"I mean this, miss; when victim offered to Big Yellow G.o.d, priest-men bring him to edge of ca.n.a.l where the great G.o.d float. Then if Yellow G.o.d want him, it turn and swim across water."
"Swim across water! I thought you said it was only a mask of gold?"
"I don"t know, miss, perhaps man inside the mask, perhaps spirit. I say it swim across water in the night, always in the night, and lift itself up and look in victim"s face. Then priest take him and kill him, sometimes one way--sometimes another. Or if he escape and they not kill him, all same for that Johnnie, he die in about one year, always die, no one ever live long if Yellow G.o.d swim to him in dark and rise up and smile in his face. No matter if it Big Bonsa or Little Bonsa, for they man and wife joined in holy matrimony and either do trick."
As these words left Jeekie"s lips Alan became aware of some unusual movement on his left and looking round, saw that Mr. Champers-Haswell, who stood by him, had dropped the cigar which he held and, white as a sheet, was swaying to and fro. Indeed in another instant he would have fallen had not Alan caught him in his arms and supported him till others came to his a.s.sistance, when between them they carried him to a sofa. On their way they pa.s.sed a table where spirits and soda water were set out, and to his astonishment Alan noticed that Sir Robert Aylward, looking little if at all better than his partner, had helped himself to half a tumbler of cognac, which he was swallowing in great gulps. Then there was confusion and someone went to telephone the doctor, while the deep voice of Jeekie was heard exclaiming:
"That Yellow G.o.d at work--oh yes, Little Bonsa on the job. Jeekie Christian man but no doubt she very powerful fetish and can do anything she like to them that worship her, and you see, she sit in office of these gentlemen. "Spect she make Reverend Austin and me bring her to England because she got eye on firm of Messrs. Aylward & Haswell, London, E.C. Oh, shouldn"t wonder at all, for Bonsa know everything."
"Oh, confound you and your fetish! Be off, you old donkey," almost shouted Alan.
"Major," replied the offended Jeekie, a.s.suming his grand manner and language, "it was not I who wished to narrate this history of blood-stained superst.i.tions of poor African. Mustn"t blame old Jeekie if they make Christian gents sick as Channel steamer."
"Be off," repeated Alan, stamping his foot.
So Jeekie went, but outside the door, as it chanced, he encountered one of the Jew gentlemen who also appeared to be a little "sick." An idea striking him, he touched his white hair with his finger and said:
"You like Jeekie"s pretty story, sir? Well, Jeekie think that if you make little present to him, like your brother in there, it please Yellow G.o.d very much, and bring you plenty luck."
Then acting upon some unaccustomed impulse, that Jew became exceedingly generous. In his pocket was a handful of sovereigns which he had been prepared to stake at bridge. He grasped them all and thrust them into Jeekie"s outstretched palm, where they seemed to melt.
"Thank you, sir," said Jeekie. "Now I sure you have plenty luck, just like your grandpa Jacob in Book when he do his brudder in eye."
CHAPTER IV
ALAN AND BARBARA
There was no bridge or billiards at the Court that night, where ordinarily the play ran high enough. After Mr. Haswell had been carried to his room, some of the guests, among them Sir Robert Aylward, went to bed, remarking that they could do no good by sitting up, while others, more concerned, waited to hear the verdict of the doctor, who must drive from six miles away. He came, and half an hour later Barbara entered the billiard room and told Alan, who was sitting there smoking, that her uncle had recovered from his faint, and that the doctor, who was to stay all night, said that he was in no danger, only suffering from a heart attack brought on apparently by over-work or excitement.
When Alan woke next morning the first thing that he heard through his open window was the sound of the doctor"s departing dogcart. Then Jeekie appeared and told him that Mr. Haswell was all right again, but that all night he had shaken "like one jelly." Alan asked what had been the matter with him, but Jeekie only shrugged his shoulders and said that he did not know--"perhaps Yellow G.o.d touch him up."
At breakfast, as in her note she had said she would, Barbara appeared wearing a short skirt. Sir Robert, who was there, also looked extremely pale even for him and with black rims round his eyes, asked her if she were going to golf, to which she answered that she would think it over.
It was a somewhat melancholy meal, and as though by common consent no mention was made of Jeekie"s tale of the Yellow G.o.d, and beyond the usual polite inquiries, very little of their host"s seizure.
As Barbara went out she whispered to Alan, who opened the door for her, "Meet me at half-past ten in the kitchen garden."
Accordingly, having changed his clothes surrept.i.tiously, Alan, avoiding the others, made his way by a circuitous route to this kitchen garden, which after the fashion of modern places was hidden behind a belt of trees nearly a quarter of a mile from the house. Here he wandered about till presently he heard Barbara"s pleasant voice behind him saying:
"Don"t dawdle so, we shall be late for church."
So they started, somewhat furtively like runaway children. As they went Alan asked how her uncle was.
"All right now," she answered, "but he has had a bad shake. It was that Yellow G.o.d story which did it. I know, for I was there when he was coming to, with Sir Robert. He kept talking about it in a confused manner, saying that it was swimming to him across the floor, till at last Sir Robert bent over him and told him to be quiet quite sternly.
Do you know, Alan, I believe that your pet fetish has been manifesting itself in some unpleasant fashion up there in the office?"
"Indeed. If so, it must be since I left, for I never heard of anything of the sort, nor are Aylward and your uncle likely people to see ghosts.
In fact Sir Robert wished to give me about 17,000 for the thing only the day before yesterday, which doesn"t look as though it had been frightening him."
"Well, he won"t repeat the offer, Alan, for I heard him promise my uncle only this morning that it should be sent back to Yarleys at once. But why did he want to buy it for such a lot of money? Tell me quickly, Alan, I am dying to hear the whole story."
So he began and told her, omitting nothing, while she listened eagerly to every word, hardly interrupting him at all. As he finished his tale they reached the door of the quaint old village church just as the clock was striking eleven.
"Come in, Alan," she said gently, "and thank Heaven for all its mercies, for you should be a grateful man to-day."
Then without giving him time to answer she entered the church and they took their places in the great square pew that for generations had been occupied by the owners of the ancient house which Mr. Haswell pulled down when he built The Court. There were their monuments upon the wall and their gravestones in the chancel floor. But now no one except Barbara ever sat in their pew; even the benches set aside for the servants were empty, for those who frequented The Court were not church-goers and "like master, like man." Indeed the gentle-faced old clergyman looked quite pleased and surprised when he saw two inhabitants of that palatial residence amongst his congregation, although it is true that Barbara was his friend and helper.
The simple service went on; the first lesson was read. It cried woe upon them that joined house to house and field to field, that draw iniquity with cords of vanity and sin as it were with a cart rope; that call evil good and good evil, that put darkness for light and light for darkness, that justify the wicked for reward; that feast full but regard not the work of the Lord, neither consider the operation of His hand, for of such it prophesied that their houses great and fair should be without inhabitant and desolate.
It was very well read, and Alan, listening, thought that the denunciations of the old seer of thousands of years ago were not inappropriate to the dwellers in some houses great and fair of his own day, who, whatever they did or left undone, regarded not the work of the Lord, neither considered the operation of His hand. Perhaps Barbara thought so too; at any rate a rather sad little smile appeared once or twice upon her sweet, firm face as the immortal poem echoed down the aisle.
The peace that pa.s.seth understanding was invoked upon their heads, and rising with the rest of the scanty congregation they went away.
"Shall we walk home by the woods, Alan?" asked Barbara. "It is three miles round, but we don"t lunch till two."
He nodded, and presently they were alone in those woods, the beautiful woods through which the breath of spring was breathing, treading upon carpets of bluebells, violet and primrose; quite alone, unaccompanied save by the wild things that stole across their path, undisturbed save by the sound of the singing birds and of the wind among the trees.
"What did you mean, Barbara, when you said that I should be a grateful man to-day?" asked Alan presently.
Barbara looked him in the eyes in that open, virginal fashion of hers and answered in the words of the lesson, ""Woe unto them that draw iniquity with the cords of vanity and sin as it were with a cart-rope, that lay house to house,"" and through an opening in the woods she pointed to the roof of The Court standing on one hill, and to the roof of Old Hall standing upon another--""and field to field,"" and with a sweep of her hand she indicated all the country round, ""for many houses great and fair that have music in their feasts shall be left desolate.""
Then turning she said:
"Do you understand now, Alan?"
"I think so," he answered. "You mean that I have been in bad company."
"Very bad, Alan. One of them is my own uncle, but the truth remains the truth. Alan, they are no better than thieves; all this wealth is stolen, and I thank G.o.d that you have found it out in time before you became one of them in heart as well as in name."
"If you refer to the Sahara Syndicate," he said, "the idea is sound enough; indeed, I am responsible for it. The thing can be done, great benefits would result, too long to go into."
"Yes, yes, Alan, but you know that they never mean to do it, they only mean to get the millions from the public. I have lived with my uncle for ten years, ever since my poor father died, and I know the backstairs of the business. There have been half a dozen schemes like this, and although they have had their bad times, very bad times, he and Sir Robert have grown richer and richer. But what has happened to those who have invested in them? Oh! let us drop the subject, it is unpleasant.
For myself it doesn"t matter, because although it isn"t under my control, I have money of my own. You know we are a plebeian lot on the male side, my grandfather was a draper in a large way of business, my father was a coal-merchant who made a great fortune. His brother, my uncle, in whom my father always believed implicitly, took to what is called Finance, and when my father died he left me, his only child, in his guardianship. Until I am five and twenty I cannot even marry or touch a halfpenny without his consent; in fact if I should marry against his will the most of my money goes to him."
"I expect that he has got it already," said Alan.
"No, I think not. I found out that, although it is not mine, it is not his. He can"t draw it without my signature, and I steadily refuse to sign anything. Again and again they have brought me doc.u.ments, and I have always said that I would consider them at five and twenty, when I came of age under my father"s will. I went on the sly to a lawyer in Kingswell and paid him a guinea for his advice, and he put me up to that. "Sign nothing," he said, and I have signed nothing, so, except by forgery nothing can have gone. Still for all that it may have gone.
For anything I know I am not worth more than the clothes I stand in, although my father was a very rich man."
"If so, we are about in the same boat, Barbara," Alan answered with a laugh, "for my present possessions are Yarleys, which brings in about 100 a year less than the interest on its mortgages and cost of upkeep, and the 1700 that Aylward paid me back on Friday for my shares. If I had stuck to them I understand that in a week or two I should have been worth 100,000, and now you see, here I am, over thirty years of age without a profession, invalided out of the army and having failed in finance, a mere bit of driftwood without hope and without a trade."
Barbara"s brown eyes grew soft with sympathy, or was it tears?
"You are a curious creature, Alan," she said. "Why didn"t you take the 17,000 for that fetish of yours? It would have been a fair deal and have set you on your legs."
"I don"t know," he answered dejectedly. "It went against the grain, so what is the use of talking about it? I think my old uncle Austin told me it wasn"t to be parted with--no, perhaps it was Jeekie. Bother the Yellow G.o.d! it is always cropping up."
"Yes," replied Barbara, "the Yellow G.o.d is always cropping up, especially in this neighbourhood."