Adventure, June 1911 — page 133: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

The Chair that Smiled 5” “IT’S plain history,” said he, “the > kind of fact that’s stranger than fic- = tion. Just listen to this. When poor old Philip found his Armada show was no good, he was pretty near broken-hearted; and that was the time Raymond Stanley went to him with a neat scheme for revenge on his old enemy Elizabeth—a little gift of furni- ture for her palace of Hampton Court, or Staines, or where you like. He had hap- pened to come upon a leather-worker—of Cordova, I think it was—and between them they devised this pretty suite for the Queen and her maids of honor. There’s a little delicate irony in the design, do you see?—a hint at the taste of the Virgin Queen and her ladies for the knees of courtiers, in the light of the Seven Deadly Sins—that’s pretty near a brilliant idea, isn’t it? Not to speak ofserving the wine in a Spanish galleon. “‘T don’t know whether the plan was to drug the drink—plenty of daré-devils about, seminary priests and others, who would have undertaken it for a handful of silver. I could tell you the names of some of them— English and Irish soldiers of fortune, Harry tame and Hugh Cahill, Moody, Walpole, _£dmund Yorke*~a dozen or more, generally “of Sir William Stanley’s regiment. Sir William was Raymond’s uncle—but never mind all that; you shall read it later. This splendid gift was shipped for England-under Captain Middleton, I believe; and Raymond Stanley and some of the others went with it. Off Ushant they encountered an English man-of-war, commanded by one Captain Charles Selward “‘Ah!” said the girl. “‘ Now I begin to——”’ “They fought—naturally. Selward was the better seaman—the Maria Reina was pillaged and sunk—most of the crew drowned. Middleton and Raymond Stan- ley were picked up by French fishermen. . Afterward Stanley came to England in disguise and by his own account haunted Selward House awhile, trying to get pos- session of his stuff or to take revenge on the English captain, whom he terms ‘that in- sufferable pirate and enemy of God.’ He failed. In fact, in our old papers—-written for his son with the express command that that young man should follow up the feud as he saw his chance—he says that Selward, with the aid of the devil, saw through the plan and betrayed it to the Queen, who thereupon was so‘ mewed up in her chamber’ that no stranger could come into her pres- 319 ence. When he found that the Queen had not only knighted Sir Charles but had be- stowed the furniture upon him for his pains, he lost heart, and went back to Spain. His son may have been a lazy rascal or a pious chap—anyway, nothing happened except that the papers and the name Ray- mond in its Spanish form have been handed down until now.” “But why did he want the Queen to have the furniture? And why were you so alarmed when I sat in that chair?” asked the practical Miss Selward. “That’s the cream of the plot,” said Stanley, but was interrupted by the sound of heavy footsteps in the corridor. He turned to confront a short, stout man in mud-splashed hunting pink, whom he rightly assumed to be Sir Charles. “‘Hoity-toity!” said this individual, after a hasty: glance about the room. ‘‘ What’s all the row?”’ Stanley’s answer was to seize his gray felt hat and drop it on the floor. Then, seem- ingly oblivious of father and daughter, he knelt and fumbled for some seconds, rising rather flushed but calm. “I have just caught a mouse,” he observed amiably, and showed a beady-eyed, gray snout wriggling between his thumb and forefinger. “It was a lucky chance I happened to seeit. If you don’t object, we will try an experiment before I explain myself.” He went up to the chair from which Miss Selward, when she had fallen into it, had brushed. away some of the dust. “Tf you will kindly stand by the table, you will be able to tell me whether my im- pression of a smile was a delusion or not.” He sat down deliberately and leaned back. Miss Selward half put out her hand: “But don’t—isn’t it—dangerous?”’ she gasped. The huntsman was speechless, seemingly on the verge of apoplexy at these strange doings in his house. “TY know the risk,” said Stanley calmly. “Watch me. You observed that the ring was loose and were on the point of playing with it when I grabbed you. A loose ring is a great temptation for idle fingers—espe- cially a beautiful ring set with rubies. Watch my hand.” He leaned away from the chair-back as the girl had done, and, holding the squeaking mouse firmly between his thumb and first two fingers, set it upon the ring, using it as a sort of pad, and pro- ceeded to twirl this round and round. GO DOOKS ANUC (C@