Jacob and Lord Felixstowe stood side by side on the deck of a
homeward-bound steamer, a few weeks later, watching the pilot come out
from Plymouth Harbour.
"Some trip," the latter remarked, with a reminiscent sigh. "I feel as
though I'd had the beano of my life."
"You scored it up against me, all right," Jacob acknowledged. "Those
fellows might easily have got away with my hundred thousand pounds.
I'm not at all sure that I ought not to settle an annuity on you."
"Nothing doing," was the prompt reply. "Believe me, Jacob, old dear,
mine is one of those peculiar intelligences which thrive best in a
state of penury. Give me an absolutely assured income and my talents
would rust. I should no longer be equal to measuring my wits against
the Morses of the world."
Jacob smiled.
"I think you gave that young man the surprise of his life."
"I'm not at all sure that I didn't play it a trifle low down on Mr.
Sydney Morse," Felixstowe reflected. "He was a very credulous
simpleton, for all his cunning. The stage setting of his scheme was
wonderful and the details perfect, but he lacked the insight of a
great crook. On the whole I am glad that your brother let the bunch
off lightly."
"Samuel is almost fatally good-natured," his brother remarked. "I have
never known him to stay angry for long with any one."
"But what a prince! What a pasha!" Felixstowe declared
enthusiastically. "He decked me out at Tiffany's till I feel like a
walking jeweller's shop in the evening. And what a send-off! The old
country's going to seem a bit flat, Jacob. I feel as though I were
coming back to the rustic life."
"It's something to have any sort of life to come back to," Jacob
sighed.
The young man glanced at his companion with thoughtful eyes.
"Got the pip, old bean?" he enquired, with gentle sympathy.
Jacob shook his head.
"Slight attack of the blues, I suppose," he confessed, his eyes
travelling over the deep green of the fields and the dark woods beyond
the harbour. "Homecoming always seems a bit flat for a lonely man. I
suppose Dick Dauncey will be the only human being who cares sixpence
whether I turn up again or not."
"What did you have for luncheon?" Felixstowe asked anxiously.
"Whereas you," Jacob went on,--
"That reminds me," his companion interrupted, "I told Mary to bring
the little car down for me, if there was nothing much doing in town. I
wonder whether she's here."
"Good heavens!" Jacob exclaimed. "Do you mean to say that you have
asked your sister to drive that crazy old tin kettle of yours all the
way down from London?"
"It's a damned nice little car, properly handled," its owner objected
stiffly. "I'll lay odds that if Mary started we shall see her on the
dock."
Notwithstanding his avowed disapproval, Jacob's interest in the
landing perceptibly increased, and much of his depression had passed
away when they recognised Lady Mary amongst the little crowd waiting
on the dock. She was looking very smart and pretty in her simple
motoring clothes, and Jacob realised, even as they shook hands, why
his interest in the ladies of New York had lacked spontaneity. She
chattered to them gaily enough as they stood waiting for their
luggage, but Jacob fancied that there was a shade of reserve in her
manner.
"I couldn't wait till you got to London to hear all about it," she
declared. "I must have the whole story."
"At dinner time," Jacob suggested. "Only you must promise that you
won't laugh too much at the poor guileless Britisher who would
probably have been sharked of a hundred thousand pounds in New York,
but for Felix."
The girl's eyes danced with pleasure.
"You really mean that he was useful?"
"I can assure you--"
"Chuck that," the young man interrupted gruffly. "Non-stop run down, I
suppose, Mary?"
His sister looked a little dubious.
"I had to stop a few times for repairs," she admitted, "and two
policemen told me I should be summoned for making that awful noise."
"A wonderful engine," Felixstowe declared, "but it needs a master
hand."
"It needs a silencer more than anything," Jacob commented.
"Are you going to ride up with us in the dickey to-morrow?" Lady Mary
asked.
"I am not," Jacob replied firmly. "I have wired for my own car."
"Race you up for a tenner, old bean," Felixstowe suggested promptly.
"I wouldn't imperil Lady Mary's existence," Jacob replied,--"that is,
unless she rode with me."
"No fear," the young man scoffed. "Mary would never desert the old tin
kettle, as you call it."
"I rather like the smoothness of a Rolls-Royce," she murmured.
Over dinner that evening, their adventures in New York were recounted
at length. It was not until her brother had wandered out to get some
cigarettes, however, that Lady Mary referred to the subject which all
three seemed to have been avoiding.
"It must have been rather a shock to you, I am afraid, to meet Captain
and Mrs. Penhaven on the steamer," she remarked sympathetically.
"I thought it was going to be," he admitted. "It didn't turn out that
way."
"Are you very broken-hearted?"
"Are you?"
"I didn't give myself the chance," she replied, "When I found that
things were going wrong between Maurice and me, I just told him so."
"But you did care for him very much, didn't you?" he ventured.
She considered the matter indifferently.
"I suppose I did once, in a way," she decided. "He was rather a dear,
but a very obvious person in many respects. I always felt I knew
exactly what he was going to do or say, and that does get so
irritating. I am perfectly certain that we should have led a
cat-and-dog life if we had married."
Jacob looked across the little round table. For the first time during
the evening, Lady Mary's eyes met his. They were amazingly blue, and
Jacob lost his head.
"As for me, I am a faithless brute," he confessed. "I used to think
there couldn't be any other girl in the world except Sybil. But I
changed. I was glad when I found that she was married."
"Did you change because of another girl?" Lady Mary asked softly.
"Yes," Jacob faltered.
"Then why don't you tell the other girl so?"
"Lady Mary--" he began.
"Jacob," she murmured, "come and tell me quickly, or Jack will be back
with those cigarettes."
Which is where the real and most wonderful adventure of Jacob Pratt's
life commenced.
THE END
NOVELS by E. PHILLIPS OPPENHEIM
"He is past master of the art of telling a story. He has humor, a keen
sense of the dramatic, and a knack of turning out a happy ending just
when the complications of the plot threaten worse disasters."--_New
York Times._
"Mr. Oppenheim has few equals among modern novelists. He is prolific,
he is untiring in the invention of mysterious plots, he is a clever
weaver of the plausible with the sensational, and he has the necessary
gift of facile narrative."--_Boston Transcript._
A Prince of Sinners The Lighted Way
Mysterious Mr. Sabin The Survivor
The Master Mummer A People's Man
A Maker of History The Vanished Messenger
The Malefactor Mr. Grex of Monte Carlo
A Millionaire of Yesterday The Double Traitor
The Man and His Kingdom The Way of These Women
The Yellow Crayon Mr. Marx's Secret
A Sleeping Memory An Amiable Charlatan
A Lost Leader The Kingdom of the Blind
The Great Secret The Hillman
The Avenger The Cinema Murder
The Long Arm of Mannister The Pawns Count
The Governors The Zeppelin's Passenger
Jeanne of the Marshes The Curious Quest
The Illustrious Prince The Wicked Marquis
The Lost Ambassador The Box with Broken Seals
A Daughter of the Marionis The Great Impersonation
Berenice The Devil's Paw
Havoc Jacob's Ladder
LITTLE, BROWN & CO., Publishers, BOSTON
_The Best Story Oppenheim Ever Wrote!_
THE GREAT IMPERSONATION
_By_ E. PHILLIPS OPPENHEIM
With illustrations by Nana French Bickford
12mo. Cloth. 322 pages.
"No more successful mystery story was ever written than 'The
Great Impersonation.' It is indeed a triumph of construction and
treatment that holds the attention of the reader from first to
last."--_Philadelphia Public Ledger._
"'The Great Impersonation' is a thoroughly good story with an
ingenious plot, and a series of exciting episodes that recall A. Conan
Doyle of the days when he was writing about Sherlock Holmes."--_The
New York Tribune._
"For ingenuity of plot and cleverness of treatment, it is a
masterpiece among contemporary mystery stories."--_The Boston Herald._
"Mr. Oppenheim, well established master of mystery, has in 'The Great
Impersonation' outdone himself in his exploitation of the hitherto
unsuspected."--_The New York World._
"'The Great Impersonation' will be, and will deserve to be, one of the
best sellers of the year."--_The Boston Post._
LITTLE, BROWN & CO., PUBLISHERS 34 BEACON STREET, BOSTON
* * * * *
Transcriber's note:
Minor changes have been made to correct what appear to be
typesetters' errors; otherwise, every effort has been made
to remain true to the author's words and intent.