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appointed hour, though he sat within a stone's throw
of where they stood.
"You see it's his only hobby," observed Harker,
apologetically, "and, after all, it's his own house; and
he's very hospitable in other ways."
"I'm rather afraid," said Fisher, in a lower voice,
"that it's becoming more of a mania than a hobby. I
know how it is when a man of that age begins to
collect things, if it's only collecting those rotten little
river fish. You remember Talbot's uncle with his
toothpicks, and poor old Buzzy and the waste of cigar
ashes. Hook has done a lot of big things in his time--the great
deal in the Swedish timber trade and the
Peace Conference at Chicago--but I doubt whether
he cares now for any of those big things as he cares
for those little fish."
"Oh, come, come," protested the Attorney-General.
"You'll make Mr. March think he has come to call
on a lunatic. Believe me, Hook only does it for fun,
like any other sport, only he's of the kind that takes
his fun sadly. But I bet if there were big news about
timber or shipping, he would drop his fun and his fish
all right."
"Well, I wonder," said Horne Fisher, looking
sleepily at the island in the river.
"By the way, is there any news of anything?" asked
Harker of Harold March. "I see you've got an
evening paper; one of those enterprising evening
papers that come out in the morning."
"The beginning of Lord Merivale's Birmingham
speech," replied March, handing him the paper. "It's
only a paragraph, but it seems to me rather good."
Harker took the paper, flapped and refolded it, and
looked at the "Stop Press" news. It was, as March
had said, only a paragraph. But it was a paragraph
that had a peculiar effect on Sir John Harker. His
lowering brows lifted with a flicker and his eyes
blinked, and for a moment his leathery jaw was
loosened. He looked in some odd fashion like a very
old man. Then, hardening his voice and handing the
paper to Fisher without a tremor, he simply said:
"Well, here's a chance for the bet. You've got
your big news to disturb the old man's fishing."
Horne Fisher was looking at the paper, and over
his more languid and less expressive features a
change also seemed to pass. Even that little
paragraph had two or three large headlines, and his
eye encountered, "Sensational Warning to Sweden,"
and, "We Shall Protest."
"What the devil--" he said, and his words softened
first to a whisper and then a whistle.
"We must tell old Hook at once, or he'll never
forgive us," said Harker. "He'll probably want to see
Number One instantly, though it may be too late
now. I'm going across to him at once. I bet I'll make
him forget his fish, anyhow." And, turning his back,
he made his way hurriedly along the riverside to the
causeway of flat stones.
March was staring at Fisher, in amazement at the
effect his pink paper had produced.
"What does it all mean?" he cried. "I always
supposed we should protest in defense of the
Danish ports, for their sakes and our own. What is
all this botheration about Sir Isaac and the rest of
you? Do you think it bad news?"
"Bad news!" repeated Fisher, with a sort of soft
emphasis beyond expression.
"Is it as bad as all that?" asked his friend, at last.
"As bad as all that?" repeated Fisher. "Why of
course it's as good as it can be. It's great news. It's
glorious news! That's where the devil of it comes in,
to knock us all silly. It's admirable. It's inestimable.
It is also quite incredible."
He gazed again at the gray and green colors of
the island and the river, and his rather dreary eye
traveled slowly round to the hedges and the lawns.
"I felt this garden was a sort of dream," he said,
"and I suppose I must be dreaming. But there is
grass growing and water moving; and something
impossible has happened."
Even as he spoke the dark figure with a stoop
like a vulture appeared in the gap of the hedge just
above him.
"You have won your bet," said Harker, in a harsh
and almost croaking voice. "The old fool cares for
nothing but fishing. He cursed me and told me he
would talk no politics."
"I thought it might be so," said Fisher, modestly.
"What are you going to do next?"
"I shall use the old idiot's telephone, anyhow,"
replied the lawyer. "I must find out exactly what has
happened. I've got to speak for the Government
myself to-morrow." And he hurried away toward
the house.
In the silence that followed, a very bewildeing [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]