Witness for the Defence by A. E. W. Mason
CHAPTER IX
AN EPISODE IN BALLANTYNE'S LIFE
The Reptons lived upon the Khamballa Hill and the bow-window of theirdrawing-room looked down upon the Arabian Sea and southwards along thecoast towards Malabar Point. In this embrasure Mrs. Repton sat througha morning, denying herself to her friends. A book lay open on her lapbut her eyes were upon the sea. A few minutes after the clock upon hermantelpiece had struck twelve she saw that for which she watched: thebowsprit and the black bows of a big ship pushing out from under thehill and the water boiling under its stem. The whole ship came intoview with its awnings and its saffron funnels and headed to thenorth-west for Aden.
Jane Repton rose up from her chair and watched it go. In the sunlight itsblack hull was so sharply outlined on the sea, its lines and spars wereso trim that it looked a miniature ship which she could reach out herhand and snatch. But her eyes grew dim as she watched, so that it becameshapeless and blurred, and long before the liner was out of sight it wasquite lost to her.
"I am foolish," she said as she turned away, and she bit herhandkerchief hard. This was midday of the Friday and ever since thatdinner-party at the Carruthers' on the Monday night she had beenalternating between wild hopes and arguments of prudence. But until thismoment of disappointment she had not realised how completely the hopeshad gained the upper hand with her and how extravagantly she had builtupon Thresk's urgent questioning of her at the dinner-table.
"Very likely he never found the Ballantynes at all," she argued. But hemight have sent her word. All that morning she had been expecting atelephone message or a telegram or a note scribbled on board the steamerand sent up the Khamballa Hill by a messenger. But not a token had comefrom him and now of the boat which was carrying him to England there wasnothing left but the stain of its smoke upon the sky.
Mrs. Repton put her handkerchief in her pocket and was going about thebusiness of her house when the butler opened the door.
"I am not in--" Mrs. Repton began and cut short the sentence with a cryof welcome and surprise, for close upon the heels of the servant Threskwas standing.
"You!" she cried. "Oh!"
She felt her legs weakening under her and she sat down abruptly on achair.
"Thank Heaven it was there," she said. "I should have sat on thefloor if it hadn't been." She dismissed the butler and held out herhand to Thresk. "Oh, my friend," she said, "there's your steamer onits way to Aden."
Her voice rang with enthusiasm and admiration. Thresk only nodded hishead gloomily.
"I have missed it," he replied. "It's very unfortunate. I have clientswaiting for me in London."
"You missed it on purpose," she declared and Thresk's face relaxed into asmile. He turned away from the window to her. He seemed suddenly to wearthe look of a boy.
"I have the best of excuses," he replied, "the perfect excuse." But evenhe could not foresee how completely that excuse was to serve him.
"Sit down," said Jane Repton, "and tell me. You went to Chitipur, I know.From your presence here I know too that you found--them--there."
"No," said Thresk, "I didn't." He sat down and looked straight into JaneRepton's eyes. "I had a stroke of luck. I found them--in camp."
Jane Repton understood all that the last two words implied.
"I should have wished that," she answered, "if I had dared to think itpossible. You talked with Stella?"
"Hardly a word alone. But I saw."
"What did you see?"
"I am here to tell you." And he told her the story of his night at thecamp so far as it concerned Stella Ballantyne, and indeed not quite allof that. For instance he omitted altogether to relate how he had left hispipe behind in the tent and had returned for it. That seemed to himunimportant. Nor did he tell her of his conversation with Ballantyneabout the photograph. "He was in a panic. He had delusions," he said andleft the matter there. Thresk had the lawyer's mind or rather the mind ofa lawyer in big practice. He had the instinct for the essential fact andthe knowledge that it was most lucid when presented in a nakedsimplicity. He was at pains to set before Jane Repton what he had seen ofthe life which Stella lived with Stephen Ballantyne and nothing else.
"Now," he said when he had finished, "you sent me to Chitipur. I mustknow why."
And when she hesitated he overbore her.
"You can be guilty of no disloyalty to your friend," he insisted, "bybeing frank with me. After all I have given guarantees. I went toChitipur upon your word. I have missed my boat. You bade me go toChitipur. That told me too little or too much. I say too little. I havegot to know all now." And he rose up and stood before her. "What do youknow about Stephen Ballantyne?"
"I'll tell you," said Jane Repton. She looked at the clock. "You hadbetter stay and lunch with us if you will. We shall be alone. I'll tellyou afterwards. Meanwhile--" and in her turn she stood up. The sense ofresponsibility was heavy upon her.
She had sent this man upon his errand of knowledge. He had done, inconsequence of it, a stronger, a wilder thing than she had thought, thanshe had hoped for. She had a panicky feeling that she had set greatforces at work.
"Meanwhile--" asked Thresk; and she drew a breath of relief. Thesteadiness of his eyes and voice comforted her. His quiet insistence gaveher courage. None of her troubles and doubts had any place apparently inhis mind. A nervous horse in the hands of a real horseman--thus shethought of herself in Thresk's presence.
"Meanwhile I'll give you one reason why I wanted you to go. My husband'stime in India is up. We are leaving for England altogether in a month'stime. We shall not come back at all. And when we have gone Stella will beleft without one intimate friend in the whole country."
"Yes," said Thresk. "That wouldn't do, would it?" and they went in totheir luncheon.
All through that meal, before the servants, they talked what is writtenin the newspapers. And of the two she who had fears and hesitations wasstill the most impatient to get it done. She had her curiosity and itwas beginning to consume her. What had Thresk known of Stella and she ofhim before she had come out to India and become Stella Ballantyne? Hadthey been in love? If not why had Thresk gone to Chitipur? Why had hemissed his boat and left all his clients over there in England in thelurch? If so, why hadn't they married--the idiots? Oh, how she wanted toknow all the answers to all these questions! And what he proposed to donow! And she would know nothing unless she was frank herself. She hadread his ultimatum in his face.
"We'll have coffee in my sitting-room. You can smoke there," she said andled the way to it. "A cheroot?"
Thresk smiled with amusement. But the amusement annoyed her for she didnot understand it.
"I have got a Havana cigar here," he said. "May I?"
"Of course."
He lit it and listened. But it was not long before it went out and he didnot stir to light it again. The incident of which Mrs. Repton had beenthe witness, and which she related now, invested Ballantyne with horror.Thresk had left the camp at Chitipur with an angry contempt for him. Thecontempt passed out of his feelings altogether as he sat in Mrs. Repton'sdrawing-room.
"I am not telling you what Stella has confided to me," said Mrs. Repton."Stella's loyal even when there's no cause for loyalty; and if loyaltydidn't keep her mouth closed, self-respect would. I tell you what I saw.We were at Agra at the time. My husband was Collector there. There wasa Durbar held there and the Rajah of Chitipur came to it with hiselephants and his soldiers, and naturally Captain Ballantyne and his wifecame too. They stayed with us. You are to understand that I knewnothing--absolutely nothing--up to that time. I hadn't a suspicion--untilthe afternoon of the finals in the Polo Tournament. Stella and I wenttogether alone and we came home about six. Stella went upstairs and I--Iwalked into the library."
She had found Ballantyne sitting in a high arm-chair, his eyes glitteringunder his black thick eyebrows and his face livid. He looked at her asshe entered, but he neither moved nor spoke, and she thought that he wasill. But the decanter of whisky stood empty on a little table a
"We have some people coming to dinner to-night, Captain Ballantyne," shesaid. "We shall dine at eight, so there's an hour and a half still."
She went over to a book-case and took out a book. When she turned backinto the room a change had taken place in her visitor. Life had flickeredinto his face. His eyes were wary and cunning.
"And why do you tell me that?" he asked in a voice which was thick andformidable. She had a notion that he did not know who she was and thensuddenly she became afraid. She had discovered a secret--his secret. Foronce in the towns he had let himself go. She had a hope now that he couldnot move and that he knew it; he sat as still as his arm-chair.
"I had forgotten to tell you," she replied. "I thought you might like toknow beforehand."
"Why should I like to know beforehand?"
She had his secret, he plied her with questions to know if she had it.She must hide her knowledge. Every instinct warned her to hide it.
"The people who are coming are strangers to India," she said, "but I havetold them of you and they will come expectant."
"You are very kind."
She had spoken lightly and with a laugh. Ballantyne replied without ironyor amusement and with his eyes fixed upon her face. Mrs. Repton could notaccount for the panic which seized hold upon her. She had dined inCaptain Ballantyne's company before often enough; he had now been forthree days in her house; she had recognised his ability and had neitherparticularly liked nor disliked him. Her main impression had been that hewas not good enough for Stella, and it was an impression purely feminineand instinctive. Now suddenly he had imposed himself upon her as acreature dangerous, beastlike. She wanted to get out of the room but shedared not, for she was sure that her careful steps would, despiteherself, change into a run. She sat down, meaning to read for a fewmoments, compose herself and then go. But no sooner had she taken herseat than her terror increased tenfold, for Ballantyne rose swiftly fromhis chair and walking in a circle round the room with an extraordinarilylight and noiseless step disappeared behind her. Then he sat down. Mrs.Repton heard the slight grating of the legs of a chair upon the floor. Itwas a chair at a writing-table close by the window and exactly at herback. He could see every movement which she made, and she could seenothing, not so much as the tip of one of his fingers. And of his fingersshe was now afraid. He was watching her from his point of vantage; sheseemed to feel his eyes burning upon the nape of her neck. And he saidnothing; and he did not stir. It was broad daylight, she assured herself.She had but to cross the room to the bell beside the fireplace. Nay, shehad only to scream--and she was very near to screaming--to bring theservants to her rescue. But she dared not do it. Before she was half-wayto the bell, before the cry was out of her mouth she would feel hisfingers close about her throat.
* * * * *
Mrs. Repton had begun to tell her story with reluctance, dreading lestThresk should attribute it to a woman's nerves and laugh. But he did not.He listened gravely, seriously; and, as she continued, that nightmare ofan evening so lived again in her recollections that she could not butmake it vivid in her words.
"I had more than a mere sense of danger," she said. "I felt besides asort of hideous discomfort, almost physical discomfort, which made mebelieve that there was something evil in that room beyond the power oflanguage to describe."
She felt her self-control leaving her. If she stayed she must betray heralarm. Even now she had swallowed again and again, and she wondered thathe had not detected the working of her throat. She summoned what was leftof her courage and tossing her book aside rose slowly and deliberately.
"I think I shall copy Stella's example and lie down for an hour," shesaid without turning her head towards Ballantyne, and even while shespoke she knew that she had made a mistake in mentioning Stella. He wouldfollow her to discover whether she went to Stella's room and told whatshe had seen to her. But he did not move. She reached the door, turnedthe handle, went out and closed the door behind her.
For a moment then her strength failed her; she leaned against the wall bythe side of the door, her heart racing. But the fear that he would followurged her on. She crossed the hall and stopped deliberately before acabinet of china at the foot of the stairs, which stood against the wallin which the library door was placed. While she stood there she saw thedoor open very slowly and Ballantyne's livid face appear at the opening.She turned towards the stairs and mounted them without looking back.Halfway up a turn hid the hall from her, and the moment after she hadpassed the turn she heard him crossing the hall after her, again with alightness of step which seemed to be uncanny and inhuman in so heavy andgross a creature.
"I was appalled," she said to Thresk frankly. "He had the step of ananimal. I felt that some great baboon was tracking me stealthily."
Mrs. Repton came to Stella Ballantyne's door and was careful not to stop.She reached her own room, and once in shot the bolt; and in a moment ortwo she heard him breathing just outside the panels.
"And to think that Stella is alone with him in the jungle months at atime!" she cried, actually wringing her hands. "That thought was in mymind all the time--a horror of a thought. Oh, I could understand now theloss of her spirits, her colour, her youth."
Pictures of lonely camps and empty rest-houses, far removed from anyhabitation in the silence of Indian nights, rose before her eyes. Sheimagined Stella propped up on her elbow in bed, wide-eyed with terror,listening and listening to the light footsteps of the drunken brutebeyond the partition-wall, shivering when they approached, dropping backwith the dew of her sweat upon her forehead when they retired; andthese pictures she translated in words for Thresk in her house on theKhamballa Hill.
Thresk was moved and showed that he was moved. He rose and walked to thewindow, turning his back to her.
"Why did she marry him?" he exclaimed. "She was poor, but she had alittle money. Why did she marry him?" and he turned back to Mrs. Reptonfor an answer.
She gave him one quick look and said:
"That is one of the things she has never told me and I didn't meet heruntil after she had married him."
"And why doesn't she leave him?"
Mrs. Repton held up her hands.
"Oh, the easy questions, Mr. Thresk! How many women endure the thing thatis because it is? Even to leave your husband you want a trifle of spirit.And what if your spirit's broken? What if you are cowed? What if you livein terror day and night?"
"Yes. I am a fool," said Thresk, and he sat down again. "There are twomore questions I want to ask. Did you ever talk to Stella"--the Christianname slipped naturally from him and only Jane Repton of the two remarkedthat he had used it--"of that incident in the library at Agra?"
"Yes."
"And did she in consequence of what you told her give you any account ofher life with her husband?"
Mrs. Repton hesitated not because she was any longer in doubt as towhether she would speak the whole truth or not--she had committed herselfalready too far--but because the form of the question nettled her. It wasa little too forensic for her taste. She was anxious to know the man; shecould dispense with the barrister altogether.
"Yes, she did," she replied, "and don't cross-examine me, please."
"I beg your pardon," said Thresk with a laugh which made him human onthe instant.
"Well, it's true," said Jane Repton in a rush. "She told me thetruth--what you know and more. He stripped when he was drunk, strippedto the skin. Think of it! Stella told me that and broke down. Oh, if youhad seen her! For Stella to give way--that alone must alarm her friends.Oh, but the look of her! She sat by my side on the sofa, wringing herhands, with the tears pouring down her face ..." Thresk rose quicklyfrom his chair.
"Thank you," he said, cutting her short. He wanted to hear no more. Heheld out his hand to her with a certain abruptness.
Mrs. Repton rose too.
"What are you going to do?" she asked breathlessly. "I must know I have aright to, I think. I have tol
"I know that," said Thresk, and his voice was grateful and his facemost friendly.
"Well, what are you going to do?"
"I am going to write to her to ask her to join me in Bombay," he replied.