The Soul Stealer, Page 2

  CHAPTER II

  UNEXPECTED ENTRANCE OF TWO LADIES

  For a moment or two Eustace Charliewood did not return his host'sgreeting. He was not only surprised by the curious proceeding of whichhe had been a witness, but he felt a certain chill also.

  "What the deuce are you up to now, Gouldesbrough?" he said in an uneasyvoice. "Another of your beastly experiments? I wish you wouldn't startlea fellow in this way."

  Sir William looked keenly at the big man whose face had become curiouslypallid.

  There was a tremendous contrast in the two people in the room.Gouldesbrough was a very handsome man, as handsome as Charliewoodhimself had been in younger days, but it was with an entirely differentbeauty. His face was clean shaved, also, but it was dark, clear-cut andascetic. The eyes were dark blue, singularly bright and direct inglance, and shaded by heavy brows. The whole face and poise of the talllean body spoke of power, knowledge, and resolution.

  One man was of the earth, earthy; the other seemed far removed fromsensual and material things. Yet, perhaps, a deep student of character,and one who had gone far into the hidden springs of action within thehuman soul, would have preferred the weak, easy-going sensualist, withall his meannesses and viciousness, to the hard and agate intellect, theindomitable and lawless will that sometimes shone out upon the face ofthe scientist like a lit lamp.

  Charliewood sat down in obedience to a motion of his host's hand. He satdown with a sigh, for he knew that he had been summoned to Sir WilliamGouldesbrough's house to perform yet another duty which was certain tobe distasteful and furtive.

  Yes! there was no hope for it now. For the last few years the man abouttown had been under the dominion of a stronger will than his, of a morecunning, of a more ruthless brain. Little by little he had becomeentangled within the net that Gouldesbrough had spread for him. And thelure had been then and afterwards a lure of money--the one thingCharliewood worshipped in the world.

  The history of the growth of his secret servitude to this famous manwas a long one. Money had been lent to him, he had signed this or thatpaper, he had found his other large debts bought up by the scientist,and at the end of three years he had found himself willy nilly, body andsoul, the servant of this man, who could ruin him in a single moment andcast him down out of his comfortable life for ever and a day.

  No living soul knew or suspected that there was any such bond as thisbetween the two men. Even Charliewood's enemies never guessed thetruth--that he was a sort of jackal, a spy to do his master's bidding,to execute this or that secret commission, to go and come as he wasordered.

  As yet all the services which Charliewood had rendered to Sir William,and for which, be it said, he was excellently paid, were those which,though they bordered upon the dishonourable and treacherous, neveractually overstepped the borders.

  Gouldesbrough employed Charliewood to find out this or that, to makeacquaintance with one person or another, to lay the foundation, in fact,of an edifice which he himself would afterwards build upon informationsupplied by the clubman. There was no crime in any of these proceedings,no robbery or black-mail. And what happened after he had done his workCharliewood neither knew nor cared. Of one thing, however, he wascertain, that whatever the scientist's motives might be--and he did notseek to probe them--they were not those of the ordinary criminal orindeed ever bordered upon the criminal at all. All that Charliewoodknew, and realized with impotence and bitterness, was that he hadallowed himself to become a mere tool and spy of this man's, a prober ofsecrets, a walker in tortuous by-paths.

  "What did you wire to me for?" Charliewood said in a sulky voice. "Whatdo you want me to do now?"

  Sir William looked quickly at his guest, and there was a momentary gleamof ill-temper in his eyes, but he answered smoothly enough.

  "My dear Charliewood, I wish you wouldn't take that tone. Surely we havebeen associated too long together for you to speak to me in that waynow. It has suited your convenience to do certain things for me, and ithas suited my convenience to make it worth your while to do them. Thereis the whole matter. Please let's be friendly, as we always have been."

  Charliewood shrugged his shoulders.

  "You know very well, Gouldesbrough," he said, "that I am in your handsand have got to do anything you ask me in reason. However, I don't wantto insist on that aspect of the question if you don't. What did you wireto me for?"

  "Well," Sir William said, passing a cigar-box over to the other, thoughhe did not smoke himself, "there is a certain man that I am interestedin. I don't know him personally, though I know something about him. Iwant to know him, and I want to know everything I can about him too."

  "I suppose," Charliewood answered, "that there is no difficulty for youin getting to know anybody you want to?" He said it with a slight sneer.

  "Oh, of course not," Sir William answered, "but still in this case Iwant you to get to know him first. You can easily do this if you wish,you are sure to have some mutual acquaintances. When you get to know himmake yourself as pleasant as you can be to him--and nobody can do thatmore gracefully than yourself, my dear boy. Become his intimate friend,if possible, and let me know as much as you can about his habits andobjects in life. I don't want you to spare any expense in this matter ifit is necessary to spend money, and of course you will draw upon me forall you require in the matter."

  Charliewood held up his cigar and looked steadily at the crust of whiteash which was forming at the end.

  "What's the man's name?" he asked without moving his eyes.

  "His name," said Sir William lightly, "is Rathbone, a Mr. Guy Rathbone.He is a barrister and has chambers in the Temple. A youngish man, Iunderstand, of about seven and twenty."

  At the name Charliewood gave a momentary start. He allowed a slightsmile to come upon his lips, and it was not a pleasant smile.

  Gouldesbrough saw it, flushed a little and moved uneasily, feeling thatalthough this man was his servant there were yet disadvantages inemploying him, and that he also could sting when he liked.

  Directly Sir William had mentioned the name of the person on whoseactions and life, not to put too fine a point on it, he was ordering hishenchman to become a spy, Charliewood knew the reason. He realized in aninstant what was the nature of the interest Sir William Gouldesbroughtook in Mr. Guy Rathbone, barrister-at-law.

  The famous scientist, long, it was said in society, a man quiteimpervious to the attractions of the other sex and the passion of love,had but a few months ago become engaged.

  Wealthy as he was, distinguished, handsome and attractive in his manner,there had not been wanting ladies who would have very gladly shared andappropriated all these advantages. Like any other unmarried man in hisdesirable position, the scientist had been somewhat pursued in manydrawing-rooms. Of late, however, the pursuit had slackened. Match-makingmothers and unappropriated daughters seemed to have realized that herewas a citadel they could not storm. Six months ago, therefore, societyhad been all the more startled to hear of Sir William's engagement toMiss Marjorie Poole, the only daughter of old Lady Poole of CurzonStreet.

  Marjorie Poole was the daughter of a rather poor baronet who had diedsome years before, the title going to a cousin. Lady Poole was left witha house in Curzon Street and a sufficient income for her own life, butthat was all. And among many of the women who hunt society for a husbandfor their daughters, as a fisherman whips a stream for trout, thedowager was one of the most conspicuous.

  It was said that she had angled for Sir William with an alertness andunwearying pursuit which was at last crowned by success. More charitablepeople, and especially those who knew and liked Miss Poole, said thatthe girl would never have lent herself to any schemes of her mother'sunless she had been genuinely fond of the man to whom she was engaged.There had been much talk and speculation over the engagement at first,a speculation which had in its turn died away, and which during the lastfew weeks had been again revived by certain incidents.

  Eustace Charliewood, whose whole life and business it
was to gather andretail society gossip, was very well aware of the reason which madepeople once more wag their heads and hint this or that about theGouldesbrough engagement.

  Mr. Guy Rathbone had appeared upon the scene, a young barrister of goodfamily but of no particular fortune. Several times Mr. Rathbone had beenseen skating with Miss Poole at Prince's. At this or that dance--SirWilliam Gouldesbrough did not go to dances--Rathbone had danced a gooddeal with Miss Poole. Many envious and linx-like eyes had watched themfor some weeks, and men were beginning to say in the clubs that "youngRathbone is going to put the scientific Johnny's nose out of joint."

  It was this knowledge which caused the little sneering smile to appearon Charliewood's face, and it gave him pleasure to detect the humanweakness of jealousy in the inscrutable man who held him so tightly inhis grip.

  "Well, all right," Charliewood said at length. "I'll do what you want."

  "That's a good fellow," Sir William answered, smiling genially, hiswhole face lighting up and becoming markedly attractive as it did so,"you've always been a good friend to me, Charliewood."

  "My banking account is very low just at present," the other went on.

  "Then I'll write you a cheque at once," Sir William answered, getting upfrom his chair and going to the writing-table in the corner of the room.

  Charliewood's face cleared a little. Then he noticed his cigar had beenburning all down one side. He dropped it into an ash-tray and put hishand in his coat pocket to find a cigarette.

  He took out an ordinary silver case, when his eye fell upon the crestengraved upon the cover. He started and looked again, turning it so thatthe light fell full upon it.

  The crest of the Charliewood family was a hand with a battle-axe and themotto, "Ne Morare," and in the usual custom it was engraved uponCharliewood's own case.

  But this was not the Charliewood crest. It was a wyvern charged on ashield, and the motto consisted of the single word "GARDEZ."

  He gave a startled exclamation.

  "What's the matter?" Sir William said, turning round sharply.

  "I've got some other fellow's cigarette-case," Charliewood answered inamazement, opening it as he did so.

  There was only one cigarette in the case, but there were severalvisiting-cards in one compartment, and moreover the name of the ownerwas cut in the inside of the lid.

  The case dropped from Charliewood's fingers with a clatter, and he grewquite pale.

  "What is it?" his host inquired again.

  "Have you been playing some infernal trick on me, Gouldesbrough?"Charliewood said.

  "No; why?"

  "Because this cigarette-case, by some strange chance, is thecigarette-case of the man we've been talking about, this Guy Rathbone!"

  He stood up, thrusting his hands deep into the pockets of the fur coatas he did so. Then he pulled out a letter, stamped and addressed andobviously ready for the post.

  "Good heavens!" he said, "here's something else. It's a letter for thepost."

  "Who is it addressed to?" Sir William asked in a curious voice.

  Charliewood looked at it and started again.

  "As I live," he answered, "it's addressed to Miss Poole, 100A, CurzonStreet!"

  There was a curious silence for a moment or two. Both men looked ateach other, and mingled astonishment and alarm were on the face ofeither. The whole thing seemed uncanny. They seemed, while concoctingsomething like a plot, to have trodden unawares into another.

  Suddenly Charliewood stamped his foot upon the ground and peeled off hisovercoat.

  "I've got it," he cried. "Why, of course I've seen the very man myselfthis morning. This is his coat, not mine. I went to a hairdresser's thismorning and left my coat in the ante-room while I was going through amassage treatment. When I came out there was a man waiting there for histurn, and I must have taken his coat in exchange for mine. And the manwas this Mr. Guy Rathbone, of course. You know these dark blue coatslined with astrachan are quite ordinary, everybody is wearing them thisyear. And I noticed, by Jove, that the thing seemed a little tight inthe cab! It's about the oddest coincidence that I've ever come across inmy life!"

  Sir William bowed his head in thought for a minute or two.

  "Well, this is the very best opportunity you could have, my dearfellow," he said, "of making the man's acquaintance. Of course you cantake him back the coat and the cigarette-case at once."

  "And the letter?" Charliewood said swiftly. "The letter to Miss Poole?"

  Sir William looked curiously at his guest.

  "I think," he said slowly, "that I'll just spend half-an-hour with thisletter first. Then you can take it away with the other things. I assureyou that it will look just the same as it does now."

  Charliewood shrugged his shoulders.

  "Have it your own way," he said contemptuously, "but don't ask _me_ toopen any letters to a lady, that's all."

  Sir William flushed up and was about to make an angry reply, when thedoor of the study was suddenly thrown open and they saw the butlerstanding there.

  There was a rustle of skirts in the passage.

  "Lady Poole and Miss Poole, sir," said the butler.