Part 3 (1/2)

Mr. Lawrence's voice ceased. The rejoinder came from a voice which struck Mr. Paxton as being a very curious one indeed. The speaker spoke not only with a strong nasal tw.a.n.g, but also, occasionally, with an odd idiom. The unseen listener told himself that the speaker was probably the newest thing in races--”a German-American.”

”With the a.s.sistance of a friend--eh?”

Mr. Lawrence's voice again; in it more than a suggestion of scorn.

”The a.s.sistance of a friend! When it comes to the scratch, it is on himself that a man must rely. What a friend princ.i.p.ally does is to take the lion's share of the spoil.”

”Well--why not? A man will not be able to be much of a friend to another, if, first of all, he is not a friend to himself--eh?”

Mr. Lawrence appeared to make no answer--possibly he did not relish the other's reasoning. Presently the same voice came again, as if the speaker intended to be apologetic--

”Understand me, my good friend, I do not say that what you did was not clever. No, it was d.a.m.n clever!--that I do say. And I always have said that there was no one in the profession who can come near you. In your line of business, or out of it, how many are there who can touch for a quarter of a million, I want to know? Now, tell me, how did you do it--is it a secret, eh?”

If Mr. Lawrence had been piqued, the other's words seemed to have appeased him.

”Not from you--the thing was as plain as walking! The bigger the thing you have to do the more simply you do it the better it will be done.”

”It does not seem as though it were simple when you read it in the papers--eh? What do you think?”

”The papers be d.a.m.ned! Directly you gave me the office that she was going to take them with her to Windsor, I saw how I was going to get them, and who I was going to get them from.”

”Who--eh?”

”Eversleigh. Stow it--the train is stopping!”

The train was stopping. It had reached a station. The voices ceased.

Mr. Paxton withdrew from his listening place with his brain in a greater whirl than ever. What had the two men been talking about? What did they mean by touching for a quarter of a million, and the reference to Windsor? The name which Mr. Lawrence had just mentioned, Eversleigh--where, quite recently, had he made its acquaintance? Mr.

Paxton's glance fell on the evening paper which he had thrown on the seat. He s.n.a.t.c.hed it up. Something like a key to the riddle came to him in a flas.h.!.+

He opened the paper with feverish hands, turning to the account of the robbery of the d.u.c.h.ess of Datchet's diamonds. It was as he thought; his memory had not played him false--the person who had been in charge of the gems had been a man named Stephen Eversleigh.

Mr. Paxton's hands fell nervelessly on to his knees. He stared into vacancy. What did it mean?

The train was off again. Having heard so much, Mr. Paxton felt that he must hear more. He returned to the place of listening. For some moments, while the train was drawing clear of the station, the voices continued silent--probably before exchanging further confidences they were desirous of being certain that their privacy would remain uninterrupted. When they were heard again it seemed that the conversation was being carried on exactly at the point at which Mr.

Paxton had heard it cease.

The German-American was speaking.

”Eversleigh?--that is His Grace's confidential servant--eh?”

”That's the man. I studied Mr. Eversleigh by proxy, and I found out just two things about him.”

”And they were--what were they?”

”One was that he was short-sighted, and the other was that he had a pair of spectacles which the duke had given him for a birthday present, and which he thought no end of.”

”That wasn't much to find out--eh?”