George Rooke

“ Olivia protested. “The young man has before him the reconstruction of the world.”
“Oh no,” said Rooke. “He has done his bit. He expects other people to carry out the reconstructing business for him. All he cares about is to find a couple of sixpences to jingle together in his pocket.”
“And have these young men who devote their lives to foxtrotting done their bit?”
He begged the question. “Pray be guided by my prophecy, Miss Gale. Next year you mustn’t mention war to ears polite. These young men are alive. They thank God for it. ”

“ Annister gave an exclamation.
"The Indian!" he said. "Well, Rook was the 'Third Light,' sure enough!"
Again he was seeing the lean, avid face in the vestible of the smoker, the lighted match; himself, and the conductor, and Rook, the lawyer's pale eyes brooding above the glowing end of his cigarette . . . And again, as the picture passed, he was aware of the white face at his elbow as Mary Allerton, her hand in his, behind her the golden hair and the wide eyes of Cleo Ridgley, turned to Childers with a smile that yet had in it a hint of tears. ”

“ Jerry Rook, suspecting the purport of the planter’s visit, had stayed behind to hitch up his horse, and afterwards found excuse to stray off to the back of the house, leaving the two alone.
“I suppose you have heard of my affliction, Miss Rook?” said Brandon, after salutations had been exchanged.
“My father has been just telling me of it.”
“Ah! yes; my old dad’s dead and gone; buried him day before yesterday. Can’t be helped, you know. It’s the way of us all. We’ve all got to die.”
To this lugubrious declaration Lena Rook yielded ready assent. ”

“ But—” his manner became all at once sharp, incisive; the gaze that he bent upon Rook was the shrewd look of a man who sees his opportunity ready to his hand. Cunning was in that look, and an infinite guile; the lawyer did not miss it.
Here was something that he could deal with. He had known of Annister’s reputation as of old; it had been none of the best, certainly, and with that knowledge now there came a measure of reassurance. And if he was any judge of men, here was one whom he could use: the acquisitive gleaming in the eyes ”

“ What prudent man would beard the lion in his den?"
"I never was a prudent man," rejoined Dick, smiling; "I have no superfluous caution about me. Come what will, I shall try to find out this Luke Rookwood, and offer him my purse, such as it is, and it is now better lined than usual; a hand free to act as he lists; and a head which, imprudent though it be, can often think better for others than for its own master."
"Vastly fine!" exclaimed the count, with an ill-disguised sneer. "I hope you don't forget that the marriage certificate which you hold is perfectly valueless now. ”

“ Tell me,” he said, placing a couple of sketches on the easel as he spoke, “which of those two poses do you like the better?”
For the moment Roger's thoughts, slowly moving toward a vague suspicion, were directed into another channel, precisely as Rooke had intended they should be, and he examined the sketches carefully. ”

“ We've both of us got a lot to learn—and not only from books—we want to remember we've plenty to learn from the neighbors, too. Take old Dave Royce, for instance, who when all is said and done has worked our farm for twenty odd years and never once run me into debt."
"But, Gee!" demurred George. "He's so 'way out of date!"
"I know he is, son, but we've got to go slow." And Roger's look passed furtively along the faces in the car. "We don't want to forget," he warned, "that this is still New England. Every new idea we have we want to go easy with, snake it in." ”

“ J. Roche, M.P., makes up the last pair of our doubles, is an excellent example of the immense disadvantage attaching to a public man whose features do not lend themselves to caricature. Had Lord George overcome his natural deficiencies in this respect by the adoption of an eyeglass, an orchid, or an eccentric brand of waistcoat, he might ere now have been ranked among our Prime Ministers, for it is an undoubted fact that these details are better remembered by the public at large than years of devoted hard work. ”

“ If thou bearest my father's son as thou hast borne thy old master, o'er many a field for many a day, he need not fear the best mounted of his pursuers. Soho! come hither, Rook."
The noble steed turned at the call. Luke hastily saddled him, vaulted upon his back, and, disregarding every impediment in the shape of fence or ditch, shaped his course across the field towards the sexton's cottage, which he reached just as its owner was in the act of unlocking his door. Peter [184] testified his delight and surprise at the escape of his grandson, by a greeting of chuckling laughter. ”

“ The part which I play is entirely innocent; on the other hand, it is impossible for me to make the faintest revelation concerning it.”
“But this is not the end of it,” cried Rookley. “By no means the end of it. Look at the threat on the luggage label. ‘The girl may be the next.’ Now, what does that mean? Who is the girl?”
Westerham's ruddy face grew a little pale.
“The girl,” he said, “is the lady it is my business to shelter and protect. By holding silent I can at least secure her life; if I breathe one word I can well believe that her fate may be the same as that of the man within.” ”

“ The telephone bell rang at that moment, and Sir George lifted the receiver. He took a pencil and wrote rapidly on his pad, and when he had finished he said, "Thank you," and hung up the receiver.
"Here is your information, Mr. Minute," he said. "The Reverend Vincent Lock, curate in a very poor neighborhood near Manchester, interested in the boy scouts' movement. His brother, George Henry Locke, has had some domestic trouble, his wife running away from him. ”

“ Lloyd George, who is pre-eminently a man capable of looking you straight in the eye, is depicted as looking someone else obliquely in the eye. I would that his strong features had been accompanied by a direct and thoughtful gaze, instead of that petulant side-glance, which to all of us who know the smiling candour of the Minister of Munitions is so foreign an expression.
I cannot speak with authority about the sitter's raiment. At the same time I must register my dislike of these clothes, which appear to have the mud of the golf-links still fresh upon them. ”

“ I kept my eyes on Rookley, debating in my mind what I should do, if his servants obeyed him. Every nerve in my body tingled with the desire to drive at him with my sword point; but he stood, quietly smiling, his arms folded, his legs crossed. I could not touch him; being unarmed he was best armed of all, and doubtless he knew it.
"Well!" he asked, as with some impatience. "Are my servants leagued against their master to betray his King?"
One man descended a couple of steps, and then Ashlock spoke.
"Sir," he said, "it is not for poor men like us to talk of kings. ”

“ Rooke to part with it. It certainly ought to be an exceptional portrait, judging by the length of time it has taken to accomplish! Dear Aunt Gertrude, I cannot help thinking it was a mistake that Nan didn't give Mr. Rooke the sittings at his studio in town or, better still, have waited until after her marriage. People in the country are so apt to be censorious, aren't they? And there has been a good deal of comment on the matter, I know. I didn't wish to worry you about it, but I feel you and Roger really ought to know this. “Letter from Isobel, mother? ”

“ But you are now in my power, and by hell! if you do not answer the questions I put to you, nothing earthly shall save you."
"If you ask aught I may not answer, fire!" said the major; "I will never ask life from such as you."
"Have you seen aught of Sir Luke Rookwood?" asked Dick.
"The villain you mean is not yet secured," replied the major, "but we have traces of him. 'Tis with a view of procuring more efficient assistance that I ride to town."
"They have not met then, since?" said Dick, carelessly.
"Met! whom do you mean?"
"Your sister and Sir Luke," said Dick. ”

“ And then, even as Rook spoke, Annister abruptly understood: this gang of thieves, as he knew now—“Plunder, Limited,” as Cleo Ridgley had called them—Annister knew them now, under the leadership of Rook, for an outfit which would stop short of nothing to attain its ends. His eyes, roving the long room up and down, searched now for that dark face, with its black, forking beard, but he was not really expecting to see it, but that, if Rook was the actual leader, Black Beard was “the man higher up,” Annister was, somehow, convinced. ”

“ Youngest son of the late Hon. Mr. Justice Rooke, and nephew to Admiral Sir Harry Neale, Bart. G.C.B. &c. &c.
This officer served as a midshipman under Captains the Hon. Henry Duncan and John Brett Purvis, in the Glasgow and Magicienne frigates; was made a lieutenant from the latter ship into the Bacchus sloop, on the East India station, Oct. 15th, 1818 ; appointed to the Cambrian frigate. Captain Gawen William Hamilton, destined to Constantinople, July 25th, 1820; promoted to the rank of commander on the 14th Oct. 1824; and wrecked in the Jasper sloop, on the north end of St. ”

“ We crossed the hall into the parlour. The window stood open, as I had left it, with the curtains half drawn. Rookley busily pushed them back while I set the candle down. The sky had cleared during the last half hour, and the moon, which was in its fourth quarter, hung like a globe above the garden.
"I met Mr. Herbert in the hall," said I, "just outside this room. We had some talk—of a kind you can imagine. He went down the steps with his sword drawn. There he dropped his cloak, there he slashed at the bushes. Between those two trees he passed out of sight. ”

“ Alas! alas! my bonny Black Bess! But no matter, her name is yet alive—her deeds will survive her—the trial is over. And now," continued he, rising from his seat, "I'm with you. Where are the tits?"
"In the stable, under ground," growled Jem.
Alan Rookwood, in the mean time, had joined his grandson, and they conversed an instant or two apart.
"My strength will not bear me through the night," said he. "That fellow has thoroughly disabled me. You must go without me to the hall. Here is the key of the secret passage. You know the entrance. I will await you in the tomb."
"The tomb!" echoed Luke. ”

“ For if Rook had sent that midnight visitor, then there were no lengths indeed to which he might go—for the hand, like a beast’s paw, upon the window-sill, had been, as Annister had known upon the instant, the hand of the Thug, the Dacoit, the Strangler.
Warnings, thrice repeated; a hand in the dark; a waitress who was not all she seemed; an invitation, suave, and, as Annister conceived it, ironic—it was a situation not without its possibilities for action. ”

“ Roger swung round upon him furiously, his hands clenched, his forehead suddenly gnarled with knotted veins.
“By God, Rooke!” he exclaimed. “You go too far! You will exhibit Nan's portrait—you will hang it in your house! And you think I'll stand by and tolerate such damned impertinence? Understand! Nan's portrait hangs at Trenby Hall—or nowhere!”
Rooke regarded him apparently unmoved.
“I've yet to learn the law which compels a man to part with his work,” he remarked indifferently. ”

“ George brings all sorts of people together, setting up a sort of agrarian law, or common property, in matter of society; but for once he has done me a great pleasure, while he was only pursuing a principle, as ignes fatui may light you home. This Rickman lives in our Buildings, immediately opposite our house; the finest fellow to drop in a' nights, about nine or ten o'clock,—cold bread-and-cheese time,—just in the wishing time of the night, when you wish for somebody to come in, without a distinct idea of a probable anybody. ”

“ George sat down, again buried his face in his hands, and groaned aloud.
"You may well groan, young man, when you face the truth which you have so strangely forgotten. But come, I'm not one to yield weakly to any such monstrous absurdity. You are young and strong, and should have a spirit equal to your stature and muscle. You have not made love to this girl, you say. ”

“ There shall be clamor and screeching, I trow;
But of right to, and rule of the ancient nest,
The Rook that with Rook mates shall hold him possest.
You hear what these quaint rhymes say. Luke is, doubtless, the stray rook, and a fledgeling hath flown hither from a distant country. He must take her to his mate, or relinquish her and 'the ancient nest' to his brother. For my own part, I disregard [220] such sayings. I have little faith in prophecy and divination. I know not what Eleanor Mowbray, for so she is called, can have to do with the tenure of the estates of Rookwood. ”

“ Coates, and to that of Mr. Tyrconnel, whom I must request to lend you his assistance, I commit the charge; and I must further request, that you will show him every attention which his situation will permit. Remove him. We have a sacred duty to the dead to fulfil, to which even justice to the living must give way. Disperse this crowd, and let instant preparations be made for the completion of the ceremonial. You understand me, sir."
"Ranulph Rookwood," said Luke, sternly, as he departed, "you have another—a more sacred office to perform. Fulfil your duty to your father's son." ”

“ Annister’s face continued impassive, save for the keen eyes, veiled now under lowered lids. Rook continued:
“Annister,” he said suddenly, as if he had abruptly come to a decision, “I’ll lay my cards on the table with you: I need a man, and he can not afford to be too—scrupulous, do you understand? The—the doctor tells me I have been overdoing it.” He gave a faint, wintry smile. “We are—out of the beaten track here—southwest of the law, as you might call it....” ”