Johnny Ludlow Fourth Series Part 11

"Not likely," dissented Tod, tossing his head. "A strong man like St.

George does not die of love nowadays, or put himself out of good things, either. You have been reading romances, Coney."

But Tom Coney was right. When the summer was on the wane St. George bade a final adieu to Timberdale. And if it was his love for Ellin, or her death, that drove him away, he made no mention of it. He told Timberdale that he was growing tired of work and meant to travel. As he had a good income, Timberdale agreed that it was only natural he should grow tired of work and want to travel. So he said adieu, and departed: and Mr.

Delorane speedily engaged another head-clerk in his place, who was to become his partner later.

St. George wrote to Sir. Delorane from Jamaica, to which place he steamed first, to take a look at his cousins. The letter contained a few words about William Brook. St. George had been inst.i.tuting inquiries, and he said that, by what he could learn, it was certainly William Brook who was drowned in Kingston harbour the day before he ought to have sailed for England in the _Dart_. He, St. George, felt perfectly a.s.sured of this fact, and also that if any man had sailed in the _Idalia_ under Brook's name, it must have been an impostor who had nefariously subst.i.tuted himself. St. George added that he was going "farther afield," possibly to California: he would write again from thence if he arrived without mishap.

No other letter ever came from him. So whether the sea swallowed him up, as, according to his report, it had swallowed his rival, none could tell. But it would take better evidence than that, to convince us William Brook had not come home in the _Idalia_.

And that is all I have to tell. I know you will deem it most unsatisfactory. Was it William Brook in the gig, or was it not? We found no trace of him after that stormy night: we have found none to this day.

And, whether that was he, or was not he, what became of him? Questions never, as I believe, to be solved in this life.

There was a peculiar absence of proof every way, as Ellin remarked; nothing but doubt on all sides. Going over the matter with Darbys.h.i.+re the other evening, when, as I have already told you, he suggested that I should relate it, we could not, either of us, see daylight through it, any more than we saw it at the time of its occurrence.

There was the certainty (yes, I say so) that Brook landed at Liverpool the evening of the 18th of October; he would no doubt start for home the morning of the 19th, by rail, which would take him through Birmingham to Worcester; there was also what the shopwoman in Bold Street said, though hers might be called negative testimony, as well as the lady's in the train. There was Mrs. James Ashton's positive belief that she saw him arrive that afternoon at Worcester by the Birmingham train, _shake hands_ with St. George and talk with him: and there was our recognition of him an hour or two later in St. George's gig in Dip Lane----

"Hold there, Johnny," cried Darbys.h.i.+re, taking his long clay pipe from his mouth to interrupt me as I went over the items. "You should say _supposed_ recognition."

"Yes, of course. Well, all that points to its having been Brook: you must see that, Mr. Darbys.h.i.+re. But, if it was in truth he, there's a great deal that seems inexplicable. Why did he set off to _walk_ from Worcester to Timberdale--and on such a night!--why not have gone on by rail? It is incredible."

"Nay, lad, we are told he--that is, the traveller--set off to walk to Evesham. St. George says he put him down in Dip Lane; and Lockett, you know, saw somebody, that seems to answer the description, turn from the lanes into the Evesham road."

I was silent, thinking out my thoughts. Or, rather, not daring to think them out. Darbys.h.i.+re put his pipe in the fender and went on.

"If it was Brook and no stranger that St. George met at Worcester Station, the only possible theory I can form on that point is this, Johnny: that St. George then proposed to drive him home. He may have said to him, 'You walk on, and I will get my gig and overtake you directly:' it is a lame theory, you may say, lad, but it is the only one I can discern, and I have thought of the matter more than you suppose.

St. George started for home earlier than he had meant to start, and this may have been the reason: though _he_ says it was because he saw it was going to be so wild a night. Why they should not have gone in company to the Hare-and-Hounds, and started thence, in the gig together, is another question."

"Unless Brook, being done up, wished not to show himself at Worcester that day--to get on at once to Timberdale."

Darbys.h.i.+re nodded: the thought, I am sure, was not strange to him. "The most weighty question of all remains yet, lad: If St. George took up Brook in his gig, what did he do with him? _He_ would not want to be put down in Dip Lane to walk to Evesham."

He caught up his churchwarden pipe, relighted it at the fire, and puffed away in silence. Presently I spoke again.

"Mr. Darbys.h.i.+re, I do not like St. George. I never did. You may not believe me, perhaps, but the first time I ever saw his face--I was a little fellow--I drew back startled. There was something in its expression which frightened me."

"One of your unreasonable dislikes, Johnny?"

"Are they unreasonable? But I have not taken many such dislikes in my life as that one was. Perhaps I might say _any_ such."

"St. George was liked by most people."

"I know he was. Any way, my dislike remained with me. I never spoke of it; no, not even to Tod."

"Liking him or disliking him has nothing to do with the main question--what became of Brook. There were the letters too, sent by the traveller in answer to St. George's advertis.e.m.e.nts."

"Yes, there were the letters. But--did it ever occur to you to notice that not one word was said in those letters, or one new fact given, that we had not heard before? They bore out St. George's statement, but they afforded no proof that his statement was true."

"That is, Mr. Johnny, you would insinuate, putting it genteelly, that St. George fabricated the answers himself."

"No, not that he did, only that there was nothing in the letters to render it impossible that he did."

"After having fabricated the pretty little tale that it was a stranger he picked up, and what the stranger said to him, and all the rest of it, eh, Johnny?"

"Well"--I hesitated--"as to the letters, it seemed to me to be an unaccountable thing that the traveller could not let even one person see him in private, to hear his personal testimony: say Mr. Delorane, or a member of the Brook family. The Squire went hot over it: he asked St.

George whether the fellow thought men of honour carried handcuffs in their pockets. Again, the stranger said he should be at liberty to come forward later, but he never has come."

Darbys.h.i.+re smoked on. "I'd give this full of gold," he broke the silence with, touching the big bowl of the clay pipe, "to know where Brook vanished to."

My restless fingers had strayed to his old leaden tobacco jar, on the table by me, pressing down its heavy lid and lifting it again. When I next spoke he might have thought the words came out of the tobacco, they were so low.

"Do you think St. George had a grudge against Brook, Mr.

Darbys.h.i.+re?--that he wished him out of the way?"

Darbys.h.i.+re gave me a look through the wreathing smoke.

"Speak out, lad. What have you on your mind?"

"St. George said, you know, that he stopped the gig in Dip Lane at the turning which would lead to Evesham, for Brook--I mean the traveller--to get out. But I thought I heard it stop before that. I was almost sure of it."

"Stop where?"

"Just about opposite the gap in the hedge; hardly even quite as far as that. We had not reached the turning to Evesham ourselves when I heard this. The gig seemed to come to a sudden standstill. I said so to Tod at the time."

"Well?"

"Why should he have stopped just at the gap?"

"How can I tell, lad?"

"I suppose he could not have damaged Brook? Struck him a blow to stun him--or--or anything of that?"

"And if he had? If he (let us put it so) _killed_ him, Johnny, what did he do with--what was left of him? What could he do with it?"

Darbys.h.i.+re paused in his smoking. I played unconsciously with the jar.

He was looking at me, waiting to be answered.

"I suppose--if that pond had been dragged--Dip Pond--if it were to be dragged now--that--that--nothing would be found----"

"Hush, lad," struck in Darbys.h.i.+re, all hastily. "Walls have ears, people tell us: and we must not even whisper grave charges without sufficient grounds; grounds that we could substantiate."

True: and of course he did right to stop me.

But we cannot stay rebellious thought: and no end of gruesome ideas connected with that night in Dip Lane steal creepingly at times into my mind. If I am not mistaken they steal also into Darbys.h.i.+re's.

All the same they may be but phantoms of the imagination, and St.