The Women of Nell Gwynne's (14 page)

"I'm afraid Arthur is dead, Hindley."

"I'm not Hindley! I'm Jumbey. Arthur isn't dead. How ridiculous! Now, you run along and leave poor Hindley alone. He's far too busy to deal with distractions."

"May I speak with you, then, Jumbey? If I promise to leave Hindley alone?"

"You must promise. And keep your promise!"

"I do. I will. Tell me, Jumbey: Hindley builds things, doesn't he?"

"Of course he does! He's a genius."

"Yes, I can see that he must be. He built the levitation device, didn't he?"

"You saw it, did you? Yes. Arthur took it, but Hindley didn't mind. He can always make another."

"Did Arthur ask Hindley to make a levitation device for him?"

"Arthur? No! Arthur's the stupid one. He'd never have come up with such an idea on his own. Hindley was being kept in the little room with the wardrobe. His toys kept rolling under the wardrobe, and poor Hindley couldn't reach

them, and nasty Pilkins wouldn't come fetch them for him anymore. So Hindley made something to make the wardrobe float, you see, and then he could always rescue his own toys.

"And then Arthur came home and the servants told on Hindley, and he was so frightened, poor thing, because he was sure it would be the little dark room and the cold water again. But Arthur told Hindley he'd give him a nice big room and a laboratory of his own, if Hindley would make things for him. And Hindley could have all the candy floss he wanted. And Arthur would keep all the strangers away. But he didn't!" The last words were spat out with remarkable venom.

"Didn't he, Jumbey?"

"No! Not a scrap nor a shred of candy floss has Hindley tasted. And there was a big blundering nosey-parker spying on Hindley, down in the tunnels. Hindley had to deal with him all by himself, which was so difficult for poor Hindley, because he can't be seen by people, you know."

"I am so sorry to hear it, Jumbey."

"Arthur is
supposed
to look after Hindley and protect him! Mummy said so. Always."

"Well, Jumbey dear, I'm afraid Arthur can't do that anymore. We will have to make some other arrangement for Hindley."

"Has Arthur gone away to school again?"

Lady Beatrice thought carefully before she spoke. "Yes. He has."

"A-and poor Hindley will be left with Pilkins again?" The confident voice wavered. "Hindley doesn't want that. Hindley doesn't like the little room and the cold water!"

"I believe we can help Hindley, Jumbey."

"How?"

SEVENTEEN:

In which the Ladies Triumph

B
LOODY HELL!" EXCLAIMED Mrs. Corvey. Dora, who had just concluded explaining the events of the last two hours, reeled at her language. She glanced around, grateful that Mrs. Duncan had drunk herself into insensibility and the maids had all gone back to their beds, and said: "I'm sure we did our best, ma'am."

"I'm sure you did; but this is a complication, as now there'll be an inquiry. We ain't getting the levitating thing either; I rather suspect it's well on its way to the moon by this time. At least none of that lot upstairs will get it either. Dear, dear, what a puzzle. Where's Lady Beatrice?"

"Here," said she, hurrying down the back stairs quick as a cat. "I am so glad to see you well, ma'am. Did you discover anything?"

"I did, as it happens."

"So did I." Lady Beatrice drew up a kitchen chair and, leaning forward, told her a great deal in an admirably brief time. Mrs. Corvey then returned the favor. Jane, Dora and Maude listened intently, now and then exclaiming in amazement or dismay.

"Well!" said Mrs. Corvey at last. "I think I see a way through our difficulties. Jane, my dear, just go out to the room behind the stable and knock. Ask Mr. Ludbridge if he would be so kind as to step across, and bring the dead Frenchman with him."

P
ILKINS LOOKED UP with a scowl as Lady Beatrice entered the Great Hall.

"Didn't I tell you hussies to keep to your places below-stairs?" he cried. "The constable will be here any minute!"

"If you please, sir, there's a gentleman arrived in the courtyard, but it's not the constable," said Lady Beatrice. "And I was wondering, sir, if we mightn't just take ourselves off to London tonight, so as to avoid scandal?"

"For all I care you can go to—" said Pilkins, before a solemn knock sounded at the door. He rose to open it. Mr. Ludbridge stood there with a grave expression on his face.

"Good evening; Sir Charles Haversham, Special Investigator for Her Majesty's Office of Frauds and Impostures. I have a warrant for the arrest of Arthur Rawdon, Lord Basmond."

Pilkins gaped. "He—he's dead," he said.

"A likely story! I demand you produce him at once."

"No, he really is dead," said Prince Nakhimov, standing and lifting a corner of the blanket that had been thrown over Lord Basmond's corpse. Ludbridge, who had walked boldly into the Great Hall, peered down at the dead man.

"Dear, dear. How inconvenient. Oh, well; I do hope none of you gentlemen had paid him any considerable sums of money?"

>"What d'you mean?" said Sir George Spiggott.

"I mean, sir, that my department has spent the last six months carefully building a case against his late lordship. We have the sworn testimony of no fewer than three conjurors, most notably one Dr. Marvello of the Theater Royal, Drury Lane, that his lordship paid them to teach him common tricks to produce the illusion of levitation. We also intercepted correspondence that led us to believe his lordship intended to use this knowledge to defraud a person or persons unknown."

>"But—but—" said Pilkins.

"Good God!" cried Sir George. "A confidence trickster! I knew it! I told him to his face he was a damned un-English bounder—"

"Do you mean to say you quarreled with his lordship, sir?" inquired Lady Beatrice quietly.

"Er," said Sir George. "No! Not exactly. I implied it. I mean to say, I was going to tell him that. In the morning. Because I was, er, suspicious, yes, damned suspicious of his proposal. Yes. I know a liar when I see one!"

"So do I," said Ludbridge, giving him a stern look, at which he wilted somewhat. "And I take it his lordship has died as the result of misadventure?"

"We are waiting for your constabulary to arrive, but
it would appear
Lord Basmond fell down the stairs and broke his neck," said Ali Pasha, with a glance at Sir George.

"Shame," said Ludbridge. "Still, Providence has a way of administering its own justice. None of you were defrauded, I hope?"

"We had as yet not even bid," said Prince Nakhimov.

"Capital! You've had a narrow escape, then. I suspect that my work is done," said Ludbridge. "Much as I would have liked to bring the miscreant into a court of law, he is presently facing a far sterner tribunal."

"If you please, sir," said Pilkins, in a trembling voice. "My lordship wasn't no fraud—"

Ludbridge held up his hand in an imperious gesture. "To be sure; your loyalty to an old family fallen on evil times is commendable, but it won't do, my good man. We have proof that his lordship was heavily in debt. Do you deny it?"

"No, sir." Pilkins's shoulders sagged. The sound of wheels and hoof beats came from the courtyard. "Oh; that'll be our Ralph bringing the constable, I reckon."

"Very good." Ludbridge surveyed them all. "Gentlemen, in view of the tragic circumstances of this evening, and considering the Rawdons' noble history—to say nothing of your own reputations as shrewd men of the world—I do think nothing is to be gained by bruiting this scandal abroad. Perhaps I ought to quietly withdraw."

"If you only would, sir—" said Pilkins, weeping afresh.

"The kitchens are down here, sir," said Lady Beatrice, leading the way. As they descended, they heard the constable's knock and Ali Pasha saying, "Should someone not go waken the count?"

"A
SPLENDID FARRAGO OF lies, sir," said Lady Beatrice, as they descended.

"Thank you. Perhaps we ought to quicken our pace," said Ludbridge. "I should like to be well clear of the house before anyone goes in search of the Frenchman."

"Where did you put him, sir, if I may ask?"

"In his bed, where else? And a nice job someone did on his partner, I must say. Let the Austrians clean that up!"

"Thank you, sir."

"Did anyone hear us?" asked Dora, as they entered the kitchen. "I had to get Jane to help me lift it—not heavy, you know, but awkward."

"They didn't hear a thing," said Lady Beatrice, kneeling beside the chest. "Jumbey? Jumbey, dear, is poor Hindley all right?"

"He's frightened," said the eerie voice. "He can tell there are strangers about."

"Tell him he needn't worry. No one will disturb him, and soon he'll have a bigger and better laboratory to play in."

"Maude, just you go catch your Ralph before he puts the horses away," said Mrs. Corvey, and Maude went running out crying:

"Ralph, my love, would you oblige us ever so much? We just need a ride to the village."

T
HE TRAGEDY OF Lord Basmond's death set tongues wagging in Little Basmond, but what really scandalized the village was the death of the French count at the hands of his Austrian valet; a crime of passion, apparently, though no one could quite determine how the valet had managed to break all the count's bones. The local magistrate was secretly grateful when an emissary of the Austrian government showed up with a writ of extradition and took the valet away in chains. More: in a handsome gesture, the Austrians paid to have the count's corpse shipped back to France.