John Egerton prepared himself to go round. He cursed himself for a weak
fool; he reviled his fate, and Emily and Stephen Byrne. But he prepared
himself. He was beaten.
But as he opened the front door the bell rang, and he saw Stephen
himself on the doorstep--a pale and haggard Stephen, blinking weakly at
the sudden blaze of light in the hall.
"I came round after all," he said. "It's urgent!" But he stepped in
doubtfully.
The two curses of John Egerton's composition were his shyness and his
soft-heartedness. When he saw Stephen he tried to look implacable; he
tried to feel as angry as he had felt a moment before. But that weary
and anxious face, that moment's hesitation on the step, and the whole
shamefaced aspect of his friend melted him in a moment.
Something terrible must be going on to make the vital, confident Stephen
Byrne look like that. Once more, he must be helped.
In the study, sipping like a wounded man at a comforting tumbler of
whisky and water, Stephen told his story, beginning in the fashion of
one dazed, with long pauses.
That evening, just before dinner, as Mrs. Bantam had correctly reported,
the doctor had been sent for. And Stephen, waiting in the garden for his
descent, gazing moodily through a thin drizzle at the grey rising river,
had seen unmistakably fifty yards from the bank a semi-submerged object
drifting rapidly past, wrapped up in sacking. A large bulge of sacking
had shown above the surface. It was Emily Gaunt.
He was sure it was Emily Gaunt because of the colour of the sacking--a
peculiar yellowish tint, unusual in sacks. And because he had always
known it would happen. He had always known the rope would work on the
flimsy stuff as the tide pulled, and eventually part it altogether. And
now it had happened.
When he saw it he did not know what to do. "I felt like rushing out into
the boat at once," Stephen said, "and catching the thing--but the
doctor ... Margery ... I had to wait...." he finished vaguely.
"Of course," said John.
"When he came down he said all was well--or fairly so--and he'd come
again this evening. I'm expecting him now." Then with sudden energy, "I
wish to God he'd come.... Is that _him_?" Stephen stopped and listened.
John listened. There was no sound.
"But we mustn't waste time--half-past eight now--tide turning in a
moment." He leaned forward now, and began to speak with a jerky, almost
incoherent haste, telescoping his words.
"When he'd gone I dashed down to the boat ... could still see the--the
thing in the distance--going round the bend ... thought I'd catch it
easily, but the engine wouldn't start--of COURSE! Took me half an
hour ... starved for petrol, I think...." He stopped for a moment, as
if still speculating on the precise malady of the engine.
"When I _did_ get away ... went like a bird ... nearly up to Kew ... but
not a sign of the--the sack ... looked everywhere ... couldn't wait any
longer ... I _had_ to get back ... only just back now ... against the
tide. John, will _you_ go out now?... for God's sake, go ... take the
boat and just patrol about ... slack water now ... tide turns in about
ten minutes ... the damned thing _must_ come down ... unless it's stuck
somewhere ... you must go, John. We must get hold of it tonight ...
tonight ... or they'll find it in the morning. And, John," he added, as
a hideous afterthought, his voice rising to a kind of hysterical shriek,
"there's a label on the sack--with my name and address--I remembered
yesterday."
"But ... but ..." began John.
"Quick!... I've got to get back." Stephen stood up. "God knows what they
think of me at home as it is.... Say you'll go, John--_here's_ the key
of the boat ... she'll start at once now.... It's a thousand to one
chance, but it's worth it.... And if you're not quick it'll go past
again."
Something of his old masterfulness was coming back with his excitement.
But when John still hesitated, his slow mouth framing the beginnings of
objection, the hunted look came upon Stephen again.
"John, for God's sake!" he said, with a low, pleading note. "I'm about
done, old man ... what with Margery and--and ... but there's still a
chance ... John!"
The wretched John was melted again. He left his objections to the
preposterous proposal unspoken. He put his hand affectionately on the
other's shoulder.
"It's all right, Stephen.... I'll manage it somehow ... don't you worry,
old boy.... I'll manage it."
"Thank God! I'll go now, John.... I'll come down when I hear you come
back.... I _must_ go...."
Together they hurried down the stairs, and John found himself suddenly
alone at the end of his garden in an old mackintosh, bemused and
incredulous.
The rain had come, a hot, persistent, sibilant rain, and already it had
brought the dark. The river was a shadowy mosaic of small splashes. The
lights of Barnes showed mistily across the river, like lamps in a
photograph. The tide was gathering momentum for the ebb; a mass of
leaves and dead branches floated sluggishly past under the wall.
John was in the boat, fiddling stupidly at the engine, glistening and
splashing in the rain, before he had thought at all what exactly he was
going to do to discharge his fantastic undertaking. The engine started
miraculously. John cast off and the boat headed doggedly up against the
tide, John peering anxiously from side to side at the rain-speckled
water.
The engine roared and clattered; the boat vibrated, quivering all over;
the oars and boathook rattled ceaselessly against the side of the
boat--a hollow, monotonous rattle; the exhaust snorted rhythmically
astern. The rain splashed and pattered on the engine and on the thwarts,
and rolled with a luxurious swishing sound in the bottom. The fly-wheel
of the engine revolved like a Catherine-wheel composed of water--water
flying in brief tangents from the rim. John had come out without a hat,
and his hair was matted and black; the river splashed on his neck and
trickled slowly under his collar.
It was a heavy task, this, for one man with two hands to attempt, to
shield the engine and himself with the same mackintosh, extending it
like a wing with one arm over the fly-wheel, and to oil occasionally
with an oil-can the mechanism of the pump, to regulate the oil-feed and
the water-supply, and do all those little attentions without which the
engine usually stopped; and at the same time to steer the boat, and look
in the river for the floating body of a dead woman in a sack. It was
madness. In that watery dusk his chances of seeing an obscure sack
seemed ludicrously small. And what was he to do with it when he had
found it? How should he dispose of it more effectually than it had been
disposed of before? John did not know.
But the boat rattled and gurgled along, past the Island, and past the
ferry, till they were level with the brewery, by the bend. The bend here
made at one side a large stretch of slack water where the tide moved
hardly at all. By the other bank the tide raced narrowly down. Here,
John thought, was the place for his purpose. So for a long hour he
steered the boat back and forth from bank to bank, peering intensely
through the rain. Sometimes he saw a log or a basket or a broken bottle
scurrying dimly past and chased it with a wild hope downstream. Once he
made sure that he had found what he had sought--a light object floating
high out of the water; this he followed half-way down the Island. And
when he found it it was a dead cat--a light-coloured cat. "The yellow
cat," he thought. Once, as he headed obliquely across the river,
boathook in hand, a black invisible police-boat shot surprisingly across
his bows. A curse came out of the gloom and a lamp was flashed at him.
The police-boat put about and worked back alongside; a heavy man in a
cape asked him what the hell he was doing, charging about without a
light. John might have asked the same question, but he was too
frightened. He apologized and said he had let go of the rudder line to
do something to the engine. The policemen went on again, growling.
Then the tugs began to come down, very comforting and friendly, their
lights gliding mistily through the wet. John had to be careful then, and
creep upstream along the bank while their long lines of barges swung
ponderously round the corner. And how could he be sure that Emily was
not slipping past him in mid-stream, as he did so? It was hopeless,
this.
The wind got up--a chilly wind from the East. He was cold and clammy
and terribly alone. The rain had crept under his shirt and up his
sleeves; his trousers hung about his ankles, heavy with rain. He wanted
to go home; he wanted to get out of the horrible wet boat; he was tired.
But he had promised. Stephen was his best friend, and Stephen had
appealed to him. He had done a bad thing, but he was still Stephen.
And he, John, was mixed up in it now. If Emily was found at Putney in
the morning, his own story would have to be told. Not a good story,
either, whatever his motives had been. What _had_ his motives been?
Margery Byrne, chiefly, of course. Well, she was still a motive--very
much so.
But how futile the whole thing was, how wet and miserable and vile! It
must have been something like this in the trenches, only worse. What was
that going past? A bottle, a Bass bottle with a screw stopper, bobbing
about like an old man walking. Ha-ha! What would he do when he found
Emily? What the devil would he do? Sink her again? But he had no anchor
now--nothing. Put her ashore on the Island? But somebody would find her.
Take her out of the sack--the incriminating sack? If she was found by
herself, a mere body, in a night-dress.... In a night-dress? The
night-dress wouldn't do. She mustn't be found in a night-dress. He
would have to get rid of that too--that and the sack. Then any one might
find her, and it would be a mystery. And Stephen's stories ... Stephen's
stories about her levity and light conduct--they would come in useful.
People like Mrs. Bantam would quite understand, now they knew what sort
of person Emily had been. John realized with a sudden shame that he was
feeling glad that Stephen had said those things.
But how would he be able to do it? How could he take her out of the
sack, out of the night-dress, and throw her back? How could he do it?
and where? Once, long ago, he had come upon a big sack drifting in the
evening. It was full of kindlewood, little penny packets of kindlewood,
tied up with string. He remembered the weight of it, impossible to lift
into the boat. He had towed it home, very slowly. He would have to tow
Emily--land somewhere. She would be clammy--and slippery--and
disgusting. He couldn't do it. But he _must_. The engine stopped.
The engine stopped, mysteriously, abruptly. The boat slid sideways down
the river. John pulled her head round with a paddle and fiddled gingerly
with the hot engine. The rain fell upon it and sizzled. He turned
vaguely a number of taps, fingered the electric wires; all was
apparently well. He heaved at the starting-handle, patiently at first,
then rapidly, then with a violent fury. Nothing happened. The boat slid
along, turning sideways stupidly in the wind. They were almost level
with The House by the River.
It was no good. John took the paddle and worked her laboriously across
the tide. He had done his best, he felt. The rain had stopped.
When he came to the wooden steps the lights were on in Stephen's
dining-room, in Stephen's drawing-room. And against the light he saw a
head, motionless above the wall. The tide was a long way down now,
faintly washing the bottom of the wall.
A hoarse whisper came over the water:
"John--John--any luck?"
"None, Stephen, I'm sorry." John's voice was curiously soft and
compassionate.
There was silence. Then there came a kind of hysterical cackle, and
Stephen's voice, "John, it's--it's a boy!"