THE BOY WITH THE RED CAP
Jenny had failed with Powers; that seemed to be the state of the
case--or, at least, her success was so precarious as to put her whole
position in extreme peril. Neither storm nor sunshine, neither wrath nor
cajolery, had won him securely. Behind each he could discern its true
object--to gain time, to tide over. When Jenny had finished her
equivocal proceedings, when she had settled down either to Fillingford
or to Octon--Octon's success must still have seemed a possibility to the
accomplice of their meetings--what would she do with her equally
equivocal partner? Reward him? Yes, if she had trusted him. He knew very
well that she trusted him no longer; her threats and her wheedling
combined to prove it. Presumably Mr. Powers was acquainted with the
parable of The Unjust Steward; he, too, was a child of this
world--indeed his earthly parentage was witnessed to beyond the common
by his moral features. What should he do when he was no longer steward,
when Jenny was safely wedded to Fillingford, or had thrown off, of her
own motive or on compulsion, all secrecy about Octon? Lady Sarah should
receive--or at least introduce--him into a comfortable habitation and
put money in his pocket to pay its rent. Jenny had overrated her
domination; and she had forgotten that rogues are apt not to know when
they are well off. Even when their own pockets are snugly lined, a
pocket unpicked is a challenge and a temptation.
Lady Sarah's conduct is sufficiently accounted for by most praiseworthy
motives--moral principle, family pride, loyalty to her brother. Let,
then, no others be imputed. But if Jenny would not credit these to her,
well, there were others of which she might have thought. She had chosen
not to think of Lady Sarah at all--in connection with Powers at all
events. The very omission might stand as a compliment to Lady Sarah, but
Jenny was not the person who could afford to pay it; her own safety and
honor still rested in those unclean hands.
The last days--the week of Jenny's hard-won respite--passed for us at
Breysgate like the interval between the firing of a fuse and the
explosion. How would it go? Clear away obstacles and open the adit to
profitable working? Or blow all the mine to ruins, and engulf the
engineer in the _debris_? Nerves were on trial and severely tried. Chat
was in flutters beyond description. I do not suppose that I myself was a
cheerful companion. Jenny was steel, but the steel was red-hot.
At last--the last day! Jenny's week of respite drew to its end. Be sure
I had counted! But if I had not, Octon himself came, most welcomely, to
announce it. With a mighty relief I heard him say, as he threw himself
into my arm-chair at the Old Priory, "I've just dropped in to say
good-by, Austin. I'm off to-morrow."
"Off? Where to?" I had sooner have asked "For how long?" His reply
answered both questions.
"Right out of this hole--for good." He smiled. "So, for once, I chanced
meeting Lady Aspenick again in the park." He took up the poker and began
to dig and prod my coals: all through our talk he held the poker, now
digging and prodding, now using it to emphasize his words with a point
or a wave. "I'm done with here, Austin. I've played a game that I never
thought I should play again--and I've come to feel as if I'd never
played it before. I've played it with all the odds against me, and I've
made a good fight."
"Yes, too good," I said.
"Aye, aye! But I've lost. So I'm off." He lay back in the big chair--the
same one in which Lacey had stretched his graceful, lithe young
body--and looked up at me where I stood on the rug. "There's not much
more to say, is there? I thought I'd say that much to you because you're
a good fellow."
"And you're not," I retorted angrily--(Remember our nerves!) "Have you
no care for what you love?"
"Am I so much the worse man of the two?" he asked.
"What's that got to do with it? Well, thank God you're going to-morrow!"
"Everybody always thanks God when I go, and I generally thank Him
myself--but not to-day, perhaps." His next prod at the coals in the
grate was a vicious one. "I suppose that some day there'll be a general
feeling that I must be wiped out--an instinctive revolt against my
existence, Austin. This neighborhood has felt the thing already. Some
day it will be felt where stronger measures than cutting are in fashion.
Then I shall be killed. Perhaps I shall kill, too, but they'll get me in
the end, depend upon it!" Suddenly he smiled in a tender reflective way.
"That was what poor little Madge was always so afraid of. Well, I had a
good deal to try my temper while she was with me." He looked up at me,
smiling now in mockery. "Don't be shocked, my excellent Austin. I'm
talking about my wife."
"Your wife!" I cried in utter surprise and consternation.
That was exactly the effect he intended to produce and enjoyed
producing. Amidst all his distress he found leisure to indulge his taste
for administering shocks.
"You've always thought of me as a bachelor, haven't you? I suppose
everybody thinks so--except one person. Well, it's no affair of theirs,
and they've never chosen to inquire. I didn't mean to tell you, but the
reference to her slipped out."
"You've had a wife all this time?" I gasped, sinking into a chair
opposite to him.
He laughed openly at me. "Poor old Austin! No, it's not Powers over
again." (So he knew about Powers!) "The poor child's been dead these
twelve years."
I shrugged my shoulders impatiently. "Does it really amuse you to play
the fool just now?"
"It amused me to make you jump." He watched me with a malicious grin for
half a minute, then fell to prodding the coals again. "We were boy and
girl--and I had only two years with her, and during that time I had the
pleasure of seeing her nearly starve. I had no money and got very little
work; in the usual way of things, I came into my little bit of
money--it's precious little--too late. She was very pretty and a good
girl, but not a lady by birth--no, not a lady, Austin. Consequently my
folk--my respectable well-to-do folk--left her pretty nearly to
starve--and me to look on at it. That's among the reasons why I'm so
fond of respectable well-to-do people, why I have a natural inclination
to acquiesce in their claim to all the virtues."
"Does Miss Driver know this?"
"Yes." He paused a moment. "She knows this--and a little more--which may
or may not turn out material some day."
These words started my alarm afresh. Did he mean still to be in touch
with Jenny, still to keep up communication with her--a hold on her--even
though he went? If that were so, there was no end in sight, and no
peace. The next instant he relieved me from that fear by adding in a low
pensive voice, "But not while I live; we know each other no more after
to-day."
Our eyes met again. He nodded at me, confirming his last words. "You may
rely on that," he seemed to say.
"Do you leave by an early train to-morrow?" I asked.
"Yes--first thing in the morning."
"By this time to-morrow I shall feel very kindly toward you, Octon, and
the more kindly for what you've told me to-day."
"I believe you will, and I understand the deferred payment of your
love." He smiled at me again. "You're true to your salt, and I suppose
you're a bit in love yourself, though you don't seem to know anything
about it. Well, take care of her--take care of this great woman."
"I don't want to talk about her to you. I don't see the good of it."
"You ought to want to, because I understand her. But since you
don't----" He dropped the poker with a clatter and reared himself to his
height. "I'd better go, for, as heaven's above us, I can talk and think
of nothing else--till to-morrow."
"Where are you going to?"
"Into the dark"--he laughed gruffly--"Continent. Did my melodrama alarm
you? Not that it's dark any longer--more's the pity! It's not very
likely we shall meet again this side the Styx." He held out his hand to
me with a genuinely friendly air.
"We're both young!" I said as I clasped his hand. In the end, still, I
liked him, and his story had moved me to a new pity. It was all of a
piece with his perversity that he should have hidden so long his
strongest claim to sympathy.
"I could have been young," he answered. "And that stiff fool can't." He
squeezed my hand to very pain before he dropped it. "A great woman and a
good fellow--well, in this hole it's something to have met! As for the
rest of them--the fate of Laodicea, I think!"
"You're so wrong, you know."
"Yes? As usual? In the end I shall certainly be stamped out!" He shook
his head with a whimsically humorous gravity. "Part of the objection to
me is simply because I'm so large."
That was actually true when I came to think of it. His size seemed an
oppression--a perpetual threat--in itself a form of bullying. Small men
could have said the things he did with only half the offense; the other
half lay in his physical security.
"Try to counteract that by improving your manners," I said, smiling at
him in a friendly amusement.
"Let the grizzly bear put on silk knee-breeches--wouldn't he look
elegant? Good-by, Austin. Take care of her!"
"Since you say that again--you know I would--with my life."
"And I--to my death. And I seem to die to-day."
There was nothing to be said to that. We walked out into the open air
together. I rejoiced that he was going, and yet was sad. Something of
what Jenny felt was upon me then--the interest of him, the challenge to
try and to discover, the greatness of the effort to influence, the
audacity of the notion of ruling. The danger of him--and his bulk! A
Dark Continent he seemed in himself! I could not but be sorry that my
little ship was now to lose sight of the coasts of it. But there was a
nobler craft--almost driven on to its rocks, still tossing in its
breakers. For her a fair wind off land and an open sea!
As we stood before my door, I awaiting Octon's departure, he perhaps
loath to look his last on a scene which must carry for him such
significance, I saw Lacey coming toward me on horseback. He beckoned to
me in token that he wanted me.
"Ah, an opportunity for another good-by!" said Octon grimly.
Lacey brought his horse to a stand by us, but did not dismount.
"I'm trespassing, I'm afraid, Lord Lacey! My being in this park is
against the law, isn't it?"
Octon's opening was not very conciliatory, but Lacey's good-humor was
proof against him. Moreover the lad looked preoccupied.
"I'm not out for a row to-day, Mr. Octon," he said. "I want just one
word with you, Austin."
"Then I'll be off," said Octon. He nodded to me; he did not offer to
shake hands again.
"I'll come and see you off to-morrow morning. The eleven-five, I
suppose?" That was the fast train to London.
"Yes. All right, I shall be glad to see you. To Lord Lacey--and his
friends--this is good-by."
"You're going away?" asked Lacey, joy and relief plain in his voice.
"Yes. You seem very glad."
"I am glad," said young Lacey, "but I mean no offense, Mr. Octon."
Their eyes met fair and square. I expected an angry outburst from Octon,
but none came; his look was moody again, but it was not fierce. He
looked restless and unhappy, but he spoke with dignity.
"I recognize that. I take no offense. Good-by, Lord Lacey." With a
slight lift of his hat, courteously responded to by Lacey, he turned his
back on us and walked away with his heavy slouching gait, his head sunk
low on his shoulders. We watched him go for a moment or two in silence.
"Is he going for good?" Lacey asked me.
"Yes, to-morrow."
He seemed to consider something within himself. "Then I don't know that
I really need trouble you. It's a delicate matter and--" He beat his leg
with his crop, frowning thoughtfully. "I wonder, Austin, whether you're
aware how matters stand between Miss Driver and my father?" His use of
"my father" instead of "the governor" was a significant mark of his
seriousness.
"Yes, she told me."
"My father told me. To-morrow is the day for the announcement. Austin,
the last two or three days my father has been very worried and upset.
Aunt Sarah's been at him about something. I'm sure it's about--about
Miss Driver. I can tell it is by the way they both look when her name's
mentioned. And I--I tried an experiment. At lunch to-day I began to talk
about that fellow Powers. I tried it on by saying I thought he was a
scoundrel and that I hoped Miss Driver would give him the sack. I never
saw a man look up with such a start as my father did. Aunt Sarah was
ready to be on to me, but he was too quick. 'Why do you say that?' he
snapped out--eagerly, you know--as if he was uncommonly anxious to hear
my reasons. Well, of course, I'd none to give, only my impressions of
the chap. Aunt Sarah looked triumphant and read me a lecture on envy,
malice, and all uncharitableness. My father sat staring at the
tablecloth, but listening hard to every word. Why the devil should my
father be so interested in Powers? Can you tell me that, Austin?"
"No, I can't tell you," I said, "but I'm much obliged to you for
this--information."
"I thought there would be--well, just no harm in mentioning it to you,"
he said. "Of course it's probably all right really. And if everything is
settled, and announced, and all that, to-morrow--and--" He broke off,
not adding in words what there was no need to add--"Octon gone
to-morrow!"
But to-day was not to-morrow. Lady Sarah was at work, and Fillingford
much interested in Mr. Powers! Worried, upset, and very much interested
in Powers!
Lacey gathered his reins and prepared to be off. "Sorry if I've meddled
in what's not my business," he said. "But I'm ready to take the
responsibility." That was permission to me to use his information, and
to vouch his authority to Jenny. He nodded to me. "See you to-morrow,
perhaps, and we'll drink the health of the engaged couple!" He smiled,
but he looked puzzled and not very happy, rather as though he were
hoping for the best, and staving off anticipation of some hitch or
misfortune.
As soon as he was gone, I went up to the Priory. My task was not an easy
one, but I had an overwhelming feeling--a feeling which refused all
counter-argument--that it was necessary. There was still this one
evening--an opportunity for a last bit of recklessness, and Heaven alone
knew how great a temptation.
Jenny received me in her little upstairs sitting-room, next to the room
where she slept. She wore an indoors gown and, in answer to my formal
inquiry, told me that she had a cold and was feeling rather "seedy"--not
a common admission for her to make. Then I went to work, stumbling at my
awkward story--so full of implied accusation against her, if it were not
utterly unmeaning--under the steady thoughtful gaze of her eyes. She
heard me to the end in silence.
"If that rascal is trying to make mischief, if he has trumped up some
story--" I tried so to put it that she could feel entitled to be on her
guard without making any admissions.
She made none, and offered no direct comment on the story. She took up
an envelope from the writing-table by her.
"This is my formal leave to Lord Fillingford to announce our engagement.
I was going to post it to-night. I'll send it now by a groom. Please
ring the bell for me, Austin."
Loft appeared. She gave him the letter and ordered that a groom should
take it to Fillingford Manor on horseback. Loft glanced at the clock.
"The men will just be at their tea, miss," he said. It was now about
half-past four.
"It'll do in half an hour's time," she answered. "But let it get there
this afternoon without fail."
As Loft went out, she turned to me. "There now, that's settled."
Was it? There was still to-night. I suspected to-night desperately. I
suspected Jenny's love of having it both ways to the very last moment
that she could. I suspected the strength of the lure toward Octon.
Whether she divined my suspicions I cannot tell. She went on in her
simplest, most plausible way.
"Now I'm going to lie down, and I'm not sure I shall get up again. A
plate of soup and a novel in bed look rather attractive! And I must get
a good beauty-sleep--against my lord's coming to-morrow!"
She held out her hand to me. As I took it I gave her a long look. The
bright eyes were candid and unembarrassed. Yet I had grave doubts
whether Jenny was speaking the whole truth--and nothing but it!
On the stairs I encountered Chat. She broke out on me volubly about
Jenny's indisposition.
"You've seen our poor Jenny--the poor child? So ill, such a cold! And
she actually wanted to go down to Catsford to see Mr. Bindlecombe and
Mr. Powers on some Institute business! As if she was fit to go out--a
raw cold evening, too, and getting dark so much earlier nowadays! At any
rate I persuaded her out of that, and I do hope she'll be sensible and
go to bed."
"So do I--very much, Miss Chatters," I replied.
"And she's just given me to understand that she means to do it."
"That's the safe thing," Chat averred with emphasis; and, without a
doubt, she was perfectly right--from more points of view than one. In
bed at Breysgate, with her soup, her novel, and a watchful maid in
attendance, Jenny would be safe. I did not, however, need quite as much
convincing of it as Chat seemed disposed to administer to me.
There was nothing more to do. I went back home, brewed myself a cup of
tea, and sat down to write letters; writing letters compels an attention
which would wander from a book. I had an accumulation to answer, some on
my own account, the greater part on Jenny's affairs, and I worked away
steadily till it was nearly seven o'clock. Then I was suddenly
interrupted by a loud knock on my door. As I rose, the door opened, and
Lacey was again before me. He was still in riding dress, but his boots
were covered with dust; he was hot and out of breath. He had been
walking--walking fast, or even running. He seemed excited, but tried to
smile at me.
"Here I am again!" he said. "I don't know whether I am a fool, Austin--I
hope I am--but there's something I want you to hear." He shut the door
behind him, glanced at the clock, and went on quickly. "Do you know a
sandy-haired boy who wears a red cap and rides a girl's bicycle?"
"Yes," I answered. "That's Powers's boy--Alban Powers."
"I thought I remembered the young beggar. That boy brought a note up to
Aunt Sarah while we were having tea--about a quarter past five, it must
have been, I think. Aunt Sarah pounced on the note, read it, said there
was no answer, and then handed the note over to my father. 'Who's it
from?' he asked peevishly. 'You'll see if you read it,' she said. I
asked if I was _de trop_, but my father signed to me to sit where I was.
He read the note, and handed it back to Aunt Sarah. 'What are you going
to do?' she asked. 'Nothing,' he said. She pursed up her lips and
shrugged her shoulders--she made it pretty plain what she thought of
that answer. 'Nothing!' she sort of whispered, throwing her eyes up to
the ceiling. Then he broke out: 'I've forbidden the subject to be
mentioned!'--but he looked very unhappy and uncomfortable. Nobody said
anything for a bit; Aunt Sarah looked obstinate-silent and my father
unhappy-silent. I tried to talk about something or other, but it was no
good. Then the man came in with another note, saying a groom had brought
it for his lordship. Well, he read that--and it seemed to please him a
bit better."
"Well it might!" I remarked. "It was from Miss Driver and it said what
he wanted."
"Wait a bit, Austin. He sat with this note--Miss Driver's--in his hand,
turning it over and over. He didn't offer to show it to either of us,
but he kept looking across at Aunt Sarah. I took up a paper, but I
watched them from behind it. He was weighing something in his mind; she
wouldn't look at him--playing sulky still over the business of the first
note, the one that boy in the red cap had brought. At last he got up and
went over to her. He spoke rather low, but I heard--well, he could have
sent me away, or gone away with her himself, if he hadn't wanted me to
hear. 'A note I've had from Miss Driver makes it very proper for me to
call on her this evening,' he said. Aunt Sarah looked up, wide awake in
a minute. 'You'll go this evening--to Breysgate?' she asked. 'Yes, at
seven.' 'At seven,' she repeated after him with a nod. 'But perhaps
she'll be out.' 'That's possible,' he answered. 'But I shall wait for
her--she must come in before dinner.' Aunt Sarah looked hard at him.
'They'll probably know where she's gone if she is out. You could go and
meet her,' she said to him. I can't give you the way they talked--it was
all as if what they said meant something different, or something more,
at any rate. When Aunt Sarah suggested that he might go and meet Miss
Driver, he started a little, then thought it over. At last he said, 'I
shall try to find her to-night.' 'You're sensible at last!' she
said--and added something in a whisper. My father nodded, and walked out
of the room, pocketing his letter. Aunt Sarah went to the fire and
burned hers. I wish I could have got a look at it!"
"So do I," I said. "It's just on seven now."
I was thinking hard. The boy with the red cap--Powers's boy--the
note--the subterranean quarrel over it--the strange half-spoken
half-suppressed conversation that followed--these gave plenty of matter
for thought when I added to them my sore doubts of the way in which
Jenny in truth meant to spend the evening.
"Of course it may be all nothing. I'm afraid all the time of being
infernally officious."
"Your father will pretty nearly be at Breysgate by now."
"And she's there, I suppose, isn't she?" His question was full of
hesitation.
In an instant, on his question, my doubts and suspicions seemed to
harden into certainties. I knew--it was nothing less than
knowledge--that she was not there, and that the note brought by the boy
with the red cap told truly where she was. Fillingford would go to
Breysgate--he would be referred to Chat. Chat would tell him that Jenny
was in bed. Would he believe it and go home peacefully--to face Lady
Sarah's angry scorn and the doubts of his own perplexed mind? He
might--then all would be well. But he might not believe it. He had said
that he would try to find her to-night. He knew where to find her--if he
trusted the information which the boy in the red cap had brought.
"He doesn't know you've come here, of course?"
"Not he! I got a start--and, by Jove, I ran! Are you going to do
anything about it?"
I was quite clear what I had to do about it. Chat must be in the secret;
she might manage to send Fillingford home--or she might keep him at
Breysgate long enough to give me, in my turn, a chance. No good lay in
my going to meet him--Chat could lie as well as I, and, if he would not
believe her, he would not believe me either. Neither would I send Lacey
to him; any appearance of Lacey's in the matter would show that we were
afraid, that we knew there was something to conceal. My course was to
take the start Lacey's warning gave me, to go where Jenny was, trusting
to reach her in time to get her away before Fillingford came on from
Breysgate. It was time to put away pretenses, scruples, formalities. I
must find her wherever she was; I must meet her face to face with my
message of danger.
I put on my hat and coat hastily. Lacey stood looking at me.
"Where are you going?" he asked.
"Where that boy came from," I answered.
"Do you mind if I come, too? As far as the house, say?"
"Why do you want to come?"
He spoke with a certain calm authority. "I think I've a right to come.
You must excuse me for saying that I think I know with whom we're
dealing. We may very likely be in for a row, Austin. I don't want to be
seen, if I can help it, but I do want to be somewhere handy in case my
father--well, in case there is a row, you know."
Yes, we knew with whom we might have to deal. A row was not unlikely.
"Very well, come along," I said.
The clock struck seven as we started out into a dull, foggy, chill
evening. Darkness had fallen and the lights of Catsford twinkled in the
valley beneath us. As we began to walk, I heard carriage wheels on the
road behind us. Fillingford was on his way to Breysgate. Lie well, Chat!
Be clever! Keep him there--keep him there, till the danger is overpast!