the stranger was a lean, spare man with not an ounce of superfluous flesh. he looked like a man that did not know the meaning of fatigue. his face was brown and tanned; his keen grey eyes looked out under bushy brows; the outline of a stubborn chin showed under a ragged moustache. swan russell had the air of one who has seen men and things, and his aspect did not belie him. for the rest, he was an adventurer to his finger tips, always ready to take his life in his hands, always eager for anything that promised excitement and danger. he had been first on the field in many a gold rush. he had a keen nose for locality where money is to be made. and yet, despite his shrewdness and energy, he had always remained a poor man. perhaps it was his very restlessness, his inability to stay in one place long, that kept him in a condition bordering upon poverty.
"it is strange you should be here to-night," wilfrid said.
"not in the least," the other replied, "because i came on purpose to look for you. i found out in oldborough that you had come here with mr. vardon, and then i elicited the fact that you were somewhere about the circus. isn't it rather funny you should find yourself settled down within a stone's throw of samuel flower's house?"
wilfrid started. whoever he met, or wherever he went now, it seemed that flower's name was doomed to crop up.
"what do you know about him?" he asked.
"quite as much as you do," russell retorted, "and perhaps a little more. oh, i haven't forgotten about that mutiny on the guelder rose. if i recollect, you had a lucky get-out there. flower is not the man to forgive a thing of that sort, and if he could not have obtained evidence to convict you, he wouldn't have had the slightest hesitation in buying it. in the circumstances, wasn't it rather risky to settle down here?"
"well, you see, i didn't know," wilfrid explained. "i had no idea that flower had a place in the country. besides, i thought the whole thing was forgotten. it is two years ago, and so far as i know, flower made no attempt to trace me. what will you think when i tell you that he is actually a patient of mine?"
"oh, i am aware of that," russell said coolly. "i have not been hanging about during the last three or four days for nothing. i was amused when i heard you had been attending flower. did he recognize you—i mean, did he recognize you from your name? i know that you have never met."
"he did not recognize me at first," wilfrid said; "indeed, the whole thing might have passed only i was fool enough to let out that i had at one time been a ship's doctor. then he gave me one glance, but said nothing. i began to believe that it was all right till this evening, when i had an unpleasant reminder that it was all wrong."
"would you mind telling me?" russell asked. "mind you, i am not simply curious. i want information."
"why not?" wilfrid said despondingly. "you are an old chum of mine and you might just as well know what will be common property in oldborough in two or three days. that scoundrel has got me in his clutches and means to ruin me without delay. but perhaps i had better tell you how things stand."
"so that's the game?" russell said, when wilfrid had finished his explanation. "well, let the fellow do his worst. you were never cut out for a country doctor and the sooner you chuck it and come back to london the better. i want a friend to help me. i want a friend to rely upon. and that is the reason why i came to see you. you will never make bread and cheese in oldborough, and you are wasting time there. if you will throw in your lot with me, it will go hard if i can't show you how to make fifty thousand pounds during the next three months."
"and where are the fifty thousand pounds?" wilfrid asked cynically. "it sounds too good to be true."
"the fifty thousand pounds, my dear chap, are at present in samuel flower's pocket accompanied by just as much more, which, by all the rules of the game, belong to me. i have been robbed of that money as surely as if my pocket had been picked by that rascally ship-owner. he left me without a feather to fly with; indeed, i was hard put to it to manage to get my passage money from the malay peninsula to london. but i have given him a fright. he knows what to expect."
swan russell chuckled as if something amused him greatly.
"but is there a chance of getting this money?" wilfrid asked.
"my dear fellow, it is a certainty. i don't say there is no danger, because there is; but that is just the thing that would have appealed to you at one time. besides, you needn't chuck up your practice. you can run up and down to london as i want you and leave the good people at oldborough to believe that you have been called away on important consultations. besides, if you will join me in this venture, i may be able to find you the money to pay flower off."
"when do you want me to start?" wilfrid asked.
russell's reply was to the point.
"to-night," he said. "i want you to come to town by the half-past ten train. we shall be in london a few minutes past eleven, and unless i am mistaken, there is work for you at once. now don't hesitate, but do what i ask you and you will never be sorry for it. you can get vardon to call at your house when he gets back to oldborough and explain to your mother that you have been called away on urgent business. i will find you a bed and the necessary clothing, and unless anything very, very pressing turns up, you can be back in oldborough by breakfast time."
wild as the suggestion was it appealed to wilfrid. there were no patients in a critical state to require his attention, he reflected bitterly. and anything was better than sitting impotently at home waiting for the end which he believed to be inevitable. on the other hand, there was the desperate chance of something turning up; some way of tapping the golden stream which should render him independent of samuel flower. he held out his hand.
"very well," he said. "i'll come with you. if you'll give me half a minute i'll ask vardon to call at my house."
vardon came out of the office of the circus at the same moment, and without going into details wilfrid proceeded to explain.
"i hope you won't think it rude of me," he said, "but swan russell is an old friend and it is in my power to do him a service. will you tell my mother that i shall not be back till to-morrow? and perhaps you will call upon your client and see what you can do for me in the matter of that loan. it is possible that when i come back from london i shall be in a position to find the money myself."
"all right," vardon said cheerfully, "anything i can do for you, i certainly will. but if you are going to catch your train you haven't much time to lose."
mercer and his companion walked quietly down to the station. wilfrid would have strolled casually on to the platform, but russell held him back.
"you'll just keep in the shadow till the last moment," he said. "i have very particular reasons for not being seen here and one of these reasons you will see for yourself. one can't be too careful."
wilfrid asked no further questions. he was content to leave matters in russell's hands until the latter was ready to explain. he began to understand the necessity for caution presently, when, amongst the steady stream of passengers trickling into the station, he saw the familiar form of samuel flower.
"there he goes, the beauty," russell murmured. "look at the scoundrel. isn't he the very essence of middle-class respectability? he might pass for a churchwarden or the deacon of a chapel. of all the scoundrels in the city of london there is not a more noxious specimen than samuel flower. i believe that if you gave that chap the chance of making a thousand pounds honestly, or a mere sovereign by defrauding a widow or an orphan, he would choose the latter. and the luck he has had, too! where would he be now if the whole facts of that guelder rose business had come to light? what would become of him if a single ship's officer had survived the wreck of the japonica? but i'll bring him down, mercer; i'll beat that ruffian to his knees yet. and i have got the information, too, if i can only complete it. my only fear is that the other vengeance may reach him first."
"you allude to the matter of the string with five knots, i suppose?" wilfrid asked.
a look of surprise crossed russell's face.
"what on earth do you know about that?" he asked.
"you forget that i was in the malay archipelago myself," wilfrid responded. "you seem to have forgotten the tragic death of the white man i told you about. besides, i was in flower's house at the very moment when he received his warning in a registered letter, and that letter came from borneo."
russell chuckled.
"come along," he said. "we have cut it quite fine enough. you can tell me the rest in the train."
