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Title: The Third Round
Author: Herman Cyril McNeile (“Sapper”) (1888-1937)
Date of first publication: 1924
Date first posted: March 24, 2014
Date last updated: Nov. 2, 2024
Faded Page eBook #20140332
This eBook was produced by: Al Haines & Paul Ereaut.
THE THIRD ROUND
BY
“SAPPER”
HODDER AND STOUGHTON LIMITED
LONDON
1924
_Made and Printed in Great Britain._
_Hazell, Watson & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury_
Table of Contents
I. _IN WHICH THE METROPOLITAN DIAMOND SYNDICATE HOLDS CONVERSE WITH MR.
EDWARD BLACKTON_
II. _IN WHICH PROFESSOR GOODMAN REALISES THAT THERE ARE MORE THINGS IN
LIFE THAN CHEMISTRY_
III. _IN WHICH STRANGE THINGS HAPPEN IN PROFESSOR GOODMAN’S LABORATORY_
IV. _IN WHICH MR. WILLIAM ROBINSON ARRIVES AT HIS COUNTRY SEAT_
V. _IN WHICH MR. WILLIAM ROBINSON LOSES HIS SELF-CONTROL_
VI. _IN WHICH HUGH DRUMMOND LOSES HIS SELF-CONTROL_
VII. _IN WHICH DRUMMOND TAKES A TELEPHONE CALL AND REGRETS IT_
VIII. _IN WHICH DRUMMOND PLAYS A LITTLE GAME OF TRAINS_
IX. _IN WHICH PROFESSOR GOODMAN HAS A TRYING TIME_
X. _IN WHICH DRUMMOND GOES ON BOARD THE S.Y. “GADFLY”_
XI. _IN WHICH DRUMMOND LEAVES THE S.Y. “GADFLY”_
XII. _IN WHICH HE SAMPLES MR. BLACKTON’S NAPOLEON BRANDY_
XIII. _IN WHICH DRUMMOND RECEIVES AN ADDITION TO HIS LIBRARY_
_The Third Round_
_Chapter I_
_In which the Metropolitan Diamond Syndicate holds converse with Mr.
Edward Blackton_
With a sigh of pleasure Mr. Edward Blackton opened the windows of his
balcony and leaned out, staring over the lake. Opposite, the mountains
of Savoy rose steeply from the water; away to the left the Dent du Midi
raised its crown of snow above the morning haze.
Below him the waters of the lake glittered and scintillated with a
thousand fires. A steamer, with much blowing of sirens and reversing of
paddle-wheels, had come to rest at a landing-stage hard by, and was
taking on board a bevy of tourists, while the gulls circled round
shrieking discordantly. For a while he watched them idly, noting the
quickness with which the birds swooped and caught the bread as it was
thrown into the air, long before it reached the water. He noted also
how nearly all the food was secured by half a dozen of the gulls, whilst
the others said a lot but got nothing. And suddenly Mr. Edward Blackton
smiled.
“Like life, my dear,” he said, slipping his arm round the waist of a
girl who had just joined him at the window. “It’s the fool who shouts
in this world: the wise man says nothing and acts.”
The girl lit a cigarette thoughtfully, and sat down on the ledge of the
balcony. For a while her eyes followed the steamer puffing fussily away
with its load of sightseers and its attendant retinue of gulls: then she
looked at the man standing beside her. Point by point she took him in:
the clear blue eyes under the deep forehead, the aquiline nose, the firm
mouth and chin. Calmly, dispassionately she noted the thick brown hair
greying a little over the temples, the great depth of chest, and the
strong, powerful hands: then she turned and looked once again at the
disappearing steamer. But to the man’s surprise she gave a little sigh.
“What is it, my dear?” he said solicitously. “Bored?”
“No, not bored,” she answered. “Whatever may be your failings, _mon
ami_, boring me is not one of them. I was just wondering what it would
feel like if you and I were content to go on a paddle-wheel steamer with
a Baedeker and a Kodak, and a paper bag full of bananas.”
“We will try to-morrow,” said the man, gravely lighting a cigar.
“It wouldn’t be any good,” laughed the girl. “Just once in a way we
should probably love it. I meant I wonder what it would feel like if
that was our life.”
Her companion nodded.
“I know, _carissima_,” he answered gently. “I have sometimes wondered
the same thing. I suppose there must be compensations in
respectability, otherwise so many people wouldn’t be respectable. But
I’m afraid it is one of those things that we shall never know.”
“I think it’s that,” said the girl, waving her hand towards the
mountains opposite–“that has caused my mood. It’s all so perfectly
lovely: the sky is just so wonderfully blue. And look at that sailing
boat.”
She pointed to one of the big lake barges, with its two huge lateen
sails creeping gently along in the centre of the lake. “It’s all so
peaceful, and sometimes one wants peace.”
“True,” agreed the man; “one does. It’s just reaction, and we’ve been
busy lately.” He rose and began to pace slowly up and down the balcony.
“To be quite honest, I myself have once or twice thought recently that
if I could pull off some really big coup–something, I mean, that ran
into the millions–I would give things up.”
The girl smiled and shook her head.
“Don’t misunderstand me, my dear,” he went on. “I do not suggest for a
moment that we should settle down to a life of toping and ease. We
could neither of us exist without employing our brains. But with really
big money behind one, we should be in a position to employ our brains a
little more legitimately, shall I say, than we are able to at present,
and still get all the excitement we require.
“Take Drakshoff: that man controls three of the principal Governments of
Europe. The general public don’t know it; the Governments themselves
won’t admit it: but it’s true for all that. As you know, that little
job I carried out for him in Germany averted a second revolution. He
didn’t want one at the time, and so he called me in. And it cost him in
all five million pounds. What was that to him?”
He shrugged his shoulders contemptuously.
“A mere flea-bite–a bagatelle. Why, with that man an odd million or
two one way or the other wouldn’t be noticed in his pass-book.”
He paused and stared over the sunlit lake, while the girl watched him in
silence.
“Given money as big as that, and a man can rule the world. Moreover, he
can rule it without fear of consequences. He can have all the
excitement he requires; he can wield all the power he desires–and have
special posses of police to guard him. I’m afraid we don’t have many to
guard us.”
The girl laughed and lit another cigarette.
“You are right, _mon ami_, we do not. Hullo! who can that be?”
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