"How is he?" I asked.
As he looked at me there was something in his eyes which I did not understand.
"He"ll be as right as rain in a minute or two."
"Can I see him?"
He jingled some money in his trousers pocket.
"I hardly know what to say. It seems kind of going back on him. It"s not professional; and I"m professional or nothing. Is it trouble?"
"Do you mean, will an interview with me be the cause to him of trouble? Not at all. If anything, I"m the bearer of good tidings."
"Sure?"
"Certain."
He eyed me; with a long-continued and penetrating glance.
"You shall see him inside of five minutes. The money"s right?"
"It is."
I showed him a five-pound note.
"We"ll have first to get rid of those doctors. I understand him, and he understands himself, better than all the doctors put together.
Doctors only mess a man about, they"re thinking more of themselves than of you; I never knew a doctor yet who was worth the money you had to pay him. You wait; I"ll shift them."
He was gone more than five minutes; possibly finding the "eminent medical gentlemen," of whom, in private life, he apparently had so poor an opinion, more difficult to "shift" than he had expected. When he returned he beckoned with his finger.
"Now then!" I advanced to the door at which he stood. "Money, please."
The five-pound note changed hands. "In you go. I"ve got to go to the manager"s office on business. You"ll have him to yourself till I come back."
I found Mr.-Montagu Babbacombe alone, attired in a pair of tweed trousers and a coloured shirt. He was seated by a table, and embraced with his hand a gla.s.s containing what looked like whisky and water. In spite of which facts he looked almost as much like a corpse as ever.
Without looking up as I entered, he asked:--
"Who"s that?"
"Don"t you know me?"
"Know you?" He glanced at me, with lack-l.u.s.tre eyes, in which was not the faintest gleam of recognition. "Do you owe me money? If you"ve come to pay me I"ll know you."
The voice was not right; he spoke with a faint American accent, which I had not previously noticed. But, in spite of its corpse-like pallor, the face was Twickenham"s.
"Look at me well. Think."
"I"ve quit thinking."
"Twickenham!" He continued to stare. "You are Twickenham?"
"I am. If there"s money in it, you bet I am. Is it a place, or a thing? Sounds like a sort of pa.s.sword."
"Leonard!"
"Am I him, too? I"ve been lots of people in my time, Lord knows.
What"s one more?"
"Why should you think it necessary to play this farce with me?"
"I"m asking. Excuse me, but are you----?" He touched his forehead with his forefinger. "I am."
I am generally tolerably clear-headed. Never before had I been conscious of such mental confusion. It was a peculiar sensation. As he made that gesture with his forefinger it was all at once borne in on me that, after all, I had made a common or garden fool of myself, and that this was actually not the man. As I observed him, closely a dozen minute points of difference forced themselves upon my notice. I so clearly realised my own asininity that, for the instant, I was speechless. Then I stammered out--
"You must excuse, sir, what probably appears to you my very singular behaviour, but, the fact is, you have the most amazing resemblance to a person with whom I was once very intimate."
"Poor devil!"
"He was a poor devil."
"You lay on it. If he was like me."
A shadow of doubt returned.
"May I ask you to be serious, sir, and tell me, on your word of honour, if you have ever seen me before?"
"I have. As a child. Many a time we"ve played together in my mother"s backyard. Let me see, your name"s---- Smith?--Ah.--Mine"s Brown. I mean Babbacombe. It"s all the same. See small bills."
I hesitated. On a sudden an idea came to me, as it were, on a flash of lightning. The language seems exaggerated, yet I doubt if any other would adequately portray the fact. It did come to me in a single illuminating second. Not in embryo, but wholly formed. I saw the whole thing in its entirety. There, on the instant, was the complete scheme ready to my hand.
The suddenness of the thing unhinged me. I was not that night in the finest fettle. I scarcely saw how, then and there, to broach to him the subject. Attacked brusquely, it might be ruined. He was, probably, in worse condition even than myself; he might be affected even more disagreeably than I had been. Procrastination would probably be best, though in procrastination there was risk. Still--I saw no other way.
I moistened my lips. They had all at once gone dry.
"Mr. Babbacombe, where can I see you, to-morrow, on a matter of importance?"
"What"s the matter?"
"It is one which will probably result in my being able to place a considerable sum of money at your disposal."
"You"re seeing me now."
"This is a matter on which I can hardly enter, here, and now. I should prefer, with your permission, to see you again to-morrow.
"To-morrow"s Sunday."
"That makes no difference to me."
"Oh! you don"t honour the Sabbath day, to keep it holy." He emptied his gla.s.s. "Give me some more." A bottle of whisky was standing at his elbow. I poured some out. When I was proceeding to dilute it with water, he stopped me. "None of that. Neat." He swallowed what I had given him. "Thank G.o.d for alcohol. There"s nothing like it, when you"ve got where I am.--What"s that you were saying about wanting to see me to-morrow?"