A Bid for Fortune - Guy Boothby (romance book recommendations .TXT) 📗

anything to tell him you must put it in writing; he cannot see you."

"But he must! In this case I can accept no refusal. Tell him, will you, that the matter upon which I wish to speak to him has nothing whatsoever to do with the request I made to him this morning. I pledge him my word on that."

Again the butler departed, and once more I was left to cool my heels in the portico. When he returned it was with a smile upon his face. "Mr. Wetherell will be glad if you will step this way, sir."

I followed him along the hall and up the massive stone staircase. Arriving at the top he opened a door on the left-hand side and announced "Mr. Hatteras."

I found Mr. Wetherell seated in a low chair opposite the fire, and from the fact that his right foot was resting on a sort of small trestle, I argued that he was suffering from an attack of his old enemy the gout.

"Be good enough to take a chair, Mr. Hatteras," he said, when the door had been closed. "I must own I am quite at a loss to understand what you can have to tell me of so much importance as to bring you to my house at this time of night."

"I think I shall be able to satisfy you on that score, Mr. Wetherell," I replied, taking the Evening Mercury from my pocket and smoothing it out. "In the first place, will you be good enough to tell me if there is any truth in the inference contained in that paragraph."

I handed the paper to him and pointed to the lines in question. Having put on his glasses he examined it carefully. "I am sorry they should have made it public so soon, I must admit," he said. "But I don't deny that there is a considerable amount of truth in what that paragraph reports."

"You mean by that that you intend to try and marry Phyllis to the Marquis of Beckenham?"

"The young man has paid her a very considerable amount of attention ever since he arrived in the colony, and only last week he did me the honour of confiding his views to me. You see I am candid with you."

"I thank you for it. I, too, will be candid with you. Mr. Wetherell, you may set your mind at rest at once, this marriage will never take place!"

"And pray be so good as to tell me your reason for such a statement?"

"If you want it bluntly, because the young man now staying at Government House is no more the Marquis of Beckenham than I am. He is a fraud, an impostor, a cheat of the first water, put up to play his part by one of the cleverest scoundrels unhung."

"Mr. Hatteras, this is really going too far. I can quite understand your being jealous of his lordship, but I cannot understand your having the audacity to bring such a foolish charge against him. I, for one, must decline to listen to it. If he had been the fraud you make him out, how would his tutor have got those letters from his Grace the Duke of Glenbarth? Do you imagine his Excellency the Governor, who has known the family all his life, would not have discovered him ere this? No, no, sir! It won't do! If you think so, who has schooled him so cleverly? Who has pulled the strings so wonderfully?"

"Why, Nikola, to be sure!"

Had I clapped a revolver to the old gentleman's head, or had the walls opened and Nikola himself stepped into the room, a greater effect of terror and consternation could not have been produced in the old gentleman's face than did those five simple words. He fell back in his chair gasping for breath, his complexion became ashen in its pallor, and for a moment his whole nervous system seemed unstrung. I sprang to his assistance, thinking he was going to have a fit, but he waived me off, and when he had recovered himself sufficiently to speak, said hoarsely--"What do you know of Dr. Nikola? Tell me, for God's sake!--what do you know of him? Quick, quick!"

Thereupon I set to work and told him my story, from the day of my arrival in Sydney from Thursday Island up to the moment of my reaching his house, described my meeting and acquaintance with the real Beckenham, and all the events consequent upon it. He listened, with an awful terror growing in his face, and when I had finished my narrative with the disappearance of my friend he nearly choked.

"Mr. Hatteras," he gasped, "will you swear this is the truth you are telling me?"

"I solemnly swear it," I answered. "And will do so in public when and where you please."

"Then before I do anything else I will beg your pardon for my conduct to you. You have taken a noble revenge. I cannot thank you sufficiently. But there is not a moment to lose. My daughter is at a ball at Government House at the present moment. I should have accompanied her, but my gout would not permit me. Will you oblige me by ringing that bell?"

I rang the bell as requested, and then asked what he intended doing.

"Going off to his Excellency at once, gout or no gout, and telling him what you have told me. If it is as you have said, we must catch these scoundrels and rescue your friend without an instant's delay!"

Half an hour later we were at Government House waiting in his Excellency's study for an interview. The music of the orchestra in the ball-room came faintly in to us, and when Lord Amberley entered the room he seemed surprised, as well he might be, to see us. But as soon as he had heard what we had to tell him his expression changed. "Mr. Wetherell, this is a very terrible charge you bring against my guest. Do you think it can possibly be true?"

"I sadly fear so," said Mr. Wetherell. "But perhaps Mr. Hatteras will tell you the story as he told it to me."

I did so, and, when I had finished, the Governor went to the door and called a servant.

"Find Lord Beckenham, Johnson, at once, and ask him to be so good as to come to me here. Stay--on second thoughts I'll go and look for him myself."

He went off, leaving us alone again to listen to the ticking of the clock upon the mantelpiece, and to wonder what was going to happen next. Five minutes went by and then ten, but still he did not return. When he did so it was with a still more serious countenance.

"You are evidently right, gentlemen. Neither the spurious marquis, nor his tutor, Mr. Baxter, can be found anywhere. I have discovered, too, that all their valuables and light luggage have been smuggled out of the house to-night without the knowledge of my servants. This is a terrible business. But I have given instructions, and the police will be communicated with at once. Now we must do our best to find the real Beckenham."

"Lord Amberley," said Wetherell, in a choking voice, "do you think one of your servants could tell my daughter to come to me at once? I am not feeling very well."

The Governor hesitated a moment, and then said--

"I am sorry to say, Mr. Wetherell, your daughter left the House an hour ago. A message was brought to her that you had been suddenly taken ill and needed her. She went off at once."

Wetherell's anxiety was piteous to see.

"My God!" he cried in despair. "If that is so, I am ruined. This is Nikola's revenge."

Then he uttered a curious little sigh, moved a step forward, and fell in a dead faint upon the floor.


CHAPTER II


ON THE TRAIL

As soon as Wetherell was able to speak again he said as feebly as an old man of ninety, "Take me home, Mr. Hatteras, take me home, and let us think out together what is best to be done to rescue my poor child."

The Governor rose to his feet and gave him his arm.

"I think you're right, Mr. Wetherell," he said. "It is of course just probable that you will find your daughter at her home when you arrive. God grant she may be! But in case she is not I will communicate all I know to the Police Commissioner on his arrival, and send him and his officers on to you. We must lose no time if we wish to catch these scoundrels." Then turning to me, he continued: "Mr. Hatteras, it is owing to your promptness that we are able to take such early steps. I shall depend upon your further assistance in this matter."

"You may do so with perfect confidence," I answered. "If you knew all you would understand that I am more anxious perhaps than any one to discover the whereabouts of the young lady and my unfortunate friend."

Next moment we were being whirled down the drive at a pace which at any other time I should have thought dangerous. Throughout the journey we sat almost silent, wrapped in our anxieties and forebodings; hoping almost against hope that when we arrived at Potts Point we should find Phyllis awaiting us there. At last we turned into the grounds, and on reaching the house I sprang out and rang the bell, then I went down to help my companion to alight. The butler opened the door and descended the steps to take the rugs. Wetherell stopped him almost angrily, crying:

"Where is your mistress? Has she come home?"

The expression of surprise on the man's face told me, before he had time to utter a word, that our hopes were not to be realized. "Miss Phyllis, sir?" the man said. "Why, she's at the ball."

Wetherell turned from him with a deep sigh, and taking my arm went heavily up the steps into the hall.

"Come to my study, Mr. Hatteras," he said, "and let me confer with you. For God's sake don't desert me in my hour of need!"

"You need have no fear of that," I answered. "If it is bad for you, think what it is for me." And then we went upstairs together.

Reaching his study, Mr. Wetherell led the way in and sat down. I went across to the hearthrug and stood before him. "Now," I said, "we must think this out from the very beginning, and to do that properly we must consider every detail. Have you any objection to answering my questions?"

"Ask any questions you like," he replied, "and I will answer them."

"In the first place, then, how soon after his arrival in the colony did your daughter get to know that sham Beckenham?"

"Three days," he answered.

"At a dance, dinner party, picnic, or what?"

"At none of these things. The young man, it appears, had seen my daughter in the street, and having been struck with her beauty asked one of the aides-de-camp at Government House, with whom we are on intimate terms, to bring him to call. At the time, I remember, I thought it a particularly friendly action on his part."

"I don't doubt it," I answered. "Well that, I think, should tell us one thing."

"And what is that?"

"That his instructions were to get to know your daughter without