King of the Castle Part 39

"Father, dear, listen to me," cried Claude pa.s.sionately.

"No! I'll listen to no more. You can go now and think. You will come to your senses by-and-by, I have no doubt, even if it takes time."

Claude caught his hand in hers, but he withdrew his own with an angry gesture, and she shrank back for a moment. There was that, though, in his face which made her hesitate about saying more, and reaching up, and kissing him hurriedly, she left the room, thinking that he would calm down.

He stood watching her as she left, and then, grinding his teeth with rage, his face flushing and his temples beating hard, he strode across to the door, locked it securely, and drew a curtain across.

"The scoundrel! He has poisoned her mind. But I'd sooner kill him--I'd sooner--Oh, it's maddening," he cried, as he went to a drawer, fumbled with the key on a bunch he drew from his pocket, and had some difficulty in opening it, for his hand trembled with suppressed pa.s.sion.

Then he drew open the receptacle, and from the back took out a ring with three curiously formed keys. These clinked together with the involuntary movements of his hands as he crossed to a bookcase, took out a couple of books, opened a little door behind them, and thrust another key in at the side. There was a sharp click, and he started back, withdrawing the key, and stood and gave his head a shake as if to clear it.

"How I do hate to be put out like this," he muttered, as he laid his hand in a particular way upon the end of the bookcase, which slowly revolved on a pivot, and laid bare a large iron door.

"I don't feel at all myself," he continued, as he used the third and largest key, which opened the great door of his safe, and exposed a ma.s.sive-looking closet built in the wall with blocks of granite, at the back of which were half-a-dozen iron shelves.

"Hah!" he exclaimed, as he stood in the opening, reaching forward and taking down a small square box, which was heavy. "He'd like to have the pleasure of spending you, no doubt, but I can checkmate him. Now," he continued, "let's finish counting."

He carried the box to the table, set it down, and then took out, one by one, five canvas bags, one of which he untied, and poured out a little heap of sovereigns. This done, he went back to the safe and took a small, thick ledger from another shelf, walked back to the table, opened the book, and made an entry of the date therein, then, leaving the pen in the opening, seated himself once again to count the coins into little piles of twenty-five.

"No," he murmured; "I haven't worked all these years to have my money swallowed up by a fortune-hunter. No, Master Chris Lisle."

He started from his seat, overturning a pile of sovereigns, for at that moment, sweet and clear, came the song of a robin seated upon a tamarisk just outside the window.

"Good heavens! I must be mad," he cried. "Who opened that window?

Yes; Claude, I remember," he muttered; and he was in the act of crossing to close it when he stopped short, threw out his hands, and fell with a heavy thud upon the thick Turkey carpet, to lie there with his face distorted, struggling violently, and striking his hands against a chair.

Volume Two, Chapter II.

CHRIS VISITS THE MUSEUM.

Racing did not agree with Chris Lisle, for the morning after his return from town he rose with a bad headache; and as he lived one of the most regular lives, he knew that it could not be caused by errors of diet.

It would have been easy enough to have attributed it to the true cause-- constant worry--but he was not going to own to that, as it seemed weak, so he set it down to his hair being too long.

"No wonder my head's hot," he said to himself; and, acting upon impulse, he hurried out of the room, and walked straight along the cliff road toward where, a few minutes before, Michael Wimble had had his head out of his door, looking for customers, after the fashion in which a magpie looks about for something to secrete.

He was a dry, yellow-looking man, thin, quick and sharp in action as the above-named bird, one to which his long nose and quick black eyes gave him no little resemblance; and this he enhanced by his habit of thrusting his head out of his door, laying his ear on his shoulder, and looking sidewise in one direction, then changing the motion by laying his other ear upon the fellow shoulder, and looking out in the opposite direction.

The Danmouth people, as a rule, always looked straight out to sea in a contemplative fashion, in search of something which might benefit them-- fish, a ship in distress, flotsam and jetsam; but Michael Wimble looked for his benefits from the sh.o.r.e, and seldom gazed out to sea.

His place of business was called generally "the shop," in spite of an oval board bearing upon it, in faded yellow letters upon a drab green ground, the word "_Museum_" as an attraction to any strangers who might visit the place, and be enticed by curiosity to see what the museum might contain, as well as by a printed notice pasted on each door-post, "Free admission." Once within, they might become customers for shaving, haircutting, a peculiar yellow preparation which Michael Wimble called "pomehard," or some of the sundries he kept in stock, which included walking-sticks, prawn nets, fishing lines, and white fish hooks, made of soft tinned iron, so that, if they caught in the rough rocky bottom, or some stem of extra tough seaweed, a good tug would pull them through it--bending without breaking--a great advantage and saving, so long as they did not behave in this way with a large fish.

Michael Wimble was very proud of his museum, and took pleasure in telling the seaside visitors that he had collected all his curiosities himself, and very much resented upon one occasion its being called a "Marine store" by a gentleman from town.

The museum began as a labour of love, for Michael had cast his eyes upon the fair elderly motherly widow, Chriss landlady, and, since the commencement of his collection, he had laboured on, in the belief that, as it increased in importance, so would the woman soften toward him; and that some day all his four-roomed dwelling would become museum and business place, while he would go and reside at the widow's house--widow no longer, but Mrs Wimble--his own.

The beginning of the museum was a star-fish, with four small rays and one of enormous size, that he picked up during his regular morning walk along the sea sh.o.r.e, wet or dry, summer or winter, at six o'clock, as near to the edge of the water as he could get, returning close under the cliffs in time to have his place of business opened by eight.

The star-fish was duly dried and admired, and talked about by his regular customers; and this seemed so satisfactory that it was soon supplemented by a cuttlefish bone.

A piece of wood well bored by teredoes followed. Then a good-sized chump of ship timber, with a cl.u.s.ter of barnacles attached, was carried in one morning to commence the fine, fusty, saline, sea-weedy odour which smothered completely the best hair oil, the pomade and the scented soap.

The museum grew rapidly: hanks of seaweed, more cuttlefish bones, native sponges, sh.e.l.ls of all sorts and sizes, some perfect, and some ground thin and white by long chafing in the shingle. Stones of all kinds, from spar to serpentine, and grey and ruddy granite; sharks' teeth, pieces of mineral of metallic l.u.s.tre, fragments of spar, and fossils, including great ammonites, chipped out of a bed of rock which presented its water-washed face to the advancing tide.

There was always something to bring home to suspend from the wall, arrange on shelf, or give a place of honour in one or other of the gla.s.s cases, which by degrees were purchased; and as Wimble's museum increased, so it became of local celebrity.

Michael Wimble had been peering out when a customer appeared, and after due soaping and softening with hot water, the barber was operating with a thin razor, which sc.r.a.ped off the harsh bristles off the fisherman with a peculiar metallic ring.

The final triumphant upper sc.r.a.pe was being given when Chris entered the museum, and the barber's eyes twinkled, for there were signs about Chris which suggested a new customer, one who was in the habit of getting his professional aid in the county town.

"At liberty in a moment, sir," said the barber obsequiously; and he rapidly wrung out a sponge, removed the unsc.r.a.ped-off soap from the fisherman's face, and threw a towel at him with a look which seemed to say, "Take that and be off."

"Nyste mornin' this, Mis' Lisle, sir," said the fisherman, wiping his face slowly. "Long time since you've had a run after the bahss."

"Yes, 'tis," said Chris shortly.

"Ay, 'tis as you say, sir, that it is; but when you feel in the right mind you've only got to say so, and I'm your man, punt and all."

"Cut or shave, sir?" said the little barber, with a look at his regular customer which seemed to say, "Go." And he went.

"Cut," said Chris laconically; and he took his seat in the operating chair.

The barber looked disappointed as he drew his professional print cloth round his customer, giving it a shake, and then securing it about his neck like a Thug with a new victim.

"Much or little off, sir?" continued Wimble, with a preliminary snip in the air.

"Much; but don't make it a confounded crop," said Chris sourly; for he had a natural dislike to the barber, and was vexed with himself for not having had his hair cut in London.

"Much, but not too much," said Wimble thoughtfully; and then, with the customary chatter of his profession, he started a topic.

"Been up to the quarry, sir, lately?"

"No."

That was a negative strong enough to have crushed some men, but it only acted as a spur on the proprietor of the museum.

"Then I should advise you to go up, sir. I was there this morning, just casting an eye round for spars and crystals, and natural hist'ry specimens in general, and Mr Gartram's men have blasted out some of the finest stones I think I ever saw."

Wimble waited for an answer, but none came; and, after a little snipping, which was all done with the operator's head very much on one side, he continued--

"Fine property, that of Mr Gartram's, sir. Grand estate."

Chris felt as if he would have liked to gag the barber with his own lather brush. But he sat still, holding his breath while the man prattled on.

"You said much off, sir? yes, sir; very good plan, sir; keeps the head cool, and after a wash or a shampoo, just a rub with the towel and there you are. I often admire our visitor, Mr Glyddyr, for that, sir."

Chris flinched.

"Don't be alarmed, sir; only the scissors touched the skin; cold steel, sir. Keeps his hair very short, sir; quite like a Frenchman.

Wonderfully fond of our town, sir. His yacht's always here."