Part 29 (1/2)

”Yes.”

Develin Hunt looked at the man standing over him very stern and straight, then he looked at the Squire. He would have given anything to have avoided this, but since his hand had been forced it was, perhaps, as well that Wagram should know all--should know where he stood.

Perhaps the Squire thought the same, for he said no word, gave no sign.

”In the name of G.o.d, leave things where they are, man!” conjured the adventurer in a real outburst of feeling. He was not all bad. He had got his price, and he felt an intense respect and pity for the man before him. He would make one more effort. ”I tell you n.o.body's discredit is involved here. We can't always _know_ everything--it isn't good for us. As for me, I have pledged my solemn word you shall never be troubled by me again. Now, let me go.”

Still Wagram did not move. He had heard of this man's former visit, but as his father had not mentioned it to him he himself had kept silence on the subject. But he had put two and two together, and had connected it with days of depression under which the old Squire had suffered.

Moreover, it struck him that his father had undergone a subtle change, had not been quite the same ever since. Now he had come in and found him in a state of collapse after another interview with this man. His own name, too, had been brought up, and in such a manner.

”No,” he answered; ”not yet. This mystery must be cleared up before you leave this room. I repeat my former question: In what way does my name require 'saving'?”

”Oh, if you will be so obstinate!” answered Develin Hunt excitedly, ”you have only yourself to blame. I've done all I could for you. Since you _will_ have it, your name--well, it isn't your name.”

”Not my name?” repeated Wagram in a strange voice. ”Man, are you mad, or only drunk?”

”Neither,” returned the adventurer doggedly. ”Well, then, your mother was married to me before she married your father. She was not to blame.

She thought I was dead. If you don't believe me ask the Squire here.”

There was no need to ask the Squire. The old man nodded a.s.sent; he was incapable of speech just then.

”Are you--trying--to make me believe, then, that _you_ are, my father?”

said Wagram in a dry, hardly articulate kind of voice.

”No, no--not for a moment. But, of course, the second marriage was invalid. Now, do you take in the position?”

”Yes.”

Wagram's face had gone livid and his tall form seemed to sway. No further word would come. But for the set, gleaming stare of the eyes he might have been a corpse trying to stand upright. The sight was awful, indescribably so. Even the hard, unscrupulous adventurer was moved to concern and compunction.

”For G.o.d's sake, don't take it like this,” he adjured. ”Pull yourself together, man. The thing is a secret between us three, and need never be anything else. Send for a big tot of brandy, or something to steady your nerves. It's a facer, but nothing need come of it.”

For answer Wagram only shook his head, and moved unsteadily to the open window, where he stood, looking out. There was nothing to prevent Develin Hunt walking out of the house with his 25,000 pound cheque in his pocket; and, to do him justice, it was not the thought that this might be stopped by telegram that restrained him. Yet he did not so walk out.

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.

”n.o.bODY OF NOWHERE.”

Had Wagram been a sufferer from weakness of heart it is highly probable that he would have fallen down dead there and then.

The shock was sudden and complete. As he stood gazing out through the open window its full meaning swept over his mind as in a very flash of blasting flame. He, Wagram of Hilversea, whose intense pride in and love of his n.o.ble inheritance and the almost illimitable opportunity for good which the position entailed upon him were as the very breath of life, now learned, all in a moment of time, that he was in reality n.o.body of Nowhere--that he had not even a name. It seemed as though the very heavens had fallen upon him, crus.h.i.+ng him to the dust.

”Not a soul need ever be one atom the wiser. It's strictly between ourselves.”

It was the adventurer's voice that had broken the awful silence. Wagram turned, wearily.

”You have proof of what you advance, I take it--sufficient and convincing proof?” he said.