Hurricane Island. Henry Brereton Marriott Watson

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СКАЧАТЬ in the streets without, and a thin scant rain was flying. Into the area of warmth and brightness entered more customers, and shook the water from the umbrellas. They stood at the bar and drank and talked noisily. Round about us in the loom of the great barrels the shadows lurched from the wagging gas-flames. The clerk had finished his apple.

      "We will have another," said Holgate.

      "This is mine," I said. He shook his head. I protested.

      "Doctor, you confess you live in doubt," he said, "whereas I have my appointment in my pocket. Plainly it is my right."

      "I think that's a fair argument, doctor," said Pye.

      "I am in both your debt," said I lightly. "For company and wine."

      "I'm sure we shall owe you both many a time yet," said the third officer civilly.

      At the table near us two men had sat and were talking even as we, but one had a half-penny paper, and turned the flimsy thing about, I fancy in search of racing news.

      "You see there is no doubt about you–," began Pye amiably, and suddenly dropped his sentence.

      In the unexpected silence I caught some words from the other table.

      "Well, it's good pluck of him if he wants to marry her. What's the odds if he is a Prince? Live and let live, I say."

      Pye's little squirrel head turned round and he stared for a moment at the speaker, then it came back again.

      "You are uncommonly polite," said Holgate irritably.

      "I'm sorry. I thought I recognised that voice," said the little man sweetly. "One gets echoes everywhere. I was going to say we took you for granted, doctor."

      "It's good of you," said I. "But will Mr. Morland?"

      "I can practically answer for my employer; I can't say anything about Mr. Morland, who has, however, authorised us to appoint."

      "The yacht is from Hamburg?" said I.

      "I believe so," said he.

      "And its destination?"

      "That knowledge is quite out of my province," said the squirrel briefly.

      When one came to think of it, it was almost a snub, and I had never any patience for these legal silences. As he shut his jaws he looked a man who could keep a secret, and knew his own mind. Yet he had been so easily familiar that I flushed with resentment. Confound these little professional tricks and solemnities! We were meeting on another ground than lawyer and client.

      "I dare say it will be within the cabin-boy's province to-morrow," said I, somewhat sharply.

      "Very likely," he assented, and Holgate, who had turned at my tone, exchanged a glance with him.

      "Mr. Pye is fond of keeping his own counsel," said the third officer in his slow voice, "and I'm not sure he isn't right, being a lawyer."

      "But he isn't a lawyer here," I protested.

      Pye smiled. "No; I'm not," he said, "and please don't remind me of it"; at which we all laughed and grew friendly again. "Well, this is a funny sort of tea for me," said the clerk presently. "I generally patronise the A.B.C.," and he rose to go.

      Holgate did not move, but sat staring at the fire, which shone on his broad placid face. "I knew a man once," he observed, "who kept his own counsel."

      "I hope he was a lawyer," said Pye humourously.

      "No; he was a steward—the steward of an estate in the North. In the hills was the wealth of a millionaire; coal, doctor," Holgate looked at me. "And he kept his counsel and held his tongue."

      "With what object?" I asked.

      "Oh, a little syndicate succeeded in buying it from the owner, and now it's a seven-figure affair."

      His face had no expression of inquiry or of inviting comment. He had simply stated history, but I was moved to say flippantly,

      "What luck!"

      "The steward got it?" asked Pye.

      "He romped in," said the third officer.

      "And will presently be a baronet," said I lightly.

      "Stranger things have happened," he remarked, and began to smile. I fancy we all smiled, though it was not, of course, altogether humourous.

      "Is that called robbery?" asked Holgate.

      "I doubt if the law covers it," said Pye. "No; it's quite an innocent transaction."

      "What is robbery?" I asked cynically. "Lawyers may feel their way amid the intricacies, but no one else can hope to. I'm stealing now when I take these matches."

      "I will follow your example," said Holgate, and did so.

      "I'm not sure that that's not perks," said little Pye with his quizzical glance.

      "Well, is it perks if I buy a picture from you for ten bob which I know to be worth £1,000?" inquired Holgate.

      Pye considered. "I give it up," he said.

      "Which only proves," said I, continuing my mood, "that it takes a good capercutter to move in and out moral sanctions."

      "I don't believe I know what that means quite," said Holgate, giving me the full charge of his steady eyes.

      I stooped and warmed my fingers, for the cold blast of the streets was forbidding. "Well, the most famous people have been those who have successfully performed the egg dance between commandments," I remarked.

      "I suppose they have," said Holgate thoughtfully.

      I rose abruptly, and in the glass above the mantelpiece the two figures behind me came into vision. The little clerk's eyebrows were elevated in a question, and the men faced each other. Holgate's lips were pursed and he nodded. I saw this in the flash of rising, and then I turned about.

      "I shall get a wigging," said Pye, seizing his umbrella.

      We walked out and I bade them good-bye after a civil exchange of amenities; then I took an omnibus down Chancery Lane and made for the Underground. As I travelled back, my thoughts circled about the situation; I was glad to have made the acquaintance of one or more of my shipmates, if, of course, I was to join the company. Holgate puzzled me for a third officer, until I reflected that in these days every officer had a master's licence. Yet that this man should not by the force of his evident individuality take higher rank in life surprised me. What, however, was of most immediate concern to me was the extreme friendliness of my two companions. Lane was well enough in his way, and certainly had shown his goodwill; but Holgate was more than this to a lonely man with an appetite for society. Holgate was intelligent.

      I found a few patients waiting, and disposed of them by eight o'clock, after which I strolled down to the docks, in spite of the drizzle. I have said that I am interested in my fellows, and, in addition, I confess to a certain forethought. I walked down to the docks with the deliberate intention of acquiring some information about the Sea Queen, if that were possible. I knew the name of the owner, or at least of the man who had chartered her; I had the name and acquaintance of one or two of the company; but I knew nothing as to her destination, СКАЧАТЬ