Cursed by a Fortune Part 79

"Then look here," said Claud, anxiously, "ought I to--I mean, ought you to send over to somebody and tell her how things are going on? She'll be horribly anxious."

Leigh frowned slightly.

"You mean my sister, of course," he said. "No; she is aware that I was called in to a case of emergency, but she does not know that it is here."

"Doesn't she know? I say, though, I'm a bit puzzled how you came here."

"This man fetched me."

"Fetched you? How came he to do that?"

"In ignorance of who I was, of course. But how came you here so opportunely?"

"Oh, I've been watching and tracking for long enough, till I ran him to earth; and I've been trying for days to get at him. Got hold of that woman with the tied-up head at last--only this evening--and was going to bribe her, but she let out everything to me, and after telling me everything, said she'd let me in. So I went for you, and as you were out I was obliged to try and get Kate away at once. You know the rest I say, this is what you call a climax, isn't it?"

Leigh sat gazing at him sternly, but Claud did not avoid his eyes, and went on.

"Now look here; of course he got her for the sake of her money, and she can't stop here. But she must be taken away as soon as she can be moved."

"Of course."

"Yes, of course," said Claud, firmly. "It isn't a time for stickling about ourselves; we've got to think about her, poor la.s.s. d.a.m.n him! I feel as if I could go and tear all his bandages off--a beast!"

"What do you propose, then?" said Leigh, calmly.

"Well, for the present we'd better take her to your house. She must be in a horrid state, and the best thing for her is to find herself along with some one she loves. It will do her no end of good to find Jenny's--I beg your pardon, Miss Leigh's arms around her."

"Yes, you are quite right; and I could go to an hotel."

"Humph! Yes, I suppose you ought to, but I've been thinking of something else, if you don't mind. The guv'nor's shut up with his gout, so I think I ought to go home and fetch the mater. She talks a deal, but she's a jolly motherly sort, and was fond of Kate. There's no harm in her, only that she's a bit soft about her beautiful boy--me, you know," he said, with one of his old grins.

Leigh winced a little, and Claud's face grew solemn directly.

"I say," he said hastily, "it was queer that he should have come and fetched you, wasn't it?"

"Yes," said Leigh, "a curious stroke of fate, or whatever you may call it; and yet simple enough. It was in a case of panic; he was seeking a doctor, and my red lamp was the first he saw. But after all, it was the same when we were boys; if we had strong reasons, through some escapade, for wishing to avoid a certain person, he was the very first whom we met."

"Yes, Mr Wilton; what you propose is the best course that can be pursued, and I think it is our duty towards your cousin; we can arrange later on what ought to be done about this man. You and your relatives may or may not think it right to prosecute him, but you may rest a.s.sured that his injury will keep him a close prisoner for a long while to come."

"Yes, I suppose that fall was a regular crippler, but you have to think about prosecuting too. The law does not allow people to use pistols."

"We can discuss that by-and-by. Now, please, I shall be greatly obliged if you will go to my sister, and tell her as much as you think is necessary. If she has gone to bed she must be roused. Ask her to be ready to receive Miss Wilton, and then I think you ought to go down to Northwood and fetch Mrs Wilton."

"All right--like a shot," said Claud, eagerly. "I mean directly," he cried, colouring a little. "But, er--you mean this?"

"Of course," said Leigh, smiling; "why should I not? Let me be frank with you, if I can with a sensation of having a hole bored through my arm with a red-hot bar. A short time back I felt that if there was a man living with whom I could never be on friendly terms, you were that man; but you have taught me that it is dangerous to judge any one from a shallow knowledge of what he is at heart. I know you better now; I hope to know you better in the future. Will you shake hands?"

"Oh!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Claud, seizing the hand violently, and dropping it the next instant as if it were red-hot. For Leigh's face contracted, and he turned faint from the agony caused by the jar. "What a thoughtless brute I am! Here, have another gla.s.s of that beast's wine."

"No, no, I'm better now. There, quick! It must be very late, and I don't want my sister to have gone to bed. I dare say she would sit up for me some time, though."

"Yes, I'm off," cried Claud, excitedly; "but let me say--no, no, I can't say it now; you must mean it, though, or you wouldn't have spoken like that."

He had reached the door, when Leigh stopped him.

"I'll go in first and see how your cousin is; Jenny would like the last report."

"Better, certainly," he said on his return; and Claud hurried out of the house.

"He said 'Jenny,'" he muttered, as he ran towards Leigh's new home.

"'Jenny,' not 'my sister,' or 'Miss Leigh.' Oh, what a lucky brute I am! But I do wish I wasn't such a cad!"

CHAPTER FORTY EIGHT.

Before morning Kate was sufficiently recovered to be removed to Leigh's house; but it was days before her senses had fully returned, and her brain was thoroughly awake to the present and the past, to find herself lovingly attended by her aunt and Jenny Leigh, who was her companion down to Northwood, while Claud kept the doctor company in town and accompanied him as a.s.sistant every time he visited Great Ormond Street.

For Leigh, in spite of his own injuries, continued to attend Garstang till he was thoroughly out of danger, though it was months before he was able to go to his office.

It was time he went there, for the place, and his country house in Kent, were in charge of his creditors' representatives, it having come like a crash on the monetary world that Garstang, the money-lender and speculator, had failed for a very heavy sum.

Poetic justice or not, John Garstang found himself bankrupt in health and pocket; his bold attempt to save his position by making Kate his wife being the gambler's last stroke.

As a matter of course, James Wilton was involved; led on by Garstang, he had mortgaged his property deeply, and the money was now called in, and ruin stared him in the face just at a time when he was prostrate with illness.

"It's jolly hard on the old man," said Claud one day when he had come up to town and called on Leigh, "for the guv'nor has lorded it down at Northwood all these years, and could have been doing it fine now if it hadn't been for old Garstang. He gammoned the guv'nor into speculating, and then gammoned him when he lost to go on with the double or quits game, and a nice thing Johnny must have made out of it. If it had been sheep or turnips, of course the old man would have been all there; but it was a fat turkey playing cards with a fox, and I suppose everything comes to the hammer."

"Very bad for your mother," said Leigh.

"Oh, I don't know. I say, may I light my pipe?"

"Oh, yes; smoke away while you have any brains left."

"Better smoke one's brains away than catch some infection in your doctor's shop. How do I know that some one with the epidemics hasn't been sitting in this chair?--ah! that's better. I say, it's a pity you don't smoke, Leigh."

"Is it? Very well, then, I'll have a cigar with you to help keep off the infection. I did have a rheumatic patient in that chair this morning."

"Eh? Did you? Oh, well, I'll risk that. Ah, now you look more sociable, and as if you hadn't got your back up because I called."

"I couldn't have had, because I was very glad to see you."

"Were you? Well, you didn't look it. You were saying about being bad for the mater. I don't believe she'll mind, if the guv'nor don't worry.

She's about the most contented old girl that ever lived, if things will only go smooth. The crash comes hardest on poor me. It's Oth.e.l.lo's occupation, gone, and no mistake, with yours truly. I say, don't you think I could turn surgeon? I have lots of friends in the Mid-West Pack, and if they knew I was in the profession I could get all the accidents."

"No," said Leigh, smiling; "you are not cut out for a doctor."

"I don't think I am cut out for anything, Leigh, and things look very black. I can farm, and of course if the guv'nor hadn't smashed I could have gone on all right. But it's heart-breaking, Leigh; it is, upon my soul. I haven't been home for weeks. Been along with an old aunt."