IN WHICH EVENTS MOVE QUICKLY
WHEN Inman entered the kitchen and saw Baldwin seated in his chair
upon the hearth—a whipped, miserable dog with no spirit left in
him—his anger blazed forth with such sudden fierceness that the
inspector, who had found him cool and level-headed as they discussed the
disaster on the journey home, opened his eyes in amazement; and the
detective, a shrewd, kindly-looking man with little of the official
about him, observed the newcomer with keen professional interest.
Sobered and at the same time stunned by the magnitude of the disaster
that had overtaken him, Baldwin had remained all day in his chair upon
the hearth, oblivious for the most part to what was taking place around
him, and requiring to be roused like a dazed and drunken man when the
police plied him with questions.
Neither food nor drink had passed his lips since breakfast, though
Nancy’s heart had softened at sight of his dejection and she had made
him a cup of tea, and set it upon the grate at his side. It was there
still, untouched, an hour later, and Nancy sat and watched him, with her
baby on her knee, too humane and sympathetic to return to her room and
leave Keturah to face the trouble alone, for though the older woman’s
eyes were now dry they were red and swollen with the waters that had
passed over them before the fountain became exhausted.
At first sight of the pitiable, abject figure a black scowl leaped to
Inman’s brow and he crossed over to the rug and in a voice of
carefully-suppressed passion exclaimed:
“So this is what comes of your whisky-drinking, you drunken brute!
You’ve ruined me as well as yourself; foul-mouthed devil that you are!”
Baldwin raised his eyes but there was no sense of fear or resentment to
be seen in them, only hopeless misery. He was too utterly prostrated,
too benumbed by this culminating stroke of fate to feel the lash of
Inman’s tongue, much less to writhe under it, and all he could say was:
“Every penny ta’en! Every penny!”
“And whose fault is that?” Inman almost hissed. “Whose fault is it that
it wasn’t banked yesterday? Didn’t I warn you? Didn’t Jones? But you
were master and I was man, and there was that cursed bottle of rum to
finish! It serves me right for being fool enough to lend my money to a
drunken sot like you. I might as well have dropped three hundred pounds
down the drain, for your miserable bits o’ scrap metal’ll never fetch
two hundred!”
“Who’s ta’en it, I can’t think,” the other soliloquised wearily with his
eyes on Inman; “but every penny’s gone!”
Inman turned away with an impatient exclamation, and seeing the
detective, growled an apology for his outburst.
The man with the keen, kindly eyes was looking on him with what appeared
to be mild curiosity.
“I should like a few words with you in the office,” he said, and the
three men left the house.
“Yon man hasn’t much to learn from you and me, Harker,” said the
inspector, as the two officials motored back to headquarters a couple of
hours later. “The way he pumped those two women would have done credit
to a K.C.; and as for the old man—there won’t be much blood left in
him, I fancy, when that chap’s finished squeezing.”
“It strikes me _we’ve_ a deal to learn from this manager, or what he
calls himself,” said Mr. Harker dryly. He had made very few remarks so
far, though he had asked many questions.
“He’s evidently inclined to suspect this young fellow with the peculiar
handle to his name,” continued the inspector.
“Or, anyhow, very anxious that other people should suspect him!” From
Mr. Harker’s caustic tone it was easy to infer that Inman’s zeal had
left no favourable impression. “But he’s wasting his powder and shot.
The two men aren’t on good terms. Inman married this Jagger Drake’s
sweetheart, and it hasn’t turned out a love match, I understand. Since
then Jagger has thrashed our friend, and he’s still sore about it.
There’s more life in a hole like this than most folk think, Martin. All
the same, Jagger Drake hasn’t helped himself to this swag!”
It was evident that Detective Harker had been making good use of his
opportunities.
“Have you formed a theory?”
“Not a workable one, so far. To be quite frank, I could think the
business had been cooked, but I can’t at present see why or how. If I’m
right there’s only one man who can throw light on the subject, and he
won’t.”
“Meaning Inman?” The inspector’s voice betrayed quite as much scepticism
as interest.
“That man is one of the finest actors I’ve ever met,” the detective
answered quietly. “I should have suspected collusion between him and his
master; but that’s out of the question—the old man is no actor. This
job interests me, but it’ll have to be worked carefully. He’s a smart
man who’s helped himself to this rhino, whoever he is. I expect his
smartness’ll trip him up if we give him time.”
“They’re all a lot o’ bungling idiots,” Inman remarked to Nancy as the
car moved away. “They see what you tell ’em and what can’t be missed.
That Harker is half asleep. I suggested a Scotland Yard man to the
inspector, but he seemed huffed, so I dropped it.”
His tone was surly, but Nancy distinguished another note in it that she
did not quite understand; something between satisfaction and relief or a
mixture of both; something infinitely less harsh than she had expected.
She had been bracing herself for an angry encounter with her husband,
for there had been no mistaking the look he shot her when his minute
inquiries elicited the information that Hannah had spent the evening
with her. It had been a silent promissory-note for settlement at the
earliest opportunity, and had been accepted as such. Now that the
favourable moment had come, she was surprised and also relieved to find
that her husband’s mood had changed.
Inman had not forgotten, but it was his constant fate to be compelled by
considerations of what was prudent in his own interests to defer the
settlements from which he promised himself so much satisfaction. To hurt
his wife and through her sufferings to cut her lover to the quick was
one of the two absorbing passions that occupied his thoughts by day and
night. But when he was about to strike, self-interest always held his
arm. He had been sorely vexed that hitherto his threat to injure Jagger
had come to naught; it humiliated him to think that his rival was
laughing in his sleeve at the emptiness of the warning; but what could
he do so long as the two passions were at variance? Nancy held the purse
and the purse was deep. Until that had changed hands he was not master
of the situation; revenge must be deferred.
It may be questioned whether the prospect of vengeance does not afford
as great satisfaction as its accomplishment; it is at any rate certain
that Inman’s soul nourished itself upon foretastes and that the kindlier
note in his voice was the traitorous servant of his ill-intent.
There was a fire in the parlour and he took Nancy there, bidding Keturah
get Baldwin off to bed. The baby was sleeping on the sofa, and Inman
closed the door and stood with his back to the mantelpiece.
“What the deuce made you tell Hannah about the money?” he began. “I
should have expected you to have more sense.”
“I didn’t; she told me!” Nancy looked up from her sewing to see what
effect the denial had upon her husband.
“She told you!” The voice was incredulous, yet in spite of himself he
believed her, knowing that Nancy would never purchase pardon with a lie.
“All the village knew it,” she repeated quietly.
He stared at the head that was bent down again upon her work, and turned
over this new information in his mind.
“Then the devil must have been playing with the brass whilst I was at
the ‘Royal’!”
She said neither yes nor no, and his mouth tightened. He would have
liked to seize her by the shoulders and shake her out of her cold
complacency. The entire absence of any sense of fear, of any
apprehension of danger, stung him almost beyond his power of endurance;
but once again the stronger passion of greed held him in check.
“Haven’t they found any clue?” Nancy asked, when there had been silence
between them for some moments.
“_They_ haven’t,” he answered suggestively. “They haven’t an idea
between them. A set o’ wooden skittles, bowled over by any bungling
prentice that tries his hand at burglary—that’s what _they_ are. What
clue there is they won’t see when it’s pointed out to ’em. At any rate,
that fool of a detective won’t.”
“Then there _is_ a clue?” she asked, and the hot blood rushed to her
cheeks the more violently when she tried to restrain it. Her quick wit
told her that it was Jagger whom he suspected; and indignant words were
not far from her lips when her husband spoke.
“Whatever I think I’m not thinking out loud. If I hadn’t had so much
sense before, what’s just happened ’ud have taught me. Somebody who knew
it was there took it, that’s clear enough; and there are certain people
who are going to be watched.”
She was very angry, yet common-sense came to her help and warned her
that she would do well to restrain herself. After all, Jagger would
easily free himself of such a ridiculous suspicion; and for her to show
resentment would do him no good.
Inman guessed what was passing in his wife’s mind and added the incident
to the other stored-up memories which rankled in his mind and punished
him sorely; but for the moment nothing but gentleness could serve his
purpose, and he went on in a softer tone.
“Let it drop, lass. If I’m wronging anybody in my thoughts it’ll do ’em
no harm. There may be naught in it, but it’s my duty to you as well as
myself to look round and try to find a key ’at’ll fit t’ lock.
“But we’ll put it o’ one side; there’s other things have to be thought
about, and you and me’ll have to make our minds up. Baldwin’ll be made
bankrupt, that’s certain, but the shop’s yours, and the machinery’ll be
mine—ours, I should say; what are we going to do about it?”
She glanced up questioningly. This tone of sympathetic plain speaking
appealed to the best in her nature and partially deceived her. Like a
flash the suggestion presented itself that life with this man need not
after all be the intolerable burden she had feared, even though love
might be wanting; that she had perhaps mistaken anxiety for coldness and
absence of mind for callousness.
“Is it too late to save him?” she asked.
She looked up quickly as she spoke, and the sight of her husband’s face
dismissed at once all her mocking fancies.
“To save——?” Inman’s mouth opened in astonishment; but immediately
took on curves of disdain as he replied:
“Don’t talk like a fool, Nancy! We’ve thrown enough into that muck-heap,
and now we’ve got to think about ourselves. Baldwin wouldn’t have
considered twice about sending you to the devil—let him go there
himself! He’ll be made bankrupt, I tell you, and there won’t be more’n a
few shillings in the pound for his creditors. The question is, am I to
take the business over, or what?”
He played with his silver watch-chain, waiting for an answer, but not
looking into his wife’s face, and Nancy speedily made up her mind.
For better or worse she had tied herself to the man, and whatever his
qualities as a husband, there could be no question of his business
ability. If she were to thwart him by withholding her money, what
purpose would she serve? Would she not indeed be sowing for herself the
seeds of certain trouble? The more time her husband devoted to business
the less there would be to spend with her. Let the machinery be kept
running there, and the wheels of their domestic life would probably run
smoothly.
“I don’t doubt but what you’ll make things hum,” she said, and although
there was no enthusiasm in the tone, a look of satisfaction came into
Inman’s eyes as he recognised the implication of the tense she had
employed.
“Lend me the money,” he replied, “and I’ll make this the best country
business in Craven. I’ll——But it’s no use dreaming dreams; I’ve
thought this thing out and I know what I can do. I can make you rich in
a few years, Nancy!”
“Can you?” Nancy had better have withheld the exclamation or have
uttered it with less meaning, for its weary note told a story with which
Inman was already too familiar; but the contraction of brow was only
momentary, and he forced himself to laugh.
“Never mind! You shall see! And you shall have five per cent. for pin
money as we go along.”
Nancy smiled, not realising what damage that runaway sigh had done her,
not suspecting the volcanic anger that was hidden beneath her husband’s
smooth words.
“Do as you like,” she said. “Leave me a couple of hundreds in the bank
and you can have the rest.”
It was better than he had expected, but he veiled his gratification and
appeared to hesitate.
“I shall be able to manage,” he said finally. “I should like to launch
out, but we’ll talk it over again when I’ve had a chat with the bank
manager. It ’ud pay you to sell your investments; but there’s always the
property for additional security, of course. Besides, I’m not captain
yet. Baldwin’s still on the bridge.”
He laughed and stretched himself. Nancy wondered if he would kiss her if
only on the forehead, as he had been wont to do when she had happened to
please him, though not since his child had come. She half hoped he would
not; yet when he left the room with no word of farewell her spirits
sank.
“He _does_ hate me,” she said to herself. “Well, after all, it makes no
difference. We must live as well as we can!”
A month later the business became Inman’s. He had not spared his master
in the evidence he had been called upon to give, and Baldwin had been
severely lectured by Registrar, Official Receiver and various crabbed
lawyers, each of whom was at pains to point out that by refusing to take
the advice of such a counsellor as his foreman—a counsellor, who, as
the Official Receiver remarked, had been a veritable
god-out-of-the-machine if Baldwin had not been too pig-headed and
intemperate to make use of him—he had brought himself and his creditors
into this unenviable position. The Registrar complimented Inman on his
devotion to duty and expressed his sympathy with him in the loss of so
much of his savings. It was true, he said, that bills of sale were not
regarded with favour by the Court, but he quite recognised that in this
case it had been regarded more or less as a formality, and the readiest,
if not the only method of partially securing the loan.
Baldwin, too broken already on the wheel of fortune to suffer any
further pain from the hard blow he received, left the Court an
undischarged bankrupt, and Inman by arrangement with the Official
Receiver, obtained the goodwill of the business at a merely nominal
figure, and the goodwill of the unsecured creditors for nothing at all.
It was the afternoon of Christmas Eve before the last formality was
completed that left Inman master of the wrecked ship, and he hurried
home to deal promptly with his predecessor.
The evening meal was being cleared away when he got down from the trap
in which he had been driven from the station and strode into the
kitchen. Nancy rose in order to brew some fresh tea, and he recognised
her purpose.
“Sit still, Nancy,” he said. There was a changed note in his voice that
only Baldwin failed to recognise. “Keturah’ll have to work for her
living if she stops on here, and there’s no need for my wife to bark if
we keep a dog. Get up, Keturah, and mash my tea.”
“I’ll make it myself, James,” said Nancy, as Keturah seemed paralysed by
this unexpected attack; but Inman bade her be seated.
“Keturah’ll either do as she’s told,” he said, with an ugly look about
his mouth and an ominous glitter in his eyes; “or she’ll find fresh
lodgings along with her brother. Baldwin leaves here to-night, and I’m
not very particular if Keturah goes with him—they’ve both eaten the
bread o’ idleness long enough at my expense. You needn’t open your
mouth, Nancy,” he went on with a rough composure that was more
discomfiting than anger. “I’m master here, and master I’m going to be.
Keturah can stop, I say, if she likes, and I’ll pay her wages; but she
stops as servant. There’ll be no more whining and crying about ‘fine
ladies’—I’ll see to that. Baldwin finds fresh quarters and finds ’em
to-night. I’ve no use for him.”
Keturah’s apron was over her face by this time, but harsh words and hard
looks put new spirit into Baldwin, who for the first time in all these
weeks rose to his feet in a passion and called to his help the oaths he
had neglected in his dejection.
It was to no purpose. Inman pushed him from him with a rough touch that
was almost a blow.
“Carry your dirty talk outside, you hound!” he said. Then with a sneer
that disfigured his face, he added: “I’ve taken over your motto with the
business, Baldwin—‘all for my-sen.’ Both the motto and the business are
good, but they’ve got to be worked with gumption, d’you see? And they’re
going to be. You’re in my way now, and you’ve got to get out. I’m going
to do by you what you’d ha’ done by me. Does that get past your thick
skull?”
Keturah was wailing aloud, and he turned on her fiercely and bade her be
silent. Nancy, white, and with lips tightly compressed, was gripping the
sides of her chair, her eyes fixed on her husband, her brain busily
employed in considering what was best to be done, and reaching no
conclusion.
Baldwin’s rebellion had been a mere gust, and the storm subsided as
quickly as it had arisen.
“Where can I go?” he faltered, as he looked dully into the eyes that
were turned contemptuously upon him.
“To hell—or the Union! Who else’ll have you?”
“James!” Nancy faced her husband with hot indignation flashing from the
eyes that looked fearlessly into his. “How can you say such things, and
on Christmas Eve, too! You’ve punished him enough—only a brute ’ud kick
a man so hard when he’s down!”
She turned to Baldwin, and laid a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “Take
no notice of him,” said she soothingly. “He doesn’t mean it! He’s just
getting a bit of his own back!”
“Don’t I?” said her husband, as he disengaged her hand with a grip that
hurt. “I’ll show you whether I mean it or not. Get away to the other
baby and leave the brute to his work—get away, I say!”
She had clenched her free fist and beaten the hand that held her; but
she was powerless, and he raised her from her feet and almost flung her
into the parlour.
“I’m master here,” he said. “There isn’t room for two. You’d better shut
yourself in for your own comfort.”
A little while later Baldwin knocked timidly at Maniwel’s door.