"Weren't we going to see the picture-gallery?" he inquired."Isn't it getting late? I should like to see the portraits.""No hurry," answered T.Tembarom."I was just waiting till you were ready.But we'll go right away, if you like."They went without further ceremony.As they walked through the hall and down the corridors side by side, an imaginative person might have felt that perhaps the eyes of an ancient darkling portrait or so looked down at the pair curiously: the long, loosely built New Yorker rather slouching along by the soldierly, almost romantic figure which, in a measure, suggested that others not unlike it might have trod the same oaken floor, wearing ruff and doublet, or lace jabot and sword.
There was a far cry between the two, but they walked closely in friendly union.When they entered the picture-gallery Strangeways paused a moment again, and stood peering down its length.
"It is very dimly lighted.How can we see?" he said.
"I told Pearson to leave it dim," Tembarom answered."I wanted it just that way at first."He tried--and succeeded tolerably well--to say it casually, as he led the way ahead of them.He and the duke had not talked the scheme over for nothing.As his grace had said, they had "worked the thing up." As they moved down the gallery, the men and women in their frames looked like ghosts staring out to see what was about to happen.
"We'll turn up the lights after a while," T.Tembarom explained, still casually."There's a picture here I think a good deal of.I've stood and looked at it pretty often.It reminded me of some one the first day I set eyes on it; but it was quite a time before I made up my mind who it was.It used to drive me half dotty trying to think it out.""Which one was it?" asked Strangeways.
"We're coming to it.I want to see if it reminds you of any one.And Iwant you to see it sudden." "It's got to be sudden," he had said to the duke."If it's going to pan out, I believe it's got to be sudden.""That's why I had the rest of 'em left dim.I told Pearson to leave a lamp I could turn up quick," he said to Strangeways.
The lamp was on a table near by and was shaded by a screen.He took it from the shadow and lifted it suddenly, so that its full gleam fell upon the portrait of the handsome youth with the lace collar and the dark, drooping eyes.It was done in a second, with a dramatically unexpected swiftness.His heart jumped up and down.
"Who's that?" he demanded, with abruptness so sharp-pitched that the gallery echoed with the sound."Who's that?"He heard a hard, quick gasp, a sound which was momentarily a little horrible, as if the man's soul was being jerked out of his body's depths.
"Who is he?" he cried again."Tell me."
After the gasp, Strangeways stood still and stared.His eyes were glued to the canvas, drops of sweat came out on his forehead, and he was shuddering.He began to back away with a look of gruesome struggle.He backed and backed, and stared and stared.The gasp came twice again, and then his voice seemed to tear itself loose from some power that was holding it back.
"Th--at!" he cried."It is--it--is Miles Hugo!"The last words were almost a shout, and he shook as if he would have fallen.But T.Tembarom put his hand on his shoulder and held him, breathing fast himself.Gee! if it wasn't like a thing in a play!
"Page at the court of Charles the Second," he rattled off."Died of smallpox when he was nineteen.Miles Hugo! Miles Hugo! You hold on to that for all your worth.And hold on to me.I'll keep you steady.Say it again.""Miles Hugo." The poor majestic-looking fellow almost sobbed it.
"Where am I? What is the name of this place?""It's Temple Barholm in the county of Lancashire, England.Hold on to that, too--like thunder!"Strangeways held the young man's arm with hands that clutched.He dragged at him.His nightmare held him yet; Tembarom saw it, but flashes of light were blinding him.
"Who"--he pleaded in a shaking and hollow whisper--"are you?"Here was a stumper! By jings! By jings! And not a minute to think it out.But the answer came all right--all right!
"My name's Tembarom.T.Tembarom." And he grinned his splendid grin from sheer sense of relief."I'm a New Yorker--Brooklyn.I was just forked in here anyhow.Don't you waste time thinking over me.You sit down here and do your durndest with Miles Hugo."