When the glasses were brought, he lifted his and cried: 'Come, let us
drink to the confusion of all Rogues, great and small. Down with 'em!'
'Your toast, Mr. Checkley,' replied the barrister, 'would make my
profession useless; if there were no rogues, there would be no Law.
That, however, would injure me less than many of my brethren. I drink,
therefore, confusion to Rogues, great and small. Down with 'em.--This is
excellent grog.--Down with 'em!' So saying, he finished his glass and
departed to his garret, where, thanks to the grog, he slept nobly, and
dreamed that he was a Master in Chancery.
The reason of this unaccustomed mirth was as follows: Checkley by this
time had fully established in his own mind the conclusion that the
prime mover in the deed--the act--the Thing--was none other than the new
partner, the young upstart, whom he hated with a hatred
unextinguishable. He was as certain about him as he had been certain
about Athelstan Arundel, and for much the same reasons. Very well. As
yet he had not dared to speak: King Pharaoh's chief scribe would have
had the same hesitation at proffering any theory concerning Joseph.
To-night, however---- But you shall hear.
Everybody was out of the office at half-past seven, when he left it. He
walked round the empty rooms, looking into unlocked drawers--one knows
not what he expected to find. He looked into Mr. Austin's room and shook
his fist and grinned at the empty chair.
'I'll have you yet,' he said. 'Oh, fox! fox! I'll have you, if I wait
for thirty years?'
It adds an additional pang to old age when one feels that if the end
comes prematurely, when one is only ninety or so, there may be a revenge
unfinished. I have always envied the dying hero who had no enemies to
forgive because he had killed them all.
When Checkley left the place he walked across the Inn and so into
Chancery Lane, where he crossed over and entered Gray's Inn by the
Holborn archway. He lingered in South Square: he walked all round it
twice: he read the names on the door-posts, keeping all the time an eye
on No. 22. Presently, he was rewarded. A figure which he knew, tall and
well proportioned, head flung back, walked into the Inn and made
straight for No. 22. It was none other than Athelstan Arundel.--The old
man crept into the entrance, where he was partly hidden; he could see
across the Square, himself unseen. Athelstan walked into the house and
up the stairs: the place was quiet: Checkley could hear his steps on the
wooden stairs: he heard him knock at a door--he heard the door open and
the voices of men talking.
'Ah!' said Checkley, 'now we've got 'em!'
Well--but this was not all. For presently there came into the Inn young
Austin himself.
'Oh!' said Checkley, finishing his sentence--'on toast. Here's the
other; here they are--both.'
In fact, George, too, entered the house known as No. 22 and walked up
the stairs.
Checkley waited for no more. He ran out of the Inn and he called a cab.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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