Miss Drewitt, feeling herself baffled, sat for some time wondering how to find fault politely with the young man before her. Her mind was full of subject-matter, but the politeness easily eluded her. She threw out after a time the suggestion that his presence at the bedside of sick people was not likely to add to their comfort.
Captain Bowers entered before the aggrieved Mr. Tredgold could think of a fitting reply, and after a hasty greeting insisted upon his staying for a cup of tea. By a glance in the visitor’s direction and a faint smile Miss Drewitt was understood to endorse the invitation.
The captain’s satisfaction at finding them together was complete, but a little misunderstanding was caused all round, when Mr. Tasker came in with the tea, by the series of nods and blinks by which the captain strove to call his niece’s attention to various facial and other differences between his servant and their visitor. Mr. Tredgold, after standing it for some time, created a little consternation by inquiring whether he had got a smut on his nose.
The captain was practically the only talker at tea, but the presence of two attentive listeners prevented him from discovering the fact. He described his afternoon’s ramble at such length that it was getting late by the time they had finished.
“Stay and smoke a pipe,” he said, as he sought his accustomed chair.
Mr. Tredgold assented in the usual manner by saying that he ought to be going, and instead of one pipe smoked three or four. The light failed and the lamp was lit, but he still stayed on until the sound of subdued but argumentative voices beyond the drawn blind apprised them of other visitors. The thin tones of Mr. Chalk came through the open window, apparently engaged in argument with a bear. A faint sound of hustling and growling, followed by a gentle bumping against the door, seemed to indicate that he — or perhaps the bear — was having recourse to physical force.
“Come in,” cried the captain.
The door opened and Mr. Chalk, somewhat flushed, entered, leading Mr. Stobell. The latter gentleman seemed in a surly and reluctant frame of mind, and having exchanged greetings subsided silently into a chair and sat eyeing Mr. Chalk, who, somewhat nervous as to his reception after so long an absence, plunged at once into conversation.
“I thought I should find you here,” he said, pleasantly, to Edward Tredgold.
“Why?” demanded Mr. Tredgold, with what Mr. Chalk thought unnecessary abruptness.
“Well — well, because you generally are here, I suppose,” he said, somewhat taken aback.
Mr. Tredgold favoured him with a scowl, and a somewhat uncomfortable silence ensued.
“Stobell wanted to see you again,” said Mr. Chalk, turning to the captain. “He’s done nothing but talk about you ever since he was here last.”
Captain Bowers said he was glad to see him; Mr. Stobell returned the courtesy with an odd noise in his throat and a strange glare at Mr. Chalk.
“I met him to-night,” continued that gentleman, “and nothing would do for him but to come on here.”
It was evident from the laboured respiration of the ardent Mr. Stobell, coupled with a word or two which had filtered through the window, that the ingenious Mr. Chalk was using him as a stalking-horse. From the fact that Mr. Stobell made no denial it was none the less evident, despite the growing blackness of his appearance, that he was a party to the arrangement. The captain began to see the reason.
“It’s all about that island,” explained Mr. Chalk; “he can talk of nothing else.”
The captain suppressed a groan, and Mr. Tredgold endeavoured, but without success, to exchange smiles with Miss Drewitt.
“Aye, aye,” said the captain, desperately.
“He’s as eager as a child that’s going to its first pantomime,” continued Mr. Chalk.
Mr. Stobell’s appearance was so alarming that he broke off and eyed him with growing uneasiness.
“You were talking about a pantomime,” said Mr. Tredgold, after a long pause.
Mr. Chalk cast an imploring glance at Mr. Stobell to remind him of their compact, and resumed.
“Talks of nothing else,” he said, watching his friend, “and can’t sleep for thinking of it.”
“That’s bad,” said Mr. Tredgold, sympathetically. “Has he tried shutting his eyes and counting sheep jumping over a stile?”
“No, he ain’t,” said Mr. Stobell, exploding suddenly, and turning a threatening glance on the speaker. “And what’s more,” he added, in more ordinary tones, “he ain’t going to.”
“We — we’ve been thinking of that trip again,” interposed Mr. Chalk, hurriedly. “The more Stobell thinks of it the more he likes it. You know what you said the last time we were here?”
The captain wrinkled his brows and looked at him inquiringly.
“Told us to go and find the island,” Mr. Chalk reminded him. “You said, ‘I’ve shown you a map of the island; now go and find it.’”
“Oh, aye,” said the captain, with a laugh, “so I did.”
“Stobell was wondering,” continued Mr. Chalk, “whether you couldn’t give us just a little bit more of a hint, without breaking your word, of course.”
“I don’t see how it could be done, “replied the captain, pondering; “a promise is a promise.”
Mr. Chalk’s face fell. He moved his chair aside mechanically to make room for Mr. Tasker, who had entered with a tray and glasses, and sat staring at the floor. Then he raised his eyes and met a significant glance from Mr. Stobell.
“I suppose we may have another look at the map?” he said, softly; “just a glance to freshen our memories.”
The captain, who had drawn his chair to the table to preside over the tray, looked up impatiently.
“No,” he said, brusquely.
Mr. Chalk looked hurt. “I’m very sorry,” he said, in surprise at the captain’s tone. “You showed it to us the other day, and I didn’t think—”
“The fact is,” said the captain, in a more gentle voice— “the fact is, I can’t.”
“Can’t?” repeated the other.
“It is not very pleasant to keep on refusing friends,” said the captain, making amends for his harshness by pouring a serious overdose of whisky into Mr. Chalk’s glass, “and it’s only natural for you to be anxious about it, so I removed the temptation out of my way.”
“Removed the temptation?” repeated Mr. Chalk.
“I burnt the map,” said the captain, with a smile.
“Burnt it?” gasped Mr. Chalk. “BURNT it?”
“Burnt it to ashes,” said the captain, jovially.
“It’s a load off my mind. I ought to have done it before. In fact, I never ought to have made the map at all.”
Mr. Chalk stared at him in speechless dismay.
“Try that,” said the captain, handing Mr. Stobell his glass.
Mr. Stobell took it from mere force of habit, and sat holding it in his hand as though he had forgotten what to do with it.
“I did it yesterday morning,” said the captain, noticing their consternation. “I had just lit my pipe after breakfast, and I suppose the match put me in mind of it. I took out the map and set light to it at Cape Silvio. The flame ran half-way round the coast and then popped through the middle of the paper and converted Mount Lonesome into a volcano.”
He gave a boisterous laugh and, raising his glass, nodded to Mr. Stobell. Mr. Stobell, who was just about to drink, lowered his glass again and frowned.
“I don’t see anything to laugh at,” he said, deliberately.
“He can’t have been listening,” said Mr. Tredgold, in a low voice, to Miss Drewitt.
“Well, it’s done now,” said the captain, genially. “You — you’re not going?”
“Yes, I am,” said Mr. Stobell.
He bade them good-night, and then pausing at the door stood and surveyed them; even Mr. Tasker, who was gliding in unobtrusively with a jug of water, shared in his regards.
“When I think of the orphans and widows,” he said, bitterly, “I — —”
He opened the door suddenly and, closing it behind him, breathed the rest to Dialstone Lane. An aged woman sitting in a doorway said, “Hush!”
CHAPTER VI
Miss Drewitt sat for some time in her room after the visitors had departed, eyeing with some disfavour the genuine antiques which she owed to the enterprise, not to say officiousness, of Edward Tredgold. That they were in excellent taste was undeniable, but there was a flavour of age and a suspicion of decay about them which did not make for cheerfulness.
She rose at last, and taking off her watch went through the nightly task of wondering where she had put the key after using it last. It was not until she had twice made a fruitless tour of the room with the candle that she remembered that she had left it on the mantelpiece downstairs.
The captain was still below, and after a moment’s hesitation she opened her door and went softly down the steep winding stairs.
The door at the foot stood open, and revealed the captain standing by the table. There was an air of perplexity and anxiety about him such as she had never seen before, and as she waited he crossed to the bureau, which stood open, and searched feverishly among the papers which littered it. Apparently dissatisfied with the result, he moved it out bodily and looked behind and beneath it. Coming to an erect position again he suddenly became aware of the presence of his niece.
“It’s gone,” he said, in an amazed voice.
“Gone?” repeated Prudence. “What has gone?”
“The map,” said the captain, tumbling his beard. “I put it in this end pigeon-hole the other night after showing it and I haven’t touched it since; and it’s gone.”
“But you burnt it!” said Prudence, with an astonished laugh.
The captain started. “No; I was going to,” he said, eyeing her in manifest confusion.
“But you said that you had,” persisted his niece.
“Yes,” stammered the captain, “I know I did, but I hadn’t. I was just looking ahead a bit, that was all. I went to the bureau just now to do it.”
Miss Drewitt eyed him with mild reproach. “You even described how you did it,” she said, slowly. “You said that Mount Lonesome turned into a volcano. Wasn’t it true?”
“Figure o’ speech, my dear,” said the unhappy captain; “I’ve got a talent for description that runs away with me at times.”
His niece gazed at him in perplexity.
“You know what Chalk is,” said Captain Bowers, appealingly. “I was going to do it yesterday, only I forgot it, and he would have gone down on his knees for another sight of it. I don’t like to seem disobliging to friends, and it seemed to me a good way out of it. Chalk is so eager — it’s like refusing a child, and I hurt his feelings only the other day.”
“Perhaps you burnt it after all and forgot it?” said Prudence.
For the first time in her knowledge of him the captain got irritable with her. “I’ve not burnt it,” he said, sharply. “Where’s that Joseph? He must know something about it!”
He moved to the foot of the staircase, but Miss Drewitt laid a detaining hand on his arm.
“Joseph was in the room when you said that you had burnt it,” she exclaimed. “You can’t contradict yourself like that before him. Besides, I’m sure he has had nothing to do with it.”
“Somebody’s got it,” grumbled her uncle, pausing.
He dropped into his chair and looked at her in consternation. “Good heavens! Suppose they go after it,” he said, in a choking voice.
“Well, it won’t be your fault,” said Prudence. “You haven’t broken your word intentionally.”
But the captain paid no heed. He was staring wild-eyed into vacancy and rumpling his grey hair until it stood at all angles. His face reflected varying emotions.
“Somebody has got it,” he said again.
“Whoever it is will get no good by it,” said Miss Drewitt, who had had a pious upbringing.
“And if they’ve got the map they’ll go after the island,” said the captain, pursuing his train of thought.
“Perhaps they won’t find it after all,” said Prudence.
“Perhaps they won’t,” said the captain, gruffly.
He got up and paced the room restlessly. Prudence, watching him with much sympathy, had a sudden idea.
“Edward Tredgold was in here alone this afternoon,” she said, significantly.
“No, no,” said the captain, warmly. “Whoever has got it, it isn’t Edward Tredgold. I expect the talk about it has leaked out and somebody has slipped in and taken it. I ought to have been more careful.”
“He started when you said that you had burnt it,” persisted Miss Drewitt, unwilling to give up a theory so much to her liking. “You mark my words if his father and Mr. Chalk and that Mr. Stobell don’t go away for a holiday soon. Good-night.”
She kissed him affectionately under the left eye — a place overlooked by his beard — and went upstairs again. The captain filled his pipe and, resuming his chair, sat in a brown study until the clock of the neighbouring church struck two.
It was about the same time that Mr. Chalk fell asleep, thoroughly worn out by the events of the evening and a conversation with Mr. Stobell and Mr. Tredgold, whom he had met on the way home waiting for him.
The opinion of Mr. Tredgold senior, an opinion in which Mr. Stobell fully acquiesced, was that Mr. Chalk had ruined everything by displaying all along a youthful impetuosity sadly out of place in one of his years and standing. The offender’s plea that he had thought it best to strike while the iron was hot only exposed him to further contumely.
“Well, it’s no good talking about it,” said Mr. Tredgold, impatiently. “It’s all over now and done with.”
“Half a million clean chucked away,” said Mr. Stobell.
Mr. Chalk shook his head and, finding that his friends had by no means exhausted the subject, suddenly bethought himself of an engagement and left them.
Miss Vickers, who heard the news from Mr. Joseph Tasker, received it with an amount of amazement highly gratifying to his powers as a narrator. Her strongly expressed opinion afterwards that he had misunderstood what he had heard was not so agreeable.
“I suppose I can believe my own ears?” he said, in an injured voice.
“He must have been making fun of them all,” said Selina. “He couldn’t have burnt it — he couldn’t.”
“Why not?” inquired the other, surprised at her vehemence.
Miss Vickers hesitated. “Because it would be such a silly thing to do,” she said, at last. “Now, tell me what you heard all over again — slow.”
Mr. Tasker complied.
“I can’t make head or tail of it,” said Miss Vickers when he had finished.
“Seems simple enough to me,” said Joseph, staring at her.
“All things seem simple when you don’t know them,” said Miss Vickers, vaguely.
She walked home in a thoughtful mood, and for a day or two went about the house with an air of preoccupation which was a source of much speculation to the family. George Vickers, aged six, was driven to the verge of madness by being washed. Three times in succession one morning; a gag of well-soaped flannel being applied with mechanical regularity each time that he strove to point out the unwashed condition of Martha and Charles. His turn came when the exultant couple, charged with having made themselves dirty in the shortest time on record, were deprived of their breakfast. Mr. Vickers, having committed one or two minor misdemeanours unchallenged, attributed his daughter’s condition to love, and began to speak of that passion with more indulgence than he had done since his marriage.
Miss Vickers’s’ abstraction, however, lasted but three days. On the fourth she was herself again, and, having spent the day in hard work, dressed herself with unusual care in the evening and went out.
The evening was fine and the air, to one who had been at work indoors all day, delightful. Miss Vickers walked briskly along with the smile of a person who has solved a difficult problem, but
as she drew near the Horse and Groom, a hostelry of retiring habits, standing well back from the road, the smile faded and she stood face to face with the stern realities of life.
A few yards from the side-door Mr. Vickers stood smoking a contemplative pipe; the side-door itself had just closed behind a tall man in corduroys, who bore in his right hand a large mug made of pewter.
“Ho!” said Selina, “so this is how you go on the moment my back is turned, is it?”
“What d’ye mean?” demanded Mr. Vickers, blustering.
“You know what I mean,” said his daughter, “standing outside and sending Bill Russell in to get you beer. That’s what I mean.”
Mr. Vickers turned, and with a little dramatic start intimated that he had caught sight of Mr. Russell for the first time that evening. Mr. Russell himself sought to improve the occasion.
“Wish I may die—” he began, solemnly.
“Like a policeman,” continued Selina, regarding her father indignantly.
“I wish I was a policeman,” muttered Mr. Vickers. “I’d show some of you.”
“What have you got to say for yourself?” demanded Miss Vickers, shortly.
“Nothing,” said the culprit. “I s’pose I can stand where I like? There’s no law agin it.”
“Do you mean to say that you didn’t send Bill in to get you some beer?” said his daughter.
“Certainly not,” said Mr. Vickers, with great indignation. “I shouldn’t think of such a thing.”
“I shouldn’t get it if ‘e did,” said Mr. Russell, virtuously.
“Whose beer is it, then?” said Selina.
“Why, Bill’s, I s’pose; how should I know?” replied Mr. Vickers.
“Yes, it’s mine,” said Mr. Russell.
“Drink it up, then,” commanded Miss Vickers, sternly.
Both men started, and then Mr. Russell, bestowing a look of infinite compassion upon his unfortunate friend, raised the mug obediently to his sensitive lips. Always a kind-hearted man, he was glad when the gradual tilting necessary to the occasion had blotted out the picture of indignation which raged helplessly before him.
Works of W. W. Jacobs Page 46
