Adventure, February 1917 — page 154: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

152, “T see,” he sneered, “‘you want to be a peeress one day, no doubt. Well, you never shall if I can help it. this fine gentleman of yours will not be so particularly anxious to marry you when he. learns that you are the daughter of a mur- derer.” The word was like a bombshell bursting among us. We looked at each other as people, yet dazed with the shock, might on a battlefield when the noise has died and the smoke cleared away, to see if they are still alive. Anscombe spoke the first. “T don’t know what you mean or t6 what you refer,” he said quietly. ‘But at any rate this lady who has promised to marry me is innocent, and therefore if all her ancestors had been murderers it would not in the slightest turn me from my purpose - of marrying her.” She looked at him, and all the gratitude in the world shone in her frightened eyes. Marnham stepped, or father staggered forward. “He lies,” he said hoarsely, tugging at his long white beard. “Listen now and I will tell you the truth. Once, more than a year ago, I was drunk and in a rage. In this state I fired at a Kaffir to frighten him, and by some devil’s chance shot him dead. That’s what he calls being a murderer.” “T have another tale,” said Todd, “‘with which I will not trouble this company just now. Look here, Heda, either you fulfil your promise and marry me, or your father swings.” She gasped and sank together-on the seat as though she had been shot. Then I took up my parable. “Are you the man,” I asked, “to accuse others of crime? Let us see. You have spent several months in an English prison (I gave the name) for a crime I won’t mention.” “How do you know?” he began. “Never mind; I do know and the prison books will show it. Further, your business is that of selling guns and ammunition to the * Basutos of Sekukuni’s tribe, who, although the expedition against them has been temporarily recalled, are still the Queen’s enemies. Don’t deny it, for I have the proofs. Further, it was you who advised Sekukuni to kill us when we went down to his country to shoot the other day, because you were afraid that we should discover whence he got his guns.”’ This Perhaps, too, Adventure was a bow drawn at a venture, but the arrow went home, for I saw his jaw drop. “Further, I believe you to be an illicit diamond buyer, and I believe that you have again been arranging with the Basutos to make an end of us, though of these last two items at present I lack positive proof. Now, Dr. Todd, I ask you for the second | time. whether you are a person to accuse others of crimes and whether, should you do so, you will be considered a credible wit- ness when your own are brought to light?” “If I had been guilty of any of these things, which I am not, it is obvious that my partner must have shared in all of them, except the first. So if you inform against me, you inform against him, and the father of Heda, whom your friend wishes to marry, will, according, to your showing, be proved a gun-runner, a thief and a would-be murderer of his guests. I should advise you to leave that business alone, Mr. Quatermain.”’ The reply was bold and clever, so much so that I regarded this blackguard with a certain amount of admiration, as I answered— “T shall take your advice if you take mine to leave another business alone, that of this young lady and her father, but not otherwise.” “Then spare your breath and do your worst; only be careful, sharp as you think yourself, that your meddling does not recoil on your own head. Listen, Heda, either you make up your mind to marry me at once and arrange that this young gentle- man, who as a doctor I assure you is now quite fit to travel without injury to his health, leaves this house tomorrow with the spy Quatermain—you might lend him the Cape cart to go in—or I start with the proofs to lay a charge of murder against your father. I give you till tomorrow morning to have a family council to think it over. Good night.” “Good night,” I answered as he passed me, “and please be careful that none_of us see your face again before tomorrow morning. As you may happen to have heard, my native name means Watcher-by- N ight, ” and I looked at the revolver in my hand. When he had vanished I remarked in as cheerful a voice as I could command, that I thought it was bedtime, and as nobody stirred, added: IWOOKS > a (EC) (E©)