CHAPTER IX. A NEW DEPARTURE.
Whatever good Mr. Raffles Haw's wealth did to the world, there could beno doubt that there were cases where it did harm. The very contemplationand thought of it had upon many a disturbing and mischievous effect.Especially was this the case with the old gunmaker. From being merelya querulous and grasping man, he had now become bitter, brooding, anddangerous. Week by week, as he saw the tide of wealth flow as it werethrough his very house without being able to divert the smallest rill tonourish his own fortunes, he became more wolfish and more hungry-eyed.He spoke less of his own wrongs, but he brooded more, and would standfor hours on Tamfield Hill looking down at the great palace beneath, asa thirst-stricken man might gaze at the desert mirage.
He had worked, and peeped, and pried, too, until there were points uponwhich he knew more than either his son or his daughter.
"I suppose that you still don't know where your friend gets his money?"he remarked to Robert one morning, as they walked together through thevillage.
"No, father, I do not. I only know that he spends it very well."
"Well!" snarled the old man. "Yes, very well! He has helped every trampand slut and worthless vagabond over the countryside, but he willnot advance a pound, even on the best security, to help a respectablebusiness man to fight against misfortune."
"My dear father, I really cannot argue with you about it," said Robert."I have already told you more than once what I think. Mr. Haw's objectis to help those who are destitute. He looks upon us as his equals, andwould not presume to patronise us, or to act as if we could not helpourselves. It would be a humiliation to us to take his money."
"Pshaw! Besides, it is only a question of an advance, and advancesare made every day among business men. How can you talk such nonsense,Robert?"
Early as it was, his son could see from his excited, quarrelsome mannerthat the old man had been drinking. The habit had grown upon him oflate, and it was seldom now that he was entirely sober.
"Mr. Raffles Haw is the best judge," said Robert coldly. "If he earnsthe money, he has a right to spend it as he likes."
"And how does he earn it? You don't know, Robert. You don't know thatyou aren't aiding and abetting a felony when you help him to fritterit away. Was ever so much money earned in an honest fashion? I tell youthere never was. I tell you, also, that lumps of gold are no more tothat man than chunks of coal to the miners over yonder. He could buildhis house of them and think nothing of it."
"I know that he is very rich, father. I think, however, that he has anextravagant way of talking sometimes, and that his imagination carrieshim away. I have heard him talk of plans which the richest man uponearth could not possibly hope to carry through."
"Don't you make any mistake, my son. Your poor old father isn't quitea fool, though he is only an honest broken merchant." He looked upsideways at his son with a wink and a most unpleasant leer. "Wherethere's money I can smell it. There's money there, and heaps of it.It's my belief that he is the richest man in the world, though how hecame to be so I should not like to guarantee. I'm not quite blind yet,Robert. Have you seen the weekly waggon?"
"The weekly waggon!"
"Yes, Robert. You see I can find some news for you yet. It is due thismorning. Every Saturday morning you will see the waggon come in. Why,here it is now, as I am a living man, coming round the curve."
Robert glanced back and saw a great heavy waggon drawn by two stronghorses lumbering slowly along the road which led to the New Hall. Fromthe efforts of the animals and its slow pace the contents seemed to beof great weight.
"Just you wait here," old McIntyre cried, plucking at his son's sleevewith his thin bony hand. "Wait here and see it pass. Then we will watchwhat becomes of it."
They stood by the side of the road until it came abreast of them. Thewaggon was covered with tarpaulin sheetings in front and at the sides,but behind some glimpse could be caught of the contents. They consisted,as far as Robert could see, of a number of packets of the same shape,each about two feet long and six inches high, arranged symmetricallyupon the top of each other. Each packet was surrounded by a covering ofcoarse sacking.
"What do you think of that?" asked old McIntyre triumphantly as the loadcreaked past.
"Why, father? What do you make of it?"
"I have watched it, Robert--I have watched it every Saturday, and I hadmy chance of looking a little deeper into it. You remember the day whenthe elm blew down, and the road was blocked until they could saw it intwo. That was on a Saturday, and the waggon came to a stand until theycould clear a way for it. I was there, Robert, and I saw my chance.I strolled behind the waggon, and I placed my hands upon one of thosepackets. They look small, do they not? It would take a strong man tolift one. They are heavy, Robert, heavy, and hard with the hardness ofmetal. I tell you, boy, that that waggon is loaded with gold."
"Gold!"
"With solid bars of gold, Robert. But come into the plantation and weshall see what becomes of it."
They passed through the lodge gates, behind the waggon, and thenwandered off among the fir-trees until they gained a spot where theycould command a view. The load had halted, not in front of the house,but at the door of the out-building with the chimney. A staff ofstablemen and footmen were in readiness, who proceeded to swiftly unloadand to carry the packages through the door. It was the first time thatRobert had ever seen any one save the master of the house enter thelaboratory. No sign was seen of him now, however, and in half an hourthe contents had all been safely stored and the waggon had drivenbriskly away.
"I cannot understand it, father," said Robert thoughtfully, as theyresumed their walk. "Supposing that your supposition is correct, whowould send him such quantities of gold, and where could it come from?"
"Ha, you have to come to the old man after all!" chuckled his companion."I can see the little game. It is clear enough to me. There are two ofthem in it, you understand. The other one gets the gold. Never mind how,but we will hope that there is no harm. Let us suppose, for example,that they have found a marvellous mine, where you can just shovel it outlike clay from a pit. Well, then, he sends it on to this one, and he hashis furnaces and his chemicals, and he refines and purifies it and makesit fit to sell. That's my explanation of it, Robert. Eh, has the old manput his finger on it?"
"But if that were true, father, the gold must go back again."
"So it does, Robert, but a little at a time. Ha, ha! I've had my eyesopen, you see. Every night it goes down in a small cart, and is sent onto London by the 7.40. Not in bars this time, but done up in iron-boundchests. I've seen them, boy, and I've had this hand upon them."
"Well," said the young man thoughtfully, "maybe you are right. It ispossible that you are right."
While father and son were prying into his secrets, Raffles Haw had foundhis way to Elmdene, where Laura sat reading the _Queen_ by the fire.
"I am so sorry," she said, throwing down her paper and springing toher feet. "They are all out except me. But I am sure that they won't belong. I expect Robert every moment."
"I would rather speak with you alone," answered Raffles Haw quietly."Pray sit down, for I wanted to have a little chat with you."
Laura resumed her seat with a flush upon her cheeks and a quickening ofthe breath. She turned her face away and gazed into the fire; but therewas a sparkle in her eyes which was not caught from the leaping flames.
"Do you remember the first time that we met, Miss McIntyre?" heasked, standing on the rug and looking down at her dark hair, and thebeautifully feminine curve of her ivory neck.
"As if it were yesterday," she answered in her sweet mellow tones.
"Then you must also remember the wild words that I said when weparted. It was very foolish of me. I am sure that I am most sorry if Ifrightened or disturbed you, but I have been a very solitary man for along time, and I have dropped into a bad habit of thinking aloud. Yourvoice, your face, your manner, were all so like my ideal of a truewoman, loving, faithful, and sympathetic, that
I could not helpwondering whether, if I were a poor man, I might ever hope to win theaffection of such a one."
"Your good opinion, Mr. Raffles Haw, is very dear to me," said Laura."I assure you that I was not frightened, and that there is no need toapologise for what was really a compliment."
"Since then I have found," he continued, "that all that I had read uponyour face was true. That your mind is indeed that of the true woman,full of the noblest and sweetest qualities which human nature can aspireto. You know that I am a man of fortune, but I wish you to dismiss thatconsideration from your mind. Do you think from what you know of mycharacter that you could be happy as my wife, Laura?"
She made no answer, but still sat with her head turned away and hersparkling eyes fixed upon the fire. One little foot from under her skirttapped nervously upon the rug.
"It is only right that you should know a little more about me before youdecide. There is, however, little to know. I am an orphan, and, as faras I know, without a relation upon earth. My father was a respectableman, a country surgeon in Wales, and he brought me up to his ownprofession. Before I had passed my examinations, however, he died andleft me a small annuity. I had conceived a great liking for the subjectsof chemistry and electricity, and instead of going on with my medicalwork I devoted myself entirely to these studies, and eventually builtmyself a laboratory where I could follow out my own researches. At aboutthis time I came into a very large sum of money, so large as to make mefeel that a vast responsibility rested upon me in the use which I madeof it. After some thought I determined to build a large house in a quietpart of the country, not too far from a great centre. There I could bein touch with the world, and yet would have quiet and leisure to maturethe schemes which were in my head. As it chanced, I chose Tamfield as mysite. All that remains now is to carry out the plans which I havemade, and to endeavour to lighten the earth of some of the misery andinjustice which weigh it down. I again ask you, Laura, will you throwin your lot with mine, and help me in the life's work which lies beforeme?"
Laura looked up at him, at his stringy figure, his pale face, his keen,yet gentle eyes. Somehow as she looked there seemed to form itselfbeside him some shadow of Hector Spurling, the manly features, theclear, firm mouth, the frank manner. Now, in the very moment of hertriumph, it sprang clearly up in her mind how at the hour of theirruin he had stood firmly by them, and had loved the penniless girl astenderly as the heiress to fortune. That last embrace at the door, too,came back to her, and she felt his lips warm upon her own.
"I am very much honoured, Mr. Haw," she stammered, "but this is sosudden. I have not had time to think. I do not know what to say."
"Do not let me hurry you," he cried earnestly. "I beg that you willthink well over it. I shall come again for my answer. When shall I come?Tonight?"
"Yes, come tonight."
"Then, adieu. Believe me that I think more highly of you for yourhesitation. I shall live in hope." He raised her hand to his lips, andleft her to her own thoughts.
But what those thoughts were did not long remain in doubt. Dimmer anddimmer grew the vision of the distant sailor face, clearer and clearerthe image of the vast palace, of the queenly power, of the diamonds, thegold, the ambitious future. It all lay at her feet, waiting to be pickedup. How could she have hesitated, even for a moment? She rose, and,walking over to her desk, she took out a sheet of paper and an envelope.The latter she addressed to Lieutenant Spurling, H.M.S. _Active_,Gibraltar. The note cost some little trouble, but at last she got itworded to her mind.
"Dear Hector," she said--"I am convinced that your father has never entirely approved of our engagement, otherwise he would not have thrown obstacles in the way of our marriage. I am sure, too, that since my poor father's misfortune it is only your own sense of honour and feeling of duty which have kept you true to me, and that you would have done infinitely better had you never seen me. I cannot bear, Hector, to allow you to imperil your future for my sake, and I have determined, after thinking well over the matter, to release you from our boy and girl engagement, so that you may be entirely free in every way. It is possible that you may think it unkind of me to do this now, but I am quite sure, dear Hector, that when you are an admiral and a very distinguished man, you will look back at this, and you will see that I have been a true friend to you, and have prevented you from making a false step early in your career. For myself, whether I marry or not, I have determined to devote the remainder of my life to trying to do good, and to leaving the world happier than I found it. Your father is very well, and gave us a capital sermon last Sunday. I enclose the bank-note which you asked me to keep for you. Good-bye, for ever, dear Hector, and believe me when I say that, come what may, I am ever your true friend,
"Laura S. McIntyre."
She had hardly sealed her letter before her father and Robert returned.She closed the door behind them, and made them a little curtsey.
"I await my family's congratulations," she said, with her head in theair. "Mr. Raffles Haw has been here, and he has asked me to be hiswife."
"The deuce he did!" cried the old man. "And you said--?"
"I am to see him again."
"And you will say--?"
"I will accept him."
"You were always a good girl, Laura," said old McIntyre, standing on histiptoes to kiss her.
"But Laura, Laura, how about Hector?" asked Robert in mild remonstrance.
"Oh, I have written to him," his sister answered carelessly. "I wish youwould be good enough to post the letter."