To the porter who told him that the Englishman, Mr. Faikes, was engaged
in his private room Benny merely replied: "Go back, and say he’ll have
to see me." Thereafter, he waited, standing immobile in the hall, and
quite unconscious of the guests who studied him with critical eyes.
Some of these knew him for the winner of the Grand Prix down at Andana,
and wondered that such a man should interest himself in Alpine sports;
but others made a jest upon his earnestness, and said, behind their
papers, that he looked like the impersonification of tragedy.
Luton Delayne had a sitting-room looking over toward the Weisshorn, and
here Benny discovered him a few moments later. A whisky-and-soda stood
at his side, and the ends of innumerable cigarettes lay in a tawdry
Swiss ash-tray. Evidently he had but recently returned from the open,
for he still wore heavy boots and puttees, and these were wet with the
snow. His manner was characteristically aggressive, and his question,
"Well, what the devil do you want with me?" quite in the expected tone.
Benny shut the door of the room carefully behind him, and then crossed
it on tip-toe, an unnecessary proceeding, but one in keeping with his
own desire for secrecy. His hands were thrust deep in his trousers
pockets, and he had quite forgotten to take off the old Alpine hat
without which his best friends at Andana would not have recognised him.
Delayne could not but see that this man had a right to come to him as he
did, and his face blanched suddenly.
"You know why I have come here, Sir Luton—none but a d——d fool would ask
that question. I’ve come to save your neck!"
Delayne puffed hard at his cigarette, and then laid the end of it down
with the others.
"Oh," he exclaimed in the grand manner; "so you know about the row,
then?"
Benny went to the window and looked out. The plateau lay a hundred
yards from the hotel, but was hidden by a belt of trees. He wondered if
others had already made their way there—searching for what he had found.
The minutes were precious if he would save this madman for a woman’s
sake.
"Yes," he said, swinging round on his heel, "I know about the row. Half
the place is talking about it. I suppose you’ll be joining in yourself
just now—when the police come along. That should be before morning with
any luck—it won’t be much later anyway."
The baronet rose and walked across to the window. Benny could see that
his hands were twitching, while his eyes almost danced in his head.
"The man followed me," he said inconsequently. "It was the most damnably
impertinent thing I ever saw in all my life. When I asked him what he
wanted, he wouldn’t say a word. I warned him to keep off, and he was on
my heels again in five minutes. Would you stand that yourself? You’re a
man, and can judge between us? Would you stand it?"
Benny shrugged his shoulders.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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