"Never mind abaht that; I tell yer I ain't goin' in," he said doggedly.
I shrugged my shoulders and turned away. "Then stop outside; you'll get nothing," was my reply.
As I expected, I had not gone a dozen yards when he came limping after me. "All right, guv'nor, I'll risk it," he said eagerly, "I'm down on my luck, an' I must have a bite an' a drink. An' after all, w'en yer come to think of it, I'm top dog, ain't I?"
In my own mind I had to acknowledge as much, though I wondered what his attitude would be when he came face to face with that stronger man, Bardolph Just. I made my way into the house and into the dining-room, while George Rabbit shuffled along behind me. He had pulled off his cap, and now revealed the thin stubble of hair with which his head was covered.
As he shuffled in after me into the dining-room he caught sight of the doctor, standing up with his hands in his pockets, looking at him. He drew back instantly, and looked very much as though he meant to make a bolt for it, after all.
"You can come in, my friend," said the doctor, regarding him steadily. "I know all about you."
"I said it was a bloomin' trap," muttered Rabbit, as he shuffled into the room.
I saw that the doctor had been busy in my absence. Apparently he had visited the larder, and had brought therefrom the remains of a pie and some bread and cheese, all of which were set out on a tray, together with a bottle and a glass. Our new guest eyed these things hungrily, forgetful of everything else. At a sign from the doctor he seated himself at the table, and fell to like a ravening wolf.
"I thought it better not to disturb the servants," said Bardolph Just to me in a low tone, "so I foraged for myself. He'll be more amenable when he's taken the edge off his appetite."
Mr. George Rabbit feeding was not a pretty sight. Making all allowances for a tremendous hunger, it was not exactly nice to see him cramming food into himself with the aid of his knife as well as his fork, and with an occasional resort to his more primitive fingers; nor did he forget to apply himself to the bottle at intervals. And all the time he eyed us furtively, as though wondering what would happen when his meal was finished.
But at last even he was satisfied – or perhaps I should put it that the pie had given out. He sat back in his chair, and wiped his lips with the lining of his deplorable cap, and heaved a huge sigh of satisfaction. "That's done me a treat, guv'nors both," he murmured hoarsely.
"We're pleased, I'm sure," replied Bardolph Just. "Now we can get to business. It seems that you've got a sort of idea in your head that you are acquainted with this gentleman?" He indicated me as he spoke.
George Rabbit winked impudently. "Never forgot a pal in my life, an' I 'ope I never shall," he said. "W'y, me an' Norton 'Ide was unfort'nit togevver, an' now 'e's struck it rich, it ain't likely I wouldn't stick to 'im. See?"
"Now listen to me, my man," said Bardolph Just, coming to the other end of the table, and leaning his hands on it, and staring down at the other man. "A great many things happen in this world that it's well to know nothing about. You've made a mistake; the gentleman you think is Norton Hyde is not Norton Hyde at all. What do you say to that?"
"Wot I say to that is – try summink else," answered Rabbit. "You fink you'll kid me; you fink you'll git rid of me jist fer a supper? Not much. I know a good thing w'en I see it, an' I'm goin' to freeze on to it."
"You will not only have a good supper, but you'll have somewhere to sleep as well," said the doctor. "More than that, you'll have money."
"I'll lay I do!" exclaimed the man boisterously.
Bardolph Just laid a sovereign on the edge of the table, and pushed it gently towards the man. "You've never seen this gentleman before?" he hinted.
George Rabbit shook his head. "Not 'arf enough," he said disdainfully.
The process was repeated until five sovereigns lay in a little shining row along the edge of the table. It was too much for George Rabbit; he leaned forward eagerly. "I don't know the gent from Adam!" he exclaimed.
"Ah!" The doctor laughed, and drew a deep breath, and then suddenly dropped his hand down so that the coins were covered. "But not so fast; there's something else. This money is yours – and you will have a shakedown for the night – only on condition that you stick to what you've said. If you give any trouble, or if you start any ridiculous story such as you hinted at to-night, I shall find a way of dealing with you. Do you understand?"
The man looked up at him suspiciously. "You could do a precious lot, I don't fink!" he exclaimed.
"I'd do this," said the doctor viciously. "I'd hunt you out of the country, my friend; I'd look up past records and see what took you into prison; I'd see if you couldn't be got back there again. How do you think your word would stand against mine, when it came to a cock-and-bull story of the wrong man buried and the right man alive? Think yourself lucky you've been treated as well as you have."
George Rabbit eyed him resentfully, and had a long look at me; then he slowly shuffled to his feet. "Give us the rhino, an' show me w'ere I'm to sleep," he said. "I shall keep me face shut; you needn't be afraid."
The doctor pushed the coins towards him, and he was in the very act of gathering them up with some deliberateness, when the door was opened, and Martha Leach walked in. What she had expected to find, or whether she had anticipated discovering the doctor alone, it is impossible to say; certain it is that she stopped dead, taking in the little picture before her, and something of its meaning. George Rabbit swept the coins into his hand, and jingled them for a moment, and dropped them into his pocket.
"What do you want?" snarled Bardolph Just.
"Nothing," replied the woman, in some dismay. "I only thought – I only wondered if you wanted anything more to-night. I'm very sorry."
"I want nothing. Go to bed," he said curtly; and with another swift glance round the room that seemed to embrace us all, she walked out of the room and closed the door.
"Now, show this man where he can sleep," he said, turning to me. "There's a loft over the stable, with plenty of straw in it; if he doesn't set fire to himself he'll be comfortable enough. You know where it is?"
I nodded, and signed to George Rabbit to follow me. He made an elaborate and somewhat ironical bow to the doctor in the doorway of the room. The doctor called him back for a moment.
"You can slip away in the morning when you like," he said. "And don't let us see your ugly face again."
"Not so much about my face, if yer don't mind," said Mr. Rabbit. "An' I shan't be at all sorry ter go; I don't 'alf like the company you keep!"
With this doubtful compliment flung at me, Mr. George Rabbit shuffled out of the room, with a parting grin at the doctor. I took him out of the house and across the grounds towards the stable, showed him where, by mounting a ladder, he could get to his nest among the straw in the loft. "And don't smoke there," I said, "if only for your own sake."
"I 'aven't got anythink to smoke," he said, a little disgustedly. "I never thought of it. I 'aven't so much as a match on me."
I knew that the stable was deserted, because I had never seen any horses there, and I knew that the doctor kept none. I left George Rabbit in the dark, and retraced my steps to the house. I met the doctor in the hall; he had evidently been waiting for me.
"Well?" he asked, looking at me with a smile.
"I don't think he'll trouble us again," I said. "As you suggested, he won't get anyone to believe his story, even if he tells it, and a great many things may happen before he gets rid of his five pounds. Take my word for it, we've seen the last of him."
I went to my room and prepared for bed. At the last moment it occurred to me that I had said nothing to the doctor about Capper, or about the treachery of Harvey Scoffold, and I decided that that omission was perhaps, after all, for the best. The business of the man Capper was one which concerned Debora, in a sense, and I knew that the doctor was no friend to Debora. I determined to say nothing at present.
It was a particularly warm night, with a suggestion in the air of a coming storm. I threw back the curtains from my window, and flung the window wide, and then, as there was light enough for me to undress by without the lamp, I put that out, and sat in the semi-darkness of the room, smoking. I was thinking of many things while I slipped off my upper garments, and only gradually did it dawn upon me that across the grounds a light was showing where no light should surely be. Taking my bearings in regard to the position of the house itself, I saw that that light would come from the loft above the disused stable.
I cursed George Rabbit and my own folly for trusting him. At the same time it occurred to me that I did not want to make an enemy of the man, and that I might well let him alone, to take what risks he chose. The light was perfectly steady, and there was no suggestion of the flicker of a blaze; I thought it possible that he might have discovered some old stable lantern, with an end of candle in it, and so have armed himself against the terrors of the darkness. Nevertheless, while I leaned on the window-sill and smoked I watched that light.
Presently I saw it move, and then disappear; and while I was congratulating myself on the fact that the man had probably put out the light, I saw it appear again near the ground, and this time it was swinging, as though someone carried it. I drew back a little from the window, lest I should be seen, and watched the light.
Whoever carried it was coming towards the house, and as it swung I saw that it was a lantern, and that it was knocking gently, not against the leg of a man, as I had anticipated, but against the skirts of a woman; so much I made out clearly. When the light was so close as to be almost under my window I craned forward, and looked, for it had stopped.
The next moment I saw what I wanted to see clearly. The lantern was raised, and opened; a face was set close to it that the light might be blown out. In the second before the light was puffed out I saw that face clearly – the face of Martha Leach!
Long after she had gone into the house I stood there puzzling about the matter, wondering what she could have had to say to George Rabbit. I remembered how she had come into the room when he was taking the money from the table; I remembered, too, her threat to me, at an earlier time, that she would find out how I came into the house and all about me. And I knew that, whether she had succeeded or not, she had paid that nocturnal visit to George Rabbit to find out from him what he knew.
I found myself wondering whether the man had stood firm, or whether he had been induced to tell the truth. I knew that in the latter case I had an enemy in the house more powerful than any I had encountered yet; so much justice at least I did her.
At breakfast the next morning the doctor was in a new mood. Something to my surprise, I found both him and Debora at the breakfast table when I entered; I may say that I had been to that loft over the stable, only to find, as I had hoped, that my bird was flown. Now I murmured a word of apology as I moved round to my place, and was laughingly answered by Bardolph Just.
"You should indeed apologise, my dear John, on such an occasion as this," he said. "And not to me, but to the lady. Don't you know what to-day is?"
I think I murmured stupidly that I thought it was Tuesday, but the doctor caught me up on the word, with another laugh.
"Yes, but what a Tuesday! It is Debora's birthday!"
"All my good wishes," I said, turning to her at once; and I was rewarded by a quick shy glance and a smile.
"Come, show John what I've given you; let him see it," exclaimed the doctor. "Or stay – let me put it on!"
I saw then that there was lying beside her plate a little red morocco case. Without looking at him, she pushed it along the table until his hand could reach it, and let her own arm lie passive there afterwards. He unfastened the case, and displayed a glittering and very beautiful bracelet.
"What do you think of that?" he cried. "Fit to adorn the prettiest and whitest arm in the world."
It was curious that, while her arm lay along the table, and he took his time in fitting the bracelet round the wrist, she kept her eyes fixed on me, so that her head was averted from him. Even when he had finished the business, and had put her hand to his lips for a moment, she did not look round; she only withdrew the hand quickly, and put it in her lap under the table. I saw his face darken at that, and those white dots come and go in his nostrils.
"A great day, I assure you, John, and we'll make a great day of it. We're having a little dinner-party to-night in honour of the event. Debora doesn't seem to care for pretty things much," he added a little sourly.
"Thank you; it is very kind of you," she murmured in a constrained voice; and put the arm that held the bracelet on the table.
I felt a poor creature, in more senses than one, in being able to give her nothing, and I felt that I wanted to tell her that. So I contrived a meeting in the grounds, out of sight of the house, and there for a moment I held her hand, and stumbled over what was in my heart.
"You know all the good things I wish you, dear Debora," I said. "I have no gift for you, because I'm too poor; besides, I didn't know what day it was. But my heart goes out to you, in loyalty and in service."
"I know – I know," she answered simply. "And that is why I want to say something to you – something that you must not laugh at."
"I should never do that," I assured her earnestly.
"John, I am growing desperately afraid," she said, glancing over her shoulder as she spoke, and shuddering. "It is not that anything fresh has happened; it is only that I feel somehow that something is hanging over me. It is in the air – in the doctor's eyes – in the looks of the woman Leach; it is like some storm brewing, that must presently sweep down upon me, and sweep me away. I know it – I know it."
In sheer blind terror at what was in her own thoughts she clung to me, weeping hysterically, and for my own part I was more shaken than I dared to say. For that thought had been in my mind, too; and now instantly I recalled what I had heard behind the screen in the study the night before. But I would not let her see that I agreed with her; I did my best to laugh her out of that mood, and to get her into a more cheerful one.
In part, at least, I succeeded; I assured her over and over again that no harm should come to her while I was near. Yet even as I said it I realised my own helplessness, and how difficult a task I had to fight against those who were her enemies. For I was convinced that the woman Leach was, if anything, the greater enemy of the two, by reason of that mad jealousy to which she had already given expression.
In the strangest way it was Martha Leach who precipitated matters that night, as I shall endeavour to explain, in the order of the strange events as they happened. In the first place, you are to know that Harvey Scoffold, having doubtless been duly warned, put in an appearance that night, resplendent in evening dress, while the doctor did equal honour to the occasion. I had a tweed suit which the doctor had procured for me; and glad enough I had been, I can assure you, to discard the garments of the dead man. I thought but little of my dress, however, that night, so intent was I upon watching what was taking place at the table.
Harvey Scoffold took a great quantity of champagne, and the doctor appeared to do so also; in reality, however, I saw that he drank very little. He pressed wine upon Debora again and again, and Martha Leach, who stood behind his chair, was constantly at the girl's elbow with a freshly-opened bottle. Debora did no more than sip the wine, however, despite the doctor's entreaties. In a lull in the conversation, while the servants were out of the room and only Martha Leach was present behind the doctor's chair, I distinctly saw him noiselessly snap his fingers, and whisper something to her, and glance towards the girl. It was as though there was a secret understanding between the man and the woman.
Then it was that I came to my resolution; then it was that, to the astonishment of everyone, I began to get noisy. I had all my wits about me, for I had drunk but little, and my head was clear; but at my end of the table it was impossible for them to tell how much I had really taken. I made a pretence of staggering to my feet and proposing a toast, only to be pushed down into my seat again by Harvey Scoffold.
"Be careful," he whispered, with a laugh. "You're not used to this sort of drink; you've taken too much already."
I staggered to my feet again, demanding to know what he meant by it, and asserting my ability, drunkenly, to carry as much as any gentleman. I saw Debora, with a distressed face, rise from the table and go, and desperately enough I longed to be able to explain to her what I was doing.
I insisted, with threats, upon having more wine, until at last the doctor and Scoffold got up and made their way upstairs. There, in the study, Scoffold said that he had a walk before him, and must be going.
"Well, we'll have Debora in, and you shall wish her many happy returns of the day once more before you go," said the doctor, as he rang the bell. "John looks as if he were asleep."
I was not asleep by any means; but I was sunk all of a heap in an arm-chair, snoring, and with my eyes apparently shut. It did not escape me that, on the ringing of that bell, Martha Leach appeared at once, with a bottle and glasses on a tray; and once again I saw that meaning glance flash from her to the doctor, and back again.
Then, very slowly, the door opened, and Debora came in, looking about her. And I lay in that apparent drunken sleep, with every sense attuned to what was about to happen, and with my eyes watching through their half-closed lids.
CHAPTER VII.
IN THE CAMP OF THE ENEMY
As I lay huddled up in that deep arm-chair, watching what was going on, I noticed with satisfaction that they took no more notice of me than if I had really been in the drunken slumber in which they assumed me to be – which was well for my purpose. So carefully and deliberately had I thought the matter out, that I had even arranged my position in the room with a view to the proving of my suspicions; for I had seen, in the bringing of this quite unnecessary bottle of wine, something about to be done which should concern the girl. And everything in the attitude of the doctor and Martha Leach seemed to scream "Danger" to my ears.
The position I had chosen was such that I could see not only the room in which Harvey Scoffold, the doctor, and Debora were standing grouped about the table, but also behind the screen which hid the many bottles in that part of the room I have called the surgery. The better to keep up the illusion of my drunkenness, I now began feebly to wave my arms, and to croon a song, as I lay doubled up with my chin sunk on my breast; and I saw the doctor look at me with some contempt, and shrug his shoulders, and then glance at Martha Leach, who had remained waiting as though to assist with the bottle and glasses. The glance he gave her spoke as plainly as words could do his satisfaction in my condition – Debora's protector was inert and useless.
What now happened was this. Harvey Scoffold, who I am convinced had nothing whatever to do with the business in hand, had engaged the girl in conversation, and had interposed his broad bulk between her and the doctor and Leach. He had his legs set wide apart, and his hands were clasped behind his back, and he was talking in a loud tone to Debora, who seemed somewhat mystified by the whole proceedings. And the doctor and Martha Leach had drawn close together, and while the doctor watched the broad back of Harvey Scoffold, he covertly whispered to the woman.
"And so, my dear young lady, I am to have the pleasure of toasting you in a special glass before I retire to my humble bachelor quarters – eh?" Harvey Scoffold was saying in his loud tones. "This is a new experience for me – bright eyes – sparkling wine – merry hearts!"
"I don't think anyone wants any more wine to-night," I heard Debora say quickly. "One, at least, of us has had more than enough."
I knew that was meant for me, and my heart was bitter at the thought of what she must be thinking of the man who had called himself her friend. But there was no help for it; I had to play the game out to the end, for her sake.
The doctor had made a quick sign to Leach, and she had gone behind the screen. From where I lay, with my hands foolishly and feebly waving, and my lips crooning out the song, I could see her distinctly; and what I saw caused my heart almost to stand still. She picked up a small phial from the corner of a shelf, and slipped it within the folds of her dress; and the next moment was standing beside the doctor again. I saw their hands meet, and I saw the phial pass from the one to the other. Then the doctor slipped both hands into his pockets, and moved towards the table, which, as it happened, stood between him and Harvey Scoffold.
He kept his eyes fixed on Scoffold and the girl, and very quietly and very stealthily drew the phial from his pocket, and opened it. Moving his hand a little to the right, he dropped the contents of the phial into the glass nearest to me. It was a mere colourless liquid, and would not have been noticed in the bottom of the glass. Then the phial was slipped back into his pocket, and somewhat boisterously he picked up the bottle and proceeded to open it. Martha Leach, with one long glance at the girl, passed silently out of the room, and closed the door.
"Come – just one glass of wine before this merry party separates!" cried Bardolph Just as the cork popped out. "And we'll have no heel-taps; we'll drain our glasses. I insist!"
Harvey Scoffold turned round and advanced to the table. Bardolph Just had filled that glass into which he had dropped the contents of the phial, and was filling the second glass. I felt that the time for action had arrived. Just as he got to the third glass I staggered to my feet, apparently tripped on the carpet, and went headlong against him and the table. I heard him splutter out an oath as the table went over and the glasses fell with a crash to the floor.
He swung round upon me menacingly, but before he could do anything I had wrenched the bottle from his hand, and with a wild laugh had swung it round my head, spilling the wine over me as I did so. Then, with a last drunken hiccough, I flung the bottle clean against the window, and heard it crash through, and fall to the ground below.
"To the devil with all drink!" I exclaimed thickly, and dropped back into my chair again.
For a moment the two men stared blankly at each other, and at the wreck of glass and wine upon the carpet. I was waiting for an attack from the doctor, and bracing myself for it; but the attack did not come. True, he made one step towards me, and then drew himself up, and turned with a smile to Debora.
"I'm sorry, my child," he said, in his most winning tones. "I did not mean to have had your pleasure spoilt like this. If you will go to your room, I will try to get rid of this fellow. Harvey," he added in a lower tone to Scoffold, "give an eye to him for a moment."
He followed Debora out of the room, closing the door behind him. I had determined by this time to show my hand, and Harvey Scoffold gave me the opportunity. He strode across to me, and took me by the shoulder, and shook me violently.
"Come, pull yourself together; it's time you were in bed," he said.
I sprang to my feet, and thrust him aside. I think I never saw a man so astonished in all his life as he was, to see me alert and quick and clear-eyed. "That's all you know about the business," I said. "I'm more sober than either of you. Now, hold your tongue, and wait; I've a word to say to Bardolph Just, and it won't keep."
Bardolph Just opened the door at that moment, and came in. By that time I was standing, with my hands in my pockets, watching him, and something in my face and in my attitude seemed to give him pause; he stopped just inside the door, staring at me. Harvey Scoffold looked from one to the other of us, as though wondering what game was afoot.
"Now, Dr. Bardolph Just," I said, "I'll trouble you for that phial. It's in your right-hand trouser pocket. Pass it over."
Instead of complying with that request, he suddenly sucked in a deep breath, and made a rush at me. But he had mistaken his man; I caught him squarely on the jaw with my fist, and he went down at my feet. After a moment or two he looked up at me, sitting there foolishly enough on the floor, and began to tell me what he thought of me.
"You dog! So this is the way you repay my kindness to you, is it?" he muttered. "You scum of a jail! – this is what I get for befriending you."
"Never mind about me," I retorted, "we'll come to my case presently. Just now I want to talk about Miss Debora Matchwick, and I want to know exactly what it was you put into the wine destined for her to-night."
"You're mad!" he said, getting slowly to his feet, and looking at me in a frightened way.
"No, I'm not mad; nor am I drunk," I retorted. "You and the woman Leach thought you were safe enough; look at me now, and tell me how much you think I have seen. Your fine words mean nothing; murder's your game, and you know it!"
All this time Harvey Scoffold had said nothing; he had merely looked from one to the other of us, with something like a growing alarm in his face. But now he stepped forward as though he would understand the matter better, or would at least put an end to the scene.
"My dear Just, and you, Norton Hyde, what does all this mean? Can't you be reasonable, and talk over the matter like gentlemen. What's this talk of phials and stuff put into wine, and murder, and what not?"
"It's true!" I exclaimed passionately. "This is the second time that man has tried to kill her, but it shall be the last. The thing is too bare-faced – too outrageous!"
"Well, my fine jail-bird, and what are you going to do?" demanded the doctor, having now regained the mastery over himself. "Fine words and high sentiments; but they never broke any bones yet. Tell me your accusation clearly, and I shall know how to meet it."
So I gave it them then and there, in chapter and verse; thus letting Harvey Scoffold know, for the first time, of that business of the eastern corridor, and of the mysterious door that opened only once to the road to death; moreover, I put it plainly now, that I had seen the woman Martha Leach take the phial and hand it to him; that I had pretended drunkenness to lull his suspicions of me, and to be ready when he least expected me to upset his plot.
He listened in silence, with his teeth set firmly, and his dark eyes glittering at me; then he nodded slowly, and spoke.
"And the man you accuse is one holding a big position in the world – a man against whom no breath of scandal or suspicion has ever been sent forth," he said. "A man known in many countries of the world – member of learned societies – a man with a n