Hushed Up! A Mystery of London Part 10

"And what is that?"

"To keep yourself as far as possible from both Pennington and his daughter," he responded slowly and distinctly, a strange expression upon his clean-shaven face.

"But why do you tell me this?" I cried, still much mystified. "Have you not told me that you are Sylvia's friend?"

"I have told you this because it is my duty to warn those in whose path a pitfall is spread."

"And is a pitfall spread in mine?"

"Yes," replied the grave-faced, ascetic-looking rector, as he leaned forward to emphasize his words. "Before you, my dear sir, there lies an open grave. Behind it stands that girl yonder"--and he pointed with his lean finger to the framed photograph--"and if you attempt to reach her you must inevitably fall into the pit--that death-trap so cunningly prepared. Do not, I beg of you, attempt to approach the unattainable."

I saw that he was in dead earnest.

"But why?" I demanded in my despair, for a.s.suredly the enigma was increasing hourly. "Why are you not open and frank with me? I--I confess I----"

"You love her, eh?" he asked, looking at me quickly as he interrupted me. "Ah, yes," he sighed, as a dark shadow overspread his thin, pale face, "I guessed as much--a fatal love. You are young and enthusiastic, and her pretty face, her sweet voice and her soft eyes have fascinated you. How I wish, Mr. Biddulph, that I could reveal to you the ghastly, horrible truth. Though I am your friend--and hers, yet I must, alas! remain silent! The inviolable seal of The Confessional is upon my lips!"

CHAPTER FIVE

THE DARK HOUSE IN BAYSWATER

Edmund Shuttleworth, the thin-faced, clean-shaven Hamps.h.i.+re rector, had spoken the truth. His manner and speech were that of an honest man.

Within myself I could but admit it. Yet I loved Sylvia. Why, I cannot tell. How can a man tell why he loves? First love is more than the mere awakening of a pa.s.sion: it is transition to another state of being. When it is born the man is new-made.

Yet, as the spring days pa.s.sed, I lived in suspicion and wonder, ever mystified, ever apprehensive.

Each morning I looked eagerly for a letter from her, yet each morning I was disappointed.

It seemed true, as Shuttleworth had said, that an open gulf lay between us.

Where was she, I wondered? I dared not write to Gardone, as she had begged me not to do so. She had left there, no doubt, for was she not a constant wanderer? Was not her stout, bald-headed father the modern incarnation of the Wandering Jew?

May lengthened into June, with its usual society functions and all the wild gaiety of the London season. The Derby pa.s.sed and Ascot came, the Park was full every day, theatres and clubs were crowded, and the hotels overflowed with Americans and country cousins. I had many invitations, but accepted few. Somehow, my careless cosmopolitanism had left me. I had become a changed man.

And if I were to believe the woman who had come so strangely and so suddenly into my life, I was a marked man also.

Disturbing thoughts often arose within me in the silence of the night, but, laughing at them, I crushed them down. What had I possibly to fear? I had no enemy that I was aware of. The whole suggestion seemed so utterly absurd and far-fetched.

Jack Marlowe came back from Denmark hale and hearty, and more than once I was sorely tempted to explain to him the whole situation. Only I feared he would jeer at me as a love-sick idiot.

What was the secret held by that grey-faced country parson? Whatever it might be, it was no ordinary one. He had spoken of the seal of The Confessional. What sin had Sylvia Pennington confessed to him?

Day after day, as I sat in my den at Wilton Street smoking moodily and thinking, I tried vainly to imagine what cardinal sin she could have committed. My sole thoughts were of her, and my all-consuming eagerness was to meet her again.

On the night of the twentieth of June--I remember the date well because the Gold Cup had been run that afternoon--I had come in from supper at the Ritz about a quarter to one, and retired to bed. I suppose I must have turned in about half-an-hour, when the telephone at my bedside rang, and I answered.

"Hulloa!" asked a voice. "Is that you, Owen?"

"Yes," I replied.

"Jack speaking--Jack Marlowe," exclaimed the distant voice. "Is that you, Owen? Your voice sounds different."

"So does yours, a bit," I said. "Voices often do on the 'phone. Where are you?"

"I'm out in Bayswater--Althorp House, Porchester Terrace," my friend replied. "I'm in a bit of a tight corner. Can you come here? I'm so sorry to trouble you, old man. I wouldn't ask you to turn out at this hour if it weren't imperative."

"Certainly I'll come," I said, my curiosity at once aroused. "But what's up?"

"Oh, nothing very alarming," he laughed. "Nothing to worry over. I've been playing cards, and lost a bit, that's all. Bring your cheque-book; I want to pay up before I leave. You understand. I know you'll help me, like the good pal you always are."

"Why, of course I will, old man," was my prompt reply.

"I've got to pay up my debts for the whole week--nearly a thousand.

Been infernally unlucky. Never had such vile luck. Have you got it in the bank? I can pay you all right at the end of next week."

"Yes," I said, "I can let you have it."

"These people know you, and they'll take your cheque, they say."

"Right-ho!" I said; "I'll get a taxi and be up with you in half-an-hour."

"You're a real good pal, Owen. Remember the address: Althorp House, Porchester Terrace," cried my friend cheerily. "Get here as soon as you can, as I want to get home. So-long."

And, after promising to hurry, I hung up the receiver again.

Dear old Jack always was a bit reckless. He had a good income allowed him by his father, but was just a little too fond of games of chance.

He had been hard hit in February down at Monte Carlo, and I had lent him a few hundreds to tide him over. Yet, by his remarks over the 'phone, I could only gather that he had fallen into the hands of sharpers, who held him up until he paid--no uncommon thing in London.

Card-sharpers are generally blackmailers as well, and no doubt these people were bleeding poor Jack to a very considerable tune.

I rose, dressed, and, placing my revolver in my hip pocket in case of trouble, walked towards Victoria Station, where I found a belated taxi.

Within half-an-hour I alighted before a large dark house about half-way up Porchester Terrace, Bayswater, standing back from the road, with small garden in front; a house with closely-shuttered windows, the only light showing being that in the fanlight over the door.

My approaching taxi was being watched for, I suppose, for as I crossed the gravel the door fell back, and a smart, middle-aged man-servant admitted me.

"I want to see Mr. Marlowe," I said.

"Are you Mr. Biddulph?" he inquired, eyeing me with some suspicion.

I replied in the affirmative, whereupon he invited me to step upstairs, while I followed him up the wide, well-carpeted staircase and along a corridor on the first floor into a small sitting-room at the rear of the house.

"Mr. Marlowe will be here in a few moments, sir," he said; "he left a message asking you to wait. He and Mr. Forbes have just gone across the road to a friend's house. I'll send over and tell him you are here, if you'll kindly take a seat."

The room was small, fairly well furnished, but old-fas.h.i.+oned, and lit by an oil-lamp upon the table. The air was heavy with tobacco-smoke, and near the window was a card-table whereat four players had been seated. The cigar-ash bore testimony to recent occupation of the four chairs, while two packs of cards had been flung down just as the men had risen.