The Vanished Messenger. E. Phillips Oppenheim

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СКАЧАТЬ and the shame were there, the shame which kept his hand pressed with unnatural strength upon the broken lock of that dressing-case. He sat a little apart from the others and listened. Above the confused murmur of voices he could hear the doctor’s comment and brief orders, as he rose to his feet after examining the unconscious man.

      “An ordinary concussion,” he declared. “I must get round and see the engine-driver now. They have got him in a shed by the embankment. I’ll call in again later on. Let’s have one more look at you, young man.”

      He glanced at the cut on Gerald’s forehead, noted the access of colour in his cheeks, and nodded.

      “Born to be hanged, you were,” he pronounced. “You’ve had a marvellous escape. I’ll be in again presently. No need to worry about your friend. He looks as though he’d got a mighty constitution. Light my lantern, Brown. Two of you had better come with me to the shed. It’s no night for a man to be wandering about alone.”

      He departed, and many of the villagers with him. The landlady sat down and began to weep.

      “Such a night! Such a night!” she exclaimed, wringing her hands. “And there’s the doctor talks about putting the poor gentleman to bed! Why, the roof’s off the back part of the house, and not a bedroom in the place but mine and John’s, and the rain coming in there in torrents. Such a night! It’s the judgment of the Lord upon us! That’s what it is—the judgment of the Lord!”

      “Judgment of the fiddlesticks!” her husband growled. “Can’t you light the fire, woman? What’s the good of sitting there whining?”

      “Light the fire,” she repeated bitterly, “and the chimney lying out in the road! Do you want to suffocate us all, or is the beer still in your head? It’s your evil doings, Richard Budden, and others like you, that have brought this upon us. If Mr. Wembley would but come in and pray!”

      Her husband scoffed. He was dressed only in his shirt and trousers, his hair rough, his braces hanging down behind.

      “Come in and pray!” he repeated. “Not he! Not Mr. Wembley! He’s safe tucked up in his bed, shivering with fear, I’ll bet you. He’s not getting his feet wet to save a body or lend a hand here. Souls are his job. You let the preacher alone, mother, and tell us what we’re going to do with this gentleman.”

      “The Lord only knows!” she cried, wringing her hands.

      “Can I hire a motor-car from anywhere near?” Gerald asked.

      “There’s motor-cars, right enough,” the innkeeper replied, “but not many as would be fools enough to take one out. You couldn’t see the road, and I doubt if one of them plaguey things would stir in this storm.”

      “Such nonsense as you talk, Richard Budden!” his wife exclaimed sharply. “It’s twenty minutes past three of the clock, and there’s light coming on us fast. If so be as the young gentleman knows folks round about here, or happens to live nigh, why shouldn’t he take one of them motor-cars and get away to some decent place? It’ll be better for the poor gentleman than lying here in a house smitten by the Lord.”

      Gerald rose stiffly to his feet. An idea was forming in his brain. His eyes were bright. He looked at the body of John Dunster upon the floor, and felt once more in his pocket.

      “How far off is the garage?” he asked.

      “It’s right across the way,” the innkeeper replied, “a speculation of Neighbour Martin’s, and a foolish one it do seem to me. He’s two cars there, and one he lets to the Government for delivering the mails.”

      Gerald felt in his pocket and produced a sovereign.

      “Give this,” he said, “to any man you can find who will go across there and bring me a car—the most powerful they’ve got, if there’s any difference. Tell them I’ll pay well. This—my friend will be much better at home with me than in a strange place when he comes to his senses.”

      “It’s sound common sense,” the woman declared. “Be off with you, Richard.”

      The man was looking at the coin covetously, but his wife pushed him away.

      “It’s not a sovereign you’ll be taking from the gentleman for a little errand like that,” she insisted sharply. “He shall pay us for what he’s had when he goes, and welcome, and if so be that he’s willing to make it a sovereign, to include the milk and the brandy and the confusion we’ve been put to this night, well and good. It’s a heavy reckoning, maybe, but the night calls for it. We’ll see about that afterwards. Get along with you, I say, Richard.”

      “I’ll be wet through,” the man muttered.

      “And serve you right!” the woman exclaimed. “If there’s a man in this village to-night whose clothes are dry, it’s a thing for him to be ashamed of.”

      The innkeeper reluctantly departed. They heard the roar of the wind as the door was opened and closed. The woman poured out another glass of milk and brought it to Gerald.

      “A godless man, mine,” she said grimly. “If so happen as Mr. Wembley had come to these parts years ago, I’d have seen myself in my grave before I’d have married a publican. But it’s too late now. We’re mostly too late about the things that count in this world. So it’s your friend that’s been stricken down, young man. A well-living man, I hope?”

      Gerald shivered ever so slightly. He drank the milk, however. He felt that he might need his strength.

      “What train might you have been on?” the woman continued. “There’s none due on this line that we knew of. David Bass, the station-master, was here but two hours ago and said he’d finished for the night, and praised the Lord for that. The goods trains had all been stopped at Ipswich, and the first passenger train was not due till six o’clock.”

      Gerald shook his head with an affectation of weariness.

      “I don’t know,” he replied. “I don’t remember anything about it. We were hours late, I think.”

      The woman was looking down at the unconscious man. Gerald rose slowly to his feet and stood by her side. The face of Mr. John P. Dunster, even in unconsciousness, had something in it of strength and purpose. The shape of his head, the squareness of his jaws, the straightness of his thick lips, all seemed to speak of a hard and inflexible disposition. His hair was coal black, coarse, and without the slightest sprinkling of grey. He had the neck and throat of a fighter. But for that single, livid, blue mark across his forehead, he carried with him no signs of his accident. He was a little inclined to be stout. There was a heavy gold chain stretched across his waist-coat. From where he lay, the shining handle of his revolver protruded from his hip, pocket.

      “Sakes alive!” the woman muttered, as she looked down. “What does he carry a thing like that for—in a peaceful country, too!”

      “It was just an idea of his,” Gerald answered. “We were going abroad in a day or two. He was always nervous. If you like, I’ll take it away.”

      He stooped down and withdrew it from the unconscious man’s pocket. He started as he discovered that it was loaded in every chamber.

      “I can’t bear the sight of them things,” the woman declared. “It’s the men of evil ways, who’ve no trust СКАЧАТЬ