Ashby knocked the ashes off his cigar with a reflective look, and said, "I rather think, Harry, that I had better make you my father-confessor."
"All right," said Harry; "that"s what I was made for. Go ahead, my son. Confess--out with it. Cleanse your bosom of its perilous stuff: make a clean breast of it."
"Well," said Ashby, "in the first place, I"m just now meditating matrimony."
"Matrimony!"
"Yes; but that"s not all. It"s a sort of runaway match."
"A runaway match! By Jove! Only think of a fellow like you planning a runaway match! Now if it was me, it would be the proper thing. But is it really to be a runaway match?"
"Well, it amounts to that, for I"ve asked the girl to clear out from her friends and come with me."
"Well, old fellow, all I can say is, good luck to you both. And please, mayn"t I be the best man?" he added, with a droll accent that brought an involuntary smile to Ashby"s face. "But go on. Who is the charmer? and where is she now?"
"Well, to answer your last question first, she"s here--in Burgos."
"Ah," said Harry, "I twig! Came on in the same train. Both planned it together. You cut across the border, and are made one. Why, it"s like Gretna Green!"
"Well, you"ve hit it partly, only she"s with her friends just now--that is to say, she"s with her guardian and his wife; and the problem to be solved by me is, how I am to get her from those two dragons."
"Oh, that can be done. But now, my boy, to come to the point, who is she?--her name?"
"Her name," said Ashby, "is Westlotorn--Katie Westlotorn."
"Westlotorn," repeated Harry: "never saw her, and don"t think I ever heard the name in all my life."
"I got acquainted with her at Cadiz a few months ago," said Ashby.
"Her father had been a merchant there, and had died about a year before. She was there with her step-mother, who took no particular care of her--a miserable beast of a woman. She was in correspondence with her sister in England, a Mrs. Russell, whom she kept urging to come on and take Katie away from Spain. This Mrs. Westlotorn had induced her husband before his death to appoint Russell, her sister"s husband, Katie"s guardian, and it was this Russell and his wife whom, she expected on, but they could not get away very easily. After a time Mrs. Westlotorn decided to move to Madrid, which she thought would be a pleasanter residence. So about three months ago she made the move, and after that Katie and I saw as much of one another as we wished, and she became regularly engaged to me."
"So the step-mother approved, did she?"
"Oh, altogether!"
"Well, what"s the trouble?"
"Oh, this infernal Russell, the guardian, you know! As soon as he came on, he and his wife began to make trouble, and tried to break up the engagement; they also tried to keep me away from the house. Then there was another difficulty: they allowed some Spanish blackguards to get acquainted with them. Mrs. Westlotorn, the widow, you know, is hot-and-heavy in the chase of a husband, and thought that all the young fellows who came after Katie were after her. The worst of them was a chap named Lopez, who calls himself a captain in the Spanish army--a poor, pitiful beggar whom I shall have to horsewhip. And, by-the-bye, that reminds me--I expect to be called out to-morrow or next day."
"Called out? how?"
"Oh, by this pitiful fellow Lopez;" and Ashby related the incident at the Madrid station.
"By Jove!" said Harry, "this is lucky. I"m glad I came upon you at such a time. You won"t have to trust to a bungling Spaniard to be your second."
"The worst of it is," said Ashby, "I believe that this Russell is one of the most infernal villains that ever lived, and that he is concocting some scheme against Katie."
"A scheme! how?"
"Well, I"ll tell you. I saw from the first that he was hostile to me.
Possibly this may have been my own fault, for I saw the fellow was a beastly cad, not at all fit to be Katie"s guardian. Why, he"s a tailor! think of that--a tailor! that"s all he is. By Jove! only think--a tailor! and Katie"s guardian! Do you suppose I was going to stand any nonsense from a tailor?"
"By Jove! no--not unless you"re deep in his books," said Harry; "and even then, when you"re away from home you ought to be a free man. So you rather slighted the guardian, did you?"
"Well, I told him to go to the devil; and the fellow took offence, you know."
"H"m--odd, too," said Harry. "Why should he take offence at such a simple remark?"
"Don"t know, I"m sure," said Ashby; "but there it is, you see.
However, that makes no difference. I"ve defied him and threatened him."
"Threatened! Why?"
"Why, because the infernal scoundrel is deep in some plan to get hold of Katie"s money."
"Katie"s money? Oh, she has money, then?"
"Of course--about thirty or forty thousand pounds. Most of this, I believe, is in Spanish bonds, in which Westlotorn was foolish enough to invest."
"Not very good just now, hey?"
"Oh, they"ll be good ultimately. At any rate, old Russell"s bound to get hold of all this and keep it for himself, and I"m resolved that he shall disgorge. He"s got half a dozen plans. One plan is to try to get her to marry his son, an infernal redheaded, c.o.c.k-eyed cad of a fellow--a tailor too. Another plan is to put her off in some out-of-the-way place here in Spain, where no one will ever hear of her. Another plan is to ship her off to America; another is to keep her in seclusion in his own home, where no one will ever see her; while another is to dispose of the Spanish bonds in such a way as to make it appear that they are a dead loss."
"You seem to be very deep in Russell"s plans," said Harry. "He could not have told you all this himself. If he did, he must be of an uncommonly confiding disposition."
"He tell me!" said Ashby. "Of course he didn"t. I found it all out--no matter how. Oh, the fellow"s a desperate swindler--he"ll stick at nothing. But, at any rate, he knows that I have my eye on him, and he"ll hardly dare to do anything against Katie"s interest so long as I am near enough to watch over her."
"You and Russell must have had rather interesting conversations. Did you ever tell him your suspicions?"
"They"re not suspicions, they"re facts. Tell him--of course I did, and that"s one reason why he hates me. He knows perfectly well that I see through and through him. We had a row at the station, just before leaving Madrid, because I came down to see Katie off; and he"s now on the watch to prevent me from seeing her again."
"And what do you propose to do about it?"
"Oh, I"ve arranged it all. I"ll tell you. I wrote a letter, and handed it to her just as we were leaving Madrid, asking her to meet me at Biarritz, naming a place. I have friends there, and I will take her to their house. The English chaplain can marry us. We will then cut off to England. On the arrival of Russell I will go to him and demand my wife"s property. If he refuses to disgorge I will at once commence legal proceedings against him, and by way of preliminary I will give the scoundrel a horsewhipping."
"This arrangement is all very well; but what about the lady? Will she consent?"
"Consent? Why, she"ll jump at the chance," said Ashby, confidently.
"She must be very fond of you."
"Fond of me? Why, she"s perfectly infatuated about me."
"Good!" said Harry. "Well, my boy, I"m your man. You want me for war and for peace, so here am I--your second at the duel and your groomsman at the wedding."
CHAPTER IV.