A Mysterious Disappearance

by Louis Tracy

  CHAPTER X

  SOME GOOD RESOLUTIONS

  Once safe in the seclusion of Claude's sitting-room Mensmore almostcollapsed. The strain had been a severe one, and now he had to pay thepenalty by way of reaction.

  The barrister forced him to swallow a stiff brandy and soda, and thenwished him to retire to rest, but the other protested with some show ofanimation.

  "Let me talk, for goodness' sake!" he cried. "I cannot be alone. Youhave seen me through a lot of trouble to-night. Stick to me for anotherhour, there's a good fellow."

  "With pleasure. Perhaps it is the best thing you can do, after all. Letus see how much you have won."

  Bruce made a calculation on a sheet of paper and said: "Exclusive of theoriginal stake of ten louis you ought to have L3,128."

  Mensmore pulled out of his pocket the crumpled bundle of notes andbills. Claude's notes were among them, and he tossed them across thetable with a smile.

  "There's your capital. I will see if the total is all right before we goshares."

  Claude nodded, and Mensmore began to jot down the items of his valuablepackage. He bothered with the figures for some time but could not getthem right. Finally he tossed everything over to the other, saying:

  "No matter how I count, I can't get this calculation straight. Seventeencoups, beginning with ten louis, work out at L3,128 all right enough.But in this lot there is L3,368, and they don't pay twice at theCasino."

  The barrister thought for a moment, and then laughed heartily. "Iremember now," he said; "I kept careful count of the series ofseventeen, or eighteen, to be exact. On my own account, as you were toodazed to notice anything, I put a maximum on the black. Your dreamturned up trumps, as the series stopped and black won. Hence the oddL240."

  "Then that is yours," said the other gravely. "I will take L1,128 tosquare all my debts, and we go shares in the balance, a thousand each,if you think that fair. If not I will gladly hand over the lot, afterpaying my debts, I mean."

  Mensmore's seriousness impressed the barrister more than any otherincident of that dramatic evening.

  "You forget," he replied, "that I told you I had money in plenty for myown needs. You must keep every farthing except my own L8, which you donot now need. No. Please do not argue. I will consent to no othercourse. This turn of Fortune's wheel should provide you with sufficientcapital to branch out earnestly in your career, whatever it be. I willask my interest in different manner."

  "I can never repay you, in gratitude, at any rate. And there is anotherwho will be thankful to you when she knows. Ask anything you like. Makeany stipulation you please. I agree to it."

  "It is a bargain. Sign this."

  Bruce took a sheet of notepaper, bearing the crest of the Hotel duCercle, dated it, and wrote:

  "I promise that, for the space of twelve months, I will not make a bet of any sort, or gamble at any game of chance."

  When Mensmore read the document his face fell a little. "Won't youexcept pigeon-shooting?" he said. "I am sure to beat that Russian nexttime."

  "I can allow no exceptions."

  "But why limit me for twelve months?"

  "Because if in that time you do not gain sense enough to stop riskingyour happiness, even your life, upon the turn of a card or the flight ofa bird, the sooner thereafter you shoot yourself the less trouble youwill bring upon those connected with you."

  "You are a rum chap," murmured Mensmore, "and you put matters prettystraight, too. However, here goes. You don't bar me from entering forsweepstakes."

  He signed the paper, and tossed it over to Bruce, while the latter didnot comment upon the limitation of his intentions imposed by Mensmore'sfinal sentence. The man undoubtedly was a good shot, and during hisresidence in the Riviera he might pick up some valuable prizes.

  "And now," said the barrister, "may I ask as a friend to what use youintend to put your newly found wealth?"

  "Oh, that is simple enough. I have to pay L500 which I lost in bets overthat beastly unlucky match. Then I have a splendid 'spec,' into which Iwill now be able to place about L2,000--a thing which I have good reasonto believe will bring me in at least ten thou' within the year, andthere is nearly a thousand pounds to go on with. And all thanks to you."

  "Never mind thanking me. I am only too glad to have taken such a part inthe affair. I will not forget this night as long as I live."

  "Nor I. Just think of it. I might be lying in the gardens now, or insome mortuary, with half my head blown off."

  "Tell me," said Bruce, between the contemplative puffs of a cigar, "whatinduced you to think of suicide?"

  "It was a combination of circumstances," replied the other. "You mustunderstand that I was somewhat worried about financial and familymatters when I came to Monte Carlo. It was not to gamble, in a sense,that I remained here. I have loafed about the world a good deal, but Imay honestly say I never made a fool of myself at cards or backinghorses. At most kinds of sport I am fairly proficient, and inpigeon-shooting, which goes on here extensively, I am undoubtedly anexpert. For instance, all this season I have kept myself in funds simplyby means of these competitions."

  His hearer nodded approvingly.

  "Well, in the midst of my minor troubles, I must needs go and fall overhead and ears in love--a regular bad case. She is the first woman I everspoke two civil words to. We met at a picnic along the Corniche Road,and she sat upon me so severely that I commenced to defend myself byshowing that I was not such a surly brute as I looked. By Jove, in aweek we were engaged."

  The barrister indulged in a judicial frown.

  "No. It's none of your silly, sentimental affairs in which people partand meet months afterwards with polite inquiries after each other'shealth. I am not made that way; neither is Phil--Phyllis is her name,you know. This is for life. I am just bound up in her, and she would gothrough fire and water for me. But she is rich, the only daughter of aMidland iron-master with tons of money. Her people are awfully nice, andI think they approve of me, though they have no idea that Phil and Iare engaged."

  He paused to gulp down a strong decoction of brandy and soda. Thedifficult part of his story was coming.

  "You can quite believe," he continued, "that I did not want to ask herfather, Sir William Browne--he was knighted by the late Queen for hisdistinguished municipal services--to give his daughter to a chap whohadn't a cent. He supposes I am fairly well off, living as I do, and Ican't bear acting under false pretences. I hate it like poison, thoughin this world a man often has to do what he doesn't like. However, thistime I determined to be straight and above board. It was a very oddfact, but I just wanted L3000 to enable me to make a move which, I tellyou, ought to result in a very fair sum of money, sufficient, at anyrate, to render it a reasonable proposition for Phil and me to getmarried."

  Claude was an appreciative listener. These love stories of real life areoften so much more dramatic than the fictions of the novel or the stage.

  "The opportunity came, to my mind, in this big tournament. I had nodifficulty of getting odds in six or seven to one to far more than I wasable to pay if I lost. Phil came into the scheme with me--she knows allabout me, you know--and we both regarded it as a certainty. Then thecollapse came. She wanted to get the money from her mother to enable meto pay up, but I would not hear of it. I pretended that I could raisethe wind some other way. The fact is I was wild with myself and with myluck generally. Then there was the disgrace of failing to settle onMonday, combined with the general excitement of that dream and afearfully disturbed night. To make a long story short, I thought thebest thing to do was to try a final plunge, and if it failed, to quit.I even took steps to make Phil believe I was a bad lot, so that shemight not fret too much after me."

  Mensmore's voice was a little unsteady in this last sentence. Thebarrister tried to cheer him by a little bit of raillery:

  "I hope you have not succeeded too well?" he laughed.

  "Oh, it is all right now. I mean that I left her some papers which wouldbring things to her k
nowledge that, unexplained by me, would give anyone a completely false impression."

  The subject was evidently a painful one, so Bruce did not pursue it.

  "About this speculation of yours," he said. "Are you sure it's allright, and that you will not lose your money?"

  "It is as certain as any business can be. It is a matter I thoroughlyunderstand, but I will tell you all about it. If you will pardon me amoment I will bring you the papers, as I should like to have youradvice, and it is early yet. You don't want to go to bed, I suppose?"

  "Not for hours."

  Mensmore rose, but before he reached the door a gentle tap heralded theappearance of the hall-porter.

  "There is a letter for the gentleman. Monsieur is not in his room. He isreported to be here, so I bring it."

  Mensmore took the note, read it with a smile and a growing flush, andhanded it to the barrister, saying: "Under the circumstances I think youought to see this. Isn't she a brick?"

  The tiny missive ran:

  "_Dearest One_,--You must forgive me, but we are both so miserable about that wretched money that I told mother everything. She likes you, and though she gave me a blowing up, she has promised to give me L500 to-morrow. We can never thank her sufficiently. Do come around and see me for a minute. I will be in the verandah until eleven.

  "Ever yours, "PHYLLIS."

  Claude returned the note.

  "Luck! you're the luckiest fellow in the South of France!" he said."Why, here's the mother plotting with the daughter on your behalf. SirWilliam hasn't the ghost of a chance. Off you go to that blessedverandah."

  When Mensmore had quitted the hotel Bruce descended to the bureau totake up the threads of his neglected quest. The letter to Sydney H.Corbett was still unclaimed, and he thought he was justified inexamining it. On the reverse of the envelope was the embossed stamp ofan electric-lighting company, so the contents were nothing moreimportant than a bill.

  An hour later Mensmore joined him in the billiard-room, radiant andexcited.

  "Great news," he said. "I squared everything with Lady Browne. Told herI was only chaffing Phil about the five hundred, because she spoiled myaim by shrieking out. Sir William has chartered a steam yacht to go fora three weeks' cruise along the Gulf of Genoa and the Italian coast.They have put him up to ask me in the morning to join the party. GreatScott! what a night I'm having!"

  They parted soon afterwards, and next morning Bruce was informed thathis friend had gone out early, leaving word that he had been summoned tobreakfast at the Grand Hotel, where Sir William Browne was staying.

  During the afternoon Mensmore came to him like a whirlwind. "We're offto-day," he said. "By the way, where shall I find you in London?"

  The barrister gave him his address, and Mensmore, handing him a card,said, "My permanent address is given here, the Orleans Club, St.James's. But I will look you up first. I shall be in town early inMarch. And you?"

  "Oh, I shall be home much sooner. Good-bye, and don't let your good luckspoil you."

  "No fear! Wait until you know Phyllis. She would keep any fellow allright once he got his chance, as I have done. Good-bye, and--and--Godbless you!"

  During the next three days Bruce devoted himself sedulously to thesearch for Corbett. He inquired in every possible and impossible place,but the man had utterly vanished.

  Nor did he come to claim his letter at the Hotel du Cercle. It remainedstuck on the baize-covered board until it was covered with dust, and theclerk of the bureau had grown weary of watching people who scrutinizedthe receptacle for their correspondence.

  Others came and asked for Corbett--sharp-featured men with imperials andlong moustaches--the interest taken in the man was great, butunrequited. He never appeared.

  At last the season ended, the hotel was closed, and the mysteriousletter was shot into the dustbin.