第34章 CHAPTER IX THE MAN IN SPECTACLES(5)

I'll tell you the story some day. It was perfectly choking.

Whenever I tried to slip out of it I saw the President somewhere, smiling out of the bow-window of a club, or taking off his hat to me from the top of an omnibus. I tell you, you can say what you like, that fellow sold himself to the devil; he can be in six places at once.""So you sent the Marquis off, I understand," asked the Professor.

"Was it long ago? Shall we be in time to catch him?""Yes," answered the new guide, "I've timed it all. He'll still be at Calais when we arrive.""But when we do catch him at Calais," said the Professor, "what are we going to do?"At this question the countenance of Dr. Bull fell for the first time. He reflected a little, and then said--"Theoretically, I suppose, we ought to call the police.""Not I," said Syme. "Theoretically I ought to drown myself first. Ipromised a poor fellow, who was a real modern pessimist, on my word of honour not to tell the police. I'm no hand at casuistry, but Ican't break my word to a modern pessimist. It's like breaking one's word to a child.""I'm in the same boat," said the Professor. "I tried to tell the police and I couldn't, because of some silly oath I took. You see, when I was an actor I was a sort of all-round beast. Perjury or treason is the only crime I haven't committed. If I did that Ishouldn't know the difference between right and wrong.""I've been through all that," said Dr. Bull, "and I've made up my mind. I gave my promise to the Secretary--you know him, man who smiles upside down. My friends, that man is the most utterly unhappy man that was ever human. It may be his digestion, or his conscience, or his nerves, or his philosophy of the universe, but he's damned, he's in hell! Well, I can't turn on a man like that, and hunt him down. It's like whipping a leper. I may be mad, but that's how I feel; and there's jolly well the end of it.""I don't think you're mad," said Syme. "I knew you would decide like that when first you--""Eh?" said Dr. Bull.

"When first you took off your spectacles."

Dr. Bull smiled a little, and strolled across the deck to look at the sunlit sea. Then he strolled back again, kicking his heels carelessly, and a companionable silence fell between the three men.

"Well," said Syme, "it seems that we have all the same kind of morality or immorality, so we had better face the fact that comes of it.""Yes," assented the Professor, "you're quite right; and we must hurry up, for I can see the Grey Nose standing out from France.""The fact that comes of it," said Syme seriously, "is this, that we three are alone on this planet. Gogol has gone, God knows where;perhaps the President has smashed him like a fly. On the Council we are three men against three, like the Romans who held the bridge.

But we are worse off than that, first because they can appeal to their organization and we cannot appeal to ours, and second because--""Because one of those other three men," said the Professor, "is not a man."Syme nodded and was silent for a second or two, then he said--"My idea is this. We must do something to keep the Marquis in Calais till tomorrow midday. I have turned over twenty schemes in my head. We cannot denounce him as a dynamiter; that is agreed. We cannot get him detained on some trivial charge, for we should have to appear; he knows us, and he would smell a rat. We cannot pretend to keep him on anarchist business; he might swallow much in that way, but not the notion of stopping in Calais while the Czar went safely through Paris. We might try to kidnap him, and lock him up ourselves; but he is a well-known man here. He has a whole bodyguard of friends; he is very strong and brave, and the event is doubtful. The only thing I can see to do is actually to take advantage of the very things that are in the Marquis's favour. I am going to profit by the fact that he is a highly respected nobleman.

I am going to profit by the fact that he has many friends and moves in the best society.""What the devil are you talking about?" asked the Professor.

"The Symes are first mentioned in the fourteenth century," said Syme; "but there is a tradition that one of them rode behind Bruce at Bannockburn. Since 1350 the tree is quite clear.""He's gone off his head," said the little Doctor, staring.

"Our bearings," continued Syme calmly, "are 'argent a chevron gules charged with three cross crosslets of the field.' The motto varies."The Professor seized Syme roughly by the waistcoat.

"We are just inshore," he said. "Are you seasick or joking in the wrong place?""My remarks are almost painfully practical," answered Syme, in an unhurried manner. "The house of St. Eustache also is very ancient.

The Marquis cannot deny that he is a gentleman. He cannot deny that I am a gentleman. And in order to put the matter of my social position quite beyond a doubt, I propose at the earliest opportunity to knock his hat off. But here we are in the harbour."They went on shore under the strong sun in a sort of daze. Syme, who had now taken the lead as Bull had taken it in London, led them along a kind of marine parade until he came to some cafes, embowered in a bulk of greenery and overlooking the sea. As he went before them his step was slightly swaggering, and he swung his stick like a sword. He was making apparently for the extreme end of the line of cafes, but he stopped abruptly. With a sharp gesture he motioned them to silence, but he pointed with one gloved finger to a cafe table under a bank of flowering foliage at which sat the Marquis de St. Eustache, his teeth shining in his thick, black beard, and his bold, brown face shadowed by a light yellow straw hat and outlined against the violet sea.