CHAPTER I

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UPSIDONIA

BY THE SAME AUTHOR

THE HOUSE OF MERRILEES

EXTON MANOR

THE ELDEST SON

THE SQUIRE'S DAUGHTER

THE HONOUR OF THE CLINTONS

THE GREATEST OF THESE

THE OLD ORDER CHANGETH

WATERMEADS

UPSIDONIA

ABINGTON ABBEY

THE GRAFTONS

RICHARD BALDOCK

THE CLINTONS AND OTHERS

UPSIDONIA

BY

ARCHIBALD MARSHALL

Author of "Exton Manor," "The Honour of the Clintons,"

"Watermeads," etc.

[Illustration]

NEW YORK

DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY

1919

TO THE THREE

COMIC CHARACTERS,

K, M, & N.

UPSIDONIA

CHAPTER I

I had been walking for many days, carrying my pack, enjoying myself

hugely and spending next to nothing. I had got into a wild hilly

country, where habitation was very sparse, and had walked for hours that

morning along a rough road without meeting a single human being.

In the middle of the day I came to a moor-side hamlet, where I got

something of a meal, and set out again almost immediately, meaning to

find some place where I could enjoy an hour's sleep. For it was very

hot, and I had already walked over twenty miles.

But as I left the village, I was joined by a gentleman of obliging

manners but somewhat unkempt appearance, who invited me to turn aside

and visit the old jet caves, which had once been famous in this

locality, though long since disused.

For anything but a cave, I should have done my best to shake him off,

but I have a great love of caves, especially of those which go

mysteriously back into the bowels of the earth, and no one knows their

ending. They are full of romance, and call up all sorts of delightful

visions. From Eastern tales of magic and treasure to brisk tales of

smugglers, the entrance to a cave has always been the entrance to

regions of mystery, in which anything may happen. So I immediately

accepted the invitation to visit these caves, which were only a few

hundred yards away from the main road.

At first sight they were a trifle disappointing. There were three of

them, at the foot of a high bank of shale, almost hidden by trees and

shrubs. The shale had nearly closed the entrances, and one looked over a

bank of it, which left a hole hardly more than big enough to creep

through. Still, they were undoubtedly caves, and not mere holes in the

hillside. The largest one was full of water, and little ferns grew

luxuriantly on the sides and roof, which dripped continuously. One of

the others was choked by a fall of earth a little way from the entrance,

and my guide told me that this had happened quite recently, after a very

wet spell. The third was comparatively dry, and he said that he had

himself penetrated more than a mile into it, with no signs of its

ending.

Whether this was true or not, I could not resist trying it. I had an

electric torch, fully charged, in my pack, and it was a great chance to

have a cave to explore with it. My friend demurred a little at

accompanying me. He said that if the other cave had fallen in, after so

many years, this one was not unlikely to fall in now at any time, and we

should find ourselves in an awkward fix if it should fall in while we

were exploring, and cut off our retreat. I had no wish for his company,

and did not press him; but when I got out the torch, and flashed it, he

thought he would come after all. I think he had at heart the same sort

of feeling about caves and electric torches that I had.

We got over the mound on to the muddy floor of the cave. The roof was

high enough to enable us to walk upright, and we went forward singly,

straight ahead into the darkness.

We had got in perhaps thirty or forty yards, and I had just switched on

the torch, when a stone or something fell in front of us with a noisy

plump. My companion clutched me by the arm. "I believe there's going to

be a fall," he said.

I shook him off and continued, and again something fell, that made

still more noise. "Come back!" he shouted. "Come back!"

I turned round to see him running towards the patch of sunlight, and

then there was a load roar in my ears, which, however, instantly became

dead silence.

For a moment I was confused, but went on, forgetting all about my late

companion. When I turned round again he had disappeared, and the patch

of sunlight also. So I continued on my way, and seemed to be always

mounting upwards, with the ground quite dry, and the roof of the cave

still some way above my head.

I had certainly now walked a mile when, to my surprise, I saw a point of

light in front of me, which increased as I approached it, and presently

showed itself as a wide opening.

I came out into a place much like that at which I had entered, except

that it was still more masked by shrubs, and found myself in the

clearing of a wood. It seemed to me that I had come quite straight along

the underground passage, so that I must be on the way in which I

intended to go. The cave, as a cave, had been disappointing, and there

was nothing to be gained by going back. I would take my nap, and then

find the road again.

I looked about for a place to lie down in, and as I did so saw a very

ragged dirty man coming towards me.

I was rather annoyed at this. Having shaken off one uninvited companion,

I did not want to be troubled with another.

There was something rather striking about his face, in spite of his

unkempt hair and beard--a look of self-possession, even of pride, and,

as he kept his eyes on me approaching him, almost of arrogance.

However, he was poor enough, to all appearances, and I thought that if I

gave him some money he would probably want to go away at once and spend

it. So I accosted him cheerfully and offered him a sixpence.

I had made no mistake about his arrogance. He drew himself up, and his

eyes flashed at me.

"How dare you?" he began. "I will----"; and he looked round as if to

summon someone to aid him in resenting an insult.

"Oh, all right," I said, pocketing the coin; "if you are as proud as all

that----! But I meant no harm, and I'm almost as poor as you are."

"The more shame to you for behaving like that," he said hotly. "I could

forgive it, perhaps, in one who was richer. I will not take your money;

and if you use your superior strength to force it on me, I warn you that

you will not hear the last of it."

I felt sorry for the poor creature. I took the sixpence out of my pocket

again, and held it out to him.

"Come now, take it," I said. "Go and get yourself a good meal, or a

drink if you like. You look as if it wouldn't do you any harm."

He was still more enraged. "You impudent scoundrel!" he cried. "I'll

have you arrested for this." And he stalked off with his head in the

air, wrapping his rags around him.

He looked such an absurd figure that I sent an involuntary laugh after

him, which caused him to turn round and shake his fist at me. I had not

meant him to hear, for I was sorry for him; but I reflected before I had

chosen my mossy resting-place under a spreading oak, that with so great

a contempt for money and what money represented in the way of bodily

comfort, he was not so much in want of pity as he seemed to be. Then I

took off my knapsack, and pillowing my head upon it was soon in a deep

sleep.

As, after a long time, I began to regain consciousness, I became aware

of a touch on my body about the region of my waist. It could only have

been a second or two before the actuality disengaged itself from the

stuff of my dreams, and I suddenly awoke, and sprang up into a sitting

posture, to see a figure disappearing among the trees. Feeling in my

waistcoat pocket, I found that my watch had disappeared.

I jumped up, and seizing my knapsack in one hand and my stout

walking-stick in the other, gave chase.

I had not very far to go. When I got round the tree behind which the

thief had disappeared, I saw to my surprise that he was an elderly, if

not an old man, dressed in a frock coat and a tall hat. He was stout,

and appeared to be grossly fed, for as I came up to him he turned and

put up his hands to warn me off--my watch was in one of them; but he was

so winded by his few yards' run that he was not able to speak. In his

mouth was a large and expensive-smelling cigar, and he formed the oddest

figure of a watch-snatcher that could well be imagined.

I seized my watch out of his hand, and he found breath enough to bleat

out: "What are you doing? They're after you. Give me all your money

quickly, before they come."

"You old rascal!" I cried, and was going on to give him a piece of my

mind, when my attention was distracted by a hullabaloo from the road,

which was only a few yards off, and from which we could be plainly seen.

"There's the rascal! That's him!" I heard shouted, and saw a

considerable concourse of people advancing towards me, headed by a

policeman, and the ragged man to whom I had tendered the coin.

The presence of a policeman in that, as I had thought, lonely spot, was

a better piece of fortune than I could have hoped for. "Yes, here he

is," I said. "He stole my watch while I was asleep, and ran off with it.

Constable, I give him in charge."

The policeman had leapt the ditch which divided the wood from the road,

and now came straight towards me with a look of determination on his

face.

"Take him!" shouted the ragged man; and, to my utter astonishment, he

seized me by the collar, and said: "Now you come along with me quietly,

or it will be the worse for you."

I shook him off roughly. I was young and strong, and he was neither.

"What are you doing?" I asked angrily. "Here's the thief! Take hold of

him."

The fat man turned away with a shrug of the shoulders. "I wash my hands

of it," he said. "You can do what you like with him."

I was so infuriated with his impudence that I made a dash for him. But

the policeman was on me again, and with him several others from the

crowd. In spite of my struggles I was soon overpowered.

"Are you all mad?" I cried. "There's the thief! Why don't you take him?

I've done nothing."

They paid not the slightest attention to my protestations. The ragged

man had taken no part in my capture, but stood aside, and directed the

others with an air of authority. This was the more remarkable, because

the greater part of them were not like the ordinary crowd that follows

the police on an errand of duty, but were well-dressed, and had all the

air of being well-to-do or even rich.

I appealed to them. "Do give a fellow a chance," I said. "I'm on a

walking-tour, and I dare say I look like a tramp. But I'm quite

respectable."

They cut me short by dragging me towards the road, where a smart

Victoria was standing, at a point towards which other carriages were now

driving.

The policeman said: "You're charged with trying to force money on this

gentleman; and I warn you that anything you now say will be used in

evidence against you."

I saw it was no use protesting further. I was either asleep and

dreaming, in which case I should presently awake; or I was in the hands

of a set of lunatics, and must wait until I got again into the company

of sensible men.

But it annoyed me to see the smug old thief retiring with all the

honours of war, while I was being led off in ignominious captivity. He

was actually now stepping into the Victoria, and the cockaded coachman

on the box was touching his hat to him.

"I warn you that you will be sorry for this," I said to my captors.

"But, at any rate, take that man too. I tell you that he stole my watch,

and wanted to take all my money before you came up."

They took no notice of this appeal, except that one of two ill-dressed

men amongst the well-dressed ones said to the other: "Old Perry is

really rather overdoing it. He'll be had up for tampering with justice

if he's not careful."

"Then why don't you get him taken up now?" I asked.

But they looked at me coldly and turned away.

"Mr. Perry," said the ragged man, "this is a dangerous criminal. Will

you let the constable drive him to the police station, and walk back

with us?"

The old humbug of whom this remarkable request was made turned up a

sanctimonious face, and replied: "I am in my proper place amongst the

low and degraded. Let the prisoner drive with me."

There were murmurs of astonishment at this, and one of the poor-looking

men said to my ragged one: "Oh, let him alone! He'll get tired of it by

and by."

I was then ordered into the carriage, and we drove off at a foot's pace,

the other carriages turning back to accompany us, and the crowd walking

behind and on either side.

I was surprised to see that the country was very different from what I

had imagined it to be when I had come through the cave. Before that, as

I have said, there had been few signs of human habitation; but now I had

suddenly come into a populous country-side, and seemed to be not far

from a town of some size.

For we were passing large houses in large gardens, villas, and cottages;

and the road, which had been of the roughest, was wide and smooth, and

there was a good deal of traffic on it.

I could not make out in the least where I had come to. I had known that

I could not be many miles off the village of Eppington, but could think

of no considerable town within a radius of fifty miles of where I had

spent the night; and I knew I could not have walked that distance. I

might have put a question to my companion; but I was so annoyed that I

could not bring myself to address him.

It was he who first addressed me. He was still ostentatiously smoking

his rich cigar, and looked at me out of a bilious, but impudently

benevolent eye, and said: "Young man, I would have saved you if I could.

I think you must now be convinced of that. It may be that in the

exercise of my charity I have overstepped the mark, and have done wrong.

It now only remains for you to show your gratitude by keeping what has

passed to yourself. If a charge is brought against me, I look to you to

shield my good name, or my sphere of influence may be much diminished."

My reply to this preposterous piece of cant was a somewhat violent

assurance that I should see that he got the punishment he deserved. He

held up his fat hands in pained astonishment, and thereafter kept

silence.