Читать книгу The Phantom Car - Fred M. White - Страница 6

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"Won't you tell me about it?" Wilde asked benignly.

"Tell you all about what?" Peggy fenced.

"I am an old man," Wilde went on, "an old man who has seen a good deal of the world and has not been without his own bitter disappointments. My dear young lady, it is quite easy to see that you are in some sort of trouble. But don't let me presume. I would much rather not force your confidence if you are not disposed to give it freely."

As he spoke, Wilde looked the absolute picture of benevolence and sympathy. His tone was so kind and inviting that Peggy was moved, in spite of herself.

"Oh, it is nothing," she said. "Very likely I am imagining troubles that don't exist. But, you see, I am afraid that Trevor is going to leave me."

"Does that mean a quarrel?" Wilde asked.

"Well, not exactly. You see, it is like this, Mr. Wilde. I hate flying. Old fashioned, of course, but I have never forgotten my brother Victor met with his death in the air. Some time ago, Trevor promised me—oh, but why should I worry you?"

"It is no trouble at all, my child," Wilde murmured. "Let me help you. A little bird tells me that Mr. Capner is interested in a new type of flying machine, and I suppose the authorities want him to demonstrate. And I suppose, too, that you object. Am I right, my dear?"

"Well, something like that," Peggy confessed. "You see, he gave me his solemn promise not to do any more flying in future. And now he wants me to absolve him from that promise. He is motoring up to Town this evening——"

Peggy broke off suddenly as Capner himself came in through the front gate. He advanced in a hesitating sort of manner as if half inclined to turn back, and might have done so if Wilde had not called him by name.

"Don't run away," the latter said. "I am only staying for a minute or two."

Wilde laid a hand on the steering gear of his chair and with the same benevolent smile on his face, slowly piloted himself down the drive in the direction of the road. He would come and see Peggy again, he said, and, with that, he vanished from the garden and was lost to sight. Capner stood there before Peggy, hardly knowing what to say.

"Well?" she challenged at length.

"I hardly know how to begin," Capner said humbly. "Look here, Peggy, don't let us quarrel, for Heaven's sake. You hardly realise my position. For many reasons I don't want to go, but it is hard to get out of it."

"So hard to keep a promise, Trevor? To me?"

"Yes, that is the hardest promise of the lot. I did tell you, definitely and plainly, that I was resigning my commission. And it is my fault that I delayed and I should never have done so if I had known that the Ministry would make it a point of my testing the machine over a long flight. But can't you see that they have every right to ask me to do so? Oh, well, we have had all this over before. But please don't make it hard and don't think I am hard either. Besides, everything is not definitely settled even yet. I am going to London in an hour's time in my car to keep an appointment with Sir Everard, and everything hangs upon that. I shall dine with him and get back here very late to-night. Peggy, my dear, if I can get out of this business with honour to myself, I shall do so; but if they insist, or even strongly hint that I ought to make the big test, then I don't see how I can get out of it. But, on my honour, I will do my best. Won't you be content with that, Peggy? Won't you let things go on as they are until the critical moment arrives?"

"Very well," Peggy said coldly. "I will try and put it out of my mind and hope for the best."

"That is good," Capner said, his spirits rising immediately. "That is my dear girl again. Now, is there anything I can do for you before I set out on my errand?"

"One little thing, perhaps," Peggy smiled. "I wish you would come in the house and look at my wireless set. I don't know what is the matter with it, but it won't function properly. It can't be the batteries, because they were both of them charged early in the week."

"Sounds like valve trouble," Capner said, only too glad to get off dangerous ground. "I always told you that earth of yours is not quite as it ought to be. If I do have to go away, and you get into trouble with the set again, you can't do better than call in our friend Manthon. He knows almost as much about wireless as I do. However, come along."

The little difficulty was adjusted at length to Peggy's satisfaction and together she and Capner came out into the sunshine again. For some time they sat down under a tree on the lawn contemplating the beauty of the landscape.

"What time are you going?" Peggy asked at length.

"I thought of starting somewhere about half-past five," Capner explained. "It won't take me more than an hour to get to Town and I shan't have to dress. With any luck, I shall have finished with the big man by ten o'clock to-night and then I shall get back here as soon as possible."

"And you will let me know at once, Trevor?"

"Certainly, darling. At any rate, the first thing to-morrow morning. You will probably be in bed before I come back. You see, I might be later than I expect."

"Oh, you must try," Peggy implored. "I don't think you quite realise what this suspense means to me, Trevor. Can't you come in for a minute, however late it is?"

"Well, I hardly like to do that," Capner said. "It looks rather silly, don't you think? Look here, I will tell you what. If I am not back at a reasonable time, you go to bed. I shall be passing this house at any rate between ten o'clock and midnight and if you like to listen I will give you a sign."

"What do you mean by that?" Peggy asked.

"Well, a sort of signal. Quite the romantic touch. Suppose I do manage to satisfy the big men in the Air Ministry and save my honour at the same time, I will give you three toots on my horn as I go by. If, on the other hand, I am compelled to go, then I will give six blasts on my Klaxon. There can't be any mistake, because you will recognise that cracked note on my horn at once. I wonder how many times you have asked me to get a new one. Will that satisfy you, Peggy?"

It was a childish idea, but somehow it appealed to the romantic side of Peggy's nature. She smiled up into her lover's face and nestled a little closer to him.

"Do you know, that is rather a pretty idea, old boy," she said. "I think, on the whole, I like it better than a personal call. I shan't go to bed early, because it will be impossible to sleep until I hear from you, and there is a rather fine broadcast from Hilversum to-night which I am anxious to hear. You will try your best, won't you, Trevor? Do try and remember you are all I have in the world. I have given you my heart and everything that goes with it, so that only my soul belongs to me. And I have been so happy in the knowledge that I have found consolation for the loss of my brother. If anything happens to you, I don't know what I shall do. I ought to keep you. I ought to insist, here and now, that you get in contact with the Ministry and tell them plainly that you can't go. I ought to say that it is the parting of the ways as far as you are concerned and that it is to be either me or that machine of yours."

"But you wouldn't do that, Peggy?" Trevor asked.

"Perhaps not," Peggy agreed. "But I think I know what the answer would be if I did. Don't you see, Trevor, that you are putting me second. No girl likes that."

"But I am not," Capner said eagerly. "I am trying to hold the balance true between my duty and my inclination. Come, Peggy, don't make it more difficult than it is."

Peggy appeared as if about to speak, then changed her mind, and for a long time there was silence. But there was no warmth lacking in her kiss as she parted with her lover at the garden gate and watched him out of sight.

And there was more than regret in Capner's eyes as he turned in the direction of his home. He left the road presently in the direction Manthon's bungalow. The latter came out to greet him on the doorstep.

"Hello!" he said. "You look precious grave, old chap."

"Well, I feel rather like that," Capner confessed.

"Oh, then you are really going, after all?"

"Going to London, certainly. But the rest of the adventure is on the knees of the gods. Now, look here, Roy, old chap, if I have to go, I shall probably be off very early to-morrow after collecting my traps here, and I want you to keep an eye on Peggy. Of course, it will break her heart and it may end in breaking off our engagement, but I shall have to risk that. Now, if Peggy wants anything or she gets into any sort of trouble, I hope that you will do your best to pull her through."

"Oh, I will do all that," Manthon said quietly. "But you don't tell me you have quarrelled."

"Well it hasn't come to that yet, and it may be all right in the long run. Still, I am not quite easy in my mind as to Peggy and those people at Monkshole."

"You mean that you don't trust the benevolent Wilde?"

"Well, I wouldn't, perhaps, go so far as to say that. But you know Peggy has a very strong, romantic strain in her composition and, in certain circumstances, might become decidedly psychic. I have overheard one or two little conversations between Wilde and herself that have made me feel rather uneasy. It is all very well for a man with a strong brain and intelligence to play with that sort of thing, but I can see the spiritualistic stuff driving Peggy insane in time. If we had got married in the ordinary course of things, there would have been nothing to fear, because I should be always handy to administer a strong dose of common sense. But if anything happened to me, I can visualise Peggy under the influence of Sebastian Wilde. I know; he is a great intellectual force, but, at the same time, he is a visionary who hopes to probe all sorts of mysterious happenings in the future. And all that money of Peggy's would be mighty useful to an inventive genius."

"Well, there is certainly a good deal in what you say," Manthon said thoughtfully. "Wilde is a great man and a great scientist and, with a brain like his, the dividing line between high genius and sheer madness is a very fine one. You know what I mean—'Great minds to madness nearly are akin,' and all that sort of thing. Oh, yes, I can see Sebastian Wilde in the light of a dangerous fanatic. All right, old chap, I will keep my eyes open if you don't come back, so you can rely upon me to do my best."

With that, the two friends parted and Capner went on his way, leaving Manthon in a curious frame of mind. He had willingly undertaken a serious charge, which he regarded as none the less sacred, because he was in love with Peggy himself. He had been in love with her ever since they first met, but that was a secret which he deemed to be locked safely away in his own breast, though possibly Peggy, with her womanly instinct, had divined it long ago.

It was much later that night than Capner had expected before he turned his back on London and drove his car in a homeward direction rather slowly and thoughtfully. He had the road practically to himself, so that he was alone with his own rather gloomy thoughts.

As often happened in such circumstances, the interview after dinner with the big man in the Air Ministry had not gone in the least as Capner had expected. When, at length he left the house in Sloane Street where the interview had taken place, he found himself pledged to certain things, beyond recall. From the very first, his arguments had been swept aside as if they had been no more than so many cobwebs; indeed, the great man had, apparently, not regarded them as arguments at all. And Trevor knew that everything he had been listening to could have only led up to one conclusion.

It was very still and silent as he drew near the village of Lincombe and approached Long Elms, where he could see that a light was still burning in Peggy's bedroom. A clock in the neighbouring church struck the hour of midnight.

Trevor hesitated for a moment or two; then, almost recklessly, pressed the button of his horn.

Three times the cracked note cut through the night air and then a short pause; then, almost mournfully, the sound uprose again and three more notes followed.