Part 12 (2/2)

He lay quite motionless as though he were accustomed to remain for hours in one position. Hudson the valet tended him with the reverence of a slave. Nap fell to pacing soundlessly to and fro, awaiting the man's exit with what patience he could muster.

”You can go now, Tawny,” the elder Errol drawled at last. ”I will ring when I want you. Now, Boney, what is it? I wish you would sit down.”

There was no impatience in the words, but his brows were slightly drawn as he uttered them,

Nap, turning swiftly, noted the fact. ”You are not so well to-night?”

”Sit down,” his brother repeated gently. ”How is Lady Carfax?”

Nap sat down with some reluctance. He looked as if he would have preferred to prowl.

”She is still unconscious, and likely to remain so. The doctor thinks very seriously of her.”

”Her husband has been informed?”

”Her husband,” said Nap from between his teeth, ”has been informed, and he declines to come to her. That's the sort of brute he is.”

Lucas Errol made no comment, and after a moment Nap continued:

”It is just as well perhaps. I hear he is never sober after a day's sport. And I believe she hates the sight of him if the truth were told--and small wonder!”

There was unrestrained savagery in the last words. Lucas turned his head and looked at him thoughtfully.

”You know her rather well?” he said.

”Yes.” Nap's eyes, glowing redly, met his with a gleam of defiance.

”You have known her for long?” The question was perfectly quiet, uttered in the tired voice habitual to this man who had been an invalid for almost the whole of his manhood.

Yet Nap frowned as he heard it. ”I don't know,” he said curtly. ”I don't estimate friends.h.i.+ps by time.”

Lucas said no more, but he continued to look at his brother with unvarying steadiness till at length, as if goaded thereto, Nap spoke again.

”We are friends,” he said, ”no more, no less. You all think me a blackguard, I know. It's my speciality, isn't it?” He spoke with exceeding bitterness. ”But in this case you are wrong. I repeat--we are friends.”

He said it aggressively; his tone was almost a challenge, but the elder Errol did not appear to notice.

”I have never thought you a blackguard, Boney,” he said quietly.

Nap's thin lips smiled cynically. ”You have never said it.”

”I have never thought it.” There was no contradicting the calm a.s.sertion.

It was not the way of the world to contradict Lucas Errol. ”And I know you better than a good many,” he said.

Nap stirred restlessly and was silent.

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