CHAPTER XXXIV
After this climax the interview was not so long as it was interesting.
Two men as far apart as the poles, as remote from each other in mind
and body, in training and education or lack of it, in desires and
intentions, in points of view and trend of being, as nature and
circumstances could make them, talked in a language foreign to each
other of a wildly strange thing. Palliser's arguments and points of
aspect were less unknown to T. Tembarom than his own were to Palliser.
He had seen something very like them before, though they had developed
in different surroundings and had been differently expressed. The
colloquialism "You're not doing that for your health" can be made to
cover much ground in the way of the stripping bare of motives for
action. This was what, in excellent and well-chosen English, Captain
Palliser frankly said to his host. Of nothing which T. Tembarom said
to him in his own statement did he believe one word or syllable. The
statement in question was not long or detailed. It was, of course,
Palliser saw, a ridiculously impudent flinging together of a farrago
of nonsense, transparent in its effort beyond belief. Before he had
listened five minutes with the distinctly "nasty" smile, he burst out
laughing.
"That is a good `spiel,' my dear chap," he said. "It's as good a
`spiel' as your typewriter friend used to rattle off when he thought
he saw a customer; but I'm not a customer."
Tembarom looked at him interestedly for about ten seconds. His hands
were thrust into his trousers pockets, as was his almost invariable
custom. Absorption and speculation, even emotion and excitement, were
usually expressed in this unconventional manner.
"You don't believe a darned word of it," was his sole observation.
"Not a darned word," Palliser smiled. "You are trying a `bluff,' which
doesn't do credit to your usual sharpness. It's a bluff that is
actually silly. It makes you look like an ass."
"Well, it's true," said Tembarom; "it's true."
Palliser laughed again.
"I only said it made you look like an ass," he remarked. "I don't
profess to understand you altogether, because you are a new species.
Your combination of ignorance and sharpness isn't easy to calculate
on. But there is one thing I have found out, and that is, that when
you want to play a particular sharp trick you are willing to let
people take you for a fool. I'll own you've deceived me once or twice,
even when I suspected you. I've heard that's one of the most
successful methods used in the American business world. That's why I
only say you look like an ass. You are an ass in some respects; but
you are letting yourself look like one now for some shrewd end. You
either think you'll slip out of danger by it when I make this
discovery public, or you think you'll somehow trick me into keeping my
mouth shut."
"I needn't trick you into keeping your mouth shut," Tembarom
suggested. "There's a straightway to do that, ain't there?" And he
indelicately waved his hand toward the documents pertaining to the
Cedric Company.
It was stupid as well as gross, in his hearer's opinion. If he had
known what was good for him he would have been clever enough to ignore
the practical presentation of his case made half an hour or so
earlier.
"No, there is not," Palliser replied, with serene mendacity. "No
suggestion of that sort has been made. My business proposition was
given out on an entirely different basis. You, of course, choose to
put your personal construction upon it."
"Gee whiz!" ejaculated T. Tembarom. "I was 'way off, wasn't I?"
"I told you that professing to be an ass wouldn't be good enough in
this case. Don't go on with it," said Palliser, sharply.
"You're throwing bouquets. Let a fellow be natural," said Tembarom.
"That is bluff, too," Palliser replied more sharply still. "I am not
taken in by it, bold as it is. Ever since you came here, you have been
playing this game. It was your fool's grin and guffaw and pretense of
good nature that first made me suspect you of having something up your
sleeve. You were too unembarrassed and candid."
"So you began to look out," Tembarom said, considering him curiously,
"just because of that." Then suddenly he laughed outright, the fool's
guffaw.
It somehow gave Palliser a sort of puzzled shock. It was so hearty
that it remotely suggested that he appeared more secure than seemed
possible. He tried to reply to him with a languid contempt of manner.
"You think you have some tremendously sharp `deal' in your hand," he
said, "but you had better remember you are in England where facts are
like sledge-hammers. You can't dodge from under them as you can in
America. I dare say you won't answer me, but I should like to ask you
what you propose to do."
"I don't know what I'm going to do any more than you do," was the
unilluminating answer. "I don't mind telling you that."
"And what do you think he will do?"
"I've got to wait till I find out. I'm doing it. That was what I told
you. What are you going to do?" he added casually.
"I'm going to Lincoln's Inn Fields to have an interview with Palford &
Grimby."
"That's a good enough move," commented Tembarom, "if you think you can
prove what you say. You've got to prove things, you know. I couldn't,
so I lay low and waited, just like I told you."
"Of course, of course," Palliser himself almost grinned in his
derision. "You have only been waiting."
"When you've got to prove a thing, and haven't much to go on, you've
got to wait," said T. Tembarom--"to wait and keep your mouth shut,
whatever happens, and to let yourself be taken for a fool or a horse-
thief isn't as gilt-edged a job as it seems. But proof's what it's
best to have before you ring up the curtain. You'd have to have it
yourself. So would Palford & Grimby before it'd be stone-cold safe to
rush things and accuse a man of a penitentiary offense."
He took his unconventional half-seat on the edge of the table, with
one foot on the floor and the other one lightly swinging.
"Palford & Grimby are clever old ducks, and they know that much. Thing
they'd know best would be that to set a raft of lies going about a man
who's got money enough to defend himself, and to make them pay big
damages for it afterward, would be pretty bum business. I guess they
know all about what proof stands for. They may have to wait; so may
you, same as I have."
Palliser realized that he was in the position of a man striking at an
adversary whose construction was of India-rubber. He struck home, but
left no bruise and drew no blood, which was an irritating thing. He
lost his temper.
"Proof!" he jerked out. "There will be proof enough, and when it is
made public, you will not control the money you threaten to use."
"When you get proof, just you let me hear about it," T. Tembarom said.
"And all the money I'm threatening on shall go where it belongs, and
I'll go back to New York and sell papers if I have to. It won't come
as hard as you think."
The flippant insolence with which he brazened out his pretense that he
had not lied, that his ridiculous romance was actual and simple truth,
suggested dangerous readiness of device and secret knowledge of power
which could be adroitly used.
"You are merely marking time," said Palliser, rising, with cold
determination to be juggled with no longer. "You have hidden him away
where you think you can do as you please with a man who is an invalid.
That is your dodge. You've got him hidden somewhere, and his friends
had better get at him before it is too late."
"I'm not answering questions this evening, and I'm not giving
addresses, though there are no witnesses to take them down. If he's
hidden away, he's where he won't be disturbed," was T. Tembarom's
rejoinder. "You may lay your bottom dollar on that."
Palliser walked toward the door without speaking. He had almost
reached it when he whirled about involuntarily, arrested by a shout of
laughter.
"Say," announced Tembarom, "you mayn't know it, but this lay-out would
make a first-rate turn in a vaudeville. You think I'm lying, I look
like I'm lying, I guess every word I say sounds like I'm lying. To a
fellow like you, I guess it couldn't help but sound that way. And I'm
not lying. That's where the joke comes in. I'm not lying. I've not
told you all I know because it's none of your business and wouldn't
help; but what I have told you is the stone-cold truth."
He was keeping it up to the very end with a desperate determination
not to let go his hold of his pose until he had made his private
shrewd deal, whatsoever it was. At least, so it struck Palliser, who
merely said:
"I 'm leaving the house by the first train to-morrow morning." He
fixed a cold gray eye on the fool's grin.
"Six forty-five," said T. Tembarom. "I'll order the carriage. I might
go up myself."
The door closed.
Tembarom was looking cheerful enough when he went into his bedroom. He
had become used to its size and had learned to feel that it was a good
sort of place. It had the hall bedroom at Mrs. Bowse's boarding-house
"beaten to a frazzle." There was about everything in it that any man
could hatch up an idea he'd like to have. He had slept luxuriously on
the splendid carved bed through long nights, he had lain awake and
thought out things on it, he had lain and watched the fire-light
flickering on the ceiling, as he thought about Ann and made plans, and
"fixed up" the Harlem flat which could be run on fifteen per. He had
picked out the pieces of furniture from the Sunday Earth advertisement
sheet, and had set them in their places. He always saw the six-dollar
mahogany-stained table set for supper, with Ann at one end and himself
at the other. He had grown actually fond of the old room because of
the silence and comfort of it, which tended to give reality to his
dreams. Pearson, who had ceased to look anxious, and who had acquired
fresh accomplishments in the form of an entirely new set of duties,
was waiting, and handed him a telegram.
"This just arrived, sir," he explained. "James brought it here because
he thought you had come up, and I didn't send it down because I heard
you on the stairs."
"That's right. Thank you, Pearson," his master said.
He tore the yellow envelop, and read the message. In a moment Pearson
knew it was not an ordinary message, and therefore remained more than
ordinarily impassive of expression. He did not even ask of himself
what it might convey.
Mr. Temple Barholm stood still a few seconds, with the look of a man
who must think and think rapidly.
"What is the next train to London, Pearson?" he asked.
"There is one at twelve thirty-six, sir," he answered. "It's the last
till six in the morning. You have to change at Crowley."
"You're always ready, Pearson," returned Mr. Temple Barholm. "I want
to get that train."
Pearson was always ready. Before the last word was quite spoken he had
turned and opened the bedroom door.
"I'll order the dog-cart; that's quickest, sir," he said. He was out
of the room and in again almost immediately. Then he was at the
wardrobe and taking out what Mr. Temple Barholm called his "grip," but
what Pearson knew as a Gladstone bag. It was always kept ready packed
for unexpected emergencies of travel.
Mr. Temple Barholm sat at the table and drew pen and paper toward him.
He looked excited; he looked more troubled than Pearson had seen him
look before.
"The wire's from Sir Ormsby Galloway, Pearson," he said.
"It's about Mr. Strangeways. He's done what I used to be always
watching out against: he's disappeared."
"Disappeared, sir!" cried Pearson, and almost dropped the Gladstone
bag. "I beg pardon, sir. I know there's no time to lose." He steadied
the bag and went on with his task without even turning round.
His master was in some difficulty. He began to write, and after
dashing off a few words, stopped, and tore them up.
"No," he muttered, "that won't do. There's no time to explain." Then
he began again, but tore up his next lines also.
"That says too much and not enough. It'd frighten the life out of
her."
He wrote again, and ended by folding the sheet and putting it into an
envelop.
"This is a message for Miss Alicia," he said to Pearson. "Give it to
her in the morning. I don't want her to worry because I had to go in a
hurry. Tell her everything's going to be all right; but you needn't
mention that anything's happened to Mr. Strangeways."
"Yes, sir," answered Pearson.
Mr. Temple Barholm was already moving about the room, doing odd things
for himself rapidly, and he went on speaking.
"I want you and Rose to know," he said, "that whatever happens, you
are both fixed all right--both of you. I've seen to that."
"Thank you, sir," Pearson faltered, made uneasy by something new in
his tone. "You said whatever happened, sir--"
"Whatever old thing happens," his master took him up.
"Not to you, sir. Oh, I hope, sir, that nothing--"
Mr. Temple Barholm put a cheerful hand on his shoulder.
"Nothing's going to happen that'll hurt any one. Things may change,
that's all. You and Rose are all right, Miss Alicia's all right, I'm
all right. Come along. Got to catch that train."'
In this manner he took his departure.
Miss Alicia had from necessity acquired the habit of early rising at
Rowcroft vicarage, and as the next morning was bright, she was
clipping roses on a terrace before breakfast when Pearson brought her
the note.
"Mr. Temple Barholm received a telegram from London last night,
ma'am," he explained, "and he was obliged to take the midnight train.
He hadn't time to do any more than leave a few lines for you, but he
asked me to tell you that nothing disturbing had occurred. He
specially mentioned that everything was all right."
"But how very sudden!" exclaimed Miss Alicia, opening her note and
beginning to read it. Plainly it had been written hurriedly indeed. It
read as though he had been in such haste that he hadn't had time to be
clear.
Dear little Miss Alicia:
I've got to light out of here as quick as I can make it. I can't even
stop to tell you why. There's just one thing-- don't get rattled, Miss
Alicia. Whatever any one says or does, just don't let yourself get
rattled.
Yours affectionately,
T. TEMBAROM.
"Pearson," Miss Alicia exclaimed, again looking up, "are you sure
everything is all right?"
"That was what he said, ma'am. `All right,' ma'am."
"Thank you, Pearson. I am glad to hear it."
She walked to and fro in the sunshine, reading the note and rereading
it.
"Of course if he said it was all right, it was all right," she
murmured. "It is only the phrasing that makes me slightly nervous. Why
should he ask me not to get rattled?" The term was by this time as
familiar to her as any in Dr. Johnson's dictionary. "Of course he
knows I do get rattled much too easily; but why should I be in danger
of getting rattled now if nothing has happened?" She gave a very small
start as she remembered something. "Could it be that Captain Palliser-
- But how could he? Though I do not like Captain Palliser."
Captain Palliser, her distaste for whom at the moment quite agitated
her, was this morning an early riser also, and as she turned in her
walk she found him coming toward her.
"I find I am obliged to take an early train to London this morning,"
he said, after their exchange of greetings. "It is quite unexpected. I
spoke to Mr. Temple Barholm about it last night."
Perhaps the unexpectedness, perhaps a certain suggestion of
coincidence, caused Miss Alicia's side ringlets to appear momentarily
tremulous.
"Then perhaps we had better go in to breakfast at once," she said.
"Is Mr. Temple Barholm down?" he inquired as they seated themselves at
the breakfast-table.
"He is not here," she answered. "He, too, was called away
unexpectedly. He went to London by the midnight train."
She had never been so aware of her unchristian lack of liking for
Captain Palliser as she was when he paused a moment before he made any
comment. His pause was as marked as a start, and the smile he indulged
in was, she felt, most singularly disagreeable. It was a smile of the
order which conceals an unpleasant explanation of itself.
"Oh," he remarked, "he has gone first, has he?"
"Yes," she answered, pouring out his coffee for him. "He evidently had
business of importance."
They were quite alone, and she was not one of the women one need
disturb oneself about. She had been browbeaten into hypersensitive
timidity early in life, and did not know how to resent cleverly
managed polite bullying. She would always feel herself at fault if she
was tempted to criticize any one. She was innocent and nervous enough
to betray herself to any extent, because she would feel it rude to
refuse to answer questions, howsoever far they exceeded the limits of
polite curiosity. He had learned a good deal from her in the past. Why
not try what could be startled out of her now? Thus Captain Palliser
said:
"I dare say you feel a little anxious at such an extraordinarily
sudden departure," he suggested amiably. "Bolting off in the middle of
the night was sudden, if he did not explain himself."
"He had no time to explain," she answered.
"That makes it appear all the more sudden. But no doubt he left you a
message. I saw you were reading a note when I joined you on the
terrace."
Lightly casual as he chose to make the words sound, they were an
audacity he would have known better than to allow himself with any one
but a timid early-Victorian spinster whose politeness was
hypersensitive in its quality.
"He particularly desired that I should not be anxious," she said. "He
is always considerate."
"He would, of course, have explained everything if he had not been so
hurried?"
"Of course, if it had been necessary," answered Miss Alicia, nervously
sipping her tea.
"Naturally," said Captain Palliser. "His note no doubt mentioned that
he went away on business connected with his friend Mr. Strangeways?"
There was no question of the fact that she was startled.
"He had not time enough," she said. "He could only write a few lines.
Mr. Strangeways?"
"We had a long talk about him last night. He told me a remarkable
story," Captain Palliser went on. "I suppose you are quite familiar
with all the details of it?"
"I know how he found him in New York, and I know how generous he has
been to him."
"Have you been told nothing more?"
"There was nothing more to tell. If there was anything, I am sure he
had some good reason for not telling me," said Miss Alicia, loyally.
"His reasons are always good."
Palliser's air of losing a shade or so of discretion as a result of
astonishment was really well done.
"Do you mean to say that he has not even hinted that ever since he
arrived at Temple Barholm he has strongly suspected Strangeways'
identity--that he has even known who he is?" he exclaimed.
Miss Alicia's small hands clung to the table-cloth.
"He has not known at all. He has been most anxious to discover. He has
used every endeavor," she brought out with some difficulty.
"You say he has been trying to find out?" Palliser interposed.
"He has been more than anxious," she protested. "He has been to London
again and again; he has gone to great expense; he has even seen people
from Scotland Yard. I have sometimes almost thought he was assuming
more responsibility than was just to himself. In the case of a
relative or an old friend, but for an entire stranger--Oh, really, I
ought not to seem to criticize. I do not presume to criticize his
wonderful generosity and determination and goodness. No one should
presume to question him."
"If he knows that you feel like this--" Palliser began.
"He knows all that I feel," Miss Alicia took him up with a pretty,
rising spirit. "He knows that I am full of unspeakable gratitude to
him for his beautiful kindness to me; he knows that I admire and
respect and love him in a way I could never express, and that I would
do anything in the world he could wish me to do."
"Naturally," said Captain Palliser. "I was only about to express my
surprise that since he is aware of all this he has not told you who he
has proved Strangeways to be. It is a little odd, you know."
"I think "--Miss Alicia was even gently firm in her reply --"that you
are a little mistaken in believing Mr. Temple Barholm has proved Mr.
Strangeways to be anybody. When he has proof, he will no doubt think
proper to tell me about it. Until then I should prefer--"
Palliser laughed as he finished her sentence.
"Not to know. I was not going to betray him, Miss Alicia. He evidently
has one of his excellent reasons for keeping things to himself. I may
mention, however, that it is not so much he who has proof as I
myself."
"You!" How could she help quite starting in her seat when his gray
eyes fixed themselves on her with such a touch of finely amused
malice?
"I offered him the proof last night, and it rather upset him," he
said. "He thought no one knew but himself, and he was not inclined to
tell the world. He was upset because I said I had seen the man and
could swear to his identity. That was why he went away so hurriedly.
He no doubt went to see Strangeways and talk it over."
"See Mr. Strangeways? But Mr. Strangeways--" Miss Alicia rose and rang
the bell.
"Tell Pearson I wish to see him at once," she said to the footman.
Palliser took in her mood without comment. He had no objection to
being present when she made inquiries of Pearson.
"I hear the wheels of the dog-cart," he remarked. "You see, I must
catch my train."
Pearson stood at the door.
"Is not Mr. Strangeways in his room, Pearson?" Miss Alicia asked.
"Mr. Temple Barholm took him to London when he last went, ma'am,"
answered Pearson. "You remember he went at night. The doctor thought
it best."
"He did not tell you that, either?" said Palliser, casually.
"The dog-cart is at the door, sir," announced Pearson.
Miss Alicia's hand was unsteady when the departing guest took it.
"Don't be disturbed," he said considerately, "but a most singular
thing has happened. When I asked so many questions about Temple
Barholm's Man with the Iron Mask I asked them for curious reasons.
That must be my apology. You will hear all about it later, probably
from Palford & Grimby."
When he had left the room Miss Alicia stood upon the hearth- rug as
the dog-cart drove away, and she was pale. Her simple and easily
disturbed brain was in a whirl. She could scarcely remember what she
had heard, and could not in the least comprehend what it had seemed
intended to imply, except that there had been concealed in the
suggestions some disparagement of her best beloved.
Singular as it was that Pearson should return without being summoned,
when she turned and found that he mysteriously stood inside the
threshold again, as if she had called him, she felt a great sense of
relief.
"Pearson," she faltered, "I am rather upset by certain things which
Captain Palliser has said. I am afraid I do not understand."
She looked at him helplessly, not knowing what more to say. She wished
extremely that she could think of something definite.
The masterly finish of Pearson's reply lay in its neatly restrained
hint of unobtrusively perceptive sympathy.
"Yes, Miss. I was afraid so. Which is why I took the liberty of
stepping into the room again. I myself do not understand, but of
course I do not expect to. If I may be so bold as to say it, Miss,
whatever we don't understand, we both understand Mr. Temple Barholm.
My instructions were to remind you, Miss, that everything would be all
right."
Miss Alicia took up her letter from the table where she had laid it
down.
"Thank you, Pearson," she said, her forehead beginning to clear itself
a little. "Of course, of course. I ought not to-- He told me not to--
get rattled," she added with plaintive ingenuousness, "and I ought not
to, above all things."
"Yes, Miss. It is most important that you should not."
