The Devil's Cocktail (20 page)

Miles had discarded the newspaper long since, his cigar had gone out, and though he was sitting in a very comfortable chair, he had the appearance of a man who was anything but satisfied with himself. Once or twice he leant forward as though to address the silent figure near the fire, thought better of it, and sank back with a frown on his face. He took off his glasses, and polished them abstractedly … After a little while Joan turned to him, and started with surprise.

‘Good gracious!' she exclaimed. ‘How different you look!'

He smiled at her.

‘You mean without glasses?' he inquired.

‘Yes!'

‘I guess it does make a difference.' He was about to replace them when she stopped him.

‘Need you put them back just yet?' she asked.

‘Not if you don't want me to.'

‘I think I like you better without them – do you mind very much?'

‘I guess not,' he answered. ‘I don't wear them because I have to. They're only plain glass!'

‘Why on earth wear them at all then?' she asked in surprise.

‘Well, you see, Miss – er – I mean Joan, they give me the appearance of an amiable, harmless sort of guy, and I like to encourage that impression.'

She laughed.

‘I don't wonder,' she said. ‘You don't look harmless with them off – I mean to say,' she added hastily, ‘you look like a man who was used to the big things of life; one who would never deviate from the path of honour and duty, who would fight to the very last to obtain what you wanted. I—oh! What nonsense I'm talking!'

‘Don't say that! It's mighty good to hear you talk in that way – Do you really feel like that about me?'

She nodded – rather shyly. He rose and walked to the fireplace and stood looking down at her.

‘It might be true to a certain extent,' he said earnestly. ‘But the thing I want most in life I can't fight for at all. When I try to make an attempt, all the courage seems to ooze right out of my body and I feel like a darned jelly-fish.'

She smiled at him, but there was a misty something in her eyes which he found infinitely attractive.

‘I don't believe you,' she said. ‘I could never imagine you lacking courage, no matter what you had to face.'

‘Not even at the crisis of my life?'

‘No; less than ever then!'

‘I guess you're wrong, Joan, for the crisis is here right now; but I haven't any courage!'

She looked at the carpet, her face beginning to burn. She knew that she, too, was facing the crisis of her life, and though she felt unutterably confused, her heart was singing within her and a great thrill of wonder and joy was permeating her whole being. And thus, for some minutes, these two remained without speaking; the one longing, but dreading to declare his love, the other aching to hear him speak, and wanting to help him, but not knowing what to do, or what to say. At last he spoke, and his voice was hoarse with emotion and doubt.

‘Joan,' he said, ‘do you remember I promised to tell you a little story this morning? Gee, it seems longer ago than that!'

She nodded, but did not raise her head.

‘Say,' he went on desperately, ‘I'm a presumptuous fool ever to think that – that I could reach up to the heights and ask an angel to come down to me; to share my life; to give me a happiness I have never known. Joan, dear, that little tale was the story of my love –
I love you!
Only God knows how much!'

Then she looked up. Her face had become more scarlet than ever, but in her eyes was the glory of a love which even he could not mistake. With a great, passionate cry of joy he was on his knees in front of her chair, and had gathered her into his arms.

‘Joan, my little Joan!' he murmured.

‘I told you you would never lack courage, dear,' she said softly.

A little later Hugh, wearing a pair of carpet slippers, came quietly along the corridor and into the sitting room, stopped dead, backed out and retraced his steps. He met Cousins, and took him by the arm.

‘The sitting room is no place for you and me, old chap,' he said. ‘Come along to my bedroom!'

A smile appeared on the little man's face, and went on spreading until nothing could be seen but a mass of wrinkles, each one of which seemed to contain a smile of its own.

‘I am undone,' he said sadly, though his looks belied his words. ‘I, too, loved that lady fair. I hope she won't rob me of the little love she had for me. “Then mourn not, hapless prince, thy kingdom's lost; A crown, though late, thy sacred brows may boast; Heaven seems, through us, thy empire to decree, Those who win hearts have given their hearts to thee”.'

Hugh stopped and looked at the other.

‘I had no idea,' he said, ‘that I was going to lose a sister, and gain a brother-in-law. They seemed to have entirely forgotten that such mundane creatures as you and I existed!'

Cousins nodded solemnly.

‘“How hard it is his passion to confine, I'm sure 'tis so if I may judge by mine!”' he said.

‘For the Lord's sake come along, and have a drink,' said Hugh, ‘and let us toast them. A whisky and soda may wash down your poetry, though I doubt it.'

‘It's atmosphere!' said Cousins apologetically. ‘Just atmosphere.'

Once again Novar, Rahtz, and Hudson were gathered together in the former's bungalow, and, judging from the expression on their faces, their thoughts were far from pleasant ones.

After his encounter with Miles, Hudson had left the railway station a very worried man. He had driven straight to Novar's office, where he had poured into the latter's ear the story of all that had taken place. The Russian used very expressive language in describing his feelings, and immediately got on the telephone to Rahtz, who promised to call at the former's bungalow in the evening, despite the fact that he had a large party to dinner at his own house. Then again Hudson told his story, and the Principal of Mozang College was even more forcible than Novar had been.

‘That comes of trusting a woman,' he said, when he had used all the oaths he could muster. ‘To think that all our plans to rid ourselves of Shannon should be brought to naught by a female fool with a conscience!'

‘We've had a narrow escape,' remarked Novar uneasily. ‘Supposing she had divulged our connection with the business!'

‘You're sure she didn't?' inquired Rahtz sharply of Hudson.

‘Perfectly certain!' replied the latter. ‘Miles is too ingenuous not to have given away the fact, if he had known.'

‘Do you think that the American is such a fool as he looks?' asked Novar doubtfully. ‘I don't like his putting up with the Shannons all this time.'

Rahtz smiled sarcastically.

‘Oh, Miles is a fool right enough! I suppose it is the girl who is the attraction!'

Hudson started to his feet and swore.

‘If that is the case,' he said, ‘he has me to deal with. I want Joan Shannon and I'm going to get her!'

‘Don't be an idiot, Hudson!' said Novar. ‘We have more important things to think of than fooling about with women.'

‘Nevertheless, I mean to have Joan!' muttered the other.

‘So you shall when Shannon is out of the way,' laughed Rahtz. ‘In the meantime I am of the opinion that we must put our heads together and devise some means of removing him. I don't think he is dangerous, but he is a nuisance and nuisances should be obliterated.'

‘I agree with you,' nodded Novar. ‘I have a feeling that sooner or later he will stumble on to our track. He may even suspect us now! I did not like his being in such close conversation with Rainer at the Club last night.'

‘Oh, that was natural enough,' replied Rahtz. ‘The D.C. is just the man in whom he would confide, and no stretch of imagination would make Rainer suspect us. I am quite certain that Shannon is feeling bewildered and probably hopeless at his non-success.'

‘But now he knows that someone was behind the Gregson woman
in that little affair,' said Hudson, ‘he has something to go on.'

‘What? He will probably guess that the people he is looking for know him and are watching him, that's all!'

‘But don't you see? If this hadn't occurred he would have sent a statement to his chief eventually telling him that there was nothing suspicious going on, and now he will know there is.'

‘There's certainly something in that,' agreed Novar.

‘Yes,' grunted Rahtz; ‘and then he would have been recalled and we might have had Sir Leonard Wallace out here again.'

‘God forbid!' murmured Novar fervently, and Hudson went pale.

‘I wonder if there is a likelihood of his coming out in any case!' said the latter.

‘Not unless there was something very drastic taking place,' replied Rahtz, and added viciously, ‘Even if he did come we should know, and Wallace would be a dead man within half an hour of his arrival in India.'

They were busy with their own thoughts for some time after that, then Novar helped himself to a cigar and lit it.

‘We've had a nasty set-back,' he said, ‘and I confess that I don't like it. I don't like the part Miles has played in it either. They were very quick in finding out where Olive Gregson was really staying, and must have suspected that she gave the wrong address.'

‘Undoubtedly they acted at once,' said Rahtz.

‘And that is the very reason why I think that Shannon is perhaps more dangerous than we are aware.'

‘Oh, rubbish!' grunted the other. ‘It wouldn't take much perspicuity to discover where the girl was living, once they found she was not at the Royal. At the same time I am tired of being bothered by Shannon's presence in Lahore. We had better remove him without further ado.'

‘You don't mean to kill him?' asked Hudson.

‘Yes; why not?'

‘Such a course would cause a tremendous sensation, and be too dangerous to risk!'

‘Not a bit,' scoffed Rahtz. ‘There are many ways of dying in this country. You did not think that I was contemplating an ordinary murder, did you?'

Hudson nodded slowly.

‘My dear fellow,' went on Rahtz, ‘please give me credit for a little more sense. Shannon's death would be the most ordinary event in the world, so ordinary that not even the greatest stretch of imagination would make anyone suspect anything but natural causes. And you and Novar and myself would show our great respect for the deceased by following the funeral and sending a wreath – I think forget-me-nots and violets would be most appropriate!'

Novar laughed.

‘You are delightfully callous, my dear Rahtz,' he said.

‘Not callous!' protested the other. ‘Say rather, helpful. You know what Shakespeare made Cassius say? Every man fears death and in cutting off Shannon now, at the age of thirty or so, we might be doing him the service of saving him thirty or forty years of worry about dying!'

Hudson shuddered, and Rahtz laughed.

‘Squeamish, my friend?' he asked. ‘Well, I won't ask you to participate in the ceremony; I won't even invite Novar – I'll do it all myself. I assure you that the result will be eminently artistic and satisfactory to all parties.'

‘At the same time,' interposed Novar, ‘I should like to know how you propose to set about it?'

The door was flung violently open, and Kamper appeared on the
threshold. The other three gazed at him in alarm. Then he closed the door behind him and advanced into the room.

‘Give me a drink!' he demanded in Russian.

Novar hastened to supply him.

‘What has happened?' asked Rahtz.

The Jew took a long drink, then commenced to gabble out his story, but Novar held up his hand.

‘You had better speak in English,' he said, ‘as our friend Hudson does not understand Russian.'

Kamper reverted to the other language and proceeded to tell them of his encounter with Shannon.

‘You were a fool!' said Rahtz harshly, when he had finished. ‘What did you enter the house for?'

‘To search his rooms, of course,' replied Kamper. ‘You may not think he is very dangerous to our plans, but I have a different opinion. That's vhy I vanted to see if I could find anything to prove that I vas right.'

‘You were lucky to escape!'

‘I vas – I admit it.'

‘What makes you think he is dangerous?' asked Hudson anxiously.

‘Because I knew him in England, and saw his vork; that's vhy!'

Novar walked up and down the room in agitation.

‘Was there ever such misfortune!' he groaned. ‘Two events have happened in one day to prove to him that there is something taking place.' He turned on the Jew viciously. ‘Damn you, Kamper!' he said. ‘He knows you are in Lahore now, and I was most anxious to avoid that.'

The other smiled sardonically.

‘He has known it ever since I first arrived,' he said.

‘How do you know?' shot out Rahtz.

‘He told me so! He said he vas just vaiting for me to proclaim myself!'

Hudson jumped to his feet in alarm.

‘Look here, Rahtz,' he said, ‘something will have to be done. This fellow Shannon is not the fool we have thought.'

‘That is unfortunately now evident,' put in Novar.

Rahtz held up his hand.

‘Of course you told him nothing, Kamper?' he asked.

‘Vot you take me for!' said the Jew indignantly. ‘I'm not a mad man. He, however, did search me, and in the back of my vatch he found the paper vich admits to the meeting.'

‘Good God!' said Novar. He sat down shakily.

‘What did he do with it?' demanded Rahtz, who was by far the coolest of the three.

‘He asked me many questions vich I vould not answer, then he put it into his pocket, and said he vould puzzle it out for himself.'

‘Well, he can never do that!' said Rahtz. He turned sharply on Hudson who was looking thoroughly alarmed. ‘Pull yourself together, you coward!' he said. ‘Shannon doesn't know anything more than he did before, and that is nothing!'

‘What if he discovers the meaning of the drawing?'

‘Bah! He can't do that!'

‘Nevertheless,' said Novar, ‘I wish I could arrange to have the design altered, but unfortunately there is no time.'

‘I tell you,' said Rahtz impatiently, ‘that it is impossible for him to find out the meaning of that diagram. Why, he would have to know about the meeting itself to guess what it is for. All the same I must admit that he begins to get on one's nerves – the sooner he dies the better. Did he find anything else incriminating on you, Kamper?'

‘No. A few letters of no use to him or anybody else vere in my
pockets, and a revolver and knife, besides my vatch. All of them I have lost.'

‘Serves you right for being a fool!' A dangerous gleam came into the Jew's little eyes.

‘Take care!' he snarled. ‘I don't vant nothing like that from you, Rahtz!'

The other smiled sneeringly at him.

‘Rubbed you up the wrong way, have I?' he asked. ‘Why, you little rat, I'll break you in two if you cheek me!'

‘That's enough, Rahtz!' interposed Novar with a frown. ‘We've other things to think about besides quarrelling, and naturally Kamper's experience has upset him.'

‘Vell, I'm going,' said the Jew, ‘and if Shannon crosses my path ven there is nobody about, he'll get six inches of cold steel in him. I've got more than vone knife.'

‘Don't be such a fool!' said Novar. ‘You'll bring a catastrophe upon us if you do anything like that. Rahtz and I will deal with Shannon and in a way that will be safer and more subtle than, yours.'

Kamper shrugged his shoulders.

‘Have your own vay,' he said. ‘I von't argue the point.'

With that he nodded to the three curtly and walked out of the house. He had hardly gone when there came a timid knock at the door and a bearer entered to announce that a Hindu, Malawa Chand, was waiting to speak to Novar.

‘Tell him to come in here!' ordered the latter. ‘It is one of the fellows I set to follow Shannon whenever he went out in his car,' he added to his companions.

The man entered with many salaams and an anxious expression on his face.

‘Well, what is it?' demanded Novar in Hindustani.

The other broke into a voluble description of how he and his mate had been tricked by Shannon, when they had followed him in the car, and that, in consequence, they had lost him and could not report where he had gone. This fresh incident roused a regular devil in Rahtz and catching the fellow by the scruff of the neck he kicked him out of the house. Hudson tried to stop him, but was pushed aside without ceremony.

‘Look here, Rahtz,' he said, when the Russian returned to the room wiping his hands on a handkerchief, ‘if you treat these fellows like this, you'll have them turning on us and giving us away!'

‘Not a bit of it,' replied the other. ‘They're all too frightened of the police to do that.'

Novar nodded.

‘We took care to choose men we knew were criminals,' he said. ‘I possess ample proof of crime against each. Most of them are murderers!'

‘A nice thing for us,' muttered Hudson, ‘to be surrounded by murderers and criminals!'

Rahtz laughed harshly.

‘What about yourself?' he asked. ‘A theft of two lacs of rupees is not criminal when
you
do the thieving, I suppose?'

Hudson shrank back into his seat. The other two looked at him ironically.

‘Well well,' Novar said, ‘we won't talk of that little affair. It put you into our hands, and you have done some good work for us in consequence. And now you are so deeply involved that I have come to regard you almost as a Russian.'

‘My mother was Russian!' said Hudson hoarsely.

‘Quite so!' replied Novar urbanely. ‘But I'm afraid that won't save you from being treated as a traitor if you are found out.'

‘Is there any chance of the – the plot being discovered, do you think?' stammered Hudson.

‘Not the slightest,' replied Rahtz. ‘But you may rest assured of this, my friend, that if by some chance it were, Novar and I would make quite sure that your part in it became known. So don't think that there is any possibility of your escaping!'

‘Why are you threatening me?'

‘I'm not! I am merely mentioning a fact.'

‘Come, come! This is unfriendly talk,' said Novar. Then his brow clouded. ‘We have had enough proofs today that Shannon is cleverer than we thought him,' he went on, ‘to make it imperative that measures should be taken to render him harmless. It was very cute of him to remove those sparking plugs from the car!'

‘Devilish!' snapped Rahtz. ‘He and that fellow Cousins seem to be able to avoid detection whenever they wish. To my mind it is obvious that he was out on some errand tonight and did not desire to be followed.'

Novar nodded.

‘I wonder where he went,' he murmured. ‘However, we do not know, and that is all the more reason why he should die. Such a drastic course is to be deplored, and he is quite a nice fellow, too. If it were not that he is in the way, I might even be inclined to regret his demise.'