Victor Bridges

“ We found ourselves in a long, low corridor lit by one gas jet, which was flickering away feebly over a baize door at the end. Except for the loud ticking of a clock in the room opposite, the place was as silent as a tomb.
Up the passage we crept, our ears strained for the first sound of danger. Billy made a mean effort to get to the baize door first, but I just managed to forestall him. Gripping the handle, I swung it open, at the same time raising my revolver ready to shoot if it were needed. ”

“ I returned. "I want to know what you mean by insulting Miss de Rosen."
He scowled at me for a moment, and then laughed—a singularly unpleasant, suggestive sort of laugh.
"Oh, that's how the land lies, is it!" Then he paused.
My fingers itched to take him by the throat and bang his head against the wall, but, fortunately for us both perhaps, that cursed promise of mine to Northcote held me back.
"Well, I don't know what you think about it," he said surlily, "but it seems to me that you and I can't afford to quarrel about a woman just at present. Women and business don't mix." ”

“ I walked out into the roadway and picked up my weapon. Except for a solitary cat, scratching herself under the opposite lamp, Park Lane was absolutely deserted. As I stood for a moment, staring up and down the long, brilliantly-lit thoroughfare, I heard a neighbouring clock strike three.
I am not a person who gives up very easily, especially when I'm annoyed, but, dressed as I was, any further pursuit was out of the question. To dash down Piccadilly at this hour of the night, clad only in pyjamas and a poker, was to court a publicity that I was only too anxious to avoid. ”

“ A minute later Mercia joined us. Despite all she had been through, she looked radiantly lovely as she came half shyly into the room. Indeed, Billy was so overcome that he jumped from his chair with a little gasp of open admiration.
"By Jove, Mercia!" he said. "You ought to be abducted twice a day. It makes you better-looking than ever."
She laughed sweetly, and came across to where I was standing. "I am afraid I shall never be more beautiful, then," she said, "unless there are some very reckless men in the world." ”

“ I laughed and shook my head. "I don't want him, Billy," I said; "thanks all the same. Give us an arm and let's get back to the house. It's all right—I'm not booked this journey."
"Not by a long way," cried Billy stoutly. "It would take a pickaxe to kill you. Come along, and we'll have a squint at it."
I could feel the blood running rather freely down my arm, so, without wasting any more time, I accepted the support he offered, and we toddled up the pavement as far as my gate. I was still holding the latch-key in my hand, but there was no need of it, for the front door was wide open. ”

“ If the French gentleman who said that life was only worth living for its new experiences was right in his statement, I had no reason to complain when I woke up next morning. It was certainly a novel sensation to open one's eyes in a police station under a charge of murder, and to find an affable-looking Inspector standing beside one's bed with a bag in his hand. ”

“ We all four sauntered back to the small group of chairs under the elm trees, where York was explaining to Aunt Mary and Lady Baradell some of the finer beauties of the game.
"You'll stay to lunch, won't you, Mr. Logan?" said the former. "We always prepare for an indefinite number on cricket days."
"That sounds distinctly hopeful," I said, with a laugh, as Billy signified his pleasure in accepting. "It's just the sort of lunch that I shall be delighted to meet. Nothing makes one more hungry than watching other people exert themselves." ”

“ It was plain that Northcote must have lent money to Lord Lammersfield—a large sum of money, from the way the latter was speaking—and that the nominal day of reckoning was at hand. What Northcote's object had been I had no idea, but I realised with rapid satisfaction that it put me in the position of being able to do a good turn to a man who might prove extremely useful. There is nothing more agreeable than being generous with other people's money, and I determined to make the most of my opportunity. ”

“ Between my excitement at the unexpected interruption and my dread that something had happened to Mercia and Billy, it was a moment or so before I was able to wrench my mind back to its normal clearness. Then I realised that Milford was standing in the box, and that a great stillness had descended on the court.
The magistrate adjusted his glasses. "It will be best," he said quietly, "if you give us your evidence in your own way. Don't allow yourself to become hurried or confused. I shall ask you questions myself, but otherwise no one will interrupt you until you have finished." ”

“ Graceful and beautifully dressed as ever, Lady Baradell was coming across the garden towards the spot where I was sitting.
"You have made yourself comfortable, I see," she said, smiling.
"Oh, trust Northcote for that," put in Vane, with a chuckle, as he hung up a wonderfully coloured blazer in the tree behind.
"You've got the best of it, anyway," added Maurice languidly. "I think we are all mad to play tennis in this sun."
"Well, let's hope there will be some method in your madness," replied Lady Baradell. "As spectators, we shall be very critical." ”

“ At that moment there was a sound of footsteps in the hall, and round the corner of the palm trees came the ever-to-be-accursed figure of Mr. Justice Beauchamp.
"Ah, Miss de Rosen," he began, with the kind of ponderous fatuity that passes for humour on the Bench, "I find you like the Arab maiden beneath the palms."
Mercia, dear thing, smiled in her most charming manner. "And for the same reason," she said lightly. "The ballroom is unbearably hot."
"Without the other attractions of the desert," I added. "There, at least, one's toes are not trodden on." ”

“ This sort of shooting was, of course, quite new to me, but I have too often been dependent upon my gun for my supper to be likely to miss anything in the nature of a confiding English bird. Indeed, when York sang out his congratulations to me for toppling over a fast-flying pheasant, I began to think that perhaps it would be more judicious if I restrained my abilities. Except for his money-getting and love-making talents, I was so confoundedly in the dark as to what Northcote could do. ”

“ Whatever natural taciturnity Señor Rojas may have possessed vanished abruptly when he saw me pick up this useful weapon. He burst into a hideous jargon of Spanish,—the dog-Spanish of the Argentine Hinterland,—whining and imploring that we should not put this indignity on him.
"Kill me, Prado," he shrieked. "Kill me. I do not fear death."
"Shut up," said Billy. "The Devil's much too good a chap to be landed with a skunk like you. ”

“ Mercia Solano must be his daughter, and there's no doubt that my bright double must have been one of Ignace's blackguards. No wonder the poor girl wanted to shove a bullet into me!"
Billy laughed. "It does look rather like it. All the same, she must be a pretty venomous damsel, I should think."
"She's a darling, Billy," I said firmly. "And I won't hear a word against her. I like a girl with plenty of spirit."
"You've got one," retorted Billy grimly. "You'll make a pretty pair between you." Then he got up and looked at his watch. ”

“ Anyhow, we finally arrived safe, if a trifle dishevelled, at the low railing which separated the back garden of the Hollies from the wood.
Here we paused, crouching down side by side, and surveying the back of the house with a kind of suppressed exhilaration.
Billy laid his hand on my sleeve. "Look here, Jack," he whispered, "I'll trail across first and see how the land lies. You stop here, and cover me with the gun. You're a better shot than I am."
It was just like Billy to bag the dangerous work with such an excuse, but this was no time for arguing. "Go on, then," I said. ”

“ I suppose English business men are naturally cautious—requiring to know a great deal about a stranger's record before they care to accept his statement. Now my record, though highly interesting to myself, had been of a little too chequered a nature to inspire confidence in the breast of a capitalist whose ideas of life are bounded by Lombard Street and, shall we say, Maidenhead. At all events, I had failed dismally in my purpose, and, as I had told Billy, had reached the end of my resources without getting any further in my quest than when I had started. ”

“ As I closed the door, I heard a kind of stifled sob from the back of the hall, and looking up, I saw in the dim light two women crouching against the banisters. They were both in their night-dresses, and one of them, whom I recognised as the parlour-maid, had her hair streaming down over her shoulders. Very pretty hair it was, too.
"It's all right," I said comfortingly. "Nobody's hurt."
The elder of the two women—the cook, I suppose—burst into a torrent of hysterical relief.
"Oh, sir! Oh, Mr. Northcote! Oh dear, oh dear! We thought you were all killed!"
"Not a bit of it," I said. ”

“ I added, almost savagely, as she freed herself from my embrace and leaned back panting and pale against the wall.
"I feel that you are speaking the truth," she gasped, "but oh! you are in terrible danger. Guarez and the others will kill you, as surely as the sun rises, unless you leave here at once—unless you disappear altogether. They at least are convinced that you are Ignace; and your cousin, Maurice Furnivall—he is the man that has betrayed you—it was he who first told the League that you were in London." ”

“ There is only one escape from the League—death. When they came to me and told me that you were still alive, I joined them gladly, recklessly. I thought that at least I should be able to avenge my father. Then that night in Park Lane I learned, for the first time, that I was wrong. I deceived them, I lied to them. It would have been no good my telling them the truth: they would never have believed it. Even now, I think they suspect me."
Her half-incoherent sentences gave me my first glimpse of the real truth.
"Mercia," I said, "who do you think I am?" ”

“ As fate would have it, almost the first person I saw as we re-entered the ballroom was Mercia. She was standing against the wall, listening rather absently to a sombre-looking gentleman with long grey whiskers, whom I recognised from his pictures as one of His Majesty's most incompetent judges. A sudden determination seized me, and I turned to Lammersfield.
"You know everybody," I said. "Who's that pretty girl over there with old Beauchamp?"
He looked across. "Ah yes! charming, isn't she? Beauchamp makes up in taste what he lacks in intelligence. ”

“ I said, "but I'll find out while you're making love to the Inspector."
"What am I to say to him?" demanded Billy.
"Oh, just tell him that you were out duck-shooting, and spotted two sportsmen blowing holes through my hat. If he asks you whether you could recognise them, you'd better say they were a couple of rough-looking blackguards something like police constables. We don't want him to get on to the Hollies yet awhile."
Billy laughed. "All right," he said, getting up; "I'll handle him with gloves on. I may as well be off now. Don't get into any more mischief while I'm away." ”

“ I turned to Mercia. "Don't be afraid, dear," I said. "There's not going to be any more bloodshed."
She smiled faintly. "I am not afraid," she answered. "One does not fight with men of his sort. He is a coward and a traitor. He sold Prado to the League, and he would have killed you when you were at Ashton."
I nodded my head. "I know, Mercia," I said sadly. "It's on these very points we are going to remonstrate with him."
I led the way up the steps, and then with my hands on the bell I paused.
"By Jove, Billy!" I said. "I suppose Maurice still thinks he's come into all Prado's money." ”

“ York and his sister, my Chelsea landlady, Dr. Ritchie, the impassive head waiter from the Milan—it seemed that everybody who had played a part, however small, in Mr. Stuart Northcote's highly successful comedy had gathered here to watch the last act unroll itself. Everybody, that is to say, with three exceptions. Not only were Billy and Mercia conspicuous by their absence, but with a curious and very unpleasant shock I suddenly realised that Lord Sangatte was also missing. ”

“ Walking along the corridor of the hotel, I reached the side entrance by which we had come in. A man in livery, who was on duty, at once stepped forward.
"Taxi, sir?" he inquired.
"Yes," I said; "I'll have a taxi."
I felt quite cool, though my heart was beating a little faster than usual. This sort of thing was certainly more entertaining than hunting reluctant capitalists, or even hanging round the docks trying to fix a free passage to the States.
When the cab rolled up, I handed a shilling to the obliging gentleman in livery, and gave the driver Northcote's address in Park Lane. ”

“ She opened the door for me with almost painful subservience and stood on the steps blinking and bowing while I walked down and got into the cab.
"Where to, sir?" inquired the driver.
I reflected rapidly. Knowing that Milford was better, I had no particular desire to go back to Park Lane, even if the new butler had arrived. The thought of a solitary dinner in that big dining-room distinctly failed to appeal to me.
"Oh, drive me to the Café Royal," I said.
The cooking at that delightful establishment is good enough by itself to induce a certain satisfaction with the world. ”

“ He waved his hands towards the pile of newspapers.
"I've looked at them, Billy," I said. "For a modest man, I seem to be making a bit of a splash."
Billy laughed grimly. "Oh, you're the real thing. You've got the sea-serpent done to a frazzle. The whole town's talking of you; and as for the newspaper men—well, they've lined up outside Park Lane thicker than fleas in a Spanish doss-house. I had to push 'em away with both hands when I came out just now."
"Tell me about Mercia, Billy," I said. ”

“ I met the doctor in the hall. A grey-haired, clean-shaven man of about fifty, with a pompous but rather kind face, he came forward at once and shook my hand.
"Good morning, Mr. Northcote," he said. "I'm sorry to hear your butler's ill. A most excellent fellow, I should think."
"Yes," I said; "Milford is by way of being rather a treasure. Come along down and have a look at him, doctor. I'm afraid he's really bad."
I led the way down the stone staircase, and we entered the room together. ”

“ We drank to each other in silence, and then Billy put down his glass.
"And now," he said, "perhaps you'll be kind enough to explain. Last time I saw you, you were broke to the wide, and just setting off to the States. Now I find you living in Park Lane like a giddy millionaire, and calling yourself Stuart Northcote. What's it mean, you old ruffian?"
I finished my brandy-and-soda and settled myself comfortably back amongst the cushions. "I will tell you what it means," I said; "but you're not to interrupt me till I've done." ”