The Launching of Roger Brook rb-1

by Dennis Wheatley

  "Of course not. Sir," Roger replied politely, marvelling, not for the first time, that his House Master could be so affable when in the seclusion of his own room. "I've naught left to do but cord my boxes to-morrow morning."

  "Have you far to go?"

  "Only some forty odd miles, Sir. I live at Lymington, on the Solent."

  "Ah, yes. That is something of a cross-country journey, though, and the coaches would serve you ill. You've bespoken a post-chaise, no doubt?"

  "No, Sir, I prefer to ride. Jim Button, our groom, will have arranged a change of horses for us on his way over to-day, and my baggage will go by carrier."

  "That should be pleasant if the weather is clement, as it has been these few days past. You'll take the turnpike road to Poole and so on through Christchurch, I suppose?"

  Roger shook his head. "We go by way of Blandford, and then through the New Forest. The tracks are quite passable at this time of year, and the forest glades are wondrous beautiful."

  "You're not afraid of footpads then," Old Toby smiled. " 'Tis common knowledge that the forest is rarely free of such dangerous gentry."

  "I've never met any, Sir. But if we do we'll hope to give a good account of ourselves. Jim always ports his blunderbuss and he'll bring me my brace of pistols."

  "You would stand and fight, then?"

  "Why not, Sir?" Roger's dark eyes gleamed with excitement at the thought. "I can shoot the pip out of an ace at fifteen paces, but I've had no opportunity to try my pistols on a human target, yet. I'd like the chance."

  Old Toby chuckled. "You young spitfire! Our Master-at-Arms tells me, too, that you are becoming quite a dangerous antagonist with the foils. But this recalls to me the matter about which I wished to talk. Does the interest you display in weapons incline you to the profession of Arms?"

  Roger hesitated only a second, then he decided that Old Toby would not resent it if he was absolutely frank. "To be honest, Sir, there is nothing that I would hate more than, going into the Navy or Army. You see, I know 'tis very wrong of me, but I just can't bear to be ordered about. I don't mean that I resent being told what to do by people I respect, like yourself. But some of the other Masters—well, they often make rules to suit their own convenience without a thought as to how they will affect us boys. That's the privilege of their position, of course, and one accepts it as philosophically as one can—as long as one remains at school. But I think anyone a fool who, on leaving, deliberately saddles himself with a new lot of masters for the rest of his life."

  It was an exceptionally strong statement from a boy not yet sixteen, in an age when the word of all parents was a law against which there was no appeal and rigid discipline was regarded as the essential backbone of the whole structure of society. But Old Toby's face showed no sign of disapproval at this declaration of heresy. He was thinking, ‘I was right to take an interest in young Brook, he has moral .as well as physical courage, and may go far.'

  Still uncertain of the effect his rash words might have had, and wishing to strengthen his argument, Roger hurried on: "Some of the older boys are worse than the masters, and they can't even claim to know best because they are grown up. They fag the younger fellows to do all sorts of stupid time-wasting things, often out of pure malice, and I see no reason why their natures should change when they become older. Take Gunston, Sir. I'm not complaining about him, but he is going into the Army. Just think of having a stupid oaf like that for one's senior officer, and being unable to question his decisions. Life would be positively unbearable."

  Old Toby took a pinch of snuff. "Your views are unorthodox, Brook, and I would advise you to keep them to yourself. There is, I admit, something in what you say; yet discipline is a necessary ingredient in all our lives. Rectique Culius pectora roborant. To succeed in any career, you must school yourself to accept that fact. But tell me, why, if it is not your intention to adopt the profession of Arms, do you spend so many hours in the fencing school and shooting gallery each week?"

  "To make myself proficient, Sir. Then when I am older no man will be able to gainsay me with impunity."

  "I had not realised that you were of such a quarrelsome dis­position."

  "I trust that I am not. I would not seek to force a quarrel on anyone. But a gentleman should know how to defend himself, and the ability to do so is the best means of assuring full independence of both spirit and action."

  "You must be aware that edicts inflicting severe penalties for duelling have been in force for many years now."

  Roger smiled and gave a slight shrug. "Yet duels occur with some frequency just the same. Sir, and they are not forbidden in many places on the Continent. I hope to travel in due course."

  "Ah," Old Toby shuffled with some papers. "That brings us back to the reason for my asking you to wait upon me. You will be moving into Upper School next term, and I see that I have no note here as to the career which your parents desire you to follow. The time has come when I should be informed of it in order that I may allocate a certain portion of your time to the most appropriate studies."

  "Nothing definite has been settled yet, Sir. My father wanted me to go into the Navy, but there was some hitch. My mother.."

  Roger flushed and broke off.

  Old Toby gave him a shrewd look. "Your mother was Lady Marie MacElfic before her marriage, was she not? And all her family are still irreconcilable Jacobites. Were you about to say that the King had refused entrance to the Navy to you on that account? It is common knowledge that the Government is still averse to appointing officers to either Service who have even remote connections with the Stuart cause."

  "Well, yes, Sir. That is what happened. As a Captain in the King's Navy, himself, my father did not think that there would be any difficulty about my appointment, but there was. He was furious, but said there was plenty of time and that before I was old enough to go to sea he would make their Lordships at the Admiralty see reason. That was soon after the American war broke out. Then when the French intervened in seventy-eight, his ship was ordered to sea, and, thanks be to providence he has not been home since; so has been unable to do aught about it."

  " Seventy-eight," murmured Old Toby, "Why, that is five years ago. And so, young man, you have been a stranger to parental discipline for all that time. If you have been allowed to have your head at home for so long 'tis little wonder that you have come to find the restraints of school irksome. Has your father made no mention of this matter in his letters?"

  "Yes; from time to time. But he felt, I think, that little could be done by writing to their Lordships, and he has no personal influence at Court. He was counting on the patronage of Admiral Rodney when the Fleet got home, but the war dragged on for so long and his ship was one of those left on the West Indies Station after our great victory last year off the Isle of Saints."

  "And meanwhile, you have been growing up. It is not too late yet for you to enter the Navy, but it very soon will be. As you have no inclination for the life I take it that you are congratulating yourself already on having escaped your father forcing you to it."

  Roger grinned sheepishly. "Even if he were ordered home to-morrow he has to get here; then 'twould take him months of lobbying finally to overcome the old objections, and once I'm sixteen I shall be safe. For me the late war has proved a miraculous preservation. The Army would have been bad enough, but to be a midshipman, boxed up in a ship for months, living on weevilly biscuits and kicked around by every Tom, Dick and Harry! It makes me shudder to think of it."

  "Qua fuit durum pati, meminisse dulce est, was Seneca's very wise remark on that, you will remember. But, have you made any plans of your own?"

  "No, Sir, and I'd willingly be guided by you. In any event, as far as entering Upper School is concerned, I'm sure my mother would be agreeable to your putting me to any studies that you think most suitable."

  "Outside the usual curriculum you are already taking French. Few boys show any interest in Modern Languages, and I remember thinking it strange this time la
st year when you asked to be allowed to do so. What was your reason, Brook?"

  "Because I hope to travel."

  "Both your Latin and Greek are exceptionally good for one of your years; and the former being the common tongue of all educated people I should have thought that would have filled your need anywhere on the Continent."

  "No doubt it would, Sir; but with Latin, English and French, I shall stand a better chance of making myself fully understood by people of all classes, wherever I may go."

  Old Toby regarded the slim figure and thin, eager face in front of him thoughtfully. The boy had great self-assurance for his age, was well proportioned and when fully grown should make a fine figure of a man. Those dark blue eyes, a gift no doubt from his Highland mother, coupled with the short, straight nose, strong white teeth and resolute chin, would play the very devil with the women. The fat, worldly-wise old man caught himself thinking that it would not be long before the lad seduced some ripe young chambermaid or dairy wench. In the days before he had taken orders to assure himself a sinecure he had done quite a bit of whoring himself; and to his way of thinking any young man of sixteen who had not started to roll the girls in the hay was neither healthy nor normal. People began both to fight and love young in those days.

  As his glance fell on Roger's hands his thoughts shifted. They were fine hands, none too clean at the moment, but long and firm, sensitive yet strong. They had, however, one peculiarity: the little fingers on both were of exceptional length, their tips reaching almost to the nails of the third fingers.

  Cheirognomy or the science of reading character from the shape of the hands, is as old as fortune-telling and at one time Old Toby had interested himself in it. He now recalled that unusually long little fingers acted as a balance to the impulsiveness given by strong thumbs, and indicated the power of their possessor to influence others. Not . without reason, too, the ancients had associated the qualities of the god Mercury with the little finger and averred that when abnormally developed it showed great ability of expression in both writing and speaking, and that the owner was one who could interest and command people by the manner in which he would apply facts and knowledge to the treatment of anything that strongly concerned him.

  He wondered that he had not noticed young Brook's long little fingers before, but was pleased that he had done so now, as the boy's flair for languages and the ease with which he expressed his thoughts was one more proof of the correctness of the ancient, though now discarded, science.

  "I think,' he said slowly, "that during this holiday you should consult your mother and ascertain if she has any views as to your future."

  "I will, Sir; but I'd be mighty obliged if you could offer some suggestions that I might put to her."

  "Have you, or are you likely to have, any money of your own?"

  Roger shook his head. "Such money as there is in the family lies with my mother's people, and they cut her off when she married my father against their will. My father has only a few hundreds a year apart from his pay."

  " ‘tis a pity, that; since-few careers are open to a gentleman lacking fortune; other than learning and the sword. Are you irrevocably set against entering one of the Services?"

  "I fear so, Sir. I'll not submit myself to be dragooned all my life by people for many of whom, I am convinced, I should have no respect."

  "Far est et dab hoste doceri," Old Toby quoted, and added: "While 'tis true that a certain number of the King's officers are men of little merit whose lack of education is deplorable, in the main they are honest, courageous fellows of good will, who do their duty as they see it. At times you might have the misfortune to find yourself under an ignorant martinet, but 'tis morbid to assume that you would always do so. In these days, too, promotion is rapid for young men who show ability; so I feel you should strive to overcome this arrogant prejudice of yours. Even if you are set against the Navy you could canvass such patronage as the gentry round Lymington would no doubt give to a neighbour's son, to overcome this lingering Jacobite taint, and secure you a commission in the Army. That, I am sure, in these war-like times, would afford you the best chance of making a name for yourself."

  "But we are no longer at war, Sir," Roger protested. "What with the French, the Spaniards, the Dutch, and the Colonists we have enjoyed only some fifteen years of peace out of the last forty-four, and they must be as exhausted as we are. Surely, after the last seven years of strife, we should be able to count now on a long period of tranquillity."

  Old Toby grimaced, and took snuff again. "I doubt it, Brook. 'Tis true that the signing of the Peace of Versailles last January secured the pacification of Europe and the final Independence of America, but it leaves many grounds for contention still outstanding. During the past two centuries we have humbled the might of Spain and ground down the power of the Dutch, so that both are now reduced to second-class nations. But France, our inveterate enemy, still remains immensely strong and a constant menace to our interests in every corner of the world."

  "Permit me to observe, Sir, that we've had the upper hand in India for some twenty years past now," Roger remarked deferentially. "And that by the Quebec Act Lord North gave Canada a charter that has deprived King Louis of the allegiance of the Canadian French so it seems that we have little further trouble to face in either."

  "That may be so, but these long-drawn-out contentions over distant continents are merely the skin of the apple, not its core. As for my Lord North's measure; by securing the monastic lands in Canada to the Roman Church and granting complete freedom of worship to all sects, he may have won over the Canadian Papists, but its repercussions both in New England and at home were disastrous. The storm it raised, culminating in the Gordon riots a few years back, bids fair to delay all hope of religious toleration in England, and even more so in Scotland, for another generation. It also played no small part in the fall of his own ministry fifteen months ago. "

  "Surely, Sir, his loss of the Premiership after twelve years of office is another reason for anticipating a long period of peace? As the King's protégé my Lord North represented the war party, but now that he has been compelled to accept a minor place in the new Coalition his colleagues, and particularly Mr. Fox, will prevent him from allowing us to become involved again."

  "I greatly doubt if the Coalition will live out the year. Lord Rockingham's death' and Lord Shelburn's resignation have already caused two reshuffles since Lord North's own fall. His Grace of Portland is no more than a figurehead and the present arrangement with Lord North and Mr. Fox as joint secretaries under him is too unnatural to last. The two men have been bitter enemies for years and have not a thought in common. But reverting to yourself, Brook. Do politics attract you?"

  "They would. Sir; if I could see my way to enter them."

  " Tis a great field for young men, these days. There are many members of the House who are still in their early twenties, and an outstanding example of unusual talent being recognised is afforded us by young Mr. Pitt. Only last year Lord Shelburn took him into his Ministry as Chancellor of the Exchequer at the age of twenty-three."

  Roger smiled. "But he had the advantage of being the son of the Great Commoner, and his mother is a Grenville so he has the backing of the most powerful connections in the realm."

  "Such influence counts for much, particularly in politics now that Parliament has virtually become a club, half the members of which are nominated by our oligarchic aristocracy that controls the pocket Boroughs. But no influence, however powerful, would have alone sufficed to induce Lord Shelburn to make young Billy Pitt his Chancellor. He owes that to his capacity for business and his gift for oratory."

  Old Toby paused for a moment, then went on: You have too good an opinion of yourself already for me to further swell that young head of yours by suggesting that you might become another Mr. Pitt. And I fear your poor grasp of mathematics would soon bring ruin to us all if you were ever made responsible for the Exchequer. But you have application and a most ready tongue, so you
might well aspire to some remunerative minor office, if you could find a means to enter Parliament."

  "Alas, Sir, that's the rub." Roger shrugged despondently. "One needs both patronage and money to secure a pocket Borough, and, as I have told you, I have neither."

  "Um! I had forgotten that you lack money of your own. Hiatus maxime deplendus. Patronage is by no means impossible to win, given a pleasing presence and fair speech, but a good private income is essential to any man having political aspirations. We are thrown back then to a choice of learning or the sword. When you leave Sherborne could your parents afford to send you to one of the Universities?"

  "Yes, I'm sure they could do that, and in many ways I'd like it, Sir. But where would it lead in the event of my doing well?"

  "To preferment and some well-paid sinecure in which you could follow your own inclinations—if you are prepared to take orders. To do so is still regarded as a pre-requisite to becoming a Fellow. You could then remain on as one if you wished or, in due course, accept a warm living or the headmastership of a school, since a great number of the best of these are within the gift of the Colleges."

  "With due respect to your cloth. Sir, I feel no inclination to enter the Church. But I should welcome the chance of pursuing my studies in History, and I was under the impression that a B.A. could prove a valuable asset in securing profitable employment."

  Old Toby grunted. "Then dismiss the thought, Brook. As I have said, we live in an age of war, and learning is at a discount A degree in itself could open no better prospect to you than tutor to some nobleman's son at forty pounds a year, or, at best, an appointment as usher in a school. As for such studies as you have in mind I fear you would be grievously disappointed. During the past century both the Universities have fallen into a sad decline and only a few of the more conscientious Fellows bring themselves to lecture now and then. Such is the sloth that has gripped our seats of learning for many decades that no Regius Professor of Modern History at Cambridge delivered a lecture between 1725 and 1773, and the last holder of that Chair died from a fall from his horse while riding home drunk to his Vicarage at Over. Conditions at Oxford are as bad, or worse, and the students at both are of two kinds only. Those who are prepared to take orders to the end of later obtaining a benefice, and young rake-hells with time to waste, who are sent up from family tradition by rich parents."