Adventure stories; Inheritance and succession -- Fiction
"No; they are not. There’s no one of that name in the house that I know
of," replied Forsyth, partially mollified by his mild manner, and wholly
so when the little man proceeded to apologize for his mistake,
explaining that he was from a chemist’s in the Strand with some medicine
for the gentleman, but that he must have come to the wrong house.
Holding up a bottle as evidence of his _bona fides_, he retreated
downstairs, excusing himself to the last; but before going he had
managed to snatch a comprehensive glance round the room. Forsyth waited
on the landing until his steps had died away, and then went back into
his room, barring the door as before.
"It’s all right," he said, going to the folding doors. "Only some chap
who had mistaken the address."
"Not much mistake there," replied the Duke, outwardly calm, but gone
very white. "I caught a peep of him. He’s a johnny who shadowed me over
from America, and never left me till just before I met you at the Cecil.
He called himself Marker, and—and he’s in this business, Alec."
"He didn’t look very formidable. Why, you could lick the thread-paper
little skimp with one hand," said Forsyth, beginning to wonder if his
friend’s mind were unhinged. It was not like the once gay hussar Charley
Hanbury—intrepid horseman, champion boxer, and good all-round athlete—to
funk a miserable wisp such as that!
"He is only the spy, I expect—sent to find out if I was here," replied
Beaumanoir, passing a weary hand over his eyes.
Moved by a sudden impulse, Forsyth went into the bedroom, shutting the
door behind him so as to be in the dark. The window commanded a view of
the street, and the blind had not been drawn. Looking down, he saw a man
sauntering on the opposite pavement, who presently coming under the rays
of a street-lamp was revealed as Marker. Forsyth waited until the spy
turned and slowly retraced his steps, and then went back into the
sitting-room.
"You have convinced me that there is something in all this," he said.
"That fellow is mouching about outside."
"I’ll go. I can’t subject you to this sort of thing," said Beaumanoir,
reaching for the new hat which he had purchased after his "accident."
But Forsyth pushed him back into his chair.
"A duke isn’t necessarily a fool," he said, roughly. "What you want most
is a good sleep, and you shall have it—here in these rooms. Mr. Marker
can’t _know_ that you are here, or he wouldn’t have come to the door
with that bogus yarn. Also, he is evidently not satisfied that you are
_not_ here, or he would have gone away. It remains to throw dust in his
eyes and fool him a bit. Lord! how I wish my uncle, General Sadgrove,
was with us!"
"He seemed to me a trifle dull," remarked the Duke, inconsequently.
Forsyth made allowances, and did not answer.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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