"It's all over," said Chester to himself. "That doctor's correct, and I
must not trifle or I shall be laid by with something wrong in the head.
That drugging began it, and I'm not right. I won't give up the quest,
but I must get square first, and I can't do so here. I'll pack up and
go on the Continent for a bit. Change may make me able to think
consistently. Now my brain is in a whirl."
He tried to reason calmly, and at last, not feeling in the humour to see
and explain to his sister, he wrote to her briefly, telling her that the
anxiety and worry of the case to which he had been called that night had
completely unhinged him, and he found that the only thing he could do to
recover his tone was to get right away for a time. He was going, he
said, to see a colleague that morning, who would come and take charge of
the practice, and he would write again from abroad.
This done, he fastened down the envelope and left the letter upon the
table, after which he went to his room, threw a few necessaries into a
portmanteau, brought it down, with Aunt Grace carefully watching from
the top of the staircase, and sent the servant for a cab.
Five minutes later he was on his way to his club to consult the
time-tables and guide-book as to the route to take.
He was not long in deciding upon Tyrol as the starting-place for a long
mountain tramp. There was a train at night, and without returning home
he would dine at the club and start from there.
He followed out the earlier portion of his programme, even to dining at
the club, but afterwards, upon entering the smoking-room and taking a
cigar, he found the place half full, and, longing for solitude, he went
out to stroll down the steps and into the Park for an hour, ending by
taking one of the seats under an old elm in the Mall and sitting back
thinking of all that had happened during the past few weeks.
He was once more going over the scenes by the wounded man's couch, and
seeing again the every movement and look of his anxious sister, when he
shrank back against the trunk of the great tree and let his chin sink
upon his breast, for there were steps just to the right, and two
gentlemen strolled by, one of them talking aloud angrily, and the
following words smote like blows upon the listener's ears--
"Look here, if you want to quarrel, say so, Paddy. But you're no saint,
so don't you begin preaching morality. I repeat I have taken a
tremendous fancy to her; what then? As for Rob, curse him for a
miserable prig! If it were not for the consequences I'm ready to wish
that the shot had ended it, and I swear I'll--"
The last words died out into the night air, and, save for the
preternaturally excited state of his brain, Chester would not have heard
so much.
He sat up, and saw the figures of the brothers, who had passed him,
growing indistinct as they went beyond the next lamp; and then he rose
and followed.
"`And I swear I'll--' what?" said Chester to himself. "Shoot me? Well,
let him. There, it's all over. I can't go away; I must see this out to
the very end."
Chester followed the pair with the full intention of demanding an
explanation and having a scene with the elder brother, for his
resentment seemed to be making the blood bubble up through his veins.
They were walking through the Palace Yard, and directly after they
crossed the road and went up St James's Street, talking angrily; and he
was just about to join them when he saw the younger turn angrily off
into the road, as if about to separate, but in an instant the elder had
him by the arm and after a faint resistance led him back on to the
pavement, where Chester was awaiting them.
"Mr Clareborough," he said sharply, and both brothers turned upon him
in surprise.
"Yes; what is it?" cried the elder. "Oh, the man in the wrong box!
Come along, boy."
He turned short off, and before Chester could recover from his surprise,
the brothers had passed through the swinging doors of one of the
clubhouses and disappeared in the great hall.
Chester was about to follow, but checked himself upon the threshold as
the question arose in his mind, What for?
To demand an explanation of their conduct toward him.
Well, he felt that he might demand it, but he knew that they would
preserve the same attitude as before, and treat him with contempt--treat
him as if he were some half-witted being who claimed acquaintance; and
how could he get people to believe in his strange story--how could he
advance his position with respect to Marion?
He calmed down as quickly as he had grown excited and began to feel that
to force a quarrel in the club to which these men belonged could have
but one ending, that of the police being called in and his being
ejected.
"And what then?" he asked himself. "Possibly the whole business would
be dragged into the police court, then into the daily papers, and if
Marion were ready to continue her intimacy with the man who had saved
her brother's life, would she not be hurt and annoyed with him for
forcing into publicity an affair which the conduct of all concerned
showed them to be eager to keep hushed up?"
Chester walked down St James's Street again, with the intention of
cooling his burning head in the quiet gloom of the Park; but he altered
his mind and turned off to his left, along Pall Mall, re-entered his
club and went up to the smoking-room, which proved to be a little more
full than before, but this did not trouble him now. He sat down and
took a cigar and began smoking, thinking, trying to argue out the reason
for the strange behaviour of these Clareboroughs. He could understand
that there had been a desperate quarrel, resulting in the use of the
revolver, and he was ready to grant that the elder brother's conduct
toward Marion had been the moving cause for that. But he felt convinced
that there was something more behind; else why all the secrecy?
Here they were, a wealthy family, evidently moving in good society, and
living in a magnificently-appointed mansion; but during all the days of
his enforced stay, with the exception of the old housekeeper, he had not
seen a single servant, and nothing to suggest that any were in the
place. That they kept domestics was plain enough, for he had since seen
the butler and footman. Then, too, there had been the coachman who
drove the carriage that night, though he, as an out-door servant, might
easily have been kept in ignorance of all that took place in the house.
But where were the others, the staff which would be necessary for
carrying on such an establishment?
There was no answer to the question, even at the finishing of a second
cigar, and he gave it up, and then smiled to himself as he rose.
"How absurd!" he muttered. "Everything else passed out of my head. I
meant to cross to-night. Well, it is not too late, is it? Pish! Two
hours. Oh, impossible! I cannot leave town. How could I go knowing
that even now she may be praying for my help?"
Chester passed out again into the cool night, and involuntarily turned
in the direction of the Park, crossed it, and walked slowly toward
Highcombe Street, where, he hardly knew why, he began to promenade the
pavement on the opposite side of the road, stopping at last just inside
a doorway when a cab came sharply along; and his nerves began to thrill
as he saw it pulled up at the door of the mansion.
Two gentlemen sprang out, and while one paid the driver, the other
strolled up the steps, there was the rattle of the latch-key, the door
was flung wide, and from where he stood Chester had a glimpse of the
handsome hall, now looking sombre and strange with the lights half
turned down.
Directly after the door was closed, and the chimes of the Palace clock
rang out four times, followed by two deep, booming strokes on the great
cracked bell.
"Two o'clock!" thought Chester, as he walked along past the house,
fancying that there was a face at the open window of a room on the
second floor, but he could not be sure, and as he turned back it was
gone.
"Go abroad!" he said to himself. "At such a time. It would be
madness."
Then giving way to a sudden impulse, he hurried back to the front of the
house, went up to the door and rang the bell sharply.
"Fool!" he muttered. "Why did I not speak to them then? I will have an
explanation. I have a right, and it is evident that I have the
whip-hand of them, or they would not act their parts like this."
He knew that he was wildly excited and doing a foolish thing, but his
actions were beyond his control now, and he was ready for Marion's sake
to take the maddest steps on her behalf, or he would not have stood at
that moment where he did.
"Too late," he muttered, as there was no reply. "I've let my
opportunity slip."
But all the same he dragged sharply at the bell again, and as his hand
fell to his side the door was opened and he found himself face to face
with the man he sought.
"Yes, what is it?" cried James Clareborough, sharply. "What! you again?
Here, what the devil--Who are you? What do you want?"
"You," said Chester, firmly, "you and your brother. I will have an
explanation with you both. I will see--I will not be put off like
this."
"Confound him!" muttered James Clareborough between his teeth.
"Here, I say, old chap," growled his brother, who now appeared, "have
you been dining somewhere and over-doing it a bit? Hadn't you better go
home quietly? We don't want to whistle for a policeman and have you
locked up."
"You hold your tongue!" cried James Clareborough. "I'll soon settle
with this gentleman. Now then, my tipsy individual, you want a few
words with me--an explanation?"
"Yes and at once," cried Chester, beside himself with rage at the very
sight of the man whose conduct toward Marion absolutely maddened him.
As he spoke he pressed forward to enter, but the brothers barred the
way.
"No, no," said the elder, "none of that. We're not going to have the
house disturbed by your ravings. It's only a few minutes to the Park--
come on there and we'll have it out, and done with it."
"No; we won't," growled the younger brother, fiercely, and, placing his
hands suddenly upon Chester's breast, he gave him a heavy thrust, drove
him staggering back, and almost in the one effort snatched his brother
aside and banged to the door.
"What the devil do you mean by that?" cried James Clareborough,
savagely, as he tried to reopen the door, but his brother placed his
back to it and held him off.
"To keep you cool, old man," growled the younger. "Get him in the Park
at this time, with no one near! What did you mean to do?"
"Do what I'll do now."
"Got something in your pocket, old chap?"
"Yes, I have. Let me go out."
"And have a paragraph in the papers to-morrow morning about a discovery
in the Park?"
"Yes. Curse him! he's getting dangerous. If he is not silenced, what's
to happen next? Let me go, boy. There, he's ringing again. Let me
go."
"Not if I can stop it, old man. We've got risks enough as it is."
"Curse you, Paddy, for a fool!" cried the other; and he seized his
brother and tried to drag him away, while the great fellow reached down
and drew a pistol from his brother's pocket.
"Got your sting, Jem," he cried. "You don't use that to-night."
"Wrong!" cried the other, snatching it away; and as the bell was rung
violently again he made for the door.