Hushed In Darkness

"And he died mysteriously?"

"The doctors certified that he died from natural causes-heart failure."

"That is what the world believes, of course. His death was a nation's loss, and the truth was hushed up. But you, Phil Poland, know it. Upon the floor was found something-a cigar-eh?"

"Nothing very extraordinary in that, surely? He died while smoking."

"Yes," said the bald-headed man, bending towards the other and lowering his voice into a harsh whisper. "He died while smoking a cigar-a cigar that had been poisoned! You know it well enough. What's the use of trying to affect ignorance-with me!"

"Well?" asked Philip Poland after a brief pause, his brows knit darkly and his face drawn and pale.

"Well, I merely wish to recall that somewhat unpleasant fact, and to tell you that I know the truth," said the other with slow deliberation, his eyes fixed upon the man seated opposite him.

"Why recall unpleasant facts?" asked Poland, with a faint attempt to smile. "I never do."

"A brief memory is always an advantage," remarked Arnold Du Cane, with a sinister grin.

"Ah! I quite follow you," Poland said, with a hardness of the mouth. "But I tell you, Arnold, I refuse to lend any hand in this crooked bit of business you've just put before me. Let's talk of something else."

"Crooked business, indeed! Fancy you, Phil Poland, denouncing it as crooked!" he laughed. "And I'm a crook, I suppose," and he thoughtfully caressed his small moustache, which bore traces of having been artificially darkened.

"I didn't say so."

"But you implied it. Bah! You'll be teaching the Sunday School of this delightful English village of yours before long, I expect. No doubt the villagers believe the gentleman at the Elms to be a model of every virtue, especially when he wears a frock-coat and trots around with the plate in church on Sundays!" he sneered. "My hat! Fancy you, Phil, turning honest in your old age!"

"I admit that I'm trying to be honest, Arnold-for the girl's sake."

"And, by Jove! if the good people here, in Middleton, knew the truth, eh-the truth that you--"

"Hush! Somebody may overhear!" cried the other, starting and glancing apprehensively at the closed door of his cosy study. "What's the use of discussing the business further? I've told you, once and for all, Arnold, that I refuse to be a party to any such dastardly transaction."

"Ho! ho!" laughed Du Cane. "Why, wasn't the Burke affair an equally blackguardly bit of business-the more so, indeed, when one recollects that young Ronald Burke had fallen in love with Sonia."

"Leave my girl's name out of our conversation, Arnold, or, by Gad! you shall pay for it!" cried the tall, dark-haired, clean-shaven man, as he sprang from his chair and faced his visitor threateningly. "Taunt me as much as ever it pleases you. Allege what you like against me. I know I'm an infernal blackguard, posing here as a smug and respectable churchgoer. I admit any charge you like to lay at my door, but I'll not have my girl's name associated with my misdeeds. Understand that! She's pure and honest, and she knows nothing of her father's life."

"Don't you believe that, my dear fellow. She's eighteen now, remember, and I fancy she had her eyes opened last February down at the Villa Vespa, when that unfortunate little trouble arose."

Arnold Du Cane, the round-faced man who spoke, was rather short and stout, with ruddy cheeks, a small moustache and a prematurely bald head-a man whose countenance showed him to be a bon vivant, but whose quick, shifty eyes would have betrayed to a close observer a readiness of subterfuge which would have probably aroused suspicion. His exterior was that of a highly refined and polished man. His grey tweed suit bore evidence of having been cut by a smart tailor, and as he lolled back in his big saddle-bag chair he contemplated the fine diamond upon his white, well-manicured hand, and seemed entirely at his ease.

That August afternoon was stiflingly hot, and through the open French windows leading into the old-world garden, so typically English with its level lawns, neatly trimmed box-hedges and blazing flowerbeds, came the drowsy hum of the insects and the sweet scent of a wealth of roses everywhere.

The pretty house in which his host, Philip Poland, alias Louis Lessar, lived, stood back a little distance from the London road, two miles or so out of the quiet market-town of Andover, a small picturesque old place surrounded by high old elms wherein the rooks cawed incessantly, and commanding extensive views over Harewood Forest and the undulating meadow-lands around, while close by, at the foot of the hill, nestled a cluster of homely thatched cottages, with a square church-tower, the obscure village of Middleton.

In that rural retreat lived the Honourable Philip Poland beneath a cloak of highest respectability. The Elms was, indeed, delightful after the glare and glitter of that fevered life he so often led, and here, with his only child, Sonia, to whom he was so entirely devoted, he lived as a gentleman of leisure.

Seldom he went to London, and hardly ever called upon his neighbours. With Sonia he led a most retired existence, reading much, fishing a little, and taking long walks or cycling with his daughter and her fox-terrier, "Spot," over all the country-side.

To the village he had been somewhat of a mystery ever since he had taken the house, three years before. Yet, being apparently comfortably off, subscribing to every charity, and a regular attendant at Middleton church, the simple country-folk had grown to tolerate him, even though he was somewhat of a recluse. Country-folk are very slow to accept the stranger at his own valuation.

Little did they dream that when he went away each winter he went with a mysterious purpose-that the source of his income was a mystery.

As he stood there, leaning against the roll-top writing-table of his prettily furnished little study and facing the man who had travelled half across Europe to see him, Phil Poland, with clean-shaven face and closely-cropped hair tinged with grey, presented the smart and dapper appearance of a typical British naval officer, as, indeed, he had been, for, prior to his downfall, he had been first lieutenant on board one of his Majesty's first-class cruisers. His had been a strangely adventurous career, his past being one that would not bear investigation.

In the smart, go-ahead set wherein he had moved when he was still in the Navy opinion regarding him had been divided. There were some who refused to believe the truth of the scandals circulated concerning him, while others believed and quickly embellished the reports which ran through the service clubs and ward-rooms.

Once he had been one of the most popular officers afloat, yet to-day-well, he found it convenient to thus efface himself in rural Hampshire, and live alone with the sweet young girl who was all in all to him, and who was happy in her belief that her devoted father was a gentleman.

This girl with the blue eyes and hair of sunshine was the only link between Phil Poland and his past-that past when he held a brilliant record as a sailor and had been honoured and respected. He held her aloof from every one, being ever in deadly fear lest, by some chance word, she should learn the bitter truth-the truth concerning that despicable part which he had been compelled to play. Ah, yes, his was a bitter story indeed.

Before Sonia should know the truth he would take his own life. She was the only person remaining dear to him, the only one for whom he had a single thought or care, the only person left to him to respect and to love. Her influence upon him was always for good. For the past year he had been striving to cut himself adrift from evil, to reform, to hold back from participating in any dishonest action-for her dear sake. Her soft-spoken words so often caused him to hate himself and to bite his lip in regret, for surely she was as entirely ignorant of the hideous truth as Mr. Shuttleworth, the white-headed parson, or the rustic villagers themselves.

Yes, Phil Poland's position was indeed a strange one.

What Du Cane had just suggested to him would, he saw, put at least twenty thousand pounds into the pockets of their ingenious combination, yet he had refused-refused because of the fair-headed girl he loved so well.

Within himself he had made a solemn vow to reform. Reformation would probably mean a six-roomed cottage with a maid-of-all-work, yet even that would be preferable to a continuance of the present mode of life.