Amiable Charlatan (version 2) — Chapter XIV - Mr. Bundercombe's Love Affair

CHAPTER XIV--MR.

BUNDERCOMBE'S LOVE AFFAIR

Mr. Bundercombe who, notwithstanding his wife's temporary absence in the country, had not been in the best of spirits for several days, during the course of our tete-a-tete dinner at Luigi's became suddenly and unexpectedly animated.

The change in him was so noticeable that I leaned forward in my place to see what could have produced it.

Two people had entered the restaurant and were in conversation now with Luigi about a table.

Mr. Bundercombe, who in the affairs of every-day life had no idea of concealing his feelings, was regarding them with every appearance of lively interest.

"Paul," he whispered, "you must notice these two people.

Watch them-- there's a good fellow!"

They took their places at a table almost opposite ours.

The girl, though she was more quietly and tastefully dressed and seemed to me to be better looking, I recognized at once as Mr. Bundercombe's companion at Prince's Restaurant on one memorable occasion.

The man I had never seen before.

He appeared to be of about medium height;

slim, with a sallow skin; dark, sleepy eyes, which suggested the foreigner; a mouth that, straight and firm though it was, turned up a little at the corners, as though in contradiction of his somewhat indolent general appearance.

He was exceedingly well-dressed and carried himself with the quiet assurance of a man accustomed to moving in the world.

"Most interesting!"

Mr. Bundercombe murmured, having with an effort withdrawn his eyes from the pair.

"The girl you doubtless recognize.

She was once a typist in the office of Messrs. Harding & Densmore.

She was quite lately, as I dare say you remember, able to give me some very useful information; in fact it is through her that Mr. Stanley did not leave this country for South Africa with a hundred pounds in his pocket."

"And the man?"

I asked.

Mr. Bundercombe was thoroughly enjoying himself.

He drew his chair a little closer to mine and waited until he was quite sure that no one was within earshot.

"The man," he replied, "is one of the world's most famous criminals."

"He doesn't look it," I remarked, glancing across the room with some interest.

Mr. Bundercombe smiled.

"Great criminals are not all of the same type," he reminded me reprovingly.

"That is where you people who don't understand the cult of criminology make your foolish mistakes.

Our friend opposite is, without a doubt, of gentle though not of aristocratic birth.

I know nothing of his bringing up, but his instincts do all that is necessary for him.

The first time I saw him was in one of the criminal courts in New York.

He was being tried for his life for an attempted robbery in Fifth Avenue and the murder of a policeman.

He defended himself and did it brilliantly.

In the end he got off.

There is scarcely a person, however, who doubts but that he was guilty."

I looked across at the subject of our discussion with renewed interest.

"He shot him, I suppose?"

I asked.

"On the contrary," Mr. Bundercombe replied, "he throttled him.

The man has the sinews of an ox.

The second time I saw him was at a dancing-hall in New York.

He was there with a very gay party indeed; but one of them, the wealthiest, mysteriously disappeared.

Rodwell--Dagger Rodwell was his nickname--came to England.

I saw him once or twice just before I visited you down in Bedfordshire.

Cullen warned me off him, however; wouldn't let me have a word to say to him."

"He doesn't sound the best companion in the world for your little typist friend," I remarked.

Mr. Bundercombe glanced across the room and at that moment the girl noticed him.

She bowed and waved her hand.

Mr. Bundercombe responded gallantly.

"I fancy," he murmured, "that she can take care of herself.

Come, I really feel that I am in an interesting atmosphere once more."

Mr. Bundercombe's deportment was certainly more cheerful.

For the last week or two he had been depressed.

He had paid visits with Eve and myself, and devoted a reasonable amount of time to his wife.

The demands on his complete respectability, however, had been irksome.

He was too obviously finding no savor in life.

I really was not altogether sorry at first to notice the improvement in his spirits, though my sentiments changed when, a little later in the evening, the girl opposite left her place and came over to us.

She greeted Mr. Bundercombe with the most brilliant of smiles and he held her hand quite as long as was necessary.

He presented me and I learned that her name was Miss Blanche Spencer.

"I must not stay long," she said, laughing.

"The gentleman I am with is a sort of cousin of mine and we don't get on very well; but I mustn't be rude."

Mr. Bundercombe and she seemed to have a good deal to say to each other and presently I noticed that their heads were drawing closer together.

The girl dropped her voice.

She was proposing something to which Mr. Bundercombe was listening with keen interest.

I heard him sigh.

"If it weren't for certain changes," he explained regretfully, "I guess I wouldn't hesitate a moment.

But--" I heard a whispered reference to myself as his daughter's fiance and an allusion to the continued presence of his wife in London.

She nodded sympathetically.

"Now if there were any other way," Mr. Bundercombe concluded, "in which I could still further show my gratitude to you personally for a certain little matter, why I'm all for hearing about it.

I consider the balance is still on my side."

She laughed.

"You're really rather a dear!"

she declared.

"Do you know I am thinking of starting in business for myself?"

"Where, and what as?"

Mr. Bundercombe inquired.

I shook open an evening paper and heard no more.

The girl's leavetaking, however, a few minutes later, was both reluctant and impressive.

I felt it my duty to allude to the matter as soon as we were alone.

"You know, sir," I said, "this helping young women to set up in business is a proceeding that's very likely to be misunderstood over here.

I am not in the least sure that even Eve would quite approve."

Mr. Bundercombe smiled the smile of a man of the world.

"One can't tell one's womenkind everything!"

he declared grandiloquently.

I was a little puzzled.

I felt convinced that Mr. Bundercombe was concealing something from me.

"Furthermore," I continued, feeling it my duty to speak frankly to my future father-in-law, "a man of your position needs to be very careful when he has financial transactions with a good-looking young woman like Miss Blanche.

The young lady herself might take advantage of it."

Mr. Bundercombe appeared to be giving my words full consideration.

"Well, well!"

he said, a little vaguely.

"We shall see.

I don't mind telling you, though, Paul, that I would have nothing to say to her first suggestion--on your account, my boy.

There's a scheme on foot in which her interesting companion is concerned, which needs financing.

I haven't the least doubt that it is something entirely interesting--probably a mammoth jewel robbery or something of the sort."

I looked across at the man, who seemed to be reproaching the girl for her long absence.

Almost at that moment he looked up and our eyes met for a brief instant.

There seemed to be nothing in his gaze beyond a measure of polite and not too pointed interest.

Nevertheless, when I looked away I begged Mr. Bundercombe to call for the bill.

"I have had enough of this place!"

I declared, a little abruptly.

"Next time Eve goes to bed with a headache I shall take you to the club."

* * * * * I was walking down Bond Street with Eve one morning when my suspicions as to Mr. Bundercombe and a certain matter were first roused.

As we neared the Piccadilly end I distinctly saw him vanish through a doorway on the lefthand side.

He was most carefully dressed and carried in his hand a long paper parcel that could contain nothing but flowers.

Upon some excuse I prevailed upon Eve to cross the road.

There was one small brass plate only on the side of the entrance through which Mr. Bundercombe had disappeared.

It was scarcely larger than my hand and on it was engraved in very elegant characters: BLANCHE MANICURE.

I made no comment at the time, but curiously enough that afternoon, as we sat out under the trees at Ranelagh, Eve referred to the subject of her parent.

"Do you notice, Paul," she asked, "how much less we see of dad lately?"

"He does seem to have been out a good deal," I admitted.

She glanced at me.

"You haven't any idea, I suppose--" The glance and her tone were quite sufficient for me.

I hastened to disclaim all responsibility for Mr. Bundercombe.

"Your father," I assured her, "has never treated me with less confidence.

Whatever he may be doing at present, he is doing, let me assure you, entirely on his own responsibility."

"Then I think, if you don't mind, please," she begged, "you must try and get him to take you into his confidence.

Of course," she went on, watching idly a polo team canter into the field, "I do not wish you to feel that he is in any way a responsibility.

On the other hand, it does seem so queer, Paul!

He has taken to dressing most carefully and he leaves the house regularly every morning at ten o'clock."

"You've no clew at all as to what he does with himself?"

I asked.

"None," she replied, "except that I never saw any one with such overmanicured nails as his.

I never knew him to go to a manicurist in my life, but he is obviously going to one nearly every day now or he couldn't keep the polish on.

If that helps in any way--" "It might," I admitted with a sigh.

"There he is!"

Eve exclaimed suddenly.

"Coming toward us, too!

Do please take this opportunity, Paul, and see if you can find out anything.

You see, a week ago he seemed bored to tears, and now he has just that happy, contented expression which he wears all the time when he is really engaged in something outrageous.

I will go and talk to your sister.

I think she is over there with Captain Green."

Mr. Bundercombe greeted me heartily and at once directed my attention to a small tent where cool drinks were being served.

I suffered him to lead me in that direction and placed myself in his hands as regards the selection of a suitable beverage.

We found a small table and sat down.

"Haven't seen much of you lately, sir," I began.

"Huh!

That's because I don't spend three parts of my time in milliners' shops," Mr. Bundercombe replied.

"Where are you spending most of your time?"

I asked, determined to take the bull by the horns.

Mr. Bundercombe set down his glass.

"I've been expecting this," he remarked pleasantly.

"Eve's been setting you on to pump me, eh?"

I nodded.

"That's exactly it," I admitted.

"We are due to be married in ten days.

We are neither of us anxious for anything in the way of an unfortunate incident."

Mr. Bundercombe appeared to view with surprise the advent of a second tumbler.

He reconciled himself to its arrival, however, and handed money to the attendant.

"I realize the position entirely, my dear fellow," he assured me.

"I am glad you have opened the subject up.

I have been bursting to tell you all about it; but I have hesitated for fear of being misunderstood."

I glanced at his nails.

"Of course," I observed slowly, "the position of an elderly gentleman with a marriageable daughter and a wife," I went on bravely, "who finances a young lady interested in manicuring in an establishment in Bond Street is liable to misinterpretation."

Mr. Bundercombe was a little taken aback.

He hid his face for a moment behind the newly arrived tumbler.

"Kind of observant, aren't you?"

he remarked.

"I saw you in Bond Street this morning," I told him, "you and a paper parcel.

You were entering the establishment, I believe, of Mademoiselle Blanche, whoever she is."

"Small place, London!"

Mr. Bundercombe sighed.

"Were you--er--alone?"

"I was with Eve," I replied; "but she did not see you and I did not mention the matter."

"My boy," Mr. Bundercombe decided, "I shall take you wholly into my confidence.

I am engaged in a big affair!"

My heart sank.

"I can only pray to Heaven," I said fervently, "that the denouement of this affair will not take place within the next ten days."

"On the contrary," Mr. Bundercombe answered, leaning back in his chair and looking at me, with the flat of one hand laid on the table and the palm of the other on his left knee, "on the contrary," he repeated, "the denouement is due to-morrow."

"Glad you didn't consider us," I observed gloomily.

Mr. Bundercombe smiled.

"I find myself in this last affair," he remarked airily, "occupying what I must confess, for me, is a somewhat peculiar position.

I am on the side of the established authorities.

I am in the cast-iron position of the man who falls into line with the law of the land.

In other words, you behold in me, so far as regards this affair, respectability and rectitude personified.

I may even choose to give our friend Mr. Cullen a leg up."

I was relieved to hear it and told him so.

"I presume," I said, "that Mademoiselle Blanche, of Bond Street, is identical with the young lady who talked to us at Stephano's the other night?"

"Say, you're becoming perfectly wonderful at the art of deduction!"

my future father-in-law declared.

"Same person!"

"She seems quite attractive," I admitted, "with a taste for pink roses, I think."

Mr. Bundercombe appeared to regard my remark as frivolous.

He moved his chair, however, and brought it closer to mine.

"I dare say you remember," he went on, "how the young lady proposed to me that night that I should finance a little venture in which she and her sleepy-eyed friend opposite were interested."

I nodded.

"Yes, I remember that."

"From that," Mr. Bundercombe continued, "she went on to suggest that I should help her in the ambition of her life, which, it seems, was to take a single room for manicuring a few clients.

In an ordinary way I should have refused that, too; and, if she had been hard up, begged to be allowed to oblige her with a trifling loan--and ended the matter in that way.

The reason I didn't was simply because I felt convinced that her desire to require a single room in the manicure business was somehow associated with the scheme she had at first suggested.

Therefore I temporized.

I appeared to be interested.

I asked her in what locality she wished to commence business.

She never hesitated.

There was only one place she wanted and that was the room she's got.

Just to test her I took her to see really slap-up premises in another part of Bond Street.

She pretended to look at them, but never took the slightest interest.

It was just one room she wanted--and one room only.

"I realized that both she and her friend were either too desperately hard up to engage that room or else they were particularly anxious to do it in some one else's name.

That was quite enough for me.

I engaged the room."

I glanced once more at Mr. Bundercombe's nails.

"You, at any rate," I remarked, "have been a faithful customer."

"Paul," Mr. Bundercombe continued, "I am playing a part.

I am playing the part of a silly old fool.

It isn't easy sometimes, but I am keeping it up.

I spend a good part of my time in that beastly little parlor, having my nails done over and over again.

The girl is bored to death; and I--though I flatter myself I don't show it--I guess I'm bored to death too.

I've kept it up all right until now and the job comes off to-morrow.

Miss Blanche is convinced that my interest in her is sentimental and she has occasionally not been quite so careful as she might have been.

I have picked up here and there certain small details that enable me to form a very fair idea as to the nature of this venture in which I was invited to participate.

The last few days I have been hesitating whether I should take you into my confidence or not.

As it happens you have forced it.

Have you anything particular to do to-morrow?"

I thought for a moment.

"Nothing very much until the late afternoon, when I go down to the House," I replied.

"Then to-morrow you shall see the end of this thing with me," Mr. Bundercombe promised.

"If luck goes our way you will find we shall have quite a pleasant few minutes."

Eve put her head in at the tent and we hastened to join her.

She drew me a little on one side.

"I think it's all right," I told her.

"I am so glad," she replied.

"And, Paul, hadn't you better drop dad a hint that Mrs. Bundercombe will be home to-morrow?

I think he'd better have the shine taken off his nails!"

* * * * * At twelve o'clock the next morning I met Mr. Bundercombe by appointment in the Burlington Arcade.

We strolled slowly round into Bond Street.

Mr. Bundercombe was, for him, unusually serious.

He looked about him all the time with swift, careful glances.

As we turned into Bond Street his pace became slower and slower.

Within a yard or two of the spot where I had first seen him disappear he paused, and under pretense of talking earnestly to me he looked up and down and across the street with keen, careful glances.

At last, with a sudden turn he led the way into the passage.

Together we ascended the stairs.

On a door almost opposite to us at the end of the landing was another little brass plate, on which was engraved the name of Mademoiselle Blanche.

Mr. Bundercombe took a latchkey from his pocket and opened the door, which he carefully closed after him.

"No one here!"

I remarked.

"Not yet!"

Mr. Bundercombe said, a little grimly.

"From now onward you will be able to understand certain things.

Miss Blanche informed me that to-day she had an invitation to go into the country.

It was the only way I could discover the day in which they were planning to bring off the coup.

If I had been an occasional visitor she might have risked my coming and finding her away.

Since, however, I presented myself every morning at eleven o'clock she was forced to tell me.

You understand as much as that?"

"Perfectly."

"You see where we are then," Mr. Bundercombe continued.

"Has any reason occurred to you for the young lady's unalterable decision that no other spot in the whole of London would do for her manicure parlor?"

I looked out the window.

"We are next door to Tarteran's," I observed.

Mr. Bundercombe smiled approvingly.

"We are within a few yards," he said, "of the jeweler's shop that contains more valuable gems than any other establishment in the world.

We are at the present moment within forty yards of a million pounds' worth of jewels.

When you come to reflect upon the character and the past of our friend Dagger Rodwell, you will understand the significance of that fact."

I was beginning to share Mr. Bundercombe's obvious excitement.

I, too, had the feeling that we were on the brink of an adventure.

He made me stand up against the wall, by the side of the window, so that I could see down into the street.

He himself was farther back in the room.

"Follow my lead closely in everything, Paul!"

he directed.

"Meantime keep your eye glued on the pavement.

If things turn out as I expect there will be a gray touring motor car outside Tarteran's shop in the course of a few minutes.

From that car will descend Dagger Rodwell.

He will enter Tarteran's. Watch, then, as though your very life depended upon it!"

I squeezed myself against the wall and looked down upon the never-ending procession.

The street was continually blocked with motor cars and taxicabs.

On the other side of the way streams of people were moving all the time.

I recognized many acquaintances even in those few minutes.

And then suddenly I saw the gray motor car.

I held out my hand to Mr. Bundercombe.

Without the slightest attempt at concealment, the man Mr. Bundercombe had called Dagger Rodwell alighted from the motor and stood for a moment looking into the windows of Tarteran's shop before he entered.

He was faultlessly dressed in morning clothes, smoking a cigarette and carrying a silver-headed cane.

After some hesitation he entered the shop.

Mr. Bundercombe drew a little breath.

He had been looking at another part of the street.

"Now things are beginning to move," he observed softly.

"Come here, Paul!"

He pulled aside a little curtain behind which was a sort of cubicle--an easy chair, a manicurist's stool and a table.

"Step inside here," he whispered; "quickly!"

I obeyed him, and in an instant he had entered a similar one.

We were scarcely there before I heard the sound of a key in the door.

Through a chink in the curtain I saw Miss Blanche.

She pushed back the latch and stood for a moment as though listening, her face turned toward the stairs up which she had come.

If I had had any doubt but that tragedy was afoot that morning it would have been banished by a glance at her face.

She was terribly pale; her hands were shaking.

Rapidly she withdrew the pins from her hat, hung it upon a peg and smoothed her hair in front of the looking-glass.

Then, though her hands were trembling all the time, she filled a bowl with hot water and arranged a manicure set on a little table.

Once or twice she stopped to listen.

Once, as though drawn by some fascination she was powerless to resist, she moved to the window and looked down into the street.

Mr. Bundercombe remained motionless and I followed his example.

At the back of my cubicle was a window from which I could still gain a view of the pavement.

The streets were thronged with people, and I noticed that the motor car, which at first I had missed, was standing in a side street, almost opposite.

Suddenly I saw the man, for whose reappearance I was so earnestly waiting, step casually out on to the pavement.

He attempted to cross the street and was quickly lost to sight in a tangle of vehicles.

A second later I could have sworn that I saw him back again at the entrance to the passage below.

Then I heard a shout from the pavement and I distinctly saw him clamber into the motor car, which shot off as though it had started in fourth speed.

An elderly gentleman, who had rushed from the shop, was halfway across the street already.

There was a chorus of shouts; traffic was momentarily suspended; a policeman started running down the side street.

Then I turned away from the window.

There were sounds closer at hand--a footstep on the stairs, swift and gentle.

In a moment the door of the little manicure room was opened and closed.