CHAPTER XVII

Fielding opened his newspaper the next morning with unusual eagerness, and, turning to the Parliamentary reports, glanced down column after column in search of Drake’s speech.  The absence of it threw him into some consternation.  He tossed the newspaper on to the breakfast-table and rose from his seat.  As he moved, however, he caught sight of Drake’s name at the beginning of a leader, and he read the leader through.  It dealt with the accusation of the Meteor, and expressed considerable surprise that Drake had not seized the opportunity of denying it in the House of Commons.  It was mentioned that Drake had not been seen there at any time during the course of the evening.

Fielding jumped to the conclusion that he had met with an accident, and set out for his chambers on the instant.  He found Drake quietly eating his breakfast.  Only half the table, however, was laid for the meal; the other half was littered with papers and correspondence, while a pile of stamped letters stood on one corner.  ’I was expecting you,’ said Drake quietly.

‘Why, what on earth has happened?’ asked Fielding.  ’Why didn’t you speak last night?’

‘I thought it would be the wisest plan to leave the matter alone.’

‘But you can’t,’ exclaimed Fielding.  ‘Read this!’ and he handed to him the newspaper.  ‘You can’t leave it alone.’

‘I can, and shall,’ replied Drake, and he returned to his breakfast.

’But, my dear fellow, you can’t understand what that means!  Read the leader, then.’  Drake glanced quickly down it.  ’Now, do you understand?  It means utter ruin, utter disgrace, unless you answer this charge, and answer it at once.  You will have created a false enough impression already.’  Drake, however, made no response beyond a shrug of his shoulders.  ‘But, good Lord, man,’ continued Fielding, ’your name’s at stake.  You can’t sit quiet as if this was an irresponsible piece of paragraph-writing.  You would have to resign your seat in Parliament, your connection with the Matanga Company—­everything.  You couldn’t possibly live in England.’

’Do you think I haven’t counted up precisely what inaction is going to cost me?’ interrupted Drake.  ‘Look here!’ and he took a couple of letters from the pile and handed them to Fielding.  One was addressed to the whip of his party, and the other to the directors of the Matanga Concessions.  ‘And I leave Charing Cross at ten o’clock this morning.’

Fielding looked at his watch; it was half-past nine.  ’Then you mean to run away?’ he gasped.  ‘But, in Heaven’s name, why?’

’For an obvious reason.  Yesterday I believed that I could meet the charge.  But something has happened since then, and I know now that I can’t.’

Fielding started back.  ’Do you mean to tell me, as man to man, that the accusation’s true.’

‘As man to man,’ repeated Drake steadily, ‘I tell you that it is true.’