The Vanished Messenger. E. Phillips Oppenheim

      The man was looking at the coin covetously, but his wife pushed him away.

      “It’s not a sovereign you’ll be taking from the gentleman for a little errand like that,” she insisted sharply. “He shall pay us for what he’s had when he goes, and welcome, and if so be that he’s willing to make it a sovereign, to include the milk and the brandy and the confusion we’ve been put to this night, well and good. It’s a heavy reckoning, maybe, but the night calls for it. We’ll see about that afterwards. Get along with you, I say, Richard.”

      “I’ll be wet through,” the man muttered.

      “And serve you right!” the woman exclaimed. “If there’s a man in this village to-night whose clothes are dry, it’s a thing for him to be ashamed of.”

      The innkeeper reluctantly departed. They heard the roar of the wind as the door was opened and closed. The woman poured out another glass of milk and brought it to Gerald.

      “A godless man, mine,” she said grimly. “If so happen as Mr. Wembley had come to these parts years ago, I’d have seen myself in my grave before I’d have married a publican. But it’s too late now. We’re mostly too late about the things that count in this world. So it’s your friend that’s been stricken down, young man. A well-living man, I hope?”

      Gerald shivered ever so slightly. He drank the milk, however. He felt that he might need his strength.

      “What train might you have been on?” the woman continued. “There’s none due on this line that we knew of. David Bass, the station-master, was here but two hours ago and said he’d finished for the night, and praised the Lord for that. The goods trains had all been stopped at Ipswich, and the first passenger train was not due till six o’clock.”

      Gerald shook his head with an affectation of weariness.

      “I don’t know,” he replied. “I don’t remember anything about it. We were hours late, I think.”

      The woman was looking down at the unconscious man. Gerald rose slowly to his feet and stood by her side. The face of Mr. John P. Dunster, even in unconsciousness, had something in it of strength and purpose. The shape of his head, the squareness of his jaws, the straightness of his thick lips, all seemed to speak of a hard and inflexible disposition. His hair was coal black, coarse, and without the slightest sprinkling of grey. He had the neck and throat of a fighter. But for that single, livid, blue mark across his forehead, he carried with him no signs of his accident. He was a little inclined to be stout. There was a heavy gold chain stretched across his waist-coat. From where he lay, the shining handle of his revolver protruded from his hip, pocket.

      “Sakes alive!” the woman muttered, as she looked down. “What does he carry a thing like that for—in a peaceful country, too!”

      “It was just an idea of his,” Gerald answered. “We were going abroad in a day or two. He was always nervous. If you like, I’ll take it away.”

      He stooped down and withdrew it from the unconscious man’s pocket. He started as he discovered that it was loaded in every chamber.

      “I can’t bear the sight of them things,” the woman declared. “It’s the men of evil ways, who’ve no trust in the Lord, who need that sort of protection.”

      They heard the door pushed open, the howl of wind down the passage, and the beating of rain upon the stone flags. Then it was softly closed again. The landlord staggered into the room, followed by a young man.

      “This ‘ere is Mr. Martin’s chaffer,” he announced. “You can tell him what you want yerself.”

      Gerald turned almost eagerly towards the newcomer.

      “I want to go to the other side of Holt,” he said, “and get my friend—get this gentleman away from here—get him home, if possible. Can you take me?”

      The chauffeur looked doubtful.

      “I’m afraid of the roads, sir,” he replied. “There’s talk about many bridges down, and trees, and there’s floods out everywhere. There’s half a foot of water, even, across the village street now. I’m afraid we shouldn’t get very far.”

      “Look here,” Gerald begged eagerly, “let’s make a shot at it. I’ll pay you double the hire of the car, and I’ll be responsible for any damage. I want to get out of this beastly place. Let’s get somewhere, at any rate, towards a civilised country. I’ll see you don’t lose anything. I’ll give you a five pound note for yourself if we get as far as Holt.”

      “I’m on,” the young man agreed shortly. “It’s an open car, you know.”

      “It doesn’t matter,” Gerald replied. “I can stick it in front with you, and we can cover—him up in the tonneau.”

      “You’ll wait until the doctor comes back?” the landlord asked.

      “And why should they?” his wife interposed sharply. “Them doctors are all the same. He’ll try and keep the poor gentleman here for the sake of a few extra guineas, and a miserable place for him to open his eyes upon, even if the rest of the roof holds, which for my part I’m beginning to doubt. They’d have to move him from here with the daylight, anyhow. He can’t lie in the bar parlour all day, can he?”

      “It don’t seem right, somehow,” the man complained doggedly. “The doctor didn’t say anything about having him moved.”

      “You get the car,” Gerald ordered the young man. “I’ll take the whole responsibility.”

      The chauffeur silently left the room. Gerald put a couple of sovereigns upon the mantelpiece.

      “My friend is a man of somewhat peculiar temperament,” he said quietly. “If he finds himself at home in a comfortable room when he comes to his senses, I am quite sure that he will have a better chance of recovery. He cannot possibly be made comfortable here, and he will feel the shock of what has happened all the more if he finds himself still in the neighbourhood when he opens his eyes. If there is any change in his condition, we can easily stop somewhere on the way.”

      The woman pocketed the two sovereigns.

      “That’s common sense, sir,” she agreed heartily, “and I’m sure we are very much obliged to you. If we had a decent room, and a roof above it, you’d be heartily welcome, but as it is, this is no place for a sick man, and those that say different don’t know what they are talking about. That’s a real careful young man who’s going to take you along in the motor-car. He’ll get you there safe, if any one will.”

      “What I say is,” her husband protested sullenly, “that we ought to wait for the doctor’s orders. I’m against seeing a poor body like that jolted across the country in an open motor-car, in his state. I’m not sure that it’s for his good.”

      “And what business is it of yours, I should like to know?” the woman demanded sharply. “You get up-stairs and begin moving the furniture from where the rain’s coming sopping in. And if so be you can remember while you do it that this is a judgment that’s come upon us, why, so much the better. We are evil-doers, all of us, though them as likes the easy ways generally manage to forget it.”

      The man retreated silently. The woman sat down upon a stool and waited. Gerald sat opposite to her, the battered dressing-case upon his knees. Between them was stretched the body of the unconscious man.

      “Are you used to prayer, young sir?” the woman asked.

      Gerald shook his head, and the woman did not pursue the subject. Only once her eyes were half closed and her words drifted across the room.

      “The Lord have mercy on this man, a sinner!”

CHAPTER IV