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diff --git a/1703-0.txt b/1703-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8aacb04 --- /dev/null +++ b/1703-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6480 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Dead Men Tell No Tales, by E. W. Hornung + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Dead Men Tell No Tales + +Author: E. W. Hornung + +Posting Date: October 1, 2008 [EBook #1703] +Release Date: April, 1999 +[Last Updated: June 10, 2022] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES *** + + + + +Produced by An Anonymous Project Gutenberg Volunteer. + + + + + +DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES + +By E. W. Hornung + + + + +CONTENTS + + Chapter I Love on the Ocean + + Chapter II The Mysterious Cargo + + Chapter III To the Water's Edge + + Chapter IV The Silent Sea + + Chapter V My Reward + + Chapter VI The Sole Survivor + + Chapter V I Find a Friend + + Chapter VI A Small Precaution + + Chapter VII My Convalescent Home + + Chapter VIII Wine and Weakness + + Chapter IX I Live Again + + Chapter X My Lady's Bidding + + Chapter XI The Longest Day of My Life + + Chapter XII In the Garden + + Chapter XIII First Blood + + Chapter XIV A Deadlock + + Chapter XV When Thieves Fall Out + + Chapter XVI A Man of Many Murders + + Chapter XVII My Great Hour + + Chapter XVIII The Statement of Francis Rattray + + + + +CHAPTER I. LOVE ON THE OCEAN + + +Nothing is so easy as falling in love on a long sea voyage, except +falling out of love. Especially was this the case in the days when the +wooden clippers did finely to land you in Sydney or in Melbourne under +the four full months. We all saw far too much of each other, unless, +indeed, we were to see still more. Our superficial attractions mutually +exhausted, we lost heart and patience in the disappointing strata +which lie between the surface and the bed-rock of most natures. My own +experience was confined to the round voyage of the _Lady Jermyn_, in the +year 1853. It was no common experience, as was only too well known +at the time. And I may add that I for my part had not the faintest +intention of falling in love on board; nay, after all these years, +let me confess that I had good cause to hold myself proof against such +weakness. Yet we carried a young lady, coming home, who, God knows, +might have made short work of many a better man! + +Eva Denison was her name, and she cannot have been more than nineteen +years of age. I remember her telling me that she had not yet come out, +the very first time I assisted her to promenade the poop. My own name +was still unknown to her, and yet I recollect being quite fascinated by +her frankness and self-possession. She was exquisitely young, and yet +ludicrously old for her years; had been admirably educated, chiefly +abroad, and, as we were soon to discover, possessed accomplishments +which would have made the plainest old maid a popular personage on board +ship. Miss Denison, however, was as beautiful as she was young, with the +bloom of ideal health upon her perfect skin. She had a wealth of lovely +hair, with strange elusive strands of gold among the brown, that drowned +her ears (I thought we were to have that mode again?) in sunny ripples; +and a soul greater than the mind, and a heart greater than either, lay +sleeping somewhere in the depths of her grave, gray eyes. + +We were at sea together so many weeks. I cannot think what I was made of +then! + +It was in the brave old days of Ballarat and Bendigo, when ship after +ship went out black with passengers and deep with stores, to bounce home +with a bale or two of wool, and hardly hands enough to reef topsails +in a gale. Nor was this the worst; for not the crew only, but, in many +cases, captain and officers as well, would join in the stampede to the +diggings; and we found Hobson's Bay the congested asylum of all manner +of masterless and deserted vessels. I have a lively recollection of our +skipper's indignation when the pilot informed him of this disgraceful +fact. Within a fortnight, however, I met the good man face to face upon +the diggings. It is but fair to add that the _Lady Jermyn_ lost every +officer and man in the same way, and that the captain did obey tradition +to the extent of being the last to quit his ship. Nevertheless, of +all who sailed by her in January, I alone was ready to return at the +beginning of the following July. + +I had been to Ballarat. I had given the thing a trial. For the most +odious weeks I had been a licensed digger on Black Hill Flats; and I had +actually failed to make running expenses. That, however, will surprise +you the less when I pause to declare that I have paid as much as four +shillings and sixpence for half a loaf of execrable bread; that my mate +and I, between us, seldom took more than a few pennyweights of gold-dust +in any one day; and never once struck pick into nugget, big or little, +though we had the mortification of inspecting the “mammoth masses” of +which we found the papers full on landing, and which had brought the +gold-fever to its height during our very voyage. With me, however, as +with many a young fellow who had turned his back on better things, the +malady was short-lived. We expected to make our fortunes out of hand, +and we had reckoned without the vermin and the villainy which rendered +us more than ever impatient of delay. In my fly-blown blankets I dreamt +of London until I hankered after my chambers and my club more than after +much fine gold. Never shall I forget my first hot bath on getting back +to Melbourne; it cost five shillings, but it was worth five pounds, and +is altogether my pleasantest reminiscence of Australia. + +There was, however, one slice of luck in store for me. I found the dear +old _Lady Jermyn_ on the very eve of sailing, with a new captain, a new +crew, a handful of passengers (chiefly steerage), and nominally no cargo +at all. I felt none the less at home when I stepped over her familiar +side. + +In the cuddy we were only five, but a more uneven quintette I defy you +to convene. There was a young fellow named Ready, packed out for +his health, and hurrying home to die among friends. There was an +outrageously lucky digger, another invalid, for he would drink nothing +but champagne with every meal and at any minute of the day, and I have +seen him pitch raw gold at the sea-birds by the hour together. Miss +Denison was our only lady, and her step-father, with whom she was +travelling, was the one man of distinction on board. He was a Portuguese +of sixty or thereabouts, Senhor Joaquin Santos by name; at first it was +incredible to me that he had no title, so noble was his bearing; but +very soon I realized that he was one of those to whom adventitious +honors can add no lustre. He treated Miss Denison as no parent ever +treated a child, with a gallantry and a courtliness quite beautiful to +watch, and not a little touching in the light of the circumstances under +which they were travelling together. The girl had gone straight from +school to her step-father's estate on the Zambesi, where, a few months +later, her mother had died of the malaria. Unable to endure the place +after his wife's death, Senhor Santos had taken ship to Victoria, there +to seek fresh fortune with results as indifferent as my own. He was +now taking Miss Denison back to England, to make her home with other +relatives, before he himself returned to Africa (as he once told me) to +lay his bones beside those of his wife. I hardly know which of the pair +I see more plainly as I write--the young girl with her soft eyes and her +sunny hair, or the old gentleman with the erect though wasted figure, +the noble forehead, the steady eye, the parchment skin, the white +imperial, and the eternal cigarette between his shrivelled lips. + +No need to say that I came more in contact with the young girl. She was +not less charming in my eyes because she provoked me greatly as I came +to know her intimately. She had many irritating faults. Like most young +persons of intellect and inexperience, she was hasty and intolerant in +nearly all her judgments, and rather given to being critical in a crude +way. She was very musical, playing the guitar and singing in a style +that made our shipboard concerts vastly superior to the average of their +order; but I have seen her shudder at the efforts of less gifted folks +who were also doing their best; and it was the same in other directions +where her superiority was less specific. The faults which are most +exasperating in another are, of course, one's own faults; and I confess +that I was very critical of Eva Denison's criticisms. Then she had +a little weakness for exaggeration, for unconscious egotism in +conversation, and I itched to tell her so. I felt so certain that the +girl had a fine character underneath, which would rise to noble heights +in stress or storm: all the more would I long now to take her in hand +and mould her in little things, and anon to take her in my arms just as +she was. The latter feeling was resolutely crushed. To be plain, I had +endured what is euphemistically called “disappointment” already; and, +not being a complete coxcomb, I had no intention of courting a second. + +Yet, when I write of Eva Denison, I am like to let my pen outrun my +tale. I lay the pen down, and a hundred of her sayings ring in my +ears, with my own contradictious comments, that I was doomed so soon +to repent; a hundred visions of her start to my eyes; and there is the +trade-wind singing in the rigging, and loosening a tress of my darling's +hair, till it flies like a tiny golden streamer in the tropic sun. +There, it is out! I have called her what she was to be in my heart ever +after. Yet at the time I must argue with her--with her! When all my +courage should have gone to love-making, I was plucking it up to sail as +near as I might to plain remonstrance! I little dreamt how the ghost of +every petty word was presently to return and torture me. + +So it is that I can see her and hear her now on a hundred separate +occasions beneath the awning beneath the stars on deck below at noon +or night but plainest of all in the evening of the day we signalled +the Island of Ascension, at the close of that last concert on the +quarter-deck. The watch are taking down the extra awning; they are +removing the bunting and the foot-lights. The lanterns are trailed +forward before they are put out; from the break of the poop we watch the +vivid shifting patch of deck that each lights up on its way. The stars +are very sharp in the vast violet dome above our masts; they shimmer on +the sea; and our trucks describe minute orbits among the stars, for the +trades have yet to fail us, and every inch of canvas has its fill of the +gentle steady wind. It is a heavenly night. The peace of God broods upon +His waters. No jarring note offends the ear. In the forecastle a voice +is humming a song of Eva Denison's that has caught the fancy of the men; +the young girl who sang it so sweetly not twenty minutes since who +sang it again and again to please the crew she alone is at war with our +little world she alone would head a mutiny if she could. + +“I hate the captain!” she says again. + +“My dear Miss Denison!” I begin; for she has always been severe upon our +bluff old man, and it is not the spirit of contrariety alone which makes +me invariably take his part. Coarse he may be, and not one whom the +owners would have chosen to command the _Lady Jermyn_; a good seaman none +the less, who brought us round the Horn in foul weather without losing +stitch or stick. I think of the ruddy ruffian in his dripping oilskins, +on deck day and night for our sakes, and once more I must needs take his +part; but Miss Denison stops me before I can get out another word. + +“I am not dear, and I'm not yours,” she cries. “I'm only a +school-girl--you have all but told me so before to-day! If I were a +man--if I were you--I should tell Captain Harris what I thought of him!” + +“Why? What has he done now?” + +“Now? You know how rude he was to poor Mr. Ready this very afternoon!” + +It was true. He had been very rude indeed. But Ready also had been at +fault. It may be that I was always inclined to take an opposite view, +but I felt bound to point this out, and at any cost. + +“You mean when Ready asked him if we were out of our course? I must +say I thought it was a silly question to put. It was the same the other +evening about the cargo. If the skipper says we're in ballast why not +believe him? Why repeat steerage gossip, about mysterious cargoes, at +the cuddy table? Captains are always touchy about that sort of thing. I +wasn't surprised at his letting out.” + +My poor love stares at me in the starlight. Her great eyes flash their +scorn. Then she gives a little smile--and then a little nod--more +scornful than all the rest. + +“You never are surprised, are you, Mr. Cole?” says she. “You were not +surprised when the wretch used horrible language in front of me! You +were not surprised when it was a--dying man--whom he abused!” + +I try to soothe her. I agree heartily with her disgust at the epithets +employed in her hearing, and towards an invalid, by the irate skipper. +But I ask her to make allowances for a rough, uneducated man, rather +clumsily touched upon his tender spot. I shall conciliate her presently; +the divine pout (so childish it was!) is fading from her lips; the +starlight is on the tulle and lace and roses of her pretty evening +dress, with its festooned skirts and obsolete flounces; and I am +watching her, ay, and worshipping her, though I do not know it yet. And +as we stand there comes another snatch from the forecastle:-- + + “What will you do, love, when I am going. + With white sail flowing, + The seas beyond? + What will you do, love--” + +“They may make the most of that song,” says Miss Denison grimly; “it's +the last they'll have from me. Get up as many more concerts as you like. +I won't sing at another unless it's in the fo'c'sle. I'll sing to the +men, but not to Captain Harris. He didn't put in an appearance tonight. +He shall not have another chance of insulting me.” + +Was it her vanity that was wounded after all? “You forget,” said I, +“that you would not answer when he addressed you at dinner.” + +“I should think I wouldn't, after the way he spoke to Mr. Ready; and he +too agitated to come to table, poor fellow!” + +“Still, the captain felt the open slight.” + +“Then he shouldn't have used such language in front of me.” + +“Your father felt it, too, Miss Denison.” + +I hear nothing plainer than her low but quick reply: + +“Mr. Cole, my father has been dead many; many years; he died before I +can remember. That man only married my poor mother. He sympathizes +with Captain Harris--against me; no father would do that. Look at them +together now! And you take his side, too; oh! I have no patience with +any of you--except poor Mr. Ready in his berth.” + +“But you are not going.” + +“Indeed I am. I am tired of you all.” + +And she was gone with angry tears for which I blamed myself as I fell to +pacing the weather side of the poop--and so often afterwards! So often, +and with such unavailing bitterness! + +Senhor Santos and the captain were in conversation by the weather rail. +I fancied poor old Harris eyed me with suspicion, and I wished he had +better cause. The Portuguese, however, saluted me with his customary +courtesy, and I thought there was a grave twinkle in his steady eye. + +“Are you in deesgrace also, friend Cole?” he inquired in his all but +perfect English. + +“More or less,” said I ruefully. + +He gave the shrug of his country--that delicate gesture which is done +almost entirely with the back--a subtlety beyond the power of British +shoulders. + +“The senhora is both weelful and pivish,” said he, mixing the two vowels +which (with the aspirate) were his only trouble with our tongue. “It is +great grif to me to see her growing so unlike her sainted mother!” + +He sighed, and I saw his delicate fingers forsake the cigarette they +were rolling to make the sacred sign upon his breast. He was always +smoking one cigarette and making another; as he lit the new one the glow +fell upon a strange pin that he wore, a pin with a tiny crucifix inlaid +in mosaic. So the religious cast of Senhor Santos was brought twice home +to me in the same moment, though, to be sure, I had often been struck +by it before. And it depressed me to think that so sweet a child as Eva +Denison should have spoken harshly of so good a man as her step-father, +simply because he had breadth enough to sympathize with a coarse old +salt like Captain Harris. + +I turned in, however, and I cannot say the matter kept me awake in the +separate state-room which was one luxury of our empty saloon. Alas? I +was a heavy sleeper then. + + + + +CHAPTER II. THE MYSTERIOUS CARGO + + +“Wake up, Cole! The ship's on fire!” + +It was young Ready's hollow voice, as cool, however, as though he were +telling me I was late for breakfast. I started up and sought him wildly +in the darkness. + +“You're joking,” was my first thought and utterance; for now he was +lighting my candle, and blowing out the match with a care that seemed in +itself a contradiction. + +“I wish I were,” he answered. “Listen to that!” + +He pointed to my cabin ceiling; it quivered and creaked; and all at once +I was as a deaf man healed. + +One gets inured to noise at sea, but to this day it passes me how even I +could have slept an instant in the abnormal din which I now heard raging +above my head. Sea-boots stamped; bare feet pattered; men bawled; women +shrieked; shouts of terror drowned the roar of command. + +“Have we long to last?” I asked, as I leaped for my clothes. + +“Long enough for you to dress comfortably. Steady, old man! It's only +just been discovered; they may get it under. The panic's the worst part +at present, and we're out of that.” + +But was Eva Denison? Breathlessly I put the question; his answer was +reassuring. Miss Denison was with her step-father on the poop. “And both +of 'em as cool as cucumbers,” added Ready. + +They could not have been cooler than this young man, with death at the +bottom of his bright and sunken eyes. He was of the type which is all +muscle and no constitution; athletes one year, dead men the next; but +until this moment the athlete had been to me a mere and incredible +tradition. In the afternoon I had seen his lean knees totter under the +captain's fire. Now, at midnight--the exact time by my watch--it was as +if his shrunken limbs had expanded in his clothes; he seemed hardly to +know his own flushed face, as he caught sight of it in my mirror. + +“By Jove!” said he, “this has put me in a fine old fever; but I don't +know when I felt in better fettle. If only they get it under! I've not +looked like this all the voyage.” + +And he admired himself while I dressed in hot haste: a fine young +fellow; not at all the natural egotist, but cast for death by the +doctors, and keenly incredulous in his bag of skin. It revived one's +confidence to hear him talk. But he forgot himself in an instant, and +gave me a lead through the saloon with a boyish eagerness that made me +actually suspicious as I ran. We were nearing the Line. I recalled the +excesses of my last crossing, and I prepared for some vast hoax at the +last moment. It was only when we plunged upon the crowded quarter-deck, +and my own eyes read lust of life and dread of death in the starting +eyes of others, that such lust and such dread consumed me in my turn, so +that my veins seemed filled with fire and ice. + +To be fair to those others, I think that the first wild panic was +subsiding even then; at least there was a lull, and even a reaction in +the right direction on the part of the males in the second class and +steerage. A huge Irishman at their head, they were passing buckets +towards the after-hold; the press of people hid the hatchway from +us until we gained the poop; but we heard the buckets spitting and a +hose-pipe hissing into the flames below; and we saw the column of white +vapor rising steadily from their midst. + +At the break of the poop stood Captain Harris, his legs planted wide +apart, very vigorous, very decisive, very profane. And I must confess +that the shocking oaths which had brought us round the Horn inspired a +kind of confidence in me now. Besides, even from the poop I could see +no flames. But the night was as beautiful as it had been an hour or two +back; the stars as brilliant, the breeze even more balmy, the sea even +more calm; and we were hove-to already, against the worst. + +In this hour of peril the poop was very properly invaded by all classes +of passengers, in all manner of incongruous apparel, in all stages of +fear, rage, grief and hysteria; as we made our way among this motley +nightmare throng, I took Ready by the arm. + +“The skipper's a brute,” said I, “but he's the right brute in the right +place to-night, Ready!” + +“I hope he may be,” was the reply. “But we were off our course this +afternoon; and we were off it again during the concert, as sure as we're +not on it now.” + +His tone made me draw him to the rail. + +“But how do you know? You didn't have another look, did you?” + +“Lots of looks-at the stars. He couldn't keep me from consulting them; +and I'm just as certain of it as I'm certain that we've a cargo aboard +which we're none of us supposed to know anything about.” + +The latter piece of gossip was, indeed, all over the ship; but this +allusion to it struck me as foolishly irrelevant and frivolous. As to +the other matter, I suggested that the officers would have had more to +say about it than Ready, if there had been anything in it. + +“Officers be damned!” cried our consumptive, with a sound man's vigor. +“They're ordinary seamen dressed up; I don't believe they've a second +mate's certificate between them, and they're frightened out of their +souls.” + +“Well, anyhow, the skipper isn't that.” + +“No; he's drunk; he can shout straight, but you should hear him try to +speak.” + +I made my way aft without rejoinder. “Invalid's pessimism,” was my +private comment. And yet the sick man was whole for the time being; the +virile spirit was once more master of the recreant members; and it +was with illogical relief that I found those I sought standing almost +unconcernedly beside the binnacle. + +My little friend was, indeed, pale enough, and her eyes great with +dismay; but she stood splendidly calm, in her travelling cloak and +bonnet, and with all my soul I hailed the hardihood with which I had +rightly credited my love. Yes! I loved her then. It had come home to me +at last, and I no longer denied it in my heart. In my innocence and my +joy I rather blessed the fire for showing me her true self and my own; +and there I stood, loving her openly with my eyes (not to lose another +instant), and bursting to tell her so with my lips. + +But there also stood Senhor Santos, almost precisely as I had seen him +last, cigarette, tie-pin, and all. He wore an overcoat, however, and +leaned upon a massive ebony cane, while he carried his daughter's guitar +in its case, exactly as though they were waiting for a train. Moreover, +I thought that for the first time he was regarding me with no very +favoring glance. + +“You don't think it serious?” I asked him abruptly, my heart still +bounding with the most incongruous joy. + +He gave me his ambiguous shrug; and then, “A fire at sea is surely +sirrious,” said he. + +“Where did it break out?” + +“No one knows; it may have come of your concert.” + +“But they are getting the better of it?” + +“They are working wonders so far, senhor.” + +“You see, Miss Denison,” I continued ecstatically, “our rough old +diamond of a skipper is the right man in the right place after all. A +tight man in a tight place, eh?” and I laughed like an idiot in their +calm grave faces. + +“Senhor Cole is right,” said Santos, “although his 'ilarity sims a +leetle out of place. But you must never spik against Captain 'Arrees +again, menma.” + +“I never will,” the poor child said; yet I saw her wince whenever the +captain raised that hoarse voice of his in more and more blasphemous +exhortation; and I began to fear with Ready that the man was drunk. + +My eyes were still upon my darling, devouring her, revelling in her, +when suddenly I saw her hand twitch within her step-father's arm. It was +an answering start to one on his part. The cigarette was snatched from +his lips. There was a commotion forward, and a cry came aft, from mouth +to mouth: + +“The flames! The flames!” + +I turned, and caught their reflection on the white column of smoke and +steam. I ran forward, and saw them curling and leaping in the hell-mouth +of the hold. + +The quarter-deck now staged a lurid scene: that blazing trap-door in +its midst; and each man there a naked demon madly working to save his +roasting skin. Abaft the mainmast the deck-pump was being ceaselessly +worked by relays of the passengers; dry blankets were passed forward, +soaking blankets were passed aft, and flung flat into the furnace one +after another. These did more good than the pure water: the pillar of +smoke became blacker, denser: we were at a crisis; a sudden hush denoted +it; even our hoarse skipper stood dumb. + +I had rushed down into the waist of the ship--blushing for my delay--and +already I was tossing blankets with the rest. Looking up in an enforced +pause, I saw Santos whispering in the skipper's ear, with the expression +of a sphinx but no lack of foreign gesticulation--behind them a fringe +of terror-stricken faces, parted at that instant by two more figures, +as wild and strange as any in that wild, strange scene. One was our +luckless lucky digger, the other a gigantic Zambesi nigger, who for +days had been told off to watch him; this was the servant (or rather the +slave) of Senhor Santos. + +The digger planted himself before the captain. His face was reddened by +a fire as consuming as that within the bowels of our gallant ship. He +had a huge, unwieldy bundle under either arm. + +“Plain question--plain answer,” we heard him stutter. “Is there any ---- +chance of saving this ---- ship?” + +His adjectives were too foul for print; they were given with such a +special effort at distinctness, however, that I was smiling one instant, +and giving thanks the next that Eva Denison had not come forward with +her guardian. Meanwhile the skipper had exchanged a glance with Senhor +Santos, and I think we all felt that he was going to tell us the truth. + +He told it in two words--“Very little.” + +Then the first individual tragedy was enacted before every eye. With +a yell the drunken maniac rushed to the rail. The nigger was at his +heels--he was too late. Uttering another and more piercing shriek, the +madman was overboard at a bound; one of his bundles preceded him; the +other dropped like a cannon-ball on the deck. + +The nigger caught it up and carried it forward to the captain. + +Harris held up his hand. We were still before we had fairly found our +tongues. His words did run together a little, but he was not drunk. + +“Men and women,” said he, “what I told that poor devil is Gospel truth; +but I didn't tell him we'd no chance of saving our lives, did I? Not +me, because we have! Keep your heads and listen to me. There's two +good boats on the davits amidships; the chief will take one, the second +officer the other; and there ain't no reason why every blessed one of +you shouldn't sleep in Ascension to-morrow night. As for me, let me see +every soul off of my ship and perhaps I may follow; but by the God that +made you, look alive! Mr. Arnott--Mr. McClellan--man them boats and +lower away. You can't get quit o' the ship too soon, an' I don't mind +tellin' you why. I'll tell you the worst, an' then you'll know. There's +been a lot o' gossip goin', gossip about my cargo. I give out as I'd +none but ship's stores and ballast, an' I give out a lie. I don't mind +tellin' you now. I give out a cussed lie, but I give it out for the +good o' the ship! What was the use o' frightenin' folks? But where's the +sense in keepin' it back now? We have a bit of a cargo,” shouted Harris; +“and it's gunpowder--every damned ton of it!” + +The effect of this announcement may be imagined; my hand has not the +cunning to reproduce it on paper; and if it had, it would shrink from +the task. Mild men became brutes, brutal men, devils, women--God help +them!--shrieking beldams for the most part. Never shall I forget them +with their streaming hair, their screaming open mouths, and the cruel +ascending fire glinting on their starting eyeballs! + +Pell-mell they tumbled down the poop-ladders; pell-mell they raced +amidships past that yawning open furnace; the pitch was boiling through +the seams of the crackling deck; they slipped and fell upon it, one over +another, and the wonder is that none plunged headlong into the flames. +A handful remained on the poop, cowering and undone with terror. Upon +these turned Captain Harris, as Ready and I, stemming the torrent of +maddened humanity, regained the poop ourselves. + +“For'ard with ye!” yelled the skipper. “The powder's underneath you in +the lazarette!” + +They were gone like hunted sheep. And now abaft the flaming hatchway +there were only we four surviving saloon passengers, the captain, his +steward, the Zambesi negro, and the quarter-master at the wheel. The +steward and the black I observed putting stores aboard the captain's gig +as it overhung the water from the stern davits. + +“Now, gentlemen,” said Harris to the two of us, “I must trouble you to +step forward with the rest. Senhor Santos insists on taking his chance +along with the young lady in my gig. I've told him the risk, but he +insists, and the gig'll hold no more.” + +“But she must have a crew, and I can row. For God's sake take me, +captain!” cried I; for Eva Denison sat weeping in her deck chair, and my +heart bled faint at the thought of leaving her, I who loved her so, and +might die without ever telling her my love! Harris, however, stood firm. + +“There's that quartermaster and my steward, and José the nigger,” said +he. “That's quite enough, Mr. Cole, for I ain't above an oar myself; +but, by God, I'm skipper o' this here ship, and I'll skip her as long as +I remain aboard!” + +I saw his hand go to his belt; I saw the pistols stuck there for +mutineers. I looked at Santos. He answered me with his neutral shrug, +and, by my soul, he struck a match and lit a cigarette in that hour of +life and death! Then last I looked at Ready; and he leant invertebrate +over the rail, gasping pitiably from his exertions in regaining the +poop, a dying man once more. I pointed out his piteous state. + +“At least,” I whispered, “you won't refuse to take him?” + +“Will there be anything to take?” said the captain brutally. + +Santos advanced leisurely, and puffed his cigarette over the poor wasted +and exhausted frame. + +“It is for you to decide, captain,” said he cynically; “but this one +will make no deeference. Yes, I would take him. It will not be far,” he +added, in a tone that was not the less detestable for being lowered. + +“Take them both!” moaned little Eva, putting in her first and last sweet +word. + +“Then we all drown, Evasinha,” said her stepfather. “It is impossible.” + +“We're too many for her as it is,” said the captain. “So for'ard with +ye, Mr. Cole, before it's too late.” + +But my darling's brave word for me had fired my blood, and I turned +with equal resolution on Harris and on the Portuguese. “I will go like +a lamb,” said I, “if you will first give me five minutes' conversation +with Miss Denison. Otherwise I do not go; and as for the gig, you may +take me or leave me, as you choose.” + +“What have you to say to her?” asked Santos, coming up to me, and again +lowering his voice. + +I lowered mine still more. “That I love her!” I answered in a soft +ecstasy. “That she may remember how I loved her, if I die!” + +His shoulders shrugged a cynical acquiescence. + +“By all mins, senhor; there is no harm in that.” + +I was at her side before another word could pass his withered lips. + +“Miss Denison, will you grant me five minutes', conversation? It may be +the last that we shall ever have together!” + +Uncovering her face, she looked at me with a strange terror in her great +eyes; then with a questioning light that was yet more strange, for in it +there was a wistfulness I could not comprehend. She suffered me to take +her hand, however, and to lead her unresisting to the weather rail. + +“What is it you have to say?” she asked me in her turn. “What is it that +you--think?” + +Her voice fell as though she must have the truth. + +“That we have all a very good chance,” said I heartily. + +“Is that all?” cried Eva, and my heart sank at her eager manner. + +She seemed at once disappointed and relieved. Could it be possible she +dreaded a declaration which she had foreseen all along? My evil first +experience rose up to warn me. No, I would not speak now; it was no +time. If she loved me, it might make her love me less; better to trust +to God to spare us both. + +“Yes, it is all,” I said doggedly. + +She drew a little nearer, hesitating. It was as though her +disappointment had gained on her relief. + +“Do you know what I thought you were going to say?” + +“No, indeed.” + +“Dare I tell you?” + +“You can trust me.” + +Her pale lips parted. Her great eyes shone. Another instant, and she had +told me that which I would have given all but life itself to know. But +in that tick of time a quick step came behind me, and the light went out +of the sweet face upturned to mine. + +“I cannot! I must not! Here is--that man!” + +Senhor Santos was all smiles and rings of pale-blue smoke. + +“You will be cut off, friend Cole,” said he. “The fire is spreading.” + +“Let it spread!” I cried, gazing my very soul into the young girl's +eyes. “We have not finished our conversation. + +“We have!” said she, with sudden decision. “Go--go--for my sake--for +your own sake--go at once!” + +She gave me her hand. I merely clasped it. And so I left her at the +rail--ah, heaven! how often we had argued on that very spot! So I left +her, with the greatest effort of all my life (but one); and yet in +passing, full as my heart was of love and self, I could not but lay a +hand on poor Ready's shoulders. + +“God bless you, old boy!” I said to him. + +He turned a white face that gave me half an instant's pause. + +“It's all over with me this time,” he said. “But, I say, I was right +about the cargo?” + +And I heard a chuckle as I reached the ladder; but Ready was no longer +in my mind; even Eva was driven out of it, as I stood aghast on the +top-most rung. + + + + +CHAPTER III. TO THE WATER'S EDGE + + +It was not the new panic amidships that froze my marrow; it was not that +the pinnace hung perpendicularly by the fore-tackle, and had shot out +those who had swarmed aboard her before she was lowered, as a cart +shoots a load of bricks. It was bad enough to see the whole boat-load +struggling, floundering, sinking in the sea; for selfish eyes (and which +of us is all unselfish at such a time?) there was a worse sight yet; for +I saw all this across an impassable gulf of fire. + +The quarter-deck had caught: it was in flames to port and starboard of +the flaming hatch; only fore and aft of it was the deck sound to the +lips of that hideous mouth, with the hundred tongues shooting out and +up. + +Could I jump it there? I sprang down and looked. It was only a few feet +across; but to leap through that living fire was to leap into eternity. +I drew back instantly, less because my heart failed me, I may truly say, +than because my common sense did not. + +Some were watching me, it seemed, across this hell. “The bulwarks!” they +screamed. “Walk along the bulwarks!” I held up my hand in token that +I heard and understood and meant to act. And as I did their bidding I +noticed what indeed had long been apparent to idler eyes: the wind was +not; we had lost our southeast trades; the doomed ship was rolling in a +dead calm. + +Rolling, rolling, rolling so that it seemed minutes before I dared to +move an inch. Then I tried it on my hands and knees, but the scorched +bulwarks burned me to the bone. And then I leapt up, desperate with the +pain; and, with my tortured hands spread wide to balance me, I walked +those few yards, between rising sea and falling fire, and falling sea +and rising fire, as an acrobat walks a rope, and by God's grace without +mishap. + +There was no time to think twice about my feat, or, indeed, about +anything else that befell upon a night when each moment was more +pregnant than the last. And yet I did think that those who had +encouraged me to attempt so perilous a trick might have welcomed me +alive among them; they were looking at something else already; and this +was what it was. + +One of the cabin stewards had presented himself on the poop; he had a +bottle in one hand, a glass in the other; in the red glare we saw +him dancing in front of the captain like an unruly marionette. Harris +appeared to threaten him. What he said we could not hear for the +deep-drawn blast and the high staccato crackle of the blazing hold. But +we saw the staggering steward offering him a drink; saw the glass flung +next instant in the captain's face, the blood running, a pistol drawn, +fired without effect, and snatched away by the drunken mutineer. Next +instant a smooth black cane was raining blow after blow on the man's +head. He dropped; the blows fell thick and heavy as before. He lay +wriggling; the Portuguese struck and struck until he lay quite still; +then we saw Joaquin Santos kneel, and rub his stick carefully on the +still thing's clothes, as a man might wipe his boots. + +Curses burst from our throats; yet the fellow deserved to die. Nor, as I +say, had we time to waste two thoughts upon any one incident. This +last had begun and ended in the same minute; in another we were at the +starboard gangway, tumbling helter-skelter aboard the lowered long-boat. + +She lay safely on the water: how we thanked our gods for that! Lower and +lower sank her gunwale as we dropped aboard her, with no more care than +the Gadarene swine whose fate we courted. Discipline, order, method, +common care, we brought none of these things with us from our floating +furnace; but we fought to be first over the bulwarks, and in the bottom +of the long-boat we fought again. + +And yet she held us all! All, that is, but a terror-stricken few, who +lay along the jibboom like flies upon a stick: all but two or three more +whom we left fatally hesitating in the forechains: all but the selfish +savages who had been the first to perish in the pinnace, and one +distracted couple who had thrown their children into the kindly ocean, +and jumped in after them out of their torment, locked for ever in each +other's arms. + +Yes! I saw more things on that starry night, by that blood-red glare, +than I have told you in their order, and more things than I shall tell +you now. Blind would I gladly be for my few remaining years, if that +night's horrors could be washed from these eyes for ever. I have said so +much, however, that in common candor I must say one thing more. I have +spoken of selfish savages. God help me and forgive me! For by this time +I was one myself. + +In the long-boat we cannot have been less than thirty; the exact number +no man will ever know. But we shoved off without mischance; the chief +mate had the tiller; the third mate the boat-hook; and six or eight +oars were at work, in a fashion, as we plunged among the great smooth +sickening mounds and valleys of fathomless ink. + +Scarcely were we clear when the foremast dropped down on the fastenings, +dashing the jib-boom into the water with its load of demented human +beings. The mainmast followed by the board before we had doubled our +distance from the wreck. Both trailed to port, where we could not see +them; and now the mizzen stood alone in sad and solitary grandeur, her +flapping idle sails lighted up by the spreading conflagration, so that +they were stamped very sharply upon the black add starry sky. But the +whole scene from the long-boat was one of startling brilliancy and +horror. The fire now filled the entire waist of the vessel, and the +noise of it was as the rumble and roar of a volcano. As for the light, +I declare that it put many a star clean out, and dimmed the radiance +of all the rest, as it flooded the sea for miles around, and a sea of +molten glass reflected it. My gorge rose at the long, low billows-sleek +as black satin--lifting and dipping in this ghastly glare. I preferred +to keep my eyes upon the little ship burning like a tar barrel as the +picture grew. But presently I thanked God aloud: there was the gig +swimming like a beetle over the bloodshot rollers in our wake. + +In our unspeakable gladness at being quit of the ship, some minutes +passed before we discovered that the long-boat was slowly filling. The +water was at our ankles before a man of us cried out, so fast were our +eyes to the poor lost _Lady Jermyn_. Then all at once the ghastly fact +dawned upon us; and I think it was the mate himself who burst out crying +like a child. I never ascertained, however, for I had kicked off my +shoes and was busy baling with them. Others were hunting for the leak. +But the mischief was as subtle as it was mortal--as though a plank +had started from end to end. Within and without the waters rose +equally--then lay an instant level with our gunwales--then swamped us, +oh! so slowly, that I thought we were never going to sink. It was +like getting inch by inch into your tub; I can feel it now, creeping, +crawling up my back. “It's coming! O Christ!” muttered one as it came; +to me it was a downright relief to be carried under at last. + +But then, thank God, I have always been a strong swimmer. The water was +warm and buoyant, and I came up like a cork, as I knew I should. I shook +the drops from my face, and there were the sweet stars once more; for +many an eye they had gone Out for ever; and there the burning wreck. + +A man floundered near me, in a splutter of phosphorescence. I tried to +help him, and in an instant he had me wildly round the neck. In the end +I shook him off, poor devil, to his death. And he was the last I tried +to aid: have I not said already what I was become? + +In a little an oar floated my way: I threw my arms across it and gripped +it with my chin as I swam. It relieved me greatly. Up and down I rode +among the oily black hillocks; I was down when there was a sudden flare +as though the sun had risen, and I saw still a few heads bobbing and a +few arms waving frantically around me. At the same instant a terrific +detonation split the ears; and when I rose on the next bald billow, +where the ship lay burning a few seconds before, there remained but a +red-hot spine that hissed and dwindled for another minute, and then left +a blackness through which every star shone with redoubled brilliance. + +And now right and left splashed falling missiles; a new source of danger +or of temporary respite; to me, by a merciful Providence, it proved the +latter. + +Some heavy thing fell with a mighty splash right in front of me. A few +more yards, and my brains had floated with the spume. As it was, the +oar was dashed from under my armpits; in another moment they had found a +more solid resting-place. + +It was a hen-coop, and it floated bars upwards like a boat. In this +calm it might float for days. I climbed upon the bars-and the whole cage +rolled over on top of me. + +Coming to the surface, I found to my joy that the hen-coop had righted +itself; so now I climbed up again, but this time very slowly and +gingerly; the balance was undisturbed, and I stretched myself cautiously +along the bars on my stomach. A good idea immediately occurred to me. I +had jumped as a matter of course into the flannels which one naturally +wears in the tropics. To their lightness I already owed my life, but the +common cricket-belt which was part of the costume was the thing to which +I owe it most of all. Loosening this belt a little, as I tucked my toes +tenaciously under the endmost bar, I undid and passed the two ends under +one of the middle bars, fastening the clasp upon the other side. If I +capsized now, well, we might go to the bottom together; otherwise the +hen-coop and I should not part company in a hurry; and I thought, I +felt, that she would float. + +Worn out as I was, and comparatively secure for the moment, I will not +say that I slept; but my eyes closed, and every fibre rested, as I rose +and slid with the smooth, long swell. Whether I did indeed hear voices, +curses, cries, I cannot say positively to this day. I only know that I +raised my head and looked sharply all ways but the way I durst not look +for fear of an upset. And, again, I thought I saw first a tiny flame, +and then a tinier glow; and as my head drooped, and my eyes closed +again, I say I thought I smelt tobacco; but this, of course, was my +imagination supplying all the links from one. + + + + + + +CHAPTER IV. THE SILENT SEA + + +Remember (if indeed there be any need to remind you) that it is a +flagrant landsman who is telling you this tale. Nothing know I of +seamanship, save what one could not avoid picking up on the round voyage +of the _Lady Jermyn_, never to be completed on this globe. I may be told +that I have burned that devoted vessel as nothing ever burned on land or +sea. I answer that I write of what I saw, and that is not altered by a +miscalled spar or a misunderstood manouvre. But now I am aboard a craft +I handle for myself, and must make shift to handle a second time with +this frail pen. + +The hen-coop was some six feet long, by eighteen or twenty inches in +breadth and depth. It was simply a long box with bars in lieu of a lid; +but it was very strongly built. + +I recognized it as one of two which had stood lashed against either rail +of the _Lady Jermyn_'s poop; there the bars had risen at right angles to +the deck; now they lay horizontal, a gridiron six feet long-and my bed. +And as each particular bar left its own stripe across my wearied body, +and yet its own comfort in my quivering heart, another day broke over +the face of the waters, and over me. + +Discipline, what there was of it originally, had been the very first +thing to perish aboard our ill-starred ship; the officers, I am afraid, +were not much better than poor Ready made them out (thanks to Bendigo +and Ballarat), and little had been done in true ship-shape style all +night. All hands had taken their spell at everything as the fancy seized +them; not a bell had been struck from first to last; and I can only +conjecture that the fire raged four or five hours, from the fact that +it was midnight by my watch when I left it on my cabin drawers, and that +the final extinction of the smouldering keel was so soon followed by the +first deep hint of dawn. The rest took place with the trite rapidity of +the equatorial latitudes. It had been my foolish way to pooh-pooh the +old saying that there is no twilight in the tropics. I saw more truth in +it as I lay lonely on this heaving waste. + +The stars were out; the sea was silver; the sun was up. + +And oh! the awful glory of that sunrise! It was terrific; it was +sickening; my senses swam. Sunlit billows smooth and sinister, without a +crest, without a sound; miles and miles of them as I rose; an oily grave +among them as I fell. Hill after hill of horror, valley after valley of +despair! The face of the waters in petty but eternal unrest; and now +the sun must shine to set it smiling, to show me its cruel ceaseless +mouthings, to reveal all but the ghastlier horrors underneath. + +How deep was it? I fell to wondering! Not that it makes any difference +whether you drown in one fathom or in ten thousand, whether you fall +from a balloon or from the attic window. But the greater depth or +distance is the worse to contemplate; and I was as a man hanging by his +hands so high above the world, that his dangling feet cover countries, +continents; a man who must fall very soon, and wonders how long he will +be falling, falling; and how far his soul will bear his body company. + +In time I became more accustomed to the sun upon this heaving void; less +frightened, as a child is frightened, by the mere picture. And I have +still the impression that, as hour followed hour since the falling of +the wind, the nauseous swell in part subsided. I seemed less often on +an eminence or in a pit; my glassy azure dales had gentler slopes, or a +distemper was melting from my eyes. + +At least I know that I had now less work to keep my frail ship trim, +though this also may have come by use and practice. In the beginning one +or other of my legs had been for ever trailing in the sea, to keep the +hen-coop from rolling over the other way; in fact, as I understand they +steer the toboggan in Canada, so I my little bark. Now the necessity for +this was gradually decreasing; whatever the cause, it was the greatest +mercy the day had brought me yet. With less strain on the attention, +however, there was more upon the mind. No longer forced to exert some +muscle twice or thrice a minute, I had time to feel very faint, and yet +time to think. My soul flew homing to its proper prison. I was no longer +any unit at unequal strife with the elements; instincts common to my +kind were no longer my only stimulus. I was my poor self again; it was +my own little life, and no other, that I wanted to go on living; and +yet I felt vaguely there was some special thing I wished to live for, +something that had not been very long in my ken; something that had +perhaps nerved and strengthened me all these hours. What, then, could it +be? I could not think. + +For moments or for minutes I wondered stupidly, dazed as I was. Then +I remembered--and the tears gushed to my eyes. How could I ever have +forgotten? I deserved it all, all, all! To think that many a time we +must have sat together on this very coop! I kissed its blistering edge +at the thought, and my tears ran afresh, as though they never would +stop. + +Ah! how I thought of her as that cruel day's most cruel sun climbed +higher and higher in the flawless flaming vault. A pocket-handkerchief +of all things had remained in my trousers pocket through fire and water; +I knotted it on the old childish plan, and kept it ever drenched upon +the head that had its own fever to endure as well. Eva Denison! Eva +Denison! I was talking to her in the past, I was talking to her in the +future, and oh! how different were the words, the tone! Yes, I hated +myself for having forgotten her; but I hated God for having given her +back to my tortured brain; it made life so many thousandfold more sweet, +and death so many thousandfold more bitter. + +She was saved in the gig. Sweet Jesus, thanks for that! But I--I was +dying a lingering death in mid-ocean; she would never know how I loved +her, I, who could only lecture her when I had her at my side. + +Dying? No--no--not yet! I must live--live--live--to tell my darling how +I had loved her all the time. So I forced myself from my lethargy of +despair and grief; and this thought, the sweetest thought of all my +life, may or may not have been my unrealized stimulus ere now; it was in +very deed my most conscious and perpetual spur henceforth until the end. + +From this onward, while my sense stood by me, I was practical, +resourceful, alert. It was now high-noon, and I had eaten nothing since +dinner the night before. How clearly I saw the long saloon table, only +laid, however, abaft the mast; the glittering glass, the cool white +napery, the poor old dried dessert in the green dishes! Earlier, this +had occupied my mind an hour; now I dismissed it in a moment; there was +Eva, I must live for her; there must be ways of living at least a day or +two without sustenance, and I must think of them. + +So I undid that belt of mine which fastened me to my gridiron, and I +straddled my craft with a sudden keen eye for sharks, of which I never +once had thought until now. Then I tightened the belt about my hollow +body, and just sat there with the problem. The past hour I had been +wholly unobservant; the inner eye had had its turn; but that was over +now, and I sat as upright as possible, seeking greedily for a sail. Of +course I saw none. Had we indeed been off our course before the fire +broke out? Had we burned to cinders aside and apart from the regular +track of ships? Then, though my present valiant mood might ignore +the adverse chances, they were as one hundred to a single chance of +deliverance. Our burning had brought no ship to our succor; and how +should I, a mere speck amid the waves, bring one to mine? + +Moreover, I was all but motionless; I was barely drifting at all. This +I saw from a few objects which were floating around me now at noon; they +had been with me when the high sun rose. One was, I think, the very +oar which had been my first support; another was a sailor's cap; but +another, which floated nearer, was new to me, as though it had come to +the surface while my eyes were turned inwards. And this was clearly the +case; for the thing was a drowned and bloated corpse. + +It fascinated me, though not with extraordinary horror; it came too late +to do that. I thought I recognized the man's back. I fancied it was +the mate who had taken charge of the long-boat. Was I then the single +survivor of those thirty souls? I was still watching my poor lost +comrade, when that happened to him against which even I was not proof. +Through the deep translucent blue beneath me a slim shape glided; three +smaller fish led the way; they dallied an instant a fathom under my +feet, which were snatched up, with what haste you may imagine; then on +they went to surer prey. + +He turned over; his dreadful face stared upwards; it was the chief +officer, sure enough. Then he clove the water with a rush, his dead hand +waved, the last of him to disappear; and I had a new horror to think +over for my sins. His poor fingers were all broken and beaten to a pulp. + +The voices of the night came back to me--the curses and the cries. Yes, +I must have heard them. In memory now I recognized the voice of the +chief mate, but there again came in the assisted imagination. Yet I +was not so sure of this as before. I thought of Santos and his horrible +heavy cane. Good God! she was in the power of that! I must live for Eva +indeed; must save myself to save and protect my innocent and helpless +girl. + +Again I was a man; stronger than ever was the stimulus now, louder than +ever the call on every drop of true man's blood in my perishing frame. +It should not perish! It should not! + +Yet my throat was parched; my lips were caked; my frame was hollow. Very +weak I was already; without sustenance I should surely die. But as yet +I was far enough from death, or I had done disdaining the means of life +that all this time lay ready to my hand. A number of dead fowls imparted +ballast to my little craft. + +Yet I could not look at them in all these hours; or I could look, but +that was all. So I must sit up one hour more, and keep a sharper eye +than ever for the tiniest glimmer of a sail. To what end, I often asked +myself? I might see them; they would never see me. + +Then my eyes would fail, and “you squeamish fool!” I said at intervals, +until my tongue failed to articulate; it had swollen so in my mouth. +Flying fish skimmed the water like thick spray; petrels were so few that +I could count them; another shark swam round me for an hour. In sudden +panic I dashed my knuckles on the wooden bars, to get at a duck to give +the monster for a sop. My knuckles bled. I held them to my mouth. My +cleaving tongue wanted more. The duck went to the shark; a few minutes +more and I had made my own vile meal as well. + + + + +CHAPTER V. MY REWARD + + +The sun declined; my shadow broadened on die waters; and now I felt that +if my cockle-shell could live a little longer, why, so could I. + +I had got at the fowls without further hurt. Some of the bars took out, +I discovered how. And now very carefully I got my legs in, and knelt; +but the change of posture was not worth the risk one ran for it; there +was too much danger of capsizing, and failing to free oneself before she +filled and sank. + +With much caution I began breaking the bars, one by one; it was hard +enough, weak as I was; my thighs were of more service than my hands. + +But at last I could sit, the grating only covering me from the knees +downwards. And the relief of that outweighed all the danger, which, as I +discovered to my untold joy, was now much less than it had been before. +I was better ballast than the fowls. + +These I had attached to the lashings which had been blown asunder by the +explosion; at one end of the coop the ring-bolt had been torn clean out, +but at the other it was the cordage that had parted. To the frayed +ends I tied my fowls by the legs, with the most foolish pride in my own +cunning. Do you not see? It would keep them fresh for my use, and it was +a trick I had read of in no book; it was all my own. + +So evening fell and found me hopeful and even puffed up; but yet, no +sail. + +Now, however, I could lie back, and use had given me a strange sense of +safety; besides, I think I knew, I hope I felt, that the hen-coop was in +other Hands than mine. + +All is reaction in the heart of man; light follows darkness nowhere more +surely than in that hidden self, and now at sunset it was my heart's +high-noon. Deep peace pervaded me as I lay outstretched in my narrow +rocking bed, as it might be in my coffin; a trust in my Maker's will +to save me if that were for the best, a trust in His final wisdom and +loving-kindness, even though this night should be my last on earth. For +myself I was resigned, and for others I must trust Him no less. Who was +I to constitute myself the protector of the helpless, when He was in +His Heaven? Such was my sunset mood; it lasted a few minutes, and then, +without radically changing, it became more objective. + +The west was a broadening blaze of yellow and purple and red. I cannot +describe it to you. If you have seen the sun set in the tropics, you +would despise my description; and, if not, I for one could never make +you see it. Suffice it that a petrel wheeled somewhere between deepening +carmine and paling blue, and it took my thoughts off at an earthy +tangent. I thanked God there were no big sea-birds in these latitudes; +no molly-hawks, no albatrosses, no Cape-hens. I thought of an albatross +that I had caught going out. Its beak and talons were at the bottom +with the charred remains of the _Lady Jermyn_. But I could see them +still, could feel them shrewdly in my mind's flesh; and so to the old +superstition, strangely justified by my case; and so to the poem which +I, with my special experience, not unnaturally consider the greatest +poem ever penned. + +But I did not know it then as I do now--and how the lines eluded me! I +seemed to see them in the book, yet I could not read the words! + + “Water, water, everywhere, + Nor any drop to drink.” + +That, of course, came first (incorrectly); and it reminded me of my +thirst, which the blood of the fowls had so very partially appeased. I +see now that it is lucky I could recall but little more. Experience is +less terrible than realization, and that poem makes me realize what I +went through as memory cannot. It has verses which would have driven me +mad. On the other hand, the exhaustive mental search for them distracted +my thoughts until the stars were back in the sky; and now I had a new +occupation, saying to myself all the poetry I could remember, especially +that of the sea; for I was a bookish fellow even then. But I never +was anything of a scholar. It is odd therefore, that the one apposite +passage which recurred to me in its entirety was in hexameters and +pentameters: + + Me miserum, quanti montes volvuntur aquarum! + Jam jam tacturos sidera summa putes. + Quantae diducto subsidunt aequore valles! + Jam jam tacturas Tartara nigra putes. + Quocunque adspicio, nihil est nisi pontus et aether; + Fluctibus hic tumidis, nubibus ille minax.... + +More there was of it in my head; but this much was an accurate statement +of my case; and yet less so now (I was thankful to reflect) than in +the morning, when every wave was indeed a mountain, and its trough a +Tartarus. I had learnt the lines at school; nay, they had formed my very +earliest piece of Latin repetition. And how sharply I saw the room I +said them in, the man I said them to, ever since my friend! I figured +him even now hearing Ovid rep., the same passage in the same room. And I +lay saying it on a hen-coop in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean! + +At last I fell into a deep sleep, a long unconscious holiday of the +soul, undefiled by any dream. + +They say that our dreaming is done as we slowly wake; then was I out of +the way of it that night, for a sudden violent rocking awoke me in +one horrid instant. I made it worse by the way I started to a sitting +posture. I had shipped some water. I was shipping more. Yet all around +the sea was glassy; whence then the commotion? As my ship came trim +again, and I saw that my hour was not yet, the cause occurred to me; and +my heart turned so sick that it was minutes before I had the courage to +test my theory. + +It was the true one. + +A shark had been at my trailing fowls; had taken the bunch of them +together, dragging the legs from my loose fastenings. Lucky they had +been no stronger! Else had I been dragged down to perdition too. + +Lucky, did I say? The refinement of cruelty rather; for now I had +neither meat nor drink; my throat was a kiln; my tongue a flame; and +another day at hand. + +The stars were out; the sea was silver; the sun was up! + + . . . . . + +Hours passed. + +I was waiting now for my delirium. + +It came in bits. + +I was a child. I was playing on the lawn at home. I was back on the +blazing sea. + +I was a schoolboy saying my Ovid; then back once more. + +The hen-coop was the _Lady Jermyn_. I was at Eva Denison's side. They were +marrying us on board. The ship's bell was ringing for us; a guitar in +the background burlesqued the Wedding March under skinny fingers; the +air was poisoned by a million cigarettes, they raised a pall of smoke +above the mastheads, they set fire to the ship; smoke and flame covered +the sea from rim to rim, smoke and flame filled the universe; the sea +dried up, and I was left lying in its bed, lying in my coffin, with +red-hot teeth, because the sun blazed right above them, and my withered +lips were drawn back from them for ever. + +So once more I came back to my living death; too weak now to carry a +finger to the salt water and back to my mouth; too weak to think of Eva; +too weak to pray any longer for the end, to trouble or to care any more. + +Only so tired. + + . . . . . + +Death has no more terrors for me. I have supped the last horror of the +worst death a man can die. You shall hear now for what I was delivered; +you shall read of my reward. + +My floating coffin was many things in turn; a railway carriage, a +pleasure boat on the Thames, a hammock under the trees; last of all it +was the upper berth in a not very sweet-smelling cabin, with a clatter +of knives and forks near at hand, and a very strong odor of onions in +the Irish stew. + +My hand crawled to my head; both felt a wondrous weight; and my head +was covered with bristles no longer than those on my chin, only less +stubborn. + +“Where am I?” I feebly asked. + +The knives and forks clattered on, and presently I burst out crying +because they had not heard me, and I knew that I could never make them +hear. Well, they heard my sobs, and a huge fellow came with his mouth +full, and smelling like a pickle bottle. + +“Where am I?” + +“Aboard the brig Eliza, Liverpool, homeward bound; glad to see them eyes +open.” + +“Have I been here long?” + +“Matter o' ten days.” + +“Where did you find me?” + +“Floating in a hen-coop; thought you was a dead 'un.” + +“Do you know what ship?” + +“Do we know? No, that's what you've got to tell us!” + +“I can't,” I sighed, too weak to wag my head upon the pillow. + +The man went to my cabin door. + +“Here's a go,” said he; “forgotten the name of his blessed ship, he has. +Where's that there paper, Mr. Bowles? There's just a chance it may be +the same.” + +“I've got it, sir.” + +“Well, fetch it along, and come you in, Mr. Bowles; likely you may think +o' somethin'.” + +A reddish, hook-nosed man, with a jaunty, wicked look, came and smiled +upon me in the friendliest fashion; the smell of onions became more than +I knew how to endure. + +“Ever hear of the ship _Lady Jermyn_?” asked the first corner, winking at +the other. + +I thought very hard, the name did sound familiar; but no, I could not +honestly say that I had beard it before. + +The captain looked at his mate. + +“It was a thousand to one,” said he; “still we may as well try him with +the other names. Ever heard of Cap'n Harris, mister?” + +“Not that I know of.” + +“Of Saunderson-stooard?” + +“No.” + +“Or Crookes-quartermaster.” + +“Never.” + +“Nor yet of Ready--a passenger?” + +“No.” + +“It's no use goin' on,” said the captain folding up the paper. + +“None whatever, sir,” said the mate + +“Ready! Ready!” I repeated. “I do seem to have heard that name before. +Won't you give me another chance?” + +The paper was unfolded with a shrug. + +“There was another passenger of the name of San-Santos. Dutchman, +seemin'ly. Ever heard o' him?” + +My disappointment was keen. I could not say that I had. Yet I would not +swear that I had not. + +“Oh, won't you? Well, there's only one more chance. Ever heard of Miss +Eva Denison--” + +“By God, yes! Have you?” + +I was sitting bolt upright in my bunk. The skipper's beard dropped upon +his chest. + +“Bless my soul! The last name o' the lot, too!” + +“Have you heard of her?” I reiterated. + +“Wait a bit, my lad! Not so fast. Lie down again and tell me who she +was.” + +“Who she was?” I screamed. “I want to know where she is!” + +“I can't hardly say,” said the captain awkwardly. “We found the gig o' +the _Lady Jermyn_ the week arter we found you, bein' becalmed like; there +wasn't no lady aboard her, though.” + +“Was there anybody?” + +“Two dead 'uns--an' this here paper.” + +“Let me see it!” + +The skipper hesitated. + +“Hadn't you better wait a bit?” + +“No, no; for Christ's sake let me see the worst; do you think I can't +read it in your face?” + +I could--I did. I made that plain to them, and at last I had the +paper smoothed out upon my knees. It was a short statement of the last +sufferings of those who had escaped in the gig, and there was nothing +in it that I did not now expect. They had buried Ready first--then my +darling--then her step-father. The rest expected to follow fast enough. +It was all written plainly, on a sheet of the log-book, in different +trembling hands. Captain Harris had gone next; and two had been +discovered dead. + +How long I studied that bit of crumpled paper, with the salt spray +still sparkling on it faintly, God alone knows. All at once a peal of +nightmare laughter rattled through the cabin. My deliverers started +back. The laugh was mine. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. THE SOLE SURVIVOR + + +A few weeks later I landed in England, I, who no longer desired to set +foot on any land again. + +At nine-and-twenty I was gaunt and gray; my nerves were shattered, my +heart was broken; and my face showed it without let or hindrance from +the spirit that was broken too. Pride, will, courage, and endurance, all +these had expired in my long and lonely battle with the sea. They had +kept me alive-for this. And now they left me naked to mine enemies. + +For every hand seemed raised against me, though in reality it was the +hand of fellowship that the world stretched out, and the other was the +reading of a jaundiced eye. I could not help it: there was a poison in +my veins that made me all ingratitude and perversity. The world welcomed +me back, and I returned the compliment by sulking like the recaptured +runaway I was at heart. The world showed a sudden interest in me; so I +took no further interest in the world, but, on the contrary, resented +its attentions with unreasonable warmth and obduracy; and my would-be +friends I regarded as my very worst enemies. The majority, I feel sure, +meant but well and kindly by the poor survivor. But the survivor could +not forget that his name was still in the newspapers, nor blink the fact +that he was an unworthy hero of the passing hour. And he suffered +enough from brazenly meddlesome and self-seeking folk, from impudent and +inquisitive intruders, to justify some suspicion of old acquaintances +suddenly styling themselves old friends, and of distant connections +newly and unduly eager to claim relationship. Many I misjudged, and have +long known it. On the whole, however, I wonder at that attitude of mine +as little as I approve of it. + +If I had distinguished myself in any other way, it would have been a +different thing. It was the fussy, sentimental, inconsiderate +interest in one thrown into purely accidental and necessarily painful +prominence--the vulgarization of an unspeakable tragedy--that my soul +abhorred. I confess that I regarded it from my own unique and selfish +point of view. What was a thrilling matter to the world was a torturing +memory to me. The quintessence of the torture was, moreover, my own +secret. It was not the loss of the _Lady Jermyn_ that I could not bear to +speak about; it was my own loss; but the one involved the other. My +loss apart, however, it was plain enough to dwell upon experiences so +terrible and yet so recent as those which I had lived to tell. I did +what I considered my duty to the public, but I certainly did no more. My +reticence was rebuked in the papers that made the most of me, but would +fain have made more. And yet I do not think that I was anything but +docile with those who had a manifest right to question me; to the +owners, and to other interested persons, with whom I was confronted on +one pretext or another, I told my tale as fully and as freely as I have +told it here, though each telling hurt more than the last. That was +necessary and unavoidable; it was the private intrusions which I +resented with all the spleen the sea had left me in exchange for the +qualities it had taken away. + +Relatives I had as few as misanthropist could desire; but from +self-congratulation on the fact, on first landing, I soon came to keen +regret. They at least would have sheltered me from spies and busybodies; +they at least would have secured the peace and privacy of one who was +no hero in fact or spirit, whose noblest deed was a piece of self +preservation which he wished undone with all his heart. + +Self-consciousness no doubt multiplied my flattering assailants. I +have said that my nerves were shattered. I may have imagined much and +exaggerated the rest. Yet what truth there was in my suspicions you +shall duly see. I felt sure that I was followed in the street, and my +every movement dogged by those to whom I would not condescend to turn +and look. Meanwhile, I had not the courage to go near my club, and +the Temple was a place where I was accosted in every court, effusively +congratulated on the marvellous preservation of my stale spoilt life, +and invited right and left to spin my yarn over a quiet pipe! Well, +perhaps such invitations were not so common as they have grown in my +memory; nor must you confuse my then feelings on all these matters with +those which I entertain as I write. I have grown older, and, I hope, +something kindlier and wiser since then. Yet to this day I cannot blame +myself for abandoning my chambers and avoiding my club. + +For a temporary asylum I pitched upon a small, quiet, empty, private +hotel which I knew of in Charterhouse Square. Instantly the room next +mine became occupied. + +All the first night I imagined I heard voices talking about me in that +room next door. It was becoming a disease with me. Either I was being +dogged, watched, followed, day and night, indoors and out, or I was the +victim of a very ominous hallucination. That night I never closed an eye +nor lowered my light. In the morning I took a four-wheel cab and +drove straight to Harley Street; and, upon my soul, as I stood on the +specialist's door-step, I could have sworn I saw the occupant of the +room next mine dash by me in a hansom! + +“Ah!” said the specialist; “so you cannot sleep; you hear voices; +you fancy you are being followed in the street. You don't think these +fancies spring entirely from the imagination? Not entirely--just so. And +you keep looking behind you, as though somebody were at your elbow; and +you prefer to sit with your back close to the wall. Just so--just so. +Distressing symptoms, to be sure, but--but hardly to be wondered at in a +man who has come through your nervous strain.” A keen professional light +glittered in his eyes. “And almost commonplace,” he added, smiling, +“compared with the hallucinations you must have suffered from on that +hen-coop! Ah, my dear sir, the psychological interest of your case is +very great!” + +“It may be,” said I, brusquely. “But I come to you to get that hen-coop +out of my head, not to be reminded of it. Everybody asks me about the +damned thing, and you follow everybody else. I wish it and I were at the +bottom of the sea together!” + +This speech had the effect of really interesting the doctor in my +present condition, which was indeed one of chronic irritation and +extreme excitability, alternating with fits of the very blackest +despair. Instead of offending my gentleman I had put him on his mettle, +and for half an hour he honored me with the most exhaustive inquisition +ever elicited from a medical man. His panacea was somewhat in the nature +of an anti-climax, but at least it had the merits of simplicity and +of common sense. A change of air--perfect quiet--say a cottage in the +country--not too near the sea. And he shook my hand kindly when I left. + +“Keep up your heart, my dear sir,” said he. “Keep up your courage and +your heart.” + +“My heart!” I cried. “It's at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.” + +He was the first to whom I had said as much. He was a stranger. What did +it matter? And, oh, it was so true--so true. + +Every day and all day I was thinking of my love; every hour and all +hours she was before me with her sunny hair and young, young face. Her +wistful eyes were gazing into mine continually. Their wistfulness I +had never realized at the time; but now I did; and I saw it for what it +seemed always to have been, the soft, sad, yearning look of one fated +to die young. So young--so young! And I might live to be an old man, +mourning her. + +That I should never love again I knew full well. This time there was no +mistake. I have implied, I believe, that it was for another woman I fled +originally to the diggings. Well, that one was still unmarried, and when +the papers were full of me she wrote me a letter which I now believe to +have been merely kind. At the time I was all uncharitableness; but words +of mine would fail to tell you how cold this letter left me; it was as a +candle lighted in the full blaze of the sun. + +With all my bitterness, however, you must not suppose that I had quite +lost the feelings which had inspired me at sunset on the lonely ocean, +while my mind still held good. I had been too near my Maker ever to lose +those feelings altogether. They were with me in the better moments of +these my worst days. I trusted His wisdom still. There was a reason for +everything; there were reasons for all this. I alone had been saved out +of all those souls who sailed from Melbourne in the _Lady Jermyn_. Why +should I have been the favored one; I with my broken heart and now +lonely life? Some great inscrutable reason there must be; at my worst +I did not deny that. But neither did I puzzle my sick brain with the +reason. I just waited for it to be revealed to me, if it were God's will +ever to reveal it. And that I conceive to be the one spirit in which a +man may contemplate, with equal sanity and reverence, the mysteries and +the miseries of his life. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. I FIND A FRIEND + + + +The night after I consulted the specialist I was quite determined to +sleep. I had laid in a bundle of the daily papers. No country cottage +was advertised to let but I knew of it by evening, and about all the +likely ones I had already written. The scheme occupied my thoughts. +Trout-fishing was a desideratum. I would take my rod and plenty of +books, would live simply and frugally, and it should make a new man of +me by Christmas. It was now October. I went to sleep thinking of autumn +tints against an autumn sunset. It must have been very early, certainly +not later than ten o'clock; the previous night I had not slept at all. + +Now, this private hotel of mine was a very old fashioned house, dark and +dingy all day long, with heavy old chandeliers and black old oak, and +dead flowers in broken flower-pots surrounding a grimy grass-plot in the +rear. On this latter my bedroom window looked; and never am I likely to +forget the vile music of the cats throughout my first long wakeful night +there. The second night they actually woke me; doubtless they had been +busy long enough, but it was all of a sudden that I heard them, and lay +listening for more, wide awake in an instant. My window had been very +softly opened, and the draught fanned my forehead as I held my breath. + +A faint light glimmered through a ground-glass pane over the door; and +was dimly reflected by the toilet mirror, in its usual place against the +window. This mirror I saw moved, and next moment I had bounded from bed. + +The mirror fell with a horrid clatter: the toilet-table followed it with +a worse: the thief had gone as he had come ere my toes halted aching +amid the debris. + +A useless little balcony--stone slab and iron railing--jutted out from +my window. I thought I saw a hand on the railing, another on the slab, +then both together on the lower level for one instant before they +disappeared. There was a dull yet springy thud on the grass below. Then +no more noise but the distant thunder of the traffic, and the one that +woke me, until the window next mine was thrown up. + +“What the devil's up?” + +The voice was rich, cheery, light-hearted, agreeable; all that my own +was not as I answered “Nothing!” for this was not the first time my +next-door neighbor had tried to scrape acquaintance with me. + +“But surely, sir, I heard the very dickens of a row?” + +“You may have done.” + +“I was afraid some one had broken into your room!” + +“As a matter of fact,” said I, put to shame by the undiminished +good-humor of my neighbor, “some one did; but he's gone now, so let him +be.” + +“Gone? Not he! He's getting over that wall. After him--after him!” And +the head disappeared from the window next mine. + +I rushed into the corridor, and was just in time to intercept a +singularly handsome young fellow, at whom I had hardly taken the trouble +to look until now. He was in full evening dress, and his face was +radiant with the spirit of mischief and adventure. + +“For God's sake, sir,” I whispered, “let this matter rest. I shall have +to come forward if you persist, and Heaven knows I have been before the +public quite enough!” + +His dark eyes questioned me an instant, then fell as though he would not +disguise that he recollected and understood. I liked him for his good +taste. I liked him for his tacit sympathy, and better still for the +amusing disappointment in his gallant, young face. + +“I am sorry to have robbed you of a pleasant chase,” said I. “At one +time I should have been the first to join you. But, to tell you the +truth, I've had enough excitement lately to last me for my life.” + +“I can believe that,” he answered, with his fine eyes full upon me. +How strangely I had misjudged him! I saw no vulgar curiosity in his +flattering gaze, but rather that very sympathy of which I stood in need. +I offered him my hand. + +“It is very good of you to give in,” I said. “No one else has heard a +thing, you see. I shall look for another opportunity of thanking you +to-morrow.” + +“No, no!” cried he, “thanks be hanged, but--but, I say, if I promise +you not to bore you about things--won't you drink a glass of +brandy-and-water in my room before you turn in again?” + +Brandy-and-water being the very thing I needed, and this young man +pleasing me more and more, I said that I would join him with all my +heart, and returned to my room for my dressing-gown and slippers. To +find them, however, I had to light my candles, when the first thing +I saw was the havoc my marauder had left behind him. The mirror was +cracked across; the dressing-table had lost a leg; and both lay flat, +with my brushes and shaving-table, and the foolish toilet crockery which +no one uses (but I should have to replace) strewn upon the carpet. But +one thing I found that had not been there before: under the window lay +a formidable sheath-knife without its sheath. I picked it up with +something of a thrill, which did not lessen when I felt its edge. The +thing was diabolically sharp. I took it with me to show my neighbor, +whom I found giving his order to the boots; it seemed that it was barely +midnight, and that he had only just come in when the clatter took place +in my room. + +“Hillo!” he cried, when the man was gone, and I produced my trophy. +“Why, what the mischief have you got there?” + +“My caller's card,” said I. “He left it behind him. Feel the edge.” + +I have seldom seen a more indignant face than the one which my new +acquaintance bent over the weapon, as he held it to the light, and ran +his finger along the blade. He could have not frowned more heavily if he +had recognized the knife. + +“The villains!” he muttered. “The damned villains!” + +“Villains?” I queried. “Did you see more than one of them, then?” + +“Didn't you?” he asked quickly. “Yes, yes, to be sure! There was at +least one other beggar skulking down below.” He stood looking at me, the +knife in his hand, though mine was held out for it. “Don't you think, +Mr. Cole, that it's our duty to hand this over to the police? I--I've +heard of other cases about these Inns of Court. There's evidently a gang +of them, and this knife might convict the lot; there's no saying; anyway +I think the police should have it. If you like I'll take it to Scotland +Yard myself, and hand it over without mentioning your name.” + +“Oh, if you keep my name out of it,” said I, “and say nothing about +it here in the hotel, you may do what you like, and welcome! It's the +proper course, no doubt; only I've had publicity enough, and would +sooner have felt that blade in my body than set my name going again in +the newspapers.” + +“I understand,” he said, with his well-bred sympathy, which never went +a shade too far; and he dropped the weapon into a drawer, as the boots +entered with the tray. In a minute he had brewed two steaming jorums of +spirits-and-water; as he handed me one, I feared he was going to drink +my health, or toast my luck; but no, he was the one man I had met who +seemed, as he said, to “understand.” Nevertheless, he had his toast. + +“Here's confusion to the criminal classes in general,” he cried; “but +death and damnation to the owners of that knife!” + +And we clinked tumblers across the little oval table in the middle of +the room. It was more of a sitting-room than mine; a bright fire was +burning in the grate, and my companion insisted on my sitting over it +in the arm-chair, while for himself he fetched the one from his bedside, +and drew up the table so that our glasses should be handy. He then +produced a handsome cigar-case admirably stocked, and we smoked and +sipped in the cosiest fashion, though without exchanging many words. + +You may imagine my pleasure in the society of a youth, equally charming +in looks, manners and address, who had not one word to say to me about +the _Lady Jermyn_ or my hen-coop. It was unique. Yet such, I suppose, +was my native contrariety, that I felt I could have spoken of the +catastrophe to this very boy with less reluctance than to any other +creature whom I had encountered since my deliverance. He seemed so full +of silent sympathy: his consideration for my feelings was so marked and +yet so unobtrusive. I have called him a boy. I am apt to write as the +old man I have grown, though I do believe I felt older then than now. +In any case my young friend was some years my junior. I afterwards found +out that he was six-and-twenty. + +I have also called him handsome. He was the handsomest man that I have +ever met, had the frankest face, the finest eyes, the brightest smile. +Yet his bronzed forehead was low, and his mouth rather impudent and bold +than truly strong. And there was a touch of foppery about him, in the +enormous white tie and the much-cherished whiskers of the fifties, which +was only redeemed by that other touch of devilry that he had shown me +in the corridor. By the rich brown of his complexion, as well as by a +certain sort of swagger in his walk, I should have said that he was a +naval officer ashore, had he not told me who he was of his own accord. + +“By the way,” he said, “I ought to give you my name. It's Rattray, +of one of the many Kirby Halls in this country. My one's down in +Lancashire.” + +“I suppose there's no need to tell my name?” said I, less sadly, I +daresay, than I had ever yet alluded to the tragedy which I alone +survived. It was an unnecessary allusion, too, as a reference to the +foregoing conversation will show. + +“Well, no!” said he, in his frank fashion; “I can't honestly say there +is.” + +We took a few puffs, he watching the fire, and I his firelit face. + +“It must seem strange to you to be sitting with the only man who lived +to tell the tale!” + +The egotism of this speech was not wholly gratuitous. I thought it did +seem strange to him: that a needless constraint was put upon him by +excessive consideration for my feelings. I desired to set him at his +ease as he had set me at mine. On the contrary, he seemed quite startled +by my remark. + +“It is strange,” he said, with a shudder, followed by the biggest sip +of brandy-and-water he had taken yet. “It must have been +horrible--horrible!” he added to himself, his dark eyes staring into the +fire. + +“Ah!” said I, “it was even more horrible than you suppose or can ever +imagine.” + +I was not thinking of myself, nor of my love, nor of any particular +incident of the fire that still went on burning in my brain. My tone was +doubtless confidential, but I was meditating no special confidence when +my companion drew one with his next words. These, however, came after a +pause, in which my eyes had fallen from his face, but in which I heard +him emptying his glass. + +“What do you mean?” he whispered. “That there were other +circumstances--things which haven't got into the papers?” + +“God knows there were,” I answered, my face in my hands; and, my +grief brought home to me, there I sat with it in the presence of that +stranger, without compunction and without shame. + +He sprang up and paced the room. His tact made me realize my weakness, +and I was struggling to overcome it when he surprised me by suddenly +stopping and laying a rather tremulous hand upon my shoulder. + +“You--It wouldn't do you any good to speak of those circumstances, I +suppose?” he faltered. + +“No: not now: no good at all.” + +“Forgive me,” he said, resuming his walk. “I had no business--I felt so +sorry--I cannot tell you how I sympathize! And yet--I wonder if you will +always feel so?” + +“No saying how I shall feel when I am a man again,” said I. “You see +what I am at present.” And, pulling myself together, I rose to find my +new friend quite agitated in his turn. + +“I wish we had some more brandy,” he sighed. “I'm afraid it's too late +to get any now.” + +“And I'm glad of it,” said I. “A man in my state ought not to look at +spirits, or he may never look past them again. Thank goodness, there are +other medicines. Only this morning I consulted the best man on nerves in +London. I wish I'd gone to him long ago.” + +“Harley Street, was it?” + +“Yes.” + +“Saw you on his doorstep, by Jove!” cried Rattray at once. “I was +driving over to Hampstead, and I thought it was you. Well, what's the +prescription?” + +In my satisfaction at finding that he had not been dogging me +intentionally (though I had forgotten the incident till he reminded me +of it), I answered his question with unusual fulness. + +“I should go abroad,” said Rattray. “But then, I always am abroad; it's +only the other day I got back from South America, and I shall up anchor +again before this filthy English winter sets in.” + +Was he a sailor after all, or only a well-to-do wanderer on the face of +the earth? He now mentioned that he was only in England for a few weeks, +to have a look at his estate, and so forth; after which he plunged into +more or less enthusiastic advocacy of this or that foreign resort, as +opposed to the English cottage upon which I told him I had set my heart. + +He was now, however, less spontaneous, I thought, than earlier in the +night. His voice had lost its hearty ring, and he seemed preoccupied, as +if talking of one matter while he thought upon another. Yet he would +not let me go; and presently he confirmed my suspicion, no less than my +first impression of his delightful frankness and cordiality, by candidly +telling me what was on his mind. + +“If you really want a cottage in the country,” said he, “and the most +absolute peace and quiet to be got in this world, I know of the very +thing on my land in Lancashire. It would drive me mad in a week; but if +you really care for that sort of thing--” + +“An occupied cottage?” I interrupted. + +“Yes; a couple rent it from me, very decent people of the name of +Braithwaite. The man is out all day, and won't bother you when he's in; +he's not like other people, poor chap. But the woman 's all there, and +would do her best for you in a humble, simple, wholesome sort of way.” + +“You think they would take me in?” + +“They have taken other men--artists as a rule.” + +“Then it's a picturesque country?” + +“Oh, it's that if it's nothing else; but not a town for miles, mind you, +and hardly a village worthy the name.” + +“Any fishing?” + +“Yes--trout--small but plenty of 'em--in a beck running close behind the +cottage.” + +“Come,” cried I, “this sounds delightful! Shall you be up there?” + +“Only for a day or two,” was the reply. “I shan't trouble you, Mr. +Cole.” + +“My dear sir, that wasn't my meaning at all. I'm only sorry I shall not +see something of you on your own heath. I can't thank you enough for +your kind suggestion. When do you suppose the Braithwaites could do with +me?” + +His charming smile rebuked my impatience. + +“We must first see whether they can do with you at all,” said he. “I +sincerely hope they can; but this is their time of year for tourists, +though perhaps a little late. I'll tell you what I'll do. As a matter +of fact, I'm going down there to-morrow, and I've got to telegraph to my +place in any case to tell them when to meet me. I'll send the telegram +first thing, and I'll make them send one back to say whether there's +room in the cottage or not.” + +I thanked him warmly, but asked if the cottage was close to Kirby Hall, +and whether this would not be giving a deal of trouble at the other end; +whereupon he mischievously misunderstood me a second time, saying the +cottage and the hall were not even in sight of each other, and I really +had no intrusion to fear, as he was a lonely bachelor like myself, +and would only be up there four or five days at the most. So I made my +appreciation of his society plainer than ever to him; for indeed I +had found a more refreshing pleasure in it already than I had hoped to +derive from mortal man again; and we parted, at three o'clock in the +morning, like old fast friends. + +“Only don't expect too much, my dear Mr. Cole,” were his last words to +me. “My own place is as ancient and as tumble-down as most ruins that +you pay to see over. And I'm never there myself because--I tell you +frankly--I hate it like poison!” + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. A SMALL PRECAUTION + + +My delight in the society of this young Squire Rattray (as I soon was to +hear him styled) had been such as to make me almost forget the sinister +incident which had brought us together. When I returned to my room, +however, there were the open window and the litter on the floor to +remind me of what had happened earlier in the night. Yet I was less +disconcerted than you might suppose. A common housebreaker can have +few terrors for one who has braved those of mid-ocean single-handed; my +would-be visitor had no longer any for me; for it had not yet occurred +to me to connect him with the voices and the footsteps to which, indeed, +I had been unable to swear before the doctor. On the other hand, these +morbid imaginings (as I was far from unwilling to consider them) had +one and all deserted me in the sane, clean company of the capital young +fellow in the next room. + +I have confessed my condition up to the time of this queer meeting. +I have tried to bring young Rattray before you with some hint of his +freshness and his boyish charm; and though the sense of failure is heavy +upon me there, I who knew the man knew also that I must fail to do him +justice. Enough may have been said, however, to impart some faint idea +of what this youth was to me in the bitter and embittering anti-climax +of my life. Conventional figures spring to my pen, but every one of them +is true; he was flowers in spring, he was sunshine after rain, he was +rain following long months of drought. I slept admirably after all; +and I awoke to see the overturned toilet-table, and to thrill as I +remembered there was one fellow-creature with whom I could fraternize +without fear of a rude reopening of my every wound. + +I hurried my dressing in the hope of our breakfasting together. I +knocked at the next door, and, receiving no answer, even ventured +to enter, with the same idea. He was not there. He was not in the +coffee-room. He was not in the hotel. + +I broke my fast in disappointed solitude, and I hung about disconsolate +all the morning, looking wistfully for my new-made friend. Towards +mid-day he drove up in a cab which he kept waiting at the curb. + +“It's all right!” he cried out in his hearty way. “I sent my telegram +first thing, and I've had the answer at my club. The rooms are vacant, +and I'll see that Jane Braithwaite has all ready for you by to-morrow +night.” + +I thanked him from my heart. “You seem in a hurry!” I added, as I +followed him up the stairs. + +“I am,” said he. “It's a near thing for the train. I've just time to +stick in my things.” + +“Then I'll stick in mine,” said I impulsively, “and I'll come with you, +and doss down in any corner for the night.” + +He stopped and turned on the stairs. + +“You mustn't do that,” said he; “they won't have anything ready. I'm +going to make it my privilege to see that everything is as cosey as +possible when you arrive. I simply can't allow you to come to-day, Mr. +Cole!” He smiled, but I saw that he was in earnest, and of course I gave +in. + +“All right,” said I; “then I must content myself with seeing you off at +the station.” + +To my surprise his smile faded, and a flush of undisguised annoyance +made him, if anything, better-looking than ever. It brought out a +certain strength of mouth and jaw which I had not observed there +hitherto. It gave him an ugliness of expression which only emphasized +his perfection of feature. + +“You mustn't do that either,” said he, shortly. “I have an appointment +at the station. I shall be talking business all the time.” + +He was gone to his room, and I went to mine feeling duly snubbed; yet I +deserved it; for I had exhibited a characteristic (though not chronic) +want of taste, of which I am sometimes guilty to this day. Not to show +ill-feeling on the head of it, I nevertheless followed him down again +in four or five minutes. And I was rewarded by his brightest smile as he +grasped my hand. + +“Come to-morrow by the same train,” said he, naming station, line, and +hour; “unless I telegraph, all will be ready and you shall be met. You +may rely on reasonable charges. As to the fishing, go up-stream--to the +right when you strike the beck--and you'll find a good pool or two. I +may have to go to Lancaster the day after to-morrow, but I shall give +you a call when I get back.” + +With that we parted, as good friends as ever. I observed that my regret +at losing him was shared by the boots, who stood beside me on the steps +as his hansom rattled off. + +“I suppose Mr. Rattray stays here always when he comes to town?” said I. + +“No, sir,” said the man, “we've never had him before, not in my time; +but I shouldn't mind if he came again.” And he looked twice at the coin +in his hand before pocketing it with evident satisfaction. + +Lonely as I was, and wished to be, I think that I never felt my +loneliness as I did during the twenty-four hours which intervened +between Rattray's departure and my own. They dragged like wet days by +the sea, and the effect was as depressing. I have seldom been at such +a loss for something to do; and in my idleness I behaved like a child, +wishing my new friend back again, or myself on the railway with my new +friend, until I blushed for the beanstalk growth of my regard for him, +an utter stranger, and a younger man. I am less ashamed of it now: he +had come into my dark life like a lamp, and his going left a darkness +deeper than before. + +In my dejection I took a new view of the night's outrage. It was no +common burglar's work, for what had I worth stealing? It was the work of +my unseen enemies, who dogged me in the street; they alone knew why; the +doctor had called these hallucinations, and I had forced myself to agree +with the doctor; but I could not deceive myself in my present mood. +I remembered the steps, the steps--the stopping when I stopped--the +drawing away in the crowded streets---the closing up in quieter places. +Why had I never looked round? Why? Because till to-day I had thought it +mere vulgar curiosity; because a few had bored me, I had imagined the +many at my heels; but now I knew--I knew! It was the few again: a few +who hated me even unto death. + +The idea took such a hold upon me that I did not trouble my head with +reasons and motives. Certain persons had designs upon my life; that was +enough for me. On the whole, the thought was stimulating; it set a new +value on existence, and it roused a certain amount of spirit even in me. +I would give the fellows another chance before I left town. They should +follow me once more, and this time to some purpose. Last night they had +left a knife on me; to-night I would have a keepsake ready for them. + +Hitherto I had gone unarmed since my landing, which, perhaps, was no +more than my duty as a civilized citizen. On Black Hill Flats, however, +I had formed another habit, of which I should never have broken myself +so easily, but for the fact that all the firearms I ever had were +reddening and rotting at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. I now went +out and bought me such a one as I had never possessed before. + +The revolver was then in its infancy; but it did exist; and by dusk +I was owner of as fine a specimen as could be procured in the city of +London. It had but five chambers, but the barrel was ten inches long; +one had to cap it, and to put in the powder and the wadded bullet +separately; but the last-named would have killed an elephant. The oak +case that I bought with it cumbers my desk as I write, and, shut, +you would think that it had never contained anything more lethal than +fruit-knives. I open it, and there are the green-baize compartments, one +with a box of percussion caps, still apparently full, another that could +not contain many more wadded-bullets, and a third with a powder-horn +which can never have been much lighter. Within the lid is a label +bearing the makers' names; the gentlemen themselves are unknown to me, +even if they are still alive; nevertheless, after five-and-forty years, +let me dip my pen to Messrs. Deane, Adams and Deane! + +That night I left this case in my room, locked, and the key in my +waistcoat pocket; in the right-hand side-pocket of my overcoat I carried +my Deane and Adams, loaded in every chamber; also my right hand, as +innocently as you could wish. And just that night I was not followed! I +walked across Regent's Park, and I dawdled on Primrose Hill, without +the least result. Down I turned into the Avenue Road, and presently was +strolling between green fields towards Finchley. The moon was up, but +nicely shaded by a thin coating of clouds which extended across the sky: +it was an ideal night for it. It was also my last night in town, and I +did want to give the beggars their last chance. But they did not even +attempt to avail themselves of it: never once did they follow me: my +ears were in too good training to make any mistake. And the reason only +dawned on me as I drove back disappointed: they had followed me already +to the gunsmith's! + +Convinced of this, I entertained but little hope of another midnight +visitor. Nevertheless, I put my light out early, and sat a long time +peeping through my blind; but only an inevitable Tom, with back hunched +up and tail erect, broke the moonlit profile of the back-garden wall; +and once more that disreputable music (which none the less had saved my +life) was the only near sound all night. + +I felt very reluctant to pack Deane and Adams away in his case next +morning, and the case in my portmanteau, where I could not get at it in +case my unknown friends took it into their heads to accompany me out of +town. In the hope that they would, I kept him loaded, and in the same +overcoat pocket, until late in the afternoon, when, being very near my +northern destination, and having the compartment to myself, I locked the +toy away with considerable remorse for the price I had paid for it. All +down the line I had kept an eye for suspicious characters with an eye +upon me; but even my self-consciousness failed to discover one; and I +reached my haven of peace, and of fresh fell air, feeling, I suppose, +much like any other fool who has spent his money upon a white elephant. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. MY CONVALESCENT HOME + + +The man Braithwaite met me at the station with a spring cart. The very +porters seemed to expect me, and my luggage was in the cart before I +had given up my ticket. Nor had we started when I first noticed that +Braithwaite did not speak when I spoke to him. On the way, however, a +more flagrant instance recalled young Rattray's remark, that the man was +“not like other people.” I had imagined it to refer to a mental, not +a physical, defect; whereas it was clear to me now that my prospective +landlord was stone-deaf, and I presently discovered him to be dumb as +well. Thereafter I studied him with some attention during our drive of +four or five miles. I called to mind the theory that an innate physical +deficiency is seldom without its moral counterpart, and I wondered how +far this would apply to the deaf-mute at my side, who was ill-grown, +wizened, and puny into the bargain. The brow-beaten face of him was +certainly forbidding, and he thrashed his horse up the hills in a +dogged, vindictive, thorough-going way which at length made me jump +out and climb one of them on foot. It was the only form of protest that +occurred to me. + +The evening was damp and thick. It melted into night as we drove. +I could form no impression of the country, but this seemed desolate +enough. I believe we met no living soul on the high road which we +followed for the first three miles or more. At length we turned into a +narrow lane, with a stiff stone wall on either hand, and this eventually +led us past the lights of what appeared to be a large farm; it was +really a small hamlet; and now we were nearing our destination. Gates +had to be opened, and my poor driver breathed hard from the continual +getting down and up. In the end a long and heavy cart-track brought us +to the loneliest light that I have ever seen. It shone on the side of a +hill--in the heart of an open wilderness--as solitary as a beacon-light +at sea. It was the light of the cottage which was to be my temporary +home. + +A very tall, gaunt woman stood in the doorway against the inner glow. +She advanced with a loose, long stride, and invited me to enter in a +voice harsh (I took it) from disuse. I was warming myself before the +kitchen fire when she came in carrying my heaviest box as though it had +nothing in it. I ran to take it from her, for the box was full of books, +but she shook her head, and was on the stairs with it before I could +intercept her. + +I conceive that very few men are attracted by abnormal strength in a +woman; we cannot help it; and yet it was not her strength which first +repelled me in Mrs. Braithwaite. It was a combination of attributes. She +had a poll of very dirty and untidy red hair; her eyes were set close +together; she had the jowl of the traditional prize-fighter. But far +more disagreeable than any single feature was the woman's expression, +or rather the expression which I caught her assuming naturally, and +banishing with an effort for my benefit. To me she was strenuously +civil in her uncouth way. But I saw her give her husband one look, as +he staggered in with my comparatively light portmanteau, which she +instantly snatched out of his feeble arms. I saw this look again before +the evening was out, and it was such a one as Braithwaite himself had +fixed upon his horse as he flogged it up the hills. + +I began to wonder how the young squire had found it in his conscience to +recommend such a pair. I wondered less when the woman finally ushered +me upstairs to my rooms. These were small and rugged, but eminently snug +and clean. In each a good fire blazed cheerfully; my portmanteau was +already unstrapped, the table in the sitting-room already laid; and I +could not help looking twice at the silver and the glass, so bright was +their condition, so good their quality. Mrs. Braithwaite watched me from +the door. + +“I doubt you'll be thinking them's our own,” said she. “I wish they +were; t'squire sent 'em in this afternoon.” + +“For my use?” + +“Ay; I doubt he thought what we had ourselves wasn't good enough. An' +it's him 'at sent t' armchair, t'bed-linen, t'bath, an' that there +lookin'-glass an' all.” + +She had followed me into the bedroom, where I looked with redoubled +interest at each object as she mentioned it, and it was in the glass--a +masqueline shaving-glass--that I caught my second glimpse of my +landlady's evil expression--levelled this time at myself. + +I instantly turned round and told her that I thought it very kind of Mr. +Rattray, but that, for my part, I was not a luxurious man, and that I +felt rather sorry the matter had not been left entirely in her hands. +She retired seemingly mollified, and she took my sympathy with her, +though I was none the less pleased and cheered by my new friend's zeal +for my comfort; there were even flowers on my table, without a doubt +from Kirby Hall. + +And in another matter the squire had not misled me: the woman was an +excellent plain cook. I expected ham and eggs. Sure enough, this was my +dish, but done to a turn. The eggs were new and all unbroken, the ham +so lean and yet so tender, that I would not have exchanged my humble, +hearty meal for the best dinner served that night in London. It made a +new man of me, after my long journey and my cold, damp drive. I was for +chatting with Mrs. Braithwaite when she came up to clear away. I +thought she might be glad to talk after the life she must lead with her +afflicted husband, but it seemed to have had the opposite effect on her. +All I elicited was an ambiguous statement as to the distance between the +cottage and the hall; it was “not so far.” And so she left me to my pipe +and to my best night yet, in the stillest spot I have ever slept in +on dry land; one heard nothing but the bubble of a beck; and it seemed +very, very far away. + +A fine, bright morning showed me my new surroundings in their true +colors; even in the sunshine these were not very gay. But gayety was the +last thing I wanted. Peace and quiet were my whole desire, and both were +here, set in scenery at once lovely to the eye and bracing to the soul. + +From the cottage doorstep one looked upon a perfect panorama of +healthy, open English country. Purple hills hemmed in a broad, green, +undulating plateau, scored across and across by the stone walls of the +north, and all dappled with the shadows of rolling leaden clouds with +silver fringes. Miles away a church spire stuck like a spike out of the +hollow, and the smoke of a village dimmed the trees behind. No nearer +habitation could I see. I have mentioned a hamlet which we passed in the +spring-cart. It lay hidden behind some hillocks to the left. My landlady +told me it was better than half a mile away, and “nothing when you get +there; no shop; no post-office; not even a public-house.” + +I inquired in which direction lay the hall. She pointed to the nearest +trees, a small forest of stunted oaks, which shut in the view to the +right, after quarter of a mile of a bare and rugged valley. Through this +valley twisted the beck which I had heard faintly in the night. It ran +through the oak plantation and so to the sea, some two or three miles +further on, said my landlady; but nobody would have thought it was so +near. + +“T'squire was to be away to-day,” observed the woman, with the broad +vowel sound which I shall not attempt to reproduce in print. “He was +going to Lancaster, I believe.” + +“So I understood,” said I. “I didn't think of troubling him, if that's +what you mean. I'm going to take his advice and fish the beck.” + +And I proceeded to do so after a hearty early dinner: the keen, chill +air was doing me good already: the “perfect quiet” was finding its +way into my soul. I blessed my specialist, I blessed Squire Rattray, I +blessed the very villains who had brought us within each other's ken; +and nowhere was my thanksgiving more fervent than in the deep cleft +threaded by the beck; for here the shrewd yet gentle wind passed +completely overhead, and the silence was purged of oppression by the +ceaseless symphony of clear water running over clean stones. + +But it was no day for fishing, and no place for the fly, though I went +through the form of throwing one for several hours. Here the stream +merely rinsed its bed, there it stood so still, in pools of liquid +amber, that, when the sun shone, the very pebbles showed their shadows +in the deepest places. Of course I caught nothing; but, towards the +close of the gold-brown afternoon, I made yet another new acquaintance, +in the person of a little old clergyman who attacked me pleasantly from +the rear. + +“Bad day for fishing, sir,” croaked the cheery voice which first +informed me of his presence. “Ah, I knew it must be a stranger,” he +cried as I turned and he hopped down to my side with the activity of a +much younger man. + +“Yes,” I said, “I only came down from London yesterday. I find the spot +so delightful that I haven't bothered much about the sport. Still, I've +had about enough of it now.” And I prepared to take my rod to pieces. + +“Spot and sport!” laughed the old gentleman. “Didn't mean it for a +pun, I hope? Never could endure puns! So you came down yesterday, young +gentleman, did you? And where may you be staying?” + +I described the position of my cottage without the slightest hesitation; +for this parson did not scare me; except in appearance he had so +little in common with his type as I knew it. He had, however, about the +shrewdest pair of eyes that I have ever seen, and my answer only served +to intensify their open scrutiny. + +“How on earth did you come to hear of a God-forsaken place like this?” + said he, making use, I thought, of a somewhat stronger expression than +quite became his cloth. + +“Squire Rattray told me of it,” said I. + +“Ha! So you're a friend of his, are you?” And his eyes went through and +through me like knitting-needles through a ball of wool. + +“I could hardly call myself that,” said I. “But Mr. Rattray has been +very kind to me.” + +“Meet him in town?” + +I said I had, but I said it with some coolness, for his tone had dropped +into the confidential, and I disliked it as much as this string of +questions from a stranger. + +“Long ago, sir?” he pursued. + +“No, sir; not long ago,” I retorted. + +“May I ask your name?” said he. + +“You may ask what you like,” I cried, with a final reversal of all my +first impressions of this impertinent old fellow; “but I'm hanged if +I tell it you! I am here for rest and quiet, sir. I don't ask you your +name. I can't for the life of me see what right you have to ask me mine, +or to question me at all, for that matter.” + +He favored me with a brief glance of extraordinary suspicion. It faded +away in mere surprise, and, next instant, my elderly and reverend friend +was causing me some compunction by coloring like a boy. + +“You may think my curiosity mere impertinence, sir,” said he; “you would +think otherwise if you knew as much as I do of Squire Rattray's friends, +and how little you resemble the generality of them. You might even feel +some sympathy for one of the neighboring clergy, to whom this godless +young man has been for years as a thorn in their side.” + +He spoke so gravely, and what he said was so easy to believe, that I +could not but apologize for my hasty words. + +“Don't name it, sir,” said the clergyman; “you had a perfect right to +resent my questions, and I enjoy meeting young men of spirit; but not +when it's an evil spirit, such as, I fear, possesses your friend! I do +assure you, sir, that the best thing I have heard of him for years is +the very little that you have told me. As a rule, to hear of him at all +in this part of the world, is to wish that we had not heard. I see him +coming, however, and shall detain you no longer, for I don't deny that +there is no love lost between us.” + +I looked round, and there was Rattray on the top of the bank, a long +way to the left, coming towards me with a waving hat. An extraordinary +ejaculation brought me to the right-about next instant. + +The old clergyman had slipped on a stone in mid-stream, and, as he +dragged a dripping leg up the opposite bank, he had sworn an oath worthy +of the “godless young man” who had put him to flight, and on whose +demerits he had descanted with so much eloquence and indignation. + + + + +CHAPTER X. WINE AND WEAKNESS + + +“Sporting old parson who knows how to swear?” laughed Rattray. “Never saw +him in my life before; wondered who the deuce he was.” + +“Really?” said I. “He professed to know something of you.” + +“Against me, you mean? My dear Cole, don't trouble to perjure yourself. +I don't mind, believe me. They're easily shocked, these country clergy, +and no doubt I'm a bugbear to 'em. Yet, I could have sworn I'd never +seen this one before. Let's have another look.” + +We were walking away together. We turned on the top of the bank. And +there the old clergyman was planted on the moorside, and watching us +intently from under his hollowed hands. + +“Well, I'm hanged!” exclaimed Rattray, as the hands fell and their +owner beat a hasty retreat. My companion said no more; indeed, for some +minutes we pursued our way in silence. And I thought that it was with an +effort that he broke into sudden inquiries concerning my journey and my +comfort at the cottage. + +This gave me an opportunity of thanking him for his little attentions. +“It was awfully good of you,” said I, taking his arm as though I had +known him all my life; nor do I think there was another living man with +whom I would have linked arms at that time. + +“Good?” cried he. “Nonsense, my dear sir! I'm only afraid you find +it devilish rough. But, at all events, you're coming to dine with me +to-night.” + +“Am I?” I asked, smiling. + +“Rather!” said he. “My time here is short enough. I don't lose sight of +you again between this and midnight.” + +“It's most awfully good of you,” said I again. + +“Wait till you see! You'll find it rough enough at my place; all my +retainers are out for the day at a local show.” + +“Then I certainly shall not give you the trouble.” + +He interrupted me with his jovial laugh. + +“My good fellow,” he cried, “that's the fun of it! How do you suppose +I've been spending the day? Told you I was going to Lancaster, did I? +Well, I've been cooking our dinner instead--laying the table--getting +up the wines--never had such a joke! Give you my word, I almost forgot I +was in the wilderness!” + +“So you're quite alone, are you?” + +“Yes; as much so as that other beggar who was monarch of all he +surveyed, his right there was none to dispute, from the what-is-it down +to the glade--” + +“I'll come,” said I, as we reached the cottage. “Only first you must let +me make myself decent.” + +“You're decent enough!” + +“My boots are wet; my hands--” + +“All serene! I'll give you five minutes.” + +And I left him outside, flourishing a handsome watch, while, on my way +upstairs, I paused to tell Mrs. Braithwaite that I was dining at the +hall. She was busy cooking, and I felt prepared for her unpleasant +expression; but she showed no annoyance at my news. I formed the +impression that it was no news to her. And next minute I heard a +whispering below; it was unmistakable in that silent cottage, where not +a word had reached me yet, save in conversation to which I was myself a +party. + +I looked out of window. Rattray I could no longer see. And I confess +that I felt both puzzled and annoyed until we walked away together, when +it was his arm which was immediately thrust through mine. + +“A good soul, Jane,” said he; “though she made an idiotic marriage, and +leads a life which might spoil the temper of an archangel. She was my +nurse when I was a youngster, Cole, and we never meet without a yarn.” + Which seemed natural enough; still I failed to perceive why they need +yarn in whispers. + +Kirby Hall proved startlingly near at hand. We descended the bare +valley to the right, we crossed the beck upon a plank, were in the +oak-plantation about a minute, and there was the hall upon the farther +side. + +And a queer old place it seemed, half farm, half feudal castle: fowls +strutting at large about the back premises (which we were compelled to +skirt), and then a front door of ponderous oak, deep-set between walls +fully six feet thick, and studded all over with wooden pegs. The facade, +indeed, was wholly grim, with a castellated tower at one end, and a +number of narrow, sunken windows looking askance on the wreck and +ruin of a once prim, old-fashioned, high-walled garden. I thought that +Rattray might have shown more respect for the house of his ancestors. +It put me in mind of a neglected grave. And yet I could forgive a bright +young fellow for never coming near so desolate a domain. + +We dined delightfully in a large and lofty hall, formerly used (said +Rattray) as a court-room. The old judgment seat stood back against the +wall, and our table was the one at which the justices had been wont to +sit. Then the chamber had been low-ceiled; now it ran to the roof, and +we ate our dinner beneath a square of fading autumn sky, with I wondered +how many ghosts looking down on us from the oaken gallery! I was +interested, impressed, awed not a little, and yet all in a way which +afforded my mind the most welcome distraction from itself and from the +past. To Rattray, on the other hand, it was rather sadly plain that the +place was both a burden and a bore; in fact he vowed it was the dampest +and the dullest old ruin under the sun, and that he would sell it +to-morrow if he could find a lunatic to buy. His want of sentiment +struck me as his one deplorable trait. Yet even this displayed his +characteristic merit of frankness. Nor was it at all unpleasant to hear +his merry, boyish laughter ringing round hall and gallery, ere it died +away against a dozen closed doors. + +And there were other elements of good cheer: a log fire blazing heartily +in the old dog-grate, casting a glow over the stone flags, a reassuring +flicker into the darkest corner: cold viands of the very best: and the +finest old Madeira that has ever passed my lips. + +Now, all my life I have been a “moderate drinker” in the most literal +sense of that slightly elastic term. But at the sad time of which I +am trying to write, I was almost an abstainer, from the fear, the +temptation--of seeking oblivion in strong waters. To give way then was +to go on giving way. I realized the danger, and I took stern measures. +Not stern enough, however; for what I did not realize was my weak and +nervous state, in which a glass would have the same effect on me as +three or four upon a healthy man. + +Heaven knows how much or how little I took that evening! I can swear +it was the smaller half of either bottle--and the second we never +finished--but the amount matters nothing. Even me it did not make +grossly tipsy. But it warmed my blood, it cheered my heart, it excited +my brain, and--it loosened my tongue. It set me talking with a freedom +of which I should have been incapable in my normal moments, on a subject +whereof I had never before spoken of my own free will. And yet the will +to--speak--to my present companion--was no novelty. I had felt it at our +first meeting in the private hotel. His tact, his sympathy, his handsome +face, his personal charm, his frank friendliness, had one and all +tempted me to bore this complete stranger with unsolicited confidences +for which an inquisitive relative might have angled in vain. And the +temptation was the stronger because I knew in my heart that I should +not bore the young squire at all; that he was anxious enough to hear my +story from my own lips, but too good a gentleman intentionally to +betray such anxiety. Vanity was also in the impulse. A vulgar newspaper +prominence had been my final (and very genuine) tribulation; but to +please and to interest one so pleasing and so interesting to me, was +another and a subtler thing. And then there was his sympathy--shall I +add his admiration?--for my reward. + +I do not pretend that I argued thus deliberately in my heated and +excited brain. I merely hold that all these small reasons and motives +were there, fused and exaggerated by the liquor which was there as well. +Nor can I say positively that Rattray put no leading questions; only +that I remember none which had that sound; and that, once started, I am +afraid I needed only too little encouragement to run on and on. + +Well, I was set going before we got up from the table. I continued in +an armchair that my host dragged from a little book-lined room adjoining +the hall. I finished on my legs, my back to the fire, my hands beating +wildly together. I had told my dear Rattray of my own accord more than +living man had extracted from me yet. He interrupted me very little; +never once until I came to the murderous attack by Santos on the drunken +steward. + +“The brute!” cried Rattray. “The cowardly, cruel, foreign devil! And you +never let out one word of that!” + +“What was the good?” said I. “They are all gone now--all gone to their +account. Every man of us was a brute at the last. There was nothing to +be gained by telling the public that.” + +He let me go on until I came to another point which I had hitherto kept +to myself: the condition of the dead mate's fingers: the cries that the +sight of them had recalled. + +“That Portuguese villain again!” cried my companion, fairly leaping from +the chair which I had left and he had taken. “It was the work of the +same cane that killed the steward. Don't tell me an Englishman would +have done it; and yet you said nothing about that either!” + +It was my first glimpse of this side of my young host's character. Nor +did I admire him the less, in his spirited indignation, because much of +this was clearly against myself. His eyes flashed. His face was white. I +suddenly found myself the cooler man of the two. + +“My dear fellow, do consider!” said I. “What possible end could have +been served by my stating what I couldn't prove against a man who +could never be brought to book in this world? Santos was punished as he +deserved; his punishment was death, and there's an end on't.” + +“You might be right,” said Rattray, “but it makes my blood boil to hear +such a story. Forgive me if I have spoken strongly;” and he paced his +hall for a little in an agitation which made me like him better and +better. “The cold-blooded villain!” he kept muttering; “the infernal, +foreign, blood-thirsty rascal! Perhaps you were right; it couldn't have +done any good, I know; but--I only wish he'd lived for us to hang him, +Cole! Why, a beast like that is capable of anything: I wonder if +you've told me the worst even now?” And he stood before me, with candid +suspicion in his fine, frank eyes. + +“What makes you say that?” said I, rather nettled. + +“I shan't tell you if it's going to rile you, old fellow,” was his reply. +And with it reappeared the charming youth whom I found it impossible +to resist. “Heaven knows you have had enough to worry you!” he added, in +his kindly, sympathetic voice. + +“So much,” said I, “that you cannot add to it, my dear Rattray. Now, +then! Why do you think there was something worse?” + +“You hinted as much in town: rightly or wrongly I gathered there was +something you would never speak about to living man.” + +I turned from him with a groan. + +“Ah! but that had nothing to do with Santos.” + +“Are you sure?” he cried. + +“No,” I murmured; “it had something to do with him, in a sense; but +don't ask me any more.” And I leaned my forehead on the high oak +mantel-piece, and groaned again. + +His hand was upon my shoulder. + +“Do tell me,” he urged. I was silent. He pressed me further. In my +fancy, both hand and voice shook with his sympathy. + +“He had a step-daughter,” said I at last. + +“Yes? Yes?” + +“I loved her. That was all.” + +His hand dropped from my shoulder. I remained standing, stooping, +thinking only of her whom I had lost for ever. The silence was intense. +I could hear the wind sighing in the oaks without, the logs burning +softly away at my feet And so we stood until the voice of Rattray +recalled me from the deck of the _Lady Jermyn_ and my lost love's side. + +“So that was all!” + +I turned and met a face I could not read. + +“Was it not enough?” cried I. “What more would you have?” + +“I expected some more-foul play!” + +“Ah!” I exclaimed bitterly. “So that was all that interested you! No, +there was no more foul play that I know of; and if there was, I don't +care. Nothing matters to me but one thing. Now that you know what that +is, I hope you're satisfied.” + +It was no way to speak to one's host. Yet I felt that he had pressed me +unduly. I hated myself for my final confidence, and his want of sympathy +made me hate him too. In my weakness, however, I was the natural prey +of violent extremes. His hand flew out to me. He was about to speak. +A moment more and I had doubtless forgiven him. But another sound +came instead and made the pair of us start and stare. It was the soft +shutting of some upstairs door. + +“I thought we had the house to ourselves?” cried I, my miserable nerves +on edge in an instant. + +“So did I,” he answered, very pale. “My servants must have come back. By +the Lord Harry, they shall hear of this!” + +He sprang to a door, I heard his feet clattering up some stone stairs, +and in a trice he was running along the gallery overhead; in another +I heard him railing behind some upper door that he had flung open and +banged behind him; then his voice dropped, and finally died away. I was +left some minutes in the oppressively silent hall, shaken, startled, +ashamed of my garrulity, aching to get away. When he returned it was by +another of the many closed doors, and he found me awaiting him, hat in +hand. He was wearing his happiest look until he saw my hat. + +“Not going?” he cried. “My dear Cole, I can't apologize sufficiently for +my abrupt desertion of you, much less for the cause. It was my man, +just come in from the show, and gone up the back way. I accused him of +listening to our conversation. Of course he denies it; but it really +doesn't matter, as I'm sorry to say he's much too 'fresh' (as they call +it down here) to remember anything to-morrow morning. I let him have it, +I can tell you. Varlet! Caitiff! But if you bolt off on the head of it, +I shall go back and sack him into the bargain!” + +I assured him I had my own reasons for wishing to retire early. He could +have no conception of my weakness, my low and nervous condition of +body and mind; much as I had enjoyed myself, he must really let me go. +Another glass of wine, then? Just one more? No, I had drunk too much +already. I was in no state to stand it. And I held out my hand with +decision. + +Instead of taking it he looked at me very hard. + +“The place doesn't suit you,” said he. “I see it doesn't, and I'm +devilish sorry! Take my advice and try something milder; now do, +to-morrow; for I should never forgive myself if it made you worse +instead of better; and the air is too strong for lots of people.” + +I was neither too ill nor too vexed to laugh outright in his face. + +“It's not the air,” said I; “it's that splendid old Madeira of yours, +that was too strong for me, if you like! No, no, Rattray, you don't get +rid of me so cheaply-much as you seem to want to!” + +“I was only thinking of you,” he rejoined, with a touch of pique that +convinced me of his sincerity. “Of course I want you to stop, though +I shan't be here many days; but I feel responsible for you, Cole, +and that's the fact. Think you can find your way?” he continued, +accompanying me to the gate, a postern in the high garden wall. “Hadn't +you better have a lantern?” + +No; it was unnecessary. I could see splendidly, had the bump of locality +and as many more lies as would come to my tongue. I was indeed burning +to be gone. + +A moment later I feared that I had shown this too plainly. For his final +handshake was hearty enough to send me away something ashamed of +my precipitancy, and with a further sense of having shown him +small gratitude for his kindly anxiety on my behalf. I would behave +differently to-morrow. Meanwhile I had new regrets. + +At first it was comparatively easy to see, for the lights of the house +shone faintly among the nearer oaks. But the moon was hidden behind +heavy clouds, and I soon found myself at a loss in a terribly dark zone +of timber. Already I had left the path. I felt in my pocket for matches. +I had none. + +My head was now clear enough, only deservedly heavy. I was still +quarrelling with myself for my indiscretions and my incivilities, one +and all the result of his wine and my weakness, and this new predicament +(another and yet more vulgar result) was the final mortification. I +swore aloud. I simply could not see a foot in front of my face. Once I +proved it by running my head hard against a branch. I was hopelessly and +ridiculously lost within a hundred yards of the hall! + +Some minutes I floundered, ashamed to go back, unable to proceed for +the trees and the darkness. I heard the beck running over its stones. I +could still see an occasional glimmer from the windows I had left. But +the light was now on this side, now on that; the running water chuckled +in one ear after the other; there was nothing for it but to return in +all humility for the lantern which I had been so foolish as to refuse. + +And as I resigned myself to this imperative though inglorious course, my +heart warmed once more to the jovial young squire. He would laugh, but +not unkindly, at my grotesque dilemma; at the thought of his laughter I +began to smile myself. If he gave me another chance I would smoke that +cigar with him before starting home afresh, and remove, from my own +mind no less than from his, all ill impressions. After all it was not +his fault that I had taken too much of his wine; but a far worse offence +was to be sulky in one's cups. I would show him that I was myself again +in all respects. I have admitted that I was temporarily, at all events, +a creature of extreme moods. It was in this one that I retraced my steps +towards the lights, and at length let myself into the garden by the +postern at which I had shaken Rattray's hand not ten minutes before. + +Taking heart of grace, I stepped up jauntily to the porch. The weeds +muffled my steps. I myself had never thought of doing so, when all at +once I halted in a vague terror. Through the deep lattice windows I +had seen into the lighted hall. And Rattray was once more seated at his +table, a little company of men around him. + +I crept nearer, and my heart stopped. Was I delirious, or raving mad +with wine? Or had the sea given up its dead? + + + + +CHAPTER XI. I LIVE AGAIN + + +Squire Rattray, as I say, was seated at the head of his table, where +the broken meats still lay as he and I had left them; his fingers, I +remember, were playing with a crust, and his eyes fixed upon a distant +door, as he leant back in his chair. Behind him hovered the nigger of +the _Lady Jermyn_, whom I had been the slower to recognize, had not her +skipper sat facing me on the squire's right. Yes, there was Captain +Harris in the flesh, eating heartily between great gulps of wine, +instead of feeding the fishes as all the world supposed. And nearer +still, nearer me than any, with his back to my window but his chair +slued round a little, so that he also could see that door, and I his +profile, sat Joaquin Santos with his cigarette! + +None spoke; all seemed waiting; and all were silent but the captain, +whose vulgar champing reached me through the crazy lattice, as I stood +spellbound and petrified without. + +They say that a drowning man lives his life again before the last; but +my own fight with the sea provided me with no such moments of vivid and +rapid retrospect as those during which I stood breathless outside the +lighted windows of Kirby Hall. I landed again. I was dogged day and +night. I set it down to nerves and notoriety; but took refuge in a +private hotel. One followed me, engaged the next room, set a watch on +all my movements; another came in by the window to murder me in my +bed; no party to that, the first one nevertheless turned the outrage to +account, wormed himself into my friendship on the strength of it, and +lured me hither, an easy prey. And here was the gang of them, to meet +me! No wonder Rattray had not let me see him off at the station; no +wonder I had not been followed that night. Every link I saw in its +right light instantly. Only the motive remained obscure. Suspicious +circumstances swarmed upon my slow perception: how innocent I had been! +Less innocent, however, than wilfully and wholly reckless: what had it +mattered with whom I made friends? What had anything mattered to me? +What did anything matter-- + +I thought my heart had snapped! + +Why were they watching that door, Joaquin Santos and the young squire? +Whom did they await? I knew! Oh, I knew! My heart leaped, my blood +danced, my eyes lay in wait with theirs. Everything began to matter +once more. It was as though the machinery of my soul, long stopped, had +suddenly been set in motion; it was as though I was born again. + +How long we seemed to wait I need not say. It cannot have been many +moments in reality, for Santos was blowing his rings of smoke in the +direction of the door, and the first that I noticed were but dissolving +when it opened--and the best was true! One instant I saw her very +clearly, in the light of a candle which she carried in its silver stick; +then a mist blinded me, and I fell on my knees in the rank bed into +which I had stepped, to give such thanks to the Almighty as this heart +has never felt before or since. And I remained kneeling; for now my face +was on a level with the sill; and when my eyes could see again, there +stood my darling before them in the room. + +Like a queen she stood, in the very travelling cloak in which I had seen +her last; it was tattered now, but she held it close about her as though +a shrewd wind bit her to the core. Her sweet face was all peeked and +pale in the candle-light: she who had been a child was come to womanhood +in a few weeks. But a new spirit flashed in her dear eyes, a new +strength hardened her young lips. She stood as an angel brought to book +by devils; and so noble was her calm defiance, so serene her scorn, +that, as I watched and listened; all present fear for her passed out of +my heart. + +The first sound was the hasty rising of young Rattray; he was at Eva's +side next instant, essaying to lead her to his chair, with a flush which +deepened as she repulsed him coldly. + +“You have sent for me, and I have come,” said she. “But I prefer not to +sit down in your presence; and what you have to say, you will be good +enough to say as quickly as possible, that I may go again before I +am--stifled!” + +It was her one hot word; aimed at them all, it seemed to me to fall like +a lash on Rattray's cheek, bringing the blood to it like lightning. But +it was Santos who snatched the cigarette from his mouth, and opened upon +the defenceless girl in a torrent of Portuguese, yellow with rage, and a +very windmill of lean arms and brown hands in the terrifying rapidity of +his gesticulations. They did not terrify Eva Denison. When Rattray took +a step towards the speaker, with flashing eyes, it was some word from +Eva that checked him; when Santos was done, it was to Rattray that she +turned with her answer. + +“He calls me a liar for telling you that Mr. Cole knew all,” said she, +thrilling me with my own name. “Don't you say anything,” she added, as +the young man turned on Santos with a scowl; “you are one as wicked as +the other, but there was a time when I thought differently of you: his +character I have always known. Of the two evils, I prefer to speak to +you.” + +Rattray bowed, humbly enough, I thought; but my darling's nostrils only +curled the more. + +“He calls me a liar,” she continued; “so may you all. Since you have +found it out, I admit it freely and without shame; one must be false in +the hands of false fiends like all of you. Weakness is nothing to you; +helplessness is nothing; you must be met with your own weapons, and so I +lied in my sore extremity to gain the one miserable advantage within my +reach. He says you found me out by making friends with Mr. Cole. He +says that Mr. Cole has been dining with you in this very room, this +very night. You still tell the truth sometimes; has that man--that +demon--told it for once?” + +“It is perfectly true,” said Rattray in a low voice. + +“And poor Mr. Cole told you that he knew nothing of your villany?” + +“I found out that he knew absolutely nothing--after first thinking +otherwise.” + +“Suppose he had known? What would you have done?” + +Rattray said nothing. Santos shrugged as he lit a fresh cigarette. The +captain went on with his supper. + +“Ashamed to say!” cried Eva Denison. “So you have some shame left still! +Well, I will tell you. You would have murdered him, as you murdered all +the rest; you would have killed him in cold blood, as I wish and pray +that you would kill me!” + +The young fellow faced her, white to the lips. “You have no right to +say that, Miss Denison!” he cried. “I may be bad, but, as I am ready to +answer for my sins, the crime of murder is not among them.” + +Well, it is still some satisfaction to remember that my love never +punished me with such a look as was the young squire's reward for this +protestation. The curl of the pink nostrils, the parting of the proud +lips, the gleam of the sound white teeth, before a word was spoken, +were more than I, for one, could have borne. For I did not see the grief +underlying the scorn, but actually found it in my heart to pity this +poor devil of a Rattray: so humbly fell those fine eyes of his, so like +a dog did he stand, waiting to be whipped. + +“Yes; you are very innocent!” she began at last, so softly that I could +scarcely hear. “You have not committed murder, so you say; let it stand +to your credit by all means. You have no blood upon your hands; you say +so; that is enough. No! you are comparatively innocent, I admit. All +you have done is to make murder easy for others; to get others to do the +dirty work, and then shelter them and share the gain; all you need have +on your conscience is every life that was lost with the _Lady Jermyn_, and +every soul that lost itself in losing them. You call that innocence? +Then give me honest guilt! Give me the man who set fire to the ship, and +who sits there eating his supper; he is more of a man than you. Give me +the wretch who has beaten men to death before my eyes; there's something +great about a monster like that, there's something to loathe. His +assistant is only little--mean--despicable!” Loud and hurried in its +wrath, low and deliberate in its contempt, all this was uttered with a +furious and abnormal eloquence, which would have struck me, loving her, +to the ground. On Rattray it had a different effect. His head lifted as +she heaped abuse upon it, until he met her flashing eye with that of a +man very thankful to take his deserts and something more; and to mine he +was least despicable when that last word left her lips. When he saw that +it was her last, he took her candle (she had put it down on the ancient +settle against the door), and presented it to her with another bow. And +so without a word he led her to the door, opened it, and bowed yet lower +as she swept out, but still without a tinge of mockery in the obeisance. + +He was closing the door after her when Joaquin Santos reached it. + +“Diablo!” cried he. “Why let her go? We have not done with her.” + +“That doesn't matter; she is done with us,” was the stern reply. + +“It does matter,” retorted Santos; “what is more, she is my +step-daughter, and back she shall come!” + +“She is also my visitor, and I'm damned if you're going to make her!” + +An instant Santos stood, his back to me, his fingers working, his neck +brown with blood; then his coat went into creases across the shoulders, +and he was shrugging still as he turned away. + +“Your veesitor!” said he. “Your veesitor! Your veesitor!” + +Harris laughed outright as he raised his glass; the hot young squire +had him by the collar, and the wine was spilling on the cloth, as I rose +very cautiously and crept back to the path. + +“When rogues fall out!” I was thinking to myself. “I shall save her +yet--I shall save my darling!” + +Already I was accustomed to the thought that she still lived, and to the +big heart she had set beating in my feeble frame; already the continued +existence of these villains, with the first dim inkling of their +villainy, was ceasing to be a novelty in a brain now quickened and +prehensile beyond belief. And yet--but a few minutes had I knelt at the +window--but a few more was it since Rattray and I had shaken hands! + +Not his visitor; his prisoner, without a doubt; but alive! alive! and, +neither guest nor prisoner for many hours more. O my love! O my heart's +delight! Now I knew why I was spared; to save her; to snatch her from +these rascals; to cherish and protect her evermore! + +All the past shone clear behind me; the dark was lightness and the +crooked straight. All the future lay clear ahead it presented no +difficulties yet; a mad, ecstatic confidence was mine for the wildest, +happiest moments of my life. + +I stood upright in the darkness. I saw her light! + +It was ascending the tower at the building's end; now in this window it +glimmered, now in the one above. At last it was steady, high up near the +stars, and I stole below. + +“Eva! Eva!” + +There was no answer. Low as it was, my voice was alarming; it cooled +and cautioned me. I sought little stones. I crept back to throw them. +Ah God! her form eclipsed that lighted slit in the gray stone tower. I +heard her weeping high above me at her window. + +“Eva! Eva!” + +There was a pause, and then a little cry of gladness. + +“Is it Mr. Cole?” came in an eager whisper through her tears. + +“Yes! yes! I was outside the window. I heard everything.” + +“They will hear you!” she cried softly, in a steadier voice. + +“No-listen!” They were quarrelling. Rattray's voice was loud and angry. +“They cannot hear,” I continued, in more cautious tones; “they think +I'm in bed and asleep half-a-mile away. Oh, thank God! I'll get you away +from them; trust me, my love, my darling!” + +In my madness I knew not what I said; it was my wild heart speaking. +Some moments passed before she replied. + +“Will you promise to do nothing I ask you not to do?” + +“Of course.” + +“My life might answer for it--” + +“I promise--I promise.” + +“Then wait--hide--watch my light. When you see it back in the window, +watch with all your eyes! I am going to write and then throw it out. Not +another syllable!” + +She was gone; there was a long yellow slit in the masonry once more; her +light burnt faint and far within. + +I retreated among some bushes and kept watch. + +The moon was skimming beneath the surface of a sea of clouds: now the +black billows had silver crests: now an incandescent buoy bobbed among +them. O for enough light, and no more! + +In the hall the high voices were more subdued. I heard the captain's +tipsy laugh. My eyes fastened themselves upon that faint and lofty +light, and on my heels I crouched among the bushes. + +The flame moved, flickered, and shone small but brilliant on the very +sill. I ran forward on tip-toe. A white flake fluttered to my feet. I +secured it and waited for one word; none came; but the window was softly +shut. + +I stood in doubt, the treacherous moonlight all over me now, and once +more the window opened. + +“Go quickly!” + +And again it was shut; next moment I was stealing close by the spot +where I had knelt. I saw within once more. + +Harris nodded in his chair. The nigger had disappeared. Rattray was +lighting a candle, and the Portuguese holding out his hand for the +match. + +“Did you lock the gate, senhor?” asked Santos. + +“No; but I will now.” + +As I opened it I heard a door open within. I could hardly let the latch +down again for the sudden trembling of my fingers. The key turned behind +me ere I had twenty yards' start. + +Thank God there was light enough now! I followed the beck. I found +my way. I stood in the open valley, between the oak-plantation and my +desolate cottage, and I kissed my tiny, twisted note again and again in +a paroxysm of passion and of insensate joy. Then I unfolded it and held +it to my eyes in the keen October moonshine. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. MY LADY'S BIDDING + + +Scribbled in sore haste, by a very tremulous little hand, with a pencil, +on the flyleaf of some book, my darling's message is still difficult to +read; it was doubly so in the moonlight, five-and-forty autumns ago. My +eyesight, however, was then perhaps the soundest thing about me, and in +a little I had deciphered enough to guess correctly (as it proved) at +the whole:-- + + +“You say you heard everything just now, and there is no time for further +explanations. I am in the hands of villains, but not ill-treated, though +they are one as bad as the other. You will not find it easy to rescue +me. I don't see how it is to be done. You have promised not to do +anything I ask you not to do, and I implore you not to tell a soul until +you have seen me again and heard more. You might just as well kill me as +come back now with help. + +“You see you know nothing, though I told them you knew all. And so you +shall as soon as I can see you for five minutes face to face. In the +meantime do nothing--know nothing when you see Mr. Rattray--unless you +wish to be my death. + +“It would have been possible last night, and it may be again to-morrow +night. They all go out every night when they can, except José, who is +left in charge. They are out from nine or ten till two or three; if they +are out to-morrow night my candle will be close to the window as I shall +put it when I have finished this. You can see my window from over the +wall. If the light is in front you must climb the wall, for they will +leave the gate locked. I shall see you and will bribe José to let me +out for a turn. He has done it before for a bottle of wine. I can manage +him. Can I trust to you? If you break your promise--but you will not? +One of them would as soon kill me as smoke a cigarette, and the rest are +under his thumb. I dare not write more. But my life is in your hands. + +“EVA DENISON.” + + +“Oh! beware of the woman Braithwaite; she is about the worst of the +gang.” + +I could have burst out crying in my bitter discomfiture, mortification, +and alarm: to think that her life was in my hands, and that it depended, +not on that prompt action which was the one course I had contemplated, +but on twenty-four hours of resolute inactivity! I would not think it. +I refused the condition. It took away my one prop, my one stay, that +prospect of immediate measures which alone preserved in me such coolness +as I had retained until now. I was cool no longer; where I had relied +on practical direction I was baffled and hindered and driven mad; on my +honor believe I was little less for some moments, groaning, cursing, +and beating the air with impotent fists--in one of them my poor love's +letter crushed already to a ball. + +Danger and difficulty I had been prepared to face; but the task that I +was set was a hundred-fold harder than any that had whirled through my +teeming brain. To sit still; to do nothing; to pretend I knew nothing; +an hour of it would destroy my reason--and I was invited to wait +twenty-four! + +No; my word was passed; keep it I must. She knew the men, she must know +best; and her life depended on my obedience: she made that so plain. +Obey I must and would; to make a start, I tottered over the plank that +spanned the beck, and soon I saw the cottage against the moonlit sky. +I came up to it. I drew back in sudden fear. It was alight upstairs and +down, and the gaunt strong figure of the woman Braithwaite stood out +as I had seen it first, in the doorway, with the light showing warmly +through her rank red hair. + +“Is that you, Mr. Cole?” she cried in a tone that she reserved for me; +yet through the forced amiability there rang a note of genuine surprise. +She had been prepared for me never to return at all! + +My knees gave under me as I forced myself to advance; but my wits took +new life from the crisis, and in a flash I saw how to turn my weakness +into account. I made a false step on my way to the door; when I reached +it I leant heavily against the jam, and I said with a slur that I felt +unwell. I had certainly been flushed with wine when I left Rattray; it +would be no bad thing for him to hear that I had arrived quite tipsy at +the cottage; should he discover I had been near an hour on the way, here +was my explanation cut and dried. + +So I shammed a degree of intoxication with apparent success, and Jane +Braithwaite gave me her arm up the stairs. My God, how strong it was, +and how weak was mine! + +Left to myself, I reeled about my bedroom, pretending to undress; then +out with my candles, and into bed in all my clothes, until the cottage +should be quiet. Yes, I must lie still and feign sleep, with every nerve +and fibre leaping within me, lest the she-devil below should suspect +me of suspicions! It was with her I had to cope for the next +four-and-twenty hours; and she filled me with a greater present terror +than all those villains at the hall; for had not their poor little +helpless captive described her as “about the worst of the gang?” + +To think that my love lay helpless there in the hands of those wretches; +and to think that her lover lay helpless here in the supervision of this +vile virago! + +It must have been one or two in the morning when I stole to my +sitting-room window, opened it, and sat down to think steadily, with the +counterpane about my shoulders. + +The moon sailed high and almost full above the clouds; these were +dispersing as the night wore on, and such as remained were of a +beautiful soft tint between white and gray. The sky was too light for +stars, and beneath it the open country stretched so clear and far that +it was as though one looked out at noonday through slate-colored glass. +Down the dewy slope below my window a few calves fed with toothless +mouthings; the beck was very audible, the oak-trees less so; but for +these peaceful sounds the stillness and the solitude were equally +intense. + +I may have sat there like a mouse for half an hour. The reason was that +I had become mercifully engrossed in one of the subsidiary problems: +whether it would be better to drop from the window or to trust to the +creaking stairs. Would the creaking be much worse than the thud, and +the difference worth the risk of a sprained ankle? Well worth it, I at +length decided; the risk was nothing; my window was scarce a dozen feet +from the ground. How easily it could be done, how quickly, how safely in +this deep, stillness and bright moonlight! I would fall so lightly on +my stocking soles; a single soft, dull thud; then away under the moon +without fear or risk of a false step; away over the stone walls to the +main road, and so to the nearest police-station with my tale; and before +sunrise the villains would be taken in their beds, and my darling would +be safe! + +I sprang up softly. Why not do it now? Was I bound to keep my rash, +blind promise? Was it possible these murderers would murder her? +I struck a match on my trousers, I lit a candle, I read her letter +carefully again, and again it maddened and distracted me. I struck my +hands together. I paced the room wildly. Caution deserted me, and I made +noise enough to wake the very mute; lost to every consideration but that +of the terrifying day before me, the day of silence and of inactivity, +that I must live through with an unsuspecting face, a cool head, a civil +tongue! The prospect appalled me as nothing else could or did; nay, the +sudden noise upon the stairs, the knock at my door, and the sense that +I had betrayed myself already even now all was over--these came as a +relief after the haunting terror which they interrupted. + +I flung the door open, and there stood Mrs. Braithwaite, as fully +dressed as myself. + +“You'll not be very well sir?” + +“No, I'm not.” + +“What's t' matter wi' you?” + +This second question was rude and fierce with suspicion: the real woman +rang out in it, yet its effect on me was astonishing: once again was I +inspired to turn my slip into a move. + +“Matter?” I cried. “Can't you see what's the matter; couldn't you see +when I came in? Drink's the matter! I came in drunk, and now I'm mad. I +can't stand it; I'm not in a fit state. Do you know nothng of me? Have +they told you nothing? I'm the only man that was saved from the Lady +Jermyn, the ship that was burned to the water's edge with every soul but +me. My nerves are in little ends. I came down here for peace and quiet +and sleep. Do you know that I have hardly slept for two months? And now +I shall never sleep again! O my God I shall die for want of it! The wine +has done it. I never should have touched a drop. I can't stand it; I +can't sleep after it; I shall kill myself if I get no sleep. Do you +hear, you woman? I shall kill myself in your house if I don't get to +sleep!” + +I saw her shrink, virago as she was. I waved my arms, I shrieked in +her face. It was not all acting. Heaven knows how true it was about the +sleep. I was slowly dying of insomnia. I was a nervous wreck. She must +have heard it. Now she saw it for herself. + +No; it was by no means all acting. Intending only to lie, I found +myself telling little but the strictest truth, and longing for sleep as +passionately as though I had nothing to keep me awake. And yet, while my +heart cried aloud in spite of me, and my nerves relieved themselves in +this unpremeditated ebullition, I was all the time watching its effect +as closely as though no word of it had been sincere. + +Mrs. Braithwaite seemed frightened; not at all pitiful; and as I calmed +down she recovered her courage and became insolent. I had spoilt her +night. She had not been told she was to take in a raving lunatic. She +would speak to Squire Rattray in the morning. + +“Morning?” I yelled after her as she went. “Send your husband to the +nearest chemist as soon as it's dawn; send him for chloral, chloroform, +morphia, anything they've got and as much of it as they'll let him have. +I'll give you five pounds if you get me what'll send me to sleep all +to-morrow--and to-morrow night!” + +Never, I feel sure, were truth and falsehood more craftily interwoven; +yet I had thought of none of it until the woman was at my door, while of +much I had not thought at all. It had rushed from my heart and from my +lips. And no sooner was I alone than I burst into hysterical tears, only +to stop and compliment myself because they sounded genuine--as though +they were not! Towards morning I took to my bed in a burning fever, and +lay there, now congratulating myself upon it, because when night came +they would all think me so secure; and now weeping because the night +might find me dying or dead. So I tossed, with her note clasped in my +hand underneath the sheets; and beneath my very body that stout weapon +that I had bought in town. I might not have to use it, but I was +fatalist enough to fancy that I should. In the meantime it helped me to +lie still, my thoughts fixed on the night, and the day made easy for me +after all. + +If only I could sleep! + +About nine o'clock Jane Braithwaite paid me a surly visit; in half an +hour she was back with tea and toast and an altered mien. She not only +lit my fire, but treated me the while to her original tone of almost +fervent civility and respect and determination. Her vagaries soon ceased +to puzzle me: the psychology of Jane Braithwaite was not recondite. In +the night it had dawned upon her that Rattray had found me harmless and +was done with me, therefore there was no need for her to put herself out +any further on my account. In the morning, finding me really ill, she +had gone to the hall in alarm; her subsequent attentions were an act of +obedience; and in their midst came Rattray himself to my bedside. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. THE LONGEST DAY OF MY LIFE + + +The boy looked so blithe and buoyant, so gallant and still so frank, +that even now I could not think as meanly of him as poor Eva did. A +rogue he must be, but surely not the petty rogue that she had made him +out. Yet it was dirty work that he had done by me; and there I had to +lie and take his kind, false, felon's hand in mine. + +“My poor dear fellow,” he cried, “I'm most sorry to find you like this. +But I was afraid of it last night. It's all this infernally strong air!” + +How I longed to tell him what it was, and to see his face! The thought +of Eva alone restrained me, and I retorted as before, in a tone I strove +to make as friendly, that it was his admirable wine and nothing else. + +“But you took hardly any.” + +“I shouldn't have touched a drop. I can't stand it. Instead of soothing +me it excites me to the verge of madness. I'm almost over the verge--for +want of sleep--my trouble ever since the trouble.” + +Again I was speaking the literal truth, and again congratulating myself +as though it were a lie: the fellow looked so distressed at my state; +indeed I believe that his distress was as genuine as mine, and his +sentiments as involved. He took my hand again, and his brow wrinkled at +its heat. He asked for the other hand to feel my pulse. I had to drop my +letter to comply. + +“I wish to goodness there was something I could do for you,” he said. +“Would you--would you care to see a doctor?” + +I shook my head, and could have smiled at his visible relief. + +“Then I'm going to prescribe for you,” he said with decision. “It's the +place that doesn't agree with you, and it was I who brought you to the +place; therefore it's for me to get you out of it as quick as possible. +Up you get, and I'll drive you to the station myself!” + +I had another work to keep from smiling: he was so ingenuously +disingenuous. There was less to smile at in his really nervous anxiety +to get me away. I lay there reading him like a book: it was not my +health that concerned him, of course: was it my safety? I told him he +little knew how ill I was--an inglorious speech that came hard, though +not by any means untrue. “Move me with this fever on me?” said I; “it +would be as much as my miserable life is worth.” + +“I'm afraid,” said he, “that it may be as much as your life's worth to +stay on here!” And there was such real fear, in his voice and eyes, +that it reconciled me there and then to the discomfort of a big revolver +between the mattress and the small of my back. “We must get you out +of it,” he continued, “the moment you feel fit to stir. Shall we say +to-morrow?” + +“If you like,” I said, advisedly; “and if I can get some sleep to-day.” + +“Then to-morrow it is! You see I know it's the climate,” he added, +jumping from tone to tone; “it couldn't have been those two or three +glasses of sound wine.” + +“Shall I tell you what it is?” I said, looking him full in the face, +with eyes that I dare say were wild enough with fever and insomnia. +“It's the burning of the _Lady Jermyn_!” I cried. “It's the faces and the +shrieks of the women; it's the cursing and the fighting of the men; it's +boat-loads struggling in an oily sea; it's husbands and wives jumping +overboard together; it's men turned into devils, it's hell-fire +afloat--” + +“Stop! stop!” he whispered, hoarse as a crow. I was sitting up with my +hot eyes upon him. He was white as the quilt, and the bed shook with his +trembling. I had gone as far as was prudent, and I lay back with a glow +of secret satisfaction. + +“Yes, I will stop,” said I, “and I wouldn't have begun if you hadn't +found it so difficult to understand my trouble. Now you know what it +is. It's the old trouble. I came up here to forget it; instead of that +I drink too much and tell you all about it; and the two things together +have bowled me over. But I'll go to-morrow; only give me something to +put me asleep till then.” + +“I will!” he vowed. “I'll go myself to the nearest chemist, and he shall +give me the very strongest stuff he's got. Good-by, and don't you stir +till I come back--for your own sake. I'll go this minute, and I'll ride +like hell!” And if ever two men were glad to be rid of each other, they +were this young villain and myself. + +But what was his villany? It was little enough that I had overheard +at the window, and still less that poor Eva had told me in her hurried +lines. All I saw clearly was that the _Lady Jermyn_ and some hundred souls +had perished by the foulest of foul play; that, besides Eva and myself, +only the incendiaries had escaped; that somehow these wretches had made +a second escape from the gig, leaving dead men and word of their own +death behind them in the boat. And here the motive was as much a mystery +to me as the means; but, in my present state, both were also matters +of supreme indifference. My one desire was to rescue my love from her +loathsome captors; of little else did I pause to think. Yet Rattray's +visit left its own mark on my mind; and long after he was gone I lay +puzzling over the connection between a young Lancastrian, of good +name, of ancient property, of great personal charm, and a crime of +unparalleled atrocity committed in cold blood on the high seas. That +his complicity was flagrant I had no room to doubt, after Eva's own +indictment of him, uttered to his face and in my hearing. Was it then +the usual fraud on the underwriters, and was Rattray the inevitable +accomplice on dry land? I could think of none but the conventional +motive for destroying a vessel. Yet I knew there must be another and a +subtler one, to account not only for the magnitude of the crime, but for +the pains which the actual perpetrators had taken to conceal the fact +of their survival, and for the union of so diverse a trinity as Senhor +Santos, Captain Harris, and the young squire. + +It must have been about mid-day when Rattray reappeared, ruddy, spurred, +and splashed with mud; a comfort to sick eyes, I declare, in spite +of all. He brought me two little vials, put one on the chimney-piece, +poured the other into my tumbler, and added a little water. + +“There, old fellow,” said he; “swallow that, and if you don't get some +sleep the chemist who made it up is the greatest liar unhung.” + +“What is it?' I asked, the glass in my hand, and my eyes on those of my +companion. + +“I don't know,” said he. “I just told them to make up the strongest +sleeping-draught that was safe, and I mentioned something about your +case. Toss it off, man; it's sure to be all right.” + +Yes, I could trust him; he was not that sort of villain, for all that +Eva Denison had said. I liked his face as well as ever. I liked his eye, +and could have sworn to its honesty as I drained the glass. Even had it +been otherwise, I must have taken my chance or shown him all; as it was, +when he had pulled down my blind, and shaken my pillow, and he gave +me his hand once more, I took it with involuntary cordiality. I only +grieved that so fine a young fellow should have involved himself in so +villainous a business; yet for Eva's sake I was glad that he had; for +my mind failed (rather than refused) to believe him so black as she had +painted him. + +The long, long afternoon that followed I never shall forget. The opiate +racked my head; it did not do its work; and I longed to sleep till +evening with a longing I have never known before or since. Everything +seemed to depend upon it; I should be a man again, if only I could +first be a log for a few hours. But no; my troubles never left me for an +instant; and there I must lie, pretending that they had! For the other +draught was for the night; and if they but thought the first one had +taken due effect, so much the less would they trouble their heads about +me when they believed that I had swallowed the second. + +Oh, but it was cruel! I lay and wept with weakness and want of sleep; +ere night fell I knew that it would find me useless, if indeed my reason +lingered on. To lie there helpless when Eva was expecting me, that would +be the finishing touch. I should rise a maniac if ever I rose at +all. More probably I would put one of my five big bullets into my own +splitting head; it was no small temptation, lying there in a double +agony, with the loaded weapon by my side. + +Then sometimes I thought it was coming; and perhaps for an instant would +be tossing in my hen-coop; then back once more. And I swear that +my physical and mental torments, here in my bed, would have been +incomparably greater than anything I had endured on the sea, but for the +saving grace of one sweet thought. She lived! She lived! And the God who +had taken care o me, a castaway, would surely deliver her also from +the hands of murderers and thieves. But not through me--I lay weak and +helpless--and my tears ran again and yet again as I felt myself growing +hourly weaker. + +I remember what a bright fine day it was, with the grand open country +all smiles beneath a clear, almost frosty sky, once when I got up on +tip-toe and peeped out. A keen wind whistled about the cottage; I felt +it on my feet as I stood; but never have I known a more perfect and +invigorating autumn day. And there I must lie, with the manhood ebbing +Out of me, the manhood that I needed so for the night! I crept back into +bed. I swore that I would sleep. Yet there I lay, listening sometimes to +that vile woman's tread below; sometimes to mysterious whispers, between +whom I neither knew nor cared; anon to my watch ticking by my side, to +the heart beating in my body, hour after hour--hour after hour. I prayed +as I have seldom prayed. I wept as I have never wept. I railed and +blasphemed--not with my lips, because the woman must think I was +asleep--but so much the more viciously in my heart. + +Suddenly it turned dark. There were no gradations--not even a tropical +twilight. One minute I aw the sun upon the blind; the next--thank God! +Oh, thank God! No light broke any longer through the blind; just a faint +and narrow glimmer stole between it and the casement; and the light that +had been bright golden was palest silver now. + +It was the moon. I had been in dreamless sleep for hours. + +The joy of that discovery! The transport of waking to it, and waking +refreshed! The swift and sudden miracle that it seemed! I shall never, +never forget it, still less the sickening thrill of fear which was +cruelly quick to follow upon my joy. The cottage was still as the tomb. +What if I had slept too long! + +With trembling hand I found my watch. + +Luckily I had wound it in the early morning. I now carried it to the +window, drew back the blind, and held it in the moonlight. It was not +quite ten o'clock. And yet the cottage was so still--so still. + +I stole to the door, opened it by cautious degrees, and saw the +reflection of a light below. Still not a sound could I hear, save the +rapid drawing of my own breath, and the startled beating of my own +heart. + +I now felt certain that the Braithwaites were out, and dressed hastily, +making as little noise as possible, and still hearing absolutely none +from below. Then, feeling faint with hunger, though a new being after my +sleep, I remembered a packet of sandwiches which I had not opened on my +journey north. These I transferred from my travelling-bag (where they +had lain forgotten to my jacket pocket), before drawing down the blind, +leaving the room on tip-toe, and very gently fastening the door behind +me. On the stairs, too, I trod with the utmost caution, feeling the wall +with my left hand (my right was full), lest by any chance I might +be mistaken in supposing I had the cottage to myself. In spite of my +caution there came a creak at every step. And to my sudden horror I +heard a chair move in the kitchen below. + +My heart and I stood still together. But my right hand tightened on +stout wood, my right forefinger trembled against thin steel. The sound +was not repeated. And at length I continued on my way down, my teeth +set, an excuse on my lips, but determination in every fibre of my frame. + +A shadow lay across the kitchen floor; it was that of the deaf mute, as +he stood on a chair before the fire, supporting himself on the chimney +piece with one puny arm, while he reached overhead with the other. I +stood by for an instant, glorying in the thought that he could not hear +me; the next, I saw what it was he was reaching up for--a bell-mouthed +blunderbuss--and I knew the little devil for the impostor that he was. + +“You touch it,” said I, “and you'll drop dead on that hearth.” + +He pretended not to hear me, but he heard the click of the splendid +spring which Messrs. Deane and Adams had put into that early revolver of +theirs, and he could not have come down much quicker with my bullet in +his spine. + +“Now, then,” I said, “what the devil do you mean by shamming deaf and +dumb?” + +“I niver said I was owt o' t' sort,” he whimpered, cowering behind the +chair in a sullen ague. + +“But you acted it, and I've a jolly good mind to shoot you dead!” + (Remember, I was so weak myself that I thought my arm would break from +presenting my five chambers and my ten-inch barrel; otherwise I should +be sorry to relate how I bullied that mouse of a man.) “I may let you +off,” I continued, “if you answer questions. Where's your wife?” + +“Eh, she'll be back directly!” said Braithwaite, with some tact; but his +look was too cunning to give the warning weight. “I've a bullet to spare +for her,” said I, cheerfully; “now, then, where is she?” + +“Gone wi' the oothers, for owt I knaw.” + +“And where are the others gone?” + +“Where they allus go, ower to t' say.” + +“Over to the sea, eh? We're getting on! What takes them there?” + +“That's more than I can tell you, sir,” said Braithwaite, with so much +emphasis and so little reluctance as to convince me that for once at +least he had spoken the truth. There was even a spice of malice in his +tone. I began to see possibilities in the little beast. + +“Well,” I said, “you're a nice lot! I don't know what your game is, and +don't want to. I've had enough of you without that. I'm off to-night.” + +“Before they get back?” asked Braithwaite, plainly in doubt about his +duty, and yet as plainly relieved to learn the extent of my intention. + +“Certainly,” said I; “why not? I'm not particularly anxious to see your +wife again, and you may ask Mr. Rattray from me why the devil he led +me to suppose you were deaf and dumb? Or, if you like, you needn't say +anything at all about it,” I added, seeing his thin jaw fall; “tell him +I never found you out, but just felt well enough to go, and went. When +do you expect them back?” + +“It won't be yet a bit,” said he. + +“Good! Now look here. What would you say to these?” And I showed him a +couple of sovereigns: I longed to offer him twenty, but feared to excite +his suspicions. “These are yours if you have a conveyance at the end of +the lane--the lane we came up the night before last--in an hour's time.” + +His dull eyes glistened; but a tremor took him from top to toe, and he +shook his head. + +“I'm ill, man!” I cried. “If I stay here I'll die! Mr. Rattray knows +that, and he wanted me to go this morning; he'll be only too thankful to +find me gone.” + +This argument appealed to him; indeed, I was proud of it. + +“But I was to stop an' look after you,” he mumbled; “it'll get me into +trooble, it will that!” + +I took out three more sovereigns; not a penny higher durst I go. + +“Will five pounds repay you? No need to tell your wife it was five, you +know! I should keep four of them all to myself.” + +The cupidity of the little wretch was at last overcoming his abject +cowardice. I could see him making up his miserable mind. And I still +flatter myself that I took only safe (and really cunning) steps to +precipitate the process. To offer him more money would have been +madness; instead, I poured it all back into my pocket. + +“All right!” I cried; “you're a greedy, cowardly, old idiot, and I'll +just save my money.” And out I marched into the moonlight, very briskly, +towards the lane; he was so quick to follow me that I had no fears of +the blunderbuss, but quickened my step, and soon had him running at my +heels. + +“Stop, stop, sir! You're that hasty wi' a poor owd man.” So he whimpered +as he followed me like the little cur he was. + +“I'm hanged if I stop,” I answered without looking back; and had him +almost in tears before I swung round on him so suddenly that he yelped +with fear. “What are you bothering me for?” I blustered. “Do you want me +to wring your neck?” + +“Oh, I'll go, sir! I'll go, I'll go,” he moaned. + +“I've a good mind not to let you. I wouldn't if I was fit to walk five +miles.” + +“But I'll roon 'em, sir! I will that! I'll go as fast as iver I can!” + +“And have a conveyance at the road-end of the lane as near an hour hence +as you possibly can?” + +“Why, there, sir!” he cried, crassly inspired; “I could drive you in our +own trap in half the time.” + +“Oh, no, you couldn't! I--I'm not fit to be out at all; it must be a +closed conveyance; but I'll come to the end of the lane to save time, +so let him wait there. You needn't wait yourself; here's a sovereign +of your money, and I'll leave the rest in the jug in my bedroom. There! +It's worth your while to trust me, I think. As for my luggage, I'll +write to Mr. Rattray about that. But I'll be shot if I spend another +night on his property.” + +I was rid of him at last; and there I stood, listening to his headlong +steps, until they stumbled out of earshot down the lane; then back to +the cottage, at a run myself, and up to my room to be no worse than my +word. The sovereigns plopped into the water and rang together at +the bottom of the jug. In another minute I was hastening through the +plantation, in my hand the revolver that had served me well already, and +was still loaded and capped in all five chambers. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. IN THE GARDEN + + +It so happened that I met nobody at all; but I must confess that my +luck was better than my management. As I came upon the beck, a new sound +reached me with the swirl. It was the jingle of bit and bridle; the beat +of hoofs came after; and I had barely time to fling myself flat, when +two horsemen emerged from the plantation, riding straight towards me in +the moonlight. If they continued on that course they could not fail +to see me as they passed along the opposite bank. However, to my +unspeakable relief, they were scarce clear of the trees when they turned +their horses' heads, rode them through the water a good seventy yards +from where I lay, and so away at a canter across country towards the +road. On my hands and knees I had a good look at them as they bobbed up +and down under the moon; and my fears subsided in astonished curiosity. +For I have already boasted of my eyesight, and I could have sworn that +neither Rattray nor any one of his guests was of the horsemen; yet the +back and shoulders of one of these seemed somehow familiar to me. Not +that I wasted many moments over the coincidence, for I had other things +to think about as I ran on to the hall. + +I found the rear of the building in darkness unrelieved from within; on +the other hand, the climbing moon beat so full upon the garden wall, it +was as though a lantern pinned me as I crept beneath it. In passing I +thought I might as well try the gate; but Eva was right; it was locked; +and that made me half inclined to distrust my eyes in the matter of the +two horsemen, for whence could they have come, if not from the hall? +In any case I was well rid of them. I now followed the wall some little +distance, and then, to see over it, walked backwards until I was all but +in the beck; and there, sure enough, shone my darling's candle, close as +close against the diamond panes of her narrow, lofty window! It brought +those ready tears back to my foolish, fevered eyes. But for sentiment +there was no time, and every other emotion was either futile or +premature. So I mastered my full heart, I steeled, my wretched nerves, +and braced my limp muscles for the task that lay before them. + +I had a garden wall to scale, nearly twice my own height, and without +notch or cranny in the ancient, solid masonry. I stood against it on my +toes, and I touched it with my finger-tips as high up as possible. Some +four feet severed them from the coping that left only half a sky above +my upturned eyes. + +I do not know whether I have made it plain that the house was not +surrounded by four walls, but merely filled a breach in one of the +four, which nipped it (as it were) at either end. The back entrance was +approachable enough, but barred or watched, I might be very sure. It is +ever the vulnerable points which are most securely guarded, and it was +my one comfort that the difficult way must also be the safe way, if only +the difficulty could be overcome. How to overcome it was the problem. +I followed the wall right round to the point at which it abutted on the +tower that immured my love; the height never varied; nor could my hands +or eyes discover a single foot-hole, ledge, or other means of mounting +to the top. + +Yet my hot head was full of ideas; and I wasted some minutes in trying +to lift from its hinges a solid, six-barred, outlying gate, that my +weak arms could hardly stir. More time went in pulling branches from the +oak-trees about the beck, where the latter ran nearest to the moonlit +wall. I had an insane dream of throwing a long forked branch over +the coping, and so swarming up hand-over-hand. But even to me the +impracticability of this plan came home at last. And there I stood in a +breathless lather, much time and strength thrown away together; and the +candle burning down for nothing in that little lofty window; and the +running water swirling noisily over its stones at my back. + +This was the only sound; the wind had died away; the moonlit valley +lay as still as the dread old house in its midst but for the splash and +gurgle of the beck. I fancied this grew louder as I paused and listened +in my helplessness. All at once--was it the tongue of Nature telling me +the way, or common gumption returning at the eleventh hour? I ran down +to the water's edge, and could have shouted for joy. Great stones lay in +equal profusion on bed and banks. I lifted one of the heaviest in both +hands. I staggered with it to the wall. I came back for another; for +some twenty minutes I was so employed; my ultimate reward a fine heap of +boulders against the wall. + +Then I began to build; then mounted my pile, clawing the wall to keep +my balance. My fingers were still many inches from the coping. I jumped +down and gave another ten minutes to the back-breaking work of carrying +more boulders from the water to the wall. Then I widened my cairn below, +so that I could stand firmly before springing upon the pinnacle with +which I completed it. I knew well that this would collapse under me if +I allowed my weight to rest more than an instant upon it. And so at last +it did; but my fingers had clutched the coping in time; had grabbed it +even as the insecure pyramid crumbled and left me dangling. + +Instantly exerting what muscle I had left, and the occasion gave me, +I succeeded in pulling myself up until my chin was on a level with my +hands, when I flung an arm over and caught the inner coping. The other +arm followed; then a leg; and at last I sat astride the wall, panting +and palpitating, and hardly able to credit my own achievement. One great +difficulty had been my huge revolver. I had been terribly frightened it +might go off, and had finally used my cravat to sling it at the back +of my neck. It had shifted a little, and I was working it round again, +preparatory to my drop, when I saw the light suddenly taken from the +window in the tower, and a kerchief waving for one instant in its place. +So she had been waiting and watching for me all these hours! I dropped +into the garden in a very ecstasy of grief and rapture, to think that I +had been so long in coming to my love, but that I had come at last. And +I picked myself up in a very frenzy of fear lest, after all, I should +fail to spirit her from this horrible place. + +Doubly desolate it looked in the rays of that bright October moon. +Skulking in the shadow of the wall which had so long baffled me, I +looked across a sharp border of shade upon a chaos, the more striking +for its lingering trim design. The long, straight paths were barnacled +with weeds; the dense, fine hedges, once prim and angular, had fattened +out of all shape or form; and on the velvet sward of other days you +might have waded waist high in rotten hay. Towards the garden end this +rank jungle merged into a worse wilderness of rhododendrons, the tallest +I have ever seen. On all this the white moon smiled, and the grim house +glowered, to the eternal swirl and rattle of the beck beyond its walls. + +Long enough I stood where I had dropped, listening with all my being +for some other sound; but at last that great studded door creaked +and shivered on its ancient hinges, and I heard voices arguing in the +Portuguese tongue. It was poor Eva wheedling that black rascal José. +I saw her in the lighted porch; the nigger I saw also, shrugging and +gesticulating for all the world like his hateful master; yet giving in, +I felt certain, though I could not understand a word that reached me. + +And indeed my little mistress very soon sailed calmly out, followed by +final warnings and expostulations hurled from the step: for the black +stood watching her as she came steadily my way, now raising her head to +sniff the air, now stooping to pluck up a weed, the very picture of a +prisoner seeking the open air for its own sake solely. I had a keen eye +apiece for them as I cowered closer to the wall, revolver in hand. But +ere my love was very near me (for she would stand long moments gazing +ever so innocently at the moon), her jailer had held a bottle to the +light, and had beaten a retreat so sudden and so hasty that I expected +him back every moment, and so durst not stir. Eva saw me, however, +and contrived to tell me so without interrupting the air that she was +humming as she walked. + +“Follow me,” she sang, “only keep as you are, keep as you are, close to +the wall, close to the wall.” + +And on she strolled to her own tune, and came abreast of me without +turning her head; so I crept in the shadow (my ugly weapon tucked out of +sight), and she sauntered in the shine, until we came to the end of +the garden, where the path turned at right angles, running behind the +rhododendrons; once in their shelter, she halted and beckoned me, and +next instant I had her hands in mine. + +“At last!” was all that I could say for many a moment, as I stood there +gazing into her dear eyes, no hero in my heroic hour, but the bigger +love-sick fool than ever. “But quick--quick--quick!” I added, as she +brought me to my senses by withdrawing her hands. “We've no time to +lose.” And I looked wildly from wall to wall, only to find them as +barren and inaccessible on this side as on the other. + +“We have more time than you think,” were Eva's first words. “We can do +nothing for half-an-hour.” + +“Why not?” + +“I'll tell you in a minute. How did you manage to get over?” + +“Brought boulders from the beck, and piled 'em up till I could reach the +top.” + +I thought her eyes glistened. + +“What patience!” she cried softly. “We must find a simpler way of +getting out--and I think I have. They've all gone, you know, but José.” + +“All three?” + +“The captain has been gone all day.” + +Then the other two must have been my horse-men, very probably in some +disguise; and my head swam with the thought of the risk that I had run +at the very moment when I thought myself safest. Well, I would have +finished them both! But I did not say so to Eva. I did not mention +the incident, I was so fearful of destroying her confidence in me. +Apologizing, therefore, for my interruption, without explaining it, I +begged her to let me hear her plan. + +It was simple enough. There was no fear of the others returning before +midnight; the chances were that they would be very much later; and +now it was barely eleven, and Eva had promised not to stay out above +half-an-hour. When it was up José would come and call her. + +“It is horrid to have to be so cunning!” cried little Eva, with an angry +shudder; “but it's no use thinking of that,” she was quick enough to +add, “when you have such dreadful men to deal with, such fiends! And I +have had all day to prepare, and have suffered till I am so desperate I +would rather die to-night than spend another in that house. No; let me +finish! José will come round here to look for me. But you and I will +be hiding on the other side of these rhododendrons. And when we hear him +here we'll make a dash for it across the long grass. Once let us get the +door shut and locked in his face, and he'll be in a trap. It will take +him some time to break in; time enough to give us a start; what's more, +when he finds us gone, he'll do what they all used to do in any doubt.” + +“What's that?” + +“Say nothing till it's found out; then lie for their lives; and it was +their lives, poor creatures on the Zambesi!” She was silent a moment, +her determined little face hard--set upon some unforgotten horror. +“Once we get away, I shall be surprised if it's found out till morning,” + concluded Eva, without a word as to what I was to do with her; neither, +indeed, had I myself given that question a moment's consideration. + +“Then let's make a dash for it now!” was all I said or thought. + +“No; they can't come yet, and José is strong and brutal, and I +have heard how ill you are. That you should have come to me +notwithstanding--” and she broke off with her little hands lying +so gratefully on my shoulders, that I know not how I refrained from +catching her then and there to my heart. Instead, I laughed and said +that my illness was a pure and deliberate sharp, and my presence there +its direct result. And such was the virtue in my beloved's voice, the +magic of her eyes, the healing of her touch, that I was scarce conscious +of deceit, but felt a whole man once more as we two stood together in +the moonlight. + +In a trance I stood there gazing into her brave young eyes. In a +trance I suffered her to lead me by the hand through the rank, dense +rhododendrons. And still entranced I crouched by her side near the +further side, with only unkempt grass-plot and a weedy path between us +and that ponderous door, wide open still, and replaced by a section of +the lighted hail within. On this we fixed our attention with mingled +dread and impatience, those contending elements of suspense; but the +black was slow to reappear; and my eyes stole home to my sweet girl's +face, with its glory of moonlit curls, and the eager, resolute, +embittered look that put the world back two whole months, and Eva +Denison upon the _Lady Jermyn_'s poop, in the ship's last hours. But it +was not her look alone; she had on her cloak, as the night before, +but with me (God bless her!) she found no need to clasp herself in its +folds; and underneath she wore the very dress in which she had sung at +our last concert, and been rescued in the gig. It looked as though she +had worn it ever since. The roses were crushed and soiled, the tulle all +torn, and tarnished some strings of beads that had been gold: a tatter +of Chantilly lace hung by a thread: it is another of the relics that I +have unearthed in the writing of this narrative. + +“I thought men never noticed dresses?” my love said suddenly, a pleased +light in her eyes (I thought) in spite of all. “Do you really remember +it?” + +“I remember every one of them,” I said indignantly; and so I did. + +“You will wonder why I wear it,” said Eva, quickly. “It was the first +that came that terrible night. They have given me many since. But I +won't wear one of them--not one!” + +How her eyes flashed! I forgot all about José. + +“I suppose you know why they hadn't room for you in the gig?” she went +on. + +“No, I don't know, and I don't care. They had room for you,” said I; +“that's all I care about.” And to think she could not see I loved her! + +“But do you mean to say you don't know that these--murderers--set fire +to the ship?” + +“No--yes! I heard you say so last night.” + +“And you don't want to know what for?” + +Out of politeness I protested that I did; but, as I live, all I wanted +to know just then was whether my love loved me--whether she ever +could--whether such happiness was possible under heaven! + +“You remember all that mystery about the cargo?” she continued eagerly, +her pretty lips so divinely parted! + +“It turned out to be gunpowder,” said I, still thinking only of her. + +“No--gold!” + +“But it was gunpowder,” I insisted; for it was my incorrigible passion +for accuracy which had led up to half our arguments on the voyage; but +this time Eva let me off. + +“It was also gold: twelve thousand ounces from the diggings. That was +the real mystery. Do you mean to say you never guessed?” + +“No, by Jove I didn't!” said I. She had diverted my interest at last. I +asked her if she had known on board. + +“Not until the last moment. I found out during the fire. Do you remember +when we said good-by? I was nearly telling you then.” + +Did I remember! The very letter of that last interview was cut deep in +my heart; not a sleepless night had I passed without rehearsing it word +for word and look for look; and sometimes, when sorrow had spent itself, +and the heart could bleed no more, vain grief had given place to vainer +speculation, and I had cudgelled my wakeful brains for the meaning of +the new and subtle horror which I had read in my darling's eyes at the +last. Now I understood; and the one explanation brought such a tribe +in its train, that even the perilous ecstasy of the present moment was +temporarily forgotten in the horrible past. + +“Now I know why they wouldn't have me in the gig!” I cried softly. + +“She carried four heavy men's weight in gold.” + +“When on earth did they get it aboard?” + +“In provision boxes at the last; but they had been filling the boxes for +weeks.” + +“Why, I saw them doing it!” I cried. “But what about the gig? Who picked +you up?” + +She was watching that open door once more, and she answered with notable +indifference, “Mr. Rattray.” + +“So that's the connection!” said I; and I think its very simplicity was +what surprised me most. + +“Yes; he was waiting for us at Ascension.” + +“Then it was all arranged?” + +“Every detail.” + +“And this young blackguard is as bad as any of them!” + +“Worse,” said she, with bitter brevity. Nor had I ever seen her look so +hard but once, and that was the night before in the old justice hall, +when she told Rattray her opinion of him to his face. She had now the +same angry flush, the same set mouth and scornful voice; and I took +it finally into my head that she was unjust to the poor devil, villain +though he was. With all his villainy I declined to believe him as bad +as the others. I told her so in as many words. And in a moment we were +arguing as though we were back on the _Lady Jermyn_ with nothing else to +do. + +“You may admire wholesale murderers and thieves,” said Eva. “I do not.” + +“Nor I. My point is simply that this one is not as bad as the rest. I +believe he was really glad for my sake when he discovered that I knew +nothing of the villainy. Come now, has he ever offered you any personal +violence?” + +“Me? Mr. Rattray? I should hope not, indeed!” + +“Has he never saved you from any?” + +“I--I don't know.” + +“Then I do. When you left them last night there was some talk of +bringing you back by force. You can guess who suggested that--and who +set his face against it and got his way. You would think the better of +Rattray had you heard what passed.” + +“Should I?” she asked half eagerly, as she looked quickly round at me; +and suddenly I saw her eyes fill. “Oh, why will you speak about him?” + she burst out. “Why must you defend him, unless it's to go against me, +as you always did and always will! I never knew anybody like you--never! +I want you to take me away from these wretches, and all you do is to +defend them!” + +“Not all,” said I, clasping her hand warmly in mine. “Not all--not all! +I will take you away from them, never fear; in another hour God grant +you may be out of their reach for ever!” + +“But where are we to go?” she whispered wildly. “What are you to do with +me? All my friends think me dead, and if they knew I was not it would +all come out.” + +“So it shall,” said I; “the sooner the better; if I'd had my way it +would all be out already.” + +I see her yet, my passionate darling, as she turned upon me, whiter than +the full white moon. + +“Mr. Cole,” said she, “you must give me your sacred promise that so far +as you are concerned, it shall never come out at all!” + +“This monstrous conspiracy? This cold blooded massacre?” + +And I crouched aghast. + +“Yes; it could do no good; and, at any rate, unless you promise I remain +where I am.” + +“In their hands?” + +“Decidedly--to warn them in time. Leave them I would, but betray +them--never!” + +What could I say? What choice had I in the face of an alternative so +headstrong and so unreasonable? To rescue Eva from these miscreants I +would have let every malefactor in the country go unscathed: yet the +condition was a hard one; and, as I hesitated, my love went on her knees +to me, there in the moonlight among the rhododendrons. + +“Promise--promise--or you will kill me!” she gasped. “They may deserve +it richly, but I would rather be torn in little pieces than--than have +them--hanged!” + +“It is too good for most of them.” + +“Promise!” + +“To hold my tongue about them all?” + +“Yes--promise!” + +“Promise!” + +“When a hundred lives were sacrificed--” + +“Promise!” + +“I can't,” I said. “It's wrong.” + +“Then good-by!” she cried, starting to her feet. + +“No--no--” and I caught her hand. + +“Well, then?” + +“I--promise.” + + + + +CHAPTER XV. FIRST BLOOD + + +So I bound myself to a guilty secrecy for Eva's sake, to save her from +these wretches, or if you will, to win her for myself. Nor did it +strike me as very strange, after a moment's reflection, that she should +intercede thus earnestly for a band headed by her own mother's widower, +prime scoundrel of them all though she knew him to be. The only +surprise was that she had not interceded in his name; that I should have +forgotten, and she should have allowed me to forget, the very existence +of so indisputable a claim upon her loyalty. This, however, made it a +little difficult to understand the hysterical gratitude with which my +unwilling promise was received. Poor darling! she was beside herself +with sheer relief. She wept as I had never seen her weep before. She +seized and even kissed my hands, as one who neither knew nor cared what +she did, surprising me so much by her emotion that this expression of it +passed unheeded. I was the best friend she had ever had. I was her one +good friend in all the world; she would trust herself to me; and if I +would but take her to the convent where she had been brought up, she +would pray for me there until her death, but that would not be very +long. + +All of which confused me utterly; it seemed an inexplicable breakdown +in one who had shown such nerve and courage hitherto, and so hearty a +loathing for that damnable Santos. So completely had her presence of +mind forsaken her that she looked no longer where she had been gazing +hitherto. And thus it was that neither of us saw José until we heard +him calling, “Senhora Evah! Senhora Evah!” with some rapid sentences in +Portuguese. + +“Now is our time,” I whispered, crouching lower and clasping a small +hand gone suddenly cold. “Think of nothing now but getting out of this. +I'll keep my word once we are out; and here's the toy that's going to +get us out.” And I produced my Deane and Adams with no small relish. + +A little trustful pressure was my answer and my reward; meanwhile the +black was singing out lustily in evident suspicion and alarm. + +“He says they are coming back,” whispered Eva; “but that's impossible.” + +“Why?” + +“Because if they were he couldn't see them, and if he heard them he +would be frightened of their hearing him. But here he comes!” + +A shuffling quick step on the path; a running grumble of unmistakable +threats; a shambling moonlit figure seen in glimpses through the leaves, +very near us for an instant, then hidden by the shrubbery as he passed +within a few yards of our hiding-place. A diminuendo of the +shuffling steps; then a cursing, frightened savage at one end of the +rhododendrons, and we two stealing out at the other, hand in hand, and +bent quite double, into the long neglected grass. + +“Can you run for it?” I whispered. + +“Yes, but not too fast, for fear we trip.' + +“Come on, then!” + +The lighted open doorway grew greater at every stride. + +“He hasn't seen us yet--” + +“No, I hear him threatening me still.” + +“Now he has, though!” + +A wild whoop proclaimed the fact, and upright we tore at top speed +through the last ten yards of grass, while the black rushed down one of +the side paths, gaining audibly on us over the better ground. But our +start had saved us, and we flew up the steps as his feet ceased to +clatter on the path; he had plunged into the grass to cut off the +corner. + +“Thank God!” cried Eva. “Now shut it quick.” + +The great door swung home with a mighty clatter, and Eva seized the key +in both hands. + +“I can't turn it!” + +To lose a second was to take a life, and unconsciously I was sticking +at that, perhaps from no higher instinct than distrust of my aim. Our +pursuer, however, was on the steps when I clapped my free hand on top of +those little white straining ones, and by a timely effort bent both them +and the key round together; the ward shot home as José hurled himself +against the door. Eva bolted it. But the thud was not repeated, and I +gathered myself together between the door and the nearest window, for by +now I saw there was but one thing for us. The nigger must be disabled, +if I could manage such a nicety; if not, the devil take his own. + +Well, I was not one tick too soon for him. My pistol was not cocked +before the crash came that I was counting on, and with it a shower of +small glass driving across the six-foot sill and tinkling on the flags. +Next came a black and bloody face, at which I could not fire. I had +to wait till I saw his legs, when I promptly shattered one of them at +disgracefully short range. The report was as deafening as one upon the +stage; the hall filled with white smoke, and remained hideous with the +bellowing of my victim. I searched him without a qualm, but threats +of annihilation instead, and found him unarmed but for that very knife +which Rattray had induced me to hand over to him in town. I had a grim +satisfaction in depriving him of this, and but small compunction in +turning my back upon his pain. + +“Come,” I said to poor Eva, “don't pity him, though I daresay he's the +most pitiable of the lot; show me the way through, and I'll follow with +this lamp.” + +One was burning on the old oak table. I carried it along a narrow +passage, through a great low kitchen where I bumped my head against the +black oak beams; and I held it on high at a door almost as massive as +the one which we had succeeded in shutting in the nigger's face. + +“I was afraid of it!” cried Eva, with a sudden sob. + +“What is it?” + +“They've taken away the key!” + +Yes, the keen air came through an empty keyhole; and my lamp, held +close, not only showed that the door was locked, but that the lock was +one with which an unskilled hand might tamper for hours without result. +I dealt it a hearty kick by way of a test. The heavy timber did not +budge; there was no play at all at either lock or hinges; nor did I see +how I could spend one of my four remaining bullets upon the former, with +any chance of a return. + +“Is this the only other door?” + +“Then it must be a window.” + +“All the back ones are barred.” + +“Securely?” + +“Yes.” + +“Then we've no choice in the matter.” + +And I led the way back to the hall, where the poor black devil lay +blubbering in his blood. In the kitchen I found the bottle of wine +(Rattray's best port, that they were trying to make her take for her +health) with which Eva had bribed him, and I gave it to him before +laying hands on a couple of chairs. + +“What are you going to do?”' + +“Go out the way we came.” + +“But the wall?” + +“Pile up these chairs, and as many more as we may need, if we can't open +the gate.” + +But Eva was not paying attention any longer, either to me or to José; +his white teeth were showing in a grin for all his pain; her eyes were +fixed in horror on the floor. + +“They've come back,” she gasped. “The underground passage! Hark--hark!” + +There was a muffled rush of feet beneath our own, then a dull but very +distinguishable clatter on some invisible stair. + +“Underground passage!” I exclaimed, and in my sheer disgust I forgot +what was due to my darling. “Why on earth didn't you tell me of it +before?” + +“There was so much to tell you! It leads to the sea. Oh, what shall we +do? You must hide--upstairs--anywhere!” cried Eva, wildly. “Leave them +to me--leave them to me.” + +“I like that,” said I; and I did; but I detested myself for the tears my +words had drawn, and I prepared to die for them. + +“They'll kill you, Mr. Cole!” + +“It would serve me right; but we'll see about it.” + +And I stood with my revolver very ready in my right hand, while with +the other I caught poor Eva to my side, even as a door flew open, +and Rattray himself burst upon us, a lantern in his hand, and the +perspiration shining on his handsome face in its light. + +I can see him now as he stood dumfounded on the threshold of the hall; +and yet, at the time, my eyes sped past him into the room beyond. + +It was the one I have described as being lined with books; there was +a long rent in this lining, where the books had opened with a door, +through which Captain Harris, Joaquin Santos, and Jane Braithwaite +followed Rattray in quick succession, the men all with lanterns, the +woman scarlet and dishevelled even for her. It was over the squire's +shoulders I saw their faces; he kept them from passing him in the +doorway by a free use of his elbows; and when I looked at him again, his +black eyes were blazing from a face white with passion, and they were +fixed upon me. + +“What the devil brings you here?” he thundered at last. + +“Don't ask idle questions,” was my reply to that. + +“So you were shamming to-day!” + +“I was taking a leaf out of your book.” + +“You'll gain nothing by being clever!” sneered the squire, taking +a threatening step forward. For at the last moment I had tucked my +revolver behind my back, not only for the pleasure, but for the obvious +advantage of getting them all in front of me and off their guard. I +had no idea that such eyes as Rattray's could be so fierce: they were +dancing from me to my companion, whom their glitter frightened into an +attempt to disengage herself from me; but my arm only tightened about +her drooping figure. + +“I shall gain no more than I expect,” said I, carelessly. “And I know +what to expect from brave gentlemen like you! It will be better than +your own fate, at all events; anything's better than being taken hence +to the place of execution, and hanged by the neck until you're dead, all +three of you in a row, and your bodies buried within the precincts of +the prison!” + +“The very thing for him,” murmured Santos. “The--very--theeng!” + +“But I'm so soft-hearted,” I went insanely on, “that I should be sorry +to see that happen to such fine fellows as you are. Come out of that, +you little fraud behind there!” It was my betrayer skulking in the +room. “Come out and line up with the rest! No, I'm not going to see you +fellows dance on nothing; I've another kind of ball apiece for you, and +one between 'em for the Braithwaites!” + +Well, I suppose I always had a nasty tongue in me, and rather enjoyed +making play with it on provocation; but, if so, I met with my deserts +that night. For the nigger of the _Lady Jermyn_ lay all but hid behind Eva +and me; if they saw him at all, they may have thought him drunk; but, as +for myself, I had fairly forgotten his existence until the very moment +came for showing my revolver, when it was twisted out of my grasp +instead, and a ball sang under my arm as the brute fell back exhausted +and the weapon clattered beside him. Before I could stoop for it there +was a dead weight on my left arm, and Squire Rattray was over the table +at a bound, with his arms jostling mine beneath Eva Denison's senseless +form. + +“Leave her to me,” he cried fiercely. “You fool,” he added in a lower +key, “do you think I'd let any harm come to her?” + +I looked him in the bright and honest eyes that had made me trust him +in the beginning. And I did not utterly distrust him yet. Rather was the +guile on my side as I drew back and watched Rattray lift the young girl +tenderly, and slowly carry her to the door by which she had entered and +left the hall just twenty-four hours before. I could not take my eyes +off them till they were gone. And when I looked for my revolver, it also +had disappeared. + +José had not got it--he lay insensible. Santos was whispering to Harris. +Neither of them seemed armed. I made sure that Rattray had picked it up +and carried it off with Eva. I looked wildly for some other weapon. Two +unarmed men and a woman were all I had to deal with, for Braithwaite +had long since vanished. Could I but knock the worthless life out of the +men, I should have but the squire and his servants to deal with; and in +that quarter I still had my hopes of a bloodless battle and a treaty of +war. + +A log fire was smouldering in the open grate. I darted to it, and had a +heavy, half-burned brand whirling round my head next instant. Harris was +the first within my reach. He came gamely at me with his fists. I sprang +upon him, and struck him to the ground with one blow, the sparks flying +far and wide as my smoking brand met the seaman's skull. Santos was upon +me next instant, and him, by sheer luck, I managed to serve the same; +but I doubt whether either man was stunned; and I was standing ready for +them to rise, when I felt myself seized round the neck from behind, and +a mass of fluffy hair tickling my cheek, while a shrill voice set up a +lusty scream for the squire. + +I have said that the woman Braithwaite was of a sinister strength; but I +had little dreamt how strong she really was. First it was her arms +that wound themselves about my neck, long, sinuous, and supple as the +tentacles of some vile monster; then, as I struggled, her thumbs were on +my windpipe like pads of steel. Tighter she pressed, and tighter yet. My +eyeballs started; my tongue lolled; I heard my brand drop, and through +a mist I saw it picked up instantly. It crashed upon my skull as I still +struggled vainly; again and again it came down mercilessly in the same +place; until I felt as though a sponge of warm water had been squeezed +over my head, and saw a hundred withered masks grinning sudden +exultation into mine; but still the lean arm whirled, and the splinters +flew, till I was blind with my blood and the seven senses were beaten +out of me. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. A DEADLOCK + + +It must have been midnight when I opened my eyes; a clock was striking +as though it never would stop. My mouth seemed fire; a pungent flavor +filled my nostrils; the wineglass felt cold against my teeth. “That's +more like it!” muttered a voice close to my ear. An arm was withdrawn +from under my shoulders. I was allowed to sink back upon some pillows. +And now I saw where I was. The room was large and poorly lighted. I lay +in my clothes on an old four-poster bed. And my enemies were standing +over me in a group. + +“I hope you are satisfied!” sneered Joaquin Santos, with a flourish of +his eternal cigarette. + +“I am. You don't do murder in my house, wherever else you may do it.” + +“And now better lid 'im to the nirrest polissstation; or weel you go +and tell the poliss yourself?” asked the Portuguese, in the same tone of +mordant irony. + +“Ay, ay,” growled Harris; “that's the next thing!” + +“No,” said Rattray; “the next thing's for you two to leave him to me.” + +“We'll see you damned!” cried the captain. + +“No, no, my friend,” said Santos, with a shrug; “let him have his way. +He is as fond of his skeen as you are of yours; he'll come round to our +way in the end. I know this Senhor Cole. It is necessary for 'im to die. +But it is not necessary this moment; let us live them together for a +leetle beet.” + +“That's all I ask,” said Rattray. + +“You won't ask it twice,” rejoined Santos, shrugging. “I know this +Senhor Cole. There is only one way of dilling with a man like that. +Besides, he 'as 'alf-keeled my good José; it is necessary for 'im to +die.” + +“I agree with the senhor,” said Harris, whose forehead was starred +with sticking-plaster. “It's him or us, an' we're all agen you, squire. +You'll have to give in, first or last.” + +And the pair were gone; their steps grew faint in the corridor; when we +could no longer hear them, Rattray closed the door and quietly locked +it. Then he turned to me, stern enough, and pointed to the door with a +hand that shook. + +“You see how it is?” + +“Perfectly.” + +“They want to kill you!” + +“Of course they do.” + +“It's your own fault; you've run yourself into this. I did my best to +keep you out of it. But in you come, and spill first blood.” + +“I don't regret it,” said I. + +“Oh, you're damned mule enough not to regret anything!” cried Rattray. +“I see the sort you are; yet but for me, I tell you plainly, you'd be a +dead man now.” + +“I can't think why you interfered.” + +“You've heard the reason. I won't have murder done here if I can prevent +it; so far I have; it rests with you whether I can go on preventing it +or not.” + +“With me, does it?” + +He sat down on the side of the bed. He threw an arm to the far side of +my body, and he leaned over me with savage eyes now staring into mine, +now resting with a momentary gleam of pride upon my battered head. I put +up my hand; it lit upon a very turban of bandages, and at that I tried +to take his hand in mine. He shook it off, and his eyes met mine more +fiercely than before. + +“See here, Cole,” said he; “I don't know how the devil you got wind of +anything to start with, and I don't care. What I do know is that you've +made bad enough a long chalk worse for all concerned, and you'll have to +get yourself out of the mess you've got yourself into, and there's only +one way. I suppose Miss Denison has really told you everything this +time? What's that? Oh, yes, she's all right again; no thanks to you. Now +let's hear what she did tell you. It'll save time.” + +I repeated the hurried disclosures made by Eva in the rhododendrons. He +nodded grimly in confirmation of their truth. + +“Yes, those are the rough facts. The game was started in Melbourne. My +part was to wait at Ascension till the _Lady Jermyn_ signalled herself, +follow her in a schooner we had bought and pick up the gig with the gold +aboard. Well, I did so; never mind the details now, and never mind the +bloody massacre the others had made of it before I came up. God knows I +was never a consenting party to that, though I know I'm responsible. +I'm in this thing as deep as any of them. I've shared the risks and I'm +going to share the plunder, and I'll swing with the others if it ever +comes to that. I deserve it hard enough. And so here we are, we three +and the nigger, all four fit to swing in a row, as you were fool enough +to tell us; and you step in and find out everything. What's to be done? +You know what the others want to do. I say it rests with you whether +they do it or not. There's only one other way of meeting the case.” + +“What's that?” + +“Be in it yourself, man! Come in with me and split my share!” + +I could have burst out laughing in his handsome, eager face; the good +faith of this absurd proposal was so incongruously apparent; and so +obviously genuine was the young villain's anxiety for my consent. Become +accessory after the fact in such a crime! Sell my silence for a price! I +concealed my feelings with equal difficulty and resolution. I had plans +of my own already, but I must gain time to think them over. Nor could I +afford to quarrel with Rattray meanwhile. + +“What was the haul?” I asked him, with the air of one not unprepared to +consider the matter. + +“Twelve thousand ounces!” + +“Forty-eight thousand pounds, about?” + +“Yes-yes.” + +“And your share?” + +“Fourteen thousand pounds. Santos takes twenty, and Harris and I +fourteen thousand each.” + +“And you offer me seven?” + +“I do! I do!” + +He was becoming more and more eager and excited. His eyes were brighter +than I had ever seen them, but slightly bloodshot, and a coppery flush +tinged his clear, sunburnt skin. I fancied he had been making somewhat +free with the brandy. But loss of blood had cooled my brain; and, +perhaps, natural perversity had also a share in the composure which grew +upon me as it deserted my companion. + +“Why make such a sacrifice?” said I, smiling. “Why not let them do as +they like?” + +“I've told you why! I'm not so bad as all that. I draw the line at +bloody murder! Not a life should have been lost if I'd had my way. +Besides, I've done all the dirty work by you, Cole; there's been no +help for it. We didn't know whether you knew or not; it made all the +difference to us; and somebody had to dog you and find out how much you +did know. I was the only one who could possibly do it. God knows how I +detested the job! I'm more ashamed of it than of worse things. I had to +worm myself into your friendship; and, by Jove, you made me think you +did know, but hadn't let it out, and might any day. So then I got you up +here, where you would be in our power if it was so; surely you can see +every move? But this much I'll swear--I had nothing to do with José +breaking into your room at the hotel; they went behind me there, curse +them! And when at last I found out for certain, down here, that you knew +nothing after all, I was never more sincerely thankful in my life. I +give you my word it took a load off my heart.” + +“I know that,” I said. “I also know who broke into my room, and I'm glad +I'm even with one of you.” + +“It's done you no good,” said Rattray. “Their first thought was to put +you out of the way, and it's more than ever their last. You see the sort +of men you've got to deal with; and they're three to one, counting the +nigger; but if you go in with me they'll only be three to two.” + +He was manifestly anxious to save me in this fashion. And I suppose that +most sensible men, in my dilemma, would at least have nursed or played +upon good-will so lucky and so enduring. But there was always a twist in +me that made me love (in my youth) to take the unexpected course; and it +amused me the more to lead my young friend on. + +“And where have you got this gold?” I asked him, in a low voice so +promising that he instantly lowered his, and his eyes twinkled naughtily +into mine. + +“In the old tunnel that runs from this place nearly to the sea,” said +he. “We Rattrays have always been a pretty warm lot, Cole, and in the +old days we were the most festive smugglers on the coast; this tunnel's +a relic of 'em, although it was only a tradition till I came into the +property. I swore I'd find it, and when I'd done so I made the new +connection which you shall see. I'm rather proud of it. And I won't say +I haven't used the old drain once or twice after the fashion of my rude +forefathers; but never was it such a godsend as it's been this time. By +Jove, it would be a sin if you didn't come in with us, Cole; but for the +lives these blackguards lost the thing's gone splendidly; it would be a +sin if you went and lost yours, whereas, if you come in, the two of us +would be able to shake off those devils: we should be too strong for +'em.” + +“Seven thousand pounds!” I murmured. “Forty-eight thousand between us!” + +“Yes, and nearly all of it down below, at this end of the tunnel, and +the rest where we dropped it when we heard you were trying to bolt. We'd +got it all at the other end, ready to pop aboard the schooner that's +lying there still, if you turned out to know anything and to have told +what you knew to the police. There was always the possibility of that, +you see; we simply daren't show our noses at the bank until we knew how +much you knew, and what you'd done or were thinking of doing. As it is, +we can take 'em the whole twelve thousand ounces, or rather I can, as +soon as I like, in broad daylight. I'm a lucky digger. It's all right. +Everybody knows I've been out there. They'll have to pay me over the +counter; and if you wait in the cab, by the Lord Harry, I'll pay you +your seven thousand first! You don't deserve it, Cole, but you shall +have it, and between us we'll see the others to blazes!” + +He jumped up all excitement, and was at the door next instant. + +“Stop!” I cried. “Where are you going?” + +“Downstairs to tell them.” + +“Tell them what?” + +“That you're going in with me, and it's all right.” + +“And do you really think I am?” + +He had unlocked the door; after a pause I heard him lock it again. But +I did not see his face until he returned to the bedside. And then it +frightened me. It was distorted and discolored with rage and chagrin. + +“You've been making a fool of me!” he cried fiercely. + +“No, I have been considering the matter, Rattray.” + +“And you won't accept my offer?” + +“Of course I won't. I didn't say I'd been considering that.” + +He stood over me with clenched fists and starting eyes. + +“Don't you see that I want to save your life?” he cried. “Don't you see +that this is the only way? Do you suppose a murder more or less makes +any difference to that lot downstairs? Are you really such a fool as to +die rather than hold your tongue?” + +“I won't hold it for money, at all events,” said I. “But that's what I +was coming to.” + +“Very well!” he interrupted. “You shall only pretend to touch it. All I +want is to convince the others that it's against your interest to split. +Self-interest is the one motive they understand. Your bare word would be +good enough for me.” + +“Suppose I won't give my bare word?” said I, in a gentle manner which I +did not mean to be as irritating as it doubtless was. Yet his proposals +and his assumptions were between them making me irritable in my turn. + +“For Heaven's sake don't be such an idiot, Cole!” he burst out in a +passion. “You know I'm against the others, and you know what they want, +yet you do your best to put me on their side! You know what they are, +and yet you hesitate! For the love of God be sensible; at least give me +your word that you'll hold your tongue for ever about all you know.” + +“All right,” I said. “I'll give you my word--my sacred promise, +Rattray--on one condition.” + +“What's that?” + +“That you let me take Miss Denison away from you, for good and all!” + +His face was transformed with fury: honest passion faded from it and +left it bloodless, deadly, sinister. + +“Away from me?” said Rattray, through his teeth. + +“From the lot of you.” + +“I remember! You told me that night. Ha, ha, ha! You were in love with +her--you--you!” + +“That has nothing to do with it,” said I, shaking the bed with my anger +and my agitation. + +“I should hope not! You, indeed, to look at her!” + +“Well,” I cried, “she may never love me; but at least she doesn't loathe +me as she loathes you--yes, and the sight of you, and your very name!” + +So I drew blood for blood; and for an instant I thought he was going to +make an end of it by incontinently killing me himself. His fists flew +out. Had I been a whole man on my legs, he took care to tell me what he +would have done, and to drive it home with a mouthful of the oaths which +were conspicuously absent from his ordinary talk. + +“You take advantage of your weakness, like any cur,” he wound up. + +“And you of your strength--like the young bully you are!” I retorted. + +“You do your best to make me one,” he answered bitterly. “I try to stand +by you at all costs. I want to make amends to you, I want to prevent +a crime. Yet there you lie and set your face against a compromise; and +there you lie and taunt me with the thing that's gall and wormwood to me +already. I know I gave you provocation. And I know I'm rightly served. +Why do you suppose I went into this accursed thing at all? Not for the +gold, my boy, but for the girl! So she won't look at me. And it serves +me right. But--I say--do you really think she loathes me, Cole?” + +“I don't see how she can think much better of you than of the crime +in which you've had a hand,” was my reply, made, however, with as much +kindness as I could summon. “The word I used was spoken in anger,” said +I; for his had disappeared; and he looked such a miserable, handsome dog +as he stood there hanging his guilty head--in the room, I fancied, where +he once had lain as a pretty, innocent child. + +“Cole,” said he, “I'd give twice my share of the damned stuff never to +have put my hand to the plough; but go back I can't; so there's an end +of it.” + +“I don't see it,” said I. “You say you didn't go in for the gold? Then +give up your share; the others'll jump at it; and Eva won't think the +worse of you, at any rate.” + +“But what's to become of her if I drop out? + +“You and I will take her to her friends, or wherever she wants to go.” + +“No, no!” he cried. “I never yet deserted my pals, and I'm not going to +begin.” + +“I don't believe you ever before had such pals to desert,” was my reply +to that. “Quite apart from my own share in the matter, it makes me +positively sick to see a fellow like you mixed up with such a crew in +such a game. Get out of it, man, get out of it while you can! Now's your +time. Get out of it, for God's sake!” + +I sat up in my eagerness. I saw him waver. And for one instant a great +hope fluttered in my heart. But his teeth met. His face darkened. He +shook his head. + +“That's the kind of rot that isn't worth talking, and you ought to know +it,” said he. “When I begin a thing I go through with it, though it +lands me in hell, as this one will. I can't help that. It's too late to +go back. I'm going on and you're going with me, Cole, like a sensible +chap!” + +I shook my head. + +“Only on the one condition.” + +“You--stick--to--that?” he said, so rapidly that the words ran into one, +so fiercely that his decision was as plain to me as my own. + +“I do,” said I, and could only sigh when he made yet one more effort to +persuade me, in a distress not less apparent than his resolution, and +not less becoming in him. + +“Consider, Cole, consider!” + +“I have already done so, Rattray.” + +“Murder is simply nothing to them!” + +“It is nothing to me either.” + +“Human life is nothing!” + +“No; it must end one day.” + +“You won't give your word unconditionally?” + +“No; you know my condition.” + +He ignored it with a blazing eye, his hand upon the door. + +“You prefer to die, then?” “Infinitely.” + +“Then die you may, and be damned to you!” + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. THIEVES FALL OUT + + +The door slammed. It was invisibly locked and the key taken out. I +listened for the last of an angry stride. It never even began. But after +a pause the door was unlocked again, and Rattray re-entered. + +Without looking at me, he snatched the candle from the table on which it +stood by the bedside, and carried it to a bureau at the opposite side +of the room. There he stood a minute with his back turned, the candle, +I fancy, on the floor. I saw him putting something in either jacket +pocket. Then I heard a dull little snap, as though he had shut some +small morocco case; whatever it was, he tossed it carelessly back into +the bureau; and next minute he was really gone, leaving the candle +burning on the floor. + +I lay and heard his steps out of earshot, and they were angry enough +now, nor had he given me a single glance. I listened until there was +no more to be heard, and then in an instant I was off the bed and on +my feet. I reeled a little, and my head gave me great pain, but greater +still was my excitement. I caught up the candle, opened the unlocked +bureau, and then the empty case which I found in the very front. + +My heart leapt; there was no mistaking the depressions in the case. It +was a brace of tiny pistols that Rattray had slipped into his jacket +pockets. + +Mere toys they must have been in comparison with my dear Deane and +Adams; that mattered nothing. I went no longer in dire terror of my +life; indeed, there was that in Rattray which had left me feeling fairly +safe, in spite of his last words to me, albeit I felt his fears on my +behalf to be genuine enough. His taking these little pistols (of +course, there were but three chambers left loaded in mine) confirmed my +confidence in him. + +He would stick at nothing to defend me from the violence of his +bloodthirsty accomplices. But it should not come to that. My legs were +growing firmer under me. I was not going to lie there meekly without +making at least an effort at self-deliverance. If it succeeded--the +idea came to me in a flash--I would send Rattray an ultimatum from the +nearest town; and either Eva should be set instantly and unconditionally +free, or the whole matter be put unreservedly in the hands of the local +police. + +There were two lattice windows, both in the same immensely thick wall; +to my joy, I discovered that they overlooked the open premises at the +back of the hall, with the oak-plantation beyond; nor was the distance +to the ground very great. It was the work of a moment to tear the sheets +from the bed, to tie the two ends together and a third round the mullion +by which the larger window was bisected. I had done this, and had let +down my sheets, when a movement below turned my heart to ice. The night +had clouded over. I could see nobody; so much the greater was my alarm. + +I withdrew from the window, leaving the sheets hanging, in the hope that +they also might be invisible in the darkness. I put out the candle, +and returned to the window in great perplexity. Next moment I stood +aghast--between the devil and the deep sea. I still heard a something +down below, but a worse sound came to drown it. An unseen hand was very +quietly trying the door which Rattray had locked behind him. + +“Diablo!” came to my horrified ears, in a soft, vindictive voice. + +“I told ye so,” muttered another; “the young swab's got the key.” + +There was a pause, in which it would seem that Joaquin Santos had his +ear at the empty keyhole. + +“I think he must be slipping,” at last I heard him sigh. “It was not +necessary to awaken him in this world. It is a peety.” + +“One kick over the lock would do it,” said Harris; “only the young +swab'll hear.” + +“Not perhaps while he is dancing attendance on the senhora. Was it not +good to send him to her? If he does hear, well, his own turn will come +the queecker, that is all. But it would be better to take them one at a +time; so keeck away, my friend, and I will give him no time to squil.” + +While my would-be murderers were holding this whispered colloquy, I had +stood half-petrified by the open window; unwilling to slide down the +sheets into the arms of an unseen enemy, though I had no idea which +of them it could be; more hopeful of slipping past my butchers in the +darkness, and so to Rattray and poor Eva; but not the less eagerly +looking for some hiding-place in the room. The best that offered was a +recess in the thick wall between the two windows, filled with hanging +clothes: a narrow closet without a door, which would shelter me well +enough if not too curiously inspected. Here I hid myself in the end, +after a moment of indecision which nearly cost me my life. The coats and +trousers still shook in front of me when the door flew open at the first +kick, and Santos stood a moment in the moonlight, looking for the bed. +With a stride he reached it, and I saw the gleam of a knife from where I +stood among the squire's clothes; it flashed over my bed, and was still. + +“He is not 'ere!” + +“He heard us, and he's a-hiding.” + +“Make light, my friend, and we shall very soon see.” + +Harris did so. + +“Here's a candle,” said Santos; “light it, and watch the door. Perro mal +dicto! What have we here?” + +I felt certain he had seen me, but the candle passed within a yard of my +feet, and was held on high at the open window. + +“We are too late!” said Santos. “He's gone!” + +“Are you sure + +“Look at this sheet.” + +“Then the other swab knew of it, and we'll settle with him.” + +“Yes, yes. But not yet, my good friend--not yet. We want his asseestance +in getting the gold back to the sea; he will be glad enough to give it, +now that his pet bird has flown; after that--by all mins. You shall cut +his troth, and I will put one of 'is dear friend's bullets in 'im for my +own satisfaction.” + +There was a quick step on the stairs-in the corridor. + +“I'd like to do it now,” whispered Harris; “no time like the present.” + +“Not yet, I tell you!” + +And Rattray was in the room, a silver-mounted pistol in each hand; the +sight of these was a surprise to his treacherous confederates, as even I +could see. + +“What the devil are you two doing here?” he thundered. + +“We thought he was too quite,” said Santos. “You percive the rizzon.” + +And he waved from empty bed to open window, then held the candle close +to the tied sheet, and shrugged expressively. + +“You thought he was too quiet!” echoed Rattray with fierce scorn. “You +thought I was too blind--that's what you mean. To tell me that Miss +Denison wished to see me, and Miss Denison that I wished to speak to +her! As if we shouldn't find you out in about a minute! But a minute was +better than nothing, eh? And you've made good use of your minute, have +you. You've murdered him, and you pretend he's got out? By God, if you +have, I'll murder you! I've been ready for this all night!” + +And he stood with his back to the window, his pistols raised, and his +head carried proudly--happily--like a man whose self-respect was coming +back to him after many days. Harris shrank before his fierce eyes +and pointed barrels. The Portuguese, however, had merely given a +characteristic shrug, and was now rolling the inevitable cigarette. + +“Your common sense is almost as remarkable as your sense of justice, my +friend,” said he. “You see us one, two, tree meenutes ago, and you see +us now. You see the empty bed, the empty room, and you imagine that in +one, two, tree meenutes we have killed a man and disposed of his body. +Truly, you are very wise and just, and very loyal also to your friends. +You treat a dangerous enemy as though he were your tween-brother. You +let him escape--let him, I repit--and then you threaten to shoot those +who, as it is, may pay for your carelessness with their lives. We have +been always very loyal to you, Senhor Rattray. We have leestened to your +advice, and often taken it against our better judgment. We are here, not +because we think it wise, but because you weeshed it. Yet at the first +temptation you turn upon us, you point your peestols at your friends.” + +“I don't believe in your loyalty,” rejoined Rattray. “I believe you +would shoot me sooner than I would you. The only difference would be +than I should be shot in the back!” + +“It is untrue,” said Santos, with immense emotion. “I call the saints to +witness that never by thought or word have I been disloyal to you”--and +the blasphemous wretch actually crossed himself with a trembling, skinny +hand. “I have leestened to you, though you are the younger man. I have +geeven way to you in everything from the moment we were so fullish as to +set foot on this accursed coast; that also was your doeeng; and it will +be your fault if ivil comes of it. Yet I have not complained. Here +in your own 'ouse you have been the master, I the guest. So far from +plotting against you, show me the man who has heard me brith one +treacherous word behind your back; you will find it deeficult, friend +Rattray; what do you say, captain?” + +“Me?” cried Harris, in a voice bursting with abuse. And what the captain +said may or may not be imagined. It cannot be set down. + +But the man who ought to have spoken--the man who had such a chance as +few men have off the stage--who could have confounded these villains +in a breath, and saved the wretched Rattray at once from them and +from himself--that unheroic hero remained ignobly silent in his homely +hiding-place. And, what is more, he would do the same again! + +The rogues had fallen out; now was the time for honest men. They all +thought I had escaped; therefore they would give me a better chance than +ever of still escaping; and I have already explained to what purpose +I meant to use my first hours of liberty. That purpose I hold to have +justified any ingratitude that I may seem now to have displayed towards +the man who had undoubtedly stood between death and me. Was not Eva +Denison of more value than many Rattrays? And it was precisely in +relation with this pure young girl that I most mistrusted the squire: +obviously then my first duty was to save Eva from Rattray, not Rattray +from these traitors. + +Not that I pretend for a moment to have been the thing I never was: you +are not so very grateful to the man who pulls you out of the mud when he +has first of all pushed you in; nor is it chivalry alone which spurs +one to the rescue of a lovely lady for whom, after all, one would rather +live than die. Thus I, in my corner, was thinking (I will say) of Eva +first; but next I was thinking of myself; and Rattray's blood be on his +own hot head! I hold, moreover, that I was perfectly right in all this; +but if any think me very wrong, a sufficient satisfaction is in store +for them, for I was very swiftly punished. + +The captain's language was no worse in character than in effect: the bed +was bloody from my wounded head, all tumbled from the haste with which +I had quitted it, and only too suggestive of still fouler play. Rattray +stopped the captain with a sudden flourish of one of his pistols, the +silver mountings making lightning in the room; then he called upon the +pair of them to show him what they had done with me; and to my horror, +Santos invited him to search the room. The invitation was accepted. Yet +there I stood. It would have been better to step forward even then. Yet +I cowered among his clothes until his own hand fell upon my collar, and +forth I was dragged to the plain amazement of all three. + +Santos was the first to find his voice. + +“Another time you will perhaps think twice before you spik, friend +squire.” + +Rattray simply asked me what I had been doing in there, in a white flame +of passion, and with such an oath that I embellished the truth for him +in my turn. + +“Trying to give you blackguards the slip,” said I. + +“Then it was you who let down the sheet?” + +“Of course it was.” + +“All right! I'm done with you,” said he; “that settles it. I make you an +offer. You won't accept it. I do my best; you do your worst; but I'll be +shot if you get another chance from me!” + +Brandy and the wine-glass stood where Rattray must have set them, on an +oak stool beside the bed; as he spoke he crossed the room, filled +the glass till the spirit dripped, and drained it at a gulp. He was +twitching and wincing still when he turned, walked up to Joaquin Santos, +and pointed to where I stood with a fist that shook. + +“You wanted to deal with him,” said Rattray; “you're at liberty to do +so. I'm only sorry I stood in your way.” + +But no answer, and for once no rings of smoke came from those shrivelled +lips: the man had rolled and lighted a cigarette since Rattray entered, +but it was burning unheeded between his skinny fingers. I had his +attention, all to myself. He knew the tale that I was going to tell. +He was waiting for it; he was ready for me. The attentive droop of his +head; the crafty glitter in his intelligent eyes; the depth and +breadth of the creased forehead; the knowledge of his resource, the +consciousness of my error, all distracted and confounded me so that my +speech halted and my voice ran thin. I told Rattray every syllable that +these traitors had been saying behind his back, but I told it all very +ill; what was worse, and made me worse, I was only too well aware of my +own failure to carry conviction with my words. + +“And why couldn't you come out and say so,” asked Rattray, as even I knew +that he must. “Why wait till now?” + +“Ah, why!” echoed Santos, with a smile and a shake of the head; a +suspicious tolerance, an ostentatious truce, upon his parchment face. +And already he was sufficiently relieved to suck his cigarette alight +again. + +“You know why,” I said, trusting to bluff honesty with the one of them +who was not rotten to the core: “because I still meant escaping.” + +“And then what?” asked Rattray fiercely. + +“You had given me my chance,” I said; “I hould have given you yours.” + +“You would, would you? Very kind of you, Mr. Cole!” + +“No, no,” said Santos; “not kind, but clever! Clever, spicious, and +queeck-weeted beyond belif! Senhor Rattray, we have all been in the +dark; we thought we had fool to die with, but what admirable knave the +young man would make! Such readiness, such resource, with his tongue +or with his peestol; how useful would it be to us! I am glad you have +decided to live him to me, friend Rattray, for I am quite come round to +your way of thinking. It is no longer necessary for him to die!” + +“You mean that?” cried Rattray keenly. + +“Of course I min it. You were quite right. He must join us. But he will +when I talk to him.” + +I could not speak. I was fascinated by this wretch: it was reptile and +rabbit with us. Treachery I knew he meant; my death, for one; my death +was certain; and yet I could not speak. + +“Then talk to him, for God's sake,” cried Rattray, “and I shall be only +too glad if you can talk some sense into him. I've tried, and failed.” + +“I shall not fail,” said Santos softly. “But it is better that he has a +leetle time to think over it calmly; better steel for 'im to slip upon +it, as you say. Let us live 'im for the night, what there is of it; time +enough in the morning.” + +I could hardly believe my ears; still I knew that it was treachery, all +treachery; and the morning I should never see. + +“But we can't leave him up here,” said Rattray; “it would mean one of us +watching him all night.” + +“Quite so,” said Santos. “I will tell you where we could live him, +however, if you will allow me to wheesper one leetle moment.” + +They drew aside; and, as I live, I thought that little moment was to +be Rattray's last on earth. I watched, but nothing happened; on the +contrary, both men seemed agreed, the Portuguese gesticulating, the +Englishman nodding, as they stood conversing at the window. Their faces +were strangely reassuring. I began to reason with myself, to rid my mind +of mere presentiment and superstition. If these two really were at one +about me (I argued) there might be no treachery after all. When I came +to think of it, Rattray had been closeted long enough with me to awake +the worst suspicions in the breasts of his companions; now that these +were allayed, there might be no more bloodshed after all (if, for +example, I pretended to give in), even though Santos had not cared whose +blood was shed a few minutes since. That was evidently the character of +the wretch: to compass his ends or to defend his person he would take +life with no more compunction than the ordinary criminal takes money; +but (and hence) murder for murder's sake was no amusement to him. + +My confidence was further restored by Captain Harris; ever a gross +ruffian, with no refinements to his rascality, he had been at the brandy +bottle after Rattray's example; and now was dozing on the latter's bed, +taking his watch below when he could get it, like the good seaman he +had been. I was quite sorry for him when the conversation at the window +ceased suddenly, and Rattray roused the captain up. + +“Watches aft!” said he. “We want that mattress; you can bring it along, +while I lead the way with the pillows and things. Come on, Cole!” + +“Where to?” I asked, standing firm. + +“Where there's no window for you to jump out of, old boy, and no clothes +of mine for you to hide behind. You needn't look so scared; it's as dry +as a bone, as cellars go. And it's past three o'clock. And you've just +got to come.” + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. A MAN OF MANY MURDERS + + +It was a good-sized wine-cellar, with very little wine in it; only one +full bin could I discover. The bins themselves lined but two of the +walls, and most of them were covered in with cobwebs, close-drawn like +mosquito-curtains. The ceiling was all too low: torpid spiders hung +in disreputable parlors, dead to the eye, but loathsomely alive at an +involuntary touch. Rats scuttled when we entered, and I had not been +long alone when they returned to bear me company. I am not a natural +historian, and had rather face a lion with the right rifle than a rat +with a stick. My jailers, however, had been kind enough to leave me a +lantern, which, set upon the ground (like my mattress), would afford a +warning, if not a protection, against the worst; unless I slept; and as +yet I had not lain down. The rascals had been considerate enough, more +especially Santos, who had a new manner for me with his revised opinion +of my character; it was a manner almost as courtly as that which had +embellished his relations with Eva Denison, and won him my early regard +at sea. Moreover, it was at the suggestion of Santos that they had +detained me in the hall, for much-needed meat and drink, on the way +down. Thereafter they had conducted me through the book-lined door of my +undoing, down stone stairs leading to three cellar doors, one of which +they had double-locked upon me. + +As soon as I durst I was busy with this door; but to no purpose; it was +a slab of solid oak, hung on hinges as massive as its lock. It galled +me to think that but two doors stood between me and the secret tunnel to +the sea: for one of the other two must lead to it. The first, however, +was all beyond me, and I very soon gave it up. There was also a +very small grating which let in a very little fresh air: the massive +foundations had been tunnelled in one place; a rude alcove was the +result, with this grating at the end and top of it, some seven feet +above the earth floor. Even had I been able to wrench away the bars, it +would have availed me nothing, since the aperture formed the segment of +a circle whose chord was but a very few inches long. I had nevertheless +a fancy for seeing the stars once more and feeling the breath of heaven +upon my bandaged temples, which impelled me to search for that which +should add a cubit to my stature. And at a glance I descried two +packing-cases, rather small and squat, but the pair of them together +the very thing for me. To my amazement, however, I could at first move +neither one nor the other of these small boxes. Was it that I was weak +as water, or that they were heavier than lead? At last I managed to get +one of them in my arms--only to drop it with a thud. A side started; +a thin sprinkling of yellow dust glittered on the earth. I fetched the +lantern: it was gold-dust from Bendigo or from Ballarat. + +To me there was horror unspeakable, yet withal a morbid fascination, +in the spectacle of the actual booty for which so many lives had been +sacrificed before my eyes. Minute followed minute in which I looked at +nothing, and could think of nothing, but the stolen bullion at my feet; +then I gathered what of the dust I could, pocketed it in pinches to hide +my meddlesomeness, and blew the rest away. The box had dropped very much +where I had found it; it had exhausted my strength none the less, and +I was glad at last to lie down on the mattress, and to wind my body in +Rattray's blankets. + +I shuddered at the thought of sleep: the rats became so lively the +moment I lay still. One ventured so near as to sit up close to the +lantern; the light showed its fat white belly, and the thing itself was +like a dog begging, as big to my disgusted eyes. And yet, in the midst +of these horrors (to me as bad as any that had preceded them), nature +overcame me, and for a space my torments ceased. + +“He is aslip,” a soft voice said. + +“Don't wake the poor devil,” said another. + +“But I weesh to spik with 'im. Senhor Cole! Senhor Cole!” + +I opened my eyes. Santos looked of uncanny stature in the low yellow +light, from my pillow close to the earth. Harris turned away at my +glance; he carried a spade, and began digging near the boxes without +more ado, by the light of a second lantern set on one of them: his back +was to me from this time on. Santos shrugged a shoulder towards the +captain as he opened a campstool, drew up his trousers, and seated +himself with much deliberation at the foot of my mattress. + +“When you 'ave treasure,” said he, “the better thing is to bury it, +Senhor Cole. Our young friend upstairs begs to deefer; but he is +slipping; it is peety he takes such quantity of brandy! It is leetle +wikness of you Engleesh; we in Portugal never touch it, save as a +liqueur; therefore we require less slip. Friend squire upstairs is at +this moment no better than a porker. Have I made mistake? I thought it +was the same word in both languages; but I am glad to see you smile, +Senhor Cole; that is good sign. I was going to say, he is so fast aslip +up there, that he would not hear us if we were to shoot each other +dead!” + +And he gave me his paternal smile, benevolent, humorous, reassuring; but +I was no longer reassured; nor did I greatly care any more what happened +to me. There is a point of last, as well as one of least resistance, and +I had reached both points at once. + +“Have you shot him dead?” I inquired, thinking that if he had, this +would precipitate my turn. But he was far from angry; the parchment +face crumpled into tolerant smiles; the venerable head shook a playful +reproval, as he threw away the cigarette that I am tired of mentioning, +and put the last touch to a fresh one with his tongue. + +“What question?” said he; “reely, Senhor Cole! But you are quite right: +I would have shot him, or cut his troth” (and he shrugged indifference +on the point), “if it had not been for you; and yet it would have been +your fault! I nid not explain; the poseetion must have explained itself +already; besides, it is past. With you two against us--but it is past. +You see, I have no longer the excellent José. You broke his leg, bad +man. I fear it will be necessary to destroy 'im.” Santos made a pause; +then inquired if he shocked me. + +“Not a bit,” said I, neither truly nor untruly; “you interest me.” And +that he did. + +“You see,” he continued, “I have not the respect of you Engleesh for +'uman life. We will not argue it. I have at least some respect for +prejudice. In my youth I had myself such prejudices; but one loses them +on the Zambesi. You cannot expect one to set any value upon the life of +a black nigger; and when you have keeled a great many Kaffirs, by the +lash, with the crocodiles, or what-not, then a white man or two makes +less deeference. I acknowledge there were too many on board that sheep; +but what was one to do? You have your Engleesh proverb about the dead +men and the stories; it was necessary to make clin swip. You see the +result.” + +He shrugged again towards the boxes; but this time, being reminded +of them (I supposed), he rose and went over to see how Harris was +progressing. The captain had never looked round; neither did he look at +Santos. “A leetle dipper,” I heard the latter say, “and, perhaps, a few +eenches--” but I lost the last epithet. It followed a glance over the +shoulder in my direction, and immediately preceded the return of Santos +to his camp-stool. + +“Yes, it is always better to bury treasure,” said he once more; but his +tone was altered; it was more contemplative; and many smoke-rings came +from the shrunk lips before another word; but through them all, his dark +eyes, dull with age, were fixed upon me. + +“You are a treasure!” he exclaimed at last, softly enough, but quickly +and emphatically for him, and with a sudden and most diabolical smile. + +“So you are going to bury me?” + +I had suspected it when first I saw the spade; then not; but since the +visit to the hole I had made up my mind to it. + +“Bury you? No, not alive,” said Santos, in his playfully reproving +tone. “It would be necessary to deeg so dip!” he added through his few +remaining teeth. + +“Well,” I said, “you'll swing for it. That's something.” + +Santos smiled again, benignantly enough this time: in contemplation +also: as an artist smiles upon his work. I was his! + +“You live town,” said he; “no one knows where you go. You come down +here; no one knows who you are. Your dear friend squire locks you up +for the night, but dreenks too much and goes to slip with the key in his +pocket; it is there when he wakes; but the preesoner, where is he? He is +gone, vanished, escaped in the night, and, like the base fabreec of your +own poet's veesion, he lives no trace--is it trace?--be'ind! A leetle +earth is so easily bitten down; a leetle more is so easily carried up +into the garden; and a beet of nice strong wire might so easily be +found in a cellar, and afterwards in the lock! No, Senhor Cole, I do not +expect to 'ang. My schims have seldom one seengle flaw. There was just +one in the _Lady Jermyn_; there was--Senhor Cole! If there is one this +time, and you will be so kind as to point it out, I will--I will run the +reesk of shooting you instead of--” + +A pinch of his baggy throat, between the fingers and thumbs of both +hands, foreshadowed a cleaner end; and yet I could look at him; nay, it +was more than I could do not to look upon that bloodless face, with the +two dry blots upon the parchment, that were never withdrawn from mine. + +“No you won't, messmate! If it's him or us for it, let a bullet do it, +and let it do it quick, you bloody Spaniard! You can't do the other +without me, and my part's done.” + +Harris was my only hope. I had seen this from the first, but my appeal +I had been keeping to the very end. And now he was leaving me before a +word would come! Santos had gone over to my grave, and there was Harris +at the door! + +“It is not dip enough,” said the Portuguese. + +“It's as deep as I mean to make it, with you sittin' there talkin' about +it.” + +And the door stood open. + +“Captain!” I screamed. “For Christ's sake, captain!” + +He stood there, trembling, yet even now not looking my way. + +“Did you ever see a man hanged?” asked Santos, with a vile eye for each +of us. “I once hanged fifteen in a row; abominable thifs. And I once +poisoned nearly a hundred at one banquet; an untrustworthy tribe; but +the hanging was the worse sight and the worse death. Heugh! There was +one man--he was no stouter than you are captain--” + +But the door slammed; we heard the captain on the stairs; there was a +rustle from the leaves outside, and then a silence that I shall not +attempt to describe. + +And, indeed, I am done with this description: as I live to tell the tale +(or spoil it, if I choose) I will make shorter work of this particular +business than I found it at the time. Perverse I may be in old age as +in my youth; but on that my agony--my humiliating agony--I decline +to dwell. I suffer it afresh as I write. There are the cobwebs on the +ceiling, a bloated spider crawling in one: a worse monster is gloating +over me: those dull eyes of his, and my own pistol-barrel, cover me in +the lamp-light. The crucifix pin is awry in his cravat; that is because +he has offered it me to kiss. As a refinement (I feel sure) my revolver +is not cocked; and the hammer goes up--up-- + +He missed me because a lantern was flashed into his eyes through the +grating. He wasted the next ball in firing wildly at the light. And +the last chamber's load became suddenly too precious for my person; for +there were many voices overhead; there were many feet upon the stairs. + +Harris came first--head-first--saw me still living as he reeled--hurled +himself upon the boxes and one of these into the hole--all far quicker +than my pen can write it. The manoeuvre, being the captain's, explained +itself: on his heels trod Rattray, with one who brought me to my feet +like the call of silver trumpets. + +“The house is surrounded,” says the squire, very quick and quiet; “is +this your doing, Cole?” + +“I wish it was,” said I; “but I can't complain; it's saved my life.” + And I looked at Santos, standing dignified and alert, my still smoking +pistol in his hand. + +“Two things to do,” says Rattray--“I don't care which.” He strode across +the cellar and pulled at the one full bin; something slid out, it was a +binful of empty bottles, and this time they were allowed to crash upon +the floor; the squire stood pointing to a manhole at the back of the +bin. “That's one alternative,” said he; “but it will mean leaving this +much stuff at least,” pointing to the boxes, “and probably all the rest +at the other end. The other thing's to stop and fight!” + +“I fight,” said Santos, stalking to the door. “Have you no more +ammunition for me, friend Cole? Then I must live you alive; adios, +senhor!” + +Harris cast a wistful look towards the manhole, not in cowardice, I +fancy, but in sudden longing for the sea, the longing of a poor devil +of a sailor-man doomed to die ashore. I am still sorry to remember that +Rattray judged him differently. “Come on, skipper,” said he; “it's all +or none aboard the lugger, and I think it will be none. Up you go; wait +a second in the room above, and I'll find you an old cutlass. I shan't +be longer.” He turned to me with a wry smile. “We're not half-armed,” he +said; “they've caught us fairly on the hop; it should be fun! Good-by, +Cole; I wish you'd had another round for that revolver. Good-by, Eva!” + +And he held out his hand to our love, who had been watching him all this +time with eyes of stone; but now she turned her back upon him without +a word. His face changed; the stormlight of passion and remorse played +upon it for an instant; he made a step towards her, wheeled abruptly, +and took me by the shoulder instead. + +“Take care of her, Cole,” said he. “Whatever happens--take care of her.” + +I caught him at the foot of the stairs. I do not defend what I did. But +I had more ammunition; a few wadded bullets, caps, and powder-charges, +loose in a jacket pocket; and I thrust them into one of his, upon a +sudden impulse, not (as I think) altogether unaccountable, albeit (as I +have said) so indefensible. + +My back was hardly turned an instant. I had left a statue of unforgiving +coldness. I started round to catch in my arms a half-fainting, +grief-stricken form, shaken with sobs that it broke my heart to hear. I +placed her on the camp-stool. I knelt down and comforted her as well as +I could, stroking her hands, my arm about her heaving shoulders, with +the gold-brown hair streaming over them. Such hair as it was! So much +longer than I had dreamt. So soft--so fine--my soul swam with the sight +and touch of it. Well for me that there broke upon us from above such +a sudden din as turned my hot blood cold! A wild shout of surprise; an +ensuing roar of defiance; shrieks and curses; yells of rage and pain; +and pistol-shot after pistol-shot as loud as cannon in the confined +space. + +I know now that the battle in the hall was a very brief affair; while +it lasted I had no sense of time; minutes or moments, they were (God +forgive me!) some of the very happiest in all my life. My joy was as +profound as it was also selfish and incongruous. The villains were being +routed; of that there could be no doubt or question. I hoped Rattray +might escape, but for the others no pity stirred in my heart, and even +my sneaking sympathy with the squire could take nothing from the joy +that was in my heart. Eva Denison was free. I was free. Our oppressors +would trouble us no more. We were both lonely; we were both young; we +had suffered together and for each other. And here she lay in my arms, +her head upon my shoulder, her soft bosom heaving on my own! My blood +ran hot and cold by turns. I forgot everything but our freedom and my +love. I forgot my sufferings, as I would have you all forget them. I +am not to be pitied. I have been in heaven on earth. I was there that +night, in my great bodily weakness, and in the midst of blood-shed, +death, and crime. + +“They have stopped!” cried Eva suddenly. “It is over! Oh, if he is +dead!” + +And she sat upright, with bright eyes starting from a deathly face. I do +not think she knew that she had been in my arms at all: any more than I +knew that the firing had ceased before she told me. Excited voices were +still raised overhead; but some sounded distant, yet more distinct, +coming through the grating from the garden; and none were voices that we +knew. One poor wretch, on the other hand, we heard plainly groaning to +his death; and we looked in each other's eyes with the same thought. + +“That's Harris,” said I, with, I fear, but little compassion in my tone +or in my heart just then. + +“Where are the others?” cried Eva piteously. + +“God knows,” said I; “they may be done for, too.” + +“If they are!” + +“It's better than the death they would have lived to die.” + +“But only one of them was a wilful murderer! Oh, Mr. Cole--Mr. Cole--go +and see what has happened; come back and tell me! I dare not come. I +will stay here and pray for strength to bear whatever news you may bring +me. Go quickly. I will--wait--and pray!” + +So I left the poor child on her knees in that vile cellar, white face +and straining hands uplifted to the foul ceiling, sweet lips quivering +with prayer, eyelids reverently lowered, and the swift tears flowing +from beneath them, all in the yellow light of the lantern that stood +burning by her side. How different a picture from that which awaited me +overhead! + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. MY GREAT HOUR + + +The library doors were shut, and I closed the secret one behind me +before opening the other and peering out through a wrack of bluish +smoke; and there lay Captain Harris, sure enough, breathing his last in +the arms of one constable, while another was seated on the table with a +very wry face, twisting a tourniquet round his arm, from which the blood +was dripping like raindrops from the eaves. A third officer stood in the +porch, issuing directions to his men without. + +“He's over the wall, I tell you! I saw him run up our ladder. After him +every man of you--and spread!” + +I looked in vain for Rattray and the rest; yet it seemed as if only +one of them had escaped. I was still looking when the man in the porch +wheeled back into the hall, and instantly caught sight of me at my door. + +“Hillo! here's another of them,” cried he. “Out you come, young fellow! +Your mates are all dead men.” + +“They're not my mates.” + +“Never mind; come you out and let's have a look at you.” + +I did so, and was confronted by a short, thickset man, who recognized me +with a smile, but whom I failed to recognize. + +“I might have guessed it was Mr. Cole,” said he. “I knew you were here +somewhere, but I couldn't make head or tail of you through the smoke.” + +“I'm surprised that you can make head or tail of me at all,” said I. + +“Then you've quite forgotten the inquisitive parson you met out fishing? +You see I found out your name for myself!” + +“So it was a detective!” + +“It was and is,” said the little man, nodding. “Detective or Inspector +Royds, if you're any the wiser. + +“What has happened? Who has escaped?” “Your friend Rattray; but he won't +get far.” + +“What of the Portuguese and the nigger?” + +I forgot that I had crippled José, but remembered with my words, and +wondered the more where he was. + +“I'll show you,” said Royds. “It was the nigger let us in. We heard him +groaning round at the back--who smashed his leg? One of our men was at +that cellar grating; there was some of them down there; we wanted to +find our way down and corner them, but the fat got in the fire too soon. +Can you stand something strong? Then come this way.” + +He led me out into the garden, and to a tangled heap lying in the +moonlight, on the edge of the long grass. The slave had fallen on top +of his master; one leg lay swathed and twisted; one black hand had but +partially relaxed upon the haft of a knife (the knife) that stood up +hilt-deep in a blacker heart. And in the hand of Santos was still the +revolver (my Deane and Adams) which had sent its last ball through the +nigger's body. + +“They slipped out behind us, all but the one inside,” said Royds, +ruefully; “I'm hanged if I know yet how it happened--but we were on them +next second. Before that the nigger had made us hide him in the grass, +but the old devil ran straight into him, and the one fired as the other +struck. It's the worst bit of luck in the whole business, and I'm rather +disappointed on the whole. I've been nursing the job all this week; had +my last look round this very evening, with one of these officers, and +only rode back for more to make sure of taking our gentlemen alive. And +we've lost three out of four of 'em, and have still to lay hands on +the gold! I suppose you didn't know there was any aboard?” he asked +abruptly. + +“Not before to-night.” + +“Nor did we till the Devoren came in with letters last week, a hundred +and thirty days out. She should have been in a month before you, but she +got amongst the ice around the Horn. There was a letter of advice about +the gold, saying it would probably go in the _Lady Jermyn_; and another +about Rattray and his schooner, which had just sailed; the young +gentleman was known to the police out there.” + +“Do you know where the schooner is?” + +“Bless you, no, we've had no time to think about her; the man had been +seen about town, and we've done well to lay hands on him in the time.” + +“You will do better still when you do lay hands on him,” said I, +wresting my eyes from the yellow dead face of the foreign scoundrel. +The moon shone full upon his high forehead, his shrivelled lips, dank in +their death agony, and on the bauble with the sacred device that he wore +always in his tie. I recovered my property from the shrunken fingers, +and so turned away with a harder heart than I ever had before or since +for any creature of Almighty God. + +Harris had expired in our absence. + +“Never spoke, sir,” said the constable in whose arms we had left him. + +“More's the pity. Well, cut out at the back and help land the young +gent, or we'll have him giving us the slip too. He may double back, +but I'm watching out for that. Which way should you say he'd head, Mr. +Cole?” + +“Inland,” said I, lying on the spur of the moment, I knew not why. “Try +at the cottage where I've been staying.” + +“We have a man posted there already. That woman is one of the gang, +and we've got her safe. But I'll take your advice, and have that side +scoured whilst I hang about the place.” + +And he walked through the house, and out the back way, at the officer's +heels; meanwhile the man with the wounded arm was swaying where he sat +from loss of blood, and I had to help him into the open air before at +last I was free to return to poor Eva in her place of loathsome safety. + +I had been so long, however, that her patience was exhausted, and as I +returned to the library by one door, she entered by the other. + +“I could bear it no longer. Tell me--the worst!” + +“Three of them are dead.” + +“Which three?” + +She had crossed to the other door, and would not have me shut it. So +I stood between her and the hearth, on which lay the captain's corpse, +with the hearthrug turned up on either side to cover it. + +“Harris for one,” said I. “Outside lie José and--” + +“Quick! Quick!” + +“Senhor Santos.” + +Her face was as though the name meant nothing to her. + +“And Mr. Rattray?” she cried. “And Mr. Rattray--” + +“Has escaped for the present. He seems to have cut his way through the +police and got over the wall by a ladder they left behind them. They are +scouring the country--Miss Denison! Eva! My poor love!” + +She had broken down utterly in a second fit of violent weeping; and a +second time I took her in my arms, and stood trying in my clumsy way to +comfort her, as though she were a little child. A lamp was burning in +the library, and I recognized the arm-chair which Rattray had drawn +thence for me on the night of our dinner--the very night before! I led +Eva back into the room, and I closed both doors. I supported my poor +girl to the chair, and once more I knelt before her and took her hands +in mine. My great hour was come at last: surely a happy omen that it was +also the hour before the dawn. + +“Cry your fill, my darling,” I whispered, with the tears in my own +voice. “You shall never have anything more to cry for in this world! God +has been very good to us. He brought you to me, and me to you. He has +rescued us for each other. All our troubles are over; cry your fill; you +will never have another chance so long as I live, if only you will let +me live for you. Will you, Eva? Will you? Will you?” + +She drew her hands from mine, and sat upright in the chair, looking at +me with round eyes; but mine were dim; astonishment was all that I +could read in her look, and on I went headlong, with growing impetus and +passion. + +“I know I am not much, my darling; but you know I was not always what my +luck, good and bad, has left me now, and you will make a new man of +me so soon! Besides, God must mean it, or He would not have thrown us +together amid such horrors, and brought us through them together still. +And you have no one else to take care of you in the world! Won't you let +me try, Eva? Say that you will!” + +“Then--you--owe me?” she said slowly, in a low, awe-struck voice that +might have told me my fate at once; but I was shaking all over in the +intensity of my passion, and for the moment it was joy enough to be able +at last to tell her all. + +“Love you?” I echoed. “With every fibre of my being! With every atom of +my heart and soul and body! I love you well enough to live to a hundred +for you, or to die for you to-night!” + +“Well enough to--give me up?” she whispered. + +I felt as though a cold hand had checked my heart at its hottest, but +I mastered myself sufficiently to face her question and to answer it as +honestly as I might. + +“Yes!” I cried; “well enough even to do that, if it was for your +happiness; but I might be rather difficult to convince about that.” + +“You are very strong and true,” she murmured. “Yes, I can trust you as +I have never trusted anybody else! But--how long have you been so +foolish?” And she tried very hard to smile. + +“Since I first saw you; but I only knew it on the night of the fire. +Till that night I resisted it like an idiot. Do you remember how we used +to argue? I rebelled so against my love! I imagined that I had loved +once already and once for all. But on the night of the fire I knew that +my love for you was different from all that had gone before or would +ever come again. I gave in to it at last, and oh! the joy of giving in! +I had fought against the greatest blessing of my life, and I never knew +it till I had given up fighting. What did I care about the fire? I +was never happier--until now! You sang through my heart like the wind +through the rigging; my one fear was that I might go to the bottom +without telling you my love. When I asked to say a few last words to you +on the poop, it was to tell you my love before we parted, that you might +know I loved you whatever came. I didn't do so, because you seemed +so frightened, poor darling! I hadn't it in my heart to add to your +distress. So I left you without a word. But I fought the sea for days +together simply to tell you what I couldn't die without telling you. +When they picked me up, it was your name that brought back my senses +after days of delirium. When I heard that you were dead, I longed to +die myself. And when I found you lived after all, the horror of your +surroundings was nothing to be compared with the mere fact that you +lived; that you were unhappy and in danger was my only grief, but it was +nothing to the thought of your death; and that I had to wait twenty-four +hours without coming to you drove me nearer to madness than ever I was +on the hen-coop. That's how I love you, Eva,” I concluded; “that's how I +love and will love you, for ever and ever, no matter what happens.” + +Those sweet gray eyes of hers had been fixed very steadily upon me all +through this outburst; as I finished they filled with tears, and my poor +love sat wringing her slender fingers, and upbraiding herself as though +she were the most heartless coquette in the country. + +“How wicked I am!” she moaned. “How ungrateful I must be! You offer me +the unselfish love of a strong, brave man. I cannot take it. I have no +love to give you in return.” + +“But some day you may,” I urged, quite happily in my ignorance. “It +will come. Oh, surely it will come, after all that we have gone through +together!” + +She looked at me very steadily and kindly through her tears. + +“It has come, in a way,” said she; “but it is not your way, Mr. Cole. I +do love you for your bravery and your--love--but that will not quite do +for either of us.” + +“Why not?” I cried in an ecstasy. “My darling, it will do for me! It +is more than I dared to hope for; thank God, thank God, that you should +care for me at all!” + +She shook her head. + +“You do not understand,” she whispered. + +“I do. I do. You do not love me as you want to love.” + +“As I could love--” + +“And as you will! It will come. It will come. I'll bother you no more +about it now. God knows I can afford to leave well alone! I am only too +happy--too thankful--as it is!” + +And indeed I rose to my feet every whit as joyful as though she had +accepted me on the spot. At least she had not rejected me; nay, she +confessed to loving me in a way. What more could a lover want? Yet there +was a dejection in her drooping attitude which disconcerted me in the +hour of my reward. And her eyes followed me with a kind of stony remorse +which struck a chill to my bleeding heart. + +I went to the door; the hall was still empty, and I shut it again with a +shudder at what I saw before the hearth, at all that I had forgotten +in the little library. As I turned, another door opened--the door made +invisible by the multitude of books around and upon it--and young Squire +Rattray stood between my love and me. + +His clear, smooth skin was almost as pale as Eva's own, but pale brown, +the tint of rich ivory. His eyes were preternaturally bright. And they +never glanced my way, but flew straight to Eva, and rested on her very +humbly and sadly, as her two hands gripped the arms of the chair, and +she leant forward in horror and alarm. + +“How could you come back?” she cried. “I was told you had escaped!” + +“Yes, I got away on one of their horses.” + +“I pictured you safe on board!” + +“I very nearly was.” + +“Then why are you here?” + +“To get your forgiveness before I go.” + +He took a step forward; her eyes and mine were riveted upon him; and I +still wonder which of us admired him the more, as he stood there in his +pride and his humility, gallant and young, and yet shamefaced and sad. + +“You risk your life--for my forgiveness?” whispered Eva at last. “Risk +it? I'll give myself up if you'll take back some of the things you said +to me--last night--and before.” + +There was a short pause. + +“Well, you are not a coward, at all events!” + +“Nor a murderer, Eva!” + +“God forbid.” + +“Then forgive me for everything else that I have been--to you!” + +And he was on his knees where I had knelt scarce a minute before; nor +could I bear to watch them any longer. I believed that he loved her in +his own way as sincerely as I did in mine. I believed that she detested +him for the detestable crime in which he had been concerned. I believed +that the opinion of him which she had expressed to his face, in my +hearing, was her true opinion, and I longed to hear her mitigate it ever +so little before he went. He won my sympathy as a gallant who valued +a kind word from his mistress more than life itself. I hoped earnestly +that that kind word would be spoken. But I had no desire to wait to hear +it. I felt an intruder. I would leave them alone together for the last +time. So I walked to the door, but, seeing a key in it, I changed +my mind, and locked it on the inside. In the hall I might become the +unintentional instrument of the squire's capture, though, so far as my +ears served me, it was still empty as we had left it. I preferred to run +no risks, and would have a look at the subterranean passage instead. + +“I advise you to speak low,” I said, “and not to be long. The place is +alive with the police. If they hear you all will be up.” + +Whether he heard me I do not know. I left him on his knees still, and +Eva with her face hidden in her hands. + +The cellar was a strange scene to revisit within an hour of my +deliverance from that very torture-chamber. It had been something more +before I left it, but in it I could think only of the first occupant of +the camp-stool. The lantern still burned upon the floor. There was the +mattress, still depressed where I had lain face to face with insolent +death. The bullet was in the plaster; it could not have missed by the +breadth of many hairs. In the corner was the shallow grave, dug by +Harris for my elements. And Harris was dead. And Santos was dead. But +life and love were mine. + +I would have gone through it all again! + +And all at once I was on fire to be back in the library; so much so, +that half a minute at the manhole, lantern in hand, was enough for me; +and a mere funnel of moist brown earth--a terribly low arch propped with +beams--as much as I myself ever saw of the subterranean conduit between +Kirby House and the sea. But I understood that the curious may traverse +it for themselves to this day on payment of a very modest fee. + +As for me, I returned as I had come after (say) five minutes' absence; +my head full once more of Eva, and of impatient anxiety for the wild +young squire's final flight; and my heart still singing with the joy of +which my beloved's kindness seemed a sufficient warranty. Poor egotist! +Am I to tell you what I found when I came up those steep stairs to the +chamber where I had left him on his knees to her? Or can you guess? + +He was on his knees no more, but he held her in his arms, and as I +entered he was kissing the tears from her wet, flushed cheek. Her +eyelids drooped; she was pale as the dead without, so pale that her +eyebrows looked abnormally and dreadfully dark. She did not cling to +him. Neither did she resist his caresses, but lay passive in his arms as +though her proper paradise was there. And neither heard me enter; it was +as though they had forgotten all the world but one another. + +“So this is it,” said I very calmly. I can hear my voice as I write. + +They fell apart on the instant. Rattray glared at me, yet I saw that his +eyes were dim. Eva clasped her hands before her, and looked me steadily +in the face. But never a word. + +“You love him?” I said sternly. + +The silence of consent remained unbroken. + +“Villain as he is?” I burst out. + +And at last Eva spoke. + +“I loved him before he was one,” said she. “We were engaged.” + +She looked at him standing by, his head bowed, his arms folded; next +moment she was very close to me, and fresh tears were in her eyes. But I +stepped backward, for I had had enough. + +“Can you not forgive me?” + +“Oh, dear, yes.” + +“Can't you understand?” + +“Perfectly,” said I. + +“You know you said--” + +“I have said so many things!” + +“But this was that you--you loved me well enough to--give me up.” + +And the silly ego in me--the endless and incorrigible I--imagined her +pouting for a withdrawal of those brave words. + +“I not only said it,” I declared, “but I meant every word of it.” + +None the less had I to turn from her to hide my anguish. I leaned my +elbows on the narrow stone chimney-piece, which, with the grate below +and a small mirror above, formed an almost solitary oasis in the four +walls of books. In the mirror I saw my face; it was wizened, drawn, old +before its time, and merely ugly in its sore distress, merely repulsive +in its bloody bandages. And in the mirror also I saw Rattray, handsome, +romantic, audacious, all that I was not, nor ever would be, and I +“understood” more than ever, and loathed my rival in my heart. + +I wheeled round on Eva. I was not going to give her up--to him. I would +tell her so before him--tell him so to his face. But she had turned +away; she was listening to some one else. Her white forehead glistened. +There were voices in the hall. + +“Mr. Cole! Mr. Cole! Where are you, Mr. Cole?” + +I moved over to the locked door. My hand found the key. I turned round +with evil triumph in my heart, and God knows what upon my face. Rattray +did not move. With lifted hands the girl was merely begging him to go by +the door that was open, down the stair. He shook his head grimly. With +an oath I was upon them. + +“Go, both of you!” I whispered hoarsely. “Now--while you can--and I can +let you. Now! Now!” + +Still Rattray hung back. + +I saw him glancing wistfully at my great revolver lying on the table +under the lamp. I thrust it upon him, and pushed him towards the door. + +“You go first. She shall follow. You will not grudge me one last word? +Yes, I will take your hand. If you escape--be good to her!” + +He was gone. Without, there was a voice still calling me; but now it +sounded overhead. + +“Good-by, Eva,” I said. “You have not a moment to lose.” + +Yet those divine eyes lingered on my ugliness. + +“You are in a very great hurry,” said she, in the sharp little voice of +her bitter moments. + +“You love him; that is enough.” + +“And you, too!” she cried. “And you, too!” + +And her pure, warm arms were round my neck; another instant, and she +would have kissed me, she! I know it. I knew it then. But it was more +than I would bear. As a brother! I had heard that tale before. Back I +stepped again, all the man in me rebelling. + +“That's impossible,” said I rudely. + +“It isn't. It's true. I do love you--for this!” + +God knows how I looked! + +“And I mayn't say good-by to you,” she whispered. “And--and I love +you--for that!” + +“Then you had better choose between us,” said I. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. THE STATEMENT OF FRANCIS RATTRAY + + +In the year 1858 I received a bulky packet bearing the stamp of the +Argentine Republic, a realm in which, to the best of my belief, I had +not a solitary acquaintance. The superscription told me nothing. In +my relations with Rattray his handwriting had never come under my +observation. Judge then of my feelings when the first thing I read was +his signature at the foot of the last page. + +For five years I had been uncertain whether he was alive or dead. I had +heard nothing of him from the night we parted in Kirby Hall. All I knew +was that he had escaped from England and the English police; his letter +gave no details of the incident. It was an astonishing letter; my breath +was taken on the first close page; at the foot of it the tears were in +my eyes. And all that part I must pass over without a word. I have never +shown it to man or woman. It is sacred between man and man. + +But the letter possessed other points of interest--of almost universal +interest--to which no such scruples need apply; for it cleared up +certain features of the foregoing narrative which had long been +mysteries to all the world; and it gave me what I had tried in vain +to fathom all these years, some explanation, or rather history, of +the young Lancastrian's complicity with Joaquin Santos in the foul +enterprise of the _Lady Jermyn_. And these passages I shall reproduce word +for word; partly because of their intrinsic interest; partly for such +new light as they day throw on this or that phase of the foregoing +narrative; and, lastly, out of fairness to (I hope) the most gallant and +most generous youth who ever slipped upon the lower slopes of Avemus. + +Wrote Rattray: + +“You wondered how I could have thrown in my lot with such a man. You may +wonder still, for I never yet told living soul. I pretended I had joined +him of my own free will. That was not quite the case. The facts were as +follows: + +“In my teens (as I think you know) I was at sea. I took my second mate's +certificate at twenty, and from that to twenty-four my voyages were far +between and on my own account. I had given way to our hereditary passion +for smuggling. I kept a 'yacht' in Morecambe Bay, and more French brandy +than I knew what to do with in my cellars. It was exciting for a time, +but the excitement did not last. In 1851 the gold fever broke out in +Australia. I shipped to Melbourne as third mate on a barque, and +I deserted for the diggings in the usual course. But I was never a +successful digger. I had little luck and less patience, and I have no +doubt that many a good haul has been taken out of claims previously +abandoned by me; for of one or two I had the mortification of hearing +while still in the Colony. I suppose I had not the temperament for the +work. Dust would not do for me--I must have nuggets. So from Bendigo I +drifted to the Ovens, and from the Ovens to Ballarat. But I did no more +good on one field than on another, and eventually, early in 1853, I cast +up in Melbourne again with the intention of shipping home in the first +vessel. But there were no crews for the homeward-bounders, and while +waiting for a ship my little stock of gold dust gave out. I became +destitute first--then desperate. Unluckily for me, the beginning of '53 +was the hey-day of Captain Melville, the notorious bushranger. He was +a young fellow of my own age. I determined to imitate his exploits. I +could make nothing out there from an honest life; rather than starve +I would lead a dishonest one. I had been born with lawless tendencies; +from smuggling to bushranging was an easy transition, and about the +latter there seemed to be a gallantry and romantic swagger which put it +on the higher plane of the two. But I was not born to be a bushranger +either. I failed at the very first attempt. I was outwitted by my first +victim, a thin old gentleman riding a cob at night on the Geelong road. + +“'Why rob me?' said he. 'I have only ten pounds in my pocket, and the +punishment will be the same as though it were ten thousand.' + +“'I want your cob,' said I (for I was on foot); 'I'm a starving Jack, +and as I can't get a ship I'm going to take to the bush.' + +“He shrugged his shoulders. + +“'To starve there?' said he. 'My friend, it is a poor sport, this +bushranging. I have looked into the matter on my own account. You not +only die like a dog, but you live like one too. It is not worth while. +No crime is worth while under five figures, my friend. A starving Jack, +eh? Instead of robbing me of ten pounds, why not join me and take ten +thousand as your share of our first robbery? A sailor is the very man I +want!' + +“I told him that what I wanted was his cob, and that it was no use his +trying to hoodwink me by pretending he was one of my sort, because I +knew very well that he was not; at which he shrugged again, and slowly +dismounted, after offering me his money, of which I took half. He shook +his head, telling me I was very foolish, and I was coolly mounting (for +he had never offered me the least resistance), with my pistols in my +belt, when suddenly I heard one cocked behind me. + +“'Stop!' said he. 'It's my turn! Stop, or I shoot you dead!' The tables +were turned, and he had me at his mercy as completely as he had been at +mine. I made up my mind to being marched to the nearest police-station. +But nothing of the kind. I had misjudged my man as utterly as you +misjudged him a few months later aboard the _Lady Jermyn_. He took me +to his house on the outskirts of Melbourne, a weather-board bungalow, +scantily furnished, but comfortable enough. And there he seriously +repeated the proposal he had made me off-hand in the road. Only he put +it a little differently. Would I go to the hulks for attempting to rob +him of five pounds, or would I stay and help him commit a robbery, of +which my share alone would be ten or fifteen thousand? You know which +I chose. You know who this man was. I said I would join him. He made me +swear it. And then he told me what his enterprise was: there is no need +for me to tell you; nor indeed had it taken definite shape at this time. +Suffice it that Santos had wind that big consignments of Austrailian +gold were shortly to be shipped home to England; that he, like myself, +had done nothing on the diggings, where he had looked to make his +fortune, and out of which he meant to make it still. + +“It was an extraordinary life that we led in the bungalow, I the guest, +he the host, and Eva the unsuspecting hostess and innocent daughter +of the house. Santos had failed on the fields, but he had succeeded in +making valuable friends in Melbourne. Men of position and of influence +spent their evenings on our veranda, among others the Melbourne agent +for the _Lady Jermyn_, the likeliest vessel then lying in the harbor, and +the one to which the first consignment of gold-dust would be entrusted +if only a skipper could be found to replace the deserter who took +you out. Santos made up his mind to find one. It took him weeks, but +eventually he found Captain Harris on Bendigo, and Captain Harris was +his man. More than that he was the man for the agent; and the Lady +Jermyn was once more made ready for sea. + +“Now began the complications. Quite openly, Santos had bought the +schooner Spindrift, freighted her with wool, given me the command, and +vowed that he would go home in her rather than wait any longer for the +_Lady Jermyn_. At the last moment he appeared to change his mind, and I +sailed alone as many days as possible in advance of the ship, as had +been intended from the first; but it went sorely against the grain when +the time came. I would have given anything to have backed out of the +enterprise. Honest I might be no longer; I was honestly in love with Eva +Denison. Yet to have backed out would have been one way of losing her +for ever. Besides, it was not the first time I had run counter to the +law, I who came of a lawless stock; but it would be the first time I had +deserted a comrade or broken faith with one. I would do neither. In for +a penny, in for a pound. + +“But before my God I never meant it to turn out as it did; though I +admit and have always admitted that my moral responsibility is but +little if any the less on that account. Yet I was never a consenting +party to wholesale murder, whatever else I was. The night before I +sailed, Santos and the captain were aboard with me till the small hours. +They promised me that every soul should have every chance; that nothing +but unforeseen accident could prevent the boats from making Ascension +again in a matter of hours; that as long as the gig was supposed to be +lost with all hands, nothing else mattered. So they promised, and that +Harris meant to keep his promise I fully believe. That was not a wanton +ruffian; but the other would spill blood like water, as I told you at +the hall, and as no man now knows better than yourself. He was notorious +even in Portuguese Africa on account of his atrocious treatment of the +blacks. It was a favorite boast of his that he once poisoned a whole +village; and that he himself tampered with the _Lady Jermyn_'s boats you +can take my word, for I have heard him describe how he left it to the +last night, and struck the blows during the applause at the concert on +the quarter-deck. He said it might have come out about the gold in the +gig, during the fire. It was safer to run no risks. + +“The same thing came into play aboard the schooner. Never shall I forget +the horror of that voyage after Santos came aboard! I had a crew of +eight hands all told, and two he brought with him in the gig. Of course +they began talking about the gold; they would have their share or split +when they got ashore; and there was mutiny in the air, with the steward +and the quarter-master of the _Lady Jermyn_ for ring-leaders. Santos +nipped it in the bud with a vengeance! He and Harris shot every man +of them dead, and two who were shot through the heart they washed and +dressed and set adrift to rot in the gig with false papers! God knows +how we made Madeira; we painted the old name out and a new name in, on +the way; and we shipped a Portuguese crew, not a man of whom could speak +English. We shipped them aboard the Duque de Mondejo's yacht Braganza; +the schooner Spindrift had disappeared from the face of the waters for +ever. And with the men we took in plenty of sour claret and cigarettes; +and we paid them well; and the Portuguese sailor is not inquisitive +under such conditions. + +“And now, honestly, I wished I had put a bullet through my head before +joining in this murderous conspiracy; but retreat was impossible, even +if I had been the man to draw back after going so far; and I had a still +stronger reason for standing by the others to the bitter end. I could +not leave our lady to these ruffians. On the other hand, neither could I +take her from them, for (as you know) she justly regarded me as the most +flagrant ruffian of them all. It was in me and through me that she was +deceived, insulted, humbled, and contaminated; that she should ever have +forgiven me for a moment is more than I can credit or fathom to this +hour... So there we were. She would not look at me. And I would not +leave her until death removed me. Santos had been kind enough to her +hitherto; he had been kind enough (I understand) to her mother before +her. It was only in the execution of his plans that he showed his +Napoleonic disregard for human life; and it was precisely herein that +I began to fear for the girl I still dared to love. She took up an +attitude as dangerous to her safety as to our own. She demanded to be +set free when we came to land. Her demand was refused. God forgive me, +it had no bitterer opponent than myself! And all we did was to harden +her resolution; that mere child threatened us to our faces, never shall +I forget the scene! You know her spirit: if we would not set her free, +she would tell all when we landed. And you remember how Santos used to +shrug? That was all he did then. It was enough for me who knew him. For +days I never left them alone together. Night after night I watched her +cabin door. And she hated me the more for never leaving her alone! I had +to resign myself to that. + +“The night we anchored in Falmouth Bay, thinking then of taking our gold +straight to the Bank of England, as eccentric lucky diggers--that night +I thought would be the last for one or other of us. He locked her in +her cabin. He posted himself outside on the settee. I sat watching him +across the table. Each had a hand in his pocket, each had a pistol in +that hand, and there we sat, with our four eyes locked, while Harris +went ashore for papers. He came back in great excitement. What with +stopping at Madeira, and calms, and the very few knots we could knock +out of the schooner at the best of times, we had made a seven or eight +weeks' voyage of it from Ascension--where, by the way, I had arrived +only a couple of days before the _Lady Jermyn_, though I had nearly a +month's start of her. Well, Harris came back in the highest state of +excitement: and well he might: the papers were full of you, and of the +burning of the _Lady Jermyn_! + +“Now mark what happened. You know, of course, as well as I do; but I +wonder if you can even yet realize what it was to us! Our prisoner +hears that you are alive, and she turns upon Santos and tells him he is +welcome to silence her, but it will do us no good now, as _you_ know that +the ship was wilfully burned, and with what object. It is the single +blow she can strike in self-defence; but a shrewder one could scarcely +be imagined. She had talked to you, at the very last; and by that time +she did know the truth. What more natural than that she should confide +it to you? She had had time to tell you enough to hang the lot of us; +and you may imagine our consternation on hearing that she had told you +all she knew! From the first we were never quite sure whether to believe +it or not. That the papers breathed no suspicion of foul play was +neither here nor there. Scotland Yard might have seen to that. Then +we read of the morbid reserve which was said to characterize all your +utterances concerning the _Lady Jermyn_. What were we to do? What we no +longer dared to do was to take our gold-dust straight to the Bank. What +we did, you know. + +“We ran round to Morecambe Bay, and landed the gold as we Rattrays had +landed lace and brandy from time immemorial. We left Eva in charge of +Jane Braithwaite, God only knows how much against my will, but we were +in a corner, it was life or death with us, and to find out how much you +knew was a first plain necessity. And the means we took were the only +means in our power; nor shall I say more to you on that subject than I +said five years ago in my poor old house. That is still the one part of +the whole conspiracy of which I myself am most ashamed. + +“And now it only remains for me to tell you why I have written all this +to you, at such great length, so long after the event. My wife wished +it. The fact is that she wants you to think better of me than I deserve; +and I--yes--I confess that I should like you not to think quite as ill +of me as you must have done all these years. I was villain enough, but +do not think I am unpunished. + +“I am an outlaw from my country. I am morally a transported felon. Only +in this no-man's land am I a free man; let me but step across the border +and I am worth a little fortune to the man who takes me. And we have had +a hard time here, though not so hard as I deserved; and the hardest part +of all...” + +But you must guess the hardest part: for the letter ended as it began, +with sudden talk of his inner life, and tentative inquiry after mine. In +its entirety, as I say, I have never shown it to a soul; there was just +a little more that I read to my wife (who could not hear enough about +his); then I folded up the letter, and even she has never seen the +passages to which I allude. + +And yet I am not one of those who hold that the previous romances +of married people should be taboo between them in after life. On the +contrary, much mutual amusement, of an innocent character, may be +derived from a fair and free interchange upon the subject; and this is +why we, in our old age (or rather in mine), find a still unfailing topic +in the story of which Eva Denison was wayward heroine and Frank Rattray +the nearest approach to a hero. Sometimes these reminiscences lead to +an argument; for it has been the fate of my life to become attached to +argumentative persons. I suppose because I myself hate arguing. On +the day that I received Rattray's letter we had one of our warmest +discussions. I could repeat every word of it after forty years. + +“A good man does not necessarily make a good husband,” I innocently +remarked. + +“Why do you say that?” asked my wife, who never would let a +generalization pass unchallenged. + +“I was thinking of Rattray,” said I. “The most tolerant of judges could +scarcely have described him as a good man five years ago. Yet I can see +that he has made an admirable husband. On the whole, and if you can't be +both, it is better to be the good husband!” + +It was this point that we debated with so much ardor. My wife would take +the opposite side; that is her one grave fault. And I must introduce +personalities; that, of course, is among the least of mine. I compared +myself with Rattray, as a husband, and (with some sincerity) to my own +disparagement. I pointed out that he was an infinitely more fascinating +creature, which was no hard saying, for that epithet at least I have +never earned. And yet it was the word to sting my wife. + +“Fascinating, perhaps!” said she. “Yes, that is the very word; +but--fascination is not love!” + +And then I went to her, and stroked her hair (for she had hung her head +in deep distress), and kissed the tears from her eyes. And I swore that +her eyes were as lovely as Eva Denison's, that there seemed even more +gold in her glossy brown hair, that she was even younger to look at. And +at the last and craftiest compliment my own love looked at me through +her tears, as though some day or other she might forgive me. + +“Then why did you want to give me up to him?” said she. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Dead Men Tell No Tales, by E. W. 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