"Only a shilling"s worth," laughed Ernshaw in reply, "and I think justifiable; a little kiddy was knocked down in Addison Road there by a butcher"s cart, and I picked her up and took her to the hospital in Hammersmith Road, and this good fellow won"t charge me more than a shilling for both journeys, although it is out of the radius."
"Oh, he won"t, won"t he?" said Sir Arthur, putting his hand into his pocket and pulling out a couple of half-crowns.
"You take that, my man, not for yourself if you won"t have it, but for your wife and your children if you have got any; you can"t say no for them."
"No, sir, thankee, I won"t say no to them," said the cabby, taking the half-crowns and touching his hat. "It"s the best fare I"ve earned to-day. Good-night, sir, and thank you, sir. Come up, old girl."
The whip flicked, and the old mare went round to begin another of those endless journeys through London streets which horses, if they reason at all, must find so utterly incomprehensible and aimless.
"Is this the beginning of the surprises, dad?" said Vane, as the two cabs drove away. "This is certainly one of the last places in London that I should have expected to meet Ernshaw in, after seeing him up to his neck in work at Bethnal Green yesterday. It must have been a pretty strong attraction, Ernshaw, that got you as far west as this."
"My dear Maxwell," said Ernshaw, "surely the worst of us are ent.i.tled to a holiday now and then. Why, even Father Philip goes to Norway for a fortnight every year, to say nothing of an occasional run up to Town now and then, and he confessed to me not very long ago that he enjoys no earthly pleasure better than a good "Varsity match at Lord"s."
"There is nothing better," said Sir Arthur, "except a good Indian polo match. Well, come in. I have just got time for a wash and a change before our other guests arrive. You clerics don"t want a change, so you can have a wash and a cigarette if you want one in the Den."
As the door opened Koda Bux came along the hall and made his salaam; his grave, deep eyes made no sign as he recognised Vane in his clerical garb; he only salaamed again and welcomed Vane back to the house of his father and his mother. That was Koda Bux"s way of putting it in his Indian fashion. He would have put it otherwise if he had known what such a welcome meant to him.
"This is the place of the _debacle_," said Vane to Ernshaw when they met in the Den after they had had their wash; "there"s the hearthrug--yes, and there"s the same spirit-case. It is a curious thing, Ernshaw, but since then, or rather, since that other ghastly collapse at Oxford, I"ve lectured in club rooms reeking with alcohol; I"ve gone with you as you know where everyone was sodden with the gin and stank of it, and even into bars where you could smell nothing but liquor and unwashed humanity, and yet that intoxication has never come back to me."
"Of course not," said Ernshaw; "you have prayed and fought since then, and as you have won your battles your prayers have been answered."
"Yes," said Vane, "I hope you are right; in fact, I am sure you are. I don"t suppose a sniff at that whiskey decanter would affect me any more than a few drops of eau de cologne on my handkerchief."
As he said this he went towards the spirit-case on the little old oak sideboard and took out the whiskey decanter.
"Take care, Vane!" said Ernshaw. "I hope you are not forgetting the old doctrine of a.s.sociation. Remember what you were saying just now about this room. There is a sense, you know, in which places are really haunted."
"My dear Ernshaw, I believe you are even more ideal than I am," laughed Vane, as he took the stopper out and raised the decanter to his nostrils. As he did so the front door bell tinkled, and the hand of a practised footman played a brief fantasia on the knocker. In the middle of an inhalation Vane stopped and put the bottle down; but even as he did so the mysterious force of a.s.sociation against which Ernshaw had warned him had begun to work upon his imagination. The familiar room, with its pictures and furniture and simple ornaments, the feel of the cut-gla.s.s decanter, which was the same one that he had held in his hand that fatal night, the smell of the whiskey--all these elements were rapidly combining in those few moments to produce an effect partly mental and partly physical which might have more than justified Ernshaw"s sudden fear.
"Ah, there are the mysterious guests, I suppose!" he said, putting the decanter back into the case. "I suppose you don"t happen to know who they really are, Ernshaw?"
"My dear fellow, if I did I shouldn"t tell you," was the distinctly non-committal reply. "I think it will be very much more interesting for you to find out yourself."
By this time Koda Bux, in his capacity of major-domo and general factotum to Sir Arthur, had opened the door, and at the same moment Sir Arthur himself came downstairs. Vane heard him say:
"Good evening, ladies; I am sorry that I have no hostess to receive you, but Mrs. Saunders, who helps Koda Bux to take care of me, will take you upstairs."
Then there was a low murmur of a woman"s voice, a rustle of skirts up the stairs, and Sir Arthur went on:
"Now, Mr. Rayburn, if you will come with me I will show you where to put your hat and coat and have a rinse if you like."
"Thanks, Sir Arthur," replied a voice which was strange to Vane.
"And who might Mr. Rayburn be?" he said to Ernshaw. "I didn"t know the governor knew anyone of that name. Still, from the sound of his voice he is a gentleman, and, I should say, a man."
"I think when you meet him you will find him both," said Ernshaw.
"Ah," laughed Vane, "I think I caught you out there. So you are in this conspiracy of mystery, are you? Now, look here, Ernshaw, what is it all about?"
"Guilty, but shan"t tell," replied his friend. "Now here comes Sir Arthur; perhaps he will tell."
"Vane," said Sir Arthur as the door opened, "this is Mr. Cecil Rayburn, and I want you to be very good friends; you will soon find out why."
Vane looked up and saw a man apparently a year or two older than himself, about the same height and build, but harder and stronger, and possessing that peculiar erectness of carriage and alertness of movement that is owned only by those who have worked or fought, or done both, in the outlands of the earth. But a glance at his face confirmed Vane in the opinion he had formed when he heard his voice; he was undeniably both a gentleman and a man. He held out his hand and said:
"Good evening, Mr. Rayburn. Of course a friend of my father"s has to be my friend also."
To his astonishment Cecil Rayburn made no movement to take his hand; on the contrary he drew back half a pace and said with a note of something like nervousness in his voice--a note which sounded strangely in the speech of a man who had never known what fear was:
"Thank you, Mr. Maxwell; I hope we shall be friends, but I am afraid I can"t shake hands with you yet--I mean, I shouldn"t like you to regret it afterwards."
Before Vane had found any words to shape a reply, Sir Arthur said:
"Mr. Ernshaw, suppose we go into the drawing-room to receive the ladies, and leave these two to have it out. We shan"t have dinner for half an hour, and I think they will manage to understand each other before then."
CHAPTER XX.
"Well, Mr. Rayburn," said Vane, "this is a rather curious sort of introduction, but I see that you are--I mean that I am quite satisfied that you must have some very good reason for refusing to shake hands with me. You are the first man who has ever done so, and as you have come here as my father"s guest, I may presume that it is not a personal objection."
Vane could not help speaking formally; there was a strangeness about the situation which forced him to do so.
"That would be impossible, Mr. Maxwell," replied the other, in a low, hesitating tone. "I knew that I should meet you here when I accepted Sir Arthur"s invitation; in fact, we--I mean I came here on purpose to meet you, and, to shorten matters, the reason why your father has left us alone, is that I have a very serious and I am afraid a very difficult confession to make to you."
"A confession!" said Vane, drawing himself up and looking Rayburn straight in the eyes. "Do you wish me to hear it as a man, or a priest, because if I am to hear it as a priest, it would be better kept for a more suitable time and place?"
"I want you to hear it both as man and priest," replied Rayburn, returning his look with perfect steadiness, "and I want you to hear it--and, in fact, unless we are to go away at once, you must hear it now."
"Very well," said Vane, a dim suspicion of the truth beginning to steal into his soul, "it is a little mysterious to me, but I daresay we shall soon understand each other."
He paused for a moment, and then, with a visible effort which made Rayburn love and honour him from that moment forth, he went on:
"And perhaps it would simplify matters for both of us if you began by telling me who _we_ are?"
"Your sister, or rather your half-sister," Rayburn began falteringly, and then stopped.
He saw Vane wince and heard his teeth come together with a snap, and he saw his hands clench up into fists and his face pale, already turned ashen grey white that denotes utter bloodlessness. It was the face of a corpse with living eyes that looked at him with an expression which could not be translated into human words. Rayburn had looked death in the face many a time and laughed at it, but he didn"t laugh now. As he said afterwards, he would have given anything to be a couple of miles away from Vane just then. He didn"t speak because he had nothing to say, his thoughts would not be translated into language, and so there was nothing for it but to wait for Vane to speak.
For a few moments more the two men faced each other in silence, yet each reading the other"s thoughts as accurately as though they had been talking with perfect frankness. Then Vane spoke in a slow, hard, grating voice which none of the congregation of St. Chrysostom would have recognised as that of the eloquent preacher of the Sermon on the Mount, to which Rayburn, who had heard that sermon, listened with a shock, which, as he told Carol later, sent a shiver through him from head to foot.
"Yes, Mr. Rayburn, I think I understand more fully now. My sister Carol--she has come here with you to-night, and I suppose I am right in thinking that you were to some extent responsible, quite innocently no doubt, for her disappearance about a year ago. Is that so?"
"Yes," said Rayburn, "that"s so, and that"s why I wouldn"t shake hands with you. I did take her away. She has been round the world with me, travelling with me as my wife, and she isn"t my wife, and--well, that is about all there is."
"And why isn"t she your wife?" exclaimed Vane, with an unreasoning burst of anger. Then, after a little pause, he went on in a tone that was almost humble.