The Four Faces | Page 6

met before, and that he had never been in Geneva.
The dinner was not a great success. Gastrell talked at considerable
length on all sorts of subjects, talked, too, in a most interesting and
sometimes very amusing way; yet all the time the thought that was in
Osborne's mind was in my mind also--it was impossible, he was
thinking, that this man seated at dinner with us could be other than the
individual he had met on board ship; it was impossible, I was thinking,
that this man seated at dinner with us could be other than the individual
I had met in Geneva.
Easterton, a great talker in the club, was particularly silent. He too was
puzzled; worse than that--he felt, I could see, anxious and
uncomfortable. He had let his house to this man--the lease was already
signed--and now his tenant seemed to be, in some sense, a man of
mystery.
We sat in the big room with the bay window, after dinner, until about
half-past ten, when Gastrell said he must be going. During the whole
time he had been with us he had kept us entertained by his interesting
conversation, full of quaint reminiscences, and touched with flashes of
humour.
"I hope we shall see a great deal of each other when I am settled in
Cumberland Place," he said, as he prepared to leave. The remark,
though spoken to Easterton, had been addressed to us all, and we made
some conventional reply in acknowledgment.
"And if, later, I decide to join this club," he said presently, "you won't
mind proposing me, will you, Easterton?"

"I? Er--oh, of course, not in the least!" Easterton answered awkwardly,
taken off his guard. "But it will take you a good time to get in, you
know," he added as an afterthought, hopeful that the prospect of delay
might cause Gastrell to change his mind. "Two, even three years, some
men have to wait."
"That won't matter," Gastrell said carelessly, as the hall porter helped
him on with his coat. "I can join some other club meanwhile, though I
draw the line at pot-houses. Well, good night to you all, and you must
all come to my house-warming--a sort of reception I'm going to give. I
ought to be settled into the house in a month. And I hope," he added
lightly, addressing Jack Osborne and myself, "you won't run across any
more of my 'doubles.' I don't like the thought of being mistaken for
other men!"
The door of the taxi shut with a bang. In the hall, where the tape
machines were busy, Osborne and I stood looking at each other
thoughtfully. Presently Osborne spoke.
"What do you make of it?" he asked abruptly. "I am as certain that is
the fellow who was with me on board ship as I am that I am standing
here."
"And I am equally positive," I answered, "he's the man I met in Geneva.
It's impossible there could be two individuals so absolutely identical--I
tell you it's not possible."
Osborne paused for some moments, thinking.
"Berrington," he said suddenly.
"Yes? What?" I asked, taken aback at his change of tone.
He took a step forward and laid his hand upon my shoulder.
"Berrington," he repeated--and in his eyes there was a singular
expression--"I have an idea."

He turned to a page who was standing near.
"Boy," he said sharply, "what address did that gentleman who has just
gone tell you to give to his driver?"
"He told the driver himself, sir," the boy answered, "but I heard the
address he gave, sir."
"What was it?"
"Three forty, Maresfield Gardens, sir. It's near Swiss Cottage--up
Fitzjohn's Avenue on the right."
Osborne turned to me quickly.
"Come into this room," he said. "There is something I want to ask you.
The place is empty, and we shall not be disturbed."
When he had closed the door, and glanced about him to make sure that
we were alone, he said in a low voice:
"Look here, Mike, I tell you again, I have an idea: I wonder if you will
fall in with it. I have watched that fellow Gastrell pretty closely all the
evening; I am rather a good judge of men, you know, and I believe him
to be an impostor of some kind--I can't say just yet of what kind.
Anyway, he is the man I met on the _Masonic_; he can deny it as much
as he likes--he is. Either he is impersonating some other man, or some
other man is impersonating him. Now listen. I am going to that address
in Maresfield Gardens that he gave to his taxi-driver. I am going to find
out if he lives there, or what he is doing there. What I want to know
is--Will