The Red Rat's Daughter Part 17

"The fact of the matter is," said the latter, "before I marry I have pledged myself to the accomplishment of a certain work, the nature of which I cannot explain--I have given my word that I will reveal nothing. However, the fact remains that it will take me into some rather strange quarters for a time; and for this reason it is just possible that I--well, that you may never see me again."

"My dear Mr. Browne," said the lawyer, aghast with surprise, "you astonish me more than I can say. Can it be that you are running such risk of your own free-will? I cannot believe that you are serious."

"But I am," Browne replied; "perfectly serious."

"But have you considered everything? Think what this may mean, not only to the young lady you are about to marry, but to all your friends."

"I have thought of everything," said Browne.

The lawyer was, however, by no means satisfied. "But, my dear sir," he continued, "is there no way in which you can get out of it?"

"Not one," said Browne. "I have given the matter my earnest attention, and have pledged myself to carry it out. No argument will move me.

What I want you to do is to make my will to suit the exigencies of the case."

"Perhaps it would not be troubling you too much to let me know of what they consist," said the lawyer, whose professional ideas were altogether shocked by such unusual--he almost thought insane--behaviour.

"Well, to put it in a few words," said Browne, "I want you to arrange that, in the event of anything happening to me, all of which I am possessed, with the exception of such specific bequests as those of which you are aware, shall pa.s.s to the lady whom I would have made my wife had I not died. Do you understand?"

"I understand," said the lawyer; "and if you will furnish me with the particulars I will have a fresh will drawn up. But I confess to you I do not approve of the step you are taking."

"I am sorry for that," Browne replied. "But if you were in my place I fancy you would act as I am doing." Having said this, he gave the lawyer the particulars he required; and, when he left the office a quarter of an hour or so later, he had made Katherine Petrovitch the inheritor of the greater part of his enormous wealth. Whatever should happen to him within the next few months she would at least be provided for. From his lawyer's office he drove to his bank to deposit certain papers; then to his tailor; and finally back to his own house in Park Lane, where he hoped and expected to find the captain of his yacht awaiting him. He was not disappointed. Captain Mason had just arrived, and was in the library at that moment. The latter was not of the usual yachting type. He was short and stout, possessed an unusually red face, which was still further ornamented by a fringe of beard below his chin; he had been at sea, man and boy, all his life, and had no sympathy with his brother-skippers who had picked up their business in the Channel, and whose longest cruise had been to the Mediterranean and back. He had been in old Browne's employ for ten years, and in that of his son after him. What was more, he had earned the trust and esteem of all with whom he was brought in contact; and when Browne opened the door and found that smiling, cheerful face confronting him, he derived a feeling of greater satisfaction than he had done from anything for some considerable time past.

CHAPTER XVI

"Good-morning, Mason," Browne said, as he shook hands. "I am glad that you were able to come up at once, for I want to consult you on most important business. Sit down, and let us get to work. You were not long in getting under way."

"I started directly I received your message, sir," the man replied.

"Perhaps you would not mind telling me what it is I have to do."

"I'll very soon do that," Browne replied; "and, if I know anything of you, you will be glad to hear my needs. I want to see you with regard to a cruise in Eastern waters. I am tired of the English winter, and, as you are aware, I have never yet visited j.a.pan, I've suddenly made up my mind to go out there. How soon do you think you could be ready to start?"

"For j.a.pan, sir?" the captain replied. "Well, that's a goodish step.

Might I ask, sir, how long you can give me? Are you in a very great hurry?"

"A very great hurry indeed," Browne said. "I want to get away at the shortest possible notice; in fact, the sooner you can get away, the better I shall be pleased. I know you will do all you can."

"You may be very sure of that, sir," said the captain. "If it is really necessary, I fancy I could be ready--well, shall we say?--on Monday next. Would that suit you, sir?"

"It would do admirably," said Browne. "I may count, then, on being able to sail on that day?"

"Certainly, sir," said the captain. "I will catch the next train back, and get to work without loss of time. Your own steward, I suppose, will accompany you?"

"Yes," said Browne, for he was convinced that the man was one in whose honesty and courage he could place implicit reliance, which was just what would be wanted on such a voyage.

"And how many guests will you be likely to have, sir?" inquired the captain. "I suppose you will fill all the cabins as usual?"

This was a question to which Browne had not yet given any proper consideration, though he had practically decided on one person. The voyage from England to j.a.pan, as all the world knows, is a long one, and he felt that if he went alone he would stand a very fair chance of boring himself to death with his own company.

"I am not able to say yet who will accompany me; but in any case you had better be prepared for one or two. It is more than possible, however, that we shall pick up a few others in j.a.pan."

"Very good, sir," said Mason. "I will see that all the necessary arrangements are made. Now I suppose I had better see about getting back to Southampton."

Having consulted his watch, he rose from his chair, and was about to bid his employer good-bye, when Brown stopped him.

"One moment more, Mason," he said. "Before you go I have something to say to you, that is of the utmost importance to both of us." He paused for a moment, and from the gravity of his face the captain argued that something more serious was about to follow. "I wanted to ask you whether you had any sort of acquaintance with the seas to the northward of j.a.pan, say in the vicinity of the island of Yesso and the Gulf of Tartary?"

"I cannot say that I have any at all, sir," the other replied. "But I could easily make inquiries from men who have sailed in them, and procure some charts from Potter, if you consider it necessary."

"I should do so if I were you," said Browne; "it is always as well to be prepared. In the meantime, Mason, I want you to keep what I have said to yourself. I have the most imperative reasons for making this request to you. A little mistake in this direction may do me an incalculable amount of harm."

Though he did not in the least understand what prompted the request, the captain willingly gave his promise. It was easy for Browne, however, to see that it had caused him considerable bewilderment.

"And there is one other point," Browne continued. "I want you to be more than ordinarily careful that the crew you take with you are the best men procurable. I am not going to say any more to you, but leave you to draw your own conclusions, and to bear in mind that this voyage is likely to be one of the most, if not _the_ most, important I have ever undertaken. You have been with me a good many years now, and you were with my father before me--it is not necessary for me to say not only as captain, but also as a man who is an old and well-tried friend."

"I thank you, sir, for what you have said," said the captain. "In reply, I can only ask you to believe that, happen what may, you will not find me wanting."

"I am quite sure of that," said Browne, holding out his hand.

The captain took it, and, when he had shaken it as if he would dislocate it at the shoulder, bade his employer good-bye and left the room.

"So much for breaking the news to Mason," said Browne to himself, when the door had closed behind the skipper. "Now I must see Jimmy Foote, and arrange it with him."

He glanced at his watch, and found that it wanted only a few minutes to twelve o'clock. Ringing the bell, he bade the footman telephone to the Monolith Club, and inquire whether Mr. Foote were there; and if he were not, whether they could tell him where it would be possible to find him. The man disappeared upon his errand, to return in a few moments with the information that Mr. Foote had just arrived at the club in question.

"In that case," said Browne, "beg the servants to tell him that I will be there in ten minutes, and that I want to see him on most important business. Ask him not to leave until I come down."

The appointment having been duly made, he ordered his cab and set off in it for the rendezvous in question. On reaching the club--the same in which he had seen Jimmy on that eventful night, when he had discovered that Katherine was in London--Browne found his friend engaged in the billiard-room, playing a hundred up with a young gentleman, whose only claim to notoriety existed in the fact, that at the time he was dissipating his second enormous fortune at the rate of more than a thousand a week.

"Glad indeed to see you, old man," said Jimmy, as Browne entered the room. "I thought you were going to remain in Paris for some time longer. When did you get back?"

"Last night," said Browne. "I came over with Maas."

"With Maas?" cried Jimmy, in surprise. "Somebody said yesterday that he was not due to return for another month or more. But you telephoned that you wanted to see me, did you not? If it is anything important, I am sure Billy here won't mind my throwing up the game. He hasn't a ghost of a chance of winning, so it will be a new experience for him not to have to pay up."

Browne, however, protested that he could very well wait until they had finished their game. In the meantime he would smoke a cigar and watch them. This he did, and as soon as the compet.i.tion was at an end and Jimmy had put on his coat, he drew him from the room.

"If you've nothing you want to do for half an hour or so, I wish you would walk a little way with me, old chap," he said. "I have got something to say to you that I must settle at once. This place has as long ears as the proverbial pitcher."

"All right," said Jimmy. "Come along; I'm your man, whatever you want."

They accordingly left the club together, and made their way down Pall Mall and across Waterloo Place into the Green Park. It was not until they had reached the comparative privacy of the latter place that Browne opened his mind to his friend.

"Look here, Jimmy," he said, "when all is said and done, you and I have known each other a good many years. Isn't that so?"

"Of course it is," said Jimmy, who noticed his friend's serious countenance, and was idly wondering what had occasioned it. "What is it you want to say to me? If I did not know you I should think you were hard up, and wanted to borrow five pounds. You look as grave as a judge."