Grit Lawless Part 10

"Ah! ... I fancied I heard footsteps in the road."

"You have good ears," Lawless answered. "I heard nothing, and I was on the alert."

Colonel Grey regarded him attentively. It was an extraordinary thing, but the sight of the purposeful face, with the steady eyes, and the deep, slanting scar, was strangely rea.s.suring. Unaccountably, he felt his resentment dying. Against his reason, against his volition, he had a liking for the man. In face of his liking the charges against him seemed monstrous. It was almost incredible that he should have been cashiered from the Army for cowardice--"misbehaviour in the Field in the face of the enemy," that was the wording of the indictment. He had received the information from an unquestionable source. Through the same channel he had learnt that subsequently, under another name, he had taken up arms against his country. The first was a grave enough offence in the Colonel's opinion, the second was unpardonable.

"Have you no news for me?" he asked abruptly, sitting very straight in his chair, his brows drawn fiercely together while he watched his companion from under them with a curiously intent gaze. "It is many weeks since we met."

Lawless leant back negligently, his knees crossed, one arm, with the hand lying loosely open, resting on the table. At his last remark he looked over at the speaker in his quick, direct way, and said:

"I supposed that was why you had summoned me. You've been wondering what I have been doing with your time and your money... Well, not much... I've learnt one thing, that Van Bleit carries the papers on his person for their greater safety, and a loaded revolver for his own.

Apart from that we are not more forward."

"You've no plan for getting the packet from him?"

"Not so far. The fellow does not give me a chance. If I spent forty-eight hours beneath the same roof with him, I'd manage it... Of course, I could get hold of what you want at any time if I chose to kill the brute; but I've a strong disinclination to swing for him."

"Yes." Colonel Grey looked thoughtful. "That wouldn't do," he said.

"No! ... We don't want murder done... Risky... And awkward too...

afterwards... too many questions asked."

There was silence between them for a s.p.a.ce. Inside the room a death-watch ticked loudly against the wainscot, and without a large white moth beat with futile insistence upon the window-pane in its endeavours to reach the light. The noise of its soft body thudding against the gla.s.s drew Colonel Grey's attention to the fact that the blinds were not drawn. He rose promptly and lowered them.

"Quite unnecessary," Lawless observed. "I saw to it when I took this seat that no one, unless he stood on the stoep and stared deliberately in at the window, could see me sitting here."

The Colonel wheeled round and faced him.

"Your forethought is quite extraordinary," he said, "for a novice at the game."

The other laughed carelessly.

"During an adventurous life," he replied, "I've had rogues to deal with before."

The speech, as the Colonel heard it, was almost a challenge. His mind reverted to the serious indictment against this man who sat there so coolly, with the half-derisive smile lingering on the thin, handsome face; and the fierce feeling of indignation against him surged up afresh. He walked deliberately back to his seat and sat down.

"Yours has certainly been no ordinary career," he said bluntly. "For the honour of my countrymen, I'm glad to think that is so... You will be less surprised at my taking this tone when I tell you that I have received information concerning you of a very unsatisfactory nature.

Subsequent to our first meeting I inst.i.tuted inquiries relative to certain matters we touched upon at that interview. The reply to those inquiries reached me by last mail."

"Yes." Lawless did not change his lounging att.i.tude, but his face hardened perceptibly, and his voice rang like steel. "After our talk I supposed you would," he said. "The only thing that surprised me was that you didn't pursue your inquiries before making arrangements with me."

"That was where I made my mistake," the Colonel replied stiffly.

"And how do you purpose rectifying that? ... Do you think that the charges against me, as you have heard them, unfit me for the dirty work you have given me to do? I've had some strange billets in my time, and this, in my opinion, is the least honourable of all. A case of blackmail that can't be entrusted to the proper authorities is a precious shady business."

"There are reasons," the Colonel began, and stopped suddenly. Why should he attempt explanations? Whatever the business, the employment was worthy the man.

"Well, no matter!" Lawless said. "Let that pa.s.s. But I should like to hear what you have against me... When it is one's misfortune to only win notoriety through misdeeds it is interesting to know the limit of such publicity... What part of my record have you?"

"I have no interest in your affairs, Mr Lawless, beyond your one-time connection with the Army," Colonel Grey answered quietly. "When you informed me you had been cashiered, I was curious to know the reason. I am now in possession of the details, and the further discreditable information that you sold your sword arm to the enemies of your country... Have you anything to say to that charge?"

"Nothing... Your information is quite correct."

"Then, sir, I will tell you to your face you are a d.a.m.ned traitor."

The Colonel was leaning forward in his excitement, his arm stretched out along the table. The man he addressed, and thus deliberately insulted, drew himself up straighter, his face set and stern, a cold glint in the steel-grey eyes that narrowed dangerously as they met the other's angry gaze.

"I can excuse your heat, sir," he replied with amazing control, "in consideration of your ignorance of the circ.u.mstances. Had things been otherwise, and it had been my privilege to criticise another's disgrace, I should probably have made use of the same forcible language that you give utterance to... When we have been through the mire we recognise a different quality in the mud. Men have been reduced to the ranks for the misdemeanour for which I was dismissed the Service... Had I been reduced to the ranks I should have made a good soldier. My punishment, I contend, was unjust."

"By which specious reasoning, I presume, you excuse the crime of treachery, and seek to justify a spirit of revenge?--or gain, was it?"

Lawless frowned.

"I make no excuses," he returned curtly. "I don't recognise that my actions need condoning. And I did not join the Boers' side with thought either of revenge or gain..."

He halted abruptly, and, for the first time taking his eyes off the other's face, stared hard at the unshaded lamp.

"It appears," the Colonel interposed drily, "that you were actuated by blind impulse."

Lawless drummed on the table with his fingers and said nothing. He felt strangely annoyed. And yet he had known positively that the facts must come to this man's knowledge before long. In the circ.u.mstances it was little likely that he would make no inquiries concerning one he had employed in a secret and confidential matter. That he regretted his haste in having employed him was obvious. It was the term traitor that stuck in the Colonel's gorge. He found it particularly distasteful to hold further intercourse with one so steeped in dishonour.

"Perhaps it would be as well to bury the past," he said with an effort after a while. "In the lives of many men there are matters which it is not profitable to discuss. I can only add that I wish I had known of this before."

Lawless got upon his feet, and stood stiffly upright, his face grim, and colourless under the sunburn, like the face of a man whose blood is at white heat with hardly repressed pa.s.sion.

"Am I to understand that you dispense with my services?" he asked curtly.

Colonel Grey was somewhat slow in replying. Discretion weighed in the balance against a strong personal objection to working with the man, and won.

"I don't know as to that," he replied at last uncertainly. "We've gone so far... You have a dangerous knowledge... I prefer to have you on our side."

"I see." Lawless' manner was icy. "Then, you mean me to go on with the job?"

"Yes, I think so... Yes! ... I do."

"You don't ask me whether I am satisfied to go on with it."

His hearer's eyebrows went up with a jerk.

"Why shouldn't you?" he asked, surprised. "You're well paid."

"True! The pay's good. It would be absurd to throw away good money for a scruple..."

"I was under the impression that you had buried your scruples," the other answered, and was amazed at the sudden pa.s.sion that blazed in the sombre eyes.

"Never in my life before have I permitted a man to insult me as you have insulted me," was the angry reply. "I've swallowed as much as I intend to swallow... Whatever you have learnt concerning my past does not invest you with the right of insulting me."

"Your complaint is quite reasonable," Colonel Grey returned with a certain quiet dignity that partially disarmed the other's math. "I have allowed my feelings to lead me away. I regret it. Will you please be seated, Mr Lawless? There are one or two things which I wish to say to you, if you are satisfied to go on with this business."

He paused deliberately; and, after a moment's hesitation, Lawless sat down.