Part 54 (1/2)
He took the gla.s.s of whisky and water and as he raised it to his lips, that same curious look came back into his eye.
”Here's to the firm of S. and G. Rattar, and may their clients be as d.a.m.ned as themselves!” he said with a glance at Cromarty, and finished the drink at a draught.
x.x.xIX
THE YARN
”I needn't trouble you with my adventures before I came down here to visit brother Simon,” began the prisoner, ”for you know them well enough. It was about a month ago when I turned up at this house one night.”
”How did you get here?” demanded the superintendent.
”I did the last bit under the seat of the carriage,” grinned Rattar, ”and when we got into the station I hopped out on the wrong side of the train. The way I paid my fare wasn't bad either, considering I hadn't half of the fare from London in my pocket when I started--or anything like it. However, the point is I got here and just as I'd come through the gates I had the luck to see both the maids going out. So the coast was clear.
”Well, I rang the bell and out came Simon--the man who'd got me convicted, and my own brother too, mind you!--looking as smug as the hard-hearted old humbug he was. He got the shock of his life when he saw who it was, but I began gently and I put a proposition to him. I'll bet none of you will guess what it was!”
He looked round the company, and Carrington answered:
”Blackmail of some sort.”
”You may call it blackmail if you like, but what was the sort? Well, you'd never guess. I was wearing a beard and moustaches then, but I knew if I took them off I'd look so like Simon that no one meeting one of us would know which it was, supposing we were dressed exactly alike and I did Simon's grunting tricks and all that. And Simon knew it too.
”'Well, Simon, my dear brother,' I said to him, 'I'll make you a sporting proposition. My idea is to settle down in this old place, and I'm so fond of you I mean to shave, get an outfit just like yours, and give free rein to my affection for you. I'm so fond of you,' I said, 'that I know I shan't be able to keep more than five yards away from you whenever you are walking the streets, and I'll have to sit in church beside you, Simon. That's my present programme.'
”I let that sink in, and then I went on:
”'Supposing this programme embarra.s.ses you, Simon, well there's one way out of it, and I leave it to your judgment to say what it is.'
”Now, mind you, I'd banked on this coming off, for I knew what a stickler Simon was for the respectable and the conventional and all that. Can't you see the two of us going through the streets together, five yards apart and dressed exactly alike! Wouldn't the small boys have liked it! That was my only idea in coming down here. I meant no more mischief, I'll swear to that! Unfortunately, though, I'd got so keen on the scheme that I hadn't thought of its weak spot.
”Simon said not a word, but just looked at me--exactly as I've been looking at people since I took his place in society. And then he asked me if I was really very hard up. Like a fool I told him the plain truth, that I had inside of five bob in my pockets and that was every penny I owned in the world.
”He grinned then--I can see him grinning now--and he said:
”'In that case you'll have a little difficulty in paying your board and lodging here, and still more in buying clothes. I tell you what I'll do,' he said, 'I'll buy a ticket back to London for you and leave it with the stationmaster, and that's every penny you'll ever get out of me!'
”I saw he had me, but I wasn't going off on those terms. I d.a.m.ned him to his face and he tried to shut the door on me. We were talking at the front door all this while, I may mention. I got my foot in the way, and as I was always a bit stronger than Simon, I had that door open after a tussle and then I followed him into the library.
”I knew the man was hard as flint and never showed mercy to any one in his life when he had them on toast, and I knew he had me on toast. How was I to get any change out of him? That was what I was wondering as I followed him, and then all at once something--the devil if you like--put the idea into my head. I'd _be_ Simon!”
He looked round on his audience as though he still relished the memory of that inspiration.
”The beauty of the idea was that no one would ever dream of suspecting a man of not being himself! They might suspect him of a lot of things, but not of that. I hadn't thought of the scheme ten seconds before I realised how dead safe it was so long as I kept my head. And I have kept it. No one can deny that!”
His glance this time challenged a contradiction, but no one spoke. The circle of steadfast eyes and silent lips he seemed to take as a tribute to his address, for he smiled and then went on:
”Yes, I kept my head from the beginning. I stood talking to him in this very room, he refusing to answer anything except to repeat that he'd buy a ticket to London and leave it with the stationmaster, and I working out the scheme--what to do it with and how to manage afterwards. I knew it was a swinging risk, but against that was a starving certainty, and then I spied that match box and the thing was settled. I got him to look the other way for a moment--and then he was settled. Give me another drink!”
Carrington got him a drink and he gulped it down, and then turned suddenly on Ned Cromarty.