I had expected, from his master's description, to see a serious, sedate man, rather sly in his looks, and rather reserved in his manner.To my amazement, this practiced hand at delicate investigations was a brisk, plump, jolly little man, with a comfortable double chin, a pair of very bright black eyes, and a big bottle-nose of the true groggy red color.He wore a suit of black, and a limp, dingy white cravat; took snuff perpetually out of a very large box; walked with his hands crossed behind his back; and looked, upon the whole, much more like a parson of free-and-easy habits than a lawyer's clerk.
"How d'ye do?" says he, when I opened the door to him."I'm the man you expect from the office in London.Just say Mr.Dark, will you? I'll sit down here till you come back; and, young man, if there is such a thing as a glass of ale in the house, I don't mind committing myself so far as to say that I'll drink it."I got him the ale before I announced him.He winked at me as he put it to his lips.
"Your good health," says he."I like you.Don't forget that the name's Dark; and just leave the jug and glass, will you, in case my master keeps me waiting."I announced him at once, and was told to show him into the library.
When I got back to the hall the jug was empty, and Mr.Dark was comforting himself with a pinch of snuff, snorting over it like a perfect grampus.He had swallowed more than a pint of the strongest old ale in the house; and, for all the effect it seemed to have had on him, he might just as well have been drinking so much water.
As I led him along the passage to the library Josephine passed us.Mr.Dark winked at me again, and made her a low bow.
"Lady's maid," I heard him whisper to himself."A fine woman to look at, but a damned bad one to deal with." I turned round on him, rather angry at his cool ways, and looked hard at him just before I opened the library door.Mr.Dark looked hard at me.
"All right," says he."I can show myself in." And he knocks at the door, and opens it, and goes in with another wicked wink, all in a moment.
Half an hour later the bell rang for me.Mr.Dark was sitting between my mistress (who was looking at him in amazement) and the lawyer (who was looking at him with approval).He had a map open on his knee, and a pen in his hand.Judging by his face, the communication of the secret about my master did not seem to have made the smallest impression on him.
"I've got leave to ask you a question," says he, the moment Iappeared."When you found your master's yacht gone, did you hear which way she had sailed? Was it northward toward Scotland? Speak up, young man, speak up!""Yes," I answered."The boatmen told me that when I made inquiries at the harbor.""Well, sir," says Mr.Dark, turning to the lawyer, "if he said he was going to Sweden, he seems to have started on the road to it, at all events.I think I have got my instructions now?"The lawyer nodded, and looked at my mistress, who bowed her head to him.He then said, turning to me:
"Pack up your bag for traveling at once, and have a conveyance got ready to go to the nearest post-town.Look sharp, young man--look sharp!""And, whatever happens in the future," added my mistress, her kind voice trembling a little, "believe, William, that I shall never forget the proof you now show of your devotion to me.It is still some comfort to know that I have your fidelity to depend on in this dreadful trial--your fidelity and the extraordinary intelligence and experience of Mr.Dark."Mr.Dark did not seem to hear the compliment.He was busy writing, with his paper upon the map on his knee.
A quarter of an hour later, when I had ordered the dog-cart, and had got down into the hall with my bag packed, I found him there waiting for me.He was sitting in the same chair which he had occupied when he first arrived, and he had another jug of the old ale on the table by his side.
"Got any fishing-rods in the house?" says he, when I put my bag down in the hall.