Home > Authors Index > E. Phillips Oppenheim > Box with Broken Seals (Strange Case of Mr. Jocelyn Thew) > This page
The Box with Broken Seals (Strange Case of Mr. Jocelyn Thew), a novel by E. Phillips Oppenheim |
||
Chapter 28 |
||
| < Previous |
Table of content |
|
|
________________________________________________
_ CHAPTER XXVIII One by one, the next morning, in all manner of vehicles, the guests left the Castle. Sir Denis bade them farewell, parting with some of them in the leaky hall of his ancestors, and with others out in the stone-flagged courtyard. Crawshay alone lingered, with the obvious air of having something further to say to his host. The two men strolled down together seaward to where the great rocks lay thick upon the stormy beach. "These," Sir Denis pointed out, "are supposed to be the marbles with which the great giant Cathley used to play. Tradition is a little vague upon the subject, but according to some of the legends he was actually an ancestor, and according to others a kind of patron saint.... Just look at my house, Crawshay! What would you do with a place like that?" They turned and faced its crumbling front, majestic in places, squalid in others, one whole wing open to the rain and winds, one great turret still as solid and strong as the rocks themselves. "It would depend very much," Crawshay replied, "upon the extremely sordid question of how much money I had to spend. If I had enough, I should certainly restore it. It's a wonderful situation." The eyes of its owner glowed as he swept the outline of the storm-battered country and passed on to the rich strip of walled-in fields above. "It is my home," he said simply. "I shall live in no other place. If this matter which we discussed last night should indeed prove to have a solid foundation, if this even should be the beginning of the end of the great struggle--" "But it is," Crawshay interrupted. "How can you doubt it if you have read the papers during the last six months?" "I have scarcely glanced at an English newspaper for ten years," was his companion's reply. "I fled to America, hating England as a man might do some poisonous reptile, sternly determined never to set foot upon her shores again. I left without hope. It seemed to me that she was implacable. The war has changed many things." "You are right," Crawshay admitted. "In many respects it has changed the English character. We look now a little further afield. We have lost some of our stubborn over-confidence. We have grown in many respects more spiritual. We have learnt what it means to make sacrifices, sacrifices not for gold but for a righteous cause. And as far as regards this country of yours, Sir Denis," he continued, "I was only remarking a few days ago that the greatest opponents of Home Rule who have ever mounted a political platform in England have completely changed their views. There is only one idea to-day, and that is to let Ireland settle her own affairs. Such trouble as remains lies in your own country. Convert Ulster and you are free." "You heard what was said last night?" Sir Denis reminded his companion. "The O'Clory believes that that is already done." The faintest of white mists was being burnt away now by the strengthening sun. Long, green waves came rolling in from the Atlantic. Distant rocks gleamed purple in the gathering sunshine. The green of the fields grew deeper, the colouring on the moors warmer. Crawshay lit a cigarette and leaned back against a rock. "Over in America," he observed, "I heard all sorts of stories about you. The man Hobson, with whom I was sent to Halifax, and who dragged me off to Chicago, seemed to think that if he could once get his hand on your shoulder there were other charges which you might have to answer. Brightman, that Liverpool man, had the same idea. I am mentioning this for your own sake, Sir Denis." The latter shook his head. "Heaven knows how I've kept clear," he declared, "but there isn't a thing against me. I sailed close to the wind in Mexico. I'd have fought for them against America if they'd really meant business, but they didn't. I was too late for the Boer War or I'd have been in that for a certainty. I went through South America, but the little fighting I did there doesn't amount to anything. After I came back to the States I ran some close shaves, I admit, but I kept clear of the law. Then I got in with some Germans at Washington. They knew who I was, and they knew very well how I felt about England. I did a few things for them--nothing risky. They were keeping me for something big. That came along, as you know. They offered me the job of bringing these things to England, and I took it on." "For an amateur," Crawshay confessed, "you certainly did wonderfully. I am not a professional detective myself, but you fairly beat us on the sea, and you practically beat us on land as well." "There's nothing succeeds like simplicity," Denis declared. "I gambled upon it that no one would think of searching the curtains of the music hall box in which Gant and I spent apparently a jovial evening. No one did--until it was too late. Then I felt perfectly certain that both you and Brightman would believe I was trying to get hold of Richard Beverley. The poor fellow thought so himself for some time." "There is just one question," Crawshay said, after a moment's pause, "which I'd like to ask. It's about Nora Sharey." Sir Denis glanced at his companion with a faint smile. He suddenly realised the purport of his lingering. "Well, what about her?" "She seems to have followed you very quickly from New York." "Must you put it like that? Her father and brother were connected with the German Secret Service in New York, and on the declaration of war they had to hide. She could scarcely stay there alone." "She might have gone with her father to Chicago," Crawshay observed. "You must remember that she, too, is Irish," Sir Denis pointed out. "I am not at all sure that she wasn't a little homesick. By-the-by, are you interested in her?" "Since you ask me," Crawshay replied, "I am." Sir Denis threw away his cigarette. "I suppose," he said quietly, "if I tell you that I am delighted to hear it, for your own sake as well as hers--" "That's all I have been hanging about to hear," Crawshay interrupted, turning towards the castle. "I suppose we shall meet again in London?" "I think not. They talk about sending me to the Dublin Convention here. Until they want me, I don't think I shall move." Crawshay looked around him. The prospect in its way was beautiful, but save for a few bending figures in the distant fields, there was no sign of any human being. "You won't be able to stand this for long," he remarked. "You've lived too turbulent a life to vegetate here." Sir Denis laughed softly but with a new ring of real happiness. "It's clear that you are not an Irishman!" he declared. "I've been away for over ten years. I can just breathe this air, wander about on the beach here, walk on that moorland, watch the sea, poke about amongst my old ruins, send for the priest and talk to him, get my tenants together and hear what they have to say--I can do these things, Crawshay, and breathe the atmosphere of it all down into my lungs and be content. It's just Ireland--that's all.--You hurry back to your own bloated, over-rich, smoke-disfigured, town-ruined country, and spend your money on restaurants and theatres if you want to. You're welcome." Sir Denis' words sounded convincing enough, but his companion only smiled as he brought his car out of a dilapidated coach-house, from amidst the ruins of a score of carriages. "All the same," he observed, as he leaned over and shook hands with his host, "I should never be surprised to come across you in that smoke-disfigured den of infamy! Look me up when you come, won't you?" "Certainly," Sir Denis promised. "And--my regards to Nora!" Richard Beverley, after his first embrace, held his sister's hands for a moment and looked into her face. "Why, Katharine," he exclaimed, "London's not agreeing with you! You look pale." She laughed carelessly. "It was the heat last month," she told him. "I shall be all right now. How well you're looking!" "I'm fine," he admitted. "It's a great life, Katharine. I'm kind of worried about you, though." "There is nothing whatever the matter with me," she assured him, "except that I want some work. In a few days' time now I shall have it. I have eighty nurses on the way from the hospital, with doctors and dressers and a complete St. Agnes's outfit. They sailed yesterday, and I shall go across to Havre to meet them." "Good for you!" Richard exclaimed. "Say, Katharine, what about lunch?" "You must be starving," she declared. "We'll go down and have it. I feel better already, Dick. I think I must have been lonely." They went arm in arm down-stairs and lunched cheerfully. Towards the end of the meal, he asked the question which had been on his lips more than once. "Heard anything of Jocelyn Thew?" "Not a word." Richard sighed thoughtfully. "What a waste!" he exclaimed. "A man like that ought to be doing great things. Katharine, you ought to have seen their faces when they searched me and found I was only carrying out a packet of old love letters, and it dawned upon them that he'd got away with the goods! I wonder if they ever caught him." "Shouldn't we have heard of it?" she asked. "Not necessarily. If he'd been caught under certain circumstances, he might have been shot on sight and we should never have heard a word. Not that that's likely, of course," he went on, suddenly realising her pallor. "What a clumsy ass I am, Katharine! We should have heard of it one way or another.--Do you see who's sitting over there in a corner?" Katharine looked across the room and shook her head. "The face of the man in khaki seems familiar," she admitted. "That's Crawshay, the fellow whom Jocelyn Thew fooled. He was married last week to the girl with him. Nora Sharey, her name was. She came from New York." "They seem very happy," Katharine observed, watching them as they left the room. "Crawshay's a good fellow enough," her brother remarked, "and the girl's all right, although at one time--" He stopped short, but his sister's eyes were fixed upon him enquiringly. "At one time," he continued, "I used to think that she was mad about Jocelyn Thew. Not that that made any difference so far as he was concerned. He never seemed to find time or place in his life for women." They finished their luncheon and made their way up-stairs once more to Katharine's sitting room. Richard stretched himself in any easy-chair and lit a cigar with an air of huge content. "I am to be transferred when our first division comes across," he told her. "Our Squadron Commander's going to make that all right with the W.O. We've had some grand flights lately, I can tell you, Katharine." There was a knock at the door, a few moments later. The waiter entered, bearing a card upon a tray, which he handed to Katharine. She read it with a perplexed frown. "Sir Denis Cathley.--But I don't know of any one of that name," she declared, glancing up. "Are you sure that he wants to see me?" "Perhaps I had better explain," a quiet voice interposed from outside. "May I come in?" Katharine gave a little cry and Richard sprang to his feet. Sir Denis pushed past the waiter. For a moment Katharine had swayed upon her feet. "I am so sorry," he said earnestly. "Please forgive me, Miss Beverley, and do sit down. It was an absurd thing to force my way upon you like this. Only, you see," he went on, as he helped her to a chair, "the circumstances which required my use of a partially assumed name have changed. I ought to have written you and explained. Naturally you thought I was dead, or at the other end of the world." Katharine smiled a little weakly. She was back again in her chair, but Sir Denis seemed to have forgotten to release her hand, which she made no effort to withdraw. "It was perfectly ridiculous of me," she murmured, "but I was just telling Dick--he is back again for another four days' leave and we were talking about you at luncheon time--that I wasn't feeling very well, and your coming in like that was quite a shock. I am absolutely all right now. Do please sit down and explain," she begged, motioning him to a chair. The waiter had disappeared. Sir Denis shook hands with Richard, who wheeled an easy-chair forward for him. He sat down between them and commenced his explanation. "You see," he went on, "as a criminal I am really rather a fraud. When I tell you that I am an Irishman--perhaps you may have guessed it from my name--and a rabid one, a Sinn Feiner, and that for ten years I have lived with a sentence probably of death hanging over me, you will perhaps understand my hatred of England and my somewhat morbid demeanour generally." Katharine was speechless. Richard Beverley indulged in a long whistle. "So that's the explanation!" he exclaimed. "That was why you got mixed up with that German crew, eh?" "That," Sir Denis admitted, "was the reason for my attempted enterprise." "Attempted?" Richard protested. "But you brought it off, didn't you?" "The end of the affair was really curious," Sir Denis explained. "I suppose, in a way, I did bring it off. I caught the mail train from Euston that night, got away with the papers and took them where I always meant to--to my old home on the west coast of Ireland. There, whilst I was waiting to keep an appointment with a German U-boat, I found out what happens to a man who has sworn an oath that he will never again look inside an English newspaper, and been obstinate enough to keep his word." "Say, this is interesting!" Richard declared enthusiastically. "Why, of course, there have been great changes, haven't there? You Irish are going to have all that you want, after all." "It looks like it," Sir Denis assented. "I found that my home was the rendezvous of a lot of my old associates, only instead of meeting underneath trapdoors at the risk of their lives, they were meeting quite openly and without fear of molestation. From them I heard that the Government had granted me, together with some others, a free pardon many months ago. I heard, too, of the coming Convention and of the altered spirit in English politics. I heard of these things just in time, for the U-boat was waiting outside in the bay." "You didn't part with the stuff?" Richard exclaimed eagerly. Sir Denis shook his head. "I burnt the papers upon my hearth," he told them. "Crawshay ran me to ground there, but his coming wasn't necessary. A great deal besides the ashes of those documents went up in smoke that night." Richard Beverley had risen to his feet and was pacing up and down the room. He found some vent for his feelings by wringing his friend's hand. "If this doesn't beat the band!" he exclaimed. "My head isn't strong enough to take it all in. So Crawshay found you out?" "He arrived," Sir Denis replied, "to find the papers burning upon the hearth. As a matter of fact, he took the ashes with him." "He didn't arrest you, then, after all? There was no charge made?" "None whatever. He was perfectly satisfied. He stayed until the next morning and we parted friends. A few days ago I had his wedding cards. You know whom he married?" "Saw them together down-stairs," Richard declared. "I'm off in a moment to see if I can get hold of Crawshay and shake his hand.--So you're Sir Denis Cathley, eh, and you've chucked that other game altogether?" "Naturally," the other replied--"Sir Denis Jocelyn Cathley. As a matter of fact, I am up in town to arrange for some one else to take my place at the Convention. I am not much use as a maker of laws. They've promised me a commission in the Irish Guards. That will be settled in a few days. Then I shall go back home to see what I can do amongst my tenantry, and afterwards--well," he concluded, with a little gleam in his dark eyes, "they promise me I shall go out with the first drafts of the new battalion." Richard gripped his friend's hand once again and turned towards the door. "It's great!" he declared. "I must try and catch Crawshay before he goes." He hurried out. The door was closed. Sir Denis turned at once towards Katharine. He rose to his feet and leaned over her chair. His voice was not quite so steady. "So much that I had thought lost for ever," he said, "has come back to me. So much that I had never thought to realise in this world seems to be coming true. Is it too late for me to ask for the one greatest thing of all of the only person who could count--who ever has counted? You know so well, Katharine, that even as a soured and disappointed man I loved you, and now it is just you, and you only, who could give me--what I want in life." She laid her fingers upon his shoulders. Her eyes shone as he drew her into his arms. "I ought to keep you waiting such a long time," she murmured, "because I had to ask you first--for your friendship, and you weren't very kind to die. But I can't." [THE END] _ |
||