The Mynns' Mystery Part 24

"Thanks, do; you see I am in earnest."

"It takes some thinking out," said Saul, as he walked slowly toward the station, cigar in mouth, "but it's worth working for. Poor miserable idiot! And he believes he's cleverness refined."

"I don't quite see through Master Saul's game," said the object of his thoughts, as he lit a fresh cigar, and after walking up and down the path a few times, went into the study, where he threw himself upon a couch, and lay looking through the soft wreaths of smoke.

"He's as jealous as a Turk, and he'd do anything to come between me and little Gertie. But, poor little la.s.s, she's caught--limed. That's safe enough. The brute! He led me on and on that night, over that bad champagne, and hardly touched it himself. Wanted to show me up here; and it only made the little darling fonder of me. He's plotting, but he's a shallow-brained a.s.s, and one of these days I shall come down upon him a crusher. Now, what does he mean about that money. I don't want to lose two thousand, but would with pleasure to get him out of the way, for he's like a lion in one's path, and I never feel sure. Next heir, eh? Next heir. And my coming kept him out of the cake."

"Well, Master Saul Harrington," he said, after a pause, "you may be very clever, but one gets one's brains edged up a bit out in the West, and if you mean mischief over that money, pray, for your own sake, be careful, for two can play at that game."

He rose slowly and marched across to the cabinet, one of whose drawers he unlocked; and as he stood with his back to the window, a dimly-seen face appeared at a short distance from one of the panes, and was made more indistinct by a tuft of the evergreen which grew at the side, and half behind which the owner of the face was concealed.

The watcher gazed eagerly in, but was unable to make out whether the occupant of the room was examining letters or counting over money--the latter suggested itself as correct.

But he was wrong, for the possessor of The Mynns was slowly and carefully thrusting cartridge after cartridge into the chambers of a large revolver, one which had been his companion far away in the West.

"'A friend in need is a friend indeed,'" he said, as he closed the drawer. "It may be imagination, but when one has a fortune, a goodly home, and a pretty girl waiting to call one 'hub,' a fellow wants to live as long as he can. If it's fancy, why, there's no harm done."

As he spoke, the face at the window was still watching, but so far from the pane as to be invisible from within.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.

LEGAL ADVICE.

"Hullo! What do you want? Never sent for you."

"No," said Doctor Lawrence gruffly, "I came without," and he seated himself in one of the old, worn, leather covered chairs in the lawyer's private room at Lincoln's Inn.

"But I'm right as a trivet, Lawrence, and if I was not, I should not consult you."

"I know that. You never did."

"Well, you never came to me about your legal affairs."

"Of course I did not. If I had we should never have remained friends."

"Humph! Then you think I should have ruined you."

"Well, you think I should have poisoned you."

"There! get out. What's the matter, Lawrence?"

"I've come to consult you."

"You have? Then hang it all, old chap, I'll have jaundice or gout next week."

"About The Mynns' affairs."

"Oh! Then I'll keep quite well. What's the matter now?"

"Sit down, Hampton, and let's talk quietly, old fellow, as friends."

The old lawyer sat down, took a penknife from a drawer, and throwing himself back in his chair, began to pare his nails.

"Well, what is it?" he said.

"I'm very uncomfortable about the state of affairs down yonder."

"So am I, and I get no peace of my life."

"How's that?"

"The wife!"

"Oh! Shouldn't have married."

"Too late to alter that now."

"But what do you mean?"

"Mean? Why, of course, situated as we were, the wife agreed to poor little Gertrude's wishes, and stayed at The Mynns to play propriety till those two were married; and now I want to get home to my own fireside, but we seem regularly stuck, and the worst of it is, we are unwelcome visitors."

"Yes, I saw that."

"Then can you imagine a more unpleasant position for a well-to-do old chap like myself; staying at a house where your host always shows you that you are not wanted?"

"No. It is hard; and for unselfish reasons."

"I wouldn't stop another hour with the rowdy Yankee scoundrel, only Mrs Hampton says I must."

"For Gertrude's sake, of course."

"Oh, hang your of 'course,'" cried the lawyer angrily.

"Call yourself a friend! Why don't you advise me to go?"

"Can't," said the doctor, putting his hat upon the top of his cane, and spinning it slowly round.

"Don't do that, man. It fidgets me."

The doctor took his hat off the cane meekly, and set it on the table, after which he laid his cane across his knees, and began to roll it slowly to and fro, as if he were making paste.

"I say, Lawrence," cried the old lawyer querulously, "don't do that.

You give me the creeps."

The doctor meekly laid his stick beside his hat, and put his hands in his pockets.