THE SPECTRE AT THE FEAST
Merriton, clad in his evening clothes and looking exceedingly handsome, stood by the smoking room door, with Tony West, short and thickset, wearing a suit that fitted badly and a collar which looked sizes too large for him (Merriton had long given up hope of making him visit a decent tailor) and waited for the sound of motor wheels which would announce the arrival of further guests.
It was the memorable Tuesday dinner, given in the first place for Dacre Wynne, as a sort of send off before he left for Cairo. In the second Merriton intended to break it gently to the other chaps that he was shortly to become a Benedict.
Lester Stark and Tony West, very loyal and proven friends of Nigel Merriton, had arrived the evening before. Dacre Wynne was coming down by the seven o"clock train, d.i.c.ky Fordyce, Reginald Lefroy-both fellow officers of Merriton"s regiment, and home on leave from India-and mild old Dr. Bartholomew, whom everyone respected and few did not love, and who was in attendance at most of the bachelor spreads in London and out of it, as being a dry old body with a wit as fine as a rapier-thrust, and a fund of delicate, subtle humour, made up the little party.
The solemn front door bell of Merriton Towers clanged, and Borkins, very pompous and elegant, flung wide the door. Merriton saw Wynne"s big, broad-shouldered figure swathed in the black evening cloak which he affected upon such occasions, and which became him mightily, and with an opera hat set at the correct angle upon his closely-clipped dark hair, step into the lighted hallway, and begin taking off his gloves.
Tony West"s raspy voice chimed out a welcome, as Merriton went forward, his hand outstretched.
"h.e.l.lo, old man!" said Tony. "How goes it? Lookin" a bit white about the gills, aren"t you, eh?... Whew! Merriton, old chap, that"s my ribs, if you don"t mind. I"ve no penchant for your bayonet-like elbow to go prodding into "em!"
Merriton raised an eyebrow, frowned heavily, and by every other method under the sun tried to make it plain to West that the topic was taboo. Wherefore West raised his eyebrows, began to make a hasty exclamation, thought better of it, and then clapping his hand over his mouth broke into whistling the latest jazz tune, as though he had completely extricated both feet from the unfortunate mire he had planted them in-but with very little success.
Wynne was a frowning Hercules as he entered the pleasant smoke-filled room. Merriton"s arm lay upon his sleeve, and he endured because he had to-that was all.
"h.e.l.lo!" he said, to Lester Stark"s rather half-hearted greeting-Lester Stark never had liked Dacre Wynne and they both knew it. "You here as well? Merriton"s giving me a send-off and no mistake. Gad! you chaps will be envying me this time next week, I"ll swear! Out on the briny for a decently long trip; plenty of pretty women-on which I"m bankin" of course"-he gave Merriton a sudden, searching look, "and not a care in the world. And the white lights of Cairo starin" at me across the water. Some picture, isn"t it?"
"You may keep it!" said Tony West with a shudder. "When you"ve smelled Cairo, Wynne, old boy, you"ll come skulkin" home with your tail between your legs. A "rose by any other name would smell as sweet," but Cairo-parts of it mind you-well, Cairo"s the stinkin"st rose I ever put my nose into, that"s all!"
"There are some things which offend the nostrils more than-odours!" threw back Wynne with a black look in Nigel"s direction, and with a sort of slur in his voice that showed he had been drinking more than was good for him that night. "I think I can endure the smells of Cairo after-other things. Eh, Nigel?" He forced a laugh which was mirthless and unpleasant, and Merriton, with a quick glance into his friends" faces, saw that they too had seen. Wynne was in one of his "devil" humours, and all the fun and joking and merriment in the world would never get him out of it. His pity for the man suddenly died a natural death. The very evident fact that Wynne had been drinking rather heavily merely added a further distaste to it all. He wished heartily that he had never ventured upon this act of unwanted friendliness and given a dinner in his honour. Wynne was going to be the spectre at the feast, and it looked like being a poor sort of show after all.
"Come, buck up, old chap!" broke out Tony West, the irrepressible. "Try to look a little less like a soured lemon, if you can! Or we"ll begin to think that you"ve been and gone and done something you"re sorry for, and are trying to work it off on us instead."
"h.e.l.lo, here"s Doctor Johnson," as the venerable Bartholomew entered the room. "How goes it to-night, sir? A fine night, what? Behold the king of the feast, his serene and mighty-oh extremely mighty!-highness Prince Dacre Wynne, world explorer and soon to be lord-high-sniffer of Cairo"s smells! Don"t envy him the task, do you?"
He bowed with a flourish to the doctor who chuckled and his keen eyes, fringed with snow-white lashes, danced. He wore a rather long, extremely untidy beard, and his shirt-front as always was crumpled and worn. Anything more unlike a doctor it would be hard to imagine. But he was a clever one, nevertheless.
"Well, my talkative young parrot," he greeted West affectionately, "and how are you?... And who"s party is this, anyhow? Yours or Merriton"s? You seem to be putting yourself rather more to the fore than usual."
"Well, I"ll soon be goin" aft," retorted West with a wide grin. "When old Nigel gets his innings. He"s as chockful of news as an egg is of meat." West was one of the chosen few who had already heard of Nigel"s engagement, and he was rather like a gossipy old woman-but his friends forgave it in him.
Merriton gave him a shove, and he fell back upon Wynne, emitting a portentous groan.
"What the devil-?" began that gentleman, in a testy voice.
Tony grinned.
"Nigel was ever thus!" he murmured, with uplifted eyes.
"Shut up!" thundered Stark, clapping a hand over West"s mouth, and he subsided as the doorbell rang again, and Borkins ushered in Fordyce and Lefroy, two slim-hipped, dapper young gentlemen with the stamp of the army all over them. The party thus complete, Borkins gravely withdrew, and some fifteen minutes later the great gong in the hallway clanged out its summons. They streamed into the dining room, Doctor Bartholomew upon Tony West"s fat little arm; Fordyce and Lefroy, side by side, hands in pockets and closely cropped heads nodding vigorously; Merriton and Lester Stark sauntering one slightly behind the other, and exchanging pleasantries as they went; and just in front of them, Dacre Wynne, solitary, huge, sinister, and overbearing.
Wynne sat in the seat of honour on Merriton"s right. The rest sorted themselves out as they wished, and made a good deal of noise and fun about it, too. Down the length of the long, exquisitely decorated table Merriton looked at his guests and thought it wasn"t going to be so dismal after all.
Champagne ran like water and spirits ran high. They joyfully toasted Wynne, and later on the news that Merriton imparted to them. In vain Dacre Wynne"s low spirits were apparent. He must get over his grouch, that was all. Then once again the spirit of evil descended upon the gathering and it was Stark who precipitated its flight. "By the way, Nigel," he asked suddenly, "isn"t there some ghost story or other pertaining to your district? Give us a recital of it, old boy. Walnuts and wine and ghost stories, you know, are just the right sort of thing after a dinner like this. Tony, switch off the lights. This old house of yours is the very place for ghosts. Now let us have it."
"Hold on," Nigel remonstrated. "Give me a chance to digest my dinner, and-dash it all, the thing"s so deuced uncanny that it doesn"t bear too much laughing at either!"
"Come along!" Six voices echoed the cry. "We"re waiting, Nigel."
So Merriton had forthwith to oblige them. He, too, had had enough to drink-though drinking too heavily was not one of his vices-and his flushed face showed the excitement that burned within him.
"Come over here by the window and see the thing for yourselves, and then you shall hear the story," he began enigmatically.
Nigel pushed back the heavy curtain and there, in the darkness without-it was getting on toward ten o"clock-gleamed and danced and flickered the little flames that had so often puzzled him, and filled his soul with a strange sort of supernatural fear. Against the blackness beyond they hung like a chain of diamonds irregularly strung, flickering incessantly.
Every man there, save one, and that one stood apart from the others like some giant bull who deigns not to run with the herd-gave an involuntary exclamation.
"What a deuced pretty sight!" remarked Fordyce, in his pleasant drawl. "What is it? Some sort of fair or other? Didn"t know you had such things in these parts."
"We don"t." It was Merriton who spoke, rather curtly, for the remark sounded inane to his ears.
"It is no fair you a.s.s, it"s-G.o.d knows what! That"s the point of the whole affair. What are those flames, and where do they come from? That part of the Fens is uninhabited, a boggy, marshy, ghostly spot which no one in the whole countryside will cross at night. The story goes that those who do-well they never come back."
"Oh, go easy, Nigel!" struck in Tony West with a whistle of pretended astonishment. "Champagne no doubt, but-"
"It"s the truth according to the villagers, anyhow!" returned Merriton, soberly. "That is how the story goes, my lad, and you chaps asked me for it. Those Frozen Flames-it"s the villagers" name, not mine-they say are supernatural phenomena, and any one, as I said before, crossing the place near them at night disappears clean off the face of the earth. Then a new flame appears, the soul of the johnny who has "gone out"."
"Any proof?" inquired Doctor Bartholomew suddenly, stroking his beard, and arching his bushy eyebrows, as if trying to sympathize with his host"s obvious half belief in the story.
Nigel wheeled and faced him in the dim light. The pupils of his eyes were a trifle dilated.
"Yes, so I understand. Short time back a chap went out-fellow called Myers-Will Myers. He was a bit drunk, I think, and thought he"d have a shot at makin" the village busybodies sit up and give "em something to talk about. Anyhow, he went."
"And he came back?" Unconsciously a little note of anxiety had crept into Tony West"s voice.
"No, on the contrary, he did not come back. They searched for his body all over the marshes next day, but it had disappeared absolutely, and the chap who told me said he saw another light come out the next night, and join the rest of "em.... There, there"s your story, Lester, make what you like of it. I"ve done my bit and told it anyway."
For a moment there was silence. Then Stark shook himself.
"Gad, what an uncanny story! Turn up the lights someone, and dispel this gloom that seems to have settled on everyone! What do you make of it?"
Suddenly Wynne"s great, bulky figure swung free from the shadows. There were red glints in his eyes and a sneer curled his heavy lips. He sucked his cigar and threw his head back.
"What I make of it is a whole lot of old women"s d.a.m.n silly nonsense!" he announced in a loud voice. "And how a sensible, decent thinkin" man can give credence to the thing for one second beats me completely! Nigel"s head was always full of imaginations (of a sort) but how you other chaps can listen to the thing-Well, all I can say is you"re the rottenest lot of idiots I"ve ever come across!"
Merriton shut his lips tightly for a moment, and tried hard to remember that this man was a guest in his house. It was so obvious that Wynne was trying for a row, Doctor Bartholomew turned round and lifted a protesting hand.
"Don"t you think your language is a trifle-er-overstrong, Wynne?" he said, in that quiet voice of his which made all men listen and wonder why they did it.
Wynne tossed his shoulders. His thick neck was rather red.
"No, I"m d.a.m.ned if I do! You"re men here-or supposed to be-not a pack of weak-kneed women!... Afraid to go out and see what those lights are, are you? Well, I"m not. Look here. I"ll have a bet with you boys. Fifty pounds that I get back safely, and dispel the morbid fancies from your kindergarten brains by tellin" you that the things are glow-worms, or some fool out for a practical joke on the neighbourhood-which has fallen for it like this sort of one-horse hole-in-the-corner place would! Fifty pounds? What say you?"
He glowered round upon each of them in turn, his sneering lips showing the pointed dogs" teeth behind them, his whole arrogant personality brutally awake. "Who"ll take it on? You Merriton? Fifty pounds, man, that I don"t get back safely and report to you chaps at twelve o"clock to-night."
Merriton"s flushed face went a shade or two redder, and he took an involuntary step forward. It was only the doctor"s fingers upon his coat-sleeve that restrained him. Then, too, he felt some anxiety that this drunken fool should attempt to do the very thing which another drunken fool had attempted three months back. He couldn"t bet on another man"s chance of life, like he would on a race-horse!