"Was it not a strange coincidence," he said, "that you should have come into my life at all?"
"Not very," said Joan prosaically. "It was quite likely that we should meet sooner or later, as we lived on different floors of the same house."
"It was a coincidence that you should have taken that room."
"Why?"
Ashe felt damped. Logically, no doubt, she was right; but surely she might have helped him out a little in this difficult situation. Surely her woman"s intuition should have told her that a man who has been speaking in a loud and cheerful voice does not lower it to a husky whisper without some reason. The hopelessness of his task began to weigh on him.
Ever since that evening at Market Blandings Station, when he realized that he loved her, he had been trying to find an opportunity to tell her so; and every time they had met, the talk had seemed to be drawn irresistibly into practical and unsentimental channels. And now, when he was doing his best to reason it out that they were twin souls who had been brought together by a destiny it would be foolish to struggle against; when he was trying to convey the impression that fate had designed them for each other--she said, "Why?" It was hard.
He was about to go deeper into the matter when, from the direction of the castle, he perceived the Honorable Freddie"s valet--Mr. Judson--approaching. That it was this repellent young man"s object to break in on them and rob him of his one small chance of inducing Joan to appreciate, as he did, the mysterious workings of Providence as they affected herself and him, was obvious. There was no mistaking the valet"s desire for conversation. He had the air of one br.i.m.m.i.n.g over with speech.
His wonted indolence was cast aside; and as he drew nearer he positively ran. He was talking before he reached them.
"Miss Simpson, Mr. Marson, it"s true--what I said that night.
It"s a fact!"
Ashe regarded the intruder with a malevolent eye. Never fond of Mr. Judson, he looked on him now with positive loathing. It had not been easy for him to work himself up to the point where he could discuss with Joan the mysterious ways of Providence, for there was that about her which made it hard to achieve sentiment.
That indefinable something in Joan Valentine which made for nocturnal raids on other people"s museums also rendered her a somewhat difficult person to talk to about twin souls and destiny. The qualities that Ashe loved in her--her strength, her capability, her valiant self-sufficingness--were the very qualities which seemed to check him when he tried to tell her that he loved them.
Mr. Judson was still babbling.
"It"s true. There ain"t a doubt of it now. It"s been and happened just as I said that night."
"What did you say? Which night?" inquired Ashe.
"That night at dinner--the first night you two came here. Don"t you remember me talking about Freddie and the girl he used to write letters to in London--the girl I said was so like you, Miss Simpson? What was her name again? Joan Valentine. That was it.
The girl at the theater that Freddie used to send me with letters to pretty nearly every evening. Well, she"s been and done it, same as I told you all that night she was jolly likely to go and do. She"s sticking young Freddie up for his letters, just as he ought to have known she would do if he hadn"t been a young fathead. They"re all alike, these girls--every one of them."
Mr. Judson paused, subjected the surrounding scenery to a cautious scrutiny and resumed.
"I took a suit of Freddie"s clothes away to brush just now; and happening"--Mr. Judson paused and gave a little cough--"happening to glance at the contents of his pockets I come across a letter.
I took a sort of look at it before setting it aside, and it was from a fellow named Jones; and it said that this girl, Valentine, was sticking onto young Freddie"s letters what he"d written her, and would see him blowed if she parted with them under another thousand. And, as I made it out, Freddie had already given her five hundred.
"Where he got it is more than I can understand; but that"s what the letter said. This fellow Jones said he had pa.s.sed it to her with his own hands; but she wasn"t satisfied, and if she didn"t get the other thousand she was going to bring an action for breach. And now Freddie has given me a note to take to this Jones, who is stopping in Market Blandings."
Joan had listened to this remarkable speech with a stunned amazement. At this point she made her first comment:
"But that can"t be true."
"Saw the letter with my own eyes, Miss Simpson."
"But----"
She looked at Ashe helplessly. Their eyes met--hers wide with perplexity, his bright with the light of comprehension.
"It shows," said Ashe slowly, "that he was in immediate and urgent need of money."
"You bet it does," said Mr. Judson with relish. "It looks to me as though young Freddie had about reached the end of his tether this time. My word! There won"t half be a kick-up if she does sue him for breach! I"m off to tell Mr. Beach and the rest. They"ll jump out of their skins." His face fell. "Oh, Lord, I was forgetting this note. He told me to take it at once."
"I"ll take it for you," said Ashe. "I"m not doing anything."
Mr. Judson"s grat.i.tude was effusive.
"You"re a good fellow, Marson," he said. "I"ll do as much for you another time. I couldn"t hardly bear not to tell a bit of news like this right away. I should burst or something."
And Mr. Judson, with shining face, hurried off to the housekeeper"s room.
"I simply can"t understand it," said Joan at length. "My head is going round."
"Can"t understand it? Why, it"s perfectly clear. This is the coincidence for which, in my capacity of Gridley Quayle, I was waiting. I can now resume inductive reasoning. Weighing the evidence, what do we find? That young sweep, Freddie, is the man.
He has the scarab."
"But it"s all such a muddle. I"m not holding his letters."
"For Jones" purposes you are. Let"s get this Jones element in the affair straightened out. What do you know of him?"
"He was an enormously fat man who came to see me one night and said he had been sent to get back some letters. I told him I had destroyed them ages ago and he went away."
"Well, that part of it is clear, then. He is working a simple but ingenious game on Freddie. It wouldn"t succeed with everybody, I suppose; but from what I have seen and heard of him Freddie isn"t strong on intellect. He seems to have accepted the story without a murmur. What does he do? He has to raise a thousand pounds immediately, and the raising of the first five hundred has exhausted his credit. He gets the idea of stealing the scarab!"
"But why? Why should he have thought of the scarab at all? That is what I can"t understand. He couldn"t have meant to give it to Mr. Peters and claim the reward. He couldn"t have known that Mr.
Peters was offering a reward. He couldn"t have known that Lord Emsworth had not got the scarab quite properly. He couldn"t have known--he couldn"t have known anything!"
Ashe"s enthusiasm was a trifle damped.
"There"s something in that. But--I have it! Jones must have known about the scarab and told him."
"But how could he have known?"
"Yes; there"s something in that, too. How could Jones have known?"
"He couldn"t. He had gone by the time Aline came that night."
"I don"t quite understand. Which night?"
"It was the night of the day I first met you. I was wondering for a moment whether he could by any chance have overheard Aline telling me about the scarab and the reward Mr. Peters was offering for it."
"Overheard! That word is like a bugle blast to me. Nine out of ten of Gridley Quayle"s triumphs were due to his having overheard something. I think we are now on the right track."
"I don"t. How could he have overheard us? The door was closed and he was in the street by that time."
"How do you know he was in the street? Did you see him out?"
"No; but he went."
"He might have waited on the stairs--you remember how dark they are at Number Seven--and listened."