemes of my
+   life have all turned to nothing.  For myself, you shall never see me
+   again.  I shall go back to the student life from which I emerged.
+   There, at least, if I can do little good, I can do no harm.  It is
+   my wish that such valuables as remain in the Hall should be sold,
+   and the proceeds divided amidst all the charities of Birmingham.
+   I shall leave tonight if I am well enough, but I have been much
+   troubled all day by a stabbing pain in my side.  It is as if wealth
+   were as bad for health as it is for peace of mind.  Good-bye,
+   Robert, and may you never have as sad a heart as I have to-night.
+   Yours very truly,
+   RAFFLES HAW."
+
+"Was it suicide, sir? Was it suicide?" broke in the policeman as Robert
+put the note in his pocket.
+
+"No," he answered; "I think it was a broken heart."
+
+And so the wonders of the New Hall were all dismantled, the carvings and
+the gold, the books and the pictures, and many a struggling man or woman
+who had heard nothing of Raffles Haw during his life had cause to bless
+him after his death. The house has been bought by a company now, who
+have turned it into a hydropathic establishment, and of all the folk who
+frequent it in search of health or of pleasure there are few who know
+the strange story which is connected with it.
+
+The blight which Haw's wealth cast around it seemed to last even after
+his death. Old McIntyre still raves in the County Lunatic Asylum, and
+treasures up old scraps of wood and metal under the impression that they
+are all ingots of gold. Robert McIntyre is a moody and irritable man,
+for ever pursuing a quest which will always evade him. His art is
+forgotten, and he spends his whole small income upon chemical and
+electrical appliances, with which he vainly seeks to rediscover that
+one hidden link. His sister keeps house for him, a silent and brooding
+woman, still queenly and beautiful, but of a bitter, dissatisfied mind.
+Of late, however, she has devoted herself to charity, and has been of so
+much help to Mr. Spurling's new curate that it is thought that he may
+be tempted to secure her assistance for ever. So runs the gossip of the
+village, and in small places such gossip is seldom wrong. As to Hector
+Spurling, he is still in her Majesty's service, and seems inclined to
+abide by his father's wise advice, that he should not think of marrying
+until he was a Commander. It is possible that of all who were brought
+within the spell of Raffles Haw he was the only one who had occasion to
+bless it.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Doings Of Raffles Haw, by Arthur Conan Doyle
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