Once Aboard the Lugger Part 75

The hideous frown he bent upon his Mary might well have advertised the sincerity of his rebuke. He faced Mr. Marrapit, blundered on. "I remember noticing how thin the Rose's tail was getting." He gathered confidence, pushed ahead. "You have forgotten those little points, sir. Upset by your loss you have jumped at the first cat like the Rose that you have seen." He took new courage, became impressive. "You are making a fearful mistake, sir--an awful mistake. A mistake at which you will shudder when you look back--"

"Incredible!"

Mr. Marrapit, swelling as a few moments earlier he had swollen, this time burst to speech. He raised his clenched fists; in immense volume of sound exploded. "Incredible!"

George misinterpreted; was shaken, but hurried on. "It is. I admit it.

It is an incredible likeness. But look again, sir."

Mr. Marrapit gave instead a confused scream.

Alarmed, George made as if to plunge on with further protests.

"George! George!" from his Mary checked him. Furious, he turned upon her; and in that moment Mr. Marrapit, recovering words, turned to Mrs.

Major.

"As you have restored my treasure to my house, Mrs. Major, so now silence this iniquitous man by telling him what you have told me. I implore speed. Silence him. Utterly confound him. Stop him from further perjury before an outraged Creator rains thunderbolts upon this roof."

With a telling "Hem!" the masterly woman cleared for action. "I will, Mr. Marrapit," she bowed. She murmured "Rosie, Rosie, ickle Rosie!"

The cat Mr. Marrapit had lifted from her lap sprang back to that enticing cus.h.i.+on.

Gently stroking its queenly back, to the soft accompaniment of its majestic purr, in acid-tipped accents she began to speak.

She pointed at the cat that now sat at George's crime-steeped boots.

"When I was out this morning I found that cat in a little copse on the s.h.i.+pley Road. At first I thought it was our darling Rose. Suddenly I heard voices. I did not wish to be seen, because, dear Mr. Marrapit, if it was the Rose I had found, I wanted to bring it to you alone--to be the first to make you happy. So I slipped into a disused hut that stands there. Footsteps approached the door and I went into an inner room."

Mrs. Major paused; shot a stabbing smile at George.

And now my miserable George realised. Now, visible at last, there rushed upon him, grappled him, strangled him, the sinister something whose presence he had scented on entering the apartment. No sound came from this stricken man. He could not speak, nor move, nor think.

Rooted he remained; dully gazed at the thin lips whence poured the flood that engulfed and that was utterly to wreck him.

The masterly woman continued. She indicated the rooted figure in the middle of the room, the collapsed heap upon the sofa's edge. "Those two entered. He had a basket. Oh, what were my feelings when out of it he took our darling Rose!"

For the s.p.a.ce of two minutes the masterly woman advertised the emotions she had suffered by burying her face in the Rose's coat; rocking gently.

Emerging, she gulped her agitation; proceeded. "I need not repeat again all the dreadful story I heard, Mr. Marrapit? Surely I need not?"

"You need not," Mr. Marrapit told her. "You need not."

With a masterly half-smile, expressive of grat.i.tude through great suffering, Mrs. Major thanked him. "Indeed," she went on, "I did not hear the whole of it. It was so dreadful, I was so horrified, that I think I fainted. Yes, I fainted. But I heard them discuss how he had stolen the Rose so they might marry on the reward when it was big enough. He had kept the darling till then; now it was her turn to take charge of it--"

Mrs. Major ceased with a jerk, drew in her legs preparatory to flight.

For the rooted figure had sprung alarmingly to life. George would not have his darling Mary blackened. He took a stride to Mrs. Major; his pose threatened her. "That's untrue!" he thundered.

"Ho!" exclaimed Mrs. Major. "Ho! A liar to my face! Ho!"

"And you are a liar," George stormed, "when you say--"

"Silence!" commanded Mr. Marrapit. "Do not anger heaven yet further.

Can you still deny--?"

"No!" George said very loudly. "No! No! I deny nothing. But that woman's a liar when she says Miss Humfray discussed the business with me, or that it was Miss Humfray's turn to take the d.a.m.ned cat. Miss Humfray knew nothing about it till I told her. When she heard she said it was wrong and tried to make me take the cat back to you."

In his wrath George had advanced close to Mrs. Major. He stretched a violent finger to an inch from her nose. "That's true, isn't it? Have the grace to admit that."

Indomitable of purpose, the masterly woman pressed back her head as far as the chair would allow, tightened her lips.

The violent finger followed. "Say it's true!" George boiled.

His Mary implored: "Oh, George, don't, don't!"

The furious young man flamed on to her. "Be quiet!"

Mr. Marrapit began a sound. The furious young man flamed to him: "You be quiet, too!" He thrust the dreadful finger at Mrs. Major. "Now speak the truth. Had Miss Humfray anything to do with it?"

This tremendous George had temporary command of the room. The masterly woman for once quailed. "I didn't hear that part," she said.

George drew in the fearful finger. "That's as good as the truth--from you." He rounded upon Mr. Marrapit. "You understand that. This has been my show."

"A blackguard show," p.r.o.nounced Mr. Marrapit. "A monstrous and an impious show. A--"

"I don't want to hear that. Whatever it is you are the cause of it. If you had done your duty with my mother's money--"

A figure pa.s.sed the open French windows along the path. Mr. Marrapit shouted "Fletcher!" The gardener entered.

"But you've betrayed your trust," George shouted. He liked the fine phrase and repeated it. "You've betrayed your trust!"

Mr. Marrapit a.s.sumed his most collected air. "Silence. Silence, man of sin. Leave the house. Return thanks where thanks are due if I do not hound the law upon you. Take that girl. That miserable cat take.

Hence!"

Mary got to her feet, put a hand on her George's arm. "Do come, dear."

The wild young man shook her off. "I'll go when it pleases me!" he shouted at Mr. Marrapit.

"You shall be arrested," Mr. Marrapit returned. He addressed Mary.

"Place that cat in that basket Carry it away."

George stood, heaving, panting, boiling for effective words, while his Mary did as bade. Awful visions of her George, fettered between policemen, trembled her pretty fingers. At last she had the basket strapped, raised it.

"Come, George," she said; and to Mr. Marrapit, "I'm so sorry, Mr.

Marrapit. I--"

It gave her furious George a vent. "Sorry! What are you sorry about?

What have you done?" He roared over to Mrs. Major: "What other lies have you been telling?" He lashed himself at Mr. Marrapit. "Set the law on me? I jolly well hope you will. It will all come out then how you've behaved--how you've treated me. How you've betrayed--"

"Fletcher," Mr. Marrapit interrupted, "remove that man. Take him out.

Thrust him from the house."

"Me?" said Mr. Fletcher. "Me thrust him? I'm a gardener, I am; not a--"