Dope by Sax Rohmer (desktop ebook reader txt) ๐
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- Author: Sax Rohmer
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Again he pressed his ear to the door, and listened intently. Perhaps they were hiding within. Perhaps this charlatan, Kazmah, was an accomplice in the pay of Sir Lucien. Perhaps this was a secret place of rendezvous.
To the manifest absurdity of such a conjecture he was blind in his anger. But that he was helpless, befooled, he recognized; and with a final muttered imprecation he turned and slowly descended the stair. A lingering hope was dispelled when, looking right and left along Bond Street, he failed to perceive the missing pair.
The cabman glanced at him interrogatively. โI shall not require you,โ said Gray, and gave the man half-a-crown.
Busy with his poisonous conjectures, he remained all unaware of the presence of a furtive, stooping figure which lurked behind the railings of the arcade at this point linking old Bond Street to Albemarle Street. Nor had the stooping stranger any wish to attract Gray's attention. Most of the shops in the narrow lane were already closed, although the florist's at the corner remained open, but of the shadow which lay along the greater part of the arcade this alert watcher took every advantage. From the recess formed by a shop door he peered out at Gray, where the light of a street lamp fell upon him, studying his face, his movements, with unrelaxing vigilance.
Gray, following some moments of indecision, strode off towards Piccadilly. The little man came out cautiously from his hiding-place and looked after him. Out of a dark porch, ten paces along Bond Street, appeared a burly figure to fall into step a few yards behind Gray. The little man licked his lips appreciatively and returned to the doorway below the premises of Kazmah.
Reaching Piccadilly, Gray stood for a time on the corner, indifferent to the jostling of passers-by. Finally he crossed, walked along to the Prince's Restaurant, and entered the lobby. He glanced at his wrist-watch. It registered the hour of seven-twenty-five.
He cancelled his order for a table and was standing staring moodily towards the entrance when the doors swung open and a man entered who stepped straight up to him, hand extended, and:
โGlad to see you, Gray,โ he said. โWhat's the trouble?โ
Quentin Gray stared as if incredulous at the speaker, and it was with an unmistakable note of welcome in his voice that he replied:
โSeton! Seton Pasha!โ
The frown disappeared from Gray's forehead, and he gripped the other's hand in hearty greeting. But:
โStick to plain Seton!โ said the new-comer, glancing rapidly about him. โOttoman titles are not fashionable.โ
The speaker was a man of arresting personality. Above medium height, well but leanly built, the face of Seton โPashaโ was burned to a deeper shade than England's wintry sun is capable of producing. He wore a close-trimmed beard and moustache, and the bronze on his cheeks enhanced the brightness of his grey eyes and rendered very noticeable a slight frosting of the dark hair above his temples. He had the indescribable air of a โsureโ man, a sound man to have beside one in a tight place; and looking into the rather grim face, Quentin Gray felt suddenly ashamed of himself. From Seton Pasha he knew that he could keep nothing back. He knew that presently he should find himself telling this quiet, brown-skinned man the whole story of his humiliationโand he knew that Seton would not spare his feelings.
โMy dear fellow,โ he said, โyou must pardon me if I sometimes fail to respect your wishes in this matter. When I left the East the name of Seton Pasha was on everybody's tongue. But are you alone?โ
โI am. I only arrived in London tonight and in England this morning.โ
โWere you thinking of dining here?โ
โNo; I saw you through the doorway as I was passing. But this will do as well as another place. I gather that you are disengaged. Perhaps you will dine with me?โ
โSplendid!โ cried Gray. โWait a moment. Perhaps my table hasn't gone!โ
He ran off in his boyish, impetuous fashion, and Seton watched him, smiling quietly.
The table proved to be available, and ere long the two were discussing an excellent dinner. Gray lost much of his irritability and began to talk coherently upon topics of general interest. Presently, following an interval during which he had been covertly watching his companion:
โDo you know, Seton,โ he said, โyou are the one man in London whose company I could have tolerated tonight.โ
โMy arrival was peculiarly opportune.โ
โYour arrivals are always peculiarly opportune.โ Gray stared at Seton with an expression of puzzled admiration. โI don't think I shall ever understand your turning up immediately before the Senussi raid in Egypt. Do you remember? I was with the armored cars.โ
โI remember perfectly.โ
โThen you vanished in the same mysterious fashion, and the C. O. was a sphinx on the subject. I next saw you strolling out of the gate at Baghdad. How the devil you'd got to Baghdad, considering that you didn't come with us and that you weren't with the cavalry, heaven only knows!โ
โNo,โ said Seton judicially, gazing through his uplifted wine-glass; โwhen one comes to consider the matter without prejudice it is certainly odd. But do I know the lady to whose non-appearance I owe the pleasure of your company tonight?โ
Quentin Gray stared at him blankly.
โReally, Seton, you amaze me. Did I say that I had an appointment with a lady?โ
โMy dear Gray, when I see a man standing biting his nails and glaring out into Piccadilly from a restaurant entrance I ask myself a question. When I learn that he has just cancelled an order for a table for two I answer it.โ
Gray laughed. โYou always make me feel so infernally young, Seton.โ
โGood!โ
โYes, it's good to feel young, but bad to feel a young fool; and that's what I feelโand what I am. Listen!โ
Leaning across the table so that the light of the shaded lamp fell fully upon his flushed, eager face, Gray, not without embarrassment, told his companion of the โdirty trickโโso he phrased itโwhich Sir Lucien Pyne had played upon him. In conclusion:
โWhat would you do, Seton?โ he asked.
Seton sat regarding him in silence with a cool, calculating stare which some men had termed insolent, absently tapping his teeth with the gold rim of a monocle which he carried but apparently never used for any other purpose; and it was at about this time that a long low car passed near
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