CHAPTER XXVIII
Jacob and Lord Felixstowe stood side by side on the deck of ahomeward-bound steamer, a few weeks later, watching the pilot come outfrom Plymouth Harbour.
"Some trip," the latter remarked, with a reminiscent sigh. "I feel asthough I'd had the beano of my life."
"You scored it up against me, all right," Jacob acknowledged. "Thosefellows might easily have got away with my hundred thousand pounds.I'm not at all sure that I ought not to settle an annuity on you."
"Nothing doing," was the prompt reply. "Believe me, Jacob, old dear,mine is one of those peculiar intelligences which thrive best in astate of penury. Give me an absolutely assured income and my talentswould rust. I should no longer be equal to measuring my wits againstthe Morses of the world."
Jacob smiled.
"I think you gave that young man the surprise of his life."
"I'm not at all sure that I didn't play it a trifle low down on Mr.Sydney Morse," Felixstowe reflected. "He was a very creduloussimpleton, for all his cunning. The stage setting of his scheme waswonderful and the details perfect, but he lacked the insight of agreat crook. On the whole I am glad that your brother let the bunchoff lightly."
"Samuel is almost fatally good-natured," his brother remarked. "I havenever known him to stay angry for long with any one."
"But what a prince! What a pasha!" Felixstowe declaredenthusiastically. "He decked me out at Tiffany's till I feel like awalking jeweller's shop in the evening. And what a send-off! The oldcountry's going to seem a bit flat, Jacob. I feel as though I werecoming back to the rustic life."
"It's something to have any sort of life to come back to," Jacobsighed.
The young man glanced at his companion with thoughtful eyes.
"Got the pip, old bean?" he enquired, with gentle sympathy.
Jacob shook his head.
"Slight attack of the blues, I suppose," he confessed, his eyestravelling over the deep green of the fields and the dark woods beyondthe harbour. "Homecoming always seems a bit flat for a lonely man. Isuppose Dick Dauncey will be the only human being who cares sixpencewhether I turn up again or not."
"What did you have for luncheon?" Felixstowe asked anxiously.
"Whereas you," Jacob went on,--
"That reminds me," his companion interrupted, "I told Mary to bringthe little car down for me, if there was nothing much doing in town. Iwonder whether she's here."
"Good heavens!" Jacob exclaimed. "Do you mean to say that you haveasked your sister to drive that crazy old tin kettle of yours all theway down from London?"
"It's a damned nice little car, properly handled," its owner objectedstiffly. "I'll lay odds that if Mary started we shall see her on thedock."
Notwithstanding his avowed disapproval, Jacob's interest in thelanding perceptibly increased, and much of his depression had passedaway when they recognised Lady Mary amongst the little crowd waitingon the dock. She was looking very smart and pretty in her simplemotoring clothes, and Jacob realised, even as they shook hands, whyhis interest in the ladies of New York had lacked spontaneity. Shechattered to them gaily enough as they stood waiting for theirluggage, but Jacob fancied that there was a shade of reserve in hermanner.
"I couldn't wait till you got to London to hear all about it," shedeclared. "I must have the whole story."
"At dinner time," Jacob suggested. "Only you must promise that youwon't laugh too much at the poor guileless Britisher who wouldprobably have been sharked of a hundred thousand pounds in New York,but for Felix."
The girl's eyes danced with pleasure.
"You really mean that he was useful?"
"I can assure you--"
"Chuck that," the young man interrupted gruffly. "Non-stop run down, Isuppose, Mary?"
His sister looked a little dubious.
"I had to stop a few times for repairs," she admitted, "and twopolicemen told me I should be summoned for making that awful noise."
"A wonderful engine," Felixstowe declared, "but it needs a masterhand."
"It needs a silencer more than anything," Jacob commented.
"Are you going to ride up with us in the dickey to-morrow?" Lady Maryasked.
"I am not," Jacob replied firmly. "I have wired for my own car."
"Race you up for a tenner, old bean," Felixstowe suggested promptly.
"I wouldn't imperil Lady Mary's existence," Jacob replied,--"that is,unless she rode with me."
"No fear," the young man scoffed. "Mary would never desert the old tinkettle, as you call it."
"I rather like the smoothness of a Rolls-Royce," she murmured.
Over dinner that evening, their adventures in New York were recountedat length. It was not until her brother had wandered out to get somecigarettes, however, that Lady Mary referred to the subject which allthree seemed to have been avoiding.
"It must have been rather a shock to you, I am afraid, to meet Captainand Mrs. Penhaven on the steamer," she remarked sympathetically.
"I thought it was going to be," he admitted. "It didn't turn out thatway."
"Are you very broken-hearted?"
"Are you?"
"I didn't give myself the chance," she replied, "When I found thatthings were going wrong between Maurice and me, I just told him so."
"But you did care for him very much, didn't you?" he ventured.
She considered the matter indifferently.
"I suppose I did once, in a way," she decided. "He was rather a dear,but a very obvious person in many respects. I always felt I knewexactly what he was going to do or say, and that does get soirritating. I am perfectly certain that we should have led acat-and-dog life if we had married."
Jacob looked across the little round table. For the first time duringthe evening, Lady Mary's eyes met his. They were amazingly blue, andJacob lost his head.
"As for me, I am a faithless brute," he confessed. "I used to thinkthere couldn't be any other girl in the world except Sybil. But Ichanged. I was glad when I found that she was married."
"Did you change because of another girl?" Lady Mary asked softly.
"Yes," Jacob faltered.
"Then why don't you tell the other girl so?"
"Lady Mary--" he began.
"Jacob," she murmured, "come and tell me quickly, or Jack will be backwith those cigarettes."
Which is where the real and most wonderful adventure of Jacob Pratt'slife commenced.
THE END
NOVELS by E. PHILLIPS OPPENHEIM
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Jacob's Ladder
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_The Best Story Oppenheim Ever Wrote!_
THE GREAT IMPERSONATION
_By_ E. PHILLIPS OPPENHEIM
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Transcriber's note:
Minor changes have been made to correct what appear to betypesetters' errors; otherwise, every effort has been madeto remain true to the author's words and intent.
Jacob's Ladder Page 29
