Sawn Off Part 36

d.i.c.k looked at him for a moment, then at his wife and child, and then his face grew longer and his hand played nervously about his face.

"But, I say, Max," he cried, "you don't mean this. I'm as right in the upper story as you are."

Max shook his head.

"My dear Richard," he said, "I'd give my right hand to know you were.

This is dreadful."

"Dreadful? It's worse than dreadful," cried Mrs Shingle, catching her husband's arm. "d.i.c.k, make him leave the house."

"My dear Mrs Shingle," said Max deprecatingly, "this is folly. You only excite him terribly."

"Excite him?"

"Yes, my dear," said d.i.c.k, wiping the perspiration from his face, "it do excite me a deal. I don't know that Max ain't right; but he won't be hard on me--Max won't. I have felt a little--little confused and upset, you know, about my business sometimes."

"Father, it is not true," cried Jessie, running to his side, "your mind is perfectly clear."

"I'm afraid it ain't, my dear," he said. "But your Uncle Max won't be hard on me. No sending to asylums or that sort of thing. Just a friendly visit from a doctor or two, and I should be soon put right."

"Whatever the cleverest medical man I could procure--a specialist on your particular ailment--said, I should go by," replied Max sadly.

"There, mother--there, Jessie, what did I tell you?" cried d.i.c.k, brightening up. "Blood is thicker than water. I always said it was.

He'll do what's right."

"With Heaven's help I will," said Max solemnly; while, unable to contain his disgust, Tom walked to the window.

"Of course he will," cried d.i.c.k; "it'll be all made up now, and we shall be the best of friends--eh?"

"Yes, dear Richard--the best of friends," said Max, glancing at Mrs Shingle, and then shrugging his shoulders and raising his eyes.

"But about my business," said d.i.c.k uneasily. And he began to bite the bits of tough skin at the sides of his fingers.

"Richard, are you mad?" cried Mrs Shingle excitedly. "You shall not talk about it. You have kept it secret so long, even from your own wife and child, and you shall not talk about it to him."

d.i.c.k smiled at her rather vacantly.

"Well, it do seem hard, mother, certainly; but it was sure to come out some day, and it's best for one's own brother to know of it--better than anybody else, because he'll do what's right and best for every one--you and Jessie too, of course; for if I get worse (as I may, you know) it would be sad, of course, for it all to go to ruin for want of a master-mind, and no one left to take care of you--and--you come to ruin, and not even your poor husband to make boots and shoes for you again."

He laughed hysterically, and Mrs Shingle threw her arms round his neck.

"Oh, d.i.c.k! dear d.i.c.k! what has come to you?" she cried. Then, rousing herself, she turned angrily upon Max. "This is your doing," she cried.

"He was quite well till you came."

Max shook his head sadly, and wiped his eyes, while Fred tried to take Jessie's hand; but she motioned him away, and stood by her father, keenly watching all present.

"Don't talk like that, my dear," said d.i.c.k, patting his wife's shoulder; "it hurts me, and makes me worse. Max means well, and he'll see to things being carried out right for all of us, won't you, Max?"

"Indeed I will," said Max piously; and Tom still gazed from the window.

"But--but--but do you think, Max," said d.i.c.k, drawing his hands from his wife and child, and speaking in a desultory, wandering way, as if trying to collect his thoughts, "do you think that if you came in with me as you proposed, and saw to the management of the business, so as to relieve me and let me rest, it would be necessary for me to go anywhere away from home?"

"We would take advice over that," said Max; "the best to be had-- medical."

"N-no," said d.i.c.k shrewdly, "I shouldn't quite like that, Max; those very clever doctors are too clever sometimes, and they might want to lock me up. I should be better at home with mother here and Jessie. It would make me worse to go away."

"Oh, that could be managed, perhaps," said Max; "but you must have your business arrangements seen to--they are so important."

"Yes, yes, of course," said d.i.c.k, who shuddered and looked horrified at the thought of having to go away; "but you'd make time for that. You could go halves, Max, and manage for me; and the business is growing fast--and you'd see, even if I got worse, that Jessie and mother here always had enough."

"I cannot bear this any longer!" cried Mrs Shingle; while Jessie stood aghast.

"It's all right, mother--it's all right, mother. Max is a good fellow.

When he used to row me it was to do me good. And you'll take all in hand, won't you, Max?"

"d.i.c.k, you shall not make any such arrangements," cried Mrs Shingle.

"Will no one take our side?"

"I will, aunt," cried Tom fiercely; "for I will never stand by and see such a blackguardly wrong committed. Jessie," he cried, "you have treated me badly, and behaved with cruel treachery to the man who loved you very dearly; but that's all past now--and while I've hand to lift or voice to raise, I'll never see you or yours wronged by father--or brother," he added, fiercely turning on Fred, while Jessie uttered a sigh of relief, and buried her face on her mother's shoulder.

"Tom," whispered Max, catching him by the shoulder, "if you are not silent, I'll strike you down."

"Look here, if you dare to touch me," roared Tom, "I shall forget that you are my poor weak mother's husband. I will not stand by and see my uncle wronged. If he is unfit to attend to his affairs, aunt, see some trustworthy lawyer; but you shall not be, imposed upon like this."

"Fred, stop him," cried Max furiously. "Turn him out of the room. He's as mad as his uncle."

Fred hesitated for a moment, and then, stepping forward, he caught Tom by the arm.

"Here, come out!" he cried.

"Stand back!" cried Tom huskily.

"No--out you go," cried Fred, who gathered courage on finding his brother did not resent his attack.

"Stand back, I say!"

"Out you go," repeated Fred--"you fool!"

Tom drew back for a moment; and, as Jessie looked up, roused by a movement on her father's, part and a cry from her mother, she saw Tom's fist dart out from his shoulder, and then there was a dull sound, and Fred staggered back, tripped over a mat by the open window, and fell with a crash amongst the plants in the conservatory, bringing down an avalanche in his fall.

As Tom turned, it was to see that a complete change had come over d.i.c.k, who had leaped at his brother's throat, catching him by shirt front and white cravat, bringing him upon his knees, and shaking him with all his might.

"You cursed scoundrel--you sanctified, hypocritical cheat!" shouted d.i.c.k, as he shook Max till he began to turn purple, and something white fell on the floor between his knees. "Mad, am I? Send me to an asylum, would you? Let me off if I give you half my income?"

"Help, help!" moaned Max, whose dark, smooth hair glided from his head on to the floor as d.i.c.k shook away.

"Didn't I--say--you were--a 'umbug?" cried d.i.c.k, panting, and throwing all his energies into a kick. "Yes, and a fool. This is my clever brother, who let himself be taken in by the weakest, transparentest do that ever a man tried to invent. Softening of the brain, have I! That was a pretty hard kick for a man with that complaint!" he roared, as he stood over his brother, threatening with his foot as if about to punish him again. "There! Get up, and out of my house, and never darken the doors again. You ain't a brother to me, and never were. Being born of the same mother only half makes brothers. I'll never own you as mine.

Eh? Oh, I've done, Tom, now."