"Here's a gentleman forcing his way in to see Mr James. Take him up,
take him up. I ain't a going to have a row here to please the doctor,
nor nobody. I dare say it'll kill him, but that ain't my affair."
Jack, glancing at the pale cowed woman, did not put the question he
intended, as he followed her up the stairs. At the top she struck a
light. "The poor gentleman has been sadly ill," she said tremulously.
"And is still in bed?"
"Oh yes, sir."
She went to the side of the bed as she spoke, and pulled back a curtain.
Ibbetson almost started at the gaunt, death-stricken face which met his
view. He said quietly: "I must apologise for disturbing you, Mr Smith,
and I am very sorry to see you so ill."
"Better now, thank you."
"I have come from London on purpose to ask you a question, and have had
no end of difficulty in finding you out. I come from Clive Masters."
"Poor old Clive! He didn't think when we parted it would be so long
before I saw him again. I just came down to these lodgings to get a
breath of fresh air from Saturday to Monday, and here I've been ever
since. I did rather wonder that Clive had never sent or written."
"He did not know where you were."
Smith shook his head feebly.
"Oh yes, he knew. I had one visitor from him, his cousin, Mr Trent.
He came after the fifty pounds which had been left in my hands. You
see, for a long time I was quite unconscious, so of course it gave
Masters a good deal of anxiety. But it was no fault of mine."
He stopped, gasping for breath.
"Did Mr Trent get the fifty pounds?" asked Jack. "Of course. Didn't
Masters tell you?" Smith said in some surprise. The woman had crept
downstairs again, they could hear her husband's grumbling tones and her
faint replies. Jack stood looking with some perplexity at the wasted
frame, wondering how much he ought to tell. He decided to tell him all.
"He did not so much as know it himself," he said quietly. "From some
motive or other, Mr Trent has advanced him the money but has never told
him that it was his own, and received from you."
Smith stared at him. He passed his thin hand across his forehead,
lifting the lank hair. "I don't understand," he said. Jack left his
words to reach his comprehension without repeating them. "That can't be
so," Smith said presently, "because Clive knew he had only to apply to
me."
"He had no address."
"He could get it."
"No. That is just what he could not do. Mr Smith," said Jack
abruptly, "from all I can hear there has been no fault whatever on your
side, and you could have done nothing. Mr Trent has chosen to keep
your whereabouts concealed, and to get things into his own hands. But
the upshot is that Clive has been miserable, has tried to make a bolt
for America, and that I came down here to-day on the strength of a clue
which we drew out of your London landlady yesterday."
"But the money is gone!" said Smith in a hoarse voice. "He must have
done it only to give Clive a lesson--don't you think so?"
"Perhaps," Ibbetson said laconically.
"And he won't deny that I gave it?"
"I think not. At any rate I shall know, and so will Clive, and--no, I
don't think he will deny."
Smith sank back with a sigh of relief. Jack was standing gazing
thoughtfully into the dark corners of the room, lit only by a single
candle. "Do they look after you well, here?" he asked.
"Yes, fairly enough. I've nothing to complain of. Though I've thought
it odd that no one should come to see me."
"Perhaps Clive will get a day soon. And you might change to a
pleasanter situation. I shall say good-bye now, and I shall take good
news to Clive."
"Did he suppose I'd gone off?" Smith asked with a touch of amusement,
as the other shook hands. Downstairs the man took no notice as Ibbetson
passed through the little passage, but as the wife opened the door Jack
said with emphasis,--
"Let your husband understand that other friends of Mr Smith will be
here to see him very shortly. And remember that if he is well looked
after, you will not be the worse for it. All will depend upon that
point."
It was dark and very cold when he got outside, and he went swinging
along to the station at a great pace. On his way up in the train he
wrote three notes which he posted as soon as he reached London. One was
to Davis:--
"_Set Mr Masters right at the office with anyone whom it concerns. It
is a fact that he gave the money to another man to pay in, and this
other was seized with illness. I have seen him to-day. See that Mr
Masters is thoroughly cleared_."