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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of An Amiable Charlatan, by E. Phillips Oppenheim
+
+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: An Amiable Charlatan
+
+Author: E. Phillips Oppenheim
+
+Posting Date: November 3, 2011 [EBook #9664]
+Release Date: January, 2006
+First Posted: October 14, 2003
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN AMIABLE CHARLATAN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Keith M. Eckrich and PG
+Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+AN AMIABLE CHARLATAN
+
+BY
+
+E. PHILLIPS OPPENHEIM
+
+(AUTHOR OF "MR. GREX OF MONTE CARLO," "THE DOUBLE TRAITOR", ETC.)
+
+
+WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY WILL GREF
+
+
+[Illustration:
+"No one can be more glad than Mrs. Delaporte and myself
+that this little affair has been concluded so amicably."]
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER
+
+    I THE MAN AT STEPHANO'S
+
+   II THE COUP IN THE GAMBLING DEN
+
+  III CULLEN GIVES ADVICE
+
+   IV THE WOOING OF EVE
+
+    V MR. SAMUELSON
+
+   VI THE PARTY AT THE MILAN
+
+  VII "ONE OF US"
+
+ VIII AT THE ALHAMBRA
+
+   IX THE EXPOSURE
+
+    X A BROKEN PARTNERSHIP
+
+   XI MR. BUNDERCOMBE'S WINK
+
+  XII THE EMANCIPATION OF LOUIS
+
+ XIII "THE SHORN LAMB"
+
+  XIV MR. BUNDERCOMBE'S LOVE AFFAIR
+
+   XV LORD PORTHONING'S LESSON
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+"No one can be more glad than Mrs. Delaporte and myself that this little
+affair has been concluded so amicably"
+
+"Ladies and gentlemen, if you please! Nothing has happened"
+
+"I haven't interrupted anything, have I--any little celebration, or
+anything of that sort?"
+
+"Eve was one of the first to congratulate me"
+
+
+
+
+AN AMIABLE CHARLATAN
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I--THE MAN AT STEPHANO's
+
+The thing happened so suddenly that I really had very little time to make
+up my mind what course to adopt under somewhat singular circumstances. I
+was seated at my favorite table against the wall on the right-hand side in
+Stephano's restaurant, with a newspaper propped up before me, a glass of
+hock by my side, and a portion of the _plat du jour_, which happened to be
+chicken _en casserole_, on the plate in front of me.
+
+I was, in fact, halfway through dinner when, without a word of warning, a
+man who seemed to enter with a lightfooted speed that, considering his
+size, was almost incredible, drew a chair toward him and took the vacant
+place at my table. My glass of wine and my plate were moved with smooth
+and marvelous haste to his vicinity. Under cover of the tablecloth a
+packet--I could not tell what it contained--was thrust into my hand.
+
+"Sir," he said, raising my glass of wine to his lips, "I am forced to take
+somewhat of a liberty. You can render me the service of a lifetime! Kindly
+accept the situation."
+
+I stared at him for a moment quite blankly. Then I recognized him; and,
+transferring at once the packet to my trousers pocket, I drew another
+glass toward me and poured out the remainder of my half-bottle of hock. So
+much, at any rate, I felt I had saved!
+
+"I shall offer you presently," my self-invited guest continued, with his
+mouth full of my chicken, "the fullest explanation. I shall also ask you
+to do me the honor of dining with me. I think I am right in saying that we
+are not altogether strangers?"
+
+"I know you very well by sight," I told him. "I have seen you here several
+times before with a young lady."
+
+"Exactly," he agreed. "My daughter, sir."
+
+"Then for the sake of your daughter," I said, with an enthusiasm that was
+not in the least assumed, "I can assure you that, whether as host or
+guest, you are very welcome to sit at my table. As for this packet--"
+
+"Keep it for a few moments, my young friend," the newcomer interrupted,
+"just while I recover my breath, that is all. Have confidence in me.
+Things may happen here very shortly. Sit tight and you will never regret
+it. My name, so far as you are concerned, is Joseph H. Parker. Tell me,
+you are facing the door, some one has just entered. Who is it?"
+
+"A stranger," I replied; "a stranger to this place, I am sure. He is tall
+and dark; he is a little lantern-jawed--a hatchet-shaped face, I should
+call it."
+
+"My man, right enough," Mr. Joseph H. Parker muttered. "Don't seem to
+notice him particularly," he added, "but tell me what he is doing."
+
+"He seems to have entered in a hurry," I announced, "and is now taking off
+his overcoat. He is wearing, I perceive, a bowler hat, a dinner jacket,
+the wrong-shaped collar; and he appears to have forgotten to change his
+boots."
+
+"That's Cullen, all right," Mr. Joseph H. Parker groaned. "You're a person
+of observation, sir. Well, I've been in tighter corners than this--thanks
+to you!"
+
+"Who is Mr. Cullen and what does he want?" I asked.
+
+"Mr. Cullen," my guest declared, sampling the fresh bottle of wine which
+had just been brought to him, "is one of those misguided individuals whose
+lack of faith in his fellows will bring him some time or other to a bad
+end. My young friend, sip that wine thoughtfully--don't hurry over it--and
+tell me whether my choice is not better than yours?"
+
+"Possibly," I remarked, with a glance at the yellow seal, "your pocket is
+longer. By the by, your friend is coming toward us."
+
+"It is not a question of pocket," Mr. Parker continued, disregarding my
+remark, "it is a question of taste and judgment; discrimination is perhaps
+the word I should use. Now in my younger days--Eh? What's that?"
+
+The person named Cullen had paused at my table. His hand was resting
+gently upon the shoulder of my self-invited guest. Mr. Parker looked up
+and appeared to recognize him with much surprise.
+
+"You, my dear fellow!" he exclaimed. "Say, I'm delighted to see you--I am
+sure! But would you mind--just a little lower with your fingers! Too
+professional a touch altogether!"
+
+Mr. Cullen smiled, and from that moment I took a dislike to him--a dislike
+that did much toward determining the point of view from which I was
+inclined to consider various succeeding incidents. He was by no means a
+person of prepossessing appearance. His cheeks were colorless save for a
+sort of yellowish tinge. His mouth reminded me of the mouth of a horse;
+his teeth were irregular and poor.
+
+Yet there was about the man a certain sense of power. His eyes were clear
+and bright. His manner was imbued with the reserve strength of a man who
+knows his own mind and does not fear to speak it.
+
+"I am sorry to interrupt you at your dinner, Mr. Parker," he said, his
+eyes traveling all over the table as though taking in its appointments and
+condition.
+
+"Of no consequence at all," Mr. Parker assured him; "in fact I have nearly
+finished. If you are thinking of dining here let me recommend this chicken
+_en casserole_. I have tasted nothing so good for days!"
+
+Mr. Cullen thanked him mechanically. His mind, however, was obviously
+filled with other things. He was puzzled.
+
+"You must have a double about this evening, I fancy," he remarked. "I
+could have sworn I saw you coming out of a certain little house in Adam
+Street not a couple of minutes ago. You know the little house I mean?"
+
+Mr. Parker smiled.
+
+"Seems as though that double were all right," he said. "I am halfway
+through my dinner, as you can see, and I'm a slow eater--especially in
+pleasant company. Shake hands with my friend--Mr. Paul Walmsley, Mr.
+Cullen."
+
+My surprise at hearing my own name correctly given was only equaled by the
+admiration I also felt for my companion's complete and absolute assurance.
+Mr. Cullen and I exchanged a perfunctory handshake, which left me without
+any change in my feelings toward him.
+
+"Another of my mistakes, I suppose," Mr. Cullen said quietly. "I am afraid
+on this occasion, however, that I must trouble you, Mr. Parker. An affair
+of a few moments only. I won't even suggest Bow Street--at present. If you
+could take a stroll with me--even into Luigi's office would do."
+
+Mr. Parker put down his knife and fork with a little gesture of
+irritation. His broad, good-natured face was for the moment clouded. "Say,
+Cullen," he remonstrated, "don't you think you're carrying this a bit too
+far, you know? There isn't a man I enjoy a half-hour's chat with more than
+you; but in the middle of dinner--dinner with a friend too--"
+
+"I try to do my duty," Mr. Cullen interrupted, "and I am afraid that I am
+not at liberty to study your comfort."
+
+Mr. Parker sighed heavily.
+
+"Do you mind, Walmsley, having my plate kept warm and reminding the man
+that I ordered asparagus to follow?" my new friend remarked, as he rose to
+his feet. "Mr. Cullen wants a word or two with me in private, and Mr.
+Cullen is a man who will have his own way."
+
+I nodded as indifferently as possible and the two men walked off together
+toward the entrance. Then I summoned my waiter.
+
+"Bring me," I ordered, "a fresh portion of chicken and order some
+asparagus to follow. Keep my friend's chicken warm and order him some
+asparagus also."
+
+Leaning back in my chair I tried to puzzle out the probable meaning of
+this somewhat extraordinary happening. My acquiescence in the attitude
+that had been so suddenly forced upon me was owing entirely to one
+circumstance. Mr. Joseph H. Parker I had recognized at his first entrance
+as a regular _habitue_ of the restaurant. He was usually accompanied by a
+young lady who, from the first moment I had seen her, had produced an
+effect upon my not too susceptible disposition for which I was wholly
+unable to account, but which was the sole reason why I had given up my
+club and all other restaurants and occupied that particular place for the
+last fortnight.
+
+I had put the two down as an American and his daughter traveling in
+England for pleasure; and my continual presence at the restaurant was
+wholly inspired by the hope that some opportunity might arise by means of
+which I could make their acquaintance. Adventures, in the ordinary sense
+of the word, had never appealed to me. I was privileged to possess many
+charming acquaintances among the other sex, but not one of them had ever
+inspired me with anything save the most ordinary feelings of friendship
+and admiration.
+
+The opportunity I desired had now apparently come. I had made the
+acquaintance of Mr. Joseph H. Parker--made it in an unceremonious manner,
+perhaps, but still under circumstances that would probably result in his
+being willing to acknowledge himself my debtor. I had a packet of
+something belonging to him in my pocket, which was presumably valuable.
+His friend, Mr. Cullen, I detested, and the reference to Bow Street
+puzzled me. However, I had no doubt that in a few minutes everything would
+be explained. Meantime I permitted myself to indulge in certain very
+pleasurable anticipations.
+
+In the course of about a quarter of an hour Mr. Joseph H. Parker
+reappeared. He came down the room humming a tune and apparently quite
+pleased with himself. I took the opportunity of studying his personal
+appearance a little more closely. He was not tall, but he was distinctly
+fat. He had a large double chin, but a certain freshness of complexion and
+massiveness about his forehead relieved his face from any suspicion of
+grossness. He had a large and humorous mouth, delightful eyes and
+plentiful eyebrows. His iron-gray hair was brushed carefully back from his
+forehead. He gave one the idea of strength, notwithstanding the
+disabilities of his figure. He smiled contentedly as he seated himself
+once more at my table.
+
+"Really," he began, "I scarcely know how to excuse myself, Mr. Walmsley.
+However, thanks to you, we can now dine in comfort. Until now I fear I
+have taken your good offices very much for granted; but I assure you it
+will give me the greatest pleasure to make your closer acquaintance and to
+impress upon you my extreme sense of obligation."
+
+"You are very kind," I replied. "By the by, might I ask how you know my
+name?"
+
+"My young friend," Mr. Parker said, eying with approval the fresh portion
+of chicken that had been brought him, "it is my business to know many
+things. I go about the world with my eyes and ears open. Things that
+escape other people interest me. Your name is Mr. Paul Walmsley. You are
+one of a class of men that practically doesn't exist in America. You have
+no particular occupation that I know of, save that you have a small estate
+in the country, which no doubt takes up some of your time. You have rooms
+in London, which you occupy occasionally. You probably write a little--I
+have noticed that you are fond of watching people."
+
+"You really seem to know a good deal about me," I confessed, a little
+taken aback.
+
+"I am not far from the mark, am I?"
+
+"You are not," I admitted.
+
+"As regards your lack of occupation," Mr. Parker went on, "I am not the
+man to blame you for it. There are very few things in life a man can
+settle down to nowadays. To a person of imagination the ordinary routine
+of the professions and the ordinary curriculum of business life is a
+species of slavery. We live in overcivilized times. There seems to be very
+little room anywhere for a man to gratify his natural instincts for change
+and adventure."
+
+I murmured my acquiescence with his sentiments and my companion paused for
+a few minutes, his whole attention devoted to his dinner.
+
+"Might one inquire," I asked, after a brief pause, "as to your own
+profession? You are an American, are you not?"
+
+"I am most certainly an American," Mr. Parker assented.
+
+"In business?" I asked.
+
+Mr. Parker looked round. Our table was comparatively isolated.
+
+"I am an adventurer," he replied mysteriously.
+
+I stared at him and repeated the word. He beamed pleasantly upon me.
+
+"An adventurer! My daughter, whom you have seen here with me, is an
+adventuress. We live by our wits and we do pretty well at it. Sometimes we
+live in luxury. Sometimes we are up against it good and hard. The Ritz one
+day, you know, and Bloomsbury the next; but lots of fun all the time."
+
+I looked at him a little blankly.
+
+"To a certain extent I suppose you are joking?" I asked.
+
+"To no extent at all," he assured me. "By the by, as regards that packet;
+would you mind just slipping it under this newspaper?"
+
+I withdrew it from my pocket and obeyed him at once. Mr. Parker's fingers
+seemed to play with it for a moment and I noticed at that moment what a
+strong and capable hand he seemed to have, with fingers of unusual length
+and suppleness.
+
+A dark faced _maitre d'hotel_, who presided over our portion of the room,
+came up smiling, with an inquiry as to our coffee. He exchanged a casual
+sentence or two with Mr. Parker, bowed and passed on. Mr. Parker, a moment
+later, with a little smile lifted the newspaper. The packet had
+disappeared. He noticed my look of surprise and seemed gratified.
+
+"A mere trifle, that!" he declared. "I can assure you that I could have
+taken it out of your pocket, if I had desired, without your feeling a
+thing."
+
+"Wonderful!" I murmured, feeling distinctly uncomfortable.
+
+"Just a gift!" he continued modestly. "We all have our talents, you know.
+I have ordered some special coffee."
+
+I was beginning to think rapidly now.
+
+"By the by," I asked, "what is Mr. Cullen's profession?"
+
+"He is a detective," Mr. Parker answered, without hesitation; "and, to my
+mind, a singularly bad one. For two months he has had what they call his
+eye on me. Between ourselves I think he will have his eye on me still in
+another two months' time. I am sure I hope so, for I frankly admit that
+half the savor of life would be gone if my friend, Mr. Cullen, were to
+finally give me up as a bad job and leave me alone."
+
+I suppose that something of what I was feeling was reflected in my face. I
+had always considered myself a man of the world and I was interested
+enough in my fellows to enjoy mixing with all classes.
+
+But there was the girl!
+
+"You are thinking--!" my companion began softly.
+
+"Your friend," I interrupted, "has just entered the restaurant. He is
+coming toward this table."
+
+Mr. Parker's expression never changed. Not a muscle twitched. His tone was
+even careless.
+
+"Just as well, perhaps," he remarked, "that we worked that little
+conjuring trick."
+
+The detective stood once more at our table. My instinctive dislike of him
+was now an accomplished thing. I hated his smile of subdued triumph, and
+all my fundamental ideas as to law and order were seriously affected by
+it. I was distinctly on the side of my new acquaintance.
+
+"I am sorry to interrupt this little feast," Mr. Cullen said, "but I shall
+have to trouble you both to come with me for a short time."
+
+Mr. Parker carefully clipped the end of his cigar and leaned back in his
+chair while he lit it.
+
+"My friend Cullen," he remonstrated, "I have no objection to offering
+myself up as a victim to your super-abundant energy and trotting about
+with you wherever you choose; but when it comes to dragging my friends
+into it, I just want to say right here that I think you are carrying
+things a little too far--just a little too far, sir."
+
+"If either of you seriously object to my request," Mr. Cullen replied
+doggedly, "I can put the matter on a different basis."
+
+"Who is this friend of yours and why should we go anywhere with him?" I
+asked.
+
+Mr. Parker shook his head mournfully.
+
+"You may well ask," he sighed. "You may not think it, to look at his
+ingenuous and honest expression, but the fact, nevertheless, remains that
+Mr. Cullen is a misguided but zealous member of the Sherlock Holmes
+fraternity: in short, a detective."
+
+I rose to my feet with some alacrity.
+
+"Anything in the shape of an adventure--" I began.
+
+"Not much adventure about this," Mr. Parker interrupted gloomily, brushing
+the ashes from his waistcoat and also rising. "We are probably going to be
+searched for spoons. However if it must be--"
+
+For the first time in my life I walked side by side with a detective. He
+led us to the far end of the restaurant, into an apartment usually used by
+the manager as a wine-tasting office, and carefully closed the door behind
+us. Outside I caught the glimmer of a policeman's helmet.
+
+"Every precaution taken, you perceive," Mr. Parker remarked. "In case we
+should turn out to be desperate characters and, appalled by the fear of
+discovery, should be driven to make a personal attack upon Mr. Cullen, a
+myrmidon of the law is lurking near. Under those circumstances I shall
+eschew violence. I shall submit myself peaceably to a second examination."
+
+I found the affair, on the whole, interesting. I divested myself only of
+my coat and waistcoat and Mr. Cullen's fingers did the rest. Only a single
+and momentary frown betrayed his disappointment as, ten minutes later, he
+unlocked the door.
+
+"Gentlemen," he said, "I owe you my most profound apologies."
+
+"That's all right, Cullen," Mr. Parker observed, patting him on the
+shoulder; "but let's have this thing straight now. Are we to be allowed to
+finish our dinner in peace or will you be turning up again with a new
+idea? And if I take a box for the Tivoli presently, shall we have the
+pleasure of seeing you bob in upon us?"
+
+"So far as my present intentions are concerned," Mr. Cullen remarked
+grimly, "you may rely upon remaining undisturbed. I am sorry, Mr.
+Walmsley," he added, turning to me, "to have been the cause of any
+annoyance to you this evening. My advice to you is, if you wish to escape
+these inconveniences through life, to avoid the society of people whose
+character is known to the police."
+
+"I shall get you for libel yet, Cullen!" Mr. Parker declared, pulling down
+his waistcoat.
+
+"What I've done to annoy that man I can't imagine," he went on
+impersonally. "Mind, he practises on me--I'm convinced of it."
+
+Mr. Cullen left us abruptly and quitted the restaurant. I returned to our
+table with my new friend.
+
+"Really," he said, "I scarcely know how to apologize to you, Mr. Walmsley.
+This sort of thing amuses me, as a rule; but I must admit that Mr. Cullen
+is apt to get on one's nerves. A well-meaning man, mind, but unduly
+persistent!"
+
+I resumed my seat at the table. I was feeling a little dazed. Opposite,
+talking to two ladies, was the smooth-faced _maitre d'hotel_ into whose
+keeping I felt sure that packet had gone. Seated by my side was the
+gentleman who had assured me with the utmost self-possession that he was
+an adventurer. And standing in the doorway, looking at us, was the girl
+who for the last few weeks had monopolized all my thoughts; who had played
+havoc to such a complete extent with the principles of my life that, for
+her sake, I was at that moment perfectly willing to range myself even
+among the outcasts of the world.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II--THE COUP IN THE GAMBLING DEN
+
+On seeing us the girl advanced into the room. I called Mr. Parker's
+attention to her and he rose at once to his feet. It was a cold evening in
+April and she was wearing a long coat trimmed with some dark-colored fur,
+and a hat also trimmed with fur, but with something blue in it. She was
+rather tall; she had masses of dark brown hair, a suspicion of a fringe,
+and deep blue eyes. She came toward us very deliberately, with the same
+grace of movement I had watched and admired night after night. She gave me
+a glance of the slightest possible curiosity as she approached. Then her
+father introduced us.
+
+"This is Mr. Paul Walmsley, my dear," he said--"my daughter. Have you
+dined, Eve?"
+
+She shook hands with me and smiled very charmingly.
+
+"Hours ago," she replied. "I didn't mean to come out this evening, but I
+was so bored that I thought I would try and find you."
+
+She accepted the chair I was holding and unbuttoned her cloak.
+
+"You will have some coffee?" I begged.
+
+"Why, that would be delightful," she agreed. "I am so glad to find you
+with my father, Mr. Walmsley," she continued. "I know he hates dining
+alone; but this evening I had an appointment with a dressmaker quite late
+--and I didn't feel a bit like dinner anyhow."
+
+"You come here often, don't you?" I ventured.
+
+"Very often indeed," she replied. "You see it is not in the least
+entertaining where we are staying and the cooking is abominable. Then
+father adores restaurants. Do tell me what you have been talking about--
+you two men--all the evening?"
+
+"The truth!" Mr. Parker remarked, lighting another cigar. "My daughter
+knows that I speak nothing else. It is a weakness of mine. Mr. Walmsley
+and I were exchanging notes as to our relative professions. I told him
+frankly that I was an adventurer and you an adventuress. I think by now he
+is beginning to believe it."
+
+She laughed very softly--almost under her breath; yet I fancied there was
+a note of mockery in her mirth.
+
+"Confess that you were very much shocked, Mr. Walmsley!" she said.
+
+"Not in the least," I assured her.
+
+She raised her eyebrows ever so slightly.
+
+"Confess, then," she went on, "confess, Mr. Walmsley, that in all your
+well-ordered life you have never heard such an admission made by two
+apparently respectable people before."
+
+"How do you know," I asked, "that my life has been well-ordered?"
+
+"Look at yourself in the glass," she begged.
+
+Scarcely knowing what I did, I turned round in my seat and obeyed her.
+There is, perhaps, a certain preciseness about my appearance as well as my
+attire. I am tall enough--well over six feet--but my complexion still
+retains traces of my years in Africa and of my fondness for outdoor
+sports. My hair is straight and I have never grown beard or mustache. I
+felt, somehow, that I represented the things which in an Englishman are a
+little derided by young ladies on the other side of the water.
+
+"I can't help my appearance," I said, a little crossly. "I can assure you
+that I am not a prig."
+
+"Our young friend," Mr. Parker intervened, "has certainly earned his
+immunity from any such title. To tell you the truth, Eve, he has already
+been my accomplice this evening in a certain little matter. But for his
+help, who knows that I might not have found myself up against it? Between
+us we have even had a little fun out of Cullen."
+
+Her expression changed. She seemed, for some reason, none too well
+pleased.
+
+"What have you been doing?" she asked me.
+
+"I, personally, have been doing very little indeed," I told her. "Your
+father entered the restaurant in a hurry about an hour ago and found it
+convenient to seat himself at my table and help himself to my dinner. He
+intrusted me, also, with a packet, which I subsequently returned to him."
+
+"It is now," Mr. Parker declared, replying to his daughter's anxious
+glance, "in perfectly safe hands."
+
+She sighed and shook her head at him.
+
+"Daddy," she murmured plaintively, "why will you run such risks? Even Mr.
+Cullen isn't an absolute idiot, you know, and there might have been some
+one else watching."
+
+Mr. Parker nodded.
+
+"You are quite right, my dear," he admitted. "To tell you the truth,
+Cullen was really a little smarter than usual this evening. However,
+there's always the luck, you know--our luck! If Mr. Walmsley had turned
+out a different sort of man--but, then, I knew he wouldn't."
+
+She turned her head and looked at me. She had a trick of contracting the
+corners of her eyes just a little, which was absolutely bewitching.
+
+"Will you tell me why you helped my father in this way, Mr. Walmsley?"
+
+I returned her regard steadfastly.
+
+"It never occurred to me," I said, "to do anything else--after I had
+recognized him."
+
+She smiled a little. My speech was obviously sincere. I think from that
+moment she began to realize why I had occupied the little table, opposite
+to the one where she so often sat, with such unfailing regularity.
+
+"What about a music hall?" Mr. Parker suggested. "I hear there's a good
+show on right across the street here. Have you any engagement for this
+evening, Mr. Walmsley?"
+
+"None at all," I hastened to assure him.
+
+We left the place together a few minutes later and found a vacant box at
+the Tivoli. Arrived there, however, Mr. Parker soon became restless. He
+kept on seeing friends in the auditorium. We watched him, with his hat a
+little on the back of his head, going about shaking hands in various
+directions.
+
+"How long have you been in England?" I asked my companion.
+
+"Barely two months," she replied. "Do look at father! Wherever he goes
+it's the same. The one recreation of his life is making friends. The
+people he is speaking to to-night he has probably come across in a
+railroad train or an American bar. He makes lifelong friendships every
+time he drinks a cocktail, and he never forgets a face."
+
+"Isn't that a little trying for you?" I asked.
+
+She laughed outright.
+
+"If you could only see some of the people he brings up and introduces to
+me!"
+
+We talked for some time upon quite ordinary subjects. As the time passed
+on, however, and her father did not return, it seemed to me she became
+more silent. She told me very little about herself and the few personal
+things she said were always restrained. I was beginning to feel almost
+discouraged; she sat so long with a slight frown upon her forehead and her
+head turned away from me.
+
+"Miss Parker," I ventured at last, "something seems to have displeased
+you."
+
+"It has," she admitted.
+
+"Will you please tell me what it is?" I asked humbly. "If I have said or
+done anything clumsy give me a chance, at any rate, to let you see how
+sorry I am."
+
+She turned and faced me then.
+
+"It is not your fault," she assured me; "only I am a little annoyed with
+my father."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"I think," she went on, "it is perfectly delightful that he should have
+made your acquaintance. It isn't that at all. But I do not think he should
+have made use of you in the way he did. He is utterly reckless sometimes
+and forgets what he is doing. It is all very well for himself, but he has
+no right to expose you to--to--"
+
+"To what risk did he expose me?" I demanded. "Tell me, Miss Parker--was he
+absolutely honest when he told me he was an adventurer?"
+
+"Absolutely!"
+
+"Was I, then, an accomplice in anything illegal to-night?"
+
+"Worse than illegal--criminal!" she told me.
+
+Now my father had been a judge and I had a brother who was a barrister;
+but the madness was upon me and I spoke quickly and convincingly.
+
+"Then all I have to say about it is that I am glad!" I declared.
+
+"Why?" she murmured, looking at me wonderingly.
+
+"Because he is your father and I have helped him," I answered under my
+breath.
+
+For a few moments she was silent. She looked at me however; and as I
+watched her eyes grow softer I suddenly held out my hand, and for a moment
+she suffered hers to rest in it. Then she drew away a little.
+
+She was still looking at me steadfastly; but something that had seemed to
+me inimical had gone from her expression.
+
+"Mr. Walmsley," she said slowly, "I want to tell you I think you are
+making a mistake. Please listen to me carefully. You do not belong to the
+order of people from whom the adventurers of the world are drawn. What you
+are is written in your face. I am perfectly certain you possess the
+ordinary conventional ideas as to right and wrong--the ideas in which you
+have been brought up and which have been instilled into you all your life.
+My father and I belong to a different class of society. There is nothing
+to be gained for you by mixing with us, and a great deal to be lost."
+
+"May I not judge for myself?" I asked.
+
+"I fear," she answered, looking me full in the face and smiling at me
+delightfully, "you are just a little prejudiced."
+
+"Supposing," I whispered, "I have discovered something that seems to me
+better worth living for than anything else I have yet found in the world I
+know of--if that something belongs to a world in which I have not yet
+lived--do you blame me if for the sake of it I would be willing to climb
+down even into----"
+
+She held out her finger warningly. I heard heavy footsteps outside and the
+rattle of the doorhandle.
+
+"You are very foolish!" she murmured. "Please let my father in."
+
+Mr. Parker returned in high good humor. He had met a host of acquaintances
+and declared that he had not had a dull moment. As for the performance he
+seemed to have forgotten there was one going on at all.
+
+"I am for supper," he suggested. "I owe our friend here a supper in return
+for his interrupted dinner."
+
+"Supper, by all means!" I agreed.
+
+"Remember that I am wearing a hat," Eve said. "We must go to one of the
+smaller places."
+
+In the end we went back to Stephano's. We sat at the table at which I had
+so often watched Eve and her father sitting alone, and by her side I
+listened to the music I had so often heard while I had watched her from
+what had seemed to me to be an impossible distance.
+
+Mr. Parker talked wonderfully. He spoke of gigantic financial deals in
+Wall Street; of operations which had altered the policy of nations; of
+great robberies in New York, the details of which he discussed with
+amazing technical knowledge.
+
+He played tricks with the knives and forks, balanced the glasses in
+extraordinary fashion, and reduced our waiters to a state of numbed and
+amazed incapacity. Every person who entered he seemed to have some slight
+acquaintance with. All the time he was acknowledging and returning
+greetings, and all the time he talked.
+
+We spoke finally of gambling; and he laughed heartily when I made mild fun
+of the gambling scare that was just then being written up in all the
+papers and magazines.
+
+"So you don't believe in baccarat tables in London!" he said. "Very good!
+We shall see. After we have supped we shall see!"
+
+We stayed until long past closing time. Mr. Parker continued in the
+highest good humor, but Eve was subject at times to moods of either
+indifference or depression. The more intimate note which had once or twice
+crept into our conversation she seemed now inclined to deprecate. She
+avoided meeting my eyes. More than once she glanced toward the clock.
+
+"Haven't you an appointment to-night, father?" she asked, almost in an
+undertone.
+
+"Sure!" Mr. Parker answered readily. "I have an appointment, and I am
+going to take you and Mr. Walmsley along."
+
+"I am delighted to hear it!" I exclaimed quickly.
+
+"I'll teach you to make fun of the newspapers," Mr. Parker went on. "No
+gambling hells in London, eh? Well, we shall see!"
+
+To my great relief Eve made no spoken objection to my inclusion in the
+party. When at last we left a large and handsome motor car was drawn up
+outside waiting for us.
+
+"A taxicab," Mr. Parker explained, "is of no use to me--of no more use
+than a hansom cab. I have to keep a car in order to slip about quietly.
+Now in what part of London shall we look for a gambling hell, Mr.
+Walmsley? I know of eleven. Name your own street--somewhere in the West
+End."
+
+I named one at random.
+
+"The very place!" Mr. Parker declared; "the very place where I have
+already an appointment. Get in. Say, you Londoners have no idea what goes
+on in your own city!"
+
+We drove to a quiet street not very far from the Ritz Hotel. Mr. Parker
+led us across the pavement and we entered a block of flats. The entrance
+hall was dimly lit and there seemed to be no one about. Mr. Parker,
+however, rang for a lift, which came promptly down.
+
+"You two will stay here," he directed, "for two or three minutes. Then the
+lift will come down for you."
+
+He ascended and left us there. I turned at once to Eve, who had scarcely
+spoken a word during the drive from the restaurant.
+
+"I do wish you would tell me what is troubling you, Miss Parker," I
+begged. "If I am really in the way of course you have only to say the word
+and I'll be off at once."
+
+She held my arm for a moment. The touch of her fingers gave me
+unreasonable pleasure.
+
+"Please don't think me rude or unkind," she pleaded. "Don't even think
+that I don't like your coming along with us--because I do. It isn't that.
+Only, as I told my father before supper, you don't belong! You ought not
+to be seen at these places, and with us. For some absurd reason father
+seems to have taken a fancy to you. It isn't a very good thing for you. It
+very likely won't be a good thing for us."
+
+"Do please change your opinion of me a little," I implored her. "I can't
+help my appearance; but let me assure you I am willing to play the
+Bohemian to any extent so long as I can be with you. There isn't a thing
+in your life I wouldn't be content to share," I ventured to add.
+
+She sighed a little petulantly. She was half-convinced, but against her
+will.
+
+"You are very obstinate," she declared; "but, of course, you're rather
+nice."
+
+After that I was ready for anything that might happen. The lift had
+descended and the porter bade us enter. We stopped at the third floor. In
+the open doorway of one of the flats Mr. Parker was standing, solid and
+imposing. He beckoned us, with a broad smile, to follow him.
+
+To my surprise there were no locked doors or burly doorkeepers. We hung up
+our things in the hall and passed into a long room, in which were some
+fifteen or twenty people. Most of them were sitting round a _chemin de
+fer_ table; a few were standing at the sideboard eating sandwiches. A
+dark-haired, dark-eyed, sallow-faced man, a trifle corpulent, undeniably
+Semitic, who seemed to be in charge of the place, came up and shook hands
+with Mr. Parker.
+
+"Glad to see you, sir--and your daughter," he said, glancing keenly at
+them both and then at me. "This gentleman is a friend of yours?"
+
+"Certainly," Mr. Parker replied. "I won't introduce you, but I'll answer
+for him."
+
+"You would like to play?"
+
+"I will play, certainly," Mr. Parker answered cheerfully. "My friend will
+watch--for the present, at any rate."
+
+He waved us away, himself taking a seat at the table. I led Eve to a divan
+at the farther corner of the room. We sat there and watched the people.
+There were many whose faces I knew--a sprinkling of stock-brokers, one or
+two actresses, and half a dozen or so men about town of a dubious type. On
+the whole the company was scarcely reputable. I looked at Eve and sighed.
+
+"Well, what is it?" she asked.
+
+"This is no sort of place for you, you know," I ventured.
+
+"Here it comes," she laughed; "the real, hidebound, respectable
+Englishman! I tell you I like it. I like the life; I like the light and
+shade of it all. I should hate your stiff English country houses, your
+highly moral amusements, and your dull day-by-day life. Look at those
+people's faces as they bend over the table!"
+
+"Well, I am looking at them," I told her. "I see nothing but greed. I see
+no face that has not already lost a great part of its attractiveness."
+
+"Perhaps!" she replied indifferently. "I will grant you that greed is the
+keynote of this place; yet even that has its interesting side. Where else
+do you see it so developed? Where else could you see the same emotion
+actuating a number of very different people in an altogether different
+manner?"
+
+"For an adventuress," I remarked, "you seem to notice things."
+
+"No one in the world, except those who live by adventures, ever has any
+inducement to notice things," she retorted. "That is why amateurs are such
+failures. One never does anything so well as when one does it for one's
+living."
+
+"The question is arguable," I submitted.
+
+She shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"Every question is arguable if it is worth while," she agreed carelessly.
+"Look at all those people coming in!"
+
+"I don't understand it," I confessed. "These places are against the law,
+yet there seems to be no concealment at all! Why aren't we raided?"
+
+"Raids in this part of London only take place by arrangement," she assured
+me. "This place will reach its due date sometime, but every one will know
+all about it beforehand. They are making a clear profit here of about four
+hundred pounds a night and it has been running for two months now. When
+the raid comes Mr. Rubenstein--I think that is his name--can pay his five-
+hundred-pound fine and move on somewhere else. It's wicked--the money they
+make here some nights!"
+
+"You seem to know a good deal about it," I remarked.
+
+"The place interests father," she told me. "He comes here often."
+
+"And you?"
+
+"Sometimes. I am not always in the humor."
+
+I looked at her long and thoughtfully. Her beauty was entirely the beauty
+of a young girl. There were no signs of late hours or anxiety in her face.
+She puzzled me more than ever.
+
+"I wish I knew," I said, "exactly what you mean when you call yourself an
+adventuress."
+
+She laughed.
+
+"It means this," she explained: "To-night I have money in my purse, jewels
+on my fingers, a motor car to ride home in. In a week's time, if things
+went badly with us, I might have nothing. Then father or I, or both of us,
+would go out into the world to replenish, and from whomever had most of
+what we desired we should take as opportunity presented itself."
+
+"Irrespective of the law?"
+
+"Absolutely!"
+
+"Irrespective of your sense of right and wrong?"
+
+"My sense of right and wrong, according to your standards, does not
+exist."
+
+I gave it up. She seemed thoroughly in earnest, and yet every word she
+spoke seemed contrary to my instinctive judgment of her. She pointed to
+the table.
+
+"Look!" she whispered. "These people don't seem as though they had all
+that money to gamble with, do they? Look! There must be at least a
+thousand or fifteen hundred pounds upon the table."
+
+It was just as she said these words that the thing happened. From
+somewhere among the little crowd of people gathered round the table there
+came the sound of heavy stamping on the floor, and in less than a moment
+every light in the room went out. The place was in somber darkness. Then,
+breaking the momentary silence, there came from outside a shrill whistle.
+Again there was a silence--and then pandemonium! In a dozen different keys
+one heard the same shout:
+
+"The police!"
+
+Eve gripped my arm. My matchbox was out in a moment and I struck a match,
+holding it high over my head. As it burned a queer little halo of light
+seemed thrown over the table. The door was wide open and blocked with
+people rushing out. The banker was still sitting in his place. At first I
+seemed to have the idea that Mr. Parker was by his side. Then, to my
+astonishment, I saw him at the opposite end of the table, standing as
+though he had appeared from nowhere. A stentorian voice was heard from
+outside:
+
+"Ladies and gentlemen, if you please! Nothing has happened. The lights
+will be on again immediately."
+
+Almost as he spoke the place was flooded with light.
+
+The faces of the people were ghastly. A babel of voices arose.
+
+"Where are the police?"
+
+"Where are they?"
+
+"Who said the police?"
+
+The little dark gentleman whose name was Rubenstein stood upon a chair.
+
+"Ladies and gentlemen," he called out, "nothing whatever has happened--
+nothing! The electric lights went out owing to an accident, which I will
+investigate. It seems to have been a practical joke on the part of the
+lift man, who has disappeared. There are no police here. Please take your
+places. The game will proceed."
+
+They came back a little reluctantly, as though still afraid. Then suddenly
+the banker's hoarse voice rang out through the room. All the time he had
+been sitting like an automaton. Now he was on his feet, swaying backward
+and forward, his eyes almost starting from his head.
+
+"Lock the doors! The bank has been robbed! The notes have gone! Mr.
+Rubenstein, don't let any one go out! I tell you there was two thousand
+pounds upon the table. Some one has the notes!"
+
+There was a little murmur of voices and a shriek from one of the women as
+she clutched her handbag. Mr. Parker, bland and benign, rose to his feet.
+
+"My own stake has disappeared," he declared; "and the pile of notes I
+distinctly saw in front of the banker has gone. I fear, Mr. Rubenstein,
+there is a thief among us."
+
+Mr. Rubenstein, white as a sheet, was standing at the door. He locked it
+and put the key in his pocket.
+
+"Ladies and gentlemen," he said, "play is over for to-night. We are,
+without a doubt, the victims of an attempted robbery. The lights were
+turned out from the controlling switch by the lift man, who has
+disappeared. I will ask you to leave the room one by one; and, for all our
+sakes, I beg that any unknown to us will submit themselves to be
+searched."
+
+There was a little angry murmur. Mr. Rubenstein looked pleadingly round.
+
+"Ladies and gentlemen," he begged, "you will not object, I am sure. I am a
+poor man. Two thousand pounds of my money has gone from that table--all
+the money I kept in reserve to make a bank for you. If any one will return
+it now nothing shall be said. But to lose it all--I tell you it would ruin
+me!"
+
+The perspiration stood out on his forehead. He looked anxiously round, as
+though seeking for sympathy. Mr. Parker came over to his side.
+
+"Say, Mr. Rubenstein," he declared, "there isn't any one here who wants
+you to lose a five-pound note--that's a sure thing! But there is just one
+difficulty about this searching business: How can you identify your notes?
+If I, for instance, were to insist that I had brought with me two thousand
+pounds in banknotes in my pocket--which, let me hasten to assure you, I
+didn't--how could you deny it?"
+
+"My notes," Mr. Rubenstein replied feverishly, "all bear the stamp of
+Lloyd's Bank and to-day's date. They can all be recognized."
+
+"In that case," Mr. Parker continued, "I recommend you, Mr. Rubenstein, to
+insist upon searching every person here not thoroughly known to you; and I
+recommend you, ladies and gentlemen," he added, looking round, "to submit
+to be searched. It will not be a very strenuous affair, because no one can
+have had time to conceal the notes very effectively. I think you will all
+agree with me that we cannot allow our friend, who has provided us with
+amusement for so many nights, to run the risk of a loss like this. Begin
+with me, Mr. Rubenstein. No--I insist upon it. You know me better than
+most of your clients, I think; but I submit myself voluntarily to be
+searched."
+
+"I thank you very much indeed, sir," Mr. Rubenstein declared quickly. "It
+is very good of you to set the example," he continued, thrusting his hand
+into Mr. Parker's pockets. "Ah! I see nothing here--nothing! Notes in this
+pocket--ten, twenty, thirty. Not mine, I see--no Lloyd's stamp. Gold! A
+pleasant little handful of gold, that. Mr. Parker, I thank you, sir. If
+you will be so good as to pass into the next room."
+
+I brought Eve up. We were recognized as having been sitting upon the divan
+and Mr. Rubenstein, with a bow and extended hand, motioned to us to pass
+on.
+
+"You will visit us again, I trust," he said, "when we are not so
+disturbed."
+
+"Most certainly!" Mr. Parker promised in our names. "Most certainly, Mr.
+Rubenstein. We will all come again. Good night!"
+
+We walked out to the landing and, descending the stairs, reached the
+street and stepped into the motor car that was waiting for us. It rolled
+off and turned into Piccadilly.
+
+"How much was it, father?" Eve asked suddenly, from her place in the
+corner.
+
+"I am not sure," Mr. Parker answered. "There is a matter of eight hundred
+pounds in my right shoe, and a little more than that, I think, in my left.
+The note down my back was, I believe, a hundred-pound one. Quite a
+pleasant little evening and fairly remunerative! The lift man will cost me
+a hundred--but he was worth it."
+
+I sat quite still. I felt that Eve's eyes were watching me. I set my teeth
+for a moment; and I turned toward her, my cigarette case in my hand.
+
+"You don't mind?" I murmured as I lit a cigarette.
+
+She shook her head. Her eyes were still fixed upon me.
+
+"Where can we drop you?" Mr. Parker inquired.
+
+"If the evening is really over and there are no more excitements to come,
+you might put me down at the Milan Court," I told him, "if that is
+anywhere on your way."
+
+Mr. Parker lifted the speaking tube to his lips and gave an order. We
+glided up to the Milan a few minutes later.
+
+"I have enjoyed my evening immensely," I assured Eve impressively, "every
+moment of it; and I do hope, Mr. Parker," I added as I shook hands, "that
+you and your daughter will give me the great pleasure of dining with me
+any night this week. If there are any other little adventures about here
+in which I could take a hand I can assure you I should be delighted. I
+might even be of some assistance."
+
+They both of them looked at me steadfastly. Then Eve at last glanced away,
+with a little shrug of the shoulders, and Mr. Joseph H. Parker gripped my
+hand.
+
+"Say, you're all right!" he pronounced. "You just ring up 3771A Gerrard
+to-morrow morning between ten and eleven."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III--CULLEN GIVES ADVICE
+
+At ten o'clock the following morning my telephone bell rang and a visitor
+was announced. I did not catch the name given me, and it was only when I
+opened the door to him in response to his ring that I recognized Mr.
+Cullen. In morning clothes, which consisted in his case of a blue serge
+suit that needed brushing and a bowler hat of extinct shape, he seemed to
+me, if possible, a little more objectionable than I had found him the
+previous night. He presented himself, however, in a wholly non-aggressive
+spirit.
+
+"Mr. Walmsley," he said, as he took the chair to which I motioned him, "I
+have called to see you very largely in your own interests."
+
+I murmured something to the effect that I was extremely obliged.
+
+"I have made inquiries concerning you," he went on, "and I find that you
+not only have a blameless record but that you are possessed of
+considerable means, and that you belong to a highly esteemed county
+family."
+
+"And what of it, Mr. Cullen?" I asked.
+
+"This," he answered, "that I feel it my duty to warn you against the
+companions with whom you spent a portion of last evening."
+
+"You mean Mr. and Miss Parker?"
+
+"I mean Mr. and Miss Parker."
+
+"Are you making any definite charges against this young lady and
+gentleman?" I inquired after a moment's pause.
+
+"Very definite charges indeed!" he replied. "I warn you, Mr. Walmsley,
+that this man and his daughter are in bad repute with us, and to be seen
+associated with them is to bring yourself under police surveillance. We
+had a special warning when they sailed from New York, and since their
+arrival in London they have already been concerned in two or three very
+shady transactions."
+
+"If they break the law," I inquired, "why do you not arrest them?"
+
+"Because I have had bad luck--rotten bad luck!" Mr. Cullen declared
+firmly. "I am perfectly convinced that this Mr. Parker, as he calls
+himself, has been financing one of the greatest artists in banknote
+counterfeits ever known to the police. I am perfectly convinced that Mr.
+Parker left this young man in Adam Street last night, with a packet of
+notes upon his person for which he had just paid two hundred pounds, and
+if I could have arrested him then the game would have been up. He dodged
+me by going into the Cecil, leaving by the back way and coming through the
+Savoy; but I picked him up again within two minutes of his reaching
+Stephano's.
+
+"Obviously with your collusion--you'll pardon me, sir, but there the facts
+are--he was seated at your table as though in the middle of a dinner. I
+had him searched, but there wasn't a thing on him. I am not going to ask
+you what he did with the notes he had--whether he palmed them off on you
+or not--but I will simply say that between the time of his entering
+Stephano's and the time of my searching him he got rid of a thousand
+pounds' worth of counterfeit notes."
+
+"Sounds very clever of him!" I remarked. "How do you know that he didn't
+get rid of them to some one in either the Cecil or the Savoy?"
+
+"Because," Mr. Cullen explained, "he was followed by one of my men through
+both places and not lost sight of for a single second. You see, I made
+sure he would come to Stephano's and I was on the other side of the
+Strand, but I had left a man in case he went the other way. I tell you he
+was under the strictest surveillance the whole time, except during the few
+minutes--I might almost say seconds--when he disappeared in the
+restaurant."
+
+"Anything else against him?" I asked.
+
+"I am not inclined," Mr. Cullen continued slowly, "to mention specifically
+the various cases that have come under my notice and in which I believe
+him to be concerned; but, among other things, he is a frequenter of half
+the gambling houses in London and a tout for their owners. Trouble follows
+wherever he goes. But, Mr. Walmsley, mark my words! I am not a man given
+to idle speech and I assure you that within a few weeks--perhaps within a
+few days--I shall have him; aye, and the young lady, too! You don't want
+to be mixed up in this sort of business, sir. I am here to give you the
+advice to sheer off! They'll only rob you and bring you, too, under
+suspicion."
+
+I lit a cigarette and stood on the hearthrug with my hands behind me.
+
+"Mr. Cullen," I said, "it is, of course, very kind of you to come to me in
+this disinterested manner. You don't seem to have anything to gain by it,
+so I will accept your attitude as being a bona fide one. I will, if I may,
+be equally frank with you. I met both Mr. Parker and his daughter last
+night for the first time----"
+
+"Then that dinner was a plant!" Mr. Cullen interrupted swiftly. "I knew
+it!"
+
+I ignored the interruption.
+
+"For the first time," I repeated; "and I find them both most delightful
+companions. As to how far our acquaintance may progress, that is entirely
+a matter for chance to decide. You have doubtless come here with very good
+motives, but I see no reason why I should accept your statements
+concerning Mr. Parker and his daughter. You understand? My suggestion is
+that you are mistaken. Until I have proved them to be other than they
+represent themselves to be," I added with infinite subtlety, "I shall
+continue to derive pleasure from their society."
+
+Mr. Cullen rose at once to his feet.
+
+"My warning has been given, sir," he said. "It only remains for me now to
+wish you good morning, and to assure you most regretfully that your name
+will be added to those whom Scotland Yard thinks it well to watch and that
+your movements from place to place will be noted."
+
+"I trust that Scotland Yard will benefit," I replied politely, and showed
+him out.
+
+At half past ten I rang up 3771A Gerrard. The telephone was answered
+almost immediately by a man, apparently a servant. I inquired for Mr.
+Parker and in a moment or two I heard his voice at the telephone.
+
+"This is Joseph H. Parker speaking. Who are you?"
+
+"I am Paul Walmsley. You told me I might ring up between ten and eleven."
+
+"Sure!" was the prompt reply. "My dear fellow, I am delighted to hear from
+you. None the worse for our little adventure last night, I hope?"
+
+"Not in the least," I assured him. "On the contrary I am looking forward
+to another."
+
+"You shall have one," was the delighted answer.
+
+"What about--What is it, Eve? Excuse me for one moment, Mr. Walmsley."
+
+Mr. Parker was apparently dragged away from the telephone. I waited
+impatiently. He returned in a moment or two. His voice sounded as though
+he were a little irritated.
+
+"Sorry," he said. "I was going to make a little suggestion to you for this
+evening, but my daughter here doesn't fall in with it. They will have
+their own way--these girls."
+
+"It's very disappointing!" I said. "Don't you think you could prevail on
+her?"
+
+"Look here!" Mr. Parker continued. "I'll tell you what: Let's meet
+accidentally at dinner tonight. I'll talk Eve round before then. You drop
+into Stephano's for dinner at about seven-thirty. Then, when you see us
+there, you can come over and join us."
+
+"Thank you very much," I replied heartily. "By the by, I suppose you
+couldn't tell me your address? I should like to send Miss Parker some
+flowers."
+
+Mr. Parker obviously hesitated.
+
+"Better not," he decided regretfully--"not this morning, at any rate. Eve
+is a bit peculiar; and if you come into our little scheme and it goes
+wrong the less you know of us the better. See you later!"
+
+I did see Mr. Parker later, but not quite so late as the time appointed.
+He was in the American bar at the Milan when I looked in there just before
+luncheon and was talking to two of the most ferocious and objectionable-
+looking ruffians I had ever seen in my life. He glanced at me blandly, but
+without any sign of recognition, save that I fancied I caught the
+slightest twitch of his left eyebrow. I took the hint and did not join
+him. My reward came presently; for, after leaving the room with his two
+acquaintances, Mr. Parker strolled back again, and coming straight over to
+me clapped me on the shoulder.
+
+"This is capital!" he exclaimed. "We meet tonight?"
+
+"Without a doubt," I assured him.
+
+He drew me a little on one side.
+
+"Say," he inquired, scratching the side of his chin, "have you any
+objection to a bit of a scrap?"
+
+"Not the slightest," I replied, "so long as Miss Parker is out of it!"
+
+"Good boy!" Mr. Parker pronounced. "Yes; we'll keep her out of it, all
+right. I shall count on you then. Just keep yourself in reserve. We'll
+talk it over at dinner time. You just stroll in casually and I'll call you
+over. By the by," he added, lowering his voice, "did you see those two
+fellows I was with?"
+
+"I saw them!" I confessed. "They were just a trifle noticeable."
+
+Mr. Parker came a little nearer to me. He accentuated his words by beating
+on the palm of his left hand with two fingers of his right.
+
+"Absolutely, my dear Walmsley, two of the most unmitigated and desperate
+ruffians on either continent!"
+
+"They looked it," I agreed heartily.
+
+"Their record," Mr. Parker continued--"their police record, I mean--is one
+of the most wonderful things ever put on paper. The marvelous thing is
+how, even for a few minutes, they should be out of prison! Did you notice
+the one with the cast in his eye?"
+
+"I did," I admitted.
+
+"They used to call him Angel Jake," Mr. Parker proceeded confidentially.
+"He was sentenced to death once for shooting a policeman, but there was
+some technicality--he was tried in the wrong court--so he got off."
+
+"A very interesting acquaintance," I remarked with utterly wasted sarcasm.
+
+"They're fairly up to their necks in trouble, both of them, on the other
+side," Mr. Parker declared with relish; "and they're kind o' looking for
+it here."
+
+I took him by the arm and led him out of the bar into a retired corner of
+the smoking room. We sat upon a divan and had the room almost to
+ourselves.
+
+"How is Miss Parker this morning?" I asked.
+
+"Fine!" her father replied. "I told her about the flowers and it made her
+quite homesick. Girls miss that sort of thing, you know; and over here,
+living under a sort of cloud, as it were, one can't risk making many
+friends."
+
+It was a very good opening for me and I took advantage of it.
+
+"Why do you choose to live under a cloud, Mr. Parker?" I asked.
+
+"My dear fellow," he replied earnestly, "I don't altogether choose. I have
+been frank with you. It's my life."
+
+"If it were only a question of money----" I began tentatively.
+
+"A question of money!" Mr. Parker interrupted. "Isn't everything a
+question of money? Say, what do you mean exactly?"
+
+"I mean that I admire your daughter, sir--I admire her immensely," I told
+him. "If she'd have me I'd marry her to-morrow, I am not what you would
+call a wealthy man, but I have enough money for all reasonable purposes."
+
+Mr. Parker was clearly staggered. He stroked his waistcoat for a moment in
+an absent sort of way.
+
+"This takes my breath away!" he exclaimed. "Let us understand exactly what
+it means."
+
+"It means," I told him bluntly, "that I'll make a settlement upon your
+daughter and give you enough to live on."
+
+He looked first at me and then at the carpet. He began to whistle softly.
+
+"And they always told me," he murmured under his breath, "that you
+Britishers were so cautious! Why, you know nothing about us at all except
+what I've told you, and goodness knows that isn't much of a
+recommendation! Besides, I may not have told you half!"
+
+"I am willing to take my risk," I declared. "I simply don't care. Once in
+a lifetime a man has that feeling for a woman. If he is wise he goes nap
+on it. I have never had it before and I am not going to let go. I feel
+that if I do I may regret it all my life. I don't want any other woman in
+this world except your daughter, and what I possess in life worth having I
+am willing to give to make sure of her."
+
+Mr. Parker sat for several moments in profound silence. I could not make
+out what his mood was, He seemed neither unduly depressed nor elated. He
+was obviously puzzled, however--puzzled to know precisely what to do or
+what to say. He sat in the middle of the divan with one thumb in his
+waistcoat pocket and the other hand flat upon the table. His round face
+was innocent of smile or frown. Yet I knew he was taking what I had said
+seriously, though for some reason or other it did not seem to give him
+unqualified pleasure.
+
+"Well, well!" he said at last. "You've spoken up like a man, anyway--and
+like a man who knows what he wants. I can't tell how to answer you. I have
+never lived on any one yet. Sponging's never been in my line. I have
+enjoyed living on my wits. And Eve--she's a little that way, too. Makes me
+kind of sorry I've let her go about with me so much. It's a wonderful
+cloak of respectability you'd throw over us; but I'm wondering whether
+it's large enough!"
+
+"As my wife--" I began.
+
+"Oh, yes! you'd gather her in all right to start with," he interrupted;
+"but there are other things," he added, turning a little toward me and
+looking me in the face. "Suppose she didn't turn out just as you thought!
+She's a wild, high-spirited sort of creature--is Eve. She loves the music
+and the rattle of life. I can't fancy her in one of those out-of-the-way,
+God-forsaken little mudholes you call an English village, sitting in an
+early-Victorian drawing-room all the afternoon, waiting for the vicar's
+wife to come to tea, and taking a walk before dinner for entertainment,
+with an umbrella and mackintosh."
+
+"You've been reading Jane Austen," I told him.
+
+"Never heard of her," he replied promptly. "I once--but never mind. Just
+keep this to yourself for a bit, my boy. If we come to any arrangement
+there are one or two things we've got on that we might have to drop. We'll
+think this over. So long until this evening."
+
+He bustled away then, evidently anxious to escape any further
+conversation. I went about my business, which consisted of a visit to my
+lawyer's and a couple of rubbers of bridge at my club before dinner.
+
+At half past seven precisely I strolled into Stephano's. I had scarcely
+taken my table before Mr. Parker and Eve entered. Contrary to his usual
+custom, Mr. Parker was wearing a dress coat, white waistcoat and white
+tie; and Eve looked exquisite in a low-necked gown of white silk. Mr.
+Parker, according to his promise, at once beckoned me over.
+
+"My dear boy," he said, "I insist upon it that you sit down and dine with
+us. Last night I dined with you. To be literal, I ate off your plate.
+Tonight I return the compliment."
+
+I had no idea of refusing, but I was watching Eve with some anxiety. Her
+attitude seemed a little negative. However, she welcomed me pleasantly.
+
+"Well," she asked, "is your conscience beginning to prick yet?"
+
+"My conscience," I replied, "is about as imaginary a thing as my early-
+Victorian drawing-room. I can assure you I have the most profound
+admiration for your father. I think he is one of the cleverest men I ever
+met."
+
+She seemed a little taken aback. My tone, I felt quite sure, was
+convincing.
+
+"Of course," she remarked, "it is possible I have formed a wrong idea of
+Englishmen. I have met only one or two."
+
+"I should say it is highly probable," I agreed. "What scheme of villainy
+is before us to-night? I claim a share in it at any rate."
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"Not to-night, I am afraid."
+
+Mr. Parker, with the menu in front of him, was busy with the waiter and a
+_maitre d'hotel_. I dropped my voice a little.
+
+"Why not? Are you going to the theater?"
+
+"To the opera."
+
+"You love music?" I asked.
+
+She leaned a little toward me. Her hair almost brushed my cheek as she
+whispered:
+
+"We love jewelry!"
+
+I flatter myself that not a muscle of my face moved.
+
+"No place like the opera!" I remarked. "You should do well there with a
+little luck."
+
+This time I certainly scored. She looked at me fixedly for a moment. Then
+she laughed softly.
+
+"I want a pearl necklace," she said.
+
+"What about the one you have on?"
+
+She held it out toward me.
+
+"Imitations, unfortunately," she sighed. "They may look very nice, but
+they don't feel like the real thing."
+
+"Why can't I go to the opera with you?" I suggested.
+
+"Because there are no vacant seats anywhere near ours," she replied. "You
+see we happen to know whom we are going to sit near."
+
+"Anyhow, I think I shall go," I decided, "I may be able to come and talk
+to you between the acts at any rate."
+
+Mr. Parker, having finished giving his orders, joined in the conversation,
+and we dined together quite cheerily. For educated Americans they seemed
+very ignorant of English life, and I was not surprised to hear that it was
+their first visit to Europe. They listened with interest to a great deal
+that I told them. It was only as we were preparing to leave the place that
+I asked Mr. Parker a definite question.
+
+"Tell me," I whispered, "have you really any plans for to-night?"
+
+He nodded. "Sure! We are in luck just now. There's nothing like backing
+it."
+
+"Are those fellows I saw you with this morning at the Milan in it? If so I
+am going to take Miss Parker away. There are limits--"
+
+He patted me on the back.
+
+"That little affair is off for to-night at any rate. A lady we are very
+anxious to meet is going to the opera. The little girl wants a pearl
+necklace. Well, we shall see!"
+
+"You've thought over what I said? Have you mentioned it to her?"
+
+"Only kind of hinted at it. It's no good putting it too straight to her.
+She's got the bit between her teeth and she'll need to be humored."
+
+Eve had gone to fetch her cloak and we were alone outside the door. I
+looked at him steadfastly--he was so very pink and white, so very
+cheerful, so utterly optimistic!
+
+"You've never seen the inside of an English prison, have you, Mr. Parker?"
+I asked.
+
+He stared at me blankly.
+
+"I am not thinking about you or myself," I went on. "She's so dainty and
+sweet! She looks like a child who has never known an hour of rough usage
+in her life. They wouldn't leave her much of that, you know."
+
+I had certainly succeeded in making an impression this time. Mr. Parker's
+smooth forehead was wrinkled; his face was clouded.
+
+"You are right, Mr. Walmsley," he admitted. "I wish--I wish she would
+listen to reason. We'll have a talk together--the three of us--soon.
+You've no idea how difficult it is! She doesn't know fear--can't realize
+danger. Hush! Here she comes. It will only set her against you if she
+thinks you are trying to influence me behind her back."
+
+Mr. Parker's car was waiting and we drove together to Covent Garden. I
+left them in the vestibule and went to call on some of my friends. My
+sister had a box in the second tier and I was fortunate enough to find her
+there and alone with her husband. Almost directly underneath us in the
+stalls Mr. Parker and Eve were sitting; and next Mr. Parker was a woman
+wearing a pearl necklace. I asked my sister her name. She raised her
+lorgnette and looked over the side of the box.
+
+"Lady Orstline," she told me. "Her husband is a South African
+millionaire."
+
+"Are those real pearls she is wearing?" I inquired.
+
+"My dear Paul," she laughed, "why not? Her husband is enormously wealthy
+and they say that her jewels are wonderful. Unlike so many of those
+people, she really does select very fine stones, independent of size.
+Those pearls she is wearing now, for instance, are quite small, but their
+luster is exquisite. What an extraordinary fat man is sitting next her--
+and what a pretty girl!"
+
+"Americans," I remarked.
+
+"They look it," she agreed. "Quite the Gibson type of girl, isn't she?"
+
+The curtain went up and we turned our attention to the stage. As a rule I
+find music soothing; but that night proved an exception--perhaps because
+my moderately well-ordered life had crumbled into pieces; because I was
+conscious of a new and overmastering passion--the music appealed to me in
+an altogether different way. My enjoyment was no longer impersonal--a
+matter of the brain and the judgment. I felt the excitement of it
+throbbing in my pulses. The gloomy, half-lit auditorium seemed full of
+strange suggestions. I felt in real and actual touch with the great things
+that throbbed beneath. I was no longer an auditor--a looker-on. I had
+become a participator.
+
+The hours passed as though in a dream. I talked to my sister and her
+husband, and exchanged the usual gossip with their callers. I even paid a
+call or two on my own account; but I have no recollection of whom I went
+to see or what we talked about. I had no chance to visit either Mr. Parker
+or Eve, for neither of them left their places and they were in the middle
+of a row; but I took good care that we were close together in the
+vestibule toward the end. With a little shiver I saw that Lady Orstline
+was there too--next Mr. Parker. I was a few feet behind them both, with my
+sister. I found myself watching almost feverishly.
+
+As usual there was a block outside, and the few yards between us and the
+door seemed interminable. I had none of the optimism of those others. I
+was filled with vague fears of some impending disaster. Suddenly, with a
+shiver, I recognized Cullen, scarcely a couple of yards away, also
+watching, wedged in among the throng. His lips were drawn closely
+together; his opera hat was well over his forehead; his eyes never left
+Mr. Parker. He looked to me there like a lean-faced rat preparing for its
+spring.
+
+I followed the exact direction of his steadfast gaze and I became cold
+with apprehension. Lady Orstline was just in front of me; by her side was
+Eve, and immediately behind her Mr. Parker, I tried to lean over, but in
+the crush it was impossible.
+
+"Some one you want to speak to, Paul?" my sister asked.
+
+"There's a man there--if I can only get at him."
+
+The little crowd in front of us was suddenly thrown into disorder by
+having to let through two people whose carriage had been called. We seemed
+to lose ground in the confusion, for a moment or two later I noticed Lady
+Orstline standing outside the door, and my heart sank as I realized that
+her neck was bare. Almost at the same instant I saw her hand fly up and
+heard her voice.
+
+"My necklace!" she called out. "Policeman, don't let any one pass out! My
+necklace has been stolen--my pearls!"
+
+The confusion that followed was indescribable. The doors were almost
+barricaded. My sister and her husband and I were allowed through easily
+enough, as we were known to be subscribers, but almost every one else
+seemed to be undergoing a sort of cross-examination. My brother-in-law was
+disposed to be irritable.
+
+"Why can't the silly woman look after her jewels?" he exclaimed. "Another
+advertisement, I suppose."
+
+"Can we drop you anywhere, Paul?" my sister inquired. "Or would you like
+to give us some supper?"
+
+I had been staring out of the window. There was not a sign anywhere of Eve
+or her father; nor had I been able to catch a glimpse of Mr. Cullen.
+
+"I am sorry," I replied; "but I am supping with some friends at
+Stephano's. Could you set me down there?"
+
+My sister raised her eyebrows as she gave the order. We were already in
+the Strand.
+
+"Really, Paul," she remonstrated, "at your time of life--you are thirty-
+four years old, mind--I think you might leave Stephano's to the other
+generation!"
+
+"Second childhood!" I explained as I descended. "In any case I really have
+an appointment here. Give you supper any other night with pleasure. Many
+thanks!"
+
+My first intention had been not to enter the place at all, but to return
+at once to Covent Garden. Some impulse, however, prompted me to glance
+round the room first. To my amazement Eve and her father were already
+seated at their usual table--Eve drawing off her gloves and her father
+with the wine list in his hand. I made my way toward them. I suppose my
+expression indicated a certain stupefaction, for directly I got there Eve
+began to laugh softly up into my face.
+
+"We aren't ghosts!" she declared. "Did you think _you_ were the only
+person who could leave the opera house in a hurry?"
+
+"I saw you in the vestibule," I ventured. "I never saw you get away."
+
+"No more did our friend Cullen," Mr. Parker remarked, smiling. "I really
+am beginning to feel sorry for that man. We were within a yard or two of
+him and he was watching us good and hard. I think he had an idea that Eve
+had a weakness for pearls."
+
+"Oh, don't!" I exclaimed rather sharply. "Even in joke it isn't exactly
+wise, is it, with people passing all the time?"
+
+"Joke!" Mr. Parker repeated. "Precious little joke about it, I can assure
+you. I dare say it looked simple enough to you, but it was really quite a
+complicated business. Never mind, Eve has her pearls--and that's the great
+thing."
+
+Then he thrust his hand into his trousers pocket and, without the least
+attempt at concealment, produced and plumped upon the table in front of
+him the pearl necklace which only a few minutes before I had seen upon the
+neck of Lady Orstline.
+
+"Look much better on Eve when they've been re-strung, won't they?" he
+observed. "Gee whiz! What lovely stones they are!"
+
+"Put it away!" I gasped. "For Heaven's sake, put it away!"
+
+"Why should I?" he asked coolly.
+
+My heart suddenly seemed to stop beating. I felt as though the end of the
+world had come. With the light of triumph ablaze in his narrow black eyes,
+Mr. Cullen was standing by our table!
+
+"Good evening, Mr. Parker!" he said in a tone from which he struggled to
+keep the note of triumph. "Good evening, young lady!"
+
+The hand of Mr. Parker had suddenly covered the pearl necklace. Mr. Cullen
+was looking steadily toward it.
+
+"I trust," he continued, "that my arrival was not inopportune. I haven't
+interrupted anything, have I--any little celebration, or anything of that
+sort?"
+
+"On the contrary, we are always pleased to see you," Mr. Parker declared
+warmly. "Sit right down, Mr. Cullen! You'll join us, I trust? We were just
+thinking of ordering a little supper."
+
+Mr. Cullen shook his head. "Perhaps," he advised, "it would be better to
+postpone that order."
+
+"Postpone it?" Mr. Parker repeated, glancing at the clock. "Why, it's late
+enough now. Good Heavens, is that the time?"
+
+Mr. Cullen and I both glanced at the clock at the other end of the room.
+It was twenty minutes to twelve. The detective looked back with a smile.
+
+"You are a past master, Mr. Parker," he said, "in the accomplishment that,
+I believe, in your country goes by the name of bluff; but there are
+limits, you know. I shall have to ask you and your daughter and Mr.
+Walmsley here to accompany me at once to Bow Street. And," he added,
+suddenly leaning across the table, "move your right hand, please! Don't
+make a disturbance--for Luigi's sake! If you want trouble you can have
+it."
+
+Mr. Parker raised his hand at once.
+
+"Trouble?" he echoed. "That's the last thing I'm looking for."
+
+Mr. Cullen smiled grimly.
+
+"Ah! I thank you," he said. "A pearl necklace, I see! You must allow me to
+take charge of this, please."
+
+Mr. Parker's look of surprise was admirably done.
+
+"That is my daughter's necklace," he explained. "The fastening has become
+loose."
+
+"Exactly!" Mr. Cullen sneered. "I am now going to ask you all three to
+come with me without any further delay to Bow Street."
+
+"This man is mad!" Mr. Parker sighed, leaning back in his place--"stark,
+staring mad! His interference with my meals is becoming unwarrantable."
+
+"If you take my advice you will avoid a scene," the detective said,
+leaning a little over the table. "Believe me, I am not to be trifled with.
+If you do not come willingly there are other means. I am simply trying to
+avoid a disturbance in a public restaurant."
+
+Mr. Parker rose reluctantly to his feet.
+
+"Eve, dear," he said, "I suppose we may as well obey this very autocratic
+person. The sooner we go the sooner we shall be back to supper. Mr.
+Walmsley, I owe you my most profound apologies. I had no idea when I asked
+you to join us that you would become involved in anything disagreeable."
+
+"Don't mind me," I begged him. "I am glad to come. Perhaps we had better
+get it over as soon as possible."
+
+"We shall be back," Mr. Parker explained to Luigi, who had strolled up to
+see what was happening, "in twenty minutes. Prepare, if you please, three
+oyster cocktails, some grilled cutlets, and saute potatoes. Thank you,
+Luigi. In twenty minutes, mind!"
+
+We passed out toward the entrance. Mr. Cullen was walking with almost
+professional proximity to his companion. Eve and I were a few steps in the
+rear.
+
+"Eve," I whispered, drawing her for a moment close to me, "remember that
+whatever comes of this--whatever happens--there is no word I have ever
+said to you, or to your father about you, which I do not mean and shall
+not always mean."
+
+She looked at me a little curiously. From the first her own demeanor had
+been singularly unmoved. During the last few seconds, however, she had
+grown paler. She suddenly took my hand and gave it a little squeeze.
+
+"You really are a little more than nice!" she said.
+
+We drove to the police station and Mr. Cullen ushered us at once into a
+private room, where an inspector was seated at a table.
+
+"Mr. Hennessey, sir," he began, "I have a charge of theft against this man
+and his daughter. I watched them at the opera house to-night. At the
+entrance they were both of them hustling Lady Orstline. As you may have
+heard, she cried out suddenly that her pearl necklace had been stolen. I
+rushed for these two, but by some means or other they got away. I followed
+them to Stephano's restaurant and discovered them with the necklace on the
+table in front of them; The man Parker was showing it to the other two. He
+attempted to conceal it, but I was just in time."
+
+The inspector nodded.
+
+"Very good, Mr. Cullen," he said. "Where is the necklace?"
+
+The detective produced it proudly and laid it upon the table before him.
+The inspector dipped his pen in the ink.
+
+"What is your name?" he asked Mr. Parker.
+
+"Joseph H. Parker," was the reply. "I am an American citizen and this is
+my daughter. Mr. Cullen appears to be a person of observation. It is true
+we were at the opera. It is perfectly true we were within a few yards of
+Lady Orstline when she called out that her necklace was stolen. There's
+nothing remarkable about that, however, as we occupied adjacent stalls.
+What I want to point out to you is, though, if you'll allow me, that the
+necklace I had on the table before me at Stephano's when Mr. Cullen
+suddenly popped round the screen--the necklace you are now looking at,
+sir--is of imitation pearls, valued at about ten pounds. I bought it in
+the Burlington Arcade; it belongs to my daughter, and I was simply
+examining the clasp, which is scarcely safe."
+
+There was a moment's breathless silence. To me Mr. Parker's statement
+seemed too good to be true; yet he had spoken with the easy confidence of
+a man who knows what he is about. Standing there, the personification of
+respectability, a trifle indignant, a trifle contemptuous, his words could
+not fail to carry with them a certain amount of conviction. The inspector
+rang a bell by his side.
+
+"What are your daughter's initials?" he asked quickly.
+
+"E.P.--Eve Parker," Mr. Parker replied. "Look at the back of the gold
+clasp. There you are," he pointed out--"E.P."
+
+Mr. Cullen and the inspector both bent over the necklace. The inspector
+gave a brief order to a policeman.
+
+"The initials on the clasp are certainly E.P.," the inspector admitted
+slowly. "I do not pretend to be a judge of jewelry myself. However, I have
+sent for some one who is."
+
+A man in plain clothes entered the room. The inspector beckoned to him,
+showed him the necklace and whispered a question. The man examined the
+pearls for barely five seconds. Then he handed them back.
+
+"Very nice imitation, sir," he pronounced. "There's a place in Bond Street
+where I should imagine these came from, and another in the Burlington
+Arcade. Their value is from seven to ten pounds."
+
+The inspector dismissed him. He handed the necklace back to Mr. Parker and
+rose to his feet.
+
+"I can only express my most profound regret, sir," he said, "on behalf, of
+the force. Such a mistake is inexcusable. Mr. Cullen will, I am sure, join
+in offering you every apology."
+
+Mr. Cullen was standing a few yards back. He was biting his lip until it
+was absolutely colorless. There was a look in his face that was quite
+indescribable.
+
+"If I have made a mistake this time," he muttered; "if I have been
+premature--I apologize; but--but--"
+
+Mr. Parker turned to the inspector.
+
+"You know," he said, "I fancy this young man's got what they call on this
+side a 'down' on me! He's got an idea that I'm a crook--follows me about;
+doesn't give me a moment's peace, in fact. Say, Mr. Inspector, can't I put
+this thing right somehow--take him to my banker's--"
+
+"Banker's!" Mr. Cullen ejaculated softly. "The only use you have for a
+banker is to fleece him!"
+
+"Mr. Cullen!" the inspector exclaimed, frowning.
+
+"I beg your pardon, sir. I am sorry if I forgot myself." He turned
+abruptly toward the door. "I offer you my apologies, Mr. Parker," he said,
+looking back; "also the young lady. But--some day the luck may be on my
+side."
+
+The door slammed behind him. Mr. Parker turned toward the inspector.
+
+"That young man, Mr. Inspector," he said complainingly, "puts altogether
+too much feeling into his work. I may have been a bit sarcastic with him
+once or twice; but if it comes to a lifelong vendetta, or anything of that
+sort, why, he's beginning to look for trouble--that's all! I'm getting
+sick of the sight of him. If ever I lunch or dine out he's there. If I go
+to a theater he's about. Whatever harmless amusement I go in for he's
+there looking on. Just give him a word of caution, Mr. Inspector. I'm a
+good-tempered man, but this can't go on forever."
+
+The inspector himself escorted us to the door.
+
+"I beg, Mr. Parker," he said, "that you will take no more notice of Mr.
+Cullen's little fit of temper. As regards your complaint, I promise you
+that I will talk to him seriously. Allow me to send for a taxicab for you.
+Oh! I beg your pardon--that is your own car. I only regret that we should
+have wasted a few minutes of your evening. Good night, gentlemen! Good
+night, madam!"
+
+We left Bow Street amid many manifestations of courtesy and good will.
+
+"Where shall I tell him to go to, sir?" the policeman asked as he closed
+the door.
+
+"Back to Stephano's!" Mr. Parker ordered.
+
+We glided down into the Strand. Mr. Parker glanced at his watch.
+
+"We shall just about make those grilled cutlets," he remarked. "Gives you
+kind of an appetite--this sort of thing! Say, what's the matter with you,
+Mr. Walmsley?"
+
+"Oh, nothing particular!" I answered. "Only I was just wondering what in
+the name of all that's miraculous can have become of Lady Orstline's
+necklace!"
+
+We descended at Stephano's and were ushered to our table, where the oyster
+cocktails were waiting. Mr. Parker took my arm.
+
+"Perhaps," he murmured, "you may even know that before you go to sleep
+to-night."
+
+*       *       *       *       *
+
+I thought of Mr. Parker's words an hour or so later when I was preparing
+to undress. I emptied first the things from my trousers pockets. The
+feeling of something unfamiliar in one of them brought a puzzled
+exclamation to my lips. I dragged it out and held it in front of me. My
+heart gave a great leap, the perspiration broke out upon my forehead, My
+knees shook and I sat down on the bed. Without the slightest doubt in the
+world it was Lady Orstline's pearl necklace!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV--THE WOOING OF EVE
+
+I spent a very restless and disturbed night. I rose at six o'clock the
+following morning, and at ten o'clock I rang up 3771A Gerrard. My inquiry
+was answered almost at once by Mr. Parker himself.
+
+"Is that you, Walmsley?"
+
+"It is," I replied. "I have been waiting to ring you up since daylight! I
+want you to understand--"
+
+"You come right round here!" Mr. Parker interrupted soothingly. "No good
+getting fussy over the telephone!"
+
+"Where to?" I asked. "You forget I don't know your address. I should have
+been round hours ago if I had known where to find you."
+
+"Bless my soul, no more you do! We are at Number 17, Banton Street--just
+off Oxford Street, you know."
+
+"I am coming straightaway," I replied.
+
+I was there within ten minutes. The place seemed to be a sort of private
+hotel, unostentatious and unprepossessing. A hall porter, whose uniform
+had seen better days and whose linen had seen cleaner ones, conducted me
+to the first floor. Mr. Parker himself met me on the landing.
+
+"Come right in!" he invited. "I saw you drive up. Eve is in there."
+
+He ushered me into a large sitting room of the type one would expect to
+find in such a place, but which, by dint of many cushions, flowers, and
+feminine knickknacks, had been made to look presentable. Eve was seated in
+an easy-chair by the fire. She turned round at my entrance and laughed.
+
+"Where's my necklace, please?" she demanded.
+
+"The necklace," I replied, as severely as I could, "is by this time on its
+way to Lady Orstline--if it is not actually in her hands."
+
+"You mean to say you have sent it back?" Mr. Parker exclaimed
+incredulously.
+
+"Certainly!" I replied. "I posted it to her early this morning."
+
+Mr. Parker's expression was one of blank bewilderment.
+
+"Say, do I understand you rightly?" he continued, coming up and laying his
+great hand upon my shoulder. "You mean to say that, after all we went
+through because of that miserable necklace, you've gone and chucked it? Do
+you know it was worth twenty-five thousand pounds?"
+
+"I don't care whether it was worth twenty-five thousand pounds or twenty-
+five thousand pennies!" retorted I. "It belonged to Lady Orstline--not to
+you or your daughter or to me. I know that you are a skillful conjurer and
+I won't ask you how it found its way into my pocket. I am only glad I have
+had an opportunity of returning it to its owner."
+
+Mr. Parker shook his head ponderously. He turned to Eve.
+
+"This," he said solemnly, "is the young man who asked leave to join us!
+What do you think of him, Eve?"
+
+"Nothing at all!" she replied flippantly. "He is absolutely useless!"
+
+"If you think," Mr. Parker went on, "we are in this business for our
+health, I want you to understand right here that you are mistaken. I never
+deceived you. I told you the first few seconds we met that I was an
+adventurer. I am. I brought off a coup last night with that necklace, and
+you've gone and queered it! It isn't for myself I mind so much," he
+concluded, "but there's the child there, I was going to have the pearls
+restrung and let her wear them a bit--until the time came for selling
+them."
+
+"Look here!" I said. "Let us understand one another. It's all very well to
+live by your wits; to make a little out of people not quite so smart as
+you are; to worry through life owing a little here and there, borrowing a
+bit where you can and taking good care to be on the right side when
+there's a bargain going. That, I take it, is more or less what is meant by
+being an adventurer. But when it comes to downright thieving I protest!
+The penalties are too severe. I beg you, Mr. Parker, to have nothing more
+to do with it!"
+
+I went on, speaking as earnestly as I could and laying my hand upon his
+shoulder.
+
+"I ask you now what I asked you yesterday: Give me your daughter! Or if I
+can't win her all at once let me at any rate have the opportunity of
+meeting her and trying to persuade her to be my wife. I promise you you
+shan't have to do any of these things for a living--either of you. Be
+sensible, Miss Parker--Eve!" I begged, turning to her; "and please be a
+little kind. I am in earnest about this. Come on my side and help me
+persuade your father. I am not wealthy, perhaps, as you people count
+money, but I am not a poor man. I'll buy you some pearls."
+
+Eve threw down the book she had been reading and leaned over the side of
+her chair, looking at me. She seemed no longer angry. There was, indeed, a
+touch of that softness in her face which I had noticed once before and
+which had encouraged me to hope. Her forehead was a little puckered, her
+dear eyes a little wistful. She looked at me very earnestly; but when I
+would have moved toward her she held out her hand to keep me back.
+
+"You know," she said, "I think you are quite nice, Mr. Walmsley. I rather
+like this outspoken sort of love-making. It's quite out of date, of
+course; but it reminds me of Mrs. Henry Wood and crinolines and woolwork,
+and all that sort of thing. Anyhow, I like it and--I rather like you, too.
+But, you see, it's how long?--a matter of thirty-six hours since I met you
+first! Now I couldn't make up my mind to settle down for life with a man
+I'd only known thirty-six hours, even if he is rash enough to offer to
+pension my father and remove me from a life of crime."
+
+"The circumstances," I persisted, "are exceptional. You may laugh at it as
+much as you like; but there are very excellent reasons why you should be
+taken away from this sort of life."
+
+She shrugged her shoulders a little dubiously.
+
+"There again!" she protested. "I am not so sure that I want to be taken
+away from it. I like adventures--I adore excitement; in fact I must have
+it."
+
+"You shall," I promised. "I'll take you to Paris and Monte Carlo. We'll go
+up to Khartum and take a caravan beyond. You shall go big-game shooting
+with me in Africa. I'll take you where very few women have been before.
+I'll take you where you can gamble with life and death instead of this
+sordid business of freedom or prison. We'll start for Abyssinia in three
+weeks if you like. I'll find you excitement--the right sort. I'll take you
+into the big places, where one feels--and the empty places, where one
+suffers."
+
+Her eyes flashed sympathetically for a moment.
+
+"It sounds good," she admitted, "and yet--am I ungrateful, I wonder?--
+there's no excitement for me except where men and women are. I'm afraid
+I'm a daughter of Babylon."
+
+"Doomed from her infancy to a life of crime, I fear," Mr. Parker declared,
+pinching a cigar he had just taken out of a box. "She loves the rapier
+play--the struggle with men and women. Takes risks every moment of the
+time and thrives on it. All the same, Mr. Walmsley, there's something very
+attractive about the way you are talking. I am not going to let my little
+girl decide too hastily. Our sort of life's all very well when we are
+number one and Mr. Cullen's number two. We can't have the luck all the
+time, though."
+
+"I haven't dared to mention it in plain words," I answered, "because the
+thought, the mere thought, of what might happen to Miss Eve is too
+horrible! But the risk is there all the time. One doesn't deal in forged
+notes or steal pearl necklaces for nothing; and you've an enemy in Cullen
+if ever any one had. He means to get you both, and if you give him the
+least chance he'll have no mercy."
+
+I looked at them anxiously. The whole thing seemed to me so momentous.
+Neither of them showed the slightest signs of fear or apprehension. Mr.
+Parker, with his newly lit cigar in the corner of his mouth, was smiling a
+smile of pleasant contentment. Eve, leaning back in her chair, with her
+hands clasped round the back of her head, was gazing at me with a
+bewitching little smile on her lips.
+
+"I am not a bit afraid of Mr. Cullen," she declared softly.
+
+"Between you and me," her father remarked, knocking the ash from his
+cigar, "there's only one darned thing in this world we are afraid of and
+that, thank the Lord, isn't this side of the Atlantic!"
+
+The smile faded from Eve's lips. For a moment she closed her eyes--a
+shiver passed through her frame.
+
+"Don't!" she begged weakly.
+
+"I guess I'll leave it at that," her father agreed. "Now this little
+proposition of yours, Mr. Walmsley, has just got to lie by for a little
+time--perhaps only for a very short time. It's a kind of business for us
+to make up our minds to part with our liberty or any portion of it.
+Meanwhile, if you'd like to take Eve for a motor ride round and meet me
+for luncheon, why, the car's outside, and if Eve's agreeable I can pass
+the time all right."
+
+I looked at her eagerly. She rose at once to her feet.
+
+"Why, it would be charming, if you have nothing to do, Mr. Walmsley," she
+assented. "I'll put my hat on at once."
+
+"I have nothing to do at any time now but to respect your wishes," I
+answered firmly, "and wait until you are sensible enough to say Yes to my
+little proposition."
+
+She looked back at me from the door with a twinkle in her eyes.
+
+"You know," she said, "before I came over I was told that Englishmen were
+rather slow. I shall begin to doubt it. You wouldn't describe yourself
+exactly as shy, would you, Mr. Walmsley?"
+
+"I don't know about that," I replied; "but we have other traits as well.
+We know what we want; very often we get it."
+
+Mr. Parker rose to his feet. He put his hand on my shoulder. He was the
+very prototype of the self-respecting, conscientious, prospective father-
+in-law.
+
+"Young fellow," he confessed, "I shall end by liking you!" I drove with
+Eve for about two hours. We went out nearly as far as Kingston and wound
+up in the heart of the West End. I tried to persuade her to walk down Bond
+Street, but she shook her head.
+
+"To tell you the truth," she confided, "I am not very fond of being seen
+upon the streets. You know how marvelously clever dad is; still we have
+been talked about once or twice, and there are several people whom I
+shouldn't care about meeting."
+
+I sighed as I looked out of the window toward the jewelers' shops.
+
+"I should very much like," I said, "to buy you an engagement ring."
+
+She laughed at me.
+
+"You absurd person! Why, I am not engaged to you yet!"
+
+"You are very near it," I assured her. "Anyhow, it would be an awfully
+good opportunity for you to show me the sort of ring you like."
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"Not to-day," she decided. "Somehow or other I feel that if ever I do let
+you, you'll choose just the sort of ring I shall love, without my
+interfering. Where did we say we'd pick father up?"
+
+"Here," I answered, as the car came to a standstill outside the Cafe
+Royal. "I'll go in and fetch him."
+
+I found Mr. Parker seated at a table with two of the most villainous
+specimens of humanity I had ever beheld. They were of the same class as
+the men with whom he had been talking at the Milan, but still more
+disreputable. He welcomed me, however, without embarrassment.
+
+"Just passing the time, my dear fellow!" he remarked airily. "Met a couple
+of acquaintances of mine. Will you join us?"
+
+"Miss Parker is outside in the car," I explained. "If you don't mind I
+will go out and wait with her. You can join us when you are ready."
+
+"Five minutes--not a moment longer, I promise!" he called out after me.
+"Sorry you won't join us."
+
+I took my place once more by Eve's side. Perhaps my tone was a little
+annoyed.
+
+"Your father is in there," I said, "with two of the most disreputable-
+looking ruffians I have ever seen crawling upon the face of the earth.
+What in the world induces him to sit at the same table with them I cannot
+imagine."
+
+"Necessity, perhaps," she remarked. "Very likely they are highly useful
+members of our industry."
+
+Mr. Parker came out almost immediately afterward. I suggested the Ritz for
+luncheon. They looked at each other dubiously.
+
+"To be perfectly frank with you, my dear fellow," Mr. Parker explained, as
+he clambered into the car and took the place I had vacated by his
+daughter's side, "it would give us no pleasure to go to the Ritz. We have
+courage, both of us--my daughter and I--as you may have observed for
+yourself; but courage is a different thing from rashness. We have been
+enjoying a very pleasant and not unlucrative time for the last six weeks,
+with the--er--natural result that there are several ladies and gentlemen
+in London whom I would just as soon avoid. The Ritz is one of those places
+where one might easily come across them."
+
+"The Carlton? Prince's? Claridge's? Berkeley?" I suggested. "Or what do
+you say to Jules' or the Milan grill-room?"
+
+Mr. Parker shook his head slowly.
+
+"If you really mean that you wish me to choose," he said, "I say
+Stephano's."
+
+"As you will," I agreed. "I only suggested the other places because I
+thought Miss Parker might like a change."
+
+We drove to Stephano's. It struck me that Luigi's greeting was scarcely so
+cordial as usual. He piloted us, however, to the table usually occupied by
+Mr. Parker. On the way he took the opportunity of drawing me a little
+apart.
+
+"Mr. Walmsley, sir," he said, "can you tell me anything about Mr. Parker
+and his daughter?"
+
+"Anything about them?" I repeated.
+
+"That they are Americans I know," he continued, "and that the young lady
+is beautiful--well, one has eyes! It is not my business to be too
+particular as to the character of those who frequent my restaurant; but
+twice Mr. Parker has been followed here by a detective, and last night, as
+you know, they left practically under arrest. It is not good for my
+restaurant, Mr. Walmsley, to have the police so often about, and if Mr.
+Parker and his daughter are really of the order of those who pass their
+life under police supervision, I would rather they patronized another
+restaurant."
+
+I only laughed at him.
+
+"My dear Luigi," I protested, "be careful how you turn away custom. Mr.
+Parker is, I should think, no better or any worse than a great many of
+your clients."
+
+"If one could but keep the police out of it!" Luigi observed. "Could you
+drop a word to the gentleman, sir? Since I have seen them in your company
+I have naturally more confidence, but it is not good for my restaurant to
+have it watched by the police all the time."
+
+"I'll see what can be done, Luigi," I promised him.
+
+Mr. Parker was twice called up on the telephone during luncheon time. He
+seemed throughout the meal preoccupied; and more than once, with a word of
+apology to me, he and Eve exchanged confidential whispers. I felt certain
+that something was in the air, some new adventure from which I was
+excluded, and my heart sank as I thought of all the grim possibilities
+overshadowing it.
+
+I watched them with their heads close together, Mr. Parker apparently
+unfolding the details of some scheme; and it seemed to me that, after all,
+the wisest thing I could do was to bid this strange pair farewell after
+luncheon and return either to the country or cross over to Paris for a few
+days. And then a chance word, a little look from Eve, a little touch from
+her fingers, as it occurred to her that I was being neglected, made me
+realize the absolute impossibility of doing anything of the sort.
+
+For a person of my habits of life and temperament I had certainly fallen
+into a strange adventure. Not only had Eve herself come to mean for me
+everything that was real and vital in life, but I was most curiously
+attracted by her terrible father. I liked him.
+
+I liked being with him. He was a type of person I had never met before
+in my life and one whom I thoroughly appreciated. I sat and watched him
+during an interval of the conversation.
+
+Geniality and humor were stamped upon his expression. "I am enjoying
+life!" he seemed to say to everybody. "Come and enjoy it with me!" What
+a man to be walking the tight rope all the time--to be risking his
+character and his freedom day by day!
+
+"If there is anything more on hand," I said, trying to make my tone as
+little dejected as possible, "I should like to be in it."
+
+Mr. Parker scratched his chin.
+
+"I am not sure that you really enjoy these little episodes."
+
+"Of course I don't enjoy them," I admitted indignantly. "You know that. I
+hate them. I am miserable all the time, simply because of what may happen
+to you and to Miss Eve."
+
+Mr. Parker sighed.
+
+"There you are, you see!" he declared. "That's the one kink in your
+disposition, sir, which places you irrevocably outside the class to which
+Eve and I belong. Now let me ask you this, young man," he went on: "What
+is the most dangerous thing you've ever done?"
+
+"I've played some tough polo," I remembered.
+
+"That'll do," Mr. Parker declared. "Now tell me: When you turned out you
+knew perfectly well that a broken leg or a broken arm--perhaps a cracked
+skull--was a distinct possibility. Did you think about this when you went
+into the game? Did you think about it while you were playing?"
+
+"Of course I didn't," I admitted.
+
+"Just so!" Mr. Parker concluded triumphantly. "That's where the sporting
+instinct comes in. You know a thing is going to amuse and excite you.
+Beyond that you do not think."
+
+"But in this case," I persisted, "I think it is your duty to think for
+your daughter's sake."
+
+Eve flashed upon me the first angry glance I had seen from her.
+
+"I think," she decided coldly, "it is not worth while discussing this
+matter with Mr. Walmsley. We are too far apart in our ideas. He has been
+brought up among a different class of people and in a different way.
+Besides, he misses the chief point. If I weren't an adventuress, Mr.
+Walmsley, I might have to become a typist and daddy might have to serve in
+a shop. Don't you think that we'd rather live--really live, mind--even for
+a week or two of our lives, than spend dull years, as we have done, upon
+the treadmill?"
+
+"I give it up," I said. "There is only one argument left. You know quite
+well that the pecuniary excuse exists no longer."
+
+She looked at me and her face softened.
+
+"You are a queer person!" she murmured. "You are so very English, so very
+set in your views, so very respectable; and yet you are willing to take us
+both--"
+
+"I am only thinking of marrying you," I interrupted.
+
+"Well, you were going to make daddy an allowance, weren't you?"
+
+"With great pleasure," I assured her vigorously; "and I only wish you'd
+take my hand now and we'd fix up everything to-morrow. We could go down
+and see my house in the country, Eve--I think you'd love it--and there are
+such things, even in England, you know, as special licenses."
+
+"You dear person!" she laughed. "I can't be rushed into respectability
+like this."
+
+Perhaps that was really my first moment of genuine encouragement, for
+there had been a little break in her voice, something in her tone not
+altogether natural. If only we had been alone--if even another summons to
+the telephone had come just then for her father! Fortune, however, was not
+on my side. Instead, the waiter appeared with the bill and diverted my
+attention. Eve and her father whispered together. The moment had passed.
+
+"Anything particular on this afternoon, Walmsley? "Mr. Parker asked as he
+rose to his feet.
+
+"Not a thing," I replied.
+
+"I have just got to hurry off," he explained; "a little matter of
+business. Eve has nothing to do for an hour or so--"
+
+"I'll look after her if I may," I interposed eagerly.
+
+"Don't be later than half past five, Eve," her father directed as he went
+off, "and don't be tired."
+
+We followed him a few minutes later into the street. A threatening shower
+had passed away. The sky overhead was wonderfully soft and blue; the air
+was filled with sunlight, fragrant with the perfume of barrows of lilac
+drawn up in the gutter. Eve walked by my side, her head a little thrown
+back, her eyes for a moment half closed.
+
+"But London is delicious on days like this!" she exclaimed. "What are you
+going to do with me, Mr. Walmsley?"
+
+"Take you down to the Archbishop of Canterbury and marry you!" I
+threatened.
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"I couldn't be married on a Friday! Let us go and see some pictures
+instead."
+
+We went into the National Gallery and wandered round for an hour. She knew
+a great deal more about the pictures than I did, and more than once made
+me sit down by her side to look at one of her favorite masterpieces.
+
+"I want to go to Bond Street now," she said when we left, "I think it will
+be quite all right at this time in the afternoon, and there are some weird
+things to be seen there. Do you mind?"
+
+We walked again along Pall Mall. Passing the Carlton she suddenly clutched
+at my arm. A little stifled cry escaped her; the color left her cheeks. We
+increased our speed. Presently she breathed a sigh of relief.
+
+"Heavens, what an escape!" she exclaimed. "Do you think he saw me?"
+
+"Do you mean the young man who was getting out of the taxicab?"
+
+She nodded.
+
+"One of our victims," she murmured; "daddy's victim, rather. I didn't do a
+thing to him."
+
+"I am quite sure he didn't see you," I told her. "He was struggling to
+find change."
+
+She sighed once more. The incident seemed to have shaken her.
+
+"The worst of our sort of life is," she confided, "that it must soon come
+to an end. We have victims all over the place! One of them is bound to
+turn up and be disagreeable sooner or later."
+
+"I should say, then," I remarked, "that the moment is opportune for a
+registrar's office and a trip to Abyssinia."
+
+"And leave daddy to face the music alone?" she objected. "It couldn't be
+done."
+
+We turned into a tea shop and sat in a remote corner of the place. I had
+made up my mind to say no more to her that day, but the opportunity was
+irresistible.
+
+There was a little desultory music, a hum of distant conversation, and Eve
+herself was thoughtful. I pleaded with her earnestly.
+
+"Eve," I begged, "if only you would listen to me seriously! I simply
+cannot bear the thought of the danger you are in all the time. Give it up,
+dear, this moment--to-day! We'll lead any sort of life you like. We'll
+wander all over Europe--America, if you say the word. I am quite well
+enough off to take you anywhere you choose to go and still see that your
+father is quite comfortable. You've made such a difference in such a short
+time!"
+
+She was certainly quieter and her tone was softer. She avoided looking at
+me.
+
+"Perhaps," she said very gently, "this feeling you speak of would pass
+away just as quickly."
+
+"There isn't any fear of that!" I assured her. "As I care for you now,
+Eve, I must care for you always; and you know it's torture for me to think
+of you in trouble--perhaps in disgrace. As my wife you shall be safe.
+You'll have me always there to protect you. I should like to take you even
+farther afield for a time--to India or Japan, if you like--and then come
+back and start life all over again."
+
+"You're rather a dear!" she murmured softly. "I will tell you something at
+any rate. I do care for you--a little--better than I've ever cared for any
+one else; but I can't decide quite so quickly."
+
+"Give up this adventure to-night!" I begged. "I hate to mention it, Eve,
+but if money--I put my checkbook in my pocket to-day. If your father would
+only--"
+
+She stopped me firmly.
+
+"After the things you have told me," she said, "I don't think I could bear
+to have him take your money to-day. I can't quite do as you wish; but what
+you have said shall make a difference, I promise you. I can't say more.
+Please drive me home now."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V--MR. SAMUELSON
+
+The moment I opened my paper the next morning the very announcement I had
+dreaded to find was there in large type! I read the particulars
+breathlessly: DARING BURGLARY IN HAMPSTEAD--LADY LOSES TWO THOUSAND
+POUNDS' WORTH OF JEWELRY. The burglary had taken place at the house of a
+Mr. and Mrs. Samuelson, in Wood Grove, Hampstead. It appeared that a
+dinner party had been given at the house during the evening, which had
+engaged the attention of the whole of the staff of four servants, and that
+for an hour or so the upper premises were untenanted.
+
+Upon retiring to rest Mrs. Samuelson found that her jewel case and the
+whole of her jewelry, except what she was wearing, had been stolen. As no
+arrest had yet been made the references to the affair were naturally
+guarded. The paragraph even concluded without the usual formula as to the
+police having a clew. On the whole, I put the paper down with a slight
+feeling of relief. I felt that it might have been worse.
+
+I breakfasted at nine o'clock, after having read the announcement through
+again, trying to see whether there was any possible connection between it
+and my friends. Then I lit a pipe and sat down to wait until I could ring
+up 3771A Gerrard. About ten o'clock, however, my own telephone bell rang,
+and I was informed that a gentleman who desired to see me was waiting
+below. I told the man to send him up, and in a moment or two there was a
+knock at my door. In response to my invitation to enter a short, dark,
+Jewish-looking person, with olive complexion, shiny black hair and black
+mustache, presented himself. He carried a very immaculate silk hat and was
+dressed with great neatness. He had the air, however, of a man who is
+suffering from some agitation.
+
+"Mr. Walmsley, I believe?" he asked. "Mr. Paul Walmsley?"
+
+"That is my name."
+
+"Know you by hearsay quite well, sir," my visitor assured me, with a flash
+of his white teeth. "Very glad to meet you indeed. I have done business
+once or twice with your sister, the Countess of Aynesley--business in
+curios. You know my place, I dare say, in St. James Street. My name is
+Samuelson." I could scarcely repress a little start, which he was quick to
+notice. "Perhaps you've been reading about that affair at my house last
+night?" he asked.
+
+"That is precisely what I have been doing," I admitted. "Please sit down,
+Mr. Samuelson." I wheeled an easy-chair up for him and placed a box of
+cigarettes at his elbow. "Quite a mysterious affair!" I continued. "It is
+almost the first burglary I have ever read of in which the police have not
+been said to possess a clew."
+
+Mr. Samuelson, who seemed gratified by his reception, lit a cigarette and
+crossed his legs, displaying a very nice pair of patent boots, with gray
+suede tops.
+
+"It is a very queer affair, indeed," he told me confidentially. "The
+police have been taking a lot of trouble about it, and a very intelligent
+sort of fellow from Scotland Yard has been in and out of the house ever
+since."
+
+"Any clew at all?" I asked.
+
+"Rather hard to say," Mr. Samuelson replied. "You'll be wondering what
+I've come to see you about. Well, I'll just explain. Of course there's
+always the chance that some one may have entered the house while we were
+all at dinner--crept upstairs quietly and got away with the jewel case;
+but this Johnny I was telling you about, from Scotland Yard, seems to have
+got hold of a theory that has rather knocked me of a heap. Very delicate
+matter," Mr. Samuelson continued, "as you will understand when I tell you
+that he thinks it may have been one of my guests who was in the show."
+
+"Seems a little far-fetched to me," I remarked; "but one never knows."
+
+"You see," Mr. Samuelson explained, "there's no back exit from my house
+without climbing walls and that sort of thing, and it happened to be a
+particularly light evening, as you may remember. There are policemen at
+both ends of the road, who seem unusually confident that no one carrying a
+parcel of any sort passed at anything like the time when the thing was
+probably done. This is where the Johnny from Scotland Yard comes in. He
+has got the idea into his head that the jewels might have been taken away
+in the carriage of one of my guests."
+
+"Well," I remarked, "I should have thought you would have been the best
+judge as to the probability of that. You hadn't any strangers with you, I
+suppose?"
+
+"Only two," Mr. Samuelson replied. "We were ten, altogether," he went on,
+counting upon his fingers--"and a very nice little party too. First of
+all my wife and myself. Then Mr. and Mrs. Max Solomon--Solomon, the great
+fruiterers in Covent Garden, you know; man worth a quarter of a million of
+money and a distant connection of my wife--very distant, worse luck! Then
+there was Mr. Sidney Hollingworth, a young man in my office; but he
+doesn't count, because he stayed on chatting with me about business after
+the others had gone, and he was with us when the theft was discovered.
+Then there was my wife's widowed sister, Mrs. Rosenthal. We can leave her
+out. That's six. Then there was Alderman Sir Henry Dabbs and his wife. You
+may know the name--large portmanteau manufacturers in Spitalfields and
+certain to be Lord Mayor before long. His wife was wearing jewelry herself
+last night worth, I should say, from twenty to twenty-five thousand
+pounds; so my wife's little bit wouldn't do them much good, eh?"
+
+"It certainly doesn't seem like it," I admitted. "So far, your list of
+guests seems to have been entirely reputable."
+
+"The only two left," Mr. Samuelson concluded, "are an American gentleman
+and his daughter, a Mr. and Miss Parker whom we met on the train coming up
+from Brighton--a very delightful gentleman and most popular he was with
+all of us. The young lady, too, was perfectly charming. To hear him talk I
+should have put him down myself as a man worth all the money he needed,
+and more; and the young lady had got that trick of wearing her clothes and
+talking as though she were born a princess. Real style, I should have
+said--both of them. Still, the fact remains that they came in a motor car
+with two men-servants; that it waited for them; and that this detective
+from Scotland Yard--Mr. Cullen, I think his name is--has fairly got his
+knife into them."
+
+"And now," I remarked, smiling, "you are perhaps coming to the object of
+your visit to me?"
+
+"Exactly!" Mr. Samuelson admitted. "The fact of it is that in the course
+of conversation your name was mentioned. I forget exactly how it cropped
+up, but it did crop up. Mr. Parker, it seems, has the privilege of your
+acquaintance--at any rate he claims it. Now if his claim is a just one,
+and if you can tell me Mr. Parker is a friend of yours--why, that ends the
+matter, so far as I am concerned. I am not going to have my guests worried
+and annoyed by detectives for the sake of a handful of jewels. I thank
+goodness I can afford to lose them, if they must be lost, and I can
+replace them this afternoon without feeling it. Now you know where we are,
+Mr. Walmsley. You understand exactly why I have come to see you, eh?"
+
+I pressed another cigarette upon him and lit one myself.
+
+"I do understand, Mr. Samuelson," I told him, "and I appreciate your visit
+very much indeed. I am exceedingly glad you came. Mr. Parker told you the
+truth. He is a gentleman for whom I have the utmost respect and esteem. I
+consider his daughter, too, one of the most charming young ladies I have
+ever met. I am planning to give a dinner party, within the course of the
+next few evenings, purposely to introduce them to some of my friends with
+whom they are as yet unacquainted; and I am hoping that almost immediately
+afterward they will be staying with my sister at her place down in
+Suffolk."
+
+"With the Countess of Aynesley?" Mr. Samuelson said slowly.
+
+"Certainly!" I agreed. "I am quite sure my sister will be as charmed with
+them as I and many other of my friends are."
+
+Mr. Samuelson rose to his feet, brushed the cigarette ash from his
+trousers and took up his hat.
+
+"Mr. Walmsley," he said, holding out his hand, "I am glad I came. You have
+treated me frankly and in a most gentlemanly manner. I can assure you I
+appreciate it. Not under any circumstances would I allow friends of yours
+to be irritated by the indiscriminate inquiries of detectives. The jewels
+can go hang, sir!"
+
+He shook hands with me and permitted me to show him out, after which he
+marched down the corridor, humming gayly to himself, determined to have me
+understand that a trifling loss of two thousand pounds' worth of jewelry
+was in reality nothing. I stood for some time with my back to the fire,
+smoking thoughtfully. Then the telephone bell rang. My gloomier
+reflections were at once forgotten. It was Eve who spoke.
+
+"Good morning, Mr. Walmsley!"
+
+"Good morning, Miss Eve!" I replied.
+
+"Are you very busy this morning?" she asked.
+
+"Nothing in the world to do!" I answered promptly.
+
+"Then please come round," she directed, ringing off almost at once.
+
+I was there in ten minutes. The hall porter, who had not yet completed his
+morning toilet, conducted me upstairs. In the morning sunlight the whole
+appearance of the place seemed shabbier and dirtier than ever. Inside the
+sitting room, however, everything was different. My own flowers had
+apparently been supplemented by many others. Mr. Parker, as pink-and-white
+as usual, looking the very picture of content and good digestion, was
+smoking a large cigar and reading a newspaper. Eve was seated at the
+writing table, but she swung round at my entrance and held out both her
+hands.
+
+"The flowers are lovely!" she murmured. "Do go and sit down--and talk to
+daddy while I finish this letter."
+
+I shook hands with Mr. Parker. He laid down the newspaper and smiled at
+me.
+
+"A pleasant dinner last night, I trust?" I inquired.
+
+His eyes twinkled.
+
+"Most humorous affair!" he declared. "I wouldn't have missed it for
+worlds."
+
+"From a business point of view----" I began dryly.
+
+Mr. Parker shook his head.
+
+"Mr. Samuelson's jewels," he complained, "were like his wines, all sparkle
+and outside--no body to them. Two thousand pounds indeed! Why, we shall be
+lucky if we clear four hundred!" The man's coolness absolutely took me
+aback. For a moment I simply stared at him. "He'll be round to see you
+this morning, sometime, about my character," Mr. Parker proceeded.
+
+"He has already paid me a visit," I said grimly. "He was round at ten
+o'clock this morning."
+
+"You don't say!" Mr. Parker murmured.
+
+He looked at me hopefully. His expression was like nothing else but the
+wistful smile of a fat boy expecting good news.
+
+"Oh, of course I told him the usual thing!" I admitted. "I told him you
+were a close personal friend; a sort of amateur millionaire; a person of
+the highest respectability--everything you ought to be, in fact. He went
+away perfectly satisfied and determined to have nothing to do with the
+guest theory."
+
+Mr. Parker patted me on the shoulder.
+
+"My boy," he said, "I knew I could rely on you."
+
+"I propose," I continued, elaborating upon the scheme that had come into
+my head on the way, "to do more than this for you. I am asking some
+friends to dine to-night whom I wish you and your daughter to meet. You
+will then be able to refer to other reputable acquaintances in London
+besides myself."
+
+Eve turned round in her chair to listen. Mr. Parker, whose first
+expression had been one of unfeigned delight, suddenly paused.
+
+"My boy," he expostulated, "I don't want to take advantage of you. Do you
+think it's quite playing the game on your friends to introduce to them two
+people like ourselves? You know what it means."
+
+"I know perfectly well," I agreed; "but, as some day or other I'm going to
+marry Eve, it seems to me the thing might as well be done."
+
+They were both perfectly silent for several moments. They looked at each
+other. There were questions in his face--other things in hers. I strolled
+across to the window.
+
+"If you'd like to talk it over," I suggested, "don't mind me. All the same
+I insist upon the party."
+
+"It's uncommonly kind of you, sure!" Mr. Parker said thoughtfully. "The
+more I think it over, the more I feel impressed by it; but, do you know,
+there's something about the proposition I can't quite cotton to! Seems to
+me you've some little scheme of your own at the back of your head. You
+haven't got it in your mind, have you, that you're sort of putting us on
+our honor?"
+
+"I have no ulterior motive at all," I declared mendaciously.
+
+Eve rose to her feet and came across to me. She was wearing a charming
+morning gown of some light blue material, with large buttons, tight-
+fitting, alluring; and there was a little quiver of her lips, a
+provocative gleam in her eyes, which I found perfectly maddening.
+
+"I think we won't come, thank you," she decided.
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"You see," she explained, "I am rather afraid. We might get you into no
+end of trouble with some of your most particular friends. There are one or
+two people, you know, in London, especially among the Americans, who might
+say the unkindest things about us."
+
+"No one, my dear Eve," I assured her stolidly, "shall say anything to me
+or to any one else about my future wife."
+
+For a moment her expression was almost hopeless. She shook her head.
+
+"I don't know what to do with him, daddy!" she exclaimed, turning toward
+her father in despair.
+
+"I'm afraid you'll have to marry him if he goes on," Mr. Parker declared
+gloomily; "that is," he added, as though he had suddenly perceived a ray
+of hope about the matter, "unless we should by any chance get into trouble
+first."
+
+"Meantime," I ventured, "we will dine at eight o'clock at the Milan."
+
+Mr. Parker groaned.
+
+"At the Milan!" he echoed. "Worse and worse! We shall be recognized for
+certain! There's a man lives there whom I did out of a hundred pounds--
+just a little variation of the confidence trick. Nothing he can get hold
+of, you understand; but he knows very well that I had him. Look here,
+Walmsley, be reasonable! Hadn't you better drop this chivalrous scheme of
+yours, young fellow?"
+
+"The dinner is a fixture," I replied firmly. "Can I borrow Miss Eve,
+please? I want to take her for a motor ride."
+
+"You cannot, sir," Mr. Parker told me. "Eve has a little business of her
+own--or, rather, mine--to attend to this morning."
+
+"You are not going to let her run any more risks, are you?"
+
+Mr. Parker frowned at me.
+
+"Look here, young man," he said; "she is my daughter, remember! I am
+looking after her for the present. You leave that to me."
+
+Eve touched me on the arm.
+
+"Really, I am busy to-day," she assured me. "I have to do something for
+daddy this morning--something quite harmless; and this afternoon I have to
+go to my dressmaker's. We'll come at eight o'clock."
+
+"We'll come on this condition," Mr. Parker suddenly determined: "My name
+is getting a little too well known, and it isn't my own, anyway. We'll
+come as Mr. and Miss Bundercombe or not at all."
+
+"Why on earth Bundercombe?" I demanded.
+
+"For the reason I have just stated," Mr. Parker said obstinately. "Parker
+isn't my name at all; and, between you and me, I think I have made it a
+bit notorious. Now there is a Mr. Bundercombe and his daughter, who live
+out in a far-western State of America, who've never been out of their own
+country, and who are never likely to set foot on this side. She's a pretty
+little girl--just like Eve might be; and he's a big, handsome fellow--just
+like me. So we'll borrow their names if you don't mind."
+
+"You can come without a name at all, so long as you come," was my final
+decision as I took my leave.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI--THE PARTY AT THE MILAN
+
+The dinner party, which I arranged for in the Milan restaurant, was, on
+the whole, a great success. My sister played hostess for me and confessed
+herself charmed with Eve, as indeed was every one else. Mr. Parker's
+stories kept his end of the table in continual bursts of merriment. One
+little incident, too, was in its way exceedingly satisfactory. Mr. and
+Mrs. Samuelson were being entertained by some friends close at hand, and
+they appeared very much gratified at the cordiality of our greeting. I
+talked with Mr. Samuelson during the evening, and I felt that, so far as
+he was concerned at any rate, not a shadow of suspicion remained in his
+mind as to my two guests.
+
+We sat a long time over dinner. Eve was between a cousin of mine--who was
+a member of Parliament, a master of foxhounds, and in his way quite a
+distinguished person--and the old Earl of Enterdean, my godfather; and
+they were both of them obviously her abject slaves. No one seemed in the
+least inclined to move and it was nearly eleven o'clock before we passed
+into the private room I had engaged, where coffee and some bridge tables
+awaited us. We broke up there into little groups. I left Eve talking to my
+sister and was on my way to try to get near her father when the Countess
+of Enterdean, a perfectly charming old lady who had known me from boyhood,
+intercepted me.
+
+"My dear Paul," she said, "I cannot thank you enough for having given us
+the opportunity of meeting these most delightful Americans, and I really
+must tell you this--I had meant to keep it a secret, but from you I
+cannot; I knew all the time that the name of Bundercombe was familiar to
+me, and suddenly it came over me like a flash! Directly I asked Mr.
+Bundercombe in what part of America his home was, of course it was all
+clear to me. What a small world it is! Do you know," she concluded
+impressively, "that it was just these two people, Mr. Bundercombe and his
+daughter, who were so amazingly kind to Reggie when he was out in the
+States on his way to Dicky's ranch!"
+
+I was for a moment absolutely thunderstruck.
+
+"Did you--er--remind Mr. Bundercombe of this?" I asked.
+
+She shook her head. She had the pleased smile of a benevolent conspirator.
+
+"I will tell you why I did not, Paul," she explained. "Reggie is in town--
+just for a few days. I have sent him a telephone message and he is wild
+with delight. He has only just arrived from Scotland; but I told him Mr.
+Bundercombe and his daughter were here, and he is rushing into his clothes
+as fast as he can and is coming round. It will be so delightful for him to
+meet them again, and I really must try to think myself what I can do to
+repay all their kindness to Reggie."
+
+I felt completely at my wit's end! I saw the whole of my little scheme,
+which up to now had proved so successful, threatened with instant
+destruction. Lady Enterdean passed on, probably to take some one else into
+her confidence. I crossed the room to the little group surrounding my
+friend, and as soon as I got near him I touched him on the shoulder.
+
+"Just one word with you, Mr. Bundercombe," I begged.
+
+The little circle of men let him through with reluctance. I passed my arm
+through his and led him out toward the foyer.
+
+"You seem," I declared bitterly, "to have chosen the most unfortunate
+personality! I wish to goodness you had remained Mr. Parker! This infernal
+name of yours, Bundercombe, has got us into trouble."
+
+"In what way?" he asked quickly.
+
+"Lady Enterdean has just been to me," I told him. "She has a son who has
+been traveling in the States and who was wonderfully entertained by two
+people of the name of Bundercombe in the very place you told me to say you
+came from."
+
+"Well, that goes all right!" Mr. Parker remarked complacently. "We're
+getting the credit for it."
+
+"Precisely," I admitted. "The only trouble is that Lady Enterdean has just
+telephoned to her son to come down at once and renew his acquaintance with
+you and Eve."
+
+Mr. Parker whistled softly. His face had become a blank.
+
+"My! We do seem to be up against it!" he confessed uneasily.
+
+"The young man," I continued, "will be here in ten minutes--perhaps
+sooner--prepared to grasp you both by the hand and exchange
+reminiscences."
+
+Mr. Parker shook out a white silk handkerchief from his pocket and mopped
+his forehead.
+
+"Kind of warm out here!" he remarked. "I'll just have to talk to Eve for a
+minute or two."
+
+He had no sooner left me than I found I was absolutely compelled to devote
+myself to one or two of my guests who wished to play bridge, and others of
+whom I had seen little at dinner time. I kept looking anxiously round and
+at last the blow fell! The door opened and Lord Reginald Sidley was
+announced. He looked eagerly round the room.
+
+"Hope you don't mind my butting in, old chap!" he said as he shook hands
+with me. "The mater telephoned that old Bundercombe and his daughter were
+here, so I just rushed round as quick as I could. Regular bricks they were
+to me out West! I don't see them anywhere."
+
+I glanced round the room. Just at that moment a waiter from the restaurant
+presented himself. He brought me a card upon a salver.
+
+"The gentleman asked me to give you this, sir," he announced.
+
+I picked it up. On the back of a plain visiting card were a few hasty
+words, scrawled in pencil:
+
+"So sorry--but Eve is not feeling quite herself and begged me to take her
+home at once quietly. My respects and apologies to you and all your
+delightful guests."
+
+I read it out and passed it to Reggie. His face fell.
+
+"If that isn't a sell!" he exclaimed. "Fancy your knowing them! Isn't Miss
+Bundercombe a topper!"
+
+"She is certainly one of the most charming young women I ever met in my
+life," I admitted.
+
+"I am glad, at any rate," Lady Enterdean declared, "that they have found
+their way to London. I shall make a point of calling on them myself
+tomorrow. Now, Paul, you must go and play bridge. They are waiting for
+you. Don't bother about me --I'll amuse myself quite well strolling round
+and talking to my friends." I made up a rubber of bridge, chiefly with the
+idea of distracting my thoughts. Presently, while my partner was playing
+the hand, I rose and crossed the room to the sideboard for some
+cigarettes. I found Lady Enterdean peering about with her lorgnette fixed
+to her eyes, apparently searching for something.
+
+"Lost anything, Lady Enterdean?" I asked.
+
+"A most extraordinary thing has happened, my dear Paul!" she declared,
+resting her hand on the bosom of her gown. "I am perfectly certain it was
+there a quarter of an hour ago--my cameo brooch, you know, the one that
+old Sir Henry brought home from Italy."
+
+"Too large to lose anyway," I remarked cheerfully as I joined in the
+search.
+
+We pulled aside a table and I almost collided with one of my most
+distinguished guests--Sir Blaydon Harrison, K.C.B. Sir Blaydon also, with
+an eyeglass in his eye, was moving discontentedly backward and forward,
+kicking the carpet.
+
+"Silly thing!" he observed as he glanced up for a moment. "That little
+diamond charm of mine has slipped off my fob. I saw it as we crossed the
+foyer from the restaurant."
+
+"Why, what has happened to us all!" my sister joined in. "Look at me--I've
+lost my pendant! Paul, did you give us too much to drink, or what?"
+
+I am not sure that this was not the most awful moment of my life! A cold
+shiver of fear suddenly seized me. I looked from one to the other,
+speechless. If appearances had gone for anything at that moment I must
+indeed have looked guilty.
+
+"Most extraordinary!" I mumbled.
+
+"Oh! the things will turn up all right, without a doubt," Lady Enterdean
+declared good-humoredly. "Could we have a couple of waiters in and search
+properly, Paul? My knees are a little too old for this stooping."
+
+"If you'll please all wait a few minutes," I begged earnestly, "I'll go
+out and make inquiries. Sir Blaydon, take my place in that rubber of
+bridge--there's a good fellow. I'll have the restaurant searched too.
+Don't mind if I am away a few minutes."
+
+I hurried out. As soon as the door of the private room was closed I made
+for the entrance of the restaurant as fast as I could sprint. Without hat
+or coat I jumped into a taxi, and in less than ten minutes I was mounting
+the stairs of Number 17, Banton Street, with the hall porter blinking at
+me from his office. I scarcely went through the formality of knocking at
+the door. Mr. Parker and Eve were both standing at the table, their heads
+close together. At the sound of my footsteps and precipitate entrance Mr.
+Parker swung round. One hand was still behind him. Upon the table a white
+silk handkerchief was lying.
+
+"My dear fellow!" he exclaimed. "My dear Walmsley! What has happened?"
+
+I opened my lips and closed them again. It really seemed impossible to say
+anything! Mr. Parker's expression had never been so boyish, so earnest,
+and yet so wistful. Eve was quivering with some emotion the nature of
+which I could not at once divine. I felt very certain, however, that she
+had been remonstrating with her father.
+
+"Don't keep us in suspense, my dear fellow!" Mr. Parker implored. "What
+has gone wrong? Eve and I were just--just talking over your delightful
+party."
+
+"And looking over the spoils!" I said grimly.
+
+I went a little farther into the room, Mr. Parker, with a sigh, abandoned
+his position. He unclosed the fingers of his hand and removed the silk
+handkerchief. I saw upon the table my aunt's brooch, my sister's pendant
+and Sir Blaydon Harrison's diamond pig. I said not a word. I looked at
+them and I looked at Mr. Parker. He smiled weakly and scratched his chin.
+
+"I didn't do so badly," he essayed apologetically. "To tell you the truth,
+I really hadn't meant--"
+
+"Never mind what you meant!" I interrupted. "Please give me those things
+back again at once!"
+
+Eve dropped them into the handkerchief, twisted them up and passed them
+across to me.
+
+"I told daddy it was rather a mean trick," she sighed; "but really, you
+know, no people ought to carry about their valuables like that! It was
+trying us a little too high, wasn't it? And dear Reggie--did he arrive?"
+
+For the first time I was really angry with Eve.
+
+"If you will allow me," I said, "I will pursue this conversation to-morrow
+morning."
+
+I tore downstairs, jumped into the waiting taxi and returned to the Milan.
+I entered the private room with a grave face. Evidently I was only just in
+time. The rubber of bridge had been broken up and my guests were standing
+about in little groups talking. I closed the door behind me and held up my
+hand.
+
+"Blanche," I announced--"Lady Enterdean--I am delighted to say I have
+recovered everything."
+
+"My dear boy, how wonderfully clever of you!"
+
+Lady Enterdean exclaimed. "How relieved I feel! Most satisfactory, I am
+sure."
+
+She sat down promptly. There was a little murmur of voices. My guests
+gathered round me. I drew a long breath and continued on my mendacious
+career.
+
+"I have been closeted with the manager," I explained. "It was one of the
+underwaiters--the little dark one who brought in the coffee. The
+temptation seems to have been too much for him. He confessed directly he
+was questioned. He has restored everything and I thought it best to have
+him simply turned off without any fuss. Here is your pig, Sir Blaydon;
+your pendant, Blanche; your brooch, Lady Enterdean. I am exceedingly sorry
+you should have had any anxiety--but all's well that ends well!" I wound
+up weakly.
+
+Every one was talking cheerfully. The great topic now was one of ethics:
+Had I acted properly in not charging the waiter? Fortunately some one
+discovered a little later that it was twelve o'clock and my little party
+broke up.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII--"ONE OF US"
+
+I was not altogether surprised to receive, on the following morning before
+I had finished breakfast, a visit from Reggie.
+
+"Cheero!" he said brightly as he seated himself in my easy-chair and
+tapped the end of one of my cigarettes upon the tablecloth. "I haven't
+been up so early for months, but I had to find you before you went out--
+about these Bundercombes."
+
+"What about them?"
+
+"I want their address, of course," Reggie continued. "The mater wants to
+call this afternoon and I'm all for seeing Miss Bundercombe again. Ripping
+girl, isn't she?"
+
+"Then prepare yourself for a disappointment, my friend," I advised,
+glancing at the clock. "They left for Paris by the nine o'clock train this
+morning."
+
+Reggie stared at me blankly.
+
+"Gone already?"
+
+I nodded and invented a little difficulty with my coffee pot.
+
+"Theirs was only a flying visit," I explained. "I was lucky to get hold of
+them for my dinner."
+
+"I'm hanged if I understand this!" Reggie remarked, looking at me
+suspiciously. "Why, I spent the best part of three weeks with them in that
+Godforsaken hole out West, and they were as keen as mustard on my taking
+them round London. How long have they been here?"
+
+"Not long," I answered. "Sure you won't have some coffee?"
+
+Reggie ignored the invitation.
+
+"They've got my address and there are the directories," he continued. "The
+funny part of it is, too, that I heard from Mrs. Bundercombe a week or so
+ago, and she never said a word about any of them coming over."
+
+"They seem to have made their minds up all of a sudden," I explained.
+"They spoke of it as quite a flying trip."
+
+Reggie coughed and stared for a moment at the end of his boot.
+
+"Can't understand it at all!" he repeated. "Devilish queer thing, anyway!
+I say, Paul, you're sure it's all right, I suppose?"
+
+"All right? What do you mean?"
+
+"Between you and me," he went on--"don't give it away outside this room,
+you know--but there have been rumors going about concerning an American
+and his pretty daughter over here--regular wrong 'uns! They've been up to
+all sorts of tricks and only kept out of prison by a fluke."
+
+"You're not associating these people, whoever they may be, with Mr. and
+Miss Bundercombe?" I asked sternly.
+
+Reggie gazed once more at the point of his boot.
+
+"The thing is," he remarked, "are your friends Mr. and Miss Bundercombe at
+all?"
+
+"Don't talk rot!"
+
+"It may be rot," Reggie admitted slowly, "or it may not. By the by, where
+did you meet them?"
+
+"If you don't mind," I answered, "we won't discuss them any longer."
+
+"At least," Reggie insisted, "will you tell me this: Where have they been
+staying in London? I shall go there and see whether they have left any
+address for letters to be forwarded."
+
+"I shall tell you nothing," I decided. "As a matter of fact I am finding
+you rather a nuisance."
+
+Reggie picked up his hat.
+
+"There is something more in this," he said didactically, "than meets the
+eye!"
+
+"Machiavellian!" I scoffed. "Be off, Reggie!"
+
+I had tea with Eve that afternoon and broached the subject of Reggie's
+visit as delicately as I could.
+
+"You remember Lord Reggie Sidley?" I asked.
+
+"Lord Reggie what!" Eve exclaimed.
+
+"Sidley," I repeated firmly. "He spent three weeks with you out at your
+home in Okata. His threatened arrival last night was the cause of your
+father's precipitate retreat, and yours."
+
+"Oh, that young man!" Eve remarked airily. "Well, what about him?"
+
+"He has been round to see me this morning," I told her--"wanted your
+address."
+
+She sighed.
+
+"London will be getting too hot for us soon!" she murmured. "Am I engaged
+to him or anything?"
+
+"Eve," I said, "when are you going to let me announce our engagement?"
+
+"Our what?" she demanded.
+
+"Engagement," I repeated. "I have proposed to you two or three times. I
+will do it again if you like."
+
+"Pray don't!" she begged. "You are not going to tell me, are you," she
+added, looking at me with wide-open eyes, "that I have accepted you?"
+
+"You haven't refused me," I pointed out.
+
+"If I haven't," she assured me, "it has been simply to save your
+feelings."
+
+I gulped down a little rising storm of indignation.
+
+"You must marry sometime. Eve," I said. "There isn't any one in America,
+is there?"
+
+"There are a great many," she assured me. "It was to get away from them,
+as much as anything, that I came over with father on this business trip."
+
+"Business trip!" I groaned.
+
+"Oh! I dare say it all seems very disgraceful to any one like you--you who
+were born with plenty of money and have never been obliged to earn any,
+and have mixed with respectable people all your life!" she exclaimed. "All
+the same, let me tell you there are plenty of charming and delightful
+people going about the world earning their living by their wits--simply
+because they are forced to. There is more than one code of morals, you
+know."
+
+I flatter myself that at this point I was tactful.
+
+"My dear Eve," I reminded her, "you forget that I have joined the gang--I
+mean," I corrected myself hastily, "that I have offered to associate
+myself with you and your father in any of your enterprises. I am perfectly
+willing to give up anything in life you may consider too respectable. At
+the same time I must say there are limits so far as you are concerned."
+
+She pouted a little.
+
+"I hate being out of things," she said.
+
+"No need for you to be, altogether!" I continued.
+
+"Now if I could institute a real big affair in the shape of a bucketshop
+swindle, in which your father and I could play the principal parts and you
+become merely a subordinate, such as a typist or something--what about
+that, eh?"
+
+"It doesn't sound very amusing for me," she objected. "How much should we
+make?"
+
+"Thousands," I assured her, "if it were properly engineered."
+
+"I think," she said reflectively, "that father would be very glad of a few
+thousands just now. He says the market over here, for such little trifles
+as we have come across, is very restricted."
+
+I groaned under my breath. In imagination I could see Mr. Parker bartering
+with some shady individual for Lady Enterdean's cameo brooch! I reverted
+to our previous subject of conversation.
+
+"Eve," I went on, "I hate to seem tedious--but the question of our
+engagement still hangs fire."
+
+"You persistent person!" she sighed, "Tell me, if I married you would all
+those people we met last night be nice to me?"
+
+"Of course they would," I assured her. "They are only waiting for a word
+from you. I think they must have an idea already. I am not in the habit of
+giving dinner parties with a young lady as guest of honor."
+
+She was thoughtful for a few moments, and her eyes lit up with reminiscent
+humor.
+
+"Dear me!" she murmured. "If only they knew! They hadn't any suspicions, I
+suppose, about those--those little trifles?"
+
+"None," I replied. "I put it all on to a waiter."
+
+"How clever of you! You really do seem to be a most capable person--and so
+masterful! I begin to fear that some day you'll have your own way."
+
+Her eyes laughed at me. There was something softly provocative in them--a
+new and kinder light. I bent over her and kissed her. She sat quite still.
+
+"Mr. Walmsley!"
+
+"It's usual among engaged couples," I pleaded.
+
+"Is it!" she remarked coldly. "Doesn't the man, as a rule, wait to be
+quite sure he is engaged?"
+
+"Not in this country," I declared: "I have heard that Americans are rather
+shy about that sort of thing. Englishmen----"
+
+"Oh, bother Englishmen!" she exclaimed, stamping her foot. "I don't
+believe a word I've ever heard about them. I suppose now I shall have to
+marry you!"
+
+"I don't see any way out of it," I agreed readily.
+
+She held up her finger. The door was quietly opened. Mr. Parker entered.
+
+He was followed by the most utterly objectionable and repulsive-looking
+person I have ever set eyes on in my life--a young man, thin, and of less
+than medium height, flashily dressed in cheap clothes, with patent boots
+and brilliant necktie. His cheeks were sallow; and his eyes, deeply inset,
+were closer together than any I have ever seen.
+
+"My dear," Mr. Parker exclaimed, "let me present Mr. Moss--my daughter,
+sir; Mr. Walmsley--also one of us. I have been privileged," Mr. Parker
+continued, dropping his voice a little, "to watch Mr. Moss at work this
+afternoon; and I can assure you that a more consummate artist I have never
+seen--in Wall Street, at a racetrack meeting, or anywhere else."
+
+Mr. Moss smiled deprecatingly and jerked his head sideways.
+
+"The old un's pretty fly!" he remarked, as he laid his hat on the table.
+
+"I am very glad to know Mr. Moss, of course," Eve said; "but I am not in
+the least in sympathy with the--er--branch of our industry he represents.
+You know, daddy, it's much too dangerous and not a bit remunerative."
+
+"To a certain extent, my dear," her father admitted, "I am with you. Not
+all the way, though. One needs, of course, to discriminate. Personally I
+must admit that the nerve and actual genius required in finger
+manipulation have always attracted me."
+
+Mr. Moss paused, with his glass halfway to his lips. He jerked his head in
+the direction of Mr. Parker.
+
+"He is one for the gab, ain't he?" he remarked confidentially to me.
+
+For the life of me, at that moment I could not tell whether to leave the
+room in a fit of angry disgust or to accept the ludicrous side of the
+situation and laugh. Fortunately for me, perhaps, I caught Eve's eye, in
+which there was more than the suspicion of a twinkle. I chose, therefore,
+the latter alternative. Mr. Moss watched us for a moment curiously.
+
+"What might your line be, guvnor?" he asked as he set down his glass.
+
+"Oh, anything that's going," I replied carelessly. "City work is rather my
+specialty."
+
+"I know!" Mr. Moss exclaimed quickly. "Slap-up offices; thousands of
+letters a day full of postal orders; shutters up suddenly--and bunco! Fine
+appearance for the job!" he added admiringly.
+
+Eve sat down and began to laugh softly to herself. She had a habit of
+laughing almost altogether with her eyes in a way that expressed more
+genuine enjoyment than anything I have ever realized. She rocked herself
+gently backward and forward. Mr. Moss looked at us both a little
+suspiciously.
+
+"Seem to be missing the joke a bit--I do!" he remarked.
+
+Eve sat up and was instantly grave.
+
+"It is your clear-sighted way of putting things," she explained softly.
+"You seem to understand people so thoroughly."
+
+"I don't generally make no mistake about the number of beans in the game,"
+Mr. Moss observed in a self-congratulatory tone. "I can tell a crook from
+a mug a bit quicker than most."
+
+"I have suggested to Mr. Moss, my dear," Mr. Parker intervened, turning
+toward us with beaming face, "just a little early dinner--say, at
+Stephano's--just as we are, you know. Will this be agreeable to you?"
+
+"Certainly!" Eve assented promptly.
+
+"Mr. Moss will tell us some of his little adventures," Mr. Parker
+continued, with satisfaction. "Considering that he has had twelve years'
+continual work, I think you'll all agree with me that his is a wonderful
+record. He has been compelled to enter into a little involuntary--er--
+retirement only once during the whole of that time."
+
+Mr. Moss looked a little puzzled.
+
+"He means lagged, don't he?" he remarked, a light breaking in on him.
+"Only once in my life--and that for a trifling beano--a lady's bag and a
+couple of wipes. I tell you it's no joke nowadays, though. They do watch
+you! The profession ain't what it was."
+
+"You will come with us, won't you, Mr. Walmsley?" Eve begged, turning to
+me.
+
+"I shall be delighted," I answered, with strenuous mendacity. "Did you say
+Stephano's, or what do you think of one of these places closer at hand? I
+was told of a little restaurant in Soho the other day, where the cooking
+is remarkable."
+
+"I'm all for Stephano's," Mr. Moss declared, grinning; "and the sooner the
+better. One of the neatest pieces of business I ever did in my life I
+brought off there in the old bar. To tell you the truth, I'm getting a bit
+peckish."
+
+"There is no reason," Mr. Parker agreed, "why we should not dine at once.
+It is very nearly seven o'clock. What do you say?"
+
+"Yoicks! Tally-ho, for the Strand!" Mr. Moss exclaimed, with spirit.
+
+We started off--four in a taxi. It was Mr. Moss who, with florid
+politeness, handed Eve to her seat; and it was Mr. Moss who entertained us
+on the way with light conversation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII--AT THE ALHAMBRA
+
+Luigi's face, when he met the Parkers and myself at the entrance of the
+restaurant, was a study. His polite bow and smile of welcome seemed
+suddenly frozen on his face as his eyes fell upon Mr. Moss. Mr. Moss was
+still wearing his hat, which was a black bowler with a small brim, set at
+a jaunty angle a little on one side and affording a liberal view of his
+black curls underneath. His linen failed completely to stand the test of
+the clear, soft light of the restaurant, and one might have been excused
+for entertaining certain doubts with regard to the diamond pin in his
+mauve tie and the ring that flashed from his not overwhite hand as he
+tardily removed his headgear.
+
+"Bit of all right--this place!" Mr. Moss remarked, handing his hat to
+Luigi. "Who'll have a short one with me before we feed?"
+
+Luigi passed the hat from the tips of his fingers to a subordinate. He
+showed us a table quite silently, handed the menu over to a _maitre
+d'hotel_ and promptly departed. Looking round a little nervously I could
+see him gazing at us from his sanctum over the top of the blind!
+
+"Mr. Moss, I see, has American tastes," Mr. Parker declared. "He likes an
+_aperitif_ before dinner. Leave it to me, please."
+
+Mr. Parker ordered a somewhat extensive dinner. Throughout the meal we
+listened to a series of adventures in which the hero was always Mr. Moss.
+We heard of wonderful hauls and wonderful escapes; detectives outwitted--
+exploits that reminded me more of the motor bandits of Paris than of our
+own sober capital.
+
+Mr. Parker's attention never flagged. Halfway through the meal Mr. Moss
+suddenly put down his knife and fork. He broke off in the middle of a
+fascinating narration of an episode during which he had ju-jutsued one
+detective, knocked another down, locked them both in an empty room, and
+strolled away with a cigar abstracted from the case of one of them and his
+pockets full of uncut emeralds. With his mouth open he was gazing fixedly
+across the room. There was a considerable change in his tone.
+
+"'Ware 'tec'!" he said sharply.
+
+We all looked in the direction he indicated, and we all recognized Mr.
+Cullen, who was apparently returning with interest our observation. I saw
+a grim smile upon his lips as he disappeared for a moment behind the menu
+card. For a man who had in his time treated detectives in such a cavalier
+way, Mr. Moss' change of color and subdued manner was a little
+extraordinary. He cheered up, however, after a little while.
+
+"Our friend Cullen," Mr. Parker murmured, "seems to have taken quite a
+fancy to this restaurant."
+
+"Used to be on my lay," Mr. Moss remarked. "He's much too big a duke now
+for the street, though. They say he gets nearly all the high-class forgery
+and swindling cases."
+
+"We have come into contact with him ourselves," Mr. Parker observed
+genially. "Seems to me there's a kind of want of snap about him compared
+with our American detectives; but I dare say he knows his business."
+
+"Is your father really enjoying this?" I asked Eve.
+
+"He absolutely loves it!" she replied.
+
+I sighed.
+
+"And I think," she added suddenly, "you are behaving beautifully--I almost
+love you for it."
+
+I looked at her quickly and I felt rewarded for all I had gone through.
+Her attitude toward me was subtly different. Somehow I felt that I was
+being permitted a glimpse of the real Eve. Her eyes were soft; she patted
+my hand under the table. I could almost have shaken hands with Mr. Moss!
+
+"What about a music hall afterward?" I proposed in the fullness of my
+heart. "Shall I send for stalls at the Alhambra?"
+
+My proposal was received with unanimous approval. Our departure from the
+restaurant a few minutes later evoked almost as much comment as our
+arrival. Mr. Moss led the way, his hands in his trousers pockets and a
+large cigar, pointing toward the ceiling, protruding from the corner of
+his mouth. His slight uneasiness with regard to the whereabouts of his hat
+having been dispelled by its appearance before we finished our meal, he
+placed it on his head at its usual angle before we left the room.
+
+Mr. Parker took his arm as they passed out, and I saw Mr. Cullen's eyes
+follow them from behind his newspaper. The two got into a taxi and Eve and
+I followed them in another, an arrangement that Mr. Moss appeared to
+regard with disfavor. Eve's hand stole into mine as we drove off.
+
+"Do you know," she said seriously, "I think it's perfectly horrid to drag
+you about in such company! It's all very well for us, because we belong
+and we are in a strange city; but I saw some of your friends look at you
+and whisper. They must think you are mad!"
+
+"So long as you are in it, dear," I assured her, "I don't care where I go
+or with whom."
+
+"You don't look like that a bit, you know!" she sighed.
+
+"As for the rest," I went on, "if you are really sorry for me--why, then,
+end it! Your father could spare us for a little time."
+
+I could see she was becoming serious again. Lights flashed upon her face.
+I felt a sudden wave of pity mingled with my love for her. After all,
+there were times when her anxiety must have been almost insupportable.
+
+"Eve, dearest," I whispered, "you must let me take you away from this. You
+must! You are too good and sweet ever to mix with these people--to live
+this life."
+
+She half closed her eyes for a moment. When she looked at me again she was
+laughing.
+
+"You're a dear boy!" she said. "Now help me out, please. We have arrived."
+We found four stalls reserved for us near the front at the music hall;
+and, after settling a slight preliminary difficulty, owing to Mr. Moss'
+reluctance to parting with his hat, we sat down to enjoy the performance.
+Mr. Moss seemed a little disappointed, too, that his bright and snappy
+order for drinks to the powdered official who showed us to our places was
+not at once executed; but otherwise he made himself very much at home.
+
+We had been there perhaps half an hour when I saw a sudden change in his
+demeanor, which was almost at once reflected in the serious expression
+that had stolen into Mr. Parker's benign countenance. An old gentleman,
+white-haired, with rubicund face and a jovial air, had taken the seat next
+to them. He had the appearance of having come from the country and of
+having spent a happy day in town. Even from where I sat I could see
+protruding from his breast-pocket a brown leather pocketbook.
+
+I watched them as though fascinated. The change in Mr. Moss was amazing.
+His reckless air of enjoyment had departed. He was still smoking, but he
+was all alert, like a cat ready to spring. Mr. Parker, too, was
+interested. I saw him whisper something in Mr. Moss' ear and I felt a cold
+foreboding of what was going to happen.
+
+"I'm for a drink !" Mr. Moss declared in a rather loud tone. "Come on,
+guv'nor!"
+
+They both rose. The old gentleman drew in his legs to let them pass.
+Though I watched with fixed eyes I was absolutely unable to follow their
+movements, but when they had passed the old gentleman I could see from
+where I sat that his pocketbook was gone.
+
+"Did you see that?" I whispered to Eve.
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"The old gentleman's pocketbook," I groaned; "they've got it!"
+
+Eve for a moment sat quite still; she, too, seemed nervous. I was looking
+away again at the retreating figures of Mr. Parker and Mr. Moss. Suddenly
+my heart sank. I saw the old gentleman spring to his feet and hurry after
+them; and I saw, too, at the end of the line of stalls, Mr. Cullen and a
+companion standing, waiting. I rose quickly to my feet.
+
+"I'm afraid there's going to be some trouble," I said to Eve. "Let me go
+and see if I can help. It looks as though the whole thing were a trap."
+
+I followed quickly. It is only fair to Mr. Cullen to say that he conducted
+the affair with great discretion and with every consideration for the
+feelings of the management. He stopped Mr. Parker and Mr. Moss as they
+reached the end of the line of stalls.
+
+"Please come with me," he said. "I have something to say to you outside."
+
+Mr. Moss showed signs of an attempt to escape. He stooped for a minute as
+though to run, but a kick from Mr. Parker induced him to alter his mind.
+
+"Wotcher want?" he asked belligerently.
+
+The old gentleman had now reached them, red-faced and incoherent. He
+addressed himself to Mr. Cullen, and I no longer had any doubt whatever
+that the affair was a plant of the detective.
+
+"I've been robbed of my pocketbook!" he exclaimed. "One of these two has
+got it--brushed up against me just now on the way out of the stalls.
+Where's the manager?"
+
+Only a few people in the immediate vicinity were conscious that anything
+at all unusual was happening. The promenade just at that particular spot
+was almost deserted.
+
+"This gentleman is certainly mistaken," Mr. Parker declared with dignity.
+"Neither my friend nor myself knows anything about his pocketbook."
+
+"I am sorry," Mr. Cullen said politely, "but I shall have to trouble you
+to come with me to Bow Street at once--and you, too, sir," he added,
+addressing the old gentleman. "I am a police officer and we will go into
+the matter there. You will agree with me that it is well not to make a
+disturbance here. I have two assistants with me."
+
+He indicated by a little gesture two men who had emerged from somewhere in
+the background.
+
+"I will go with the utmost pleasure," Mr. Parker consented. "At the same
+time this gentleman has obviously been drinking and his charge is absurd."
+
+It was precisely at this moment that I felt something hard pressed against
+my hand. With a dexterity that was nothing short of miraculous, Mr.
+Parker, who apparently was standing with his hands in his pockets, had
+suddenly forced one of them through some secret opening in his coat.
+
+In those few seconds it seemed to me I lived a year. I had no time to
+think--no time to realize that if I failed nothing could save my
+appearance at Bow Street on the following morning as a common pickpocket.
+I gripped the pocketbook from his hand and, without changing a muscle,
+dropped it into the yawning overcoat pocket of the bucolic gentleman.
+
+The moment was over and passed. Mr. Parker, with a movement forward, had
+covered my proceedings. I had been face to face with death years before,
+but I had never felt quite the same thrill.
+
+"This way, gentlemen, if you please," Mr. Cullen directed softly.
+
+"You will not object to my accompanying you?" I asked.
+
+"Certainly not," Mr. Cullen replied; "I, in fact, am not sure that it
+would not be my duty to ask you to come."
+
+"One moment!" I begged.
+
+Mr. Cullen paused.
+
+"The gentleman who made this charge," I went on, "seems to me to be in a
+very uncertain condition. Might I suggest that, before you commit yourself
+to taking these people to the police station, you just make sure he really
+has been robbed of his pocketbook?"
+
+"Had it here," the old gentleman declared; "right in this pocket! Look for
+yourself--gone!"
+
+"The old gentleman scarcely seems to me," I remarked, "to be in a fit
+condition to know which pocket it was in."
+
+Mr. Cullen, who had been walking carefully between him and the other two,
+smiled in a superior way.
+
+"Please feel in all your pockets," he told his accomplice.
+
+The old gentleman obeyed. Suddenly he stopped short. A blank expression
+came into his face.
+
+"What have you got there?" I asked.
+
+He brought it out with ill-concealed reluctance. It was, without doubt,
+the pocketbook. I shall never forget Mr. Cullen's face! He was bereft of
+words. He stared at it as though he had seen it come up through the floor.
+Mr. Moss simply stood with his mouth open. Mr. Parker alone appeared
+unmoved by any emotion of surprise. His manner was serious--almost
+dignified.
+
+"I want you to take this from me straight, Mr. Cullen," he said. "I am not
+a man who loses his temper easily, but you're trying us a bit high."
+
+Mr. Cullen remained for a moment or two speechless. He looked at me and
+drew a long breath. I knew perfectly well what he was thinking. He had had
+a man on either side of Mr. Parker and Mr. Moss. The only person who could
+have transferred that pocketbook was myself. I could see him readjusting
+his ideas as to my moral character.
+
+"Mr. Parker--gentlemen," he said, removing his hat, "pray accept my
+apologies. You are free to return to your seats whenever you choose. This
+gentleman was evidently mistaken," he added, speaking with withering
+sarcasm and turning sharply toward his coadjutor. "You oughtn't to come to
+these places in your present condition, sir. Take my advice and get along
+home at once."
+
+The bucolic gentleman, who had completely lost his appearance of
+inebriety, mumbled a few incoherent words and departed. After his
+departure Mr. Parker assumed a more genial attitude.
+
+"Well, well! I suppose you only did your duty, sir," he remarked, with a
+resigned sigh. "We were on our way to the bar. Will you join us, Mr.
+Cullen?"
+
+I did not hear the detective's reply, but somehow or other we all drifted
+there. Mr. Moss at once found an easy-chair, which he pronounced to be "a
+bit of all right" and in which he assumed an easy and elegant attitude.
+Mr. Parker, Mr. Cullen, and I completed the circle, which now included a
+professional gutter-thief, a disappointed detective, Mr. Parker and
+myself. It was a unique moment in my life!
+
+The wine affected the spirits of no one except, perhaps, Mr. Moss; and
+him, when we finally broke up our party, we thought it advisable to get
+rid of in quick order. To my surprise Mr. Parker seemed in a particularly
+despondent frame of mind. He needed pressing even to come to supper.
+
+"You were quick-witted, Walmsley," he admitted as we rolled away in the
+car, "quick-witted, I'll admit that; but you were dead clumsy with your
+fingers! I could see what you were doing from the back of my head."
+
+"Really!" I murmured. "Well, I suppose that sort of thing is a gift. I
+only know that I hope I may never have to do it again."
+
+Mr. Parker sighed.
+
+"I fear," he said, "that your troubles with us will soon be over. Eve has
+been telling me about that young idiot of an Englishman who visited the
+Bundercombes out in Okata. If there was one man whose name I thought I was
+safe to make use of it was Joe Bundercombe!"
+
+"It seems," I admitted, "to have been an unfortunate choice. What do you
+think of doing about it?"
+
+Mr. Parker apparently had no immediate answer ready for me. During our
+brief ride in the motor and in the early stages of supper he was afflicted
+by a taciturnity that made him almost negligible as a companion. And then
+suddenly a light broke over his face. He had the appearance of a
+shipwrecked mariner who suddenly catches sight of land in the offing. His
+lips were a little parted, his boyish face all aglow.
+
+"Walmsley, my dear fellow!" he exclaimed. "Eve, dear! The problem is
+solved! Raise your glasses and drink with me. Here's farewell to Mr.
+Joseph H. Parker and Miss Parker. And a welcome to Mr. and Miss
+Bundercombe, of Okata!"
+
+"That's all very well," I said; "but Reggie will be on your track."
+
+Mr. Parker beamed on Eve and me.
+
+"We shall see!" he declared didactically.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX--THE EXPOSURE
+
+The next morning at twelve o'clock I took a taxi-cab round to Banton
+Street. The hall porter, who was beginning to know me well, seemed a
+little surprised at my appearance.
+
+"Is the young lady upstairs?" I asked.
+
+He was distinctly taken aback.
+
+"Mr. Parker and his daughter have gone," he told me. I stopped on my way
+to the stairs.
+
+"Gone?" I repeated.
+
+"Went off this morning," he continued; "two taxi-cabs full of luggage."
+
+"Aren't they coming back?"
+
+"No signs of it."
+
+"Did they leave any address?"
+
+"None!"
+
+"Are you sure?" I persisted. "Please ask at the office."
+
+The porter left me for a moment, but returned shaking his head.
+
+"Mr. Parker said there would be no messages or letters, and accordingly he
+left no address."
+
+I turned slowly away. The hall porter followed me. He was drawing
+something from his waistcoat pocket.
+
+"I wouldn't do a thing," he declared, "to get Mr. Parker into any trouble
+--for a nicer, freer-handed gentleman never came inside the hotel; but I
+don't know as there's much harm in showing you this, being as you're a
+friend. I picked it up in the sitting room after they'd gone."
+
+He held out a cablegram. Before I realized what I was doing, I had read
+it. It was handed in at New York:
+
+"Look out! H----sailed last Saturday!"
+
+"Pretty badly scared of H----he was!" the hall porter remarked. "Ten
+minutes after that cablegram came they were hard at it, packing."
+
+I gave the man a tip and drove back to my rooms, where I spent a restless
+morning, then lunched at my club and returned to the Milan afterward, only
+in the hope that I might find there a note or a message. There was
+nothing, however. Just as I was starting to go out the telephone bell
+rang. I took up the receiver. It was Eve's voice.
+
+"Is that Mr. Walmsley?"
+
+"It is," I admitted. "How are you, Eve?"
+
+"Quite well, thank you."
+
+"Still in London?"
+
+"Certainly. Would you like to come and have tea with me?"
+
+"Rather!" I replied enthusiastically. "Where are you?"
+
+"Hiding!"
+
+"That's all right," I replied. "I shan't give it away. Where shall I find
+you?"
+
+"Well," she said, "we talked it over and decided that the best hiding
+place was one of the larger hotels. We are at the Ritz."
+
+"I'll come right along if I may."
+
+"Very well," she agreed. "Ask for Mr. Bundercombe."
+
+I groaned under my breath, but I made no further comment; and in a very
+few minutes I presented myself at the Ritz Hotel. I was escorted upstairs
+and ushered into a very delightful suite on the second floor. Eve rose to
+meet me from behind a little tea-table. She was charmingly dressed and
+looking exceedingly well. Mr. Bundercombe, on the other hand, who was
+walking up and down the apartment with his hands behind his back, was
+distinctly nervous. He nodded at my entrance.
+
+"How are you, Walmsley?" he said. "How are you?"
+
+"I am quite well, sir, thank you," I replied, a little stupefied.
+
+"Say, I'm afraid we are making a great mistake here," he went on
+anxiously. "We've slipped a point too near to the wind this time."
+
+"If you'll allow me to tell you exactly what I think," I ventured,
+"frankly I think you have made a mistake. There's that matter of Reggie
+Sidley. He was worrying me all yesterday morning to find out where you
+were, and when I evaded the point he told me straight that he didn't
+believe you were the Bundercombes at all. He is always in and out of this
+place, and if he sees your name on the register--or his mother, Lady
+Enterdean, sees it--it seems to me it's about all up!"
+
+"A piece of bravado, I must admit," Mr. Parker muttered--"a piece of
+absolute bravado! But there's the young woman who's responsible!" he
+added, shaking his fist at Eve. "I may have suggested our coming to your
+party as the Bundercombes, but it was Eve's idea that we put up this
+little piece of bluff. Now I'm all for Paris!" he went on insinuatingly.
+
+At that precise moment I felt that there was nothing I wanted so much as
+to get Eve away from the Ritz, and I fell in with the scheme.
+
+"We'll all go," I suggested. "I haven't had a week in Paris for a long
+time."
+
+Eve handed me my tea.
+
+"Don't count me in!" she begged. "I never felt less inclined to move from
+anywhere. If being Eve Bundercombe means living at the Ritz I think I'd
+rather go on. The life of an adventuress is, after all, just a little
+strenuous and I am tired of living on the thin edge of nothing."
+
+"Perhaps, before you know where you are," Mr. Bundercombe remarked
+gloomily, "you'll be living on the thin edge of a little less than
+nothing!"
+
+There was a knock at the door. We all looked at one another. A magnificent
+person with powdered hair, breeches and silk stockings presented himself.
+
+"Lord Reginald Sidley!" he announced.
+
+In walked Reggie. He was correctly attired for calling and he carried a
+most immaculate silk hat in his hand. I fully expected to see him drop it
+on the floor, but he did nothing of the sort. He laid it upon a small
+table, paused for one second to shake his fist at me, and advanced toward
+Eve with both hands outstretched.
+
+"At last I have found you, then!" he exclaimed. "Miss Bundercombe! Well, I
+am glad to see you!"
+
+"Hello, Reggie!" she answered sweetly. "What a time you've been looking us
+up."
+
+He was taken aback.
+
+"Well, I like that!" he gasped. "And--how are you, Mr. Bundercombe?"
+
+"Glad to see you!" Mr. Bundercombe replied cheerlessly.
+
+The meeting had taken place and I seemed to be the only person in the room
+who was suffering from any sort of shock. Reggie was still holding one of
+Eve's hands and was almost incoherent.
+
+"Come, I like that! I like that!" he exclaimed. "A long time looking you
+up indeed! Why didn't you let me know you were here? There hasn't been a
+line from you or from your father. We couldn't believe it when we heard
+that you had been at the dinner the other evening. I was never so
+disappointed in my life!"
+
+I gripped Mr. Bundercombe by the arm and led him firmly to one side.
+
+"Look here," I said, "is your name Bundercombe?"
+
+"It is," he admitted gloomily.
+
+"Are you a millionaire?" I persisted.
+
+"Multi!" he groaned.
+
+"Then what the blazes--what the----"
+
+I stopped short. Once more the door was opened--this time without the
+formality of a knock. If Mr. Bundercombe had seemed anxious and depressed
+before it was obvious now that the worst had happened. All the cheerful
+life seemed to have faded from his good-humored face. He had literally
+collapsed in his clothes. Even Eve gave a little shriek.
+
+Upon the threshold stood Mr. Cullen, and by his side a lady who might have
+been anywhere between fifty and sixty years old. She was dressed in a
+particularly unattractive checked traveling suit, with a little satchel
+suspended from a shiny black leather band round her waist. She wore a
+small hat that was much too juvenile for her; and from the back of it a
+blue veil, which she had pushed on one side, hung nearly to the floor. Her
+complexion was very yellow; she had a square jaw; and through her
+spectacles her eyes glittered in a most unpleasant fashion. Her greeting
+was scarcely conciliatory.
+
+"So I've got you at last, have I? Say, this is a pretty chase you've led
+me! Do you know I've had to desert my post as president of the Great
+Amalgamated Meeting of the Free Women of the West to come and look after
+you two? Do you know that three thousand women had to listen to a
+substitute last Thursday?--and after I'd spent two months getting my facts
+for them! Do you know that you're the laughing-stock of Okata?"
+
+"No one asked you to come, mother," Eve remarked with a sigh.
+
+"Asked me to come, indeed!" the newcomer retorted. "Look at you both! I've
+heard all about your doings. This gentleman by my side has told me a few
+things. I'll talk to you presently, young woman. But say, is there
+anywhere on the face of this earth such a miserable, addle-headed lunatic
+as that man whom it's my misfortune to call my husband?"
+
+She shook her fist at Mr. Bundercombe, who seemed to have become still
+smaller. Then she looked at me, and at Reggie, who was standing with his
+mouth wide open. She fixed upon us as her audience.
+
+"Look at him!" she went on, stretching out her hands. "There's a
+respectable American for you! For thirty years he works as a man should--
+for it's what a man's made for--and thanks to his wife's help and advice
+he prospers. Look at him, I ask you! A baby can see that he hasn't the
+brains of a chicken. Yet there he stands--Joseph H. Bundercombe, of
+Bundercombe's Reapers, with eight million dollars' worth of stock to his
+name!"
+
+I saw Reggie's eyes go up to the ceiling and I knew he was dividing eight
+million dollars by five. An expression almost of reverence passed into his
+face as he achieved the result. We none of us felt the slightest
+inclination to interrupt. Mrs. Bundercombe's long, skinny forefinger drew
+a little nearer to her victim. Then she coughed--the short, dry cough of
+the professional speaker--and continued:
+
+"Wouldn't you believe that was success enough for any reasonable mortal?
+Wouldn't you say that, with a wife holding an honored and great position
+in the State, and his daughter by his side, he'd settle down out there and
+live a respectable, decent life? Not he! First of all he wants to travel.
+
+"What does he do, then, but take up what he calls a hobby! He buys and
+gloats over every silly detective story that was ever written; practises
+disguises and making himself up, as he calls it; takes lessons in
+conjuring; haunts the police courts; consorts with criminals--in short,
+behaves like a great overgrown child in his own native city, where the
+name of Bundercombe--from the feminine standpoint--realizes everything
+that stands for freedom and greatness. The time came when it was necessary
+for me to put down my foot once and for all. I called him to me.
+
+"'Joseph Henry Bundercombe,' I said,'there must be an end to this!' 'There
+shall be,' he promised. The next day he and Eve, my misguided
+stepdaughter, were on their way to Europe; and I am credibly informed they
+cheated a commercial traveler at cards on the way to New York. That I find
+him at liberty now, it seems to me, is entirely owing to the clemency and
+kindness of this gentleman, who recognized my description at Scotland Yard
+and brought me here."
+
+"Say, all I'm prepared to admit about that is that it was somehow
+fortunate," Mr. Bundercombe remarked with a sudden revival of his old
+self, "that it fell to my lot to have Mr. Cullen investigate some of my
+small adventures!"
+
+"Mr. Bundercombe," said Cullen severely, "I think you will do well to
+listen to your wife and to take her advice. There are one or two of these
+little affairs, you must remember, that are not entirely closed yet."
+
+Mr. Bundercombe sighed. He adopted an attitude of resignation.
+
+"Well, Cullen," he replied, "if my career of crime is really to come to an
+end I don't want to bear you any ill will. We'll just take a stroll
+downstairs and talk about it."
+
+Mrs. Bundercombe, with a quick movement to the left, blocked the way.
+
+"That means a visit to the bar!" she declared. "I know you, Mr.
+Bundercombe. You'll stay right here and listen to a little more of what
+I've got to say. Who this gentleman may be I don't at present know," she
+went on, turning suddenly upon me; "but I am agreeable to listen to his
+name if any one has the manners to mention it."
+
+"Walmsley, madam," I told her quickly, "Paul Walmsley. I have the honor to
+be engaged to marry your stepdaughter."
+
+Mrs. Bundercombe looked at me in stony silence. Twice she opened her lips,
+and I am quite sure that if words had come they would have been unkind
+ones. Twice apparently, however, her command of language seemed
+inadequate.
+
+"So you're going to marry an Englishman," she said, glaring at Eve.
+
+"I am going to marry Mr. Walmsley, mother," Eve agreed sweetly. "He has
+been such a kind friend to us during the last few days--and I rather fancy
+I shall like living on this side."
+
+"Dear me! Dear me! I hadn't heard of this!" Mr. Bundercombe remarked with
+interest. "You and I will go downstairs and have a little chat about it,
+Mr. Walmsley."
+
+He made another strategic movement toward the door, which was promptly and
+effectually frustrated by his wife.
+
+"No, you don't!" Mrs. Bundercombe prohibited. "I've a good deal more to
+say yet. I haven't been dragged over the ocean three thousand miles to
+have you all slip away directly I arrive. A nice state of things indeed!
+My husband, Joseph H. Bundercombe, a suspect at Scotland Yard, followed
+everywhere by detectives; and my daughter----"
+
+"Stepdaughter, please," Eve interrupted.
+
+"Stepdaughter then!--talking about marrying a man she's probably known
+about twenty-four hours and met at a bar or in a thieves' kitchen, or
+something of the sort! If you must marry an Englishman," she continued
+with rising voice, "why don't you marry Lord Reginald Sidley there? His
+father is an earl, anyway."
+
+"His uncle's one," Reggie put in gloomily, jerking his head toward me.
+"Old Walmsley's all right."
+
+Eve patted his hand.
+
+"Good boy!" she said. "You know I never encouraged you--did I, Reggie?'"
+
+"Encouraged me!" he protested. "I think, on the whole, you said the rudest
+things to me I ever heard in my life--from a girl, anyway. I imagine," he
+added, taking up his hat, "that it's up to me to leave this little
+domestic gathering."
+
+"I'll see you out," Mr. Bundercombe declared with alacrity.
+
+Mrs. Bundercombe, with her eyes steadily fixed upon her husband, stepped
+back until she blocked the doorway.
+
+"My dear Hannah!"
+
+"Your dear nothing!" she interrupted ruthlessly.
+
+"You just sit down by the side of your daughter there and let me tell you
+both what I think of you and what I'm going to do about it."
+
+"I think," I suggested, "a little taxi drive----Your mother and father no
+doubt have a great deal to say to one another, and you can receive your
+little lecture later."
+
+Eve assented at once; and Mrs. Bundercombe, for some reason or other, only
+entered a faint protest against our departure. It was about five o'clock
+in the afternoon and the streets were crowded with every description of
+vehicle. The sun was still warm; there was a faint pink light in the sky--
+a perfume of lilac in the air from the window-boxes and flower-barrows. I
+took Eve's fingers in mine and held them. I think she knew that something
+in the nature of an inquisition was coming, for she sat very demure, her
+eyes fixed on the road ahead.
+
+"Eve," I asked, "how about Mrs. Samuelson's jewels?"
+
+"They were returned to her from 'a repentant criminal,'" Eve murmured.
+
+"And the forged banknotes made by the young man in the Adelphi?"
+
+"They were all destroyed as fast as father could buy them," she explained.
+"He has found the boy a post now with some printer in America."
+
+"And the two thousand pounds at the gaming club--that first night?"
+
+"Daddy made it three and sent it to a hospital. He thought it would do
+them more good."
+
+"You know, you're a shocking pair!" I said severely.
+
+"Paul," she sighed, "you never can know how dull it was at Okata."
+
+"I'm jolly glad it was!" I told her. "It gives me a better chance--doesn't
+it?"
+
+"And we'll give daddy a good time whenever we can?" she pleaded.
+
+"Always," I promised. "He's one of the best!"
+
+"He's so clever, too!"
+
+"Clever, without a doubt," I admitted, "only I think perhaps we might get
+him to use his talents in a more orthodox way. By the by," I added,
+putting my head out of the window, "I think it's getting a little chilly."
+
+I ordered the taxi closed and we returned to the hotel. The hall porter
+drew me on one side confidentially.
+
+"Mr. Bundercombe and the other gentleman, sir," he announced, "are waiting
+for you in the bar."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X--A BROKEN PARTNERSHIP
+
+By what certainly seemed to be, at the time, a stroke of evil fortune, I
+invited Mrs. Bundercombe and Eve to lunch with me at Prince's restaurant a
+few days after our return from the country. Mrs. Bundercombe was
+graciously pleased to accept my invitation; but she did not think it
+necessary to alter in any way her usual style of dress for the occasion.
+
+We sailed into Prince's, therefore--Eve charming in a lemon-colored
+foulard dress and a black toque; Mrs. Bundercombe in an Okata dressmaker's
+conception of a tailor-made gown in some hard, steel-ray material, and a
+hat whose imperfections were perhaps mercifully hidden by a veil, which,
+instead of providing a really reasonable excuse for its existence by
+concealing some portion of Mrs. Bundercombe's features, streamed down
+behind her nearly to her feet.
+
+The _maitre d'hotel_ who welcomed me and showed to our table found his
+little flow of small talk arrested by that first glimpse of our companion.
+He accepted my orders in a chastened manner, and I noticed his eyes
+straying every now and then, as though in fearsome fascination, to Mrs.
+Bundercombe, who was sitting very upright at the table, with her bony
+fingers stretched out and a good deal of gold showing in her teeth as she
+talked with Eve in a high nasal voice concerning the absurd food
+invariably offered in English restaurants.
+
+Then suddenly her flow of language ceased--the bomb-shell fell! Mrs.
+Bundercombe's face became unlike anything I have ever seen or dreamed of.
+Even Eve's eyes were round and her expression dubious. I turned my head.
+
+Some three tables away Mr. Bundercombe was lunching with a young lady--a
+stranger to us all She was not only a stranger to us all but, though she
+was remarkably good looking, there were indications that she scarcely
+belonged to our world.
+
+All three of us remained silent for a moment. Then I coughed and took up
+the wine list.
+
+"What should you like to drink, Mrs. Bundercombe?" I asked in attempted
+unconcern.
+
+Mrs. Bundercombe adjusted her spectacles severely and transferred her
+regard to me. I felt somehow as though I were back at school and had been
+discovered in some ignominious escapade.
+
+"You are aware, Paul," she replied, "that I drink nothing save a glass of
+hot water after my meal. The subject of drink does not interest me. I
+appeal to you now as a future member of the family: Fetch Mr. Bundercombe
+here!"
+
+I shook my head.
+
+"Mrs. Bundercombe," I said, leaning over the table, "your husband during
+his stay in London plunged freely into the Bohemian life of our city. I
+will answer for it that he did so simply in pursuance of that hobby of
+which we all know. I am convinced----"
+
+"Paul," Mrs. Bundercombe interrupted, her voice if possible a little more
+nasal even than usual, "will you fetch Mr. Bundercombe here, or must I
+rise from my seat in a public place and remove him myself from--from that
+hussy?"
+
+I appealed to Eve.
+
+"Eve," I begged, "please reason with your stepmother. There are certain
+situations in life that can be faced in one way only. Mrs. Bundercombe
+will no doubt have a few words to say to her husband on his return. Let
+her keep them until then."
+
+"Paul is right!" Eve declared. "Do take our advice!" she continued,
+turning to her stepmother. "Let us eat our luncheon quite calmly. I am
+perfectly certain dad will have some very good reason to give for his
+presence here with that young lady."
+
+Mrs. Bundercombe rose to her feet. I hastened to follow her example. We
+stood confronting one another.
+
+"It is either you or I, Paul!" she insisted.
+
+"Then it had better be myself," I groaned.
+
+I deposited my napkin on the table and made my way toward Mr. Bundercombe.
+I smiled pleasantly at him and bowed apologetically toward his companion.
+
+"Sorry," I said under my breath, "but I am afraid Mrs. Bundercombe means
+to make trouble!"
+
+Mr. Bundercombe looked at me with a gloriously blank expression. His
+manner was not without dignity.
+
+"I regret to hear," he replied, "that any person by the name of Mrs.
+Bundercombe is looking for trouble. I scarcely see, however, how I am
+concerned in the matter. You have the advantage of me, sir!"
+
+I stared at him and stooped a little lower.
+
+"She's tearing mad!" I whispered. "You don't want a scene. Couldn't you
+make an excuse and slip away?"
+
+Mr. Bundercombe frowned at me. He glanced at the young lady as though
+seeking for some explanation.
+
+"Is this young gentleman known to you, Miss Blanche?" he inquired.
+
+She set down her glass and shook her head.
+
+"Never saw him before in my life!" she declared. "What's worrying him?"
+
+"Hitherto," Mr. Bundercombe said, "my somewhat unusual personal appearance
+has kept me from an adventure of this sort, but I clearly understand that
+I am now being mistaken for some one else. Your references to a Mrs.
+Bundercombe, sir, are Greek to me. My name is Parker--Mr. Joseph H.
+Parker."
+
+"Do you mean to keep this up?" I protested.
+
+Mr. Bundercombe beckoned to the _maitre d'hotel_ who came hastily to his
+side.
+
+"Do you know this gentleman?" he asked.
+
+The _maitre d'hotel_ bowed.
+
+"Certainly, sir," he answered, with a questioning glance toward me. "This
+is Mr. Walmsley."
+
+"Then will you take Mr. Walmsley back to his place?" Mr. Bundercombe
+begged. "He persists in mistaking me for some one else. I am not
+complaining, mind," he added affably; "no complaint whatever! I am quite
+sure the young gentleman is genuinely mistaken and does not mean to be in
+any way offensive. Only my digestion is not what it should be and these
+little _contretemps_ in the middle of luncheon are disturbing. Run away,
+sir, please!" he concluded, waving his hand toward me.
+
+The _maitre d'hotel_ looked at me and I looked at the _maitre d'hotel_.
+Then I glanced at Mr. Bundercombe, who remained quite unruffled. Finally I
+bowed slightly toward the young lady and returned to my place.
+
+"Well?" Mrs. Bundercombe snapped.
+
+"It seems," I said, "that we were mistaken. That isn't Mr. Bundercombe at
+all."
+
+Mrs. Bundercombe's face was a study.
+
+"Is this a jest?" she demanded severely.
+
+"I wish it were," I replied. "Anyhow, Mrs. Bundercombe, you must really
+excuse me, but there is nothing more I can do. The gentleman whom I
+addressed insisted upon it that his name was Mr. Joseph H. Parker. No
+doubt he was right. These likenesses are sometimes very deceptive," I
+added feebly.
+
+Mrs. Bundercombe rose to her feet. I made no effort to stop her; in fact
+her action filled me with pleasurable anticipations. She walked across to
+the table at which Mr. Bundercombe was seated. Eve and I both turned in
+our places to watch.
+
+"Poor daddy!" Eve murmured under her breath. "Why couldn't he have chosen
+a smaller restaurant. He is going to catch it now!"
+
+"I think I'll back your father," I observed. "He is quite at his best this
+morning."
+
+The exact words that passed between Mr. Bundercombe and his wife we, alas!
+never knew. She turned her left shoulder pointedly toward the young woman,
+whom she had designated as a hussy, and talked steadily for about a minute
+and a half at Mr. Bundercombe. The history of what followed was reflected
+in that gentleman's expressive face. He appeared to listen, at first in
+amazement, afterward in annoyance, and finally in downright anger. When at
+last he spoke we heard the words distinctly.
+
+"Madam," he said, "I don't know who you are, and I object to being
+addressed in a public place by ladies who are strangers to me. Be so good
+as to return to your seat. You are mistaking me for some one else. My name
+is Joseph H. Parker."
+
+For a lady who had won renown upon the platform as a debater, Mrs.
+Bundercombe seemed afflicted with considerable difficulty in framing a
+suitable reply; and while she was still a little incoherent Mr.
+Bundercombe softly summoned the _maitre d'hotel_. It may have been my
+fancy, but I certainly thought I saw a sovereign slipped into the hand of
+the latter.
+
+"Charles," Mr. Bundercombe confided, "my luncheon is being spoiled by
+people who mistake me for a gentleman who, I believe, does bear a singular
+resemblance to me. My name is Parker! This lady insists upon addressing me
+as Mr. Bundercombe. I do not wish to make a disturbance, but I insist upon
+it that you conduct this lady to her place and see that I am not disturbed
+any more."
+
+The _maitre d'hotel's_ attitude was unmistakable. Within the course of a
+few seconds Mrs. Bundercombe was restored to us. I thought it best to
+ignore the whole matter and plunged at once into a discussion of
+gastronomic matters. "I have ordered," I began, "some Maryland chicken."
+
+"Then you can eat it!" Mrs. Bundercombe snapped. "Not a mouthful of food
+do I take in this place with that painted hussy sitting by Joseph's side a
+few feet away! Oh, I'll fix him when I get him home!"
+
+She drew a little breath between her teeth, but she was as good as her
+word. She refused all food and sat with her arms folded, glaring across at
+Mr. Bundercombe's table. My admiration for that man of genius was never
+greater than on that day. So far from hurrying over his luncheon, he
+seemed inclined to prolong it.
+
+There was no lack of conversation between him and his companion. They even
+lingered over their coffee and they were still at the table when Eve and I
+had finished and Mrs. Bundercombe was sipping the hot water, the only
+thing that passed her lips during the entire meal. I paid the bill and
+rose. Mrs. Bundercombe, after a moment's hesitation, followed us.
+
+"Eve and I thought of going into the Academy for a few minutes," I said
+tentatively as we reached the entrance hall.
+
+Mrs. Bundercombe plumped herself down on a high-backed chair within a yard
+of the door.
+
+"I," she announced, "shall wait here for Joseph!"
+
+I realized the futility of any attempt to dissuade her; so we left her
+there, spent an hour at the Academy and did a little shopping. On our way
+back an idea occurred to me. We reentered the restaurant. Mrs. Bundercombe
+was still sitting there in a corner of the hall.
+
+"Thinks he can tire me out, perhaps!" she remarked in an explanatory
+manner. "Well, he just can't--that's all!"
+
+I moved a few steps farther in and glanced down the restaurant. Then I
+returned.
+
+"But, my dear Mrs. Bundercombe," I said, "your husband has gone long ago!
+He went out the other way. I am not sure--but I believe we saw him in Bond
+Street quite three quarters of an hour ago."
+
+"There is another way out?" Mrs. Bundercombe asked hastily.
+
+"Certainly there is," I told her; "into Jermyn Street."
+
+"Why was I not told?" she demanded, rising unwillingly to her feet.
+
+"Really," I assured her, "I didn't think of it."
+
+She followed us out. We all walked down Piccadilly.
+
+"Will you please," she said, "direct me to a tea-shop?"
+
+I pointed one out to her. She left us without a word of farewell. Eve and
+I turned down into the Haymarket.
+
+"Nice example your parents are setting us!" I remarked.
+
+Eve sighed.
+
+"I wish I knew what dad was up to!" she murmured.
+
+At that moment we met him. He came strolling along, his silk hat a little
+on the back of his head, a cigar in his mouth, his hands grasping his cane
+behind his back. "Bundercombe or Parker?" I inquired as we came to a
+standstill on the pavement.
+
+He grinned.
+
+"Nasty business, that!" he remarked cheerfully. "Why don't you keep to the
+Ritz or the Berkeley? Anyway," he added, his tone changing, "I'm glad I met you, Paul. I want your help in a little matter."
+
+I shook my head.
+
+"Quite out of the question!" I declared emphatically.
+
+"Don't forget that Paul is an M.P., dad!" Eve said severely. "You mustn't
+attempt to bring him into any of your little affairs."
+
+"On this occasion," Mr. Bundercombe expostulated, "I am on the side of the
+law. Mr. Cullen, whom I am probably going to see presently, will be my
+brother-in-arms."
+
+"What do you need me for, then?" I asked.
+
+"As to absolutely needing you, perhaps I don't," Mr. Bundercombe admitted.
+"On the other hand, it's a very interesting little affair, and one in
+which you could take a hand without compromising yourself."
+
+"What about Eve?" I inquired.
+
+"Not this time!" Mr. Bundercombe replied. "The only risk there is about
+the affair," he explained, "is that it is just possible there may be a bit
+of a scrap."
+
+"What's the program?" I asked.
+
+"To-night, at home, at ten o'clock. Can you manage it?"
+
+"Rather," I answered; "if Eve doesn't mind. This is the night you promised
+to go with your mother to a lecture somewhere, isn't it?" I reminded her.
+
+She nodded.
+
+"Very well," she consented resignedly, "so long as you don't let him get
+hurt, dad."
+
+"No fear of that!" Mr. Bundercombe declared cheerfully. "If they go for
+any one they'll go for me. So long, young people! At ten o'clock, Paul!"
+
+At precisely the hour agreed upon that evening I presented myself at Mr.
+Bundercombe's house in Prince's Gardens. I noticed that the manner of the
+servant who admitted me was subdued and there was a peculiar gloom about
+the place. Very few lights were lit and the farther portion of the house,
+of which one could catch a glimpse from the little circular hall, seemed
+entirely deserted. I was shown at once into Mr. Bundercombe's study upon
+the ground floor. Mr. Bundercombe was seated at a writing table, with his
+face toward the door. He greeted me with a friendly nod and pointed to a
+little table upon which stood an abundant display of cigars and cigarettes
+of all brands.
+
+I helped myself and lit a cigarette.
+
+"May I know something of this evening's program?" I asked.
+
+"Spoil the whole show?" Mr. Bundercombe objected earnestly. "Just play the
+part of assistant audience and stick this into your pocket, will you?"
+
+He threw toward me a very small revolver that he had produced from a
+drawer.
+
+"Only the last three chambers are loaded," he remarked. "You'll have to
+click three times if you do use it. I don't think you'll need to, though.
+Take a stall and watch the fun. I'll tell you only this: You remember Bone
+Stanley, as he was called in those days--the man who was sent to prison
+for fifteen years for bank robbery and for shooting the manager? Down
+Hammersmith way it was. The fellow was an American."
+
+"I remember it quite well," I assented. "He was tried for murder and
+convicted of manslaughter."
+
+Mr. Bundercombe nodded.
+
+"He was released this afternoon. He'll be here in a few minutes."
+
+"Here!" I exclaimed.
+
+Mr. Bundercombe nodded but did not offer any further explanation. Coupled
+with a certain gravity of expression he had the appearance of a schoolboy
+for whom a feast was being set out. "Quite a pleasant little evening we
+are going to have!" he promised. "You wait!"
+
+I frowned a little uneasily.
+
+"You are quite sure you're not letting me in for--"
+
+Mr. Bundercombe plunged into the middle of my little protest.
+
+"You're all right, Paul!" he assured me. "Cullen's in the house at the
+present moment and there are two other detectives with him. They are
+letting me run this thing simply because I know more about it than they
+do; and for certain reasons I'm not giving my whole hand away. Don't you
+worry, Paul! You'll be all right this time. Listen!"
+
+We heard a very feeble ring at the bell. Mr. Bundercombe nodded.
+
+"That's Stanley," he whispered. "Sit down!"
+
+A man was shown into the room a moment later. I leaned forward in my chair
+so as to see more distinctly the hero of one of the most famous cases that
+had ever been tried in a criminal court. Of his renowned good looks there
+was little left. He stood there, still tall, with high cheekbones, furtive
+eyes and long mouth. He wore good clothes, his linen was irreproachable,
+and he kept his gloves on. Nevertheless the stamp of the prison was upon
+him.
+
+"Mr. Stanley?" Mr. Bundercombe said. "Good! I am glad you were prevailed
+upon to come."
+
+"I am still wholly in the dark as to what this means!" the newcomer
+remarked.
+
+"I'll tell you in a very few sentences," Mr. Bundercombe promised. "Will
+you sit down?"
+
+"I prefer to stand," Stanley replied, "until I know exactly in whose house
+I am and what your interest in me is."
+
+"Very well!" Mr. Bundercombe agreed. "Here is my history: My name is
+Joseph H. Bundercombe. I am an American manufacturer. I have made a
+fortune in manufacturing Bundercombe's Reaping Machines. You may call it a
+hobby, if you like, but I have always been interested in criminals and
+criminal methods--not the lowest type, but men who have pitted their
+brains against others and robbed them.
+
+"As soon as I arrived in this country I found an interest in inquiring
+into the identities of American criminals imprisoned over here, with a
+view to helping any deserving cases. Your name came before me. I studied
+your case. I became interested in it. I learned that your time was almost
+up. A chance inquiry revealed to me a state of things that I determined to
+bring before your knowledge."
+
+"You sent me a telegram," Mr. Stanley interrupted, "as I was stepping on
+the steamer at Southampton. I have returned to London for your
+explanation."
+
+"You will probably," Mr. Bundercombe remarked genially, "be thankful all
+your life that you did. Now listen!"
+
+"Who is this person?" Mr. Stanley asked, indicating me. "He is my
+prospective son-in-law, Mr. Paul Walmsley," Mr. Bundercombe explained; "a
+member of Parliament. I have asked him to be present because I may need a
+little support, and also because it may help to convince you that I am in
+earnest.
+
+"Twenty years ago, Mr. Stanley, you came to the conclusion that honest
+methods were of little use to any one seeking to make a large fortune. You
+joined with two other men, Richard Densmore and Philip Harding, in a
+series of semicriminal conspiracies.
+
+"You pooled all your money--you had the most --and you determined that if
+you could not make a living honestly you would rob those with less brains
+than yourself. When half your capital was gone, this Hammersmith bank
+robbery was planned and took place. You were the only one caught and you
+held your tongue like a man; but, all the same, you were used as a cat's-
+paw."
+
+"In what way?" Stanley asked softly.
+
+"You all three had revolvers; you all three arranged that they should be
+uncharged. Cartridges were put into yours without your knowledge. You held
+up your revolver and pressed the trigger, believing it to be empty. The
+others knew better. You shot the bank manager and in the stupefaction that
+followed you became an easy captive. The others escaped."
+
+Stanley moved a little on his feet. His lips were slightly parted, his
+eyes fixed upon Mr. Bundercombe.
+
+"What story is this you are telling me?" he muttered.
+
+"A true one!" Mr. Bundercombe continued.
+
+"Now listen! The total amount in possession of your two confederates when
+you went into prison was under a thousand pounds. You heard from them
+periodically as struggling paupers. Harding met you out of prison. He was
+almost in rags. They were at the end of their resources, he told you. He
+gave you a hundred pounds, to procure which, he assured you with tears in
+his eyes, they had almost beggared themselves. It was to enable you to
+leave the country and make a fresh start.
+
+"You were even grateful. You shook him by the hand. You left him at the
+hotel at Southampton only an hour before you got my telegram."
+
+"What of it?" Stanley asked.
+
+"Nothing, except this," Mr. Bundercombe concluded: "Your two partners were
+so scared at the result of the Hammersmith affair and at your sentence
+that they turned over a new leaf. They went into business as outside
+stockbrokers--with your capital. The agreement as to a third profits was
+still in force. They had what I can describe only as the devil's own luck.
+I should say their total capital to-day is at least fifty thousand pounds.
+
+"The time came for you to be released. They had no idea of parting with a
+third of their money and taking you into the business. All the time they
+had deceived you. They continued the deception. Harding met you as a poor
+man. But for me you would have been on your way to South Africa by this
+time, with a hundred pounds in your pocket."
+
+"Is what you are telling me the truth?" Stanley demanded.
+
+"Absolutely!" Mr. Bundercombe declared. "I stumbled across the truth in
+making inquiries concerning you and your probable future. I had meant, as
+a matter of fact, to put up a little money of my own to give you a fresh
+start. In the course of these inquiries I happened to run across a young
+woman who had been a typist in Harding's office. It was from her I learned
+the truth. As he rose in the world Harding seems to have treated the girl
+badly. A little kindness and a little attention on my part, and I learned
+the truth. She placed me in possession of the whole story after we had
+lunched together to-day."
+
+Stanley at last took the chair he had so long refused. He sat with his
+arms folded.
+
+"And I kept my mouth closed!" he muttered. "It was their job. I would no
+more have pulled the trigger of my revolver than I would have shot myself
+--if I had known. It was they who put the cartridges there!"
+
+He sat for a moment quite still. Mr. Bundercombe rang the bell.
+
+"The gentlemen I am expecting," he said, "will be here in a moment. You
+can show them in directly they arrive."
+
+The man bowed and withdrew. Mr. Bundercombe turned to his visitor.
+
+"I have made the acquaintance," he continued, "of these two men, your late
+partners--sought them out and made it purposely. They are coming here to
+see me to-night. They fancy that it is just a friendly call. They know
+that I have money to invest. I have even made use of them, employed them
+to buy for me bonds of my own choosing. They think it is an affair of a
+little business chat, perhaps, and a restaurant supper. Pull yourself
+together, Stanley! Go into that corner, behind the curtain. Wait your
+time!"
+
+Stanley rose slowly to his feet. His face was drawn as though with pain.
+
+"It isn't so much the money," he muttered, "only I thought--I fancied they
+would have been there to meet me, to shake me by the hand, to stay with
+me! And they wanted to push me off out of the country!"
+
+He opened his lips a little wider and swore, softly but vindictively. Then
+the bell rang. Mr. Bundercombe hastened to push him out of sight. We heard
+the sound of strange voices in the hall. When the door was opened it was
+obvious that the whole house was lit up. From somewhere in the distance
+came the soft music of a piano.
+
+Mr. Harding and Mr. Densmore were announced. I looked at them curiously.
+They were both most correctly dressed in evening clothes. They both had
+somehow the hard expression of worldly men, tempered not altogether
+pleasantly by symptoms of good living. They greeted Mr. Bundercombe with
+bluff heartiness. He gave them each a hand.
+
+"Now, my friends," he said, "welcome to my house! Paul," he added, turning
+to me, "let me introduce my two friends, Mr. Harding and Mr. Densmore--Mr.
+Paul Walmsley. Mr. Walmsley has just been returned for the western
+division of Bedfordshire."
+
+They greeted me with more than affability. Mr. Harding assured me he had
+read my speeches. Mr. Densmore thought no one was more to be envied than a
+man who had the gifts that secured for him a seat in Parliament.
+
+"It's early yet," Mr. Bundercombe declared genially. "Let's sit down. Tell
+me a little about English business. It interests me. You bought those
+Chilean bonds all right, I see. They are up an eighth to-night."
+
+"A good purchase, Mr. Bundercombe," Mr. Harding assured him; "a very good
+purchase! After all, though, there's not much money to be made out of
+those government things. Now we've a little affair of our own--what do you
+say, Densmore?" he broke off, looking toward his partner. "We could afford
+to let Mr. Bundercombe come in a little way with us, I think?"
+
+Mr. Densmore nodded.
+
+"Not more than five," he said warningly. "Remember what you promised the
+Rothschild people."
+
+Mr. Harding nodded and crossed his knees. He lit a cigar from the box Mr.
+Bundercombe passed round.
+
+"This sounds interesting!" the latter remarked. "I dare say Mr. Walmsley,
+too, has a little spare money for investment."
+
+Mr. Densmore sighed, though his eyes were brightening.
+
+"It's too good a thing," he explained confidentially, "to let the world
+into. Between ourselves, there's a fortune in it, and we want to keep it
+among our friends."
+
+He drew a dummy prospectus from his vest pocket and began a long-winded
+recital of some figures in which I was not particularly interested. Mr.
+Bundercombe, however, appeared to be greatly impressed by what he heard.
+
+"Gentlemen," he said, "there's just one little thing: American business
+methods and English are different in one respect. In my country we've got
+a sort of official guide that tells us exactly whom we are dealing with
+and what their means are. Now I know you are good fellows and it seems to
+me I'll be glad to go into this little affair with you; but we are
+strangers financially, aren't we? Now if you were Americans I should say
+to you: 'What's your rating?' and you'd tell me, because you'd know that I
+could look it up in a business guide in ten minutes."
+
+"Perfectly sound," Mr. Harding admitted--"perfectly! Neither my partner
+nor I have anything to conceal. Last Christmas we were worth just over
+sixty thousand pounds and since then we've made a bit."
+
+"You've no other partner?" Mr. Bundercombe inquired.
+
+"Certainly not!" Mr. Harding replied.
+
+"Then what about our friend Stanley?" Mr. Bundercombe asked quietly.
+
+Almost as he spoke Stanley walked into the middle of the little group. I
+have never in the whole course of my life seen two men so thoroughly and
+entirely amazed. Mr. Harding dropped his cigar on the carpet, where he let
+it remain. They stared at Stanley as though they were looking upon a
+ghost. Both men seemed somehow to have lost their confident bearing--
+seemed to have shrunken into smaller, less assertive, meaner beings.
+
+"Sixty thousand pounds," Mr. Bundercombe went on--"one-third of which
+belongs to Stanley here."
+
+"Absurd!" Harding faltered.
+
+"Nothing--nothing of the sort!" Densmore declared.
+
+Mr. Bundercombe very carefully lit another cigar. Then he rang the bell.
+Harding rose to his feet. He was not looking in the least like the sleek,
+opulent gentleman who had entered the room a few minutes before.
+
+"What's that for?" he demanded, pointing to the bell.
+
+The door was already opened. Mr. Bundercombe indicated the young lady who
+stood upon the threshold--the lady with whom he had been lunching that day
+at Prince's.
+
+"I only wished to have the pleasure," Mr. Bundercombe explained, "of
+presenting you two gentlemen--Mr. Harding especially--to this young lady."
+
+"Blanche!" Mr. Harding exclaimed.
+
+Mr. Densmore muttered something under his breath.
+
+"My dear Miss Blanche," said Mr. Bundercombe, moving toward the door, "I
+will not ask you to stay, as our interview is scarcely, perhaps, a
+pleasant one. I simply wished you to show yourself so that Mr. Harding and
+his friend might understand how useless certain denials on their part
+would be. My servant will now place you in a taxi; and if you will do me
+the honor of calling here at eleven o'clock tomorrow morning I think I can
+promise you a satisfactory termination to this little affair."
+
+The girl patted him on the shoulder.
+
+"That's all right, Bundy!" she declared. "I hope you'll take me out to
+lunch again! As for him," she added, her eyebrows coming together and
+looking toward Harding, "perhaps he'll understand now how well it pays to
+be a liar!"
+
+She turned round and left the room amid a stricken silence. Mr.
+Bundercombe came back to his place.
+
+"Gentlemen," he said, "I will be brief with you. It has given me the
+utmost pleasure to arrange this little meeting on behalf of my friend, Mr.
+Stanley. In the room on the other side of the passage is waiting my
+lawyer, who will draw up a renewal of your partnership deed with Mr.
+Stanley upon terms that we can discuss amicably. In the room behind this
+is waiting a particular friend of mine--Mr. Cullen, a detective.
+
+"Remember," Mr. Bundercombe added, his voice suddenly very stern and
+threatening, "that through all the years that man--your rightful partner--
+has been in prison, through all the agony of his trial, the humiliation of
+his sentence, the name of neither one of you has passed his lips! Is it
+your wish that the truth shall now be told?"
+
+They shrank back. Harding was pale to the lips. Densmore was shivering.
+
+"Very well, gentlemen," Mr. Bundercombe concluded. "If I send for the
+lawyer Mr. Cullen can go. If you choose Mr. Cullen the lawyer can go."
+
+Mr. Harding moistened his lips with his tongue. "We will make an
+arrangement," he said. "We have been wrong. Now that I see you here,
+Stanley," he continued, looking up with the first show of courage either
+of them had exhibited, "I am ashamed! It was a dirty trick! Forget it!
+After you were lagged we decided to turn over a new leaf and be honest.
+We've been honest--inside the law, at any rate--and we've made money. Come
+and take your share of it and forgive!"
+
+"We were brutes!" Densmore agreed.
+
+They were both bending over Stanley. Somehow or other his hands stole out
+to them. Mr. Bundercombe and I strolled outside.
+
+"You might tell Mr. Cullen that we shall not require him this evening,"
+Mr. Bundercombe instructed the butler. "Bring a bottle of champagne, and
+tell the gentleman from Wymans & Wymans and his clerk that we shall be
+ready for them in ten minutes."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI--MR. BUNDERCOMBE'S WINK
+
+I scarcely recognized Mr. Cullen when he first accosted me in the
+courtyard of the Milan. At no time of distinguished appearance, a certain
+carelessness of dress and gait had brought him now almost on a level with
+the loafer in the street. His clothes needed brushing, he was unshaved,
+and he looked altogether very much in need of a bath and a new outfit.
+
+"May I have a word with you, Mr. Walmsley?" he asked, standing in the
+middle of the pavement in front of me and blocking my progress toward the
+Strand.
+
+I hesitated for a moment. His identity was only just then beginning to
+dawn upon me.
+
+"Mr. Cullen!" I exclaimed.
+
+"At your service, sir."
+
+I turned round and led the way back into the court.
+
+"This is not a professional visit, I trust?" I said as we passed into the
+smoke room.
+
+"Not entirely, sir," Mr. Cullen admitted. "At the same time--" He paused
+and looked out the window steadily for a moment, as though in search of
+inspiration.
+
+"I trust," I began hastily, "that Mr. Bundercombe has not--"
+
+"Precisely about him, sir, that I came to see you," Mr. Cullen
+interrupted. "I am bound to admit that a few weeks ago there was no man in
+the world I would have laid my hands on so readily. That day at the Ritz,
+however, changed my views completely. I feel," he added, with a dry smile,
+"that I got more than level with Mr. Bundercombe when I sent for his
+wife."
+
+"So it was you who sent the cables that brought her over!" I remarked.
+
+"But please remember, sir," he begged apologetically, "that I had never
+seen the lady. I sent the cables, confidently anticipating that she would
+disclaim all knowledge of Mr. Bundercombe. When she arrived, and I
+realized that she was actually his wife, I forgave him freely for all the
+small annoyances he had caused me: my visit to you this morning, in fact,
+is entirely in his interests."
+
+"What has Mr. Bundercombe been up to now?" I asked nervously.
+
+"Nothing serious--at any rate, that I know of," Mr. Cullen assured me.
+"For the last fortnight--ever since Mrs. Bundercombe's arrival, in fact--
+Mr. Bundercombe has somehow or other managed to keep away from all his old
+associates and out of any sort of mischief. Last night, however, I was out
+on duty--I haven't had time to go home and change my clothes yet--in a
+pretty bad part, shadowing one of the most dangerous swell mobsmen in
+Europe--a man you may have heard of, sir. He is commonly known as Dagger
+Rodwell."
+
+I hastily disclaimed any acquaintance with the person in question.
+
+"Tell me, though," I begged, "what this has to do with Mr. Bundercombe?"
+
+"Just this," Mr. Cullen explained: "I ran my man to ground in a place
+where I wouldn't be seen except professionally--and with him was Mr.
+Bundercombe."
+
+"They were not engaged," I asked quickly, "in any lawbreaking escapade at
+the time, I trust!"
+
+Mr. Cullen shook his head reassuringly.
+
+"Rodwell only goes in for the very big coups," he said. "Two or three in a
+lifetime, if he brought them off, would be enough for him. All the same
+there's something planning now and he's fairly got hold of Mr.
+Bundercombe. He's a smooth-tongued rascal--absolutely a gentleman to look
+at and speak to. What I want you to do, sir, if you're sufficiently
+interested, is to take Mr. Bundercombe away for a time."
+
+"Interested!" I groaned. "He'll be my father-in-law in a couple of
+months."
+
+"Then if you want him to attend the ceremony, sir," Mr. Cullen advised
+earnestly, "you'll get him out of London. He's restless. You may have
+noticed that yourself. He's spoiling for an adventure, and Dagger Rodwell
+is just the man to make use of him and then leave him high and dry--the
+booby for us to save our bacon with. I don't wish any harm to Mr.
+Bundercombe, sir--and that's straight! Until the day I met Mrs.
+Bundercombe at Liverpool I am free to confess that I was feeling sore
+against him. To-day that's all wiped out. We had a pleasant little time at
+the Ritz that afternoon, and my opinion of the gentleman is that he's the
+right sort, I'm here to give you the office, sir, to get him away from
+London--and get him away quick. I may know a trifle more than I've told
+you, or I may not; but you'll take my advice if you want to escape
+trouble."
+
+"I'll do what I can," I assured him a little blankly. "To tell you the
+truth I have been fearing something of this sort. During the last few days
+especially his daughter tells me he has been making all sorts of excuses
+to get away. I'll do what I can--and many thanks, Mr. Cullen. Let me offer
+you something."
+
+Mr. Cullen declined anything except a cigar and went on his way. I called
+a taxi and drove round to the very delightful house the Bundercombes had
+taken in Prince's Gardens. I caught Mr. Bundercombe on the threshold. He
+would have hurried off, but I laid a detaining hand on his arm.
+
+"Come back with me, if you please," I begged. "I have some news. I need to
+consult you all."
+
+Mr. Bundercombe glanced at his watch. His manner was a little furtive. He
+was not dressed as usual--in frock coat, white waistcoat and silk hat, a
+costume that seemed to render more noticeable his great girth and smooth
+pink-and-white face--but in a blue serge, double-breasted suit, a bowler
+hat, and a style of neckgear a little reminiscent of the Bowery. Something
+in his very appearance seemed to me a confirmation of Mr. Cullen's
+warning. He looked at his watch and muttered something about an
+appointment.
+
+"I promise not to keep you more than a very few minutes," I assured him.
+"Come along!"
+
+I kept my arm on his and led him back into the house.
+
+"Eve is in the morning room," he whispered. "Let's go in quietly and
+perhaps we shan't be heard."
+
+We crossed the hall on tiptoe in the manner of conspirators. Before we
+could enter the room, however, our progress was arrested by a somewhat
+metallic cough. Mrs. Bundercombe, in a gray tweed coat and skirt of homely
+design, a black hat and black gloves, with a satchel in her hand, from
+which were protruding various forms of pamphlet literature, appeared
+suddenly on the threshold of the room she had insisted upon having
+allotted for her private use, and which she was pleased to call her study.
+
+"Mr. Bundercombe!" she exclaimed portentously, taking no notice whatever
+of me.
+
+"My dear?" he replied.
+
+"May I ask the meaning of your leaving the house like a truant schoolboy
+at this hour of the morning, and in such garb!" demanded Mrs. Bundercombe,
+eying him severely through her pince-nez. "Is your memory failing you,
+Joseph Henry? Did you or did you not arrange to accompany me this morning
+to a meeting at the offices of the Women's Social Federation?"
+
+"I fear I--er--I had forgotten the matter," Mr. Bundercombe stammered. "An
+affair of business--I was rung up on the telephone."
+
+Mrs. Bundercombe stared at him. She said nothing; expression was
+sufficient. She turned to me.
+
+"Eve is in the morning room, Mr. Walmsley," she said. "I presume your
+visit at this hour of the morning was intended for her."
+
+"Precisely," I admitted. "I will go in and see her."
+
+I opened the door and Mr. Bundercombe rather precipitately preceded me. If
+he had contemplated escape, however, he was doomed to disappointment. Mrs.
+Bundercombe followed us in. She reminded us of her presence by a hard
+cough as Eve saluted me in a somewhat light-hearted fashion.
+
+"Mind, there's mother!" Eve whispered, with a little grimace. "Tell me why
+you have come so early, Paul. Are you going to take me out motoring all
+day? Or are you going to the dressmaker's with me? I really ought to have
+a chaperon of some sort, you know, and mother is much too busy making
+friends with the leaders of the Cause over here."
+
+She made a face at me from behind a vase of flowers. Mrs. Bundercombe
+apparently thought it well to explain her position.
+
+"I find it," she said, "absolutely incumbent upon me, while on a visit to
+this metropolis, to cultivate the acquaintance of the women of this
+country who are in sympathy with the great movement in the States with
+which I am associated. It is expected of me that I should make my presence
+over here known."
+
+"Naturally," I agreed; "naturally, Mrs. Bundercombe. I see by the papers
+that you were speaking at a meeting last night. That reminds me," I went
+on, "that I really did come down this morning on rather an important
+matter, and perhaps it is as well that you are all here, as I should like
+your advice. I have received an invitation to stand for the division of
+the county in which I live."
+
+They all looked puzzled.
+
+"To stand for Parliament, I mean," I hastily explained to them. "It seems
+really rather a good opportunity--as, of course, I am fairly well known in
+the district, and the majority against us was only seventy or eighty at
+the last election."
+
+"Say, that's interesting!" Mr. Bundercombe declared, putting down his hat,
+"I didn't know you were by way of being a professional man, though."
+
+"I'm not," I replied. "You wouldn't call politics a profession exactly."
+
+Mr. Bundercombe was more puzzled than ever. His hand caressed his chin in
+familiar fashion.
+
+"Well, it's one way of making a living, isn't it?" he asked. "We call it a
+profession on our side."
+
+"It isn't a way of making a living at all!" I assured him. "It costs one a
+great deal more than can be made out of it."
+
+Mr. Bundercombe stopped scratching his chin.
+
+Mrs. Bundercombe sat down opposite me and I was perfectly certain that she
+would presently have a few remarks to offer. Eve was looking delightfully
+interested.
+
+"Say, I'm not quite sure I follow you," Mr. Bundercombe observed. "I am
+with you all right when you say that the direct pecuniary payment for
+being in Parliament doesn't amount to anything; but what's your pull
+worth, eh?"
+
+"My what?" I inquired.
+
+"Dash it all!" Mr. Bundercombe continued a little testily. "I only want to
+get at the common sense of the matter. You are thinking of trying for a
+seat in Parliament, and you say the four hundred a year you get for it is
+nothing. Well, of course, it's nothing. What I want to know is just what
+you get out of it indirectly? You get the handling of so much patronage, I
+suppose? What is it worth to you, and how much is there?"
+
+I spent the next five minutes in an eloquent attempt to explain the
+difference between English and American politics. Mr. Bundercombe was
+partly convinced, but more than ever sure that he had found his way into a
+country of half-witted people. Eve, however, was much quicker at grasping
+the situation.
+
+"I think it's perfectly delightful, Paul!" she declared. "I have read no
+end of stories of English electioneering, and they sound such fun! I want
+to come down and help. I have tons of new dresses--and I can read up all
+about politics going down on the train."
+
+"That brings me," I went on, "to the real object of my visit. I want you
+and your father--I want you all," I added heroically--"to come down with
+me to Bedfordshire and help. You were coming anyway next week for a little
+time, you know. I want to carry you off at once."
+
+Mrs. Bundercombe, who had been only waiting for her opportunity, broke in
+at this juncture.
+
+"Young man," she said impressively; "Mr. Walmsley, before I consent to
+attend one of your meetings or to associate myself in any way with your
+cause, I must ask you one plain and simple question, and insist upon a
+plain and simple answer: What are your views as to Woman Suffrage?"
+
+"The views of my party," I answered, with futile diplomacy.
+
+"Enunciate as briefly as possible, but clearly, what the views of your
+party are," Mrs. Bundercombe bade me.
+
+"I won't have him heckled!" Eve protested, coming over to my side.
+
+I coughed.
+
+"We are entirely in sympathy," I explained, "with the enfranchisement of
+women up to a certain point. We think that unmarried women who own
+property and pay taxes should have the vote."
+
+"Rubbish!" Mrs. Bundercombe exclaimed firmly. "We want universal suffrage.
+We want men and women placed on exactly the same footing, politically and
+socially."
+
+"That," I said, "I am afraid no political party would be prepared to grant
+at present."
+
+"Then, save as an opponent, I can attend no political meetings in this
+country," Mrs. Bundercombe declared, rising to her feet with a fearsome
+air of finality.
+
+I sighed.
+
+"In that case," I confessed, "I am afraid it is useless for me to appeal
+to you for help. Perhaps you and your father----" I added, turning to Eve.
+
+"Let them go down to you in the country by all means!" Mrs. Bundercombe
+interrupted. "For my part, though my visit to Europe was wholly undesired
+--was forced upon me, in fact, by dire circumstances," she added
+emphatically, glaring at Mr. Bundercombe--"since I am here I find so much
+work ready to my hand, so much appalling ignorance, so much prejudice,
+that I conceive it to be my duty to take up during my stay the work which
+presents itself here. I accordingly shall not leave London."
+
+Mr. Bundercombe cheered up perceptibly at these words.
+
+"I am rather busy myself," he said; "but perhaps a day or two----"
+
+I thrust my arm through his.
+
+"I rely upon you to help me canvass," I told him. "A lot is done by
+personal persuasion."
+
+"Canvass!" Mr. Bundercombe repeated reflectively. "Say, just what do you
+mean by that?"
+
+"It is very simple," I assured him. "You go and talk to the farmers and
+voters generally, and put a few plain issues before them--we'll post you
+up all right as to what to say. Then you wind up by asking for their votes
+and interest on my behalf."
+
+"I do that--do I?" Mr. Bundercombe murmured. "Talk to them in a plain,
+straightforward way, eh?"
+
+"That's it," I agreed. "A man with sound common sense like yourself could
+do me a lot of good."
+
+Mr. Bundercombe was thoughtful, I am convinced that at that moment the
+germs of certain ideas which bore fruit a little later on were born in his
+mind. I saw him blink several times as he gazed up at the ceiling. I saw a
+faint smile gradually expand over his face. A premonition of trouble, even
+at that moment, forced itself on me.
+
+"You'll have to be careful, you know," I explained, a little
+apprehensively. "You'll have to keep friends with the fellows all the
+time. They wouldn't appreciate practical jokes down there and the law as
+to bribery and corruption is very strict."
+
+Mr. Bundercombe nodded solemnly.
+
+"If I take the job on," he said, "you can trust me. It seems as though
+there might be something in it."
+
+"You'll come down with me, then," I begged, "both of you? Come this
+afternoon! The dressmakers can follow you, Eve. It isn't far--an hour in
+the train and twenty minutes in the motor. We may have to picnic a little
+just to start with, but I know that the most important of the servants are
+there, ready and waiting."
+
+"Pray do not let me stand in your way," Mrs. Bundercombe declared, rising.
+"My time will be fully occupied. I wish you good morning, Mr. Walmsley. I
+have an appointment at a quarter to twelve. You can let me know your final
+decision at luncheon-time."
+
+She left the room. Mr. Bundercombe, Eve, and I exchanged glances.
+
+"How far away did you say your place was, Paul?" Mr. Bundercombe asked.
+
+"Right in the country," I told him--"takes you about an hour and a half to
+get there."
+
+"I think we'll come," Mr. Bundercombe decided, looking absently out the
+window and watching his wife eloquently admonish a taxicab driver, who had
+driven up with a cigarette in his mouth. "Yes, I'm all for it!"
+
+My little party at Walmsley Hall was in most respects a complete success.
+My sister was able to come and play hostess, and Eve was charmed with my
+house and its surroundings. Mr. Bundercombe, however, was a source of some
+little anxiety. On the first morning, when we were all preparing to go
+out, he drew me on one side.
+
+"Paul," he said--he had, with some difficulty, got into the way of calling
+me by my Christian name occasionally --"I want to get wise to this thing.
+Where does your political boss hang out?"
+
+"We haven't such a person," I told him.
+
+He seemed troubled. The more he inquired into our electioneering habits,
+the less he seemed to understand them.
+
+"What's your platform, anyway?" he asked.
+
+I handed him a copy of my election address, which he read carefully
+through, with a large cigar in the corner of his mouth. He handed it back
+to me with a somewhat depressed air.
+
+"Seems to kind of lack grit," he remarked, a little doubtfully. "Why don't
+you go for the other side a bit more?"
+
+"Look here!" I suggested, mindful that Eve was waiting for me. "You run
+down and have a chat with my agent. You'll find him just opposite the town
+hall in Bildborough. There's a car going down now."
+
+"I'm on!" he agreed. "Anyway I must get to understand this business."
+
+He departed presently and returned to luncheon with a distinctly
+crestfallen air. He beckoned me mysteriously into the library and laid his
+hand upon my shoulder in friendly fashion.
+
+"Look here, Paul," he said, "is it too late to change your ticket?"
+
+"Change my what?" I asked him.
+
+"Change your platform--or whatever you call it! You're on the wrong horse,
+Paul, my boy. Even your own agent admits it--though I never mentioned your
+name at first or told him who I was. All the people round here with votes
+are farmers, agricultural laborers and small shopkeepers. Your platform's
+of no use to them."
+
+"Well, that's what we've got to find out!" I protested. "Personally, I am
+convinced that it is."
+
+"Now look here!" Mr. Bundercombe argued; "these chaps, though they seem
+stupid enough, are all out for themselves. They want to vote for what's
+going to make life easier for them. What's the good of sticking it into
+'em about the Empire! Between you and me I don't think they care a fig for
+it. Then all this talk about military service----Gee! They ain't big
+enough for it! Disestablishment too--what do they care about that! You let
+me write your address for you. Promise 'em a land bill. Promise them the
+food on their tables at a bit less. Stick something in about a reduction
+in the price of beer. I've seen the other chap's address and it's a
+corker! Mostly lies, but thundering good ones. You let me touch yours up a
+bit."
+
+"Where have you been?" I asked, a strange misgiving stealing into my mind.
+"Have you been talking to Mr. Ansell like this?"
+
+"Ansell? No! Who's he?" Mr. Bundercombe inquired.
+
+"My agent."
+
+Mr. Bundercombe shook his head.
+
+"Chap I palled up with was called Harrison."
+
+I groaned.
+
+"You've been to the other fellow's agent," I told him; "the agent for the
+Radical candidate."
+
+Mr. Bundercombe whistled.
+
+"You don't say!" he murmured. "Well, I'll tell you what it is, Paul, there
+are no flies on that chap! He's a real nippy little worker--that's what he
+is! If you take my advice," he went on persuasively, "you'll swap. We'll
+make it worth his while to come over. I've seen your Mr. Ansell--if that's
+his name. I saw the name on a brass plate and I saw him come out of his
+office--stiff, starched sort of chap, with a thin face and gray side
+whiskers!"
+
+"That's the man," I admitted. "He and his father before him, and his
+grandfather, have been solicitors to my people for I don't know how many
+years!"
+
+"He looked it!" Mr. Bundercombe declared. "A withered old skunk, if ever
+there was one! You want a live man to see you through this, Paul. You let
+me go down and sound Harrison this afternoon. No reason that I can see why
+we shouldn't use this fellow's address, too, if we can make terms with
+him."
+
+"Look here!" I said. "Politics over on this side don't admit of such
+violent changes. My address is in the printer's hands and I've got to
+stick to it; and Ansell will have to be my agent whatever happens. It
+isn't all talk that wins these elections. The Walmsleys are well known in
+the county and we've done a bit for the country during the last hundred
+years. This other fellow--Horrocks, his name is--has never been near the
+place before. I grant you he's going to promise a lot of very interesting
+things, but that's been going on just a little too long. The people have
+had enough of that sort of thing. I think you'll find they'll put more
+trust in the little we can promise than in that rigmarole of Harrison's."
+
+Mr. Bundercombe shook his head doubtfully.
+
+"Well," he sighed, "I'm only on the outside edge of this thing yet. I must
+give it another morning."
+
+We had a pleasant luncheon party, at which Mr. Bundercombe was introduced
+to some of my supporters, with whom--as he usually did with every one--he
+soon made himself popular. Eve and I then made our first little effort at
+canvassing. Eve's methods differed from her father's.
+
+"I am so sorry," she said as she shook hands with a very influential but
+very doubtful voter of the farmer class, "but I don't know anything about
+English politics; so I can't talk to you about it as I'd like to. But you
+know I am going to marry Mr. Walmsley and come to live here, and it would
+be so nice to feel that all my friends had voted for him. If you have a
+few minutes to spare, Mr. Brown, would you please tell me just where you
+don't agree with Paul? I should so much like to hear, because he tells me
+that if once you were on his side he would feel almost comfortable."
+
+Mr. Brown, who had always met my advances with a grim taciturnity that
+made conversation exceedingly difficult, proceeded to dissertate upon one
+or two of the vexed questions of the day. I ventured to put in a few words
+now and then, and after a time he invited us in to tea. When we left he
+was more gracious than I had ever known him to be.
+
+"And you must vote for Mr. Walmsley!" Eve declared at the end of her
+little speech of thanks, "because I want so much to have you come and take
+tea with me on the Terrace at the House of Commons--and I can't unless
+Paul is a member, can I?"
+
+"Bribery and corruption!" Mr. Brown laughed. "However, we'll see.
+Certainly I have been very much pleased to hear Mr. Walmsley's views upon
+several matters. When did you say the village meeting was, Mr. Walmsley?"
+
+"Thursday night," I replied.
+
+"Well, I'll come," he promised.
+
+"You'll take the chair?" I begged. "Nothing could do me more good than
+that; and I feel sure, if you look at things----" I was going to be very
+eloquent, but Eve interrupted me.
+
+"Let me sit next to you, please," she said, looking up at him with her
+large, unusually innocent eyes.
+
+"Oh, well--if you like!" Mr. Brown assented.
+
+We drove off down the avenue in complete silence. When we had turned the
+corner Eve gave a little sigh.
+
+"Paul," she declared, "I don't think there's anything I've ever come
+across in my life that's half so much fun as electioneering! Please take
+me to the next most difficult."
+
+If Eve was a success, however, Mr. Bundercombe was to turn out a great
+disappointment. He came home a little later for dinner, looking very
+gloomy.
+
+"Paul," he said, as we met for a moment in the smoking room, "Paul, I've
+sad news for you."
+
+"I am sorry to hear it," I replied.
+
+"I've looked into this little matter of politics," he continued; "I've
+looked into it as thoroughly as I can and I can't support you. You're on
+the wrong side, my boy! I've shaken hands with Mr. Horrocks, and that's
+the man who'll get the votes in this constituency. I've promised to do
+what I can to help him."
+
+I was a little taken aback.
+
+"You're not in earnest!" I exclaimed.
+
+"Dead earnest!" Mr. Bundercombe regretted.
+
+"The chap's convinced me. I feel it's up to me to lend him a hand."
+
+"But surely," I expostulated, "even if you cannot see your way clear to
+help me, there's no need for you to go over to the enemy like this! You're
+not obliged to interfere in the election at all, are you?"
+
+Mr. Bundercombe sighed.
+
+"Matter of principle with me!" he explained. "I must be doing something. I
+can't canvass for you. I'll have to look round a bit for the other chap."
+
+"I really don't see," I began, just a little annoyed, "why you should feel
+called upon to interfere in an English election at all, unless it is to
+help a friend."
+
+Mr. Bundercombe looked at me and solemnly winked!
+
+"Say, that's the dinner gong!" he announced cheerfully. "Let's be getting
+in."
+
+"But I don't quite understand----"
+
+Mr. Bundercombe repeated the wink upon a smaller scale. I followed him
+into the drawing-room, still in the dark as to his exact political
+position.
+
+The movements of my prospective father-in-law were, for the next few days,
+wrapped in a certain mystery. He arrived home one evening, however, in a
+state of extreme indignation. As usual when anything had happened to upset
+him he came to look for me in the library.
+
+"My boy," he said, "of all the God-forsaken, out-of-the-world, benighted
+holes, this Bildborough of yours absolutely takes the cake! For sheer
+ignorance --for sheer, thick-headed, bumptious, arrogant ignorance--give
+me your farmers!"
+
+"What's wrong?" I asked him.
+
+"Wrong? Listen!" he exclaimed, almost dramatically. "In this district--in
+this whole district, mind--there is not a single farmer who has heard of
+Bundercombe's Reapers!"
+
+"I farm a bit myself," I reminded him, "and I had never heard of them."
+
+Mr. Bundercombe went to the sideboard and mixed himself a cocktail with
+great care.
+
+"Bundercombe's Reapers," he said, as soon as he had disposed of it, "are
+the only reapers used by live farmers in the United States of America,
+Canada, Australia, or any other country worth a cent!"
+
+"That seems to hit us pretty hard," I remarked. "Have you got an agent
+over here?"
+
+"Sure!" Mr. Bundercombe replied. "I don't follow the sales now, so I can't
+tell you what he's doing; but we've an agent here--and any country that
+doesn't buy Bundercombe's Reapers is off the line as regards agriculture!"
+
+"What are you going to do about it?" I asked.
+
+"Do!" Mr. Bundercombe toyed with his wine glass for a moment and then set
+it down. "What I have done," he announced, "is this: I have wired to my
+agent. I have ordered him to ship half a dozen machines--if necessary on a
+special train--and I am going to give an exhibition on some land I have
+hired, over by Little Bildborough, the day after tomorrow."
+
+"That's the day of the election!" I exclaimed.
+
+"You couldn't put it off, I suppose?" he suggested. "That's the day I've
+fixed for my exhibition at any rate. I am giving the farmers a free lunch
+--slap-up affair it's going to be, I can tell you!"
+
+"I am afraid," I answered, with a wholly wasted sarcasm, "that the affair
+has gone too far now for us to consider an alteration in the date."
+
+"Well, well! We must try not to clash," Mr. Bundercombe said
+magnanimously. "How long does the voting go on?"
+
+"From eight until eight," I told him.
+
+Mr. Bundercombe was thoughtful.
+
+"It's a long time to hold them!" he murmured.
+
+"To hold whom?" I demanded.
+
+Mr. Bundercombe started slightly.
+
+"Nothing! Nothing! By the by, do you know a chap called Jonas--Henry
+Jonas, of Milton Farm?"
+
+"I should think I do!" I groaned. "He's the backbone of the Opposition,
+the best speaker they've got and the most popular man."
+
+Mr. Bundercombe smiled sweetly.
+
+"Is that so!" he observed. "Well, well! He is a very intelligent man. I
+trust I'll be able to persuade him that any reaper he may be using at the
+present moment is a jay compared to Bundercombe's--this season's model!"
+
+"I trust you may," I answered, a trifle tartly. "I am glad you're likely
+to do a little business; but you won't mind, my reminding you--will you?--
+that you really came down here to give me a leg up with my election, and
+not to sell your machines or to spend half your time in the enemy's camp!"
+
+Mr. Bundercombe smiled. It was a curious smile, which seemed somehow to
+lose itself in his face. Then the dinner gong sounded and he winked at me
+slowly. Again I was conscious of some slight uneasiness. It began to dawn
+upon me that there was a scheme somewhere hatching; that Mr. Bundercombe's
+activity in the camp of the enemy might perhaps have an unsuspected
+significance. I talked to Eve about this after dinner; but she reassured
+me.
+
+"Father talks of nothing but his reaping machines," she declared.
+"Besides, I am quite sure he would do nothing indiscreet. Only yesterday I
+found him studying a copy of the act referring to bribery and corruption.
+Dad's pretty smart, you know!"
+
+"I do know that," I admitted. "I wish I knew what he was up to, though."
+
+The next day was the last before the election. The little market of
+Bildborough was in a state of considerable excitement. Several open-air
+meetings were held toward evening. Eve and I, returning from a motor tour
+of the constituency, called at the office of my agent. We chatted with Mr.
+Ansell for a little while and then he pointed across the square.
+
+"There's an American there," he said, "that the other side seems to have
+got hold of. He's their most popular speaker by a long way; but I gather
+they're a little uneasy about him. Didn't I have the pleasure of meeting
+him at your house?"
+
+"Mr. Bundercombe!" I sighed. "He came down here to help me!"
+
+Mr. Ansell put on his hat and beckoned mysteriously.
+
+"Come out by the back way," he invited. "We shall hear him. He is going to
+speak from the little platform there."
+
+By crossing a hotel yard, a fragment of kitchen garden and a bowling
+green, we were able to come within a few yards of where Mr. Bundercombe,
+with several other of Mr. Horrocks' supporters, was standing upon a small
+raised platform. Two local tradesmen and one helper from London addressed
+a few remarks of the usual sort to an apathetic audience, which was
+rapidly increasing in size. It was only when Mr. Bundercombe rose to his
+feet that the slightest sign of enthusiasm manifested itself. Eve looked
+at me with a pleased smile.
+
+"Just look at all of them," she whispered, "how they are hurrying to hear
+dad speak!"
+
+"That's all very well," I grumbled; "but he ought to be doing this for
+me."
+
+Her fingers pressed my arm.
+
+"Listen!" she said.
+
+Mr. Bundercombe's style was breezy and his jokes were frequent. He stood
+in an easy attitude and spoke with remarkable fluency. His first few
+remarks, which were mainly humorous, were cheered to the echo. The crowd
+was increasing all the time. Presently he took them into his confidence.
+
+"When I came down here a few days ago," we heard him say, "I came meaning
+to support my friend, Mr. Walmsley." (Groans and cheers.) "That's all
+right, boys!" Mr. Bundercombe continued, "there's nothing the matter with
+Mr. Walmsley; but I come from a country where there's a bit more kick
+about politics, and I pretty soon made up my mind that the kick wasn't on
+the side my young friend belongs to.
+
+"Now just listen to this: As one business man to another, I tell you that
+I asked Mr. Walmsley, the first night I was here: 'What are you getting
+out of this? Why are you going into Parliament?' He didn't seem to
+understand. He pleaded guilty to a four-hundred-a-year fee, but told me at
+the same time that it cost him a great deal more than that in extra
+charities. I asked him what pull he got through being in Parliament and
+how many of his friends he could find places for. All he could do was to
+smile and tell me that I didn't understand the way things were done in
+this country. He wanted to make me believe that he was anxious to sit in
+Parliament there and work day after day just for the honor and glory of
+it, or because he thought it was his duty.
+
+"You know I'm an American business man, and that didn't cut any ice with
+me; so I dropped in and had a chat with Mr. Horrocks. I soon came to the
+conclusion that the candidate I'm here to support to-night is the man who
+comes a bit nearer to our idea of practical politics over on the other
+side of the pond. Mr. Horrocks doesn't make any bones about it. He wants
+that four hundred a year; in fact he needs it!" (Ironical cheers.) "He
+wants to call himself M.P. because when he goes out to lecture on
+Socialism he'll get a ten-guinea fee instead of five, on account of those
+two letters after his name.
+
+"Furthermore his is the party that understands what I call practical
+politics. Every job that's going is given to their friends; and if there
+aren't enough jobs to go round, why, they get one of their statesmen to
+frame a bill--what you call your Insurance Bill is one of them, I believe
+--in which there are several hundred offices that need filling. And there
+you are!"
+
+Mr. Ansell and I exchanged glances. The enthusiasm that had greeted Mr.
+Bundercombe's efforts was giving place now to murmurs and more ironical
+cheers. One of his coadjutors on the platform leaned over and whispered in
+Mr. Bundercombe's ear. Mr. Bundercombe nodded.
+
+"Gentlemen," he concluded, "I'm told that my time is up. I have explained
+my views to you and told you why I think you ought to vote for Mr.
+Horrocks. I've nothing to say against the other fellow, except that I
+don't understand his point of view. Mr. Horrocks I do understand. He's out
+to do himself a bit o'good and it's up to you to help him."
+
+A determined tug at Mr. Bundercombe's coattails by one of the men on the
+platform brought him to his seat amid loud bursts of laughter and more
+cheers. Eve gripped my arm and we turned slowly away.
+
+"It's a privilege," I declared solemnly, "to have ever known your father!
+If I only had an idea what he meant about those reaping machines! You
+couldn't give me a hint, I suppose, Eve?" She shook her head.
+
+"Better wait!"
+
+In the excitement of that final day I think both Eve and I completely
+forgot all about Mr. Bundercombe. It was not until we were on our way back
+from a motor tour through the outlying parts of the district that we were
+forcibly reminded of his existence. Quite close to Little Bildborough, the
+only absolutely hostile part of my constituency, we came upon what was
+really an extraordinary sight. Our chauffeur of his own accord drew up by
+the side of the road. Eve and I rose in our places.
+
+In a large field on our left was gathered together apparently the whole
+population of the district. In one corner was a huge marquee, through the
+open flaps of which we could catch a glimpse of a sumptuously arranged
+cold collation. On a long table just outside, covered with a white cloth,
+was a vast array of bottles and beside it stood a man in a short linen
+jacket, who struck me as being suspiciously like Fritz, the bartender at
+one of Mr. Bundercombe's favorite haunts in London.
+
+Toward the center of the field, seated upon a ridiculously inadequate seat
+on the top of a reaping machine, was Mr. Bundercombe. He had divested
+himself of coat and waistcoat, and was hatless. The perspiration was
+streaming down his face as he gripped the steering wheel. He was followed
+by a little crowd of children and sympathizing men, who cheered him all
+the time.
+
+At a little distance away, on the other side of a red flag, Henry Jonas,
+the large farmer of the district, and the speaker on whom my opponent
+chiefly relied, was seated upon a similar machine in a similar state of
+undress. It was apparent, however, even to us, that Mr. Bundercombe's
+progress was at least twice as rapid as his opponent's.
+
+"What on earth is it all about?" I exclaimed, absolutely bewildered.
+
+Eve, who was standing by my side, clasped her hands round my arm.
+
+"It seems to me," she murmured sweetly, "as if dad were trying his reaping
+machine against some one else's."
+
+I looked at her demure little smile and I looked at the field in which I
+recognized very many of my staunchest opponents. Then I looked at the
+marquee. The table there must have been set for at least a hundred people.
+Suddenly I received a shock. Seated underneath the hedge, hatless and
+coatless, with his hair in picturesque disorder, was Mr. Jonas' cousin,
+also a violent opponent of my politics, and a nonconformist. He had a huge
+tumbler by his side, which--seeing me--he raised to his lips.
+
+"Good old Walmsley!" he shouted out. "No politics to-day! Much too hot!
+Come in and see the reaping match."
+
+He took a long drink and I sat down in the car.
+
+"You know," I said to Mr. Ansell, who was standing on the front seat,
+"there'll be trouble about this!"
+
+Mr. Ansell was looking a little grave himself.
+
+"Is Mr. Bundercombe really the manufacturer of that machine?" he asked.
+
+"Of course he is!" Eve replied. "It's the one hobby of his life--or,
+rather, it used to be," she corrected herself hastily. "Even now, when he
+begins talking about his reaping machine he forgets everything else."
+
+Mr. Ansell hurried away and made a few inquiries. Meanwhile we watched the
+progress of the match. Every time Mr. Bundercombe had to turn he rocked in
+his seat and retained his balance only with difficulty. At every
+successful effort he was loudly cheered by a little group of following
+enthusiasts. Mr. Ansell returned, looking a little more cheerful.
+
+"Everything is being given by the Bundercombe Reaping Company," he
+announced, "and Mr. Bundercombe's city agent is on the spot prepared to
+book orders for the machine. It seems that Mr. Bundercombe has backed
+himself at ten to one in ten-pound notes to beat Mr. Jonas by half an
+hour, each taking half the field."
+
+"Who's ahead?" Eve asked excitedly.
+
+"Mr. Bundercombe is well ahead," Mr. Ansell replied, "and they say that he
+can do better still if he tries. It looks rather," Mr. Ansell concluded,
+dropping his voice, "as though he were trying to make the thing last out.
+Afterward they are all going to sit down to a free meal--that is, if any
+of them are able to sit down," he added, with a glance round the field.
+"Hello! Here's Harrison."
+
+Mr. Harrison, recognizing us, descended from his car and came across. He
+shook hands with Eve, at whom he glanced in a somewhat peculiar fashion.
+
+"Mr. Walmsley," he said, "a week ago we were rather proud of having
+inveigled away one of your adherents. All I can say at the present moment
+is that we should have been better satisfied if you had left Mr.
+Bundercombe in town."
+
+"Why, he's been speaking against me at nearly every one of your meetings!"
+I protested.
+
+"That's all very well," Mr. Harrison complained; "but he's not what I
+should call a convincing speaker. He is a democrat all right, and a
+people's man--and all the rest of it; but he hasn't got quite the right
+way of advocating our principles. I have been obliged to ask him to
+discontinue public speaking until after the election. The fact of it is, I
+really believe he's cost us a good many more votes than he's gained. All
+he says is very well; but when he sits down one feels that our people are
+all for what they can get out of it--and yours are prepared to give their
+services for nothing."
+
+"What's all this mean?" I asked, waving my hand toward the field.
+
+Mr. Harrison looked at me very steadily indeed. Then he looked at Eve. I
+can only hope that my own expression was as guileless as Eve's.
+
+"I told you about that hint we were obliged to give Mr. Bundercombe," Mr.
+Harrison went on. "I suppose this is the result of it. He seems to have
+bewitched the whole of Little Bildborough. There's Jonas there, who was
+due to speak in four places today--he will take no notice of anybody. I
+walked by the side of his machine, begging him to get down and come and
+keep his engagements, and he took no more notice of me than if I'd been a
+rabbit!
+
+"There's his cousin, who has more hold upon the nonconformists of the
+district than any man I know--sitting under a hedge drinking out of a
+tumbler! There are at least a score of men with their eyes glued on that
+tent who ought to be hard at work in the district. I am beginning to doubt
+whether they'll even be in in time to vote!"
+
+"Well, we must be getting on, anyway," I said. "See you later, Mr.
+Harrison!"
+
+Mr. Harrison nodded a little gloomily and we glided off. Eve squeezed my
+hand under the rug.
+
+"Isn't dad a dear!" she murmured in my ear.
+
+Eve was one of the first to congratulate me when, late that night, the
+results came in and I found that by a majority of twenty-seven votes I had
+been elected the member for the division.
+
+"Aren't you glad now, Paul, dear, that we brought father down to keep him
+out of mischief?" she whispered.
+
+Mr. Bundercombe himself held out his hand.
+
+"Paul," he said, "I congratulate you, my boy! I was on the other side; but
+I can take a licking with the best of them. Congratulate you heartily!"
+
+He held out his hand and gripped mine. Once more he winked.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII--THE EMANCIPATION OF LOUIS
+
+At about half past ten the following morning I turned into Prince's
+Gardens, to find a four-wheel cab drawn up outside the door of Mr.
+Bundercombe's house. On the roof was a dressing case made of some sort of
+compressed cane and covered with linen. Accompanying it was a black tin
+box, on which was painted, in white letters: "Hannah Bundercombe,
+President W.S.F." Standing by the door was a footman with an article in
+his hand that I believe is called a grip, which, in the present instance,
+I imagine took the place of a dressing case.
+
+I surveyed these preparations with some interest. The temporary departure
+of Mrs. Bundercombe would, I felt, have an enlivening influence upon the
+establishment. As I turned in at the gate Mrs. Bundercombe herself
+appeared. She was followed by a young woman who looked distinctly bored
+and whom I was not at first able to place. Mrs. Bundercombe was in a state
+of unusual excitement.
+
+"Say, Mr. Walmsley," she began, and her voice seemed to come from her
+forehead--it was so shrill and nasal; "how long will it take me to get to
+St. Pancras?"
+
+I looked at the four-wheeler, on the roof of which another servant was now
+arranging a typewriter in its tin case.
+
+"I should say about thirty-five minutes--in that!" I replied. "A taxi
+would do it in a quarter of an hour."
+
+"None of your taxis for me!" Mrs. Bundercombe declared warmly. "I am not
+disposed to trust myself to a piece of machinery that can be made to tell
+any sort of lies. I like to pay my fare and no more. If thirty-five
+minutes will get me to St. Pancras, then I guess I'll make my train."
+
+"You are leaving us for a few days?" I remarked, suddenly catching a
+glimpse of a face like a round moon beaming at me from the window.
+
+"I have received a dispatch," Mrs. Bundercombe announced, drawing a letter
+with pride from an article that I believe she called her reticule, "signed
+by the secretary of the Women's League of Freedom, asking me to address
+their members at a meeting to be held at Leeds to-night."
+
+"Very gratifying!" I murmured.
+
+"How the woman knew that I was in England," Mrs. Bundercombe continued,
+carefully replacing the missive, "I cannot imagine; but I suppose these
+things get about. In any case I felt it my duty to go. Some of us, Mr.
+Walmsley," she added, regarding me with a severe air, "think of little
+else save the various pleasures we are able to cram into our lives day by
+day. Others are always ready to listen to the call of duty."
+
+"I wish you a pleasant journey, Mrs. Bundercombe," I said, raising my hat.
+"I suppose I shall find Eve in?"
+
+"No doubt you will!" she snapped.
+
+I glanced at the depressed young woman.
+
+"I am taking a temporary secretary with me," Mrs. Bundercombe explained.
+"Recent reports of my speeches in this country have been so unsatisfactory
+that I have lost confidence in the Press. I am taking an experienced
+shorthand-writer with me, who will furnish the various journals with a
+verbatim report of what I say."
+
+"Much more satisfactory, I am sure," I agreed, edging toward the house. "I
+wish you a successful meeting, Mrs. Bundercombe. You mustn't miss your
+train!"
+
+"And I trust," Mrs. Bundercombe concluded, as she turned to enter the cab,
+"that if you accompany Eve in her shopping expeditions to-day, or during
+my absence, you will not encourage her in any fresh extravagances."
+
+I made my way into the house and entered the morning room as the cab drove
+off. Mr. Bundercombe and Eve were waltzing. Mr. Bundercombe paused at my
+entrance and wiped his forehead. He was very hot.
+
+"A little ebullition of feeling, my dear Paul," he explained, "on seeing
+you. You met Mrs. Bundercombe? You have heard the news?"
+
+"I gathered," I remarked, "that Mrs. Bundercombe's sense of duty is taking
+her to Leeds."
+
+Mr. Bundercombe breathed a resigned sigh.
+
+"We shall be alone," he announced, with ill-concealed jubilation, "if we
+have any luck at all, for three days! One never knows, though! I propose
+that we celebrate to-night, unless," he added, with a sudden gloom, "you
+two want to go off and dine somewhere alone."
+
+"Not likely!" I assured him quickly.
+
+"Daddy!" Eve exclaimed reproachfully.
+
+Mr. Bundercombe cheered up.
+
+"Then, if you're both agreeable," he proposed, "let us go and pay Luigi a
+visit. I have rather a fancy to show him a reestablished Mr. Bundercombe.
+You know, I sometimes think," he went on, "that Luigi was beginning to
+regard me with suspicion!"
+
+"There isn't any doubt about it," I observed dryly.
+
+"We will dine there to-night," Mr. Bundercombe decided, "that is, if you
+two are willing."
+
+I hesitated for a moment. Eve was looking at me for my decision.
+
+"I really see no reason why we shouldn't go there," I said. "I have to
+take Eve to some rather dull relatives for luncheon, and I suppose we
+shall be shopping afterward. It will brighten up the day."
+
+"We will give Luigi no intimation of our coming," Mr. Bundercombe
+suggested with relish. "We shall be in no hurry; so we can order our
+dinner when we arrive there. At eight o'clock?"
+
+"At eight o'clock!" I agreed.
+
+"More presents, Paul!" Eve informed me, taking my arm. "Come along and
+help me unpack! Isn't it fun?"
+
+Luigi's reception of us that night was most gratifying. He escorted us to
+the best table in the place, from which he ruthlessly seized the mystic
+label that kept it from the onslaughts of less privileged guests. He
+congratulated me upon my parliamentary honors and my engagement in the
+same breath.
+
+It was perfectly clear to me that Luigi knew all about us. He addressed
+Mr. Bundercombe with an air of deep respect in which was visible, too, an
+air of relieved apprehension. He took our order himself, with the aid of
+an assistant _maitre d'hotel_, at whom Mr. Bundercombe glanced with some
+surprise.
+
+"Where is Louis?" he inquired.
+
+"Gone--left!" Luigi answered.
+
+Mr. Bundercombe was obviously disappointed.
+
+"Say, is that so!" he exclaimed, "Why, I thought he was a fixture! Been
+here a long time, had'nt he?"
+
+"Nearly twelve years," Luigi admitted.
+
+"Has he got a restaurant of his own?" Mr. Bundercombe asked.
+
+Luigi shook his head.
+
+"On the contrary, sir," he replied, "I think Louis has gone off his head.
+He has taken a very much inferior post at a very inferior place. A
+restaurant of a different class altogether--not at all _comme il faut_; a
+little place for the multitude--Giatron's, in Soho. The foolishness of it
+--for all his old clients must be useless! No one would eat in such a hole.
+It is most mysterious!"
+
+We dined well and gayly. Mr. Bundercombe renewed many restaurant
+acquaintances and I am quite sure he thoroughly enjoyed himself. Every now
+and then, however, a shadow rested on his face. Watching him, I felt quite
+certain of the reason. It was only during the last few weeks that I had
+begun to realize the immense good nature of the man. He was worrying about
+Louis.
+
+We sat there until nearly ten o'clock. When we rose to go Mr. Bundercombe
+turned to us. "Say," he asked, a little diffidently, "would you people
+object to just dropping in at this Giatron's? Or will you go off somewhere
+by yourselves and meet me afterward?"
+
+"We will go wherever you go, dad," Eve declared. "We are not going to
+leave you alone when we do have an evening off."
+
+"I should like to find out about Louis myself," I interposed. "I always
+thought he was the best _maitre d'hotel_ in London."
+
+We drove to Giatron's and found it in a back street--a shabby,
+unpretentious-looking place, with a front that had once been white, but
+that was now grimy in the extreme. The windows were hung with little
+curtains in the French fashion, whose freshness had also long departed.
+The restaurant itself was low and teeming with the odor of past dinners.
+At this hour it was almost empty. Several untidy-looking waiters were
+rearranging tables. In the middle of the room Louis was standing.
+
+He recognized us with a little start, though he made no movement whatever
+in our direction. He was certainly a changed being. He stood and looked at
+us as though we were ghosts. Mr. Bundercombe waved his hand in friendly
+fashion. It was not until then that Louis, with marked unwillingness, came
+forward to greet us.
+
+"Come to see your new quarters, Louis!" Mr. Bundercombe said cheerfully.
+"Find us a table and serve us some of your special coffee. We will dine
+here another evening."
+
+Louis showed us to a table and handed us over to the care of an
+unwholesome-looking German waiter, with only a very brief interchange of
+courtesies. And then, with a word of excuse, he darted away. Mr.
+Bundercombe looked after him wonderingly.
+
+The coffee was brought by the waiter and served without Louis'
+reappearance. The effect of his absence on Mr. Bundercombe, however, was
+only to make him more determined than ever to get at the bottom of
+whatever mystery there might be.
+
+"Just tell Louis, the _maitre d'hotel_, I wish to speak to him," he
+instructed the waiter.
+
+The man departed. Ten minutes passed, but there was no sign of Louis. Mr.
+Bundercombe sent another and more imperative message. This time Louis
+obeyed it. As he crossed the room a little hesitatingly toward us, it was
+almost sad to notice the alteration in his appearance. At Luigi's he had
+been so smart, so upright, so well dressed. Here he was a changed being.
+His hair needed cutting; his linen was no longer irreproachable; his
+clothes were dusty and out of shape. The man seemed to have lost all care
+of himself and all pride in his work. When at last he reached the table
+Mr. Bundercombe did not beat about the bush.
+
+"Louis," he said, "we have been to Stephano's tonight for the first time
+for some weeks. I came along here to see you because of what Luigi told
+me. Now you can just take this from me: You've got to tell me the truth.
+There's something wrong with you! What is it?"
+
+Louis extended his hands. He was making his one effort.
+
+"There is nothing wrong with me," he declared. "I left Stephano's to--as
+they say in this country--better myself. I am in charge here--next to
+Monsieur Giatron himself. If Monsieur Giatron should go back to Italy I
+should be manager. It seemed like a good post. Perhaps I was foolish to
+leave."
+
+"Louis," Mr. Bundercombe protested, "I guess I didn't come round here to
+listen to lies. You and I had some little dealings together and I feel
+I've the right to insist on the truth. Now, then, don't give us any more
+trouble--there's a good fellow! If you'd rather talk to me alone invite me
+into the office or behind that desk."
+
+Louis looked round the room, which was almost empty, save for the waiters
+preparing the tables for supper.
+
+"Mr. Bundercombe," he said, with a little gesture of resignation, "it is
+because of those dealings that I came to trouble."
+
+Mr. Bundercombe eyed him steadily.
+
+"Go on!" he ordered.
+
+Louis moved closer still to the table.
+
+"It was those banknotes, Mr. Bundercombe," he confessed. "You gave me one
+packet to be destroyed in the kitchen. I obeyed; but I looked at them
+first. Never did I see such wonderful work! Those notes--every one seemed
+real! Every one, as I put it into the fire, gave my heart a pang.
+
+"And then, the other time--when you slipped them under the table to me
+because Mr. Cullen was about! I took them, too, to the fire. I destroyed
+one, two, three, four, five--one dozen--two dozen; and then I came to the
+last two or three, and my fingers--they went slow. I could not bear it. I
+thought what could be done. My wife she was not well. I could send her to
+Italy. I owe a little bill. The tips--they had not been good lately.
+Behold! There was one ten-pound note left when all the others were
+destroyed. I put him in my waistcoat pocket."
+
+"Go on!" Mr. Bundercombe said encouragingly. "No one is blaming you. Upon
+my word, it sounds natural enough."
+
+Louis' voice grew a little bolder.
+
+"For some time I hesitated how to change it. Then one day I came here to
+see my friend Giatron--we came together from Italy. I hand him the note. I
+ask him please change. He give me the change and I stay to have a drink
+with the head waiter, who is a friend of mine. Presently Giatron comes
+out. He calls me into the office. Then I begin to tremble. He looks at me
+and I tremble more.
+
+"Then he knows that he have got me. Giatron's a very cruel man, Mr.
+Bundercombe. He make hard terms. He made me give up my good place at
+Luigi's. He made me come here and be his head man. He gives me half as
+much as Luigi and there are no tips; besides which the place offends me
+every moment of the day. The service, the food, the wines--everything is
+cheap and bad. I take no pride in my work.
+
+"I go to Giatron and I pray him to let me go. But not so! I know my work
+well. He thinks that I will bring clients. Nowhere else could he get a
+head man so good as I at the wages of a common waiter. So I stay here--a
+slave!"
+
+The man's story was finished. In a sense it seemed ordinary enough, and
+yet both Eve and I felt a curious thrill of sympathy as he finished. There
+was something almost dramatic in the man's sad voice, his depressed
+bearing, the story of this tragedy that had come so suddenly into his
+life. One looked round and realized the truth of all he had said. One
+realized something, even, of the bitterness of his daily life.
+
+Mr. Bundercombe sipped his coffee thoughtfully.
+
+"Tell me why you did not come to me or write, Louis?" he asked.
+
+The man stretched out his hands.
+
+"But it was to you, sir, that I had broken my word!" he pointed out. "When
+you gave me that first little bundle you looked at me so steadfastly--when
+you told me that every scrap was to be destroyed; and I promised--I
+promised you faithfully. And you asked me afterward about that last batch.
+You said to me: 'Louis, you are sure that they are all quite gone?
+Remember that there is trouble in the possession of them!' And I told you
+a lie!"
+
+Mr. Bundercombe coughed and poured himself out a little more of the
+coffee.
+
+"Louis," he declared, "you are a fool! You are a blithering idiot! You are
+a jackass! It never occurred to me before. I am the guilty one for placing
+such a temptation in your way. Now where's this Monsieur Giatron of
+yours?"
+
+Louis looked at him wonderingly. There was a dawn of hope in his face,
+blended with a startled fear.
+
+"He arrives in ten minutes," he announced. "He comes down for the supper.
+He is here."
+
+Mr. Bundercombe glanced round. A stout man, with a black mustache, had
+entered the room. His eyes fell at once on the little group. Mr.
+Bundercombe turned round.
+
+"So that is Monsieur Giatron?"
+
+Louis bowed. Mr. Bundercombe beckoned the proprietor to approach.
+
+"An old patron of Luigi's," Mr. Bundercombe explained, introducing
+himself--"come round to see our friend Louis, here."
+
+"Delighted, I am very sure!" Mr. Giatron exclaimed, bowing to all of us.
+"It will be a great pleasure to us to do the very best possible for any of
+Louis' friends."
+
+Mr. Bundercombe rose to his feet. He pointed to the little glass-framed
+office at the other side of the room.
+
+"Mr. Giatron," he said, "I have always been a great patron of Louis. You
+and I must have a chat. Will you not invite us into your little office and
+show us whether there is not something better to be found than this
+coffee? We will take a glass of brandy together and drink success to your
+restaurant."
+
+Giatron hastened to lead the way. Eve, in response to a glance from her
+father, remained at the table; but I followed Mr. Bundercombe. We went
+into the office; Giatron himself placed three glasses upon the desk and
+produced from a cupboard a bottle of what appeared to be very superior
+brandy. Mr. Bundercombe sipped his with relish. Then he glanced at the
+closed door.
+
+"Mr. Giatron," he began, "I have been having a chat with Louis. He has
+told me of his troubles--told me the reason for his leaving Luigi and
+accepting this post with you."
+
+Giatron paused, with the bottle suspended in mid-air. He slowly set it
+down. A frown appeared on his face.
+
+"Mind you," Mr. Bundercombe continued, "I am not sympathizing with Louis.
+If what he said is true I am inclined to think you have been very
+merciful."
+
+Giatron recovered his confidence.
+
+"He tried--Louis tried--my old friend," he complained, "to take advantage
+of me; to enrich himself at my expense by means of a false note."
+
+"That is the only point," Mr. Bundercombe said.
+
+"Was the note bad? Do you know I can scarcely bring myself to believe it!"
+
+The restaurant keeper smiled. Very deliberately he produced a great bunch
+of keys from his pocket and opened the safe, which stood in a corner of
+the office. Mr. Bundercombe whispered a scarcely audible word in my ear
+and became absorbed once more in the brandy. Presently Giatron returned.
+He laid on the desk and smoothed out carefully what was to all appearances
+a ten-pound note.
+
+"If you will examine that carefully, sir," he begged, "you will see that
+it is the truth. That note, he is very well made; but he is not a good
+Bank of England note."
+
+Mr. Bundercombe slowly adjusted his glasses, placed the note in front of
+him and smoothed it carefully with his large hand. "This is very
+interesting," he murmured. "Allow me to make a close examination. I've
+seen some high-class printing in my----"
+
+Giatron started as though he were shot and jumped round toward me. With
+unpardonable clumsiness I had upset my glass in leaning over to look at
+the note.
+
+"I'm awfully sorry!" I exclaimed, glancing ruefully at my trousers. "Would
+you give me a napkin quickly?"
+
+Giatron hastened to the door of the office and called to a passing waiter.
+The napkin was soon procured and I rubbed myself dry. The restaurant
+keeper returned to the desk at Mr. Bundercombe's side.
+
+"All I can say," Mr. Bundercombe declared, as he drew away from the note,
+which he had been examining, "is that I do not wonder you were deceived,
+Mr. Giatron. This note is the most perfect imitation I have ever seen in
+my life. A wicked piece of work, sir!"
+
+"You recognize the fact, however, that the note is beyond question
+counterfeit?" Mr. Giatron persisted.
+
+"I fear you are right," Mr. Bundercombe admitted. "There is a slight
+imperfection. Yes, yes--a very bad business, Mr. Giatron! We must come
+here often and try to see whether we cannot make you a second Luigi."
+
+Giatron returned to the safe with the note, which he carefully locked up.
+
+"Very excellent brandy!" Mr. Bundercombe pronounced warmly. "You will see
+a great deal more of us, my friend. I promise you that. We shall haunt
+you!"
+
+Mr. Giatron bowed to the ground.
+
+"You are always very welcome--and the young lady!"
+
+We rejoined Eve, paid our bill, and made our way to the door. Louis,
+looking very pathetic, was in the background. Mr. Bundercombe beckoned to
+him.
+
+"Louis, you can give your shark of an employer a week's notice to-night! I
+have the note in my pocket," he whispered. "It's cost me a good one; but I
+owed you that. On Monday week, Louis, I shall order my dinner from you at
+Luigi's."
+
+The man's face was wonderful! He came a little closer. He was shaking at
+the knees, his hands were trembling, and his mouth was twitching. "Mr.
+Bundercombe," he pleaded hoarsely, "you would not deceive me!"
+
+Mr. Bundercombe looked at him steadfastly.
+
+"On my honor, Louis, the note is in my pocket, already torn in four pieces
+when I put my hand into my waistcoat pocket to pay my bill. In three
+minutes it will be in a hundred pieces--gone! You need have no fear. The
+note Mr. Giatron is guarding so carefully is a very excellent ten-pound
+note of my own."
+
+At a quarter to eight on the following Monday week Mr. Bundercombe and I
+entered Luigi's restaurant. Louis himself advanced to greet us--the old
+Louis, whose linen was irreproachable, whose bearing and deportment and
+gracious smile all denoted the Louis of old. Mr. Bundercombe ordered
+dinner and beckoned Louis to come a little nearer.
+
+"Was there any trouble?" he inquired.
+
+"For me, no," Louis replied; "but Monsieur Giatron--never, never have I
+seen a man like it! He fetched out the note. 'Now,' he said, 'I take your
+notice! You take mine! Ring up the police! Or shall I?'
+
+"Then I tell him. I say: 'I don't believe the note bad at all!' He laughed
+at me. He got it from the safe and laid it on the desk. 'Not bad!' he
+jeered. 'Not bad!' Then he stood looking at it.
+
+"Mr. Bundercombe, I see his face change. His mouth came wide open; his
+eyes looked as though they would drop out. He bend over that note. He
+looked at it and looked at it; and then he looked at me.
+
+"'I don't believe that note ever was bad!' I say. 'I told you when you
+charged me I didn't believe it. That is why I have made up my mind to give
+you notice, to go away from here. And if that note is bad then you can put
+me in prison.'
+
+"Monsieur Giatron--he went back to the safe. He rummaged round among a
+pile of papers and soon he came out again. He was looking pasty-colored.
+'Louis,' he said, 'some one has been very clever! You can go to hell!' And
+so, Mr. Bundercombe," Louis wound up, beaming, "here I am!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII--"THE SHORN LAMB"
+
+I never remembered seeing Mr. Bundercombe look more cheerful than when, at
+his urgent summons, I left Eve in the drawing-room and made my way into
+the study. He was standing on the hearthrug, with the tails of his morning
+coat drooping over his arms and an expression on his face that I can only
+describe as cherubic. Seated on chairs, a yard or so away from him, were
+two visitors of whom at first glance I formed a most unfavorable opinion.
+One was a flashily dressed, middle-aged man, with fair mustache, puffy
+cheeks, and a superfluity of jewelry. The other I might at first have
+taken for an undertaker's mute. He had an exceedingly red nose, watery
+eyes, and was dressed in deep mourning.
+
+"Paul," Mr. Bundercombe said, "let me introduce you to Captain Duncan
+Bannister and Mr. Cheape, his solicitor."
+
+The two men rose and bowed in turn. I found it difficult to maintain a
+tolerant attitude, but I did my best.
+
+"These two gentlemen," Mr. Bundercombe continued cheerfully, "have come
+round to blackmail me."
+
+"Sir!" Captain Bannister exclaimed, with a great show of anger.
+
+"Mr. Bundercombe!" the person called Mr. Cheape echoed.
+
+They made rather a poor show of it, however. Mr. Bundercombe, wholly
+unperturbed by their righteous indignation, smiled still benignly upon
+them.
+
+"Come, come!" he expostulated. "This is a business interview. Why mince
+words?"
+
+Captain Bannister rose to his feet. He turned toward me.
+
+"Mr. Bundercombe," he explained, "either willfully or otherwise,
+misinterprets the object of our coming. It is possible that his
+nationality may have something to do with it. I have always understood
+that the standard among Americans with regard to affairs of honor is
+scarcely so high as in this country."
+
+"Mr. Bundercombe has a habit of taking a common-sense view of things," I
+remarked. "I cannot criticize his attitude, because I am ignorant of the
+particulars. Since he has sent for me, however, I presume that I am to be
+informed."
+
+"Quite so--quite so!" Mr. Bundercombe murmured. "You go ahead, Captain
+Bannister. You tell your story."
+
+"My story," Captain Bannister said, "is told in a very few words. I made
+the acquaintance of Mr. Bundercombe in the smoking room at the Milan some
+months ago. We met several times; and on one occasion I presented him to a
+friend of mine, the widow of a colonel in the Indian Army, Mrs.
+Delaporte."
+
+At this stage, Mr. Bundercombe, who was quite irrepressible, winked at me
+slowly. I took no notice of him whatever.
+
+"On the particular evening to which I refer," Captain Bannister continued,
+"it was suggested, by Mrs. Delaporte, I think, that we should go round to
+her rooms and play _chemin de fer_. There were five of us altogether--Mr.
+Bundercombe, Mrs. Delaporte, myself, a Mr. Dimsdale, and the Honorable
+Montague Pelham, a young gentleman of the best family. When we arrived at
+Mrs. Delaporte's rooms, however, it transpired that Mr. Bundercombe was
+wholly ignorant of _chemin de fer_, and the game was accordingly changed
+to poker.
+
+"In the course of the game I was shocked to detect Mr. Bundercombe
+cheating. For Mrs. Delaporte's sake I conceived it best to try and hush up
+the matter entirely. I looked upon Mr. Bundercombe as a card sharper of
+the ordinary type, and I simply blamed myself for having introduced him to
+my friends. I accordingly made some excuse to terminate the party."
+
+"Did any one else besides yourself," I inquired, "observe this alleged
+irregularity?"
+
+"Both Mrs. Delaporte and Mr. Dimsdale distinctly saw the very flagrant
+piece of cheating that first attracted my attention," Captain Bannister
+declared. "They understood at once the position when I suggested the
+termination of the game. Our party broke up hurriedly. Since that day I
+have not seen Mr. Bundercombe."
+
+I turned toward my prospective father-in-law. Mr. Bundercombe for the
+first time was looking a little annoyed.
+
+"Do you mean to tell me," he said, addressing Captain Bannister, "that
+both that young jay Dimsdale and Mrs. Delaporte saw me pass up that ace?"
+
+"Without a doubt," Captain Bannister assented, a little taken aback.
+
+"Guess my fingers must be getting a bit clumsy," Mr. Bundercombe sighed.
+"Well, well! There the matter is."
+
+"But, Mr. Bundercombe," I asked seriously, "what have you to say in reply
+to Captain Bannister's statement?"
+
+"Don't seem to me there's much to be said," Mr. Bundercombe replied.
+
+"But he accuses you of cheating!" I exclaimed.
+
+"Oh, I cheated all right!" Mr. Bundercombe admitted readily.
+
+Captain Bannister turned toward me triumphantly.
+
+"After that confession from Mr. Bundercombe before witnesses," he said, "I
+do not imagine that our case will require very much more proof."
+
+I was completely nonplussed--Mr. Bundercombe's confession was so ready,
+his demeanor so unalterably good-tempered. I went on to ask, however, what
+certainly seemed to me the most important question under the
+circumstances.
+
+"If you were content, Captain Bannister," I inquired, "to let the matter
+drop a few months ago, why are you here now?"
+
+"Aha!" Mr. Bundercombe exclaimed. "Put his finger on the crux of the whole
+affair straight off! Smart young fellow, my son-in-law that is to be! Now,
+then, Captain Bannister and Mr. Cheape, speak up like men and let us know
+the truth. You let me walk out of that flat, Captain Bannister, and were
+jolly glad to see the back of me. Why this visit with a legal adviser, and
+both of you with faces as long as fiddles?"
+
+Captain Bannister ignored Mr. Bundercombe and addressed me.
+
+"Mr. Bundercombe," he said, "calling himself, by the by, Mr. Parker, as an
+American card sharper was of no interest to us. We were simply ashamed and
+disgusted to think that we should have permitted such a person the entree
+to our society. When we discovered, however, that, instead of being a
+professional card sharper," Captain Bannister continued, with emphasis,
+"Mr. Bundercombe enjoys a recognized position in society, and that he is
+reputed to be a man of great wealth, the affair assumes an altogether
+different complexion."
+
+"Worth going for, ain't I?" Mr. Bundercombe chuckled.
+
+"I feel sure, Mr. Walmsley," Captain Bannister continued, "that some
+portion of your sympathy, at any rate, as an English gentleman of social
+distinction, will be with us in this matter. The affair we were content to
+let drop against Mr. Parker, the adventurer, we feel it our duty to pursue
+against Mr. Bundercombe, the millionaire."
+
+"We would save time," I remarked coldly, "if you were to put your demands
+into plain words. What is it you want or expect from Mr. Bundercombe?"
+
+"Not what you appear to think, sir," Captain Bannister replied stiffly.
+"We require from Mr. Bundercombe a written confession and his resignation
+from the Sidney Club."
+
+"The what club?" I asked dubiously.
+
+"The Sidney Club," Captain Bannister repeated, with dignity. "The club in
+question may not be very large, but it is quite well known, and I had the
+misfortune to act as Mr. Bundercombe's sponsor there."
+
+I glanced toward my prospective father-in-law. He nodded.
+
+"They put me up for some sort of a pothouse," he admitted, "and I handed
+over a tenner, I think it was, for my subscription. Rotten little hole
+somewhere near the Haymarket! I've never been in since. I'll resign, with
+pleasure!"
+
+"And write a confession of your misdemeanor, sir?" Captain Bannister
+persisted.
+
+Mr. Bundercombe scratched his chin.
+
+"I'll write an account of the whole affair," he remarked dryly.
+
+Captain Bannister took up his hat.
+
+"I regret," he declared, "that Mr. Bundercombe's attitude does not
+encourage a continuation of this conversation. We will not detain you
+further, gentlemen."
+
+Mr. Cheape also rose. They moved toward the door.
+
+"Much obliged to you for calling," Mr. Bundercombe said hospitably. "Drop
+in and have a little game of cards with me any afternoon you like. I am a
+bit out of practice, but I fancy I am still in your class."
+
+Captain Bannister turned round suddenly. He replaced his hat upon the
+table and stood with folded arms.
+
+"Sir," he announced, "I have changed my mind. You have insulted me. Five
+minutes ago I was prepared to treat you like a gentleman. I would have
+accepted your resignation from the Sidney Club and your written apology.
+Now I have changed my mind. You have slandered me, both by imputation and
+directly."
+
+"How much?" Mr. Bundercombe asked cheerfully.
+
+"Five thousand pounds!" Captain Bannister answered firmly.
+
+"How much more if I call you a lying, card-sharping swindler?" Mr.
+Bundercombe demanded, with unabated good humor.
+
+Captain Bannister looked dangerous, but he ignored the question.
+
+"You have your terms, sir," he said. "Unless you are prepared to hand over
+the sum of five thousand pounds, my solicitor, Mr. Cheape here, will at
+once commence proceedings against you with reference to the affair in Mrs.
+Delaporte's flat. Remember, we have four witnesses to bring into court as
+to your having cheated--not including your son-in-law here, who heard your
+confession. For any countercharge you might be disposed to make," Captain
+Bannister concluded, "you have not a single scrap of evidence."
+
+"Got me on toast, haven't they, Paul?" Mr. Bundercombe observed
+cheerfully. "Five thousand pounds is a lot of money, Captain Bannister,"
+he added. "I'll pay your taxi fare back to wherever you came from. That's
+my best offer."
+
+Captain Bannister turned toward the door.
+
+"Come along, Mr. Cheape!" he said. "You know my address, sir. Talk this
+matter over with your--with Mr. Walmsley, if you please. If we hear
+nothing from you on Monday morning a writ will be issued."
+
+"Before Monday," Mr. Bundercombe declared, in a hollow voice, "my body
+will be found in the Thames. Kick 'em out, Walmsley, and look after the
+coats in the hall!"
+
+I infused a shade more civility into my leavetaking than Mr. Bundercombe's
+words invited. As soon as the door was closed behind the two men I
+returned to the study. Mr. Bundercombe was still standing upon the
+hearthrug, but the smile had faded from his lips. He looked at me a little
+anxiously.
+
+"Rotten lot of thieves!" he remarked. "I told you they were here for
+blackmail."
+
+"It's a beastly affair," I pointed out gloomily, "You see, they've nothing
+to lose, with a lawyer who's standing in with them, in taking the case
+into court; and you're just up for a couple of very good clubs. What did
+happen?"
+
+"Simple as ABC!" Mr. Bundercombe explained. "You see these two fellows,
+Dimsdale and Pelham, really looked like mugs. I knew that Bannister was a
+wrong 'un from the first; and Mrs. Delaporte, of course, was in the thing.
+When they proposed a game of cards I chipped in, thinking to watch the
+fun. When we started playing Dimsdale and Pelham were the losers. Then
+they began to get at me. Bannister palmed a king into his hand and I
+palmed an ace. That seemed fair enough, eh?"
+
+Mr. Bundercombe's expression as he looked at me was the expression of an
+appealing child. I bit my lip.
+
+"A minute or two later I tumbled to the whole situation," he went on.
+"Dimsdale and Pelham weren't jays at all. It was a gang of four and they
+raked me in for the mug. After I'd tumbled to that I must confess I took
+some interest in the game. If they had given me another quarter of an hour
+I should have won every chip there was going. My boy," Mr. Bundercombe
+went on, a sudden grin transfiguring his expressive countenance, "it was
+worth a fortune to see their faces!
+
+"I was a bit out of practice, but I guarantee I'd make a living with my
+fingers and a pack of cards anywhere yet and defy detection. I had 'em all
+guessing before long; and, Paul, you should have seen their faces when
+they tumbled to it! I tell you they bundled me out in double-quick time
+and I laughed all the way home. Four sharks to pitch upon me as a victim!"
+
+He began to laugh again, but the sight of my grave face checked him. He at
+once assumed the appearance of a penitent.
+
+"Where did you come across them again?" I asked.
+
+"I met Mrs. Delaporte the other day," he said, "down at Ranelagh. We
+chatted a little while. I couldn't feel any ill-will against the woman--
+I'd enjoyed my evening so thoroughly. Then some people stopped and talked
+to me, and she found out who I was. Soon afterward she began to throw out
+hints of a willingness to marry again. Perhaps I wasn't very tactful.
+Anyway she seemed a little huffed when she left me--and here we are! Say,
+do you think those joshers can do anything?"
+
+"It rather depends," I replied, "upon their own reputations. You'd better
+let me make a few inquiries. I'll have to get off now, Eve's waiting. I'll
+call round and see my solicitor later in the day."
+
+"Shame to bother you," Mr. Bundercombe regretted. "So long!"
+
+The affair Mr. Bundercombe had treated with his customary light-
+heartedness seemed likely to develop most unpleasantly. Within forty-eight
+hours he was the recipient of a writ from the firm of solicitors with
+which Mr. Cheape was connected; and, though inquiries went to prove that
+Captain Bannister, Mrs. Delaporte and their associates were certainly not
+people of the highest respectability, there was yet nothing definite
+against them. My solicitor, to whom I took Mr. Bundercombe, most
+regretfully advised him to settle out of court.
+
+"The friends Mr. Bundercombe is now making and may make in later life,"
+the lawyer remarked, "will certainly not appreciate the adventurous spirit
+that--er--induced him to make acquaintances among a certain class of
+people. Therefore, in the interests of my client, Mr. Walmsley, as well as
+your own, Mr. Bundercombe," he concluded, "I am afraid I must advise you,
+very much against my own inclinations, to settle this matter."
+
+Mr. Bundercombe left the lawyer's office thoroughly depressed.
+
+"It isn't the money!" he declared gloomily. "It's being bested by this
+little gang of thieves that irritates me!"
+
+"I am sure," I told him, "that Mr. Wymans' advice is sound. If the case
+goes into court and comes up before the committee--even of a rotten club
+like the Sidney--I am afraid you would have to withdraw your membership
+from the other places; and you might find the affair continually cropping
+up and causing you annoyance."
+
+Mr. Bundercombe heaved a mighty sigh.
+
+"Well, we've got two days left," he said. "If nothing happens before then
+I'll pay up."
+
+*       *       *       *       *
+
+Mr. Bundercombe rang me up on the morning of the last day appointed for
+his decision.
+
+"We've got a conference on, Paul," he announced dejectedly. "Will you come
+round here for me at a quarter to eleven?"
+
+I assented, and arrived at the house in Prince's Gardens a few minutes
+before that time. Eve met me in the hall.
+
+"Please tell me, dear," she begged, as she drew me into the morning room,
+"why daddy is so low-spirited!"
+
+"It isn't anything serious," I assured her. "It's just a little trouble
+arising from one of his adventures. We shall get out of it all right."
+
+"Poor daddy!" she exclaimed. "I am sure he has had no sleep for two
+nights. I heard him walking up and down his room."
+
+"Well, it will all be over to-day," I promised. "After all, it only means
+a little money."
+
+"Daddy does so hate to get the worst of anything," she sighed; "and I am
+afraid, from the looks of his face, that this time he's in a fix."
+
+"I am afraid so, too," I agreed. "Never mind; we have done the best we
+can, and we are going to settle it up once and for all to-day. Perhaps
+he'll tell you about it afterward."
+
+We heard a door slam and Mr. Bundercombe's voice.
+
+"He is asking for you," Eve whispered. "Hurry along and come back as soon
+as you've got this business over."
+
+I found Mr. Bundercombe exceedingly chastened, but in all other respects
+his usual self.
+
+"We are calling for Mr. Wymans," he said, "in Lincoln's Inn Fields, and
+afterward we are going round to Mrs. Delaporte's flat. We are going to
+meet Bannister there and his lawyer."
+
+"Why do we concern ourselves in the matter at all?" I asked as we drove
+off. "I don't see why we can't leave the lawyers to do this final
+settlement."
+
+Mr. Bundercombe shook his head.
+
+"You leave too much to lawyers in this country," he remarked. "We
+generally like to see the thing through ourselves over at home, even if we
+take a lawyer along. This is an unpleasant business, if you like; but
+there's no good in shirking it."
+
+We called for Mr. Wymans and drove on to Mrs. Delaporte's flat. We were at
+once admitted into an overheated and overperfumed room and found Captain
+Bannister, Mrs. Delaporte, and Mr. Cheape awaiting us. Their demeanor
+betokened anxiety. Mrs. Delaporte alone made a little conversation; and,
+the habits of a lifetime asserting themselves, she made eyes at Mr.
+Bundercombe.
+
+Mr. Bundercombe, however, conducted himself very much like the deacon of a
+chapel in the presence of his minister. His natural good humor seemed to
+have departed. His manners matched the unusual solemnity of his attire.
+
+"Madam," he said, bowing to Mrs. Delaporte, "Mr. Cheape and Captain
+Bannister, I have suggested this conference because I believe in settling
+these affairs myself and not leaving everything to lawyers--no disrespect
+to present company. I have made an idiot of myself and I am ready to pay--
+a certain amount."
+
+Mr. Cheape rose to his feet. He was sitting in front of a writing desk,
+with a clean sheet of paper in front of him, as though prepared to take
+notes of the proceedings.
+
+"So that there may be no possible misunderstanding," he intervened, "my
+clients will take not a penny less than the five thousand pounds
+mentioned."
+
+"And I," Mr. Bundercombe declared sadly but very firmly, "will not give a
+penny more than four thousand pounds."
+
+Mr. Cheape shrugged his shoulders as though to intimate that the
+conference was at an end. Captain Bannister made a few remarks to the
+effect that if he had not been a moderate man, and willing to conduct the
+affair in a gentlemanly manner, he should have asked for ten thousand.
+Mrs. Delaporte alluded to five thousand pounds as though the amount
+represented the outcome of a day's shopping. It was astonishing how little
+they seemed to regard the value of money!
+
+"Now," Mr. Bundercombe went on, "if I've brought you all together here on
+false pretenses, I am sorry. There's nothing to be done in that case but
+to say good morning and meet in the law court. But," he added, striking
+the back of a chair with his clenched fist and looking more like Napoleon
+than I had ever seen him, "I swear, by the word of Joseph H. Bundercombe,
+which has never yet been broken, that I will not hand over one cent more
+than four thousand pounds!"
+
+The protests were this time a little weaker. Mr. Bundercombe sat with
+folded arms, with his eyes fixed upon the ceiling and an air of being
+altogether disinterested in the proceedings, while the three who comprised
+the other party whispered together.
+
+Presently Mr. Cheape rose to his feet.
+
+"Mr. Wymans," he began, punctiliously addressing the lawyer first, "and
+Mr. Bundercombe, my clients are only too anxious to end this unhappy
+matter. They feel that their demands have been most moderate, but at my
+advice they have consented to accept a reduction of five hundred pounds."
+
+Mr. Bundercombe rose heavily to his feet.
+
+"Mr. Wymans," he said, "and Paul, come along! I do not bargain. I wish you
+all good morning."
+
+He turned toward the door and we followed him. It was already opened when
+we were called back. Captain Bannister and Mr. Cheape were whispering
+eagerly together. Mr. Cheape rose once more to his feet.
+
+"In order to prove," he announced, "how entirely devoid my clients are of
+mercenary considerations, they agree, Mr. Bundercombe, to accept the sum
+of four thousand pounds."
+
+Mr. Bundercombe put down his hat again. Then he drew a sheet of paper from
+his pocket.
+
+"Condition number one, then," he observed, "is now agreed upon. We proceed
+to condition number two. Mrs. Delaporte, Captain Bannister, and Mr.
+Cheape," he went on earnestly, "I have been guilty of an indiscretion the
+proof of which is in your hands. Having decided to make London my home for
+a time, I desire once and for all to extinguish all possibility of this
+affair ever cropping up again in any shape or form."
+
+Mr. Cheape rose to his feet.
+
+"Sir," he said to Mr. Bundercombe, "my clients will give you their written
+undertaking that the affair shall be consigned to oblivion."
+
+Mr. Bundercombe waved him down.
+
+"My reasons for feeling so strongly on the matter," he continued, "will be
+appreciated by you, Captain Bannister, as a man of position and in
+society"--Captain Bannister bowed--"when I tell you that my future son-in-
+law, Mr. Walmsley, M.P., has proposed me for membership in two of the most
+exclusive clubs in London. This affair, therefore, must be killed beyond
+any manner of doubt. I am handing over to you four thousand pounds, which
+is a very considerable sum; but in return for it I desire that my future
+immunity be purchased by your signatures to this document."
+
+Mr. Cheape rose at once to his feet. "A document!" he observed. "Let me
+read it." Mr. Bundercombe handed it over. Mr. Cheape read it out aloud:
+
+"We, the undersigned, desire to apologize most sincerely to Mr. Joseph H.
+Bundercombe for any allegations we have made against him with regard to a
+certain episode that took place on March eighteenth, or thereabout, in the
+flat of Mrs. Delaporte. We admit that we were mistaken in the supposition
+which we certainly entertained at the time--that Mr. Bundercombe had been
+guilty of cheating--and we withdraw such allegations unreservedly, and
+tender our apologies."
+
+"Ridiculous!" Captain Bannister exclaimed.
+
+"Absurd!" Mrs. Delaporte echoed.
+
+"I may add," Mr. Cheape joined in, "that I could not possibly recommend my
+clients to sign such a document."
+
+Mr. Bundercombe took up his hat.
+
+"When I started out this morning," he declared, "I felt convinced that
+this conference would come to nothing. I told Mr. Wymans here that I was
+prepared to settle, but on my own terms--and my own terms only. I don't
+want any undertaking not to molest me in the future. That isn't good
+enough. I want to be able to show a document such as you have there, which
+completely exculpates me from any charge that might at any time be
+brought. And without it," he added, once more bringing his fist down upon
+the back of the chair, "I do not part with one penny of my four thousand
+pounds!"
+
+Mr. Cheape read out a document he himself had prepared, but Mr.
+Bundercombe waved it away.
+
+"Come, Paul!" he said to me with a sigh. "Come, Mr. Wymans! I disclaim all
+responsibility for the failure of this conference. I have done my best. It
+cannot matter a snap of the fingers to our friends here in what form the
+document is couched that they give me in exchange for my four thousand
+pounds. Since they are so particular about a trifle, I have finished with
+them!"
+
+He led the way toward the door and there was an appearance of finality
+about his tone and shoulders exceedingly convincing. We had reached the
+threshold and were, indeed, indulging in a little skirmish as to who
+should pass through the door first, when Mr. Cheape's resigned voice
+checked us.
+
+"My clients," he announced slowly, "will sign your document, Mr.
+Bundercombe. They protest--they protest vigorously against its wording;
+but they are anxious to show you in how large-spirited and gentlemanly a
+manner they wish this affair to be concluded. Once more they yield."
+
+Mr. Bundercombe, without any signs of exultation, returned to his former
+place, put down his hat upon the chair and drew a checkbook from his
+breast coat pocket.
+
+"If you will give me a seat and a pen," he said, "I will write you a check
+for the amount."
+
+Captain Bannister stared at the checkbook. He glanced at Mr. Cheape and
+Mr. Cheape very vigorously shook his head.
+
+"I am sorry," he objected; "but my clients cannot think of accepting a
+check in settlement of this matter."
+
+Mr. Bundercombe began to show symptoms of annoyance.
+
+"Bless my soul!" he exclaimed. "Isn't the check of Joseph H. Bundercombe
+good enough for you?"
+
+Mr. Cheape laid his hand soothingly upon Mr. Bundercombe's shoulder.
+
+"It isn't that we doubt your check, sir," he pointed out; "but in a
+transaction of this sort it is best that no evidences of a lasting nature
+should exist. A check is not, as you know, legal tender, and a check my
+clients certainly could not accept."
+
+Mr. Bundercombe folded up his checkbook and replaced it in his pocket.
+
+"Then what are you going to do about it?" he asked.
+
+"Where is your bank?" Mr. Cheape inquired.
+
+"In Pall Mall," Mr. Bundercombe answered.
+
+"Then I am afraid," Mr. Cheape decided, "there is nothing for it but to
+ask you to repair there and cash your own check."
+
+Mr. Bundercombe rose to his feet.
+
+"All right!" he agreed. "I suppose we had better finish the affair while
+we are about it. One of you had better come with me."
+
+Captain Bannister promptly volunteered. He and I and Mr. Bundercombe
+descended the stairs and entered the car. We pulled up in a few minutes at
+the door of Mr. Bundercombe's bank.
+
+"Will you come in with me?" Mr. Bundercombe invited, turning to Captain
+Bannister.
+
+Captain Bannister excused himself.
+
+"I will wait here with Mr. Walmsley," he said, "if you will allow me."
+
+Mr. Bundercombe departed inside the bank and reappeared in the course of a
+few moments. His breast coat pocket was bulging. On our way back he drew
+out five packets of banknotes, which he counted carefully. Captain
+Bannister watched him out of the corner of his eye with a hungry
+expression. We were only absent from the flat altogether about a quarter
+of an hour, and the rest of the affair was promptly settled. The notes
+were counted by Mr. Cheape, the document signed by Captain Bannister and
+Mrs. Delaporte.
+
+"I am sure," Captain Bannister declared, holding the notes in his left
+hand, "that no one can be more glad than Mrs. Delaporte and myself that
+this little affair has been concluded so amicably. If you will allow me,
+Mr. Bundercombe, to offer you a little refreshment----" Mr. Bundercombe
+sighed.
+
+"Well," he said, "I suppose it's all in the day's work for you people. I
+don't mind admitting, though, money wasn't so easily earned in my days
+that I can watch four thousand pounds go without feeling it. Thank you;
+that'll do nicely," he added, accepting the brandy-and-soda Captain
+Bannister handed him.
+
+Mr. Wymans looked on with stern disapproval and I must say I sympathized
+with him. Mr. Bundercombe, however, not only drained the glass with relish
+but accepted the outstretched hand of Captain Bannister and afterward
+shook hands also with Mrs. Delaporte.
+
+"If you are passing at any time----" she whispered in his ear.
+
+I had had enough of it and I dragged Mr. Bundercombe away. We drove back
+to Prince's Gardens in somewhat ominous silence. Mr. Wymans would have
+taken his leave, but Mr. Bundercombe begged him to come into the library.
+
+"One moment!" he insisted. "James," he said, addressing the butler, "Mr.
+Wymans will stay to lunch. One moment!"
+
+Mr. Bundercombe went to the telephone. Mechanically he handed me the
+additional receiver. He asked for a number and presently received a reply.
+
+"Say, is that Captain Bannister I am speaking to?" he said. "I thought I
+recognized the voice. This is Mr. Bundercombe. Yes, yes!--No, there's
+nothing we'd forgotten. I just rang you up, though, to give you a word of
+advice. You want to be just a _leetle_ careful where you try to change
+those notes!"
+
+"What do you mean, sir?" I heard Captain Bannister demand in startled
+accents. "What do you mean, Mr. Bundercombe?"
+
+"Well," Mr. Bundercombe continued, "those notes are just about the
+cleverest things I ever came across; but, after all, they aren't exactly
+the genuine article. I got four thousand pounds' worth of them from a
+young fellow I was interested in, and I had them put in a safe at my bank
+so that no one should get into any trouble. It just occurred to me, since
+we began our little negotiations, that I saw a good way of making use of
+them. I had only four thousand pounds' worth; so I had to beat you down a
+bit. However, that'll be all right, captain, only, as I say, use them a
+bit carefully.... Jove! Ain't he making the telephone sing!" Mr.
+Bundercombe added, turning to me. "I guess I'll ring off!" He put down the
+receiver. Once more the accustomed smile was creeping over his face. Mr.
+Wymans was looking dazed. The butler had entered the room with the
+cocktails.
+
+"Say, Paul," Mr. Bundercombe expostulated, "you didn't really think I was
+parting with four thousand pounds to a sloppy gang like that, did you? I
+knew a young chap who was very clever at making those notes," he explained
+to Mr. Wymans. "I liked him and converted him; and I sent him over to the
+States, where he's got a good situation and is working honestly for his
+living. This was the remainder of his stock. I had 'em lying in the safe
+deposit of the bank, meaning some day to destroy 'em. You've got that
+apology all right?"
+
+Mr. Wymans slowly smiled. He raised his glass to his lips.
+
+"You are a very clever man, Mr. Bundercombe!" he said.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV--MR. BUNDERCOMBE'S LOVE AFFAIR
+
+Mr. Bundercombe who, notwithstanding his wife's temporary absence in the
+country, had not been in the best of spirits for several days, during the
+course of our tete-a-tete dinner at Luigi's became suddenly and
+unexpectedly animated. The change in him was so noticeable that I leaned
+forward in my place to see what could have produced it.
+
+Two people had entered the restaurant and were in conversation now with
+Luigi about a table. Mr. Bundercombe, who in the affairs of every-day life
+had no idea of concealing his feelings, was regarding them with every
+appearance of lively interest.
+
+"Paul," he whispered, "you must notice these two people. Watch them--
+there's a good fellow!"
+
+They took their places at a table almost opposite ours. The girl, though
+she was more quietly and tastefully dressed and seemed to me to be better
+looking, I recognized at once as Mr. Bundercombe's companion at Prince's
+Restaurant on one memorable occasion.
+
+The man I had never seen before. He appeared to be of about medium height;
+slim, with a sallow skin; dark, sleepy eyes, which suggested the
+foreigner; a mouth that, straight and firm though it was, turned up a
+little at the corners, as though in contradiction of his somewhat indolent
+general appearance. He was exceedingly well-dressed and carried himself
+with the quiet assurance of a man accustomed to moving in the world.
+
+"Most interesting!" Mr. Bundercombe murmured, having with an effort
+withdrawn his eyes from the pair. "The girl you doubtless recognize. She
+was once a typist in the office of Messrs. Harding & Densmore. She was
+quite lately, as I dare say you remember, able to give me some very useful
+information; in fact it is through her that Mr. Stanley did not leave this
+country for South Africa with a hundred pounds in his pocket."
+
+"And the man?" I asked.
+
+Mr. Bundercombe was thoroughly enjoying himself. He drew his chair a
+little closer to mine and waited until he was quite sure that no one was
+within earshot.
+
+"The man," he replied, "is one of the world's most famous criminals."
+
+"He doesn't look it," I remarked, glancing across the room with some
+interest.
+
+Mr. Bundercombe smiled.
+
+"Great criminals are not all of the same type," he reminded me
+reprovingly. "That is where you people who don't understand the cult of
+criminology make your foolish mistakes. Our friend opposite is, without a
+doubt, of gentle though not of aristocratic birth. I know nothing of his
+bringing up, but his instincts do all that is necessary for him. The first
+time I saw him was in one of the criminal courts in New York. He was being
+tried for his life for an attempted robbery in Fifth Avenue and the murder
+of a policeman. He defended himself and did it brilliantly. In the end he
+got off. There is scarcely a person, however, who doubts but that he was
+guilty."
+
+I looked across at the subject of our discussion with renewed interest.
+
+"He shot him, I suppose?" I asked.
+
+"On the contrary," Mr. Bundercombe replied, "he throttled him. The man has
+the sinews of an ox. The second time I saw him was at a dancing-hall in
+New York. He was there with a very gay party indeed; but one of them, the
+wealthiest, mysteriously disappeared. Rodwell--Dagger Rodwell was his
+nickname--came to England. I saw him once or twice just before I visited
+you down in Bedfordshire. Cullen warned me off him, however; wouldn't let
+me have a word to say to him."
+
+"He doesn't sound the best companion in the world for your little typist
+friend," I remarked.
+
+Mr. Bundercombe glanced across the room and at that moment the girl
+noticed him. She bowed and waved her hand. Mr. Bundercombe responded
+gallantly.
+
+"I fancy," he murmured, "that she can take care of herself. Come, I really
+feel that I am in an interesting atmosphere once more."
+
+Mr. Bundercombe's deportment was certainly more cheerful. For the last
+week or two he had been depressed. He had paid visits with Eve and myself,
+and devoted a reasonable amount of time to his wife. The demands on his
+complete respectability, however, had been irksome. He was too obviously
+finding no savor in life.
+
+I really was not altogether sorry at first to notice the improvement in
+his spirits, though my sentiments changed when, a little later in the
+evening, the girl opposite left her place and came over to us. She greeted
+Mr. Bundercombe with the most brilliant of smiles and he held her hand
+quite as long as was necessary. He presented me and I learned that her
+name was Miss Blanche Spencer.
+
+"I must not stay long," she said, laughing. "The gentleman I am with is a
+sort of cousin of mine and we don't get on very well; but I mustn't be
+rude."
+
+Mr. Bundercombe and she seemed to have a good deal to say to each other
+and presently I noticed that their heads were drawing closer together. The
+girl dropped her voice. She was proposing something to which Mr.
+Bundercombe was listening with keen interest. I heard him sigh.
+
+"If it weren't for certain changes," he explained regretfully, "I guess I
+wouldn't hesitate a moment. But--"
+
+I heard a whispered reference to myself as his daughter's fiance and an
+allusion to the continued presence of his wife in London. She nodded
+sympathetically.
+
+"Now if there were any other way," Mr. Bundercombe concluded, "in which I
+could still further show my gratitude to you personally for a certain
+little matter, why I'm all for hearing about it. I consider the balance is
+still on my side."
+
+She laughed.
+
+"You're really rather a dear!" she declared. "Do you know I am thinking of
+starting in business for myself?"
+
+"Where, and what as?" Mr. Bundercombe inquired.
+
+I shook open an evening paper and heard no more. The girl's leavetaking,
+however, a few minutes later, was both reluctant and impressive. I felt it
+my duty to allude to the matter as soon as we were alone.
+
+"You know, sir," I said, "this helping young women to set up in business
+is a proceeding that's very likely to be misunderstood over here. I am not
+in the least sure that even Eve would quite approve."
+
+Mr. Bundercombe smiled the smile of a man of the world.
+
+"One can't tell one's womenkind everything!" he declared grandiloquently.
+
+I was a little puzzled. I felt convinced that Mr. Bundercombe was
+concealing something from me.
+
+"Furthermore," I continued, feeling it my duty to speak frankly to my
+future father-in-law, "a man of your position needs to be very careful
+when he has financial transactions with a good-looking young woman like
+Miss Blanche. The young lady herself might take advantage of it."
+
+Mr. Bundercombe appeared to be giving my words full consideration.
+
+"Well, well!" he said, a little vaguely. "We shall see. I don't mind
+telling you, though, Paul, that I would have nothing to say to her first
+suggestion--on your account, my boy. There's a scheme on foot in which her
+interesting companion is concerned, which needs financing. I haven't the
+least doubt that it is something entirely interesting--probably a mammoth
+jewel robbery or something of the sort."
+
+I looked across at the man, who seemed to be reproaching the girl for her
+long absence. Almost at that moment he looked up and our eyes met for a
+brief instant. There seemed to be nothing in his gaze beyond a measure of
+polite and not too pointed interest. Nevertheless, when I looked away I
+begged Mr. Bundercombe to call for the bill.
+
+"I have had enough of this place!" I declared, a little abruptly. "Next
+time Eve goes to bed with a headache I shall take you to the club."
+
+*       *       *       *       *
+
+I was walking down Bond Street with Eve one morning when my suspicions as
+to Mr. Bundercombe and a certain matter were first roused. As we neared
+the Piccadilly end I distinctly saw him vanish through a doorway on the
+lefthand side. He was most carefully dressed and carried in his hand a
+long paper parcel that could contain nothing but flowers. Upon some excuse
+I prevailed upon Eve to cross the road. There was one small brass plate
+only on the side of the entrance through which Mr. Bundercombe had
+disappeared. It was scarcely larger than my hand and on it was engraved in
+very elegant characters: BLANCHE MANICURE.
+
+I made no comment at the time, but curiously enough that afternoon, as we
+sat out under the trees at Ranelagh, Eve referred to the subject of her
+parent. "Do you notice, Paul," she asked, "how much less we see of dad
+lately?"
+
+"He does seem to have been out a good deal," I admitted.
+
+She glanced at me.
+
+"You haven't any idea, I suppose--"
+
+The glance and her tone were quite sufficient for me. I hastened to
+disclaim all responsibility for Mr. Bundercombe.
+
+"Your father," I assured her, "has never treated me with less confidence.
+Whatever he may be doing at present, he is doing, let me assure you,
+entirely on his own responsibility."
+
+"Then I think, if you don't mind, please," she begged, "you must try and
+get him to take you into his confidence. Of course," she went on, watching
+idly a polo team canter into the field, "I do not wish you to feel that he
+is in any way a responsibility. On the other hand, it does seem so queer,
+Paul! He has taken to dressing most carefully and he leaves the house
+regularly every morning at ten o'clock."
+
+"You've no clew at all as to what he does with himself?" I asked.
+
+"None," she replied, "except that I never saw any one with such
+overmanicured nails as his. I never knew him to go to a manicurist in my
+life, but he is obviously going to one nearly every day now or he couldn't
+keep the polish on. If that helps in any way--"
+
+"It might," I admitted with a sigh.
+
+"There he is!" Eve exclaimed suddenly. "Coming toward us, too! Do please
+take this opportunity, Paul, and see if you can find out anything. You
+see, a week ago he seemed bored to tears, and now he has just that happy,
+contented expression which he wears all the time when he is really engaged
+in something outrageous. I will go and talk to your sister. I think she is
+over there with Captain Green."
+
+Mr. Bundercombe greeted me heartily and at once directed my attention to a
+small tent where cool drinks were being served. I suffered him to lead me
+in that direction and placed myself in his hands as regards the selection
+of a suitable beverage. We found a small table and sat down. "Haven't seen
+much of you lately, sir," I began.
+
+"Huh! That's because I don't spend three parts of my time in milliners'
+shops," Mr. Bundercombe replied.
+
+"Where are you spending most of your time?" I asked, determined to take
+the bull by the horns.
+
+Mr. Bundercombe set down his glass.
+
+"I've been expecting this," he remarked pleasantly. "Eve's been setting
+you on to pump me, eh?"
+
+I nodded.
+
+"That's exactly it," I admitted. "We are due to be married in ten days. We
+are neither of us anxious for anything in the way of an unfortunate
+incident."
+
+Mr. Bundercombe appeared to view with surprise the advent of a second
+tumbler. He reconciled himself to its arrival, however, and handed money
+to the attendant.
+
+"I realize the position entirely, my dear fellow," he assured me. "I am
+glad you have opened the subject up. I have been bursting to tell you all
+about it; but I have hesitated for fear of being misunderstood."
+
+I glanced at his nails.
+
+"Of course," I observed slowly, "the position of an elderly gentleman with
+a marriageable daughter and a wife," I went on bravely, "who finances a
+young lady interested in manicuring in an establishment in Bond Street is
+liable to misinterpretation."
+
+Mr. Bundercombe was a little taken aback. He hid his face for a moment
+behind the newly arrived tumbler.
+
+"Kind of observant, aren't you?" he remarked.
+
+"I saw you in Bond Street this morning," I told him, "you and a paper
+parcel. You were entering the establishment, I believe, of Mademoiselle
+Blanche, whoever she is."
+
+"Small place, London!" Mr. Bundercombe sighed. "Were you--er--alone?"
+
+"I was with Eve," I replied; "but she did not see you and I did not
+mention the matter."
+
+"My boy," Mr. Bundercombe decided, "I shall take you wholly into my
+confidence. I am engaged in a big affair!" My heart sank.
+
+"I can only pray to Heaven," I said fervently, "that the denouement of
+this affair will not take place within the next ten days."
+
+"On the contrary," Mr. Bundercombe answered, leaning back in his chair and
+looking at me, with the flat of one hand laid on the table and the palm of
+the other on his left knee, "on the contrary," he repeated, "the
+denouement is due to-morrow."
+
+"Glad you didn't consider us," I observed gloomily.
+
+Mr. Bundercombe smiled.
+
+"I find myself in this last affair," he remarked airily, "occupying what I
+must confess, for me, is a somewhat peculiar position. I am on the side of
+the established authorities. I am in the cast-iron position of the man who
+falls into line with the law of the land. In other words, you behold in
+me, so far as regards this affair, respectability and rectitude
+personified. I may even choose to give our friend Mr. Cullen a leg up."
+
+I was relieved to hear it and told him so.
+
+"I presume," I said, "that Mademoiselle Blanche, of Bond Street, is
+identical with the young lady who talked to us at Stephano's the other
+night?"
+
+"Say, you're becoming perfectly wonderful at the art of deduction!" my
+future father-in-law declared. "Same person!"
+
+"She seems quite attractive," I admitted, "with a taste for pink roses, I
+think."
+
+Mr. Bundercombe appeared to regard my remark as frivolous. He moved his
+chair, however, and brought it closer to mine.
+
+"I dare say you remember," he went on, "how the young lady proposed to me
+that night that I should finance a little venture in which she and her
+sleepy-eyed friend opposite were interested."
+
+I nodded.
+
+"Yes, I remember that."
+
+"From that," Mr. Bundercombe continued, "she went on to suggest that I
+should help her in the ambition of her life, which, it seems, was to take
+a single room for manicuring a few clients. In an ordinary way I should
+have refused that, too; and, if she had been hard up, begged to be allowed
+to oblige her with a trifling loan--and ended the matter in that way. The
+reason I didn't was simply because I felt convinced that her desire to
+require a single room in the manicure business was somehow associated with
+the scheme she had at first suggested. Therefore I temporized. I appeared
+to be interested. I asked her in what locality she wished to commence
+business. She never hesitated. There was only one place she wanted and
+that was the room she's got. Just to test her I took her to see really
+slap-up premises in another part of Bond Street. She pretended to look at
+them, but never took the slightest interest. It was just one room she
+wanted--and one room only.
+
+"I realized that both she and her friend were either too desperately hard
+up to engage that room or else they were particularly anxious to do it in
+some one else's name. That was quite enough for me. I engaged the room."
+
+I glanced once more at Mr. Bundercombe's nails. "You, at any rate," I
+remarked, "have been a faithful customer."
+
+"Paul," Mr. Bundercombe continued, "I am playing a part. I am playing the
+part of a silly old fool. It isn't easy sometimes, but I am keeping it up.
+I spend a good part of my time in that beastly little parlor, having my
+nails done over and over again. The girl is bored to death; and I--though
+I flatter myself I don't show it--I guess I'm bored to death too. I've
+kept it up all right until now and the job comes off to-morrow. Miss
+Blanche is convinced that my interest in her is sentimental and she has
+occasionally not been quite so careful as she might have been. I have
+picked up here and there certain small details that enable me to form a
+very fair idea as to the nature of this venture in which I was invited to
+participate. The last few days I have been hesitating whether I should
+take you into my confidence or not. As it happens you have forced it. Have
+you anything particular to do to-morrow?"
+
+I thought for a moment. "Nothing very much until the late afternoon, when
+I go down to the House," I replied.
+
+"Then to-morrow you shall see the end of this thing with me," Mr.
+Bundercombe promised. "If luck goes our way you will find we shall have
+quite a pleasant few minutes."
+
+Eve put her head in at the tent and we hastened to join her. She drew me a
+little on one side.
+
+"I think it's all right," I told her.
+
+"I am so glad," she replied. "And, Paul, hadn't you better drop dad a hint
+that Mrs. Bundercombe will be home to-morrow? I think he'd better have the
+shine taken off his nails!"
+
+*       *       *       *       *
+
+At twelve o'clock the next morning I met Mr. Bundercombe by appointment in
+the Burlington Arcade. We strolled slowly round into Bond Street. Mr.
+Bundercombe was, for him, unusually serious. He looked about him all the
+time with swift, careful glances. As we turned into Bond Street his pace
+became slower and slower. Within a yard or two of the spot where I had
+first seen him disappear he paused, and under pretense of talking
+earnestly to me he looked up and down and across the street with keen,
+careful glances.
+
+At last, with a sudden turn he led the way into the passage. Together we
+ascended the stairs. On a door almost opposite to us at the end of the
+landing was another little brass plate, on which was engraved the name of
+Mademoiselle Blanche. Mr. Bundercombe took a latchkey from his pocket and
+opened the door, which he carefully closed after him.
+
+"No one here!" I remarked.
+
+"Not yet!" Mr. Bundercombe said, a little grimly. "From now onward you
+will be able to understand certain things. Miss Blanche informed me that
+to-day she had an invitation to go into the country. It was the only way I
+could discover the day in which they were planning to bring off the coup.
+If I had been an occasional visitor she might have risked my coming and
+finding her away. Since, however, I presented myself every morning at
+eleven o'clock she was forced to tell me. You understand as much as that?"
+
+"Perfectly."
+
+"You see where we are then," Mr. Bundercombe continued. "Has any reason
+occurred to you for the young lady's unalterable decision that no other
+spot in the whole of London would do for her manicure parlor?"
+
+I looked out the window.
+
+"We are next door to Tarteran's," I observed.
+
+Mr. Bundercombe smiled approvingly.
+
+"We are within a few yards," he said, "of the jeweler's shop that contains
+more valuable gems than any other establishment in the world. We are at
+the present moment within forty yards of a million pounds' worth of
+jewels. When you come to reflect upon the character and the past of our
+friend Dagger Rodwell, you will understand the significance of that fact."
+
+I was beginning to share Mr. Bundercombe's obvious excitement. I, too, had
+the feeling that we were on the brink of an adventure. He made me stand up
+against the wall, by the side of the window, so that I could see down into
+the street. He himself was farther back in the room.
+
+"Follow my lead closely in everything, Paul!" he directed. "Meantime keep
+your eye glued on the pavement. If things turn out as I expect there will
+be a gray touring motor car outside Tarteran's shop in the course of a few
+minutes. From that car will descend Dagger Rodwell. He will enter
+Tarteran's. Watch, then, as though your very life depended upon it!"
+
+I squeezed myself against the wall and looked down upon the never-ending
+procession. The street was continually blocked with motor cars and
+taxicabs. On the other side of the way streams of people were moving all
+the time. I recognized many acquaintances even in those few minutes. And
+then suddenly I saw the gray motor car. I held out my hand to Mr.
+Bundercombe.
+
+Without the slightest attempt at concealment, the man Mr. Bundercombe had
+called Dagger Rodwell alighted from the motor and stood for a moment
+looking into the windows of Tarteran's shop before he entered. He was
+faultlessly dressed in morning clothes, smoking a cigarette and carrying a
+silver-headed cane.
+
+After some hesitation he entered the shop. Mr. Bundercombe drew a little
+breath. He had been looking at another part of the street.
+
+"Now things are beginning to move," he observed softly. "Come here, Paul!"
+
+He pulled aside a little curtain behind which was a sort of cubicle--an
+easy chair, a manicurist's stool and a table.
+
+"Step inside here," he whispered; "quickly!"
+
+I obeyed him, and in an instant he had entered a similar one. We were
+scarcely there before I heard the sound of a key in the door. Through a
+chink in the curtain I saw Miss Blanche. She pushed back the latch and
+stood for a moment as though listening, her face turned toward the stairs
+up which she had come.
+
+If I had had any doubt but that tragedy was afoot that morning it would
+have been banished by a glance at her face. She was terribly pale; her
+hands were shaking. Rapidly she withdrew the pins from her hat, hung it
+upon a peg and smoothed her hair in front of the looking-glass. Then,
+though her hands were trembling all the time, she filled a bowl with hot
+water and arranged a manicure set on a little table.
+
+Once or twice she stopped to listen. Once, as though drawn by some
+fascination she was powerless to resist, she moved to the window and
+looked down into the street. Mr. Bundercombe remained motionless and I
+followed his example. At the back of my cubicle was a window from which I
+could still gain a view of the pavement. The streets were thronged with
+people, and I noticed that the motor car, which at first I had missed, was
+standing in a side street, almost opposite.
+
+Suddenly I saw the man, for whose reappearance I was so earnestly waiting,
+step casually out on to the pavement. He attempted to cross the street and
+was quickly lost to sight in a tangle of vehicles. A second later I could
+have sworn that I saw him back again at the entrance to the passage below.
+
+Then I heard a shout from the pavement and I distinctly saw him clamber
+into the motor car, which shot off as though it had started in fourth
+speed. An elderly gentleman, who had rushed from the shop, was halfway
+across the street already. There was a chorus of shouts; traffic was
+momentarily suspended; a policeman started running down the side street.
+Then I turned away from the window. There were sounds closer at hand--a
+footstep on the stairs, swift and gentle.
+
+In a moment the door of the little manicure room was opened and closed.
+Dagger Rodwell stood there, pale and breathless. Not a word passed between
+him and the girl. He dashed into the third of the little cubicles, and it
+seemed to me that in less than thirty seconds he reappeared.
+
+The change was marvelous. He was wearing a tweed suit and a gray Homburg
+hat. His eyeglass had gone. Even his collar and tie seemed different. He
+sat down before the girl and held out his hand. They listened. There was
+plenty of commotion in the street--no sound at all on the stairs.
+
+"We've done it!" he muttered. "They're after the car! They'll catch
+Dolly!"
+
+"He'll bluff it out!" she whispered.
+
+"Sure! Don't let your hands tremble like that, you little fool! We're
+safe, I tell you! Get on with your work."
+
+Now the two were three or four yards away from the cubicle in which I was,
+but almost within a couple of feet of Mr. Bundercombe's. From where I was
+sitting I saw suddenly a strange thing. I saw Mr. Bundercombe's left arm
+shoot out from behind the curtain. In a moment he had the man by the
+throat. His other hand traveled over his clothes like lightning.
+
+It was all over almost before I could think. Rodwell was on his feet with
+a livid mark on his throat, and Mr. Bundercombe had stepped back with a
+little shining revolver in his hand which he was carefully stowing away in
+his pocket.
+
+"Sorry to be a trifle hasty, Mr. Rodwell," he said. "I saw the shape of
+this little weapon in your pocket and it didn't seem altogether agreeable
+to me. We are not great at firearms over this side, you know."
+
+Blanche and Rodwell stared at him. To complete their stupefaction I
+stepped out of my cubicle.
+
+"What sort of a game is this?" Rodwell muttered, though he was pale to the
+lips. "Blanche----"
+
+He turned toward her with sudden fierceness. She sat there, wringing her
+hands.
+
+"Mr. Bundercombe!" she exclaimed feebly. "Mr. Bundercombe!"
+
+"So this is your silly old fool, is it?" Rodwell hissed. "This is the old
+fool you could twist round your finger, who found the money for your
+manicure parlor, and who was in love with you, eh? What are you, anyway?"
+he added, turning furiously upon Mr. Bundercombe. "A cop? Is this why you
+were trying to put up to me a few weeks ago?"
+
+Mr. Bundercombe waved aside the accusation.
+
+"Nothing of the sort!" he declared.
+
+"Then what is it you want?" Rodwell demanded. "Is it a share of the swag
+you're after?"
+
+Mr. Bundercombe shook his head.
+
+"I am afraid," he sighed, "there will not be any swag."
+
+Rodwells face was the most vicious thing I had ever looked on; yet he kept
+his head. Mr. Bundercombe and I were an impossible proposition to an
+unarmed man.
+
+"In the first place," Mr. Bundercombe said, "I must congratulate you most
+heartily on your scheme. I saw your double bolt across the road and jump
+into the car. Everyone's eyes were upon him. They never saw you slip round
+into the passage. Your double is, I presume, well supplied with an alibi
+and evidences of respectability?"
+
+Rodwell nodded shortly.
+
+"It's his own car and he's an automobile agent," he replied. "He'd been in
+the next shop. The people there will be able to swear to him--he gave them
+plenty of trouble on purpose."
+
+"And you," Mr. Bundercombe murmured, "have the necklace?"
+
+"I have!" Rodwell snapped. "What about it? I've got to divide with the
+girl here. How much do you want?"
+
+"Only the necklace!" Mr. Bundercombe replied.
+
+Mr. Rodwell's geographical description of where he would see Mr.
+Bundercombe first is too lurid for print. Mr. Bundercombe, however, only
+shook his head, with a gentle smile upon his lips.
+
+"If you're not a cop and you won't stand in, what in the name of glory are
+you?" Rodweil spluttered at last.
+
+"I am afraid I must describe myself as a meddler," Mr. Bundercombe
+confessed; "an intervener. I stand midway between the law and the
+criminal. I sympathize wholly with neither. I admire the skill and courage
+you have shown to-day, but I also sympathize with the head of that
+establishment whom you have relieved of possibly many thousand pounds'
+worth of diamonds. I could not--"
+
+Rodwell made his effort, but Mr. Bundercombe was more than ready.
+Intervention on my part was quite unnecessary. Mr. Bundercombe's left arm
+shot out like a piston-rod and the unfortunate victim of his blow remained
+on the carpet, with his hand to his cheek.
+
+"Quite in order, of course," Mr. Bundercombe remarked, "but absolutely
+useless. Boxing was my only sport when I was a young man, to say nothing
+of my remarkably athletic young companion. It won't do, Rodwell! You'd
+better hand over the jewels. Give them to Miss Blanche and she'll hand
+them to me. They're in a morocco case, I think, in your trousers pocket."
+
+Rodwell produced them sullenly.
+
+"It's your fault, you miserable little fool!" he muttered to Blanche. "I
+ought to have known better than to have let you into the thing. Fancy
+taking him for a mug!"
+
+Mr. Bundercombe smiled a pleased smile.
+
+"Come, come!" he said. "Things are not so bad. You might have been
+caught!"
+
+"Aren't you going to give information?" Rodwell asked quickly.
+
+"Not a thought of it!" Mr. Bundercombe assured him, catching the case
+Rodwell threw toward him. "I want, so far as possible, to see both sides
+happy. Here, Paul; put these in your pocket!" he added, turning to me. "If
+you take my advice, Rodwell," he concluded, "you'll stay where you are
+until I return. I promise you that Mr. Walmsley and I will return alone,
+and that I will give no intimation of your presence here to any person
+whatsoever."
+
+Rodwell was puzzled. He rose slowly to his feet, however, and walked
+toward the basin at the other end of the apartment.
+
+"All right!" he agreed sullenly. "I shall be here."
+
+Mr. Bundercombe and I descended into the street. I was feeling a little
+dazed. Mr. Bundercombe led the way into the Tarteran establishment, which
+was still in a state of disorder. He asked to speak to the principal, who
+came forward, still looking very perturbed.
+
+"Sorry to hear of this robbery!" Mr. Bundercombe said. "Have they caught
+the fellow?"
+
+"They caught the man in the motor car," the manager groaned; "but he had
+no jewels on him and my people can't swear to him. He seems to have a very
+coherent story."
+
+"Have you communicated with the police?" Mr. Bundercombe asked.
+
+The manager stretched out his hand.
+
+"Four of them are in the place now," he answered, a little despairingly.
+"What's the good? The fellow's got away! He's got the finest necklace in
+the shop with him, gems worth twenty thousand pounds."
+
+Mr. Bundercombe nodded sympathetically.
+
+"Have you offered a reward yet?"
+
+"We can't do everything in ten minutes!" the manager replied, a little
+testily. "We shall offer one, of course."
+
+"What amount are you prepared to go to?" Mr. Bundercombe asked.
+
+The man looked at him eagerly.
+
+"Do you mean, sir--" he began.
+
+Mr. Bundercombe stretched out his hands.
+
+"You may search me!" he interrupted. "I have nothing in the way of jewels
+on me. My name is Joseph H. Bundercombe and I have a house in Prince's
+Gardens. This is my son-in-law-to-be, Mr. Walmsley, M.P. for
+Bedfordshire."
+
+The manager bowed.
+
+"I know you quite well, sir," he said, "and Mr. Walmsley, of course; both
+he and many of his relatives are valued clients of ours. But about the
+jewels?"
+
+"What reward do you offer?"
+
+"Five hundred pounds," was the prompt reply; "more, if necessary."
+
+Mr. Bundercombe smiled approvingly.
+
+"Circumstances," he explained, "of a peculiar nature, into which I am
+quite sure it will suit your purpose not to inquire, have enabled me to
+claim the reward and to restore to you the jewels."
+
+The manager gripped him by the arm.
+
+"Come into the office at once!" he begged.
+
+We followed him into a little room at the back of the shop. He was
+trembling all over.
+
+"No questions asked?" Mr. Bundercombe insisted.
+
+"Not the shadow of one!" the manager agreed. "I don't care if--pardon me,
+sir--if you stole them yourself! The loss of those jewels would do the
+firm more harm than I can explain to you."
+
+Mr. Bundercombe turned toward me and I produced the case. The manager
+seized it eagerly, opened it, turned on the electric light and closed the
+case again with a great sigh of relief. He held out his hand.
+
+"Mr. Bundercombe," he said, "I don't care how you got these. I have been
+robbed three times and put the matter into the hands of the police--and
+never recovered a single stone! I'd shake hands with the man who stole
+them so long as I got them back. How will you have the reward, sir?"
+
+"Notes, if you can manage it," Mr. Bundercombe replied.
+
+The manager went to his safe and counted over notes and gold to the amount
+of five hundred pounds, which Mr. Bundercombe buttoned up in his pockets.
+
+"I ask you now, sir," he said, "for your word of honor that you will not
+have us followed or make any further inquiries into this affair."
+
+"It is given--freely given!" the manager promised. "When you leave this
+establishment I shall turn my back to you. You may hand over the notes to
+whosoever you like upon the pavement outside and it won't concern me.
+Nor," he added, "shall I tell the police for at least half an hour that I
+have the necklace. They deserve a little extra trouble for letting the
+fellow get away."
+
+Mr. Bundercombe and I left the shop and ascended the stairs leading to the
+manicure parlor. Rodwell, who had bathed his face and made a complete
+change of toilet, was pacing up and down the little room. Blanche, too,
+was there, still pale and weeping.
+
+"Now," Mr. Bundercombe began, as he carefully closed the door behind him,
+"I told you a few minutes ago I was neither on your side nor on the side
+of the law. I am about to prove it. I have returned the jewels to
+Tarteran's, no questions to be asked, and I've got the reward. There you
+are, young lady!" he added, placing the roll of notes and a handful of
+gold in her hand. "You have given me a week or so of intense interest and
+amusement. There is your reward for it. If you want to divide it with your
+friend it's nothing to do with me. Take it and run along. So far as
+regards this little establishment the rent is paid for another three
+months; but, so far as regards my connection with it, I think I needn't
+explain--"
+
+"That you've been fooling me!" the girl interrupted, a faint smile at the
+corners of her lips. "Do you know, sometimes I suspected that you weren't
+in earnest! And then one day I saw your wife--and I wasn't sure!"
+
+"Good morning!" Mr. Bundercombe said severely. "Come along, Paul!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV--LORD PORTHONING'S LESSON
+
+Mr. Bundercombe laid his hand compellingly on my arm. "Who's the
+wizened-up little insect, with a snarl on his face?" he inquired of me
+earnestly.
+
+My slight impulse of irritation at such a description applied to one of my
+wedding guests passed when I looked up and saw the person to whom Mr.
+Bundercombe had directed my attention. I recognized the adequacy of the
+wording."
+
+"That," I replied, "is the Earl of Porthoning."
+
+"Kind of connection, isn't he?" Mr. Bundercombe inquired.
+
+I nodded.
+
+"His son married my sister."
+
+Mr. Bundercombe regarded him with a certain wistfulness which I did not at
+that moment understand. Just then Lord Porthoning made his way toward us.
+As I watched him approach I realized more than ever the justice of Mr.
+Bundercombe's description. He was undersized, bent nearly double, and on
+his wizened face and shining out of his narrow black eyes was an
+indescribable expression of malevolence. Even the smile with which he
+greeted me had something unpleasant in it.
+
+"Well, Paul!" he exclaimed. "Well, my boy, so you're hooked at last, are
+you?"
+
+Considering that I was enjoying a few minutes' respite in my task of
+helping Eve receive our wedding guests, the statement, though crude, was
+obvious enough.
+
+"Glad to see you, Lord Porthoning!" I said, lying miserably. "Do you know
+my father-in-law, Mr. Bundercombe?"
+
+Mr. Bundercombe extended his ready hand, which my connection, however,
+appeared not to see.
+
+"Yes, yes!" he admitted. "Some one pointed him out to me. I asked who on
+earth it could be. No offense, mind," Lord Porthoning continued; "but I
+hate all Americans and our connections with them. I have been looking at
+your presents, Paul. A poorish lot--a poorish lot! Now I was at Dick
+Stanley's wedding last week--married Colonel Morrison's daughter, you
+know. Never saw such jewelry in my life! Four necklaces; and a tiara from
+the Duchess of Westshire that must have been worth a cool ten thousand
+pounds."
+
+"I am sorry my wedding presents do not meet with your approval," I
+remarked. "Personally I think it is very kind of my friends to send me
+anything at all."
+
+"Rubbish, Paul! Rubbish!" my amiable connection interjected irritably.
+"Don't talk like an idiot! You know they send you things because they've
+got to. You've been through it yourself. Must have cost you a pretty penny
+in your time sending out wedding presents! Now you reap the harvest."
+
+"I suppose," I observed dryly, "that yours is the reasonable point of
+view."
+
+"Absolutely, my dear fellow--absolutely!" Lord Porthoning declared. "Of
+course you couldn't expect quite the same enthusiasm on the part of your
+friends when you marry a young lady who is a stranger to all of them and
+who comes from the backwoods of America. Can't think how it is you young
+Englishmen can marry nothing, nowadays, unless it shows its legs upon the
+stage or has a transatlantic drawl. I am going in to see if the champagne
+they're opening now is any better. The first glass I had was horrid!"
+
+My father-in-law watched him disappear through the crowd, and stood
+patiently by my side while I exchanged greetings with a few newly arrived
+friends.
+
+"Say!" he observed presently, as soon as an opportunity rose for private
+conversation. "He's a pleasant old gentleman, that connection of yours!"
+
+"Glad you think so," I answered. "I don't call myself a bad-natured
+fellow, and to-day I feel inclined to be friends with every one; but I
+tell you frankly I can't bear the sight of Lord Porthoning. He has to be
+asked, but he's like a wet blanket wherever he goes."
+
+Mr. Bundercombe glanced round a moment. Then he leaned toward me. His
+manner was earnest--almost pleading.
+
+"Paul," he said, dropping his voice to a whisper, "don't you think it's up
+to us to give a disagreeable little worm like that a bit of a lesson, eh?
+His lordship has his own way too much. Now if you'll leave it to me I'll
+give him just a kind of a scare--a shake-up, you know--no real harm; just
+teach him, perhaps, not to open his mouth so much. What do you say, Paul?"
+
+I turned and looked at my father-in-law. His expression was that of a
+schoolboy begging for a holiday. His head was a little on one side, his
+lips were parted in an insinuating smile. It was a weak moment with me. So
+far as such a term can be applied to such an event, the wedding ceremony,
+which was just over, had been a great success. Eve had looked simply as
+beautiful as a beautiful girl can look on the one morning of her life.
+
+My father-in-law had been dignified and correct in his behavior, and a
+merciful misadventure of Mrs. Bundercombe with a policeman three days
+previously, which had led to her being arrested with a hammer in her
+satchel, had finally resulted in her being forced to partake of the
+hospitality of Holloway for the period of fourteen days; in fact,
+everything just then with me was _couleur de rose_.
+
+The presents my crabbed connection spoke of so lightly had been
+supplemented only an hour before by surely the most magnificent wedding
+offering from my father-in-law that any man could have--the house in which
+we were and the whole of the furniture. It was hard to refuse Mr.
+Bundercombe anything. Before I knew exactly what had happened, my smile
+had answered his.
+
+"Well," I said, "I rely upon your discretion, Mr. Bundercombe. A little
+lesson would certainly do Porthoning no harm."
+
+Whereupon Mr. Bundercombe, fearing apparently that I might change my mind,
+vanished among the crowd; and the matter, to tell the truth, disappeared
+from my mind for a short time. I was surrounded by friends, and the
+occasion, joyful though it was, possessed a certain unique sentimentality
+that I found sufficiently absorbing. Eve brought me the latest telegram
+from Mrs. Bundercombe, which we read together:
+
+Insist upon ceremony being postponed! Am commencing hunger strike. Shall
+be with you in three days.
+
+"Your stepmother's intentions," I remarked to Eve, "may be excellent, but
+I don't think they'll bring her so far as the Austrian Tyrol."
+
+Eve's eyes were lit with laughter. A moment later, however, she sighed.
+
+"Poor dad!" she murmured. "I'm afraid he'll have a terrible time when she
+does come out!"
+
+"He'd have a worse if she knew!" I rejoined, half to myself.
+
+Eve looked at me suspiciously. She drew a little nearer.
+
+"Paul," she whispered in my ear, "is it true that the inspector who had
+her followed all that morning was a friend of dad's?" I shook my head.
+
+"I am giving nobody away," I replied firmly. "Of course there were certain
+troubles to be got over in connection with your mother's presence to-day.
+You remember her saying, for instance, that she would break every bottle
+of wine she found being served?"
+
+Eve nodded.
+
+"Perhaps," she murmured, with a half smile, "it is for the best. Where is
+dad?"
+
+I glanced round the room and at that moment I saw Mr. Bundercombe making
+signs to me from the doorway. I hurried toward him and he drew me out into
+the hall.
+
+"Things are in train, Paul," he announced cheerfully. "Now all I want from
+you is just the smallest amount of help in this little affair."
+
+I looked at him blankly. I had forgotten all about Lord Porthoning.
+
+"It's a very small share indeed," Mr. Bundercombe continued pleadingly;
+"but such as it is it's up to you to take it on at this moment. There the
+little insect goes into the cloakroom. He has gone for his hat and coat.
+All you've got to do is just to follow him and ask him to come back for
+one moment. That little room on the left, across the hall, is empty. Bring
+him into that. Leave the rest to me."
+
+"You're not going too far, are you?" I asked. "You see, after all, the old
+blackguard is a sort of connection."
+
+Mr. Bundercombe laid his hand on my shoulder.
+
+"My boy," he said, "there will be nothing but just a little incident that
+you can tell to Eve and laugh about on your way to the station. That I
+promise you."
+
+I nodded and crossed the hall. Lord Porthoning was preparing to leave.
+"Have my car called up!" he ordered the footman from the doorstep. "Mind,
+I'm not going to hang about on the pavement in this sun for any one. If
+that's the motor waiting for the young people it'll have to get out of the
+way. Lord Porthoning's car at once, young fellow! Hello, Paul!" he added.
+"Come to see me off, eh?"
+
+"Could I have just one word with you, Lord Porthoning?" I begged, as
+casually as possible.
+
+"Be quick, then! If I haven't wished you happiness it's because I can't
+see what chance you have of getting it. But I suppose you're like all
+other young fools on their wedding day--you think the sun's shining only
+for you!"
+
+"I am afraid," I retorted, a little nettled, "that I had not noticed the
+absence of your good wishes. I wish to speak to you on another matter."
+
+Lord Porthoning turned quickly and looked at me. There was a change in his
+expression that puzzled me.
+
+"Well, out with it!" he snapped.
+
+I pointed to the door across the hall.
+
+"I want you to step this way," I said firmly.
+
+I expected an irritable outburst, but to my surprise he turned and
+preceded me toward the door. We entered the room and found Mr. Bundercombe
+there alone. Lord Porthoning looked from one to the other of us. His heavy
+gray eyebrows were drawn together; his face was the embodiment of a snarl.
+
+"Now what in the name of all that's reasonable," he began in his hard,
+rasping voice, "made you bring me in here? I don't want to better my
+acquaintance with that old man, your father-in-law! I'd a good deal rather
+he'd stayed in his own country. I don't like the looks of him--I hate fat
+men! Don't keep me waiting here, Paul. If you want my advice I'll give it
+to you. If you want anything else you won't get it."
+
+Mr. Bundercombe had moved softly round until he was standing with his back
+to the door. His manner was the one he had assumed so successfully in
+church--dignified, almost solemn.
+
+"Paul," he said, "I asked you to invite this person in here because, now
+that you are Eve's husband, I felt that the interests of your family must
+be considered before my own inclinations. In my country we treat all men
+alike, and I am bound to say that if you'd been married to Eve out in
+Okata, and I'd seen any old skunk, whether he'd been an earl or what he
+looks like--a secondhand clothes dealer--sneaking Eve's presents, I'd have
+had him in prison before you'd reached the station."
+
+"Mr. Bundercombe!" I exclaimed, horrified; it seemed to me that my father-
+in-law was carrying this affair too far.
+
+Lord Porthoning, from whom I had expected a torrent of fierce abuse, stood
+looking at us both with an expression no written words could portray. His
+cheeks were ashen. His hands, which were crossed upon the knob of his
+cane, were shaking. Mr. Bundercombe extended his right hand.
+
+"Sir," he concluded sternly, "for the sake of the conventions of the
+country in which I find myself, and bearing in mind your connection with
+my son-in-law, I have kept the police out of this interview. Be so good as
+to hand over to Paul the emerald brooch you have secreted in your coat
+pocket!"
+
+The pall of silence seemed suddenly removed. Lord Porthoning leaned
+forward. Then he began to talk. Any sympathy I might have felt for him,
+any feeling I may have had that my father-in-law's retributive scheme was
+of too drastic a nature, vanished before he had finished the first three
+sentences. Mr. Bundercombe, upon whom he heaped abuse of the most virulent
+character, remained unmoved. When at last Lord Porthoning paused for
+breath, I turned toward my father-in-law.
+
+"What does this mean?" I asked.
+
+"It means," Mr. Bundercombe explained, "that this gentleman, who finds my
+daughter's presents so inadequate, was actually leaving your house with an
+emerald brooch belonging to Eve in the righthand pocket of his coat!"
+
+Lord Porthoning was once more incoherent. This time, however, I stopped
+him. I was already heartily sick of the affair, but at this stage I could
+not back out.
+
+"Lord Porthoning," I said, "there is no necessity for such vigorous
+denials. The matter is easily arranged. You had better permit me to
+examine the pocket in question."
+
+"I'll see you and your common bully of a father-in-law in hell before I
+allow either of you to touch me or my clothing!" my pleasant connection
+declared fiercely. "Get out of my way, both of you! And be thankful if you
+don't have to answer for this outrage in a police court!"
+
+He swaggered toward the door. Mr. Bundercombe, who had appeared to stand
+on one side, suddenly caught him by the shoulders.
+
+"Feel in his right-hand pocket, Paul!" he bade me.
+
+I did so and promptly produced the brooch. Lord Porthoning's eyes seemed
+almost to start from his head. I could see that he suddenly became limp in
+Mr. Bundercombe's grasp. His eyes were fixed on the jewels and his
+amazement was undeniable. Mr. Bundercombe winked at me over his head.
+
+"What is the meaning of this, Lord Porthoning?" I demanded as sternly as I
+could.
+
+My courage was failing me. I felt that the joke, after all, had been a
+severe one. Lord Porthoning seemed almost on the point of collapse. His
+eyes never once left the brooch which I was holding.
+
+"I didn't take it!" he gasped. "I swear I didn't take it!"
+
+I was anxious now to finish the affair.
+
+"Lord Porthoning," I said, "I will take your word. You say you never took
+the brooch. Very well; we will assume, for the sake of the family, that it
+found its way into your pocket by accident."
+
+Lord Porthoning felt his forehead. There were big drops of sweat standing
+out there. There was something in his extreme agitation that was, in a
+way, incomprehensible. He edged toward the door.
+
+"I didn't take it!" he muttered. "Let me go! Let me get away!"
+
+Mr. Bundercombe stood on one side. My hand was on the handle of the door.
+I looked at my father-in-law questioningly. My sympathies were now almost
+with the enemy, but I felt bound to see the affair through.
+
+"It was you who discovered this little accident," I remarked. "I think you
+will agree with me that it is best to say nothing more about it."
+
+Mr. Bundercombe once more winked at me solemnly over the head of my
+stricken connection.
+
+"I quite agree with you, Paul," he said. "Under the circumstances we will
+let nothing happen to disturb the festivities and harmony of the day. Lord
+Porthoning certainly will not object if we just satisfy ourselves that the
+brooch was the only instance of--momentary aberration; shall we call it?"
+
+If Lord Porthoning's attitude had been a little mysterious before it was
+absolutely incomprehensible now. He stood suddenly upright and brandished
+his cane over his head.
+
+"If either of you touch me," he shouted fiercely, "I'll break your skulls!
+This is blackmail! I'll send for the police! Let me go!"
+
+His sudden fit of anger, justifiable though it certainly seemed on the
+face of it, nevertheless took both Mr. Bundercombe and myself by surprise.
+The former, indeed, was in the act of opening the door, when he paused.
+Once more he caught my connection by the collar and thrust his hand into
+the other coat pocket. When he withdrew it it was filled with rings, a
+bracelet and a pendant.
+
+He threw them silently--a glittering heap--on the table. Without a word he
+thrust his hand in once more and brought out a little black ivory carving
+of a Japanese monk, which was perhaps one of the most valuable of my
+offerings.
+
+There was a blankness in Mr. Bundercombe's expression that I could not
+understand.
+
+I frowned. It seemed to me the affair had now gone much too far. Lord
+Porthoning had staggered to a chair and was sitting there with his face
+buried in his hands. He was a stricken man. I turned to my father-in-law.
+
+"This is too much of a good thing, sir," I whispered angrily. "The brooch
+was all right enough, so far as it went, and he deserved a lesson; but
+these other things----"
+
+A look in Mr. Bundercombe's face suddenly froze the words upon my lips. He
+leaned over toward me.
+
+"Paul," he declared earnestly, "on my honor I put nothing into his pocket
+except the brooch. I knew no more of those things," he added, pointing to
+the table, "than you did!"
+
+I was speechless. Lord Porthoning looked up. I had never seen a face quite
+like his in my life. One side of it seemed drawn with pain. He checked a
+sob. His fingers gripped at the air as he spoke.
+
+"Paul," he begged hysterically, "don't give me away! I give you my word of
+honor--I give you my word as a Porthoning--I can't help it! You know what
+they call the damned thing when women have it--kleptomania, isn't it? I
+tell you I can't see these things without that same horrible, fascinating,
+cruel instinct! My hands are on them before I know it. But----" he broke
+off. "It's sending me mad, Paul; for, as I live, I never put hands on that
+brooch!"
+
+"How long has this been going on?" I asked, almost mechanically. "Perhaps
+you are the reason that it has become the fashion to send detectives to
+guard wedding presents."
+
+"I am the reason!" Lord Porthoning confessed, his voice shaking. "Paul,
+somehow I believe--I believe this has stopped it. You'll kill the
+instinct. Listen! You are off directly. Let this gentleman, your father-
+in-law, come round to my house. I will restore to him, I swear, every
+article I have ever taken in this fashion. He can find out the owners by
+degrees, and I promise that I will never again attend a wedding reception
+so long as I live!"
+
+Outside I could hear them calling for me. I glanced at the clock. It was
+within a few minutes of the time fixed for our departure. Mr. Bundercombe
+nodded to me.
+
+"Very well," I agreed. "It shall be as you say."
+
+"I'll wait here," Lord Porthoning said in a trembling tone. "Mr.
+Bundercombe can come back for me after he has seen you off. He can go home
+with me in the motor. Take--take care of those things."
+
+Mr. Bundercombe covered them over with an antimacassar. We left Lord
+Porthoning sitting there and went out into the hall, where Eve was already
+waiting. Mr. Bundercombe was a little unnerved, but he pulled himself
+together.
+
+"Word of honor, Paul!" he declared; "I never saw the old rat take a thing!
+I simply landed him with the brooch. It was not until he was going out
+that I caught a glimpse of those other things in his pocket."
+
+We drove off ten minutes later. I looked out of the motor as we swung
+round into the main thoroughfare. Behind the window of the little sitting
+room I saw the pale, almost ghastly face of Lord Porthoning. He caught my
+eye and waved his hand weakly.
+
+On the pavement in front of the striped awning stood Mr. Bundercombe--
+large, beaming, both hands outstretched. Eve waved her handkerchief. As we
+finally disappeared she glanced toward me.
+
+"Has dad been up to anything, Paul?" she asked. "He has just that kind of
+satisfied expression that always used to terrify me."
+
+"Like a cat licking its whiskers after a stolen saucer of milk!" I
+suggested.
+
+She laughed.
+
+"You mustn't make fun of dad," she begged. "He's such a dear!"
+
+"I shall never attempt to make fun of your father," I assured her
+fervently. "I think he is quite the most remarkable man I ever met! And
+now----"
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's An Amiable Charlatan, by E. Phillips Oppenheim
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN AMIABLE CHARLATAN ***
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