As I brought the Rolls to a standstill, I heard a stifled cry. The next
moment Berry's voice hissed in my ear.
"Talk of the devil.... Look at the cove on the right. _It's Dunkelsbaum
himself._"
A lightning glance showed me the truth of his words. The original of the
photograph over which we had pored that morning was standing before us
in all the grossness of flesh.
Almost before I had recovered from the shock, the other--a long sallow
creature with a false grin and a cringing air--was at my elbow.
"You mutht eckthcuthe me," he lisped, uncovering, "but could you
pothibly give uth a lift ath far ath Brooch? Thith gentleman"--he
indicated Mr. Dunkelsbaum--"hath a motht important engagement there at
half-patht two, and, ath you thee, we have been unfortunate. Tho, if you
could thee your way to accommodating uth, we thould be greatly obliged."
Before I could reply--
"We can get there by half-past two," said Berry, speaking slowly and
distinctly, "if--_if we go through Ramilly._"
Now, Ramilly was a great enclosure, and could be entered from the
by-road down which the trolley had come. _But it was not on the way to
Brooch._
With the greatest difficulty I repressed a start. Then I leaned forward
as if to examine the dash, but in reality to conceal my excitement....
_Apparently guileless, my brother-in-law's protasis was nothing less
than a deliberate direction to me to postpone Mr. Dunkelsbaum's arrival
at Brooch until Merry Down was no longer in the market._
My heart began to beat violently....
Berry was speaking again.
"Wait half a minute, and we'll change over." He turned to Adele. "Will
you sit in front with Boy?"
As the change was being made, Mr. Dunkelsbaum advanced.
I have seldom set eyes upon a less prepossessing man. To liken him to a
vicious over-fed pug is more than charitable. Smug, purse-proud and
evil, his bloated countenance was most suggestive. There was no pity
about the coarse mouth, which he had twisted into a smile, two deep
sneer lines cut into the unwholesome pallor of his cheeks, from under
drooping lids two beady eyes shifted their keen appraising glance from
me to Berry and, for a short second, to Adele. There was about him not a
single redeeming feature, and for the brute's pompous carriage alone I
could have kicked him heartily.
The clothes were like unto the man.
From beneath a silk-faced overcoat, which he wore unbuttoned, the rich
contour of a white waistcoat thrust its outrageous way, spurning the
decent shelter of a black tail-coat and making the thick striped legs
look shorter than ever. A diamond pin winked in the satin tie, and a
black bowler hat and patent-leather boots mercifully covered, the one
his crown, and the others his short fat feet.
My gentleman raised his hat and removed a cigar from his mouth before
speaking in a thick voice and with a strong foreign accent.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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