The Quiet Gentleman

"Yes!" Martin said impetuously. "I knew that, but you did not! That night I did come to your room by way of the secret stair—you didn't believe what I told you! You would not allow me to come near you again! How could you think I would skulk in some bush to shoot you unawares? I didn't behave well towards you—I said things I ought not to have said!—but, my God, if I meant to kill my greatest enemy it would be in fair fight!"

"Yes, Martin, I know. I did believe what you told me, but I found it impossible to believe that the one person at Stanyon whom I had thought to be my friend could have all the time been plotting my death." He paused, and for an instant he looked at his cousin, standing rigid and silent on the other side of the table. Then he added, with a slight smile: "Even when I was in no case to think at all, it did occur to me that had it been you who shot me you would not have missed your mark! For the rest, nothing was certain, nothing proved. When I refused to permit you to come near me, I was acting only on a suspicion I would, God knows! have been glad to have seen refuted! But if it was true, both your safety and mine, while I was so helpless, lay in letting it be known that you had never, for one instant, had access to my room. I suppose I had then no doubt of the truth. I hardly know. I would have given so much to have had my suspicions refuted! No, I don't mean that I would have preferred to have known that you were my would-be assassin! Not that! Nothing, in fact, that was possible, or that I could explain to you. I told myself I must wait for some proof that you had told me the truth—something more sure than what Theo had called my imaginings. When I knew beyond doubting that it was not you who had tried to kill me, then I waited until I had decided what was best to be done, and until I should be well enough to settle the affair alone."

"May I know when it was that you knew—beyond doubting—that it was not Martin who tried to kill you?" enquired Theo sardonically.

"When I realized that he had introduced a Bow Street Runner into my household," replied the Earl, with a gleam of amusement. "With instructions to dog my every step!"

"You guessed it!" Martin ejaculated. "How? What made you think it?"

"My dear boy! It was patent! I am aware that poor Lucy darkly suspects of him being a hired assassin, but I could conceive of nothing more unlikely! I am afraid you will have to forgive me: I served him a very scurvy trick today! But if I had not obliged him to accompany me, I am very sure he would have followed me on horseback, and the last thing I desire is to have an officer of the law meddling in this business. I conclude that by some means unknown to me he contrived to reach Stanyon far sooner than I had supposed he could, or you would not have galloped that bay of yours into a lather in your gallant but misguided attempt to preserve me from an untimely end!"

Martin blushed, but said in a brooding tone: "It was Hickling's notion that I should make use of his precious uncle! He was a Runner, but he ain't now, of course, and no wonder! Much use he has been to me! To be taken in by such a child's trick! Good God! The only thing he did, and I suppose it doesn't prove anything, was to find a button that was torn from my shooting-jacket not five yards from where I told you I was struck down, that day when you were shot. If I was dragged clear of the undergrowth, before being hoisted up by—" He paused, and cast a smouldering glance at Theo—"by you, my dear cousin!—it must have been torn off then! He found signs, too, that a horse had stood for some time within the wood. But that don't prove much either! I know it could be explained away!"

"I don't doubt that it was Theo who hid his gig, when I had parted from him, and thought him on the road to this place; waited for you; stunned you; left your gun and your shot-belt to be found; and carried you off in the gig. Evesleigh is not so far from Wisbech, and I have discovered that he did not arrive here until evening. You will tell me, perhaps, that you visited outlying parts of my estates, Theo, which made you late. Don't! I should not believe you, and I would so much prefer you to tell me no more lies! Had you killed me, had there been a hue and cry after Martin, and he had told that story, it must have been thought the wildest and stupidest attempt to escape justice that ever was heard! But you didn't kill me; there was no hue and cry. The story was told only to us, and although some of us disbelieved it I did not. Its very improbability made me think it the truth. What a risk you took, Theo! If some chance wayfarer had discovered him before he had rid himself of the bonds you so carefully loosened—! It could have happened, you know. And if I did not die, surely you must have known that it would not be long before Martin at least realized the truth!"