"Look here," he said, "I want to believe in you! You saved my life and I"m not over-anxious to do you a mischief. But you must tell me what you have done with Vill--Monty."
"Don"t you know where he is?" Trent asked quickly.
"I? Certainly not! How should I?"
"Perhaps not," Trent said, "but here"s the truth. When I got back to Attra Monty had disappeared--ran away to England, and as yet I"ve heard never a word of him. I"d meant to do the square thing by him and bring him back myself. Instead of that he gave us all the slip, but unless he"s a lot different to what he was last time I saw him, he"s not fit to be about alone."
"I heard that he had left," Francis said, "from Mr. Walsh."
"He either came quite alone," Trent said, "in which case it is odd that nothing has been heard of him, or Da Souza has got hold of him."
"Oom Sam"s brother?"
Trent nodded.
"And his interest?" Francis asked.
"Well, he is a large shareholder in the Company," Trent said. "Of course he could upset us all if he liked. I should say that Da Souza would try all he could to keep him in the background until he had disposed of his shares."
"And how does your stock hold?"
"I don"t know," Trent said. "I only landed yesterday. I"m pretty certain though that there"s no market for the whole of Da Souza"s holding."
"He has a large interest, then?"
"A very large one," Trent answered drily.
"I should like," Francis said, "to understand this matter properly. As a matter of fact I suppose that Monty is ent.i.tled to half the purchase-money you received for the Company."
Trent a.s.sented.
"It isn"t that I grudge him that," he said, "although, with the other financial enterprises I have gone into, I don"t know how I should raise half a million of money to pay him off. But don"t you see my sale of the charter to the Company is itself, Monty being alive, an illegal act.
The t.i.tle will be wrong, and the whole affair might drift into Chancery, just when a vigorous policy is required to make the venture a success.
If Monty were here and in his right mind, I think we could come to terms, but, when I saw him last at any rate, he was quite incapable, and he might become a tool to anything. The Bears might get hold of him and ruin us all. In short, it"s a beastly mess!"
Francis looked at him keenly.
"What do you expect me to do?" he asked.
"I have no right to expect anything," Trent said. "However, I saved your life and you may consider yourself therefore under some obligation to me. I will tell you then what I would have you do. In the first place, I know no more where he is than you do. He may be in England or he may not. I shall go to Da Souza, who probably knows. You can come with me if you like. I don"t want to rob the man of a penny. He shall have all he is ent.i.tled to--only I do want to arrange terms with him quietly, and not have the thing talked about. It"s as much for the others" sake as my own. The men who came into my Syndicate trusted me, and I don"t want them left."
Francis took a little silver case from his pocket, lit a cigarette, and smoked for a moment or two thoughtfully.
"It is possible," he said at last, "that you are an honest man. On the other hand you must admit that the balance of probability from my point of view is on the other side. Let us travel backwards a little way--to my first meeting with you. I witnessed the granting of this concession to you by the King of Bekwando. According to its wording you were virtually Monty"s heir, and Monty was lying drunk, in a climate where strong waters and death walk hand-in-hand. You leave him in the bush, proclaim his death, and take sole possession. I find him alive, do the best I can for him, and here the first act ends. Then what afterwards?
I hear of you as an empire-maker and a millionaire. Nevertheless, Monty was alive and you knew he was alive, but when I reach Attra he has been spirited away! I want to know where! You say you don"t know. It may be true, but it doesn"t sound like it."
Trent"s under-lip was twitching, a sure sign of the tempest within, but he kept himself under restraint and said never a word.
Francis continued, "Now I do not wish to be your enemy, Scarlett Trent, or to do you an ill turn, but this is my word to you. Produce Monty within a week and open reasonable negotiations for treating him fairly, and I will keep silent. But if you can"t produce him at the end of that time I must go to his relations and lay all these things before them."
Trent rose slowly to his feet.
"Give me your address," he said, "I will do what I can."
Francis tore a leaf from his pocket-book and wrote a few words upon it.
"That will find me at any time," he said. "One moment, Trent. When I saw you first you were with--a lady."
"Well!"
"I have been away from England so long," Francis continued slowly, "that my memory has suffered. Yet that lady"s face was somehow familiar. May I ask her name?"
"Miss Ernestine Wendermott," Trent answered slowly.
Francis threw away his cigarette and lit another.
"Thank you," he said.
CHAPTER x.x.xV
Da Souza"s office was neither furnished nor located with the idea of impressing casual visitors. It was in a back-street off an alley, and although within a stone"s throw of Lothbury its immediate surroundings were not exhilarating. A blank wall faced it, a green-grocer"s shop shared with a wonderful, cellar-like public-house the honour of its more immediate environment. Trent, whose first visit it was, looked about him with surprise mingled with some disgust.
He pushed open the swing door and found himself face to face with Da Souza"s one clerk--a youth of unkempt appearance, shabbily but flashily dressed, with sallow complexion and eyes set close together. He was engaged at that particular moment in polishing a large diamond pin upon the sleeve of his coat, which operation he suspended to gaze with much astonishment at this unlocked-for visitor. Trent had come straight from Ascot, straight indeed from his interview with Francis, and was still wearing his racing-gla.s.ses.
"I wish to see Mr. Da Souza," Trent said. "Is he in?"
"I believe so, sir," the boy answered. "What name?"
"Trent! Mr. Scarlett Trent!"
The door of an inner office opened, and Da Souza, sleek and curled, presented himself. He showed all his white teeth in the smile with which he welcomed his visitor. The light of battle was in his small, keen eyes, in his cringing bow, his mock humility.
"I am most honoured, Mr. Trent, sir," he declared. "Welcome back to England. When did you return?"
"Yesterday," Trent said shortly.
"And you have come," Da Souza continued, "fresh from the triumphs of the race-course. It is so, I trust?"
"I have come straight from Ascot," Trent replied, "but my horse was beaten if that is what you mean. I did not come here to talk about racing though. I want a word with you in private."
"With much pleasure, sir," Da Souza answered, throwing open with a little flourish the door of his sanctum. "Will you step in? This way!
The chair is dusty. Permit me!"
Trent threw a swift glance around the room in which he found himself. It was barely furnished, and a window, thick with dust, looked out on the dingy back-wall of a bank or some public building. The floor was uncovered, the walls were hung with yellow maps of gold-mines all in the West African district. Da Souza himself, spick and span, with glossy boots and a flower in his b.u.t.tonhole, was certainly the least shabby thing in the room.
"You know very well," Trent said, "what I have come about. Of course you"ll pretend you don"t, so to save time I"ll tell you. What have you done with Monty?"