The Hundredth Chance

by Ethel M. Dell

  CHAPTER XVI

  THE CHAMPION

  Maud took the note with a glance at her uncle.

  "Open it!" he said. "Don't mind me!" and stumped irately to thebay-window and pulled aside the blind.

  Maud opened the note. Her hands were not very steady. The envelopecontained a half-sheet of notepaper with a few words scrawled thereupon,and a short length of string.

  "Sorry to trouble you," ran the note. "But will you tie a knot in theenclosed to show me the size of your wedding finger? Yours, Jake."

  She looked up from the note as her uncle came tramping back. "Is it theyoung man himself?" he demanded.

  "It's Mr. Bolton, sir," said the landlady.

  "Then show him in!" ordered the old man autocratically. "Show him in,and we'll get it over! No time like the present."

  A swift remonstrance rose to Maud's lips, but she did not utter it. Thelandlady looked to her for confirmation of the order, but she did notutter a single word.

  "Get along!" commanded Uncle Edward. "Or I'll fetch him in myself!"

  A whiff of tobacco-smoke came in through the open door. Maud stood verystill, listening. A moment later there came the sound of a pipe beingtapped on the heel of a boot, and then the firm, quiet tread of Jake'sfeet in the passage.

  He entered. "I didn't mean to disturb you again, but I'd forgotten thislittle detail and I've got to catch an early train." He turned with nosign of surprise and regarded Maud's visitor. "Good evening, sir!" hesaid.

  Mr. Warren gave him a brief nod. Maud still stood mute, Jake's notewith the piece of string dangling therefrom in her hand.

  He went quietly to her. "Say! Let me fix that for you!" he said.

  She suffered him to take her hand. It lay cold and quivering in his.He wound the string round her third finger and knotted it. Then heslipped it off, and took the hand closely and warmly into his own.

  "I hope you haven't come to forbid the banns," he said, calmly returningthe grim scrutiny that the old man had levelled at him from the momentof his entrance.

  Uncle Edward uttered a sound indicative of intense disgust. "I? Oh,I've no authority," he said. "I disapprove--if that's what you mean.Any decent person would disapprove of the sort of alliance you two aredetermined to make. But I don't expect my opinion to be deferred to. Ifyou choose to marry a woman who doesn't care two straws about you, it'syour affair, not mine."

  Jake turned in his deliberate fashion to Maud. "Your uncle, I presume?"he said.

  "Yes," she made answer.

  His face wore a smile that baffled her, as he said: "It's my opinionthat we should get on better alone together, though it's for you todecide."

  She looked at him rather piteously, and as if in answer to that lookJake slipped a steady arm about her.

  "What about the head of the family?" he said, speaking softly almost asif to a child. "Reckon he'll be wanting you. Won't you go to him?"

  The slight pressure of his arm directed her towards the door. Sheyielded to it instinctively, with an abrupt feeling that the matter hadbeen taken out of her hands.

  He went with her into the passage, and they stood for a moment togetherunder the flickering lamp.

  "Bunny in bed?" he asked.

  "Yes," she said.

  He was still faintly smiling. "You go to bed too, my girl!" he said."I'll settle this old firebrand."

  "Don't--quarrel with him, Jake!" she said nervously.

  "What should I quarrel about?" said Jake. "Good night, forlornprincess!"

  His voice had a note in it that was almost motherly. She went, from himwith a distinct sense of comfort. His touch had been so strong andwithal so gentle.

  As for Jake, he turned back into the room with the utmost confidence andshut himself in with an air of decision.

  "Now, sir," he said, "if you've any complaint to make, p'raps you'll begood enough to mention it to me right now, and I'll deal with the same.I'm not going to have my girl bullied any more."

  His voice was quiet, even slightly drawling, but his eyes shone withsomething of a glare. He came straight to the old man, who still leanedon his umbrella, and stood before him.

  The latter gazed at him ferociously, and for a space they remained thus,stubbornly fixing each other. Then abruptly the old man spoke.

  "You're very masterful, young fellow-my-lad. I suppose you thinkyourself one of the lords of creation, good enough for anybody, hey?"

  Jake's stern face relaxed slowly. "I don't claim to be a prince of theblood," he said, "but I reckon I've got some--points."

  "And you reckon you're good enough to marry my niece?" snapped UncleEdward.

  Jake squared his shoulders. "I shall make her a better husband thansome," he said.

  The old man smote the floor with his umbrella. "Shall you? And has shetold you that she's in love with another man?"

  Jake's right hand went suddenly deep into his pocket and remained there."I am aware that she was once," he said, speaking very deliberately."But that is over. Also, he was not the man for her."

  "A scoundrel, hey? Not a sound man like yourself?" There was amalicious note in the query, but Jake ignored it.

  "He does not count anyway," he said, with finality. "If he did, yourniece wouldn't have come to me for protection. I believe she appealedto you first, but you had more important things to attend to. With meit was otherwise, and so I consider that I have a greater right to beher protector than anyone else in the world."

  "Do you?" said Uncle Edward. "That means you're in love with her, Isuppose?"

  Jake's eyes fenced with his. "You may take it to mean that if itpleases you to do so," he said.

  The old man raked his throat pugnaciously. "It's damn' presumption. Itell you that," he said.

  "That may be," said Jake, unmoved.

  "But it doesn't alter your intentions, hey? You're one of the cussedsort, I can see. Well, look here, young man! I'll make you a proposal.You seem to think I've neglected my duty, though heaven knows theseBrians have no claims on me. But I've taken a fancy to the girl. She'sgentle, which is more than can be said for most of your modern youngwomen. So you just listen to me for a minute! You're on a wrong tackaltogether. Courting should come before marriage, not after. You maymarry first and you may think for a time that all is going to be wellbetween you, but there'll come a day when you'll wake up and find thatin spite of all you haven't won her. And that'll mean misery for youboth. Don't you do it, young man! You'll find the game's not worth thecandle. You have a little patience! Let the girl come to me for a bit!I may be old, but I'll protect her. And if you care to come after her,and do a little courting now and then, well--it's not a very brilliantmatch for her, but I shan't forbid it."

  He ceased to speak. There seemed to be a smile in the eyes that watchedhim, but there was no suggestion of it about Jake's mouth, which wasslightly compressed.

  "That's all very well, sir," he said in his slow quiet way. "But haveyou laid this proposal of yours before Miss Brian herself?"

  Uncle Edward made a sound of impatience. "She can think of no one buther brother. She'll agree fast enough when she realizes that it's theonly thing to do."

  "Will she?" said Jake. "And have you put it to her in that light?"

  The old man coughed and made no reply.

  Jake went on with the utmost composure. "You offer her a home where shecan continue to be a slave to her brother. You don't propose to liftthe burden at all, to ease her life, to make her happy. You wouldn'tknow where to begin. You are ready and anxious to deliver her from me.But there your goodness starts and finishes. You talk of my damnablepresumption." A ruddy glitter like the flicker of a flame dispelled thehint of humour from the lynx-like eyes. "That is just your point ofview. But I reckon I'm nearer to her--several lengths nearer--than youor any other man. She hasn't brought all her troubles to you and criedher heart out in your arms, has she? No,--nor ever will--now!
You'vecome too late, sir,--too late by just twelve hours! You may keep yourmoney and your home to yourself! The girl is mine."

  A deep note suddenly sounded in the man's voice, and Uncle Edward wasabruptly made aware of a lion in his path.

  He backed at once. He had not the smallest desire for an encounter withthe savage beast.

  "Tut, tut!" he said. "You talk like a Red Indian. I wasn't proposingto deprive you of her; only to give the girl a free hand and you thechance of winning her. If you take her without, there'll be the devilto pay sooner or later; I can tell you that. But, if you won't take thechance I offer, that's your affair entirely. I have no more to say."

  "I am taking a different sort of chance," Jake said. "And I have asuspicion that it's less of a gamble than the one you suggest. In anycase, I've put my money on it, and there it'll stay."

  He looked Uncle Edward straight in the eyes a moment, and then brokeinto his sudden, disarming smile.

  "Can't you stop over the week-end now and give her away?" he askedpersuasively. "Her mother seems to shy at the notion."

  "Her mother always was a fool," said Uncle Edward irascibly. Here atleast was a safe object upon which to vent his indignation! "Thebiggest fool that ever lived! What on earth men found to like in her Inever could understand. Oh yes, I'll give the girl away. If you're soset on getting married at once, I'd better stop and see that it's doneproperly. Lucy never did anything properly in her life."

  "Thank you," said Jake. "You are most kind--and considerate."

  "Mark you, that doesn't mean that I approve," warned the old man. "It'sa hare-brained scheme altogether, but I suppose I owe it to my family tosee that it's done on the square."

  Jake had suddenly become extremely suave. "That is very benevolent ofyou, sir," he said.

  "I regard it as my duty," said Uncle Edward gruffly.

  He had never been called benevolent before, and the term was notaltogether to his liking. It seemed safer to accept it, however,without question. There was an unknown element about this young manthat was in some fashion formidable. An odd respect mingled with hisfirst contempt. The fellow might be a bounder,--he was not absolutelydecided upon that head--but, as he himself had modestly stated, he hadsome points. By marrying him, his young niece was about to commit avery rash act, but it was possible--just possible--that it might notlead to utter disaster. It was not a marriage of which he couldapprove, but the man seemed solid, and certainly he himself had nourgent desire to take in the girl and her cripple brother. Altogether,though he did not like to think that his advice had been ignored, andthough at the back of his mind there lurked a vague uneasiness notunmixed with self-reproach, it seemed that matters might have beenconsiderably worse.

  "Don't you tyrannize over her now!" he said to Jake at parting. "You'vegot a fighting face, young fellow-my-lad. But you bear in mind, she's awoman, and--unless I am much mistaken--she is not the sort to stand it."

  "I don't fight with women, sir," said Jake somewhat curtly. "I've otherthings to do."

  Uncle Edward smiled a dry smile. "And you've a few things tolearn--yet," he remarked enigmatically.