HITHERTO I have said little about my mother, and I may even seem to have
regarded that lady in the light of a temporary convenience. My readers
will, however, already have guessed that _my_ mother was no common
character.
Consider for a moment the position which she so readily consented to
occupy.
The trifling details about the sudden decease of Sir Runan and the
affair of the baby, as we have seen, I had thought it better _not_ to
name to her.
Matters, therefore, in her opinion, stood thus:--
Philippa was the victim of a baronet’s wiles.
When off with the new love, she had promptly returned and passed a
considerable time under the roof of the old love; that is, of myself.
Then I had suddenly arrived with this eligible prospective
daughter-in-law at my mother’s high-priced hotel, and I kept insisting
that we should at once migrate, we three, to foreign parts--the more
foreign the better.
I had especially dilated on the charms of the scenery and the salubrity
of the climate in _countries where there was no extradition treaty with
England_.
Even if there was nothing in these circumstances to arouse the watchful
jealousy of a mother, it must be remembered that, as a _chaperon_, she
did seem to come a little late in the day.
‘As you have lived together so long without me,’ some parents would have
observed, ‘you can do without me altogether.’
None of these trivial objections occurred to my mother.
She was good-nature itself.
Just returned from a professional tour on the Continent (she was, I
should have said, in the profession herself, and admirably filled the
_exigeant_ part of Stout Lady in a highly respectable exhibition),
my mother at once began to pack up her properties and make ready to
accompany us.
Never was there a more good-humoured _chaperon_. If one of us entered
the room where she was sitting with the other, she would humorously give
me a push, and observing ‘Two is company, young people, three is
none,’ would toddle off with all the alacrity that her figure and age
permitted.
I learned from inquiries addressed to the _Family Herald_
(correspondence column) that the Soudan was then, even as it is now, the
land safest against English law. Spain, in this respect, was reckoned a
bad second.
The very next day I again broached the subject of foreign travel to my
mother. It was already obvious that the frost would not last for ever.
Once the snow melted, once the crushed mass that had been a baronet was
discovered, circumstantial evidence would point to Philippa. True, there
was no one save myself who could positively _swear_ that Philippa
had killed Sir Runan. Again, though I could positively swear it,
my knowledge was only an inference of my own. Philippa herself had
completely forgotten the circumstance. But the suspicions of the Bearded
Woman and of the White Groom were sure to be aroused, and the Soudan I
resolved to seek without an hour’s delay.
I reckoned without my hostess.
My mother at first demurred.
‘You certainly don’t look well, Basil. But why the Soudan?’
‘A whim, a sick man’s fancy. Perhaps because it is not so very remote
from Old Calabar, the country of Philippa’s own father. Mother, tell me,
how do you like her?’
‘She is the woman you love, and however shady her antecedents, however
peculiar her style of conversation, she is, she must be, blameless.
To say more, after so short an acquaintance, might savour of haste and
exaggeration.’
A woman’s logic!
‘Then you _will_ come to the Soudan with us to-morrow?’
‘No, my child, further south than Spain I will _not_ go, not this
journey!’
Here Philippa entered.
‘Well, what’s the next news, old man?’ she said.
‘To Spain, to-morrow!’
‘Rain, rain, Go to Spain,
Be sure you don’t come back again.’
sang sweet Philippa, in childish high spirits.
I had rarely seen her thus!
Alas, Philippa’s nursery charm against the rain proved worse than
unavailing.
That afternoon, after several months of brave black frost, which had
gripped the land in its stern clasp, the rain began to fall heavily.
The white veil of snow gradually withdrew.
All that night I dreamed of the white snow slowly vanishing from the
white hat.
Next morning the snow had vanished, and the white hat must have been
obvious to the wayfaring man though a fool.
Next morning, and the next, and the next, found me still in London.
Why?
_My mother was shopping!_
Oh, the awful torture of having a gay mother shopping the solemn hours
away, when each instant drew her son nearer to the doom of an accessory
after the fact!
My mother did not object to travel, but she _did_ like to have her
little comforts about her.
She occupied herself in purchasing--
A water-bed.
A _boule_, or hot-water bottle.
A portable stove.
A travelling kitchen-range.
A medicine chest.
A complete set of Ollendorff.
Ten thousand pots of Dundee marmalade. And such other articles as she
deemed essential to her comfort and safety during the expedition. In
vain I urged that our motto was _Rescue and Retire_, and that such
elaborate preparations might prevent our retiring from our native shore,
and therefore make rescue exceedingly problematical.
My Tory mother only answered by quoting the example of Lord Wolseley and
the Nile Expedition.
‘How long did _they_ tarry among the pots--the marmalade pots?’ said
my mother. ‘Did _they_ start before every mess had its proper share
of extra teaspoons in case of accident, and a double supply of patent
respirators for the drummer-boys, and of snow-shoes for the Canadian
boatmen in case the climate proved uncertain?’
My mother’s historical knowledge, and the unique example of provident
and exhaustive equipment which she cited, reduced me to silence, but did
not diminish my anxiety. The delay made me nervous, excited, and chippy.
To-morrow morning we were to start.
To-morrow morning was too late.
With an effort I opened the morning paper--the _Morning Post_, as it
happened--and ran hastily up and down the columns, active exercise
having been recommended to me. What cared I for politics, foreign news,
or even the sportive intelligence? All I sought for was a paragraph
headed ‘Horrible Disclosures,’ or, ‘Awful Death of a Baronet.’ I ran up
and down the columns in vain.
No such item of news met my eye. Joyously I rose to go, when my eye fell
on the Standard.
Mechanically I opened it.
Those words were written (or so they seemed to me to be written) in
letters of fire, though the admirable press at Shoe Lane did not really
employ that suitable medium.
‘Horrible Discovery near Roding.’
At once the truth flashed across me. The _Morning Post_ had not
contained the intelligence because,
The Government had Boycotted the ‘Morning Post’!
Only journals which more or less supported the Government were permitted
to obtain ‘copy’ of such thrilling interest!
And yet they speak of a free press and a free country!
Tearing myself away from these reflections, I bent my mind on the awful
paragraph.
‘The melting of the snow has thrown a lurid light on the mysterious
disappearance (which up to this moment had attracted no attention) of an
eccentric baronet, well known in sporting circles. Yesterday afternoon a
gentleman’s groom, wading down the highway, discovered the white hat
of a gentleman floating on the muddy stream into which the unparalleled
weather and the negligence of the Road Trustees has converted our
thoroughfare. An inscription in red ink within the lining leaves no
doubt that this article of dress is all that is left of the late Sir
Runan Errand. The unfortunate nobleman’s friends have been communicated
with. The active and intelligent representative of the local police
believes that he is in possession of a clue to the author of the crime.
Probably the body of the murdered noble has been carried down by the
flooded road to the sea.’
I tore that paper to pieces, and used it to wrap up sandwiches for the
journey.
Once again I say, if you cannot feel with me, throw this tale aside.
Heaven knows it is a sombre one, and it goes on getting sombrer and
sombrer! But probably, by this time, you have either tossed the work
away or looked at the end to see what happened to them all.
The morning dawned.
I filled my bag with Hanover pieces, which I thought might come in handy
on the Spanish Turf, and packed up three or four yellow, red, green, and
blue opera hats, so useful to the adventurous bookmaker.
At this very moment the postman arrived and gave me a letter in a
woman’s hand.
I thrust it in my breast pocket recklessly.
The cab rattled away.
At last we were off.
I am sure that no one who could have seen us that morning would have
dreamt that out of that party of three--a more than comfortable-looking
English matron, a girl whose strange beauty has been sufficiently dwelt
upon, and a gentleman in a yellow crush hat and a bookmaker’s bag--two
were flying from the hands of justice.
Our appearance was certainly such as to disarm all suspicion.
But appearances are proverbially deceitful. Were ours deceitful enough?
‘But where are we going?’ said my mother, with the short memory of old
age.
‘To Paris first, then to Spain, and, if needful, down to Khartoum.’
‘_Then_ you young people will have to go alone. I draw the line at
Dongola.’
I glanced at Philippa.
Then for the first time since her malady I saw Philippa blushing! Her
long curved eyelashes hid her eyes, which presumably were also pink, but
certainly my mother’s broad pleasantry had called a tell-tale blush to
the cheek of the young person.
As we drew near Folkestone I remembered the letter, but the sight of
the Roding postmark induced me to defer opening it till we should be on
board the steamer. When Philippa was battling with the agonies of the
voyage, then, undisturbed, I might ascertain what Mrs. Thompson (for it
was sure to be Mrs. Thompson) had to say.
We were now on board. Philippa and my mother fled to the depths of
the saloon, and I opened the fateful missive. It began without any
conventional formalities, and the very first words blanched a cheek
already pale.
‘I see yer!’
This strange epistle commenced:--
‘_I_ know why Sir Runan never reached my house. I know the reason (it
was only too obvious) for _her_ strange, excited state. I know how he
met the death he deserved.
‘I never had the pluck. None of the rest of us ever had the pluck.
We all swore we’d swing for him as, one after another, he wedded and
deserted us. The Two-headed Nightingale swore it, and the Missing
Link, and the Spotted Girl, and the Strong Woman who used to double up
horseshoes. Now she doubles up her perambulator with her children in it,
but she never doubled up him.
‘As to your sister, tell her from me that she is all right. She has made
herself his widow, she is the Dowager Lady Errand.
‘The fact is, _the Live Mermaid was never alive at all!_ She was a
put-up thing of waxwork and a stuffed _salmo ferox_. His pretended
marriage with _her_ is therefore a mere specious excuse to enable him to
avoid your sister’s claims.
‘Now he is dead, your sister can take the name, title, and estates. I
wish she may get them.’