THE BLACK PACKET.
"M. De Bac? De Bac? I do not know the name."
"Gentleman says he knows you, sir, and has called on urgent business."
There was no answer, and John Brown, the ruined publisher, looked about him in a dazed manner. He knew he was ruined; to-morrow the world would know it also, and then--beggary stared him in the face, and infamy too. For this the world would not care. Brown was not a great man in "the trade," and his name in the _Gazette_ would not attract notice; but his name, as he stood in the felon"s dock, and the ugly history a cross-examination might disclose would probably arouse a fleeting interest, and then the world would go on with a pitiless shrug of its shoulders. What does it matter to the moving wave of humanity if one little drop of spray from its crest is blown into nothing by the wind? Not a jot. But it was a terrible business for the drop of spray, otherwise John Brown, publisher. He was at his best not a good-looking man, rather mean-looking than otherwise, with a thin, angular face, eyes as shifty as a jackal"s, and shoulders shaped like a champagne-bottle. As the shadow of coming ruin darkened over him, he seemed to shrink and look meaner than ever. He had almost forgotten the presence of his clerk. He could think of nothing but the morrow, when Simmonds" voice again broke the stillness.
"Shall I say you will see him, sir?"
The question cut sharply into the silence, and brought Brown to himself. He had half a mind to say "No." In the face of the coming to-morrow, business, urgent or otherwise, was nothing to him. Yet, after all, there could be no harm done in receiving the man. It would, at any rate, be a distraction, and, lifting his head, Brown answered:
"Yes, I will see him, Simmonds."
Simmonds went out, closing the green baize door behind him. There was a delay of a moment, and M. De Bac entered--a tall, thin figure, bearing an oblong parcel, packed in shiny, black paper, and sealed with flame-coloured wax.
"Good-day, Mr. Brown;" and M. De Bac, who, for all his foreign name, spoke perfect English, extended his hand.
Brown rose, put his own cold fingers into the warm grasp of his visitor, and offered him a seat.
"With your permission, Mr. Brown, I will take this other chair. It is nearer the fire. I am accustomed to warm climates, as you doubtless perceive;" and De Bac, suiting his action to his words, placed his packet on the table, and began to slowly rub his long, lean fingers together. The publisher glanced at him with some curiosity. M. De Bac was as dark as an Italian, with clear, resolute features, and a moustache, curled at the ends, thick enough to hide the sarcastic curve of his thin lips. He was strongly if sparely built, and his fiery black eyes met Brown"s gaze with a look that ran through him like a needle.
"You do not appear to recognise me, Mr. Brown?"--De Bac"s voice was very quiet and deep-toned.
"I have not the honour----" began the publisher; but his visitor interrupted him.
"You mistake. We are quite old friends; and in time will always be very near each other. I have a minute or two to spare"--he glanced at a repeater--"and will prove to you that I know you. You are John Brown, that very religious young man of Battersea, who, twelve years ago, behaved like a blackguard to a girl at Homerton, and sent her to----but no matter. You attracted my attention then; but, unfortunately, I had no time to devote to you. Subsequently, you effected a pretty little swindle--don"t be angry, Mr. Brown--it _was_ very clever. Then you started in business on your own account, and married. Things went well with you; you know the art of getting at a low price, and selling at a high one. You are a born "sweater." Pardon the word. You know how to keep men down like beasts, and go up yourself. In doing this, you did me yeoman"s service, although you are even now not aware of this. You had one fault, you have it still, and had you not been a gambler you might have been a rich man. Speculation is a bad thing, Brown--I mean gambling speculation."
Brown was an Englishman, and it goes without saying that he had courage. But there was something in De Bac"s manner, some strange power in the steady stare of those black eyes, that held him to his seat as if pinned there.
As De Bac stopped, however, Brown"s anger gave him strength. Every word that was said was true, and stung like the lash of a whip. He rose white with anger.
"Sir!" he began with quivering lips, and made a step forwards. Then he stopped. It was as if the sombre fire in De Bac"s gaze withered his strength. An invisible hand seemed to drag him back into his seat and hold him there.
"You are hasty, Mr. Brown;" and De Bac"s even voice continued: "you are really very rash. I was about to tell you a little more of your history, to tell you you are ruined, and to-morrow every one in London--it is the world for you, Brown--will know you are a beggar, and many will know you are a cheat."
The publisher swore bitterly under his breath.
"You see, Mr. Brown," continued his strange visitor, "I know all about you, and you will be surprised, perhaps, to hear that you deserve help from me. You are too useful to let drift. I have therefore come to save you."
"Save me?"
"Yes. By means of this ma.n.u.script here," he pointed to the packet, "which you are going to publish."
Brown now realized that he was dealing with a lunatic. He tried to stretch out his arm to touch the bell on the table; but found that he had no power to do so. He made an attempt to shout to Simmonds; but his tongue moved inaudibly in his mouth. He seemed only to have the faculty of following De Bac"s words, and of answering them. He gasped out:
"It is impossible!"
"My friend"--and He Bac smiled mirthlessly--"you will publish that ma.n.u.script. I will pay. The profits will be yours. It will make your name, and you will be rich. You will even be able to build a church."
"Rich!" Brown"s voice was very bitter. "M. De Bac, you said rightly. I am a ruined man. Even if you were to pay for the publication of that ma.n.u.script I could not do it now. It is too late. There are other houses. Go to them."
"But not other John Browns. You are peculiarly adapted for my purpose.
Enough of this! I know what business is, and I have many things to attend to. You are a small man, Mr. Brown, and it will take little to remove your difficulties. See! Here are a thousand pounds. They will free you from your present troubles," and De Bac tossed a pocket-book on the table before Brown. "I do not want a receipt," he went on. "I will call to-morrow for your final answer, and to settle details. If you need it I will give you more money. This hour--twelve--will suit me. _Adieu!_" He was gone like a flash, and Brown looked around in blank amazement. He was as if suddenly aroused from a dream. He could hardly believe the evidence of his senses, although he could see the black packet, and the neat leather pocket-book with the initials "L.
De B." let in in silver on the outside. He rang his bell violently, and Simmonds appeared.
"Has M. De Bac gone?"
"I don"t know, sir. He didn"t pa.s.s out through the door."
"There is no other way. You must have been asleep."
"Indeed I was not, sir."
Brown felt a chill as of cold fingers running down his backbone, but pulled himself together with an effort. "It does not matter, Simmonds.
You may go."
Simmonds went out scratching his head. "How the demon did he get out?"
he asked himself. "Must have been sleeping after all. The guv"nor seems a bit dotty to-day. It"s the smash coming--sure."
He wrote a letter or two, and then taking his hat, sallied forth to an aerated bread-shop for his cheap and wholesome lunch, for Simmonds was a saving young man, engaged to a young lady living out Camden Town way. Simmonds perfectly understood the state of affairs, and was not a little anxious about matters, for the mother of his _fiancee_, a widow who let lodgings, had only agreed to his engagement after much persuasion; and if he had to announce the fact that, instead of "thirty bob a week," as he put it, his income was nothing at all, there would be an end of everything.
"M"ria"s all right," he said to his friend Wilkes, in trustful confidence as they sat over their lunch; "but that old torpedo"--by which name he designated his mother-in-law-elect--"she"ll raise Cain if there"s a smash-up."
In the meantime, John Brown tore open the pocketbook with shaking hands, and, with a crisp rustling, a number of new bank-notes fell out, and lay in a heap before him. He counted them one by one. They totalled to a thousand pounds exactly. He was a small man. M. De Bac had said so truly, if a little rudely, and the money was more than enough to stave off ruin. De Bac had said, too, that if needed he would give him more, and then Brown fell to trembling all over. He was like a man s.n.a.t.c.hed from the very jaws of death. At Battersea he wore a blue ribbon; but now he went to a cabinet, filled a gla.s.s with raw brandy, and drained it at a gulp. In a minute or so the generous cordial warmed his chilled blood, and picking up the notes, he counted them again, and thrust them into his breast-pocket. After this he paced the room up and down in a feverish manner, longing for the morrow when he could settle up the most urgent demands against him.
Then, on a sudden, a thought struck him. It was almost as if it had been whispered in his ear. Why trouble at all about matters? He had a clear thousand with him, and in an hour he could be out of the country! He hesitated, but prudence prevailed. Extradition laws stretched everywhere; and there was another thing--that extraordinary madman, De Bac, had promised more money on the morrow. After all, it was better to stay.
As he made this resolve his eyes fell on the black packet on the table. The peculiar colour of the seals attracted his attention. He bent over them, and saw that the wax bore an impress of a V-shaped shield, within which was set a trident. He noticed also that the packet was tied with a silver thread. His curiosity was excited. He sat down, snipped the threads with a penknife, tore off the black paper covering, flung it into the fire, and saw before him a bulky ma.n.u.script exquisitely written on very fine paper. A closer examination showed that they were a number of short stories. Now Brown was in no mood to read; but the t.i.tle of the first tale caught his eye, and the writing was so legible that he had glanced over half a dozen lines before he was aware of the fact. Those first half-dozen lines were sufficient to make him read the page, and when he had read the page the publisher felt he was before the work of a genius.
He was unable to stop now; and, with his head resting between his hands, he read on tirelessly. Simmonds came in once or twice and left papers on the table, but his master took no notice of him. Brown forgot all about his lunch, and turning over page after page read as if spellbound. He was a business man, and was certain the book would sell in thousands. He read as one inspired to look into the author"s thoughts and see his design. Short as the stories were, they were t.i.tanic fragments, and every one of them taught a hideous lesson of corruption. Some of them cloaked in a religious garb, breathed a spirit of pitiless ferocity; others were rich with the sensuous odours of an Eastern garden; others, again, were as the tender green of moss hiding the treacherous deeps of a quicksand; and all of them bore the hall-mark of genius. They moved the man sitting there to tears, they shook him with laughter, they seemed to rock his very soul asleep; but through it all he saw, as the mariner views the beacon fire on a rocky coast, the deadly plan of the writer. There was money in them--thousands--and all was to be his. Brown"s sluggish blood was running to flame, a strange strength glowed in his face, and an uncontrollable admiration for De Bac"s evil power filled him. The book, when published, might corrupt generations yet unborn; but that was nothing to Brown. It meant thousands for him, and an eternal fame to De Bac. He did not grudge the writer the fame as long as he kept the thousands.
"By Heaven!" and he brought his fist down on the table with a crash, "the man may be a lunatic; but he is the greatest genius the world ever saw--or he is the devil incarnate."
And somebody laughed softly in the room.
The publisher looked up with a start, and saw Simmonds standing before him.
"Did you laugh, Simmonds?"
"No, sir!" replied the clerk with a surprised look.
"Who laughed then?"
"There is no one here but ourselves, sir--and I didn"t laugh."
"Did you hear nothing?"
"Nothing, sir."