The Twelve African Novels (A Collection). Edgar Wallace
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Название: The Twelve African Novels (A Collection)
Автор: Edgar Wallace
Издательство: Bookwire
Жанр: Книги для детей: прочее
isbn: 9788027201556
isbn:
“What does that mean?” she asked, and their eyes met over the table.
Lambaire and his host had finished their business. Francis Sutton was in a jubilant mood, and came into the hall with his patron.
“You mustn’t worry about my sister,” he said; “she’ll come round to my way of thinking after a while — she’s a woman, you know,” he added, vaguely.
“I understand, my boy,” said the expansive Lambaire. “We both understand, don’t we, Whitey?”
“Certainly,” said Whitey.
“Still, she’ll probably be annoyed if you go off without saying goodbye, — where is your mistress
Susan?” he asked of the maid who had come in answer to his bell.
“In the study, sir.”
“Come along.” He led the way to the study and opened the door.
“Cynthia—” he began.
They were leaning over the table; between them lay the map and the two compasses. What Sutton saw, the other two saw; and Lambaire, sweeping past the youth, snatched up his property.
“So that’s the game, is it?” he hissed: he was trembling with passion; “that’s your little game, Amber !”
He felt Whitey’s hand grip his arm and recovered a little of his self-possession.
“This man is not content with attempting to blackmail,” he said, “not content with committing a burglary at my office and stealing valuable drawings—”
“What does this mean, Cynthia?”
Sutton’s voice was stern, and his face was white with anger. For the second time Amber came to the rescue. “Allow me,” he said.
“I’ll allow you nothing,” stormed the boy; “get out of this house before I kick you out. I want no gaol birds here,”
“It is a matter of taste, my Francis,” said the imperturbable Amber; “if you stand Lambaire you’d stand anybody.”
“I’ll settle with you later,” said Lambaire darkly.
“Settle now,” said Amber in his most affable manner. “Mr. Sutton,” he said, “that man killed your father, and he will kill you.”
“I want none of your lies,” said Sutton; “there’s the door.”
“And a jolly nice door too,” said Amber; “but I didn’t come here to admire your fixtures: ask Lambaire to show you the compass, or one like it, that he provided for your father’s expedition. Send it to Greenwich and ask the astronomers to tell you how many points it is out of the true — they will work out to a mile or so how far wrong a man may go who made his way by it, and tried to find his way back from the bush by short cuts.”
“Francis, you hear this?” said the girl.
“Rubbish!” replied the youth contemptuously, “what object could Mr. Lambaire have had? He didn’t spend thousands of pounds to lose my father in the bush! The story isn’t even plausible, for, unless my father got back again to civilization with the plan, the expedition was a failure.”
“Exactly!” applauded Lambaire, and smiled triumphantly.
Amber answered smile for smile.
“It wasn’t the question of his getting back, as I understand the matter,” he said quietly, “it was a question whether, having located the mine, and having returned with the map, and the compass, whether anybody else would be able to locate it, or find their way to it, without Lambaire’s Patent Compass.”
The tangled skein of the plot was unravelled before the girl’s eyes, and she looked from Amber to the stout Lambaire.
“I see, I see,” she whispered. “Francis,” she cried, “don’t you understand what it all means?”
“I understand that you’re a fool,” he said roughly; “if you’ve finished your lies, you can go, Amber.”
“I have only a word to add,” — Amber picked up his hat. “If you do not realize that Lambaire is the biggest wrong ‘un outside prison — I might add for your information that he is a notorious member of the Big Five Gang; a forger of bank notes and Continental securities; he has also a large interest in a Spanish coining establishment — didn’t^think I knew it, eh, my Lambie? — where real silver half-crowns are manufactured at a profit, thanks to the fact that silver is a drug on the market. Beyond that I know nothing against him.”
“There’s the door,” said Sutton again.
“Your conversation is decidedly monotonous,” said Amber, and with a smile and a friendly nod to the girl, he left.
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