Mr Waller pulled at his beard, with an expression on his face that seemed to suggest that he was not quite so confident on this point. He was about to put his doubts into words when Mr Rossiter appeared, and Psmith, murmuring something about duty, turned again to his ledger. The cashier drifted back to his own department.
It was one of Psmith"s theories of Life, which he was accustomed to propound to Mike in the small hours of the morning with his feet on the mantelpiece, that the secret of success lay in taking advantage of one"s occasional slices of luck, in seizing, as it were, the happy moment. When Mike, who had had the pa.s.sage to write out ten times at Wrykyn on one occasion as an imposition, reminded him that Shakespeare had once said something about there being a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood, &c., Psmith had acknowledged with an easy grace that possibly Shakespeare _had_ got on to it first, and that it was but one more proof of how often great minds thought alike.
Though waiving his claim to the copyright of the maxim, he nevertheless had a high opinion of it, and frequently acted upon it in the conduct of his own life.
Thus, when approaching the Senior Conservative Club at five o"clock with the idea of finding Mr Bickersd.y.k.e there, he observed his quarry entering the Turkish Baths which stand some twenty yards from the club"s front door, he acted on his maxim, and decided, instead of waiting for the manager to finish his bath before approaching him on the subject of Mike, to corner him in the Baths themselves.
He gave Mr Bickersd.y.k.e five minutes" start. Then, reckoning that by that time he would probably have settled down, he pushed open the door and went in himself. And, having paid his money, and left his boots with the boy at the threshold, he was rewarded by the sight of the manager emerging from a box at the far end of the room, clad in the mottled towels which the bather, irrespective of his personal taste in dress, is obliged to wear in a Turkish bath.
Psmith made for the same box. Mr Bickersd.y.k.e"s clothes lay at the head of one of the sofas, but n.o.body else had staked out a claim. Psmith took possession of the sofa next to the manager"s. Then, humming lightly, he undressed, and made his way downstairs to the Hot Rooms. He rather fancied himself in towels. There was something about them which seemed to suit his figure. They gave him, he though, rather a _debonnaire_ look. He paused for a moment before the looking-gla.s.s to examine himself, with approval, then pushed open the door of the Hot Rooms and went in.
23. Mr Bickersd.y.k.e Makes a Concession
Mr Bickersd.y.k.e was reclining in an easy-chair in the first room, staring before him in the boiled-fish manner customary in a Turkish Bath. Psmith dropped into the next seat with a cheery "Good evening."
The manager started as if some firm hand had driven a bradawl into him.
He looked at Psmith with what was intended to be a dignified stare. But dignity is hard to achieve in a couple of parti-coloured towels. The stare did not differ to any great extent from the conventional boiled-fish look, alluded to above.
Psmith settled himself comfortably in his chair. "Fancy finding you here," he said pleasantly. "We seem always to be meeting. To me," he added, with a rea.s.suring smile, "it is a great pleasure. A very great pleasure indeed. We see too little of each other during office hours.
Not that one must grumble at that. Work before everything. You have your duties, I mine. It is merely unfortunate that those duties are not such as to enable us to toil side by side, encouraging each other with word and gesture. However, it is idle to repine. We must make the most of these chance meetings when the work of the day is over."
Mr Bickersd.y.k.e heaved himself up from his chair and took another at the opposite end of the room. Psmith joined him.
"There"s something pleasantly mysterious, to my mind," said he chattily, "in a Turkish Bath. It seems to take one out of the hurry and bustle of the everyday world. It is a quiet backwater in the rushing river of Life. I like to sit and think in a Turkish Bath. Except, of course, when I have a congenial companion to talk to. As now. To me--"
Mr Bickersd.y.k.e rose, and went into the next room.
"To me," continued Psmith, again following, and seating himself beside the manager, "there is, too, something eerie in these places. There is a certain sinister air about the attendants. They glide rather than walk. They say little. Who knows what they may be planning and plotting? That drip-drip again. It may be merely water, but how are we to know that it is not blood? It would be so easy to do away with a man in a Turkish Bath. n.o.body has seen him come in. n.o.body can trace him if he disappears. These are uncomfortable thoughts, Mr Bickersd.y.k.e."
Mr Bickersd.y.k.e seemed to think them so. He rose again, and returned to the first room.
"I have made you restless," said Psmith, in a voice of self-reproach, when he had settled himself once more by the manager"s side. "I am sorry. I will not pursue the subject. Indeed, I believe that my fears are unnecessary. Statistics show, I understand, that large numbers of men emerge in safety every year from Turkish Baths. There was another matter of which I wished to speak to you. It is a somewhat delicate matter, and I am only encouraged to mention it to you by the fact that you are so close a friend of my father"s."
Mr Bickersd.y.k.e had picked up an early edition of an evening paper, left on the table at his side by a previous bather, and was to all appearances engrossed in it. Psmith, however, not discouraged, proceeded to touch upon the matter of Mike.
"There was," he said, "some little friction, I hear, in the office today in connection with a cheque." The evening paper hid the manager"s expressive face, but from the fact that the hands holding it tightened their grip Psmith deduced that Mr Bickersd.y.k.e"s attention was not wholly concentrated on the City news. Moreover, his toes wriggled. And when a man"s toes wriggle, he is interested in what you are saying.
"All these petty breezes," continued Psmith sympathetically, "must be very trying to a man in your position, a man who wishes to be left alone in order to devote his entire thought to the niceties of the higher Finance. It is as if Napoleon, while planning out some intricate scheme of campaign, were to be called upon in the midst of his meditations to bully a private for not cleaning his b.u.t.tons. Naturally, you were annoyed. Your giant brain, wrenched temporarily from its proper groove, expended its force in one tremendous reprimand of Comrade Jackson. It was as if one had diverted some terrific electric current which should have been controlling a vast system of machinery, and turned it on to annihilate a black-beetle. In the present case, of course, the result is as might have been expected. Comrade Jackson, not realizing the position of affairs, went away with the absurd idea that all was over, that you meant all you said--briefly, that his number was up. I a.s.sured him that he was mistaken, but no! He persisted in declaring that all was over, that you had dismissed him from the bank."
Mr Bickersd.y.k.e lowered the paper and glared bulbously at the old Etonian.
"Mr Jackson is perfectly right," he snapped. "Of course I dismissed him."
"Yes, yes," said Psmith, "I have no doubt that at the moment you did work the rapid push. What I am endeavouring to point out is that Comrade Jackson is under the impression that the edict is permanent, that he can hope for no reprieve."
"Nor can he."
"You don"t mean--"
"I mean what I say."
"Ah, I quite understand," said Psmith, as one who sees that he must make allowances. "The incident is too recent. The storm has not yet had time to expend itself. You have not had leisure to think the matter over coolly. It is hard, of course, to be cool in a Turkish Bath. Your ganglions are still vibrating. Later, perhaps--"
"Once and for all," growled Mr Bickersd.y.k.e, "the thing is ended. Mr Jackson will leave the bank at the end of the month. We have no room for fools in the office."
"You surprise me," said Psmith. "I should not have thought that the standard of intelligence in the bank was extremely high. With the exception of our two selves, I think that there are hardly any men of real intelligence on the staff. And comrade Jackson is improving every day. Being, as he is, under my constant supervision he is rapidly developing a stranglehold on his duties, which--"
"I have no wish to discuss the matter any further."
"No, no. Quite so, quite so. Not another word. I am dumb."
"There are limits you see, to the uses of impertinence, Mr Smith."
Psmith started.
"You are not suggesting--! You do not mean that I--!"
"I have no more to say. I shall be glad if you will allow me to read my paper."
Psmith waved a damp hand.
"I should be the last man," he said stiffly, "to force my conversation on another. I was under the impression that you enjoyed these little chats as keenly as I did. If I was wrong--"
He relapsed into a wounded silence. Mr Bickersd.y.k.e resumed his perusal of the evening paper, and presently, laying it down, rose and made his way to the room where muscular attendants were in waiting to perform that blend of Jiu-Jitsu and Catch-as-catch-can which is the most valuable and at the same time most painful part of a Turkish Bath.
It was not till he was resting on his sofa, swathed from head to foot in a sheet and smoking a cigarette, that he realized that Psmith was sharing his compartment.
He made the unpleasant discovery just as he had finished his first cigarette and lighted his second. He was blowing out the match when Psmith, accompanied by an attendant, appeared in the doorway, and proceeded to occupy the next sofa to himself. All that feeling of dreamy peace, which is the reward one receives for allowing oneself to be melted like wax and kneaded like bread, left him instantly. He felt hot and annoyed. To escape was out of the question. Once one has been scientifically wrapped up by the attendant and placed on one"s sofa, one is a fixture. He lay scowling at the ceiling, resolved to combat all attempt at conversation with a stony silence.
Psmith, however, did not seem to desire conversation. He lay on his sofa motionless for a quarter of an hour, then reached out for a large book which lay on the table, and began to read.
When he did speak, he seemed to be speaking to himself. Every now and then he would murmur a few words, sometimes a single name. In spite of himself, Mr Bickersd.y.k.e found himself listening.
At first the murmurs conveyed nothing to him. Then suddenly a name caught his ear. Strowther was the name, and somehow it suggested something to him. He could not say precisely what. It seemed to touch some chord of memory. He knew no one of the name of Strowther. He was sure of that. And yet it was curiously familiar. An unusual name, too.
He could not help feeling that at one time he must have known it quite well.
"Mr Strowther," murmured Psmith, "said that the hon. gentleman"s remarks would have been nothing short of treason, if they had not been so obviously the mere babblings of an irresponsible lunatic. Cries of "Order, order," and a voice, "Sit down, fat-head!""
For just one moment Mr Bickersd.y.k.e"s memory poised motionless, like a hawk about to swoop. Then it darted at the mark. Everything came to him in a flash. The hands of the clock whizzed back. He was no longer Mr John Bickersd.y.k.e, manager of the London branch of the New Asiatic Bank, lying on a sofa in the c.u.mberland Street Turkish Baths. He was Jack Bickersd.y.k.e, clerk in the employ of Messrs Norton and Biggleswade, standing on a chair and shouting "Order! order!" in the Masonic Room of the "Red Lion" at Tulse Hill, while the members of the Tulse Hill Parliament, divided into two camps, yelled at one another, and young Tom Barlow, in his official capacity as Mister Speaker, waved his arms dumbly, and banged the table with his mallet in his efforts to restore calm.
He remembered the whole affair as if it had happened yesterday. It had been a speech of his own which had called forth the above expression of opinion from Strowther. He remembered Strowther now, a pale, spectacled clerk in Baxter and Abrahams, an inveterate upholder of the throne, the House of Lords and all const.i.tuted authority. Strowther had objected to the socialistic sentiments of his speech in connection with the Budget, and there had been a disturbance unparalleled even in the Tulse Hill Parliament, where disturbances were frequent and loud....
Psmith looked across at him with a bright smile. "They report you verbatim," he said. "And rightly. A more able speech I have seldom read. I like the bit where you call the Royal Family "blood-suckers".
Even then, it seems you knew how to express yourself fluently and well."
Mr Bickersd.y.k.e sat up. The hands of the clock had moved again, and he was back in what Psmith had called the live, vivid present.