The Quiet Gentleman

When he returned to the parlour, some ten minutes later, he found the Earl seated in a chair on one side of the old draw-table, which was littered with papers and ledgers. He shut the door, saying: "Mrs. Allenby is so much vexed that she had no word of your coming that nothing I can say will console her. You mean to remain here for the night, I hope?"

"No, I am returning to Stanyon." The Earl tossed back on to the table a paper he had been reading. "I never knew, until I came home, how much work you did, Theo. I have you to thank for it that I find my inheritance in such good order, haven't I?"

"Why, yes!" Theo admitted. "But you did not drive ten miles to tell me that! My dear Gervase, what can have possessed you to behave with such imprudence? When I left Stanyon you had not quitted your room, and here you are, without even Chard to bear you company!"

"I wanted to see you, and alone."

Theo looked at him with knit brows. "Something has happened since I left Stanyon? Is that it?"

"No, nothing has happened, except that I have regained my strength and my wits. My head still ached abominably when I saw you last, Theo. I found it difficult to think, and impossible to act. I was in doubt, too—or perhaps only trying to believe there was doubt. It is of very little consequence."

"If you wanted me, why could you not have sent me word to come to you?" Theo said roughly. "To have driven all this way, and alone, was madness! I wish you may not have cause to regret such foolhardiness!"

"There are those who could tell you that my wounds heal quickly. Sit down, Theo!"

His cousin cast himself into the chair on the other side of the table, but said: "And what if you had met with another accident on your way here? Good God, you must know the risks you run!"

"I am not afraid of being ambushed today," replied the Earl. "Martin went to Grantham, and Chard with him. Even if he has by now returned to Stanyon, Chard is still watching him. He won't let him out of his sight until he sees me safe home again." He paused, and for a moment or two there was silence, broken only by the sound of a horse's hooves somewhere in the distance, and the measured ticking of the clock on the mantelshelf. "So, you see, Theo, I had nothing to fear in driving over to see you."

The sound of hooves was growing momently more distinct; the Earl slightly turned his head, listening.

"Well! I am glad to know you took that precaution at least!" said Theo. "But who is watching Hickling? Did you think of that?"

"Why, no!" replied Gervase. "Hickling is certainly devoted to Martin, but I hardly think he would commit murder to oblige him!"

He rose from his chair as he spoke, and walked to the window. The hooves were pounding up the carriage-sweep. "What is it?" Theo asked. "Has Chard come to look for you?"

The Earl's right hand had been hidden in the pocket of his driving-coat. He withdrew it, and his cousin saw that it held a silver-mounted pistol. "No," he said, in an odd voice, "but I seem to have been out in my reckoning! I am no longer safe from the strange accidents that befall me."

"Good God, Gervase, what do you mean? Who is it?" exclaimed Theo, starting up.

"It is Martin," said the Earl, turning, so that he faced the room, his back against the wall.

"Martin! But, my dear Gervase, he would never—"

Theo broke off, silenced by a lifted finger. Martin's voice could be heard in the hall, fiercely interrogating Allenby.

"How rash! how witless of him!" sighed the Earl.

Hasty footsteps were crossing the hall; the door burst open, and Martin came impetuously into the room, and slammed the door shut again with one careless, backward thrust of his hand.

"Don't move, Martin!" said the Earl warningly.

"St. Erth! Don't you see?—don't you understand?" Martin cried. "It's not me you need beware of!"

"Yes, I do understand," Gervase said. "Better than you, it seems! You young fool, what if a shot were to be fired in this room, and Allenby ran in to find me dead, and you struggling with Theo? Do you think anyone would believe that it was Theo and not you who had shot me?"

"Are you mad?" Theo demanded harshly.

"No, I am neither mad nor fevered. See if he carries a pistol, Martin, if you please!"

"By all means! You will find that I am quite unarmed!"

Martin moved away from the door, and went behind him, feeling his pockets. He shook his head. "No: nothing."

The Earl lowered his own pistol. "Then, between us, we will settle this affair," he said.

"Are you, in all seriousness, accusing me—me!—of having tried to murder you?" Theo said. "It is preposterous! a sick man's fantasy!"

"I had rather have called it a nightmare, Theo."

"What, in God's name, have I to gain by your death?"

"Nothing, if Martin were not implicated in it. If it could be made to appear that he had murdered me, everything you most care for!"