Into the Mists

Otago Witness, Issue 3768, 1 June 1926, Page 62

Into the Mists

By

E.Phillips Oppenheim

CHAPTER XXX. A shade of anxiety clouded to some extent Bessie’s welcoming smile as she watched her husband twelve months later, bent double over his bicycle, turn the corner of the street and make his somewhat painstaking way to where she was standing. To the bicycle was attached a light wicker trailer, covered over with a mackintosh. A faw yards off he sprang to his feet and wheeled the machine for the rest of the distance.

“You come in and get your tea before you unload,” she suggested. “Leave your bicycle in the entry. Tired, ain’t you?” Reuben admitted the fact. He wheeled his machine into the entry, and followed his wife into the front room. It was scarcely changed during the ten months which had elapsed since their marriage. There were still A>ws of bottles in the window but a little more furniture in the room. A baby in a cot made strange noises as Reuben waved his hand. “I’ll have to think about one of those motor attachments,” Reuben declared, as he took his place at the table and sniffed appreciatively the atmosphere laden with the smell of fried fish. ‘‘Maybe I get one cheap from Mr Goodess.” “I wish you would,” Bessie agreed, as she finished laying the table and seated herself opposite her husband. ‘‘The bicycle’s bad enough without the trailer and those bottles, they do weigh heavy! Had a good day?” “Gets a little better every time,” he confided. “It was market day at Fakenham. I paid a sweetstuff man two shillings to let me have a corner of his stall, and I had ’em all around in less than ten minutes. That sweetstuff man wanted to go into partnership. Do you hear that, Bessie—partnership!” Thev both laughed. Reuben began to eat with appetite. Every now and then he waved his hand to the baby, who was sucking contentedly at his rattle. “Sometimes,” Bessie rejoined, “baby almost frightens me. he’s so clevi. I’ll swear he takes after you, Reuben. He’ll be trading his toys before he’s grown up. Look at those eyes of his. He looks around all the time as though he were trying to make up his mind how much everything was woTth.” “He’ll be a moneymaker,” Reuben assented. “It’s in his blood alright.” “Why don’t you ever talk about your folks. Reuben?” Bessie inquired as she poured him out his third cup of tea.

A look came into his face which she had seen there once ot twice before, a ’ook of uncertainty. He helped himself plentifully to fish, frowning all the time. “If you’ll believe me. Bessie. I can scarcely remember a thing about my father except he always seemed to he wearing new clothes and smoking cigars. Lived in a big house, too, only I can’t remember any of it clearly.” “Ts he dead?” she persisted. “I dun'no. I sometimes think, Bessie. I must have come here after some sort of an illness. I remember bargaining for this cottage and buying the bits of furniture from old Mother Crurton, but how I came here and where the money came from I had in ray pocket, I don’t know.’’

“You don’t suppose you’ve got a wife anywhere else, do you?” Bessie asked sharply.

“I’m icily sure I haven’t, and if I had she wouldn’t count no more,” Reuben assured her. “First of all there’s that,” he continued, pointing proudly to the bassinet, “and there’s no one could fry fish like you, Bessie.”

She was beginning to clear away now and she produced a packet of cigarettes from the mantelpiece. “I pinched these from Uncle. Better than buying them, eh? What about that motor attachment, Reuben? How would it be «if wc were to wall: round and see them things at Miller’s?” “Presently,” Reuben assented. “Only, listen, Bessie. We’ll pretend we want to buy it by instalments —that we ain’t got the money, eh? Then, when we’ve beaten him down as low as possible we’ll try him for soot cash. It’s a pi tv to have to part with any money, anyhow,” lie sighed. “You’d have more time to be selling and get over the ground quicker,” she reminded him. “Time’s everything with you. While the clock strikes you’re making money. You can’t do it while you're pushing them nedals.” “f shan’t he happy till I’ve made up what the thing will cost,” he confessed. “You know what will happen to ur in two vears’ time. Bessie?” “What’s that?” she demonded. “Soon,” lie said. “I begin to look for a good, second-hand I’ord car. Then I have it all painted on the back -‘Klask’s Remedies' and maybe sometime yon go out with me when I go to sell.” “A motor car!” “Why not? That don’t cost much to run if one's careful, and it will do instead of a stall to sell from. The only trouble is,” he went on. his face clouding a little, “people will begin to think we’ve got money.”

iOoptbight.—Fob thi Witsiss.)

Author of “The Wrath to Come,’* “The Hillman,” “The Tempting of Tavernake,” &c., &c.

“So we have,” she declared. ‘We don’t want folk to know that,” he conhued. They’ll think we’re making too much profit. Mr Green was saying up at the bank yesterday that I should have a motor car for my business. I don’t like it that they think I'm making money.”

“ There’s isn’t** one of them would guess how much we’ve got,” she said. “Hush! ” he begged anxiously*. “We don’t talk of that even to ourselves. We should have all these idle young men trying to make medicines and buying our herbs. Maybe I tell you what, though, Bessie, the old man Jarold that has the second-hand shop at the corner of the alley; lie’s got a diamond ring for sale —a very good stone, worth money. Every time I see him on the pavement outside I ask him how much, and laugh. Yesterday he ask me two pounds less. I seen his landlord in there twice the last few days, and I guess he’s behind with his rent. He’s come down to eighteen pounds now. Maybe I offer him fifteen to-morrow.” “ Honest! ” Bessie exclaimed. Reuben nodded. “ You say you bought it with some of the money your aunt left you,” he warned 1-r. “ Don’t you ever let anyone know I gave it to you —to take care of,” he added hastily. “ It’s kind of an investment all the time, you see, Bessie, only you wear it.” “llow much is it w*ortli?” she asked. “ In a London shop perhaps forty,” he answered guardedly. “ It’s badly set, and that don’t matter to us. Hullo! Come in! ” The front door was slowly opened and closed again. Reuben stared at his visitor with eyes into which an entirely new quality seemed suddenly to have stolen. The newcomer removed hi 6 hat and sniffed approvingly. The odour of the fried fisli appealed to him. “ How are you, Ernest ? You remember me. lam your cousin, Samuel. Can 1 eat some fish?” “ Why, of course you can. You take my seat. Bessie, this is my cousin Samuel.” Bessie, as soon as she had recovered from her first surprise, shook hands hospitably. “ Never told me you had one,” she remarked as she hustled around. “ I had forgotten,” Reuben confessed. “ Seems silly, don’t it? I remembered as scon as he walked in. How’s the folk, Samuel ? ” “ What folk ? ” the newcomer asked, settling down to his feast with appetite. “ I dun’no.” Reuben seemed puzzled. “ I just had an idea when you stepped in that I could see a whole crowd of them. Now I don’t remember any more.” “ Very good fish,” Samuel declared. “ How’s business? ” “ Pretty good,” Reuben admitted grudgingly. “ Not enough of it, and profits might be bigger.” “I’ve come to help you,” his cousin announced. “It takes two to run a business—one of us to make the drugs and the other to go out and sell them. You can’t do both.” “He’s managed to, so far,” Bessie pointed out a little sharply. “That’s because there hasn’t been anyone like me,” Samuel insisted. “Stands to sense that while he’s at home making drugs, he can’t be out selling them.” “I’ve thought of that more than once,” Reuben acknowledged. “You leave them with someone else to sell,” Samuel continued. “You give him a commission—not the profit. Wliat does he care about selling? The man what sells best is the man what’s making the profit.” Reuben glanced towards Bessie. “My cousin speaks good,” he said. “I don’t believe in no travellers or agents.” “You won’t need any,” Samuel assured him. “You and I are going to make money. That your baby, Reuben?” “That’s mine,” was the proud reply. “He’ll make money, too, when he grows up. How much money have you got, S&Aiuel ?” Samuel thrust his hand into his pocket, and laid a bundle of notes upon the table.

“I got a hundred pounds,” ho an nounced.

“A hundred pounds is not very much money,” Reuben pronounced. “I had two when I started.” Samuel hesitated for a moment and finally thrust his hand with some reluctance into his other pocket, “There!” he exclaimed, laying another roll down in triumph. “I got two hundred. I put that with yours, Reuben.” “I want you to know, Samuel,” Reuben said, “that my two hundred

isn’t two hundred any more. 1 can’t take you as equal partner.” “How much have you got?”

Reuben whispered in his cousin’s ear. “Not only that,” Reuben went on, raising liis voice to its normal pitch, “but I got the business, I got the connection. I know how to mix these medicines so people like them.” “I can mix them all right,” Samuel declared, “and I bet l sell them as w«ll as you, Reuben. We take it in turns, eh? One day you buy herbs and make medicines, and I sell; another day we do it different.” “That’s all right,” Reuben assented, “but you don’t get no equal profits, Samuel.” “Very well,” the latter agreed. “I take one-tliird. When my capital is as big as yours, I take half. * I think I save money quicker than you,” lie added, with a glance at the bassinet. “Maybe we find you some nice girl here,” Reuben suggested. Samuel shook his head. For a moment there was a look of trouble in his face. “I got a girl somewhere,” he confided. I wait for her. Give me a cigarette, Reuben.” “You’ve got some in your pocket,” liis cousin pointed out. “ I forgot,” he said. “ I’ll smoke one of my own. Have you got a match, Cousin Bessie?” She rolled a spill from an old piece of newspaper and handed it to him. “ You’re a good wife for Reuben,” he declared. “We shall all make money together.” CHAPTER XXXI. It was Samuel who, one morning some months later, undid the padlock and threw open the door of the small factory. Reuben stood a few yards back, studying liis new acqquisßion. “ A neat little place, Samuel, and cheap. Just what we were looking for. Twenty pounds a year and rates and taxes—nothing to speak of. We should make money here, Samuel.” They wandered over the two-storeyed building, planning how to make the best use of it at the least expense. It had once been a small shoe factory, and the wholesome smell of leather still haunted the place. They discussed eagerly the most economical way to make the necessary repairs. The painting of a wooden sign outside was a matter for serious consideration. Presently thev locked up, passed down the entry and into the street. A somewhat dilapidated-looking Ford car with “ Klask’s Remedies ” painted in white on either side of the bonnet stood by the kerbstone. They mounted and drove off. Samuel took the wheel, and Reuben leaned back with an air of enjoyment. “ Wonderful! When I think how my back ached with pushing that old bicycle, Samuel! ” “ Yes, Reuben.” “Push back the throttle a little—so! We use less petrol than in the city. We don’t need to go fast, Samuel. Bessie ain’t expecting us till 7 o’clock.” They made their way along the narrow, crowded streets, past the cobbled byways down to the river, and on to an outlying part of the city. In front of the house where Samuel presently brough the car to a standstill, everything was neat and clean. Grass seed had already been sown by the side of the tiled path, and in the window facing the street was a row of bottles, each bearing the name of one of “ Klask’s Remedies.” There was a nameplate upon the gate, another in the window. It was impossible for anyone to go by without knowing that this was the home of Mr Reuben Klask. No ordinary home either; a carpet, even in the hall, a carpet in the front room, a carpet in the hack one. The furniture was fresh from the factory, very new and shiny, the padded seats of which might have passed for leather. It was all highly polished, without a speck of dust anywhere. Reuben looked around with an air almost of reverence. Then lie closed the door, and the two young men made their way into the back room where Bessie was laying the cloth. “ If you two didn’t give me a start! ” she exclaimbed. “ What’s the news, Reuben ?” “ They’ve accepted,” he declared. “ We’ve got the factory. We’ve been to order some drugs in first thing in the morning, and maybe Samuel and I will spend a day manufacturing instead of selling.” “If two aren’t the lads! Why we’re wholesale now!” “Wholesale and retail manufacturers of drugs,” Samuel interposed. “ ‘Klask’s Famous Remedies’ will soon be known the world over. Maybe we make them Fernliams in London take notice of us by-and-by.” “Where’s the kid?” Reuben demanded.

“Upstairs. Go and fetch him down if you like while I dish up the supper. Samuel, your room ain’t straight yet. If you want to waali you’d better go in the back kitchen.”

’The young men separated. Reuben descended the stairs in triumph, with the infant crowing upon his shoulder. Bessie, better-looking now than in ths, days when she had worked in the clothing factory, took her place behind the tea-tray, and, Reuben’s attention still being distracted by his young charge, Samuel seated himself at the other end of the table, and served the fish. They all talked very fast, and they were all in a state of high good humour. “Samuel,” his cousin declared, "you’ll have to get a girl. Maybe there ain’t

another like Bessie, but we’ll try and find you one as near as can be.”

“There’s Dolly Higgins,” Bessie murmured reflectively. “Her father’s in the coal and greengrocery half-way down the hill. She’s crazy to get married, and I don’t think she’s a had manager.” “1 don’t think she’s saving enough for Samuel,” Reuben said. “She’d want to lie going to the pictures all day long. What a man wants,” lie went on earnestly, “is a wife who understands what money means. The worst of women as a njle is that they love to spend money, i hate to spend it even when 1 got to.” “So do I,” Samuel echoed. “Money was meant to keep and make more money,” Reuben continued. “When you have to buy anything, then you ought to buy it so cheap that you can always get the money back for it when you want to. Hold up your finger a minute, Bessie.” Bessie obeyed, and Reuben looked ecstatically at the gem which glistened upon her finger. “Fourteen pounds five I gave for that,” he announced. “Fourteen pounds five, a hot brandy and water, and glass of beer is just what it cost. It’s worth forty pounds if it’s worth a penny. That’s the way to spend money, Samuel, if you must spend it.” “It isn’t all of us has your opportunities.” “You can all make them,” Reuben insisted. “To buy cheap is as easy as to buy dear.” “I wonder whether Mol lie Bentley would do for Samuel ?” Bessie suggested. “Her father, maybe, hasn’t got as much money as Mr Higgins, hut she’s real careful and she’s looking for a steady chap to keep company with.” “1 don t want a girl at all,” Samuel pronounced. “They’re nothing but an expenses to take round, and I’m not for marrying.” “That don’t seem natural to me,” Bessie objected. “A young fellow like you, Samuel, ought to be thinking about it.” “You want a family, don’t you?” Reuben put in. “There ain’t anything in life like seeing plenty of them round the table. That’s what I tell Bessie, and get my ears boxed for it.” “And serve you right, too,” the young woman retorted, “with your brazen talk.” Samuel waa looking thoughtful. “I’ve a kind of feeling as though I’d got a girl somewhere.” “Perhaps you’re married,” Bessie exclaimed. “No, I ain’t rcaried,” Samuel replied confidently. “All the same I got a girl somewhere. Seems to have passed out of my memory where she is jus» now. but I got the feeling just the same. I shall just wait. She’ll come some day.” “It do sCem to me as though you two were crazy sometimes,” Bessie declared, replenishing the teapot. “It’s a good thing for you both 1 ain’t a curious person, for two more mystical young men about your early days 1 never met with. Why, we’ve been married now goodness knows how long, and Reuben hasn’t as much as told me where he was brought up. Might have dropped from the skies in Norwich, or been let down in one of them aeroplanes. And now there’s you, Samuel, very nearly the same. It’s a skeery business!” Reuben leaned over and patted her hand. There was a quality of earnestness in his face which made him almost good-looking. “That doesn’t need to worry you, Bess, old girl,” he assured her. “The great thing is that you and me are husband and wife. We’ve got the youngster to start with, and if I’m a bit hazy about ray folk we’ll soon have a family of our own. Aye and a fortune, too!” “If he isn’t off again !” Bessie laughed. “Why who’s this? That don’t seem right for any one to be walking in on us so casual.' 1 The front door hid been opened and closed. There were steps in the passage. The door of the room was opened. Joseph stood on the threshold, looking in upon them. “ Good evening, Ernest, good evening, Samuel,” he said. “ I thought I should find you here.” There was a moment’s awed silence. Both Reuben and Samuel had risen to their feet and were staring at the newcomer. There was no surprise in their faces, only a curious anticipatory interest. Bessie was frankly bewildered. “ It’s dad,” Reuben exclaimed. “ It’s Uncle Joseph,” Samuel echoed. “Your child, Ernest?” Joseph asked eagerly, making his way round to the other side of the room and bending over the bassinet. “ Mine,” Reuben assented. “ My wife Bessie, dad—the best in the world.” Joseph handled the baby for a moment affectionately, and the child responded to his advances with spirit. Then he replaced it gently in its bassinet, turned to Bessie and kissed her on the forehead. “ I’ll take a cup of tea, my dear, and a plate of fish, Ernest, if you’ve got it to spare.” “ His name’s * Reuben,’ ” Bessie protested wonderingly. “Why do you all call him ‘ Ernest ’ ? Samuel did when he first came.” “ ‘ Reuben Ernest,’ he was christened, my dear,” his father explained. “ We didn’t care so much for ‘ Reuben ’ as he grew up, so wc generally called him ‘ Ernest.’ ‘ Klask ’ was my name a long time ago. I changed it. This is good fish, Reuben, and well cooked, daughter-in-law.” She was trembling a little. This middle-aged man, with lita general air of having slipped so naturally into the place, baffled her completely. Reuben had sometimes seemed to her a mystery; Samuel and his coming had often perplexed her; but this was the most amazing happening of all. Nevertheless, sho

remembered her first duties. She made his tea carefully, and cut him bread and butter.

Have you come far?” she asked,

“ I don’t know. I’m in a very curious position. I was somewhere—perhaps it was in London—when I suddenly felt that I must find Ernest. Now we’re all three here together—Samuel, too. Capital! We might start some business. I’ve brought money with me, Ernest.” “Thank heavens, you all bring a bit! ” Bessie gasped. “ But I wonder how many more there are of you?” “Yes, quite a little money,” Joseph continued, eating his fish all the time with appetite. “Dad,” Reuben intervened abruptly, “there’s someone I want to ask about. It doesn’t quite come back to me. It hurts because I want to know’.” “Your mother, of course,” Joseph declared, skilfully filleting liis last piece of fish. “Your mother and Judith. Your mother has been ill, Reuben. She troubles a great deal for you. Judith, too, is troubled. But what cau one do? There they are, and here we are.” “Why can’t they come and see Reuben, or why can’t he go and see them?” Bessie demanded. “Of all the mystical creatures!”

“They’re over the other side, my dear,” Joseph explained kindly. “Perhaps we shall be able to let them know some day. It doesn’t depend upon us. Or they may come, too. W e never know ’’

“You talk of yourselves as though you were ghosts! ’ she exclaimed. I should be properly scared, only 1 don t reckon that ghosts could eat fried fish.” “Ghosts?” Reuben repeated vaguely.

“Now, what does she mean by that? 1 Samuel asked.

Joseph, who had finished his fish, helped himself to another piece of bread and butter. He stirred his tea noisily, and drank it. Then he leaned over and patted Bessie’s hand. “You’re a very nice girl, Bessie,” he Raid. “I like it that my son should have married you, a'nd you have brought him a beautiful baby. I think we shall all be very happy together.” “I like you, too,” she confided. ‘T have always been ready to welcome Reuben’s father. I should like to know his mother, too. Why doesn’t she come?

Joseph smiled at her quite kindly. “We none of us know,” lie declared with the air of one who has finished the argument.

(To be continued.)