The Hunchback of Westminster
Page 24
LordFotheringay would dare to keep bad news from her. They are, after all,both of them gentlemen, whatever may happen to be the Chauvinistictactics they adopt to push themselves forward in their own particularlittle intrigues in politics. Silence in such a crisis would bemonstrous--utterly monstrous."
"But where can he be?" I cried helplessly. "What is he doing? Whydoesn't he come forward and tell the police as much as he knows of theaffair?"
"Perhaps he has," said Casteno significantly, dealing with my lastquestion first. "Who knows? Naylor has dropped his part in the search,you see, and if that means anything at all it means that the murder hasprecious little to do with this wild chase after the old parchmentrecords. My own impression is that the daughter is not the only memberof the Napier family who has taken sides against us in this hunt for thesubmerged treasure. When the truth is told I think you will find bothfather and daughter have determined, in a perfectly friendly way, towork against me, just to prove to you how foolish and futile you havebeen not to take their advice. Hence Colonel Napier may have beendespatched in one direction to circumvent us and Miss Doris in another.That disposition of their forces would be quite fair, you know, andmight have most important results."
"And the man found dead in the colonel's bed?"
"Any theory could account for his presence," said the Spaniard,shrugging his shoulders and walking towards the window as thoughheartily tired of my objections. "One is that he was some burglar whohad got the office that the colonel had left the flat, and had disguisedhimself to resemble the master, had walked in at the front door andpersonated him over-night, and had been assassinated in error. Suchcases of impersonation are much more common than people imagine, butthey have such ludicrous, as well as tragic, results that they seldom,if ever, get into the police courts. Another theory--and to me not atall a bad one--is that the whole business has been engineered by somesecret society for a purpose that will eventually become apparent. Asyou know, there are plenty of secret organisations in London that do notcontent themselves with mystic signs and passwords and occasionalextravagances in the shape of nitro-glycerine and dynamite. I knowthere is a branch of the Spanish `Friends of Liberty' in England, forinstance; and I am sure if they have got some hint from Mexico about thediscovery of those manuscripts they will stop at nothing--not even acrime like this--to frighten off Colonel Napier."
"Well, I had better leave it," I said at last, with a sigh, throwing thepaper on to the floor and joining my companion at the casement. "Afterall, you are really the leader of this expedition, and you have a rightto require of me that I shall pay some attention to your conclusions."
"Yes; leave it," repeated Casteno. "Remember, you are only one man withone brain and one pair of hands. You can't do everything in a maze thathas such extraordinary ramifications as this. I tried alone, remember,and failed; and, first, I had to get your help, and then MrCooper-Nassington's, and heaven alone knows where we shall end. Butthis brings me to another point, Glynn," he went on, with increasingearnestness. "I want you not to approach Miss Doris until this flyingmachine experiment is over. It is quite natural of you to wish to doso, I admit, but I want you to consider my interests a little for a dayor two, and to refrain."
"I see," I said meditatively. "You are afraid something might happen,some injudicious word of hers, some careless act, which might scare offsome of the people we want to keep blind to our movements, eh?"
"Yes," answered Casteno; "but that's not all. You must recollect, too,that the people who are not for us are against us. It is not really tothe Napier interest that your side should win. They are fighting, in myopinion, on the side of the authorities as represented by the ForeignSecretary and the earl. Well, let them, that's all, and only when we'vewon let us put our heads above the hedge."
Some other conversation followed, but in the end I agreed to do as JoseCasteno wished. As a consequence, we kept quite quiet in our roomsuntil we had got word from a friendly waiter that the hunchback, MissDoris, and Captain Sparhawk had returned to the hotel, apparently ongood terms again, and then in the darkness of night we slipped off andhad a good tramp about the ancient streets and by-ways of Shrewsbury,rising next morning as fresh and as sturdy as ever. For a time, it istrue, we feared that after his compact to help Lord Cyril Cuthbertsonthe hunchback might deem it prudent to avoid the excursion. As a matterof fact, I was the one who thought so. Casteno didn't, because, in thefirst place, he was sure that his father would never in anycircumstances help England against Spain; and in the second, the dwarfwas too keen on flying machines and their commercial and militarypossibilities to let Sparhawk slip through his fingers when he had gothold of a really serviceable invention that would take seven or eightpeople careering through the air at will. And, as it turned out,Casteno was correct, and I wasn't. The hunchback did turn up in theflying machine enclosure at the great floral fete, all prepared for theexpedition, and, oddly enough, he brought with him as companion--heseemed to have quite forgiven all her previous day's tricks--my ownDoris, who looked as bright and gay as though a trip in a flying machinewere one of the most enjoyable things in existence.
Captain Sparhawk himself, now that the critical day of trial had dawned,looked, I must confess, very nervous and overwrought. Attired in acostume that proved to be a compromise between what is usually adoptedby the driver of a fast motor car and the captain of a penny steamboat,he flitted about from point to point in the enclosure, thepersonification of anxiety and restlessness.
"First we must think of the weather, Miss Doris," we caught him sayingas, disguised in the uniform of sergeants in the Royal Engineers, weshowed our tickets which entitled us to the trip in his company andjoined the mob of experts and committeemen who buzzed about him like somany noisy and curious bees. As for our features, they were works ofart--the art of the painter and the art of the wig-maker--while ourvoices had developed a military bluffness and roughness, which left ourthroats lined with something like sandpaper every time we opened ourmouths.
"It all depends on the wind," he repeated, and he directed her gazeanxiously to the sky, as though she could see at a glance whether thewind were likely at the time of the ascent to blow forty miles an hour,or four. "You see, I have got the inflation well advanced," he went on,pointing to the huge, slowly-swelling monster, which lay like a giganticbut quarter-filled balloon of fishlike shape on the greensward as men inmechanics' clothes hastened here and there pulling a hose straight,slackening a rope, or dragging out the folds of the silk as if they wereso many sheets of lead. "This particular machine is Number 9 of myseries, two ahead of Santos-Dumont. As you are going with us to-day,"at which news both Casteno and I started, for we had not bargained forthat, "I crave your permission to name it the `Doris.'"
"By all means," said the girl, beaming with pleasure; "and I trust itwill have the best of good luck, and bring all connected with it fameand fortune!" Whereat the little mob I have mentioned broke into a loudcheer, which was taken up by the thousands who lined the ropes thatmarked off the enclosures, and amongst whom the news of the machine'sinformal christening passed like so much wildfire.
At this point somebody--I think it was the chairman of the fete--appeared bearing three or four magnums of champagne, which were opened,and the contents passed amongst the select coterie gathered around theinventor. Thus encouraged, the gallant captain went further.
"You need not really fear the trip, Miss Napier," he said, raising theglass with a proud gesture to his lips. "Nor you two gentlemen," headded, nodding in the direction of Casteno and myself, who hadbeen pointed out to him by the gatekeeper as his two payingfellow-passengers. "As for Mr Zouche here," now he included thehunchback, "he is a practical aeronaut like myself. I always say, wherehe would lead I would follow; but, for to-day, we have reversed things abit, although my opinion of his skill and knowledge remains just thesame."
"Then you think the machine is perfectly safe?" said a voice in thecrowd.
"It's as safe as going to h
eaven in a rocking-chair," promptly answeredthe captain, like an oracle. "The fact is," he proceeded in a lowertone, "I have had the thing well tested. In the first place, I had itfilled with air and coal gas, for the purpose of arranging the rigging,and then I took a little trip with it myself with proper hydrogen, andthe petroleum motor hard at work, and it sailed aloft like a bird. Inform, of course, it is similar to the balloon, `La France,' experimentedwith as long ago as 1834 by some French officers at Meudon--that is, itis shaped like a plaice--the front end being larger than the rear; whileit is provided with a compensating ballonet, which is inflated with airby means of a fan controlled from