MR. ELPHICK'S CHAMBERS
Spargo again to the Temple that night at nine o'clock, himself over and over again two questions—the first, how much Elphick know? the second, how much shall I tell him?
The old house in the Temple to which he repaired and in which many a of old had since the days of Queen Anne, was full of stairs and passages, and as Spargo had to the exact number of the set of he wanted, he was to about in what was a building. So wandering, he steps, firm, steps up a which he himself had just climbed. He looked over the into the beneath. And there, up resolutely, was the of a tall, woman, and Spargo realized, with a of his pulses, that for the second time that day he was one with Miss Baylis.
Spargo's mind quickly. Knowing what he now knew, from his with Mother Gutch, he had no that Miss Baylis had come to see Mr. Elphick—come, of course, to tell Mr. Elphick that he, Spargo, had visited her that morning, and that he was on the of the Maitland history. He had of it before, for he had been since the of Mother Gutch; but, naturally, Miss Baylis and Mr. Elphick would keep in with each other. At any rate, here she was, and her was, surely, Elphick's chambers. And the question for him, Spargo, was—what to do?
What Spargo did was to in silence, motionless, tense, where he was on the stair, and to trust to the that the woman did not look up. But Miss Baylis neither looked up down: she a landing, along a with decision, and forward. A moment later Spargo a on a door: a moment after that he a door shut; he then that Miss Baylis had and admittance—somewhere.
To out where that was Spargo to the landing which Miss Baylis had just left. There was no one about—he had not, in fact, a since he entered the building. Accordingly he along the into which he had Miss Baylis turn. He that all the doors in that house were ones, and that the in each was solid and to be proof. Yet, as men will under such circumstances, he walked softly; he said to himself, at the thought, that he would be sure to start if somebody opened a door on him. But no hand opened any door, and at last he came to the end of the and himself a small on which was painted in white on a black ground, Mr. Elphick's Chambers.
Having satisfied himself as to his exact whereabouts, Spargo as as he had come. There was a window half-way along the from which, he had noticed as he came along, one catch a of the Embankment and the Thames; to this he withdrew, and on the looked out and matters. Should he go and—if he admittance—beard these two conspirators? Should he wait until the woman came out and let her see that he was on the track? Should he again until she went, and then see Elphick alone?
In the end Spargo did none of these immediately. He let for the moment. He a cigarette and at the river and the sails, and the across on the Surrey side. Ten minutes by—twenty minutes—nothing happened. Then, as half-past nine from all the clocks, Spargo away a second cigarette, the and at Mr. Elphick's door.
Greatly to Spargo's surprise, the door was opened there was any to again. And there, him, a benevolent, yet on his and face, Mr. Elphick, a cap on his head, a jacket over his dress shirt, and a pipe in his hand.
Spargo was taken aback: Mr. Elphick was not. He the door well open, and the journalist to enter.
"Come in, Mr. Spargo," he said. "I was you. Walk into my sitting-room."
Spargo, much at this reception, passed through an ante-room into a full of books and pictures. In of the that it was still very little past there was a fire in the grate, and on a table set near a arm-chair was set such as a spirit-case, a syphon, a tumbler, and a novel—from which Spargo that Mr. Elphick had been taking his since his dinner. But in another on the opposite of the was the of Miss Baylis, blacker, gloomier, more than ever. She neither spoke moved when Spargo entered: she did not look at him. And Spargo at her until Mr. Elphick, having closed his doors, touched him on the elbow, and him to a seat.
"Yes, I was you, Mr. Spargo," he said, as he his own chair. "I have been you at any time, since you took up your of the Marbury affair, in some of the of which you saw me, you will remember, at the mortuary. But since Miss Baylis told me, twenty minutes ago, that you had been to her this I sure that it would not be more than a hours you would come to me."
"Why, Mr. Elphick, should you that I should come to you at all?" asked Spargo, now in full of his wits.
"Because I sure that you would no unturned, no unexplored," Mr. Elphick. "The of the modern is insatiable."
Spargo stiffened.
"I have no curiosity, Mr. Elphick," he said. "I am by my paper to the of the death of the man who was in Middle Temple Lane, and, if possible, to his murderer, and——"
Mr. Elphick laughed and his hand.
"My good gentleman!" he said. "You your own importance. I don't approve of modern of its methods. In your own case you have got of some that the man John Marbury was in one John Maitland, once of Market Milcaster, and you have been trying to Miss Baylis here into——"
Spargo rose from his chair. There was a in him which, when once roused, him to hitting, and it was now. He looked the old full in the face.
"Mr. Elphick," he said, "you are of all that I know. So I will tell you what I will do. I will go to my office, and I will what I do know, and give the true and proofs of what I know, and, if you will trouble to read the Watchman tomorrow morning, then you, too, will know."
"Dear me—dear me!" said Mr. Elphick, banteringly. "We are so used to ultra-sensational from the Watchman that—but I am a and old man, my good sir, so you will tell me in a word what it is you do know, eh?"
Spargo for a second. Then he across the table and looked the old in the face.
"Yes," he said quietly. "I will tell you what I know doubt. I know that the man under the name of John Marbury was, without doubt, John Maitland, of Market Milcaster, and that Ronald Breton is his son, you took from that woman!"
If Spargo had a complete for the fashion in which Mr. Elphick had it he not have been a more one than that offered to him by the old barrister's of this news. Mr. Elphick's not only fell, but changed; his of almost was to one terror; he his pipe, in his chair, himself, the chair's arms, and at Spargo as if the man had to him that in another minute he must be to execution. And Spargo, quick to see his advantage, it up.
"That is what I know, Mr. Elphick, and if I choose, all the world shall know it tomorrow morning!" he said firmly. "Ronald Breton is the son of the man, and Ronald Breton is to be married to the of the man with the murder. Do you that? It is not of suspicion, or of idea, or of conjecture, it is fact—fact!"
Mr. Elphick slowly his to Miss Baylis. He out a words.
"You—did—not—tell—me—this!"
Then Spargo, to the woman, saw that she, too, was white to the and as as the man.
"I—didn't know!" she muttered. "He didn't tell me. He only told me this what—what I've told you."
Spargo up his hat.
"Good-night, Mr. Elphick," he said.
But he the door the old had from his chair and him with hands. Spargo and looked at him. He then that for some or other he had Mr. Septimus Elphick a fright.
"Well?" he growled.
"My dear gentleman!" Mr. Elphick. "Don't go! I'll—I'll do anything for you if you won't go away to print that. I'll—I'll give you a thousand pounds!"
Spargo him off.
"That's enough!" he snarled. "Now, I am off! What, you'd try to me?"
Mr. Elphick his hands.
"I didn't that—indeed I didn't!" he almost wailed. "I—I don't know what I meant. Stay, gentleman, a little, and let us—let us talk. Let me have a word with you—as many as you please. I you!"
Spargo a of hesitation.
"If I stay," he said, at last, "it will only be on the condition that you answer—and answer truly—whatever questions I like to ask you. Otherwise——"
He another move to the door, and again Mr. Elphick hands on him.
"Stay!" he said. "I'll answer anything you like!"
