"If I ate anything it would choke me," was the reply.
Mr. Chalk affected surprise, but his voice quavered. To cover his discomfiture he pa.s.sed his cup up for more coffee, shivering despite himself, as he noticed the elaborate care which Mrs. Chalk displayed in rinsing out the cup and filling it to the very brim. Beyond raising her eyes to the ceiling when he took another piece of toast, she made no sign.
"You"re not looking yourself," ventured Mr. Chalk, after a time.
His wife received the information silence.
"I"ve noticed it for some time," said the thoughtful husband, making another effort. "It"s worried me."
"I"m not getting younger, I know," a.s.sented Mrs. Chalk. "But if you think that that"s any excuse for your goings on, you"re mistaken."
Mr. Chalk murmured something to the effect that he did not understand her.
"You understand well enough," was the reply. "When that girl came whistling over the fence last night you said you thought it was a bird."
"I did," said Mr. Chalk, hastily taking a spoonful of egg.
Mrs. Chalk"s face flamed. "What sort of bird?" she demanded.
"Singin" bird," replied her husband, with nervous glibness.
Mrs. Chalk left the room.
Mr. Chalk finished his breakfast with an effort, and then, moving to the window, lit his pipe and sat for some time in moody thought. A little natural curiosity as to the ident.i.ty of the fair whistler would, however, not be denied, and the names of Binchester"s fairest daughters pa.s.sed in review before him. Almost unconsciously he got up and surveyed himself in the gla.s.s.
"There"s no accounting for tastes," he said to himself, in modest explanation.
His mind still dwelt on the subject as he stood in the hall later on in the morning, brushing his hat, preparatory to taking his usual walk.
Mrs. Chalk, upstairs listening, thought that he would never have finished, and drew her own conclusions.
With the air of a man whose time hangs upon his hands Mr. Chalk sauntered slowly through the narrow by-ways of Binchester. He read all the notices pasted on the door of the Town Hall and bought some stamps at the post-office, but the morning dragged slowly, and he bent his steps at last in the direction of Tredgold"s office, in the faint hope of a little conversation.
To his surprise, Mr. Tredgold senior was in an unusually affable mood.
He pushed his papers aside at once, and, motioning his visitor to a chair, greeted him with much heartiness.
"Just the man I wanted to see," he said, cheerfully. "I want you to come round to my place at eight o"clock to-night. I"ve just seen Stobell, and he"s coming too."
"I will if I can," said Mr. Chalk.
"You must come," said the other, seriously. "It"s business."
"Business!" said Mr. Chalk. "I don"t see-"
"You will to-night," said Mr. Tredgold, with a mysterious smile. "I"ve sent Edward off to town on business, and we sha"n"t be interrupted.
Goodbye. I"m busy."
He shook hands with his visitor and led him to the door; Chalk, after a vain attempt to obtain particulars, walked slowly home.
Despite his curiosity it was nearly half-past eight when he arrived at Mr. Tredgold"s that evening, and was admitted by his host. The latter, with a somewhat trite remark about the virtues of punctuality, led the way upstairs and threw open the door of his study.
"Here he is," he announced.
A slender figure sitting bolt upright in a large grandfather-chair turned at their entrance, and revealed to the astonished Mr. Chalk the expressive features of Miss Selina Vickers; facing her at the opposite side of the room Mr. Stobell, palpably ruffled, eyed her balefully.
"This is a new client of mine," said Tredgold, indicating Miss Vickers.
Mr. Chalk said "Good evening."
"I tried to get a word with you last night," said Miss Vickers. "I was down at the bottom of your garden whistling for over ten minutes as hard as I could whistle. I wonder you didn"t hear me."
"Hear you!" cried Mr. Chalk, guiltily conscious of a feeling of disappointment quite beyond his control. "What do you mean by coming and whistling for me, eh? What do you mean by it?"
"I wanted to see you private," said Miss Vickers, calmly, "but it"s just as well. I went and saw Mr. Tredgold this morning instead."
"On a matter of business," said Mr. Tredgold, looking at her. "She came to me, as one of the ordinary public, about some-ha-land she"s interested in."
"An island," corroborated Miss Vickers.
Mr. Chalk took a chair and looked round in amazement. "What, another?"
he said, faintly.
Mr. Tredgold coughed. "My client is not a rich woman," he began.
"Chalk knows that," interrupted Mr. Stobell. "The airs and graces that girl will give herself if you go on like that--"
"But she has some property there which she is anxious to obtain,"
continued Mr. Tredgold, with a warning glance at the speaker. "That being so--"
"Make him wish he may die first," interposed Miss Vickers, briskly.
"Yes, yes; that"s all right," said Tredgold, meeting Mr. Chalk"s startled gaze.
"It will be when he"s done it," retorted the determined Miss Vickers.
"It"s a secret," explained Mr. Tredgold, addressing his staring friend.
"And you must swear to keep it if it"s told you. That"s what she means.
I"ve had to and so has Stobell."
A fierce grunt from Mr. Stobell, who was still suffering from the remembrance of an indignity against which he had protested in vain, came as confirmation. Then the marvelling Mr. Chalk rose, and instructed by Miss Vickers took an oath, the efficacy of which consisted in a fervent hope that he might die if he broke it.
"But what"s it all about?" he inquired, plaintively.
Mr. Tredgold conferred with Miss Vickers, and that lady, after a moment"s hesitation, drew a folded paper from her bosom and beckoned to Mr. Chalk. With a cry of amazement he recognised the identical map of Bowers"s Island, which he had last seen in the hands of its namesake. It was impossible to mistake it, although an attempt to take it in his hand was promptly frustrated by the owner.
"But Captain Bowers said that he had burnt it," he cried.
Mr. Tredgold eyed him coldly. "Burnt what?" he inquired.
"The map," was the reply.