Part 21

"If I am unfortunate enough to call you out in a storm," said the captain, "I can, at least, give you a fire, and some food and drink. They may keep its rigors from fastening upon your bodies."

The two men sat down; brandy was brought, and some plates of hot bread, and potted hare, and cold meats. They ate and drank, and this, together with the fire, quieted them. At their third glass, Captain Weir said:

"Of course, I'd a deal rather have chosen a more comfortable time; but, as matters have shown themselves, I had no choice and was forced to ask your presence at once."

Tarrant, glass in hand, looked at the speaker; and there was still a glint of his first mood in his eye.

"There have been a few occasions," said he, "when you all but had us here without your asking."

Captain Weir raised his brows; Blake laughed and said to him:

"A half-dozen times in the past year he has been for putting a pistol to your ribs. It was all I could do to persuade him."

Weir said nothing, but looked at Tarrant, his brows still up.

"Was there a lack of cause for the desire?" said Tarrant. "I could name you five reasons," giving Weir's look back steadily, "for each separate impulse. But we'll speak of the last one only."

"It will save time," said Weir composedly.

"Why," demanded Tarrant, "when the whole city was up and bleating in the matter of the French letters of marque, must you put yourself forward in it? We were your friends, yet you spoke to our discredit early and late. Mortal foes couldn't have suffered worse because of you."

"I had warned you all in that matter," said Weir coldly. "I pointed out the state of the public mind. I showed you as plainly as any ready men need be shown that no good could come of the venture in the long run. If it had concerned yourselves only, you could have pressed it to any conclusion you saw fit; but, as I knew, I, too, would be involved in any mischance, and, as it was plain that you meant to give no heed to my sayings, I moved in the matter myself. It was I who made it impossible for you to carry it any further. Wait!" as Tarrant was working into a bitter speech; "one word more, so that I may be sure you understand what the situation was. If your plan had carried, we three, instead of sitting here at our ease, would be at this minute swinging from gibbets on Windmill Island."

Tarrant caught his breath and sank back in his chair. Blake crossed his legs, lifted a new-filled glass, and said:

"All gibbets behind us, Captain! And to the devil with the hangman!"

"I did not believe in this adventure from the first, and so told you," said Weir. "However, there are those of another sort," with a nod of his head, "which a man of my growing years can approve of--a surer profit and a lesser hazard."

Tarrant, attracted by the tone and manner of Weir, valued him with a steady look. Then he looked at Blake; the freebooter shifted to a more comfortable position in his chair. But neither spoke.

"Have more of the brandy," said Captain Weir. "It's thought to be excellent. One of our captains brought it with him on his last visit to France. It was taken from the cellar of a nobleman's house, while its unfortunate owner was being taken from his library."

The liquor shone, a fine amber, in the glasses; but Tarrant did not touch it.

"So," said he, "there is another matter going forward?"

Captain Weir admired the color of the brandy, holding it against the candle-light.

"Yes," said he.

"And, as seems usual of late, it has been kept from me."

Again Weir nodded.

"I have been very careful to do so," he said coldly. "For it is a matter that needs patience; and you long ago convinced me that you have little of that."

Tarrant arose; his look was threatening and bitter.

"By God," he said. "Am I a chuckle-head? Am I to be put aside whenever you feel so disposed? Am I to be used as though I had no brains in my skull?"

He stood over Weir, his face white with passion. But Weir did not move; the cold green eyes glinted like agate, and when he spoke his voice was level.

"Some day," he said, "when you insist on interfering with my way of dealing with matters, I'll crack your skull with a bullet; then we shall see if it holds the brains you boast of."

Tarrant seemed on the point of leaping upon him; but Blake leaned forward and shook a warning finger.

"Sit down," he said unemotionally. "Are we not friends and co-laborers? Sit down."

But Tarrant's lips curled back from his teeth like a dog's.

"Do you think," he said to Weir, "I don't know it was I who stood out in all the dirty weather, while you rode safe in shelter? I've struck the blows you've planned; and I've taken the hard, open word from all who cared to give it, so that no eye would turn in your direction. And now you all but tell me you are done with me."

Blake arose and pushed him back into his chair.

"He has told you nothing as yet," said the freebooter. "Keep still for a bit, and maybe he will."

Weir, now that there was silence, showed no haste to speak but sat enjoying the sips he took of the brandy and watching the blaze on the hearth fluttering under the sudden downward gusts of wind. But finally he spoke, and it was in a way that was cold and measured.

"A year ago, if you remember," said he, "we were called together somewhat hurriedly to advise in a dangerous matter."

"The affair of Magruder?" said Blake.

"Yes. How much the man had ferreted out we'll never know; but his panic for his money drew two sharp perils upon us. I placed the managing of the matter in your hands," and he looked at Tarrant. "I recall that my instructions were that you be cautious but final. And you blundered from the first. It would not have been so bad had you never heard of Anthony Stevens and so had no knowledge of his character. But Blake's tales, sent to us from the South, had told you of the manner of a man he was; you approached him with your eyes wide open, and yet you tried to browbeat him, to bundle him out of your way, like snapping your fingers."

"Well," said Tarrant with his ready sneer. "You have had a deal of time to use your own methods upon him. And I note that he is still in the city, waiting to do us what mischief he can."

"He is here," said the captain quietly, "but the mischief he has done is little. My methods have wasted his efforts; and in time," with a gesture, "I hope to do more."

"If I had been given a free hand that night at the Crooked Billet," said Tarrant, "this young spark would have troubled none of us afterwards."

"I doubt if you'd have been able to do anything," said Weir. "Like as not he would have killed you. I saw it in his eye."

"An active lad," admitted Blake, "and a clever one." But Tarrant sat frowning into the fire, and said nothing; and Blake went on, speaking to Weir, "Well, you've brought us from Chester in the devil's own downpour; and, as I think it was not to talk of bygones, suppose we come to the point of the matter at once and so settle our minds."

"It can be made plain to you in a moment," said Weir. "The usurer, Bulfinch, is dead, and his sons hold certain bills of his against Rufus Stevens' Sons, which are about to mature."

"Well?" said Blake.

"Their father and I had a private understanding--one completely between ourselves. If he had lived, the time of these bills would have been extended. He would have understood the necessity of this, but his heirs do not. You," to Tarrant, "have had dealings of one sort or another with this pair, and have influence with them. That is why I have called you to-night. You must speak to them; it is most important that nothing be done that might cloud the credit of Rufus Stevens' Sons at this time."

"At this time?" repeated Tarrant, his eyes narrowing. "Why not just at this time?"

"Rumors spread," said Captain Weir. "They seem to be carried by the wind. Ship's gossips take them across the seas; letters carry them. I would not for a great deal have even a hint of trouble for the firm now; for in the space of a few months the ship _Rufus Stevens_ begins taking in her cargo at Calcutta, and who knows what damage a slighting rumor might do?"

"I see," said Tarrant, and he turned fully about in his chair.

"The vessel is to stow as rich a cargo as ever came out of the East; and even the smallest evil report may prevent its being put aboard."

"I understand," said Tarrant. There was a silence; then he asked: "And am I to further understand that old arrangements between us, in matters of this kind, still stand?"

"They do. And your share of the labor is to see to it that the Bulfinches hold both their hands and their tongues."

Tarrant now laughed gleefully. All the anger had gone out of his face; he was vastly excited; words poured from him.

"They'll do it," he said. "To be sure, they'll do it! The richest cargo that ever came out of the East! Well, well! That's saying a deal, for some fine ones have come from that part of the world. Oh, yes, have no fear of the twins. They will give what time is needed. So the old rat is dead! Well, well! But what matter? I can manage the sons. They'll do what I ask. They'll hold their hands until the _Rufus Stevens_ is stowed, and weighs for home, if it takes till doomsday, or the day after!"

XXX

The storm of wind and rain lasted through the night; straight out of the north it washed and blew sturdily, and with the deep voice of fall. By dawn the rain had abated; but the wind continued to blow shrewdly, and there was a cut to it, a keenness that hadn't been felt since the early spring.

It was six o'clock when Anthony arose; he looked from his window into Sassafras Street; the way was drenched clean; the gutters were full of running rainwater; and the tang in the air caught his attention.

"A little more!" said he. "Let the wind hold in the north another day, and we'll have frost."

And hold to the north it did; not only for another day, but for two days; and under its cold, clear breath of a night a thin ice began to form in the hollows. It got under the sickly miasma of the city and scattered it across the world. The death-rate dropped like magic; people took heart and regarded life with a new eye; even those who had clung to the heights in fear began in thought to venture back; and those who had held to the town, facing death and fighting the advance of the pestilence, allowed their nerves to go slack, and rested from their labors, white and worn and all but beaten.

It was the second day after the change that Anthony was summoned to the counting-house; immediately upon his entering, Tom Horn said:

"Your uncle is in his room."

Anthony knocked and went in. Charles sat at a table with Captain Weir; he looked haggard, as well he might, for in the last weeks of the plague his efforts had been tireless, and he had slept little. But, for all, there was a smile in his eyes, and his manner was as light as of old.

"Why, now," said he, "you're prompt."

"There is something for me to do?"

"Something which _I_ should do," admitted Charles, "only I have a distaste for such things. But if you are so minded, you can attend to it very well."

"I am quite ready," said Anthony.

Weir looked at Charles, who drummed upon the edge of the table with his finger-tips and seemed at a loss for words with which to frame what was in his mind. But, with an effort, he finally said:

"Things do not always go as smoothly as one could wish; not even with Rufus Stevens' Sons, as," with a look at Anthony, "you've had occasion to see. Some time since, for one reason or another, it was needful that ready money in some quantity be on hand, and I was forced to go to old Bulfinch for it. The bills," said Charles, "are coming due, and, Bulfinch being dead, I'd like an arrangement of some sort with his sons that would carry the matter over to a more convenient time."

"And is it your thought that I should speak to them?"

"If, as I've said, you have the mind to."

"It may be as well to go at once," said Anthony.

"Now, there's an excellent, ready-handed fellow," beamed Charles. "I would to God I had a talent for such things; but I have none--not a bit. And it plagues me to see matters needing doing, and I with no way of arranging them. So go to these rascals," said Charles, as he stood up, and patted Anthony smilingly on the shoulder, "and bargain with them to as good effect as you can. If they demand a large increase in their usance, pay it, with a prayer that one day the devil may take them both."

"I'll do what I can," said Anthony.

"In some months more," said Charles lightly, "we'll laugh at all their kind, for the _Rufus Stevens_ will have rounded the bend by then, and we'll have dazzled the market as it's never been dazzled before." As Anthony was about to go, Charles continued, "Weir has business in your direction, I think." Weir nodded to Anthony. "Suppose you take him as far as the entrance to the fox's den," smiled Charles, to the captain. "You may have a word of advice for him."

The two set out; and Captain Weir talked of the money-lender as a species, and of those of the Algerian coast in particular. They turned off Third Street and into Harmony Court with its shabby, leering buildings, its dusty windows and dirty passages. There was a trimly dressed quadroon maid standing in a shabby doorway, and Captain Weir eyed her keenly. Seeing the name of Bulfinch upon the shutter of the place, Anthony paused. But, before he could speak, Weir, still with his eye upon the quadroon maid, said:

"Now that I'm here, I'll step up with you. I may be of service, and my other business can wait."

Though surprised at this, Anthony said nothing. So they climbed the crooked, narrow stairs together and groped in the dark passage for the handle of Bulfinch's door. Within, their long legs stuck under a meager table, and grinning like a pair of gargoyles, sat the twins, Nathaniel and Rehoboam; and before them stood Mademoiselle Lafargue.

"We are sorry," Nathaniel was saying. "We are very sorry. But we no longer have this matter in charge."

"The money was had of you, I believe," said the girl.

"Of my father; but the bill was sold some time since," said Rehoboam. "Nevens, a broker on the floor below, was the purchaser. It was he who sent you the message, no doubt; and it's with him you'll have to deal."

The girl was moving toward the door; Anthony opened it for her, and went with her out into the passage.

"It is some distance to your lodging-place," he said. "Must you return alone?"

"My maid is awaiting me below," she said.

"Is there anything I can do?" he asked.

"I'm afraid not," she said in a troubled voice. "It's a matter of my father's--money borrowed at a time when it was much needed. They have begun to press him for it; he's greatly distressed, for he had been given to understand that he had his own time to pay it in."

Anthony frowned.

"That has not the sound of a usurer's articles," said he.

He watched her down-stairs, then reëntered Bulfinch's counting-room. Nathaniel was speaking, addressing Weir, and his voice was pitched high in complaint.

"The sum she speaks of was gotten from our father, a man so old that he was in his dotage, and who must needs pay out moneys on undated paper. And a round sum, too, in Dutch pieces, and the bill with never a name of any substance on it."

Anthony came at once to the matter at hand: Weir stood by the table and listened composedly.

"More time!" said Nathaniel, in almost a shriek. "Rufus Stevens' Sons asking more time! You are joking!"

"Three months' extension is desired on the note due to-morrow," said Anthony bluntly, a transcript of the bill in his hand.

"A man who asks for time these days asks for hard money," said Rehoboam. "He is demanding minted gold. And money of any kind was never scarcer."

"We should like to oblige you--" began Nathaniel, but Anthony stopped him.

"What terms will you make for another three months? You've done your worst here, it seems to me," glancing at the paper; "no man with bowels could ask for more."

"Consider!" said Nathaniel. "Think of what _we_ must pay for money."

"Think," said Rehoboam, "of the charges, interests, bonuses, asked of us in each transaction."

"To save your words and my patience," said Anthony, "let us restate the present terms in the new bill."

"With an added twenty-five per cent. to fit the altered times, said Nathaniel eagerly. "And that will cover but half of what it will cost us."

"Twenty-five!" Rehoboam looked horrified. "Twenty-five? Brother, you are going mad! How can you talk such a sum as twenty-five per cent. when--"

"I'll give ten," said Anthony, interrupting him. "So make out the paper, and let's have an end to the matter."

With many lamentations, but with sly glances of glee, the twins set about drawing up a new bill for Charles' signature; this they gave to Anthony, protesting that they were undone and that ruin itself would not surprise them. But the young man buttoned it up in his breast pocket with plain unbelief; then he gave them a curt nod and left the room, with Captain Weir behind him. At the next landing Weir paused.

"Mademoiselle Lafargue," said he. "Has she left this place?"

"No," said Anthony. "She has gone to speak to the other leech of whom they told her."

"Nevens was the name, I think," said Weir. He made it out, painted upon a door in the darkest corner of an obscure passage. "If you don't mind," said he, "we shall go in for a moment. We may be of some assistance."

Anthony readily followed him into a low-ceilinged room, where daylight crept through the dirty glass of a single window. Huddles of time-stained and dusty papers were upon shelves, and in cubbyholes, and impaled upon hooks. A crazy old desk was all but buried under them; a corner cupboard was so gorged that papers bulged from doors and drawers that could not have been closed for years.

A little man with a short nose, a snuffy neck-cloth, and red-rimmed eyes was talking with Mademoiselle Lafargue. She turned a look upon Anthony that was surprised and grateful.

"Good day to you, gentlemen," said the little man in a squeaky voice. "I will give you my best attention in a moment." To the girl he said: "Pay heed to what I tell you. Women are not fitted for the carrying of important words. Say to your father that he is the person I desire to see. And I must see him immediately."

Weir stepped toward the usurer.

"Might I ask why, Mr. Nevens?" said he.

The man put his hand behind his ear, forming a sort of cup; he screwed his face into an expression of great interest and squeaked:

"Hey? I am hard of hearing."

"It happens," said Weir to the girl, "that I know something of the operations of this man, and I thought that Mr. Stevens and myself might be of some help to you."

"The matter that brings Mademoiselle Lafargue here," said Anthony, "seems to be a paper of her father's."

"I know its nature," said Weir. "After you had stepped out into the passage up-stairs, the Bulfinches talked quite openly of it."

While they were speaking the broker kept his hand cupped behind his ear, while his eyes searched their faces like those of some sly little animal.

"Eh?" said he. "What do you say? Speak up. My hearing is not of the best."

"If you'll permit me," said Weir to the girl, "I can probably save your father a journey here and the exasperation he'd be sure to feel in dealing with a man like this." Without waiting for a reply he turned to Nevens. "Now, sir," he said, "a word with you."

Nevens seemed to get Weir's purpose,--perhaps it was from his attitude,--and he began to gesticulate excitedly.

"My business is with her father," he said. "It is a private matter, a transaction between us two, and has to do with a bit of commercial paper."

"Quite so," said Weir. "Have the goodness to permit me to see that paper."

"Eh?" Nevens seemed straining to hear. "What do you say?"

"Show me the bill."

"You must speak louder," said Nevens. "My hearing is not good. Once it was excellent; I heard everything; but it has grown quite bad. In dealing with me you must speak plainly; even then, sometimes," and he shook his head, "I scarce hear a word."

"And this, I take it, is one of the times," said Weir dryly. "Nevertheless," and he looked fixedly into the little ferret's face and spoke slowly, "I think you'll understand what I'm going to say. First, it's very well known that you are a mere instrument of the Bulfinches; the bills they place in your hands under the pretense that you have bought them they know to be desperate ones and not easily realized."

"I will speak with her father," said Nevens, hopping about. "I cannot hear you. And I do not know you. It's her father who must pay, and it's he who must present himself."

"Second," said Weir composedly, "this bill names no definite time for payment; it states no rate of interest; it bears no indorser's name."

"Must I be robbed!" cried Nevens. "Am I to be dragooned and my money mishandled because it was loaned generously."

"It may have been generosity," said Weir, "but it was old Amos Bulfinch who loaned it, and, having known him, I'm tempted to believe it was something else."

"My money!" chattered Nevens, on tiptoe with excitement. "I'll have it. Is there no law to touch such cases? Is there no honesty in the world?"

But Weir motioned Anthony to open the door for Mademoiselle Lafargue; and they went out, leaving the little broker still hopping and shrilling his protests. On the sidewalk Weir gravely lifted his tall beaver hat.