The Talisman Ring

‘Oh, my wound’s well enough!’ replied Ludovic. ‘Do you want me to say that you were in the right, and there was a trap? Well, then, you were damnably right, even to saying that I’d not find my ring. I haven’t found it. What else?’

‘Nothing else. Go back to Hand Cross, and for God’s sake stay there!’

Ludovic let the reins go, and stretched down his hand. ‘Oh curse you, Tristram, I am sorry, and you’re a devilish good fellow to embroil yourself in my crazy affairs! Thank you for coming to-night!’

Shield gripped his hand for a moment, and said in a softer voice: ‘Don’t be a fool! We will find your ring, Ludovic. I’ll see you to-morrow.’

‘I’ll try and keep out of trouble till then,’ promised Ludovic. He gathered the reins up again, and the irrepressible twinkle crept back into his eyes. ‘By the way, my compliments: a nice shot!’

Shield laughed at that. ‘Was it not? Gregg thought you must have fired it.’

‘Extravagant praise, Tristram: you shouldn’t listen to flattery,’ retorted Ludovic, grinning.

When the adventurers got back to the Red Lion they found both Nye and Miss Thane awaiting them by the coffee-room fire. Relief at seeing Ludovic safe and sound had its natural effect on Nye, and instead of greeting his graceless charge with solicitude he rated him with such severity that Bundy was moved to expostulate. ‘Adone-do, Joe!’ he said. ‘There’s no harm done, and we’ve had a nice little mill. Just you take a look at my eye.’

‘I am looking at it,’ replied Nye. ‘If I ever meet the man as gave it you I’ll shake him by the hand! I wish he’d blacked t’other as well.’

‘You’d have kissed him if he had,’ remarked Ludovic. ‘It was Bob Kettering.’

‘Bob Kettering!’ ejaculated the landlord. ‘Now, what have you been about, sir? If I ever met such a plaguey – where’s Sir Tristram?’

‘Gone home to bed,’ yawned Ludovic. ‘I dare say he’ll be glad to get there; he’s had a full evening, thanks to you, Sally.’

Mr Bundy nodded slowly at Nye. ‘It would do your heart good to see that cove in a turn-up, Joe. Displays to remarkable advantage, he does. Up to all the tricks.’

‘Many’s the time I’ve sparred with Sir Tristram,’ replied Nye crushingly. ‘I don’t doubt he’d be a match for the lot of you, but what I do say, and hold to, is that he hit the wrong man.’

‘I don’t know when I’ve took such a fancy to a cove,’ said Bundy, disregarding this significant remark. ‘He gave the valet one in the bone-box, and a tedious wisty castor to the jaw. What he done to young Kettering I don’t know, but from the sounds of it he threw him a rare cross-buttock.’

At this point Miss Thane interrupted him, demanding to be told the full story of the night’s adventure. It seemed to amuse her, and when Sir Tristram arrived at the Red Lion midway through the following morning, she met him with a pronounced twinkle in her eyes.

He saw it, and a rueful smile stole into his own eyes. He took the hand she held out to him, saying: ‘How do you do? This should be a day of triumph for you.’

She put up her brows. ‘I believe you are quizzing me. Why should it be a day of triumph for me?’

‘My dear ma’am, did you not guess that at last you have succeeded in making me feel grateful towards you?’

‘Odious creature!’ said Miss Thane, without heat. ‘I had a mind to go myself to rescue Ludovic.’

‘You would have been very much in the way, I assure you. How is the boy this morning?’

‘I fancy he has taken no harm. He is a little in the dumps. Tell me, have you any real hope of finding his ring?’

‘I have every hope of clearing his name,’ he replied. ‘His adventure last night will at least serve to convince the Beau that we mean to bring him to book. While no danger threatened, Basil was easily able to behave with calmness and good sense, but I do not think he is of the stuff to remain cool in the face of a very pressing danger.’

‘You think he may betray himself. But one must not forget that last night’s affair must surely have betrayed you.’

‘All the better,’ said Shield. ‘The Beau is a little afraid of me.’

‘I imagine he might well be. But he cannot be so stupid that he will not realize what your true purpose in his house must have been.’

‘Certainly,’ he agreed, ‘but his situation is awkward. He will hardly admit to having laid a trap for the man whose heir he is. He will be obliged to pretend to accept my story. Where is Ludovic, by the way?’

‘Eustacie has persuaded him to stay in bed this morning. Five miles to the Dower House, and five miles back again, with an adventure between, was a trifle too much for one little better than an invalid. Do you care to go up? You will find Hugh with him, I think.’

He nodded, and waited for her by the door, and when she seemed not to be coming, said: ‘You do not mean to secede from our councils, I hope?’

She smiled. ‘You are not used to be so civil. Fighting must have a mellowing effect upon you, I think.’