"It will be made manifest in time," said Bella firmly; "your father, or
your father's body, will be found. Where are Durgo and Henry to be
buried?"
"In Marshely churchyard to-morrow. I shall go to the funeral. I am sorry
for Durgo. In spite of his skin he was a real white man. And when he is
under the earth, Bella, I think we had better sell the jewels and marry,
and take a trip round the world in order to forget all this terrible
business. I am quite glad it is over."
"It is not over yet," insisted Bella, "your father has to be found, and
Mrs. Vand must be discovered."
"Or their bodies," said Cyril significantly, and turned away.
It must not be thought that young Lister was callous. His father had
never been one to him, and, moreover, his son had seen so little of him,
that he was as strange to the young man as he had been to the boy. Cyril
deeply regretted the gulf that was between them, as he was of a truly
affectionate nature, but his father always had repelled the least sign
of tenderness. He only looked on Cyril as one to be made use of, and
borrowed from him on every occasion. Had he succeeded in getting the
jewels and had aided Durgo to regain his chiefdom, he would have
remained in Nigeria as a kind of savage prime minister, without casting
a thought to his son. And whether his father was dead or alive, Cyril
knew that he would have to repay the one thousand pounds which he had
borrowed to cover his father's delinquency in respect of the forged
cheque. How could such a son as Cyril Lister respect or love such a
parent as Edwin of the same name?
Nevertheless, Cyril, although he said little to Bella, was very anxious
to ascertain the fate of his father. It seemed very certain that Tunks
had seen him murdered by the evil-hearted old sailor, but what that
scoundrel had done with the body could not be discovered. In vain the
police dug in the cellars of the Manor-house, tapped the walls, ripped
up the floors, and dragged the boundary channel. The body of Edwin
Lister could not be found, and as no one had seen him save Tunks, and
Pence, and Bella, who had all mistaken him for Cyril, the police began
to believe that Edwin, the father, was a myth. And Cyril could not make
Inglis see otherwise for all his urging and confession.
"If the man is alive, why doesn't he turn up?" asked Inglis; "and if
dead, why can't we find his body?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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