Melun

“ Melun seated himself at its head, beckoning to Westerham to seat himself at his right hand.
Still smiling, Westerham looked with his oddly disconcerting gaze along the row of faces before him. Melun, he reflected, must have searched London to have found such an exhibition of evil passions.
The men did not look at him; they looked at Melun, warily and anxiously.
“In times past,” said Melun, shortly, “you have found it just as well to trust to me. The shares of any spoils we have won have always been fairly adjusted.” ”

“ Melun's face blazed with passion. He drew back a pace, and then struck Westerham heavily across the mouth.
On his part Westerham did not hesitate for a moment. He lifted both his fettered hands and brought his steel-bound wrists down with a crash on Melun's head; and the captain went sprawling to the floor.
“Look you here,” cried Westerham to the dumbfounded ruffians who stood watching the scene as though they were chained to their chairs. “Look you here; I will deal with men, but not with curs such as this.” ”

“ Without more ado he came down the staircase from the musicians' gallery and walked over to Melun's side.
“You are an impudent scoundrel, Captain Melun,” he whispered in the captain's ear, “but I will put a stop to this. You will have to call your men off and restore all that property.”
“I shall do nothing of the kind!” snarled Melun.
“You won't, eh?” said Westerham. “Well, we will see.
“You know,” he added, still whispering, “that Lord Penshurst is perfectly acquainted with your identity. The guests are in ignorance, and therein lies your safety. ”

“ No man was quicker than Melun to seize an advantage. [Pg 18] He saw that Westerham read him through and through, and that acknowledgment of his own baseness would be the surest way of obtaining some small measure of the baronet's confidence.
No man lies to his doctor, and at the moment Melun stood in the presence of a pitiless diagnosis of his soul.
“Yes, Captain Melun,” the baronet proceeded, “I admit that you have had bad luck, but your bad luck places you in my hands. In short, you can be delivered up to the captain of this ship as a common thief, or you can do as I tell you.” ”

“ On this Melun knocked sharply with his knuckles nine times, the first three raps being slow, the second three raps being slow, and the last three raps being quick and decisive.
Almost immediately the door swung noiselessly inwards, while from behind its corner appeared the searching, slumberous eyes of a great nigger.
The nigger was about to let Melun pass when he saw Westerham, and with a mighty arm barred the way.
[Pg 56]
“All right, all right,” said Melun, quickly. “You don't suppose that I am fool enough to bring a man here whom I cannot trust. Let him in at once.” ”

“ Sunday, July 27.—Yesterday I went a walk with M. Melun to the Prairie, where the races are going on. This morning he preached about them and the evils of the world with the most violent action I ever saw—stamping, kicking, spreading out his arms like the wings of a bird, and jumping as if about to descend upon the altar, which, in the Temple, is just under the pulpit. This afternoon I have been again to the service, but there was no congregation; all the world was gone to the races, and, M. Melun says, to perdition also. ”

“ Antoine Melun, the wheelwright, who was to have married Louise, Pierre's sister, had trapped a pair of pigeons in the woods of M. le duc de Kernogan. He had done it to assert his rights as a man—he did not want the pigeons. ”

“ Melun thrust the negro aside and brushed into the room.
“You fool!” he said to Westerham, shortly, “this is enough to bring the whole crowd about your ears.”
Westerham laughed. He had known what in Western parlance is called a “rough house” before, and was prepared for all emergencies. As usual, too, when he found himself in an emergency, he was cool and smiling to the point of insolence.
“You forget,” he said to Melun, “that there is a window in this room, and beyond the window is the street. You forget, too, that one good man is worth all that crowd you seem so much afraid of. ”

“ He didn't look like a scoundrel, but he is one. He is not even a scoundrel of Melun's description. Upon my soul, I think I prefer the blackmailer to the mere thief.”
“Do you think,” asked Kathleen, searching her father's face, “that, after all, this is not some of Melun's work?”
“Why should it be?” returned her father.
“I don't know, I am sure,” said Kathleen, doubtfully, “except that I have a sort of feeling that it is.”
“Why?” asked her father.
Then, for the first time, Lady Kathleen told him of her meeting with Bagley in Hyde Park. ”

“ Up to the present I have found Sir Paul Westerham a most truthful man, and I don't see why he should be telling me falsehoods now.”
“You don't see why?” echoed Melun, with splendidly simulated scorn; “you don't see why? Of course you don't, because you are blind! Blind! You are blind with suspicion and distrust, and he, for his own ends, is simply playing on your fears. He wants to upset you, to put me out of court with you. ”

“ It is true that when Westerham had left the box Madame made several efforts to broach the subject, but Melun succeeded in steering clear of the matter until after they had left the theatre. As, however, the cab proceeded to Davies Street she made a further attempt to pin him down to the subject. But again Melun evaded it.
Few men knew better than Melun the damage that could be done one by a jealous woman, and as he sat alone that night over his whisky-and-soda, the obvious signs of jealousy which Marie had shown him caused him great disquiet. ”

“ Silka lay on the sheepskin where her sister had left her, and turned her face to it, shaken with a storm of feeling that convulsed her slender body from head to foot. She heard none of the cheerful sounds of life stirring round the tent; she heard only Doolga's threat of the Nile, her passionate pleading for help. Her face was buried in the sheepskin, yet she saw plainly in the wall of darkness before her eyeballs the figure of the Bishâreen standing out against the pink light of the morning sky. So it was Melun that Doolga loved! ”

“ There was considerable grumbling at this, but the bullet-headed man forcibly expressed his favourable opinion.
“Look here, mates,” he cried, turning to the others, “I know a gentleman when I see one, and I know that this gentleman is to be trusted. If Melun wants to do his own dirty work, let him do it.
“In spite of all his boasting our hands have been pretty clean up to the present. It is quite true that we have always been prepared to put a man out of the way if it had to be done, but we have never done it yet. ”

“ Westerham flushed with almost a flush of anger.
“This,” he cried, [Pg 86] “is an intolerable situation. If you would only confide in me I would confide in you.
“I am not what I seem. I am no mere man-about-town. I am not one of Melun's dupes. I am not of a certainty one of his friends—even though I may appear to be associated with him.
“I am a very different man indeed from what I fancy you take me for. My resources are practically limitless, and without boasting I may say that I hold Melun in the hollow of my hand.”
Again, to his surprise, Kathleen gave him the same keen look of suspicion. ”

“ Kathleen now found herself in a large, square room, simply and yet fairly well furnished, partly as a bedroom and partly as a sitting-room.
“It is here,” said Melun, [Pg 280] “that I am unfortunately compelled to ask you to await your father's decision. However, I release you unconditionally from your promise neither to scream nor to attempt escape.
“You are at perfect liberty to scream to your heart's content. There is no one here who will mind in the least. You are also at perfect liberty to make what efforts at escape you choose. I fear that you will only find them futile.” ”

“ Westerham thrust himself between Kathleen and the two men who had entered with Melun, and spoke to him in a low, fierce voice that could not be heard by the girl, but was perfectly audible to the others.
[Pg 187]
“I agree with you, you miserable hypocrite,” he said, “she will leave this place at once.”
Melun waved his hand at him blandly. “Quite so,” he said, “quite so. We will have a little talk outside, but there is no reason why we should distress these gentlemen.”
“On the contrary,” returned Westerham, “there is every reason. ”

“ There was very little time to be lost, and to his joy Westerham remembered that the day was Thursday, the day on the evening of which Melun's various friends met at the pseudo working-man's club at Limehouse.
[Pg 122]
Immediately he resolved that he would go there that very night.
Rough men had no terrors for him; during his life in the West he had dealt with rougher men than Melun had ever been called on to handle. He laughed as he thought of the possibilities of dominating such a collection of scoundrels as he had seen on his first visit to “The Club.” ”

“ Captain Melun was a man used to being hard hit. He was steeled against cunningly and swiftly-dealt blows, such as he himself administered, but this declaration of Sir Paul Westerham, that he intended to marry the Lady Kathleen, took him quite aback. ”

“ Melun helped himself liberally to neat brandy. Mme. Estelle sent for Crow and told him to order tea.
Kathleen had been filled with an intense foreboding as she entered the house, a foreboding which increased as she slowly recognised that she and Mme. Estelle were apparently the only women in the place.
For the tea was brought in by a man, not a farmhand or an honest countryman, but a villainous-looking individual with a pock-marked face and little gold earrings in the lobes of his frost-bitten ears. He walked with his feet wide apart, and with a slightly rolling gait. ”

“ Mme. Estelle started and looked at him, half in terror, half in admiration.
“It is a bold plan,” she said.
“A bold plan,” Melun agreed, “and a plan which must succeed if you will help me. The difficulty is to get the girl away, and I shall have to leave that entirely to you. What is more, there is very little time to be lost. The Cabinet meets at noon, and for a couple of hours after that Lord Penshurst will be busy with his colleagues. Consequently during that time Lady Kathleen will be alone. ”

“ Breaking into a run, he dashed across the hall towards the [Pg 239] little alcove in which he knew were placed the telephone and the police call.
As he approached the alcove, however, he was brought to a standstill by a man with a revolver.
Melun noted his progress, and turned about and cried, “Keep that gentleman away. If he moves another yard—shoot!”
Young Hilden threw one contemptuous glance at Melun and walked on. The man hesitated to fire. ”

“ Melun? It was possible that he was connected with the mystery. Westerham now remembered the man's cynical and confident smile when he had so unwisely boasted to him that he proposed to marry Lady Kathleen.
If Melun were really implicated in this business, then the methods of his villainy must be far more complicated than Westerham had anticipated. Only a very extraordinary conspiracy indeed could possibly have taken the Prime Minister's daughter into the park at such an hour. ”

“ Here and there a woman gave a little scream, but for the most part the people who had been so rudely disturbed were very quiet.
Melun watched the retreat through his mask, and when all the guests had crowded together at the end of the room he gave them further orders.
“All the men step to the front!” ”

“ Personally, I dislike fuss of every description, but especially the kind of fuss which hurts physically.”
Then he caught a slight sneer on Westerham's mouth and reddened a little. He reddened still more when the baronet said shortly, “I thought so.”
Melun's composure, however, returned to him almost instantly. “Come, come,” he said, “it is foolish to be nasty to your friends. We all have our little failings. ”

“ He guessed that a man who was risking so much as the emissary appointed by Melun would take good care to provide himself with sure and certain means of escape. It was doubtful if he would trust to the swiftness of his feet, to the chance of catching a passing omnibus, or to losing himself in the underground. In all likelihood, though he might walk to the actual place of appointment, he would probably drive to some neighbouring spot in a motor-car. ”

“ Without more ado he took out his cigarette-case and lit a cigarette. As he smoked he turned things rapidly over in his mind. He was perfectly certain that Melun, in spite of his protestations, would not reveal the whereabouts of the papers. Westerham even doubted whether Melun would take the trouble to lead the man on a bogus chase. ”

“ Melun saw it and winced, but went boldly on with his subject.
“It is quite excusable,” he said, “for the richest man on the earth to desire to indulge his whims, and if we can assist Sir Paul to humour his, to his own advantage and ours, then so much the better for us all. The terms which Sir Paul has offered are generous to a degree, while the risks we run are slight. Sir Paul has not pressed us in any way. He desired in return for the money he was about to hand over to us to make the acquaintance—of my friends. He has now met them, and I trust that he is at least satisfied.”
Westerham bowed. ”

“ The hansom in front of him bowled quickly along Piccadilly, turned up Berkeley Street, and then made at a good pace for Davies Street. Here Melun alighted, and having said “Good-night!” to Mme. [Pg 260] Estelle, let himself into a small private hotel with a latch-key.
Westerham, who had passed Melun's cab, stopped his own further up the street and marked the house from the little window at the back of the hansom. He was satisfied.
He immediately ordered the man to turn about and drive to Dunton's room. Dunton was sitting before a fire, enjoying a pipe before he turned in. ”