Show q ia HOU THOU T ta 11 ilk i 1 I 1 jt DY D Y ERNEST I 1 W 1 0 I 1 of uh heAM eamer CRACKSMAN eto etc IV hy 0 biyer tw CK 1 cowlay COW FAy CHAPTER 1 I I 1 A small world cazalet sat up so suddenly th athis head bit hit tie the woodwork over the upper berth als own voice still rang in iii his startled ears he wondered how much b he e had said and how far it could have carried aried above the throb of the liners screws and the mighty pounding of the water against her plates ard and then he remembered how he had been left behind at naples and rejoin edthe kaiser fritz at genoa only to find that he no longer had a cabin to himself A sniff assured cazalet that he was neither alone at the moment nor yet the only one awake he pulled back the swaying curtain and there on the settee sat a man with a strong blue chin and the quizzical solemnity of an animated sphinx it was his cabin companion an ail american named hilton toye and cazalet addressed him with ne nervous familiarity 1 I say have I 1 been talking in my sleep I 1 why yes replied hilton toye and broke into a smile that made a human being of him cazalet forced a responsive grin what did I 1 say he asked with an amused curiosity at ai variance with his shaking hand and shining forehead toye took him in from crown to fingertips with something deep behind ills his kindly smile 1 I judge said he be you were dreaming of some drama YO youve uve been seeing ashore mr cazalet dreaming said cazalet wiping his bis face it was a nightmare I 1 must have turned in too soon after dinner but I 1 should like to know what I 1 sad I 1 1 I can tell you word for word you you said dead dead henry craven as if got to have it both ways to make sure its true said cazalet shuddering 1 I saw him lying dead in my dr dream oarn hilton toye took a gold watch from Ws bis waistcoat pocket thirteen minutes to one in the morning he said and now its september eighteenth take a note ot of that mr cazalet it may be another case of second sight eight tor for your psychical research society 1 I dont care it if it is cazalet was smoking furiously meaning it was no great friend you dreamed was dead no friend at all dead or alive IM kind of wondering said toye winding his watch slowly if hes by way of being a friend of mine 1 I 1 know a henry craven over in england lives along the river down kingston way in a big house called uplands yes sir the man little world it the man in the upper berth had to hold on as his bis curtains swung clear the man tilted back ba ck on the settee all attention all the time was more than ever an effective foil to him without the kindly smile that went as quickly as aa it came hilton toye was somber subtle and demure cazalet on the other hand was of sanguine complexion and impetuous looks he was tanned a rich bronze about the middle of the face but it broke off across his forehead like the coloring of a meerschaum pipe both men were in their early prime and each stood roughly tor for his race and type the traveled amerlean american who knows the world and the elemental who has made some one loose end of it his own 1 I thought of my henry craven continued toye as soon as ever you came out with yours but it seemed a kind of ordinary name I 1 might have known it was the same it if id recollected the name of his firm it craven cazalet the stockbrokers stock brokers down in Token houBe yard it said cazalet bitterly but there have been none of us in it since my father died ten years ago but youre henry cravens old part tiers son im his bis only son then no wonder you dream about henry craven cried toyo toye and no wonder it break your heart it your dream came true 9 it said cazalet through hla his teeth he a white man to me or or mine whatever you may have found him 11 1 I had a little place near his one summer I 1 know only what I 1 heard down there what did you hear asked cazalet 1 ive been away ten years ever since the crash that ruined everybody lut but the man at the bottom of the whole thing it would be a kindness to tell teli me what whai you heard beard well I 1 guess youve said it yourself right now that man seems to have bave beggared everybody all around except himself how I 1 make it out said hilton allton toye toe he did worse said cazalet through his teeth ho he killed my poor futher he bia baui banished shed me to the wilds of australia and ho he sent a better man than ihan himself to prison for fourteen years year sil toye opened his dark eyes for once la Is that so no I 1 never heard that 1 I said he 1 you hear it now ile he did all that indirectly and realize it at the time tima I 1 was too young and the whole thing laid me out too flat but I 1 know it now and ne ive known it long enough it was worse than a crash it was a scandal that was what finished us off all but henry craven cr aven been a gigantic swindle special investments ve ments recommended by the firm bogus certificates and all the rest of it we were all to blame of course my aly poor father ought never to have been a poet even I 1 I 1 was only a youngster in the office but I 1 ought to have known what was going on but henry craven did know ile he was in ili it up tip to the neck though a fellow called ecru ton did ane actual job scruton got fourteen years and craven got our aldhouse oldhouse old house on the river and feathered it pretty well said toye nodding yes I 1 did hear that and I 1 can tell you they dont think any better of him in the neighborhood for going to live right there but how did he stop the other mans mails mouth and how do you know never mind how I 1 know said cazalet scruton was a friend of mine though an older man he was good to me though he was a wrong un himself ile he paid for it paid for two that I 1 can bayl say but he was engaged to ethel craven at the time was going to be taken into partnership on their marriage and you can put two and two together for yourself did she wait for him about as long as expect of the breed I 1 she was her fathers daughter I 1 wonder you come across her and her husband 1 I see so much of the craven crowd replied hilton toye 1 I stuck on them either cazalet I 1 be that old man when scruton comes out would you but cazalet showed that he could hold his tongue when he be liked and his grim look was not so legible as some that had come and gone before this one stuck until toye produced a big flask from his grip and the talk shifted to less painful ground it was waa the last night in the bay of biscay and cazalet told how he had been in it a fortnight on his bis way out by sailing vessel he even told it with considerable humor and hit off sundry passengers of ten years ago as though they had been aboard the german boat that night and toys toye drew him out about minutes from the red brick face with the white brick forehead 1 I remember thinking I 1 would dig for gold said cazalet all I 1 knew about australia Austi alla but you can have adventures of sorts it if you go far enough upcountry country up for em it still pays to know how to use your fists out there I 1 remember once at a bush shanty they dished up such fruity chops that I 1 said id fight the cook it if fk 1 I say have I 1 been talking in my sleep send him up and im it it a fellow id been atE at school chool with and worshiped as no end of a swell at gameel games potts his name was old venus potts the best looking chap in the school among other things and there h he was cooking carrion at twenty five bob a week instead of fighting we joined forces got a burr cutting job on a good station then a better one over shearing and after that I 1 wormed my way in ili as bookkeeper and my pal became one of the head overseers now were our own bosses with a share in the show and the owner comes up only once a year to see how things are looking 1 I hope he had bad a daughter said toye and that youre going to marry her it if you yet cazalet laughed but the shadow had returned no nd I 1 left that to my pal he said he did that all right I 1 then I 1 advise you to go and do likewise rejoined his new friend with a geniality impossible to take amiss 1 I wonder now if theres some girl you left behind you cazalet shook his bis head none who would look on herself in that light he be interrupted it was all he said tat but once more toye roye wais wac him as shrewdly as when the night was younger and the littleness of the world had bad not yet made them conal dant and boon camp arilon eight bells act actually nally struck before their great talk ended and cazalet swore that he missed the watched wat chel chea aft sir air of the salling sailing vessel ten tell years before say exclaimed hilton toye knitting his brows over some bome nebulous recollection ol of ahls own 1 I 1 seem to have heard of you and some of your yarns before you spend pend nights in a log hut miles and miles from any human being it was as they were turning in at last but the question spoiled a bawa tor for cazalet Caza lct sometimes at one of our out sta eions sald said lie he looking puzzled ive seen your photograph said toye regarding him with a more critical stare but it was with a beard 1 I had it oft off when I 1 was ashore the other day said cazalet Caza iet 1 I always meant to before the end of the voyage ag 1 I see it was a miss macnair showed me that photograph miss alliss bla blanche n ca I 1 e at macnair I 1 a enal r I 1 lives ives in a little house down there near your old home I 1 1 il W 11 4 I 1 fl p second he ejaculated as though it were the night before judge hers Is another old home been broken up since your day all married said caza let except miss blanche you write to her some mr cazalet once a year regularly it was a promise we were kids together he explained as he climbed back into the upper berth guess you were a lucky kid said the voice below ashes one in a thousand miss blanche macnair CHAPTER 11 II second sight southampton water was an ornamental lake dotted with fairy lamps whole season behind its follows fellows but already it was so late that the english passengers on nn the kaiser fritz had abandoned abandon e 1 I all thought of catching the last train to london they tramped the deck in their noisy shining shore going boots they manned the rail in lazy inarticulate appreciation of 0 the nocturne in blue stippled with green and red and countless yellow lights but achilles in his tent was no more conspicuous absentee than cazalet in his cabin as the kaiser fritz steamed sedately up southampton water he had finished packing the stateroom floor was impassable with the baggage that cazalot cazalet had wanted on the five weeks voyage there was scarcely room to sit down but in what there was sat cazalet like a soul in torment all the vultures of the night before of his dreadful dream and of the poignant reminiscences to which his dream had led might have been gnawing at his vitals as he sat there waiting to set foot once more in the land from which a bitter blow had driven him yet the bitterness might have been allayed by the consciousness that he at any rate had turned it to account it had been indeed the making of him thanks to that stern stem incentive even some of the sweets of a deserved success were already his but there was no hint of complacency in gaza caza lets clouded face and heavy attitude his face was pale even in that torrid zone between the latitudes protected in the bush by beard and wideawake and he jumped to his hia feet as suddenly as the screw stopped for the first time the same thing happened again and yet again as often as ever the cazalet would spring up and watch his stateroom door with clenched fists and haunted eyes but it was some long time before the door fiew open and then slammed behind hilton toye toye was in a state of excitement even more abnormal than cazalens Caza lets nervous despondency which indeed it prevented him from observing it was instantaneously clear that toye was astounded thrilled almost triumphant but as yet just drawing the line at that A newspaper fluttered in his hand fiand second sight he ejaculated as though it were the night before and cazalet still shaken shahen by his dream 1 I guess youve got it in full roe measure asuro pressed down and running over over mr Caza cazalet letl TO BE CONTINUED |