Produced by Eric Eldred
IN THE FOG
By Richard Harding Davis
01 I cannot tell you how much I have to thank you for]
02 The four strangers at supper were seated together]
IN THE FOG
CHAPTER I
The Grill is the club most difficult of access in the world. To beplaced on its rolls distinguishes the new member as greatly as though hehad received a vacant Garter or had been caricatured in "Vanity Fair."
Men who belong to the Grill Club never mention that fact. If you wereto ask one of them which clubs he frequents, he will name all save thatparticular one. He is afraid if he told you he belonged to the Grill,that it would sound like boasting.
The Grill Club dates back to the days when Shakespeare's Theatre stoodon the present site of the "Times" office. It has a golden Grill whichCharles the Second presented to the Club, and the original manuscriptof "Tom and Jerry in London," which was bequeathed to it by Pierce Eganhimself. The members, when they write letters at the Club, still usesand to blot the ink.
The Grill enjoys the distinction of having blackballed, withoutpolitical prejudice, a Prime Minister of each party. At the same sittingat which one of these fell, it elected, on account of his brogue and hisbulls, Quiller, Q. C., who was then a penniless barrister.
When Paul Preval, the French artist who came to London by royal commandto paint a portrait of the Prince of Wales, was made an honorarymember--only foreigners may be honorary members--he said, as he signedhis first wine card, "I would rather see my name on that, than on apicture in the Louvre."
At which Quiller remarked, "That is a devil of a compliment, becausethe only men who can read their names in the Louvre to-day have beendead fifty years."
On the night after the great fog of 1897 there were five members inthe Club, four of them busy with supper and one reading in front of thefireplace. There is only one room to the Club, and one long table. Atthe far end of the room the fire of the grill glows red, and, when thefat falls, blazes into flame, and at the other there is a broad bowwindow of diamond panes, which looks down upon the street. The four menat the table were strangers to each other, but as they picked at thegrilled bones, and sipped their Scotch and soda, they conversed withsuch charming animation that a visitor to the Club, which doesnot tolerate visitors, would have counted them as friends of longacquaintance, certainly not as Englishmen who had met for the firsttime, and without the form of an introduction. But it is the etiquetteand tradition of the Grill, that whoever enters it must speak withwhomever he finds there. It is to enforce this rule that there is butone long table, and whether there are twenty men at it or two, thewaiters, supporting the rule, will place them side by side.
For this reason the four strangers at supper were seated together, withthe candles grouped about them, and the long length of the table cuttinga white path through the outer gloom.
"I repeat," said the gentleman with the black pearl stud, "that the daysfor romantic adventure and deeds of foolish daring have passed, and thatthe fault lies with ourselves. Voyages to the pole I do not catalogueas adventures. That African explorer, young Chetney, who turned upyesterday after he was supposed to have died in Uganda, did nothingadventurous. He made maps and explored the sources of rivers. He wasin constant danger, but the presence of danger does not constituteadventure. Were that so, the chemist who studies high explosives, orwho investigates deadly poisons, passes through adventures daily. No,'adventures are for the adventurous.' But one no longer ventures. Thespirit of it has died of inertia. We are grown too practical, too just,above all, too sensible. In this room, for instance, members of thisClub have, at the sword's point, disputed the proper scanning of oneof Pope's couplets. Over so weighty a matter as spilled Burgundy on agentleman's cuff, ten men fought across this table, each with hisrapier in one hand and a candle in the other. All ten were wounded. Thequestion of the spilled Burgundy concerned but two of them. The eightothers engaged because they were men of 'spirit.' They were, indeed, thefirst gentlemen of the day. To-night, were you to spill Burgundy onmy cuff, were you even to insult me grossly, these gentlemen would notconsider it incumbent upon them to kill each other. They would separateus, and to-morrow morning appear as witnesses against us at Bow Street.We have here to-night, in the persons of Sir Andrew and myself, anillustration of how the ways have changed."
The men around the table turned and glanced toward the gentleman infront of the fireplace. He was an elderly and somewhat portly person,with a kindly, wrinkled countenance, which wore continually a smileof almost childish confidence and good-nature. It was a face which theillustrated prints had made intimately familiar. He held a book from himat arm's-length, as if to adjust his eyesight, and his brows were knitwith interest.
03 The men around the table turned]
"Now, were this the eighteenth century," continued the gentleman withthe black pearl, "when Sir Andrew left the Club to-night I would havehim bound and gagged and thrown into a sedan chair. The watch would notinterfere, the passers-by would take to their heels, my hired bulliesand ruffians would convey him to some lonely spot where we would guardhim until morning. Nothing would come of it, except added reputation tomyself as a gentleman of adventurous spirit, and possibly an essay inthe 'Tatler,' with stars for names, entitled, let us say, 'The Budgetand the Baronet.'"
"But to what end, sir?" inquired the youngest of the members. "Andwhy Sir Andrew, of all persons--why should you select him for thisadventure?"
The gentleman with the black pearl shrugged his shoulders.
"It would prevent him speaking in the House to-night. The Navy IncreaseBill," he added gloomily. "It is a Government measure, and Sir Andrewspeaks for it. And so great is his influence and so large his followingthat if he does"--the gentleman laughed ruefully--"if he does, it willgo through. Now, had I the spirit of our ancestors," he exclaimed, "Iwould bring chloroform from the nearest chemist's and drug him in thatchair. I would tumble his unconscious form into a hansom cab, and holdhim prisoner until daylight. If I did, I would save the British taxpayerthe cost of five more battleships, many millions of pounds."
04 I would tumble his unconscious form into a hansom cab]
The gentlemen again turned, and surveyed the baronet with freshenedinterest. The honorary member of the Grill, whose accent already hadbetrayed him as an American, laughed softly.
"To look at him now," he said, "one would not guess he was deeplyconcerned with the affairs of state."
The others nodded silently.
"He has not lifted his eyes from that book since we first entered,"added the youngest member. "He surely cannot mean to speak to-night."
"Oh, yes, he will speak," muttered the one with the black pearl moodily."During these last hours of the session the House sits late, but whenthe Navy bill comes up on its third reading he will be in his place--andhe will pass it."
The fourth member, a stout and florid gentleman of a somewhat sportingappearance, in a short smoking-jacket and black tie, sighed enviously.
"Fancy one of us being as cool as that, if he knew he had to stand upwithin an hour and rattle off a speech in Parliament. I 'd be in a devilof a funk myself. And yet he is as keen over that book he's reading asthough he had nothing before him until bedtime."
"Yes, see how eager he is," whispered the youngest member. "He doesnot lift his eyes even now when he cuts the pages. It is probably anAdmiralty Report, or some other weighty work of statistics which bearsupon his speech."
The gentleman with the black pearl laughed morosely.
"The weighty work in which the eminent statesman is so deeplyengrossed," he said, "is called 'The Great Rand Robbery.' It is adetective novel, for sale at all bookstalls."
The American raised his eyebrows in disbel
ief.
"'The Great Rand Robbery'?" he repeated incredulously. "What an oddtaste!"
"It is not a taste, it is his vice," returned the gentleman with thepearl stud. "It is his one dissipation. He is noted for it. You, as astranger, could hardly be expected to know of this idiosyncrasy. Mr.Gladstone sought relaxation in the Greek poets, Sir Andrew finds his inGaboriau. Since I have been a member of Parliament I have never seen himin the library without a shilling shocker in his hands. He brings themeven into the sacred precincts of the House, and from the Governmentbenches reads them concealed inside his hat. Once started on a tale ofmurder, robbery, and sudden death, nothing can tear him from it, noteven the call of the division bell, nor of hunger, nor the prayers ofthe party Whip. He gave up his