Джорджетт Хейер: The Talisman Ring

“Good God, Nye, the oldest trick in the world, and you must needs fall a victim to it!” said Sir Tristram scornfully.

“I know it, sir: there ain’t no call for you to tell me. Fair bamboozled I was.”

“This sort of thing,” said Sir Hugh, cutting the cord that bound Clem’s arms, “is past a jest! Were you knocked on the head too?”

Clem, however, had escaped this particular violence. He was a good deal shaken and bruised, but his assailants had overpowered him without being obliged to stun him. He recounted that he had heard someone calling for the drawer, and had gone at once to the taproom. He had seen only one man, standing in quite an innocent-seeming fashion by the bar, but no sooner had he entered the room than a heavy coat had been thrown over his head by someone hidden behind the door, and before he could disentangle himself from its folds both men were upon him and he was speedily gagged and trussed up like the landlord.

Having released the captives Sir Tristram’s next concern was to discover what the intruders had done in the inn. This was soon seen. They had visited every bedchamber, wrenched drawers out of the chests, and turned their contents on to the floor, ripped the clothes out of the wardrobes, burst open the locks of Sir Hugh’s cloakbags, and tossed out their contents higgledy-piggledy.

Sir Hugh, when he beheld the havoc amongst his possessions, was rendered quite speechless. His sister, staring about her said: “But it is mad! This can have been no search for Ludovic! One would imagine they must have been common housebreakers, but there is my trinket-box broken open and my trinkets in a heap on my dressing-table. Have you lost anything, Hugh? I think I have not.”

“Have I—” Sir Hugh choked. “How the devil can I know whether I’ve lost anything in this confusion?”

Shield was looking frowningly round the disordered room.

“No, they were not searching for Ludovic,” he said. “But what were they searching for? What can you have that the Beau wants so desperately?”

Sir Hugh caught the name and said: “Do you mean to tell me that this outrage was committed by this cousin of Lavenham’s who broke in last night?”

“I am afraid so,” replied Shield, smiling a little at Sir Hugh’s face of Jovean wrath.

“Then understand this, Sally!” said Sir Hugh. “Not a yard from this place do I stir until I have that fellow laid by the heels! It’s bad enough when he comes creeping into the house to try to stick a knife into young Lavenham, but when he has the infernal impudence to turn my room into a pigsty, then I say he’s gone a step too far!”

“The knife!” exclaimed Eustacie. “He came for the knife, of course! Sir Hugh seized it last night, Tristram!”

“Where was it put?” asked Shield. “Has it been taken?”

Nye said: “We’ll soon see that, sir. Sir Hugh left it on the coffee-room table, and thinking we might need to produce it as evidence I put it away this morning in my china cupboard—the same them Runners blew the lock out of, sir.”

“Go and see if it’s there,” commanded Sir Tristram. “It may have been that—I suppose it must have been that, yet somehow—” He broke off, obviously puzzled.

“But yes, Tristram, he does not wish to be known to have come here last night, naturellement , therefore he must recover his dagger for fear we might recognize it!”

“It seems to me a most unnecessary risk to run,” said Sir Tristram. “As matters now stand we cannot bring him to book for breaking in here any more than he can bring us to book for breaking into the Dower House. He must know that! He’s not a fool.”

“I believe him to be too much alarmed to think calmly,” said Miss Thane.

Nye came back into the room. “Well, they didn’t think to look in the back premises, your Honour, that’s certain. Here’s the dagger.”

Sir Tristram took it in his hand and looked at it, more puzzled than ever. “I dare say it is his,” he said, “but I for one could not swear to it. It is in no way remarkable.”

Miss Thane said suddenly: “Oh, how stupid of us! Of course he did not come to look for that! He came for his quizzing-glass. There could be no mistaking that! It is quite an unusual one: I knew it immediately for his and so did Nye. Now what became of it? Hugh, you had it! Where did you put it?”

“Put what?” said Sir Hugh, who was wandering about the room, attempting in a singularly helpless fashion to restore order.

“The Beau’s quizzing-glass, my dear. I am sure you had it in your hand when Eustacie and I went up to bed last night.”

“I don’t know where I put it,” said Sir Hugh, stooping to pick up a crumpled cravat. “I laid it down somewhere.”

“Where?” insisted Miss Thane.

“I forget. Sally, this is my new riding-coat, I’ll have you know! Just look at it! It’s ruined!”

“No, dear, Clem will iron out the creases for you. You must know where you put that quizzing-glass. Do think!”

“I’ve something more important to think about than a quizzing-glass that don’t belong to me, and which I don’t like. Ugly, cumbersome thing, it was. I dare say I left it on the table in the coffee-room.”

Nye shook his head. “It wasn’t there this morning, sir.”

“Well, I may have brought it upstairs. I tell you I don’t know, and I don’t care.”

“I suppose it doesn’t signify,” said Miss Thane reflectively. “Depend upon it, that was what the Beau wanted. I must say, I hope he found it, for the prospect of any more ransacking I find quite appalling.”

Eustacie, helping Sir Hugh to smooth and fold several crumpled neckcloths, said carefully: “This is a very good adventure, and of course I am enjoying it— cela va sans dire! —but—but do you think that Basil will again try to come and kill Ludovic?”

“I should think it unlikely,” answered Shield, “but I am going to ride back to the Court for my night-gear, and spend the night in Ludovic’s room.”

“Famous!” said Miss Thane. “I declare I never dreamed of such a romantic adventure as this turns out to be. In a little while we shall be barricading ourselves into the inn in a state of siege. Nothing would be more delightful!”

“I’ve no objection to Shield’s putting up here, if he wants to,” stated Sir Hugh, “but if I am to be roused out of my bed by fellows in loo-masks I won’t be answerable for the consequences!”

Miss Thane, perceiving that his placidity was seriously impaired, set herself to coax him back into good humour. Nye promised to send Clem up immediately to put away all the scattered belongings, and he presently allowed himself to be escorted down to the parlour and installed in an easy chair by the fire, with a bottle of Madeira at his elbow. All he asked, he said, was a little peace and quiet, so his sister tactfully withdrew, leaving him to the mellowing influence of his wine.

Sir Tristram did not remain long at the Red Lion, but soon called for his horse, promising to return in time for dinner. No more startling events occurred during the course of the afternoon, and no suspicious strangers entered the taproom. Sir Tristram came back shortly after six o’clock, and Nye, bolting the door into the coffee-room, released Ludovic, who had reached the point of announcing with considerable acrimony that if coming into possession of his inheritance entailed many more days spent underground, he would prefer to return to his free trading.

After dinner Miss Thane had the tact to suggest that they should sit down to a game of loo, and in this way the evening passed swiftly, Ludovic’s problem being for the time forgotten, and the game proving so engrossing that it was not until after eleven o’clock that Miss Thane thought to look at the timepiece on the mantelshelf. The party then broke up, and the ladies had just picked up their candles when Nye’s voice was suddenly heard somewhere above-stairs, raised in ferocious surprise.