Part 18 (2/2)

”I don't know,” was the reply. ”I thought p'r'aps 'e'd maybe taken a little more than 'e ought to have taken. But it's all a myst'ry to me. I'm more astonished than wot you are.”

”Well, I can't make head or tail of it,” said Nugent, rising and pacing the room. ”I came here to meet my father. So far as I remember I had one drink of whisky--your whisky--and then I woke up in your bedroom with a splitting headache and a tongue like a piece of leather. Can you account for it?”

Mr. Wilks shook his head again. ”I wasn't here,” he said, plucking up courage. ”Why not go an' see your father? Seems to me 'e is the one that would know most about it.”

Mr. Nugent stood for a minute considering, and then raising the latch of the door opened it slowly and inhaled the cold morning air. A subtle and delicate aroma of coffee and herrings which had escaped from neighbouring breakfast-tables invaded the room and reminded him of an appet.i.te. He turned to go, but had barely quitted the step before he saw Mrs. Kingdom and his sister enter the alley.

Mr. Wilks saw them too, and, turning if anything a shade paler, supported himself by the door-pest. Kate Nugent quickened her pace as she saw them, and, after a surprised greeting to her brother, breathlessly informed him that the captain was missing.

”Hasn't been home all night,” panted Mrs. Kingdom, joining them. ”I don't know what to think.”

They formed an excited little group round the steward's door, and Mr. Wilks, with an instinctive feeling that the matter was one to be discussed in private, led the way indoors. He began to apologize for the disordered condition of the room, but Jack Nugent, interrupting him brusquely, began to relate his own adventures of the past few hours.

Mrs. Kingdom listened to the narrative with unexpected calmness. She knew the cause of her nephew's discomfiture. It was the gla.s.s of whisky acting on a system unaccustomed to alcohol, and she gave a vivid and moving account of the effects of a stiff gla.s.s of hot rum which she had once taken for a cold. It was quite clear to her that the captain had put his son to bed; the thing to discover now was where he had put himself.

”Sam knows something about it,” said her nephew, darkly; ”there's something wrong.”

”I know no more than a babe unborn,” declared Mr. Wilks. ”The last I see of the cap'n 'e was a-sitting at this table opposite you.”

”Sam wouldn't hurt a fly,” said Miss Nugent, with a kind glance at her favourite.

”Well, where is the governor, then?” inquired her brother. ”Why didn't he go home last night? He has never stayed out before.”

”Yes, he has,” said Mrs. Kingdom, folding her hands in her lap. ”When you were children. He came home at half-past eleven next morning, and when I asked him where he'd been he nearly bit my head off. I'd been walking the floor all night, and I shall never forget his remarks when he opened the door to the police, who'd come to say they couldn't find him. Never.”

A ghostly grin flitted across the features of Mr. Wilks, but he pa.s.sed the back of his hand across his mouth and became serious again as he thought of his position. He was almost dancing with anxiety to get away to Mr. Nathan Smith and ask for an explanation of the proceedings of the night before.

”I'll go and have a look round for the cap'n,” he said, eagerly; ”he can't be far.”

”I'll come with you,” said Nugent. ”I should like to see him too. There are one or two little things that want explaining. You take aunt home, Kate, and I'll follow on as soon as there is any news.”

As he spoke the door opened a little way and a head appeared, only to be instantly withdrawn at the sight of so many people. Mr. Wilks stepped forward hastily, and throwing the door wide open revealed the interesting features of Mr. Nathan Smith.

”How do you do, Mr. Wilks?” said that gentleman, softly. ”I just walked round to see whether you was in. I've got a message for you. I didn't know you'd got company.”

He stepped into the room and, tapping the steward on the chest with a confidential finger, backed him into a corner, and having got him there gave an expressive wink with one eye and gazed into s.p.a.ce with the other.

”I thought you'd be alone,” he said, looking round, ”but p'r'aps it's just as well as it is. They've got to know, so they may as well know now as later on.”

”Know what?” inquired Jack Nugent, abruptly. ”What are you making that face for, Sam?”

Mr. Wilks mumbled something about a decayed tooth, and to give colour to the statement continued a series of contortions which made his face ache.

”You should take something for that tooth,” said the boarding-master, with great solicitude. ”Wot do you say to a gla.s.s o' whisky?”

He motioned to the fatal bottle, which still stood on the table; the steward caught his breath, and then, rising to the occasion, said that he had already had a couple of gla.s.ses, and they had done no good.

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