The Man Who Lost HimselfStacpoole, H. De Vere (Henry De Vere)
General
The Man Who Lost Himself
Stacpoole, H. De Vere (Henry De Vere)
Mistaken identity -- Fiction
They sat on the divan and played pitch and toss. At the end of ten
minutes, Jones had won twenty pounds.
"I think I will stop now," said Smithers. "Give me back that sovereign I
lent you to toss with."
"But you owe me twenty pounds," said Jones.
"I'll pay you that to-morrow," said Smithers; "these sovereigns are not
to be spent, they are only for playing with."
"Oh, that doesn't matter," said Jones, handing back the coin, and
recognising that, penniless as he was, here was a small fund to be
drawn upon by cunning, should he find a means of escape. "I'm rich. I'm
worth ten millions."
"Ten million sovereigns?"
"Yes."
"Golden ones, like these?"
"Yes."
"I say," said Smithers, "could you lend me one or two?"
"Yes, rather."
"But you mustn't tell Hoover."
"Of course I won't."
"When will you lend me them?"
"When I get my bag of sovereigns from London. They are coming down
soon."
"I like you," said Smithers. "We'll be great friends, won't we?"
"Rather, come out in the garden."
They went out.
The garden encircled the house, big wrought iron gates, locked, gave
upon the road.
The tennis and croquet lawns lay at the back of the house, brick walls,
covered in part with fruit trees, surrounded the whole place. The wall
on the left of the house struck Jones as being practicable, and he
noticed that none of the walls were spiked or glassed. Hoover's patients
were evidently not of the dangerous and agile type.
"What's at the other side of this wall?" asked Jones, as they passed
along by the left hand barrier. Smithers giggled.
"Girls," said he.
"Girls! what sort of girls?"
"Little ones with long hair and bigger ones; they learn their lessons
there, it's a school. The gardener left his ladder there one day and I
climbed up. There were a lot of girls there. I nodded to them, and they
all came to the wall. I made them all laugh. I asked them to come over
the wall and toss for sovereigns--then a lady came and told me to go
away. She didn't seem to like me."
Jones, all during luncheon--the meal was served in his own
apartments--revolved things in his mind, Smithers amongst others.
Smithers' mania for handling gold had evidently been satisfied by giving
him these few coins to play with. They were real ones, Jones had
satisfied himself of that. Smithers, despite his want of chin, was
evidently not a person to be put off with counterfeit coin. Jones had
come down from London dressed just as he had called at Curzon Street.
That is to say in a black morning coat and grey trousers. His tall hat
had evidently been forgotten by his deporters. After luncheon he asked
for a cap to wear in the garden, and was supplied with a grey tweed
shooting cap of Hoover's.
With this on his head he took his seat in an arbour, an arbour which, he
noticed, had its opening facing the house.
Here, smoking, he continued revolving his plans, and here afternoon tea
was served to him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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