The Great Secret Part 31

I put on an ulster, lit a cigar, and went up on deck. I found my chair on the sheltered side of the s.h.i.+p, and wrapping myself in a rug, prepared to spend a comfortable half-hour. But I had scarcely settled down before a little group of people came along the deck and halted close to me. A smooth-faced manservant, laden with a pile of magnificent rugs, struck a match and began to examine the labels on the chairs. Its flickering light was apparently sufficient for Adele to recognize my features.

"So you are going to join the fresh-air brigade, Mr. Courage," she remarked. "I think you are very wise. We found the music-room insufferable."

"I can a.s.sure you that the smoke-room is worse, Miss Van Hoyt," I answered, struggling to my feet. "Can I find your chair for you?"

"Thanks, the deck steward is bringing it," she answered. "Let me introduce you to my friends--Mrs. Van Reinberg--my stepmother, Miss Van Reinberg, Miss Sara Van Reinberg, Mr. de Valentin--Mr. Hardross Courage."

I bowed collectively. Mr. de Valentin greeted me stiffly, Mrs. Van Reinberg and the Misses Van Reinberg, with a cordiality which somewhat surprised me.

"I met your cousin, Sir Gilbert, in London, I think, Mr. Courage," she remarked. "He was kind enough to give us tea on the terrace at the House of Commons."

I bowed.

"Gilbert is rather fond of entertaining his friends there," I remarked.

"It is the one form of frivolity which seems to appeal to him."

"He was very kind," she continued. "He introduced a number of interesting people to us. The Duke of Westlingham is a relation of yours, is he not?"

"My second cousin," I remarked.

"Is this your first visit to America?" she asked.

"I was once in Canada," I answered. "I have never been in the States."

She smiled at me a little curiously. All the time I felt somehow that she was taking very careful note of my answers.

"We say in my country, you know," she remarked, "that you Englishmen come to us for one of two things only--sport or a wife!"

"I hope to get some of the former, at any rate," I answered. "As for the latter!"

"Well?"

"I have always thought of myself as a bachelor," I said; "but one's good fortune comes sometimes when one least expects it."

I looked across at Adele, and Mrs. Van Reinberg followed the direction of my eyes. She laughed shrilly, but she did not seem displeased.

"If you Englishmen only made as good husbands as you do acquaintances,"

she said, "I should settle down in London with my girls and study matchmaking. I am afraid, though, that you have your drawbacks."

"Tell me what they are," I begged, "and I will do my best to prove myself an exception."

"You have too much spare time," she declared. "And you know what that leads to?"

"Mr. Courage has not," Adele interrupted. "He works really very hard indeed."

"Works!" Mrs. Van Reinberg repeated incredulously.

"At games!" Adele declared. "He plays in cricket matches that last three days long. I saw him once at Lord's, and I can a.s.sure you that it looked like very hard work indeed."

Mrs. Van Reinberg turned away with a laugh, and settled herself down into the little nest of rugs which her maid had prepared.

"You young people can walk about, if you like," she said. "I am going to be comfortable. My cigarette case, Annette, and electric lamp. I shall read for half an hour."

She dismissed us all. Adele and I moved away as though by common consent.

Mr. de Valentin followed with the two other girls, though I had noticed that his first impulse had been to take possession of Adele. She avoided the others skilfully, however, and we strolled off to the farther end of the s.h.i.+p.

"Your stepmother," I remarked, "seems to be a very amiable person!"

"She can be anything she likes," Adele answered--"upon occasions."

We turned on to the weather side of the s.h.i.+p, which was almost deserted.

Adele glanced behind. Mr. de Valentin and the two girls were still within a few feet of us.

"Do you mind walking on the lower deck?" she asked. "I want to talk to you, and I am sure that we shall be disturbed here."

"With pleasure!" I answered quickly. "I, too, have something to say to you."

We descended in silence to the promenade deck. Here we had the place almost to ourselves. Adele did not beat about the bush.

"Mr. Courage," she said, "tell me what you thought when you saw me on this steamer!"

She looked me full in the face. Her beautiful eyes were full of anxiety.

There was about her manner a nervousness which I had never before noticed. Her cheeks were paler, and with these indications of emotion, something of the mystery which had seemed to me always to cling to her personality had departed. She was more natural--more lovable.

"I thought," I answered, "that it was part of the game!--that you were here to watch me. Isn't that the natural conclusion?"

"Mr. Courage," she said, "please look at me."

I faced her at once. Her eyes were fixed upon mine.

"I am not here to watch you," she said quietly. "I came because I have decided to go back to my home in America, and live there quietly for a time. Whatever share I had in the events which led to Leslie Guest's death, these things do not interest me any more. I have finished."

"I congratulate you," I answered.

"I cannot tell you anything about those events, or my connection with them," she went on, "but I want you to believe that I have no longer any a.s.sociation with those who planned them. I am not here to spy upon you. I am not in communication with any one to whom your actions are of any interest. Will you believe this?"

I hesitated for a moment. Her eyes held mine. It was not possible for me to disbelieve her.

"I am glad to hear this," I said seriously.

"You do not doubt me?"

"I cannot," I answered.

She drew a little sigh of relief.

"And now," she said, "about yourself. Be as frank with me as I have been with you. Are you really the legatee of Guest's secret?"

"You know that he told me certain things--before he died," I answered slowly.