THE LITTLE DISCUSSION BETWEEN THE SEVERAL PARTIES.
That night we held a consultation. We four. It was getting dead low
tide with us. If we didn’t light upon those treasures of the temple,
we should have to find a ship instead. And that before long. If we had
to go aboard of her as cabin boys.
It seemed to me that something might be got out of Mr. Paine. In the
way of information. Things pointed that way. The more I thought, the
more they seemed to point. I told the others. We decided to wait upon
him in a body. And man the pumps for all we were worth. If he proved
dry, if nothing could be got out of him, then we should have to admit
that the tide was low. And that we were stranded. But we had hopes.
The morning after we were in Mitre Court, where his rooms were,
betimes. The idea was that he shouldn’t escape us, that we should see
him as soon as he was visible, and so play the part of the early bird
that catches the worm. But when we found that the door into the street
was open, I, knowing the lay of the land, without any parley, led the
way upstairs. And it was well for him we did. For we came upon as
lively a little scene as ever we’d encountered.
There was a larger company assembled than we had expected. Quite what
was happening we couldn’t at once make out. The first thing I saw was
a girl tied down upon a table, and--of all people in the world--that
cursing gentleman leaning over her with a knife in his hand. Having
torn her clothes open at the throat, he looked as if he was going to
write his name on her nice white skin with the point of his blade. He
got no farther than the start. I introduced myself. And landed him
one. He didn’t seem to know whether he was glad or sorry to meet me. I
loosed the girl. When I looked round I saw the room was in a mess, and
on the floor, trussed like a fowl, was Mr. Paine. But what made me
almost jump out of skin for joy, was the sight of our dear friend Luke
tied up beside him.
I released that excellent first officer. Then things were said. When
he understood that we were spoiling to cut him up into little pieces,
and that it seemed likely that he had fallen from the frying-pan into
the fire, he explained. What we wanted to know was the present address
at which Mr. Batters could be found. It seemed, according to him, that
he was aching to know it too.
“Bless my beautiful eyes!” He spat upon the floor. “Do you think if I
knew where the hearty was that I’d be here? He used me shameful, he
did that.”
“It seems incredible that he should have used you badly, Mr. Luke.”
“It does. After all I’d done for him. But he did. After we----”
He coughed. I finished his sentence.
“Had taken such a ceremonious leave of us all on board _The Flying
Scud_. Yes? Go on.”
“We got picked up by a liner as was making Suez.”
“As you anticipated you would be. I see. You’re a far-sighted person,
Mr. Luke.”
“They landed us at Suez. We stopped there two or three days getting
packing-cases to--to----”
“To pack the treasures of the temple in. They must have been rather
conspicuous objects to carry about with you anyhow. Go on.”
“Then hang me if one evening I didn’t wake up and find that I’d been
senseless for close on two days. The devil had hocussed me.”
“Hocussed you? Impossible!”
“He had. Then he’d slipped away, him and his blessed daughter, while I
was more dead than alive, leaving me with as good as nothing in my
pockets. What I had to go through no one knows. If I ever do set eyes
on him again, I’ll----”
The peroration was a study of adjectives.
“Then it appears that you are just as eager to have another interview
with Mr. Benjamin Batters as we are. I am sorry your venture was not
attended with better fortune. It deserved success. Pray what were you
to have had out of it?”
“I was to have had half the blooming lot. And the girl----”
“And the girl! Indeed? And the girl! Mr. Luke, I should dearly
like----”
Mr. Paine interposed.
“Excuse me, Captain Lander, but if it is of Mr. Benjamin Batters you
are speaking, if it is to him so many mysterious references have been
made as the Great Joss, then I may state that, to the best of my
knowledge and belief, that gentleman is dead.”
“Dead?--to the best of your knowledge and belief?--what do you mean?”
As I stared at him, a remark was made by the young lady who so
narrowly escaped being made the subject of an experiment in carving.
Although evidently very far from being as much herself as she might
have been, she had pulled herself together a little, and was holding
both hands up to her throat.
“You’re forgetting that Pollie’s lying perhaps worse than dead in
Camford Street.”
Mr. Paine gave a jump.
“I had forgotten it!--upon my honour!”
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Miss Blyth--to whom Miss Purvis refers as Pollie--is the niece of the
Mr. Batters of whom we have been speaking. She’s his heiress, in
fact.”
“His heiress?”
“Yes; his sole residuary legatee. Among other things he left her a
house in Camford Street--No. 84--on somewhat mysterious conditions.
For instance, she was to allow no man to enter it.”
“No man?”
“No; only she and one feminine friend were ever to be allowed to put
their feet inside the door.”
“Oh?”
I began to smell a rat. Mr. Paine waved his hand towards the young
lady the cursing gentleman had been about to practise on.
“This is Miss Purvis, the feminine friend whom Miss Blyth chose to be
her sole companion. Other conditions were attached to the bequest
equally mysterious. Indeed, it would really seem as if there was
something in that house in Camford Street the existence of which the
late Mr. Batters was particularly anxious should be concealed from the
world. Miss Blyth only entered on the occupation of her property
yesterday. Yet Miss Purvis came at an early hour this morning to tell
me that something extraordinary had happened in the middle of the
night. Something, she doesn’t quite know what, but fancies it was some
wild animal, made a savage attack upon Miss Blyth without the
slightest provocation. And when Miss Purvis recovered from the shock
which the occurrence gave her, she found that she herself had been
thrown into the street.”
“Mr. Paine!” I laid my hand upon the lawyer’s shoulder. “Do you know
what’s inside that house?”
“I haven’t the faintest notion. How should I have?”
“It’s the late Mr. Batters!”
“The late Mr. Batters?”
“The thing the existence of which Mr. Batters was most anxious to keep
concealed, was Mr. Batters himself--for reasons. So he’s put about a
cock and bull story making out he’s dead, and then hidden himself in
this house of which you’re talking.”
“Captain Lander!”
“Mind, it’s only my guess, as yet. But I don’t think you’ll find that
I’m sailing very wide of the wind. The more I turn things over, after
listening to what you’ve said, the more likely it seems to me that the
Great Joss, whom we’ve all been on tiptoe to get a peep at, has hidden
himself in that house which he pretends to have left to his niece, and
is waiting there for us to find him. And I’m off to do it!”
“Someone’s had the start of you.”
The interruption came from Rudd. The absence of the cursing gentleman,
and his two friends, explained his meaning.
“They’ve gone hot-foot after him,” I cried. “What’s good enough for
them is good enough for me!”
We journeyed in three cabs. Speed was a consideration. So we chartered
hansoms. I went in front with Luke. He didn’t seem over and above
anxious for my society. But I didn’t feel as if I could be comfortable
without him. So we went together. Though I am bound to admit that I’m
inclined to think that I enjoyed that ride more than he did. Rudd,
Holley, and his chum came next. Mr. Paine and the young lady last. I
liked his manner towards that young lady. In a lawyer, whom one
naturally looks upon as the most hard-hearted of human creatures, it
was beautiful. He could not have treated her more tenderly if she had
been a queen. And, though she was still in a very sad condition, I
have a sort of idea that, when they were once inside that cab, speed
with them wasn’t much of a consideration.
And though those hansoms did rattle us along in style, we found that
someone had got to that house in Camford Street in front of us.