The Mynns' Mystery Part 48

"Yes, sir; I promised against myself. Self has mastered me. I called on Doctor Lawrence; found he was coming down. I could not keep away. I beg pardon all the same."

All this while Saul was glaring at the speakers in a curiously excited manner, which took the doctor's attention, and he crossed to his side.

"I don't want to alarm you, Saul Harrington," he whispered; "but if you do not control yourself, you will have another fit. Besides, all this will fly to your bad arm."

"Oh, I'm calm enough now," was the impatient reply; but as Saul spoke the veins were beginning to stand out in knots about his temples, for the visitor had crossed to Gertrude and shaken hands, while her peaceful, gratified look, and the smile she gave, as she looked up in his eyes, seemed to madden him.

"Come away," whispered the doctor.

"What! and leave that man, that impostor, here?"

"Who said impostor?" cried the new pretender, turning sharply round.

"You, sir? All right, Gertrude, I will not quarrel with him. I dare say it is natural, but not a pleasant thing for me to bear."

"Get them both away, or we shall be having terrible trouble," whispered Mrs Hampton in her husband's ear.

"Yes. Gentlemen, everything connected with this matter must be left to the law of your country. The use of language tending to anger is not likely to settle matters. Mr Saul Harrington, I have explained the state of affairs to you, and you grasp all that is necessary for you to know at present."

"You sent for me," cried Saul fiercely, "and I decline to go and leave Miss Bellwood in company with this strange man, whose claims are preposterous."

"Then I must appeal to you, sir," said the lawyer. "You came down unasked; your presence is likely to cause unpleasantry; trust me that you shall have justice done, so please to go."

"I, George Harrington, feel that I have a perfect right to be here, Mr Hampton; and I cannot help resenting the overbearing manner of my cousin."

"George," said Gertrude softly, as she laid her hand in his; "I believe in you."

"Ah!" he cried, in a low, eager tone.

"Be content, and go."

"I could not exist without seeing you," he whispered; and the colour came warmly into her cheeks at his words. "You wish me to go?"

"Yes."

There was a pleading look in her eyes which disarmed all resistance; and, pressing her hand, he turned to Mrs Hampton.

"Good-night," he said; "I know I have an advocate in you. Gentlemen, good-evening. I will call at your office in the morning, Mr Hampton."

He left the room, and, as soon as the gate was heard to clang, Gertrude signed to Mrs Hampton and they left the room, for Saul's manner betokened another storm.

Too truly, for the next minute it broke out with uncontrolled violence-- words he did not mean to utter pouring from his lips.

"It is a lie! A fraud! A base piece of cozening?" he cried. "The man is an impostor, who has come forward to rob me of my rights."

"Your rights, Mr Saul," said the lawyer slowly; "what are they?"

"I mean my rights as next-of-kin. Where is my cousin George? He must be found: he shall be found!"

"Stop, sir!" cried Doctor Lawrence, in a stern voice, as he caught the speaker by the shoulder. "As a physician, I know your condition better than you know it yourself. I have given you fair warning of the danger of giving way to anger like this. You will not heed my remonstrances, so now I insist upon your being calm."

"Calm! How can a man be calm?"

"When he is goading himself on to an apoplectic fit? I don't know, sir; but you have to be calm, or I must give you some drug that will make you."

"No, no," cried the young man, with a gesture full of horror.

"Then obey me. Your conduct is suicidal, and I feel as if I were a.s.sisting at a murder. You had better sleep here to-night."

Saul turned upon him with so fierce a gesture that the doctor gave way.

"Very well; I will see you to your apartments in town. Good-night, Hampton. No fresh clue, I suppose?"

The lawyer shook his head as he walked down towards the gate with them.

"None whatever. It is a very mysterious affair; and I feel now as if we ought to place the matter in the hands of the police."

"Feel giddy, Mr Saul?" said the doctor, for his companion had suddenly struck against his arm.

"I beg pardon, no; I nearly fell. The worst of these country places. I trod on a slug or toad, and only having one arm at liberty, I--"

"Committed murder--involuntarily, of course," said the doctor with a chucks. "Well, things that are in one's way should get out of one's way."

Saul made no reply, but he breathed hard, went silently down the station road, and then to himself:

"Or be put out of one's way," and he started again as if fearful that his words had been heard.

CHAPTER THIRTY TWO.

"DOWN, BRUNO! DOWN!"

"No, Denton; he does not seem to get better," said Gertrude, as she knelt beside Bruno in the stable, the dog resting his muzzle in her hand, while he blinked patiently; and, from time to time, uttered a very human sigh.

"Oh, but he is better, my dear, and gradually growing stronger. He ate quite a big basin of bread and milk this morning."

"So cruel to injure a poor dumb beast like that."

"Yes, my dear; but I'll be bound to say Bruno left his mark upon whoever it was, and serve him right."

The dog whined uneasily, and opened his eyes to stare about him, as if he had been half dreaming, and imagined there was something near.

"Poor Bruno, then?" said Gertrude caressingly. "Denton, doesn't all this seem very strange to you about--about--"

"Master George, my dear? Well, yes; but I can hardly forgive myself for thinking that other was the darling little fellow I was so proud to have in the house. But there, we are all right now."

Gertrude signed.

"Why, my dear, you oughtn't to do that. Now, if it was the other, with his dreadful ways of sitting up with Mr Saul over the whiskey, and the finding him asleep in his chair at seven o'clock in the morning, you might sigh."