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DIALSTONE LANE
"he led the reluctant man as far from the helmsman as possible and whispered the information."
DIALSTONE LANE
BY W. W. JACOBS
ILLUSTRATED BY WILL OWEN
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LONDON : |
GEORGE NEWNES, |
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LIMITED, |
SOUTHAMPTON |
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STREET, |
STRAND, W.C. |
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MCMIV |
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
Many Cargoes
The Skipper's Wooing
Sea Urchins
A Master cf Craft
Light Freights
At Sunwich Port
The Lady and the Barge
Odd Craft
3>f
TO MY DAUGHTER LUNED
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
"He led the reluctant man as far from the helmsman AS possible AND whispered the information " Frontispiece
"Prudence" n
"Old-fashioned matrons clustered round to watch him
cleaning the doorstep" 15
"He took Mr. Chalk in a firm grasp and lowered him" 20 "Sometimes the Caitain took him to palm -studded
islands in the Southern Seas" 23
" He ransacked an old lumber-room " 39
"Selina Vickers' 45
"He pops in and out my office like a figure on a
cuckoo-clock" 50
"The others drew near and inspected it" 58
"'All she says is she's not afraid of you, nor six
LIKE YOU'" 64
"HE WAYLAID HIM ON SEVERAL occasions" 67
"'Done with it?' repeated the girl, in a startled
VOICE" 73
"Mr. Chalk entered, leading Mr. Stobell" 76
" He moved it out bodily and looked behind and beneath
IT'* 83
"She stood face to face with the stern realities of life " 89 "He made out a girl's head surmounted by a large hat" 92 "To cover his discomfiture he passed his cup up for
more coffee" 97
"'This is a new Client of mine,' said Tredgold" 100
"Mr. Tredgold prepared to draw up the required
agreement" 106
"'Fine day, gentlemen,' said the stranger, as he raised
his glass" 114
"His three patrons, with a hopeless attempt to appear
unconcerned, were coming down the road" 122
"Captain Brisket waving farewells from the quay as
they embarked" i24
" Mr. Vickers, with Mr. William Russell and a couple
of ferrets, returned home to breakfast" i26
'•'Why, you must have been stinting me for years,*
continued Mr. Vickers " 130
"They were anxious for particulars" 133
"Mr. Vickers rose and stood regarding the ignoble
creature with profound contempt" 141
"He became intent on a derelict punt" 147
"Aided by Mr. Tredgold and a peal of thunder, she
managed to clamber over" 154
"She threw herself thoughtlessly into that famous
old Chippendale chair" 157
vii
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
"Instructed theik retainers to make untruthful
statements" 159
"You said to my husband: 'The Fair Emily is yours'"... 165
"The Captain walked home deep in thought" 168
"Mrs. Stobell" 173
"'It wouldn't be nice to be buried at sea,' remarked
Mr. Chalk" 178
"He pointed to a thin, dismal-looking man" 183
"'There's more in this than meets the eye'" 186
" Mr. Chalk proved by actual measurement that the
bullet had not gone within six inches of her" ... 189 "Mrs. Chalk stood by a pile of luggage, discoursing to
an admiring circle of friends" 191
"a slight nautical roll" 193
" 'is it mutiny?' he faltered" 199
"she enacted, to the great admiration of a small
crowd, the part of a human semaphore" 202
"'Mr. Tredgold!' said a sharp voice from above" ... 210 "'I never want to hear another word about thai- treasure as long as I live'" 216
"Aimed hastily at a face which appeared there" ... 220
"* It's pointing towards me,' said the mate " 223
" He felt less heroic next morning " 227
"The Captain and Mr. Duckett discussed with great
earnestness the nature of the secret" 231
'"i found im inside the horse and groom,' he said" ... 238 "Selina was standing in front of Mr. Tasker in the manner of a small hen defending an overgrown
CHICKEN" 245
" ' I WAS GOING TO ASK HIM TO GIVE ME A CUP OF TEA,' HE
SAID" 251
"Mr. Duckett took the helm" 265
"The 'Fair Emily' had disappeared" 271
"Mr. Chalk, with the air of an old campaigner, made
a small fire and prepared breakfast" 276
" her friend gazed long and mournfully at a large
photograph of mr. stobell" 282
"Miss Vickers stood wiping her hands on her coarse
APRON" 287
"Selina so far relented as to present her with
twopence on account" 292
"i told him that you would like to hear it" 297
"Half Binchester had congregated to welcome their
fellow-townsmen " 302
"•Halloa! what do you want? ' he inquired" 307
•"It'll be all right,' said Brisket, puffing at his
cigar" 314
"Then Tredgold, with his back to the others, caught
his eye and frowned significantly" 320
viii
CHAPTER I.
Mr. Edward Tredgold sat in the private office of Tredgold and Son, land and estate agents, gazing through the prim wire blinds at the peaceful High Street of Winchester. Tred- gold senior, who believed in work for the young, had left early. Tredgold junior, glad at an opportunity of sharing his father's views, had passed most of the work on to a clerk who had arrived in the world exactly three weeks after himself. 4-
DIALSTONE LANK
11 Binchester gets duller and duller," said Mr. Tredgold to himself, wearily. " Two skittish octogenarians, one gloomy baby, one gloom iet nursemaid, and three dogs in the last five
minutes. If it wasn't for the dogs
Halloa!"
He put down his pen and, rising, looked over the top of the blind at a girl who was glancing from side to side of the road as though in search of an address.
"A visitor," continued Mr. Tredgold, criti- cally. "Girls like that only visit Binchester, and then take the first train back, never to return."
The girl turned at that moment and, encoun- tering the forehead and eyes, gazed at them until they sank slowly behind the protection of the blind.
" She's coming here," said Mr. Tredgold, watching through the wire. " Wants to see our time-table, I expect."
He sat down at the table again, and taking up his pen took some papers from a pigeon- hole and eyed them with severe thoughtfulness.
"A lady to see you, sir," said a clerk, opening the door.
Mr. Tredgold rose and placed a chair.
" I have called for the key of the cottage in Dialstone Lane," said the girl, still standing. " My uncle, Captain Bowers, has not arrived yet, and I am told that you are the landlord."
DIALSTONE LANE
Mr. Tredgold bowed. "The next train is due at six," he observed, with a glance at the time-table hanging on the wall ; " I expect he'll come by that. He was here on Monday seeing the last of the furniture in. Are you Miss Drewitt ? "
" Yes," said the girl. "If you'll kindly give me the key, I can go in and wait for him."
Mr. Tredgold took it from a drawer. "If you will allow me, I will go down with you," he said slowly ; " the lock is rather awkward for anybody who doesn't understand it."
The girl murmured something about not troubling him.
"It's no trouble," said Mr. Tredgold, taking up his hat. " It is our duty to do all we can for the comfort of our tenants. That lock "
He held the door open and followed her i io the street, pointing out various objects of interest as they went along.
"I'm afraid you'll find Binchester very quiet," he remarked.
" I like quiet," said his companion.
Mr. Tredgold glanced at her shrewdly, and, pausing only at the Jubilee horse-trough to point out beauties which might easily escape any but a trained observation, walked on in silence until they reached their destination.
Except in the matter of window-blinds, Dialstone Lane had not changed for genera-
DIALSTONE LANE
tions, and Mr. Tredgold noted with pleasure the interest of his companion as she gazed at the crumbling roofs, the red-brick doorsteps, and the tiny lattice windows of the cottages. At the last house, a cottage larger than the rest, one side of which bordered the old church- yard, Mr. Tredgold paused and, inserting his key in the lock, turned it with thoughtless ease.
" The lock seems all right ; I need not have bothered you," said Miss Drewitt, regarding him gravely.
"Ah, it seems easy," said Mr. Tredgold, shaking his head, "but it wants knack."
The girl closed the door smartly, and, turning the key, opened it again without any difficulty. To satisfy herself — on more points than one — she repeated the performance.
"You've got the knack," said Mr. Tredgold, meeting her gaze with great calmness. "It's extraordinary what a lot of character there is in locks ; they let some people open them without any trouble, while others may fumble at them till they're tired."
The girl pushed the door open and stood just inside the room.
" Thank you," she said, and gave him a little bow of dismissal.
A vein of obstinacy in Mr. Tredgold's dis- position, which its owner mistook for firmness, asserted itself. It was plain that the girl had estimated his services at their true value and
DIALSTONE LANE
was quite willing to apprise him of the fact. He tried the lock again, and with more bitter- ness than the occasion seemed to warrant said that somebody had been oiling it.
" I promised Captain Bowers to come in this afternoon and see that a few odd things had been done," he added. " May I come in now ? "
The girl withdrew into the room, and, seating herself in a large arm-chair by the fireplace, watched his inspection of door-knobs and window-fastenings with an air of grave amuse- ment, which he found somewhat trying.
" Captain Bowers had the walls panelled and these lockers made to make the room look as much like a ship's cabin as possible," he said, pausing in his labours. "He was quite pleased to find the staircase opening out of the room — he calls it the companion ladder. And he calls the kitchen the pantry, which led to a lot of confusion with the workmen. Did he tell you of the crow's-nest in the garden ? "
"No," said the girl.
" It's a fine piece of work," said Mr. Tred gold.
He opened the door leading into the kitchen and stepped out into the garden. Miss Drewitt, after a moment's hesitation, followed, and after one delighted glance at the trim old garden gazed curiously at a mast with a barrel fixed near the top, which stood at the end.
" There's a fine view from up there," said
DIALSTONE LANE
Mr. Tredgold. " With the captain's glass one can see the sea distinctly. I spent nearly all last Friday afternoon up there, keeping an eye on things. Do you like the garden ? Do you think these old creepers ought to be torn down from the house?"
" Certainly not," said Miss Drewitt, with emphasis.
"Just what I said," remarked Mr. Tredgold. " Captain Bowers wanted to have them pulled down, but I dissuaded him. I advised him to consult you first."
" I don't suppose he really intended to," said the girl.
" He did," said the other, grimly ; " said they were untidy. How do you like the way the house is furnished ? "
The girl gazed at him for a few moments before replying. " I like it very much," she said, coldly.
"That's right," said Mr. Tredgold, with an air of relief. "You see I advised the captain what to buy. I went with him to Tollminster and helped him choose. Your room gave me the most anxiety, I think."
"My room?" said the girl, starting.
"It's a dream in the best shades of pink and green," said Mr. Tredgold, modestly. " Pink on the walls, and carpets and hangings green ; three or four bits of old furniture — the captain objected, but I stood firm ; and for
6
DIALSTONE LANE
pictures I had two or three little things out of an art journal framed."
"Is furnishing part of your business ?" inquired the girl, eyeing him in bewilderment.
"Business?" said the other. "Oh, no. I did it for amusement. I chose and the captain paid. It was a delightful experience. The sordid question of price was waived ; for once expense was nothing to me. I wish you'd just step up to your room and see how you like it. It's the one over the kitchen."
Miss Drewitt hesitated, and then curiosity, combined with a cheerful idea of probably being able to disapprove of the lauded decorations, took her indoors and upstairs. In a few minutes she came down again.
11 1 suppose it's all right, "she said, ungraciously, " but I don't understand why you should have selected it."
" I had to," said Mr. Tredgold, confidentially. " I happened to go to Tollminster the same day as the captain and went into a shop with him. If you could only see the things he wanted to buy, you would understand."
The girl was silent.
" The paper the captain selected for your room," continued Mr. Tredgold, severely, "was decorated with branches of an unknown flower- ing shrub, on the top twig of which a humming- bird sat eating a dragon-fly. A rough calcula- tion showed me that every time you opened
DIALSTONE LANE
your eyes in the morning you would see fifty- seven humming-birds — all made in the same pattern — eating fifty-seven ditto dragon-flies. The captain said it was cheerful."
" I have no doubt that my uncle's selection would have satisfied me," said Miss Drewitt coldly.
" The curtains he fancied were red, with small yellow tigers crouching all over them," pursued Mr. Tredgold. " The captain seemed fond of animals."
"I think that you were rather — venture- some," said the girl. " Suppose that I had not liked the things you selected ? "
Mr. Tredgold deliberated. " I felt sure that you would like them," he said, at last. "It was a hard struggle not to keep some of the things for myself. I've had my eye on those two Chippendale chairs for years. They belonged to an old woman in Mint Street, but she always refused to part with them. I shouldn't have got them, only one of them letherdown the other day."
" Let her down ? " repeated Miss Drewitt, sharply. " Do you mean one of the chairs in my bed-room ? "
Mr. Tredgold nodded. "Gave her rather a nasty fall," he said. " I struck while the iron was hot, and went and made her an offer while she was still laid up from the effects of it. It's the one standing against the wall ; the other's all right, with proper care."
8
DIALSTONE LANE
Miss Drewitt, after a somewhat long interval, thanked him.
"You must have been very useful to my uncle," she said slowly. " I feel sure that he would never have bought chairs like those of his own accord."
"He has been at sea all his life," said Mr. Tredgold, in extenuation. " You haven't seen him for a long time, have you ? "
" Ten years," was the reply.
"He is delightful company," said Mr. Tred- gold. "His life has been one long series of adventures in every quarter of the globe. His stock of yarns is like the widow's cruse. And here he comes," he added, as a dilapidated fly drew up at the house and an elderly man, with a red, weather-beaten face, partly hidden in a cloud of grey beard, stepped out and stood in the doorway, regarding tne girl with something almost akin to embarrassment.
" It's not — not Prudence?" he said at length, holding out his hand and staring at her.
" Yes, uncle," said the girl.
They shook hands, and Captain Bowers, reaching up for a cage containing a parrot, which had been noisily entreating the cabman for a kiss all the way from the station, handed that flustered person his fare and entered the house again.
" Glad to see you, my lad," he said, shaking hands with Mr. Tredgold and glancing covertly
DIALSTONE LANE
at his niece. " I hope you haven't been waiting long," he added, turning to the latter.
" No," said Miss Drewitt, regarding him with a puzzled air.
"I missed the train," said the captain. "We must try and manage better next time. I — I hope you'll be comfortable."
" Thank you," said the girl.
"You — you are very like your poor mother," said the captain.
" I hope so," said Prudence.
She stole up to the captain and, after a moment's hesitation, kissed his cheek. The next moment she was caught up and crushed in the arms of a powerful and affectionate bear.
" Blest if I hardly knew how to take you at first," said the captain, his red face shining with gratification. H Little girls are one thing, but when they grow up into" — he held her away and looked at her proudly — "into handsome and dignified -looking young women, a man doesn't quite know where he is."
He took her in his arms again and, kissing her forehead, winked delightedly in the direction of Mr. Tredgold, who was affecting to look out of the window.
"My man'll be in soon," he said, releasing the girl, "and then we'll see about some tea. He met me at the station and I sent him straight off for things to eat."
"Your man?" said Miss Drewitt.
10
DIALSTONE LANE
" Yes ; I thought a man would be easier to manage than a girl," said the captain, knowingly. " You can be freer with 'em in the matter of lan- guage, and then there's no followers or anything of that kind. I got him to sign articles ship-shape and proper. Mr. Tredgold recommended him."
" No, no," said that gentleman hastily.
" I asked you before he signed on with me," said the captain, pointing a stumpy forefinger at him. " I made a point of it, and you told me that you had never heard anything against him."
" I don't call that a recommenda- tion," said Mr. Tredgold.
" It's good enough in these days," retorted the captain, gloomily. "A man that has got a character like that is hard to find. " .. prudence."
ii
DIALSTONE LANE
"He might be artful and keep his faults to himself," suggested Tredgold.
" So long as he does that, it's all right," said Captain Bowers. " I can't find fault if there's no faults to find fault with. The best steward I ever had, I found out afterwards, had escaped from gaol. He never wanted to go ashore, and when the ship was in port almost lived in his pantry."
" I never heard of Tasker having been in gaol," said Mr. Tredgold. "Anyhow, I'm certain that he never broke out of one ; he's far too stupid."
As he paid this tribute the young man referred to entered laden with parcels, and, gazing awkwardly at the company, passed through the room on tiptoe and began to busy himself in the pantry. Mr. Tredgold, refusing the captain's invitation to stay for a cup of tea, took his departure.
" Very nice youngster that," said the captain, looking after him. "A little bit light-hearted in his ways, perhaps, but none the worse for that."
He sat down and looked round at his possessions. "The first real home I've had for nearly fifty years," he said, with great content. " I hope you'll be as happy here as I intend to be. It shan't be my fault if you're not.
Mr. Tredgold walked home deep in thought,
12
DIALSTONE LANE
and by the time he had arrived there had come to the conclusion that if Miss Drewitt favoured her mother, that lady must have been singularly unlike Captain Bowers in feature.
13
CHAPTER II.
In less than a week Captain Bowers had settled down comfortably in his new command. A set of rules and regulations by which Mr. Joseph Tasker was to order his life was framed and hung in the pantry. He studied it with care, and, anxious that there should be no possible chance of a misunderstanding, questioned the spelling in three instances. The captain's explanation that he had spelt those words in the American style was an untruthful reflection upon a great and friendly nation.
Dialstone Lane was at first disposed to look askance at Mr. Tasker. Old-fashioned matrons clustered round to watch him cleaning the door- step, and surprised at its whiteness withdrew, discomfited. Rumour had it that he liked work, and scandal said that he had wept because he was not allowed to do the washing.
The captain attributed this satisfactory con- dition of affairs to the rules and regulations, though a slight indiscretion on the part of Mr. Tasker, necessitating the unframing of the document to add to the latter, caused him a little annoyance.
The first intimation he had of it was a loud
H
DIALSTONE LANE
knocking at the front door as he sat dozing one afternoon in his easy chair. In response to his startled cry of " Come in ! " the door opened and
"OLD-FASHIONED MATRONS CLUSTERED ROUND TO WATCH HIM CLEANING THE DOORSTEP."
a small man, in a state of considerable agitation, burst into the room and confronted him.
" My name is Chalk," he said, breathlessly.
"A friend of Mr. Tredgold's?" said the captain. "I've heard of you, sir."
The visitor paid no heed.
i5
DIALSTONE LANE
" My wife wishes to know whether she has got to dress in the dark every afternoon for the rest of her life," he said, in fierce but trembling tones.
"Got to dress in the dark?" repeated the astonished captain.
"With the blind down," explained the other.
Captain Bowers looked him up and down. He saw a man of about fifty nervously fingering the little bits of fluffy red whisker which grew at the sides of his face, and trying to still the agitation of his tremulous mouth.
" How would you like it yourself? " demanded the visitor, whose manner was gradually becom- ing milder and milder. " How would you like a telescope a yard long pointing "
He broke off abruptly as the captain, with a smothered oath, dashed out of his chair into the garden and stood shaking his fist at the crow's- nest at the bottom.
" Joseph ! " he bawled.
"Yes, sir," said Mr. Tasker, removing the telescope described by Mr. Chalk from his eye, and leaning over.
" What are you doing with that spy-glass ? " demanded his master, beckoning to the visitor, who had drawn near. " How dare you stare in at people's windows ? "
" I wasn't, sir," replied Mr. Tasker, in an injured voice. " I wouldn't think o' such a thing — I couldn't, not if I tried."
"You'd got it pointed straight at my bed-
16
DIALSTONE LANE
room window," cried Mr. Chalk, as he accompanied the captain down the garden. "And it ain't the first time."
" I wasn't, sir," said the steward, addressing his master. " I was watching the martins under the eaves."
" You'd got it pointed at my window," per- sisted the visitor.
"That's where the nests are," said Mr. Tasker, " but I wasn't looking in at the window. Besides, I noticed you always pulled the blind down when you saw me looking, so I thought it didn't matter."
"We can't do anything without being fol- lowed about by that telescope," said Mr. Chalk, turning to the captain. " My wife had our house built where it is on purpose, so that we shouldn't be overlooked. We didn't bargain for a thing like that sprouting up in a back-garden."
"I'm very sorry," said the captain, " I wish you'd told me of it before. If I catch you up there again," he cried, shaking his fist at Mr Tasker, " you'll remember it. Come down ! "
Mr. Tasker, placing the glass under his arm, came slowly and reluctantly down the ratlines.
" I wasn't looking in at the window, Mr. Chalk," he said, earnestly. " I was watching the birds. O' course, I couldn't help seeing in a bit, but I always shifted the spy-glass at once if there was anything that I thought I oughtn't "
17 c
DIALSTONE LANE
" That'll do," broke in the captain, hastily. "Go in and get the tea ready. If I so much as see you looking at that glass again we part, my lad, mind that."
" I don't suppose he meant any harm," said the mollified Mr. Chalk, after the crestfallen Joseph had gone into the house. " I hope I haven't been and said too much, but my wife insisted on me coming round and speaking about it."
"You did quite right," said the captain, "and I thank you for coming. I told him he might go up there occasionally, but I particularly warned him against giving any annoyance to the neighbours."
" I suppose," said Mr. Chalk, gazing at the erection with interest — " I suppose there's a good view from up there? It's like having a ship in the garden, and it seems to remind you of the North Pole, and whales, and Northern Lights."
Five minutes later Mr. Tasker, peering through the pantry window, was surprised to see Mr. Chalk ascending with infinite caution to the crow's-nest. His high hat was jammed firmly over his brows and the telescope was gripped tightly under his right arm. The journey was evidently regarded as one of extreme peril by the climber ; but he held on gallantly and, arrived at the top, turned a trem- ulous telescope on to the horizon.
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DIALSTONE LANE
Mr. Tasker took a deep breath and resumed his labours. He set the table, and when the water boiled made the tea, and went down the garden to announce the fact. Mr. Chalk was still up aloft, and even at that height the pallor of his face was clearly discernible. It was evident to the couple below that the terrors of the descent were too much for him, but that he was too proud to say so.
" Nice view up there," called the captain.
" B — b — beautiful," cried Mr. Chalk, with an attempt at enthusiasm.
The captain paced up and down impatiently ; his tea was getting cold, but the forlorn figure aloft made no sign. The captain waited a little longer, and then, laying hold of the shrouds, slowly mounted until his head was above the platform.
" Shall I take the glass for you ? " he in- quired.
Mr. Chalk, clutching the edge of the cask, leaned over and handed it down,
" My — my foot's gone to sleep," he stam- mered.
"Ho! Well, you must be careful how you get down," said the captain, climbing on to the platform. " Now, gently."
He put the telescope back into the cask, and, beckoning Mr. Tasker to ascend, took Mr. Chalk in a firm grasp and lowered him until he was able to reach Mr. Tasker's face with his
*9
'HE TOOK MR. CHALK IN A FIRM GRASP AND LOWERED HIM."
20
DIALSTONE LANE
foot. After that the descent was easy, and Mr. Chalk, reaching ground once more, spent two or three minutes in slapping and rubbing, and other remedies prescribed for sleepy feet.
"There's few gentlemen that would have come down at all with their foot asleep," re- marked Mr. Tasker, pocketing a shilling, when the captain's back was turned.
Mr. Chalk, still pale and shaking somewhat, smiled feebly and followed the captain into the house. The latter offered a cup of tea, which the visitor, after a faint protest, accepted, and taking a seat at the table gazed in undisguised admiration at the nautical appearance of the room.
" I could fancy myself aboard ship," he declared.
" Are you fond of the sea ? " inquired the captain.
" I love it," said Mr. Chalk, fervently. "It was always my idea from a boy to go to sea, but somehow I didn't. I went into my father's business instead, but I never liked it. Some people are fond of a stay-at-home life, but I always had a hankering after adventures."
The captain shook his head. " Ha ! " he said, impressively.
"You've had a few in your time," said Mr. Chalk, looking at him, grudgingly ; " Edward Tredgold was telling me so."
" Man and boy, I was at sea forty-nine
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years," remarked the captain. "Naturally things happened in that time ; it would have been odd if they hadn't. It's all in a lifetime."
" Some lifetimes," said Mr. Chalk, gloomily. " I'm fifty-one next year, and the only thing I ever had happen to me was seeing a man stop a runaway horse and cart."
He shook his head solemnly over his monoto- nous career, and, gazing at a war-club from Samoa which hung over the fireplace, put a few leading questions to the captain concerning the manner in which it came into his possession. When Prudence came in half an hour later he was still sitting there, listening with rapt attention to his host's tales of distant seas.
It was the first of many visits. Sometimes he brought Mr. Tredgold and sometimes Mr. Tredgold brought him. The terrors of the crow's-nest vanished before his persevering attacks, and perched there with the captain's glass he swept the landscape with the air of an explorer surveying a strange and hostile country.
It was a fitting prelude to the captain's tales afterwards, and Mr. Chalk, with the stem of his long pipe withdrawn from his open mouth, would sit enthralled as his host narrated picturesque incidents of hairbreadth escapes, or, drawing his chair to the table, made rough maps for his listener's clearer understanding. Sometimes the captain took him to palm-
22
DIALSTONE LANE
studded islands in the Southern Seas ; some- times to the ancient worlds of China and Japan. He became an expert in nautical terms. He
"SOMETIMES THE CAPTAIN TOOK HIM TO PALM-STUDDED ISLANDS IN THE SOUTHERN SEAS."
walked in knots, and even ordered a new carpet in fathoms — after the shop-keeper had demonstrated, by means of his little boy's arithmetic book, the difference between that measurement and a furlong.
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"I'll have a voyage before I'm much older, he remarked one afternoon, as he sat in the captain's sitting-room. " Since I retired from business time hangs very heavy sometimes. I've got a fancy for a small yacht, but I suppose I couldn't go a long voyage in a small one ? "
" Smaller the better," said Edward Tredgold, who was sitting by the window watching Miss Drewitt sewing.
Mr. Chalk took his pipe from his mouth and eyed him inquiringly.
" Less to lose," explained Mr. Tredgold, with a scarcely perceptible glance at the captain. " Look at the dangers you'd be dragging your craft into, Chalk ; there would be no satisfying you with a quiet cruise in the Mediterranean."
" I shouldn't run into unnecessary danger," said Mr. Chalk, seriously. "I'm a married man, and there's my wife to think of. What would become of her if anything happened to me?"
" Why, you've got plenty of money to leave, haven't you ? " inquired Mr. Tredgold.
" I was thinking of her losing me" replied Mr. Chalk, with a touch of acerbity.
"Oh, I didn't think of that," said the other. "Yes, to be sure."
" Captain Bowers was telling me the other day of a woman who wore widow's weeds for thirty five years," said Mr. Chalk, impressively. "And all the time her husband was married
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DIALSTONE LANE
again and got a big family in Australia. There's nothing in the world so faithful as a woman's heart."
" Well, if you're lost on a cruise, I shall know where to look for you," said Mr. Tredgold. " But I don't think the captain ought to put such ideas into your head."
Mr. Chalk looked bewildered. Then he scratched his left whisker with the stem of his churchwarden pipe and looked severely over at Mr. Tredgold.
" I don't think you ought to talk that way before ladies," he said, primly. "Of course, I know you're only in joke, but there's some people can't see jokes as quick as others and they might get a wrong idea of you."
11 What part did you think of going to for your cruise ? " interposed Captain Bowers.
"There's nothing settled yet," said Mr. Chalk ; " it's just an idea, that's all. I was talking to your father the other day," he added, turning to Mr. Tredgold ; "just sounding him, so to speak."
" You take him," said that dutiful son, briskly. " It would do him a world of good ; me, too."
" He said he couldn't afford either the time or the money," said Mr. Chalk. "The thing to do would be to combine business with pleasure — to take a yacht and find a sunken galleon loaded with gold pieces. I've heard of such things being done."
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DIALSTONE LANE
" I've heard of it," said the captain, nodding.
" Bottom of the ocean must be paved with them in places," said Mr. Tredgold, rising, and following Miss Drewitt, who had gone into the garden to plant seeds.
Mr. Chalk refilled his pipe and, accepting a match from the captain, smoked slowly. His gaze was fixed on the window, but instead of Dialstone Lane he saw tumbling blue seas and islets far away.
" That's something you've never come across, I suppose, Captain Bowers?" he remarked at last.
" No," said the other.
Mr. Chalk, with a vain attempt to conceal his disappointment, smoked on for some time in silence. The blue seas disappeared, and he saw instead the brass knocker of the house opposite.
"Nor any kind of craft with treasure aboard, I suppose ? " he suggested, at last.
The captain put his hands on his knees and stared at the floor. " No," he said, slowly, " I can't call to mind any craft ; but it's odd that you should have got on this subject with me."
Mr. Chalk laid his pipe carefully on the table. "Why?" he inquired.
"Well," said the captain, with a short laugh, "it is odd, that's all."
Mr. Chalk fidgeted with the stem of his pipe. "You know of sunken treasure somewhere?" he said, eagerly.
26
DIALSTONE LANE
The captain smiled and shook his head ; the other watched him narrowly.
" You know of some treasure ? " he said, with conviction.
" Not what you could call sunken," said the captain, driven to bay.
Mr. Chalk's pale-blue eyes opened to their fullest extent. " Ingots ? " he queried.
The other shook his head. " It's a secret," he remarked. "We won't talk about it."
" Yes, of course, naturally, I don't expect you to tell me where it is," said Mr. Chalk, "but I thought it might be interesting to hear about, that's all."
" It's buried," said the captain, after a long pause. " I don't know that there's any harm in telling you that ; buried in a small island in the South Pacific."
" Have you seen it?" inquired Mr. Chalk.
" I buried it," rejoined the other.
Mr. Chalk sank back in his chair and regarded him with awestruck attention ; Captain Bowers, slowly ramming home a charge of tobacco with his thumb, smiled quietly.
" Buried it," he repeated, musingly, " with the blade of an oar for a spade. It was a long job, but it's six foot down and the dead man it belonged to atop of it."
The pipe fell from the listener's fingers and smashed unheeded on the floor.
27
DIALSTONE LANE
" You ought to make a book of it," he said at last.
The captain shook his head. " I haven't got the gift of story-telling," he said, simply. " Besides, you can understand I don't want it noised about. People might bother me."
He leaned back in his chair and bunched his beard in his hand ; the other, watching him closely, saw that his thoughts were busy with some scene in his stirring past.
"Not a friend of yours, I hope?" said Mr. Chalk, at last.
" Who ? " inquired the captain, starting from his reverie.
" The dead man atop of the treasure," replied the other.
" No," said the captain, briefly.
" Is it worth much?" asked Mr. Chalk.
M Roughly speaking, about half a million," responded the captain, calmly.
Mr. Chalk rose and walked up and down the room. His eyes were bright and his face pinker than usual.
11 Why don't you get it ? " he demanded, at last, pausing in front of his host.
"Why, it ain't mine," said the captain, staring. "D'ye think I'm a thief?"
Mr. Chalk stared in his turn. " But who does it belong to, then ? " he inquired.
"I don't know," replied the captain. "All I know is, it isn't mine, and that's enough for
28
DIALSTONE LANE
me. Whether it was rightly come by I don't know. There it is, and there it'll stay till the crack of doom."
" Don't you know any of his relations or friends?" persisted the other.
" I know nothing of him except his name," said the captain, "and I doubt if even that was his right one. Don Silvio he called himself — a Spaniard. It's over ten years ago since it happened. My ship had been bought by a firm in Sydney, and while I was waiting out there I went for a little run on a schooner among the islands. This Don Silvio was aboard of her as a passenger. She went to pieces in a gale, and we were the only two saved. The others were washed overboard, but we got ashore in the boat, and I thought from the trouble he was taking over his bag that the danger had turned his brain."
"Ah ! " said the keenly-interested Mr. Chalk.
"He was a sick man aboard ship," continued the captain, "and I soon saw that he hadn't saved his life for long. He saw it, too, and before he died he made me promise that the bag should be buried with him and never dis- turbed. After I'd promised, he opened the bag and showed me what was in it. It was full of precious stones — diamonds, rubies, and the like ; some of them as large as birds' eggs. I can see him now, propped up against the boat and playing with them in the sunlight. They blazed
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DIALSTONE LANE
like stars. Half a million he put them at, or more."
"What good could they be to him when he was dead ? " inquired the listener.
Captain Bowers shook his head. " That was his business, not mine," he replied. *' It was nothing to do with me. When he died I dug a grave for him, as I told you, with a bit of a broken oar, and laid him and the bag together. A month afterwards I was taken off by a passing schooner and landed safe at Sydney."
Mr. Chalk stooped, and mechanically picking up the pieces of his pipe placed them on the table.
" Suppose that you had heard afterwards that the things had been stolen ? " he remarked.
" If I had, then I should have given infor- mation, I think," said the other. "It all depends."
"Ah! but how could you have found them again?" inquired Mr. Chalk, with the air of one propounding a poser.
" With my map," said the captain, slowly. " Before I left I made a map of the island and got its position from the schooner that picked me up ; but I never heard a word from that day to this."
" Could you find them now ? " said Mr. Chalk.
" Why not ? " said the captain, with a short laugh. "The island hasn't run away."
He rose as he spoke and, tossing the frag-
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ments of his visitor's pipe into the fire-place, invited him to take a turn in the garden. Mr. Chalk, after a feeble attempt to discuss the matter further, reluctantly obeyed.
3i
* j mm
M .
CHAPTER III.
Mr. Chalk, with his mind full of the story he had just heard, walked homewards like a man in a dream. The air was fragrant with spring, and the scent of lilac revived memories almost forgotten. It took him back forty years, and showed him a small boy treading the same road, passing the same houses. Nothing had changed so much as the small boy himself; nothing had been so unlike the life he had pictured as the life he had led. Even the blamelessness of the latter yielded no comfort ; it savoured of a lack of spirit.
His mind was still busy with the past when
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he reached home. Mrs. Chalk, a woman of imposing appearance, who was sitting by the window at needlework, looked up sharply at his entrance. Before she spoke he had a dim idea that she was excited about something.
" I've got her," she said triumphantly.
" Oh ! " said Mr. Chalk,
" She didn't want to come at first," said Mrs. Chalk ; " she'd half promised to go to Mrs. Morris. Mrs. Morris had heard of her through Harris, the grocer, and he only knew she was out of a place by accident. He '"
Her words fell on deaf ears. Mr. Chalk, gazing through the window, heard without comprehending a long account of the capture of a new housemaid, which, slightly altered as to name and place, would have passed muster as an exciting contest between a skilful angler and a particularly sulky salmon. Mrs. Chalk, noticing his inattention at last, pulled up sharply.
" You're not listening ! " she cried.
" Yes, I am ; go on, my dear," said Mr. Chalk.
"What did I say she left her last place for, then ? " demanded the lady.
Mr. Chalk started. He had been conscious of his wife's voice, and that was all. "You said you were not surprised at her leaving," he replied, slowly ; " the only wonder to you was that a decent girl should have stayed there so long."
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Mrs. Chalk started and bit her lip. "Yes," she said, slowly. " Ye — es. Go on ; anything else ? "
"You said the house wanted cleaning from top to bottom," said the painstaking Mr. Chalk.
" G»p on," said his wife, in a smothered voice. " What- else did I say ? "
11 Said you pitied the husband," continued Mr. Chalk, thoughtfully.
Mrs. Chalk rose suddenly and stood over him. Mr. Chalk tried desperately to collect his faculties.
" How dare you ? " she gasped. " I've never said such things in my life. Never. And I said that she left because Mr. Wilson, her master, was dead and the family had gone to London. I've never been near the house ; so how could I say such things."
Mr. Chalk remained silent.
" What made you think of such things ? " persisted Mrs. Chalk.
Mr. Chalk shook his head ; no satisfactory reply was possible. "My thoughts were far away," he said, at last.
His wife bridled and said, "Oh, indeed!" Mr. Chalk's mother, dead some ten years before, had taken a strange pride — possibly as a protest against her only son's appearance — in hinting darkly at a stormy and chequered past. Pressed for details she became more mysterious still, and, saying that " she knew what she knew," declined
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to be deprived of the knowledge under any consideration. She also informed her daughter- in-law that "what the eye don't see the heart don't grieve," and that it was better to "let bygones be bygones," usually winding up with the advice to the younger woman to keep her eye on Mr. Chalk without letting him see it.
" Peckham Rye is a long way off, certainly," added the indignant Mrs. Chalk, after a pause. " It's a pity you haven't got something better to think of, at your time of life, too."
Mr. Chalk flushed. Peckham Rye was one of the nuisances bequeathed by his mother.
" I was thinking of the sea," he said loftily.
Mrs. Chalk pounced. " Oh, Yarmouth," she said, with withering scorn.
Mr. Chalk flushed deeper than before. " I wasn't thinking of such things," he declared.
" What things ? " said his wife, swiftly.
"The — the things you're alluding to," said the harassed Mr. Chalk.
" Ah ! " said his wife, with a toss of her head. "Why you should get red in the face and confused when I say that Peckham Rye and Yarmouth are a long way off is best known to yourself. It's very funny that the moment either of these places is mentioned you get uncomfortable. People might read a geography book out loud in my presence and it wouldn't affect me."
She swept out of the room, and Mr. Chalk's
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thoughts, excited by the magic word geography, went back to the island again. The half- forgotten dreams of his youth appeared to be materializing. Sleepy Binchester ended for him at Dialstone Lane, and once inside the captain's room the enchanted world beyond the seas was spread before his eager gaze. The captain, amused at first at his enthusiasm, began to get weary of the subject of the island, and so far the visitor had begged in vain for a glimpse of the map.
His enthusiasm became contagious. Prudence, entering one evening in the middle of a conver- sation, heard sufficient to induce her to ask for more, and the captain, not without some reluctance and several promptings from Mr. Chalk when he showed signs of omitting vital points, related the story. Edward Tredgold heard it, and, judging by the frequency of his visits, was almost as interested as Mr. Chalk.
" I can't see that there could be any harm in just looking at the map," said Mr. Chalk, one evening. " You could keep your thumb on any part you wanted to."
"Then we should know where to dig," urged Mr. Tredgold. " Properly managed there ought to be a fortune in your innocence, Chalk."
Mr. Chalk eyed him fixedly. "Seeing that the latitude and longitude and all the directions are written on the back" he observed, with cold dignity, "I don't see the force of your remarks."
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" Well, in that case, why not show it to Mr. Chalk, uncle ? " said Prudence, charitably.
Captain Bowers began to show signs oi
annoyance. "Well, my dear, " he began,
slowly.
" Then Miss Drewitt could see it too," said Mr. Tredgold, blandly.
Miss Drewitt reddened with indignation. "I could see it at any time I wished," she said, sharply.
" Well, wish now," entreated Mr. Tredgold. "As a matter of fact, I'm dying with curiosity, myself. Bring it out and make it crackle, cap- tain ; it's a bank-note for half a million."
The captain shook his head and a slight frown marred his usually amiable features. He got up and, turning his back on them, filled his pipe from a jar on the mantelpiece.
"You never will see it, Chalk," said Edward Tredgold, in tones of much conviction. "I'll bet you two to one in golden sovereigns that you'll sink into your honoured family vault with your justifiable curiosity still unsatisfied. And I shouldn't wonder if your perturbed spirit walks the captain's bedroom afterwards."
Miss Drewitt looked up and eyed the speakei with scornful comprehension. " Take the bet, Mr. Chalk," she said, slowly.
Mr. Chalk turned in hopeful amaze ; then he leaned over and shook hands solemnly with Mr. Tredgold. " I'll take the bet," he said.
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11 Uncle will show it to you to please me," announced Prudence, in a clear voice. " Won't you, uncle ? "
The captain turned and took the matches from the table. " Certainly, my dear, if I can find it," he said, in a hesitating fashion. " But I'm afraid I've mislaid it. I haven't seen it since I unpacked."
"Mislaid it!" ejaculated the startled Mr. Chalk. " Good heavens ! Suppose somebody should find it ? What about your word to Don Silvio then?"
"I've got it somewhere," said the captain, brusquely; "I'll have a hunt for it. All the same, I don't know that it's quite fair to inter- fere in a bet."
Miss Drewitt waved the objection away, remarking that people who made bets must risk losing their money.
" I'll begin to save up," said Mr. Tredgold, with a lightness that was not lost upon Miss Drewitt. " The captain has got to find it before you can see it, Chalk."
Mr. Chalk, with a satisfied smile, said that when the captain promised a thing it was as good as done.
For the next few days he waited patiently, and, ransacking an old lumber-room, divided his time pretty equally between a volume of " Captain Cook's Voyages " that he found there and " Famous Shipwrecks." By this
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DIALSTONE LANE
means and the exercise of great self-control he ceased from troubling Dialstone Lane for a week. Even then it was Edward Tredgold
"HE RANSACKED AN OLD LUMBER-ROOM."
who took him there. The latter was in high spirits, and in explanation informed the com- pany, with a cheerful smile, that he had saved
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five and ninepence, and was forming habits which bade fair to make him a rich man in time.
" Don't you be in too much of a hurry to find that map, captain," he said.
" It's found," said Miss Drewitt, with a little note of triumph in her voice.
" Found it this morning," said Captain Bowers.
He crossed over to an oak bureau which stood in the corner by the fireplace, and taking a paper from a pigeon-hole slowly unfolded it and spread it on the table before the delighted Mr. Chalk. Miss Drewitt and Edward Tred- gold advanced to the table and eyed it curiously.
The map, which was drawn in lead-pencil, was on a piece of ruled paper, yellow with age and cracked in the folds. The island was in shape a rough oval, the coast-line being broken by small bays and headlands. Mr. Chalk eyed it with all the fervour usually bestowed on a holy relic, and, breathlessly reading off such terms as " Cape Silvio," " Bowers Bay," and " Mount Lonesome," gazed with breathless interest at the discoverer.
" And is that the grave ? " he inquired, in a trembling voice, pointing to a mark in the north-east corner,
The captain removed it with his finger-nail. " No," he said, briefly. " For full details see the other side."
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For one moment Mr. Chalk hoped ; then his face fell as Captain Bowers, displaying for a fraction of a second the writing on the other side, took up the map and, replacing it in the bureau, turned the key in the lock and with a low laugh resumed his seat. Miss Drewitt, glancing over at Edward Tredgold, saw that he looked very thoughtful.
"You've lost your bet," she said, pointedly.
" I know," was the reply.
His gaiety had vanished and he looked so dejected that Miss Drewitt was reminded of the ruined gambler in a celebrated picture. She tried to quiet her conscience by hoping that it would be a lesson to him. As she watched, Mr. Tredgold dived into his left trouser-pocket and counted out some coins, mostly brown. To these he added a few small pieces of silver gleaned from his waistcoat, and then after a few seconds' moody thought found a few more in the other trouser-pocket.
" Eleven and tenpence," he said, mechanically.
"Any time," said Mr. Chalk, regarding him with awkward surprise. "Any time."
" Give him an I O U," said Captain Bowers, fidgeting.
"Yes, any time," repeated Mr. Chalk; "I'm in no hurry."
" No ; I'd sooner pay now and get it over," said the other, still fumbling in his pockets. "As Miss Drewitt says, people who make bets
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must be prepared to lose ; I thought I had more than this."
There was an embarrassing silence, during which Miss Drewitt, who had turned very red, felt strangely uncomfortable. She felt more uncomfortable still when Mr. Tredgold, dis- covering a bank-note and a little collection of gold coins in another pocket, artlessly expressed his joy at the discovery. The simple-minded captain and Mr. Chalk both experienced a sense of relief; Miss Drewitt sat and simmered in helpless indignation.
"You're careless in money matters, my lad," said the captain, reprovingly.
" I couldn't understand him making all that fuss over a coupie o' pounds," said Mr. Chalk, looking round. "He's very free, as a rule ; too free."
Mr. Tredgold, sitting grave and silent, made no reply to these charges, and the girl was the only one to notice a faint twitching at the corners of his mouth. She saw it distinctly, despite the fact that her clear, grey eyes were fixed dreamily on a spot some distance above his head.
She sat in her room upstairs after the visitors had gone, thinking it over. The light was fading fast, and as she sat at the open window the remembrance of Mr. Tredgold's conduct helped to mar one of the most perfect evenings she had ever known.
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Downstairs the captain was also thinking. Dialstone Lane was in shadow, and already one or two lamps were lit behind drawn blinds. A little chatter of voices at the end of the lane floated in at the open window, mellowed by- distance. His pipe was out, and he rose to search in the gloom for a match, when another murmur of voices reached his ears from the kitchen. He stood still and listened intently. To put matters beyond all doubt, the shrill laugh of a girl was plainly audible. The captain's face hardened, and, crossing to the fireplace, he rang the bell.
" Yessir," said Joseph, as he appeared and closed the door carefully behind him.
"What are you talking to yourself in that absurd manner for ? " inquired the captain, with great dignity.
" Me, sir?" said Mr. Tasker, feebly.
"Yes, you," repeated the captain, noticing with surprise that the door was slowly opening.
Mr. Tasker gazed at him in a troubled fashion, but made no reply.
" I won't have it," said the captain, sternly, with a side glance at the door. "If you want to talk to yourself go outside and do it. I never heard such a laugh. What did you do it for ? It was like an old woman with a bad cold."
He smiled grimly in the darkness, and then started slightly as a cough, a hostile challenging
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cough, sounded from the kitchen. Before he could speak the cough ceased and a thin voice broke carelessly into song.
" What ! " roared the captain, in well-feigned astonishment. " Do you mean to tell me you've got somebody in my pantry ? Go and get me those rules and regulations."
Mr. Tasker backed out, and the captain smiled again as he heard a whispered discussion. Then a voice clear and distinct took command. "I'll take 'em in myself, I tell you," it said. " I'll rules and regulations him."
The smile faded from the captain's face, and he gazed in perplexity at the door as a strange young woman bounced into the room.
" Here's your rules and regulations," said the intruder, in a somewhat shrewish voice. " You'd better light the lamp if you want to see 'em ; though the spelling ain't so noticeable in the dark."
The impressiveness of the captain's gaze was wasted in the darkness. For a moment he hesitated, and then, with the dignity of a man whose spelling has nothing to conceal, struck a match and lit the lamp. The lamp lighted, he lowered the blind, and seating himself by the window turned with a majestic air to a thin slip of a girl with tow-coloured hair, who stood by the door.
" Who are you ? " he demanded, gruffly.
" My name's Vickers," said the young lady.
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" Selina Vickers. I heard all what you've been saying to my Joseph, but, thank goodness, I can take my own part. I don't want nobody to fight my battles for me. If you've got anything to say about my voice you can say it to my face."
Captain Bowers sat back and regarded her with impressive dignity. Miss Vickers met his gaze calmly and, with a pair of unwinking green eyes, stared him down.
"What were you doing in my pantry?" demanded the cap- tain, at last.
" I was in your kitchen" replied Miss Vickers, with scornful emphasis on the last word, " to see my young man."
11 Well, I can't have you there," said the captain, with a mildness that surprised himself. "One of my rules "
Miss Vickers in- terposed. "I've read 'em all over and over again," she said, im- patiently.
1 I It OCCUrS "SELINA VICKERS."
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again," said the other, " I shall have to speak to Joseph very seriously about it."
"Talk to me," said Miss Vickers, sharply; "that's what I come in for. I can talk to you better than what Joseph can, I know. What harm do you think I was doing your old kitchen ? Don't you try and interfere between me and my Joseph, because I won't have it. You're not married yourself, and you don't want other people to be. How do you suppose the world would get on if everybody was like you ? "
Captain Bowers regarded her in open-eyed perplexity. The door leading to the garden had just closed behind the valiant Joseph, and he stared with growing uneasiness at the slight figure of Miss Vickers as it stood poised for further oratorical efforts. Before he could speak she gave her lips a rapid lick and started again.
" You're one of those people that don't like to see others happy, that's what you are," she said, rapidly. " I wasn't hurting your kitchen, and as to talking and laughing there — what do you think my tongue was given to me for ? Show ? P'raps if you'd been doing a day's hard work you'd "
" Look here, my girl " began the captain,
desperately.
" Don't you my girl me, please," interrupted Miss Vickers. " I'm not your girl, thank
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goodness. If I was you'd be a bit different, I can tell you. If you had any girls you'd know better than to try and come between them and their young men. Besides, they wouldn't let you. When a girl's got a young man "
The captain rose and went through the form of ringing the bell. Miss Vickers watched him calmly.
" I thought I'd just have it out with you for once and for all," she continued. " I told Joseph that I'd no doubt your bark was worse than your bite. And what he can see to be afraid of in you I can't think. Nervous dis- position, I s'pose. Good evening."
She gave her head a little toss and, returning to the pantry, closed the door after her. Cap- tain Bowers, still somewhat dazed, returned to his chair and, gazing at the " Rules," which still lay on the table, grinned feebly in his beard.
47
CHAPTER IV.
To keep such a romance to himself was beyond the powers of Mr. Chalk. The captain had made no conditions as to secrecy, and he therefore considered himself free to indulge in hints to his two greatest friends, which caused those gentlemen to entertain some doubts as to his sanity. Mr. Robert Stobell, whose work as a contractor had left a permanent and unmistakable mark upon Binchester, became imbued with a hazy idea that Mr. Chalk had invented a new process of making large diamonds. Mr. Jasper Tredgold, on the other hand, arrived at the conclusion that a highly respectable burglar was offering for some reason to share his loot with him. A conversation between Messrs. Stobell and Tredgold in the High Street only made matters more compli- cated.
" Chalk always was fond of making mysteries of things," complained Mr. Tredgold.
Mr. Stobell, whose habit was taciturn and ruminative, fixed his dull brown eyes on the ground and thought it over. " I believe it's all my eye and Betty Martin," he said, at length, quoting a saying which had been used in his
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family as an expression of disbelief since the time of his great-grandmother.
"He comes in to see me when I'm hard at work and drops hints," pursued his friend. " When I stop to pick em up, out he goes. Yesterday he came in and asked me what I thought of a man who wouldn't break his word for half a million. Half a million, mind you ! I just asked him who it was, and out he went again. He pops in and out of my office like a figure on a cuckoo-clock."
Mr. Stobell relapsed into thought again, but no gleam of expression disturbed the lines of his heavy face ; Mr. Tredgold, whose sharp, alert features bred more confidence in his own clients than those of other people, waited impatiently.
"He knows something that we don't," said Mr. Stobell, at last ; " that's what it is."
Mr. Tredgold, who was too used to his friend's mental processes to quarrel with him, assented.
" He's coming round to smoke a pipe with me to-morrow night," he said, briskly, as he turned to cross the road to his office. "You come too, and we'll get it out of him. If Chalk can keep a secret he has altered, that's all I can say."
His estimate of Mr. Chalk proved correct. With Mr. Tredgold acting as cross-examining counsel and Mr. Stobell enacting the part of a partial and overbearing judge, Mr. Chalk, after
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DIALSTONE LANE
a display of fortitude which surprised himself almost as much as it irritated his friends, parted
"HE POPS Di AND OUT MY OFFICE LIKE A FIGURE ON A CUCKOO-CLOCK."
with his news and sat smiling with gratification at their growing excitement.
" Half a million, and he won't go for it?"
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DIALSTONE LANE
ejaculated Mr. Tredgold. " The man must be mad."
"No; he passed his word and he won't break it," said Mr. Chalk. " The captain's word is his bond, and I honour him for it. I can quite understand it."
Mr. Tredgold shrugged his shoulders and glanced at Mr. Stobell ; that gentleman after due deliberation, gave an assenting nod.
" He can't get at it, that's the long and short of it," said Mr. Tredgold, after a pause. " He had to leave it behind when he was rescued, or else risk losing it by telling the men who rescued him about it, and he's had no oppor- tunity since. It wants money to take a ship out there and get it, and he doesn't see his way quite clear. He'll have it fast enough when he gets a chance. If not, why did he make that map?"
Mr. Chalk shook his head, and remarked mysteriously that the captain had his reasons. Mr. Tredgold relapsed into silence, and for some time the only sound audible came from a briar-pipe which Mr. Stobell ought to have thrown away some years before.
" Have you given up that idea of a yachting cruise of yours, Chalk ? " demanded Mr. Tred- gold, turning on him suddenly.
" No," was the reply. " I was talking about it to Captain Bowers only the other day. That's how I got to hear of the treasure."
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Mr. Tredgold started and gave a significant glance at Mr. Stobell. In return he got a wink which that gentleman kept for moments of mental confusion.
" What did the captain tell you for ? " pur- sued Mr. Tredgold, returning to Mr. Chalk. "He wanted you to make an offer. He hasn't got the money for such an expedition ; you have. The yarn about passing his word was so that you shouldn't open your mouth too wide. You were to do the persuading, and then he could make his own terms. Don't you see ? Why, it's as plain as A B C."
" Plain as the alphabet," said Mr. Stobell, almost chidingly.
Mr. Chalk gasped and looked from one tc the other.
" I should like to have a chat with the captain about it," continued Mr. Tredgold, slowly and impressively. "I'm a business man and I could put it on a business footing. It's a big risk, of course ; all those things are .... but if we went shares . . . . if we found the money-
He broke off and, filling his pipe slowly, gazed in deep thought at the wall. His friends waited expectantly.
"Combine business with pleasure," resumed Mr. Tredgold, lighting his pipe ; "sea-air .... change .... blow away the cobwebs .... experience for Edward to be left alone. What
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do you think, Stobell ? " he added, turning suddenly.
Mr. Stobell gripped the arms of his chair in his huge hands and drew his bulky figure to a more upright position.
"What do you mean by combining business with pleasure ? " he said, eyeing him with dull suspicion.
" Chalk is set on a trip for the love of it," explained Mr. Tredgold.
" If we take on the contract, he ought to pay a bigger share, then," said the other, firmly.
11 Perhaps he will," said Tredgold, hastily.
Mr. Stobell pondered again and, slightly raising one hand, indicated that he was in the throes of another idea and did not wish to be disturbed.
11 You said it would be experience for Edward to be left alone," he said, accusingly.
" I did," was the reply.
" You ought to pay more, too, then," declared the contractor, "because it's serving of your ends as well."
" We can't split straws," exclaimed Tredgold, impatiently. "If the captain consents we three will find the money and divide our portion, whatever it is, equally."
Mr. Chalk, who had been in the clouds during this discussion, came back to earth again, "//"he consents," he said, sadly; "but he
J. M
won t.
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"Well, he can only refuse," said Mr. Tred- gold ; " and, anyway, we'll have the first refusal. Things like that soon get about. What do you say to a stroll ? I can think better while I'm walking."
His friends assenting, they put on their hats and sallied forth. That they should stroll in the direction of Dialstone Lane surprised neither of them. Mr. Tredgold leading, they went round by the church, and that gentleman paused so long to admire the architecture that Mr. Stobell got restless.
"You've seen it before, Tredgold," he said, shortly.
"It's a fine old building," said the other. " Binchester ought to be proud of it. Why, here we are at Captain Bowers's ! "
" The house has been next to the church for a couple o' hundred years," retorted his friend.
" Let's go in," said Mr. Tredgold. " Strike while the iron's hot. At any rate," he con- cluded, as Mr. Chalk voiced feeble objections, "we can see how the land lies."
He knocked at the door and then, stepping aside, left Mr. Chalk to lead the way in. Captain Bowers, who was sitting with Prudence, looked up at their entrance, and putting down his newspaper extended a hearty welcome.
" Chalk didn't like to pass without looking in," said Mr. Tredgold, "and I haven't seen you for some time. You know Stobell ? "
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The captain nodded, and Mr. Chalk, pale with excitement, accepted his accustomed pipe from the hands of Miss Drewitt and sat ner- vously awaiting events. Mr. Tasker set out the whisky, and, Miss Drewitt avowing a fond- ness for smoke in other people, a comfortable haze soon filled the room. Mr. Tredgold, with a significant glance at Mr. Chalk, said that it reminded him of a sea-fog.
It only reminded Mr. Chalk, however, of a smoky chimney from which he had once suf- fered, and he at once entered into minute details. The theme was an inspiriting one, and before Mr. Tredgold could hark back to the sea again Mr. Stobell was discoursing, almost eloquently for him, upon drains. From drains to the shortcomings of the district council they progressed by natural and easy stages, and it was not until Miss Drewitt had withdrawn to the clearer atmosphere above that a sudden ominous silence ensued, which Mr. Chalk saw clearly he was expected to break.
" I — I've been telling them some of your ad- ventures," he said, desperately, as he glanced at the captain ; "they're both interested in such things."
The latter gave a slight start and glanced shrewdly at his visitors. " Aye, aye," he said, composedly.
11 Very interesting, some of them," murmured Mr. Tredgold. " I suppose you'll have another
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voyage or two before you've done? One, at any rate."
" No," said the captain. " I've had my share of the sea ; other men may have a turn now. There's nothing to take me out again — nothing."
Mr. Tredgold coughed and murmured something about breaking off old habits too suddenly.
" It's a fine career," sighed Mr. Chalk.
"A manly life," said Mr. Tredgold, em- phatically.
" It's like every other profession, it has two sides to it," said the captain.
"It is not so well paid as it should be," said the wily Tredgold, "but I suppose one gets chances of making money in outside ways sometimes."
The captain assented, and told of a steward of his who had made a small fortune by selling Japanese curios to people who didn't under- stand them.
The conversation was interesting, but ex- tremely distasteful to a business man intent upon business. Mr. Stobell took his pipe out of his mouth and cleared his throat. " Why, you might build a hospital with it," he burst out, impatiently.
" Build a hospital ! " repeated the astonished captain, as Mr. Chalk bent suddenly to do up his shoe-lace.
" Think of the orphans you could be a father
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to! " added Mr. Stobell, making the most of an unwonted fit of altruism.
The captain looked inquiringly at Mr. Tred- gold.
"And widows," said Mr. Stobell, and, putting his pipe in his mouth as a sign that he had finished his remarks, gazed stolidly at the company.
"Stobell must be referring to a story Chalk told us of some precious stones you buried, I think," said Mr. Tredgold, reddening. " Are'nt you, Stobell?"
"Of course I am," said his friend. "You know that."
Captain Bowers glanced at Mr. Chalk, but that gentleman was still busy with his shoe-lace, only looking up when Mr. Tredgold, taking the bull by the horns, made the captain a plain, straightforward offer to fit out and give him the command of an expedition to recover the treasure. In a speech which included the bene- volent Mr. Stobell's hospitals, widows, and orphans, he pointed out a score of reasons why the captain should consent, and wound up with a glowing picture of Miss Drewitt as the heiress of the wealthiest man in Binchester. The captain heard him patiently to an end and then shook his head.
" I passed my word," he said, stiffly.
Mr. Stobell took his pipe out of his mouth again to offer a little encouragement. " Tredgold has
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broke his word before now," he observed; "he's got quite a name for it."
" But you would go out if it were not for
rw^^.o-j^j
"THE OTHERS DREW NEAR AND INSPECTED IT.
that ? " inquired Tredgold, turning a deaf ear to this remark.
"Naturally," said the captain, smiling; "but, then, you see I did."
Mr. Tredgold drummed with his fingers on the arms of his chair, and after a little hesitation asked as a great favour to be permitted to see
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the map. As an estate agent, he said, he took a professional interest in plans of all kinds.
Captain Bowers rose, and in the midst of an expectant silence took the map from the bureau, and placing it on the table kept it down with his fist. The others drew near and inspected it.
11 Nobody but Captain Bowers has ever seen the other side," said Mr. Chalk, impressively.
11 Except my niece," interposed the captain. " She wanted to see it, and I trust her as I would trust myself. She thinks the same as I do about it."
His stubby forefinger travelled slowly round the coast-line until, coming to the extreme south- west corner, it stopped, and a mischievous smile creased his beard.
M It's buried here," he observed. " All you've got to do is to find the island and dig in that spot.
Mr. Chalk laughed and shook his head, as at a choice piece of waggishness.
"Suppose," said Mr. Tredgold, slowly — "suppose anybody found it without your con- nivance, would you take your share ? "
" Let 'em find it first," said the captain.
" Yes, but would you ? " inquired Mr. Chalk.
Captain Bowers took up the map and returned it to its place in the bureau. " You go and find it," he said with a genial smile.
" You give us permission ? " demanded Tred- gold.
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" Certainly," grinned the captain. " I give you permission to go and dig over all the islands in the Pacific ; there's a goodish number of them, and it's a fairly common shape."
" It seems to me it's nobody's property," said Tredgold, slowly. "That is to say it's any- body's that finds it. It isn't your property, Captain Bowers ? You lay no claim to it?"
" No, no," said the captain. "It's nothing to do with me. You go and find it," he repeated, with enjoyment.
Mr. Tredgold laughed too, and his eye travelled mechanically towards the bureau. "If we do," he said cordially, "you shall have your share."
The captain thanked him and, taking up the bottle, refilled their glasses. Then, catching the dull, brooding eye of Mr. Stobell as that plain-spoken man sat in a brown study trying to separate the serious from the jocular, he drank success to their search. He was about to give vent to further pleasantries when he was stopped by the mysterious behaviour of Mr. Chalk, who, first laying a finger on his lip to ensure silence, frowned severely and nodded at the door leading to the kitchen.
The other three looked in the direction indicated. The door stood half open, and the silhouette of a young woman in a large hat put the upper panels in shadow. The captain rose
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and, with a vigorous thrust of his foot, closed the door with a bang.
" Eavesdropping," said Mr. Chalk in a tense whisper.
"There'll be a rival expedition," said the captain, falling in with his mood. "I've already warned that young woman off once. You'd better start to-night."
He leaned back in his chair and surveyed the company pleasantly. Somewhat to Mr. Chalk's disappointment Mr. Tredgold began to discuss agriculture, and they were still on that theme when they rose to depart some time later. Tredgold and Chalk bade the captain a cordial good-night ; but Stobell, a creature of primitive impulses, found it difficult to shake hands with him. On the way home he expressed an ardent desire to tell the captain what men of sense thought of him.
The captain lit another pipe after they had gone, and for some time sat smoking and thinking over the events of the evening. Then Mr. Tasker's second infringement of discipline occurred to him, and, stretching out his hand, he rang the bell.
" Has that young woman gone?" he inquired, cautiously, as Mr. Tasker appeared.
"Yessir,"was the reply.
" What about your articles ? " demanded the captain, with sudden loudness. " What do you mean by it?"
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Mr. Tasker eyed him forlornly. " It ain't my fault," he said, at last. " I don't want her."
" Eh ? " said the other, sternly. " Don't talk nonsense. What do you have her here for, then ? "
" Because I can't help myself," said Mr. Tasker, desperately ; "that's why. She's took a fancy to me, and, that being so, it would take more than you and me to keep 'er away."
" Rubbish," said his master.
Mr. Tasker smiled wanly. " That's my reward for being steady," he said, with some bitterness ; "that's what comes of having a good name in the place. I get Selina Vickers after me."
" You — you must have asked her to come here in the first place," said the astonished captain.
" Ask her ? " repeated Mr. Tasker, with respectful scorn. "Ask her? She don't want no asking."
" What does she come for, then ? " inquired the other.
" Me," said Mr. Tasker, brokenly. " I never dreamt o' such a thing. I was going 'erway one night — about three weeks ago, it was — and I walked with her as far as her road — Mini Street. Somehow it got put about that we were walking out. A week afterwards she saw me in Harris's, the grocer's, and waited outside for me till I come out and walked 'ome with me. After she came in the other night I found we was keeping company. To-night — to-night
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she got a ring out o' me, and now we're engaged."
" What on earth did you give her the ring for if you don't want her ? " inquired the captain, eyeing him with genuine concern.
"Ah, it seems easy, sir," said the unfortunate ; "but you don't know Selina. She bought the ring and said I was to pay it off a shilling a week. She took the first shilling to-night."
His master sat back and regarded him in amazement.
"You don't know Selina, sir," repeated Mr. Tasker, in reply to this manifestation. " She always gets her own way. Her father ain't 'it 'er mother not since Selina was seventeen. He dursent. The last time Selina went for him tooth and nail ; smashed all the plates off the dresser throwing 'em at him, and ended by chasing of him up the road in his shirt-sleeves.'
The captain grunted.
" That was two years ago," continued Mr. Tasker ; " and his spirit's quite broke. He 'as to give all his money except a shilling a week to his wife, and he's not allowed to go into pubs. If he does it's no good, because they won't serve 'im. If they do Selina goes in next morning and gives them a piece of 'er mind. She don't care who's there or what she says, and the consequence is Mr. Vickers can't get served in Binchester for love or money. That'll show you what she is."
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"Well, tell her I won't have her here," said the captain, rising. " Good-night."
"ALL SHE SAYS IS SHE'S NOT AFRAID OF YOU, NOR SIX UKE YOU."
"I've told her over and over again, sir," was the reply, "and all she says is she's not afraid of you, nor six like you."
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The captain fell back silent, and Mr. Tasker, pausing in a respectful attitude, watched him wistfully. The captain's brows were bent in thought, and Mr. Tasker, reminding himself that crews had trembled at his nod and that all were silent when he spoke, felt a flutter of hope.
" Well," said the captain, sharply, as he turned and caught sight of him, " what are you waiting there for ? "
Mr. Tasker drifted towards the door which led upstairs.
" I — I thought you were thinking of some- thing we could do to prevent her coming, sir," he said, slowly. "It's hard on me, because as a matter of fact "
" Well ? " said the captain.
" I — I've ad my eye on another young lady for some time," concluded Mr. Tasker.
He was standing on the bottom stair as he spoke, with his hand on the latch. Under the baleful stare with which the indignant captain favoured him, he closed it softly and mounted heavily to bed.
•
I-
)ixja
65 F
CHAPTER V.
Mr. Chalk's expedition to the Southern Seas became a standing joke with the captain, and he waylaid him on several occasions to inquire into the progress he was making, and to give him advice suitable for all known emergencies at sea, together with a few that are unknown. Even Mr. Chalk began to tire of his pleasantries, and, after listening to a surprising account of a Scotch vessel which always sailed backwards when the men whistled on Sundays, signified his displeasure by staying away from Dialstone Lane for some time.
Deprived of his society the captain consoled himself with that of Edward Tredgold, a young man for whom he was beginning to entertain a strong partiality, and whose observations of Binchester folk, flavoured with a touch of good- natured malice, were a source of never-failing interest.
"He is very wide-awake," he said to his niece. " There isn't much that escapes him."
Miss Drewitt, gazing idly out of window, said that she had not noticed it.
"Very clever at his business, I understand," said the captain.
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His niece said that he had always appeared to her — when she had happened to give the matter a thought — as a picture of indolence.
"Ah! that's only his manner," replied the
— v?
"HE WAYLAID HIM ON SEVERAL OCCASIONS."
other, warmly. " He's a young man that's going to get on ; he's going to make his mark. His father's got money, and he'll make more of it."
Something in the tone of his voice attracted
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his niece's attention, and she looked at him sharply as an almost incredible suspicion as to the motive of this conversation flashed on her.
" I don't like to see young men too fond of money," she observed, sedately.
" I didn't say that," said the captain, eagerly. "If anything, he is too open-handed. What I meant was that he isn't lazy."
"He seems to be very fond of coming to see you," said Prudence, by way of encouragement.
" Ah ! " said the captain, " and "
He stopped abruptly as the girl faced round.
11 And ? " she prompted.
" And the crow's nest," concluded the captain, somewhat lamely.
There was no longer room for doubt. Scarce two months ashore and he was trying his hand at match-making. Fresh from a world of obedient satellites, and ships responding to the lightest touch of the helm, he was venturing with all the confidence of ignorance upon the most delicate of human undertakings. Miss Drewitt, eyeing him with perfect comprehension and some little severity, sat aghast at his hardi- hood.
" He's very fond of going up there," said Captain Bowers, somewhat discomfited.
" Yes, he and Joseph have much in common," remarked Miss Drewitt, casually. "They're somewhat alike, too, I always fancy."
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" A like-'" exclaimed the astonished captain. 11 Edward Tredgold like Joseph ? Why, you must be dreaming,"
" Perhaps it's only my fancy," conceded Miss Drewitt, "but I always think that I can see a likeness."
" There isn't the slightest resemblance in the world," said the captain. " There isn't a single feature alike. Besides, haven't you ever noticed what a stupid expression Joseph has got ? "
"Yes," said Miss Drewitt.
The captain scratched his ear and regarded her closely, but Miss Drewitt's face was statu- esque in its repose.
"There — there's nothing wrong with your eyes, my dear ? " he ventured, anxiously — "short sight or anything of that sort?"
" I don't think so," said his niece, gravely.
Captain Bowers shifted in his chair and, convinced that such a superficial observer must have overlooked many things, pointed out several admirable qualities in Edward Tredgold which he felt sure must have escaped her notice. The surprise with which Miss Drewitt greeted them all confirmed him in his opinion, and he was glad to think that he had called her attention to them ere it was too late.
" He's very popular in Binchester," he said, impressively. " Chalk told me that he is sur- prised he has not been married before now, seeing the way that he is run after."
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" Dear me ! " said his niece, with suppressed viciousness.
The captain smiled. He resolved to stand out for a long engagement when Mr. Tredgold came to him, and to stipulate also that they should not leave Binchester. An admirer in London to whom his niece had once or twice alluded — forgetting to mention that he was only ten — began to fade into what the captain con- sidered proper obscurity
Mr. Edward Tredgold reaped some of the benefits of this conversation when he called a day or two afterwards. The captain was out, but, encouraged by Mr. Tasker, who represented that his return might be looked for at any moment, he waited for over an hour, and was on the point of departure when Miss Drewitt entered.
"I should think that you must be tired of waiting?" she said, when he had explained.
" I was just going," said Mr. Tredgold, as he resumed his seat. "If you had been five minutes later you would have found an empty chair. I suppose Captain Bowers won't be long now r
"He might be," said the girl.
"I'll give him a little while longer if I may," said Mr. Tredgold. " I'm very glad now that I waited — very glad indeed."
There was so much meaning in his voice that Miss Drewitt felt compelled to ask the reason.
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" Because I was tired when I came in and the rest has done me good," explained Mr. Tred- gold, with much simplicity. " Do you know that I sometimes think I work too hard ? "
Miss Drewitt raised her eyebrows slightly and said, " Indeed ! — I am very glad that you are rested," she added, after a pause.
"Thank you," said Mr. Tredgold, gratefully. " I came to see the captain about a card-table I've discovered for him. It's a Queen Anne, I believe ; one of the best things I've ever seen. It's poked away in the back room of a cottage, and I only discovered it by accident."
" It's very kind of you," said Miss Drewitt, coldly, "but I don't think that my uncle wants any more furniture ; the room is pretty full now."
" I was thinking of it for your room," said Mr. Tredgold.
" Thank you, but my room is full," said the girl sharply.
"It would go in that odd little recess by the fireplace," continued the unmoved Mr. Tredgold. "We tried to get a small table for it before you came, but we couldn't see anything we fancied. I promised the captain I'd keep my eyes open for something."
Miss Drewitt looked at him with growing indignation, and wondered whether Mr. Chalk had added her to his list of the victims of Mr. Tredgold's blandishments.
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" Why not buy it for yourself ? " she demanded.
" No money," said Mr. Tredgold, shaking his head. M You forget that I lost two pounds to Chalk the other day, owing to your efforts,"
" Well, I don't wish for it," said Miss Drewitt, firmly. " Please don't say anything to my uncle about it."
Mr. Tredgold looked disappointed. " As you please, of course," he remarked.
" Old things always seem a little bit musty," said the girl, softening a little. " I should think that I saw the ghosts of dead and gone players sitting round the table. I remember reading a story about that once."
" Well what about the other things ? " said Mr. Tredgold. " Look at those old chairs full of ghosts sitting piled up in each other's laps — there's no reason why you should only see one sitter at a time — think of that beautifully-carved four-poster."
" My uncle bought that," said Miss Drewitt, somewhat irrelevantly.
"Yes, but I got it for him," said Mr. Tred- gold. " You can't pick up a thing like that at a moment's notice — I had my eye on it for years; all the time old Brown was bedridden, in fact. I used to go and see him and take him tobacco, and he promised me that I should have it when he had done with it."
" Done with it f " repeated the girl in a
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startled voice. " Did — did he get another one, then?"
Mr. Tredgold, roused from the pleasurable
"'DONE WITH IT ?' REPEATED THE GIRL, IN A STARTLED VOICE.'
reminiscences of a collector, remembered himself suddenly. "Oh, yes, he got another one," he said, soothingly.
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" Is — is he bedridden now ? " inquired the girl.
" I haven't seen him for some time," said Mr. Tredgold, truthfully. " He gave up smoking and — and then I didn't go to see him, you know."
" He's dead," said Miss Drewitt, shivering. "He died in Oh, you are horrible ! "
" That carving " began Mr. Tredgold.
" Don't talk about it, please," said the indig- nant Miss Drewitt. " I can't understand why my uncle should have listened to your advice at all ; you must have forced it on him. I'm sure he didn't know how you got it."
"Yes, he did," said the other. "In fact, it was intended for his room at first. He was quite pleased with it."
" Why did he alter his mind, then ? " inquired the girl.
Mr. Tredgold looked suddenly at the opposite wall, but his lips quivered and his eyes watered. Miss Drewitt, reading these signs aright, was justly incensed.
" I don't believe it," she cried.
" He said that you didn't know and he did," said Mr. Tredgold, apologetically. " I talk too much. I'd no business to let out about old Brown, but I forgot for the moment — sailors are always prone to childish superstitions."
" Are you talking about my uncle ? " inquired Miss Drewitt, with ominous calm.
" They were his own words," said the other.
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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 misunder- standing 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 enduring 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.
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"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
"MR. CHALK ENTERED, LEADING MR. STOBELU
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 growl- ing, followed by a gentle bumping against the door, seemed to indicate that he — or perhaps
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the bear — was having recourse to physical force.
u 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 gentle- man, "and nothing would do for him but to come on here."
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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 arrange- ment. 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, sympa- thetically. " Has he tried shutting his eyes and counting sheep jumping over a stile ? "
" No, he ain't," said Mr. Stobell, exploding
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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."
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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,
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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, "Huskr1
81 G
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 nad 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 mantel- piece 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
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position again he suddenly became aware of the presence of his niece.
"HE MOVED IT OUT BODILY AND LOOKED BEHIND AND BENEATH IT."
" I:'s gone," he said, in an amazed voice.
" Gone ? " repeated Prudence. " What has
gone
?"
"The map," said the captain, fumbling his 83
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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 un- happy 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
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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 tumbling 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.
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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. "Who- ever 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.
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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, had 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 after- wards that he had misunderstood what he had heard was not so agreeable.
" I suppose 1 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.
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" 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
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problem, but as she drew near the Horse and Groom, a hostelry of retiring habits, stan- ding 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 con- templative 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 ? "
89
'SHE STOOD FACE TO FACE WITH THE STERN REALITIES OF LIFE."
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" 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, re- garding her father indignantly.
" I wish I was a policeman," muttered Mr. Vickers. " I'd show some of you."
"W7hat 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,
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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.
" I 'ope you're satisfied now," he said severely to the girl, as he turned a triumphant glance on Mr. Vickers, which that gentleman met with a cold stare.
Miss Vickers paid no heed. "You get off home," she said to her father ; "I'll see to the Horse and Groom to-morrow."
Mr. Vickers muttered something under his breath, and then, with a forlorn attempt at dignity, departed.
Miss Vickers, ignoring the remarks of one or two fathers of families who were volunteering information as to what they would do if she were their daughter, watched him out of sight and resumed her walk. She turned once or twice as though to make sure that she was not observed, and then, making her way in the direction of Mr. Chalk's house, approached it cautiously from the back.
Mr. Chalk, who was in the garden engaged in the useful and healthful occupation of digging, became aware after a time of a low whistle proceeding from the farther end. He glanced almost mechanically in that direction, and then
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nearly dropped his spade as he made out a girl's head surmounted by a large hat. The light was getting dim, but the hat had an odd appearance of familiarity. A stealthy glance in the other direction showed him the figure of Mrs. Chalk standing to attention just inside the
Hfc MADE OUT A GIRL'S HEAD SURMOUNTED BY A LARGE HAT."
open French windows of the drawing-room.
The whistle came again, slightly increased in volume. Mr. Chalk, pausing merely to wipe his brow, which had suddenly become very damp, bent to his work with renewed vigour.
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It is an old idea that whistling aids manual labour ; Mr. Chalk, moistening his lips with a tongue grown all too feverish for the task, began to whistle a popular air with much liveliness.
The idea was ingenious, but hopeless from the start. The whistle at the end of the garden became piercing in its endeavour to attract attention, and, what was worse, developed an odd note of entreaty. Mr. Chalk, pale with apprehension, could bear no more.
"Well, I think I've done enough for one night," he observed, cheerfully and loudly, as he thrust his spade into the ground and took his coat from a neighbouring bush.
He turned to go indoors and, knowing his wife's objection to dirty boots, made for the door near the kitchen. As he passed the drawing-room window, however, a low but imperative voice pronounced his name.
"Yes, my dear," said Mr. Chalk.
" There's a friend of yours whistling for you," said his wife, with forced calmness.
"Whistling?" said Mr. Chalk, with as much surprise as a man could assume in face of the noise from the bottom of the garden.
" Do you mean to tell me you can't hear it ? " demanded his wife, in a choking voice.
Mr. Chalk lost his presence of mind. " I thought it was a bird," he said, assuming a listening attitude.
" Birdf" gasped the indignant Mrs. Chalk.
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u Look down there. Do you call that a bird ?"
Mr. Chalk looked and uttered a little cry of astonishment.
" I suppose she wants to see one of the servants," he said, at last ; " but why doesn't she go round to the side entrance? I shall have to speak to them about it."
Mrs. Chalk drew herself up and eyed him with superb disdain.
" Go down and speak to her," she commanded.
" Certainly not," said Mr. Chalk, braving her, although his voice trembled.
"Why not?"
" Because if I did you would ask me what she said, and when I told you you wouldn't believe me," said Mr. Chalk.
" You — you decline to go down ? " said his wife, in a voice shaking with emotion.
"I do," said Mr. Chalk, firmly. "Why don't you go yourself?"
Mrs. Chalk eyed him for a moment in scorn- ful silence, and then stepped to the window and sailed majestically down the garden. Mr. Chalk watched her, with parted lips, and then he began to breathe more freely as the whistle ceased and the head suddenly disappeared. Still a little nervous, he watched his wife to the end of the garden and saw her crane her head over the fence. By the time she returned he was sitting in an attitude of careless ease, with his back to the window.
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"Well ?" he said, with assurance.
Mrs. Chalk stood stock-still, and the intensity of her gaze drew Mr, Chalk's eyes to her face despite his will. For a few seconds she gazed at him in silence, and then, drawing her skirts together, swept violently out of the room.
95
CHAPTER VII.
Mr. Chalk made but a poor breakfast next morning, the effort to display a feeling of proper sympathy with Mrs. Chalk, who was presiding in gloomy silence at the coffee-pot, and at the same time to maintain an air of cheerful innocence as to the cause of her behaviour, being almost beyond his powers. He chipped his egg with a painstaking attempt to avoid noise, and swallowed each mouthful with a feeble pretence of not knowing that she was watching him as he ate. Her glance conveyed a scornful reproach that he could eat at all in such circumstances, and, that there might be no mistake as to her own feelings, she ostentatiously pushed the toast-rack and egg-stand away from her.
"You — you're not eating, my dear," said Mr. Chalk.
" If I ate anything it would choke me," was the reply.
Mr. Chalk affected surprise, but his voice quavered. To cover his discomfiture he passed his cup up for more coffee, shivering despite himself, as he noticed the elaborate care which Mrs. Chalk displayed in rinsing out the cup
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and filling it to the very brim. Beyond raising her eyes to the ceiling when he took another piece of toast, she made no sign.
" You're not looking yourself," ventured Mr. Chalk, after a time.
His wife received the information in scornful silence.
'TO COVER HIS DISCOMFITURE HE PASSED HIS CUP UP FOR MORE COFFEE
"I've noticed it for some time," said the thoughtful husband, making another effort. "It's worried me."
"I'm not getting younger, I know," assented Mrs. Chalk. " But if you think that that's any excuse for your goings on, you're mistaken."
Mr. Chalk murmured something to the effect that he did not understand her.
" You understand well enough," was the reply.
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" When that girl came whistling over the fence last night you said you thought it was a bird."
" I did," said Mr. Chalk, hastily taking a spoonful of egg.
Mrs. Chalk's face flamed. " What sort of bird ? " she demanded.
" Singin' bird," replied her husband, with nervous glibness.
Mrs. Chalk left the room.
Mr. Chalk finished his breakfast with an effort, and then, moving to the window, lit his pipe and sat for some time in moody thought. A little natural curiosity as to the identity of the fair whistler would, however, not be denied, and the names of Binchester's fairest daughters passed in review before him. Almost uncon- sciously he got up and surveyed himself in the glass.
"There's no accounting for tastes," he said to himself, in modest explanation.
His mind still dwelt on the subject as he stood in the hall later on in the morning, brushing his hat, preparatory to taking his usual walk. Mrs. Chalk, upstairs listening, thought that he never would have finished, and drew her own conclusions.
With the air of a man whose time hangs upon his hands, Mr. Chalk sauntered slowly through the narrow by-ways of Binchester. He read all the notices pasted on the door of the Town Hall and bought some stamps at the
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post-office, but the morning dragged slowly, and he bent his steps at last in the direction of Tredgold's office, in the faint hope of a little conversation.
To his surprise, Mr. Tredgold senior was in an unusually affable mood. He pushed his papers aside at once, and, motioning his visitor to a chair, greeted him with much heartiness.
"Just the man I wanted to see," he said, cheerfully. " I want you to come round to my place at eight o'clock to-night. I've just seen Stobell, and he's coming too."
" I will if I can," said Mr. Chalk.
11 You must come," said the other, seriously. "It's business."
" Business ! " said Mr. Chalk. " I don't see "
"You will to-night," said Mr. Tredgold, with a mysterious smile. "I've sent Edward off to town on business, and we shan't be inter- rupted. Good-bye. I'm busy."
He shook hands with his visitor and led him to the door ; Chalk, after a vain attempt to obtain particulars, walked slowly home.
Despite his curiosity it was nearly half-past eight when he arrived at Mr. Tredgold's that evening, and was admitted by his host. The latter, with a somewhat trite remark about the virtues of punctuality, led the way upstairs and threw open the door of his study.
" Here he is," he announced.
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A slender figure sitting bolt upright in a large grandfather-chair turned at their entrance, and revealed to the astonished Mr. Chalk the expressive features of Miss Selina Vickers ; facing her at the opposite side of the room Mr. Stobell, palpably ruffled, eyed her balefully.
"THIS IS A NEW CLIENT OF MINE,' SAID TREDGOLD."
" This is a new client of mine," said Tred- gold, indicating Miss Vickers.
Mr. Chalk said "Good-evening." " I tried to get a word with you last night," said Miss Vickers. " I was down at the bottom of youi garden whistling for over ten
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minutes as hard as I could whistle. I wonder you didn't hear me."
"Hear you!" cried Mr. Chalk, guiltily con- scious of a feeling of disappointment quite beyond his control. "What do you mean by coming and whistling for me, eh ? What do you mean by it ? "
" I wanted to see you private," said Miss Vickers, calmly, " but it's just as well. I went and saw Mr. Tredgold this morning- instead."
"On a matter of business," said Mr. Tred- gold, looking at her. " She came to me, as one of the ordinary public, about some — ha — land she's interested in."
"An island," corroborated Miss Vickers.
Mr. Chalk took a chair and looked round in amazement. "What, another?" he said, faintly.
Mr. Tredgold coughed. " My client is not a rich woman," he began.
" Chalk knows that," interrupted Mr. Stobell. " The airs and graces that girl will give herself if you go on like that "
" But she has some property there which she is anxious to obtain," continued Mr. Tredgold, with a warning glance at the speaker. " That being so "
" Make him wish he may die first," inter- posed Miss Vickers, briskly.
" Yes, yes ; that's all right," said Tredgold, meeting Mr. Chalk's startled gaze.
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"It will be when he's done it," retorted the determined Miss Vickers.
" It's a secret," explained Mr. Tredgold, addressing his staring friend. " And you must swear to keep it if it's told you. That's what she means. I've had to and so has Stobell."
A fierce grunt from Mr. Stobell, who was still suffering from the remembrance of an indignity against which he had protested in vain, came as confirmation. Then the mar- velling Mr. Chalk rose, and instructed by Miss Vickers took an oath, the efficacy of which consisted in a fervent hope that he might die it he broke it.
" But what's it all about ? " he inquired, plaintively.
Mr. Tredgold conferred with Miss Vickers, and that lady, after a moment's hesitation, drew a folded paper from her bosom and beckoned to Mr. Chalk. With a cry of amazement he recognised the identical map of Bowers's Island, which he had last seen in the hands of its namesake. It was impossible to mistake it, although an attempt to take it in his hand was promptly frustrated by the owner.
" But Captain Bowers said that he had burnt it," he cried.
Mr. Tredgold eyed him coldly. " Burnt what ? " he inquired.
11 The map," was the reply.
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" Just so," said Tredgold. " You told me he had burnt a map."
"Is this another, then ? " inquired Mr. Chalk.
" P'raps," said Miss Vickers, briefly.
" As the captain said he had burnt his, this must be another," said Tredgold.
" Didn't he burn it then ? " inquired Mr. Chalk.
" I should be sorry to disbelieve Captain Bowers," said Tredgold.
" Couldn't be done," said the brooding Stobell, "not if you tried."
Mr. Chalk sat still and eyed them in per- plexity.
" There is no doubt that this map refers to the same treasure as the one Captain Bowers had," said Tredgold, with the air of one making a generous admission. " My client has not volunteered any statement as to how it came into her possession "
11 And she's not going to," put in Miss Vickers, dispassionately.
"It is enough for me that we have got it," resumed Mr. Tredgold. " Now, we want you to join us in fitting out a ship and recovering the treasure. Equal expenses ; equal shares."
"What about Captain Bowers?" inquired Mr. Chalk.
"He is to have an equal share without any of the expense," said Tredgold. " You know
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he gave us permission to find it if we could, so we are not injuring anybody."
" He told us to go and find it, if you remem- ber," said Stobell, "and we're going to."
" He'll have a fortune handed to him without any trouble or being responsible in any way," said Tredgold, impressively. " I should like to think there was somebody working to put a fortune like that into my lap. We shall have a fifth each."
11 That'll be five — thousand — pounds for you, Selina," said Mr. Stobell, with a benevolent smile.
Miss Vickers turned a composed little face upon him and languidly closed one eye.
" I had two prizes for arithmetic when I was at school," she remarked ; "and don't you call me Selina, unless you want to be called Bobbie."
A sharp exclamation from Mr. Tredgold stopped all but the first three words of Mr. Stobell's retort, but he said the rest under his breath with considerable relish.
" Don't mind him," said Miss Vickers. " I'm half sorry I let him join, now. A man that used to work for him once told me that he was only half a gentleman, but he'd never seen that half."
Mr. Stobell, afraid to trust himself, got up and leaned out of the window.
"Well, we're all agreed, then," said Tred- gold, looking round.
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" Half a second," said Miss Vickers. " Before I part with this map you've all got to sign a paper promising me my proper share, and to give me twenty pounds down."
Mr. Tredgold hesitated and looked serious. Mr. Chalk, somewhat dazed by the events of the evening, blinked at him solemnly. Mr. Stobell withdrew his head from the window and spoke.
"Twenty — pounds!" he growled.
"Twenty pounds," repeated Miss Vickers, "or four hundred shillings if you like it better. If you wait a moment I'll make it pennies."
She leaned back in her chair and, screwing her eyes tight, began the calculation. " Twelve noughts are nought," she said in a gabbling whisper ; " twelve noughts are nought, twelve fours are forty "
"All right," said Mr. Tredgold, who had been regarding this performance with astonished disapproval. "You shall have the twenty pounds, but there is no necessity for us to sign any paper."
" No, there's no necessity," said Miss Vickers, opening her small sharp eyes again, "only, if you don't do it, I'll find somebody that will."
Mr. Tredgold argued with her, but in vain ; Mr. Chalk taking up the argument and expand- ing it, fared no better ; and Mr. Stobell, opening his mouth to contribute his mite, was quelled before he could get a word out.
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"Them's my terms," said Miss Vickers ; " take 'em or leave 'em, just as you please. I give you five minutes by the clock to make up your minds ; Mr. Stobell can have six, because thinking takes him longer. And if you agree to do what's right — and I'm letting you off easy — Mr. Tredgold is to keep the map and never let it go out of his sight for a single instant."
She put her head round the side of the chair to make a note of the time, and then, sitting upright with her arms folded, awaited their decision. Before the time was up the terms were accepted, and Mr. Tredgold, drawing his chair to the table, prepared to draw up the required agreement.
He composed several, but none which seemed to give general satisfaction. At the seventh attempt, however, he produced an agreement which, alluding in vague terms to a treasure quest in the Southern Seas on the strength of a map provided by Miss Vickers, promised one- fifth of the sum recovered to that lady, and was considered to meet the exigencies of the case. Miss Vickers herself, without being enthusiastic, said that she supposed it would have to do.
Another copy was avoided, but only with great difficulty, owing to her criticism of Mr. Stobell's signature. It took the united and verbose efforts of Messrs. Chalk and Tredgold to assure her that it was in his usual style, and
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rather a good signature for him than otherwise. Miss Vickers, viewing it with her head on one side, asked whether he couldn't make his mark instead ; a question which Mr. Stobell, at the pressing instance of his friends, left unanswered. Then Tredgold left the room to pay a visit to his safe, and, the other two gentlemen turning out their pockets, the required sum was made up, and with the agreement handed to Miss Vickers in exchange for the map.
She bade them good-night, and then, opening the door, paused with her hand on the knob and stood irresolute.
" I hope I've done right," she said, somewhat nervously. "It was no good to anybody laying idle and being wasted. I haven't stolen any- thing."
" No, no," said Tredgold, hastily.
"It seems ridiculous for all that money to be wasted," continued Miss Vickers, musingly. " It doesn't belong to anybody, so nobody can be hurt by our taking it, and we can do a lot of good with it, if we like. I shall give some of mine away to the poor. We all will. I'll have it put in this paper."
She fumbled in her bodice for the document, and walked towards them.
"We can't alter it now," said Mr. Tredgold, decidedly.
"We'll do what's right," said Mr. Chalk, reassuringly.
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Miss Vickers smiled at him. "Yes, I know you will," she said, graciously, "and I think
Mr. Tredgold will, but "
'You're leaving that door open," said Mr Stobell, coldly, "and the draught's blowing m> head off, pretty near "
Miss Vickers eyed him scornfully, but in the absence of a crushing reply disdained one at all. She contented herself instead by going outside and closing the door after her with a sharpness which stirred every hair on his head.
"It's a most extraordinary thing," said Mr. Chalk, as the three bent exultantly over the map. " I could ha' sworn to this map in a court of justice."
" Don't you worry your head about it," ad- vised Mr. Stobell.
"You've got your way at last," said Tred- gold, with some severity. "We're going for a cruise with you, and here you are raising ob- jections."
" Not objections," remonstrated the other , 'and talking about the voyage, what about Mrs. Chalk ? She'll want to come."
"So will Mrs. Stobell," said that lady's pro- prietor, "but she won't."
" She mustn't hear of it till the last moment," said Tredgold, dictatorially ; " the quieter we keep the whole thing the better. You're not to divulge a word of the cruise to anybody. When it does leak out it must be understood we are
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just going for a little pleasure jaunt. Mind, you've sworn to keep the whole affair secret"
Mr. Chalk screwed up his features in anxious perplexity, but made no comment.
" The weather's fine," continued Tredgold, "and there's nothing gained by delay. On Wednesday we'll take the train to Biddlecombe and have a look round. My idea is to buy a small, stout sailing-craft second-hand ; ship a crew ostensibly for a pleasure trip, and sail as soon as possible."
Mr. Chalk's face brightened. " And we'll take some beads, and guns, and looking-glasses, and trade with the natives in the different islands we pass," he said, cheerfully. " We may as well see something of the world while we're about it."
Mr. Tredgold smiled indulgently and said they would see. Messrs. Stobell and Chalk, after a final glance at the map and a final perusal of the instructions at the back, took their departure.
" It's like a dream," said the latter gentle- man, as they walked down the High Street.
" That Vickers girl ud like more dreams o' the same sort," said Mr. Stobell, as he thrust his hand in his empty pocket.
" It's all very well for you," continued Mr. Chalk, uneasily. " But my wife is sure to insist upon coming."
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Mr. Stobell sniffed. "I've got a wife, too," he remarked.
" Yes," said Mr. Chalk, in a burst of un- wonted frankness, " but it ain't quite the same thing. I've got a wife and Mrs. Stobell has got a husband — that's the difference."
Mr. Stobell pondered this remark for the rest of the way home. He came to the conclusion that the events of the evening had made Mr. Chalk a little light-headed.
in
CHAPTER VIII.
Until he stood on the platform on Wednes- day morning with his brother adventurers Mr. Chalk passed the time in a state of nervous excitement, which only tended to confirm his wife in her suspicions of his behaviour. Without any preliminaries he would burst out suddenly into snatches of sea-songs, the " Bay of Biscay " being an especial favourite, until Mrs. Chalk thought fit to observe that, "if the thunder did roar like that she should not be afraid of it." Ever sensitive to a fault, Mr. Chalk fell back upon " Tom Bowling," which he thought free from openings of that sort, until Mrs. Chalk, after commenting upon the inability of the late Mr. Bowling to hear the tempest's howling, indulged in idle speculations as to what he would have thought of Mr. Chalk's. Tredgold and Stobell bought papers on the station, but Mr. Chalk was in too exalted a mood for reading. The bustle and life as the train became due were admirably attuned to his feelings, and when it drew up and they embarked, to the clatter of milk-cans and the rumbling of trolleys, he was beaming with 'satisfaction.
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" I feel that I can smell the sea already," he remarked.
Mr. Stobell put down his paper and sniffed ; then he resumed it again and, meeting Mr. Tredgold's eye over the top of it, sniffed more loudly than before.
" Have you told Edward that you are going to sea?" inquired Mr. Chalk, leaning over to Tredgold.
"Certainly not," was the reply; "I don't want anybody to know till the last possible moment. You haven't given your wife any hint as to why you are going to Biddlecombe to-day, have you ? "
Mr. Chalk shook his head. " I told her that you had got business there, and that I was going with you just for the outing," he said. " What she'll say when she finds out "
His imagination failed him and, a prey to forebodings, he tried to divert his mind by looking out of window. His countenance cleared as they neared Biddlecombe, and, the line running for some distance by the side of the river, he amused himself by gazing at various small craft left high and dry by the tide.
A short walk from the station brought them to the mouth of the river which constitutes the harbour of Biddlecombe. For a small port there was a goodly array of shipping, and Mr. Chalk's pulse beat faster as his gaze wandered impartially from a stately barque in all the pride
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as
of fresh paint to dingy sea-worn ketches and tiny yachts.
Uncertain how to commence operations, they walked thoughtfully up and down the quay. If any of the craft were for sale there was nothing to announce the fact, and the various suggestions which Mr. Chalk threw off from time to time to the course they should pursue were
hardly noticed.
"One o'clock," said Mr. Stobell, extracting a huge sliver timepiece from his pocket, after a couple of wasted hours.
11 Let's have something to eat before we do any more," said Mr. Tredgold. " After that we'll ferry over and look at the other side."
They made their way to the " King of Han- over," an old inn, perched on the
♦"FINE DAY, GENTLEMEN,* SAID THE STRANGER, c\A(* nf tVlP> hctr
AS HE RAISED HIS GLASS." 3IUC VI L11C li.tX.1 -
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bour, and, mounting the stairs, entered the coffee-room, where Mr. Stobell, after hesitating for some time between the rival claims of roast beef and grilled chops, solved the difficulty by- ordering both.
The only other occupant of the room, a short, wiry man, with a close-shaven, hard-bitten face, sat smoking, with a glass of whisky before him, in a bay window at the end of the room, which looked out on the harbour. There was a maritime flavour about him which at once enlisted Mr. Chalk's sympathies and made him overlook the small, steely-grey eyes and large and somewhat brutal mouth.
" Fine day, gentlemen," said the stranger, nodding affably to Mr. Chalk as he raised his glass.
Mr. Chalk assented, and began a somewhat minute discussion upon the weather, which lasted until the waiter appeared with the lunch.
" Bring me another drop o' whisky, George," said the stranger, as the latter was about to leave the room, " and a little stronger, d'ye hear ? A man might drink this and still be in the Band of Hope."
" We thought it wouldn't do for you to get the chuck out of it after all these years, Cap'n Brisket," said George, calmly. "It's a whisky that's kept special for teetotalers like you."
Captain Brisket gave a hoarse laugh and winked at Mr. Stobell ; that gentleman, merely
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pausing to empty his mouth and drink half a glass of beer, winked back.
" Been here before, sir ? " inquired the captain.
Mr. Stobell, who was busy again, left the reply to Mr. Chalk.
" Several times," said the latter. " I'm very fond of the sea."
Captain Brisket nodded, and, taking up his glass, moved to the end of their table, with the air of a man disposed to conversation.
" There's not much doing in Biddlecombe nowadays," he remarked, shaking his head. " Trade ain't what it used to be ; ships are more than half their time looking for freights. And even when they get them they're hardly worth having."
Mr. Chalk started and, leaning over, whispered to Mr. Tredgold.
" No harm in it," said the latter. " Better leave it to me. Shipping's dull, then ? " he inquired, turning to Captain Brisket.
" Dull ? " was the reply. " Dull ain't no name for it."
Mr. Tredgold played with a salt-spoon and frowned thoughtfully.
" We've been looking round for a ship this morning," he said, slowly.
" As passengers ? " inquired the captain, staring.
"As owners," put in Mr. Chalk.
Captain Brisket, greatly interested, drew first
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his glass and then his chair a yard nearer. " Do you mean that you want to buy one?" he inquired.
" Well, we might if we could get one cheap," admitted Tredgold, cautiously. " We had some sort of an idea of a cruise to the South Pacific ; pleasure, with perhaps a little trading mixed up with it. I suppose some of these old schooners can be picked up for the price of an old song ? "
The captain, grating his chair along the floor, came nearer still ; so near that Mr. Stobell instinctively put out his right elbow.
" You've met just the right man," said Captain Brisket, with a boisterous laugh. " I know a schooner, two hundred and forty tons, that is just the identical article you're looking for, good as new and sound as a bell. Are you going to sail her yourself?"
" No," said Mr. Stobell, without looking up, "he ain't."
" Got a master ? " demanded Captain Brisket, with growing excitement. " Don't tell me you've got a master."
"Why not?" growled Mr. Stobell, who, having by this time arrived at the cheese, felt that he had more leisure for conversation.
" Because," shouted the other, hitting the table a thump with his fist that upset half his whisky — " because if you haven't Bill Brisket's your man."
The three gentlemen received this startling
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intelligence with such a lack of enthusiasm that Captain Brisket was fain to cover what in any other man might have been regarded as con- fusion by ringing the bell for George and inquiring with great sternness of manner why he had not brought him a full glass.
" We can't do things in five minutes," said Mr. Tredgold, after a long and somewhat trying pause. " First of all we've got to get a ship."
" The craft you want is over the other side of the harbour waiting for you,'' said the captain, confidently. " We'll ferry over now if you like, or, if you prefer to go by yourselves, do ; Bill Brisket is not the man to stand in anyone's way, whether he gets anything out of it or not.
" Hold hard," said Mr. Stobell, putting up his hand.
Captain Brisket regarded him with a beam- ing smile ; Mr. Stobell's two friends waited patiently.
" What ud a schooner like that fetch ? " inquired Mr. Stobell.
" It all depends," said Brisket. " Of course, if I buy "
Mr. Stobell held up his hand again. " All depends whether you buy it for us or sell it for the man it belongs to, I s'pose ? " he said, slowly.
Captain Brisket jumped up, and to Mr. Chalk's horror smote the speaker heavily on the back. Mr. Stobell, clenching a fist the
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size of a leg of mutton, pushed his chair back and prepared to rise.
" You're a trump." said Captain Brisket, in tones of unmistakable respect, " that's what you are. Lord, if I'd got the head for business you have I should be a man of fortune by now."
Mr. Stobell, who had half risen, sat down again, and, for the first time since his last contract but one, a smile played lightly about the corners of his mouth. He took another drink and, shaking his head slightly as he put the glass down, smiled again with the air of a man who has been reproached for making a pun.
" Let me do it for you," said Captain Brisket, impressively. " I'll tell you where to go without being seen in the matter or letting old Todd know that I'm in it. Ask him a price and bate him down ; when you've got his lowest, come to me and give me one pound in every ten I save you."
Mr. Tredgold looked at his friends. " If we do that," he said, turning to the captain, "it would be to your interest to buy the ship in any case. How are we to be sure she is seaworthy ? "
11 Ah, there you are ! " said Brisket, with an expansive smile. "You let me buy for you and promise me the master's berth, provided you are satisfied with my credentials. Common sense'll tell you I wouldn't risk my own carcass in a rotten ship."
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Mr. Stobell nodded approval and, Captain Brisket with unexpected delicacy withdrawing to the window and becoming interested in the harbour, conferred for some time with his friends. The captain's offer being accepted, subject to certain conditions, they settled their bill and made their way to the ferry.
"There's the schooner," said the captain, pointing, as they neared the opposite shore ; " the Fair Emily, and the place she is lying at is called Todd's Wharf. Ask for Mr. Todd, or, better still, walk straight on to the wharf and have a look at her. The old man'll see you fast enough."
He sprang nimbly ashore as the boat's head touched the stairs, and after extending a hand to Mr. Chalk, which was coldly ignored, led the way up the steps to the quay.
" There's the wharf just along there," he said, pointing up the road. "I'll wait for you at the ' Jack Ashore ' here. Don't offer him too much to begin with."
" I thought of offering a hundred pounds," said Mr. Tredgold. "If the ship's sound we can't be very much out over that sum.
Captain Brisket stared at him. " No ; don't do that," he said, recovering, and speaking with great gravity. " Offer him seventy. Good luck."
He watched them up the road and then, with a mysterious grin, turned into the "Jack Ashore,"
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and taking a seat in the bar waited patiently for their return.
Half an hour passed. The captain had smoked one pipe and was half through another. He glanced at the clock over the bar and fidgeted as an unpleasant idea that the bargain, despite Mr. Tredgold's ideas as to the value of schooners, might have been completed without his assistance occurred to him. He took a sip from his glass, and then his face softened as the faint sounds of a distant uproar broke upon his ear.
" What's that ? " said a customer.
The landlord, who was glancing at the paper, put it down and listened. " Sounds like old Todd at it again," he said, coming round to the front of the bar.
The noise came closer. "It is old Todd," said another customer, and hastily finishing his beer moved with the others to the door. Cap- tain Brisket, with a fine air of indifference, lounged after them, and peering over their shoulders obtained a good view of the approaching disturbance.
His three patrons, with a hopeless attempt to appear unconcerned, were coming down the road, while close behind a respectable- looking old gentleman with a long, white beard and a voice like a fog-horn almost danced with excitement. They quickened their pace as they neared the inn, and Mr.
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Chalk, throwing appearances to the winds, almost dived through the group at the door. He was at once followed by Mr. Tredgold, but Mr. Stobell, black with wrath, paused in the doorway.
"HIS THREE PATRONS, WITH A HOPELESS ATTEMPT TO APPEAL UNCONCERNED, WERE COMING DOWN THE ROAD."
" Fetch 'em out," vociferated the old gentle- man as the landlord barred the doorway with his arms. " Fetch that red- whiskered one out and I'll eat him."
"What's the matter, Mr. Todd?" inquired the landlord, with a glance at his friends. "What's he done?"
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"Done?" repeated the excitable Mr. Todd. " Done ? They come walking on to my wharf
as if the place ■ Fetch him out," he
bawled, breaking off suddenly. " Fetch him out and I'll skin him alive."
Captain Brisket took Mr. Stobell by the sleeve and after a slight altercation drew him inside.
"Tell that red- whiskered man to come out- side," bawled Mr. Todd. " What's he afraid of?"
"What have you been doing to him?" inquired Captain Brisket, turning to the pallid Mr. Chalk.
" Nothing," was the reply.
" Is he coming out ?" demanded the terrible voice, "or have I got to wait here all night? Why don't he come outside, and I'll break every bone in his body."
Mr. Stobell scratched his head in gloomy perplexity ; then, as his gaze fell upon the smiling countenances of Mr. Todd's fellow- townsmen, his face cleared.
" He's an old man," he said, slowly, "but if any of you would like to step outside with me for five minutes, you've only got to say the word, you know."
Nobody manifesting any signs of accepting this offer, he turned away and took a seat by the side of the indignant Tredgold. Mr. Todd, after a final outburst, began to feel exhausted,
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and forsaking his prey with much reluctance allowed himself to be led away. Snatches of a strong and copious benediction, only partly mellowed by distance, fell upon the ears of the listeners.
" Did you offer him the seventy ? " inquired
CAPTAIN BRISKET WAVING FAREWELLS FROM THE QUAY AS THEY EMBARKED."
Captain Brisket, turning to Mr. Tredgold.
"/did," said Mr. Chalk, plaintively.
"Ah," said the captain, regarding him thoughtfully ; " perhaps you ought to ha' made it eighty. He's asking eight hundred for it, I understand."
Mr. Tredgold turned sharply. " Eight hundred ? " he gasped.
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The captain nodded. "And I'm not saying it's not worth it," he said, "but I might be able to get it for you for six. You'd better leave it to me now."
Mr. Tredgold at first said he would have nothing more to do with it, but under the softening influence of a pipe and a glass was induced to reconsider his decision. Captain Brisket, waving farewells from the quay as they embarked on the ferry-boat later on in the afternoon, bore in his pocket the cards of all three gentlemen, together with a commis- sion entrusting him with the preliminary nego- tiations for the purchase of the Fair Emily.
"5
CHAPTER IX.
The church bells were ringing for morning service as Mr. Vickers, who had been for a stroll with Mr. William Russell and a
"MR. VICKERS, WITH MR. WILLIAM RUSSELL AND A COUPLE OF FERRETS, RETURNED HOME TO BREAKFAST."
couple of ferrets, returned home to breakfast. Contrary to custom, the small front room and the kitchen were both empty, and breakfast, with the exception of a cold herring and the
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bitter remains of a pot of tea, had been cleared away.
"I've known men afore now," murmured Mr. Vickers, eyeing the herring disdainfully, "as would take it by the tail and smack 'em acrost the face with it."
He cut himself a slice of bread, and, pouring out a cup of cold tea, began his meal, ever and anon stopping to listen, with a puzzled face, to a continuous squeaking overhead. It sounded like several pairs of new boots all squeaking at once, but Mr. Vickers, who was a reasonable man and past the age of self-deception, sought for a more probable cause.
A particularly aggressive squeak detached itself from the others and sounded on the stairs. The resemblance to the noise made by new boots was stronger than ever. It was new boots. The door opened, and Mr. Vickers, with a slice of bread arrested half-way to his mouth, sat gazing in astonishment at Charles Vickers, clad for the first time in his life in new raiment from top to toe. Ere he could voice inquiries, an avalanche of squeaks descended the stairs, and the rest of the children, all smartly clad, with Selina bringing up the rear, burst into the room.
" What is it? " demanded Mr. Vickers, in a voice husky with astonishment ; " a bean-feast ? "
Miss Vickers, who was doing up a glove which possessed more buttons than his own
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waistcoat, looked up and eyed him calmly. " New clothes — and not before they wanted 'em," she replied, tartly.
" New clothes ? " repeated her father, in a scandalized voice. " Wher'd they get em?"
"Shop," said his daughter, briefly.
Mr. Vickers rose and, approaching his off- spring, inspected them with the same interest that he would have bestowed upon a wax- works. A certain stiffness of pose combined with the glassy stare which met his gaze helped to favour the illusion.
" For once in their lives they're respectable," said Selina, regarding them with moist eyes. " Soap and water they've always had, bless 'em, but you've never seen 'em dressed like this before."
Before Mr. Vickers could frame a reply a squeaking which put all the others in the shade sounded from above. It crossed the floor on hurried excursions to different parts of the room, and then, hesitating for a moment at the head of the stairs, came slowly and ponderously down until Mrs. Vickers, looking somewhat nervous, stood revealed before her expectant husband. In scornful surprise he gazed at a blue cloth dress, a black velvet cape trimmed with bugles, and a bonnet so aggressively new that it had not yet accommodated itself to Mrs. Vickers's style of hair-dressing.
" Go on ! " he breathed. " Go on ! Don't
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mind me. What, you — you — you're not going to church ? "
Mrs. Vickers glanced at the books in her hand — also new — and trembled.
" And why not ? " demanded Selina. " Why shouldn't we ? "
Mr. Vickers took another amazed glance round and his brow darkened.
11 Where did you get the money ? " he inquired.
"Saved it," said his daughter, reddening despite herself.
"Saved it?" repeated the justly astonished Mr. Vickers. "Saved it? Ah! out of my money ; out of the money I toil and moil for — out of the money that ought to be spent on food. No wonder you're always complaining that it ain't enough. I won't 'ave it, d'ye hear ? I'll have my rights ; I'll "
11 Don't make so much noise," said his daughter, who was stooping down to ease one of Mrs. Vickers's boots. "You would have fours, mother, and I told you what it would be."
"He said that I ought to wear threes by rights," said Mrs. Vickers ; " I used to."
" And I s'pose," said Mr. Vickers, who had been listening to these remarks with considerable impatience — " I s'pose there's a bran' new suit o' clothes, and a pair o' boots, and 'arf-a-dozen shirts, and a new hat hid upstairs for me ? "
"Yes, they're hid all right," retorted the dutiful Miss Vickers. "You go upstairs and
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amuse yourself looking for 'em. Go and have a game of ' hot boiled beans ' all by yourself."
" Why, you must have been stinting me for years," continued Mr. Vickers, examining the
/ w,^-i_ a^c~ >
"'WHY, YOU MUST HAVE BEEN STINTING ME FOR YEARS,' CONTINUED MR. YICKERS."
various costumes in detail. " This is what comes o' keeping quiet and trusting you — not but what I've 'ad my suspicions. My own kids taking the bread out o' my mouth and buying boots with it ; my own wife going about in a
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bonnet that's took me weeks and weeks to earn."
His words fell on deaf ears. No adjutant getting his regiment ready for a march-past could have taken more trouble than Miss Vickers was taking at this moment over her «miall company. Caps were set straight and sleeves pulled down. Her face shone with pride and her eyes glistened as the small fry, discoursing in excited whispers, filed stiffly out.
A sudden cessation of gossip in neighbouring doorways testified to the impression made by their appearance. Past little startled groups the procession picked its way in squeaking pride, with Mrs. Vickers and Selina bringing up the rear. The children went by with little set, important faces ; but Miss Vickers's little bows and pleased smiles of recognition to acquaintances were so ladylike that several untidy matrons retired inside their houses to wrestle grimly with feelings too strong for outside display.
" Pack o' prancing peacocks," said the un- natural Mr. Vickers, as the procession wound round the corner.
He stood looking vacantly up the street until the gathering excitement of his neighbours aroused new feelings. Vanity stirred within him, and leaning casually against the door-post he yawned and looked at the chimney-pots opposite. A neighbour in a pair of corduroy
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trousers, supported by one brace worn diagonally, shambled across the road.
" What's up ? " he inquired, with a jerk of the thumb in the direction of Mr. Vickers's vanished family.
" Up ? " repeated Mr. Vickers, with an air of languid surprise.
" Somebody died and left you a fortin ? " inquired the other.
" Not as I knows of," replied Mr. Vickers, staring. "Why?"
" WkyV* exclaimed the other. "Why, new clothes all over. I never see such a turn-out."
Mr. Vickers regarded him with an air of lofty disdain. " Kids must 'ave new clothes some- times, I s'pose ? " he said, slowly. ' You wouldn't 'ave 'em going about of a Sunday in a ragged shirt and a pair of trowsis, would you ? "
The shaft passed harmlessly. " Why not ?" said the other. " They gin'rally do."
Mr. Vickers's denial died away on his lips. In twos and threes his neighbours had drawn gradually near and now stood by listening expectantly. The idea of a fortune was common to all of them, and they were anxious for particulars.
"Some people have all the luck," said a stout matron. " I've 'ad thirteen and buried seven, and never 'ad so much as a chiney tea- pot left me. One thing is, I never could make up to people for the sake of what I could get
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out of them. I couldn't not if I tried. I must speak my mind free and independent."
"Ah ! that's how you get yourself disliked,"
"THEY WERE ANXIOUS FOR PARTICULARS."
said another lady, shaking her head sym- pathetically.
" Disliked ? " said the stout matron, turning on her fiercely. " What d'ye mean ? You
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don't know what you're talking about. Who's getting themselves disliked ? "
"A lot o' good a' chiney tea-pot would be to you," said the other, with a ready change of front, " or any other kind o' tea-pot."
Surprise and indignation deprived the stout matron of utterance.
" Or a milk-jug either," pursued her opponent, following up her advantage. "Ora coffee-pot, or "
The stout matron advanced upon her, and her mien was so terrible that the other, retreating to her house, slammed the door behind her and continued the discussion from a first- floor window. Mint Street, with the conviction that Mr. Vickers's tidings could wait, swarmed across the road to listen.
Mr. Vickers himself listened for a little while to such fragments as came his way, and then, going indoors, sat down amid the remains of his breakfast to endeavour to solve the mystery of the new clothes.
He took a short clay pipe from his pocket, and, igniting a little piece of tobacco which remained in the bowl, endeavoured to form an estimate of the cost of each person's wardrobe. The sum soon becoming too large to work in his head, he had recourse to pencil and paper, and after five minutes' hard labour sat gazing at a total which made his brain reel. The fact that immediately afterwards he was unable to
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find even a few grains of tobacco at the bottom of his box furnished a contrast which almost made him maudlin.
He sat sucking at his cold pipe and indulging in hopeless conjectures as to the source of so much wealth, and, with a sudden quickening of the pulse, wondered whether it had all been spent. His mind wandered from Selina to Mr. Joseph Tasker, and almost imperceptibly the absurdities of which young men in love could be capable occurred to him. He re- membered the extravagances of his own youth, and bethinking himself of the sums he had squandered on the future Mrs. Vickers — sums which increased with the compound interest of repetition — came to the conclusion that Mr. Tasker had been more foolish still.
It seemed the only possible explanation. His eye brightened, and, knocking the ashes out of his pipe, he crossed to the tap and washed his face.
"If he can't lend a trifle to the man what's going to be his father-in-law," he said cheerfully, as he polished his face on a roller-towel, " I shall tell 'im he can't have Selina, that's all. I'll go and see 'im afore she gets any more out of him."
He walked blithely up the road, and, after shaking off one or two inquirers whose curiosity was almost proof against insult, made his way to Dialstone Lane. In an unobtrusive fashion
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he glided round to the back, and, opening the kitchen door, bestowed a beaming smile upon the startled Joseph,
" Busy, my lad ? " he inquired.
"What d'ye want?" asked Mr. Tasker, whose face was flushed with cooking.
Mr. Vickers opened the door a little wider, and, stepping inside, closed it softly behind him and dropped into a chair.
" Don't be alarmed, my lad," he said benevo- lently. " Selina's all right."
" What d'ye want ? " repeated Mr. Tasker. " Who told you to come round here ?"
Mr. Vickers looked at him in reproachful surprise.
" I suppose a father can come round to see his future son-in-law ? " he said, with some dignity. " I don't want to do no interrupting of your work, Joseph, but I couldn't 'elp just stepping round to tell you how nice they all looked. Where you got the money from I can't think."
" Have you gone dotty, or what ? " demanded Mr. Tasker, who was busy wiping out a sauce- pan. " Who looked nice ? "
Mr. Vickers shook his head at him and smiled waggishly.
"Ah! who ?" he said with much enjoyment. " I tell you it did my father's 'art good to see 'em all dressed up like that ; and when I thought of its all being owing to you, sit down at home
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in comfort with a pipe instead of coming to thank you for it I could not. Not if you was to have paid me I couldn't."
" Look ere," said Mr. Tasker, putting the saucepan down with a bang, " if you can't talk plain, common English you'd better get out. I don't want you here at all as a matter of fact, but to have you sitting there shaking your sHly 'ead and talking a pack o' nonsense is more than I can stand."
Mr. Vickers gazed at him in perplexity. " Do you mean to tell me you haven't been giving my Selina money to buy new clothes for the young 'uns ? " he demanded, sharply. " Do you mean to tell me that Selina didn't get the money out of you to buy herself and 'er mother and all of 'em — except me — a new rig-out from top to toe?"
" D'ye think I've gone mad, or what ? " inquired the amazed Mr. Tasker. " What d'ye think I should want to buy clothes for your young 'uns for? That's your duty. And Selina, too ; I haven't given her anything except a ring, and she lent me the money for that. D'ye think I'm made o' money ? "
" All right, Joseph," said Mr. Vickers, secretly incensed at this unforeseen display of caution on Mr. Tasker's part. " I s'pose the fairies come and put 'em on while they was asleep. But its dry work walking ; 'ave you got such a thing as a glass of water you could give me ? "
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The other took a glass from the dresser and, ignoring the eye of his prospective father-in- law, which was glued to a comfortable-looking barrel in the corner, filled it to the brim with fair water and handed it to him. Mr. Vickers, giving him a surly nod, took a couple of dainty sips and placed it on the table.
"It's very nice water," he said sarcastically.
" Is it ? " said Mr. Tasker. " We don't drink it ourselves, except in tea or coffee ; the cap'n says it ain't safe."
Mr. Vickers brought his eye from the barrel and glared at him.
M I s'pose, Joseph," he said, after a long pause, during which Mr. Tasker was busy making up the fire — " I s'pose Selina didn't tell you you wasn't to tell me about the money ? "
" I don't know what you're driving at," said the other, confronting him angrily. " I haven't got no money."
Mr. Vickers coughed. " Don't say that, Joseph," he urged, softly ; "don't say that, my lad. As a matter o' fact, I come round to you, interrupting of you in your work, and I'm sorry for it — knowing how fond of it you are — to see whether I — I couldn't borrow a trifle for a day or two."
"Ho, did you?" commented Mr. Tasker, who had opened the oven door and was using his hand as a thermometer.
His visitor hesitated. It was no use asking
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for too much ; on the other hand, to ask for less than he could get would be unpardonable folly.
" If I could lay my hand on a couple o' quid," he said, in a mysterious whisper, " I could make it five in a week."
" Well, why don't you ? " inquired Mr. Tasker, who was tenderly sucking the bulb of the ther- mometer after contact with the side of the oven.
"It's the two quid that's the trouble, Joseph," replied Mr. Vickers, keeping his temper with difficulty. " A little thing like that wouldn't be much trouble to you, I know, but to a pore man with a large family like me it's a'most impossible."
Mr. Tasker went outside to the larder, and returning with a small joint knelt down and thrust it carefully into tne oven.
" A'most impossible," repeated Mr. Vickers, with a sigh.
" What is ? " inquired the other, who had not been listening.
The half-choking Mr. Vickers explained.
"Yes, o' course it is," assented Mr. Tasker.
" People what's got money," said the offended Mr. Vickers, regarding him fiercely, "stick to it like leeches. Now, suppose I was a young man keeping company with a gal and her father wanted to borrow a couple o' quid — a paltry cou- ple o' thick 'uns — what d'ye think I should do ? "
"If you was a young man — keeping company with a gal — and 'er father wanted — to borrow a couple of quid off o' you — what would you
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do ? " repeated Mr. Tasker, mechanically, as he bustled to and fro.
Mr. Vickers nodded and smiled. " What should I do ? " he inquired again, hopefully.
14 1 don't know, I'm sure," said the other opening the oven door and peering in. " How should I ? "
At the imminent risk of something inside giving way under the strain, Mr. Vickers re- strained himself. He breathed hard, and glancing out of the window sought to regain his equilibrium by becoming interested in a blackbird outside.
"What I mean to say is," he said at length, in a trembling voice — "what I mean to say is, without no roundaboutedness, will you lend a 'ard-working man, what's going to be your future father-in-law, a couple o' pounds ? "
Mr. Tasker laughed. It was not a loud laugh, nor yet a musical one. It was merely a laugh designed to convey to the incensed Mr. Vickers a strong sense of the absurdity of his request.
11 1 asked you a question," said the latter gentleman, glaring at him.
" I haven't got a couple o' pounds," replied Mr. Tasker ; " and if I 'ad, there's nine hundred and ninety-nine things I would sooner do with it than lend it to you.'
Mr. Vickers rose and stood regarding the ignoble creature with profound contempt. His
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features worked and a host of adjectives crowded to his lips.
"MR. VICKERS ROSE AND STOOD REGARDING THE IGNOBLE CREATURE WITH PROFOUND CONTEMPT."
"Is that your last word, Joseph ? " he inquired, with solemn dignity.
"I'll say it all over again if you like," said the obliging Mr. Tasker. "If you want money, go and earn it, same as I have to ; don't come
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round 'ere cadging on me, because it's no good."
Mr. Vickers laughed ; a dry, contemptuous laugh, terrible to hear.
" And that's the man that's going to marry my daughter," he said, slowly ; " that's the man that's going to marry into my family. Don't you expect me to take you up and point you out as my son-in-law, cos I won't do it. If there's anything I can't abide it's stinginess. And there's my gal — my pore gal don't know your real character. Wait till I've told 'er about this morning and opened 'er eyes! Wait till "
He stopped abruptly as the door leading to the front room opened and revealed the in- quiring face of Captain Bowers.
"What's all this noise about, Joseph?" demanded the captain, harshly.
Mr. Tasker attempted to explain, but his explanation involving a character for Mr. Vickers which that gentleman declined to accept on any terms, he broke in and began to give his own version of the affair. Much to Joseph's surprise the captain listened patiently.
" Did you buy all those things, Joseph ? " he inquired, carelessly, as Mr. Vickers paused for breath.
"Cert'nly not, sir," replied Mr. Tasker. " Where should I get the money from ? "
The captain eyed him without replying, and a sudden suspicion occurred to him. The strange disappearance of the map, followed by
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the sudden cessation of Mr. Chalk's visits, began to link themselves to this tale of unex- pected wealth. He bestowed another searching glance upon the agitated Mr. Tasker.
"You haven't sold anything lately, have you ? " he inquired, with startling gruffness.
" I haven't 'ad nothing to sell, sir," replied the other, in astonishment. M And I dare say Mr. Vickers here saw a new pair o' boots on one o' the young 'uns and dreamt all the rest."
Mr. Vickers intervened with passion.
"That'll do," said the captain, sharply. " How dare you make that noise in my house ? I think that the tale about the clothes is all right," he added, turning to Joseph. " I saw them go into church looking very smart. And you know nothing about it ?
Mr. Tasker's astonishment was too genuine to be mistaken, and the captain, watching him closely, transferred his suspicions to a more deserving object. Mr. Vickers caught his eye and essayed a smile.
" Dry work, talking, sir," he said, gently.
Captain Bowers eyed him steadily. " Have we got any beer, Joseph ? " he inquired.
" Plenty in the cask, sir," said Mr. Tasker, reluctantly.
"Well, keep your eye on it," said the captain. " Good morning, Mr. Vickers."
But disappointment and indignation got the better of Mr. Vickers's politeness.
*43
CHAPTER X.
"A penny for your thoughts, uncle," said Miss Drewitt, as they sat at dinner an hour or two after the departure of Mr. Vickers.
" ff'm?" said the captain, with a guilty start.
" You've been scowling and smiling by turns for the last five minutes," said his niece.
" I was thinking about that man that was here this morning/' said the captain, slowly ; " trying to figure it out. If I thought that thai girl Selina "
He took a draught of ale and shook his head solemnly.
"You know my ideas about that," said Prudence.
"Your poor mother was obstinate," com- mented the captain, regarding her tolerantly. 11 Once she got an idea into her head it stuck there, and nothing made her more angry than proving to her that she was wrong. Trying to prove to her, I should have said."
Miss Drewitt smiled amiably. " Well, you've earned half the sum," she said. " Now, what were you smiling about ? "
" Didn't know I was smiling," declared the captain.
With marvellous tact he turned the con-
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versation to lighthouses, a subject upon which he discoursed with considerable fluency until the meal was finished. Miss Drewitt, who had a long memory and at least her fair share of curiosity, returned to the charge as he smoked half a pipe preparatory to accompanying her for a walk.
"You're looking very cheerful," she re- marked.
The captain's face fell several points. " Am I ? " he said, ruefully. " I didn't mean to."
" Why not ? " inquired his niece.
" I mean I didn't know I was," he replied, "more than usual, I mean. I always do look fairly cheerful — at least, I hope I do. There's nothing to make me look the opposite."
Miss Drewitt eyed him carefully and then passed upstairs to put on her hat. Relieved of her presence the captain walked to the small glass over the mantel-piece and, regarding his tell-tale features with gloomy dissatisfaction, acquired, after one or two attempts, an ex- pression which he flattered himself defied analysis.
He tapped the barometer which hung by the door as they went out, and, checking a remark which rose to his lips, stole a satisfied glance at the face by his side.
"Clark's farm by the footpaths would be a nice walk," said Miss Drewitt, as they reached the end of the lane.
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The captain started. " I was thinking of Dutton Priors," he said, slowly. " We could go there by Hanger's Lane and home by the road."
" The footpaths would be nice to-day," urged his niece.
" You try my way," said the captain, jovially.
" Have you got any particular reason for wanting to go to Dutton Priors this afternoon?" inquired the girl.
"Reason?" said the captain. "Good gracious, no. What reason should I have? My leg is a trifle stiff to-day for stiles, but still "
Miss Drewitt gave way at once, and, taking his arm, begged him to lean on her, questioning him anxiously as to his fitness for a walk in any direction.
"Walking '11 do it good," was the reply, as they proceeded slowly down the High Street.
He took his watch from his pocket, and, after comparing it with the town clock, peered furtively right and left, gradually slackening his pace until Miss Drewitt's fears for his leg became almost contagious. At the old stone bridge, spanning the river at the bottom of the High Street, he paused, and, resting his arms on the parapet, became intent on a derelict punt. On the subject of sitting in a craft of that description in mid-stream catching fish, he discoursed at such length that the girl eyed him in amazement.
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" Shall we go on ? " she said, at length.
The captain turned and, merely pausing to point out the difference between the lines of a punt and a dinghy, with a digression to sampans which included a criticism of the Chinese as boat-builders, prepared to depart. He cast a
llAJH—l— —MP
'■HE BECAME INTENT ON A DERELICT PUHT."
swift glance up the road as he did so, and Miss Drewitt's cheek flamed with sudden wrath as she saw Mr. Edward Tredgold hastening towards them. In a somewhat pointed manner she called her uncle's attention to the fact.
" Lor' bless my soul," said that startled mariner, "so it is. Well! well!"
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If Mr. Tredgold had been advancing on his head he could not have exhibited more surprise.
" I'm afraid I'm late," said Tredgold, as he came up and shook hands. " I hope you haven't been waiting long."
The hapless captain coughed loud and long. He emerged from a large red pocket-handker- chief to find the eye of Miss Drewitt seeking his.
"That's all right, my lad," he said, huskily. "I'd forgotten about our arrangement. Did I say this Sunday or next ? "
" This," said Mr. Tredgold, bluntly.
The captain coughed again, and with some pathos referred to the tricks which old age plays with memory. As they walked on he regaled them with selected instances.
" Don't forget your leg, uncle," said Miss Drewitt, softly.
Captain Bowers gazed at her suspiciously.
" Don't forget that it's stiff, and put too much strain on it," explained his niece.
The captain eyed her uneasily, but she was talking and laughing with Edward Tredgold in a most reassuring fashion. A choice portion of his programme, which, owing to the events of the afternoon, he had almost resolved to omit, clamoured for production. He stole another glance at his niece and resolved to risk it
"Hak!" he said, suddenly stopping short
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and feeling in his pockets. " There's my memory again. Well, of all the "
" What's the matter, uncle ? " inquired Miss Drewitt.
" I've left my pipe at home," said the captain, in a desperate voice.
"I've got some cigars," suggested Tredgold.
The captain shook his head. " No, I must
have my pipe," he said, decidedly. "If you
two will walk on slowly, I'll soon catch you ii
" You're not going all the way back for it ? exclaimed Miss Drewitt.
" Let me go," said Tredgold.
The captain favoured him with an inscrut- able glance. " I'll go," he said, firmly. " I'm not quite sure where I left it. You go by Hanger's Lane ; I'll soon catch you up."
He set off at a pace which rendered protest unavailing. Mr. Tredgold turned, and making a mental note of the fact that Miss Drewitt had suddenly added inches to her stature, walked on by her side.
" Captain Bowers is very fond of his pipe," he said, after they had walked a little way in silence.
Miss Drewitt assented. " Nasty things," she said, calmly.
" So they are," said Mr. Tredgold.
" But you smoke," said the girl.
Mr. Tredgold sighed. " I have often
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thought of giving it up," he said, softly, "and then I was afraid that it would look rather pre- sumptuous."
" Presumptuous? " repeated Miss Drewitt.
" So many better and wiser men than myself smoke," explained Mr. Tredgold, "including even bishops. If it is good enough for them, it ought to be good enough for me ; that's the way I look at it. Who am I that I should be too proud to smoke ? Who am I that I should try and set my poor ideas above those of my superiors? Do you see my point of view r
Miss Drewitt made no reply.
" Of course, it is a thing that grows on one," continued Mr. Tredgold, with *he air of making a concession. "It is the fiiot smoke that does the mischief; it is a fatal precedent. Unless,
perhaps How pretty that field is over
there."
Miss Drewitt looked in the direction indi- cated. " Very nice," she said, briefly. " But what were you going to say ? "
Mr. Tredgold made an elaborate attempt to appear confused. " I was going to say," he murmured, gently, "unless, perhaps, one begins on coarse-cut Cavendish rolled in a piece of the margin of the Sunday newspaper."
Miss Drewitt suppressed an exclamation. " I wanted to see where the fascination was," she said, indignantly.
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" And did you ? " inquired Mr. Tredgold, smoothly.
The girl turned her head and looked at him. 14 1 have no doubt my uncle gave you full par- ticulars," she said, bitterly. "It seems to me that men can gossip as much as women."
" I tried to stop him," said the virtuous Mr. Tredgold.
"You need not have troubled," said Miss Drewitt, loftily. " It is not a matter of any consequence. I am surprised that my uncle should have thought it worth mentioning."
She walked on slowly with head erect, paus- ing occasionally to look round for the captain. Edward Tredgold looked too, and a feeling of annoyance at the childish stratagems of his well-meaning friend began to possess him.
"We had better hurry a little, I think," he said, glancing at the sky. " The sooner we get to Dutton Priors the better."
" Why ? " inquired his companion.
" Rain," said the other, briefly.
"It won't rain before evening," said Miss Drewitt, confidently ; " uncle said so."
" Perhaps we had better walk faster, though," urged Mr. Tredgold.
Miss Drewitt slackened her pace deliberately. "There is no fear of its raining," she declared. " And uncle will not catch us up if we walk fast."
A sudden glimpse into the immediate future
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was vouchsafed to Mr. Tredgold ; for a fraction of a second the veil was lifted. " Don't blame me if you get wet through," he said, with some anxiety.
They walked on at a pace which gave the captain every opportunity of overtaking them. The feat would not have been beyond the powers of an athletic tortoise, but the most careful scrutiny failed to reveal any signs of him.
" I'm afraid that he is not well," said Miss Drewitt, after a long, searching glance along the way they had come. " Perhaps we had better go back. It does begin to look rather dark."
" Just as you please," said Edward Tredgold, with unwonted caution ; "but the nearest shelter is Dutton Priors."
He pointed to a lurid, ragged cloud right ahead of them. As if in response, a low, growling rumble sounded overhead.
"Was — was that thunder?" said Miss Drewitt, drawing a little nearer to him.
"Sounded something like it," was the reply.
A flash of lightning and a crashing peal that rent the skies put the matter beyond a doubt. Miss Drewitt, turning very pale, began to walk at a rapid pace in the direction of the village.
The other looked round in search of some nearer shelter. Already the pattering of heavy drops sounded in the lane, and before they had
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DIALSTONE LANE
gone a dozen paces the rain came down in torrents. Two or three fields away a small shed offered the only shelter. Mr. Tredgold, taking his companion by the arm, started to run towards it.
Before they had gone a hundred yards they were wet through, but Miss Drewitt, holding her skirts in one hand and shivering at every flash, ran until they brought up at a tall gate, ornamented with barbed wire, behind which stood the shed.
The gate was locked, and the wire had been put on by a farmer who combined with great ingenuity a fervent hatred of his fellow-men. To Miss Drewitt it seemed insurmountable, but, aided by Mr. Tredgold and a peal of thunder which came to his assistance at a critical moment, she managed to clamber over and reach the shed. Mr. Tredgold followed at his leisure with a strip of braid torn from the bottom of her dress.
The roof leaked in twenty places and the floor was a puddle, but it had certain redeeming features in Mr. Tredgold's eyes of which the girl knew nothing. He stood at the doorway watching the rain.
"Come inside," said Miss Drewitt, in a trembling voice. "You might be struck."
Mr. Tredgold experienced a sudden sense of solemn pleasure in this unexpected concern for his safety. He turned and eyed her.
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DIALSTONE LANE
" I'm not afraid," he said, with great gentle- ness.
" No, but I am," said Miss Drewitt, petulantly, "and I can never get over that gate alone."
"AIDED BY MR. TREDGOLD AND A PEAL OF THUNDER, SHE MANAGED TO CLAMBER OVER."
Mr. Tredgold came inside, and for some time neither of them spoke. The rattle of rain on the roof became less deafening and began to drop through instead of forming little jets. A patch of blue sky showed.
"It isn't much," said Tredgold, going to the door again.
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Miss Drewitt, checking a sharp retort, re- turned to the door and looked out. The patch of blue increased in size ; the rain ceased and the sun came out ; birds exchanged congratula- tions from every tree. The girl, gathering up her wet skirts, walked to the gate, leaving her companion to follow.
Approached calmly and under a fair sky the climb was much easier.
" I believe that I could have got over by myself after all," said Miss Drewitt, as she stood on the other side. " I suppose that you were in too much of a hurry the last time. My dress is ruined."
She spoke calmly, but her face was clouded. From her manner during the rapid walk home Mr. Tredgold was enabled to see clearly that she was holding him responsible for the captain's awkward behaviour ; the rain ; her spoiled clothes ; and a severe cold in the immediate future. He glanced at her ruined hat and the wet, straight locks of hair hanging about her face, and held his peace.
Never before on a Sunday afternoon had Miss Drewitt known the streets of Binchester to be so full of people. She hurried on with bent head, looking straight before her, trying to imagine what she looked like. There was no sign of the captain, but as they turned into Dialstone Lane they both saw a huge, shaggy, grey head protruding from the small window of
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his bedroom. It disappeared with a sudden- ness almost startling.
"Thank you," said Miss Drewitt, holding out her hand as she reached the door. " Good- bye."
Mr. Tredgold said "Good-bye," and, with a furtive glance at the window above, departed. Miss Drewitt, opening the door, looked round an empty room. Then the kitchen door opened and the face of Mr. Tasker, full of concern, appeared.
" Did you get wet, miss ? " he inquired.
Miss Drewitt ignored the question. " Where is Captain Bowers ? " she asked in a clear, penetrating voice.
The face of Mr. Tasker fell. " He's gone to bed with a headache, miss," he replied.
"Headache?" repeated the astonished Miss Drewitt "When did he go?"
" About 'arf an hour ago," said Mr. Tasker ; "just after the storm. I suppose that's what caused it, though it seems funny, considering what a lot he must ha' seen at sea. He said he'd go straight to bed and try and sleep it off. And I was to ask you to please not to make a noise."
Miss Drewitt swept past him and mounted the stairs. At the captain's door she paused, but the loud snoring of a determined man made her resolve to postpone her demands for an explanation to a more fitting opportunity.
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Tired, wet, and angry she gained her own room, and threw herself thoughtlessly into that famous old Chippendale chair which, in ac-
"SHE THREW HERSELF THOUGHTLESSLY INTO THAT FAMOUS OLD CHIPPENDALE CHAIR."
cordance with Mr. Tredgold's instructions, had been placed against the wall. The captain started in his sleep.
157
CHAPTER XI.
Mr. Chalk's anxiety during the negotiations for the purchase of the Fair Emily kept him oscillating between Tredgold and Stobell until those gentlemen fled at his approach and instruc- ted their retainers to make untruthful statements as to their whereabouts. Daily letters from Captain Brisket stated that he was still haggling with Mr. Todd over the price, and Mr. Chalk quailed as he tried to picture the scene with that doughty champion.
Three times at the earnest instigation of his friends, who pointed out the necessity of keep- ing up appearances, had he set out to pay a visit to Dialstone Lane, and three times had he turned back half-way as he realized the difficult nature of his task. As well ask a poacher to call on a gamekeeper the morning after a raid.
Captain Bowers, anxious to see him and sound him with a few carefully-prepared ques- tions, noted his continued absence with regret. Despairing at last of a visit from Mr. Chalk, he resolved to pay one himself.
Mr. Chalk, who was listening to his wife, rose hastily at his entrance, and in great confusion invited him to a chair which was already oc- cupied by Mrs. Chalk's work-basket. The
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captain took another and, after listening to an incoherent statement about the weather, shook his head reproachfully at Mr. Chalk.
" I thought something must have happened
" INSTRUCTED 1 HEIR RETAINERS TO MAKE UNTRUTHFUL STATEMENTS."
to you," he said. " Why, it must be weeks since I've seen you."
"Weeks?" said Mrs. Chalk, suddenly alert. "Why, he went out the day before yesterday to call on you."
"Yes," said Mr. Chalk, with an effort, "so I did, but half-way to yours I got a nail in my shoe and had to come home."
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"Home!" exclaimed his wife. "Why, you were gone two hours and thirty-five minutes."
"It was very painful," said Mr. Chalk, as the captain stared in open-eyed astonishment at this exact time-keeping. " One time I thought that I should hardly have got back."
" But you didn't say anything about it," per- sisted his wife.
" I didn't want to alarm you, my dear," said Mr. Chalk.
Mrs. Chalk looked at him, but, except for a long, shivering sigh which the visitor took for sympathy, made no comment.
" I often think that I must have missed a great deal by keeping single," said the latter. "It must be very pleasant when you're away to know that there is somebody at home counting the minutes until your return."
Mr. Chalk permitted himself one brief won- dering glance in the speaker's direction, and then gazed out of window.
"There's no companion like a wife," con- tinued the captain. " Nobody else can quite share your joys and sorrows as she can. I've often thought how pleasant it must be to come home from a journey and tell your wife all about it : where you have been, what you've done, and what you're going to do."
Mr. Chalk stole another look at him ; Mrs. Chalk, somewhat suspicious, followed his ex- ample.
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"It's a pity you never married, Captain Bowers," she said, at length ; " most men seem to do all they can to keep things from their wives. But one of these days "
She finished the sentence by an expressive glance at herhusband. Captain Bowers, suddenly enlightened, hastened to change the subject.
" I haven't seen Tredgold or Stobell either," he said, gazing fixedly at Mr. Chalk.
"They — they were talking about you only the other day," said that gentleman, nervously. "Is Miss Drewitt well?"
11 Quite well," said the captain, briefly. " I was beginning to think you had all left Bin- chester," he continued ; " gone for a sea voyage or something."
Mr. Chalk laughed uneasily. " I thought that Joseph wasn't looking very well the last time I saw you," he said, with an imploring glance at the captain to remind him of the presence of Mrs. Chalk.
"Joseph's all right," replied the other, "so is the parrot."
Mr. Chalk started and said that he was glad to hear it, and sat trying to think of a safe subject for conversation.
"Joseph's a nice parrot," he said at last. " The parrot's a nice lad, I mean."
"Thomas!" said- Mrs. Chalk.
"Joseph — is — a — nice — lad," said Mr. Chalk, recovering himself. " I have often thought "
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The sentence was never completed, being interrupted by a thundering rat-tat-tat at the front door, followed by a pealing at the bell, which indicated that the visitor was manfully following the printed injunction to "Ring also." The door was opened and a man's voice was heard in the hall — a loud, confident voice, at the sound of which Mr. Chalk, with one hor- rified glance in the direction of Captain Bowers, sank back in his chair and held his breath.
"Captain Brisket," said the maid, opening the door.
The captain came in with a light, bustling step, and, having shaken Mr. Chalk's hand with great fervour and acknowledged the presence of Captain Bowers and Mrs. Chalk by two spasmodic jerks of the head, sat bolt-upright on the edge of a chair and beamed brightly upon the horrified Chalk.
11 I've got news," he said, hoarsely.
"News?" said the unfortunate Mr. Chalk, faintly.
" Ah ! " said Brisket, nodding. " News ! I've got her at last."
Mrs. Chalk started.
"I've got her," continued Captain Brisket, with an air of great enjoyment ; " and a fine job I had of it, I can tell you. Old Todd said he couldn't bear parting with her. Once or twice I thought he meant it."
Mr. Chalk made a desperate effort to catch
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his eye, but in vain. It was fixed in remini- scent joy on the ceiling.
" We haggled about her for days," continued Brisket ; " but at last I won. The Fair Emily is yours, sir."
" The fair who t " cried Mrs. Chalk, in a ter- rible voice. " Emily who t Emily what f "
Captain Brisket turned and regarded her in amazement.
"Emily who?" repeated Mrs. Chalk.
"Why, it's " began Brisket.
"H'sA I " said Mr. Chalk, desperately. " It's a secret."
11 It's a secret," said Captain Brisket, nodding calmly at Mrs. Chalk.
Wrath and astonishment held her for the moment breathless. Mr. Chalk, caught between his wife and Captain Bowers, fortified himself with memories of the early martyrs and gave another warning glance at Brisket. For nearly two minutes that undaunted mariner met the gaze of Mrs. Chalk without flinching.
" A — a secret ? " gasped the indignant woman at last, as she turned to her husband. " You sit there and dare to tell me that ? "
"It isn't my secret," said Mr. Chalk, " else I should tell you at once."
" It isn't his secret," said the complaisant Brisket.
Mrs. Chalk controlled herself by a great effort and, turning to Captain Brisket, addressed
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him almost calmly. " Was it Emily that came whistling over the garden wall the other night ? " she inquired.
" Whis ?" said the hapless Brisket,
making a noble effort. He finished the word with a cough and gazed with protruding eyes at Mr. Chalk. The appearance of that gentleman sobered him at once.
" No," he said slowly.
" How do you know ? " inquired Mrs. Chalk.
11 Because she can't whistle," replied Captain Brisket, feeling his way carefully. " And what's more, she wouldn't if she could. She's been too well brought up for that."
He gave a cunning smile to Mr. Chalk, to which that gentleman, having decided at all hazards to keep the secret from Captain Bowers, made a ghastly response, and nodded to him to proceed.
" What's she got to do with my husband?" demanded Mrs. Chalk, her voice rising despite herself.
" I'm coming to that," said Brisket, thought- fully, as he gazed at the floor in all the agonies of composition ; "Mr. Chalk is trying to get her a new place."
" New place ? " said Mrs. Chalk, in a choking voice.
Captain Brisket nodded. " She ain't happy where she is," he explained, "and Mr. Chalk — out o' pure good nature and kindness of heart —
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is trying to get her another, and I honour him for it."
He looked round triumphantly. Mr. Chalk, sitting open-mouthed, was regarding him with the fascinated gaze of a rabbit before a boa-
if^iSISS
"YOU SAID TO MY HUSBAND: 'THE FAIR EMILY IS YOURS.'"
constrictor. Captain Bowers was listening with an appearance of interest which in more favour- able circumstances would have been very Mattering.
"You said," cried Mrs. Chalk — "you said to my husband : 'The fair Emily is yours.' "
"So I did," said Brisket, anxiously — "so I
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did. And what I say I stick to. When I said that the — that Emily was his, I meant it. I don't say things I don't mean. That isn't Bill Brisket's way."
" And you said just now that he was getting her a place," Mrs. Chalk reminded him grimly.
"Mr. Chalk understands what I mean," said Captain Brisket, with dignity. "When I said 'She is yours,' I meant that she is coming here."
" O-oh ! " said Mrs. Chalk, breathlessly. " Oh, indeed ! Oh, is she ? "
"That is, if her mother'll let her come," pursued the enterprising Brisket, with a look of great artfulness at Mr. Chalk, to call his attention to the bridge he was building for him ; " but the old woman's been laid up lately and talks about not being able to spare her."
Mrs. Chalk sat back helplessly in her chaii and gazed from her husband to Captain Brisket, and from Captain Brisket back to her husband. Captain Brisket, red-faced and confident, sat upright on the edge of his chair as though inviting inspection ; M r. Chalk plucked nervously at his ringers. Captain Bowers suddenly broke silence.
" What's her tonnage ? " he inquired abruptly, turning to Brisket.
" Two hundred and for "
Captain Brisket stopped dead and, rubbing his nose hard with his forefinger, gazed thought fully at Captain Bowers.
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"The Fair Emily is a ship," said the latter to Mrs. Chalk.
"A ship I" cried the bewildered woman. " A ship living with her invalid mother and coming to my husband to get her a place ! Are you trying to screen him too ? "
" It's a ship," repeated Captain Bowers, sternly, as he sought in vain to meet the eye of Mr. Chalk ; "a craft of two hundred and some- thing tons. For some reason — best known to himself — Mr. Chalk wants the matter kept secret."
" It — it isn't my secret," faltered Mr. Chalk.
" Where's she lying ? " said Captain Bowers.
Mr. Chalk hesitated. " Biddlecombe," he said, at last.
Captain Brisket laughed noisily and, smacking his leg with his open hand, smiled broadly upon the company. No response being forth- coming, he laughed again for his own edification, and sat good-humouredly waiting events.
"Is this true, Thomas?" demanded Mrs. Chalk.
"Yes, my dear," was the reply.
" Then why didn't you tell me, instead of sitting there listening to a string of falsehoods ? "
" I — I wanted to give you a surprise — a pleasant little surprise," said Mr. Chalk, with a timid glance at Captain Bowers. " I have bought a share in a schooner, to go for a little cruise. Just a jaunt for pleasure."
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" Tredgold, Stobell, and Chalk, "said Captain Bowers, very distinctly.
" I wanted to keep it secret until it had been repainted and done up," continued Mr. Chalk, watching his wife's face anxiously, " and then "the captain WALKED home deep Captain Brisket came
IN THOUGHT." * , M • II
in and spoilt it.
"That's me, ma'am," said the gentleman mentioned, shaking his head despairingly. "That's Bill Brisket all over. I come blunder- ing in, and the first thing I do is to blurt out secrets ; then, when I try to smooth it over "
Mrs. Chalk paid no heed. Alluding to the
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schooner as "our yacht," she at once began to discuss the subject of the voyage, the dresses she would require, and the rival merits of shutting the house up or putting the servants on board wages. Under her skilful hands, aided by a few suggestions of Captain Brisket's, the Fair Emily was in the short space of twenty minutes transformed into one of the most luxurious yachts that ever sailed the seas. Mr. Chalk's heart failed him as he listened. His thoughts were with his partners in the enter- prise, and he trembled as he thought of their comments.
" It will do Mrs. Stobell a lot of good," said his