Dr Nikola Returns | Page 4

a hair's breadth.
"To tell the honest truth, I want to get something to do pretty badly.
There's a serious deficit in the exchequer, my boy. And though I'm a
fairly old hand at the game of poverty, I've still a sort of pride left, and I
have no desire to figure in the Mixed Court next Wednesday on a
charge of inability to pay my landlord twenty dollars for board and
lodging."
"Of course you don't," said Barkston warmly; "and so, if you'll let me
help you, I've an idea that I can put you on to the right track to
something. The fact is, there was a chap in the smoking-room at the
club the other night with whom I got into conversation. He interested
me more than I can tell you, for he was one of the most curious beings
who, I should imagine, has ever visited the East. I never saw such an
odd-looking fellow in my life. Talk about eyes--well, his were--augh!
Why, he looked you through and through. You know old Benwell, of
the revenue-cutter Y-chang? Well, while I was talking to this fellow,
after a game of pool, in he came.
"'Hallo! Barkston,' he said, as he brought up alongside the table, 'I
thought you were shooting with Jimmy Woodrough up the river? I'm
glad to find you're not, for I----' He had got as far as this before he
became aware of my companion. Then his jaw dropped; he looked hard
at him, said something under his breath, and, shaking me by the hand,
made a feeble excuse, and fled the room. Not being able to make it out
at all, I went after him and found him looking for his hat in the hall.
'Come, I say, Benwell, 'I cried;' what's up? What on earth made you
bolt like that? Have I offended you?' He led me on one side, so that the
servants should not hear, and having done so said confidentially:
'Barkston, I am not a coward; in my time I've tackled Europeans, Zulus,
Somalis, Malays, Japanese, and Chinese, to say nothing of Manilla and
Solomon boys, and what's more, I don't mind facing them all again; but

when I find myself face to face with Dr. Nikola, well, I tell you I don't
think twice, I bolt! Take my tip and do the same.' As he might just as
well have talked to me in low Dutch for all I should have understood, I
tried to question him, but I might have spared myself the trouble, for I
could get nothing satisfactory out of him. He simply shook me by the
hand, told the boy in the hall to call him a 'rickshaw, and as soon as it
drew up at the steps jumped into it and departed. When I got back to
the billiard-room Nikola was still there, practising losing hazards of
extraordinary difficulty.
"'I've an opinion I've seen your friend before,' he said, as I sat down to
watch him. 'He is Benwell of the Y-chang, and if I mistake not Benwell
of the Y-chang remembers me.'
"'He seems to know you,' I said with a laugh.
"'Yes, Nikola continued after a little pause; 'I have had the pleasure of
being in Mr. Benwell's company once before. It was in Haiphong.'
Then with peculiar emphasis :' I don't know what he thinks of the place,
of course, but somehow I have an idea your friend will not willingly go
near Haiphong again.' After he had said this he remained silent for a
little while, then he took a letter from his pocket, read it carefully,
examined the envelope, and having made up his mind on a certain point
turned to me again.
"'I want to ask you a question,' he said, putting the cue he had been
using back into the rack. 'You know a person named Bruce, don't you?
a man who used to be in the Civil Service, and who has the reputation
of being able to disguise himself so like a Chinaman that even Li
Chang Tung would not know him for a European?'
"'I do,' I answered;' he is an old friend of mine; and what is more, he is
in Shanghai at the present moment. It was only this morning I heard of
him.'
"'Bring him to me," said Nikola quickly. 'I am told he wants a billet,
and if he sees me before twelve to-morrow night I think I can put him
in the way of obtaining a good one.' Now there you are, Bruce, my boy.

I have done my best for you."
"And I am sincerely grateful to you," I answered. "But who is this man
Nikola, and what sort of a billet do you think he can find me?"