The Coward Behind the Curtain
Copyright© 2024 by Richard Marsh
Chapter 10: What the Caravan Left Behind
Swinging round in the direction from which the voice came, Mr Frazer stood still to stare. The girl, rising to her feet, stared also; with her pale cheeks a little paler, and her eyes wide open.
The speaker was one of those shambling, half-grown youths who are generally found attached to gipsy caravans, as hangers-on. That he had gipsy blood in his veins, his hair and eyes and skin suggested; but that he was as much Cockney as gipsy his tongue betrayed. With a ragged cloth cap on the back of his head; the remains of a black-and-white checked woollen scarf about his sinewy neck; a faded old red flannel shirt plainly visible under an unbuttoned sleeved waistcoat; his fingers thrust into the band of his trousers: he grinned first at the man, and then at the woman, in evident enjoyment of their something more than surprise. He showed no inclination to break the silence which followed his wholly unexpected, and undesired, appearance on the scene; from his point of view the joke was apparently too good a one to spoil. It was Mr Frazer who spoke next.
“Who are you?--and what business have you to be here?”
The stranger’s grin grew more pronounced, so that he showed a set of perfect white teeth; which again suggested the gipsy.
“I’m General Lord Kitchener, that’s who I am--don’t you know me from the photographs? And as to what business I have to be here, I always thought that Newcaster Heath was common grazing ground, and that people could go about all over it just exactly as they please.”
“What have you been doing behind those bushes?”
“What have I been doing?--that’s it, what have I?”
“Have you been listening?”
The stranger looked his questioner straight in the face, with a grin in his eyes and on his lips; then he winked. The action was more significant than any words could have been; it moved the man to sudden anger.
“You young hound!”
“Steady on! I’m no more a hound than you. No names; if it comes to that perhaps I’m as good at chucking names about as you are--Mr Frazer.”
“You know my name?”
“I heard you tell her what it was; and very nice it was of you to tell her.”
There was an insinuation in the grin with which the words were accompanied which stung the man again.
“My lad, I’ve a mind to break your neck.”
“Have you? Then you take my tip, and keep your mind to yourself. I’ve some friends not far from here, and if you try to come any of your games with me I’ll give them a call, and they’ll be here in double quick time; then you’ll find that breaking necks is a game that more than one can play at.”
Mr Frazer regarded the speaker as if he were considering whether or not to take him at his word, and let him give his friends a call. Then he turned to the girl, his tone as easy and courteous as ever:
“I think I’ll put this parcel inside there, and then, while you’re changing, I can have a talk with this young gentleman.”
The girl seemed uncomfortable, undecided.
“What does he want?”
It was the younger man who replied:
“That’s it, miss--what does he want? I wouldn’t mind having what he thinks he’s going to get; you can take that from me.”
Mr Frazer ignored the other’s words. Going to the caravan with the parcel in his hand he placed it just inside the door. Then he turned to the girl again, beckoning to her with his hand.
“If you please! You remember what I said about half-an-hour? I shall be so glad if you can make it convenient to be ready.”
She hesitated; looking sideways at the stranger. Then she moved to Mr Frazer, who was by the steps which led into the caravan.
“Why won’t you tell me what he wants?”
“Because I don’t know--but I soon shall; and all the sooner if you’ll leave us alone together.”
The young man called out from among the gorse:
“He thinks he’s going to bounce me as soon as your back’s turned, miss--oh, he’s a deep ‘un!”
Mr Frazer, still ignoring him, said to the girl:
“Please will you try to be ready inside those thirty minutes?”
“Will you be ready?”
“I think I shall--I don’t think you’ll find I’ll keep you waiting.” She looked into his blue eyes, as if she were trying to decipher what was in them; then, glancing half affrightedly over her shoulder, she went up the steps into the caravan. She paused on the ledge to give a flying look at Mr Frazer, and another at the lad among the bushes, then passed inside, drawing the door to behind her. Mr Frazer said: “I think that, if I were you, I should bolt the door, and close the window.”
The lad called out:
“That won’t keep the cops out, miss, don’t you think it!” Mr Frazer waited, as if to ascertain that his hint had been acted on. Then he crossed the little hollow, towards the bushes on the slope among which the lad was standing. “Don’t you come too close,” observed the lad.
“I don’t intend to; I only wish to come close enough to enable you to hear what I have to say without making it necessary for me to raise my voice.”
He ascended the slope until he was within a few feet of the other.
“That’s near enough; none of your games.”
“There’s a bush between us; that is something. Now, sir, what is it you want?”
“What do I want? Why, I want five and twenty pounds, that’s what I want.”
“What for?”
“You know what for.”
“Since, from your appearance, you never had so much money in your life, I suppose, in a general way, I do know what for. But do you expect me to give you five and twenty pounds?”
“That’s for you to say. If you don’t I can get it from someone else--that all.”
“From whom?”
“From the police over at Newcaster.”
“Indeed; why should they give you five and twenty pounds?”
“Oh, come off of it!--what do you think you’re playing at? You know very well why they’ll give me five and twenty pound, and if you don’t I’ll tell you--I’m not afraid.”
“Why?”
“Why!--for putting them on to Miss Dorothy Gilbert, what’s wanted for that little job last night at ‘The Bolton Arms.’ Now do you understand?”
“I hope I don’t.”
“Then you needn’t hope; because you do. I speak plainly enough, Mr Frazer.”
“From your post of vantage, behind these bushes, did you hear all that was said?”
“I did; every blessed word; and I’m not going to forget one either, so don’t you make any blooming error.”
“Then, in that case, you are aware that this lady is guiltless.”
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