LOVERS
Next morning, it occurred to the Squire that he had dismissed
Pentreddle too abruptly, or, rather--since the man wished to go--had
given him leave too easily. A thousand and one questions came into his
mind, which he desired to ask, and which he should have put to the
sailor during their hurried interview. But a recollection that Harry
was stopping at Hendle, and was holding himself at the disposal of his
feudal chief--modern style--reconciled him to the oversight, and he
decided that the second examination would be a longer one. "I shall
drive over to Hendle to-day and cross-examine him," thought the
Squire; and completing his toilette he descended to breakfast with an
excellent appetite.
At the meal he heard news, for Akira stated that he would have to
return that day to London, as his Chief wanted him. "But I am coming
down again in a few days," said the Japanese, stealing a glance at
Mara, who sat opposite to him, rosy-faced and interested, "in my
yacht."
"I didn't know you had a yacht, Akira," said Basil, with the keen
interest of a sailor in his craft.
"Oh, yes," replied the Count, composedly; "a very good yacht, my
friend. I have much money, you know, and have taken to your English
ways so far as to buy a steam yacht. Later, I propose returning to my
own country in her."
Colpster was frankly relieved that Akira intended to leave. He did not
for one moment connect him with those who were hunting, or who had
been hunting for the Mikado Jewel; but while that curious object was
in the house he preferred the Count's absence to his presence. There
was no doubt that if the little man did learn how the gem had returned
to its original possessors, that he would clamour for its restoration
to Kitzuki. And that was not to be thought of for one moment. The
Squire had not yet solved the problem as to why the jewel had been
sent to him, or how the sender had known that its presence was desired
at Beckleigh Hall by its master. He would have liked to question
Akira, for if a priest, according to Pentreddle, had snatched the
emerald from Patricia, Akira, as a Japanese, would best be able to
explain that same priest's reasons for sending it to Devonshire. But
it was obviously impossible to ask such a question, so Colpster
contented himself with expressing regret that the Count had been
compelled to cut short his stay at the Hall. "I trust when you return
in your yacht you will at least complete your interrupted visit by
sleeping under my roof," said Colpster.
"Thank you, no, sir," replied the Japanese politely. "I shall remain
on my boat for the few days I stay here. And I hope," he added, with a
comprehensive bow to all present, "that you will allow me to return
your great hospitality, Mr. Colpster, by giving an entertainment on
board."
"An entertainment!" cried Mara, and her eyes sparkled.
"Yes! A Japanese entertainment, with Japanese food and drinks and
amusements, Miss Colpster. It will be a change for you, and no doubt
will give you a great deal of pleasure."
"It will give us all pleasure," said Patricia, smiling, for the black
eyes of the little man were fixed on her face.
"Then I ask you all to my entertainment. Even your servants must come,
Mr. Colpster. They never see anything unusual down here, so it will
amuse them to see how we Japanese live. I presume," added Akira, with
an attempt at humour, "that you can allow this house to be empty for
one night?"
"Oh, yes," said Theodore, laughing; "there are no robbers about here."
"In that case, I hope my invitation will be accepted."
"Certainly, Count, and thank you for the invitation," observed the
Squire in a hearty manner. "On behalf of myself, my family and my
household, I accept."
Akira bowed. "That is good, sir, for, as I depart for my own country,
after I leave this place in my yacht, I will not see you again for
many a long year. I have to remain at Tokio for official business. But
I have had a delightful stay here"--he looked round pleasantly--"and
you will see, all of you, how I can return your kindness."
"But won't you be tired travelling to London to-day?" said Theodore,
quickly.
The Count's piercing eyes seemed to look the questioner through and
through as if inquiring why he asked this particular question. "I
retired early last night, as you know, Mr. Dane," he said quietly,
"and so I am not at all weary. Dane," he turned sideways to Basil,
"you will drive me to Hendle?"
"You must allow me to do that, Count," put in the Squire. "I have to
go to Hendle on business to-day."
"Thank you, sir. You show true hospitality."
Basil felt uneasy as he did not know if the guest spoke ironically or
not, and resolved to test the matter. "I can come also, Akira."
"Ah, but no, it is not necessary." Akira held up a protesting hand. "I
shall enjoy the drive with your uncle. Stay here, and we shall meet
again on board the _Miko_."
Mara started. "The _Miko!_" she cried eagerly, and with shining eyes.
"The name of my yacht, Miss Colpster. I named her after the Divine
Dancer."
The girl looked as though she wished to ask further questions, but a
significant glance of Patricia's directed towards the Squire, who knew
nothing about the Miko Dance, made Mara more prudent. She rose
abruptly from the table, and shortly the rest followed her example.
Akira went to see that his servant was packing his things properly,
and Basil accompanied him. As for Theodore, he followed his uncle into
the library and closed the door.
"What did Pentreddle say to you last night?" he asked anxiously.
"It's a long story," said Colpster, sitting down to look over his
correspondence; "he will tell it to you himself. I am driving over to
Hendle, and will bring him back with me. Akira I can drop at the
station to catch the afternoon express."
"I should like to come also, uncle, as I am so anxious to hear Harry's
story."
"There is no room in the brougham for you," said Colpster, coldly, and
showed very plainly by this unnecessary lie that he did not wish for
his nephew's company. Theodore frowned. He knew that he was no
favourite.
"At least, uncle, give me a short account of what you heard."
The Squire at first refused, but Theodore was so persistent that in
the end he was obliged to yield, and hastily ran through the story.
"What do you think?" he asked, when he ended.
"I expect Harry is right, and that the priest with the scar murdered
his mother. No doubt the man learned why Harry was hanging round the
Home of Art and laid his plans accordingly."
"But Martha did not possess the emerald!" insisted the Squire,
doubtfully.
"The priest did not know that at the time," said Dane, grimly; "his
accomplice watched Harry, apparently, while the man with the scar
watched the Crook Street house. He must have induced Martha to let him
in--she might have thought it was her son, you know. Then, when she
grew frightened, and threatened him with her stiletto, he used it
against her, and having murdered the poor old thing, finally searched
the house."
Colpster nodded. He could see no other solution of the mystery.
"Curious, though, that the priest did not get caught by the police."
"Oh, according to the evidence the fog was very bad, and one policeman
confessed in print that he did not patrol the _cul de sac_ carefully.
Pity he did not catch the brute."
"Oh!" said Colpster, with a grim look, "Harry will see that the man is
punished. He is going from Amsterdam in a tramp steamer to Japan for
that very purpose."
"I can't understand," said Theodore, after a pause, and tapping the
desk with his long fingers, "why Harry didn't give me the emerald when
he met me. It would have saved all this trouble."
The Squire coughed in rather an embarrassed manner. He could scarcely
tell Theodore that Harry, acting under his mother's instructions,
wished particularly to prevent him from gaining possession of the
jewel. He therefore shrugged his shoulders and evaded the question.
"There are many things we cannot understand in connection with this
case."
"Quite so," said Theodore, with an uneasy look at the safe;
"particularly why the Mikado Jewel should have been sent to you.
Uncle," he added, after a pause, "get rid of it. Sell it; pawn it;
return it to Akira to take back to Japan, but send it out of the
house, I beg of you."
"Why?" demanded Colpster, drawing his brows together; "are you mad?"
Theodore wiped the perspiration from his high, white forehead. "On the
contrary, I am particularly sane. You heard what Akira said about the
reverse power possibly bringing the cliff down on the house."
"Oh, rubbish," said the Squire, roughly; "Akira doesn't know that the
gem is in this house."
"All the more reason for believing that he spoke truly," said Dane,
with a desperate look. "I am sure the thing is evil. There is now an
in-drawing power, as you know. Miss Carrol felt it."
"I don't believe in all this rubbish. Patricia is a fanciful girl,"
said Colpster coldly. "The emerald is in my possession, and I intend
to keep it. If you dare to tell Akira about it, Theodore, I shall send
you out of the house and will never recognize you again as my nephew."
"I am not so sure but what I would prefer to be out of the house,
while that damned thing is in it," said Theodore between his teeth.
"You are playing with fire, uncle. See that you don't get burnt," and
with this warning he departed, leaving the old man looking after his
back contemptuously. He was a very material man was the Squire, and
considered that his nephew was an ass for believing in things which
could not be proved by arithmetic.
Theodore was not happy in his mind when Akira and Colpster departed,
for there were many matters which worried him. Basil, as usual, was
following Patricia about the house, and that was one grievance. Now
that Mara would not marry him he would certainly lose the chance of
inheriting, through her, the desirable acres of Beckleigh, and that
was another grievance. Finally, the presence of the charmed Mikado
Jewel in the house troubled him very much indeed. He felt certain that
Granny Lee's prophecy concerned it, since Akira had spoken of the
occult powers of the stone. And Patricia had felt the reversion of the
power, so Theodore uneasily considered that it was just possible that
the cliff might be shaken down in ruins on the house.
He went out and looked at its mighty height, almost expecting to see
signs of crumbling. But, of course, there were none. The red cliff
stood up boldly and gigantically, as it had stood for centuries past.
The sight of its massive grandeur rather reassured Theodore.
"It's all rubbish," he muttered to himself, coming in out of the rain,
for all the morning there had been a downpour. "I daresay I am making
a mountain out of a mole-hill. All the same"--his eyes fell on the
safe in the library. In it he knew was the jewel safely locked away.
To shift the Mikado emerald he would need to shift the safe, and that
was impossible. "Oh, it is all rubbish!" he declared again, and then
went to his own rooms.
On the way he passed the library, and saw Mara lying on the cushions
of the sofa stringing beads: onyx, turquoise, malachite, pink coral
and slivers of amethyst. They gleamed like a rainbow as they slid
through her deft hands. Theodore wondered where she got them and
entered to inquire.
"Count Akira gave them to me," said Mara, gaily, and tried the effect
of the glittering chain against her pale golden hair; "aren't they
lovely?"
"Yes, but your father won't like you taking presents from that
infernal Japanese, Mara," said Theodore, crossly. His nerves were so
upset that he felt it would relieve him to vent his temper on someone.
Mara sprang to her feet like a small fury, and her face grew darkly
red, as her pale eyes blazed with anger. "You have no right to speak
in that way of Count Akira. I love him; I don't care who hears me. I
love him!" She sat down again suddenly. "I wish he would take me to
Japan," she ended viciously.
"Mara!" Theodore was horrified; "a Japanese?"
"Well. I was one ages ago," she retorted.
"I don't believe it."
"Yes, you do. You know too much about these occult things to
disbelieve."
Theodore, as a matter of fact, did believe, but he did not intend to
confess as much. "You can't be sure," he snapped, furiously.
"I can be sure, and I am sure," said Mara, mutinously; "since I danced
the Round of the Divineress and heard the music, it all has come back
to me. I remember the Temple of Kitzuki quite well, and the
ceremonies. Oh, I wish I could go back there. It is my native land."
Theodore looked at her stealthily, and his eyes glittered as an idea
struck him hard. "Would you go if Akira took you?"
"Yes." Mara wet her lips and stared at him. "Perhaps he will take me,"
she said softly; "he is coming back in his yacht, you know."
"If you went, your father would disown you."
"I don't care."
"You would lose Beckleigh."
"I don't care."
"You would be cut off from your own race."
"I don't care."
"You are a fool," shouted Theodore, savagely. "I'll tell your father."
Mara wreathed her many-hued beads artistically round her neck and
admired herself in the mirror over the fireplace. But she also had a
glimpse of her cousin's face, and spoke from what she read written
thereon. "No, you won't, Theodore," she observed, coolly, and
meaningly; "you would be glad to see me run off with Count Akira and
give up everything."
"Why should I be glad?" demanded Dane, taken aback by this shrewd
reading of his most secret thoughts.
"Because, as you say, my father would have nothing to do with me, and
you would inherit Beckleigh. I am safe in your hands."
"There is no chance for me," said Theodore tartly. "Failing you, Basil
would inherit."
"I don't think so if he marries Patricia."
"Uncle George likes Patricia."
"I know that: so do we all. But I don't think he would like Basil to
marry her. In fact," Mara faced him, "I believe that father would like
to make Patricia my step-mother."
"What!" Theodore was now really astonished. "It's absurd!"
"I don't see that. Father is still a young man for his years,
and----"
"Oh, rubbish; nonsense!" Theodore broke furiously into her speech, and
fairly ran out of the room to think over the problem thus presented to
him.
He believed that what his cousin said was perfectly true, as Mara was
an observant young person in spite of her dreamy ways. Then he
remembered how Colpster always professed to admire Patricia, and did
so loudly. He was always asking her if she liked the place and what he
could do for her, and telling her that he hoped she would stay there
for the rest of her life.
Theodore drew a long breath. "I see what the old man is up to," he
considered. "As Mara won't marry either Basil or myself, he intends to
marry Patricia in the hope of having an heir to the estate. That would
be an end to everything. Not that I believe the girl would have him."
And yet of this Theodore could not be sure, as he judged Miss Carrol
by his own greedy self. Could any girl, penniless, as he knew Patricia
to be, resist the offer of so beautiful a home? Dane thought not, and
set his wits to work to bar any possible chance of this very
unexpected thing coming to pass. To do so, he had only to throw
Patricia into Basil's arms and he believed that he knew how to do
that.
"I'll ask her to marry me," thought Theodore with an evil smile; "and
then Basil will be so furious that he'll ask her. She hates me and
loves him, so in the end they will become engaged. Then Uncle George
will kick them both out of the house. Mara evidently intends to elope
with Akira when he returns in his yacht. The little beast said that
the boat after leaving here was going straight to Japan. That will
settle her. Ha! I shall be the only person left to console Uncle
George, so he must as a reasonable man leave me the property. I can
see it all."
Thus arranging his plans, he went away to find Patricia, and force her
into Basil's arms. He was sorry to lose the girl because of her
psychic powers, but as she plainly hated him--he saw that
easily--there was not any chance for him. Since he could not make use
of her in one way, he therefore decided to make use of her in another.
Through her, Basil could be got rid of, and then Mara would ruin
herself by eloping with Akira. Dane rubbed his hands with delight, at
the prospect thus opened out before him. He even forgot his uneasiness
over the Mikado Jewel, and ceased for the moment to remember the
sinister prophecy of Mrs. Brenda Lee.
Of course, it was necessary to act a comedy so as to accomplish his
aims, and he suspected that he would suffer pain during his acting. If
he insulted Patricia, which he intended to do, Basil would assuredly
knock him down. But if the sailor did that he would be obliged to
declare his love for Patricia, if only to prove his rights to be her
champion. And what did a little pain matter to the prospective owner
of Beckleigh Hall?
The schemer found the pair in the smoking-room, a cosy and somewhat
modern apartment--for the house--which was in the west wing. It
possessed a large plate-glass window which looked down the vista,
where the trees were cut down, to the beach and the waters of the bay.
Patricia, knitting a silk tie, sat on the sofa near the window, while
Basil lounged in a deep arm-chair smoking his pipe. The two were
laughing when Theodore entered, but suddenly became serious when they
saw who had disturbed them. It was strange that the elder Dane should
always produce a dull impression on the gayest of people. Perhaps it
was owing to the uncanny and disagreeable atmosphere which he always
carried about with him.
"What's the joke?" asked the new-comer, throwing himself into an
arm-chair opposite to that in which his brother sat.
"Nothing," said Basil shortly, and his brow wrinkled. "What do you
want?"
"To smoke a cigarette," replied Theodore, producing his case; "the
room is free to all, isn't it?"
"Quite free," said Patricia colouring, for she did not like his tone.
When the two brothers were together she was always apprehensive of
trouble. For this reason, and because she hoped to throw oil on
troubled fraternal waters, did she refrain from leaving the room. Yet
Theodore's look was so insolent that she half rose to do so. "I
must----"
"Don't go, Patricia," said the elder brother hastily.
"Mr. Dane, I do not like you to call me by my Christian name," she
said, and her colour grew deeper than ever. She rose to her full
height now, and made ready to go.
"Theodore doesn't know what he is saying," muttered Basil in a tone of
suppressed rage; and his brother, looking at him mockingly, saw that
his face was as crimson as that of Patricia's.
"Really, I seem to be like the Goddess of Discord," went on the
intruder, intent upon bringing about a catastrophe; "you seemed jolly
enough when I entered, laughing and talking and----"
"We'll be jolly, again, when you leave," snapped Basil savagely.
"I daresay. But you shan't have Miss Carrol all to yourself. No, don't
go, Miss Carrol, you see that I am addressing you with all respect."
He rose and slipped between her and the door as he spoke. "I want
Basil to see that you like me as much as you do him."
Patricia looked nervous and her feelings were not soothed when Basil
rose in his turn. "Go away, Miss Carrol," he said sternly, and the
veins on his forehead stood out with rage. "I can deal with Theodore."
"Theodore can deal with himself," said that gentleman, turning on his
brother with a black look on his face. "You are always taking up
Patricia's time, and I have a right to it also. Yes"--he faced to the
startled girl--"I intend to call you Patricia because I love you. I
want you to marry me."
"Theodore, are you mad?" thundered Basil furiously.
"Is it mad to ask a girl's hand in marriage?" sneered Theodore.
Patricia stopped the further speech of Basil with an imperative
gesture and looked at Theodore. "I am well able to take care of
myself," she said quietly. "Mr. Dane, I thank you for your offer, but
I decline it."
"Oh, I am not so handsome as Basil. I am not so rich as Uncle George!"
"Take care; take care!" breathed Basil savagely in his ear.
But Patricia again stopped him. Her temper rose, and her eyes sparkled
in an angry fashion. "What do you mean by your reference to Mr.
Colpster?"
"You want to marry him, and--ah! keep off!"
Theodore flung out his hands with a scream, as Basil hit out. The blow
caught him fairly in his left eye, and he reeled towards the window to
fall on the sofa. "You bully!" he fairly sobbed.
"Apologise to Miss Carrol, or, by Heaven! I'll break your neck!" raged
Basil, standing over the flabby man with clenched fists.
Patricia, admiring her strong lover, came forward and laid her hand on
his arm imploringly. "Leave him alone, Basil. He is not worth
hitting."
Theodore struggled to his feet, and with his rapidly swelling eye
presented a miserable spectacle. "Basil!" he screamed, and his rage
was partly real; "so you call him Basil, and no doubt that that is for
him you are knitting. Oh!" he burst into mocking laughter, and pointed
a finger at them both; "so this is how you are carrying on! This
is----"
He got no further. Basil, breaking from Patricia, sprang forward, and
catching Theodore's bulky body in his powerful arms, fairly flung him
through the window with a mighty heave. Patricia gasped with surprise
and delight as the glass smashed and Theodore swung across the grass
and down the slope like a stone fired from a catapult. "You devil!"
roared Basil, shaking his fist through the broken window. "I'll kill
you if you come near me or Patricia!"
"Oh, he's dead!" gasped the girl, clinging to the sailor.
"Not he! See!" and sure enough Theodore, with his face convulsed with
impotent rage, rose heavily and limped out of sight. "I've settled
him, the hound! and now----" he looked at her meaningly.
Patricia shrank back flushing like a sunset. "Mr. Dane!"
"You called me Basil just now, and you shall call me Basil for the
rest of your life. You would not marry Theodore; but," he said
masterfully, "you shall marry me."
"Yes," whispered Patricia, yielding to his embrace; "I always loved
you."
"My darling! my darling! my darling!" cried the delighted sailor,
straining her to his breast. "Theodore meant to part us, but he only
succeeded in bringing us together!" and he kissed her again and again.
He little knew how Theodore had schemed to bring about that very kiss!