But Renton was not listening to him; he was too occupied with the caprices of fate. "It's damnable," he said, "simply damnable! Just when we had found a winner!" "You certainly sound a trifle dismal," Parker agreed. "Couldn't you manage to say what you mean?" "Ted, old man," Renton replied, "in Rangoon I heard the whole story of your father and this man Jackson." Parker, sprawling in his canvas chair, sucked at his pipe and nodded. "Well?" he asked. "So," Renton declared, "we're done. That little devil pulls all the strings on earth. He'll make a scandal which will kill us in the company. We shall have to resign from the Board of Directors. Start again somewhere. I know it's not your fault. But, Jackson being Jackson, the fact that you are your father's son has torn it. Torn it completely." Edward Parker got out of his chair, and stood looking down at his anguished partner; his eyes were shining curiously, and he seemed very happy. "Bill," he declared, "Jackson being Jackson has saved it. Before, I relied on decent people out here being anxious to help a man with my name. I'm certain some of them would, too. Now I do not require their help. Sir Evelyn Jackson, you'll be pleased to hear, will do everything we require." And when Parker had finished his explanation, Renton was grinning broadly. "There is," he he said, "a touch about this that I like.” When the time was ripe, and the flotation of the gum company which founded the fortune of the partners a fact, it was Edward Parker, using his own name and without a beard, who approached the officials with a tale of royalties not yet paid. He went to a man in high places, who had been a contemporary of his father, introduced himself as James Parker's son, and explained his business with nice discretion. He laid emphasis on the ambiguity of the payment clauses in the lease agreement, and made a good deal of play with the audited accounts of the partnership, which showed the exact amount of royalty owing. The high official person listened to him gravely. "The whole affair," he stated, when Parker had finished, "is lamentably irregular. However, so far as I am concerned, the production by you of your accounts removes any suggestion of fraudulent intention. But others may hold different views. It is a matter for consideration. Personally, I am inclined to think that the irregu larity might be met by a fine. The eyes twinkled. Sir Evelyn Jackson had interested himself in the matter. Most people regarded it as a foregone conclusion that the man who had ruined the father of the official would not hesitate to complete the business by ruining the son. To get Edward Parker indicted for fraud would be such an excellent vindication of the contention, which Sir Evelyn had persistently adopted, that the Parker stock was bad. "Naturally," he answered. "Then, in due course, you will be informed of the decision of the Department. Er-by the way-" He hesitated, and Parker encouraged him with a smile. "I take it that you do not want the fact that you are poor James Parker's boy-er-advertised? But Edward Parker, having made certain that Sir Evelyn Jackson was the only person who stood in the way of a satisfactory compromise, went to an interview with that great man without any sign of anxiety. He was ushered into the "I should like the fact to be known," Parker informed him. The official showed astonishment. "Sure?" he asked. "Known large airy office in the Secrein all quarters." tariat, smiling genially at the Parker rose from his chair immaculate but adipose figure and held out his hand. "Known," he said, "if possible to Sir Evelyn Jackson." And the official gasped, almost visibly. Within a week the local gossips were busy with a nice tit-bit of scandal, and people who had known James Parker were in considerable demand. Edward Parker, son of the illtreated and bibulous James, had, it appeared, involved himself in a piece of extremely irregular trading, but had managed to convince the authorities concerned that he had no real intention of defrauding the revenue. Compromise would have settled his case had he not been fool enough to make public the fact of his parentage. seated at the large writingtable beneath the gently swaying punkah. Then he sat down in an arm-chair, without being invited to do so. "Does that tiger make a satisfactory ornament to the home?" he asked upon a conversational note. Sir Evelyn started at the sound of the voice, and stared at his visitor intently. "Wrong," Edward Parker answered. "I am here to show you why you will not interfere in the settlement which was at first proposed." "Then," Sir Evelyn declared, flushing, "you need not waste your time and mine.” "I won't," Parker answered, with his pleasant smile. "The amount of royalty owing has been agreed upon at sixteen hundred sterling. The fine suggested for irregularities was four hundred. Two thousand pounds sterling in round figures... to bolster up a defence of insanity?" "Don't be silly," Parker told him curtly. "I am waiting for your cheque." "Are you threatening me?" Sir Evelyn asked, furious but wavering. "If so . . ." But Parker stopped him, and he was not smiling. "It's an overdue demand," he explained. "You ruined my father's life because he was once foolish enough to convict you of talking like an ignorant fool. You deliberately kept him from higher pay and a higher pension. Two thousand pounds is letting you off light." "Blackmail!" the great man asked, his voice rising. "Label it what you like," Parker stated. "Myself, I rather like 'Poetic Justice' as a title." Sir Evelyn put restraint upon Sir Evelyn Jackson held up his indignation. his hand. "The suggested compromise will not be permitted," he announced. "I have some influence, and I do not tolerate fraud." "So," Parker continued, as though he had not heard the great man, "if you will kindly give me your cheque for two thousand pounds and inform your colleagues that the settlement can be arranged on the terms already suggested, I shall be much obliged." Sir Evelyn stared, but there was uneasiness beneath his amazement. "Is this," he demanded angrily, "an elaborate attempt "Before I have you thrown out of this room," he stuttered, "will you say definitely what you mean? "I will," Parker told him. "Tigers began and tigers end the interest which you have been good enough to take in my father and myself. Look at that." He took from his pocket a photograph, and handed it to Sir Evelyn. The great man looked at it, and his face went white. For he saw a very excellent picture of himself running madly down a jungle path from a dead tiger, throwing away his gun as he ran. "You do," Edward Parker remarked pleasantly, "look fat and frightened, don't you?" "What," said Sir Evelyn, and his voice was deflated, "do you propose to do with this? "Either to send it to the papers for publication, when I should please myself, or to sell it to you for two thousand, when I should satisfy my partner's commercial instincts." The great man attempted to rally, but there was no conviction in his voice. "Your publication of this libellous atrocity," he stated, "would not free you of the charge of fraud." Edward Parker laughed geni- guarantee of good behaviour." ally. 66 “Think again, little man," he suggested. 'You alone amongst your colleagues for the prosecution! That portrait of you in the hands of the defending counsel! My innocent explanation and my accounts in order! What would the jury think?" He paused, smiling; then, as Sir Evelyn shuddered, he leaned forward and spoke quietly. "I do hope," he said, "that you will adopt a strong man's attitude and refuse to buy. Your exit from public life, where you are so much loved, would be more undignified than mine from your room when we first met. You were strong Edward Parker examined the cheque and put it carefully into a note-case. Then he got up from his chair. He looked down at the small man at the writingtable, and waited. But the silence in the large airy room was complete except for the slight squeaking of one of the pulley wheels of the punkah cord. "I am glad," said Edward Parker at length, "that you appreciate the fact that your unsupported word is unacceptable in any bargain." He turned and walked out of the room. Sir Evelyn Jackson gaped. He had expected hate; but he found the depth of this under-bred person's contempt disconcerting. A BLACK SHEEP FROM THE SOUTH DOWNS. BY NGAK WENG. KENTISH villagers are unfriendly to new-comers. But after three years or so the foreigner' from China or Sussex is accepted as inevitable, and can, if he please, do a little cold-shouldering himself. Frumenty's term of probation, like mine, is just up; but now he is away again. I engaged him, as one Ishmaelite might another, as occasional gardener and handyman. Mr Onions, who sells me milk, and who therefore had me from the first under his protection to some extent, leaned over the fence and addressed me with a grin, which appeared even less amiable than he intended it to be, by reason of the gaps and black ruins in his still youthful jaws. Teeth are a weak feature in our village. 66 was not weakened by Frumenty's admissions. Once he became reminiscent on the subject of roses. Grawft? Can I grawft? Whoy, if you'll believe me, when we was boys there was a old bloke 'ad a field alongside of us, and damned if 'e didn't take and grawft all manner of these 'ere garden roses on the briars in the 'edge, fit to make you smoile. So when they was well set, bothered if us boys didn't go for to dig the 'arf of 'em up one noight. Got a bob apiece, we did. Proize blooms, as you might say." And then he has a disconcerting term " to win," meaning to acquire by right of trover, which he applies to the acquisition of rabbits, mole-traps, derelict tools, or indeed most things that will fit into a to say that I am aware of this So you've got 'im working pocket. However, I am bound for you." "Yes; and working pretty point of view of his solely from hard, as you see." "'E would." This seemed unreasonable, not to say malevolent. He seems able to put his hands to most things," I protested. "You've said it, mister. Put 'is 'ands to most things. I get your meaning. Haw, haw! I take good care 'e don't put 'is 'ands to nawthin' of moine." The effect of this warning his own unblushing confessions. He has not to my knowledge "put his hands" to anything of mine. Indeed I have doubted whether the stories of some of his exploits are more than picturesque imaginings of how he would have shown his ingenuity, had a suitable opportunity occurred; or how in a ticklish situation he would have issued triumphant. For Frumenty is always right. |