"When will you go down?"
"Arter I've seen thet land-shark 'bout the kind of poppy-cock th' bloomin' judge ull talk. Go slow, ma'am; y' git along with your share, an' I'll do mine. So long!"
Leah did not like to grasp the tarry hand extended, but out of diplomacy she was forced to touch the pitch which was defiling her. "I can depend upon you, Captain Strange."
He nodded. "Y' kin let it go at thet. So long, agin. An' if I'd married you," he added, with genuine emotion, "cuss me if I wouldn't hev bin runnin' the U.S.A. in th' Presidential Chair."
Leah digested this compliment at her leisure.
[ CHAPTER XXVIII]
After that momentous interview Lady Jim realised the truth of Strange's scriptural quotation, although he had translated it into his own lax vernacular. Unfortunately, hearing it after the event, she could not take Isaiah's advice, and had too hastily condemned the fetish. She would have given much for the recovery of that precise peacock's feather, for, having freely thrown it away, it was doubtful to her superstitious mind if the luck would hold. Certainly she had arranged judiciously for Jim's return to civilisation, and the unscrupulous captain appeared willing to earn wages as a scapegoat; but there was always the unforeseen to be reckoned with. A chance word, a chance discovery, a too minute inquiry--these might wreck the whole scheme, and she would reap a whirlwind, stormy enough to sweep her out of a social paradise into the bleak desert of Sinners-found-out. A most uncomfortable locality.
She did what she could, poor woman, to propitiate her Baal. A new peacock's feather was procured, and she apologised for her want of faith. Also she experimented with the new symbol. Would a particular costume arrive at a certain hour? Would some very doubtful stock which she held turn honest? Would Captain Strange, after consulting a lawyer, still hold to his nefarious bargain? The test proved satisfactory, for her Baal, apparently amenable to apology, worked excellently through the new semblance of his deity. The dress duly arrived within the fixed time; the shares rose rapidly, and enabled her to sell at a profit which she did not deserve; finally, a grubby note from Strange assured her without detail that he was on his way to Firmingham. It would seem that the prospect of picking oakum for a livelihood appealed to him, at the agreed price.
Pending the explosion of the mine to which Strange was about to apply a match, Leah possessed her soul in patience. Three days did she wait, and they were days of purgatory. For obvious reasons she did not return to Firmingham, but wrote to Lionel stating that she had received a terrible shock--nature not mentioned--and intended to consult the family solicitors about the same. She thus made herself safe about the sailor's visit, in case any one might wonder why he had come to her in the first instance. And in the letter she told the truth for once, since she paid a visit to Lincoln's Inn Fields. An explanation of her errand startled the suave head of a justly celebrated legal firm. On recovering from pardonable amazement he gave his client the full value of her six-and-eightpence.
"Kidnapping," explained Mr. Hall, to a tearful listener--for Lady Jim thought that the circumstances demanded emotion--"is not in itself a serious offence, and really applies only to persons under fourteen years of age. In the case of an adult like Lord James this sailor would be punished with--er--maybe two years' imprisonment. He might even be let off with a heavy fine."