The Sign of the Spider

by Bertram Mitford

  CHAPTER X.

  PREPARATION.

  The days went by and Hazon's preparations were nearly completed, and itbecame patent to the Rand at large that "The Pirate" intended to relievethat delusive locality of his unwelcome presence; for a couple ofwaggons appeared on the scene, bearing his name, and in charge of amysterious native of vast proportions and forbidding physiognomy, whoseemed not to be indigenous to those parts, nor, indeed, to hail fromanywhere around. And Hazon, in his quiet, thorough way, was very busy infitting out these waggons, loading them with articles suitable forup-country trade, eke with munitions of sport, and, if need be, war.Wherein he was ably assisted by Laurence Stanninghame.

  On learning that the latter was a party to the undertaking, whatever itwas, the Rand shrugged its shoulders, and whispered; and the burden ofits whispering consisted mainly of the ancient innuendo relating tothose who had heretofore accompanied Hazon anywhere. This one--would henot travel the same dark road as others had done, whatever that roadmight be? But that was his own lookout, and he had been warned. And thetwo men would hold long and earnest confabs together; but those whichwere the most earnest were held in the course of long rides away intothe veldt. Then they would dismount at some sequestered spot, where,secure from all interruption, weather-beaten maps and plans and darklywritten memos., also ciphers, would be produced and long and carefullydiscussed. Of this, however, the Rand knew nothing; yet from suchLaurence would return feeling a trifle graver, for even he had toaccustom himself to such a road to wealth as was here held out. But hiscase was desperate. He was utterly ruined, and to the same extentreckless. It was sink or swim, and not his was the mind to elect to gounder when the jettison of a last lingering scruple or two would keephim afloat. As for potential--nay, certain--risk, that did not enterinto his calculations.

  Now, while these preparations were in progress, Holmes was going aboutwith a very gloomy countenance; more than hinting, indeed, at a desireto take part in the trip. Finally, he put it plainly to Laurencehimself.

  "Take my advice and watch it," the latter decisively replied. Thenremembering that the ostensible object of the undertaking was sport andnative trade, he went on, "You see, Holmes, it's going to be a hardbusiness. Not just three or four months up in the bush-veldt and soforth, but--well, Heaven only knows where the thing will end, let alonehow."

  "I don't care about that. Why, it's just the very thing that'll suit medown to the ground. I say, Stanninghame, I know you don't mind, butHazon? I've always stood up for Hazon, and we seem to get on all right?Do put it to Hazon. I could pay my shot, of course."

  There was a despondency of manner and tone that was extremely foreign tothe mercurial Holmes, and this, together with certain signs he had readof late, caused Laurence to look up with a queer half smile.

  "Why are you so anxious to clear from here, Holmes? Rather sudden, isn'tit?"

  "Oh, I'm dead off waiting for a 'boom' that never comes. It's dashedsickening, don't you know."

  "It is. And what else is dashed sickening? That isn't all."

  The other stared for a moment, then, as though he were bringing it outwith an effort, he burst forth:

  "Oh, well, hang it all, Stanninghame, I don't see why I shouldn't tellyou. The fact is I've--I've got the chuck."

  Laurence laughed inwardly. He understood.

  "Why, I thought you were bringing it on all right," he said.

  "So did I; but when I put it to her, she was dead off," said Holmes,disconsolately savage.

  "Sure?"

  "Cert."

  "Well, give her another show. Some women--girls especially--like thatsort of application twice over. They think it enhances their value insome inexplicable way," said Laurence, with a touch of characteristicsatire. "I don't, but that's a matter of opinion. And, I don't want tohurt your feelings, Holmes, but is this one worth it?"

  "I don't know," answered the other savagely, driving his heel into theground. "It's that beast Barstow. What the deuce she can see in him,bangs me."

  "Yes, unless it is that you hold a quantity of unsaleable scrip and hedoesn't," rejoined Laurence, who had been secretly amused in watchingthe progress of pretty Mabel Falkner's latest preference. "But in anycase I think you'd better not touch it, or you'll find yourself on theone horn or other of this dilemma; if she is coming the 'playing off'trick, why, that is despicable, and in fact not good enough; if shemeans business, why, you can't go begging to her for what she has givento the other Johnny without any begging at all. See?"

  "Oh, yes, I see," was the rueful rejoinder. "By the Lord, Stanninghame,I used to think you a deuced snarling, cynical beggar at first, but now,'pon my soul, I believe you're right."

  "Do you? Well, then, you don't want to go away up-country and get bowledout with fever or struck by a nigger, and all that sort of thing,because one girl don't care a cent for you."

  "Perhaps not. Still, I hate this place now. I'm sick of it. By the way,Stanninghame, you're the sort a fellow can tell anything to; you don'tstart a lot of cheap blatant chaff as some chappies do when you wantthem to talk sound sense."

  There was a great deal underlying the remark, also the tone. Thoughlacking the elements which go to make up the "popular" man, Laurencepossessed the faculty of winning the devoted attachment of individuals,and that to an extent of which he himself little dreamed. Not the leastimportant item which went to make up that attribute lay in the fact thathe was a most indulgent listener, whom nothing astonished, and who couldlook at all sides of any given question with the tact and toleration ofa man who thinks. This faculty he seldom exercised, and then almostunconsciously.

  To the other's remark he made no immediate reply. Taking intoconsideration age and temperament, he had no belief that Holmes'rejection and disappointment had left any deep wound. Still, it had comeat an unfortunate time--a time when the sufferer, in common with most ofthem, had been hard hit in a more material way. He had a genuine likingfor the sunny-natured, open-hearted youth; a liking begotten, it mightbe, of the ingenuously unconscious manner in which the latter looked upto him, in fact, made a sort of elder brother of him. Holmes was nostronger-headed than most youngsters of his temperament andcircumstances, and Laurence did not want to see him--soured and dejectedby disappointment all round--throw himself in with the reckless,indiscriminate bar-frequenter, of whom there were not lacking woefulexamples in those days, though, poor fellows, much from the same motive,to drown care; and into this current would Holmes in all probability beswept if left by himself in Johannesburg. Was there no method of takinghim with them for a month or two's shoot in the bush-veldt, and sendinghim back by some returning expedition before the serious part of theundertaking was entered upon? He decided to sound Hazon upon thematter, yet of this resolve he said nothing now to Holmes. The latterbroke the silence.

  "By Jove, Stanninghame, I envy you!" he said. "You are such ahard-headed chap. Why, I don't believe you care a little d---- for anymortal thing in the world. Yes, I envy you."

  "You needn't, if it means hankering after the process by which thatblissful state is attained. But you are wrong. I care most infernallyabout one thing."

  "And what's that? What is it, old chap? You needn't be afraid I'll leton!" said Holmes eagerly, anticipating it might be something similar inthe way of a confidence to that which his own exuberant heart had notbeen able to refrain from making.

  "Why, that I was stewed idiot enough to go on investing in this infernalscrip instead of clearing out just when I had made the modest profit offour hundred per cent."

  "Oh!" said the other, in disappointed surprise, adding, "But you don'tshow it. You take it smiling, Stanninghame. You don't turn a hair."

  "H'm!"

  With the ejaculation, Laurence was thinking of a certain room, shadedfrom the glare of the sunlight without, and of a very grim momentindeed. He was looking, too, at the hearty, bright-mannered youngsterwho had already begun to forget his recent disappointment in theprospect of adventure and novelty. He himself had been nearly asl
ight-hearted, just as ready to mirth and laughter at that age. Yet now?Would it be the same with this one? Who could say?

  The suggestion that Holmes should accompany the expedition was notreceived with enthusiasm by Hazon, neither did it meet with immediateand decisive repudiation. Characteristically, Hazon proceeded to argueout the matter pro and con.

  "He doesn't know the real nature of our business, Stanninghame? no, ofcourse not. Thinks it's only a shooting trip?--good. Well, the questionis, are we dead certain of finding opportunities for sending him back;for we can't turn him loose on the veldt and say good-bye?"

  "There are several places where we might drop him," said Laurence,consulting a map and mentioning a few.

  "Quite so. Well, here's another consideration. He's a youngster, andprobably has scores of relations more or less interested in him. Wedon't want to draw down inquiries and investigations into our movementsand affairs."

  "That won't count seriously, Hazon."

  "Think not? Um! Well then, what if we were to take him along--run himinto the whole shoot with us?"

  "Phew! That's a horse whose colour I've never scrutinized. And thepoint?"

  "Might help us in more ways than one; in case of difficultiesafterwards, I mean. The idea seems to knock you out some, Stanninghame?"

  There was something in it. Laurence, reckless, unscrupulous as he was,could not but hesitate. In striving to save his young friend from oneform of ruin, was it written that he should plunge him into anothermore irretrievable, more sweeping, more lifelong?

  "I am thinking he might give us trouble," he replied deliberately. "Whatif he sickened of the whole business, and kicked just when we wanted topull together the most? No, no, Hazon. If we take him at all, we mustsend him back as I say. It's all very well for us two, but it doesn'tseem quite the thing to run a fresh-hearted youngster, with all his lifebefore him, and bursting with hopes and ideals, into a grim business ofthis kind. But taking him, or leaving him, rests with you entirely."

  "Leave it that way, then. I'll think it over and see if it pans outany," said Hazon, leisurely lighting a fresh pipe. "But, Stanninghame,what's this?" he added, with a sudden, keen glance out of his piercingeyes. "You are letting yourself go with regard to this matter--showingfeeling. That won't do, you know. You've got to have no sample of thatsort of goods about you, no more than can be put into a block ofgranite. Aren't you in training yet?"

  "Well, I think so; or, at any rate, shall be long before it is wantedseriously."

  No more was said on the subject then.

  As the preparations progressed, and the time for the start drew near, itseemed to Laurence Stanninghame that more and more was the old life amere dream, a dream of the past. Sometimes in his sleep he would be backin it, would see the dinginess of the ramshackle semi-detached, wouldhear the vulgar sounds of the vulgar suburban street; and he would turnuneasily in his dreams, with a depressing consciousness of dust anddiscord, and a blank wall as of the hopelessness of life drawn acrosshis path. Feeling? Pooh! Who would miss him out of the traditional"charm" of the family circle? A new toy, costing an extra shilling orso, would quite knock out all and any recollection of himself. Therewere times when in his dreams he had even returned to the domestic ark,and in the result a day of welcome and comparative peace, then discordand jangling strife as before, and the ever weighing-down, depressing,crushing consciousness of squalid penury for the rest of his naturallife. From such visions he had awakened, awakened with a start ofexultant gratulation, to find the glow of the African sun streaming intothe room; every nerve tingling with a consciousness of strength andbraced-up vigour; his mind rejoicing to look forward into the boundlesspossibilities held out by the adventure in which he was involved; thatother ghastly horror, which had haunted him for so long, now put faraway. Risk, excitement, peril, daring, to be rewarded by wealth, afterlong years of unnatural stagnation. The prospect opened out a vista asof boundless delight.

  Yet was this dashed--dashed by an impending parting. The certainty ofthis would ever intrude and quench his exultation. Sweet Lilith! how shehad subtilely intertwined herself within his life! Well, he was strong;he could surely keep himself in hand. It should be a part of histraining. Still, though the certainty of impending separation wouldquench his exultation, on awakening to the light of each new day, whichbrought that parting nearer, yet there was another certainty, that atleast a portion of every such day should be spent with her.

  But even he, with all his strength, with all his foresight, littlerealized what the actual moment of that parting should mean.