Читать книгу Beyond the Great South Wall: The Secret of the Antarctic онлайн

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There was the usual fuss when the dripping passengers landed, the usual rush for the customs, the grating of the rolling-luggage stage, the interchange of impudence between the dock porters and the crowd, in fact the everyday hurly-burly of a liner’s incoming, and it was not till after an hour’s patient toil and the signing of various detestable documents, that Baines and I were permitted to load our burden upon the hearse that waited, and get it to the railway-station. I had no chance in the crowded train of conversing with the man in any sort of privacy, so arranged that he should call at my rooms that evening, and that there he should tell me all there was to tell. Fortunately Crum had notified a firm of undertakers to meet us at Euston, and there take charge of the coffin, and finally I was at liberty to make my way home, change, and eat with what appetite I could. Then lighting my pipe I set myself to await Baines and his revelations with all the apathy I could command.

And then Gerry saw fit to drop in. He was brimful of inquiry and investigation regarding the day’s doings, and showed unbounded disappointment that as yet no further developments had ensued. He hinted, in fact, that I was burking all further knowledge of the subject, and sat arguing and discussing like an embodied British Association. It was in vain that I tacitly agreed to all his premises, and passed over his insults. He sat and sat, and there he was when Baines arrived, and then I knew that the game was fairly up. Under Gerry’s encouraging cross-examination I felt sure that the worthy valet would have seen and heard marvels which no man could gainsay, and would be guided into revelations of my uncle’s last words and messages which might bear any sort of meaning that Gerry chose to apply to them. I groaned as the smooth-faced, dapper little chap was ushered in by Barker, and Gerry’s face of enthusiastic delight was a picture.