CHAPTER XXIII
It was midnight and after. In the close-curtained library of ChepstowHouse, Cleek, with his little lordship sleeping in his arms, sat insolemn conclave with Lady Chepstow, Captain Hawksley, and MaverickNarkom; and while they talked, Ailsa, like a restless spirit, wanderedto and fro, now lifting the curtains to peep out into the darkness, nowlistening as if her whole life's hope lay in the coming of some expectedsound. And in her veins there burned a fever of suspense.
"So you failed to get the rascals, did you, Mr. Narkom?" Cleek wassaying. "I feared as much; but I couldn't get word to you sooner. Weinjured the machine in that mad race to the mill, and of course we hadto come at a snail's pace afterwards. I'm sorry we didn't getMargot--sorrier still that that hound Merode got away. They are bound tomake more trouble before the race is run. Not for her ladyship, however,and not for this dear little chap. Their troubles are at an end, and thesacred son will be a sacred son no longer."
"Oh, Mr. Cleek, do tell me what you mean," implored Lady Chepstow. "Dotell me how--"
"Doctor Fordyce, at last!" struck in Ailsa excitedly, as the door-belland knocker clashed and the butler's swift footsteps went along thehall. "Now we shall know, Mr. Cleek--oh, now we shall know for certain!"
"And so shall all the world," he replied as the door opened and thedoctor was ushered into the room. "I don't think you were ever sowelcome anywhere or at any time before, doctor," he added with a smile."Come and look at this little chap. Bonny little specimen of aBritisher, isn't he?"
"Yes; but my dear sir, I--I was under the impression that I was calledto a scene of excitement; and you seem as peaceful as Eden here. Theconstable who came for me said it was something to do with ScotlandYard."
"So it is, doctor. I had Mr. Narkom send for you to perform a verytrifling but most important operation upon his little lordship here."
"Upon Cedric!" exclaimed Lady Chepstow, rising in a panic of alarm. "Anoperation to be performed upon my baby boy? Oh, Mr. Cleek, in the nameof Heaven--"
"No, your ladyship, in the name of Buddha. Don't be alarmed. It is onlyto be a trifling cut--a mere re-opening of that little wound in thethigh which you dressed and healed so successfully at Trincomalee. Youmade a mistake, all of you, that night when the boy was shot. The nativepoor Ferralt saw skulking along with the gun was not a mere tribesmanand had not the very faintest thought of discharging that weapon at yourlittle son, or, indeed, at anybody else in the world. He was the HighPriest Seydama, guardian of the Holy Tooth--the one living being whodared by right to touch it or to lay hands upon the shrine thatcontained it. Fearful, when the false rumour of that intended loot wascirculated, that infidel eyes should look upon it, infidel hands profanethe sacred relic, he determined to remove it from Dambool to therock-hewn temple of Galwihara and to enshrine it there. For the purposeof giving no clue to his movements, he chose to abandon his priestlyvestments, to disguise himself as a common tribesman, and, the better todefeat the designs of any who might penetrate that disguise andendeavour to take the sacred relic from him and hold it for ransom, hehid the Holy Tooth in the barrel of a gun. That gun was in his hands,your ladyship, when Ferralt rushed out and brained him."
"In his hands? Oh, Mr. Cleek, then--then--" Her voice all but failed heras a sudden realization came. "That relic, that fetish! If it was inthat gun at that time, then it is now--"
"Embedded in the fleshy part of the boy's thigh," said Cleek, finishingthe sentence for her. "Inclosed, doubtless, in a sac or cyst whichMother Nature has wrapped round it, the tooth is there--in your littleson's body; and for five whole years he has been the living shrine thatheld it!"
It was quite true--as events rapidly and completely proved.
Ten minutes later, the trifling operation was concluded; the boy laywhimpering in his mother's arms and the long-lost relic was on thesurgeon's palm.
"Take it, Captain Hawksley," said Cleek, lifting it between his thumband forefinger and carrying it to him. "There is a man in Soho--oneArjeeb Noosrut--who will know it when he sees it; and there is a vastreward. Five lacs of rupees will pay off no end of debts, my friend; anda man with that balance at his banker's can't be thought a merefortune-hunter when he asks for the hand of the woman he loves."
The Captain didn't ask for _his_, however--he simply jumped up andgrabbed it.
"By George, you're a brick!" he said, with something uneven in hisvoice--something that was like laughter and tears all jumbled uptogether; then he glanced over at Lady Chepstow, and flushed, andfloundered, and stammered confusedly, but went on shaking Cleek's handall the time. "It's ripping of you--it's bully, dear chap, but--I say,you know, it isn't fair. It's jolly uneven. _You_ found out. You oughtat least to have a share in the reward."
"Not I," said Cleek, with an airy laugh. "Like the fellow who was bornwith a third leg, 'I have no use for it,' Captain. But if you reallywant to give any part of it away, bank a thousand to the credit of myboy Dollops to be turned over to him when he's twenty-one. And you mightmake Mr. Narkom, and, if she will accept the post, Miss Lorne, histrustees."
Miss Lorne faced round and looked at him; and even from that distance hecould see that her mouth was moving tremulously and there was somethingshining in the corner of her eye.
"I accept that position with pleasure, Mr. Cleek," she said. "It is theact of a man and--a gentleman. Thank you! Thank you." And came down thelong length of the room with her hand outstretched to take his.
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