"I didn't lie awake very long after we did go to bed, I can assure you.
We took our candles, I remember, and I told him we must breakfast
together. The next thing I remember was the chambermaid knocking at my
door and saying it was ten o'clock. Of course he was gone. You've been
expecting me to tell you that, I suppose. So he had gone and I was
fourteen pounds to the bad, unless he redeemed his IOU. He had told the
landlord to drive him into Peterboro'; and as I came down to breakfast
the trap returned. Of course, neither of us ever expected to see him
again, and when I looked at his IOU in the cold light of the day, it
seemed a very flimsy guarantee for my money. There was only one thing
about that IOU. It was written on the unused page torn from a letter,
and the watermark of the paper was Lydgate Bond. It was the same size as
Trojan Club paper too, for you know I belong to the Trojan Club, and
Trojans are not men who write to outsiders much. Not on club paper
anyway. In fact, the very audacity of the man led me to blame myself for
doubting him. He had not behaved just as a gentleman should, but on the
other hand he had done nothing underhand. There was a damn-you look
about him that made it unbelievable that he was a fraud. Soon after
breakfast I set out on my tramp, and, going through Stilton and
Huntingdon, made for Cambridge. All the way along I could not help
thinking about my boon companion of the night before, and wondering if I
should ever meet him again. It seemed very unlikely. He was so
interesting, quite apart from his peculiar financial position, and he
gave one such an impression of indomitable will power, with his
hawk-like face and brilliant eyes, that I wished I had made some
sketches of him. But he had not even asked to see my portfolio.
"Two or three days later I reached home, and in the general worry of
getting into harness again I forgot my gentleman for a while. It so
happened, however, that my dealer, about a fortnight later, asked me to
run up and call at his place in the Haymarket, as he had a commission
for me and his client wanted to see me. I biked into Colchester and took
the train to London. Business over, I went round to look in at the
Trojan's before I took a taxi for Liverpool Street. Just as I turned
into Dover Street, an enormous claret-coloured car came up with a
horrible noise on the horn, and stopped at the Trojan's door-step. I
know there are plenty of cars of large size about, but this one was
overwhelming. Everything about it was huge. The head-light was as big as
a dog-kennel, and the steering-wheel was a yard across. As the car
stopped, a lot of fellows got out of the _tonneau_ and the driver
followed, taking off his goggles.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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