"Yes, my dear Bill, it is just as you imagine. The driver was my
companion of the Saxon Cross Hotel. He recognized me at once as I turned
to enter the Club. He really was a big man and he looked much bigger in
his long motoring overall than in his knickerbockers. 'Great Scott!' he
exclaimed. 'It's you! Do come in. I say, you chaps,' he called. 'Here's
a bit of luck. A friend of mine,' I was introduced, and he towered over
me smiling, his great hook nose dividing his face and distracting one's
attention from his eyes. We sat down to tea, and he told the other men
the tale of our meeting, omitting any mention of the fourteen pounds,
however, for which I was rather glad. I shouldn't like those chaps to
think I was a bally usurer. I made a move to go, but he wouldn't hear of
it. I was to go to his place to dinner. We went in the car. It was more
like an omnibus than a private vehicle. I sat beside him as we flew down
Dover Street, across Piccadilly and into St. James'. He told me he had
sold three cars like this in a week to Lord This and the Duke of That--I
forget the names. He told me, moreover, that his commission on each car
was four hundred pounds. And when we reached his chambers and I saw his
furniture and flowers and pictures and servants' livery, I could quite
believe it. He was living at the rate of ten thousand a year. Well, we
dined as we were, Carville insisting that as I was up from the country
they should bar evening dress for one night. This was rather pretty in
its way, and I found he was a curious mixture of prettiness and
downright brutal ruthlessness. I found a man I knew slightly among the
guests, a chap named Effon, son of the soap man, and he told me that
Carville was one of the most extraordinary men he had ever met, that
women would almost come to him at the crooking of his finger, and even
men of mature age were dominated by him. And, as a matter of fact, soon
after Effon told me this, there was a case in point. Carville's flat
looked from the second floor on St. James' Street. One of the men who
lived at Chislehurst wanted to catch the 12.6 at Victoria and mentioned
casually to the servant to bring a car round. 'You won't catch the
12.6,' says Carville. 'Oh, yes, I shall,' said the other man. 'I bet you
a fiver you won't,' says Carville. 'Done,' said the other. It was about
twenty minutes to twelve then, and in the buzz of conversation and a
couple of games of cards Carville forgot his bet for a moment. Suddenly
he saw that the fellow was gone. He rushed to the door and found it
locked. Of course we all saw the game, and believed that Carville would
laugh and admit himself out-manoeuvred. Not a bit of it. He turned on
us, one hand on the door handle, and his face grew absolutely black with
rage. Honest Injun, I was scared of him then! He bounded across the
room, opened the window, sprang out upon the big stone coping and ran
along to the next flat. Here he opened the window--(I've heard afterward
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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