It was not until the evening that Sylvester entered the library again.
His father was still unconscious, likely to remain so for many hours.
Matthew's ordinary medical adviser had consulted with Sylvester. A
trained nurse telegraphed for from London had just arrived. At present
nothing more could be done. Possibly the stricken man might recover. But
the case was grave.
Sylvester had been puzzled all day. What could have induced the stroke?
A moment or two before, his father had been in the best of spirits,
talking with an enjoyment that had been very rare of late. Generally,
when the heart is weak, it is some sudden shock that paralyses. But
here the theory of sudden shock was untenable. Perhaps it was simply the
reaction of the high spirits following depression.
Miss Lanyon and himself had dined together,--a cheerless meal. The
gentle lady wept and conjectured feebly as to causation, implored
Sylvester, as indeed she had done all day, to pronounce favourably on
the patient's condition. They did not eat much. The cook had sent up
tearful apologies for the spoiling of a dish, on the ground that she was
too upset. But they would not have noticed. The parlour maid's eyes were
red. She had been some years in the house, and the personal charm that
endeared Matthew to all who came in contact with him had gained the
girl's affection. Miss Lanyon used to say that Matthew spoiled the
servants. Matthew replied that he hated perfection, and liked them
spoiled; they were more human. At any rate, his sudden illness spread
consternation and dismay through the household. The news had gone
abroad, and anxious inquiries had been made at the door by all kinds and
conditions of folk. Amongst them was Mr. Usher, who had shuffled up to
hear news of his dear friend in affliction. Sylvester had sent him a
curt reply by the servant. He disliked Mr. Usher cordially, and had
rejoiced over the strained relations that had kept him away from the
house. Dinner was over, and Sylvester went into the library to smoke.
The room was more or less as he had left it that morning. Matthew's
pass-book lay on the table, and three or four passed cheques lay upon
the book. He filled and lit his pipe, and sat down in the writing-chair
to think over the case. Suddenly, the room recalling associations, he
remembered the cheque he had seen flutter from his father's fingers.
Almost idly he looked down to see if it was still on the floor. His
eye fell upon it underneath the armchair, whither it had probably been
kicked during the bodily removal of his father from the room. He picked
it up. But a glance was enough to make him start back with an oath. It
was a passed cheque for £3,000 made payable to and indorsed by Roderick
Usher, and signed “Matthew Lanyon.” At first he could not comprehend it.
Why should his father have paid to Roderick so amazing a sum? And having
paid it, why should he have received such a shock on seeing the cheque?
He brought it nearer the lamp that stood on the table; and then,
suddenly, a suspicion smote him, like a great blow. There were
variations from his father's writing. His signature, so simple as to
be roughly imitated with the greatest facility, had yet certain strong
characteristics which were missing here. Sylvester looked at the numbers
of the cheques on the table; they were consecutive. The three thousand
pound cheque bore a number from a totally different series. The pink
colour, too, was slightly faded. Where was the book from which the
cheque had been torn? His glance fell upon his father's bunch of keys,
depending from one in the lock of the writing-table drawer. An idea
struck him. He remembered that his father, most methodical of men,
kept the stubs of his cheque-books ranged along a shelf of an old press
between the fireplace and the window. For a moment he hesitated. He had
never looked at one of his father's papers in his life. His intention
seemed almost criminal.
“I beg your pardon, my dear, but I must,” he said, half aloud, and then
finding the key he opened the cupboard. A rapid examination showed him
the stub he wanted. The dates on the counterfoils were of three years
back. With trembling fingers he ran through the numbers. The counterfoil
of Roderick's cheque was missing.
Mechanically he replaced the stub and locked the cupboard. And then he
stood for a while, fierce-eyed, shivering with a horrible certainty.
Roderick had forged the cheque, and the shock of discovery had nearly
killed his father.
The whole man was white-hot with fury. In such accesses of anger, stern,
reserved men have killed their enemies mercilessly. Instead of confusing
their judgment, their anger burns it to crystal clearness. Every action
is that of sublimated reason. Sylvester remained for a few moments
motionless; then he picked up a railway time-card from the table,
glanced at it, and consulted his watch. He turned down the lamp and left
the room. In the hall he was met by Simmons, the doctor. The latter was
by far the more outwardly perturbed of the two.
“Well, how are things?”
“As satisfactory as can be expected,” replied Sylvester. “Come and see.”
They went together slowly up the stairs, discussing the symptoms, and
entered the sick chamber. There was very little change. Unconsciousness
would still last for many hours. That at least was certain. Meanwhile
they could do nothing but await events. Before leaving the room,
Sylvester bent down and kissed his father's face, that looked shrunken
in the dim light, and never had he felt such yearning love for him.
Downstairs, he drew Simmons into the library.
“I am going to London to-night,” said he.
Simmons stared at him. “To London?” he queried.
“And leave my father in this condition? Yes, I am summoned on a matter
of life and death.”
The other was puzzled by the non-professional phrase. “An urgent case”
would have been intelligible. But he made no comment. Neither of the
Lanyons was a man to discuss his private concerns with his acquaintance.
Sylvester continued,--
“I am more than satisfied to leave him in your hands, Simmons. You know
that. But you would be doing me a good turn if you sent me two or three
telegrams to-morrow. I hope to get back at night.”
“Willingly,” replied Simmons; and after a few more words, the two men
shook hands and parted. Miss Lanyon, whose simple gospel it was that
whatever Matthew or Sylvester did was right, demanded no explanations
when Sylvester announced his intention of going to London; but when he
was gone, she cried a bit to herself in a sympathetic feminine way.
Men were unaccountable beings in her eyes. They represented mysterious
forces which she had been brought up, in her young days, to regard with
respectful awe. There was a trace of orientalism in the attitude of our
grandmothers towards the male sex. It lingers still in old-fashioned,
sequestered places.
It was late when Sylvester's cab stopped at his house in Weymouth
Street. He attempted to open the door with his latch-key, but the
chain was up, and he had to ring and wait in the drizzling rain until a
shivering and tousled servant came down. At another time he would have
felt a chill of desolation at entering the dark and fireless house, so
cold in its unwelcome. But to-night he was strung to a high pitch;
and the loneliness of his surroundings failed to touch the usually
responsive chord. He went upstairs to his room, dominated by a fixed
idea. He would stop the marriage, thus tardily doing his father's
bidding, and have Roderick arrested on a charge of forgery. If his
father died, his murder would thus, at least, be avenged.
Early the next morning he went to Roderick's chambers. The servant, who
was setting the breakfast table, informed him that Mr. Usher had not yet
been called.
“Wake him and say that Dr. Lanyon particularly wishes to see him,” said
Sylvester.
The servant retired and returned a few moments afterwards with a request
that he would wait for Mr. Usher in the studio. She conducted him
thither and having put a match to the fire, departed. The room was bare,
the hangings taken down, the knick-knacks packed in cases lying untidily
about the floor, the pictures stacked against the walls,--all in
preparation for the coming change in Roderick's way of living.
Presently a door opened, and Roderick appeared in dressing-gown and
slippers. His cheeks were sunken, his eyes bloodshot. He looked like
a man hag-ridden. He drew a quick, short breath at the first sight of
Sylvester's threatening face. All his jauntiness had gone. He went a
step or two towards his visitor and said curtly,--
“Well?”
“You have forged my father's name to a cheque for £3,000,” said
Sylvester.
“Can I see it?”
Sylvester drew the cheque from his pocketbook and held it up for the
other's inspection.
“I perceive the bankers have honoured it,” said Roderick. “Mr. Lanyon
will not repudiate it.”
“He will not have the chance. _I_ repudiate it. He is lying
unconscious,--perhaps at the point of death. By God! if he dies you will
have killed him.”
“You are talking rank folly,” said Roderick, leaning against the jamb
of the window, his hands in his dressing-gown pockets. “Mr. Lanyon as
my solicitor sold out certain of my investments and sent me a cheque for
the total amount.”
“A cheque to which there is no counterfoil, taken from a cheque-book in
use three years ago?”
Sylvester laughed harshly and buttoned his overcoat, which he had opened
so as to get at the cheque. Roderick grew white and passed his hand
across his forehead. There was a moment's silence.
“As a matter of elementary justice,” said Sylvester, “I came here first
for your explanation. As you can give none, I will now put the matter in
the hands of the police, and in an hour or two there will be a warrant
out for your arrest.”
He moved towards the door. Roderick staggered away from the window and
drew his hand hard across his face in a gesture of utter weariness.
The strain of the past week had been too much. Always thriftless and
reckless in money matters, he had hitherto stopped short of unredeemed
rascality. The burden of a crime had crushed his self-assurance.
“Stop a moment,” he said hoarsely. “There are other considerations.”
“I have them in view,” replied Sylvester, icily. He turned again.
Roderick hurriedly interposed himself between him and the door.
“For God's sake, man, think of what you are doing! I don't deny it.
There! I can't. It is more than I can bear. I have been in hell for the
past week, devoured alive, with the flames licking my soul. I was driven
to it, to save myself from disgrace. I was desperate. I would have
replaced the money. By Heaven! I would. It was my only chance to avert
sudden crash and to marry the woman I love.”
“You love!” sneered Sylvester.
“Yes, the woman I love and crave and worship, for whose sake I'd commit
a thousand crimes. I was pushed hard, I tell you, with my back against
the wall. I had to. Go back to Ayresford and tell your father I'll repay
it,--every penny. I swear to God I will.”
“With Miss Defries's money. Rob Peter to pay Paul. Let me pass.”
“You are going to have me arrested?”
“Certainly.”
“But--Sylvester--good God!” cried Roderick, in incoherent agony.
“Think of what it means--our old friendship--we were young together--we
have grown old together--years ago, when you too were marrying a sweet
woman, I stood by your side--”
“Your damned hand has been in every tragedy of my life,” exclaimed
Sylvester, kindled into a sudden flame of anger. “And a damned woman's!
If it had not been for a woman, you would not have killed my father.”
In the midst of his frantic anxiety, it was suddenly revealed to
Roderick that in alluding to Sylvester's marriage he had touched the
man's hidden wound. He hastened to repair his blunder.
“I am not pleading for myself alone,” he said, drawing himself up
and speaking in a more dignified voice. “You can disgrace me, but my
disgrace will fall on another--whom your father loves. If you arrest me,
the marriage will be broken off by a miserable, horrible scandal,--one
that will poison a woman's whole existence. It would be more than pain
to your father if such hurt happened to Ella Defries.”
“You certainly don't propose that I should let this marriage take place
to-morrow?” said Sylvester, recovering his cold scorn of manner. But he
was somewhat checked in his purpose by Roderick's argument, and Roderick
saw that he had gained a point.
“I happen to know,” said he, “that you would be carrying out your
father's wish in preventing my marriage. I undertake to break it off.
The day I marry her you can arrest me.”
Again Sylvester laughed harshly. “You know very well you would be safe
then, as Ella Defries's husband.”
He turned and walked to the window and looked out in deep thought.
He hated the man, clung fiercely to the revengeful joy of seeing him
stamped out of decent existence. Compromise was wormwood, and yet
compromise there must be. Roderick remained by the door straining
haggard eyes at his judge, a strange figure, with his gorgeous
dressing-gown and dishevelled hair, in the midst of the dismantled and
rubbish-strewn room. Sylvester's last words had sent the thrill of a
forlorn hope through his veins and he waited with throbbing heart for
the other to speak.
At last Sylvester faced him again.
“I will give you a day's grace,” he said stonily. “You will leave
Liverpool Street tonight at 8.30 for the Hook of Holland; one way of
getting to the Continent is as good as another, and I happen to choose
this one. You can take what steps you like to inform Miss Defries that
you cannot marry her tomorrow or any other time. Those are my terms. I
shall have a warrant ready. If you shuffle out of them, I shall put it
in force and proceed against you without mercy.”
“Mercilessness is a dangerous game when a creature is driven to bay,”
said Roderick.
“What could you do?” asked Sylvester, contemptuously.
Roderick drew his shoulders together and turned away. “Nothing,” he said
in a low voice. “No, damn it! nothing.”
Somehow he could not utter the threat that rose to his lips. His soul
revolted. It is one of the strangest facts in human psychology that
there is no man so vile but that there is one thing he cannot and
will not do: sometimes the thing is a hideous crime, sometimes only a
comparatively trivial act of dishonour; but whatever may be its relative
importance, there is always one virtuous principle to which the human
soul must cling. Roderick had blackmailed the father,--for that is what
his forgery came to,--but he could not blackmail the son. Nor could he
drag his own father, hoary scoundrel though he knew him to be, down with
him in his disgrace. So he kept silent as to the mysterious relations
between the two old men, and--unutterable pathos of poor humanity--his
silence was a salve to his conscience.
Sylvester turned the handle of the studio door.
“Do you accept my terms?”
“Yes,” said Roderick, suddenly.
“Good,” said Sylvester, and he closed the door behind him and went
downstairs into the street. There he took a cab and drove to Scotland
Yard.
He was not the man to utter idle threats. Before dictating conditions to
Roderick, he had coldly calculated upon the power that he could wield.
Like that of every London specialist, his practice was socially varied
to a curious extent. Among his patients was a high official at Scotland
Yard, who, he knew, without dereliction of duty, would courteously carry
out the arrangements he intended to suggest. The official received him
as he had anticipated. In order to avoid a painful scandal in society,
it would be better to let the culprit fly the country. Of course there
would be no talk of extradition. In the mean time, a warrant could be
issued and put in force whenever Dr. Lanyon gave the word. Sylvester
went home grimly satisfied with his morning's work. He found awaiting
him a telegram from Simmons to the effect that his father's condition
was unchanged.
Roderick went into his dining-room, as dismantled and cheerless as the
studio, and drank a cup of coffee. He tried to eat, but the food choked
him. He was crushed, beaten, ruined. Utter dejection was in his attitude
as he sat in the straight-backed chair, staring helplessly in front of
him. Even in his crimes he had failed. He had deferred paying in the
forged cheque to the very last moment possible for the cheque he had
written for Urquhart to be honoured by his own bankers. He had reckoned
on clearing-house delay, on the half-day of Saturday, on the intervening
_dies non_ of Sunday, in fact, on the cheque not coming under Matthew's
notice until after the wedding. But the cheque had passed from bank to
bank with diabolical expedition, and, like the curses in the Spanish
proverb, it had come home to roost with a vengeance.
What was to become of him? He could scarcely realise his sentence. Exile
from England meant a bitter struggle with poverty; and yet exile was
his irremediable lot. In eight or nine hours he must start. There was no
escape. He knew Sylvester of old, as hard as iron and as cold as ice, a
man to carry out his purpose relentlessly. To-night--to leave this dear
world of London behind him; tomorrow--to be in the aimless solitude of
some foreign hotel, when, if fortune had been kind, he would have been
standing at the altar with the woman whom he desired above all women
that had ever entered his life. It was like the blank future of the man
condemned to death.
Thoughts of his own misdoing, of his banishment, faded into a vague
heaviness at the back of his brain, while the pang of a great hunger
gripped him. He flung his arms on the table and buried his head and
clutched his hair in both hands.
“My God, my God! I can't give her up!” he cried. Now that she was torn
from him, he craved her with the awful passion of the man no longer
young. A picture of her ripe lips and her fresh, eager face, so quick to
flush, floated maddeningly before his closed eyes. Last night on parting
he had held her close and kissed her. He felt the yielding softness of
her bosom against his breast, could almost feel now the throb of her
heart. He bit through his sleeve into his arm.
The paroxysm passed. He must think. The wedding must be postponed.
Sylvester had intrusted him with that duty, out of regard for Ella. See
her he could not; his soul shrank from it. A cowardly letter to reach
her too late for questions to be asked, giving no reasons, simply
stating that he was summoned away that night for an indefinite period?
It must be written. He grovelled in his self-abasement.
Suddenly he raised his head and stared up, with panting breath and
trembling body. A wild, mad idea had sprung from a recrudescence of the
forlorn hope with which Sylvester's words had inspired him. He sprang to
his feet with a quavering, hysterical laugh.
“By Christ! I'll carry it through,” he cried, and he walked about the
room, swinging his arms in great gestures.