"You young devil," said he, smiting his thigh, "you young devil, you"ve beaten me."
"On the contrary," I said, "you have beaten me."
I left the professor at the Club House and raced back to the farm. I wanted to pour my joys into a sympathetic ear. Ukridge, I knew, would offer that same sympathetic ear. A good fellow, Ukridge. Always interested in what you had to tell him; never bored.
"Ukridge!" I shouted.
No answer.
I flung open the dining-room door. n.o.body.
I went into the drawing-room. It was empty. I drew the garden, and his bedroom. He was not in either.
"He must have gone for a stroll," I said.
I rang the bell.
The Hired Retainer appeared, calm and imperturbable as ever.
"Sir?"
"Oh, where is Mr. Ukridge, Beale?"
"Mr. Ukridge, sir," said the Hired Retainer nonchalantly, "has gone."
"Gone!"
"Yes, sir. Mr. Ukridge and Mrs. Ukridge went away together by the three o"clock train."
CHAPTER XXI
THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM
"Beale," I said, "are you drunk?"
"Wish I was, sir," said the Hired Man.
"Then what on earth do you mean? Gone? Where have they gone to?"
"Don"t know, sir. London, I expect."
"London? Why?"
"Don"t know, sir."
"When did they go? Oh, you told me that. Didn"t they say why they were going?"
"No, sir."
"Didn"t you ask! When you saw them packing up and going to the station, didn"t you do anything?"
"No, sir."
"Why on earth not?"
"I didn"t see them, sir. I only found out as they"d gone after they"d been and went, sir. Walking down by the Net and Mackerel, met one of them coastguards. "Oh," says he, "so you"re moving?" "Who"s a-moving?"
I says to him. "Well," he says to me, "I seen your Mr. Ukridge and his missus get into the three o"clock train for Axminster. I thought as you was all a-moving." "Ho," I says, "Ho," wondering, and I goes on. When I gets back, I asks the missus did she see them packing their boxes, and she says, No, she says, they didn"t pack no boxes as she knowed of. And blowed if they had, Mr. Garnet, sir."
"What! They didn"t pack!"
"No, sir."
We looked at one another.
"Beale," I said.
"Sir?"
"Do you know what I think?"
"Yes, sir."
"They"ve bolted."
"So I says to the missus, sir. It struck me right off, in a manner of speaking."
"This is awful," I said.
"Yes, sir."
His face betrayed no emotion, but he was one of those men whose expression never varies. It"s a way they have in the Army.
"This wants thinking out, Beale," I said.
"Yes, sir."
"You"d better ask Mrs. Beale to give me some dinner, and then I"ll think it over."
"Yes, sir."
I was in an unpleasant position. Ukridge by his defection had left me in charge of the farm. I could dissolve the concern, I supposed, if I wished, and return to London, but I particularly desired to remain in Combe Regis. To complete the victory I had won on the links, it was necessary for me to continue as I had begun. I was in the position of a general who has conquered a hostile country, and is obliged to soothe the feelings of the conquered people before his labours can be considered at an end. I had rushed the professor. It must now be my aim to keep him from regretting that he had been rushed. I must, therefore, stick to my post with the tenacity of an able-bodied leech. There would be trouble. Of that I was certain. As soon as the news got about that Ukridge had gone, the deluge would begin. His creditors would abandon their pa.s.sive tactics, and take active steps. There was a chance that aggressive measures would be confined to the enemy at our gates, the tradesmen of Combe Regis. But the probability was that the news would spread, and the injured merchants of Dorchester and Axminster rush to the scene of hostilities.
I summoned Beale after dinner and held a council of war. It was no time for airy persiflage. I said, "Beale, we"re in the cart."