The Great Temptation (Thriller Novel). Richard Marsh
you saw me get it out."
"Do you mean to tell me you don't know what this is?"
"I've not a notion. If you'll permit me to look at it for a minute or two at close quarters I may be able to guess. From the glimpse I caught of it it looked to me like a pill."
He put his face quite close to mine, unpleasantly close.
"Are you acting? If you are--" He left his sentence unfinished. "Do you swear you don't know?"
"If you won't believe my simple statement you won't believe me if I swear. I tell you that I do not know."
He continued to glare at me for some instants longer, his face so close that I could feel his breath upon my cheek; and just as I was coming to the uncomfortable conclusion that he really meant to do me an injury he stood straight up, and said to the girl:
"Shall I believe him?"
Standing in front of me she regarded me with her clear, calm eyes as critically as if she were appraising some inanimate object.
"I think you may." This she said to the man; then she spoke to me. "Let us understand each other. You have already told us, but tell us again in detail how did you get that coat be very exact."
"I did not get it; they thrust me into it."
"They? Any particular person, or did they do it in a body?"
"In a body."
"Where did they get it from! Was it in the room when you saw it first, or did they bring it in?"
"It was lying with the other garments on an old horsehair couch, on the top of a brown paper wrapper which it had apparently come in."
"A wrapper? in which it had apparently come? What made you think it had come in the wrapper?"
"Something had come in it. There were labels on it marks where it had been sealed. I noticed that in more than one place there was a name and address. I noticed the name it was addressed to Isaac Rothenstein."
"Rothenstein!" The exclamation came from the man. He scared at the girl and the girl at him. Evidently something had moved them deeply.
"By the way," I went on, "I don't know what that pill-like object is, but I've a sort of notion that that is not the only one which is hidden in the lining of this coat. I believe there's one here I can feel it."
He pressed his finger against the spot which I was touching, then broke again into exclamations.
"Darya, I believe there is something there there is! It may be another."
"Why not?" Though she spoke more quietly than he, in her voice there was a tremor. "Suppose they are all there! They might have sent them like that; they were as safe that way as any other. They must have been sent in the wrapper Mr. Beckwith saw to Rothenstein."
"Rothenstein! Holy smoke! Dear Isaac! That would mean that he has out-generalled me; yet" He paused, as if he feared that if he continued he might say too much. Then he suddenly said to me, "Mr. Beckwith, I shall have to have that coat."
"Give me another and I shall be delighted. I shall be glad to be out of it."
"Give you another?"
She said, as he seemed to hesitate as if my suggestion had taken him by surprise:
"Nothing could be easier. Mr. Beckwith is not much smaller than you; he is not so broad, but a suit of your clothes would not fit him so badly.
Take him to your bedroom and let him change into one; he does not appear to be unwilling to let you have that coat in exchange."
"To say that I am not unwilling is to put k mildly. So long as I am out of it anyone can have it for all I care."
"Then come along we'll do a deal on the spot. Allow me to conduct you to my room we'll exchange old clothes for new."
CHAPTER VI
TO NEW YORK FOR £500
Both parties to the bargain seemed to be pleased when he opened a wardrobe door, showing a number of suits hanging there, and bade me take my choice. I had a bath what a luxury that was! then arrayed myself from head to foot in his garments. I was smaller than he was; he possibly scaled a couple of stone more than I did; but as the young lady had foretold, his clothes were not so ill-fitting as they might have been. I know that, as I stood before the long glass in the wardrobe door, I could not but feel that my appearance was materially improved. Even his boots were not so bad they were better ones than I had ever been able to purchase. That remark applied to the whole rig-out; from the point of view of cost I was better dressed in his things than I ever had been in my own.
I went downstairs to the sitting-room he had told me to go when I was ready. There was no one there. Food and drink were yet on the table, so I helped myself to a little more. The bath and change had renewed my appetite. There was not much left in the way of provisions, and I was just wondering if I had not better return to Grove Gardens I wondered what Catherine and her mother were thinking had become of me; they would possibly be more than half off their heads when the door opened, and the young lady put her head in. At sight of me she smiled.
"I am glad, Mr. Beckwith, you have found something to occupy your time." She referred to my eating and drinking. "If you'll excuse my saying so, I don't think you look any worse in your new attire. I certainly should not have known you for the person who came stumbling down that entry."
"You were quite right, you see. Mr. I do not know what his name is the gentleman's clothes do not fit so badly; many a ready-made suit fits worse. I hope he has had luck, and found more of his pills."
"He has had luck; he has found well, he has found what he never hoped to find."
Apparently she also had had luck. If I had had to describe her, I should have said that she was one great beam she beamed, as it were, from top to toe. It is extraordinary how even a pretty girl is improved by a smile; I thought that she looked lovely.
"I am glad to hear it," I remarked. "In that case neither he nor you need be worried by my presence any longer. If I may I should like to take myself off at once. I have people waiting for me at home who must be very anxious. I have never before been away from them so long without letting them know where I am."
I had risen from my chair, and was about to move towards the door, when she stopped me.
"Still a few moments, Mr. Beckwith, if you don't mind. Mr.--" she hesitated, then went smilingly on: "I don't see that there's any objection to your knowing his name; you may have to know it before very long what does it matter? Mr. Stewart has something which he wishes to say to you before you leave, and which I think you may like to hear. Here he comes to tell you for himself what it is." Mr. Stewart since that seemed to be the gentleman's name came into the room. She said to him, "Paul, Mr. Beckwith wishes to go home."
The man was as radiant as the girl; I am not sure that the beam in him was not more pronounced. He paused at the door and eyed me again with keen appraisement yet all the while he smiled.
"Mr. Beckwith," he began, "I believe you have done me a service unwittingly. You could hardly have done me a better turn."
"I am glad to hear it. You have done me one. Without you and this lady I don't know where I should have been; in a pretty bad hole. Now, with your permission, I will say good-day, and thank you."
"One moment; gently! I should like to have a word with you before you go. You are, I take it, a man of affairs a busy man."
"I am sorry to say that for the moment I am not. I have lost my situation since yesterday."
"Since yesterday? Is that so? That's fortunate."
"I'm afraid I can't agree with you. It's much easier to lose a situation than to find one especially in the dried fruit trade."
"That's