Slyne

“ Jobling, with bulging eyes and open mouth, felt about him as if for some friendly hand to clutch at and, finding none, laid hold of Slyne by the coat—who struck his fingers away with a muttered oath. Slyne and Captain Dove and Justin Carthew were all regarding him with blank dismay. Sallie uttered a little, low, pitiful cry as she recognised in the worn-out wreck who had halted mutely a few paces away the man she had seen only a month or two before in the prime of life and the plenitude of his power, the Emir El Farish. ”

“ He looked round at Slyne again.
"You're a man of wealth," he said in a husky voice whose suddenly inspired eagerness he could not conceal, and some spark of hope perhaps sprang up in his fainting heart again since Slyne did not deny that erroneous suggestion. ”

“ Slyne silenced him with a contemptuous gesture.
"Whatever you do will make no difference to anyone in the wide world but yourself," said Slyne. "If you do what you're told you'll get a great deal more than you deserve out of it. If you don't—D'ye think I'd have taken you into the team if I didn't know how to drive you!" ”

“ Slyne handed Sallie into the tonneau, and Ambrizette after her, tossed the policeman a further tip which secured his everlasting esteem, took his own seat at the wheel, and was hastily followed by Captain Dove.
"Where are we bound for?" asked Captain Dove, holding his top-hat on with both hands, as Slyne took the road toward Sampierdarena at a round pace.
"Don't talk to the man at the wheel," answered Slyne, and laughed. "We've a hundred miles or so ahead of us. Better chuck that old tile of yours away and tie a handkerchief round your head; you'll find that less uncomfortable." ”

“ It isn't every day there's such a car in the market."
"No, it isn't," Slyne agreed. "Nor a buyer for it." And conversation languished again.
But Slyne's spirits, none the less, were steadily rising as he drew nearer, mile by mile, to the chief temple of that goddess of chance to whom he looked to befriend him now—since it was not on his own behalf alone that he was seeking her shrine, since mischance must entail consequences so dire to Sallie as well as to him. The personal risk he was running lent added zest to the piquancy of his most unusual position as a champion of maidenhood in distress. ”

“ D'ye take me for a blind idiot, Slyne? D'ye think I'm going to let Sallie out of my sight, with you?"
Slyne was visibly disconcerted. "But—aren't you going to take your ship round to England?" he asked, in genuine surprise. "You can't very well leave her lying in Genoa!"
"I'll attend to my own end of the business," said Captain Dove with angry decision. "If you're going to London by train to-night, so am I. If you like to come back on board with me, I'll sail you round. But I'm not the only man on the Olive Branch who can sail a ship. ”

“ Captain Dove looked across at Carthew with a hoarse chuckle, no less malicious. He was evidently in that mordant, capricious humour most common with him at moments when his potations had merely begun their evil work on his wits.
"Light that candle again, Slyne, confound you!" he ordered sharply. "His noble lordship, our American friend, can scarcely see us—to say good-bye."
"Oh, come on," Slyne urged, obviously almost at the end of his patience. "We've no more than time to get safely away before we'll have the hue and cry after us in the fishermen's boats—and they're faster than you imagine." ”

“ He felt as if he were treading on air on his way back to the mid-ship saloon.
Captain Dove, in the same négligé costume, was busy at breakfast when Slyne walked in upon him again, but looked up from his plate for long enough to mumble a malicious question.
"Yes, I've fixed it all up with her," Slyne answered with assumed nonchalance. "You can always trust me to know how to handle a woman, Dove."
Captain Dove shot a derisive glance in his direction. "Is she willing to marry you after all, then?" ”

“ Slyne looked his annoyance at that further interruption, and made as if to rise, but did no more than draw his gold cigarette-case from its pocket. He knew that Captain Dove was merely trying to aggravate him, and it would not have been politic to stray from the matter in hand. He lighted a cigarette at his leisure and waited for what should come next. He had changed his mind as to taking the old man fully into his confidence. He thought he could see his way to get all he wanted for a very great deal less than that might have cost him. ”

“ Captain Dove retorted with crapulous dignity. "So just light—Or, here—gimme the candle, quick! And don't address any more of—of your in—invidious conversation to me."
"I'll see Sallie safely afloat, then," suggested Slyne. "We'll have to send her down in a whip, I expect. The sea's always rising."
"She's a better seaman than you are, Slyne," the old man returned with a sneer. "And she'll go down hand under hand, same as I will—when I'm quite ready. Till then, she'll stay here with me, so that his loving lordship there can have a last, long look at her." ”

“ Slyne returned, and, as the old man whistled amazedly over that further and unexpected proof that his former accomplice's fortunes had changed for the better, "You look like a fool in that outfit," said Slyne. "The right rig-out for motoring is a tweed suit and a soft cap."
Captain Dove was very visibly annoyed. He had been at particular pains to array himself properly. "You want to be the only swell in the party, of course!" he grunted. "You're jealous, that's what's the matter with you." ”

“ How long do you think you'd be left at liberty if I mentioned to the authorities that you're the same man who—"
"Stop, now, curse you!" roared Captain Dove and so drowned the disclosures which Slyne seemed minded to make. "And don't go too far with me, or—"
Slyne looked without winking into the muzzle of the revolver which the old man had produced in an instant and levelled at him. "You talk to me about bluffing!" he said again, and laughed, without mirth. "You'd be better occupied, Dove, in making sure that your own bluff isn't called. ”

“ Slyne thought he could guess some part at least of the troubles afflicting his chance acquaintance, and was very little inclined to hear more about them. He was too busy considering his own plan of campaign, the blood in his own veins was running too briskly under the stimulus of that wild flight through the keen night air, to waste any time or thought on another man's worries. But—a fellow-feeling makes us wondrous kind. "Cheer up!" said he suddenly. "Every one overdraws more or less on his luck, at one time or another. ”

“ And the man before him nodded slowly, three times.
"None but me, Captain Brown—or Captain Dove—or whatever you care to call yourself," said Farish M'Kissock, and tried to moisten his dry lips with a dry tongue. "None but the man you have twice betrayed and turned adrift to die like a dog; once in the desert and yet again in a boat on the open sea."
"Didn't you get ashore?" Slyne asked softly, as if he thought that the mysterious new-comer must be mad, and did not desire to anger him. ”

“ Slyne asserted bluntly. "You're getting into your dotage. She's outgrown you. And what'll happen in the end will be that you'll lose her too. You're far too grasping."
Captain Dove shook his hoary head with a cunning grin. "If I don't know how to handle her, there's nothing you can teach me," he commented. "And yet you'd give your very eye-teeth for her!"
"It would be the best bit of business you've done for long," Slyne affirmed. "She's cost you far more already than you'll ever make again, and me, too, for that matter. ”

“ He was in no hurry at all for supper, and wanted a few minutes of peace and quietness in which to compose his still troubled mind, and to consider the situation as touching his lordship of Ingoldsby—who would undoubtedly prove a far more profitable companion than Mr. Jobling, even although the latter should have won the fifty thousand francs that had been his ambition.
"What a fool that fellow is, for a lawyer!" mused Slyne, having more or less successfully combated an inclination to let his thoughts stray back to the Olive Branch—and Sallie. ”

“ He left the castle immediately after lunch, to catch the steamer south, a little less depressed, perhaps, after a few further words with Captain Dove, who thought it only politic to inspirit him in his efforts on Sallie's behalf. And he had not been gone very long before Captain Dove began to miss him—as a boon-companion, a part which Slyne refused to play any longer. So that the old man soon began to find the time hang very heavy on his hands, and his grudge against Slyne always grew. ”

“ He looked savagely round at Slyne. "I thought I told you to see that bloated Jonah into the boat!" he blurted explosively. And Slyne, with an exasperated shrug of the shoulders, sauntered away, with Mr. Jobling in very uncertain attendance.
"I want to talk to you on my own account for five seconds or so, young-fellow-my-lad," Captain Dove continued, as if in confidence, to Carthew. "But—is it safe, eh? You haven't answered my questions yet. And—you've turned the key on us once already!"
"You're safe from pursuit in the meantime," Carthew reassured him. ”

“ Some brooding spirit of the past might have been peering out at them from the watchman's wicket in the bartizan above. They stood still and silent until, at last, the postern in the big double-doorway was unlatched from within and a grey-haired, elderly woman with a hard-featured face, much lined and seamed, in the stiffly rustling garb of a superior servant, appeared in the narrow opening and dropped them an old-fashioned curtsy after a quick, shrewd glance at them.
"If it isn't too late, we'd like to be allowed to look over the castle," Slyne said politely raising his cap. ”

“ Slyne flushed darkly under his tan and darted an ugly glance at his grinning tormentor. He had always plumed himself on his way with women, and Captain Dove's chance shaft had sorely wounded his very sensitive self-esteem. But he still controlled his own barbed tongue and said nothing of the new card he had up his sleeve.
"So be it, then," he agreed, with a somewhat difficult smile. "I can't force you" ("you old fool!" he added mentally) "to take the chance of a lifetime when it's offered you. ”

“ We can't work without each other, unfortunately for me, or—"
"You're going too fast," intervened Mr. Jobling, still seated, and with some faint show of spirit. "You're taking too much for granted, sir. I don't even know who you are, and—we must come to terms of some sort before—"
He shrank aside as Slyne stepped forward with twitching fingers and eyes aflame.
"You'll take whatever terms you get—and be precious thankful," hissed Slyne, stooping over him. "You'll do exactly what you're told, no more, and no less. ”

“ I'll wait behind for a bit—Dove and Slyne believe that I'm safely out of the way—but, as soon as it's needful, I'll face them too. Till then, never mention my name nor any word of what I have told you.
"Pluck up some heart!" he hissed savagely. "This is the Castle of Loquhariot—and you're the Earl of Jura. But they'll out-match you yet unless you stand your ground against them." ”

“ Jobling composed his features into their most professional aspect, but that gave place by degrees to a variety of other expressions, while Slyne, busy changing his clothes, related all he himself knew as to Sallie's past history.
"And now the old man thinks he is entitled to put a price on her," Slyne concluded. "She's promised to marry me, but he won't let her go till I hand him a hundred thousand dollars." ”

“ So I thought I'd ask her."
"Didn't you hear me tell you in Monte Carlo that Lady Josceline is engaged to marry me?" Slyne broke in, with a sudden access of anger, since Captain Dove still seemed to have nothing to say.
"That's so," said Captain Dove slowly. "She's engaged to this gentleman—on conditions."
Lord Ingoldsby screwed his eye-glass into his face and gravely regarded Slyne again.
"But she's not married to him yet," said he. "And—it's a woman's privilege to change her mind. ”

“ Slyne was leading the Duchess of Dawn to her seat. Lord Ingoldsby had Sallie upon his arm: and Mr. Jobling hovered close at her other shoulder. She sat down between them, with his sullen lordship on her right facing the effusive lawyer. And Carthew, following, noticed that she looked round once or twice in his own direction. Captain Dove, a queer-looking figure, had seated himself at Slyne's side, opposite the duchess, and Herries took the chair between him and Lord Ingoldsby, leaving Carthew next the duchess. ”

“ Captain Dove scratched his head. He could see that Slyne was watching him very closely. It had no doubt flashed through Slyne's mind as through his own that here was a providential by-path of escape, for him at least, from his present predicament; that, if all else went askew, Sallie might prove profitable enough, to him at least, as the Marchioness of Ingoldsby. For had not Mr. Jobling stated that the young man before the fire was one of the wealthiest peers in England or elsewhere. ”

“ Jobling, under his glance, confirmed that statement emphatically.
"A hundred and twenty-one thousand is the last limit—a thousand down, to bind the bargain, and the balance the day of my wedding with Sallie," Slyne declared. "If that doesn't satisfy you—there's nothing more to be said. And I'll maybe find other means—"
"Show me even the first thousand," requested Captain Dove, and Slyne counted out on to the table, at a safe distance from the old man's twitching fingers, five thousand francs of the amount Lord Ingoldsby had paid him for his car. ”

“ Captain Dove had interdicted all communication with Sallie, and had proved a most unpleasant companion himself throughout the unspeakably wearisome passage from the North-west African coast, a passage made at the poorest speed of the ship because coal was scarce and he was afraid to call anywhere by the way to fill up his bunkers. Amid the dire squalor and discomfort, the enforced inaction and loneliness of life under such conditions, Slyne's only solace had been the hope of finally winning Sallie, by fair means or foul. ”