‘Bed, Richie!’ he waved to me. ’You
drink no wine, you cannot stand dissipation as I do.
Bed, my dear boy! I am a God, sir, inaccessible
to mortal ailments! Seriously, dear boy, I have
never known an illness in my life. I have killed
my hundreds of poor devils who were for imitating me.
This I boast—I boast constitution.
And I fear, Richie, you have none of my superhuman
strength. Added to that, I know I am watched over.
I ask—I have: I scheme the tricks
are in my hand! It may be the doing of my mother
in heaven; there is the fact for you to reflect on.
“Stand not in my way, nor follow me too far,”
would serve me for a motto admirably, and you can
put it in Latin, Richie. Bed! You shall turn
your scholarship to account as I do my genius in your
interest. On my soul, that motto in Latin will
requite me. Now to bed.’
‘No,’ said I. ’You have got
away from me once. I shall keep you in sight
and hearing, if I have to lie at your door for it.
You will go with me to London to-morrow. I shall
treat you as a man I have to guard, and I shall not
let you loose before I am quite sure of you.’
‘Loose!’ he exclaimed, throwing up an
arm and a leg.
’I mean, sir, that you shall be in my presence
wherever you are, and I will take care you don’t
go far and wide. It’s useless to pretend
astonishment. I don’t argue and I don’t
beseech any further: I just sit on guard, as
I would over a powder-cask.’
My father raised himself on an elbow. ‘The
explosion,’ he said, examining his watch, ’occurred
at about five minutes to eleven—we are advancing
into the morning—last night. I received
on your behalf the congratulations of friends Loftus,
Alton, Segrave, and the rest, at that hour. So,
my dear Richie, you are sitting on guard over the empty
magazine.’
I listened with a throbbing forehead, and controlled
the choking in my throat, to ask him whether he had
touched the newspapers.
‘Ay, dear lad, I have sprung my mine in them,’
he replied.
‘You have sent word—?’
’I have despatched a paragraph to the effect,
that the prince and princess have arrived to ratify
the nuptial preliminaries.’
‘You expect it to appear this day?’
’Or else my name and influence are curiously
at variance with the confidence I repose in them,
Richie.’
‘Then I leave you to yourself,’ I said.
’Prince Ernest knows he has to expect this statement
in the papers?’
‘We trumped him with that identical court-card,
Richie.’
’Very well. To-morrow, after we have been
to my grandfather, you and I part company for good,
sir. It costs me too much.’
‘Dear old Richie,’ he laughed, gently.
’And now to bye-bye! My blessing on you
now and always.’
He shut his eyes.
CHAPTER LI
AN ENCOUNTER SHOWING MY FATHER’S GENIUS IN A STRONG LIGHT
Copyrights
The Adventures Harry Richmond — Complete from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.
