Jack Harkaway's Boy Tinker Among The Turks Read online

  CHAPTER LXII.

  HOW SENOR VELASQUEZ PLAYED A DEEP GAME WITH CHIVEY--DOUBLE DEALING--HERBERTMURRAY'S CHANCE--"HARKAWAY MUST BE PUT AWAY"--A GUILTY COMPACT--CHIVEYIN DURANCE VILE--THE SICK ROOM AND THE OPIATE--AN OVERDOSE--THENOTARY'S GUARDIAN--THE SPANISH GAROTTE--"TALKING IN YOUR SLEEP IS AVERY BAD GAME."

  Senor Velasquez was any thing but a fool.

  Chivey was not soft, but he was not competent to cope with such a keenspirit as this Spanish notary.

  Senor Velasquez walked up to the hotel in which Herbert Murray wasstaying, and the first person he chanced to meet was Murray himself.

  "I wish to have a word with you in private, Senor Murray," said thenotary.

  Murray looked anxiously around him, starting "like a guilty thing upona fearful summons."

  The bland smile of the Spanish notary reassured him, however.

  "What can I do for Senor Velasquez?" he asked.

  "I begged for a few words in private," answered Velasquez.

  "Take a seat, Senor Velasquez," said Herbert Murray, "and now tell mehow I can serve you," after entering his room.

  The notary made himself comfortable in his chair.

  "I can speak in safety now?" he said.

  "Of course."

  "No fear of interruption here?"

  The notary looked Murray steadily in the eyes as he said--

  "I was thinking of your officious servant."

  Herbert Murray changed colour as he faltered--

  "Of whom?"

  "Chivey, I think you call him--your groom, I mean."

  "There is no fear from him now," said Murray, with averted eyes; "notthe least in the world."

  Senor Velasquez smiled significantly.

  "Your man Chivey," resumed the Spanish notary, "has confided to me asecret."

  "Concerning me?"

  "Yes."

  "The villain!"

  "Now listen to me, Senor Murray. You have behaved very imprudentlyindeed. Your whole secret is with me."

  Herbert started.

  "With you?"

  "Yes."

  Herbert Murray glanced anxiously at the door.

  The notary followed his eyes with some inward anxiety, yet he did notbetray his uneasiness at all.

  "He was speaking the truth for once, then," said Murray. "He hadconfided his secrets to someone else."

  "Yes."

  Herbert Murray walked round the room, and took up his position with hisback to the door.

  "Senor Velasquez," he said, in a low but determined voice, "you havemade an unfortunate admission. If there is a witness, it is only one;you are that witness, and your life is in danger."

  The notary certainly felt uncomfortable, but he was too old a stager todisplay it.

  Herbert Murray produced a pistol, which he proceeded to examine and tocock deliberately.

  "That would not advance your purpose much, Senor Murray," he said,coolly; "the noise would bring all the house trooping into the room."

  Murray was quite calm and collected now, and therefore he was open toreason.

  "There is something in that," he said, "so I have a quieter helpmatehere."

  He uncocked the pistol and put it in his breast pocket.

  Then he whipped out a long Spanish stiletto.

  "There are other reasons against using that."

  "And they are?"

  "Here is one," returned the notary, drawing a long, slender blade fromhis sleeve.

  Murray was palpably disconcerted at this.

  The Spanish notary and the young Englishman stood facing each other insilence for a considerable time.

  The former was the first to break the silence.

  "Now, look you here, Senor Murray," said he, "I am not a child, nor didI, knowing all I know, come here unprepared for every emergency--aye,even for violence."

  "Go on," said Murray, between his set teeth.

  "You have imprudently placed yourself in the hands of an unscrupulousyoung man."

  "I have."

  "And he has proved himself utterly unworthy?"

  "Utterly."

  "All of that is known to me," said the notary, craftily. "Now you mustpay no heed to this Chivey."

  "I will not," returned Herbert Murray, significantly, "though there islittle fear of further molestation from him, senor."

  Young Murray little dreamt of the cause of the notary's peculiar smile.

  "Your sole danger, as I take it, Senor Murray, is from your fellowcountryman, Jack Harkaway."

  "Yes."

  "Then to him you must direct your attention. Where is he?"

  "Gone."

  "Where to?"

  "Don't know."

  "I do then," returned the notary, quietly: "and it is to tell you thatthat I am here. I have all the necessary information; you must followhim."

  "Why?"

  "To make sure of him," coldly replied the Spaniard.

  "How?"

  Velasquez spoke not.

  But his meaning was just as clear as if he had put it into words.

  A vicious dig with his stiletto at the air.

  Nothing more.

  And so they began to understand each other.

  * * * *

  Senor Velasquez, the notary, was playing a double game.

  From Herbert Murray he carefully kept the knowledge that Chivey stilllived.

  And why?

  That knowledge would have lessened his hold.

  The cunning way in which he let Herbert Murray understand that he knewall, even to the attempt upon Chivey's life at the gravel pits,completed the mastery in which he meant to hold the young rascal.

  He arranged everything for young Murray.

  He discovered from him the destination of the ship in which JackHarkaway and his friends had escaped, and he procured him a berth on avessel sailing in the same direction.

  "Once you get within arm's length of this young Harkaway," he said;"you must be firm and let your blow be sure."

  "I will," returned his pupil.

  "Once Harkaway is removed from your path, you may sleep in peace, forhe alone can now punish you for forgery."

  "I hope so."

  "I know it," said Velasquez.

  So well were the notary's plans laid, and so luckily did fortune playinto his hands, that forty-eight hours after his interview with Murray,he had that young gentleman safely on board a ship outward bound.

  Now Herbert Murray had passed but one night after that fearful scene bythe gravel pit, but the remembrance of it haunted his pillow from themoment he went to bed to the moment he arose unrefreshed and full offever.

  And yet he was setting out with the intention of securing his futurepeace and immunity from peril by the commission of a fresh crime.

  The ship was setting sail at a little after daybreak, and it had beenarranged that Senor Velasquez was to come and see him off.

  But much to his surprise, the notary did not put in an appearance.

  Eagerly he waited for the ship to start, lest any thing should occur atthe eleventh hour, and he should find himself laid by the heels toanswer for his crimes.

  * * * *

  Chivey was supposed to be hiding.

  In reality he was a prisoner in the house of Senor Velasquez, and heknew it.

  The notary was an old man, and he suffered from sundry ailments whichbelong to age--notably to rheumatism.

  An acute attack prostrated the old man, and held him down when he wasmost anxious to be up and doing.

  And the night before Herbert Murray was to set sail, he lay groaningand moaning with racking pains.

  His cries reached Chivey, who lay in the next room, and he came to thesick man's door to ask if he could be of any assistance.

  He peered warily in.

  In spite of his groans and anguish, the old notary was insensible underthe influence of an opiate.

  Chivey crept in.

  On a low ta
ble beside the bed was a lamp flickering fearfully, and aglass containing some medicine.

  Beside the glass a phial labelled laudanum.

  Something possessed the intruder to empty the contents of the phialinto the glass, and just as he had done so, the sufferer opened hiseyes.

  "Who's there?"

  "It's me, Senor Velasquez," said the tiger. "You have been ill----"

  "What do you do here?" demanded the notary, sharply.

  "You called out. I thought I might be of assistance."

  "No, no."

  "Then I will go, senor," said Chivey, "for I am tired."

  "Stay, give me my physic before you go."

  Chivey handed him the glass.

  The sick man gulped it down, and made a wry face.

  "How bitter it tastes," he said, with a shudder.

  "Good-night, senor."

  "Good-night."

  * * * *

  Chivey did not remain very long absent.

  The heavy breathing of the notary soon told him that it was safe toreturn to the room.

  The business of the morrow so filled the mind of the old Spaniard, thathe was talking of it in his sleep.

  "At an hour after daybreak, I tell you, Murray," he muttered. "Theberth is paid for, paid for by my gold. You follow on the track of yourenemy Harkaway, and once you are within reach, give a sharp, surestroke, and you will be free from your only enemy, seeing that you havealready taken good care of your traitor servant."

  Chivey was amazed, electrified.

  Did he hear aright?

  "At daybreak!" he exclaimed, aloud.

  "Yes; at daybreak," returned the notary in his sleep.

  After a pause, the sleeper muttered--

  "What say you? If Chivey were not quite dead? What of that? How couldhe follow you? He has no funds. The only money he possessed I have nowin my strong box under my bed."

  Chivey was staggered.

  "Is Murray going to bolt, and leave me in the power of this oldvillain, I wonder," he muttered.

  He broke off in his speculations, for the notary was babbling somethingagain.

  "'The Mogador,'" muttered the old man, speaking more thickly thanbefore as the opiate began to make itself felt; "the captain is calledGonzales. You have only to mention the name of Senor Velasquez, and hewill treat you well. He knows me."

  He muttered a few more words which grew more and more incoherent eachinstant.

  Then he lay back motionless as a log.

  The opium held him fast in its power.

  "Now for the box," exclaimed the tiger, excitedly.

  Chivey tore open the box, and lifting up some musty old deeds andparchments, he feasted his eyes upon a mine of wealth.

  A pile of gold.

  Bright glittering pieces of every size and country.

  And beside it thick bundles of paper money.

  "Gold is uncommonly pretty," said the tiger, "but the notes packs theclosest."

  Bundle after bundle he stowed away about his person, regularly paddinghis chest under his shirt.

  "Now for a trifle of loose cash," he said, coolly.

  So saying, he dropped about sixty or seventy gold pieces into hisbreeches pocket.

  His waistcoat pockets he stuffed full also.

  Then he pushed back the box into its place under the bed.

  "The old man still sleeps," he said to himself, looking round at thebed.

  He was in a rare good humour with himself.

  "Ha, ha! I am rich now," said Chivey. "Thank you, old senor, you havedone me a good turn. May you sleep long."

  He gave a final glance about him and made off.

  * * * *

  A distant church clock tolled the hour of midnight as he gained theseashore.

  He was in luck.

  Not a soul did he encounter until he reached the beach, when he cameupon two sailors, launching a rowing boat.

  "'Mogador?'" he said, in a tone of inquiry.

  "_Si_, senor."

  "That's your sort," said Chivey. "I want to see Captain Gonzales."

  "Come with us, then," said one of the sailors.

  "Rather," responded the tiger; "off we dive; whip 'em up, tickle himunder the flank, and we're there in a common canter."

  The sailors both understood a little of English.

  In very little time they were standing on the deck of the "Mogador."

  And facing Chivey as he scrambled up the side, was the master of theship, Captain Gonzales, to whom Chivey was presented at once by one ofthe sailors.

  "Senor Velasquez has sent me to you, captain," said the ever readytiger.

  "Then you are welcome."

  "He told me to give you that," said Chivey, handing the captain a pairof banknotes; "and to beg you to give me the best of accommodation in acabin all to myself."

  "It shall be done."

  "And above all not to let Mr. Murray know of my presence on board whenhe comes."

  "Good."

  "I am going on very important business for Senor Velasquez, captain,"pursued Chivey, with infinite assurance; "as you may judge, for hevalues your care of me at one hundred crowns to be paid on your nextvisit here."

  "Rely upon my uttermost assistance."

  "Thank you," said Chivey, with a patronising smile; "and now I'll beobliged to you to show me to my berth."

  "Here," cried the Spanish captain. "Pedro--Juan--Lopez. Take thisgentleman to my private cabin."

  The "Mogador" stood out to sea bravely enough.

  Chivey was there.

  Herbert Murray was there.

  But the latter little suspected the presence of the former.

  Herbert Murray, in fancied security, was reclining on deck upon somecushions he had got up from below, smoking lazily, and looking up atthe blue sky overhead, when Chivey, who had been looking vainly out foran appropriate cue to make his reappearance, slipped suddenly forward,and touching his hat, remarked in the coolest manner in the world--

  "Did you ring for me, sir?"

  Herbert looked up just as if he had seen a ghost.

  "Chivey!"

  "Guv'ner."

  Herbert Murray stared at his villainous servant.

  But villainous as Chivey was, Herbert Murray never thought a bit aboutthat.

  His heart leaped to his mouth, and he was overjoyed to find him there.

  "Oh, Chivey, you vagabond!" he ejaculated. "I'm so awfully glad to seeyou."

  "One touch of nature makes the whole world kin."

  There's a lot of truth in that trite and homely old saying.

  For one little phrase from the guilty Herbert had come so straight fromthe heart that even the villainous tiger was touched immediately.

  "Look here, guv'nor," said Mr. Chivey, "I don't think you are half sobad as I thought. My opinion is that you are not half as bad as some of'em, and that the ugly job up at the gravel pits was all of myprovoking. I bear no malice."

  "You don't!" exclaimed his master, quite overjoyed.

  "Not a bit."

  "Shake hands."

  Chivey obeyed.

  And they were faster friends than ever after that.

  But what about Senor Velasquez?

  What about all their compacts with the villain?

  For the time they were of no use to that plotter, whose plans had, upto the present time, failed.