Jack Harkaways Boy Tinker Among The Turks | Page 7

former was the first to break the silence.
"Now, look you here, Señor Murray," said he, "I am not a child, nor did
I, knowing all I know, come here unprepared for every emergency--aye,
even for violence."
"Go on," said Murray, between his set teeth.

"You have imprudently placed yourself in the hands of an unscrupulous
young man."
"I have."
"And he has proved himself utterly unworthy?"
"Utterly."
"All of that is known to me," said the notary, craftily. "Now you must
pay no heed to this Chivey."
"I will not," returned Herbert Murray, significantly, "though there is
little fear of further molestation from him, señor."
Young Murray little dreamt of the cause of the notary's peculiar smile.
"Your sole danger, as I take it, Señor Murray, is from your fellow
countryman, Jack Harkaway."
"Yes."
"Then to him you must direct your attention. Where is he?"
"Gone."
"Where to?"
"Don't know."
"I do then," returned the notary, quietly: "and it is to tell you that that I
am here. I have all the necessary information; you must follow him."
"Why?"
"To make sure of him," coldly replied the Spaniard.
"How?"

Velasquez spoke not.
But his meaning was just as clear as if he had put it into words.
A vicious dig with his stiletto at the air.
Nothing more.
And so they began to understand each other.
* * * *
Señor Velasquez, the notary, was playing a double game.
From Herbert Murray he carefully kept the knowledge that Chivey still
lived.
And why?
That knowledge would have lessened his hold.
The cunning way in which he let Herbert Murray understand that he
knew all, even to the attempt upon Chivey's life at the gravel pits,
completed the mastery in which he meant to hold the young rascal.
He arranged everything for young Murray.
He discovered from him the destination of the ship in which Jack
Harkaway and his friends had escaped, and he procured him a berth on
a vessel sailing in the same direction.
"Once you get within arm's length of this young Harkaway," he said;
"you must be firm and let your blow be sure."
"I will," returned his pupil.
"Once Harkaway is removed from your path, you may sleep in peace,
for he alone can now punish you for forgery."

"I hope so."
"I know it," said Velasquez.
So well were the notary's plans laid, and so luckily did fortune play into
his hands, that forty-eight hours after his interview with Murray, he had
that young gentleman safely on board a ship outward bound.
Now Herbert Murray had passed but one night after that fearful scene
by the gravel pit, but the remembrance of it haunted his pillow from the
moment he went to bed to the moment he arose unrefreshed and full of
fever.
And yet he was setting out with the intention of securing his future
peace and immunity from peril by the commission of a fresh crime.
The ship was setting sail at a little after daybreak, and it had been
arranged that Señor Velasquez was to come and see him off.
But much to his surprise, the notary did not put in an appearance.
Eagerly he waited for the ship to start, lest any thing should occur at the
eleventh hour, and he should find himself laid by the heels to answer
for his crimes.
* * * *
Chivey was supposed to be hiding.
In reality he was a prisoner in the house of Señor Velasquez, and he
knew it.
The notary was an old man, and he suffered from sundry ailments
which belong to age--notably to rheumatism.
An acute attack prostrated the old man, and held him down when he
was most anxious to be up and doing.
And the night before Herbert Murray was to set sail, he lay groaning

and moaning with racking pains.
His cries reached Chivey, who lay in the next room, and he came to the
sick man's door to ask if he could be of any assistance.
He peered warily in.
In spite of his groans and anguish, the old notary was insensible under
the influence of an opiate.
Chivey crept in.
On a low table beside the bed was a lamp flickering fearfully, and a
glass containing some medicine.
Beside the glass a phial labelled laudanum.
Something possessed the intruder to empty the contents of the phial
into the glass, and just as he had done so, the sufferer opened his eyes.
"Who's there?"
"It's me, Señor Velasquez," said the tiger. "You have been ill----"
"What do you do here?" demanded the notary, sharply.
"You called out. I thought I might be of assistance."
"No, no."
"Then I will go, señor," said Chivey, "for I am tired."
"Stay, give me my physic before you go."
Chivey handed