PENHALA: A WAYSIDE WIZARD,

Southern Cross, Volume 7, Issue 35, 25 November 1899, Page 13

PENHALA: A WAYSIDE WIZARD,

[PUBLISHED BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT.]

(COPYRIGHT.)

CHAPTER XX. A Bargain — Petrovsky’s Half. ‘ Are you often as hungry as that ?’ asked Paul presently, after that long silence, of activity on the one hand and observation, on the other. It most be worth while going through a good deal for ten minutes of such genuine enjoyment.’ Tom Jones laughed gently. His stomach was no longer; empty, and being always the creature of his moods and impulses, his blackguardism was consequently less rampant for the time being. c All the same, hunger is an acquaintance whose frequent visits soon become monotonous,’ he answered, and helped himself to some cheese. And Paul, watching, saw that he took a clean knife instead of the one be had already in use, and he gave a thought to the story of the fugitive prince who wiped his beard before he drank.

‘ Wbafc brought you down to this ?’ he asked abruptly. ‘ One doesn’t need to be as keen as a fox to see that you’ve come a very long way down from yonr original standing. You’ve made a pretty mess of matters somehow, eh ?’ ‘Yes, replied Tom, Jones; ‘l’ve come a regular mucker, there’s no mistake about that ! But it’s so long ago now, that as often as not I forget all about it.’ Paul took another look at his handsome brown eyes—handsome still, for all the tracery of lines about them —and the delicate curve of his brows and the sensitive arch of his nostrils, and then made a guess. ‘ A woman, was it P’ ‘ Ay, the final cause was awoman—though, for the matter of that, so was the first.’ ‘ Put all your eggs into one basket, eh ?’ said Paul, pithily. All I’d got left—yes. It wasn’t much to boast of, that last lot, but it was all I’d got —ray last rag of respectability, my last hope of going a bit straight, my last scrap of anything good or holy under God’s sun —but they all went into the one basket, and it wouldn’t hold ’em—too frail —it burst — and the eggs went to almighty smash.’ Paul watched him finish his last piece of cheese ■ — he was eating daintily now, caking time to enjoy the toothsome morsels, instead of thinking only of filling a yawning vacuum down below—before he spoke again. ‘ When all’s said and done it must be a poor sort of existence —this wandering up and down the face of the country.’ ‘ Poor ? God !if you could know what its like sometimes ! But there, I’m not going to begin the whining dodge. It’s fair wage for work done, you see, and that’s the end of it.’ ‘ Still, it seems strange to me that a man like you —a man who has had a decent bringing up, at all events — should be content to stay down there, at the very bottom of the ladder.’ ‘ Content P’ with a grim lifting of the fine brows. ‘ That’s a queer word to apply to me.’ ‘ Well, then, if you’re not content, why stay there P’ Tom Jones’s fingers stopped their nervous fiddling at the crumbs on the cloth, and his hand gradually closed up tight, till the knuckles stood out white and shiny under the strained skin. Then he lifted the clenched hand and struck the table a quick passionate blow, as if the agony inside him must needs find an opening somehow. ‘Why do the damned stay in hell ? Answer me that! ’ he muttered, hoarsely.

By CLARA LEMORB, Author of “A Harvest of Weeds,” “A Covenant With the Dead,” “ Gwen Dale’s Ordeal,” “At War With Destiny,” &c., &c.

‘ Then you would get out of it if you could ?’ ‘ Pooh ! what’a the use of calking F’ He got up and reached across the table for his cap, and turned as if to

But Paul rose too, and signed to him not to be so hasty. ‘ What would yoa do if you had five hundred pounds ?’ he asked, quietly. The other fell back a step, as if the words had been a blow ; and then, gathering some shred of credibility from the look on the other’s face, he drew a big breath.

‘Do ?’ he said. ‘Do P Get out of the country as fast as I could.’ The words came with a rush, and left him still and wide-eyed, waiting for more.

‘ And what would you do for five hundred pounds ?’ ‘Ah ! You told the wages first—the work comes afterwards. That means that you know the work would be declined unless the workman has been first dazzled by the wages. It’s something discreditable you want me to do; that's certain. Perhaps it’s something criminal. No ?’ Paul had shaken his head. ‘ Well, there’s very few things I wouldn’t do for five hundred pounds, so out with it.’ ‘ I want you to help me to set a great wrong right.’ Tom Jones laughed in bis throat. ‘Yes, by the Cause I serve, I swear to you that, first and foremost, that is so ! An old man in his dotage is striving to do his lawful heir out of his inheritance. I want your help to prevent this injustice. There are other motives, I admit ; but this is one, and a genuine one, and, in view of the price I am willing to pay, it ought to be enough for you.’ A new quietness fell swiftly on the dusty vagabond by the table ; this time not the quietness of inanition, but the stillness of muscle which often accompanies concentrated activity of the brain. His eye was steady and clear as he put his next question. ‘You will tell me who the people are for whom I am going to work: ?’ ‘ When you have undertaken to do what I want, and pledged yourself to secrecy. Though indeed your own self-interest will be your best pledge for that. ‘ And there is no risk to me —no personal risk ?’ ‘ None whatever.’

‘And you will pay me the five hundred down, for some particular jobsome definite task that you set me to do —you will pay me the money when it is done, and leave me free to go ray way ? ’ ‘ You are longer in the head than I thought,’ said Petrovsky, with the reflection of a mental smile m his eyes. ‘ Let me thiuk a moment before I answer that question.’ He turned away and crossed over to the window, and stood there a few seconds staring- out into the empty courtyard, on to which the room opened. Then, as if he found free thought difficult there, in the confined space of the small room, he moved to the door, and signed to the other to follow him. ‘ I’ll get a hat,’ he said ; ‘ and we can finish our talk as I show you the way to the lodge gates. This thing once started, there must be no possibility of its missing its aim. Yon must be thoroughly coached up in all that is necessary you should know. Come along! ’ This time they did not pass through the length of the house to reach the open air ; they went out by the entrance communicating directly with

the offices, and followed a road which led round that end of the house farthest from the west terrace and slopes; a road which skirted round the outer limits of the plantations, and joined the main drive at the bridge, half-way between the house and the lodge. It was a quiet road, lying in shadow all the way till the bridge was reached. After that it was merged in the more important drive, which travelled across the open park land, sloping gently towards the little town at the foot of the hill. Petrovsky did not go further than the bridge ; perhaps it was because he felt more at home stealing along in the shadow of the trees, than on the exposed road in the light of the moon. He halted at the edge of the wood, and waited before turning back, to add a last word or two to all that had gone before. ‘ You understand that, though circumstances compel me to keep in the background, it is nothing more than justice that I am striving for ?’ ‘ Yes,’ his companion signified assent to that.

‘ And the cne thing I count on you to do, is to break off the match between the girl and the son of this lady of rank. See that you make the disclosure of the truth as abjectionable as you possibly can. Above all, be afraid of nothing. I have made all due enquiries of the woman in whose house the girl was born, and, with regard to her true parentage, nobody knows anything whatever. You have a perfectly free hand ; you can play it as you like without the slightest fear of being out-trumped by your antagonist’s cards. That is all, I think. There is nothing else you want to know ?’ ‘ No ’ ; there was nothing else. He was felly primed for the task in hand ; aud having said as much the shabby rascal answered the other’s ‘ good night,’ and strode away in the direction of the lodge. But when he had gone some distance, and was well out on the open ground, he pulled up with a sudden jerk, as if some new thought had struck him, and looked around him. Yes; he really was there, in Penhala’s Park, and he really had undertaken to do this thing for Paul Petrovsky ! Once again he burst into laughter, as if he found something exquisitely droll in the whole idea. Very uncanny the sudden outburst sounded, breaking thus vehemently across the silence ®o£ the night ; and it was curious how the clamour, striking some rock or headland across the little bay, came back to him. But so purged and chastened, so wasted was it by the way, that it did not sound like the reckless laugh he had sent forth. It came back to him a sound so sad and desolate, so forlorn, so utterly desolate, that it seemed to him as if his own castaway soul were laughing back at him out of space.

A weird idea to come to the man standing by himself in a lonely place in the middle of the night. It stilled hinu For some minutes he waited there debating, half unconsciously, many things. Then he threw off the touch of solemnity, and moved on again towards the lodge. But that echo had awakened others of its kind, and these others were not to be so easily silenced. He fancied he knew the very headland that had thrown his laugh of defiance back at him. It was a sharp elbow of slate rock that stood out, a little this side of Tregarron Head. He remembered how grim and black it looked against the green bank beyond it.

A new desire came to him. He would like to see it under this moonlight. He turned swiftly on his heel, and went back the way he had come.

Mr. Petrovsky was late getting back to the house again that night. But Parsons had been so shocked at the idea of his being shut out, and having to spend the whole night roaming the woods, that he bad given special orders to Mrs. Quickly to make sure, for the future, that the young man was in his room before the house was

finally closed. Bat for this when he came strolling up to the porch a little after midnight, he would have found the door closed against him for the second time. As it was, he found that his uncle’s room, at all events, was closed against him a circumstance which so long as he stood face to face with servants, appeared to cause him the keenest annoyance. It was not until he was alone in his room that he ceased to fume and worry, and then he turned from closing his door with a muttered —’ So far, so good ! Let the bomb burst without the slightest warning. So shall its •> execution be the more effective and complete. Perhaps it was in consequence of his late wanderings afield that he was late down the next morning. When he made his appearance, with an apology for his want of punctuality, nearly everybody iu the house was already gathered round the breakfasttable-

’ The fact is I was out late last night’ and I overslept myself,’ he said, in reply to Penhala’s expression of astonishment—for laziness was certainly not one of Paul’s little sins. ‘ I undertook to see our friend, the wizard, off the premises, and we got into conversation, and—l did not get back to the house till some most unholy hour,’ ‘ I wondered where you had disappeared to,’ Penhala observed, carelessly.’ ‘ The fellow turned out very good company, then ?’ Paul shot a curious glance at the speaker, a glance which warned him. that the subject was not one to be pursued. ‘I found his conversation interesting,’ he said, with a certain dryness of intonation which inferred that more lay behind. And then, as if starting a fresh subject he added — ‘ I did not like to disturb you when I I came in, sir, but I heard some news last night that astonished me very much. I want to talk it over with you by and by. Ho, Lady Grlenhaggart,’ he went on, meeting her ladyinquisitive glance with a smile. ‘ Wild horses shall not drag it from me till 1 have first discussed it with my uncle. Hark! What is that ?’

There fell a sudden hush round the table, a hush of attention. Outside in the hall there were voices raised in vehement altercation.*

‘ I tell you, you must wait! ’ ‘I tell you, I won’t! ’ ‘ But they are at breakfast! ’ ‘I don’t care what they are at, I’m going to see Mr Penhala this minute!’ ‘He will see yon by-and-bye.’ ‘ Blow your by-and-byes ! My business can’t wait. By the Lord above, if you dont stand away from the door, I’ll bash your skull in ! ’

There was a scurrying of feet, as if somebody had been swung out of some other body’s way, the screen before the door was dashed back with a violent blow against the wall, and the surprised people round the table saw their entertainer of the previous evening standing in the opening. Shabbier by many degrees he looked in the uncompromising morning light,, and altogether less attractive. As he stood there, reckless and defiant, with his hat twisted over one ear, his whole appearance was suggestive of an early and injudicious application of Pinto’s over night generosity. Sweeping the circle of amazed' faces with a glance of swaggering audacity, he nodded familiarly.

Pitz and Paul rose to their feet as by one impulse. ‘ Not now !’ he said, aloud. ‘ You told me you would wait! ’ ‘ Oh, there you are! ’ cried the the vagabond, with a tipsy laugh. ‘ I’m glad to see you. You’ll do the introducing part of the business, and save us from any further awkwardness. Wait ? I believe I did say something about it; but you see my parental instincts were too much for me this morning, and I couldn’t wait any longer. How then, which one isit, eh ? Come, old chap, tell the people who I am! ’

Now that the other had taken the lead, Pinto hung back a little, not liking to interfere; but his fingers were evidently itching to be at the

intrader’s collar. Everybody round the table was up, the ladies a little scared, the men only waiting for a tint to organise a combined onslaught. ‘ What does it all mean, Paul ?’ said Penhala, moving forward. ‘ You seem to be in the secret —what does this gentleman want ?’ *He wants his daughter!’ put in Tom Jones, taking off his hat with a grandiose sweep of the arm in Penhala’s direction. ‘ Put short, that’s the whole of the matter. He wants his daughter, Mr Penhala. The baby who was born seventeen years ago, down in the town there, and adopted by you in the place of your own, who died at its birth —his daughter, who’s been known all these years as your daughter —that’s what this gentleman wants. Lady Glenhaggart dropped to her chair as if she had been shot. On the least encouragement she would have fainted, but there was none forthcoming; everybody’s attention was otherwise engaged. Penhala’s face had gone the colour of wood ashes ; he threw up his hands as if to stop the cruel disclosure ; but there was no stopping it. Everybody in the room heard, and everybody saw corroboration of what they heard in his stricken agony. Ellaline was the first to break the stony spell that had fallen on them all. She was near Penhala, and after one or two quick glances from one face to another, she put her hands up to her throat, driving back the sickening sensation of strangulation that threatened to overcome her, and went over to his side. ‘ Dearest, don’t look like that!’ she begged of him. ‘ Look at me! I don’t feel it so much as you, and it is more sudden and terrible for me, you know.’ He did not look at her, and moaned and turned from her again, as if the sight of her face, with that smile on it, was more than he could endure. But she put one hand under his arm, and with the other clasped his, hanging nerveless at his sidej and, standing so, she faced the disreputable ruffian at the door.

‘ Whether you’re my father or not,’ she said, ‘ you have behaved most cruelly in coming here like this, and springing this surprise on us without a word of warning. Mr Penhala has cared for meall a these years, and you have not troubled yourself about me once, till now, when you come peeping and prying round the house like a thief in the dark. 1 don’t think what you say can be true —you- would have behaved differently; but, true or not, your conduct this morning has been brutal —unpardonable—the conduct of a cruel man. If lam your daughter ’ —it was wonderful to see how, as she spoke the obnoxious words, her strength of will overcame her repugnance ‘if I am your daughter, you owe this gentleman a debt of gratitude, which no words could ever express, for his immeasurable goodness to me. And you pay it by coming here and creating a nine days’ scandal in the presence of all his friends. I hope it is all a mistake • —I pray it may all turn out a mistake. lam ashamed of you,—and it must be terrible to be ashamed of one’s father.

Tom Jones tried to laugh and treat the girlish harangue as a joke. Pinto’s hands doubled up of themselves instinctively. Paul kept his post between them, muttering something about a row not improving matters. Penhala put his arm round his little champion’s shoulders, and held her to him. The fiist stun of the disclosure was past; as he turned to bis friends at the table he was himself again.

‘Don’t let this disturb you,’ he said. ‘lt is purely a matter for arrangement between this gentleman and me. 1 expect it has surprised you very much to find that my little girl is net really my daughter. I thought, when we came down here, that something of this sort would happen ; that was one reason why I kept away so long. I do hope yon won’t let this scene at all interfere with the pleasure of your visit, any

of you. We will manage to settle matters without intruding them on your notice again.’ ‘Will you, though, began the man at the door, but Fifcz and Paul both turned on him with such unmistakable signs of their intentions in their looks, that he stopped and shrugged his shoulders. ‘ But, my dear Mr Penhala,’ cried Lady Glenhaggart, alive to the necessity of getting out of her present dangerous position with as little delay as possible, ‘ think of me ! It is all very well for the rest of you, but think what a position I am placed in!’ ‘ But, Lady Glenhaggart, you knew ! ’ ■ ‘ Knew there was a mystery, yes.’ Her voice was plaintive to pathos, and her handkerchief was at her eyes with every other word. Her disappointment was genuine enough. A quarter of a million, and such a house ! ‘ The mystery I could have endured, but it is a mystery no longer. I put it to anybody—Should I be doing my duty, as the stewardess of my dead husband’s wealth, and as that boy’s mother, if I allowed him to incnr the responsibility of such a father-in-law as that ? I cannot consent to leave the matter in doubt for a moment; Fitzwarrene and I return to town to day.’ ‘ This drew Fitzwarren’e bloodthirsty regards away from his victim at once ‘ No, I’m dashed if we do, mother,’ he said, with more emphasis than elegance. ‘At least, I speak for myself. If Mr Penhala or Ella can make any use of me in this unfortunate muddle, I’m at their service. This affair does’t alter existing arrangements a bit; it’s nonsense to think it could !’

He crossed straight over to Ellaline, and took her hand, and smiled down at her. But she could hardly see the smile for her tears—tears of pride in him, her chivalrous young lover. Lady Grienhaggart lifted her handkerchief to her eyes again, ‘ I hope you don’t intend to inflict any heroics upou us, Pitzwarrene,’ she murmured desolately. I My nerves are shattered already, A display of theatrical sentiment would be more than I could endure. Have the goodness to find out if there is any possibility of our reaching town to-night. Pitzwarrene carried his sweetheart’s cold little hand up to his lips. ‘ I will be back with you in five minutes,’ be said, and crossed over to his mother.

‘ Let me take you to your room, mother,’ he said, quietly. ‘This isn’t the time to trouble Mr Penhala with our little differences of opinion. You’ll see things in another light when you’ve pulled round .a bit.’ ‘I shall never see them in any other light,’ she said, rigidly, as she took his arm, and so went from the room with her handkerchief still to her eyes.

Which clever little device robbed the exit of all awkwardness, so far as she was individually concerned. About any other feature of the situation she was not likely to concern, herself.

‘ Lady Glenhaggart has expressed herself rather unfortunately,’ said Lucy Wentworth, trying not to look as ashamed of her stepmother as she felt, ‘ but I daresay she is right in the main point, Mr Penhala. In this crisis you would rather have our have our room than our company. Oh, please, don’t trouble to be polite. We all know what a blow this must be for you, and I’m certain you can’t be in the mood to play the host to a lot of visitors. If we all run away as fast as we can, you mustn’t think it’s because we want to cut poor Ella. I agree with Fitz—l think it’s nonsense to imagine this discovery can make any real difference, and I hope you’ll bring her to see me as soon as you come back to town. I, personally, am going because I should feel myself horribly in your way, while you’ve got this worry on your mind, and I expect we all feel something of the same kind.’ Penhala met the kindly little

advance very gratefully on Ellaline’s account. Paul had carried the cause of all the hubbub off to the library; and there was a very cordial little ten minutes in the dining-room, between host and guests, before Penhala followed them there. Ellaline he sent away to her own room, with orders not to show herself till sent for. ‘My dear, you’re not to frighten yourself,’ he said, as he parted with her at the foot of the stairs. If the fellow were forty times your father, I wouldn’t give you up into his possession till we’d fought the thing out to the very end. Months, that would take, Ella; and in that time dozens of things might happen to spoil bis claim. Perhaps, before then, Pinto will put in a claim of his own, you know —a husband’s comes before anybody’s. It will all come right in the end, my birdie, and you and Fitz will only love one another all the better for the passing cloud. I’m sorry, now, that I ever made a secret of the wretched business.’

But on that point Bllaline would not bear him. To her he had always been the dearest father girl ever had. Whatever he had done, he had done for the best, and it was best. Her childhood would never have been the beautiful thing it had been if she had known this fear was hanging over her. Whereas now, whatever happened, she would always have that time of perfect happiness to look back to,He had done quite right to keep the secret; she thanked him for that, as she thanked him for all the rest of his numberless goodnesses to her. But as he went on to the library, with her close, eager kisses warm on his lips, he still shook his head. He could not divest his mind of the idea that, in leaving her open to the possibility of such a shock as this, he had deeply wronged her. i And meantime, between Paul and his charge, shut up together in the library, there had been a tremendous Beene. Tom Jones Was already sick of the job, and wanted to back out of his bargain. He was not so drunk, nor half so drunk, as he had pretended, and, for some occult reason, Bllaline’s trouncing had got at his conscience, and stirred him up to a swift remorse. ‘ Look here !’ he exclaimed, turning round on Paul before the library-door was fairly closed between them and the open-mouthed servants in the hall, ‘you’ll have to let me off the rest of this ! I’ve had enough of it! You’ll have to finish the job by yourself. I wouldn’t go on with it for ten times the money.’ Paul went livid. ‘ You mean to throw me over F’ ‘ Ho,’ said Jones, tossing his dusty hat on to the nearest table, and thrusting his hand deep in his pocket and stamping about the room like a caged beast, ‘ no; not exactly that I’ll keep my oath of secrecy, but I won’t go on with my share of the I business. I tell you you’re not going

to set me up again, for that child to make a target of. I’ve done a good many mean things in my life, Grod knows, and never flinched ; but this one is beyond me. I won’t stand up before that girl’s reproaches again—not if I know it ! The poor, grieved little soul! Did you see the way she looked at young Pepper-pod, when he put his spoke in F Hang it all ! I wouldn’t have done what I did—no, I wouldn’t—not for five thousand, if I’d known. < Petrovsky turned the key in the door, and came over and planted himself in the fuming man’s path. ‘ Mr Penhala will be here directly,’ he said, ‘there’s no time for discussion. You’ve got to carry this thing out.’ ‘ Ho, I won’t ! I’ll see you to blazes first!’

‘I tell you, you can’t draw back now. Besides, it would be no use — the mischief is done—the match is off —you heard what the boy’s mother said ; for all her weepings and faintings she is a woman with a will of iron, and the money is all in her hands.’ ‘ Very good ! Then your purpose is gained. You can do the rest without me.’ ‘ And the five hundred pounds ?’ ‘Hang your five hundred pounds! I tell you I’m sick of the business ! I won’t have any more to do with it!’ ‘ You must stay and have this interview with Mr Penhala.’ Tom Jones stood quiet, cogitating. Paul went on. Your staying can do neither good nor harm to the girl now. The main point of the disclosure being true, it doesn't make much difference whether the disreputable father remains on the scene or not.’ ‘l’ll face it out with Penhala —’ in the midst of all the turmoil Paul noticed the unceremonious address—- ‘ but I won’t face the girl’s contempt again.’ ‘ Very well. 4 You shan’t bo brought into contact with her again, I give you my word on that. Only stand by until Lady Grlenhaggart has taken her son out of harm’s way, and I’ll stand to my half ot the bargain. So far you’ve managed admirably. That touch of intoxication was a happy thought on your part.’ Tom Jones turned on his heel, and walked off sulkily to the window. The memory of Ellaline’s biting scorn was still rankling in him. He could not glory in his blackguardism with the recollection of her shamed disgust still fresh in his mind. (To be continued.)