A Bid for Fortune Part 38

"There is no doubt about that, however. You are a baronet as certainly as I am a lawyer. I presume you would like us to take whatever action is necessary?"

"By all means. This afternoon I am leaving Sydney, for a week or two, for the Islands. I will sign any papers when I come back."

"I will bear that in mind. And your address in Sydney is----"

"Care of the Honourable Sylvester Wetherell, Potts Point."

"Thank you. And, by the way, my correspondents have desired me on their behalf to pay in to your account at the Oceania the sum of five thousand pounds. This I will do to-day."

"I am obliged to you. Now I think I must be going. To tell the truth, I hardly know whether I am standing on my head or my heels."

"Oh, you will soon get over that."

"Good-morning."

"Good-morning, Sir Richard."

With that, I bade him farewell, and went out of the office, feeling quite dazed by my good fortune. I thought of the poor idiot whose end had been so tragic, and of the old man as I had last seen him, shaking his fist at me from the window of the house. And to think that that lovely home was mine, and that I was a baronet, the princ.i.p.al representative of a race as old as any in the country-side! It seemed too wonderful to be true!

Hearty were the congratulations showered upon me at Potts Point, you may be sure, when I told my tale, and my health was drunk at lunch with much goodwill. But our minds were too much taken up with the arrangements for our departure that afternoon to allow us to think very much of anything else. By two o'clock we were ready to leave the house, by half-past we were on board the yacht, at three-fifteen the anchor was up, and a few moments later we were ploughing our way down the harbour.

Our search for Phyllis had reached another stage.

CHAPTER V

THE ISLANDS, AND WHAT WE FOUND THERE

To those who have had no experience of the South Pacific the constantly recurring beauties of our voyage would have seemed like a foretaste of Heaven itself. From Sydney, until the Loyalty Group lay behind us, we had one long spell of exquisite weather. By night under the winking stars, and by day in the warm sunlight, our trim little craft ploughed her way across smooth seas, and our only occupation was to promenade or loaf about the decks and to speculate as to the result of the expedition upon which we had embarked.

Having sighted the Isle of Pines we turned our bows almost due north and headed for the New Hebrides. Every hour our impatience was growing greater. In less than two days, all being well, we should be at our destination, and twenty-four hours after that, if our fortune proved in the ascendant, we ought to be on our way back with Phyllis in our possession once more. And what this would mean to me I can only leave you to guess.

One morning, just as the faint outline of the coast of Aneityum was peering up over the horizon ahead, Wetherell and I chanced to be sitting in the bows. The sea was as smooth as gla.s.s, and the tinkling of the water round the little vessel's nose as she turned it off in snowy lines from either bow, was the only sound to be heard. As usual the conversation, after wandering into other topics, came back to the subject nearest our hearts. This led us to make a few remarks anent Nikola and his character. I could not help asking him for an explanation.

"You want to know how it is that I am so frightened of Nikola?" he asked. "Well, to give you my reason will necessitate my telling you a story. I don't mind doing that at all, but what I am afraid of is that you may be inclined to doubt its probability. However, if you want to hear it you shall."

"I should like to above all things," I replied. "I have been longing to ask you about it for some time past, but could not quite screw up my courage."

"Well, in the first place," Mr. Wetherell said, "you must understand that before I became a Minister of the Crown, or indeed a Member of Parliament at all, I was a barrister with a fairly remunerative practice. That was before my wife's death and when Phyllis was at school. Up to the time I am going to tell you about I had taken part in no very sensational case. But my opportunity for earning notoriety was, though I did not know it, near at hand. One day I was briefed to defend a man accused of the murder of a Chinaman aboard a Sydney vessel on a voyage from Shanghai. At first there seemed to be no doubt at all as to his guilt, but by a singular chance, with the details of which I will not bore you, I hit upon a scheme which got him off. I remember the man perfectly, and a queer fellow he was, half-witted, I thought, and at the time of the trial within an ace of dying of consumption. His grat.i.tude was the more pathetic because he had not the wherewithal to pay me.

However, he made it up to me in another way.

"One wet night, a couple of months or so after the trial, I was sitting in my drawing-room listening to my wife's music, when a servant entered to tell me that a woman wanted to see me. I went out into the pa.s.sage to find waiting there a tall buxom la.s.s of about five-and-twenty years of age. She was poorly dressed, but in a great state of excitement.

"'Are you Mr. Wetherell?' she said; 'the gentleman as defended China Pete in the trial the other day?'

"'I am,' I answered. 'What can I do for you? I hope China Pete is not in trouble again?'

"'He's in a worse trouble this time, sir,' said the woman. 'He's dyin', and he sent me to fetch you to 'im before he goes.'

"'But what does he want me for?' I asked rather suspiciously.

"'I'm sure I dunno,' was the girl's reply. 'But he's been callin' for you all this blessed day: "Send for Mr. Wetherell! send for Mr.

Wetherell!" So off I came, when I got back from work, to fetch you. If you're comin', sir, you'd best be quick, for he won't last till mornin'.'

"'Very well, I'll come with you at once,' I said. Then, having told my wife not to sit up for me, I followed my strange messenger out of the house.

"For nearly an hour we walked on and on, plunging deeper into the lower quarter of the town. All through the march my guide maintained a rigid silence, walking a few paces ahead, and only recognizing the fact that I was following her by nodding in a certain direction whenever we arrived at cross thoroughfares or interlacing lanes.

"At last we arrived at the street she wanted. At the corner she came suddenly to a standstill, and putting her two first fingers into her mouth blew a shrill whistle, after the fashion of street boys. A moment later a shock-headed urchin about ten years old made his appearance from a dark alley and came towards us. The woman said something to him, which I did not catch, and then turning sharply to her left hand beckoned to me to follow her.

"From the street itself we pa.s.sed, by way of a villainous alley, into a large courtyard, where brooded a silence like that of death. Indeed, a more weird and desolate place I don't remember ever to have met with.

Not a soul was to be seen, and though it was surrounded by houses, only two feeble lights showed themselves. Towards one of these my guide made her way, stopping on the threshold. Upon a panel she rapped with her fingers, and as she did so a window on the first floor opened, and the boy we had met in the street looked out.

"'How many?' inquired the woman, who had brought me, in a loud whisper.

"'None now,' replied the boy; 'but there's been a power of c.h.i.n.kies hereabouts all the evenin', an' 'arf an hour ago there was a gent in a cloak.'

"Without waiting to hear any more the woman entered the house and I followed close on her heels. The adventure was clearly coming to a head now.

"When the door had been closed behind us the boy appeared at the top of a flight of stairs with a lighted candle. We accordingly ascended to him, and having done so made our way towards a door at the end of the abominably dirty landing. At intervals I could hear the sound of coughing coming from a room at the end. My companion, however, bade me stop, while she went herself into the room, shutting the door after her.

I was left alone with the boy, who immediately took me under his protection, and for my undivided benefit performed a series of highly meritorious acrobatic performances upon the feeble banisters, to his own danger, but apparent satisfaction. Suddenly, just as he was about to commence what promised to be the most successful item in his _repertoire_, he paused, lay flat on his stomach upon the floor, and craned his head over the side, where once banisters had been, and gazed into the half dark well below. All was quiet as the grave. Then, without warning, an almond-eyed, pigtailed head appeared on the stairs and looked upwards. Before I could say anything to stop him, the youth had divested himself of his one slipper, taken it in his right hand, leaned over a bit farther, and struck the ascending Celestial a severe blow on the mouth with the heel of it. There was the noise of a hasty descent and the banging of the street door a moment later, then all was still again, and the youngster turned to me.

"'That was Ah Chong,' he said confidentially. 'He's the sixth c.h.i.n.kie I've landed that way since dark.'

"This important piece of information he closed with a double-jointed oath of remarkable atrocity, and, having done so, would have recommenced the performance of acrobatic feats had I not stopped him by asking the reason of his action. He looked at me with a grin,--

"'I dunno, but all I cares is that China Pete in there gives me a sprat (sixpence) for every c.h.i.n.kie what I keeps out of the 'ouse. He's a rum one is China Pete; an' can't he cough--my word!" he concluded.

"I was about to put another question when the door opened and the girl who had brought me to the house beckoned me into the room. I entered and she left me alone with the occupant.

"Of all the filthy places I have ever seen--and I have had the ill-luck to discover a good many in my time--that one eclipsed them all. On the bed, propped up by pillows and evidently in the last stage of collapse, was the man called China Pete. When we were alone together he pointed to a box near the bed and signified that I should seat myself. I did so, at the same time taking occasion to express my sorrow at finding him in this lamentable condition. He made no reply to my civilities, but after a little pause found strength enough to whisper. 'See if there's anybody at the door.' I went across, opened the door and looked into the pa.s.sage, but save the boy, who was now sitting on the top step of the stairs at the other end, there was not a soul in sight. I told him this, and having again closed the door, sat down on the box and waited for him to speak.

"'You did me a good turn, Mr. Wetherell, over that trial,' the invalid said at last, 'and I couldn't make it worth your while.'

"'Oh, you mustn't let that worry you,' I answered soothingly. 'You would have paid me if you had been able.'

"'Perhaps I should, perhaps I shouldn't, anyhow I didn't, and I want to make it up to you now. Feel under my pillow and bring out what you find there.'

"I did as he directed me and brought to light a queer little wooden stick about three and a half inches long, made of some heavy timber and covered all over with Chinese inscriptions; at one end was a tiny bit of heavy gold cord much tarnished. I gave it to him and he looked at it fondly.

"'Do you know the value of this little stick?' he asked after a while.

"'I have no possible notion,' I replied.

"'Make a guess,' he said.