Part 21 (1/2)

Kindly wait here.”

A grim smile played round the Senator's firm lips when, after going through the needful formalities with the purser, he quitted the steamer's stronghold, carrying the leather despatch-box. He would lead the rascal on, making his mouth water, gently t.i.tillate his expectations, and then, having got him fairly on the hooks, hand him over to the police. Delighted with the prospect of thwarting a rogue, he sought his state-room to collect his personal baggage and have it conveyed ash.o.r.e. The first thing that met his eye on entering the state-room was a letter in his wife's handwriting that had just been delivered.

It bore date of the previous day, and informed him that the writer and Leonie were staying as the guests of the Duke of Beaumanoir at his country seat, Prior's Tarrant. Mrs. Sherman went on to explain the circ.u.mstances, so far as she was aware of them, of the invitation, and she wound up with the hope that the Senator would join them immediately on landing. The Duke, who was the embodiment of affability, had cordially expressed that wish, she wrote; without, however, mentioning the Duke's intention of going to Liverpool to meet the _Campania_.

Senator Sherman read the letter twice, a.s.sured himself of the authenticity of the handwriting, examined the postmark, and-made a wry face. It looked as if he had been too hasty in jumping to a conclusion about the young man waiting for him on the hurricane-deck, and he began to regret the curt demeanor he had a.s.sumed. He was not quite convinced, however, owing to the absence of any allusion to the Duke meeting him-in itself an extraordinary proceeding. Good republican as he was, the Senator fully appreciated the cleavage of English cla.s.s distinctions, and he was aware that great n.o.bles do not, as a rule, wait at seaport towns to welcome perfect strangers. It was possible that the depressed individual on deck might, after all, be a criminal who had discovered Mrs. Sherman's visit to the Duke of Beaumanoir and was turning his knowledge to evil account. Still, though caution was called for, his wife's letter invested the man's story with a credibility which it had wholly lacked, and when he rejoined him the Senator's manner was altered accordingly. The Duke having telegraphed for the carriage to meet them at Tarrant Road, they took a cab together to Lime Street station, and were fortunate enough to find a train on the point of starting. It was a corridor express, made up entirely of vestibule cars, and the fact caused the Duke an annoyance which partially revived the Senator's suspicions.

”I don't like this,” Beaumanoir said, glancing with what looked very like dismay up and down the well-filled car as they took their seats. ”I should have preferred an ordinary first-cla.s.s compartment that we could have had reserved.”

”Ah! I suppose a duke is bound to be a bit exclusive,” said the Senator, guardedly.

Beaumanoir, who a month before had regarded a ride in a Bowery street-car as an unattainable luxury, was betrayed into disclaiming any such sn.o.bbery.

”It isn't that--” he was beginning hotly, when he pulled up short and feebly subsided, without explaining why he should have desired a _tete-a-tete_ journey.

With the starting of the train a sustained and confidential conversation became impracticable, nor did either of the fellow travelers seem inclined for one; but as they sped southward the Senator found plenty of food for reflection in his companion's behavior. To the experienced American eye the outline of a pistol was plainly apparent in the breast-pocket of the Duke, whose fingers never strayed far from that receptacle-an att.i.tude which was always more distinctly marked during the infrequent stoppages. Except when it was distracted into a swift and nervous glance round by a movement of one of the other pa.s.sengers, the Duke's gaze was always focused on the precious box which the Senator carried on his lap.

”Either he means to rob me himself, or he is scared lest someone else will,” was the Senator's conclusion.

But the journey came to an end without either of these consummations being arrived at or even attempted, and the sight of the coroneted carriage and the ducal liveries at Tarrant Road station removed the Senator's last lingering doubt as to the Duke's ident.i.ty. And, twenty minutes later, when, still hugging his despatch-box, he found his wife and daughter waiting to welcome him under the portico at Prior's Tarrant, he was ready to laugh at himself; and what the Senator was ready to do he usually did promptly-as now.

”Ah, Jem!” he cried, as General Sadgrove came forward to greet him.

”You'll never believe what an a.s.s I've been making of myself. Something in the British soil, I guess. It's only this minute that I've been able to clear my silly brain of a lurking suspicion that his Grace's kindness in coming to meet me covered a design on this little box. Took him for a sort of bunco-steerer.”

The General pa.s.sed over the remark as a careless jest without pursuing it, but shook hands with his old friend warmly. The veteran was looking careworn and aged, the Senator thought, and he wondered, too, at the queer searching glance which the General cast upon their mutual host as the latter limped from the brougham into the hall. The Duke was engaged in making light of the thanks and reproaches showered upon him for going to Liverpool, wherefrom the Senator guessed that that singular proceeding had been unknown beforehand to the house-party.

They all went into the tapestry-room, where Mrs. Talmage Eglinton, now happily recovered from her headache of three days ago, was chatting to Sybil Hanbury and Alec Forsyth. The necessary introductions were effected by Beaumanoir, whose spirits had wonderfully revived with his entry into the house-to such an extent, indeed, that Leonie put it down to a few hours in the company of her breezy father, little thinking that they had traveled two hundred miles together without exchanging half as many words. Yet if there was nothing forced about the Duke's sudden gaiety it certainly suggested unnatural excitement, and everyone present was impressed by his changed demeanor. Mrs. Talmage Eglinton was so affected by it that in narrowly observing her host she failed to notice that for some minutes after the introduction she herself was the object of observation, not to say a pretty sharp scrutiny, on the part of Senator Sherman.

”Say, your Grace,” exclaimed the Senator, recovering from his abstraction and turning with some abruptness to the Duke, ”I can't enjoy your hospitality with a whole heart till I've got this treasure under lock and key. Have you got any place where I can deposit the box with tolerable confidence of finding it when I want to take it to the Bank of England to-morrow? It's a just retribution, I guess, to have to make you its custodian after suspecting you of wanting to lift it.”

Beaumanoir, it seemed, was quite equal to the occasion.

”I can guarantee the impregnability of the fire-proof safe in my muniment room,” he replied with alacrity. ”If you will come with me, we will lock it up at once.”

St.u.r.dily disregarding the badinage of his wife and Leonie for thinking robbery possible at Prior's Tarrant, the Senator followed the Duke, and was conducted by him along many corridors to a stone-floored chamber lined with shelves full of dusty archives, and furnished only with a carved oak table and a few worm-eaten chairs. But, what was more to the purpose, a brand-new safe, resplendent in green and gold, the very latest patent of the most eminent manufacturers, occupied an imposing position at the far end. Producing a key, the Duke unlocked the safe, with no result till a touch on a hidden spring caused the heavy steel door to roll slowly outwards. The interior was nearly filled with parchment-bound volumes exactly like those on the shelves, but there was plenty of room for the box.

The Senator promptly placed his precious charge in the vacant s.p.a.ce, and heaved a sigh of relief.

”It ought to be all right there,” he said.

”It ought to be,” Beaumanoir echoed, as he set the mechanism in motion.

And when the heavy door had slid noiselessly back into position, he turned the key and pocketed it with an air of achievement. ”Come, Mr.

Sherman,” he said lightly, ”let us go and rejoin the ladies. Now that we have got that safely housed we shall both feel much-er-more comfortable, shan't we?”

CHAPTER XIX-_In the Crypt_

Late on the evening of Senator Sherman's arrival at Prior's Tarrant he was alone with General Sadgrove in the smoking-room, the Duke of Beaumanoir and Forsyth having avowedly gone up to bed. Under the influence of the genial American, and with the Duke himself in a more expansive mood, dinner and the subsequent reunion in the tapestry-room had been prolonged later than recently, and the chiming clock on the mantelpiece tinkled out the hour of midnight as the Senator put the question:

”Who the d.i.c.kens is that Talmage Eglinton woman, Jem?”