King of the Castle Part 31

"I don't think Trevithick is well," said Gartram.

Volume One, Chapter XIV.

A TELEGRAM.

The same old repet.i.tion in Chris Lisle's brain: "How am I to grow rich enough to satisfy the King?"

Always that question, to which no answer came.

Then would come, till he was half maddened by the thought, the idea that Glyddyr had returned after a few days' absence and had the free run of the Fort, and would be always at Claude's side.

"Constant dropping will wear a stone," he would say to himself; "and she is not a stone. I am sure she loved me, and I might have been happy if I had not been so cursedly poor--no, I mean, if she had not been so cruelly rich. For I am not poor, and I never felt poor till now. But I can't afford to keep a yacht, and go here and there to races, and win money. He must win a great deal at these races.

"Why cannot I?" he said half aloud, after a long, thoughtful pause. She would think no better of me, but the old man would.

"Surely I ought to be as clever as Mr Parry Glyddyr. I ought to be a match for him. Well, I am in brute strength. Pish! what nonsense one does dream of at a time like this. I can think of no means of making money, only of plenty of ways of losing it. Nature meant me for an idler and dreamer by the beautiful river, so I may as well go out and idle and dream, instead of moping here, grumbling at my fate.

"It's a fine morning, as the writer said; let's go out and kill something."

He stepped out into the pa.s.sage, lifted down his salmon rod from where it hung upon a couple of hooks, took his straw hat, in whose crown, carefully twisted up, were sundry salmon flies, thrust his gaff hook through the loop of a strap, and started off along the front of the houses, in full view of the row of fishermen, who were propping their backs up against the cliff rail.

Plenty of "Mornin's" greeted him, with smiles and friendly nods, and then, as he walked on, the idlers discussed the probabilities of his getting a good salmon or two that morning.

Away in the sheltered bay lay Glyddyr's yacht, looking the perfection of trimness; and as it caught his eye, Chris turned angrily away, wondering whether the owner was up at the Fort, or on board.

Just as he reached the river which cut the little town in two, he saw the boy who did duty as telegraph messenger go along up the path which led away to the Fort, and with the habit born of living in a little gossiping village, Chris found himself thinking about the telegraph message.

"Big order for stone," he said to himself as he studied the water. "How money does pour in for those who don't want it."

But soon after he saw the boy returning, a red telegraph envelope in his hand, and that he was trotting on quickly, as if in search of an owner.

"Not at home," he muttered; and then he became interested in the boy's proceedings in in spite of himself, as he saw the young messenger go down to the end of the rough pier and stop, as if speaking to some one below, before coming quickly back, and finally pa.s.sing him, going up the path by the river side, as if to reach the old stone bridge some hundred yards up the glen.

"Gartram must be over at his new quarry," said Chris to himself, and as the boy disappeared, he thought no more of the incident till about fifty yards farther, as he had turned up by the bank of the river, he caught sight of him again.

He forgot him the next moment, for his interest was taken up by the rushing water, and he watched numberless little falls and eddies, as he went on, till, as he neared the bridge, he caught sight of a well-known figure seated upon the parapet smoking, and in the act of taking the telegram from the boy.

He tore it open and read the message, crumpled it up, and with an angry gesture threw it behind him into the stream; and as he pitched the boy a small coin, Chris saw the little crumpled-up ball of paper go sailing down towards the sea.

For a moment the young man felt disposed to avoid meeting Glyddyr, as, to reach the fishing ground he had marked down, he would have to go over the bridge, and then along the rugged path on the other side.

"And if he sees me going back, he'll think I'm afraid of him," muttered Chris.

At the thought, he swung his long lithe rod over his shoulder, and strode on, his heavy fishing boots sounding loudly on the rugged stones.

As Chris reached the bridge, Glyddyr was busy with his match-box lighting a fresh cigar, and did not look up till the other was only a few yards away, when he raised his head, saw who was coming, and changed colour. Then the two young men gazed fiercely into each other's eyes, the look telling plainly enough that what had pa.s.sed and was going on made them enemies for life.

Chris tramped on, keeping his head up, and naturally, as he did not turn towards his rear, he was soon out of eyeshot, when the sharp report of a yacht's gun rang out from behind him, the effect being that he turned sharply round to look at the smoke rising half a mile away.

It was a perfectly natural action, but Chris forgot that he was carrying a long, elastic salmon rod, and the effect was curious, for the rod swung through the air with a loud _whish_, and gave Glyddyr a smart blow on the cheek.

"I beg your pardon," cried Chris involuntarily, as Glyddyr sprang from the parapet into the roadway, with a menacing look in his eyes.

"You cad!" he roared. "You did that on purpose."

"No, I did not," said Chris, quite as hotly. "If I had meant to do it, I should have used the b.u.t.t of the rod, and knocked you over into the river."

Glyddyr's lips seemed to contract till his white teeth were bare; and, dashing down cigar and match, he advanced towards Chris with his fists clenched, till he was within a couple of feet of his rival.

Chris's face grew set and stony looking, but he did not move. One hand held the rod, and the other was in his pocket, so that he offered an easy mark for a blow such as he felt would pay him back for the one which had sent Glyddyr over in the study at the Fort.

But he knew that the blow would not come, and a curiously mocking smile slowly dawned upon his lip as he saw that Glyddyr was trembling with impotent rage, and dared not strike.

"Well?" said Chris. "Have you any more to say?"

"You shall pay bitterly for these insults," whispered Glyddyr; for he could not speak aloud.

"When you like, Mr Glyddyr," said Chris coolly; "but you dare not ask me for payment. I told you that blow was an accident--so it was."

"You lie!"

Chris flushed.

"Do I?" he said hoa.r.s.ely. "A minute ago I was sorry that I had struck you inadvertently, and I apologised as a gentleman should."

"A gentleman!" said Glyddyr mockingly.

"Yes, sir, a gentleman; but you called me a cad and a liar, so now I tell you I'm glad I did strike you, and that it wouldn't take much to make me undo the rod and use the second joint to give you a good thrashing. Good-morning."

There was a peculiar sound in the still sunny glen heard above the dull rush and murmur of the river. It was the grating together of Glyddyr's teeth, as Chris turned round once more, and unintentionally brushed the top of his rod against his rival again.

Glyddyr made a sharp movement, as if to s.n.a.t.c.h hold of and break the rod, but his hand did not go near it; and he stood there watching the fisherman as he turned down to the waterside, and went on up the glen, soon disappearing among the birches and luxuriant growth of heath and fern which crowned the stones.

"Curse him!" muttered Glyddyr, picking up the fallen cigar and lighting it, without smoking for a few minutes. "I'll pay him out yet. Well,"

he said, with a bitter laugh, "I'm going the right way. Poor devil; how mad he is. He shall see me come away from the church some day with little Claude on my arm, and I'd give a hundred pounds--if I'd got it-- to let him see me take her in my arms, and cover her pretty face with kisses."

There was a peculiarly malignant screw in his face as he stood looking up the glen, and then he laughed again.

"Poor devil," he cried. "I can afford to grin at him."

He turned to go, and at that moment a puff of wind came down the glen, rustling a piece of paper in the road, and drawing his attention to the fact that it was the envelope of the telegram.

Then he stooped and picked it up, and shaped it out till it was somewhat in the form of a boat, as he dropped it over the stone parapet, and stood watching as it swept round and round in an eddy, and then went sailing down the stream.

"That's the way to serve you, Master Gellow," he muttered; "and I wish you were with it sailing away out yonder. No, no, my fine fellow, once bit twice shy; once bit--a hundred times bit, but I've grown too cunning for you at last. Now, I suppose some other scoundrel is in that with you. Back it. Not this time, my fine fellow; not this time."

He smoked away furiously as he watched the sc.r.a.p of paper float down, now fast, now slowly. At one time it was gliding down some water slide, to plunge into a little foaming pool at the bottom, where it sailed round and round before it reached the edge and was whirled away again.

Now it caught against a stone, and was nearly swamped; now it recovered itself, and was swept towards the side, but only to be s.n.a.t.c.hed away, and go gliding down once more in company with iridescent bubbles and patches of foam.