Part 47 (2/2)

”Perhaps. We were in the front row, an' 'Home an' Friends' came on early.

Vickery touched me on the knee when the number went up. 'If you see anything that strikes you,' he says, 'drop me a hint'; then he went on clicking. We saw London Bridge an' so forth an' so on, an' it was most interestin'. I'd never seen it before. You 'eard a little dynamo like buzzin', but the pictures were the real thing--alive an' movin'.”

”I've seen 'em,” said Hooper. ”Of course they are taken from the very thing itself--you see.”

”Then the Western Mail came in to Paddin'ton on the big magic lantern sheet. First we saw the platform empty an' the porters standin' by. Then the engine come in, head on, an' the women in the front row jumped: she headed so straight. Then the doors opened and the pa.s.sengers came out and the porters got the luggage--just like life. Only--only when any one came down too far towards us that was watchin', they walked right out o' the picture, so to speak. I was 'ighly interested, I can tell you. So were all of us. I watched an old man with a rug 'oo'd dropped a book an' was tryin'

to pick it up, when quite slowly, from be'ind two porters--carryin' a little reticule an' lookin' from side to side--comes out Mrs. Bathurst.

There was no mistakin' the walk in a hundred thousand. She come forward-- right forward--she looked out straight at us with that blindish look which Pritch alluded to. She walked on and on till she melted out of the picture--like--like a shadow jumpin' over a candle, an' as she went I 'eard Dawson in the ticky seats be'ind sing out: 'Christ! There's Mrs. B.!'”

Hooper swallowed his spittle and leaned forward intently.

”Vickery touched me on the knee again. He was clickin' his four false teeth with his jaw down like an enteric at the last kick. 'Are you sure?'

says he. 'Sure,' I says, 'didn't you 'ear Dawson give tongue? Why, it's the woman herself.' 'I was sure before,' he says, 'but I brought you to make sure. Will you come again with me to-morrow?'

”'Willingly,' I says, 'it's like meetin' old friends.'

”'Yes,' he says, openin' his watch, 'very like. It will be four-and-twenty hours less four minutes before I see her again. Come and have a drink,' he says. 'It may amuse you, but it's no sort of earthly use to me.' He went out shaking his head an' stumblin' over people's feet as if he was drunk already. I antic.i.p.ated a swift drink an' a speedy return, because I wanted to see the performin' elephants. Instead o' which Vickery began to navigate the town at the rate o' knots, lookin' in at a bar every three minutes approximate Greenwich time. I'm not a drinkin' man, though there are those present”--he c.o.c.ked his unforgetable eye at me--”who may have seen me more or less imbued with the fragrant spirit. None the less, when I drink I like to do it at anchor an' not at an average speed of eighteen knots on the measured mile. There's a tank as you might say at the back o'

that big hotel up the hill--what do they call it?”

”The Molteno Reservoir,” I suggested, and Hooper nodded.

”That was his limit o' drift. We walked there an' we come down through the Gardens--there was a South-Easter blowin'--an' we finished up by the Docks. Then we bore up the road to Salt River, and wherever there was a pub Vickery put in sweatin'. He didn't look at what he drunk--he didn't look at the change. He walked an' he drunk an' he perspired in rivers. I understood why old Crocus 'ad come back in the condition 'e did, because Vickery an' I 'ad two an' a half hours o' this gipsy manoeuvre an' when we got back to the station there wasn't a dry atom on or in me.”

”Did he say anything?” Pritchard asked.

”The sum total of 'is conversation from 7.45 P.M. till 11.15 P.M. was 'Let's have another.' Thus the mornin' an' the evenin' were the first day, as Scripture says.... To abbreviate a lengthy narrative, I went into Cape Town for five consecutive nights with Master Vickery, and in that time I must 'ave logged about fifty knots over the ground an' taken in two gallon o' all the worst spirits south the Equator. The evolution never varied.

Two s.h.i.+lling seats for us two; five minutes o' the pictures, an' perhaps forty-five seconds o' Mrs. B. walking down towards us with that blindish look in her eyes an' the reticule in her hand. Then out walk--and drink till train time.”

”What did you think?” said Hooper, his hand fingering his waistcoat pocket.

”Several things,” said Pyecroft. ”To tell you the truth, I aren't quite done thinkin' about it yet. Mad? The man was a dumb lunatic--must 'ave been for months--years p'raps. I know somethin' o' maniacs, as every man in the Service must. I've been s.h.i.+pmates with a mad skipper--an' a lunatic Number One, but never both together I thank 'Eaven. I could give you the names o' three captains now 'oo ought to be in an asylum, but you don't find me interferin' with the mentally afflicted till they begin to lay about 'em with rammers an' winch-handles. Only once I crept up a little into the wind towards Master Vickery. 'I wonder what she's doin' in England,' I says. 'Don't it seem to you she's lookin' for somebody?' That was in the Gardens again, with the South-Easter blowin' as we were makin'

our desperate round. 'She's lookin' for me,' he says, stoppin' dead under a lamp an' clickin'. When he wasn't drinkin', in which case all 'is teeth clicked on the gla.s.s, 'e was clickin' 'is four false teeth like a Marconi ticker. 'Yes! lookin' for me,' he said, an' he went on very softly an' as you might say affectionately. '_But?_ he went on, 'in future, Mr.

Pyecroft, I should take it kindly of you if you'd confine your remarks to the drinks set before you. Otherwise,' he says, 'with the best will in the world towards you, I may find myself guilty of murder! Do you understand?'

he says. 'Perfectly,' I says, 'but would it at all soothe you to know that in such a case the chances o' your being killed are precisely equivalent to the chances o' me being outed.' 'Why, no,' he says, 'I'm almost afraid that 'ud be a temptation,'

”Then I said--we was right under the lamp by that arch at the end o' the Gardens where the trams came round--'a.s.sumin' murder was done--or attempted murder--I put it to you that you would still be left so badly crippled, as one might say, that your subsequent capture by the police--to 'oom you would 'ave to explain--would be largely inevitable.' 'That's better,' 'e says, pa.s.sin' 'is hands over his forehead. 'That's much better, because,' he says, 'do you know, as I am now, Pye, I'm not so sure if I could explain anything much.' Those were the only particular words I had with 'im in our walks as I remember.”

”What walks!” said Hooper. ”Oh my soul, what walks!”

”They were chronic,” said Pyecroft gravely, ”but I didn't antic.i.p.ate any danger till the Circus left. Then I antic.i.p.ated that, bein' deprived of 'is stimulant, he might react on me, so to say, with a hatchet.

Consequently, after the final performance an' the ensuin' wet walk, I kep'

myself aloof from my superior officer on board in the execution of 'is duty as you might put it. Consequently, I was interested when the sentry informs me while I was pa.s.sin' on my lawful occasions that Click had asked to see the captain. As a general rule warrant officers don't dissipate much of the owner's time, but Click put in an hour and more be'ind that door. My duties kep' me within eyeshot of it. Vickery came out first, an'

'e actually nodded at me an' smiled. This knocked me out o' the boat, because, havin' seen 'is face for five consecutive nights, I didn't antic.i.p.ate any change there more than a condenser in h.e.l.l, so to speak.

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