The Devil's Cocktail (15 page)

The newcomer stopped, and there was a smile of contemptuous amusement on her face. Hugh rose clumsily to his feet.

‘Good evening!' he said, and swallowed hard.

‘Good evening!' replied Miss Gregson mockingly, and her voice was raised, so that all in the neighbourhood could hear. ‘I am glad to see you are enjoying yourself so much, Hugh Shannon!'

‘Thanks!' he stammered awkwardly.

‘Please don't thank me! It is hard to think that you who stand there are the man who has wrecked my life!'

‘Wrecked your life! What do you mean?'

‘Oh, don't pretend because all these people are around you!'

‘If you have anything to say let us go somewhere else,' he said desperately.

‘No!' She raised her head high. ‘I prefer to say what I have to say – here!'

He shrugged his shoulders, and sat down. Miles stepped forward and took her by the arm. She pulled herself away.

‘Miss Olive,' said the American coaxingly, ‘whatever you are sore about can be put right elsewhere. Have a little consideration.'

She looked coldly at him.

‘You, I know, are in league with that cad there, or else you would not interfere!'

‘But—'

‘Be quiet!' she almost shouted, then went on hurriedly to Hugh. ‘You made love to me on board ship, you made me love you and promised to marry me. Then when you had tired of me you threw me over like any old rag. I went back to Bangalore heartbroken, but—'

‘Stop!' cried Joan in a voice of agony.

‘I will not stop! Your brother has ruined me, and I have come to him for reparation. I loved him – I trusted him, and—and he took advantage of me. I went back to Bangalore and tried to forget him. But when I found what had happened I came here as fast as I could. He must – must marry me to save me from disgrace!'

She covered her face with her hands and sobbed. Miss Palmer rose from her seat, and with a look of the deepest contempt walked away followed by her companions, the two men grinning cynically. Then by ones and twos the rest of their neighbours rose
and departed, first casting looks of scorn at Hugh. Joan had sunk over the table, and with her head pillowed in her arms was crying as though her heart would break. Miles caught Miss Gregson by the shoulders.

‘You she-cat,' he ground out, and nobody would have recognised the calm, easy-going American now. ‘You all-fired liar! You'll take back every word that you have spoken before I have done with you!'

She dragged herself away from him.

‘Don't dare to speak to me like that!' she cried. ‘I am going back to the Royal Hotel, and tomorrow I expect Hugh Shannon to make all arrangements for the wedding.'

And turning she walked out of the room, and disappeared. Miles laid his arm on Hugh's shoulder.

‘Say, Hugh,' he said, ‘I'm sorry! I expected something; but hell – nothing like this!'

‘Let us go home!' said Hugh miserably.

At that moment the band struck up, prompted by some kindly spirit, and under cover of the dancing Hugh and Miles escorted Joan, who was still crying bitterly, to the ladies' retiring room. Then the two men with grim, set faces sought their own coats and hats. There were one or two acquaintances of Hugh's in the cloakroom, and they drew aside with shrugs which were more eloquent than words. Miles was about to remonstrate with them, but Hugh caught his arm.

‘It's no use, old chap!' he said. ‘Come along!'

They drove home in grim silence.

In the early hours of the same morning, Miss Gregson was seated in the comfortable drawing room of Novar's bungalow, puffing a cigarette. Rahtz and Hudson were lolling in large armchairs with whiskies and sodas by their sides and cigars in their mouths, while
Novar was leaning against the mantelpiece similarly equipped. He was speaking.

‘The moment was admirably chosen,' he said, with deep satisfaction, ‘and everything went off much better than I anticipated. I congratulate you on your admirable stage-management, Hudson, and you, Miss Gregson, on your perfect acting of a most difficult part.'

‘It was pretty nerve-racking I assure you,' said the girl. ‘I felt rather awful standing there with all those people around, and saying what I did.'

‘Well, it's done now, and you have had the satisfaction of ruining Shannon,' put in Rahtz, lazily flicking his cigar ash on to the carpet. ‘I shall see that the whole facts are placed before the Principal of his College today, and he will be compelled to resign. Such a thing as this would never be tolerated by the Muslim community. After that he will find Lahore an impossible place for him. Yes; you have done well – very well indeed!'

‘I can't help feeling rather guilty,' said Olive. ‘It was awfully mean, wasn't it?'

‘Not a bit,' said Hudson. ‘Remember the indignity he put upon you on board ship!'

A hard smile came into her face.

‘Well, I have repaid him with interest,' she remarked.

‘Compound interest, I should say,' smiled Rahtz. ‘That reminds me,' he added to Novar, ‘I think that Miss Gregson might now receive the remuneration we promised her for her services.'

‘Quite so!' said Novar.

He took a roll of bank notes out of his pocket.

‘Let me see!' he went on. ‘You have received money for all your expenses have you not, Miss Gregson?'

She nodded.

‘Then I have much pleasure in handing you the thousand rupees promised for tonight's entertainment!'

He counted out ten hundred rupee notes, and handed them to her with a little bow. She took them and smiled up at him.

‘Thank you!' she said. ‘May I know now why you three men are so anxious to ruin Captain Shannon?'

They looked at each other.

‘Let me remark, Miss Gregson,' said Novar, ‘that that is a matter which only concerns us. You have had your revenge! Surely that is all that matters to you!'

‘Or why not put it in this way,' remarked Rahtz. ‘We deeply sympathised with you, and wanted to help you!'

‘And so you not only did that!' she said cynically, ‘but paid me a thousand rupees and my expenses as well.' She shrugged her shoulders. ‘Oh, well, as Mr Novar says, it is only a matter that concerns you!'

‘Just so!' said Novar. ‘And we have your word that you will never let any mention of this – er – little transaction pass your lips.'

‘You may be sure I shall not speak,' she replied. ‘I am hardly likely to, am I?'

‘You must leave for Bangalore without fail today!' said Hudson suddenly. ‘That is imperative!'

‘Can't I wait until tomorrow?'

‘No; it would be most foolish. Shannon will not lie down under the insult you have put upon him.'

‘But I told him I was staying at the Royal Hotel, not the Northern India!'

‘That does not matter! Lahore is not a very large place, and it would be dangerous for you to stop a minute longer than necessary.'

‘I agree with Hudson,' said Novar. ‘We are sorry to hurry you off, Miss Gregson, but we have no choice.'

‘Oh, all right!' she said. ‘But it isn't Shannon I'm afraid of. He's a broken man! It's that American – Miles!'

Rahtz laughed.

‘You needn't fear him,' he remarked. ‘He's a harmless fool! As a matter of fact I expected him to shun Shannon like the rest of the dear, eminently proper and shocked assembly. He rather touched me by his true-friend-in-a-calamity behaviour.'

‘If you had only seen his face and heard his voice when he caught hold of me,' she said, ‘you'd understand why I fear him.'

‘Well, you'll soon be away from both of them,' said Novar; ‘and now I think perhaps a little rest will do you good before your journey!'

‘I'll drive you to the hotel,' said Hudson.

‘Thank you!' she replied insolently. ‘I hardly intended to walk!'

It was a very miserable party which entered Shannon's bungalow on their return from the Club. Cousins was sitting in an armchair before a large fire in the sitting room reading the newspaper. He rose and looked curiously at the unhappy trio.

‘What on earth has happened?' he began. ‘You all look as though—'

‘For the love of Mike, fetch some whisky and sodas like a good chap,' said Miles ‘and some port for Miss Shannon.'

‘I don't want anything, thank you,' murmured Joan.

‘I want you to be guided by me in this, Miss Joan. A glass of port will do you a world of good.'

‘All right!' she said in the same low, colourless voice.

Without another word Cousins went off to do the American's bidding, and nothing more was said until everybody was supplied with a drink. Hugh sat in a chair, his legs stretched out, his chin resting on his breast, gazing at the fire; Miles chewed savagely at a half-smoked cigar; Joan sat bolt upright, her head drooping
pathetically. As for Cousins, he glanced from one to the other with a puzzled frown on his face. Presently Joan broke the silence.

‘What a little idiot I was to – to cry!' she said bitterly. ‘I wish now that I had faced the whole roomful of people, and defended Hugh!'

‘It wouldn't have been of much use,' remarked Miles.

Cousins sighed gently.

‘Am I not to be informed of the trouble?' he asked plaintively.

In a few short, pithy sentences the American told him what had happened. The little man's teeth snapped together as he listened, and his eyes flashed with a look that was seldom seen in them.

‘Great Heavens!' he exclaimed. ‘I knew there was some mischief brewing, but this—' A sound very much like a curse came from him.

Hugh sat up.

‘It was devilishly engineered,' he said. ‘The band had stopped, the floor was clear, and Joan and Miles had just previously brought attention on our corner by doing a special dance. A better opportunity couldn't have been found. All those round us were the greatest scandal-mongers in Lahore, people without understanding, without mercy. There is not a soul in the whole of the civil station who won't know all about it today, with a few picturesque details added. I'm ruined – absolutely and irrevocably.'

‘I guess not,' growled Miles. ‘I'm going to make that dame eat her words!'

‘You can't!' said Hugh. ‘If you did you would have to tackle Hudson and Novar and Rahtz and it would mean disclosing our knowledge to them, giving away your own position, and spoiling everything!'

‘I reckon there's a way somehow, and I'm going to find it!'

‘I'm hanged if I can think of anything,' said Cousins mournfully. ‘If only we could have foreseen this!'

‘Well, we didn't, and that's that!' replied the American with an irritation which was foreign to him. ‘I'll see that girl anyhow, and if I can't think of anything else in the meantime, I'll put the fear of the Lord into her.'

‘You'll have to be quick,' said Cousins. ‘She'll be away for Bangalore by the first train she can catch tomorrow, or rather today?'

Joan looked up hopefully.

‘Won't that make people realise that she was not telling the truth?' she asked.

‘Not on your life, Miss Joan,' replied Miles. ‘Their evil minds will at once come to the conclusion that your brother has bought her off. Where did she say she was staying, Hugh?'

‘At the Royal!'

‘Then it is certain,' put in Cousins quietly, ‘that she will be elsewhere.'

‘Yes,' said Hugh; ‘she'll probably be at Novar's where Cousins saw her first, and where you can't possibly get at her.'

‘No,' said the American; ‘your brains are dusty, and I don't wonder. Novar's bungalow, or Rahtz's, or Hudson's are just the very places she won't be. None of those guys are going to bring the least suspicion on themselves by a fool idea like that.'

‘Who's to know?'

‘Such a thing is always likely to be found out. No; she's staying in some hotel in Lahore, but not the Royal as Jerry says, and I'm sure going to find out right now.'

‘How?' asked Joan.

He smiled for the first time since they had left the Club.

‘There's a dandy little instrument hanging in the corridor, Miss Joan, called a telephone, and with it is a directory. With the aid of those two, one can find out a mighty lot!'

Hugh rose from his chair, with a cry of impatience.

‘What's the use?' he said. ‘The mischief is done I'll be asked to resign from the Club, the Governor will hear of it – everybody. My name will be anathema in Lahore. No doubt I shall be politely requested to hand in my resignation at the College. Even the Chief will probably hear, and I shall be ruined in every respect. It's – it's damnable!'

‘Say, don't be a greater fool than you can help, Shannon. The Chief isn't going to take any notice of idiot reports like this, and once you have explained everything to the Governor – you say you have an appointment with him this evening – he's going to understand. I have met Sir Reginald Scott twice and he struck me as being a man of sense.'

Hugh smiled wanly at him.

‘You people are jolly decent,' he said, then gritted his teeth while an expression of despair came into his face. ‘But how do
you
know this thing is false?' he went on. ‘Perhaps, unknown to you, I was philandering with that girl on the ship! You have only my word against hers!'

‘Oh, Hugh!' cried Joan. ‘Don't be such an utter baby! It is cruel of you to say a thing like that!'

The American rose from his chair.

‘Shucks!' he said in a tone of disgust, and went off to the telephone.

‘Some are born idiots; some achieve idiocy; others have idiocy thrust upon them!' muttered Cousins.

Then suddenly Hugh smiled; it was rather a pale smile, but it had a sparkle of the old Hugh about it. He looked tenderly at Joan.

‘I'm sorry, old girl,' he said; ‘I hardly knew what I was saying. This thing has rather bowled me over, especially as it happened before the very people, who, I know, are only too eager to snatch at a crumb of
scandal to ruin a fellow. They got a whole loaf,' he added bitterly. ‘But I'm going to fight!'

‘Of course you are,' said Cousins approvingly. ‘None of us thought otherwise!'

Joan caught her brother's hand and pressed it.

‘You'll win through,' she said. ‘I know you will.'

In the meantime Miles was busy ringing up every hotel in Lahore. He could get no answer at all from two, while the others informed him that there was nobody of the name of Gregson on their books. He returned to the sitting room and sank into his chair.

‘I wasn't too lucky!' he said. ‘I couldn't get an answer from the Gordon, nor the Northern India, and all the rest informed me that they had nobody of the name of Gregson staying there. None of them appeared to be falling over themselves with delight at being rung up at this hour; in fact the fellow in the Punjab Hotel was even kind enough to tell me that it was nearly half past two!'

‘Well, that narrows the search down,' said Cousins.

‘Perhaps she is not using her proper name,' said Hugh. ‘Anyhow I don't see what you can do, even if you do find out where she is.'

‘I've no very clear notion myself at present,' replied Miles, ‘but I've given you my word that I'll see that that woman makes restitution, and I've never broken my word yet. You've got to leave it to me, Hugh!'

‘Very well!' replied Shannon. ‘Since you wish it!'

‘I do! And now you and Miss Joan go along and hit the hay! Jerry and I are going to sit right here and have a few thinks.'

‘Oh, but I say—' began Hugh.

‘Do what you're told, Shannon!' said Cousins. ‘You're not on in this act! Oscar and I are used to each other's brainstorms.'

‘And something always happens, when we get busy in the upper storey,' added Miles.

Hugh shrugged his shoulders.

‘Come on, Joan!' he said. ‘These fellows make me feel like a naughty child, who has overstayed his bed hour.'

‘So you have,' replied Cousins.

After Joan and her brother had departed, the other two made themselves perfectly comfortable, replenished their glasses and lit their pipes. Joan, whose room was next to the sitting room, heard the sound of subdued voices, occasionally punctuated by long periods of silence, for some time before she fell into a troubled sleep. It seemed to her semiconscious mind that just before she lapsed into slumber someone laughed.

Hugh and his sister met at breakfast and both showed signs of the trouble they had gone through. Miles did not put in an appearance – Cousins, of course, had his meals in his own room – and Hugh concluded that the American was still in bed. He made a poor attempt at eating and then went along to see him as soon as he had finished, but the bedroom was unoccupied. Feeling somewhat puzzled he entered Cousins' apartment, but here again the room was empty. He returned to Joan and told her of the absence of both. She smiled.

‘Depend upon it, Hugh,' she said, ‘they have thought of some way out of this awful business, and perhaps they are even now making that terrible Gregson woman confess that all she said was untrue.'

He smiled.

‘You are an optimist, Joan,' he said.

Miles' bearer passed through the room. He was a young
smart-looking
man with a cheerful smile. He had once been a soldier, and he brought his hand up to his turban in a military salute, as he said, ‘Salaam!' Even before the servants Hugh kept up the pretence of knowing no Hindustani.

‘Where is sahib?' he asked.

‘Going out too much early, sahib,' replied the bearer, who prided himself upon the knowledge of a little English.

‘What time?'

The other thought deeply for a moment, and crossing to the mantelshelf consulted the clock thereon, then he turned triumphantly to Hugh.

‘Seven o'clock going!' he said.

‘And Cousins? Where is he?'

‘Him going out with sahib!'

Shannon looked at Joan.

‘I wonder what they are up to!' he said.

He was later preparing to go down to the College to commence his daily work, and walked round to the garage to get his car out, when he discovered, somewhat to his indignation, that it was not there. He went back to the bungalow.

‘It's all very well,' he complained to Joan. ‘I don't mind their taking the car when I don't want it, but I've left myself barely a quarter of an hour to get to the College, and now there's no car to go in. A tonga will take more than twice as long!'

‘Never mind, Hugh,' said the girl; ‘and don't be ungrateful! They have gone out for your sake!'

He smiled and sent his bearer for a tonga. The small vehicle had arrived, and he was about to get in when the car, driven by Miles, tore in through the gateway and came to a stop with a jarring of brakes.

‘I'm sorry to keep you waiting,' said the American, as he descended from his seat. ‘And I hope you don't mind my commandeering the bus. But I didn't want to wake you and ask permission, when I knew it would be granted.'

‘That's all right,' replied Hugh. ‘I was going in a tonga.'

He took out a few annas, and was about to give them to the tonga-wallah, when Miles interposed.

‘Don't send him away!' he said. ‘I'm going out again after I've had some eats!'

‘You can have the car if you like!'

‘Not on you life! An ekka, or tonga, or whatever they call 'em, is quite good enough for me.'

‘Just as you like,' said Hugh, and getting into the car he drove away.

‘Do tell me what you've been doing,' pleaded Joan eagerly, as she accompanied Miles into the dining room.

He smiled.

‘Well, I found out where the Gregson woman is staying!'

‘Where?'

‘At the Northern India Hotel! I first went with Jerry to the Gordon and asked for her, but there was nothing doing, so we found our way to the other – a sure enough hotel, but a place where I wouldn't advise my worst enemy to stay. She was there right enough.'

‘Well?'

‘We couldn't pull even Olive out of bed at that hour besides there were one or two other things to be done first. I told the fellow in the office that I'd be right back. Then Cousins and I went to see a particular friend of his, and we had an almighty earnest talk with him while he was shaving. So earnest, in fact, that he cut himself. When we asked him to do a certain thing, at first he refused point blank, but old Jerry has a mighty persuasive manner, and he agreed in the end.'

‘What was it?'

‘I'm sorry, but I can't tell you just yet, Miss Joan!'

She pouted.

‘You've made me horribly curious!' she said.

‘You shall know everything before long. I left Cousins with his friend, so as to keep him up to scratch.'

‘Is there any chance of this horrible business being put right?' she asked earnestly.

‘Miss Joan,' he replied in as earnest a tone as hers, ‘if Hugh's name isn't absolutely cleared in the course of the next few hours, I shall be the most amazed man in the whole of this world!'

‘Oh, Oscar,' she said impulsively, ‘you're a dear!'

Then as realisation of what she had said came to her, she blushed a vivid scarlet. He half rose in his chair, and a look of delight shone on his face.

‘I'm – I'm so sorry!' she stammered.

‘Don't spoil it!' he said. ‘What is there to be sorry about? I never thought much of my name, but when you say it, it has possibilities I never noticed before. I hope you're always going to remember that Oscar sounds a deal better than Miles!'

She looked at him and smiled a trifle shyly.