The Third R. Austin Freeman Megapack

by R. Austin Freeman

  He would not be easily put off if he wanted to come… It was a difficult problem; and Andrew had not solved it satisfactorily when the train rolled into the station at Crompton and came to rest at the platform.

  CHAPTER III

  In the Midst of Life

  Andrew’s first proceeding on coming out of the station was to make inquiries at the baker’s shop, which was also a post office, for the address of a picture dealer. Of course he knew that there would be no picture dealer, as he understood the term, in a town like Crompton; nor had he any expectation of transacting any business whatever. The inquiry, like the pictures in his attache case, was a mere concession to sentiment. He had told Ronald that he had business in Crompton, and he felt that he must make some pretence of business. It was mere foolish make-believe, and he knew it; but to a man habitually truthful, as he was, there is perhaps a shade of difference between a statement, true in the letter though false in the spirit, and one without even a foundation of truth. At any rate, that was how he felt about it. “A picture dealer,” the woman in the shop repeated, reflectively, “I don’t know of any regular picture dealer In Crompton. There’s Mr. Cooper in the High Street, he sells pictures. He calls himself a carver and gilder. He’s the only one I know of.”

  “I expect he will do,” said Andrew, with literal truth this time, and, having thanked the woman, he went forth in search of the High Street and Mr. Cooper.

  The former was found easily enough, and the latter after a very brief exploration. Andrew stood for a while outside the shop and examined the contents of the window. There were a few brushes and tubes of colour, several empty frames and half a dozen “original water colours.” As the most ambitious of these was priced at eighteen shillings the pair, including the frames, the prospect of any business grew still more remote. Nevertheless, Andrew entered the shop, and, by way of breaking the matter gently, began with the request for a tube of Winsor and Newton’s cobalt. When this had been handed to him, he laid his attache case on the counter and opened his ‘business.’ “Do you do anything in the way of buying pictures?” he asked.

  Mr. Cooper was cautious. “I don’t buy a lot,” said he, “but I am always ready to look at samples. Have you got any with you?”

  Andrew opened his case and produced his “samples,” which the dealer took in his hands and looked at suspiciously. “Are these originals?” he asked. “They look like reproductions.”

  “No,” replied Andrew, “they are originals; my own work.”

  Mr. Cooper examined them again with renewed interest. After a prolonged inspection, he inquired: “How much?”

  “Five guineas each,” Andrew replied.

  The dealer stiffened and cast a startled glance at the artist. “Did you say five guineas each?” he demanded, incredulously.

  Andrew repeated the statement, whereupon the dealer hastily deposited the paintings in the open attache case and shook his head sadly but emphatically. “I don’t say they may not be worth it,” said he, “but I have to sell pictures cheap, and find the frames myself. Five shillings a drawing is my outside price.”

  Andrew was not surprised or disappointed. The interview had served its purpose. It had been a business transaction and had conferred a quality of literal truth on his statement to Ronald. Satisfied with this make-believe, he repacked his pictures and closed his attache case. Then, after a few minutes’ amicable chat with the dealer, he wished him “good morning” and took his leave.

  His premature arrival at Crompton left him with a full hour to dispose of before keeping his tryst at Ronald’s lodgings. He was not inclined to call there before he was due, with the chance of finding his cousin absent and being brought into undesired contact with the landlady; and, moreover, he still had the foolish urge to consider over again what he would say to Ronald at the coming interview. Accordingly, he spent the time rambling up and down the streets, looking with rather wandering attention into the shop windows and examining the general features of the town.

  First he proceeded to ascertain the whereabouts of the street in which his cousin lived, and, having found it, to locate approximately the number, 16. Barleymow Street was a respectable though rather shabby street, mostly consisting of private houses with a few shops. Near one end was an archway leading into a kind of alley, and, above the arch was a blue lamp bearing the words, “Police Station,” while, on the space of wall beside the arch was a large board covered with printed bills containing announcements of persons missing, wanted or found drowned, and other similar police notices. Here he lingered for a while, reading these rather gruesome advertisements and once more considering irresolutely whether he ought not to step in and make his report of the incident of the previous night.

  It was a more momentous question than he realized; but, fortunately, he took the right decision, though whether that decision was due to Molly’s admonitions or his preoccupation with his present business it is impossible to say. At any rate, he decided to wait until he was back in his own neighbourhood and turned away in search of further objects of interest.

  Such an object he found near the opposite end of the street, and the oddity of it diverted his attention for the moment from his immediate anxieties and preoccupations. It was in a large window—a sort of hybrid between a shop and a private house—and consisted of a hand-written placard executed in bold Roman capitals announcing that these premises were occupied by no less a person than Professor Booley, late of Boston, U.S.A. (popularly believed to be the hub of the universe). It set forth that the said Professor was a specialist in the beautification of the Human Countenance, and gave in emphatic and even dictatorial terms a number of items of advice coupled with reasoned suggestions. Thus:

  GOOD LOOKS ARE THE SUREST PASSPORTS TO SUCCESS. IF NATURE HASN’T GIVEN THEM TO YOU, COME IN AND LET ME MAKE GOOD HER FAILURE.

  WHY HAVE EYEBROWS ALL AWRY WHEN THE SPECIALIST CAN SET THEM FAIR AND EVEN?

  WHY HAVE A WRINKLED FACE? DON’T. COME RIGHT IN AND HAVE YOUR SKIN MADE AS SMOOTH AS A BABY’S.

  WHY HAVE A CROOKED NOSE? DON’T. LET ME STRAIGHTEN IT OUT.

  DON’T BE CONTENT WITH A BACK SEAT BECAUSE YOU WERE BORN HOMELY. COME INTO MY PARLOR AND BE MADE FIT FOR A PLACE IN THE FRONT ROW.

  Andrew stood before the window, reading these adjurations and commands with a faint smile, in which, however, there was more of wistfulness than amusement. Doubtless, the Professor was a quack of the deepest dye; but he had set forth a truth of which no one could be more sensible than the spectacled reader who stood before the window. Dimly as he had realized the value of good looks when the precious gift was his, his loss had made it but too clear. What most men experience only with advancing years, he had experienced in the hey-day of his manhood.

  He sauntered on, musing whimsically on the Professor’s procedure. How did that redoubtable operator go about smoothing out wrinkles? A flat iron hardly seemed to meet the case. And how did he straighten out a crooked nose? The question evoked a ridiculous picture of the Professor tapping out the patient’s proboscis on an anvil, or bringing it to a straight line by means of a screw clamp. If only the Professor’s claims could be taken seriously! Though, to be sure, even Professor Booley had not claimed to be able to create a new nose on the foundations of one that had been battered out of existence.

  Slowly his saunterings and shop-gazings consumed the time, as he noted by an occasional glance at his watch; and punctually at two minutes to one he turned again into Barleymow Street. There was no need for him to check the numbers afresh, for, at the middle of the street, where he had located number sixteen, his cousin was already waiting, slowly pacing up and down before his doorway, and at the moment with his back turned towards Andrew. Then he swung round, and, catching sight of his cousin, started forward briskly with a smile of recognition and greeting.

  As the two men approached, they regarded each other critically, and Andrew noted with something like a pang of envy what a really fine-looking man his cousin was; such a man as he,
himself, had been but a year or two ago. “Here you are, then,” said Ronald, grasping his hand effusively, “punctual to the minute as usual. You ought to have been a business man instead of an artist.”

  “There is no reason why one should not be both,” said Andrew.

  “Answered with your customary wisdom,” rejoined Ronald. “And, speaking of business, have you polished off the little affair that brought you to the unlikely region of Crompton-on-Sea?”

  As he asked the question, Ronald’s face exhibited a faint smirk which brought an angry flush to his cousin’s cheek. Obviously, Ronald was slightly sceptical of the business appointment; but he might have kept his scepticism to himself. “Yes,” Andrew replied, “it didn’t take more than a few minutes.”

  “I hope you brought off the deal,” said Ronald.

  “No,” replied Andrew, “there was nothing doing; at least, not at my price. Better luck next time, perhaps. Do you know of a likely place where we can get some lunch?”

  “I know a place that will suit us exactly,” answered Ronald. “But you won’t want to lug that attache case about with you all day. We shall probably go for a walk after lunch. Shall I plant it in my digs until you want it again?”

  Andrew accepted the suggestion gladly, having already had enough of the case, and handed it to Ronald, who let himself into the house with a latchkey and disappeared for a few moments. When he reappeared, he linked his arm in Andrew’s and led him a way in the direction of the approved restaurant, which was situated at the farther end of the High Street and turned out to be a place of some pretensions. As they walked, Ronald chatted with the easy volubility of an accomplished salesman or cheap-jack on every subject but the one which was the occasion of their meeting, while Andrew listened half impatiently but with a certain grim amusement. He knew this trick of Ronald’s of old. That slippery gentleman could never be brought to make a plain statement of the circumstances which called for the particular loan which he happened to be seeking. Instead, he managed with really remarkable skill to keep up a sort of conversational solo on all kinds of indifferent topics, always discreetly avoiding the one concerned with the financial transaction.

  On this occasion, he got an excellent start as they passed the arched opening that led to the police station; for, at that moment, a bare-headed policeman was engaged in sticking a new bill on the notice board. They had only a glimpse of it in passing, but they were able to see that it was headed in bold type: “Wanted for Murder.” That bill furnished Ronald with material for discourse—one could hardly call it conversation—until they reached the restaurant.

  Andrew made no attempt to counter these manoeuvres. In a contemptuous way he was slightly amused by his cousin’s evasions; and he had no curiosity as to the “top hole opening” which was the nominal occasion of the need for fifty pounds. Probably it was a myth covering some gambling transaction. That was really of no consequence. He had brought the money with him and he knew that presently he would hand it over. The only thing that mattered was that there should be no arrangement for a visit to Fairfield.

  The lunch was a complete success. Andrew, himself, was pretty sharp set and Ronald’s exploits suggested a recent period of abstemiousness. In fact, his concentration on alimentary activities hindered his conversation to an extent that enabled Andrew to get in a question or two on the subject of the “opening.” But Ronald was not to be drawn. “Yes, old chappie,” said he, “we shall have to talk things over presently, though it’s all pretty simple to a man of your business acumen. We might take a stroll in the country where we can talk at our ease. There’s some quite pleasant country along the north coast. Quiet, too. Most of the visitors seem to keep to the south. By the way, those spectacles of yours are an excellent idea. You hadn’t got them when I saw you last. I suppose you don’t really want them for your eyesight, but that wide bridge covers up the scar so that you look quite like your old self.”

  Andrew noted the evasion with amused exasperation, but he made no further attempt to “get down to brass tacks.” He sipped his coffee and assented passively to Ronald’s suggestion of a green Chartreuse “to give the festivity a final kick.” Then he paid the bill and went forth with his companion to see what the country walk might bring in the way of explanations.

  It brought what he had expected; an endless stream of talk on the most diverse topics with a discreet avoidance of any references to the golden opportunity. Only once was that subject approached, and then merely in respect of that aspect of the transaction which to Ronald was the only one that mattered. “By the way, old chappie,” he said when Andrew had put out another feeler, “I suppose you have brought the rhino with you?”

  “I have brought a cheque,” Andrew replied.

  Ronald’s face fell. “That’s a bit awkward,” said he. “The fact is I haven’t got a banking account at the moment. Didn’t find my bank satisfactory and haven’t got a new one yet.”

  Andrew made no comment; but a vision of the initials “R.D.” arose before “the eye of his mind.” Bankers are apt to develop an “unsatisfactory” attitude towards customers whose cheques have to be “referred to drawer,” which, as Andrew knew, had happened in Ronald’s case on more than one occasion. “You see,” Ronald continued, “it would hardly look well if I had to hand in your cheque for my deposit. They’d see that I had no banking account of my own, and that’s just what I don’t want them to know. I want to give the impression of a financially substantial person, as I shall have some of their money passing through my hands.”

  Andrew noted mentally the appropriateness of the phrase, “passing through my hands,” and saw unpleasant possibilities looming in the future. He only hoped that “they,” whoever they were—supposing them to have any real objective existence—would make suitable arrangements for “their” own security.

  Meanwhile he replied: “It is an open cheque; but if that doesn’t quite meet the case, I dare say I could manage to let you have cash. But I should like to know a little more about the business.”

  “Of course you would,” Ronald agreed heartily, “though the essential fact is that I have to lay down fifty pounds as security before I can take up the appointment. Look at that jolly old windmill. What a pity they have taken the sails off! Makes it look such a ruinous affair. But they nearly always do, if they don’t pull the whole thing down. Soon there won’t be a complete windmill in the whole country.”

  Here he broke off into a discourse on windmills in particular and the deterioration of the countryside in general, and, for the time being, the subject of the security lapsed. It being obvious that he did not mean to be drawn into any intelligible account of the business transaction, real or imaginary, Andrew resigned himself to the inevitable and accepted the conversational lead; with the reservation that no arrangements for a visit to Fairfield were entertained.

  Apart from its unpleasant antecedents, the walk was agreeable enough. They had soon left the little town behind, and the country, though not romantically beautiful, offered a pleasant rural prospect. The cornfields, it is true, were denuded of their crops, which now, in the form of rows of ricks, lined the hedgerows at the bottom of the fields. But the stubble, now faded to a soft purplish grey, was enriched by the daisies that had sprung up since the harvest, and the groups of scarlet poppies. The only drawback to the landscape was the scarcity of trees and the lack of any relief from the glare of the hot afternoon sun. For, late as it was in the year, the summer continued with unabated heat and brilliancy. The sky was cloudless, a tremulous haze hung over the ground, and the sea, which was visible over the edge of the cliffs, was still of the clear summer blue. “It’s deuced hot,” said Ronald, taking off his hat to wipe his forehead. “How would it be to get down to the beach and have a stroll along the sands? It would be fresher there than up here.”

  “Can we get down?” asked Andrew.

  “Yes,” replied Ronald. “There is a sunken road leading to a gap-way that opens out on to the beach. I found it by fo
llowing a couple of seaweed carts, and I’ve been there once or twice since for a bathe. Nobody ever seems to come there, so you don’t have to bother about bathing suits.”

  He turned off the road and led the way across a stubble field, and, after walking about a quarter of a mile, they came to a shallow sunken road, marked by deep ruts in its chalky surface made by the wheels of the heavily laden seaweed carts. Gradually the road sank deeper as it declined towards the sea level until it took on the character of a narrow gully enclosed by lofty walls of chalk. Down this gully the two men picked their way over the rough road in the deep, cool shadow until they reached the bottom of the slope and stood looking out on the sun-lit sands.

  Ronald cast a glance at the two lofty headlands which enclosed the little bay and remarked: “We shan’t be able to walk very far along the beach. The tide is coming in, and it won’t be long before it is up to the cliffs where they jut out. We mustn’t get caught on the hop.”

  “Well,” said Andrew, “there’s a good stretch of smooth sand in the bay. It will be quite pleasant to walk up and down by the sea without going out of the bay; and it will seem cooler by the water’s edge, even if it isn’t.”

  “Yes,” Ronald agreed, “there is something cooling in the very sound of the waves breaking on the beach. But I don’t see why we need stop at the sound. A dip would be a good deal more refreshing. What do you say? The sea looks just perfect for a bathe.”

  Andrew cast an approving glance at the calm blue sea and the lines of creamy white where the little surf broke with a gentle murmur on the shore. “It does look rather inviting,” he admitted; “but it seems a bit primitive—no bathing suits and no towels.”

  “As to the suits,” said Ronald, beginning to slip off his jacket, “you can see for yourself that the place is as solitary as the Sahara; and what do you want with towels when you have got a roasting sun like this to dry you?”

  He settled the question by backing into a shallow recess in the cliff and proceeding rapidly to divest himself of his clothes, when Andrew, after a moment’s hesitation, followed suit. As both men were rather scantily clad in the ubiquitous grey flannel suits that were then the vogue, the process was not a long one. In a couple of minutes they were scampering across the sand towards the surf in a condition which Mr. Titmarsh would have described as “naked as a pair of Hottentots,” Ronald taking a certain satisfaction in the defiance of convention and Andrew slightly self-conscious.