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'Well, you remember how devoted he was to me when I was at Mrs Duncombe's, my first situation, and I only seventeen. And when the recruiting party was ordered to another town, poor Mr. Harper came and stood opposite the schoolroom window for nearly an hour, and I know it was his doing that the band played "The girl I left behind me," when they marched out the next day. Poor Mr. Harper!
"I got it without any thinking out at all," I said. "Don't talk so, private. Listen. Now, look here, it's all Duncombe's fault." "That we're alive?" I said. "Pooh! Nonsense! It's that anti-febrile tonic, as he calls it. It's my firm belief that he hadn't the right sort of medicine with him, and he has fudged up something to make shift with." "What nonsense!" I said.
With stealthy footsteps they invaded Captain Duncombe's little domain, and walked slowly round the house, examining every door and window as they went. "Is the captain a rich man?" asked Milsom. "Yes; I believe he's pretty well off some say uncommonly well off. He spent over a thousand pounds on this place." "Curse him for his pains!" returned Black Milsom, savagely.
In no long time it would have been found that of all financial resources the least productive is robbery, and that the public had really paid far more dearly for Duncombe's hundreds of thousands than if it had borrowed them at fifty per cent. These considerations had more weight with the Lords than with the Commons.
Duncombe's leisure, many of those employed in the works passed him on their return from breakfast; and, with one or two exceptions, without any acknowledgment of former acquaintance beyond a distant nod at the utmost.
There had been no treason whatever in the office; neither had anything come out through the proctorial firm in York, or Sir Walter Carnaby's solicitors; but a note among longheaded Duncombe's papers had got into the hands of Mordacks. Of that, however, Mr. Jellicorse had no idea.
A glass case has been broken open, and a silver cup and oar, prizes for sports at college, I believe, have been abstracted. Also the money from the till below; and I am sorry to say, young Hornblower is absconded, and suspicion lies heavy on him. They do say the young man staked heavily on that mare of Captain Duncombe's." "You had better go on to the superintendent now," said Raymond.
They were kept so long at the door of Aucuba Villa that they had begun to doubt if they had not mistaken the day, until the Sirenwood carriage crashed up behind them; and after the third pull at the bell they were admitted by an erect, alert figure, a remnant of Captain Duncombe's military life.
It should seem therefore that, whatever moral conviction the Lords might feel of Duncombe's guilt, they were bound, as righteous judges, to absolve him. After much animated debate, they divided; and the bill was lost by forty-eight votes to forty-seven.
Lord Runton raised his eyebrows slightly at what he considered a somewhat vulgar curiosity, but his reply was prompt. "You are a friend of Duncombe's, Mr. Pelham," he said, "and that is enough. I have to ask not only you, but all three of you, to consider what I am going to tell you as absolutely confidential." They all signified their assent. Lord Runton continued:
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