Roland Cashel Volume I Part 43

"Ten to one all that haste is to keep some appointment with one of Kennyf.e.c.k's daughters," said h.o.a.re, as he shook the sand over the freshly-signed bills, when the heavy bang of the hall-door announced Cashel's departure.

"I fancy not," said Linton, musing; "I believe I can guess the secret."

"What am I to do with these, Mr. Linton?" said the other, not heeding the last observation, as he took two pieces of paper from the pocket of his book.

"What are they?" said Linton, stretching at full length on a sofa.

"Two bills, with the endors.e.m.e.nt of Thomas Linton."

"Then are two ten-shilling stamps spoiled and good for nothing," replied Linton, "which, without that respectable signature, might have helped to ruin somebody worth ruining."

"'One will be due on Sat.u.r.day, the twelfth. The other--"

"Don't trouble yourself about the dates, h.o.a.re. I 'll renew as often as you please--I 'll do anything but pay."

"Come, sir, I'll make a generous proposition: I have made a good morning's work. You shall have them both for a hundred."

"Thanks for the liberality," said Linton, laughing. "You bought them for fifty."

"I know that very well; but remember, you were a very depreciated stock at that time. Now, you are at a premium. I hear you have been a considerable winner from our friend here."

"Then you are misinformed. I have won less than the others,--far less than I might have done. The fact is, h.o.a.re, I have been playing a back game,--what jockeys call, holding my stride."

"Well, take care you don't wait too long," said h.o.a.re, sententiously.

"How do you mean?" said Linton, sitting up, and showing more animation than he had exhibited before.

"You have your secret--I have mine," replied h.o.a.re, dryly, as he replaced the bills in his pocket-book and clasped it.

"What if we exchange prisoners, h.o.a.re?"

"It would be like most of your compacts, Mr. Linton, all the odds in your own favor."

"I doubt whether any man makes such compacts with _you_," replied Linton; "but why higgle this way? 'Remember,' as Peacham says, 'that we could hang one another;' and there is an ugly adage about what happens when people such as you and I 'fall out.'"

"So there is; and, strange enough, I was just thinking of it. Come, what is _your_ secret?"

"Read that," said Linton, placing Enrique's letter in his hand, while he sat down, directly in front, to watch the effect it might produce.

h.o.a.re read slowly and attentively; some pa.s.sages he re-read three or four times; and then, laying down the letter, he seemed to reflect on its contents.

"You scarcely thought what kind of company our friend used to keep formerly?" asked Linton, sneeringly.

"I knew all about that tolerably well. I was rather puzzling myself a little about this Pedro Rica; that same trick of capturing the slavers, and then selling the slaves, is worthy of one I could mention, not to speak of the double treachery of informing against his comrades, and sending the English frigate after them."

"A deep hand he must be," remarked Linton, coolly.

"A very deep one; but what is Cashel likely to do here?"

"Nothing; he has no clew whatever to the business; the letter itself he had not time to read through, when he dropped it, and--"

"I understand--perfectly. This accounts for his agitation. Well, I must say, _my_ secret is the better of the two, and, as usual, you have made a good bargain."

"Not better than _your_ morning's work here, h.o.a.re; confess that"

"Ah, there will not be many more such harvests to reap," said he, sighing.

"How so? his fortune is scarcely breached as yet"

"He spends money fast," said h.o.a.re, gravely; "even now, see what sums he has squandered; think of the presents he has lavished,--diamonds, horses--"

"As to the Kennyf.e.c.k affair, it was better than getting into a matrimonial sc.r.a.pe, which I fancy I have rescued him from."

"Oh, no, nothing of the kind. Pirate as he is, he would n't venture on that."

"Why so?--what do you mean?"

"Simply, that he is married already; at least, that species of betrothal which goes for marriage in his free and easy country."

"Married!" exclaimed Linton, in utter amazement; "and he never even hinted in the most distant manner to this."

"And yet the obligation is sufficiently binding, according to Columbian law, to give his widow the benefit of all property he might die possessed of in that Republic."

"And he knows this himself?"

"So well, that he has already proposed a very large sum as forfeit to break the contract."

"And this has been refused?"

"Yes. The girl's father has thought it better to follow your own plan, and make 'a waiting race,' well knowing, that if Cashel does not return to claim her as his wife,--or that, which is not improbable, she may marry more advantageously,--he will always be ready to pay the forfeit."

"May I learn his name?"

"No!"

"Nor his daughter's--the Christian name, I mean."

"To what end? It would be a mere idle curiosity, for I should exact a pledge of your never divulging it."

"Of course," said Linton, carelessly. "It was, as you say, a mere idle wish. Was this a love affair, then, for it has a most commercial air?"

"I really don't know that; I fancy that they were both very young, and very ignorant of what they were pledging, and just as indifferent to the consequences."

"She was handsome, this--"

"Maritana is beautiful, they say," said h.o.a.re, who inadvertently let slip the name he had refused to divulge.

Linton's quick ear caught it at once, but as rapidly affected not to notice it, as he said,--