Sir Tristram’s worried frown lightened. He stared at Miss Thane with an arrested look in his eyes, and his stern mouth relaxed a little. “Oh!” he said slowly, and seemed for the first time to take stock of Sarah Thane. He saw before him a tall, graceful woman, with a quantity of light, curling brown hair, a generous mouth, and a pair of steady grey eyes which held a distinct twinkle. He noticed that she was dressed fashionably but without furbelows in a caraco jacket over a plain blue gown, a habit as nearly resembling a man’s riding-dress as was seemly. She looked to be a sensible woman, and she was obviously gently born. Sir Tristram was thankful to think that his betrothed had (apparently) fallen into such unexceptionable hands, and said with a slight smile: “Yes, I am Tristram Shield, ma’am. I am afraid you have the advantage of me?”
Miss Thane saw her duty clear before her, and answered at once: “Let me beg of you to come into the parlour, Sir Tristram, and I will explain to you who I am.”
He looked rather surprised. “Thank you, but as you have no doubt guessed, I am come in search of my cousin, Mademoiselle de Vauban.”
“Of course,” agreed Miss Thane, “and if you will step into the parlour—”
“Is my cousin in the house?” interrupted Sir Tristram.
“Well, yes,” admitted Miss Thane, “but I am not at all sure that you can see her. Come into the parlour, and I will see what can be done.”
Sir Tristram cast a glance up the stairs, and said in a voice edged with annoyance: “Very well, ma’am, but why there should be any doubt about my seeing my cousin I am at a loss to understand.”
“I can tell you that too,” said Miss Thane, leading the way to the private parlour. She shut the door, and said cheerfully: “One cannot after all be surprised. You have behaved with a shocking lack of sensibility, have you not?”
“I was not aware of it, ma’am. Nor do I know why my cousin should leave her home at dead of night and undertake a solitary journey to London.”
“She was wishful to become a governess,” explained Sarah.
He stared at her in the blankest surprise. “Wishful to become a governess? Nonsense! Why should she wish anything of the kind?”
“Just for the sake of adventure,” said Miss Thane.
“I have yet to learn that a governess’s life is adventurous!” he said. “I should be grateful to you if you would tell me the truth!”
“Come, come, sir! “ said Miss Thane pityingly, “it must surely be within your knowledge that the eldest son of the house always falls in love with the governess, and elopes with her in the teeth of all opposition?”
Sir Tristram drew a breath. “ Does he?” he said.
“Yes, but not, of course, until he has rescued her from an oubliette, and a band of masked ruffians set on to her by his mother,” said Miss Thane matter-of-factly. “She has to suffer a good deal of persecution before she elopes.”
“I am of the opinion,” said Sir Tristram with asperity, “that a little persecution would do my cousin a world of good! Her thirst for romance is likely to lead her into trouble. In fact, I was very much afraid that she had already run into trouble when I found her bandboxes upon the road. Perhaps, since she appears to have told you so much, she has also told you how she came to lose them?”
Miss Thane, perceiving that this question would lead her on to dangerous ground, mendaciously denied all knowledge of the bandboxes. She then made the discovery that Sir Tristram Shield’s eyes were uncomfortably penetrating. She met their sceptical gaze with all the blandness she could summon to her aid.
“Indeed!” he said, politely incredulous. “But perhaps you can tell me why, if she was bound for London by the night mail, as her maid informed me, she is still in this inn?”
“Certainly!” said Sarah, rising to the occasion. “She arrived too late for the mail, and was forced to put up for the night.”
“What did she do for night gear?” inquired Shield.
“Oh, I lent her what she needed!”
“I suppose she did not think the loss of her baggage of sufficient interest to call for explanation?”
“To tell you the truth—” began Sarah confidingly.
“Thank you! I should like to hear the truth.”
“To tell you the truth,” repeated Sarah coldly, “she had a fright, and the bandboxes broke loose.”
“What frightened her?”
“A Headless Horseman,” said Sarah.
He was frowning again. “Headless Horseman? Fiddlesticks!”
“Very well,” said Sarah, as one making a concession, “then it was a dragon.”
“I think,” said Sir Tristram in a very level voice, “that it will be better if I see my cousin and hear her story from her own lips.”
“Not if you are going to approach it in this deplorable spirit,” replied Miss Thane. “I dare say you would tell her there are no such things as dragons or headless horsemen!”
“Well?”
Miss Thane cast down her eyes to hide the laughter in them, and replied in a saddened tone: “When she told me the whole I thought it impossible that anyone could be so devoid of all sensibility, but now that I have seen you I realize that she spoke no less than the melancholy truth. A man who could remain unaffected by the thought of a young girl, dressed in white, all alone, and in a tumbril—”
His brow cleared; he gave a short laugh. “Does that rankle? But really I am past the age of being impressed by such absurdities.”
Miss Thane sighed. “Perhaps that might be forgiven, but your heartlessness in refusing to ride ventre a terre to her deathbed—”
“Good God, surely she cannot have fled the house for such a ridiculous reason?” exclaimed Shield, considerably exasperated. “Why she should continually be harping on the notion of her own death passes my comprehension! She seems to me a perfectly healthy young woman.”
Miss Thane looked at him in horror. “You did not tell her that, I trust?”
“I don’t know what I told her. I might very easily.”
“If I were you,” said Miss Thane, “I would give up this idea you have of marrying your cousin. You would not suit.”
“I’m fast coming to that conclusion myself,” he said. “Moreover, Miss—What is your name?”
“Thane,” replied Sarah.
“Thane?” he repeated. “I fancy I have met someone of that name, but I do not immediately recall—”
“At Mendoza’s Saloon,” interpolated Sarah helpfully.
He looked a little amused. “Yes, possibly. But do you—”
“Or even at Brooks’s.”
“ I am certainly a member.”
“My brother,” said Sarah. “He is at present in bed, nursing a severe cold, but I dare say he will like to receive you.”
“It is extremely obliging of him, but my sole desire is to see my cousin, Miss Thane.”
Sarah, whose attention had been caught by the sound of an arrival, paid no heed to this hint, but peeped over the short window-blind. What she saw made her feel uneasy; she turned her head and requested Sir Tristram to come at once. “Tell me,” she commanded, “who are these two men in uniform?”
He came to the window. “Only a couple of Excisemen,” he answered, after a casual glance.
“Oh, is that all?” said Miss Thane in rather a hollow voice. “I expect they have come to see what Nye keeps in his cellars. My brother fancies it is all smuggled liquor.”
He looked at her in some perplexity. “They won’t find anything. May I remind you, ma’am, that I wish to see my cousin?”
Miss Thane, having watched one of the Excisemen dismount and go into the inn, was straining her ears to catch what was being said in the coffee-room. She heard the landlord’s deep voice, and wondered whether he had succeeded in persuading Ludovic to descend into the cellar. She looked at Sir Tristram, reflecting that he could not have chosen a more inopportune moment for his arrival. She ought to get rid of him, she supposed, but he did not seem to be the sort of man to be easily fobbed off. She said confidentially: “Do you know, I think it would be wisest if you were to leave your cousin with me for the present?”
“You are extremely good, ma’am, but I mean to carry her to my mother in Bath.”
“Backgammon?” said Miss Thane knowledgeably. “She won’t go. In fact, I hardly think it is worth your while to remain here, for she is set against seeing you.”
“Miss Thane,” said Sir Tristram dangerously, “it is quite evident to me that you are trying to prevent my seeing my cousin. I have not the smallest notion why she does not wish to see me. But I am going to see her. I trust I have made myself quite plain?”
“Yes, quite,” said Miss Thane, catching an echo of Eustacie’s voice joined with Nye’s in the coffee-room.
It seemed as though Shield had heard it too, for he turned his head towards the door, listening. Then he looked back at Sarah and said: “You had better tell me at once, ma’am: what scrape is she in?”
“Oh, none at all!” Miss Thane assured him, and added sharply: “Where are you going?”
“To find out for myself!” said Shield, opening the door, and striding off to the coffee-room.
Miss Thane, feeling that as an accomplice she had not been a success, followed him helplessly.
In the coffee-room were gathered the landlord, Mademoiselle de Vauban, an Excise officer, and the tapster. The Excise officer was looking suspiciously from Eustacie to Nye, and Eustacie was talking volubly and with a great deal of gesticulation. When she saw her cousin on the threshold she broke off, and stared at him in consternation. The landlord shot a look at Sir Tristram under his jutting brows, but said nothing.
“I’m sorry,” said Miss Thane, in answer to a reproachful glance from Eustacie. “I could not stop him.”
“You should have stopped him!” said Eustacie. “Now what are we to do?”
Miss Thane turned to Sir Tristram. “The truth is, my dear sir, that your cousin fell in with a band of smugglers last night upon the road here, and had a sad fright.”
“Smugglers?” repeated Shield.
“Yes,” averred Eustacie. “And I am just telling this stupid person that it was I who came here last night, and not a smuggler.”
“Begging your pardon, sir,” said the riding-officer, “but the young lady’s telling me that she rid here last night to catch the mail coach.” His tone inferred that he found the story incredible, as well he might.
“I’ll have you know,” growled Nye, “that the Red Lion’s a respectable house! You’ll find no smugglers here.”
“And it’s my belief I’d find a deal you’d like to hide if I knew just where those cellars of yours are, Mr Nye!” retorted the Exciseman. “It’s a fine tale you’ve hatched, and Miss knowing no better than to back you up in it, but you don’t gammon me so easily! Ay, you’ve been careful to sweep the snow from your doorstep, but I’ve followed the trail down the road, and seen the blood on it!”
“Certainly you have seen the blood,” said Eustacie. “There was a great deal of blood.”
“Miss, do you ask me to believe that you went gallivanting about on horseback in the middle of the night? Come now, that won’t do!”
“Yes, but you do not understand. I was making my escape,” said Eustacie.
“Making your escape, miss?”
“Yes, and my cousin here will tell you that what I say is true. I am Mademoiselle de Vauban, and I am the granddaughter of Lord Lavenham, and he is Sir Tristram Shield.”
The Exciseman seemed to be a little impressed by this. He touched his hat to Sir Tristram, but still looked unconvinced. “Well, miss, and supposing you are, what call have you to go riding off in the night? I never heard of the Quality doing such!”
“I was running away from Sir Tristram,” said Eustacie.
“Oh!” said the Exciseman, looking more dubious than ever.
Sir Tristram stood like a rock. Miss Thane, taking one look at his outraged profile, was shaken by inward laughter, and said unsteadily: “This is a—a matter of no little delicacy, you understand?”
“I’m bound to say I don’t, ma’am,” said the Exciseman bluntly. “What for would the young lady want to run away from her cousin?”
“Because he would have forced me to marry him!” said Eustacie recklessly.
The Exciseman cast a glance of considerable respect at Sir Tristram, and said: “Well, but surely to goodness, miss—”
“My grandfather is dead, and I am quite in my cousin’s power,” announced Eustacie. “And when I was on my way here I met the smugglers. And I was naturally very much afraid, and they were too, because they fired at my groom, and wounded him, and he fell off his horse with both my bandboxes.”
Sir Tristram continued to preserve a grim silence, but at mention of the groom a slight frown knit his brows, and he looked intently at Eustacie.
“Indeed, miss?” said the Exciseman. “Then it queers me how there come to be only the tracks of one horse down the road!”
“The other horse bolted, of course,” said Eustacie. “It went back to its stable.”
“Maddened by fright,” murmured Miss Thane, and encountered a glance from Shield which spoke volumes.
“And may I inquire, miss, how you come to know that the horse went back to its stable?”
Miss Thane held Sir Tristram’s eyes with her own. “Why, Sir Tristram here has just been telling us!” she said with calm audacity. “When the riderless horse arrived at the Court he at once feared some mishap had overtaken his cousin, and set out to ride— ventre a terre —to the rescue. Is that not so, dear sir?”
Aware of one compelling pair of humorous grey eyes upon him, and one imploring pair of black ones, Sir Tristram said: “Just so, ma’am.”
The look he received from his cousin should have rewarded him. Eustacie said: “And then I must tell you that I took my poor groom up behind me on my own horse, but I did not know the way very well, and he was too faint to direct me, and so I was lost a long time in the Forest.”
The Exciseman scratched his chin. “I’ll take a look at this groom of yours, miss, if it’s all the same to you. I’m not saying I don’t believe your story, but what I do say is that ladies take queer notions into their heads when it comes to wounded men, and the late lord—begging your pardon, sir, and miss—was never one to help us officers against them pesky smugglers, any more than what most of the gentry hereabouts are!”
“Help a smuggler?” said Miss Thane in shocked accents “My good man, do you know that you are addressing the sister of a Justice of the Peace? Let me tell you that my brother, who is in the house at this moment, holds the strongest views on smugglers and smuggled goods!” This, after all, she reflected, was quite true, and ought to impress the Exciseman—provided, of course, that Sir Hugh did not take it into his head to appear suddenly and explain the nature of his views.
The Exciseman certainly seemed rather shaken. He looked uncertainly from Miss Thane to Eustacie, and said in a sulky voice that his orders were to search the house.
“Oh, they are, are they?” said Nye. “P’raps you’d like to go and tell Sir Hugh Thane yourself that you’re wishful to search his bedchamber? And him a Justice, like miss has told you! You get out of this before I lose my temper, that’s my advice to you!”
“You lay a hand on me and you’ll suffer for it, Mr Nye!” said the Exciseman, keeping a wary eye on the landlord’s massive form.
“Just a moment!” said Sir Tristram. “There is no need for all this to-do. If you suspect my cousin’s groom of being a smuggler—”
“Well, sir, we fired on one last night, and I’m ready to swear we hit him. And it can’t be denied that females is notably soft-hearted when it comes to a wounded man!”
“Possibly,” said Shield, “but I am not soft-hearted, nor am I in the habit of assisting smugglers, or any other kind of law-breaker.”
“No, sir,” said the Exciseman, abashed by Sir Tristram’s blighting tone. “I’m sure I didn’t mean—”
“If the wounded man is indeed a groom from the Court I shall recognize him,” continued Shield. “The affair can quite easily be settled by taking me to his room.”
There was one moment’s frozen silence. Sir Tristram was looking not at the Exciseman, but at Eustacie, who had turned as white as her fichu, and was staring at him in patent horror.
Nye’s voice broke the silence. “And that’s a mighty sound notion, sir!” he said deliberately. “I’ll lay your honour knows the lad as well as I do myself.”
Sir Tristram’s eyes narrowed. “Do I?” he said.
Eustacie said breathlessly: “You cannot see him! He is in a fever!”
“Never you fret, miss,” said Nye. “Sir Tristram’s not one to go blaming the lad for doing what you ordered him to, nor he won’t do anything to upset him. If you’ll come upstairs, sir, I’ll take you to him right away.”
“Begging your pardon, but I’d as lief come too,” said the Exciseman firmly.
“That’s it, Nosy, you come!” replied Nye. “No one ain’t stopping you.”
Eustacie moved swiftly to the foot of the stairs, as though she would bar the way, but before she could speak Miss Thane was at her side, and had swept her forward, up the stairs, with an arm round her waist. “Yes, my love, by all means let us go too, in case the lad should be alarmed at having to face Sir Tristram.”
“He must not see him! He must not!” whispered Eustacie, anguished
“In my back bedchamber, sir,” said Nye loudly. “I always house smugglers there to be handy for the riding-officers.”
This withering piece of sarcasm made the Exciseman say, defensively, that he was only trying to do his duty. Nye ignored him, and threw open the door of the back bedchamber, saying: “Step in, Sir Tristram: I know I needn’t warn you not to go for to startle a sick lad.”
A small, insistent hand grasped Sir Tristram’s coat-sleeve. He glanced down into Eustacie’s white face, saw in it entreaty and alarm, and shaking off her hand strode into the room.
Ludovic had raised himself on his elbow. Across the room his strained blue eyes met Shield’s hard grey ones. Shield checked for an instant on the threshold, while Miss Thane gave Eustacie’s hand a reassuring squeeze, and the Exciseman said hopefully: “Do you know him, sir?”
“Very well indeed,” replied Shield coolly. He went forward to the bed, and laid a hand on Ludovic’s shoulder. “Well, my lad, you have got yourself into trouble through this piece of folly. Lie down now: I’ll talk to you later.” He turned, addressing the Exciseman: “I can vouch for this fellow. He does not look very like a smuggler, do you think?”
“No, sir, I’m bound to say he don’t,” said the Exciseman slowly, staring at Ludovic. “I’d say he looked uncommon like the old Lord—from what I remember. It’s the nose. It ain’t a nose one forgets, somehow.”
“It is a nose often seen in these parts,” said Sir Tristram with dry significance.
The Exciseman blinked at him for a moment, and then, as light broke in on him, said hurriedly: “Oh, that’s the way it is! I beg pardon, I’m sure! No offence meant! If you can vouch for the young fellow of course I ain’t got no more to say, sir.”
“Then if you ain’t got no more to say you can take yourself off!” said Nye, thrusting him out of the room. “It don’t do the house any good having your kind in it. Next you’ll be telling me I’ve got smuggled liquor in my cellar!”
“And so you have!” rejoined the Exciseman immediately.
The door closed behind them; those in the little chamber could hear the altercation gradually growing fainter as Nye shepherded his unwelcome guest down the stairs.
No one moved or spoke until the voices had died away. Then Eustacie caught Sir Tristram’s hand, and pressed it to her cheek, saying simply: “I will do anything you wish. I will even marry you!”
“Oh no, you will not!” exploded Ludovic, struggling to sit up. “If this last don’t beat all! What the devil did you mean by telling that long-nosed tidesman that I’m one of Sylvester’s by-blows?”
“But no, Ludovic, no! I find that was very clever of him!” protested Eustacie. “Did you not think so, Sarah?”
Miss Thane said gravely: “I’m lost in admiration of so quick a wit. You never told me he was such an excellent conspirator.”
“Well, truly I did not think that he would be,” confessed Eustacie.
Sir Tristram, ignoring this interchange, said: “In God’s name, Ludovic, what are you doing here?”
“Free trading,” replied Ludovic, with complete sangfroid.
Shield’s face darkened. “Are you jesting?”
“No, no, he really is a smuggler, Cousin Tristram!” said Eustacie earnestly. “It is very romantic, I think. Do not you?”
“No, I do not!” said Shield. “Hasn’t your name been smirched enough, you young fool? Smuggling! And you can lie there and blandly tell me of it!”
“You see!” Eustacie made a disgusted face at Miss Thane.
“Yes, he seems to have no feeling for romance at all,” agreed Sarah.
Ludovic said savagely: “You may be thankful I can do nothing but lie here! Do you think I care whether I’m hanged for a free trader or a murderer? I’m ruined, aren’t I? Then, damn it, I’ll go to the devil my own way!”
“I don’t want to interrupt you,” said Miss Thane, “but you’ll find yourself with the devil sooner than you think for if that wound of yours starts bleeding again.”
“Ah, let be!” Ludovic said, his right hand clenching on the coverlet.
Sir Tristram was looking at that hand. He bent, and grasped Ludovic’s wrist, and lifted it, staring at the bare fingers. “Show me your other hand!” he said harshly.
Ludovic’s lips twisted into a bitter smile. He wrenched his wrist out of Shield’s hold, and put back the bedclothes to show his left arm in a sling. The fingers were as bare as those of his right hand.
Sir Tristram raised his eyes to that haggard young face. “If you had it it would never leave your finger!” he said. “Ludovic, where is the ring?”
“Famous!” mocked Ludovic. “Brazen it out, Tristram! Where is the ring indeed? You do not know, of course!”
“What the devil do you mean by that?” demanded Shield, in a voice that made Eustacie jump.
Ludovic flung off Miss Thane’s restraining hand, and sat up as though moved by a spring. “You know what I mean!” he said, quick and panting. “You laid your plans very skilfully, my clever cousin, and you took care to ship me out of England before I’d time to think who, besides myself, could want the ring more than anything on earth! Does it grace your collection now? Tell me, does it give you satisfaction when you look at it?”
“If you were not a wounded man I’d give you the thrashing of your life, Ludovic!” said Shield, very white about the mouth. “I have stood veiled hints from Basil, but not even he dare say to my face what you have said!”
“Basil—Basil believed in me!” Ludovic gasped. “It was you—you!”
Miss Thane caught him as he fell back, and lowered him on to his pillows. “Now see what you have done!” she said severely. “Hartshorn, Eustacie!”
“I would like very much to kill you!” Eustacie told her cousin fiercely, and bent over the bed, holding the hartshorn under Ludovic’s nose.
He came round in a minute or two, and opened his eyes. “Tristram!” he muttered. “My ring, Tristram!”
Shield brought a glass of water to the bed, and, raising Ludovic, held it to his lips. “Drink this, and don’t be a fool!”
“Damn you, take your hands off me!” Ludovic whispered.
Sir Tristram paid no heed to this, but obliged him to drink some of the water. He laid him down again, and handed the glass to Miss Thane. “Listen to me!” he said, standing over Ludovic. “I never had your ring in my hands in my life. Until this moment I would have sworn it was in your possession.”
Ludovic had averted his face, but he turned his head at that. “If you have not got it, who has?” he said wearily.
“I don’t know, but I’ll do my best to find out,” replied Shield.
Eustacie drew a deep breath. “I see that I have misjudged you, Cousin Tristram,” she said handsomely. “One must make reparation, enfin. I will marry you.”
“Thank you,” said Sir Tristram, “but the matter does not call for such a sacrifice as that, I assure you.” He saw a certain raptness steal into her eyes, and added: “Don’t waste time picturing yourself in the role of a martyred bride, I beg of you! I haven’t the smallest desire to marry you.”
Eustacie frowned. “But you must have an—”
“Yes, we won’t go into that again,” he said hastily.
“And I think,” continued Eustacie, visibly attracted by the vision of herself as a martyred bride, “that perhaps it is my duty to marry you.”
Ludovic raised his head from the pillows. “Well, you can’t marry him. I’m the head of the family now, and I forbid it.”
“Oh, very well!” submitted Eustacie. “I dare say I should not like always to be a sacrifice, after all.”
“Am I to understand,” inquired Miss Thane, “that Sir Tristram is to become one of us? If you are satisfied he is not the villain it is not for me to raise objections, of course, but I must say I am disappointed. We shall have to remake all our plans.”
“Yes, we shall,” agreed Eustacie. “And that reminds me that if Tristram truly did not steal Ludovic’s ring, there is not any need for me to marry him. I had forgotten.”
Sir Tristram looked rather startled, observing which, Miss Thane said kindly: “You must know that we had it all fixed that Eustacie was to marry you so as to be able to search in your collection for the missing ring.”
“What a splendid notion, to be sure!” said Sir Tristram sardonically.
“Yes, it was, wasn’t it?” said Eustacie. “But now we do not know who is the villain, so it is of no use.”
Ludovic was watching Shield intently. “Tristram, you know something!”
Shield glanced down at him. “No. But Plunkett was shot by someone who wanted the talisman ring and only that. If you were not the man I know of only one other who could have done it.”
Ludovic raised himself slightly, staring at his cousin with knit brows. “My God, but he believed me! He was the only one who believed me!”
“So implicitly,” said Shield, “that he advised you to face your trial—with evidence enough against you to hang you twice over! Have you never wondered why he did that?”
Ludovic made a gesture as though brushing it aside. “Oh, I guessed he would be glad to step into my shoes, but damme, he would not run the risk of committing murder—he of all men!”
Eustacie gave a joyful shriek. “Basil!” she exclaimed, clapping her hands together. “Yes, yes, of a certainty it was he! Why did I not think of that before? Miss Thane, it is my cousin Basil who is the villain, and although you do not know him I assure you it is much, much better, because he wears a silly hat, and I do not at all like him!”
“Oh well, in that case I am perfectly willing to have him for the villain in Sir Tristram’s place,” said Sarah. “I did not like to seem to criticize your choice, but to tell you the truth, Sir Tristram is not sinister enough for my taste.”
Sir Tristram looked a little amused. Ludovic said: “Wait, Eustacie, wait! This is not certain! Let me think!”
“But there is not any need to think, mon cousin. It is clear to me that Basil is the man, because he wants very much to be Lord Lavenham, and besides, there is no one else.”
“I can’t believe he’d put his neck in such jeopardy!” Ludovic said. “When did the Beau ever court a risk?”
“Whoever did it, Ludovic, was able to obtain a handkerchief of yours to leave beside the body,” Shield reminded him. “He must also have known that Plunkett was dining at Slaugham that evening, and guessed at least that he would return by the path through the Longshaw Spinney.”
“Yes, but to plan a cold-blooded murder just to dispose of me, and then pretend belief in my story—No, surely he could not do it!”
“Hush!” said Miss Thane impressively. “The whole affair is becoming as clear as daylight to me. He did not plan it; I dare say he never went beyond wishing that some accident would befall Ludovic—oh, I beg your pardon!—befall Lord Lavenham—”
“‘Ludovic’ will do,” interposed his lordship, grinning up at her. “I count you as quite one of the family.”
“I wish you may, for I assure you I regard myself as irrevocably bound to this adventure. Do not interrupt me! Let us say that he thought quite idly how fortunate it would be if Ludovic met with an accident. He would not dare to contrive one, for being the next in succession suspicion might fall on him. Well then, Ludovic lost his talisman ring, and Basil saw—No, I am wrong! At first he saw nothing. But Ludovic began to play into his hands—really, Ludovic, I believe it was all your fault: you tempted Basil beyond what he could resist.”
“I did not!” said Ludovic indignantly.
“You know nothing of the matter, my dear boy. You and Chance between you showed Basil how he could be rid of you. You became enraged with the man whose name Eustacie cannot remember (or I, for that matter), and I dare say you were drinking heavily, and—”
“He was,” said Sir Tristram.
“Of course. He was in a mood for violence. I’ve no doubt he talked very wildly, and swore he would be avenged. Now you must think, Ludovic, if you please! Did not Basil know that you meant to waylay that man upon—upon the fatal night?”
“I don’t know. I think I made no secret of it. Basil knew the whole story.”
“I am quite sure he did,” said Miss Thane. “Now you see, do you not, how easy it was for him? It needed no planning at all. He had only to lie in wait for that man in the spinney, to leave a handkerchief of yours beside the body, and to steal the ring. Afterwards he had nothing to do but enact the role of champion. I perceive that he must have a very subtle brain.” She closed her eyes, and said in a seer-like voice: “He is, I am sure, a sinister person.”
“The Beau?” said Ludovic. “No, he isn’t!”
Miss Thane frowned. “Nonsense, he must be!”
“Yes,” said Eustacie regretfully, “but truly he is not.”
Miss Thane opened her eyes again. “You put me out. What then is he like?”
“He is very civil,” said Eustacie. “He has manners of the most polished.”
Miss Thane readjusted her ideas. “I will allow him to be smooth-spoken. I think he smiles.”
“Yes, he does,” admitted Eustacie.
Miss Thane gave a shudder. “His smile hides a wolfish soul!” she announced.
Ludovic burst out laughing. “Devil a bit! There’s nothing wolfish about him. He’s a mighty pleasant fellow, and I’d have sworn not one to wish anybody harm.”
“Alas, it is true!” said Eustacie sadly. “He is just nothing.”
Sir Tristram’s eyebrows went up a shade. Miss Thane pointed a triumphant finger at him, and said: “Sir Tristram knows better! A wolf, sir?”
He shook his head. “No, I don’t think I should put it quite like that, Miss Thane. He is pleasant enough—a little too pleasant. He purrs like a cat.”
“He does,” agreed Ludovic. “But do you know any ill of him? I don’t.”
“One thing,” replied Shield. “I know that Sylvester mistrusted him.”
“Sylvester!” said Ludovic scornfully.
“Oh, Sylvester was no fool,” answered Shield.
“Good God, he mistrusted scores of people, me amongst them!”
“So little did he mistrust you,” said Shield, putting his hand into his waistcoat-pocket, “that he bade me give you that if ever I should see you again, and tell you not to pledge it.”
Ludovic stared at the great ruby. “Thunder and Turf, did he leave me that! ”
“As you see. He asked me just before he died whether I thought your story had been true after all.”
“I dare swear you told him No,” remarked Ludovic, slipping the ring on to his finger.
“I did,” said Shield calmly. “You must remember that I heard that shot not ten minutes after I had parted from you, and I knew what sort of a humour you were in.”
Ludovic shot him a fiery glance. “You thought me capable of murder, in fact!”
“I thought you three-parts drunk,” said Shield. “I also thought you a rash young fool. I still think that. What possessed you to turn smuggler? Have you been sailing off the coast of Sussex all this time?”
“‘Hovering’ is the word,” said Ludovic, with a gleam of mischief. “Free trading seemed to me an occupation eminently suited to an outlaw. Besides, I always liked the sea.”
Sir Tristram said scathingly: “I suppose that was reason enough.”
“Why not? I knew some of the Gentlemen, too, from old days. But I was never off these shores till now. Don’t like ’em: there’s too much creeping done, and the tidesmen are too cursed sharp. I’ve been helping to run cargoes of brandy and rum—under Bergen papers, you know—into Lincolnshire. That’s the place, I can tell you. I’ve been dodging revenue cruisers for the past fifteen months. It’s not a bad life, but the fact of the matter is I wasn’t reared to it. I only came into Sussex to glean what news there might be from Nye.”
“But you will stay, mon cousin, won’t you?” asked Eustacie anxiously.
“He can’t stay,” Shield said. “It was madness to come at all.”
Ludovic lifted his head, and regarded Sylvester’s ring through half-closed eyes. “I shall stay,” he said nonchalantly, “and I shall find out who holds the talisman ring.”
“Ludovic, you may trust me to do all I can to discover it, but you must not be found here!”
“I’m not going to be found here,” replied Ludovic. “You don’t know Joe’s cellars. I do.”
“Go over to Holland, and wait there,” Shield said. “You can do no good here.”
“Oh yes, I can!” said Ludovic, turning his hand so that the jewel caught the light. “Moreover, I’ll be damned if I’ll be elbowed out of my own business!”
“What can you hope to do in hiding that I cannot do openly?” asked Shield. “Why add to your folly by running the risk of being arrested?”
“Because,” said Ludovic, at last raising his eyes from the ruby, “if the Beau has the ring I know where to look for it.”