Part 39 (1/2)

”Run along to bed. To-morrow night--to-morrow night, then, I will fetch you. Good-bye!”

He let himself out. He did not even look behind to the spot where he had left her. He closed the front door and walked with swift, almost savage footsteps down the quiet Street, across the Square, and into New Oxford Street. Here he seemed to breathe more freely.

He called a hansom and drove to his rooms.

The hall-porter had left his post in the front hall, and there was no one to inform Laverick that a visitor was awaiting him. When he entered his sitting-room, however, he gave a little start of surprise.

Mr. James Shepherd was reclining in his easy-chair with his hands upon his knees--Mr. James Shepherd with his face more pasty even than usual, his eyes a trifle greener, his whole demeanor one of unconcealed and unaffected terror.

”Hullo!” Laverick exclaimed. ”What the d.i.c.kens--what do you want here, Shepherd?”

”Upon my word, sir, I'm not sure that I know,” the man replied, ”but I'm scared. I've brought you back the certificates of them shares. I want you to keep them for me. I'm terrified lest they come and search my room. I am, I tell you fair. I'm terrified to order a pint of beer for myself. They're watching me all the time.”

”Who are?” Laverick demanded.

”Lord knows who;” Shepherd answered, ”but there's two of them at it.

I told you about them as asked questions, and I thought there we'd done and finished with it. Not a bit of it! There was another one there this afternoon, said he was a journalist, making sketches of the pa.s.sage and asking me no end of questions. He wasn't no journalist, I'll swear to that. I asked him about his paper.

'Half-a-dozen,' he declared. 'They're all glad to have what I send them.' Journalist! Lord knows who the other chap was and what he was asking questions for, but this one was a 'tec, straight. Joe Forman, he was in to-day looking after my place, for I'd given a month's notice, and he says to me, 'You see that big chap?'--meaning him as had been asking me the questions--and I says 'Yes!' and he says, 'That's a 'tee. I've seed him in a police court, giving evidence.' I went all of a s.h.i.+ver so that you could have knocked me down.”

”Come, come!” said Laverick. ”There's no need for you to be feeling like this about it. All that you've done is not to have remembered those two customers who were in your restaurant late one night.

There's nothing criminal in that.”

”There's something criminal in having two hundred and fifty pounds'

worth of shares in one's pocket--something suspicious, anyway,”

Shepherd declared, plumping them down on the table. ”I ain't giving you these back, mind, but you must keep 'em for me. I wish I'd never given notice. I think I'll ask the boss to keep me on.”

”Why do you suppose that this man is particularly interested in you?”

Laverick inquired.

”Ain't I told you?” Shepherd exclaimed, sitting up. ”Why, he's been to my place down in 'Ammersmith, asking questions about me.

My landlady swears he didn't go into my room, but who can tell whether he did or not? Those sort of chaps can get in anywhere.

Then I went out for a bit of an airing after the one o'clock rush was over to-day, and I'm danged if he wasn't at my 'eels. I seed him coming round by Liverpool Street just as I went in a bar to get a drop of something.”

Laverick frowned.

”If there is anything in this Story, Shepherd,” he said, ”if you are really being followed, what a thundering fool you were to come here! All the world knows that Arthur Morrison was my partner.”

”I couldn't help it, sir,” the man declared. ”I couldn't, indeed.

I was so scared, I felt I must speak about it to some one. And then there were these shares. There was nowhere I could keep 'em safe.”

”Look here,” Laverick went on, ”you're alarming yourself about nothing. In any case, there is only one thing for you to do. Pull yourself together and put a bold face upon it. I'll keep these certificates for you, and when you want some money you can come to me for it. Go back to your place, and if your master is willing to keep you on perhaps it would be a good thing to stay there for another month or so. But don't let any one see that you're frightened. Remember, there's nothing that you can get into trouble for. No one's obliged to answer such questions as you've been asked, except in a court and under oath. Stick to your story, and if you take my advice,” Laverick added, glancing at his visitor's shaking fingers, ”you will keep away from the drink.”

”It's little enough I've had, sir,” Shepherd a.s.sured him. ”A drop now and then just to keep up one's spirits--nothing that amounts to anything.”

”Make it as little as possible,” Laverick said. ”Remember, I'm back of you, I'll see that you get into no trouble. And don't come here again. Come to my office, if you like--there's nothing in that--but don't come here, you understand?”

Shepherd took up his hat.

”I understand, sir. I'm sorry to have troubled you, but the sight of that man following me about fairly gave me the s.h.i.+vers.”