Jack Ma.s.singbred sat in expectation of Mr. Merl"s arrival till nigh ten o"clock; and if not manifesting any great degree of impatience at the delay, still showing unmistakable signs of uneasiness, as though the event were not dest.i.tute of some cause for anxiety. At last a note arrived to say that a sudden and imperative necessity to start at once for England would prevent Mr. Merl from keeping his appointment. "I shall be in town by Tuesday," continued the writer, "and if Captain Martin has any communication to make to me respecting his affairs, let it be addressed to Messrs. Twining and Scape"s, solicitors, Furnival"s Inn. I hope that with regard to your own matter, you will make suitable provision for the acceptance due on the ninth of next month. Any further renewal would prove a great inconvenience to yours
"Very sincerely and to command,
"Herman Merl."
"Negotiations have ended ere they were opened, and war is proclaimed at once," said Ma.s.singbred, as he read over this brief epistle. "You may come forth, Master Scanlan," added he, opening the door of his bedroom, and admitting that gentleman. "Our Hebrew is an overmatch for us. He declines to appear."
"Why so? How is that?" asked Scanlan.
"There "s his note," said the other; "read and digest it."
"This smacks of suspicion," said Scanlan. "He evidently suspects that we have concerted some scheme to entangle him, and he is resolved not to be caught."
"Precisely; he "ll do nothing without advice. Well, well, if he but knew how unprepared we are, how utterly deficient not only in resources, but actually in the commonest information of our subject, he might have ventured here in all safety."
"Has Captain Martin not put you in possession of the whole case, then?"
"Why, my good Scanlan, the Captain knows nothing, actually nothing, of his difficulties. He has, it is true, a perfect conviction that he is out of his depth; but whether he be in five fathom water or fifty, he doesn"t know; and, what "s stranger, he does n"t care!"
"After all, if it be over his head, I suppose it"s pretty much the same thing," said Scanlan, with a bitter laugh.
"I beg to offer my dissent to that doctrine," said Mas-singbred, gently.
"Where the water is only just out of a man"s depth, the sh.o.r.e is usually not very distant. Now, if we were quite certain such were the case here, we might hope to save him. If, on the contrary, he has gone down out of all sight of land--" He stopped, gazed steadily at Scanlan for a few seconds, and then in a lower tone, not devoid of a touch of anxiety, said, "Eh, do you really know this to be so?"
"I"ll tell you all I know, Mr. Ma.s.singbred," said he, as having turned the key in the door, he took his seat at the table. "And I "ll tell you, besides, how I came by the knowledge, and I "ll leave it to your own judgment to say what his chance is worth. When Merl was stopping at Kilkieran, he left there a little pocket-book, with memorandums of all his secret transactions. Mighty nice doings they were,--and profitable, too,--as you "ll perceive when you look over it."
"You have it, then," cried Jack, eagerly.
"Here it is," said he, producing the precious volume, and laying his hand firmly on it. "Here it is now. I got it under a pledge to hand it to himself, which I need n"t tell you I never had the slightest intention of performing. It"s not every day in the week one has the good luck to get a peep into the enemy"s brief, and this is exactly what you "ll find here."
Ma.s.singbred stretched out his hand to take the book, but Scanlan quietly replaced it in his pocket, and, with a dry and very peculiar smile, said,--"Have a little patience, sir. We must go regularly to work here.
You shall see this book--you shall examine it--and even retain it--but it must be on conditions." "Oh, you may confide in me, Scanlan. Even if Mr. Merl were my friend,--which I a.s.sure you he is not,--I could not venture to betray _you_."
"That"s not exactly what I "m thinking of, Mr. Ma.s.singbred. I "m certain you "d say nothing to Merl of what you saw here. My mind is easy enough upon that score."
"Well, then, in what direction do your suspicions point?"
"They "re not suspicions, sir," was the dry response.
"Fears,--hesitations,--whatever you like to call them."
"Are we on honor here, Mr. Ma.s.singbred?" said Scanlan, after a pause.
"For myself, I say decidedly so," was the firm reply.
"That will do, sir. I ask only one pledge, and I "m sure you "ll not refuse it: if you should think, on reflection, that what I propose to you this evening is neither practicable nor advisable,--that, in fact, you could neither concur in it nor aid it,--that you"ll never, so long as you live, divulge it to any one,--man, woman, or child. Have I that promise?"
"I think I may safely say that."
"Ay, but do you say it?"
"I do; here is my promise."
"That will do. I don"t ask a word more. Now, Mr. Ma.s.singbred," said he, replacing the book on the table, "I "ll tell you in the fewest words I can how the case stands,--and brevity is essential, for we have not an hour to lose. Merl is gone to London about this business, and we "ll have to follow him. _He "d_ be very glad to be rid of the affair to-morrow, and he "ll not waste many days till he is so. Read that bit there, sir," said he, pointing to a few closely written lines in the note-book.
"Good heavens!" cried Jack, "this is downright impossible. This is a vile falsehood, devised for some infernal scheme of roguery. Who "d believe such a trumpery piece of imposition? Ah, Scanlan, you are not the wily fellow I took you for. This same precious note-book was dropped as a decoy, as I once knew a certain n.o.ble lord to have left his betting-book behind him. An artful device, that can only succeed once, however. And you really believed all this?"
"I did, and I do believe it," said Scanlan, firmly.
"If you really say so, we must put the matter to the test. Captain Martin is here,--we "ll send for him, and ask him the question; but I must say I don"t think your position will be a pleasant one after that reply is given."
"I must remind you of your promise already, it seems," said Scanlan.
"You are pledged to say nothing of this, if you cannot persuade yourself to act along with me in it."
"Very true," said Ma.s.singbred, slowly; "but I never pledged myself to credit an impossibility."
"I ask nothing of the kind. I only claim that you should adhere to what you have said already. If this statement be untrue, all my speculations about it fall to the ground at once. I am the dupe of a stale trick, and there"s an end of it."
"Ay, so far all well, Master Scanlan; but _I_ have no fancy to be a.s.sociated in the deception. Can"t you see that?"
"I can, sir, and I do. But perhaps there may be a readier way of satisfying your doubts than calling for the Captain"s evidence. There is a little page in this same volume devoted to one Mr. Ma.s.singbred. _You_ surely may have some knowledge about _his_ affairs. Throw your eye over that, sir, and say what you think of it."
Ma.s.singbred took the book in his hand and perused the place pointed out to him.
"By Jove! this _is_ very strange," said he, after a pause. "Here is my betting-book on the St. Hubert all transcribed in full,--however the Jew boy got hold of it; and here "s mention of a blessed hundred-pound note, which, in less than five years, has grown to upwards of a thousand!"
"And all true? All fact?"
"Perfectly true,--most lamentable fact, Master Scanlan!
How precise the scoundrel is in recording this loan as "after supper at Dubos"!" Ay, and here again is my unlucky wager about Martingale for the "Chester," and the handicap with Armytage. Scanlan, I recant my rash impression. This is a real work of its great author! _Aut Merl--aut Diabolus_."
"I could have sworn it," said Scanlan.
"To be sure you could, man, and have done, ere this time o" day, fifty other things on fainter evidence. But let me tell you it requires strong testimony to make one believe that there should live such a consummate fool in the world as would sell his whole reversionary right to a splendid state of some twelve thousand--"
"Fifteen at the lowest," broke in Scanlan.
"Worse again. Fifteen thousand a year for twenty-two thousand seven hundred and sixty-four pounds sterling."
"And he has done it."
"No, no; the thing is utterly incredible, man. Any one must see that if he did want to make away with his inheritance, that he could have obtained ten, twenty times that sum amongst the tribe of Merl."
"No doubt, if he were free to negotiate the transaction. But you "ll see, on looking over these pages, in what a network of debt he was involved,--how, as early as four years ago, at the Cape, he owed Merl large sums, lost at play, and borrowed at heavy interest. So that, at length, this same twenty-two thousand, a.s.sumed as paid for the reversion, was in reality but the balance of an immense demand for money lost, bills renewed, sums lent, debts discharged, and so on. But to avoid the legal difficulty of an "immoral obligation," the bale of the reversion is limited to this simple payment of twenty-two thousand--"
"Seven hundred and sixty-four pounds, sir. Don"t let us diminish the price by a fraction," said Ma.s.singbred. "Wonderful people ye are, to be sure; and whether in your talent for savings, or dislike for sausages, alike admirable and praiseworthy! What a strange circle do events observe, and how irrevocable is the law of the material, the stern rule of the moral world, decay, decomposition, and regeneration following on each other; and as great men"s ashes beget grubs, so do ill.u.s.trious houses generate in their rottenness the race of Herman Merls."
Scanlan tried to smile at the rhapsodical conceit, but for some private reason of his own he did not relish nor enjoy it.