He disappeared down the basement steps, and in another minute a harsh
voice apparently vituperating him rose up, and when he rejoined his
comrade his face was redder than ever.
"Now," he said, "we'll go; the sooner the better. Everybody in the
neighbourhood will know what she thinks of me inside of ten minutes."
They slipped out into the street, and Ingleby stopped a moment at the
end of it and looked back with a curious expression in his face. The
sunlight that lay bright upon one side of it emphasized its
unattractiveness. Tall houses, grim in their squalid ugliness, shut it
in, and the hot air that scarcely stirred between them was heavy with
the sour odours from a neighbouring tanyard. A hoarse clamour and a
woman's voice, high-pitched and shrill with fear or anger, came out of a
shadowy alley where unkempt children played in the gutter. The uproar
did not concern them. They were apparently used to it.
"I've lived five years in the midst of--this--and now I'm almost sorry
to leave it," he said. "There's no reason in us."
Then he turned again with a little resolute shake of his shoulders.
"Well, we have done with it at last, and if half what one hears is true
there is a chance for such as us in the country we are going to."
Leger said nothing, and it was silently they threaded their way
deviously in and out of alleys and archways towards the station. Their
life had been a hard one in that squalid town, but the place had, after
all, been home, and they could not tell what awaited them in the
unknown. They had in them the steadfastness which is born of struggle,
but the unthinking courage of youth that has felt no care is quite a
different thing.
However, nobody appeared desirous of preventing their departure, and
they eventually got away by a steamer for which they had to wait several
days in Liverpool.
In the meanwhile Geoffrey Esmond lay one evening propped up amidst the
pillows in a darkened room at Holtcar Grange. He was blanched in face,
and his eyes were heavy, while a big wet bandage was still rolled about
his head. Major Coulthurst was by his bedside, and a burly sergeant of
police sat on the very edge of a sofa with a notebook in his hand. The
window was open behind the blind, and a little cool air that brought the
fragrance of flowers with it crept into the room.
"Major Coulthurst fancied he could recognize the man who assaulted you,
Mr. Esmond, and I have no doubt we will lay hands on him in a day or
two," said the officer. "If you could identify him, too, it would make
the thing more certain, and I would like to read you the description
furnished me before we go any farther."
"If that is the usual course I don't see why I should object," said
Esmond drily. "Still, isn't it a trifle suggestive?"
The sergeant did not appear to notice the irony of the inquiry, and
launched out into what was, in the circumstances, a tolerably accurate
description of Leger. Esmond listened quietly, with a little smile in
his half-closed eyes.
"Major Coulthurst," he said, "is evidently astonishingly quick-sighted
if he saw all that."
"I'm not sure I understand you, Esmond," and Coulthurst looked up
sharply.
"Well," said the younger man reflectively, "I always fancied you were a
sportsman, and we had our fun. Of course, while it lasted I would
cheerfully have broken the Socialist fellow's head if I could have
managed it, but just now the odds seem a trifle heavy against him."
Coulthurst laughed a little, but the sergeant shook his head. "That's
not at all the way to look at it, sir," he said. "In a case of this kind
one has, if I may point it out, a duty to society."
"And the police?" said Esmond, who made a little gesture. "I really do
not think I should ask the opinion of the latter as to what is incumbent
on me. Still, that is scarcely the point. You want me to identify the
man--and I can't do it."
"You must have seen him close to, sir."
Esmond laughed. "Have you ever had incipient concussion of the brain?
You probably haven't. I believe they line your headgear with cork or
cane. Well, in one respect, it's a little unfortunate, since it would
have helped you to understand my position. Now, the major says the man's
hair was light brown, but so far as I can remember it was red. Are you
quite sure it wasn't, Coulthurst?"