Had the billiard-table taken to itself wings and commenced to waltz about the room, those present could scarcely have been more amazed.
That a lady could be introduced in that haphazard, unlooked-for, bewildering fashion by one of their own servants, who knew the written and unwritten rules as well as anyone living--it was a crime almost equivalent to high treason. It was all done before they had really time to recover their breath--the lady was in, the orderly had gone, the door was closed; there they were, gaping at her, and she was looking at them. They seemed to have lost their presence of mind, to say nothing of their manners.
Presently her attention became centred on Noel Draycott.
"You!"
The monosyllable seemed to burst from her in the fullness of her surprise. Plainly he was as much of a ghost to her as he had been to his colleagues of the mess. Major Reith stammeringly took upon himself the task of endeavouring to make it clear to her that the position was unusual.
"Miss Forster, I--I"m afraid it"s rather contrary to regimental custom to receive ladies in this apartment. Some mistake has been made. Let me take you to where you will feel more at home."
A surprising interruption came from Noel Draycott.
"No mistake has been made. It is by my instructions that Miss Forster has been shown in here. She has a right to be present at what I am about to say; you will see that, Reith, yourself, before I have finished."
It was said with an air of authority which caused the others to look at him askance. Miss Forster turned to Major Reith, holding out something in her hand.
"I received," she said, "this card." She read out what was written on it: ""If Miss Forster will present herself at the main entrance to the officers" mess to-night about ten o"clock, and will hand this card to the orderly whom she will find in attendance, she will learn the whole truth about Sydney Beaton.""
"May I look at that card?" inquired the major. She gave it to him.
"This is the most extraordinary thing to receive. May I ask how it reached you?"
"I found it awaiting me on my return home this afternoon. I was told that a man had brought it who said that there was no answer."
Captain Draycott carried the lady"s explanation several stages farther.
"That card came from me; I wrote it. I gave Barnes directions to show Miss Forster in here directly she arrived. As Miss Forster is at least as much interested in Sydney Beaton as any of us, and has heard one story, I consider that the least we can do is to give her the first opportunity which offers to become acquainted with the truth."
The major still seemed uncomfortably conscious of the irregularity of the position.
"Really I hardly know what to say; but if it is the general wish that this lady shall remain----"
Mr. Tickell took upon himself to answer before the sentence was concluded.
"Of course it"s the general wish; we are only too glad to have Miss Forster among us. Miss Forster, won"t you have a chair?"
The lady declined; she said she would rather stand. One person declared himself to be in disagreement with Mr. Tickell--Anthony Dodwell.
"Without intending the least discourtesy, I cannot admit that Draycott is ent.i.tled to introduce his lady friends where no ladies are allowed, even if the intruder is Miss Forster."
"Then in that case you are one against all the rest of us, so you don"t count. Now, Noel, what is it all about? Cut it as short as you can, old man, and then, as Reith puts it, if Miss Forster will allow us, we will take her somewhere where she will feel more at home."
Thus urged, Mr. Draycott prefaced his story with a few outspoken, candid words; every eye was fixed upon him, and all was still.
"The story which I am about to tell you is not very much to my credit, nor to that of others; I don"t propose to try to excuse myself in any way whatever; I"ll just say my say straight out."
He paused for a second as if to get his words into proper sequence.
"I can tell you the first part in half a dozen sentences; in fact, in one: That night when Sydney Beaton was accused of cheating, he never did cheat, and we behaved as we did to an innocent man."
Mr. Tickell broke out the moment the words were uttered.
"If I haven"t felt it in my bones; the very next morning in bed I began to feel it; I"ve not been easy in my mind ever since. Now, Dodwell, what do you say to that?"
"I say that, for reasons of his own, Draycott says the thing which is not; you all heard what he said that night."
"What I said then was a lie; one for which I deserve all that I am likely to get. I behaved all through like a blackguard--that"s what I want to tell you."
"You may put it either way you like," sneered Anthony Dodwell; "it is plain to the meanest intelligence that you behaved like a blackguard whichever way you put it. Either you were lying then, or you"re lying now; from neither predicament do you come out nicely."
Draycott ignored the other"s words.
"Dodwell owed Beaton a grudge, and I owed Dodwell money, or at least, he said I did."
"You"re a pretty bounder--I said you did!"
"He said I did. As a matter of fact, I don"t believe that I owed him a farthing; but he made out that I owed him a lot, more than I could pay without going to the Jews, which I had promised my father I never would do. I didn"t want to have a row, or a scandal; I"ve seen since what a fool I was, but it seemed to me then that he had got me under his thumb. He had, as I said, a grudge against Beaton; that was about some money which he said Beaton owed him and which Beaton wouldn"t pay."
"If I had posted Mr. Beaton, as I ought to have done, that would have brought him to his senses, and then Mr. Draycott wouldn"t have been standing there, stuffed with the lies he"s going to tell."
Still Draycott continued to ignore the other"s words; he went on with his story as if Dodwell was not persistently interrupting.
"Dodwell said to me that if I would help him to get even with Beaton, he would say no more about the money which he made out I owed him, and as I was tired of his perpetual dunning, I was cad enough to listen."
"You were a cad first, last, and altogether, Mr. Draycott."
"Then that night we played poker, and Dodwell said that he had seen Beaton cheating; then he looked at me, and he winked; I knew what he meant, and I said that I had too--but I hadn"t."
There arose an outcry from those who heard him; all the men began speaking at once. Major Reith called them to order.
"Gently, gentlemen, gently; let us know where we are standing."
"You are standing," cried Anthony Dodwell, "in the presence of an infamous animal whom only the fact that Miss Forster is here, prevents me from characterising as he deserves. I don"t wish to a.s.sert that he took care that the lady was here before he began what he calls his story; but when the lady has gone he will receive from me the treatment from which her presence saves him."
"If you will take my advice," the excited gentleman was told by Major Reith, "you will let Draycott tell his story without comment or interruption; when he has finished you will be able, if you think it necessary, to tell yours; but you will not improve your case by doing your best to keep him from stating his. Draycott, do we understand you to say that you did not see Sydney Beaton cheat?"
"I did not."
"You did not see him exchange one card for another?"
"I did not."
"You did not see him do anything irregular, or indulge in malpractices of any kind?"
"Absolutely no; nor do I believe that he did. I did not believe it then; I believe it still less now. I believe he played as straight a game as anyone else, and Dodwell knew it."
Three or four men interposed to prevent Anthony Dodwell venting his wrath upon the speaker then and there.
"I"ll break every bone there is in your body," he declared, "before I"ve done with you, you libellous hound."