I BEHAVE DISGRACEFULLY.
The man I now faced on that solitary road had all the appearance of a
tramp. By the light of the lamp above us I saw that he was clad in a
dingy old tweed suit, very much frayed at the cuffs and the
trouser-ends, while upon his head was a cap much too large for him, the
peak of which was worn over one ear. And this not from any rakishness,
but rather, as it seemed, as a sullen protest against the more orderly
habits of his fellows. As the game was in his hands for the moment, I
left the first move to him.
"Well, strike me pink!" he exclaimed under his breath, as he looked me
up and down. "Wot's walkin' to-night--live men or spooks? Jail-bird or
gent--w'ich is it?"
"I don't know what you mean," I said lamely. "I know nothing about
you----"
"Come orf it!" he exclaimed, with a disgusted shrug. "If you don't know
nothink abaht me, wot did yer come back for w'en I 'ollered? W'y--we
worked in the same gang!"
"I never saw you in my life before," I said, feeling now that all was up
with me.
"Oh, yus, yer did!" he retorted. "You an' me worked in the same gang,
an' slep' at night in cells wot was next to each uvver. An' then one
day you cut yer lucky, an' they brought you back a dead 'un. 'Ere, ketch
'old of my 'and!"
He stretched out a grimy hand to me as he spoke and quite mechanically I
put my own into it. He gripped it for a moment, and then tossed it from
him with a laugh.
"You ain't no spook," he said, "an' you ain't no bloomin' twin brother.
You won't kid old George Rabbit."
"I don't want to kid anybody," I said. "And I shouldn't think you'd be
the sort to go back on a pal. Why, you're free yourself!"
"Yes, in a proper sort o' way," he retorted. "Got my discharge reg'lar,
an' a nice little pat on the back w'en I come out fer bein' a good boy.
Not that that does yer much good--'cos 'ere I am starving, w'ile the
bloke that comes out through the roof, an' cuts his lucky, dresses like
a toff, an' smokes a cigar you could smell a mile orf. As fer me, it
don't 'ardly run to 'alf a hounce an' a inch of clay."
"Well, at any rate you're better off now, and as to freedom--well, we
can cry quits as to that," I said. "Here's some more money for you, all
I can spare. I'll wish you good-night."
"'Arf a mo'--'arf a mo'!" he cried, catching at my sleeve and detaining
me. "Do yer fink I'm goin' to let yer go like that? W'y, there's lots of
fings wants explainin'. 'Ow do you come to be walkin' at large like this
'ere, after they've tolled the bloomin' bell for yer at Pent'ouse?"
"I can't explain everything to you; it would take too long," I said.
"Suffice it that I've found friends who have helped me; there was
another man buried in my place. And now, Mr. George Rabbit," I added
fiercely, "you'll please to understand that Norton Hyde, convict, lies
buried in a certain grave you know of, and quite another man has given
you money to-night. Get that into your thick head, and once more
'good-night' to you."
I turned away abruptly to resume my walk. After all, I felt that I was
pretty safe; such a shifty, shambling creature as this would only be
regarded as a madman if he told any tale about me, especially any tale
that would seem as absurd as this one of a man alive that should
properly be dead. So I strode away, whistling.
But after a moment or two, glancing furtively over my shoulder, I saw
that he was following, coming along on the other side of the road at a
sort of hobbling trot that carried him over the ground as fast as my
longer stride. I stopped, and looked back at him; and in a moment he
stopped too, and waited.
"You'd better go back," I called across to him threateningly, but he did
not answer.
On I went again, and once more, as I glanced over my shoulder, I saw him
coming along in the same way, like a grim Fate that would not be shaken
off. I had just made up my mind to try conclusions with him in the shape
of personal violence, and had stopped with that purpose in my mind, when
a voice broke in out of the darkness that startled me even more than it
could have startled Mr. Rabbit.
"Is that man following you, sir?"
It was a constable, standing in the shadow of a doorway, and he had
evidently been watching our approach. I knew by the fact that George
Rabbit stood his ground, and even edged a little nearer, that he felt he
had nothing to fear; while, for my part, the mere sight of the uniformed
constable, coming at that juncture, had thrown me into such a sweat of
terror that I could scarcely speak. However, I managed to jerk out some
words which were perhaps the most stupid I could have used, because I
doubt not that had I braved the matter out, George Rabbit would have
taken to his heels, and so have left me in peace. But my words only
strengthened whatever ties the man meant to bind me with.
"It's all right, constable," I blurted out; "the man's a friend of mine
in--in reduced circumstances. I'm going to find him a lodging."
So we shuffled on in our original order past the constable, and now I
began to feel that I had indeed taken a load upon me that was more than
I could support. By this time George Rabbit had drawn nearer to me, and
was shuffling along contentedly at my side, and with each step I was
coming nearer to the house of Dr. Bardolph Just. In desperation at last
I turned about, and caught him suddenly by the throat and shook him. I
remember now that he tumbled about in my hands as though he had been the
mere bundle of rags he looked, so that I was a little ashamed of my
violence.
"You dog!" I exclaimed savagely, "what the devil do you mean by
following me like this? What do you think you'll gain?"
"I dunno, yet," he said shakily, while his head rolled from side to
side. "I can't be much worse off than wot I am, an' I may be a deal
better."
"I'll give you all I have in my pockets if you'll turn back now, and
forget you've ever seen me," I said, releasing him.
He grinned at me. "I've got sich a 'orrible good memory," he said.
"Besides, I couldn't fergit that face under any circs."
"What do you think you'll get?" I demanded again.
"I'll put it plain, guv'nor," he said, standing in the road before me,
and looking at me with his head on one side. "I've bin out o' luck a
long time; even my pals don't seem to cotton to me some'ow. Nah, you've
got friends--real tip-toppers, I'll be bound--wot spells it in quids
w'ere I spells it in brown 'uns. Also likewise you don't want it blowed
about that you ain't wot you seem, an' that your proper place fer the
next few years is Pent'ouse, to say nothink of awkward enquiries about
somebody else wot was buried by mistake. In case there's any questions
asked, you want a pal wot'll s'welp 'is never that 'e don't know any
more abaht yer than the King on 'is golding throne. An' that's
me--that's George Rabbit!"
"I don't want your help," I said.
"But you've got to 'ave it, all the same," he remarked cheerfully.
So it happened that I had to go on again, with this ragged retainer
trailing behind. In that order we came to the gate leading into the
grounds, and I went in, still puzzled to know what to do with the man.
By this time I realised that, however much the doctor might resent his
appearance, it was vitally necessary that for his own sake, as well as
for mine, Bardolph Just should assist me in silencing that too free
tongue which wagged in the head of George Rabbit. While I was debating
what to do with the man, he settled that question for himself.
"It's a nice warm night, guv'nor; if you could give me some place w'ere
I could jist lay meself dahn, an' do a snooze, I should be as comfy as
comfy. Only if I could git summink to eat, an' a drop o' drink fust, I
should be 'appier still."
"You'd better wait here while I go to the house," I replied. "I'll bring
you out something to eat, and I'll show you where to sleep."
I left him standing under the trees, and, greatly perturbed in mind,
made my way to the house. I had seen a light in the doctor's study, and
I now made straight for it, for this was a matter in which I must have
advice. Without troubling to knock at the door, I opened it and walked
straight in.
At first I thought the room was empty, and I was withdrawing again when
I heard voices at the further end of it. The voices proceeded from
behind the screen which hid that part of the room which was the surgery,
and it was evident that whoever was there, believing that they had the
place to themselves, were at no pains to mask their voices.
The first voice I heard was one which I recognised easily as that of the
woman Martha Leach. She was evidently greatly excited, and labouring
under strong emotion.
"God help me! why have I clung to you all these years--for you to make a
mock of me now, and to try to fling me aside? What has my life been that
I should stand calmly by and be slighted, and treated like the dirt
under your feet?"
It was the doctor's voice that broke in, sharply and angrily. "You've
remained with me because it suited your purpose to do so," he said.
"Years ago I befriended you--you know under what circumstances. You know
how I imperilled my position to do it; you know that, but for me, you
would have stood in a criminal dock----"
"I know--I know!" she cried. "And after that my life was given to you. I
became as something that did not exist for myself, but for another. And
now--now all that is forgotten."
"It was forgotten years ago, and will never be remembered now," he said.
"If you are not content with your position here, the remedy lies in your
own hands: you can leave the house, and start somewhere again for
yourself."
"You know I can't do that," she said, in a lower tone. "Only you might
be fair to me; you might let me understand that even if I am nothing,
this girl is less. Why should you degrade me before her?"
"Because you were growing insolent," he said. "Leave Miss Matchwick's
name out of the question."
"You tried to kill her," said the woman, sinking her voice yet more. "I
saw that; I know why you opened those doors last night."
There was a long pause, and then I heard the doctor give a quick laugh.
"Well, doesn't that satisfy you?" he asked.
She seemed to laugh in response. "But you won't have the courage again,"
she taunted him.
"Won't I?" I heard him move as though he took a step towards her. "I
shall. And next time it will be something more subtle than any such
bungling business of an accident at night. I gave a certificate once, in
the case of a certain Martha Leach, concerning the death----"
"Don't speak of that!" she exclaimed.
"And I can give one in the case of the death of a certain
Debora----What's that?"
I had been so startled that I had stumbled back against the door,
closing it noisily. I had the sense now to open it quickly, and
apparently to march into the room, cheerily whistling. As I did so the
doctor came quickly round the screen and confronted me.
"Hullo!" I exclaimed. "Forgive my bursting in like that; I wanted to see
you."
He drew a breath of relief, and smiled in a ghastly fashion; he seemed
strangely shaken. "You did startle me rather," he said. "What's the
matter?"
Now I knew that the woman Leach was still behind the screen, and that
she must hear every word that I might have to say, and Bardolph Just
knew that also. Yet we must play the game of pretences in such a fashion
as to make each believe that we were certain we were the only two
persons in the room. More than that, having had a sample of the woman's
curiosity that morning, I was in no mood to talk about myself, or of
that fellow jail-bird I had met, within her hearing. Yet I could not
suggest talking with the doctor elsewhere, because that must at once
show him that I knew we had a listener. There was nothing for it but to
speak as vaguely as possible, and to try and get him away from that
room.
"I've had an adventure to-night, and I rather want to tell you about
it," I said. "I've met a man, by the merest accident, whom I know."
He glanced quickly at the screen, and then looked again at me. "Won't
your news keep till the morning?" he asked.
"Well, hardly," I replied, with a laugh. "The friend of whom I speak is
here now."
"Here?" The doctor looked puzzled.
"Yes," I said. "You see, it happens that he was with me in a certain
place of which you know, and he is rather anxious to renew an
acquaintance so auspiciously begun."
The doctor whistled softly, and once more glanced at the screen. "We'll
go downstairs and talk about this," he said. "This room is intolerably
hot."
He opened the door for me to pass out, and as I preceded him murmured an
excuse that he had forgotten something, and went quickly back. I went
downstairs, and in a moment or two he joined me in the dining-room. I
could scarcely refrain from smiling at my secret knowledge of what had
taken place in the other room, even though I was agitated by dreadful
fears concerning Debora. I had gleaned but a dim notion of what the pair
had been talking about, but it had been enough to show me that Bardolph
Just had by no means repented of his purpose. I shuddered at the
connection of Debora's name with death. Moreover, guessing something of
the character of the woman Leach, and adding to that the remembrance of
what she had said to me that morning, I saw that matters were indeed
desperate. And, to add to my perplexities, there was the man George
Rabbit, waiting all this time under the trees for my reappearance.
"Now, what has happened?" asked the doctor sharply.
"I met a man to-night, by the greatest ill-fortune, who worked in the
same gang with me in Penthouse prison," I answered him. "A mean dog, who
intends to trade on the knowledge, and to get what he can out of me. I
tried to shake him off, but he stuck to me like wax."
"What have you done with him?" he asked.
"I left him in the grounds; I promised to take food and drink to him," I
said.
He paced about the room for a moment or two, with his arms folded, and
his chin in the hollow of one hand. "I don't like the look of things at
all; it seems almost as if a net were closing in about us," he said at
last. "Harvey Scoffold was bad enough; now comes someone who, according
to your description, is scarcely likely to prove as reasonable even as
Scoffold might be. This dog scents money, I take it?"
"He scents everything that means easy living, and no work, and safety,"
I answered.
"Bring him in here; perhaps I may be able to deal with him better than
you," said the doctor suddenly. "We'll feed him, and we'll see what he
has to say for himself. That's the ticket; bring him in here."
I went out at once into the grounds, and was relieved to see George
Rabbit slouch out from the shadows of the trees, and come towards me.
"Bin a bloomin' long time, you 'ave," he growled resentfully.
"Don't be impudent," I said sharply. "Come into the house, and I'll give
you a meal."
He drew back and shook his head. "Not me," he replied. "I ain't goin' to
run into no traps. 'Ow do I know who's inside, or wot's goin' to 'appen
to me? I'm safe 'ere, an' 'ere I'll stop."
"What's to harm you?" I asked him. "You've nothing to fear; you've
worked out your time, and are a free man. If anyone has to be afraid of
what's going to happen, I think I'm the man."
"Never mind abaht that; I tell yer I ain't goin' in," he said doggedly.
I shrugged my shoulders and turned away. "Then stop outside; you'll get
nothing," was my reply.
As I expected, I had not gone a dozen yards when he came limping after
me. "All right, guv'nor, I'll risk it," he said eagerly, "I'm down on my
luck, an' I must have a bite an' a drink. An' after all, w'en yer come
to think of it, I'm top dog, ain't I?"
In my own mind I had to acknowledge as much, though I wondered what his
attitude would be when he came face to face with that stronger man,
Bardolph Just. I made my way into the house and into the dining-room,
while George Rabbit shuffled along behind me. He had pulled off his cap,
and now revealed the thin stubble of hair with which his head was
covered.
As he shuffled in after me into the dining-room he caught sight of the
doctor, standing up with his hands in his pockets, looking at him. He
drew back instantly, and looked very much as though he meant to make a
bolt for it, after all.
"You can come in, my friend," said the doctor, regarding him steadily.
"I know all about you."
"I said it was a bloomin' trap," muttered Rabbit, as he shuffled into
the room.
I saw that the doctor had been busy in my absence. Apparently he had
visited the larder, and had brought therefrom the remains of a pie and
some bread and cheese, all of which were set out on a tray, together
with a bottle and a glass. Our new guest eyed these things hungrily,
forgetful of everything else. At a sign from the doctor he seated
himself at the table, and fell to like a ravening wolf.
"I thought it better not to disturb the servants," said Bardolph Just
to me in a low tone, "so I foraged for myself. He'll be more amenable
when he's taken the edge off his appetite."
Mr. George Rabbit feeding was not a pretty sight. Making all allowances
for a tremendous hunger, it was not exactly nice to see him cramming
food into himself with the aid of his knife as well as his fork, and
with an occasional resort to his more primitive fingers; nor did he
forget to apply himself to the bottle at intervals. And all the time he
eyed us furtively, as though wondering what would happen when his meal
was finished.
But at last even he was satisfied--or perhaps I should put it that the
pie had given out. He sat back in his chair, and wiped his lips with the
lining of his deplorable cap, and heaved a huge sigh of satisfaction.
"That's done me a treat, guv'nors both," he murmured hoarsely.
"We're pleased, I'm sure," replied Bardolph Just. "Now we can get to
business. It seems that you've got a sort of idea in your head that you
are acquainted with this gentleman?" He indicated me as he spoke.
George Rabbit winked impudently. "Never forgot a pal in my life, an' I
'ope I never shall," he said. "W'y, me an' Norton 'Ide was unfort'nit
togevver, an' now 'e's struck it rich, it ain't likely I wouldn't stick
to 'im. See?"
"Now listen to me, my man," said Bardolph Just, coming to the other end
of the table, and leaning his hands on it, and staring down at the other
man. "A great many things happen in this world that it's well to know
nothing about. You've made a mistake; the gentleman you think is Norton
Hyde is not Norton Hyde at all. What do you say to that?"
"Wot I say to that is--try summink else," answered Rabbit. "You fink
you'll kid me; you fink you'll git rid of me jist fer a supper? Not
much. I know a good thing w'en I see it, an' I'm goin' to freeze on to
it."
"You will not only have a good supper, but you'll have somewhere to
sleep as well," said the doctor. "More than that, you'll have money."
"I'll lay I do!" exclaimed the man boisterously.
Bardolph Just laid a sovereign on the edge of the table, and pushed it
gently towards the man. "You've never seen this gentleman before?" he
hinted.
George Rabbit shook his head. "Not 'arf enough," he said disdainfully.
The process was repeated until five sovereigns lay in a little shining
row along the edge of the table. It was too much for George Rabbit; he
leaned forward eagerly. "I don't know the gent from Adam!" he exclaimed.
"Ah!" The doctor laughed, and drew a deep breath, and then suddenly
dropped his hand down so that the coins were covered. "But not so fast;
there's something else. This money is yours--and you will have a
shakedown for the night--only on condition that you stick to what you've
said. If you give any trouble, or if you start any ridiculous story such
as you hinted at to-night, I shall find a way of dealing with you. Do
you understand?"
The man looked up at him suspiciously. "You could do a precious lot, I
don't fink!" he exclaimed.
"I'd do this," said the doctor viciously. "I'd hunt you out of the
country, my friend; I'd look up past records and see what took you into
prison; I'd see if you couldn't be got back there again. How do you
think your word would stand against mine, when it came to a
cock-and-bull story of the wrong man buried and the right man alive?
Think yourself lucky you've been treated as well as you have."
George Rabbit eyed him resentfully, and had a long look at me; then he
slowly shuffled to his feet. "Give us the rhino, an' show me w'ere I'm
to sleep," he said. "I shall keep me face shut; you needn't be afraid."
The doctor pushed the coins towards him, and he was in the very act of
gathering them up with some deliberateness, when the door was opened,
and Martha Leach walked in. What she had expected to find, or whether
she had anticipated discovering the doctor alone, it is impossible to
say; certain it is that she stopped dead, taking in the little picture
before her, and something of its meaning. George Rabbit swept the coins
into his hand, and jingled them for a moment, and dropped them into his
pocket.
"What do you want?" snarled Bardolph Just.
"Nothing," replied the woman, in some dismay. "I only thought--I only
wondered if you wanted anything more to-night. I'm very sorry."
"I want nothing. Go to bed," he said curtly; and with another swift
glance round the room that seemed to embrace us all, she walked out of
the room and closed the door.
"Now, show this man where he can sleep," he said, turning to me.
"There's a loft over the stable, with plenty of straw in it; if he
doesn't set fire to himself he'll be comfortable enough. You know where
it is?"
I nodded, and signed to George Rabbit to follow me. He made an elaborate
and somewhat ironical bow to the doctor in the doorway of the room. The
doctor called him back for a moment.
"You can slip away in the morning when you like," he said. "And don't
let us see your ugly face again."
"Not so much about my face, if yer don't mind," said Mr. Rabbit. "An' I
shan't be at all sorry ter go; I don't 'alf like the company you keep!"
With this doubtful compliment flung at me, Mr. George Rabbit shuffled
out of the room, with a parting grin at the doctor. I took him out of
the house and across the grounds towards the stable, showed him where,
by mounting a ladder, he could get to his nest among the straw in the
loft. "And don't smoke there," I said, "if only for your own sake."
"I 'aven't got anythink to smoke," he said, a little disgustedly. "I
never thought of it. I 'aven't so much as a match on me."
I knew that the stable was deserted, because I had never seen any horses
there, and I knew that the doctor kept none. I left George Rabbit in the
dark, and retraced my steps to the house. I met the doctor in the hall;
he had evidently been waiting for me.
"Well?" he asked, looking at me with a smile.
"I don't think he'll trouble us again," I said. "As you suggested, he
won't get anyone to believe his story, even if he tells it, and a great
many things may happen before he gets rid of his five pounds. Take my
word for it, we've seen the last of him."
I went to my room and prepared for bed. At the last moment it occurred
to me that I had said nothing to the doctor about Capper, or about the
treachery of Harvey Scoffold, and I decided that that omission was
perhaps, after all, for the best. The business of the man Capper was one
which concerned Debora, in a sense, and I knew that the doctor was no
friend to Debora. I determined to say nothing at present.
It was a particularly warm night, with a suggestion in the air of a
coming storm. I threw back the curtains from my window, and flung the
window wide, and then, as there was light enough for me to undress by
without the lamp, I put that out, and sat in the semi-darkness of the
room, smoking. I was thinking of many things while I slipped off my
upper garments, and only gradually did it dawn upon me that across the
grounds a light was showing where no light should surely be. Taking my
bearings in regard to the position of the house itself, I saw that that
light would come from the loft above the disused stable.
I cursed George Rabbit and my own folly for trusting him. At the same
time it occurred to me that I did not want to make an enemy of the man,
and that I might well let him alone, to take what risks he chose. The
light was perfectly steady, and there was no suggestion of the flicker
of a blaze; I thought it possible that he might have discovered some old
stable lantern, with an end of candle in it, and so have armed himself
against the terrors of the darkness. Nevertheless, while I leaned on the
window-sill and smoked I watched that light.
Presently I saw it move, and then disappear; and while I was
congratulating myself on the fact that the man had probably put out the
light, I saw it appear again near the ground, and this time it was
swinging, as though someone carried it. I drew back a little from the
window, lest I should be seen, and watched the light.
Whoever carried it was coming towards the house, and as it swung I saw
that it was a lantern, and that it was knocking gently, not against the
leg of a man, as I had anticipated, but against the skirts of a woman;
so much I made out clearly. When the light was so close as to be almost
under my window I craned forward, and looked, for it had stopped.
The next moment I saw what I wanted to see clearly. The lantern was
raised, and opened; a face was set close to it that the light might be
blown out. In the second before the light was puffed out I saw that face
clearly--the face of Martha Leach!
Long after she had gone into the house I stood there puzzling about the
matter, wondering what she could have had to say to George Rabbit. I
remembered how she had come into the room when he was taking the money
from the table; I remembered, too, her threat to me, at an earlier time,
that she would find out how I came into the house and all about me. And
I knew that, whether she had succeeded or not, she had paid that
nocturnal visit to George Rabbit to find out from him what he knew.
I found myself wondering whether the man had stood firm, or whether he
had been induced to tell the truth. I knew that in the latter case I had
an enemy in the house more powerful than any I had encountered yet; so
much justice at least I did her.
At breakfast the next morning the doctor was in a new mood. Something to
my surprise, I found both him and Debora at the breakfast table when I
entered; I may say that I had been to that loft over the stable, only to
find, as I had hoped, that my bird was flown. Now I murmured a word of
apology as I moved round to my place, and was laughingly answered by
Bardolph Just.
"You should indeed apologise, my dear John, on such an occasion as
this," he said. "And not to me, but to the lady. Don't you know what
to-day is?"
I think I murmured stupidly that I thought it was Tuesday, but the
doctor caught me up on the word, with another laugh.
"Yes, but what a Tuesday! It is Debora's birthday!"
"All my good wishes," I said, turning to her at once; and I was rewarded
by a quick shy glance and a smile.
"Come, show John what I've given you; let him see it," exclaimed the
doctor. "Or stay--let me put it on!"
I saw then that there was lying beside her plate a little red morocco
case. Without looking at him, she pushed it along the table until his
hand could reach it, and let her own arm lie passive there afterwards.
He unfastened the case, and displayed a glittering and very beautiful
bracelet.
"What do you think of that?" he cried. "Fit to adorn the prettiest and
whitest arm in the world."
It was curious that, while her arm lay along the table, and he took his
time in fitting the bracelet round the wrist, she kept her eyes fixed on
me, so that her head was averted from him. Even when he had finished the
business, and had put her hand to his lips for a moment, she did not
look round; she only withdrew the hand quickly, and put it in her lap
under the table. I saw his face darken at that, and those white dots
come and go in his nostrils.
"A great day, I assure you, John, and we'll make a great day of it.
We're having a little dinner-party to-night in honour of the event.
Debora doesn't seem to care for pretty things much," he added a little
sourly.
"Thank you; it is very kind of you," she murmured in a constrained
voice; and put the arm that held the bracelet on the table.
I felt a poor creature, in more senses than one, in being able to give
her nothing, and I felt that I wanted to tell her that. So I contrived a
meeting in the grounds, out of sight of the house, and there for a
moment I held her hand, and stumbled over what was in my heart.
"You know all the good things I wish you, dear Debora," I said. "I have
no gift for you, because I'm too poor; besides, I didn't know what day
it was. But my heart goes out to you, in loyalty and in service."
"I know--I know," she answered simply. "And that is why I want to say
something to you--something that you must not laugh at."
"I should never do that," I assured her earnestly.
"John, I am growing desperately afraid," she said, glancing over her
shoulder as she spoke, and shuddering. "It is not that anything fresh
has happened; it is only that I feel somehow that something is hanging
over me. It is in the air--in the doctor's eyes--in the looks of the
woman Leach; it is like some storm brewing, that must presently sweep
down upon me, and sweep me away. I know it--I know it."
In sheer blind terror at what was in her own thoughts she clung to me,
weeping hysterically, and for my own part I was more shaken than I dared
to say. For that thought had been in my mind, too; and now instantly I
recalled what I had heard behind the screen in the study the night
before. But I would not let her see that I agreed with her; I did my
best to laugh her out of that mood, and to get her into a more cheerful
one.
In part, at least, I succeeded; I assured her over and over again that
no harm should come to her while I was near. Yet even as I said it I
realised my own helplessness, and how difficult a task I had to fight
against those who were her enemies. For I was convinced that the woman
Leach was, if anything, the greater enemy of the two, by reason of that
mad jealousy to which she had already given expression.
In the strangest way it was Martha Leach who precipitated matters that
night, as I shall endeavour to explain, in the order of the strange
events as they happened. In the first place, you are to know that Harvey
Scoffold, having doubtless been duly warned, put in an appearance that
night, resplendent in evening dress, while the doctor did equal honour
to the occasion. I had a tweed suit which the doctor had procured for
me; and glad enough I had been, I can assure you, to discard the
garments of the dead man. I thought but little of my dress, however,
that night, so intent was I upon watching what was taking place at the
table.
Harvey Scoffold took a great quantity of champagne, and the doctor
appeared to do so also; in reality, however, I saw that he drank very
little. He pressed wine upon Debora again and again, and Martha Leach,
who stood behind his chair, was constantly at the girl's elbow with a
freshly-opened bottle. Debora did no more than sip the wine, however,
despite the doctor's entreaties. In a lull in the conversation, while
the servants were out of the room and only Martha Leach was present
behind the doctor's chair, I distinctly saw him noiselessly snap his
fingers, and whisper something to her, and glance towards the girl. It
was as though there was a secret understanding between the man and the
woman.
Then it was that I came to my resolution; then it was that, to the
astonishment of everyone, I began to get noisy. I had all my wits about
me, for I had drunk but little, and my head was clear; but at my end of
the table it was impossible for them to tell how much I had really
taken. I made a pretence of staggering to my feet and proposing a toast,
only to be pushed down into my seat again by Harvey Scoffold.
"Be careful," he whispered, with a laugh. "You're not used to this sort
of drink; you've taken too much already."
I staggered to my feet again, demanding to know what he meant by it, and
asserting my ability, drunkenly, to carry as much as any gentleman. I
saw Debora, with a distressed face, rise from the table and go, and
desperately enough I longed to be able to explain to her what I was
doing.
I insisted, with threats, upon having more wine, until at last the
doctor and Scoffold got up and made their way upstairs. There, in the
study, Scoffold said that he had a walk before him, and must be going.
"Well, we'll have Debora in, and you shall wish her many happy returns
of the day once more before you go," said the doctor, as he rang the
bell. "John looks as if he were asleep."
I was not asleep by any means; but I was sunk all of a heap in an
arm-chair, snoring, and with my eyes apparently shut. It did not escape
me that, on the ringing of that bell, Martha Leach appeared at once,
with a bottle and glasses on a tray; and once again I saw that meaning
glance flash from her to the doctor, and back again.
Then, very slowly, the door opened, and Debora came in, looking about
her. And I lay in that apparent drunken sleep, with every sense attuned
to what was about to happen, and with my eyes watching through their
half-closed lids.