Paul Cray

“ In that tiny cabin a gun in the hand meant mastery. Drake closed the door after him. His gun covered Cray. He disregarded the old captain. Indeed, old Bain hadn’t an ounce of trouble making left in him. He was a crushed man. Not one detective, but two! Not one man, who might conceivably be bribed, but two, each knowing his little immigrant game, and, what was worse, each knowing that the other knew. He slumped down on the single bunk. He stared from Cray to Drake, from Drake to Cray. ”

“ On the threshold Cray stopped him with:
“Ever know any Russians, Drake? Some of them is big men—hard fighters. Take a powerful man to handle them.”
“Meaning—” Drake spun about fiercely— “Meaning—”
“You know more’n you let on,” Cray laughed. “Thought I’d catch you. You know who Varnavosk was, owner of the Varnavosk necklace? You know why he’s dead—”
Drake rolled a cigaret with his usual clumsiness.
“What mobsman doesn’t know?” he asked. “Come, come, Cray. You know what sort we passengers are on this dirty little ship. Know Varnavosk and his necklace? Who does not, in my walk of life? ”

“ Drake was composed now. “Imagination’s a grand thing, Cray. Sometimes it leads men into trouble, though. You’ve been reading dime novels.”
Drake walked away. Cray watched him go aft along the boat deck and down the steep stairs.
“You’ll worry, my man,” growled Cray. “Now, what’s next. Liverpool swine is ruled out. That fool of a skipper—a child could see through him. He’s ripped that dub’s cabin to pieces. At this rate he’ll have the whole ship torn apart, every manjack on edge. Not one’ll get by him without him poking and prying. And he’s fool enough to make a bad break. ”

“ Man don’t tie his own hang-man’s knot, mister, not even to get back diamonds.”
“There was no murder.” Drake laughed, again. “That was just his artistic touch. No fool, Cray. He knew you’d rise to it. But you worried him. He wanted to search every last cabin, but he also wanted to make the job hang out till the last moment, in case you might show a rush of brain to the head and get to suspecting him. Well, you did it as he planned, between you. Until, well, there were two of us left, Quayle and myself. Cray was getting scared by now. ”

“ Despite the reason for his captivity, there was a certain desperate gallantry about Cray, as Drake led him off, handcuffed, to the captain’s cabin. He even managed to whisper, as they climbed the steep iron stairway to the boat deck:
“A pretty job, Drake; if your feet didn’t look it, nobody’d take you for a dick. Only thing is you got the wrong man.”
“Have I?” Drake asked. “Have I? Maybe it’s Quayle should be wearing these.” ”

“ Varnavosk dying. Look for strong man capable killing bare-handed.
No signature this time.
“Where’d you get this?”
Drake stiffened. He glanced forward uneasily; but Cray’s blind was drawn on the little window of his cabin. Cray’s door was shut.
“Where’d you think? Notice the Old Man yesterday and today?” the old chief asked. “Well, he’s fair wild. He come down this mornin’ an’ asks me to trot along, confidential. We goes to that wife beatin’ runt’s cabin. The runt is out on deck. Old Man and me, we rip up the floorboards, we pry apart the bunk.” ”

“ Scotland Yard ain’t manned by fools. Like as not there’ll be other messages. Liverpool runt’s been cleared. He don’t pack no valuables. There’s seven new faces aboard beside him, leavin’ Cray out. If things gets hot and they start to search the lot—well—him that has them jewels is like to swing.”
“Unless—” Drake seemed to be master of himself now—“unless!”
“Unless the lad slipped ’em to a good natur’d old fool of an engineer. There’s places below.” Old M’Ginley winked. “Well, if you meet the man aboard here, you tell him.”
“Thanks, I will. Cray’s blind’s gone up.” Drake rose. ”

“ What talking’s been done—” Drake paused, as if uncertain. “Forget it. A man don’t like to be told he’s like to swing. I’m hot headed. I figured mebbe you’d told him what was in that cablegram—the one about Varnavosk bein’ dead—mebbe more, too. But—”
“Forget it is right.”
Cray was acting strangely. Yesterday he had told the captain that the murderer, supposedly on their ship, must be either Quayle or Drake. Now he seemed to have shifted his views, unless he wished to lull Drake into a state of false security. ”

“ That last remark of the skipper’s had hit him.
“A detective,” said Cray softly. “Maybe we have, at that, my brave old sea-dog. Maybe we have, at that.”
He followed the captain on deck and twitched his sleeve. He drew him into a corner.
“I’ll do this next job myself,” said Cray.
“You mean Quayle?”
“Him. You better stick to your knitting. Talk like a human being at lunch, keep that solemn-faced, secretive Quayle there, until— You ever figure there’ll maybe be a reward for them diamonds?”
“Reward?” The old captain of the Cora snorted. “Reward? ”

“ If half the boys have friends who prefer play to work for them, I'm only glad the other half set a better example. Dicky, boy, you'll enjoy your Midsummer holidays all the more keenly for having none at Easter."
The doctor caught hold of the boy and wound his arm affectionately round him as they proceeded across the hall to the breakfast-room. Miss Davenal greeted Sara with one of her severest aspects, but before she could begin her lecture, Mark Cray had burst in upon them. ”

“ You may be what you seem. I don't know. You handle the cards too slickly for my liking, and if you want to know my opinion of you, you can have it.”
“My dear Mrs. Green!” Mr. Cray faltered.
“Don't 'my dear' me!” that lady thundered, striking the table with her fist “I've formed my opinion of you, Mr. Cray. I believe you to be a professional gambler, and not one penny of my money do I part with.”
A sudden wave of emotion seemed to pass over the little company. Blanche Esholt's face was hidden in her handkerchief, Thomson's was buried in his arms. Mr. Cray himself was pained and humiliated. ”

“ The English Monsieur had no money. It was a double letter: sixteen sous."
"Ah, no change," said Monsieur Le Bleu, with a delicacy that many might have envied, as he turned his eyes from Mark Cray's downcast face. "It's a general complaint. I never knew the small change so scarce as it is: one can get nothing but gold. Hold, I'll take the letter from you, facteur, and monsieur can repay me when he gets change."
The surgeon handed the sixteen sous to the postman, and gave the letter to Mark. Mark spoke some obscure words about repaying him on the morrow, and broke the seal. ”

“ There's your money. I can only say that we are sorry. We are entirely at your mercy.”
Mr. Cray stood by his chair. The steward had gone into the inner bar. It chanced that there was no one else in the room.
“Will you give me your word of honor, all of you,” he said, “never to attempt this sort of thing again?”
The reply was unanimous and convincing. Mr. Cray resumed his seat.
“Boys,” he proposed, “I guess we'd better call these chips in and start the game again. Mrs. Richard Green is coming to join us. Don't look so astonished, all of you. Give me the chips. ”

“ Mark had treated them right regally, and had contrived to screw out from some impossible pocket a twenty-pound note, which he put into his mother's hands for the journey. "I shall be able to allow you and the girls something worth having next year, when the ore's in the market regularly," he said to her. Altogether, Mrs. Cray was well satisfied with her impromptu visit.
"I say, Carine," cried Mark, coming forth from his dressing-room, "what's gone with my diamond studs?" ”

“ Cray are sure to be in it."
"Caroline and Mr. Cray are what?" cried out Miss Bettina.
"I fear they are in the train. There has been an accident between here and Hildon. An engine has just gone down with assistance."
"I don't want to know about engines," returned Miss Davenal, who had not understood one word in ten. "I ask what you do here alone? Caroline and Mr. Cray can come home, I suppose, without your waiting for them in this public manner. What would your papa say if he saw you?"
"Papa has seen me," replied Sara. "Papa has just come up to the station and is gone down with the engine." ”

“ In the few confidential words he had just exchanged with Barker on going out the latter had said: "We must get all the money we can, for we shall want it. Water, no matter how slight the irruption, plays the very deuce with the costs of a mine." And Mark Cray, to avert, or help to avert, or to conceal the calamity, was quite ready to sacrifice his own good faith and the money of his brother.
CHAPTER XLII. IN THE TEMPLE GARDENS.
You have heard and read of those false promises that keep faith to the eye and break it to the spirit, bringing a flood-tide of anguish in their train. ”

“ Never knew a place where there were so many middle-aged bachelors.”
“When I fix my affections upon a man,” Mrs. Green said firmly, “his state will make no difference to me. Married or single, I shall have him. If the law cannot join us, I shall make my own law. That is the sort of woman I am, Mr. Cray. That is the sort of spirit which has brought me safely through savage countries.”
Mr. Cray made frantic signals of distress to the manufacturer of reapers, who was just passing. The latter responded like a man.
“We are waiting for you forward, Mr. Cray,” he announced. ”

“ That was all he had earned, this ten francs and the three for the tooth, besides the present made him at the hotel.
How were they to get along? How had they got along? They, poor sufferers, looking to the past, could hardly tell. Barker, who was in Paris still, full of wild hopes as usual, had sent Mark once a hundred-franc note in a letter and a promise of more; a little had come to Caroline from Barbadoes, for she had told of her woes; and so they existed somehow. Mark Cray was by no means one to sit down tamely and starve; any hopeless scheme rather than that ”

“ Mr. Cray kept his word, and when Mrs. Green, carrying a large reticule and wearing a pair of horn-rimmed spectacles, entered the room with an air of determination and a smile meant to be ingratiating, he had reduced his little circle of watchers to a state of amazed stupefaction. He gathered up the cards at the lady's entrance.
“If you'll take this seat opposite me, ma'am,” he invited, “we'll make a start. I'm banker, and, if agreeable, I'll keep an account against you all till the end of the trip.” ”

“ Nathaniel Long followed his friend's earnest gaze with some interest.
“Joseph,” he asked, “do you know the man in the dinner-coat—not the Englishman? You seem to be staring at him hard enough.”
“He was on the steamer with me,” Mr. Cray acknowledged.
“That fellow's seen the inside of Sing-Sing more than once,” Mr. Long declared. “Some crook, he is, I can tell you. I don't know what name he goes by now, but they used to call him Jimmy the Eel. He seems to have got in with a swell crowd.”
“He's never been a detective, by any chance, I suppose?” Mr. Cray asked his partner. ”

“ It was neither his fault nor mine; it--it was the fault of circumstances."
"Ah!" said the doctor, "a foolish quarrel. But I had thought both of you superior to it. Should the cloud ever pass away, and he wish to make you his wife, remember that you have my full and free approbation--that my blessing would go with it. In spite of his pride and his caprice, I like Oswald Cray."
"It never will pass away," she interrupted, almost with vehemence. "It is a thing impossible. We have bidden adieu to all that for ever." ”

“ Oswald Cray came up, having distinguished the doctor in the moonlight.
"I wish you'd come and look at a poor fellow, Dr. Davenal, who wants a word of cheering. A word of such from you, you know sends the spirits up. You should have seen the man's face lighten when I said you were here."
"Who is it?" asked the doctor, turning off with alacrity.
"Poor Bigg the fireman. You know him, I daresay. He is badly scalded and bruised."
"Oh, his hurts are nothing," slightingly spoke Mark Cray. "He seems one of those groaners who cry out at a touch of pain." ”

“ After a Turkish bath, a visit to the barber's and the manicurist, he met his friend and late business partner, and the two men made their way to the smartest restaurant in New York, where a table had been reserved for them. With elaborate care Mr. Cray selected a wonderful dinner, ordered, with a prodigious sigh, a large bottle of mineral water, and closing his eyes for a moment, drank an imaginary cocktail.
“Joseph, my boy, what are you going to do about it?” Nathaniel Long inquired. “You're in the prime of life, and a very rich man. ”

“ Mr. Cray made his contented but wondering way into the lounge. A tall and very elegant-looking young woman rose to her feet and came to meet him. Mr. Cray's eyes shone and his smile was wonderful.
“Sara!” he gasped. “Gee, this is great!”
“Dad!” she replied, saluting him on both cheeks. “You old dear!”
They went off arm in arm to a corner.
“To think of your being here to welcome me!” Mr. Cray murmured ecstatically.
“And why not?” the young lady replied. “If ever anyone deserved a welcome home, it's you. Twelve months' work in a hut in France is scarcely a holiday.” ”

“ Cray listened in rebellious silence.
“Your great country, Mr. Cray,” she wound up, “has shown the world what it thinks of liquor.”
“Because they cheated,” he answered gravely.
“In her way she has,” Mr. Cray acknowledged. “In my small way, I shall continue to show the world what I think of it. Steward, hurry up with that wine.”
Mrs. Green shook her head but her smile was indulgent.
“Obstinate!” she murmured. “We will have a little talk after dinner, Mr. Cray. I will make you a little coffee up on deck.”
“I never drink coffee,” her victim lied. “I always take brandy after my meals.” ”