The Pursuit Part 12

"You'll be sorry for this," he said. "I tell you that, when the truth of it comes to be known, as it'll be known some day, you'll be sorry for it."

Aylmer looked at him with a steady contemplation which showed no signs of clemency. Landon flung open the door and pa.s.sed out.

"Cursed prig!" he snapped and descended the stairs into the street.

Aylmer, with a slight shrug of the shoulders, turned towards his dressing-room.

Ten minutes later Landon was enjoying his drink in Mr. Miller's pleasantly furnished apartments. His host had supplied it this time without any demur--with alacrity. He watched his guest dispose of it and hastened to offer another. This, too, disappeared down Landon's throat and a third was placed solicitously at his elbow. Not till these arrangements had been completed did Mr. Miller smirch his hospitality with any hint of business. But though he differed from Aylmer in this, he imitated him in the directness of his _pour-parlers_. He, indeed, used the same monosyllable.

"Well?" he said inquiringly.

Landon nodded with much satisfaction.

"I got in," he said briefly. "I was only there two minutes, at a liberal computation, but I've found out and done all I required. He's dining out to-night. The books, as you expected, are in an ordinary bookcase, gla.s.s fronted, with an ordinary padlock on it. What fools these War Office experts are! There was a spare latch-key of his rooms hanging on a hook on the wall, for the servant, I suppose. I nicked it as I went out. I met the servant on the stairs--just as well, if I run across him to-night. There will be nothing rummy in my returning to see his master.

I purposely dragged my coat against the pa.s.sage whitewash, and after he offered to brush it for me I gave him half a crown. So he's all right; he thinks I'm a worthy gentleman who ought to be encouraged to call often. Is that all right?"

Mr. Miller smiled.

"You show such talents and attention to detail, my dear Lord Landon," he answered, "that I grieve that I am not the happy partner of such a colleague permanently."

Landon looked across at him with a grin.

"Seriously?" he demanded.

"Quite seriously," replied the impa.s.sive Mr. Miller.

Landon meditated.

"If there is good money in it--?" he mused slowly, but his host hastened to interrupt him energetically.

"Excellent money," he a.s.sured him, "and we have always a use for a lord."

Landon grinned again.

"Perhaps my value will increase after this evening," he suggested. "When do you purpose going?"

"Would half-past nine suit you?" said Miller, affably, and Landon nodded.

"Charmed, I'm sure," he grinned again, and tossed off his third gla.s.s with unction. "Here's luck!" he cried, and Mr. Miller, who used spirits sparingly, and in the afternoon not at all, was forced to include himself in the aspiration with the good fellowship which is implied in a courteous bow.

At half-past nine Aylmer's soldier servant found, as Landon had prophesied, nothing extraordinary in his master's guest's return. The glint of a second half crown shone persuasively in that guest's hand as he expressed his desire to write a note to await the master's coming. He was shown without any demur into the sitting-room, and supplied with pen and paper.

But Landon's talents were not wasted on literary composition when he was left alone. He produced a pair of pliers and dealt very drastically with the padlock on the bookcase, opened the glazed doors, and ran his fingers down the numbers engraved upon the morocco-bound volumes. He selected one, opened it, flipped the pages, and finally came to a halt, his finger-tip poised above a plan.

He closed the book and went to the window. He opened it noiselessly.

"Number 34 North Front. Elevation of gun platforms with angles to east and south," he enunciated very quietly but very distinctly into the night.

A grayness stirred in the shadow below the window. There was a whispered reply.

"Right!" answered Miller's voice laconically, and Landon poised the book in mid-air.

"Can you see it?" he asked, still below his breath. There was an affirmative grunt from below.

The book left Landon's hand and fell through the night. There was a faint shock as it reached the waiting grip in the darkness.

Landon quietly and methodically shut the window and turned to the desk.

He leaned, pen in hand, over the note-paper.

There was the click of a latch-key. He swung round to confront his cousin.

For a second the two eyed each other in silence. Then Landon rose slowly to his feet.

"I came, forgetting that you were dining out," he said. "I came because I reasoned that by now ... you would be wanting ... to offer me an apology."

Aylmer looked at the desk. Landon followed the glance.

"I was going to explain--why?" he added, pointing at the unsullied note-paper.

And then Alymer's gaze, which had been concentrated on his cousin's face, slipped past it and found, by chance, the bookcase.

His brows met in a puzzled frown; he made a step forward; he bent to examine the fractured padlock. Then he straightened himself and gave an exclamation.

Landon was ready. He drew a revolver from his pocket; he held it by the muzzle. And the b.u.t.t came down with business-like vigor on Aylmer's temple. He seemed to crumple up rather than fall. He slid against the bookcase to the floor.

The dawn was breaking before, confusedly, achingly, consciousness wavered back to him again--the same dawn which saw a Spanish steamer drop anchor in Tangier's roads and Landon, with a satisfied smile, swing down the ladder into the boat which was to take him ash.o.r.e.

CHAPTER VII

VILLA EULALIA

Aylmer looked up as Despard came into the room. A kit bag lay on the floor half full and Aylmer's man was packing it. Despard raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"Going?" he asked quickly. "Where?"

"Tangier," said Aylmer. "To-night, by the Forwood boat."

Despard gave a little whistle.

"And the Commission?" he objected.

"I've had very special luck there," explained Aylmer. "Sir Arthur went down with influenza yesterday morning. So the Commission, instead of meeting this week as proposed, adjourns till the end of November."

He leaned down, gave a searching glance into the bag, and closed it.