The Project Gutenberg EBook of Ambrotox and Limping Dick, by Oliver Fleming This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org Title: Ambrotox and Limping Dick Author: Oliver Fleming Release Date: December 16, 2006 [EBook #20119] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AMBROTOX AND LIMPING DICK *** Produced by David Clarke, Mary Meehan, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net AMBROTOX AND LIMPING DICK BY OLIVER FLEMING 1920 CONTENTS CHAPTER I.—THE VISITOR'S SHADOW CHAPTER II.—THE HEN WITH ONE CHICK CHAPTER III.—"HUMMIN' BIRD'S WESKIT" CHAPTER IV.—COFFEE CHAPTER V.—AMBROTOX CHAPTER VI.—AMARYLLIS CHAPTER VII.—PERFUME CHAPTER VIII.—THE SWINE THAT STANK CHAPTER IX.—THE POLITICAL COVES CHAPTER X.—THE GREEN FROCK CHAPTER XI.—THE WINDOW CHAPTER XII.—THE STAIRS CHAPTER XIII.—THE KNIFE-THROWER CHAPTER XIV.—PENNY PANSY CHAPTER XV.—THE LIZARD CHAPTER XVI.—"THE GOAT IN BOOTS" CHAPTER XVII.—THE UNICORN CHAPTER XVIII.—THE SERANG CHAPTER XIX.—SAPPHIRE AND EMERALD CHAPTER XX.—A ROPE OR SOMETHING CHAPTER XXI.—THE BAAG-NOUK CHAPTER XXII.—LORD LABRADOR CHAPTER XXIII.—FALLING OUT CHAPTER XXIV.—KUK-KUK-KUK-KATIE CHAPTER XXV.—WAITERS CHAPTER XXVI.—PRISONER AND ESCORT CHAPTER XXVII.—AN INTERIM REPORT AMBROTOX AND LIMPING DICK. CHAPTER I. THE VISITOR'S SHADOW. Randal Bellamy's country house was a place of pleasant breakfasts. From the dining room the outlook was delightful; grass, flowers and sunshine, with the host's easy charm, made it almost as easy for Theophilus Caldegard to drink his tea fresh, as for his daughter Amaryllis not to keep her host, Sir Randal, waiting for his coffee. This morning, while she waited for the two men, the girl, remembering that this was the eighteenth of June, was surprised by the ease with which the five weeks of her stay had slipped by; and she wondered, without anxiety, at what point the guest merges into the inmate. "I can't live here for ever," she thought; "but as long as there's room for his test-tubes, and his dinner's good, dad thinks it's all right for a girl." And, as if it was all right, she laughed—just in time for Randal Bellamy to get full benefit of the pleasant sound. "Laughing all alone?" he said. "That's when the funny things happen," replied Amaryllis. Bellamy looked down at her, as if asking a share in her merriment. "After all, I don't know why I laughed," she said. "I was only thinking it's five whole weeks since we came here, and ——" "And you want to go somewhere else?" Amaryllis shook her head. "And it's gone like five days, I was going to say." She took her seat at the table and poured out his coffee. "I'm not going to let you wait a moment for father this morning; it was two o'clock when he went to bed." "How do you know that, you bad girl?" said Bellamy. "Because dad can't get out of the habit of putting his boots outside his door," she replied. "And when he's pleased with his work, he throws 'em out." "I've heard them," he said, laughing. "But last night I was in bed before twelve; I suppose he took advantage of that and sneaked back to the laboratory again." "But I thought," said Amaryllis, after a pause, "that Ambrotox was finished and ready to make its bow to the public." "God forbid!" said Bellamy, in a tone of such intensity that the girl was astonished. "But surely you've been helping him to finish it—you wanted it finished," she exclaimed. "Yes, but not published," said the man. The girl's next eager question was cut short by the entrance of the parlour-maid with the morning's letters; and after her came Theophilus Caldegard. His person was as unlike the popular conception of a man of science as can well be imagined. His sturdy figure, thick white hair, and the ruddy complexion of his face, where the benevolence of the mouth attracted attention before the keenness of the eyes, suggested rather the country gentleman than the man of genius whose discoveries might move a world. He kissed his daughter, and, "Tea quick—the kettle's boiling, Amy," he said. "Morning, Bellamy." And, as Bellamy made no response, "First time I ever saw him absorbed by a letter," he remarked: "Best one I've had for six months," said Bellamy, looking up. "That young brother of mine's coming down by the three- ten." "Rolling down, you mean," said Caldegard. "Can't roll any longer—covered with moss," retorted Bellamy. "Aunt Jenny died and didn't leave me a cent." "Why didn't he come before?" asked Caldegard. "Been looking for something to do," said the brother. "Now he's been a soldier, I don't believe there's anything left." "How long was he in the Army?" "Twelve months in the trenches, two years in the Air Force, and, one time with another, ten months in hospital," replied Bellamy. "And as soon as he's clear of the Army, he finds he's got money to burn," chuckled Caldegard. "No wonder it's six months before he pays a visit to his respectable big brother." Amaryllis gathered up her half-read letters, and walked absent-mindedly to the open french-window. "Oh well," continued her father, "I'm afraid there aren't many sensations left for your rolling stone." Amaryllis went slowly down the steps into the garden, Bellamy watching her until she was out of sight. "Look here, Caldegard," he said, turning quickly. "Your daughter knows it's a secret, but she does not know it's a deadly one." "Well?" said Caldegard. "My brother," continued Bellamy, "doesn't know there is a secret, and is coming to live in the middle of it. I think that your daughter should know the whole story; and, when you've met him, I hope you'll think it good business to trust my young 'un as completely as I trust yours." CHAPTER II. THE HEN WITH ONE CHICK. Under the cedar tree on the south lawn of Bellamy's garden sat Amaryllis Caldegard. On the wicker table at her side lay a piece of needlework half-covering three fresh novels. But when the stable-clock on the other side of the house struck noon, it reminded her that she had sat in that pleasant shadow for more than an hour without threading her needle or reading a line. Her reflections were coloured with a tinge of disappointment. Although her life, passed in almost daily contact with an affectionate father, who was a man of both character and intellect, had been anything but unhappy, it had lacked, at one time or another, variety and beauty. But the time spent in the exquisite Hertfordshire country surrounding the old Manor House had been, she thought, the pleasantest five weeks in her memory. The worldly distinction of Sir Randal Bellamy gave point to the pleasure she felt in his courtesy to her father and his something more than courtesy to herself. She did not tell herself in definite thought that she counted with Randal Bellamy for something more than the mere daughter of the man whom he considered the first and most advanced synthetic chemist of the day; but there are matters perceived so instinctively by a woman that she makes no record of their discovery. If not without curiosity as to the future, she was in no haste for developments; and Bellamy's announcement of an addition to their party cast an ominous shadow across the pleasant field of the indefinite future. On the twelfth stroke of the clock Amaryllis laughed in her effort to brush aside the clouds of her depression. Expecting her father to join her about this time, she was determined to show him the smiling face to which he was accustomed. When he came, "What d'you think of the news?" he said. "What news, dad?" she asked. "Somebody coming for you to flirt with, while the old men are busy," he replied. "Flirt!" "Well, I don't think it's likely that this Jack-of-all-trades has left that accomplishment out of his list," said the father. "Rolling stones get on my nerves," objected his daughter, having known none. "From what his brother says, this one's more like an avalanche." Amaryllis laughed scornfully. "Positively overwhelming!" she said. "But I'm sure I shall never——" "Hush!" said Caldegard, looking towards the house. "Here's his brother." Sir Randal was turning the corner of the house, with an envelope in his hand. "Telegram," said Amaryllis softly. "P'r'aps it's the avalanche deferred." "D'you mind having lunch half an hour earlier, Miss Caldegard?" asked Sir Randal, as he came up. "Dick—my brother —is coming by an earlier train. Just like him, always changing his mind." And he smiled, as if this were merit. Caldegard laughed good-humouredly. "You're like a hen with one chick, Bellamy," he said. "No doubt," said the brother. "Do you see, Miss Caldegard," he went on, sitting beside her, "how the pursuit of science can harden a generous heart? Both Dick and I were born, I believe, with the adventurous spirit. I was pushed into the most matter-of-fact profession in the world, which has kept me tied by the leg ever since. But Dick was no sooner out of school than he showed the force of character to discover the world and pursue its adventures for himself." "But, Sir Randal, hasn't your brother ever followed any regular occupation or business?" "As far as I know," chuckled the man, "he's followed most of 'em, and there are precious few he hasn't caught up with. Two years before the war certain matters took me to South Africa. One evening, in the smoking-room of the Grand Hotel at Capetown, a queer-looking man asked if my name was Bellamy, and, when I told him it was, inquired if Limping Dick was my brother." "Limping Dick?" exclaimed Amaryllis. "Yes," said Sir Randal. "That was the first time I ever heard the name he is known by from Söul to Zanzibar, from Alaska to Honolulu." "Why do they call him that?" asked the girl. The man smiled. "Because he has a limp," he said. "But how he came by it is more than I can tell you. I told the fellow that I had indeed a young brother Richard, and that my young brother Richard certainly had a limp. We were saved the trouble of further description by the interruption of a high-pitched voice: "'Not a shade shy of six foot tall; shoulders like Georgees Carpenteer's when he's pleased with life in the movies; hair black as a Crow Injun's; eyes blue as a hummin' bird's weskit; and a grip—wa-al, he don't wear no velvet gloves: Limpin' Dick Bellamy!' "'That's him,' said the queer man. I agreed that the portrait was unmistakable, and asked if either of them could tell me where he was now, as I hadn't seen him for a long time. So the queer man told me that two years before Dick, who was then overseer of a large rubber plantation north of Banjermassin in Borneo, had given him a job. He added, however, that my brother had left Borneo some six months later. The American had first met him four years before in Bombay, and they had joined forces in a pearl-fishing expedition which took them somewhere in the Persian Gulf—the Bahr-el—Bahr-el-Benat Islands, I think; they had separated four months later and had not met again for more than three years, when the American had run across him as part owner of a cattle ranch in Southern Paraguay." Amaryllis was interested in spite of herself; but her father had heard these things before, and was thinking of others. "Jack-of-all-trades," he said, turning towards the house. "And master of most," called Bellamy after him. "What a good brother you are!" said Amaryllis softly. "He's all the family I've got, Amaryllis," he said. "Besides, I'm almost old enough to be his father, and I often feel as if I were." "From what you've told me, he must be thirty at least," objected the girl, "and I'm sure you're not fifty." "Over," said Bellamy. "You don't look it," she answered. "Thank you." "What for?" "You make it easier." "What easier?" "What I'm going to say to you." Amaryllis looked up, surprised. "Before I met you, Miss Caldegard, I had got thoroughly into the way of thinking of myself not as an elderly man, but as a confirmed bachelor. For more than a month I have been enjoying your company and admiring your goodness and beauty more and more every day, without perceiving, until some few days ago, that I did so at great risk to myself. If I were twenty years younger I should put off speaking like this, in the hope of gaining ground by a longer association with you. But to-day I have made up my mind that my best chance of winning at least your affection lies in telling you simply and at once how completely you have conquered mine." That this must come sometime, Amaryllis no doubt had foreseen; yet at this moment she felt as much surprised and embarrassed as if she had never read the signs. If a woman, mother or sister, could have asked her yesterday whether she were willing to marry Randal Bellamy, she might, perhaps, have answered that she liked him awfully, that she valued his love, and felt very sure of being happier as his wife than as an old maid; but now, with the famous lawyer's kind and handsome face before her, and that pleading note mixing unexpectedly with the splendid tones of his voice, her delicacy rebelled against taking so much more than she could give. Twice she tried to speak; but, instead of words to her tongue, there came a tiresome lump in her throat and a horrid swimminess over her eyes which she was determined should not culminate in tears. "What a dear you are, Sir Randal!" she said huskily. "But—but—oh! I do like you most awfully, but—I can't say what I mean." The new beauty in the face which he had from the first thought so lovely, the new brightness of tears in the dark-brown eyes, and the womanly tenderness which he had never before found in her voice, made his heart quicken as never since he was thirty. That extra beat, if it told him that he was still young, warned him also of the pain which is the tribute imposed on conquered youth. But before he found words, Caldegard appeared on the terrace, shouting that it was five minutes past one, and lunch waiting. The pair walked side by side to the house. "Don't answer me to-day, Amaryllis," he said, "but just turn me and it over in your mind now and then between this and Friday." CHAPTER III. "HUMMIN' BIRD'S WESKIT." At a quarter past two that afternoon, Amaryllis, with her bull-dog, set out for a walk. Her father was in the laboratory, ostensibly at work, and Sir Randal, beaming expectant, had driven off to St. Albans. Tea-time, or even dinner was early enough, thought Amaryllis, to meet the new-comer; and then, in spite of the mixture of bewilderment, pride and regret which oppressed her, she remembered the words of the American in the Cape Town bar: "Eyes blue as a hummin' bird's weskit." "How absurd!" she exclaimed, laughing to herself. Then she sighed, and was quite sure she really wanted to be alone, and set herself, as she strolled down through the hazel copse towards the London road, to think seriously of Randal Bellamy and his offer. But the trouble was that Miss Caldegard had never seen a humming bird, and therefore found herself brooding on the blueness of all the blue things in her experience, from willow-pattern china to the waters of the Mediterranean, instead of considering the answer which she must give to Randal on Friday. A quarter of a mile of winding path led her downward to the level of the road. When she reached the stile, her thought was still far from the matter she had promised to consider. She turned to call her dog, and, knowing his insatiable curiosity, was less surprised than annoyed to find that she had let him stray. She could not remember whether she had last seen him behind her, in front, or blundering through the undergrowth, still confident, in spite of perpetual disappointment, in his power to overtake a rabbit. Now the dog's temper, admirable with his friends, was uncertain with strangers, and Amaryllis was accustomed to keep him close at heel in public places. So, having whistled and called in vain, she crossed the stile and looked down the road towards Iddingfield. There was the tiresome beast, if you please, a hundred yards away, gambolling clumsily round the legs of a man walking towards her. Her second whistle brought the animal to a sense of duty, and he trotted towards her, with many pauses to look back reluctantly at his new friend. She caught the dog's collar with the crook of her stick, and bent down, slapping his muzzle in mild reproof. As the stranger passed, his glance was downward, for the dog, rather than the woman. As she stood erect, she saw him standing with his back towards her, in the middle of the road, with face turned to the stile she had just crossed. Then he swung round, raising his hat as he approached her. "Please tell me if that path leads to the Manor House," he said. Amaryllis saw a tall, well-made figure, a face clean-shaven and deeply sun-burnt, and under the lifted hat caught a glimpse of sleek black hair. But when she saw his eyes, she knew his name, for they were the bluest she had ever seen. "Yes," she said. "I think you must be Mr. Richard Bellamy." "I am," he said. "How did you know?" "Sir Randal Bellamy was telling us about you," she answered. "I am Miss Caldegard. My father and I are staying with Sir Randal. Yes, over the stile is your quickest way to the house." And she looked down the road. "Aren't you coming, too?" asked Dick Bellamy. Amaryllis looked at him for a moment. "Perhaps I'd better," she said, going towards the stile. "Why 'better'?" he asked. "There is no one to receive you," she replied. "Besides, the village isn't very interesting." "Awful," said Dick. "Worst beer in England." Amaryllis did not reply. When they were amongst the trees, he spoke again. "I know Randal was to meet me at St. Albans, but I 'phoned from Iddingfield and told 'em to send him back at once. I got my car back from the vet. at mid-day, and if I hadn't had a bit of a smash just outside Iddingfield, I'd have got here before." Amaryllis was a quick walker, and had set a good pace up the slope from the stile. Suddenly she remembered her companion's nick-name, and, slackening her speed, involuntarily glanced down to see if indeed this man were lame. He came up beside her. "It's all right, Miss Caldegard," he said kindly. "My action's a blemish, not a handicap." "Oh, Mr. Bellamy!" she said. "I never even noticed it until this minute." "I thought that was how you recognised me in the road," said the man. "It wasn't that," said Amaryllis, and in fear of further questioning, whistled her dog back to the path. "Silly old thing," she said. "He won't believe that Mr. Bunny is too quick for him; he's never caught one yet except in his dreams." They were making their way towards the house when they heard the car drive up to the front door, and before they reached the windows of the dining-room, Randal Bellamy turned the corner. Amaryllis stood apart watching with a certain curiosity the meeting of the brothers. The elder's face was beaming with welcome, the younger's she could not see, but something in his bearing suggested a pleasure no less. All she heard, however, was: "Hullo, young 'un!" and "Hullo, Bill!" And, when they came towards her, the expression of the two faces was that of men who, having breakfasted together, had met again at luncheon. "Somebody's forestalled my solemn introduction, I see," said Randal. "Gorgon performed the ceremony," said Amaryllis. CHAPTER IV. COFFEE. Randal Bellamy at fifty was the most successful patent lawyer of his day. He had taken silk before he was forty, and for many years had enjoyed, not only the largest practice, but a distinction unrivalled in his own country and unsurpassed in the world. Such a man's knowledge in physics, chemistry and biology, though less precise, is often wider than that of the individual specialist. His friendship with Theophilus Caldegard, begun at Cambridge, had lasted and grown stronger with the years. On the evening of his brother's arrival he dressed for dinner later than was his custom. His bath had filled him with a boyish desire to whistle and sing; and now, as he tied his bow and felt the silk-lined comfort of his dinner-jacket, he heard with a throb of elation the soft sound of a skirt go by his door. He murmured as he followed: "—lentus in umbra Formosam resonare doces Amaryllida silvas." But before he reached the stairhead, all other sounds were drowned by shouts of laughter from the billiard-room— good laughter and familiar; but the smile left his face and his pace slackened. He was, perhaps, too old to wake the echoes, and Dick's laugh, he thought, was infectious as the plague. In the wide, comfortable hall used instead of the drawing-room which Bellamy hated, he found Amaryllis smiling with a sparkle in her eyes, as if she too had been laughing. "Did you hear them?" she asked. Randal nodded. "Father hasn't laughed like that for years—billiards!" she said. "Your brother is just telling him shocking stories, Sir Randal." "How d'you know?" he asked. "I dressed as quickly as I could, and went to the billiard-room. Father couldn't speak, but just ran me out by the scruff of the neck." At this moment her attention was distracted by the bull-dog, sliding and tumbling down the stairs in his eagerness to reach his mistress. "Gorgon's behaving like a puppy," said Randal, smiling. "Oh, he's been laughing, too," said Amaryllis, fondling the soft ears. "And he wants to tell me all the jokes." And then Caldegard and Dick Bellamy came down the stairs together. "What have you been doing to Gorgon?" asked Amaryllis. "Never mind the dog," said her father. "It's what this 'vaudeville artist' has been doing to me!" "Oh, Gorgon, Gorgon! If those lips could only speak!" laughed the girl. "Don't you think Gorgon's a good name for the ugly darling, Mr. Bellamy?" she said, as they went in to dinner. "Surely the Gorgon was a kind of prehistoric suffragette," objected Dick. "There you are, Amy," said her father, and turned to him. "Your brother and I have quite failed to convince my illiterate daughter that the word Gorgon is of the feminine gender." "Anyhow," said Amaryllis defiantly, as she took her seat at the dinner-table, "I looked it up in the dictionary, and all it said was: A monster of fearful aspect.'" "He deserves it," said Dick. "He seems to have taken a great fancy to you, Mr. Bellamy," said the girl. "Dogs always do," said Randal. "Always at the first meeting?" asked Amaryllis. "Nearly always. But that doesn't prove that I don't travel without a ticket when I get the chance," replied Dick. "What do you mean?" asked the girl. "Oh, the dog-and-baby theory's not dead yet. But I assure you, Miss Caldegard, that the hardest case I ever met couldn't walk through a town without collecting every dog in the place. That's why he never succeeded in his first profession." "What was he?" asked the girl. "Burglar," said Dick. "That's all very well," said his brother. "I know nothing about babies, but I've noticed that the man whom all dogs dislike is no good at all." "That's quite true," said Caldegard. "Remember Melchard, Amy?" Dick Bellamy caught the quiver of disgust which passed over the girl's face before she answered. "Horrible person!" she said. "Trixy bit him, the dachshund next door always ran away from him, and Gorgon had to be chained up." "Who is this Melchard, Caldegard?" asked Randal. "He came to me about eighteen months ago, and stayed about nine; a very capable practical chemist; had worked for some time in the factory of a Dutch rubber company. Sumatra, I think, or the Malay Peninsula. Tried unqualified dentistry after he came home, went broke and got an introduction to me. That's what he told me. An accurate and painstaking worker, and never asked questions." Dick began to be interested. "But I really can't see anything horrible in all that," said Randal. "At first it was what he was, not what he did," said Caldegard. "Tall, slender, effeminate, over-dressed, native coarseness which would not be hidden by spasmodic attempts at fine manners, and a foul habit of scenting his handkerchiefs and even his clothes with some weird stuff he made himself; left a trail behind him wherever he went. It smelt something like a mixture of orris-root and attar of roses." Amaryllis wiped her lips, and Dick Bellamy thought her cheeks nearly as white as the little handkerchief. "What did the fellow do?" asked Randal. "For one thing, I discovered that he carried a hypodermic syringe; so I watched him—morphia—not a bad case, but getting worse. And then," said Caldegard, looking towards his daughter, "he had the presumption——" "Oh, father, please!" cried Amaryllis. "I'm sorry, my dear," said her father. "I was only——" He was interrupted by a crash, a fumbling and a burst of flame. One of the four-branched candlesticks had been upset, and its rose-coloured shades were on fire. Very coolly the two Bellamys' pinched out the flames and replaced the candles. "Hope that didn't startle you, Miss Caldegard," said Randal. "Not a bit," said Amaryllis, smiling. "What a clumsy devil you are, Dick," he continued. "I was trying to get the sugar," said Dick. Randal tasted his coffee. "Cook's got one fault, Dick," he said. "She can't make coffee; and we've been spoiled." "Yes, indeed," said Caldegard. "I've never in my life drunk black coffee to beat what your yellow-haired Dutch girl used to make." Randal turned to his brother. "Parlour-maid, Dick. Best servant I ever had. Didn't mind the country, and after she'd been here a fortnight disclosed a heaven-sent gift for making coffee. Took some diplomacy, I can tell you, to get cook to cede her rights." "Why haven't you got her now?" asked Dick. "Mother started dying in Holland," replied his brother, "and we miss our coffee." "I'll do it to-morrow night," said Dick. "What'll Rogers say?" said Randal. "Rogers? You don't tell me you've got Rogers still?" "Of course I have." "Not my Mrs. Rogers!" exclaimed Dick. "Why, she'd let me skate all over her kitchen, if I wanted to." Randal Bellamy, although he had a motor-car and used the telephone, lagged lovingly behind the times in less important matters. He was proud of his brass candlesticks, and hated electric light. While Amaryllis was saying good-night to her host, Dick Bellamy lighted her candle and waited for her at the foot of the stairs. When she reached him, she did not at once take it, so that they mounted several steps together; then she paused. "Good night, Mr. Bellamy. I hope you didn't hurt your fingers, putting the fire out. Are you a very awkward person?" she asked, looking up at him whimsically. "Shocking," said Dick. "I'm always doing things like that." "I believe you are," she replied softly. "Thank you so much." When he went to his room that night, Dick Bellamy was followed by a vivid ghost with reddish-gold hair, golden- brown, expressive eyes, adorable mouth, and skin of perfect texture, over neck and shoulders of a creamy whiteness which melted into the warmer colour of the face by gradation so fine that none could say where that flush as of a summer sunset first touched the snow. As he got into bed, he told himself that he did not object to being haunted up to midnight, nor even over the edge of sleep, by a spook so attractive. But if it should come to waking too early to a spectre implacable—well, that had happened to him once only, long ago, and he didn't want it to happen again. But the car would be all right to-morrow—there was always the car. CHAPTER V. AMBROTOX. Amaryllis found her father and Sir Randal at the breakfast-table. "I'm so glad I'm not the laziest," she said, as she took her seat. "I'm afraid you are, my dear," replied her father. "Dick's fetching his car from Iddingfield," explained Randal. The air was torn by three distinct wails from a syren. "How unearthly!" said Amaryllis, with her hands to her ears. "That's Dick," said his brother. "He would have a noise worse than anyone else's." Dick came in from the garden. "Morning, Miss Caldegard," he said, as he sat down. "How d'you like my hooter? Sounds like a fog-horn deprived of its young, doesn't it?" Amaryllis laughed. "I hate it," she said. Randal looked up from the letter he was reading. "I'm afraid you two will have to amuse each other this morning," he said, glancing from the girl to his brother as he handed the letter across the table to Caldegard. "That'll take a lot of answering, and I can't do it without your help. I'm afraid Sir Charles has got hold of the wrong end of the stick." "How are you going to amuse me, Miss Caldegard?" asked Dick. "I haven't the faintest idea," she replied. "Help me try my car?" "I should like to—if you can do without me, dad?" At half-past seven that evening Sir Randal went to his brother's room, and found him dressing for dinner. "Nice sort of chap you are," he said. "I ask you to amuse a young woman after breakfast——" "I did," said Dick. "And you keep her for eight hours. Where have you been?" "Miss Caldegard bought things in Oxford Street. We had lunch in Oxford, and tea at Chesham," said Dick, brushing his hair carefully back from his forehead. "You can't call that wasting time." "Not yours," said his brother. And they went to dinner. Before Amaryllis left the table, Dick rose from his seat. "Where are you going?" asked his brother. "To keep my tryst with Mrs. Rogers," said Dick, and went out. "I've told 'em we'll have our wine and coffee in the study, Caldegard," said Randal. "I think it's the safest place for what we're going to talk about." Amaryllis rose to leave them together, but her father stopped her. "You'll come with us, won't you, my dear? You're one of the gang," he said. "What gang?" she asked, looking at him with eyes opened wide. "The Ambrotox gang," replied her father, lowering his voice almost to a whisper. "The only four people in the world, I believe, who know even that silly nick-name you invented, Amaryllis, are in this house. Sir Randal knows its properties. I know all about it. You know that I have spent two years in reaching it, and Dick Bellamy knows there is something in which we three are deeply interested. And so Sir Randal has advised me to take you younger people into full confidence." He slipped his arm through his daughter's, and led the way across the hall and down the narrow passage beyond the stair, to the study. Randal, with his back to the open door, was filling the port glasses, while Amaryllis and her father were gazing from the open french-window across the moonlit lawn, when all three were startled by a thin, high-pitched voice behind them. "Me lib for make one dam fine lot coffee, missy," it said. But, turning, they laughed to see only Dick, setting down the tray. "When does the séance begin?" he asked, turning to close the door. "Now," said his brother. "Better leave that open, and sit here where you can see right down the passage. Miss Caldegard," he went on, "please make Gorgon lie outside the window." Amaryllis stepped out upon the terrace, and the dog followed her. "Lie down," she said. "On guard." She came back into the room, and Randal drew the heavy curtains across the window. "Keep your eye on the end of the passage, Dick," he said. "There's no other door in it but ours." Then he sat down. "Coal-tar," he said, "the mother of wealth, the aunt of colour, and the grandmother of drugs, is a mystery to the layman. The highest, if not the best known, of its priesthood, is my old friend Caldegard. Some little time ago he penetrated too far into the arcana of his cult; and on one of the branches of that terrific tree he found and coaxed into blossom a bud which grew into the fruit which his daughter has named Ambrotox—as if it were a beef essence or a cheap wine. Tell 'em its properties, Caldegard—in the vernacular." Between the first and second puffs at a fresh cigar, Caldegard grunted a sort of final protest. "You answer for him?" he asked, nodding to Dick. "Of course. And you for your daughter." "It is," began Caldegard, "the perfect opiate. As anodyne it gives more ease, and as anæsthetic leaves less after-effect to combat than any other. Morphia, opium, cannabis Indica, cocaine, heroin, veronal and sulphonal act less equally, need larger doses, tempt more rapidly to increase of dose, and, where the patient knows what drug he has taken, lead, in a certain proportion of cases, very quickly to an ineradicable habit. In wise hands, the patient's and the public's ignorance being maintained, Ambrotox"—and here he bestowed a little laugh on amateur nomenclature—"Ambrotox will be a blessing almost as notable as was chloroform in the fifties. "But there's another side: carry the thing a step further, and you have a life, waking, and dreams, sleeping, of delight such as has never been—I think never could be expressed in words; not because, as with De Quincey and his laudanum, the coherent story of the dreams and visions cannot be remembered, but because the clear sunshine of personal happiness and confidence in the future—the pure joy of being alive—which the abuser of Ambrotox experiences in his whole daily life, is incommunicable. It is a period of bliss, of clear head, good impulses, celestial dreams, and steady hope. These effects last, on an even dose, longer than with any other drug of which I have experience. And then there begins and grows a desire for action, the devil preaching that no good works have resulted from the faith, the hope and the good intentions. A little more, and we shall accomplish, he assures us, the full measure of our dreams. The dose is increased, confidence returns, and performance is still for to-morrow. I have never seen a victim of Ambrotox pursue this descent to the grave, but all analogous experience assures me that the final stages must be hell." "How do you know so much about the effects?" asked Dick. "There was only one possible subject for experiment—myself," replied Caldegard. Amaryllis sat upright in her chair, and drew in her breath sharply. But she did not speak. "Ghastly risk to take," said Dick. "Ghastly," assented Caldegard. "But it wasn't the first, nor the second time that I'd chanced it. The very memory of the horrors I went through in curing myself after a course of hashish, gave me faith in my power to push this tremendous experiment to the point I had determined upon, without overshooting the mark." "What was the mark?" inquired Dick. "The appearance," replied Caldegard, "of certain cardiac symptoms which I expected." "Oh, dad!" exclaimed Amaryllis. "That must have been the time when you sent for Dr. Greaves at three in the morning." Caldegard nodded. "For three weeks after that," went on Amaryllis indignantly, "I thought you were horribly ill." "That, my darling," answered her father, smiling at her, "was because I was getting better." "I've been wondering, Caldegard," said Randal, "how often and how strongly the remembrance of that incommunicable bliss cries out for an epicurean repetition of those early stages of your scientific experiment." Caldegard laughed. "Oh, she calls, and calls pretty loud sometimes," he said. "Let her call. It's all part of the experiment. Knowledge, you see, has the sweeter voice." Amaryllis had tears in her eyes, and for a moment the others waited on her evident desire to speak. "But do you think, father," she said at last, "that's it's really worth while to let the world know you have found a more delightful temptation than opium or cocaine, just for the sake of giving a few sick people a more comfortable medicine than they've been accustomed to. Ambrotox!" she sighed scornfully. "I wish I'd never given it that pretty name. I think it's horrid stuff!" "That's what I was going to ask," said Dick. "As for publicity, my dear boy," replied Caldegard, "Ambrotox will very probably do more harm than good if its properties become general knowledge. But the Home Office is drafting a comprehensive measure for State control of the manufacture and distribution of injurious drugs. You all know that the growth of the drug habit caused serious alarm in the early days of the war, and that even the amendment to the Defence of the Realm Act, forbidding the unauthorised sale and possession of cocaine and other poisons, did little to diminish the illicit traffic. Such contrabrand dealing is immensely lucrative, and prices rise in direct ratio with the danger. But the new Bill may contain a clause vesting in the State the formulæ and the manufacture of all newly-discovered drugs of this kind. The Government is relying in this matter greatly upon the experience and advice of Sir Randal, and if a sufficiently stringent clause can be devised, it is probable that never more than three living persons, in addition to the discoverer, will be acquainted with the processes necessary to the manufacture of a newly discovered chemical compound which has been brought under State control. In regard to the good which may be done by Ambrotox—do you remember, Amaryllis, the two pretty little old ladies who lived in the small grey house with the red blinds? Don't say names, my child, nor mention the town. They were sisters and devotedly attached." The girl's face was a picture of curiosity. "Yes, father," she said. "And they grew pale and anxious. One of them came to see you, and then the other, several times; and once, just before I went to Scotland, they both came together. I remember how dreadfully ill they looked. But when I came home, their cheeks were pink again, one always laughed when the other did, and their garden was full of roses." "What about 'em?" asked Dick. "This," said Caldegard: "For several years each of those old women had been taking morphia; each had been concealing it from the other; each had suffered in conscience the torture of the damned; each confessed to me her vice, and the dreadful failure of her struggle to overcome it. Experimentally I treated each with Ambrotox, in gradually decreasing doses. The return to health was quicker and more complete than I had dared to hope; the craving for morphia has not reappeared, and I do not think it will." "Oh, you darling!" cried Amaryllis. "I always thought you'd something to do with it." "It is the story of two cases only, I admit," continued Caldegard. "But I am convinced that I have found a means of releasing at least unwilling slaves from that bondage." "But what do you gain by telling us?" asked Dick. "Secrecy," said Caldegard. "You and my daughter know now the importance of my two years' work, and you cannot fail to see the danger of a rumour that 'Professor Caldegard, we understand, has achieved an epoch-making discovery in the history of science. An anodyne with more than all the charms and few of the dangers of opium will bring comfort with a good conscience to thousands of sufferers in this nerve-racked world.' Every chemist in the country that knows my line of work will be searching in a furious effort to forestall the new legislation by discovering and putting on the market new synthetic opiates. There is not, perhaps, much fear that chance shooting will achieve the actual bull's-eye of Ambrotox. But there is a greater danger than commercial rivalry—criminal! The illicit-drug interest is growing in numbers and wealth. Every threat of so-called temperance legislation stimulates it. We have lately heard much of crime as a policy. Soon, perhaps, the world will learn with startled disgust, that crime went into trade two years ago. "There are men in every big city to whom thousands of pounds and the lives of many hirelings would be a small price to pay for the half-sheet of paper and the small bottle hidden in the safe in that alcove. "Knowing a little," he concluded, turning to Dick, "you might have told too much. Knowing everything, you will tell nothing at all." There was a silence in the room, so heavy that it seemed long. And then, "Some dope," said Dick Bellamy. CHAPTER VI. AMARYLLIS. A little after noon on the following day, Amaryllis and Dick Bellamy, followed by Gorgon with his tongue hanging out of his mouth, entered the hall by the front door, clamouring for drinks, to find Caldegard swearing over a telegram. "What's the matter, dad?" she asked. "Sir Charles Colombe," replied her father. "He will be deeply indebted if I will call at the Home Office at one-thirty p.m. I should think he would be! If the message had been sent in time I could have caught the twelve thirty-five. It's a quarter past now, and it can't be done." "Yes, it can," said Dick. "Grab your hat and tie it on, while I get my car." Randal, coming from his study, was in time to see the car vanish in a cloud of dust. "Where are they going?" he asked. "To catch the twelve thirty-five," replied Amaryllis. "Dick says he can do it in seven and a half minutes." Randal not only noticed the christian name, but also the girl's unconsciousness of having used it. "They want father at the Home Office. Who's Sir Charles Colombe, Sir Randal?" she asked. "Permanent Under Secretary," he answered. "I suppose Broadfoot is making trouble again." And he looked at her as if he were thinking of Amaryllis rather than of permanent or political chiefs of Home Affairs. "This is Friday, you know," he said at last. "Yes," replied the girl, and Randal thought her face showed embarrassment—but of what nature, he could not tell. "I won't spoil your lunch, my dear child," he said, looking down at her with eyes curiously contracted. "But if you'll give me half an hour in the afternoon——" "Of course I will," she replied, with frank kindness. "And, oh! may I have a lemon-squash?" A little later, as he watched her drink it, he admired her more than ever before. Since he first met her he had taken increasing pleasure from the tall figure, of which the fine lines and just proportions hid the strength and energy he had seen her upon occasion display; and he had often asked himself in what attitude or action her inherent grace appeared most charming. Sometimes it was driving from the tee, at another taking a swift volley which she must run to meet; or, again, just pouring out his coffee. But now, lounging on the old leather sofa, with her head tipped well back for red lips and white teeth to capture the slip of ice sliding to them from the bottom of the long tumbler, he thought her the very perfection of innocent freedom and symmetry. And when the ice was crunched and swallowed, she laughed joyously, showing him that the teeth he had cried pity on were sound as ever; so that he raked his mind for jest and anecdote just that he might see them flash yet again. But there was a difference in her to-day—a softer touch, as of happiness to come, flinging backward in her face a clouded reflection from the future. The image in that distant mirror, however, he could not see, and his gaiety failed him. "I'm awfully untidy," she said at last, springing to her feet and pushing back loosened hair. "It's nearly lunch time—I hope so, at least, because I'm horribly hungry." Perhaps it was best, after all, standing a little to one side, to see her mount that flight of broad, shallow steps; yet, being unable at once to make up his mind, he waited there at the stair's foot to see her come down again. She came at last, with so new a smile on her lips, that criticism was lost in curiosity. Its subtle curves blended expectancy, fear and tenderness, seen through a veil of restraint. Then he saw that she was looking over his head, and turned to see his brother standing in the doorway, with the sunlight behind him. The half-hour she had promised him left Amaryllis little less unhappy than Randal Bellamy. Tea under the cedar was over, and Amaryllis could not eat even another éclair, when he had said to her, "It's half-past five." "Oh, yes," she replied, and folded her hands in her lap. "So I've got till six o'clock," he went on. "Yes," said Amaryllis, adding, a little uneasily, "and as much longer as you like, Sir Randal." He smiled at her mistake, and shook his head in resignation. "You don't mean that—not in my sense," he said. "But look here, my dear: I do really think it wouldn't be a bad thing for you to marry me. You have no idea how good I should be to you. I have money and position. You like me, and you will like me better. And for me—well, it hardly seems fair to tell you what it would mean to me." "Why not fair?" asked the girl, pained by his eagerness, and wishing it all over. "I've always thought that appealing ad misericordiam was taking a mean advantage. If I do it now, don't listen to me. But, if I'm worth it to you, Amaryllis, take me, and you shan't regret it." "You are worth anything—everything!" she cried, much distressed. "Worth ever so much more, dear Sir Randal, than I could give. But I'd give you all that I am—indeed I would—if it wasn't for—for——" "Yes?" he asked. "Go on. Wasn't for what?" "If it wasn't for something that says 'don't!' Oh, please understand. I like you awfully, but it says it, and says it—I don't know why." For a moment neither spoke. "You do understand, don't you?" she asked at last. "I believe you, my dear," he answered; then added gently: "There's a happier man somewhere, I think." Amaryllis opened her eyes wide, almost, it seemed, in fear. "Oh, no, no!" she cried. "Truthfully, I don't know any more than I've told you." When he was gone, she sat for a long time, wishing she could feel alone. Several times between lunch and dinner that day had Amaryllis wondered why Dick Bellamy was so taciturn—silent and sombre almost to moroseness. But Randal had no doubt that he knew. Dick, the least sullen and most even-tempered of men, was for once at war with himself. The midnight phantom had become a daylight obsession. Although he thought he knew what women were, he had never reached a definition of "being in love." For, having more than once believed himself in that condition, he had as often found himself too suddenly free. Before this English girl had seized upon his thoughts so that nothing else interested him, he had said there was always the car in which to run away. He was not afraid of offending his brother, for Randal knew him as he knew Randal. But a man does not throw himself into the sea just because there is a lifebuoy handy. Secure, therefore, in his power to escape, it was not until this afternoon that he found decision forced upon him. If he went, there was good chance of freedom; if he stayed, no chance at all. He was lying on his back, looking up through the branches of a huge tree, when he reached what he considered this clear alternative. He was a man who seldom lied to himself; so now it was with a sudden sharpness that he felt the sting of self-deception. "I've been trying to kid myself that I'm like the damn fool who runs away from the girl he's getting fond of because he's afraid of marriage. But I'm not. I'm the coward who's up to his knees, and funks letting himself all in for fear of not being able to reach what he's at least able to swim for." At dinner, Amaryllis, in sheer kindness of heart, shone with good humour, readiness of reply and flow of conversation. Randal, while he felt that she now and then forced the note, caught her motive, and responding, smoothed her way. But Dick, having from childhood accepted Randal's immunity from love as an axiom, took it all in good faith, and emerging by quick degrees from his taciturnity, soon had his share of the talk and laughter. He too had noticed at first a certain strain and effort in the girl's manner; but put it down to the absence of her father from the table. And so, when the trunk-call came to tell them he was dining with the Secretary of State and would be home late, and Amaryllis seemed to "settle into her stride," Dick thought of the matter no further, but only of her. After coffee in the hall, Randal excused himself on the plea of letter-writing, and Amaryllis, alone with his brother, fell silent. For a minute he watched her unobtrusively, and wondered why the life had gone out of her. "Sleepy, Miss Caldegard?" he asked at last. "No," she replied. "Tired—a little—and worried. Everybody's so keen on something. Father on—you know what. You, though I've never seen you do anything, look keener than any man I ever saw; and Sir Randal's keen about horrid business-letters. Generally I don't even want to open mine." "'Cause you don't want to answer 'em," suggested Dick. "Yes," admitted the girl, laughing—and suddenly stopped. "What's up?" asked Dick. "You've reminded me," she answered, pressing the bell beside her, "that there's one of my letters this morning that I never looked at. We were talking such a lot. I remember the look of the envelope. I haven't a notion what was in it." "Might be money," suggested Dick. "Or bad news," said Amaryllis. "I hate letters. When you want them, they don't say enough. When you don't, they say too much." Then, to the parlour-maid she had summoned: "I have left some letters on my table. If there's one that hasn't been opened, please bring it to me." And to Dick: "I wonder what it's like having dinner with Home Secretaries." "Nearest I've been to it was having breakfast with a Prime Minister," he answered. "It was soon over, and not so bad as it might have been. The omelette was dispersed by shrapnel, and a machine-gun found the range of the coffee-pot." "What did the Prime Minister do?" asked the girl. "Forgot where the door was, and went out of office by the window." "Was it a war?" "Oh, no," said Dick. "Only Mexico." The parlour-...