"Where"s your governor now?" enquired Fuller.
"Eh? Entering for the Kaiser"s Stakes, old man? Well, here"s a clue.
He"s moved to Tarleigh, a little show somewhere in Lancashire. About six or seven miles from Barborough, I believe, and the same distance from anywhere else. At any rate, I"m off there directly I get my leave. By Jove, won"t the old man feel honoured!--a price set on his head by Irresponsible Bill. He"ll feel as proud as Punch. By the bye--don"t all speak at once--who"s pinched my matches?"
CHAPTER III
CONCERNING PETER BARCROFT
"AND Billy arrives by the ten-fifty. No, I don"t think I"ll wait here for three hours and then stand a chance of missing him. I"ll get back home and give him a fitting welcome to the new house."
Thus meditated Peter Barcroft as he paced up and down the crowded up-platform of Barborough Station. He had studied with varying emotions a poster depicting a flabby, pigeon-toed child with one hand over that part of the human form known to infants as a "tummy"
and supposed to be ejaculating, "I feel so jolly here." Even that mild excitement paled, and Mr. Barcroft pined for the congenial warmth of his study. The platform was cold and draughty, offering no inducements to linger for the arrival of the sure-to-be belated "ten-fifty."
Peter Barcroft was a thick-set man of fortyfive. In height he was a good two inches shorter than his airman son. He was clean shaven.
Had he removed his Norfolk cap it might have been noticed that his iron-grey hair showed thin on his temples and was conspicuously absent on the top of his head. His forehead was high, and in conjunction with two vertical wrinkles extending upwards from the inner ends of his eyebrows, gave the appearance of a deep thinker.
Otherwise there was little about him to give one the idea that he was engaged in literary pursuits. According to popular notions he ought to be wearing shabby clothes of eccentric, out-of-date cut; he should affect a weird type of soft collar and a flowing tie; his hair ought to be long and wavy. But Peter Barcroft had none of these qualifications. To judge him by appearances he was just an ordinary middle-aged man of powerful physique and retaining many of the qualities of a bygone athletic age.
He had been living only a fortnight in Lancashire. Why he migrated from Kent was a mystery to the friends he had left behind. Perhaps he did not know himself, unless it was surrender to a sudden, almost eccentric desire for pastures new.
Up to a certain point he possessed the artistic temperament. He worked only when it suited him, and generally seized every plausible excuse to "knock off." Yet, when he did settle to his task he wrote at a tremendous rate, and so vilely that often he was quite unable to decipher his own caligraphy. In financial matters he was as careless as a man could possibly be. Rarely he knew the state of his current account. Trivial matters in everyday life would send him into a towering rage, while the loss of a couple of hundred pounds hardly troubled him in the least degree. He would ransack the house to find a favourite pipe which he had mislaid, or waste half a day searching in vain for a certain pen which he felt sure he had left in such-and-such a place. On the other hand, when a valuable and almost new overcoat was stolen from the hall he just shrugged his shoulders and soon forgot all about it.
During the fortnight he had been the tenant of Ladybird Fold, Peter Barcroft had either "sacked" or had been "sacked" by three housemaids and two cooks, to the consternation and despair of his wife. The servant problem, probably more acute in the manufacturing district of Lancashire than anywhere else in the kingdom, was in this case rendered even more difficult by Peter"s display of irritation at the manifold but trivial delinquencies of his staff of menials.
Mrs. Barcroft had gone on a visit to a relative in Cheshire on the strength of a vague report that there was a girl who might be willing to take the vacant place of housemaid at Ladybird Fold-His wife"s absence for two days had given Peter the excuse to "knock off." It was one of his avowed peculiarities that he could not write a stroke unless his wife were with him in the study. So Mr. Barcroft had gone for a jaunt in his light car.
After the splendidly-surfaced gravelled or tarmac roads of Kent the greasy granite setts and b.u.mpy slag roads of the north came as an unpleasant surprise to the easy-going Peter. A couple of punctures in addition to a slight collision with a "lurry"--a type of vehicle hitherto known to him as a lorry--did not improve his peace of mind, while what ought to have been the climax to a day of mishaps was the sudden failure of the magneto at a desolate spot on the western slope of the Pennine Hills.
But unruffled Peter pushed the car on to the side of the road and tramped stolidly into the nearest village--a good three miles. Here, in an interview with the decrepit motor-engineer (Barcroft guessed rightly that he was too _pa.s.s_ even for munition making), he learnt that at least a month must elapse before the magneto could be re-wired. He received the intelligence with equanimity, for in his pocket was a telegram to the effect that Billy was coming home that night. Nothing else mattered.
"Which is the Tarleigh train?" enquired Mr. Barcroft of a porter.
"Next one in on this side," replied the man gruffly.
Half a minute later the train rumbled into the station. Mr.
Barcroft, realising that up to the present he had not mastered the intricate system of train-service of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, and having had many previous experiences of being misinformed by surly servants of the various railway companies, addressed himself to a pa.s.senger who was about to enter a carriage.
"Tarleigh? Yes, you"re quite right. At any rate, I"m for Blackberry Cross."
"Thank you," replied Peter.
"Motorist?" enquired the other laconically. "Yes; had a breakdown."
The ice was broken. The studied, almost taciturn reserve of the typical level-headed Lancashire man was not proof against the claims of motoring. Before the train glided out of the station the two pa.s.sengers were deep in the subject of cars and their peculiarities.
"Dash it all! we seem a long time getting to Two Elms," remarked the stranger.
He drew aside the blind and peered into the darkness. At that moment the train rumbled under a broad bridge.
"Sorry!" he exclaimed. "We"re already half way between Blackberry Cross and Tarleigh. We must have taken the wrong train: it"s a non-stop to Windyhill."
"Don"t mention it," rejoined Peter affably. "I"m quite enjoying your society. An hour or so won"t make very much difference provided I can get home before eleven. I hope you won"t be inconvenienced?"
The stranger laughed.
"I"m secretary of the Tarleigh and Blackberry Cross Golf Club," he explained. "Entwistle--Philip Entwistle--is my name. By profession I am what is commonly known as a vet. It"s our Annual General Meeting, and I"m due there at eight."
""Fraid it will have to stop at the due," said Mr. Barcroft grimly.
"It"s 7.30 already."
"You"ll be all right," continued Entwistle. "There"s a train back from Windyhill at 10.5, You"re a stranger to the district?"
"Fairly so," admitted Peter. "I"ve take Ladybird Fold for three years."
"Your name doesn"t happen to be Norton--Andrew Norton?"
"No," was the reply. "Barcroft"s my name. I know Norton. He"s a newcomer. Only been here a week, I believe; and in that time he"s frozen on to me. Kind of companionship in a strange land, so to speak. He seems a very decent sort; in fact, I rather like him. He"s my nearest neighbour and he lives at least half a mile from Ladybird Fold."
"What is he?" asked Entwistle. "Independent?"
"So I should imagine. He has plenty of time on his hands, and spends a good part of it with me, except when I have to choke him off.
He"ll be sitting in my study when I get home, for a dead cert.
Already he"s made it a practice of looking me up at ten o"clock of an evening, after I"ve knocked off. You see," he added apologetically. "I have to work."
"At what?" enquired his companion, the Lancashire thirst for knowledge ever in the foreground.
"I am a professional liar," announced Peter with mock gravity.
"A what? Oh, I suppose you mean that you"re a lawyer?"
"Heaven forbid!" protested Mr. Barcroft piously. "You misunderstand me. I am a novelist. Modesty forbids me to give you my _nom de Plume_. At present, however, I am engaged upon a book of a technical character dealing with the conduct of the war. Perhaps some of my theories will be a bit startling when pushed on to the British Public, but they"ll be vindicated."
"Hang it all!" exclaimed Entwistle. "I have heard of you already."
"Have you really?" enquired Peter. Professional vanity--although he was not afflicted with "swollen head"--made him perhaps justifiably keen on hearing outside opinions of his literary efforts.
"Yes," continued his companion. "It was the Vicar of Tarleigh. He was in Wheatcroft"s place--down the bottom of Blackberry Hill and while he was talking to the old man a car came along driven by you.
In it were two sheep dogs barking like fury. I think I am right in the description?"
Peter nodded appreciatingly.
"Says the vicar, "And what might that terrific disturbance mean?"
"Eh, parson," replied Old Wheatcroft, "tis but that there novel-writing chap as lives in Ladybird Fold." So you see they"ve got you posted up all right. But here we are," he continued, as the train came to a standstill. "It"s a jolly draughty station to hang about."
"It is," admitted Barcroft. "But fortunately there"s very little wind. A proper Zeppelin night."