The Indian made me a last bow, the lowest of all--and suddenly and
softly walked out of the room.
It was done in a moment, in a noiseless, supple, cat-like way, which a
little startled me, I own. As soon as I was composed enough to think,
I arrived at one distinct conclusion in reference to the otherwise
incomprehensible visitor who had favoured me with a call.
His face, voice, and manner--while I was in his company--were under such
perfect control that they set all scrutiny at defiance. But he had given
me one chance of looking under the smooth outer surface of him, for all
that. He had not shown the slightest sign of attempting to fix anything
that I had said to him in his mind, until I mentioned the time at which
it was customary to permit the earliest repayment, on the part of a
debtor, of money that had been advanced as a loan. When I gave him that
piece of information, he looked me straight in the face, while I was
speaking, for the first time. The inference I drew from this was--that
he had a special purpose in asking me his last question, and a special
interest in hearing my answer to it. The more carefully I reflected on
what had passed between us, the more shrewdly I suspected the production
of the casket, and the application for the loan, of having been mere
formalities, designed to pave the way for the parting inquiry addressed
to me.
I had satisfied myself of the correctness of this conclusion--and was
trying to get on a step further, and penetrate the Indian's motives
next--when a letter was brought to me, which proved to be from no less
a person that Mr. Septimus Luker himself. He asked my pardon in terms of
sickening servility, and assured me that he could explain matters to
my satisfaction, if I would honour him by consenting to a personal
interview.
I made another unprofessional sacrifice to mere curiosity. I honoured
him by making an appointment at my office, for the next day.
Mr. Luker was, in every respect, such an inferior creature to the
Indian--he was so vulgar, so ugly, so cringing, and so prosy--that he
is quite unworthy of being reported, at any length, in these pages. The
substance of what he had to tell me may be fairly stated as follows: The day before I had received the visit of the Indian, Mr. Luker had
been favoured with a call from that accomplished gentleman. In spite of
his European disguise, Mr. Luker had instantly identified his visitor
with the chief of the three Indians, who had formerly annoyed him by
loitering about his house, and who had left him no alternative but to
consult a magistrate. From this startling discovery he had rushed to
the conclusion (naturally enough I own) that he must certainly be in the
company of one of the three men, who had blindfolded him, gagged him,
and robbed him of his banker's receipt. The result was that he became
quite paralysed with terror, and that he firmly believed his last hour
had come.