Delphi Complete Works of Sheridan Le Fanu

by J. Sheridan le Fanu

  “Shall you want the purse?” he asked at last.

  “Certainly; I always want a purse,” said Sir Bale energetically.

  “The condition is, that you shall back each of the three horses I have named. But you may back them for much or little, as you like, only the sum must not be less than five pounds in each hundred which this purse contains. That is the condition, and if you violate it, you will make some powerful people very angry, and you will feel it. Do you agree?”

  “Of course; five pounds in the hundred — certainly; and how many hundreds are there?”

  “Three.”

  “Well, a fellow with luck may win something with three hundred pounds, but it ain’t very much.”

  “Quite enough, if you use it aright.”

  “Three hundred pounds,” repeated the Baronet, as he emptied the purse, which Feltram had just placed in his hand, upon the table; and contemplating them with grave interest, he began telling them off in little heaps of five-and-twenty each. He might have thanked Feltram, but he was thinking more of the guineas than of the grizzly donor.

  “Ay,” said he, after a second counting, “I think there are exactly three hundred. Well, so you say I must apply three times five — fifteen of these. It is an awful pity backing those queer horses you have named; but if I must make the sacrifice, I must, I suppose?” he added, with a hesitating inquiry in the tone.

  “If you don’t, you’ll rue it,” said Feltram coldly, and walked away.

  “Penny in pocket’s a merry companion,” says the old English proverb, and Sir Bale felt in better spirits and temper than he had for many a day as he replaced the guineas in the purse.

  It was long since he had visited either the racecourse or any other place of amusement. Now he might face his kind without fear that his pride should be mortified, and dabble in the fascinating agitations of the turf once more.

  “Who knows how this little venture may turn out?” he thought. “It is time the luck should turn. My last summer in Germany, my last winter in Paris — d — n me, I’m owed something. It’s time I should win a bit.”

  Sir Bale had suffered the indolence of a solitary and discontented life imperceptibly to steal upon him. It would not do to appear for the first time on Heckleston Lea with any of those signs of negligence which, in his case, might easily be taken for poverty. All his appointments, therefore, were carefully looked after; and on the Monday following, he, followed by his groom, rode away for the Saracen’s Head at Heckleston, where he was to put up, for the races that were to begin on the day following, and presented as handsome an appearance as a peer in those days need have cared to show.

  CHAPTER XVII

  On the Course — Beeswing, Falcon, and Lightning

  As he rode towards Golden Friars, through which his route lay, in the early morning light, in which the mists of night were clearing, he looked back towards Mardykes with a hope of speedy deliverance from that hated imprisonment, and of a return to the continental life in which he took delight. He saw the summits and angles of the old building touched with the cheerful beams, and the grand old trees, and at the opposite side the fells dark, with their backs towards the east; and down the side of the wooded and precipitous clough of Feltram, the light, with a pleasant contrast against the beetling purple of the fells, was breaking in the faint distance. On the lake he saw the white speck that indicated the sail of Philip Feltram’s boat, now midway between Mardykes and the wooded shores of Cloostedd.

  “Going on the same errand,” thought Sir Bale, “I should not wonder. I wish him the same luck. Yes, he’s going to Cloostedd Forest. I hope he may meet his gipsies there — the Trebecks, or whoever they are.”

  And as a momentary sense of degradation in being thus beholden to such people smote him, “Well,” thought he, “who knows? Many a fellow will make a handsome sum of a poorer purse than this at Heckleston. It will be a light matter paying them then.”

  Through Golden Friars he rode. Some of the spectators who did not like him, wondered audibly at the gallant show, hoped it was paid for, and conjectured that he had ridden out in search of a wife. On the whole, however, the appearance of their Baronet in a smarter style than usual was popular, and accepted as a change to the advantage of the town.

  Next morning he was on the racecourse of Heckleston, renewing old acquaintance and making himself as agreeable as he could — an object, among some people, of curiosity and even interest. Leaving the carriage-sides, the hoods and bonnets, Sir Bale was soon among the betting men, deep in more serious business.

  How did he make his book? He did not break his word. He backed Beeswing, Falcon, and Lightning. But it must be owned not for a shilling more than the five guineas each, to which he stood pledged. The odds were forty-five to one against Beeswing, sixty to one against Lightning, and fifty to one against Falcon.

  “A pretty lot to choose!” exclaimed Sir Bale, with vexation. “As if I had money so often, that I should throw it away!”

  The Baronet was testy thinking over all this, and looked on Feltram’s message as an impertinence and the money as his own.

  Let us now see how Sir Bale Mardykes’ pocket fared.

  Sulkily enough at the close of the week he turned his back on Heckleston racecourse, and took the road to Golden Friars.

  He was in a rage with his luck, and by no means satisfied with himself; and yet he had won something. The result of the racing had been curious. In the three principal races the favourites had been beaten: one by an accident, another on a technical point, and the third by fair running. And what horses had won? The names were precisely those which the “fortuneteller” had predicted.

  Well, then, how was Sir Bale in pocket as he rode up to his ancestral house of Mardykes, where a few thousand pounds would have been very welcome? He had won exactly 775 guineas; and had he staked a hundred instead of five on each of the names communicated by Feltram, he would have won 15,500 guineas.

  He dismounted before his hall-door, therefore, with the discontent of a man who had lost nearly 15,000 pounds. Feltram was upon the steps, and laughed dryly.

  “What do you laugh at?” asked Sir Bale tartly.

  “You’ve won, haven’t you?”

  “Yes, I’ve won; I’ve won a trifle.”

  “On the horses I named?”

  “Well, yes; it so turned out, by the merest accident.”

  Feltram laughed again dryly, and turned away.

  Sir Bale entered Mardykes Hall, and was surly. He was in a much worse mood than before he had ridden to Heckleston. But after a week or so ruminating upon the occurrence, he wondered that Feltram spoke no more of it. It was undoubtedly wonderful. There had been no hint of repayment yet, and he had made some hundreds by the loan; and, contrary to all likelihood, the three horses named by the unknown soothsayer had won. Who was this gipsy? It would be worth bringing the soothsayer to Mardykes, and giving his people a camp on the warren, and all the poultry they could catch, and a pig or a sheep every now and then. Why, that seer was worth the philosopher’s stone, and could make Sir Bale’s fortune in a season. Some one else would be sure to pick him up if he did not.

  So, tired of waiting for Feltram to begin, he opened the subject one day himself. He had not seen him for two or three days; and in the wood of Mardykes he saw his lank figure standing among the thick trees, upon a little knoll, leaning on a staff which he sometimes carried with him in his excursions up the mountains.

  “Feltram!” shouted Sir Bale.

  Feltram turned and beckoned. Sir Bale muttered, but obeyed the signal.

  “I brought you here, because you can from this point with unusual clearness today see the opening of the Clough of Feltram at the other side, and the clump of trees, where you will find the way to reach the person about whom you are always thinking.”

  “Who said I am always thinking about him?” said the Baronet angrily; for he felt like a man detected in a weakness, and resented it.

  “I say it, because I know it;
and you know it also. See that clump of trees standing solitary in the hollow? Among them, to the left, grows an ancient oak. Cut in its bark are two enormous letters H — F; so large and bold, that the rugged furrows of the oak bark fail to obscure them, although they are ancient and spread by time. Standing against the trunk of this great tree, with your back to these letters, you are looking up the Glen or Clough of Feltram, that opens northward, where stands Cloostedd Forest spreading far and thick. Now, how do you find our fortuneteller?”

  “That is exactly what I wish to know,” answered Sir Bale; “because, although I can’t, of course, believe that he’s a witch, yet he has either made the most marvellous fluke I’ve heard of, or else he has got extraordinary sources of information; or perhaps he acts partly on chance, partly on facts. Be it which you please, I say he’s a marvellous fellow; and I should like to see him, and have a talk with him; and perhaps he could arrange with me. I should be very glad to make an arrangement with him to give me the benefit of his advice about any matter of the same kind again.”

  “I think he’s willing to see you; but he’s a fellow with a queer fancy and a pig-head. He’ll not come here; you must go to him; and approach him his own way too, or you may fail to find him. On these terms he invites you.”

  Sir Bale laughed.

  “He knows his value, and means to make his own terms.”

  “Well, there’s nothing unfair in that; and I don’t see that I should dispute it. How is one to find him?”

  “Stand, as I told you, with your back to those letters cut in the oak. Right before you lies an old Druidic altar-stone. Cast your eye over its surface, and on some part of it you are sure to see a black stain about the size of a man’s head. Standing, as I suppose you, against the oak, that stain, which changes its place from day to day, will give you the line you must follow through the forest in order to light upon him. Take carefully from it such trees or objects as will guide you; and when the forest thickens, do the best you can to keep to the same line. You are sure to find him.”

  “You’ll come, Feltram. I should lose myself in that wilderness, and probably fail to discover him,” said Sir Bale; “and I really wish to see him.”

  “When two people wish to meet, it is hard if they don’t. I can go with you a bit of the way; I can walk a little through the forest by your side, until I see the small flower that grows peeping here and there, that always springs where those people walk; and when I begin to see that sign, I must leave you. And, first, I’ll take you across the lake.”

  “By Jove, you’ll do no such thing!” said Sir Bale hastily.

  “But that is the way he chooses to be approached,” said Philip Feltram.

  “I have a sort of feeling about that lake; it’s the one childish spot that is left in my imagination. The nursery is to blame for it — old stories and warnings; and I can’t think of that. I should feel I had invoked an evil omen if I did. I know it is all nonsense; but we are queer creatures, Feltram. I must only ride there.”

  “Why, it is five-and-twenty miles round the lake to that; and after all were done, he would not see you. He knows what he’s worth, and he’ll have his own way,” answered Feltram. “The sun will soon set. See that withered branch, near Snakes Island, that looks like fingers rising from the water? When its points grow tipped with red, the sun has but three minutes to live.”

  “That is a wonder which I can’t see; it is too far away.”

  “Yes, the lake has many signs; but it needs sight to see them,” said Feltram.

  “So it does,” said the Baronet; “more than most men have got. I’ll ride round, I say; and I make my visit, for this time, my own way.”

  “You’ll not find him, then; and he wants his money. It would be a pity to vex him.”

  “It was to you he lent the money,” said Sir Bale.

  “Yes.”

  “Well, you are the proper person to find him out and pay him,” urged Sir Bale.

  “Perhaps so; but he invites you; and if you don’t go, he may be offended, and you may hear no more from him.”

  “We’ll try. When can you go? There are races to come off next week, for once and away, at Langton. I should not mind trying my luck there. What do you say?

  “You can go there and pay him, and ask the same question — what horses, I mean, are to win. All the county are to be there; and plenty of money will change hands.”

  “I’ll try,” said Feltram.

  “When will you go?”

  “Tomorrow,” he answered.

  “I have an odd idea, Feltram, that you are really going to pay off those cursed mortgages.”

  He laid his hand with at least a gesture of kindness on the thin arm of Feltram, who coldly answered,

  “So have I;” and walked down the side of the little knoll and away, without another word or look.

  CHAPTER XVIII

  On the Lake, at Last

  Next day Philip Feltram crossed the lake; and Sir Bale, seeing the boat on the water, guessed its destination, and watched its progress with no little interest, until he saw it moored and its sail drop at the rude pier that affords a landing at the Clough of Feltram. He was now satisfied that Philip had actually gone to seek out the ‘cunning man,’ and gather hints for the next race.

  When that evening Feltram returned, and, later still, entered Sir Bale’s library, the master of Mardykes was gladder to see his face and more interested about his news than he would have cared to confess.

  Philip Feltram did not affect unconsciousness of that anxiety, but, with great directness, proceeded to satisfy it.

  “I was in Cloostedd Forest to-day, nearly all day — and found the old gentleman in a wax. He did not ask me to drink, nor show me any kindness. He was huffed because you would not take the trouble to cross the lake to speak to him yourself. He took the money you sent him and counted it over, and dropped it into his pocket; and he called you hard names enough and to spare; but I brought him round, and at last he did talk.”

  “And what did he say?”

  “He said that the estate of Mardykes would belong to a Feltram.”

  “He might have said something more likely,” said Sir Bale sourly. “Did he say anything more?”

  “Yes. He said the winner at Langton Lea would be Silver Bell.”

  “Any other name?”

  “No.”

  “Silver Bell? Well, that’s not so odd as the last. Silver Bell stands high in the list. He has a good many backers — long odds in his favour against most of the field. I should not mind backing Silver Bell.”

  The fact is, that he had no idea of backing any other horse from the moment he heard the soothsayer’s prediction. He made up his mind to no half measures this time. He would go in to win something handsome.

  He was in great force and full of confidence on the racecourse. He had no fears for the result. He bet heavily. There was a good margin still untouched of the Mardykes estate; and Sir Bale was a good old name in the county. He found a ready market for his offers, and had soon staked — such is the growing frenzy of that excitement — about twenty thousand pounds on his favourite, and stood to win seven.

  He did not win, however. He lost his twenty thousand pounds.

  And now the Mardykes estate was in imminent danger. Sir Bale returned, having distributed I O Us and promissory notes in all directions about him — quite at his wit’s end.

  Feltram was standing — as on the occasion of his former happier return — on the steps of Mardykes Hall, in the evening sun, throwing eastward a long shadow that was lost in the lake. He received him, as before, with a laugh.

  Sir Bale was too much broken to resent this laugh as furiously as he might, had he been a degree less desperate.

  He looked at Feltram savagely, and dismounted.

  “Last time you would not trust him, and this time he would not trust you. He’s huffed, and played you false.”

  “It was not he. I should have backed that d —— d horse in any case,” said
Sir Bale, grinding his teeth. “What a witch you have discovered! One thing is true, perhaps. If there was a Feltram rich enough, he might have the estate now; but there ain’t. They are all beggars. So much for your conjurer.”

  “He may make amends to you, if you make amends to him.”

  “He! Why, what can that wretched impostor do? D — n me, I’m past helping now.”

  “Don’t you talk so,” said Feltram. “Be civil. You must please the old gentleman. He’ll make it up. He’s placable when it suits him. Why not go to him his own way? I hear you are nearly ruined. You must go and make it up.”

  “Make it up! With whom? With a fellow who can’t make even a guess at what’s coming? Why should I trouble my head about him more?”

  “No man, young or old, likes to be frumped. Why did you cross his fancy? He won’t see you unless you go to him as he chooses.”

  “If he waits for that, he may wait till doomsday. I don’t choose to go on that water — and cross it I won’t,” said Sir Bale.

  But when his distracting reminders began to pour in upon him, and the idea of dismembering what remained of his property came home to him, his resolution faltered.

  “I say, Feltram, what difference can it possibly make to him if I choose to ride round to Cloostedd Forest instead of crossing the lake in a boat?”

  Feltram smiled darkly, and answered.

  “I can’t tell. Can you?”

  “Of course I can’t — I say I can’t; besides, what audacity of a fellow like that presuming to prescribe to me! Utterly ludicrous! And he can’t predict — do you really think or believe, Feltram, that he can?”

  “I know he can. I know he misled you on purpose. He likes to punish those who don’t respect his will; and there is a reason in it, often quite clear — not ill-natured. Now you see he compels you to seek him out, and when you do, I think he’ll help you through your trouble. He said he would.”